The Mandalorian - Star Wars Live Action Series

Taika Waititi, Bryce Dallas Howard and Rick Famuyiwa are all lined to direct episodes of the new Star Wars Live Action Series.

Boasting a $100 million dollar series budget the latest Star Wars Spin off looks like it could be the ultimate Star Wars fanboy dream series. The series takes place between the fall of Empire and before the rise of the first order in a time where Mandalorians made famous by Boba Fett in the original Star Wars films and prequels roam the galaxy.

Not much is known about the finer details of the backstory or if the Mandalorian will feature just one lone gun for hire or other Mandalorians although its a firm bet that Fett has to make an appearance somewhere along the line even as a flashback. Taking place after the fall of the Empire would mean Fett currently resides in the small intestine of the Sarlacc but who knows where this could go.

The bad news is, The Mandalorian will be one of the live action properties featured on Disney's forthcoming subscription streaming service, so if you're already paying out for Netflix and Amazon streaming services you're gonna need to add Disney's to get a slice of this new sci-fi.

Being a huge Star Wars fan I'm quite looking forward to this series, as much as I loathe to have to sign up for yet another streaming service just to enjoy it i'd like to see what else Disney's service has to offer, particularly in light of the fact that Netflix is dolling out billions of dollars on creating original content over the coming months. I confess that I avoided Solo and was one of the many 'butt hurt' fans who felt let down by The Last Jedi, both films just didn't resonate as valid extensions of the saga to me and its characters felt like they were being scraped off the decades of cultural relevance they had built from the original saga to make way for the new - but not so much improved formula of film makers. (although I will say Ron Howard is an absolute master at his craft) 

I think Solo did relatively okay at review but it certainly didn't line Disney's pockets with gold as they had hoped. The Mandalorian on the other hand helps build the foundation for the mysterious helmet clad warriors of the Star Wars universe without any real danger of stepping on fans toes, in fact I think people want more background and history to these guys, where they came from, what they're all about and the series provides a great canvas with which to weave some fantastic storytelling. The sheer fact that Jon Favreau is at the heart of this helps me sleep at night, he absolutely nailed Iron Man for Marvel fans (okay so maybe Iron Man 2 was a little off) but he knows how to treat the merchandise with cotton gloves, and he's a superb film maker and creative force to boot.

Who are the Mandalorians? Well according to their wikipedia entry they were visualized as supercommando's,bounty hunters and mercenaries all rolled into one.

" Mandalorians are a fictional people from the planet Mandalore in the Star Wars science fiction franchise created by George Lucas. First conceptualized for The Empire Strikes Back as a group of white-armored "supercommandos", the idea developed into a single bounty hunter character, Boba Fett. Although the term "Mandalorian" is never used in the films, the popularity of Boba Fett inspired an extensive number of works about Mandalorians in the Star Wars expanded universe, also known as Legends.

Recognized by their iconic armor, the Mandalorian people are characterized in the expanded universe as a multi-species warrior people who often work as mercenaries and bounty hunters. The Clone Wars television series reintroduced them to the franchise as a human people and introduced the New Mandalorians, pacifists who wish to distance themselves from Mandalore's warrior traditions. Mandalorian warrior characters also appear in the Rebels television series, and an upcoming live-action streaming series entitled The Mandalorian."

The Mandalorian would appear to be a very exciting opportunity for Disney to get back on track with its Star Wars I.P which was no doubt dented with the poor performance of Solo. With no real confirmation on the Boba Fett movie from James Mangold (Logan) or the timings on when that's due to land, could The Mandalorian be a precursor to establishing the groundwork and provide better pacing for the franchise which fans felt was on overload with too much Star Wars being rammed down their throats?

Where Eagles Dare 50th Anniversary

2018 marks the 50th Anniversary of Where Eagles Dare, the WW2 movie starring Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton about a daring commando mission deep behind enemy lines to rescue a captured US general from a fortified mountain top castle.
Filmed partly on location in Salzburg,Austria from January 1968 to July of the same year, the film has gained cult status over the years and one that places itself in the warm fuzzy cosy spot of many a mans heart. The films daring backstory of secret agents, a fortified Nazi outpost and an elite commando unit operating deep behind enemy lines is the stuff of cinematic legend.

