It has been far too long. Years have gone by, nations have risen, and fallen, yet there has been one thing missing…. the hero. The avatar, the chosen one. You, the gamer.
It has been far too long since the last challenges were met, bosses defeated, economies developed, players killed. No MMO on the market is even worthy of calling itself an MMO. Fuck you Blizzard. FUCK YOU. god I am so fucking sick of Blizzard. Talk about shattering someones dreams…. then waking that person up with a baseball bat to the head and a nice hot stream of piss to the face. Blizzard took the idea of roleplaying, and turned it into a mindless grindfest cash cow, not your ordinary pop star cash cow…. no no this bitch shoots out gold plated uranium milk. Superman drinks the stuff three times a day, very rich in nutrients… But I digress.. only to say this.
There is hope. Of course we all know Age of Conan is rapidly approaching a release date. It can’t come any sooner. Tentonhammer has a new preview up showcasing the Ranger class.. awesome… This game really looks promising. Leaps and bounds above the current state of things.
Also it appears there have been updates to Darkfall.. Whaaaaat get the fuck out. Vaporware right? Apparently not. Heres a quote from a recent dev. diary
Community: Beta ETA (we all understand possible setbacks that’s nature of the industry but a 1 month 2 yrs or something would be great)
Tasos Flambouras: Previous estimates on beta were honest educated estimates based on facts at the time. Circumstances have a way of changing, so we don’t want to try to estimate again when so many things are in flux. The only thing certain is that we expect everything to come together one way or another within a few months so that our launch can be within the year. When we decide whether to go with a publisher or to self publish we will announce a beta date.
2008 Launch? Lets see it. This game is the closest thing to UO2 we have yet to see. And it might actually be released… I don’t know about you but my nipples are hard.
Lastly, JacktR stumbled upon Savage 2 today. We downloaded the client and jumped in game and I gotta say, its pretty damn fun. The game client is free to download and offers a demo account of 5 hours. After those 5 hours you can purchase an account serial for 29.99, one time fee, no monthly charge. The game play rivals that of any simplistic battleground you will find in World of Warcraft. Like the first Savage, the game play is a blend of First Person Shooters, Real Time Strategies and a bit of RPG element. Think of it like Warcraft 2, only you take the role of one of the units, and fight it out 1st/3rd person. There are squads, and a commander position. Commanders do the building of structures, research and micro management aspects. No Monthly, instant action…. Fuck I hate blizzard….
I saw the movie Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and I highly recommend it. Its amazing. Almost as good as Rambo. Haha so many dead Koreans in one movie, how did they get away with it. Kidding… great movie.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT A NEW FLASH MOVIE FOR ULTIMA ONLINE LOLOZLODirr.sd… This movie has been on my hard drive for years now. Once every year or so I would add a line of text, or a background and say man making flash movies is gay, I think Id rather spend my time doing anything else than this right now. Anything else being porntubing.com. …But now it is actually done and it feels like Jesus has resurrected some weights off my shoulders and I can go on with my life of masturbating and drinking with the contentment of knowing; man I fucking did it. Stay in school kids, you CAN achieve your dreams.
Note: This movie may not win any academy awards, but it just might steal the nomination for best actor from Jason Statham in War. Hehe, seriously that movie sucked.
On a serious note, let me just say how great of a game Ultima Online really was. If you had the fortune of being a part of that era of gaming you know how amazing and revolutionary it was. Only a game like UO would inspire a person to devote as much time, if any, to a project like this some twelve years later. I know the game, visually, is just prehistoric compared to the surrealistic wonders of todays gaming market. But for me nothing has yet come close to replace the mark left by UO. Life of a PK II
Sucking balls, the game sucks absolute fucking balls. Read on though
From Wikipedia
“Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a game developed by IO Interactive for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows. It is described as “a cooperative action game depicting a violent and chaotic journey of two men — a flawed mercenary and a medicated psychopath — and their brutal attitude towards right and wrong. Now, they must partner up as a mess of cash makes for hell on Earth.” It has been confirmed that Lionsgate has bought the rights for the movie adaptation.[1]“
First off, Lionsgate is fucking stupid, stop buying into video game franchises when you can simply appropriate the idea behind it and improve on the fundamental flaws in cheap 3rd person games on the console and PC.
