Shogun 2: Total War

Category: Game Reviews

We couldn't expect something less than an astonishing product from Creative Assembly. Shogun 2 sure keeps the bar high and Total War fans will surely enjoy many hours playing another addicting and quality game. The main question is if Shogun 2 is worth buying or is it another Empire TW game just in different setting?

Scenario

The game takes place in the feudal Japan of the 16th century (much like the first Shogun), where the whole Japan is fragmented in many provinces, each of them under the control of a different clan. Taking under our control one of the 9 playable clans we will try to become Shogun -the supreme and indisputable military leader of Japan. Each clan has its pros and cons and some of them are an ideal choice for starters ,while others are made mostly for hardcore players. For instance, if you prefer warfare and besieging, you can select the Hojo clan which offers cheaper castles and reduced recruitment cost for siege units. If you're more into diplomatic strategies and you're capable of handling difficult situations, the Tokugawa clan may be the right for you. The available single player choices include a 30-year campaign in which you are asked to capture and hold 25 provinces and another 55-year campaign with either 40 or 60 provinces challenge. The game uses the same combination of turn based campaign and real time battles as its predecessors, which has worked extremely well over the years, so there was no reason for CA to try anything new there. After all, this hybrid is one of the main reasons for the success of the Total War Series. Each year is divided in four turns, one for each season, and every season has an inpact on gameplay both in the tactical map (reduced income, food shortage etc) as well as in the battlefield, where fatigue, running and accuracy are affected.

Gameplay

If you think that building a powerful army without considering about the economy or the diplomatic relations will give you automatically an advantage in prevailing over your foes, you are mistaken. Shogun 2 doesn't focus on just one specific sector and that makes the game more realistic as it makes it complex too.The road to victory is full of obstacles and you have to use your mind to navigate your armies , establish alliances and negotiate trades for the sake of your ambitions. Your clan management is a difficult task but it will drag you into the heart of the role. Its of your provinces has a town (castle) and some buildings such as ports and farms. The stronger and bigger the castle the more are the available slots for buildings, but larger castles consume more food, so you have to carefully plan your upgrades or you will carelessly cause mass starvation.

In Shogun 2, generals caused a lot of discussion because of their RPG's features. Generals have always been important for maintaining troop morale in TW series , but they've never had as much character as in Shogun 2. Generals are vital to the prosperity and power of their clan so you have to carefully use them lest you lose their advantages they offer. Successfully leading your troops, generals gain combat experience and unlock a variety of new skills and followers for your benefit. Furthermore generals have a loyalty rating, and one could turn on you if you are not cautious. As a result, you need to find some way to keep them loyal. You might give them important positions in the clan or bring them into your family through marriage or adoption. For instance, you could increase a general's poetry skill, giving your clan a research bonus. Alternatively, you may create a feared tyrant or a near invincible legendary warrior. This new feature of micromanagent can be found also in other characters, such as monks and ninjas (assassins). This RPG element caused a lot of discussion and the ambiguitiesraised immediately questioning the balance of the game. I can assure you that there is not such a thing like indisputable and invincible general. Sure generals make a lot of difference, but is this wrong? The generals are there to boost your troops and provide you the best choice to confront your enemies. This is something surely realistic and the whole idea is to make generals not only tools, but individual and unique personalities you need to prevail. The same applies for the other characters, too.

Diplomacy in Napoleon TW was incomplete and with many gaps and vacuums. Creative Assembly couldn't just let it go, so in this TW, diplomacy is essential again and you have to deepen into it in order to use your diplomatic options at the maximum. Such options are from the most common, trades and alliances to the most special, trade embargos and exchanging of hostages. In the Japanese setting it's better if you have a lot of friends than a mountain of foes. Research in Shogun 2 is included in the “Mastery of the Arts” , which is a “tech tree” with special bonuses and traits for your clan. It is divided into 2 offshoots , “Bushido” and “Way of Chi”. The first one is for the empower of your armies and its skills are provided mostly for the battles, while the Way of Chi is related with the clan management(diplomacy, economy, etc). You don't have to select one of them, but is better to stick on one if you want to maximize your benefits.

