Skylevis

BattleShips Forever

2007-08-10T00:49:00.000-07:00

BattleShips Forever

Rating:9.0/10(Fantastic)
Genre: Real-time Strategy (RTS)
Cost: Free
Size: Up to 20Mb++
Can be downloaded from:
http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/1425
A supported Ship Editor:
http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/2397

Game description:

Pick your fleet from a list of 17 playable ships and command them in intense battles in a sci-fi setting. Battleships Forever delivers fast paced Real Time Strategy game play and is absolutely free. Combat and damage mechanics are extremely detailed. The game also features many innovative mechanics that you've never seen before. For example, the Cronus Battleship sports a Flux Shield projector that allows you to draw a defensive force shield around your ships in any shape you want.

The game employs an innovative active/passive defence system. Active point defences shoot down incoming enemy projectiles. Positioning your point defences is paramount to get the most out your active defences.

On top of that, the game includes a Ship Maker tool that allows you to make your own ships and import them into the Sandbox mode.

My Point of View
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This is a wonderful game indeed, seriously nothing else much to comment about. The graphics are simply great for a freeware such as Game Maker, to be created. There are a couple of modes of game play.
Career Mode - Campaign
Skirmish Modes :
Blockade Mode
Raid Mode
Grinder Mode
SandBox Mode

GamePlay
============
There are many features in this game, you will select your own set of ships from the Ship Selection Menu. There are mainly 3 classes of Ships, the small, light armored but fast moving and turning, Patrol Crafts, the average moving speed and turning, better armed, Destroyers and the brutes of the Fleet, the slow, lumbering but 'Hellbringers', Battleships.

There are many kinds of ships available. They will soon all become available in career mode and all available at start in Skirmish modes. You can even create your own ships its Ship Editor.
The story has a good flow and keeps you actively involved in battles. It also has a manageable but challenging difficulty in every mission.

Cons (You might not want to read this)
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The only few bad things are that its missions are not all programmed ready, it is still in beta version. Its Ship Maker also lacks of some weaponry and features that the original game has.
Other than those two, there is simply nothing else you would criticize about especially with a Ship Maker that keeps the game interesting for almost, forever.

In All
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Another wonderful game that i think everybody should try it out. Its supported website is http://www.wyrdysm.com/. Hope that you will enjoy this game.
This game is created by Sean (th15).

Drone Wars

2007-07-10T02:10:00.000-07:00

Drone Wars

Rating: 8.5/10 (Excellent)
============
Genre:Strategy
Cost: Free
File Size: 4.07MB
Can be downloaded from: http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/5727

Game Description:
Dronewars is a action RTS. The game got two phases, setup and battle. In setup you buy and upgrade ships, while in battle you control your ship while commanding the rest of your army against the evil red army.

Review
-------------
Drone Wars is a very interesting strategy game that test a player's skill in management and piloting skill. Drone Wars heavily focused on player's strategies in each different battles.

Starting:
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You will start with 10000 credits and some army. You also have a special ship that contains all kinds of weaponry (except the tropedos) and made up with the thickest hull. Your very first battle is most probably the easiest. You can do upgrades on your ships or buy more ships and drones. You start with owning 10% of territory and the enemy having the other 90% (duh...). As you win more battles, you gain more territory, as you lose more battles, you lose more territory and may eventually end up with negative territory. Your fighter crafts (as well as other crafts except for drones) will then deploy drones throughout the battle. While you have less then 50% of territory, you will be playing defensive, having you the only army with turrets, while you have more than 49% of territory, you will be playing offensive, with both armies having turrets.

Battle Setup:
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Every battles starts with a different setup. Sometimes you rounded up the enemy in four corners. You have an advantage in the location however, you will have your fleet split into 4 smaller groups. Sometimes you will start with the enemy rounding your fleet from the left and right side. The battle setup changes dramatically over time.

Orders:
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Once the battle starts, you are recommended to give orders to your fleet. By default, they will be under free control, as you give different orders, they will carry them out accordingly. It is always wise to give orders then having your fleet fighting in their own style.

