Video game review by ERIK LEIJON

Imagine Halo without the Covenant, or Burnout without the flaming wreckage. Brian Reynolds and Big Huge Games removed a major part of what made Rise of Nations a hit by turning the once historical strategy game into a wild, tri-national fictional world. But the deeper you get, the more familiar and possibly generic Rise of Legends will feel.

Rise of Legends (PC/Microsoft, Big Huge Games) still owes its gameplay to 2003’s Rise of Nations, which was a close approximation of Civilization in a real-time environment. The basis of all modes of play begins with the hero, who builds towns, armies, machines and buildings until they conquer every piece of territory or vanquish all foes. Legends does all of this in real-time, and at an accelerated pace. There’s a methodical approach to getting things done, but good players will figure out how to multitask.

Players start campaign mode as a group called the Vinci who rely on technology and machines to extract timonium (this game’s version of oil), but there are three groups in all. The Cuotl are an alien race that crash landed on Earth and whose buildings look like Mayan pyramids, and the Alin are Middle Eastern scorpion riders who use magic. Pitting magic, technology and aliens against each other may seem like a big mess waiting to happen (or a slight copy of Starcraft), but it’s not actually that huge a difference. As with Rise of Nations, the game is reduced to being a race to see who can get big the fastest.

The historical aspect of Rise of Nations was pretty cool (being able to raid and pillage with the Nordics swelled my heart with great pride), and while I extend kudos for the inventive trifecta of races here, the Vinci, Alin and Cuotl aren’t as interesting as the ancient civilizations in RON. It should also be noted that although there is a certain amount of evolution, the races here don’t grow from bartering cavemen to nuke-wielding maniacs. The use of visible borders is still here, so expect a few frantic border battles with a hundred men on each side.

One of the major improvements is the graphics, which have gone from quasi 3-D to full 3-D with strong animation. Just watching the building of cities is an impressive display, and some of the bigger bad guys have some incredible weapons that illuminate the screen. The interface and campaign map screen will look familiar to fans of RON.

Rise of Legends may turn off fans of RON, largely because of the shift from a historical sim to a fictional universe, but the gameplay will be immediately recognizable. Strangely enough, it could be the game’s undoing. Big Huge Games made minimal adjustments to the game mechanics, so playing Legends feels like an experience from three years ago. Granted, it’s still a solid, fun RTS.

Kickin’ ass, makin’ games

Alliance numériQC has announced a list of speakers for the third annual Montreal International Game Summit, and among those is recently promoted President of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime. Anyone who saw Nintendo’s E3 conference was treated to Reggie and his impressive public speaking abilities. He’s also become a bit of a quasi-celebrity for his E3 speech in 2004, when he said “My name is Reggie, I’m about kickin’ ass, I’m about takin’ names, and we’re about makin’ games.”

The summit is not until Nov. 8–9, but for more information check out: www.montrealgamesummit.com

In Good Hands

Slight tangent. I just wanted everyone to meet Steve Ballmer, the guy who’s replacing Bill Gates at Microsoft. Visit YouTube.com and search under “Steve Ballmer crazy.” Your PC is doomed.