0 A.D.

0 A.D. is a free game made by a community of volunteers and is an Age of the Empires style RTS. The game is only in alpha but they have a pretty solid build available for download on their site. The project still has a long way to go but amazingly you can already play it on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. I've tested it on Windows 7 and Mac OS 10.7.5, here's what I found.

Both versions seemed to run equally well, however, the game has yet to be optimised so when a lot of stuff starts to happen, the game starts to chug. The thing that strikes you at first is how beautiful the game is. The landscapes are incredible and most of the unit models are pretty good too, they just requiring some touching up here and there. Still it's pretty good for a community run project.

There are a lot of little bugs and features missing at the moment. One of the most annoying things is that workers will get stuck on each other and do this silly little dance back and forth, unable to pass one another. Like in Age of Empires  you can queue up units to come out in one big go. You shift click on the units you want and that will increase the number by five, you can keep doing this until you let go of shift and it will plop out 5, 10, 15 etc. The downside to this though, is that there are no warnings for having reached your population cap and this technique can really chew through your allowance. There are also no battle notifications as of yet either so it can be a bit confusing when you come under attack.

The gameplay is a lot like Age of Empires but there are a few differences. One thing I found whilst learning about these differences, is that even set to the easiest difficulty the AI is quite difficult. They always manage to find the one weak spot in my defences and raid my base. The first time I won a  game against the AI, I found the combat to be a little lacklustre. Skirmishers will run off in tangents firing at foes who get too close and because the game chugs when there is so much on screen it makes it very hard to manage.

The game clearly needs a lot of work but still, I am quite impressed with what they've done. It's the kind of project I will check back on from time to time to see how they are progressing. They are also always keen to have people work on the project so there is always that avenue to pursue, if you're interested. It's well worth checking out and I can't wait to see how it is when they enter the beta phase.

Win Total War: Rome II on Kotaku

Head over to Kotaku to win one of 10 copies of Total War: Rome II. All you need to do is grab an image of a dudesman out of the provided picture, then have a rant about him or her. Here is the shot I took for my entry.

In App Purchasing Done Wrong

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 and Real Racing are both good examples of poor decisions when it comes to in app. purchasing but what do they do wrong exactly? Poor value for money is one of the key problems, nerds like to feel they are getting a good deal and these games don't really convey that feeling. There are often too many confusing options, and what the usefulness is of your purchase is not clearly laid out. Too many "currencies" I'll also look at what other games have done right when it comes to in app purchases.

What does buying a $0.99 app get you these days? Quite a lot actually and that is a problem for a lot of in app purchases. Especially if you have bought a previous version of the game, you know what you got for your money. If you paid between 1 and 5 dollars for a whole game, you aren't going to be happy spending 10 dollars and just getting a small bonus and some useless in game cash. It's partly a psychological thing, I mean you got the whole game for free why pay so much for these little extras? The best example I have of this, is that the original Plants Vs. Zombies, will set you back $10.49 for a computer version, yet the free sequel wants to charge you $4.49 just for the use of a special plant!

Plants Vs. Zombies 2 is probably the best example of confusing in app. purchases. Unless you have played the original game the value of a lot of the things you can buy will be totally unclear. How useful is a Squash or Jalapeno in the game? I would say these types of items are not very useful at all, certainly not for the price but that is because I have completed the original game many times. Often these games want to give specials and bundle deals that are more attractive to the user, than some of the standard options. That's fine but usually this confuses the deals and what they come with exactly, is made unclear. Again this comes back to a value for money thing and the value really isn't there.

Real Racing 3 is a great example of too many types of currencies. It  uses "Real Dollars", "Gold", and requires you to have "Drive" to enter certain races. Real Dollars (not to be confused with actual money) are used to buy in game cars and upgrades, that makes sense and is fine I think but then gold will allow you to speed up things like your car being repaired. Plus you are going to need drive to enter special types of races, it's all a little too much and Real Racing isn't necessarily the worst offender out there. I think companies like this as it adds to the confusion over value but that is exactly why most people hate it. It's much simpler when you can purchase one currency and then use that on whatever you want to rather than being forced to spend your money all over the place.

