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Anomaly: Warzone Earth Finally Coming to XBLA in 2012 (Yay)

Dave Oshry — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:30:16 +0000

11 Bit studios critically acclaimed “Tower Offense” game Anomaly: Warzone Earth is finally coming to XBLA next spring. How criticially acclaimed? 94% on Metacritic. That’s like Arkham City good. All batmen aside, here’s the rundown from 11bit:

The ultimate Tower Offense strategy game tasks you with saving near-future Earth from an alien onslaught. The unwelcome invaders have captured the world’s major cities, building huge turrets that destroy everything in their path. It’s up to you to lead an armored squad through the streets of cities like Baghdad and Tokyo. By putting you on the attack, Anomaly Warzone Earth turns tower defense on its head and presents an extraordinary mixture of action and real-time strategy perfectly suited to the Xbox 360.

- Enjoy innovative Tower Offense gameplay – you’re the attacking side!
- Experience a new approach to strategy games on consoles – a strategy game designed to be played with a gamepad.
- Dive into six Xbox-exclusive Tactical Trials levels that will test your puzzle-solving skills in the Anomaly world.
- Play for hours on end in the engaging story campaign, as well as the two exciting Squad Assault Modes.
- Immerse yourself in the game with great visuals and atmospheric audio.

For more information, visit http://anomalythegame.com.

Or you could just watch the Cynical Brit talk about it in a funny accent:

If you can’t wait, you can always get the game right now on Steam or your iThingy.

Bioware Is Developing Command & Conquer Generals 2

Catherine Cai — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:38:35 +0000

The screenshot that leaked a few days back that revealed that Bioware is developing the next Command & Conquer is, indeed, true.

Bioware will be developing the sequel to Command & Conquer: Generals. Watch the trailer below. Really, there’s not much more than a few seconds of the same old, but we’re excited anyway… except it’s coming in 2013.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Command & Conquer: Generals 2 – VGA 2011: Exclusive Debut Trailer HD, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Trion Launches New “Warfront” Weekly Webcast for End of Nations

Jensen Walker — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:12:11 +0000

If you’re looking for insider news and views on Trion’s upcoming MMORTS, the developer has just launched a new weekly webcast known as “Warfront.”

End of Nations Warfront will contain interviews with the End of Nations team, new gameplay videos, exclusive sneak peeks at new artwork, updates on the beta program, and more.

Each episode can be viewed at their Facebook page or via Youtube, and we have the first video available below. Warfront is hosted by Cole Marshall, who is fairly entertaining in the first installment. For further information on End of Nations, head over to the official website.

League of Legends Releases New Blood Lord Vladimir Trailer

Jensen Walker — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:30:18 +0000

League of Legends’ Crimson Reaper has undergone a revamp, with new voice over, spell effects, and animations added to the character.

As of today, the updated version of Blood Lord Vladimir is available to play, and Riot Games have released a trailer to tempt you into doing so.

According to the League of Legends website, a teenaged Vladimir ‘brutally murdered two boys his age, for no better reason than to enjoy the intoxicating scarlet bloom that surged forth.’ He then realized immediately that he would never be able to suppress his murderous desires. This led him down a dark path in which he learned manipulate and control a person’s blood. All in all, he seems a really nice fellow.

You can view the trailer below, and head on over to the official site for more.

RipTen Review: Nuclear Dawn (PC)

Sam Naylor — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:13:26 +0000

Nuclear Dawn is a game with real ambition. It sets out to be the game every PC gamer has imagined – an RTS where the troops are real players, playing a FPS. Does it realise the dream, though?

Developed by InterWave Studios, Nuclear Dawn is a multiplayer shooter which allows one player per team to take the hot seat and be a real-time strategy commander. Each round is based around destroying the other team’s base of operations, capturing strategic control points throughout the map as you do it. The more control points you have the more resources your commander will have to build up defenses and armaments around the map to protect and aid the team on the ground.

The game is based on the Source engine (it was originally planned as a mod but became a full product during development) and Nuclear Dawn really benefits from it. There’s a tendency for a small game like this to have a terrible interface, but the Source server browser architecture especially means there’s no hassle involved in starting a game, and all the menus work fine. It seems a minor point but as a reviewer it’s just a nightmare when games like this fight you even in the menu screens.

The gunplay in first-person mode really works, too. It’s completely uncomplicated and genuinely fun as a result. Even triple-A titles like Call of Duty take some getting used to, but to anyone who has played Counter-Strike, TF2 or Day of Defeat, Nuclear Dawn will be familiar from the outset. Getting kills is satisfying and none of the combat feels clunky- and what more could you ask for, really?

The combat itself may be simple to get into but there is plenty of depth in the class system. There’s four distinct classes- assault, heavy, stealth and support- and within each of those there are several kits to pick between. For example, playing as the assault class, I could choose to use a standard rifle, grenade launcher or a sniper rifle. “Advanced” kits like the grenade launcher are unlocked in the process of each game by the commander’s decisions.

