Halloween Sale

Well there's one over at Direct2Drive so check that out (not for us non-North American people however).

We've got the Witcher Sale over at Impulse. There's also the Dawn of War collection ( I sound like a broken record, that game seems to be on sale at a different place every week) on sale over there. AAAAA! A reckless disregard for gravity (I know there's about around 14 A's missing from the name but it's annoying to type it all out), the indie game is only $9.99 over at Impulse. Also, CoD4 is on sale here as with....

Over at Steam, besides the other sales which I mentioned last Thursday, there's also the weekend sale for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare at 40% off.

Over at GamersGate, there's the 30% off on all JoWood games. They also have Legendary, Street Fighter 4 and Space Siege at HALF price. Go over there if you're interested in those 3 games.

Torchlight

Diablo enters the cartoon world. Well, Torchlight is a game made by the original developers of Diablo and the Mythos. It's a slash and hack loot grabbing RPG. You go around a town and enter dungeons, kill monsters, grab items and improve your character. This game doesn't have any multiplayer though until they release the MMO version maybe next year.

I like the graphic style of the game. It reminds me of some cartoon I can't remember. The game runs well on all systems - it can even work on a netbook with it's requirements (it even has a netbook mode in the settings). The graphics aren't jaw dropping awesome like the screens and videos of Diablo 3 but since it's stylized, it holds up pretty well. It can get confusing though with all the sparks flying and damage numbers popping up here and there.

You also get a pet who functions like a mercenary. You can equip spells and amulets on it and when you feed the pet fish it can transform. Depending on the fish you feed, the pet transforms to a different monster for a limited time. The best thing about the pet is that he can carry items back to town to sell them (pretty smart dog/cat) while you're off battling demons in the mines.

I'm not so big with the skill system as of now. I haven't played much to see if the lower tier skills will scale on the later levels. Currently, all higher level skills don't have a lower level skill requirement like the skill tree in Diablo. All it has is a level requirement.

I like this game more than Titan Quest but I still feel that Diablo 2 has the better gameplay and has multiplayer. It's just $20 if people want to buy this game (same as Titan Quest).

Steamy Week Sale

There's so much stuff on sale in Steam this week that I have to put this out since it isn't the weekend yet.

First, we have a $5 Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. The first person shooter with some RPG and open world mechanics. Great game.

Second, we have East India Company on 60% off with it's expansion. A good strategy management sim in the old days of shipping to India. (that was a bad description I know...)

Third, until October 29 only! go grab The Witcher at 50% off. That's today! This super RPG is now available worldwide!

There's also a Crazy Machine sale over at Steam so go check it out now.

Scary Games?

I've never trully been scared at playing video games compared to watching a horror movie. Take for instance the Silent Hill series, it isn't scary. Certainly the monsters are disturbing but they aren't scary when you have near infinite ammo in the late game. The Resident Evil series is the same. It's basically a shooter with zombies as your opponents. Horror games will certainly try to creep you out but I think if you get older, you won't get scared.

The first ever game that I felt some form of fear was Alone in the Dark 1. I found it scary cause I was a kid at that time. A lot of enemies also had a trick in killing them like I was stuck at the twin monster by the stairs for the longest time. There was no internet to look for FAQs on how to defeat it, eventually I guessed right and placed a mirror to take those monsters down.

Fatal Frame is another game that I got creeped out. Until you get used to the fact that the ghosts that pop up here and there aren't really going to kill you. Also, once I got good at shooting the camera, I started feeling like a ghostbuster.

Actually some of those old school western RPGs creeped me out. Especially when you get lost in the level and you were lazy to make a map. You'd suddenly be attacked by several monsters and you were going to die in hell. Now that was scary. Then again, I was a kid with a hyperactive imagination. I doubt I'd feel that way if there was a dark horror Etrian Odyssey.

