Known for the stunning Codename: Panzers series and its supercharged spin-offs in Rush For Berlin/The Bomb, the sadly now-defunct Hungarian studio StormRegion’s first and last console outing is soon to be released in North America.

 Mytran Wars, already released in Europe, is a bright and colourful turn-based strategy game for the PSP, and one of fine heritage.  Coming from a development house that specialised in tactical PC titles, StormRegion was determined to bring to the portable scene a deep and content-rich experience; one that offered an entirely new intellectual property for gamers to explore as well as well-conceived and watertight strategic formulae.  4X.Scope is lucky enough to have been granted an interview with Gabor ‘Tassuriel’ Komor, one of the lead designers on the Mytran Wars project.  In the following article, valuable insight is offered on the trials of bringing StormRegion’s mech-based turn-based strategy to both the PSP and the world.

4X.Scope:  Gabor Komor, thanks very much for taking the time to shed some light on this stunning production of yours.  What was your position in the creation of the game?

Gabor Komor:  Hey Alex, it is my pleasure! Good question to begin, because I actually had to change role during the project.  I started it as senior game designer, and finished it as lead designer. How? The short answer is, the former lead designer was needed to join another project, so I needed to step up and take his place in order to finish Mytran Wars. Though this change was a great opportunity for both of us, we couldn’t be completely happy about it, because we had made a great team together.

A funny addition to this: within the company, Mytran Wars has always been considered as a small, ‘pioneer’ project outside the world of PC’s. Eventually, it took two and a half years to finish the game and the project provided three leaders for StormRegion – unfortunately, it was already late for the good changes to really show their potential.

4X.Scope:  What can players expect from Mytran Wars and what features set it apart from other strategy titles of its ilk?

Gabor Komor:  Players can expect a very long, solid and challenging ‘brain-game’ with great diversity and a lot of possibilities. Beside the unique graphical style the game has, both on the battlefield and in story-telling, the high amount of customization options and the old-school approach of the genre are the main things that set this game apart from the rest. Perhaps, I should mention the unique universe here as well, since there are a lot of titles on the market with a familiar world in the background (LOTR:Tactics, W40K: Squad Command, Jeanne d’Arc, D&D Tactics, FF Tactics, etc.) while Mytran Wars is a brand new IP, representing a yet unknown universe.

 4X.Scope:  The game itself features an interesting design aesthetic.  What pre-production design steps and concepts did the team undertake to achieve the look and environments of the title?

Gabor Komor:  What we knew well from the very beginnig was, we must stick to cartoons in terms of visual style, for two simple reasons. First, we didn’t have the resource to render all the movies to tell our story, and the idea of game-engine cut-scenes also failed for different reasons. Second, our concept artist had a strong passion to cartoons and a long history with them – not to mention his talent in this specific field.

All this led us to the point, where the idea of  cartoonish cut-scenes seemed to be the only solution for our problems. Well, yeah – it wasn’t a hard decision after all, although it determined lots of things later on. We knew it was a USP (Unique Selling Point) and we feel strongly about it, so we wanted to support it as much as we can. Which meant, we had to consider this every time we designed any graphical element for the game – interface elements, menus, buildings, and so on.

Fortunately, we had a really great and creative art team on the project, their talent and enthusiasm helped us a lot. Generally, we just had to sit down and discuss something only one time and a bit later they just showed up with something we wanted. I know it sounds a bit idealistic – but it mostly happened this way, however there were a few exceptions, now let’s see some of them:

• Environment / terrain textures: the first concept was simple, we wanted everything to look different than it looks in real life, that was the one and only restriction. This idea has failed in practice pretty soon. The environment we created was weird and shocking, and it was so saturated that no one could look at it longer than 20 minutes without aheadache… so we had fun with this idea for a short time, and we’ve moved on. The second idea was to stick to the typical environments on Earth, and spice them up with dominant
• ‘Alienesque’ special objects / effects, beside doing only slight modifications on natural elements like plants, rivers, etc. – and supporting all this with ‘cartoonish’ textures . It just looked great from the first moment, the exact way we wanted, so we stuck with to it.
• Mytran units: the first mytran units were entirely based on the vision of our concept artist. Though these units looked amazing on paper, and they also looked great in 3D Studio, they just didn’t seem to work on a PSP-sized display. Too much details have lost, and the units seemed quite similar to each other somehow. So we had quite a lot of brain-storming sessions dedicated to work this out, but we haven’t got a bit closer to the solution until we realized what the main problem was. There was no global concept behind the ideas we threw in, a ground rule, which could make a whole even from the good ideas. After we’ve recognized this, and we tried to approach the problem this way, the solution came pretty fast. Two simple rules/ideas got us trough all this:

A) – What if we consider mytrans as elementals? The idea was so simple and kinda generic, still it was absolutely logical since one of the core abilities the aliens have is shaping matter from their surroundings. However, we never wanted to use ‘common’ elementals what players know very well from tons of games already, instead we mixed the ‘elemental-concept’ with the mytrans we already had, and ta-da! … we were only one step away from the final versions. Well, you may not recognize this ‘elementalish’ look on the final units that easy… which means we did a pretty good job.

B) – No mytran unit has two legs. – Well, I know it sounds a little odd at first, so let’s see how we got there. We wanted players to be able to recognize all unit-types at first glance, so we’ve tried to make them look different on every possible level. Mytran units are orange while humans are blue, different unit-types have different size and shape, they use mostly different equipment as well. You may think this could be enough already, but trust me it was not.

One thing we could do – for instance – was to reorganize the locations of the usable slots on mytran units (and so their bodies along with it), but we didn’t want to make the game even more complicated as it already was. So, we had to figure out a way without messing up anything, while we still had to make that major difference we needed somehow. The solution had not come easy, and it was so simple again. There is only one leg slot for all units, no matter how many or what kind of legs it has. That gave us the exact opportunity and the freedom what we needed. A change that doesn’t affect gameplay, but has a great effect on looks and animations.

• Weapons / visible accessories: OK, I’m gonna try to keep this one a little bit shorter.  So, as the game progressed and everything just looked better and better, we just spent more and more time in the assembly menu and on the battlefield, and we found, that our units just didn’t look badass enough – especially with particular combinations of accessories. That was the first push, and eventually we didn’t stop until we redesigned every single visible asset . We talked about multiple concepts here, such as using mineral based matters with regular forms, or organic based amorphous assets but none of these ‘conceptual’ ideas seemed to work at the end of the day.

So, I won the task to work this out somehow, and my solution was not too elegant, but sure it was effective. I simply nailed down a pretty long and detailed description for all of our accessories, one by one, and handed it over to our lead 3D artist with a big smile on my face – "ok, here you go, I want to see this… now get to work!".  And the art-team did so, and they did an excellent job – as usual – giving me pretty much what I wanted to see.

4X.Scope:  Was much scrapped in terms of concepts?

Gabor Komor:  Oh yeah, a lot. We had so many ideas at the beginning, we kept only like 40% of them. Not to mention how many new ideas came up during the development… we can say, we were so rich in ideas and so poor on resources – that’s why we always had to choose wisely which idea to feature in the game and which not to.

Let’s me bring a few examples again:

• On one of the early designed levels, player’s units „travelled” through the mission on a platform which was floating over lava. It would have meant that the whole battlefield dynamically scrolls in every turn during the mission – not a typical TBS feature, so our coders gave us a clear NO to this idea. It could have been done, but wouldn’t worth the effort for one level only, so we just let it go.
• We wanted players to face a ’superweapon’ in one of the last missions, make them figure out how to survive the attack of this weapon and give them a chance to occupy and use it upon their foes later on. Again, we could use it only once without a cheap "diminishing’ effect, so we skipped this too eventually.
• There were some ideas about a completely different Mytran concept with two health bars, one for elemental defense and one for health which would resulted in more various battle mechanics. But we thought the game is just hard enough, even for core players. To calculate with more than 200 accessories, a lot of rules and modifiers, damage and resist values, and so on… an additional healthbar would have been just too much on the top of all that. By the way, that was the point when we realized, we need to keep a lot of things more simple than we originally wanted, in order to make sure that anyone will ever want to play our game.

