War is a human endeavor, and the quality of the humans in charge matters. The challenge for game designers has been how to separate the impact of the leader from the quality of the troops under him. What is Patton’s value added to a well trained armor division? How much of Prussia’s power was based […]
What a Difference Six Months Can Make
August 28th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Gas Powered Games, Industry
Gamasutra quotes GPG boss Chris Taylor as saying that the PC is “rediscovering itself” as a platform. He wasn’t so positive about the platform last February. The two statements don’t directly contradict each other; in February he was talking business but now he’s talking about hardware and install base. But if the business problems are […]
Tags:
Building A Commercial Empire
August 28th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Preview
East India Company has somehow slipped under my radar. If it weren’t for the updated screenshots on Gamespy, I might have missed it altogether. It has naval warfare, just like Empire: Total War, but mostly seems to be a trading game. You set up outposts and make money. This screenshot shows a minimap in the […]
Tags:
Game Boys
August 28th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Crispy Gamer, Print Screen
My new Print Screen column is up at CG. This time, I review Game Boys, Michael Kane’s account of professional Counterstrike players. I’ll admit to being a skeptic of pro gaming ever getting big. Kane and his subjects keep making the comparison to Texas Hold ‘Em, a game that wasn’t even the most popular form […]
Tags:
Under the Hood
August 27th, 2008 · 1 Comment · Ancients, Design, Imperium
Michael Akinde, developer of the still not finished Imperium – Rise of Rome, has started blogging about some of the design details of the combat model in his game. The starter post can be found here, and his thoughts on how to reflect troop types and tactics here. From the second post: The scouting factor […]
Tags:
Mark Noseworthy Points Out the Obvious
August 27th, 2008 · 3 Comments · Consoles, Design, RTS
PC real time strategy games don’t work so well when ported to console platforms. So don’t expect to see Company of Heroes on your 360 any time soon. But Dawn of War II isn’t a traditional RTS, so it might work.
Tags: