Look for the full trailer on May 20, 2013.

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There are three different packages available for Early Access:

• The Pain Bringer Pack ($19.99) – Gives players immediate full access, as well as 16,000 Spacebux (reminder that from South Park), XP boost for seven days, a set of clothing items to customize your character’s appearance, as well as three different weapons to start off with: a standard Grenade Launcher, a Healing Pulse rifle, a Tesla Shotgun.
• The Absolute Badass Pack ($39.99) – Includes everything from The Pain Bringer Pack, plus an additional 19,000 Spacebux, all Tier 1 weapon parts, an extra seven days of XP boost, a special Elite Badge assigned to your gamertag, and a special Grenade Belt & Space Dome helmet.
• The Founder’s Pack ($89.99) – Not only do you get everything from The Absolute Badass Pack, but you will also get additional Spacebux for a grand total of 60,000, a full three weeks worth of XP boost, as well as the opportunity to name one of the in-game enemy AI bots.

Loadout will be released on both Mac and PC, head on over to Steam to preorder your desired Pack and let the mayhem begin.

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Eador itself focuses on the idea of a Master, or a person who is essentially a powerful demi-god of sorts and is able to do much more than the regular people living on the leftover shards of civilization. Players control one such Master for the campaign mode, building up an empire and an army to bolster it and then spreading among the shards. Later into the game, once players have exhausted their rampaging armies across their own little shard for control, they are able to strike out and locate other shards scattered around and begin to piece together some of what they are as well as what the hell is going on.

The game’s singleplayer experience is quite enjoyable and long and follows the tale of one of these Masters who is striking out into the world after being discovered by a wizard. He basically sets the player up with a sword, some magic, and a few lackeys and tells him to go out and learn a thing or two. Thankfully, during this little portion it offers an excellent tutorial that I do advise players take advantage of. Originally, I decided to dive right into the skirmish mode of the game and get a feeling for it, but I found myself so overwhelmed and lost that I couldn’t figure out up from down.

The game is deep, but it follows the standards set by others in the genre to a “T”. There are major pieces to the overall game, each a different aspect that come together well for this title. The main overworld is split into almost a grid like system – players are able to move their characters from section to section. There are towns, goblin encampments, bandit-controlled backwoods; all of them are ripe for the taking by the player. Controlling these provinces are key to keeping your small (or large) empire running smoothly – generating the necessary gold to fund your army’s upkeep as well as magic crystals to aid in the mystical side of the game. Aside from this, there are a number of buildings that can be built at the main keep that provide a variety of bonuses. New armories will grant access to better weapons and armor, while new training facilities will allow players to recruit more advanced units into the fold. Small buildings like granaries can be built to aid a town’s happiness and overall well-being.

While on the overworld map, players are also able to explore their provinces, spending their time searching the backwoods behind their castle or the outskirts of the villages. Many turns spent doing this may not amount to much, but there are times in which you will discover a previously unknown ruin or treasure trove to ransack. It’s actually a neat addition and a fun way to bolster the treasury or go on a little mini-adventure. These can also unlock new shops in provinces or open up side quests for the player to embark upon. Much like the exploration of provinces, the side quests leads to more enemies to take down and more places to see. They also lead to some pretty difficult spots and unless players are prepared to take on a challenge, I do not recommend necessarily tackling these immediately. Thankfully, the game will forewarn everyone before letting them dive into a fruitless battle.

Battling is a much different beast from the overworld and empire-building experience. Players are given a pre-battle chance to establish their lines and place their troops wherever they like on a hexagonally aligned grid. Once they’ve finished, it becomes a turn-based matter of positioning troops to best tackle the opponent. Each unit type has a certain number of movement spaces and an attack range; some like stone slingers and bowmen can reach a bit further than the unit with only a shortsword, making it a giant game of careful planning. Along with whatever units that have been hired, the player’s hero unit will be present on the battlefield, towering over everyone like some mythical god of some ancient era. Not only does he look the part, but he plays it as well – the player’s Master on the battlefield is a literal killing machine in relation to any of the other units.

