Dwar Fortress Unlocked

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/

An ascii based "Settlers like" game or a rogue-like if you want, with procedurally generated landscapes and a whole lot of depth. But until now, the joys and complexities of it have been locked away in an interface thats confusing and positively hostile... however, some kind souls have unlocked pandora's box and thrown together 14 x 10 minute video tutorials/guides on how to get started with the magic within...

Video Guides
http://uk.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5A3D7682BDD48FC2&page=1

The Spirit Engine 2

http://www.thespiritengine.com/tse2-download.html



This is a nifty little find, a sequel, but its got a lot going for it. Good presentation, in a 2d spritey way. Some believable characters even though the dialogue is a bit OTT sometimes. But what sets it apart is the battles, on a timer, but sped up can become quite arcadey in a way. And the tweaking and setting up of attack chains is very well done. The skillsets take a bit of getting used to, and your party composition is almost certainly going to be Knight, Musketeer and Priest to cover all your bases, its refreshing to have such a complex and satisfying battle mechanism tied up into such a bite-size casual RPG. Well worth the 9 quid if you ask me.

Evochron Legends Launched!

http://starwraith3dgames.home.att.net/evochronlegends/index.htm



Those StarWraith people, have released their latest Space Sim Evochron Legends, which updates the graphics and adds more functionality than their previous games. The demo is up for download now.

Space Combat Sims

I get these mood swings from time to time, jumping from lilypad to lilypad through the murky pond that is my interests. This month I have been mainly focussed on my eternal quest for a "space combat sim" that suits my needs for a storied world with a cast of humans and aliens I care about, with craft I can marvel at and enjoy and with combat that raises the blood pressure over the threshold weakly held down by my daily intake of Ramipril.

Before we finish filling the fuel tanks, and engage the magnetic catapult shooting us into the Stars, I'd like to confess that I didn't fawn over Elite as a child. I vaguely remember it, and I was too busy playing Gyruss at the time to take any notice of it. So I don't come at this from a rose-tinted cockpit of the imagination fuelled exploration of the Stars that many seem to cling onto. I come at this from inside of Luke's X-wing, I come at this from the helm of the Millenium Falcon, I come at this from the sphinx helmeted Buck Rogers, from inside the Vipers pit of Battlestar Galactica both past and present. I come at this from every sinew in my body that screamed in anguish at the thought that I was born too early, for my "spitfire in space" dream of taking on bogey after bogey in space.

Trading is fine, if it gets you the cash to soup up the combat ships. In fact traders and miners need protection and thats where I imagine myself, not a sleek fighter, but a seasoned support ship with a fleet guardians role. I'm there for the thrill of kill, rather than the slow burning candle of profit and cargo runs.

I've set the scene, I hope, so I can now share with you what I've found out there for us to dip our toes into the dark pool of the Universe. I realise this list isn't comprehensive in terms of covering all that come before. I realise I've not given full credit to the Wing Commanders and the Independance War's of the day.. in fact one of the more enjoyable outings I remember playing was Renegades: The Battle for Jacob's Star, subbing the games music for Warrior Soul's Space Age Playboys CD... but I'm looking from now and into the future..

From what I can gather, the current lie of the land is as follows, in no particular order...

X3: Terran Conflict

I've tried to like the X series since day one, and I've always come away bewildered, and lost. There must be excitement and action in there somewhere, and the later series look the part, space is beautifully rendered, the space stations look gorgeous, but the spacecraft always disappoint. The game(s) always seem to be riddled with very fastidious quests, they seem to aim for sandbox play that involves giving you no grounding to work from, other than to read the fan literature on the web and hope you can make sense of it all. It seems altogether too in depth early on, like if you spend a week on it, and nothing else, perhaps you'll find the spark of enthusiasm and off you go, months of your life sucked away. But for me the games never seem to hold water, it always compromises enjoyment of the Universe, its always a rough edged ride, presumably to keep the previous fanbase happy with what they're used to. I bought into Terran Conflict, because of the promise of an updated UI, and some more user-friendly questing early on. Admittedly it is a step up on X3: Reunion, but its not enough, and the UI is better, they've massaged it into some EVE Online wanna be, but with the most frustratingly complex menu mechanism to perform the most simple and mundane tasks. Obviously theres the key configs, and surely you should be learning those off by heart. But, you know, theres no gentle introduction, theres no adequate tutorial.. and the progress is slow and the combat is few and far between. If you know what you're doing, and you pump up the SETI (time advancing mechanism) you will be able to bear the long hauls around the systems with very little going on. If only someone shook it by the collar and made it into something more approachable, something more substantial it could easily suck EVE Online people away from subscriptions... however, I think the Egosoft people would rather you pay their subscription to the upcoming X Universe..

