Sandy's Blog

Last week my friends from Edinburgh University Gamesoc were raving about a new computer game/nuclear war simulator that had become available via an online content distribution system called steam. Now I used to play a game called Nuclear War for the amiga back when I was about 12, which I loved, and always wanted the facility of multiplayer (which back then was generally a turn based affair).

So anyway, after debating whether I had enough free time to play such a game, $10 from my credit card later and I am sitting in front of a spinning globe with some nasty facts about nuclear holocaust scrolling up the left hand side. The first evening I play a duel against Al, which I lose by about 20 points (20 Million more people dead on my continent than his!).

On Tuesday we had a 4 player game, which ended up being 2v2 as Al and Bruce teamed up right at the start which left myself and Oscar on the back foot (as we had geared ourselves up to fight each other). We allied quick sharp and Oscar had to take a fair amount of damage in the Atlantic before I could get there and help him.

Luckily I was also providing entertainment in the Pacific for Bruce, and I eventually overpowered his naval resources and pretty much wiped out the west coast of America. Sweet.

They then pretty much launched about 50% of their nukes at us (probably about 100 bombs in total). Oscar took the brunt of the damage. We were losing by a fair margin as Al still had his entire population tucked up in South America.

After their birds had either landed or got shot down, it was our turn to launch. I launched mainly at Al to reduce his score a bit, but also fired a few towards Bruce. Quite a number of nukes got through, South America and Eastern America got decimated. However Mexico was really well defended and I just couldn’t get a bomb in there. Then they launched again, and while their defences were down I managed to sneak a bomber from an aircraft carrier into Mexico and kill 8.4 Million people. Awesome.

In the end, we actually won. Bruce was really stupid and forgot about a fleet of submarines he had until the last minute, and by that point it was too late to use them. The game itself is a bit linear really but its good for a laugh. If you want a shot you can download a demo from the game’s site.