You can kinda 1/2 count Rome Total War.  I am playing the long campaign, however I have completed the requirements of the short campaign.  I’m going to count that as a major acoplishment and a long step towards finishing RTW and I’ll probably move on to some other games for a while and maybe come back later.  I’ve been itching to get something new, but I haven’t been able to decide exactly what to get.  Many choices, but nothing that I’ve been super hyped for or was specifically wanting to get as soon as I could afford a new game…  with E3 so close, I probably can’t rely on too many releases soon either.  My wife is major stoked for Sims 3…  Maybe I should just work on backlog…  or maybe I should just go diving in the bargain bin and see what shows up…

Exercise 2: Wiretapping

First, here’s the screen you see when you choose to do wiretaps or use a car tracer. The circuit board here is getting an electrical supply from the leftmost yellow dot. The path the electricity is taking is highlited by that dotted line. The goal is to cut the circuit to each of the phone icons without redirecting it into the alarm icons. You have one spare chip at the bottom of the screen that you can swap out with any one on the board. Each phone icon you turn green can give you a clue. Completing the wiretap also can feed you clues from that location in the same way bugs can in the infiltration mission.

As seen here, I’ve replaced a chip that recieved from the bottom to one that recieved from the top, which cut the circuit to two of the phone icons. Replace a couple more chips and this exercise is complete.

I tend to use wiretapping quite a bit for a few quick clues. Not too complicated, so let’s move on.

Exercise 3: Cryptology

Occasionally, you’ll recieve a coded message to decypher. Its very good to do these when they are available because they will immediately link both the sender and the reciever to the crime. Its a basic substitution cypher. The letter that appears the most frequently will be filled in for you. In this case, I got a T=E.

After picking up the easy ones (V=T, Z=H, E=I), I had to work at it a bit to get to this point. From here, its pretty much just a breeze from here on out.

And here, we can see the fully decoded message. Another note is that you can see that some words, like “LONDON” and “MERCENARIES” can be helpful because you normally would have context that helps you easily pick up these words.

Finally, the least fun and least useful mini-game…

Exercise 4: Tailing a Suspect

You can pick two of the four cars to follow a suspect from their starting location to an unknown location in the same city. This is basically only useful for finding a hideout you know you need in a particular city. Here’s the thing, you could place a tracer and get the job done faster, you could infiltrate any place in the city with several computers and search for a specific faction, or you can search the city name in the hideout of the same faction in another city, if it is on your way. The problem with the car chase (and tracers) is it won’t lead you for sure to where you want, just any random building and you don’t know what the building is until you do a wiretap or infiltrate and then you’ll get a bunch of phoney clues that can make things really confusing and it all wastes a bunch of time.

So here’s the tracking screen. You control two cars and you must maintain visual contact of the suspect without alerting them. You alert your suspect by following them for too long, so you basically have to drive around the block to cool off and alternate cars to make sure you don’t alert the suspect. Once they arive at their final destination, you are at that building and it is listed as an unknown building, unless the suspect goes to a known location.

You can look up information on the faction to find out who they are allied to or friends with and if you follow someone of those factions, it will be more likely that you are lead to the hideout you are looking for.

And that’s all there is for the four basic mini games. Infiltration is the most involved and time consuming and as a result, can result in the “Covert Action Rule” coming into effect the most. Wiretaps are quick and easy usually and can give some good clues to get you started. Cryptology is extremely useful, but you don’t get a lot of coded messages that often. Finally, tracking is boring and frustrating and can easily be avoided completely.

At this point, I’ll probably do a “tutorial” mission on an easy difficultly so everything can be seen in context and how a normal game would typically run. I’ll demonstrate how we use these mini-games to get clues and also some of the other features that show up in the many menues of Covert Action.

There are 4 types of mini-games which represent the actions that our spy, “Max” can take in the field to help us uncover clues. We’ll go through each one here so that when we get to them in the real world, we’ll all understand what is going on.

Exercise #1: Infiltration

In the image above, we can see the inventory selection screen. Here we decide what we are going to take into the infiltration mission with us. Going counterclockwise, here’s what everything does (that I know of anyways)

