Sometimes I just report 'em. I don't have to understand.

5 Jan 06

Wow, what a football game. I officially declare this the best bowl season I can remember. As an old Nebraska boy, I know I had more fun during their National Championship runs, but I can't think of any bowl season with so many high quality games. I was amazed at the number of analysts still claiming today that not only is USC better than Texas, but they're much better. I'd suggest they not repeat those opinions down here in the Republic.

There are a lot of interesting trends in the gaming industry. Some of them make a lot of sense. Some of them come out of the blue. After the near disaster of Master of Orion III, no one expected to see much in the space 4X realm for a long, long time (and perhaps in a galaxy far, far away). However, in this quarter, we're expecting not one, but three games in the genre, and they all look promising. The main difference between them seems to be time. Galactic Civilizations 2 seems completely turn based. Sword of the Stars is turn based strategy with real time tactical battles.

And our game of the week is pure real time. It's Sins of a Solar Empire (official site) from Ironclad Games. They're using their own engine to create a dynamic universe featuring a future war between three races. You have the Trader Coalition, The Advent and Vasari. You'll lead your faction as emperor and fleet commander either against dynamic AI or up to 9 other players online. You'll have plenty of opportunities to explore, expand, exploit and exterminate. They're promising an easy to learn, hard to master strategy game. Look for Sins in the first quarter of the year (it could be an expensive quarter).

Jason