Gazillion Entertainment has released the all-new Marvel Heroes ‘Invincible Iron Man’ trailer. Marvel Heroes is set to launch sometime this Spring.
Archive - 2013
Scottsdale, AZ, March 11, 2013 – Industry vet Joe Ybarra and his new studio Joe Got Game have announced their debut title, Shackleton Crater is live on Kickstarter. You can check out the project page here.
A uniquely fast-paced strategic simulation, Shackleton Crater brings to life the exploration and colonization of the southern pole of the moon across a one-hundred year period beginning in the near future.
Using actual lunar mapping data and satellite photos in concert with the Unity 3D engine, Shackleton Crater offers an ultra-realistic, finely detailed background to the player’s efforts to reach the moon. Players will also be tasked with the managing of basic resources in the face of incredibly unforgiving physical conditions, building a thriving habitat, and later – missions to explore the far reaches of the lunar surface.
“After many years of setting up new studios including Electronic Arts – under the private investor and venture capital model,” Joe commented, “I’ve been equally impressed with how the Kickstarter people have made crowdfunding so accessible, and with how fans of great game projects have participated in the process in such large numbers.”
Joe Got Game’s Kickstarter includes a variety of rewards: digital downloads (initially with Beta releases), plus T-shirts, limited edition posters, licenses for two future expansion packs and much more. Joe went on to say, “We expect that the community will really appreciate the scope, realism and excitement factor of the Shackleton Crater design, as well as the opportunity to become part of the development process.”
Shackleton Crater will be offered for Windows, Android, and iOS operating systems and for a variety of mobile devices, and is targeted for first delivery in Spring, 2014.
Washington, DC – March 11, 2013 – The U.S. video game industry today announced a new national public education campaign to educate American parents further about the tools and information available so they can manage the entertainment choices for their families. The campaign’s focal point will be a new series of Public Service Announcements (PSA) encouraging parents to review the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) video game ratings and utilize existing video game console parental controls.
“This campaign will connect with consumers in an immediate and sustained way in addition to the traditional mechanisms over TV outlets. By channeling our industry’s compelling and innovative medium, we will instantly provide proven, practical, and effective information to millions of consumers,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the U.S. trade association representing video game publishers.
“No one knows better than parents when it comes to making decisions about which games their children should and should not play,” said U.S. Senator John Thune (R-SD), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. “The video game industry makes games for people of all ages, but that doesn’t mean all games are appropriate for everyone. I commend the industry for raising awareness of the tools available to parents that can help them make informed decisions about the games their children play.”
Every month, the video game industry has more than 300 million interactions with consumers through online storefronts and video game play. Leveraging this energy and passion, the industry will:
- Enhance public education efforts around video game ratings and parental controls by developing and funding a series of new PSAs;
- Utilize the unique interconnectivity and reach of the video game industry’s platforms to promote these public service messages and related content;
- Coordinate with video game retailers to use both their physical store footprints and dedicated online networks to educate millions of their customers about video game ratings and parental controls;
- Work with policy makers to extend the proven ESRB rating system to the broader games ecosystem of smart phones, tablets, and online social games; and,
- Support and partner with non-profits using video games for educational and other pro-social purposes.
“The more parents know about the wealth of dynamic tools the video game industry has developed for monitoring game play, the more empowered they will be to make informed decisions about which video games are appropriate for their family. I commend the video game industry for recognizing the importance of educating and engaging parents about the ratings and other resources and for leading a national program that will ensure the decision-making power remains where it should be – with parents,” said Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-23).
Specifically, the video game industry stated that they will accomplish their objectives by:
- Featuring new PSAs on video game platforms that will expand on the series already completed and available here;
- Providing consumers with information on video game-specific web sites and online stores;
- Providing PSAs to video game industry news and fan discussion sites for use;
- Encouraging broadcast outlets to run the PSAs on local channels;
- Working with federal and state elected officials to provide rating and parental control information to their constituents; and,
- Distributing PSAs to retailers for use on their in-store and online channels.
“Our industry has a long-standing, high-quality track record of empowering parents,” said Mr. Gallagher. “The Federal Trade Commission described the ESRB as having the
strongest self-regulatory code with regard to its marketing guidelines and enforcement system. Today we will build on that success.”
