Hey guys, welcome to my weekly op-ed column that I’m calling “Spacing Out” (the name was a joint effort between my girlfriend and I ;). I realized I’d not been really writing enough op-ed pieces, and came up with the idea of doing them weekly, both as a writing exercise and a way to put thoughts and ideas out there to share and discuss with y’all. :) I’ll be doing these every Wednesday, because if I don’t set a specific day to do ‘em, I never will, you know? ;) Recently, 4X games have been on my mind after the recent release of StarDrive. After I made my decision to put my review of the game on hold, I was taken to task on a forum I frequent for not liking other recent entries in the 4X space race, such as Endless Space and Sword of the Stars II. This got me to thinking, what HAS been going on with spacey 4X games of late?
Continue reading “Spacing Out: The Trouble with 4X Games” »
Spacing Out: The Trouble with 4X Games
SGJ Podcast #07: Getting Sold on Swords and Stars
Welcome to this week’s episode of the Space Game Junkie Podcast! This time Jim and I talk to Paul Tobia, or Rorschach on several forums, who is something of an expert on the Sword of the Stars series. I was fairly “meh” on Sword of the Stars II a little while back, so we asked Paul on to help convince us (and hopefully, you folks), that the game is worth our time.
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We hope you enjoy this week’s episode, and as always, invite your comments either below or on the forum. Thanks for listening!
Continue reading “SGJ Podcast #07: Getting Sold on Swords and Stars” »
Spacey Game News and Deals 2/25-26/13: Catching Up Edition
Hello everyone, and happy Tuesday! Sorry about the lack of news yesterday, had a dentist appointment and no time to put into this, sadly. Fun times! This mean I have news from today, yesterday and the weekend to cover, so let’s dive in!
- Endless Space – There’s a new screenshot of a new Automaton hero, Mizn Ora-Yur, from the upcoming Virtual Awakening expansion. I love the look of it.
- EVE Online – The Mittani has some great EVE-based articles such as the sin of sloth in the game, news on a new battle of U930, a look at the sovereignty system, some unrest in the Li3 federation and finally, an interview with the folks behind the EVE documentary called “A Tale of Internet Spaceships“,
- Freespace 2 – Speaking of The Mittani, they take at look at the BEST SPACE COMBAT SIM EVER in their Nostalgia files.
- Star Citizen – There’s a new update entitled, “Information as Currency; the Rise of the InfoAgent” which talks about this career path.
- SlipSpace – There’s a new dev video on their Kickstarter page that I sadly can’t embed, but it looks nifty!
- Rogue System – FlightSim.com has a nice little blurb about the game. Michael also posted some thoughts on Kickstarter and a small article on how hardcore the game is. Finally, there’s a new startup video, which I’ll embed below.
- StarMade – There’s both a quick status update that followed the release of a new test build for folks to try, including me. ;)
- Beyond Beyaan – Spider! (He is our hero) Also, the Kickstarter has less than a day left, so if you wanna kick in, now’s the time. :)
- StarLife – The devs have set up a new forum for y’all to chat about the game.
- Star Trek Online – There’s a small update covering a possible roleplaying code of conduct. They also have Friday screenshots, as well as a new starship spotlight video, which I’ll embed below.
- Miner Wars 2081 – According to a tweet on their Twitter feed, the devs have begun work on modding support, as well as releasing “99% of the game source code”. I wonder what that other 1% would be…
- StarStrategy – More screenshots of things going pew pew!
- Rules of Engagement 2 – Maurice — you know, one of the gentlement I just interviewed about the game — posted an old review of the game from OMNI magazine that’s a real treat to read.
- ZigFrak – The folks at TechZwn (odd name) have a review of the game for y’all to enjoy.
- Deep Space Settlement – There’s a cool new screenshot over on yfrog.
- Galaxial – There’s a new dev blog entry covering colony management that looks pretty awesome.
- Drox Operatove – There are some new tweets teasing features in the upcoming expansion.
- Space Nerds in Space – Thanks to Free Gamer for letting us know about this upcoming starship bridge simulator inspired by Artemis.
- Sword of the Stars II – Universal Gaming Reviews has a review and giveaway of the game.
