One way WoW went wrong

Tobold expains the biggest reason why I quit World of Warcraft, with no intention of going back...oh, and the monotony.

Prof. Layton

I just finished Professor Layton and the Curious Village the other day. Us software developers kind of like solving puzzles, it's what we do. The 100+ puzzles that are part of the game didn't last for very long.

I don't keep a catalog of video games. I tend to sell them back and get a new one when I'm done. On the DS the only game I've kept so far is Mario Kart. Everyone should always own at least one version of Mario Kart at all times. I've learned that you can download a new puzzle every week through the wi-fi service, for Professor Layton. So I have a backlog of several puzzles there to do, and a continued stream of puzzles. I guess I've found a second DS game to keep.

Spore Creature Creator

For those of you who've heard of Spore and have been waiting for it, you already know that the creature creator is available, and there is even a free trial you can download. For the rest of you spore is supposed to be kind of like the next sims. Made by the same guy at the same company.

I tried out the creature creator last night and have mixed feelings. Character creation is not something I'm in to, so it holds very limited appeal. There are a ton of people who love that sort of thing though, so it's not like this thing is not going to be successful, it will be. The tool itself is remarkable. We are talking jaw dropping technological possibilities. There is no game there though. After I make a critter, I can make him dance/sit/play/whatever, but that's it. Bores me to tears in just a couple of minutes.

When the full game releases there will be a game portion to this critter maker thing, but from what I've seen that game is not very interesting to me. What I want is to be able to make a handful of different critters to be used as my army in a full fledged RTS. Imagine playing warcraft where there isn't a set range of possible units you'll face.

The technology behind Spore aught to get licensed and used for custom design in many different games. If they built it right (odds are not good that this is what happened), they should have a really awesome character generator and AI module they could sell.

Will the real gamer please stand up.

When I got home from work yesterday, my wife had an article up on her laptop regarding how to deal with a spouse that plays video games. That list is pretty pathetic.

Today I found a list made by a gamer, who actually knows WTF she's talking about...usually.

My big gripe though is that a lot of the world doesn't count my hobby as being legitimate. It would be more acceptable to society if I spent the evenings getting drunk, and watching football.

I really ought to get Andrea some high quality elf ears, and make her go to a games convention with me. That would be totally hawt!

Guitar Hero III

What is this guitar hero thing all about?

So much hype surrounds the franchise that I lumped it into the same category as pathetic attempts at gameplay like Halo. Only the Madden playing console kiddies, who don't posses the sophistication that a PC gamer has, would enjoy these things. I still hold that consoles are only good for RPGs and action/adventure, which I do enjoy.

I'd never had the opportunity to play any of the guitar hero games until yesterday. Sure, I had been in the very room with said games and controllers in the past. And I had a passing interest in giving the game a shot, if only to confirm to myself that I was right about it.

This game where you hold a little toy guitar can't possibly capture the abilities of someone who actually posseses rhythm and acute hand-eye-coordination, my downfall will be that I don't really know much in the way of rock. I expeced the same from Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), but DDR had proven me wrong. The fact that I actually can dance, is quite beneficial in the whole beat-cyntric dance-a-thon.

On saturday my brother-in-law (Evan) purchased Guitar Hero III for his 360. While he, his dad, and I were out racing go-karts, my wife and her mom were at home, playing his game. So, on Sunday, we show up for dinner to find Evan and his friend engrossed in the game. After dinner everyone moved toward the TV.

I watched a few people play, got an idea of how the mechanics work, then was handed the little toy instrument. I was guided to one of the first songs on easy mode, this was so I wouldn't be too embarrassed by failing out of the song within the first 10 seconds. I passed the song with something over 80% accuracy. Not bad I thought, if a little sore in places.

Others took turns, Evan and his friend have been playing medium while Andrea and her mom play on easy. My turn comes up again, and I take a crack at a song on medium. If this game is worth anything at all, I should be able to pass a medium song right off the bat. I pass the song, sure, buy my left hand is cramped up and my right shoulder is starting to ache.

