I figured I'd take a moment to be myself instead of Ork Tzu (or is it Sun Ork? :lol: ) and just relax for a brief spell.

First: Thanks to everyone (in no particular order: Bozanimal, raven, hokies, veni-vidi-vici, david, majorflyswat, Roma Victus, kingofkongs, and Rocker500) for your suggestions, comments,critiques and support. As promised, I've made changes to specific areas of the articles, and I feel they've definitely improved them. You guys (and gal!) are definitely the best.

Music: A friend of mine gave me a copy of "City of Evil" from Avenged Sevenfold a few weeks ago ("Not my kind of music," he told me). I had totally forgotten about them, even though they were on the radio almost continually with "Bat Country" and "The Beast and The Harlot." After a few listens through the whole CD, I can definitely say: it's an acquired taste... the rest of the disc is very different from the singles.

Nevertheless, I liked it enough to pick up their new, self-titled CD. Let's just say I won't recommend it to most people... some of it's good, but the black metal/New Orleans jazz fusion "A Little Piece of Heaven" is a little dark for me (no, I won't get into details... the mods have been a bit too frisky lately :?) and "Dear God" is a little too country for a metal group. (Thank you, Led Zeppelin, for opening that can of worms.)

I also snared a copy of "Operation: Mindcrime II" from Queensrychë. "Mindcrime" ranks in my all-time Top 25 albums: a very powerful, very emotional concept album from '88 about a young junkie who's recruited as an assassin by a secret organization to create terror. It tackles issues of corruption in government and religion, and love between radicals.

It's sequel, however, falls well short. It seems like "Nikki" has become tame, and his internal dialog with his lover from "Mindcrime" just jars against the narrative. It's alright... but not cIassic like it's predecessor.

Games: I've been playing a lot of RTSs. Even for me. Even so, I took time to reload "Fable" and try to play it. My first try was marred by subtitles disappearing due to outdated drivers; it works fine now, but it looks a bit too "kiddish" for me so far. Maybe as I get deeper into the game, it'll stop looking like a Zelda game...

I also found a copy of "Warhammer: Mark of Chaos" for a ridiculous $10(more on that in a bit). It's alright... but I prefer the base-building of Dawn of War. It also reminds me of "Shadow of the Horned Rat" for the PS1 in some of the wrong ways. Still, a $10 game doesn't come along every day, and I've been known to embrace games no one else really liked (Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, for example... it helped that it only cost $3 :D ).

Local: The only CompUSA in our area is closing down. While it's true that their customer service taught me to embrace despair, it was also only one of a few places to buy PC games. Now, I'm left with only BestBuy 20 miles away in Albany... and I really don't like driving in Albany.

Work: They're afraid of me at work. :lol: If there's an obscure and destructive exploit in their application... I find it by accident (although, to be honest, Ido kind of drive the knife in and twist it a few times to get the developers' attention... :lol: ). It's been hectic since mid-January, when several integration projects started coming in, but I like being the guy that the "odd" stuff comes to for testing.

It's also kept me occupied: since school let out I've been just letting myself relax and live slowly to regain some of my lost energy. That last 3 months was frantic; couple that with Christmas, New Year's and Epiphany (in my family, the Twelfth Day of Christmas is a pretty big deal... I think it's from my Polish heritage, just like Mikkelwash (I don't know how it's spelled, truthfully) comes from my wife's Slovakian heritage) and I felt like I was run over by all the reindeer.

Anyway: I should have the next chapter up by late Friday. By my estimate, I'm a little under ½ done with the series, so I think I'll be done in time for Soulstorm's release.

Until next time: stay warm (except those of you in Australia... you stay cool), be safe, and at the end, there'll be cake and grief counselling. :lol:

(Back to Chapter 2: Terrain)

"How to make the best of both strong and weak--that is a question involving the proper use of ground..."- Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

Chapter 3: Build Your Base Confidently (Level: Advanced Beginner-Intermediate)

With very few exceptions, you will need a base where you will gather your army for the upcoming battle. This is where you gather resources and train units, so it is imperative that it be laid out in such a way as to make it easy to maintain, yet difficult for an army to eliminate. In most cases, losing your base will lose you the game: therefore, base building is a key skill to develop, and must be mastered quickly in order to plan for victory.

Structure Types: There are 6 basic types of structures in every game:

1. Headquarters: This is the most valuable building you have. From here, you will train builder units (or, in the case of Command and Conquer, your actual structures) and support your other structures. Without an HQ, you are effectively hamstrung, and defeat is only a matter of moments away. Guard your HQ well.

