@redswirl It’s hard to say what the quintessential cyberpunk game is…I’d say Deus Ex belongs to a clutch of titles that showcase the styling of this beloved geek-chic subset. Don’t forget the incredible Dreamweb from way back. I’d put that up there as a much more pure cyberpunk experience – taking its cues from the defining authors much more heavily. But, you’re right that Deus Ex is steeped in the thematics and aesthetics of cyberpunk or post-cyberpunk fiction and ideas.

For me, the top three would be the original System Shock, Dreamweb, Syndicate and Deus Ex. A shortlist would include Uplink, Hacker Evolution, a slightly tenuous Omikron: The Nomad Soul and a little-known Aussie-made sandbox RPG called The Creed – think an open-ended RPG-lite Syndicate Wars – one that shipped with an incredibly deep mission creator; user-generated NPC logic chains and parameters, dialog options, the works. It’s existed on the PC in certain titles henceforth, but The Creed certainly blew my young idiotic mind back in 1998.

Certainly looking forward to Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

In regards to @angryjedi‘s always-enjoyable Whatchyabeenplayin’, let me throw down.

Frozen Synapse @mjpilon and myself opened fire on each other for the first round of the tourney and by some stroke of luck, the deciding round had two bazookas on each team. Luckily, my rockets found some masonry to detonate against and bathed opponents in the warm wash of a high-explosive shockwave. HOWEVER, I must duck out of the tourney due to continued internet woes – woes that will now be fixed via the installation of fresh, faultless, flawless fabulous fibre-optics on the 20th of August. Thus, my worthy opponent, I had thee the baton and encourage you to make wurst from your bested opponents. Godspeed, @mjpilon.

Alpha Protocol Oh how I wish I had the time to marathon games like the old days. Alpha Protocol would be done and dusted by now, but for what it’s worth, still enjoying it immensely. Rather janky in places, and certain areas feature some of the most pedestrian level design and furnishings I’ve seen in the modern gaming era, but you play for the conversations, and that’s what I’m enjoying most. And when the action sequences are this unreliable in terms of stealth mechanics (enemies either oblivious, or somehow they know you’re there from a mile away), I eschewed the stealth agent run and got busy with the Assault rifle proficiencies. Having a blast. I’ll keep the stealth antics for a more reliable system…like DE:HR or something. Or….

Hitman Blood Money Doing another run on this in anticipation of the SoS mission. You really cannot beat Io Interactive for urban flavour. They craft the darkest and most delightful missions and scenarios. Looking forward to reading/hearing Squaddies’ thoughts on the game who’ve never played it prior. Contracts still reigns supreme for me, but Blood Money is definitely the most inventive and varied.

Men of War: Assault Squad / RUSE Always going back and forth between these two. Nabbed the DLC packs for RUSE over the Steam Sales, so nuclear artillery, the Japanese faction and a nice selection of maps are now things to play with. Sad to see only one Pacific map, but the game at its heart really isn’t a grognardian RTS…it’s a beautiful real-time boardgame. Men of War…well…you know how I feel about that glorious RTT experience. Outside of the incredible physics and sheer danger enemies present, nothing beats taking direct control of an infantry flamethrower and flanking around a barn to hose a nest of German artillery with Yankee chilli-sauce. @beige and @bowlisimo, I do hope you fellows end up owning this one down the line. It’s great fun and terrific co-op.

Supreme Commander 2 And finally, ol’ SupCom2. After fighting and besting an aggravating problem involving my Mobility Radeon and for some reason, it turning off geometry instancing (hideous graphical glitching thereafter), I’ve been continually enjoying just skirmishing against the computer. There are so many wonderful units and options within. Going back to what @bowlisimo said about the Chris Taylor titles being quite soulless, I’m in complete agreement…right up until SupCom2. I REMAIN IN A CONSTANT EROTIC TRYST WITH THIS TITLE. It’s a military science-fiction hardware lover’s wet dream. Dropships on automated deployment runs loading freshly-constructed ground units in batches of fifty, ferrying them to the front from the designated marshalling yards. Mobile shield generators flaring with every enemy shot made. Gargantuan experimental units thundering up out from their construction scaffolds and beginning their lumbering trek towards their rally point. Artillery raining down in salvoes of hundreds of shells, leaving the shattered hulks of quadruped gun platforms smoking and blackened. And need I remind the reader of an entire naval force crawling up the beach on newly-researched legs, their cannons brought to bear on the defenders?

