Tactical turn based strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown, of course, was one of the main games in 2012. Almost the only decent remake of the original X-COM: UFO Defense, was so good that I was able to revive the genre gradually fading popularity among the general public. Now, one year later, the developers are offering to our attention XCOM: Enemy Within – addition, deserves a separate discussion.

It should be noted that we do not usually write about the supplement, but XCOM: Enemy Within is not just a few new cards, a couple of enemies and updated fresh additional missions. No, instead of the standard for other games facelift for $ 9.99 before us five minutes to the new game, which offers rewind time back and replay XCOM: Enemy Unknown by the new rules.

The plot is still the same distressed Earth attacking alien invaders, to counter that, a special paramilitary organization called XCOM. Then everything is as usual: build base, studying the remains found, launch satellites, shoot down UFOs, interrogate captured alien abductions and prevent attempts to try to keep an acceptable level of panic in the countries that finance our activities. With one exception – when in contact with strangers, people discovered the canister with an unusual substance, called Meld. During the research it appears that using nanomachines that comprise the substance, we can create super soldiers to fight intruders. 

Obtain the substance was not easy – at most levels are two cans, each of which establishes a mechanism of self-destruction. The first five moves explodes after landing your troops, the second ten. To prevent an explosion, you must manually disable the timer or destroy all enemies on the level before the detonation. In theory, nothing special, but in practice this means that the second canister soldiers will usually break under heavy enemy fire, covering their offensive smoke grenades.

But here’s another piece of nanomachines achieved and can be sent in one of two laboratories for the rewards. Improving personnel can be to focus on genetic modification or clothe soldiers in huge mechanized exoskeletons. Both options involve changing class and the loss of all learned skills, and in the latter case even limbs, but these sacrifices are absolutely justified, as a result we get is the real ultimate weapon. 

Invisible sniper without a run jumps up on the roof of a nearby cafe, big, after killing an enemy emits pheromones that improve the characteristics teammates, soldiers with two hearts, which is not only experiencing a fatal hit, but each move a couple of units regenerating health, what could be better? Well, I do not know … how about a three-meter walking tank, armed with a machine gun at the same time which, flamethrowers and grenade launchers? Or a walking fortress periodically jump on the enemies electromagnetic pulse, able at this mine premises immediately and heal all the soldiers around her? Oh yeah, and it’s still a miracle chrome kinetic armed fist, one hit is now able to send this overly aggressive Mouton alien to his forefathers. Naturally, while the pilots MEC to advance her career by learning new skills themselves exoskeletons can be improved, tune and even repainting. 

By the way, an amazing deal, the latter-day upgrades not depersonalize your soldiers, but rather give them more personality, so that the reason for loading the last save after one of the veterans unsuccessfully peered around the corner, only increase.

In short, the new fighters XCOM – is incredible, but updated aliens, unfortunately, significantly inferior to man version 2.0. Able to become invisible and attack at the most inopportune moment Seeker seems dangerous just the first couple of meetings until you barely seeing his tentacles on the horizon, do not start to leave fighters mode overwatch. But sektoid terrible enemy in the exoskeleton. This machine, with the support of their fellow small, can easily make half squad in just a few moves, if you missed just have not got heavy armor and heavy guns. 

But, as practice shows, especially the newcomers have nothing to oppose the pressure of elite units XCOM, so choose a higher level of complexity, unless you want to throw right and left end of the game alien like kittens. After all, if even on normal difficulty you can explore and learn almost everything, then at higher already have to choose – to insert your sniper sverhzorkie eyes or dig, and improve one of the robotic suits. 

And do not be confused by a small number of new units from enemies, because in addition to the alien forces in HSOM has another enemy – a hitherto unknown terrorist organization EXALT, sympathetic extraterrestrials. Its agents will sabotage research, steal data and all kinds of spoiling your life. You, in turn, are sending spies into cells EXALT worldwide with the aim of returning the stolen data and gather information about the terrorists themselves. And, a few days after introduction, a person will have to return by sending him a rescue team. Armed terrorists are not worse than yours, so that the soldiers have to sweat while hacking spy network repeaters or merges with the enemy important data servers. Gradually Staff XCOM will appear information about the possible location of a terrorist base and, consequently, the ability to attack the enemy, but to take hasty decisions should not be – the introduction of troops in the wrong country fraught with elevated levels of panic and loss of funding. 