The game looks very minimal and, to be brutally honest, fairly ugly. It looks, well, like a Source mod. It can be off-putting looking at screenshots of the game, especially the sandy “Oasis” level, because it just doesn’t look like a modern game in any way. The thing is, though, this never bothered me once I was playing the game. I spend a fair amount of time playing Source mods (or, I did a few years ago) and I’ve come to enjoy the rather simplistic look they employ. Look at it like this – there’s a reason Counter-Strike: Source is still massive, and it’s not because it looks stunning.

That brings me to the absolute biggest problem this game has, above everything else. There are no players. I’ve never played Nuclear Dawn at a time where there are more than 30 people worldwide playing the bloody thing. Because of this obviously we all have to crowd into one server, meaning you get huge amounts of varying latency between players. I’ve been forced to play on an Australian server where I had a constant ping of over 200, for example, simply because there’s no other servers that have players.

This brings me straight on to the part of the game that Nuclear Dawn is all about. The real-time strategy element. I’ve hardly been able to play it. Because there is only ever one or two servers with players on, I’ve just never been able to get into the hot seat. I did once, but was instantly kicked out by the admin. Dave has tried as well, and when we’re not waiting around trying to find a game, we’re waiting around trying to get into the command center so we can test out the RTS elements. It’s not the game’s fault, really, but it’s certainly a problem. For the brief moments I played with the RTS controls it it seemed serviceable, and the fact that people hog it so much means it must have some appeal.

Dave had more luck than me trying out the RTS part and he says it works much as you’d expect, albeit a bit slow and with little introduction as to just “how” to play. However, he says if you’re at all familiar with RTS games, you should have no issues setting up turrets and supply lines all across the map in no time.

It’s a serious affliction and can surely only be the fault of the marketing, rather than the developers. The game simply costs too much money. Nobody is buying it because of that, though it could perhaps do with a bit more presence. I didn’t even know what it was until we were handed the review code. This game needs players to make it a good game, and unfortunately they’re just not seeming to be coming in.

It’s unfortunate, then, that I’m going to tell you right now that this game is worth buying. It’s a genuinely fun and enjoyable game with some really interesting features – the RTS stuff is superbly executed and the FPS stuff works really well. Nuclear Dawn is great fun. They’ve also not bogged it down with silly complications like single player or special modes, which really impressed me. Call me odd but I much prefer my games to have a proper focus on one or the other (especially as a reviewer who has to play all the shit bits as well as the good bits).

Wait for a half-price sale, perhaps, but do yourself a favour and have a go at Nuclear Dawn. (At least then we’ll have someone to play with)

Here’s The Rundown:

+ Satisfying and fun shooting
+ RTS elements that work
+ Great idea, executed well
+ No complications- multiplayer only and server browser is perfect

- Nobody is playing it
- The people who actually are playing it prevent you from playing the RTS bit
- Overpriced for what it is
- Ugly maps and models

Learn more about the RipTen scoring system and what this score means. Visit our review scoring page.Nuclear Dawn was Published and Developed by InterWave Studios for PC and Mac. The game was played for about 6 hours in multiplayer on a PC with the following specs: AMD Phenom X4, 4GB RAM, ATi Radeon HD 5850 and a 24″ Asus monitor. It was released on 26 September 2011 on PC for $24.99 and will release at some point this year on Xbox 360. You can get it on all the big download outlets here if you’re so inclined.

OH COME ON!

The Game of Thrones RTS Has an Official Trailer

Dave Oshry — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 02:30:21 +0000

Do you like Game of Thrones? Do you like RTS games? Then you may dig this.

Game of Thrones: Genesis is coming out soon and Focus Home Interactive has just dropped a new trailer:

Genesis is the official PC strategy game based on the hit George R.R. Martin series. It’s an amazing book series, great HBO show, and next week fans will finally be able to play the videogame adaptation! The Release date is September 29th!

If the game doesn’t do it for ya, you can always watch the show while playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 or something…

New Starcraft II: Heart of The Swarm Screenshots Zerg Rush Us

Aaron Alexander — Tue, 31 May 2011 04:26:47 +0000

Details of the upcoming Starcraft II expansion, Heart of the Swarm, have been quite scarce (besides this awesome trailer) but thanks to a new-found gallery of screenshots, we have an idea of what the Zerg themed title will play like;

By the look of certain screenshots, we now see what would be the Campaign hub, the ability to upgrade Zerg units with Mutagens (Swarmling, fuck yeah!) and a leveling tree for Kerrigan, indicating that Heart of the Swarm could be a more hero-driven campaign than Wings of Liberty.

Leave your thoughts below, and feel free to tell me them via Twitter -@iamaaronalex

via [InsideGamer.nl]

RipTen Review: Men of War: Assault Squad (PC)

Bryce Wilson — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:10:58 +0000

Men of War: Assault Squad isn’t for the feint hearted nor is it for the casual strategy player. Instead, Men of War: Assault Squad, the latest in a long line of in-depth strategy games. It is designed for hardcore RTS fans who want to offer themselves the ultimate amount of military control and realistic strategy.

