GAME REVIEW: 'Turning Point: Fall of Liberty'

By BILLY O'KEEFE

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

"Turning Point: Fall of Liberty" kicks off its rewriting of history with a real head-scratcher: What if Winston Churchill had been killed in 1931 by that taxi that struck him in New York City? Would the Allies ultimately have lost World War II, and would the White House be draped in Nazi red?

Unfortunately, this little "what if?" isn't just "Liberty's" first moment, but its finest as well. The game hands the controls to you, and a stiff downhill tumble follows shortly after.

The problem is that, while "Liberty's" story takes place in 1953, its gameplay comes from around 1998 or so. Enemy intelligence is barely there, with Nazis recklessly bum-rushing you or standing perfectly in place, ready to eat your bullets either way. Sometimes they even spawn out of thin air, only to disappear just as quickly when killed. They'll readily throw grenades at you, even if you're only a few feet away. That's fine, though, because explosives only sometimes kill enemies.

Technically, the game fares little better. Clipping problems are humorously rampant, framerate drops not-so-humorously frequent.

Animation is choppy, sometimes to the point where soldiers randomly warp a few feet. None of it is justified, either: "Liberty" looks no better, and often looks worse, than your average first-generation Xbox 360 game.

Even when "Liberty" does something different, bad code undoes it. The ability to melee enemies and use them as human shields is very cool, and the game occasionally allows you to dispatch enemies creatively using environmental kills. Unfortunately, "Liberty" has serious trouble with context recognition. Unless you're positioned perfectly in front of a soldier, the melee option doesn't appear. And without a general-use melee button to save you in a pinch, that often means you'll die simply because the game failed you. That's especially annoying when you're in one of the portions of "Liberty" where the developers seemingly forgot to include checkpoints.

In the end, none of it is worth it, because "Liberty" barely expands on the intrigue brought forth by that original question. A few cool set pieces aside, the game could take place in almost any universe, and the mid-mission cutscenes do little to form a relationship between players and the average Joe-turned-one-man army they control.

With a decent storyline stripped away, "Liberty" becomes just another first-person shooter for three systems already bursting with them. Stripped of everything else it should have but doesn't, it's also impossible to recommend even as a curious rental.

Revealed: The secret internet society waiting to destroy YOUR teenager's party

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If anyone thought the reports of what had happened were exaggerated, these pictures prove otherwise.

They were posted - surprise, surprise - on the internet the morning after the night before at Sarah's home (at least what was left of it) near Bovey Tracey in Devon.

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Rave: Youngsters filled the house

"So be proud that you attended this amazing partayyy [sic]," wrote one guest on social networking site Bebo before adding: "And f*** the 9 police cars, 4 riot vans, 1 ambulance, and a s*** load of police dogs . . ."

Indeed, police who responded to the 999 could have been forgiven for thinking they had been called to a rock concert which had spiralled out of control.

Outside, revellers, if we can call them that, jeered, swore, and pelted officers with glass.

Inside, as these photographs show, youngsters were jumping up and down with cans and bottles, spraying them around as though they were at a rave.

By the end of what has been dubbed "Mayhem at the Manor", windows had been smashed, carpets ripped up, chandeliers destroyed, doors torn off their hinges and family heirlooms vandalised.

Ordeal: Host Sarah Ruscoe

Spare a thought for Sarah's poor mum, Rebecca Brooks, who is facing a bill for damages running into many thousands of pounds - as well as the embarrassment of seeing her own daughter plastered over cyberspace dressed as a dominatrix (on her MySpace website Sarah is also dressed up as a nun in suspenders and stilettos).

Never before - surely - could so many young people cause so much devastation at one birthday party? Wrong.

The photographic evidence which has emerged will send a chill down the spine of any parent who may be contemplating leaving their teenage sons or daughters in charge of the house - to enjoy a "sleepover" or "party" with a few friends.

For riotous events such as Sarah's have become a phenomenon in recent months. Hardly a week seems to go by without similar headlines appearing. Chippenham, Wiltshire; the Pennine village of Facit; Houghton-le-Spring, Sunderland; Croydon, Surrey . . . just a few of the places where such "parties" have taken place.

The venues may be different, but they all have a number of things in common. There used to be a time (admittedly, it seems like a lifetime ago) when youngsters sent out invitations. The internet has changed all that.

Thus Sarah's 18th birthday celebration was advertised on Bebo, among other places, where the potential "audience" for such events is unlimited.

In the end, more than 2,000 people turned up on Friday night at Sarah's home, a 21-bedroom Georgian mansion which is normally used to host weddings and functions.

