Strategy

Funny Hell

Peter Anargirou — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:35:42 +0000

Funny Hell

Platform: iPhone/iPod
Category: Strategy

Recently Bulkypix provided me Funny Hell to review for all of you! It's a light-hearted, simple strategy game featuring side-scrolling action. Your army marches right. The enemy army matches left. Where they meet, the armies clash! It's simple to play with short levels and various types of goals. In addition, it's definitely a different look at hell than normal!

Graphics and Sound

While there's no technological breakthroughs here, I don't think anyone will have serious complaints. Are you tired of hell looking like shades of gray? Good (assuming you answered "yes"), because this is the most colorful concept of hell I've ever seen. The various monster designs make the game interesting to watch, which is important.

Gameplay

Why are these demons fighting? The Lord of Hell makes armies of demons fight for his amusement. This might not be enough story to fill a book, but it gives adequate background to motivate playing. There are some amusing little typos and grammar problems in the text here and there, but it never gets in the way of gameplay.

Your base is on the very left of the screen, and the enemy's base is on the right. Enemies come out of their base and march to the left toward your base while you have the ability to create troops to engage them. Both bases have health bars, and if you destroy all the units in your way, you can attack the enemy base. Various units have different costs, strengths, and weaknesses and can be purchased using coins earned by killing enemies.

While this is definitely a strategy game, don't confuse the side-scrolling strategy genre with RTS. You're not creating buildings, dealing with technology trees, or micromanaging units. It's a simpler genre that works perfectly on phones because you only have to decide what units to build (and when to use a couple abilities). Units march across the screen all on their own. This may sound overly simple, but it isn't. There's definitely still strategy involved!

Funny Hell uses level conventions common to iOS games that I really like. There are five different worlds with each consisting of 10 levels. On each level, you can earn up to three stars... I mean, golden skulls... depending on how well you did. This allows you to move quickly through the levels, not caring how well you do, or spend more time perfecting your gaming. There are a variety of level types as well. I like the simple "defeat the enemy base" that requires you to defeat all the enemies pouring out of it too, but there are other levels as well, such as the "survive for x amount of time" levels introduced early in the game. It's less fun in my opinion, but it's also good to change it up sometimes!

Conclusion

The first thing you'll notice is the presentation. It's a fun, light-hearted look at hell, and I enjoyed the style. Funny Hell is a simple strategy game that can be played in short periods of time. It does require strategy; even early in the game, you can't just brute force through every level. I like losing on occasion and rethinking what I did. "Where did I go wrong? How can I do better?" You'll need to ask yourself these questions if you want to succeed! Funny Hell seems priced a tad high at $2.99 in the App Store when there are so many $0.99 games, but it's still a very enjoyable game!

A new side-scrolling strategy

Sword of the Star 2: Lords of Winter

JamieTD — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:01:27 +0000

Paradox Page Steam Store Page

	Sword of the Star 2: Lords of Winter ESRB: Platform: PC Games Category: Space Sims, Strategy	See Related Videos
7 6 7 7 6.5

Author: JamieTD

This is a review that tries to be fair. But to be fair, we have to explain why we're making the extra effort here. On the one hand, Kerberos are known to support their games to their graves and beyond. On the other, Sword of the Stars 2 was, due to a number of factors, released in a state best described as “alpha” on release, and is still incomplete at the time of reviewing. So before this review even begins, consider: This game will not be finished for a while, maybe months. Until then, if you buy it, you'll effectively be supporting the devs to make sure they carry on their tradition of supporting their games, testing and helping them out. With that out of the way, let's take a look at what SotS2 gives us now.

Visuals

Sword of the Stars 2 is a much prettier game than its last incarnation. The ships (often the main focus of the game) look shiny and are all consistent in their racial themes. This is good. The UI is also fitting, although small text size on higher resolutions may mean a bit of eye-strain for those of us who happen to like large resolutions. The universe map has improved, the avatar pictures are not as bad as the last time around, and, while this isn't (except for the ships) eye-candy galore, it's still solid, visually.

Sound

Sound has not seen a huge improvement over the last game, being the usual collection of beeps, boops, and soundbites in most of the screens and menus, although some of the races no longer sound as silly when they're going through their stock phrases as they used to, being voiced slightly better. Hivers still sound ridiculous, but then, nobody plays hivers for the voice, they play it for the turtling.

As far as space combat and music goes, the music is unintrusive, but still cool to listen to, while space combat is filled with the same space-opera pew-pew as the last game, slightly remastered to sound better. I'll take that improvement and like it, because, among other things, mass cannons sound meatier this time around when they hit, and this can only be a good thing. Like visuals, the sound isn't groundbreaking, but it's solid, and it works.

Gameplay

Ah. Now we come to the meat of it. See, Sword of the Stars 2, like many 4X (eXpand, eXplore, eXploit, eXterminate) games, relies on what's under the hood. And here's where the problem lies at the moment. The bare bones (basic combat, basic diplomacy, construction, colonisation) are there, but everything else is, at best, glitchy at the moment. For example, with space combat, invading a world (sort of necessary in 4X games) is a pain in the arse on manual. You will, I repeat, will, be spending 90% of the combat timer flying to the planet, and then have maybe 30 seconds to exchange blows. Whereas, if you put yourself on automatic, somehow everyone magically gets to their targets properly. It's thus a shame that, on automatic, I have yet to see a way to zoom into closeup view to see the action how it's meant to be seen. I know it happens automatically in manual under conditions like getting close to the enemy, but on automatic? Nothing. And the manual isn't all that helpful, itself being in the same state as the game.

The thing is, you can see, for the most part, what they changed from the first game, what they wanted to improve, and what they took out. For example, the game's ship scales now start at Cruisers, and get bigger from there on in, which is an interesting and useful choice. The idea of requiring diplomatic stations for anything except war, that's interesting too. The balance choices are good, like Hivers being able to get FarCasters (basically, your ships can teleport anywhere, but with a margin of error that may or may not screw them over) earlier, and the stations themselves are a good mechanic that often only turned up mid to late game in the previous outing. The problem with these good choices, of course, is that many of them aren't implemented fully yet. Diplomacy is still almost nonexistent, battle runs into the problems of the previous paragraph, along with some control issues, and the encyclopedia meant to help explain all these features is, perhaps unsurprisingly, as incomplete as the rest.

But it is improving. For example, trade is now getting somewhere, and the basic system for diplomacy is now in place (still almost nonexistent, but there, at least). This game is a very different beast from SotS 1, in that forward planning is a lot more important now. Instead of sending ships willy nilly, you have a number of fleets, commanded by admirals, and you send them on missions to systems instead of “Durr hurr, I move the ships here”. It means slightly less micro, although in late game, I'd imagine there'd be a lot to do. Diplomacy is handled by diplomatic points, which means that, until you've met a species, built a diplomatic station, exchanged diplomats, and generally gotten to know them, you can't make peace with them or trade. You can declare war, but everything else takes time and effort. And that's the key thing here. Everything takes some effort to do, so you can't just divide your attention wherever you want. You have to focus.