What’s more, SupCom2 has one of the best strategic zooms this side of AI Wars or, to a lesser extent (perhaps, more aptly, to a different extent), RUSE.

It might look like a Michael Bay effort compared to the nuanced subtleties of Starcraft, but I would argue it’s as enjoyable and deep in its own way – just on a much grander scale. Amazing options in the tech tree to really direct what kind of force you’d like to build. More enjoyable for me, at least. Here’s a rather finely-soundtracked 4v4 video that sums it all up perfectly.

How I wish these were marathon sessions, but home duties and scribble sessions dig into the gaming time. So, a mission here, a quarter-skirmish there, you know how it goes.

I shall leave it there. I’ll be offline at home until the 20th, but will browse via phone and hopefully drop a few comments when I’m at work. Keep it up, Squaddies.

@bigdaddygamebot Hey, man — sorry, I haven’t had a lot of time to check here recently, and FS isn’t sending me emails for some reason! I’m away from a machine that will run FS well at the moment but I’ll take my turn when I get back on Sunday.

On that note, @everyone: the patch that hits FS next week adds proper tournament support. Should we not just use that?

SoS FROZEN SYNAPSE SCRUB TOURNAMENT 2011 PRELIM!

Official “What is this, I Don’t Even…”, Wait, This Has Nothing To Do With Frozen Synapse, Blame Beige, Bracket Placement Round of Death, GO!

1. Click link –> MYSTERY GAME!
2. Regain senses.
3. Get longest distance you can (note: you can hit whatever that is while it’s still in the air).
4. You’re allowed to play as long as you can stand it!
5. Email your best distance and name to christopherjbowley (at) g m a i l . c o m
6. You are all on the honor system!
7. Direct all hate mail towards @bluesforbuddha

I’ll send the bracket link + youtube details once all the scores are in.

Good luck!

Count me in to the tourney, it’ll be a good excuse to learn the game.

We can offer up Magika as a prize for your Frozen Synapse tourney for sure.

I guess everyone is done with Christine Love? Yes to Hitman, and I’m also in for Frozen Synapse, at least to help fill out the bracket. I haven’t played it in a month.They ever merge those servers?

@beige Supposedly there is. There was an intro movie talking about rampant terraforming A.I. messing up the galaxy a millennium ago and cutting off Earth yadda yadda, but I’ll be damned if any of that is apparent from the outset. I was dropped into a ship pointed at a distant flight school instructor that I had to fly over and talk to, instead of the other way around. That’s about all the direction I was given. I picked “humble merchant” though, so I suppose if you picked one of the harder characters, you’d start closer to the action. I figured I’d build up a modest trading empire and combat fleet before tackling any of the story.

@unmanneddrone Worked in some ore and silicon wafer (which sounds delicious) trading last night. Realized quickly that I didn’t really have the capacity to make a lot of profit from that, but still made headway. Also, accidentally got into some illegal rum running. It turns out “space fuel” is code for “space hooch”, oops! The profits were huge, but the buyers were sparse, and I had to drop some of the cargo when the space police scanned my ship. Nuts. I didn’t count on space prohibition.

Later on I started dropping satellites in the various sectors, like you mentioned, and came across an alien selling his super freighter for half the cost of the ones being sold at the shipyard. Sure, it doesn’t have any shields, or any upgrades to speak of, but double the capacity, and half off! So, the alien parked it in the middle of nowhere and left in his space suit (lol), and I piloted my new lumbering acquisition into the nearest station to be outfitted. Hopefully tonight I can get this baby out and make some real scratch while I keep doing the milk runs with the smaller hauler. Any advice on remote trading?