2. Unit structures: These are where your army is trained. The first building you will likely construct is an infantry barracks, which will allow you to build foot soldiers of some type. It's important to keep in mind that your units will need to leave your base; we'll discuss this later in the chapter.

3. Upgrade structures: These buildings research upgrades necessary to keeping your army competitive on the field of battle. Many times, these won't build other units, but will need to be built to unlock more advanced units and structures.

4. Economic structures: these are buildings that are necessary for resouce gathering and production. There are two types: gathering buildings act as places to drop off gathered resources, and generator buildings produce resources independently. Where they are placed will depend entirely on what type of structure it is.

5. Key structures: these are buildings that simply unlock abilities, advanced units and structures, but don't have any other abilities. While important, these are generally not vital to your survival, and are usually built last.

6. Defense structures: these are walls, turrets, minefields, etc. which prevent your opponent from walking right through your base. While their overall importance shouldn't be overlooked, you should hold off on building them until you have established the bulk of your base.

Base Planning: The first order of business at the start of battle is to scout out a good location for your base. Many times this isn't necessary: your starting location will be your base's primary location, and parts of your base will already be built. If not, the best location for a base would be open terrain in a corner of the map. Place your HQ as close to the corner as possible, and build out from there. Leave plenty of room between buildings to allow for easy traversal for your army in case of emergency.

If your game has build radii (areas around structures which you must build your structures within), then situate your HQ away from the corner, and surround it with your buildings for maximum protection.

There are two ways in which to build, each with advantages and disadvantages:

Grid: this creates straight lanes through which to move your units, and can allow for the maximum utilization of space. However, it also allows your opponent easy lanes of access to vital areas of your base, which is very dangerous.

Semi-circular: this is an excellent defensive configuration, allowing you to "layer" your structures around your vital buildings for maximum protection. It also provides a maze-like environment to an opponent trying to find a way through your base. It also makes it difficult for your units to traverse your own base in case of attack.

Structure Placement: Non-unit-producing buildings should be located at the rear of your base, and unit structures towards the front so new units can enter the battle as quickly as possible.

Gathering structures should be placed as closely as possible to the resource associated with them for faster resource gathering. Generators should be scattered as randomly as possible through your base to reduce the likelihood of losing them all in one swipe.

Defense Structures: The biggest misconception about defenses is that they are to keep an enemy out of your base. A determined adversary will find a way in regardless of how many walls and turrets you place. Their purpose is to make taking your base as costly as possible, and detain your adversary until you can get your forces to the attacker. Keeping this in mind is crucial to planning your defense placement.

If there are air units, place anti-air defenses throughout your base for maximum coverage. Keep in mind that they should also cover your land defenses as well: most of the time, they will be unable to strike air units, and large chunks of your defensive coverage can be destroyed by air strikes prior to a major assault.

Overlap your turrets' fields of fire. This will create large zones where an enemy will lose enormous chunks of their strength if they are entered.

If you can support them economically, scatter turrets through your entire base. Either the opponent's army stops to destroy them, giving you valuable time to react, or must bypass them, taking damage as they pass. If their fields of fire overlap like the outer defenses, the enemy will have no choice but to stop and take care of them, so this is the most desirable positioning.

If you have mines, place them in random locations around your base. This will disrupt an opponent and delay them while they find a way around them, or stop to disable them.

Walls: If the game has walls, this can be a double-edged sword. If placed poorly, they can hamper you as well as your opponent. Over-reliance on walls can make you complacent, and allow an enemy to find a way into your base through brute force in an area without proper coverage. Consider them a supplement to your defense rather than the defense itself.

The best use of walls is to form narrow channels through which an enemy must travel to reach you. If they take the route, they will be vulnerable to your army and turrets. If they stop to try and remove the artificial choke-point, they are vulnerable to flank and rear attacks. Any sort of delay to an enemy's plans are your ally.

Surround vulnerable, non-producing buildings with walls to add extra protection from ground attacks and sabotage. Leave unit-producing and gathering structures as open as you can, so your army and economy are unhindered.

Secondary bases: Redundancy is a sound engineering principal: if one system fails, a back-up system will take its place to reduce the disruption.

This applies in real-time strategy as well: a second fully-functional base can be used to augment your economy, take surplus resources, increase your army, and make an excellent fallback if the worst should happen and your primary base should fall. Al the same principles should be used in its construction: excellent location (level ground in a corner, or on the edge of the map, with plenty of room for your buildings), proper planning and excellent defense.