As a matter of fact, I could bring you tons more regarding visual and sound effects, accessories, boss skills, buildings, concepts for more multiplayer options and armies, ideas for how to raise the replayability of the game even higher, or how to unfold our story further… we had / have enough ideas for two more episodes at least, we’re just missing the option to realize them right now…

4X.Scope:  In regards to the alien lifeform designs, their subsequent environments and weapons, what were the influences and were there any guidelines evoked to create further designs?

Gabor Komor:  The real guideline was our concept artist and his vision about the mytran culture. After we settled the score within the team in the ‘how mytrans will look like’ issue, things were just running so smoothly in any Mytran related question. The first concepts of Mytran buildings popped up pretty soon, and they were  just great. We had the ‘ancient and alien’ feeling at the same time when we looked at these objects, so we haven’t really wanted to argue about anything regarding their looks. Anyway, you can surely find signs of influence of ancient human cultures on Mytran buildings – if you are familiar with such things , but I won’t name them for you this time – go and find out yourself.

There are a few objects in the game though which has nothing to do with anything mentioned up here, but the crazy ideas of game designers (Mysterious object) and 3D artists (Gravi-drive of the human Mothership) – well, let’s call them personal influence on the game.

4X.Scope:  Solid mechanical design is an intrinsic facet of creating a machine-based strategy title, ala Front Mission, Cyberstorm.  Did the mech designs in Mytran Wars stem from a particular stream of inspiration, such as the Western mecha design philosophy – Mechwarrior, G-Nome and the Earthsiege franchise – or are they culmination of design tenets from a broad swathe of wellsprings?

Gabor Komor:  We knew from the very first day that we have to decide which style to choose, the western or the eastern one. I clearly remember, we got all games and anime movies we were able to gather at the office (and trust me on this one, 120 game-developers got more mech animes that you can imagine) and watched / played them for at least a week, without working on anything specific. Our final choice was quite conservative: we did not want to have rolling mechas like Front Mission, flying, slim mechas like in most of the animes – so we let the Japanese-style go in no time. Those battle machines just have too many human attributes and human-like bodies.

What we definitely wanted from the very beginning, was a chicken-like light-mech and a brutal one with more weapons than a skinny Japanese mech would be able to ever hold.

4X.Scope:  During the entire development phase, how would you describe the creative atmosphere?

Gabor Komor:  As the publisher granted us enough freedom and independence to do our job the way we like (and a big thanks to them for doing so), the atmosphere was very good in our small team. We’ve got the most cheerful section at the office, that’s for sure. Since most of the other guys at the company was fed up with ‘tank-based’ real time strategies, they were always quite jealous. God, that was kinda funny, to be honest. 

There was an other important element of the creative atmosphere: since the design team was so small, everyone got a chance to add his tiny, personal vision to the game, so we were pretty much motivated in developing a good game.

4X.Scope:  Could it be said that the drive and atmosphere of a studio producing a strategy title differs from that of a studio creating a title from a different genre?

Gabor Komor:  I think it doesn’t make any difference – it depends on how diverse your work is and what are your limitations. If the game you are currently working on, is third or fourth in a row, filled with all the same experiences, it won’t push the atmosphere up to the sky… It grants you confidence and experience but less and less motivation over time. There are a few developers out there who can always renew a genre, but let’s be honest: that’s not something that most of the developers and publishers want and able to do. And this is why I can’t express enough how happy we were when the development of Mytran Wars began: the platform (PSP), the genre (Turn-based strategy) and the setting (not historical) was brand new for the entire team.

4X.Scope:  What were some hurdles the StormRegion team had to face during development?

Gabor Komor:  It was an experimental project for the company as we had never made any console games before and as far as I remember, maybe it was the first PSP title for our publisher as well in 2006.

Yes, we had some experience on how to make strategy games but this situation was totally unfamiliar for all of us. Of course the greatest problem was the actual closure of the studio last year. The game was almost finished by then, but some serious bug-fixing and  fine tuning were still ahead of us as well as the localization issues – which means months of hard work. It was a tricky situation, because StormRegion was a subsidiary of 10tacle AG, but the publisher of Mytran Wars was a different company, Deep Silver. They tried to save the rest of the team, but most of them had already left the company by then. The project had to be finished with only like 10 people and that’s the reason it was / will be (EU / US) released only this year.

Yeah well, it’s not as perfect as we’d wanted it to be the first place, but still, we are very happy and proud that we were able to finish it. On the other hand, show me any game that couldn’t be polished any more, while you consider the ultimate truth that applies to any kind of development: You never ever really finish a project, you just stop developing it… and you just hope you did so at the right time!

4X.Scope:  Creating a competent strategic experience is no mean feat.  What was the process of creating the strategic scaffolding of Mytran Wars, especially with the title offering a veritable smorgasbord of items and upgrades?

Gabor Komor:  Well, I think we’ve created the most complicated turn-based strategy game ever, at first – there were multiple hp-bars and mytrans could regenerate one of them as a core ability.  We had slot-based targeting-system where slots included even more slots, a defense-system with diminishing-effects where every single shot’s damage was calculated individually even at weapons with automatic or burst firing-method, as well as a dozen different type of ammunitions supporting an equipment-system – which was far more complicated than the one you can find in the final product, and it’s still not the end of the line.

It was just craaaazy, we knew it, but we’d loved to see it ‘alive’… of course we haven’t thought for a moment that anyone would ever want to play with a game like that, but us. So, we got the scissors in our hands and started to work – and we kept up to do the most painful part of a game-designer’s work, until we believed we found the right balance between our wishes, our possibilities and what we thought people would like to see in a TBS game nowadays.

That was a great teamwork, we hated editing so much but we did it.

Balancing is a completely different story. While it’s great to have more people at hand when it comes to designing game-mechanics, it’s better to have as few people as possible on balancing.

On the other hand, balancing requires a little bit specific skillset, way of thinking and experience, so it’s essential to find the proper person(s) for it, and usually you just don’t have too much people running around with the required skills and intentions.  Luckily we had someone who seemed to be crazy enough to accept the task willingly (or just he’s got the loudest voice, I can’t remember clearly because we were at the pub across the street when we’ve decided about it!) and as a plus he had reasonable experience in such matters as well, so he got what he wanted…

Of course he couldn’t accomplish the task on his own, so he got as much code- and test-support as we could provide to him, all the time – and we just let him work. Apparently he and his fellows did an excellent job by the way, since we got only positive feedbacks regarding balancing. I could give you specific details about how he did what he did… but you may find it horribly long and terribly boring at the same time, so I’m going to save it for tomorrow instead.

4X.Scope:  Finally, in creating a strategy title, StormRegion must know the genre quite well.  Taking that into consideration, which section or sections of strategy fans – particularly portable fans – would Mytran Wars appeal to? Are the SRPG gamers – those familiar with Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea – likely to enjoy the game, or is the title more fitted to those who enjoyed X-COM, Massive Assault, Field Commander etc.?

Gabor Komor:  Some designers were fond of old-school turn based strategies while others preferred classic SRPGs – the influences of both kind are unarguable. We hope the mix we’ve created will satisfy  the needs of all those, who prefer the rich storyline as well as those, who like to plan every single act and calculate with all possible consequences. However it’s definitely a game for real core gamers, we tried to automate as many features as possible, eg. those, who are not interested in collecting and researching new technologies can switch this to automatic handling, bothering no more about such issues and concentrating purely on missions.

We are very proud of the level design and the diversity of the game. This variety is presented in the huge number of available accessories, secret levels and objectives, multiplayer maps, etc.

It is going to be a very long journey for those who try to conquer the planet of Pythar – and we hope players will like this trip as much as we liked to deliver it.

4X.Scope would like to thank Gabor for his time and patience in creating one of the most in-depth interviews on the internet!  Wishing him well in future endeavours, as well as the other talented people who worked on Mytran Wars.

The game itself is set to be released in North America within days of this article being published.  An incredibly deep and satisfying turn-based strategy, Mytran Wars is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for an enjoyable mecha romp with a nice learning curve and almost limitless customisation.