Next up is the issue of Kane & Lynch, here comes the picky bitch aspect of things. We have been playing co-op gaming on the PC in 1st and 3rd person for quite some time, as such Kane & Lynch have to essentially cross the great wall without the help of David Copperfield, given that GoW has accomplished this well in the recent year and Army of Two looks to do the same, Kane & Lynch has stiff competition given a shallow plot and a boatload of advertising money to help pave the way to stardom.
Kane is a member of of an elite underground group performing merc hits around the world (yawn) upon his last job the mission goes to hell and his team dies, he goes on the run and gets captured. Lynch is a schizo pill popping murderer, already it sounds like a match made in heaven. During gameplay Kane is the lead character (Player 1) and the AI or (Player 2) ends up being Lynch, from there it’s typical squad based fighting, by this I mean letes find an existing model of calling the AI or other player to make military style attack patterns to accomplish a goal. Of course lets take this to an urban setting and make common firearms the standard methods of attack, nothing like seeing shotguns, rifles and SMG’s for the 9000th time.
The attack methods are nothing new, jumping behind walls, peaking around, blind firing and pretty much everything else we’re already used to. It’s great that Eidos was paying attention to routes for success in gaming over the past years, Kane & Lynch in the action department wraps up as a continued entertainment to those who loved GoW but got tired, those who enjoyed KillSwitch but wanted to go Next-Gen, those who played Hitman but wanted more or pretty much anything else.
Online play is brain numbing at times, given that in most online games you get some variety, in this title you don’t get that luxury unless you bust your balls until you reach number 1 or 2 in which case you get the piss poor reward of being Kane or Lynch depending on your rating. Otherwise you get stuck as henchman #1-9999999999999 for your gameplay, unless you die in which case during the round you end up as a cop chasing your killer / former allies.
The story itself is amazingly complex, the guys you thought died in your last job aren’t dead, they sprung you from your deathrow bus and assigned a pill popping fucktard as your watchdog, the point of all this? Because even though it looks like they died, they didn’t and now they want their money that got taken from the job. The bonus to Lynch for all this? He gets Kane’s spot in the 7. The rest of the story is simple, Kane goes in to get the cases and make it right, of course in this case one of the cases is gone and by the time you go to tell Lynch, he killed everybody. So it’s a case of stupidity and a pre-determined set of problems from the get go as you try to make things right. On top of this the game goes ahead to introduce strange crime bosses and other figures with few if any actual associations to the story, suddenly a past you didn’t even know about takes you on a wild goose chase to find the case only to end up getting Kane, his family and Lynch burned. What ensues after that is the typical revenge route to make The7 pay for the almost typical betrayal route.
For me the game was average at best, on top of that the aiming system was poor and the actual enjoyability was lacking.
Given that my options are COD4, UT3, Crysis, GoW (PC), TF2 and more, I’d rather play any of those, hell I’d rather play Clive Barkers Jericho and play through endless repeats of the same basic atmospheres with a retarded squad simply because watching them squirm and suffer on the ground would be more rewarding than this garbage.
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men makes my controller hurt because of how bad the game sucks. Eidos, stick to making Deus Ex 3 good, stop churning out shit games.
The other day a buddy sent me a 10 day trial pass to reactivate my World of Warcraft account. There have been a lot of changes to the game recently so I thought I would check it all out.
… I was amazed to see a 400 person line upon hitting the login server. I mean, a line…. for WOW…. I know, I know its a popular game but seriously, a line? Isn’t this the company that just announced some 9 million active subscribers? You would think there would be some sort of technology out there that could be embraced by such a lucrative company to, i don’t know, get rid of a fucking wait line on your servers. Fuck you Blizzard.