Just like Skyrim, what SotS2 gives with one hand, it takes with the other. Stations, for example, are easier to build and sort, but space combat is fiddly, and there's no budget ledger. This, as you might expect, leads to problems. Good example? I'm in a game as I write this, and, without warning, I've gone from 800,000 odd credits to -700K, and I can't remember what I'm meant to have built that costs so much. I suspect it was stations, but there's no way to check right now.

Otherwise, the management is alright. Things have filters, the province system (while not fully working yet) makes a lot of sense, and the game definitely has potential. Of course, some basic things haven't changed, and they do still introduce some fun challenges to the game. For example, different races have different travel methods, and it totally changes their game. Humans, for example, use a natural network of Nodespace lines (think wormholes), which means they can move quickly along those routes, but those routes may not get them anywhere faster than say, the Tarka, who have a bog-standard warp drive. Meanwhile, the Hivers are slow to get anywhere, but once they get there, they usually drop a teleport gate that, even without its early upgrade, allows instantaneous teleport of fleets throughout the network, and with it, allows them to hurl their ships up to 5 Light Years away (give or take a LY or two... coff). Each race takes a bit of getting used to, and newbies would be recommended to play the Tarka, but each is fun to play, and has their own tactics and styles. It also helps they finally have a beginner's guide, which is at least semi-useful.

Conclusion

On the one hand, the bare bones of the game are there, the potential is there, and I wouldn't trust many devs outside of Kerberos to patch this to a decent state. On the other, regardless, it's going to take at least a few months to patch it to a state where it's not just “sort of playable”, it's actually enjoyable. But if you feel like helping nurture a game to completion, by all means fork out. Those of you who are more cautious, hang back a few months, it should be cool by then.

Our time with the game reveals

SQUIDS for iOS

Peter Anargirou — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:17:16 +0000

	SQUIDS for iOS Platform: iPhone/iPod Category: Action/Adventure, RPG, Strategy	See Related Videos
9 9 7 9 9

Author: Peter Anargirou

SQUIDS is a fun new game for iOS provided to me by The Game Bakers. It just hit the App Store (early!) last night and will be available on Android soon. SQUIDS is a colorful strategy game featuring cartoon-like graphics. When black slime enters the underwater kingdom and begins corrupting, a team of heroes must band together. Of course, these heroes are squids. What else would they be? Combining turn-based strategy, light RPG, and touchscreen controls, SQUIDS is a welcome addition to mobile gaming.

Graphics

The graphics were what first drew me to SQUIDS. The art I saw looked gorgeous, and the game doesn't disappoint. It features beautiful backgrounds with a watercolor look and colorful, detailed characters. During the game, you can zoom in for detail or zoom out for strategy. You can change the way characters look by equipping different hats, which adds a nice bit of customization. Between levels, the story unfolds through various images that provide a great way to see the wonderful art.

Sound

SQUIDS features some nice music along with sound effects that are effective. If the whole game could have been voice-acted, I'd be... well... really happy. Still, I definitely don't have any reason to complain!

Gameplay

The story in SQUIDS revolves around mysterious slime entering the under water kingdom. Fate pushes together a band of squids - former war heroes, elite guards, and light-hearted thieves. The story progresses through dialogue and images between levels. It's not a complicated story, but it's entertaining and more than ample motivation to continue playing. It keeps what's happening a little mysterious, pulling you into the game to find out what's occurring.

SQUIDS is a strategy game primarily but also has RPG elements. It was clearly designed with touch controls in mind. Stretch a squid back and let go to make him or her swim forward. The more you pull back, the further the squid will move. Simple, right? A squid can only move a certain amount per turn but has a meter showing how much more movement it can make.

There are four classes of squids - scout, trooper, healer, and shooter. The scout is light and fast. His special ability is the dash, allowing you to tap for a speed boost. As you level up your scout, the scout will be able to use more boosts per turn. The trooper is the heavy-hitter. Once per turn you can tap to smash all enemies within close range, dealing damage and sending them flying. The healer can heal friendly units by bumping into them. Finally, the shooter can perform ranged attacks. Once per turn, a shooter can pick an enemy to shoot that's near him.

So, how does the game flow? There are 21 levels, and each level has a goal such as get to the exit, defeat all the enemies, or survive a certain number of turns. The game is turn-based, and you control four characters. In the setup, you can choose the order of the four, and this can definitely affect how well you perform. Troopers and shooters can use their special attack at any time - before moving, between moves, or after moving. After you take your turn with each character, the enemies then take their turns. If an enemy isn't near one of your characters, it won't bother doing anything. This is nice because personally, I don't want to have to sit there waiting for all the enemies in the level to go each turn.

As I mentioned, there are RPG elements to SQUIDS as well. As you defeat enemies or complete goals, you get pearls. Pearls can be used to purchase items and characters found in the stages or to level your characters. The shop will show items and characters that you've found, but you'll have to purchase them to be able to use them. Leveling a character will increase its stats. You can compare stats across characters to determine which you want to use. There are many items to find, and each is specific to a certain class. However, characters can equip all items for its class. You'll start with four characters, and there are eight characters total. You can have four characters on your team at a time. Between levels you're able to swap characters, but I tended to stick with a set team.

If you ever really need more pearls, you can purchase them with real money. I was fully exploring every level and completing every additional challenge (more on this later) before moving on to the next level, and I was never hurting for money. I couldn't afford everything all at once, but I didn't feel the need to perform an in-app purchase. I think this is fantastic; they don't force you to feel the need to purchase in-app currency, but you can if you want a boost.

Now, what was I saying about additional goals? This is one of my favorite aspects of the game. Besides beating the level, every level has three additional goals - find the hidden star, complete with all characters still alive, and complete within a certain number of turns. Every time you complete a goal for the first time on a level, you'll receive bonus pearls. I like to play a level first without considering additional goals at all. I'll explore the level, looking for additional items and pearls (found in treasure chests). After beating the level, I'll return and go for the additional goals. Another great thing about SQUIDS is the difficulty curve. I sailed through the first few levels. Later in the game, I started to have some trouble. I was never overly frustrated, but it's nice to lose on occasion to reinforce the idea that strategy actually does matter. Being more careful and strategizing better usually can get me through the level, but I always had the option of going back to earlier levels to complete bonus challenges as a way of earning pearls to level my characters.

Conclusion

SQUIDS is a fantastically fun game with a great, whimsical feel. I knew I wanted to play it after seeing the first vibrant screenshot. Recently I went on a vacation during which I was a passenger in a car for five hours. I wasn't driving. I was SQUIDSing. The game can definitely hold your attention for hours. What's great is that it doesn't demand that kind of time. Levels can easily be played in just a couple minutes each - perfect for mobile gaming. SQUIDS is available now for $0.99 on the App Store!