Keeping the dream alive as one of the more prolific and professional of the one-man ‘bedroom developer’, Cliff Harris has dropped out of warp to let readers into the wonderful world of Gratuitous Space Battles and beyond.

Better known as “Cliffski”, Harris has been in the gaming industry in varying capacities, from working at Elixir studios to A.I. programming for Lionhead Studios’ 2005 title The Movies, as well as prior employment as a boat builder, guitar teacher and stock trader.  Bringing to the table a different attitude to most, Harris stands by guidelines in production and community contact many of the big studios simply bypass, lending the Positech Games  experience a more homely, friendly and noble encounter.  Today, Cliffski shares with us some of his observations and experiences in being an independent developer and the life of Gratuitous Space Battles thus far. 

4X.Scope:  First of all, the idea of the one-man development studio.  Is there truth to the notion of creative freedom being balanced by finances and what have you learned along the way since starting Positech Games?

Cliff Harris:  I’ve learned that  all things being equal, it is a simple matter of just making a game as good as it possibly can be. There are a lot of people trying to ’spot a gap in the market’, or try and ‘jump on a bandwagon’ or get ‘first mover advantage’, and all that is lovely, but at the end of the day, really high quality games sell well, and ones that are just slung together do not. I could almost plot a linear graph showing the sales of my games against the effort and the quality. The more effort I put in, the more it seems worthwhile in terms of sales.

4X.Scope:  On one hand, you have the ability to create even the most niche and obscure titles without pitching it to publishers who desire titles with widespread appeal – as well as naming your retail price – with the alternative being that gamers these days seem to demand a whole lot more from their purchases.  Does the current global financial instability, in your view, make it easier or more difficult for independent studios in terms of survivability and return for effort?

Cliff Harris:  Studios like mine are so small (it’s basically me plus some artists on a work for hire basis) that the number of sales needed to stay afloat is pretty insignificant in global market terms. If there are 10,000 people on the entire planet who want to play with space fleets, then I will be ok. That’s chicken feed in terms of gaming. I think the current situation might be worse for the big gaming giants, but even then, it could not make any difference because if you look at hours of entertainment for each dollar, video games, even linear ones (which I don’t make) are extremely good value compared to other forms of entertainment. Movies are still only two hours, and even a really bad game can entertain beyond that.

4X.Scope:  Prior to Gratuitous Space Battles, what Positech game are you either most proud of or find the most poignant? 

Cliff Harris:  Democracy 2. It was the hardest to code until GSB, and I was really pleased to find it used in tons of schools to teach politics. I studied politics at college, and it would have been way more interesting and fun if we had used stuff like that. That makes me really proud.

4X.Scope:  Onto Gratuitous Space Battles.  You mention the idea for the title came from the thought of a dictator fighting off either a coup or an invasion.  Whilst a topic quite apt in regards to recent world events, at what point did starships appear in the concept?

Cliff Harris:  Its a bit strange really, but the dictator game had a UI a bit like RISK, and I was programming the code for the map, and just playing about in Photoshop placing icons on it to see how it would look, and then just couldn’t resist sticking spaceship icons in it. The rest of the game weirdly flowed from that.

4X.Scope:  Did any initial concept remain since Gratuitous Space Battle’s inception?

Cliff Harris:  The idea of the battles being non-interactive was very very early. And it was a given it would be real time and 2D, top-down. Lots of other things changed, but they didn’t. I briefly considered having direct control of ships, but it didn’t make the game more fun, actually it probably made it a lot less fun.

4X.Scope:  In some respects, it seems hard to pinpoint a single game from Positech as one with the most potential widespread appeal.  The Kudos games, for instance, would be popular with those interested in games like The Sims, but wanting a more psychological bent on the genre.  The Democracy franchise seems incredibly important for not just introducing the political machine and all its inner-workings to those becoming politically aware, but also to people who want to try and engage their own philosophies and ideas within a governmental system.  How would you like Gratuitous Space Battles to be interpreted by the gaming press and consumers at large?  Is this the one to really put Positech Games under the spotlight of the mainstream?

Cliff Harris:  That wasn’t the intention, but its a more easily marketed game, because previously I’ve had to explain what the game is about, and as an indie you get maybe two sentences in a text advert, or a one-sentence snippet under a screenshot, so it’s difficult. If I could have long molyneuxesque interviews to get the concept across, that makes those sorts of games a much easier sell, but with this one it’s ‘build fleets of spaceships, and watch them explode!’ which is really accessible.

4X.Scope:  Despite the game still in beta form, what has been the most difficult task in building Gratuitous Space Battles thus far?

Cliff Harris:  The graphics engine took a lot of work. Its written all by me, from scratch, and with directx9. That’s pretty unusual. Most people use an off the shelf engine, or just do low-graphical intensity games, but I wanted hundreds of ships, tens of thousands of particles, shaders, effects, physics, all sorts. That took a while!

4X.Scope:  With the game boasting an incredibly flexible ship customization facet, is there anything in the way of a dynamic balance system to stop specific weapon spamming?

Cliff Harris:  Yes. Some modules have reduced efficiency as duplicates get added, so you can’t just totally spam a ship with shields, because beyond the first shield unit, they become less and less efficient, until it’s not worth doing. Not all ships systems are like that, but other methods come into play. Some weapons use a ton of crew or power, so you cant just fill ships with them, they need those supporting modules too.

4X.Scope:  Gratuitous Space Battles seems to have quite a strong sense of community support behind, with forum members actively participating in feedback, suggestions and well-wishing.  Have prior Positech titles received this calibre of support and, if so, is it differentiated between the style of game and its community?

Cliff Harris:  The games that involve modding and complex systems tend to build a better community, although I’ve never had a community spring up as fast and as enthusiastically as GSB’s has. I am trying really hard to keep up with everyone’s questions and requests and ideas, but that’s proving very difficult. I think it’s closely related to how much interest you show in what the actual buyers of a game want. I have my own very clear ideas on how GSB should develop and play, but I’d be a fool not to read everything people who are playing the game have to say about how the game feels to them. Most developers tend to ignore their players, for some reason. It seems mad to me to do that.

4X.Scope:  How important is a game’s facility to be modded in retaining gamers interest and what do you hope to see in regards to GSB?

Cliff Harris:  It’s pretty important, although only a tiny part of the community will actively mod a game. I try to make it very easy, because the game is 2D images and text config files, so people who would not normally mod a game, because they expect to need 3D Studio Max and C++, can actually mod GSB very easily. If they want to add a new type of missile with a slower warhead, different graphics and different attack and damage capabilities, they can just do it using notepad. I’d love to see the modding community really build up, and have new races and ships and all kinds of things. I’ll be typing up a ton of help for modders if I ever get some free time.

4X.Scope:  Is there an approximate release date for GSB or more a case of "when it’s done"?

Cliff Harris:  When it’s done. When pushed, I say about another month, but it really is a total unknown right now.

4X.Scope:  Finally, for all the science fiction geeks and the way you’ve made a computer game manifestation of their wildest dreams, what is your favourite starship from any medium?

Cliff Harris:  The Romulan warbird, from Star Trek: The Next Generation onwards, the big huge one with the double wings. I love that design, because it really suits the race well, and its hugely distinctive. From purely descriptions, I love the culture ships from Iain M. Banks books. The idea of a ship rebuilding and configuring itself mid-flight sounds awesome.

And with that, Cliff “Cliffski” Harris returned to his starship high in orbit.  4X.Scope would like to thank Cliff for his time and wishes the best of luck for Gratuitous Space Battles and future Positech releases.

Coming up next on 4X.Scope is a preview of the terrific Gratuitous Space Battles in its newest beta version glory. 

Gratuitous Space Battles can be pre-ordered HERE, which allows access to the ongoing beta build with access to weekly patches.  Pre-ordering now gives you the retail game at an estimated lower price than buying it upon final commercial release.     

Bizarre Creations, the development team behind Metropolis Street Racer and the Project Gotham franchise, took the underlying concepts of a shooter – twitch and reward – and created The Club.  Strangely, few were receptive to the fusion of racing sensibilities with run-and-gun action.

