Boo! Surprise! I'm back!
Well, only to blogging... and not to say anything special. Well, I guess I can make a small update on what has happened since last time.
I've gotten an Xbox and Halo 2 and play with some guys from IMG every week, and having a blast doing so. Xbox Live is really one of the best things Microsoft ever constructed. They actually deserve some respect for that, especially when you compare it to all the other bug-filled software they create... This is the only thing from MS that hasn't been causing me any problems at all so far.
Maybe somebody should convince them to stick to gaming and give up on everything non-gaming related ;)
My full time job got delayed, and I might become unemployed in March, but that would only be to become a full time PhD student by April. Man that feels good. No more running about wondering what to do the next semester, but 4 (or 5 if I get to teach as well) years secure and ready to go from day one. This means full time paid vacation that I'm able to plan several months in advance! Among other things :P Not everything is settled yet though... but things looks positive.
And after almost half a year since I damaged it, I will finally get a knee surgery in march. After some rehab I will finally be back to kicking ass.
I've also gotten my CE of WoW, but until Blizzard gets real and drops the continent restrictions, I'm not going to play it. I have a lot more people in the US I want to play with than in Europe... so I patiently have to wait for news on this.
Well... not that patienly... I'm politely harassing Blizzard tech support to see if I can get any news on when it could happen.
Posted on February 14, 2005 at 6:44 am
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The End of Things that Was
As most of you already know by now, I have officially resigned from IMG, both as forum moderator and as writer/news reporter. While I still might do something occasionally, you won't see my name anywhere but the blog or forum very often anymore. And as far as the forum, I've pulled back a lot on that as well.
The reason? I need the time.
2 hours a day for somewhere closer to two years equals over 1000 hours spent moderating the forums, writing news and reviews. And while the community made it worth it for a long time, I can't keep it up any more. I have other responsibilities that still help supporting the Mac community, in a rather more direct way anyway.
But... not to speak about that anymore.
I need to bash WoW some as well, no blog entry is complete without that ;)
Some people claim that the dynamic economy is worth the MMO aspect, but I don't see it as much different from the Diablo 2 economy really, you just can craft things as well.
And as for people and guilds? Come on? Ever heard of multiplayer mode? Just having thousands of extra people not giving a shit about you on the same sevrer doesn't add a thing.
Nope. Still no reason to play extra each month besides the huge and beautiful world... but they should have been able to create an offline version for that as well...
I miss it though.
May Bork watch over me.
Posted on December 16, 2004 at 5:54 am
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World of Warcraft - Love and Hate
I can't really decide wether I hate to love WoW, or if I love to hate it. I think both are a bit close to the truth, but that the real truth is more like this:
I love the world of Warcraft.
I hate MMORPGs.
And since World of Warcraft is a MMORPG using the world of Warcraft. Both applies to it.
A lot can be said about the game, but I've decided to do this the easy way. I*m just gonna make a list of what is good, and what is bad.
The Good
Beautiful world
I love the cartoon style
Great backstory
Most quest storys are well thought through
Interesting combat system
Good characters
Great moody music
Instanced zones
The Bad
Static world
Quests loses purpose because of the static world
B.net kiddies ('nuff said)
Monthly fee
Limited party system. 500000 players... but 5 max in a group?
Heavy XP penalties in group
Because of above Solo can be a better option
Lamers tagging named characters when you've waited for ages
Extremely low quest variation
Extremely limited freedom in character development
Too much running across too much land (I've ran across the barrens more times that I would even like to try to remember)
Blizzard won't let me play on the US servers from start.
One of the game's greatest features is removing the MMO aspect....
As you can see... most of the drawbacks comes from the MMO aspect of the game. I do strongly believe that the game could have been so much better if they had made it a normal RPG, and I can't really understand people that say it's great because it's an MMO. because, sure, it's the best MMORPG I've played so far, and the only one I would ever pay for. But as far as games go, MMORPGs are the silliest thing ever invented. You pay a lot more to get those extra drawbacks. And in the case of WoW, you don't get much for it that couldn't have been done on a normal RPG with 64 player multiplayer.
