Strategic Command 2: Patton Drives East is now available from Battlefront.

Rock Paper Shotgun interviewed the folks behind the terminally campy Stalin vs Martians. This interview revealed one of the deep dark secrets of making money on an RTS game.

RPS: Have you done much research into period Russian military technology? How about period Martian technology? How will you respond to those who take the game to task for any historical inaccuracies?

Alexander: The Russian units are 100% historically accurate (we even use the early version of T-34 tank, since it’s 1942 in the game). And that’s one of the weirdest things about the game. You have authentic Red Army units and use them to fight something absolutely inimaginable. Martian units are less historically accurate, only about 80%. There also have been some responses that our Siberia on the screenshots looks not vert much like Siberia and that’s not right. It is not quite true. When people hear “Siberia”, something clicks in their heads and they imagine snow and polar bears. But it is Summer 1942 in Stalin, no snow at all. If you want to see the snow in Siberia, you should buy the expansion pack for Stalin vs Martians, which we plan to release sometime in 2009. We think that winter campaigns is a perfect choice for add-ons. You can make a couple of new tiles, rework few textures and here’s the expansion pack that looks different. We decided not to waste the opportunity to earn couple of bucks doing almost nothing. That’s why there is summertime in Stalin vs Martians.

Read the full interview here.

Shrapnel is hunting down potential beta testers for their upcoming WWII strategy title, War Plan Pacific. But only those with the right stuff should apply:

* Possess a computer with at least the following minimum specifications: Windows XP/Vista, Celeron 1.6 MHz, 512 MB RAM, 100 MB free hard drive space, a DirectX 9.0c compatible video card capable of rendering at 1024x768x24 bit. Even your grandmother probably has a computer capable of participating in the beta test.

* Have an interest in a Pacific theater game that can completed—from Pearl Harbor to the bombing of Nagasaki—in a single evening.

* Be able to fully participate in the beta test for approximately three months. Ideally you'll talk, laugh, and cry in the beta forum about the game. Be prepared to vocalize your opinions, communicate ideas, and most of all give feedback. Beta testing isn't all glitz and glamour ya know, you're going to have to work. Of course work being playing the game, so it's definitely not the worst job you've ever had.

Magitech put out a demo for Sango 2, the sequel to a game I've never heard of. Here's what it's all about:

I hear there are rumours on the internets that an X-Com title may be in the works:

The latest Official Xbox Mag is running a rumour that's been quietly - oh so quietly - doing the rounds for a few months now. That rumour concerns just what, exactly, 2K Boston (and I presume 2K Australia as well) are up to these days. With 2K Marin confirmed as the team behind BioShock 2, what could Ken Levine and the rest of the guys behind BioShock 1 be working on? Maybe a new X-Com game. Yes, X-Com. 2K quietly bought the rights to the series in 2007, so the rumour's at least got a solid footing, though we're still going to recommend you increase your daily intake of salt. If only because the thought of a new, official X-Com game is too awesome to mess around with.

Blizzard recently held a two-day StarCraft II multiplayer orgy at their headquarters in Irvine (which is not in LA, no matter what PC Zone tells you). PC Zone's Martin Korda wrote up a preview based on his experiences, presented online by CVG.

This is StarCraft just how I remember it: attack biased, packed with early rushes as each player seeks an early advantage. I lose myself in a mass of clicks and orders, never pausing, acting on instinct alone, ignoring the ingrained RTS urge to build defences as I force myself to concentrate solely on amassing a force built for the single purpose of destruction.

Minutes later I've churned out an army from countless Hatcheries (the Zerg's main construction building) - dozens, scores, myriads of units. I march them across the map in search of my enemies, only to wade headlong into an opponent's equally sizeable attack force. Unabated slaughter ensues, the screen a mass of scrapping aliens. But as the carnage unfolds, a second enemy storms my unguarded base and suddenly it's game over. Eight minutes, 17 seconds. That's StarCraft II multiplayer in a nutshell.

Also enjoying the orgy were 1UP's Jeff Green and James Mielke, who posted their preview in the ever popular "bickering old women in a podcast" style.

Crispy Gamer's Troy Goodfellow spent some quality time with Johan Andersson of Paradox, who revealed that Crusader Kings is a "cursed" game that he'd like to make a sequel for.