UZI: The standard weapon is a pistol with rubber bullets, because we’re not intrested in killing terrorists, we want to arrest them. If you expect to run into a lot of resistance, you can upgrade to the UZI. The UZI does seem to be maybe a bit faster shot and it is either more accurate or more deadly, as you’ll rarely have to shoot a second time to get a kill, though higher combat skill can compensate. Overall, the UZI is not necessary, but it is nice to have.
CAMERA: The mini camera is essential for any spy on an infiltration mission. This device allows us to take pictures of documents that can be found in the building, providing valuable clues. Considering the age of the game, the symbol next to the 36 is probably supposed to represent a photo or even a polaroid, but we’re gonna pretend its a very small memory card and the camera is digital.. and super spy tiny too… Consider this item essential in all infiltrations.
BUGS: Placing bugs around the building will allow you to pick up on the goings on at the location you place them. The more bugs, the higher the percent “bugged” the building is and the better chance you’ll have of intercepting messages or learning of a suspect’s actions. Performs the same function as a Wiretap.
GRENADES: Pull the pin and throw… no don’t throw the pin, throw the grenade! BOOM! Comes in three flavors: Strawberry, Vanilla, and Mint. I don’t actually know what each one does at the moment because I don’t use them. I’d guess Strawberry is incindiary, Vanilla is frag, and I know for sure Mint is a gas grenade. You can pick them up from knocked out terrorists, so SOP is POS. (Standard Opperating Procedure is Procure on Site… do millitary types really talk like that?)
GAS MASK: If you like Mint grenades, you need this. You can also just shoot or use the other types of nades. If a terrorist throws one, you can just leave the room and the smoke will clear eventually, or you can run into the room for a short time (hold your breath). You can also sometimes pick these off knocked out terrorists. I typically leave it behind.
MOTION DETECTOR: This nifty little device will show you on the map where all of the guards are and can be extremely useful for both offensive and defensive situations. I always take the MOTION DETECTOR with me.
KEVLAR ARMOR: The kevlar vest allows you to be shot multiple times before you are knocked out. I suppose you could not take it…
SAFE CRACKING KIT: As you’ll see in a little while, there are floor safes located in each building that are bright red. These floor safes can contain the REALLY important clues, like a list of the plot participants or evidence that can turn the suspect into a double agent (more on that later). No safe kit means no evidence…

You can only carry 5 items into the building with you (I think) and most of them are almost mandatory. I usually leave the BUGS, and wiretap instead, since wiretaps can also yield clues. Nades can be gotten on the way, and the gas mask too situational to warrent carrying it around all the time. So, my standard load out will be: UZI, CAMERA, MD, KEVLAR, SAFE KIT. I could be convinced to change the load out if someone had more information than I about the items I think aren’t that good.

Once you’ve picked your equipment, you choose which door to use as an entry point, if there are more than one. If you’ve been to the building before, you’ll have the floor plan of any room you’ve been in before and make a more informed decision, but today, the only thing we have to go on is the initial shape of the building. I picked door #1.

The top of the screen tells us what we just did, in this case I took a picture of the contense of the File Cabinet. The main part of the screen is a top view of the room you are in. I’m the guy in black. In the room we can see desks, chairs, filing cabinets, and a printer. In the wall, there are two wall safes (not like floor safes) on the east wall. The exit door is to the west and a closed door is to the south. The right side of the screen shows our inventory and a small building floor plan. The blue dots are guards I’ve picked up with my MOTION DETCETOR.

The porpose of an infiltration can depend on the case. It might be just a clue finding mission, in which case I would want to use all 36 shots of my CAMERA on varrious desks, file cabinets, wall safes, and definitly prioritize floor safes. I might be coming to aprehend a suspect whom I already have enough evidence to convict, in which case, I only need to come in and arrest them and get out. I might also be searching for a particular piece of information, like the location of a certain hideout. I’ll cover how to do that in a bit. For now, lets explore the building a bit more…

In this photo, we see the aftermath of a fire fight to the right of the room, and the aforementioned floor safe on the left of the room. Don’t forget to save some photos for floor safes if you haven’t fully explored the building yet, as the tiny digital camera is so small, there’s no room for a delete button on it…

Walking over the body allows me to take anything useful the guard had, like two grenades and his blue shirt. I’m now disguised, which means a guard will not always immediately shoot at me if I’m not doing something suspicious, like taking photos of their secret plans, shooting at them, or arresting their leader. This doesn’t mean that he definitely won’t shoot at me either though… I’ve also opened the floor safe and can now photograph the contents.

Uh oh… the red flashing indicates that a guard has discovered there’s a spy lurking about. If you leave a trail of open doors, file cabinets, desks, and floor safes; like our rookie spy has, the guards will sound the alarm. Any guards in the building will begin to converge on your location and fire on site or throw grenades into the room to flush you out. Clearing out the guards, or not being seen for a lenght of time will clear the alarm. If a guard sees you undisguised and you do not immediately shoot them, they can also sound the alarm.

The device I have activated is a computer terminal. Terrorists aren’t totally inept, and so they’ve locked and password protected all their workstations with a password. Each terminal you activate gives you one letter of the password, displayed below the safe kit. Once you’ve got enough letters to guess the password, activate any terminal and type in what you think it is. If you are correct, you gain access to the terminal. If you are wrong the password is reset. Each terminal will only give you one letter one time, so there are a fixed number of letters you can get in one run through the building, so its always good to guess as soon as you’re sure what the password is, like I am in this screenshot (ALARM). Once you’ve typed in the correct password, you can type something into the prompt to search the database. You can search for a suspect’s name to get more information about them. You can search for a city, like Tel Aviv, to get the location of a hideout of the same faction in that city. You can search a faction, like the Mafia, to get the location of their hideout in the city you are currently in. In short, when there is a critial piece of information you need, the terminal can be the perfect way to get exactly what you want.

Since this was just training, we didn’t have a specific goal here, other than to showcase the kinds of things that can be acomplished in an infiltration mission. Considering this mission complete, our spy slips out of the building.

In the event that our spy had sustained too many bullet wounds, he would have passed out and been captured by the terrorists. At this point, you can either attempt to escape, or you can agree to allow a double agent into the CIA. (Think of when you loose a sword fight in Pirates!)

This mini-game is the crux of the trouble of the “Covert Action Rule.” Sid feels that this action sequence takes too long and results in us finishing the mission and forgetting what was going on in the mystery while we were busy shooting up guards. So what do you think so far?