When Criterion detoured from their Burnout series to create Black, a similar story to Bizarre Creations in a studio specialising in top-tier racing titles turning to the shooter genre, the initial premise was a first-person action game that rewarded creative and stylish kills with points and a system not unlike the various iterations of the chain/combo feat system found in their racing games.  However, somewhere along the development trail, the combo system in Black was dropped – much to the chagrin of many expectant fans.  The Club does the exact opposite.  In place of a  forced story or Po-faced attempt at justifying the violence, the game sidesteps these unspoken prerequisites and finds itself in a realm of pure, unadulterated gunplay.  The curious problem is the polarizing effect The Club received upon release; when given a shooter in its purest form, stripped back to achievements and a cast of deliberately over-the-top characters, a majority of the gaming public shied away. 

The Club is not, however, a parody of the genre.  It captures the essence of what a lot of gamers enjoy about the integrated trophies and achievements found action games in the age of comparing game-related accomplishments.  The premise is succinct, perhaps laughably so: a secretive organisation hires thrillseekers, mercenaries, renegades and the insane to compete in style-based events where, for the most part, a character must move around a predetermined course, taking down enemies as quickly and as stylishly as possible.  On the surface, the argument that The Club’s story is any better than  the latest military or sci-fi shooter is undeniably weak.  However, instead of pushing a tepid story as a forced justification for progression, The Club cannot be compared solely to its counterparts in the shooter genre.  At its heart, The Club is an arcade game.  Much like AM2’s Outtrigger, an initial reason is given and the player is set upon the locations.  Levels and arenas in the title suggest the development studio took the majority of locations from contemporary action games and distilled them into a glorious shooter generalisation made real.  From abandoned steel mills and factories to manor houses, deserted ocean liners and the ubiquitous no-man’s-land warzones of mud and wire,  The Club brings together the stalwart locations of its brethren.  Any opposition to the rationale behind such a choice is rendered invalid if one cares to peruse the continually recycled design choices found in other action games.  This does not however excuse a relative lack of progression or innovation in map design on a whole, but the very nature of The Club allows it to flourish inside an already established aesthetic formula.

The characters themselves, an initial roster of six playable entrants with a further two unlocked after satisfying certain prerequisites, are likened by the developers to “fighting game characters”; a group of men so stylised within the confines of action hero stereotype, they could be and were received as uninventive and stale.  Perhaps sub-arguments can be made, such as The Club purveys a misogynistic  overtone, as there is not a single female character – either as a playable choice or as one of the enemies – but again, both the seemingly unremarkable character design and complete lack of femininity in The Club are part of the experience and not alien to the action genre.   

Getting to the heart of the game, a gamer finds themselves facing the kernel concepts of the shooter genre: proving skills against adversaries in savage and stylish ways.  Assessing the justification for the game, it is far less pretentious than covering a scaffolding of dropping foes beneath a veneer of overbearing macho window-dressing.  Since shooters first began to sport location-specific or local area damage, gamers have been chasing the hallowed headshot at every turn.  The split decision between style and efficiency are not mutually exclusive in The Club.  The morbidity of a death sport, an organisation where players are compelled to move through a level to despatch as many people as possible, is a motive with undoubtedly more impact than one under the guise of fighting a war against aliens or Nazis.  Players strive to become the next superstar of mass-murder, applauded and awarded for their actions in laying waste to opponents with a perverse grace.  Judging by the reaction given by a majority of gamers, this dark poignancy was sadly missed or simply deemed an unimpressive raison d’être in the face of relatively overblown pulp military or science fiction situations.

A growling caricature of the quintessential deathmatch voice heralds every bullet that squares an opponent in the head, an enemy downed from the last bullet in the player’s magazine, a shot dropping a target when fired from the hip.  The Club encourages players to string together their kills, a gruesome combo of punching through barricades, bouncing bullets off walls into the backs of opponents, coupling together a commando-roll and an immediate follow-up of shotgunning an opponent, just to name a few.  It can be seen a more grotesque take on the ‘creative kill’ idea, seen in Deadline Games’ Total Overdose.  Token genre standbys like the fuel barrels can be detonated to subdue a foe or foes in the fiery blast radius by a short burst from the player’s gun.  There is the ever-present melee attack for close-quarter combat.  Thus far, The Club covers everything a genre fan could hope for, aided by a solid online experience.  What went wrong?

Strange questions began to surface, not so much from the commercial critics, but from gamers themselves.  Questions were posed in trying to figure out why Bizarre Creations had bothered to blend a shooter and a racing game together.  Many stated the game was a one-trick pony, with a score-motivated gameplay mechanic simply not what the shooter fans were lusting for.  It was not as bigger reach as Pandemic’s fusion of real-time strategy and first-person action in Battlezone II: Combat Commander, as the racing and shooter genre share more similarities in twitch-based reaction and, on a conceptual level, attaining style.  Critics themselves, such as Fraser McMillan at Thunderbolt Games, state that The Club lacks that shot of adrenaline other titles offer.  McMillan went so far as to ask:

Where are the flailing ragdolls that soar ten feet into the air without so much as a nudge? Where are the screen-consuming fireballs that obliterate everything in the immediate surroundings? Where is the impact and weight behind the trigger? Where are the gravity-defying karate kicks and face-mangling uppercuts?

While he might very well have written this with a facetious grin in hoping Bizarre Creations take note to inject some sort of Call of Duty or Gear of War-level “excitement” into the franchise in subsequent sequels, it does highlight just where the divide occurred in the reception of The Club.  Bizarre Creations streamlined the affair in the vein of a racing game; the balance of a smooth spree reduced any chance of replicating the grit found elsewhere.  To quote McMillan again, paramount to any action game’s success is, well, action.  It does seem that The Club featured a level of action that did not occur on a grand scale, seemingly weak against the chainsawing of aliens.  The condensing and purification of the tenets of the action-driven genres and hybridisation into an experience that included a racing element was simply not enough for the public on a whole. 

The Club is one of those underrated games whose concepts are begging to be revisited.  But more importantly, it is the ghoulish subject matter that deserves amplification – however difficult it might be, considering the genre fusion overpowers any further discussion.  The characters themselves, as generic as they may seem on the surface, offer a platform to experience not so much immorality, as a distinct lack of morality.  An ice-cold grey area outside of conventions, populated by the likes of Rockstar’s Manhunt games.  It might be hard to pinpoint such concepts when the game itself is billed as an arcade shooter, but the fact remains a sportstar-level killer is a pair of shoes rarely worn by the gaming public.

Games not being taken seriously is a fairly tired argument, but one still with an anchor of merit.  Though the medium is both in its infancy and relatively distanced from the established art forms, it is casting its own irrevocable shadow.

There is nothing more aggravating that the old chestnut of “are games art?” being dredged up ad nauseam on message boards with indignation on the medium not being taken seriously – helped to a large extent over the question of credibility within the gaming journalism field.  Pundits figure that simply because games feature comparative notions to that of cinema, print and the visual arts – sound, narrative and progression, aesthetic characteristics – the medium should be treated with the same level of understanding, admiration and critique as the aforementioned artistic expressions.  However, given a number of reasons, there needs to be some lines drawn at the same time as the parallels.

To quote underdog game reviewer U2SM on Youtube – a 4X.Scope favourite – “…and this is just asshole on the internet’s opinion”, the whole idea of games and art and how it is interlinked into the medium’s coverage cannot be understood without realising the impact the world wide web has had on the industry.  The global sharing of ideas and enthusiasm on the medium has undoubtedly created a typhoon-level force to be reckoned with, allowing developers to interact with customers and provide immediate support and develop their products further.  On the same note, gaming fans and commercial enterprises coalesced to provide what we can now see in sites like IGN, Gamespot and 1UP, where more often than not, it is the developer under scrutiny whose creative production gets scarified and raked under loose sets of generic watermarks and subjective persuasions.  The obvious answer to such machinations lies in the fact that, at the heart of it, games journalism is centred around product review – like any car, white good or lifestyle product.  The industry is still at the point where the objects – as clever as they may be – are simply things to be used.  Digital worlds and scenarios, from the simple act of destroying coloured objects with a ball to the invasion of an alien world, are user-driven objects, beautiful and intriguing as they may be.  They are the digital equivalent of board and card games, avenues of pure entertainment and distraction.  Why, then, is there such a need to define this growing medium as art?

