Multiwinia, PC - £12.83 on Steam, or £15 direct from Introversion (with various other options too), or a boxed retail copy for £15.99 from the 3rd of October.
Review by LewieP
Multiwinia is a damn pretty game.
That's probably the first thing you'll notice about it. Introversion have a real flair for visual design, and Multiwinia is no different. I described it as "TRON: Total War" in the podcast, and I think that's a pretty fair assessment. The digital skies and vector mountains are really stunning to behold, and you can zoom right in, or pan right out to see whatever detail or scale you want. The humble system requirements mean that pretty any PC will be able to play it (2.0GHz/512MB RAM/GeForce 6200 or Radeon 9600), and the Mac and Linux versions are on the way shortly. It runs great on my PC, with a really solid framerate.
In an industry where the overwhelming trend in games it to strive for a gritty, realistic, aesthetic, Multiwinia serves as both a breath of fresh air, and a reminder that whatever tech games may have under the bonnet, good art direction will always trump megaflops and bump mapping.
That's not to say Multiwinia is just a pretty face, it's as clever as it is beautiful.
I'm not even going to attempt to place it within the boundaries of a genre. It has elements of an RTS, to be sure, but it disregards as many of the conventions of the genre as it follows. Essentially, you have a bunch of guys and you have to battle over resources, territory and control points.
There are various gametypes, each with different objectives and conditions for victory, but it always boils down to testing your micromanagement skills, strategic skills, observation and spacial awareness. When all of your spawn points are in order, suddenly your opponent will get a power up that tips things in their favour. Once you've dealt with that, a power up crate will land near one of your guys. Once you've got that, you'll loose a spawn point, and so on. There is a fantastic flow to the games. They are not so fast paced that it's hard to keep up, but there is always just a little bit more going on that you can ever completely keep up with. There is never time to sit back and watch the battle unfold. The matches are always time limited, and more often than not an early lead can be very quickly eroded.
The power-ups are pretty crazy, some of them border on being over-powered, and the right one at the right time can really sway a battle. They tap into similar feeling as the equivalent mechanic in the worms games, and are just as inventive as the weapons and power-ups in worms. Planting an ant's nest near your opponents spawn point never gets old, and the nuclear launch is appropriately epic.
The various gun turrets feel fantastic, you can leave the to be automated, or for precision aiming, you can take direct control of them. You get a fantastic sense of the scale of the battles from this position, and can take out specific targets (although you have to be careful of friendly fire).
It's billed as a straight up multiplayer game, but about a third of the time I've spent with it has been offline, and even against bots it is engaging.
Multiwinia is to 'serious' RTS games what Smash Brothers is to Virtua Fighter. There are definitely big elements of chance in there, and it is certainly less technical than it's peers, but it is often a hell of a lot more fun.
Multiwinia is tight, fluid and really does march to it's own beat. There is a lot to love here, every match is different, and it's an experience you will not find anywhere else.
Discuss it in the forums
Multiwinia, PC - £12.83 on Steam, or £15 direct from Introversion (with various other options too), or a boxed retail copy for £15.99 from the 3rd of October.
Multiwinia, PC - Review
The SavyGamer Podcast, Episode 6
It's Episode 6 of the SavyGamer Podcast, on the web and in your ears! This week we interview Dorian Kieken of BioWare on designing a Sonic RPG and the future of BioWare games on DS. We're now listed on iTunes, too!
Show notes (Highlight to view):
00:00 Pre-show
00:10 Opening
00:47 Welcome
01:07 I don't actually have a pinky finger.
01:21 More contests!
05:03 Halo Mythic
13:15 Vidmaster challenge - help me!
[NOTE - I've actually completed this now, thanks to those that helped!]
14:46 End of Halo talk! Live's going down on Monday.
15:25 Is the NXE due in November?
17:20 CheapAssGamer Xbox Pure rumour (Hi Cheapy!)
20:53 Sony's video controversy and DRM
27:13 The Weekly Burnout Update
29:25 The EA Download Manager
33:15 Digital Distributiionxdnugfnjdnrog - Peggle XBLA
35:26 Interview with Dorian Kieken, Associate Producer for Sonic Chronicles
50:10 End of interview, discussion about Sonic's story
52:50 We're both awful at maths
54:00 Bargains of the week
De Blob, Dark Sector
56:17 Microsoft Points deal no more...
57:50 What we've been playing - Rock Band, Multiwinia, Mass Effect, and more!
1:11:15 Close
Link dump:
KEEP IT CLEAN
I Love Bees archive
Sonic the Comic
Cree Summer - Voice Actress from everything including Mass Effect
Total Runtime: 1:11:23
Total Filesize: 67MB
Contest:
To win a copy of the Penny Arcade game, grab a Penny Arcade comic and remix it. Replace the word balloons, mix and match panels from different comics; whatever you like. Send the result as an attachment to willeth -at- gmail -dot- com with the subject PRECIPICE CONTEST. You won't be judged on the image quality, so feel free to use Paint if you want, but make it good. The final date for entry to this contest is Thursday October 2nd at noon GMT.
To win entry into the LittleBigPlanet beta, fire an email to willeth -at- gmail -dot- com with your SackBoy design and the subject LBP CONTEST. You can find Media Molecule's template here or you can create your own. Entry for this contest closes on Thursday October 2nd at noon GMT.
