Command & Conquer - free!
The ol' classic Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun (+ Expansion), and C&C: Red Alert are now available for free, to help promote the release of Command & Conquer 4.

Command & Conquer - Classics

It took me a while to realize "Tiberian Dawn" was actually the original C&C. I am so old-school. Back then we knew it as, "The unofficial sequel to Dune 2." Yeah, they aren't harvesting spice on Arakis, you were harvesting tiberium or whatever-it-was-called on Earth... But yeah. It's perhaps not THE great-grandaddy of RTS's, but it's definitely one of the classics that spawned the genre.

(Tangent: my first RTS game was the much-forgotten MindCraft game, "Siege.")

I spent a few very late nights back in the day playing the first one, but never played the other two. Should be fun!

Labels: Free Games, retro, strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:01 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Strategy Games Are My Bane
I love RPGs. If that's a secret to anybody reading this, then welcome to the blog!

But as embarrassing as it is to realize how much time has actually passed when I'm playing an enthralling RPG, there is a deadlier poison to me. It is the turn-based strategy game. I seriously have to deliberately eschew these things whenever I want to get something done. Games like Civilization, X-Com, Galactic Civilizations, Master of Orion (well, the first two), Slay, Panzer General Allied Assault, and several other indie and mainstream titles have consumed untold months of my life. I am the poster child for the "just one more turn" self-delusion that afflicts those who play these games.

I've harbored this little feeling of guilt for years about calling myself a true PC gamer, because I never played the Heroes of Might & Magic series. Not even one. I took a step to remedy that over the holidays, picking up Heroes of Might & Magic 3 Complete for peanuts at the sale at GOG.COM.

In case you've dwelt in the same cave I have - HOMM is a strategy game where you control a fantasy kingdom. You recruit heroes - who can advance levels just like an RPG - and troops for them to control. And you go around the world whopping on monstrous independent forces, gathering treasure (resources), artifacts, and hero-boosting powers, and most importantly kicking the butt of your competing kingdoms who are doing the same.

I can't help but think it might have been one of the inspirations for the indie game Empires & Dungeons. Which also sucked me in for quite some time, as simple (and mercifully short-campaigned) as it is.

The combat reminds me a lot of the first Master of Orion game. With the stacks of ships of similar type jockeying around a combat screen.

I haven't played HOMM3 much. I still suck at it. And apparently, I have a problem limiting myself to just playing it for twenty minutes as a reward for completing tasks.

I think I need to code up some kind of game alarm clock that runs in the background that gives a ten minute warning, five minute warning, one minute warning, and then starts bug me to end my game when my time is up. Complete with a snooze button. That'd be cool.

Except I'd hate it.

Labels: strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:59 AM (Permalink) 15 comments links to this post

 
Telepath Psy Arena 2 Now Available At Rampant Games
I got to spend a lot of time this weekend playing some new indie games that have just been released. Yeah, it's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.

The third of the trio of games that acted like vampires with a thirst for my spare time was Telepath Psy Arena 2. This is a turn-based tactics game dipped in some heavy RPG-style elements. Still, I'm calling it a strategy game rather than an RPG for the purpose of categorization. But if you are a turn-based RPG fan, you should give this one a look.

Telepath Psy Arena 1 is a free flash game available at the Sinister Design website. The sequel is a premium title, and really expands on the basic gameplay of the original. In particular, it's added a persistent team and campaign and some RPG elements to the core tactical-arena game.

You now manage a team that can level up between battles. You can trade them out or replace fallen members at the "meat market." The early battles are almost trivial (if you have a full team), but ramp up in difficulty such that you will need a team of complimentary, leveled-up veterans and some skilled play to win. There are eighty hand-created battles to participate in, so it will keep you busy for a wile.

There is no randomness in the mechanics or hidden surprises in this game (so far as I've seen) - like a game of Chess or Go (or Slay, for that matter). Combatants always hit their targets, always doing the same amount of damage. It's a game of pure tactical choices, not risk management.

