The PC Spotlight 1.22.09: 2009 is Going to Kick Major Ass: Part 1

Posted by Chris Vicari on 01.21.2009

People may think last year’s releases were some of the greatest ever, but this year looks even better and I’ll show you why.

Welcome back to another Thursday with a multi-part special edition of the PC Spotlight. Ever since 2008 ended exactly three weeks ago, many console and PC gamers believe it was the best year for hit releases in a very long time. I certainly do not disagree with the notion, as I'm still loving Left 4 Dead, GTA IV, and Fallout 3, but I think this year is going to kick some serious ass too. I'll even go so far as to say that it could achieve the near-impossible, becoming an even better year.

Let's get to it then, I've got a bunch of games to showcase.

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Strategy




Starcraft 2
After more than a decade waiting, after millions of hours played, and even more Battle.net matches later, Starcraft 2, the long-awaited sequel to Blizzard's strategy juggernaut, is finally arriving. Releasing as three separate games to better flesh out its rich storyline and atmosphere, Starcraft 2 will undoubtedly be one of the biggest if not the biggest releases of the year. I'll bet you any amount of money that the Koreans will make the game's release date a national holiday. Sadly, no word on a firm release date for the first game, Wings of Liberty, but Blizzard has said it should be coming out this year. *Fingers crossed*

According to Blizzard, StarCraft II is designed to be the "ultimate competitive real-time strategy game," containing the same three races which made the game so diverse and unique. Featuring an overall improvement to Battle.net, as well as a new competitive ladder and matchmaking system, the game is certainly designed to be heavily focused on multiplayer, much more than the previous game. Also, look out for the new replay function, letting players record and review games, picking up on past mistakes or good strategies. Thankfully, the robust map editor also makes a return.

Starcraft 2 is shaping up to be one of the greatest strategy releases in some time, and I am thoroughly confident that Blizzard will release one hell of a game. To cap off my excitement, here's a delicious video for yours and my viewing pleasure.

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Empire: Total War
Creative Assembly is nearly ready to release their next installment of the critically-acclaimed and all-around awesome Total War series. Instead of leading armored knights and swordsmen into battle, Empire: Total War skips a couple hundred years into the future and focuses on the early modern period of the 1700s and 1800s. No longer do we have to wait 50 turns to start using cannons to blow shit up, because now we get to use them at the start of the game. One addition the developers made to the upcoming grand strategy game is the inclusion of real-time naval battles, a first for the series. I can't wait to start blowing ships up, let alone controlling huge armies of riflemen, cannons, and musketeers.

Like previous installments, Empire features a large amount of different factions, but kicks it up a notch with a jaw-dropping 50 playable kingdoms. Featuring many 18th - century factions, such as Great Britain, Prussia, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire, along with Revolutionary France, the United States, and the several native states which fell to larger empires, Empire is shaping up to be the biggest game as well. According to Creative Assembly, players will be able to access at least twelve factions at the start of the game, and unlock others later, just like in previous games.

Empire also introduces several new battlefield elements to the Total War series. Units can take cover behind walls and garrison buildings, allowing for terrain to finally play a bigger role in land battles. Field defenses can also be set up in real-time on the battlefield, allowing players to adjust for particular situations. A story-driven campaign mode entitled "Road to Independence" is also included in the game, where the player guides the British colonization of America in three structured missions. The first sees the player establish and develop the British colony of Jamestown, the second focuses on the British fighting both the French and the Native Americans in the French and Indian War, whilst the final portion has the player directing the American Continental Army against the British in the War of Independence.

Empire: Total War looks to be the best game in the series and certainly one of the big releases of the year. Of course, here's another tasty gameplay video for you.

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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
In just five weeks time, we'll get to play the sequel to the supremely awesome and award-winning Dawn of War RTS. Once again developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ, 2009 sparks a phenomenal year for strategy games and Dawn of War II fits right in.

