Settlers 6 Review

Settlers 6 is a Real Time Strategy game, which to be frank does not really reflect at all the Settlers series or rather the original title or its three good successors. It takes the macro management as well as the unlimited expansion of population completely away and leaves the player with a game that mostly plays itself. You still build the old buildings to gain the resources but then you can't do anything really all you can do once you have the complete basic economic base is sending streams of units to the enemy since you have no more population as space to expand further. You can't use you economic power expand further and thus build more units because simply there is not the cap limit all you can do is watch slowly the soldiers be trained and I mean slowly because it is a process that is even slower then in the originals. But in the original games it didn't matter because there was always some economic concern that would keep you busy even when you were waiting on the units to be trained. Basically Settlers 6 is a crippled version of the original series just like Settlers 5. If you are looking to play some old school settlers I suggest playing 2, 3 or 4 all three are good and all three can be played on XP and Vista.
The Graphics are ok and fully 3D but then again if you have nothing to do then even staring at pretty graphics seems awfully dull.
Atmosphere is lost completely and as for AI and Balance well those both don't really matter since you are basically playing a RTS with unit limit, which is slow paced but still C&C/Dawn of War style. So basically you send hordes of units against each other and then do that until one has build the wrong type of units/defenses and the other can actually begin damaging the opponents lair and which point the game is almost over.
The interface is very simple in fact it is so simple that you don't even have to think to do anything...since the little things that you can do are brightly advertised and all the player has to do is click the big button to which for some reason no arrows a pointing but bright colours do the trick just the same.
It is a lot like playing AOE3 utterly boring the game itself has nothing really to offer to the player. The pace is to slow to make the combat interesting and to uneventful to make it worth the wait. Basically you will end up staring at some town in the middle ages then to eventually only watch the soldiers fight in old settlers tradition.

The Score:
Gameplay 3/10 You click some bright buttons and the rest is on auto-pilot.
AI 1/10 AI...yeah well it has way to much control basically the game is a self contained AI.
Graphic 4/10 YAY 3D RTS...wait old news nothing really outstanding here either.
Storyline 4/10 OK Story...but how many players play RTS games only for the story?
Sound 2/10 Pretty uneventful and like the general game dull.
Balance 1/10 Yes it is so balanced that you can send troops against each other for hours...to no effect.
Atmosphere 2/10 Atmosphere...oh you mean that thing from the old settlers games? Yeah that is gone.
Interface 3/10 So simple that a four year old could play this game sleeping...and still win...
Design 5/10 Design is decent.
Overall:2.7/10

Final word
Settlers 6 is another proof that good preceding titles do not make a good successor, like settlers 5 it is not really a settlers game and very boring at the same time. If you feel like banging your head on your desk, staring paint dry or even at a blank screen...grass grow etc. then Settlers 6 might be an alternative but I' am sure you can find something better to do with your time then that. So overall Settlers 6 is definitely one of the worst RTS games I have ever played.

Want a review off something specific submit a Review request per e-mail or leave a response at the latest review.Review Rules

Mass Effect (PC) Review

Mass Effect is a third person shooter with a strong RPG component. It is a strong one track storyline it does allows for some variations along the way bot overall does not alot off deviation. The Gameplay is very direct, but the vehicle portion is very sluggish and at times uncomfortable. While you are playing with colleague AIs they do not really help for the most part it plays like a solo-game. The game does allow the user to change gear and modify the gear to some extent.
The AI is generally not as impressive as we have seen in titles like STALKER or Far Cry, but it does give you a decent run for your money. The friendly AI is close to useless because it has a severe waypoint sickness which often fails with the most basic tasks...like leaving an elevator.
There are a lot of videos to tell the story but those are all in-game sequences since the programmers seem to have had the wish that the costume gear could always be seen. Which is how the rendered videos were lost...
The Graphic is very unimpressive neither it nor the physics engine have big points that have to be mentioned. The game does not suffer under said graphic it is adequate and allows even a slower PC to run the game. I explain the lack of high level textures and physics with a Console release, I suspect that EA did not want to do two sets of graphics. So they set out to let the PC run with console graphic. This decision only stands out when the camera is zoomed in close to something in a video when you can see how low the textures are, and if you look at the faces of the characters.
The storyline is definitely one of Mass Effects major strong points, it is quite intriguing and allows for some immersion. A nice degree of detail is supplied and it does have a good means of telling, there are also several smaller side stories which provide background and sometimes just fun. However the overall storyline is very linear, we have seen some games trying on player directed endings in some games. But generally most games are still based on a strict storyline which does not deviate whatever you may want to do.
Sound effects in combat are adequate, all conversations are spoken and subtitles are rare considering the volume of speech that is a lot background chatter as well as every conversation that the character has. This makes the it far more interesting to play Mass Effect.
The game balance is acceptable, it often tends to lean on the player's side and makes it very easy to complete missions. However this guarantees progress for players and limits the time invested in running around without knowing what to do to move on or simply dying over and over again without finding away to complete some impossible mission. Mostly because there is nothing hard about completing these missions.
The Atmosphere in Mass Effect is good it emerges the player in the story and makes the game almost addicting while playing it through.
The interface is rather simple everything is provided in tips and information to the user you can always ask some AI what now? And they will tell you, the interface itself is mouse based. Conversations as well as combat and movement are mostly done via mouse the keyboard provides little help.
The General game design is quite good, while playing Mass Effect I was reminded off Tron 2.0 also a good game for Shooter/RPG marriages which had a good storyline and interesting characters as well as a intriguing universe.
Overall Mass Effect is a game worth playing.

