deciding what to buy. [img]smile.gif[/img] I was at best buy today, and I almost bought Dungeons and dragons online, but i didn't know if there was a monthly fee associated with it, does anyone know who could answer that for me? also i saw a newer game called Star Wars: empire at war, which looks like a warcraft type game, but you can be the alliance or the empire, and you fight in space to control planet for strategic resources and stuff, and then send in ground troops to take them from the ground. It looks uber sweet. If i need to pay monthly to play D&D then i don't want to get it, but i also want to know if anyone else heard anything about that cool looking star wars game and if so if they could fill me in. you all are the best, thanks for the help.

D&D online has a monthyl fee.

I have Star Wars: Empire at War and I think it's fun.

There is 2 gameplay mode, maybe 3. Strategic map, rts space and rts ground.

In a typical game, You start out on the strategic map. This could be compared to Master of Orion. You have planets, and you can build buildings on them, so that they can produce different units and bonuses.

Planets are linked by hyperspace routes, you attack the ennemies from picking up a stack of units and droping them on an ennemy nearby planet. This would then start a space battle, if the system is defended. You have the choice of auto resolving or doing it yourself. If you do it yourself, it load up a rts space battle. You've got your ships, the ennemy has his plus his space station, you've got to blow up his space station and defeat his defense fleat. Once you're done you can send in ground troups to take over the planet. A similar battle take place, but on the ground. If the defender had military building on the planet, like barraks, those will spill out exrea soldiers every once in a while, so you want to destroy them, but you can't buy troops like in other rts game. You don't get extra reinforcement like the defender, but if you have bombers into orbit you can do bombing runs. To protect yourself from bombing run while defending you can build shield generators like on Hoth.

There is a campaign with a story, basically from a little before episode 3 to the destruction of the death star, or the destruction of the rebel if you're imperial.

The game is fun. Each faction has heroes, you get to control Vader, the Emperor, Luke, Han solo etc. You even get to build the Death Star and blow planet if you want. Most units have special skills, for example Imperial Star Destroyer have tractor beam.

There are plenty of units, like Correlian Corvettes, Star Destroyers, Tie, X-Wings, every know units plus some not so known ones. On the ground you've got speeder, swoop bikes, artilery, AT-AT, AT-ST... All the things from the movies.

If you're not interested in the strategy map, you can play more traditional 2-6 players rts matches. You pick a battlefield, say Hoth, you can add computer ai ennemies or play in multiplayer. You chose your faction, and this is the mode where you gain money by controlling resources, buy troops at barracks and such, and destroy the ennemy base. There are both space and land maps you can chose from.

[ 03-08-2006, 08:16 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

thanks man, you've just totally sold me [img]redface.gif[/img] )

Has anyone played Battle For Middle Earth 2? I've heard that it's better than the first one, but I need a second opinion before rushing out. Is it better or worse than Star WArs: Empire at War?

Battle for Middle Earth 2 focusses on the War in the North, and it has two campaigns with each 8 missions. It introduces a couple of new races (Elves, Goblins) and gets rid of the (annoying) wall-constrictions. Now you can build you base the way you want it.

BFME 2, that's what i'm gonna get... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Don't buy it at full price, it's not worth your 50€, trust me. Wait a couple of weeks until the price drops. I finished the good campaign in less than a day, which totally sucks donkeyballs. Any campaign you can finish in just a matter of hours isn't worth that kind of money. Compared with BFME1, this one is a very dissapointing piece of garbage, pardon my French.