According to industry statistics, approximately half of American homes have at least one video game console. Every video game console has password-protected parental controls that allow parents to limit their children’s video game use. As such, each of those consoles, handheld devices, and PCs can be activated to block types of video games and restrict access to the Internet.
For more than 18 years, all computer and video games sold at retail have been rated by the ESRB. 85% of parents of children who play video games are aware of the industry’s rating system and this campaign will build on the already high awareness rate. The Federal Trade Commission reports that parents are present when video games are purchased 9 out of 10 times.
According to a survey conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates in 2012, 70% of parents regularly check the ESRB rating before buying video games. The ESRB rating system also enjoys high levels of trust among parents, who consistently report being satisfied with the information it provides in terms of selecting games for their children.
In the future, the distribution channels established as part of this campaign could also provide a platform for other educational and pro-social messages and information.
ESA offers services to interactive entertainment software publishers, including conducting business and consumer research, providing legal and policy analysis and advocacy on First Amendment, intellectual property and technology/e-commerce issues, managing a global anti-piracy program, owning and operating E3, and representing video game industry interests in federal and state government relations. For more information, please visit www.theESA.com or follow us on Twitter at @RichatESA or @ESAGovAffairs.
The ESRB is a non-profit, self-regulatory body that assigns age and content ratings for video games and apps so parents can make informed choices. As part of its regulatory role for the video game industry the ESRB also enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines and helps ensure responsible online privacy practices under its Privacy Online program. ESRB was established in 1994 by the ESA.
Haarlem, The Netherlands – March 11, 2013 – Videogame developer Zero Sum Games and publisher Iceberg Interactive announced today their hugely anticipated 4x space strategy gameStarDrive is now playable in Beta on Steam. Throughout the Steam Beta stage, StarDrive will be available at a 15 percent discount (pre-order and play now), StarDrive also made the best-seller list on Steam this weekend.
Download the beta HERE: http://store.steampowered.com/
As an appetizer for the beta launch, Iceberg has released an official teaser trailer. The trailer illustrates the action and dynamics, giving gamers new insights into the game. The video can be streamed at the Iceberg Youtube channel.
StarDrive is a space-themed 4X strategy game with deep ship design, colonization, diplomacy, research, and beautiful 3D graphics designed by new developer Zero Sum Games, which ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2011. StarDrive features include:
- Real-time gameplay with a seamless zoom from a grand strategic view to a close-up action view
- Choose from eight beautifully rendered alien races or design your own; interact, negotiate, and forge allegiances on your way to victory
- Expand your empire and colonize all kinds of planets, terraform and populate them, and build them into specialized centers of trade or industry
- Research and unlock an array of technologies to improve your military and industrial capabilities
- Control your ships with classic real-time strategy commands or jump into the fray by taking direct ‘arcade’ control of any ship in your empire
- Create your unique ship designs with the modular ship design system and determine your own fate in battle
- Create custom fleet formations and set rules of engagement in the easy-to-use fleet editor
- Steal technologies, incite rebellions, or rob your enemies blind with a rich agent-based espionage system
- Deploy ground troops from orbit to defeat the enemies’ last planetary defenses in ground combat
- Explore the rich universe that comes alive with random events, remnant elements, hidden treasures, deep space terrors and late-game threats
“After years of creating this game we are finally ready and hugely excited to be entering the beta stage on Steam,” Zero Sum Games CEO Daniel DiCicco says. “We are hungry for the feedback of the seasoned 4x gamers that have been following development. The game is still evolving and with the help of our fans it will only get better, while at the same time we are confident they will have a blast with StarDrive as it is now!”
“After having been in QA testing for over four months, we have a polished beta build, ready for the masses of fans who have been waiting patiently for this day,” Iceberg Interactive CEO Erik Schreuder adds. “StarDrive will challenge experienced 4X players and let them re-live the golden days of grand space strategy games. This is going to to be a very special occasion, when a guy who had a dream finally unveils his masterpiece, having dedicated so much to see it come to fruition.”
