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The Bargain Bin Binge! |
About this column: On occasion, bargain shelves at your local video/electronics store contain a semi-old title worth more than just a look. This page reviews such titles..
Recent Bargain Bin Binge pages: 3) Simpsons' Virtual Springfield! 6) A DOZEN Bargains that DO NOT stink! ***
----------------- Feel free to contribute. As always, review submissions are accepted! ------------------
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Star Trek: Judgment Rites
Click Picture to Order this game (PC version) Computer technology is an always-advancing, fleeting thing. Unfortunately, this means the same thing for games. Unless you count the popular, 4-year-old, "When will they make a SEQUEL to this?" games like Half-Life, very few games on store shelves are any older than 2 or three years! That said, when you come across a top-notch exception --which was first released in 1995 (!)-- it has to be good. Such is the case with one of the best "Trekkie" games ever released, Star Trek: Judgment Rites, which if you never played it, it's bargain price of $9.99 makes it a total steal.
In case you were wondering about overall storyline; it is surprisingly good by adventure game standards, and one of the best games the Star Trek fanbase was ever offered. In addition to the Trelane mission, many similar missions are interwoven into a main story, where the typical Superior Alien Race is "judging" humankind, and it is up to Enterprise to make the right decisions. This is highlighted by a prologue when a Federation ship from the future goes back in time, only to warn Enterprise it may make a mistake that affects all humankind...just before the mysterious ship explodes. The story just gets better and better from there. Of course, it is both a shame and a pleasure that this game is offered in classic, low-res graphics. On the one hand, if a 1995 game like this can still be sold on store shelves next to No One Lives Forever 2 and Watchmaker, it has to be one whale of a classic game! On the other hand, it's a shame nobody ever considered upgrading this game (or a sequel?) in full, 3D accelerated splendor. Don't get me wrong; Star Trek Voyager Elite Force was very good, and Deep Space Nine: The Fallen was fun, regardless of me never watching that series very much. However, why hasn't anyone brought back the original series characters, in similar 3D accelerated splendor? If they made a remake of this game, every authentic character voice is digitized, so they could even re-use Deforest Kelly's voice-overs for Dr. McCoy, all over again! However, whether they do this or not is immaterial. Seven years later, this is not only, still, the best Star Trek game in history; it's one of the finest graphic adventures ever made, period. If you loved classic Trek, you need to buy this classic game. You're bound to only leave recommending it to your Trekkie friends, for another 7 years...
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Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
Mind
you, this praise is coming from a site which honored Judgment Rites
in Techtite's list of 
What's really thrilling here is,
you're given a game with all your favorite original series characters, and
their voices! Even the late Deforest Kelly was on hand in 1995, to voice Dr. McCoy. Kirk, Spock, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, and
Checkov are on hand as well. However, I digress: this is a game with all
your favorite original series elements, with many missions which offer
cameos of characters from classic episodes. Yes, even the mischievous
Trelane makes a return appearance, in a sub-story that is vintage 1960's
Trek (complete with a trip to "old Earth," no less). 