The Greatest Generation (Civilization: The Road To War – A Let’s Play Attempt)

I Kind Of Wish I Could Be Playing This On Multiplayer With Ghost or Myssa Rei as The Philippines But What Are Ya Gonna Do

Yeah well, I know I was supposed to be doing a write up of the great people feature for this installment of my Civilization IV exploits, but as everyone can probably see I struggled with how to make the idea interesting for a while.  I recall ghostlightning talking about how articles ought to be written to be as inclusive to the core readership as possible, and so I though about how to make great people a more interesting topic than just me rambling in detail about features of a game that most people likely haven’t played.  Today it hit me….the answer was to bring the game to the people, and what better way to do so then a “Let’s Play” of Civilization IV’s own controversial Road to War mod.

As one might expect there is a World War II mod for Civ IV and as I’m sure most people know World War II affected the world on a global scale with repercussions that are still affecting the world today.  Everybody no matter where they are from has seen their country influenced by the course of events of the war, and every country has it’s great people who did what they could to try and win it for their cause.   Now I said this mod is controversial, and what I mean by that I mean by that among other things is that it actually would have gotten the game banned in Germany if they had gone ahead and used the version I am planning to play which includes Hitler, Hirohito and the Nazi Germany flag.  That had to be removed from the retail version and if you play that one you will be getting Vice Chancellor Franz Von Papen and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto for Germany and Japan respectively.  However that’s not the only controversy, because this mod is still very much a work in progress and prone to some A.I bugs, balance issues and the occasional crash as well as some very odd geographical choices.  It’s not uncommon for Road To War players to make changes to the script for the purposes of enhancing the experience for their style of WWII simulation and in fact the author has encouraged it as well.

For the purposes of this LP I have been playing as my own glorious nation, The Dominion of Canada under the difficulty setting of Chieftain with realistic events (meaning key war events take place on the day that they did in real life) on the global assault map (meaning the whole world is the stage) starting in the year 1936.  The following will catch people up to 1943 an where I am now in the conflict with all the hardship, small victories and incidental observations that came along the way.  Hope people enjoy.

Here’s To Us……(An Introduction To Civilization IV And Why It’s Become My Favourite Game Of All Time)

Absolute Power You Say.........

About a month ago I found myself coming into some extra money so I decided to treat myself to something and on a whim I bought the Civilization IV pack off of steam and fired it on up.  Previously I had played Civilization II during high school but was too young and inexperienced in strategy and resource management to be very good at it, and I had tried to install Civ IV on my old PC when it first came out only to watch as it chugged like my mother at bar (basically impossibly slow) and become more or less unplayable after about 30 seconds.  Now with a faster PC I felt I might get to enjoy the experience and felt that Civ IV would be able to give me the chance to do something I’ve always wanted to do…..lead an Empire to glorious victory and total dominance of the globe over an epic period of time while micromanaging EVERYTHING along the way.  It’s all here and it’s proven to be pretty much as close to the perfect game for me in just over a month, far surpassing my previous all time favourite of Fire Emblem:  Seisen No Keifu which stood in it’s place in my heart for close to a decade (I still love you Fire Emblem don’t worry).

With ghostlightning’s blessing I’ve decided to start a short series on Civilization IV and why I love the game so much, and tonight with some spare time (which will also be spent playing the game of course) I figured I’d get things started.  Truthfully I coul talk all day about the intracies of Civilization IV and in 1000′s of words still not totally sum up what it’s like to actually play and experience the game’s depth and scope, but I have other things to do tonight as well so I just want to briefly talk a bit about the things that make the game awesome to me and hopefully in the process convince a few people to give it a try.

Let’s Just Get This Year Over With Already (Cause 2010 Is Going To Rock)

Gundam Unicorn 3rd Trailer (But Wait There’s More)

I’m away only a day and suddenly the last pieces start to fall into place for 2010.  At this point I’m not sure what else I can expect from what looks to be an awesome upcoming year that I think will more than make up for the lack of mecha I’ve had to suffer through in the latter half of 2009.  With the recent announcement of a new Code Geass project (Trooooolllllllllllllllllls!  Come out to plaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!)from Sunrise this now brings the number of new mecha series from Sunrise alone up to 5 with Unicorn, Votoms, Geass and the Gundam 00 and Seed (hrmmm) movies.  What a busy year and it hasn’t even started.  All that needs to happen is for ghosty to get his new Macross year and I will be ready to prematurely (gasp!) declare 2010 the best year of the century so far.  Here’s a list of some other things I’m still looking forward too:

-Final Fantasy XIII

-Eden of The East Movies

-The rest of V Season 1

- Bioshock 2

Looks like I’ll probably be returning to this blogging business full force next year.  I’m wondering if I’m even going to have any time to rest at all.  In any case time to brush up on my writing and blogging techniques because I almost forget how WordPress even works now.