Relic pulled out all the stops when developing Dawn of War II and the gameplay is supremely different from that of the first one. According to Jonny Ebbert, the game's lead designer, he explains that the game "takes everything that was great about the original and combines it with the best that Company of Heroes had to offer." Similar to CoH, there is greater emphasis on cover, but there are also plenty of means available when dealing with units in cover. Various weapons, such as tanks and grenades, can destroy cover completely, while some, like the flame weapons used by the Orks and the Space Marine's Dreadnought, ignore it completely. DoW II also features a much more improved unit AI, borrows CoH's awesome physics engine, and includes better detailed vehicles.

Unlike the previous installment, DoW II's single-player campaign does not have base-building elements of any kind. Similar to Myth: The Fallen Lords and Ground Control, players get to choose which units they'd like to start with prior to beginning a mission. While you can only pick four squads, each are highly unique from one another. However, you will not be able to build new units once the mission begins, and will only have a limited number of reinforcements at your disposal. The game's campaign includes quite a few RPG-style as well. Throughout the campaign, as your squads kill enemies and achieves objectives, they will gain experience, eventually level up, and then learn new skills and abilities. Wargear also makes a comeback and squad leaders along with commander units can equip it.

I'm really excited about DoW II and I'm counting the days until it comes out. If you're interested in getting an early look at the game, the multiplayer beta is hitting Steam on the 27th of this month. Also, if you buy the Dawn of War Soulstorm expansion at a 75% reduced price, you can play the multiplayer beta now rather wait six days. $7.50 for the game is a pretty damn good deal. Sale ends on the 28th.

Here's another luscious video for yas.

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Demigod
Developed by Gas Powered Games, makers of the epic strategy game Supreme Commander, Demigod is a hybrid RTS/RPG game heavily inspired by the Defense of the Ancients (DoTA) mod for Warcraft 3. If you're unfamiliar with the famous modification, let me give you a quick lowdown. The objective of the mod is to destroy your opponents' main building, called an "Ancient". The two teams' ancients are heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map, and players control singular powerful units, called heroes, which are then assisted by your teammates and AI-controlled troops. Just like in every RPG known to man, heroes level up by killing enemy heroes or monsters and gain access to more powerful abilities. Gold acquired from kills can also be used to buy new equipment during the mission. On top of that, some Swedish techno guy named Basshunter made a song about it too. Demigod plays in almost the same way, but will utilize fairly new and unique environments, armies, and heroes.

Basically, if you've played and thoroughly enjoyed DoTA, you'll feel right at home here. Slotted for a release sometime in March, or thereabouts, Demigod looks to be a fairly interesting and enjoyable game, even though I believe it'll fly under many people's radar. Sadly, the game isn't Chris Taylor's pet, but I'm not worried all that much. Who wouldn't want to play as a near-god anyway?

As usual, here's another juicy video.

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Action



Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising
Anyone remember the awesome ultra-realistic first-person shooter Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis? If you are aware of the game's existence, you'll happy to know that its sequel, OFP 2: Dragon Rising, is due for release as early as March. For the uninitiated, OFP is a tactical shooter and battlefield simulator game developed by Bohemia Interactive Studio, published by Codemasters, and released in 2001. Set on a group of fictitious islands in 1985, Operation Flashpoint puts the player on one of three sides in a hypothetical conflict between NATO and Soviet forces. Because Bohemia wanted to make the game as realistic as humanly possible, the game was quite difficult.

There hasn't been much concrete information since Dragon Rising's initial announcement, and all we have so far are some minor snippets. Kind of goes against a March release when you think about it. From what we do know, the game is developed for a more mature and war informed audience, just like the first one. Environments and buildings are much more destructible, and thankfully they'll crumble much more realistically in this one. There's a whole host of vehicles available, 50 altogether, ranging from tanks, troop carriers, aircraft, and ships.

There are also plenty of weapons to choose from and, According to Game Informer, "70 real life weapons are included in the game, all supported by a realistic ballistic system. This simulates surface penetration based on material and armor values. You can even select different ammo types depending on whether [sic] you prefer knockdown power or armor piercing traits, for example. Players can carry two large weapons, a pistol, and a knife. If one of these happens to be a Javelin missile launcher, you'll have to save that one shot until it matters. Just like in real life, remaining enemies will follow the smoke trail back to your position, so be sure to hightail it out of there after firing."