More information about the game can be found on the official StarDrive Website: www.stardrivegame.com/
The new Creative Labs Sound Blaster ZxR sound card is a behemoth of audio goodness. Un-boxing everything from the package, I was very impressed with the design style Creative Labs put into their new, flagship sound card. The sound cards feature black aluminum bodies with red accents and a pleasing shine. You did read that correctly: Sound cardS. As it turns out, the Sound Blaster ZxR comes with two cards that install into your computer system. The first card is the base ZxR itself, and the other is the DBPro daughter board. The DBPro board contains optical inputs and outputs as well as RCA audio-in ports. The third item I took from the Sound Blaster ZxR box was the ACM, or, Audio Control Module. The ACM is a small module which features both 3.5mm and 1/4″ inch headphone and microphone jacks. It also features a large, rotating volume knob providing fine adjustments, specifically for the headphones.
Installing the Sound Blaster ZxR took very little time and did not yield a lot of surprises. Installing the DBPro daughter card was a bit odd as it does not feature an PCI-E slot connector. It simply slides into where a card would usually sit and gets screwed down. The two cards are connected by a small daisy-style ribbon cable. After getting the two cards installed, I put my PC chassis cover back on and connected the Audio Control Module to the back of the sound card. Once I booted into Windows, I installed the drivers and control panel from the included software CD and let the auto-update program work its magic.
The main sound card features a built-in headphone amp capable of powering studio headphones with a 600ohm impedance. Additionally, it has all the hook-ups for very high quality 5.1 channel surround sound. My 5.1 speaker setup was rocking my gaming desk with just how incredible the sound was. The Sound Blaster ZxR’s 124dB Signal to Noise Ratio allowed for some very clear and powerful sound to be produced. Switching over to my headphones, I was equally-impressed, as my Sennheiser headphones could fully take advantage of the great sound quality. Most sound cards – especially on-board cards, do not put out very clear sound, so high end headphones go to waste. Not in this case, I am happy to tell.
Actually, I was really hoping that I could run two separate headphones from the Audio Control Module as it technically room for two. Unfortunately, you can only use one of the outputs (1/4″ or 3.5mm) at a time. One really cool feature of the Sound Blaster ZxR applies mainly to musicians looking to record their own tracks. The DBPro daughter board has a Sound Core 3D audio processor unit just like the main sound card. This means that you can apply the Sound Core 3D audio effects to the audio inputs from that source as well.
I did note a very infrequent, but serious bug with the Sound Blaster ZxR. Once in a great while, the card seemed to stopped outputting sound when the output selector was switched from “speakers” to “headphones” or vice versa. No matter what I did after that short of a full PC restart would correct the problem. Hopefully, this is a bug that Creative Labs can track down and patch out sometime in the future. Otherwise, I did not note any other bugs or problems.
This issue aside, the Sound Blaster ZxR is an incredible sound card for gamers, audiophiles, and would-be musicians looking to craft their own tracks. It carefully rides the line of purpose for musicians and gamers alike, paying service to each without skimping out on either. The Sound Blaster ZxR is one of the best sound cards on the market right now and easily the best Creative Labs sound card to date.