The Score:
Gameplay 7/10 Generally decent gameplay but sometimes just odd. As well as bad control off vehicles.
AI 4/10 Enemy AI is decent but the allies are plain horrible.
Graphic 6/10 It looks a bit old but its EA so what do you expect they cut cost where they can.
Storyline 10/10 Great Story.
Sound 7/10 Voice for all characters, in combat the sounds seem a bit flat or miss a few shots here and there.
Balance 6/10 To easy most of the time.
Atmosphere 7/10 Pretty good, but suffers under graphic and sound as well as balance issues.
Interface 6/10 Generally good but there are somethings that are not ideal.
Design 8/10 Quite good design wise they did come up with some interesting things at this front.
Overall:6.7/10

Final word
I would say that Mass Effect is a good game providing around 12 hours off solid solo playing and fun. After that you will most likely be hunting achievements or have stopped playing the game. Mass Effect mostly gleams with its strong storyline. The learning curve is under an hour so it will take no time to pick it up.

Want a review off something specific submit a Review request per e-mail or leave a response at the latest review.Review Rules

Top Lan Games

All of the Games included are non-MMOs all of these games also support TCP-IP.

1. Battlefield 1942 and 2
2. Starcraft
3. Settlers 3 and 4
4. Diablo 2
5. 1701 A.D. (Anno 1701 as well as 1604)
6. AOE 2

WoW Patch release

Blizzard released the 2.4 Patch. This as always shows how popular and impacting WoW has been on the online community. Within hours the support websites which allow access to the add-ons we over stretched in terms of their bandwidth and collapsed. Players and small companies spent enormous amounts of energy in this virtual world. Add-Ons which make the game different allowing more access to more information at once, companies trying to make money with advertisement on their sides because supplying WoW add-ons will guarantee many hits. Other companies try the less legal but faster way of selling services in-game for real-world money such as 'power-leveling' of characters and their professions as well as selling virtual money to the players for real money.
But what does all of this mean for the real world and economy does this mean that we can create something completely artificial and people would buy it even if they could only benefit from it when using a specific game? There are by now many MMORPGs out there many of them use a interesting method which allows the player to buy a certain made up in-game currency for real money some others offer bazaars where game money can be exchanged for time cards with other players. The amount of money flowing through MMORPGs has grown to an enormous amount but what does this mean for our way of living? Are those people who play these games to such an extent people who are trying to make a living or attempting to escape from reality? Are our real lifes to boring to un-engaging that a virtual world seems so much more enticing? Over all many who never played these games wonder "What makes these games and any PC/Console games so attractive to so many people?" But ultimately one has to see these games in context, there are many games which we have created in the past and MMORPGs as well as other less engaging games are really nothing else but the next step of this. For example chess, there are chess champions in the world those are people who do nothing but train playing chess. Essentially playing games is the same as playing chess or playing a team-sport. It exercises and challenges the player in different way however it is a artificially created challenge which is to be over come. And this overcoming of the challenge is exactly what makes these games so interesting and in some cases addicting.

Blizzard

Blizzard is seemingly working over time, Blizzard released a new Starcraft 2 Trailer which now reveals the Zerg with the help of a in-game trailer.
And here it is.


There is also a new Trailer for the 2.4 Patch which is going to come in the near future. Which shows the areas and dungeon.

Music Videos | Kapa’a-Wailua vacation rentals | mp3 music

And of course the already known but always popular LK Trailer.