I’ve been playing Everquest 2 for the last 2 months or so, and I just can’t decide if i like or hate the game. There are so many things that Everquest 2 does right yet somehow it seems to fall short on delivering a true satisfactory feeling. The good - Endless content. I don’t think it would be possible for anyone to complete every quest, search every corner, and kill every boss in Everquest. There is simply too much. Jack and I have been playing for 2 months and have yet to break level 40. This isn’t a bad thing. Unlike World of Warcraft and similar MMO’s, the goal in Everquest is not to reach max level and start pvping. There is plenty of PVP at every level or tier. And what makes PVP rewarding is that players drop money. There is also PVP reward armor and titles, but for me, having a player drop their money/loot brings back a certain satisfaction that until now, only Ultima Online had delivered. Now the actual PVP itself is a hit or miss situation. Id say PVP win success is determined based on the following checks - Numbers(in a group), Level, Gear, Achievement Awards, and then skill. So how the fuck is that fun? Well I dont know, but it is. I guess it isn’t so bad due to the fact that equipment is relatively easy to aquire, most can be crafted or purchased either by auction house or pvp reward. What are Achievement Awards you ask? Basically AA is another set of skills to acquire. If you are familiar with World of Warcraft, think of AA as a talent tree. However you do not automatically gain AA just by leveling. It is something separate from a characters level which must be independently leveled through questing/killing boss monsters(Named NPC’s, and various other sources. All in all there is a lot of work that must be done on ones character to make them viable in a PVP situation. However this is completely negated when out numbered in a group.
Like I said PVP is hit or miss in EQ2.
Heres how I would improve it. When I first start a character in a new MMO Game, I choose a class based on its brief introduction. I then compare that class potential to what I enjoyed in Ultima Online. Those are my roots, that is what i like. I want to have a versatile character, capable of melee damage, spell damage, the ability to heal and teleport (recall). All in all I want a character that can survive on his own as well as help out in group situations. Classes in Everquest2, like every other MMORPG on the market, offer usually 50-75% of this potential. Normally you have a priest, a druid, a mage, a fighter, a scout(rogue) and so on. What has happened over the years, is that classes have been nerfed and buffed, and tweaked, and fine tuned, all from player input, and general game progression. This has created classes which are all very balanced and crafted to work best in a group situation. No class has been left in the dark as the abortion child with 1 eye and 11 toes. However, usually every class just completely sucks at one thing. For instance Mages can use melee attacks, but why? Its completely fucking irrelevant. Mages are only given a weapon slot so that the player has one more item he must acquire in order to continue his endless pursuit of +x to Intelligence. Priests are given just insane staying power. Sheild + Ward + Heal + Dot Heal + yadda yadda. But priests just suck when it comes to offense. Then you have teleporting. For some reason, mages and druids always get the teleport spell, but every other class has to hoof it around. This is fucking bullshit. In everquest the Scout and the Mage have the ability to “Evac” Essentially it is an instant cast spell which teleports the Scout/Mage + his entire party to safety. This can be done outside of combat, for instance if a gank party attacks you, you may evac if you haven’t engaged combat. You cannot however attack someone, realize you suck ass, and try to evac to safety. It follows pretty much UO:R recall rules. This is a fucking great ability…. But only the Scout and the Mage class have that ability. This is a huge advantage in PVP, and only 10% of the classes have it. Now for those of you thinking this is what gives a game balance, I say fuck you. It isn’t balance its just annoying.
