Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup: Part 3

OK, this week's game is Advanced Strategic Command, otherwise known as ASC.

Last week, before I revealed which game I was talking about, I mentioned that there were some things about it's interface that made it hard for me to get right into. The second time I tried it, I was able to understand the interface quite a bit faster, but this fact alone is one of the most annoying things about the whole open-source gaming scene. There are far too many games around where the developers have been working on it for so long, they've forgotten that not everyone is going to be a familiar as they are with the game's internals.

Anyway, back to ASC. As it's based on Battle Isle(apparently a classic I'm not familiar with), the gameplay is turn based. The feel of the game can actually be likened quite a bit to the Advance Wars series on GBA, except for two reasons. One, it's hex based like The Battle for Wesnoth, which lends a different feel to movement. Two, it doesn't look as good as Advanced Wars(a GBA series, if you weren't aware). If you're looking for graphics, don't look here. Both games previously mentioned in the Roundup surpass ASC graphically in every way.

Yeah, the gameplay is fun. The problem is, the game doesn't have a very "game-like" feel to it. It almost feels more along the lines of a game that should come bundled with Gnome or KDE than it does something you'd download on your own, for fun.

You Know I Hate You

Honestly, I was planning on Part 3 of the Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup for this week. However, a stick was thrown between the spokes of my progress with the as of yet unnamed game in the form of a difficult-to-use interface, which I'm sure I'll mention next week. So, this week, you get more about Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time.

Having put over 50 hours into it at this point, my fondness for this game is now firmly cemented. I know I touched on it last week, but I'm still learning new intricacies of the battle system all the time. The different play styles for every character are really unique - if every character looked exactly the same, you'd still be able to tell which one you were controlling by feel alone. The invention system - again, something I mentioned last week - had me entirely confused at first but, while it can be frustrating, the amount of depth it offers to anyone willing to take a look is truly impressive.

Now, here's where certain people are just going to start to laugh at me. I admit that with Star Ocean, the gameplay is where the strength lies. That said, I really ended up liking the game's characters and story. Granted, this is a Square-Enix production we're talking about, so that's not exactly unexpected. The story doesn't end up taking too much shit, but if you frequent certain message boards, you'll see an awful lot of bitching about every single character. Except one. Albel. I won't spoil it for anyone who has yet to play the game, but let's just say he's the type of guy who appeals to the Sephiroth crowd. Let's also just say I hate his guts. At least you get a chance to tell him, if you wish.

All the time I've been spending with Star Ocean has been keeping me away from my two other current gaming addictions: Anarchy Online and Monster Hunter, so I've decided the only thing that really can be done is to beat Star Ocean(or at least the story portion, there's more afterwards) as quickly as possible. In fact, I'm off to work on that now.

Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup: Part 2

So, it's been a while since the first part of this series, but it's finally back. When it comes to strategy games on GNU/Linux systems, the battle for the most popular game would probably be between part one's game, Invasion: Battle Of Survival, and this week's game: The Battle For Wesnoth.

This game has been around before, and I've played it before as well, I've just never mentioned it before. If you're not familiar with the premise, it's a turn-based game that plays out on a hex battlefield. It follows the "all your units move and attack, then all their units move and attack" formula, but with the possibility of more than two armies on the field of battle. The visuals, while not the best you'll ever see, are some of the most cohesive in any fully open-source game out there right now, and the story sequences in between and during battle are up to the same standard.

Where Wesnoth really trumps BoS is in it's inclusion of a tutorial to get players quickly up to speed with their surroundings. By the time you're in your first battle, you have a fair idea as to what exactly to do, and how to do it. The difficulty ramps up fairly quickly, to the point that the game's developers actually suggest that anyone playing through the campaign for the first time play on the easy difficulty setting. Of course, there are many who will ignore this advice and be promptly wiped out by the enemy's forces.

Anyone who's a fan of turn based strategy should check this out, without a doubt. While the developers will obviously continue to work on new content, game balancing, and everything else, the game is in a totally playable state right now. Oh yeah, I haven't even mentioned the fact that multiplayer exists. Multiplayer exists. There we go.

I Hope The End Of Time Isn't Soon

This last week, I've been playing Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time, a late gift. It's been a while since it's been out and, while there have been reviews both good and bad, I was somewhat suspicious of the game after seeing what Penny Arcade had to say about it. Reading other reviews seemed to paint an entirely different picture, but which one was right? Penny Arcade has generally been dead on, as far as I'm concerned, but this time we don't see eye to eye.