Games and violance

Todays games have often been criticized for being to violent and thus being unsuitable for children and/or Teenagers. However is it the games fault?
The question is of course should a game be violent? Now some games that are supposed to represent certain aspects of life such as violence are often criticized for making killing seem to nice and simple other games which represent such things more accurately are accused off being to violent thus disqualifying automatically. Now many say games and entertainment should not be violent yet most of our entertainment and world is most violent we just continue to fight war and consider weapons to be our most lucrative industry.

BBC Article

Here are some possible replies of the Gamer world which come from the heart.

BF2...MINE


BF2 Gun Sound Music Video


BF2 Teh Pwn3d life


(Of course there is the video label link on the left side here)

World of Warcraft - Commercial - Toyota Tacoma


Not Quite Barbie ( World of Warcraft )(NOT RATED Watching is your own issue)

(Yes a social statement to finish off.)

Red Planet Blues


Civil Protection - Episode 1: Friday


The End

Starcraft2

Blizzard has now released the always popular fan-site kit. These kits as popular as they have become make it simpler to advertise once new game for free on fan-sites.
This one by Blizzard includes.
Artworks (One example of the 12 artworks included.

A number of Avatar pics.(Protoss example)

Several Battle.Net,Blizzard and ST2 logos.



A insider Interview. (First paragraph)
Insider Interview
The Making of the StarCraft II Cinematic Teaser
The Insider recently sat down with Nick Carpenter, Blizzard's cinematic creative director, for a behind-the-scenes look at the StarCraft II cinematic teaser recently released at the Worldwide Invitational, as well as to discuss the challenges involved with continuing the single-player storyline from the original game...
FAQ
Eleven Screenshots (one example again)

Several Unit renderings, Humans and protoss only though at this point. (Two examples of several for each of the races.


Three Wallpapers (one example).

Some basic forms for website builds.

These 'extras' are basically some information which in fact really is more efficiently presented on the ST2 Website which does not mean that fans shouldn't want to make such sites yet in the for the person wanting to read and see about ST2 should rather visit the official website and forum instead off trying to go through fan sides since those are unlikely to be as well presented as the ST2 Homepage.

Sony VS. The Church of England

The Church of England is considering legal actions against the game publishing arm of Sony. Why? Well it is not because the games which Sony is publishing are 'wasting' today's youth. Its isn't necessarily because of the amount of violence or because of some indiscretion against Christ or God him/itself. The reason for the consideration of these legal actions is simply from this world and driven by the concept of ownership.
Now what has Sony done that the Church of England suddenly wants to sue? Its simple really apparently they used a certain Cathedral in a game with out requesting permission for doing so from the Church. Sony reacted by stating that the game does not reflect in reality and this is believable considering that the game is based in a post-apocalyptic world. The Manchester Cathedral apparently is well represented in the game, but the Church seems to wish to either be payed or to see the Cathedral disappear from the game. Admitting all previous stunts and attempts to get money from others this is a very new and different approach for the Church until now forgiveness was enough but now lawsuits? Well it is well known that those can bring in a nice chunk of money at once and no-one ever doubted the churches ability to produce zealots. Sometimes it is interesting how a Religious institution sometimes appears so much less 'other worldly'. Suddenly they are not above pettiness or money.

Related sites:
Cathedral row over computer game (BBC) (Error in BBC headline there it is a PS3 Game)
Resistance Fall of Man Website

Blizzard let the cat out...

Now, before I begin I want to point out that the web went into a frenzy ever since Blizzard announced for the first time that they would make another game in the near future. Fans of the old-timers and long veterans Starcraft and Diablo of which both are still played and popular games hoped for either Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3 now Starcraft was the one with no successor and also the older one of the two games. Diablo 2 had been released in 2000 and was followed up with an expansion pack while Starcraft dates to 1998 Diablo 2 of course was already a successor to Diablo which had been released in 1996. Yet, Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction (the expansion pack to Diablo 2) was the last release that was Warcraft unrelated which means for essentially 7 years there was not an announced non-Warcraft. Now it looks as if Blizzard has already done some good work on kicking Starcraft 2 off but knowing Blizzard we can anticipate that the release will take another 2-3 years. The game is being announced with the tag line "Hell, its about time", this line has several
references one of them being the long Warcraft period through which Blizzard has just gone and hopefully it is a time that now has ended. Also it plays a role in the Cinematic video which by the way does justice once more to what Blizzard provides its fans with eye-candy and a great deal of in-game fun. Beyond that Blizzard does have the reputation to take always longer then they say they will for a game and of course for usually producing nearly or completely bug-free games as well as working closely with the players together. And of course also for great art work.

The official Starcraft2 resource website.

Child's Play...

I forgot to post this earlier...sorry...