In Shogun 2 religion comes back, while in Empire and Napoleon TW was missing.Allowing European merchants into your cities lets you field units with powerful firearms, but it also opens up your homogeneous Bushido-Buddhist society to Christian influences. The growing Christian population has to be subdued in some manner. On the one hand you could allow your clan to convert to Christianity to unlock powerful European cannons, but this would outrage the Buddhist population and bring dishonor to the clan. History taught us that outrageous religious minorities are extremely dangerous, so these type of grievances must be kept to a minimum lest bloody rebellions. On the other hand you could reject European merchants to trade with your clan, but then you would miss the opportunity to use teppo -firearm-, something that other clans may not have. This is one of the many difficult decisions you have to make during the campaign.

Except of the 3 different campaigns you can also play custom battles, where you can decide the rival armies, their troops' capacity, the environment of the battlefield and the weather, too. In addition there are 4 historical battles that you can play to get even more into the skin of the role. Multiplayer is also an option when you have already gained some experience. The major addition to Shogun 2's multiplayer options is the Avatar Conquest mode. In this mode, you create one avatar who gains levels of experience as you play online battles. After creating your avatar, you gain access to the conquest map that divides Japan into numerous provinces, each of which grants a bonus of some kind. Once you've picked a province for your avatar to attack, you can join or host a multiplayer game. If you win the match, then your avatar conquers the province and receives the corresponding bonus. Regardless of who wins, each player gains experience during these battles, which is then used to upgrade your avatar with new skills and retainers (followers who provide some traits).

Technical aspects

What can we say about the outstanding technical aspects of Shogun 2? Both in campaign map and in the real time battles the graphics are amazing with many polygons and sensational details. Animation is carefully edited and the colors are beautifully matching with the Japanese setting. Music is epic and transfers every player into the heart of Japan. AI (Artificial intelligence) also has made very important steps forward and many times you may be surprised by the movements of your enemies. The problems though are not fully overcome and some times you may find yourself against not a formidable adversary, but a “stupid” engine, but that's not something frequent. In addition, it is possible to pull in live players to your campaign battles if you want through the “multiplayer campaign”. Something really vital when you play such a complex game, is the interface, which -in Shogun 2- is extremely friendly with the player and that’s why you can easily find everything you want to manage your clan.

Overview

In conclusion, we could say that Shogun 2 is another epic game and a worthy successor of the Total War series. The developers created something wonderful and carefully edited every sector of it. Of course there are some bugs and glitches, like the AI issues or the boring naval battles, but there are just minor errors compared to the spledor of the title. The options opened to the player are countless, the thrilling real-time battles, the brilliant visuals and sound and the depth of the gameplay combined with the the historical background, that every TW title has, ensures a joyful experience. It has many similarities with Empire and Napoleon TW but the new features and the Japanese setting makes it worth buying. Shogun 2 made a lot of fans already and is a must for every strategy games' player.

Here's the official trailer video with ingame graphics to get you all excited :)

Apple iPad 2

Apple recently unveiled the new iPad 2, causing once more delirium to its fans. The new device by Apple offers cool new features, as well as upgrated hardware, compared to the old iPad. However, do these additions make iPad 2 worth buying, specially for those who already possess an iPad?

The new iPad has a dual core processor that, makes it almost two times faster than its predecessor, a 9.7-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1024x768. While the quality of the screen is pretty good,  the clarity is not as high as the Retina Display on iPhone 4. Moving on to one of the coolest new features, iPad 2 has two cameras, one on the back (720p video recording) and one on the front (VGA mostly for video chatting). The battery life of the new iPad is more or less the same with the first one, that is approximately 10 hours even if you watch movies or listen to music, so the hardware upgrades haven't caused any major cutbacks to the battery's durability. Comparing to its predecessor, iPad 2 is way thinner and lighter and its more steady, too. It lays flat better while iPad 1 is wiggling when you hit the corners.