I have only lost one battle during my time in the game and it was against a group of tough, A.I.-controlled sorcerers, raining fireballs down on me from across the map. Beyond that one match (their magic hurt!), I have literally watched my Master unit stand his ground against a variety of bandits, lizardmen, and zombies without the benefit of an army backing him. While I cannot complain that my unit is overpowered, utilizing an army at that point seems just as pointless as it is troublesome as well.

It’s never a bad thing to bring friends to a fight, but I found that a number of the troops available to hire into service aren’t worth the time or hassle, especially the early level troops. Throughout my gameplay, my units felt completely underpowered in comparison to their leader. Many battles I would find myself lose units to only one or two hits at most even after letting them level up and gain some extra perks. Damage done to them is also persistent, lasting over the course of a few battles if players do not take time to stop and relax a few turns. This will prevent overzealous individuals in multiplayer battles from storming across and seizing everything another player owns in a matter of turns. There is some finesse involved! Later on though, players can employ other hero characters similar to the Masters that can command their own armies, letting players branch out much faster if they are on the warpath.

Aside from the fairly robust campaign mode, players are also able to spend hours in the Custom Game portion of Eador. Here players can establish a variety of settings, creating huge multi-shard games that can take an exorbitant amount of turns to complete. Like many other titles within the same genre, some of these games can potentially last a few days and take an incredible amount of time to complete, but the ability to play with up to 16 total kingdoms on the map is a bit hard to pass up for those that want to really test themselves. Along this same vein, using the Steam platform, players are able to compete against others online. They pick a number of hero characters and then support them with armies, all while keeping under a set point limit. Each unit is assigned a point value and balancing an effective set of armies is the key to succeeding online.

Simply Put

At the core, Eador combines a multitude of different genres, carefully extracting different aspects of them and injecting them into this melting pot, brewing a concoction that not only works, but does it very well in fact. I’m a fan of turn-based strategy games – I like the time to plan an attack, research my new abilities and skills, etc. Eador fits nicely into a niche group that is fiercely loved and defended by the fan base that supports it. Sadly though, the game has a steep learning curve that without some guidance from the in-game tutorial, it makes it very difficult to just leap in and play without hesitation. There are also some minor glitches in the game that will potentially confuse players (I’ve never gotten a ritual to work yet in-game), but beyond that it tends to play very smoothly. If you are looking for something similar to titles like Heroes of Might & Magic or Crusader Kings (or even a toned down Total War), then this might be the title for you.

Note: The Eador: Masters of the Broken World review was written based on the PC version of the game provided to us.

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Sure, I’ve played Warcraft I & II, Total Annihilation and StarCraft, all of which were released prior, but my addiction to the real-time strategy games didn’t begin until I first saw my armies marching in formation against a well-defended British fortress surrounded by water as hurled stones were soaring through the air. While a classic title (fourteen years ago), AoE II HD is missing key features found in recent titles, such as setting up automatic patrols, waypoints and even not being able to queue upgrades, forcing you to keep a close eye on everything.

Instead of adding a multitude of updated features and upgrades, Age of Empires II HD feels rather sparce and bare bones. Widescreen support has been added (sans the bugs) and small touches have improved some of the environmental visuals as well as the water, but for the most part the game looks exactly the same as it did back in 1999.

Fully supporting Steam Workshop, custom mods can be installed, affecting every aspect of the game from the presentation to custom scenarios – check out the elaborate Game of Thrones scenario. Much like the visuals, the audio has been left untouched except for the music, which only includes tracks from The Conquerors expansion. Once again Steam Workshop comes to the rescue, allowing you to listen to the entire Age of Kings and Conquerors soundtrack.

In control of one of the 18 of the greatest civilizations in history (5 from the Conquerors expansion), Age of Empires II HD relies heavily on resource management, my typical strategy involves pumping out workers to cut down lumber, mine gold & stone, as well as gather food (hunting, farming or fishing). Simultaneously, new houses need to be built to accommodate your growing population, and the map must be manually scouted, since the game lacks a patrol system. Even the start of games can become hectic, as you are constantly multitasking and shifting your view around the map.