Vibrant, rich strategy game fu

Nuclear Dawn

JamieTD — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 02:13:49 +0000

Steam Store Page Homepage

	Nuclear Dawn ESRB: Platform: PC Games Category: 3D Gaming, First Person Shooter, Shooter, Strategy	See Related Videos
8 9 7 9 8

Author: JamieTD

Features
32 player multiplayer
Team voice communications
Real Time Strategy Elements

Nuclear Dawn should have a big sign on the store page. This sign, should it exist, should read “GET A HEADSET.” I'm deadly serious here, because voice comms and group tactics are extremely important in Nuclear Dawn, and a headset, trust me, makes your job a lot easier. Soldiers can warn the commander of flanking manoeuvres, commanders can let people know what they're building, and without a headset, it's like watching a bunch of headless chickens... No teamwork, just a lot of running around and clucking before eventually falling over. As an FPS with RTS elements, Nuclear Dawn relies on teamwork.

Visuals

The game uses the Source engine to power the game, and, as such, the general visuals are not exactly AAA. But the maps are still fairly interesting looking, with ruined cars, wrecked streets, and the occasional vine covering. Similarly, the visual styles of the two factions make for a good look, with the Empire holding the beefier looking weapons, while the Consortium have the most interesting building look. The weapons are mostly of the “Chunky and Exciting Detail” school of thought, generally being big, bulky, and explosive. As to the HUD, it's simple, doesn't get in the way, although the RTS side of the game is merely a top-down view of the map with a different HUD, which doesn't look great. But the important thing is, it still does what it's supposed to (although it might be useful to make research easier to look up.)

Sound

Soundwise, the game has a soundtrack that fits quite well with the concept, lots of dramatic, pulsing tunes and martial beats, although it's a lot quieter in-game. In-game, most of what you're going to hear is gunfire and explosions (the gun sound effects are okay, but again, not amazing), along with, in a good game (one with headset equipped players) the chatter of players and commanders warning about flanks, resource points, and ambushes. It's quite clear the devs intended you to wear a headset with a mike, because, without headset equipped players, the game is a lot quieter, and, as we shall see, it's also a bit of a steamroll.

Gameplay

You may have noticed that I mentioned the importance of headsets about three or four times now. This is because there is a direct correlation in-game between the amount of players with headsets (who use them), and how much you either steamroll or get steamrolled. In a game where even a quarter of the players decently communicate (and the commander is at least okay), the other team generally gets their buttocks handed to them. In a team with no headsets, it's confusing, annoying (your commander doesn't generally get the hint as quickly), and you generally lose pretty quickly.

But here's what goes on in the game. So far, there's only one game-mode and a zombie mod available, although the mods have promised more modes. Warfare, the main attraction, is a combination of control-point capture and deathmatch, with the winner being the first team to destroy the base of the other. You'll notice I said “Base”, and this is because of the RTS elements of the game.

Essentially, one player is the commander, and he is the one who builds turrets, extra spawn points, power relays, and researches advanced weapons for the team. He also has a few abilities like directly controlling his own artillery, laying down healing fields or buff fields, and, in times of desperation, going outside his bunker to kick ass and take names. Most of the game, however, he will be stuck in a small building, looking down on the battlefield and dropping buildings like a hyperactive child with LEGO bricks. He can also give attack and defend orders, which give players points if they do the right thing. Of course, the life of a commander must be protected, as he's not invincible, even when plugged into his command bunker. So keep an assault handy back at base, or an assassin may come and screw you over for a vital few seconds. In this, it's very similar to competitive RTSes, as those seconds can change the tide of battle.

The rest of the team can join one of four basic classes, each with their own special abilities and counters. Exos, for example, are the only ones to carry the seriously heavy weapons... but they're vulnerable to Stealth players, who can run rings around them, and stab them in the back. Stealth, in turn, are vulnerable to the special ability of Assault, a thermal-vision which means they can't hide. And the poor Support class is left to basically help out the rest and die a lot, depending on their kit. Each class, in turn, has the aforementioned kits, which include such things as Stealth Assassins (stabby types) or Marksmen (think Snipers with cloaking fields), while the Support come in flavours of Medic (who have gas grenades), Engineer (EMP grenades, good for cutting off power), and BBQ (Pyro, who are excellent close up building destroyers). These are just examples, and the breadth of possible tactics are high.

Another thing players need to know is that the commander can do jack if they don't capture and hold control points, while the players will be hobbled if the commander doesn't place spawn points and turrets. This is definitely not a game where you can skip the tutorial. As well as this, there is a surrender option open to the commander, which gives players a vote to, as it says on the tin, say “gg” and lose the match early. And this feature, while largely ignored by the current playerbase, shouldn't be. Because the endgame is quite horrific. If you want a good example, go read my blog post on a Nuclear Dawn game ("Thoughts on the Gaming Industry: Teamwork and the Interwubs"), but a summary of what it's like is below.

Essentially, due to the very nature of the game, the endgame often involves five to ten minutes of dying not ten feet from the very first spawn of the map. Which, if you're on the losing end, is also the very last spawn of the map. It's not fun, it's not pretty, but the game won't get marked down for it, because it gives you the surrender option. If things truly are bleak, as someone who's played the game a fair bit, I would highly recommend you take the option when it's presented in the late endgame. Otherwise, it's going to be frustrating.

As far as gameplay goes, there are very few flaws. Essentially, those flaws are that Power (one of your two resources) is not shown in the commander's HUD, and research is similarly a little difficult for new players to find. The Gizmo system (rank unlocks) are slightly annoying, but then, they've been a bit annoying in every game with said feature, so no real score down for that. Some people have complained about classes being overpowered or underpowered, but the only class consistently considered a little UP is the Support, and most of the people complaining a class is OP are the ones who play that sort of class regularly, from what I can gather. To me, this just shows that, if you know a niche really well, the game's designed for you to take your skillset and own the game with it, not that the class itself is overpowered. The best example? the Exo. Looks tough, is tough, but can be countered quite easily by at least two kits (Assassin and Marksman, especially if an Engineer throws an EMP grenade at the poor Exo).

Continue to Page 2

Game-Boyz basks in glory and c

Worms: Ultimate Mayhem Trailer'd!

JamieTD — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 18:09:04 +0000

So, last week, we talked about Worms: Ultimate Mayhem. Now, you get to see the sort of thing that goes on. It'll be released for PC, XBLA, and PSN on the 21st of this month (yep, that's right, 3 days time), and, as you can see, it's Worms... but 3D. There are definitely some good ideas on display here (like seeing the actual helicopter that does the air-strike), but the gameplay itself? we'll see...

