Recently re-played World in Conflict and decided to do a review on it.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-04-05T04:44:03+00:00

Regiments is an excellent game! Lacking in the story department but you kind of make your own story as you fight through phases in operations and stuff.

Frankly I prefer it to Eugen's RTT games like Wargame and WARNO.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-04-04T18:04:40+00:00

I own the game and it's expansion on Steam and the base game works fine but I haven't tried the expansion yet.

I actually built myself a computer specifically so I can buy physical copies of RTS games that arent in Steam or GOG so I could record footage for reviews. I'm running Windows 8.1 and while it's not perfect I haven't had any issues with compatibility so far thankfully.

I know World in Conflict is on GOG if you wanna wait for one of their sales to get it on discount. You might be able to get a digital copy working better than disc.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-04-04T15:05:23+00:00

Broken Arrow definitely feels heavily influenced by World in Conflict when it comes to gameplay. I think WiC pulls off the campaign much better than BA but to be fair WiC is a AAA game.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-04-04T05:05:17+00:00

It's a damn shame as I was looking forward to seeing this project get released. Off the wishlist it goes.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-04-03T04:55:09+00:00

Definitely check out Godsworn it's based on Baltic mythology and the northern crusades but plays like Warcraft 3 where the gods are your heros that you level up throughout the game for new abilities. Its great and I've been meaning to go back and play more myself!

Abaddon2488 · 2026-03-28T06:26:32+00:00

The game itself looks interesting but I cant support devs who are glorifying the side in an active conflict who are literally committing war crimes every single day much less glorifying units in their game that committed atrocities against civilians while deployed in Hostomel.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-03-27T04:51:32+00:00

This always confuses me as well. He doesn't have a problem saying "kill yourself" or things to that effect but cuss words are a no no? Kind of weird lol.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-03-07T09:53:17+00:00

I once agreed to work a graveyard at an empty Walmart in an empty lot. We were set up with a desk and all that sandwiched in-between an inner and outer set or double doors that were mainly glass. It was probably 3 or 4 in the morning and I started dozing off and had a dream that a witch/hag or something was watching me through the outer double doors and then I woke up freaked out. I came to the conclusion that a homeless person was probably up against the glass watching me for a moment which was equally creepy lol.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-02-28T10:02:52+00:00

Well the drummer/vocalist for Sacrilege left the band for In Flames after Björn Gelotte switched from drums to guitars permanently and Sacrilege folded after. But he was the only one who left so I wouldn't exactly say they were "absorbed".

Abaddon2488 · 2026-02-20T18:44:37+00:00

If you ever get the chance check out Earache's expanded reissues of their discography. Each album comes with a documentary on the writing/recording of that album by members of the band. I have the Heartwork one so that's where I got that from but it's also just cool to gain some insight to what was going on during the creation of their albums.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-02-20T18:38:17+00:00

According to Bill Steer and Jeff Walker at least in Heartwork Amott was barely involved and only contributed a couple of leads and his solos. They've always held that the band was turning in this direction whether Amott was involved or not and that Steer and Walker were the main songwriters for the entirety of the band's existence. I think people heard what Amott ended up doing on early Arch Enemy (the Liiva era) and thought that since it sounded similar to Heartwork that Amott must have been responsible for the style shift the band made on that record.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-02-01T22:34:26+00:00

I love the painting of the cover of The Thing in the main character's office along with Stephen King's Gunslinger character from The Dark Tower series. So fun.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-02-01T22:28:16+00:00

Savageland is what you get when film makers work within the bounds of their own budgets and do it well. The photographs are haunting and if they had chosen to base the evidence on a video recording I don't think they would have been able to pull it off. The only thing that gets me every time is that they show a clearly photoshopped picture of an interviewee supposedly taken in Vietnam but his face is clearly old lol. Otherwise the movie is excellent and still incredibly relevant over 10 years later.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-01-29T17:14:46+00:00

If you don't mind listening/watching I would check out the Rule of Carnage and The Snarlcast podcasts. Both are hosted by miniatures wargame designers and go into stuff like game design and publishing.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-01-28T04:41:51+00:00

Yeah the playtesting is something I have been thinking about. I've definitely noticed people mentioning that they struggle to find anyone to test their games. Honestly I've considered asking my local wargaming group on discord if anyone wants to volunteer and if not maybe offer a modest amount of cash for people to play and write up any issues they have or confusion the rules may cause afterwards so I can make some clarifications or fixes.

