Sid Meirer's Civilization Revolution reviewed

By Tyler Barber

Publisher: 2K Games | Developer: Firaxis Games | Platform: Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 | Rating: E10+ | Players: 2-4 via Online & Wi-Fi



Final Grade: B+
In three words: Deep, Accessible & Addictive

I'm at E3, at a demo of Borderlands and BioShock, when 2K rep comes over, asking if I want a demo of Sid Meirer's Civilization Revolution.
"No thanks," I respond. "I have a meeting in 15 minutes, and I don't want to be late."
"It only takes 15 minutes," the rep quipped.
"Thanks, but I gotta get going," I said, thinking myself: "Yea, like I'm going to miss my hands-on with Fallout 3 to see the absolute train-wreck of Civilization's PC exodus to home consoles."

And my pessimistic attitude stood firm, until I got home from E3 where a review copy of CivRev was waiting for me. I felt a little bad for declining the demo at E3, so the first night I got home (even though I had my fill of gaming) I popped the disc into my Xbox 360, and gave it a try. Next thing I know it's 4 a.m., and I've just won my first campaign. CivRev is addictive in the just-one-more-turn kinda way. Each new turn meant I would have another infantry unit to defend my home base, that I'd be one more turn closer to finishing my Nuclear research. Would a great leader abandon their civilization at a time like this? Hell no.

The turn-based system is the sole reason CivRev works so well on consoles. It plays more like a board game where each side takes its turn (think: Risk, Monopoly) than the PC counterpart which plays without any turns whatsoever. It's because of this turn-based system too, that every single bit of gameplay that's in the Xbox 360/PS3 version also makes it in the Nintendo DS version. And with that, developer Firaxis Games has struck gold with a winning translation of a revered PC strategy game to the home and portable consoles.

You won't find the immense depth of the PC version, but I wouldn't call CivRev shallow either. There are the 16 civilizations to choose from, and you can still win a campaign through means other than the total annihilation of your enemies. Technological, financial, and cultural domination are all other paths to victory, but a main complaint I have with the game is that it doesn't give the player enough cues of how to win with these other ways. And, it's much easier to just farm out the most military units and win with military might.

When you are engaged in combat, there's this great one-to-one/dice-roll mechanic. Your troop's stats will factor into the dice-roll aspect of combat, but there's also this one-to-one system where the actual animation of your troops deal damage. If your troops move in right away, they'll gain an advantage on the offensive, but if they back-up, they'll be handicapped. Likewise, if your troops are on a hill, or defending a home base, they'll gain defensive bonuses. And even the map and characters interact. If one of your archers gets struck by a warrior unit near a mountain or building, he'll fly backward and actually bounce off of the structures.
There's also much less micromanaging. Your villagers collect resources near your home without having to be directed to do so. They'll automatically balance the type of resources they collect, but you also have the options to tell certain villages to mine more technology, gold, or food.

Another element that was designed specifically for the console versions is the size of the maps. And while I don't feel that they need to be bigger, it is a little concerning that you'll always be surrounded by other civilizations competing for the same resources. And, things get claustrophobic quickly if you don't make alliances, or dominate a neighboring civilization early. But at the same time, the size of the maps, or lack of, is also a factor that helps speed up the game -- you can complete a campaign in about three hours, whereas some campaigns on the PC can last upwards of eight to ten hours.

Given that real-time-strategy games usually suffer when brought to consoles, CivRev is able to side-step the traps of the PC translation. Other console RTS games suffer from the pacing and controls, the size of the characters and maps, but developer Firaxis Games turns the disadvantages of the hardware into advantages, and paves the way for the console RTS' revolution.

E3 08: Sony Press Conference

By Tyler Barber


On the same stage that Jack Palance did his famous one-armed push-ups at the 1992 Oscars, we saw the comic-book artist Jim Lee do the same. Touché Jim, and touché Sony. Last year's E3 was really a bad year for everyone. Each of the big three press conferences had at least one major embarrassing moment, but this year Sony and Microsoft managed to save face 100 percent (read my write-up on Nintendo's press conference to get the dish on their embarrassing moment. Here's a hint: it was the entire show). And while I would say that Microsoft stole the show, Sony wasn't far behind. Their main shortcoming: not showing enough new games, gameplay, and the lack of surprising announcements (also don't forget that little blight called Home).

