• 21Aug 06

  Thoughts on Company of Heroes Demo/Beta

  I've played the demo/beta from my PC Gamer's Oct. 2006 Issue of Company of Heroes, and wrote a mini little review. Realize this is just the demo and not the full, actual game. I played the tutorial, Omaha Beach and Carentan (Single Player Campaign).

  Overall Score: 9.2

  Gameplay: 9 / 10
  Graphics: 8 / 10 (played with low settings and minimal eye candy)
  Sound: 10 / 10
  Value: 10 / 10 (got it for free with October Issue of PC Gamer)
  Tilt: 9 / 10

  The Good: Fast-paced intensive action; interesting units with diverse capabilities; unique defensive objects; realistic gameplay adds to excitement from both offensive and defensive perspectives; relatively strong A.I; strategic points implemented well and adds to strategic depth.

  The Bad: Can run choppy in particular intensive situations with low system specs;

  Difficulty: Medium
  Learning Curve: About 20 minutes to a half-hour
  Stability: Occasional choppiness; one minor freeze.

  I ran the game with:
  Intel Pentium 4, 2.8GHz
  1024MB of RAM
  Radeon 9800Pro
  1024x768 Resolution
  Low setings and relatively no eye candy
  

  Mini-Review:

  The tutorial started me out in "Basic tranining" where a lot of the training literally was basic, but familiarized myself with the UI and feel of the game, nonetheless. As I completed each level of training and finished with the tutorial, which took roughly 30 minutes, I began to play Omaha Beach. Initially, I was overwhelmed by the opposing side as my army made their way up onto land, but eventually realized I had a good chance at making it to the points I was assigned to. Once I accomplished that, my squads busted in through the barbed wire, and began unleashing doom to the other side. While my mission was to capture and destory two certain points, I found myself intrigued by my different types of units (mortar teams, snipers, and airbornes), as they each played very uniquely. 

  After I finished that mission, I moved to the next - Carentan. This is where things got really exciting. My mission was to protect the small town that lied on one side of the river by the opposing faction on the other side, only able to cross over by three bridges. Thus initially, I used my engineers to build a defensive weapon at the end of each bridge, and allign the bridges with mines. I then built some sandbags next to the defensive weapons, and sent my mortar team and snipers behind them. I then sent two large squads of airbornes and machine gun fighters to the other side of the map to capture two strategic points. They did so successfully, and fended off the invading opponets, but after a while with no reinforcements, the red team began to take those two points back over again, while my airbornes and machine gun fighters perilled (but the other side had tanks! no fair!).

  After a while, they then began making their way over the bridges. My defensive weapons held up strong, as did my mortars, but like I said, they had tanks, and were plowing right through as I hadn't planned or prepared well enough for their arrival. With about 4 minutes left until I would have had strong reinforcements sent in, the game froze (as I sent one of their panzers a nice grenade). I had to power-off my comp and restart it. Since then, I haven't played again, but will probably try to replay that mission later tonight.

  Overall, from what I played, I definately prefer this game over Warhammer: Dawn of War (obviously both are different games). The intensity and strategic level made me feel excited for once, and while I'm not necisarily partial to historic RTS games, Company of Heroes is one I'll definately be playing when I buy my new, updated rig next Spring (which should run the game flawlessly).

  • Posted Aug 21, 2006 7:33 pm PT
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• 15Jul 06

  Welcome to Engineering Camp

  Well, as many of you know, I've been gone the past week, attending an Engineering camp at a local university. Leaving on Sunday, July 9th, and returning back yesterday, I have kept a journal/diary of my experience and everything I learned. Keep in mind, my primary reason for going was to learn more about Computer and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - the programs I plan to pursue after highschool.

  Today I have posted Day 1's entry. Tomorrow evening, Day 2, 3, and 4 entries will be posted. On Monday evening, Day 5 and 6 entries will be posted.

  Enjoy

  Arriving Sunday Afternoon (Day 1)
  I arrived in the afternoon, and was a little caught off guard by where the campus was located and the surrounding small town it was located in. This town, rather small, was a little on the old and trashy side. Buildings were old and worn down, especially the "premier shops," and their Wal-Mart was literally the size of my house (and had 3 check out lanes). When we drove into campus, which was right next to a pawn shop and the "Adult Please Zone", I faced a tall building, also looking like a worn down old brick hotel.

  We entered in to register and get everything I'd need (room keys, etc), and then came up to my room. I wasn't expecting a grand suite or anything, just something that would be decent. And boy was I horrified to see that it was just the opposite. Imagine a prison cell; it was smaller than my actual room, and yet was going to be housing two people. On opposite sides were two wooden beds with a mattress, pillow (that was hard and lumpy), and a few sheets. There were also two small closets (though the doors were coming apart), and two small desks with a lamp. There was no bathroom at all; it was located down the hall accompanied with public showers, as well. My room was hard and cold (no carpet - instead hard-wood floor chipping off, and the walls were brick). It was also frigid cold because apparently the AC had been on quite a long time prior to my arrival.

  After we got situated in our rooms, there was an introductory meeting in a separate building several blocks away (that we had to walk to). After the intro meeting, we had our final dinner with our parents (the food was gross so I only ate a roll) and then they left me for the week. How I wish I could have left with them.

  After our dinner, there was another introductory meeting for all the campers. It basically introduced all the engineering types you'd be able to choose that week to learn in-depth about. I already knew the ones I would be picking, though, (Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science) so the meeting was rather long and boring for me. It finally ended at 7:30 and we all came back up to our rooms for the night.

  Unfourtunately, I didn't know anybody there (just my luck). So when we got back to our dorms, I practically spent the rest of the night there. There wasn't much other to do, and luckily, time went by rather quickly. Before long, it was 10:30, so, being tired, I went to bed, hoping that the next days would go by smoothly.

  • Posted Jul 15, 2006 2:23 pm PT
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• 27May 06

  Summer is finally here

  School is over, time to rejoice

  Late nights, late mornings, spending hours on end staring on PC Hardware section, emerging myself in everything I possibly can related to either gaming or hardware, no stress, no homework, no projects, no rules, no responsibility......yep, this summer is going to be great!

  • Posted May 27, 2006 9:52 pm PT
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