Category: Reviews

07/6/14

GrogHeads Reviews Eschalon Book 3

Hop on GOG.com and pick up some old-school RPG action.

by Avery Abernethy, 6 July 2014

Eschalon Book 3 (EB3) is the final release in the Basilisk Software trilogy. It is a single person, turned based role-playing game. This review is based on more than 25 hours of game play and the completion of all major quests. Although the game developers were kind enough to offer me a review copy through Steam, I purchased a copy from www.gog.com. I bought a copy because I like having the game in DRM-free mode, in a form easily playable on the road when I lack an internet connection. The www.gog.com download was fast. I did not have any technical problems with the game crashing, freezing, or similar problems.

EB3 follows the conventions of the previous two releases which are common to many computer role playing games. The player has the choice of four different types of starting characters: a melee fighter, an offensive magic specialist, a defensive/healing magic specialist, or a missile weapon oriented fighter. Your character starts very weak, with poor armor, weapons, or a few weak spells. Your initial opponents are also weak.: your first enemy encounters are against rather large roaches which you beat to death with wooden clubs.

start out weak
Start out weak

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06/8/14

First Impressions of Combat Mission Red Thunder

Grumpy Grog Says:  “Combat Mission Red Thunder is more impressive than a Katyusha barrage. Uurrraaaah!”

Developed and Published by Battlefront Inc.

First Impressions by Boggit

Red Thunder is the newest arrival in the Combat Mission series on the Eastern Front. It focuses on the battles during and just after the great Soviet offensive – Operation Bagration – from June to September 1944, covering the area of modern day Belarus, to the gates of Warsaw in Poland. The developers chose this period because, in terms of experience, the Red Army was generally able to match the German Army, thus in principle creating a more balanced game.

Advancing through woods, we make contact!
Advancing through woods, we make contact!

Since this is a first impressions piece, I haven’t spent as much time in actual gameplay as I usually put in with my full Combat Mission reviews. The article is based upon a couple of the new scenarios, half a dozen quick battles, and with some useful feedback from Steve Grammont of Battlefront regarding the changes to the game engine from the V3.0 upgrade.

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06/4/14

Cards of Cthulhu – First Look!

Vance Strickland cracks open his fresh-outta-the-mail copy of Cards of Cthulhu and shares the guts with us.

 

Discuss the unleashing of Cthulhu in our forums>>

Share your own unboxing photos here >>

05/28/14

Home of the Wargamers Report: “Clear and Present Gaming!”

Distant Worlds Universe and Other Imminent Matrix/Slitherine Releases meet Grogheads

An overview by Boggit

Following on from Home of Wargamers 2014, there has been a flurry of activity from Matrix/Slitherine regarding their new releases. Distant Worlds has only just released on 27th May, and is to be closely followed by Pandora First Contact: Return of the Messeri Expansion, Close Combat: Road to Caen, and Qvadriga on Steam.

 

Distant Worlds Universe

 

You can start straight away with a pre-set human campaign, or mix things up with a custom game
You can start straight away with a pre-set human campaign, or mix things up with a custom game

For those players who haven’t got Distant Worlds, it is a massively scoped game that conventionally focuses on making broad policy decisions to guide your race to success. Essentially, you represent “the state”, but much of the game is heavily reliant on your private citizens. These private citizens trade, colonise, and exploit much of the universe’s resource potential. Distant Worlds Universe can be an incredibly deep 4X game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) – if you want it to be. You can micromanage as much, or as little as you wish, although micromanaging carries the risk of your head exploding given the multitude of activities you can engage in! Continue reading →

05/4/14

A Review of Narco Guerra

The Grumpy Grog says “Try Narco Guerra for a blast of good casual fun”.

 

Developed Auroch Digital Ltd and Published by GameTheNews.net

A Flash Review by Boggit

 

Choices, choices. Story mode is more involved including variable street prices for drugs. Skirmish mode doesn’t include that aspect.
Choices, choices. Story mode is more involved including variable street prices for drugs. Skirmish mode doesn’t include that aspect.

I got Narco Guerra from Gamersgate for the equivalent of $1. It’s an operational level game about the drugs war in Mexico. The game is very easy to learn, and there is a help screen with it that gives you all the information you need.

 

Confused? Don’t be with this handy help screen. The learning curve is really easy.
Confused? Don’t be with this handy help screen. The learning curve is really easy.

 

Single player, you represent the police, fighting up two different cartels (and up to 3 more can emerge during the game). There is a local multiplayer option – read hot seat play – where the first human player plays the police, and up to 5 additional human/computer players can choose a cartel to play.

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