Oblivion War Cry - New Dimensions: Mod Review

Hello all. I decided to give a short review of an amazing mod I discovered in the top 5 files of the months for March 2011 on tesnexus. The mod is War Cry - New Dimensions for Oblivion, created by modder Eddy Kaschinski and can be found here: War Cry - New Dimensions

The mod is originally German, but you can download the EV (English version) instead of the DV (German version) and it works great. As of recently the mod is now also available in Russian and Japanese languages. The EV still hasn't translated some things like skills and the odd potion, but don't let that deter you - it's very playable. It is a total conversion/best mod compilation/orig content mod - 25part download, extracting to 7GB of content! This is like a totally new game people!

So, firstly the creater has compiled a ton of awesome mods together, mostly content mods (mods that add creatures, npcs, animals, etc) but not so many gameplay altering mods (like Deadly Reflex or any Reznod mod), so this should appeal to those who like the original mechanics of Oblivion but crave new content. But best of all, this mod has adds tons of amazing brand spanking new content like monsters, weapons, armour... and not just slight alterations of previous monsters or recolouring creatures... I mean brand new skeleton meshed creatures! Small example:

These totally new looking creatures create a wonderful refreshed experience in cave and ruin exploring because you never know what you will find! I was stalking through a creepy, damp cave when suddenly I encounter a flying siren in a chamber. Another time I was looking for the entrance to a fort and a huge flying demon attacks me, so I must away as I try to pelt him with arrows! -- And man he was tough! There's also great physical scaling system that adds diversity between creatures, so you could encounter a giant that is 20ft tall!




Another wonderful creature related addon is the inclusion of tons of bosses. The creator added in lots of unique (as in only 1 in the world) creatures and original boss units to old caves and ruins. Again, this makes those familiar old dungeons fresh. (though I should also point out the mod has overhauled most dungeons to make them unique or have puzzles) These boss units are so much fun! Nothing like getting to the furthest depth of a cave and finding this completely new, monstrous creature to battle. Whats also cool is hat the humanoid bosses will always have unique weapons and armor which is awesome if you use for your mannequins (reznod's excellent mod also included) in your museum display. Even some boss creatures can give you unique armor items. (pieces of shell make shields, etc)


New weapons and armors: there are tons. Some of them are even jokey weapons such as pots and pans or bones and there are sword shields. Plus, a lot of them are not just the usual retexturing as I mentioned earlier, but brand new models. Here is another very small sampling of a huge volume of new items:

There are tons of new races to choose from too. Some are familiar to Oblivion templates (variations of Elves, etc), some are not so familiar (dwarves, vampires, etc) and some totally new! (demons, snakemen, beastmen) Each have unique race traits to add to a new Oblivion experience.

One of my personal faves to this mod is the Seaworld addon. The addon creates a living world under the sea, creating a completely new experience for Argonians and other water breathing creatures to explore. For someone who never really gave two thoughts to the ocean in vanilla Oblivion I can't tell you how much this changed the gaming experience for me. Now lakes and oceans are filled with schools of exotic fish, underwater treasures (like sunken ships and ruins) and monsters like mermaids and sharks!! (Liopleurodon anyone? :D) This adds a totally new exploring experience.

This is just the tip of the iceberg! There are far too many changes and new content for a review to do justice so I will finish by just saying, if you are looking to dust off Oblivion and feel like a new experience (feels like a new game in many ways!) then I recommend this mod highly! (especially while we wait for Skyrim!! :p)

Eras Total Conquest: Mod Review

Here is a little gem of a mod I stumbled upon some time back for Medieval 2 that for what it provides, gains very little recognition... The mod lets you play M2 in varying eras from 1080 to 1500,  with different factions being present, more of the world map uncovered, etc. Here is a few examples of some of the campaign eras you can choose from and how that affects the playable area on the world map and the factions you can choose:

1080 Age















Crusades Age

But the amazing thing about this mod, that part that boggles my mind that people aren't going crazy with praise, is some genius actually managed to implement a whole world map. Even Empires couldn't do it and had to break up their maps into theaters, but this mod includes the whole world map in one theater with no long loading times or lag whatsoever. (at least not more than vanilla)

1500: Empires Age


This is the whole world campaign. The limitations for the modders were 30 factions total, but thats really not a bad thing and doesn't mean tracks of empty land, because the mod adds tons of rebel cities into the world. So for example, you can't play as many of the South African tribes or the smaller South East Asian tribes, but the mod adds in their cities (unbelievably with unique units for 'rebel nation' btw) but they are all part of the rebel faction. But who cares I say, because there are still 30 awesome nations to play as.

