Review: Supreme Commander 2

I love strategy games, it doesn't matter if its on the board or on the computer. As some of my friends know my love for strategy has often led to their demise on the RISK board or in the virtual game world when I toy with their last structure before destroying it. I also loved the game Total Annihilation. There is something sweet about blowing up metal soldiers and then using the charred remains of it to build your own metal soldiers. When the first Supreme Commander (Harvest It!) came out I was overjoyed to play the spiritual successor to Total Annihilation. Some would say that it isn't but the fact that both games were made by the same man quickly dismisses that notion. So when the sequel came out, I was completely ecstatic.

Supreme Commander 2 takes place ten years after the events of the first game. For background purposes I should explain the first game. The storyline is about Earth sending out a spacecraft to find planets to colonize. It is set far in the future when Earth has such a large population that it needs to find new worlds before it runs out of space and resources. It worked but there was a civil war and the entire human population broke into three factions. UEF, Aeon, and Cybran. UEF is the United Earth Federation, Aeon is a religious group, and Cybran are enhanced cybernetic humans that are half machine and half human. A huge war took place with no clear winner really, the UEF was beat up quite a bit but Aeon also lost a lot. The Cybran nation kind of went quiet after the first game as well. If a winner had to be chosen then it would be the Cybrans, they beat up the UEF quite badly before leaving them to lick their wounds.

Ten years later the UEF is back with new technology and is determined to teach those Cybrans a lesson. Aeon is present but is quite content to let those two factions tear each other apart. The first few missions in the campaign follow the Cyrban and UEF fight as long as you choose one of those campaigns. If you choose the Aeon campaign you will find yourself slogging through boring missions for a bit. Supreme Commander 2 follows its predecessor and the resource system is the same as well as a bit easier to use. It allows you to focus on the fun part of the game, the attacking and defending.

Innovation worked, the musical score is the same with some new spins on familiar tunes. Another innovation is the introduction of experimental units. You can research and build new powerful experimental units and watch them walk into an enemy base destroying everything while your opponent struggles to build his own experiments to answer yours. Another key feature they tweaked before changing it completely is the missile system. In the first game I would build tons of missiles to use and only find myself disappointed when a tiny little explosion took place. Not to mention that the damage was something to laugh about. Not anymore, the new missiles cause massive amounts of damage and the explosions made me as happy giddy like a kid after his first kiss.

The downside is that the game is far too easy. Unless your on the hardest level, no challenge is presented. I was playing one mission where my virtual general told me I needed to have a good size army before I attack a UEF base. So naturally I built 35 units and put another 35 into production before heading out to attack. My idea was that if the first wave failed that my second wave would be ready by the time they failed. I was wrong, I marched in with 35 and lost only five as I torched the base. Just to add insult I sent in my other 35 and destroyed the base with ease. I tried to up the difficulty but until I got to the top level I was still taking out bases with ease. The hardest level was not too much of a challenge. I lost 20 units before sending in my second wave but at the end of the day I still had 45 units. It was still fun though.


Review
Grade-Let It Ripen
Highs-A new graphics engine makes it pleasing and the storyline is a good one along with new gameplay options and experimental units
Lows-Far too easy to beat the computer and the multiplayer needs some work before it can be a serious multiplayer strategy game
ESRB Rating-E+10, for everyone age 10 and up
Kid Friendly?Yes, its just metal blowing up so it's not too violent but I would let your kids hit 10 before allowing them to play it.
Overview-It is good, I spent $39.99 on it and thats how much I was willing to pay for it.

-Rezler

Heads up! The grading system has changed.

New Grading System
Harvest It!- Get this game! It is awesome! No time to waste!
Let It Ripen- It's good, get it, it can wait though
It Could Grow- The game needs work, unless its cheap (19.99) avoid it
Needs Some Cultivating- Don't even get it, it is a waste
Let The Bugs Eat It- Why was it published? Who at the company signed off?

Review: Kick-Ass

I have always liked movies, I even toyed with majoring in film at one point. Decided against that course of action but my love for movies continued. I recently sat down and watched Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass is a movie that follows the story of a young boy who simply wants to know why people don't try to help when they see something wrong. He also wants to know why there is not a real superhero around helping, regardless of no special powers or Batman equipment.

The young boy decides to become a superhero or rather try to be one. He gets a costume and some weapons to use and goes to work. It doesn't go well for him in terms of being a superhero but his life changes and he inspires people while also ticking off a major mob boss. He also encounters two other superheros who are much more skilled and much better armed then he is. His journey through being a superhero also gets him new friends and a relationship with a girl that he thinks is the most beautiful girl in the world.

