So sit on Back and grab a Brew cause I'm 'bout to Spew. How good are games gonna get? Real good I hope. Sometimes I worry that original and interesting games that don't follow a set "formula" are going to be overlooked by publishing companies not wanting to risk time and money on an "unproven" product. Every time I start thinking that we'll never see another quality "new" title I am blindsided by a nice little nugget of originality or many concepts rolled up in a new way. Witness The Unholy War. Now I don't know how many people have ever heard of Archon back in the day but it was a cool little game that combined chess and realtime battle. The sides were made up of Fantasy creatures (like from Greek Mythos) and played on a checkered board. Each piece moved uniquely (as in chess) but when a space on the board was contested you moved to a screen size battlefield in which you controlled your piece in realtime against a realtime opponent and each had unique attacks and speed and such. The winner of the actual battle won the square. In other words, it was chess with an arcade twist. Myself and a few of my old school friends had a blast with this game until we had to return the rental. Well the original producer of Archon got together with dudes who were partly responsible for two little insignificant titles called "Star Control 1 and 2" and all together they came up with Unholy War. A strategy game where battles over contested hexes are fought in realtime with unique characters who happen to have unique stats and abilities. Add in resource management and base defense and you have a first rate game indeed. I like it a lot. This game came to a shelf near me for a fair price and I had never heard about it before and nobody I never knew had ever played it before and I bought it. Boy am I glad. I like it. A lot. Thanks in no small part to reading the back of the box and finding that creators of Archon and Star Control had major influence in creating this game. I took a chance on a game that got no hype and no press and it payed off. It's not really a hardcore strategy game or anything, I don't care for those. KOEI gets off the train or I do, it's that simple. Some people may enjoy managing every little detail of a sim but I don't. I don't wanna have to make sure that every soldier in my troop has ass wipe. Let them find their own. OK the real point I'm trying (poorly I might add) make here is just because a product doesn't have a megazillion dollar advertising budget doesn't mean that it isn't worth your time or your giving it a chance.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and we were talking RPGz. He has just finally gotten and started playing FF7 (hey its not his fault, he just got a PSX about a month or so ago) and he is loving it big time. We hit upon a coupla subjects worth mentioning to all ya'll. One was the type of people who always buy a Strategy guide right when they buy a game, strategy guides are OK but you really should do your best and try your hardest before giving up and having a Strategy guide in close proximity while you are playing makes it so much easier to give in and just cheat. It can very well ruin your sense of accomplishment by making you feel you never really accomplished anything on your own during your session. Two was thank (Insert Deity Here) that level building is pretty much a thing of the past (i.e. Dragon Warrior), I have found that if you just fight and win all your battles (including the randomz) that you'll be in fairly good shape to defeat the next big boss that you'll get to. That is of course if you manage your resources wisely, but then again that's part of what RPGing is all about. and Thirdly was subgames. I find it ridiculous that you have to win Cloudz final limit break in the Battle Square. Things that should be a fairly natural progression of your character should not only be available via Mini Games and Side Quests. But I digress, that is only my Opinion. But after all isn't that what this column is about?

Another thing my friend

JESSBOY OF THE UNIVERSE

Well until next time, this is your host
Dr N8 Dawg

Happy Holidays and a Lovely New Year