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21 Oct 05
I'm feeling a bit under the weather so I'll keep this short. I wanted to give you some initial impressions on the Winter Assault expansion to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. The short short of it is that if you liked the original, you'll like the expansion. If you didn't like Dawn of War, the expansion won't change your mind.
I've heard some upgrade horror stories, but for me, the patch to 1.4 and expansion install went off without a hitch. I had some initial stability issues which surprised me since I didn't have any trouble at all with the original. I don't think my system like the Nvidia 77.77 drivers so I rolled back and the problems went away.
I played around a bit with the new race, the Imperial Guard. They promise a more defensive strategy which I often enjoy, but I'm not feeling the love yet. They feel so underpowered and in a universe filled with vibrant, colorful characters, they feel olive drab. Everything about them feels like a good design decision, but somehow they sucked out the fun. Maybe I just don't enjoy seeing disproportional numbers of my troops slaughtered. Overall, though, the expansion is reminding me what a fun game Dawn of War is. That's not bad.
I'm finally getting around to the game of the week. When I first saw this game announced, I knew it would be our next game of the week. It's Combat Mission Campaigns (official site) from Hunting Tank Software. The short form is that it's a operational level war game covering World War II's Eastern Front. When combat occurs, battles are resolved using the Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin engine. The results of that battle are sent back to the campaign and time progresses. You'll be able to control up to a division of units carrying experience leaders and troops through the campaign if you can keep them alive. The game will ship with multiple Eastern Front campaigns. I could see this being the last game certain grognards buy if everything works out. Campaigns does not have a release date yet.
Jason
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20 Oct 05
I've been having some conversations about visions or goals lately. It is clear that you can't get people to buy in to you vision if you can't articulate it. It's also clear it's hard to get where you're going if you don't have clear idea where that is. So I'm going to try my hand at mission statements or vision statement. I'll start with the site, but I have some ideas for gaming and the industry itself that I might go over sometime. I realize I've covered some of this before, but hopefully experience will yield a better end product.
I see Talk Strategy as a steadily growing community where gamers come to share their war stories. We'll have discussions ranging from the gaming industry to mods to build orders to military history. Friendships and rivalries will be formed here. Tall tales will be spread, and legendary games and gaming sessions will be recalled.
The Forum will always the heart of this place. There will always be an interesting discussion going on. It may become a bit of a clique, but fun loving gamers will always be welcomed. Most stories will start there. Feedback will be given, strategies refined, words smithed and every once in a while a thread of gold will be woven. Some people might even call it their home on the internet.
The news section will never be trying to compete with the major gaming news outlets. It will be a place for a quick recap of the strategy and tactical gaming scene. You can see what games are announced, what's gold and what's hitting stores. Hopefully, it will become more customizable and useful for each user. Maybe eventually we'll have the room and bandwidth for movies and demos, but we'll always try to have some interesting links and screenshots for strategists to peruse.
I know I tend to use the movies as examples and inspiration a lot around here, but for my vision of the site, I'd like to borrow from television. I'd like this place to be your "Cheers." Small, familiar and everyone knows your name. It's not the only place you go on the internet; it's just the one you keep coming back to. As always, your thoughts, input and criticism are welcome.
Jason
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19 Oct 05
Wow, the Astros did it. It hasn't really sunk in yet. It was a good game that showed how Houston wins ball games. Roy Oswalt had control of his fast ball. Pujols stepped to the plate in the first inning with all the momentum in the world behind. The sound of his massive home run was still ringing in the rafters of Minute Maid Park. Mere moments later he was struggling to keep from falling down after being unable to check his swing on a nasty Oswalt pitch. Mighty Casey had struck out. Sure it was early, but that set the tone for the game.
That's the difference between real sports and sports games. Momentum is everything in the real world. Attitude can win a game. Players can win on guts and will alone. All the individuals involved combine to write the story of the game. When a shortstop reacts on instinct at the start of the swing of the bat, goes down on one knee for a half dive, pops up and guns the ball to first just in time for the out, that play is more than a simple force out at first. It's demoralizing for one side and uplifting for the other. Games capture the mechanics without the drama.
There's a reason this place is devoted to strategy and tactical games. That's because those are the games where momentum and drama come into play. They're where stories are created. Surprising moment jump out of nowhere. It makes victory that much sweeter and defeat that much more bearable. It's not about the Terrans defeating the Zerg or the MEC defeating the Chinese. It's about you creating a unique experience in a dynamic game world. Every once in a while you'll find one that you'll remember for a long time. Maybe you'll even tell people about it. That's why this place is here.
Congratulations to the Houston Astros of 2005, the National League Champions. Regardless of what happens, they'll have that banner. World Series, welcome to Texas.
Jason
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18 Oct 05
I wonder if gamers are like Houston Astros fans. The Astros almost won the National League championship last night. Now everyone is convinced that they've lost it all. Houston has been burned by a series of post season failures (some even in other sports). It's hard to keep getting your hopes dashed like that.
You see that in gamers too. If you're a regular on a message board (I mean an active one, not like here), you've seen people full of enthusiasm for gaming turn into jaded gamers. You can't keep believing in the overly rosy previews then get bogged down in the actual gaming product and not feel it.
I written before about how games in development are in such a nebulous state that each person looking at it fill in the details with what they hope it will be. Clearly not everyone can be right. Most are disappointed. The truth is the game of your dreams probably isn't just around the corner. That doesn't mean some very good games aren't.
My rule of thumb is not to get too invested in a game early in development. I tend to check out only early coverage (to see if I'm interested), and then I check out near final coverage to see what game they're actually delivering. Then I try to wait for reviews no matter how interested I am. I'd rather be disappointed with a poor review score than with a game that's not worth my time or money.
The advantage of coming in late is that I can spend that excitement better. If I fall for a game, I can spread the word and work to make sure it doesn't get overlooked. To me that's a better investment.
To bring this back around to the Astros. I didn't write them off when they were 15 games under .500. I really didn't care that much then. Once they turned it around and started to fight and show heart, I started rooting for them. They proved they were a great team and a great bunch of guys. Guess what? Win or lose, they still are a great team and a great bunch of guys. They're worth cheering for.
Jason
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17 Oct 05
It's getting late and I'm a bit down after the Astros failure in the ninth. I hate to second guess, but Lidge wasn't in top control and seemed over excited. I'm not sure you can let him pitch to the Cardinals best hitter with two outs and a base available. Sure it would take a lot of guts to make that call, but the worst case scenario wasn't much worse than what happened. Oh well, I guess we owed them one since we almost stole the last two. Hopefully, the 'stros don't fall apart in St. Louis again.
On the bright side, EA is actually making a sports strategy game. You can see the press release over in the news section. It's working title is NFL head coach. It's unclear how it will play, but from the description, it sounds like you might be sitting on the sidelines of a Madden game making the play calls. It's a bold move, and I respect that.
I just hope they don't use too much from Madden. AI could really make or break that game. If they use the play calling engine from Madden, I think they'll be in trouble. There's a reason that Madden is so much better against another person, and it's not running 25 yards back and throwing a bomb for a touchdown. For the game to work, the opposing coaching has to feel like their real life counterparts, and the players have to perform like theirs for both good and bad. The trade AI is equally important.
Taking that step back from total control over the game, will make coaching decisions more important, but it will also expose all the engine flaws to a greater extent. It will be interesting to see how they overcome those hurtles. Right now I'll be cautiously optimistic. After all, NFL Street surprised me with some fun and wild (and unexpected gameplay). If they can succeed turning the slider to action, they might be able to pull off turn it to strategy. Fortunately, we'll know soon enough (next spring if they hit their schedule).
Jason
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