Next time, We’ll cover the other much less interesting and less time consuming actions we can take.

You might then ask me why is Covert Action so important. Simple – the “Covert Action Rule.” In an interview, Meier stated that CA taught him that you should never try to have too many games in one package. Specifically, Meier felt that the action sequences and the clue hunting mystery sequences fought each other. For the full qoute, check out the wikipedia article.

The purpose of this LP is two fold. First is to give some general exposure to a game that sold poorly and hardly anyone has heard of despite it being made by the same mastermind as games like Pirates!

The second goal is to test the Covert Action Rule itself. I want people who read this Let’s Play to consider the Rule and evaluate whether you think Covert Action really is two games in one package that fight each other, or that compliment each other. Also, consider other games, such as Civilzation and the Total War serries. Is the Covert Action Rule a good rule for game design?

The next couple posts will go through the practice mode, which will allow me to familiarize everyone with the different mini-games before we actually have to perform them in the field.

Some LPs have encouraged me to go back to a game that I own and give it another shot.  If someone is doing a “perfect game” you can treat the LP as a kind of video or picture walkthrough, which can be incredibly helpful compared to your typical text only walkthrough. 

Many LPs take an interactive approach.  Often the community will suggest additional challenges for the LPer, since they know the game so well and could play it normally without a single hicup.  Other times, LPers will let the community guide the LP, only intervening to avoid complete failure or to pick up something that the LP would miss without the expert input.

Some days I’ve thought about leading my own LP.  I’m a member of a couple of video game themed message boards and one of them has an established LP forum.  I would be most intrested in showing off some of the games that I found very fun as a kid (all of which are pretty nerdy) like Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, Colonization, Transport Tycoon, and maybe even a game like SimCity or something.  Until then, thanks to all of you out there who share your love and skill at your favorite games and encourage people like me to keep on playing.

I also tried the demo for Empire: Total War.  Its just a single tutorial naval battle and land battle.  The controls are complicated, but I could deal with them.  Ships are quite a bit more complicated.  Left armor, right armour, sail strength, full sails, battle sails, left broadsides, right broadsides, round shot, grape shot, chain shot, drop anchor, board the enemy ship… all this just for one ship can be manually controlled.  Imagine having a whole fleet of ships and trying to control all of them in a real time battle…  mind boggling. 

Empire could be really fun.  The scope is impressive, but I imagine that eventually, it would get rather tedious.  I’d really like it someday, but I’ll try to wait a while.

I did pick up MGS4.  Holy cut scene batman!  I mean, you get control and walk around a little area long enough to figure out what makes you walk and what controls the camera then you crawl under a truck and get a cutscene.  The whole first level area is like that.  You are constantly getting cutscenes that involve a lot of listening to David Hayter grunt.  I enjoy the wackiness and the sci fi/real world feel.  Trying to sneak in a warzone is definitely different from every other infiltrate a guarded something or other.  The game has adopted much more of an action feel.  Also, since they are soldiers and not just guards, I don’t feel so bad about killing them instead of using non-lethal methods.  I am quite perturbed about the radar though.  In old MGS1, you have a minimap with all the soldiers and their cone of vision so you can sneak with accuracy.  Now, I’ve got this minimap that gives me a lot less information and results in each corner being a bit of a crap shot.  Granted its more realistic, but I enjoyed the challenge of infiltrating and leaving no traces.  No dead bodies, no alarms.  This game is totally different.  For one, there are two sides and neither one is specifically your enemy.  They will get in fights and, for the most part, as long as you don’t interfere or play in the middle of the street, they’ll kind of ignore you.  Even if they see you, and start shooting at you, the other enemies from the opposite faction make it difficult for them to focus on you.  In the previous games, you were discouraged from direct confrontation, and if you did it anyways, you usually died.  This time, I found I could be quite a bit more relaxed about being seen, as either I’ll be ignored, or I can just shoot the guy and his buddies, then sell their guns, then use my points to purchase all the ammo and guns I need to keep shooting.  Very different from other MGS games.

Not in the story department though.  Its still batty as ever.  Weird military phillosophies, accoronyms you can’t decypher, plots and conspiracies and all of it typically way out in left field.  The humor is also strange and japanese.  I can’t even describe it all, other than there are more than one WTF moments.

I won’t say I like or dislike MGS4 so far.  Its lost a lot of the tactical/strategy/puzzle solving element and feels a lot more like a sneakier version of CoD4 or something.  The story is crazy, the cutscenese are frequent and long, but that’s partly why I play these games.  I want to know how it ends and what weirdness Kojima can pull out of his magic hat.  If I can get used to playing the game a fair bit differently, like not caring so much about being seen or leaving a trail of bodies, I think MGS4 will grow on me.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

This is the first game I got.  I’ve played about 4 chapters so far.  I told my wife, its like Tomb Raider, but without the boobs.  You are presented with an ancient temple that has environmental puzzles and platforming as well as various traps and dangers.  The big difference is Uncharted faces you off in a Gears of War style cover system combat against human foes.  Drake is more likeable to me and I feel like he’s more “realistic” or “relatable” than Croft, and not just that he’s anatomically more accurate.  Regardless of if you try or not, Lara has sex appeal and that makes it harder to take her seriously.  Her games are also more “gameish” to me.  Uncharted is beautiful, and that is an understatement.  I’ve died twice because I was paying too much attention to the backgrounds.  Even only playing 4 chapters, the environments have been a bit more diverse.  Besides a jungle and a temple, I’ve also explored a rusted out german u-boat.

