Welcome to the Home of Game Strategies and Stories

 

Talk Strategy

27 Feb 04

I got my copy of Steel Battalion yesterday. Wow! I put up some impressions here on the GG Team page if you're interested. If you like complex simulations, you'll love this. I'll probably get up some Line of Contact impressions soon.

A little site business first. I enjoy doing this site, and plan to keep it around for a long time. We're starting to grow. People are spreading the news (you are, aren't you?). I'd like to get some more reviews up if people are interested in writing them. It's ok if it's your favorite game as long as you are willing to address the negatives as well.

I'd also like to do some small contests. Right now there's not really any money for that, so I was thinking about joining some affiliate programs. I'll be checking some out, but if you have any recommendations, let me know. If you absolutely can't stand the thought of any more ads, let me know that as well.

Raydude has started a Korsun Pocket expansion after action report in the forums. I'm sure he'd like some feedback so check it out and let him know what you think. Remember, if you don't want to make your suggestions public, use the PM feature of the forum.

I'm still fighting the Gangland demo. I keep dying at the end of the first level. I guess that's a good sign since it's not too easy. I'm not thrilled with the controls and overall layout of information, but it's functional. I'll keep you updated.

Finally, a quick follow up on collectible card games turning into video games. A lot of them are turn based, so they can be a good choice for portable gaming strategy. Unfortunately, I have trouble telling some of them apart. For instance, the last big thing was YuGiOh. According to Wizards of the Coast and the Cartoon Network, the next big thing is Duel Masters (DM). They look very similar to me. DM does have a mana pool and shields.

Anyway, they both have GBA games. Atari has announce a DM game coming this june. I couldn't find a game site for it, so here's the link to the CCG site. It's got an interesting little tutorial. The latest YuGiOh game is World Championship 2004 (official site). If you're hankering for some portable CCG video gaming action, those should hold you.

Jason

26 Feb 04

I'm beginning to think I don't like preorders. I mean of course I like getting the game as soon as possible if it was something I was so anxious for that I had to preorder it. What I don't like is what preorders have done to the gaming business. How many times have you walked into a friendly neighborhood game store and been told of all the latest preorders and special preorder deals by someone who has to tell you or they might lose their job. Why would a company force their employees to do that?

Well, game preorders are close to unique. I guess something close would be commissioning an artist to do a piece for you. Even then you get some say in what you want. Still, how many products can get away with being sold sight unseen? A lot of games don't offer demos before release. A handful of screenshots or movies will tell you about the art style, but not whether the game is actually fun. The problem comes when the publisher knows the game is buggy or unfun.

Preorders sort of fight against the vision of the developer. They have a game experience in mind and are working to bring that to you. As the game approaches completion, things like the manual and packing are finished. Unfortunately, most games run into some delays. Then the clock starts ticking. The publisher (or their accountants) see the preorders sitting out there like a golden apple. As soon as the game ships, that's cash in hand. They know if there are too many delays, some of those preorders will get cancelled. It's like watching your stocks drop. The impulse is to sell NOW!

Game magazines have advertising deadlines sometimes months in advance, so if you mistimed the release, you lose the impact of your advertising as well. And extended development cost more in terms of money, time and people. The release date often gets pushed back to the end of the next fiscal quarter. There are times when companies need money (revenue) at the end of a quarter. If the developer is still not done, the pressure mounts to just release, cash in the preorders and save what you can. Review copies suddenly get delayed to release day or just after so the hyped, advertised and preordered game gets dumped on an unsuspecting public.

I'm not sure that removing preorders would improve the game business. I do know that the games I usually love are the ones I heard of by word of mouth. I should learn to ignore hype. Admittedly, I don't read nearly as many previews as I used to. I got burned too many times. Perhaps that's what I worry about most. That bad preorders will result in too many jaded gamers. It's too great a hobby for us to let it be ruined by a few bad games.