When it gets back to Evan's turn (I understand now, they're playing though a campaign of sorts on medium and trying to advance their career), he gets a little tripped up on La Grange by ZZ Top. The problem is the rhythm of that particular song isn't so "normal", but I know this song. Not only have I heard it in passing, but it was a very popular country line dance at one time. I ask for the axe and proceed to rock that track something fierce. By the end my left hand is hurting pretty good, and my shoulder needs a good popping.

Unfortunately for my aching limbs, I've unlocked something called a battle. Evan clues me in real quick on the basics of said battle. Slash is a tough customer, but I keep at him and keep in the game. The problem is that just hanging in there on a battle is not good enough. You have to make the opponent screw up enough to fail out of the song. Slash has my number.

Through the course of the evening I try out an easier battle, on Devil went down to Georgia (didn't sound like my Charlie Daniels band at all), and then try to take down Slash, over and over and over again (I almost had him at the end). By the time I gave up and we went home at 9:30, my arms were totally dead (worse even than playing Wii Tennis).

Anyone looking to get me a Christmas present could do worse than getting me a Wii or 360 (tough call, the game looks better and better framerate on the 360, but Wii is a funner system all around), and Guitar Hero III, and an extra guitar (so Andrea can back me up on bass). Tall order, I know, but I'm worth it.

UPDATE: I just found out there is a PC version of the game! ROCK ON!!!

Hollywood Strike

There has been a little talk lately about the contract junk going on in Hollywood. The writers guild (the union of people who write scripts for TV and movies) is in negotiatons with the producers right now on contracts. There are details and crap, but I don't care what they are.

The writers are threatening to go on strike, and the actors may very well do the same when their contract comes up next summer.

So what!

Hollywood recently has also tried to pin the blame for low box office numbers on video games, most notably Halo 3. I myself am a gamer snob (the elitist class of video game players), a PC man if you will. Halo is beneath me.

My wife and I like movies. We go to the movies or rent movies multiple times a week...at least we use to. I'm not sure I can name more that half a dozen good movies this year, and some of those are only good in comparison to the rest of the crap.

In no particular order:
Live free die hard
Transformers (action scenes in general are too frenetic any more, this is more of the same)
Stardust (really good movie)

Oh boy. Did I already run out of good movies? I don't keep track and compile a top 10 for the year, so I may have forgotten some. I would hope there were at least a few more.



Let's look at what's in theaters right now.



Let's go back and add in Ratatouille as one of the good movies this year.

That first list is mostly rated R movies. Not rated R because there was an artistic reason to include more violence or language or nudity. No. There is extra violence language and nudity just for the sake of it, or in the hopes of getting an R rating. How pathetic. These aren't artists. Not at all. Further, my wife is going out of town this weekend. What normally happens on such an occasion is I go watch or rent movies she normally wouldn't go for. I think last time this happened I watched "Aliens vs. Predator" (meh). So, what are my options this time? Maybe "3:10 to Yuma". That's it. That sucks! Hopefully I can get "Shooter" from redbox.

The second list is the cheap theater. I've already seen the 3 good ones on that list. Heck I expeced "Bean's Holiday" to have been better than it was, but we saw that a few days ago...meh.

Strike? How can you "go" on strike when you've been on strike for the last 12 months already?

Are video games stealing some cash from the movie industry? You bet they are, because some of there stuff doesn't suck!

Stressful Pirates and Fury Balance

Two things real quick.

Pirates of the Burning Sea is having a stress test this weekend. Go to fileplanet to get in to it. I sadly won't be participating, because 1) I had to RMA my new motherboard again (I'll fill you in on the parts for the new rig, once it's stable). 2) I'll be Elk or Coyote hunting this weekend instead of playing games.

Auran is making some big changes to Fury. They are making an effort to make the game fun for the new players. The little bit I have played had my newbie butt fighting against people way way higher in power. Out of about 10 matches I played (both bloodbath and elimination) I was completely useless. My team lost every elimination, and I wasn't even in the top 5 of any of the bloodbath matches. Pitting new players against other new players will make a huge difference.

A weather eye

Pirates of the Burning Sea (High Hopes):

About 20 years ago there was a game called Pirates! (re-made more recently) that I played countless hours of. Nothing like blowin' holes in your adversaries ship. Capture, or sink her. Basically you'd sail around the caribbean fighting for ships, gold, and the governor's daughter.