In short, puzzly, platformy goodness mixed with intense, yet tactical combat makes for a very enjoyable and well paced game so far.  Similar to Tomb Raider, but with a better hero and some refreshing diversity.

Grand Theft Auto IV

I’ve got some sort of sick attraction to GTA games.  I’m sure that says something distrubing about my psycology.  I like how each part of the serries covers a different part of the underworld.  GTA3 was about the italian mob.  Vice City looked at Miami and the syndicated crime of that era and location.  San Andreas parodied the feud between the bloods and the crips.  GTA4 brings us back to liberty city and a new era of crime in the form of the russians.  (Lost and Damned will cover some of the biker gang territory).

Maybe it was some of the wakiness of SA, but 4 and Niko feel darker.  There are still wacky characters and moments and I haven’t been far into 4 yet, but the references to Niko’s past make me feel like he’s capable of being pretty sick and twisted, whereas CJ, to me felt like he was kinda weak and just along for the ride with his older brother.

I’m not far in yet, but I like it just as much as the other games.  Driving, dating, and progressing into this ugly underworld.  I like the open world and my unlocking and progressive mastering of it.  Really fun so far and I’m looking forward to seeing how Niko handles this American city and his inevitable plunge into its gutters.

In short, another GTA game that seems to take itself a bit more serriously, perhaps, but further progress is needed for a final analysis there.  Will probably be playing this one more soon.

Resistance/Resistance 2

My neighbor picked up the first one for cheap and I got the 2nd.  I got it because it remineded me somewhat of Halo.  I really enjoy halo and I was looking for something similar.  My neighbor and I played co-op for R1 and were enjoying it.  Basically, I’d run forward and die in flanking maneuvers, while my team mate would stay back and occasionally snipe off guys that I flushed out.  My brother and I tried out the online mode for R2.  Its not Halo…  Because of the regenerating shields in Halo, its kinda forgiving.  You can take quite a few shots and still survive and regen shields without having a scratch on you.  The result in Halo is you might not die as much and you might not get as many kills.  You also gain a big advantage in staying in groups of two or three because you can more easily kill with focused fire.  R2 feels like it almost has more in comon with COD4 multiplayer.  You die fast and you respawn fast.  Combat is fast paced and frequently hectic.  R2 also features gimic guns like the auger that goes through solid objects and the bullseye that features rounds that lock on and can be fired at a slight angle around corners and still find their mark.  The result is you die quickly and often don’t know where the shots are coming from, and there’s no kill cam like COD4, which can help you learn where the shots were fired from so you can flush out campers.  The larger player limits also mean that there are more people potentially to shoot at and be shot by, so that adds to the general chaos.  Add to all of this an objective based map that results in everyone being in one place at the same time and confusion is the name of the game.

In short, both games are fairly typicaly FPS, with a strange blend of retro (not quite WW2) and space shooters, with a flavor of CoD4.  Controls on R2 are significantly better.  PS3 matchmaking isn’t as good as what I have seen on Halo and CoD4 on 360, which might be a result of MS quality control that you pay for with the Live membership that PS3 doesn’t benefit from, but the matchmaking still works decent.  I’ll have to play some single player on R2 and multiplayer enough to learn some maps and different game types and weapon combos to see what I like and learn the tricks.  Right now it feels fast, but that’s probably because I’m just trying to get around and learn the guns.

Warhawk

The last game I bought, which I actually got for free b/c I bought two used games and got this one for free.  Haven’t played it yet.  I’ll give it a whirl and see how it goes.  If I don’t like it, I’ll trade it and make money on the deal.

Street Fighter IV & Soul Caliber IV

I am by no means a fighting game coneseur.  I live in the land of the button masher.  I don’t bother with memorizing combos or learning the timing.  I mash.  I win some.  I loose to anyone worth their salt.

SF4 is pretty mash friendly.  I can pick Blanka and mash punch to get the electricity.  Any good player can easily beat it once they know my skill level.  I beat my neihbor once with Blanka.  Once they learned that I had no idea what I was doing, so I just mashed buttons, I could hardly even land a hit on them.

SC4 either is not as mash friendly or my neighbor was better at it.  The controls are a bit more complex and the 3d environment means there’s more to think about, but it also means the flashy combo moves can be really cool to watch.  I tended to win there when I picked a fast fighter and block an attack and then retaliate before the next attack comes.  When I played as a slower, heavier hitter, I lost.  I mostly lost anyways, but at least I had a kinda strategy.

In short, fighters aren’t my thing.  I don’t do well memorizing movesets.  Its fun to play around with for a bit and then let the real fighting masters duke it out and just enjoy the flashy combos.