A complete stand-alone expansion to the original and incredibly intricate 2009 title Men of War, Assault Squad is both a graphical and technical refinement of the series well known for it’s intense combat and strategic management as a WWII simulator.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, Assault Squad is designed for a niche audience, and it doesn’t make any attempts to try and work for casual audiences (Which is good). The game features a startling amount of both depth and gameplay elements that work extremely well. Destructible environments, a perfect cover system, and almost infinite ways to approach missions make for one of the most varied and realistic strategy titles I’ve ever seen.

Another great feature in Assault Squad that people may not have seen before is the excellent loot system that will allow your soldiers to pick up ammo, weapons, grenades and even the ability to siphon fuel from enemy vehicles to fuel your own. Ammo and grenades need to be closely managed so you don’t run out and firefights are won and lost on the needle tip that is unit management.

Creating devastating ambush scenarios that absolutely destroy your enemies doesn’t mean you will automatically win. Success and victory in Men of War: Assault Squad is something you work for and earn, it’s not handed to you automatically. Even the smallest squad of soldiers can win a battle for you if managed correctly and used to their own advantages.

Most of the RTS games I’ve played of late task you with just getting the maximum technology then proceeding to destroy the enemy base in a big battle. Instead of this, Assault Squad is more so about managing efficiently the few assets you’re afforded, and when you pull off the perfect strategic game it’s an amazing feeling that can’t be replicated in any other game.

However, upon launching up the game I was immediately disappointed. Missing from the menus is an option to do any form of campaign, albeit there is still a single-player mode in the form of Skirmish. That being said, Skirmish feels like an afterthought. A case of “Shit guys, we forgot to put some non-multiplayer content in!” – however the true gem of Assault Squad and Men of War as a whole lies in the online multiplayer.

Assault Squad was in open beta online from November 2010 leading up to its Februrary 2011 release. The four available game modes feel both balanced and enjoyable, and this is a testament to both the gameplay and methodical period of testing. Something that will also prevent you growing bored of the online play is the fact that there’s forty huge maps available for you to fight across and capture. The online games are intense, strategic and above all else… fun.

In summary, Men of War: Assault Squad is a highly difficult RTS game with an incredible learning curve. Numerous units, unlimited strategic opportunities and hours of gameplay make for an amazing PC experience hampered only by poor unit path finding and lack of a true single player mode. If you’re a strategy fan you owe it to yourself to play this cult hit.

The Rundown:

+ Most control you will ever get in an RTS game
+ Amazingly involving multiplayer experience
- A more fleshed out tutorial would be great
- Absence of a true single player element is disappointing

Men of War: Assault Squad was developed by Digitalmindsoft and published by 1C Company. Men of War: Assault Squad released on the 25 of Februrary 2011 for $34.99 on the PC. Our copy was provided by the publisher. The game was played on the following system; AMD Phenom x4 Black Edition 955 3.6Ghz, HIS Radeon 6850 1GB DDR5 in CrossFire, 4GB Kingston DDR3, ASUS M4A89GTD PRO.

Relic to Announce New RTS in August

Sam Naylor — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 23:42:41 +0000

THQ boss Danny Bilson has noted that Relic will announce a new Real-Time Strategy title in August this year.

Relic are well known for the high quality of their Real-Time Strategy games, with a repertoire including the brilliant Company of Heroes and the much-loved Dawn of War series. What do you guys think it will be? New CoH? More Dawn of War? Something completely new? Let us know in the comments what you think.

Via RPS

Ripten Review: R.U.S.E. (PC)

Bryce Wilson — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 17:50:06 +0000

RTS games have a long and bland history of being, “get the biggest army, destroy enemy base, repeat.” Some games try and change that, deviating from their perfect formula (Good job EA…), and end up ruining the game. Well Eugen Systems have unleashed their game of deceit upon worldwide audiences and introduced something new to the mix, and it might just be good enough to win everyone over.

R.U.S.E. is based on information warfare. For those of you not in the know, information warfare revolves around intelligence, trickery, and a bunch of other ways to trick the enemy into thinking you’re doing one thing whilst you do the other. Kind of like when you’re browsing porn, then your Mom walks in so you quickly Alt + Tab to another window. At your disposal is a bunch of different “RUSE’s”, each serving its own unique purpose and having its own unique tactical appeal. For example; “Blitzkrieg” allows your units to move quicker, and is perfect for being used to hunt down and harass enemy scouts, supply trucks and recon units. “Radio Silence” hides your units to the enemy, and I often use it to hide a huge army of tanks, then attack the enemy before they even know the tanks are there.

These cards can be used in combination with each other, offering a very in-depth system that players can really use to tailor their strategies and game play. For example, if you were building an invisible tank base, then spamming tanks to flood your enemy, you would use “Camouflage Nets” to hide your building, and “Radio Silence” to hide the deluge of tanks that are soon to follow. Many games can be won or lost through proper use of these cards, and it’s quite a fresh and simple solution to an otherwise jaded and repetitive genre.