Craig Stern, the guy who is Sinister Design, was also the author of the bizzarro side-scrolling RPG-in-a-weekend project "Ham Sandwich RPG."

Since Telepath Psy Arena 2 may appeal to strategy-RPG fans, I've made it available at Rampant Games. You can check it out here. The free demo includes a very liberal helping of levels for your enjoyment:

Try Telepath Psy Arena 2

Whew.

You guys gave fun!

Labels: Game Announcements, strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:31 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Master of Orion's Love Child
In the last few weeks, a few people have expressed to me their lament over the death of the Master of Orion series, and mused over whether anybody else would ever pick up that torch, or if the franchise would be revived. Now, I have zero information to answer the second question. But jussincase you hadn't heard my opinion on this ( offered absolutely free, and guaranteed to be worth every penny), I have a very definitive answer to the first one: It's already been done, and it rawks. And it's been done by a (bigger budget) indie. It's not new, but the last expansion came out just last year.

Just so ya know I am as happy to pimp other people's games that I don't see a dime from as the ones I sell on my website, here's my gushing about Galactic Civilizations 2 (plus the expansions). It also means that I get to turn the hours I lost playing recently into a blog post, to make up for my lack of productivity.

I have made the mistake of trying to play a couple of "quick" games of Galactic Civilizations 2 again recently. You know, to relax. I play it exclusively now with both expansions - Dark Avatar and Twilight of the Arnor. They add so much to the game I don't know if I could go back (in fact, I have only played the "raw" Gal Civ 2 once, as I originally purchased it with the Dark Avatar expansion). Just so ya know, when I'm talking about Galactic Civilizations 2 here, I'm referring to the "complete" game with both of the expansions.

Playing these kinds of games is pretty much falling off the wagon for me. I tell myself a quick game can't hurt, and that I can only play for an hour, but I'll just play a few short sessions over the course of several days. Sure. I can stop whenever I want...

Okay, I did manage to stop and get things done, but my "quick" sessions went about three times longer than I intended. Gal Civ 2 is one of the worst of these drugs for me. The game distorts the time-space continuum around itself, where an hour passes in the blink of an eye. It's an evil game. And it is, in my opinion, the true heir to the legacy left by Master of Orion and Master of Orion 2: Battle at Antares. (MOO 3, lest anybody forget, was a horrible travesty committed on the franchise.)

The biggest difference in Gal Civ 2 from the first two MOO games is the lack of tactical combat. Once combat is joined in Galactic Civilizations 2, your only interaction is to change how you view the battle (change the speed, skip it entirely, and change camera angles). The space battles in the Master of Orion games ranged from "abstract but playable" to "somewhat realistic and tedious as hell."

Another thing that is missing is multiplayer. But considering that we were never able to play a single game of Master of Orion 2 on a LAN to completion, I don't consider this a big loss. There is an online scoreboard that offers a token multiplayer competitive aspect, but that doesn't really count.

The two expansions pack the game really, REALLY full of amazing details and possibilities. Besides adding new stand-alone campaigns (with surprisingly interesting storylines for a strategy game) and new races, plus some editing tools for modders that I haven't even touched, they really pushed the gameplay to new levels of depth that none of the Master of Orion games even touched. I'm still discovering tricks and nuances after several long games.

Espionage is way over the top. While you may not be able to win a campaign directly through espionage alone, you can both learn all of the enemy's secrets and cripple their planets through sabotage very directly. Diplomacy is handled extremely well in this game. It, too, is a rich mini-game that has layers of subtlety and opportunities to bend the galaxy to your will. At higher difficulty levels, its absolutely critical to survival.

The ship editor obviously took a lot of effort. You can build the appearance of your vessels through sort of a Lego-style connection of modules, and add the actual functional modules (like weapons, defenses, sensors, and other devices) the same way.