Mount and Blade Flaws

I think I've played more than enough to see the flaws of Mount and Blade.
Certainly the concept is great though it does have several failures. The
biggest failure is probably the repetitive nature of the game. Most of the
quest will require you to kill either bandits or someone, deliver a message
to a lord, escort a caravan or give a ransom payment. Without a story or
some background, it's really up to you to keep the interest up. Other
games are also repetitive like say Diablo where basically you kill
everything so I guess you don't have to fault this game for that. Second
flaw of the game deals with the walls in any arena. The AI on horseback
would usually get stuck on a wall thus rendering him useless in combat.
Well walls do give boundaries but I wish the AI would turn around and
maneuver more when it reaches close to it. Third, I guess this is the flaw
of being a 2 person development team - poor graphics. Well I guess it runs
pretty well on older systems so that's good but graphics aren't very
special to look at. I do like the fact that your clothes get bloodied
after killing dozens of people - that's a good thought in the game.

I also kinda like the game at the easier damage setting. It's so
frustrating to get killed so easily by an axe throw or being stabbed in the
back. Anyway, I'm trying to be evil in the game now with all my village
looting yet my honor doesn't seem to drop below 0 (or is that the lowest?).
I've just got Dawn of War 2 recently and once I have my brand new vid card
- I'll be playing that soon so stay tuned for Dawn of War Adventures hehe.

ARMA 2 Sale

Arma 2 - the realistic first person shooter is now on sale at 50% off in Steam and GamersGate. It's more of a first person shooter simulator as a bullet is enough to take you down.

Over in GamersGate, it's their turn to have a THQ week but they don't have Dawn of War 2 (as it has Steam and Games for Windows requirements). They do have the original Dawn of War with Soulstorm package at a discount and others such as Company of Heroes, Red Faction and Titan Quest. There's also a Elven Legacy (with the release of the expansion, Elven Legacy: Ranger) and East India Company sale.

Impulse has Call of Duty 4, Elven Legacy and Red Faction: Guerrilla on sale. Check those out over at Impulse.

Fix it

I got it running! Yesss! the machine is nearly alive. I've stick and jabbed so many wires in it that I can feel the power (or the static electricity). My only problem now is that my OS won't boot cause of all the new stuff. I can probably only get into safe mode so now I have to get a hard disk, install the OS before I have it up and running. Hmmm, this may take a few more days considering the time it takes to format and install an OS and downloading all those drivers.

Well I got a new 500 GB hard disk better than the old 80 and 40GB that was in the old one. I can remember having an 800 MB one waaaay back. It's amazing that 800 MB was huge back then when now 1 TB is now commonplace.

Now I can put in my old win XP but there's Window's 7 coming out and 64 bit seems the a good choice for the future. However, 64 bit compatibility might be tough even today. Ho hum anyway, with this new rig I can't wait for Dragon Age that's soon to be released. All that's left to complete it is a video card.... the ATI 5770 looks pretty awesome.

Crashing Halt

Well my gaming has come to a crashing halt because my system wont start up. I can't tell whether the problem lies with the motherboard, processor or the memory of the system. The hard disk and power works cause I've tried it on a different system so it lies with these 3 main parts. If the PC was a car then my car could turn on the headlights and radio but won't really start. The fans of the video card and heatsink cooler would turn on so that's a good thing but still no start. It's not the video card since I've already used the card with another system.

I remember in the older days that computers would beep if they didn't start and those beeps had a certain meaning. A few short beeps might mean that the memory is bad and needs to be changed. I realized that my case and probably all the newer casings don't have that sort of speaker anymore nor do motherboards come with an internal beeping speaker. What a failure and holidays are fast approaching...I got to get this rig up and running quick.

Well there's a real reason for buying a branded one rather than building one on your own. You don't get the damn frustration of wondering what's wrong with the system or how to set the system up.

Something in me tells me that it's the motherboard that has the problem but I'm not 100% sure. It is a locally branded one and awfully cheap so I'm not really sure of the build quality. Hmm, I have a feeling I'll end up taking this back to the shop...

Gordon Freeman Sale

Since Dr. Gordon Freeman has won greatest video game hero of all time in Gamespot (I have no idea why he won...must be his booming voice), Valve has declared a 55% sale for all Half Life games over at Steam.

Red Faction games including Guerilla have a 25% off sale over at Steam since it's still THQ week.

Also, THQ week along with the Dawn of War 2 update has a sale on all Dawn of War games - 50% off.

