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Notable Steampunk Games

June 26, 2007 by Phillip Kimpo Jr

A month ago, Ia wrote about the Steampunk style being applied to computer parts and peripherals. As she said, Steampunk is a “look based on the type of sci-fi/fantasy/speculative fiction literary genre”. As can be expected of any noteworthy genre, Steampunk has made its way into the video gaming industry. Several Steampunk games have become classics and worldwide bestsellers; still, you might not be aware that some of these popular games are Steampunk games.

Here’s a shortlist of Steampunk games that have enthralled countless gamers:

Thief — The Thief franchise (Thief: The Dark Project, Thief II: The Metal Age, Thief: Deadly Shadows) takes place in a Steampunk metropolis where the rogue of a protagonist achieves his goals by sneaking around enemies, dousing torches with water-tipped arrows, and just plain sleuthing around instead of bashing villains’ heads. Well, of course that’s still allowed, but avoided. If you think this makes for boring gameplay, think again. It spiked my adrenalin just as well as Counterstrike did. Very groundbreaking.

Warcraft — Yes, Blizzard’s venerable Warcraft franchise has a touch of Steampunk! Dwarves wielding rifles? Gnomish cities run by steam engines? Steampunk, baby. The World of Warcraft, Warcraft III, and Warcraft II provide one of the best game universes where magic and technology coexist.

Final Fantasy — But of course! Square’s paramount franchise has been long-known to mix the fantastic with the scientific — magic spells, airships, Guardian Forces, spaceships. Of the seemingly-endless train of FF games, Zidane and Garnet’s Final Fantasy IX is the most Steampunk of ’em all.

Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends — With one of its three races (the Vinci) heavily relying on gunpowder and clockwork, the fantastical successor to the historical Rise of Nations falls neatly into the Steampunk genre. As befitting a magic-and-tech game, Rise of Legends sports a magical civilization called the Alin, as well as the alien race of the Cuotl.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura — The game’s title says it all, doesnt it? For yours truly, Arcanum is the best Steampunk computer game built to this day, not only because it is brazenly Steampunk, but also because it is one of finest (if underrated) game worlds, ever.

Arcanum is a role-playing game done in Fallout fashion, which shouldn’t come as a surprise, as its developer (Troika Games) was formed by ex-Fallout devs.

You can think of Arcanum as “Industrial Revolution meets Tolkien”, what with steam-powered trains coexisting with tree-dwelling Elves. There is friction between “magick” users and technologists/scientists in the game, and players are better off focusing on one half of the skill tree.

There was talk of an Arcanum sequel, but unfortunately, Troika Games dissolved after publishing only three games (living up to its name, eh?). Ah, at least Fallout 3 is just around the corner!

2007 Granado Espada Regional Tournament Results

June 20, 2007 by xai

Granado Espada

Last June 17, the launch party for Granado Espada (GE) Open Beta was held at Zouk, Singapore. Considering GE’s reputation for being one of the newest and biggest MMORPGs to go live this year, it’s no surprise that the launch party featured a lot of major events.

Perhaps the most important event to take place, though, was the first ever GE Regional Tournament, featuring two-player team match-ups in a PvP championship format. Two representatives each from Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam flew in to play in the tourney with their Singaporean counterparts — it was quite literally a battle between the best players in the region. Other qualified gamers from Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam also competed in the tourney, playing in real-time from their respective countries.

Singapore and Malaysia dominated the PvP tournament, with cara and Nuub of Malaysia triumphant as the champions and RavaNa and Voyage of Singapore as runner-ups. Interestingly enough, all four players came from the same in-game guild: Yakisoba, on the sgGE Cervantes server. It speaks a lot of how well the guild trains its members.

The Philippines also won two special awards in the tourney: the Most Valuable Player title went to Mark Anthony Sta. Ana, a Philippine representative to Singapore, while the local qualifying team-up of Rommel Reyes and Shun Chun Leam snagged the Most Supporting Team award.

SCII Gameplay: Reality Sinks In

May 25, 2007 by xai

Several days ago, a peculiar sound echoed and boomed throughout the gaming world. It was the sound of thousands of fanboys (and fangirls) screaming in a joyous unison: “Yesssssssssssssssss!”

Yes, the long-awaited (it took nine years!) sequel to StarCraft is almost here, and it’s looking very, very good. By this time the delirious, hysterical glee has been replaced by anticipation so intense you could cut it with a knife. After making rabid fans wait and hope that long, hell yeah, it’s about time.