Unfortunately, military technology isn't as open-ended as it was in the MOO games, mostly because of the lack of tactical combat. Combat is more about playing the numbers in Gal Civ 2 than tactical application of a nasty new tech that spoils your opponent's advantage. However, with the Twilight of the Arnor expansion, they've made up for it by giving each race a unique tech tree with tons of race-specific technologies (which can be traded / stolen by other races, but not researched on their own). And there are now bonus modules which can be outfitted to ships which enhance the ability of their entire fleet.

Another fascinating aspect to the game is the sheer number of ways to *win* it. Besides conquering the galaxy by force, you can win a complete cultural victory through your powerful influence (which may also get planets to defect to your side in the middle of the game). Then there's the technological victory, where you are able to evolve beyond the the physical universe. If nobody is left standing except your allies, you can win an allied victory. Finally, there's the new "ascension" victory, explored in the Twilight of the Arnor, which is theoretically another "peaceful" victory condition - sort of an accumulated victory point condition which leads to immortality. I say it's theoretically "peaceful" as any race getting close to Ascending is very likely to become a target - and the weak, underpowered starbases around ascension crystals are going to be the first casualties.

Added to this are the politics (and technologies) of ethical outlooks, undefended and quick-to-defect asteroid mining, extremely useful starbase placement, exploration of galactic anomalies, random events, custom race creation, "minor" races that are an influence on the game without being a competitor, really solid AI, new "Terror Stars" that can just plain wipe out planets that you don't feel like invading (hmm, where'd they get THAT idea?), deep tech trees, and the potential to play in absolutely ginormous galaxies.

So I guess I can finally get rid of that Master of Orion 2 disc now...

Labels: strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:38 AM (Permalink) 4 comments links to this post

 
Wow - An Outpost Kaloki Review
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to review sites again - Jay Is Games has reviewed Outpost Kaloki.

Jay Is Games: Outpost Kaloki review

An excerpt: "Outpost Kaloki may be four years old, but it is by no means ready to be put out to pasture yet. The gameplay is solid, and the difficulty curve feels about right. The game never really seems to change much from one level to the next, but the setup, graphics, and goals are different enough to make each level as enjoyable as the previous one."

Curious? That's my mercenary ulterior motive. You can check out Outpost Kaloki here. Or you can try out NinjaBee's newer tactics strategy game, Band of Bugs, here. The demos are free, and the games are cheap. And hey, I'm in the credits - I think. In the "Special Thanks" category, if I recall. Yeah, that was me. I think I paid for half the pizza during the beta test party. Hard, back-breaking work, but someone had to do it.

While I worked at NinaBee, part of my bonus was based on the royalties on Outpost Kaloki X, for the XBox 360. Which I never worked on. So I guess they even paid me back for the pizza...

What's interesting to me is that reviewer FunnyMan refers to it as a casual game. You know, while I think it's a friendlier game than most "tycoon" games, I don't think of Outpost Kaloki as being casual at all. It has sold much better on the 360 than on the PC, which could lend evidence to the opinion that it's more "core" than "casual." But - there are a lot of factors involved there.

And frankly, as time goes on, the definition of "casual game" is getting more and more loose. What I thought I could use to describe a casual game three years ago doesn't feel like it applies anymore. Some of the best-selling casual games right now aren't too far removed from the hard-core arcade games of the early 80's. The gaming landscape continues to change.

But it's nice to see Kaloki is still getting some attention.

Labels: casual games, strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:08 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
The Return of X-Com?
Well, this is news to me: X-Comeback at Rock, Paper, Shotgun

So... what do you think a 2K Games version of X-Com will be like?

I personally predict a first-person shooter. Hopefully a squad-based first-person shooter. Real-time action, of course. And you know what? I don't think it will suck.

I remember when I got really hooked on Rainbow Six, and at one point came to the realization that the tension and "feel" of the game - my emotional state - wasn't so far removed from X-Com. The chance of getting drilled instantly as you turn a corner - never being entirely certain where a very deadly enemy may be positioned - planning your assault as you go trying to get the drop on your enemy... Man, it was plenty of fun.

And I could totally see that as an X-Com game.

