Gran Turismo 5

So Gran Turismo 5 has finnaly arrived but some people are complaing about it doesn't worth the waiting time... Well beside that I made some observations in-game and prepare yourselves for probably the longest review I ever made


Driving Physics

Most realistic car handling physics on console platforms? No doubt. Are they absolutely correct on every single car? Not really. For an obvious example, compared with its real life counterpart Lotus Elise 111R '04 (Premium) in Top Gear Test Track Challenge drives like a different car. Why so? Because Top Gear (UK) in one episode tested exactly the same car, and both Jeremy Clarkson and The Stig praised its remarkable handling instead of the current GT5's "floating" one. (Might have something to do with tyres…)

To my surprise, the online multiplayer has its different sets of driving physics. In general, with exactly the same car the multiplayer one is slightly more oversteer. Although it can be fixed by tuning the car, this should not have happened in the first place.

Rally driving has been improved, but is still far from being called realistic. I think the problem might be Japanese people are more interested in Tarmac Rally Racing rather than dirt and snow ones, which reflected Phonypoly Digital's decision or experience as most of the staff are Japanese. You may think after 12 years (since GT2), they would hire some experienced Western developers or ask them for advices.


Car Modelling and Selection

Yes, GT5 has more than 1000 cars, but about 50% of them are Japanese cars and only about 20% of them are Premium. So what's the different between Standard and Premium?

Standard cars: Low body modelling (ranging from GT4 quality to sub-GT5 quality), some of them look uglier than they were in GT4 due to HD up-scaling. Low damage system (only scratches and minor body shaping). No Cockpit Camera view or any in-car camera view.

Premium cars: High body modelling (but there're still some differences, race cars generally are much more detailed than production cars and some everyday production cars look less realistic than high-market production cars). High damage system (but only race cars have much more detailed damages). Cockpit Camera view, detailed interior, working dashboard (lights up at night), shifting motions (gear changing), etc. Advanced lighting, full/low beam headlight, much brighter than Standard cars' headlight, much more detailed backlight.

When in a race every car is Standard, you probably think you are playing a PS2 era game if the track is low detailed as well (that will be discussed later).

Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is a Standard car…yeah, I know this issue must have been brought up thousands of times (if not millions) by now. GT5's Standard/Premium decision is unbelievable and unreasonable. One Toyota Prius is Premium, yeah you heard me right, and there're other non-sport cars get Premium treatment as well which should have been given to more Le Mans Prototype race cars or well-known sport cars. Then 56% out of 1000+ cars are Japanese and most of them are directly ported from GT4; and you get 50+ different era/version of Nissan Skyline/GT-R cars (by GTPlanet.net), that's 5% or 1/20 out of all cars. The long development made GT5 significantly lacks up-to-date new cars, and Porsche is out of question again, not to mention the exclusion of Koenigsegg (famous Swedish supercar manufacturer). While finally Ferrari has made its way to Gran Turismo series, the ultimate Ferrari FXX is not included.

I can keep going on about GT5's car modelling/selection, but you get the picture: too few new cars, too many ugly Standard cars, unreasonable Standard/Premium treatment, and too many Japanese cars (I like some Japanese cars, but this is all too much).


Damage System

You mean GT5 has damage system? Yeah, or sort of. I'm currently Level 32 (A-Spec, Level 33 B-Spec), and yet to discover any noticeable car damages. For example, in Extreme Series - NASCAR Daytona, I got pit by AI (that will be discussed later) and then got hit multiple times by incoming cars at 300+KPH of speed, and the result? Just some scratches and minor body shaping (nothing change inside the car, no interior damage), then throttle on and keep going as normal exactly like previous GT games. You would think that kind of accident should have put you out of race immediately along with other damaged AI cars. Nope, they keep running and you suffer the defeat. You need to hit your Premium car (any) multiple times at 200+KPH directly into a wall to get some decent body damages, which in real world situation your car will be totally destroyed on first impact. There's no excuse for this lame damage system since other games have already done more realistically, e.g. Colin McRae DiRT series. What about promised mechanical damages? Not in GT Mode (Offline Career mode), so far online and arcade (and Practice mode as well) only. This is just another example showing a problem that should not have existed in the first place. Why the online multiplayer gets different sets of physics engine? I honestly don't know.

