TwiddleGeek

Few people probably remember this little gem, but the classic 1998 Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers still gets regular play from me. Unlike the recent MTG Online which charges you for cards, this classic gave you a huge collection and had an AI system to boot! While it’s not the smartest opponent around, it plays a pretty competent game considering it’s age and the amount of possible plays it has to consider.

The game features a single player deck building quest, but I must admit I’ve never really tried it. The majority of my time with the game is usually spent in network play using ManaLink. While newer solutions such as Apprentice or Magic Workstation may give you more cards, Planeswalkers has the advantage of full card art and enforcing rules. Rule enforcement may not mean much to veteran card players, but it can be a godsend for casual play.

If you find this one in a garage sale or laying in a bargain bin, grab it. If you like it, you may also like Pokemon Trading Card, the game, for the Game Boy Color.

While I’m not a huge RTS fan, I do enjoy the occasional game, and this one caught my eye. So, I played the first couple of missions last night. The visuals are really pretty amazing for an RTS, although too often they try to stretch their engine too far in the cut-scenes with rather silly looking results. In game from a suitable sky high distance, things look great. Explosions are wonderful, bodies and debris fly, buildings collapse, and bullets rip across the screen. Everything from buildings to scenery can be used to intelligently provide your troops cover, meaning you’re not just standing in the open taking shots until someone falls down.

One of my big RTS turnoffs is the amount of work one must put into resource management. Thankfully Company of Heroes simplifies resources drastically and focuses mainly on the combat side of things. Resources are just a matter of controlling points, smartly laid out on a handy territory mini-map. Once you control a point, a constant stream a resources will come your way. Manpower is constantly coming in, and the more territory you’ve got, the more you get. In these early levels at least, this means that even if your front line squad gets wiped out, you’ll soon have the resources regenerated to train new troops.

So far I’m digging it. I’m not sure if it’ll hold my interest across the entire single player campaign, but it seems varied enough to do so. The tactical map laying out points of interest and such really makes this feel more like an action-strategy game and less like a resource management, base building game. Despite being in the same genre, it’s pretty much the opposite of games like Age of Empires. It simply would have been nice if it wasn’t yet another WWII game.

Welcome to the Battle of Normandy, again. Mission 1 starts off by thrusting you right onto Omaha Beach. After a nice intro movie you’ll be asked to guide (read: they run for their life) 25 soldiers to the shingle. Thankfully, it’s a short mission. Get your soldiers there, get some engineers there, and blow up the bunker and a few guns with surprisingly light resistance. Then it’s on to the real stratigic meat of the game in Mission 2.

Mission 2 is a lot more like Company of Heroes proper. A bit of a prestory to Mission 1, you’ll be in command of a squad parachuting in behind enemy lines, making some nice hit and run attacks. You’ll be scattered, you’ll be out manned and out gunned, and you’ll just have to make due. The first time you parachute in some backup troops is likely to be a nice “Wow” moment.