From the creator of The Sims comes the most ambitious video game ever made: here you don't just control a single family or city but control an entire species from a single cell organism to a galactic conqueror. As impossibly complex as that might sound, the most impressive thing about Spore is just how accessible and fun it all is. The game is split into six evolutionary phases, starting with almost action-style gameplay at the microscopic level. From there you move to the creature phase on dry land, before going on to the tribal phase and the beginnings of society and technology. From there it's onto the city phase, which plays a bit like SimCity, and from there to the Civilisation phase which plays something like, you guessed it, Civilization. The final phase takes part in outer space where by hook or by crock your species must reign triumphant.

Each phase has its own editing tools associated with it for things like vehicles and buildings. By far the most fun though is the creature tool, which allows you to create your own fully animated lifeform from scratch using a huge range of limbs, facial features and colourings. What's also interesting is that the other planets in the galaxy aren't all pre-populated by the game. Instead, by connecting online you can upload your races, and download those from other people, to fill the galaxy with civilizations from other players around the world. Any one of the six phases would normally be enough for any one game on its own, but this looks like it's going to turn out to be the world's first everything simulator.
HARRISON DENT

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

Grant me Strength Earthmother!, 22 Aug 2008
*Sigh* TBH if someones looking to buy WotLK, chances are they play WoW (World Of Warcraft Battlechest (PC/Mac)) already and plan to play some more, as such I think they'll have a ROFL at your whinge then read comments that actually have something to do with THIS expansion NOT the game it expands upon. For my part I sadly haven't been sent a Beta key, but I am always checking on wowhead/curse/wow-europe for updates about the expansion. If, by any chance, you happen to be looking at this expansion with a view to starting WoW from scratch, check the sites I've mentioned for more info. The 1-80 will not be a short road but blizz are reducing the hardships of the first 50 levels to make getting to the cutting edge of the game a quicker less grindy experience. I've played Guild Wars (made lvl 15 before I got immensely bored with the whole thing) and am currently playing the LotRO trial (actually looks pretty good, but only as a time-passer when I get bored of WoW sometimes), but I'm afraid WoW is top of the pile no question IMHO and if the stuff featured in the official notes released at various times about this expansion are anything to go by, its only gonna get better!! Do the RIGHT thing folks, go click [Pre-order this item] now!

More of the same.....Great~!, 13 Aug 2008
Having played on the beta realms for a few day, I thought I'd give my first impressions of the Lich King.....

So you start off in the newly added Stormwind docks, and catch a boat over to Northrend, after stopping off first of all at the barbers in stormwind of course and giving yourself a chic new look for between 7-10 gold per change.

When you arrive at Northrend there are all the usual zone starter quests, with some interesting new ideas thrown in along the way, like having to capture flying mobs with nets before you can kill them and the awesome ability for the death knight in quests to steal mounts from unsuspecting NPC stables. Also really liked the idea of having to duel other death knight players in an early DK quest to get quest completion.

World has a great look, and the zones flow together quite well. It's annoying although to be expected I suppose that you can't get into the capital city until you are level 74, but you can get ported in by a friendly mage or warlock.

Levelling is put at a slow but playable 1.25 million XP for level 70-71 and increasing in fairly big chunks the higher you go, but with an average 20k xp per quest and 1500xp per level 70 kill rested it all adds up nicely. The fear of green loot replacing epics fairly early on seems to be well founded with some early quests that take 5 minutes awarding BC heroic sub boss level rewards at 70. For example one of the rewards is a green dagger which is pretty close to the weapon that drops from prince in kara. Talents are complelty unlearned as they were in the previous expansion but there is no cost to fit them back into the new trees.

Nice new level 70 food and mana restorers which now replace 13200 over 30 seconds which is a great time saver.

Creating a death knight is a must just for the novelty factor at the very least. The Lich King himself is in the start area (which is next to the Eastern plaguelands) and gives you a few of the starter quests which is a nice touch. Character starts at level 55 of course with a managable 148k XP for a level. Interestingly although you start at level 55 you have no talent points to spend. You are actually awarded talent points as well as XP for completing some quests so by the time you ding 56 you should have about 10 talent points to spend. Mount is obtained through a fairly easy quest very early on. They get a nice racial talent of runecrafting which allows a kind of weapon enchanting to increase stats or attack power. DKs start fully geared in greens with early quests awarding nice blue level upgrades.

All in all though it's a great expansion and the transition and lore work at least as good as original WOW to TBC, can't wait for the official release!


More grind for a game thats nothing BUT grind, 07 Nov 2007
Really why do people still play this game is beyond me. I mean its NOTHING BUT GRIND. Grind to max lvl then grind raids to get stuff so you can grind another raid to get stuff repeat ad nasuem DO your selfs a favour and quit this grindfest and go play a REAL MMO like Guild wars or LOTRO.

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

Grant me Strength Earthmother!, 22 Aug 2008
*Sigh* TBH if someones looking to buy WotLK, chances are they play WoW (World Of Warcraft Battlechest (PC/Mac)) already and plan to play some more, as such I think they'll have a ROFL at your whinge then read comments that actually have something to do with THIS expansion NOT the game it expands upon. For my part I sadly haven't been sent a Beta key, but I am always checking on wowhead/curse/wow-europe for updates about the expansion. If, by any chance, you happen to be looking at this expansion with a view to starting WoW from scratch, check the sites I've mentioned for more info. The 1-80 will not be a short road but blizz are reducing the hardships of the first 50 levels to make getting to the cutting edge of the game a quicker less grindy experience. I've played Guild Wars (made lvl 15 before I got immensely bored with the whole thing) and am currently playing the LotRO trial (actually looks pretty good, but only as a time-passer when I get bored of WoW sometimes), but I'm afraid WoW is top of the pile no question IMHO and if the stuff featured in the official notes released at various times about this expansion are anything to go by, its only gonna get better!! Do the RIGHT thing folks, go click [Pre-order this item] now!

More of the same.....Great~!, 13 Aug 2008
Having played on the beta realms for a few day, I thought I'd give my first impressions of the Lich King.....

So you start off in the newly added Stormwind docks, and catch a boat over to Northrend, after stopping off first of all at the barbers in stormwind of course and giving yourself a chic new look for between 7-10 gold per change.

When you arrive at Northrend there are all the usual zone starter quests, with some interesting new ideas thrown in along the way, like having to capture flying mobs with nets before you can kill them and the awesome ability for the death knight in quests to steal mounts from unsuspecting NPC stables. Also really liked the idea of having to duel other death knight players in an early DK quest to get quest completion.

World has a great look, and the zones flow together quite well. It's annoying although to be expected I suppose that you can't get into the capital city until you are level 74, but you can get ported in by a friendly mage or warlock.

Levelling is put at a slow but playable 1.25 million XP for level 70-71 and increasing in fairly big chunks the higher you go, but with an average 20k xp per quest and 1500xp per level 70 kill rested it all adds up nicely. The fear of green loot replacing epics fairly early on seems to be well founded with some early quests that take 5 minutes awarding BC heroic sub boss level rewards at 70. For example one of the rewards is a green dagger which is pretty close to the weapon that drops from prince in kara. Talents are complelty unlearned as they were in the previous expansion but there is no cost to fit them back into the new trees.

Nice new level 70 food and mana restorers which now replace 13200 over 30 seconds which is a great time saver.

Creating a death knight is a must just for the novelty factor at the very least. The Lich King himself is in the start area (which is next to the Eastern plaguelands) and gives you a few of the starter quests which is a nice touch. Character starts at level 55 of course with a managable 148k XP for a level. Interestingly although you start at level 55 you have no talent points to spend. You are actually awarded talent points as well as XP for completing some quests so by the time you ding 56 you should have about 10 talent points to spend. Mount is obtained through a fairly easy quest very early on. They get a nice racial talent of runecrafting which allows a kind of weapon enchanting to increase stats or attack power. DKs start fully geared in greens with early quests awarding nice blue level upgrades.

All in all though it's a great expansion and the transition and lore work at least as good as original WOW to TBC, can't wait for the official release!


More grind for a game thats nothing BUT grind, 07 Nov 2007
Really why do people still play this game is beyond me. I mean its NOTHING BUT GRIND. Grind to max lvl then grind raids to get stuff so you can grind another raid to get stuff repeat ad nasuem DO your selfs a favour and quit this grindfest and go play a REAL MMO like Guild wars or LOTRO.

