Heroes in the Sky Review

Heroes in the Sky is a free World War II flight simulator. Players choose to fly for either the Allies or the Axis powers, and hundreds of airplanes, and participate in a variety of game modes. There are PvE missions to do, air raids, free-for-all PvP dogfights, "Attack-and-Defend", and the Occupational War in which the Axis and Allied powers fight for control of territories on the Western Front and in the Pacific. There's a good variety of airplanes and equipment to take control of, and combat is fast-paced and exciting.

Pros: Plenty of airplanes too choose from, fast-paced combat, co-op missions

Cons: Imbalance between newbies and experienced players, short co-op missions

In Heroes in the Sky, players take a variety of historical fighters and bombers into combat. I recognize a few of the fighters, like the Spitfire. You can customize your airplanes with different equipment, including machine guns, cannons, engines, bombs, missiles, and armour, and can even change their paint job. Each airplane has unique stats, and can equip different types of equipment. There's a tech tree of sorts that players can progress down. Actually, there's quite a few of them. One for each nationality (England, US, Russia, Germany, Japan, and Italy), as well as one for bombers and one for gunners (whatever those are).

If this isn't exciting, I can't imagine anything that is.

The Occupational war is vaguely interesting; members of either faction can start attacks on adjacent battlefields, at which point others may join for a set amount of time. Certain battlefields have bonuses, like factories, that grant bonuses. I've never been able to join a battle, though, because you have to be at least level 30 to join, and because the server's time zone is different from mine (battles are from 2-4 and 6-8 pm) and they don't state their time zone, so I can never tell when the battles are going to start.

Co-op missions are an essential component to Heroes in the Sky. They offer even newbies the chance to live through intense dogfights, and there's some very good fun to be had. But they're far too easy, and far too short.

It would be really interesting to see some different game modes and missions, though. It seems all the missions are the same. It's usually just destroying a squadron, or some tanks, or sinking a boat, or defending a friendly boat (which just means destroying a squadron, with a time limit). It would be interesting to escort paratroopers, or a slow-moving transport, to destroy enemy fortifications (that actually shoot back. For some strange reason they just sit there, letting you kill them), or something along those lines.

Blow up the transport, eh? Again?

Now to the more minor details. The game's graphics are great in places and not so great in others. When a plane is shot down, it lingers in the air for a few seconds and loses control, bursting into flames, and explodes. It's a brilliant display of great graphics. But the graphics for tanks and boats, which just serve as objectives, are not as good. It always looks as if you're looking at them through a thick fog, no matter how close you are.

Translation errors are common, and sometimes figures of speech are misused. And sometimes common sense is  (very) lacked. Like when, after downing dozens of enemy fighters in a mission, your commander says “I fear this war may reach our borders”. But it's not that bad. It doesn't take too much away from the gameplay.

Score: 8/10

Heroes in the Sky has good, fluid gameplay, and a very good variety of airplanes and upgrades. But after a while, the gameplay is largely the same. Kill this, defend that, go here, go there. It's got good game mechanics, but they do get old. Adding more creative, interesting game modes would make the game a lot better. And it would also be nice to let newbies help some way in the Occupational War, because that message that you get saying that you're twenty-some levels too low is really discouraging. It's a long way up to level thirty. Especially since every time you enter a PvP battle, you're sniped from across from the map.


Video:

Warfare 1944

This is gameplay from the last level of Warfare 1944, a flash game on Armor Games.

Warfare 1944 

Midterm Exams

Hi everyone,

I probably won't be able to do a review this weekend. Sorry. I have midterm exams starting Wednesday, and I really need to study. Next weekend I'll be doing a review of Company of Heroes Online.

The Fall of Nintendo

I see Nintendo as one of the pioneers of the gaming industry. Nintendo was one of the first companies to make a video game console, and definitely the first to make handheld games. The Game & Watch was pretty influential, and, like many of their other inventions and innovations, has shaped the battlefield of the gaming industry. Letting consumers play their games anywhere has opened up a whole new market, and a world of possibilities...

At the moment, it seems that Nintendo will only release a new system if it's a considerable innovation, very different from its past generation and from everyone else. The Wii, for example, was a really neat idea when it was first released, but after a few years on the market most of the games available are the same nondescript party games, sports games, that general idea. Their platformers are okay, but there's really not enough diversity in Nintendo's games. Sure, the party games are fun the first time around, but once you've seen one, you've seen them all.

