Dawn of War: Soulstorm – Review
Title: Dawn of War: Soulstorm
Format: PC
Price: £19.99
Release Date: Out Now
Published: 2/5/08
So, here we have the third and final expansion for the Dawn of War. For those who haven’t played the original, it’s an RTS set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. And if that hasn’t already sold you then, well, why are you reading a review of a computer game? Shouldn’t you be outside playing football or something?
What’s new? Well, we have two new races to add to the already impressive roster of seven from the prior games; the Sisters of Battle and the Dark Eldar. A cynical man might say they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel a bit, but they have at least tried to make the new races unique. Each has their own extra resource type; the Sisters accrue Faith, while the Dark Eldar capture the souls of enemies slain on the battlefield. These resources are then used to call down a verity of magical attacks, ranging from revealing stealth units in a local area to the titular Soulstorm, a devastating area of effect spell.
Gameplay-wise, little has changed from the previous expansion, Dark Crusade. The bulk of the campaign is a series of skirmishes against one or two AIs, interspersed with the more structured stronghold missions, which result in the occupying faction being removed from the meta-game map. It still suffers from the same weaknesses as the Dark Crusade campaign, namely the repetitiveness and relative ease of some of the late game missions. This is one of the few games I’ve played that actually has an inverse difficulty curve; the game gets radically easier the more territories you hold.
Still, if you’ve yet to play one of the Dawn of War games, there are worse places to start. If you’re already a fan and own Dark Crusade, you may want to wait for it to drop in price first, as it adds little to the groundwork already laid.
It Is Done!
So. It’s in. Yay.
Too brain dead at the moment to type any more. Instead have a photo of it. And a photo of Kieran and Worfolk on the Terrace, relaxing for the first time in months. Lovely day, too.
Mmmm, Pie
More boredom induced fun:
Izzy: cos u smell
Seniath: Do not.
Izzy: prove it
Seniath: How?
Izzy: thats ur prob
Seniath: I see
Seniath: One moment
Offering to send results.png to Izzy
Transfer of file results.png complete
Izzy: lmao
I’m Back In Liverpool…
And everything seems the same. That is, it is still an utter dive. I managed to get a shot of the stylishly boarded up houses on Edge Lane (the main road into Liverpool off the M62) on my way in (see here), mainly thanks to the traffic. Yay for Liverpool in rush hour.
So yes, I’m home again. Just for the weekend, going to put the final touches to my FYP. As well as do all the stuff before I can do the final touches… but yes, with help from mum and free tea, it should be fine. Plus no distractions in the form of RPS chat or games. Which may be an issue when it gets to 1am and I’m not tired, but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
Not much else to write about really. Yay for blogging for blogging’s sake.
I Have No Comment
The following exchange just occurred on MSN. FYP deadlines do odd things to ones brain…
Seniath: …
Dan: [you hear a dog barking]
Seniath: look
Dan: [to the north, a cave. to the east: a cave. to the west:a cave. to the south: a cave]
Dan: [you have no idea how you ended up here]
Seniath: look up
Dan: [you see a vapour trail]
Seniath: open pack
Dan: [you open the pack. out spills: a rubber duck, some duct tape, a packet of Dehydrated Water, bits of parachute silk]
Seniath: craft rope out of duct tape
Dan: [done]
Seniath: use more duct tape to attach parachute silk to duck
Seniath: via the rope
Dan: [you have a ducky rope abberation]
Seniath: throw ducky rope abberation
Dan: [specify a target:
Nearby Mooing Tree
Into a cave
Into your face]
Seniath: nearby mooing tree
Dan: [you throw the rope at the tree, the duck gets caught up in the top branches. The rope dangles out of the tree]
Seniath: tug on rope
Dan: [the rope is attached quite firmly. it holds. the ducky quacks]
Seniath: climb rope
Dan: [you climb the rope. you are at the top of the tree. You come face to face with a cow]
Seniath: feed cow dehydrated water
Dan: [You open the packet. On contact with air, water forms. More water forms. More water Forms. The cow is now very wet. Oh, and Magical. Did i forget magical?]
Dan: [The cow starts to grunt, steam rises off of it]
Seniath: Ride magical cow
Dan: [you climb on the steaming magical cow. It takes off out of the tree and starts to soar. Suddenly light starts to irradiate from the cow's eyes]
Dan: [The cow is changing.]
Dan: [:3]
Seniath: JESUS CHRIST IT’S A LION
Seniath: GET IN THE CAR
Dan: [Cars haven't been invented yet]
Seniath: Jump
Dan: [You jump. The lion turns and soars down towards you. It seems to be laughing. The Sun sets]
Seniath: Hide in pack
Dan: [you climb into your own inventory. You've broken the universe]
Dan: [You are in sparta, a man is shouting]
Dan: [You are kicked into a deep pit]
Dan: [it is dark. you are eaten by a camel]
REGEXtality!