The campaigns are a great way to learn the basic game mechanics, set across some of the darkest moments throughout the Middle Ages. The campaigns are roughly accurate, following important figures in history such as Joan of Arc, Saldin, Attila the Hun and William Wallace. Each scenario takes anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour to finish with each campaign contains a handful of different scenarios.

Mesmerizing my younger self back in the day, advancing your civilization from the Dark Ages to the Imperial Age not only improves the visual style of all the buildings and units, but also vastly improves the availability of advanced technology. Usually the civilization that advances through the ages the fastest will win the match, so it is important to make sure you are keeping pace with your opponents the entire time.

Using Steam for multiplayer matchmaking, up to eight players can duke it out across randomly generated maps or those based from real-world locales. Different options can be set to make each match feel unique, but the biggest update allows the population limit to be increased from 200 to 500 – even more if you download a mod to increase the population. The multiplayer is still fun and provides hours upon hours of excitement, that is if you don’t raise the difficulty too high when facing AI opponents. I wouldn’t flat out call the AI cheaters, but the speed in which they crank out units feels highly improbable. The weirdest issue occurred when trying to setup a friends only game, only to have a random player join the game instead. Hidden Path Entertainment has been quick to patch the game, fixing numerous stability and lag issues that plagued the day of release.

Combat can be broken down into a game of rock-paper-scissors (yes I know it’s a widely overused metaphor). While spearmen are able to take out skirmishers and light cavalry with ease, they are no match for a formation of swordsmen or archers. There is more depth to the game as you progress through the ages, as each civilization features their own unique units and bonuses.

Simply Put

Still the same classic strategy game since the original release, Age of Empires II is still an enjoyable, albeit old-school experience. Just be prepared to do more micromanaging than you have ever done before.

Note: The Age of Empires II HD review was written based on the PC version of the game provided to us.

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Also releasing today are the minimum PC system requirements:

OS: Windows XP SP2
Processor: 2.0 GHz Dual Core
Memory: 2 GB System RAM
Hard Disk Space: 5 GB free HDD
Sound: DirectX compatible sound card
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT / ATI Radeon HD 4670 / Intel HD Graphics 4000, 512 MB RAM

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“Ghosts delivers an all-new story, all-new characters, an all-new Call of Duty world, all powered by a next generation Call of Duty engine, which is a leap forward for the franchise. Infinity Ward is going all-in to create the next generation of Call of Duty worthy of the world’s greatest fans.”
– Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, Inc.

The exclusive reveal will be shown at Xbox: the Next Generation Revealed on May 21 on Xbox.com, Xbox Live and Spike TV.

If you want to secure your copy of what will most likely sell a bazillion copies, Call of Duty: Ghosts is available for pre-order now with a release date set for November 5, 2013.

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The core foundation is a simple one that is heavy on the repetition – shoot and kill everything that isn’t you (this can include teammates) through the few maps the game offers. Think of a multiplayer version of Serious Sam, where enemies continually respawn and rush players in the hopes of rending the flesh from their bones and using it in some sort of ritual to Hades himself. Expect to see many of the classic Greek enemies – Cyclops, Minotaurs, undead warriors and gladiators – bearing down on you. Expect to utilize a variety of weapons in defense against these vicious beasts as well, all of them being machine guns, pistols and plasma weapons.

Wait, no sword? No shield? Isn’t his Ancient Greece and their underworld?

