Does Fritz offer that sort of advice?

-- Maury

It sounds like what you want is a human coach, Maury. (Love your show by the way.) The mid-game advice in Fritz is usually limited to telling you that you've made a bad move without offering much long term analysis. You can get some good advice from the post game analysis but it won't tell you much about your style of play. For that you really should go find a real human coach who can talk about the things it sounds like you want to learn.

-- Steve

Long time IGN fan. I mean...back when you guys first started out, back when Tal Blevins or Belvans...(oh whatever that dudes name is)...was doing your Playstation vertical.

Anyway...after going over your previews and looking at the upcoming Faces of War, I was amazed at the fact that it appears to be, a clone of Soldiers: Heroes of WWII. In fact, the features are the same. Commandeer a tank, pick up weapons, control a member of the squad, health bars, etc. Even the icons used to moved and take cover are the same. I know Soldiers was very much under the radar, but come on...I can't see a difference in these titles.

I was a huge fan of Soldiers: Heroes of WWII. Was a great design, and some of the best co-op play I have ever seen.

Am I just blind, or is Faces of War not so original as being hyped up? Just curios.

-- S Maricle

Yeah, you're blind. Otherwise you might not have missed the second line in the preview where it stated that the game is a sequel to Soldiers: Heroes of World War II. Though Faces of War definitely stands out as original, it's not entirely unique. You'll find some of the same concepts at work in CDV's Codename Panzers game and the upcoming Relic RTS Company of Heroes. I'm not knocking Faces of War -- the preview code was pretty spectacular -- but there are other games out there that are trying to rework the RTS model in similar ways.

-- Steve

There was a game back in the 70`s I think that was when it came out It was called Silent service, WWII Sub game. I can't remember whom made it. I think it was Microsoft, Because you had to play it on the old commodore comp,1541,if you can bring that back, I think it would be a big hit. I played it for hours.

-- Mike

Silent Service was indeed a phenomenal game. Tons of options, a great career mode and, for the C64 at least, pretty good graphics. You're off on a few facts. It was originally released in 1985 by Microprose. They got around to making a sequel a few years later but the franchise has been dead in the water ever since. Seeing as how Microprose is out of business, there's not much chance of a fresh sequel. Still, Sid Meier's been dropping hints about returning to some of his old franchises, so anything's possible.

In the meantime, you should check out Ubisoft's most excellent Silent Hunter 3. It's easily the best submarine simulator on the market right now. It doesn't cover the Pacific campaign but it's still well worth your time.

-- Steve

Hey just wanted to know when the release date for silent hunter 4 was? I played 3 and loved it tons so I'm definitely getting this one. Anyways please send me back the estimated date for it to be for sale in stores?

-- AJ

Jeez, cut the guys some slack. It took them forever to finally get Silent Hunter 3 out the door. The last we've heard Silent Hunter IV (which finally takes the action to the waters of the Pacific) is that it should be out early this year. It seems rather soon for a sequel but we're guessing that the change of theater is enough to warrant a whole new game. Since it's one of my favorite franchises, we'll definitely post more news as soon as we get it.

-- Steve

[From the 25 to Life review] "In the end, 25 to Life turns out to be a flimsy product that feels tacked together strictly for the purposes of producing a "gangster" game, which apparently sells copies. In the future, hopefully they can pair the theme with an interesting game design players can actually enjoy, or just stop making them altogether."

Oh god yes! A reviewer dared to say what we all were thinking, thank you =)

-- alex

Oh, don't thank him. Charles is actually cursed with the need to say what we're all thinking. Most of the time he's just shouting things like "I have a desire to buy the latest products from well known companies!" or "This editorial meeting is a waste of all of our time!" Occasionally he is also heard to cry "Disgusting as I am, it's no wonder that I'm lonely."

-- Steve

My Documents should only contain files and folders that I place in there. I'm an organization freak and having X3: Reunion, GTA:VC and all those folders in what amounts to my desk drawer (I keep nothing on my desktop, I use my documents as most people would use the desktop) screwing up my method.

I already give games space on my HDD when I install them to the directy I want them in, why do they have to pop up somewhere else where I neither gave permission nor want them?

Thank goodness for regedit, but I really hate peeps making decisions for me. I can find screenshots and save files in the game folder if I need to, thanks. You don't have to fill My Documents up and make it look like the Program Files folder.

Dumbasses.

-- Broken rabbit

Heheh! You sound like Ivan. You and he are both unfortunate victims of the mainstream shift in gaming. As more and more "regular" people find themselves attracted to the gaming hobby, more and more developers are finding ways to make things simple. Putting save games in "My Documents" instead of "C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\saves\" might not make things easier for you, but it sure as hell helps less experienced users locate the files they need. The new Windows should actually include a My Games folder alongside My Documents/Pictures/Music which should ease your frustration. In the meantime, just be confident in the knowledge that smart people have always had to endure the concessions society makes for stupid people.

-- Steve

Elf v. Wookiee

Last week the well-intentioned and uncannily prescient folks at Sony decided to try to crash our mail server once again by igniting the flame of controversy, this time among the EverQuest community. Rather than going into the details of just who (Sony) did what (screwed up), we'd rather focus on the real issue: the Galaxies community's response to this would have been twice as vicious and ten times as loud.

That prompted us to ask the question: which game has the better fans? Certainly the Galaxies folks are more familiar with the technology required to send emails. Perhaps if we had a "scribe the editors" option, we'd get a lot more letters signed with names like Tinkwiddle Tumblebottom or Elfmore Wizardling. Send us an email telling us which fans you think are better and why and we'll post the results in an upcoming mailbag...assuming they're either interesting or funny.

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