Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Mount and Blade Impressions

Mount & Blade is a new PC game by Taleworlds. The best way to describe it is:

Sid Meier's Pirates! with horses in medieval times. This is a big compliment in my opinion.

Disclaimer: I only played the demo, which is full featured but level limited.

The basic idea is that your character starts off with just a horse in a fictional realm. Your goal is to pretty much take it over. To do that you have to grow and army and lead them on the field of battle. There are NPC opponents trying to do the same, which you can fight or ally with. Mounted combat is also a big feature of the game. Much better than MMO attempts.

Things I liked:
  • Supports Mods (python)
  • Archery that has arrows stick where they land
  • Effective tutorial
  • Horse Riding is original and fun. It actually feels like a horse. (Well, I have never ridden a horse, but this is what I imagine it would feel like without the groin pain.)
  • Text based character creation. A throw-back to the old games, you create your characters back story, and it sets up the stats based on it.
  • RPG Elements: 24 skills, 4 attributes, 6 weapon proficiencies. All of which you can improve as the game goes on.
  • Uses a combo Overhead map for travel and a 3D world for fighting.
  • A rudimentary trading system exists, buy low and sell high..
  • The peasants you recruit into your army are different based on where they came from. Some may start off with horses, some may start with shields.
  • As your army gains experience, you can upgrade them.
  • Death is handled like Pirates! You are captured, time passes and you lose some stuff.
  • The factions in the world are often at war, and you can see their armies on the Overhead map.
  • Active community.
  • Great sky and sun graphics.
  • Sandbox game where you have control over what you do.
  • Fight with, against or for the Kings of the world.
  • Take control of villages for yourself.
Things I did not like:
  • After I created my character, I was a little lost. I went to a few towns and could not find much to do. Eventually I found one where I could recruit troops, but a little direction would have been nice.
  • The Overhead map graphics looks extremely old, bland and dead. That said, it is functional.
  • The 3D world graphics are dated as well, but don't look that bad.

Overall this looks like a nice game. I hope I have more time to devote to it, as I enjoyed my experience. There is no reason not to try it out as there is a free demo. Just keep in mind it is a Sandbox game and not on rails.

Some screenshots:

Monday, September 29, 2008

Tome of Frustration


Don't get me wrong, I love the Tome of Knowledge. It does however have its aspects which drive me nuts. The Tome records a lot of what you do in WAR. It is also pretty easy to navigate. Overall, it is a fine feature.

It is not perfect, in some cases it is down right aggravating. One case of this is the Lairs I mentioned earlier. You get a Tome unlock for discovering it and a nice story. Of course that story is useless in figuring out how to get in the Lair.

The tome also keeps a record of all the types of things you meet, whether they be man or beast. Each type has a list of quests and achievements to go along with it. An example of an achievement would be killing 100 Witch Elves. Those work great and are not really frustrating.

The quests that go with them are a different story. They will have name and some mouse over text. For example, there is one called: A Pinch to grow an Inch and the mouse over text is 'Complete a specific quest.' That is it, that is all you have to go on. It will sometimes tell you a zone, but nothing else.

Another type of quest is to 'kill a champion monster.' That shouldn't be too bad, but sometimes there are multiple Champion monsters for that type of creature in the zone. Did I kill the right one? Is this bugged? I have no clue.

Then there are things in the world that should give a Tome unlock, but don't. These are especially frustrating. For example, I have come across a tome deep in an out of the way cave. A Hero mob patrols the area. This looks like it could be something.... it was not. The tome does not appear to be used in any quest either.

Another time, in yet another cave, I found an 'Unfortunate Dwarf' hidden behind a wall, being eaten by a Champion zombie. This must be something, so i got some folks together and killed the zombie. Nada from the zombie or the Dwarf.

I understand the tome unlocks should not be too easy, but right now they just seem random. There really seems to be no reason to actually try (an actual Quest!) to complete them. Seems much better off to hope that you happen to in your travels.

I have put time into solving these and gotten very little in return. One more line of text added to the mouse over, providing some vague hint would be great! Implementing the objects out in the world that look like hidden tome unlocks so we don't waste out time on them would be great too.

