Author - Jerry Paxton

Over the course of our history, there have been a large number of stories where heroic, legendary soldiers risk life and limb to accomplish lofty, idealistic goals for the free world. These heroes do not need thanks, payment, or anyone to know of their deeds. The characters in B-Company…Are NOT these kinds of soldiers…

Nor are most people that altruistic. Indeed, one of the things we admire most about the single-player portion of the shooter is the bantering that goes on between your squad mates and their fairly sardonic (yet highly amusing) views on life, each other, and everything else. In Battlefield: Bad Company, you play as a new recruit to B-Company, a special four-man squad in the U.S. Army full of very skilled rejects from regular units.

Usually a multiplayer PC gaming developer, EA’s DICE studio has really outdone themselves with BF:BC, as the single-player campaign is very engaging once it picks up. The first few opening assignments are a little bland, and totally opposed to how the game ‘feels’ later on thankfully. Gameplay in the campaign is fairly straight forward. You can, of course, drive and fight from vehicles which is particularly entertaining. The combat on foot is action-packed and exciting as well. However, the best part about the gameplay are the destructible environments. Alot of games these days are touting this feature, but few have delivered like BF: BC. Nearly anything can be demolished and nearly any structure can have hole shot into it. The size of these holes is up to you. Watch an enemy soldier run for cover inside a building and surprise the heck out of him by blowing the wall up in front of him.

Unfortunately, the AI in the game is a bit spotty, and every so often you will find an enemy standing in the open waiting for your to blow them away. Thankfully, most of the NPCs have terrific fighting AI and can be a real challenge when you find the cover you are hiding behind had been blown away!

Some reviews have criticized the game’s graphics but we think they look great and provide plenty of depth and detail to satisfy. Explosions look terrific and powerful, and character animations are fluid. The sound effects are excellent and if you get the chance to play with surround sound you are in for a treat as the sound channel separation is calculated extremely well.

Something that should have been included but for some reason was not is a co-op campaign. Battlefield: Bad Company has a good multiplayer engine and one has a hard time understanding why a co-op campaign was not added. Sure, it might not have had all the squad banter but playing in a co-op game with your buddies would make up for it.

Overall, Battlefield: Bad Company is a strong, action-packed shooter that gives gamers plenty of explosions to keep coming back for more while not patronizing them with gratuity alone. The combination of storyline and gameplay mechanics make for a great, engaging time.

Bourne Consipiracy Launch on a Cell Phone Near You

2008/07/02

Vivendi Games has launched the Bourne Conspiracy on the ‘mobile’ platform, basically meaning cell phones. The game appears to be primarily a side-scrolling fighter. You can find out more at vgmobile.com

Official Release:
Vivendi Games Mobile, a division of Vivendi Games, today announced the launch of Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Conspiracy™ on mobile phones throughout Europe. The mobile game allows players to become Jason Bourne – experiencing the action as both the hunter and hunted, playing as both trained CIA assassin and marked government agent on the run.

The mobile experience features the signature Bourne-style action taking players deeper than ever before into the world of action and espionage. With a seamless blend of hand-to-hand combat, gunplay, dramatic escapes and driving, players will experience an adventure on their mobile phones like never before.

Xbox LIVE HD Game Nights Announced

2008/07/01

Microsoft in cooperation with iGames centers will having more Xbox LIVE HD Game Nights throughout the ten weeks between July 9th and September 18th. The event, taking place at various iGames centers, allows gamers to get together and not only take part in game tournaments but also enjoy HD movies and TV shows.

iGames website

Official Release:
WHAT: Leading game center organization iGames will host a new and expanded season of Xbox LIVE® HD Game Nights, an exclusive 10-week series celebrating the wide-ranging HD content available on Xbox LIVE.

WHEN & WHERE: Every Wednesday and Thursday night July 9 through September 18 at 40 select iGames member centers across North America (July 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, 31; August 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27, 28; Sept. 3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18)

WHY YOU SHOULD GO:
• Red-hot games like Halo 3 and Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare™ in addition to your favorite arcade and casual games
• Free HD showings of popular movies and TV shows
• Tons of free stuff, such as 4000 MS Point Cards, 1600 MS Point Cards, 64 MB Xbox 360 Memory Units, Xbox 360 Silver Faceplates, Xbox T-Shirts XL, Xbox blankets

i2i Stream Digital Music Broadcaster Review

2008/07/01

Every so often comes a product that just proves itself to be too damned handy to pass on purchasing. Aerielle’s i2i Stream digital music broadcaster is one such example. In short, the i2i Stream broadcasts an audio signal over a frequency to be picked up by other i2i Stream devices within range. These receiving devices can be attached to headphones or larger speaker systems and reproduces the audio in near-CD quality.