NHL ’09

Another case of a game I couldn’t really care about that my neighbor wanted to play multiplayer.  Probably because they could kick my butt.  I gave him a run for his money though.  I basically played exactly the same way I played Ice Hockey on the NES.  Ram people until they fall down, take the puck, run at the net and smack the puck, repeatedly if possible or necesary.  The result was my neighbor going 1-0 at 30 seconds left in the game…  We were equal in almost every single stat.  I’d rather just play Ice Hockey…

wii

I currently own a wii, therefore I’ve played a lot of the good stuff that has come out.  I’ve played Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, Zelda TP, Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart, and others.  Looking ahead, I see nothing promising from Nintendo in the near future.  Sure there’s stuff coming, but I”m not incredibly stoked about it.  Punch out…   I played wii boxing and even if punch out is better controled, I’ve played punch out before.  Nostalgia isn’t going to hold me over.  Playing Metroid Prime 3 taught me that I kinda prefer just old fashion console or pc shooter controls instead of the whole light gun thing.  I suck at the light gun games in the arcade, so this doesn’t really compel me.  Therefore Conduit looses points.  Madworld sounds cool, but also just violent for the sake of violence… could be tough to miss that one though. 

Then there’s future potential.  The wii is the highest seller and has the deepest market penetration, but much of that is like farming deforested Amazon, you get a really incredible crop once, then you’ve used up the soil.  Much of these wii owners are like my coworkers, they think games I consider shovelware are good games.  (Not that they are wrong, any game you enjoy is a good game, regardless of its price point, graphic polish, or complexity.)  This leads to a lot of developers focusing on this demographic, because you can make games cheaper and still pull in the same money.  This is not the potential I’d be betting on with the wii.  The potential is when all the hype dies off and the initial burst of craziness wears off, some people will let the wii get dusty, some will become new, hungry “core” gamers, some will stay as the current casual wii owners.  I’d be betting on the new core gamers coming to the fore front and more  core games coming out, plus nintendo actually releasing something again.  In short, If I keep the Wii, I’m betting more on future potential than I am on anything concrete.

Xbox 360

I’m doing this one 2nd because I think its kind of a no brainer.  The 360 has 2 major advantages.  The first is Xbox Live, the most superior online experience.  The thing is, I’m not a fan of playing with others.  The reason is that I’m not really that good at games, so when I play with others, I frequently loose.  I play much less, so if it is a non-skill based game, then I’ll not be as good simply because I don’t have the time others do.  If its skill based, I don’t have the time to develop the skill, and I’m not really that naturally talented, so I loose often.  Now, I love a good deathmatch of COD4 or Halo, esp. when I get off a couple headshots and don’t spend most of my time looking at a respawn counter, but I’d probably rather just play a good single player experience.  In addition, I don’t really have friends to play online with.

The second strength of the 360 is that it is the leading hardcore system.  The benefits mostly display themselves with exclusive games and exclusive dlc.  The exclusive games, after looking at the list are not as thrilling as I thought they would be.  The other pin for this balloon, is microsoft also wants to sell pc games for windows, and so many 360 games port to pc, because the process isn’t difficult.  I have a good pc rig and I own several games that were 360 exclusive, so in a way, I already have a 360.  Sure I have to wait an extra year for the port, but this has frequently resulted in a higher rez version, or some free dlc included.  Sure, if I had a 360, I wouldn’t have to deal with drivers and errors and installs, but the trade off is I also get pc exclusives and games that work better with mouse and keyboard controls.

In short, the 360′s biggest benefits don’t benefit me as much as they could.  I’ve played many of the exclusives and I’ll get to play some other ones because they’ll be ported to pc.  I loose the community of xbox live, but honestly, there are a lot of jerks that have way too much time and a really good vocabulary of derogatory terms that makes me feel like I’m not missing that much.

Playstation 3

I’ll admit it.  I’m one of those kids.  I had a nintendo, not a snes, though I played a lot of my friends. Same with the 64.  Then, like many others, I jumped ship over to the ps1, again not owning it myself.  I own a ps2 and I still play it to this day.  I’m a bit of a fan of Playstation, and the serries that I’ve played since the ps1.  I really want to play MGS4 and when it comes out, FFXIII.  I really want to play Uncharted.  I’ve recently discovered Rachet and Clank, and I’m playing the older ones on ps2 now and then.  If I had a ps3, it would be much for the same reason I got a wii, so I could play the first party and exclusive games.  I played God of War and really liked it and the 3rd game looks quite impressive.  Besides that, many multi-platform releases (read ps3 and 360 releases) make the 360 or PS3 argument a wash in that department.  Furthermore, PS3 has the bluray player.  I just recently downgraded my cable because I just wasn’t watching it.  I may find that replacing some cable with some movies might make the bluray even more worth it, though that’s stretching it.

On the downside, the PS3 is expensive. Its cheaper than a PC or just a bluray player, but its still a big chunk of change compared to wii and now 360′s price drops.  The other downside is that I’m betting on the horse in last place.  I’m betting that the best times are ahead.  Considering the exclusives PS3 does have and the multi-platforms that, even though it lost some exclusives, are still on the system means that developers see the potential of the PS3.  It is more niche, but that’s not so bad.  Its my niche.

The Choice

It comes down to this.  I think I’ve effectively eliminated 360 from the running.  Ps3 does a lot of what 360 does, and what it doesn’t do, either I don’t care too much about, or I can get it from my PC.  That leaves me deciding between the Wii that I already own, or letting it go and picking up a big, black, shiny, powerful PS3 to compensate for the little white wii I used to have.