One could argue it is the encompassing and engrossing experience of many games that push it into similar realms such as cinema, literature and the visual arts.  Certainly, the very nature of each of the established mediums can be seen as a distraction.  But, for now, games on a whole do not have the sedimentary ballast of culture, nor do they adequately reflect social trends or influence on a larger level.  The medium on a whole is self-referential and moves within itself as popularity dictates.  The eight bit consoles and, to a further extent, the sixteen bit as well were largely dominated by platformer games.  The PC was a real-time strategist’s paradise during the Nineties, running off the success of Westwood and Blizzard franchises.  The first person shooter genre is the wildly popular concept riding the zeitgeist of this decade, coming into its own after its foundation stages in the last decade of the twentieth century and helped largely after making the transition successfully to consoles.  Parallels can be drawn between trends in cinema and games, but only on certain levels.  Armageddon and Deep Impact, Finding Nemo and A Shark’s Tale, A Bug’s Life and Antz; these are similar cases of comparable material hitting the box offices at around the same time.  However, cinema trends that share similar characteristics on a basic level rarely continue through the years outside of particular genres of movies – adequately, the action movie genre and the first person shooter genre share traits that, due to reasons plain to see, sustain their popularity.  Using the term with trepidation, the intellectual side of established artistic mediums – the atomic and ideological shadows that affected and drove a variety of art in the Fifties and Sixties, Soviet authors using science fiction literature as subterfuge for addressing their outlook, etc., – has not found its place in games simply for the fact that ideological targets and the more philosophical notions are more complex than getting from A to B. 

This is not to say games cannot present a good story.  Far from it, as the mere fact that the player inhabits a narrative to a large extent – be it linear or open and malleable – allows a well-scripted and planned set of events to reverb the experience long after the game is turned off.  However, a complicated interplay between characters cannot occur on the same level as is witnessed in literary or cinema classics – at least, not at this stage where the game itself is seen as a test of either one’s wits or reaction.  Touted as a benchmark for writing and characterisation within a directed scenario, Valve’s Half Life 2 and its episodic expansions create a vivid world and terrific characters, but falls back on the tenets of pointing and shooting to a large extent.  That does fly within the realms of gaming, but pressing the same expectations of intellectual art mediums onto what is interactive entertainment leaves many areas unable to be judged accordingly.  Does this suggest that the traditional waterlines and expectations simply do not have the flexibility to extend to games? 

To say ‘yes’ would trivialise both sides of the argument.  New artistic movements within the realms of the great painters caused stirs of derision and dumbfounded patrons – at the time – either rang personal death knells for the medium on a whole or enjoyed the novelty of a new form or vision.  Thus, flexibility is what the medium is all about, and pushing boundaries is the engine driving the machine.  Impressionism rolled on, as did subsequent forms of expression, with the public understanding and revelling in them.  Art Deco, for example, reflected the exhilarated lust for glamour and modernism during the Roaring Twenties and remains a poignant observation of society and art intertwined.  However, unlike Art Deco, the gaming medium is not an expression as such, nor has it been around long enough to decipher its place in a deeper cultural sense. 

What it does have, however, is a contemporary here-and-now vibrancy that might not reflect the afflictions of the day, but certain creates its own waves in a pop-cultural sense, even to the point of notoriety.  Hence why a movie like Sylvestor Stallone’s John Rambo – in itself simply an explicit body count captured on celluloid – barely raises a pulse or concern in today’s society, but acts enabled in Rockstar’s juggernaut GTA franchise are decried as ‘murder simulators’ and judged accordingly.  The phenomenon of non-interactive violence and depraved situations in the traditional mediums more often than not passing society’s collective standards with nary a blink of the eye, whilst a user-driven experience within a game has a fair chance of being banned in a number of conservative countries, is a predicament that looms large.  Would it be different if society fast-forwards to 2020?  Will games eventually be given the same consideration as movies, books and art?  Is it only a matter of time? 

There can be no doubt that, simply by the course of time, advancements will be made in how interactivity is handled and directed.  Will the traditional genres remain?  Undoubtedly; just as sport has endured, chess and other non-digital games the same, nothing can break the allure of competitive gaming.  The Xbox Live generation has set a standard not so much for the artistic need in games, but for a refinement and evolution of mechanics.  Black and white movies might not be cutting edge, but they can offer timeless entertainment.  Console shooters might have started in a big way with Rare’s GoldenEye on Nintendo 64, but there would be a very small portion of gamers who would comfortably continue to play it in the age of dual analog accuracy and streamlined controls – and that is just considering one genre on the console platforms.  Perhaps there will be a coalescing, as there already seems to be, with the competitive nature of sports and games.  South Korea’s televised Starcraft Pro League is a prime example, as is the indefatigable QuakeCon.  This seems a perfect counterpart to the more subdued and antiquated world chess tournaments.  On the other side, games like the upcoming Heavy Rain are looking to take the idea of immersive storytelling to a new level.  Quantic Dream, the game’s developers, have already dabbled – with mixed results – in creating a cross-over between story-heavy action and adventure gameplay and it remains to be seen which contingent of the gaming community this will appeal to with their new title.  Surely story alone is not the defining character of a game that has reason to be considered art, though.

Indeed, as traditional artwork implies narrative and evokes story, rather than telling it directly.  Since aesthetic game architecture is, basically, a multimedia extravaganza, art direction is one of the pillars of design, moreso now than ever.  Leaving aside the comparisons between literary and game narrative, when considering how to compare and contrast game worlds, characters and assets to art installations and all that they encompass, it is much easier to suggest games can be considered an art form.  While many games strive for a sense of photo-stylised realism, others aim for minimalism or downright surrealism.  Graphical concepts can come alive, treat and tantalise the player.  Tied also with audio arrangement is the subsequent casting of mood and ambience – which is something every good piece of gallery art is capable of evoking.  Gamers who have delved into GSC Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, a first-person shooter-RPG hybrid based on a Strugatsky Brothers short story that takes place in the countryside surrounding the ruined reactor and the town of Prypiat, talk of the chilling atmosphere of the game, cast mainly by the ghostly landscapes and the sense of creeping dread – coupled with feelings for the real-world location.  Going from something recreating a stylised version of the real world to something like ThatGameCompany’s flOw, a dreamlike foray into a primordial ecosystem of microscopic lifeforms, plying to and fro in an ancient ocean, it is obvious to see how malleable this relatively new medium can be.  Certain areas within games can be likened to interactive art, and given the rise of online distribution for many experimental titles, this is probably one area that will achieve a more artistic reception than its counterpart genres. 

To bring it back to people’s indignation, there is not a simple answer as to why games are not considered art at this point by many.  Having started as primarily young people’s entertainment has not done the medium any favours, but that gap is closing rapidly as those who grew up with games are filling out the ranks of adults who, prior to now, had no reason to see it anything but a frivolous past time.  History is on the side of art, literature and cinema simply because they stemmed from evoking or portraying new vision or narrative from a non-interactive point of view, thus mechanics of portrayal and conveyance were more simple and easier to hone.  People fondly remember earlier types of film, such as Kodak’s Super 8mm, but it remains to be seen if first generation polygon-based games will retain any sort of sentimentality when coupled with control systems vastly superseded generations after.  Whereas narrative drives cinema and literature – be it from the 18th century or today – most gaming narrative serves to trigger the next stage of action.  A movie such as Christopher Nolan’s Memento showcases cinema’s flexibility in telling a story in a disjointed manner.  Creating a similar game narrative with gameplay befitting the presentation would undoubtedly run into problems in confusing linearity and, possibly, upsetting a sense of character progression – something closely associated with tangible gaming reward. 

Adequately writing themes of gravitas into games is also something relatively new, at least using cinema and literature as the yardstick.  Complex, multilayered characters in movies and books are expected to a large extent, and thus far few developers have managed to fully implement a digital cast of equal worth.  In saying that, gamers are a needy, hard-to-please bunch; while characters might end up well-written, if the mechanics underlying their interaction is not up to a collective standard, the project is deemed a relative failure.  This can be seen transversely, as a good-looking film means nothing if the cast is unremarkable.  However, a movie requires only the viewer to watch, whereas a gamer’s own choices and direction are the sole reason a game is played – thus the medium does need to build upon its short-lived history and take stock of roots while noting forward direction.