The Tome has so much potential, but it seems like it is not being used yet.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Friday Question: Favorite T1 Zone

My favorite T1 zone would have to be Ekrund, the Dwarf starting zone. The mountains and snow just look great. There are some really tall mountains and really deep ravines. I think it does a great job of immersion. I am also a big fan of Dwarf architecture. Ekrund has it on a grand scale.

The RvR area also features a nice big wall, and I love walls. Stems from building sand castles at the Jersey shore in my youth I suppose.

The world designers did a great job with Ekrund.

So what is your favorite T1 zone in WAR?

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Stop complaining.


This post is inspired by a bad scenario experience yesterday.

Order does not suck, you do. If you spent less time complaining and more time playing, we may actually have a chance in this fight.

Coordination wins. This is just a fact of life and WAR. Sometimes you will end up fighting against a group or two of coordinated people and will get trounced. This does not mean your team sucks, or your side sucks or your class sucks. Sometimes you just lose, deal with it.

Stop saying Order needs more healers. You are only allowed to say this if you are a healer. If you are not a healing class, go roll one! Oh, you don't want to? If that is the case, be quiet, you have no right to complain about it.

Take some initiative. Much like real life, if you sit back and wait for things to happen for you, you will have a rough experience. Start a guild to better coordinate so you can win the scenarios. Go roll that healer. Start the warband to go get your keeps back. The game is what you make of it, so spend more time doing and less time complaining.

Any others to add?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Lair Disappointment

The Lair pictured to the left was not really a disappointment, just really difficult. All those poor quarters lost.

Last week I was shown, by another kind Dwarf, the Lair in the Dwarven region of Ekrund. Lairs are non-instanced world bosses that usually require some sort of puzzle solving to reach.

As we approached the the entrance, which was nicely done, I got a tome unlock. This unlock gave a nice background story of the Lair. The door itself was sealed shut with no clues as how to get it to open.

I was eager to unlock the secrets of the lair, so I went to the story. It was good and seemed to provide some clues as to where to look next. I spent a couple hours searching the countryside for anything that could help me open that door. Sadly, I found nothing. Not a big deal, could just have missed it.

In order to solve this mystery, and foster guild cooperation, I was going to setup a 'Solve the Lair' night. CoW's would have been scouring Ekrund and Mt. Bloodhorn... like cow's on a field. Umm, yea, so anyway. Soon after I had this idea, someone from the Destruction side of CoW posted that they had entered the Lair and defeated the occupant. Leave it to Destruction to ruin a good time :)

The disappointment came when I read how to open the sealed door. It had NOTHING to do with the story. I won't reveal how it is done (another tale can be found here). I had hope that these lairs would be puzzles and riddles that would take us into the lore and game world looking for answers. Instead it seems like it is just some random mechanic*. What a waste :(

*Note: It may be other lairs do actually use the story, I have only been to this one.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Star Wars Combine


Star Wars Combine (SWC) is a game I had not heard of until a Massively article. Immediately it caught my attention, so I thought I would check it out.

SWC is a browser-based game. Hold on, I know. I am usually not a fan of browser games. I am not sure why, maybe just because I have never actually played one that I enjoyed. SWC has nothing in common with the plethora of browser games out there.

SWC is a MMORPG game based in the Star Wars universe. It is free and has been allowed to exist by Lucas Arts. It is loosely set after Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope. However it is a changing universe, fully controlled by the players. That's right, players create the story as they go along. No static world like most major MMO's.

They key points and why you should check it out:
  • Entirely real-time. Traveling to another planet will actually take hours. I think this is a great mechanic, as it no longer means those who sit at the keyboard the longest wins. Since it is browser based, you could play from anywhere too.
  • Several dozen races to choose from. I think Every Star Wars race is represented, each with their own advantages/disadvantages.
  • Dozens of different skills to put points into.
  • All factions are player run.
  • Over 4000 planets.
Another major feature this game has is it is very hands-on for the administration team. When you create a character name, it must first be approved. No longer will you see crappy and out of place names. This also applies to player-created factions. There are a number of requirements (not just money and people) to create a Faction. You must have a website, banners, history and it all must be approved. this leads to tremendous quality.

One thing you should know is that the game is in development. There are many features and systems not yet in the game. If you are looking for a combat heavy game, this may not be it. Also, not all skills have a function, so be sure to keep that in mind when allocating points.

