Excellent

After 4 years of development the Xbox RPG title Fable has gone gold! Look for it in stores on September 14th.

Stronghold was one of those titles that snuck into the Russ and Dave multiplayer collection. Each scenario started with a empty town to grow under your design, complete with dairy farms, bakeries, leather works, apple orchards — the works. Citizens would go on chores to collect resources to refine. Farmers harvested hay which was delivered by hand to the town warehouse. The Miller boys fetched the unrefined bundles and to return with sacks of flour, and Bakers would lug the flour back to their shop to bake loafs of bread. Rinse, wash, and repeat for orchard picking, smithing, quarrying.. you get the idea. From the birds eye view your town seemed alive — you could even peer through a roof to see your citizens hard at work. The layout of the town effected its overall efficiency, so part of the game was trying to squeeze neighborhoods within your walls.

The original Stronghold - 2001

Oh right, the walls. See the game was actually about designing a walled town to withstand any attacks by your neighbor — hence the game’s name. Within the soft center was the afore mentioned civic bee’s nest that drove your economy. The outer layer was also very much under your design. Wooden and stone walls, square towers, round towers.. siege towers, gate houses, walls for archers and crossbowmen, boiling oil, pitch fields, moats — they were all there and their custom layout made each battle a unique experience. Igniting a field of hidden pitch underneath droves of charging ladder men and siege towers is as fufilling as it sounds. MMM.. good stuff.

From the press release:

“We decided to steer away from the typical RTS mold when we developed the original Stronghold,” said Simon Bradbury, Director at Firefly Studios. “Now, with a 3D engine that can render tens of thousands of animated characters on-screen simultaneously, we can explore the intricacies of castle-life and the machinations of siege-warfare like never before in Stronghold 2. Once again we will take the Stronghold franchise into new and exciting territory.”

And so Russ and I are both very glad to not only hear that Stronghold has a sequel coming, but it looks that good and is due out in early 2005. Given the tons of stellar PC games coming out this fall, 2005 is not that far away.

My +10 Sword of Smiting was made for me by this dude in Russia… This was too much, I had to post it:

“Multiplayer online gamers have long cut corners by paying real cash for in-game goods that would take them hours of playing to earn, while others have padded their offline budgets by selling excess game goods or even their characters when they stop playing.

But now, the reality of exchange rates and international income gaps has spawned a virtual version of the real-world relationship between rich and poor countries. While players in wealthier countries casually drop hundreds of dollars to buy their way into better positions in the games — or out of tedious parts of the games — some workers in poorer countries are playing around the clock to produce virtual goods that earn them real money.”

Read the whole Wired article here

A Chaos Defiler…um.. well.. defiling.

Look at that fine screenshot. This is something to write about all right. Ladies. Gentlemen. What you are looking at is a new game called Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. Notice that the title has the word “war” in it 2 times. That is not a coincidence.

Fileplanet is giving away beta accounts to people who subscribe (yet again we remind you all that subscribing to fileplanet is VERY much worth it), and boy oh boy.. this one is a dooozy. The game is basically an RTS adaptation of the classic tabletop set battle game. You know the one. The one you saw when you edged into that totally geeky gaming store, started staring at the cool little painted models, thinking you want to play, then realizing you’re becoming dangerously geeky, and finally run away screaming. Well now you can live your little dreams, you closet nerd.

The game is pretty simple. Build a base…fuel it with some type of arbitrary resource…buld armies of creatures and vehicles…whatever. You get the resource by capturing and holding points on the map. blah blah blah.. If this was about some in depth strategy game review, I’d be talking about Rome Total War. THIS is warhammer.. and the game is all about war. Bloody, messy, futuristic war. So Commence killing! What I’m talking about is how all of the units are highly detailed, and simply GORGEOUS to watch get slaughtered. Don’t believe me? Take a gander at these.

(note: click any of them to get a larger view in a popup. And ignore the “You have been defeated” I took most of these in spectator mode after I lost.)

