I own the Call of Duty Deluxe Edition Box Set. It includes the United Offensive expansion pack, as well as the original game. For the past couple of days, I played through United Offensive. As with the base game, it followed the order of American, British, and Russian campaigns. There were fewer missions in the expansion pack (as expected), but they were longer and more difficult. There were some nice vehicle-based levels, including a British one set on an American B-17 bomber and another one on a captured German PT boat. You also got to drive a tank, fire anti-aircraft weapons, and do some combat while speeding around in a motorcycle sidecar. One thing I didn’t like was the infinitely spawning enemies on several levels. I never like it when video games use that as a way to present a challenge. For some reason, I found it more noticeable here than in the original game. Other than that, it was a high quality expansion and I enjoyed playing it.

Seven years after its release, I finally got around to playing Call of Duty. I now know what all the fuss was about. It’s the best WWII first-person shooter that I’ve ever played. It was comparable to Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, a previous favorite of mine. Call of Duty’s squad-based missions were superior, however. The team-based approach of most missions was better than the one-man army style seen in many similar games. The first set of missions placed you in the role of an American soldier, the next set as a British soldier, while the last set was as Russian soldier.

The first levels of the Russian campaign, set in Stalingrad, were extremely engaging. The Russian soldiers had a very difficult task to recapture the city. The game really drew me into the action with the sights and sounds of battle. I thought it was one of the most immersive levels since Medal of Honor’s Omaha Beach landing mission. There was a final set of three missions (one each for the Americans, British, and Russians) that was also very well done. The sound in the game was excellent. Not only were the guns, explosions, and sounds of battle quite convincing, the score by Michael Giacchino was of cinematic quality.

Last year, I played several classic LucasArts titles. I had yet to play Full Throttle, however, a graphic adventure from 1995. In the mood for some retro gaming, I fired it up this weekend. You play as Ben, the leader of the Polecats biker gang. Ben gets caught in the crossfire of a power struggle for Corley Motors, the country’s last motorcycle manufacturer. After he is framed for the murder of CEO Malcom Corley, Ben sets out to free his gang and expose the real villain behind the plot.

Although Full Throttle contained LucasArts’ familiar sense of humor, the plot was more serious and the tone more mature than the typical LucasArts adventure. It was shorter than most adventure games I’ve played, which I didn’t mind at all. It I also enjoyed the fact that the puzzles were somewhat easier than many from the genre. Another highlight of the game was the rock music soundtrack provided by the Gone Jackals. All in all, it was another winner from LucasArts.

I went back to Rise of Nations to play the two remaining campaigns. The first was The Cold War. The two sides were the Americans and the Soviets, of course. I let the computer choose randomly and I was assigned the Soviets. It was up to me to lead the USSR to glory. The campaign simulated four decades or so. American presidents ranged from Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan. Out of the six campaigns, this was probably my favorite, surpassing the Napoleon campaign. It was a great setting with NATO vs. Warsaw Pact, plus client states and police actions. It also had separate espionage missions and nuclear stockpiles. One of the most memorable moments involved nuclear negotiations. The Americans led the Soviets in nuclear weapons four to three. They approached us with a proposal for nuclear disarmament. They agreed to destroy two nukes if we would do the same. I intended to fight a conventional war. I had no desire to get into a nuclear arms race so I agreed. Although the Americans kept up their end of the bargain, the scheming Gerald Ford bought another nuke the very next turn. We then trailed three nukes to one. Although we built up our stockpile a bit, both sides avoided a nuclear exchange. The industrial output of the USSR was far enough ahead of the Americans to give us an economic victory.

The final campaign was named The Entire World. It was a free for all with 24 nations vying for supremacy over the entire globe. Again, I chose random nation selection. I ended up playing the Greeks. We conquered the Germans, Turks, Persians, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and Americans. In the end, it was a showdown between the powerful Greek empire and the Mayans. We came at them from South America but eventually marched from Mexico to conquer their capital in the Yucatan.