By Kieron Gillen on October 8th, 2008 at 1:34 pm.
This is unexpected. Midway have released 2006′s Stainless Steel Games’ swansong Rise & Fall for free. Nought. Nada. Bar a couple of gigs of bandwidth, of course. It’s an interesting one, certainly – its idea was merging a traditional RTS with a more hands-on hero mode. You built up the ability and then, when the moment was right and battle was joined, you took control of your hero in a first person fashion. It actually divided the RPS team’s affections. I thought it was mediocre at best while Tim Stone totally adored it. And even I agree at this price, it’s certainly amusing enough to take the chance on, in case you’re in Tim’s corner rather than mine. Get it from here. Also, some a video beneath the cut to help you make up your mind.
08/10/2008 at 13:52 Pags says:
well now i just feel stupid for actually buying this when it came out.
08/10/2008 at 13:56 Therlun says:
@Pags,
whats the difference between the normal full game -> 6 months later budget title cycle?
08/10/2008 at 13:58 Dizet Sma says:
And “Sponsored by the United States Air Force”, for added strangeness.
08/10/2008 at 14:01 itsallcrap says:
Inc pedantry
Changed your mind on the which word to use but didn’t delete the old one.
Do I get a Trainspotter award?
08/10/2008 at 14:06 Okami says:
@itsallcrap: Though you asked for an award an didn’t tell Kieron that he’s stupid, you might find the answer on this page rather insightful: http://tinyurl.com/4dc78p
08/10/2008 at 14:06 Junior says:
Nice, I bought this shortly after it came out, but other than amusing multiplayer antics, found it rather mediocre.
For free it’ll be a must for lan parties from now on, it is a little gem in it’s own rather simplistic way.
Whatever happened to Hero Command Mode being put into every RTS by now eh?
08/10/2008 at 14:19 Pags says:
@Therlun, the difference is i had to pay for it
08/10/2008 at 14:34 aldo_14 says:
And “Sponsored by the United States Air Force”, for added strangeness.
Oooh, can you fight as the Persians? That’d be ironic.
08/10/2008 at 14:45 Ginger Yellow says:
I very nearly bought this on the strength of Tim’s review, but luckily I checked out the demo first. It was rubbish. Also, I was desperately trying to think of the name of this game on a thread a while back, and I couldn’t remember it, the bastard.
Incidentally, why the hell doesn’t CVG give bylines? Not only is it poor form, it’s bloody stupid in the age of free content on the internet.
08/10/2008 at 14:49 Dominic White says:
Midway seem to be releasing a whole bunch of their older titles for free, albeit with mildly irritating advertising popping up mid-game.
While the ads are admittedly a pain, it’s certainly a nice way of dealing with games that are out of circulation.
So far, they’ve released four.
Psi-ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
http://files.filefront.com/Psi+Ops+The+Mindgate+Conspiracy+Full+Client/;10665315;/fileinfo.html
Area 51:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_33790.shtml
The Suffering:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_33314.shtml
Full Spectrum Warrior:
http://www.gamershell.com/download_33784.shtml
And, of course, Rise & Fall. Any others that I might have missed? None of these games are *bad*, although none are really stand-out great either. The price is definitely right, as an assortment of B-list TV celebrities might say.
08/10/2008 at 15:48 Kieron Gillen says:
I admit, I’m quite a fan of Full Spectrum Warrior.
KG
08/10/2008 at 16:06 The Hammer says:
I quite liked the demo of Rise and Fall, and remember PCG’s glowing review of it! I might test it out!
08/10/2008 at 16:24 Flappybat says:
I bought it after the glowing review and then found out it was medicore.
Thanks PCG :(
08/10/2008 at 18:23 pepper says:
I never gave this a shot, although i havent really followed the release in the past 2 years. I do like free though, cant hurt checking it out, and it wont be all bad if it gets mixed reviews.. I hope.
08/10/2008 at 18:33 IvanHoeHo says:
as far as i know, all of such games can only be run in the US (I’ve tried). is this any different?
08/10/2008 at 19:36 eyemessiah says:
Nice tip, downloading FSW & Rise and Fall just now!
08/10/2008 at 22:22 Bema says:
Full Spectrum Warrior? Damn it. I just bought it a few weeks back on Steam…although tbh I prefer having it in there.
08/10/2008 at 22:34 Dominic White says:
IvanHoeHo: Psi-ops works here in the UK, so the other Midway titles should. Ubisoft were the ones who had region-locking on theirs.
09/10/2008 at 07:36 Albides says:
I tried Psi-ops when RPS announced it, but it was US only. But here’s the thing; I managed to get around that by using a cracked .exe.
Take that, American supremacy!
I’ll definitely try these. This is awfully generous of them. These games might not be great, but they aren’t terrible.
09/10/2008 at 08:28 NoNamePls says:
Well the retail version of Rise & Fall was infected with Starforce 3 remember. Oh by the way is this version patched to version 1.15 and does it still take a looooooooooooooooong time to load?
09/10/2008 at 08:57 aldo_14 says:
Well the retail version of Rise & Fall was infected with Starforce 3 remember. Oh by the way is this version patched to version 1.15 and does it still take a looooooooooooooooong time to load?
Does this version have Starforce 3 in it?
09/10/2008 at 11:01 Bob Bobson says:
The installer doesn’t seem to have created the RunMe.cmd file that the shortcuts all point to for me (and I’ve given it a couple of attempts to install it). Does anyone else have this problem or a fix for it?
09/10/2008 at 20:35 Uglycat says:
Can’t unpack on my comp as you need ++2gb to unpack I suspect (only got 1 on mine) just fyi (unless there is some sort of commandline version)
11/10/2008 at 06:59 caesarbear says:
Wow, this game is truly terrible. Not worth the download time.
16/10/2008 at 03:16 your mom says:
go to bed and runme.cmd i cant get1!!!!11!!11!!!1!
26/10/2008 at 00:43 Bema says:
Crashes randomly, despite latest drivers and a system capable of running far more graphically advanced games.
Tad frustrating as I remember this being fun.
12/02/2009 at 11:16 SmallGods says:
@Bob Bobson
I had a similar problem, guessing you might be on Vista? Right click on the installer and go to properties, and under Compatability switch it to XP Pro Service Pack 2, then be sure to run it as an administrator. Did the job for me, still installing now and looking hopeful!
12/02/2009 at 11:37 Heliocentric says:
Eh, use archers and stick to archers. Everything else was bobbins, except siege weapons which I like to think of as big archers.
The concept of the fields forts (control popcap) being deffended by neutral characters quietly combines the warcraft 3 concept of creeps with the flag capturing in dawn of war.
So, a large army was the best way to sweep away a forts deffences, but you cant get a large army without forts.
In multiplayer/skirmish the persians get a building which spawns infinite horse archers for free, so every game is a matter of which one you go for, infinite free troops of available more quickly purchased troops.
Sins of a solar empire has this same issue, oddly symetrical.
12/02/2009 at 11:38 Heliocentric says:
CHRONOLOGICAL ISSUE!!!
Gravatar StalinsGhost says:
I thought the RTS gameplay itself was horrifically average. I remember the tech tree and units being infuriatingly nonsensical. I guess being an ancient history student didn’t help my appreciation of it in this department The hero mode was nice, though underdeveloped. Last game I ever managed to take back to a shop actually. Might give it a try at some point now I can run it properly if I find the time.
I posted this after him.