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Preview: Medieval times with War of the Roses

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT

Preview: Medieval times with War of the Roses screenshot

Paradox Interactive and developer Fatshark’s upcoming title, War of the Roses, has made quite a name for itself with its ambitious take on Medieval style combat in large scale skirmishes. Coming off their successful showings at GDC, PAX East, and E3 -- Paradox has some big aspirations for War of the Roses.

After taking some time to play the multiplayer mode at Paradox’s recent press event, I can say that the developers definitely have a lot to be proud of with their latest title.

War of The Roses (PC)
Developer: Fatshark
Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Release: September 12, 2012
MSRP: $29.99

Set in 15th century England during the historical dynastic war between rival houses Lancaster and York -- dubbed the War of the Roses -- players will pick a side and lay waste to their enemies on the battlefield. Spread across seven different battlegrounds in England, you’ll take the fight to your rivals and restore honor and glory to your allied faction.

Veterans of Mount & Blade will feel right at home with War of the Roses’ setting and focus on medieval style combat. However, while that game focused on the role-playing elements and the sandbox gameplay of traveling the country and battling different factions, War of the Roses reins it in a bit and keeps the focus on different skirmishes and major battles between the two rival factions. This gives Roses’ a much more refined and tighter focus on large scale infantry combat.



While on the surface it may appear to be on a smaller scale, the battle’s focus on the infantry level make the skirmishes feel just as epic -- perhaps even more so given the greater focus on combat. Each of the seven map types are designed to accommodate any number of players. During our preview session, 16 player games in team deathmatch were played on maps designed for 32 to 64 players. Despite the small size, each battle felt incredibly epic and tense as every player fought in the small villages of Clitheroe Forest and the tournament grounds in London. I truly expect to see madness unfold in full 64 player games playing the conquest game mode, where the map sizes can be used to their advantage.

Fighting is done primarily through melee combat. Players coming from Mount & Blade will feel right at home with the mouse-control combat system. For the uninitiated, each attack and parry can be specifically controlled by the mouse. For instance, holding down the attack button and swiping left with the mouse will initiate a left sided attack, which can blocked by a right sided parry from the opponent. This particular combat system give each battle a feeling of rawness. In a good way, of course.



The fights feel uncoordinated, spontaneous, and real. Which was further heightened by the superb hit-detection system that Fatshark has put into place. I came away from each battle with these feelings of self-preservation, which made each fight against other players all the more exciting. It was quite a surreal feeling to actually feel like you’re in a war, and that you only had your skill set to fall back on. It can even by downright scary when surrounded by four enemy players looking to land an execution.

Combat feels balanced, regardless of which ever style you take advantage. For every great strength, there is an equal weakness. With this in mind, each type of soldier offers this great risk/reward system. Close-range fighters who run head on into combat run the risk of getting surrounded and pummeled, archers will suffer the vulnerabilities of long reload times and close range combat, and mounted knights will have to deal with being out the open on their mounts. 

A key aspect of War of the Roses is the character customization. Before each battle, you’ll be able to customize and load out your characters however you please. At first glance, it may appear to be basic options for your classes, but upon further inspection you’ll find some rather substantial depth into how you deck out your characters. At the base, you have different weapon and armor types to choose from, but from there you pick different perks (spread across five different schools), fighting stances, and even the type of metal your weapons are made of.



I was not only impressed with the variety and detail of your options, but also for the fact that it all seems to have a play in battle. Of course there are the obvious, such as light, medium, heavy armor types having a play on speed and agility, but then there’s the more less obvious consideration of how fighting stances can be influenced by metal types. The character customization gave off this sort of quasi RPG feel. There were several points when I came into matches late because I was so busy optimizing my foot soldier for battle as there’s just that much to consider before heading into battle.

With that said, an important part of the game is understanding what role you’ll have in each battle. While there aren’t any defined classes per se, the way you customize your character will cast them in roles and dictate their effectiveness in battle. War of the Roses is very open to how players choose to customize their characters, and even the more unorthodox combinations seem to have an effect on battle. Want to create a crossbowman with medical perks and decked out in medium armor? You can do that. How about a mounted knight with lance and armor based perks? Absolutely! You’ll rarely, if ever, come across a player utilizing the same character traits and cosmetics. The sheer amount of options at your disposal opens the possibilities for truly unique soldier types among the player community.

War of the Roses looks to be an engaging take on medieval style warfare. While Fatshark and Paradox were shy on detailing the single-player mode, what’s present here for the multiplayer is very encouraging, to say the least. War of the Roses will be available on Steam on September 12, and you can get your hands on it early during the opening of the public beta sometime in August.