It would be crass of me to hype an unreleased game after that tirade, so I'll look to a classic. Today I want to talk about the Battlezone series (official BZII site). The original Battlezone was the vector based 2 stick arcade classic. When Activision decided to update the series, they wanted to combine the frantic first person vehicle action with the day's red hot genre, RTS. The result was two games that are still impressive today.

You are thrown into the middle of the world of a RTS game. You are both the boss and the combatant. You can instruct units to build a base and collect resources. You can exit your vehicle and enter your buildings, including manning your own turrets. You can creep up on a hill and use your sniper rifle to take out the driver of an enemy vehicle then run down and take over said vehicle.

You build up your forces and then lead them into battle. Several vehicles have multiple weapons and some sport indirect fire to take out long range foes. Since the main resource is biometal and your and your enemy's vehicles are composed of it, if you win the battlefield, you can recouped most of your losses (except the men, of course). If you're worried that everything is a cookie cutter today, check out the Battlezone series. It's a nice change of pace.

Jason

25 Feb 04

I suppose people could argue over whether tactical or strategy games are better for telling stories, but the fact is that battles go on at all levels and each level has their story to tell. Whether you're an individual soldier in a first person shooter or tactically guiding fireteams through to their objectives or strategically planning the war so that supplies, vehicles, fireteams and soldiers can come together and accomplish their missions.

A couple of games have tried to reflect this. Microsoft has recently released the source to one of the first, Allegiance (Allegiance Gateway). In case you missed it, you can now try it for free. On one level there's an arcade space simulator, but there is a commander in charge of a RTS like interface. The commander controls resource drones and assigns missions to real people flying his combat craft. Some craft have multiple crew stations including turrets. The commander also primarily directs the technological development path of the faction. Better teamwork results in faster expansion, more money and climbing the tech tree. As veteran strategists know, if you're ahead in the tech race when the big battles come, it's a lot easier to win.

Tactically focused games can be hard to get the fun factor right. The Mechcommander series (official site) is a good example. I still think the opening cinematic from the original Mechcommander is one of the best in gaming. Unfortunately, the rest of the series doesn't stack up. The series is a real time tactical mech combat game. You have a stable of mechs and a team of pilots. You match them up based on your drop weight and mission goals. The first game was hard. The later maps felt more like puzzles that you had to find the "right" answer to complete the mission.

The second game moved from 2D to 3D. This made for a beautiful game to watch with the ability to zoom in and out at will to get the best view. The problem was that the game, while easier, didn't make you feel like you were making important tactical decisions. You were more focused on destroying the targets in the right order, so you don't get overwhelmed. You could target mech body parts and focus fire, but usually the results were the same as if you just clicked attack and let your team at them. The only cool thing you ever seemed to do was jump over walls to capture a turret control building or a gate control building. Maybe Microsoft needs to combine their ideas to make an Allegiance like Mechwarrior/Mechcommander game.

Jason

24 Feb 04

I think there's a good reason so many people get excited about new releases. In our heads, we're all game designers. We know how we'd do weapons, levels, units, and balancing. We have a synthesis in our minds of good games, movies, books and plays that go into a genre. So when we hear about a new title with limited information, we fill in the blanks the way we want it to be. The problem is that if we wait too long, those thoughts turn to expectations. If expectations aren't delivered upon, we're disappointed. Still there's nothing quite like tearing into a new game. A crisp new manual, shiny new disks and a new world to explore. It's hard to beat.

I kind of miss the old pc gaming days when you never knew what would be in a new box. Sure you could expect disks and the manual, but maybe there'd be a map, or a key chain or a journal. Undying had a good journal of the dark history surrounding his family. The Vampire:TM game came with a book, a necklace and a quick start guide. It's not that these things were inherently valuable, but it passed on some of the enthusiasm the developers had for the game to the consumer. Somewhere around here I think I still have a scratch and sniff card from Leather Goddesses of Phobos by Infocom. Now we're lucky to get a jewel case for the cd.

