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Men Of War Expandalone: Red Tide

Written by Jim Rossignol on June 26, 2009.

My favourite RTS so far this year will receive an expansion in the Autumn. It’s a 20-mission campaign in a standalone release. Russian publisher overlords 1c say: “Men of War: Red Tide has players take command of the feared “Black Coats,” the nickname given to Soviet Marines, an elite combat group specializing in engagements near the shoreline. The player has direct control of new game units including the Black Coats, new tanks, self-propelled guns, armored trains, landing craft, artillery and new enemy emplaced weapons to capture and use. New air support options include new fighters, bombers, hydroplanes; cruisers, destroyers and gun boats which provide naval fire support.” No word on multiplayer options, however. I hope it supports co-op, which is one of the best features of the original game. (Via Blues, and mysteriously absent from the 1c site.)

Empire: Time Of Troubles, Sedate Trailer

Written by Jim Rossignol on May 13, 2009.

The other 1c game that turned up on our gam-o-scopes this week is this rather handsome-looking medieval turn-based strategy game, Empire: Time of Troubles. It comes with the most sedate and unhurried trailer I think I’ve ever seen (posted below) and seems to include a promising-looking 3D campaign map and a whole lot of menus, currently rendered mysterious (to me at least) by their encryption in cyrillic. The game apparently covers the period of 1350-1650AD in Poland, Lithuania and Russia, where dudes get chopped and stuff gets plague and is buried. You take charge one of the twenty six different factions involved in the region and attempt to lead them to victory. Expect micro-management, beards.
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Time Of Shadows Announced… Or Is It? Yes? No.

Written by Jim Rossignol on May 13, 2009.

So I can barely even recollect the 2007 third-person fantasy RPG Dawn Of Magic (which was called something like “Blood Magic” in Russia), but that’s probably because it was deemed a bit rubbish. Undeterred by the picky Westerners, Russian developer Sky Fallen (who did Deathtrack Resurrection) is apparently working on what looks set to be sequel of sorts for the game, which will be called Time Of Shadows by new publishers Kalypso Media. Except no! We just got a press release thirty seconds ago announcing that Kalypso are calling it Dawn Of Magic 2, too. So what happens to Time Of Shadows now? No idea. They should probably just go for broke call it Blood Time Of Magi2 Dawn. Something like that.

Men Of War Is A Fun Time

Written by Jim Rossignol on May 7, 2009.

And cheap on Direct2Drive. And more expensive on GamersGate. It’s also slightly less expensive on Steam. So perhaps you can buy it. Why am I promoting this fiddly war game in such brazen fashion? Well, because I love it. You might love it too. Thanks to Teodor for the tip.

Snow Joke: New Cryostasis Demo

Written by Jim Rossignol on April 30, 2009.

Creepy, clunky Cryostasis now has a proper demo, and it’s available here for a modest 1.1 of your gigabytes. The demo seems to be somehow connected to Nvidia drivers or somesuch technical promotion. I believe it contains the initial chapter of the survival-horror FPS, which is okay, but not great, as I outlined in this Eurogamer review.

Step By Steppe: Men Of War

Written by Jim Rossignol on April 11, 2009.

I’ve been playing through a number of the Men Of War levels again for a second time, trying to feel like I’m somehow closer to mastering the game. I wanted to break down how one of the levels plays out to try and explain the game to people who haven’t yet played it. This afternoon my level of choice was an assault on a German hilltop entrenchment, before an attack on a fortified base. It takes about an hour to play through, and my first time around it was one of the most chaotic gaming experiences I have ever known. After perhaps fifty hours of play I should now be a veteran of the game able to breeze through this early challenge quite easily. Right? Wrong.

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Men Of War Campaign Generator, Stalker Mod

Written by Jim Rossignol on April 6, 2009.

This mod for current RPS strategy beau Men of War is a bit good: a dynamic campaign generator [FORUM DOWN AT THE MOMENT, you can use this link but the mod needs loads of stuff that is not detailed there, only on forum thread.], complete with a bunch of map packs. It allows you to build a sequence of battles in the skirmish mode, and populate them for attack or defence scenarios. The install process and required extras is a bit hefty, but I doubt that will be too much challenge for Men Of War enthusiasts. There’s also a realism mod out which is under continued development. There’s also some chatter about a native languages mod for replacing the English with Russian dialogue, but no sign of that at the moment. I’ve posted a video of the announced (but unfinished) Stalker mod after the jump, which is some kind of perfect collision between two games. Man!
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Men Of War Videos, Thumbs Up, Sad Sigh

Written by Jim Rossignol on March 6, 2009.

Men Of War, seriously, look past the name. This is a game that is at least as interesting for real-time strategy lovers as Dawn Of War 2. If you ignored the demo, please go play it, and understand that even that undersells the immense battlefield missions with hundreds of units, not to mention to vast scale of a game that has three full sized campaigns. Campaigns whose maps are also playable in co-op. I’m posting the videos after the jump with a sense of futility, because I know they don’t and won’t sell it to many people. Nevertheless Men Of War is second only to Empire in awesomeness for games I’ve played so far in 2009. It really is a fine thing. I recommend you take a look. The game is out now in Europe and will be out on the 17th in North America.

Update: you can steal the hats of your fallen enemies. Yes!

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Men of War Demo (Look Beyond Generic Name)

Written by Jim Rossignol on February 17, 2009.

The Men Of War demo is here (250mb). The demo contains the first level of the game, which is a tutorial sequence in which you patch up a tank, invade a village, and then attack a German convoy. It does not show off all the best features of the game, but certainly encompasses some of the most vital, such as using the inventories on your little men, learning to use cover, and showing off the destructible scenery. It’s worth imagining, as you play this demo, what the escalation of the second (unfeatured) level is like; in which you have dozens of men, several tanks, and face hundreds of German soldiers and armoured vehicles. This is a game that is more than the sum of its demo. I’m certain we’ll be talking about Men Of War a lot more in the coming months, because it’s one of my favourites of the year so far. You should definitely play this demo.

Hands On With Men Of War

Written by Jim Rossignol on January 8, 2009.

One of the most intense Ukrainian games destined for our hard-drives in 2009 is Men Of War, which I’ve been lucky enough to have some time with over the past couple of weeks. It’s rather similar to previous games Faces of War and Soldiers: Heroes of World War II, but since that’s not exactly the most universal reference point I’ve written some impressions of the new game beyond the jump. They should give you some idea of why this particular RTS is so interesting.

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