Monthly Archives: January 2018

Race for the Galaxy has Amazing AI

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Race for the Galaxy Image

This is something I wanted to talk about in brief about a month ago, but the last month was very hard for me, mentally and physically. But, it was a pretty good month for gaming. In particular, Race for the Galaxy received another expansion, Brink of War. I reviewed the game earlier last year, and as a near-perfect replication of one of the best strategy/card games you can play physically, what makes this version stand out, is that you can play alone! You don’t have to find another friend who plays to get a good match in (but you should. You should get people playing it if it’s your bag. It’s incredible). You can play on Steam, Mobile Device, or Tablet, and you’ll have the same incredible experience on all of them. But before I get into the meat of it, let’s talk about the latest expansion too, because it’s worth noting.

RFTG - Search

Get what you’re looking for … if you know what that is.

The Brink of War is the latest expansion, and as its name suggests, the galaxy is getting a little rowdier. Prestige is key and is another way to gain the victory of the PC or your friends. It includes thirty-six new developments to build and worlds to settle, new goals and a new action in “Search”. Need that one card that can seal doom for your opponent? Search just might be the command you need in order to get going. I highly recommend it for this, for cross-play, and insanely deep tactical gameplay that you can normally only receive if you and your friends are all geniuses at this game. Replayability is so key though, and having a complex, powerful AI can give players a new experience every single time.

RFTG - 1

Mm. Gratifying tactical goodness.

One of the things I found interesting, was when I was doing some reading on their AI system, is that their system (temporal difference neural network), requires no human input to generate training data. This means it doesn’t require a gigantic expensive team to make it work, and that this small team of dedicated fans of the boardgame can make it happen on their own with limited resources. This is not their first game designed this way though; they started with Ascension, using a heuristic-driven AI. The AI will favor moves that they deem superior. EG: It will buy cards with high VP-to-cost ratios, or trashes low-value militia cards before others. This, however, was designed by people, and it’s based on what they think the best plays are. This requires the people who developed the game to either be experts at it or to seek out those who truly are the best at Race for the Galaxy. This AI is smart, but people will get one over on it reliably eventually. It’s still far more enjoyable to beat real people, but you can still practice and get better at the game with the AI and not feel like it’s a disappointment. Theresa Duringer had this to say about their AI network:

“Instead, it learns by playing randomly, making predictions at the turn level on which player is winning, and updating the weights in its multilayer perceptron architecture such that the delta between predictions from one turn to the next is diminished. Using this method on over 30,000 training games, it’s learned the black box function that best represents the relationship between input (the state of the game) and output (prediction of who’s winning) for the neural network that drives our AI.  It’s a pretty incredible method, first used for boardgames by Gerald Tesauro who created TD Gammon and now applied to Race for the Galaxy by our AI expert, Keldon Jones.”

I think it’s absolutely fascinating that this AI system is designed around a 5,000 year old game: Backgammon. Gerald Tesauro developed TD Gammon, and it was one of the most cutting-edge games of all time possibly. This AI system was designed around this, and Tesauro’s work changed how Backgammon is/should be played. It doesn’t come with pre-conceived notions of what is a smart play and instead has zero initial knowledge. Basically, the TD Gammon system is teacherless, which is interesting because after all, human error is not really that uncommon. Letting the engine determine what is smart and what will ultimately have a higher win rate.

RFTG - 2

Yay, Rebel scum!

I will spare you the mathematics, but the details can be found here, for those interested. With that in mind, this AI system for Race for the Galaxy only needs to know the “rules” of the game. It will make determinations from there. Over thousands of training games, it develops strategies and tactics such as “Piggy Backing”. To explain from Theresa, “For example, here the AI chose Trade, even though it has no goods to trade.  I fell into the trap, chose settle, the AI can settle a world that comes with a good, effectively piggybacking my settle, and trade it.  The tactics employed can be nuanced and context-sensitive, unlike a heuristic driven AI.”

RFTG - Prestige

I do so love a new way to win; prestige fits that bill.