Conclusion: Your base is a critical part of your plan to defeat an opponent. Properly planned and constructed, it can take you a large step towards victory in battle, and provide a cornerstone to repelling your adversary.

(Next: Chapter 4: Armies)

(Back to Chapter 1: Economy )

"The natural formation of the country is the soldier's best ally... " -Sun Tzu, "The Art of War."

Chapter 2- Use the Terrain

Terrain shapes everything you do in a battle. It determines where you choose to build your base, set up your base defenses, hold ground which you have taken, and where to lure an opposing army to fight. Knowing the map is important; knowing how to use it to its full potential is vital to victory.

Open terrain: this is flat ground with little or no cover. Troops can maneuver without obstruction over and through this terrain, which makes speed and agility a major asset. The advantage is with an aggressive, mobile attacker on this ground: being able to outmaneuver an opponent here will ultimately lead to victory.

Conversely, this is extremely poor terrain to defend. The lack of obstacles to a dedicated aggressor makes it a poor choice to take and hold unless the defender is able to artificially create them (such as walls and gates).

Narrow terrain: this includes such places as valleys and bridges, where a broad front is impossible to maintain. Single or double file is usually the best an army is able to maintain. Therefore, it is a very poor choice for attack or maneuver by a superior force, and should be avoided by a large army if at all possible. Otherwise, clearing the way with massive bombardments is advised before traversing this ground.

A clever defender can hold such a passage with minimum effort and troops for a long time. This is perfect terrain to interpose between a superior force and a weaker force, as the full weight of the opposition cannot be brought to bear on you. Setting up defensive structures at your end of the narrow terrain can create a lethal bottleneck to an attacker that can utterly crush him.

Broken terrain: this is uneven terrain broken by several obstacles which can divide an army, provide cover, and turn battle into a chaotic affair with no clear advantage. Maneuverability is key here: being able to move around the battlefield freely can turn chaos to your advantage, as nothing can be more demoralizing than having a large force strike from the rear unexpectedly.

A slow-moving force will find itself hopelessly outmatched here; moving them around this type of ground is advised.

Elevated terrain: this is ground raised above the level surrounding terrain. It makes for an ideal vantage point and artillery position, and should be occupied and held before your opponent.

The configuration of the elevated ground could make it difficult to hold: if it is accessible from all sides, it may be next to impossible to defend. Nevertheless, if it isn't held, an opponent may occupy it, making it impossible to bypass in either direction.

Impassable terrain: this is terrain that cannot be moved along by ground forces. No battle can take place on this ground, so using it to protect one side of a base or other staging area is counselled.

In more modern settings, air units can bypass this ground and mount raids on you. Otherwise, impassable ground is the best defense you can get.

"...but a power of estimating the adversary, of controlling the forces of victory, and of shrewdly calculating difficulties,
dangers and distances, constitutes the test of a great general."-Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"

Reconnaissance: scouting the map is a key ingredient in planning how you will use the terrain. Once you have a scout in play, use it to quickly look over the area. Keep an eye out for places for defenses, and make a preliminary plan as to how you will move your army to the enemy base. Be aware that your opponent will also be doing the same thing, and make plans to thwart his advance.

Keep your scouting active. Know when and where he is moving, and move to meet him where you want to fight. When you are ready for attack, make sure you know where he wants to meet you for battle, and avoid it if at all possible.

Air units: many games have air combat, especially those in modern to futuristic settings (although some fantasy RTSs have air combatants). In Sun Tzu's time, any attack from the air was unimaginable, so this was never mentioned. For our purposes, however, the air can be treated as open terrain: speed and agility are key to controlling the battle for the sky.

Another consideration for your ground units is protecting themselves from the air attacks. For them, the sky is impassable terrain.

Naval units: this can be treated the same as ground combat. All the same conditions apply, except for impassable terrain: a ground army may be able to occupy terrain impassable by your navy. Keep this in mind as you maneuver them.

Conclusion: Knowing where you will fight is important. It will shape the tactics used and the units involved in the fight. Studying the terrain ahead of time will bring you a huge step closer to victory over your opponent.

(Next: Chapter 3: Base Building)

(Back to Introduction: Choosing your Game )

"He who wishes to fight must first count the cost... when your weapons are dulled, (...)and your treasure spent, other chieftans will to take advantage of your extremity..." -Sun Tzu, "The Art of War."

