The Gaming Grid

First off, I never thought the Halo series was all that great. Well to the extent most people give it. I have however played and beaten all of them so far. Until now that is. I reserved Halo Wars in the thought that others will grab this and I will have someone to play with. Now this is the odd thing. That stops me from buying most games, so I really don’t know why I got this game. I know it has co-op but I don’t really know if I will play with friends or if I’ll be forced to play with some dick online.

Turns out that most of the people I know did not pick this game up, and there are good reasons for this. Normally I don’t like to give a review on something until I finish the game, but its just killing me. This game is not really that hard, in fact its to easy. Most RTS the units just do straight damage, in this game its a rock, paper, scissors match. The biggest problem is that you are a rock and they are always scissors, and you have a big rock. The funny thing is all you have to do is make marines. That’s it. just run around with them and kill everything. I have found my only reason to have vehicles is if they give them to me.

I also think the controls are not intuitive for this platform. This really just needed to be a PC release. To select units you can select al, select local, or use the painter. 90% of the time you will move some units one way and then select all units by accident and mess up your whole plan. I have found that if I just bunch them all up into a large mobile horde, they kill faster and its less frustrating. The game has programed events that no matter what you do, X will happen. I thought we got past that point 5 years ago. This game has taken the genre back to the original command and conquer, which in my opinion is a better game.

If them made the interface more like End Wars it would have been a better game. It did not even need the voice command, just the general controler layout and level layout. I think I will eventually beat this game, but I just don’t really want to play it. Maybe ill go play some Gears of War 2, they have a new DLC at the end of the month. I will also write a second look when I beat the game. Who knows maybe it will grow on me.

One of my favorite game series is command and conquer.  I love that series with a passion. When the series was young I was always telling my friend how it would be cool if they would do a first person shooter of the game. Now at that time, 3D graphics were not that great. While still very playable quake style graphics for command and conquer would not do it justice.

Dave would always tell me how enemies would just look like blobs running around. After 3D graphics evovled a little more, and so did the series. EA produced Command and Conquer: Renegade. This little gem was a lot of fun. This took place durning the first command and conquer game. You played the commando Nick ‘Havok’ Parker. He was the son to the general that gave you missions information in the game.

Running around in the C&C univers, blowing up tanks, bad guys, and buildings was very fun and rewarding. You always wonderd when sending in the commando to blow up a building what he had to do, to get it to blow. Now you know, and since then, you kind of wander why they did not release another FPS similar to the first. “There was another” This game was Tiberium. Now this did have a full spread last year in a gaming mag.

It turns out that they did finally scrap the game, but only because they report that it is not meeting quality standards for that franchise. While that doesnt say much, it is possible that they could decide to pick that project back up. In the trailer, you see walkers and solders similar to was was in command and conquer 2. Now that C&C 3, and RA3 has come out, and did well for themselves they might want to try a FPS again. Lord knows ill play it.

It is nice though, that reading what little they do have on it, that EA does have some quality standards now. We all know that in the past, EA would just pump out anything that they though had a heart beat. I liked Need for speed underground, but do we need 4 billion of them. Lately with these games, they have been putting out better stuff. I think that’s where this game landed, and they wanted to make sure that it would keep up with the others.

I say, don’t throw it completely away yet EA, keep it on the back burner.
I mean this doesn’t look that bad at all, but flashy renders does not mean the game play is good.

I was feeling a little nostalgic this morning for some reason. Not sure why, but I was thinking of the very first Insert Coin Live. Not the one that Dave and I put up on the old feed, but the one Adam, Paul, and I did.
We had a lot of fun, and a lot of laughs at my expense for not being able to talk at 2am in the morning.

We recorded that discussion at Gencon in 2007. That year, we saw what was to be in the upcoming year for some really cool games. I got to play Crysis, and watch starcraft II and Age of Conan. There were a few interviews with game developers that did not get released, because they really don’t say anything half the time.

But later we were sitting around talking about Starcraft II. This got me to thinking about what has blizzard be doing. Sometimes you wonder if they know what they are doing. Thankfully they put out good games, but it seems that their marking department and development team are not in the same solar system. Your probably thinking, Phil what are you talking about?