Child's Play 2006 is over and the contributions reached a new high, Child's play is supporting children hospitals in five countries with the donations.
Lets see how next time goes...n_n

Child's play Homepage

Violence?

Now many have heard of the criticism against violent material, Germany has had laws in place for many years now which enabled the government to outlaw movies and/or games that were considered to contain an excessive amount of violence or deemed to be propaganda. This system has only shown limited success this is explained with the rest of the EU not having joined into this program while the borders are open. Thus students could travel into Britain and obtain a game or movie outlawed in Germany and bring this game with them when coming back without the fear or risk of being detected. Now as many as 27 other countries want to help to create a program that can involve more of the EU or even the EU entirely. This is then allows a more effective protection of the youth. If those measures will life up to the hopes will be seen but it certainly does put pressure on the companies to keep their games less violent and the same counts for the Movie makers.

Merry Christmas

A Merry Christmas from the Gaming Community. (I know a little early)
Here are videos made by the Gaming Community (of course I did include the console people) since we do not judge people for their faults. n_n
A note before you watch any of these, they might contain some language that you do not like...so don't watch them in that case. Second, Yes they all contain some degree of violence so if you don't want to see that either do not watch.
Otherwise have fun watching n_n.

HMV Hell Trailer...watch this first. (Halo)


HMV Hell the movie...n_n (Halo)


And now to the PC. (CSS)


Enjoy the Holiday season n_n and if you did not like the clips you should not have watched them n_n...anyways as you know my e-mail account and the Forum have moved to avoid any further angry comments or mail...so do not even try to sent them...since they would never arrive...yeah ok I admit that was lame.
So simply put angry comments as well as happy comments and of course the same counts for mail is still allowed and neither e-mail nor Forum have moved.
And with this I will take a break from posting for sometime...maybe until early next year or until the first of you begin to miss me so greatly that you have to send e-mails to me asking when I will be writing again n_n.

Halo?

Many have argued that warfare in Games and in the Movie world supports violance in real-life. But I know in this context no-one wants to hear that or rather you want to watch most likely the Halo3 and Halo Wars Trailer. Halo3 is the net sequel to the Halo series while Halo Wars is a strategy game based on Halo.

Halo WARS


Halo3


These are the Advent Presents for this Week...enjoy n_n

Wii mania

Nintendo shipped Globally four million Wiis of which in Europe nearly none are left int the stores, North America and many other areas suffer under the same problem. Four million Wiis gone almost instantly people left wanting more because the market was not covered sufficiently. Nintendo expects that all Wiis should be absorbed by the market by today, and states with some luck (for the consumers) Wiis will suffice until Sunday.
This extreme boom does make the Wii a rapid starter and is likely to put it into direct competition with the current sales leader the XBOX 360.
Yet there is still some ground to cover since the XBOX 360's sales are close to 20 million units sold Globally.

Here are some related articles
Wii shortages frustrating gamers (BBC)

WoW trail

World of Warcraft is being offered for free for a ten-day trail in which you can try the entire game out for ten days for free...n_n...I must say I have wanted to check WoW out ever since it came out and after a few hours on there I can understand what all the hype was about it is a fun and engaging game. If you have some time to spare and a decent internet connection you should definitely try it out!!!

WoW Trail site

have fun and enjoy...n_n

1701

Yes, I' am writing on a PC Game, it is not that there is not anything new out there it is just that when I scrolled through my posts that I noticed that many of them were concerned with not,...overly happy issues. So I decided to pick a game which does not a have violent focus but an economic focus.
1701 A.D. or Anno 1701 is a the third installment in a very successful German games series, which began with Anno 1602 or 1602 A.D. and was continued with 1503 which then was succeeded by 1701. Now 1701 combines the best out of its predecessors plus a new a heavily overhauled AI and Graphic presentation. Further the game allows the Player finally to play in a fully supported online Game and all parties can be traded with directly even the Free Trade can be visited. The AI is well designed and so is the world in which the game is played, the Graphic overhaul, which had been necessary made 1701 one of the leading games in Game-Design. In Germany this game was released at the end of October under the name of Anno 1701 while in North America the title is 1701 A.D. it essentially means the same-thing but sunflower (The Developer) has made sure that the Game would be released with a local translation of the game-title namely the 'Anno' which stands for Anno Domini which is the same A.D. stands for.
1701 Focuses around the Development of your own colony you can get support from the queen but eventually you are supposed to stand on your own economic feed, the main battle force can be derived from the ships a player has available, since everyone is on an island and dependent on some imports through out the game, if from another player or your own sub-colony does not matter. If a developed island is blockaded this will have serious effects on the players ability to operate. This game due to the integration of economics and politics is not a war-game but rather a game about economy, there is the possibility of having a military and a fleet yet both require infrastructure and money, to be available, further war is very expensive in 1701 which makes it only attractive if resources a badly needed and can not be traded. In the end this game offers a addicting solution which does not focus on getting some money from a resources and then killing the opponent, this game leaves it to the player to operate as they wish. This game can be played indefinitely since there is no real story-mode but rather it focuses around long-games between human players or human player and AI. I can only highly recommend the game...n_n.

