Unity of Command 1.03 and Demo

By: Derek Yu

On: May 30th, 2012

Unity of Command, the operational turn-based strategy game set in the Eastern Front of World War 2, has received an update that adds an undo feature for actions and various improvements to History Mode.

Also, a PC and Mac demo has finally been released for the game. It contains the tutorial as well as a single-player scenario to try out.

Unity of Command

By: Derek Yu

On: January 3rd, 2012

Unity of Command nearly passed under my radar, which would have been a shame – even a casual strategy fan such as myself can tell that the game is something special. For one thing, long-time TIGSource readers may recognize the artist, Nenad Jalšovec, who created Rescue the Beagles and Ablation. Indeed, the artwork in Unity of Command is lovely – a far cry from the low-res pixel art of his previous games, the semi-iconographic style he employed here is much more detailed but nonetheless just as eye-catching and functional.

Set during the Eastern Front of World War 2, the game lets you play as either Germany or the Soviet Union in a campaign that includes the Battle of Stalingrad. You command at an operational level, with the campaign divided into scenarios where you control divisions of soldiers and earn prestige bonuses based on your performance. Supply lines are crucial to victory in each scenario – units quickly lose their effectiveness once they’re cut off. To emphasize this, Unity of Command lets you view supply easily and the AI, which has been praised by sites like The Wargamer, jumps on any chance to starve your army.

Alongside the campaign, UoC offers individual scenarios (including a tutorial), internet/hotseat multiplayer, and replays. It also comes with a 40-page PDF manual that is as well-put together as the rest of the package (just look at how much effort went into the cover art for this digital game!). With the manual, tutorial, and intuitive interface, even newbies can quickly get up to speed and start enjoying the more intricate aspects of the design.

TIGdb: Entry for Unity of Command

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Plus – Free Indie Soundtracks

By: Derek Yu

On: August 7th, 2008

II (“Pause”), the retro/chiptune music label and community, has launched a new section to their website called Plus, which is specifically devoted to free indie/doujin game soundtracks. So far there are only two albums available, the Rescue: The Beagles OST, composed by Disasterpeace, and the Another Bound Neo (doujin FPS) OST. Label co-founder and artist Phlogiston says more are on the way, but he’d love to see developers contact II and release their soundtracks. You might recall that Phlogiston is the musician behind cactus and VilleK’s Brain Damaged Toon Underworld, among other things. He’s also collaborated with the chiptune music collective 8bitpeoples.

Great idea! Developers, submit your music – I hope to see many more games on there in the future. And definitely poke around the rest of the II catalog, too.

(The Rescue: The Beagles album art displayed above is by the very talented Annabelle Kennedy. Full version of the artwork can be seen here!)

TIGdb: Entry for Rescue the Beagles

Ablation X : Updated

By: Terry

On: April 25th, 2008

I worried that we might not be seeing any more of nenad’s excellent looking shooter Ablation X, but thankfully that’s not the case. Fantastic! A couple of days ago he updated his blog at 16×16.org with some information about its progress, as well as this video:

He’s teamed up with a musician called Aesqe, who also posted a bit about the game on his blog here. As well as recording the video above, Aesqe has added a soundtrack to the original trailer, which you can check out after the jump…

Shoot ‘Em Ups: Video Preview Trifecta

By: Derek Yu

On: October 8th, 2007

Ablation X – The sequel to Ablation! Quote nenad:

Brave Karma Warriors – Originally made for the B-Game Compo, this delightfully weird shooter is due this Christmas thereabouts. Cactus strong like bull!

Söldner-X: Himmelsstürmer – Whoa, can you say “eye candy?” This shooter will be out for the PC and PS3 soon, I think. You can pre-order the game at Play Asia right now, though. Love the cheesy voiceovers!

But c’mon, only two umlauts in the title?

(Sources: Tim’s Blog, and The Random Gnome’s Lair)

Ab-la-tion

By: Derek Yu

On: March 20th, 2007

/æˈbleɪʃən/ –noun

1. the removal, esp. of organs, abnormal growths, or harmful substances, from the body by mechanical means, as by surgery.

2. a grayscale shoot ’em up game by nenad, completed for a Retro Remakes mini competition

3. a missing TIGSource post

Counterclockwise

By: Tim

On: December 17th, 2006

The basic objective in Counterclockwise is to destroy enemy chasers, either by shooting at them or using the EMPs supplied. Your craft can only make 90 degrees sharp turns in four directions – left, right, up and down.
Use mouse to move cannon aiming crosshair, or hold the right mouse button for the mouselook feature.

Ammunition is limited, but it’s possible to replenish them by collecting power-ups or executing tricks. These special moves can be practiced in a special trick trainer section.

More reviews can be found here.