Two years ago, the Assad regime in Syria assumed they could just clamp down on this Arab Spring nonsense until it went away. It didn’t go away. Instead, a long civil war happened. The death toll has been staggering, thanks to the Assad regime’s unfettered use of the military power it has cultivated over the years in Lebanon and against Israel. One of the most common criticisms leveled at the international community (well, Barack Obama) is the failure to impose a no-fly zone over the county, as it did during the Libyan civil war. Sometimes it’s convenient to ignore the difference between Libya and Syria to score political points.
But as the opposition hangs on and pushes back, sometimes city block by city block, they get closer to winning. Well, “winning”. If Egypt can’t even be an Egypt, what are Syria’s chances? But with every defection, with every sanction, with every captured tank, with every demonstration, Syria’s various rebels get closer to taking control of their country. And we mostly just watch through a Google News page.
After the jump, now we can watch through a videogame Continue reading →
I’m not sure that any of these games would have made my top ten, but I never got around to trying the Walking Dead series, Mark of the Ninja, Hitman: Absolution, Guardians of Middle Earth, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Natural Selection 2, Last Story, Tokyo Jungle, Yakuza: Dead Souls, or Spec Ops: The Line. So, mea culpa maxima.
But of the games I did play, here are my favorites for the year.
After the jump, the Qt3 trophies go to… Continue reading →
Red Turn feels like a late-war Eastern Front game. The distances and the size of the armies in each scenario are mind-boggling. The scenario pictured above, To The Dniester, has 816 steps between the two sides. I had to manage multiple fronts in many of the scenarios. Often the battles began with Soviet units stacked 4 or 5 deep against thin German lines. Playing the campaign feels like the multiyear ordeal that it describes. I spent as much time on Red Turn — if not more — than I did on Stalingrad Campaign. Officially, 2×2 Games calls this DLC. That merely embarrasses every other game developer that releases DLC. They’d probably release three challenge maps, a few new costumes, and charge 1600 Ruble Points for it. Well, it does sound pretty great when I put it like that.
During the hefty campaign in Red Turn, I picked up on two themes. One was the tipping point I noticed partway through the campaign. After that, the Soviet advance felt inevitable. Or was it? The other theme was how the Axis still had some punch left. Nimble veteran armored divisions impeded my plans at every turn. It took a lot of work to eject tough units from key positions.
After the jump, play along for a history lesson. Continue reading →
