I've waited for this game to come out for, ohhh, well, since I imagined they would create it as a natural extension and continuation in the Total War series, so, back when ROME: Total War came out.  The Total War series is amongst my favorite titles, and I own all of them, and most expansions, from Shogun up to Medieval II.

So, I was incredibly delighted to be informed by Steam that a demo for Empire was ready to be played.  I dropped everything I was doing and started the install process.

My Review: 

Immediately, people with a similar configuration to me will notice a very long (3+ minute wait) during the initial loading screen.  Why we are forced to wait for so long reading the "bink video" and "Total War" logo is a complete mystery, but, some of us do have this wait.  Directly afterwards, the menu system seemed familiar, but, WOW, this demo is limited!  You get two "tutorials", which are about 95% useless if you're a Total War veteran, and 2 "Single Player Battles".  The campaign mode is absolutely not represented in the demo whatsoever.

Anyway, a few really, really long loading screens later the tutorial is loaded. (What is it doing, Creative Assembly?  Seriously?  We change our video and control options, and then we have to watch a "loading" bar again... why?  That should have been changing like 10 lines in an INI file somewhere.  Stop taking the interface away from the player.)

Ultimately, if you've played Medieval 2 and made use of the bombards and gunpowder weapons in that game, the land-based tutorial and battle example aren't going to offer anything new aside from taking cover behind obstacles and in buildings (which, you don't get to take advantage of as much as the CPU).  The graphics are impressive, with very nice attention to detail on everyone, but the performance is a considerable bit behind Medieval II (probably about 40% slower before lowering settings), while there's not really much improvement in quality(Maybe a 10-20% improvement in graphical quality).

The default control scheme is different from Medieval, using the WASD as default camera movement, Q and E to rotate camera, and so on.  This can easily be remedied in the options, and most veterans of the series will probably revert to old input methods.  The new in battle interface is superior to the prior versions in some ways but also lacking.  The unit cards seem weakened, and gathering information about the status of your soldiers is not as evident as it was before, but it does have a much cleaner and more professional look.  Function ultimately wins over form, but the improvements to form *almost* make up for the loss of function.  Maybe it's just a learning and adjustment issue, time will tell.

The Naval Battles are pretty awesome.  Great graphics, and each ship in your fleet feels like its own entity capable of turning the tide of battle if used correctly.  This portion did not run so well on the test computer, but victory was still relatively easily had.  

Honestly, it may have been a bad move for Creative Assembly/Sega/et al to release this demo, because according to google, several people are already having performance problems with it.  With no Campaign teaser to whet the appetite for carving a new world, all we're left with is an impressive demonstration of the naval battle engine, and a lot more of the "same old, same old" overland battle from the rest of the series.  It probably should have highlighted more of the differences in ground battles in the new game in addition to the ocean tutorial and sample battle.  Furthermore, the campaign mode is what many players play the game for, so it wouldn't have been too much to ask for a small sample campaign to toy with.

Without multiplayer, also, the Demo took this game from my "must buy" list to my "maybe I should read up on the forums for a couple months before I purchase this one" column.  I am still excited to play the full game, and I'm sure it's packed full of awesome surprises (they've been working on it long enough!), but with the way it performed and no insight as to what campaigns will really feel like to play aside from a few review site vids, I think i'll take my time getting this one.

But, anyway, it's a free demo, so give it a shot!

Magic:

The first time I played Magic was during 5th edition.  A friend of mine introduced me to it by showing me some cards, and I observed a couple of games.  I took my money from my high school computer lab job and went about buying several packages of cards, and amongst my circle of friends, learning the rules.

This process should not be skipped by any Magic player, as it is educational, fun, addictive, and a very good reason to get together with friends.  Yes, there is ridicule from the dullards of society, but, what won't they ridicule?  Anything that requires intellect is under fire from the mentally inept around you, chess club, books, role playing games, video games, anime, all of it... It is a sad state when the collection of morons is so great that one must be bold to undertake an innocent and fun hobby, but, it is nonetheless the state we are in.  Regardless, if you have not tried it, GET SOME CARDS AND PLAY.

The game can be enjoyed on many levels.  As a collector, you'll find yourself trying to locate rares and interesting or thematic cards.  As a casual player you'll find yourself building decks that employ esoteric strategies to defeat your opponents and have fun while doing it.  As a competitive player you'll be throwing cards out of your deck and refining it with cutt-throat precision at each loss, and seeking new opponents regularly.  

