New version of great strategy game Warring Nations released & other Insenic&Risk news

Menneisyys · 12-16-06, 05:34 AM

Do you like Risk and other round-based strategy games? Do you want to play them on your Pocket PC? Read on to find out how you can!

Insenic, developer of some, except for the lack of real sound effects and music, nice Pocket PC games like Creatonia, has just released version 1.2 of their high-quality strategy title Warring Nations.

The title is available here and boasts a lot of improvements. Unfortunately, however much there is an “Enable music” checkbox in the Sound Settings Preferences as can be seen in this screenshot, there is still no in-game music. Still, if you’re into the genre (Risk-like strategy) and you still don't know it, check out the title - particularly if have a VGA device (it makes use of the high-resolution capabilities of VGA models).

Speaking of Risk clones, you may also want to read the Bible of Pocket PC Games Part I for some alternatives (look for Sean O'Connor's games in there). I also recommend Add-Venture by Qsoftz, which, lately (09/01/2006), has received a new (1.84) upgrade. Unfortunately, the latter still doesn’t support high resolution on VGA Pocket PC’s as can also be seen in this screenshot. This means the “VGA and Landscape devices supported from v1.84” in the blurb must be taken with a bit of salt. Also, it still lacks inter-PDA multiplayer options (see the Multiplayer Bible for more info), which would be essential for a Risk clone like this.

Still speaking of the games developed by Insenic, I’ve also tested the latest version (1.04) of the above-mentioned Creatonia. It has considerably more sound effects than previous versions; they are still definitely inferior to those of, say, Edge (the king of all RPG's available on Pocket PC's) or the three parts of Arvale (note that part three of the latter has just been released; see this PocketGamer thread for more info). For example, the sound of footsteps is really annoying, monotonous and doesn’t remind footsteps at all. The title has still no music at all, which is also a big letdown. This all means I still recommend this title only for die-hard RPG fans that don’t miss music (or, for example, fire up a media player playing, for example, Edge’s OGG music files in the background).

Menneisyys · 12-18-06, 07:08 AM

UPDATE (12/18/2006):

In the meantime, the Insenic folks have made available a separate music plug-in for Warring Nations. It’s downloadable here and should just be copied in the game folder. (Unfortunately, it’s (still?) not linked from the main game page. Note that there’re some downloadable add-on maps in there: Spain, England etc., which you may want to check out.)

The music track is good (“ear candy” and is played back in stereo) albeit a bit short (this especially applies to the menu sound effect – after some ten seconds, it ends) and, after a while, repetitive. Hope the Insenic folks add lengthier music some day.

Now, with (some) music in place, I highly recommend Warring Nations if you’re into the turn-based strategy genre.

The Insenic people have also promised to take my Creatonia-related remarks into consideration – hope this means it, at last, receives some really decent music. The title certainly deserves it.

Kulnet · 12-18-06, 10:06 AM

I know that I thanked you on the "other" site but thanks all the same!