Chapter 1: Learn Your Economy (Level: Beginner/Intermediate)

The most important aspect of a real-time strategy game to master is the economy. Without a steady source of income, units cannot be built or reinforced, structures cannot be built or repaired, and upgrades to your army cannot implemented. It is vital, therefore, to know your economy and how it can be expanded and made more efficient to serve your needs.

Resource types: there are 3 types of resources in an RTS: field resources (examples: Tiberium in Command and Conquer, trees in WarCraft II) which must be harvested by separate units; point resources (examples: mines in Warlords: Battlecry; strategic points in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War) which are generated when the point is captured on the map; and generated resources (examples: energy in DoW and Supreme Commander) which are created by structures you build.

Generated resources are the easiest to expand: if you are running low, build more resource generators. They are also the easiest to defend, if you set your base up properly (which will be covered in a later chapter).

The other two types are much more difficult: anyone can access them, and units need to be tasked to them for harvesting and defense. Recognizing this is of paramount importance: your economy is the most vulnerable aspect of the game. Guard it carefully.

Any buildings needed for income generating should be built as soon as they are available. Any prerequisites for those buildings should be built as soon as the battle begins. As soon as resource-gathering upgrades are available, research them. The faster your economy is started, the sooner you can shift your attention to preparing for war; the better your economy is tended, the less effort it takes to maintain.

Single resource balancing: this is simple to achieve. If you need more income, build more resource gathering units. A good practice is to have at least 2 points for delivery, and at least 3 gatherers in operation at any given time (for example: best practice for a Command & Conquer game is to build 2 refineries at opposite ends of your base, and when available, build a 3rd harvester).

Multiple resource balancing: this is much more difficult to achieve, as the resources can vary in method of gathering, rate of generation, and the number of resources needed (Rise of Nations is perhaps the harshest economy to balance: six resources [Wealth, Food, Wood, Ore, Oil, and Knowledge] generated by 3 different methods!). However, at least one principal remains the same: if you need more, task more units or build more buildings to increase income. If you are generating a large surplus of one resource and need more of another, move units from the surplus generation to the other.

On several games, it is possible to trade one resource to purchase another. This can be a good short-term solution, but a poor-long-term one: by selling a large surplus, you generally drive the price down for that commodity, and over time it won't be worth enough to keep your economy flowing. A better solution is to use the trade income to build units or upgrades to boost the sagging resource's generation rate.

Know your Technology/Build trees from a resource standpoint. If you know you'll need more of a resource at a higher tier, secure as much of that resource as soon as possible. Preparation in advance is an excellent key to victory, and can be applied to any aspect of the game.

Point resources: capturing these requires balance. Capture too few, and you may not have the income needed to advence later on. Capture too many, and you may find yourself stretched too thin to defend them all. Capture enough to fuel your economy at the outset, and when you have sufficient strength to mount an offense, begin capturing more: in this way, you can make expanding your economy part of your attack.

If structures can be built on these points, do so as soon as you capture them. This will give you extra protection for the point, and a measure of forewarning to an adversary's movements (by increasing the sight range around the point). Many times, the structure will have weapons as well, giving you some extra defense for that point.

"...forage on the enemy... use the conquered foe to augment one's own strength..." -Sun Tzu, "The Art of War."

The same rules apply to your opponent: his economy works with the same general resource rules as your's. Therefore, your first objective in any attack or raid should be to deny them resources and resource gathering. Attacking the economy denies your opponent the ability to reinforce his units, repair structures, or upgrade their army. It must be your priority target.

If you can, capture buildings that generate resources from the enemy and use them for your own economy. If you cannot defend it, sell it: a destroyed building is worth nothing, but a captured/sold building is worth at least half of its original purchase price.

If you are on the defense, ensure your own economy is protected. Repair buildings under attack as quickly as possible; if you can't keep ahead of the damage, sell it rather than lose all of your purchase price.

Finally, avoid having a large surplus in your coffers. Enough for a replacement resource-gatherer is generally sufficient: anything more, and you are at risk of being overwhelmed by a superior force. It doesn't matter if you have a large sum of resources available... and lose the battle.

If you find you are gathering much more than you need, build more units. If you have build everything you can, upgrade your units. If you cannot upgrade any further, build another base (this is a good defensive move, which will protect you in case the worst happens; in some cases, this will allow you more upgrades and structures, which will also help disperse any excess surplus).

Conclusion: your ability to wage war is directly tied to your economy. Master your economy first, and you will be one giant step closer to victory; many of the principals you learn now will apply to other aspects of the game.

