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1 Oct 04
Darn. In my Total Gaming.net update yesterday, I totally forgot the big news. Firingsquad has confirmed the Stardock is in negotiations to bring a new Master of Magic game. Since some old school gamers thought that GalCiv was what Masters of Orion 3 should have been, there are some MoM fans salivating right now. Like I said earlier, I've been impressed enough with Stardock to buy the TGN subscription. And I absolutely love the support they give their games (including The Political Machine, did I mention we have a contest going?
Is it just me or has there been little Kohan II talk around the internet? I want that game to succeed if just to support good tactics and a Houston company. The reviews have been positive. I really hope the timing thing didn't kill them. Even though the original Kohan wasn't quite my cup of (no) tea (see 30 Sept), it was such high quality that I played straight through to the end.
Donkey Konga is out for the Nintendo Gamecube. You've got to admire any company that releases a bongo peripheral. People still talk about the Dreamcast maracas. Fry's has it on sale this weekend if you want to bang some drums like a giant ape.
I mentioned Nexus: The Jupiter Incident as a game of the day a while back. It's gone gold and is expected to release in Europe on the 5th of November.
Interesting thing happening with Roadrunner the ISP. The recently bumped up the top speed to 3 MBps download without changing the upload. Now they're offering a premium "gaming" connection that gives you 6 MBps download and 512k upload. I think it's like an extra $25 a month. Are there games out there that need that kind of download with only a small increase in upload? Personally, I'd rather pay more for parity upload.
Jason
Comments?
30 Sept 04
The second Talk Strategy contest continues until the 8th. I'd love to extend it, but it doesn't make sense to push it too close to the election. Hopefully, tonight's debate has people fired up.
Total Gaming.net has released their next game. It's Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood. It's a tactical game from the people who brought you Desperados. I'm guessing they're not thinking this will be the game that pushes the masses over the edge generating masses of purchases of TGN subscriptions. This seemed to be a low publicity release. Still, it seems to be a quality game that has quite a few fans. It helps round out their library.
There are some interesting articles speculating that a new Nintendo ad could imply that the Nintendo DS can function as a wireless repeater. In other words, if you're within the range of a DS that's within range of a DS that within range of a DS that can wirelessly connect to the internet, then you can do the same. While interesting, I'm not sure that would be the killer feature that would put the DS over the top.
So, do you have your Babelfish? BBC radio is finishing the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by recording Life, the Universe and Everything. In honor of this they've released the whole Infocom game (upgraded) Here. Don't forget your towel.
Jason
Comments?
29 Sept 04
I mentioned a while back that another contest was coming down the pike. Well, it's here now. The fine folks at Ubisoft have sent two copies of the Political Machine to us just in time for the first Presidential debate. You have until the 8th of October 2004 to get your entries in.
Here's how it's going to work this time. I've been told that other contests work this way, so we'll give it a try. This contest will be bound by the laws of the state of Texas where it is being held. The contest is open to everyone, but it is void where prohibited. There is only one entry per household. All prizes will be awarded and the winners announced here.
So, how do you enter? Simple. You just add a comment to this story. If you're looking at this on the TS homepage, click the "Comments?" at the end of this section. If you're looking at this on the news section of the site, just click the "post comment" button. You must be a registered member of the site (and logged in) to post comments. Registration is quick, easy and free. All you need is an active email account. If you're having any problems, please send me an email at contests@talkstrategy.com.
So what comment do you add? You just have to give the name of your favorite US President. Please give enough information to clearly identify whom you are choosing. For example, "George Bush" wouldn't be enough. You'd want to add a "H.W." or a "W." to that. In the event it is unclear, you will be entered with the President who first had the name. In the example, that would be George H.W. Bush. You are not required to explain or defend your choice, but you are free to do so. One strategy might be to say your favorite President would be the one that helps you win and base your selection on that.