There usually seems to be ~300 people on at a given time. This is just based on 1 day, so it may be more or less. I have not done much in game yet, so I couldn't say whether this is good or bad.

Check it out!

Monday, September 22, 2008

WAR Needs: VOG, LFG's Cousin

Warhammer Online needs a Looking For Group interface, but not in the traditional sense. Open Grouping had been pretty effective in eliminating LFG spam and other normal problems. It does not cover all situations though.

I find myself in Tier 2 now looking for RvR. It occurs to me that I would really like to know what Open Groups are available for RVR in all Tier 2 zones. I could fly from warcamp to warcamp looking, but that seems like it shouldn't be necessary. I would like to see, at a glance, what area may have a group getting ready to siege a keep.

An interface to view Open Groups by Tier and/or Zones seems like it would be an effective way to solve this problem. It would be VOG (View Open Groups) rather than LFG.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Game Design: Simple

I have long been interested in Game Design and consider developing games as a hobby. It is a very difficult hobby to have, because creating a game can be rough. I tend to fall into the 'eyes bigger than your stomach' category. I get an idea, but it snowballs into something much too big. So I will start something, but never really finish it. Each time I get a little farther and a little better. So designing games as a hobby can be thought of as an iterative process.

SIMPLE. That is the word I try to always keep in mind when thinking of new ideas. I much more likely to complete something simple than I am something complex. Every feature I think up must pass the 'is is necessary' test. If it is not, then I file it away for later.

Simple means a few things. Easy to implement would be the first. Will this idea require a lot of time to get in the game? Will it spawn off another whole set of requirements? If so, then shelve it. Is this idea fun for players? If not, then shelve it.

Over the past couple weeks I have developed an idea, and actually have a decent chunk of the Alpha version of the game completed. All of it passes the SIMPLE requirement. It actually is a project I, as a dingle hobby developer with a job and family, am actually able to complete. That is not to say I will, as you know hobbies take a back seat to life.

I am excited to talk about the idea and will be soon.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

So size does matter


Yesterday, my Warhammer Online Collectors Edition arrived! I was quite surprised too, as it shipped the day before and I chose standard shipping. I love you Amazon.

The first thing I thought was: "What the heck is that, that is too big for a video game box... and it says it weighs 8 pounds!"

Turns out it did house a video game, the CE. My first thought on getting it in my hands was: QUALITY. It was heavy and solid.

That trend continued with the items inside. Two very nice hard cover books, the game box and a figurine. I don't really care about the figurine though. If I try to paint it I am likely to destroy it (much like I was doing to Zealots yesterday) in a fit of rage.

The books look quite nice and I hope to sit down with them soon. Overall I am quite happy with the $79.99 I spent. Combined with the Head-Start and Open/Closed Beta, it was well worth it.

In other WAR news:
  • BR 10/ RR 10
  • I love Barbed Wire! It isn't just for ranchers.
  • More world RvR in Nordland.
  • Got a nice piece of jewelry from a PQ.
  • Grouped up with some CoW's and went on a quest for the Shawl of Spring. It was successful and Werit is stylin.
  • CoW reached Rank 8.

When CoW's attack...


Ok, so it isn't quite like the picture.

The last couple days spent in WAR have been mostly about RvR combat. I had been doing mostly PvE, but I got the sickness and cannot break away from the fight.

Yesterday was a particularly fun day, as me and some fellow CoW's took to the fields of battle in world RvR. A group of 4 of us started out in Nordland, where a battle was already raging. We had 2 Engineers, and Archmage and a Bright Wizard. A couple other CoW's joined up at various times too.

It was a back and forth battle at the start and we got pushed back to the warcamp several times. This was mainly due to the fact we were facing a larger force which was loaded with tanks. We had no tanks at all! Plenty of Elves and Dwarves, just no tanks. Despite that, we did not do too bad. When the sides evened out a bit, we were able to push back and take the 3 objectives. We fought for a bit to defend then got the call to another battle.

Speaking of tanks... their armor looks much cooler than the rags T1 Engineers are forced to wear.

CoW's were set to advance upon the Blighted Isle, so we moved over to that front. There we had a Warband of CoW's (~9 folks) and we proceeded to take all the objectives. We ran into some light resistance at first, but then hit an organized group. We trounced them in the first encounter. They came back for more, with friends. The 2nd encounter we lost, but not before taking out a fair number.

