In case you missed Part 2.

Not a day goes by when I am logged on to LOTRO that someone does not comment on their anticipation for one day raiding in Rohan or stalking orcs in Mordor. Many players seem to have a longing to visit all the areas of Middle Earth that are central to the story of Frodo, the Ring, and his companions, and yet, every time I hear someone say these things, I silently chide them (after all, there is no need to troll others while taking down Gorothul) for missing the most amazing thing LOTRO has accomplished. LOTRO is not just an MMORPG with a story; it is an MMO that has utilized the wonderful setting of Middle Earth to tell the untold stories of elves, dwarves, men, and hobbits.

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In case you missed Part 1.

Last time around, I spoke about the skirmish system in the Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood expansion. Now I want to narrow my focus and draw attention to something smaller. A single instance, in fact. Today, let’s talk about Sword Halls and why it is a well designed instance for three people.

Now, before getting started, I am sure someone is going to flame me and complain that, with all of the beautiful content in Mirkwood, why focus on a three-man instance that can be run (if you have me in your group at any rate) in less than 20 minutes? One reason is because there is no need to talk about Sammath Gul or Barad Guldur. The big stuff gets plenty of discussion. And yes, I think Sammath Gul is also a well designed instance, if only because it is one of the few instances in which marginalized classes (Loremasters, Burglars who focus on CC, Captains who do more than heal) get some real action that lets them use their class capabilities to the fullest. But in focusing on Sword Halls, I want to illustrate the small things that Turbine did correctly. I will also, inadvertently, point out how some players betray their own gaming ignorance by not seeing the full potential of such a small instance.

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The Siege of Mirkwood expansion to Lord of the Rings Online has been out since December. It has gotten a lot of good press from our competitors (I’m not going to run up their site traffic; you can look up their reviews yourself). Most of that good press is rightfully deserved. In spite of the smaller amount of content compared to the last expansion pack, Mines of Moria, Mirkwood offers the right amount of gameplay for the price: free to multi-month subscribers when it was released. It’s a great expansion to what I think is already an excellent MMO with an excellent community.

But I don’t want to do a review of the game. Instead, I would like to spend some time discussing the finer points of the game design that Turbine put into the title. I want to point out the small things that they did right, to which I hope other designers are paying attention.

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Publisher: Big Fish Games
Developer: Gameinvest
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista, 800 MHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, DirectX 8.1, 219 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Fantasy simulation
Release date: Available now

City sims might not be a vital genre of video games, especially after the debacle that was Cities XL, but casual games are a niche that lets developers do creative things with a smaller scope. So it is with World of Zellians: Kingdom Builder. Developed by Gameinvest, Zellians is a casual game that calls itself a kingdom builder, but it’s really a city builder. You’re responsible for laying out and building cities that satisfy whatever goals are required for a given level.

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Publisher: Wonder Rotunda
Developer: Wonder Rotunda
System Requirements: Internet connection, web browser with Flash enabled
Genre: Educational
Release date: Available now

While I am not myself a parent, beyond the parenting that goes along with taking care of the Eater of Cords (my cat), I know that there is value to be found in educational games. When done correctly, they can be as fun and educational as The Oregon Trail. The catch is that such games are always a difficult balancing act between being entertaining, informative and considered appropriate by parents and educators. So, when Wonder Rotunda came across my virtual desk for review, claiming to be educational software suitable for ages 7 through 12, I decided to get some additional input from a friend who has expertise in educating children.

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Publisher: THQ
Developer: Volition
System Requirements: Windows XP/Vista, 2.0 GHz Dual Core Processor, 1 GB RAM, 128 MB video card with shader model 3.0 support, 15 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Shooter
Release date: Available now

If it’s one thing gamers and movie audiences love, it’s big explosions. Pyrotechnics, booming sounds and bright flashes are spectacles upon which big sales are often built. However, most games, even high-quality ones such as Crysis and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, are generally limited by what parts of the map can be destroyed, and what parts are permanent. While shooting through walls is now customary in FPS titles, I was genuinely surprised by Red Faction: Guerrilla developer Volition’s claims that players could “tear down enemy strongholds brick by brick.” And I was even more surprised when it turned out to be completely true. Between sledgehammers and explosives, Red Faction: Guerrilla is a game for anyone who has ever wanted to give Hollywood a run for its money in the category of spectacle.