I hope that they'll try to get away from the kitschy retro 50's feel that they adopted in X-Com: Apocalypse and that horrible space combat game I have almost forgotten, and embracing the feel of the first two games - which, I felt, was more X-Files, Aliens, and Project Blue Book than Plan 9 From Outer Space.

But yeah, I can see it. It could be very cool.

Labels: Mainstream Games, retro, strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:27 AM (Permalink) 5 comments links to this post

 
Design A Minimalist RPG!
Jamie Fristrom has an article about an old (but AWESOME) strategy game Slay. If you haven't played it, you should. In "Notes on Slay," he comments about the use of minimalism, depth vs. breadth, and how the simplicity and solid AI make Slay such an excellent game.

Slay is a 'conquer the world' strategy game with no randomness (except for the AI choices), and a handful of very simple but compelling rules, and really nice balance. I was introduced to it by Steve Taylor, a good friend (and former boss) from NinjaBee (hey, now you KNOW where he got his inspiration for the not-quite-so-minimalist Band of Bugs).

But being such an RPG geek, Jamie's article made me think of the computer role-playing game angle. What would a minimalist RPG be like? It's hard to answer, because the definition of RPG is really fuzzy.

One might be tempted to say NetHack or other roguelikes, but the only thing minimalist about NetHack is the graphics. From an underlying gameplay standpoint, Oblivion is minimalist by comparison. Diablo comes even closer to the that description, but it's also pretty far from the mark.

My own candidate might be the freeware Really Really Random RPG - which I personally think of as the "Really Really Abstract RPG." If so, it may underscore a problem with the concept of minimalism in RPG design. The minimalism of Slay is part of its appeal - it strips through all the trappings and accessories to reveal a really solid core of fun game mechanics. But RRRRPG's minimalism reveals pretty uninspiring mechanics. It'd be easy to shift the blame on RRRRPG's designer, but the game mechanics have been abstracted from countless commercially successful RPGs.

Maybe Slay just did a better job at the abstraction. Maybe the designer just pulled out the right mechanics and balanced and polished them to a fine sheen. I definitely feel that's part of the answer. And I also feel that - when you strip away things down to their bare minimum - RPGs themselves are strategy games at their mechanical heart. After all - they began life as wargames.

But I think a big part of the problem is simply that RPGs are very context-sensitive. While I don't believe an RPG really needs much of a "story" to be an RPG (after all, I consider NetHack and most roguelikes to be RPGs), I think it is that story - or at least "context" - that provides much of the entertainment value.

Still, it's an intriguing thought. I took something of a stab at it with Hackenslash once upon a time. So lets say we wanted to design a good (as in, fun) minimalist RPG. What key game mechanics would we have? What simple but powerful story could we weave into it? So what kind of things would you put in a minimalist RPG? You don't have to provide a complete design or anything - just what sorts of things would make a simple-yet-compelling RPG in your mind. And feel free to cite examples.

For convenience and posterity's sake, I've even made it a thread on the forums. Because I just love to give. :)


(Vaguely) related navel-gazing.
* Are Hybrid RPGs Just the Poor Man's RPGs?
* What Makes a Great RPG - The Story
* The Evolution of Computer RPGs
* But Is It An RPG?
.

Labels: Game Design, Roleplaying Games, strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:06 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Narrative of the Moment
Corvus Elrod begins his "Narrative of the Moment" series on a new game today. This time, it's another of my all-time favorites, "X-Com: UFO Defense" (AKA UFO: Enemy Unknown in Europe). His contention is that the game compelled him not because of the strategy, but because of the narrative:

"What about this game provided such a compelling video game experience? So compelling that people playing it for the first time today still heap praise upon it? So compelling that it has been ranked as the #1 game of all time, beating out such such notable titles as Starcraft, Civilization IV and Fallout? So compelling that I, fifteen years after playing it for the first time, still have difficulty maintaining my objectivity when discussing its successes and failings?

