14 DAY TRIAL // It seems I am the only one holding up the gaming fort here at Softpedia this week and that means my gaming choices for the weekend are the only ones you'll be able to comment on. With BioShock 2 all wrapped up and with a new run through Mass Effect 2 probably on the waiting list until the launch of new and significant downloadable content, this weekend will be taken over by strategy gaming.
Hearts of Iron III, the grand strategy title launched in August 2009 by Paradox Interactive, has seen the launch of the public beta stage for patch 1.4. There are huge amounts of fixes and changes introduced in the patch and I'll be doing my part testing it over the weekend, hoping that it will be judged to be stable enough to be officially released.
Hearts of Iron III had quite a bit of issues when it was outed, which was not surprising given the huge scope of the game and the innovations made to the combat model, but with 1.4, most of them have disappeared, and going on a world conquering quest as Romania is more satisfying than ever. Check the official site for more information on the game itself and on the upcoming patch.
And if I get an overdose of World War II, I can also fire up Napoleon: Total War, another strategy title, developed by The Creative Assembly and published by SEGA. The game is more focused than its predecessor, Empire, and follows the exploits of Napoleon in Italy, Egypt and Russia.
Of course, there's also the option of playing as his many enemies, which I intend to do as I push the Prussians to European domination before 1815 ends. The big potential problem with Napoleon is that the Artificial Intelligence might not be capable of putting up much of a fight, based on the Empire experience.