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Publisher: Monte Cristo Games
Developer: Monte Cristo Games
System Requirements: Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista SP1; Intel Pentium IV 2.5 GHz or AMD equivalent or better CPU (Centrino 2 or better for laptops); 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB for Vista) (1.5 GB XP, 2.5 GB Vista for laptops); 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon X1600 or better graphics card (Intel Graphics Accelerator or better for laptops); DirectX 9.0c; 8 GB hard-drive space
Genre: Simulation
Release date: Available now

Last year, I spent a few weeks building cities with Monte Cristo’s city simulator City Life 2008. While it was not without some balance issues, I felt it was a worthy entry into a market that has long been dominated by Sim City and its ilk. I was not surprised when Cities XL came up for review, and I eagerly installed the game after I saw that it had an online component, something for which players have been clamoring for a long time. What I found after two weeks of play surprised and disappointed me.

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Publisher: Fallen Earth
Developer: Icarus Studios
System requirements: XP sp3/Vista sp1; 9.0c DivX Codec; Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or Athlon 64X2 2.4 GHz; 2.0 GB RAM for XP/3.0 GB for Vista; nVidia GeForce 6600/ATI Radeon X1300; 10 GB free hard drive space
Genre: MMO
Release date: Available now

If you had the chance to play an MMO that was three parts Mad Max and one part X-Men, would you play it? This is the central question surrounding Fallen Earth, an MMO developed by Icarus Studios. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where both nuclear war and a nasty virus have wiped out civilization, the MMO provides players with a desolate world in which simple firearms are high end weapons, horses compete with ATVs and motorcycles as viable mounts, and mutations give avatars spell-like abilities both in and out of combat. It also presents players with a host of enemies, including mutants, evil NPCs, and six factions to join or fight while wandering the wastelands of the Grand Canyon. It is an ambitious setting, one which I found attractive right at the outset.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System Requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista; Intel Pentium IV 2.4 GHz or AMD 3500+ (quad core) CPU; 2 GB RAM; 2 GB hard-drive space; NVIDIA GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon X1900 graphics card; DirectX-compatible sound card; DirectX 9
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now

It’s been raining WWII games here at Avault recently, and so I was not really surprised to have another handed to me for review. In this case, it’s Hearts of Iron 3, an entry in one of the few Paradox Interactive franchises that I have not chosen to play in the past. I have always thought that Paradox’s strength has been in grand strategy games in which nation-building takes place during a century or more. I had felt that a more focused strategy game from them would be a fast trip to micro-management hell, a feeling compounded by things I had read about previous HOI releases. And so, with some trepidation, I installed my copy and started playing, only to find a nuanced game with plenty of fun, rather than hellish, strategy-based micro-management.

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Publisher: 505 Games
Developer: Bohemia Interactive
System requirements: Windows XP or Vista; Dual-core Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz/Core 2.0 GHz/AMD Athlon 3200+ or faster CPU; 1 GB RAM; NVIDIA GeForce 7800/ATI Radeon 1800 with Shader Model 3 and 256 MB VRAM or faster video card
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now

Being a game reviewer has certain advantages, one of which is that when I miss a game the first time, I often get a crack at playing it when the sequel comes out. So it is with developer Bohemia Interactive’s ARMA II. When the original ARMA was released, I heard about its attention to tactical detail and its authenticity (as well as its buggy condition). When I read that ARMA II is considered by its developers to be a “military simulation game” instead of just a first-person shooter, I eagerly installed it to see just what the developer had to offer.