In terms of the actual making and the meat of the movie it has a good plot and a good score. The comedy is witty and smart without being crude. The special effects are a bit over the top but they seem to be intended to be and add to the comedy value of the movie. The only thing I shy away from with this is that the movie did have a good amount of curse words and lots of blood. Not Gladiator level blood and not Training Day curse word level but still concerning. I have no problem with blood in movies and they amount of it wasn't over the top so it didn't really bother me. However, the curse words did seem a bit unnecessary and somewhere along the way I think the director forgot who the story was about.

Anyways, the movie is pretty solid and its a good comic adaptation. The music works too, it is inspired by John Williams and they had four composers working on it.


Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs- Good plot and story line along with smart comedy make this a fun movie to sit down and watch. It also has a bit of a good message if you look hard enough
Lows- Curse words and a bit over the top on blood and some of the action is a little too much. Tends to loose focus near the end.
Rating- R
Kid Friendly? No, its R rating is enough and the blood and curse words are very much there. I would recommend your child be 14 minimum before you let them see this.
Overview- It's good, I would buy it, rent it first though, it is one of those movies that you hate or love.

-Rezler


Grading System
Harvest It!- Get this movie! It is awesome! No time to waste!
Pick It- It's good, get it, it can wait though
It Could Grow- The movie needs work, unless its cheap (19.99) avoid it
Needs Some Cultivating- Don't even get it, it is a waste
It's Dead- Why was it published? Who at the company signed off?

Spellforce 3? Where is it?

I recently played through yet another level of a game called Spellforce 2. I have not beaten it yet because the time it takes is not time I have and because it seems to never end! Apart from making you go back to places you have been to, the game also has you traveling to new places with your hero and where you build an army and take out another enemy base before learning that your help is appreciated but the big bad evil boss is gone and you need to peruse him/her into another corner of the world. So far I have been to 21 levels and counting! This is not a problem because the game is great and continually challenges you and why it may sound repetitive, it isn't. Each level is different in the sense that some levels don't let you build an army and thus forces you to put your hero in harms way or to somehow change your tactics up.

I am a fan of the Spellforce games because they combine RPG (Role Playing Game) with RTS (Real Time Strategy). This style means you have a hero that you create and make stronger but it ditches the traditional RPG style. RPGs used to allow your hero and his/her companions to walk into a world and take out an entire country worth of enemies without taking a scratch. Spellforce decided that why it was fun it was not practical, so they created a game where you have a hero but in order to take out a country, you need an army. Your hero has the ability to take control of a friendly HQ and build an army allowing which they lead into battle. It makes the game fun and while it is still fantasy, it is somewhat more practical. Spellforce 2 changed the place and time but kept the same mechanics.

But now going on a few years I still have not heard a peep of Spellforce 3, so I went to the forums of the developer, JoWood, and found fans clamoring for it. Well instead of listening to the fans JoWood has decided that fans don't matter. They instead have thrown a moderator onto the forums, this moderator has taken to basically demeaning fans and attacking anything they say. So I ask myself, does JoWood want to loose customers? If that is their plan, then I commend them because the moderator they set loose is very good at insulting and mocking people. Now, I know that making a game takes money, a lot of money but most game companies that are doing well, they stick with what works and they listen to fans. EA, Activision-Blizzard, Bethesda, Bioware, and more, they all are doing well because they listen and produce.

The forums are filled with people saying they will buy the game Spellforce 3 if it is made. JoWood stays silent and seems to not even want to discuss it. This may be on of the worse decisions I have ever seen. It is the equivalent of someone offering you money and instead of taking it, you ignore them and walk away. I know that sounds stupid but that is exactly what JoWood is doing.

I think the only thing left to hope for is JoWood going bankrupt and EA or someone, buying the rights to Spellforce and making a third one. It has happened before. Interplay made two Fallout games before going bankrupt. Bethesda bough the rights and made Fallout 3. It earned them a Game of the Year award! Until JoWood gets smart or ceases to exist I guess the fans will have to replay the current Spellforce games.

Spellforce 1-$14.99 on Steam, for the game all its expansions (Pick It)
Spellforce 2-$29.99 on Steam, for the game and its expansions (Harvest It!)

-Rezler

Grading System
Harvest It!- Get this game! It is awesome! No time to waste!
Pick It- It's good, get it, it can wait though
It Could Grow- The game needs work, unless its cheap (19.99) avoid it
Needs Some Cultivating- Don't even get it, it is a waste
It's Dead- Why was it published? Who at the company signed off?