Sony's Jack Trentton did an excellent job hosting the event, and set the tone at the start by basically saying: "every PlayStation console takes a few years to hit its stride, so forgive us for not blowing you away this year." Which is true, historically. If you look at the PS1 and PS2, it wasn't until year four or five that we saw games like Final Fantasy XII, Grand Theft Auto III, and Metal Gear Solid. So with that out of the way, they continued to show a line-up of expected, but exciting titles.

First was what most people are calling game of the show: Little Big Planet. Last year I gushed about this game, and now my enthusiasm has intensified. This year, they used Little Big Planet as a Power Point presentation. That's right, they presented their sales numbers and projections in-game, in a custom-created Little Big Planet level. I've never heard such a long applause for sales numbers in my life. Youtube it.

Later, they went on to to show a few games, mostly trailers, and even brought exclusive developer Insomniac Games on-stage to demo Resistance 2. If you're unfamiliar, this is basically Sony's Halo. That's terribly reductionist, but very telling, in a nutshell. I was none impressed by their showing. The demo was the most removed from visceral that I can imagine a AAA first-person-shooter being. The stage they showed had this giant enemy (like Godzilla-giant) playing cat and mouse with the player through the roof-tops of downtown Chicago. Everything about the demo was bland, and my actual hands-on with the game later in the day didn't reassure me.

Sony also showed a few new upgrades to the PlayStation Network (PSN) where you can now rent movies directly on your PS3, which would be news if Microsoft hadn't done it already a year ago. But we did get a brief look into some exclusive downloadable titles that are nothing like what you'll find on the Xbox 360's Live Arcade line-up. Namely Fat Princess and Flower where the show-stealers. Fat Princess looks like a Gauntlet-esque, online-versus game that has a story-book art style with over-the-top violence. It's cute meets cruel with unique character classes adding to the complexity. Flower, another "Game-of-the-Show" for a lot of E3 goers, is the next game by the creator of Flow. To hear it from the creator is to fully grasp what it is: a visual poem, telling the tale of a flower's dream. Seriously, that's how he describes it. You control the petal of a flower, guiding it through the wind while trying to pollinate and spring to life various plat-life in fields, and gardens. If it's a little confusing, Flower is supposed to be metaphorical in design and presentation, understood when you play/feel the game.

And in what I would describe as a bad Thanksgiving family moment where your meth-addict cousin is noticeably absent, and your aunt and uncle assure you they're doing good in rehab -- Sony showed a little Home in a quick and nervous manner. All we saw was a short trailer of Sony's grand virtual-community feature in its latest state, which looks just like it did two years ago. Seriously, I think they could can this project and no one would care.

Sony concluded with a trailer of the next big thing by Zipper Interactive (the guys that make Socom) which was universally recognized as the worst game name ever: M.A.G. (Massive Action Game). M.A.G.'s claim to fame is that it's a 250 player online shooter with persistent character building similar to Call of Duty 4's online component.

At the end of it, I wasn't rushing to play any Sony games, they really didn't show many. But, I wasn't down on them either. If history is to repeat itself, then we will see a giant library of excellent games that you can only find on the PS3. But, what wasn't a factor 10 years ago is the growing monster that is Microsoft's Xbox 360. And what history really shows is that it's the games, not the hardware, that sets the competition apart.

E3 08: Nintendo Press Conference

By Tyler Barber

Zzzzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzzz. No, seriously: Zzzzzzzzzzz. I slept through Nintendo's press conference. Or as I like to say: "Min-tendo," because all they make now are minigames. I know that there's already a ton of backlash from Nintendo's showing at E3, and for that I almost feel like I should be the contrary voice. Even after the conference, when the show-floor opened up, I walked into Nintendo's booth to give them a chance, and walked right back out. There was nothing there for me. Of everything they announced -- known quantities like Animal Crossing City Folk, Shaun White's Snowboarding (using the Wii Fit balance board), and the actually good looking first-person-shooter The Conduit -- nothing spoke to me. It's clear that Nintendo is abandoning the "hardcore" gamer for the more lucrative alpha-mom, and "casual gamer."