Furthermore, the mobile safari browser, which Apple uses for iPad 2, is one of the fasters and most elegant I've seen. The increase in RAM ensures the browser does not refresh the page every time you switch tabs, a quite annoying issue in the previous iPad. In addition, the upgrated hardware also affects the graphics capabilities 9 times faster, making this change quite an important one, considering that there will soon be games specially designed for iPad 2 to reach its full potential. What is one of the most interesting things about iPad 2 is something called the magnetic cover, which is a smart cover of the front ( the screen). Besides protecting the screen it can be also used for different standing positions and it automatically cleans iPad 2 screen surface.

There are 18 versions of the new ipad, ranging from 16 up to 64 Gigabytes memory; some versions are just with wifi and some with the addition of 3G and the prices are from 500 up to 840 dollars (same with euros). With iPad 2 you can run approximately 350.000 applications, while 65000 of them were designed only for ipad. On the contrary when you use one of these new tablets you are limited to the Apple echo system and you can only use i-tunes as the music player.

To sum up, iPad 2 is really a fantastic gadget and keeps the momentum of ipad going but its not so revolutionary. So if you were waiting to buy a tablet and you can live in the limitations of Apple's product, this is your best option and you won't be dissapointed. But if you already have iPad 1 or an older tablet that still works then you may consider upgratting to this generation as unnecessary and skip it. Maybe it's better to save your money for ipad-3. :)

Third Age: Total War

Category: Game Reviews

The epic battle for Middle Earth has always been a very popular theme in the gaming world, as countless games and mods have been created based on Tolkien’s fantasy world, varying from thrilling quality games, to mediocre releases and of course, bloopers.

We distinguished one of them, and chose to present it to you, as the work behind it is of professional level and quality. Third Age: Total War is a modification for Medieval II: Total War, that literally brings Middle Earth to you. As many of you know , Medieval II was one of the best strategy games, released in 2006. With its amazing strategic depth ,its epic 3D battles and its massive number of troops, fighting in multiple environments, this hybrid of real-time and turn-based strategy game riveted thousands around the world and still remains as a classic. The Third Age mod was released on 2009 and is a total-conversion mod, with an amazing size of ~3GB! It boasts a variety of features such as a whole new campaign map of Middle Earth with all the famous locations based on Tolkien’s lore, new battle AI, new cutscenes, music and 14 factions including Gondor, Rohan, High and Silvan Elves, Dwarves, Eriador, Dale, Arnor, Isengard, Mordor, Rhun, Harad, the Orcs of Gundabad and the Orcs of the Misty Mountains.

This mod is of amazing quality, and of course we higly recommend it to both Tolkien's world fans and those who loved Medieval II and want to add new material to it. Also we believe that it could be food for thought for game designers, due to its overall quality.

The currently latest patch of the mod is 2.2. As always, here is a video of the mod for you to get you all excited! :)

Helicopters in Guild Wars 2?

Yesterday Arenanet - the company behind Guild Wars II - announced the 7^th profession of the game... the commando. I got all excited when I learned the news, already thinking about Charrs with a lot of gunpower and Nords stealthly hiding in snowy woods! I entered the Arenanet's channel hoping to see some kind of special weapons and new, really innovative features and characteristics for this new profession.

Imagine my surprise when I saw the related video with "commandos" holding military knives in one arm , a firearm in the other and gas masks on their faces!! In addition, helicopters were flying along side with dragons (in the background) in what looked more like a new Halo game than the highly expected fantasy MMORPG! (:P) I opened the related article and started reading to learn more about this really out-of-the-blue profession. Grenades, snipers, night vision googles and vehicles added in a fantasy world where races (as far as we knew up until then) were meant to fight with magic and swords.

And then it struck me! It is April Fools :D !! Up until then, I had really fallen for this, so called "new profession", as had lots of people all around the internet. It was all making sense now. The crazy bikini video, the aerial fights between helicopters and the Elder Dragon, the most fearsome creature in the GW universe, and a commando calling it a "big chicken"... Arenanet did a great job on this one. They came up with a hilarious idea and tricked many of their fans, with their well-crafted videos and the detailed presentations.