Kaioshin’s Greed (899 More Turns To Victory And An Ode To The Greatest Gundam Strategy Game Of Them All)

Uncle Gihren Wants Me

It’s definitely been a while since I’ve written anything and the reason is actually two-fold.  One is that I feel I’ve recently accomplished my primary goal for going into blogging in the first place and have been looking for a new course to pursue in what I am going to be talking about in the future or rather how I’m going to be doing it.  It’s probably going to be a LOT more light hearted, that’s all I can say for now.  Two, and also the reason for why I haven’t actually done something so simple yet,  is that I’ve gotten myself hooked on the Gundam strategy game Gihren’s Greed: Axis No Kyoui V for the PS2.  For a leadership scale strategy game fan like me (as well as a devoted fan of Gundam) it was pretty much a given that I was going to get addicted only to end up spending all of my time on it instead of writing something here.  So powerful is the addiction that I had actually planned on writing about the game a couple of weeks ago, but haven’t actually been able to pull myself away from it long enough to write even this one simple paragraph.  “Just one more territory to conquer”, “Oh I’ll just finish researching this custom Gouf type MS and then call it an evening”, “Oh I can invade Torrington now?  Might as well go for it!”…..it’s like the game is perfectly paced so that whenever you accomplish one major feat the next one is just starting up.  It really gives the feeling of a never ending war constantly demanding a leaders full attention on literally all fronts. 

Ever wonder what it’s like to feel the strain of limited resources?  Having to make the decision between scrounging out just a little more capital for the war effort, but risk losing popular support and law tilted aces in the process?  Having to choose between using that last 2,000 capital this turn to fund a public speech to increase morale and the chances of victory in the next battle or using it to build a few more high tier mobile suits?  How about sacrificing a valuable ace to keep another enemy ace at bay?  This game will have you considering some of the tough choices of a war time leader before long. 

Sometimes Doujin Just Beats Official (Adventures In Mahjong Land)

So it's a staring match she wants eh!

I’ve gotta give a huge thumbs up to this To Love Ru doujin Mahjong game I’ve been trying which in many ways is superior to your average arcade game and is also very user friendly and scalable to your skill level.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni Translation Patch: new release, Episode 4 complete!

Originally, we announced we wouldn’t be able to work on it until June, and most of you all were resigned to wait for a August/September release. Then we announced all of a sudden that we would go ahead with a full patch before the end of June.
Well well… betraying your expectations is what we want, so long it is in the good way of course!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are set!

Witch Hunt is proud to announce that the new patch for Umineko no Naku Koro ni is available!

There’s Not A Whole Lot Goin’ On (Or….Did I Get My Money’s Worth This Week)

Well it’s true, I don’t really have too much to write about other then maybe a couple of mildly intriguing experiences that I have had this week so it’s going to be this and then……well…

What The…..Slow Down Banpresto, There’s Enough Mecha Games For Everyone :/

The List:

Mazinkaiser
Mazinkaiser: Death! The Great General of Darkness
Shin Getter Robo: Armageddon
Getter Robo
Full Metal Panic
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
Full Metal Panic The Second Raid
Mobile Suit Gundam W Endless Waltz
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED X Astray
Martian Successor Nadesico: The prince of darkness
The King of Braves GaoGaiGar
The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Final
Steel God Jeeg
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny
Overman King Gainer
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED C.E.73 STARGAZER
Fafner of the Azure: Dead Aggressor
Gaiking Legend of Daiku-Maryu
Combination Godannar!!
Combination Godannar!! SECOND SEASON
Dangaioh – Hyper Combat Unit
Gun x Sword
ZOIDS GENESIS
Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz
Super Electromagnetic Robot Com-Battler V
Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes Five
Beast King GoLion
Dancougar – Super Beast Machine God
Project Zeorymer
Blue Comet SPT Layzner
Mobile Fighter G Gundam
Brain Powered
Detonator Orgun