Despite the high-brow debates, low-level banter and outright despair of those with a seeming vested interest in the medium, there is hope.  Whilst games themselves might not singularly make waves upon release, 4X.Scope favourite Squadron of Shame and people of their ilk, the Leigh Alexanders and N’Gai Croals, bloggers and casuals, all cast their thoughts on the movement of the industry – both looking towards the future and retrospectively.  Technology is behind games, and it will undoubtedly hasten towards maturity a lot faster than the established mediums by the very merit of technological innovation.  The more people talk about it as an entity of its own, rather than as a forlorn outsider – for now, as artistic entertainment aggregate, as opposed to art – the less this debate will need to occur.

In any case, while there is a calling for serious analysis, gamers should not lose sight of playing for sheer enjoyment.  Under the surface, it is exactly why we do.  But hey, that’s just some asshole on the internet’s opinion.

Throwing the spotlight on underappreciated games is no solo exercise.  4X.Scope illuminates a miniscule genre-biased sliver of the vast stockpile of underdog gems.  A multinational force to be reckoned with in unearthing those forgotten and misrepresented titles is The Squadron Of Shame.

The rise of both the internet and gaming on a relative equilibrium has coalesced in an explosion of sites – both commercial and informal – on the gaming industry.  This very site can be viewed as a result of the boom.  One of the more exciting and innovative products to have resulted – other than simply transcribing print journalism and its inevitable erstwhile colleague, the  editorial, onto the web – sees the seemingly archaic radio broadcast reinvented as a fresh, invigorated piece of digital media known as the podcast.  While there are any number of official productions by the large gaming sites, much of the best content online is user-created.  No better example of this is Chris Whittington and the crew with their Squadcast.

While there are retrospective gaming podcasts out there – most notably 1UP’s Retronauts – the Squadron of Shame is markedly different in that it primarily targets overlooked and underappreciated titles, both past and relatively recent.  Once a title is selected, this modern take on a book club spends a few weeks exploring and collecting their views and opinions, before coming to the digital round table to discuss, examine and extrapolate the highs and lows, ins and outs, influences, legacy and success of the chosen game.

The passionate enthusiasm that each member of the squad brings to the discussion is balanced perfectly by the grounded approach to examining a title’s merits and flaws.  The Squadron of Shame represents a step forward in the maturing of games as an entertainment medium, as they conduct intelligent and informed discussion for the sheer love of the medium.  It is a testament to the Squad that their own podcast not only stands up to commercially-produced recordings, but bests most of them for objectivity and willingness to engage titles.  In comparison, the contrast between a paid production such as the IGN Playstation channel and its vacuous presentation of shrieking nonsense and the consistently interesting and honed irreverence of of the Squadcast, it puzzles somewhat that certain podcasts continue to be recorded when people like “Roc Gaude” Whittington and the Squad emphatically display that money buys nothing if the team is not willing to go that extra mile in terms of content and discussion.  Incidentally, the very merit of the IGN Playstation podcast is constantly called into question by its very own IGN Insider subscribers.  This damning indictment serves only to highlight the imbalance of tabloid journalism – where there frankly should be a considerable smorgasbord of news and ideas from press with access to developers and publishers – to highly intelligent and thoughtful industry and game examination on forums by gamers themselves.  However, nothing more need to be stated on the relevancy of other productions, as there is much to commend the Squadron of Shame on.

A typical Squadcast, either in the main mission production or the smaller side-missions – recently having made the transition from forum-based discussion threads to fully-fledged audio recordings – casts a homely ambience, instantly separating it from the majority of other podcasts.  The line between professional sensibility and a friendly get-together of gamer friends is trod with expert synergy.  With Whittington’s relaxed hosting, the discussion moves with zest and humour, fuelled by sharp anecdotes and observation.  This is a highpoint for anyone looking for a retrospective podcast that skips the down-the-nose and pompous nature some productions exude in favour of an enjoyable experience with affable personalities, each offering equally interesting input.  Amidst the gallery of contributors, Pete ‘Angry Jedi’ Davison, the Squad’s main man in the UK, is a wealth of knowledge when the discussion drops into the adventure game genre.  Chris ‘Papapishu’ Person draws on an expansive reference of ideas to interweave into the examination from the established literary and art mediums, with the Minotti brothers, ‘AJ’ and ‘Tolkoto’ – creators of the Squadron’s sister production Exploding Barrel – both terrific sources of sound analysis.  Mark ‘Beige’ Whiting takes the reins for what the Squad call the “chin-stroking” section – whereby members analyse and elucidate on the title under review; examining developer intent and efficacy, themes and values, the game’s legacy with hypothetical future applications or sequels.

On paper, the pursuit of examining a past title – underdog or otherwise – on a higher level than simply whether it has aged well or dated badly sounds like a recipe for long bows to be drawn amidst a torrent of self-aggrandising wankery.  However, Squadcasts are level-headed and rarely, if at all, stray into inanity.  Members seem at all times aware of the subject matter and its relative light-heartedness, yet inject precise and affirmed relevancy into every podcast.  Even a minor element, such as the disparity and preference between the original unvoiced and later voice-tracked CD releases of LucasArts’ 1992 adventure title Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, poignantly belies not just individual Squad member’s opinions, but underlines larger concepts, such as the cross-medium variant of handling remakes, re-releases and updates to various franchises – be they books (as is the case with Maori author Witi Ihimaera reworking earlier novels set for republishing), television or cinema.

At its heart, the Squadron of Shame is a group of gamers taking all those “late to the party” forum threads a giant step further, and with style.  Proving to side-step the usual negativity associated with examining games on an open forum – sadly a common occurrence on large and reputable gaming forums such as NeoGAF, although its sheer number of commentators dictates fair odds for like-minded people to find and share opinions amidst the cynicism and frankly tiresome showcase of self-referential internet humour – a Squadcast is an easy recommendation to anyone with even a passing interest in the rapidly-accelerating medium of games and a sucker for the underdog.  Dedicating an entire show to the relatively forgotten Starwars: Republic Commando is an indication of perseverance and willingness to buck the trend and dig deep into titles that would have otherwise remained a sarcastic footnote on a message board for most people.

Can the production be faulted?  Earlier episodes may carry on too long for some listeners, but certainly not due to filler material found elsewhere.  With the Exploding Barrel podcast taking on portions of discussion to allow the Squadron of Shame to focus in on the topic title of their show, the issue – if it were one to begin with – now finds itself an illegitimate claim.  The fact that each member of the squad, including guests, is highly entertaining, likeable and astute makes a case for an immediate download of each episode in the Squad back-catalogue.  ‘Beige’ Whiting is currently pulling together the last pieces of the official Squadron of Shame website, thus pulling the ejector toggles on their original home at 1UP.com and giving the troops a place to call their own.

It is no secret that 4X.Scope is inspired to continue the search and rescue operation for games in need of highlighting after each episode of the Squadcast becomes available, but it is again no secret that, with all the recorded shows and podcasts on offer to the public, the Squadron of Shame is one of the best damn productions out there and deserves an ever-growing subscriber base.

The Squadron of Shame website and podcasts – both Squadcast and Exploding Barrel can be found HERE.

Stormrise was always going to fight an uphill battle, challenging people’s well-founded generalisations on real-time strategies on console.  However, despite being mauled by critics and still-born on the commercial front thereafter, Creative Assembly Oz hit the mark with this misunderstood, slightly flawed underdog.  Once controls are learned and the game play mechanics understood, it becomes a visceral, fast-moving tactical experience that takes no prisoners.

After briefly gaining cult international popularity then disappearing back to the Korean peninsula – where many good MMO games roost – Mowelsoft’s World War II armoured vehicle all-in brawl is set to roll back into the international arena.

