Thursday, September 30, 2010

Warhammer 40K Dark Eldar rumors galore

Bell of Lost Souls digs up more on the upcoming re-release of this classic 40k Miniatures game army

Read more about on the War Realms Facebook page here.

Here is a short snip:
3 kind of armies with this book: Kabalyte, Wych Cult and Haemunculus army. But units are strong enough to make most combinations competitive as well. No point costs yet, as the Codex only had the main entry pages. But preview copies of the Codex should be in store in 2-3 weeks.

Three Moves Ahead Podcast covers Civ 5

The latest cast tackles Civ 5 and what was good or bad about the game and looks ahead to the future. You can find it on the Flash of Steel website.
One guest cancels, but his shoes are ably filled by Gameshark’s Todd Brakke as Troy, Julian and Rob hold forth on the game that has already eaten Troy’s life – and he has to keep writing about it for at least another month.

Monday, September 27, 2010

New Panzer Campaign mods at TFE4

Task Force Echo 4 website has word of new Panzer Campaign map mods. Panzer Campaigns are the John Tiller turn based WW2, WW1 and about every category you can think of wargames. The site is branching out a little to supply the gamer with their own map mods now that can be layered over other modders and the work they do.

You can get them HERE but make sure to read the included README file for instructions.
Start with a clean install of an out-of-the-box HPS version, apply the latest HPS patch, then apply the latest Volcano Man mod (these update frequently so don't assume you have the right version), then apply Jison's Map Mod, then apply this mod.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Warhammer Fantasy Island of Blood unboxed

Games Workshop has unveiled the unboxing of their new $100 8th edition start set on their site.
The new Warhammer boxed game is awesome! It's by far the best one yet and in my opinion the best box set we've ever released - there's an Elven Prince riding a huge Griffon in it! Please forgive my gushing; I know it's unfair of me to mention it when it's not available for you to order yet, but it's gorgeous and I'm brimming with excitement about it. Not to worry though, rather than rush home with the copy I managed to acquire (see also 'blag') this morning, I thought I'd share the opening of it with you. So without further ado, here's a look at The Island of Blood.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Hannibal: Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War

You can read more about the game and order it HERE on the Matrix Games site

  • Build your army from an array of different units and historical leaders each with their own attributes to storm across the Italian peninsula. When meeting the enemy in combat, engage in a simple but tactical siege/battle system.

  • Each side has a deck of option cards that simulate a variety of military and political events such as reinforcements, political influence, revolts, desertion, and battle tactics for Hannibal and Scipio Africanus.

  • There are three levels of difficulty, with additional game play features added at each of the two higher levels. As the difficulty rises, the player must contend with an increasingly uncooperative Senate and generals that have motivations and agendas of their own.

  • Victory is based on an intuitive points system where there are many “shades of grey” between outright victory and crushing defeat.

  • Petition the Senate for the replacement of any Carthaginian general who has suffered a defeat. At the mercy of a powerful and unforgiving senate some generals are not just dismissed, but executed!

  • Wage war across the ancient Mediterranean on a unique and beautiful map divided into 6 theaters of operation, 13 provinces, and 8 sea zones.

  • The system of option cards and the variety of elected Roman commanders makes almost every game different.

  • Several extensive tutorials and a robust in-game help system make picking up the sword and carrying on the campaign a breeze.

  • Use diplomacy and politics to convince the Carthaginian Senate to cooperate with your plans and to sway the allies of Rome to switch sides and fight alongside Carthage.


Star Trek Online State of the Game

http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2089
Here are the goals we have for the KDF (and, really, any new faction we add):

  • Solid PvP experience - We want all factions to have awesome PvP maps with sought-after rewards. We want the queues to work and the gameplay modes to be fun.

  • Faction-specific PvE episodes – We recognize that the KDF needs flavorful episodes that bring out the story and point of view of that faction.

  • Strong selection of ships – The KDF needs to have a solid variety of options when it comes to PvP, not only visually but functionally.

  • Fun leveling progression – Leveling a KDF character can be painful compared to the Feds and it needs to be fun instead of a grind.

  • Equal access to new stuff – We want to ensure that all STFs, Fleet Actions, Featured Episodes and any other cool new features are built to be played and make sense for the KDF.


We can achieve these goals. We have the plan to do it and recognize that the KDF isn’t there yet. Leveling a KDF character isn’t as fun as leveling a Fed. There are very few faction-specific episodes. There is a lack of ship variety and there are several features such as Memory Alpha that the KDF doesn’t even have access to. Our goal is to address all of those issues.

Darksiders PC is redone to work better than a console port

“It is important that the PC audience get to experience the same great product as the console audience so we pulled out all the stops to optimize this version. If you didn’t previously buy the console version now is the perfect opportunity to try Darksiders for yourself.”

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100923006758/en

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Diablo 3 and health orbs

http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/systems/health.xml
That's where health globes -- floating, crimson spheres that rise from the corpses of your defeated foes -- come in. These globes are the core means of regenerating your health in Diablo III, and all other methods of healing support them. When you pick up a health globe, your health (and the health of any allies in your party) is restored by a fixed percentage depending on the type of globe you've grabbed.

Health globes drive Diablo III's tactical combat, making your lightning-fast decisions during battle intellectually engaging and relevant without adding needless complexity. If you're injured and attacking monsters from afar to avoid further damage, but a much-needed health globe drops, what will you do? Will you put your wand away and make a dash for it, even if doing so requires you to brave a gauntlet of Fallen, or will you cautiously hang back and wait for an opening, fighting defensively so that you aren't overwhelmed? If you're fighting a pack of enemies, can you slaughter the weaker ones quickly enough to saturate the battlefield with health globes so that you'll survive more dangerous attacks? Will you take the right risks at the right time?