Evochron: Renegades

&

Evochron Legends

I have to marvel at what has been done with Evochron Renegades, its a fully fledged space combat/trading sim all crammed into a 30Mb install. I haven't got much history with the StarWraith 3D games at all, so the world presented stands as it is, and its convincing enough, the combat is fluid, the craft are customisable to a degree no other game has in terms of presentation, even if they are a little on the blocky and stubby side (you can tweak the size and shape of the parts you add to the ship). All this and more, economy, missions, and planetfall landings.. its very impressive.. Whether it will hold you, graphically speaking its a good few years behind, but content wise its a bargain and it delivers. Looking forward to seeing what can be done with the forthcoming Evochron Legends. For me, I think this perhaps would be the closest to Elite that we've had. If I had a thing for Elite, that is.

Starshatter

This is a well put together game, that I've bought but only really scratched the surface of. Its quite a complex flyer, with graphics that will pass, although the initial fighters come across as aeroplanes rather than space vehicles. It apparently scales up to large Battlecruisers, but I've not been able to get past the rigorous early missions. Perhaps more time needs to be invested here.. Definitely a labour of love, and very moddable.

Spaceforce: Rogue Universe

Not a bad effort, looks good, flys smooth, however theres no tutorial as such, story is thrown at you in fits and starts, and you will spend a lot of time in space not knowing what you're meant to do next. Getting to the key config, requires 3 or 4 menu selections, and then you'll be guessing what it is the quest wants you to do anyway.. pressing all buttons and hoping is a very poor way to make progress.

EVE Online

A subs based MMO, not exactly seat of the pants combat with twitch controls, more orbit enemy and turn on your gatling railgun. With the new graphics update it does look suitably impressive, although weapons are still tacked on and often look out of place, particularly with the smaller ships. EVE promises much, but it takes a lot of effort to deliver, the RPG side of the game is very tenuous, although during character creation it is hyped up a bit too much. Missions are often, fly here, kill these, go back and get the money. Or theres Mining. Which can become an extremely tedious way to earn money. Without the added adrenline rush of the twitch controls its hard to recommend this game in this batch.. but I put it in here because it is one of the few space combat games that gets the "look" and scale right. With every new expansion I ride the tachyon beam back to the game in the hope it has something extra to give the player, but usually theres no noticeable difference from what has come before.

Dark Star One

Another bright star amongst a number of dull efforts. Dark Star One, is easy to get into, the tutorial is helpful, the visuals are suitably stunning and the combat plays smooth. I was impressed by this game, because of its ability to embrace the story and mix it in with the missions and get you upgrading your ship as soon as possible. The ship itself has an organic component to it, which requires you to collect artifacts often hidden away inside of mined out asteroids. Theres something inherently cool about having to navigate your ship in twisty winding tunnels inside a huge asteroid. One of the few installs that just seems to gel together and make the game flow into interesting territory, rather than you have to mine it out with a web-based laser.

Void War

An overly colourful arcadey indie offering that just didn't gel with me at all. I think it was the powerups in space, and the very amateur graphics. I can see some effort has been put in there, and the game is aimed at an arcade audience, who want FPS but in space, but it just didn't strike a chord with me.

Vega Strike

This is a freeware labour of love, and as such it might ignite some peoples laser assemblies, but it just turned me cold.. even the installation routine had me squirming at the lack of polish.. I suppose I'm not appreciating the cross platform freeware aspect of the game, but you know, I'm looking for something that will kindle the spark to make me play it, not necessarily ride the free lunch train to modsville.

Babylon 5: I've found her

Now then, I was very impressed at this freeware offering, basically a modded version of Freespace 2, with Babylon 5 models and storyline to boot. Interesting things were happening as soon as I was onboard a Fury, and there was a tutorial to coax you into the cockpit early on. Worth the effort if you have a passing interest in B5, or of you like your storied combat to have a space opera theme.

Beyond the Red Line

Another modded demo using the Freespace 2 engine to deliver a Battlestar Galactica (the recent show) hit, and I was even more impressed with this, voice acting was well done, and you were sucked into the atmosphere of it all, the graphics and models were superb and the viper Mark VII's looked and handled like they do on the show. As one of the nuggets sekonded to the Pegasus, you're taken through training and on into a couple of missions in this demo, and I must say, I'd look forward to this becoming a full fledged effort in the future.

