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20 Jan 06
You probably noticed the big news today that Medieval: Total War 2 was announced. I added the handful of screenshots to the gallery. Speaking of the gallery, I added two new Sins of a Solar Empire exclusive screenshots plus a high resolution gallery. Give the big images some time to load.
My last birthday present arrived today. It's a copy of Guitar Hero. I guess that means that I'm officially among those about to rock. I'll keep you posted.
The thing I regret most (site related) about last year was the lack of community growth. I'd love to see the forum alive and stories being submitted all the time. Heck I'd settle for a few good multiplayer matches being set up and a game discussion or two. Despite that, last year was a good growth year for Talk Strategy. We went from around 35,000 visitors the year before to over 80,000 in 2005. We went from 95,000 page views to a quarter million. Sure, in internet terms that's still a small site, but to me it's amazing. Something to consider, the surprising number of page views in the Games section means that despite all the effort I put into the news section, people actually seem to enjoy reading the stories the most. That makes me happy. There's a reason this place is called Talk Strategy instead of Another Generic Strategy Gaming Site. Once the community reaches critical mass, I'll be a very happy web guy. Thanks to everyone for their support.
Don't forget to get your additions to the Talk Strategy Game of the Year nominations list. Have a great weekend.
Jason
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19 Jan 06
I had planned to pare down the list to a small size before posting, but then I realized that the point of discussion wasn't just to add games that had been overlooked, but to remove games that don't belong. But remember if you want to add any games to this list get me the names by Monday. Feel free to use email, comments or the forum.
I'm going to keep the descriptions very short so as not to overly taint the discussion. Off we go (in no particular order):
Battlefield 2 - Team based cooperative online shooter. Three factions, multiple kits, weapons and vehicles.
The Movies - Tycoon game plus a machinima tool kit all in one. It's impact might be bigger than pure gameplay.
Age of Empires III - Huge graphical upgrade along with tweaks to the proven gameplay. It added cards as well.
Civilization IV - Surprising deep and well layered turn based strategy game where you can conquer the world through might, culture, or war.
Shattered Union - Simple and elegant gameplay in a turn based war game set in the modern USA. It also appeared on the Xbox.
Dragonshard - A real love it or hate it game that combined real time strategy and roleplaying in a new way.
Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion - More Rome with some new and tougher challenges. Expansion pack.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Winter Assault - More Warhammer 40k with more campaign missions and a new faction, the defensive oriented Imperial Guard.
Empire Earth II - An ambitious game that tries to do a little of everything taking you through recorded time and into the future.
Act of War: Direct Action - It's a well made RTS that takes place in the modern world fighting terrorists.
Darwinia - It's a unique retro/futuristic that actually makes you care about the little pixels you're trying to save.
Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome - It's a strategy RPG with deep combat and wacky characters. Of course, it's only on the PS2.
Kessen III - Real time strategy wargame on a console? It's a rethinking of the genre, but it works pretty well.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms X - A turn based wargame and RPG that let's you build your empire from a lone officer to the emperor of all China.
Battalion Wars - A cartoony tactical war action game that has you directly controlling the action from the battlefield, and it's only on the Gamecube? Are you kidding? No, I'm not.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - It's a Gamecube strategy RPG with permadeath for your characters. Yet it's still deep and fun.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory - Stealth action, check. Cooperative play, check. Adversarial team multiplayer, check. Cool Splinter Cell gadgets, check. Multiplatform, check.
Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood - a World War II tactical shooter that actually plays like a tactical shooter and not a shooting gallery. It has cooperative and adversarial online play as well.
Dai Senryaku VII: Modern Military Tactics - It's a deep, kind of ugly hex based, turn based modern warfare game, and it's on the Xbox.
Phantom Dust - Is it an action game with a strategy meta game or a strategy/tactical game with a lot of action? Either way, it's a striking game.
SWAT 4 - It's a realistic tactical shooter set in a modern city. You're not supposed to kill everyone, but you can taser belligerents. Don't forget the cooperative play.
