Computer Games

Computer Games
Not intended to be a full blown review, this section deals with my experiences with various computer games I bought over the years. Generally speaking, I play the games very little, rarely ever finish any of the campaigns given, become bored or distracted then move onto another game. I have perhaps 40 or fifty games I have purchased over the years of varying quality. Computer gaming is sort of a vice hobby of mine, I should better spend the time improving my drawing and sketching abilities, or even chasing women!

General: LucasArts published a game using elements of the Star Wars universe. Though Tie fighters and X wings are included the game, it does its best in ground style battles, featuring Imperial Walkers, Storm Troopers, base building and resource gathering. I noticed Star Wars purists complain about various aspects of the game not "being exactly like the moovies" but it is the best Stars Wars strategy game depiction I have seen to date.

What I experienced: It's like Age of Empires, it IS Age of Empires: gather berries, build buildings, produce workers and warriors, seek out and destroy the enemy. I played on medium difficulty for the first skirmish game and had a few tense moments when the Naboo strafed my base with a fighter. I produced a few Stinger-type anti air troopers and after losing a few, got the fighter.

Medium difficulty is rather tame and after I got a few technologies researched and a good sized army built, the enemy was not much of a challenge any more. I then quite the game and tried on hardest. The enemy in short order surpassed my tech levels, launched a huge stream of attacks and overran my base.

I have since hacked into the .drs files and reduced the resource cheats the computer artificial intelligence (AI) gets. Subsequent skirmish games are more challenging but not impossible to win. I generally play on tiny maps with one teammate against two other teams (8 players total making for a fast, ferocious experience.

What I would like to see: Being able to build capital ships (such as Star Destroyers), maybe only one can be built at a time. Auto-unit creation or spawn from transport carriers such as ships and assault mechs and others. The Red Alert game has a carrier which automatically generates 3 fighters and Star Craft had the same sort of thing. If SWBG host transport units could do something similar, it would help the AI to facilitate invasions and also add another aspect to the game. Aircraft units (Tie fighters) generated from Star Destroyers would automatically be set for "Guard" to protect the Star Destroyer and keep up a continuous fighter screen and if the Destroyer were eliminated, the Tie fighters would function as normally. Players, if so desired, because of population unit limitations, could turn off the unit generation on their transports if desired.

Air seems a bit weak compared to the AA towers once emplaced. One tower can decimate five or ten fighters/bombers quite quickly. Should the AA towers be decreased in attack or the aircraft defense increased?

A Gaea non-player "monster" side or a continuous spawn of those units would be interesting--it would keep the board populated with food animals hostile Jawas, Sand People and others that would raid the player factions.

Auto repair of damaged buildings and units. Once I set a worker to repair something, I would like it to continue to repair anything else it can detect that is damaged. It would reduce a lot of the "micromanaging" that I would have to do.

Hate telling those farmers when to replant, Liked the era, AI seems to "fall asleep" after awhile though.

AI builds walls quickly. On Hardest impossible for me to beat. Liked the winter landscapes. Formations give feel of fighting with and against an organized army.

Got this just to try out a PC emulator on my Mac. Ran ok on a Quadra 950 but lagged on an earlier Mac FX. Did not beat the game, picked out the wrong mutineer and got thrown off the ship by the real one.

Played this continuously at one time and really enjoyed a user created map-Casino. Created a utility mod called "Slimebabes" which allowed Duke to "rescue" the various females he ran across. Works best in DOS and getting it to run sometimes gave me a real education in how config.sys and autoexec.bat files really work.

This game seemed to really push the limits of what the hardware could do at the time. The user boards were full of advice on how to squeak an extra megahertz or two out from a processor to increase the framerate.

Really disliked telling the workers what to repair and when, especially when it was burning down in front of them!. Really needs an autorepair function. Otherwise enjoyed the winter maps. The AI seemed to be quite a challenge and even though I did not play the campaign, in skirmish I found the sides very interesting and varied.

The road race set I always wanted. Around and around they go and after they ran over a mine or two, is where they burn! Used the cheat to get unlimited machine gun ammo since I was just NOT GOOD at getting it otherwise. Cars raced and battled on various tracks to win across the finish line and collect the winnings which could be used to get better cars and weapons. Explosive mines can be dropped in front of other cars and machine guns fired to eliminate the competition. I used a joystick and got a lot of mileage out of this game.

Played the demo got the retail and its siege pack. Lost a few games on the siege pack, never finished the main game. Hmm, I want to go back to this sometime.