(Next: Chapter 2: Terrain)

No other strategy genre is as dynamic as the real-time strategy game. There is no "I'll just wait a few more moments to mull my next move" here: you either think on your feet or die in a matter of moments. The strategic situation can change in the blink of an eye.

This guide is intended to reduce that initial moment of panic when a newcomer to the genre enters the fray for the first time, as well as introduce new strategies for the already well-experienced players. It's also intended for you, the reader, to provide feedback, and, if neccessary, changes to the guide itself.

Prologue: Choose Your Game Wisely (Level: Beginner)

"...the general who wins a battle makes many calculations... ere the battle is fought." -Sun Tzu, "The Art of War."

There many RTSs on the market these days. Each plays very differently, each focusing on different layers of the overall conflict at hand. Therefore, you must find the type of game which suits your individual needs the best. If you wish to play grand battles with large numbers of troops, Universe at War is not for you. Similarly, if you value the battle more than the overall war, you should not choose any of the Total War games.

There are several things to consider when choosing your first RTS:

Skill Level: As a beginner, the best game for you to choose would be Command and Conquer. It relaxes many of the conventions found in the genre (such as population limits) while allowing for a much more diverse strategic development. Its battles are not gigantic, nor are they overly small. (A free download of C&C is available on EA's site, as well any C&C page on this one.)

Scale: The size of the conflict may be important to you as well. Some games, like Supreme Commander, have a very large scale of battles; others, such as Universe at War, have a much smaller scale, with fewer troops and smaller batllefields. Be mindful that an increase in scale can be accompanied an increase in complexity: more units, more features, etc.

Strategic vs. Tactical Scope: Different games focus on differing aspects of war. If you wish to engage in diplomacy as well as battle, the Total War series has a turn-based mechanic that allows you to engage in such activities as well as build improvements to your territories. A slightly less-complex strategic layer may be found in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade or Universe at War. If the tactical aspect is more appealing, World in Conflict may be the game you choose.

Demos: These may be your most powerful decision-making tool. A demo is available for most RTSs. They cost nothing and give you a chance to try many of the features of a game for free.

Forums: This may be the last tool to make your decision, and what you ask will be as important as where you ask it. Asking "What should I buy, Game A or Game B?" on Game A's board will evoke hostile responses, similar to the responses on Game B's board. However, "Will I like Game A?" will result in almost useless information.

Both these questions, however, will yield an important fact about the multiplayer community for the chosen game: if the response is tempered by reason, the community will be intelligent; if it is vulgar, the community will not be welcoming to newcomers.

Support: The technical support for your game may affect how well you enjoy it. A game that is regularly updated may be more enjoyable in the long run than a game that gets one release patch, and nothing else. Study the Downloads section of a game you may be interested in, and read its details: is there a patch every other month? Is it mostly for technical issues, or are there balance tweaks involved as well?

Setting: This is the last of the major criteria. There are 4 types of settings for an RTS: Fantasy (such as WarCraft III, Warlords: Battlecry, etc); Science Fiction (C&C, DoW, etc.); Historical (Total War, Company of Heroes, etc.); and Modern (WiC, Act of War, etc.). Fantasy and many Historical RTSs have a large focus on melee/close-quarters combat; Modern and most Sci-Fi RTSs have a large focus on guns/artillery combat. Choose which most interests you.

Conclusion: The first important step to learning the art of real-time strategy is ensuring that your first foray is not marred by choosing a game for which you, the player, are ill-suited. Proper research and thought should be put into it.

(My thanks to http://www.military-quotes.com/downloads/aow.pdf for the proper Sun Tzu quotations.)

(Next: Chapter 1: The Economy)

Hey, gang. Guess 2007 is rapidly drawing to an end... what a wild year, too.

With the opening of 2008, I'd like to start something new on this little piece of Gamespot. I've been batting it around in my head for a while now, and after the flood of RTSs this past year has brought, I feel it's the right time.

I call it "The Art of (Real Time) War," obviously inspired by Sun Tzu's excellent book on the real thing (his is more about how to avoid it, though :D ).

The premise is simple: to give some broad guidelines and basic strategies for playing any RTS, from the basic to the complex, for any gamer from the rank beginner to the seasoned pro.

Roughly once each week, I'll write a chapter detailing a single phase of a generic RTS. Each will cover just that point: for example, an entire chapter will be devoted to managing an economy, while another will detail base set-up.

