Update 16.03.2011
If it ain't broke...
Shogun 2 total war was released merely a day ago, and already Steam has managed to deny all customers their ability to actually play the game.
Steam auto-updated Shogun 2 with a 45mb patch that has, evidently, prevented users from playing, citing that the installation in not complete. The full error message reads:
"Incomplete installation of total war: shogun 2 (15)."
The only word the Creative Assembly have given their community, after numerous threads and posts on the issue is:
"Guys, we are now aware of this issue. Please keep all posts in one thread."
As far as game releases go, this one has been a train wreck. It makes me wonder if delays truly are a bad thing.
By Richard Hewitt
Update: the Creative Assembly just released this statement on their official forums:
Hi guys,
We are fully aware of the issue regarding the Shogun 2 update that was released today and are working around the clock to resolve it ASAP. Many apologies and thank you for your patience. We will also be providing updates at www.facebook.com/shogun2totalwar and www.twitter.com/totalwar so stay tuned for more info.
Apologies again!
Mark O'Connell
(aka SenseiTW)
Update: 09.03.2011
Dealing with the Devil.
There's a lot of bad mouthing on the Internet. People sharing opinions, that often conflict and leave tempers flaring, but it's mostly harmless, right? Wrong. One Bioware/EA customer has, allegedly, found himself unable to play any of his Bioware games due to a negative comment about both companies he posted on the Bioware forums.
Quoted from the user in question (posted from a second account the user had to create) :
"My other account got suspended yesterday for 72 hours. My suspended v_ware account has all my Bioware games registered to it. My other games are Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins and Awakening. I have played every game off Bioware since KOTOR, which is my favourite game of all time."
When he enquired as to the reasons of his ban, this is the reply EA gave him:
"On EA Live Chat they told me that that I said: "Have you (Bioware) sold your souls to the EA devil?" (This is a quote, don't suspend me again)"
EA also drew attention to two terms of service rules that govern this sort of 'offense':
"1. BioWare community bans are forum-only and can be for as little as 24 hours. These bans should have no effect on your game, only your ability to use all the features of this website/community. these bans are handed out by BioWare Moderators as the result of our travels around the forum and/or issues reported by fellow community members.
2. EA Community bans come down from a different department and are the result of someone hitting the REPORT POST button. These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC.
Because the BioWare community now operates under the same umbrella as all EA Communities, community members here have all explicitly agreed to abide by and be governed by both sets of rules. Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you're going to follow."
It appears that the ban will last only 72 hours, but is that appropriate action against such a harmless comment? Does that mean EA and Bioware will only tolerate positive opinions about their companies and games?
The bottom line here is: Don't be a d*** to Bioware and EA.
"On EA Live Chat they told me that that I said: "Have you (Bioware) sold your souls to the EA devil?" (This is a quote, don't suspend me again)"
EA also drew attention to two terms of service rules that govern this sort of 'offense':
"1. BioWare community bans are forum-only and can be for as little as 24 hours. These bans should have no effect on your game, only your ability to use all the features of this website/community. these bans are handed out by BioWare Moderators as the result of our travels around the forum and/or issues reported by fellow community members.
2. EA Community bans come down from a different department and are the result of someone hitting the REPORT POST button. These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC.
Because the BioWare community now operates under the same umbrella as all EA Communities, community members here have all explicitly agreed to abide by and be governed by both sets of rules. Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you're going to follow."
It appears that the ban will last only 72 hours, but is that appropriate action against such a harmless comment? Does that mean EA and Bioware will only tolerate positive opinions about their companies and games?
The bottom line here is: Don't be a d*** to Bioware and EA.
Original source: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6459941/1
By Richard Hewitt.
--------------------------
Wright or wrong?
Hello Gamers,
I have a few points of interest to highlight in this update, starting with the creator of the highly
successful "The Sims" franchise - Will Wright.
During a recent interview with CNN, Mr.Wright expressed his view on video games as a story telling
medium:
"Games are not the right medium to tell stories," Wright said in the recent interview. "Video games are
more about story possibilities."
Now I understand that Will Wright has had an enormous impact on the video game industry, working on
such classics as: The Sims (and it's 1000 expansions), SimCity, Spore and countless other simulation
style games. His Success is definitely not in question here.
That being said, is Will Wright in any position to make such a bold statement? Mr.Wright has never been
involved in any game that has any meaningful narrative. If he has never tried it, can he honestly say
that games are not 'right' for storytelling?
