CHRIS:
I've found this game to be quite hard to judge. On the one hand, it features professionally produced (albeit sometimes scrappy) graphics, but on the other, Mercenaries is needlessly complicated - particularly in its control scheme. I had to do a lot of fiddling about to get the game working (by moving the .ccn files to the same folder as the game) as well as mess around with the keyboard settings. Once I eventually got the game to run I found the actual gameplay to be pretty bland - no thanks to the keyboard settings. From a choice of two characters your central protagonist wanders the area blasting zombies. However the fun is immediately withdrawn when you have to press a separate button to reload! The fun decreases further when you realise the repetitive nature of the gameplay. Walk forward, shoot zombies, retreat while reloading your gun, walk forward, shoot zombies... Interestingly though the author of the game has broken the gameplay up by finding items to collect... find a key to open a door. To me it feels a little cheap... but maybe I'm being a little harsh here. The idea of the game is good - certainly there's nothing like it in the competition so hence it's quite novel... but I'm sorry to say I just couldn't enjoy it.

FLAVA:
This game was sort of like an adventure game and an action game, and I rather enjoyed it. Like a few of the other entries in the competition, the only thing that really let it down was it's presentation. It actually took me a few minutes to set up my keyboard for the game and figure out how to start the tutorial - I actually realised that I had to close the built-in MP3 player in order to play the game with a keyboard (not sure if that's the case for the joy pads). The graphics are sort of 3D in places, but 2D in other places and they don't really mix well together. The cut scenes are nice, as are the 'boss battles'. I enjoyed shooting the zombies with my shotgun for some reason, and the upgrade system was a nice feature (although it was probably too easy to upgrade weapons and skills). I rather enjoyed this game, but I can't exactly point out why. Maybe it's just because I like these types of games, or maybe it just made a nice change from the other entries. It's not a brilliant game, but it's not bad - and it does present some sort of challenge in places. Oh, it sort of lacked a winter theme too - apart from having snow in levels and such (like a lot of other entries).

ASSAULT ANDY:
Graphics - Okay they're rendered in 3D, but that doesn't mean that they're going to look good unless they work well together. I think some of them needed to be rendered with more colours (I know that would increase the file size, but it would have looked better.) Audio - There's not much there. Winter theme - There's snow and it kind of feels cold? Gameplay & Programming- WHY DO YOU HAVE THE CONTROLS SET OUT LIKE A PLAYSTATION? This game is for a computer. Not everyone has a Playstation controller connected to their computer. It is annoying to have to map a keyboard to the game. It is annoying to have buttons labelled with Triangle and Square instead of a keyboard letter name. The menu screens are really confusing, laid out in a messy fashion, and have redundant parts. Take the first menu screen. I think people would agree with me that the use of Circumlocution (i.e. Using many words to describe one thing.) isn't necessary. It does not add to the experience. What's wrong with having a New Game button? Or a load? And why is the mouse cursor a gun? It's harder to click with, it's sort of a novelty more than anything. And why does the load game screen have a combination lock to make me choose which game I want to load. What is good however is that screenshot of my current game to load. Why is there a built in music player? Surely time could have been better spent enhancing the gameplay of the game rather than adding that on. The logo when you first open the game takes too long and is unskippable. When you press escape another instance of the game opens itself (or at least on my computer.) Onto the ACTUAL gameplay. It's not really fun at all. You see monsters, you shoot at them. You walk into houses, you try to collect stuff if you can work out the menus. I don't believe anything I've said is out of the question or unnecessary. Please take my comments into account for next time you make a game.