It's not that there's absolutely nothing to be played except party games and pony-petting simulators - there is the occasional flight simulator or fps. The problem is that anyone that's interested in those genres have another game system. Online play is near impossible.

The "Diversity" section of IGN's Console Showdown article puts it nicely - the only things the Wii does better than other consoles are platformers and fitness games.


And with the Xbox Kinect and Playstation Move on the market, I think we can expect Nintendo to lose the latter genre, too. Maybe it's just my set, because I haven't heard anyone else complain about this, but the Wii remotes often fail to sense your movement. In boxing in Wii Sports, my character only actually punches about half the time you tell it to.

Nintendo came up with an idea, let it sit for a few years, and then everyone else did it better.


They generally try to keep the majority of their games family-friendly. Their target audience is significantly younger than that of the other consoles. That's okay, but there's only so many new ideas within the boundaries that they've given themselves, and it looks like they've just about run out. Maybe they could take a good look at what else the industry has to offer. Broadening your horizons doesn't need to include blood and gore. Broadening your horizons doesn't need to include drugs and sex. There are very good strategy games out there. Not all first-person-shooters are gory wrecks. I mean, I'm really surprised that Endwar isn't available on the Wii. It's really an excellent game.


It's really time for Nintendo to step back and look at the future instead of the past.


Maybe Nintendo is too conservative. Maybe they're thinking, "If platformers worked a couple decades ago, they've got to work now". That's partly true; platformers are definitely still worth playing, but sometime soon they're going to have to look into broadening their selection. If they don't, I'm afraid what was once a great video game company will be no more.

World of Tanks Review

World of Tanks is an MMO with the relatively original concept of a tank combat simulator. Players choose from hundreds of tanks and battle in 15 vs 15 games. There are two wasy to win: capture the enemy's base or destroy all their tanks. The tanks are sorted into five different types: Light, Medium, Heavy, SPGs (artillery) and Tank Destroyers. Each has significant advantages and disadvantages, and they all have to work in harmony to win the match.

Pros: Original idea, wide selection of tanks, in-depth gameplay, great soundtrack

Cons: Steep learning curve, only one game mode, no lobby

In World of Tanks, players buy and upgrade tanks, and then take them into battle. The gameplay is well-designed - depending on where you get hit, sometimes your tank's treads break, or your engine explodes, and crew members can be hurt, reducing your tank's functionality.

There are five types of tanks available, as previously mentioned, and each of them has a very specific role to play for the team. Light tanks are scouts, getting close to enemies and sending their location to the SPGs (artillery), which open up on the enemy, usually destroying it in one or two hits. Medium and Heavy Tanks make up the front lines, making sure that nothing gets close to the Artillery. Tank Destroyers are stealthy, perfect for ambushes, and have big guns that can often two or three hit kill, but they can't take many hits if they're spotted.

Splodey bits!

Tanks can be upgraded in the "Garage", researching things like barrels, turrets, treads, and engines by using experience and buying them with Credits, which are earned in battles. Vehicles are researched and bought the same way, with a tech tree including hundreds of different options.


Individual crew members also gain experience, raising their skills, which in turn raises a tank's passive abilities like speed, view distance and shell loading speed. Once they've leveled up to 100% experience, they can gain "Qualifications" such as camoulflage, firefighting, and repair.

The gameplay is the best and most original I've seen in a while, and it would be really fun to do battle with friends. The problem with that is that there's no lobby, and you can't specifically choose to play with any one person in a normal game. There are separate game modes to fix that, and instead of playing a "Normal Battle" you can choose to select other players to team up with against another similar team. But there's a set number of players on a team, and if you don't have at least two friends to play with, you can't play with them at all.

Another problem with the game is that there's only one game mode, a team elimination sort of thing, where you can either eliminate all your opponents or take over their base by waiting in a certain area for long enough. That kind of limits its value, because the gameplay is pretty much the same every time you play it. The game's only in beta, though, so hopefully we'll see more soon.

How to deal with Tank Destroyers.