Sadly at that point, I had to retire from the battlefield.

Some notes:
  • BR 9/ RR 9
  • Lots of World RvR and Scenarios.
  • You can get buff's from the bosses at your Battlefield Objectives by clicking on them.
  • Watch out for artillery!
  • Started Ekrund Ch 3.
  • They took away the ability to Salvage renown gear :(
  • CoW achieved Guild Rank 7

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Death Magnetic


I am a big Metallica fan. I have all their albums and have seen them in concert. The only album I did not like was St. Anger. Wow, that was awful. I almost drove off the road the first time I listened to the CD in the car.

So I pre-ordered Death Magnetic (their 9th album) with some apprehension. It arrived last week...

First Impression: Not great, but not St. Angers either.

Over time: Now that I have had it in my playlist and heard some songs a few more times, it is starting to grow on me.

I would try and judge this album on its own, and not compared to Master of Puppets. Metallica can never go back to the old days, because... they are old. I wish it was possible to recapture the fire of youth. You know what song I really liked? The Tuesday's Gone cover on Garage Days. Despite the name, it doesn't all have to be metal for Metallica.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Ekrund Campaign: Day 2


Your hero and mine, on watch in Nordland.

My second day in WAR went as well as the first. Since it was during the day, the servers were not very crowded, making it an ideal PvE day. Folks who took off for the head start probably had to get back to work to pay for their subscription fees. World RvR suffered, but no big deal.

Recap of what I did:
  • BR 7/RR 5
  • Dropped scavenging for salvaging. While scavenging is more interesting than salvaging, it is not as useful for Talisman making, as fragments cannot be bought.
  • Made a +5 wounds (2 days) and a +2 Bal (8 hour) talisman.
  • Maxed my Ekrund Chapter 2 influence.
  • Completed most Ch 2 Ekrund quests.
  • Got frustrated by Murgluk's Git's. There is another quest chain in the same area. Twice I tried to finish the quests only to have the next stage of the PQ trigger and fill the area with Champ mobs.
  • The CoW armies took to the battlefield of the Blighted Isle, looking for war. Sadly we found none.
  • Did a few Gates of Ekrund Scenarios.
  • Got involved in a bit of World RvR in Nordland, was fun but we were soon overrun.
  • CoW reached Guild Rank 5.
All in all, a fun time playing.


Monday, September 15, 2008

Ekrund Campaign: Day 1


My non-beta adventure in Warhammer Online officially began on Sunday with the Collectors Edition Head Start. Originally, they had planned to start it at 7am EDT, then 1pm, then 12. That worked out fine for me, as I did not have to get up early or anything.

Me and my fellow CoW's logged in as soon as the servers un-grey'd. I was able to secure 2 names I wanted, so that is good. I was on the Order side and had no queuing issues that others have had.

A recap of what I did:

  • Werit the Dwarven Engineer arrives in Ekrund to take up the Oathbearer cause.
  • Achieved battle Rank 5 and Renown Rank 4.
  • Did most of the starting quests.
  • Did the first PQ a couple times and maximized my Chapter 1 influence. Best finish was #3.
  • Found a Plunger! It told me it was not secret enough and to go find others.
  • Read through all of my Tome entries. Very neat stuff in there.
  • Picked up Scavenging and Talisman making.
  • Did a few Gates of Ekrund scenarios.
  • Guild reached Rank 2 when I logged off.
  • Total play time was about 2.5 hours.
It was pretty fun and problem free. I am trying to take the game slow and stop to smell the roses. The changes to the Engineer class have been nice. I feel like I am more dangerous in scenarios now. The new turret animations are nice!

That about covers it for Day 1.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

28 minutes later...


I changed the channel.

I am speaking of the movie 28 Weeks Later. I was in a movie mood last weekend and saw this was On Demand, for free. I am not a huge Zombie flick fan, but the first one was decent, so I gave it a shot.

**Spoilers***

I knew it was going to suck after the opening scene. Basically, there was a husband and wife being attacked by zombies in a house. The wife runs off to save some kid she met 2 minutes ago and zombies get in between her and the husband. Remember, these are fast super-zombies in the 28 series, so the husband could really do nothing. He ran, leaving the wife to her fate.