"I believe, unsurprisingly I’m sure, that the answer is Story. While not typically approached as a storytelling game, I believe X-COM is exemplary in its creation of story and will spend several posts examining how assembles all of its narrative components into a super satisfactory whole."

You can check out the first part of the series here:

Narrative of the Moment Introduction: X-Com at Man Bytes Blog

And if you haven't read it all, be sure and read his previous Narrative of the Moment series on Ultima Underworld.


(Vaguely) related belaboring of blunted points:
* Game Moment #3: X-Com
* Guest Article - UFO: Extraterrestrials Do Over
* Quick Strategy Games
.
*

Labels: retro, strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:16 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Game Announcement: Band of Bugs
I recently added another excellent NinjaBee game to the Rampant Games Strategy & Puzzle Games section.

Band of Bugs PC, by NinjaBee

Band of Bugs is a game of turn-based tactical combat, called a "tactics game" in the console gaming world. If you are unfamiliar with the term, but have played some "old school" RPGs with turn-based movement in combat (the old D&D "Gold Box" games like Pool of Radiance are a great example), or games like "X-Com," then you are familiar with the gameplay if not the genre name. Tactics games tend to be faster-playing, friendlier, and a bit easier to get into than the old warhorses like X-Com. Beyond that, Band of Bugs it is full of NinjaBee's trademark cartoon humor. It's an ideal game for newcomers to strategy games.

Band of Bugs goes even further with a rich storyline that develops as you play, not just in cut-scenes between battles. The campaign follows the young bug hero Maal as he joins the royal army of the Central Kingdom under the guidance of mantis warrior Tiernan. As Maal grows in understanding and ability, he commands more powerful heroes in larger groups on his way to saving his Queen and defeating the menace that threatens his kingdom. Strategy is everything to young Maal, for his every command will determine whether he succeeds and saves the kingdom, or he fails, taking the kingdom down with him.

As it was originally released for the XBox 360, you'd expect Band of Bugs to feature really gorgeous visuals, and it does. Besides being fast-playing, pretty, funny, and easy to get into, Band of Bugs really does have some deep strategic elements. Go figger! So there should be enough depth for you hard-core gamers who like min-maxing your D&D characters and plotting out every move with miniatures and stuff, but the game definitely takes the extra effort to help out the newbie to the genre and bring them up to speed quickly.

I did note that it was a little bit confusing to play with just a mouse, so be prepared to actually touch the keyboard on this one. I think this was an area where the translation from console controller to mouse came out a little weak, but as with Aveyond 2, I found I prefer keyboard controls anyway.

The real fun of these kinds of strategy games - even "light" strategy games like this one - is playing it with friends. While the AI is great, there's nothing that compares to playing with a real, live human, especially someone you know. Band of Bugs was built with a strong online multiplayer capability from the get-go. It includes several multiplayer game variants like "Escape," "Capture," "Elimination," and the more open-ended and relaxed "Spider Hunter" mode, which allows up to 8 players to come and go as they choose.

Band of Bugs rounds things out with a map editor so you can create and share your own custom battlefields.

As some of you know, I was working at NinjaBee while this game was in development, so I got to see its evolution first-hand. And I've mentioned it before. I wasn't on the development team, so I never got the chance to get sick of it. :) That DOES make me a little more biased towards that game, so feel free to take anything I say with a grain of salt. Good thing indie games come with free demos so you don't have to take my word for it, huh?

Oh, and Band of Bugs was an IGF 2007 finalist for technical excellence.

So who would I recommend this game to? If you enjoy turn-based strategy games or RPGs, this one is definitely a game you should look at. If you liked Outpost Kaloki, another awesome game by NinjaBee, then you probably already started downloading this game when you saw the top link, and it is probably done downloading by now. In fact, unless you REALLY have some kind of allergic reaction to turn-based games, or you already own the XBox 360 version, I can't think of why you shouldn't at least give this game a shot.

Band of Bugs PC

Labels: Game Announcements, strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:14 AM (Permalink) 3 comments links to this post

 
Free Game - Titans of Steel: Warring Suns
I just got this last night from local indie author Eric Peterson, letting me know that his mecha combat game (with RPG elements!) Titans of Steel: Warring Suns is now available as a free download.