There are no respawns; once you're done, it's all over. This makes for a more realistic player mindset, though; you won't see anyone spriting down the middle of the road in real life, thinking "I'll respawn later". And it really adds to the end-game. When the 15 vs 15 map has been narrowed down to 3 vs 3, your enemies could be anywhere, including in the bushes behing you. There's just no way to know. Even when you do catch a glance at your opponents, they're usually only there for a few short seconds.


Lastly, the music is definitely worth mentioning. The game's soundtrack is awe-inspiring, and it seems to know exactly when to make dramatic changes. It seems that every time at the end of the match when all the enemy tanks are hidden that you see a tank for a second and it disappears again, the music turns very suspenseful. It adds a lot more to the game than you'd think, even when it's mostly drowned out by gunfire and explosions.

Score: 9/10

I'd really like to give the game a perfect score, and for its concept, gameplay, and music that's what it deserves, but the lack of more game modes really limits its lasting value takes away too much from a perfect game. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone remotely interested in the tanks of World War II, to anyone interested in teamwork and tactics, and to anyone who just wants an original game, different from the other MMOs you see on the Internet.

More Screenshots:
Click to Enlarge

More coming soon!

Videos:

Combat Zone Q/A

I've noticed a few page hits from people who've been searching questions on Google about Combat Zone. I'll answer them here. If you have anything else to ask, leave a comment!

Read the review here!

Q: How do I get my soldiers back to camp?
A: Click on "load target" next to your camp on the Territory screen, just like you'd do for any other battlefield or resource. Then, click "move out" next to where you want to move them from. If your soldiers are in a different territory, you have to click on the tab named "Pull Out" in the bottom-right corner of the screen where your troops are displayed. You need an airbase to do this.

Q: How do I invite friends?
A: At the bottom of the "Company" page, there's the standard Facebook "invite friends" box.


Q: How do I add friends to my alliance?
A: They'll have to apply to your alliance themselves, and await confirmation from the alliance leader.

Q: How do I make nukes?
A: Nukes are a SpecOps mission, but in order to nuke, you must research the Physics Lab and Missile Silo in the Camp page. Your camp must be at least level 4. To nuke someone, click on their name above their camp to bring up their "Strategic Intelligence Report". Click on SpecOps in the bottom-left corner, and then "Drop the A-Bomb" on the SpecOps page.

Facebook App Review: Mousehunt

Mousehunt is another "sporadic" app on Facebook, meaning that players are meant to check back every once in a while to play. In Mousehunt, every fifteen minutes players can "Sound the Hunter's Horn" to try and catch a mouse. This is also done automatically every hour. There are many places to go and things to be done, and hundreds of different mice to be caught and traps to be bought. In fact there's so much to do, it's kind of intimidating. It seems every piece of loot a mouse drops, and every item bought at a store, is an ingredient to something else. The game's nearly impossible without the wiki, and the developers are quite aware of it, linking to the wiki from the game itself.

Pros: Wide selection of traps, humourous tone, large game map, holiday events, constantly updated

Cons: Lack of direction, almost everything's an ingredient for something else

One good thing about Mousehunt is that unlike too many other apps, it doesn't require your constant attention, even at low levels. Players can even play the game only checking back every week or so, because when the player is inactive hunts are automatically conducted every hour.

Mousehunt puts on events for holidays around the year, like Christmas, Easter, and Halloween. It's a chance to acquire new traps and new loot, and, of course, see new mice. It's a nice touch, and adds a lot to the game.

But progress seems very slow, no matter how much you check back, keeping hunts going every fifteen minutes. Because almost every item you find is a piece of something else. And once you put the items together, you end up with some different item with a slightly larger range of colours and a slightly more humourous name, and you have no idea what it's for. There are only two ways to find out. One is to find "torn pages" that have recipes on them. The other is to look it up on the wiki. In most games that would be cheating, but this game is so vast and confusing that they link to it from the app.

I know that was all very confusing, but it's no better in the game. You'll have to try it out yourself.

Score: 9/10

You might think that 9/10 might be a bit high considering the rather large problem I pointed out, but the score's for the general impression, which the game did quite well at. I started playing the app when I joined Facebook in May, and I've been playing it ever since. It's the only app that's managed to last that long. While the vast game-world is intimidating and the items even more so, the humour, trap customisation and funny mice kept me coming back for more.

Screenshots

How can you not love the Missile Toe mouse?

Overkill? No such thing.