We never do see a death blow and the husband is made to be a coward. Next we see their kids coming back to London. During a medical exam, the Doctor notices the boy has different color eyes. This is a genetic oddity he got from his mother. Very subtle fore shadowing! Fast forward a few minutes over stupid plot holes and stupid kids... the mother is alive. and back at the compound for study.

it just so happens that the father (husband) is a janitor and can access every single room of this military installation, including the unguarded Zombie room. Next, I turned it off. I checked out imdb to confirm my suspicions that the rest of the movie was a waste of time, and it was. I also realized it was made by different people than the original, 28 Days Later.

Beware: It sounds like they setup for yet another lame sequel!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Spore Impressions (real early)


So Spore came in the mail today, yay! I am installing it as we speak.

Now I know Spore has some crappy DRM, but it does not start there. They have this thing packaged in like 42 layers. I don't know what kind of magic trick folks used to get passed just CD/DVD wrapping, but it wasn't good enough. EA decided to step it up a notch by having the wrappeing attached to the out box.

The DRM is making more angry the more I think about it. I do not like strange drivers on my system. Also, I can only install 3 times before I have to call them? That is really a bunch of BS. Yet here I am installing it, so I suck too.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Classics: Scorched Earth


Scorched Earth was a multi-player PC game that was popular in the early 90's. The basic premise was you controlled a piece of artillery, on a 2D destructible landscape, mostly mountains. Your opponents were scatted around the board as well. You all took turns shooting each other with a variety of weapons. The challenge was to line up the correct angles to actually hit your target.

I remember me and a bunch of grade school friends getting playing this at a friends house. it seemed pretty amazing then, and it was a lot of fun. There were some pretty big weapons that you could purchase, which took out a large chunk of the landscape. MIRV, a warhead which separated into multiple warheads (3 I think), was always fun as well.

The reason this game came to mind is that a real-time Scorched Earth is coming to X-Box Live, called Death Tank. This game was actually on the Sega Saturn, an Easter egg in Duke Nukem 3d. They have upgraded it a lot for the X-Box hardware. The old version was turn based, so we will have to see how this one goes. I will likely download the demo at least. Check out a gameplay video:


Death Tank XBLA from Rlan on Vimeo.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'em


"It feels good when you know you're down" - MC Hammer

Over this weekends Preview for WAR (and Open Beta) I decided to roll a Warrior Priest. Bald, armored and a big hammer. How can you go wrong?

I only have played up to rank 6 so far, so anything I say only applies up to that point.

The WP's mechanic is Righteous Fury. It is like mana, in that it regenerates and tries to stay full. When certain skills are used, it drains the Righteous Fury. Other skills have a side effect of filling it up.

The WP is a melee healer. This is a new class for me as I never really played anything like it before. With a normal healer, you generally just hand back and play whack-a-mole with healing bars. Not really so with the WP. You must get in there in fight in order to keep your Righteous Fury filled.

I actually found this class to be pretty difficult to play as a healer. When playing solo, or just healing myself, it was great fun. taking a beating and being able to heal yourself is quite nice. However, trying to fight and heal myself and others became pretty difficult.

This could just be because of my lack of keyboarding skills or some other deficiency. It seems like the WP healing is only really meant to be targeted at a single target throughout the fight. The WP does have access to AoE healing, like Prayer of Devotion and Divine Strike.

Overall it was a fun and interesting class. I will likely roll a WP alt, as being able to fight and heal is fun.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Friday Question: Guild Taxes


"Read my lips: No new taxes." - George H. W. Bush, 1988

One of Warhammer Online's Guild features is the tax and tithe system. A tax is money taken off the top of whatever you do (i.e. sell and loot) and put into the guild bank. A tithe is a voluntary tax which you can set on yourself, which also goes into the guild bank.

I think they are fine, so long as your Guilds leadership actually uses them for the good of the guild. As for tithing, if the tax rate is low, and money is plentiful, I will likely set a tithe.

What are your feelings about Guild taxes?

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Artificial Butter

Fox Sports had some great commercials about 8 years ago. They were for the NBA and were hilarious. Sadly they only made 4 of them. These are probably my favorite commercials, ever. Here is one...

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Swordnoob


During the WAR preview weekend, I also tried the High Elf Swordmaster. I only took this character up to Rank 6. Again, I primarily did RvR Scenarios and Open World. The Swordmaster has a tiered mechanic. Your tier skills open up the second tier, and the second tier opens up the third. Everything below only applies to Rank 6 and below.

