Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising

Amazing Graphics.

Huge Battles.

100+ players.

Brilliant Vehicles.

It was a good game when it first came out, but now it's not worth the money, as it's full of cheats.

I have played most of NovaLogic games, and they all go the same way (Delta Force)(Delta Force 2 LandWarrior)(Black Hawk Down)(Joint Operations Typhoon Rising) and the add on (Escalation).

They're all the same when played online. Someone brings out cheats for them, that give them more fire power and makes them harder to hit, they can see you through walls, so it's a waste of time playing them. Don't get me wrong, they are good games when the cheaters stay off them.

I'm not buying any more of their games. Sorry.

Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising - Move over Farcry, Full Spectral Warrior and all other combat and military based FPS. For those lazy readers I will give you my score first, so you can save yourself the bother of reading this review and simply go and buy the game secure with the knowledge that it gets my personal "Jimscreechied" seal of approval. In the unlikely even that you don't like this game, particularly if you are a member of the FPS fraternity, they it may quite possibly be time for you to hang up your joystick, don a pair of green Wellies and take up gardening. For me this gets a whopping 9/10 nobody gets a ten. At least nobody ever has to date.

If you have played one of the Delta Force series, particularly one of the later titles like Black Hawk Down or Team Sabre, then you have a pretty good idea of where this game is going. It maintains many of the good features and is essentially similar enough so there is no need to re-learn many of the basic techniques or moments, and even my joypad needed only slight reprogramming. However, it vastly improves on the game play, appearance, sound, and AI offered by its predecessors. I won't bother to bore you with graphic specifications or assault you with technical phrases only understood by 'Trekkies', Geeks and 'Comic book guy' look-alikes, but suffice to say the improvements are, as you would expect, quite exceptional.

You may need a good graphics card to properly appreciate some of the visual improvements, but that should not detract from the gaming experience if you have a mediocre or even budget model. Ensuring that is, you take the time to set up the display options properly and have a reasonable processor. I had to upgrade my card from a Gforce 5600 to a 5900XT when I bought Far Cry even though I run with an Athlon 2800XP and 1GB of RAM. Even on the low settings the old card simply could not cope. Actually, it's more likely that the game designers didn't sufficiently compensate for the 'less affluent' among us and still overstressed the abilities of some cards on the low settings. Is this a ploy to ensure we continually upgrade? A conspiracy perhaps? I digress. Novalogic on the other hand have been excellent at ensuring that machines of even a modest spec can play their games acceptably. Devastation most notably, (the best FPS ever in my estimation) still plays without difficulty on my old GforceII and with games like Comanche IV (still not a patch on Comanche Gold) does equally well, though whenever I upgrade and adjust the display settings accordingly to test my newly acquired graphic muscle, I am always satisfactorily rewarded. Again I digress, so let me stick to the facts.

If you ever felt like games such as Team Sabre lacked weapons tactics and diversity then you will be rewarded with Joint Operations. The addition of weapons like Mortar, hand-held Stingers, and many other assault weapons makes this so much more realistic. The game play is far more encompassing and the military feel, though similar to BHD, is grossly improved. Enemies are more life-like and, quite frankly, the AI in this game is to chess as it was in BHD to checkers. More similar in fact to Far Cry which has excellent AI. The business of enemies taking random shots in a 3 meter radius of where you 'may' be standing is over. As is the senerio of team mates taking the occasional shot at an enemy if they felt like it, as if completely ignoring them as though they were on some kind of 'tea break' wasn't bad enough.

I still find the waypoints slightly annoying. I always felt they were an almost infantile way of moving through the levels and though they do work effectively I would prefer it if the game designers came up with a better way for navigating through the course. Another thing I found annoying is that movement too far outside waypoint designation is prohibited. I have to say this is outright RUBBISH! I need to be able to do as I feel in a FPS and I don't want inbuilt parameters telling me where to, (or where not) to go and worse, prematurely ending the level if I do. Big big minus guys, but again, this 'surprisingly' does not detract from the enjoyment of the game, which is why I have rated this one as highly as I do.

This is also a great one to play with surround sound, 5.1 or any of the other hundred formats for having sound whizzing round your head. Turn the volume up and fire that M60, and you may just have the 'Old Bill' Armed Unit round your house looking for the weapons stash. The tutorial at the beginning of the game will guide you pretty effectively in the skills you need to do the missions, but don't for a minute think this is a game you are going to do in a weekend, and there is plenty to think about when moving through the jungle acquiring targets and removing potential threats.

Another great change they have made is in removing the need to have the CD in the drive to play the game. This has always been a bone of contention for big gamers like myself. With over five hundred titles on PC alone it is an absolute nightmare trying to find a CD to play a game, especially if you want to play an old game you enjoyed eons ago and fancy resurrecting - An absolute fantastic move by Novalogic. Can you imaging having to put a CD in the drive every time you wanted to use Microsoft Word? Preposterous! Playing online will require you to register your CD key so don't even think about trying to pull a fast one. Novalogic seem to have learned a very good lesson about making unwarranted changes from the Comanche series of games, and I have to say they have put this knowledge to excellent use with this title. All the improvements are 'tried and tested' enhancements that games want and as far as I can determine, appreciate. A definite must in my humble opinion.