I don't see any sales of interest over at the other sites, Impulse, Gamersgate and Direct2Drive but feel free to check them out as they do have lesser known titles on sale.

Dragon Age: Origins can also be pre-ordered at Steam for international people. Impulse and the others only allow US and Canada for that game (annoying isn't it).

Mount and Blade: Fall of The Don

I made a crippling mistake with The Don last night. Well you see, the castle which wasn't awarded to The Don fell to the enemy. The Don managed to take it back and also go to another castle Domsumting castle and take that over. The Domsumting castle was awarded to him along with the small village that came with the castle. Well The Don was proud of his new castle and had his top Huscarls garrison in it.

Yet defending the castle against the Vaegirs wasn't easy. The Don has crushed even the Vaegir king seeking to take his holdings. The castle near Rivacheg was retaken by The Don and again he asks that it be awarded to him. King Ragnar again rejects his proposal and The Don decides to be his own king. He breaks away from the Nords and forms the Kingdom of Nord Rebels (yeah a bad name). The Rhodoks have amassed an army and was heavily harassing that area where The Don was patrolling. Soon, a charge had surrounded The Don and here the mistake was made. I pressed an attack against 300 men without joining into battle. I had let my 80+ cavalry and heroes die to the blade of my enemies as The Don watched. With this only defeat, The Don surrenders and is captured by the Rhodoks and locked in prison.

The Don manages to escape - with no troops but a lot of money. He decides to retire and be a thief and smuggler over at Tihr.

Anyway...I think this will be my last Mount and Blade adventure that I'll be typing in for now.

Zombie Alliance

Since it's close to Halloween, I was thinking of a game I want to play. I'm not sure if there is a mod for Jagged Alliance but it would be cool to see zombies in that game. Think about it, it's a tactical turn based shooter against hordes of zombies. It would be like Jagged Alliance / X-Com meets Left 4 Dead. You basically start off creating your character and the initial characters you'll get to pick from a list. Any new character you find can join you against the zombies or be an infected or zombie themselves. A few characters would be immune to the zombie disease but you won't be able to know who. Your own created character can turn into a zombie and you then must be killed.

The game would basically be surviving. You'd control your team to take key locations by assaulting the mass of zombies there. You can then barricade the area to defend against a zombie attack. The end game is when you find the main source of the zombie infestation - a hive like biological lab which holds the boss zombie that infects everyone else.

I was also wondering why they haven't made an Underwold game..oh wait that's Vampire: The Masquerade.

THQ Week Sale on Steam

There's a THQ sale over at Steam this week. For October 12, we got Titan Quest at 50% off. Each day there will be different titles on sale - probably Company of Heroes, Dawn of War, Stalker and Full Spectrum Warrior on a different day.

If you have any liking to any of those games go grab them now.

Mount and Blade: The Don

Before I go into the continuing adventure of The Don, let's see what has happened to our barbarian. Davion was last seen making camp near a Nord town when he finally decides to end his adventuring. According to the news, he goes to become and abbey assistant (very strange for a brutal killing machine, but hey that's what happened to agent 47 in Hitman). He doesn't end up being famous nor rich but I guess he lived a peaceful life away from all the warfare.

So let's go back to The Don. The Don started off by becoming a great merchant trader. Buying low and selling high was the name of his game. He would travel from end to end selling his different wares. His mercenary company grew as much as his own wealth. During his travels, he eventually ended up helping several Nord lords against raiders and Nord farmers against bandits.

One day, The Don received a message from King Ragnar of the Nords asking him to be a vassal and this town of Ruval will be given to him. Deluded by greed, The Don accepts without realizing that the Kingdom of the Nords was at war with 3 other kingdoms and that King Ragnar was imprisoned over at a castle. The Don was required to travel and search for King Ragnar to give a formal oath to the king. So this is when it gets crazy. The Don had about 50 men by this time and he marches off in the heart of enemy territory to talk with the Nord king. I found out that you could pay off the prison guard to see the prisoner since I tried talking to the lord but there was no option to speak to the prisoners. Well, in the prison, The Don swore oath to King Ragnar. It doesn't seem that The Don can just bust out the King so he leaves the castle and heads for his new home. Unfortunately, he was behind enemy lines. Facing 100+ enemy soldiers is never a good idea so The Don was forced to retreat twice losing 20 men in the process. His group seemed displeased by this act but better lose 10 than lose all.

