I was finally going to get around to my irregular spurty update as I'd noticed a few new things coming out lately and when I started poking around I've found that several games have also recently closed. Some were getting old, but a few were surprises. So before I get into a slew of updates about new games, I'm going to just make a note of which games have recently disappeared. In no particular order:
Metal rage - which was the giant robot fighting game recently closed it's doors after many years of operation. A shame to see it go, but it was getting old. It was however a bit of a unique game.
Sting - Sting seems to have finally disappeared. This is too bad, because while it was head-shot crazy there were some unique gameplay elements which I did like.
BattleStar - I never really got to write this one up, but this was a FPS vs RTS space marine style game. It looked unique and I had a very short time to play a beta, but I never got to really enjoy it. Netmarble has pulled the page. I have no idea why, the game was technically only out for a very short time. I can only surmise that they ran into some financial or technical difficulty.
Unit - I was disappointed to find out that this had disappeared. I liked Unit, but gamebus has totally redone their site and seemingly shut down many of their offerings. The site is mostly a generic corporate site now. I don't know if that means they're shopping Unit around to other sites, but as far as I can tell it's dead.
Company of Heroes - Korea was affected by the global shut down of the game. Sometimes Korea is immune to those kinds of things, but in this case they did not keep the game running here. A shame as it was nice to have another RTS option in country.
I'll keep my eyes open to see if any other games have recently shut down. I'm most disappointed about Unit and Battlestar, but really it's a shame to see any of these games go. I did get a chance to play Soldier of Fortune over the last few days and take some screenshots and a video so I'll see if I can get that written up. It's not open now, it was a short test, but I think it opens up finally for good at the end of this month if I read it correctly.
Showing posts with label coh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coh. Show all posts
Company of Heroes - Part 2
As promised here are a few translated screens and explanations of the new gameplay. New gameplay is limited purely to the skirmishes and multiplayer aspect of the game. The campaign remains untouched. It is even subtitled, not dubbed. Text is changed obviously, but you'll hear all the old familiar voices if you've played this before. Mission briefings are completely in English, but they're fairly straightforward anyway. I'm not really going to provide any in game screenshots or video, because the web is full of screenshots of the game. Currently it seems that this is the base game with no expansions. So there British and the second German faction are absent. If you have never played Company of Heroes in English I recommend giving a play guide a quick once over so that you become familiar with the icons for special abilities, or just experiment.
The first thing I'll talk about is the skill window. As you increase your level you unlock skill slots and gain skill points. At a low level all your skills seem available to you, but you can only pick a couple. This leads to some interesting multiplayer matches where experience doesn't make a huge difference. Each skill will unlock at a skill level. So in game you don't spend the XP, it is just an ever increasing bar. In the campaign this works as before with a normal skill tree you spend points on. After you choose a skill you can then assign points to it to make it better. Increase damage, reduce timers, etc. Don't worry if you make a mistake you can spend supply points to dump the skill and get everything back. If you have an empty slot you can click the square and choose the slide out window on the left to put a skill in it. They're all the same as you'd remember from Company of Heroes before.
The base screen let's you assign special abilities and hero units to be used for the matches. Hero units are installed n the buildings they'd be made in and general abilities, like a reduced cost on a unit, are installed in the general bonuses pane on the left. This is wide open while you unlock hero unit slots at various levels. There are a number of "uses" assigned to each bonus, but this seems to reduce by 10 each match regardless of how many times it is actually used. I used an Anti-tank one twice in a match and it went from 22 to 12. I don't know why it is at 22. It was given to me like that, but I can't imagine how it would end up there. You will received these bonuses and hero units as random loot after missions and matches. If your uses drops too low you can use supply points to add more. 50 uses costs around 500-800 points depending on the item so far. Keep in mind that only equates to like 5 games. So you might not want to just assign everything or you'll empty them all out. To purchase more uses for an item, right click it and choose the middle option "사용 횟수 추가". It will give you a menu to buy more uses in increments of 50. Hero units don't have uses. They have levels. They gain XP, which seems to be static. There isn't much else here. You can figure out the bonuses from the icons, or translate a key word or two to figure out what they do. Mostly they associate to increased range, firepower, speed, armor, or reduced cost. For example the Croc tank bonus I have equipped is a 10% range boost. Hero units don't seem to get normal special abilities. Those hero soldiers I have don't get grenades, stickybombs or upgraded rifles. Engineers don't get the option of adding flame throwers. I think the idea is that these permanently upgraded units will come equipped with these bonuses and others as you level them.