Yeah, that's right. I really like this game. The real-time combat system, which I thought I'd be maligning over in no time, is good to the point that it actually gives me some hope for Final Fantasy XII. While it doesn't sport a particularly liquid-smooth feel, attacks have a sense of weight which makes pulling off combos very satisfying, especially when switching between characters for maximum effect. While your AI controlled party members generally don't fight too well at the beginning of the game, an interesting system where you actually increase their skill(not strength) while leveling eventually has them fighting well enough to hold their own in any battle.

Yeah, any game has got to have bad parts. With Star Ocean, a lot of reviews have mentioned shoddy character detail but neglected to also mention that only certain characters look like crap. Why this is remains a puzzle to me - the character models themselves are well done, but the texture work on some(mainly NPCs you see clearly for a second or two) just looks awful. Does that really matter? Not to me. The only other problem is just as much a problem in any recent Japanese RPG as it is in Star Ocean: squeaky voice acting. At this point though, that's just come to be expected.

Yep

No, you didn't just go crazy. It's a new theme. It's almost the new year, a time for change. Sorry for any accidental deaths, murders, or deaths as the result of murders.

It's Anarchy Online Again, Sorry....

It's not like this hasn't come to be expected by anyone who reads this site with any amount of frequency. It's happened before, and it will surely happen again - deal with it. As you already may have guessed, instead of Part 2 of the Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup, I've decided to spend this week's post talking a little more about Anarchy Online. When I posted about it last week, I hadn't yet had the time to explore the intricacies and deeper areas of the game. That's not to say that I've seen everything the game has to offer, but now I definitely have a better idea of what's happening in the world of Rubi-Ka.

My character, at present, is a level 23 (male)Adventurer, which(as the link above confirms) is supposed to be one of the easiest professions to learn the game with, as well as one of the better all-around character classes. I've had quite a good time getting to where I am although, up until this point, I've played entirely solo. I've mentioned things before that, while based on a slightly different subject, still explain my reasons for being largely antisocial in a gaming world that encourages exactly the opposite. Much to my surprise, people in Rubi-Ka can do quite a bit to change that attitude.

A few days and quite a few more levels after starting my character, I was sitting near the mission terminals in Old Athens searching for a mission that I felt like doing, when a character who will remain as nameless as my own asked to see my pistols. Quite skeptical, after thwarting many a scammer in Eternal Lands, I did as I was asked. The stranger also asked how many credits I had, a question to which I replied honestly, "not many". As I answered, this mysterious character vanished and I assumed I was too poor to be scam-worthy; then they returned. A trade window opened, and my previous assumption that I was too poor quickly vanished, apparently anything was enough. A private message appeared - "Accept" - no cash request. I did, and what I received was a backpack full of weapons much better than my own and 1,000,000 credits. All the stranger asked was that, when I outgrew them, I would pass the weapons on to another low level Adventurer who needed them. I assure you, I will.

I'd quite wrongly assumed that outside of the free, open-source community everyone would be worse than they are in the free games; for all I know, that could be true. I'm not really so sure though, everyone I've had a chance to talk to was nothing but helpful, and I've not personally encountered a rude person since beginning the game. Even if it's not the paradise I'm describing, it's certainly a world worth exploring so, once again, it gets another plug. Again, it's only free until January 15th so, if you want it, hurry up. By the way, it's entirely possible to get Anarchy Online running under Linux, as long as you don't mind using Cedega.

Not That Kind Of Anarchy, Unless...

Although this wasn't planned, I'm taking a bit of a break from the Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup to touch on something that the majority of GNU/Linux users probably won't give a damn about. That something? The recent "free for a year" release of Anarchy Online.

Expansion packs excluded, the developer(or publisher, or whatever) of Anarchy Online has decided to provide folks with a Christmas present/gateway drug in the form of a free client/no subscription double whammy for the original, "classic" Anarchy Online. Being the type of person who really can't turn down something free, I decided to take a look.

My experience only being with the free MMOGs out there, I've always made sure to try to look past certain bugs and "issues". Sure, it's technically free, but that still doesn't excuse all the bugs and aforementioned "issues" that seem to plague Anarchy Online. Frequent crashes, unbearable lag, and a few much smaller problems were all mentioned in reviews when this game first came out, years ago. The fact that they still exist is annoying, but it doesn't keep Anarchy Online from being an enjoyable online experience.