Unfortunately the R.U.S.E. cards are basically the games only real draw point. There is incorporation for the Playstation Move motion controller, however I played the game on PC and as such my review is based on that platform. Included in the game is a Campaign which is a hoot to play and really gives you something new to do when you get bored of crushing people on the online component. There is also a fun set of “instant action” type missions that allow you to earn bonus ranking points to level up with. Coupled with a bustling online multiplayer community, the game is quite good value for the money and will easily give you hours of game play. Throughout the two betas, and now the full release, I’ve clocked up 190 hours of game play.

Unlike conventional RTS games, the maps of R.U.S.E. are broken into various sectors in order to separate the effectiveness of R.U.S.E. cards and conflicts. That being said, this game contains some of the best unit control I have ever seen. By scrolling right out you can view the map as a table, where your units appear as tall stacks. It all feels very much like a war room that you see in a conventional film, but the control is brilliant. It is also possible to manage your active R.U.S.E. cards and to just oversee the whole battle and to crush the enemy. Whether zoomed right out, or down to the ground, the graphics of R.U.S.E. are quite impressive and the battles look brilliant right down at ground level.

The impressive scalable graphics engine is also complemented by a nice sound mix, and the various languages for different nations really compliments the game and adds a nice realistic feel. The menus are simple, intuitive and let you get straight into the action, and this is something I really liked.

Although it has it’s good points, certain parts of the game feel extremely unbalanced. The German units are too strong, although they do cost the most out of any nation. Italy can rush tanks too early (My preferred strategy), and most of the game comes down to spamming the most units and catching your opponent off guard. Eugen is currently working on a patch, although details are scarce. More R.U.S.E.’s would have been good, instead of a mere 8, however Eugen explained that they weren’t balanced or counter-able (i.e.: Radio Silence is countered by Spy etc.)

R.U.S.E. is a good, fresh and new take on the RTS genre. I enjoy it even after so many games, because there are still new strategies and ideas being formulated everyday by a fresh and active community. If you’re bored of Starcraft 2, or any other RTS game, R.U.S.E. is definitely worth checking out.

Here’s The Rundown:

+ Fresh new take on it’s genre
+ Great game from Eugen after nearly 4 years
- Not enough depth in the concept
- Germany is overpowered
- More R.U.S.E.’s would’ve been great

Alien Swarm was developed by Eugen Systems and was published by Ubisoft for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The game released in the United States on the 7th of September 2010 with a retail price of 49.99. This copy was purchased by the reviwer. The game was played for around 180 hours in multiplayer. Specs of the PC used are as follows: AMD Phenom X4 955 @ 3.60 Ghz, 4GB DDR3 RAM, HIS 5750 in CrossFire with another HIS 5750 and Windows 7 64 Bit.

StarCraft II is Biggest PC Game Launch of the Year, Fastest-Selling RTS of All Time

Dylan Duarte — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:21:45 +0000

Blizzard announced today that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty sold more than 1 million units its first day of release, making it the bestselling PC game of 2010 in just 24 hours. In 48 hours, it had sold 1.5 million copies, making it the fastest-selling strategy game of all time.

“We launched StarCraft II in 11 different languages and on 5 different continents because we wanted to make sure as many players as possible were able to log on and play on day one,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re pleased that so many people around the world have already picked up a copy of the game, and we look forward to welcoming even more players to Battle.net in the weeks and months ahead.”

So here’s a lesson to game developers everywhere: if you want a game to be successful, release it’s predecessor 12 years in advance.

Ripten Review: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

Ripten Staff — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:54:55 +0000

The year was 1998 and Blizzard was releasing its hotly anticipated newest Real Time Strategy, StarCraft. They knew it was a great game and they knew it was going to be huge, but I doubt they ever really anticipated the effect the game would have on the industry. How many games consistently made it on the December sales list multiple years in a row? Game life is measured in weeks and if you’re lucky, months. Not for StarCraft, a professional sport and a game still going strong a decade past its release. Now, 12 years after the release of the original we finally get the sequel to the story that many of us desperately wanted. But let’s get to the point, is it worth the money? Simply – Yes.

The same… and yet so very different.

Blizzard understands that the franchise is an exceptionally strong one with a massive passionate fan base. Drastically altering the game play would be detrimental and so they’ve elected to keep things very similar to the original game. A side by side screenshot makes it very clear that not only are both games very similar but that the art has been drastically updated – so much has changed and improved in 12 years!

The original and the updated. They may be called “stalkers” now, but they’ll always be goons to me.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer has always remained my haven, my home, the place I spent 5 glorious years of my life. However I’m the oddity – I went to tournaments, played at massive LANs at a friend’s house, and minored in StarCraft at my college (though my college still is unaware that I had a minor). Multiplayer is still the same glorious game that it was back then with some changes, but I’m glad to see that the major components to the game are still fully intact. The balance will be an ongoing process as it is with every Blizzard game, but hopefully we’ll see some changes in the future. Why? Because people still only create Ultralisks as a way of telling the other player just how much they suck (the ultimate put down). And sadly templars have a beautiful ability that is easy to avoid and can’t attach to a unit, so combined with their slow movement… well, they’re simply not useful. I’m not suggesting that we return to “Warcraft 3 v1.3: Caster Domination”, but they could use a little help. Macromanagement on the field seems worth much more than micromanagement at the moment!

