Really good under-hyped game

#1 JoWood has produced quite a few good games recently and in a whole they are getting great reviews around the board, i know that AquaNox was another big game that they came out with. I think the reason that you don't hear about them alot is that they are a german company and don't have a huge marketing push here in the US like some of the other producers based here.

Infact i know that a few small game companies here in the US are looking toward them to get them to produce their games because of the high quality and original games that they have come out with recently.

#2 I'm playing another really cool game right now that I never heard about before and I think it's been out for a while now. It's called Steel Soldiers. It's an RTS. I've been hooked on it for a few weeks now.

I find this game easier get a handle on and it sucks me in more than most other RTS games that I've played. It's incredibly good for the $5 price.

I also played the original version back in the day. It was called Z, which was a classic game in my opinion.

#3 A good and old game thats strategy and rpg'ish is darklands. I cant get it to run on a win98+ os but its got this awesome combat system and character system. people could get old and you could make new potions. it was on like 14 1.2 meg 5 1/4 inch floppies... its basicly freeware now but i dont think you can run it on a modern os maybe a linux MSDOS emulator would actully work.

#4 Mike, Steel soldiers if im correct is by the bitmap brothers or some similer name, a while ago it was "showcased" in PC Format a magazine i buy every month here in england, they also did a "how too" section on game development and i think they have quite a following, they did a retro section once i found very usefull about old arcade games. the game i think you are refering to is called Z steel soldiers i think, but mabe i am totaly off base, but this did look cool, if i am correct in these assumptions, i keep all my old "format" mags and would be glad to point you in the direction of any resources contained within the mag.

#5 That how to article sounds pretty cool.

Yes this is the "Z Steel Soldiers" game by The Bitmap Brothers. Maybe it was released under just "Steel Soldiers" here in the States. After looking at their web site, it looks like they were the ones that made Speedball on the Sega Genesis! Me and my buddy used to play that game non-stop.

#6 http://www.arxeltribe.com/

That's probably another company you haven't heard of yet. A slovenian game development/publishing house that apparently got positive previews of one of their products on gamespot.

#7 Europa 1400: The Guild appears to be very cool... unfortunately, it's one of the most buggy games I have seen in a long time...

I'll try it again if it ever gets a patch.

-J