Best PC game ive bought in a while!, 15 Jul 2008
This game is fantastic the gameplay is great!!
Graphics 9/10
Sound 8/10
Gameplay 9/10

Also i recived this version completely upto date therefore i just installed it and started playing withing a few mins.

this game runs smoothly at max settings for everything on my PC [Q6600 intel core2 quad - 4gb ddr2 800mhz - 8500gt 512mb]

I highly recommend this game it is a MUST buy in my opinion...
Anyway G2G need to carry on playing Civ 4 XD


WOW! A must buy PC game!, 07 Jul 2008
WOW! Being new to CIV, i didn't know what to expect. I had been pondering over whether or not to buy this game since September. And buying this was a great choice and idea for mny reasons.

Here's why;

Graphics: 9.0 - Amazing until you really zoom in. But this game is meant for keeping quite zoomed out until you enter a battle or fight at whic point the camera automatically zooms in. This is not a hinderance though, i find the graphics very detailed. The leaders and videos are very well animated and are very detailed aswell.

Sound: 8.5 - Sometimes the sound can be slightly distorted but most and literally all the time the game has great sound. I love the way that the Civilisaion that you have chosen for your campaign has it's music evolve over the game, so it reacts to the time period you are in.

Gameplay: 9.5 - They have literaly thought of everything and more in this game. The two expansion packs have definately improved the game. It lasts for ages (i played the short game and it took me over 7 hours to complete). And the technologies in the game that all link to each othe in someway or another. religion is agreat aspect that i like. i felt privilaged to be the founde of religions such as Buddism, Christianity and Islam, amoungst others. The worlds and leaders are amzing. And the traits of eachleader really shows when you don't or do agree with them or give them tributes etc. Such as Ghandi, he has a huge toleration and a good cultre levl (which helps in te upkeep of your happy citezens), compared to Julius Ceaser, Roosevelt or Mansa Musa who have amow tolerance level and high technology (which helps in military matters). S it is good to keep on the good side of leaders, which i shard because they all have enemies too. So when they ask you to stop trade with a certain civilisation and yo either aree or disagree it will upset certain leaders, not just the two in qustion. Justlike if you were to declare war on one civislisation it will upset or even make other leaders happy.

Overall: 9.0 - Take 2 have realy put alot into his game and have made a truly outstanding game that will (as you are required to in the game), "stand the test of time".

Awesome game shame about the price, 12 May 2008
This is available much cheaper at play.com and other locations. Come on amazon, lets get competitive in this market!

20 yrs on and still the best role play strategy game!, 21 Mar 2008
I bought this game based on what I remembered of the original version I used to play on a friends old 286 machine back in the late 1980s, and the very favorable reviews on this site. After much deliberation & head scratching I finally took the plunge and bought the game. After 20+ years of hardware and software improvements since I played the original I expected a major leap forward in playability and game fluidity and buoy what a pleasant surprise, I only wish I'd switched from my PS2 sooner. All aspects of game play have been much improved, sorry to state the obvious, without loosing any of the appeal of the ancient original version (sorry I couldn't resist the attempt at a gag) I became so fond of. The complete pack with the two expansion pack is a must as you effectively get three 5* games for the price of one.

Only three very small niggles

1. There is no real paper manual to speak of, its all on the one dvd disk, which makes accessing it a bit aquard mid game.

2. It's a lot more difficult than a remember the original, this is probably partly due to the increased pace of the game in each turn because of the giant leap in processor power over the aforementioned 20 yrs, and I have to play on the easiest setting.

3. Its too darn addictive. Due to the great game play, fluidity and the 'I just want to get to the next level/conquer one more tribe' mentality that gets under your skin, you can loose all track of time. Just last night I got so immersed in the game I almost fell asleep at my pc, at 2AM, trying to finish off destroying the nearest tribe.

All in all though it's a must for any role-play and/or strategy game fan. So I have no hesitation in giving it the full 5*s.

Not a long wait, 21 Dec 2007
Ive just ordered this game and even though it says its out of stock it wont be a long wait, so if you havent got the gameyet then get this. Its the best value pack there is. My game will arive on jan 1st so its not a long wait, if you get chronicles you wont get the expansion packs but you the the old games which you wont play, so get this one.

War is Everywhere

War is everywhere in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR), the new fantasy MMORPG from Mythic Entertainment, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot. WAR features next generation Realm vs. Realm gameplay that will immerse you in a world of perpetual conflict for years to come.

Experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm! Declare your allegiance and join hundreds of thousands of mighty heroes on the battlefields of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning to experience the epic nature of war. Enter a grim fantasy world where the armies of Order (Dwarfs, High Elves, and Empire) and Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves, and Chaos) collide to determine the fate of nations. Invade enemy lands, besiege imposing fortresses, and sack sprawling capital cities for the glory of your Realm. Wield devastating magic and deadly weapons, battle monstrous creatures, and join your brothers-in-arms in epic Public Quests. Climb the Bastion Stair, carry your Guild Banner into battle, and unlock the secrets of the Tome of Knowledge as you travel the world. Sharpen your blade and prepare to unleash your inner mutation-the Age of Reckoning has begun and WAR IS EVERYWHERE!

Key Features Realm vs. Realm (RvR) gameplay means you will never fight alone, but as part of an army of allied players sworn to defend your homeland and conquer enemy Realms. Your every action-every quest completed, every battle fought-contributes to the war effort and can turn the tide of battle, bringing victory to your Realm! Experience the camaraderie of fighting side-by-side with allied players against otherwise insurmountable odds in groundbreaking Public Quests. These cooperative PvE encounters unfold across multiple stages and allow solo players to experience the glory of RvR. Embark on the endless quest to complete the Tome of Knowledge and unlock Warhammer lore, detailed monster information, new abilities and rewards, and major story plotlines. The Tome is also the story of your life in the game, tracking your achievements to share and compare with others. Explore massive Living Cities that become more or less prosperous based on a Realm's overall performance in the ongoing war. Navigate a maze of twisting streets, visit the local tavern, explore a dark under-city, and meet colorful personalities in a city full of adventure. Advanced guild features give unprecedented control to leaders and members, and make guilds an integral part of the war efforts. Guilds can create unique heraldry, capture and claim keeps, and earn Guild Tactics as they grow in power along with their members.

Pick your favorite character. View larger image Battle to the end against rivals. View larger image Wander through vivid environments. View larger image

The Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning servers will go live on September 18th, 2008.

- Can you become the next 'Chosen One' ?- The latest transfers & manager changes!- Alter tactics from the touchline !- Many varying leagues and challenges !- Take your team to European glory !

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

Grant me Strength Earthmother!, 22 Aug 2008
*Sigh* TBH if someones looking to buy WotLK, chances are they play WoW (World Of Warcraft Battlechest (PC/Mac)) already and plan to play some more, as such I think they'll have a ROFL at your whinge then read comments that actually have something to do with THIS expansion NOT the game it expands upon. For my part I sadly haven't been sent a Beta key, but I am always checking on wowhead/curse/wow-europe for updates about the expansion. If, by any chance, you happen to be looking at this expansion with a view to starting WoW from scratch, check the sites I've mentioned for more info. The 1-80 will not be a short road but blizz are reducing the hardships of the first 50 levels to make getting to the cutting edge of the game a quicker less grindy experience. I've played Guild Wars (made lvl 15 before I got immensely bored with the whole thing) and am currently playing the LotRO trial (actually looks pretty good, but only as a time-passer when I get bored of WoW sometimes), but I'm afraid WoW is top of the pile no question IMHO and if the stuff featured in the official notes released at various times about this expansion are anything to go by, its only gonna get better!! Do the RIGHT thing folks, go click [Pre-order this item] now!

More of the same.....Great~!, 13 Aug 2008
Having played on the beta realms for a few day, I thought I'd give my first impressions of the Lich King.....

So you start off in the newly added Stormwind docks, and catch a boat over to Northrend, after stopping off first of all at the barbers in stormwind of course and giving yourself a chic new look for between 7-10 gold per change.

When you arrive at Northrend there are all the usual zone starter quests, with some interesting new ideas thrown in along the way, like having to capture flying mobs with nets before you can kill them and the awesome ability for the death knight in quests to steal mounts from unsuspecting NPC stables. Also really liked the idea of having to duel other death knight players in an early DK quest to get quest completion.