Lately I've been playing a lot of Port Royale, which is very similar to Pirates! with some added features. You can fight with all of the ships in your convoy not just the flagship. You can produce goods to sell. You can have multiple convoys. You can setup trade routes that your convoy will automatically follow, buying and selling whatever you set it to.

In these games the big thing missing is fighting alongside a friend. Pirates of the Burning Sea will finally correct this long standing problem. It's much like Port Royale, except with lots of people.

Today (being talk like a pirate day) was supposed to have seen some big announcements out of Flying Labs Software (FLS). So far all we've heard that the pre-order will be available on Oct. 23rd and the contents of said pre-order. Me and many others expected more...much more. Ah well, I guess the day isn't over yet, so they could redeem themselves before midnight.

ps. Hopin' yer "talk like a pirate day" was better'n swabbin' ta poopdeck.

Next game on my list

Fury (crossing fingers):

My first MMO was DAOC. I was pulled from counter-strike into camelot with the promise of this totally revolutionary PvP area where your entire realm would fight with each of the other two realms. The mere thought made me weak in the knees. I was smitten. I never got to play that part though (even after 6 months of trying to get there). Heart-broken. :(

There have been a few other games that I've tried the PvP in and none of them have been that solid. None had anything resembling tactics or strategy. It's always a matter of being the right level with uber equipment (and the overpowerd class of the month).

Fury is just the PvP part without the suck (no grinding to the right level). Right now I see this as counter-strike with magic and swords.

There will be a free-to-play option, or a subscription option (provides things like teleporting to towns and stuff like that). This should be good for pulling in and keeping a good population in game.

At this point I had originally planned to mention all the complaints about the games performance, how that will affect launch, and critical mass of players, and a suggestion to delay the game a bit. That's what I had written yesterday with the intent of posting it today. This morning that changed.

In my email this morning was the latest newsletter from Auran (the people making fury). Please read it if you've had the same concerns I've been hearing about. In summary they say, "We know of performance problems, they are being worked on. The client at launch will be much improved and we're goin to let you try the client as we develop it. Launch date is being delayed, we'll let you know." That is all good news to me.

No one remembers a delayed launch, but everyone remembers a botched one, this is true in all software development.

Coming Games

In my last post I mentioned some games coming out soon that I've been keeping an eye on. Some are getting pretty close and there have been rumblings from beta participants that are forming up. I'll try to explain a little about the basic concept of the game, but to learn more you could always check out their websites.

Tabula Rasa (forget it):
This is touted as an MMOFPS. If you have visions of planetside dancing in your head I think you've got the right idea. Except, I don't think there are any vehicles (flying was my favorite part of planetside), and it isn't in FIRST PERSON! I didn't realize that last part until a week ago. What kind of FPS is not in FP?!? The ducking and covering part appears broken in beta, but that kind of thing can be fixed, unless you can't see through your characters own eyes to know if you have line of sight with your target or not (ie. not in first person). So at this point it sounds a lot like SWG (without the good crafting). Thanks, but no thanks.

Huxley (holding pattern):Also an MMOFPS, but I still think that this one is in first person. We don't hear much about this game, it starts beta today, or when it might launch. So, we'll just set awhile and see.

Bio-Shocker

By all accounts Bioshock is supposed to be one very very good game.

I am in the process of ordering the parts to put together my new computer. There are some games coming out soon that (maybe not so soon) I intend to play and play well. I will NOT be handicapped by a 3 year old PC.

How do these two topics relate to each other? Bioshock was going to be the game I broke the new rig in on, but not any more. To sum up, Bioshock has a nasty piece of DRM on it that requires an internet connection to activate the game (this is the same reason that contributes to why I have never played Half-Life 2). Rumor has it that it may also contain a rootkit! The game might as well install some viruses and a porn dialler while it's at it, 'cause there aint mush of a difference in my book.

Let this be a notice to all ya'll that work in the game industry that stop by here (hi Tim, hi Joseph). I will not buy games that have such intrusive DRM. It's not likely anything Tim works on (a Disney studio doing Wii game I believe) will end up on my PC, and Joseph's latest, is an MMO, which shouldn't really need any DRM either. So, I guess this post accomplishes absolutely didly squat, but I want it out there on the intartoobes anyhow.