Why do I think this is so interesting? When I first started playing Race for the Galaxy, I lost to the AI almost every time. I was getting frustrated, because I had not played the actual game in years, and was more than rusty. I was losing all of the time because the AI is incredibly smart. But they did add some noise to this AI system for new players, so it won’t always make the best, smartest choices. You can adjust the difficulty, but they all feel suitably challenging. The bottom line for me, is that the AI is smart enough that you can get tons of replayability out of it, being forced to change strategies and tactics against the AI. In lots of strategy games, simply playing against the AI is not rewarding or fun, because it’s usually too easy. They’re still working on new technology and strategies to make to improve performance and require fewer neural network evaluations a turn (instead of 500,000+).  Do you love strategy games that will challenge you? This is the one you need.

Koei Tecmo Reveals All-New Online Multiplayer Features for Attack on Titan 2

AttackonTitan2_Coop03

Coming to Xbox One, PS4, PC and the Nintendo Switch on March 20th, 2018, Attack on Titan 2 is going to shake the franchise up with some all-new online features. The newly introduced competitive multiplayer option, Annihilation Mode, sees two teams of four Scouts compete to earn the highest score within a set time limit. Defeating the devastating Titans is one of the most important ways to earn individual points and climb the leader board. Although, working together is also key as it can earn the team a Chain Bonus through destroying each Titan body part before subjugating them. Building and defending bases is also an efficient way of securing points. With select areas on the map allowing for base development, opposing teams will vie for the location – defending them is of utmost priority.

Online functionality is not only limited to competitive play, as players are able to take on missions co-operatively in Story Mode and Scout Missions. Gathering a team of close allies during these modes allows them to experience the gripping events while fighting against the Titan threat together. Select your favorite character from a roster of over 30, or simply play your own custom character. New additions include Keith Sadies, Kitz Woermann, Dhalis Zachary and Dot Pyxis!

Stellaris Reveals The ‘End of the Universe’ In Upcoming Expansion

Paradox Interactive, a publisher and developer of games that were bound to get us all killed eventually, today announced the newest full expansion coming to Stellaris. The expansion inspires hope and good feelings with the title, “Apocalypse” and will bring untold levels of warfare and destruction to the galactic exploration game. It will also bring new game mechanics such as the ability to destroy enemy planets. New military options, civic paths and more await in early 2018. There are also space pirates in the Marauders, nomads that raid settled empires and take their own cut of the civilization. You can hire them, but be wary that they’re only in it for themselves. Between these, the new “Titan” capital ships, there’s so much to see and do in Apocalypse.

Strikers Edge Brings the Ultimate Dodgebrawl Battle to Steam and PlayStation 4

Strikers Edge promises a roster of eight ancient warriors from different eras/civilizations, ready to enter the exciting world of Dodgebrawl. Dodge, take cover, aim and scorch the earth with devastating moves! When medieval fantasy meets dodgeball, only the top Striker will be victorious in online or local multiplayer battles. It will also feature a Twitch Mode exclusively for Steam users. Activating the mode will let your audience mess with the match by choosing various modifiers and perks that will make the gameplay far more lively. To celebrate the upcoming launch, two Twitch live streams will take place during Strikers Edge’s last Steam Open Beta session. Players will be invited to brawl the Fun Punch Games team, and the Beta testers’ win ratio will determine the release promotion on Steam!

Demon Hunter: The Cursed Blood

Demon Hunter: The Cursed Blood is a 3D action RPG where you must save your home from a terrible evil threatening unparalleled destruction. Hack n’ slash your way through hordes of mobs and even screen-filling bosses with the power of interwoven combos and powerful equipment earned through countless adventurers. Available in the browser.

Features:

They See Me Gallopin’: Discover and ride a mount from a variety of options including a trusty steed or fire-breathing drake.

To the Forge!: Enhance, upgrade, embed, and refine your weapons and armor for additional combative power.

Tri-Force: Take your pick from a sword-toting warrior, intellectual mage, or sneaky assassin.