Author: JamieTD

The first trailer for Worms: U

Free DLC for Starpoint Gemini

JamieTD — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:52:24 +0000

Free DLC for Starpoint Gemini

Platform: PC Games
Category: RPG, Space Sims, Strategy

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The new Gladiator Pack adds co

English DLC Download German DLC Download

Author: JamieTD

Released on the 5th of this month, the Gladiator Pack for LGM's Starpoint Gemini, tactical space RPG, introduces four new ships, 50 special systems, all of which can be earned from the new Stadium Sector of Outer Horizon, new battle situations, and thus some new story.

The best part? It's completely free, as a big "Thank You!!!" from LGM and Iceberg for the player support, or, in the words of LGM's CEO, Mario Mihokovic:

"We feel there's no better way to thank all fans of Starpoint Gemini, Iceberg Interactive and Little Green Men for their tremendous support than offering a free add-on to the game and we hope gamers like this little gift called SPG Gladiators."

New Worms Releases, DLC and... 3D Worms?

JamieTD — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:37:54 +0000

New Worms Releases, DLC and... 3D Worms?

Platform: Xbox 360
Category: 3rd Person: Action, Family Fun, Strategy

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Team 17 continues releases of

Team 17 Homepage Steam Store Page

Author: JamieTD

Team 17 had, until a few years ago, been quite quiet in GamingLand, until they came back to storm our computers and consoles with their old franchises, resurrected and given a new lick of paint. Now, they're making a very interesting move... to 3D.

Worms: Ultimate Mayhem is, effectively, Worms Armageddon, in 3D. And I'm genuinely not sure yet what to make of that. On the one hand, it could be the best thing since sliced Super Sheep. On the other, I still remember the disaster when another 2D strategy franchise, Lemmings, went 3D. To be honest, though, I'm hoping for the former, as Worms in 3D could very well mean players can get *truly* amazing skill-shots. We shall see, however.

Continuing to support their older games in the series as well, XBox Marketplace now has the "Time Attack" pack for Worms: Armageddon. This DLC gives you 20 new race maps, both rope and jetpack, to test your skill against, and should add a fair few hours of fun to the game.

Worms: Ultimate Mayhem is currently available for pre-order on Steam, and will be released later this month for PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.

Game-Boyz is cautiously looking forward to Ultimate Mayhem, and wishes Team 17 the best of luck!

Men of War: Vietnam

Peter Anargirou — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 07:19:13 +0000

	Men of War: Vietnam Platform: PC Games Category: Action Games, Simulation, Strategy	See Related Videos
8 7 8 7 7.5

Author: Peter Anargirou

1C Company recently gave me their latest tactical, military game, Men of War: Vietnam, to review. It's very difficult for me (in other words, I'm terrible), but I've also been having a lot of fun. I was impressed with the game when I first previewed it over a year ago at 1C Company's Another Night in Moscow event, so I was pretty excited to finally get some time to play it. There are lots of excellent details in the game such as inventory management, the ability to reload and unload weapons, and direct control of soldiers. Men of War: Vietnam definitely requires a lot of strategy and tactical thinking. As someone who doesn't usually play strategy games often, it was extremely difficult. However, I can say that it was not overwhelming like I was thinking it might be!

Men of War: Vietnam is rated T and was released today, 9/7/11, for $34.99. I played it on Steam, but it's releasing on most major online retailers as well. My Steam version listed Steam Cloud as a feature, but neither settings nor saved games were stored in the cloud. This might be due to the game not being released yet, but I'm not sure. It also features achievements for beating the various levels and the game on different difficulties. I'm always happy to see achievements included, but I would have enjoyed seeing more varied achievements that rewarded doing something extra besides normal progression.

Men of War is an on-going series of tactical war games for the PC. Previously, the series has always been set in World War 2. Men of War: Vietnam marks Men of War's entry into a new era - the Vietnam War. The game features two campaigns. The first follows the Russians helping the North Vietnamese. This is the first time I have seen the Russian perspective on the Vietnam War. The second campaign, as you would probably expect, follows the Americans. Each campaign contains five missions. In addition to single player, Men of War: Vietnam features a co-op mode as well. I've never played a game taking place during the Vietnam War. In fact, this is the first time I've even heard of one. As most gamers would agree, war is an excellent subject for a game, but I'm getting tired of seeing the American and British perspectives of World War 1 and 2 over and over. Men of War: Vietnam is a very nice change and is extremely interesting.

Let me give an overview of the type of game this is. I am tempted to call it a strategy game. Yes, it requires strategy; however, when I say strategy game, most people think of something along the lines of Command & Conquer, Warcraft, or Starcraft. Well, those are very different than Men of War: Vietnam. You won't be building structures, worrying about economy, or controlling vast armies of hundreds of units. Rather, you'll be controlling of a handful of soldiers while desperately trying to stay alive and defeat the enemy. You'll be taking specific control of a small number of units with a lot more detail. Men of War: Vietnam is very realistic. 1C is known for realistic games and simulations. This game is no exception.

Men of War: Vietnam looks great. It also ran well even on my laptop - a computer definitely not designed with gaming in mind. The laptop is an i3 with 4 GB of RAM and integrated graphics. It might not have looked amazing with the graphics settings all turned very low, but it still looked decent and ran incredibly well. Of course, the game ran well and looked fantastic on a gaming desktop! 1C did a good job with the audio as well. Men of War: Vietnam features realistic sound effects that I enjoyed. I especially liked the music. It's just what you'd expect for Vietnam - rock! The game contains a lot of voice acting as well. Whenever there's written dialogue, there's voice acting to go along with it. This is great, because I'd much hear the lines delivered correctly than read them. All of the dialogue was in English, but various regional accents were used. Some (a lot) were a bit cheesy but very enjoyable.

Men of War: Vietnam opens with the Russian campaign. After an American attack, leaving only four Russian and Vietnamese survivors. Not being able to count on anyone else for extraction, you have to find a way out on your own! Later in the campaign you do eventually find some reinforcements. I won't spoil any details, but you do get to control boats, drive tanks and trucks, wield machine guns, rifles, pistols, and knives, use various grenades, shoot RPGs, defend areas, attack zones, and sneak through hotspots. You're always outnumbered, and the game is always extremely difficult in my opinion, even on easy.

The American campaign gives you the other side of the war. You'll have to rescue American POWs, avoid landmines by watching the paths of enemy patrols, and be wary of alleged civilians that might turn on you! These were the kinds of things I was excited about seeing when I first heard about Men of War: Vietnam, and it didn't disappoint. The only problem I really have the game with at all, as I mentioned previously, is the difficulty. I know it might not be a genre with which I have a ton of experience, I spent hours on the first mission alone - on easy mode. There needs to be some sort of "I'm six years old. What's a keyboard?" mode for me I guess! I had to go through a lot of trial and error to proceed through the game. The biggest advice I can give it to go slowly. Change the game speed to slow, be careful and thorough with your decisions, and save often!

