Olympics of Games

Playing a lot of games that are strange and unusual takes skill and ingenuity.  I recently competed in a ‘Video Game Olympics’ where 16 players worked together and apart to complete a number of unrelated games to find who is a champion of gaming champions.  To get to business, peruse this list of games and how I handled them in the competition!

Team Fortress 2

• + Unique, important features and attributes of each player class.
• + Great visual and audio feedback in everything, from firing weapons to inflicting damage.
• + Well laid-out levels direct players to where they need to be in a game’s flow.
• + Character models and environments all work together in a distinctive art style.
• + On Steam, this game is free!
• - Some classes are explicitly better than others; teams may only need one or two of a class.
• - Games are heavily dependent on the competence of other team members, which may become frustrating.

Would you believe I’ve not played TF2 before?  This very popular game started-off the Gaming Olympics, with the Red and Blue teams destroying each-other in frantic fashion.  Exploring the different classes was very fun, but having a high personal score didn’t make up for being on the losing team, leading to a buy-in game of Age of Empires II.

Age of Empires II

• + Armies can be put into various tactical formations to great effect.
• + Sweeping victories over an enemy encampment feel rewarding.
• + A great sense of kingdom-building from placing keeps, towers, and walls.
• - Every faction shares the bulk of units and buildings.
• - It’s too easy for an opponent to ‘castle’ in their castle, prolonging a match needlessly. 

What a classic.  I was only able to play one free-for-all round with high resources and all the technology researched, but I’ve played the Star Wars game made by the same team behind AoE2.  A winning strategy I found was to build an army of cavalry behind a wall of castles and towers, making sorties when my opponents weren’t killing each-other enough.  Having the highest score brought me to round 3.

Halo Reach

• + Mongoose racing!

Halo Reach, with vehicle racing on a player-created course.  The Halo franchise has been known a long time for its racing, and Halo Reach is no exception.  Fun physics, sharp turns, epic jumps, and other drivers made for a great Olympian challenge.

Artemis

• + Space command at its finest.
• + The best ‘feel-like-you’re-on-a-spaceship’ bridge simulator ever!
• + Involved team-based play to operate a starship.
• + Every part of running the game is very important to the team’s success.
• + The story is created by the players for the players continued gaming.
• + One game bought is good for some 40 game copies!
• - All team-members must be on the same page.
• - Good visibility of a primary screen is required.
• - There’s something of a learning-curve for each station. 

Artemis is a game unlike any other.  Getting a group of 4 to 6 players together for a great time of space exploration and combat will reward every gamer.  It takes multiple people to run the starship, with myself serving as Captain and Science Officer.  However, after some cat-and-mouse games with the other team, an exchange of mines and torpedoes, and a final bout, my team was had.  The enemy starship nuked the space station we were recharging at!

Though I did not proceed to the final round of Monkey Ball in the Olympics, I had a great time.  The new games played, the times spent with impromptu teams, and the breathless feats of all Olympians involved made the ‘Video Game Olympics’ a great event to attend.  Let me know what you think about these games.  And in final note, take care to tryout Artemis; you won’t regret it!