Rock, Paper, Shotgun

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

As I’ve mentioned before, Men Of War is a rather excellent-looking RTS from Russian developers Best Way. It’s incredibly realistic and rather formidable in its attempt to convey the Russian theatre of World War II. Quite what is going on with this latest trailer I don’t know. It’s been scripted up to be… wacky? Quite peculiar indeed.
Read the rest of this entry »

Did we use that pun before? Oh nevermind. I do so enjoy it when a random theme emerges from the internet, and today’s theme is: tanks of World War II. The tank you see above is from Men of War, which I shall talk about in a moment. Firstly, the secondary purpose of this post is to pimp out the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, which I implore all who are able to purchase immediately. The reason? Lots of Jim Rossignol words, obviously, but more specifically my feature on the Russian games industry. I went to Moscow and came back laden with delicious information. It’s the the best thing I’ve written for a magazine since my trip to Korea. Anyway… Men Of War – or why a fiddly wargame was one of the best things I saw in Moscow.
Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone ever play Soldiers: Heroes of World War II? I must write a retrospective of it sometime. Though a very different breed of strategy game, it was out there doing some of the stuff Company of Heroes did, but two full years before Relic’s tankiest opus – Dubya Dubya Too with hugely destructible environments, ultra-death and a smart emphasis on use of cover. While COH is by far the more polished option, this outdoes it for sheer ambition. It had stealable, pilotable vehicles. It had an RPG-lite inventory system. It had online co-op play. Perhaps most adorably, there was also a little of the Cannon Fodder to it -just a handful of all-too-easily killed squaddies against a whole bally army. It was also weird and rickety in the way so many Russian-made games seem to be. If you’ve never played it, try the demo – it’s a fair fascinating wee thing.

I missed the sequel, the unfortunately-named Faeces of War, as is too often the case for games that don’t drift onto my hard drive for work purposes. Hopefully I will get to play the freshly-revealed third game, Men of War. MEN of WAR. Men! War! That’s definitely a name I can get behind.
Read the rest of this entry »