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Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion - Official Expansion Pack (PC CD)

Barbarians at the Gates, 2008-07-05
Barbarian Invasion is the first expansion pack to the highly acclaimed Rome: Total War (the second being Alexander). The expansion picks up a few centuries after the original 'republic' campaign in Rome: Total War. Now the Roman Empire has split into two parts, and it's up to you to help defend the empire as waves after waves of barbarian tribes invade Europe.

The game now features ten new playable factions: The Western and Eastern Roman Empires, the Huns, Goths, Franks, Saxons, Alemmani, Sassanids, Sarmatians and Vandals. A number of non-playable factions are included as well, among which are the Romano-Britons, Lombards, Burgundians, Slavs and Berbers etc.
These help add some variety into the game play, for instance, if you play as the Saxons and you conquer a certain amount of Roman towns in Britain, then the Romano-British will appear to wrestle them back from you.

The single biggest feature of the expansion is the ability for the Barbarian tribes (but not including the Saxons) to become hordes. This means they can abandon their settlements in search of a new homeland. By selecting the horde function you can recruit every male villager into a soldier, turning your faction into a formidable military force.

Every faction has its own strengths and weaknesses, and they have varying degrees of difficulty. For instance it is rather easy to complete the game as the Huns, but very difficult to win as the Western Roman Empire, as you'd expect.
One of the other new features is religion, as the Roman Empires now have Pagan and Christian cities. This means having to perform a difficult balancing act - send a Christian to govern a Pagan city (or vice versa) and you'll end up with rioting or even a rebellion on your hands. The two Roman Empires can also fragment into smaller rebelling factions each with their own usurper emperors. This usually happens on the distant borders of your empire, especially if your territories are infested with barbarians.
Ultimately what this means is that the expansion is more micro-management heavy than the original Rome. You'll need good managing skills if you want to succeed in this game.

The game is a lot of fun to play and it can be very challenging, but it is a pale shadow of its predecessor. This game seems rushed and unpolished in comparison with Rome. For instance, some of the unit skins on the soldiers are unoriginal, grainy or badly modelled. There are also no new music or voice-overs - bad examples of this include Gothic soldiers with Greek accents on the campaign map and barbarian voices in battle.

I also didn't like the addition of so many 'fantasy' units into the game, including the Tolkienesqe 'Hounds of Culaan' or the Arthurian 'Grail Knights', or the Amazonian style 'Roxolani Warrior Virgins'. The Roman ballista chariots are also a very odd addition.
The 'historical battles' section hasn't been given much of a look either, with only two new battles being added, these being the battle of Chalons and the mythical battle of Badon Hill.

The real-time battles have been given some new additions, such the option to fight a battle at night, and the ability of some soldiers to swim across rivers or go into a 'schiltron' formation. These add some nice tactical touches to the game.

Overall this is a good fun game that simply lacks polish. The Late Roman period is a fascinating era in history, and it's a shame that the Creative Assembly didn't bother to give the period as much attention as the Republican period in the original Rome. This is made worse considering there are a number of games set in the republican period but only a few are set in this era.

It's still worth getting at this price though.

Works 9 (PC)

great templates, but no presentation software, 2008-10-19
Let it be clear: this is a great household package. It is great for producing letters, flyers, greeting cards etc. on the fly. But let it be clear also: this is no educational package, as it is lacking presentation software (powerpoint). If you have kids/students, opt for Office student licence, or the free OpenOffice.

QuickBooks Pro 2008

Run a small business then you need this, 2008-10-17
I really don't know how they have managed to pack so many useful features into one piece of software.

I like that the software uses a visual flow process to walk you through the stages of cash flow through a business.

Tracking bills, invoice and money. Where it's going and where the bottom line could be in a couple of months (forecasting)

I like the fact that you can send your file at year end to your accountant for tax returns and annual accounts. (you should make back the cost of this software in the money you save from using your accountant to do the donkey work)

Not cheap but worth every penny, good online support and plenty of other books and training packs that you can buy to supplement it if you want to.

This is the full UK version and installed with no problems and hasn't fell over once.

If you run a small or medium sized business it might provide you with some of the discipline required to manage your cashflow effectively (especially important in todays economic climate)

Highly recommended.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8 Platinum Edition (PC)

Brilliant piece of software!!!, 2008-08-19
I bought this software from Amazon after purchasing my high definition Canon camcorder (also from Amazon). I had recently had a new computer built (and my old one upgraded). As an absolute beginner I read through dozens of posts on various video editing forums and decided to follow the recommendations of experienced video editors, such as having a huge second hard drive fitted so as not to save video files on the same drive as the operating system. Video editing is incredibly resource hungry, not being a techie but having experienced my previous computers slowing down (and crashing) over time because of all the rubbish that had accumulated on them, I also decided NOT to fill the computer up with my video games and downloads, I kept them for the older, upgraded PC.