How will the winners be selected? I'll use random number 1-43. I'll keep selecting until we get a number that corresponds to the Presidential order (i.e. Washington would be 1 and George W. Bush would be 43) that has been selected. I'll continue with the numbers until we have our two winners. If the first selected President has two people who have selected him, both will be our winners. If we have a situation where more people have selected a President than we have prizes left, those names will all go into a hat. Then the appropriate number of winners will be selected by randomly pulling out user names.
Hopefully that is all clear. If you have any questions, please use the email address above.
So, do you want to win? Well, if you don't know much about the game, I've put up a mini-review here. Basically, if you like strategy games and American politics, you're pretty safe with this game. Good luck to everyone. If you're not interested, please tell anyone you may know who might be about the contest. Thanks.
Jason
Comments?
28 Sept 04
I could still use a lot of feedback on the continuum. If you know any strategy gamers who don't stop by, please direct them to those articles. This only works with your help.
Gamespy has a great Rome: Total War strategy guide up. Check it out here. The scope of the game is really amazing. A lot of the things we only caught glimpses of back in Shogun, are fully realized here. I can't wait until I have the time to truly dig in.
Sony gave a tentative price for the PSP in Japan. It converted to something like $350. Now I don't believe Sony is so naive to think that price will float over here. Perhaps they only want a niche product, but if you look at their words about the PSP, I think it's clear they want a large piece of the handheld market. Now there is a marketing technique where you severely limit initial supply so you product is hard to find and increases in perceived value. Then you can charge more than you'd usually be able to. The risk is that you get labeled a rich boy's toy and never make a splash on main street. Sony's initial statements indicated that they would price to be competitive even if it means a loss. Well, the competition is at $80 for the GBA-SP and $150 for the DS. $350 is not competitive. Anything over $200 is not competitive. So which will it be, Sony?
As an interesting side note, Gamespot had a news article saying that Nintendo shares skyrocketed partially, according to one analyst, on the weakness of Sony's PSP showing. Maybe it is time for Sony to do something dramatic.
I mentioned the flood of strategy games lately. I checked out Gamerankings.com. Rome is sitting around 91%. Warhammer 40k and Kohan II are at 85%. Evil Genius is scoring at an 81% review average. Since Rome's also got the biggest name and its own TV show, I guessing the others are going to be hurting for sales they might have had if released at another time. Fortunately, they're all out well before the holidays so that might help.
Jason
Comments?
27 Sept 04
This Monday came too fast. I haven't really had a chance to get into Rome: Total War. It's hard to believe that Rome, Warhammer 40k, Evil Genius and Kohan II are coming out so close together. Since it's not uncommon for strategy gamers to dedicate months or even years to a game, it's clear some of these games are going to lose out (on sales if nothing else) coming out so close together. I guess that's always the risk when you release at the end of a quarter.
I wanted to go back over my idea of the Real Time Continuum. Based on the feedback I've received, I wasn't quite as clear as I could have been. Bill Harris suggested that a graphic would help. My initial instinct is that I usually suck at graphics and pestering a volunteer would be stressful for both of us. Since I love all of you, I persevered. Here's the result:
As you can see, we're going from all structures on one end to all combat on the other. That's the heart of the distinction. Hopefully, you can see that all the Sims games (The Sims, The Partners, Singles) would fall under the same category as Simcity. They have conflict, but not combat.
Right now, I have them evenly separated. I could use some input on how you think they should be arranged. It could turn out to be important. I tend to think the order is good, but the correct spacing could identify gaps that developers could fill in and potentially cash in on an untapped market. It might be profitable to just think about what kinds of games would fit into certain gaps. Of course, you could certainly argue that I have the games and order all wrong. I'd certainly enjoy hearing that argument.
This week I'm still looking for "different" games. So we have the recently announced Legion Arena (official site) from Slitherine Software. Legion Arena is a "free" online strategy game. That is you can play and build up your army for a while before you have to set up a subscription. You have a general and build up your army based on your needs and your level of success in combat. It's set in Roman times and starts off with Roman troops, but new factions will be added on a regular basis. They're shooting for a short daily time commitment. It should be interesting to see how it turns out.
Jason
Comments?
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