Apart from unrealistic damages, there's another problem - Glue Effect. 1) AI cars seem to have been glued on the track, you can hardly pit them as if they are suddenly as heavy as tanks or lorries/trucks; 2) When you hit track objects like wall barriers, your car is literally glued onto them; and since there's no realistic damage, you car doesn't normally bounce off on impact, instead, your car only comes off when the speed is reduced enough.


Tracks

When you think there should be no quality difference this time, unfortunately there're. Generally speaking, City Tracks are most detailed, and they look quite fascinated; World Circuits are still not too bad, but they have those GT4 era looks sometimes even while you're racing; Original Circuits, some are good, some not so (they look almost like they were in GT4); Fixed Snow/Dirt Tracks, they're fine, you can even say almost as good as City Tracks (except those obvious 2D crowds and low-rec trees); The Top Gear Test Track, well let's just say not good enough; Worst of all are the randomly generated dirt/snow tracks, they look awfully unreal and take the sim driving feeling out of water.

Only a handful of tracks have the new Weather and Day/Night shifting features. The raining effects are currently buggy, the rain drops will make car exterior appear jaggy (especially while you're following another car). The headlights are too bright in raining situation (especially while you're following another car, makes cockpit cam too blurry to drive), and are too dark on some night tracks (especially the randomly generated night tarmac tracks). Tyre smoke, dirt dust and snow dust will make cars' exterior jaggy as well which look ugly in replay footages.

Since Phonypoly Digital did use some GT4's tracks without too many changes, why not use them all? I have no idea why the Hong Kong, New York, Paris, Seattle and all other fantastic tracks been left out. GT5's total track numbers and places are far from enough as current generation racing game; we get new ones and lost old good ones.


AI System

Well, this is a painful section with the history of GT series all the time. In short, the AI drivers are on "rail" mostly. They don't behave like regular real word professional drivers, and there are no difficulty settings in career mode to make them "smarter" or "dumper". Even using same level/power cars you can still beat AI drivers with ease (for hardcore gamers or experienced racing game players). Thus the intense driving can only be experienced by using lesser power cars; however, you will then face another problem - AI pit manoeuvres. The sad thing is that its no because AI is acting aggressively but mindlessly following race lines at all costs. Worse even, after the pitting and lose control your car will then get rammed by incoming AI cars until you're out of their driving lines or they get slow down enough and you can move on. Only on one track you can't beat AI drivers easily with same level/power cars - Daytona Superspeedway. That's because of the overpowered streamlining/drag effect, as AI cars can drag you up and pit you out (U-Turns).

Phonypoly Digital obviously didn't put much effort to improve AI system, nor have they actually put any serious thoughts into it. You're still facing god-like AI drivers if you don't use proper cars to compete, since they almost never make mistakes. (B-Spec will be discussed later)


Level System and Licence System

Race Events are locked up by the new levelling system instead of traditional Licence Tests. Everyone begins at level 0, and the level cap is currently set at 40.

Levelling 1-10: Very fast, if you have done all the Licence tests (mostly Gold and Silver medals), Special Events (mostly Gold and Silver medals) and win most race events.

Levelling 11-25: Still not too bad, if you keep doing the Special Events (mostly Gold and Silver medals) and win every possible race events.

As for casual gamers, the levelling process may involve lots of grinding works, and they're not fun to do at all.

Levelling 26-40: Well, grinding works for everyone; because the level gap grows enormously in number.

B-Spec levelling will involve more grinding works due to longer race event and lesser XP gain.

The grinding works would not have happened if GT5 keeps using the traditional Licence Lock system.

Since GT5 abandoned the licence lock system its predecessors used, it now becomes just another "Special Event". It might present some challenges if you want to gold them all; otherwise most people do it due to XP and prize cars.


The Stand Alone B-Spec

The sum up: doubled play time (or even tripled) with reduced rewards, and lots of boring and frustrated experience. However, there are two positive reasons to "play" (more like watching all the way…) - Trophies and prize cars (e.g. Pagani Zonda R, Toyota 7 Race Car, and Audi R8 LMS).

You manage the Pace of your driver, and Pit command later on. You should dismiss the Auto-Pit function as it can get you to lose in an Endurance event due to AI drivers pitting every lap after certain time past. Your management skills will only be tested when you get your AI drivers to use similar powered car as to other AIs, and most of the time this would result in swearing at your TV screen or banging your head to the wall. On the other hand, when given a vastly overpowered car, your incompetent AI drivers suddenly know how to race and win on their own.