Galactic Command: Echo Squad

Theres just something about the whole 3000AD setup that see iteration upon iteration of space combat shooters that just don't seem to be put together very well. Gaudy presentation, awkward fonts and key configs, little story.. and yet theres a whole boatload of them, one after the other, and they all seem to be painted with the same unattractive brush. I've dipped into one or two iterations of this franchise and I've always been sorely disappointed every time. And mostly at bargain prices.

Vendetta Online

Now I did play this a long time ago, and its an online game with free account and paid accounts, I can remember the graphics being slightly out of date, and at the time, I was thinking that perhaps they're not going to be able to compete with EVE Online at all.. but its obviously a niche game for fans.

Allegience

Some online shooter that Microsoft have a hand in, I couldn't get it to install properly. The screenshots looked ok, I suppose. When I couldn't install it though, my patience ran out and I stuck it in the airlock and opened the door.

Tarr Chronicles

I played this a long while back now, and my memories of it are very vague, but again the controls hurdle of SpaceForce comes to mind. Perhaps another visit is in order, one day.

Star Wolves

Another odd ball here, because its not really twitch cockpit stuff as such, but I've written a review of it many moons ago so I thought I'd include it here.

Star Assault

Amateur bewildering effort as I recall.

The Future:

Heresy War

Probably my favourite out of the whole collection, its got instant playability, its got the visuals it deserves, with promise of more when the game fleshes out to a final release. Its action and story and it plays smooth and natural. I'll be keeping my eye on this with baited breath.

Dark Horizon

Again another beauty I just couldn't get to work. My quest had waned enough for me to ditch games that required extensive helpdesk support to play.

Infinity Universe

Black Prophecy

Jumpgate Evolution

Eurogamer.net Game of the Year

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=331251

My top five

1. Mass Effect (PC)

The PC version has taken the pitfalls from the 360 version and tweaked them to make the ride even smoother. Its combination of story and action and roleplaying in a believable universe, coupled with the cinematic action and emotional attachment to the characters make it a truly stand out landmark of a game.

2. Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria (PC)

Moria is the first expansion, and it truly mines the depths of Tolkiens tale, enhancing the current experience for all players, whether at level cap, or beginning afresh with two new character classes to play. Bringing in Legendary weapons and all the additional character tweaking that can be done has been another landmark in MMO history.

3. Battlefield: Bad Company (360)

A true multi class multiplayer combat classic. Unlike CoD4 where class hybridisation was king, B:BC is all about teamwork, in a way thats only been seen in the likes of Team Fortress.

4. Gears of War 2 (360)

Epic gameplay adding upon the original in every way possible. A stronger multiplayer lineup, the survival Horde mode adding on top of co-operative play. The best duck and cover 3rd person stylish shooter just got a whole lot better.

5. Resistance 2 (PS3)

Mainly because its forged a niche that makes the PS3 a viable online FPS platform, mixing old school Halo-style combat, with survival style co-operative play, including class interaction that rivals MMO's. Basically because its got me wanting to play online on the PS3, and has forced me to buy a headset after over a year.

Resistance 2

I'm knee deep in the single player, and I must say its a vast improvement on the first.. it is setup very much like a CoD game, however, there tends to be a bit more, weapon and ammo considerations to taking out the different types of chimera.. so it can begin to feel a bit survival horror at points. It certainly keeps the tension up, and its one of the few FPS's I've tasted recently that has me physically anxious as I step into a new section. Some of the bosses are spectacularly huge.

I've just had a couple of hours on Multiplayer, and I must say its rather good. I managed to get in on a 60 player Skirmish game (although when I joined there was about 40 players in it) and it has objectives for your squad to complete. These are assemble at a rally point, capture a point, assasinate an enemy player, or protect a friendly player, and the squads do their objectives independantly, although sometimes you're called in to reinforce another squad during one of their objectives. All that keeps the game positively buzzing, theres always something new on the go, and your'e not stuck in a rut doing the same thing over and over, because these objective shift about.

The gunplay is usually fast and loose, especially when you're in a crossfire situation. The longer range guns (fareye and marksman) are popular, as is the carbine - the exotic guns tend to be used less, because theyre all a bit situational, and usually you ain't got time to be situational. It reminds me of Halo combat more than anything else. The environment making a lot of the firefights exciting, more than the different weapons. You have beserker perks, which are little additives, when you've been on a decent killing spree.. ones like discharging electrostatic orbs that pulse damage out across an area, or boost your radar range, see through walls, move faster and retain weapon accuracy.. these add a little to the strategy and perhaps your choice of loadout.. but as I said, the gunplay is almost too fast to be worrying too much about taking it slow and considered.

