Royce Brainard, GiN Staff

Royce is an incurable gamer. Games of all types. He started many moons ago with chess and checkers (harmless enough) then progressed to board strategy wargames, pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons and the early console games. His love of games has grown through the years. His only wish was to find others to game with as solitaire gaming has its drawbacks; and to this end became involved with several play by mail games. While in high school Royce was busy developing his own wargames that played on hand made eight foot by four foot maps with tons of hand made counters to represent the various units involved.|It was a natural progression that he evolved into a computer game nut, since now the computer could handle the job previously performed by lots of charts, tables and die rolls. Then finally came the Internet games. WooHoo! Now he could play with other real live gamers in real time. He has literally died and gone to heaven!|An Electronics Engineer by education, Royce is now a Software engineer working with the Comanche Helicopter program ) and spends all day as well as all night and weekends on the computer ( much to his wife's chagrin at times ).

Recent Posts

Game Review - EverQuest: Lost Dungeons of Norrath

Relief for the 50’s

Do you have an EverQuest character stuck in the quagmire that is levels 50 – 60? Relief is on the way! I am a long time player of EverQuest, that had moved on to newer games (not because EverQuest is a bad game but I spent four years in Norrath and it was time for a change). I had a few characters in the low 50’s, level wise, and had been struggling with advancing them. I came back to try Lost Dungeons of Norrath to see if this would help the situation and to see what seems to be the … Continue reading Relief for the 50’s →

Game Review - Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour

More Global Destruction?

More destruction you say? But of course! After all this is Command & Conquer and the dreaded GLA has yet to be decisively defeated! Command & Conquer Generals Zero hour is the expansion pack to the C&C Generals game. It adds more missions and some new surprises to the already impressive mix. The graphics, special effects and game play in general is vintage Command & Conquer. Collect the resources to build the buildings that allow you to build your military to defeat the enemy. So more of what we like best of the series in my mind! They have replaced … Continue reading More Global Destruction? →

Game Review - Purge

Purge Aims High, Misses

When technology fights sorcery, which side will you choose? The plot of Purge, as written in the online manual is: "Science is in a golden age: decades passed since the first android and genetically modified humans were developed. These beings of scientific perfection are several magnitudes stronger and smarter than normal man. They are collectively known as the Order. Eventually, the Order creates a one world government, and world peace. This "worldwide order" comes at a high cost. A great social divide develops between the Order and ordinary humans. Rejected from the utopian society of the Order, some turn to … Continue reading Purge Aims High, Misses →

Game Review - Command & Conquer Generals

The Battles Continue!

Many were worried when Electronic Arts became the owner of the Command & Conquer franchise, but worry no more, as the latest Command & Conquer release – Command & Conquer Generals – has stayed true to the system we all know and love. Right down to the left click to target your units, left click to target their position to move to, it’s the same interface. And this is despite the current trend among Real Time Strategy (RTS) games to use left click to target units and right click to target location to move to. Command & Conquer Generals will … Continue reading The Battles Continue! →

Game Review - Blitzkrieg

Fast and Furious WWII

Do you enjoy real time action? Do you enjoy World War II simulations? Think you are ready for a Real Time World War II simulation? Then you owe it to yourself to give CDV’s Blitzkrieg a try. The graphics are awesome – but then again graphics should be awesome these days. The detail of the various units is really something to see though. The terrain is also done exceptionally well in Blitzkrieg and helps bring the simulation alive. It is obvious that a good deal of time and research went into the making of this simulation. The game play is … Continue reading Fast and Furious WWII →

Game Review - Highland Warriors

If It’s Not Scottish, It’s"

Yep! It’s Another real time strategy (RTS) game where you gather the raw materials, make buildings that can manufacture troops, research technologies that allow better buildings to make better troops armor and weapons etc. But this one has a few differences plus a decided "Scottish flavor" to it. The graphics are ok. They are choppy at times, but generally ok for this type of game. The sound is ok as well; nothing to write home about or drive you screaming from the room either. It does have a decent in game tutorial that can get you familiar with the basics … Continue reading If It’s Not Scottish, It’s" →