At 50 years on the film still entertains as the ultimate adventure story set in World War 2, complete with a daring raid, sabotage and firefights all of which comes to a thrilling climax with a bus chase through an military airfield. Best of all though is that plot-wise, the movie shifts from a daring rescue / raid to one of weeding out traitors in British Intelligence and sabotaging Germany's high command, if you can keep up with who's who the film does have a dizzying start as you try to figure out who to trust.

The film is an absolute classic of epic proportions and thoroughly deserves to be digitally remastered or at least get an Anniversary edition steelbook version of what is quite possibly one of the greatest war movies ever made. Where Eagles Dare ranks highly with the Hollywood elite, its Steven Spielbergs favorite war movie and Quentin Tarantino's most loved 'men on a mission' movie of which he paid homage to in his own Inglorious Basterds.

WHERE EAGLES DARE

The Castle Adler Schloss (Hohenwerfen Castle), and Schloss Neuschwanstein - Schwangau are two different castles which actually make up the fortress in the film, the gothic towered Schloss Neuschwanstein makes up the dramatic exterior as Burton and Eastwood spy on the target location from a hilltop and Hohenwerfen castle was used for the interior shots including the courtyard shots where the Bell helicopter and AA gun were located. UK Studio locations made up the rest of the interior filming during the Spring of 1968. It's worth noting that Hohenwerfen isn't actually serviced by cable car but does have a rail lift these days. During WW2 it was used by the Hitler youth but little actually exists of its wartime history if you visit and surprisingly it makes no mention of its movie history for Where Eagles Dare either and disappointingly I think the cultural aspect of this is lost on the current caretakers of the castle. The town of Werfen is only a short drive away and the castle is bordered by some truly breathtaking scenery. At the rear of Hohenwerfen castle the ground slopes away into the valley, falconry days and flying Eagles and birds of prey are a regular event.

    1968 on location courtyard shot of the AA gun and Bell helicopter - below, present day.

    The breath taking view from the rear of the castle

The Reversible German Uniform 'Tan and Water'
In order to fool the German garrison, team Broadsword needed to look like traditional winter troops who at the time donned a camo tunic known as 'Tan and water'. The Germans, never ones to miss a good opportunity to be efficient created a reversible parka for their winter troops, white on one side to operate in snowy conditions and an olive drab and brown mixed camo pattern for everywhere else. A careful look at the hood and neck area shows the telltale white flash of the snow version and vice versa for the normal camo. The actors made good of both versions of the parka as they infiltrated the castle before ditching the outer clothing and posing as German officers in traditional service uniforms.
British actor Michael Cain also wore the famous Tan and Water camo smock in the film "The Eagle has Landed", again, this was also the reversible version featuring both winter and olive camo which you can see on the lapel area of the parka in the image below Richard Burton.

The Most Kills for Clint
Clint Eastwood was 38 when he made Where Eagles Dare, one of three films he made in 1968 which included Hang em' High and Coogan's Bluff. Eastwood's agent convinced him that the role would be good working alongside someone of seniority in Richard Burton. Eastwood wasn't a fan of the early draft of the script by MacLean and actually demanded less lines so in turn was handled more of the action scenes and all for a cool fee of $800,000.
It's no secret that Eastwood has killed many people on film but Where Eagles Dare remains the most kills the actor has racked up in a single scene, in the iconic double handed MP34 corridor siege Schaffer kills 18 German soldiers. In total his character kills 73 enemy combatants, 5 of which are shared with Smith and 10 shared with Mary.
The scene is relatively tense as approaching Germans locate the group in an upper part of the castle as they attempt to make their daring escape, Clint decides to buy the group more time and fends off the assaulting Germans by going on the offensive himself, tossing back stick grenades and blind firing in a narrow corridor that creates a lethal choke point. Stacked up on the stairwell the Germans look to throw even more men at the group to overwhelm them but Clint is having none of it, casually appearing at the head of the stairwell he mows the squad down in a blaze of machine gun fire emptying his entire magazine.