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Impact study on IORP review welcomed

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT

Insurance Europe has welcomed the quantitative impact study that the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) will carry out on the review of the EU Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision (IORP) Directive.

It supports EIOPA's proposal to take the principles of the forthcoming Solvency II regulatory regime as the benchmark for the regulation of occupational pensions in the EU, while still recognising the specific characteristics of pension funds. It has submitted to EIOPA detailed comments on the draft technical specifications for the study.

[23 Jul - 29 Jul] Weekly Korea rankings

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT

Welcome to the first edition of the weekly Korea game rankings! Do note that different ranking websites have different statistics, and mine is… more »

Computer Bug May be to Blame for Six Flags Roller Coaster SNAFU

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT

A dozen thrill seekers who jumped on board the Superman Ultimate Flight roller coaster at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California got more than they bargained for when a malfunction caused one of the cars to stall at the very top of the ride. Sitting 150 feet above the ground, passengers in the stalled car sat stranded on the ride's zenith (in an upright position) for about 90 minutes before being rescued, and a computer malfunction may be to blame.

"This was not mechanical whatsoever," Six Flags spokeswoman Nancy Chan said in an interview, which is viewable at Los Angeles Times online.

There are several possible culprits under investigation, and one of the front runners is that "it could be programming issues" that proved to be the Kryponite, Chan added. Tests are currently under way, and in the meantime, Six Flags has taken the Superman ride offline.

As for the passengers, they were compensated with free food and drink passes, along with free tickets to return to the park.

Image Credit: Six Flags

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Samsung Galaxy Note Headed to T-Mobile on August 8th

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT

T-Mobile users with oversized hands or just a penchant for ginormous smartphones will be delighted to learn that Samsung's Galaxy Note is coming your way a week from Wednesday. T-Mobile, which had been a bit cagey to the Galaxy Note's launch, confirmed via Twitter that Samsung's 5.3-inch smartphone is headed its way on August 8, 2012 for $250 after a $50 mail-in-rebate and with a two-year service agreement.

"Note Takers - The Samsung Galaxy Note will be on T-Mobile Aug. 8th!," T-Mobile posted to Twitter.

Some have dubbed the Galaxy Note a phablet (equal parts phone and tablet) due to its large size. Outside of its 5.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus HD display and S Pen integration, the Galaxy Tab also features a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8MP rear-facing camera, 2MP front-facing camera, 16GB of built-in storage expandable via a microSD card slot. 3.5mm audio jack, and a handful (literally) of other odds and ends wrapped in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

For more details, visit T-Mobile's Galaxy Note product page.

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Amtrak Pulls Into Internet Era, Now Fully on Board with E-Tickets

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT

In the second Back to the Future flick, Stephen Spielberg envisioned a future with flying cars, one that according to the date on the DeLorean's dashboard is just three years away. That gives GM and company several months to get on the ball, but in the meantime, there are still trains, planes, and land-based automobiles to get from point A to point B. Getting with the times not a moment too soon, Amtrak announced it's now accepting eTickets on all of its trains. Welcome to the Internet era, Amtrak.

"eTickets deliver the convenience and flexibility expected by passengers and its innovative technology is transforming other aspects of how Amtrak does business," Amtrak chief Joe Boardman said in a statement (PDF).

Amtrak's eTicket system lets travelers print their ticket at home and skip waiting in line at the ticket window, or present their eTicket to the conductor using their smartphone. Everything should run smoothly at this point, as Amtrak piloted the eTicket program on five routes prior to Monday's national rollout.

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Samsung Chief: Apple's Fighting Us Over Rectangles

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT

The high-profile and long-anticipated Apple versus Samsung trial kicked off in San Jose, California yesterday morning with a jury selection process consisting of a 20-minute question and answer session in which a pool of 74 potential jurors was whittled down to 10. Those 10 individuals -- seven men and three women ranging in occupation from social worker to an unemployed video gamer seeking a software degree, according to CNN -- will hear arguments from Apple and Samsung in a case the latter described as "fighting over rectangles."

Kevin Packingham, Samsung's Chief Product Officer, sat down for an interview with Wired ahead of the trial to discuss the dispute and patent wars in general. In response to a question about Apple's focus on design patents, Packingham broke it down into simple terms.

"I would say the patents we're struggling with -- where there's a lot of discussion and litigation right now -- are around these very broad design patents like a rectangle," Packingham told Wired. "For us, it's unreasonable that we're fighting over rectangles, that that's being considered as an infringement, which is why we're defending ourselves."

As far as Packingham sees it, consumers clearly want their smartphones and tablets in the shape of a rectangle, and the fight with Apple is "whether you can deliver a product in the shape of a rectangle."

