Author: Jim Zabek

09/14/13

Victorian Admirals Anthology – PC Flash Review

Developer Totem Games

Publisher: Strategy First

Author: Boggit

I picked this quirky little naval gem on sale at Gamersgate. It’s quite fun, being focused on four small campaign scenarios set in the late Victorian period. Ships haven’t yet made the full transition to the warships we know from the First World War period onwards, so you’ll see ironclads with rigging, and many ships organised for broadside fire, although some get turrets.

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The Spanish turret ship Puigcerda at bay. With her 8” guns and heavy armour, she played hell with my squadron .In the background one of my cruisers, the USS Boston, limps away heavily damaged.

I took my screen shots from the Marianas Incident 1887 mini campaign, where I played as a Yankee squadron commander. Whilst I won the game, all my cruisers, and my casemate ironclad had to withdraw due to critical damage, but I sank all the Spanish ships save one turret ship. I thought the AI put up a reasonable fight, although that could just be me overestimating my skills as a Commodore, or Admiral…

Continue reading →

09/11/13

War of the Vikings – Developer Interview

Fatshark’s Executive Producer, Gordon Van Dyke, and Grogheads’ Jim Zabek just wrapped up an interview about War of the Vikings, the follow-up title to the smash hit melee game, War of the Roses.

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OK, so aside from the obvious “cool factor” why did you choose to go with Vikings?

That was my answer! The Vikings came to England a few hundred years earlier than the Wars of the Roses, they even founded what is now known as the city of York, so we took that setting and ran with it.

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What lessons did you learn from the success of War of the Roses that you’ve incorporated to improve War of the Vikings?

We took a lot of community feedback into account and have added throwing weapons, a dodge mechanic, and special attacks. The time period for WotV is set earlier than WotR, meaning the technology was crude by comparison armor wasn’t as effective because plate armor didn’t exist yet. Because of this, the matches in WotV are faster-paced as sending an axe through someone was much easier during the time of the Vikings.

Just like WotR, we’re also implementing a level of customization not seen in most games. This time around, players will be able to even customize the beards of their character! It’s a Viking a game, how could we not do that?

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Continue reading →

09/10/13

Tuesday Screenshot – Rome II Total War

Tuesday-Sept-10-2013-Screenshot-Rome-II

Marcus Antonius:
And Caesar’s spirit, raging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

Julius Caesar Act 3, scene 1, 270–275

09/9/13

Ranger Up Talks Suicide: An Introduction

This article was originally published September 8th on Ranger Up’s Rhino Den. It is one of seven articles they will publish on the subject over the next week.

By RU Rob

Suicide.

When put together, those seven letters can draw out a range of emotions from fear to anger, sorrow to shame, and everything in between. In recent times suicide has been brought to the forefront of the news within military circles due to the ever increasing occurrence. The sad statistics show that now, more than any other time in our military’s history, our service members are taking their own lives.

So what do we do about it?

There is no easy answer to this question. The stigma that suicide carries with it is one of solitude and secrecy. There is no clear cut answer to solve this problem but I believe the first step is to get people to start openly talking about it, without fear of repercussion.

In the days leading up to Memorial Day, 2013, Blake Powers (Laughing Wolf) from Black Five wrote a powerful article. It really struck a chord with me as I had just lost another friend to suicide. It was then that I decided that if I could rally our writers, we could meet this trend face to face, open the necessary dialogue, and get people talking—the first step in making a difference.

We have rallied and are ready.

What you will read over the next seven days has been three months in the making. The Rhino Den is going to approach this subject the way we do every subject—head on. The writers of The Rhino Den are as diverse as any unit in the military. You will be exposed to perspectives from enlisted and officer; active duty and Veteran; from just about every branch of service and multiple job specialties. We will be providing statistics, personal reflections, and our own thoughts as to why and how this trend is happening.

This is an extremely emotional series for us. Some of our writers faced personal demons in the composition of their pieces and you will experience their pain and anguish. I cannot guarantee that you will agree with everything we will say and, quite frankly, expect to anger a few of you at some point.

There are a few people who deserve mention as we delve into this subject. Karl Monger, Boone Cutler, Deb Boyce, Soldier Hard, and Antonio Centeno are all making huge contributions into the education and fight against suicide. There are many, many other people who are doing great and wonderful things, but I have had direct contact with these amazing people and wish to recognize them as such.

As we begin I hope that you will take the time to share this series with your friends, family, and loved ones. We can only be successful if we keep lines of communication open with each other.

 

RU Rob

Editor-in-Chief

Ranger Up’s – The Rhino Den

09/7/13

Total War: Rome II – First Impressions

Developer: Creative Assembly

Publisher: Sega

Author: Lloyd Sabin

This Is How We Do It

Here at Grogheads we do things a bit differently. We don’t race to get the latest review of the hottest game up before release day. We have never felt that was the correct way to go about it. So our “First Impressions” piece hasn’t been released in the first 24 hours. It has taken us a few days to reconnoiter the game. Four days of gameplay doesn’t make a review, but it has given us something worth reporting.

We slowly wade into games most of the time, patiently observing, trying out features, taking notes and then ranting and raving like drugged cave men if something is wrong. Which brings me to my first point.

Total War Rome II Impressions Rome 5

Rome II is here, and there are many people with things to say about it as usual. Below are some of my notes on my first few hours with Creative Assembly’s latest.

Total War, Total Chaos

Once the dust has settled on the release of Total War: Rome II – More Gooder, The Sundering of Wallets, or just Total War: Rome II, for short, the next title should absolutely be Total War: Release Day Antics. I have been playing computer games for 25+ years and have been writing about them for 10+ years, and I have never seen such chaotic division, screaming, ranting, and virtual insanity as I have upon a Total War release – before the game was released. Continue reading →