I'm a fan of sci-fi and, besides Vendetta, Anarchy Online is really the online MMOG out there with the exception of Star Wars Galaxies, which is a big plus in my book. Even if I had to pay for a retail copy of the game, minus the monthly fees, it seems as if it would be a worthy purchase for a year. If it's totally free for said year, why not. Of course, that's assuming you have broadband to download it - over 800mb is quite a hefty download for dialup.

Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup: Part 1

Yes, once again it's time for another roundup. RPGs and UT2004 mods have had their share, now it's strategy's, ahem, turn.

This week, however, it's not turn based strategy, but the real time variety. Now, no free strategy roundup would be complete without a nod to the Stratagus engine(formerly known as Freecraft) and the one game worth playing on it, Invasion - Battle of Survival. Anybody familiar with Starcraft is going to feel very at home with what is presented on the screen after starting a mission. The graphics aren't quite as spiffy, but you definitely know what you're supposed to do as soon as the game screen loads.

Therein lies the one major flaw in Invasion - Battle of Survival. If you haven't played any of the *Craft games, you'll have absolutely no idea what you're supposed to do. Even if you manage to find out what the objective is(destroy all enemies..) - which by the way you have to look for - you'll still probably get trounced while you're gathering resources, assuming you've figured out how to do that by now.

I love Starcraft, I still play it all the time, so I knew what needed to be done right away. If you're familiar with the way RTS games work, than you'll probably have as good a time with BoS as I did. Once this game can get some sort of tutorial and/or campaign mode to slowly fill in those who aren't RTS veterans, it'll have it all.

Oops

I forgot to actually publish last week's post, so here it is:

This week I've been playing Scorched 3D, which is an open-source, prettified clone of an older DOS game, Scorched Earth. The game itself is a simple yet addictive "artillery combat" sort of game. You'd almost think of it as a strategy game if you could actually control more than one unit, but at it's core it's a turn based action game, as counterintuitive as that may seem.

As the name Scorched 3D implies, yes, it is in 3D. Quite lovely 3D actually, at least for the most part. The terrain, water, and skies all look great, as do some of the explosion animations. What isn't as impressive are the models for the units. While they do a good job of looking like what they're trying to look like, they just seem to pale in comparison to everything else. Some units you'd expect, such as tanks and helicopters, sit alongside other units you'd never expect, such as the grim reaper(I don't know, maybe the rockets come out of his ass). It's a cool feature, but it's one I wouldn't have missed in favor of some more highly detailed(or at least bigger) models.

The main bread and butter of Scorched 3D is in the online play, which I haven't gotten around to trying out yet. I've taken a look at the server browser, and some pretty filled out games always seem to be happening, but I'd like to get a better hand at aiming(which is controlled by rotation, elevation, and power - quite tricky) before I take on some real competition.

Hell On Mars: It's Vaguely Frightening

Well, last night I downloaded the Doom 3 demo. Why so late, you ask? Because I like to steadfastly remain behind the times. All of them...

When I first loaded the game up, I was a bit more impressed than I was prepared to be at the opening sequence, when you first arrive on Mars. More so than any other game I've ever played, the idea that I was in a outpost station on a strange world was thoroughly reinforced. Maybe somebody at id software decided the best course of action would be to simply travel into the future, see what it was like, then built it into the game and turned off all the lights. The creepiness factor of the station can not be denied although, at least in the beginning of the game, it's a very real kind. The same kind of creepiness you feel when it's your job to go into the freaky basement alone.

As soon as all hell broke loose and I was tasked with trying to make it back to HQ, my peers screaming in terror over the radio, I lost interest and went to sleep. Now, I'm pretty sure that was not the reaction that id was looking for, but the speed with which the game turns into a prettified Doom 2 with a stupid flashlight mechanic is startling. The flashlight issue has been maligned over many times by many people since the game first came out, so much so that mods exist that place your flashlight smartly on your gun. The second issue is more of an issue I have with games in general. Some RPG's aside, there is never a point in most games where things calm down again, you never get a break. I'm sure that a lot of hardcore gamers out there feel that they don't need a break, some may explicitly not want a break, presumably to keep up the intensity levels.

My realization was that I'd prefer Doom 3 without the monsters and combat. I could perfectly happy wander around the station for hours, performing the occasional menial task while I continued to discover the backstory of this strange place on Mars at my leisure. Of course, I'm entirely sure that id would not have had a very good time of selling the game in that state, except maybe to me.