He writes:

Titans of Steel: Warring Suns now a complete free download. If anyone wants to know what its like to sit and pull at your chin whiskers this is the game for you. Servers have had overload problems which in a small way has made me happy.

http://www.gamershell.com/pc/titans_of_steel_warring_suns/

I dig giant mecha battles, as an old Battletech / Mechwarrior fan, and I dig turn-based, hex-grid combat just fine, so I'm grabbing myself a copy. You can also get it from other mirrors listed at the publisher's site, Matrix Games.

Grab it now, and rip off a mecha's (er, titan's) arm in full top-down, turn-based glory today! (Can you beat a titan with it's own torn-off arm in this game? I'm sure it's cool either way, but hey... you KNOW you were gonna ask...) It's a 300 meg download, so you'll need to give yourself a few minutes of head-start time.

Labels: Free Games, strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:34 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
Galactic Civilzations II Warps the Time-Space Continuum
I just figured I'd put that out there. It's true. Because Galactic Civilizations II, with the Dark Avatar expansion (and I haven't tried the newest expansion yet), it somehow manages to do that. It has the power to warp you through through time so that, in only 10 minutes of "subjective time", you look at your watch and realize an hour and a half has somehow gone by.

Or maybe I'm just too tired from all the 12+ hour days.

Well, either way... it is the heir to Master of Orion's throne in every sense. And since MoO and MoO 2 are amongst my favorite games of all time, that's saying a lot.

The ability to customize your ships and the twisted tech trees from hell and the dozens of ways to skin a cat took it over the top. When an enemy race is almost impossible to dislodge with an invasion, I have learned to encompass them with cultural influence, lock down their morale improvements with spies, and just wait for them to rebel and join me.

Or I go all Londo Mollari on them and mass driver them into the stone age if I don't really care about keeping the planet.

(Vaguely) related words of questionable value
* Game Moments 1: Master of Orion
* I'm Not a Real Game Developer, I'm a Gamer Who Learned How To Program
* The Five A.M. Hall of Fame
.

Labels: strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:20 AM (Permalink) 7 comments links to this post

 
Outpost Kaloki Drops Price
Outpost Kaloki has just received a price reduction down to $14.95.

What Is Outpost Kaloki?
If you haven't tried out Outpost Kaloki, it's a very cute, funny, cartoon-y 3D "tycoon" game from the awesome folks at NinjaBee. It's the PC original of the hit Live Arcade game for the XBox 360. You manage a series of very unusual space stations with bizarre alien patrons and even more unusual problems throughout the galaxy in a twisty little storyline involving a kidnapped princess (hey, there's gotta be the chance to rescue the princess).

Weird? You betcha. Fun? Very. You have to manage cash, power, commerce, your visitors' expectations, and whatever crisis is currently happening in space. And you get to build things like space lemonade stands. There's a story-based campaign of 14 scenarios, plus some stand-alone missions, plus a "sandbox mode" just to see what kinda mega-super-space-metropolis you can build over time.

Kaloki & Me
My relationship with Outpost Kaloki stretches back a bit. When I was finishing up on Void War, I was introduced to Steve Taylor and the founders of Wahoo (AKA NinjaBee) by a mutual friend. Since I had become familiar with the "indie game development community" (such as it is) and stuff, they had a bunch of questions for me.

They'd been developing this game (codenamed "Worm," then "Outpost Alpha," if I recall) on their own and shopping it around to publishers to try and get it greenlit and funded as a console game. None of them were biting. The NinjaBee guys kept sinking time and money into this "prototype" until it was really close to being a finished game. Finally, they'd decided to try and release it themselves for the PC. But they didn't know how to do that.

