Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

"Do not waste what the Emporer provides!"

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War was a phenomenal game for me, seemingly coming out of nowhere to become one of the highlights of this 1001 list. I've started but not finished the Winter Assault DLC, and there are two more after that, full of new armies to base-build and Zerg-rush across the galaxy to purge the enemy, whomever it may be. That's what it's all about in the far future - war.

Following Dawn of War was Company of Heroes, the Second World War retheme, if you will, though it's much more than that. I've played it twice as much as I've played Dawn of War now, some 32 hours, finishing all the DLC and generally loving everything I was doing.

I like it even more than Dawn of War, but now the Emporer is back with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, which takes a little of Company of Heroes, rethemes it back into the grim darkness of the far future and then reinvents the gameplay almost entirely to focus even more on your squads and even less on your base building... just stop, I can't wait any longer, let me play already.

World in Conflict

War is coming home.

What's the difference between strategy and tactics? Semantics? In video games, there is a difference between the two, which may become apparent in World in Conflict, an alternate history real-time tactics war game marketed and styled like a real-time strategy game.

You won't be base building or mining for resources here. There's just no time. A surprise invasion on American soil needs quick reactions and smart execution of orders as you use your environment as best you can to repel the Russian forces.

How long can your resistance hold out?

Darwinia

Digital evolution when?

The great thing about games is that if you can imagine it, you can make it. Just look at the past few games we've dabbled in. I imagine myself as a tiny little cleaning robot. Boom! Chibi-Robo! I want to drill my enemies in the face. Bam! Drill Dozer. Ok, how about this. I want an RTS set inside a computer. Like a kind of Tron thing. Can we do that?

Darwinia is a real-time strategy game where you defend goofy looking Darwinians against snakey viruses inside a computer simulation of some sort. It's different, to say the least, and I know absolutely nothing about it.

Freedom Forces vs the 3rd Reich

Peaches and Cream indeed.

Superheroes and videogames. Just think of the possibilities. Beat 'em ups. Action adventures. MMOs. It's not hard to come up with something that should work. Getting it to actually work seems to be harder. There aren't a load of absolute must-play superhero video games, so it's a good job if you like superheroes and role-playing games because Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich exists.

I must admit, I had no idea that it did. At no point in the past five years of going through this 1001 list have I actually bothered to find out just what on Earth this game is all about. Now I have. Superheroes and role-playing games, like Neverwinter Nights or something. Superheroes fighting Nazis.

I don't even know where to begin.

Battalion Wars

Boys and their toys.

Thanks to this 1001 list, I'm a fan of Advance Wars. It still clings onto the tenth spot on The Topper Than That Top 10 list. I doubt it'll still be there when we come to judge the next batch of fifty must play video games, but the point is that it made quite the lasting impression.

I know nothing of Battalion Wars. I read that it's a spin-off of Advance Wars. Huh. Is it now? I guess we better investigate this one on the double.

Medieval: Total War

Run away!

The first time I saw a Total War title was on the BBC show, Time Commanders. Take a group of most likely non-gamers, present them a historical war to recreate in Rome: Total War, and have them command their troops to victory.

Back then, in 2005, I wasn't aware that it was even a playable game outside of the TV show, let alone that it was from the Total War series, whose second entry, Medieval: Total War, is on this 1001 list. What was I doing in 2005? Sure didn't involve PC gaming, though it was around the time where I heard some of my friends talking about building a PC. It sounded expensive. It seemed complicated.

Anyway, Medieval: Total War gives players control of hundreds of troops in a real-time strategy battle, and it is as daunting as it is intriguing.

Commandos 2: Men of Courage

"I was trained for this."

I don't know how I came to own Commandos 2: Men of Courage for the PlayStation 2, but I'm relatively sure I did own it, and I'm very confident that I was excited to play it. It looked like nothing my console-centric eyes had ever seen, and I was looking forward to commanding commandos behind enemy lines.

But I couldn't get past the first tutorial mission. I wasn't even told the controls, or how best to use them. I was dropped into a bush in front of a roadblock and told to get on with it. I never could. It's not like I tried for hours and got nowhere, no. More like I was disappointed in having this incredible game blocked off through difficulty and lack of new player support that I gave up in next to no time at all.

I haven't touched it since that day, whenever that was, the tutorial mission layout forever pictured in my mind when I come to think about Commandos 2.

So my objective this time around is simple: Complete Tutorial Mission 1.

Myth: The Fallen Lords

Casualty!

It hasn't happened in a while, but we're about to play a game I've never heard of in my life up until this point. I guess you could say I've only ever heard of it as a... myth...

What happens when you take a real-time strategy game, strip out the resource gathering rubbish, slap in some fantasy warriors of all sizes and shapes, and plonk it inside a 3D world that soon fills up with many, many bloody remnants of the combatants?

The answer is Myth: The Fallen Lords.