Are The Clouds Iron?

This week, I decided to try out Beneath A Steel Sky, which uses the ScummVM virtual machine. Both are apt-getable if you happen to use Debian.

Overall, the game has me quite interested. I've always been a fan of point and click graphic adventures so, since that's what this game is, we get along fairly well together. The game came out back in 1994, so by today's standards it's nothing that you're going to lose bowel control over, but that's mostly to be expected. That aside, the art style of the game has an undeniably cool look.

The fact that the original resolution of the Beneath A Steel Sky was so low means that, if you can stand it, it's one of the few games out there that really should be played in windowed mode. On my monitor at least, blowing it up to fullscreen almost completely strips the visual appeal. While a game this old has got to start showing it's age at some point, it's actually surprising how well most of the visuals hold up.

The sound is a different thing all together. See, there was a time when voice acting in a videogame was cool because it was there, not because A-list voice actors were being hired to voice the characters. The part that I find strange is how bad the main character's voice acting is. While certain members of the supporting cast obviously knew a little bit about what they were doing, he sounds entirely emotion-less.

Anyway, the game is fairly large(around 70MB) for an older game of it's ilk, so 56k-ers may be more inclined to go for something else, but even then, it's still worth it.

I Have No Rhythm

I've done something this week that I've thought about doing for quite some time now. I enabled comments. Sure, last week's controversial post would've been a better time to try out the comments, but it's far more likely that it's simply going to cement the realization that no one reads this site. Anyway, the link to leave comments is right at the bottom of each post, and anyone is allowed to do so, so feel free.

Tendrils has been around for about a year, and I've known about it for a couple of months, but it's only recently I've had the chance to try it out. It's an RPG with rhythmic combat, hence the title of this post. Of course, I do really have rhythm, but that wouldn't make as interesting a title, now would it? Anyway, Tendrils is described as a "remix game" since most everything is taken from other games. Artwork, dungeons, music - it will all seem very familiar.

The game is fun, I'll definitely give it that. There are, however, a few problems. The only one that really bothers me is that since you're so busy trying to hit the correct arrow keys at the right time, it's really hard to see how the battle is unfolding. This can be worked around by pausing the game, at which time you can also cast spells or use potions, but you're not going to do very well in a battle if you spend most of your time watching it. The only other problem, which could very well be intentional, is that it is often very easy to get lost, simply by forgetting where you are for a moment. Like I said, that may be intentional.

Anyway, I hate rhythm games, but I have quite a bit of fun play Tendrils, probably because I'm an RPG fan. If you don't like either, you may not like Tendrils. Everybody else, go get it.

Fuck Halo 2

Yeah I said it.

"Not A Thrillzone"... Wait For It

So, Killzone - one of the most overhyped games of the year - came out and, quite unsurprisingly, didn't live up to the hype. Who'd have guessed that, huh? Oh, the guys who made Fable? Yeah, probably.

What's sad about the situation is that the very same magazines and gaming websites that provide the hype for a given product take a 180 in their reviews and complain about the game being overhyped. Last time I checked, previews were supposed to be based on the game that is actually being developed, not some flying monkey technicolor fantasy dream freshly pulled out of the reviewer's ass. What I'm doing here is not trying to stand up and defend Killzone, I haven't even played the game, and that is my entire point. Take a look back at gaming magazines and/or websites at past preview/review cycles, and you'll see the same thing happen over and over again:

Preview: "This game will basically be god in videogame form. Sell every other game you own and prepare for the awesome game that will be [insert name here]"

Review: "I don't know who ever said [insert name here] was supposed to be god(we certainly didn't), but this game more resembles a turd."

That's basically the situation. Of course, the smart reader(like the type who reads this site) has come to accept this as a fact of life. There are many others who see a preview, take it as a review and buy the game, then look at the smugly worded bashing of the game they were previously told would be great and feel lied to. You know what, you were lied to, they never played a preview copy...

I Type As Well

Last Friday I finally got the Nyko iType2 controller I'd mentioned ordering a while ago. What can I say? It does what a controller is supposed to do - and it has a keyboard.

