Sunday, June 27, 2010

Chaos Rising: corruption that runs deep

Hello again,
This time around I am taking a look into Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising. This game has everything I need in a RPG. I was about to start Dawn of War II again and change up my roster of guys, putting points into different traits. I had a nudge to try Chaos Rising and I can no way play original DOW II now.
     First, the ability to redistrubute the points has made me so happy. I can try Tarkus out with hand to hand weapons for mission and see how I like it; then change him back if I don't. I can change the dreadnought Thule from a Furiso to a Hellfire, well not quite. They introduced melta weapons in this one, and completely redesigned the game to fit with higher levels of each character. New weapons, better armor, and more special moves.
      The swap in system control to corruption is half pleasing. Where I like the ability of fighting or giving into corruption which early on being corrupted gives you some serious advantage, but hurts you in other ways. Turning from the Emperor's benevolence is never a good thing. The reason I say half pleasing is because I miss system control bonuses of Comm Stations, Manufactories, and Shrines. In the first one the overall effect of holding all these was powerful. Bonus XP, and pushes you closer to having more daily deployments, which is heavily required near the end of DOW II. It is nice for a change of mission style though since I no longer need to play an area twice to acquire both control buildings, and being able to refill the in mission supplies like rosaries, and orbital bombardment these buildings provide is a lot more efficient.
     On that note I have found the game more challenging without a all or nothing supply refill. In this version you have to locate specific refills, i.e. ammo, strategic, explosive, etc. It definitely makes use of the items more dire and strategic. The eagerness to play and not stop has not only survived with the expansion Chaos Rising but become stronger...sorta like the power promised by the four gods. I love this game and recommend it to any Warhammer 40,000 tabletop fan, Black Library fan, and RPG fan.
      

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Bloodline of Sanguinius



I recently finished my straight forward Tactical squad. One of my friends who just got into the hobby even said that as long as he has known me I have been working on these guys! I guess I'm a perfectionest not to fail to mention I tried a few paint tactics out on them. There is ten of them and they are mean looking, I just have to base them. Anyways I hope to upload a few files of my buddies Eldar, Necron, Orks, and Tau. Club St. Cloudy soon to rule the state!!
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Thursday, June 3, 2010

Dawn of War: II

Okay so I am a little behind the times but thats is how it goes. I don't think anyone can blame me for realizing the trend of games to release an expansion 6 months to 1 year after the first release, and save money by doing it. Anyways I have just starting playing this awesome game. It has what Dark Crusade and Soulstorm lacked, no not just the Tyranids but the ability to customize your commander as well as other squads with stats and gear. This game is fun and fast pace. Another point in my book is the fact that when you lose a battle it doesn't hurt your campaign, in fact strategically it can help.
To explain what I mean, I played the mission against Gutrencha, awesome opening picture, and lost. I did not have to load from a save game, I was able to upgrade my squads with the XP I earned plus gear. Next, I was able to take Comm Array in addition to the shrine because I played the mission twice! Finally someone gets the campaign style game right. Just a tid bit toward Warhammer: Mark of Chaos: Battle March. The game was done very well graphics wise and I am impressed with the way Namco Bandai allowed for the game to be a virtual tabletop match, i.e. you only have the units you bring to the fight. BUT you cannot save during a battle, of which some take up to hour and half, and most importantly if you lose in a campaign battle your army is depleted. As a player you do not have to load from a save file, but you are forced to face the same battle with less men because of the lack of gold to recruit more men. It needed some resources on the campaign map. Now this can make a game more challenging but a game still needs to be fun and losing isn't fun. Plus then throw on top you can't replenish your army!
Alright enough griping and back to Dawn of War II. Basically I already want to play this game again, its got awesome graphics, fun playing, a great StarCraft cutscreen feel to it, wonderful storyline, although the lines are somewhat cheesy, Dan Abnett should have critiqued it, and finally it is fun.