The poor AI system is displayed with its every single design flaw in B-Spec you can find in GT5. To this point, there're a lot videos on YouTube have shown various problems of GT5's AI, so I just point out some that cannot be avoided during normal gameplay: AI drivers are known to hit the downhill chicane in Côte d'Azur, especially the one driving 2J Race Car; AI drivers are also known to spin out at the last chicane of Nürburgring GP, especially in Formula Gran Turismo Championship event.

Why the other AI rivals seemed never to make any mistakes? Well, they're the same A-Spec AIs with slightly reduced pace and armed with re-generated Physical & Mental Strength. Thus, for people who like GT4's B-Spec (part of A-Spec itself), they might find GT5's separated B-Spec mode is kind of pointless.


Race Events and Rewarding System

The race events are quite short and small compared to GT4 ones, even with the stand alone B-Spec. In just 6 weeks of playing, I managed a 97% overall finished, with some lengthy endurance races left. With the poorly designed reward system (too little credits gain, and mostly awful prize cars which you can only get for one time) and the huge level gap after Lv. 25, there isn't much replay value of early events as they don't provide much XP or money gain. The Endurance Series (unlocked when you reach Level 25) reward too few credits compared to the time you spend on them. For example, the tiresome 4H Nürburgring Nordschleife (layout V) only rewards me about half million credits; the same 4 hours if I spend grinding the American Indy-500 track would get me more than 6 million credits (patch v1.05).

Most prize cars are Standard, including the Special Events and Licence Tests. Some of them are really ugly with blocky textures and jaggy lines. It's good that PD does not intend to hide negative side of GT5, or did they forget? Some of them are so pointless that you would never want to see them again after receiving them; care to drive some low power historic shopping cars? Moreover, more than 50% of the prize cars are "priceless", which means they have no value for selling that you can only throw them out of your garage.

In all, want to get credits and buy your favourite expensive cars? Grind works of you go. Want to level up so you can unlock high level events? Grind works of you go. Want to unlock the free Red Bull X2010 (called X1 before patch v1.05) at B-Spec Lv. 35? More grind works of you go. Want to buy those crazy Cr. 20,000,000 cars? Much more grind works of you go…


Go-Kart, NASCAR, WRC and Top Gear Test Track

Go-Kart, to my surprise, is quite enjoyable than I expected. The Kart has a driving physics of its own which may need some time to get used to. I would like to replay the event but since the XP and credits can be gained only once, there's no point doing them all over again. PD should have planned more events for Kart racing, preferably in A-Spec/B-Spec.

Despite not being a NASCAR fan, I found NASCAR cars are quite interesting to drive. They're not as easy to drive as they look on TV that people normally think you just need to "turn left". However, there're more can be done with the NASCAR licence in GT5, e.g. real rules and longer season events.

WRC, a mostly wasted licence. Not a single WRC registered rally track is presented in GT5, and lots of legendary rally cars are just Standard quality. As mentioned before, the rally physics is utterly disappointing. If remember right, even GT4 has more convincing rally race events and tracks. Want some serious rally races? I'm sorry but you will be better off with Colin McRae series.

Top Gear Test Track, yet another mostly wasted licence. After all those fancy advertisements, what you finally get is three odd overtake events. You cannot do a standing start (grip start) on this track anywhere in the game. Yup, want to compare your time with Top Gear's Power Lap? No way. At least get some epic rival events, e.g. EVO vs. IMPREZA, Audi vs. BMW vs. Benz, or Corvette ZR1 vs. Viper SRT-10 vs. Ford GT. No nothing, it seems as if PD added this so-called Top Gear event at the very last minute.


Seasonal Events, Online Market Place and other updates

Patch v1.05 brings us the Seasonal Events with Bonus Races, Drift Trials and Time Trials. Only Bonus Races will reward you with extra XP and credits. (No prize car, unfortunately…), the other two have online leader-board to keep up people's spirit.

At first, the Bonus Races have quite strict rules to limit your cars; then came the 3rd update to remove all the regulations which now you can win with ease by overpowered cars. As same as the Special Events, all the XP and credits can be won only once that removes the replay value.

The Online Market Place finally can get most people back to finish the Formula Gran Turismo Championship, which was hard to do so due to the extremely rare car Formula Gran Turismo itself. However, people will now realise that they have more grind works to deal with to get 5 million credits.

