If you take my two favorite multiplayer strategy games of all time and mixed ’em together, you would brew something like this.
My love of the Advance Wars series runs deep. I own all the games in the series and have beaten them all on both regular and hard campaigns. Back in the retail days, Irving and I used to play the game regularly on Sundays at work. It’s the perfect game to play while contending with hordes of gamers; you can simply put the GBA down and help the customer without worry of your army being trounced during the interim. Sadly, the game fell to the side when I got too good at it and Irving didn’t have the time or inclination to become better. However, our Advance Wars matches gave way to a far more sinister, dark, and insanely fun game.
Then there is Starcraft. The game is still popular as ever, even at ten years old. Some of its looks and play mechanics may seem antiquated next to modern strategy titles, but the game is still one of the best and most balanced RTS titles ever made. With the advent of Starcraft 2, the series will receive a fresh coat of graphical paint and a complete overhauling of the game’s control mechanics.
This is both good and bad. The good is that sporting an updated look will help attract new players to the series; conversely, the bad is that those same players will help themselves to a heaping helping of trouncing by existing veteran players on Battle.net. With the game’s new streamlined control scheme, Starcraft will be a lot easier for newer players to get better quicker and hang with current Starcraft tacticians. Honestly, if new players can stay in there and light a competitive fire in their guts, they can compete and overcome older, more experienced Starcraft players. If the multiplayer proves too daunting, or you just don’t want to play the game competitively, then you can always kick back and enjoy the single player campaign. Fan-made campaigns will be available to download after the map maker is messed around with for a few months.
Finally, a huge portion of the Monday Night Crew will be making our way to PAX this year and we will be looking forward to meeting anybody who wants to chat. The easiest place to spot us will be at round one of the Omegathon, being held in the PC Freeplay area. You can’t miss us. I’ll be the guy sweating bullets at Peggle and the rest of the guys will be mentally willing the marble to bounce into the catcher at the bottom. Hope to see you there!
- Dover
The MNC at PAX! It should be fun this year, and I will be in attendance for the third time (05 and 07, previously). I always enjoy my yearly gaming nerd vacation, and I look forward to some West Coast time. Mortimer, Jason, Philbert, Derek, Stephanie, Brian, Rick, and Dexter will also be on hand from our crew.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky has just been completed and is confirmed for a September 5 ship date. The first game captured my interest for a good bit following its download from Steam. For whatever reason, as much as I cannot squeeze any fun out of the Oblivion fruit, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. very much appealed to me. Perhaps if Oblivion boasted a Vintar BC as selectable weaponry, or the pervasive threat of radiation poisoning. On a semi-related note, typing acronyms makes my ring finger sore.
Air Traffic Chaos seems just batty and Japanese-y to warrant a purchase. After trying the DS demo from the Wii’s Nintendo Channel, I felt justified holding out hope that the portable game which loosely simulates the work shift of an air traffic controller for a large metropolitan airport may be just as awesome as it sounds. The previous statement is an illustration of thoughts you should retain in your head when reading any opinion that I may have about a game. I cannot stress that enough.
Racket Boy has kept the retro flame burning for years, and I wanted to throw up a link to the site. It is a simple site, but brimming with retro gaming info. I read it often. It feels good to share.
- Irving