Every level opens with a cutscene showing what's happening. Next a map is displayed while objectives are discussed. Both of these things are very helpful in providing context for the game, and I think 1C made a great decision by including both. I do wish that I could pull up that map during the game. The in-game map isn't as detailed, and I get lost sometimes.

Units are selected with the mouse and can be grouped into squads. Unfortunately, you can't put a unit in multiple groups. This is disappointing to me because it's sometimes convenient to have a unit in multiple. Once a unit is selected, click somewhere to send them on their way! If there is cover available at that location of your mouse cursor while units are selected, silhouettes of your units in the cover will be displayed. Clicking will have your units move there and take cover. Say there are some bushes and a car next to them surrounded by open terrain. Clicking in the open terrain causes your soldier to go stand there in the open. When the cursor is moved to the car or bushes, you'll see the available cover positions centered at the mouse cursor. If you place the cursor in front of the car with three soldiers selected, you might see cover positions for two soldiers and cover for a third in the bushes next to the car. Because the car only provides cover for two people in this case, the third would take cover in the nearby bushes. If the cursor was placed over the bushes and the bushes only had room for two people, the third might take cover behind the car. If there isn't cover available for everybody close enough, everyone will walk over it, and those that can will take cover. Your other units will stand near the cover. The cover systems works really well. As you move the cursor over possible cover locations, you'll see all your different options. This is really great because you can scan over the area until you see the setup you want before you send your troops into the field.

Men of War: Vietnam gives you a huge amount of control. You can specifiy whether you want your soldier to stand, crouch, or lay prone. You can reload and unload your weapon (for passing ammo between soldiers). You can change auto-targeting, alter game speed, use turrets, tow turrets behind vehicles. There is an intricate amount of details. Each soldier even has his own inventory. You can reorganize it, drop items to make room or to give to another soldier, search containers and bodies, change to different type of ammo, use various grenades (smoke, AP, etc.), and heal with medical kits. You'll need to correctly manage inventories. For example, everyone should carry medical kits.

I loved seeing the Vietnam war in Men of War: Vietnam. It's a different type of war than I'm used to seeing in games. I would enjoy seeing more games explore Vietnam. Men of War: Vietnam has an amazing amount of detail. Clearly I've mentioned a few minor gripes I have with the game, such as putting units in multiple groups or more creative achievements, but the only significant problem I had was the difficulty. There are three difficulties from which to choose, and while each is mor difficult than the previous, there needs to be an easier choice. I'm giving Men of War: Vietnam the benefit of the doubt. I know I'm not great at this genre, and I think it's my lack of skill, not the game. 1C always pour in the details and expects you to give back the same effort to succeed. However, it'd be nice if the game accounted for people like me! Men of War: Vietnam is a very full game for a bargain price. It also taught me a very lesson - to be thankful I never had to fight in Vietnam, because I definitely would not have survived!

The tactical series from 1C de

Hearts of Iron III: For The Motherland

JamieTD — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:12:59 +0000

	Hearts of Iron III: For The Motherland ESRB: Platform: PC Games Category: Strategy	See Related Videos
5 6 6 6 5.5

Author: JamieTD

Hearts of Iron 3 is a pausable real-time historical strategy sim, which, in true paradox style, means that, to play the game well, you need to have read the manual, browsed the forums a bit, and experimented a lot to get the hang of things, although, as with most of Paradox's releases, the load can be lightened, slightly, by allowing the AI to control certain areas. Lots of options to pick from, lots of things to think about, so if you don't like spending about half an hour looking at charts and mentally calculating odds before doing anything, Hearts of Iron 3 isn't the game for you. But what, specifically, does this new addon bring to the mix?

Well, the most important feature it brings means that, even if the enemy has occupied a few countries you own, or even a lot of them, you still have the chance to fight back. Historically, a lot of countries formed resistance movements to their conquerors, and the Underground HQ building allows you to do just that, with the choice of either spawning a guerilla unit as soon as you build up the strength, or expanding the resistance movement. It's not always a good idea, as their strength depends on support within the area, and resistance units far from an airbase will start weak, easy prey to the main factor in reducing partisan strength, units with a high Suppresion Value. But it's an extra option.

The addon also reshuffles the government system, by no longer allowing espionage to influence neutrality (Neutrality is instead based on the highest threat), and adding a layer of complexity to the game by introducing coups (best done when you have a strong party presence in that country, and every other party is squabbling among themselves), and representation within the cabinet, which basically means that the stronger a party, the more they will cause trouble if they're not on your cabinet, and the more division and strife there'll be if you let them join the cabinet. Air ranges have now been made more clear, and the USA also has an extra option with “The Undeclared War”, which allows nations who are under the US's Lend Lease Agreement to attack German units in the Atlantic without having to declare war, a useful option for tying up the German navy.

5 extra scenarios, which basically involve smaller maps, strict goals, and mostly disabled options (You can't, for example, control intelligence or politics during the scenarios) are also included. All five represent important theaters of World War 2: Operation Desert Fox, the Battle of the Bulge, Fall Blau, the Southern Conquests, and Operation – Unthinkable. Each scenario can be played with one of at least two nations (Desert Fox, for example, is Italy versus the UK), and each nation can accept as many or as few victory conditions from the list as they want (The basic UK conditions, for example, are to take and hold Tarabula by the end of the scenario, which is about eight or nine provinces away from the nearest UK unit). While each scenario is pretty much focussed on the military end of things, don't assume it's any easier, because each scenario is based upon some of the most tactically difficult theatres of WW2, and, as such, they're extremely challenging.

Finally, there are various military changes, such as an improved theatre screen that allows you to refine AI control, wargoals for each theatre as opposed to the surrender option of previous patches (allowing you to do more than just conquer a country, and giving you points based on whether you did what you came for, not just whether you lost more units than the other person), and extra strategic resources basically give you a little more to think about before letting the timer run on.

But, even though the addon does change a few of the important features, and, from what I can tell, these changes are useful, it's still a game that requires several hours of prep time and research before your first game, is quite difficult to learn, has minimalist graphics, and a lot of windows to keep an eye on from turn to turn. As such, if you're not a hardcore turn based strategy buff, stay away.

Game-Boyz takes another leap i

Allied Star Police for iOS

Peter Anargirou — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 21:22:59 +0000

	Allied Star Police for iOS Platform: iPhone/iPod Category: Strategy	See Related Videos
7 7 7 10 8

Author: Peter Anargirou

Allied Star Police, developed by PopCap's 4th & battery, is an RTS / defense game. You send waves of units along a straight path to battle the enemy's units. What makes it so special? It was designed by nine-year-old Owain through the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation for the iOS.