Now under the control and administration of EFusion MMOG as TwoWar.com, who also manage the European version of NavyFIELD, Blitz1941 is set for a closed beta release sometime during the next few months, and fans could not be more happy.  For those who experienced those fleeting few months back in 2006, the news of this tank  en-masse MMOG returning has been an answered prayer due to the sudden disappearance of Blitz1941 three years ago.  But for those not familiar with the title, the fuss needs examination. 

Set amidst the German push into Russia and the subsequent retaliatory action, Blitz1941 is all about large-scale armoured vehicle combat.  Each server boasts a 3000-player capacity, with the number within each arena offering an incredible 100-vs-100 battle for occupation.  NavyFIELD is the closest living relative to Blitz1941, but offers a much more technical and complex form of player-versus-player encounter.  Blitz1941 strips armoured combat down to a near-arcade level of play, but retains a level of strategy with enough depth to provide players with choice, vehicle and item preference and an avenue to develop their own tactics. 

Played from an isometric perspective, players utilise the mouse to guide their tank or self-propelled gun around the battlefield.  Targeting is differentiated between vehicles; a T-34 (the 1944 variant being a particular favourite of comrade and fellow-blogger DM Scheer) can outmanoeuvre a Jagdpanther with the use of its turret and strategic movement.  However, with careful planning and a group schwerpunkt, the Jagdpather can tank-hunt as it was known to do so effectively.  This highlights the thrill of the Blitz1941 encounters – the sheer number of vehicles involved is an exhilarating experience to behold.  Light tanks racing towards the enemy lines, backed in force by the arcing shells from self-propelled guns rumbling behind the vanguard.  Medium tanks rolling in packs towards an enemy outpost or making an incursion through wooded valleys to cut off spawned reinforcements from reaching the front.  Players desperately trying to accelerate out from an inbound airstrike and regroup.  With ninety-nine other comrades, the game enjoys living truly under the moniker of a “massively-multiplayer” title.

The graphics are rendered in a quasi-cel-shaded fashion, with the vehicles themselves a real treat for history buffs.  Churning across the countryside, leaving tread-bitten tracks in their wake, seeing a large armoured platoon on the move is satisfying – matched only by the fleet actions in NavyFIELD.  While Blitz1941’s models are not of a particularly high polygon-count, the textures are sharp, clean and well-conceived.  Urban environments are superb, with the streets soon littered with smoking wreckage and blast marks from conquered foes.  Spawn bases become the focus point of cunning offensives or defenders holding off against waves of approaching tanks in defiance.  Snow-covered plains highlight the visceral combat as damaged vehicles limp away from the front lines to repair, enemy shells thumping in pursuit. 

Information from the Blitz1941 website tells of what the player should expect from the game.  First and foremost, there are sixty individual vehicles on offer.  Split down the middle, with thirty each side, there remains a slew of choices facing the player.  Should one play a supporting role as a self-propelled gun?  Would the role of a heavy tank commander suit the player, leading the attack and being the first in the fray?  Does playing the middle ground in a medium tank appeal to the gamer?  Not only that, but with each vehicle comes upgrades and items.  Specific weapons and buffs and items are assigned, de rigueur, to the numeral keys and triggered as such.  While many of these items will have little historical accuracy, they remain an integral part of staying alive on the battlefield, supporting friendly vehicles and laying waste to those who oppose. 

Levelling up on the battlefield comes via experience, bonuses, contribution and money.  From there, new tanks become available, much like any other MMOG where higher tier objects are complimentary to player level.  Like NavyFIELD and crew component of a player’s vessel, it is the tank commander who levels in the game, rather than the vehicle.  Special attributes and statistics occur and upgrade with each promotion.  Further information on this facet will hopefully be released closer to and on the beta’s release, as well as a host of player-driven impressions on the Blitz1941 forums. 

According to the Blitz1941 website, combat takes place across fifteen individual arenas:  Warsaw (Poland), Helsinki (Finland), Copenhagen (Denmark), Oslo (Norway), Stockholm (Sweden), Prague (Czech), Munich (Germany), Hamburg (Germany), Kiev (Ukraine), Vilnius (Lithuania), Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia), Minsk (Belarus), Leningrad (Russia), and Stalingrad (Russia).  Each of these locations fall into the environment and structural categories of a metropolitan city, a small city, a munitions city or a commercial city.  Players battle for control of these areas to gain economic stability for their chosen side, as well as items specific to the region.  Currently, little is known as to what items are endemic to what area, or even what items are available.  Surrounding major population centres is a varied and tactical terrain.  Line of sight plays a big part in combat, with tactics such as taking a hull-down position behind a hillock playing a smart role in-game.  Valleys, hills, rivers, lowland areas and more are some of the terrain being touted by TwoWar.  If the original international beta is anything to go by, it will remain thrilling to engage an enemy over uneven ground. 

As of the 6th of July, sign-up for the closed beta has begun.  Players are eagerly awaiting their acceptance into the rebirth event of one of the best cult-classic MMO experienced outside of South Korea.  One fan in particular has been Danoo of the Blitz1941 blog, who tirelessly trawled the internet for any hope or evidence that the hallowed title would return to the international scene.  Lo and behold, it did and Danoo was there to spread the news.  Congratulations to him for keeping an ear to the ground and an eye on the horizon, as it has paid off. 

Incidentally, Blitz II is already out in South Korean, with the tentative promise of it reaching international waters.  Blitz II leaves behind its predecessor and World War II in favour of the Six Day War era – taking place in the Middle East with early Cold War technology. 

For the moment though, Blitz1941 looks set to retake a fair share of the F2P MMOG sphere, a portion it once held during those brief but oh-so-sweet few months in 2006.

Blitz1941 Official Site 

News just at hand – Mountain Sheep’s PSP gunship action game Super Hind is now available for download on the European PSN Store:

Super Hind (£15.99/€19.99)
What would you do if you were given access to the deadliest military helicopter created and the power to change the world? Now is your chance to find out.
PEGI 7+
(182MB required)

Timo Vihola, Mountain Sheep’s co-founder and art director, gave 4X.Scope this news with the following:

“…At the moment I don’t have info on other PSN regions but it could be coming elsewhere too!”

For the moment, it remains to be unavailable on the Oceania PSN stores and in the US.  However, with the launch of the PSP Go only months away, gamers outside of Europe might be firing up their helicopters sooner rather than later.  Still on the Mountain Sheep front, their iPhone arcade game Minigore is nearing submission to Apple.  Keep up to date with progress at the Minigore website.

Nimbly Games’ Altitude is a thoroughly enjoyable arcade multiplayer title that deserves a lot of attention.  It is undoubtedly one of the favourites at 4X.Scope for its sheer drop-in fun-factor. 

One half of Nimbly Games, Erik Measure, has kindly allowed the interview crosshairs to be levelled as he talks candidly about the beginning, middle and future of Altitude.  From its roots as a reinvention of an Intellivision game to being a popular game around the globe and around the clock, Erik gives a peak into the Altitude arena and all that it entails – from balance to design to what’s next.

4X.Scope:  Where did the inspiration to create a 2D aerial multiplayer game stem from?

Erik:  A friend, Shawn Frison, suggested that he’d always wanted to play an online multiplayer version of Intellivision Biplanes. I’d never played a 2D aerial combat game before so Shawn talked me through the basics. A quick and ugly rehashing of some old code later and Altitude was born — a week or so in we had a playable version. It was a totally new game experience for me and the flight dynamic had me hooked.

4X.Scope:  Were the original concepts close to what the finished product ended up being?

Erik:  Yes – the design evolved and expanded but the core mechanic never changed. We started with something simple and fun, played the game constantly, listened carefully to testers, and worked hard to address problems and incorporate fun new stuff. Good ideas were refined, bad ideas were cut, and so the evolution of Altitude continues!

4X.Scope:  What was the creative atmosphere like at the Nimbly Games studio during production?

Erik:  Two guys in a small apartment, sitting back to back, hammering away at our keyboards. Every now and then one of us will call over our shoulder for help with a design decision — or in particularly serious cases, swivel our chairs around to discuss things over a notepad — but mostly it’s just *click* *click* *click* here at Nimbly Games.

4X.Scope:  Were there many hurdles and pitfalls to traverse during Altitude’s development?

