For a couple of years now I have been using Game Collector to organize my games collection. This small bit of software was a little pricy, but it’s ability to import data about a game from online sources made it a lot easier to use than simply making my own. Sure, I couldn’t add many new fields, but most of the important stuff was there. My own Access or Filemaker database would have worked fine, but I had neither the time nor the desire to make my own. I would have ended up manually inputting tons of information on my hundreds of games. It’s not the best piece of collection software out there, but it is easy to use and has access to all this online information to make my inputting easier.

Well, it used to.

A few months ago, the program developers were told to stop using the online database of All Games Guide as a source. It is still not clear to me if Collectorz Software ever had permission to use the AGG database in the first place (it is an excellent resource, by the way). Apparently, Game Collector used to have access to Mobygames, but were told to stop using that, too.

Automation was the entire reason for me buying this software to begin with. Now the only online source available through the program is Amazon – a rather poor choice for a game collector. All the info has to be entered manually now.

Since I don’t get more than three or four new pieces of software every month, manual input is not a huge deal at this point. Many of my games are indie titles that AGG didn’t have data for anyway. But can you imagine my fury if I had bought this software immediately before the relationship with AGG had ended? The website still advertises that it can access online databases for collection information, but this isn’t really true.

There is now talk of Collectorz Software maintaining its own database of game information. Until they do – or can work out a relationship with a major online database – I won’t be recommending it to anyone.

Three new reviews from yours truly. Game Method has posted the Cossacks II review I did for them, and you can find my Computer Games Magazine review of the same game in their September issue. My CGM review of Supreme Ruler 2010 is in the same issue.

If you compare the Cossacks II reviews, you will notice that I gave it a 65 at Game Method, but 2.5 stars at CGM. This is not an error or a change in opinion or editorial meddling with my scoring. Despite what Game Rankings would have you believe, you can’t always directly compare a star scoring system to a percentage ranking. Each site or publication has a definition attached to a scoring range. For both Game Method and CGM, I ranked Cossacks II where it belongs – squarely in the low side of average. Game Method’s official definition of the 60s range is “flawed”.

We can go round and round comparing scoring systems. I prefer to work in a star system because there is a prevailing image of the percentage grade of games as comparable to a school grade. This leads to what one colleague derisively calls the “7 to 9” scale – almost every game will fall in this gap. As a writer, all I can do is fit my impressions of the game into the prevailing editorial system. I’m not about to wage a one-man revolution against people giving me a chance to write about something I love. If asked, I’ll voice my opinion.

As for Cossacks II, it’s pretty dull. The battles are nice enough, but once again GSC has made the game nearly impossible for newcomers. Over at Eurogamer, Kieron Gillen called it a RTS that wasn’t because effective play required a lot of pausing as you got your troops lined up. The strategy game has little to recommend it, and once again I fail to grasp the popularity of a European success story.

Supreme Ruler 2010 is workmanlike. It’s very deep and Battlegoat seems to have avoided all the pitfalls that made Superpower and its sequel completely unplayable – at least without a strong drink. Supreme Ruler is, in many ways, a promising start. It’s not there just yet, but I eagerly anticipate their next project.

Gamespot has a preview of the campaign story for Big Huge Games’ upcoming RTS Rise of Legends, coming to us via Ike Ellis and Paul Stephanouk. The plot sounds like what you would find in any RPG. Person on periphery of power is thrust into position of Grave Responsibility and must navigate the Treacherous Waters of politics and diplomacy. In other words, there will be a lot of fighting.

Having just finished reading John Sutherland’s essay on story-telling in games, it looks like BHG is following all the rules. I like how the design of the campaign will attempt to link role-playing choices (like party composition and character upgrades) to a strategic plan (who you trust and who you kill). The challenge of bringing open-ended gameplay to a story based campaign cannot be underestimated. Truly open play would allow you to lose a battle, or even a city, and still progress through the campaign. Losses and retreats in most RTS story campaigns are scripted (“You are outnumbered and must hold off the enemy until 12 Foozle-slayers successfully leave the map.”) even though a good strategy game – and even a good story – should allow you to recover from a loss.

This is why I love emergent story-telling in games. Don’t tell me that Civilization or Europa Universalis don’t have stories. Any game you can tell a stroy about has a story. I’m currently absorbed in the tiny roguelike Dungeon Crawl, and the only plot elements that are given is that there is a dungeon and some McGuffin I have to get. But I can tell you lots of deep stories about how my moronic characters have died.

But, the “campaign” game has become de rigeur for RTS, even though most do it very poorly. Rise of Nations had a decent campaign game, and the expansion made some great additions. Even the scripted stories in Age of Mythology and Act of War were above average. But all these games are designed with skirmishes and multiplayer flexibility as the major game elements. Still, there is an insistence that there be a campaign mode, though I know of few gamers who point to the Joan of Arc campaign as a big plus for Age of Empires II.

BHG is spending quite a bit of time on the character development, and the screenshots show a beautiful and foreign landscape, quite unlike anything we have seen in other RTSes. Rise of Legends is still my number one must-have game for the new year, and the tiny game designer me grows a little more intrigued with each preview.

Gamespot has posted the first profile of a culture in Stainless Steel Studios’ upcoming Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War. The Egyptians get the star treatment and there is quite a bit of information about what we can expect from them.

The game has hero units as the major new innovation, and SSS has gone to the obvious choices of Cleopatra and Ramsses the Great. Historically speaking, Cleopatra was a ruler with more ambition than actual success, but name recognition is important. Telling a player that he is now controlling Hathepsut or Thutmose III just doesn’t have the same instant appeal.

I do note that Cleo is wearing a dress that exposes her midriff – just like Isis did in Age of Mythology, and like no one who wasn’t a dancer would have at the time period in question. And that’s a very short skirt. I think I can see the Nile Delta. The priestess isn’t dressed much more modestly. The Britney-ization of computer women is not limited to The Sims or RPG fantasy anymore.

The priest, healer, and architect advisors emphasize the commonplace understandings of ancient Egyptian society. They were religious and they built stuff, just as we have learned from Cecil B. DeMille movies and Civ 3 (where Egypt was Religious and Industrious.) The military looks to be your standard computer game melange of Ptolemaic armies (elephants and cavalry) and the Pharaonic armies of Ramsses (charioteers and swordsmen).

I should do another article that compares how various games have seen various historic cultures. I think that there is a lot of subtle education going on that reinforces both traditional and legendary understandings of what made certain cultures tick.

As for Rise and Fall, it still hasn’t climbed into my gotta-have-it list despite the pull of the period for me. The naval battles look like a real change of pace, and I think that SSS’s Empires: Dawn of the Modern World was an underappreciated and tightly paced jewel of a game. Stay tuned to Gamespot (and here) for more updates.

I appreciate all the regular traffic from regular readers, but a minor interruption will prevent me from updating regularly for the next week or so. The recent drop-off in content has been because I am preparing for guests on holiday. So, I will be playing the host for a week or so.

In the meantime, enjoy the archives, conquer new worlds and suggest domain names for me. I am considering moving off Blogger and onto a domain of my own so I can use fancier blogging tools. Feel free to fill the comment box with domain name ideas. And if you can suggest a reliable host, even better.