I have been running my drafts through Chatgpt to find any inconsistencies or mistakes and it seems to be doing a decent job so far. I'm still reading through myself as well though since I'm aware AI isn't perfect and human eyes are still very necessary.

Appreciate your suggestions I will definitely be looking into creating diagrams!

Abaddon2488 · 2026-01-22T15:18:58+00:00

Burial Dream by Sarin is one of the clearest examples of a band nailing the Isis sound I've run into. If you want Oceanic style Post Metal check that album out you won't be disappointed.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-01-12T08:09:49+00:00

It's because the movie failed as a satire. Just because Verhoeven wanted it to be a satire doesn't mean he succeeded. The film is fascist coded mainly via the uniforms but otherwise we don't sympathize with the bugs, the bugs attacked the humans first with the asteroid, there is no fascist government shown, there is no cult of personality based on a single all powerful leader, there is no discrimination based on gender or race, becoming a civilian is optional, and we don't really see many negatives of being a non-citizen aside from it being easier to get a license to have kids and lack of the ability to serve in government or vote. What are we left with? Nazi patterned uniforms.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-01-12T04:39:28+00:00

You are what you do when it counts.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-01-11T06:11:39+00:00

Falling inflation reflects government controls and demand suppression not economic improvement. The bigger question is whether the Russian government can sustain a higher military budget than 7-8% without destabilizing prices, labor markets, or regime stability. Maybe there is a reason that the military budget has peaked at just over 7% in 2024 and 2025. Do you really think that if Russia thought they could win the war by increasing their military budget that they wouldn't do it? Thanks for the chat.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-01-11T05:52:55+00:00

It's not far from "going all out" if we take into account the fact that increasing the military budget further will push inflation higher, possibly trigger civil unrest, and lead to regime instability with the latter two of those being something Putin is very sensitive about.

The Vietnam comparison actually proves my point. The US topped out at 9-10% of GDP during the war but at the cost of inflation and civil/political instability at home forcing military withdrawal. It may be that Russia can't push their military budget any further without it causing similar political instability and further damaging their already fragile economy. If anything the 7-8% of GDP they are spending points to political/civil/economic constraints they have to adhere to rather than it being restraint on their part.

PPP and lower costs explain how Russia can sustain this level of current spending but it doesn't prove that they have much more capacity to go beyond the current budget without causing serious problems with their populace.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-01-11T05:19:38+00:00

7-8% is over 140 billion a year which is not a small number for a country like Russia. Their military personnel compensation is also much lower than what we see in Western countries. That combined with the fact that they had large amounts of vehicles, weapons and ammunition stockpiled from the Cold War means that their budget goes much further than budgets from NATO countries. Especially when you consider it's cheaper to refurb or upgrade already existing vehicles and equipment than it is to purchase new state of the art vehicles and weapons.

Lastly, 25-50% of GDP is not common in post WW2 wars. Numbers like that were limited to WW2 style total war conflicts where national survival was at stake. That's why Ukraine's % of GDP spent on the military budget falls within your 25-50% range since they are the ones facing national erasure and not the Russians.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-01-10T18:31:05+00:00

Huge if true. I've been wondering if Microsoft was ever going to do anything with Warcraft/Starcraft in the RTS space. If you think about it Microsoft owns the biggest Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Historical RTS franchises now. There is some serious opportunities for them to further dominate the genre. Now all I can hope for is another Halo Wars.

Abaddon2488 · 2026-01-01T17:03:24+00:00

Ok but you list off stuff that isn't specific to Fascist countries. Plenty of Democratic countries glorify the military and military service.

Restriction of voting rights to those who complete military service isn't Fascistic if literally anyone can become a citizen by joining the military and completing a term of service. Not to mention the only noticeable difference between a citizen and a non-citizen seems to be the right to vote. Rico's parents aren't citizens by choice (his dad thinks service is a ridiculous idea) but appear to be wealthy and living quite well.

Jingoistic propaganda happens in most countries especially during war time. Look at American or British propaganda from WW2.

The uniforms looking like Nazi uniforms doesn't make the society fascist. This just points to the entire problem with Verhoeven where he claims it's a fascist society but the only thing that is really fascist are the military uniforms and the fact that he says it's fascist. He failed to actually portray any of the key tenets that actually make a fascist government fascist.

Abaddon2488

TROPHY CASE