The Earth-Toned Pill

For those of you who never heard of the book Jennifer Government by Max Barry or of the popular browser-based game NationStates that it directly inspired, the long-awaited sequel to the game is now in open beta!

NationStates 2 promises to expand on the strengths of the original game while also formalizing such things as war, which in NationStates had to be completely roleplayed, or RP'd.

Part of the draw to nationstates is the fact that it can be as simple or complex as you like.

At its most simplistic, you can go and create a nation and watch it grow before your eyes, all the while you are given choices to make that affect your nation's policial and social freedoms, as well as your economy.

But the roleplay element is where NationStates really comes into its own, with each player having the ability to steer their nation through international affairs by way of writing posts on the forums, where proper roleplay etiquitte is strictly enforced.

For those who love to write or want to improve their writing skills while also having fun with others of like mind, there isn't a better way to spend a few hours here and there.

Unfortunately, my time is too limited to be able to post much on the forums. (I think I average a post a month) But for me it is a great thing to be able to hop on every once in awhile and work on my writing skills while also further developing the continuing story of my great little country, Tilsitsin.

If you have a few minutes to kill on the web, stop by and visit my country. (and even create one of your own!)

Today I went to a local Gamestop store in Sanford on my lunch to spend my hard-earned giftcard that I got for doing online surveys. I was thinking about finally getting the Orange Box, because it kills me that nearly everyone I know owns it (including Catie's DAD), but I don't. So when I walked in the door, I made my way past wall upon wall of consoles titles, finally shuffling my way over to their pathetically-small stand of PC games, I was delighted to find one last copy of the Orange Box waiting there just for me.

I grabbed it and walked straight up to the counter to wait behind a grandmother that must have been no older than 60 and her two grandkids who were checking out. The oldest kid, no more than 12 years old, was trying to get granny to buy him Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, part of the infamous series of games that brought you such things as the hot coffee mod. To my total surprise, the first thing the clerk did after picking up the game to ring it up was to look at the kid directly and ask him 'so should I tell her about it or do you want to'. At that moment in my mind, it were as if thousands were madly cheering the entrance of a beloved gladiator into the Colosseum.

After seeing the blank expression on the kid's face, the clerk then went on to bluntly (but respectfully) explain why she might not want to buy this particular game for her grandson. To my irritation, the grandmother tried playing ignorant at first, happy to just let the child have what he wanted because she didn't quite understand. But I was amazed when the clerk persisted and said to her 'maybe you want to talk to mom or dad before you do this?'. By that point, the kid was one long blank expression. I suppose if he were a bit older, he'd actually be pissed off at this guy. But the grandmother did call the mom right there, and after grandma mentioned the magic 'grand theft auto' words to mom, she immediately looked at her grandson and tersely remarked 'she said no way'.

That was the end of that.

But the guy didn't just let the kid walk away defeated and humiliated. He quickly handed it back to the kid and said 'check out a few of the others we have in there and tell me what you think.' Not once did he say or do anything to make the kid or granny feel like crap or want to leave. He simply did what he should have morally and professionally. In the end, the kid walked out with a copy of Medal of Honor: Rising Sun. No, it's not GTA, but yes, much more appropriate for him.

I didn't want to make a big deal out of that situation, but I feel horrible now for not commending that guy on how he handled that situation. If only that happened everywhere, every time, it would make a serious difference in how kids interacted with games.

I can also only hope that parents, grandparents, etc, stop buying things for kids when they have no business doing so...

I've been a gamer ever since I first set foot in my grandfather's arcade in 1983, and of all the possible types of game out there I've always been a strategy gamer at heart. I've also always been a fan of science fiction in all its forms since as far back as I can recall. So when the first Master of Orion game released in 93, I was in strategy gaming heaven. MOO, as it would come to be called, embodied the apex of the 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) genre.

MOO's sequel, 1999's Master of Orion 2, was even better and was actually a game that I have probably spent at least a full month of my life playing. For me it will also forever be the one game that caused my army buddy Mike and I to not speak for a week after one particular hotseat game where I used shrewd diplomacy to cause all the AI races to declare war on him. For years, and really until MOO3 came out, this was my game. But when MOO3 did release, instead of being the next king of the palace, it turned out to be the king of the rubbish pile, forever burning me on the MOO series.

