Month: November 2014

11/15/14

GrogHeads Reviews Wings! Remastered Edition

Lloyd Sabin, 15 November 2014

Wings! Remastered Edition by Cinemaware

Lloyd takes to the skies and finds…

Humming in the Shower

I talk about my gaming childhood all the time around here – games that I grew up with, that introduced me to the hobby, that left an imprint on my personality, and whose theme songs I still hum in the shower 25 years later. Moreso than Gunship!, F-19 Stealth Fighter, Impossible Mission, Archon or Winter Games, or two dozen other titles from the 1980s and 1990s, memories of Wings! have been with me, branded into my gaming soul, since it was released almost 25 years ago.

The original is one of my favorite games of all time, probably in my personal top five list, because of the game’s perfect World War I atmosphere, generated by a combination of music, art and mood that really placed my impressionable brain in the Great War. Combined with the [albeit] linear campaign, the authentic sounding names in the pilot roster, the unit journal of the 56th Aerosquadron and the goings-on of the unit while off duty, Wings!, while not realistic by any measure other than a human one, grabbed my gaming brain and never let go.

 

Some of the game's intro screens are shown so many times it will drive you insane, like this one.
Some of the game’s intro screens are shown so many times it will drive you insane, like this one.

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11/14/14

GrogHeads Reviews Falling Skies

Andy Mills, 14 November 2014

How does the TV show translate to a game?

Introduction

The TV show Falling Skies tells the story of the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment, a group of rag tag warriors that are fighting an alien race (the Espheni) intent on dominating the Earth. This sci-fi drama is set on the East Coast of the United States after a near-catastrophic alien attack and features a myriad of characters from all walks of life. The majority of the action tends to be focused around the exploits of Tom Mason, a former university history professor, who is now the second in command of the 2nd Mass. Tom and his comrades are having limited success in fighting the Espheni, when a second alien race (the Vohm) lands on the Earth to help the humans with their struggle.

As one can imagine, Falling Skies provides fertile ground for a squad-based, tactical strategy game that would allow players to share in the adventures of the 2nd Mass and their struggle for survival. Creating a successful PC game based on a TV show is no easy task. The gaming landscape is littered with examples of TV shows or movie adaptations that turned into complete train wrecks (insert the name of any Star Trek game ever released here). The key to making a good PC game adaption of a TV show is striking the perfect mix of established content with a solid gaming system – so before starting my review, I found myself asking two things:

  • How will Falling Skies fare in relation to some of the other excellent titles in this genre, such as the most recent XCOM and Xenonauts?
  • Does the game provide the player with an experience similar to that depicted on the Falling Skies TV show?

With these questions in mind, I fired up my Steam account and pulled the trigger on Falling Skies.

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11/13/14

Campaign: Leipzig – The Two-Sided AAR, part 1

13 November 2014

Cyrano and PanzerDE face off in the age of muskets and sabers, and find themselves on opposite sides of an Eastern German battlefield, in the first of a series of AARs that give you both sides of the action.

I first met Doug (panzerde) at Origins in June.  Despite finding him an all-around fine fellow, I am now tasked with driving him from the field of honor in this scenario from John Tiller Software’s Campaign: Leipzig.  I picked the battle (all my fault) because I’d never played it and thought it struck a reasonable balance between variety of forces and size.  Leipzig can, after all, become ridiculous at the farthest end of things.

I’ve been playing the Tiller Napoleonic games for well over a decade.  I’ve been involved with the Napoleonic Wargame Club for just about as long and am therefore aware of all the theology concerning its alternative rulesets, homerules, optional rules, &c.  I offer only that I generally try to play the game as given in the hope of being able to play with the widest range of opponents.  I do, however, typically play with a standard set of optional rules given to me long, long ago by my most regular opponent (who thrashes me with unnerving regularity).  The rules are these:

oprules

I’d be happy to take questions and hold forth at length about why I prefer these rules, but it seems unnecessary here. I’ll only observe that deciding whether to play with “No Melee Eliminations” on or off is a choice that fundamentally alters the flow of the game and its outcomes.  With it off, units required to retreat that have no ZOC-free hexes to which they can retreat are eliminated.  This can lead to casualty rates far closer to those of the first day of the Somme rather than 1813.  I will admit, though, as someone who long lobbied for this rule to be included in the series, that, when this rule is on, the system’s lack of morale collapse above the level of the individual battalions, can result in the very best units hanging about far longer than they ought.

To the battle itself, then.  Lowenberg is one of those “extra” scenarios typical of a type Dr. Tiller’s developers have worked to improve their offerings.  It’s an early fight in the Leipzig campaign and the scenario description is a simple one:

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11/12/14

Book Review: Islands of Rage and Hope

A Review of Islands of Rage and Hope by John Ringo

Avery Abernethy, 12 November 2014

 

Islands of Rage and Hope is the third novel in John Ringo’s intelligent zombie apocalypse series.  Steven Smith (Wolf), his wife, and daughters Sophia and Faith (Seawolf and Shewolf) have continued to build their flotilla in the Atlantic.  The novel starts with Wolf Squadron’s attack on the bare remnants of the US military forces at Guantanamo Bay Cuba.  The hope of Wolf Squadron, which now leads the largest surviving contingent of US military forces in operation, is capturing enough of the right medical equipment to start large scale manufacture of a vaccine against the zombie drug.  If vaccine production can be restarted, then the crews of US nuclear submarines can be turned into an effective land fighting force.

 

Just after I finished reading this book, a scary new twist in the real-world Ebola virus gripped much of the world.  Two medical missionaries infected with Ebola were flow back from Africa to nearby Atlanta and hopefully cured.  This real world episode framed Ringo’s coverage of the manufacture of a vaccine for a deadly disease in an uncomfortably real perspective.  Much of the discussion of how to isolate a vaccine, the risks of various vaccines, and the production speed of vaccine covered in the book is now in the pages of newspapers world-wide.

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11/11/14

Tuesday Screenshot – Veterans’ Day

11 November 2014

Veterans, not just US veterans, are remembered today. The Grogs here at GrogHeads wish to thank all of your for your service and wish the best possible future as you drive on through life.

 

Although the check specifies the US, veterans of all of our allies are in our thoughts and prayers today. Thank you all for your service.
Although the check specifies the US, veterans of all of our allies are in our thoughts and prayers today. Thank you all for your service.

 

Your Veterans’ Day thoughts here >>