The beauty of the Double Agent Double Cross
If you haven't seen the movie, then skip this bit, its got a spoiler in it. In one of the best scenes in the film, Burtons character, Smith offers to prove his identity in an attempt gain the trust and effectively fool the other double agents in the room who are siding with the Nazi's so that he can obtain the names of the agents working against the British.Smith identifies himself as Sturmbannführer Johann Schmidt of the SD of the SS intelligence branch. As proof, he discreetly shows the name of Germany's top agent in Britain to Kramer, who silently affirms it. Further proof is provided when he gets Kramer to call a German officer, Major William Wilner who reveals that if Schmidt / aka Smith is the man he claims to be he'll have no problem showing some tell tale scars on his right forearm, Kramer asks to see Smith's forearm which reveals two parallel scars 3 centimeters apart, Wilner then asks Kramer to ask Smith how he got them. 'I was born with them" replies Smith.
Wilner jokingly remarks 'tell him he's a traitor", Smith overhears and retorts 'Tell him he's a renegade" At this point Smiths so called German spy credentials are confirmed " Yaah, that is Schmidt, no question about it."
After the call of course is where it transpires the whole thing was a front, Smith has bluffed the Germans all along for years, got the names he needs and is firmly a British operative,Yay!

Filming
Its estimated that the production of Where Eagles Dare used in the region of 30,000 rounds of blank ammunition during filming, 20,000 of which was allocated to the sub machine guns which are used by both the main actors in their escape from the castle as they are pursued by the Germans and in the fire fight scene with Clint in the stairwell as he holds off the advancing soldiers.
Weather hampered shooting on many occasions and it took the actors hours of travel for a shot that only lasted several seconds on screen.Due to filming in Winter and early spring, the harsh conditions proved challenging for cast and crew, blizzards, avalanches and cold temperatures would also hamper the production.
Stuntman Alf Joint who would double for Richard Burton for the film lost three teeth jumping from one cable car to the other in the pivotal fight scene because Burton had knocked himself out from drinking too much (rumor has it 4 bottles of Vodka a day). if you're old enough and British enough to remember Alf Joint was actually the mystery man dressed all in black in the famous 70's TV ad for Milk Tray when he cliff dives into the shark infested sea to deliver chocolates to a boat, needless to say he broke his shoulder doing that stunt.

Aside from the challenges of weather, the shoot was also hampered by the notorious drinking habits of Richard Burton who took  it upon himself to go off and party in Paris for several days with his drinking chums and fellow thespians Peter O'Tool and Richard Harris.

While many of the exterior shots were filmed on location in Austra, Interior scenes were filmed at Borehamwood in the Spring of 1968.

    Stuntman Alf Joint takes the leap in MilkTrays 1972 TV advert.

    Clint Eastwood shares a joke with fellow cast members on set.

              Clint Eastwood on set on his new toy which he test drove around Brands Hatch while filming in England.

   Waffen SS Officer Major Von Hapen played by the brilliant Darren Nesbitt
The Tragedy of Mary Ure
Mary Ure played Mary Ellison in Where Eagles Dare,and was part of the SOE infiltration team in the raid on the castle. A stage actress by trade her film career was limited to only 9 appearances in film but 11 plays, the last of which, the Exorcism with Brian Blessed in 1975 would be her last acting appearance, Ure committed suicide by barbiturate overdose after a disastrous opening night of the play in London in 1975. Ure had suffered from poor mental health during the early part of the 70's and also suffered from alcoholism. At the time of her death she was married to Jaws actor Robert Shaw, who had discovered her body at home. Ure's captivating looks complemented her extremely well spoken and delicate voice.

Broadsword Calling Danny Boy 

If Where Eagles Dare is famous for anything its the film that coined the cult phrase "Broadsword Calling Danny Boy" as Col Smith attempts to establish radio contact with British HQ. The phrase has become a cult of its own appearing in tv sitcoms, dance music, tshirts and even a phone hacking scandal.
The trial into alleged phone hacking by senior staff at the News of the World newspaper heard that former editor Rebekah Brooks instructed her personal assistant, Cheryl Carter, to retrieve seven notebooks from the News of the World's newspaper’s archive, two days before the tabloid was due to close. The jury was also told of text between the security men hired to protect Brooks’, which read: “Broadsword calling Danny Boy. Pizza delivered and chicken is in the pot” in relation to the notebooks and phone hacking scandal that closed one of Britains infamous tabloid newspapers.
Broadsword Calling Danny Boy tshirts, mugs can be found all over the internet and Tom Craft  and Jimmy Pop released a Techno remix track called Broadsword Calling Danny Boy (Kosomo Records). In popular sci-fi Doctor Who, (series 5, episode 3) 'Victory of the Daleks' which features Winston Churchill the call names Broadsword and Danny Boy are references to Where Eagles Dare in which the line 'Broadsword calling Danny Boy' is repeated by a character who shares the name the Doctor occasionally adopts - John Smith. In Video-games  'Broadsword Calling Danny Boy is an unlockable achievement for completing the 4th mission in Chapter 3, called The Keep in the Zombie Army Trilogy.