World has a great look, and the zones flow together quite well. It's annoying although to be expected I suppose that you can't get into the capital city until you are level 74, but you can get ported in by a friendly mage or warlock.

Levelling is put at a slow but playable 1.25 million XP for level 70-71 and increasing in fairly big chunks the higher you go, but with an average 20k xp per quest and 1500xp per level 70 kill rested it all adds up nicely. The fear of green loot replacing epics fairly early on seems to be well founded with some early quests that take 5 minutes awarding BC heroic sub boss level rewards at 70. For example one of the rewards is a green dagger which is pretty close to the weapon that drops from prince in kara. Talents are complelty unlearned as they were in the previous expansion but there is no cost to fit them back into the new trees.

Nice new level 70 food and mana restorers which now replace 13200 over 30 seconds which is a great time saver.

Creating a death knight is a must just for the novelty factor at the very least. The Lich King himself is in the start area (which is next to the Eastern plaguelands) and gives you a few of the starter quests which is a nice touch. Character starts at level 55 of course with a managable 148k XP for a level. Interestingly although you start at level 55 you have no talent points to spend. You are actually awarded talent points as well as XP for completing some quests so by the time you ding 56 you should have about 10 talent points to spend. Mount is obtained through a fairly easy quest very early on. They get a nice racial talent of runecrafting which allows a kind of weapon enchanting to increase stats or attack power. DKs start fully geared in greens with early quests awarding nice blue level upgrades.

All in all though it's a great expansion and the transition and lore work at least as good as original WOW to TBC, can't wait for the official release!


More grind for a game thats nothing BUT grind, 07 Nov 2007
Really why do people still play this game is beyond me. I mean its NOTHING BUT GRIND. Grind to max lvl then grind raids to get stuff so you can grind another raid to get stuff repeat ad nasuem DO your selfs a favour and quit this grindfest and go play a REAL MMO like Guild wars or LOTRO.

Best PC game ive bought in a while!, 15 Jul 2008
This game is fantastic the gameplay is great!!
Graphics 9/10
Sound 8/10
Gameplay 9/10

Also i recived this version completely upto date therefore i just installed it and started playing withing a few mins.

this game runs smoothly at max settings for everything on my PC [Q6600 intel core2 quad - 4gb ddr2 800mhz - 8500gt 512mb]

I highly recommend this game it is a MUST buy in my opinion...
Anyway G2G need to carry on playing Civ 4 XD


WOW! A must buy PC game!, 07 Jul 2008
WOW! Being new to CIV, i didn't know what to expect. I had been pondering over whether or not to buy this game since September. And buying this was a great choice and idea for mny reasons.

Here's why;

Graphics: 9.0 - Amazing until you really zoom in. But this game is meant for keeping quite zoomed out until you enter a battle or fight at whic point the camera automatically zooms in. This is not a hinderance though, i find the graphics very detailed. The leaders and videos are very well animated and are very detailed aswell.

Sound: 8.5 - Sometimes the sound can be slightly distorted but most and literally all the time the game has great sound. I love the way that the Civilisaion that you have chosen for your campaign has it's music evolve over the game, so it reacts to the time period you are in.

Gameplay: 9.5 - They have literaly thought of everything and more in this game. The two expansion packs have definately improved the game. It lasts for ages (i played the short game and it took me over 7 hours to complete). And the technologies in the game that all link to each othe in someway or another. religion is agreat aspect that i like. i felt privilaged to be the founde of religions such as Buddism, Christianity and Islam, amoungst others. The worlds and leaders are amzing. And the traits of eachleader really shows when you don't or do agree with them or give them tributes etc. Such as Ghandi, he has a huge toleration and a good cultre levl (which helps in te upkeep of your happy citezens), compared to Julius Ceaser, Roosevelt or Mansa Musa who have amow tolerance level and high technology (which helps in military matters). S it is good to keep on the good side of leaders, which i shard because they all have enemies too. So when they ask you to stop trade with a certain civilisation and yo either aree or disagree it will upset certain leaders, not just the two in qustion. Justlike if you were to declare war on one civislisation it will upset or even make other leaders happy.

Overall: 9.0 - Take 2 have realy put alot into his game and have made a truly outstanding game that will (as you are required to in the game), "stand the test of time".

Awesome game shame about the price, 12 May 2008
This is available much cheaper at play.com and other locations. Come on amazon, lets get competitive in this market!

20 yrs on and still the best role play strategy game!, 21 Mar 2008
I bought this game based on what I remembered of the original version I used to play on a friends old 286 machine back in the late 1980s, and the very favorable reviews on this site. After much deliberation & head scratching I finally took the plunge and bought the game. After 20+ years of hardware and software improvements since I played the original I expected a major leap forward in playability and game fluidity and buoy what a pleasant surprise, I only wish I'd switched from my PS2 sooner. All aspects of game play have been much improved, sorry to state the obvious, without loosing any of the appeal of the ancient original version (sorry I couldn't resist the attempt at a gag) I became so fond of. The complete pack with the two expansion pack is a must as you effectively get three 5* games for the price of one.

Only three very small niggles

1. There is no real paper manual to speak of, its all on the one dvd disk, which makes accessing it a bit aquard mid game.

2. It's a lot more difficult than a remember the original, this is probably partly due to the increased pace of the game in each turn because of the giant leap in processor power over the aforementioned 20 yrs, and I have to play on the easiest setting.

3. Its too darn addictive. Due to the great game play, fluidity and the 'I just want to get to the next level/conquer one more tribe' mentality that gets under your skin, you can loose all track of time. Just last night I got so immersed in the game I almost fell asleep at my pc, at 2AM, trying to finish off destroying the nearest tribe.

All in all though it's a must for any role-play and/or strategy game fan. So I have no hesitation in giving it the full 5*s.

Not a long wait, 21 Dec 2007
Ive just ordered this game and even though it says its out of stock it wont be a long wait, so if you havent got the gameyet then get this. Its the best value pack there is. My game will arive on jan 1st so its not a long wait, if you get chronicles you wont get the expansion packs but you the the old games which you wont play, so get this one.

Football Manager 2008 pc, 27 Aug 2008
Those who wait awhile can now pick up the latest offering of football manager for under a tenner -although very little has changed the few tweaks that have been made add little to the overall enjoyment of the game. The last game I bought was 2006 there is now a nice touch with negotiation in transfers but it has always been a great game and has refined itself over the years. All the latest players and stats updated- while away the hours with this addictive game.

good game, 24 Aug 2008
hi this is the accounts owners 11 year old son writing this review. :P ;)
this is a good game with a few small match bugs and glitches. For example, usuallly when your three up with 10 minutes to go and the 3 points look secured, the other team usually scores four or five, and on the rare occasions six, leaving you wondering " why did i buy this piece of C*A* ?" this does not deter from the fun however, and apart from that, its a really realistic game. the 1 excuse for for that though, is the transfer budgets. Remember last season or this season in this game? man utd spent 50 million pounds on players. In this game however you have a 10 .25 million pound budget. that season rangers spent 19 mil on players. in this game they have a pathetic 1.5 mil. c*a* if yuh ask me. :/

All in all this is a good game and at the time of writting with it being at a tenner, its good value for money. Bye now.

Short and simple, 16 Aug 2008
To be honust i can be botherd writing a masive review on every detail of the game.

The first thing i'd say is it is really hard! it takes a long time to get used to most stuff, and i feel if you haven't played a Football manager game before you'd be best just sticking to the basics.

I feel the hardest bit about the game is transfers, it is so hard to sign people!!! and if your a lower league club you've simpley got no chance.

Overall it is a great manager game, better the Fifa manager? not sure.
It's extreamley realistic, i'd say the only thing missing is real club badges and player pictures for higher clubs etc.

I'd say a 4 star, not 5 star just yet.

Brilliant game - but no patches from the site, 09 Aug 2008

I ordered this product on the evening on the 7th of August. Although the product qualified for Super Saver Delivery, I only wanted to purchase this item, so delivery was free. For just £1.69 I could have First Class Delivery. Today, on the 9th of August, I received the game, and so was very happy at this.

I had seen other reviews from people on here who complained about bugs. I played the game (Version 8.0.0 from the disk) for about 30 minutes and did not come across any bugs what so ever.