To be honest, I wasn’t surprised when the announcement came out; apparently I’m not the only one. There have been all sorts of obscure hints coming from Blizzard over the past few months. My lack of surprise doesn’t detract from my excitement, though; the funny thing is, the more I think about it and watch SCII videos, the more the actual reality — SCII OMGZZZ! — sinks in, and the happier I get.

The burning question now is: is SCII worth the wait, or is it just StarCraft given a facelift? Can we expect anything new gameplay-wise, or should we prepare ourselves for the same old same old “who has the bigger army wins?”

Thankfully, the answer so far is a resounding no. Here are a few interesting points of speculation, given the gameplay vids. If you haven’t watched them yet, go watch them! –Then come back and let’s discuss the new things Blizzard showcased in the videos.

Improved terrain. Just about every SC player is familiar with various uses of terrain, one of the most popular being entrenched siege tanks on higher ground versus infantry. With SCII though, terrain takes on a whole new dimension with more complicated maps and units that have different responses to terrain. You have the Protoss Colossus, which can step over cliffs (but has virtually no anti-air capabilities), you have the Blink ability of Dark Stalkers and the jetpacks of Terran Reapers. Land units are no longer limited to taking the “long way around,” and that opens up a lot of possibilities for players.

Protoss Stalkers Blinking up a platform (looks like impassable terrain for other ground units)

More means of transportation. The Zerg have had Nydus Canals since the first version, but now the Protoss have Phase Prisms as well, which are sort of like movable Pylons with the Recall (Arbiter) ability. This makes transporting units and fielding reinforcements much faster. I’m guessing the other races will have a counterpart, or at least a counter-strategy, to that as well, which makes clashes in space much more dynamic.

New vulnerabilities and strengths. It appears to me that the folks at Blizzard have decided to make things a little more complicated (and therefore more fun) by giving units special strengths and weaknesses that the savvy player can exploit. It’s a little more integrated into the system than the usual match-ups between unit classes, since the distinctions (like heavy fire vs light arms fire) are clearer this time around. The obvious example would be Protoss Immortals beating Terran Siege Tanks, but in turn being beaten by Terran infantry.

In this scenario, a large army can be beaten by a small group of units — if they are the right units, and if they use their skills right. Strategy and second-guessing the enemy becomes even more important in this case.

In addition, the three races become even more differentiated from each other. The Zerg look (and behave) more insect-like than ever, for instance.

More unit special abilities and skills. Units get either auto-activate abilities (e.g. Protoss Zealots) or active skills that the player has to control (like the Protoss Phoenix’s Overload, for instance). Of course this was present in the old version, but just about every unit now has a special skill or ability, and as for how the skills have been upgraded… One word: MOTHERSHIP.

The Protoss Mothership using Planet Cracker

I’m sure there are a lot more changes forthcoming, and SC fans will have much more to discuss (and dream about, and drool over) as Blizzard releases more information about SCII. For now, I’m off to go watch the videos (again) and review the Protoss unit writeups on Blizzard’s site.

Excited much? But then consider that SC’s one of a kind: it’s still played, competitively even (and to an audience of incredibly hyped-up crowds at that), almost ten years after it first came out.

At the risk of sounding like an irrational fangirl: it’s StarCraft. ‘Nuff said.

StarCraft II Almost Made Me Wet My Pants

May 20, 2007 by Phillip Kimpo Jr

When I got word that StarCraft II had been officially announced in Seoul, Korea, I didn’t quite know how to react. Of course there was the rush of excitement, of thrill, of happiness, but there was also hesitation and a tinge of disbelief — could it be true? Isn’t this a joke?

Hey, now that I think of it, isn’t that how I also feel when an old flame returns to again light up my otherwise dull life, and comes back more buxom and ravishing than ever?

Back in 1998, I was a new PC gamer, and I was mightily fortunate to have begun the years of mouse-worn fingers (not the other way around) and “Just one more turn!” nights with a brilliant and almost perfect game — you guessed, it, StarCraft. SC made me a Blizzard fanboy, not its fantasy counterpart WarCraft, nor the blazing click-frenzied Diablo. I also patronized and revered those two franchises, but my loyalty remains with that one game with the right blend of great gameplay, masterful storytelling, dazzling cinematics, addicting multiplayer play, and deep game world lore.

