Author: Mike Nelson
Date: September, 2002
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Over the course of the last year, we have seen a couple games that dropped our jaws, a couple over-hyped games that never could have lived up to their advertised given glory, and a few games that just should have never been released in the first place. After I decided to play through Medal of Honor: Allied Assault after I shelved it for other games, and was stricken by what I thought was the worst ending since I tried to beat River Raid on my old Atari 2600, I decided it was time that someone put out a subjective, but somewhat objective and uncorrupted viewpoint, of what games carried what with it. And of course, call out the most disappointing title in the game field today, which must have paid off every reviewer known to mankind to get high marks. Read on, and lets find out who gets the Guru Award (TM) for each category.

You know how it goes. You come home from the local software shop, break open the box of the game you just bought, waiting with baited breath to be able to see the first signs of life spin from the CD, while at the same time placing what is left of the box in the trash. Sometimes what brings you into the world in the first place, is just as important as what keeps you in the world playing. We will start with this year's runner up for Best Introduction.

In what has to be one of the most awaited titles in RTS history, Blizzard has yet to fail to make sure players get into a very intriguing storyline as soon as they start playing the game. With some of the best animation seen to date, they did just that. Of course from there it carried on with each act, as each scene that you would see delivered performance you would think was directed in Hollywood. With superb voice acting, and terrific synchronization, players were lured into the storyline faster than they could click a mouse button to start the game. The only reason why it didn't win this award in my opinion, was it was too short. I wished they would have made it just a little longer to give players a sense of what was really going on. Of course, the mystery surrounding the game unraveled itself in due time, but before you knew it, for some odd reason you were already controlling orcs and playing the game. Which leads us to the winner of the Guru Award in Best Introduction.

As soon as you start off, Max Payne throws you into a backwards storyline. Original in the fact that you are seeing part of the ending of the game in the introduction, than flashing back to what caused it all. The sirens, the police helicopters, our hero at the top of a 50 story plaza. Why was he there? What did he get himself into? And from then on, you sink into the game playing into the introduction itself, as his wife and kid are slaughtered. Needless to say you get to play the introduction, while the story progresses 3 years into the future after you see the graphic and horrid beginning of what caused Max Payne to be where he was at the end of it all. While the graphics were not as animated as Warcraft III and used the exact same engine model you would see in the rest of the game, it moved the player into the storyline more in retrospect and also gave the player an idea of what to look forward to in gameplay. A definite winner in any book.