In app. purchasing is just one option available to videogame companies and it isn't always the best way to go. Sometimes though companies do get it right, here is a look at some examples. Sid Meier's Ace Patrol got a lot of things right with it's in app purchasing and the main thing they did, was to give you a pack at a discounted price. The packs contain all the Aces for example or the campaign pack had all of the missions besides the already discounted British Pack. That was another great thing they did, give you a whole campaign for just a dollar. It felt like good value and due to the gameplay being so excellent it was good value. The Walking Dead also had a great system, they gave you the first episode free, then you could buy one episode at a time, or buy the whole pack for a discounted rate. It was a simple and clean no bullshit approach. Ultimately I think it is in the companies interest to make a clean system that the user will appreciate, not only does it help their review score but I know personally I am much more likely to buy from a company that does this well.

Papers, Please Review

This game encapsulates the drudge and monotony of working in a clerical job a little too well at times but it does also add a lot of twists and turns to bring in some excitement. The constant pressure to do a good job and make enough money to support your family, is enough to turn anyone to a little corruption...

It's amazing how much the game can convey with such a simple art style, in fact it only adds to the gameplay rather than detracts. Part of the reason simple art looks so good in this, is because it's set in a fictitious Soviet block country, during the 1980's. An art style like this really makes the little things stand out, for example, guards are normally blue in colour but your friend the guard, he is in green. The simplicity of the art style really conveys the depressing nature of the job but little things, like knowing your friend the green guard wants to speak to you, gives you hope.

The gameplay is a strange mix of absolute boredom, as you process yet another application, to the exhilarating adrenaline rush, of shooting your first terrorist. It's sort of more social experiment than game at times and it makes me feel sorry for all the lowly people getting their work done in a government position (well at least until I remember they get each and every public holiday off). I want to come back and find all the different endings to this game, yet at the same time I can't play very many game days, without wanting to stop. Like you're proverbial average job, it's tedious, frustrating and can't be done well as you tire

It's a great game, it's a terrible game, if the premise interests you at all, I would say it is well worth the mere $10USD admission price, even if you are just curious. It's never going to be for everyone but then that is the beauty of indie games 7.8/10.

Should You Buy Shadowrun Returns?

Shadowrun Returns is an interesting little Kickstarter project, that holds its roots in a pen and paper roleplaying game. If you have been looking for a Sci-Fi RPG and you are keen to make your own content using the editor, I say go and buy it right now. It's only $20 USD and if this is your thing, it is well worth the price. For the rest of us it's best to hold of until a Steam sale comes along. Let's take a look at why.

The game lacks content. Right now all you get is a fairly short adventure, people are reporting it is taking them from 8 to 13 hours depending on the difficulty they are playing. It's not a bad little adventure, in a way it's nice that it is short but it has no replayability, due to it being so linear. People are working on their own content now and there are a few short adventures already out but most of them are still in the test phase. Which brings me to the next point.

The editor is powerful but difficult to use, I'd recommend checking out the tutorial videos here first. It's fine if this is what interests you but for the average gamer it is going to take way too long to learn and I can't really recommend it. Like I mentioned before, in a few months time the game will probably be on sale on Steam and users would have generated some great content for it. 

The game has all of the core mechanics sussed out and your characters are very flexible in what they can be upgraded to do, there is just not that much of anything to do. Jacking into the matrix is cool, you basically run about blasting programs as a virtual version of yourself. There are heaps of skills and abilities to learn, like magic, using throwing weapons etc. but there is little need to know most of these things at the moment. There is a huge system running at the core of this game that should even make the pen and paper adventurers happy but without content it feels a little lacklustre.

So the verdict is, buy it now if you have to, otherwise wait until it's on sale and there is a lot more user created content.  Harebrained Schemes have stated they are adding an extra graphical pack for those who want to make their own adventures and there is already a strong community around it, so it's just a matter of time 7.5/10.