I know that there is a more recent version available. Two in fact; 8.0.1 and 8.0.2. I have to say I was annoyed, as other users would be, when I found out that on the official Sega website they didn't "have the patches in their database".

So I had to search on an unofficial fan site for the patches, which were the official patches re-uploaded. I was not very happy with this, although they worked perfectly.

I have currently completed a third of a season and love the variety of controls available in the game. Great game, and I have not yet come across any bugs, although I have to say that red cards do appear to often for the opposition.

Overall, a great, innovative game, unfortunately ruined by Sega's lack of interest in providing patches and support.

Major Disappointment, 02 Aug 2008
I think it depends how serious you are. If you are a serious gamer and are prepared to watch and tweak throughout the game then you'll find a good challenge. If your a casual gamer who sets up his tactics and then makes his team selections then you'll not get far!
Sad to say now for serious gamers only.

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

Grant me Strength Earthmother!, 22 Aug 2008
*Sigh* TBH if someones looking to buy WotLK, chances are they play WoW (World Of Warcraft Battlechest (PC/Mac)) already and plan to play some more, as such I think they'll have a ROFL at your whinge then read comments that actually have something to do with THIS expansion NOT the game it expands upon. For my part I sadly haven't been sent a Beta key, but I am always checking on wowhead/curse/wow-europe for updates about the expansion. If, by any chance, you happen to be looking at this expansion with a view to starting WoW from scratch, check the sites I've mentioned for more info. The 1-80 will not be a short road but blizz are reducing the hardships of the first 50 levels to make getting to the cutting edge of the game a quicker less grindy experience. I've played Guild Wars (made lvl 15 before I got immensely bored with the whole thing) and am currently playing the LotRO trial (actually looks pretty good, but only as a time-passer when I get bored of WoW sometimes), but I'm afraid WoW is top of the pile no question IMHO and if the stuff featured in the official notes released at various times about this expansion are anything to go by, its only gonna get better!! Do the RIGHT thing folks, go click [Pre-order this item] now!

More of the same.....Great~!, 13 Aug 2008
Having played on the beta realms for a few day, I thought I'd give my first impressions of the Lich King.....

So you start off in the newly added Stormwind docks, and catch a boat over to Northrend, after stopping off first of all at the barbers in stormwind of course and giving yourself a chic new look for between 7-10 gold per change.

When you arrive at Northrend there are all the usual zone starter quests, with some interesting new ideas thrown in along the way, like having to capture flying mobs with nets before you can kill them and the awesome ability for the death knight in quests to steal mounts from unsuspecting NPC stables. Also really liked the idea of having to duel other death knight players in an early DK quest to get quest completion.

World has a great look, and the zones flow together quite well. It's annoying although to be expected I suppose that you can't get into the capital city until you are level 74, but you can get ported in by a friendly mage or warlock.

Levelling is put at a slow but playable 1.25 million XP for level 70-71 and increasing in fairly big chunks the higher you go, but with an average 20k xp per quest and 1500xp per level 70 kill rested it all adds up nicely. The fear of green loot replacing epics fairly early on seems to be well founded with some early quests that take 5 minutes awarding BC heroic sub boss level rewards at 70. For example one of the rewards is a green dagger which is pretty close to the weapon that drops from prince in kara. Talents are complelty unlearned as they were in the previous expansion but there is no cost to fit them back into the new trees.

Nice new level 70 food and mana restorers which now replace 13200 over 30 seconds which is a great time saver.

Creating a death knight is a must just for the novelty factor at the very least. The Lich King himself is in the start area (which is next to the Eastern plaguelands) and gives you a few of the starter quests which is a nice touch. Character starts at level 55 of course with a managable 148k XP for a level. Interestingly although you start at level 55 you have no talent points to spend. You are actually awarded talent points as well as XP for completing some quests so by the time you ding 56 you should have about 10 talent points to spend. Mount is obtained through a fairly easy quest very early on. They get a nice racial talent of runecrafting which allows a kind of weapon enchanting to increase stats or attack power. DKs start fully geared in greens with early quests awarding nice blue level upgrades.

All in all though it's a great expansion and the transition and lore work at least as good as original WOW to TBC, can't wait for the official release!


More grind for a game thats nothing BUT grind, 07 Nov 2007
Really why do people still play this game is beyond me. I mean its NOTHING BUT GRIND. Grind to max lvl then grind raids to get stuff so you can grind another raid to get stuff repeat ad nasuem DO your selfs a favour and quit this grindfest and go play a REAL MMO like Guild wars or LOTRO.

Best PC game ive bought in a while!, 15 Jul 2008
This game is fantastic the gameplay is great!!
Graphics 9/10
Sound 8/10
Gameplay 9/10

Also i recived this version completely upto date therefore i just installed it and started playing withing a few mins.

this game runs smoothly at max settings for everything on my PC [Q6600 intel core2 quad - 4gb ddr2 800mhz - 8500gt 512mb]

I highly recommend this game it is a MUST buy in my opinion...
Anyway G2G need to carry on playing Civ 4 XD


WOW! A must buy PC game!, 07 Jul 2008
WOW! Being new to CIV, i didn't know what to expect. I had been pondering over whether or not to buy this game since September. And buying this was a great choice and idea for mny reasons.

Here's why;

Graphics: 9.0 - Amazing until you really zoom in. But this game is meant for keeping quite zoomed out until you enter a battle or fight at whic point the camera automatically zooms in. This is not a hinderance though, i find the graphics very detailed. The leaders and videos are very well animated and are very detailed aswell.

Sound: 8.5 - Sometimes the sound can be slightly distorted but most and literally all the time the game has great sound. I love the way that the Civilisaion that you have chosen for your campaign has it's music evolve over the game, so it reacts to the time period you are in.

Gameplay: 9.5 - They have literaly thought of everything and more in this game. The two expansion packs have definately improved the game. It lasts for ages (i played the short game and it took me over 7 hours to complete). And the technologies in the game that all link to each othe in someway or another. religion is agreat aspect that i like. i felt privilaged to be the founde of religions such as Buddism, Christianity and Islam, amoungst others. The worlds and leaders are amzing. And the traits of eachleader really shows when you don't or do agree with them or give them tributes etc. Such as Ghandi, he has a huge toleration and a good cultre levl (which helps in te upkeep of your happy citezens), compared to Julius Ceaser, Roosevelt or Mansa Musa who have amow tolerance level and high technology (which helps in military matters). S it is good to keep on the good side of leaders, which i shard because they all have enemies too. So when they ask you to stop trade with a certain civilisation and yo either aree or disagree it will upset certain leaders, not just the two in qustion. Justlike if you were to declare war on one civislisation it will upset or even make other leaders happy.

Overall: 9.0 - Take 2 have realy put alot into his game and have made a truly outstanding game that will (as you are required to in the game), "stand the test of time".

Awesome game shame about the price, 12 May 2008
This is available much cheaper at play.com and other locations. Come on amazon, lets get competitive in this market!

20 yrs on and still the best role play strategy game!, 21 Mar 2008
I bought this game based on what I remembered of the original version I used to play on a friends old 286 machine back in the late 1980s, and the very favorable reviews on this site. After much deliberation & head scratching I finally took the plunge and bought the game. After 20+ years of hardware and software improvements since I played the original I expected a major leap forward in playability and game fluidity and buoy what a pleasant surprise, I only wish I'd switched from my PS2 sooner. All aspects of game play have been much improved, sorry to state the obvious, without loosing any of the appeal of the ancient original version (sorry I couldn't resist the attempt at a gag) I became so fond of. The complete pack with the two expansion pack is a must as you effectively get three 5* games for the price of one.

Only three very small niggles

1. There is no real paper manual to speak of, its all on the one dvd disk, which makes accessing it a bit aquard mid game.

2. It's a lot more difficult than a remember the original, this is probably partly due to the increased pace of the game in each turn because of the giant leap in processor power over the aforementioned 20 yrs, and I have to play on the easiest setting.

3. Its too darn addictive. Due to the great game play, fluidity and the 'I just want to get to the next level/conquer one more tribe' mentality that gets under your skin, you can loose all track of time. Just last night I got so immersed in the game I almost fell asleep at my pc, at 2AM, trying to finish off destroying the nearest tribe.

All in all though it's a must for any role-play and/or strategy game fan. So I have no hesitation in giving it the full 5*s.