[easyreview title=”Sound Blaster ZxR Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″] Our Rating Scores Explained
Sound Blaster ZxR Images
Official Specs
| General | ||
| Audio Processor: | Sound Core3D | |
| Audio Resolution: | 24-Bit | |
| Digital Audio Convertor (DAC): | Burr-Brown | |
| Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) (20kHz Low-pass filter, A-Wgt): | 124dB | |
| Maximum Playback Quality: | 5.1 : Up to 96kHzStereo Direct: Up to 192kHz | |
| Frequency Response @96kHz: | Front Channel Out : 10Hz to 45kHzRear Channel Out : 15Hz to 45kHzCenter Out : 10Hz to 45kHzHeadphone (33 ohms): 10Hz to 45kHz | |
| Frequency Response @192kHz (Stereo Direct Only): | Front Channel Out : 10Hz to 88kHz | |
| 16-bit to 24-bit Recording Sample Rates: | 8,11.025,16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 96 (kHz) | |
| 16-bit to 24-bit Playback Sample Rates: | 8,11.025,16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48, 96, 192 (kHz) | |
| Maximum Recording Quality: | Up to 24-bit/96kHz | |
| I/O Ports (Main Card): | Headphone : 1 x Amplified 1/4″ jackSpeaker Out : 2x RCA (L / R) 2x 3.5mm jacks (Rear, C/Sub)Microphone In: 1x 1/4″ jack | |
| I/O Ports (Daughter Card): | Line In : 2x RCA (L / R)Optical Out : 1x TOSLINKOptical In : 1x TOSLINK | |
| Audio Control Module / Front Panel Connectivity: | Volume Control Knob Built-in Beam-Forming MicrophoneHeadphone-Out : 1x 3.5mm jack, 1x 1/4” jackMicrophone-In : 1x 3.5mm jack, 1x 1/4” jack | |
| 600 Ohm Amplified Headphone Output: | 80mw TI TPA6120 | |
| Swappable OP-AMPs: | Yes | |
| Included Acesssories: | Audio Control Module (with Beamforming Microphone Built-in) | |
| Technology | ||
| Audio Enhancement: | SBX Pro StudioSurround™Crystalizer™Bass™Smart Volume™Dialog Plus™ | |
| CrystalVoice™Noise ReductionSmart VolumeAcoustic Echo CancellationFXFocus | ||
| Speaker/Headphone Switch: | Software Controlled | |
| Dolby Digital Live: | Encoding | |
| DTS Connect: | Encoding | |
| Upmixing of Stereo to Multi-Channels: | SBX Surround | |
| DTS & Dolby Digital Decoding via Cyberlink PowerDVD Download: | via 3rd party software download | |
| Scout Mode™: | Yes | |
| EAX: | EAX 5.0 HD | |
| Max.No. of 3D Voices: | 128 | |
| Platform | ||
| PS3, XBOX360, PC or Mac: | PC – PCIe x1 Connection | |
| Minimum Operating System | ||
| Windows/ OSX: | Windows 7/ 8 | |
Earlier this week, I trekked out to a very rainy and cool Santa Monica, CA to checkout Larian Studios upcoming Dragon Commander, a strategy title rife with political dilemmas and troop management. Of course, you also get to transform into a flying dragon on the battlefield to rain down fire on your enemies, but I digress…
During our preview of Dragon Commander, most of the presentation was spent aboard the protagonist’s airship, the Raven. You play a bastard prince, who’s father’s death has left the empire split into rival factions helmed by his sons. The world is based in a traditional fantasy setting, but it seems that demons have touched the world by bringing all manner of steam-punk style technology into it in. Your job is to unite the empire (through real-time strategic combat) and somehow rid the land of the “evil” technology.
Onboard the Raven, the overall interface is similar to that of the TCS Tiger’s Claw in the original Wing Commander. The ship has various rooms, each with NPCs to interactive with. This character interaction is the bread and butter of Dragon Commander’s storyline. You will often be presented with controversial decisions to make. These questions range from the mundane to whether or not gay marriage should be allowed. A few turns down the road, the decision gets even more complicated when you have to decided whether to allow gay folk into the army. This is just an example of the hard-hitting political decision-making you will have to perform.
The world is made up of several races, from Undead to Imps, and more. Each have their own cultural viewpoints and your decisions will undoubtedly affect how they support you (or not). The game never passes judgment on the player’s decisions, which is nice. After all, you are the prince, you make the rules. Who are they to nay say?!?
So, after you are done interacting with characters on the Raven, you can jump to the map view, which is setup in a Risk-like board game layout. From their, you can monitor all your territories, move troops, and build new units. Once you have moved all your units, you press the “end turn” button, and movement unfolds. Battles can be auto-resolved or manually-fought. One developer mentioned that the game can be played basically like a strategic strategy title, and RTS gameplay barely touched on if played smartly (the player just auto-resolving all combats). However, Larian Studios has put a lot of work into getting an RTS game into this turn-based game when battles are fought manually.
The fully 3D battle maps can be viewed via virtual camera in just about all directions. You click and select your units, direct them towards fortification points which can be used to build new battle facilities (such as barracks, factories, etc) and also smaller fortification points which can be used to create things like turrets. After assembling your army, you will most likely want to engage the enemy. It is important to note that all the armies of this game world share the same unit types – however, each grants bonuses to the ones they want. This is where armies will truly diverge in tactics.