Yes, players will only be able to utilize modern and futuristic weapons in this all out brawl in Hell. There is the oddball chainsaw that is more akin to a knife spinning at the end of an ungainly pole, but many players will forego that piece of equipment in favor of keeping the enemies at a distance. All of the weapons themselves are upgradeable, forcing players to spend their hard earned and bloodied gold on their powered up toys. Actually though – this is perhaps one of the best things in the game to focus on. Spending time to upgrade the original SMG weapon gained at level “you just started the game” will let players easily tackle even most of the harder difficulties with ease. While the reward itself may not be worth it to save up for some of the weapons (costs are excessively high in cases), players can wait out their level ups to also purchase new powers to further their chase of blood-spattered success in Hell. Some powers, like Shield, felt a bit useless, but others like Justice allow players to rain down lightning bolts to cleanse the pits of Hades.

Jumping into the game, players are subjected to different arenas within different parts of Hell, either alone or with others. Reaching a new area brings about a new Mutation, a game changer that can be incredibly beneficial (infinite ammo with no reloads! YEAH!) or something incredibly bad (larger, tougher enemies). Successfully surviving each area and all of the waves of enemies brings players to a “gold room,” where coins randomly spawn. This does two things simultaneously – allows players to rack up some serious cash, and to relieve some steam by viciously murdering one another. Most matches I’ve seen never devolve into murderfests at the end, but there are cases where one player may not have pulled his weight enough and he will be targeted without mercy. After that, it’s just rinse and repeat every time. Thankfully the Mutations within the game allow for variety with each playthrough on the limited level selection, and players can further change their individual gameplay by activating Oaths mid-game. These are usually detrimental to the player during the game, but they also provide some extra bonuses like more experience or gold at the end.

Overall though, the game can be a bit stale after the tenth match, but thankfully the Mutations to add some flavor every go-around. However, if someone really wants a challenge to the game, they turn on all of the Oaths and head into the Gold difficult level to see how long they last, though I personally do not recommend this sort of challenge. Sometimes, the game itself is a major challenge.

Some the biggest issues of this game are the glitches (aside from the repetition). During Day 1 of the game’s release, I found that after downloading and installing the game I could not get it to boot or run as did many other would-be players. The solution amounted to me digging through the game files and finding the DirectX install .exe and using that separately from the game’s normal process and then running it with administrator rights.

Sound like a lot of stuff to get a game to run? Yes, yes it is. Even now I cannot run the game without going through the game files and running the game with administrator rights, and that’s after a patch was issued. The patch itself did fix one of the other glaring issues with the game as well: the voice chat. God Mode, being a 4-player cooperative game, allows for in-game voice chat to be on. Always. While in some games this is not necessarily a bad thing, in God Mode it led to nearly impossible to decipher messages from my teammates in the form of choppy and incoherent half-sentences and words.  In all serious, I’ve heard drunks manage more understandable conversations than some of what I was forced to deal with in God Mode. It’s possible to mute others, but then it becomes a game of “everybody just shoot things” without any real teamwork involved, one of the key pieces in the game.

Throw in some random game freezes that leave players wandering aimlessly down the hall shooting at the newly-created “moving statues” that were formerly enemies, and there are some reasons to get upset about the game. Thankfully, a quick drop out and restart saves any cash/gold made during the short round and lets players continue effortlessly. In other cases, I’ve had a few random game freezes that force a full restart (admin rights!) of the game.

Simply Put

If players can get their patience going for the game, it’s honestly a fun multiplayer game and a very enjoyable one at that. Sure, it’s can be repetitive in many instances, but that’s becoming somewhat of the norm within the shooter territory. Like stated, the Mutations are a great addition to the game and the variety of guns (and one odd chainsaw) will at least give players some stuff to work towards and obtain. If a group of friends were to ask for a fun, cheap game they could play for a while, God Mode is definitely one I’d recommend.

Note: The God Mode review was written based on the PC version of the game provided by the publisher.

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LEGO Marvel Super Heroes will also feature pre-order bonuses at the following retailers:

• Walmart: Receive an exclusive Iron Patriot mini-fig when the game releases
• GameStop: Receive a fun Spidey keychain when the game releases. Power Up Rewards members will also receive the DLC pack for free (PS3 and X360 only).
• Amazon: Get a $10 games credit automatically applied to their Amazon account.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes will be releasing this fall for just about every possible platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita, and PC.

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