The last patch fixed many minor issues such as replay functions, wheel compatibilities, and mechanical damage for practice mode. However, there're still a lot of things left to deal with to make GT5 closer to a finish version.


Some Final Words

After a near three thousand words "essay", there're still many issues left undiscussed. Gran Turismo 5 will success commercially as it has already sold more than 5 millions in 6 weeks, according to SONY. However, it will never reach the height that GT3 achieved with PS2 (15 million sales), nor the GT4's wide popularity.

World of Warcraft - Cataclysm

Cataclysm is a great improvement over Wotlk. Woltk mostly was for player's near or at 70. The only thing for player's below 68 was the Death Knight class which still required you to be 55. There was inscription, but that didn't require the actual expansion. Cataclysm has the worgen and goblins as two new races which new players can use. Also, Wotlk was a too easy and everything in heroics could die when blasted with AoE.

Graphics: Still pretty outdated but not that bad.

Sound: Really good. The new musical score sounds very epic compared to Vanilla WoW, BC, and Wotlk. There is even remixes of the old Vanilla music. The sound quality is very good too.

Story: As you probably already know, Deathwing has re-emerged from deepholm and literally owned Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. What you might not know is that Ragnaros is back and his buddies Al'akir and Neptulon are with him. Iso'rath, one of the servants of the Old Gods has appeared in the Twilight Highlands. Cho'gall and his Twilight's Hammer clan are on the move. To make matters worse, now that Garrosh is warchief the War between the Horde and the Alliance has gotten more intense.

Gameplay: The mechanics are mostly the same as before, but the game is a lot more fun. Blizzard has made lots of creative quest and much more challenging dungeons. There are five new levelling zones for high level characters. There is also a sixth pvp zone known Tol Barad. Tol Barad is pretty unbalanced and needs some changes though. Its practically impossible for players who are trying to attack and secure it to actually win. The first faction to own it tends to own it 95% of the time. There are seven new dungeons and 3 new raids. There are also two new bgs.

Call of Duty: Black OPS

Campaign: This CoD campaign is well arguably the best. The story us top notch and has the best story out of all the CoD Campaigns. The Mission design is great and it had good characters as well. Unfortunately the campaign finishes in about 6 hours but it is a amazing ride while it last.

Zombies: This time 3arc gives u 3 zombie maps in the game. Kino Der Toten which is set in a German Theather. 'Five' Which is set in the Pentagon which very interesting characters and Dead ops Arcade which is a Retro Style Zombie map which a Bird's eye view. The Zombie maps have not lost their touch and are still a blast to play through.

Multiplayer: Black Ops's Multiplayer is just Near- Perfect! Great Maps, The New Wager Matches, CoD Points, the ability to play online with another buddy on the same console and the new Customization Options just is so Amazing!
This time the ranks go up to 50, but there are 15 Prestiges to go through. Getting attachments is different now, you don't have to unlock them course they already are, But you got to buy them. Grenade Launchers have got interfered so that's a good thing ( Has they were so damn Overpowered in MW2 ). Combat Training is a new mode which lets you and your buddies ( Split Screen or Not ) play against AI People. The difficulties are the same has the campaign difficulties, So Recruit is for the people who want relax while Veteran is for the people who want to spend their time respawning and respawning and respawning ( Yes, its that hard ). Theather Mode lets you share your Victories or Failures with other people. Its a great mode which is quite user- friendly. However, The Bugs and Glitches can get VERY Annoying. From Lag to Spawning Problems. But 3arch is working on them and now there r still some, but not as much as before the patches. I feel that 3arc has stuffed up Sniping completely and I like MW2 Sniping ( Even though there were a lot of irritating quickscopers out there ) My Knife sometimes just seem like a Transparent one, as sometimes it just goes THROUGH the enemy with out killing Him/Her. ( That's one of the bugs or Glitches you might encounter )

Verdict: COD: Black ops is just a Near - Flawless Shooter Which every Shooter Fan Must try. Like I Said The Single player is Mind Blowing, Zombie Mode is Just SO Fun and the Multiplayer is a Blast!