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident - Tactical space combat with an interesting story driving it. Where did this come from?
There you have it. That's what we're starting from. Remember to get any additions in by Monday. I have to say looking at that list 2005 was a pretty good gaming year. I'm looking forward to your feedback.
Jason
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18 Jan 06
I was going to do a demo review of Star Wars: Empire at War, but it took forever to download as the servers got hammered. Then I was busy setting up a testing site. I realize that's not too sexy, but it gives me more flexibility. I can test new features, themes and software there without endangering the main site. Speaking of problems, if anyone had problems with the news section this afternoon, I apologize. That had nothing to do with my work. The web host was doing something with either the PHP or database that was causing the delays. Sorry about that. It seems to be fixed now. If anyone notices it again, please drop me an email. I can usually get it taken care of quickly, but if I'm not working on that part of the site, I might not notice.
We have hardly received any Talk Strategy game of the year nominations. Tomorrow, I'm going to put up the list of worthy games. You'll have until Monday to get me any additional nominations. We'll have discussion for a week on the nominees. Then voting will open up on the sites two year anniversary (the 28th). Voting will probably end on the 9th of February. The winner will be crowned the 10th. Then we'll announce the anniversary contest prizes. Of course, the anniversary contest will open on the same day as voting. We'll probably use the same story submission format as last year, but as per usual, I'm open to suggestions.
I just have a couple of links for you today. First, Wired has an good article on suddenly losing interest in a game. I'm not sure I agree with all of it, but check it out Here. Finally, there's a very interesting article on Game Quest Direct from Siliconera. It describes how they went from a gaming store to a rare game publisher. I found it interesting that they were labeled both saviors and threats. Read it Here.
Jason
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17 Jan 06
I had wanted to do a demo review for you on Tycoon City: New York. It's from the makers of Monopoly Tycoon and has you trying to make a better New York. It was a good plan, but it didn't come together. It installed with no problems, but once I tried to run it I was informed that my system didn't meet the minimum specs. Ouch. Yes, I'm planning on a new rig this year, but you don't have to rub it in. Anyway it was willing to try to run, but it immediately crashed upon starting the tutorial. So that's a game that's going to wait for the new rig.
Instead I'll give you a demo review of the game of the week. It's Oasis (official site) from Mind Control Software. Surprisingly, Oasis is a fast paced turn based strategy game. If you just glanced at it, you'd probably guess it's a puzzle game. It does sort of remind you of something from Popcap games, but instead of a fiendish puzzle. You get an equally addicting strategy game. Your ultimate goal is to fight off the barbarian horde that will attack at when you run out of turns. But along the way you have to find your cities, gather your people, build roads, research technology, find the oasis and obelisk, find the rock cairn indicating where the barbarians will attack from and store up enough magic in case all else fails. Amazingly you do all that by wandering through the desert. Each map can be played in a few minutes so you end up balancing those things in your head very quickly. Luck can play a part especially with limited turns, but for the most part making the right decisions will win the battle. The demo is time limited, but it's a quick download. The graphics won't wow you, but hey, we're strategy gamers. The demo is highly recommended. You'll probably have a good time even if you don't decide to buy the game.
Jason
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16 Jan 06
Well, if you didn't notice it, we upgraded the site over the weekend. If you didn't, that's probably good meaning I didn't screw anything up so badly that people noticed. Now Talk Strategy has more room and bandwidth. We'll be looking to add more movies, demos, bonus packs and high resolution screenshots. You may have noticed that downloads section is now restricted to registered users. We're not here to compete with any of the big download sites. We just want our users to have quick and convenient downloads. If you're not interested in this place enough to go through a free registration process, there are plenty of bigger and better places to find your downloads.
I have some other plans to improve this place. I don't know if they'll all work out, but keep an eye out for changes. You may even see some visual changes around here. Thoughts and comments are always appreciated. Also, as usual, if anyone would like to help out around here, let me know. Thanks for all the support and encouragement.
Jason
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