I want my berzerk.com back!
Written: Sep 15 '00 (Updated Feb 07 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: the old school berzerk titles: acrophobia, cosmic consensus
Cons: ugly site, intrusive
The Bottom Line: There are many more game-play sites worth a glance. Try them first; come back if you really need Acraphobia.
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| kilinahe's Full Review: Archived Web Services Reviews |
I was a huge, huge fan of "Acrophobia", a game on the berzerk.com games site. I didn't visit very often; maybe once a week, but "Acrophobia" and "Cosmic Consensus" were my two favorite ways to waste time.
Unbeknownst to me, berzerk was apparently bought out by this behemoth called flipside.com. Now, you can play acrophobia as well as a huge assortment of card and trivia games. The variety is surprisingly good, but that's about the only good thing about it.
For starters, it's just ugly. The site is butt-ugly. It makes me feel like I'm in a casino. Berzerk's color scheme wasn't beautiful or anything, but a tacky orange and yellow desert-island theme hardly inspires a competitive game-play kinda frame of mind.
Speaking of casinos, nothing, I mean nothing irritates me more than magical mystery pop-up windows inviting you to go to another site. In this case, it was a window advertising an online casino. I realize that some people like online gambling, but I don't, and I'd like the opportunity to decide if I want to try it before some obnoxious thing comes up and interrupts my solitaire game.
When I signed up at Berzerk, all they needed was a user name and a password. No muss, no fuss, no spam. Five seconds of your time bought you all the acrophobia time in the world. Now, they expect you to fill out a census. Full name, address, telephone number. I don't think so. Why do they need this? Granted, it's easy to just make this stuff up, but I'd rather not even have to deal with such intrusive questions. It turns out that I didn't actually even need to register again, so now I have two usernames. I would love to remedy this situation, but I have yet to find a way to do so. I haven't come across a link or a name to help me cancel one of the two names.
The games themselves are worth the aggravation and nosiness if you're a hardcore game nut. You can choose from regular solitaire or solitaire with animated talking cards. This version seems deceptively tricky, though, so don't hold your breath waiting for the ten thousand dollar prize.
There is also a decent selection of memory and word games. There are other sites, like Uproar, that offer a better selection, though.
Overall, the simplicity of the old Berzerk site was the best part of it. It was a site with games for people who didn't like online games. Now it's a big, overcrowded disappointment.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kilinahe
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Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Reviews written: 74
Trusted by: 23 members
About Me:
"In your face, Space Coyote!"
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