I am a shield kinda guy, so I went with that and a 1h sword. Your first skill is Graceful Strike. it is a nice damage attack, that applies a DoT and generates hate (threat). It will also put you into Improved Stance.

The Swordmaster is a tank class, so it does get a throw attack. I like the fact it can be much more powerful if you his someone with it from behind. That's what you get for trying to run away!

When you are in improved stance, you get Quick Incision. This is a damage skill and applies a slow on the target. Another nice Improved Stance skill is Eagle's Flight. It does damage, and increase your chance to parry. Avoidance is usually a nice thing to have when fighting multiple Black Orcs.

Nature's Blade is an interesting buff you can apply to yourself. You get a chance to steal a certain amount of points from a random stat on your enemy, for a short duration. So you could steal the Strength from the big Chosen you are fighting and use it against him. I wish there was more feedback on when this happens and what you steal. I really had no idea if it was working.

I only had one Perfect Stance attack at this point, Blurring Shock. It is a higher damage attack and resets you back to normal stance.

Overall, I really did not enjoy my time as a Swordmaster much. This is not due to the class itself as it is interesting and powerful. I just had a lot of trouble with the stance dance mechanic. I am a keyboard user for skills. I really had a tough time keeping track of what Stance I was in and what skill to hit. It got to be a bit aggravating.

With more time and practice, I am sure I would improve. However there are so many interesting classes, Swordmaster will probably be one of the last I roll when the game launches.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Classics: F19 Stealth Fighter

F19 Stealth Fighter is one of my all-time favorite games. It was probably the first computer game that I played constantly.

I was young at the time, so I really did not understand all of the concepts. I played on my Dad's CGA (4 color) 286 PC at the time. F19 is a flight simulator game that takes place in Europe and the Middle East (crazy huh?). The game came out around 1988. You were the pilot of the secret stealth fighter, which would later turn out to be the F-117. At the time though, no one knew what it was called, hence the F19.

There was a career mode and medals you could earn by completing missions. Missions ranged from destroying ground targets to air targets. The graphics were great at the time.. you could fly under a bridge! The enemies were realistic and the technology at your disposal was incredibly cool and real.

Two of the concepts I could not grasp were landing and the stealth game. I would normally just eject rather than land, since I was so awful at it. The game features a very detailed stealth/radar system so you were supposed to get to your target quietly in most cases. I could not grasp this and just went in with guns a blazing. It was fun none-the less. Another great thing about this game is the manual. It is a 200 page book. Not one of those little handbooks.. we are talking ~8x6 sized pages. It is one of the best parts of the game. I always hate what is shipped with games today in those small little boxes.

Recently I cam across a copy of the game on ebay and had to pick it up. It came with the manual, maps and 3 5.25 floppies. Sure, I don't have a drive that can read them, but it is nice to know they are there.

(This is actually a post from an old blog attempt)

Monday, September 1, 2008

Hey Merc, nice bike!


The post title is from a new game I am playing on the 360, Mercenaries 2. I picked it up yesterday and probably have put 3 hours into it so far.

Bottom line: It is a fun game so far. I can't really speak to the rest of the game yet.

M2 is similar to Grand Theft Auto (GTA) in that it is a sandbox style game. The basic premise is that you did a job for someone, they try to kill you and worse yet, they did not pay you. Now it is payback time.

Unlike GTA, this game is all about blowing stuff up. Tanks, artillery, daisy cutters, choppers, boats, guided bombs... they are all at your disposal. The physics engine makes sure you get the feel that you just blew the crap out of something.

You are not really fighting this war alone, as you can recruit other mercenaries to help. So far I have a helicopter pilot. He allows you to transport around easier. he also is used to pick up found artillery, fuel tanks and stacks of cash. The stacks of cash remind me of NARC.

You also work for, with or against various factions. So far I have done work for the Oil Company. The factions help you get closer to your ultimate revenge and they also get you the tools you need to survive. In addition to money and information, they also give you supply drops, air strikes and vehicles which you can have dropped off. There are a lot of these in the game, so there is plenty to do.

If you enjoyed the movie Commando and like sandbox games, this may be worth a buy. Back to playing!