Updated with less phallic symbols

Looks the same and yet so much cooler.

Even more disgusting than the original but I can’t take my eyes off of it.

Single Player

Before I start this section I will simply be frank with you: I never finished StarCraft or StarCraft: Brood Wars Single Player Campaign. Yes. I played the game for over *5* years straight and failed to finish the campaign. The whole “playing with friends” and “mercilessly destroying the dreams of my opponents” was too much of a draw for me to settle down and just play the single player. However, the single player in StarCraft 2 looks much too interesting for me to skip with upgrades, achievements, gorgeous cinematics (covered below), and interesting mission design.

However, I do think it’s a bit odd that you have to log into StarCraft to play the Single Player Campaign. I do understand that it’s about piracy and other odds and ends, but in the end I’ve known more people who chose to play Starcraft because they played their friend’s game on LAN and loved it (more on LAN below). Oh, and one final thing – if you’re expecting the single player to teach you to play online, I’d suggest instead trial by fire instead. Learn a cookie cutter build and practice against the A.I. first if you must, but really the most you’ll learn is from playing other people and just watching replays! The single player has many units that are not available in multiplayer and the upgrading system won’t help you in multiplayer.

The concept art is absolutely stunning.

Cine… wow

As always, the cinematic team has completely outdone themselves and created absolutely gorgeous movies. The team has obviously grown in size and ability. The number of cinematics in this game is easily three to four times as many as any previous game and they are absolutely stunning. Don’t take my word for it though – the picture speaks for itself. And if the picture isn’t enough, the thing I love the most is that my friends can message me during a cinematic and it actually shows!

The picture is worth many words, but only one comes out. “Wow” *falls over from forgetting to breathe*

Critters Go Pop

Even though Blizzard has been acquired by Activision it’s nice to know that their quality and pride in their games has not diminished. It may seem small and minor, but it’s those final touches that really make a game special and memorable long beyond other games have come and gone. And I smiled, giggled, and otherwise was thoroughly excited when I clicked on the Lyote multiple times until he exploded. Ah, some things haven’t, and shouldn’t, change.

Exploding things is still fun. This will never get old.

Sound

The sound is what you would expect of a high class game, but I admit most of the time I don’t listen to it because I’m caught up in the amazing game play. It’s wonderful in that you can listen to it for hours and it doesn’t detract at any point from the game play and yet offers very important cues to alert the player to major events. In Single Player I spend more time listening to the music and it brings back memories and is quickly working on making more (especially music in the hub – I laughed a lot at the country twangs). My favorite game music still goes to Act 5 City Music for Diablo 2 because the sweeping orchestral was the absolute best I’ve ever heard (I’d load the game and sit in the city just to listen to it), but Starcraft’s songs are perfect for the genre and game.

Watching this in action as the tentacle goes through all the holes in the ground is disgusting. Then there’s the “squishing” sound that accompanies it…”

No LAN Support!!

This is a big negative about the game. Gone are the days of 20 people in a single house, wired to a network, playing StarCraft and killing each other while actually smack talking face to face in a friendly manner. I understand the issues of piracy and other problems, but I’m hoping they will reconsider their position on LAN in the upcoming expansions. Though I admit there is one thing I won’t miss from LAN parties – a bunch of drunk guys sleeping together on the floor and having one snuggle you in his sleep. Ew.

No Chat Rooms

I miss hanging out with my old friends in StarCraft and had looked forward to possibly chilling out with them in Starcraft 2. Unfortunately, since I fell out of touch with them and I don’t know their RealID, there’s no good way for me to actually talk to them! Without that level of personal interaction and guild building that the original had, the social aspect of the game is much lower than I had anticipated. So in the meantime if those guys from PGL 4 are around (such as Jolly, Kain, Montaro, Grrrr…, and many others), well, I miss you! I still remember Olive Garden in NYC during the Battletop Competition and that restaurant trip during PGL4.

Conclusion

As expected, Blizzard has done a wonderful job creating a gorgeous game that will be enjoyed by millions for years to come. For Real Time Strategy lovers like myself who enjoy a vast array of strategy and tactics, this is the next major era for us! Now enough of this article, I’m off to play some StarCraft. I hope you’ll join me!

A Game of Thrones: Genesis Announced – RTS Based on Popular Fantasy Novel

Dylan Duarte — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:47:24 +0000

Back in June, videogame developer Cyanide and author George R.R. Martin announced that Cyanide would be developing a real-time strategy game and a role-playing game based on Martin’s popular Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels. Today, they announced A Game of Thrones: Genesis, an upcoming RTS title.

In Genesis, the prominent families of Westeros are in engaged in a power struggle, otherwise known as “the game of thrones.”

