Tonight's biggie: I'm trying a demo for a game called Space War Commander .  I think I will probably wind up buying this.  This game seems like a streamlined RTS done with simple 2D graphics: by some amazing coincidence, recently I was actually putting on my game-designer hat and pondering the same concept! (Actually, I was inspired by a little joke-game called The Linear RPG , which streamlines the gameplay of a Japanese-style linear RPG to the point where you are walking a stick...

I was just at a Gamestop, and I saw Demigod sitting on the PC games shelf.  I asked a salesman if this was out already, and he said "it seems to be."  Odd. 

Okay, so why am I starting this blog? First, it's free.  Second, I rather like Stardock and Impulse.  I have Galciv 1 & 2 and Sins of a Solar Empire , and I can honestly say that Stardock has yet to have let me down.  Of course, I haven't tried Demigod yet (innocent whistling).  Impulse also works very well.  I especially appreciate the fact that it doesn't need to be running all the time, like Steam (which I also love).  Third, did I mention this ...

As I wrote before, my intention this past weekend was to work on my rented-games-backlog.  Specifically, I wanted to get back to Dead Space .  I had the best of intentions, really.  On Saturday, I made the decision that I wouldn't bother with Demigod : I would concentrate on Dead Space .  I did that.  But, as I was playing Dead Space , I was thinking about Demigod .  It felt dirty to keep on playing Dead Space . I can always go back to Dead Space another ...

A little bit ago, I stumbled across a "game" called The Linear RPG .  I thought this was hilarious: it had the essense of the gameplay for most J-RPG's in the form of guiding a stick-figure person on a line.  I started thinking: how could other game genres be simplified to this form.  The other day, I was chatting with a friend about my thoughts of RTS's.  Here is what I came up with: First, here is my definition of the " Starcraft Model": the game gets super-popula...

First, thanks to everyone that advised me.  Regarding my battleshield cap in Sins of a Solar Empire : all I can say is "duh".  I thought I had researched that second level, but I hadn't.  As for Steam . . . The premise behind how Steam handles DRM is that you can install Steam and all the games on your account on multiple systems, but that you can only log on to Steam on one system.  This makes perfect sense: my license says one user can run the game.  In other wo...

Again, I didn't have much time to continue with my Sins of a Solar Empire game last night.  I wasn't expecting much: I assumed I was at the "mop up remaining planets" phase.  Well . . . not quite.  I had one colony's loyalty dropping: I wasn't expecting that.  The pirates are gone and can't launch huge attacks, I was expecting a somewhat more relaxed pace.  Nope: now the other empire has noticed me, and has been pretty regularly launching huge attacks.  I won...

I didn't have much time tonight to really go at it with my current game of Sins of a Solar Empire .  I think I'm now in the mandatory "I have a huge fleet, plenty of planets generating tons of ships, and now I'm going from planet to planet mopping up" phase.  I wiped out the pirates and now I've taken an enemy planet: damn those were some huge and spectacular battles! In many ways, Sins reminds me of Kohan .  Kohan , for example, was the first RTS I remember where you coul...

I don't know what it is about Sins of a Solar Empire .  I dabble in the game, fire up a random map and mess around for a bit.  Then, I save it and say "I'll get back to that game later."  The next time, I start again.  I have yet to have actually finished a game of Sins .  Maybe it's that these random maps take so long.  I'm trying again: let's see if I can make myself push through small random map.  I'm about 2 1/2 hours into it, and I'm now at the point whe...

I've had a few good Demigod matches (by "good", I mean that I didn't suck and my team actually won), but I find myself haunted by a little question . . . was I actually playing multiplayer?  Does anyone out there know if there is an easy way to spot if other players are AI?  Anyway, I've been mucking around with Empire: Total War .  At this point, I have determined that I am playing altogether too many strategy games, and perhaps this would be a good time to go back to FPS's...

I just played a really exciting match of Demigod .  It didn't take long to get in to the 2 vs. 2 match (matchmaking has improved, it would seem), the connection was smooth, my team won, and I actually felt useful . . . in fact, I did really well! I think we need to deal with a little reality with Demigod : once they fix the matchmaking, this game WILL be the Game of the Year.  The gaming world for the rest of the year is suddenly a whole lot less interesting.

In a fit of apparent masochism, I have tried playing Demigod using my laptop's glide-pad.  It actually works, but . . . well . . . why?  Anyway, last night I encountered a bug, and I'm not sure if it is with Demigod or if it is some sort of "gotcha" with the glidepad-and- Demigod combination. Basically, the mouse cursor worked fine for clicking on, say, the Citadel or right-clicking to tell my character where to go.  No problem there.  The problem was that the HUD sto...

I decided to try Battleforge , as the idea sounded intriguing.  I've only played the first two single-player missions, so I don't really know what to think of this game.  So far, I'm seeing some interesting ideas that might or might not work . . . This is basically a combination of a trading card "Magic: The Gathering"-type game and an RTS.  Unlike other games of this sort that I've tried, this isn't a "straight duel".  Once you use a card to, say, summon a monster, the m...

The other day, I purchased a new laptop.  When deciding which-one-do-I-want, I did the "graphics adapter search", going down the shelf to see the cheapest one I could find that had a real graphics adapter.  I wound up buying the Asus G50VT-X5, which has a Dual Core 2 and an Nvidia Geforce card.  (So far, my only problem with this laptop is that when I boot up, it connects to my wireless adapter for "local only": I need to reset the wireless adapter each time in order to get Int...

Cutting to the chase: my favorite gaming podcast is "Three Moves Ahead".  There's one big reason for that: this is a gaming podcast that actually is about gaming.  On occasion, I do enjoy the informal a-couple-of-friends-together joking-around-and-occasionally-talking-about-games podcasts, but lately I have found I lack the patience for them.  "Three Moves Ahead" talks about gaming, and talks about gaming in depth. This podcast, by the way, is responsible for two recent ga...