Overall, I'm fairly pleased with the controller. Typing is only slightly awkward, and after a while I was completely used to it. Plus, for the most part, if feels just like a normal PS2 controller. The face buttons are a little stiff, causing me to think that some games which really use the analog buttons may suffer from the all-or-nothing feel, but otherwise they're fine. The keyboard works really well, but there are two problems. First, let me explain how it works. It's a "qwerty" style keyboard, but with no numbers or "?!@*&(*#!@" signs. To access these, you must press the Fn button, which is all well and good. The problem lies in that some keys, such as normal punctuation keys, seem mostly unresponsive while in this mode. You can get them to work, usually by pressing it a few times in rapid succession, but this is a slight pain in the ass.

My other major problem is that while it has four macro keys, for easy access to repetetive sayings, the speed at which it "replays" the macro can be a problem. At least with Monster Hunter, text comes screaming down the USB cable at such a fast rate that the game can't keep up. For example: the phrase "Hello" can often show up as "ello", "Hllo", "elo", and "Hell". I haven't tested this with other games, though, so this could be a Monster Hunter related problem. Even with the above, and the fact that the vibration isn't quite as smooth as a standard PS2 controller, I like this one a lot, and it's probably going to be my primary controller from now on.

"The Turd Age"... Wait For It

So Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is out, and I'm supposed to be really excited about it. To an extent, I am. I'm certain that at some point in the future I'll own this game, and probably have a lot of fun with it. So why can't I muster up the same sort of excitement for this title that everyone else in the entire world seems to have?

Argument number one would be Monster Hunter. I still have yet to play anything other that what I described in the last post. The way my brain is wired right now, if there are no huge dragons to take down, or if I can't at least carve up a kill for new equipment, I have no interest in it. As a side note, kill carving(to a certain extent) could be pretty cool in a GTA game. Instead of having to buy clothes, you just kill somebody and you look like them from now on. Anyway...

Argument two would be the games coming out next Tuesday which may not have the mass appeal of GTA, are certainly a bigger deal in my book. Stuff like Killzone, and Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age. Killzone may kill zones, but it's not gonna kill Halo 2, no matter which is actually the better game. The latter simply has too much of a hype whirlwind built up around it to ever hit the ground at this point. Hell, there's no way Killzone is going to kill GTA: SA or anything else for that matter. It could be the best game ever created, and I can think of more titles than you can count with both hands that would probably out-sell it anyway.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age is somewhat of an interesting subject to me being both a PS2 owner and a GBA owner. The game is coming out for both platforms(as well as those "other" two consoles) but the console game and it's handheld counterpart are entirely different. The console version is a pretty standard turn-based RPG, while the GBA version is more of a tactics style of game, which makes a lot of sense seeing how well games of that ilk fare in that medium. How good either will actually be remains to be seen, but I'm sure that those of us who always thought the games would be better as RPGs are certainly anxious to see how it all turns out. For my own sake, I hope they do well, or else we'll all be hearing a lot of "The Turd Age" jokes.

Yeah, I Went Back In Time... So What?

I've got to admit it: Since purchasing Monster Hunter a few weeks ago, I've messed around with the Full Spectrum Warrior demo once, and I think I played one round of Hot Shots Golf: Fore. That's it. Beyond that, my game-related time has been spent exclusively with Monster Hunter.

Want to know something else? I've barely played it online. My Hunters Rank is only 03, and that came from soloing all the quests I thought I could solo(which I did, successfully, by the way). That's right, I haven't played with any other people yet. Why, you ask? Well, I don't have a USB keyboard and trying to type with the built-in software keyboard is somewhat akin to trying to play a flute behind your back; it just can't work. That aside, I can also see how putting down a controller to type "Help!" while being raped by a giant dragon can be particularly cumbersome. I've found a solution to my problem in the form of the Nyko iType2 controller, which is more or less a standard PS2 controller with a baby keyboard sitting on it's face.

I can't tell you my thoughts on said controller yet, as it hasn't yet arrived. I'm sure it'll take a little time to get used to typing with my thumbs(guess whose never used a PDA), but it's got to be better than balancing a keyboard on my lap while the cable from the controller continually hits the F4 key.

By the way, if you don't understand the title, don't try to figure it out. If you do... um, sorry.

Gold Plated Turds Part 2: That Made No Sense

With the slew of new games that are supposed to be arriving in the next six months or so, and the respective hubbub surrounding each of the larger titles, I find myself more than a little bit surprised at how indifferent I am regarding most of them.