The game does not yet have a release deate, nor is it known which platforms it will be coming to, though Cyanide has the rights to develop the game(s) for PC and consoles. All I know is that if Genesis doesn’t do the game justice, the developer is going to wish they had taken some cyanide. Am I right, nerds?! Seriously, I love those books.

Click these second bit of concept art for a larger version.

Download StarCraft II Right Now For Free!! And Then Buy It Later and Unlock It.

Dylan Duarte — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:12:26 +0000

Those who plan on purchasing Blizzard’s upcoming RTS sequel will be happy to know that the game can be downloaded right now, free of charge, and then paid for and unlocked on the day of release.

I imagine that downloading the game on the actual release date will be more like a Zerg crawl than a Zerg rush (fun Starcraft joke!), so if you plan to purchase the game digitally, it’s definitely something you should do sooner rather than later.

If you choose to download the game this way, keep in mind that it will unlock on July 27th at 10:00 AM PDT, which is when digital copies of the game go on sale. Why they don’t go on sale at midnight, I do not know, but if those first 10 hours of the day are too long for you to wait, you may want to line up a boxed copy.

Single-Player Review: Napoleon: Total War

Sam Naylor — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:26:20 +0000

The number one thing to note about this review of Napoleon: Total War is that I was not able to try out the multi-player. The version reviewed, although a complete game, was a pre-release version. If you were looking for a review of the online component of the game, I suggest you go elsewhere (after reading through my review of the single-player, of course). Personally I don’t think of the Total War series as particularly focused on multi-player, although obviously it does have a following.

Napoleon: Total War is a succession of last year’s Empire: Total War as opposed to a completely revamped experience. The jump from Medieval to Rome, for example, was gigantic. The jump from Empire to Napoleon is comparatively small. Many of the differences are balance issues, fine-tuning of combat, additional battle conditions, and of course, a brand new setting.

For me, the trip back to Europe from America (in Empire) was very welcome. Perhaps it’s because I know where the major cities are on the map, perhaps it’s the fact that the UK is actually on the map, or perhaps it’s just that Europe is more varied than the vast plains of America, but I really feel it lends itself to the Total War series a lot more. Napoleon’s history is similarly more interesting to me than the conquest of America, but again this is much more of a subjective facet of the game. As always the history is well told and accurate, and adds a lot to making it feel like a true conquest.

Speaking of which, if you’ve not played a Total War game before, the name of the game is total conquest. You’re presented with a lovingly-rendered map of Europe with your armies and cities littered across it. From here you make tactical decisions about conquering all of the other armies, cities, and factions on the map. It’s all turn based, so there’s plenty of scope to micromanage your population and army positions while you progress over the map, taking hold of more and more land and cities.

The catch with Total War is that when your army meets another, there’s the option to play that battle in real-time. These battles aren’t just your standard unit-rush; you actually have to use tactics and outsmart your enemy. A good player will be able to use a smaller army to outmaneuver and beat a much bigger but more disorganised army. These battles look spectacular, and even more so in Napoleon. Each unit is actually made up of soldiers now, as opposed to clones, and with Anti-Aliasing turned on they look great. With it off, it’s very jaggy, but you’ll never need to zoom that far in on a unit anyway. The maps are beautiful, and reflect the part of the campaign map that your armies met upon; as does the weather.

As each turn in the campaign map is passed, two weeks pass. As you get into Winter, it begins to rain more. Your gunpowder becomes damp; cannons become much less useful. There are plenty of nuances like this in the terrain, which is great for strategy aficionados. There are also at-sea battles for ship fans (I know you’re out there), which are obviously a bit less of a clusterfuck thanks to there only being a handful of units/ships on the map at once.

Unfortunately, although I enjoy the RTS battles, I’m just not good at them. I can’t seem to think of anything past the very basic “flank the enemy”, and even then I send most of my men running headfirst like a fool. As such I tend to hit the “Autoresolve” button when a fight happens, meaning the computer automatically decides the outcome of the battle. This tends to allow me to spam unit numbers, meaning that I vastly outnumber the enemy; if I let the computer do the fighting for me, I don’t have to worry about organising large numbers of units on the battlefield.

Despite being utterly bad at the game, I rather enjoyed playing Napoleon: Total War. I will say that I haven’t finished the campaign yet- I honestly don’t have time for that. It’s gigantic. The final section allows you to take complete control of Europe, which is just way beyond the amount of time I have to play the game. For those who’ve got a passion for strategy, or those who enjoy it and have a lot of time to spend on it, the campaign has a lot to offer. If managing the citizens and forming alliances and treaties is your thing then maybe Civilization would be a better choice for you, but honestly if you’re more interested in the military side of things I can highly recommend Napoleon: Total War.

Napoleon: Total War is one of the best things to happen this year for fans of military history and strategy in the gaming community. If you’ve got any interest in Napoleon’s campaigns at all I’d say give this one a go, even if you’re not usually a fan of strategy games. There’s enough of a tutorial to get you going on the turn-based stuff, and the real-time stuff, while complex, can be taken one step at a time via the tutorials and easier beginning battles. It’s way too big for a busy metropolitan gamer, and it won’t run well on most PCs, but when you’ve got it going, it’s one of those games that can really drain your day away.

