#NerdsUnite: Command & Conquer Goes Free to Play

 <editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

Strategy fans everywhere died a little inside earlier this week, when the long awaited Command & Conquer Generals 2 was cancelled and out of its wreckage came free to play Command & Conquer. What has happened to the once massive Command & Conquer franchise? Their last real game was pretty mediocre, you know, the one with space ships, and since then EA has just been throwing around the name merely for its popularity. Free to play doesn't necessarily make a game bad, but few games have done F2P in a way that doesn't frustrate and sever the community. There is hope for F2P RTSs with the upcoming End of Nations, but I can only imagine the horrors that await us with the next Command & Conquer. I don't want to be biased just because it is EA, but look at what they did with Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances.

Do strategy fans want Facebook in their strategy games?

No, no they do not.

This was just announced on Wednesday and it is following the announcement about Sim City turning into a social game, not so much a deep city building sim. (Check out their newest trailer for Sim City here here.)

They are taking both of these once beloved franchises and turning them into twisted creations that do not represent what made them popular in the first place.

Take a look at this announcement trailer for the new Command & Conquer.

Command & Conquer does have a great engine with destructible environments, The Frostbite 2 engine, which is what Battlefield 3 uses, and it looks visually impressive as a result, but they really need to show off some gameplay so we can see how they are going to handle that.

Are there going to be tanks or jets that are far superior that we have to buy with real money? Or will we have to share things with friends in order to receive energy that we use to build new units?

I hope neither and I hope it is great, but my hope is fleeting and I'm still glad there are games like Company of Heroes 2 in the world.

If you would like to check it out yourself or try to get into the beta for Command & Conquer head on over to their main website. I used to love this series, but EA is showing exactly why a great many gamers are coming to despise them.

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#NerdsUnite: Violent Gamer Review (Spelunky)

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

There are so many ways to die in Spelunky and as frustrating at it is, it is so very fun. I've earned fifty deaths in the XBLA version of this rogue-like platformer and I still love it. If you are a PC Gamer you may have played the free PC version at some point or another, which can now be played in your browser, and the developers are still updating that. Derek Yu is still the main developer, but he also has two other people working with him on the game. The Xbox Live Arcade version does have a bit different than the PC version and let me spend a paragraph explaining some of those differences, but before I go into that, a quick explanation for those who don't know of Spelunky.

Spelunky is a game that harnesses the idea of being Indiana Jones and exploring a dangerous treasure filled world of snakes, spiders, skeletons, hornets, frogs, snowmen and so much more. You start in the mines and you make your way further and further down, eventually reaching the jungle, then the ice caverns, then the temple. Each time you enter a level it is randomly generated so every time you go through an area it feels unique. When you die, which is very easy to do and you will die a lot, you start over from the beginning with nothing other than four bombs and four ropes, which you always start with. Each time you enter a new section, like the jungle or ice caverns, there is a man who approaches you and asks for some supplies. If you give him enough supplies you can unlock shortcuts to each area, but the supplies get harder to obtain as you get farther down and you can only give him one thing per playthrough, so you can't instantly unlock a shortcut even if you have tons of money, bombs, ropes and whatever else. It is a very hard game, but the challenge is immensely enjoyable in the same way that people enjoy games like Dark Souls or Dwarf Fortress.

When I first started playing Spelunky on XBLA I thought that multiplayer was online and local, but I was disappointed to learn that it is only local. Local multiplayer is plenty of fun, but it is pretty restrictive, especially in adventure mode. There is a deathmatch mode, but it isn't too exciting without at least two other people and adventure mode feels like the main attraction of multiplayer. In adventure mode you can play with three other players and the screen is focused just on the first player, so if you accidently lose other players then you only have a short period of time to find them or they will die. However, death isn't a huge deal in multiplayer.You can find coffins, like the ones in singleplayer, but these coffins will bring back other players and while they are dead they act as ghosts. As ghosts you can set off traps, move objects, disturb enemies and just generally mess with the environment. Multiplayer is pretty good, even without split screen, but it would be even more enjoyable if you could play with friends over Xbox Live.