The game’s namesake obviously points to dragon commanding combat, and you can do just that. At any point on the battlefield, so long as you are close enough to a friendly unit, you can transform the camera into a third-person view of your dragon flying about the sky. You can control the dragon like a ship could be controlled in the Descent games, and depending on what upgrades you have purchased for your dragon, you can reign some serious hell down on the enemy. While dragon-only combat is possible in some instances, it should be noted that dragons are very ineffective against enemy buildings, so you will most-likely have to take those with good old fashioned boots on the ground.
Overall, Dragon Commander promises to be a very intriguing and deep game where player decision will have a large outcome on their fate and that of the empire’s. Dragon Commander is scheduled for release on the Windows PC platform sometime in the middle of this year and, so far, is looking mighty polished.
Trailer
Looks like Electronic Arts is working hard to re-gain the favor of video gamers put off by the rocky launch of SimCity on PC. The company is going to be giving SimCity gamers a free game from the EA portfolio.
Full PR Text
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A SIMCITY UPDATE…AND SOMETHING FOR YOUR TROUBLE FROM LUCY BRADSHAW
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Here’s a quick update on the problems we were experiencing with SimCity – and a little something extra for people who bought the game.
The server issues which began at launch have improved significantly as we added more capacity. But some people are still experiencing response and stability problems that we’re working fast to address.
So what went wrong? The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta.
OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. In the last 48 hours we increased server capacity by 120 percent. It’s working – the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically. The number of disrupted experiences has dropped by roughly 80 percent.
So we’re close to fixed, but not quite there. I’m hoping to post another update this weekend to let everyone know that the launch issues are behind us.
Something Special for Your Trouble
The good news is that SimCity is a solid hit in all major markets. The consensus among critics and players is that this is fundamentally a great game. But this SimCity is made to be played online, and if you can’t get a stable connection, you’re NOT having a good experience. So we’re not going to rest until we’ve fixed the remaining server issues.
And to get us back in your good graces, we’re going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio. On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game.
I know that’s a little contrived – kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened. We’re hoping you won’t stay mad and that we’ll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent.
SimCity is a GREAT game and the people who made it are incredibly proud. Hang in there – we’ll be providing more updates throughout the weekend.
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I don’t have much spare time to review video games but when I was offered by the good people at GamingShogun.com the chance to review the Hitman HD Trilogy for PS3, I gladly accepted and made time to dive back into the games that made me such a huge Hitman fan. Unfortunately, my joy quickly dissipated shortly after I began playing.
Right off the bat, the Hitman HD Trilogy feels too much like an advertisement for the brand new, highly-anticipated “Hitman Absolution”. The main screen is somewhat visually-unfriendly, as it instantly pops up displaying the 3 games in the title along with the overly large bar on the entire bottom half of the screen for the “Hitman Sniper Challenge”, which was originally created to promote “Absolution”. Along with all this, the “Your cover has been blown” music from “Contracts” begins to play. It all just gives off an instant feeling that not much time went into putting this all together.
I jumped right into “Contracts”, my favorite Hitman title to date. I noticed very quickly that there isn’t much difference at all to this, and that the “HD” is nowhere to be found, aside from Agent 47 looking a lot smoother and rounded off. Other than that, there is absolutely no visual “HD” difference between this version and the version I played over and over again on PS2. Over time, I noticed that not much was different throughout the rest of the game, as well. Nothing was really touched and all the NPC’s and environments looked EXACTLY like they did in the non-HD version.
Disheartened, I gave “Blood Money” a go. Playing through the tutorial mission, I noticed yet again nothing that really stood out as being HD. Even as I neared a large, fancy gate that lead to an abandoned amusement park, the gate itself was entirely flat instead of having depth like it gave the illusion to. On top of that, all the background graphics were very pixelated and lines that represented edges of buildings were entirely broken. This was literally not five minutes into “Blood Money”! This was a game I went out and bought for Xbox 360 only a year ago just because I loved the original and I missed it so much. The extreme lack of time put into making this title HD is screamingly obvious.