Buy Screen
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Here is where you will be before starting another battle. Here, you can buy drones, fighters, battleships, turrets, do upgrades, buy additional weapons and sell crafts.
Whatever crafts you buy, you will only be able to sell them back at half-price. All crafts, except for drones and turrets, will take up dock space. Larger crafts will take more space while smaller ones will take less space.

Once you are ready, will will be able to launch your attack.
You can buy additional weapons for your crafts, different classes of crafts will have different sets of weaponry. Upgrades will also be classified into different groups.

When the War Starts!
-------------------------------
When a battle starts, it is time to set your weapon types and heat up your engines. You are the only craft that have a wide range of different weaponry. The Primary Weapon will consume you Cooling Meter, when it overheats, you will not be able to fire. The Secondary Weapon, usually the ones that changes the tide of battles, will consume both your Cooling Meter and Ammo Meter.

When either one of them reaches 0, you will not be able to fire. Weapons will also need to be recharged and Ammo and Cooling Meters will regenerate over time.

When you are dealing with large ships, secondary weapons comes in handy. With a few accurate shots, you will bring them down. Still, you can use primary weapons, but it will take some time.

You will lose the battle once you dies (even if your army is still alive). So keep yourself safe at all times.

The Troublesome, Commanders
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This is the part where trouble comes in. Usually, when you are winning, they will send in a transmission and send in their own fleet to bother you. What they are most capable of is to destroy you. So, always leave them to your fleet if you can.

The commanders will change over time. As you become more and more powerful, commanders that will bother you will become more and more powerful too.
Normally, there will only be at the most, 2 commanders bothering you in a battle.

It is very normal to see that commanders will have a very different ship from any you can buy or own. Those ships are extremely dangerous and their size of the ship seems to grow continuously. The strength of the fleet also gets bigger and bigger.

Normally, those ships can take quite a beating before they fall apart. So remember to upgrade your ships' armour. Once they are defeated, they will tempt to flee and withdraw the rest of the army. Always, they will succeed in escaping.

Aftermath:
--------------------
Once the battle is over, a list of checks will appear. They will tell you how much ships you lost and destroyed and how much you earned (even if you lose) and territory changes. After you are done, you will go and prepare the next battle.

Cons of the game: (you might want to read this)
=================================
However, there are some bad things about the game. First, and very often, you will find the game getting increasingly difficult. If you played wrongly, you will end up managing the subsequent stages alone, with no credits to buy any ships and you will most probably not hesitate to restart.

The second thing, the ship you control would not be easy to pilot, constant practice is needed to allow you to pilot the ship to your expectations, normally you will end up speeding to the enemy side and get crushed.

The third thing is that, upgrades will get increasingly expensive and eventually too* expensive. The docks will require 50000 credits to upgrade once you reaches level 5 Dock. Many other upgrades would also experience the same results.

The fourth thing is that, in the late games, both armies will have a big number of ships and drones and eventually, the computer will start to break down and lags.

The last thing, usually in the late games, enemies will have tropedos installed and they will try their best to send one homing to your craft. If your craft's armor is bad, you will die in a hit and there goes your winning to a straight lost.

In All
In all, it is a very good game that i suggest every strategy-game lovers to try out. It does not require a high-tech computer to play it and it is very addictive, fun and challenging.

Freedom Fighter

2007-06-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Released on 12 June 2007

Freedom Fighter, (made by Me.^^)
While, I made this quite some time ago, just post it on to the net.

Website: http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/3659

Description:

Earth, 2209.
The world had been seperated to two big unions, European Grand Union and the Soviet Confederacy. The Soviet Confederacy had waged war with the European Grand Union. The Confederacy were much more superior than the EGU, having more resources than the EGU, they were able to uphold a mass army of StarFighters, Peon-#14s. The EGU were left with no choice but to unleash their secret weapon, Freedom Fighter or to surrender. The time have came, time to unleash the Freedom Fighter and crush the Confederacy!

Metallic Outskirts, Earth, Solar System, 2209.
The Freedom Fighter is ready and standing-by. Squad Delta ready, preparing assualt. Incoming enemy Peons, prepare to fire.