I don't intend to sound like a whining gaming nerd, but when their biggest announcement, Wii Music, was shown I almost puked and swallowed in my mouth. That game looks re-fucking-dick-ulous. It's basically a pantomime music game (DO NOT think: Guitar Hero, Rock Band) that emits horrible atonal music while the player flails around with imaginary instruments. They did say that this game was a hit in the office for 4-6 year-olds, but seriously, if you want to get that audience don't waste my time at 8:30 a.m. I spent the previous night hanging out with grown-up gamers playing grown-up games. Wii Music easily wins the most embarrassing moment of E3 '08.

Echoing the success of Wii Play (the collection of minigames bundled with a Wiimote), Nintendo announced its new controller cash-in with their new one-to-one Motion Plus controller add-on. The Motion Plus basically allows developers to make games that track the full 3D movement of the Wiimote, instead of what we have now which is up/down, side-to-side (including diagonals) and acceleration inputs. This is great for that Lightsaber game we all want, but it comes at the cost of splitting the market with those who have the add-on and those who don't. The Motion Plus controller will ship with Wii Sports Resort, which will use the add-on in minigames like Fencing and Jet-Skiing.

All I can say is Nintendo is the ubiquitous game maker. It's just a shame they're not making games for those who made them so.

E3 08: Microsoft Press Conference

By Tyler Barber



Peace, freedom, and bacon and eggs: the opening line from Bethesda's new (and hilarious) Fallout 3 trailer cued the Pavlovian-salivation response that remained high (for the most part) throughout Microsoft's E3 press conference. Last year, in Santa Monica, Microsoft came on stage and reassured gamers that '07 was the year of Microsoft. They were hyping up surefire games like Call of Duty 4, Halo 3, and Mass Effect, but what we saw then were mostly trailers, not gameplay. So, to my surprise, Microsoft followed the excellent Fallout 3 demo with on-stage demonstrations of three more AAA games. Maybe you've heard of them: Resident Evil 5, Gears of War 2, and Fable 2? All of the games demoed great, and the hype was high for all. My hands-on impressions for all these will follow shortly.

After the heavy-hitters, they followed up with what was, for me, the most impressive line-up of games for E3: the Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) downloadable titles (yes, the Playstation Network games are in that category too -- more on them later). First, we saw Geometry Wars 2, which instantly reminded me how bad-ass Geometry Wars Evolved was. In GW2, you now have not only new single player modes, but also 16 mutliplayer modes with both inventive verses and co-operative play. Next we saw something no one anticipated, Glaga Legions, developed by the same Namco-Bandia team that created the excellent Pac-Man Championship Edition. The mid-conference low followed after that with two cock-teases: Portal Still Alive (extra downloadable stages sans GLaDOS) and a strange flash of a screen for the South Park XBLA game.

Where Microsoft did slip, and slip, and slip was in the already-leaked section of their conference. Leading up the event, a marketing firm, Intellisponse, had a flood of information pulled off their site which contained the images of the new Avatars, the karaoke game called Lips, and references to the new 3D interface for the Xbox 360 Dashboard. While it wasn't the stuff core gamers salivate over, I couldn't help but wonder if this slew of new features beat Playstation 3's Home to the punch (which was practically absent at Sony's press event, more on that later). What was exciting was the announcement of a Microsoft/Netflix partnership that allows Netflix and Xbox Live Gold subscribers to stream any movie from the Netflix database. You'll be able to watch these movies along with your friends (who also have the appropriate services) over Xbox Live with full voice-chat functionality. And before amping up again, they showed the audience more "casual" titles, which are a response to the success of the Nintendo Wii. We're in the Movies came off as sort of embarrassing, but later when I actually played it, turned out to be fun.

To wrap up the show, Square Enix took the stage to showcase three role-playing-games that they've been working on for the Xbox 360: The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, and Star Ocean: The Last Hope. They all looked great, and just as Microsoft was ending the press conference, they pulled a Steve-Jobs-one-more-thing stunt: Final Fantasy XIII coming to the Xbox 360 in North America and Europe. No release date, or new footage, but enough to get everyone talking.

Of the big three, Microsoft came out ahead with its press conference. Sure they had the luxury of going first, but neither Sony nor Nintendo showed as much gameplay, nor did they have the amount of surprises that Microsoft did. And yes, I am partial to the Xbox 360, so maybe that influenced my outlook, but I think anyone would have a hard time making a case for the other two as victors in the media blitz that is E3.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty review

By Tyler Barber

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty is a decent FPS. Take that statement, travel back in time to 1995, and it may hold true. But to today's standard, its concept and execution are simply the worst I've ever seen. The atrocities start with the most obvious, the graphics. Many now-gen games get the "Xbox-visuals" slap, but TP looks worse than bad shooters of the first Xbox era. TP is better suited for its acronym's homonym: toilet paper. But, I imagine the disc isn't very absorbent, which is to also say, it fails in every possible way imaginable.