The wii means I don’t spend any money.  I also probably don’t buy many games because much of what comes out this year isn’t interesting to me.  What I get is the hope that good stuff is on the way.  Promise exists in the motionplus and perhaps some really cools stuff from that.  It took the DS several years before 3rd parties got good at using the touch screen.  Now the DS has great remakes and new games.  The Wii may be following that trend and the best is yet to come.  A new generation of gamers that got into video games because of the wii may be cultivated and grow out of the wii and result in a renisance of simple but fun gaming that is similar to the days of the NES and SNES.  I might be selling out just before the best days for the Wii.  Or I could just be avoiding more disappointment when the release list continues to be dominated by shovelware.

The PS3 means I sell my Wii (probably for close to what I bought it for, thanks to continued popularity) and use the proceeds to fund a PS3.  The tight economy means things like a free $50 gift card when you buy a PS3 from Gamestop.  I still have to spend money to get one though.  I get a fresh backlog of games I missed like Uncharted and MGS4, plus mult-platform non-wii games I missed like GTA4.  I also get the future list which has some good stuff on it for 09 and 10, like God of War 3 and FFXIII.  I don’t get the full backcompatible backlog of ps2 and ps1, but I have a ps2, so I already have that, and the PS store is making strides in that area.  If they look at the Wii Shop Channel, and have a lick of sense, they ought to put 2 and 2 together and realise they have a gold mine in catalog games that are rare and can be re released on the PS store.  I feel like the best is yet to come is a pretty sure bet with the PS3. 

Its not that I didn’t like the Wii.  I loved it this time last year.  I feel like I’ve gotten much entertainment from the Wii.  I don’t regret buying it in the least.  I just feel like there are some other things out there that might suit me a bit better, now that it seems the wii is fully devoted to providing entertainment for old people, house wives, and young children. 

My neighbor has a PS3 and I think I’ll try his out here soon before I make a final decision, but right now, its looking bad for the little wii that could.

From my faction leader: My family overthrew the Roman kings and WE were the ones that established the roman republic.  It is my 60th birthday this winter, in the frozen alps.  My troops huddle around camp fires and construct battering rams until they can’t feel their fingers or toes, then return to the fire.  The construction is slow with this bitter cold interfering.  Hearing news from my roman compatriots, I wonder if a republic where these families are in power was the best idea…  The Scipii in the south have made an ALIANCE with our enemies, the carthigranians.  Scicily remains a fractured island.  the Scipii are letting the warm weather and nicer scenery make them soft.  They rest on their laurels and play politics instead of uniting the islands under roman organization.  The Julii… incompetent, every one of them.  They’ve failed to take even one settlement from the Gauls.  It has become my lot, handed down by the senate to rescue these foolish Julii.  As I write this, their armies are on the opposite side of the gallic city we are beseiging.  Here is an example of their foolishness:  The Julii arrived this summer and began constructing battering rams, and completed one ram just as the first frost arrived.  If they had pressed the attack, they could have taken the prize and be resting inside by a fire, instead of here, in the bitter cold.  Now my army has arrived and while their men huddle by a fire, my men work hard, risking freeezing to death, to finish our ram and push the attack before the Julii are ready.  In this way I will steal the prize at the expense of Julii lives.

It is a glorious day today.  The weather has turned warm and the snow has melted.  The land has come to life, and I will bring death to it.  My second son, the heir to my family assaults Sparta, the mighty greek warriors as I write and victory today will mean roman influence streteches the length of the greek peninsula.  Our ram is complete and my men are oiling their swords and armor in preparation for battle.  Many are laughing and joking, knowing the barbarian gauls stand no chance inside a wooden palisade against the combined might of the Brutii and Julii.  The Julii have a larger force and two rams.  They will likely draw the attack.  My men will be assaulting the city from the east and charge the enemy from behind.  It will be time for my speach soon, I must prepare.

Today I write from the infirmary in my newly acquired ROMAN city.  The Julii played the part of fools well.  They drew the lions share of the defensive force, leaving only a rear guard of skirmishers guarding the east gate.  I orderd the ram and one company of velites to assault the palisade.  Seeing a hail of pilum, the gallic skirmishers fled for their lives.  We took the wall, loosing only one man from the hastarii company from a lucky javelin.  I ordered my entire army through the gate to reassemble inside the palisade walls.  As I rode to the head of my army, I saw the Julii had also broken through and the main gallic force had broken.  The Julii were already marching towrds the general’s position in the middle of the settlement.  I would not have the Julii steal this prize from me now.  I do not regret my decision.  Without a backwards glance at my men, I dug my heals into my horse and drew my sword.  Hearing my cavalry guard’s thudering hooves and the horn call for a charge only spured my horse faster.  We hit the enemy general from behind before they had even drawn their weapons.  My captian beside me, we rode straight for the enemy general, a young man, who look like the winters were aging him quickly, but inexperienced for sure, he was so focused on the Julii, he hadn’t even realized our men were on top of him.  My captain took a spear to the shoulder, but that left me unaccounted for.  I drove my lance into the man’s unprotected belly, just below his chest armor, and my momentum carried my shield into his head, doubling over with the pain of his wound.  Seeing their general dead, the gallic forces tried to run, but had no recourse.  Two more of my guard were killed in the fight to the death, but the battle was won, with only 3 casualties on my side, and my captain should recover.  The Julii didn’t fair so well, loosing 1/3 of their assaulting force with inferior tactics and poor command.  The city is mine and paid for with Julii lives.

