While doing endless internet surfing last night, I came across an interesting new game from Mad Minute Games. It’s called Take Command – 2nd Manassas. Yes, it’s a Civil War war game simulator. I’ve been playing the demo version (a 200 MB download) and it’s quite fun. The demo includes two battle tutorials and really gets you into the game. I don’t normally play war simulators, but this one is pretty cool. The sounds and the music are great and the maps are huge. I guess the developers did a good job, since I feel bad when the soldiers die! I keep saving the game every five minutes, because I don’t want to slaughter “my men”. If you are even moderately interested in such a game, take a look at the demo. The full version is available for download (or CD) for $40 from Paradox Interactive (the publisher).

What interests me most about this title is that the company was started by (and still is) two guys who decided to write their own War3D video game engine. With the bazillion dollar budgets of most game shops, it’s really refreshing to see a couple of people put together a really kick-ass product. They first started out by creating Take Command – 1861 – Bull Run, which was published by The History Channel & Activision Value for only $20! Unfortunately it’s out of print (but it won a bunch of awards). If anyone finds a copy sitting on a Best Buy shelf somewhere, please pick up a copy for me.