"Gatecrashers" have invariably been blamed for sabotaging teenage parties around the country, but it is also becoming apparent that the "gatecrashing" of such events is often "highly organised".

The ordeal suffered by Julia Anscomb from Worthing illustrates this.

Mrs Anscomb made the mistake of taking husband Robert - her daughter Gemma's stepfather - to a West End show for his birthday last month, leaving Gemma, 15, at home.

When she returned, the couple discovered the family dog had been drugged with Ecstasy tablets, the dining room was swimming in four inches of beer and carpets had been destroyed.

Group sex had taken place on the washing machine, and at least six people had romped in the master bedroom.

One of the "guests" was Sean O'Brien, a 25-year-old plumber. "I saw one man having sex with three women on the washing machine," he said.

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Fancy-dress: Party-goers in a scene reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange

"At about 2am I went into one of the bedrooms and saw two boys having sex. Everything was going on."

When asked if he took part, he replied: "We all got involved."

Except this was not the whole story. Sean, we have discovered, is a member of a group calling itself The Facebook Republican Army.

The group consists of a 20-strong "gang of lads" who scour the internet to find teenage parties to "crash" - exploiting the fact that many naive youngsters openly discuss their lives on sites such Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.

Many include their date of birth on their page, and the FRA, as they call themselves, check to see if anyone is planning a birthday party.

"They like a good birthday bash," said someone who is familiar with their tactics.

"Teen parties" are targeted, he said, because they know those in a younger age group than themselves will be unable to turn them away when they turn up uninvited.

Lewd: A streaker at the bash

"The kids at the party are either too out of it to know what's going on or too scared to throw them out. They started doing it for a laugh and decided to invent this name for themselves.

"They don't necessarily go with the intention of smashing the place up, but there are a few nutters in that crowd so trouble usually goes hand in hand wherever they go.

"They are a tough bunch and can be quite intimidating, so no one dares stand up to them. They'd welcome a fight most of the time.

"They just think it is a laugh and they don't care about the kids having the party, or their parents.

"Their attitude is: 'If you're stupid enough to let your children have a big party while you are away and advertise it on the internet, then you deserve everything you get'."

Rachel Bell's parents know exactly what they mean.

Their 17-year- old daughter placed an invitation on her MySpace page to advertise her party.

More than 200 people from as far afield as Liverpool and London converged on her parents' detached home on Tyneside and destroyed it in seven hours of drink and drug-fuelled mayhem.

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The party's over: Police mingle with the crowd of revellers

As Rachel's mother puts it so aptly: "The house was raped. Every carpet was burned where they stomped out cigarettes.

"They urinated in wardrobes, pulled my clothes out and stubbed cigarettes on them.

The beds had burns, food had been smeared everywhere and messages scrawled all over the walls.

Add to that the vomit-strewn clothing and condoms littering the bedrooms of Rachel's three younger siblings, stolen money and jewellery and furniture damaged beyond repair.

Rachel, according to her own account, hid in the bathroom having an understandable panic attack as the uninvited mob swelled the house to breaking point.

A-level student Rachel has insisted that - despite her mother's strict instructions not to have anyone over while she looked after the house - she invited only 40 friends.

Heavy drinking: Recycling bins overflowed with empty cans and bottles

She told her mother someone "hacked into" her MySpace pages and suggested the the theme for the party..."let's all trash the average, family-sized house disco party".

At the time, it sounded like a typical excuse. Now, in the light of revelations about the Facebook Republican Army, is seems more than plausible.

Were similar "forces at work" when a mob invaded Christopher Worthy's 16th birthday party in Chippenham, Wiltshire? More than 250 youngsters descended on his parents' £250,000 detached home.

By the time, they left, Christopher's brother Stephen, 18, who had been left in charge, and 53-year-old father, David, who had returned to confront the gatecrashers, had both been hospitalised and the house had been trashed.

David's wife Susan recalls: "I don't remember ever ever being so terrified in my life. I honestly thought they were going to kill us.

"There was blood all over the front of the house, the garden and the street. Blood was dripping off Dave's head and all over his shirt and onto the carpet."

So who posted the invitation for the party on YouTube? The family still do not know.

"The police asked us this question," says Susan. "We feel a little naive, but it's sad situation if you cannot go out and let your children have what was supposed to be a quiet party with a few friends.

"This is not what we expected - we live in a nice place and we thought this sort of thing couldn't happen."

Sadly, the traumatic experiences of Julia Anscomb from Worthing, the Bell family from Tyneside, and many others from Lancashire to Land's End, would suggest that this can happen to anyone.

Additional reporting by JAMES MILLS

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