Empire at War

I don't think I can say it enough. I love this game. Lucas Arts has finally created a good Star Wars strategy game after no less then three dismal failures. The action comes at you fast and hard, and just doesn't stop. The graphics are wonderful, as I've said to others there's nothing quite like watching 4 Star Destroyers jump into a system turbo lasers blazing and launching Tie fighters.

I'm really floored by the fact that for the first time in its history it seems like Lucas Arts finally learned from their mistakes. They took everything that worked in Rebellion, Force Commander, and Star Wars Battlegrounds, combined them all into one game, and chucked all the utter crap that made those games such complete flops.

At its core Empire at War is Lucas Arts older game, Rebellion. They've streamlined it, getting rid of the 'sectors' in Rebellion, and reducing it down to a core set of around 50 planets max. Game speed has also been drastically increased. Where Rebellion needed hours to construct a unit, or move a fleet from one sector to the other, Empire at War needs seconds. The biggest change from the Rebellion engine, however, is combat. The lifeless blobs of ships from ages past are gone, replaced with crisp lifelike battles. The ships move of their own accord, tell a frigate to attack a star destroyer, and it will move to attack, then continue moving to achieve the best firing angle of its own accord, setting up devistating broadsides and missle attacks. For both ground and space combat Empire at War has truly taken the best of Force Commander, and Battlegrounds.

I do miss some of the 'epic' strategy feel you got with Rebellion, and the computer tends to be pretty stupid in ground conflicts (I've held an entire planet with just one unit of tanks against an entire assault by the Empire before) but there's no doubt in my mind that this is the better of the two games. So to sum it up, buy this game Nicky. :)

Look at the time.

Wow, its been awhile since I've updated. Sorry about that, its not by choice I can assure you. My internet connection is still down at my home, and work has been just a bear. First off my manager has decided that its mandatory I sell computers. I'm not a salesman, I'm a technician, and while I may be the only person in the world to think so, I believe there is a crucial difference between the two. Namely that as a technician in order to get your business I restrict myself to a set of moral principals, and conduct. I won't lie to you, just to make a sale, I'm concerned with fixing your computer by the best means possible. If I don't hold myself to these scruples I don't think I can do my job properly, given the conditions I work in. Yet everyday I'm asked to put these beliefs on hold. Just today my manager told me to not only out right lie to customers, but that my job was to make sure they emptied as much cash as possible into 'his' registers through any means necessary. When I suggested it might be easier simply to knock them out, and hold them upside down over the register whilst shaking vigorously he said, "I can't condone violence against our customers, but whatever works."

At any rate, what this means for me is that everything he finds me not working on a computer for a split second, he screams at me to get on the floor and sell a computer. I've tried explaining to him, that I'm working on four machines, and that they're right in the middle of updating, but that doesn't seem to penetrate his thick skull. *sigh* I really hate this job.

On that note however, there is a small glimmer of hope for escape. I was contacted by a consulting company looking for extra help in Orland. While they need someone with a little more experience they seemed to really like me and said they'd call me back this week with another potential job opening. So there is hope.

In other news, I'm REALLY looking forward to RPing on Friday, especially since I may not get to do anything with anyone until the next Friday since they're talking about forcing me to work Wednesday evening.