The Scoop:  Yeesh, they just released SRW K and now they are on about a spinoff game?  I don’t know about this one, there’s literally no knew series, it’s just all of the units from the previous 3 handheld games (J, W and K) thrown into a story about a Super Robot pilot training school that uses simulations to train it’s cadets….possibly with sexy results.  Luckily if all goes as planned I won’t be having to pay to test it when it comes out.  Errrr…..yeah, that’s about all I’ve got.  Oh no wait there’s one more thing……..they bloody well put Prince of Darkness in there again but took Tekkaman Blade out.  Lame!  Yeah I know this is seemingly just a sprite rehash, but if I have to go through that awful storyline again I’m not sure I can play this game.  Then again Brain Powerd, SPT Layzner AND Shin Getter Robo: Armageddon are back in so it might even out a little.

I Did It For The Lulz (Further Experiments In Movie Making Yield Debatable Results With SD Gundam G Generation F)

So as many of you probably already know I am chomping at the bit for the release of SD Gundam G Generation Wars.  My ultimate lulz oriented goal with that game will be to see if I can get Marina as a guest character into a mobile suit to duke it out with Relena, also in a mobile suit.  For now though I had to settle for this…..

A Farewell To Pacifism

Other goals of mine when G Generation Wars comes out include Lacus vs. Marina, Lacus vs. Meer, Feldt vs. Christina, and god I pray to thee please make this possible and I promise I will be a good boy forever and ever…..Saji vs. Louise.   If you have a crazy and totally nonsensical battle you would love to see possible in whatever vs. scenario G Generation Wars comes up with then please share with.

Final Fantasy XIII Demo (Is Masashi Hamauzu Square’s Next Nobuo Uematsu? Has Tetsuya Nomura Finally Evolved?)

I was wondering why ghostlightning had suddenly brought FFX:III up to me the other day.  His question was whether FF:XIII was going to be coming out on 360 too.  Yes…..yes it is.  Then I found out that the demo had been released in Japan on the PS3 yesterday and went to look at some clips.  Truthfully I hadn’t been that psyched about FFX:III until I saw that they were going to be going with the whole cyberpunk theme for it’s characters and part of it’s setting.  IMO FF: VIII had the most fascinating settings in the history of the franchise and I had been waiting a long long time for them to go back to that.  Lightning’s Gunsword helps in getting back to that level of awesomeness too, because if I haven’t already been clear, my policy when it comes to games is “to hell with realism, do what you have to do to maximize the fun factor, then if you have to worry about realism”.  I guess that means I’ve grown accustomed to Square’s late tendencies towards zazz factor (not so much cutscene porn, which they admittedly not quite as bad for as Konami’s Metal Gear Solid franchise) as long as it doesn’t interfere with gameplay.  Of course if the realism is tied to the fun factor like it with such game franchises as Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty then by all means……

Anyway, I digress.  What I am really here to talk about was the music during one of the early sequences in the Demo.  Specifically this masterpiece in the waiting:

Final Fantasy XIII Boss Theme – By Masashi Hamauzu

Holy mother…..maybe it’s just me, but this is probably the best Final Fantasy song I’ve heard since FF: X, though maybe that’s because Masashi Hamauzu was one of the FFX composers.  Nevertheless I didn’t expect to get completely blown away by one of the first tracks I heard from the demo and I swear to god it actually brought a tear to my eye because it sounded so much like the FF music I remember getting into back in my high school days and not the solid but merely passable stuff we’ve been getting since FF: X-2.  I just love how it builds the tension in the early bits only to slam you full force with the piano player going all Elton John on us (that’s how I picture him anyway, slamming down on the keys like Elton John once he really gets going in a concert) as well as those lovely violins.  Music to fight bosses by…..this is what I want.  And yeah come to think of it the boss music in FF: XII was pretty good too, but I wouldn’t put it on this level and I certainly hope this doesn’t just mean that the boss music will be the highlight piece for all of FF:XIII as now that I know Hamauzu is the FF: X guy I expect great things from this games score.