Here is a quote from gameinformer.com on whether Will Wright has tried a narrative-based video game:
" When asked about Hideo Kojima's famously long-winded Metal Gear Solid series, he offers only a terse,
"That's not the kind of game I like playing." "
So the MGS series can be very convoluted at times, but it has a very strong story, with developed
characters, but Mr.Wright doesn't enjoy playing it, so all video games are, of course, a bad medium for
story telling.
I, personally, find this tid-bit of news very annoying; The man has no experience of video game story
telling, and he is ready to dismiss it completely. I think Mr.Wright should stick with his non-sensical
'sims speak' and leave the narratives to Bioware and the other giants of modern interactive
entertainment.
Right, back on to happier things.
We have many great games coming out next month and Shogun 2: Total War is on the top my list of games
to play.
"Games are not the right medium to tell stories," Wright said in the recent interview. "Video games are
more about story possibilities."
Now I understand that Will Wright has had an enormous impact on the video game industry, working on
such classics as: The Sims (and it's 1000 expansions), SimCity, Spore and countless other simulation
style games. His Success is definitely not in question here.
That being said, is Will Wright in any position to make such a bold statement? Mr.Wright has never been
involved in any game that has any meaningful narrative. If he has never tried it, can he honestly say
that games are not 'right' for storytelling?
Here is a quote from gameinformer.com on whether Will Wright has tried a narrative-based video game:
" When asked about Hideo Kojima's famously long-winded Metal Gear Solid series, he offers only a terse,
"That's not the kind of game I like playing." "
So the MGS series can be very convoluted at times, but it has a very strong story, with developed
characters, but Mr.Wright doesn't enjoy playing it, so all video games are, of course, a bad medium for
story telling.
I, personally, find this tid-bit of news very annoying; The man has no experience of video game story
telling, and he is ready to dismiss it completely. I think Mr.Wright should stick with his non-sensical
'sims speak' and leave the narratives to Bioware and the other giants of modern interactive
entertainment.
Right, back on to happier things.
We have many great games coming out next month and Shogun 2: Total War is on the top my list of games
to play.
One thing about Shogun 2 that makes me feel like a little boy at Christmas, is the expanded multiplayer
suite that is being touted by The Creative Assembly.
In past Total War games we have had multiplayer battles, 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 etc, and we have also had a
rather bare-bones co-op mode, which allowed two friends to team up and take over the world together.
The co-op mode would have been great if not for the fact that every time you initiated a battle, your friend would take over the opposing side, which is, in my opinion, detrimental to any teamwork implied by "co-op campaign".
But The Creative Assembly have been hard at work to remedy all these concerns as Shogun 2 will feature
a much improved co-op campaign and a full, adversarial multiplayer campaign.
Let's touch on the co-op side first. Shogun 2 will allow two friends to team up and take on the rest of
Japan. It is unclear, as of yet, how the responsibilities will be shared on the campaign map, but I can
tell you that during the battle map, both players will control one side, against the AI. What is even
better, is the units can be shared between players, meaning if one person loses his troops early in the
game, he can be given additional units to play with so he still has something to do during the rest of
the battle. I for one have been waiting for this feature ever since Rome: Total War, and I will be
playing the hell out of this as soon as it is released.
Now on to the big stuff. Shogun 2 will now feature a fully fledged, clan-oriented, online campaign.
Every clan will have a leader, who will issue orders to his fellow players, who will assume the role of
generals. It is the general's duty to make sure all of the leader's orders are carried out, taking
provinces etc. The leader can also dole out rewards to his best generals for sterling service, which
could create some interesting in-clan politics; would you screw over another general to gain favour
from the boss?
Needless to say I am very exited to see how this all pans out. I have been a fan of the Total War
series ever since the original Shogun: Total War, and it seems that this latest installment could be
the pinnacle of all their hard work over the years.
Here's the multiplayer trailer for Creative Assembly's newest installment to the Total War franchise:
Last point of interest, which I am sure many of you are aware of, is the major leak of Crytek's
upcoming, nano-suit epic; Crysis 2.
In past Total War games we have had multiplayer battles, 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 etc, and we have also had a
rather bare-bones co-op mode, which allowed two friends to team up and take over the world together.
The co-op mode would have been great if not for the fact that every time you initiated a battle, your friend would take over the opposing side, which is, in my opinion, detrimental to any teamwork implied by "co-op campaign".
But The Creative Assembly have been hard at work to remedy all these concerns as Shogun 2 will feature
a much improved co-op campaign and a full, adversarial multiplayer campaign.