TP also has the worst case of periscope-fire I've ever seen: enemies face and point their guns away from you, but their bullets magically turn 90 degrees, and fly right toward you. The cheapness doesn't end there. Turning Point struggles with making the game artificially difficult by hiding enemies in complete darkness, having shot-gun-toting enemies slam doors open just as you approach, or the worst, forcing you to climb down a ladder (because a ten-foot drop will kill you) while a barricade of Nazis fire at your back.

Love Jerry Bruckheimer's Independence Day? Then you'll love TP too, because it lets you blow-up the White House. Cool right? Wrong! Not only is the game atrocious -- PS2 level graphics, paper-airplane grenade physics, laughable animation -- but TP's concept assumes that a) the United States has no military, b) a random construction worker can save the country, and c) a Nazi invasion of the US is actually a get-out-of-jail-free card for the overly-abused WWII setting. Even worse is the thought that this title will have a sixty-dollar price tag. Spark, you're the real axis of evil. Simply the worst idea (and excuse) of a FPS. Ever.

Final Grade: F

Burnout: Paradise review. The Art of the Car Crash

By Tyler Barber



It's too bad most gamers don't use their console's USB camera, because my favorite extra in Burnout Paradise, Mugshots, doesn't get the mileage it deserves: your camera will take snapshots of your victorious moments while racing against your friends, or feral strangers, online. But the main draw here isn't flicking-off someone online, but the seamless integration of the single and multiplayer modes. With a tap of the d-pad you'll instantly hook up to race against, or just mess around with your online friends. Not just a great way to race either, there's plenty of stat keeping on each street that updates who's ahead of who for everything in Paradise City. In order to get all those people online, however, it takes a arcade approach to racing that may have some sim-gearheads wanting a bit more.

While the most talked about feature in Paradise may be the online stuff, offline there's still plenty of racer to go around. Each intersection acts as a starting point to one of several game modes. Of which, Marked Man, and Road Rage are definitely my favorite, and are noticeably absent from the online racing. Marked man is a one man race where your opponents aren't gunning for first place, but are trying to total your ride before you cross the finish line. In Road Rage there's no finish line, and your goal is to takedown a certain number of cars before times run out. These modes had me the most hype, jumping out of my seat with holy-shit phrases cheering the amount of destruction each crash rendered. And glorious these crashes are. Each crash looks straight out of a Hollywood action flick.

Racing across the open-city can be overwhelming at first. I lost several races where I was in the first-place position, but veering off the main path sent me into no-man's-land. Even in the losses though, Paradise's open world is forgiving enough that you'll almost never feel too slighted for losing a race. Mainly, I wish there was a quick retry option on the Burning Route races where you earn advanced models of each vehicle. Burning Route races are held at very specific locations, and trudging back all the way to the start when you lost near the finish is a chore.



Another side-step is the gimmicky Showtime mode that replaces the popular Crash Mode of previous Burnouts. Before you actually felt like you caused this massive domino-like-collision, whereas now you hop along the road like a fish-out-of-water aiming for oncoming traffic. With luck, we'll get to download the classic Crash Mode in the near future.

Burnout Paradise does an excellent job at ushering the arcade racer into the realm of next-gen gameplay. The forward-thinking online integration alone could have a ripple effect on other genres' multiplayer plans. Even if you're not into racing games much, give Burnout Paradise a try, if just for the crashes. My biggest challenge with Burnout Paradise, though, is prying my friends from their Call of Duty 4 multiplayer addiction to join me online.

Final Grade: A-

Download These Gems: hidden treasures on your Xbox 360/PlayStation 3

By Tyler Barber



With several huge titles like Grand Theft Auto IV, Fall Out 3 and Burnout Paradise coming to consoles in '08, I made it my New Year's resolution to pay more attention to the smaller guys. Both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 offer smaller, downloadable games created by smaller development teams, and in some cases, by a single person. These are the games your girlfriend will actually play with you. Xbox Live Arcade, and the PlayStation Network house these little titles, and if you're not too accustomed to surfing your console's dashboard, you may have yet to notice the wealth of inexpensive gaming gems offered. Below I've compiled a list of stand-out titles out now, and ones on the horizon.