Did I say one game? Now it’s going to be two.

A visit to the new StarCraft II website (read the FAQ) will give you a wealth of info, and I won’t be repeating any of the stuff there. Instead, here are some thoughts:

The Good

I got royally pissed when WarCraft III became 3D (tell you what, I didn’t like the graphics) and there was no word of SC2 for years. Even StarCraft: Ghost (for the console — Blizzard, why?!) was shelved. Now baby, it’s here — StarCraft, in glorious 3D.

One word: cinematics. Blizzard’s cutscene guys are maestros, and the first trailer will only serve to whet your appetite. (The trailer shows a Marine being suited up for battle, along with glimpses of hydralisks, mutalisks, and even — gasp! — Kerrigan in action. That is Kerrigan, right? Didn’t know she had burning amber eyes, haha.) It’s high time we saw zerglings, wraiths, and zealots in WarCraft 3 cutscene-calibre movies.
With 3D comes more detailed artworks that have a more serious (as in, hardcore scifi serious) look to them. Cases in point: 1) If this is a Terran Dropship, then that is one sleek looking ship, and 2) I never imagined that a mutalisk has a face as ugly as this. Oh well, trust the Zerg to be icky.
Speaking of Kerrigan, I’m betting that she (I liked her more as the Zerg ‘Queen Bitch of the Universe’) will look…sexy in her green saliva-drooling and deathly pale skin glory. Count on Blizzard to deliver the ‘goods’. Think WoW Night Elf-voluptuous.
Regardless of franchise, this is a new Blizzard game. Blizzard = excellence. Blizzard = great story. Blizzard = bang for the bucks. Blizzard = raising the bar for every game developer.

The Bad

“Three completely distinct races: Protoss, Terran, and Zerg”. WTF? Only three races? I sure hope Blizzard’s just building up the suspense factor and will spring a ‘surprise’ just before launch. I had actually expected a sequel to StarCraft to include at least one new race (a Zerg-Protoss hybrid, courtesy of the ‘secret mission’ in SC: Brood War involving units crossed between a hydralisk and a high templar). Heck, I even hoped for two new races, the other one being the Xel’Naga — the creators of both Protoss and Zerg.

Parents might want to look for a “turn off blood and gore” option, a la Fallout. True, the screenshot above is full of what seems to be just red Zergling blood, but it’s red blood, nonetheless. Got to love the mix of the blood and explosions, though!
If you’re an RTS fan or a StarCraft fanboy like me, say goodbye to your real life. Soon.

Three Games to Watch Out For

May 12, 2007 by Phillip Kimpo Jr

One’s the third installment in a classic series, the second’s the expansion to a heavyweight franchise, and the last one’s a newbie that looks sweet. One’s a roleplaying game, the second’s a turn-based strategy game with a dash of real-time, and the last one’s a pure RTS.

The titles of the three are Fallout 3, Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms, and Ancient Wars: Sparta. Guess which is which.

Fallout 3 is the highly-anticipated follow-up to Fallout 2, easily one of the best RPGs in history. I blogged about it last February, and the hype-o-meter level for the game remains high. The hype is partly fueled by concerns whether Bethesda, the game’s current license-holders, will be able to match the masterpieces that Interplay crafted.

Fallout 3 ETA: TBA. Yes, it’s frustrating!

Next up, we have Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms, the massive expansion to Creative Assembly’s latest Total War offering, Medieval II. Now, let me confess something here: I’ve never played Medieval II. I do, however, have spent countless hours massacring Gauls and Carthaginians in Rome: Total War (see my game review), and I’ve been meaning to grab a copy of Medieval II for quite some time now. I have no doubt that I will enjoy Medieval II, and probably its expansion, too, seeing its juicy features: four new campaigns and a slew of new factions.

Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms ETA: Fall 2007. It looks like this game will have to tide me over until Fallout 3 arrives.

Lastly, Ancient Wars: Sparta is a real-time strategy game sporting purty graphics and riding on the HA-OOOH! hype over the movie 300. But purty graphics and just that doesn’t make a great game, so World Forge’s new child will still need to prove itself come launch time.

Ancient Wars: Sparta ETA: Well, according to this press release, the game has shipped to North American stores. I’ve yet to see it here in the Philippines, though. Game reviews rate the game as a ‘generic’ RTS, but as they say, to see is to believe!

