Old Republic expectations and plans

Well it finally happened.  It was bound to.  I’ve ordered SWTOR.  I haven’t been in any rush to get it, but I ordered it last night and it will be here in a few days.

I thought I might record my thoughts about it before I started so I can look back on them later on.  So here goes.

Goodgame Empire mini-review

Overall 7/10

As I mentioned in my Kingdom Rush mini-review a couple of weeks back I have played Goodgame Studio’s Empire game quite a bit over the last few weeks.  This is my first browser game I have played for more than a few minutes.  Normally by this time i’m closing the game down (or in this case closing the browser tab) and writing the game off as just a lot of repetitive clicking.  Goodgame Empire is a bit different.

Goodgame Empire is a browser base castle building game where you build things in real-time.  No it doesn’t take two years of real-time to build your castle wall, but it does take some time for it to complete.  What this means is you don’t spend much time actually playing the game.  I tend to log in the morning and collect taxes, read any messages and start building.  Then I log out.  I might come back at lunch time and check progress, etc.  Each time i’m logged in for 5-10 minutes only before I go on my merry way.  This makes it a great game for people with limited time to play for whatever reason.

Star Corsairs mini-review

Overall 5/10

Star Corsairs wasn’t really a priority on my list of games to give my opinion on but a recent post on the developer’s blog got me thinking.  Perhaps I should do my small part for helping indie developers where I can.  So we have a Star Corsairs mini-review 🙂  This game was developed by a single guy over about 6 months, which is quite an impressive feat in its own right.

Star Corsairs is a top down, space exploration, massively multiplayer online game.  You can play a fair bit for free but to reach the top you need to subscribe.  I must admit that I only played this game for a few hours.  Although I like the style of the game (I have an upcoming review of Space Pirates and Zombies in the works), I just didn’t feel there was enough variety to justify a grind or make it entertaining.

Kingdom Rush mini-review

Overall 9/10

Kingdom Rush was a surprise discovery while I was wondering the wastelands of browser games.  Until very recently i’d never played any of the browser games and had mostly written them off as dull time-sinks.  However via a convoluted path, which started with looking for non-violent games for my son to play, I ended up playing Goodgame Studio’s Empire (more on that in another post).   This got me thinking that maybe these browser games aren’t all bad.

There is a lot of trashy browser games, but Ironhide Game Studio’s Kingdom Rush isn’t one of them.  Basically this is a browser-based, fantasy tower defence game.    The bad guys come from one or more sides and you have to kill them before they escape off the exit side.  Sounds basic, but the bad guys are so cute and in fact all the graphics are well done and clear.

Battle for Wesnoth mini-review

Overall 10/10

Battle for Wesnoth was one of the hidden gems I discovered once I stopped spending hours waiting for raids to start or grinding daily quests.

This is the sort of game I first loved PCs for (well after International Karate, Ultima 4 and Bubble Bobble).  A turn based strategic game based in a fantasy setting.  Think fantasy wargame.    It looks good despite only being old school VGA graphics.  It is clean and all the elements are easy to identify on the screen.  None of that mousing over random scenery to try and figure out if it’s something you can interact with or just eye candy.