How do you keep a class based game interesting? Keep the classes. Just let the player decide what skills he wants. Simple. You can call it Scout, Warrior, Mage, Jerkasspigfucker for all I care just let me decide what abilities I bring to the battlefield. Example: Pudrick the Mage - Level 1. Maybe I have 3 abilities, Fireball, Firesheild, Attack. At level 2 I am presented with the option of deciding what new ability I want. Every ability in the game would be available, in talent tree form. So one path to travel down, lets say healing, would have its best spells at the bottom of the tier) This prevents players from having ever super spell in the game thereby maintaining balance. So now from the list of 50+ spells, lets say I choose heal. Now I have Heal, Fireball, Firesheild, and Attack You can even have a skill level for every ability. The more you use it the better you get. (Capped to level or whatever). Basically by level whatever, well say 50 the character path I have taken allows my Mage, to equally heal himself, cast offensive spells, evac(recall) track players, etc. Pretty much take all the abilties that have been created over the last 9 years in MMO’s, and let the player decide what he wants. Maybe you want to be a tank, but you also like tracking, pickpocketing, and hiding. Great. Let the player create off the wall what the fuck classes. But keep it challenging. I should be able to Heal and Tank and Stealth around. It doesn’t mean I can solo a dungeon, it doesn’t mean I can take down 5 players at once. (My level of skill decides that) Balance the obvious elements just let the player pick what he wants to do in the game without re-rolling 5 characters and /following around on a 5 box machine like some stupid ass jap farmer.
Haven’t had a chance to play Tabula Rasa yet? Wanna win a beta serial key? Simply post a funny picture of anything, anyone, photoshopped or just stolen from some random website, and a panel of judges will decide which image contains the highest hilarity:kilobyte ratio.
There is a new FPS in the works called Kwari. What makes Kwari different from all other shooters is its monetary reward system. Players will have to deposit funds into their account, and then use those funds to play on Kwari’s servers. Anytime you kill someone, you take their money, and vice versa. All in all this sounds like a promising idea. I mean griefing someone for real money is like a dream come true. Apparently there is also a jackpot and some other interesting features, all of which can be read about on the website.
Now, obviously there is one thing wrong with this entire formula… What I want to know is whose going to code the anti-cheat system? I sure hope they won’t be using Punkbuster or VAC, as we all know how impervious those wonder programs are to attack. /sarcasm. Getting killed by people using aimbot in Counter-Strike is gay enough when money isn’t involved.
JacktR asked me an interesting question: Would Ultima Online survive if it were released today? I am of course talking about a next generation UO. Not a re-release, but a new game, with 3d graphics, pixel shader 3.0 vista directx10 support and all that jazz. What it would retain, however, is the game play which made UO so different. Open-ended game play. The capability to do anything, anywhere. A game which let the players create the economy, not the NPC’s. Player housing, a feature that seems perhaps trivial to todays MMO gamer, but a truly captivating thing to have experienced in Ultima Online. That unsettling feeling that the world around you was huge, unknown and dangerous, but that you and your loot were safe in your dwelling, probably. Massive Multi player Online Role playing games have seen enormous changes from these early days of UO. For a number of reasons I believe this change was inevitable, primarily due to how these games are marketed and who they are being marketed to. Considering also the unforgiving game design of Ultima Online in comparison to the more casual approach of today’s successful MMO’s. In todays market Ultima Online would have a hard time fitting in amongst the giant powerhouses that are World of Warcraft and Everquest.
Marketing plays a significant role in how MMO’s are designed since a games chance of success is greater when targeted for a larger audience. This means a developer will probably choose the safer, already established formula when deciding what elements go into a games design. When you look at the upcoming releases which are undoubtedly influenced by our lord and savior World of Warcraft, its unlikely to expect any diversity. For a developer to take a chance and create something different, would be economical suicide. How do you promote a game which goes against such successful niches set by the industry giants? Unfortunately you don’t. Proving this is Richard Garriott’s latest creation: Tabula Rasa. The man who fathered Ultima Online sees the futility of rebirth in the MMO world, and so has stuck to the beaten trail himself. Granted Tabula Rasa has taken a new approach in not only the lore department but also the combat, the core game mechanics remain true to the dominant MMO criteria.