Not a long wait, 21 Dec 2007
Ive just ordered this game and even though it says its out of stock it wont be a long wait, so if you havent got the gameyet then get this. Its the best value pack there is. My game will arive on jan 1st so its not a long wait, if you get chronicles you wont get the expansion packs but you the the old games which you wont play, so get this one.

Football Manager 2008 pc, 27 Aug 2008
Those who wait awhile can now pick up the latest offering of football manager for under a tenner -although very little has changed the few tweaks that have been made add little to the overall enjoyment of the game. The last game I bought was 2006 there is now a nice touch with negotiation in transfers but it has always been a great game and has refined itself over the years. All the latest players and stats updated- while away the hours with this addictive game.

good game, 24 Aug 2008
hi this is the accounts owners 11 year old son writing this review. :P ;)
this is a good game with a few small match bugs and glitches. For example, usuallly when your three up with 10 minutes to go and the 3 points look secured, the other team usually scores four or five, and on the rare occasions six, leaving you wondering " why did i buy this piece of C*A* ?" this does not deter from the fun however, and apart from that, its a really realistic game. the 1 excuse for for that though, is the transfer budgets. Remember last season or this season in this game? man utd spent 50 million pounds on players. In this game however you have a 10 .25 million pound budget. that season rangers spent 19 mil on players. in this game they have a pathetic 1.5 mil. c*a* if yuh ask me. :/

All in all this is a good game and at the time of writting with it being at a tenner, its good value for money. Bye now.

Short and simple, 16 Aug 2008
To be honust i can be botherd writing a masive review on every detail of the game.

The first thing i'd say is it is really hard! it takes a long time to get used to most stuff, and i feel if you haven't played a Football manager game before you'd be best just sticking to the basics.

I feel the hardest bit about the game is transfers, it is so hard to sign people!!! and if your a lower league club you've simpley got no chance.

Overall it is a great manager game, better the Fifa manager? not sure.
It's extreamley realistic, i'd say the only thing missing is real club badges and player pictures for higher clubs etc.

I'd say a 4 star, not 5 star just yet.

Brilliant game - but no patches from the site, 09 Aug 2008

I ordered this product on the evening on the 7th of August. Although the product qualified for Super Saver Delivery, I only wanted to purchase this item, so delivery was free. For just £1.69 I could have First Class Delivery. Today, on the 9th of August, I received the game, and so was very happy at this.

I had seen other reviews from people on here who complained about bugs. I played the game (Version 8.0.0 from the disk) for about 30 minutes and did not come across any bugs what so ever.

I know that there is a more recent version available. Two in fact; 8.0.1 and 8.0.2. I have to say I was annoyed, as other users would be, when I found out that on the official Sega website they didn't "have the patches in their database".

So I had to search on an unofficial fan site for the patches, which were the official patches re-uploaded. I was not very happy with this, although they worked perfectly.

I have currently completed a third of a season and love the variety of controls available in the game. Great game, and I have not yet come across any bugs, although I have to say that red cards do appear to often for the opposition.

Overall, a great, innovative game, unfortunately ruined by Sega's lack of interest in providing patches and support.

Major Disappointment, 02 Aug 2008
I think it depends how serious you are. If you are a serious gamer and are prepared to watch and tweak throughout the game then you'll find a good challenge. If your a casual gamer who sets up his tactics and then makes his team selections then you'll not get far!
Sad to say now for serious gamers only.

IKEA STUFF!, 10 Aug 2008
Let me guess...when you open the box half the bits are missing and you cannot understand the instructions!

Great "stuff" pack for The Sims2, 02 Aug 2008
If you researched on the Sims2 website before hand it shows you a list of most of the items in the add-on. The game has great items for around any Sims home, and are likely to nicely fill empty gaps.
-The pack also has the wardrobe I bought from Ikea in!

Product Placement, Much?, 19 Jul 2008
EA are certainly running out of ideas. First H&M got a sponsorship deal, now Ikea are in on the act. I wouldn't be surprised if we got "The Sims 2: Barbie(TM) and Friends Stuff" next.

This "Stuff Pack" contains some furniture and various items to add to your Sims' homes. However, you can download just as good, for free, from Sims 2 fansites (and get nearly infinite variety there as well - there are literally hundreds of thousands of downloads available for the Sims 2). Not sure if I'm allowed to recommend in a review, but if I am, modthesims2.com is a good place to start.

I'm a Sims 2 fan myself, but even I would say: Don't bother with the Stuff Packs at all, unless you can't (or won't) download better content for free online.

Seriously., 14 Jul 2008
seriously, they MUST have ran out of ideas.. i mean whod have given it an IKEA pack?!

get some new ideas.. your running out fast, EA.

Not much stuff really, 03 Jul 2008
I dont think much of this sims 2 add on. I own every single sims 2 expansion pack and stuff packs. There does not seem to be that much more fun to the game with this pack. My daughter is a sims 2 addict she lasted one evening with this pack. When i added the sims 2 freetime for example she was glued for weeks the same with the sims 2 teen style stuff. I guess it may be down to taste for some people. I must add the word dissapointing but not a one star score.

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

Grant me Strength Earthmother!, 22 Aug 2008
*Sigh* TBH if someones looking to buy WotLK, chances are they play WoW (World Of Warcraft Battlechest (PC/Mac)) already and plan to play some more, as such I think they'll have a ROFL at your whinge then read comments that actually have something to do with THIS expansion NOT the game it expands upon. For my part I sadly haven't been sent a Beta key, but I am always checking on wowhead/curse/wow-europe for updates about the expansion. If, by any chance, you happen to be looking at this expansion with a view to starting WoW from scratch, check the sites I've mentioned for more info. The 1-80 will not be a short road but blizz are reducing the hardships of the first 50 levels to make getting to the cutting edge of the game a quicker less grindy experience. I've played Guild Wars (made lvl 15 before I got immensely bored with the whole thing) and am currently playing the LotRO trial (actually looks pretty good, but only as a time-passer when I get bored of WoW sometimes), but I'm afraid WoW is top of the pile no question IMHO and if the stuff featured in the official notes released at various times about this expansion are anything to go by, its only gonna get better!! Do the RIGHT thing folks, go click [Pre-order this item] now!

More of the same.....Great~!, 13 Aug 2008
Having played on the beta realms for a few day, I thought I'd give my first impressions of the Lich King.....

So you start off in the newly added Stormwind docks, and catch a boat over to Northrend, after stopping off first of all at the barbers in stormwind of course and giving yourself a chic new look for between 7-10 gold per change.

When you arrive at Northrend there are all the usual zone starter quests, with some interesting new ideas thrown in along the way, like having to capture flying mobs with nets before you can kill them and the awesome ability for the death knight in quests to steal mounts from unsuspecting NPC stables. Also really liked the idea of having to duel other death knight players in an early DK quest to get quest completion.

World has a great look, and the zones flow together quite well. It's annoying although to be expected I suppose that you can't get into the capital city until you are level 74, but you can get ported in by a friendly mage or warlock.

Levelling is put at a slow but playable 1.25 million XP for level 70-71 and increasing in fairly big chunks the higher you go, but with an average 20k xp per quest and 1500xp per level 70 kill rested it all adds up nicely. The fear of green loot replacing epics fairly early on seems to be well founded with some early quests that take 5 minutes awarding BC heroic sub boss level rewards at 70. For example one of the rewards is a green dagger which is pretty close to the weapon that drops from prince in kara. Talents are complelty unlearned as they were in the previous expansion but there is no cost to fit them back into the new trees.

Nice new level 70 food and mana restorers which now replace 13200 over 30 seconds which is a great time saver.

Creating a death knight is a must just for the novelty factor at the very least. The Lich King himself is in the start area (which is next to the Eastern plaguelands) and gives you a few of the starter quests which is a nice touch. Character starts at level 55 of course with a managable 148k XP for a level. Interestingly although you start at level 55 you have no talent points to spend. You are actually awarded talent points as well as XP for completing some quests so by the time you ding 56 you should have about 10 talent points to spend. Mount is obtained through a fairly easy quest very early on. They get a nice racial talent of runecrafting which allows a kind of weapon enchanting to increase stats or attack power. DKs start fully geared in greens with early quests awarding nice blue level upgrades.

All in all though it's a great expansion and the transition and lore work at least as good as original WOW to TBC, can't wait for the official release!


