First, hi to the 2 new posters on this blog. Welcome to the random posting that is Balderdash. Have fun. The topic is probably on games because I've nearly finished with my exams and am trying to make up for almost a year of not playing :P

Fuzzirat beat me to the review, but I'm going to review Battlerealms anyway :)

Battlerealms
Battlerealms is game set in "feudal Japan", although I think the setting is mostly there to make the game have a "cool" asian feel to it - it would have worked even if set in Africa or something (and no, I'm not trying to demean Africa - I'm saying that the game's design is solid.) The story is based around 4 distinct clans - the honourable Dragon, the cunning Serpent, the evil Lotus, and the warlike Wolf. Each side fights for a different goal - although in Campaign mode you only really get to use either the Dragon or Serpent clans. I went with the Dragon clan in Campaign, the softie that I was, simply because I couldn't bear to kill the rather helpless peasants. Anyway, Kenji (the protagonist) goes off on a quest to retrieve the "serpent's orb", which he believes possesses the ability to "break the world". Now, I haven't got the faintest idea what the orb does, because half-way through as a Dragon, Kenji's goal changes to "I must stop the inter-clan war" instead :P The Serpent wish to re-gain control of all the clans (they were once the dominant clan, just before Kenji's father, the leader of the Serpent clan, died), the Wolf wish freedom for their peasants (they were previously a group of miners under control of the Lotus) and the Lotus wish to gain the awesome power of the orb (which apparently only they believe in) for themselves.

The Single Player campaign mode can be rather impressive right at the start. You are thrust right into the clan's power struggles, and can choose (ala Command and Conquer) which path to take, although the game's story progresses quite linearly. Missions can be quite challenging at times, although the earlier missions I found rather easy. There isn't much in the way of "commando-missions", although the 2 I have played thus far were thoroughly enjoyable and well designed, with one requiring Kenji to protect a building, and the other having Kenji run a gauntlet. However, some missions can be frustrating - when I thought I had eliminated every single one of a certain side (the missions usually requires you to eliminate more than 1 AI player), one of their peasants would have survived and had rebuilt slowly, from 0, up to an annoying fully fledged army again. This makes having to hunt every single one of a remaining side's units down necessary, which I found most annoying. However, once I got used to the idea that peasants were attracted to rice and water like moths to a candle flame, things became much easier.

The AI in this game is one of the best I have ever seen. Battlerealms has bested Dark Reign in having the best AI in an RTS I have played. The movement AI is intelligent - it automatically picks the shortest path and can navigate bottlenecks with ease (unlike a certain popular RTS I know of *coughcough*starcraft*coughcough*). Units have a good idea of what they are supposed to do and do it well - the Geisha automatically heal units to full health if they go yellow, and melee units pick the targets they work best against and attack them first. However, in default mode, the units tend to be over-enthusiastic and will chase ANY unit they can see to the ends of the earth, even if they are bleeding, limping, and have had critical body regions chopped-off. This is easily fixed by putting the unit into passive mode, though. I find that once I got the hang of it, controlling my units was a breeze - no formations needed! All-in-all, the unit AI is very well done and unobstrusive.

The enemy AI is extremely fun to play against in skirmish mode. The AI may be set to represent different characters in the game, such as Kenji, Shinja (leader of the Serpent Clan), Zymeth (Lotus), or Grayback (Wolf). There are more, of course, but each of these different AI representatives have a different style of play - some like using unit abilities (called BattleGear), some like summoning heroes, etc. I have had the AI execute several effective unit strategies on me - Grayback is particularly fond of hitting hard and fast, from 2 sides (classic pincer strategy?), with hard-hitting melee units, while Shinja favours using quick units to lure my nicely-assembled army piecemeal to their doom, to a ambush in a thick grove of trees. Again, never have I seen any computer AI do this in any other game, so kudos goes to Liquid Entertainment for programming such a great AI.

Multiplayer is great - Battlerealms does not focus on resource collection, and instead rewards aggresive gameplay and good usage of the units you have available. Of course, every game has it's share of turtlers, but I daresay turtlers won't survive very long in Battlerealms, since they will be at a disadvantage in terms of Yin/Yang points collected (which are used to upgrade your units), as Yin/Yang points are awarded by the number of kills you have based on how far you are from your "base". My clan loyalties lie with the "Serpent" clan, currently - their style of play focuses (I think) on hitting quickly with fast moving units, burning down buildings (always fun), and crippling enemy units with caltrops and landmines. Fuzzirat has had first-hand experience of both first and second points *mischievous grin*.

Battlerealms is a fully 3D RTS. The unit models looks great from the default view, although they get horribly blocky during in-game cinematics, which zoom right up to the units, very "close and personal"-like. Colours are rich and vibrant, and spell or unit ability effects suitably magnificent. The way the game is presented is very, very slick, with a distinctive art-style I find appealing. Unit animations are done well, and very varied. My jaw dropped when I first saw Kenji dodge quickly to his right to avoid a sword thrust, leap towards his opponent with a quick forward slash, and then leap back again to safety. The units have pseudo-oriental voices, which sound MOST melodramatic, although they never take themselves too seriously :) One of Dragon's heroes Tau, a monk, spouts phrases of wisdom like "The path is the way" - which is quickly followed up by "Forwards is not backwards", and then "Left, is right. Right, is wrong". The Serpent "Raider" unit sounds very fruity - according to the Liquid Entertainment guys, the guy who voice acted him and the Dragon Archer (another rather "funny"-sounding unit) is teased daily in the office. Most memorable and amusing.

If there was something I disliked - it would be that hotkeys to unit abilities are not easily found. I still haven't figured it out yet, and have to click the button manually. While this isn't all that bad, it's slightly distracting.

I won't give Battlerealms a score - play and judge for youself, but play it you must.

p/s: I want a PS2, damnit. I want one I want one I want one I want one. Devil may cry must be the singular coolest looking game I've ever seen. Rez is funky, and there's no need to even mention MGS2, I just HAVE got to get it. ICO, too. ARGH, I want a PS2. Then again, I want an Xbox as well. The fundamental problem of Economics rears it's ugly head though - I wonder how much I can exactly buy with my NS salary.

p/sp/s: Civ 3 is suitably fun too, but I was beaten down by the Germans and am still smarting from my in-ability to even try to play and win through peaceful means.

Well, this was a long post. Sadly, I haven't played much of Hundred Swords yet (guess why- no prizes for getting the right answer though), so I can't say much about it. Controls are a bit clunky, although the gameplay itself seems quite good.

Agagooga, please get rid of that picture of Asian Prince. URGH. Please.