Let's touch on the co-op side first. Shogun 2 will allow two friends to team up and take on the rest of
Japan. It is unclear, as of yet, how the responsibilities will be shared on the campaign map, but I can
tell you that during the battle map, both players will control one side, against the AI. What is even
better, is the units can be shared between players, meaning if one person loses his troops early in the
game, he can be given additional units to play with so he still has something to do during the rest of
the battle. I for one have been waiting for this feature ever since Rome: Total War, and I will be
playing the hell out of this as soon as it is released.
Now on to the big stuff. Shogun 2 will now feature a fully fledged, clan-oriented, online campaign.
Every clan will have a leader, who will issue orders to his fellow players, who will assume the role of
generals. It is the general's duty to make sure all of the leader's orders are carried out, taking
provinces etc. The leader can also dole out rewards to his best generals for sterling service, which
could create some interesting in-clan politics; would you screw over another general to gain favour
from the boss?
Needless to say I am very exited to see how this all pans out. I have been a fan of the Total War
series ever since the original Shogun: Total War, and it seems that this latest installment could be
the pinnacle of all their hard work over the years.
Here's the multiplayer trailer for Creative Assembly's newest installment to the Total War franchise:
Last point of interest, which I am sure many of you are aware of, is the major leak of Crytek's
upcoming, nano-suit epic; Crysis 2.
Yes, it is out in the open, it is by no means a finished product, but it is a late build of the game.
From what I have seen with my short time with the 'beta' it is shaping up to be a very lovely looking
game.
As far as game play goes, the shooting feels very smooth and flows with the action quite nicely. I did
notice that the game seemed to be very linear, so to those open-world Crysis 1 fans may be disappointed
by the final, retail version.
I don't wish to say much more about Crysis 2 due to it being an unfinished build, but it is definitely one to
watch, especially for those of you that want to test out your SLI/Crossfire set-ups come release date.
Anyway, that is all from me this week.
Happy gaming, gamers
--------------------------
game.
As far as game play goes, the shooting feels very smooth and flows with the action quite nicely. I did
notice that the game seemed to be very linear, so to those open-world Crysis 1 fans may be disappointed
by the final, retail version.
I don't wish to say much more about Crysis 2 due to it being an unfinished build, but it is definitely one to
watch, especially for those of you that want to test out your SLI/Crossfire set-ups come release date.
Anyway, that is all from me this week.
Happy gaming, gamers
--------------------------
Hey hey, folks.
2 I have ever played.
Yes, that's right, I've been beta'ing the hell out of Retribution, the second expansion pack for DOW2.
So here's the scene: A harsh desert planet, contested by the forces of the imperium, and the evil
forces of chaos (also known as two really hard AI, expert level). On the Imperial side we have the
venerable Space Marines, played by yours truly, and the hardy Imperial Guard, played by a certain
George Paice (you may remember him from the Dead Space 2 Rules of Engagement).
The battle starts with a clash as I glance over and behold the forces of Chaos advancing towards the
desperate, sporadic lasgun fire coming from my ally. There is little time to admire the glorious sight,
however, as I brace my battle-hardened Marines for hand-to-hand combat with some vile Heretics. Blows
are exchanged and panic sets in as more Chaos approach from my left flank.
"Damnit, I can't reach the requisition point!" I scream over the comms to Mr.Paice.
"It's ok, I'm about to take a power node...Ah s***!" Mr.Paice's victory was cut short by the appearance
of a Chaos Dreadnought, which proceeded to tear his commissar and light infantry to shreds.
The battle raged for twenty minutes. The battle raged for thirty minutes. I advanced. I retreated. My
Marines died. My Marines were reinforced. The Imperial Guard fought hard. The Imperial Guard took
losses.
We endured. Thanks to some savvy defenses set up by George, we managed to hold our ground, at our
bases. We would not last forever though. We needed a plan. George mounted up three squads of men in two Chimera transports and sent them around the right flank to perform a surgical strike on the Chaos
stronghold. At first things were going well, the IG (Imperial Guard) managed to destroy the enemy's
defense turrets, and started attacking their main base directly, when daemons were summoned, which
promptly took out one of my ally's tanks and most of his men. The Imperial Guard fought hard. The
Imperial Guard retreated.
Seeing the Imperial Guard limping back to base was not a pretty sight, but it lifted my spirits to see
how much damage he had done to our enemy with such a small force. We needed to press on again, with
Space Marine support. I called down a Razorback transport and allocated a squad of Tactical Marines and
a Techmarine to bolster the IG forces. George repaired his Chimera and called down a Manticore
artillery support vehicle. He patched up his wounded infantry and mounted them back in the transports. We were ready for death and glory.