Multiplayer also makes a big comeback which will feature the following:

• 32 player (16 vs 16) in addition to the 256 NPC squad members (8 per squad per player)
• 8 player co-op in addition to NPC squad members
• 4 player Campaign + single mission co-op

Sadly, that's pretty much all the info there is. In any case, the game looks exceedingly promising, but hopefully it's not as buggy as Cold War Crisis. I still have nightmares from that game.

Another vid for you.



Forgive the stupid ad in the beginning, you can skip it.

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Lord of the Rings: Conquest
After all these years, Lord of the Rings is still alive and still kicking. And why not? Nearly all the games under the LoTR umbrella have been nothing short of awesome, and they've run the whole gamut as well. We've played strategy games, action, and even an MMO. It's high-time we got a crack at a Star Wars Battlefront style game.

Lord of the Rings: Conquest is an action game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It is based on the film trilogy, and as previously mentioned, borrows many gameplay mechanics from Star Wars: Battlefront games. The game allows the player to play as both the forces of good and evil, but unlike The Battle for Middle-earth, the evil forces must prevent the One Ring from being destroyed and fight back. Both campaigns are fairly long, taking you through most of the famous locations. The good campaign in particular takes you to all the locations found in the films. The evil campaign gets its own unique story, here Frodo fails to destroy the Ring and Sauron leads your forces to victory.

While singleplayer looks to be a lot of fun, Pandemic is spending a lot of quality time with the game's multiplayer. Currently, there are four multiplayer modes consisting of conquest, capture the ring, team deathmatch and hero deathmatch all of which are based on Star Wars: Battlefront 2 gametypes. A maximum of 16 players can play online, and there's even the option of downloading more heroes, villains, and maps. Players can even ride wargs and horses into battle too. Multiplayer also lets players choose from four different classes and they are the following:

• Warrior: A melee combat unit. Warriors can gain strength to unleash more powerful attacks, such as setting their swords on fire. They can also block and perform counter attacks with special moves. The warrior also has a throwing axe as a secondary weapon.
• Archer: A long ranged unit with a bow and arrow that plays like a third person shooter. Different types of arrows such as fire arrows which can knock down enemies, poison arrows which slow enemies down and do damage over time, and a triple shot attack which fires a volley of three arrows at multiple enemies. They also have a close quarters attack, which knocks back the enemy.
• Scout: A master in the art of moving unseen. The scouts primary weapons are two daggers, and he has the ability to cloak and kill units from behind. He also has satchel bombs filled with blasting powder as a ranged attack.
• Mage: A mage's primary attack is lightning, this can be charged up for a more powerful attack. Mages can also heal allies. The staff can also be used for melee. To protect himself and others around him from ranged attacks a mage can create an orb. The mage is vulnerable to melee while this is active.

The game is already released, but I haven't had the chance to play it yet. It doesn't look bad though.

Here's another gameplay video,

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The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Am I dreaming? Is Riddick really coming back? Sweet! After Activision Blizzard dropped the title this past July, I was afraid nobody would pick it up. Thankfully, our prayers were answered by StarBreeze Studios just two months after. We finally get to play another quality FPS with the ultimate badass in Assault on Dark Athena. Like OFP 2, we don't have a lot of information about the game and it's currently slotted for a Spring release. I'm just happy we'll get to play it.

From what we do know, Vin Diesel is back to voice Riddick, and that's the ultimate bonus for me. According to the game's Web site, Dark Athena is will employ much better graphics than Butcher Bay, as well as improved better AI. The game also ships with multiplayer, but nothing on that just yet. As for the game's story, Riddick is back to being a prisoner, except now he's stuck on a mercenary ship. I'm sure we'll get to see everything that made Butcher Bay so enamoring all over again.



Thanks for reading, and stay tuned next week for Part 2 of why 2009 is going to kick some serious ass.