Here's the exciting part (at least, for me it is): I will welcome comments and suggestions from you guys (and gals), and implement them in the current chapter through edits. In a sense, I will merely set out the outline and some of the meat, and let many of the better suggestions flesh everything out more than I can do alone.

If you know of anyone who's interested in contributing to the whole project, let them know, and I'll definitely hear what they have to say as well.

When it's finished, I hope it'll save some of the more newbish questions ("What should I get? Where do I build?") and give a new generation of strategists a chance to spin up much more quickly.

Another thing I'm hoping will happen is more such guides pop up (an "Art of FPSs," for example) and give others ideas. That's what the internet's for, right? :D

In other news, I managed to get in touch with a certain crazy Romanian who used to be a regular here. I won't say too much (I was at work at the time :( ) but he seems to be alive and well and just as crazy as ever. :lol:

Christmas was very fun: the kids had a blast, we introduced my brothers-in-law to the joys of GHIII, and I got a chance to run through some of "Portal" on my father's new monster rig (a quad-core AMD64-based machine that I may steal from him :lol: ). I definitely need The Orange Box now...

If I don't get the chance to say it beforehand: have a safe and Happy New Year, party safely, and I'll see you all soon! Banzai!

It's been an interesting year for games in 2007. It saw the resurgence of the real-time-strategy genre, the resurfacing of many familiar names, and the savage mutilation of Activision.

No other year in recent memory has seen so many promising RTSs released so closely. It kicked off (last year) with Dawn of War: Dark Crusade (still a favorite of mine!) and just rolled from there. I'll break down each and my impressions:

Supreme Commander: the (spiritual) sequel and successor to the Total Annihilation crown, this one intimidated many with its scale, strategic intensity... and steep system requirements. Hundreds of units battling it out on enormous battlefields with weapons capable of leveling cities can eat a lot of memory and CPU power. I predict the game will slowly gain popularity as systems capable of running it to its full potential come down in price.

Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars: He's baaaack... everyone's favorite messiah/madman resurfaced this year in the latest C&C installment. Whether you're a long time fan or a newcomer, you can't deny that C&C3 brought back that fever for Tiberium. Unfortunately, buggy multiplayer, deliberate sabotage from within (aka: "balance tweaks") and anti-EA propaganda have largely eliminated any and all enthusiasm for it from me. If the expansion (set for Q2 next year) doesn't rectify some of the horrible decisions EALA have made balance-wise, I'll be very sad.

Universe at War: I looked forward to this B-movie RTS for a long time. Three absolutley different races, three distinctly different play$tyles... almost like 3 different games in one box. It's a crying shame that tech issues (glitchy start-ups, awkward camera, and the need to sign in on-line for single player enhancements) have marred what could still be the sleeper hit of 2007. I'm having a blast playing it... it reminds me of Total Annihilation: Kingdoms with much better design, sound, graphics, and balance.

I have not played World in Conflict yet... mostly because the Cold War was tough enough to deal with in real life (I still remember "nuclear bomb drills" from kindergarten... even though school was a mere 2 blocks from an A-list military target, the Watervliet Arsenal). I hear it's radically different from the traditional RTS in almost every way, and many of you (raven and hokies for starters) have highly recommended it.

I also didn't get CoH: Opposing Fronts or SupCom: Forged Alliance. These are deliberate omissions because CoH is not the game to play around the kids (F-bombs drop more frequently than real ones) and SupCom almost won't run on my PC, despite meeting more than minimum requirements.

A familiar name resurfaced with StarCraft 2 announced back in the spring. I very much wish Blizzard had kept their********* mouths shut.

Gordon Freeman also returned in an Orange Box. I want that box, even if the cake is a lie.

Finally, Activision, who were one of the first 3rd-party publishers I can recal for the Atari 2600, and have Doom and Quake to their publishing credit, were absorbed by Vivendi and turned into (*supresses gag reflex*) Activision Blizzard. My prediction? World of Doom, World of Quake, World of Pitfall...

Anyway... I just thought I'd get all that out of the way :lol: . With the holidays, I won't be on as much, what with kids running rampant, souped-up on sugar and new toys. Also, I have a resume to re-write (I'm not "student" anymore, and I have to figure out how to fit in all the honors I recieved Thursday without sounding like I'm bragging :shock:) and some preliminary scouting for a developer job to do... not to mention saving the Earth from the Heirarchy and reviewing the game properly (was Jason Ocampo writing a real review there? I felt he did a thouroghly horrendous job in every facet of his take on UaW).

