Master of Orion 2, The Article About
This article works much better if you’ve read my companion piece for the original game.
Oh sure, I dreamt of Master of Orion, but I dreamt of Master of Orion 2. Maybe it’s because I didn’t quite understand the elegance of the first game’s simpler gameplay, but at times it felt like I was gazing upon massive reservoirs of unfulfilled potential. They could put in multi-player! They could spruce this and that up and various aspects could be pulled from the realm of abstraction! Space battles can look like space battles! Master of Orion 2 arrived less than a year after my original peak with the first game, so it was a bit like wish-fulfillment. Unfortunately, many of the unsung reasons why I loved the original came up missing in the sequel, even if it fulfilled many of the features my mental version had in store.
Pickled Pigmy Peckers, L.A. Noire Is Finally Out!!!
I got the game.
I got it home.
I put it in the 360, fired it up and the intro music started.
I blew out 3 pairs of skivvies.
More after the jump.
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Master of Orion, The Article About
I used to dream about Master of Orion. It was 1996, I was still a kid, and the idea of building an empire to span the galaxy was foremost in my mind pretty much all the time. A turn-based strategy game, this was for many years my favorite game of all time, but as its sequels arrived and tarnished my opinion of this game, my interest diminished. It came to my attention that whether you believe the first game or the second game is the best in the series is based entirely on which one you were introduced to first. I got into this game first, so it’s obviously better. It’s colorful, reeks thematically of 80s-era sci-fi, and the gameplay keeps relatively simple, sometimes to a fault. When my dad brought this game home for the first time, it kept him up until 5AM. It’s unfortunate that no one has followed up on Master of Orion properly, considering this game (or this kind of game) would be perfect for tablets. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the only article you will ever need to read about Master of Orion.
SOE Is Offering Incentives To Get Gamers To Return (When It’s Not Busted, Either)
Yeah, I think we’re going to keep beating this particular horse until it’s not just dead but has turned into a wicked big puddle of paste.
Sony Online Entertainment, the PC version of Sony Computer Entertainment (the branch that runs PSN) realized on May 1 that it, too, had been hacked. This part, most of us know.
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Game Review: Portal 2
Before it was hip, I was dying to get The Orange Box. Not because I hadn’t played Half-Life 2 (I had, and it is transcendental) but because of a quirky little addition named Portal, a first-person puzzle game assembled quickly by some recently hired college grads. Before people were keen to lies being equated to cake and so forth, a legit few and I were busting through a series of ever-challenging puzzles (in which we were required to think with portals) with the incredibly amusing GLaDOS (some distant relative of SHODAN) narrating our trip. Over three years later, the game has built a cult-like following and Valve thought it was well that we receive a sequel with a lot more content. Yahtzee asked, “is it better than Portal 1?” and replied with “No.” I’m inclined to agree.
L.A. Noire Launch Trailer Released.
Well, the 17th can’t POSSIBLY come soon enough.
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The PlayStation Network Is Still Down. This Is What You Could Be Doing.
As of this writing, the PlayStation Network has been down for almost three weeks. Sony came out and told everyone their junk got hacked into and they’d restore it as soon as they figure out how to turn on their Norton Firewall software (the Geek Squad is taking forever). This means no playing games online, no downloading content, and definitely no sales for those affected game makers who rely on the network to be alive and kicking. That said, we at FEZ have some suggestions as to what to do in the meantime.
On The Phone – Stefan Pettersson From Expansive Worlds
I had an opportunity to sit down and have a nice talk with Stefan Pettersson, the CEO of Expansive Worlds. We talked about the amazing hunting sim called “The Hunter” and where things are going in the future.
After the jump, I have the conversation paraphrased along with the entire conversation in audio format.
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Urban Riot Asks You to Fight for Cash
Are you addicted to text based RPG’s like me? Well you should check out Urban Riot, the first and only game that allows you to put up or shut up and fight for cash. Urban Riot started out as Internet Mobster two years ago and has since then moved to Facebook and re-branded as Urban Riot. The game is really simple and doesn’t take a lot of your time, removing some of the aspects I hate in other games like Mafia Wars. Read the rest of this article…
The Hunter – Game Update And Supplemental Review
So I’ve been playing this game for a while now and have had a chance to really get a feel for the mechanics and overall gameplay. As I said in my last review I am not, at all, a fan of “hunting games” so when I first got this game and tried it I was pretty skeptical going in to the experience.


