With Christmas coming up, I am - sadly - finding few games that I want or need as a gift.
Age of Empires III? Got it. Civ IV? Got it. Legion Arena? Got it. Blitzkrieg 2? Got it. Barbarian Invasion? Got it.
Imperium? Not out yet. Rise of Legends? Not out yet. Rise and Fall? Maybe never […]

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In what is a shocking piece of Thanksgiving news, strategy game developer Stainless Steel Studios is no more. There isn’t a lot of information on the whys and wherefores. Their main site is down so there is no official announcement or press release. The above linked forum suggests that the heavily promoted and very promising […]

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In the first of what I hope will be many interviews with independent strategy game developers, Michael Akinde agreed to answer some questions about Imperium: Rise of Rome, game design and the place of history in the game business.

This interview was originally going to be the first thing published on my new domain, but my […]

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Paradox’s Diplomacy was released to initially positive reviews. Well, mostly positive. The scores tended to the mid-70 to 80 per cent range. A couple even hit the 90 range, including one from a veteran of the board game. The scores themselves don’t quite reflect the generally respectful tone that the board game conversion gets in […]

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Now that Bruce Geryk has become a regular blogger as well as a regular reader of Portico, he has commented on a couple of my posts.
Be sure to read his new post. It’s a reflection/reply to my recent thoughts on game AI in general and wargame AI in particular. He started chafing in the comments […]

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In a mostly grateful comment on my review of his Raging Tiger and Falklands War 1982, Curt Pangracs writes that I underrate the AI in those games when I refer to it as “lackluster”.
A few days later, veteran wargame reviewer Jim Cobb writes an editorial on Combat Sim that accuses developers of not spending enough […]

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Paradox has just announced the third patch for their hit WWII grand strategy game Hearts of Iron 2. They persist in calling these things “enhancements” instead of patches, which makes my skin crawl, but once again the Swedish masters continue to support some of their games well after release. (Victoria seems to have fallen by […]

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There is much to be learned in a comparison between Age of Empires III and Civilization IV. Both are highly anticipated sequels to legendary series. Both have had overenthusiastic preview press. Both have been mentioned many times on this blog. And both have consumed most of my gaming time in the last month or so.
But […]

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Not so long ago, I posted about how game music was mostly wasted on me. A lot of people love game soundtracks, but I usually turn them down or off and put on some Sondheim instead.
But now there is this African tune stuck in my head to the extent that I even bop my head […]

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Last night we had dinner with the neighbors. A very nice couple of our parent’s generation. Both very accomplished, very gracious and, most importantly, very interesting.
And they find this whole computer gaming thing puzzling.
They’ve known that I had a little side income coming in from writing about this pastime, but tonight’s discussoin went into a […]

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