Expressing My Impressions: Civilization and Battlefield Demos

This week, after a very slow Playstation Store update, I got access to the demos for Civilization: Revolution and Battlefield: Bad Company. These were two very big demos in the middle of nowhere, so I felt like talking about them. I've always been a big fan of the Civilization series, and Sid Meier is actually working on this one unlike the past few computer editions, so this is very exciting. I'm even listening to their podcast right now, so I'm rather giddy, you might say. In general, the deal with this game is that it's more compact and built ground-up for the consoles. The demo itself was just a tutorial, basically, but it did allow you to play the opening turns of a game as either Caesar or Cleopatra. The first sort of shocking moment for PC fans is when the advisor pops up on the screen and starts babbling in a sort of Simlish, which is immediately irritating, (especially when he's blocking the text you have to read) but eventually sort of becomes normal. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not. The Civiliopedia looks incredible this time around, with not just text entries but also pictures and videos for all kinds of subjects, showing off the added console power. The only other real difference I found so far was a much more interesting looking combat, with your little warriors sort of jumping around and not fighting so predictably.

Battlefield: Bad Company is, clearly, the next Battlefield game, but this edition appears to be ready to really feature a single player campaign and sort of interesting characters. Even in the online, this version is obviously going for a bit more of a sense of humor, with radio stations playing in vehicles. Similarly to Civilization, some of the quirky elements of this game immediately put me off, but I found them easier to take as time went on. The single player generally doesn't look great, and I found aiming difficult as is so often a problem in console shooters. For some reason, online play seemed just fine and natural enough. I only saw one real bug, when a blown up helicopter fell and balanced on its tip on the ground, but that's not game-breaking at all, and the multiplayer is fun enough to keep playing for a long time on its own. Both of these demos looked very promising for the summer game drought, I just wish the Playstation Network hadn't taken until 4 in the morning to put them up.

Jack Thompson Recommended to be Disbarred

I've been mostly avoiding coverage of Thompson's Florida Bar disciplinary hearing, because GamePolitics has me totally outclassed in their coverage, and there's not more I can add to it. Still, I want to just give them a quick link, as Thompson has been recommended by the Florida Bar to be disbarred (no longer allowed to practice lawyering in Florida, basically) for ten years before he can reapply to be an attorney.

See GamePolitics' coverage here.

It's Finally Over... Democratic Primaries '08

Legal Arcade Jumble of the Week #1

I've decided to start a precedent for gaming-themed jumbles. Why not? Here's my first Legal Arcade Jumble of the Week, presented in some just horrible looking handwriting when it's so zoomed in like this. Click the picture for a closer look if you need. A transcript follows.
Q: "What Gordon Freeman brought back from the party --- forever."
A: "_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _"

Clues:
O T R S O E H - game genre
I A R T A L - gaming assassin
A D K R O
V C B I E R - GTA traitor

Two word jumbles are independent of one another, so letters above one word stay in that word, they don't all go together in one letter pool. Anyway, you take what you get in the first three jumbles and use the letters that end up in the spaces with circles in them to create a jumble for the answer. Email me (link on the sidebar) with the answer, and I'll... uh... Create a hall of fame or something.

Echochrome Review Diamante

There has been a lot of talk about corruption in video game reviews recently with Konami's reviewer contract for Metal Gear Solid 4. Let me just quickly say that this story falls into exaggeration too easily. Konami basically asked reviewers not to reveal story details, then slightly more controversially asked that they not talk about the mandatory install or cutscene lengths. That doesn't mean they sad no bad reviews at all, and reviewers didn't have to agree or anything, either. I'm not defending what they did, I'm just basically asking everyone to calm down. Anyway, I want in on this reviewing world, so here's a diamond poem review of Echochrome from last week when I was obsessed with it:

Echochrome

Creative Puzzler

Perception Is Reality

Calm Experience, Frustrating Hell

How Much Time?

Haunting Violins

8.5

Pros: Great idea for a puzzler, level-sharing and world leaderboards good use of network. Some will love the music.

Cons: No idea how much time is left, only one look to the game, some will hate the music.

Two thumbs up, because I have two thumbs all to myself.

Small Break to Write Walkthrough for DMC 4

Sorry, complete lack of loyal readers this site attracts, but I have to take a couple of days off to write a walkthrough for Devil May Cry 4 at Mahalo.com. I'll link to it once it has been completed, which should only be a few more days. I'll leave you with this Al Qaeda demonstration- no, sorry, that's a screenshot for Fallout 3.

Common Sense Media's Reply

I emailed Common Sense Media about their previous fearmongering, and here's what their likely automated response said:

Thank you very much for writing and sharing your concerns. Our mission is to give parents the information they need to make decisions about what media is right for their family. We do hope we can influence the choices kids make, and as an added precaution, we can raise awareness with parents and also within the industry. By raising awareness with parents, by reinforcing what an M-rating means, and by recommending that M-rating sales policies are enforced at stores, we felt we were helping to keep violent games from children. Our aim was to show that change can happen, if the conversation continues.

Again, thanks for writing. We appreciate your feedback.

Not especially enlightening, was it? Oh well.