Alan’s Blog

Spent Saturday night playing 3 player Bankshot Billiards 2 on the 360 with a few beers. It was a lot of fun although the physics were a little wonky. Shots that should not have happened in real life tended to occur with a high frequency. This actually ended up causing much hilarity as taking potshots at a clump of balls would occasionally net 4-6 balls potted. Ultimately we had a lot of fun though, the game just needs more 3 player modes - the only mode that supported 3 players was called Cutthroat where there are 3 colours on the table and the goal is to sink the other players colours first; the last player with their colour on the table wins. I assume some of the other modes would allow 4 players (doubles), but I don’t have 4 controllers

Currently working through Oblivion again, with the intent to finish the main story this time. Last time I played I did the Thief’s Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, sunk like 20 hours into the game, and then got bored. This time I’m playing the same character (Assassin) but I’ve modded my game a bit. It is a lot more fun this time and I’m confident I should make it to the end. One of the aspects I disliked last play was that my Archery skills meant nothing (enemies required 3 - 5 arrows to go down, which meant a lot of back-peddling after I’d been spotted) - I have a few mods installed to try and correct this problem without making me too ‘godlike’, so far it seems to be working.

Ugh, being sick sucks. I don’t know how, as kids, we thought this was preferable to school.

Company of Heroes arrived last week, and I managed to get in some multiplayer action on Sunday ( I think ) before I got completely bed bound. The Multiplayer is awesome fun, I haven’t tried the Single Player Campaign yet. but I’m told it too is awesome.

Grouping Units by numbers is still useful, in fact, the combination of the grouping improvements I mentioned in my last post along with the units being listed down the right of the screen ( listed by grouped number or those ungrouped ), makes unit management the easiest I’ve ever experienced in any game ever.

The Multiplayer, as mentioned, is awesome. There are two game modes, Victory Point Control and Annihilate. Annihilate is your standard ‘pound the opposition into the ground and remove all trace of them’ fare. Victory Point is kind of a play on King of the Hill, but with multiple strategic points you need to control. You each have a starting score, holding more points than your opponent makes their score decrease. The game doesn’t promote the ‘build up a superior force and destroy everything’ game style that guaranteed success in past RTS games. Strategy plays a key role. You have to secure territory in order to increase your force ( the map being broken down into sections ). Taking territory involves planning, especially later in the game. You cannot simply stroll in and take the territory. Even though you may succeed in doing so, you certainly wont be able to hold the territory for long.

I also love the lack of upgrade paths. There are some upgrades you can do to your units/buildings, and some of them are worth doing depending on how you’re playing. What they’ve done instead is give you commander points which can be allocated to one of three divisions, Infantry, Airborne and Armor. These give you actions you can use at any time subject to the actions recharge rate and available resources. I’ve only played with Airborne so far. Basically it allows you to order in air strikes, drop supplies or troops and request aerial recon of areas of the map. Really awesome stuff.

Anyway, that’s enough Company of Heroes for now. Highly recommended.