In the long wait for the release of H&D2, or at least hidden and dangerous add ons, many of us have made the misteake to think that we could play games thet "resemble" hidden and dangerous to keep us occupied in the meantime. all of these experiences have been if not disapointing just out right appalling and disturbing .this is a list of games composed from personal experience that fanatics of Hidden and dangerous should not even think of touching with a ten foot pole. they are in no particular order due to the fact that they all SUCK

RAINBOW 6:ROUGE SPEAR/ URBAN OPERATIONS
by Red Storm Entertainment

This game reminds me of renowned afrobeat singer Fela Kuti's song "Expensive Shit". no it does not have anything to do with Felas music wich is the best afrobeat out there, just the title , Rouge Spear is both "expensive" and "SHIT". this is the most expensive game i have ever bougth $50 US even though it is about 3 years old. The game promises and immersive tactical experience, this is pure myth. first the maps are tiny so ranged attacks are not practical . because the maps are so so small you can figure out in no time were the enemies are located and get the jump on them . vehicles are nowere to be found. Second . the game relies heavily on hostage rescues wich gets a little annoying because unless you are going in with silenced weapons the terrorists will hear you and immediately kill the hostages. the most anoying defect of this game is the weapons. to be more exact the "bloom effect" wich in theory dictates that if you are moving or using automatic fire your weapon is less acurate over distance, as portrayed in the excelent No One Lives Forever by Fox Interactive . In Rougue Spear, the bloom effect can lower your acuracy over ANY distance. the bloom opens up very wide and takes time to close down. if the bloom is wide you can miss targets point blank IN AUTOFIRE!!!this is the number one cause of death for you and your team AI's and makes using outo weapons or shotguns suicide. the bloom is so imbecilic tht you can have smaller bloom using some handguns than using a rifle. About your team , you can have four different teams with four members each but you can only control the leaders of these teams , if a leader gets killed then the next in line is controllable. this places a lot of relliance on friendly AI . wich is no good because ai has the tendency of getting shot all the time. so you often need to hold the team and do all the killing yourself because the AI cannot even maintain a proper perimeter , where is paul montbatten and cigarre chill when you need them .action plans cannot be changed on the fly . AI will blindly follow waypoints unless you issue the Hold command . you can switch to other teams if you feel they need adjustment but if the command is hold you will be on your own.graphics are inferior to hidden and dangerous, reminiscent of Quake 2 wich shares the same 3d engine. the graphics are so cheap that they did not bother to place weapon models in first person view all you have is a crosshair , not even a bitmap of the weapon like in original hidden and dangerous . the irony of this game is that it is so damn popular. this is because the manufacturer had the foresigth of making it modifiable. i was able to enjoy the game only after downloading a total conversion called "Temporary Tango Gold" by Rodion M. Herrera. with this conversion you become the terrorists and have a whale of a time killing the sorry ass counterterrorists, thanks to the fact that Rodion lowered the bloom efect to an almost acceptable level. even with total conversion such as Rodion's i will still consider this game a landmine and a popular one at that. a deserving recipient of the claymore prize for mega landmines

HALFLIFE:BLUE SHIFT
by SIERRA/VALVE

religious followers of the original half life would demand constraint from any review concerning HALFLIFE or its addons. This addon demands a break from that unspoken rule. This "add on" should be called an "subtract off". First , yes you get to play an unexpected character in the game , barney the guard , but this quirk wears off quickly. the blue shift story lacks any coherence . instead of helping Gordron Freeman as the original barney in half life .you are suposed to look for some scientist to escape but the game is structured as such that you can miss plot points entirely and find youself lost . one example is the train yard were a gate opens and a massive wave of soldiers attack, i missed a plot point in wich i had to talk to a scientist, so when. i got to this stage the gate never opened and i was unable to move on , only afer reading walktroughs was i able to find out what had hapened and start the game all over gain . a major bug is thet the player has a tendency to get stuck on elevators so you have to bunny hop while descending so you wont get stuck . one of the original games plot tactic is to keep the ammo amout low so you were encouraged to use other weapons and to avoid confrontation whenever possible. all litle thing called tactics , not with blueshift . as soon as you start killing grunts you never run out of ammo . the mayor flaw of the game is that there is no final "boss". the end involved opening a bunch of valves and escaping.SNORE. one of the selling points is the "further exploration of the black mesa complex" there is nothing worth visiting , just a trainyard and a bunch of offices. the makers must have realized that this addon sucked so much they did not add multiplayer support for blue shift and included the previous add on Opossing Force, wich is asomewhat acceptable add on. but does not diminish the fact that this blue shift add on was not worth making and for $30 US beter wait unitl it hits the bargain bin