Well since I dont have any D list celebrities or funny people, I cant do it in the VH1 we love the 80’s fashion. What I can do is just spit the skinny. YO!

First lets take a look at a little game that was supposed to be the next line in the Warcraft series. This runt of the little had X’s covering its eyes before development. This bugger is Warcraft Adventures. where you were to play the young war chief Thrall. That is odd, wasn’t Thrall a major character in Warcraft III. I also recall that he is the big cheese in Ogramar. So why would a game about him becoming what his is now, not make the shelf.

Well the first cures is the game was made to be a point and click adventure game. The art style is very similar to what Kings quest 5 was. Now personally I really like PnC adventure games, but possibly doing this would have been the death knell of the Warcraft series. Then the world would not have been blessed/cursed with World of Warcraft.

I have recently seen a few point and click adventure games resurface, but that genre is really just limping along. looking back at when this was to come out, that genre was DoA, and would not have been the game to release. I wasnt the biggest fan of Warcraft III but it probably was the better game. I think its odd that that blizzard had Magazine adds, and the game pretty much ready to go, but then didn’t release.

Now, it would have been understandable if they were only at concept phase and then decided to release or maybe just in the infancy stage of development. This lame duck was ready to go out to the world. but this would not be the last time blizzard would do this. Oh no there is more. but first enjoy the trailer for Warcraft Adventures.

Now that we have just seen the first ghost of blizzards past. Lets take a look at another Ghost. You see what I did there? I spent all night thinking of that one. This would be StarCraft Ghost. Now more people are probably familiar with this little gem that was never unearthed, but one of the questions is would the game genre change have also killed the series?

Looking further into this, it was supposed to be out in 2003. It was pushed off the again and again in until 2005. This is when it seemed to get the final axe to the neck. Now looking at other things, they had a full trailer with game play ready and had aired it. looking further, I found that they also had a full intro cinematic. I’m pretty sure with the quality and time that they had put into it, the they spent a pretty penny.

Also looking at the other, advertisements and media spending, this was not a cheap death. One does wonder if they might have it currently on the back burner. Could Ghost get a graphics upgrade and mechanic over haul? Could they just tease us even more? Yes, Yes they will. If you look at pictures from Blizcon. You will see the model dressed up as her for the con. They haven’t forgotten about it, but they will taunt you with it.

Now with that being said, not much is know how far in the development Ghost was. Knowing the marketing people in the game industry though, it was probably ramped up, and said they could have it out early. But I know that the local gamestops were selling pre-orders for the game. That also isnt saying much, cause they would sell you pre-orders to the second coming if they could. Here is a little taste of what could have been.

Here is a the commercial with game play footage, it seems this might have been an early stages, but its have the voice of Optimus Prime on here, so it can’t be half bad.

As a video gamer, I think I represent a good niche market: I don’t care about your multiplayer games. The popularization of Xbox Live to the console gaming market doesn’t interest me; I’d much rather play a solid single-player game on the computer than spend the hours on Halo 3.

Multiplayer games have cornered the market and changed the direction that game development has taken over the last couple years, there’s no doubt. I was waiting for the day, when my favorite single player franchise, Command and Conquer was affected like the rest of the market. Considering their production company is EA, I expected the change much sooner than it had actually happened.

Red Alert 3, the latest installment of the franchise, has finally ticked over this milestone in my mind. (I am, of course, excepting C&C: Renegade - that’s not C&C. I demand my top down strategy.)

This was the first of the top-down-strategy series that I could definitely say didn’t feel like it’s predecessors. The classic C&C staples are there: resource gathering, saucy commandos, and ridiculous super weaponry. But instead of rehashing what makes a great C&C game, (which I may do at some point), I think we should focus on what’s changed in the franchise.

Production values: through the roof. The video cut scenes are chock full of some pretty big Hollywood names. EA has sure figured out that Jenny McCarthy is the perfect sell to the gaming dork who is playing a computer game in a dark room at 3 in the morning. Though, to be honest, I preferred Eva to Tanya. Just sayin’.