More grind for a game thats nothing BUT grind, 07 Nov 2007
Really why do people still play this game is beyond me. I mean its NOTHING BUT GRIND. Grind to max lvl then grind raids to get stuff so you can grind another raid to get stuff repeat ad nasuem DO your selfs a favour and quit this grindfest and go play a REAL MMO like Guild wars or LOTRO.

Best PC game ive bought in a while!, 15 Jul 2008
This game is fantastic the gameplay is great!!
Graphics 9/10
Sound 8/10
Gameplay 9/10

Also i recived this version completely upto date therefore i just installed it and started playing withing a few mins.

this game runs smoothly at max settings for everything on my PC [Q6600 intel core2 quad - 4gb ddr2 800mhz - 8500gt 512mb]

I highly recommend this game it is a MUST buy in my opinion...
Anyway G2G need to carry on playing Civ 4 XD


WOW! A must buy PC game!, 07 Jul 2008
WOW! Being new to CIV, i didn't know what to expect. I had been pondering over whether or not to buy this game since September. And buying this was a great choice and idea for mny reasons.

Here's why;

Graphics: 9.0 - Amazing until you really zoom in. But this game is meant for keeping quite zoomed out until you enter a battle or fight at whic point the camera automatically zooms in. This is not a hinderance though, i find the graphics very detailed. The leaders and videos are very well animated and are very detailed aswell.

Sound: 8.5 - Sometimes the sound can be slightly distorted but most and literally all the time the game has great sound. I love the way that the Civilisaion that you have chosen for your campaign has it's music evolve over the game, so it reacts to the time period you are in.

Gameplay: 9.5 - They have literaly thought of everything and more in this game. The two expansion packs have definately improved the game. It lasts for ages (i played the short game and it took me over 7 hours to complete). And the technologies in the game that all link to each othe in someway or another. religion is agreat aspect that i like. i felt privilaged to be the founde of religions such as Buddism, Christianity and Islam, amoungst others. The worlds and leaders are amzing. And the traits of eachleader really shows when you don't or do agree with them or give them tributes etc. Such as Ghandi, he has a huge toleration and a good cultre levl (which helps in te upkeep of your happy citezens), compared to Julius Ceaser, Roosevelt or Mansa Musa who have amow tolerance level and high technology (which helps in military matters). S it is good to keep on the good side of leaders, which i shard because they all have enemies too. So when they ask you to stop trade with a certain civilisation and yo either aree or disagree it will upset certain leaders, not just the two in qustion. Justlike if you were to declare war on one civislisation it will upset or even make other leaders happy.

Overall: 9.0 - Take 2 have realy put alot into his game and have made a truly outstanding game that will (as you are required to in the game), "stand the test of time".

Awesome game shame about the price, 12 May 2008
This is available much cheaper at play.com and other locations. Come on amazon, lets get competitive in this market!

20 yrs on and still the best role play strategy game!, 21 Mar 2008
I bought this game based on what I remembered of the original version I used to play on a friends old 286 machine back in the late 1980s, and the very favorable reviews on this site. After much deliberation & head scratching I finally took the plunge and bought the game. After 20+ years of hardware and software improvements since I played the original I expected a major leap forward in playability and game fluidity and buoy what a pleasant surprise, I only wish I'd switched from my PS2 sooner. All aspects of game play have been much improved, sorry to state the obvious, without loosing any of the appeal of the ancient original version (sorry I couldn't resist the attempt at a gag) I became so fond of. The complete pack with the two expansion pack is a must as you effectively get three 5* games for the price of one.

Only three very small niggles

1. There is no real paper manual to speak of, its all on the one dvd disk, which makes accessing it a bit aquard mid game.

2. It's a lot more difficult than a remember the original, this is probably partly due to the increased pace of the game in each turn because of the giant leap in processor power over the aforementioned 20 yrs, and I have to play on the easiest setting.

3. Its too darn addictive. Due to the great game play, fluidity and the 'I just want to get to the next level/conquer one more tribe' mentality that gets under your skin, you can loose all track of time. Just last night I got so immersed in the game I almost fell asleep at my pc, at 2AM, trying to finish off destroying the nearest tribe.

All in all though it's a must for any role-play and/or strategy game fan. So I have no hesitation in giving it the full 5*s.

Not a long wait, 21 Dec 2007
Ive just ordered this game and even though it says its out of stock it wont be a long wait, so if you havent got the gameyet then get this. Its the best value pack there is. My game will arive on jan 1st so its not a long wait, if you get chronicles you wont get the expansion packs but you the the old games which you wont play, so get this one.

Football Manager 2008 pc, 27 Aug 2008
Those who wait awhile can now pick up the latest offering of football manager for under a tenner -although very little has changed the few tweaks that have been made add little to the overall enjoyment of the game. The last game I bought was 2006 there is now a nice touch with negotiation in transfers but it has always been a great game and has refined itself over the years. All the latest players and stats updated- while away the hours with this addictive game.

good game, 24 Aug 2008
hi this is the accounts owners 11 year old son writing this review. :P ;)
this is a good game with a few small match bugs and glitches. For example, usuallly when your three up with 10 minutes to go and the 3 points look secured, the other team usually scores four or five, and on the rare occasions six, leaving you wondering " why did i buy this piece of C*A* ?" this does not deter from the fun however, and apart from that, its a really realistic game. the 1 excuse for for that though, is the transfer budgets. Remember last season or this season in this game? man utd spent 50 million pounds on players. In this game however you have a 10 .25 million pound budget. that season rangers spent 19 mil on players. in this game they have a pathetic 1.5 mil. c*a* if yuh ask me. :/

All in all this is a good game and at the time of writting with it being at a tenner, its good value for money. Bye now.

Short and simple, 16 Aug 2008
To be honust i can be botherd writing a masive review on every detail of the game.

The first thing i'd say is it is really hard! it takes a long time to get used to most stuff, and i feel if you haven't played a Football manager game before you'd be best just sticking to the basics.

I feel the hardest bit about the game is transfers, it is so hard to sign people!!! and if your a lower league club you've simpley got no chance.

Overall it is a great manager game, better the Fifa manager? not sure.
It's extreamley realistic, i'd say the only thing missing is real club badges and player pictures for higher clubs etc.

I'd say a 4 star, not 5 star just yet.

Brilliant game - but no patches from the site, 09 Aug 2008

I ordered this product on the evening on the 7th of August. Although the product qualified for Super Saver Delivery, I only wanted to purchase this item, so delivery was free. For just £1.69 I could have First Class Delivery. Today, on the 9th of August, I received the game, and so was very happy at this.

I had seen other reviews from people on here who complained about bugs. I played the game (Version 8.0.0 from the disk) for about 30 minutes and did not come across any bugs what so ever.

I know that there is a more recent version available. Two in fact; 8.0.1 and 8.0.2. I have to say I was annoyed, as other users would be, when I found out that on the official Sega website they didn't "have the patches in their database".

So I had to search on an unofficial fan site for the patches, which were the official patches re-uploaded. I was not very happy with this, although they worked perfectly.

I have currently completed a third of a season and love the variety of controls available in the game. Great game, and I have not yet come across any bugs, although I have to say that red cards do appear to often for the opposition.

Overall, a great, innovative game, unfortunately ruined by Sega's lack of interest in providing patches and support.

Major Disappointment, 02 Aug 2008
I think it depends how serious you are. If you are a serious gamer and are prepared to watch and tweak throughout the game then you'll find a good challenge. If your a casual gamer who sets up his tactics and then makes his team selections then you'll not get far!
Sad to say now for serious gamers only.

IKEA STUFF!, 10 Aug 2008
Let me guess...when you open the box half the bits are missing and you cannot understand the instructions!

Great "stuff" pack for The Sims2, 02 Aug 2008
If you researched on the Sims2 website before hand it shows you a list of most of the items in the add-on. The game has great items for around any Sims home, and are likely to nicely fill empty gaps.
-The pack also has the wardrobe I bought from Ikea in!

Product Placement, Much?, 19 Jul 2008
EA are certainly running out of ideas. First H&M got a sponsorship deal, now Ikea are in on the act. I wouldn't be surprised if we got "The Sims 2: Barbie(TM) and Friends Stuff" next.

This "Stuff Pack" contains some furniture and various items to add to your Sims' homes. However, you can download just as good, for free, from Sims 2 fansites (and get nearly infinite variety there as well - there are literally hundreds of thousands of downloads available for the Sims 2). Not sure if I'm allowed to recommend in a review, but if I am, modthesims2.com is a good place to start.