The Problem:

Sadly, for all the fun of it, many players will arrive where I have with the game: Continuously frustrated.  I am part casual and part competitive player.  I enjoy having fun with the cards, but I like to win at least a solid percentage of the time.  Due to the nature of the game, being a collectibles game, occasionally a friend will "outbuy" you.  Rare cards are generally more powerful, and, more expensive, such that a well-made deck of rares beats a well-made deck of uncommons or commons.  This can lead to a bit of an escalation effect, where you will find yourself blowing large amounts of cash at a local hobby store and leaving with only a handful of cards.  Then, of course, your friends can always play against those cards by spending more money (or finding a devilishly cheap strategy that undermines you specifically).  This makes Magic amongst friends a very frustrating event, sometimes.  

A typical Magic Game in progress:

One of the biggest problems for casual players of the game is "Net Decking".  This is when your opponents use the internet to research strategies, read deck lists of tournament winning decks, and otherwise use knowledge of the game not of their own design in order to gain an edge against the people they play with.  This, being done by a player with ample spare cash to blow, will leave a very bad taste in your mouth if you play them frequently, as there is no answer within the game that can be made up by practice or logical deck construction.  It comes down to money and research time  on the internet, rather than strategy and creativity.

Your friends who play this way are not to blame alone.  Wizards of the Coast designs the game such that not all cards are created equal in order to drive revenues as people buy up boxes of "booster packs" looking for a lucky find of a good rare (or now "Mythic Rare") card.  This means that many of the cards that you get will be decidedly "Sub-Optimal"... or, easily replaced in your deck by a different card.  If you read the tournament deck lists, you'll find a solid collection of about 24 cards that appear in just about every top 5 decklist.  It forms sort of a pyramid of strategies that are available, where there are hundreds of deck types and strats at the bottom tier 30 or so deck types that are really solid, and then maybe 10 "tournament win capable" decks in any block.

Furthermore, the "Tournament Legal" card list is generally comprised of the latest editions and all "blocks" since.  This allows Wizards to conveniently phase out entire blocks of cards and force interested players to buy new sets each year, and the real catch is, the newer the set, generally, the more powerful the cards or the better the "answers" to strategies defined in prior "blocks".  They establish an arms race and provide the weaponry.  Smart business tactic, but, it leads to a very sour game, since it's almost a game of "who is willing to spend $100 on a single deck build?"  AKA, "Franklin decking".  

"I can't seem to locate my bitterblossom, guys, I think I lost it under my giant pile of money."

Now, several aspects of the strategies that need nerfed really hard to help fix the game could be delved into, but, I'll save that for another article.  There is a solution to this right now, though.

OCTGN:

For a long time, some developers have been creating a tabletop card game interface for use over the internet.  One of the games that can be played in said interface, amongst people who have themselves downloaded "card sets"... is Magic the Gathering.  Downloading card sets may or may not be illegal, I really don't know, nor care, honestly, but it certainly can enable the game to be played without the "money scheme" that's been built into it by Wizards.

Enter OCTGN.  Armed with this free client, you can play full games of MTG with all the newest sets, up to CONFLUX as of this writing.  It is a perfect tool for testing deck builds without spending hundreds of dollars.  The deck builder alone is a nearly invaluable tool, as it functions so quickly and smoothly, without waiting for card images to download or pages to refresh, that I can't think of a single tool that matches it for this purpose.  There once was an old program called Apprentice32 that was very much like OCTGN, but I don't know where that development path went to... if you know, please comment :).

Here's what OCTGN 2.0 looks like:

I love my arcade machine.  Built from a vandalized and beaten up old cabinet, and modified to run tons of emulators, it has been a dream of mine forever to have one.

Using a JPAC unit to connect a computer to the old arcade screen, and an X-Arcade do it yourself kit, with some HAPP authentic arcade controls, I managed to breathe life back into this gutted monstrosity, and give it capabilities it only dreamed of having in its previous life.

It's a little rough around the edges (havent gotten around to doing an aesthetic overhaul yet), and I haven't really completely customized the software side of it to the extent that I'd like to, but overall, there's tons of fun to be had on it.  Using MAME as the primary emulator, GameEx as the frontend, and about 13 other emulators for Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Virtual Pinball, Daphne Laser Disc games, and everything else, it can play over 8,000 individual games.  

Street Fighter Alpha 3 on a Street Fighter 2 machine really makes me happy.  "Hadouken".

Near future improvements will include a 4 port hub, for the easy attachment of control pads (for better authenticity while playing console games), and I've been considering using wiimotes as light guns and maybe even steering wheels, if I can figure out a really good way to do so.  I'd also like to give it a good coating of paint, replace the plexi-glass front (it's scratched), and mount network attached or good USB external storage inside of it to hold games and applications, so that it's even more modular and able to be backed up easily.  I've added several buttons to the panel in the front, flipper buttons on the sides, and auxilliary "control" buttons to allow swapping between menus in various emulators.

If you ever want details, technical specifications, or help with your own project, let me know!