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Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Bright Light
System requirements: Windows XP SP2 or Vista SP1; 1.8 GHz or faster CPU; 256 MB RAM (512 MB for Vista); 8x DVD drive; 5 GB hard-drive space; DirectX 9.0c-compatible video card
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now

In a comment to one of my colleagues the other day, I indicated that in the video game industry, games made from movies tend to be “penny dreadfuls.” While some of them are decent, in many instances they are simply quick and dirty vehicles intended to cash in on a movie license (I’m looking at you, Ubisoft Tiwak, and the shameful job you did with Beowulf: The Game). I was therefore rather skeptical when Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came up in my review queue, since it’s a video game based on a movie that is an adaptation of a novel. Sadly, it turns out that my skepticism was completely justified.

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Publisher: Paradox
Developer: Kerberos
Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista; 1.5 GHz Intel Pentium or comparable AMD Processor; 1 GB RAM; 128-mb DirectX 9-compatible video card; 3 GB hard disk space; DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card; LAN or 56 Kbps Internet connection
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now

I really enjoyed the time I spent playing Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection, so when I heard that a final expansion was being released, I found myself eagerly anticipating it. I was doubly excited because this expansion pack is reportedly not part of the developer’s original plans for the life-cycle of the game. As developer Kerberos forum contributor Mecron explains, “This is just a thank-you note to all of the fan base…this ship pack was NOT planned for way back when ‘cause, to be honest, we never dreamed things would go this well.” Thus, Sword of the Stars: Argos Naval Yard is the last installment of the series before Kerberos sets off to develop other games and, perhaps, a sequel.

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Readers who frequent the PC reviews here at Avault have probably noticed that I have started posting video commentary on YouTube along with my regular game reviews. I thought I would take a few minutes here and explain what my goals are with these video commentaries, where I see them going, and how they connect with our other work here.

My initial foray into video commentaries was sparked by some of my academic work. I purchased a copy of Fraps so I could screen capture games for use in presentations. After doing some initial work, I realized that there were some things I could highlight to our readers in a video that would take up too much space in a written review, such as describing the good and bad qualities of a title’s interface. I did some experiments, and found that iMovie makes adding commentary fairly easy, provided I keep the cats out of my hair (they like to mew at me while recording). It’s taken a bit of practice, but I really only need about an hour or two to record and edit a video commentary once I have the raw footage from the game.

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Publisher: Magitech
Developer: Magitech
System requirements: Windows XP with SP2/Vista (64-bit not supported), 2.0 ghz Intel Pentium CPU or equivalent, 512 mb of RAM, 100% OpenGL 1.3 compatible 64-mb video card, DirectX 8.1 compatible 16-bit sound card and drivers, 3.0 gb uncompressed disk space (+200 mb for Windows system file)
Genre: RTS
Release date: Available now

So far this year, I have had a plethora of strategy games to review, with settings ranging from Napoleonic Europe to a near-future fictional war between Syria and the U.S. With Takeda 3, I can now add one set in feudal Japan. It brands itself as a strategy game wherein you take control of one of 25 historical clans, engage in diplomacy, manage castles and territory, and command armies. With both broad strategic elements and tactical battles, Takeda 3 follows in the footsteps of its predecessors in giving you a taste of the Sengoku Jidai (“Warring States Period”).

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Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Developer: Frogwares
System requirements: Intel Pentium 4 3-ghz or AMD Athlon 3000+ CPU, 1 gb RAM, Windows XP SP2/3 or Vista, 128 mb NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon X700 video card
Genre: MMORPG
Release date: Q3 2009

Strategy gamers are always looking for the next title to tantalize their brains. Whether it’s coordinating individual soldiers in combat formations or managing the creation of armies needed to subdue entire nation-states, enthusiasts crave the mental challenge of doing something more than furiously mashing buttons. Thus, it’s never a surprise when a new strategy game comes across my virtual desk, as the demand for them never seems to decline. I was intrigued to find that Frogwares, a company with a solid reputation for making adventure games, has decided to create World of Battles, which bills itself as “a free-to-play massively multiplayer online real-time wargame in a fantasy setting.”

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