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Don’t Lie About Our Game – Or Else!

October 6th, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Blogs, Religion

Left Behind Games has been sending out letters that threaten legal action against sites and writers who write “false and/or misleading” information about their Left Behind games, based on the best-selling dispensationalist fiction series. They even want bloggers to remove comments that are made in light of the “false and/or misleading” information.

The letter is unclear about what prompted this sort of legal action or what exactly they mean by “false and/or misleading”. And the company claims that they “generally support free speech in the media.” Good to know.

Thankfully, my position that Left Behind: Eternal Forces is poorly designed, boring and as offensive aesthetically as it is morally is not just legally protected – it’s something I can probably demonstrate with more scientific certainty than the company’s End Times theology.

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Asian Dynasties Demo

October 5th, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Big Huge Games, RTS

You can get the demo of Age of Empire s III: Asian Dynasties over here. It has a single campaign mission and one new Civ, the Japanese.

The Japanese will pose some interesting problems for Age players. First, no hunting allowed. Animals are used to increase the productive output of shrines instead. Build a shrine near a herd and watch them graze peacefully. So you could, theoretically, slow your Japanese enemy by just killing all the animals in his/her territory. The Japanese have lots of other food possibilities, though. Shrines can be used to create a trickle of any resource and rice paddies can be used to produce food or coin. Rickshaws sent from the Home City can spawn cherry orchards, a durable supply of fruity goodness.

Second, the daimyo unit can build soldiers wherever he is, making him a prime target for elimination. I like the idea of a single unit spawning an army out of nowhere; it will be fun to sneak a daimyo behind enemy lines and then hit him/her with seven samurai.

The consulate, a new building for all the Asian nations, allows for some more familiar units to enter the fray. You choose an ally and get some of their units in exchange for “exports”, a new resource that only the Asians get to collect. Naturally, you can upgrade your export exchange rate or switch allies for a price. As you age up you get access to better foreign aid.

I’m sort of disappointed that they led with the Japanese. Sure, the idea of ninjas running around killing everything sounds sweet, but Ming China and Mughal India are just more interesting to me. I guess I’ll have to wait a few weeks to get my elephants.

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First Europa Universalis: Rome Interview

October 2nd, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Paradox

That took no time at all.

The highlights:

– 50 playable nations
– 280 BCE – 27 BCE (from Pyrrhus’s invasion of Italy to Octavian taking the title Augustus)
– No historical events
– “Characters” can be given political appointments
– National ideas are back
– six types of unit (militia, heavy infantry, cavalry, archers, horse archers, elephants)

One very unusual statement from Johan Andersson:

“Religion also plays a big part, as [religion was] much more [important] back then.”

The answer seems to have been edited, so I don’t know if he means “important”. And I’m not sure what is meant by “big part”. For most of the elite classes in Rome and the Hellenistic World, official religion was a means to sanctify their control. Rome easily absorbed the gods of other polytheistic states, and the Maccabean Wars excepted, it’s not like you can point to any sustained struggle over clashing religious rights. When the state did crack down on religious rites and festivals (like Mystery religions) it wasn’t because of any belief that they were wrong so much as because they were considered dangerous or morally corrupting.

Not that the Romans were above using other people’s religious beliefs as propaganda or fodder for mockery. The child sacrifice of the Carthaginians, the animal worship of the Egyptians, the monotheism of the Jews, the nature worship of many Celtic peoples…all were less civilized than the ritualized superstitions of Rome and Greece.

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October Strategy Preview

October 1st, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Preview

The leaves are turning and the shelves are filling.

October 1 – Seven Kingdoms: Conquest (Enlight)

October 2 – Democracy (TriSynergy/Positech)

October 5 – Strategic Command 2: Weapons and Warfare (Battlefront/Fury), Crusader Kings: Deus Vult (Paradox)

October 15 – History Channel: Great Battles of Rome (CDV/Slitherine), Left Behind: Eternal Forces Expansion Pack (Left Behind Games)

October 16 – Thrillville: Off the Rails (LucasArts/Frontier), Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East (Ubisoft/Nival)

October 22 – Escape from Paradise City (Take Two/Sirius)

October 23 – Zoo Vet 2: Endangered Animals (VU Games/Legacy), Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (Microsoft/Big Huge Games)

October 30 – Universe at War: Earth Assault (VU Games/Petroglyph)

A couple of titles here have slipped from earlier months. Seven Kingdoms has been missed lots of announced dates, which is never a good sign. Strategic Command 2 and Deus Vult have also missed published estimated targets.

Democracy is the US release of a Positech game that was released online and in the UK a couple of years ago. The developer is the guy behind Kudos and Rock Legend. So it’s not a new game so much as another change for it. I still think it’s worth putting on the list.

The two most anticipated games on this list are towards the end of the month. The Asian Dynasties expansion for Age of Empires III will be a lot of fun. It will have elephants, samurais and banner armies. What could be better? Universe at War is an odd little game that has been described to me as a sci-fi Rise of Legends – three very distinct alien races doing what RTS races do.

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All Roads Yada Yada

October 1st, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Paradox

Paradox has announced its next historical strategy game, tentatively titled Europa Universalis: Rome.

Europa Universalis: Rome will cover the time period from the first Punic War to the start of the true Empire. Players will have thousand of gameplay choices ranging from country, culture, provincial and character options to name but a few, making each and every game infinitely customizable and truly unique.

Long time readers know that this is my favorite historical time period. So, naturally, I will buy this game and the nitpick it to death.

The targeted release window is the second quarter of 2008.

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Galactic Assault Review

September 30th, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Review, StrZone/XtrGamer

My review of Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power is now up at Gamesquad.

I give this a cautious recommendation. While much better than I thought it would be, I’ll admit to having very low expectations. The campaign missions have really tight restrictions on time and units and the difficulty slope goes vertical toward the end of the first chapter. But there are some clever things here. It’s WW2 without being WW2, sci-fi without being full of lasers and aliens and the interface is better than you usually find in this sort of B-list game.

Most importantly, the scenarios and deathmatch maps give you tactical problems that you will need to solve with the proper disposition of your forces and resources. There isn’t a single solution to any of them, so it’s not a puzzle game, but there are good options and bad options. The designers wisely let you fire and move on your turn, so you can use tactical retreats after doing damage, raising the possibility of setting traps for advancing enemies.

Still, the production values and pacing betray the game’s origins. In the strategy game part, there is too much time wasted in accruing resources to really get to the cool weapons; you pretty much have to spend what you’ve got on new troops instead of saving up for a super-bomber.

Galactic Assault is certainly worth a look if you really want to play a turn-based strategy/war game (think of it as Panzer Generals in Space.) You can get the demo at Gamespot.

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