Category: Columns

Regular columns from the GH team

01/29/18

What’s Gus Playing? Episode 16

Our flyweight flyboy flings feelings of flights of fancy ~

Lloyd Sabin, 29 January 2018

Wings! was a favorite game of mine when I was a teenager on the Amiga, around 1990. I played it to completion more than once, using my Epyx joystick, and thanked the gaming gods that Cinemaware existed to create a game that really scratched my First World War itch. Even then I was fascinated by that war and it’s aviation.

it was more of a fun beer and pretzels game about World War I flyers

Wings! is quite simplistic compared to Wings Over Flanders Fields or Rise of Flight. But it was never meant to compete with sims…it was more of a fun beer and pretzels game about World War I flyers, with three different kinds of missions: patrol/air combat, ground attack/strafing runs, and bombing. I enjoy all three types, and still get a kick out of Wings!

The Kickstarter campaign for this game turned out to be troubled in the end, with many bonus items still not delivered and the usual internet rage spewing forth from angry gamers. I even had to buy my copy twice because I was never given info on how to transfer my copy from one rig to another after contacting the developer.

These things aside, the modern version of Wings! captures the magic and good storytelling of the original and still sets my imagination in motion. The storytelling is very good as is the updated music and the graphics are serviceable if not eyeball shattering. Plus the game can be had for just a few dollars on Steam.

Continue reading →

01/23/18

What’s Gus Playing? Episode 15

The toddler of tanks talks tellingly about trench tactics ~

Lloyd Sabin, 22 January 2018

It took me a ridiculous amount of time to finally fire it up, but this past week I got in some time with Battlefield 1’s single player component, called War Stories. Each story is set at a different front of the First World War. There is a tutorial in which the player takes the role of a black soldier of the 369th Harlem Hellfighters, attempting to hold off a brutal German onslaught. It throws the player directly in to the storm and forces learning by doing. It can be chaotic and insane, but that’s the point. This tutorial is hardcore but effective.

It can be chaotic and insane, but that’s the point.

Out of the six different War Stories (including the tutorial), the player can choose any of the next five in any order he chooses. The next one I chose was set during the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, and as you can probably guess, it puts the player in the boots of a British tanker, assigned to the Black Bess, a kitted-out Mark V tank.

This particular War Story, entitled “Through Mud & Blood,” is broken in to four different chapters which see the player engaged in tank on tank combat against German armored cars, captured French tanks, anti-tank troops, and also engaging in dismounted, commando-style combat against a variety of German troop types. There are literally dozens of weapons to choose from when not piloting Black Bess, the environments are totally destructible, and the combat can be frenetic. Static trench warfare, this is not.

That said, at times it felt like the game was a re-skinned version of other Battlefield games. The First World War vibe is definitely there, but the high-paced combat sometimes felt a little too modern. I still enjoyed it very much…so much so that I’m even dabbling with the idea of playing MP. But so far my hate for people in general has kept me from diving in to an MP game with other players who I don’t know. Months ago, someone in the forums claimed that Battlefield 1 felt like a steampunk Battlefield game, and to a certain extent I found that to be true. Continue reading →

01/15/18

What’s Gus Playing? Episode 14

GrogHeads’ own half-height harbinger of horror turns horny ~

Lloyd Sabin, 15 January 2018

It’s cold as balls outside (read: extremely cold) and my driveway is a glacier. Which leads me to think of Vikings and Viking-themed games. In this installment of What’s Gus Playing, I’ll cover some of my time with three Norse-irific titles: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Vikings: Wolves of Midgard, and Expeditions: Viking.

Expeditions: Viking is just as well produced as Vikings: Wolves of Midgard (probably moreso) but takes its Scandinavian history more to heart, and a bit more seriously.

Full disclosure: I got about half way in to Hellblade and covered it in more detail in the last installment of What’s Gus Playing. It eventually drained me and I had to move on to something else a little lighter to save my sanity, and that was Vikings: Wolves of Midgard. It’s a Diablo-clone, but a well done one set among the myths of the Norse world. Your avatar is customizable to a point, the enemies are varied and numerous and the game runs well, with attractive, bloody graphics and cartoonish violence.

At first the difficulty almost seemed too easy and I was going to bump it up to ‘hard’ until I hit the first boss. I tried to defeat this boss seemingly 100 times and even after LOWERING the difficulty to ‘easy’ I still could not do it, at which point I just shouted ‘f this!’ and moved on to Expeditions: Viking.

Expeditions: Viking is just as well produced as Vikings: Wolves of Midgard (probably moreso) but takes its Scandinavian history more to heart, and a bit more seriously. Like its predecessor, Expeditions: Conquistador, it is a story-based, historically accurate hybrid of tactical wargame and RPG.  Continue reading →

01/8/18

What’s Gus Playing? Episode 13

The bantam-weight banterer of badassery battles in a bygone Britain ~

Lloyd Sabin, 8 January 2018

I obviously try to keep this column as light as possible, but some games are just heavy. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is one such heavy game.

Just be warned – I would not recommend playing for extended periods of time. Hellblade seriously changed my mood, and quickly.

Giving the player the opportunity to play as Senua, a female Celt, in Dark Age Britain, Hellblade is much more than a game of exploration or first person combat. These aspects are there, but Hellblade, first and foremost, is about fear…fear generated through mental illness.

Ninja Theory, the producers of Hellblade, consulted mental illness experts to create the game and state they wanted to make as accurate a portrayal of mental illness as possible, so that those lucky enough to live without it could have some idea of what it’s like. They did a fine job, because Hellblade is terrifying, confusing and infuriating, by design.

I found myself panicking, getting angry and frustrated, and finally having to step away from the game for a breather…about an hour of Hellblade is all I can really do before it becomes too much.

This is not a knock at the game itself – it’s awesome, well-produced, beautiful to look at and takes its content very seriously. Just be prepared to be affected. That’s the best way I can think of to describe it. Hopefully you will be able to see some of what I saw in the screen shots below. I also have to mention the audio design. The sound, maybe even more than the visuals, are the real terror drivers here. Play Hellblade for just an hour and you will see what I mean. Continue reading →

12/25/17

What’s Gus Playing? Episode 12

GrogHeads’ rump-height rapscallion rides the ropes ~

Lloyd Sabin, 25 December 2017

I’m sure there are many games that you return to after months or even years away. This was the case for me with Assassin’s Creed: Rogue. You know, the AssCreed just after Black Flag that kept the well done naval combat but shifted settings to New York’s Hudson River Valley during the French and Indian War in the 1750s.

It’s one of those games that makes players excited to be gamers, and I can’t think of a better comment to lavish upon it!

Oh and your in-game avatar spent most of the game breaking away from his usual Assassin’s guild and worked on joining the Templars. Traitor? Turncoat? Depends on your perspective.

Rogue does give players an opportunity to explore the beautiful Hudson River Valley hinterland as well as its bigger cities like Albany and New York City, one of the only games I can recall that provides that setting. And living here in that setting 250 years later made Rogue irresistible…it just draws players in with beautiful graphics, stealthy mechanics (where you want them), a solid naval combat component, even fleet management. Continue reading →