Ok - to be perfectly honest, I thought that the original BFME was a title chalk-full of unrealized potentially groundbreaking RTS mechanics. A lot was put into some game elements including troop formations, base building and other immersive elements - like the new unit AI engine that mimiced human behavior ( units would erupt in cheers after surviving a large battle, and they would cower under the march of a Cave Troll). But the game seemed flat. It lacked oomph, the basebuilding stunk, and the unit variety was lacking. Ultimately I thought it was quite the disappoinment, and so I’ve treated this next installment with massive pre-release speculation.

But then Jay recommended the single player demo that he “was enjoying all weekend”. Again, bored in my hotel, I decided to give it a download. I’ve played it about 4 times now - the same skirmish mission - and it’s a blast. Ahh yes.. another good RTS is on the way.

I’m smitten with the Goblin faction. Their real strength comes from their various fire breathing creatures. Fire Drakes, a few Dragons, Wyrms, and a Balrog can really heat stuff up in an area-of-effect damage fest. Burn you little dwarves burn! Where’s your precious mythyrl now, Sizzle son of Toast?! Sucka’s. The Goblins also have spider riders.. why? I’m not quite sure, but then can trample masses of footsoldiers like a Liverpool soccer match. Good times.

BFME is a series made by the same team that made the explosive Commander & Conquer Red Alert 2, and C&C Generals - so if you liked that title then you should definitely give the demo a whirl. The final game ships in early March.

My ammo is low, my flashlight just ran out, and five alien baddies just burst through the floor-grating and want to sharpen their teeth on my eye holes. Good times.

I’m travelling right now (read: I’m sitting here bored in my hotel) but I just spent an hour playing through the Shadowgrounds demo, and I’m damn glad to have found it on fileplanet. Picture a sci-fi Diablo with ranged automatic weapons, and lots o’aliens, and you pretty much can put the rest together. The demo has a slight ramp up of backplot, but soon you’ll be slugging through waves of alien baddies in the dark cooridors of a bloody moon base.

The game isn’t groundbreaking, it’s not outta control good, but it’s damn fun. Piece of advice - play on Normal difficulty (easy is too easy), and don’t blow though your chaingun ammo right away. You’ll know it when you need it.

GameSpot is confirming rumors that another Lego Star Wars is in development.

This time, the gameplay will center on the Original Trilogy instead of on the prequels.

I ahve to say, it was a simplistic game, but it was fun, and damn clever. I’m looking forward to the sequel.

Via Boing Boing comes word of this sweet little site. And I mean LITTLE.
Guimp is hosting tiny 18 by 18 pixel classic games taht are totally playable.

Simply click on the little arrows to select a game, then click on the game name to start.

Its wild.

THQ just announced that both the release of Supreme Commander and the already tardy S.T.A.L.K.E.R. have been pushed back until the first fiscal quarter of 2007.

Damn. Both of those games looks sweet. I suppose this means they’ll get more polish this way.

Hopefully.

Shacknews has the full story, but honestly - there’s not much more to say.

Two stories substantiate rumors that Diablo 3 will be announced soon. First, GamingSteve mentioned it on his podcast last week. Steve has a few contacts at Blizzard entertainment, and his ‘rumors’, or foreknowledge, of WoW has been spot on. He says that the Diablo 3 project has been active for “longer than you might have expected”, hinting towards a few years of development.

Now, Blizzard’s team of ex-Diablo engineers are looking to hire for an upcoming project.

Oooh baby. I was looking forward to Titan Quest for its diabloesque gameplay. I’ll take another installment of Diablo, too, if I must.

I expect an official announcement sometime before E3. Maybe at the GDC?

Remember Vanguard for the Atari?

Me too.

Heres a little flashback to one of those awesome commercials for Atari.

Oh yeah.

Stripe level.

Q&A Session on EToyChest.com

This game is shaping up to be something very special. Picture Homeworld’s real time battles (SoS is from the makers of the Cataclysm expansion for Homeworld) with a Masters of Orionesque wrapper. The designers fell that a lot of the recent 4x games have become bloated spreedsheets (no freakin kidding) so they broke-down the the genre into a list of game mechanics and only included those that make the game fun. This seems like the normal game design process, but it’s amazing how few games seem to go through it.

And based on this interview, I have quite a bit of confidence they’ve pruned the 4x gameplay hedges.

So many things about this game have me excited. First of all, I love the cartoony graphics. Maybe not for everyone, understandable, but it reminds me of a Saturday morning cartoon of the Japanese import variety. Gameplay-wise they built a new research model - there’s a few strong pillars of research (the basic 4X research genres of engines, lasers, sensors, etc) but then the rest of the minor tech dependencies are randomized. No two games are the same, which makes multiplayer a bit more spicy.

Ship design has been simplified, but the simplifications make the ships much more useful in battle. Each ship is broken up into 3 types - the engines, the mission section, and the command section. The mission section essentially defines what a ship class will do. Is it sensor frigate?, torpedo boat?, tanker, etc. The command section is its secondary role. As you unlock larger classes of vehicles ( the base is the destroyer, and the next two are 3x larger than the prior) you’ll have more room in each of these segments to fit more roles.

Each section is further customized by what sorts of weapons and techs you’ve unlocked, and of course, you can unlock knew ship section types which have larger firing arcs, or tankers become refineries. You get the deal.

figured this game was still a ways off when I first heard about it a few months ago, but apparently there’s a demo going through the final checks and balances as we speak. I’ll make sure you all know when it comes out. I can’t freakin wait to get my hands on it.

Well I recently discovered a sweet site called Port Forward that lists games, and their ports.

So simple… so wonderful. It took me too long to fine ye Port Forward