This month’s issue of your favorite magazine has a big feature on the “Most Anticipated Games of 2007”. Usual fare for this point in the publishing cycle, right? Well, no other magazine will have a bus driving simulation on their list, which is one more reason to listen to Steve’s editorial plea to spread the good word about CGM. (Seriously, though. Listen to the man. No other mainstream outlet publishes reviews of wargames as often as CGM. And I’m sure they get no end of grief about it.)
Not a lot of reviews this month, but some very strong content all around. Good columns in every section, an interesting preview of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and a Game Preview Madlib that looks distressing similar to things I have written over the years.
My contributions are a book length review of Medieval II: Total War, a Revisionist History look at Centurion: Defender of Rome and my usual Alt.Games colum (Travian, Virtual Villagers and Aquaball.)
Find it hidden in a newstand somewhere far from where you live.
I enjoyed your Centurion article and Chick’s rant about Left Behind. But please, for the love of Christ, no more “virtual sex” articles.
I played Centurion: Defender of Rome – or at least, I think I did. It’s been so long now. I looked up the game and saw a screenshot that of legions advancing to battle and thought that looks familiar. When I was eleven or twelve, I seem to recall playing and enjoying those battles with three or four dozens troops representing thousands of legionaries. I believe I enjoyed the game too. Games have certainly gotten better graphically and often include better A.I. and more “realistic” details, they don’t seem to always be much more fun. I think I had as much fun with Centurion as I ever did with Rome Total War; but I could be wrong. I can’t remember my early gaming years so well. I may be forgetting the bad and remembering the good.
That’s the thing with old games, JS. It’s so easy to forget all the crap that was out there, since, for the most part, people didn’t play/pirate/pass around the bad games. In my gaming salad days, everything seemed so new that I wasn’t quite conscious of how crappy the King’s Quest games were as adventures.
Centurion, though, I remember very well and I remember being both appreciative that I got to be Caesar and unhappy that the game wasn’t as good as it could have been. It was probably the first time I had seen the word “Cannae” in a game and was flattered to think that they thought I would know what it meant. And, as Iain McNeill has said, legions come with all that conceptual baggage that makes them immediately cool.
I find games more fun now but in different ways. First, more is possible. Your enemies in Rome actually use the territories they conquer, for example. Second, the multiplayer possibilities are much greater. Third, the Internet has created an international community of gamers, which really beats hoping that the guy down the hall likes Star Wars, too.
What I really miss from those old days, and this is tied to the “fun” idea, is the sense of discovery. Now we know almost everything about a game a month before anyone plays it. Is it even possible to be surprised anymore? Plus, genres were still working themselves out and you had a lot of blending of game types – we are seeing a lot more of that now, but for a while it looked locked in stone.