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Computer Games Not intended to be a full blown review, this section deals with my experiences with various computer games I bought over the years. Generally speaking, I play the games very little, rarely ever finish any of the campaigns given, become bored or distracted then move onto another game. I have perhaps 40 or fifty games I have purchased over the years of varying quality. Computer gaming is sort of a vice hobby of mine, I should better spend the time improving my drawing and sketching abilities, or even chasing women! Star Wars BattleGrounds with expansion General: LucasArts published a game using elements of the Star Wars universe. Though Tie fighters and X wings are included the game, it does its best in ground style battles, featuring Imperial Walkers, Storm Troopers, base building and resource gathering. I noticed Star Wars purists complain about various aspects of the game not "being exactly like the moovies" but it is the best Stars Wars strategy game depiction I have seen to date. An X-wing does a flyby past an Imperial attack force. What I experienced: It's like Age of Empires, it IS Age of Empires: gather berries, build buildings, produce workers and warriors, seek out and destroy the enemy. I played on medium difficulty for the first skirmish game and had a few tense moments when the Naboo strafed my base with a fighter. I produced a few Stinger-type anti air troopers and after losing a few, got the fighter. Medium difficulty is rather tame and after I got a few technologies researched and a good sized army built, the enemy was not much of a challenge any more. I then quite the game and tried on hardest. The enemy in short order surpassed my tech levels, launched a huge stream of attacks and overran my base. I have since hacked into the .drs files and reduced the resource cheats the computer artificial intelligence (AI) gets. Subsequent skirmish games are more challenging but not impossible to win. I generally play on tiny maps with one teammate against two other teams (8 players total making for a fast, ferocious experience. What I would like to see: Being able to build capital ships (such as Star Destroyers), maybe only one can be built at a time. Auto-unit creation or spawn from transport carriers such as ships and assault mechs and others. The Red Alert game has a carrier which automatically generates 3 fighters and Star Craft had the same sort of thing. If SWBG host transport units could do something similar, it would help the AI to facilitate invasions and also add another aspect to the game. Aircraft units (Tie fighters) generated from Star Destroyers would automatically be set for "Guard" to protect the Star Destroyer and keep up a continuous fighter screen and if the Destroyer were eliminated, the Tie fighters would function as normally. Players, if so desired, because of population unit limitations, could turn off the unit generation on their transports if desired. Air seems a bit weak compared to the AA towers once emplaced. One tower can decimate five or ten fighters/bombers quite quickly. Should the AA towers be decreased in attack or the aircraft defense increased? A Gaea non-player "monster" side or a continuous spawn of those units would be interesting--it would keep the board populated with food animals hostile Jawas, Sand People and others that would raid the player factions. Auto repair of damaged buildings and units. Once I set a worker to repair something, I would like it to continue to repair anything else it can detect that is damaged. It would reduce a lot of the "micromanaging" that I would have to do. More games to come: Age of Empires Hate telling those farmers when to replant, Liked the era, AI seems to "fall asleep" after awhile though. Age of Kings with expansion AI builds walls quickly. On Hardest impossible for me to beat. Liked the winter landscapes. Formations give feel of fighting with and against an organized army. Galleons of Glory Got this just to try out a PC emulator on my Mac. Ran ok on a Quadra 950 but lagged on an earlier Mac FX. Did not beat the game, picked out the wrong mutineer and got thrown off the ship by the real one. Duke Nukem Played this continuously at one time and really enjoyed a user created map-Casino. Created a utility mod called "Slimebabes" which allowed Duke to "rescue" the various females he ran across. Works best in DOS and getting it to run sometimes gave me a real education in how config.sys and autoexec.bat files really work. Quake This game seemed to really push the limits of what the hardware could do at the time. The user boards were full of advice on how to squeak an extra megahertz or two out from a processor to increase the framerate. StarCraft with expansion Really disliked telling the workers what to repair and when, especially when it was burning down in front of them!. Really needs an autorepair function. Otherwise enjoyed the winter maps. The AI seemed to be quite a challenge and even though I did not play the campaign, in skirmish I found the sides very interesting and varied. Death Rally The road race set I always wanted. Around and around they go and after they ran over a mine or two, is where they burn! Used the cheat to get unlimited machine gun ammo since I was just NOT GOOD at getting it otherwise. Cars raced and battled on various tracks to win across the finish line and collect the winnings which could be used to get better cars and weapons. Explosive mines can be dropped in front of other cars and machine guns fired to eliminate the competition. I used a joystick and got a lot of mileage out of this game. Lords of the Realm with expansion Played the demo got the retail and its siege pack. Lost a few games on the siege pack, never finished the main game. Hmm, I want to go back to this sometime. Panzer General Allied General Civilization 1,2,3 Flying Nightmares Xcom Copyright ©2002 www.SteamChip.com Comments? Click here