The outcome of this? Arenanet sure has a lot to show us in the future. Announcements about exciting new features are expected soon, as Guild Wars 2 reaches its final stages of development.

So let's laugh a little more and think twice on April's Fool. :)

Here's the video of the commando's profession :

New DLC for Mass Effect 2

Bioware's new DLC for ME2 was introduced to the public through a very impressive launch trailer. The new content aims to continue the story of commander Shepherd and works as the link between ME2 and its successor, ME3, which, from what we know until now, will conclude the trilogy. Given the quality of the first 2 games, both ME2:Arrival and ME3 are expected with lots of excitement! :)

Hopefully, the sci-fi adventure we've experienced so far will continue to similar levels of quality. After all, Bioware has proved to come up with both intriguing and complex scenarios for all its RPGs, with the most recent example being Dragon Age 2 (review here).

Anyway, here's the trailer for you to get a glimpse on the DLC! Enjoy! :P

Shogun 2: Total War coming up!

No more than a few days remain for the European release of the new Total War game, which comes under the name of Shogun 2. Total War is a series of quality strategy games, known for the impressive and massive battles they offer, and Shogun 2 looks like another great addition to the series. Following games which have depicted a variety of historical periods (Ancient Roman History, the Medieval Age, the Napoleonic Wars) as well as many different parts of the globe, Shogun 2 refers to the Japanese history around the sixteen hundreds (much like the first Shogun, which was also the first game of the series). Shogun 2 uses the same combination of a turn based campaign and real time battles as its predecessors, features breathtaking graphics, and of course has the historical accuracy that characterizes every Total War game!

That's all for now, we will write a full review of the game as soon as we have a comprehensive view of all its features! :) Until then, here is a video to get you all excited:

Minecraft

Minecraft is an ingeniously made indie/construction/sandbox game. Starting the game, you are on your own in an open world, and your only goal is to survive from the different kinds of monsters that come out at night! Fire and wood are your first weapons, and as the game continues, you gather different materials and create blocks, which can be used for constructing. Ultimately, you can construct huge buildings or clever monster traps, and dominate over the world around you. Speaking of the world of the game, note that your surroundings are generated randomly and that the game can generate a world 8 times bigger than earth (given enough hard drive space)! So, in order to explore the whole world around you, theoretically you need six years of real time! The game has already become widely popular, due to its simple (and quite addicting) gameplay, although it is still in beta version. 

Here is a video of what you can build on Minecraft:

Dragon Age Web Series

After the release of the much anticipated Dragon Age 2 (review of the game here:http://gaming-for-fun.blogspot.com/2011/03/dragon-age-ii.html), Bioware is preparing a web series based on the Dragon Age lore, starring Felicia Day and coming out during the summer of 2011. Here is a trailer of the upcoming series, the name of which will be Dragon Age: Redemption.

Dragon Age II

With the success of its predecessor building quite a hype, Dragon Age 2 was expected with lots of anticipation. Did Bioware manage to surpass an already great game with its new release? Or is Dragon Age 2 another mediocre sequel, created mostly to satisfy the thirst of the fans to experience another adventure at the Dragon Age universe?

Scenario

Let's start with a few words about the plot. Your main character is a human male or female named Hawke. Note that although you can choose your character's gender and, eventually, his/her class, there isn't an option regarding the race (in other words, Hawke is always human). Hawke and his family are forced to leave their homeland due to a Darkspawn attack, and he finds refuge in the town of Kirkwall. From the beginning of the game it's known that Ferelden, the kingdom in which our adventure takes place, is at the edge of war, and also that eventually you will become the Champion of Kirkwall. However there are blanks in the story, blanks that you will have to fill as the game continues.