WWII NORMANDY by valusoft

You would think that for a game with such a cool name it would be impossible to suck. but this one manages to do it . first it is built using the lith 2.5 engine . the same used in the excellent No One Lives For Ever. none of these engine's abilities were used to even the most mediocre of posibilities. there are only two types of enemies soldiers and officers but they all carry mp42 . and two types of faces wich look like mutants instead of germans. aside from the cosmetic defences , the AI is horrible, the enemies can be in front of your face and totally miss you also they appera in buildings tha you heve already cleared. did the germans invent teleporters. you cannot capture any weapons or ammo so survival is a matter of finding backpacks . only four weapons are available including the venerable m1 garand but in this game your side weapon colt m1911 is more powerfull tha a direct shot from the garand .idiotic. the game is only ten levels so the boredom is short give this one a miss please.

DELTA FORCE by Novalogic

I try not to use obsenities in my website but this game is fucking horrible. the graphics are very 2D but this game came out at the same time as H&D. targets look like blobs instead of soldiers remeniscent of the days of DOOM. Playability can make up for poor graphics like in the venerable DOOM. dont thiks so. there are other soldiers in your squad but you cannot comunicate with them or give orders.there is no chance for surprise attaccks because even htough this game takes place in a jungle setting . there are no trees. as in all these games enemy AI redifines dumbass. enemies inside bunkers will not shoot at you wich is a good thing because alll open entries and windows to buildings have this weird darkk tint to them thet you cant see the enemy unles you step inside and the there is plenty of time to shoot because enemies seem to be deaf . its a complete turkey shoot. due to all the shooting ammo is always an issue but unlike real special forces who are supposed to be able to live of the land you cannot capture any weapons even american ones . the games supposed selling feature was its voxel terrain system wich gives terran a much more contured form than polygons but this also makes the game unrealistic because you can easily climb the steepest of hills and rain death upon the enemy while the enemy cant climb any hills advantage goes to player but were is the challenge in that .

SPEC OPS: RANGERS LEAD THE WAY by zombie

another game wich totally butchers a cool name. this is also an older game so graphics are not to impressive but game play makes up for it rigth , wrong. this was supposed to be the game that introduced the tactical shooter but from playing it you would not get the idea . first every scenario is timed . even if you complete your objectives if the time runs out you failed , very realistic . enemy AI is almost to the level were is acceptable but there is no pont since field of view is very short. about 20 meters . beyond that distance enemies apear as stick figures undistigushable from the sorrounding scenery. player movement is appalling resembling something out of tomb raider. you are basically steering your soldier in the general direction of enemies and firing every now and then because an enemy migth be in your field of view . element of surprise non existent. this game is so outrigth boring it will turn you into a zombie.

SPEC OPS II: GREEN BERETS by zombie

can a sequel suck more than the original? this one sure does. all the things to hate from spec ops 1 carried over nicely and them some. in this calamity you actually have a 4 man squad but the AI of your team is completely idiotic. an enemy can stand in front of them and they will not shoot and if a firefigth should ocurr and they are standing behind you they will shoot you . all kinds of patches were issued some of the about 16MB long but none of them seem to fix the problem. found this game so terrible that i could not eve bring myself to pass the first mission. weapons sound efects are so muted that it sounds like shooting pellet guns. you really cant shoot and cover beacause of the imbecillic tomb raider like aiming system , changing targets is a task in it self. what totall waste of plastic resin