When RTS Gaming Returned

During the Corona lock-down times, it was only necessary to return to the Real Time Strategy games which I had played a long time ago. There was the need for the games which could be played nicely through Local Area Network, as Wireless LAN would let us play the games online for a change. The Turn Based Strategy games were also interesting choices, but those would be slower, and can also take a lot of time. Real Time Strategy was to be faster, and so I went back to my past to get two of the favourites with their expansion packs, Age of Empires 2: Conquerors and Warcraft: The Frozen Throne. Age of Empires III was out of the equation due to the lack of save option in multiplayer mode, and even Warcraft had the saves limited.

This is why Age of Empires 2 is the perfect choice for online gaming as far as strategy games are concerned. It has had the same status for a long time, and even after so many years, there is grandeur in comparison to those fake Android strategy games which show something in advertisements and come up with something else. One has to remember that the advertisements seen in Facebook and Instagram were of Age of Empires, and not really of those games they were promoting. It is the quality of Age of Empires, as we play as different civilizations, through different ages, and the campaigns are just too good. Warcraft brings fantasy in the place of history, and has a similar gameplay, even though in that case, there are less races in comparison to civilization, but each one is unique. For Age of Empires, Huns, Mongols and Byzantines are my favourites, while for Warcraft, I always go for the Undead.

Some free time after all the destruction being done.

That moment after you finish the enemies and resources too.

You play as the Mongols, and you go another path.

The Byzantine Empire is indeed one of interest.

Gathering all forces, and then attacking – the right way.

You land your forces on the tip of the enemy’s island.

With the island map, a good navy is a necessity.

Nobody messes up with the war elephants unless you are so quick.

Your enemies are almost at their end in this game of Warcraft.

Humans allying with the undead against elves might feel strange, but not in Warcraft.

***All images are from my game-play with the two games mentioned above

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TeNy

UT99: Gaming Nostalgia

Unreal Tournament, with the original one often known along with the year 1999 or with the Game of the Year Edition addition to name (UT99 or UT:GOTY) was one game which changed our gaming concepts, a very long time ago. Coming from Epic Games and Digital Extremes, this was the second release from the franchise, and managed to make all the impact by revolutionizing the gaming idea with its arena first-person shooter mode which involved playing against computer as well as other human players in multiplayer mode. I remember this game as the first one which I played online with friends during the early years of the new century.

The game’s domination mode which involved the capturing of control points and defending them, was my favourite during the time. During the lock-down period, I did spend enough time playing the game through LAN, along with Age of Empires 2: Conquerors and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It was a nice refreshing of those good old days for me. I would play Unreal Tournament’s original version any time again, and Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Tournament 2004 which came after this game were not that effective in comparison, which makes this version the one game which I might never forget. Remember that there is also a fine background story to this adventure which involved a lot of shooting. There is nothing that matches a perfect head-shot with a sniper rifle or the heated shrapnel launched by a Flak Cannon.

This pyramid level arena has us fighting for our lives in space.

A Gothic model of an arena will have us fighting hard.

A graveyard level is special for Halloween and the inner horror.

The level set on a galleon had some fine moments with visuals.

Sometimes, a few head-shots which a sniper proves to be the best.

This arena map called DM-Hyperblast has been a crowd favourite.

This is an arena which reminds one of hell & those Doom games.

Nothing suits Unreal Tournament 99 like the blood-red colour.

Another level in space means another chance for defying gravity.

DM-Morpheus map is the arena of suicides by falling into space.

***All images are from my game-play with Unreal Tournament much earlier.

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TeNy

Long Distance Runners

After buying that Swipe 3D Tablet, gaming has come back to me. It is not about any other game though, as they have all been running games, except for My Emma about which I shall write later. It all started with Temple Run 2 which was already installed in the tablet and then I needed a few more games. So I installed more of the similar games and ended up having so many games within never-ending running worlds. All seemed so similar, but I really wanted to play them all as our heroes keep running and running, and here is the list of my endless running games šŸ˜€ All the images used in this blog post are from Google Apps Store.

1. Temple Run: As the beginner game of them all and the most played Android game which I have seen on the phones of almost all my friends, challenged only by Angry Birds, this one makes us feel that everything else are just random imitations, especially with the second part of the game released. Everything seemed perfect with this game, and just after installing it, I had played it so many times. Now I have both parts of the game, and it seems to me that no other game can have the perfection of this one. Sooner or later, the protagonist in the game will realize that he can’t get away after stealing artifacts from monkeys šŸ˜€

tmpl

2. Spirit Run: This is the closest neighbour to the one above. The setting remains a temple, but just that it is more of an Aztec pyramid temple instead of the original. There are no adventurers here though, and instead there is the native spirit running around to save nature – this person can transform into a wolf and go invincible instead of the original shield option of Temple Run. There are also other unlockable characters who turn into other creatures. Its advantage is that the graphics happen to the best of them all. A lot of options need internet though including the scores.

3. Zombie Run: The one real bad thing here is that there is no exit button. But otherwise, this is a fine piece of running game which has a zombie with a Santa Hat running from the evil humans who have started a bar on top his swampish resting place. He keeps running away from the dangerous alive creatures, collecting magic potions and fishes. The game has a nice environment, lots of details and high collection of statistics. This one scores with a zombie and does well.

