Saturday, May 12, 2012

Let's Talk Terrain: Afghan Village




Now that I had the basic concept of how to scratch-build a small structure out of foam insulation and cardboard I was confident in moving on to somewhat of a "mass production" phase. I wasn't sure exactly how many buildings that I wanted to start with, but 6-9 seemed like a good target.

Waking up early on a saturday morning and went straight to work.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Now Bioshock Infinite Delayed to 2013?



Look, I get it. Ken Levine's statement of course makes sense. Put the best game out as you can. But let's not forget the Duke Nukem problem (in development - the content, from what I understand, was the biggest problem)...discovering new things to do or add or change. You can overwork a painting. Be careful.

My issue now is what the heck am I to look forward to playing this year? Two of my most anticipated games (seen above, The Last Guardian and Bioshock Infinite) have both been pushed...one til when only God knows when.

Looks like Far Cry 3 just shot up a notch as a must have. Borderlands 2, already attractive, may be the belle of the ball. And EA just got my money locked in for Battlefield 3 DLC.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Let's Talk Terrain



Wargaming requires terrain. If your table top battles are to employ flanking maneuvers, gaining the high ground, obtaining cover, etc...you'll need to represent this on the battle field.

Representation is a key word here. you could place a piece of paper down on the table, call it a building, and imagine how it would impact line-of-site. I myself have stacked a few volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica (R.I.P. physical copies) to convey bluffs and buildings. But let's face it. You aren't driven in the hobby to have your armies fight for dominance of an reference library encampment and run for cover behind a shoe box.

You want good model terrain. You want your battles to look like the ones you see photographed in the rule book. You want your battles to offer up great photo ops where your models accurately depict soliders digging in to their position and taking advantage of cover.

In my past dabbles into the hobby, I never got around to terrain, and I think not having it was a contributor to not keeping up with it.

So back in February, as I started to get into Force on Force, I wanted to make sure I had a jumpstart on terrain, even before I'd received my copy of the rule book or the miniature soldiers who'd be doing battle.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

thatgamecompany's 3 game deal with Sony; The Fantasia of Video Games?




So, I finally have a weekend to myself. Nothing to do but catch up on some quality video game time, watch the Tigers, and make some progress on my wargaming miniatures.

First up? Journey. I've been waiting for some time to myself where I could give the game a complete play through without interruption. I'd heard that the game takes 4 hours to complete (actually less, I think I may have been under 2 hours) so this was a great opportunity to do so.

thatgamecompany, the studio behind Journey, is a critical darling well known for putting out "games" that fall comfortably into an "interactive art" genre.

Their 3 game deal with sony consists of "flOw", "flOwer", and "Journey." The latter two garnering substantial accolades from critics.

Gamers and critics often set their hopes on when at some point, a video game will come along that will make you cry. The idea being; that invoking such an emotion would finally elevate video games to the respected levels of movies, television, and books.

Journey doesn't make you cry. At least it didn't me. There was no reason to. However, something else incredible happend. I don't think I've ever played a game where I experienced a rush of chills. At least not until I completed Journey.