There’s no one else who has been anticipating “Absolution” more than I was and when I heard that the original trilogy was coming back in high-def shortly after, I was incredibly excited. But to go in and visually see pretty much the exact same games I played on previous-generation consoles, it was rather tough to write a review where I bashed my all-time favorite game series. The term “cash-grab” comes to mind, however. Why else would this title be the same price as all other brand new titles? It certainly doesn’t show in its self-claimed HD.
If you’ve been considering going out and picking the Hitman HD Trilogy up, I highly recommend pulling out your old PS2 instead or perhaps hunting down a used copy of Blood Money or Silent Assassin for XBox 360 or PC. You’ll save a lot of money and still get the exact same game play and experience that you would playing the re-released trilogy. Even more, you’ll be a lot happier too knowing you’ve still got that $60 in your pocket for the time when a game worth purchasing drops that its developers actually put some time and effort into instead of just simply rehashing previous titles and cramming them onto one disc with their main concern being that you’ll run right back out and pick up Absolution after playing the rather fun “Sniper Challenge”, which can instead be downloaded by itself quickly, easily, and more to the point, a hell of a lot less expensive than the less-than-superior Hitman HD Trilogy.
[easyreview title=”Hitman HD Trilogy Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″] Our Rating Scores Explained
The historical based strategy wargame has an interesting place in my heart. On one hand, as a trained historian and archaeologist, I love trying to either recreate or change history through my actions. On the other hand, I have never been any good at these games since I cannot seem to micro-manage the economic systems, while supplying my troops, and fighting a war on multiple fronts. This is similar to my love/hate relationship that I have with real time strategy games, but I am far more interested in the historical aspects of the wargame. This time around, I take on the Napoleonic Wars period of 1805-1815 with Paradox Interactive’s March of the Eagles.
Story:
March of the Eagles begins in 1805 with the start of the Napoleonic Wars. The Napoleonic Wars involved almost the entirety of Europe as Napoleon Bonaparte tried to expand the French Empire, mostly by trying to conquer the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom responded by gathering allies from all over Europe to form coalitions, seven of these by the end of the wars. The end result of the Napoleonic Wars was the removal from power of Napoleon Bonaparte and the strengthening of nationalism throughout Europe, eventually leading to the rise in power of both Germany and Italy by the end of the century. All of these is portrayed in March of the Eagles in one form or another, though for most individuals, it will be quite overwhelming.
The story line of March of the Eagles doesn’t play out in any type of narrative sense, like most games. There aren’t any talking heads nor cut scenes to show you what is occurring on the other side of the continent. The narrative is completely driven by your actions and what nation you choose to begin with. If you choose France, then the objective is fairly simple: Conquer Europe. If you choose any other nation, then the story will change as will the objectives based on your decisions. As Russia, do you choose to ally yourself with France, setting up a massive pincer attack and crush Central Europe between two armies, then defeat the United Kingdom? Or, do you ally yourself with the United Kingdom and try to march your armies across several hostile countries to join the fight against France? It is entirely up to the player and the decisions the player makes. The implementation of historical events in a game such as March of the Eagles is extremely tricky. You have to have the artificial intelligence react accordingly to player decisions. I felt that Paradox Interactive did a good job in recreating the political tension and setting for the Napoleonic Wars.
Game Play:
In a word, the game play of March of the Eagles was overwhelming. I felt that I had too much to keep track of in too many menus, but this is a personal critic of the game. Die hard fans of the strategy wargame genre may feel completely opposite, however, I definitely had issues with this. Fighting back my fear of menus and information overload, I got to see what March of the Eagles had to offer, and it is solid.
After choosing your nation, you are immediately thrown into the conflict. Since most nations already had wars, enemies, and allies ongoing before the start of the Napoleonic Wars, you have some immediate decisions to make. Russia, for instance, is already entangled with Persia to the south before I even make one alliance to involve myself in the greater conflict of Europe.
Decisions made for your nation are presented and completed through menus. Decisions involving Diplomacy, Research, and Manufacturing are all presented in extensive and detailed menus, which quite frankly gave me information overload. However overwhelming as it was for me, having this information is beneficial for those that take their wargame simulators seriously.