If you head into the general match area you'll be given a screen where you can add friends to your party. I haven't tried that yet so not exactly sure what that means. Below that is a blue button which lets you see available matches. Right now there usually aren't many, so I generally start my own room. Sometimes it fills up quick or I go ahead and invite someone. To invite someone switch your chat to the main room and scroll through and find appropriate opponents, left click their names and choose the invite word. I invite a few and someone usually accepts pretty quick. After that hit the game start on the right above the player list. The menu is annotated, I never touch the lower two options. You can also click people's names in the scrolling chat to interact with them. You'll often see people requesting invites, but you can't see their side so inviting them from there is kind of pointless. Try to pick someone at your level or lower. Higher levels will have more heroes and skills unlocked. You might be fine, or maybe not.
These are your main screens that will get you playing. A note on supply: You get it after campaign missions and skirmishes. So if you're low, go do a few campaign missions or play an AI match. Yes, this multiplayer game still has the AI matches. In a room click the opposing player's empty box and you'll get a menu to set options. You can choose various AIs with easy being at the top and going down to the hardest. So if you want you can do comp stomps or whatever tickles your fancy. The AI does seem to be upgraded. I tried an easy match and the computer was cutting wire which is not what I remember the CoH AI doing on the English version, I won and got 278 supply. If you're going to stomp an easy AI, take off your abilities and save the "use" on them.
All in all, this is a perfectly playable low ping version of company of heroes which is close to the original but different enough to be interesting. This is definitely a permanent addition to my collection. The Koreans haven't had a long time to get good at it yet, I'm sure a few played the English version, but I think not that many which means the games aren't all blowouts. I had a nice match tonight with a guy who managed to get a Panzer and a couple light tanks out against me, and then artillery my forward base. It looked like he had me but I managed to almost take the Panzer out before he obliterated the base. My Shermans rolled up behind him and wiped them all out. He bailed after that as he had nothing left.
The first thing I'll talk about is the skill window. As you increase your level you unlock skill slots and gain skill points. At a low level all your skills seem available to you, but you can only pick a couple. This leads to some interesting multiplayer matches where experience doesn't make a huge difference. Each skill will unlock at a skill level. So in game you don't spend the XP, it is just an ever increasing bar. In the campaign this works as before with a normal skill tree you spend points on. After you choose a skill you can then assign points to it to make it better. Increase damage, reduce timers, etc. Don't worry if you make a mistake you can spend supply points to dump the skill and get everything back. If you have an empty slot you can click the square and choose the slide out window on the left to put a skill in it. They're all the same as you'd remember from Company of Heroes before. 
The base screen let's you assign special abilities and hero units to be used for the matches. Hero units are installed n the buildings they'd be made in and general abilities, like a reduced cost on a unit, are installed in the general bonuses pane on the left. This is wide open while you unlock hero unit slots at various levels. There are a number of "uses" assigned to each bonus, but this seems to reduce by 10 each match regardless of how many times it is actually used. I used an Anti-tank one twice in a match and it went from 22 to 12. I don't know why it is at 22. It was given to me like that, but I can't imagine how it would end up there. You will received these bonuses and hero units as random loot after missions and matches. If your uses drops too low you can use supply points to add more. 50 uses costs around 500-800 points depending on the item so far. Keep in mind that only equates to like 5 games. So you might not want to just assign everything or you'll empty them all out. To purchase more uses for an item, right click it and choose the middle option "사용 횟수 추가". It will give you a menu to buy more uses in increments of 50. Hero units don't have uses. They have levels. They gain XP, which seems to be static. There isn't much else here. You can figure out the bonuses from the icons, or translate a key word or two to figure out what they do. Mostly they associate to increased range, firepower, speed, armor, or reduced cost. For example the Croc tank bonus I have equipped is a 10% range boost. Hero units don't seem to get normal special abilities. Those hero soldiers I have don't get grenades, stickybombs or upgraded rifles. Engineers don't get the option of adding flame throwers. I think the idea is that these permanently upgraded units will come equipped with these bonuses and others as you level them.