@sinfony Thanks for the heads up on Hitman: Blood Money. $7 goes down easy and the PC is the preferred platform for that kind of game, anyway.

Since I’ve been spending most of my time moving to a new place over the last couple of weeks, I’ve only had internet at work. Since my gaming has to be offline, I took this as a chance to dive into Fallout: New Vegas. I’ve heard many people say “I played it for about 20 hours and just quit with no desire to go back”. Well, I hit that point last night. Trying to dodge artillery fire on the way to visit the Boomers proved to be the fatal straw.

Once I get internet back at home next week, I’ll finally fire up some Frozen Synapse matches with you good folks.

Some great Steam deals today, and a good effort by you, @RedSwirl, waiting for that final price drop on FS.

It’s been a good sale thus far for strategy titles in general. Men of War: AS for 7 smackers yesterday or the day before, RUSE for a tenner today, as is Supreme Commander 2. Surely a few Squaddies would find those interesting.

Another suggestion for @feenwager would be Hitman: Blood Money. Bit trial and error’y, but remarkably satisfying. Filled to the brim with dark humour and a terrific sense of place. For some reason, and maybe coming under fire for being somewhat contrarian, but where the NPCs of Assassin’s Creed felt like automaton, the Hitman world’s citizenry seemed far more alive. And Agent 47…I mean, you cannot find a more bad-arse bad-arse than him.

Available on PC, 360.

Oh, and I’ll throw in Mini Ninjas, too. The game for people who like Zelda-esque romps, but want something a little different. Funnily enough, I read it was a game IO Interactive made because their usual fare was far too dark, depressing and violent to take home and play with their young families. Highly recommend Mini Ninjas.

Available on PC, Mac, PS3, 360.

Happy 4th of July, US comrades.

I’m pulling the trigger on Frozen Synapse which is 50% off today. Who else doesn’t have it yet?

@unmanneddrone My whole TBS experience thus far consists of either Nintendo Intelligent Systems (Advance Wars, Fire Emblem) or Yasumi Matsuno (Final Fantasy Tactics).

I’m waiting to see if Frozen Synapse will ever go on a daily deal.

@redswirl I appreciate Civ and all that, but I’ve never felt that burning urge to spend entire evenings in any of the games – which could be considered treasonous by a few folks. Great games, just one of those series that never sank the barbed talons into my sallow hide for extended periods of times. You ever tried more beer-n-pretzels TBS games, ala Panzer General? Shattered Union, for instance? Another one just came out (snidely palmed off by @tolkoto on the last EBP as “another boring strategy game”…beginning to wonder about him) in Storm: Frontline Nation…a modern EU/North Africa fast-paced TBS with an emphasis on military and research-lite. I’m considering nabbing it to replace Shattered Union. I read of a few issues with the tactical combat mode – nothing a patch couldn’t iron out – but the grand strategic mode is tip-top as an middle-ground between your brain-busting Paradox titles and, say, Age of Booty.

In other news, would Squaddies be up for kicking off the SoS Frozen Synapse tourney at some point? Especially with the game now 33% off in the Steam Sales for folks who haven’t nabbed it yet and want to split the cost with a friend or something.

Sorry I haven’t been around lately, I’m trying to decide if I should change my area of study and thus my mind has been entirely occupied with my impending decision on whether to re-educate into networking and security rather then programming, completely unsure -_-

A few thoughts though!

Free to play: awesome, would love to play some Spiral Knights, I’ll have to disconnect my router though, so I don’t have a lot of practice

Frozen Synapse: I suck, soooo hard at this game, it’s like my guys have forgotten how to use their fingers

City of Heroes: turned a ton of D&D characters into people on there. good fun, there are some WONDERFUL custom missions in their mission creator, if you’re willing to look past the grind missions, sort by stars and read some reviews. You should find the best grind missions then the best story missions under them

League of Legends: I’ve actually been playing LoL since a friend of mine got me into the beta, I’d be quite pleased to teach any Squadies the ins and outs of the game. While I agree that there are dicks in the community, it’s actually probably the least dickish of the MOBA games, and that was before they instituted the Tribunal which allows players to sit in judgement of reported players conduct, which has reduced dickishness by at least 60%, or at least, outright dickishness.