The Top 5 Best Games Coming to PlayStation 4

Red Dead Redemption 2

Pitched as the prequel to Red Dead Redemption and the story of John Marstens criminal past with the Van Der Linde gang led by Dutch Van Der Linde you play as Arthur Morgan, a wanted outlaw. Red Dead first came out in 2010 so this is more than long overdue for fans of the original and should be an absolute smash hit when it arrives in Oct. See the trailer below.

Skull and Bones: The Hunting Grounds

If you've ever played Assassins Creed: Black Flag and thought just the pirate ship combat would make a pretty cool game all on its own then your prayers have been answered. Skull and Bones is just that, a full on tweaked game utilizing the Assassins Creed: Black Flag engine with some added improvements for open seas combat Galleon Vs Galleon, plundering and sinking enemy ships. 
The sea effects looks incredible, ship decks are awash with sea water as the bow plows through waves and the sheer level of detail really sets this apart from other pirate games. Customization options allow for some truly awe inspiring ships which can be fitted with a variety of cannons, sails and cosmetics. Combat looks familiar to Black Flag but with the added ability that the multiplayer aspect can see you team up with other ships for the take-down. Check out the E3 demo below.

The Last of Us: Part 2

If you're a parent then you'll have no doubt suffered the same emotional kick in the balls I did when you played the Last of Us, Naughty Dogs emotional and incredible looking 3rd person survival 'shooter'. The start of the first game was brutal and fans of the game have longed for a sequel. The recent E3 reveal shows a slightly older Ellie as she navigates the still very derelict environments that made the first game so atmospheric. Pistol and bows still make the grade as weaponry and Ellie performs some visceral enemy take-downs in her quest for survival.
The game looks absolutely stunning and the fluidity and movement of characters in the game is absolutely amazing, check out the E3 demo below, you won't be disappointed.

Anthem

When is a mech not a mech, depends on the size apparently, Anthem hasn't had the smoothest development ride but the latest E3 reveals that Anthem is firmly on track and Biowares first franchise title for several years bodes well. In Jan of this it was confirmed that Anthem would slip to 2019 but looks like this could be worth the wait and crucially moves it away from Battlefield V. Anthem is an always online based co-op multiplayer focused shooter that pitches humans against alien life forms on a not too distant planet suited inside 'Javeleins', armoured and weponized mech like suits brimming with all sorts of creative firepower (frost grenades). Teamwork play is encouraged and lone wolf tactics won't work here as you'll be up against multiple foes each time as well as powerful bosses. Check out the latest playthrough presentation below.

Spider-Man

If combo-led traversal moves are your thing from games like the Batman Arkham series and you're a fan of the web slinger then Insomnia's offering later this year is for you. Impressive visuals and the ability to pull off some truly awesome combat combo moves with the crawl and climb anywhere prospect of Spider-Man make this one to keep an eye on. Special combo attacks and finishing moves plus the ability to use the scenery around you with your web to smash villains of the criminal underworld adds some creative combat. Add to that a variety other things you can do such as tackle crimes in progress from high speed chases to wave based enemy attacks and you're all set for some web slinging action. The New York skyline looks epic and the free roam aspect of swinging around it should delight  Spidey fans, there's also a variety of Spidey costumes to unlock including the iron Spider suit developed by Mr Stark. Check out the latest E3 play through below.