If you head into the general match area you'll be given a screen where you can add friends to your party. I haven't tried that yet so not exactly sure what that means. Below that is a blue button which lets you see available matches. Right now there usually aren't many, so I generally start my own room. Sometimes it fills up quick or I go ahead and invite someone. To invite someone switch your chat to the main room and scroll through and find appropriate opponents, left click their names and choose the invite word. I invite a few and someone usually accepts pretty quick. After that hit the game start on the right above the player list. The menu is annotated, I never touch the lower two options. You can also click people's names in the scrolling chat to interact with them. You'll often see people requesting invites, but you can't see their side so inviting them from there is kind of pointless. Try to pick someone at your level or lower. Higher levels will have more heroes and skills unlocked. You might be fine, or maybe not. These are your main screens that will get you playing. A note on supply: You get it after campaign missions and skirmishes. So if you're low, go do a few campaign missions or play an AI match. Yes, this multiplayer game still has the AI matches. In a room click the opposing player's empty box and you'll get a menu to set options. You can choose various AIs with easy being at the top and going down to the hardest. So if you want you can do comp stomps or whatever tickles your fancy. The AI does seem to be upgraded. I tried an easy match and the computer was cutting wire which is not what I remember the CoH AI doing on the English version, I won and got 278 supply. If you're going to stomp an easy AI, take off your abilities and save the "use" on them.
All in all, this is a perfectly playable low ping version of company of heroes which is close to the original but different enough to be interesting. This is definitely a permanent addition to my collection. The Koreans haven't had a long time to get good at it yet, I'm sure a few played the English version, but I think not that many which means the games aren't all blowouts. I had a nice match tonight with a guy who managed to get a Panzer and a couple light tanks out against me, and then artillery my forward base. It looked like he had me but I managed to almost take the Panzer out before he obliterated the base. My Shermans rolled up behind him and wiped them all out. He bailed after that as he had nothing left.
Company of Heroes - Part 1
Most people who have been in North America in the last few years or kept up on PC gaming at all have heard about Company of Heroes. Most people have played it, but if you're playing it over here and want to play online, you're probably having ping issues, as well as time zone issues. Windyzone has decided to bring it to us. If you go to Company of Heroes from the main Windyzone page you'll be given an event page about the beta test. Click the dog tag in the lower right to continue. Once here you can do the familiar, "game start" dance to install the Windyzone launcher, and the game itself. It'll first download a 30 MB loader, then it'll download the actual game. The download is around 3.6GB. It'll install and you'll be all set. There are no surprises here when compared with any of the previous installs we've done. What will surprise us is when we get in the game. While very familiar, the game has been changed in some ways. Click Game start button to fire up the launcher and the green 게임시작 button to get going. Doing so will check for patches. Then launch the game.
The first thing that pops up is a question in Korean. I think it has something to do with your first time playing strategy games. I answered yes on one account, no on the other, both times it runs the tutorial. The first thing you'll do is choose your side. In this version of company of heroes you actually make characters you build up. The choice is obvious from the flags and you choose one of three specialties. These mirror the specialties you'd have found in the original company of heroes. They're different for each side. Choose one and click the next button on the lower right. It'll be highlighted for you. Now you can customize your guy and give him a name. This will also be highlighted. You'll then be presented with a choice of playing the campaign or multiplayer. Multiplayer is not a level playing field. Get your feet wet with a campaign and start to build your guy up. You can switch any time you want. Regardless of the side you choose, you will start with the allied campaign. It matches the same campaign. Playing it will give you levels though. So try it out. There doesn't seem to be anyway to disable the tutorial. It'll run you through some stuff. Like enabling abilities, adding bonuses, things like that. Just grin and bear it and you'll get some free bonuses plus it'll run you through some stuff with a finer hand than I. It's not hard to follow even without knowing Korean.
Back on the main screen you'll see a variety of options and games you can play as well as your standard chat. The middle seems to be nothing more than hints. While we've played this game for a few years now, it's new here. That doesn't mean they're push overs though. You can play regular games, ladder games, campaign, and tutorial missions. You can customize your character (abilities) and set bonuses in your base. You will get randomly invited to games. If one pops up hit the green "예/네" to join in. If you don't, it'll disappear after a few seconds. This will get you started. In the next post I'll talk about some of the new features and how they effect multiplayer matches. The campaign completely mirrors the English. Voice-overs are subbed, not dubbed.
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