Anywho, feel free to add my main account “Shingro” or my smurf account “Nyxling” and drop me a message if you’d like some training =)

So who all has Frozen Synapse now?

Before you do anything, buy armor for all your guys with alt+f4 (command+w)

@feenwager Good stuff. Make a line to somewhere, augment that line with movement, view and encounter parameters. Test before priming. Good to go! In a nutshell.

Thanks to @rocgaude I have a copy of that Frozen Synapse stuff all the kids are playing.

How’s this all work?

@rocgaude That’s awesome news. Looking forward to gaming on!

@RocGaude as in you’ve already given it out?

The servers should be unified soon. They’re working on it this week. For now, stick with UK2.

OK…I’ve bought the Steam version of Frozen Synapse. Won’t be able to play it for a couple weeks, though. I’ve earmarked my second copy for another Squaddie. Let’s fill our server up.

@beige UK2 server for FS, friend. UK2. It’ll cure what ails ye.

And @mjpilon, man, you’ve got some terrific FS skills! Apologies for the slow turn response, it’s been a (strangely) relatively game-free weekend outside of a little Brink and Sanctum. I’ll try and fire off a move before I leave for work tomorrow morning!

@beige UK2 for all our FS fun.

Great show guys, too. I spent the afternoon scribbling and listening to the remainder of the Squadcast and tried to remember what games have provided me with terrific places to inhabit. A few things popped up:

• Broken Sword 1 & 2 had terrific game worlds, as reigned-in as they are for interaction. I think it’s the art style coupled with the music. Everything was just so gorgeously grand, even with Smoking Mirror. Favourite sections within either would be Nico’s apartment (probably my first geek crush on a videogame character, ol’ Nico. I’m among friends, right? I can admit to that? No? *shame blush*), the Hotel Ubu, Loch Marne’s pub…and definitely the dark docks with the flatulent night watchman and his dog in Smoking Mirror. Intoxicating locales, masterfully painted.
• STALKER for simply feeling unlike everything else. A detailed, depressing yet beguiling post-apocalyptic joy. The weather played a big part, as did the acoustics.
• Snatcher is up there, I loved the Neo Kobe nightscape. Those gorgeous pixellated locations, and as much as there was little if no animation within the scenes themselves, the entire mood was set by these detailed and often dark areas.
• X3: Terran Conflict…I guess because it’s so fresh for me at the moment, doing a rags-to-riches run, but as much as the X series fulfils my romantic notions of utterly computerised space – none of this manual control business – simply switching off autopilot to tail an Argon Mammoth superfreighter around, nabbbing the most picturesque screenshots, is a joy fuelled by the kind of space the X series exhibits. I’d agree with @angryjedi that the X universe feels somewhat impersonal, but it’s a bit of a Farcry 2 in that what you bring to the table in terms of drive and imagination can change the game somewhat. A game that allows you to build a narrative dynasty within its world is a winner in my book.
• Funnily enough, Ridge Racer is my favourite gameworld in the racing genre. If you’ll permit me to smugly quote something I wrote a while ago, it sums up my unabashed love for RR, in this case, Ridge Racer 7:

Here’s where I run the risk of developing a case of digital lockjaw for all the subsequent fellatio. In a nutshell, you will race through environments pure and clean; environments seemingly put together under the watchful gaze of a celestial utopian architect; environments so perfect they resemble those miniature models used in showrooms for high-class development projects. The effortless beauty of wind farms dotting the ranges reinforce the crisp, spotless resolve Ridge Racer wants you to envelop yourself in; you marvel at the intentionality of fireworks exploding in the night sky above the neon-lit city – but this is no trendy Fast and the Furious-neon. This is a perfect nightscape. There is no grit, no forced demeanour. The days are sun-soaked, with a perfect balance of colour and tone; the nights an exciting mesh of glowing brilliance. By day, you roar past picturesque lagoons being fed by rich, wide waterfalls and traverse lush mountain passes; by night, you see the ribbon-like trails of opponent taillights shift sideways as the pack drifts around magnificent, floodlit turns on majestic freeways.