You Won't Believe How Much Sir Alec Guiness Made From Star Wars as Obi Wan Kenobi

                          Art By Ryan Valle: https://rvalleart.myportfolio.com/

One of the most lucrative Hollywood deals ever made by an actor was the one Sir Alec Guiness penned on a contract with his agent Dennis Van Thal which stated that in waving a fee for the role as the wise old Jedi Knight Obi Wan Kenobi he would take a 2% cut of the gross royalties. These royalties would also be in place on the sequels, The Empire Strikes Back, released in 1980, and Return of the Jedi, in 1983 as well as royalties from video sales.

However, Sir Alec could have earned himself even more money had George Lucas kept the verbal agreement he had mentioned to the late actor in a phone call the night before Star Wars was released back in 1977, so confident was Lucas that the film would be a success due to the positive test audience screenings, and so appreciative as Lucas was from the script changes and suggestions from a seasoned actor like Guiness that Lucas called the actor to offer him a raise which would  mean his royalty rate would instead be %2.5. But as everyone knows, unless you have it in writing a deal isn’t a deal until it’s in black and white, unfortunately that extra percentage never materialized.

Star Wars of course went on to be a monster hit at the box office globally and by 2009, nine years after the actors passing it was reported that the films had earned Sir Alec in the region of £56million, with royalty cheques continuing to roll in.

When the Star Wars movies were re-released in 1997 the late actor said “I still have a contract which says that I earn a percentage cut from the film and, of course, I’m very pleased about it.”

It’s no secret that George Lucas was on a small budget when he made Star Wars but was equally looking for actors who could carry scenes and add gravitas to their given roles, Peter Cushing was an experienced actor of stage and screen and commanded a daily fee of £2,000, which at the time was more than Mark Hamills daily fee of £1,000 and Harrison Ford who was earning around £750 per day. James Earl Jones who voiced Darth Vader had been advised by his agent at the time that Star Wars probably wouldn’t amount to much and to “just take the money and run”. It’s also been hinted that technicians who worked on the film turned down opportunities for gross royalties too.

The royalties for just the original Star Wars movies will have made Sir Alec Guiness more than his combined earnings from 40 other film roles over a career of sixty years. This included The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Oscar, not to mention other notable films such as David leans Lawrence of Arabia as well as A Passage to India, The Man in The White Suit and Oliver Twist. 
Eighteen years on and his presence in the original trilogy is as as strong now as it ever was.

Coffe Table Reads For Mancaves - The Art of Battlefield 1

The Art of Battlefield 1

With the forthcoming reveal of Battlefield V from EA and the most recent 'Apocalypse' DLC released for Battlefield 1 keeping current players occupied I thought it was long overdue I took purchase of another book on video game art I'd had my eyes on for some considerable time.The Art of Battlefield 1 from Dark Horse is an absolute treasure trove for the eyes in terms of illustrative and design work for Battlefield 1 which launched on PC and PS4, Xbox One back in late 2016.
At 184 pages its a stunning coffee table addition to any man-cave or study looking to add some laid back reading, especially which puts more focus on the art than the word if you're a lazy reader like me. Descriptions and design notes support a lot of the imagery giving a keen insight into the processes of bringing one of the most popular FPS games of recent years to life. Forr the most part, the book is a beautiful 'behind the scenes look at illustrative design and the historical factors that came into focus when creating a WW1 FPS game.

The book explores character design, showing the various design exploration of soldiers uniforms and in latter stages of the book, the ethos behind keeping the brand imagery in sync with other Battlefield games,but what really stands out is the way in which combat and map design create scenarios when combined with land, air and ground warfare. Pages are full of some truly eye popping digital renders and visualizations of how the game should look from air to air combat, tank warfare and the detail that goes into bringing the horrors of the World War 1 battlefield to life.

The book is a nice size and measures in at 23.6 X 2 X 31.2 cm, hardback with a matte finish to the cover, compared to Titan Book's  The Art of Battlefield 4 which featured a lot more architecture and locations The Art of Battlefield 1 feels like it presents and explores far more of the scenarios from the campaign and multiplayer that players will come face to face with in the game. 

If you can snap up a copy for under £30.00 / $40.00 then you've got a bargain because the book is difficult to put down, in fact these books are perfect for browsing in an evening or lazy afternoon.