The convoy left the IG base and headed East, towards the enemy stronghold once again. We stopped when
we saw the remnants of the previous strike force. My Marines left the safety of the Razorback to fight
the Chaos head on, with the IG in support with their artillery and light infantry. As we applied
pressure on the enemy base, the enemy applied similar pressure on my own base. Thankfully my Marines
back at base were dug in well and had little trouble repelling the enemy advance.
After the first enemy base was destroyed, we set our sights on the second base. We met with more
resistance this time, but I sensed an opportunity and mustered my entire army to advance up the left
flank. The remaining Chaos forces fought hard. The remaining Chaos forces fell. Victory was ours this
day. For the Emperor!
What a game! Not a million miles from DOW2 or Chaos Rising but, my first impressions are very positive.
They seem to have tweaked and balanced an already great game. I will admit that when I first played DOW2, I was weary of the pop cap limit and the smaller scale battles, but after a few years of tweaks
Relic has gotten it to the point where it is such a well balanced game, I could not imagine it any
other way. With a strong focus on teamwork and small-squad tactics, this is an awesome game to comp
stomp with your mates.
But of course, multiplayer and the new race (Imperial Guard) are not the only things Relic has to offer
with this new addition to the DOW2 series. We now have race specific campaigns. Will these be short,
but varied ordeals? Will they be similar in length to the Chaos Rising campaign? Will they include
similar game mechanics to the corruption system in Chaos Rising? Only time will tell. Also, the removal
of Games for Windows live is enough to warrant the price of admission :)
Anyway, that's it from me because I really need some sleep. As soon as the game is out, I will be
playing through all six of the campaigns and maybe even try some multiplayer against real people,
although I will get my ass handed to me, and maybe I will post up a review once all is said and done.
Until then I will bid you goodnight, and keep an eye out for my Dead Space 2 review, which I will do
my best to have up on the site within the next few days.
Stay classy, San Diego ;) (I don't really live in San Diego, if you were wondering)
--------------------------
Update: 03.02.2011
Hello gamers,
Just posting a quick update on my portion of 3crows.net to keep you updated on my adventures recently.
Dead Space 2. What a game. I am 2/3 the way through it now, and so far I am loving every second of it, particularly the awesomeness that is chapter 10, which I will not spoil for anyone who is still playing through the game right now but wow.
I intend to write up a full written review as soon as i close the books on that game.
As for my other gaming exploits this week, I have been playing around with Cities XL 2011, which I am kind of getting into.
I have never been a massive fan of city builders but I think this may be the one to get me hooked.
I am really enjoying building up my poor, poor township into a bustling metrpolis. It is a very interesting concept as new towns are not common now-a-days.
Anyway, maybe I will write up some more on Cities latewr on but for now I need to concentrate on Dead Space 2. On that note I will leave you to it.
I am uploading our Dead Space Rules of Engagement right now so they should be live within the next few days. As a note about these vids, the volume can be a bit funky on some parts due some new hardware we had to use to accomodate an extra person, so please forgive us for that, and we hope you very much enjoy our antics of the first 3 hours of Dead Space 2.
Keep on gaming gamers :)
--------------------------
Well, here we are. With our fancy new website and several more videos under our belts. But before we go any further, perhaps a short introduction is in order.
My name is Richard Hewitt. I've been gaming ever since I was given a ZX Spectrum, many, many moons ago. Since then I have graduated through several generations of consoles, from the Super Nintendo, though the dreamcast era to the current generation.
With 3Crows, we have the chance to deliver honest and frank critisim on both new and old games alike. Our, mostly un-edited, videos give us the chance to show the games we review in their true form, warts and all, to see how they truely stack up.
Armed with this blog-space, Si and I will be posting our regular videos under the name Rules of Engagement, along with reviews and updates that we will be both posting in our own sections (Simon Says and Rich Reviews, respectively).
Now all that is out the way with, let's crack on the task in hand.
Happy gaming :)
-Richard Hewitt.
Posted 25.01.11
--------------------------
Coming Soon from the brain and keyboard (mostly keyboard) of our host with the most* Rich some carefully written** reviews and commentary*** !
- 3Crows Studio
* Disclaimer; this host may or may not have the most, but is certainly bringing something to the damn table, what are you doing?
**(drunken scribbles on the back of beermats)