We all remember my earlier fun with regex? Well, now I have to explain what the hell that abboration does. So far I’ve managed the following:
…
Clearly, it’s going well.
Maximum Procrastination
So. New post eh? Haven’t blogged for a few days, feel it’s time, and my desire to work is currently lagging a little. Not sure what I’m actually going to talk about, lets just see where it goes.
Maybe I could talk some more about my post-uni plans. I started filling in my diary the other day and it’s starting to look pretty busy. Got 3 gigs lined up; Feeder, DCFC and Mark Morriss. Special note should be made of the Feeder gig as a) I haven’t seen them in a year and a half, b) they’re playing new material and c) they’re playing in Manchester Academy, which is a nice small venue, worlds apart from the MEN and Empress Ballroom. So that will be lovely. As will seeing DCFC again, as I’ve only seen them once before. Also have planned trips to Paris and possibly Leipzig, couple of birthdays to celebrate (Dan hits the “big” 25. I shall have to mock him some more about being old).
Looking much further in the future, in the far mists of November we have Thought Bubble, this time going on for a weekend (as opposed to just a day). Will give me a good excuse to pop back up to Leeds for a couple of days and say hello to everyone, as it seems most people are actually staying here. Finally in December we have the first good Christmas in a long while. At least, the first one that wont be followed by a set of exams, has been the case for the last 8 years. Whether or not it will actually be ‘good’ remains to be seen.
Elsewhere, Crysis is coming along nicely. It’s enjoyable, but its raison d’aitre, the fancy graphics, are somewhat lost on my machine. If I want it to be playable, it looks only marginally better than I recall Far Cry looking all those years ago. Still, stealthing behind a hapless Korean, quickly switching to Maximum Strength, smacking him upside the head with a rifle butt and then sneaking back into the shadows is an experience that is hard to match. Certainly very evocative of the first Predator movie. Yes, the aliens in the latter half spoil it somewhat, like most I’d have happily spent the entirety of the game killing poor soldiers, but the zero-gravity level that introduces them is rather special. Closest experience to playing Forsaken (yeah, I never played Descent so can’t compare it to that. So sue me) I’ve had in a long time.
Work wise, the FYP is coming along, albeit very slowly. I’ve started piecing all my scraps together in LaTeX, and it’s beginning to look more…there. Most of what I’ve written is just stream of consciousness stuff, and it needs turning into proper sentences. But I’m at around 30 pages already, and there’s still plenty more crud to write about. If I can get to 40 I’ll be happy I think. The evaluation is proving to be a major headache. I spent most of last week writing a tutorial thing, and I’ve been told that “it’s not interesting enough”. I’m no teacher, I’ll be damned if I know what interests a twelve year old these days. But yes, with 14 days to go till the deadline, I need to get the evaluation out the way. And at this rate, it wont be done till the end of next week.
What else do I have to talk about? Not much really. Plus, I should probably get back to work, so I’ll end it here.
Escapism
Lying in bed last night, trying to get to sleep for the third time, I realised what it is about games that makes them so integral to my life at this particular moment: the escapism. With my FYP (or rather, stress about it) filling my every waking moment, it is only those few hours spent gaming that are keeping me sane. Yes, I’m spending time with friends, be it in the lab or at the pub an so forth, but the main topic of conversation is work. It’s still on our minds, unrelenting and omnipresent. But when I’m playing something, it all goes away.
Ducking from tree to tree in Crysis, hoping my stealth doesn’t run out before I make it to the next. Storming round a corner and being met by a wall of flak in Unreal Tournament 3. Calling in an orbital strike from my secluded spot amongst the hills of the Lake District in Enemy Territory. Setting those damned RED spies on fire. All totally separate from my real life, and yet integral to it at the same time.
It’s not just that initial escapism either. Playing games for a few hours in a day otherwise punctuated by working or talking about working gives me something to focus on as I try and drift off. A happy place, if you will. Clichéd I know, but getting to sleep with a mind still racing about stressful things is all but impossible. Having those few hours to look over and think about just gives me something I can drift off to sleep to.
Right, looking at the time, I best go play some more Crysis before bed, otherwise I wont sleep!
Grumpy Old Man
April 2, 2008 at 12:26 pm (Comments, Gaming) (bad journalism)
The Times really is trying to shoe in on the sensationalism of the Sun and the Daily Mail, at least when it comes to video games. First, we had last weeks reaction to the Byron Report, and now this article. Here’s a taster:
I have no idea who this writer is, but after reading this article I have no desire to hear his opinion ever again. I could waste my time picking apart his argument, but what would be the point. The holes are as clear as day. That the Times will publish such drivel is shocking in and of itself. More from Kotaku here.
Edit: Looks like the Telegraph has printed an equally absurd ‘comment‘ (thanks Evo).
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