I installed Sony Vegas and plugged in my camcorder, the capture was perfect, no dropped frames, no computer freezing or crashing. To those people who criticise the software, blame your system, not the software.

Sony Vegas and DVD architect are brilliant. For a beginner, the 'how to' function on the help tab gets you started, without having to plough your way through the more complicated aspects of the software, this comes later with more experience. A particular favourite of mine is the ability to capture stills from the video footage to tag on the end of the finished video, separated by one of Sony's excellent transitions, and overlaid with music. Far better than posed photographs and you've always got the photos on your hard drive if you want to print them later.

For a product of this standard, the new reduced price is an absolute giveaway. I have no hesitation at all in recommending Sony Vegas.

Adobe Lightroom 2.0, Full Version (PC/Mac)

I think Lightroom 2 is wonderful, 2008-09-15
I'm sure I agree with some of the comments already posted on this product, such as relocation of some of the tools (which is annoying for the first 30 mins unti you get used to it), but the improvements are well worth the upgrade. I didn't notice some of the missing features of earlier versions so I'm not sure I'd used them that much - you may or may not yourself.

It can be a little clunky if your PC spec is a tad on the low side, and getting used to the new features such as graduated filter can take just a little getting used to.

After v2 I'm not going back to v1.x, its great :)

Microsoft AutoRoute 2007 (PC)

I only wanted it for one thing - and it does it well, 2008-07-17
Having read the other reviews I was worried.

Very worried.

But I only wanted autoroute for one thing

I am on the road a lot, and I can import from an excel spreadsheet the details of my clients and they appear on the map screen! So I can plan journeys to reduce maileage and with fuel prices as high as they are that soon saves the cost of the software. I have nothing to add on any other comment, but this feature alone makes it a must have.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Pro Pack

Movie Studio 9 Delivers, 2008-09-25
I had this product shipped directly from Sony USA as I needed it to work on a wedding video I recently shot.

I already own Movie Studio 8 Plat edition and have upgraded so that I can work in 1920x1080 video and export directly to Blu-ray.

It's an amazing piece of software and I can thoroughly recommend it for the semi-pro/competent amateur. The pro's would naturally be looking at Vegas Pro, but for less than £100 I can hardly think of a more advanced package.

I am using a Sony SR12E camcorder and have output a few projects in high defintion using Vegas and it really has to be seen to be believed. High quality output really is at your fingertips.

Regarding system stability, I have never had either Plat 8 or Plat 9 versions crash yet and you can use anything from a P4 processor upwards to get decent results. The only thing is that the renders can be very time consuming (especially in high def), and the preview can be jerky/glitchy but this is just a side effect of very processor heavy stuff!

Brilliant software.

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 16 Deluxe (PC)

Speedy typer thanks to Mavis Beacon, 2008-03-10
I have really learned form Mavis Beacon!!
I had a query if it was compatible with my computer so I contacted GSP customer suppert online and they got back to me really quickly and sufficiently. The product is Americanised but its not teaching you HOW to spell but HOW to type.(You should be able to figure the spelling bit out for yourself.) I would recommend this product to anyone wanting to learn how to type accurately and with speed.

Finding Nemo - Nemo's Underwater World of Fun (Disney Pixar)(PC and MAC)

Super game, 2006-03-24
My two and half year old daughter loves this game. Feeding Bruce the shark with kelp balls has taken her the longest time to handle, but without doubt this game has helped her really come to grips with using a computer mouse.
The memory game, which involves clicking on coloured shapes in rhythm, seems to really frustrate her, but that is obviously lack of understanding.
Her memory skills with turning over rocks to reveal matching pairs of pictures has astounded me. The graphics and sound are excellent and we have never had any problems loading the game.
Difficult to discuss all the features or good points, because there are so many. Enjoy.

Driving Test Success ALL TESTS 2008/09 Interactive DVD

BEWARE THIS IS ONLY FOR USE WITH DVD OR CONSOLE, 2008-09-13
I was looking for the most up to date driving test practice media i could find and this seemed to be the newest on the market. I have previously been using the driving test success 2006/2007 on my PC and was well impressed but had wanted something more upto date. As i looked at the product I saw the system requirements were windows 2000, vista and XP so immediately thought these were for use on the PC....
Be warned these discs are NOT for use on your PC they are for use on DVD player or console!!!
Very slow compared the the Cd rom. This would be great for anyone who doesn't own a PC but not for anyone who has experienced the CD rom version.