Our story goes pretty generic for several game months. The Don joins a military campaign and fights against enemy rulers winning all of the battles. During the day, he would battle and during the night, he would rest. One interesting battle is when he captures an enemy king and eventually ransoms him off for a huge sum.

Eventually, The Don decides to take on a castle on Rivacheg on his own. So he besieges the places taking out 2 lords who challenge him. He manages to take the castle in a direct assault as waiting for 30 days to starve the enemy isn't a very interesting option. The Don gets disappointed that the castle isn't awarded to him. Sadly, The Don still decides to remain a vassal of King Ragnar.

This blog is turning out to be the Mount and Blade adventures blog....sheesh

Hitman Sale

Now you can hire the famous agent 47 for a special low price of $9.99 over at Steam. You get all 3 Hitman games - Agent 47, Hitman 2 and Blood Money or you could buy 1 for $4.99. Now you can be that badass silent assassin you've always dreamt to be. But wait there's more! Hitman is always about doing the killing your way so why not check out Rebel FM's podcast (link goes to their game club find the episodes on Hitman there) on the Hitman Blood Money. Playing Blood Money and listening to the podcast is a great way to find out how people worked their way into this game.

Again, Direct2Drive doesn't offer much international games. It's their wargame / strategy sale week. Funny how say World in Conflict have "This product is a multi-language version and contains English, French, and Spanish." when it's available only in US and Canada. Well I guess there are a lot of French Canadians and Latin Americans....

Over at Impulse, Sins of a Solar Empire is on sale. They're probably doing this for the upcoming expansion: Diplomacy. It's a great game where it's Galactic Civilizations meets Homeworld.

Gamergate doesn't really offer anything interesting. If you are interested with Velvet Assasin though, feel free to check that out.

Mount and Blade: Combat

I wasn't able to get my Mount and Blade fix yesterday as I had a blackout last night. I did manage to go around the countryside a bit as The Don but the power went out. The nice thing about setting the game to Save and Exit is that it auto saves I think every game day and every time you enter town.

I've heard of the multiplayer expansion coming for this game called Mount and Blade: Warbands. I don't know how this expansion will change the single player game but multiplayer would be really game changing. Think of a MMO with action combat.

The combat in Mount and Blade is deceptively simple but quite deep once you start looking at the intricacies of it. Let me first explain melee (on foot) combat. The game starts with the default of an auto direction attack though you can set this to manual. Basically, you can attack at 4 different directions - left to right, right to left, vertical slash and stab/pierce. Pressing and holding the attack button will then create a stronger attack. Blocking then creates an added complexity. If one has a shield, pressing and holding the block button will block all attacks (until your shield breaks). If one doesn't have a shield, blocking gets more difficult. One has to wait for the enemy to ready his attack (whether horizontal, vertical or stab) before pressing the block. If one holds the block, your enemy can change the direction of his next attack to avoid your block. Thus, a vertical block will not be able to block horizontal attacks.

Range combat are done with three types of weapons - bows, crossbows and thrown weapons. Basically, bows have the longest range yet are the most difficult to use. Crossbows are easy to use but have a fairly short range. Throwing weapons are fairly easy to use and are generally very powerful but have barely any range to them. Since the game takes into account gravity (there isn't any wind in the game so you don't have to worry about that), at longer distances, one has to fire higher to hit the target. I'm not fond of range weapons as I can't really hit anyone with them and shields can block them easily. I tend to use most ranged weapons at point blank range since then I'll be sure to hit my targets.

Mounted combat changes things up. Holding a melee weapon still has the same 4 way attack (except for polearms). One can slice to the right side or left side of the horse, slash vertically and stab. Generally the vertical slash and stab are used against other mounted opponents and the side slashes are for enemies on foot. A polearm changes things since now you can charge and lance your enemies. This is done automatically when you ride your horse at a certain speed. Your character will automatically position the polearm to the side and moving your mouse changes the aim of the pole slightly.