New Release Date For Stalin Vs. Martians

Dylan Duarte — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 06:41:46 +0000

Stalin Vs. Martians, the upcoming RTS that features the Red Army fighting off an alien invasion, was originally slated for an April 20th release. For unknown reasons the game was delayed, but those who can’t wait to play as Joseph Stalin don’t have to wait much longer.

Stalin Vs. Martians will hit major digital games retailers like Direct2Drive and Steam on April 29th, this coming Wednesday, for $20. Although I know next to nothing about the game, the sheer absurdity of it makes it a pretty tempting purchase.

Launch Trailer for Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

Demi Adejuyigbe — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:13:55 +0000

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

I’m not exactly a fan of the Company of Heroes series, so I can’t say that I’m excited for THQ’s latest RTS, but I can say that the trailer does make the game look fun. If you’re into RTSes, or at least the Company of Heroes series, you can pick up Tales of Valor from your nearest retailer right now.

Tales of Valor delivers three intense single-player campaigns, three new multi-player modes, a brand-new “direct-fire” feature, additional maps, and new units, unlike anything previous Company of Heroes games have ever seen. Unfortunately for the seldom-seen console-exclusive RTS fans, this game is for the PC only.

Stalin Vs. Martians releases April 20

Sam Naylor — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:54:55 +0000

Mezmer games have announced today that their epic-looking RTS Stalin vs Martians will release to “all major digital games retailers” on April 20, 2009. Executive Producer Tom Söderlund describes the game in one of the best quotes to ever come off of a press release: “One contributing factor to the success could be the high level of historical accuracy, that is completely missing from the game.” I think that about sums up this game. Roll on, April 20!

GDC09: Mezmer Games Announces Stalin vs. Martians: The Unknown Pages of the Second War

Demi Adejuyigbe — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:43:19 +0000

Ah, the RTS. Once a staple of strategy games, the genre’s been flooded with spinoffs, remakes, and more Age of Empires, Command and Conquer, and Warhammer releases than you can count. How are developers supposed to add vitality to a dwingling genre? With 20th-century mustachio dictator Josef Stalin and an extraterrestrial army, of course!

Independent developer Mezmer Games recently announced Stalin vs. Martians, a PC RTS which they themselves describe as “both masterfully trashy and absolutely over-the-top.” In the game, you control WWII-era USSR as they defend Earth from the Martian Invasion of 1942. With a dancing Stalin, some insane Russian techno, and fun-looking gameplay, Stalin vs. Martians looks like it’ll be loads of fun when it hits “all major digital distribution services” in April. Hit the jump for some screenshots, as well as the press release.

Smooth moves with Stalin vs. Martians!
Second Trailer of Stalin vs. Martians from Mezmer Games shows off the fast-paced arcade strategy gameplay. And dancing.

GDC San Francisco – March 27, 2009. Mezmer Games today released a second trailer from the arcade RTS game Stalin vs. Martians, developed by an alliance of three independent studios: Black Wing Foundation, Dreamlore and N-Game.

Following the avalanche of requests to see more of the gameplay in Stalin vs. Martians, Mezmer Games released a new video with in-game footage that gives everyone some answers and shows that the game is not just one big spoof. This video also nullifies all the evil rumors (probably spread by the Martians) that the gameplay would be slow.

Check out the trailer Smooth moves with Stalin vs. Martians here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5uOTWJigZ4

The video features the retro-styled song All Hail Stalinator! by Ilya Orange and Space Detective. Ilya Orange is the author of the games original score, including the now-famous tune from the first Dancing Stalin trailer. Also, you will see glimpses of the extensive fauna of different alien creatures that the Red Army will fight against. Finally, the video shows a teenage girl showing off some wicked dance moves, most likely inspired by the great leader and dancer Stalin.

The game is scheduled for release in April 2009 as the first release of Mezmer Games, the new publisher label under Paradox Interactive that focuses on indie development and digital distribution.

Halo Did It Once, It Can Do It Again

John Landis — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 19:20:24 +0000

I’ve never been a RTS fan, especially when the genre tries to break into the console market. At best there is a distinct sense of a lack of control in the game, and at worst it’s unplayable. Obviously, any excitement for Halo Wars was lost on me. Recently, however, I got to reminiscing about the entire Halo franchise and how substantially things have changed over the course of it’s history, many of them in part due to the franchise’s own innovations.

Part of what got me to thinking about all of this was that it’s pretty much the same way I felt about first-person shooters on consoles before I played Halo. A controller would never hold a candle to a mouse and keyboard. There is more accuracy with a mouse than a game pad and getting weapons and items would always be quicker on a keyboard when you can just press one button for whatever weapon you needed. Hell, at that time I was very much not an Xbox fan.