- Strike Suit Zero – Speaking of giveaways, Space Sector is having one for this game.
- Epic Space Game – There’s a new post detailing the latest changes to the game.
- Star Command – There’s a new update apologizing for their lack of updates and then giving a small update on their Kickstarter.
- Longshot – The dad at Dad’s Gaming Addiction did an article on the game.
- AI War – Now that their latest game is released, Arcen can now return to patching this one. ;)
- Void of Darkness – This is a new Starflight-inspired game sent into me by reader John, so thanks John!
- Wing Commander – Podcast Partner Jim sent over this awesome video of a hard-rock cover of the game’s theme. This will totally be embedded below the cut.
Next up, sales, and there’s a good chunk of stuff! Steam is having several midweek sales, which includes the following:
- Space Empires IV Deluxe for $2.49 (A freaking STEAL)
- Space Empires V for $3.74
- Space Empires IV and V Pack for $4.99
- Gemini Wars for $6.79
- Stellar Impact for $2.49, or With DLC Bundle for $2.99
Finally, related news! First, since we cover older games here, I though that a new version of the Amiga emulator WinUAE being released was somewhat relevant, thanks to Indie Retro News for the update. Next, I missed this somehow but Artem Bank — the gentleman who composed the amazing music for Star Ruler — has two new bits of music out, “Facebook 5” and “Natural” which sound great. Finally, the Concept Ships blog has fantastic ships from Joseph Cross and a gorgeous orbiter concept from Rasmus Poulsen.
That’s it folks! WHEW! Thanks for visiting, and enjoy!
Continue reading “Spacey Game News and Deals 2/25-26/13: Catching Up Edition” »
Spacey Gamey News and Deals 1/23/13: A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That…
Haaaaaaaaaaayyyy y’all! Happy Tuesday! I hope y’all are having a lovely day! I’m having a great staycation so far my own self! Now, a couple of things before I jump into the news. First, to try and get as much done as possible this week, my plan is to play as many games as I can fit in, take notes, capture screenshots, that sort of thing, then write about ‘em as I have time. Therefore, this week might not be stuffed with content, but there will be a steady stream of content coming out over the next days and weeks as a result, FYI.
Secondly, reader Jake wrote in to request I try a new news format to make it easier to read. Basically start with the game’s name itself after the bullet in bold, followed by the news, so I’m gonna try that now. Please let me know what you think in the comments below. :) Thanks folks!
- Drox Operative – You can now vote for Drox Operative over on Steam Greenlight. You really should too, because it’s a CRIME that the game isn’t on the dang thing.
- Conquest: Frontier Wars – OMG THIS IS FINALLY ON GOG OMG GET IT NOW! ;)
- Strike Suit Zero – Besides my own review below, the folks at IncGamers also posted a review of the game. ;)
- X3: Albion Prelude and Terran Conflict – According to the official forums, there’s a buncha new updates for these games.
- Starmade – Over on IndieDB, the game’s author has gone into more detail on the new faction system.
- Aeon Command – According to their Twitter, the Linux version of the game has been submitted for approval on Desura. It’s already available on GamersGate.
- Dawnstar – Speaking of GamersGate, you can now get Dawnstar there as well as Desura.
- Rubicon – Over on the game’s Kickstarter, there’s word of a new patch, as well as the possibility of the game going open source.
- FTL – Rock, Paper Shotgun has an article that talks with Ben Purdy about FTL’s soundtrack.
- Sword of the Stars II – There’s a new update that offers several critical fixes and changes.
- Excalibur Mod – There’s a new video entitled “Launching the Enterprise” which is awesome, and will be embedded after the cut.
Finally, in spacey game deals, spacey groundy game Salvation Prophecy is on sale at GamersGate for $10, and Paradox has launched their own web store and are celebrating by having a 55% off sale, meaning you can get Sword of the Stars II for $9.
That’s it for today! Have an awesome day y’all, and thanks as always for visiting!