Regarding the main quest and its storyline, many would expect that, much like the scenarios of most RPGs, there would be an ancient evil force threatening the world, and it would be your job to prevail over it, having an epic adventure through Ferelden along the way, and an appropriate heroic finalle. Bioware, however, didnt follow that path, a welcome surprise considering how many titles have already covered a similar storyline. Instead, the plot of this game revolves around ethical and political rivalries in Kirkwall. I won't reveal anything else about the plot of the game. After all, spoilers can be really frustrating. Let me just say that, like in most Bioware games, the storyline of the main quest is very intriguing, with interesting characters, lots of “grey areas” regarding your choices, ethical dilemmas and an intense finalle. Also, note that the story is told through a framed narrative, and that some of the characters from Dragon Age: Origins appear in this game as well. Apart from the main quest, there is also a number of fairly interesting side quests, some of which can become small questlines.

Gameplay

In Dragon Age 2, your main character is the head of a group of 4 people, in other words, the game is party-based, much like Dragon Age: Origins. Your companions are chosen by you as the game revolves, and can provide new dialogue choices (depending on their personality), as well as the usual help in battle, so choose them wisely. I think that the most characteristic aspect of the gameplay is that it is pretty versatile, and can adjust to almost any style of playing, from a casual action-centered gameplay to more hardcore and tactical styles, typical of old school RPG gamers. Those who prefer action rather than tactics, and like to play without having to pause the game for every battle, can do so by selecting a difficulty level of Casual or Normal. As for the rest, more experienced players who need a greater challenge, there are two higher difficulty levels. Still, I should inform you that hack and slash techniques do not apply in this game, even at the lowest levels of difficulty, as the basic hits are automatic when you choose an enemy.

The leveling and character growth are pretty much what you would expect from a standard game of the genre, nothing too innovative. Nonetheless, the talent trees of the available classes (warrior, mage, rogue) are sufficient and versatile enough, without getting too complex and tiring. Finally, I found the interface much more user-friendly than that of DA:O, which makes quite an impact on the gameplay, simplifying it and making it much more fun. Furthermore, Bioware decided to use Mass Effect's successful style of dialogue options, with the use of the characteristic dialoge wheel. Also, note that the skill of Coersion that existed in DA:O, is not used here, and as a result, there are no guaranties for the success of your ingame choices and answers, thus making the game much more realistic. So put some thought before choosing to insult or praise NPCs and factions, as you never know what can happen! :)

Graphics and Sound

Overall, the technical aspects of the game are quite improved, in comparison to those of its predecessor. The thing that struck me the most, was the addition of voice acting for the main character, whereas in DA:O your character would not say a word except for occasional phrases like “Yes sir”, “Right away” etc, which made him/her pretty creepy! Also, on the bright side, the design of the character models is much more improved, especially the female models are sometimes breathtaking! ;) Another welcome improvement is the animation during battles, with the finishing of enemies being quite impressive and brutal! One important downside is, however, that the environments, although being adequately well designed, are almost always the same, in other words there are no changes of scenery, and also the dungeons are identical, making them really boring to explore. It may sound like a minor issue, but after playing for a while, you might get very irritated by it. So those of you who expected an open world sandbox game, might be disappointed.

Overview

Dragon Age 2, although not groundbreaking, is a very impressive game, improving almost every aspect of its predecessor. With a duration of approximately 25~40+ hours depending on the difficulty level and the amount of side quests you chose to complete, an amazing plot, and fun new additions, it is a great choice for every RPG fan, and can even satisfy those who mostly prefer action games but are intrigued by a good scenario. It is one of the best RPGs we've seen so far this year, and, although it has some minor downsides, overall I believe it offers a great gaming experience. After all, gaming is about having fun, right?

More reviews are coming, so keep in touch! :)

Facebook and https: how to make your Facebook safer

Well, this is my first article on my new blog! Hope you enjoy it..:)

Now, let's get to business. Lots of people don't know about this, but an easy way to make your Facebook safer is to configure it in order to use SSL Encryption (https). Nothing too difficult, even for those who are not particularly familiar with computers! ;)

Instructions:

Just click on "Account" (on the top right corner of your Facebook page), then "Account Settings", and then try to find "Account Security". When you've found it, press "change", and then check the "Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible" box. After that, just click "Save" and you're done!

Here's a pretty helpful instructional video I found on YouTube, for those who would like a visual guide.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more!