As you can see, I’ve changed my template so I could make more use of the real estate on screen. I’m using a template I found here, but this means that all the old comments are nerfed and I still have to work out where I will put all the links and everything.

I will probably move to a new comment system, especially one that will let me keep track of new comments right here on the blog main page. I’ve been getting quite a few new eyeballs poking around my archives and leaving comments, but there was no way to notify viewers that they were there. Haloscan was great for leaving comments, but tracking them was a pain.

Please bear with me through the transition. Anyone who knows more about CSS than me is welcome to pitch in with advice.

It looks like progress is slowly being made on the long anticipated movie monster smash-up They Came From Hollywood. New screenshots show rampages in amusement parks and the developers report that some of the cities will be set in non-modern settings – one in the 50s, one in the 20s, etc.

Beyond the very cool screenshots and very amusing website, there are still a lot of questions about TCFH. Will it keep the player coming back once they’ve crushed everything? The screens seem to keep track of property damage and people killed, but how does this work into gameplay? Do you need to kill a certain number to move on? Is there a campaign at all or is it just freeform destruction? Does your monster have goals?

For my interest, is this a comedy-action game or is there some strategy involved?

Some people have been following TCFH for a long time – it’s the Duke Nukem Forever of independent gaming. (You can find old screenshots on its website dated April 2001). It only has a two person development team and small teams means long development times. Some people are getting impatient.

Not me. Though I look forward to They Came from Hollywood, I’m past the point of excitement. I just want a good game that unleashes my inner killer robot.

Another ancient themed game on the distant horizon (2006).

Being an unbiased and tolerant guy, I’m trying not to laugh at the fractured English in the press release but if you want gamers and gaming “journalists” to take you seriously in the English language media, you really have to do better than:

“Such realistic and pitiless battlefield scenarios have only been shown in Hollywood movies until date.”

or

“Everyone has heard of the storied legend from the war against Troy, where hero Achilles fought a great battle. But someone might know more details from history or Latin at school, than from the movies.”

or

“But not only these cut scenes provide an impressive background. Also unpredictable events provide sudden changes, contradict existing missions and require complete new tactics.”

Anyway, despite promises of a new physics engine and “bloody injuries and killed units that are left behind”, this is not one that will go on my want list. At least not until I have a little more information.

The demo for Pyro Studios’ Imperial Glory is available at an online location near you. I got mine from 3DGamers.

The verdict? It’s pretty good. There are two battles, one in farmland in Hannover and one in North Africa. There’s also some video of parts of the game not available in the demo – naval battles and the strategy map.

The battles look convincing enough and the interface is almost perfect. It’s as if they just said “Rome: Total War is the look we are going for, let’s just use their interface”, though of course they didn’t, since Imperial Glory has been in development for over a year now.

The demo did not leave me breathless in anticipation though like Rome’s did, even though prima facie the IG demo has more in it. Maybe I wanted a better looking set piece battle or a chance to try my hand at sailing HMS Victory. But it has also done nothing to dampen my enthusiasm for this game. It’s near the top of my most wanted list and doesn’t look to fall.

From the site that brought you the 50 Essential Games, 1up is now doing the 50 Crucial Classics – “50 Games You Must Play”. I’m still not sure I get the difference between “essential” and “crucial”, but it seems that the latter has more to do with quality and landmark status. In other words, “crucial” seems to mean “important”.

So far they’ve done nine games and I have no problems with the list so far. SimCity is getting its due, but their justification for why it is crucial but not essential seems to be the height of lameness.

“SimCity’s slow rise to success made it somewhat less impressive in scale than its progeny The Sims. And while it was a groundbreaking concept in gaming, SimCity was in many ways simply a testing ground for Wright’s more impressive projects such as SimEarth and the upcoming Spore.”

So, even though SimCity is what made The Sims possible and was a “testing ground” for these concepts, it wasn’t the big hit that the latter game was?

So why is that Starcraft is deemed crucial but not essential because it didn’t pioneer ideas but was derived from concepts taken from other games?

SimCity – innovative but not a breakout hit ergo not essential
Starcraft – huge hit but not innovative ergo not essential

I like the “crucial” list better because it, to me, seems more like a list of games that every gamer should be familiar with.

Lists are made to be argued over, so post your opinions here or there.

Oh, and while we’re on the subject of 1up, I finally got around to creating a profile there. I use my real name. (I’m too old for pseudonyms or wacky nicknames. I have one on a couple of forums, and that will do fine.) Feel free to look me up.

My first review for Game Method has just been posted.

Though I promised myself I would stay away from any more volunteer writing gigs, since time is a valuable resource and the checks from CGM are validation of my “skills”, I am excited to be working with Game Method. They have a good team of young writers and a core staff that we can expect big things from.

The site manager, Will Jessup, and editor-in-chief, Tracy Erickson, have been very helpful and have high expectations for the site. They needed another PC writer, approached me, and I accepted.

I hope that this will be a long-term relationship, and I encourage all twelve of my readers to check out Game Method – the first multi-platform site I have written for.