I'm a Sims 2 fan myself, but even I would say: Don't bother with the Stuff Packs at all, unless you can't (or won't) download better content for free online.

Seriously., 14 Jul 2008
seriously, they MUST have ran out of ideas.. i mean whod have given it an IKEA pack?!

get some new ideas.. your running out fast, EA.

Not much stuff really, 03 Jul 2008
I dont think much of this sims 2 add on. I own every single sims 2 expansion pack and stuff packs. There does not seem to be that much more fun to the game with this pack. My daughter is a sims 2 addict she lasted one evening with this pack. When i added the sims 2 freetime for example she was glued for weeks the same with the sims 2 teen style stuff. I guess it may be down to taste for some people. I must add the word dissapointing but not a one star score.

WOW Eu - 60 day game card, 05 Aug 2008
This product is brilliant. It allows you to play wow without the need for credit cards or debit cards. (which is a good thing as my card does not allow monthly direct debits). But even if you can use your credit/debit card, this is still a more secure and more efficient way of paying your wow fees. And also you know you can trust amazon to provide you with a 1st class service every-time.

Bottom line is BUY if you love WOW, 31 May 2008
If, like my son (who I occasionally see emerge from his bedroom), you love WOW then buy it! You're saving pounds and you don't have to worry about taking out a subscription. It also means you have a means to blackmail your kid into cleaning his room up! :-)

Brilliant!, 01 Dec 2007
Andy - Prepaid Game Card means you get a prepaid game card to play the game.. It is clearly stated, no fault of Amazon's or Blizzard for not stating this information!

Anyways - This product is best if you do not want a re-occuring charge on your credit/debit card or if you dont play World of Warcraft constantly. It is no dearer buying a subscription this way so if you are not a constant player, i highly recommend this product.

World of WarCraft Prepay Card, 01 Oct 2007
Amazon could have stated that this was not a full game and you would have to buy the game even though you have to down load 3.5GB from WOW website to play. World of Warcraft is unclear on wht you by to get enjoyment.

warning!, 28 Sep 2006
To start...yes this game is brilliant. it is a masterpiece of online rpg and there is no better game out there. The graphics are something special when you realise this game is only for online playing. the gameplay is masterful, and the increasing diffculty level is perfect, if almost a little low. Towards the end the game can get quite easy (having mastered all the controls for your character) to play yet tedious to get all equipment that you want!

Having said that, i warn people of the effect this game has. It is one of the most addictive games i have ever played and does tend to take up alot of your time if you are not careful. I got the game in jan 06, and have only recently uninstalled it, not because it got boring, but because it got in the way of my studies and my friends!!!!!

in the end this game may end up being a your life instead of simply a game, and there are so many hardcore gamers on the game itself. Enjoy, but be careful!

From the makers of Far Cry comes the most technologically advanced video game ever made, with graphics to make you gasp and enemy artificial intelligence so clever it could give SkyNET a run for its money. With Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 now well established, Crysis has become the new milestone for PC graphics and first person shoot `em-ups. The premise of the game involves an alien landing on an island off North Korea, with you as the only person that can stop it. The incredibly realistic looking environments are the game's initial draw, with some particularly stunning looking jungle locales. All the levels include dynamic effects to make them even more realistic (and dangerous) including earthquakes, breaking ice, landslides and tornadoes. Since the alien decides to flash freeze the entire island half way through the game, and the final sections end up in a zero gravity spaceship, it's unlikely you're going to get tired of the same old environments.

As in Far Cry, there's no strict level structure and you're able to explore the island however you want; choosing to go in all guns blazing or taking a more stealthy approach. You can also customise your weapons to suit your preferred style of play with silencers, telescopic sights, laser sightings and more. Your special armour can also be modified as you go, so that you make less noise as you move, run faster, jump higher, recover energy or just take damage better and make use of heavier weapons. Naturally the game also includes an extensive multiplayer mode, but it is the stunning, near photorealistic, graphics and game world which is most certain to claim the game's name in PC gaming history.
HARRISON DENT

Limited to 3 activations, then the game stops working!, 27 Aug 2008
This game is limited to 3 activations. An activation is used when you install or upgrade your computer. Once all the activations are used up, the game stops working!

The DRM used by the game, SecuROM, is very invasive and harvests information about your computer and monitors / disrupts other legitimate applications that it deems may be used for piracy. This is an incredulous state of affairs and if piracy is a problem for the industry, the industry should prosecute the pirates and not invade the customers own computer with spyware to monitor them. It's way too draconian.

Grant me Strength Earthmother!, 22 Aug 2008
*Sigh* TBH if someones looking to buy WotLK, chances are they play WoW (World Of Warcraft Battlechest (PC/Mac)) already and plan to play some more, as such I think they'll have a ROFL at your whinge then read comments that actually have something to do with THIS expansion NOT the game it expands upon. For my part I sadly haven't been sent a Beta key, but I am always checking on wowhead/curse/wow-europe for updates about the expansion. If, by any chance, you happen to be looking at this expansion with a view to starting WoW from scratch, check the sites I've mentioned for more info. The 1-80 will not be a short road but blizz are reducing the hardships of the first 50 levels to make getting to the cutting edge of the game a quicker less grindy experience. I've played Guild Wars (made lvl 15 before I got immensely bored with the whole thing) and am currently playing the LotRO trial (actually looks pretty good, but only as a time-passer when I get bored of WoW sometimes), but I'm afraid WoW is top of the pile no question IMHO and if the stuff featured in the official notes released at various times about this expansion are anything to go by, its only gonna get better!! Do the RIGHT thing folks, go click [Pre-order this item] now!

More of the same.....Great~!, 13 Aug 2008
Having played on the beta realms for a few day, I thought I'd give my first impressions of the Lich King.....

So you start off in the newly added Stormwind docks, and catch a boat over to Northrend, after stopping off first of all at the barbers in stormwind of course and giving yourself a chic new look for between 7-10 gold per change.

When you arrive at Northrend there are all the usual zone starter quests, with some interesting new ideas thrown in along the way, like having to capture flying mobs with nets before you can kill them and the awesome ability for the death knight in quests to steal mounts from unsuspecting NPC stables. Also really liked the idea of having to duel other death knight players in an early DK quest to get quest completion.

World has a great look, and the zones flow together quite well. It's annoying although to be expected I suppose that you can't get into the capital city until you are level 74, but you can get ported in by a friendly mage or warlock.

Levelling is put at a slow but playable 1.25 million XP for level 70-71 and increasing in fairly big chunks the higher you go, but with an average 20k xp per quest and 1500xp per level 70 kill rested it all adds up nicely. The fear of green loot replacing epics fairly early on seems to be well founded with some early quests that take 5 minutes awarding BC heroic sub boss level rewards at 70. For example one of the rewards is a green dagger which is pretty close to the weapon that drops from prince in kara. Talents are complelty unlearned as they were in the previous expansion but there is no cost to fit them back into the new trees.

Nice new level 70 food and mana restorers which now replace 13200 over 30 seconds which is a great time saver.

Creating a death knight is a must just for the novelty factor at the very least. The Lich King himself is in the start area (which is next to the Eastern plaguelands) and gives you a few of the starter quests which is a nice touch. Character starts at level 55 of course with a managable 148k XP for a level. Interestingly although you start at level 55 you have no talent points to spend. You are actually awarded talent points as well as XP for completing some quests so by the time you ding 56 you should have about 10 talent points to spend. Mount is obtained through a fairly easy quest very early on. They get a nice racial talent of runecrafting which allows a kind of weapon enchanting to increase stats or attack power. DKs start fully geared in greens with early quests awarding nice blue level upgrades.

All in all though it's a great expansion and the transition and lore work at least as good as original WOW to TBC, can't wait for the official release!


More grind for a game thats nothing BUT grind, 07 Nov 2007
Really why do people still play this game is beyond me. I mean its NOTHING BUT GRIND. Grind to max lvl then grind raids to get stuff so you can grind another raid to get stuff repeat ad nasuem DO your selfs a favour and quit this grindfest and go play a REAL MMO like Guild wars or LOTRO.