Sounds like a simple enough device, but what caught our eyes, ahem, ears here in the GamingShogun offices was a glint of genius. When used properly, the i2i Stream can wirelessly connect your home or office for high quality music. We attached one of our two units to the resident Zune and the other to a desktop speaker system from Logitech. The result was that everyone here could enjoy the music I selected from my Zune…everything…Even the stuff not much appreciated ’round these parts. Like the Allman Brothers Band…Alot of people just don’t get those guys… But, I digress.

The i2i Stream device is unique in that it is a transceiver, meaning it can both receive and transmit audio (although not at the same time). By simply clicking either mode button you can go from tuned listener to DJ. The audio is broadcast over a 2.4gHz signal within a 30 foot range. You can select one of seven different color-coordinated channels to transmit on. Just have your loyal fans set their receiving devices to the same color and you are all set.

Its high frequency signal can even penetrate light structures to really bring that wireless party to a boiling point. Aside from wirelessly connecting your home or office, Aerielle has marketed the devices to the younger crowd, looking to share music at school, the coffee house, etc. The device is very portable and would perform well in this role with battery life ranging from five to seven hours on a full charge.

Overall, we have to say that the Aerielle i2i Stream digital music broadcaster is a very handy tool for groups of audiophiles looking for a community experience as well as office-goers looking to rig their place of business for sound sans those easy-to-trip over wires.

A two pack costs $99.95 while one unit will set you back $59.95

Official i2i Website

Diablo III Officially Announced

2008/06/28

Diablo III has officially been announced via the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Paris, France by Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. The announcement came during the opening cermony and was met with massive applause and adulation from the large crowd.

We were able to remotely liveblog the conference for a while in between signal losses. We got a few raw captures from the footage shown.

In-game images and large splash after the break!

Official Site
Press conference still going, Blizzard CEO giving overview of Barbarian class with in-game play.
Barbarian class looks to play very similar to Diablo II, but is able to use the environment to aid in his attacks. Using debris, etc. Also will have mercenaries in Diablo III to aid you in your quest.
Some images from the stream:

Another in-game shot from the stream, notice the new skill bar in between the two indicator globes:

Also shown Witch Doctor class which can summon walls of zombies to attack your enemies. Notice the new all-3D game engine. The graphics of the stream are definitely better than screenshots can convey. Can’t wait for official images to come down the pipe.
Now seeing a boss battle:

The action seems fast and furious as we have come to expect from the series. The atmospher of the game based on the footage shown seems to be ‘right on’ and I can’t wait to see more.
And thats it! More to come in time…

PAX Announces Big Exhibitors and ECTO-1

2008/06/26

News, PAX

PAX announced today that Sony, Nintendo, EA, and Microsoft will all be on-hand during the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle from August 29th through 31st. Also in attendance will be the Ghostbuster’s ECTO-1 hearse, the PAX 10 indy games showcase, and Video Games Live!

Official PAX website.

Official Release:
The organizers of the fifth annual Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) today announced key details of the upcoming gaming festival, to be held Aug. 29-31, 2008 at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle.

This year’s exhibit floor will offer PAX attendees hands-on time with highly anticipated games and products from more exhibitors than ever, including Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, EA, Activision and Ubisoft (see below for a complete exhibitor list). In addition to seeing a massive number of pre-release games on its show floor, attendees can expect a bevy of panels, the Omegathon gaming competition, tournaments, and more. First details of PAX 2008 programming include:

– The ECTO-1, of Ghostbusters fame, will be on display for all three days of PAX

– The PAX 10 independent games showcase, to thrill and delight you

– Two nights of music that will almost certainly change your life

‘We nearly doubled our exhibition hall and added another 80,000 square feet of content overall, so the show is going to be pretty amazing this year,’ says Penny Arcade’s Robert Khoo. ‘You should come. I think you would like it.’

Supreme Ruler 2020 Review

2008/06/25

BattleGoat Studios’ Supreme Ruler 2020 picks up where Supreme Ruler 2010 left off, bringing even more (as if that were possible) information from the world in which we live together to create what is possibly the most realistic world-simulation ever developed. Take control of a nation, grow it in the manner you determine (diplomatically, economically, militarily, etc) and impose your will on the people. Wield the sword of thousands of military units in global domination using conventional and ‘special’ weapons platforms. Will you start World War III and plunge humanity into chaos or perhaps emerge as a beacon of democracy and hope for mankind? The choice is really yours.