The economy of structural design is more about form and clarity of texture than polygon-count, evoking exactly what the game is channelling – that unabashed love for the rollercoaster-ride arcade experience. Big, beautiful, uncomplicated Japanese arcade direction. The important assets are there. High-definition airliners and sleek turbo-props line the tarmac on the airport track, one aircraft descending onto the runway with elephantine grace upon the second lap. A group of gargantuan radio-telescopes line a fresh, green plateau beside another course – not because they *had* to be there, but because they make perfect backdrop sense. Clean technical marvels to mirror a clean, technical Ridge Racer experience. It is just another reassurance of the cohesive drive for design, the striving for something so pure and unadulterated.

If anything, Ridge Racer does not need the ‘real’ to be perfect, more to perfect the ‘real’ by inferring what ‘is’ and doing away with everything but the core essence. If that does not make a play for wankiest internet statement of the millennium, then direct me to my bester, for I obviously need to learn more.

That’s my shortlist.

@RedSwirl By the by, you might be able to nab a review copy of Frozen Synapse if you’re willing to do a review on Bitmob or something. It’s been mentioned on Mode7 Games’ twitter that they’d be fine with throwing people a review copy if they write for a site. Worth a shot at least.

So, any spare copies of Frozen Synapse still laying around here?

@RedSwirl Since you’re an ARMA man and have a penchant for Clancy franchises, may I suggest Ralph Peters’ Red Army? I shan’t say much more than you won’t get a more terrifyingly detailed soldier’s perspective of a fictional late Cold War era conventional invasion of Europe by the Soviet Union. Devoid of politics and from the perspective of the Soviet forces themselves. Peters is classed by many as “the thinking man’s Clancy”, so that might bode well for piquing interest. It’s a terrific read, but only those with an interest in combined arms and modern armour need apply.

Of course, the impact is lessened somewhat by reading it post-Cold War, but still very much a glorious, if highly improbable, “what if” scenario. Think of it as the novel precursor to World in Conflict.

—

Also, folks, just for practice, is everyone okay on UK2 server for Frozen Synapse? Stats across all servers are now cumulative, so there’s no starting from scratch. Looking forward to some coffee break games over the weekend.

@unmanneddrone The sharded servers are just a temporary fix so it may be best to wait until they have a more coherent solution in place before we jump into any serious competition. Stats are tied to individual servers at the moment, so if it looks like your stats have been wiped, it’s because you’re connecting to a different server.

All credit to the Mode 7 team, though, they’re working hard through the weekend to fix this — and communicating with the community about it, too. A lot of companies could learn from it, even if it makes the game less-than-optimum temporarily.

@bowlisimo A good roster, the more the merrier. They’ve added a few different servers, it seems, but games are locked to servers. Once Mode7 get the infrastructure up and running smoothly again, we’ll have to decide on a particular server.

EDIT: An even better bracket site, with randomised list capabilities: http://challonge.com/ – I’ve registered an account, so once we have all the names, we’ll set things in motion for the SoS FS Brain Freeze Tourney – Scrub Cup.

Seems like a player stat wipe, so we’re all freshmen once more!

Potential Contenders for the Squadron of Shame: Brain Freeze? Scrub League 2011

UMD – Pylon_Command
Pete – angryjedi
Beige – Beige
Pilon – mjpilon
Shingro -shingro
Me – Bowlius
(Sinfony?)
(Redswirl?)
Serwyn? – Serwyn (one of my friends)

Best of 3? and what’s at stake here? bragging rights? free Steam game?

The best part of this is we don’t all have to be on at the same time.

