Short Game Anyone?

After a long battle (47 turns via email... spanning 6months), the glorious battle resulted in a **DRAW**. Maybe I should look into a short game. Gamasutra has a great article "Making a Case for Short Games" by the author of Strange Adventures in Infinite Space. A great little game. A short game is a nice change from the 20+ hour games I've been playing. While the Author makes a great case for 20min games. I personally tend to like 6 - 10 hour games. Enough time to be engaging, but not so long that I get bored or tired of the gameplay. One of my favorites on the PS2 ... "Ico" was a delightful 10 hours of play. The game was outstanding, especially considering it was an early release when the PS2 was new to the market. Ico stood out to me because of the castle you played in. Ico's world wasn't just a bunch of designed "levels" that you jumped from one to the other. Instead the castle was wonderfully designed and architected. Each set of rooms which made a small level, fit beautifully into the design of the entire castle. From the towers and parapets of some areas you could see other areas of the castle. All the rooms fit together and made sense. It really felt like you were inside a old castle that was once real and functioning medieval castle. I hear the Ico team is cooking up a new creation that sounds really really cool... Shadow of the Colossus where the level isn't a static castle; instead its a living behemoth colossus creatures. The E3 videos look fantastic!

Soon I will get back in the general's seat and start off another battle against my nemesis Matt in Combat Mission. Our last battle, while a draw, did have some really cool events. I would have completely lost if I hadn't made a desperate and crazy dash up the middle to get behind his tanks. Even then he made a great move to repel my assault on the strongest hill on the map. Only then did a single shot from an overwatching tank stop him. The battle really did spell victory or shattering defeat on that single shot. If I hadn't gotten the kill (and that was a really lucky line of sight); he would have been able to secure a great position and hold my forces off. The results would have been a defeat. Instead, my play worked and finished off his tanks. It was just a mop-up operation after that. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to take the highest scoring object from him before the time ran out. Matt was able to claim a draw. We shall have to fight again!