In case you didn’t know yet from my ongoing enthusiastic burbling, I love Renegade Ops.
In the movie Bad Boys 2, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence drive a Humvee through a shantytown. It’s stupid. Who would do that? People might get hurt. But it’s action movie stupid, no one gets hurt, and it looks grand. This is Renegade Ops in a nutshell, although with more explosions, cars way cooler than any mere Humvee, and plenty of surprises.
Now my love has a score. Read the full review here.
So I’m reading over the press release for the upcoming add-on to Distant Worlds, an ambitious, spread-sheet, AI-driven game of galactic conquest that feels a bit like something Paradox would make if they made games in space.
Then I get to this feature and realize publisher Matrix has pasted the wrong text into the press release.
a brand new character system with skills, traits and advancements based on each character
Ha ha, good one, Matrix. I actually had to scroll back up to the top of the email to make sure the error wasn’t mine, and that I wasn’t actually reading the press release for some sort of RPG. But sure enough, Matrix has mistakenly put this text into the press release for Distant Worlds: Legends. Everyone knows that Distant Worlds is as huge and impersonal as the galaxies on which it plays. Space this big and this busy has no room for individual characters, much less characters that matter or change. That would make Distant Worlds more like Master of Orion 2 or Crusader Kings or Shogun 2.
Among the other features mentioned in the press release:
new race-specific events and victory conditions; a new system for borders and spheres of influence; an expanded tech tree with new weapons, facilities, and wonders; improved AI; improved diplomacy including mining and refueling rights; greatly improved fleet management; new main map overlays to show ship routes and fleet postures; improved mod support,
That’s quite a lot. I’m flashing back to the way Galactic Civlization II improved so dramatically with the Twilight of the Arnor expansion. A basically sound game turned into a game exponentially better once its races were fleshed out to give the whole thing some asymmetry and personality. Those are two things the already fascinating Distant Worlds could definitely use.
Distant Worlds: Legends, with or without characters, will be out “by November”. That means within 34 days. Not that I’m counting.
Oh, and if you have any nifty ideas for a space monster that can prowl the galaxy alongside the dreaded space lobsters and space slugs, Matrix wants to hear about them.
The folks at 604 Republic have approached us with phat loot for a contest. I occasionally get offers like this, but I mostly ignore them because it’s goofy stuff like controller decals or a handful of credits for some online poker shenanigans. However, after taking a look at 604’s catalog, I saw about five or six T-shirts that I would gladly wear. In public. Around girls. Like that epic duel design above, which is way better than Jurassic Park 3. Take a look here for more designs.
And if you see anything you like, post in the comments section for this post. Commenters’ names will go into a random drawing. Additionally, join us for the Wednesday night Help Wanted session of Red Dead Redemption, and five (5!) instances of your name will go into the drawing.
A winner will be selected on Monday morning. Your choice of shirt and mailing address will be forwarded to the fine folks at 604, and they’ll send you some phat loot you can wear proudly!