@beige Yeah, their servers were overwhelmed after it released on Steam. It went from a server population of, what, 30 at the most at any time to over 500, not to mention the thousands of turns being uploaded around the clock. Ian Hardingham said he counted, within the first couple of hours after the Steam release, that over 3400 matches had taken place. Talk about underestimating awesomeness!

So I JUST checked out a video of this Frozen Synapse that I’ve been ignoring until now and yeah, go ahead and hook me up on it.

Squaddies gone FS-mad. I approve of this sickness, this mania.

@mjpilon Sir, that is some righteous squad love straight up. Terrific stuff.

@Shingro I dunno, I think the best way to learn the basics is simply to jump into multiplayer. Although, the campaign is a great way to slowly build up your knowledge, as the inbuilt “tutorial” offers great scenarios with incremental difficulty to keep you on your toes. Either way, we should collate a list of our in-game names for everyone to add to their FS friends list. For a friendly firefight.

Oh, and apparently they’re going to patch in 2v2 down the line, but it’s a long way out yet. Doubles!

EDIT: This was suggested in answer to the Bracket question. Neat.

@sinfony I have my extra copy since I just bought it. It has just been gifted to you… enjoy!

Indeed, the SoS FS Tourney sounds like a great idea. Lots of modes to mix it up. Looks like Mode7 have underestimated the success of FS, too! Backup servers being cobbled together, site overload, steam keys on a backlog. Great to see, but damn, the little Oxford studio will be burning the midnight oil!

No shit? Well, @Shingro, I guess I was a bit too flippant about SecuRom. 30% is undeniable.

@beige I like that bracket idea, my buddy just got the game too (“Serwyn” you met him briefly at Pax East). There must be a bracketsRus.com where we can set one up.

Now that I have a paying job for the summer, I have a little money to spend on games, so I’ve finally deciding to give FS a try. My username is mjpilon if you want to add me to your lists. I will definitely suck early on but let’s see how this goes

@beige We’ll see what happens with the content pack they’re planning to patch in in a month’s time. Even so, the trajectory of the single player campaign is one of the most intelligent upswings I’ve seen in recent memory.

In terms of poking randoms, I can see the disdain. Although, it really is just someone hitting “find me a game” and hoping for the best. Though, to be honest, our little FS club is all a man needs.

@bowlisimo Bah, you’re too hard on yourself, sir. I’ll feel the David Koresh burn at your hand within the next game or so, undoubtedly.

@beige Your first shotgun guy got wallhacked. Love the zig-zag rocket dodge. Also, c’est la Witcher.

@unmanneddrone My play style? Ummmmm, incorrectly assume you’re going to make a certain action, build up a bunch nonsensical movements to exploit it and be completely wrong. Edit, or sit in a corner and get shot.

@beige Man, what a savage match! Challenge away with the next one when you feel the urge.

@beige From what I understand, your entire FS game archive is able to be accessed through the match history section of your profile. In fact, anyone’s archived matches can be accessed. A lot to glean from said matches…I still haven’t gotten a bead on you or @bowlisimo‘s style of play yet!

Super happy it’s done so well, though. Minecraft is one thing, but to see over 500 people now on the servers, not counting offline challengers and challengees? Great stuff.

By the by, any chance of @rampantbicycle stopping by to give her thoughts on LA Noire?

@beige Very nice, my friend. A gruelling match! Played me like a fiddle. A very interesting one to watch with the replay in the match history, turn by turn. Some terrific movement plotting. I’ve got a bug which freezes the youtube upload recording, so for the moment, I can’t showcase your dominance. Still, folks with FS can go into either of our profiles, check match history and load the game from there.

@feenwager Oof, that’s not good. I suppose there’s always Dungeon Siege 3 to fall back upon, if you need your hack-n-slash console fix that isn’t named Torchlight.

What’s wrong with Daggerdale?

@beige Thanks for the insights into ol’ LA Noire. I’ll get to it someday. I was also curious to hear the Minottis state they don’t think it has much GOTY punch. Granted, a tough year in terms of competition, but surely there’s enough there to warrant some awards – not that any limp-wristed gamer award legitimises artistic credibility.

