Master of Magic can best be described as Civilization with Magic instead of technology. This 1994 4X strategy title had several bugs when it was released, but a patch released later on improved the game significantly, taking it to the top of many strategy fans lists even today. Taking place on a fantasy world, players take control of one of several wizards and enlist in one of several disciplines of magic. Starting with a tribe of settlers, you colonize a randomly generated world. You research spells instead of technologies. There is a much greater focus on combat than in Civilization as you go into a turn-based strategy mode when you encounter an enemy. It’s fantasy-strategy gameplay was an inspiration for the Age of Wonders series, another classic strategy game. This classic title is only $6.00 on GOG.com, so do check it out.

Welcome to the Powet Top 5, where we explore the top (and bottom) 5 items we think are relevant to any of a variety of topics that span the imagination. Sit back, read, and respond.

Pokemon! There are over 150, as the Pokérap tells us. It’s been a long time since that original set over 15 years ago. These days there are 648. Here I find myself tasked with distilling this list down to 5. Naturally with such a huge sample, everyone will have their preference. Narrowing it down a team of 6 is hard enough! If I wanted to be fair I could pick a Pokémon from each generation and fill out the list, but I’m hardly fair. I’m a biased human who remembers the best of times from my day and resents all this new stuff, so as far as my list is concerned there might as well be 150! Despite my love of the games and all the time I put into them over the years it seems my choices are highly influenced by what I saw in the anime, which was a great show up until Tracey showed up and then it was lame. With that, here are my Top 5 Pokémon. Feel free to share your own.

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The Mount and Blade series is a different kind of medieval RPG. Note that I said medieval as opposed to fantasy, because unlike games like Skryim and Dragon Age, there aren’t any dragons, wizards, magic, or demons. It’s just you, your army, and thousands of miles of a land torn in strife. Turkish developer TaleWords has developed a true sandbox style game, as you are free to approach it anyway you wish without the experience being structured by a plot. You can gather an army, purchase land for business development, participate in large-scale combat, and even marry into royalty. Warband is the standalone expansion to the original Mount and Blade, meaning that you don’t have to own the original in order to enjoy everything Warband has to offer. Warband improves on the original game with numerous additions, the most significant of which being multiplayer.
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While the Fantastic Four may not be as cool as Spider-Man, as epic as the Avengers, or as badass as the X-men, but if you’re a fan or Marvel Comics, you should be familiar with them, ans for good reason: they are Marvel’s first superhero team since The Golden Era of Comics. They are well known enough to spawn a slew of spin-off comics, three animates cartoons, three movies (though one was unreleased), and a series of video games. Two of them are of course, based on the movies. Those weren’t very well received, but compared to this Acclaim Playstation clunker, they are like BioShock and Mass Effect.
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Welcome to the Powet Top 5, where we explore the top (and bottom) 5 items we think are relevant to any of a variety of topics that span the imagination. Sit back, read, and respond.

Ask somebody what their favorite Mega Man game is and you’ll likely be told “Mega Man 2”. It’s the true fan favorite and widely considered the game that made the biggest leap ahead of its predecessor. While 2 is a solid game, the best thing it did was set the stage for the real greatest Mega Man game: Mega Man 3.

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After hyping up this new show for weeks the premiere came and went without any comment. Why, you might wonder? Well as a Canadian I do not have access to the Hub, but fear not as the “first” episode of Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot is now available for viewing online at the hub’s web site, for a limited time, to people who live in the US. I found the show decent, with some nice animation, some nice characters and a few good jokes, but ultimately probably too juvenile to find a home with adult fans.

One thing to note is that this was in fact not the first episode. This is episode 5 “Compassion — NOT!”. Why start with episode 5? I can’t pretend to understand the thought process of network executives. Perhaps this was a stronger episode they thought would hook more fans? All I know is that it not being the first episode was a bit annoying. From one of the preview clips we knew that “Care Kids” were transported to Care-a-Lot via a “Care and Share Charm”. This information would have been helpful to tell audiences in this episode, instead a girl named Penny is brought in by a rainbow and seems very unsurprised to be transported to this magical world of talking Bears who she’s meeting for the first time. Her acceptance of this incredible situation is something I can only compare to the unsurprised reaction of various characters from Megaman Upon a Star when Megaman enters the real world from the video game world. Another annoying situations is that Wonderheart Bear clearly has a belly badge, although a plot point of the first episode will obviously be her getting one.

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L.A.Noire was one of Rockstar’s most ambitious projects. Developed by Australian group Team Bondi, L.A. Noire is a detective story taking place after WWII. Playing as Cole Phelps, you set out to solve a series of crimes in post-war Los Angles, among them being a series of killings inspired by the real life Black Dahlia Murders. L.A. Noire’s gameplay and graphics make this a unique open world experience. It’s just too bad that we may not see much more from the developers.
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Syndicate was one EA’s most unique and controversial games. Developed by Bullfrog Productions (Populous, Dungeon Keeper), it’s one of the few games that put you in control of the fictional evil empire rather than rebelling against it. Taking place in a dystopian future controlled by corporations, you lead a team of brainwashed cyborg mercenaries committing various crimes for your corporation. These missions include kidnapping, assassination, and theft. After each mission, you collect taxes from regions under your control to purchase upgrades for your agents. Along with an assortment of weapons, you have a device called the Persuadertron which brainwashes people, converting them to your side. The game received an expansion pack entitled American Revolution, and a sequel, called Syndicate Wars. Bullfrog tried to make another sequel, however they were unsuccessful, and we wouldn’t see the franchise again until Starbreeze released an FPS reboot earlier this year. The original game is available on GOG.com for those who have yet to experience this classic.