So that's why they wanted to ask me questions. How did you do it? That much I could answer. As far as making it a smash success, I still don't know. I loved the game from the beginning, gave them a lot of advice (some of which was actually good), and they launched the game. They were overjoyed when it got picked up by the casual portals, but then they found that the game didn't quite appeal to the casual audience. It is still a gamer's game, with a lot of depth and challenge to it.

Which made it a perfect release for the XBox 360 a few months later, where it stood out in a sea of shooters, and became a hit. It had that awesome combination of good luck, good timing, and a great game. The key is that it's a great game - both the PC and 360 versions.

You can try it out yourself for free (as always) here:

Download Outpost Kaloki


(Vaguely) related stuff. With words 'n pictures 'n stuff.
* Console Indie: Interview with Steve Taylor of NinjaBee
* Quick Strategy Games
.

Labels: strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:37 AM (Permalink) 1 comments links to this post

 
Guest Article: UFO:Extraterrestrials Do Over
Bryan Brown (of Tungsten Bathtub) wrote the very first "guest post" on Tales of the Rampant Coyote a couple of years ago. He took pity on me this week with my 12-hour workdays at the "day job," and wrote this article for me to save me some precious time to work on Frayed Knights. I really should thank him, except now I really, really want to play this game, and I know I don't have the time! In this article, Bryan describes some of the mods now available for the indie strategy game, the X-Com - inspired UFO: Extraterrestrials. In particular, he discusses several of the mods make the game even more like its classic inspiration.

UFO: Extraterrestrials is turn-based squad-level tactics game very similar to the historic XCOM: UFO Defense or XCOM: Terror from the Deep games. It basically pits a small government funded group of scientists, technicians and soldiers against an onslaught of alien invaders.

The game consists of two phases a global strategic phase where you manage bases, research, production of specialized equipment and inventories, as well as a tactical phase where a squad of your soldiers attempts to achieve tactical victories like salvaging UFO technology, capturing aliens or saving civilians.

The game as released was fairly well done – and I liked it. Partially because it was one of the better XCOM-like games to come along in years and years and years and partially because they did a good job putting their own spin on it. They created a new world, Esperanza, and a whole new hierarchy of aliens to lead the attack. I resented some of their design choices that greatly simplified the strategic phase but overall the game is well done and it has remained on my hard drive ever since being released.

XCOM Memories
I remember playing XCOM to the point that I’d turn corners in real life and have a momentary flash of a little red number down in the corner of my eye and for just a moment I’d wonder where the alien was. The game play was well paced as they slowly introduced new aliens and technologies and each mission left you hungering for the next. There were many nights when I told myself at 10:00 PM that just one more mission and I’d quit and then next looked at the clock at 1:00 AM wondering where the time went.

With game play like that it’s no surprise that XCOM is one of those games that attracted a small but dedicated following. Over the years since the games release it has been discussed and considered and replayed by those that loved it. The game has become legend in the history of computer gaming and the original XCOM: UFO Defense is even available in the public domain now from sites like The Underdogs.

A UFO: ET Makeover
This core group of followers quickly discovered that UFO:ET was user modifiable and mods for the game were released within days of the game being released. Many of the mods were designed to introduce elements from the original XCOM that were missing in UFO:ET.

For example, UFO:ET released with no ability to hire and fire soldiers as needed. Instead they were parceled out to you one a month. Modders quickly changed the game to allow you to not only hire as many soldiers as you needed but to select which soldiers you wanted from a pool of 100 candidates. Other modders added line of sight indicators missing from the game to help determine more effective shots. Still more modified the game to have the games built in day night cycles have a greater effect on tactical combat just like the original XCOM did. One modder added hot keys for common movements which was later incorporated in an official patch released by Chaos Concept, the studio that released the game.

Over time the modders produced hundreds of mods and multiple versions of the same mods as they refined and tweaked the game. I no longer play the game as released and I have no desire to go back to that. I play with a super-mod collection called BMANS Ease of Use Patch. It includes all of the game mods that I really wanted to see in the original release as well as quite a few I had never thought of packaged into one easy to install add-on. This mod re-introduces classic aliens. It modifies the UFOpedia entries to explain the presence of these aliens and creates new technologies and strategies that are required to combat them. Almost every modification can be enabled or disabled or configured using menus that are modded right into the UFO:ET game making using the mods a breeze.