Spacey Gamey Post-Christmas 2012 News and Deals
Hey y’all, happy Wednesday, and welcome back from Christmas break (if you had one, that is)! How was everyone’s holiday, and what did y’all get? ;) Mine was awesome, and I hope yours was too! Now with that said, let’s see what’s happened over the break…
- Over on Space Sector, Adam has an interview with Brain and Nerd CEO Brendan Drain regarding Predestination as well as a rather scathing review of Sword of the Stars II.
- Speaking of Predestination, their Kickstarter has been updated with a galaxy map prototype video (embedded after the cut) and more details on colonization, which looks cooler and cooler the more I read about it.
- In FTL news, there’s a new update that adds colorblind mode, specific action hotkeys and a lot more. Forbes also put the game at the top of their Most Challenging Games of 2012 list! Congrats, I think? ;)
- Over on the CRPG Addict (which you might recall inspired this site), he takes a look at the two Space games. I’ve not played Space II yet, but Space was surely a pickle.
- Over on the Kickstarter for Skyjacker, they have a new update covering alternative payment methods, content generation and more. The vids will be embedded below.
- There’s a new update for Vendetta Online which mostly consists of bugfixes.
- PC Gamer has an article about their recent experience with Freespace 2 after a new install with the Freespace Open additions. It’s a good read, but I think I’ve read it before…
- The Star Conflict folks are having a holiday-based contest where you can send your holiday greeting to the community. Pretty cool!
- There’s a new BorderSpace dev update video (embedded below also) which shows off a new H.U.D., new targeting modes and more! It’s SEXY!
- There’s a new mod for X3: Terran Conflict/Albion Prelude called X-Tended – Terran Conflict 2.0 which looks really damned cool. That one is coming up on my review list, so I’ll have to give it a whirl.
- According to 4xgamer, the Star Lords folks have relesed their second alpha (registration required). Wow, I thought that project was dead in the water, so good on them! :)
- Peter over at Matchsticks for My Eyes has his initial impressions of Drox Operative.
- The Galaxial blog has a new post looking at user interface customization, which is nifty.
- Finally, the Sol Command website has some new models of asteroids for your modeling needs.
In non-spacey game news, the folks behind AI War, Arcen Games, have released the beta for their 2.0 version of A Valley Without Wind. All existing owners of AVWW get 2.0 for free, and you can get ‘em both right now on Steam for just $5.99, which is an amazing deal. I put a decent amount of time into AVWW and found it a ton of fun, so I can’t wait for the sequel.
Finally, in deals, Get Games is having their Cheap as Chips sale and you can get Star Wolves, Star Wolves 2 and Star Wolves 3: Civil War for $2.70 each, the chepest I’ve ever seen ‘em, and totally worth it. :)
That’s it for today folks! I hope y’all have a lovely day, and I thank you for visiting and reading, as always! :)
Space Game Newsiness – 12/20/12
Hey folks, happy Thursday! I hope your wallets are still okay even though the Steam sale has begun. ;) To distract you from the buying, here’s some news!
- The SkyJacker folks have launched a press release talking about their latest Kickstarter, and you can read the PDF here.
- You can find two new reviews of Drox Operative over at Gaming Illustrated and Technology Tell, both pretty positive. :)
- In their continuing quest to be the awesomest digital distribution site around, GOG has added the expansions to several of their EA games, including Wing Commander 1+2 and Wing Commander Privateer! AWESOME! Edit: There are now also MAC versions of the two Wing Commander products as well! NICE!
- In EVE Online news, winners in round six of their portrait competition have been announced, they’ve announced a free developer licence program, and players now have new gifts to open. Yay!
- The Elite: Dangerous folks have announced a new £80 digital download tier for their Kickstarter, and have received an endorsement from Chris Roberts. Yay?
- Co-Optimus has an interview with Terry Welsh about his game, Retrobooster.
- Sword of the Stars II and Lunar Flight have seen updates on Steam.
- Over on the Endless Space forums, you can vote in a poll regarding random events.
- There’s now a code commit feed over on the Beyond Beyaan blog.
- Finally, there new update for Star Conflict that adds a new shipyard defense mission mode, which sounds really cool. Why haven’t I played this?
That’s it for today folks, have a great one!
Steam Holday Sale Has Launched!