If you want to check out Spelunky in action and even with Derek Yu, the main developer, then take a look at this video by Rev3Games. It is lovely and it appropriately expresses my own frustration at the games difficulty, but I wouldn't dare make it easier. The video is fairly long, 18 minutes, but skip to six minutes in it if you want to just see the XBLA version being played by Derek.

Last Comments

Spelunky is awesome, that is all. If you like platformers you really need to give it a try and it does have a demo like all XBLA games. If you happen to like platformers and rogue-like games that have permadeath, then Spelunky is especially for you and you should be able to love it so much that it might just justify the outrageous cost of Xbox Live. If you don't have a Xbox 360, do try the free PC version. Sure it isn't as pretty, but it is still impressive and possibly even more challenging due to the controls. Spelunky costs $15 on XBLA and it is one of my favorite games of the year so far. Thanks for checking it out and reading. 

Main Website: http://spelunkyworld.com/

Violent Score: 4.5 (out of 5)

If multiplayer was a little bit better, and online instead of local only, then this would have been a perfect score. 

-Written by Sean Cargle

#GameReview: The War Z

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

Arktos Entertainment and Hammerpoint Interactive announced The War Z, a zombie survival MMO that will put up to two hundred and fifty players in a large area and let them try to survive. Before you say Day Z is better or write it off as a Day Z clone, you should take a look all of the details. They are both zombie games, for sure, but otherwise they are very different. The War Z is indeed an MMO and it will be exclusively for PC. You will be able to play the game in normal mode, where death is merely a setback and you don't permanently die, or in hardcore mode, where your character will permanently die if you are killed. There are strong RPG elements like quests and experience/leveling. Each map will be between 200 and 400 square kilo-meters, which is about 250 miles at max, and players will be able to cooperate or kill each other. It isn't going to be as much of an open sandbox world as Day Z, mainly because there will be safe settlements where players can buy or sell items and leave notes for other players, but it still looks like it has a lot to offer.

Here is the initial list of the features in The War Z:

• Survival Horror MMO with entire game world build around a Zombie Apocalypse
• Two modes of play: Normal (downed characters can be revived after “cool down” period) and Hardcore (death will be permanent)
• Ability to switch between first-person (FPS) and third-person (TPS) perspectives
• Huge maps ranging between 200 and 400 square kilometers
• Meld of PvE (player versus environment) and PvP (player versus player) gameplay
• Unique social elements, including bounties, rewards, help requests, trap setting, etc.
• Safe Settlements: safe cities within the world where players can purchase, sell and store items as well as post notes for other players
• Single purchase, downloadable client with ability to play full game without subscriptions or requiring in-game transactions
• Full developer support with regularly scheduled, free content updates
• Dedicated public servers as well as private servers that can be completely self-managed in game client

One of the first things I wanted to note, in case you missed it in that list, was the pricing model of The War Z. Everyone is always worried about anything labeled MMO and how that means it will gouge them of money, but fear not, The War Z will be available for one single purchase, no subscription, and it will be regularly updated with free content. Sounds too good to be true and it kind of is. There will be microtranscations, but they are doing it like many other these days were all microtransactions do is save time for those who don't have it. They won't provide better weapons or equipment and everything you purchase with real money may also be purchased with in-game currency. You will be able to easily play the game without buying anything with real money and they just wanted to add the microtranscation as a convenient option. 

The War Z will have you scavenging for supplies, fighting off infection and leveling up your character. It has strong RPG elements and you will be able to earn experience, level up and learn new skills that will help you survive. You will also be earn in-game money and purchase supplies in the previously mentioned safe settlements. You will join a game through servers and you will be able to make friends and easily join them on whatever server they are on, or you may even go into a server as a group. Since The War Z is mainly a RPG there will be quests in the game. Initially they thought to have you unlock new areas through quests, like a traditional RPG, but they were inspired by Day Z to drop that idea and to make the world open from the start.

The first world they are going to release will be called Colorado and they will periodically release more based off real places like New York or Los Angeles. This will all be released free to anyone who owns the game. Story wise the game is set five years after a zombie apocalypse and the world is left with few survivors, few supplies, destroyed cities and a few zombies are starting to evolve into something more.  Around the world there will be discarded notes and diaries that will reveal stories and information about the world. The notes and diaries aren't just for lore either, some of them will allow you to find hidden equipment or supplies if you read them carefully. There will also be notes left by other players, which could lead to your demise or end up helping you, depends entirely on them.

