Last month I said that Paraworld would be an interesting title to watch. It has a truly unique setting and, most importantly, dinosaurs. People love dinosaurs.

Bill Harris has suggested that it might be “the most beautiful gameworld ever created“.

I avoid using superlatives like “best game”, “prettiest world” or “worst writer”. Not because I don’t have opinions on these, but because I know that as soon as I do, someone is going to remind me of something I’ve forgotten. And beauty is more than pixel deep when in comes to games.

Not that Paraworld isn’t good looking. I just don’t see a lot that sets it apart from the other RTS contenders. Age of Empires III has a polished shine about it, with reflections and shadows and shuddering trees. Rise of Legends has a confidence in its own mythology that transfers easily from desert to forest to industrial plain. Battle for Middle Earth II has a beautiful gameworld that isn’t even its own.

As for Paraworld itself, try out the demo before you buy. I can see why people love it, but it’s fallen into the “wait and see” category for me. No matter how beautiful it is.

After a long absence, I’ve submitted to the Carnival of Gamers again, putting forth my overlong post about the Wilson/Emrich strategy guide for the original Civilization.

Lots of good stuff this month, all hosted by Corvus Elrod at Man Bytes Blog.

Reuters reports that Iranian gamers can now pretend they are blocking the Strait of Hormuz by sinking a tanker.

In my long life as a gamer, I have invaded Iraq, sunk supply convoys running troops to a Europe under attack, bombed nuclear facilities (and missed, killing villagers instead), and sometimes shot camels just for the hell of it.

I’ve played as the Wehrmacht and the Mongol hordes. I’ve stormed Juno beach and sacrificed prisoners to raise my culture rating.

I find it a little silly to get too concerned that some Iranian teenager roleplays stopping our oil supply. So long as he’s not trying to figure out his role in a larger plan to destroy Israel, I’m not worried or even interested.

Though, not long ago, I was driving the Israeli army out the West Bank and Golan Heights.

A few months ago, I wrote about how I couldn’t find many good gaming podcasts. The amateur ones were too amateurish and the professional ones sometimes felt a little disjointed.

After months of checking out recommendations and giving others a chance, I have to say that things are better.

The PC Gamer podcast, in particular, has improved a lot in the last couple of months. There is a better sense of pacing, smoother transitions between topics and some actual discussion and debate – something I thought had been lacking when I first started tuning in in the spring. I still find the voices that are not-Kristen Salvatore and not-Gary Whitta hard to distinguish, but that’s more on me than them. I can’t tell my brothers apart on the phone, either.

The move of many places to video podcasts is not something I want to encourage, though. Leaving aside the issue of proper attire or posture for those on camera, video is an entirely different medium from audio and playing too much to the camera means that something may be lost to those who are just listening. Like most people I think, podcasts are background listening for me, something to occupy one part of my brain while I work with the other part. (I work best with background noise of some kind.) Don’t force me to watch a bunch of editors talk when there’s usually nothing to see except them talking. And, if you are just talking, there’s no need to waste time and manpower filming it. Use video for video stuff.

The 1UP Show is both good and bad for this reason. When it comes to filming developers or game action, 1UP knows what it’s doing. The shots look good without being flashy, it has a “you are there” thing about it mostly because they don’t have any desire to become filmmakers. This isn’t a TV show and they don’t try to jazz up the show by making the presenters into personalities. The games are the stars.

But sometimes there is just too much one guy talking to another guy. I like a good talking head show, but good talking head shows need a sense of theater about them in order for the visuals to work.

Here in DC, there is a Saturday night sports round table show during football season. Redskins Report with Geroge Michael, Sonny Jurgensen, John Riggins and Michael Wilbon. Wilbon and Michael are also on the weekly basketball show Full Court Press when the Wizards season starts. It’s just four guys in chairs, but is very good TV not just because these guys are entertaining, but because each one serves a purpose and plays a role. Even when they agree, it is clear that each speaker is coming at the issue from a different perspective. It’s not always combative – this isn’t Crossfire killing America – but it never fails to be compelling TV if you are interested in sports.

The PC Gamer podcast is becoming my podcast of choice now because it now comes closest to the roundtable ideal for me. It’s still a ways off. As important as weekly regulars are to a podcast’s success, the magazine has some strong columnists (especially Steve Klett and Desslock) who should be encouraged to do the show once a month.

October is the beginning of the holiday season for games. Word of mouth begins about some of these titles and people hold off on their purchases in case Santa shows up with a bundle of new electronic toys.