The Steam Holiday Sale is ON LIKE DONKEY KONG, and here are all the spacey games I’ve been able to find (which is similar to the Thanksgiving sale in a lot of ways):
- Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion for $19.99
- Galaxy on Fire II HD for $13.99
- Star Wolves for $6.49
- Star Wolves 2 for $9.99
- Star Wolves 3: Civil War for $9.99
- Space Pirates and Zombies for $3.40
- Evochron Mercenary for $14.99
- X Superbox for $19.99 (or individual games for 50% off)
- Star Ruler for $3.99
- Galactic Civilizations I Ultimate Edition for $6.69
- Galactic Civilizations II Ultimate Edition for $13.99
- Galactic Civilizations Complete Pack for $16.74
- Aces of the Galaxy for $7.49
- Starpoint Gemini for $6.24
- EVE Online: Retribution for $9.99
- SOL: Exodus for $2.49
- Armada 2526 for $2.99
- Lunar Flight for $4.99
- AI War Fleet Command for $2.49 on its own, or $4.24 for a bundle with most of its DLC.
- Darkstar One for $3.99. This is also included in the Patricians and Merchants pack for $1.99.
- Stellar Impact for $2.49
- Nexus: The Jupiter Incident for $2.49
- Space Empires V for $5.99
- Sword of the Stars Complete Collection for $9.99
- Sword of the Stars II: Lord of Winter for $9.99
- Sword of the Stars Collection for $19.99
- Gratuitous Space Battles for $7.49 and the complete pack for 9.49
- Gratuitous Battle Back (Space Battles and Tank Battles) for $14.99
- Flotilla for $4.99
No go buy stuff! ;)
Spacey News and Deals – 12/11/12
Hey y’all, happy Tuesday! I hope y’all are having a great week so far. I’m still feeling a bit under the weather, especially energy-wise, but I’ve got more than enough to give ya the latest spacey news and deals. :) Enjoy! (Lots of videos today, which are embedded after the cut if possible)
- According to the folks at 4xgamer, there’s going to be a third free expansion for Endless Space. Called “Polaris”, it’ll add Steam achievements, an option for no pirates (YAY!), a new wonder and hero, and more. This might get me back into the game. Bloody pirates (and horrid AI). They’ve also been nominated for Gamespot’s Strategy Game of the Year and People’s Choice Best of 2012.
- Speaking of nominations, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion has been nominated for PC Gamer’s 2012 Strategy Game of the Year.
- The demo for Drox Operative has been updated to the release version of the game, so if you’ve not checked it out, now is a perfect time to do so!
- The SlipSpace folks have a new trailer for us all to enjoy, which I’ll embed after the cut below.
- There’s a new dev diary video for Elite: Dangerous that shows more footage and talks roles. They also have an update to their Kickstarter FAQ about the single player portion of the game. Whee.
- There’s an update on the Dominion Kickstarter which discusses what they mean by on-line play.
- The Rodina website has been updated for the first time in FOREVER with a look at the new ship interior editor, which looks awesome.
- The latest update to EVE Online: Retribution will be released today, apparently.
- Space Sector continues their look at 4X games with an article on tackling build management tedium.
- The Star Citizen site has been updated with new paint-overs of the Constellation. Looks really sexy!
- The Beyond Beyann blog has a new article on glasses and the economy (don’t worry, they’re somewhat related). Feel better, bro!
- Finally in gamey newsiness, my buddy Paul Tobia has put together some excellent videos covering various facets of Sword of the Stars II, including game setup, the strategic screen and economics and government. These are all worth watching if you wanna learn more about the game. :)
We also have a few random deals today, such as:
- GOG is starting their massive holiday sale tomorrow, which will likely include many spacey classics.
- Green Man Gaming has Space Pirates and Zombies for $5.00
- Finally, GamersGate has Galaxy on Fire II HD also for $5.00
That’s it for today folks. I hope it’s a good one for y’all, and thanks for visiting and reading. :)
Spacey Gamey News and Deals – 12/5-10/12
Hey y’all, happy Monday! I’m mostly back, and while I’m not feeling 100% — maybe 70-80% — but that’s well enough to try and get y’all caught up with nearly a week’s worth of spacey gamey newsey goodness! There’s a lot to cover here, so let’s dive in. :)
- First off, there’s a buncha EVE Online news. According to their blog, the MOMA exhibit they’re in opens today, along with an entry on their in-game holiday celebration. Finally, VG247 has an interview with the game’s lead designer about the recently released expansion pack and much more.