Got feedback on the show? Post a comment, or email us:
LewieP - lewiep@savygamer.co.uk
Will - willeth@gmail.com
NoE Announces cross promotion with EMI Backstage
Nintendo of Europe have just launched a partnership with EMI Backstage to exchange Nintendo Stars for music downloads.
If, like me and anyone else who had a Gamecube, you have got stacks of Nintendo Stars for use in the stars catalogue, but are sick of it never haveing anything worthwhile in stock, there may finally something decent to use it on.
Nintendo will be letting you exchange your Stars for downloads from EMI Backstage, EMI's music download service. The pricing will be 350 Stars for a track, or 3,000 stars for an album.
Which on the basis of 4,000 stars = 1,000 Wii points, and 1,000 Wii points = £7.00, means it's £5.25 an Album, or 62p a track. Not bad pricing at all.
I've never used EMI Backstage, has anyone else? What's it like as a service.
Let's hope they don't manage to "Sell out" of digital goods, like they somehow manage to do with the Wii Points...
Head to the Music Voucher Shop to check it out.
Xbox 360 Price Drop Round up
Microsoft just recently dropped the RRP for the Xbox 360 range, now the range breaks down like this:
£129.99 for the Arcade
£169.99 for the Premium (60gb)
£229.99 for the Elite
Fantastic value.
But even better prices can be had, retailers have discounted beyond the RRP, and put some pretty attractive bundles together. Here is a breakdown of the offers on the table.
Arcade
The Arcade system comes with a wireless controller, a 256 MB Memory Unit and an Xbox Live Arcade compilation disc featuring: Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Pac-Man Championship Edition, and Uno.
In my opinion, it is definitely worth paying the extra to get a hard drive, but if you are on a tight budget, the Arcade is still a great buy.
The console on it's own is £119.98.
Here are some of the bundles on offer:
Xbox 360 Arcade + Dead or Alive 4/Halo 3/Forza 2/Lost Odyssey/Mass Effect/Too Human - £129.89 delivered
Xbox 360 Arcade + Gears of War - £129.98 delivered (Apply code "XBXGAMEZ")
Xbox 360 Arcade + Battlefield Bad Company - £129.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Arcade + Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise - £129.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Arcade + Tiger Woods 09 - £129.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Arcade + Star Wars The Force Unleashed - £129.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Arcade + Mercenaries 2: World in Flames - £139.98 delivered (Apply code "XBXGAMEZ")
Xbox 360 Arcade + Call of Duty 4: Game of the Year Edition - £139.98 delivered (Apply code "XBXGAMEZ")
Xbox 360 Arcade + Extra Controller + Forza Motorsport 2 + Viva Piñata + Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Vol 1 - £150 delivered
Xbox 360 Arcade + Extra Controller + Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter + Gears of War + Mass Effect - £188.45 delivered (Apply code WDISC001BCP)
Premium
Since the premium has both had a hardware improvement (20gb to 60gb hard drive increase) and a price drop, it's easilly the best buy out of the range in my opinion.
The console on it's own is £159.98.
Here are some of the bundles on offer:
Xbox 360 Premium (60gb) + 2 Selected games (Dead or Alive 4/Halo 3/Forza 2/Lost Odyssey/Mass Effect/Too Human) - £169.89 delivered
Xbox 360 Premium (60gb) + Gears of War - £169.98 delivered
Xbox 360 Premium (60gb) + Battlefield Bad Company - £169.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Premium (60gb) + Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise - £169.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Premium (60gb) + Tiger Woods 09 - £169.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Premium (60gb) + Star Wars The Force Unleashed - £169.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Premium (60gb) + Mercenaries 2: World in Flames - £179.98 delivered (Apply code "XBXGAMEZ")
Xbox 360 Premium (60gb) + Call of Duty 4: Game of the Year Edition - £179.98 delivered (Apply code "XBXGAMEZ")
Xbox 360 Premium (60gb) + Lego Indiana Jones - £184.99 delivered
Elite
Up until recently, I would have said the 120gb drive on the Elite was pretty pointless, I couldn't imagine filling a 20gb drive. But with the coming dashboard update which will let you rip games to the hard drive, the space will definitely go to use.
The console on it's own is £219.98.
Here are some of the bundles on offer:
Xbox 360 Elite + 3 Selected games (Dead or Alive 4/Halo 3/Forza 2/Lost Odyssey/Mass Effect/Too Human) - £229.89 delivered
Xbox 360 Elite + Battlefield Bad Company - £229.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Elite + Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise - £229.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Elite + Tiger Woods 09 - £229.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Elite + Star Wars The Force Unleashed - £229.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Elite + Gears of War + Medal of Honor Airborne - £229.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Elite + Gears of War + Skate - £229.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Elite + Ninja Gaiden II - £239.99 delivered
Xbox 360 Elite + Mercenaries 2: World in Flames - £239.98 delivered (Apply code "XBXGAMEZ")
Xbox 360 Elite + Call of Duty 4: Game of the Year Edition - £239.98 delivered (Apply code "XBXGAMEZ")
If you have any requests for any specific games, or see any bundles I might have missed, either let me know in the comments, or send an email to lewiep@savygamer.co.uk.
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