Crispy Gamer: Given how much content your games do have in them, when do you know you've hit the limit of how much a single gamer can handle?

Andersson: I think Victoria was over the edge. Looking back at it, I think the design we had for Crusader Kings was perfectly planned. The problem with that game...oh, I don't want to admit it, but it's probably cursed.

Crispy Gamer: Cursed?

Andersson: Yeah. It seems that whenever we do something with it, it turns out badly for us. . It was in development for years and years and the programmer who was working on it quit -- long story. It's a great game. It's one I play a lot on my own. I'd love the chance to do a new Crusader Kings with a new engine.

Not to be left out, The Wargamer also interviewed Johan.

There's now a demo available for Strategic Command 2: Patton Drives East from Battlefront.

This demo includes THREE turn limited (1 game year each) playable campaigns:

• 1939 Storm of Steel turns the clock back to the very beginning of hostilities in Europe as the German army prepares to occupy the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia.
• 1945 Patton Drives East allows you to change history in the months after the Nazi surrender as Patton is allowed to drive across the Oder River and push forward to the very gates of Moscow.
• 1948 Berlin Crisis unleashes the fury of Stalin's Armies against the Allies in a contest for the total occuptation of Europe.

Multiplayer modes are disabled in the demo but the campaigns are playable against the AI as either side.

Get the download links here.

Tom Chick sat down with Brian Reynolds of Big Huge Games to discuss why Rise of Legends didn't turn out to be the grand success that Rise of Nations was. One suggestion was the lack familiar hooks (like elves and orcs for a fantasy game) which related back to reason why Alpha Centauri didn't sell as well as Civilization II.

Chick: I sort of a see a parallel with what you did in Alpha Centauri.

Reynolds: Thank you for reminding me of that. Yes, in some sense, we went against the lesson of [our own] history: that you can sell a lot more Civ IIs than you can Alpha Centauris. One reason we did it again anyway is because we did make a good amount of money on Alpha Centauri. We just didn't make truckloads of money like we did with Civ II. So we did it.

But it was a lot harder to explain even the most basic science fiction concepts to people than it was history. Everybody knows what a bow and arrow do. Everybody somewhere back in their genetic programming understands the possible benefits of discovering the wheel. The concept of mathematics doesn't sound very frightening, but then when you get into nonlinear mathematics and special quantum laser gun theory, then -- no matter how socially relevant the biting commentary provided by your game is -- there's still this accessibility issue. You have a lot more work to do to get people into the story.

So you could say that we should have known.

Read the full interview at Crispy Gamer.

BattleGoat Studios put together a gameplay clip for Supreme Ruler 2020. The 3 minute video shows opponents mixing up it somewhere in the far off, exotic land of Texas. Stream the clip over at IGN.

Thanks to Chris for the reminder.

Stardock has released the second Galactic Civilizations II expansion pack, Twilight of the Arnor.

Stardock is pleased to announce the general availability of the second (and final) expansion pack to Galactic Civilizations II. The new expansion pack, Twilight of the Arnor, adds hundreds of new features, gives each civilization a unique technology tree, a unique set of planetary improvements, star base modules, ship parts, and more.

Moreover, with Twilight of the Arnor, Stardock went back and revamped the graphics for the game to bring them up to the state of the art. A new sound track has also been added along with updates to the computer AI. It also reintroduces the Terror Star, the ultimate weapon last seen in the original Galactic Civilizations as well as a new victory condition called Ascension. Online tournaments have also been added to allow people to compete at playing the same map and scenario and submit their scores to the GalCiv metaverse.

The expansion also includes the conclusion to the Dread Lords saga in the form of the Twilight of the Arnor campaign.

And finally, to keep the game evolving for years to come, Stardock includes a half dozen newly developed editors that will help modders and end users alike such as a map editor, scenario editor, campaign editor, tech editor, ship component editor, and much more.

The expansion pack is $29.95. It requires the previous expansion (Dark Avatar) to also be installed. New players can purchase the integrated "Ultimate Bundle" for $59.95 and get the entire Galactic Civilizations II saga.

Thaks to Elwro for the poke.