In the meantime, have a wonderful Christmas (even if you don't celebrate it, doesn't mean it has to be anything less than Merry... after all, you still get the day off, right? :lol: ), a joyful New Year, and a favorable statistical outcome in the coming year!

...somewhere else... please.

It's been a nightmarish week here, mostly because of the snow. Thursday was particularly bad: 8 inches (just under 1/5 of a meter if my math is right) in nearly 7 hours, with the worst of it hitting during rush hour traffic.

I don't mind snow, as long as I don't need to drive anywhere. About 15 years ago, I was in a nasty accident involving a tractor-trailer: I was fortunate enough to walk away from it with minor injuries, but I still have nightmares about swirling snow, losing control of the car, and spinning 3 1/4 times around to the left before sliding out in front of the truck (the police informed me if I'd slid another 5 inces out, I would've ended up horribly injured). Even now, I tend to panic if there's more than a 1/2 inch of snow on the road.

So it was extremely nerve-racking driving home the 20+ miles from work... mostly because the roads hadn't been plowed, and the traction was near non-existant. It took roughly 2 hours, and an extra 3 miles of detours, to make what's normally a 25-minute drive.

Right now, it's snowing again. Forecasters are predicting about 12 inches (about 1/3 of a meter if my math is right) by Sunday afternoon. Guess we get a white Christmas this year.

(I'm restraining the urge to Google Al Gore's e-mail address, taking a picture of the foot of snow on my front lawn. and mailing it to him with the title, "Global Warming, My $$%!!!" :lol: )

Anyway...

My good friend the PC-non-expert loaned me his copy of "Knights of the Old Republic" because he couldn't figure out how to play it. So far, I like it... but I'm starting to see a lazy Bioware trend here: if the instruction book is right, and level 20 is the cap, I'm almost 60% of the way through it. Not only that, but it runs on D&D rules! (3rd Edition, if I'm not mistaken... or the "everybody can be Drizzt Do'Urden" edition, as I call it).

Fortunately, if it's over too soon, I have KOTOR2 as well; plus, I'm not done with Jade Empire yet.

Also, I got "Universe at War: Earth Assault." All I can say about that is, I hope they have a second patch on the way soon: after a month and a half delay, having every third execute of the game actually run is very disappointing (especially since it's so good while it's running :o ). Everything about it says "next good (not great) fun RTS," and if the tech issues iron themselves out, I'm sure it'll hold me until Dawn of War 2 kicks the **** out of SC2.

So, if I don't get the chance to talk to you all before then, have a merry Christmas (even if you don't celebrate it, enjoy it anyway... it's not against the law :lol: ) and a wonderous new year.

OH... my graduation from college is Thursday... that's when I officially become smart enough to learn how to program computers :lol: .

It's been a very musical week (bet you could never gues, huh? :D).

First off: since my son got Guitar Hero III we've all stopped watching TV... no Christmas specials, no re-runs... just impromptu concerts in the living room passing the guitar around. Problem was, it was just one at a time: one person would play, untangle themselves from the guitar strap, and pass it to the next, who would strap in and play. Also, there was no competition or cooperation... just any song we liked that had been unlocked.

That is, until last Friday.

On the way home from work, I stopped at a few places and found...Guitar Hero II! Game + second (wired) guitar = real concerts!

Unfortunately, he stayed over at my mother-in-law's house all weekend, so we couldn't spring the news on him until Sunday night... but since he left his GHIII + guitar here, my wife and I decided to test the co-op mode (for bugs, of course... that's what programmers do :lol: ). We had a blast all weekend long.

During the week, the three of us would get together, play a little while, and switch off. Even the little ones tried a few songs (it's very amusing watching a small child attempt to play GHIII with a controller bigger than they are :P).

Meanwhile, I did my best when others had tired out to unlock songs on GHII... and almost immediately, I noticed a large difference in difficulty between the two games. I actually think the GS reviewer got it bass-ackwards: GHII is a lot tougher to play.

GHII requires you to play at medium to earn money for new stuff and unlock almot a quarter of the "free" songs. We're not talking easy ones, either: "Madhouse" by Anthrax, for example, is challenging for me... and I've been to see them twice, with Belladonna and Bush (somewhere, I have Charlie Benante's autograph... I hope I didn't lose it when we moved last year:shock: ). All that leads up to the last song to unlock a secret guitar: *&^%%$# "Freebird" takes forever to play through, and has so many random notes it's almost wrist-breaking.

