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
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.
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
click to enlarge
Authors: Dan Pinkham & Lloyd Sabin
Ahh…there is almost a chill in the air and the children are being herded back to school. That means football season and fall must almost be here. Unfortunately that also means pumpkin in everything you can eat and drink but never fear: GARPA shall remain pumpkin free but still contain all the gaming nutrition you expect.
A War of Kings –Playing Cards by Andy Fischer
$8,056 pledged of a $10,500 goal funding ending September 7th
To be honest I am getting off easy with this entry but it is too cool looking of a project not to feature here at GARPA. It is a deck of cards. That’s right, 54 playing cards. However, “each suit is a distinctly different set of fantasy characters, featuring White and Dark Knights, Fire Mages and Barbarians.” That’s the project, that’s all there is: a card deck with some sweet looking fantasy art. We’ll post some pictures here but make sure to check out their project page for even more art samples.
Fantasy Frontier by Gamelyn Games
$5,187 pledged of a $25,000 goal funding ending October 8th
There is something so very intriguing about airships. Perhaps it is the well-known disaster of the Hindenburg and the idea of what could have been had it not happened. Maybe it is just the notion of slowly drifting through the clouds in your very own dirigible. Whatever the case may be I thought most of us, if honest, find the idea at least interesting.
Since we can’t all go out and buy an airship, we have to keep dreaming and game with them. Fantasy Frontier is here to help with “a 2-4 player game of airships and exploration” that brings the airship fantasy alive on a tabletop.
Designed to be played in about 90 minutes this will make a great game for the coming winter months. “Each player controls a unique airship with a crew of pioneers. Players manage the actions of these pioneers each turn in an effort to scout the land, gather resources, construct townships, and even battle it out in aerial combat.”
To create the game world over which the airships fly, players develop “geographic patterns via tile placement, the players will develop a new world each time they play.” Each turn players use their workers to perform seven actions: piloting the airship, R&D, scouting the land, gathering resources, constructing a township, aerial combat, or repairing ship damage.
The game comes with over 200 components and looks to be a very unique experience. Combine the possible turn strategies with the geomorphic playing surface and players get lots of replayability options. If you want to see some cool game art, components, or an early gameplay video then make sure to check out the project’s Kickstarter page.
With a chill in the air this week it is clear that the seasons are changing again. Soon we won’t have to feel particularly guilty about gaming or reading inside since the weather won’t be as cooperative. Peruse our below roundup to get some good ideas on interesting games and other swag to pickup to help you keep your seasonal affective disorder at bay!
Books
Dean Putney’s World War I Album
$82,631 pledged of $50,000 goal
Funding ends Thursday, September 5
Yes I usually cover games but this is special. Dean Putney of San Francisco has a literal treasure chest full of over 1000 photographic negatives of his great grandfather’s military service in World War I. Not only that, but his great grandfather, Walter Koessler, fought for Imperial Germany on the Western front, a perspective not covered as well or as often in English histories of the war.
The negatives, some stereoscopic, look incredibly vivid, even when viewed on the internet. Putney found over 1000 of them, all preserved and protected in a family attic in southern California, just recently. His great grandfather was an architect before the war started, and served in the German artillery as a lieutenant. He was a skilled photographer, and after the war left Germany for Hollywood, CA where he became an art director in the booming U.S. movie industry. His skill is immediately evident when viewing his pictures, which feature recognizable equipment, locations and even some aerial shots.
The images, besides being of technical high quality, are also notable for how expressive they are. Even from the few samples shown on Putney’s Kickstarter page, the mood from the outbreak of war in 1914 through subsequent years (it looks like his great grandfather served through the entire conflict) deteriorates noticeably. Images flow from young kids horsing around in a festive atmosphere in summer 1914 through to the grim reality of combat as time goes by. The images are very good at expressing the change of emotion. For grogs interested in German history, the First World War, or even just photography as a medium, Dean Putney’s Kickstarter project is something very special.