Now, you will mostly see Orc units (as opposed to the 3 other sides, Chaos, Marines, and the other one), but thats only cuz I was too busy playing at the time to think to take screen shots. *The guys losing in most of these are the marines.. also conveniently in red.*

This first one shows the best orc unit there is. The giant beasty thing. Its a damn pleasure to see it RIPPING through little soldiers. Even when they are your own.

Marines with some kind of electro thing… losing.

A sweet bloody mess. Look at him go!

The marines are losing to the orcs,
but look at that Dreadnaught (mech thing)
as it impales one of them AND SETS FIRE TO HIM!

In fact.. lets see that close up.

Marine reenforcements arrive, but too little, too late.

One of the Orc Champions in a cute little number for winter.

The last thing some poor marine ever sees.

Well. This game looks amazing, and its TONS of fun. Best of all, with a fileplanet membership, you can try it for free (multiplayer only). I reccommend it highly.. and as of now.. it gets:

The only reason I don’t give it 5, is cuz i DO think it will get old after a few battles. Then again.. thats why they invented single player

Now.. I will turn this review over to Dave and Chris, who also wanted to get some words in. (emails will end here, but you can see their updates on this post online).

#########################################
Chris’s Turn:

“It is better to Die for the Emperor, than to live for yourself!”
-Space Marine Dreadnought

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (beta), is the most fun I have had
playing an RTS in a while. Last night I choose to embark in our little
war as the Space Marines. Before the match started I was able to
customise my Armies colors. If you have ever played Warhammer on the
table top, you know that players pride themselves on the paint scheme
of their forces, its nice to see this slight nod to the fans.
Once the Battle started we all spent some time building structures and
troops, and had a lot of fun playing our version of “King of the
Hill”. I would agree with Russ, watching your troops get destroyed by
another uber-unit is a lot of fun to watch!
At the beginning getting resources (control points) and some basic
units was very easy. As the game progressed, I became a little
frustrated with the amount of building an research needed to get
higher level units. While Russ and Bitta were duking it out with their
respective uber-beasts, I was watching the fight it out as my command
post went through its 3rd! set of upgrades, so I could manufacture
Dreadnoughts (mech units).
Once my advanced Structures and research was up and running, i started
producing some fun units. Tanks, Long range artillery and upgraded
Marines were all I needed to lay waste to my fellow Monkeys.
SO far my personal favorite unit in this game is the Dreadnought.
Towards the end of the match Bitta and I were fighting it out, (Russ
sent some units into the Frey as well) Initially I was able to fend
off both Attacks, The Dreadnought would allow foot soldiers to get
close then backhand them into the air! while others would give support
fire from their cannons. There were literally Orch’s flying
everywhere!
However As you saw my units were quickly taken out by Bittas forces.
This leads me to my biggest complaint about the game, Space Marines,
and not rebuild forces quickly enough! There are some balance issues
in this demo, some mech units will get killed with one hit, but foot
soldiers can take fire for minuets on end?
All in all Warhammer 40,0000 is a blast to play! its is totally worth
the download and patch.
I will continue to experiment with other races, and units (that all
look amazing).

Who would have thought that intergalactic war between races could be
this much fun! Let the Bodies Fly.

#########################################
Dave’s Turn:

I was assigned control of the bone crushing orcs in both of my play tests, and I gotta say — I love ‘em. Their infantry excels at hand to hand combat, even if most carry guns, but it’s their vehicles and monster unit that take the prize.

But rewind a bit here. You control infantry in squads of 5 or more. You can add more infantrymen to a squad by selecting it and clicking the “reinforce” button. In this way you can expand squads to their maximum of 12 members. You can also custom outfit troops with a variety of guns, flamethrowers and rocket launchers. Given 5 guys, you could outfit 2 with chain guns, 2 with flame throwers and 1 with a rocket launcher. At any time you can chose to distribute the weapons in any variety as you see fit. If your squads are getting their butt kicked, you can retreat, reinforce the number of men you lost, and outfit them with right weapons to get the job done. With this the ebb and flow of a battle can become extremely dynamic.