Aesthetics:
March of the Eagles is not a pretty game, at all. The icons for all troops are those of infantry, even if the troop type is cavalry, which makes it hard to identify troop types at a glance. Animations are at a minimal and the map, while showing detailed topography across Europe, isn’t attractive at all. The good news in this regard is that March of the Eagles fully supports user made modifications, and there is already a mod in works from the community to make this a more visually appealing game. Unfortunately, I see that has a huge strike against March of the Eagles. When your customers have to fix your product to make it more appealing, then you haven’t done your job right.
The sound of March of the Eagles wasn’t memorable either. Since there is no voice acting, no conflict sound effects, and very little ambient sounds, I don’t have much to review. The music works, however, isn’t something you will find whistling at work later in the day.
Final Thoughts:
March of the Eagles is a very strong contender in the historical wargame genre. This historic era is under-represented in today’s video game market and is a fantastic change of pace from playing games based on either World War II or conflicts centered in the Middle East. This game is not for everyone! You must constantly micro-manage your finances, diplomacy, research, and troop movement in order to remain a contender in the Napoleonic Wars power struggle. Information is your best friend, and worst enemy in March of the Eagles. You can see almost everything with a click of the mouse button, but this could lead to information overload for those of you that are not wargame veterans. The aesthetics of March of the Eagles leaves much to be desired, but that has been the case in most historical wargames. I hope that this style of game will continue to be made in the future, however, I hope developers start borrowing ideas from other developers, like Blizzard, and start putting more into how the game looks and sounds. Overall, March of the Eagles is a very strong game for those that have the desire to rewrite history in a strategy game and you get a lot for the $20 price tag.
[easyreview title=”March of the Eagles Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3″ ]
NASHVILLE- March 7, 2013- From the gridiron to the gaming console, professional football players like Matt Forte from the Chicago Bears, want to challenge YOU to Madden. Tampa Bay Rays cannon, David Price, dares you to hit his fastball in MLB 2K13. Are you up for it? New app, OverDog, connects athletes from all sports to their fans through any video game title. Fans who support OverDog on Kickstarter will receive exclusive access during the mobile app’s beta window which will be closed to the general public until Fall.
“So many athletes love video games. They’re young and competitive, and enjoy connecting with their fans. OverDog is an easy, efficient way to bring fans and players together. We’ve got NFL Pro Bowlers, UFC fighters, Olympic Gold Medalists – you name it,” says OverDog co-founder and former Chicago Bear, Hunter Hillenmeyer. “These athletes may have spent years mastering their sport with practice and weight training- but in the online gaming arena everyone is equal.”
Straight out of the OverDog playbook, here’s how this innovative and exciting application works: Simply put, athletes post video challenges through the mobile app which notifies subscribers. Fans who choose to accept the challenge are put into a random drawing by OverDog who streamlines the selection and “friending” process. One lucky gamer then faces-off against the challenging athlete for pride, glory and, of course, bragging rights. And, yes, trash talking is allowed!
Once the app is downloaded, supporters and subscribers can view the Lobby page which highlights which athletes are logged in. You’ll be able to browse an existing list of live challenge videos or wait until an athlete challenges you in your favorite game. OverDog delivers communications that are personalized based on fan and athlete user preference for an easier, enhanced gaming experience.
Working closely with the Player’s Associations, OverDog has recruited more than 100 athletes (i.e. Lance Briggs, Hank Baskett, Kei Kamara and Michael Boley just to name a few) to its gaming roster for the beta app launch in April. Only Kickstarter backers will have exclusive access to that version. The public OverDog app will be released this Fall.
Original OverDog members will also become a part of the development process by offering feature feedback and suggesting players they’d like to see part of the program in the future. OverDog is working on expanding its features for a more interactive experience which is why they’ve turned to Kickstarter for additional funding. Some features in the pipeline include Fan vs. Fan matches, leaderboards, automatic results-capture and game broadcasting.
For a full list of pledge options, please head to the OverDog Kickstarter Page.
You can also check out some of the OverDog athlete challengers HERE.