Win 98 or newer, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, $50
CRUSADER KINGS,
| | | | ___Personal Tech E-letter___ Washington Post personal technology columnist Rob Pegoraro answers reader e-mail and expands on themes he touches on in his weekly newspaper column. The e-mail version of this weekly feature includes links to the latest gadget and software reviews.
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Paradox Entertainment
Paradox is known for strategy titles, such as Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron, that force gamers to dust off their freshman-year Western Civ notes. But Crusader Kings tops even those in its complexity.
In this game, which reenacts European history from 1066 to 1453, the world is just creeping out of the Dark Ages, today's countries are split into tiny areas ruled by quarreling families, and you're supposed to survive, prosper and conquer. As in other Paradox strategy games, you control every aspect of government: You decide how much to invest in your infrastructure and military technology; which families your sisters should marry into; how hard to work at currying favor with the pope; and how many people to train for your armies.
Combat may not be central to the game, but you can't hope to cross the street in 1066 without starting at least a minor turf war. As a strategy game, Crusader Kings doesn't let you command your men in battle. You'll only win if you've trained them well, given them good weapons and put enough of them on the field before the mailed fists come off.
As a bonus, if you actually survive history, you can import your newly formed country into Paradox's Europa Universalis II and continue playing in medieval times. -- John Breeden II
Win 98 or newer, $39
INTERNET CLEANUP 2.0, Aladdin Systems
Internet Cleanup 2.0 promises to rid your Mac of spyware and other privacy invasions, but after trying it out, the only intruder I wanted off my Mac was this very program. When it's not battling all-but-nonexistent opponents, it tackles real problems in the clumsiest manner imaginable.
Internet Cleanup's SpyAlert, for example, which scours your Mac for privacy threats, is useful only to people worried about hidden keystroke recorders (so far, no other Mac spyware exists for it to find). A feature meant to stop programs from uploading data to the Internet without permission kept blocking legitimate applications, even after I'd told it to let them be.
NetBlockade, which removes ads from Web pages, didn't work much better. It blocked pop-up ads (which Apple's Safari browser already stops) and stripped out many banner and text ads, but it also misread a few noncommercial images and swept them out of Web pages, too.
Internet Cleanup can also discard such online leftovers as browser cookies, caches and history files, as well as chat logs. This can be handy for people afraid of snoops poking around their Mac, but for the rest of us, these files can be tremendously useful and shouldn't be expunged wholesale. (Aladdin's program also misinterpreted two system files as chat logs.) A similar tool cleans attached files from your e-mail archives -- at a glacial pace.
Odder yet: A program with "cleanup" in its name can't be uninstalled easily. -- Kevin Savetz
Mac OS X 10.2 or newer, $29.99 at aladdinsys.com
