![]() ![]() So far I’ve written a review for the second Age of Wonders III expansion, Eternal Lords, as well as a comprehensive review of all of Age of Wonders III, with the patches and both expansions in effect. If you are interested in strategy games (aren’t we all here?) and 4X games in particular, it’s worth checking out the group. It’s a great group with an active Steam community. eXplorminate is a group of 4X and strategy game enthusiasts that endeavor to bring the 4X gaming community together as well as provide regular content in the form of reviews, previews, articles, podcasts, youtube videos, and … you get the picture. Beware!įirst, I should mention that I’ve signed on in (maybe in blood, I’m not sure yet), as a staff writer and contributor to eXplorminate. Regular, as in me posting, on a whim, a veritable smorgasbord of thoughts and quick reactions to games I’ve been playing lately as well as other assorted ideas I’ve had. What’s Goin On!? will be a regular feature around these parts. Discussion of all forms is encouraged! Let's get on with the show. This is all total speculation and reporting based on my observations and discussions with others. This post will break down these trends and provide some reflection on what I think it could mean. But in every issue there is an opportunity, right? I can't help but forecast a bit into the future and envision an ecosystem of games that evolve at this nexus of gaming pressures: original and cross-platform digital games that embrace "boardgame-like" design principles and appeal to both serious/hardcore gamers as well as a broader segment of the market. Yet all of these interaction points, between serious (hardcore) gamers and mobile gaming, between boardgames and mobile games, and between videogame design notions and boardgame-like-ness, are sources of tension. Videogame developers are taking note and designing and marketing games with "boardgame-like qualities". The boardgame market continues to grow and is spilling over into the mobile market place through digital boardgames at a faster rate. Digital games are increasingly being released cross-platform on desktop, console, and mobile platforms. The last year has felt that the various scions of the gaming world are on a collision course. I was sixteen when the Quake launched, and I still remember an all-night LAN party my friends and I had after graduating high-school in 1999, the year Quake 3 was released. I didn’t start playing the Doom games until after Doom II was released, so in actually I was fourteen-ish when these games panned into my field of view. I was shocked, and I’m going to spill my age here, but I was 12 when Doom was released. I looked up the dates for when these games were first released: Doom (1993), Doom II (1994), Quake (1996), Quake 2 (1997), Quake 3: Arena (1999). Indeed, one might argue, they helped make the ooze in the first place. Among these were files for Doom and Quake, two legendary games from id Software, and which were among the first to crawl out of the primordial ooze of the person shooter (FPS) genre. Along the way I’ve unearthed various troves of lost treasure, scattered like leaves amidst small piles of portable drives and burned CDs. Over the past few weeks I’ve been going through various computer archives and backing up old decaying data onto a shiney new 2TB drive. Things were clunky, but overall it felt like what Star Wars should look and feel like before the fall of the Republic. Granted, there was plenty to dislike about the prequels: the lackluster acting and script, the slightly overwrought plot, the awkward moments. Hell, even Jar Jar Binks kinda grew on me. I went out of my way to track down the "de-specialized" fan-version of the OT on the web, quietly waiting for the day when Disney decides to remaster and release the theatrical versions of the film (fingers crossed).Īs pretentious as that sounds, I didn't however hate the prequel trilogy. Nearly all of the additions undermined the charm and character of the theatrical versions (especially Darth Vader yelling "Noo…." at the end of Return of the Jedi. I still have the theatrical release versions on VHS, and never cared for the "special edition" versions that George Lucas released later on. As a child of the 80's, the Star Wars original trilogy (OT) has always had a special place in my heart. ![]()
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