I write from the infirmary, not because of the battle, but age.  The cold winter and a heated battle have taken much of my strength in my age.  I love the battles, but this quaint land, I find very peaceful and beautiful.  The gallics don’t take well to being ruled and my influence and governing skill might help warm these people to the roman way.  I have informed my captain that when he recovers, most likely as the leaves turn, he will take a boat with my troops and rendevous with my grandson.  The macedonians should fear my bloodline.  They are next, with or without the senate’s aproval.  The greek peninsula will be roman.

A portion from the heir of the Brutii, stationed in Athens:  Packing today.  We ship out for The coast south of Sparta.  Naval forces have cleared the way.  Will write more when we arrive.  I’ll miss Athens.  My cousin will enjoy govorning here.

Arrived just south of Sparta.  I can see the smoke from their fires.  Its started to turn cold.  Father has begun a seige on a gallic settlement to the north.  Our spies have infiltrated Sparta.  The govonor/general has marched his army out of the west gate.  If we commit to a seige or attacking the city, our flank will be exposed to his counter attack.  So, we will wait.  They’ll go back to their cosy city when at the first freeze.

Lookouts sounded the alarm this morning.  Spartans are advancing on our position.  City guard is reinforcing them.  They outnumber us, however their army is divided and we have the high ground.  Phalanx marching uphill will tire quickly.  Leaving their stone walls was a mistake.  We will make them pay.

Following is the post battle report:  we deployed in a two line formation.  Light infantry hold the first line.  Spearmen hold the right flank.  cavalry in reserve.  All enemy troops are hoplites, mostly militia.  Only concern is general’s heavy cavalry and spartan hoplites.  Deployed cavalry auxilia  between two enemy armies to harass spartan hoplites with rear attacks.  Spartan hoplites break off from main force and chase cavalry auxilia.  the enemy’s left flank marches past our main force and turns for a flanking maneuver.  The main force recieves several barage of pila and engages with light infantry.  Cavalry Auxilia is out of spears and retreats behind main force.  Light cavalry charge exposed hoplite flank, they begin to break.  Enemy heavy cavalry charge.  My heavy cavalry counter charge from flank.  General is killed, main force has broken.  Cav. Aux. chase them down the hill.  My line turns to engage flanking forces being held off by skirmishers staying out of range.  Spartan hoplites finally join the fight.  Double cavalry charge hits them from both flanks.  Even spartans begin to waver and run.  Bards composing about a “heroic victory.” 

My men have rested and are advancing on the city of Sparta iteslf.  Cavalry deployed at two gates.  Main force at 3rd gate.  All gates have been opened by our spies in the confusion.  Only one army of hoplites guards the city govenor’s mansion.  Our forces enter the city through three gates and march into the square from three sides.  Cav Aux engage first, pepering and staying out of range.  Cavalry charges into rear of enemy.  They turn to engage, cavalry disengages as main force charges into rear flank again.  They are surrounded and killed to the last man.  Spartans don’t give up easily.

Recieved word that father has taken the gallic city from under the nose of the Julii.  He is ill now.  I am his heir.  Soon all of Rome will cry my name.

We are preparing to engage the macedonians.  My assignment will be Corinth.  I’ve trained several units of Principes and my Hastari have all been reinforced to full strength.  Since father is ill, my son will take command of his army and march on deeper into macedonia.  It will be his first command.  He will do well.  It will be good experience.  One day he may be the leader of our family.

In the imperial campaign, you are forced to play as one of the 3 competing houses of Rome the first time through.  After a victory, you can come back and play as other tribes.  Your choices for Romans are the Brutii, decendants of the man whe led the rebelion that overthrew the kings of Rome and established the Republic.  They are kinda stuck up about it and think they are the most deserving of power.  They start in the “boot” of Italy, within easy striking distance of the greeks and macedonians.  Next are the Scipii, who claim to be decendants of Romulus himself, founder of Rome.  Obviously, they think they deserve to be in power of the place their family helped start.  They have one province right next to Rome and another on the northeast tip of Sicily and will be fighting the Carthigranians early on.  Finally, you can choose the Julii (like Juleus Caesar), who are the relative new kids on the block.  They are decendants of the people, so they seem to think they’d make good rulers of said people.  The Julii start just south of the alps and will be in conflict with the Gauls almost immediately.  The Julii also wear red, the iconic color for Rome.  The combined factors seem to hint that the Julii are the “good guys.”  I choose the Brutii, mostly because I figured I’d much rather spend time conquering the greek isles rather than the frozen north.

