Ahoy mates – we close with the enemy – bring all guns to bear! Prepare to engage! Covering the period from the Seven Year’s War through the Napoleonic Era, Age of Sail II brings to you the heart of the Age of Sail. You can do battle as the British High Seas Commander against those upstart Americans in 1776 or fight for the Americans against the Imperialistic British in the War of 1812. You can play from the decks of a Ship of War or the decks of a Privateer just out for the booty. The choice is yours. My … Continue reading High Seas Adventure Awaits→
The Commandos game pretty much set the standard in small-quad RTS games. Armed with only three or four soldiers per mission, you were tasked with defeating, or avoiding, a hoard of enemies during a variety of missions. The problem with Commandos was that it was just too hard to play. You shoot someone and you lose. The alarm goes off and you lose. Someone sees you and you lose. You step just one foot out of line and yep, you guessed it, you lose. Robin Hood takes players back to a simpler time, when breaking into a castle did not … Continue reading Sherwood is a Sure Thing→
The year is 2014. The humans have spread out among the solar system driven by the need for resources. As the Martian Diplomatic Convoy approaches the moon for an historic meeting with diplomats from Earth to settle their differences, it is suddenly blown out of space by unidentified armed ships. Needless to say war ensued. And this is where you enter, as either the Martian Colonists out to avenge the slaughter of their Diplomats, or the Earth forces out to get those upstart colonists back in line. Hegemonia: Legions of Steel is a space-based real time strategy depiction of the … Continue reading Heavily Scripted Space Opera!→
When I first received Hearts of Iron, I was kind of expecting a strategy game along the lines of Axis and Allies, where you could fight World War II on a strategic scale. What I got was that and a whole lot more. Hearts of Iron is the most complex game I have every played. It took three days of reading and re-reading the manual coupled with copious experimentation to become even mildly proficient with the game. At one point, I nearly gave up in frustration. But, I am so thankful that I didn’t. There is a lot to learn, … Continue reading Complex Combat→
It’s not easy to break the mold, especially in the real-time strategy and shooter genre. You can improve the graphics and sound, but at the core we have not seen anything too new for a number of years. Impossible Creatures does bring new and exciting elements to the table, much to the joy of tired tank-rushing RTS gamers. The two interesting elements are that you can combine real-world creatures in a primitive lab to create just the right behemoths of destruction, and the fact that you have to use real-world creatures and their abilities to do it without the aid … Continue reading Impossible Fun→
A real time simulation of the Allied invasion of France in 1944 sounds VERY interesting. Too bad Matrix Games and Lamb Software did not end up with a product fitting of the intended scope, possibly due to the scope itself being too large. Problems start right at installation. No manual came with the game so there is no immediate help in getting started. I installed the game and no icon came up on the desktop. No problem, just open and close the CD door to get the CD to run. Hmmm, seems like the only option is to install the … Continue reading Real Time D-Day→
I can hear the cries already "Jeesh, not yet ANOTHER RTS with a twist!" But wait until you have tried this new offering from Microsoft Games and Ensemble Studios before ye judge to harshly. Anyone remember that old classic – Populous? Remember how you had god powers granted based on the number of followers you had? Well, Ensemble Studios has worked this into Age of Mythology quite nicely! What you have is a world dominated by three cultures – Egyptian – Norse – Greek. Each is quite unique and each has their own pantheon of gods with their own ways … Continue reading An RTS with a Twist!→
Real-Time Strategy games rarely appear on consoles. Though the games are huge successes on PC’s, the genre has never really successfully crossed over to the console format. Attempts have been made of course, but the only one that ever really sold well was Starcraft for the N64. Despite all of this, companies still periodically make attempts to bring RTS’ to the console format, as is the case Eidos’ latest offering, Commandos 2. The game, developed by Pyro Studios, is a great entry in the RTS genre, although it is plagued by many of the same things that have held console … Continue reading Commandos 2 Die For→
Ever play a Real Time Strategy game? Red Alert? Empire Earth? Age of Empires? Starcraft? Warcraft? GOOD! Then you are ready to take controls of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds – Lucas Arts’ new real time strategy game based in the world of Star Wars. If not then you will need to go through the whole tutorial before you are ready rather than just the last few missions. Is it a ground breaking new game? Not in the least. Does that really matter? Not to me in the slightest. If a game is fun to play I will play it no … Continue reading Battlegrounds Makes Combat Fun→
One of the greatest things about being a reviewer is that sometimes people actually listen to you. Stronghold: Crusader is the follow-up title to the original Stronghold game reviewed by GiN about a year ago. Anyhow, just about everything that I said needed fixed from the original title has been improved here. Of course I am sure I was not the only reviewer who brought up some missing features, but at least I was among the crowd calling for change. The Stronghold series bills itself as a castle-building simulation. While this is a good description, it is worth noting that … Continue reading Breeching the walls, again→
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