Supreme Ruler 2020 gives you multiple modes of play., with my favorite being the sandbox mode in which you make your own victory conditions and pick any nation on the planet to rule. Aside from the sandbox mode, BattleGoat has created ten varied scenarios to pick from each with their own storyline and conditions. One of the more interesting scenarios deals with a break up of the United States into its respective states. There are also some tutorials that help a bit with learning the game but they are fairly general in nature. This brings us to the game’s biggest issue: learning curve.

Starting off playing Supreme Ruler 2020 can be a daunting task to say the least. Unfortunately, the game has a very steep learning curve. The user-interface does not seem to make much sense to the uninitiated and just navigating through the options available to you will seem disjointed. Just keep at it. We found that after a few serious playthroughs of several hours each (games can go on for what seem to be weeks – not that such a thing is a bad in this case) we managed to get a handle on the UI’s stylings and game mechanics. If you are a die-hard action or casual game fan who despises actually taking the time to learn how to play a game, this game is probably not for you.

A key feature of Supreme Ruler 2020 that saved us much misery is the adviser system. In their infinite wisdom, BattleGoat has appointed the gamer several advisers in different areas (defense, state, production, etc) which can be assigned to automate facets of each. This will allow you to scale the game’s micromanagement quite a bit and helps free you up to learn the ‘bigger picture’ elements of the title such as the aforementioned UI and combat.

Combat is handled in a fairly straightforward manner. Once you declare war on another nation, you can click and drag around an area to select units and direct them to a destination. Forces can be kept in reserve to save dollars, dinero, rupies, Microsoft Points or whatever your home currency may be when not needed or even station them as guards in case you want to be extra defense in place. Of course the nuclear option is available to you should your nation be nuclear-capable, but be prepared to reap the consequences of your actions. The world at large seems to frown on nuclear weapon usage – go figure.

Diplomacy and trade is another huge aspect to gameplay. Deals will be offered to you from time to time asking for various things such as non-aggression pacts and commodities. You can create counter-offers if you like or even put together your own offers from scratch for your neighbors to consider.

The graphics of Supreme Ruler 2020 are a mixed bag. From a distance, the Earth looks great, with land maps taken from NASA satellite imagery. However, as you zoom in, the terrain begins to blur and pixelate as the level of detail does not increase the map resolution. Units are symbolized by small 3d models of their respective types. The models are fairly low-detail but get the job done.

Sound in the title is adequate, with basic noises where appropriate.

Overall, Supreme Ruler 2020 builds on what was started with its predecessor by offering a pretty incredible world-sim where you can prove even the smallest nation can make a difference. Fans of complex empire-builders such as Superpower and Civilization, rejoice! This game is for you, go forth and prosper in its myriad of options!

Official Supreme Ruler 2020 website.

World Cybergames Pan-American Championship Results

2008/06/24

The third annual World Cyber Games Pan-American Championship event has concluded with the US team winning almost all of the tournaments! The complete list can be found in the press release below but we at GamingShogun would like to congratulate them in their accomplishments.

Official World Cyber Games website.

Official Release:
The third annual World Cyber Games Pan-American Championship wrapped up this past weekend in Monterrey, Mexico. The nine-game tournament took place over three days and featured a who’s who of gamers from many countries in North, Central and South America. Featuring some of the most intense and competitive matches of the 2008 World Cyber Games tournament series, the competition set many familiar faces against each other in the finals.

The USA team had an excellent showing, winning nearly all the games featured in the tournament and achieving the overall team championship.

Leading the USA to victory were:
Nikolasus Cassidy – USA – (WarCraft® III: The Frozen Throne™) – 1st place
Team EG – USA – (Half-Life®: Counter-Strike™) – 1st place
Kamran ‘omegaelite’ Siddiqui – USA – (Need For Speed™ ProStreet) – 1st place
Team Final Boss -USA – (Halo® 3) – 1st place
Sean ‘maximus’ Heffelfinger – USA – (Project Gotham Racing® 4 ) – 1st place
David MoB ‘Wolfe’ Briers – USA – (Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock) – 1st place
Raghav ‘parfait’ Phadke – USA – (Age of Empires® III: The Asian Dynasties) – 1st place

Stronghold Crusader Extreme Review

2008/06/19