A quick Google update. I did a search today and we came up. Welcome to anyone who found us that way. We also have a DMOZ entry, so we should be filtered through the rest of the search engines as well.

Today I'd like to talk briefly about the fun factor. In case you didn't notice, I like strategy games. This means that I've played more than my fair share of RTS games. From Dune II to Rise of Nations, I've enjoyed a lot of them. You see a lot of writing today about how stale the RTS genre has become. It's true there's a little too much of a cookie cutter mentality out there. Sometimes a great game doesn't come from a great new engine or gameplay feature. Sometimes developers just capture lightning in a bottle and polish a game to pure fun.

Some of my best recent RTS memories have been with C&C Red Alert 2 (official site). You can't say it really revolutionized anything. It was just a solid, well balanced game that exuded fun. The campaign had a wacky alternative timeline plot. It had unique hero characters. There was mind control, smart dolphins, attack giant squid, spies, time machines, weather control machines and invulnerability shields. Yet everything came together in ways that were useful. If you played coop or teams, the different sides had units that complemented each other well. Despite being 2D in the new 3D age, it's the only RTS that I have the quick reference card sitting right by me on the desk. If you missed it, you can find it cheap. Just make sure you pick up the expansion, Yuri's revenge, as well. It adds a fun third side into the mix as well as giving you a new, even wackier, campaign to fight through. Highly Recommended.

Jason

23 Feb 04

First off, thanks to everyone out there spreading the word. I get to look at the wonderful site statistics on a regular basis and we are growing. Please keep up the good work spreading the site to your friends and favorite sites. Speaking of sites, if you know of any sites that would like to trade links with us, please let me know. Apparently one of the things holding us back from Google listing is that sites aren't linking to us. So if you have a personal website, work for a website or know someone who does, let me know. Then we can keep growing this community. Thanks again.

A little news quickly. I recently talked about Gangland, the multigenre mafia game from Whiptail interactive. Well, they've just released a three level single player demo. You can check it out and see if you like it. It's available from the usual suspects (links page). I've just downloaded. I'll give you some impressions once I've given it a fair shake.

I've been thinking about collectible card games and their variants. While YuGiOh and Magic: The Gathering might be the big players (and have various video game versions), I've been looking at two others. First is Culdcept (official site). Culdcept is hard to describe. You know this because most people describe it as a cross between Magic and Monopoly. Since that doesn't explain much, I'll try harder. In Culdcept, you have a deck of cards selected out of all the cards you own. There are monster cards, item cards and spell cards. Monster cards are summons that either attack or defend a property. Some monsters can use items in battle. Items either increase stats or have a special effect on the battle. Spell cards are used on the board itself. They have various effects on you, your opponent, the dice or a monster.

So how is it like Monopoly? Well, the money is magic. You move your avatar around the board based on die rolls. If you land on an open territory, you pay some magic and a monster card to summon your monster to claim that property. Color runs increase in value. If you land on an opponents territory, you can pay the fine (or fight with one of your own monsters). You can improve properties to increase their value. You get a bonus each time you complete a lap on the board. There's much more, but those are the basics. If it sounds interesting, you should check it out. It's got amazing strategic depth, plus an interesting luck component.

The other games are similar, but different (of course). I'm talking about the Etherlords series (official site). It's sort of like combining a card battle game with resource management from a RTS, but turn based. You also have your heroes gain experience and power as they go along for a little RPG element thrown in for fun. Again you have a deck of spell. This one includes summons, buffs and attack spells. Your heroes, carrying personal spell decks) travel around the strategic map, conquering resources for you. These resources let you cast global spells or summon more heroes. Your goal is to take out your opponent's tower while defending your own. Oh, it also includes a flexible diplomacy model in case you need help in your conquests.

I never would have thought it when Magic came out, but these collectible card games have had a positive impact on the gaming world. Cheers.

Jason

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Return to Archive List

 


 

 

 

Talk Strategy 2004

 1and1 hosting ad