Remember that most annoyed in XCOM: Enemy Unknown? And no, it’s not a lack of inventory, and a very limited set of cards, which began to bother about the third day. In XCOM: Enemy Within this problem is solved. In addition to substantial transformation of old maps, the game added a lot of new locations – repeating places became only occur closer to the thirtieth hour of the game. Given the impressive number of random scenarios (and more fine-tuning in the Second Wave) replayability XCOM: Enemy Within increased several times compared with the original. 

About multiplayer same can be said only that this time it works as it should, since the majority of bugs are not gone. True no revelations in this mode does not appear – collect squad, trying to squeeze into the credit limit, and meet with a group of opponents in a relatively small map. Can play, but there is a certain balance to the claim so that the campaign so far looks much more attractive.

When you run the loader offers a choice of XCOM: Enemy Unknown and supplement, but take my word, once you try XCOM: Enemy Within back to the original version will be no desire, too everything better.

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Turn-based strategy, especially purebred wargame, its occurrence is rare delight lovers of modern entertainment. It would seem that, in the age of the dynamics and shaders are slow and thoughtful military strategy finally turned to niche products. However Bremen studio King Art, known before only very decent adventure game, like the recent Detective The Raven , undertook to prove otherwise.

The game was in operation for six years, but all potential publishers that have been accessed developers were convinced of the futility of the new genre. But having appeared in March of this year on Kickstarter, Battle Worlds: Kronos successfully raised $ 260,000 instead of the requested $ 120 million, at the same time received and approved on Steam Greenlight in record quick time, and thus clearly demonstrated the interest of the players, proving that the turn-based wargame too early to drop discounted. But what exactly is different – so is the output of the final version is not just in time, and for a month ahead of schedule in December. On the background of traditions kraudfandinga where the promised sometimes have to wait for years, it looks pretty good.

The game’s plot originality and depth is the same – however, the classic strategy of themselves, and do not expect it. The action takes place in the entourage of science fiction, on a planet called Kronos. It was once almost destroyed during the civil war, and the majority of residents were evacuated to a nearby celestial body. But now, after the death of another emperor, the three formed the hostile faction returned to his native ashes in order to continue their opposition with a bang: the tradition, the candidate must possess the rulers of the ruins of dozens of local churches. For a plot twist you can watch the commercials between missions and slightly more numerous in-game messages to standard, even fairly trivial characters in the game on military issues: available here and the old general giving orders, and pretty telekorrespondentka, and rival – featuring a very nasty character commander of the neighboring armies and zealous captain-slave, regularly report to us about the situation in the trenches. 

Although, truth be told, the plot and can not attend. Unlike, say, Massive Assault and other early works of the celebrated today Wargaming.net , this component of the gameplay of the Germans was obviously not a priority. The main thing is different: the classic tactics of warfare – with planning several moves ahead, with a carefully thought-out movement of units, with respect for each combat unit entrusted to us – and without any extravagance in the form of diplomacy, construction, or taxation. KING Art is dedicated to bring the best ideas of the war-game two decades ago, such as the Battle Isle or Panzer General, the new technological and visual level, but with full respect for the classics in terms of preserving the spirit of the game, which requires relentless attention to every move and force a person to take difficult decisions.

Perhaps the developers to make it still failed. In visual terms Battle Worlds: Kronos performed quite well, the image units and structures are cute and detailed, even at maximum zoom cameras – the latest, to the delight of the veterans strategies of the 1980s, and you can zoom out to a level at which the three-dimensional units are converted into two-dimensional icons on a flat field of hexagons. The game does not try to scare off beginners prohibitive complexity in the development – the first training mission in campaign mode provides an insight into the gameplay in fifteen minutes. Another thing that is the second of the missions makes plenty of scratch my head, following an order for maintenance does not know how to attack and defend the transports from point A to point B at a constant pursuit of the enemy and the real threat of the environment …

Since the setting in the spirit of sci-fi, among managed by us combat units dominated tanks and self-propelled artillery. Later in the campaign, they will be added to the ships, aircraft and infantry snipers. In addition to the usual indicators of the “health”, the damage, armor, and levels of experience, each unit has two points from three types of actions: move, attack and “wild card” (ie, first or second action to choose from) – an interesting point, which allows good balance the performance of our troops. For example, “Rogue” – easy and fast combat vehicle with a remote attack – can boast with two jokers, which means that each turn is capable of twice moved, or double shot, or do both, and more at one time – but it is extremely vulnerable to the “unarmed” combat and requires a thorough covering of the slower tanks. Skillful maneuvering, coordination of all the troops – not an easy task and quite fascinating: for example, every unit gets a bonus to the attack, if next to it is another friendly unit.