The Many Forms of GG

May 10, 2007 by xai

In gaming parlance, the acronyms gg stands for “good game,” but it can mean so many other things. Gadget geek? Good going? Girl Genius? Whatever the usage, it’s a term that’s here to stay as one of the staples of a gamer’s vocabulary, spawning other words such as gg’ed, ggified, gfg, etc.

I’m a “girl gamer” type of gg myself, and since this is an intro post, let me tell you about the many acronyms that occupy my life. I’m a college student who tries to dabble in fields ranging from music to physics to art, but for some strange reason I spend most of my time gaming. I practically live at a certain computer gaming shop: if I’m not at home or in class, you can probably find me there.

Among my (far too many) games, DotA, aka Defense of the Ancients, stands out as the most addictive. Technically it’s not even a game — it’s a custom map for Warcraft III: Frozen Throne — but it has spawned a larger cult following, more tournaments, and more hours spent in obsessive play than a lot of other games out there.

DotA isn’t very complicated, and you can actually learn it in a few hours. But what with the teamwork aspect (your team of five versus another team of five), the variety of characters to choose from, the different combinations of heroes and skills in a team, the items and their effects… the possibilities are endless. What more, it’s fun! My friends and I have spent many exciting (not to mention noisy) hours playing all sorts of DotA matches, screaming all the while: “KILL HIM OMG I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

I asked a few friends what they thought of DotA and the answers were mostly the same:

me: survey: what is dota for you?
friend1: life
friend2: :))
me: WTF

And again,

me: survey: what is dota for you?
friend2: DOTA is life -mond
me: LOL
me: why do you all say the same things
friend2: haha
friend2: because it is life

They weren’t totally serious, of course. Like all games, DotA is played (mostly) for fun and as a stress reliever. It’s the game where I first started using “gg” very often — both nicely and, well, not so nicely.

As a parting shot (link?) I’d like to point you to a funny post about DotA and what it really stands for. It’s not fully in English, but don’t worry; you don’t have to be fluent in Tagalog to understand the humor.

Co-op Play!

January 17, 2007 by Mr Butterscotch

Most recently, I have been playing GRAW, Gears of War and Splinter Cell – all on the co-op modes available in each game. As my usual gaming buddy, CJ can attest to how much more fun it is to have a real person guarding your back rather than some limp A.I. This is for a number of reasons, but not least:

Humans can mess up, but a stupid play can be laughed at. The computer on the other hand messes up and simply provides frustration.
A success is twice as big a deal when there’s at least one other person involved. Suddenly, taking that checkpoint means much more as your realise your accomplishments in the team. A play where you can help each other (as in the scripted sequences in GOW) are especially important as the dynamics give opportunities for many high fives.
A newer gameplay element such as active cover in shooting games requires you to really use a high level of interactivity. Exploring these excellently realised worlds gives you that great ‘look-at-this!!’ fun factor. Pointing out either online or even better in person all of the best parts of a game is fun.
Co-op play online bring it’s own level of mischief. Teabagging the enemy is now notorious as a humiliation tactic, as is the frequent damning of players as ‘noobs‘ of course. Camaraderie between teammates can result in huge bonds being formed, as well as clans. This gives even further in things like MMORPG‘s (worst acronym ever!) where people can and have been digitally as well as physically married.

I guess the main thing that co-op play brings about is a different way to do things. You’ll find a friend might try something differently that works well, or has a particular gaming skill that you wouldn’t otherwise have seen or have access to. So lets take a look at my top 3 co-op games:

Counter-Strike: Source
Okay, so it’s an oldie now but it sure is a classic. Teams of varying sizes on the maps that now almost everyone in the world has probably seen vie to kill each other. Or rather plant a bomb, or rescue hostages. You see it’s broken to T’s vs CT’s – Terrorists vs Counter-Terrorists. A great game with simple mechanics that requires good cooperative play.

GOW
Gears of War is the daddy of cooperative play. There’s nothing that comes remotely close to it for the intense play, great graphics and general hijinks of delta squad. If you haven’t played it in co-op, go do it. Now.

Neverwinter Nights 2
Though we still can’t get this to run properly, when it plays as well as the original Neverwinter then it will certainly be an amazing co-op experience. Wandering around dungeons together could only have been eclipsed if you could do multiplayer in Oblivion. Which you can’t.