Gameplay: (My view)
Well, to me, this is a nicely furnished game. The first game I manage to complete, though it is not the best, it is still not the worst. It is pretty difficult and takes practice to really hit the high scores. My highest score was 27k points. If you think you could beat it, go to the site and download it now! Remember to post your reviews and comments, they would be much appreciated.

Some tips and tricks before you start.
So if you really want to score in this game, it really takes lots of practice. Here are some of the tips I found when I was making the game and testing the game.

Tip #1

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Always look out for hull repairs and collect them.

Tip #2

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Try to hit as much brown "Peons" as possible to get to 500 points to have your weapon upgraded.

Tip #3

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If you realise too many projectiles coming to your way, move forward all the way or downward all the way till all the projectiles had flew out of your ship's location.

Tip #4

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Do not try to destroy the Big Blue 'Orcs' till you have a Superlaser (1750 points)

Tip #5

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No need to be greedy. ^^

Tip #6

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Missiles do more damage then blue plasma!!!

Tip #7

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Read the Mission Briefing (F1) and look out for the Boss, (Confederate) it will appear once you have around 7000 points.

In All
In all, I hope you would like it, a very challenging game but with no end. Enemy ships will keep coming till you are dead. However, show them who's the boss before you die.

X3: Reunion

2007-06-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Released during October 28, 2005

>X3 Reunion
Rating: 10/10 (Perfect)
"A game that will let you forget about social life and/or sleep"

Price: SGD$39.99
Platform: PC
Genre: RPG, Space Simulation
Publisher : Deep Silver
Developer: Egosoft
Rating by ESRB: For Teen 12+

Description
What happened so far: While the Argon fleet is stretched almost to breaking point by the continuing attacks from Khaak, a new enemy is stalking the X-universe. What links a mysterious ship with the power to disappear, the ruthless Yaki pirates and a machine left by an ancient species? It�s time to strap yourself in, warm up your laser cannon and get some answers.

Information

X³: Reunion is a computer game in the X series developed by Egosoft and released late 2005. The game was intended to be Egosoft's first multi platform release on both Windows and Xbox, but the plans changed and shortly before the PC release, it was revealed the Xbox version had been cancelled. X³: Reunion is also being ported to Linux and Mac OS X-Intel both should be released May 2007.

The game is the sequel to X²: The Threat (2003), which in turn followed X: Beyond the Frontier (1999). These games are best described as Space simulators which incorporate trade, combat, ship and station management. The open ended gameplay allows the player to achieve close to everything even without playing the plot line. Some events only happen within the plot.

Good things of the game
If you had enough of RTS games and wanting to try something more, X3: Reunion would be your best choice. Although it is released quite sometime ago, it is still one of the best games you would ever tried. It has a very unique gameplay, it consist of Trade, Fight, Build and Think elements that keeps you brainstorming for your next step in the game. Whats more is that, it has a very (really very) high detailed graphics in the game. you can see distinguish planets, stars and many more in the vast (VERY HUGE) universe, known as the X Universe.

In the game, there are 8 races. The Argon, Boron, Split, Teladi, Paranid, Goner, Kha'ak and the Xenon. You can choose to play the Story mode or the Free mode(no storyline). To me, the story mode is not a really good choice to start out with if you had never played before such kinds of games.
Although the Story mode starts out with a tutorial, it only tells you what to do but not where to go, in the end, you will end up exploring the universe instead. (Its True.)I suggest that you start out with the simulations. The story talks about a hero, Julian, who done many missions and finally manage to get back to Earth and destroyed the whole invading Kha'ak Fleet.

Earth had only built 2 Jumpgates, in which, their early exploration ships, sent to the universe on a scouting mission soon became sentient ships with self-replicating ability, these ships made the Xenon race. Soon, they return to invade Earth, then a brave pilot led those ships out of Earth's Sector and destroyed the gate that links back to Earth.
The old Earthlings whom got trapped in the X Universe became the Goners, then there was the argons and found 4 other alien races, Boron, Split, Teladi and Paranid.