As I mentioned back around E3, most of the games that I'd be interested in picking up this year are sequels with colons in the title - Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, FarCry: Instincts, Call Of Duty: Finest Hour, LOTR: The Third Age, and GTA: San Andreas are just a few. In fact, the only two games I can think of off the top of my heads that don't fit in the above sentence are Killzone and Oddworld Stranger(which is a sequel and might as well have a colon in it's name). All of these games, albeit some more than others, seem like they'll be pretty fun to play, but do we really need so many sequels? Jeez, even this post is a fucking sequel. In an age where every game, no matter how worthy, turns into a franchise how are we supposed to know what's really worth it anymore?

By now, you might have caught on to the fact that I haven't played anything new this week - hence the rambling sequel to a post about sequels. Honestly, I've been too busy with Monster Hunter. I did manage to download the Dark Horizons: Lore Demo, but I haven't yet found a chance to actually play it. Maybe you can find the time to - I know it's built on the Torque Engine(the same one that Legends uses), and that it's a sort of mech-combat game with a persistent universe, giving it a very MMO feel. I might have something on that next week, but we all know how I work by now.

Once I know all, I can be at peace.

I downloaded the Full Spectrum Warrior PC demo this week and gave it a try. Overall, even though I have some wonky sound problems with it, I'm pretty impressed by the game.

What doesn't impress me is the fact that this is based on a tool used to train the U.S. military. I understand that changes have been made to make the game more friendly to the general public, but what crazy world do the designers live in when you are absolutely invincible as long as you're behind some kind of cover? There's that, and the fact that(as many reviewers have mentioned) the game often plays more as a puzzle game that a strategy game or "military simulator" or whatever the hell it calls itself. Stay behind cover, flank your enemy, and you've got a guaranteed key to success. Sure, those factors may be part of a good overall strategy, but it's nothing that's going to absolutely save your ass every time in a real life situation. But, anyway, it's pretty fun and if you haven't tried it but can, you should.

In other news, Monster Hunter still has a hearty grip on my life, and nothing really has a chance to shake it in the near future. Since I've finally taken it online a whole new world has opened up, and it's a world I'll not soon be leaving. Once I know all, I can be at peace. Until then...

Anyway, there are words that want to come out of me, I feel the need to somehow describe the wonder that one feels while exploring the world of Monster Hunter. I still have no way to translate the emotions that I feel while playing this game into words digestible by mere mortals who have not yet experienced the glory that is Monster Hunter. If only you could see those wondrous cat-like creatures gleefully robbing you blind, you would know the importance of what you'd just witnessed.

UT2004 2: Electric Boogaloo

Well, it's clear that my copy of UT2004 isn't going to be wearing out it's welcome anytime soon. Whatever small bits of my gaming-related time that Monster Hunter hasn't gobbled up have been spent either playing around with the new Frag Ops I mentioned a few weeks ago, or the recently released ECE Bonus Pack.

The bonus pack is more or less(or exactly) like an upgrade to the enhanced retail version UT2004: Director's Cut, minus the mods that are included. Of course, since all the mods are freely downloadable anyway, that's no big deal. What is a big deal is the new vehicles in the bonus pack, they're cool. Damn cool. My current favorite, who's name I can't currently remember, is the mobile artillery type of vehicle - basically a cannon that moves quickly. There are also a few new characters and maps included although, much to my chagrin, the only new maps are Onslaught maps. Sure, it's a highly enjoyable gametype; it may even be my favorite, but I can't help but wonder why there weren't any CTF, Assault, Bombing Run or Double Domination(a highly underrated gametype) maps included. Of course, there are plenty of CTF(and just as many Onslaught) maps in the completely awesome Community Bonus Pack, but even there you'll only find one Assault map, and two each for Double Domination and Bombing Run. I know that when it comes to Assault, those maps take a lot of both time and talent, but anyone who can make a kick-ass Deathmatch map should be able to have a pretty easy time at a DOM or BR map.

Anyway, on to the Frag Ops 2.0 beta. What they've done here, and it's really quite clever, is taken everything that made the earlier releases of Frag Ops cool, kept that, and then(and I'm not sure if this was done on purpose or not) took everything that makes Domain 2049 cool, improved on it, added a pinch of RTS and made a big old stew full of gaming goodness. The Mission game type, which was the meat of Frag Ops for a long time, plays a lot like a better Counter Strike - that's all well and good. What really kicks it up a notch(Bam!) is the new War gametype. Like Domain 2049's gameplay, this mode is reminiscent of Assault mode, what with the respawns and everything, except once you have the resources, you can build structures RTS-style. Beyond that, it's an experience that really needs to be seen and heard - not read about. So, go check it out.