Best PC game ive bought in a while!, 15 Jul 2008
This game is fantastic the gameplay is great!!
Graphics 9/10
Sound 8/10
Gameplay 9/10

Also i recived this version completely upto date therefore i just installed it and started playing withing a few mins.

this game runs smoothly at max settings for everything on my PC [Q6600 intel core2 quad - 4gb ddr2 800mhz - 8500gt 512mb]

I highly recommend this game it is a MUST buy in my opinion...
Anyway G2G need to carry on playing Civ 4 XD


WOW! A must buy PC game!, 07 Jul 2008
WOW! Being new to CIV, i didn't know what to expect. I had been pondering over whether or not to buy this game since September. And buying this was a great choice and idea for mny reasons.

Here's why;

Graphics: 9.0 - Amazing until you really zoom in. But this game is meant for keeping quite zoomed out until you enter a battle or fight at whic point the camera automatically zooms in. This is not a hinderance though, i find the graphics very detailed. The leaders and videos are very well animated and are very detailed aswell.

Sound: 8.5 - Sometimes the sound can be slightly distorted but most and literally all the time the game has great sound. I love the way that the Civilisaion that you have chosen for your campaign has it's music evolve over the game, so it reacts to the time period you are in.

Gameplay: 9.5 - They have literaly thought of everything and more in this game. The two expansion packs have definately improved the game. It lasts for ages (i played the short game and it took me over 7 hours to complete). And the technologies in the game that all link to each othe in someway or another. religion is agreat aspect that i like. i felt privilaged to be the founde of religions such as Buddism, Christianity and Islam, amoungst others. The worlds and leaders are amzing. And the traits of eachleader really shows when you don't or do agree with them or give them tributes etc. Such as Ghandi, he has a huge toleration and a good cultre levl (which helps in te upkeep of your happy citezens), compared to Julius Ceaser, Roosevelt or Mansa Musa who have amow tolerance level and high technology (which helps in military matters). S it is good to keep on the good side of leaders, which i shard because they all have enemies too. So when they ask you to stop trade with a certain civilisation and yo either aree or disagree it will upset certain leaders, not just the two in qustion. Justlike if you were to declare war on one civislisation it will upset or even make other leaders happy.

Overall: 9.0 - Take 2 have realy put alot into his game and have made a truly outstanding game that will (as you are required to in the game), "stand the test of time".

Awesome game shame about the price, 12 May 2008
This is available much cheaper at play.com and other locations. Come on amazon, lets get competitive in this market!

20 yrs on and still the best role play strategy game!, 21 Mar 2008
I bought this game based on what I remembered of the original version I used to play on a friends old 286 machine back in the late 1980s, and the very favorable reviews on this site. After much deliberation & head scratching I finally took the plunge and bought the game. After 20+ years of hardware and software improvements since I played the original I expected a major leap forward in playability and game fluidity and buoy what a pleasant surprise, I only wish I'd switched from my PS2 sooner. All aspects of game play have been much improved, sorry to state the obvious, without loosing any of the appeal of the ancient original version (sorry I couldn't resist the attempt at a gag) I became so fond of. The complete pack with the two expansion pack is a must as you effectively get three 5* games for the price of one.

Only three very small niggles

1. There is no real paper manual to speak of, its all on the one dvd disk, which makes accessing it a bit aquard mid game.

2. It's a lot more difficult than a remember the original, this is probably partly due to the increased pace of the game in each turn because of the giant leap in processor power over the aforementioned 20 yrs, and I have to play on the easiest setting.

3. Its too darn addictive. Due to the great game play, fluidity and the 'I just want to get to the next level/conquer one more tribe' mentality that gets under your skin, you can loose all track of time. Just last night I got so immersed in the game I almost fell asleep at my pc, at 2AM, trying to finish off destroying the nearest tribe.

All in all though it's a must for any role-play and/or strategy game fan. So I have no hesitation in giving it the full 5*s.

Not a long wait, 21 Dec 2007
Ive just ordered this game and even though it says its out of stock it wont be a long wait, so if you havent got the gameyet then get this. Its the best value pack there is. My game will arive on jan 1st so its not a long wait, if you get chronicles you wont get the expansion packs but you the the old games which you wont play, so get this one.

Football Manager 2008 pc, 27 Aug 2008
Those who wait awhile can now pick up the latest offering of football manager for under a tenner -although very little has changed the few tweaks that have been made add little to the overall enjoyment of the game. The last game I bought was 2006 there is now a nice touch with negotiation in transfers but it has always been a great game and has refined itself over the years. All the latest players and stats updated- while away the hours with this addictive game.

good game, 24 Aug 2008
hi this is the accounts owners 11 year old son writing this review. :P ;)
this is a good game with a few small match bugs and glitches. For example, usuallly when your three up with 10 minutes to go and the 3 points look secured, the other team usually scores four or five, and on the rare occasions six, leaving you wondering " why did i buy this piece of C*A* ?" this does not deter from the fun however, and apart from that, its a really realistic game. the 1 excuse for for that though, is the transfer budgets. Remember last season or this season in this game? man utd spent 50 million pounds on players. In this game however you have a 10 .25 million pound budget. that season rangers spent 19 mil on players. in this game they have a pathetic 1.5 mil. c*a* if yuh ask me. :/

All in all this is a good game and at the time of writting with it being at a tenner, its good value for money. Bye now.

Short and simple, 16 Aug 2008
To be honust i can be botherd writing a masive review on every detail of the game.

The first thing i'd say is it is really hard! it takes a long time to get used to most stuff, and i feel if you haven't played a Football manager game before you'd be best just sticking to the basics.

I feel the hardest bit about the game is transfers, it is so hard to sign people!!! and if your a lower league club you've simpley got no chance.

Overall it is a great manager game, better the Fifa manager? not sure.
It's extreamley realistic, i'd say the only thing missing is real club badges and player pictures for higher clubs etc.

I'd say a 4 star, not 5 star just yet.

Brilliant game - but no patches from the site, 09 Aug 2008

I ordered this product on the evening on the 7th of August. Although the product qualified for Super Saver Delivery, I only wanted to purchase this item, so delivery was free. For just £1.69 I could have First Class Delivery. Today, on the 9th of August, I received the game, and so was very happy at this.

I had seen other reviews from people on here who complained about bugs. I played the game (Version 8.0.0 from the disk) for about 30 minutes and did not come across any bugs what so ever.

I know that there is a more recent version available. Two in fact; 8.0.1 and 8.0.2. I have to say I was annoyed, as other users would be, when I found out that on the official Sega website they didn't "have the patches in their database".

So I had to search on an unofficial fan site for the patches, which were the official patches re-uploaded. I was not very happy with this, although they worked perfectly.

I have currently completed a third of a season and love the variety of controls available in the game. Great game, and I have not yet come across any bugs, although I have to say that red cards do appear to often for the opposition.

Overall, a great, innovative game, unfortunately ruined by Sega's lack of interest in providing patches and support.

Major Disappointment, 02 Aug 2008
I think it depends how serious you are. If you are a serious gamer and are prepared to watch and tweak throughout the game then you'll find a good challenge. If your a casual gamer who sets up his tactics and then makes his team selections then you'll not get far!
Sad to say now for serious gamers only.

IKEA STUFF!, 10 Aug 2008
Let me guess...when you open the box half the bits are missing and you cannot understand the instructions!

Great "stuff" pack for The Sims2, 02 Aug 2008
If you researched on the Sims2 website before hand it shows you a list of most of the items in the add-on. The game has great items for around any Sims home, and are likely to nicely fill empty gaps.
-The pack also has the wardrobe I bought from Ikea in!

Product Placement, Much?, 19 Jul 2008
EA are certainly running out of ideas. First H&M got a sponsorship deal, now Ikea are in on the act. I wouldn't be surprised if we got "The Sims 2: Barbie(TM) and Friends Stuff" next.

This "Stuff Pack" contains some furniture and various items to add to your Sims' homes. However, you can download just as good, for free, from Sims 2 fansites (and get nearly infinite variety there as well - there are literally hundreds of thousands of downloads available for the Sims 2). Not sure if I'm allowed to recommend in a review, but if I am, modthesims2.com is a good place to start.

I'm a Sims 2 fan myself, but even I would say: Don't bother with the Stuff Packs at all, unless you can't (or won't) download better content for free online.

Seriously., 14 Jul 2008
seriously, they MUST have ran out of ideas.. i mean whod have given it an IKEA pack?!

get some new ideas.. your running