For constast, C&C Generals forces you into chosing one strategy to stick with the rest of the game. Should I go airpower, or infantry, etc? In Warhammer, you’re given a set of dynamic tools to implement focused short-term tactics of your own.

At first Chris vehicles absolutely slaughtered my guys with hand to hand combat. In response I left a few orcs for him to tangle with, but the rest I retreated to reinforce. Each new recruit got a shiny rocket launcher, and when they re-entered the engagement to battle Chris’ expensive toys, they pretty much laid waste. ( and I’ll keep doing the same thing until he creates a combined forces army ) If I was then suddenly assaulted by a gang of flame thrower infantry men then the engagemnt probably would have ended up considerably different. This game doesn’t play well when you put all your eggs in once basket.

So many things about the Orc units scream chaotic warfare. Their tank, for instance, packs a helluva punch and sends troops screaming into the air on impact. The thing can’t aim worth shiz and often misses by 1/4 the screen, and in warhammer that’s not so bad — battles usually take up numerous screens, so a constant barrage of a few tanks is bound to do something to someone at somepoint. See! That sentence had a lot of time/spacial generics - it’s chaos!!

The main orc beast, that gigantic green thing-lizard with the laser on his back, is Warhammer’s direct combat antithesis of the orc tank. If you need something dead, and you need it dead NOW, you stick that bad mother on it. Its drawback? Well in an entirely un-orcish fashion he (it) takes special care NOT to step on any of your troops. In a battle where units are literally flying across the screen, attempts to pull that bad a mofo up to a specific target can take quite a bit of maneuvering. The thing turns like a buick.

I think Russ is right in saying the game may get old after a while, though in all fairness, last night’s play test was far removed from a deathmatch. Perhaps if we actually played for keeps instead of playing a trivial game of “King of the Hill” for the map’s generic center — then maybe things won’t seem so straight forward and pointless.

But trust me, I plan to find out. I’m soooo going to buy this game. It usurps C&C General’s reign as the most explosive and fun-packed RTS I’ve played.

-Dave

The sequel to “The Sims” promises to be bigger a better in every way.

The gameplay will focus less on in-game chores. Instead you’ll be spending time decking out your place and experimenting with the hugely complex Sim social net. Each Sim will build a unique personality as they grow. They remember their parents, first kiss, past relationships..! holy crap!

Check it out - that painting is really of her in that room.
Wow.

The game is due in stores either September 14th, or 17th ( exactly when nobody knows ). In the meantime fans of The Sims should check out Gamespy’s in-depth Sim 2 preview page.

From Bloodrayne 2 news:

“Rayne Makes Her PlayBoy Debut. If you felt teased by her sexy Girls of Gaming cover then this new feature art is going to blow your mind Rayne is 100%25 topless and smokin’ hot in the October issue of Playboy magazine. This is a first in videogame history and trust us when we say that Rayne does not disappoint. The magazine hits newsstands in early September so here’s a great excuse to get a copy! “

Um.. whoah.

The NYTimes did an article about Militatry Training using video games. Of particular note are adaptations of “There” an MMO, and the “un weakened” version of Full Spectrum Warrior.

What is amazing is how the military, who was once the leader in simulations, one day (they claim it was around Quake and Counter Strile timeframe) had the simulation world reversed on them. Game developers were delivering better graphics, and smarter AI and at much smaller cost. The Military got smart, and started talking to developers (and after Sept. 11, Deverlopers started coming up to the military) to collaborate on games that could effectively teach techniques to soldiers.

Having Played a bit of FSW, I can say that it does pass on some learning. I’m not saying I can go be a squad leader, but there are some clear do’s and don’ts about urban warfare that are made very clear in that game.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see where the industry, and hte military continues to go with this collaboration in the future.