ANNO 1701 Homepage

Consoles fighting

The PS3 has been, released and was received relatively warmly by the PS fans in North America many of which camped in front of stores that would be retailing PS3s.
The price of the PS3 sadly surpasses the prizing of both competing consoles, the Xbox 360 is close by but still cheaper, Wii being like it predecessor the cheapest console on the market, tries to offer good entertainment for family and teenager.
The PS3 has a Blu-Ray drive and impressive computing power on its side, while the con currently include, a glitch with the backwards compatibility, the prize, and of course the limited number of titles which are exclusive for the PS3, further Fans have criticized that the new controllers for the PS3 do not have the rumble function anymore. Also the limited number of 400.000 consoles for the North American market.
One oddity occurred at the release of the PS3 which is that there were more consoles sold then games for the console.
Playstation 3 sold more units than games
The Xbox 360 has a battle hardened online system, the prizes have already been reduced, a good number of unique game titles is available for the Xbox and the it is mostly backwards compatible by now. The con is that to watch a next generation DVD it is necessary to buy a new HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360, further its computing power does not reach the potential of the PS3, then again it is almost a year old.
The Wii being released tomorrow offers an impressive array of games, which ranges from the NES, SNES era (those can be downloaded from a server), it is also backwards compatible with Gamecube games, and thus allowing the player to enjoy a wide variety of games. Further it has a more direct new controller system which if it works as promised will be most interesting. The Wii is also the physically smallest of the consoles again just like it predecessor it is designed to offer game fun and fit in with the rest of the living room.

Wii homepage
PS3 Portal
Xbox Homepage

How many cards do we need?

Now we have the new Geforce 8 series, we have the Physix card, not to mention the sound card and the always present network card.
Yet, do we actually need them? Can't the computer industry sell universal Hardware? (aka the good motherboard with good on-board chips.)
The answer is more difficult then it would seem at first, for one we do have the simple problem that the newest hardware, is usually not the best that can be supplied but rather that what the market can absorb the fastest. For example, the Physix card is something fairly unnecessary until games employ better physics engines. Now those cards are produced in small numbers and are over priced, yet they are still being bought. The newest Graphic cards are usually not needed unless there is a release of new Technology for example HDCP, further there is another issue that often loses importance which is that it will take sometime for new games to be released that actually can use this new computing power. Yet, it is odd that the home-user is not even offered access to the computing power that is made available to the developing companies. It sometimes also seems that the companies try to get the greatest profit for the smallest amount of work (ok I admit that that is not very surprising).
Yet, sometimes it's just odd that developers have full access to technology while the end-user is left alone, or rather is left to buy an older product so that when the new technology is implemented in a game that the end-user has to be or at least should buy a new card. It is an interesting pattern that a new card is usually released a 6 month to year before the the technology is actually used. Considering that a well developed game takes at least two years most often more.

Xfire

Xfire is a very useful tool for people that wish to combine their gaming experience with chatting. Xfire is a Instant Messenger service which feature, the ability to see if a friend is on a server of a supported game at the moment, if yes the player can join up on the same server with the friend without having to search for the server or having to start the game. Xfire currently supports more then 700 games and they are becoming more and more, further the user has the ability regularly chat over Xfire with friends that are available at that moment. Xfire can also memorize your favorite servers and the player can then check up on the server without having to start the game, and thus allowing the player to browse through several servers that can be for several games in order to find the right one.

I added the link of the Xfire website to the Link list for websites of note.

Counterstrike Beta...

Counterstrike Beta, was a test forum for a dynamic pricing system that was to be implemented into Counterstrike Source. On November the 1st this dynamic pricing system officially released and was not a beta anymore. It is now part of the regular Counterstrike Source version, what does dynamic pricing mean? Well it basically works the same way today's economy functions which is the demand and supply system, that doesn't mean that a weapon or a piece of equipment can be sold out, but it does mean that the prices for weapons and equipment adjust to the demand. That means a weapon that is great demand like the 'deagle' can suddenly cost a great deal more then it used to while a unpopular weapon becomes dirt cheap.
The implementation of the dynamic pricing also means that the beta has officially ended on November the 1st and can not be played anymore.