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Retro gaming
The Retro Area at Eurogamer Expo made a welcome return this year and this means one thing…. Wrecked! We absolutely love this game, the remake earlier this year Wrecked: Revenge Revisited is not a patch on the original. QOD founder John was declared overall winner out of four matches, I managed to win one. The retro consoles and computers were great for the older generation and an education for the younger, I am old enough to remember playing the Colecovision! There was also a Street Fighter II arcade machine which we played winner stays on, I was on it for a while… if it is one thing I learnt in school it was how to play Street Fighter II 🙂
Guns of Icarus Online and Air Buccaneers
We initially thought Guns of Icarus Online and Air Buccaneers were the same game as they were next to each other at the expo. Both are teamwork based airship combat games with essentially the same goals, take down the enemy airships. We will go in to more detail on the games soon as we have betas for both but we wanted to mention them here initially to get the word out. You can find out more information about each game at gunsoficarus.com and airbuccaneers.com.
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Company of Heroes 2 (By Luke)
Company of Heroes 2, the sequel to the much acclaimed Company of Heroes was also playable by the public for the first time worldwide. The game is a squad based RTS game developed by Relic (Dawn of War I & II). The single player campaign this time around is focused on the Russians’ struggle against Nazi Germany, rather than the Allies of the first game. Relic have done an excellent job so far of setting this atmosphere, as once past the loading screen, I was presented with a beautiful snowy backdrop and a war-torn Russian village. One of the first things that impressed me was the graphical quality of both the environment and units, it is definitely one of the best looking games to date.
After a short voice over, I was given control of three separate squads, which I sent off in three different directions. My first riflemen squad were sent up the street I started next to, and that was my first mistake. As the fog of war cleared in front, there was a deployable MG controlled by the enemy, which pinned down my squad so they were unable to move or shoot. I hurriedly sent my second rifleman squad to flank, via the shortest route, only to find a second enemy squad in hiding. In a panic, as two of my squads were being shredded, I sent my final squad consisting of engineers round the only route left to flank. They managed to get right up to the enemy without taking any fire and erupted an orange wave through the enemy’s flanks. I almost jumped with glee realising they were equipped with flame-throwers as the enemy A.I.’s health bars melted before me, and my first two squads were saved (albeit with very little health left).
This scenario highlights something the demo did extremely well, keep me on the edge of my seat and the action heavy, something many RTS single-player games fail to do well. The reason for this is because the squad based strategy doesn’t involve any resource harvesting, allowing the player to focus on the more action heavy strategy of engaging the enemy. My only concern with the short-time I spent with the game was it did very little to deviate from the gameplay of the original game. I got to play with no new squads, nor did I experience any new gameplay elements compared with the first. Ultimately, the game played as a much more refined and more beautifully presented version of the first Company of Heroes, which if you’re a fan of the first, is still a great thing and a game to look forward to.
