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Entries from May 2006

Irrelevant?

May 29th, 2006 · No Comments

There are lots of reasons to criticize Game Informer, Gamestop’s pet magazine.
Subscriptions are often pushed on consumers (It’s the world’s “#1 Computer and Video Game Magazine” because of its brick-and-mortar discount, not its editorial chops), the reviews are usually quite short and descriptive, and it uses some .25 based scoring system that is even […]

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Any good gaming pod/videocasts?

May 26th, 2006 · 7 Comments

I love talking about gaming almost as much as I love writing about it. I don’t pretend to know all there is about the subject and there are a lot of intelligent people out there with some interesting opinions. And, being a mostly tech literate audience, you would expect there to be a plethora of […]

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Rise of Legends Packaging

May 24th, 2006 · No Comments

I’m still trying to suss out the nuances in Rise of Legends. I’ve been told this is a game for RTS wonks, which I used to be but haven’t the time for now, so my initial impressions are mixed.
Since I have no intelligent commentary on the game for the moment, I’ll talk a bit about […]

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Turn based is not the same as smarter

May 23rd, 2006 · 25 Comments

Bruce Geryk gets the Matrix Games newsletter, and I don’t. If I did, I probably would have written what he did, but it would have had more insulting words in it and a vague reference to Thermopylae.
I wrote a defense of the RTS a while ago, so you can compare our notes and see […]

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The Perfect Strategy Game?

May 21st, 2006 · No Comments

GameSetWatch has published a design blurb for the “perfect strategy game” as envisioned by IGDA co-ordinator Michael Lubker. His vision has the usual “more, more, more” approach to game design that would be a beast to implement and probably very difficult to design a clear interface for.
Lubker’s strategy vision has elements from a bunch of […]

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I want my game

May 18th, 2006 · 3 Comments

I ordered Rise of Legends over a week ago from GoGamer. It was on sale for 35 bucks (I love 48-Hour Madness) so I snapped it up.
Then, like an idiot, I chose the the cheapest delivery option. So my game is still not here.
And this just when the reviews are starting to hit. Brett Todd’s […]

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Europa Universalis III updates

May 17th, 2006 · 1 Comment

The official Europa Universalis III forums have a weekly development update that tends to dangle little delights in the form of screenshots and brief commentary from lead programmer Johan Andersson. This week’s was a modest shot of the monarch info screen, but the post describes how the nation tag system has been replaced by something […]

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The Black Hole of E3

May 11th, 2006 · 12 Comments

E3 is the biggest gaming event of the year even when nothing happens. So when two new consoles are introduced, its gravitational pull is enough to obliterate all other gaming news in the immediate vicinity.
Take the release of Big Huge Games’ Rise of Legends, one of the games that I’ve been most looking forward to […]

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Even the good ones can go wrong

May 11th, 2006 · 1 Comment

It’s not often that Wargamer’s Jim Zabek makes some major errors, but I guess E3 brings out the worst in everyone’s fact checking, as his E3 preview of Europa Universalis III makes clear.
The game does not “cover…the Middle Ages”; 1453-1786 is the early modern period. And “Defender of the Faith” was in the previus EU […]

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Harpoon sets sail again

May 9th, 2006 · No Comments

Matrix Games has announced that it will be publishing Harpoon 3 Advanced Naval Warfare. Advanced Gaming Systems has been keeping the Harpoon flame alive for quite a while now, but H3 has been in “community beta”status for a while. The big deal about Harpoon 3 is that it has multiplayer.
The original Harpoon was the first […]

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