This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Civilization V Last night, I sat down to play Civilization V for the first time in most of a year. There have been a lot of patches in that time, … Continue reading
Here are some of the games I started recently in lieu of pressing on with The Witcher 2… Demon’s Souls (PS3) – The infamously difficult action-RPG. As at the end of the first level, it’s actually much less difficult … Continue reading
Sometimes, sequels and remakes are exactly what the doctor ordered. In recent weeks, two upcoming air combat-themed indie games have caught my attention: AirMech and Guns of Icarus Online. AirMech The further advanced of the two is Carbon … Continue reading
This is my second post on The Witcher 2. 1. First impressions 2. Strengths and weaknesses (as of early Act 2) I’ve now played a bit more of The Witcher 2 – I’m now up to early Act … Continue reading
This is my first post on The Witcher 2. 1. First impressions 2. Strengths and weaknesses (as of early Act 2) I picked up The Witcher 2 when it went on sale a couple of weekends ago, and … Continue reading
This is part 2 of an irregular series on Europa Universalis III. Part 1: The Byzantine Empire and puzzle-like gameplay. Part 2: The Manchus, hordes, and the consequences of deficit spending. I recently picked up Divine Wind, … Continue reading
If I had a penny for every game set in outer space, I’d be writing this post from somewhere sunnier and sandier. How many first-person shooters have cast us as Angry McShootsalot, the space marine? And how many RPGs and … Continue reading
Lately, I’ve been playing around with Kerbal Space Program, an indie game where you design rockets with several components (command module, parachute, solid- & liquid-fuel engines, etc) and then fly them into space. The picture you see above … Continue reading
When we want to praise a well-made device, a skilful cook, a more convenient way of doing things, anything, we commonly say, “It’s spoiled me.” Usually this is just a figure of speech. But as with many other clichés, there … Continue reading
Dig, fight, explore, build! Nothing is impossible in this action-packed adventure game. The world is your canvas and the ground itself is your paint. Grab your tools and go! – official Terraria blurb I picked up Terraria, the 2D … Continue reading
When we left off with the first instalment of the Empire: Total War multiplayer campaign, Great Britain had held off the French at sea, while on land, the Dutch had driven a mighty French invasion force out of their homeland. … Continue reading
Over the weekend, I picked up Frozen Synapse, a new, cyberpunk-themed indie squad tactics game, and so far I’m quite impressed. First off, the actual game seems pretty cool. It’s stylish, with its green-and-red outline soldiers, blue backgrounds and … Continue reading
The following post, by Peter Davies (aka Beefeater1980), playing France, is the belated first instalment in the Empire: Total War multiplayer campaign write up! Click here to see what it’s all about. In this episode, Britain and France go … Continue reading
One indie game project I‘ve followed for a while is Xenonauts, essentially a fan remake of one of my favourite games: X-Com (which I played under its UK title of UFO: Enemy Unknown), the strategy game where you led a … Continue reading
Over the weekend, I had the chance to spend a few hours playing Section 8: Prejudice (see here for my “looking forward to…” post in which I mentioned the game), and so far I like it quite a bit. Here … Continue reading
This entry is part 3 of 7 in the series Total War: Shogun 2This is the third post in my series on Shogun 2. You can find my early impressions here and my write-up of the game’s diplomacy here. … Continue reading
This entry is part 2 of 7 in the series Total War: Shogun 2Update: You can find my verdict on Shogun 2 here. Total War: Shogun 2: A diplomatic victory, but not in the way you’d think I’ve … Continue reading
The Total War series of PC strategy games does not dream small. Players choose a nation – a sweeping empire, ambitious upstart republic, barbarian horde, or anything in between – and set out to conquer all before them. On the … Continue reading
The original Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War came out to rave reviews all the way back in 2004, but I didn’t play it until a few months ago, when I jumped into the Dark Crusade expansion. And I liked it! … Continue reading
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the differing pricing strategies that Matrix Games, Shrapnel Games and Paradox Interactive use for their respective catalogues of niche strategy games. Matrix and Shrapnel keep prices high and discounts rare, while Paradox titles … Continue reading
Stardock has just announced Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, a standalone expansion (quasi-sequel?) to Ironclad’s 2008 space opera RTS. Here are some of the promised features: “New Factions: Players decide whether to become Loyalists or Rebels, which unlocks … Continue reading
The demo for Shogun 2: Total War Total War: Shogun 2 is out, and I’ve spent a little bit of time with it. What do I think? Well, I saw absolutely nothing that would change my expectations for the finished … Continue reading
For some time, I’ve kept my eye on a space-opera 4X game by the name of Distant Worlds, developed by Code Force and published by Matrix Games. This game (based on what I’ve read) could best be described as Master … Continue reading
The Middle Ages! An era when life was supposed to be “nasty, brutish, and short”. An era associated with war and famine and massacre. A era, supposedly, in which might made right. Not knowing much about medieval history, I can’t … Continue reading
So just days after I complained about a glut of high fantasy and space opera games, and a corresponding lack of other settings such as steampunk, what should make its way through the blogosphere but this: Gettysburg Armoured Warfare. … Continue reading
Right now, I’m about halfway through the original Mass Effect, an RPG whose morality system was one of its signature innovations. Traditionally, RPGs have a good/evil scale; your decisions push you up or down that scale; and those decisions, all … Continue reading
I’ve played video games for 21 years. Adventure, rhythm, role-playing, platformer, first-person shooter, and of course strategy – I’ve played virtually every genre, with the notable exception of sports games, at one time or another. But for all that, there … Continue reading
I’ve played a little bit more Mass Effect, enough to start growing fond of some of the game’s characters, dialogue and alien species but nowhere near enough to give a definitive verdict on the game. But one thing has already … Continue reading
There have been many innovations in the RTS genre since it crawled out of the Garden of Herzog Zwei. But when I recently played a number of pre-2007 games, there was one innovation in particular that I sorely missed: the … Continue reading
I’m pleased to present this blog’s first cooperative after-action report (AAR)/Let’s Play (LP)! For today’s post, The Stompers of Comps #1, we played one of my preferred timekillers, a polished and, I’m glad to say, profitable space-opera RTS from a … Continue reading
