Call of Warhammer Mod

Purchasing a great PC game does not often mean the end of the game. Extra content in the form of mods expand a game beyond its initial remits. Half Life 2 - perhaps the best-paced single player experience still to be had today - flourished with a wonderful modding community (which in fact led to Counter-strike.)

The Total War community is particularly rich. Many mods, particularly for Medieval Total War 2(which must be easier to mod), expand the game to the point where it is almost an entirely new game.

Two mods which I recommend to my students are the Third Age Mod (Lord of the Rings) and Call of Warhammer (based upon the eponymous fantasy world.) While both are tremendous games in their own right, the lore and background to the worlds are fantastic. Previous attempts to recreate this world have fallen short (although the March of Chaos was admirable.)

Particularly pleasing is the ability to have 10,000 troops on the field at once: to set them up in minutes, and refight the battles in moments is still something I didn't think would be possible ten years ago. It's enough of an experience to play for 20 minutes and to feel like I've played for hours.

For those interested in playing, you need a copy of MTW2 (with the Kingdoms expansion) on Steam, or via here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medieval-II-Total-War-Gold/dp/B0012BFK0G/ref=dp_ob_title_vg

You can download the Call of Warhammer mod here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=320935

You can download the Lord of the Rings mod here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=654

Read the instructions if you struggle; I needed to download a specialised launcher in the end to make the game stable. It's all in the forums, though: worth spending a few hours to get it working.

Read more »

A book of Gaming for Parents

At a(nother) parents(') evening recently I spoke with several families about gaming. It seems that most of my younger students are console gamers, and that they mostly play FPS. Anecdotally, most parents (probably as a result of watching their heirs fritter away their hobby time on FPS games) feel that gaming has little to no educational benefit. That no experience can be garnered from gaming save wasted time and an itchy trigger finger.

Saying that, a fair number of parents are open to the idea that there are games that offer either clear educational value, or an enriching experience. In particular, one parent of a child in my room is willing to try out some games having never played a game before in their life.

It is for this that I hope to create a list, which would eventually become a detailed guide, of gaming for parents. It wouldn't be a history of games (although that would, I imagine, become part of it.) Rather, it would be a guide to games for both their offspring (who we would expect to have some talent and endeavour in trying new games and genres) to parents who can barely work a mouse. I envisage, too, a guide to some games that parents can play with their offspring.

I'm going to write about a few of them on my blog over the coming months, and eventually turn it into an e-book. I'll seek some opinions across schools in the UK, too, and see if it could become something useful, and (more importantly) fun. I'll try to get some feedback from the parents playing the games, too.

There are a fair few people in this community who I am sure would have a great ideas for what games would benefit both students and parents (and not just the parents amongst us.) If you would like to contribute to a blog post, then please PM me, or post some ideas in this thread.

To get the ball rolling in terms of ideas, I think that a point and click adventure might be the place to start in terms of recommendations to parents. Something that has a sense of humour, and a sense of adventure. I think something that offers immediate purpose, but offers a sense of achievement nevertheless. I played 'Been There, Dan That!' and loved it, but not sure how school-safe that is as a recommendation. The Secret of Monkey island had a reboot not too long back, and is available for a tenner http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monkey-Island-Special-Edition-Collection/dp/B005CLPO1C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330900383&sr=8-1 It's also available on console, too (for those parents who have yet to install a game!)

However, would you think that an entirely ludic game might be a better place to start? Something like http://www.playauditorium.com/ perhaps?

What do you reckon?

Read more »