- In Star Citizen news, they have a Friday Update which, among other things, shows off renderings of the MISC Freelancer ship (the ship I kicked for). It looks AWESOME. I’ll also embed the video after the cut. There is also a three way interview by Gary Whitta of both Chris Roberts and David Braben (Part 1, Part 2), which must’ve been awesome to do. I’ll also embed videos after the cut. Finally, PCGamesN has an interview with Chris Roberts on embracing Kickstarter and other stuff.
- Next, congrats to the Predestination folks, as their Kickstarter was fully funded! YAY! They also have a new update showing how planetary exploration works, which I’ll embed after the cut.
- The Kickstarter for Limit Theory has a really juicy update about how NPCs and the contact system works. That same update also has announced new stretch goals, such as planetary and faction ownership. There’s also an interview with Josh over on VG247.
- The sequel to GalCon, named GalCon 2: Galactic Conquest, has also launched a Kickstarter campaign of its own. This time it’s going to be Free-to-Play apparently. Yay?
- The Dominion Kickstarter has a link to this survey asking folks what they’d like to see in the game, to help them “target their efforts’. A noble goal. They’ve also added new vessels to their pitch, updated their FAQ and added a screenshot comparing their Earth to a NASA photo, which is cool.
- The Kickstarter for Colonia has two new videos (only one I can embed) showing off research and production, which look nifty!
- The folks over at God Mode have a review of Miner Wars 2081 that was generally positive.
- The good people at 4xgamer have a great review of Drox Operative. Out of Eight games has some impressions as well, along with a video (which will be embedded after the cut)! That reminds me, I should get to mine! Oh, so much to do, so little time! ;)
- Vendetta Online has a new update which adds a huge 39-mission tree. That sounds awesome! I should maybe try this out.
- Another game that got an update was Gratuitous Space Battles, which includes all sorts of fixes and additions you can read about on Cliff Harris’ blog.
- There’s also an update for Star Conflict, which adds a new game mode called Combat Reconnaissance and more. Sounds nifty! They also have a new dev diary video, which I’ll embed after the cut.
- In other update news, Gemini Wars got a teensy-weensy update that fixes a few little things.
- Final update, Sword of the Stars II got one that fixes a lot of bugs. All clear my eye.
- The peeps over at RTS Guru have revisited Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion after the latest patch, which they seemed to like quite a bit.
- Dirkson has an article over on IndieDB talking about how big space is and how that relates to ScrumbleShip.
- Over on Space Sector, author dayrinni (their spelling, not mine, or else the D would be upper case), has the first in a series of making a 4X game that involves setting the stage.
- Rock, Paper Shotgun has a wonderfully cynical article regarding Elite: Dangerous. ;)
- The Star Command folks have posted an update on their Kickstarter page that the game should have a soft launch in January. Finally!
- There’s a little new update about Oresome over on their IndieDB page showing some newish visual effects.
- Ensign-1 has a new update that detailes a new camera, factions and music. I’ll embed the included video from the update after the cut.
- Finally in gamey news, VG247 (linking a lot to them lately) themselves linked to a site called RGB Classic Games. The cool thing is they have tons of old games you can play right in your browser using a Java applet, which works awesomely. The only reason I include this is because they have a few space games, such as Astrofire and EGA Trek. There are a lot of classics here folks, so check it out.
The only deal I could find for today was an EVE Online – 30 Day Starter Pack at Green Man Gaming for $4.99.
Finally, the Concept Ships blog has some fantastic spaceship art from Kian Ng and Smyk Vitaliy.
That’s it! WHEW! I need some more sleep after that. I promise to get back into regular content soon folks, have tons of reviews, previews and such I need to work on, but the holidays are nuts and being sick didn’t help. Thanks again for your patience as I strive to balance out this blog with life in general. :) Have a lovely day y’all!
Continue reading “Spacey Gamey News and Deals – 12/5-10/12” »