Amazon have both kindle and hardback editions available and the price has been reduced from its original RRP: http://amzn.to/2px6V6B

Want to see more art from the DICE team?, check out Senior Concept Artist Robert Sammelin's portfolio here: https://robertsammelin.myportfolio.com/projects

BATTLEFIELD V Heads to WW2

Battlefield 1 has kept me hooked nightly since it launched back in 2016, yes nightly and I'm proud say I'm one of the 25 million users that has joined its ranks since I cannot abide Call of Duty or where it ended up with drones and sci-fi walking mechs and day-glow weapons. Modern Warfare was the last great outing, possibly Black Ops II which also played pretty decent. Visually the latest WW2 Call of Duty looked absolutely stunning but the TTK was crazy and I suffered a really bad case of motion sickness trying to play deathmatch games, something  I never get from Battlefield games. 

 Above: Call of Duty revisited the WW2 era for its 2017 release.

The World War 1 setting was a huge gamble for EA and DICE but they absolutely nailed what is quite possible the quintessential representation of warfare in the modern age where the advent of armored warfare may have been in its infancy but the industrial age paved the way for scary ways in which to wage war on fellow man.

There's been quite a bit of rumor floating around where Battlefield heads next, first up was the rumor that a Bad Company sequel / prequel would appear but money seems to be a safe bet on a WW2 setting with Battlefield V. 
Reveal wise this could happen at GDC in San Francisco in late March or anytime in the next few weeks.

Battlefield 1 has a glorious mix of air land and sea combat, sea combat only really came to the fruition properly with the inclusion of warships late in the games release with the awesome map Heligoland Bight as part of the turning tides DLC in December 2017, it is perhaps the most chaotic fight you'll experience in BF1.
Air combat in Battlefield 1 balances out between bombers and nimble fighters with differing payloads and paint jobs which creates a great way for players to mix up the fight. Battlefield V will most certainly contain air combat and it would be great to see the same format of a mix of fighters and  bomber here with planes not explored that much in videogame FPS titles such as the Ju87 or Focke Wulf 190D.

In terms of ground combat I'd love to see other theaters explored, such as Crete which could have German paratroopers facing off against British and Australian, New Zealand troops which could bring in a very nice mix of combat similar to Helogoland Bight.
Much like Amiens is the definitive street combat map the same could be said for a map set within Caen during the invasion of Normandy.

Uniform wise it appears that customization will be key to Battlefield V, would love to see some options here of swapping helmets out for berets in specific units such as paratroopers as well as being able to reverse the smocks for German troops who wore the Tan and Water parkas made famous in films such as Where Eagles Dare.

Weapon choice would be vastly improved for a WW2 setting, there were some pretty unique weapons in Battlefield 1, some of which carried over to WW2 such as the Lewis Gun which was eventually replaced by the more widely adopted Bren but aside for the 1911's and Lugers which will no doubt make another appearance it would be great to see weapons like the MP44, American M3A1 Grease gun and M1 Thompson get the battlefield treatment. other more unique weapons would be the FG42, the Panzerfaust, De Lisle carbine, Lee Enfield No.5 and Lahti L39 20mm anti tank gun.

 Above: The 1911 Colt 45 "The Care Package" skin -  Legendary

It'll be interesting to see how broad the scope is for either the campaign or multiplayer in Battlefield V, the campaign mix split between tanks, planes and ground combat in the campaign worked extremely well and tied in some key elements to the historic warfare not just on the Western front but in the Middle East as well. With the Eastern Front, the Pacific and Middle East theaters all providing some exciting options for dice it provides a huge diverse choice to pick from.

Above ; T.E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) Will historic characters also appear in Battlefield V?

The Ultimate WW2 Strategy Game for 2018

Armchair Generals of the world rejoice, there's a new WW2 hex based strategy game on the horizon which is looking to take the Panzer General crown, Klotzen! Panzer Battles was recently announced as a new addition to the popular hex based strategy gaming genre for PC and arrives during the summer of 2018.

Klotzen! Panzer Battles will offer a challenging turn based combat experience with a built in adaptive AI system that will look to capitalize on ways to attack the player when they least expect it. The game looks to provide a wide variety of historic engagements from WW2, all of which are based on historic engagements. Impressively Klotzen! Panzer Battles aims to provide players over 550+ unit types in the game  which are divided into 22 unit classes including infantry, Battleships, armored tanks, bombers, submarines, and fighter planes. Klotzens other unique approach to strategic combat will allow players to re-write military history by conducting historic military campaigns to play out a range of entirely new and unique outcomes such as the invasion of Normandy a whole year earlier in 1943 instead of in June 1944 or successfully invading England to take London or on the Eastern front to successfully steamroll the Russians in order to take Moscow.