Total plot card missions in Battle Worlds: Kronos has thirteen pieces – in two campaigns that come one after the other, and calculated by the authors about thirty hours to pass. However, the game has a more leisurely style of warfare – and even replay the stages already passed in order to fulfill all the side quests less blood. Recently, the more relevant as the transfer to the next mission may only forces at least twice to win improving – and, of course, managing to survive to win.

But what is puzzling, since it is identical units in almost all the warring parties. Three dozen military units and buildings that are common to the three main warring factions, there are only on one single unique units: a strange design choice, unless explained by a lack of time and resources. However, in the second story campaign will be able to play for a fourth faction – “Residents”, the indigenous inhabitants of the war-ravaged Kronos. The natives, in contrast to the more advanced “invaders”, do not have the technical power: they are dominated by infantry troops, and tactics – guerrilla warfare, with emphasis on various stealth-skills. Infantry, by the way, do not underestimate the game for the other parties to the conflict: the snipers and infantry robots are the only ones with all of our troops are able to capture warehouses, radars, the marina and plants opponent. In the first of these, if you’re lucky, you can find a couple of orphan tanks or helicopters, and the latter are used for the production of light and heavy combat units for the resources that are, again, mostly mined in the course of systematic capture of enemy territory. 

In addition to the story campaign, there is also single player against the AI ​​- alas, he has only three cards. However, there is hope for a speedy completion of their number with the help of the players – Map Editor can be downloaded from the official forum . For multiplayer maps comes a little more, a dozen – of which only one of the three or four participants. Multiplayer here, in addition to the simple and familiar hot-seat, platform-independent and asynchronous. Play on the network (by creating closed the game on a pair with a friend, or open with the ability to connect any player online) by following the logic of a thoughtful strategic gameplay, just as slowly, setting a time limit on the course of 8 to 72 hours. Of course, nothing prevents together with play in real time.

The game was released at once in seven languages, including Russian, – and, with voice in any language videos that lately does not occur very often. Unfortunately, the accelerated release dates inevitably affected by a variety of errors and omissions in the release version, especially in locales: testing if there was, it was only for the German and English versions. It should be noted that recently entered the fashion issue of games in the “early access” does not allow a certain way to distinguish between the advantages and disadvantages, and identify where it ends the collection of money for the buggy beta – and where does the promotion of the concept of “games as a service “reminiscent of the constant updates in the spirit of MMORPG. Release Battle Worlds: Kronos is not listed in the category Early access, but many are significant elements and features will be added by the authors in the coming months. So, besides the obvious bug fixes as early as next week, we promise the emergence of rating systems and leagues for multiplayer, by the end of November – browser-based version (designed to simplify much involved in asynchronous multiplayer game), and a host of new official maps until the end of the year. At the beginning of 2014 we expect a version for iOS, Android and Ouya, as well as a full complement Trains from third campaign for ten hours of passage and a new combat units. 

Of course, this does not mean that the game is not worth to pay attention now. In the end, all of the above owners Battle Worlds: Kronos will receive free of charge – and they have a lot to do before the appearance of patches and updates. Veterans of the classic military strategy can rejoice available opportunities in terms of combat maneuvers, and newcomers – to try to join the rather complex gameplay without feeling disgust at the sight of the graphics and interface. For all their relative disadvantages, Battle Worlds: Kronos – a very worthy choice for today in a rare genre wargame.

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In the fields, the mountains and the seas of ancient Europe are moving endless legions of Roman soldiers, troops of barbarian tribes and dozens of other factions. For hundreds of years, they are fighting and seized more land for their rulers. Never before in the history atlas for 5th grade was not so exciting.

Series Total War – a unique phenomenon, a turn-based strategy turned into AAA-blockbuster. A thoughtful, lasting many permutation of chips on the global map of the world, provided an expensive graphics. It seems to be a mixture of niche TBS and RTS easily achieves multi-million dollar sales that never dreamed of ordinary members of both genres.