"A rectangle did not come out of R&D investment that we've made," Packingham continued. "Some of our products happen to be in the shape of a rectangle, but I wouldn't consider that to be an art or a science that we've created."

Samsung's rectangular theme figures to be a major theme in the jury trial, and it underscores how silly patent law has become. There's a neat write-up in InformationWeek that argues the real losers in this trial are "you, your company, and our economy," and we'd have to agree.

Apple's claim against Samsung is that its Galaxy products copy the look and feel of Apple's iPad and iPhone devices, and for that, the Cupertino company wants $2 billion in damages. Samsung's products could also be banned from sale in the U.S. if the jury sides with Apple.

The situation stinks for consumers, but as they say, don't hate the player (Apple), hate the game (patent law).

Image Credit: Modified from wynapse.com

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Vizio's Full HD 1080p Ultrabook Bucks Tradition, Now Available Online

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT

As much as we're in love with the Ultrabook category's thin and light form factor, we're not nearly as smitten over the low display resolution that plagues the majority of first and second generation models. Even larger models like Acer's 15.6-inch Timeline and HP's equally sized Envy both sport 1366x768 screen resolutions, while Samsung's 15-inch Series 9 taps out at 1600x900. Well, as luck would have it, I stumbled upon Vizio's online collection of PCs, including a 15.6-inch Ultrabook model that finally gets the resolution right.

The fact that Vizio's 15.6-inch Ultrabook boasts a 1920x1080 display resolution isn't some grand revelation -- after all, Vizio revealed as much a little over a month ago when it officially announced a line of PC products that were first introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January. However, it's now available to purchase, and as I've discovered, 1920x1080 is a rarity in the Ultrabook space.

Full HD comes at a cost. Vizio, traditionally a value oriented brand, kicks off its 15.6-inch Ultrabook category with a $950 model that also includes a Core i3 3217U processor clocked at 1.8GHz, 4GB of DDR3-1333 RAM, Intel HD 4000 graphics, 128GB solid state drive, 802.11n dual-band Wi-Fi, HDMI output, two USB 3.0 ports, 1.3MP webcam, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. For $50 more, Vizio upgrades the processor to a Core i5 3317U clocked at 1.7GHz, while it's flagship $1,250 model features a Core i7 3517U processor clocked at 1.9GHz and twice the amount of solid state storage (256GB).

These aren't inexpensive Ultrabooks, though they are larger than most -- 15.6 inches versus 13.3 inches and 14 inches -- with a screen resolution to match the added real estate. For the record, Vizio also sells a series of 14-inch models starting at $900, all of which feature a 1600x900 resolution and solid state storage.

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Spotify's Spiffy Update Adds Radio Streaming to Android App

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT

Good news for Android users who are fans of Spotify. The spunky streaming music service just launched its free unlimited radio feature on the Android platform for users living in the U.S., bringing the service up to par with its iOS counterpart that received the same upgrade about a month ago. Previously the only way Android users were able to listen to free music on the go with Spotify was to sign up for a 48-hour trial.

"Exciting news for Android users! Starting today, you can now enjoy Spotify on your Android for free!," Spotify announced today. "Our latest app now offers free radio - the only radio where you can save the songs you love. It's never been easier to discover, save and enjoy an unlimited amount of music on the go."

The entire catalog -- "millions of songs" -- is available on mobile. Music listeners can fine tune their streaming experience by creating stations based on artist, album, or playlist, and then give songs a thumbs up or thumbs down. Essentially the same can be said about Pandora, and like its rival, Spotify will interrupt the stream with occasional ad breaks for free users.

Unfortunately for Kindle Fire users, Spofity is still not available in the Amazon Appstore for Android.

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SandForce Updates SSD Controllers for Longer Battery Life, Better Performance in Ultrabooks

Posted: 31 Jul 2012 05:01 AM PDT

LSI Corporation today announced an injection of enhanced features into its SandForce SF-2200 and SF-2100 series of client flash storage processors (FSPs) specifically designed to play nice with Ultrabooks. The new features are said to extend battery life by as much as one hour, cut down on resume times when waking from sleep mode, and "enhance the overall user experience."

One way the upgraded processors purport to do that is by enabling faster system boot times. Support has been added for "virtually all MLC flash product families," as well as SATA 6Gbps host connectivity, all while meeting the low Z-height product requirement of Intel's Ultrabook form factor.

Affected SandForce processors include the SF-2141, SF-2241, and SF-2281, each of which can handle capacities ranging from 24GB to 512GB. This is good news for the Ultrabook sector, which typically employ slower SSDs (generally speaking) than what's found in the desktop and traditional notebook markets.

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