Seems simple enough until you add in your weapon attack types and your armor rating. There are 3 attack types, cutting, piercing and blunt. Swords can do cutting and piercing while other weapons like clubs can do blunt. In general, cutting has the highest damage of the 3 types but do significantly less when your opponent is heavily armored and carries a shield. There's also a thing called speed factor. When running forward and you attack with a stab or vertical slash, you usually gain a bonus as your whole body is propelling your attack forward. If you're moving backward while attacking, the opposite happens, you do less damage. The distance between attacks also modifies damage. Stabbing a person with a spear in very close quarters will deal very little damage. Think of it in real life since you can't pull back your spear or aim it properly you'll probably hit with a very small amount of force or hit them with the stick instead of the blade of the spear.

I'm not so sure but I believe feint attacks can be performed by pressing the block key while you are preparing to attack. The block key cancels your attacks with ranged weapons but I'm not so sure if it's the same with melee attacks.

Mount and Blade: The Merchant Prince

I seem to be addicted to this game now. Anyway, I made this new character of noble birth and who had a childhood as a merchant. So I increased his intelligence and charisma. I also increased his trade and leadership skills and placed points in most of the charisma and intelligence related skills. The good thing about being of noble descent is that I have a pretty good riding skill so I can use the better horses at the start.

Well Mount and Blade is technically an RPG but it's combat is very action - sim. You can certainly beat enemies of way higher level as long as you dodge and attack at the right moment. However, when you yourself are surrounded by butcher knife wielding farmers, you still can lose even if you have a the latest armor and skills. Even though my character isn't a macho barbarian, he can pretty much hold
his ground against enemies.

What I first did for my new character - The Don, was to train him in the training grounds. The training grounds give 100 xp per level you beat and it does help in training your various weapon skills. If you complete the melee combat training, you're bound to go up to level 2. I actually made the Don once but didn't go to the training grounds. I recruited some peasants but was immediately ambushed by sea raiders and I was killed (though there was 2 enemies left) and I decided to restart the game but this time, take a few more extra troops and train myself up before venturing in the world.

The amazing thing about riding and starting with a staff is that you can be a lancer right from the start. In those movies where you have knights jousting, you can pretty do that in this game. All you have to do is have a polearm (spear, pitchfork, quarterstaff) and a fast horse. You charge your horse towards the enemy and try to aim the lance (takes some skill actually) at the person. If you do it right, you'll be able to do a huge amount of damage (usually kill them outright).

I started this merchant prince with a large army right off the bat. I recruited 10 Nords and bought linen and sold them at another town for a good profit. I also managed to get a charger horse (a horse that's really quick and does good trample damage) and get myself a decent spear (instead of that wooden quarterstaff). I got to pick a banner at the start of the game unlike my first character. I'm not really sure if I could become a lord or even king later on but my primary goal of this character is to amass a huge amount of wealth and bring a large army along. Now, The Don has an army of 15, with a horse archer hero and some mercenary cavalry to complement his Nord Footmen. Let me see if The Don will achieve his dreams of wealth and fortune.

Mount and Blade: The Barbarian

Anyway, let me continue with Davion's story. It won't be too long as I sort of didn't like what was happening to Davion. See, when we last saw him, he joined forces with this swordswoman who was actually bent on revenge. So they set off to the northern lands (non-Nord) and start forcing villages to give them cattle and any goods they have. Davion does this to so many lands and finally returns to Tix (it's actually named Tihr but I can't really remember these names so I'll just use the names I made up). He recruits more people to join his band - a female blacksmith, a skilled crossbowman and several mercenary cavalry. His renown has spread and the lord of Tix offers him to be a mercenary for the kingdom of the Nords.

Davion gladly agrees as being a mercenary will greatly improve his fighting skill and his search for powerful opponents. He was ordered to go to Taj Castle in the north with at least 8 men to fight with. Well, Davion rushes off to Taj Castle which was already under seige by this King Gandalf (not the real name but I don't really remember). As Davion arrives to Taj, King Gandalf sallies out the seige to take on Davion. Davion, being a reckless barbarian, charges in battle with out even thinking about tactics. The odds are against him with the King's army numbering to 170 men to Davion's meager 16. Outnumbered and overpowered, all Davion's men were either killed or slaughtered. Davion himself was taken prisoner.

Several days pass, High Marshall Arthur and Lord Hammon engages King Gandalf. Davion manages to set himself free during this confusion and decides to launch a counter attack against the king. This time the odds were in favor of the Nords, 170 to 150. Davion charged in battle without his horse. The battle went well for the Nords capturing and killing most of the invaders. However, King Gandalf manages to escape and the only companion Davion finds is the blacksmith.

In anger, Davion charges in a nearby village and proceeds to loot and raze it by himself. He takes out several angry farmers with his throwing axes. He maims several with slashes on horseback. Showing his barbarian prowess, he dismounts and proceeds to kill several dozen farmers on foot. In the end, he has taken out around 40 men and women. With that achievement, Davion thinks of retiring.

I didn't play much of this character anymore cause I made a new one - the merchant lancer. I'll tell more about him on my next post.

Mount and Blade: The Adventure Continues

Let's see where we left off Davion the Nord Barbarian. We last saw him entering this large town - for simplicity I'll call it Syx. He sells the goods he bought from nearby towns and loot from his enemies over at the marketplace. Davion looks for work and the Guild Master asks him to take out as many looter bands in the area. Each looter band will give 40 denars (the currency of the world).

Davion agrees as it is a quest fit for a barbarian. Davion rides off to nearby towns to recruit some more Nords to his cause. With a decent party of 8, he hunts down looter bands in the area. Looters would then flee from the gruff barbarian. Yet nothing escapes a barbarian's bloodlust. He maims several bands of looters before heading back to town. Proud of his achievement, Davion turns over the heads of the looters to the Guild Master. The Guild Master was pleased and happily gave the bounty over to Davion and his crew though part of him wanted Davion to leave as all the rotting heads created a foul stench.

While leaving town, a very well made axe caught the barbarian's attention. It was a well balanced throwing axe. Finally, the weapon of his dreams. He quickly drops the hundred denars to claim his prize and leaves the town. On the fields, he sees King Ragnar facing off some looters and Davion rushes to aid the king (not that the king needed any aid). Crushing his foe with his raw might, Davion roars in victory. King Ragnar approaches the barbarian and thanks him for the aid. He offers Davion a mission to find a murderer over who hides in Oxville (not the real name but it sound's better than the gibberish names the game gives). Davion agrees to find this murderer and though his party is still wounded, sets out to Oxville.

The trek is long and tiring. The wounds of the previous battles have yet to heal. A few more hours trek and Davion would have reached Oxville yet it was not to be. A group of sea warriors ambush Davion and his men. Davion charges through them killing all 9 but alas, he is wounded heavily and his Nord recruits have all been killed. A group of looters then raid the weakened barbarian. Davion has no choice but to surrender and become their prisoner.

Davion was tortured and his loot taken from him. He watched as the raiders pillaged and captured some farmers. One late night, the raiders had too much to drink. Using his berserker strength, Davion rips out from his chains and manages to reclaim his horse and weapons before riding out to the town of Tix. ( one thing in the game is that you can never really die - the only way to end the game is if you retire). Davion drags himself to the bar and drinks due to the loss of his men. He sits beside a short haired blonde. Eyeing the blonde suspiciously, the woman stands up and raises her sword. She reveals herself to be Matthas, a swordswoman. Davion thinks that this person might be handy to use in battle and they talk.

What will happen next to Davion and this swordswoman? Will they start a mutually destructive relationship? Find out as Mount and Blade adventures continue!

Mount and Blade: The Initial Journey

I grabbed Mount and Blade yesterday for the really low price of five bucks. Anyway, I played this game several months ago and didn't like the game. You can technically download the game and play until you reach level 7.

Anyway, I made up a character ... some one who had a warrior father, but worked as a smith. I made him look like a weird looking barbarian (these customizable faces are so hard to make them look attractive). I pumped up his strength with the remaining points and boosted his throwing skill. He's supposed to be a big burly fighter who uses throwing axes though he didn't look that way when I arrived in the world. He carried a regular sword and shield. Riding on horseback, I could also use a crossbow. In a few minutes in starting the game, my character, Davion, gets waylaid by 7 looters. I said, what the hell and charged at my opponents. I tried to shoot my crossbow at a distance but I realized I only hit one of them because I was firing at point blank range. I then used my sword and began slashing and trampling my opponents with my horse. With my bloodied blade, I managed to beat all the looters.

I realized I didn't like the combat before and I think maybe I set the combat difficulty too high. My combat difficulty now is at the lowest setting where I only take 1/4 damage, AI is set to dumb and battles are slow. I still don't like the fact that I don't have throwing axes at the start considering I have a really high throwing skill.

Back to my adventure, Davion in bloodlust proceeds to hunt down other looters. Coming upon a small party of 4, he hacks them all to death before arriving at a small farming village. The village elder asks him to find some cattle so that the village can start anew. Davion agrees and he goes off to other nearby villages in search of cows. More looters preyed upon the lone wanderer. Still, with his trusty blade, wins all the battles that he encountered. Several villages go ask to train their people to fend off the raiders but Davion turns them away. He is no teacher. He is a fighter though he takes 4 Nord recruits to join him to search for the holy cows.

I remember last time creating a character who was more of a leader than a fighter. He could field a large army of troops and that's what I did last time. I remember entering a large battle where I let most of my troops do the work but this time, I'm the one charging in with my horse in to packs of enemies.

Davion enters a large town and decides he should test his battle prowess in the arena. He takes out 16 fighters in an all out battle royale before falling to a stab in the back. His journey will continue as he explores this world and aims to become one of the fiercest Nord Barbarian there is.

Defense Grid: The Awakening

I've been playing Defense Grid: The Awakening all day. I got it from the Direct2Drive sale I mentioned a few days ago. It turns out, Defense Grid uses Steam so I can grab those Steam Achievements! Had a pretty long update before I could actually play the game though.

Anyway, what is Defense Grid? It's a tower defense game with really good graphics. What's a tower defense game? For those who don't know, it's a game where you put defensive towers that shoot while you keep your enemies from reaching the exit point of the map.

Defense Grid usually uses a linear map where the monsters walk a predefined path and your tower placement is limited. In some maps though, there are some points where you can place towers to form a tower maze. It's nothing like Desktop Tower Defense where you can create a whole complex maze.

What are the problems with this game? Nothing! The only thing bad about this game is that it's a tower defense game that you pay for. However, the price is well worth it considering the amount of maps and graphic quality you get with this game compared to the flash tower defense games. Feel free to try the demo (I did play the demo several months ago).

Gaming Personality

I've dropped by this site - BrainHex where they have a unique gaming personality test. It's more of a survey of whether you're a casual gamer who likes solving puzzles or maybe a hardcore gamer who loves the thrill of speed.

I don't know what exactly they are surveying for but I'm assuming that their results might help developers target their games better. What if they know that most casual gamers like social games? The developers would then develop games to suit the demand of the casual gaming crowd. Since they know what those gamers like, they can then target their ads in the right places.

Currently, the results show a huge number of the Conqueror personality type. Considering that most of the survey takers are male and hard core gamers, I bet the site needs a more diversified sample.

I'm a Conqueror-Mastermind which states I like the feeling of achievement and thinking. I guess that's true since I mostly write about strategy games here on this blog.

Indie Sale Week?

Seems like it's an indie sale week. I already mentioned that Direct2Drive has their own indie sale week which is available worldwide. For Steam, we have another great indie game - Audiosurf. It's a great game if you have nothing to do while listening to your music or you're looking for a casual puzzle racer.

Impulse has their own sale. The title of note is The Spirit Engine 2 another indie RPG. It looks like an RPG of the SNES days but since I haven't tried it consider reading Game Tunnel's review. They did give it a pretty high score so if you like RPGs consider picking that up.

Red Faction 1 & 2 (not the latest) is on sale over at GamersGate. If you played the latest Red Faction Guerrilla, then you might like to try the older ones.

It's also JoWood month so expect to see sales on different JoWood published games in Gamersgate. Currently, I see Gothic 3, and Spellforce Universe for sale.

Indie Direct2Drive Sale

Finally, a Direct2Drive sale that actually sells internationally. Support these indie and small developers by grabbing their games for $5 instead of not buying or pirating them. I'm interested with Mount and Blade now at that price as I didn't really get the demo of the game. It feels a bit to simy but I want to get into it. At the super low price point, might as well grab it even if I don't like it, it's not going to hurt the wallet.

Other games that are of interest are Defense Grid and Zatikon. I already got World of Goo but that's a good one. Zatikon sounds so interesting as it's something like a super varied chess but then I ain't that good with chess. Hmmm, got to wait till weekend before I decide.

College of Gaming: Entrepreneur (part 4)

The Fantasy Business Sim

We're now at the final chapter in this fantasy business sim. You can go back and look at parts one, two, and three if you haven't read them yet.

Let's first go back to the Majesty 2 demo. If you have played more of the demo but still haven't beat it, this final chapter is for you. I will basically walk through the demo and explain why I choose to do these things. I will also explain why this is relevant in business.

Once the demo starts, I want you to build a Market place and a Warriors guild beside it. Train 3 warriors. For each guild you build, train as much heroes as possible. You want also a cleric's guild and ranger's guild close by to the castle . If you have the gold, purchase a Rogues guild next. Why did we do this? Well you want as much heroes in the beginning to produce gold and protect your kingdom. In business, your employees are assets. Your buildings are assets. In the game, monsters will commonly attack guilds and houses first before taking on your castle. You want these things early, especially the marketplace so you can earn experience and gold early.

You should take out nearby lairs as early as possible. Your initial goal is to take out potential deadly lairs like the bears den over to the east or the ogre's and lich's lairs down to the south. At the beginning of the game, these lairs don't produce any creatures yet so taking these things out will help in the end game. Early on, try to move south to claim the trading post as it will provide a huge gold income and it will normally be ignored by enemies until later on. In business, taking out small threats now will be very helpful later on when profit margins begin to get tight. If you notice any problem in the business, the best course of action is to fix it while your organization is still small and mobile.

I do not recommend the Wizard guild and towers as Wizard's do not seem to live very long. You can probably have 1 high level Wizard that might survive but you're going to have to pay gold for defense flags to have people escort him. However, if you can use Wizard's effectively, feel free to do so. I recommend using clerics as there are vampires, zombies and liches in this map. Also, your 2 temples provide an upgrade to your clerics.

Once your warriors reach level 9 and up, I recommend building another warrior guild on the opposite side of your last warrior guild. Don't bother upgrading that as your warrior's can get the skills from the other upgraded warrior's guild. Remember to research the call to arms and use it if you see a large group of monsters attacking your base. I also recommend to place guard towers to the far edges of your town or near sewers as protection from incoming enemies. Remember to take the trading post area to the north and defend that area as much as possible (unless you took out the north eastern lairs first). You must be pushing hard on one side of the map to ensure you won't be surrounded on the late game. If you can take out most of the lairs on one side (I prefer the east side), then you can basically just guard against enemies from the opposite side.

A small tip on the rogue's guild ability, use it to get cash when you want to upgrade something or use it when a building with a high amount of cash is about to be destroyed.

Upgrade your buildings and research your heroes skills. If you have extra cash, build a blacksmith and research the weapons. I don't recommend going over level 2 in the blacksmith as I doubt your heroes will have the time to go there in the late game. I do recommend reaching market level 3 as early as possible as everything in the marketplace is useful and you get more gold. You technically don't need the temples but if you have the gold, feel free to build them. I also recommend Dwarves as they are hardy heroes even in the late game.

In the late game, an assault of ogres, bears, vampires and liches will come. Take out one monster at a time as spreading your heroes risks death and certain enemies like vampires and bears will regenerate their life making them deadlier if not killed immediately.

If you are desperate for survival, building warrior guilds and guard tower on the side where a lot of enemies arrive can really help.

Hope these tips have given you an understanding on the concepts of business and beating this survival map in the Majesty 2 demo. Now go and buy the full game if you liked it.