GHIII... play through once on easy. Buy the rest of the songs. Simple. The big unlock on that is "Through the Fire and the Flames" by DragonForce (which you can see played on youtube by half the world by now)... but it's unlocked on Easy, so no big deal. The fun, however, is starting a band with another player and getting the 6 songs unlocked through co-op only... one on lead guitar (our son and I are the designated leads) and either bass or rhythm for the other (I seem to be better with rhythm guitar than bass, while my wife is pretty much designated bass player).

The whole thing was on pause on Wednesday though... that was the big Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert in Albany.

It was awesome.

First, the crowd: at no other show will you see 60-65-year-old grandparent -types rubbing shoulders with kids in Iron Maiden or Testament T-shirts... and all of them agreeing that the music is incredible.

Second, the show: I've never seen a more elaborate light-show... lasers, Vari-lights, huge cable-driven rigs suspended from the ceiling moving up and down and pouring forth dazzling displays of color... huge jets of multi-colored flames behind the stage... "snow" falling from inside the arena... just that alone would have been worth the ticket price...

...but the music was definitely the cap on the evening. The first half of the show is the first disc, "Christmas Eve and Other Stories," narrated by a man with an incredibly mesmerizing voice, and played with such force and emotion that you were almost transported through the story, and never wanted the journey to end. The second half was random selections from "Christmas Attic," "The Lost Christmas Eve," and "Beethoven's Last Night," as well as a new song from an as-yet unfinished album (I think the guitarist said it was called "Night Castle").

We seem to have all the ex-Savatage guys on the East Coast show (Chris Cafferty, Jeff Plate, and Alex Skolnick, who was also in Testament), and Cafferty and Skolnick can definitely shred like no one else.

During that second half, first two of the female singers and, at the end, the two guitarists appeared right behind us at the back of the arena... that was incredible.

Best of all, as I understand it much of the proceeds from their shows go to various charities (and $1 from each ticket goes to a local charity), so we got to help out the less fortunate on top of the spectacle and symphony.

Definitely check them out if their in your area, or see if you can get their CDs (if I'm not mistaken, some of the sales from those go to worthy causes as well).

Finally: I really hope this whole "Free Jeff" thing has wound down. Anyone seeing my new forum signature will see what I think of the entire reaction (and the more savvy might recognize where the quote comes from... yes, it's a song).

Rock the weekend, friends!

Author's Note: I had not planned on writing anything for a week or so, but current events being as confused as they are, and with so many people running in so many directions like a flock of chickens introduced to a live greande, I felt compelled to at least add my own thoughts on the situation.

Consider the life of a professional game reviewer.

They meet with developers many consider the best in the business. They get hands-on previews of the newest, hottest games. They get to play new releases at least a week before the general public can even purchase them.

They are also subjected to intense scrutiny over their reviews, whether or not the fans agree with them. I've seen some of the comments about Reviewer X and how he should have seen to it that Generic Shooter #45,987 got a 9.0 to make it at least Editor's Choice... or how Reviewer X overscored the same game, even though it was a horribly derivative game not worth the DVD it was pressed on.

And now, it seems, that if said game is advertised heavily, the developer has a say in the process as well.

I'm sure that, if the rumors are true and a certain reviewer was terminated/ resigned over his handling of a certain game, it's not the first such game given special treatment and, if necessary, a padded score based on advertising dollars; in fact, given some of the scores I've seen for heavily-hyped games, I'd wager that they have more to do with outside influence than their own merits.

SO... a show of hands, friends and neighbors: how many of you are in the employ of a major game developer?

*waits patiently... counts hands... tallies results*

So few of you? I thought there'd be at least one... :lol:

With that said, we now have a new burden, laid on us by the overwhelming deluge of silence from the Gamespot powers-that-be: we have to be our own best source of reviews... because chances are, reviewer bias by ad dollars not isolated to GS.

A review like this, which is quite honestly an anti-EA rant more than a review, won't cut it anymore.

Neither will a fandroid's gushing like a schoolgirl over her first kiss (no offense to the intelligent schoolgirls :D ).

Each and every user of this site must do better, since it appears we are the only ones upon whom we can count now. We must write more like this: straightforward and detailed.

I know it seems daunting... in fact nearly impossible. It's not something will happen overnight, but mark my words: if it doesn't happen... the only games anyone will end up buying are those with the biggest advertising budget (if Halo 3 didn't have MS behind it, would it still have gotten a 9.5? Would it still have deserved one?).