The War Z is a survival game, so you will have to eat and drink to survive, but you will also have to find medical supplies to heal injures. All of that is minor compared to the zombie virus, if you get infected with that you are in a trouble. Hopefully you will have a vaccine, but otherwise you will have to call for help from others or find one before you turn into a zombie. The developers haven't clarified what happens once you turn into zombie, like I would love to know if you will just die and have to create a new character, even on normal ,or if the the player have some kind of control over the zombie. It would also be interesting if player zombies were different from other zombies, like maybe they carried a portion of that persons supplies still on them and looked like a fresher zombie.

Like Day Z, The War Z doesn't have a specific goal for players other than survive as long as you can. There is no max level for your characters, but you can complete 100% of a world. There will be missions that you have to complete in order to achieve that and there will be leaderboards as well, all of which will be separate for the two different difficulty modes. Servers can be mixed difficulties, meaning hardcore and normal characters can both be playing on it, or specifically one. If you are on a hardcore server there will be rare and special gear that you can only earn there. Throughout the world there will also be memories, which are story sections of some kind that you can play through cooperatively with friends.

The War Z will be $30 with no subscriptions and a decent sounding micortranscation system (explained in the second paragraph of the post). They are currently in alpha and they are going to be running a beta later this summer for people who sign up on their website or those who pre-order the game, which you currently can't do. They are trying to release the game this fall, but we will see how that all turns and there are many elements of the game that I need to see in action before I am sold. However, I am very excited to see developers taking note of the popularity of Day Z and deciding to go in similar directions, which can only lead to good things. All information is taken from The War Z press release, but it is also from this splendid IGN interview that was put up today. Check that out for more, especially since I didn't cover everything they went over and they have some exclusive screenshots. Thanks for reading!

Main Website: http://thewarz.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/warzmmo

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#GameReview: Another Rome

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

You know when something shows up in an upcoming magazine it is all but confirmed, like I talked about in my previous post about Rome II, but recently Creative Assembly has confirmed and revealed a great detail about Rome II. They did it all in anticipation of Rezzed, the new indie games show in England that is going to be on July 6th and 7th. There be a bit more coming from that show later in the week, but for now we have plenty to talk about with Rome II.

The Total War series, which Rome II is part of, are a series of real time strategy games that have taken PC gamers through many different war-like periods of history, like Medieval Europe, Colonial America, feudal Japan and more. The newest games in the series are Shogun 2, Empire and Medieval II. If you would like to know more about their newest game, Shogun 2, check out my review here, but for the rest of this I will be focusing on Rome II.

If you've played Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai then you may be able to guess where Creative Assembly (CA) was heading with navies. In Rome II navies will no longer be off on the side lines or supporting your troops with bombardment from off-map, they are now on the same battle map as the rest of your armies and will be integral part of attacking any city near the sea. They way they showed off this off was with a visual demo of the battle of Carthage. Presumably this was one of CA's historical scenarios, since it involved the  Carthaginians holding off a siege for two years and then finally falling to Roman might. Ships swarmed the harbor, legions rolled over the walls and through the streets, and Rome was victorious, but they used this battle to show off the new naval combat, the massive size of your armies and the way cities will be different than the first Rome: Total War.

Now for some general details on Rome II. They are going to have a larger map than the first Rome and it will encompass all of Europe and parts of Africa, but now they are going to expanding it farther to the east. You will apparently being able to play as any country or faction, which is similar to the first Rome. I'm hoping it will be like the first Rome in the sense that you have to destroy a country or win with certain countries in order to unlock more countries to play as. On the world map there will also be trigger-able events that will require the player to deal with something that doesn't merely involve military might. These events will have consequences and serious dilemma's, plus they will be trigger-able no matter what country you are playing as.