Gameplay
If you play the free mode, you will either start with a M5 Discover or a TS Mercury or a M3 Heavy Fighter. The Trader will pick the TS Mercury and a M5 Discoverer, the Discoverer will have a M5 Discoverer. Lastly, the Pirate will take the M3 Heavy Fighter. The Trader will be the easiest to start with but the most boring, the Pirate will be the hardest to start with but the most exciting.
X3: Reunion has many kinds of ships, the are classified into: M5: Scouts, M4: Light Fighter M3: Heavy Fighter, TS: Small Transport (Not very small actually), TP: Passenger Transport, M3+: Heavy Fighter + Transport, M6: Corvette (This are bigger fightercrafts), M7: Heavy Corvette (This are mini-capital ships), M2: Destroyers (Get one and you will be some of the most fearsome foes), M1: Carrier and lastly, TL: Large Transport, the largest ships.

X3: Reunion's gameplay is very dynamic. You can see a huge difference between a M3 and a M2. You can try to use a M6 or M7 or even 10 M3 to try to bring down one of this M2, the Captain would tear your little toy ships happily with their Gamma Proton Pulse Cannons (Gamma PPC). Especially for an M2, it is not 1 PPC, but 40 or more. You will see a laserstorm in front of your cockpit and soon you will find yourself in the laserstorm and in seconds, you will see your ship's debris.
All ships and stations could carries shields, the reason for fact that 10 M3 would lose to a M2 is because, a M3 could carry around 125 MJ(Mega Joule) of shields while a M2 could carry up to 7 GJ of shields! (1000MJ = 1 GJ). Stations would have 10GJ shields installed that made it capable to provide shielding to even ships docked at it.

However, M2 and M1 (M6 and M7 would have a little) have some of the most terrible steering ever. You would not know it until you own one. M2 and M1 also have another bad point, they could not dock at normal stations, they could only dock at Shipyards or HQs. They would need to change into a M3 or smaller ships to dock at normal stations. M1 could carry up to 35 other ships, so that would not be a problem.
Aside from the ships, there is the credits, there is many ways to spend your credits and it would be always never enough, simply because there is too much things to buy. You could buy goods for trading, guns, ships, stations, programs and upgrades and even hacks. Credits could also be used to repair your ships, repairing 1% of a TL or M1 would cost almost as much as a new M3 craft. X3: Reunion also have another realistic feature, the lower your hull, the slower you would go. Another good way to spend your credits on instead of ships is your guns and upgrades, a Gamma PPC(Alpha, low damage, fast recharge speed, Beta, average damage and recharge speed, Gamma, high damage, slower recharge but best class)would cost you 1 million credits. If you want to fully load up your M1 or M2s with PPC cannons, (which is very common in the universe), you will need to buy 40 of them, whats more is that there is not that many PPC in the universe for you, you would need to make your own PPC using your own PPC Factories. Factories are the next good way to spend your credits. However, you could also buy maps, lottery tickets and many others too. Factories' prices ranges from 2 million to 100 million credits, excluding TL transporting fees and start-up funds. A M3 ship cost from 450k to 900k while a M2 cost around 70 million credits to almost 100 million.
X3: Reunion also features a very dynamic trading environment, the higher the demand, the higher the buying price and different races had different trading distinct.
X3: Reunion also has another feature, the ranking and reputation feature. The higher your rank, the better quests you will be offered and the better your reputation, the more welcomed and more 'dangerous' things you would be able to purchase from that race. Different races would have a different reputation system.

SETA
Another of the 'con' you made realise is the slow lumbering speed of your craft, traveling across vast distances. It would take hours, thus, there is a cure to this, a SETA upgrade. It basically, accelerates time up to 10x. By default is is 6x, 10x would let your ship go too fast and eventually crash onto something else.

Auto-Pilot
This! is the most formidable thing the game offers. A very intelligent AI, known as the Autopilot. In many other Space Simulations, you would not find any other AI as intelligent at what X3: Reunion have. (in my opinion) Most ships will have Turrets for gun installations. Turrets also have an AI. Docking at station also have an AI program. (the docking computer, without that, you cannot dock at stations)You can also set up Computerized traders that trades for you in their very own AI (very smart AI). Something more is that you could even buy some other more advance AIs, the MK programs.
Another important fact is that, without AI, you are most likely to lose many battles. In space, your bullets (lasers/projectiles) are not traveling in a flash to your cross-hair, it takes time, thus you need to fire at the predicted location if you want to get some hits. With a AI autopilot, you will have something close to a 100% accuracy.