Erik:  We jumped through a lot of hoops to get Altitude running smoothly on every major OS (Win/Mac/Linux), and I’m happy to say it was worthwhile. One of our best map designers is a Mac user, and there’s nothing like a half-page bug report from a Linux user who’s correctly identified, discovered workarounds, and proposed solutions for an obscure bug. Otherwise most hurdles have been auxiliary features (automatic updates, a tightly integrated friend system, map editing and server hosting tools, etc) that aren’t much fun to implement but provide lots of value to players.

4X.Scope:  For both yourself and Karl Sabo, what is paramount in creating or defining a good multiplayer title?

Erik:  Fun, replayability, and depth. Accessibility helps when it’s time to convert your friends, but otherwise it’s hard to say. Our favorite games include Starcraft, Counter-Strike, DotA, and Altitude — the only thing I’m sure they all have in common is thousands of hours of play testing and lots of careful adjustments to optimize the multiplayer experience.

4X.Scope:  What further content can Altitude fans look forward to in the future?

Erik:  New game modes and lots of new maps. Very soon we’ll be adding an asymmetric objective game mode targeted at the hardcore competitive crowd, and then we’ll be adding a cooperative horde mode where you combine forces with friends to take on huge waves of computer-controlled enemies. The community has already started to crank out great maps; I’m sure we’ll see lots of awesome new maps as the player base grows and new game modes are introduced.

Thanks very much to Erik Measure from Nimbly Games for this interview and 4X.Scope wishes the Altitude team all the very best for the future.

4X.Scope reviewed Altitude this month, which can be found here.

Altitude can be found here.

4X.Scope is honoured to have Guy ‘Yug’ Blomberg in the crosshairs for an interview on certain games, certain trends and the future of both local software development and Australian games journalism.

Australia can punch about its weight in most entertainment mediums, having shown great prowess in a number of films, in music, with art and with game development.  Growing out of big-name titles like Super International Cricket and other domestically-popular games, Australia has become a burgeoning  hotspot for game production.  AustralianGamer.com’s PR and Creative Director Guy Blomberg has offered an in-depth insight into the brave new world of where the medium is at in Australia today. 

4X.Scope:  Guy, thanks for taking time out to shoot the breeze.  Firstly, what was your earliest gaming memory?

Yug:  Guy?  Who is this Guy person you speak of?!

Earliest gaming memory would probably be playing Ghostbusters and Pitfall on my best friends Atari 2600.

4X.Scope:  Thus far, where have you been stationed in the Australian gaming and development scene and in what capacity?

Yug:  I’ve worked as a graphic designer for Auran Games, and a UI designer and community manager for Sega Creative Assembly. Through AustralianGamer.com I’ve managed to promote and support the local industry, reporting on national rumours that affect it, and featuring small independent developers who don’t get much publicity otherwise.  I’ve also hosted and MC’d the eGames, GAME1, Supanova and GenConOz events along with Matt Burgess, and have spoken at QUT, DEVELOP, and GCAP about the gaming industry.

4X.Scope:  Let’s move onto the most recent development projects you were involved in – The Creative Assembly’s science-fiction strategy Stormrise.  What was the creative atmosphere like in the Brisbane studios during the development phase?

Yug:  Well, we’re talking about a game that was completely innovative from the ground up, that broke the mould for console RTS on a number of fronts.  The creative team, from artists to programmers to designers, included some of the most talented people I’ve had the pleasure of working with.  The atmosphere tends to shift between excitement and panic fairly regularly though!

4X.Scope:  Is there a particular trait or characteristic unique to an Australian developer or development team?

Yug:   For better or for worse, most of the Australian studio’s I’ve visited (almost all of them now) have a more laid back approach to their international counterparts.

4X.Scope:  The critical reception to Stormrise was nothing short of unkind.  How did you personally feel about it and how does such an event affect an entire team.  Stormrise was, for all intents and purposes, everyone’s creative baby for a long time.  Is it a case of learning from experience, feeling unfairly downtrodden or perhaps a mixture of both?

Yug:  It was a completely bizarre situation for me to be in – I’m used to being the one who GIVES the harsh reviews! Seeing it from the other side, being involved and working on a game then seeing the reviews come in, it’s hard not to take it personally. I remember watching the GameSpot review in particular, that gave it a 2.0 overall, and just kind of realising how much a critical review can really affect people’s lives, you know?

I thought Stormrise was a game of awesome potential, that needed the last few months of polish before release, and didn’t get the exposure or recognition it deserved for being so bold. Although not all reviews reflected this, I played enough games online against other people who could see this, and had a lot of fun.

4X.Scope:  You did a remarkable job on the PR side of Stormrise, putting together a number of videos and podcasts, as well as managing Stormrisers.com and its forums.  Focusing on the World Championship in-house tournament coverage prior to the release of Stormrise, were you hoping to capture the competitive edge of the strategy genre – namely the big-gun, Starcraft – and link it with the fast-paced nature of CA Australia’s title?

Yug:  It was a chance to show people that Stormrise was viable as a competitive game, and especially considering we had some Warcraft III pro gamers in the QA department, we thought the opportunity was definitely there to do something fun. We just wanted people to see the multiplayer portion of the game in action, to realise the whip select system works, and see the ‘best of the best’ go for it!

4X.Scope:  How was Stormrise received at Australian Gamer, and while an objective stance is always something to strive towards, was there a certain level of affection towards an Australian-developed title?

Yug:  I had to take myself out of the equation. Matt actually visited the studio and previewed the game, and did an interview with the creative director Ken Turner, however if you read his preview he doesn’t hold back any punches, and voices all his concerns and criticisms.

4X.Scope:  Moving on from Stormrise, it seems that Australia has a decent track-record with the real-time strategy genre.  The KKND series from Melbourne House, as well as Auran’s Dark Reign franchise, are well-remembered.  Dark Reign, in particular, introduced some incredibly far-sighted mechanics with unit AI that, for the most part, have not been implemented subsequently with that much force.  What was your experience with Dark Reign?

Yug:  I played it on launch … hell I played almost every RTS game back then, from Dark Reign, AND KKND, Total Annilation, C&C, Warcraft, Starcraft, etc. Dark Reign had a momentum the other RTS games didn’t have, and introduced some unique elements to the genre that have been copied far and wide to this day. I’m not sure, but I *think* it may have been the first RTS game to include a unit cue.

4X.Scope:  More broadly, it bears worth to mention the journalistic side of the Australian games industry.  There are a number of venerable long-running magazines that balance an authentic Australian irreverence with quality content and reporting.  The internet has produced an Australian Kotaku and sites like PalGN and your very own AustralianGamer.  For you, what defines and typifies Australian games journalism?

Yug:  Reporting on gaming news that affected Australia, not just international scoops and previews. I think all the Aussie sites that don’t have an international counterpart struggle to remain unique and get the same level of exclusives that other sites have, but we’re also very lucky that the local publishers are usually so supportive of the local journalists too.

4X.Scope:  Is there any particular area in both Australian games development and journalism that you’d like to see advanced, changed or strengthened?

Yug:  Developers need to get to a point where they don’t under-quote themselves – we have the talent to potentially create AAA titles, but there is a hesitation now and most of them are moving back into the ‘safe’ area of licensed titles. On the flip side, I believe the small indy studios will rule over the rest of this year and next, with iphone and XNA developers Firemint and Halfbrick leading the way.

Journalism? I wish Gamespot and IGN would come out for drinks next time I’m in Sydney, you antisocial bastards!

4X.Scope:  Finally, hypothetically, if there was a game to be developed locally that would typify Australia on any level in the international market – what genre and what style?

Yug:  You gotta be careful there … you might get what you wish for. The Australian Film Industry suffers due to the tax benifits it enjoys thanks to locally developed films about local content – but does anyone actually WATCH these bleak, depressing, Australian dramas? The last thing I would want are developers forcing themselves to create a game based on anything to do with Australia just for the sake of it.

4X.Scope:  Thank you again for your time and best of luck with future projects!  

Yug:  Cheers mate!

Thanks to Guy ‘ Yug’ Blomberg for a terrific interview.  Guy’s views, previews, reviews and news can be found at AustralianGamer.com.