Code Lyoko

Age of Conan

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is a fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by the Norwegian computer video game developer company Funcom for PCs.The game launched at 9 p.m. (GMT) on May 17, 2008 in a limited way, being available to those who had pre-ordered the game and registered for early access. The full release of the game for North America was May 20, 2008 and for Europe May 23, 2008 for the PC version.Although originally announced as being available for the Xbox 360, the console version is at least a year behind schedule.
Hyborian Adventures is the first installment in the planned Age of Conan series. Age of Conan itself takes place within the continent of the Hyborian kingdoms, a year after the events depicted in Howard's sole Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon. Hyborian Adventures' release celebrated the 76th anniversary of the Conan franchise.

Like many other MMO games, there is a monthly subscription fee. The suggested retail price of an Age of Conan subscription card is $29.99 (€19.28) for two months. Another available option is a recurring monthly subscription plan paid online by credit card, usually costing $14.99 (€9.63) a month. Discounts can be obtained when subscribing online by purchasing multiple months of play time simultaneously; however, the first month is free.

Characters in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures are created on a user account on a particular online server. Characters created on one server cannot be played on another; however, Funcom is planning to have a server transfer process for characters after the game is launched. Players create characters which function as their virtual avatars in the online world of Hyboria. When creating a character in Age of Conan, the player may choose from three playable races. The character is one of four archetypes (in bold) and one of three class selections for each archetype. There have been hints of more playable races with expansions, but due to the game's current failure in updating patches, providing content and low server population; future expansions are more than likely not going to make it through its development phase. And that's it and now the official site: http://www.ageofconan.com/

The Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack

Similar to the Sims 2 Stuff Pack series, the Parts pack adds new content aimed at creative users who want to further customise their creatures, and make the scariest monsters or cutest critters possible. The new body parts can be used from the Creature phase onwards, and the resulting creatures can be uploaded to Sporepedia and shared with other players who have the C&C pack installed. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack can be installed onto either the Creature Creator Complete or the Spore full game. Content in the Creepy & Cute parts pack: 60 new body parts 2 new creature editor backgrounds – 1 creepy & 1 cute 48 new paint scripts 24 new test drive animations – 12 creepy & 12 cute Platforms: PC & Mac Release date: November 21st 2008 Official site:eu.spore.com/whatisspore/partspack/creepyandcute

Age Of Empires III

Age of Empires III (also called AOE III) is a real-time strategy (RTS) game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Released on October 18, 2005 in North America, and on November 4 of the same year in Europe, it is the third title of the Age of Empires series, and the sequel to Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. The game portrays the European colonization of the Americas, between approximately AD 1500 and 1850. Eight European civilizations are playable.

Age of Empires III has made a number of innovations in the series, as well as the RTS genre, in particular with the addition of the Home City, which combines real-time strategy and role-playing game (RPG) features. Two expansion packs were released: the first, Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs, was released on October 17, 2006, and introduced three Native North American civilizations; the second, Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, was released on October 23, 2007, and included three Asian civilizations.
Age of Empires III is mostly set in the New World during the colonial era, between approximately AD 1492 and 1850.[5] In the style of previous titles of the series and genre, the game requires the player to develop a European nation's colony from a basic settlement to an empire, progressing through "Ages"—stages of technological development—and destroying the enemy base(s). There are two main branches to gameplay: the economy, characterized by the collection of resources, and production of civilian units—which usually gather resources; and the military which involves the production of military units, and the conflicts between armies of rival teams or factions.

A match consists of a conflict between two or more teams that race to develop a powerful nation by creating and upgrading units and buildings, with one eventually defeating the other through combat or resignation; the game ends when there is only one player or team left standing on the map. Along with these typical RTS features, a new addition is that the player may also ship troops, buildings, resources, and even improvements—such as military or economic bonuses—to aid them.

There are three modes of game play: story-based campaigns, single player skirmishes (conflicts between teams), and online multiplayer skirmishes.

Single player skirmishes take place between human players and computer personalities, conforming to rules that are set up before the game. The map, AI skill level, and each player's resource gathering speed may be modified.
Here goes the official site of the game:www.ageofempires3.com

Hellgate London

Hellgate: London is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game developed by Flagship Studios and released on October 31, 2007. It was developed by a team headed by former Blizzard Entertainment employees, some of whom had overseen the creation of the Diablo series. One major update, The Stonehenge Chronicles, has been released since game launch. A Collector's Edition of the game was also released, featuring additional collectibles not available to people who purchased the normal version.