In all
I had not found out any cons, with exception to the game difficulty, it is perfect. I would suggest you to try this game out if you like such space simulations. You could build stations, trade resources, barter for goods, do quest, make a fleet, setup patrol forces, be an infamous terrorist, wipe out entire races, destroy the Xenons, steal ships, mine ore from asteroid fields, make allies, explore the vast universe, in your ship and even in your spacesuit. Its a very good simulation that i suggest everyone to try it out.

System Requirements:

OS:
Microsoft® Windows® 98 SE, ME, 2000, XP

Processor:
Pentium® IV (or AMD® equivalent) 1.7 GHz
Pentium® IV (or AMD® equivalent) 2.4 GHz (recommended)

RAM
512 MB
1 GB (recommended)

Video Card
128MB 3D DirectX 9 compatible card (not onboard) with Pixel Shader 1.3 support
256MB 3D DirectX 9 compatible card (not onboard) with Pixel Shader 2.0 support (recommended)

Sound Card
Surround sound support (recommended)

Hard Disk Memory Space
5 GB(recommended)

Lastest Patch Available:
Version 2.0.02

Supreme Commander

2007-05-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

Released during Early 2007, February

Supreme Commander

Rating 8.5/10(Exellent!)

Price: SGD$40
Platform: PC
Genre: Real-time Strategy(RTS)
Manuf. : THQ
Company: Gas Powered Games
Rating by ESRB: For Everyone 10+

Description:

In the 37th Century, you are the Supreme Commanderof three races, with a single goal in mindto end the 1000 year Infinite War and become the reigning power supreme. For a thousand years, three opposing forces have waged war for what they believe is true. There can be no room for compromise: their way is the only way. Dubbed The Infinite War, this devastating conflict has taken its toll on a once-peaceful galaxy and has only served to deepen the hatred between the factions. After centuries of struggle, the battle for supremacy has at last reached a turning point. Under your strategic command and leadership, will your faction will reign supreme? Will you be victorious and elevate your race to domination? Or will you lead them into the hell of defeat and ultimate extinction?

Review
A very unique RTS game. This RTS features many cool strategies and it is very addictive. There are 3 different races, each with many different units to wage war on. The story of Supreme Commander is about the future of Earth, using Quantum Gates to travel amazing distance ( teleport ) and a war that went on for a 1000 years, also know as the Infinite War. This game is produced by the company, Gas Powered Games. This game had also outsell World of Warcraft!

More action-packed RTS.
This RTS gotta be the most action-packed RTS ever, so far. If you are tired of long, dry and weary skirmishes, then you got to try this! If you had seen Red Alert 1 & 2 and Generals' Nuclear Missile (Nuke) and you think those are magnificent, then you must(most profably) be wronged. Supreme Commander (Supcom) has a very ''beautiful'' nuke. Although it has a small silo that fires it(Just like Red Alert 1's Nuke Silo), it has a nuke that could explode and decimate almost any units in the game! With modern technology, the graphical standard of the Nuclear Explosion is most magnificent.

However, every big bang needs big credits. If you could see those tiny little "pieces", those are large frigates, now you could roughly estimate the size of the explosion. Whats more is that you could fire as many nukes as u like together at once!

Tech 4 - Experimental Units (See video: http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=17430&type=mov&pl=game)

This is the most critical part of the game, in fact, the best part of the game. This game has basic 3 Tech levels (What most RTS games will have) and a Experimental Tech Level 4. Once you have reached Tech Level 3, your engineers(builders) and a upgraded ACU, Armoured Command Unit(actually, yourself in the game)/Support ACUs, can build Tech 4 Ex. units. This units will finish the game for you very quickly. There are 3 races, the United Earth Federation(UEF), the Cybran Nation and the Aeon Illuminate.