So what happened to Ultima Online? There are two types of players in this world, those who play Street Fighter, and those who play Animal Crossing. Simply put, people are different. Some players find the competitiveness of Counter-Strike and Halo appealing, seeking glory or bragging rights by being the best of the best. The other type of player finds this constant battle exhausting, and finds much more reward from other tasks like leveling, crafting, solving complex puzzle scenarios or simply exploring. Of course there is a middle ground, those who enjoy a little from column A and a little from column B. However the majority it seems, tends to be players from Column B. This explains the downfall of UO. Yes you could craft, skill-up (level) and definitely explore in UO, but the heart of the game was in its player cohesion. Players were forced to exist together, friendly or otherwise. This resulted in an incredible community which was extremely rewarding, especially for those who sought conflict. However for the casual gamer, the world was harsh to say the least. The outcry was large enough that it forced the design team to make some changes. Enter Trammel. Trammel was a design implementation which actually cut game servers in two. One half of the server was FFA PVP, as it always had been, and the other new half was Restricted PVP. Trammel was the first real warning sign that things were changing. Gamers were now divided. The competitive bunch stayed on one side of the line, the casual gamers on the other. Players from Column A realized all of a sudden their world was shrinking, dramatically.
So the future seems dark for those of us waiting to relive the glory days. Would UO survive if it were released today? Not likely. In fact No. The games today lack any sense of pure player vs player combat. Those that have tried to introduce a true pvp world have failed miserably, Vanguard, Star Wars Galaxies, etc. The new one to probably let us down is on its way and due out 2008. Until then we can continue to wasteourtime.
This video footage was leaked from Blizzcon07. Stealthfully captured by our very own Urahara, with the “distract the wandering game dev’s assist” provided by yours truely. I hope you enjoy the audio-less, sub-par video quality, as they may never let us back into Blizzcon again… haha
Even at this early stage, Starcraft II is looking to be an amazing game.Both Protoss and Terran were available to play in a preview Single player mission, or head to head in Multiplayer.The game play which made the original so successful remains unchanged for the most part.The addition of new units adds more diversity to the tactics and strategies available to the player.On the Terran side, there is the Viking; a unit which is capable of transformation, giving it ground or air capability.Also new is the powerful Thor, a unit so massive it must be constructed outside of the factory via an SCV.The Banshee, a new flying unit, unleashes an array of missiles on its enemies: highly effective against a squad of ground units.Finally, the Firebat unit has been removed; one of the less popular units from the original.The Protoss remain mostly unchanged since their debut in
Korea earlier this year.The Mother Ship unit has been toned down; its Black hole ability has been removed in favor of allowing the player construction of multiple Mother Ships.The Mother Ships Planet Cracker ability has also been reduced from multiple rays to a single less powerful ray.
The User Interface resembles the original but subtle improvements enhance the experience.Notable additions include; capability to select an unlimited number of units, queue able commands for worker units, and increased resolution settings.
Other features include:
-Fast-paced, hard-hitting, tightly balanced competitive real-time strategy gameplay that recaptures and improves on the magic of the original game
-Three completely distinct races: Protoss, Terran, and Zerg
-New units and gameplay mechanics further distinguish each race
-Groundbreaking single-player campaign
-Vibrant new 3D-graphics engine with support for dazzling visual effects and massive unit and army sizes
-Full multiplayer support, with new competitive features and matchmaking utilities available through Battle.net
-Full map-making and scripting tools to give players incredible freedom in customizing and personalizing their gameplay experience
I just read over at news.filefront.com that Rockstar plans to appeal the ban on Manhunt 2. The fact that the game was rated AO in the first place is appalling. There is nothing in Manhunt2 that is more disturbing than any other violent game/movie/or novel that has been released before it.
Anyhow i hope the game is released as it was meant to be and not toned down to soothe the general idiot public.