It’s an amazing feat of combining old with new and making new jump through different hoops to completely change the game experience. I find the increased complexities and challenges of playing to be a much more satisfying experience than the un-modified game was.

Modifying a released game is probably sticky ground to be on. We’ve seen games re-rated because of user created mods and the recent threat of Manhunt 2 being re-rated for the same reason. Fortunately, most companies tend to turn a blind eye to the user mod communities. I think that is wise since it becomes free advertising for the product – but I can see how an overzealous company may want to restrict user modding in an effort to protect their IP.

In the case of UFO:ET the user mods have taken a good game and significantly improved it. If you bypassed this game on its initial release it might be time to reconsider your decision.

(Vaguely) related wannabe geek lit:
* Game Moment #3: X-Com
* My ALMOST Most Important Games List
* Guest Gaming Moment: Falcon 4.0
* Quick Strategy Games
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Labels: strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:13 AM (Permalink) 0 comments links to this post

 
The Return of the Villagers: Virtual Villagers 2 The Lost Children
The Virtual Villagers are back, in a new game:

Virtual Villagers Chapter 2: The Lost Children

The new game picks up around the "end" of the original game, though you don't need to have played the first one to enjoy the sequel. Once the mysterious cave with the remnants of the original inhabitants were found, two of the villagers wandered deep into it and discovered a vine-covered opening on the other side. Pushing through, they fell down a steep, slippery rocks and a waterfall.

What they discovered on the other side was the remnants of another village - this time, with several dirty, hungry children in need of care.

Who are these lost children? What happened to their parents? You get to discover the answers yourself in this sequel to the hit casual sim / strategy game of last year.

I don't consider myself much of a casual gamer, but a few casual games have hooked me. Virtual Villagers was one. Maybe it was just the appeal of living on a tropical island paradise. Of course, I'm also a sucker for "sim" games, like Outpost Kaloki, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Sim City, and so forth. Virtual Villagers was a fresh take on the genre. One of the more interesting elements of the game was that it would continue to "run" in real-time while you weren't playing - unless you chose to pause it, say if you were actually taking off for a REAL trip to vacation on a tropical island paradise.... mmmmm....... oh, sorry. Where was I again?

Anyway, the result was a game that you could play for just a few minutes a day. You could spend fifteen minutes at a time checking up on your villagers, assigning tasks, helping those villagers newly grown into adulthood get started supporting the village, buy technologies, solve quests, and have the children find mushrooms to support the village food supply. A downside of the game was that once you got everything situated, there wasn't a whole lot of reason to actively play, other than to find more mushrooms for the children to retrieve.

The new game adds several more activities to the mix to make things more interesting than ever. There's just more to do. In addition to mushrooms, there are now collectables to be found on the island. The collectables are also retrieved by the children, and unlock new secrets or can be used to increase research towards new technologies. There are also the sixteen mysteries (or quests) to solve, emotional states, a new "sewing hut" you can build to customize your village and change their outfits, and more. The end result is that even during the more slow, stable parts of the games, there's more stuff to do and tweak to improve your village.

Fortunately, it doesn't seem like they've stomped on anything that made the first game so fun to play. The sequel is every bit as fun as the original, and more. While there are lots of differences (different technology, mysteries, special events, and so forth) between the two game, the sequel has lost none of the original's charm.

Anyway - if you liked the original (or never tried the original), I'd recommend checking out Virtual Villagers 2. The demo is available for free to try it out and see what you think at the following link:

Virtual Villagers Chapter 2: The Lost Children


(Vaguely) related things written while wishing I was on a tropical island paradise:
* Tamagotchi Villagers
* Dead Villagers
* Virtual Villagers II Developer's Diary
.

Labels: casual games, Game Announcements, strategy games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:41 AM (Permalink) 2 comments links to this post