As you fight your way across the world, at least as the Romans, you will be thinking in grander strategy terms than any other Total War game. You will still have specific units that are better versus other types of units, like spears win against cavalry etc., but with Rome they are going for fewer battles, a bit less micromanagement and larger battles. Creative Assembly wants you thinking about leading legions, not groups of several hundred soldiers. Legions will be able to earn traits from combat and will feel more like unique units, which sounds a bit like how they handled armies in Shogun 2 multiplayer. All of this information so far is from Rock Paper Shotgun's preview of Rome II and much of it is yet to be proved, but there is more to go through and learn about Rome.

There is also an interview with the lead designer of Total War: Rome II, James Russell, that reveals quite a bit about all of that basic information. One of the first thing he talks about is how you still get the option of viewing a battle from many different angles. You can still zoom up to the shoulder of a soldier and watch him battle his way through hordes of enemies or you can zoom way out and view the whole spectacle in a strategic view. With terms of scale the amount of units in a battle will be similar to Fall of the Samurai, which was capped at about forty units. To make the battles bigger they are doing things like making larger units, like legions or boat groups that consist of several boat and not just one. The environments are also going to be very large in scale in order to make each battle feel epic. They don't want to just make more units and increase the amount of micromanaging you have to do.

Lastly I will leave you with this live-action trailer for Rome II that Creative Assembly put together. It isn't HBO's Rome, but it may just get you in the mood. Although, I will feel sorry for you if it does get you all excited for Rome II because it doesn't come out till late next year. Anyways, check that out and thanks for reading all of this.  Click here for the main website

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#NerdsUnite: Dishonored E3 Presentation Revealed

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Sean. He has a really rad site called Violent Gamer, and he's here today to talk about some of the latest and greatest in the gaming industry. I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT SEAN !!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @violent_gamer

One of my largest posts from E3 was about the Dishonored presentation and demo, seen here, and now they are showing off everything that we experienced except for the demo level. The presentation is a little bit different and more smooth, which actually made it less interesting to me because the player seems to make it all look too easy, but it is the same level and a very similar developer commentary. If you don't know Dishonored let me give you a brief overview. It is a sci-fi game that puts you in control of a supernatural assassin who is trying to get revenge on a whole ton of people who framed him for the death of The Empress. It is a mix of Bioshock and Assassin's Creed, but it still feels unique due to its first person melee combat and non-linear approach to level design. It is also very violent and has a focus on giving the player choices in every level. It is being made by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It will be coming out on October 9th for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Arkane Studios broke up their Dishonored E3 presentation into two videos. If you read my lengthy preview before then you will recognize a lot in the videos and the commentary may be a bit redundant, but for everyone else this information is pretty fresh and wasn't revealed prior to E3. The first video has the player going through a level with stealth in mind. He is trying his best not to alert guards or kill innocents. As a result this video is a bit longer than the second playthrough and is about fourteen minutes long.I must warn that both of these videos make the game look very easy, but they are cheating a bit and have everything unlocked, plus whoever is demoing the level intimately knows it. Check out the Golden Cat and see how the player can use the level and his powers to make stealth a viable option.

The second video has the player taking a different approach, a more direct approach. In this one they are displaying the many ways you can go through that same level, the Golden Cat, and how many different ways you can approach combat. Normally you wouldn't have so many different weapons and powers to kill your enemies with, but like I said earlier they everything unlocked for this demo and they do try to show off many of the different weapons. This playthrough is very brutal, but you may also notice that it is a lot tougher to play the game this way. The player is fighting through the Golden Cat killing everyone he sees, but with that he also has use to a lot of healing and power stims. The second part of this second video is a short section showing off the Tallboys (seen in the first screenshot way up there). Here is part 2 of the E3 gameplay walkthrough.

Now you all have seen everything we saw at E3, except we did of course get to play a short demo that is not shown in either of these videos. I talked about the demo at the end of my E3 post, but let's just say it wasn't quite as open or polished as the presentation. It was still pretty fun though and some sections did have quite a few options presented to the player. It was also a bit tough and both Adam and I made some serious mistakes going through it. Thanks for checking out the videos and if you want to know more about Dishonored take a look at the their website below. 

Main Website: http://www.dishonored.com/#/home

-Written by Sean Cargle

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