So there we are – if you’re generally a solo gamer, please do try cooperative modes. You’ll find a lot more fun there than you bargained for and possibly make some new friends to boot. Just watch they don’t steal your kills…

In Defence of Steam

November 26, 2006 by Mr Butterscotch

Steam took a lot of stick when it was first rolled out as an online distribution platform for Half Life 2. Whilst this idea was not new, the scale of it was – and so was the game it was pushing out. Steam had severs ready to unlock a hardcopy of the game, or preload it fully (a few gigs worth of game, huge at the time for net transfer) before release, allow a complete distribution service including content provision and payment systems.

Now that the jargonish bit is over, lets go back to the day of release – November 16^th, 2004. It took 3 days for the software to fully download, unlock and give me access. Longer still for Counter Strike to be available. Finally however it worked, and Half Life 2 was awesome. However, some things did not work, including the notorious ‘friends service’ – an in-joke being that it was the ‘no-friends service’, given that until recently you could add no-one.

More importantly, Steam in the beginning offered very little, apart from a slightly buggy experience and frustrations involving not being able to play Half Life 2 if an update was part way through. Now though, that has changed. Steam has become a full-service content provider, offering demos of the latest games, screensavers, videos, screenshots, review links, new and of course the ability to purchase games. It updates quickly, provides access to innovative, quality games (including the brilliant Darwinia) and I now use it reasonably regularly to find new stuff. So far, I have downloaded:

Minerva: Metastasis 2 – A Half Life 2 mod with great action, set on a combine island.
Medieval 2: Total War – The latest demo for the newest (and best RTS) available.
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic – I got the demo of this, along with a few gameplay videos. Interesting enough, but not an Oblivion beater.

So there we are, good stuff on Steam. For those of you who like The Ship you can now get the single player version for a shade under ten dollars. The next big thing though of course will be Portal. Keep your eyes out for this one folks, it’s gonna be good!

Computer Upgrade Guide: What To Consider (Part 1)

October 27, 2006 by Jackzooki

upgrade cartoon During the past year, a number of siginificant changes and technological evolutions happened that has changed the landscape of the PC world. These changes have created an environment wherein an upgrade on certain components or your whole PC system has become logical and, frankly, essential.

If you are the type who just use your computer for basic functions like word processing or spreadsheets and your PC is just a couple of years old then an upgrade can still be postponed to a later date. But if you use your PC for heavier tasks like home digital media applications or for PC gaming and your PC is two to three years old then the upgrade is inevitable.

The good thing about upgrading now is that prices are falling while capacities and performance are actually increasing, this means that you will be spending comparatively less for better performance.

[Read more…]

Top 5 Games That Have Shaped My Life

October 8, 2006 by Gadzooki

This isn’t a list of the best 5 games of all time. Rather, it’s a list of the top 5 games that consumed large portions of my life…whether they deserved the attention or not…they go it.

1. 1942

An old school “forward on rails” quick-twitch, 2-D sprite based World War II game that I just thought was too freakin cool. This is the only game that I literally played for more than 24 hours straight without sleep. A few bathroom breaks. A couple chugs of soda. I think my mom even brought me some pizza. But I just could get enough of the adrenaline pumping, quick maneuver airplane fighting.

2. Chrono Trigger

This was my first major forray into RPG territory. I’d played RPGs in the past, but this one made me fall in love with them. And it had a pretty kick ass story line too. But really I mention this game because of the memories I have of playing it with my best friend at the time Chris Collier. Haven’t seen him in over 10 years (a freakin decade!). Oh, yeah, we played this one through the night.

3. Faxanadu

This was the first action-adventure game that I got sucked into. And, it was the first game where I discovered the art of jerryrigging the controller to pick up resources while your away at school! I found this spot where enemies kept getting generated and walking towards me, and I just kept the slash button held down with a marble and some tape…it did the trick every time. I’d come home with more gold than I knew what to do with. And then I’d go kick some butt. Cheating…yes. Fun…oh, definitely.

4. Warcraft/Dark Reign

These were my college networking games. Way before World of Warcraft, and even back in the day when Ethernet wasn’t the only standard for wired networks (ever hear of coaxial chains?), my buddies and I would play 8 player games for hours and hours. Best multiplayer fun I ever had. Pure joy.

5. Sim City/Populous

I couldn’t decide between the two because I poured too many hours into both of them, but I sure liked playing God regardless. Building the perfect city was always my dream, but the damned citizen were never happy. Oh well.