Multiplatform (Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network)



Bionic Commando Rearmed - Spring 08
The second-most exciting arcade game to come out this year, (see below for the first) is the remake of the NES classic, Bionic Commando. If you don't remember, Bionic Commando was an excellent adventure game that gave you a bionic arm to swing from ledges, cross gaps, and nab out of reach ammo. For Rearmed we get a superb graphical overhaul with fluid animation and dynamic lighting. A few new abilities -- like grabbing and throwing barrels and baddies, and tossing grenades -- bring some minty-freshness to the game. For the first time two-player co-op will give you some the much needed reinforcements for this excellent remake.


Puzzle Quest - out now
My latest RPG addiction is this puzzle game. In it, you basically play Bejeweled -- matching three alike items to destroy rows and columns -- but the twist is you have a persistent character that you level up through battles against various enemies with their own spells and tricks. You can even siege small villages on the overworld map to gain more loot. Puzzle Quest is available on several other platforms: PC, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, but none of those can top the fact that the XLA version offers achievements. This was easily one of the surprise hits of '07. A must for RPG, and puzzle fans alike.

Xbox Live Arcade Exclusives



Castle Crashers - 2008, tba
From the creators of the excellent, and unnervingly hard, Alien Homminoid, (also downloadable on Xbox Live Arcade) comes a four-player beat-em-up in the vein of the old Ninja Turtles, and X-men arcade games. Behemoth's tiny development team pour personality and style into all their games, and this one's not short on either. Super-cute, graffiti-esque knights take on hordes of evil-but-cute looking dudes, and their larger-than-life bosses. This is without a doubt, the most exciting arcade title in '08. Simple, but beautifully executed.


Rez HD - out now
Originally a cult hit for the Dreamcast, and PlayStation 2, Rez HD is a great game to put on during an acid trip. With simple vector graphics and trippy visual effects that are synced with the music, this remakes sports widescreen and HD output. A bit hard to describe, Rez is one of those games you've just got to experience. Swiping your cursor over the enemy sends out an attack to the tune of varying instruments that go along with the drum and bass soundtrack. When things heat up, and you've got several enemies on the screen, the music pumps right along with the franticness, adding to the sense of urgency.


Exit - out now
This excellent action-puzzler was first released on the PlayStation Portable, but didn't receive the sales that it's originality deserved. Exit casts you as this everyday man, saving people from burning buildings. Sounds a bit oversimplified? Well, don't think about it too much, the basis of the gameplay relies on traveling up and down elevators to reach stranded civilians, where you then lead them to safety. Not only fun, this game offers a very unique Dick Tracy style that helps punctuate the action.


PlayStation Network Exclusives



Echochrome - 2008, tba
Part M.C. Escher, part puzzler, this game takes super simple graphics, and has you turning the world to make it's illusions work for you. For example, say a path has a gap that you're dude needs to pass. In Echochrome, all you have to do is swing the stage around so that a column blocks your view of the gap, and voi-la, you can walk right past it. The basis of the gameplay is all about subjective perception, and how you can use it to navigate each stage to it's end. The best part? Infinite replayability because you'll be able to create, and share your own stages on PSN.


flOw, and flOwer - out now, and 2008, tba (respectively)
Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark first created flOw as their thesis project for the University of Southern California, which later got picked up by Sony, and distributed through PSN. Their follow up, flOwer, remains a mystery, but if flOw is any indication of what they're planning for flOwer, expect it to have gorgeously rich visuals, probably some pollen-type migration, and definitely another game that can be enhanced by the use of narcotic drugs. Check out flOw now, and wait for flOwer later this year.


Everyday Shooter - out now
One man, Jonathan Mak, created this fantastic top-down shooter. To hear Jonathan describe it, Everyday Shooter is, "...an album of games exploring the expressive power of abstract shooters. Dissolute sounds of destruction are replaced with guitar riffs harmonizing over an all-guitar soundtrack, while modulating shapes celebrate the flowing beauty of geometry." In it, you're basically an abstract dot, flying around an abstract world, shooting down shapes, while procedurally generating the music that coats the experience. Simply the richest visual and audio of all the arcade titles.