World of Warcraft: The Board Game

I got this game for my birthday this year from my housemates and a few other uni mates of mine. See, when I saw it while on holiday in Vienna, I went like, "Wow, WoW looks so good! I want it!" and since it was near my birthday, they got it for me.

The game impresses in terms of visuals... the board is nicely made, character sheets are detailed and are of some quality, not just some cheap piece of cardboard. The skill, item, quest cards etc. are detailed and most include some form of flavor text. The models are pretty ok too although its not much to look at, you can barely tell one from another. Unless its like a really huge monster or something.

Ok so thats all that is good about the game. Gameplay-wise, it sucks. Big time. It takes at least 3 hours to finish the game and one of those hours includes setting up the damn board. The models are really irritating too after a while. First off, their so hard to differentiate from one another that you end up spending a lot of time looking for the pieces you need. Being color coded into blue, red and green doesn't really help much. The main point of irritation is probably that there's little to no player interaction. Sure, you have PvPs but those last another 2 hours just for one round of PvP combat so no one wants to do it. You're literally playing with yourself. Masturbating yourself takes much less time and is a whole lot more satisfying.

I hate to say it but the current game just sucks. I've forced myself to play it and well, I didn't actually hate it but after every game I think I would rather have done something else. Games shouldn't make you feel that way. Well I'll be trying to tweak the game rules a bit to try and make the game faster and more interesting, we'll see how it goes. Verdict: don't buy this game. Heh lucky I got my friends to buy it for me.

End of the summer holidays

Yet another summer holiday is coming to a close. I've always looked forward to summer, 3 months holiday after working hard for exams and on projects is much needed. This years summer however was special. Me and some of my best friends managed to go on our first trip together to the beach. It was great fun and I miss that time. My only regret is that we won't be doing it again so soon I think... and that we probably will never do so again. But it was fun and I enjoyed myself tremendously. I got a little too tipsy too that time (sexy dance lol).

I played a lot of football this summer too. I'd be glad to say I've improved by leaps and bounds, which I have... I was terrible before. Still its not good at all so I'll just play it for fun with my friends whenever I can. I need the exercise more than anything.

Merdeka day was quite eventful... I went to a barbeque at a friend's place for a while. Sandra, Samantha and Carol... I'm sorry I scared you. Lol! Guess they won't be reading this blog but still.. haha. Then I went over to another friend's house to get myself wasted. It wasn't too pleasant but... I wasn't really feeling myself. Fireworks were fantastic. Well, they were like any other fireworks display (maybe not even as good as some I've seen) but fireworks always brings back memories to me. Like 1st year in UK. And now like Merdeka day on the summer of my 3rd year.

Overall, this summer was really a blast. To all my friends out there, no matter how much or how little I know about you, you have my love. To those I may never see again, the times were good and great. I'll always treasure them. I'm going to go all out for my 4th year so watch me! If I die, then I'm going to at least die with a bang!

Giants: Citizen Kabuto

Giants was one of my favorite multi-player games back in my high school days. It incorporates 1st and 3rd person views as well as RTS elements of base building. Plus you get to play as a big ass godzilla thing called the Kabuto. Whats not to like?

After replaying it recently, I actually found the single player missions kind of... boring after a while. While the humor between levels was refreshing (although pretty lame at times), each level played out nearly the same. For the Meccs, it was always a "blow-up-some-barracks" mission, for the Reapers it was that annoying ReaperSki race and Kabuto seemed to just wanna eat everything. Needless to say I got really, really bored after a while. I just finished it for the sake of finishing it.


Its the multi-player experience that really makes this game shine. Its really just a free-for-all between the 3 sides; Meccs who use technology such as jet-packs and rocket launchers, Reapers who use magic and arrows and the kick-ass Kabuto who just eats everyone up. It was so much fun, Reapers and Meccs will all be hunting the Kabuto player cause killing the Kabuto gives you the most points while the Kabuto stomps on everyone trying to kill him and in the meantime the Reapers and Meccs will be killing each other too to stop each other from getting the Kabuto frag. Fun times for all!

Overall, this game is the bomb. The single player campaign may be as boring as shit but the multi-player gameplay more than makes up for it. That is, if you can actually find people to play this game with you now days...

Company of Heroes

I have to admit; I'm a sucker for WWII games. The gritty, chaotic environments, explosions everywhere and no so much as a laser gun in sight. Don't take it the wrong way though, its not as if I condone war of any kind. And WWII is probably one of the bloodiest conflicts this world has had. Which makes it all the more attractive in a gamer's point-of-view.