The mod even adds in completely new factions that were not included in MTW2 such as Ming China, Japan and much more, each with unique units (there are actual Samurai and Yari!! So cool!!!) along with custom strat models (the pieces you see on the map) and artwork.

As if all this wasn't enough, the mod has added tons of tweaks to the game. Merchants trade is now much much more lucrative and more worthwhile having them. Assassins are way better at success now too. Also, they added a feature for civil wars. If your king dies, your new leader must go to the Royal Court (capital) for coronation, lest some nobility (generals, etc) may refuse to acknowledge him as king and rebel. Other stuff like generals who have never met the king (been in the same city for a couple of turns) begin to drift away and lose loyalty and alos things like distance from the capital impacts loyalty too. You really gotta keep an eye on your generals now but I love it cause it gives them a personality. If a generals loyalty is slipping, you can send him back to the capital to see the king for a trial and hearing and a loyalty 'top up'.

Ok, so now the cons: On the forums, many people complain about CTDs for various reasons. I have suffered from only two types of CTD. The first is if you get in a battle with more than 2 armies. (ie there are reinforcements from a third nation) I believe this CTD is cause because there are too many unique troops on the battlefield. The other CTD has been fighting on the battlefield in certain regions (mostly Mongolia) causes a CTD. basically if I encounter either of these, I just autoresolve battle. A small price to pay for such an amazing modding effort. I've never CTD'd on a city siege.

My sincerest kudos to the developers of this mod for their hard work. You can check out their forum here: Total War Center I hope everyone gets to try this one out, so dig out M2TW and get playing! Let me know what you all think.

The Saboteur: Game Review

In a nutshell, the best way to describe this game is a cross between GTA 4 and Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines. The game takes place in Nazi occupied Paris during WW2. You play Sean Devlin, an Irish expatriate and a tough as nails, hard drinking, womanizing  mechanic and race car driver, who decides to get mixed up with the French Resistance due to his own personal hatred for the Nazis. You play in a completely unlocked and open world of Paris and its surrounding countryside. The map itself is very large and satisfying. Dotted all over the map are German infrastructure such as radio towers, ammo depots, fuel dumps, etc. The idea is you go around on your own steam, sabotaging these things covertly for money and to unlock 'perks' that increase your chars abilities. Of course there are missions to follow like in GTA and they generally involve going to a place and blowing something up/executing someone/saving someone.

In terms of gameplay, this game kind of rips off and meshes together many other games. Firstly, the map and mission system is very similar to GTA, plus the ability to carjack anyone.  Secondly, Sean can scale any building in Paris, identical to Assassins Creed. There is even 'lookout spots' identical to Assassins Creed. Thirdly, the combat in it reminds me a lot of The Godfather 2, especially with the 'grab' feature. It leads to fun melee combat because in bar brawls and stuff you can toss guys over you head and through tables and stuff or pick up a soldier and toss him off the top of a watch tower. Fourthly, the driving around and feel of the town is SOOO much like Mafia, that it kinda feels like some sorta spiritual sequel to Mafia. Even the character animations remind me so much of Mafia. Finally, you can steal enemies clothes and disguise yourself, much like Hitman or Commandos.

Obviously, with every mission you can go guns blazing, but the Nazis then call in backup and you have a huge fight on your hands. Its very fun to play the game like Commandos, where you are kinda scouting the scene out and then picking the Nazis off one by one in a significant order, then hitting your target with some TNT and running like hell, scaling a building or whatever to make your escape as the bomb goes off.


Another super cool feature is the games use of colour. In Nazi oppressive areas, the game is B&W white just dabs of colour like in Sin City. By blowing enough stuff up or doing missions, you restore the peoples 
will to fight and 'liberate' the area, reigniting the colour in the zone and from there on the people in that area will help you by fighting back when you are being chased or by helping you hide.



Now, the down side. The huge elephant in the room is that the game is poorly optimized. There are legions of forums with complaints from people who have top specs yet cant run the game smoothly even on 800x600. I was playing it on that resolution with all graphics low and it looked HORRIBLE and unplayable. Luckily, a BETA patch was released which helped the prob slightly, but updating to the latest drivers helped TONS. I can play on medium now with no lag. I have Nvidia but I hear ATI users are really suffering. Another bad thing is the missions could be repetitive. Blow one thing up and you seen it all before, other than with each mission the task just gets a little harder.

I'm loving the engrossing storyline and I love the main character. He's fecking badass, but maybe I'm biased! ;)

Score: 8.0/10 - funnest game I played in a while.