Review: NCAA Football 2011

So the first taste of football has come out in college format, a huge improvement on its predecessor NCAA Football 2010. 2011 not only changed much of the game, but it has a revamped layout, updated graphics, new animations, new playbooks, and it has tweaked some of its gameplay modes to make them more enjoyable.


The three main modes have returned, Dynasty, Online Dynasty, and Road to Glory.


To clarify, Dynasty and Online Dynasty are the mode in which you take your favorite team (or a team you created) through a 10-20 year period of football. It entails much more then just playing the games. The Madden games give you complete control of drafting, signing, resigning, trading, setting the starters, and even naming team captains. NCAA Football keeps that by giving you control of recruiting players, calling them, offering scholarships to them, and even promising them a starting job. It also allows you to red shirt players and even suspend them for behavior issues. If SS #21 is giving you trouble and refusing to show up at team meetings, then grant him his wish by making sure he doesn't show up at all for the next five or six games! As you go through the season the crowd gets louder as you near the home stretch and play for a bowl game (which is never a problem considering there are somewhere near 25 bowls to begin with) and there are special chants and songs played at your home field. On top of that, the gameplay features animations that are team specific when it comes to endzone celebrations and it is always fun to watch your team hit their lockeroom sign before coming out of the tunnel. The graphics are also very good and the animations help them to look even better. Grass will actually stick to helmets and tackles look smoother and sound louder instead of the blocky and square tackles with generic hit sounds from past games.

Road to Glory mode is where you take one player through his college experience whether it be three or four years. You create him, choose his position, his number, what he looks like, and lead him through his High School state playoffs and on to college. You control him and only him. It was frustrating in previous games because the coach would call plays that seemed doomed to failure. If you ran a play that lost yards seven times in a row, the coach would seem to never care and you would run it seven more times each quarter. I often wondered if the opposing coach was calling the plays. That has all changed now, the coach mixes up the play call a little more and it only takes him two or three times to figure out that a play just won't work. It also gives you more freedom if your player is QB. In the previous games running a no huddle was impossible if you were a QB because the coach never allowed you to. Now you can, I ran a no huddle the entire fourth quarter to catch up when my team was 15 points down. My defense fell apart and lost the game but I was happy to be running a rushed offense, it seemed so fluid and free. Another problem with the QB mode was that upon throwing an interception the game would pause and a small window would pop up with three different defensive plays in it. In order to keep your QB composed, you had to select the right one. I found this quite aggravating because half the time the defense was out of position which made it impossible to know the play. Furthermore, you never knew who picked the pass off, so if the defense was using a man coverage play you had no idea if it was the safety or conrnerback who was covering your intended receiver. That has been removed and doing so removes headaches and rage quitting from gamers.

Playbooks have all been tailored after the school playbooks. Instead of every team looking the same on offense, each coach has updated AI and makes them run their team the way they would in real life. Oregon uses its massive spread offense and New Mexico runs its no huddle theme. Texas still emphasizes a hard running game and LSU still loves its play pass. The no huddle system when using dynasty mode helps, it opens the playbook and gives you about 10 seconds to choose a play as your team hurries to the line.

Other miscellaneous features such as crowd volume and commentary are improved. The crowd gets louder when your on defense and when you score it erupts into cheers. They quiet when its 3rd or 4th down and it almost feels like your there and your hopes and dreams are with them as the ball is snapped.

The game does have a few drawbacks. Moving players to other teams is not included so updating transfers is a hard thing to do. Names are excluded so generating names is a must unless you have the patience to update every roster (have fun, there are 199 Division I teams alone, that totals renaming 14,875 players). Road to Glory has eliminated some positions and being a Road to Glory linebacker is much harder, maybe too hard. Not to mention that the difficulty settings are a huge difference. Varsity level is far too easy but the next level up makes all your players stupid and makes the game extremely hard as computer controlled teams seem to know every play your calling and they call the perfect play to destroy you while your team acts like a Pop Warner squad.

Review
Grade- Harvest It!
Highs- Amazing graphics, improved gameplay modes, accurate playbooks, and updated AI.
Lows- Difficulty settings are very far apart, fixed some Road to Glory issues that were never broken to begin with.
ESRB Rating- E for Everyone, all ages
Kid Friendly? Yes, although with its complexity I would recommend that your kid should be 10, 8 at the youngest.
Overview- It's well worth the $59.99 price tag, a good solid game, if you like football games, then this is a game you would want!

-Rezler



Grading System
Harvest It!- Get this game! It is awesome! No time to waste!
Pick It- It's good, get it, it can wait though
It Could Grow- The game needs work, unless its cheap (19.99) avoid it
Needs Some Cultivating- Don't even get it, it is a waste
It's Dead- Why was it published? Who at the company signed off?