Posted by Kieron Gillen on March 21st, 2008.
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Just in time for the weekend, Stardock have released a Sins of a Solar Empire demo. Just over 38-Peggles in size, it includes the tutorials, a couple of pre-generated small maps and a randomly-generated medium one (Allowing up to two and three AI opponents respectively). Its’ limited to ninety minutes of play. Get it from here, and read my review and our interview with Ironclad to remind yourselves why you should give it a shot.
No jokes in an RPS post? I must be ill.
Posted by Kieron Gillen on March 3rd, 2008.
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Eurogamer’s put up my review of Ironclad’s Space-epic RTS up on their fine organ. I start like this…
“The bits where you order a fleet of a hundred or so cruisers, frigates and capital ships to line up in an epic formation at the edge of a solar system, and jump simultaneously to a neighbouring solar system? Where dozens of portals open up, and your vessels accelerate through them trailing hyperbright lights? Wicked. When you get a mob of Siege Frigates in orbit above a populated world and giggle as the planet’s surface blossoms in what you have to presume to be nuclear detonations? Awesome. And when an enemy fleet appears in your solar system, and a dozen fighter and bomber wings take off, closing the distance to the incoming ships while your big boys ponderously manouevre to join in? Hell yeah!
It’s worthwhile to take a little time out to be shallow, because there’s going to be precious little opportunity for that as we go on.”
And then ramble on insensibly, as is my idiom. Our interview with Ironclad’s Blair Fraser and Stardock’s Brad Wardell can be still read over here. Oh – and expect a Sins Verdict at some point in the next few weeks.
Posted by Kieron Gillen on February 5th, 2008.
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Yesterday, the first big strategy game of the year slid out of its space-dock. Sins of a Solar Empire, which we’ve talked about previously (In short: Space Woo!) and will be reviewing shortly. But we need more! Born Journalistic Pirates, we boarded the celebratory cruise-vessel of Stardock and cornered Ironclad’s Producer and Lead Designer, Blair Fraser, and Stardock’s CEO and President Brad Wardell to prise away our desired booty. That is, talk about the game, their future plans and the surprising and somewhat disappointing reason why it doesn’t have a UK distributor yet…
That, and absolutely no more over-elaborate analogies beyond the cut.
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Posted by Kieron Gillen on January 23rd, 2008.
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As always, we are two nations divided by a common language. Despite being online and PC gaming for a clear decade, my first reaction to hearing anyone say 4X is to think of cheap Australian Lager rather than the ol’ explore, expand, exploit, exterminate of strategy games. Doesn’t make me love them any less, of course. This is one. But it’s different. How to describe it? Oh, let’s be cheap and nasty. Since Sins of a Solar Empire is being published by Stardock, even though it’s being developed by the Sierra/Take2/Rockstar alumni at Ironclad, let’s imagine the stunning Galactic Civilization 2, but in real time.
Before you play it, you may think that a little overwhelming. And, from my experiences in the Beta, you’ll be right. Just that it’s in an “overwhelmingly exciting” sort of way.
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