@bowlisimo It’s looking like Waco now. Do your best, Branch Davidian.

@Shingro Yeah, I cannot stand giant robot anime fare, hence why Patlabor is so beloved. All Japanese robot cartoons, with the exception of Patlabor and perhaps Gasaraki, make me yawn with their toy-manufacture-driven designs. I need something that I can count on will break down or get an oil leak. Something that with blow out a few actuators and have a few guys standing around in white coveralls poke about before trucking it back to the pit. I want machines, not metaphors.

@unmanneddrone Ugh.

LA Noirians, a few questions:

• Heavy Rain and LA Noire…mutually exclusive, or do they share some interesting mechanic/narrative overlap? Obviously, you fellows shredded Heavy Rain quite soundly in the old Squad mission on some levels, but are there some areas where Heavy Rain does a better job than Noire?
• In comparison to certain PC adventure games (Still Life series etc.), are the investigative mechanics similar/dissimilar?
• After hearing those rapscallion Minotti boys suggest the “tell” notion in interrogation isn’t as subtle as it should be, given the animation fidelity, how do you guys find it? Is it at the right level? Is it entirely reliable? Are there deficits?
• Finally, with this tech, what type of story/genre/game would be benefited with such mapping and animation techniques?

@RedSwirl Big hugs and bro-fists, friend. Indeed, anime and manga (I do prefer Mamoru Oshii’s more serious, contemplative tones in the Patlabor movies than the TV series, but they’re all great – even the maligned Wasted XIII and that strange Mini Patlabor hilarity) that illustrates day-to-day trials and tribulations of doing a job gets a big thumbs up. I don’t need much more, honestly.

Cheers for the recommendation on Vinland Saga.

@bowlisimo Wow, our Dark Extermination match is looking kinda gruelling, sir. It’s tit-for-tat thus far, with two MGs a piece ‘raising rabbits in Montana’. Dare I say it, but your shotgunner fills me with unease…Sweeping rooms against such an adversary with an MG? I cannot say I relish this task.

@Shingro I suppose you’re the man to ask; how’s Planetes regarded in the anime fan community? Outside a few niggling character issues, I goddamn love that series. That and the Patlabor movies/TV series are the old stalwarts…love ‘em. Any show that breaks down mecha to ostensibly bipedal tractors and celebrates the lives of orbital garbage men (or trash collectors to you NA’ers) is a winner in my book.

—

And this week is a good week! Brink finally unlocks for me on Steam – Thanks Gabe, because importing the physical copy to circumvent the Japanese release date, only to be met by two weeks of waiting is exactly what I wanted – as well as Frozen Synapse releasing (keys for the Steam version will be available for pre-order gentry, @angryjedi @beige and @bowlisimo), plus the terrific King Arthur Collection coming out today!

Expect a little musing on King Arthur. Finally having all the DLC/expansions in one fell swoop will add a good few new dimensions. A dark fantasy take on the Arthurian climb to power, an RPG multi-character/general development aspect atop an empire builder with tactical Total War-esque combat. With text-based adventure quests within. And loot. With city management. Yes.

All one needs now is time.

@sinfony I like the cut of your jib, sir. Nothing like a flawed misbegotten title to squeeze some fun out of. I dunno, as much as the triple A titles are all that and a basket of truffles, there’s a weird sense of satisfaction to gain from mucking about in games that are essentially failures in the mainstream’s eyes.

@beige I tell you what, it was a slightly-less dramatic ending to an otherwise carnage-ridden round! Good game, sir.

@beige Wow, our Charge match has turned into something rather harrowing! Two metres from the touchdown and my shotgun winger has been splattered by a calm and collected Whiting MG. Now, it’s MG vs. MG, with a rewound starting run at the end third from the goal.

The next few rounds are going to be chin-stroking to the point of requiring skin grafts. Needless to say, this one is going off to Youtube upon the finale.