Mutant Football League Review

Written by Remko Molenaar (Proxzor)

 Having been a PC gamer all my life, and having only owned a few consoles for specific games, it’s been a long time since we have had a proper football game release on this amazing but sometimes abandoned platform. Sports games in general are lately just more popular on consoles, and the PC player base is left in the dark with non-licensed games that do not quite get the game formula right. Mutant Football League isn’t really a game that you could compare to Madden, mainly because of its less serious approach to how football can be played, but despite its style, the game is still very much a competitor because of its very similar gameplay.

Mutant Football League Screenshot

Mutant Football League isn’t just football with Mutants, it is a lot more than that. The first thing it reminded me of is being thrust into a real time game of Blood Bowl. Instead of the incentive being to harm as many players as possible, the focus is set first on actually playing the game properly, and then beating up as many people you possibly can. While the penalties are usually worth it, you can still get a get out of jail free card when you bribe the referee, and with these ‘rules’ set, it is time to jump into the carnage that is called Mutant Football League.

Mutant Football League Screenshot

While the game doesn’t own an official license, it still tries to be a parody of the actual National Football League that we know today. Instead of the famous Tom Brady, we now have Bomb Shady playing for the Nuked London Hatriots, and every iconic player and team has had its name changed into something witty and funny. The team I am personally rooting for are the Seahawks, or the Microhard Mutilators as they are called in MFL. I know I might get some flak for being a Seahawks fan, but since American sports never was really big in Europe, I am still somewhat new to the football scene and the Seahawks was the team that caught my eye and expanded my interest into the sport. I was very happy to see Hustle Killsome representing this amazing team as its QB. Just like in real life, teams in MFL have their own style of playing, with dirty tricks and iconic playbooks including a very wide known term as the Legion of Doom(Boom) for the Seahawks.

Mutant Football League Screenshot

And this is why Mutant Football League is still a game you can very much take seriously, but the game isn’t quite like Madden. As soon as you hop into a practice game, or straight away go for the real deal, you’ll notice that the field isn’t quite as clean as you might expect in real football. Scattered around the fields are mines and traps where you can ruin your players’ day, and even their lives, if you aren’t careful enough. Yes, that is right, you have heard it correct, lives are at stake when playing Mutant League Football. Some of the traps like the mines can be absolutely deadly, and even the opposition can kick your players to their grave after each play. Mutant Football League changes from a clean game to a war zone in just a matter of plays, and while a limited amount of players are able to resurrect when the game is over, when they are killed during the game they cannot come back until the next game.

Mutant Football League Screenshot

When you compare the gameplay of MFL and Madden, the game in itself isn’t all that much different. There aren’t as many possible plays like you might find in Madden, but in the end there is still a very wide range of possible plays to run on both attacking and defending. Since the game is a lot more violent during the plays, having your quarterback sacked is the least of your problems, and you better hope he isn’t kicked to his grave after just a bad play. Because of this you really have to play around with what play you are going for. If you throw the ball to the same exact player a few plays in a row, chances are he’ll get quite roughed up and the chances of him dying get bigger with each play. This is the main reason why you mix things up, and sometimes throw the ball to the other flank or just run it.

Mutant Football League Screenshot

While the game doesn’t have a lot of depth, it does come with a few game modes like a normal head to head mode, season mode, playoffs, and online games to play against other real players. Because of this the game isn’t priced as a normal full priced game and can be found for a little over $20. And while the game did have its release on the PC already and can be bought on Steam, the console versions are being launched on January 19.

Mutant Football League Screenshot

Conclusion

Mutant Football League might not be a very serious football game, and it’s weird saying this, but it is actually the best football experience you can find on the PC currently. While comparing it to Madden is quite tricky, it is actually in a really good and fun shape. Mutant Football League is an extremely fun game to play, with the occasional frustrating moment when your star player is tackled to the ground and his life fades away. Playing the game against your friends is also very fluid without any issues. I can definitely say that Mutant Football League hits the nail on the head, and you don’t have to spend a ton on microtransactions like player packs to get the right players in your team; all you have to do is focus on keeping them alive, or give them a resurrection when it has gone to far. Do you love football, and don’t mind the fun style of MFL? I can definitely recommend you to pick up this game for its super low price.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.