Skirmish was much better than the team deathmatch, which comes across as almost Quake 2 style combat - mainly because there was always something new on the go, you're always shifting between offensive or defensive, moving in cover as fast as you can, or flanking a clustered group of enemy.. this is going to worth a ride for a while I think.. the only thing is, there'll be an accepted way to loadout, to get maximum kills and when everyone learns the maps off by heart, there'll be plenty of sweet spots for camping etc.. still with more modes than you can shake a stick at, that I have yet to explore, and a co-op campaign that has different maps to the main campaign, its still got some legs.

Call of Duty: World at War

I finished it (the single player game) this weekend, and it was the usual Call of Duty experience, lots of chaos being channelled through picturesque and cinematic areas. Obviously the graphics have been touched up, and there are some truly stunning locations, where you just want to sit back and watch rather than actually take part and miss the beauty of it all. The final push to the Reichstag building in Berlin and then the conflict inside it was very atmospheric. The usual gun and drop mechanism was mixed up slightly by the inclusion of Banzai charging japanese troops, who would usually come at you from an unsuspecting angle, or they would climb over obstacles to get that bayonet into you. Countering this required quite precise timing with the right click stick, to perform a knife in the neck saving blow. It did seem a bit hit and miss, to hang your ultimate safety on a very visually discrete command and a very twitchy mechanic. However, in the heat of the battle, when the japanese where thick, you actually found yourself gunning some, turning and stabbing and slashing others with the right click stick, and if you initiate the blade based combat the kill window seemed a lot less picky, than if the bayonet was to come poking at you. So ultimately, if they were getting near, I'd be slashing away frantically anyway. And if any bayonet managed to get through, my stick clicking was already happening so I usually made the tight window and was rewarded with the neck stab. The complement the banzai chargers, and there was an awful lot of them, in most arenas you found yourself in the pacific - the Germans had alsations, snapping speedy hounds of death - luckily they were few and far between in the campaign, but they can be dispatched with a few hurried shots, or again another right clicking life saving throat grab when they open their jaws to bite. The same tactic I used on the banzai chargers worked for the dogs, slash and stab them before we get to the throat bit. Camo decked Japanese soldiers jumping out of ground traps like funnel web spiders were indeed a nice touch to the action, and certainly made you more apprehensive about moving forward in the undergrowth. I think at the end of it all, the extra level of intimacy in combat worked, adding more panic to the gun blazing, when you have to break of your aim, and start slashing, to shrug the blood off your face and resume your salvo.

There were gunnery positions in the usual windows, AA gunning on a flying boat, with swappable positions which made it all the more exciting to have to physically move around inside the aircraft and switch to other positions. There was a tank section or two to add to the mix, although the Russian tanks seemed very stubby and a bit flighty and didn't really feel like the huling tank beasts they should, but then perhaps we've been spoilt a bit with tanks in games recently. The weapons were the usual stuff, with the addition of a flame thrower that actually did feel like a flame thrower with range, rather than just a vestigil torch. Filling bunkers and tunnels with flame was very satisfying indeed. As was sniping German flamer's gastanks and watching the ensuing carnage burst all around. I was a bit saddened that they deemed to drop the british side of things, but I guess they just wanted to juxtapose the closing war in the pacific with the closing war in europe and to add another army might dilute the symmetry. The stylised story animations were well done - imagine an MTV styled quick blow by blow account with silhouetted iconic images, Dad's Army Arrows and actual footage of people being shot dead - the voice talents of Keifer Sutherland and Gary Oldman were excellent. Molotov cocktails were also included and implemented with satisfying flame spread, commplete with zippo lighter and burning rag.

Overall the thrill of the ride was as good as Call of Duty gets, nothing that special in terms of ingenuity, but what was present was a rollercoaster of WWII combat with interesting situations and locations. With the multiplayer game providing longevity - seemingly faster paced than CoD4 - but with the same sort of perks progression - perhaps CoD5 will provide a stop gap for WWII enjoyment until CoD6 comes a knocking? So, enjoyable, but only if you like a) Call of Duty franchise, b) WWII and c) Shooting/Stabbing Japanese and Dogs.