The game starts off with the initial landing for the invasion of Normandy... where else but the all famous Omaha Beach. You take control of Able Company, one of many infantry divisions and try to storm up the beaches of Omaha while under machine-gun fire. If you've ever played Medal of Honor or Call of Duty, I'm sure you'll know what it was like in first-person. Now though you have to do it RTS style. The game follows on with a company of paratroopers, deployed within enemy lines to disrupt German forces and to seize control of the roads linking the two beaches where the landings take place. The game then follows some of the major battles that the paratroopers and infantry face to capture Normandy, like the battle at Carentan and the closing of the Fallaise Pocket.

Immediately we're introduced to the very important concept of cover; cover is what keeps your units alive in the game. Lack of cover usually spells 10 seconds of life expectancy for your troops. You can use almost anything for cover; fallen trees, sandbags, low walls, ditches, etc. Buildings play a large part in defending a sector as it provides a major cover bonus for troops within.

Units in the game can be categorized into 3 types: infantry, light vehicles and tanks. With infantry you have snipers, engineers, riflemen, paratroopers and the like. Light vehicles consist of armored cars and anti-tank guns. Tanks offer the use of Shermans, Tank Destroyers, Tigers, etc. In terms of units, the game balances itself out nicely. Infantry are cheaper and strong in numbers, but lose out easily to snipers. Snipers lose out to light vehicles like jeeps. Jeeps are weak to almost everything else though. Tanks are easily the strongest units in the game, but lose out to superior positioning of anti-tank guns or flanking tactics from infantry with bazookas.

You also get to choose the kind of commander you want to be. You get to choose between being an infantry, paratrooper or tank commander. Infantry people want to... defend a lot for some reason. So you get loads of defense and cheap, quick reinforcements. Paratroopers get planes and the ability to put troops where their needed fast. Tank commanders focus more on using vehicles to gain the upper hand. I've tried for days and days now to prove infantry commanders are of some use but... I've failed. Paratroopers or tank commanders are way, way better. If anyone has a decent use for the infantry commander skill tree, please let me know.

I would rank this above C&C3 which came out around the same time. The detail put into the graphics, the tactics and strategies you need to employ on the go, the fast-paced action and split-second decisions that make or break your game make me believe that Company of Heroes is one of the best RTS games I've seen for a long, long time.

Starcraft & Starcraft: Brood War

When I was around 13 to 14 years old, I used to play this game a lot. This game is probably the first game I ever played in a cybercafe. We used to go this really dingy and run down one near my primary school called the PC shop. The computers were old and funky and there were only 7 working ones (an odd number lol) but we still had great fun.

So I recently finished this game (again) over the summer holidays, for a lack of a better game to play. Well it sure brought those memories of the good old times flooding back to me. Compared to the 3D graphics you get in most RTS games today, I kind of prefer the style Starcraft incorporates. It just gives me a really retro feeling...

The single player campaign comprises of 6 episodes (2 for each of the 3 races) which detail the coming of the Zerg (Aliens) and the Protoss (Predator?) to the unsuspecting Terran (Human) colonies. The plot is interesting enough to keep you playing from mission to mission, using cinematics and pre-mission briefings to move the story along. The gameplay is pretty decent with a good balance of difficulty. Players new to RTS games won't find it too hard and those who are good at them won't find it too easy. Towards the end though, especially in the expansion when you have access to the whole tech tree, the game becomes a little too easy. There aren't any difficulty settings for one. Also, once you have access to your best unit (like Battlecruisers or Guardians) then all you have to do is defend your base till you have a large army of them and you win.

Its the multiplayer experience that makes this game really shine. Amazingly enough, Blizzard has managed to balance out the strength of the 3 races (with a few patches here and there) so that each race has its own tactical advantage. The Zerg have weaker but cheaper units, the Protoss build powerful but really expensive stuff and the Terrans are the game's Swiss Army Knife; they are suited to handle all kinds of combat situations. Maps are balanced and beautifully constructed with terrain and resource points providing a lot to think about when playing it against a human opponent. The mix of units allow for all kinds of strategies like covert-ops, all-out attacks, sieges, ambushes, etc.

All in all, Starcraft is a beautiful game, even if the graphics may put some people off (not me of course). Which goes to show why after all these years Starcraft is still considered one of the best RTS games of all time (especially by Koreans)