Every race have 3 T4-Ex units available for construction. However, this big units need big resources to construct. This units are almost invulnerable(most of them), and some would also leave a big debris, destroying units near its death location. Like all units, T4-Ex units and nukes can be massed. (haha, you will like this one ^^ ) This feature allows you to finish skirmishes very quickly and end victoriously though it is abit imba~.

The flying fortress, owned by the Aeon Illuminate, could house the entire airforce of yours, the favourtie unit of mine^^!

Another of the Aeon Illuminate Ex.Unit, the most toughest unit in the game infact, almost invulnerable but has a weakness, it could not target air units...

This Ex.Unit(the spider-like one) belongs to the Cybran Nation, the good thing is that, it could be massed easily, a hyper destructive unit, the SpiderBot.

Cons(You might not want to see this,lol)

Actually, there are several bad points i found when i was playing this game. You could not pay this game if you do not have a high-tech computer and even if you can play as you just met the minimum requirements, if are most likely, to get tired of the lagginess.
Another bad point is that, if you do not play on faster speed, you would most likely feel this is the most driest game you had ever played, aside from the tech 1 and 2 units (in fact some of the tech 2 units already were), the Tech 3 and T4-Ex units and buildings would most profably tear off your interest in this game. Not convinced? not understood? then heres some examples, for you to build a T3-Nuke Silo(there is a T2-Nuke Silo, but i bet you wouldn't like that), it takes 83.5 minutes to build just! 1. (We are talking about the best builders in the game building it) whats more is that, it is real-time(its real seconds) 83.5 minutes!!! not game time! and to load 1 nuke into it, it takes another 15 minutes or so, although it could actually load 5 nukes at a time,(which is 75 minutes). So altogether, it will take you 158.5 minutes to fire 5 decent nukes. However, i think 1 nuke is enough to decimate a base, but again, the computer aren't stupid! By the time it is 1 hour long, the computer most profably had already missile-proof his base, your nukes will be useless! (there is a nuke defense building available for construction, it fires anti-nuke missiles to prevent your nuke from reaching your base and it take like 15 minutes to build 1 and load it with 1 missile.) Another of the example is that, if you want to build the most 'sly' unit in-game, the Mavor(UEF), which can fire devastating(really devastating) artillery missiles anywhere on the map, in like 2.5 seconds intervals, you will need, 356 minutes to build it!!! (I cant remember clearly, but it is more then 350minutes) which is 6 hours...
However, Supcom have a solution to all this, the ACU!, it could build things (provided being upgraded) in almost 6 times faster (and the cooperated build feature), however, if this ACU(which is actually urself) dies, it will be a immediate nuke explosion on the death spot(another con). The ACU can be rebuilt and is actually, very weak against some T1 and T2 units and most T3, and of course, T4 units. Another example will be, most T4 units will take 35 to 50 minutes to build 1.

Another of the cons, because of the dangerous meltdown ability of your very own ACU which spend most of its time in the heart of the base, the enemy would always target all the big bangs on your ACU first, given a weak armour and speed, it is less likely to react and escape from those big bangs, without much protection, you will end up having your base destroyed by your personal ACU's thermo-nuclear explosion(meltdown). The explosion is so destructive that it is even more deadlier then a nuke explosion. One of the best tactics is to construct a squad of air bombers and go on a suicide mission on the opponent's ACU.

In All.

In all, this is a very enjoyable game (not to mention the Cons i listed above and the very-time-consuming missions) that every RTS fan would love it. With a unique gameplay and devastating weaponary and the high detailed graphics! You should not miss this! Below is the system requirements for this game, good news! this works well on Vista!

Official System Requirements

Minimum

Operating System
Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista*

Processor
1.8 GHz Intel or equivalent AMD processor

3.0 GHz Intel or equivalent AMD processor or better(Recommended)

RAM
512 MB

1 GB or better(Recommended)

Video Card

128 MB video RAM or greater, with DirectX 9 and Pixel Shader 2.0 support

256MB video RAM, with DirectX9 Vertex Shader/Pixel Shader 2.0 support(Nvidia 6800 or better)(Recommended)

Hard Disk Space

8 GB

10 GB or more(Recommended)

Internet connection

56.6 kbit/s modem

Cable/DSL speed or better(Recommended)