Combat in the game takes into consideration things like supply lines which are crucial to moving units as well as being able to recycle knocked out units. Add to this the ability to coordinate multi task force initiatives with attacks from the air and sea by utilizing naval power parked off the coast. Attacking towns and supply lines from the air provide a tactical edge not seen before in other hex based games. The various Campaigns offered in the game can be fought over a variety of terrain options such as the brutal harsh realities of Winter combat on the snow covered Eastern front and at the other end of the scale, the unforgiving cooking pot of North Africa.

Map sizes in Klotzen! Panzer Battles look pretty substantial and vary from 200km to over 1000km in scale, (each hex represents 10km).

By far one of the biggest draws of the game is the way that developer Maxim Games has managed to visualize the game, typically most of the WW2 hex based games on the market cater for a 2D perspective, to do this Maxim Games have pre-renderded 60 images of each unit, by comparison Panzer Corps managed only 2, right side, left side. The 3D effect adds a nice bit of finesse to the game looking to make its mark in today's crowded strategy market.

Another nice aspect of Klotzen Panzer Battles is the fact that the outcomes of campaigns is different each time, there are two or three different outcomes to each map which increases the replayability aspect of the game. The role of Generals and Commanders all with various traits also shakes up the outcomes and ongoing tactical operations of the game which I think offers a nice spin.

From the looks of it Klotzen Panzer Battles has looked closely at what both Panzer General and Panzer Corps have already offered up to WW2 strategy gamers and decided to bring the WW2 hex based genre up to date with a really thought out strategy offering of its own. For any game looking to introduce something fresh into a heavily populated genre developers need to look at areas where rival games have made their mark and then improve upon that offering with their own unique ideas. The use of aircraft as an attacking asset on supply and towns is an interesting one, the visuals are fresh and really nicely detailed and the sheer number of units and proposed scenarios (60 scenarios at launch) make this a title to keep a close eye on for sure.

Panzer General has ruled the roost for many years and Panzer Corps DLC offerings have kept the lights on for a good while but this looks like it could really shake up the genre nicely.

Be sure to check out the Steam page for Klotzen Panzer Battles here 

X-Wing The Game Just Turned 25!

X-Wing the game just turned 25, how old does that make you feel, let that sink in for a bit  - February 1993 Star Wars: X-Wing launched on PC.Remember Gouraud shading, no?, okay, I'll move on then.
1993 was a stellar year in videogames actually, Star Fox using the new Super FX chip was launched on SNES, also launched in 1993 was Syndicate from EA and Myst not to mention Legend of Zelda: Links Awakeneing on Gameboy and of course the daddy of them all Doom which was launched on PC in December 1993.
1993 was the same year that Loaded Weapon, Army of Darkness and Bill Murray's Groundhog Day were out. That's right old timer, a looong time ago. A quarter of a century.

Graphically speaking 25 years is a long time ago when you compare X-Wing to more recent fare, Star Wars Battlefronts X-Wing VR mission add-on being probably the best example.

Above: Check out the comparison between the 1993 Version of X-Wing and the latest X-Wing VR mission in Star Wars Battlefront.

Packaged in a distinctive purple box with equally pronounced silver logo and marketed as a space combat simulator it proved to be one of the most popular games of the time. Space Combat Simulator was perhaps a little far fetched since much of the combat appears to be wave based rather than seeking out imperial enemy craft in a random free flight kind of affair but that didn't detract from the fact that you could dogfight imperial Tie Fighters.

 

Released in 1993 the current version available on COG gives you the option to jump between the classic 1993 version or the slightly upgraded 1998 Collectors series version which featured better graphics. Star Wars X-Wing was of course followed up by the equally impressive Tie Fighter and spawned other spinoff titles within the brand, Imperial Assault was the add on in the same year (1993) followed by B-Wing another expansion also in 1993 Star Wars X-Wing Alliance being the last in the series.

25 years ago I took out the first mortgage on my house, holy crap, time flies when you're having fun.