Name: CSI: Miami
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: 369 Interactive
Media: 3 CDs
HD Installation: 1.33 gig
Dirt Cheap Price: Free(was a gift)
CSI: Miami was played on a Pentium M, 1.6Ghz machine under Windows XP MCE 2005 with a 64 meg ATI Radeon Mobility X300(PCI-E) card and 512 megs of ram. It was running with all options turned to their highest settings and at a screen resolution of 800X600. The game was played through on the "Beginner" difficulty level.
Patches?
Yes, one.		 Just for kicks, let me present the recommended system requirements:

1.01 Patch - Size: 1.2 megs

Note: The "auto updater" that the game comes with does *not* work. It will tell you that you are up to date if you have v. 1.0.

 Windows 98/ME/2000/XP(only), Pentium III or AMD Athlon 750 Mhz processor, 256 MB RAM, DirectX 9-compliant sound card, DirectX 9, 16X CD-Rom or better, 650 MB available Hard Drive space, 16 MB DirectX 9-compliant graphics card.

Bow to me, for I am The Caruso!
 As an intern at the Miami Dade Crime Scene Investigation unit, you are assigned to help the team bust some criminal ass. You'll partner up with each of the show's main characters as you try to solve the five separate crimes, then you'll attempt to get hot-ass Alexx to go out with you at the end of the day. She'll tell you there's no way in Hell and you'll be crushed. You'll say "I don't need you anyway, I've got Grace from Fighting Vipers waiting for me on the Saturn and Dreamcast!" as you run out of the morgue crying like a little girl...
What's it all about?
It's a point and click mystery. Accompanied by one of the show's characters, you'll investigate the various crimes, talk to suspects and examine a shitload of evidence. Gameplay consists of using the various evidence detection and collection tools on the scenery, suspects and bodies. Depending on what difficulty you pick, you'll either be walked through the various things that can be asked of suspects(Beginner) or you'll have to actually produce and show evidence to garner a response(Advanced). Once you've gone over everything 650 times, you'll move on to getting warrants, arresting people and eventually interrogating them.

Yelina Salas
 Graphics - The game's graphics are made up a of an odd mix of flash-based content, low end 3D models, full motion video and bitmaps. The game itself runs off of Macromedia's Projector(a standalone version of Flash), which explains a lot. Most of it isn't too bad, but some of the full motion video is just beyond low-res. Most of the detail seemed to go into any of the given dead bodies, giving you a hearty helping of the signature gross-out explanations accompanied by video and close up views of the actual injuries.
Sound - Mixed. The voice acting by the original cast is quite good and very well done...the stuff done by other players is mediocre, and even laughable at times. The soundtrack is pretty slick, producing a variety of light techno pieces that closely sound like what you'd hear on any given episode of the show.
Control - It's a point and click interface, doesn't get much more simple than that. You click on what you want to use, you point to what you want to use it on...
AI - Nonexistent. The only thing working against you here are the sometimes overly-anal evidence detection routines and yourself.
Replay value - Little-to-none. You'll go through it once, just to see what it's all about...maybe even getting into it along the way, but once you beat this one, you've really beaten it. Plus, it just takes so fucking long to beat(it's not necessarily a long game, it just takes forever to go through) that you may end up psychologically and emotionally scarred by the experience.

Tim Speedle
 Getting it to run - Easy. After choosing which install you'd like to perform(just go for the Full install), you patch the game and the "Hardware Detection Program" will tell you *exactly* how you're going to be playing the game. Sadly, it leaves no room for improvement...but I guess it leaves little for error too. It forced me to play it at 800X600(I'm guessing this was the max res.)...increasing the resolution to a tasty 1024X768 or higher would have been nice guys.

Calleigh Duquesne
Tips for better gaming experiences:
Do yourself a favor and don't attempt the game on anything other than "Beginner" difficulty...

Any time you can clearly see a fingerprint or something, and none of the damn tools will work, use the magnifying glass. 95% of the time, that’s what the game is looking for you to do.

Alexx Woods

If you're tired of listening to someone, or just want to skip the dialog all together you can click on the right mouse button or space bar to immediately cut it off.

Eric Delko
You can get clues about a case without actually having your partner telling you of them. Simply ask for a clue, then look over what they'll give you clues about...then go and check it out.

The extras you get from getting a "Master" ranking on the cases are piss-poor, but if you want to make sure you get to see them all then take a look at Moonsaver's CSI Miami Walkthrough.

Still Supported?
Yes, you can receive support for that game at Ubisoft's Support Center.
My rating: 65(out of 100) - Though not an absolute disgrace, or worthless game, it's just not really anything you'll want to write home about. At first it's hard, real hard...then you begin to get the hang of it and stuff comes to you much more easily. By about the third or fourth case you're about as into it as you'll get, then it's pretty much over. It definitely shows you that it’s much more fun to watch the show than to do the work...
Our resident furrball's opinion: About the only thing I liked about this game is that since it takes so amazingly long to finish, the laptop gets nice and warm...so I can get in some kitty-z's on a toasty bed.

You damn cat!
"Jesus, God in Heaven, why didcha kill such hot snatch? Hey, it's a joke, man. Jeez, people are so serious."
Hangin' with Horatio.
"So, what are my chances with the chick in the corner?"
Hey, gator intestines...and I haven't even had breakfast yet!
Fun Stuff on the CD:
Just the game's manual in PDF form...which is installed onto your HD when you do that Full install anyway...(yawn)

Pulling a double:
Max Allan Collins, who writes the paperback series of CSI books, worked on this game as well as the two other original CSI games.

Maxine Valera