I know I shouldn't buy the game and support something I hate.... because as long as people are willing to pay way too much for companies to develop sub-par games and keep them going, MMOs will always exist. But I can't stay away from the world of Wacraft. Damn Blizzard for using my own love against me. Too bad they didn't base the MMO on the world of Diablo, since I have never felt anything but distaste for those games.
Posted on November 26, 2004 at 3:21 pm
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| MAFFia |
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I'm not sure if I played this game back at the uDevGames 2002 where it first appeared, but I have a vague memory of launching it quick and forgetting about it. If I did, that was a huge mistake.
As far as freeware games come... I doubt they can be much better than this.
In William Reade's MAFFia, the goal is simple: Kill the sheep. Now the gameplay is a lot more refined than that though. You have 4 different weapons with different caliber and fire rate (the largest and slowest being a flamethrower of sorts). And with these weapons you are not only to kill the sheep, but to link the kills together by hitting several sheep at once. You also get bonuses for killing the sheep just before they escape, for hitting them after a long fall, for getting them high into the air, for hitting one sheep several times... and so on. The chains you can put together are completely amazing at times.
Now the gameplay might sound rather repetitive, since the game only has a few levels, but you start finding new ways to play the game. Today I tried to keep one sheep in the air as long as possible... I ended up hitting it 140 times before I lost it. Not much was left of the sheep I killed to get this number, and that was only the first attempt. Anotehr sport I found is trying to get as many extra lives as possible. Since this is done by splitting the sheep up in several parts, it's almost only possible to do with the flamethrower, which is extremely hard to get long chains with, and thus results in rather low scores.
The game is extremely well balanced, even though I found myself thinking "now how in Bork's name did I miss that sheep" when a sheep occasionally runs straight through a cloud with several dead sheep and heavy gunfire.
Now if you haven't understood this by now (and I have to be honest, you have to be a complete moron to miss that), this game is extremely sick... but in an extremely satisfying humorous way. The simple cartoonish graphics make it feel like a fun sport instead of something extremely gross. You kill the sheep, do your best to link them together, but you never ever get the idea of trying this for real.... because the game feels so extremely unreal.
I'm having a hard time trying to decide wether to categorize the game as action or puzzle though... It's an interesting mix.
I'd love a multiplayer version with competitive co-op though ;) Trying to steal the chains from somebody else would be great fun.
Posted on November 25, 2004 at 3:08 pm
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Episode II: The Groan Wars
So I finally got the G5 back this tuesday... and it has actually been working since. The first night I played KotOR for almost 7 hours. But is my worries over because of this? No. Not yet. Every time the fans speed up, my pulse does the same. It will take a long time before I will truly trust this machine.
And to add some more to my misery, after talking with Logitech over mail we came to the conclusion that the set of review speakers I got a few weeks back was sub-par, and basing a review on them would be a bad thing to do. So first I get two dead G5s, and then a faulty set of speakers. Granted, the speakers were only for review purpose, but I spent this weeks working on that review.
Things are good now though, I had actually been waiting for an opportunity to pack down the speakers and clean up the desk, so yesterday I got busy. If you wonder about the speakers, I can tell you, yes, it is hifi speakers. I have my G5 connected to my stereo through the optical Toslink cable and those speakers on my desk is connected as a set of B speakers. The speakers themselves are great and without a doubt the best $100 I spent this year. They're really wort a lot more, and I aim towards replacing my whole 5.1 speaker system with speakers from the same manufacturer. Who that is? The UK based company Gale (www.gale.co.uk). I found them in a store for audio enthusiasts where they have them as their low price option, but it seems like the people at the store loves them about as much as I do. Extremely impressive sound from so small speakers.
So, is the tale of my G5 over then? I truly hope so, but I somehow doubt it... I still have Episode III left to cover after all...
Posted on October 8, 2004 at 3:53 am
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