Tag: review

Empire Earth 2: This 2005 RTS surpasses modern games

Empire Earth 2 Synthetic Age City Center

Empire Earth 2 is growing on me, and I enjoy it in spite of it being 20 years old now. That the game is so playable is a testament to how the developers managed to create a worthy sequel. While some may say that it strays too far away from the original game, I think that it is a worthy game that is well worth your time. Even if you are RTS aficionado who only plays Starcraft games, I think that this game is a great addition to one’s catalog.

Empire Earth 2 Rain Weather Effects in game

One of my most favorite aspects of this game is the weather. It is great to see the rain falling in the Spring and the snow falling in the winter. This adds so much character to the game. Empire Earth was great at its use with the day and night cycles, especially in the campaigns. However, Empire Earth 2 took it to another level and make it even better.

The great thing about the weather in Empire Earth 2 is that it is integrated into the game. The game actually tells you about weather in the game. The outposts which function as the equivalent to towers from Empire Earth are also able to tell the Weather to the player. In comparison with most games, this is one of the most innovative features in the RTS space that I have ever seen. It is very rare for any video game to take weather seriously except a couple games. However, in Empire Earth 2, the weather is a player of its own.

Empire Earth 2 Snow Effects in Ancient Age

In the screenshot, you can see that the weather effects in Empire Earth 2, despite being 20 years old, have a weight to them. In many games that I have been in have had this effect. Being a man who loves the winter, seeing these winter storms is a treat.

Even when it is raining, you can really get the feeling of those rainstorms. The lightning strikes and noise of thunder all add great character to the game.

Another aspect which shows the attention to details is that the amount of snow that is collecting on the roofs of buildings in the game. Unlike in older games, the game was made in a way that shows this change instead of treating like an static weather effect. Star Wars: Empire at War, which came out a year after Empire Earth 2 also heavily utilized weather effects in gameplay. Interestingly, there was a cluster of games in the mid 2000s that seemed to really emphasize such features in their games.

It shows that experimentation while respecting the past is an important part of making video games. In my opinion, the video game industry has simply become too comfortable with rising sales on the backs of their subscription services and the mobile app stores.

I think that looking back at the past is what the video game industry really needs right now. If anything, it shows that older isn’t necessarily worse than the new. There is much that older video games can teach us.

Oblivion Remastered’s Censorship gives an opening to Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon’s beautiful women.

beautiful-liliana-in-tainted-grail-the-fall-of-avalon

The Oblivion Remastered Edition has been censoring women. While these changes are small, it is clear that Bethesda Softworks is still going through the process of ”cleaning up” its games. If you compare the screenshot of my character on the left and the screenshot of a drawn woman in Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, it is clear that there are two trends happening here.

Having Intimacy in Bethesda Games

Originally, Oblivion was rated ”T” by the ESRB in America. However, after mods in 2006 were taking the clothes off the female characters, the game was re-rated as “M” or mature. The same thing happened to other popular games such as GTA: San Andreas. The video game industry was much bigger than it had been in the 1990s but it was still under the cover. Many people were not paying attention to it.

However, it was clear that the transition of themes relating to relationships between characters began to change between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, where there is a clear shift in how Bethesda approached the issue of player choice and how they could interact with characters of the opposite or same sex.

Fallout 3 had many brutal and sensous characters. However, Fallout 4 was a strange game that did not repersent a progression of the mythos but more of a regression. The sequel was more about domesticity stolen than anything else. The game starts in the Pre-War suburbs of Boston and the all the beauty of domesticity and family life are broken by atomic bombs being dropped on America. Fallout 4 however refuses to allow the player to be anything but a mother or father searching for their son.

This trend meant that Bethesda did not want to make attractive women characters anymore. Any hint of any intimacy in the games was taken out and instead it was hidden behind violence and better shooting mechanics.

The charm that made the Bethesda games simply unique was taken away from the games.

What Tainted Grail can bring some beauty back into games

While this is only a small section of the game, having the image of a woman that is beautiful in a game is enough to garner some outrage in some circles. However, among gamers who think with the heads, are going to be okay with it. That is what matters here. They shouldn’t be trying to appeal to people who have no interest in playing video games. In my previous article on Tainted Grail, I say that it has the potential with becoming the next Skyrim. With the genre being so stagnant, it is clear that there is something needed in order to get to be needed to revigoriate it.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remaster is much needed to enhance the game

There has been much discussion about the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion getting a remaster. I agree that this is the right approach for Bethesda to take here. Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls game and I consider it to be superior to Skyrim in the aesthetics. Gameplay wise, Skyrim is more polished, but Oblivion has a special place in my heart. Seeing that they want to remaster the game brings a smile to my face and I hope that the remaster is actually competent and brings new players to enjoy this game.

Screenshot of the Imperial City Market District in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, featuring tall stone structures and a cloudy sky.
View of the Imperial City Market District in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, showcasing its distinctive architecture and towering structures.

The game was always having issues on my computers, especially my previous gaming computer I had in my collection. It was glitchy and would often not have the sound working on it. On my newest computer, the game is working correctly except for some draw distance issues.

However, in spite of that, the game is rather uneven in the quality of the graphics. While many gamers would say that graphics is not the most important thing, in such AAA titles such as Oblivion, graphics are important part of the presentation of a game. The graphics in the game vary depending on what we are looking at here.

A scenic view from the game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion featuring trees, a distant castle, and a river under a blue sky.
A scenic view from the game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, showcasing lush landscapes and a distant fortress.

As you can clearly see in the screenshot above, the game had a rather lush green landscape around the Imperial City. In comparison with the snowy Skyrim, it gave players a variety of options. You could see Bruma, the Nord city near Skyrim and see snow. Go to a city like Bravil and you would see a swampy, run down city with much spirit. You had a choice in aesthetics unlike in Skyrim where three cities are in the snow and hardly qualify as cities.

In the Oblivion remaster, I hope that game is able to spruce up the graphics. It is time for the graphics to now shine with the engines we have now.

A scenic view of the Imperial City in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, showcasing tall stone towers, lush green trees, and a bright blue sky.
A stunning view of the Imperial City with lush greenery and a bright blue sky in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

The game is probably most beautiful around the Imperial City. It is there where I took most of my screenshots. While the game is old, it has an aesthetic which is calming in its own right. I hope that the remaster is able to capture such colors and the architecture in this game.

In this day and age where video games often look quite ugly, it is important to have more video games similar to Oblivion. Skyrim had too many browns in its styles. Oblivion as I stated earlier has a variety of colors and environments. This makes the game still very interesting to engage with. Unlike Skyrim, this game is very easy on the eyes.

Oblivion’s Remaster will bring some new life back into the game and I hope that it retain its cozy qualities.