As this is a game review, I feel I should start by talking about the game proper. The evil Flamions are invading! As commander of the Allied Star Police, your job is to push them back! To do this, you select the unit you'd like to create with more powerful units being more expensive. Next, select one of four lanes. The unit will start on the left at your base and immediately begins traveling toward the enemy base. You'll gain money over time and for defeating enemy units. You'll want to think strategically when it comes to units and lanes. For example, snipers shoot far but are very weak. They should be placed behind the highly armored tanks. The graphics and audio are both nice in ASP although there are only three levels, Earth (easiest), Mars, and the Flamion's homeworld (hardest). The game is relatively short but definitely fun.

Owain Weinert was diagnosed with leukemia. His dream was to create a video game. Make-A-Wish partnered with PopCap to make that dream a reality. There aren't many nine-year-old game designers of whom I'm aware! I think Owain did a great job.

It's absolutely fantastic of Make-A-Wish and PopCap to do this for Owain. The game is enjoyable, but I'll be honest, ASP itself isn't anything out of the ordinary. It's relatively average. It doesn't have any real flaws, but it's a short game and not genre redefining. However, I do think most people that download it will enjoy it. It's currently free on the App Store, so there's no reason to wait! You can read more about it on PopCap's site, and there's a link to donate to Make-A-Wish there as well. I donated.

Make-A-Wish and PopCap help ni

Supreme Ruler: Cold War

Peter Anargirou — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:52:43 +0000

	Supreme Ruler: Cold War Platform: PC Games Category: Simulation, Strategy	See Related Videos
4 5 7 6 6

Author: Peter Anargirou

This past week, I've spent some quality time with Supreme Ruler: Cold War, provided to me by Paradox. This strategy/simulation game takes place, as the title would suggest, during the Cold War. In the campaign mode, you can control either the United States or the Soviet Union, and in the sandbox mode, you can choose any nation. The goal is to use diplomacy, trade, espionage, research, and economic policy to influence the nations of the world. You can take full control of everything from policy to actual unit control. I had never put any significant amount of time into this type of game. I knew I was going to be in over my head, and boy, I was right!

To start playing, I jumped directly into the main campaign as the United States. I didn't know what I was doing, but I wanted to experience the game without any knowledge. Some of Supreme Ruler was self-explanatory. There was a mini-map in the corner and an information center in the opposite corner with a huge amount of statistics and buttons. Along the side of the screen, important notices were displayed, grouped by category. Some were simply informational while others required me to make a choice. For example, I might be able to choose whether I support a decision of another country, condemn it, or refuse to comment. I also realized quickly that I could right-click on the terrain to bring up a menu. From there I could build new structures.

Let's interrupt here to discuss the game's polish. It ran fairly smoothly on my PC, and I definitely didn't run into any bugs. On the fastest game speed, there was occasional slowing if I did something to a high number of units at once, but this seemed quite excusable to me. The music and sound were fine; however, I have to admit that the graphics looked dated. I'm not usually harsh on graphics, but if I had seen screenshots without knowing anything about the game, I wouldn't have believed the game was released within the past decade. That said, Supreme Ruler is definitely not about the graphics. It's about simulation, and it does that very well.

After getting the raw experience, I read through the manual to get a feel for how to control things and then jumped back into the game. An interesting aspect of the game is your advisors. The advisors make decisions for you. You can choose whether to let them make decisions or lock them from making any decisions, letting you do it all yourself. Even if you choose to let them make decisions, you can still influence them. You can also choose what areas on which to focus by deciding how much money to give to it. I also enjoyed the space race aspect of the game. The space race was an integral part of the Cold War. In Supreme Ruler, you can choose whether to focus on it heavily or ignore it. I still have to admit that after hours in the game, I didn't fully understand what was happening. I was playing it, but I wasn't in full control.

Included in my press copy of the game was a save file to start directly before the Korean War, a key part of the Cold War. Using what I learned from my earlier play in the campaign, I decided to try it out. After North Korea made its move, I increased the priority of the regions around Korea and immediately saw troops begin to move. I then publicly condemned North Korea and increased military funding. I especially enjoyed watching the border between North and South Korea. As the war waged, the border would change shape. Taking direct controls of my troops, I sent most of my troops to take out a single base. This aspect of the game was a lot of fun, while the macro-management of policy seemed tedious to me.

There was one important aspect of the game that I hadn't yet tried - thermonuclear war. North Korea was going to get it, so I pressed the red button. Yes, there was a red button. Of course, I forgot to reassign my targets, so the US launched missiles at the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union immediately retaliated. The United States was condemned by the world community. After increasing funding substantially and raising military production, I ran out of money and had food and other resource shortages. It's a good thing I saved ahead of time.

Supreme Ruler: Cold War is a superb simulator. There are a ton of things going on at once. You can control things at a macro level, influencing policy, and you can control things at a micro level, moving individual units. Of course, everything between the two is fair game as well. In fact, it felt like there was too much to control. It's hard to keep track of everything, and there's no real way to know how to go about reaching goals. In a game, the player is given a goal, taught how to reach the goals, and finally allowed to try to reach the goal. Supreme Ruler: Cold War is more simulator and less game, showing users an in-depth simulation and welcoming them to see what effects their actions would have. Unfortunately, frequently there's little way to know what most actions would ultimately do. Supreme Ruler: Cold War gives you a ton of control over every little thing, but please, read the manual and be patient! It's available now through digital distribution for $29.99!

See how this new Cold War simu

Pride of Nations

JamieTD — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:42:48 +0000

Pride of Nations ESRB: Platform: PC Games Category: Strategy	See Related Videos
6 6 7 7 6.5

Author: JamieTD

Pride of Nations, developed by AGEOD and published by Paradox, is a turn based historical simulation strategy game. Essentially, this means that, if you don’t like anything slower paced than Supreme Commander 2, this is definitely not for you. Lots of tables, rules, policies, and numbers are the stock in trade of Pride of Nations, and it takes a fairly hefty brain to take it all in. But once you wrap your head around it, it’s interesting and enjoyable.

Taking it as a turn based strategy, however, it does so some interesting things. Diplomacy, for example, is just as cautious and fraught with peril as it was in the 19th century, or indeed today in the 21st, and the character of the 19th century is aptly demonstrated by things like having to declare a Cassus Belli (Cause for War), unless you want to be seen as an uncultured lout (lose points), or you’re invading a “tribal” nation (because, in the 19th century, sad as it is to say, places like Biafra, or even Korea, “didn’t count” as countries) . Similarly, the game is quite helpful, in that you can leave the AI to run certain areas of the game, freeing you up to do things like form a mighty German empire, or turn the Colonial US into an economic superpower rivalling Great Britain.

Combat will come second nature to anyone who’s played a game like Total War, Europa Universalis, or the like, as it’s essentially rock-paper-cannon (replaced later with other interesting historical units), with the sensible complication of supply lines. Supply is decidedly important in this game, as anyone who tries to invade Russia in winter will already know, and those of you who are inclined toward dominance should play cautiously at first, or else lose everything early on.