Speed and Efficiency: I don’t know what changed, though I suspect that the Empire Earth RTS engine was used instead of whatever Westwood was developing, but the game plays more smoothly than Tiberium Wars, the previous game in the series.

Plot: It’s a C&C game. It didn’t have Kane, which was a strike against it, but it was pretty good otherwise. I like that the game knows that it’s just for fun and doesn’t try and take itself too seriously.

Gameplay: This is where the biggest changes took place. Instead of being the lone commander in your missions, you now always have a co-commander. The AI usually controls these units, and it does so with a big lack of the usual awful AI decisions.

Okay, the co-commander gimmick was cool for the first couple missions, but didn’t really impress me. Until Phil told me that you can play co-operatively through every single mission in the game. Phil and I loaded up one of the Japanese missions on Sunday. And, I can say, pretty definitively, that it is as cool as it sounds.

So, bottom line: If you’re a fan of the Command & Conquer series, you’ll enjoy the game. The first couple missions you play will have you thinking that this isn’t the game you remember - and you’ll be completely right.

But change is good when it’s progress.

In the beginning there was Einstein, and he created a time machine, and it was good. He went back in time to take Hitler out of the time line, and Hell march was born, and it was good. Then Tim Curry went back in time to remove Einstein from time, and George Takie, became Emperor of the Rising Sun, and it is Glorious.

If you have ever played any of the command and conquer series, you will know the general idea of how to play the game, improvements on game play and the AI has evolved over time. Also the graphics have improved since it has gone from Westwood studios to EA.

After a long awesome teen years spending time installing and setting up dial-up connection to play with your friend, on snow days, I wondered would the EA giant only destroy this franchise of a game. I know that the first few, after EA were ok, but did not have the same kick that Westwood had.

EA’s big thing was to bring 3D to the game it seemed, and I wondered if it was really needed in a RTS. With Generals it was a really poor job and seemed that they might just kill this off after all. With C&C 3 however, it was great that they got back to the real fell of the game. Things were in 3D but the effects mostly came from the explosions and other unit abilities, so it was a great blend to the game.

With this game, there was a great reason to have the up to date graphics, they really change a lot of the unit mechanics and listened to what the players wanted form the other games. The first main thing is that all units have some secondary ability. With this present the idea was that you would go from an intense air battle to a furious fire fight on the ground or ride the waves of glory on the seas.

They really made the three levels of battle very distinct and wanting to do all of them. With some armies having a large group of amphibious units you could stroll with ease from one to the other. With units having multiple attack or defensive abilities there is a great balance to the game no matter what side you play.

In command and conquer 3 it felt very lopsided of a game due to some units being crazy powerful. With this game if your group needs more air protection, just switch up the units. The great thing is the mechanic is needed in battle, and not just some last minute idea they had. It really shows and makes for some great moments in the game.

With Co-Op being in most games now, they have also implemented that in this game as well. You can play through the standard campaign with a buddy; if you don’t it will have an AI co-commander play with you. These commanders are pretty reliable on all difficulties, but they are not perfect yet. Sometimes they will get stuck doing a mission objective, and you must assist them.

That is why they put in a command panel, where you can tell them to do something specific. This is a great feature because you can plan with ease a two prong attack, and have the computer handle the other units. There are other improvements that have been made that also help with the over all experience.

You can now build next to you allies base, without needing to have a construction yard there. Also you can build buildings on water, along with defensive structures. Now that I have either bored you with the guts of this game or you’re no longer reading this because your going to get it for yourself, let me tell you about the last little jewel.

They stayed with the standard Live Action cinematic in between missions and also for new orders on longer missions. They bring you that further into the game itself. Also the chatter between some of your units and co-commanders is priceless. Now with all that said, this game is not perfect it does have some flaws, but they are so few and far between that a simple patch will take care of them, they are nothing that would take enough away from the game play that you will stop playing.

This game delivers and EA got the look and feel of the Red Alert series down. Can they do it again? If you have the spare cash, and you are a fan of real time strategy games, do yourself a favor and get
this game.