Tag: Gaming

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest and the journey into Space War

In the year 2002, Empire Earth got its only expansion pack, the Art of Conquest. The main addition to the maps in the game was the inclusion of space maps. The main issue with the maps is that it just didn’t fit with the engine of the game. Trying to graph a space geography onto what was a game ostensibly set on Earth throughout human history, was just going to be a satisfying product in my opinion. However, the developers made an effort, which is more than can be said for most games made in the current era.

In many ways, the Empire Earth engine also for a unique depiction of space combat here. There is no other game similar to this in the industry. Had Empire Earth continued as franchise, we would probably have had a more realistic looking space age. The developers’ efforts for an expansion done just a year after release is impressive. With more time, they could have smoothed out the gameplay even more and the game would have been even better.

There is one important aspect to Art of Conquest. It is an expansion that did not take years to make. The content in this game is comparable to many games now. While not the best quality, it shows that video games should not take a decade to make. I want games to come out more similar to Call of Duty not Grand Theft Auto VI. While GTA VI will be innovative, the amount of time passing to make such games is causing the video game industry to wrap around these titles.

What we see here is an ability to get projects done quickly and competently.

This is what the video game industry should be approaching making their games and maybe it will seem like it is not moving like molasses but having actual change and growth.

What makes the Battlefield series special in comparison to other FPS Games

Simply put, it is the combined arms nature of Battlefield which makes it so enduring. There are so many video games that having shooting in them. However, only one truly integrates vehicular combat and infantry combat together.

This is why in its opening week in this month; players will once again complain that this is not the game, they though it was. However, it is simply Battlefield, a series uniquely standing out amongst a crowd of imitators.

The Call of Duty crowd are always complaining on the streams about how slow it is. Some players enjoy that sandbox experience. Think of it is as similar to Arma rather than the run and gun games.

The run and gun games are really boring and I stay clear of them. What I want is teamwork and strategy.

This is why I have gravitated towards RTS games and in the Battlefield 2 era, I loved the idea of the Commander mode.

Battlefield 6 is that type of game for a person who wants to be more than just a frontline soldier. I think the only game that I really enjoyed the frantic run and gun battles was in the Star Wars Battlefront games. However, those games were different in their maps, vehicles and weapons. Star Wars lends itself to such frantic style of gameplay. However, modern combat is more grounded in the realities of combat in the here and now. Call of Duty is simply too quick for me.

Battlefield provides what Call of Duty cannot, a sense of cohesion in the chaos. How much cohesion is up to the players. Some play in clans or groups and act like squads with precision. Most of the time it’s just organized chaos in here. However, that’s really the way I like it.

Call of Duty Black Ops 7 looks interesting, but the gameplay is simply too fast for me; the game seems to try to recreate the arena shooters of the 1990s, where reflexes were the key to victory.

Battlefield 6 will be successful simply because it is trying to appeal more than players with fast reflexes. Everyone can play a role; sometimes a player wants to be more than soldier running and gunning.

This is why I am looking forward to enjoying this game.

Civilization III: China shoots down ICBMs in the 2nd Nuclear War.

Civilization III is proving to be a truly amazing game. Persia attempted to attack me once again, this time with ICBMs. My previous war with them had put so much pollution onto the planet that the sun image was red and my environmental efforts were going nowhere. Recently planted forests were becoming grassland as the planet became filled with nuclear radiation. However, peace was far away and the war had to continue.

I had a peace treaty with the Persians while the Koreans barely managed to hang on with their own treaty. The Persians simply had too many tanks and I lacked oil and aluminum to have an armored army to counter the Persians. As a result, I relied heavily on TOW infantry and huge amounts of artillery located across the mountain passes to slow them. I then used tactical nukes onto the capital of Persepolis and other major cities multiple times to cut the empire from resources and luxuries. However, they kept sending tanks and mechanized infantry into the area around Tokyo and Osaka; I had to make peace as I was basically in a stalemate and move to peacetime economy so that my cities could get new infrastructure in order to compete with the Persians.

However, I didn’t have all the time I needed to prepare for war with Persia. I was building ICBMs to counter their military. I also ordered my city governors to build a huge air force, a part of our military which wasn’t a factor in the previous war. The main issue was always the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. Persia had tons of such machines. I had only recently built a city on top of an oil deposit in order to start building huge amounts of bombers and jet airplanes to counter this huge, mechanized army. However, no matter how well bulit ones plans are, only experience manages to tell us the truth or show the durability of our ideas.

The attack began without warning on China.

In Civilization III, the AI is very aggressive in comparison to the later versions. Some of this is what it has to work with. The game is simpler in a sense than the games that came out later. It is not a game that the AI has a hard time understanding the rules. Under the hood, however, the game is similar to Civ 7 except in the Hexes and some of the rules. The hexes in my opinion messed up the Civilization series. Squares were just easier for the AI to handle.

The result is that the AI is competent in a war and is an actual threat. In strategic thinking, the AI in this 2001 game is still behind the human but it is clear that they were planning to attack me with nukes for some time. I was in their way for domination of the globe and I was ready for their attacks.

Beijing, once again, was hit but my SDI system was able to defend the nation from attacks. As a result, my workers would not have as many duties at repairing the radiation and damage that was caused by the ICBMs.

This is actually the only time I have seen the SDI small wonder in action.

This is why I love Civilization III. You get to run a nation in the late game, and it is truly wonderous. This why Civilization VII was able to reach its heights.