This isn’t actually a bad thing, because the game is trying to give you a capsule version of the whole world, and there’s a lot of information contained in the UI. Military mode, for example, shows the units, and allows for conscription, but move to Trade mode, and all of a sudden, you have resources, supply lines, mines and farms and factories to construct. Then go to the social advisor, and check on the contentment of your people, what religion they are, and what sort of education they’re getting. Research is, thankfully, fairly simple, allowing you to quickly work out what benefit the research will give you, although the main way to find out how long it will take is to suck it and see.

This isn’t to say that the game doesn’t have its flaws. For example, the game’s tutorial is, frankly, flimsy, and so you are required to read the manual, screw about, and make mistakes, to learn the intricacies of the game.

An important note: This definitely isn’t Civ, and as such, it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to dislodge or conquer all, or even a few of the Great Powers. Your main goal is to earn Prestige, whether from getting your nation’s goals (for example, Unification of Germany for Prussia), successfully winning “Missions” (such as having the greatest army in Europe for 80% of 10 years), or winning diplomatic disputes (A note of caution: You can see the chance a nation will go to war with you over something, make sure you keep it fairly low unless you can get Just Cause. I learned that the hard way over Samoa). Research is also not a game breaker, as, while you get prestige for researching things first, your inventions rapidly spread, and so you can’t win PoN just through research.

The graphics are also obviously designed for screens of less than stellar resolution, because my 1920x1080 monitor shows the game’s text (boodles and boodles of it) and buttons in amazing Eye-Strain-O-Vision, so it’s recommended to go to the Paradox forums for the game and find a mod to fix this. There have also been a few complaints about the fact that the UI doesn’t have buttons for the various advisors, only hotkeys, and, to my mind, this is a valid complaint. There’s a lot of information to take in, and if you can’t see how to get to it without reading the manual, this is a definite negative point. For those expecting 3d, nope, this game shows a lot of information, and so it’s 2d. But the world looks good, the units each have their nations’ uniforms of the time, and, apart from the aforementioned tiny icons and text, the game mostly has a good look to it.

Most, if not all of the sound you hear in Pride of Nations is the music, and, while the music fits the period, there are some times when it becomes annoying, such as the first time you load the game. During this excruciating period, the game’s theme at first pleases, with it’s bombastic brass, then bores, and finally annoys. But don’t worry, that’s only the first time you load, every time after that is fairly quick and smooth. In-game, there are different styles of music for different nations, and each has at least one tune specifically for the nation.

Overall, this is a great strategy game, with a lot of flavour, and it’ll only take a bit of work from the developers to make it excellent. And both the devs and the community are working on it, so we look forward to lots of fun!

Game Boyz takes a look at Para

Kard Combat for iOS

Peter Anargirou — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 05:02:17 +0000

	Kard Combat for iOS Platform: iPhone/iPod Category: Card games, Strategy	See Related Videos
7 9 8 9 9

Author: Peter Anargirou

Kard Combat by Hothead Games is a new strategy card game for the iOS. What first made me especially interested in the game was that it was co-created by Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The Gathering as well as countless other strategic card games. Kard Combat didn't disappoint. There is a lot of strategy involved, and it's very fun!

First, let's go over the basic gameplay. There are five mana pools. Each mana pool increases by one each turn. Under each mana pool are cards you can choose to play. Cards have a cost, attack, health, and effect. Most cards have all those attributes, but some don't stay in play, so they lack attack and health. Players take turns playing one card per turn. Above your mana pools are six creature slots. Put a creature down and it'll attack every turn after that first. After you play a card, all of your creatures (except the one played on that turn if applicable) will attack. Above your row of six creatures is your opponent's row of creatures. If there is an opposing creature to your creature, the opposing creature's new health will be it's old health minus your creature's attack. If it reaches zero, it dies. The defending creature does not attack back, and it's health does not reset to full after each turn. If there is no opposing creature, you'll attack your opponent's health directly. When that reaches zero, you win!

Kard Combat features a duel mode that is basically a free play. However, the real meat of the game is in the Tower mode. Basically it containts four different campaigns, one for each deck, with progressively harder stages. Anyone who has played a collectible card game will understand quickly that while gameplay is the same across each mage (deck type), there are subtle difference. I like the machine mage because his cards do additional automatic attacks. As you complete levels, you can unlock additional cards for your decks.

The game looks and sounds great. Clearly the graphics aren't the main concern in a card game, and while they're not jaw dropping, there are definitely no flaws here. Kard Combat uses both Open Feint and Game Center for achievements. You can play online against random opponents or your friends, which is a great touch. The bet part about online play is that you can be in multiple games at once, and you can exit the game while waiting for your opponent to play. I'm actually in a bunch of games right now, and even when I'm busy working writing a review, I can check my matches when I take a break and take my turns in each.

Kard Combat is an absolutely fantastic game. The game is free to download and play with additional DLC. You can get a ton of enjoyment without ever paying. However, each tower has 33 levels, and you get the first four of each for free. You can unlock one tower fully for $0.99 or all four for $2.99. I think it's worth the $2.99, but if you don't want to spend, don't worry: the multiplayer is free! Do you want to play with me? First, get Kard Combat from the App Store, then add me! I'm MrDevee on Game Center and MrUser on Open Feint. Let's play!

Kard Combat is an absolutely f

Another Night in Moscow 2011

Peter Anargirou — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 04:10:12 +0000

Another Night in Moscow 2011

Platform: Xbox 360
Category: Action Games, Action/Adventure, Racing, Real Time Strategy, RPG, Shooter, Simulation, Space Sims, Strategy

See Related Videos

Take a look at all of 1C Compa

Author: Peter Anargirou

Last week I had the pleasure of attending Another Night in Moscow 2011. It was my second time attending Russian game publisher 1C Company's fantastic annual event held at the Russian Consulate in San Francisco. Founded in 1991, 1C Company is the largest publisher and distributor of video games in Eastern and Central Europe. On 7/7, I got to check out all of their latest and greatest titles, eat authenticate Russian food, and of course, drink a lot of vodka.

Ghost of Moscow: Death to Spies

Ghost of Moscow is the newest installment in 1C's stealth action series, Death to Spies. It will be released in Q4 2011 and is being developed by Haggard Games for the PC and 360. Ghost of Moscow introduces Captain Strogov from the Soviet Counterintelligence Service. The story has now progressed to 10 years after World War 2 finished deep in the Cold War. Players can manually switch between three different characters each with his or her own skills. Environments include North America, Cuba, and Europe. Ghost of Moscow uses a brand new engine and features a variety of gadgets, mini-games such as lock-picking, poisoning drinks, etc., and a spy sense to help make decisions. This is one I'm going to track with interest.

