• 5Dec 06

  Rise of the Witch King

  Got the new expansion for Battle for Middle Earth 2 on it's release date. It's great. Don't mind all the gamers who rate it at abysmal or whatnot; they're simply jealous of EA's monopoly over the gaming world nowadays. For a bit of a comparison, Rise of the Witch King is better than many of the RTS games that I've played, and I've played quite alot, if you check my collection. At least it's better than the Star Wars Empire at War, Age of Empires III, including the expansions, Stronghold Legends, Warhammer 40k, and Warhammer Mark of Chaos to name a few. Keep in mind that all these games all came out in the last year or so.
  
  
  
  A brief summary of Rise of the Witch King's changes to the original Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 2.
  There are new units and new subhero units (very strong units, weaker than a hero), new maps, and a new faction, Angmar, which is unsurprisingly the Witch King's faction.
  Then, there are new hero powers, appearances, and ring powers for Angmar, such as the oft-mentioned giant werewolf.
  Tweaks to the system includes more balanced units and factions, smarter AI, heroes being able to move over 2 friendly regions, and more logical region layout/groupings. Also, any unit that survives after an RTS battle can now be recruited for a cost from your treasury in War of the Rings mode. This gives the War of the Rings mode much more strategic value, including more tactical management of your army's funds. I've always felt that it was quite stupid to rebuild my army again and again in RTS battles in the original Battle for Middle Earth 2, but now with the RTS recruitable function, the troops from previous RTS battles carry over, so I have more incentive to play RTS and battles start quicker since you get to bring your troops along. Finally, the auto-resolve function seems to be fixed. Before, the function was pretty much unusable due to the fact that you'll lose battles where you should win (say, 6 cavalry vs. 3 cavalry), but now, the auto-resolve is pretty balanced (6 cavalry wins vs. 4 cavalry) so it's a great alternative for those of us in a rush. However, since you get to keep troops now in RTS, it's often a very difficult choice between RTS and auto-resolve.
  
  Definitely an 8 or higher for the game. Probably a 7.5 or higher for the expansion itself.
  
  
  
  • Posted Dec 5, 2006 9:31 pm PT
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• 23Nov 06

  Turkey for Thanksgiving?

  What the heck is the turkey emblem? Lol, lets hope this is just a thanksgiving thing. Anyone know what gets you a turkey?
  • Posted Nov 23, 2006 12:02 pm PT
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• 17Oct 06

  Battlefield 2142

  Stupid Battlefield 2142 crashing.  But I DO have the supported video card: ATI 9600XT.
  Supported Video Cards:

  ATI

  Driver tested: Catalyst v6.7 Windows XP

  Radeon 9500/9700 series
  Radeon 9550 series
  Radeon 9600 series
  Radeon 9800 series
  Radeon X300 series (non integrated versions)
  Radeon X600 series
  Radeon X700 series
  Radeon X800 series
  Radeon X850 series
  Radeon X1300 series
  Radeon X1600 series
  Radeon X1800 series
  Radeon X1900 series

  Note: The 8500 and 9000 chipsets are not supported.

  NVIDIA

  Driver tested: Forceware v91.31 Windows XP

  GeForce 5800 series
  GeForce 5900 series
  GeForce 6200 series
  GeForce 6800 series
  GeForce 7300 series
  GeForce 7800 series
  GeForce FX 5700 series
  GeForce FX 5900 series
  GeForce FX 5950 series

  Note: The 6600 card is not supported.

  • Posted Oct 17, 2006 11:21 pm PT
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