Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim Review: In All Its Glory

Many moons ago, a small developer by the name of Cyberlore studios created an innovation to the RTS genre; instead of a game where you controlled units that will follow your order without question, you played a role of someone who would, sometimes, influence their actions. The original “Majesty” was set in a stereotypical fantasy setting, where you took on the role of a King, and your job was to make a prospectus kingdom by establishing hero guilds, guard towers, and other necessities to keep your heroes strong, your peasants happy, and your treasury full. Now comes “Majesty 2,” developed by 1C, and published by Paradox, which sticks to the same formula after so many years of “Majesty”’s absence. [Continue Reading]

Swords and Soldiers Review: de Blob’s Creators Make An RTS

Every now and then a WiiWare game comes out and catches people off-guard, because really, who’s expecting something good from that platform? (Certainly not Nintendo, who neglected to mention anything about it at this year’s E3 press conference, and barely even showcased it at their booth.) However, after making your way through a lot of the shovelware that has found its way to Nintendo’s downloadable service, there are some gems, the latest of which is Romino Games’ “Swords and Soldiers.”

Developed by the same team that brought the world “de Blob,” “Swords and Soldiers” is unlike anything else that’s available on the Wii – it’s an accessible (it’s a good word here) real-time strategy game that takes out all the complexity of the genre, but leaves in all the fun. Throughout the course of the game you play as three different factions all with goals they need to accomplish (most of which involve food) and you have a wealth of units, attacks, and spells to help you accomplish them. It’s a familiar genre for gamers that have been around for a while, but since it is usually fairly complex, has scared away many potential newcomers over the years; “Swords and Soldiers” will do a good job of bringing them back. [Continue Reading]

Stalin vs. Martians Review: The Martians Win

The concept of throwing historical figures into video games and thrusting them into oddball plots isn’t new. You can go as far back as “Wolfenstein 3D” which stared the world’s least favorite antisemite, Adolf Hitler, and it was a great game; despite it’s rather questionable theme, it still sold well. “Stalin vs. Martians” tweaks that same, basic, idea by throwing another historically famous genocidal maniac into a plot involving an alien invasion on his turf. From the start, it sounds like a decently stupid idea that has the potential to be a good game, and it would work even better as a Real Time Strategy game. However, after playing a hours of protecting Stalin’s motherland against aliens, using the National Anthem to inspire my tanks, and using the K.G.B., I can say that this is perhaps the worst RTS game I have ever played. If anything, this game should only be used in a game design school to demonstrate how not to design a RTS game. [Continue Reading]

BattleForge Beta Preview: Playing With A Stacked Deck

“BattleForge” is an upcoming online RTS game by German based development studio EA Phenomic. The concept behind the title is a mix between the ever popular collectible card games (CCG) and real time strategy games (RTS). With your custom deck of cards, your goal is to kick a lot of ass by unleashing spells, creating structures, and summoning creatures onto the field.

One of the things that “BattleForge” has over most online exclusive games is that it comes in a variety of flavors in order to suit different players. There is a single player campaign where you trek through a storyline, a two-player co-operative scenario, a four-player co-operative scenario, and the usual Player versus Player unranked/ranked matches. As you play more and more, you’ll gain “loot” cards which can be used to either expand your current roster of spells, creatures, and buildings, or upgrade your current deck. [Continue Reading]

Tom Clancy’s EndWar Review: Voices Of The Battlefield

Once in a while, a game comes along that changes people minds’ about an entire genre of gaming, and, when that happens, it really speaks to the quality of the game. Few titles in the past have been so expertly crafted, with such a broad appeal, that they have actually convinced gamers to make the jump into unknown territory. In recent memory; “Advance Wars” showed gamers that turn-based strategy games were as addictive as they were complex, and “Guitar Hero” proved that rhythm games can be more than just dancing on a mat. Over the last few years, these games have not only defined their respective genres, but they’ve refined gaming as a whole. There’s now another title worthy of adding to that list, “Tom Clancy’s EndWar.”

“EndWar” takes the normally very complex, very niche genre of real-time strategy games and actually makes it accessible for your standard gamer – make that standard console games. Fortunately, Ubisoft Shanghai’s definition of accessible doesn’t mean dumbing the game down, or making it easier just to sell more copies. Their way of making the game accessible actually makes the concept, gameplay, and controls of the game less intimidating, while still retaining the crux of the RTS experience. In other words, “EndWar”’s appeal is unique enough that it should cross the line and appeal to gamers that have never before tried an RTS game, as well as longtime fans of the genre.

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Phat Intros: Warhammer Online

For this entry we bring you the hot new cinematic trailer for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. In it we see some sick animation,detail, special effects and what not. Whether you like fantasy or not, it’s hard to dislike the level of quality burst from this trailer. And this is one of the main reasons i love cg animation! I’d like to know why the hell don’t we have movies like these coming out every now and then? Instead we get animal adventures in space,cities, jungles and so on. People will pay to see stuff like this! i for sure know i would. Peep the sick ass trailer below.

Unit out…