Royce Brainard, GiN Staff

Royce is an incurable gamer. Games of all types. He started many moons ago with chess and checkers (harmless enough) then progressed to board strategy wargames, pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons and the early console games. His love of games has grown through the years. His only wish was to find others to game with as solitaire gaming has its drawbacks; and to this end became involved with several play by mail games. While in high school Royce was busy developing his own wargames that played on hand made eight foot by four foot maps with tons of hand made counters to represent the various units involved.|It was a natural progression that he evolved into a computer game nut, since now the computer could handle the job previously performed by lots of charts, tables and die rolls. Then finally came the Internet games. WooHoo! Now he could play with other real live gamers in real time. He has literally died and gone to heaven!|An Electronics Engineer by education, Royce is now a Software engineer working with the Comanche Helicopter program ) and spends all day as well as all night and weekends on the computer ( much to his wife's chagrin at times ).

Recent Posts

Saving Planet X, Again

Yep, that is the first thought when you look at the box containing DarkPlanet : Battle for Natrolis. Standard theme – almost. Humans find a planet. Humans want to take over the planet. Locals take objection to the humans kicking them off their world. Now here is where the first twist is introduced by Edgies, the battling of the Humans and the locals wake up a long dormant third party that takes exception to both other races and decides it would be a good idea to exterminate them so they can get back to sleep! That’s it, plain simple and … Continue reading Saving Planet X, Again

Space for Nonspace Jockies!

Finally, Earth and Beyond is a space-based shoot em up that does NOT require you to be a certified pilot to enjoy! To say I am jumping for joy is an understatement. As way of background, I am one of those "flight challenged" gamers that can not get the hang of pushing the joystick forward to go down and backwards to go up. Crashed many a flight by going in the wrong direction at the wrong time before I realized I was just not cut out for flight controls. But throw that out the window as Earth and Beyond has … Continue reading Space for Nonspace Jockies!

Gore is Shooter 101 Class

Remember good ‘ole Doom? It was easy to learn with no tricky play. Just find weapon upgrades, ammo and health packs while blasting your opponents, and you were the master. Well with Gore : Ultimate Soldier that is all back with a vengeance! The premise is that street gangs in the US (controlled by MOB) have grown in strength and ability so that they now control neighborhoods and entire cities. To combat this the US Government, in the form of the UMC, has developed a new virtual training facility that takes raw recruits and turns them into sophisticated soldiers in … Continue reading Gore is Shooter 101 Class

Came, Conquered, Done That

If you played Europa Universalis, you may feel like you have been there before when you play Europa Universalis II. It has the same look, the same feel, lets face that it’s basically the same game with nifty new options and even more comprehensive economic and diplomatic systems. There are also more decisions for you to make as ruler of your nation of choice. But after a game has started, the differences will become more and more clear to you. This is basically a major enhancement to an already great game that only increases the player’s enjoyment of it. Many … Continue reading Came, Conquered, Done That

La Grande Armee at Austerlitz is a Work in Progres

The first in an intended series of historically accurate simulations of the various campaigns of the Napoleonic era, La Grande Armee at Austerlitz (herein after referred to as Austerlitz to save my fingers) is still a work in progress. It ran onto problems right from its release however, the developers were quick to respond, and have been very responsive as further problems have surfaced and as gamers give their input on the system. Even now, in release 1.3 there are features discussed in the tutorial that are awaiting a patch to incorporate. Once I realized that you needed to download … Continue reading La Grande Armee at Austerlitz is a Work in Progres

Conquest is Fun in the Suns

I can here it now "Ah, jeesh, yet another Starcraft clone." Wrong! Conquest: Frontier Wars by Fever Pitch Studios is not another planet based real time strategy game. It does involve starting with a single ship and managing the collection of resources and completion of structures that will allow you to build huge fleets to battle the baddies (in this case the bug type Mantis or the energy based Celareons), but any similarity to Starcraft ends there. In Conquest you are dealing with planetary systems of one or more planets and wormholes to get from one to the other. The … Continue reading Conquest is Fun in the Suns

Dark Age of Camelot Shines

Ever had the overwhelming desire to wield a sword or cast those magic spells that you have used in the pencil and paper Dungeons and Dragons games? Or just wanted to experience life in those mythical times? Then Mythic Entertainment’s Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC) may be the game for you. The latest entrant into the rapidly growing number of MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing games – impressive title huh?) lets you, and a couple of hundred of your closest friends experience life in Realms of legend. Combining Norse and Celtic Mythology with the legends of King Arthur and … Continue reading Dark Age of Camelot Shines

Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising is unique warfare

So, you have to save the world again. This time all war has been abolished (or so they thought). The world is a place where you can get whatever you want at the nanoreplicator on the corner. Piece reigns and all is well because nobody needs anything. Enter the bad guys. A small group of would be dictators are not happy with the current situation, as they are not in charge. They have been secretly keeping old weapons systems alive and have been updating them with new technology. The unsuspecting world knows nothing of this until missiles start dropping. No, … Continue reading Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising is unique warfare

Finally, a Playable Space Combat Game

Do you have trouble, like I do, remembering that you have to hit the ‘up’ arrow to fly down and the ‘down’ arrow to fly up? Do enemy Frigates blast your Space Behemoth from the sky while you are trying to bring your massive weapons systems to bear on their puny hulls? Then perhaps you may find Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Dominion Wars (hereafter called Dominion Wars) to be an enjoyable game. The premise is simple – Deep Space Nine (the Federation’s multicultural space station) is sitting at the entrance to a stable ‘worm hole’ that leads to another … Continue reading Finally, a Playable Space Combat Game

MechWarrior 4: Vengeance Serves Up Hot Revenge

Ever have the desire to take command of a BattleMech? Never heard of a BattleMech? In either case you owe it to yourself to check out the latest installment of the MechWarrior line. Yep,this is a continuation of the games based on the FASA board/miniatures game called BattleTech. In case you were wondering a BattleMech is, roughly speaking, a 35 to 50 foot tall, 80 to 100 ton mobile suit of armor capable of speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour and with enough firepower to take on a small city single handedly. Got your interest yet? I should … Continue reading MechWarrior 4: Vengeance Serves Up Hot Revenge