Screenshots of the game look like book art, and Exigo has the gameplay to match.

If you’re looking for something to tickle your RTS fancy before the release of The Battle for Middle Earth, then you should check the Single Player Demo of Armies of Exigo.

These days all RTS games have a “gimmick”, and in Exigo you fight both above and below ground. Concurrently attacking / defending against the AI on two different maps sounds more like a hassle than a perk, but in execution the demo’s second plane adds story depth rather than strategic frustration. After the enemy base is defeated, your army plunges deep underground for a dungeon crawl to unlock your next unit type. Thing is - it’s the same map so the entire story arch is seamless.

The action and adventure mix well as your troops explore their way through the woods. The game’s art is excellent ( smells of high production values ) and overall the combat feels right. The special attacks of some units are much more dynamic than we’re used to — an ogre of Exigo isn’t entirely unlike the troll of Battle for Middle Earth.

I’ve read very little about Armies of Exigo (Games from Europe just don’t get as much press as they should). Overall the game sounded o-kay and bit cookie-cutter, but after playing for a few hours I’m a fan. The style of the game has something that doesn’t last through the screenshots — it feels like you’re fighting your way though an adventure more than most RTS maps.

A disabled save option is all the demo has going against it. I highly recommend the download to anyone looking for something new in the RTS genre.

Even the loading screen is a wonderful piece of gaming art

Downloads:
    Fileplanet
    3D Gamers
    Action Trip
    Gamespot

Previews:
    Gamespot
    IGN

I will readily admit that Jaws the Movie - changed my life. I am about to go on vacation to Martha’s Vineyard (aka - Jaws Central) and when I take the Edgartown ferry to Chapaquidick - my pulse starts racing.

I am afraid of: swimming pools, rivers, lakes, my own bath tub, and of course the ocean from time to time. This movie even made me as a wee lad afraid to drink out of dark Tupperware cups.

When I think of the perfect Jaws game - it would be almost like being with Quint and Brody on the boat - just hanging out - waiting for good old Jaws to come around. You would talk and interact with them - they would come up with ideas on how to catch the shark - and you could use a variety of things to accomplish the goal - however you know how it would end… you in the water - with a gun shooting at the tank. Or even a game that let’s you plot out how you discover and find out about all the things the shark did?

I have been waiting for a Jaws game of any quality - forever. Maybe this will be the one…

“Majesco (OTC BB: MJSH), a leading publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products, today announced that it has secured the interactive entertainment rights to one of the most enduring action-suspense films of all time, Universal Pictures’ and Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. Developed by Appaloosa, the video game is scheduled to ship in summer 2005 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the film’s theatrical release.”

Jaws (Xbox) Fact Sheet at GameSpot

IGN has broken news of a RTW demo that will be public distributed Monday, August 22nd.

I cannot express how happy this makes me. Medieval Total War has consumed my life for 2 Years ( I’ve been playing it since release. Yes, still). It’s my modern X-Com.

RTW promises to be bigger in all departments, from the strategy map, new diplomatic system, Cityscapes, unique factions and cultures, and of course, those gorgeous battle scenes.

Rome Total war is a hybrid strategy game the incorporates both a turn based strategic map and massive real time strategy battles. The number of unit types is somewhere in the hundreds. Battles can have 10,000 soldiers on the screen at once, controlled in units of 100 or so.

As you progress through the campaign you can reasearch new technologies for your faction to unlock stronger, more armored, or more specialized troops. You also build cities, citadels, roads, the works.

The demo includes all of the tutorial missions that will ship to retail. The tutorial is capped by a sizeable training battle. There’s also a historical battle between the Cartheginians and one of Rome’s Houses. Cartheginians means Elephants people!

I’ll be home early on Monday to try the demo out. I’ll try to post something on Tuesday, with screen captures.