It is also shaping up to be the month of the expansion pack, with five major titles getting add-ons. Here’s the list, assembled from press releases and major gaming websites:

October 2 – Wildlife Zoo (Dreamcatcher), Dominions 3: The Awakening (Shrapnel/Illwinter)

October 5 – Space Empires V (Strategy First/Malfador)

October 9 – Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade (THQ/Relic)

October 16 – The Guild II (Aspyr/4Head Studios), Sid Meiers Railroads! (2k/Firaxis), Birth of America (Strategy First/AgeOD)

October 17 – Sims 2: Pets (EA/Maxis), Age of Empires III: Warchiefs (Microsoft/Ensemble), Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania (Microsoft/Blue Fang), UFO: Extraterrestrials (TriSynergy/Chaos Concept), Brigade E5: New Jagged Union (Strategy First/Apeiron)

October 23 – Heroes of Annihilated Empires (CDV/GSC), Stronghold Legends (2k/Firefly)

October 24 – Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption (LucasArts/Petroglyph)

October 31 – Heroes of Might and Magic V: Hammers of Fate (Ubisoft/Nival Interactive)

Birth of America has been out for a while, but is now getting a proper North American distribution deal through Strategy First. Space Empires V will be another 4x space strategy game in a year that has already seen the acclaimed Galactic Civilizations II and the divisive Sword of the Stars.

The only truly huge new AAA title this month is Railroads, a game I had a chance to see a few months ago. And even it isn’t that new, since it is Railroad Tycoon all over again. I guess that’s not quite fair; the Firaxis team has really gone to town on the artwork and the economic game has been much simplified from the most recent version of the game. It is more a model train game, approximating the original Meier RRT design in many ways. It looks glorious, though.

Another title worth looking out for is Heroes of Annihilated Empires. Beyond the silly name and the obvious Peter Jackson ripoff in the game’s movies, I like the idea of another fantasy RTS to challenge my love for Battle for Middle Earth II – not that I’m expecting anything that good.

Of course, the big title of the month for my household isn’t even a strategy game. Much delayed, and seemingly troubled, role playing game Neverwinter Nights 2 (Atari/Obsidian) will be available on the 31st. I’ve been a big fan of the original NWN and have had some concerns about how Obsidian has approached the development of the sequel, especially in their punting on the issue of the Dungeon Master client. Plus I’ve been hearing unsavory things about the system requirements and the toolset’s ease of use. Brett Todd did a better job than I could of voicing the concerns of many observers in his October CGM column.

EDIT: Dominions 3 is another major strategy gaming that will arrive in people’s homes sometime this week. Shrapnel says it started shipping on September 29 though the release date is October 2, so we’ll be getting reports on it soon enough. Since Dominions is such a strange little series in so many ways, I’ll be reserving a lot of commentary for when I have more to say. I’ve added the game to the October list thanks to a perceptive commenter. Thanks hoo.

I’ll have more on Defcon later, but the word “stylish” keeps popping up in conversations I am having about it. Introversion is the king of style and in my review of Darwinia (now lost in the death of DIY Games) I mentioned how its sense of style almost overwhelmed the real substance.

And that’s not a bad thing. I’m astonished that people still post on forums and message boards that they prefer gameplay over graphics (like that tells us anything useful). They are “video games” for a reason, but saying that bad games suck even when they are pretty doesn’t get you extra street cred. A well designed game marries powerful visuals with a compelling rule set and interesting AI or multiplayer experience.

Defcon shows that simple graphics can still be very impressive; it’s the triumph of art design over photorealism. If there is an Introversion art motif, it is that you should never hide your influences. Darwinia looks like virtual worlds as seen through bad movies and teleplays of the early nineties. Glowing colors, simple forms, repetition after repetition. Defcon steals directly from the 80s Cold War classic Wargames, though sort of misses the moral lesson of the movie in favor of encouraging people to make the perfect air defence system.

As much as people love to complain about the lack of originality in games today, familiarity is important – especially in the indie game scene. The best independent games take something you already know and adapt it. Armadillo Run is one of many Rube Goldberg games, but works because of the physics and crashing things. Gish is a platform game, but, once again, tied to the physics of blobs.

Style happens when you take the familiar and make it look new. I’ve been playing a lot of Age of Empires III lately and it’s not big on style. It looks great, but it’s the good looks of a chrome and steel kitchen. It has reflective water, pretty trees, grazing bison and all the other stuff to remind you that this is the real world you are settling. Rise of Legends has style. It’s just another RTS after all, with a rock/paper/scissors mechanic and minerals to mine. It also has sights that you recognize, but the familiar musketeers, dragons and flying saucers are ripped from their normal context. The juxtaposition of diverse familiar elements leads to a jarring sense of exploring a world you thought you had mapped out in your head.

Photorealism can be stylish. Silent Hunter III is stylish because of its faithful recreation of World War II submarine warfare. The constraints of the underwater life, the exhausting schedule, the techonological limits – all are made effective though a convincing rendering of industrial, utilitarian shipwork.

Introversion never fails to surprise. Instead of churning out match three games or real physics stuff, they take images and sensibilities that our generation (late 20s to early 40s) shares and make a great game out of it. Style doesn’t just unite material and art; it marries material and audience.