Another great year for strategy gaming comes to a close and we can look forward to…well, it’s not quite clear. Where 2005 had some huge sequels (Civ IV, AoE 3, EE 2) that we could rest our hopes on, 2006 has few marquee games on the horizon - certainly none with the oomph that Firaxis […]

[Read more →]

In my never-ending struggle to bring you news you already know, only spun through my own private prism, Gamespy has announced its PC Games of the Year, as well as the usual genre awards.
I have fewer issues with Gamespy’s choices than I did IGN’s. This is not unusual, since I have fewer issues with Gamespy […]

[Read more →]

IGN has announced its games of the year, and the PC choices aren’t full of surprises. Most reasonable people can agree on what a good game is. Plus, their ultimate choice of Civilization IV as their Game of the Year is in sync with mine.
But a few little things bother me.
How the hell is Empire […]

[Read more →]

I’m not going to claim to be the best speller or writer out there. Typos and me go way back. But is it too much to ask for games to have their words spelled correctly?
Case in point, Legion Arena. The battles in the game are separated by a voice-over history of Rome with a map […]

[Read more →]

Gamespot has announced its Game of the Year nomination list. I don’t know why they break it down into so many different catergories - I count 53. Sure, ten of the categories are “joke” categories like the one for excessive cursing or product placement. But clicking through all those pages is the best argument yet […]

[Read more →]

OK. It’s not the end of the year. But it’s close enough. And I doubt I’ll get much blogging done in the days before January hits.
It’s been a good year for strategy games. The best indie game of the year is a strategy game. The best game of the year is a strategy game. The […]

[Read more →]

I was wavering on getting The Movies. Despite the generally respectful reviews it has been getting, all the discussion of the tedious tycoon part of the game gave me the impression that this is a game best left for the bargain bin. Many of the movies uploaded to the Lionhead site at this point are […]

[Read more →]

The thing about teaching high school is that you get a lot of questions.
The thing about teaching high school when your students know that you play games is that you get a lot of questions about playing games.
This afternoon, one student asked me for gift suggestions for his brother. Trying to be a good person, […]

[Read more →]

This month’s Computer Games Magazine announces “37 PAGES OF REVIEWS.” That’s twenty games, in case you were wondering. Some big reviews in there too. Quake IV. Age of Empires III. Civilization IV. The Movies.
And a few of mine. I review Down in Flames, Diplomacy and Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion.
There’s so much in this month’s […]

[Read more →]

Firaxis gaming czar Sid Meier has been awarded a star on the “Walk of Game”. He’ll join fellow inductee John Carmack in getting a developer star alongside last year’s winners Nolan Bushnell and Shigeru Miyamoto.
First, let me be clear that I think that a star decorated sidewalk that celebrates StarCraft, Lara Croft and Link alongside […]

[Read more →]