I remember hearing from friends about this awesome game they’ve been playing in their rooms called Halo. They invited me up a few times, but the idea of sitting around playing a FPS on a console that wasn’t GoldenEye was insane. I certainly wasn’t going to play some crappy Microsoft game on their crappy system. Besides, I told myself, at best it’s just another first-person shooter, and they’re never that good. Hell, my friends probably only liked it because it was extra gory or something.

It wasn’t until I was deployed in Iraq and had gone through two separate PS2s that I was willing to even give the Xbox a chance. We were having problems with our PS2s in the desert constantly getting messed up from the sand. We did what we could, but there is just no way to keep things sand free with the set up that we were working with. I had heard that the Xbox is a little more durable than the PlayStation from some people we were supporting, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Of course, they also told me that I HAD to get Halo. It was simply one of those games that every person had to own if they owned the system. I still didn’t buy into all that, and made several game purchases before I finally gave in and got Halo. I had no idea what I was in for.

One of my teammates, Smith, and I spent pretty much all our waking hours for the next several weeks just playing the hell out of the game. I had gotten several other ones in the mail and such, and they were great games, but Halo was just an awesome experience. The story was spectacular, the characters were all great in their over the top way, and the gameplay was just phenomenal. I honestly felt that I hadn’t had a gaming experience like this one since I first played Half-Life.

The very best part of the entire experience, however, was the co-op. I probably would have only played through the game once and then forgotten about it if it wasn’t for the co-op. It was one of the few games that I challenged myself to go through the harder difficulty settings simply because I wanted to make sure I had picked the bones of the game clean.

The entire control set up was fantastic and it really was a revolution in the genre as far as console based FPS were concerned. Games before Halo always touted off how many weapons you could get or how many different bad guys you would see and things like that. Things were limited in Halo, but in a good way. You could only carry what makes sense to carry (I still don’t understand where Gordon Freeman keeps all his weapons).

With only having those weapons, you weren’t sitting around digging through some sort of inventory or dropdown to find the gun you wanted when you wanted it. You simply pressed a button to switch. It simplified controls but also made the game suddenly more complex. You actually had to think about what weapons you wanted or needed now, not when to actually use them but if you even wanted to carry them. I look at the sniper rifle and rocket launcher as great examples of the thought that had to go into what weapons you wanted to carry.

In most FPS, you had them available all the time, so you could just whip them out and snipe a bastard, or blow up their tank. Suddenly with Halo, you really had to think about the pros and cons of each weapon. A rocket launcher probably isn’t that great for using against a bunch of little guys, but if you drop it for that SMG, you won’t have it later. You actually had to think about what was going on and figure out your play style.

The other great thing that Halo really introduced was the regenerating health system. It’s all over the place these days simply because it streamlines the gameplay. Everything before Halo had some sort of health pack or healing system where you simply had to try and survive to find more health, like it was ammo or something. With Halo, you always had “something” to fall back on. Granted, in the first Halo you still had health after your shield was taken out, and that you would need to find the traditional health packs for, but Bungie eventually got rid of that also.

Now you see it everywhere and most games don’t even have a solid lore reason for it. The Spartans have regenerating shields to protect them, but what does Marcus Fenix have that allows him to regenerate? Gears of War, Call of Duty, and Rainbow Six are just a few examples of games that use a regenerating health system that allows the action to progress at a steady pace instead of having to stop the fighting and go back through an entire level scouting for a missed health kit.

The last huge improvement the Halo series introduced was with multiplayer. I mentioned GoldenEye before and I liken my experience with the first Halo to those wonder years of fun playing the N64. It was fun, fast, and smooth, and there wasn’t a lot of goofiness in the way. With Halo 2, they made perhaps the greatest online multiplayer matchmaking system ever and no one seemed to care.

For the longest time I wondered why no one was doing things the way Halo 2 did them. Being able to set up parties and get into matches together was just awesome. Everything before that involved inviting your friends after you joined or talking to them on the phone or something so you would all try and get into the same game.

So looking back at all that, I now ask myself what I was thinking when I dismissed Halo Wars out of hand. There is so much pedigree there that they almost have no choice but to get it right. Ensemble Studios certainly knows where they’re doing at the helm of RTS gaming, and Halo simply lends itself to the genre. Hell, if you go back, Halo was originally going to be a RTS game before Bungie changed things up.

The thing that has really got me sold on it however is that there is a co-op mode. To me, whatever else Halo has done, whatever you want to say about the story or the multiplayer or the graphics, it all really comes back to the co-op for me. Being able to play through the entire game in co-op mode just screams Halo to me.

All I really know for sure is that Halo has constantly pushed things forward and now that the franchise is branching to another genre, I expect it to do just as much for the real-time strategery genre that it has done for first-person shooters.

Title: Halo Wars
Publisher: Microsoft
Rating: Teen
Content: Mild Blood, Mild Language, Violence
Platforms: Xbox 360

Halo Wars is a strategy game based on the Halo universe. Halo Wars will immerse gamers in an early period of the Halo universe, allowing them to experience events leading up to the first Halo title for Xbox.