Company of Heroes is the hottest new RTS (that’s Real Time Strategy for the slow learners) for the PC. Oops, I mean for the “Games for Windows” platform, which is the new branding logo dreamed up by Microsoft to try and revive the PC gaming industry. More on that later. Company of Heroes (CoH) is a World War II themed RTS, designed by the developers of Warhammer 40K Dawn of War.
The gameplay in CoH involves basic RTS style, but the map has a bunch of important resources and areas you have to maintain control of in order to keep resources flowing in so that you can continue the battle. The interface is pretty slick, and the graphics are fantastic, the best I’ve ever seen in an RTS. The game has a great tutorial that makes it accessible even for beginners to the RTS genre.
The one negative thing I’ve found so far is that the load times are excessively long. I am still early in the game, I will post more on this title later on.
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A couple of reviews of mine were posted on Game Chronicles. The first is a review of a strategy game, Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath. I give it 5.2 out of 10. Pretty much avoid unless the subject matter is really compelling to you. It mixes turn-based strategic level game which was pretty cool with a crappy and frustrating RTS battle mode.
The other review is for a great Playstation 2 old school RPG, Wild Arms: Alter Code F. This is a remake of the original Playstation Wild Arms game, and it’s a good one. Great story, very fun gameplay, if you like console RPG games definitely this is worth a look. I gave it 8.8 out of 10.
I should have mentioned this earlier, but GameChronicles has posted my review of the PC first person shooter, F.E.A.R. I give it 8.8 out of 10. In a nutshell, if you have a medium or high end gaming machine, you definitely need to check this one out. The AI is superb, and really gives the single player experience more realistic gun battles. You can get it at Amazon pretty cheap.
Spent the weekend with family, and also kind of went on a bit of a game buying binge. I got Cossacks Anthology which is really hard to find and I got it for a steal. I also snagged Warrior Kings and Shadow of Destiny for a song. And for PS2 I picked up The Getaway Black Monday. But the coolest game I picked up, and the one I installed first is Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, which I got for $20 at Best Buy. It’s a large install, the game comes on four CD’s (would have gotten the DVD version but it was $30).
So anyway I start it up. You begin by attacking a Japanese held atol in some amphibious assault vehicles and soon after I die, but instead of dying, the game flashes back to basic training. From there you go through basic training (the tutorial for the game) and then you get shipped off to Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. You then get thrust into gameplay that is definitely reminiscent of the film Pearl Harbor as you try and survive the Japanese sneak attack. Very cool so far, but I am still early into it. The graphics are quite a bit better than the original Medal of Honor was, but probably not quite as nice as Half-Life 2. Lots of eye-candy to see here though, with skies filled with Zeros as you desperately try and take a few of them down from your PT Boat as the battleships in the harbor are being destroyed.