Impossible Creatures (Jewel Case)

Rating:
Summary: IC Review
Review: Game type: Inexpendive, resouce gathering, networkable, RTS in very well rendered 3-D person (not fixed isometric). Honestly this is really geared for pre-hormonal, but semi-violent teens. If your kids liked Pokemon, they will love this because after extracting the DNA from your travels you can not only combine the body parts of two animals, you can make an army of them and let them loose on your best friend. I think creatures like their pictures taken, as you can zoom in and around models in true 3-D space, and clicking on the camera makes them wiggle more. Combinations are not good/bad, but cost more/less which means the most powerfull player gets grumpy as they can't efford to build until much later in the game, making them vulnerable for attack by any five year old that just likes the way his creatures look. This makes game play more chaotic than any I've seen. Some may find you referring to your blackwidow-armadillo as cute before the day is over.

Cons:
- Proprietary on-line game network (on-line gaming not supported by GameSpy, EA Games, or even MicroSoft Game network).
- AI for the insect invasion mod was never finshed. You can't play against one person and two PC players.
- Not too much social redeming vaue, but if you were looking for that in a video game I would recommend you restart your search. Then again, there's no nudity or sex.
- Insect invasion over plays the value of chitin armor, making them way too strong.
- Limited access to the SDK (Software Development Kit) for developers and people with entirely too much time on their hands to make additional creatures from scratch. I'll bet like any maunufacturing company, they will kill the product line soon, and don't want you making new content w/out paying for it.

Pro:
- Free additional animal skins avaialble for download.
- Free insect skins available for download. (If you've ever wanted to let your son bring bugs in the house, this is the way to do it.)

Hints:
1) Get a better video card.
2) Buy more memory or a better processor (Microsoft is even a memory hog with games production too).
3) Yes, if cost is a factor, you can always just turn off the anti-virus and use MS-CONFIG to end all extra tasks.
4) Not everything Relic touches turns to gold (who did they fire after Lords of the Realm III?)
5) Big kids should give a different rating to this than Warhammer 40,000