In a blog post about a future Civil War title back in November of 2005, 2 By 3 Games expected "to be making a public announcement regarding this game before the end of this year and should have some screenshots to show at that time." Two & a half years later we finally have the announcement and screenshots for Gary Grigsby's War Between the States.

Matrix Games and 2 by 3 Games (www.2by3games.com) are thrilled to announce Gary Grigsby’s War Between the States, an innovative turn-based grand strategy game set during the American Civil War!

David Heath, Director of Operations at Matrix Games, said “2 by 3 Games have brought us some timeless wargames that people will be enjoying for years to come. Now that they’re taking their talent in grand strategy games to the American Civil War we can look forward to another masterpiece of wargaming!”

Taking gamers back to the American Civil War, Gary Grigsby’s War Between the States allows players to experience the trials and tribulations of the role of commander-in-chief for either side. Historically accurate, detailed and finely balanced for realistic gameplay, War Between the States is also easy to play and does not take months to finish.

Promote and cultivate talented young colonels or brigadiers to build Corps and Army commanders that will help you fight and manage the war effort from battles to training of recruits with the utmost efficiency and success. An innovative multi-faceted rank promotion system allows leaders to gain in abilities and power based on their successes, while also simulating the historical progression of leaders during the war. Each decision you make must be weighed carefully, as promoting and demoting leaders, entering neutral states, raising troops and many other actions cost you the political capital that will determine your ability to achieve victory.

Explore the historical tactics of the day to find the best way to win. Use cavalry to raid the enemy supply depots and conduct reconnaissance to determine the best place to strike and then engage the enemy head on and watch the epic push and pull of battle unfold in front of you. In between battles, the mighty Union navy or brave Confederate raiders can strangle and disrupt supply flow at critical times in your campaign. Build river gunboats and transports to exploit the strategic value of the Mississippi and entrench and fortify key locations to deny passage to the enemy.

Gamasutra got Blair Fraser and Brad Wardell to write up a postmortem on Sins of a Solar Empire. Surprisingly, one of the things that went wrong was blamed on the beta testers.

2. Vocal public beta testers were able to convince us to change features that would have been better left untouched.

For example, the beta allowed the AI to take over for dropped players in multiplayer. However, beta testers complained that with the save/restore option, players could just restart the game and having an AI player get involved interfered with the experience.

As a result, the feature of allowing computer players to pick up after dropped players was removed in the retail release (it was added back in 1.03).

All you dirty, pre-ordering beta testers should be ashamed of yourselves.

Now this isn't even a PC game so it shouldn't be on this site, but .... goddamn.

On the bloody fields of Pennsylvania in 1863, two great armies collided to decide the fate of a nation. The South rose, and the North responded with fervent mettle.

At the forefront of the battle stood the mighty Yetis, white-furred giants imported from the wilds of Canada to shred the opposing front lines. The great generals strode through the battle lines, engineering the destruction of the opposing forces while powerful mastodons hurled bombs into the fray.

Yetisburg is a fast-paced, two-player card game where the South is pitted against the North in brutal battle.

So awesome so that I intend to have this picture engraved on my tombstone. Or tatooed on someone's face.

Yet another writer is having a go at the "Blizzard versus Relic, who would win in a fight?" article. This time around, James Lantz at GameSetWatch explains why Blizzard's StarCraft makes a better competitive game than Relic's Dawn of War or Company of Heroes.

Among random number generators and confusing visual effects, the twin evolutions Company of Heroes and Dawn of War have proved another interesting, subtle point: there is such thing as AI that is too intelligent. The more intelligent AI is, the less control the player has: when your units scatter and take cover at the sight of an artillery blast, they’ll scatter in unpredictable directions, and sometimes in ways you didn’t mean for them to go at all (like into a tank).

Moreover, the less control the player has over individual units, the less player skill factors into a result. When an AI is dumb and predictable, the player knows exactly what will happen in any given situation and can use this knowledge to pull off difficult and impressive stunts.

However, when the AI becomes unpredictable and intelligent, the player loses that level of precise control over the game, making it a frustrating, slippery and often unintuitive mess, ironically the very thing that intelligent AI was supposed to safeguard against.

He's probably right on every point he makes (just ask metallix), but I find it amusing that every point he makes explains why I find DoW and CoH more interesting games altogether (not competitive games) than StarCraft.