Empire Campaign Finished

Finally finished the third campaign in Red Alert 3, the story surrounding the Empire of the Rising Sun.  The stories were great, loved all the live-action movies and the actors within them, gives a satisfying backdrop to your in-game triumphs.  The closing movies, each centering around the various faction's female communications officers, are a little embarressing, but I guess if you're a desperate teenager, they hit the spot.

I felt very challenged by this campaign and the rest.  The AI keeps coming after you with various groups of troops, and you can't leave your base open or they'll just wipe it out.  You must use a variety of units and tactics, so that you are prepared for anything they throw at you, and they'll throw everything at you.  Base defenses seem so formidable in this game, requiring air strikes or long-range artillery to remove before you go in with ground troops or you will face devastating losses.

With the story closed on this game, I'm very much looking forward to the expansion which drops next month.  The additional campaigns and game modes promise to expand the game's life, for which I am very greatful!

Red Alert 3: Uprising

I just learned about the upcoming expansion to 2008's Red Alert 3. Entitled Uprising, the expansion will feature new campaigns and a new game mode call Commander Challenge, a type of persistent skirmish mode. In this mode, you face ever-escalating waves of foes, and you keep your units and resources presumably, along the way. Sounds like fun. Uprising is coming out in March.

Red Alert 3: The Allies

Playing around a little bit more with the game, and I had a chance to run through a skirmish with the Allies this time. The Allies, made up of the traditional western European powers along with the United States, center around strong naval and air strategies.

Base construction with the Allies are pretty standard; you queue up a building, and place it once it is complete. I thought the base defense turrets were interesting. They start life as missle turrets, but depending on what infantry you place inside, they change. Add a standard rifle infantryman and it turns into a triple-gun anti-infantry emplacement. Pretty cool.

Obviously the strong navy is a big draw for me. The biggest, baddest direct-attack warship is the Assault Destroyer. This is a strong anti-armor, anti-ship unit. It has an ability that makes it draw fire from other units, making it the perfect escort. The end of the line naval unit is the Aircraft Carrier. The destruction that this thing wreaks from afar is a sight to behold. Each ship comes equipped with a quintet of strike aircraft that it launches at your command. The ship also has a special ability called the Blackout missle, allowing it to do a targeted EMP blast and disable electrical systems in the radius.

Add in the anti-air, amphibious transport, and scout unit (the Dolphin!) and the Allied navy force is a powerful, versatile team. Should be fun to sneak around the end and blast the enemy from the sea!

Red Alert 3: Empire of the Rising Sun

I've finally gotten the game into my RTS-loving hands!

Funny story (that wasn't very funny at all when I was in the midst of it) before I begin describing my initial experiences. When I came home with the game, cracked it open, and began the install process, I discovered a serious error. The registration code printed in the manual was missing a character, the very last character of the code. Of course, after I got a little mad, I did what the very erudite individual Mart suggested to me: try every alphanumeric character.

I did so. It was a 3!!!

Anyway, be on the lookout for goofy serial codes.

On to the game proper. Love the intro movie, I have high hopes that the campaign is going to be a heck of a good time. But I wanted to get right into the game, and test out the new faction: The Empire of the Rising Sun. Obviously inspired by Japanese history, the faction has units such as convertible mecha vehicles, sneaky scouts, and massive warships.

The base construction with the Empire is a little bit different in this game. Each building starts live as a vehicle, which you can move to a spot on the map, any spot in fact, and drop it in place, where nano-machines fill out the building from the vehicle's framework. This allows for great flexibility in base layouts and expansion.

The units aren't too out of the ordinary, but they do have interesting tweaks. All units have two combat modes or some kind of special ability. A couple of the cool units are the Mecha Tengu and the Sea Wing. The Mecha Tengu is great versus troops and light vehicles when in ground mode, but can transform into an anti-air unit in its secondary mode. Similarly, the Sea Wing is an aerial bomber in its primary mode, but can transform into a light attack submarine. These units allow for a greater flexibility in the field by transitioning fewer units to more specialty roles. Plus it's just awesome.

The Empire seem to be a perfect fit for players who crave flexibility and customizability, and who are able to micromanage transforming units into the perfect foil for their enemies' tactics. Definately a faction I inted to deeply examine! More to come as I check out the Allied and Soviet sides in the global Red Alert 3 war.

Awash With Fresh Titles

New computer in hand, PS3 warmed up, and the Wii on the bench ready at any time for Karting and Brawling, we get ready for an explosion of gaming as the weather cools down. September was tons of fun, all with the The Frustrating Unleashed and Sporogenesis happening. October though... It's something else entirely.

I put my pre-order down for Red Alert 3. It should be LAN-tastic, and I'm sure Mike and I will enjoy the crazy co-op missions. It drops Oct 28th.

A title I've talked little about, mostly because it scare the bejeezus out of me, releases tomorrow for consoles and next week for PC. The game is Dead Space, and promises gory, terrifying gameplay. The PA boys talk a little more about it. Saint's Row 2 and SOCOM, games I'm sure people play, also come out tomorrow.

Obviously, next week Mart and I will lose a great deal of our lives as Fable II and LittleBigPlanet releases for us, respectively. In his much publicized statement, Peter Molyneux asked people who don't play games to play Fable II, which doesn't make a lot of sense, but then kind of does. If it's accessible to people who aren't gamers, doesn't that make people who are gamers look more closely and think "Let's get the crap out of the way and play games that are enjoyable, rather than just excercises in anything that isn't fun." LittleBigPlanet promises to be the NextBigThing in cooperative, community gaming. I can't wait to see the levels that people dream up, besides giant calculators. Also releasing are games like Legendary, where you shoot gryphons and other mythological creatures in present-day London, and something called Rock Band 2.

The week after, of course, will be RA3 and the massive Milden LAN. Also releasing that week for our post-apocalyptic enjoyment will be Fallout 3, the creepy shooter/RPG adaptation of the famed franchise. I'm probably going to stay away, only because it scares the crap out of me. I'm sure it will be fantastic for those stronger in spirit and stomach.

So, it's LBP and RA3 for me. There's a multitude of shooting games for would-be violent criminals. And a game for would-be musicians. I think that just about covers it. I'll be back in November when GTAIV comes out for PC!