Set in a post-apocalyptic London in the year 2038, Hellgate: London features both single-player and multiplayer components. This allows the player to team up with other players online to battle demons, or to fight alone in single player mode. The free online component features the originally released single-player content in cooperative play and 1v1 combat. Those who subscribed received additional features and perks, such as an increased "stash" to store items, guild formation, and access to areas and items advertised through various Teasers such as subscriber only loot items and map areas.

London has been invaded by demons. Until recently, humans had many champions holding back the invasion. Various real-world events are referenced in the background of the Hellgate story as averted crossover attempts. The Crusades were actually undertaken to fight back the minions of Hell, as was the charring of London in the Great Fire to wipe out the Plague. According to the storyline, the famous Knights Templar were the keepers of knowledge on how to battle demonic forces. Unfortunately, these heroes underwent a charring of their own at the hands of a jealous King Phillip IV, who hated the power they held in the world at large. While the Knights Templar survived as an organization, their numbers were severely diminished and were forced to remain in hiding to stay alive.

As time passed and technology progressed, the old ways began to fade from memory and the secrets of the arcane were lost. When the demons attacked again, they found their enemies unprepared. Ordinary weapons were no use against the demons, who could shrug off an RPG round.

The Templars offered their special services to the military, but the leaders balked, refusing to believe in the old truths. With the hellgate open demons quickly were victorious in the battle for Earth. This implies that all the world's armies were defeated. The Burn, a decades-long process of "hellforming", has begun.
However all is not lost, as various groups have been preparing for just such an eventuality. Freemasons built the London Underground to be demon resistant, and as such the stations now act as bases, "safe zones" for would-be defenders. These defenders are armed with a fusion of modern weaponry and arcane magic such as flamethrowers that throw Greek fire or swords covered in locusts. In the game, players are one of these defenders. See the game in www.hellgatelondon.com

Spore

Spore is a multi-genre massive single-player online metaverse video game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. It allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. It has drawn wide attention for its massive scope, and its use of open-ended gameplay and procedural generation.

Coined Creatiolutionism , the game allows the player to develop a species from a microscopic organism to its evolution into a complex animal, its emergence as a social, intelligent being, to its mastery of the planet and then finally to its ascension into space, where it interacts with alien species across the galaxy. Throughout the game, the player's perspective and species change dramatically.

The game is broken up into distinct yet consistent, dependent "phases". The outcome of one phase affects the initial conditions facing the player in the next. Each phase exhibits its own style of play, and has been described by the developers as ten times more complicated than its preceding phase. While players are able to spend as much time as they prefer in each, it is possible to accelerate or skip phases altogether. Some phases feature optional missions; when the player completes a mission, they are granted a bonus, such as a new ability.

If all of a player's creations are completely destroyed at some point, the player's species will be respawned at its home base.

Unlike many other Maxis games, Spore has a primary win condition which is obtained by reaching a quasar placed in the center of the galaxy, and facing The Grox, a large NPC species (or empire, as it is called in-game). However, the player may continue to play after the goal has been achieved.
Official Site:www.spore.com

Turok

As a first-person shooter, the player in Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is armed with a vast array of weaponry to take on various enemies, such as soldiers, native warriors, dinosaurs, and large insects.Each level contains keys which must be collected in order to access the next world, linked by a hub.The game features a large number of platforming and adventure elements, with many types of walls, cliffs, and underwater caverns to be explored. Besides obtaining ammunition, the player can acquire extra lives by collecting floating runes, scattered across the levels.Lastly, the player can obtain pieces of the Chronoscepter, the game's most powerful weapon, to be used against the final boss.The game's setting takes place in the Lost Land, a primitive world inhabited by dinosaurs and other creatures. According to the game's instruction manual, Turok is a time-travelling warrior who ends up in the Lost Land.[] The Campaigner is trying to gain the Chronoscepter weapon, and by using a focusing array to magnify the Chronoscepter's power, he plans to destroy the barriers that separate the ages of time and rule the universe. Turok then vows to find the Chronoscepter himself, and sets off to put an end to his scheme. After battling through various areas of the Lost Land, including catacombs, a treetop village, a ruined city, and defeating bosses such as a cybernetically enhanced fire-breathing Tyrannosaurus, Turok ends up at The Campaigner's fortress, where he defeats him in single combat.

An interesting note about the storyline is that it is nearly non-existent outside the instruction manual, as there is no in-game dialogue and the player is only given the task of finding keys to open new areas in the opening cut scene, and not given the backstory. Official Site: www.turok.com