Due to the recent unveiling of Eugen’s new cold war RTS, I’ve gone back to World in Conflict (the complete edition, with Soviet Assault) and it reaffirms what a shame it is that Massive Entertainment is now attached to the bloody Assassin’s Creed: Revelations game. What a waste of talent for a team that has serious strategic chops. Not to mention, they’ve done more for storytelling in the genre via WiC than pretty much anyone else – Blizzard included.

Speaking of Ubisoft transgressions, I wish they’d unshelve Endwar 2 as well. Poor ol’ Michael de Plater.

And fellows, the Frozen Synapse matches have been brutal. Keep those muzzles flashing and the blood spilling.

I empathise with the FS woes, but I stand by the ‘few turns a day’ mode of getting the vibe of the thing down pat. But hey, the campaign is terrific, too.

In other news…wonderful news. Gorgeous news. Eugen Systems, the fellows behind my beloved RUSE, have unveiled their new title, slated for 2012. Let me quote:

Wargame: European Escalation features intense real-time battles, stunning graphics, and the amazing IRISZOOM™ system, which allows a continuous zoom from a global view of the map to the heart of the action. With real strategic gameplay, rich content, integration of EugenNet© and its numerous online services, Wargame: European Escalation will unite all the world’s biggest strategy fans.

Set in the rarely explored period of 1975-1985, Wargame: European Escalation pits NATO (USA and Western Europe) against the Warsaw Pact (Soviet and Eastern European countries) in battles that explore “what could have been.” The specter of nuclear warfare loomed large over the real Cold War, but this catastrophic outcome was the ultimate last resort as everyone knew that the first one to start nuclear hostilities would end up wiped out just the same. Large, armored offensives through Europe would certainly have been the core of this hypothetical war; and this is what the game’s explosive campaign takes you through!

So, we’re looking at another operational-level RTS with modern armour. It’s essentially Ralph Peters Red Army novel come to life. World in Conflict remains terrific, but it’s the scope of Eugen’s previous effort that should really drive home the distances modern era tanks engage at with W:EE.

But more importantly, the expansion pack opportunities with the game are positively tantalising. The Six Day War, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan…lots of interesting engagements that don’t really make it out of grognard hex-based wargaming and into the relative mainstream.

Super keen. Straight to the top of the most-wanted list.

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EDIT: And the Frozen Synapse Launch Trailer is here, lads!

Gorgeous!

@beige Trust me, that last move looked really awesome when I tested it. Ugh.

No good at frozen craps.

@beige If you look up on the top taskbar, you’ll be able to find your friends list. Within that, you can add a friend/username without them being online. You’ll also be able to see who has added you to their friends list, so it’s a fairly easy operation to track down Squaddies. After that, a challenge is only a double-click to their profile away.

@bowlisimo You’ve got a swathe of options in the advanced options on the challenge tab. It’s incredibly detailed, so worth a look around in it. That said, throw a challenge my way and more often than not, you’ll get a squad spawn. Ian Hardingham, the head developer, runs a pretty good dev blog on FS, and had a recent little post on asymmetry, with the choice end quote of:

There are lots of people who feel very strongly that a game has to be “fair” to be fun. I understand where these guys are coming from – and of course FS has options for fully symetrical maps as well as teams – but I think it’s overly limiting to design. The best game memories are of getting out of a tricky situation when the odds were against you, after all.

I can’t but help agree with him on that. Even if it’s a differentiation in loadout. Having a game of Charge (think NFL touchdown with weaponry – it’s a fantastic mode!) with @angryjedi and in one particular game, I’ve two MGs and a shotgun to make an end-zone run under fire from Pete’s RPG, sniper and MG team. It’s a tough, thought-provoking mode that has done wonders in helping my understanding of fields of fire and critical pathing.

In regards to camping, there’s certainly no problem with it, but the shorter round games certainly make a case for the best defence being a good offence. Oh, and during my arduous matches with Pete, I’ve found the RPG to be a godsend in opening up vectors for other troops’ FOF than simply being a solely offensive weapon.