Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I appear to be coming over Tim Stone. And before a horrible image is conjured in the communal RPS-reader mind by that sentence, I better progress to the point quickly. A demo for Operation Barbarossa – The Struggle For Russia is now available. There’s over 150 upgradeable units in the full game and prominently features hexes – which will be a theme for my blogging today. If the demo takes your fancy, you can buy it from Matrixgames’ site. As per-usual for wargames, there’s no video available. Instead, let’s show some colour footage of the actual Barbarossa invasion, which is disturbing for at least two reasons. Firstly, it’s footage of the invasion, complete with lingering shots on corpses. Secondly, the Nouveau nazis in the video comment threads.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been easing into the morning with a demo of Matrix-published Niels Bauer Games-developed turn-based space-exploration thing. It’s basically Elite… but turn-based. Get missions, screw your reputation, shoot mercenaries and similar. At least with the equipment in the demo – they stress there’s a lot more in the full version – the combats are pretty repetitive, but it basically seems like a more-complicated long-form version of Strange Adventures In Infinite Space, with some role-playing-game-esque skill-trees. To be honest, with the right implementation, I’d almost rather play an Elite clone like this rather than something like X. The interesting thing is the choices, not the flying. You can find more info here but there’s no video online, so instead I’ll link to Reel 2 Reel (feat. the Mad Stuntman)’s I Like To Move It instead. The “It” in question being “resources from a low-price planet to a high-price one”.
Read the rest of this entry »

Putting on my Tim Stone hat, I noticed that strategy-specialists Matrix games have celebrated the US tax day by giving away the full version of their War Engine game. That’s very different to how RPS celebrates its tax day – that is, with a cheery bout of tax evasion. Don’t be confused by the fantasy screenshot – the War Engine is a general purpose wargame which allows you to construct your own turn-based military fisticuffs. There’s eight (Count ‘em!) campaigns included, though one appears to be a pure training one. They vary from fantasy turn-isms to Space-based turn-isms to Laser-squad-esque turn-isms to Paintball-turn-isms to… well, people who are into turn-isms are going to be as happy as when the international sanctions on the trade of turn-isms from turndondonia was lifted. This post is rapidly making no sense whatsoever.

The full download is just over six and a half peggles, and is available here. And after having a crack, I’m tempted to challenge you lot to make your own RPS War Engine campaign.