Flash of Steel header image 4

Entries from March 24th, 2009

Stardock Rolling in Money

March 24th, 2009 · 14 Comments · Ironclad, Stardock

At his GDC presentation this week, Brad Wardell made the case for reviving the hardcore PC market but not neglecting those gamers who still like serious strategy titles. Best part of that article? His sales data. Yeah, it’s in the interest of the publisher to put the best spin on things, but 10 million in […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Three Moves Ahead Episode 5

March 24th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Podcast, Three Moves Ahead

This week, Troy Goodfellow, Tom Chick and Julian Murdoch discuss what a strategy game is. In a world of genre blending titles, what is core nature of strategy gaming? They also work out their issues with seasons in games. Listen as Tom sells the panel on his new Japanese child game, Julian dismisses Settlers of […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Empire Total War Debate

March 21st, 2009 · 19 Comments · Creative Assembly, Crispy Gamer, Review

One of my favorite things about Tom Chick as a critic is that he always argues a corner. A game either succeeds or fails, with little room for fence sitting. This does not mean that his reviews are not nuanced; he never ignores the good stuff or fails to contextualize the bad. His recent Empire:Total […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Unexpected Pleasure

March 20th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Ancients, City Builder

A while back I called into question the quality of the upcoming Tropico 3 because its developer, Haemimont Games, had never really entertained me with one of their games. So I have to eat a little crow and say that their new Roman city builder, Grand Ages: Rome, is a minor delight. It’s not perfect […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Populous (1989)

March 19th, 2009 · 8 Comments · Feature:Map

What this is about. Populous is not really what it says it is about. Cast as a battle between two gods, one good and one evil, it is really a game that merges genocide and terraforming. There is no sense of any religious debate or motivation or distinctions between the deities – if Populous were […]

[Read more →]

Tags:

Big Huge Games For Sale

March 18th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Big Huge Games, Industry

This was a rumor floating around most of yesterday, but I didn’t want to say anything until it was confirmed. This is yet another in a growing list of signs that THQ could have major viability problems. Big Huge Games hasn’t done an original AAA game since Rise of Legends, though its Asian Dynasties expansion […]

[Read more →]

Tags: