Elemental - The First Hour

The world was in chaos.  Mobs began pillaging and protesting across the street.  They decried the world that was made for them.  Yet this is the world we live in, a world in cataclysm.  Monsters, men and fools roam the land.  They seek power and wish to rule the world that has formed.  This was a world of magic - channelers could harness the very elements of the world.

I started noting the events of the world.  There was one who seek power not with the finesse of magic but with the raw power of the club.  My channeler, my first to rule was a brute.  He called himself Massel for his bulging tough body.  Unlike most people in the world, he had a greenish pigment for his skin.  You could call him a channeler cause he knows he has some ability but I prefer to call him a brigand.  He started out with unbelievable strength, dexterity and an unbelievably hardy frame.  He wasn't wise nor smart though and the only spellbook  he had was on enchantment.  He used to be a warrior but he was cast out by his former tribe because of his green skin.  The day he was cast out was the day his rage brought him to kill his entire tribe and show the world his raw power.

He swore allegiance to a neighboring empire - the empire of Ummer.  Massel formed a small village surrounded by rocks - a barren wasteland.  He came across a scribe - Janusk who willingly joined him though Massel found the scribe's way of giving information to be disorganized.  In anger, he came across a farmer and smashed his skull with a club just to show how angry he was with the kingdom interface.  News spread across the land that Massel murdered someone in cold blood and began branding him as no better than a brigand - but that what he is  - a brutish brigand.

He came across the spider empire ruler.  He tried to demand money but it seems there was no way to that.  Either that or he was simply too dumb to actually demand such a thing.  So doing what he does best, he raised his gigantic club and smacked the ruler on the head.  The spider king falls mumbling nonsense.  Before the fatal blow could be dealt, the spider king teleports away.  In rage, Massel charges for the city where the spider king ruled.

Massel raced across the dusty streets where he saw the spider king.  The spider empire wasn't really much of a threat this early in time.  They had no armies but their king and in single combat - no one outmatches Massel in power.  This time there was no escape.  Massel beat up the spider king in front of the whole village and thus they people of the empire decided to follow the strongest - Massel.

Well, that's about it.  A few turns later, another empire declared war on our muscle bound antihero.  Their army was huge and well Massel - though really strong 1v1, was no match against an group of soldiers armed with staffs and so I will chronicle a new journey later once I start a new one.

I'm playing with Elemental 1.07 – it does slow down after a certain number of turns and I have no real idea what I'm doing in my kingdom.  Elemental is definitely flawed but with a certain amount of polish, I think this will be my go to game for quite a sometime.

Beat Hazard

I remember a year back when I got Audiosurf to play while listening to my music.  Now, there's a new indie game (XBLA port) over in the PC called Beat Hazard.  It's basically a Geometry Wars clone.  Waves of enemies pour through the screen while you dodge and shoot them.

The difference between this and other clones is that your music plays a part in determining the level.  Fast and exciting music gets hordes of enemies and your ship shoots a stream of bullets.  Slow and simple music requires you to make more accurate shots as you won't be firing as much.

It's still on sale for just around $7 over at Steam til April 22.

Just to show off...

Chaos Rising First Impressions

I only really got into the single player of Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising recently as I got really frustrated with my Bad Company 2 crashing.  I've played several missions and realized that this game is definitely for veterans of the original DoW2.  Tough missions will test your skill and tactical prowess.  New players will probably have a difficult time.  I haven't encountered the old mission formula of destroy several things then go fight the big bad boss.  Missions tend to be more dynamic and try to push the story more.  You'll get a taste of this early on the second mission.  I thought it would follow the big boss formula but no, this mission forces you to attack the enemy encampment then run back to your starting point to defend one of your companions.

I haven't used the corruption mechanic in the game.  Corruption basically is the alteration of your character skills and can be increased by doing (or failing to do) certain objectives.  Your squads gain different skills like Thaddeus gain the raptor jump in replacement for the assault jump.    I have yet to use the skill but based on the description, it looks really powerful than your normal jump.  For instance, one mission you'll have a choice to either destroy a gate to get to your enemy or use jump packs to open the gate.  Destroying the gate will make you reach your target faster but will leave the guardsmen more vulnerable.  I believe that being corrupt will lead to a different ending and I do not yet want to see that.  Another way to increase your corruption is to equip corrupt items.  I've noticed that corrupt items deal far more damage than the regular ones maybe this is why I find the game difficult.  I'm not playing evil.

I should definitely go... for Chaos!

Bad Company 2 Crash

RAGE!!!!

(This will be a very incoherent post - more than the usual)

EA/DICE - your game, Bad Company 2 has some real crash issues.  Before the patch, you have connection problems to your servers.  After the patch, my game crashes every 15 minutes!  Fifteen!

I can't play and finish any game, all I seem to do is run to the frontlines, get killed then crash.  The patch seems to have erased my single player save so I have to redo the first 3 missions and slog through the crashing.

I've tried updating and downgrading video card and sound card drivers, disabling on board sound, over clocking and under clocking my video card and cpu but nothing changes anything!

I won't be playing this for now until you fix this EA / DICE!  (well maybe until ATI catalyst 10.3 pops up)

Bad Company Hardcore

Are you a tough soldier?  Do you like realism?  Or do you simply just like being killed without knowing where it came from?  Hardcore mode in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 shows off how a realistic the game can get.  You don't get any crosshairs in hardcore mode thus firing from the hip relies that you make sure your target is at the center of your screen.  I probably spend most of my time finding a good position and aiming my gun against enemy targets.  Players who run and gun will find this strategy nullified in hardcore mode.  I can't stand people who go lone wolf in hardcore, they're just going to get themselves killed.

Another thing one would notice is the lack of a HUD.  You can't see how much ammo you have nor do you have a minimap to pinpoint enemy positions.  The "reload" message pops up when you're running low but you won't know how many total rounds you have left.  Without the minimap, spotting and the motion sensor are rendered useless.  Sure, you could pull up the large map that blocks you're view but that's of no use in a firefight.  If you relied on the little orange arrow to spot on enemies then you will have a problem now as the only names and symbols you can see are you're own team.  I prefer using pistols at short range in hardcore as you can  aim and move around at the same time.

Vehicles also do not display their hit points.  You have to rely on the vehicle alarm when you're about to be blown up.  I love the feeling of being in a tank and just spotting enemies.  I'd go "Enemy target - 10 o clock, in the house, 50 meters".  The tank driver would then aim and fire. We'd have a cup of tea in the vehicle as we watch the house crumble before our might.

Players need more medic kits and ammo boxes in hardcore as they can't heal themselves nor know how much ammo you have left.  Using the spot button, players will still call out for enemy infantry and tanks but without the arrow or minimap, spotting becomes useless.  A player with a mic can call out the same thing at greater accuracy.

I've enjoyed being a sniper in hardcore mode as snipers always do 1 hit kills.  Conversely, I can't stand enemy snipers hitting me and I can barely see where they came from.  With my sniper phobia, I sometimes take pot shots at shrubs thinking they're snipers.  I like the strategic feel of hardcore where at long range, I'd specifically set my load out to have a 4x zoom and an increased rifle accuracy.  At shorter ranges, I'd take out the zoom for more grenades and body armor instead of the accuracy bonus.  I probably switch to more classes depending on the situation in hardcore rather than sticking to one class and loadout in the normal mode.

Rush mode is far better than conquest in hardcore as each side has a definite side.  Defenders are on one end and attackers are at the opposite.  I feel I get surrounded in conquest mode often.

Bad Company 2 Issues

Yesterday, I probably had the worst experience with Bad Company 2.  It has nothing to do with the gameplay but merely with the servers.  It took me maybe half an hour to search for servers only to get the failure to connect to EA online error.  I then tried joining games people in my friend's list were in.   I have unbelievably bad ping in their games so I quit out.  It then took me another half hour to search for another game to connect.  I failed to connect on several servers and accidentally clicked a hardcore server.  Annoyingly, I connected to that server.  I decided to play there thinking I don't want to waste another half hour trying to connect online.  The great thing there is that I had a definitely good score.  I also had a decent squad where we would hide in some area and ambush enemy squads then hide in some other area.  Yet, all good things end when you lose your EA online connection.  I then had to wait another few minutes to connect to another game (a decent one at last) which I played for an hour and realized I should get to bed or else I'd be sleepy on the next day.

I think they're doing server maintenance to fix things up.  Go EA, don't be like Activision or Ubisoft..get this problem fixed!

Bad Company 2 Tips

A few of my multiplayer tips in Battlefield: Bad Company 2:

1. Fire in short bursts - As much as possible, fire your gun in controlled 2-3 bullet bursts.  Firing like this leads to better accuracy at medium and long range.  You can hit people some distance away even with the submachine gun when fired in bursts.  Only go full auto when in close quarters.

2. When using the LMG - crouch and fire.  The light machine gun is pretty accurate at long ranges and deadly at close range.  It's weakness is that it's pretty inaccurate while moving even at short ranges.  Try and crouch and fire at medium range preferably with a engineer or assault team mate for support.

3. Throw ammo and med packs everywhere.  Resupplying or healing other people gives you points and helps them.  I've run into times as an engineer running out of bullets for my sub machine gun and even my pistol.  In hardcore mode, med packs are a life saver as you can't heal normally.

4. Use those motion sensors.  Recon specialists gain this at their first level up.  Drop these things around capture points to show any approaching enemy.  You can also drop this if you're snipping on a building.  This will warn you against anyone sneaking up behind you.

5. Fire rockets at the back of the tank.  It takes twice as much rockets to destroy tanks from the front rather than the side or back.  Plus, you might waste all your rockets firing in front only to realize that someone has repaired it from behind.

6. Repair the tank only when it's safe.  Don't just jump out the tank when another tank is blasting it with cannon fire.  Wait until the cannon fire ceases then jump out and run to the back to repair.

7. Use the command/spot key.  Spotting reveals enemies at a range and puts a target on the minimap.  Commanding to attack and defend gives your squad mates a bonus +100 points at the end of the round.  They'll thank you for that.

8. Stick with your squad.  Going lone wolf is cool but you're probably going to wind up dead without proper support.  Guns aren't that accurate nor do they do much damage in this game as compared to Call of Duty.

9. Flank your targets. As long as you're in a squad, you can flank an enemy squad and confuse them on the direction of the attack.

10.  Avoid open spaces, Find Cover.  If you're out in the open, you're easy to spot that means you can be killed as easily.  Stick close to the edges of the map if possible.  This is very important in hardcore mode as you don't want enemies to surround you.

11. Don't run off with the bus.  Always wait for some team mates when you go take a tank out.  You want a gunner on top against any infantry.  You also don't want to leave your team mates behind running after you while you drive off.

How to Reach High Ranks in Bad Company 2

I have been accused of cheating in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.  I've placed top in several games consistently without being the one with the highest kills.  My score is sometimes even double to the person next to me.  I kill people at a distance with my light machine gun.  I guess that you would think I was cheating too until you actually join me and find out I'm one of the best medics in the game.

Medics are by far the best specialist to gain points.  The hardest point for a medic to gain points is probably the first level when he's basically doesn't have the med kit nor the defibrillator.  Once you hit level 2, you get the med kit.  The med kit is probably the 2nd thing that will gain you the most points.  Just join a squad with either a assault or engineer class and follow them around.  Ignore recon classes as they tend to just stay far back and take potshots at infantry.  Just keep dropping your med kit all around, especially when your squad mate stops.  Healing any teammate will give you +10 points per heal and +20 for a squad mate.  So if you're team is under fire, you'd rack up maybe +200 points for healing them on the average.

Once you hit the level when you have the defibrillator unit, things get far better.  The defib unit revives any dead player and gives back the team point (the one that counts down per death and you lose if your team reaches zero).  A revive will automatically give you +50 points for a teammate and +80 for a squad mate.  You will want to stick close to the action to keep reviving downed team members.  I usually get at least of 5 revives per match so thats another +250 points.

The third comes down to your shooting skill.  I get an average of 7 kills per match which translates to +350 points but I sometimes reach the top with just 4 kills (but probably 10+ revives). 

Finally, I reveal the secret point racker for bad company 2.  If you're playing on the PC, it's not the trigger button which is the most important, it's the spot button.  The default spot button is the 'Q' key and I believe that the 'back' button is for the 360 version.  What does this magic key do?  When you see an opponent at any distance, hit that button.  Automatically, they'll get an arrow above their heads and your team can see them on the map.  If any one kills that person which you spotted, you get a +20 points.  Not only does spotting gain you points, it helps in seeing targets when there's a lot of visual disturbances like smoke and trees and such.  If you spotted someone, aim for the little triangle with short burst from your LMG and you're bound to kill them eventually (especially if they can't see you).  Spam the spot button, which will help the team and rack you some more points!

So lets add up your basic points, in a mediocre game I rack up 200 (healing) + 250 (revive) + 350 + 40 (spotting) + 50 (kill assists) = 890 medic points.  This score can go up to the thousands depending on how much you heal and revive.  So after the match, you'll gain pins which then add to your points.  You'll get +100 for 5 revives, +100 for killing 7 people with your LMG.  If you've been working closely with your squad, your team work might even lead you to the +200 best squad pin and if you are the best player another +200.  That's another +600 to your 890 which means you'll get at least +1000 points per match.  So you see, medics are definitely the best point racking class.  It looks like cheating.

Bad Company 2 Impressions

A bullet to my back ends my life.  A sniper fires his weapon and off goes my head.  I hide behind a wall only to be blown up by a large tank.  This is the real modern warfare - brutal, deadly and indirect. 

The Battlefield series has always been different from run and gun shooters like Modern Warfare 2.  In this game, when you see an enemy soldier, you run for cover or drop down to crouch, aim your gun and fire.  No running around firing your gun like Rambo and being a hero.  Here you really need to work as a team.

Without working as a team, tanks are vulnerable to enemy engineers.  Soldiers have to run to the front lines instead of riding a tank or jeep.  Lone soldiers can be picked off by a group of assaulting soldiers.  Maps are so large that if there's just one guy, you can sneak around him and he wouldn't know.  When working with a competent squad, riding a tank feels like being in a tank company.  One guys the driver, the other mans the machine guns, and two other guys hop out to either defend against sneaky engineers or repair the tank.

I'm enjoying my initial impressions of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 even if I get killed 50% of the time.

End of Feb 2010 Sale

Great deals for this last week of February.  Well I guess March 2010 will bring in the big releases that were delayed but if you're looking for something to play (for cheap) now check out these deals:

Steam and GamersGate has a sale on the Spellforce games.  It's a mix of RTS and RPG in a fantasy world.  The Spellforce 1 games are really cheap like $5 so if you want to try feel free.

Impulse has some interesting deals but too bad the best deal, Battlefield 2, isn't available in my region.  Mount and Blade is just $5 over there and the multiplayer expansion is coming out next month.  Check out the other deals here.

GamersGate has probably my best deal of the week - Batman Arkham Asylum at 60% off - $20.  They also have Majesty 2 and other deals.  I recommend getting Majesty 1 from...

Direct2Drive has a strategy games sale (but not all games are international).  There's Majesty Gold (the first one) at $2.50 which I believe to be better than the 2nd Majesty.  They also have A Farewell to Dragons at 75% off.

Game Detox

I am a video gaming addict and I am undergoing the withdrawal phase.  My mind craves for another hit of the gaming drug.  I need to be immersed in a world that's not real.

My monitor has taken a hit, as I mentioned.  It's probably a driver problem or with my ATI 4770 video card which causes the monitors to die.

Like I mentioned, I'm using a colorblind monitor... red is nearly black and the gamma (even when turned to max) barely shows any light.  In Team Fortress, I feel like I'm walking in dark corridors and can even barely see the stairs in 2Fort.

I'll have a regular one back after a couple of weeks but not gaming feels bad.  You know when you've become addicted when the withdrawal symptoms sets in.  Good thing is that by next week, I'll have Bad Company 2 and that means all out war once my monitor comes.  It's like I"m taking a shot at a different drug to fulfill my addiction.

UBI DRM!

Is it April Fools day already?  Oh wait, thats still more than a month away.  I thought that Ubisoft's new DRM scheme was a joke.  News that the new DRM will require newer games like, Assasin's Creed 2 for the pc, to be always connected to the internet.  The problem lies with that not everyone has a super stable internet connection.  This also adds to the fact that Ubisoft's servers might not be up 100% of the time.

I'm actually fine with this type of DRM if they only maintain it for the first 4 months and drop it all together after that.  The 100% internet connection should automatically save the point where the internet connection was lost and wait for the connection.That way people who want to play the game now, will put up with the DRM.  Later on, when that sort of player goes back, the game is now open to be played offline.

I'm actually thinking that the DRM can be a mechanic in AC2.  If you're not plugged in you can't go in the shoes of Ezio but you can still remain playing as Desmond.  Granted, there won't be much to do as Desmond but hey it's a neat way to tie in DRM and the game world.

Why couldn't Ubi use a simpler DRM scheme like the one that Valve or Stardock is offering?  I was looking forward to AC2 but with this sort of thing, maybe I'll go for other things.

Shattered Horizon

Despite the fact I have a broken monitor (I have to investigate this problem thoroughly), I managed to grab an old CRT monitor to play Shattered Horizon.  Granted this old monitor had really dark reds which were close to black and Shattered Horizon is a pretty dark  game due to it's space setting, I'm not going to comment much on the graphics.  I also have a newfound appreciation on colorblindness as this monitor gives me a mild colorblind feel.

Shattered Horizon is basically a first person shooter for astronauts.  You have full 360 degree movement because there is no gravity.  I think it's a cross playing the alien in Aliens Versus Predator but you have a gun like a marine.  There's only one weapon in the game which works as an assault riffle, melee weapon and sniper riffle.  If you use the scope, it's a sniper rifle which fires 10 bullets at pinpoint accuracy.  If you don't use the scope, you're on assault riffle mode.  If anyone gets in close, you can hit the melee key to have an instant kill.  You also cary 3 types of grenades, a smoke grenade thing, EMP and an impact grenade (I don't remember their exact names).  Each grenade has it's own use, the smoke provides cover, EMP slows enemies and shuts down their electronics and impact blasts enemies away and disorients them.

Cover is one of the most important thing in the game.  It's very difficult to survive if you're caught in the open areas of space.  Considering enemies can come from anywhere, being surrounded by walls helps in protecting yourself.

I think the game looks amazing even with my colorblind monitor.  However, the best part of the game is the sound.  Your space suit transmits sounds and voice chatter through your head so you can hear gun shots and people using their boosters.  There is an option though to turn off the electronics of your suit - making you invisible to detection (people can still see you, and if friendly fire is on, your team might shoot you accidentally).  If your suit is turned off, you have no targeting sensor, radar, thrusters and sound equipment.  The only thing you hear is your heartbeat and the weak sound of your gun if you do fire it.  I also think you can't receive voice commands and radio if you turn off your electronic system.

I've actually reached a total score of 1600+ in around 5+ hours which is pretty good.  I think that most players were just in for the free weekend and aren't that good.  There's actually one player when I entered into the Japan server who was extremely good.  He'd like kill twice the amount that I would kill (and I was the number 1 on the other team).  I later checked the leaderboards and found him to be the number 2 player in the world with like 20,000+ points.

I'd recommend this game though I am not so sure if the player base maintains itself after the sale.   Bad Company 2 is coming out in a week and that will definitely change my mind (and maybe others) in playing it.  It's definitely a unique experience and worth trying if you like it.

Unreal Demos

Damn my title doesn't sound right.  I'm talking about the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) which uses the Unreal 3 engine has been released for a while as a free engine.  I've tried one of the demos, Dungeon Defense, which is a multiplayer action tower defense game.  Basically, it plays like Lock's Quest on the Nintendo DS.  You're defending a crystal from enemy attacks.  You have a character that runs around building towers, after the build phase is done, monsters start pouring in.  You can fire magic bolts against your enemies and continue to build as the monsters start pouring in.  It's quite tough playing it single player as you have to defend multiple sides.  Multiplayer makes this easier as up to 4 players can help you in defending your base.

Another recently released demo is Bounty Arms. I haven't tried this one yet.  It's said to be a platformer - shooter.  It looks really good with it's 2D gameplay with 3d graphics like Trine. Maybe it's like Metal Slug, I'll have to download myself to find out.

I'm very hopeful to see new games come out using this engine.  It isn't a very demanding engine nowadays so most computers can run it.  See more of the games using the Unreal Engine here.

Monitor Blew Up again Sale

Steam has a Shattered Horizon sale which is a space first person shooter.  I think you get to fight in zero-G environments and fly with a jet pack but I won't know cause my monitor has died again.  I was in the process of downloading that stuff too but since I can't play it during the free weekend.  I hope to get in maybe tomorrow after I either get a new monitor or have this one repaired.

GamersGate has a whole slew of MAC games up for sale.  So if you are one of the few MAC gamers who are looking for something new to play - head over to the GamersGate offers page.  MAC gaming is getting far better than it used to a decade ago.

Direct2Drive has a Bionic Commando Rearmed sale.  It's available to most of the world.

Impulse has Tropico 3 up for sale and Sacred 2 but Sacred isn't worldwide so I won't bother linking.

Solium Infernum Recap...

So what happened to my Solium Infernum recaps I mentioned about a week ago.  Well, I'm now in two games of Solium Infernum.  In the first game, hell has frozen over and nothing is happening as the host player is on vacation somewhere.  On my second game, hell is heating up as we have just reached the 10 turn mark.

Similar to the first game, I seem to be in a tight spot.  I'm sandwiched between river and mountains making only 2 ways to get to my strong hold.  My nearest neighbor, a glutton demon like I am have the predicament.  This is probably the first time I'm going to demand tribute from a lord and he gave in.  A few turns later, his legion becomes a super monster with a combination of a praetor and the seat of command.  It was his turn to make demands on my puny legions but I gave in considering that he's just a lord.

Now at turn 10, the lords of hell are on all out demand dealing mode.  Only a couple unclaimed places of power remain (and I still don't have any).  I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve which I can't reveal until I use them...a big surprise happens in turn 12 but I'll tell that story later.

Chaos Rising

The forces of chaos approaches the battlefield.  They are set to hit on the middle of March and another chapter in this Dawn of War begins.  I've gathered a few tidbits of information for this coming war.  First, this is a standalone expansion similar to Opposing Fronts of Company of Heroes.  In multiplayer, the people buying the original Dawn of War 2 gets the new maps, units and game modes except they don't get.  I don't have any info on whether buying the expansion allows you to use the other races except chaos.  I think they would be unlocked though but I haven't confirmed it.  The good thing about this is that I don't have to buy the expansion to play the new modes.  This will also bring in new players so that I won't be fighting people with levels on the 30s.  Second, the new multiplayer game mode is a free for all one.  It's still focuses on capturing points but no one is allied with each other.

I've gone back to start playing the Dawn of War 2 multiplayer but I still don't get decent opponents.  Decent opponent meaning someone my level who won't crush me in 15 minutes.  Well, I guess playing with the best should help me improve but since I don't think I can create a smurf account later on, I'm going to have a really bad record.

I still get crushed by playing against random players.  I bet I would do better if I played maybe during sat or Sunday mornings when most of the US players are going at it.  Hopefully, there will be a couple of new players during that time.  Another big problem with Dawn of War 2 is that there isn't any real build orders or capture orders - it's pretty much a reactionary game.  There isn't much strategy guides as compared to the Company of Heroes guides.  I'll try to make a basic unit guide for the Space Marines once I actually start getting better.

Valentine's Sale

Steam has an awesome sale this weekend.  First off, all Total War games are at 66% off and the complete pack is just $20 bucks.  Next, Mount and Blade, the amazing game I blogged about last year, is at 85% off.  There are more great mods coming out for that game so it's a great deal to buy.  The THQ complete pack is up with all their games at $50 bucks.

Impulse only has the Sworld of the Stars ultimate.  It also has the THQ pack so if you prefer Impulse, go grab it there.  The games are slightly different where Steam has Dawn of War 2 while Impulse has Supreme Commander.  There's also a bunch of casual games up - check the Impulse deals page.

GamersGate has a sale on Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl and a bunch of other games.

Direct2Drive has a valentine sale but since it's not available worldwide..who cares about Fallout 3.

Aliens Versus Predator Demo Impressions

I remember playing the first Aliens Versus Predator (AVP) in LAN with friends.  The first thing we tried was species deathmatch where all players of the same race would work together.  I'd always be a marine with the minigun and I'd find a good place to camp.  I'd automatically spot any aliens or predators coming my way with my motion sensor and just proceed to murder any passer by with a rain of bullets.

The latest AVP reboots the series for a more console centric generation.  Every race move slower except for the alien.  Now, there are stealth and trophy kills for aliens and predators which means they can usually one - hit anyone.  Marines seem to get the short end of the stick with larger and darker environments means bad for humans.  Predator's cloak is far better - there's almost no ghost image anymore so marines can't spot you.

Graphics aren't jaw dropping considering this is but a demo.  I'd love to see how the game will look when it comes out a few weeks from now.

Weekend Sale - 1st week of Feb 2k10

Various games up for sale.  I'll start with Direct2Drive (shocking!) - Overlord 2 is on sale over there and is available worldwide.  It's $10 if you want to go try it out.

Impulse has a Red Faction Pack for sale which has all Red Faction games for 25% off (around $22).   Grab this if you failed to grab the Direct2Drive deal for Red Faction Guerrilla last week.  Another good bundle over there is the Majesty 2 + Majesty bundle.  It's 75% off from the regular price.  Crazy Machines bundle (a rip off on Incredible Machine) is available at $20.  The other two titles on sale are Flatspace and WW2: Time of Wrath.

GamersGate has a whole bunch of Telltale games on sale.  You can get Monkey Island, Wallace and Gromit, Strong Bad and Sam and Max for 10% off.  Space Siege and Bioshock are the two other games of note.

Steam has all the Far Cry games at 50% - check out the Far Cry Complete at $15.00.

What I want in Solium Infernum...

Well, Solium Infernum is a great game though not without flaws.  Here's a list of what I think needs to be added.

1. Colored Tiles.  I want each nation to have their own color which will make looking at the map much easier.  It's not really nice clicking on every tile to see who the owner is.  Though I'm not so familiar with director programing, isn't it similar to just changing a certain hue property in Flash?

2. Improvements with the stat system.  This probably is the hardest thing to implement.  In the manual, it states that your rank determines your starting legion but now in version 1.05, that isn't the case anymore.  Now its just random and I always seem to get the worst end of the stick when it comes to the hellish minions.  Maybe the Martial Skill attribute determines the overall HP and level of the unit and maybe the ranged and melee skill.  Wickedness would then increase the Infernal skill.  I also think that Charisma should replace Martial Skill as the determining factor for the number of armies you can have.  Charisma should also determine the quality value of the tribute given but not the amount of cards.  I think the amount of cards should be tied to a hybrid of the demon rank and your charisma.  Also, the intelligence stat seems to be the most useless one.  Maybe having more intelligence should make your minions level up faster?  Maybe even allow you to cast rituals cheaper.

3. Someway to demand vendetta without going through the council.  Come on, devils have to follow laws?  Is hell filled with lawyers?  I think there should be a way to demand vendetta at someone (at the expense of a higher prestige) without causus belli.  This move should be viewed not to gain prestige but to merely weaken an enemy archfiend.  There could be a risk of being stripped of one's rank or lowering of your own stronghold stats if your vendetta fails making a sudden attack risky.  Also, no prestige will be gained if successful, you only gain the prestige you spent.

4. A way to trade resources and manuscripts (maybe even artifacts,relics, praetors and legions) with each other player.  The initiating person sends a trader to the receiving player on turn 1.  The initiator of the trade presents a list of demands and a offer list.  The receiving player may then give the demands and accept the offer thus having a successful trade in turn 2.  Both players receive a very small amount of prestige on the successful trade.  However, the receiving player may wish to change the demands and offer list, so it sends the trade offer back.  The first person may then accept thus leading to a successful trade or reject the trade altogether on turn 3.  Another thing the receiving player may do is to accept the trade but give less or do not give the demands on turn 2.  This automatically ends the trade, giving player 1 the right to vendetta and player 2 with more resources and a small amount of prestige for the theft.

More Gratuitous Engineering!

I've unlocked a new alien race in Gratuitous Space Battles.  The Rebel faction has ships that are generally faster with their speed bonuses on all their ships.  The default race, the Federation, has hull bonuses meaning your ships HP is much higher.

Engineering Tips:
With testing, I find that the cloaking field is pretty useless as compared to adding another repair bot or even more shields.  Contrary to my last post, enemies can still fire on you (usually just a few lasers) even if you're cloaked.  Enemies generally don't target cloaked ships though but they still can.  Another problem with the cloak is that you can't determine when the ship cloaks.  Sometimes, you're on the offense and your ship cloaks - a waste.  The best time to cloak is when you still have maybe 20% armor left so that your ship can cloak and repair that to full strength though that almost never happens.

EMP modules are the most useful ones in combat.  EMP disables ships from attacking and moving.  Once a ship is disabled, it's basically destroyed.  I'm thinking of adding EMP devices on all my frigates and cruisers.

Slow fighters equals dead fighters.  The best fighters are the ones with extreme speed that weapons can't hit them.  Armor on fighters is kind of a waste unless the it's fighting other fighters.  I've also tried using the Fighter Torpedo weapon which I find to be totally useless.  The torpedoes can't fire inside a cruiser's shields as the the fighter will be too close for the minimum range.  At farther range, the torpedoes will just hit the shields which isn't all good against stronger shields.  Torpedoes also can't hit other fighters (unless they're not moving).

I'm wondering if I can make "waypoint" ships.  These ships are basically empty except for an engine.  There's a horde of fighters in formation with it so once it dies, the fighters go on the attack.  This, I have to test on my next Gratuitous Space Battle.

Gratuitous Space Engineering

I made several mistakes with my last blog post on Gratuitous Space Battles.  I have no idea why I claimed I had 21k points in the survival mode.  I was only 7k I think but now I've reached 15k.  However, I'm now rank 99 (everyone got better I guess).  Except for the top 3 (who have scores of 800k), my goal would be to reach a decent score of 100k.

I tried several new strategies last night.  My first strategy was to have immobile power fortresses with a few long range ships to hit anywhere.  My ships would get overwhelmed once the battle shifts to different sides as an immobile force was easily flanked.  I tried a more slow moving but powerful ships approach.  This brought me my 7k score I mentioned.  It consisted of 3 heavily armored cruisers, 1 fighter carrier cruiser, 2 EMP frigates, 2 laser frigates, 30 fighters and an anti fighter frigate.  Originally, there were more fighters but an anti fighter frigate proved to be more powerful against the fighter swarms that would appear.

Again, once my ships were flanked, my defenses fell.  My ships weren't fast enough to turn to the new direction my enemies were attacking from.  So, it's time for some ship engineering.  I got the cloaking device module recently and I wanted to try that out.  The cloaking device makes your ship untargetable once it's fully cloaked.  The problem with cloaking is that you're ship can't attack and there is a few seconds before cloaking that makes your ship vulnerable.  I loaded the ship up with the best shield and 2 repair bot modules.  It's also my fastest cruiser meant to attack enemy ships and cloak once it takes enough damage.  My first attempt with the new design was a failure as I forgot to add armor to the ship.  My second attempt was pretty successful as it brought me past the 4th wave (giving me the 15k score).  I think I need to tweak the "cautious" order which I gave the ship cause once it hits below 40% life, it just sits at the back doing nothing.

Also, I'm finding fighter carrier style ships to be ineffective sometimes.  Fighters don't seem to last very long to go back and be repaired.  I'll tweak some more before I post my ship listing here.

And for fun, Screenshots!:

Gratuitous Space Battles

Launch the cannons and set maximum thrust speed.  Eight capital cruisers, 6 frigates and 3 fighter squadrons make up my armada.  I've constructed my ships to have the heaviest titanium armor to withstand the heaviest of laser and missile fire.   I stand against an alien invasion of unknown numbers.  Their initial wave was 3 large capital ships and several dozen fighters swarming around in defense. My fleet manages to withstand the onslaught disabling the enemy ships with EMP bursts.  One of my heavily armed laser frigates goes down in the initial assault.  After destroying the capital ships, mass alien fighters come out and swarm my cruisers.  I brought along an anti-fighter frigate for the sole purpose of taking out fighter swarms.  I equipped it with 2 anti fighter missile pods and a fast firing pulse laser.

The second wave came from below.  Our ships were fine and was able to bring their weapons towards the new targets.  Enemy fighters manage to take out my EMP frigates and 2 cruisers though my anti fighter frigate manage to wipe them all out.  After taking the 3 enemy cruisers, a new wave came from above.  3 cruisers started moving towards my unprepared ships.  They take out my remaining frigates and a couple of cruisers.  I still have a couple of fighters still flying around and they seem to be the ones doing the best damage.  I only have 1 badly damaged cruiser after surviving the third wave.

My ships manage to reach the fourth wave - an all side attack.  One alien cruiser for each side of the map and my cruiser could barely move or fire it's missiles.  Laser fire finish off my last ship and I come out 91 in the world rankings of the survival mode of Gratuitous Space Battles.  A score of 21,000 is child's play compared to the 100k plus scores of the top players.

Gratuitous Space Battles is about designing ships, setting their orders and having them battle it out with an alien fleet.  I've designed ships with really long range backed up by ships that have really tough armor and shields but don't have any engines to move.  I'll try to post a strategy guide on the first survival map if I ever reach a higher ranking and score.  Ship combinations need a bit of trial and error to find the best combat fleet against certain situations.  If another space battle sale pops up, I recommend strategy lovers to go grab this one up.

Deals for the end of Jan 2010

Steam offers Tropico 3 at 60% off today.  Also, you might want to check out the Freedom Force bundle and X-Com bundle (careful on the compatibility though) at $2.  I recommend grabbing Freedom Force cause it's a great tactical RPG.  It's disappointing that the series didn't continue cause I remember that they were planning a game for each comic book era.


Impulse has an indie game sale.  They have Trine, Light of Altair, Gratuitious Space Battles and Starscape for sale.  I recommend Trine as something you should grab but Gratutious Space Battles is something strategy lovers should not miss.

Gamersgate has a bunch of 1c stuff for sale. Men at War gold is something I'd take a note at. Check out their offers page.

Direct2Drive has Red Faction: Guerrilla for $5 bucks this week.  Since it's available worldwide, I recommend you grab this if you want an open world shooter.

To Rule Hell!

I see hordes of demons bowing before me.  Virgin slaves doing my every bidding.  Gold and wealth flow through as I sit on my throne.  Glory and power awaits the new lord of hell.

Solium Infernum is a strategic board game where the goal is to be the ruler of hell.  I just got it last Sunday and got hooked.  I've played several matches against the AI - not much challenge once you get the hang of the rules and mechanics.  The real challenge though is taking the game to multiplayer against real deceiving and backstabbing humans wanting to claim the throne. 

The funny thing in hell is that things are pretty orderly.  Demons don't just go at each others throats every minute, they need a caucus belli to declare vendetta to attack another demon nation.  However, by being excommunicated by the Infernal Conclave (technically the government of hell who will vote at the end of the game who will be king), you can now go out and attack anyone and vice versa.  Oh yeah, Hell is also a doughnut shaped world as going north will eventually make you reach south and going west will make you reach east.  The flat map is basically wrap around which makes things a bit more confusing.

Multiplayer is a Play By Email (PBEM) where people would send turns to a host and the host would process the turn and return it to the players for the next turn.  Reminds me of the older PBEM game I'd play, Dragonlords where turns would take a week (and games normally last from 6 months to a year).

I'm playing my first multiplayer game now and my start doesn't look good.  There are 4 other lords vying for power and they're at better positions.  Even my infernal rank doesn't seem to give me an edge at this point.  I'm a prince of hell, the highest ranking demon (the others are all below me) and my bodyguard unit (the first unit you get) is pretty crappy.  My neighbors seem to have similar (or even stronger demons).  My base is locked between mountains and a river limiting my movement a lot.

Well hell is pretty chaotic and random, you can't get everything.  I'll update my blog after ten turns similar to what Rock, Paper, Shotgun did for their Solium Infernum battle report.

Sid Meier sale in Gamersgate

For those who aren't into real time strategy games like Company of Heroes, maybe you might be more interested in a more turn based strategy game like Civilization.  Check out the Sid Meier sale over at GamersGate.

Civ 3 and 4 and Civilizaton: Colonization are at 50% off.  These games make you build an empire following the course of time.

Two other games are Sid Meier's Pirates! and Railroads!.  I can vouch for Pirates! to be a good game.  If you know the casual game - Tradewinds - think of a game like that only better since Tradewinds was derived from that game.

Company of Heroes Sale

Company of Heroes (all games) is 75% off over at Steam!  That's about $13 for all three games (the original + 2 expansions).  I don't know whether it's intentional but the Eastern Front mod for CoH has also been released a day ago.  The Eastern Front mod basically adds 2 new factions in the game, the Soviet Union  (allies) and Ostheer (axis).

The Soviets is really the game changer.  They don't play like the other factions since they can't retreat, recrew or reinforce their squads.  However, the cost of their troops are so low who cares about reinforcing them back.  The mod will work on any version of CoH (CoH, Opposing Forces, Tales of Valor).

Dirt 2 Sale

Dirt 2 is Steam's game of the weekend.  At 50% off, for any rally racing fans, it is definitely a must have.

Zero Gear, the other racing game, is free for the weekend.  Try it if you like it though I won't recommend it.  I played a total of 10 minutes on this game and said, I'd rather play Mario Kart on an emulator.

Gamersgate has a AGEOD games sale.  These are those strategy games about the American Civil War and such.  I haven't tried any of those though they are quite expensive, half price is around $25 - a lot for me.

Impulse has sales on Company of Heroes Gold, AI War, Aztaka and Mr. Robot so check those out at this page.

Games to Film

The opposite is also true; films turning into games.  I read that there was going to be a fan made unofficial movie for Left 4 Dead.  They even have a website and trailer up and running.  That's quite interesting considering the game of Left 4 Dead is filled with movie cliches.  L4D gets a lot of it's setting from movies (like say Dead Rising grabs a lot from Dawn of the Dead).  It's the same with like the possibility of an Uncharted movie.  Uncharted takes a lot from Indiana Jones and a movie of Uncharted would seem like a rip loff - modern day Indiana Jones.

Films to games have usually never been something worth playing.  Conversely, games to films haven't been worth watching either.  One needs to just see the failed 90's games to film like the Super Mario Brothers or Street Fighter.  Sometimes putting a big budget in the film makes it flashy and interesting.  Films like Tomb Raider, Resident Evil or Alien Versus Predator are an example of how big budget films manage to disguise the fact that they aren't really all that great when you place them beside other films.

The difference between these two medium is how the viewer interacts with them.  In a film, you don't control the character so you would certainly experience a different feeling.  Take for instance if they ever made a Mirror's Edge movie.  First, it would be basically be a parkour/ free running stunt film.  As a viewer, you'll be amazed at how people would pull off those moves.  As a player, you're on a whole different field of experiences.  The palms of my hand and even my feet sweat for every jump, dash and wall run I perform in the game.  It turns the perspective over to you.  Instead of saying, those guys were amazing, you start to say, I am amazing.

So what's the point in turning a game to film?  Is it merely just to satisfy the fanboys?  Maybe away to get more money (cough Warcraft movie!)?  Well, I await the awesome looking Prince of Persia movie this May.

Algiers Sultanate

Let me get back to Europa Universalis 3 (EU3).  I've installed the 2 expansions - Napoleon's Ambition and In Nomine and learned that my old saved games didn't work anymore.  This time, I wanted to go back and try the Muslim conquest but I'll do it at an easier difficulty.  I chose the Algiers this time as Morocco was a hot zone.  The Castillians would easily take Granada and move downward.

The expansions add a lot more depth in the game as you have a lot more decisions and you now can enact policies that affects your nation or just a province.  You can also receive missions (like in the newer Total War series) and receive rewards if you successfully complete it.  Each nation now starts at a different technology age and there are more tech levels to research.  Another new thing in EU3 with expansions is that you can move the government sliders faster depending on the size of your nation and your government type. My nation could move policy sliders every 10 years.

I'm starting to like this game a lot with the expansions (and at easy difficulty).  Algiers is bordered to the west by Morocco and to the east by Tunisia.  To the north is the Barbary Coast and a lot of water and to the south is unexplored territory.  I started the earliest you can start in - the start of the 15th century.  I was planning for a warfare takeover at first.  I tried allying with Morocco to take on Tunisia but that didn't work.  I managed to ally myself with Tripoli - the neighbor of Tunisia. 

Morocco actually declared war with me along with Tunisia and Tripoli didn't help.  My armies managed to keep the Moroccans at bay until the Christian nations started attacking Morocco.  Morocco soon decided that it was going to lose a 2 front war so it ended with a truce.  I decided to build up my army to extreme levels.  Tunisia had a  pathetic army which I could crush and once the truce was over I declared war on them (which now Tripoli came to my aid and Morocco to theirs).  I crushed Tunisia in less than a year and quickly annexed them up.  Morocco was losing to Portugal and Castille so I managed to gobble up some of their provinces.  In the end, I gained more land with Tunisia and managed to free the nation of Fez from Morroco.  Fez soon became my ally and buffer plate against the Christians and Morocco.  I set my sights now on Tripoli.  After threatening them several times, I went to war and crushed their army quickly.  They surrendered and I took them as my vassal.

Now in the west, Castille was fighting against England (who took over Aragon), Morocco and Fez.  I went to the aid of Fez only to get beaten back and my navies sunk.  I didn't lose any territory but I was forced to pay 108 ducats for peace.  Later on - there was a massive revolt in Castille, I funded some Nationalist rebels to aid in the disruption.  Granada (a former Muslim nation now Christian and eventually became Protestant after a crusade against them) broke free from the Castillian revolts.

Morocco and Fez started having rebels too which led to the people joining my nation.  My nation was now not a war machine but a trade empire.  I was forced to focus my government on trade as I couldn't expand as fast.  Morocco managed to annex Fez back and return to near its original states.  Around 1515, I noticed that France - probably the world power get shattered with revolts.  I think two different factions broke out in revolt along with several peasant armies leaving the former world power a mere shadow of itself.  Algiers ranks 19th in the world though now I think that the strongest military power is the English who have nearly united Britain and hold the former lands of Aragon.

I have no idea why I've written so much on such a complicated niche game but I might continue to do so cause this game is starting to get fun.

Team Fortress Tactics

 I've only just begun playing Team Fortress 2 recently.  I started a day after
grabbing it from the Orange Box sale a few days before the new year.  I've been
glued to the game ever since.  It's amazing how the game still holds up till
today and the community of players is still going strong.

TF2 still receives a lot of updates and they're free.  Left 4 Dead 2 might have
paid DLC on the PC probably because L4D is the only valve multiplayer game
successful over in console and they don't want to hurt their console players.

For new players, a few good TF2 sites would really help in playing the game.  TF2
is more of tactics and positioning than being a good shot.  The game focuses more
on working together and using each individual's class strength.

I recommend going to TF2wiki.net for getting the basics and strategies of the
game down.

For people who just like videos - go over to christianmalazarte's youtube TF2 Tactics page.

Serious Bounty Sale

It's the first sale weekend of the year!  Steam has Serious Sam HD on sale at 66% off.  I remember playing the original Serious Sam co-op on lan with a group of friends.  That was seriously fun.  It's like the first time I ever played something co-op that was fun.  The HD version updates the graphics to 2009 levels (though I think the first game holds up because of the style).

GamersGate still has their Russian Christmas sale (same games from last week).  See their offers page to see the list.

Impulse starts the year right with an awesome sale.  They're probably making up for the weak holiday sale they had.  King's Bounty: The Legend (though grab the GamersGate one, it's cheaper) and King's Bounty: Armored Princess are both at 50% off, I had a review over at my old non gaming blog a year ago and I really liked it.

Majesty 2 and Supreme Commander Gold are 2 other games at half price.  Braid is only $4.99 and for an unknown game - World War 2 - Time of Wrath is at $20.

Time War

There's this indie RTS in development called Archon (not to be confused with the really old Archon chess like game). It's an RTS with the gimmick of manipulating time. They claim that they can go back in time and send units back to beat the enemy. Wars can be fought in slow motion or even paused then fast forwarded to regain your lost time from the present.

It really sounds like an ambitious game and it includes the concept of time paradoxes. Creating these paradoxes destroys units. I have no real idea how this game actually works in multiplayer (and single player) since each player has the ability to go back in time and alter the past. From the way I understand it, it might play as something like a real time play by email game. Players send their orders in real time and the computer decides what happens thus the player can go back and undo the past moves while the computer actually computes the the main timeline and the flow of the game. Don't take my word for it, I'm merely speculating on how the game works.

Currently, the game is still in it's alpha state and it hopes to release maybe Jan 1 of 2011. If anyone is interested, they are pre-selling the game which grants access to the alpha build. I'm planning to hop on maybe around March or April once they are near their multiplayer testing phase. Go check out their site over at - http://www.achrongame.com/index.html

Here's a demo video of the game.

Europa Universalis Takeover Plan

Well, playing the Scottish (and reading the manual later on) made me learn that reducing religious tolerance doesn't make your country convert to another religion. It's pretty hard to change your religion and coming from a Catholic nation - the only religion available are Protestant and Reformed once they become available. The cost in changing the state nation is pretty high.

So I decided to pick one of the super power of this time - Portugal. I'm aiming to be a trade leader at the start and start colonizing lands later on. The mechanics of the game doesn't make conquest easy. Controlling a territory is not the same as owning it unlike in the Total War series where you need but take the city and it's yours. The territory can only be yours once peace settles and the enemy country agrees to let you own it. There's also attrition, manpower and war exhaustion which makes making a horde of troops pretty tough. I don't even think trying to take over Europe is possible. Other nations don't like a nation going and annexing territories all the time.

Another thing, since the battles are determined by the computer and not by your control, the game requires more strategic thinking than the tactical combat needed in Total War. Unit morale plays a big role in the fights and not just sheer troop number.

So the only way to be a world power is to avoid the old world and take over the new world. Truthfully, I don't really enjoy this game since I don't get the satisfaction of taking over countries. I actually like Hearts of Iron 2 better with the constant war. I'll try putting in the other expansions and see how the game changes. My inner megalomaniac wants to take over the world.

So now as Portugal, I've generated more money and researched more technology in a couple of decades than playing as Scotland or Morroco. I've been into a war with Brittany but that ended in a stalemate - I had a super power navy with almost no army and he had a decent army but with a navy that would not match mine. I managed to take his capital for a few days but he then brought the bulk of his forces to retake it.

Europa Universalis 3

I grabbed this strategy game - Europa Universalis 3 Complete (which doesn't include the newest expansion) last time it had a sale. I wanted to try this game out since it was all praises in Out of Eight. I've tried Hearts of Iron 2 but never really played much of it so I thought that this was going to be the same.

I tried several nations - Castille was a pretty good nation to start as. I'm guessing that the major powers in this time would be France, Castille and Portugal. Yet I wanted something different, I tried something harder - the Morrocans (on northern Africa just south of the Iberian peninsula). I got into several wars with Castille with the final one crushing my nation into non-existence.

I decided to try something else - Scotland. My ultimate goal was to have the United Kingdom under Scottish rule. Also, there were these religion sliders where you could tweak you religious tolerance - I tweaked it to super negative on Roman Catholic and super positive for paganism. It didn't really change my nation - only made my people angry. A funny thing later happened. You see, there's the papal elections - the Holy See where one country can be appointed to it. My country who has probably the worst Catholic tolerance in the Christian nations (and is trying to practice druidism) was voted to the Holy See. I'm barely half a century in the game (it's 1490 in my game now). I hope to achieve my goal (or be crushed by superior English forces). This isn't a game I feel that comfortable with – coming from the Total War and Civilization games but I hope I might get attached to it somehow.

2010 - Starts with a Bang

A lot of 2009 games were pushed down to the 1st quarter of 2010.  On consoles, there's God of War 3 which is sure to be a great hit on the PS3.

We also have exciting new sequels - Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2 and Bad Company 2 before the end of March.  EA also has announced a new Medal of Honor - in modern times (Modern Medal of Honor?).  The Chaos Rising expansion for Dawn of War is another game I'm looking forward to this quarter.

I've went and grabbed the Orange Box and Burnout over in Steam so it looks like I won't be grabbing the other games in my wishlist.

IGF awards also occurs in this quarter - a great time to see upcomming indie games.  Archon, a RTS game, caught my attention with it's interesting time travel gimmick.  I have no idea how this will turn out.  I can't wait for this new year of gaming!