4. Subway Surfer: Temple Run changed and made suitable to the modern age and further interesting for the new age kids, this one includes a kid who runs away from the police and the cop dog after doing something really stupid with a graffiti in the subway. There are trains which keep coming, and block which will end his run, and also being caught by the police who does the job of the monkeys in Temple Run and a monster in Spirit Run. There are some nice, stylish areas in the game, but the need for the internet for daily challenge and some extra advertisements ruin the time. And the exit button is not found yet.

sbw

5. Zombie Chasing: They can’t even make one nice zombie for the start-up screen here. But the game manages to be better than the impression that it gives. Yes, there are zombies chasing our hero and this time we go through the dark dungeons collecting coins and trying to get rid of the monsters. The problems are all there and we have to jump, slide and turn. The graphics is less due to its setting, but still fine, and it is pretty good with this background. The cleaning softwate does have some problem with this though. But a lot more statistics please?

6. Tomb Run: Even though this one impressed me with the app page, there was not much there in the game. From the first screen itself, it seemed kind of out of order. But I liked the variety in traps which were there and death thus had some more style. It is good to be in the tomb of monsters and traps which can kill us in a nicer brutal manner. There are not even much options here, and the absence of a detailed status hurts as we are rather unclear what to unlock when, and if there is any advantage of the continuous running that we put up during our joblessness.

7. City Zombie Run: This movie has a protagonist with a gun which he starts shooting if there is a zombie in front of him. Set in the city with all signs of a zombie apolcapyse, this game is not that easy to control, and movement remains pain for most occasions. There are not enough score details to add to the motivation or a better collection of instructions here. But this can surely remind you of Resident Evil as you go through the infested city after something like a virus outbreak.

zmbi

8. Lost Temple: I downloaded this one and found out that it was Lost Temple 2 – so there was a part one? This one begins with a huge protagonist who can somehow move, and has a hook on his hand – not really the best starts there. The game also has no scores being saved, and there is no user-friendly menus, forget the friendly controls. This one surely has the need to be like Temple Run, but is nowhere close to it. This is mostly a lost game, and should prove useful if the other games are not available and you really need to run.

TeNy

Rediscovering a Passion

There are many things I have been. But among them, one of the strongest was about being a gamer, someone who could stay awake all night and play all of those games on the computer as well as online. There was also that LAN gaming saga which was there between us friends. But things have changed, as we replaced our high performance computer system supported by that powerful graphics card, with two laptops for home, a procedure which stopped my gaming like a dead end.

There were the games like Age Of Empires, Age of Wonders, Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament, which were the older games which had me interested, along with those newer games of the time Prototype, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Mass Effect which formed my later love along with Crysis and Assassin’s Creed. But then, everything disappeared, and it was like vanishing into thin air – the process was quick, and I did nothing to stop the same.

My wandering through those lovely beaches in military vehicles - gone now

My wandering through those lovely beaches in awesome military vehicles – gone now

When I was a gamer, I used to believe in myself. I had good friends, better ideas and the belief that I could do things that nobody could. But as I ended that procedure, I felt a certain amount of weakness in me. I had the feeling that I wasn’t that good as I used to be, and my confidence went down another level. People did say that the end of gaming was a good thing for me, but I could feel it in my heart more and more as time passed.

What I didn’t realize that it was gaming that made me a more confident person, and may be even a better me. The games had brought the believer in me to another stage, but I had never realized that, and stopped everything all of a sudden. I should have stuck to the older games on my laptop, but for some reason, I tried, but could never really stick to it. It was a sad state for me.

Shooting aliens on a strange and mysterious planet - not anymore

Shooting aliens on a strange and mysterious planet of great beauty – not anymore

On this New Year, I make the resolution to bring gaming back to my life. I have only a mobile which doesn’t support most of those big games, which is why I need a tablet, something like Micromax Canvas Tab P666 which can bring my passion for gaming back from the bottom of the abyss. It is surely going to bring back the gamer in me to life in a procedure of resurrection, especially my First Person Shooter side.

This one has Intel Hyper-Threading Technology and having such a fast and responsive tab will boost the gamer in me like never before in the last few years, and I am hoping to get it one day. It also boasts of Seamless Multitasking with Intel Burst Performance Technology. Even as there are many things that the Canvas Tab can do with the movie lover and the bookworm in me, lets believe in the power of this gadget to make gaming come alive for now!

Taking a leap of faith from the top of a tower with belief - nevermore?

Taking a leap of faith from the top of a tower with the strength of belief – nevermore?

This blog post is part of the Happy Hours Campaign from Indiblogger in association with Micromax Canvas Tab P666 with Intel Insideā„¢. Here, I have rediscovered my passion for gaming as I make a resolution for this New Year to be the gamer again with the help of this lightning speed Canvas Tab from Micromax which has turned into my dream machine for now. For more details, please visit: http://www.micromaxinfo.com/tablet/Canvas-Tab-P666

*The images used in this blog post are cropped versions of screenshots from my own gaming experience in three games, Crysis, Mass Effect and Assassin’s Creed respectively. Also check this video and stay amazed:

TeNy