I begin the game with 12 members in my family, four of which are adults and several who are females.  Most everyone has some management, command and influence, so any person can serve in any capacity without too much difficulty.  The senate sends a scroll my way asking me to invade a rebel village over on the greek peninsula.  I send out my highest command general, the 2nd son of my current faction leader to take care of the village.  Then I swap my faction leader, who is acting as a govenor with his first son, who has higher management and my faction leader heads out to conquer another nearby rebel tribe.  One year later, my land holdings have doubled, though both cities are small and will need a lot of building up, but I control the Ionian Sea.  The senate asks me to assist the Scipii who are attempting to dislodge the greeks from the southeast corner of Sicily by blockading the greek port.  This will make me declare war on Greece, though every other Roman faction and the Senate have all declared on Greece already, so I join the dogpile and prepare to take the Balkan Penninsula.  A minor crimp in my plans occurs when the macedonians stop by and want to be trading partners.  I agree.  I’ll focus on the greeks while the macedonians feel safe, then I’ll backstab them, with or without the support of the Senate.

Speaking of the old windbags, they request I take the greek city of Thermon to my south.  My faction leader’s first grandson comes of age and, at 16 has 1 point of each command, management and influence.  His father leaves him in charge of the rebel city and marches south and takes Thermon.

Sacking Thermon was the most difficult battle so far.  A 3 star general was defending the city.  In the absence of a general, the most senior units ranking officer acts as field commander.  If you route or kill that unit, the commander is killed and the enemy will, typically begin routing as well.  A general and his bodyguard ride heavy cavalry, which is much more difficult to break, especially with early roman troops that don’t use a spearman infantry.

My spies had infiltrated Thermon and left the gates open for my army, so I didn’t have to build seige units.  One velites unit was guarding the gate.  Too bad for them, velites are unarmoured spear throwers.  I closed quickly with heavy infantry and my own volly of velites spears and took the walls in short order.  This is where my strategy that had worked in previous battles, did not work so well.

In previous battles, I split my army to move down two separate streets.  My main force would ride down the main avenue toward the town square, typically attracting the attention of my enemy, then I take cavalry or a unit of heavy infantry and take a side street to flank my enemy and take them by surprise and cut down routed units.  The opposing genearl attacked on both fronts simultaneously.  This wouldn’t have been a problem except he used his own bodyguard to cavalry charge my heavy infantry, which lacked any velites backup.  The charge broke throught he line and then advanced on my own general’s cavalry, standing behind (which I should have counter charged with).  I retreated my genearl’s cavalry and moved a reserve unit of heavy infantry into position.  Seeing the reinforcements, the enemy general saw the damage was done and retreated his cavalry.  I considered this good enough and left my flank in a defensive position to advance my main force, that had been fighting skirmishers on the main street and were trading spear throws with my men.  This is where I get out foxed again.  The greeks march a velites unit down the side street I was defending against a flank, and stop mid street, so I ignored them.  What I didn’t realize is they were throwing their spears OVER the houses in between the two roads and hitting my tightly clumped main force.  I ordered my general to cavalry charge the exposed flank of the greek velites and they broke quickly, but I had some more respect for this general now.  Having broken 4 of his 6 units, I had a numbers advantage.  I consolidated my forces onto the main street, leaving my velites behind, who had used up all of their spears at this time.   The greeks were huddling in the town square.  No spearmen to be seen, so I simultaneously order my Equites (light cavalry) and my general to charge the enemy general.  The enemy general is killed but my equites are now bogged down and taking casualties.  I’ve got nowhere to pull them back to in the dense urban fabric, so I order a full charge from my 2 remaining heavy infantry units and the enemy breaks almost immediately, seeing 100 screaming roman infantry charging them.  A solid victory, but the bloodiest battle of the war so far and I was strategicly out played for the first time, twice.  And the battles will only get harder.  My next two targets are Athens and Sparta, however, I may take some time to construct some military buildings to reinforce my initial forces, as I expect I’ll take some losses against the Spartans. 

After looking at the map, I’ve formulated a rough long term strategy.  My main focus is to take land in a way that will make defending what will eventaully be a vast empire as easy as possible.  I’ve located river crossings and mountain passes and I plan to draw the borders of my eventual empire along those lines.  The other long term goal is to attack in a way that reduces the number of simultaneous fronts I have to a maximum of 2 or 3 if possible.  I’ll also try to focus on one or two enemies at a time as well, such as my current phase against the greeks and then the macedonians.  If I leave the seuclidians and goths alone, they shouldn’t bother me, at least not initially.  Even if they do, I will try to expand my empire in such a way that it keeps my future enemies in front of my invading army instead of extending past them, leaving my core cities exposed.  That way, even if they do backstab me, I’ll automattically be in position to defend or attack my new enemies.

I’m really enjoying the strategery of RTW, but I’ll definitely have to learn to think on my feet and respond more quickly to unpredictable circumstances.  I guess part of the problem is I’m used to playing war games that have a clear cut rock-paper-scissors relationship.  In RTW, there is some of that, for instance, Cavalry will demolish archers and light infantry, unless they have spears, which results in suicide for the cavalry, but the bulk of your army, infantry isn’t specifically good against anything.  Its more about maneuvers and WHERE you attack from rather than WHAT you attack with.  Any type of unit will be badly damaged if they are attacked from the rear.  Even cavalry can do good damage against hoplites if they charge from behind quickly and then quickly retreat before the spearmen turn around. 

I’m quickly discovering RTW is going to be less about “perfect” wins with almost no casualties, which is nearly impossible. (yes good strategy will reduce casualties, but some lives will be lost).  The game is more about attrition.  As a result, it seems having a superior war machine seems to be the key moreso than using specific unit counters.  Wars are not always won and lost on the battlefield…