It was about this time that I got into the Galactic Civilizations series, very much like MOO, but not so much as to be a clone. I was instantly hooked, and every sequel and expansion pack thats come from developer Stardock has been nothing short of amazing. So now to the point, being that I write this post today to celebrate the latest expansion pack release for GalCiv2, entitled Twilight of the Arnor. I bought it a few days ago, and I have to say it is quite possibly the best money I've ever spent on a game. Check out the review G4TV did on X-Play:

Without a doubt, this is one to try if you are even remotely interested in strategy gaming. The AI is amazing, the twists and turns breathtaking. And win or lose, I guarantee you'll love every new game of it that you start.

Before I get into the meat of this review, let me start by telling everyone what 'Sins' is and isn't... This game is a space-based 4x-type (eXplore-eXpand-eXploit-eXterminate) realtime strategy game. This game is not Master of Orion, Homeworld or Medieval: Total War (in space)...

So with that said, I'll continue...

Sins of a Solar Empire, or simply 'Sins', is a new strategy offering by developer Ironclad Games utilizing their propriety 'Iron' engine and published by our friends over at Stardock. Stardock has become famous the world over for their excellent gaming and productivity software, developing and releasing suck products as Galactic Civilizations 1 and 2, Windowblinds and Object Desktop. Stardock has become quite admired by many in the gaming community (including myself) for their stance on the use of DRM software. For this reason alone, a lot of gamers have given their products a try and the result has been a truly great developer-gamer relationship.

Whereas the Galactic Civilizations franchise effectively 'rebooted' the turn-based 4X experience that was left dying on the vine after the Master of Orion 3 fiasco, Ironclad clearly set out to go a step further create an RTS game that had all the excitement of realtime play with all the depth and tactics of a great strategy game. For the most part, I think Ironclad knocked one completely out of the park!

The game features 3 distinct races of a somewhat familiar format. The TEC (Trade Emergency Coalition) are the Terran race of the game, the Advent are the psychics, and the Vasari are the wunderkind advanced tech race. A typical game scenario has two or more races/players fighting against each other for military, economic and cultural control of a star system.

Where the game really shines is in it's use of the new 'Iron' engine, which allows you to seamlessly scale in and out of the action a-la Supreme Commander. You also have full 360 degree camera control, allowing you to focus in as far as an individual starfighter at any angle, or out far enough to see the entire star system. Although there are technically 3 dimensions of actions, the gameplay really focuses on only 2 dimensions and this is where Homeworld fans might be slightly dissapointed.

The overall format and gameplay are very remniscent of Ubi Soft's earlier Conquest: Frontier Wars in many ways,which I enjoyed a great deal. The combat in both games is similiar, with ships being of the rock-paper-scissors variety that encourage a combined arms approach to ship combat. But Sins takes this formula and totally runs with it. In addition to the scalable interface and RTS gameplay, Sins comfortably integrates in cultural, trade and research elements that fit well and provide another great dimension to the game.

Another thing the developers chose to add in the game are space pirates. On Stardock's official Sins forum, it already appears as though people either love or hate the pirates. Pirates in Sins provide you (and your opponents) with what are essentially mercenaries that can be hired to attack your opponent. The player that bids the most money in a given time period is essentially spared a pirate attack on one of their systems while their enemy is forced to fend them off. Pirates as an offensive threat can be eliminated however by detroying their well-fortified homeworld. At first I was annoyed by the inclusion of space pirates, but after getting used to planning for their use and attacks, I have to say I've grown to love that element of the game too.

One thing that I noticed quickly that was completely missing from the game was ground combat.Instead of building transports to haul troops in to invade a planet, you basically have to bombard a planet until it's a dustball and then 'colonize' it. This is the one big thing that I thought Ironclad could have done better, but even with this omission 'Sins' is still far superior to many of its contemporaries.

The bottom line:

Pros: Realtime gameplay, scalable interface, beautiful fleet battles, excellent tech integration, cool ships/races, no DRM, and Stardock is the publisher!

Cons: No ground combat, pirates are a slightly annoying element, combat can be slow and bland at times.

Final Word: If you love RTS or general strategy games, pick this one up. To not play it would be to miss out on an early contender for strategy game of the year!

I have to admit, StarDock is one of my favorite gaming companies, and the Galactic Civilizations series is one of my favorite gaming franchises. Seriously, what gamer doesn't love a gaming company that is totally against highly annoying DRM integration for games??

So I'll get to the point: On the GalCiv website they've been pushing a new game called Sins of a Solar Empire (SoaSE) in various news posts. I've been lukewarm on it until I saw this recently:

Thanks to the GalCiv website for the vid link!