It’s May 25 and that means it is the anniversary of Game Central’s debut, four years ago. Another year has flown by. For 2010, I wanted to continue the work on the super-hero character summaries I started two years ago. I am quite pleased with the results so it is a fitting tribute for the site’s anniversary.

I updated all of the character summaries for our two Marvel super-hero groups, the Protectors and Retribution. Two years ago, I added histories for all of the characters. Now, the character summaries are that much more complete with the inclusion of character artwork. I think the character portraits really help bring these super-heroes to life.

After a couple of months with C&C Generals, I was ready to switch gears and play a first-person shooter. I took on Tron 2.0, a title from 2003, and just finished it today. Although Tron Legacy, scheduled for release at the end of 2010, will be Tron’s film sequel, Tron 2.0 was a sequel in video game form. In the game, you play Jet Bradley, the son of Alan Bradley from the 1982 movie. Bruce Boxleitner played Alan Bradley in the original movie and provided the voice acting for Alan here as well.

I really enjoyed Tron 2.0. I wouldn’t necessarily call it groundbreaking. However, it was just different enough from the typical shooter to make it fresh and interesting. Powered by the Lithtech Triton engine, the visuals were true to the 1982 film and quite impressive. Levels tended to be dominant with a particular color, although not entirely monochromatic. Objects had Tron’s trademark digital glow. The world was a nice change of pace from the all too common military-oriented shooters.

Tron 2.0 had a little bit of everything: puzzles, a nice variety of weapons, jumping sequences, boss levels, and e-mails and cutscenes to advance the plot. There were also several light cycle races that broke up the first-person action. The races were similar to those in the 1982 coin-op arcade game, except these were rendered in 3D. Another aspect of Tron 2.0 that I liked was Jet’s build level and configurable subroutines. They added some nice RPG elements to the game. Every so often, you allocated points to various attributes. You also had to choose which subroutines (offense, defense, and utility) to load in your available memory slots.

Next, I’ll probably install Rise of Nations. I’ve looked forward to playing that game for quite some time.