At first glance, Total War: Rome II confirms its status as an advanced PC-games. Already debut encounter several groups of Roman soldiers with the rebellious inhabitants of Sicily becomes a visual feast, which a few years ago could afford a few shooters. The plains are dotted with a million details: grass, shrubs, ruined houses. On the banks of the rays of the sun shimmer on the waves of the Mediterranean Sea. Rows are soldiers, each with their own armor, animations and facial features.

A few hours later, dozens of thousands-strong legion fighting among the winter woods somewhere off the coast of the Baltic Sea. There is already forget about any discounts on the genre. Snow-covered trees all around, hundreds of fire arrows into the air, countless soldiers running against each other. At any time, bird’s-eye view camera can be lowered to the earth itself, to consider the distorted face of the barbarian, who had just stabbed a Roman sword. The overall cinematic happening adds muted color palette and the ability to turn on the virtual operator, which selects the most dramatic camera angles. 

But the players who come to Rome II because of the beautiful images need to be prepared for the fact that with all the splendor and blockbuster status, it’s still a tricky strategy. And for a day of real time spent in the game, you have time to draw the starting boundaries of his empire, to spend a few small hikes and launch an attack on the first major enemy. Army move in a virtual Europe slowly, slowly building under construction, the internal mechanics such as funding the troops and the maintenance of public order even more militaristic ambitions hinder the player. In addition, half of the time on the global map will have to spend watching the moves of artificial intelligence – the actions of rivals may take several minutes. That’s enough time between turns to read a book.

There really is a lot of factions. It makes a variety of diplomacy. If the Medieval Empire or we mainly dealt in large countries, the Rome II, especially at the initial stage, it is safe to fight – few people available to more than two or three cities. The administrative structure of the world itself has also changed. The province became a lot more, they are usually combined four cities. Each branch has its own buildings, but the taxation provisions and other available options – they are common to all areas. In the very same building settlements, now divided into the branches of development. At each location available, you can choose the type of construction, and then only to improve it. This solution simplifies the Creative Assembly micromanagement. 

But that does not mean that the management of the empire was simple. Still need to monitor the actions of the very enemy agents – spies, dignitaries and champions and manage their assistants. They and your generals are gaining levels, successfully executing orders – gradually each comes with its own features and specifications. Domestically, its difficulties. Some of the feuding parties, while others – the ruling clan and know. In short, the policy is necessary to pay attention to no less than war. 

Themselves fighting a variety and do not give bored. Here are simple and classic battle on the principle of “Cavalry beats swordsmen, spearmen, swordsmen beat, beat spearmen cavalry” (as opposed to games of the series in later eras, there is much less of a role played by the arrow). And the assault on the city using catapults, siege towers and ladders. And landing on the coast, where infantry units in a hail of arrows playing the “Saving Private Ryan 200 BC.” Naval battles easier to organize. Due to the mechanics of boarding and ramming, you can dispense conventional troops on transport ships, and not to build warships. In general, due to the low development of the technology of the time to play the role of Admiral in the Total War: Rome II is not as interesting as in the same Empire. 

The main thing that interferes with the play – its dampness. For a project with such impressive graphics doubly insulting a number of visual bugs. Sometimes disappear texture maps (some players report that their place can and does appear red and blue “caps”), ladder, leaning against the wall, it may fall right into the rocks, and the game interface to behave as you like – or even an abyss, or No download a separate window. All this is unpleasant, but isolated cases.

But the shortcomings of artificial intelligence is much more common. On the global map hard to attack the enemy can be many times more powerful army and storm the city, without much hope of winning. AI feels an inexplicable love of spearmen, often ignoring the soldiers with swords and shields. Because some troops of the Roman legionaries rout an army of the enemy. But in the real clowning game turns into a siege, especially with reinforcements from the sea. 

Enemy troops are going around in circles under the city walls, in the thick of the battle by sending one or two of the detachment. In this case, a simple humble starve the garrison manages to defeat an entire armada, and should be the opposite. Computer reinforcements may be inactive when our soldiers are already seizing the city’s central square. And such situations are everywhere. Since the release of the game was almost a month, Creative Assembly have released two large patch that corrects a lot. In particular, they improved performance and fixed the crashes on “Desktop”. On the way two more “patch” is possible after they are released game to get rid of such problems. 

But even in the current form of Total War: Rome II – an impressive sight. This is a unique game that lets you decide the fate of entire countries, to push the army of thousands, and within a few minutes walk down to the epicenter of the battle, and to look into the eyes of the soldiers who marched under the banner of Rome.

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