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3 months ago
Humans! They are irrelevant. They couldn't possibly threaten us, the mighty AI that destroyed them and conquered the galaxy. I'm sure that little exploded warp gate orbiting Ursinoe is nothing to worry about. We'll reinforce the area a bit. Just a few pests. Mice in the walls, nothing more. That's kinda how AI War 2 works. You're the desperate remnants of humanity, and your job…
1 year ago
"So, all the lights in the heavens are our enemies, huh?" - a Gurren Lagann quote, but it's what pops into my head every time I see maximalist RTS AI War 2, which entered early access today, but was previously open to Kickstarter backers. Sequel to Arcen Games's cult favourite AI War, it's a solo or co-op space RTS about taking down a massively more…
3 years ago
It's a Christmas miracle: AI War 2 [official site] has hits its crowdfunding goal on its second attempt, its wonderful creators Arcen Games will live to dev another day, and we've probably all learned a little about feelings or some other sappy nonsense I guess. The original AI War is a fascinating RTS - and one of Adam's favourites - with a wealth of options…
Arcen Games have launched a new Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund AI War II [Kickstarter page], sequel to their cracking 2009 real-time strategy game which pitted players against AI playing by entirely different rules. "Didn't they just...?" you're wondering and yep, they did try to Kickstart it in October but cancelled the campaign when it was clear they wouldn't reach their goal. They're returned with a…
Arcen have launched a Kickstarter for a sequel to their excellent 2009 strategy game AI War: Fleet Command [official site]. The Kickstarter page comes complete with a 159 page design document, so if you really want to dig into the detail you can get a very good idea of what's likely to be changed or improved in this sequel, and Arcen are shooting for just…
4 years ago
Arcen Games, developers of AI War and most recently Starward Rogue, are going to let go almost all their staff this coming Monday. Company founder Chris Park explained in a post on Arcen's site that that sales of their latest game had been much lower than expected and that sales of their back catalogue had dried up, perhaps as a result of changes to Steam…
5 years ago
AI War is the sentient grey goo of gaming. Released in 2009, its design and uncanny artificial intelligence received praise from many quarters, including our own Alec, then writing for The Other Place. "This out-of-the-blue one-man passion project is one of this year's finest strategy games", he wrote, little realising that the very same 'passion project' that he so admired would continue to evolve. The…
6 years ago
It's been interesting watching post-AI War Arcen at work. Their idiosyncratic drunken approach to genres has always resulted in games worth talking about. Granted, some of those words might not be all that complimentary, but they've never once released a game that had any hint of hubris. Not even when they return to the space strategy genre that pays the bills. The Last Federation's a…
Older readers may recall that in February we took a peek at The Last Federation, the new space strategy game from Arcen Games. Even older readers may recall that Arcen first came to our attention for AI War - and lo, many a joke about Quintin and iron was spawned. After confusing everyone with A Valley Without Wind, and some appealing experiments in between, they've…
Arcen, purveyors of sundry indie oddities, sent a message by pigeon post in the early hours of this morning to inform us of their new game, The Last Federation. It has one of the finest single line pitches I've ever encountered - "The Last Federation is a Grand Strategy + RTS Tactics game" - and in honour of the good news that she delivered, the…
7 years ago
The Arclight Bundle over on Indie Royale is a single-studio special from Arcen. That means it includes: AI War, Tidalis, A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 and Shattered Haven - basically everything other than their latest, Skyward Collapse. They're even throwing in the new AI War expansion, Vengeance of the Machine, which has just gone into beta. The $8 buy-in unlocks soundtracks for all,…
I usually hesitate to simply post sales news, because that's what LewiePs are for. But in the case of RPS space-strategy favourite AI War I will make an exception. It's 75% off with all the expansions included on Steam. That makes it $4.24 or £2.99 or €4.24, and that's a fine price for such a huge slab of spaceshipular cleverness. A chunk of the money…
In the dark, distant future, when the universe has suffered heat death, all that will remain will be Arcen Games, stubbornly releasing new patches for their epic space startegy, AI War. The next patch is due tomorrow, it's called 6.0, and as I understand the patch coincides with a new expansion: Ancient Shadows. That's been available in beta for a bit, I think, but tomorrow…
It's fair to say that Arcen fell of the pace a little with A Valley Without Wind, but then AI War was one of the most accomplished debuts any studio could hope for. If A Valley Without Wind had a stumbling gait, AI War was striding along like the coolest cat in town. It doesn't have the nattiest threads and but none of that matters…