Royal Quest

Developed by Katauri Interactive, Royal Quest is an MMORPG releasing in 2011. The game takes place in a world called Aura and is filled with magic, alchemy, and technology that has a great steampunk aesthetic. When the kingdom becomes threatened by dark alchemists, the king seeks adventurers, offering titles, castles, and lands as rewards. I played an early version of the game and really enjoyed it even if it wasn't in English. In my experience, I explored, found many monsters featuring fantastic, colorful, detailed art, and clicked random buttons wondering what my skills did. It was good fun.

I was informed that there was a lot more to the game. You can capture castles to gain resources as well as obtain gardens, goldmines, or lakes as bonuses for more benefits. You'll need to defend you castles as well. When you defeat someone in PVP, you actually get some of their loot as a reward but will need to take it back to your guild to identify it. You can find cards on monsters and use them to upgrade items and enchant them with unique abilities. Elemental weapons add additional strategy: a strong fire sword won't help against a fire enemy while a weak frost sword will be great. Of course, what MMORPG would be complete without pets? Pets in Royal Quest follow you around, providing cosmetic and minor stat increases. They will need care and can weaken enemies and increase loot.

Royal Quest will be free to play but will be supported by microtransactions. After playing the game, I was heavily reminded of Ragnarok Online, but I saw bits of King's Bounty, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and more. I think it's going to be a fun game, and I'm looking forward to the beta. If you want to see the gorgeous art for yourself, you might want to watch the trailer!

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

Heroes of Stalingrad is a new FPS releasing in August 2011 and developed by Tripwire Interactive for the PC using Unreal Engine 3. The game focuses on the Battle of Stalingrad and related operations from July 1942 to February 1943. Its levels are based on actual locations using real photographs. The single player features both German and Russian campaigns as well as non-linear, non-scripted environments. The multiplayer features modes such as Firefight (Deathmatch), Countdown, and Territory. Heroes of Stalingrad also has an interesting feature called Heroes. Becoming a Hero online allows you to inspire nearby troops, cause fear in enemies, gain access to the best and rarest weapons, and become visually distinguished from non-Heroes.

Another interesting aspect of the game is realistic tank control. Rather than having you control the tank as if you actually were the tank like most games do, Heroes of Stalingrad puts you in the tank. You're actually inside the tank with a fully modeled interior and AI crew. There are even armor and damage systems to simulate driving an actual tank. The game features a cover system complete with the ability to peek out and blind fire. Of course, it also features online stat tracking and achievements.

Off-Road Drive

Developed by 1C-Avalon, Off-Road Drive is a racing / simulation game being released in Q4 2011 for PC. As the title suggests, it's about off-roading, but it has a very high attention to detail. For example, driving through the mud actually leaves ruts. These don't just look like tracks; they actually change the shape of the terrain and effect trucks that come behind you. The game features very realistic physics with trucks sinking in the dirt, mud sticking to tires, and stones getting thrown behind you, damaging other vehicles. Off-Road Drive will take players through swamps, rocks, snow and sand across Thailand, South Africa, Russia, Malaysia, USA (Northern California), and Australia. It features 42 (the ultimate number, you know) tracks, 20 customizable trucks, realistic truck damage, and LAN and Internet play for up to 4 players. I played Off-Road Drive last year at Another Night in Moscow 2010 and really enjoyed it both years. Luckily it's release isn't too long from now! Watch the trailer to see just how realistic the game is!

Star Wolves 3: Ashes of Victory

What's better than an RPG? An RPG in space of course! Ashes of Victory is the latest RPG / space-sim published by 1C and developed by Elite Games Team for the PC. Releasing in 2011, it features an in-depth storyline that advances the plot of the series as a stand-alone add-on to Star Wolves 3: Civil War. We've posted a trailer, so take a look to get a feel for the game! Ashes of Victory features multiple endings, free roaming, free mission selection, and free team forming. In short, you can do what you please! The game covers more than 110 star systems and has re-worked tactical and RPG systems. While I didn't get to spend as much time with this as I would have liked, I definitely liked what I did experience.

Men of War: Condemned Heroes

A lot of people know 1C for its Men of War series, and Condemned Heroes is the latest in that line. It's a strategy/action game for the PC developed by 1C-SoftClub set to release in Q1 of 2012. Condemned Heroes follows a Soviet penal battalion during World War 2 formed under Stalin's "No Step Back" order #227. After being court-martialed, soldiers were allowed to redeem themselves in a penal battalion where they were assigned the most dangerous tasks in the war. Who knew you could learn fascinating history from video games? Well, 1C knew this it seems.

Condemned Heroes features 4 campaigns consisting of 15 missions. Taking place from 1942 through 1945, it tells the truth about how these battalions really functioned. 1C used actual military consultants from the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation! The game will include an encyclopedia giving more information about the operations. I had played games in the Men of War series previously, but I was especially impressed with the direction of Condemned Heroes.

Men of War: Assault Squad

Oh, you want more Men of War coverage? Sure thing! Two new DLC packs for Assault Squad developed by DMS/Best Way were shown off. The first, "MP Supply Pack Alpha" was released previously on April 25 and contains five new competitive multiplayer maps. The second, "Skirmish Pack - Not a step back!" will be released on July 14. It features five new skirmish missions, one for each faction (USA, Germany, Soviet Union, Commonwealth, and Japan). It also has new mission objectives such as defending strategic points against enemy waves until a counter-attack can be launched. Attacks vary each time, giving more replayability to the DLC. The DLC can be played alone or with up to eight players cooperatively.

Men of War: Vietnam

Okay, okay. One more Men of War title. Developed by 1C-SoftClub, Men of War: Vietnam was shown again this year. It's finally being released this Autumn, and I'm glad to see a game explore Vietnam. The game features two campaigns set in early 1968. In the US campaign, the focus is on elite spec-ops soldiers. Each has his own unique personality. Sometimes they're alone, and sometimes they have regular troops with them to help. The second campaign tells the story of two Soviet military consultants and soldiers of the North Vietnam Army who are the only survivors of a US ambush. Players are tasked with guiding them back to North Vietnam territory without radios or wheeled vehicles.

Men of War: Vietnam will explore the Ho Chi Minh trail ambush, the Mekong Delta, Cambodia and Laos raids, and even bridge defense. New weapons and units include the M-16, T-54, M-113, Patton III, M-60, AK-47, M-15, RPG-2, M-72 LAW, RPK, and more. Fighting the enemy and setting up ambushes was a lot of fun, but I think I had the most fun just setting the jungle on fire! Don't take my word for it; check out the trailer.

Continue to Page 2

Real Warfare 2: Northern Crusades

Peter Anargirou — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 04:03:39 +0000

In Real Warfare 2: Northern Crusades, you get to join the Teutonic Order and see what the crusades were really like!

Author: Peter Anargirou

See what the Teutonic Order is