It’s always fucking amazing to see things like this. Pud of course being the man with the illegal plan at E3 this year. How on earth he even got in I don’t know.
Anyway being one of the many at the show this year especially on the Culver City lot, it was cool to see Sony looking like they were going to actually bat one out for the consumers, enter The Register / El Reg with the info from SCEE about the status of the 60GB price reduction. Guess what, the $499 deal wasn’t a kindness act by them it was so they could wipe out existing stock so they can pull yet another 20GB magic show.
For those not following it’s simple.
20GB PS3 @ 499 - Sells like fucking hotcakes out the door, instant boost to overall unit sales
60GB PS3 @ 499 - Sells like fucking hotcakes because everyone waiting for a price cut went for it thinking holy shit the PS3 is going down in price!
The catch to both was that no matter what the idea behind it was, that it was destined to sell out and become yet another cut SKU from their lineup.
Good game Sony, you honestly almost had a lot of people there. While you can get the 60GB right now, don’t hesitate on that one because it wont be around for long. News from the register notes that chances are they have already cut production of the 60GB units and are running out the inventory as this is typed.
Next up! 80GB PS3 @ 599! oh well it’s 20GB of space and Motorstorm, you know that hyped up game that fell flat on it’s face when it hit Japan and then again when it hit the US because of all the bugs that were later fixed in an “update” dude when you have like 17 patches and 1 feature, it’s not a fucking update it’s a fucking patch.
Anyway, thats all. Fucking Sony fucking the fucking consumer again because they love fucking people out of their fucking money.
One of the first games to grab my attention as I walked around the demo floor of E3 was Tabula Rasa. Being an ex-UO player, I have been waiting years now for Richard Garriott to revolutionize today’s stale MMO market with something fresh and groundbreaking. Tabula Rasa is supposed to be that project. I sat down with one of the games rep’s and played for about an hour. My initial impression was that the game looked great, crisp visuals and a simple unintrusive UI. There were a few things I definately enjoyed about the game. Before I go any farther I gotta say I am a hardcore gamer, I loved the open ended freedom Ultima Online offered. I love risk and reward. First and foremost I judge a game based on how challenging it is and how potentially challenging it can be for each individual player. There has to be much more to game than visually impressing the gamer or simplifying cumbersome game mechanics.
Tabula Rasa’s strong point is definately its “Hey dont worry ill show you what to do” interface. The markers and minimaps are abundant. If you ever find yourself lost when you first log on to an MMO, that really shouldnt be a problem with Tabula Rasa. Following the standard MMO quest system, npcs are easily located by using the games built-in map system. After a few minutes of running around the starting base, I used the map to exit the city in search of some hot Mob action. As I was on my way to pwn some NPC face, the rep sitting next to me explained the games “Logos” system. Simply put, as you journey through the games instanced dungeons, and world locales, your player collects Logos. Think of them like Spell recipes. There are literally hundreds of Logos scattered around the world. The reward for collecting these Logo’s is access to high level spells. Say you are max level from grinding, but you have done no farming or questing, chances are you wont have access to some of the games best abilities/spells. Once you have acquired the appropriate Logo’s combinations however, you will be able to train said uber ability.
Onto Combat. Being now an expert on the Logo’s sytem, I finally arrived at the battlefield. Third person shooter. Best way to describe it. I attacked the first NPC i saw with complete disregard for my inexperienced Tabula life. Of course being so pro in FPS, I totally owned the unlucky NPC with tactile strafing and merciless mouse 1′ing. Nine seconds later the suckers loot was mine. Now for you noobs out there, fret not, the combat isnt all skill-based. In an attempt to quell my awesomeness, the rep explained there is a dice-roll system working in the background. The game uses typical RPG elements to determine your hit and miss ratio. So aiming alone isn’t going to determine how often you hit your target. Though it is required you actually aim near the desired target versus just having him on screen and pressing your attack hot-button. Which is nice. The interface again is very simple, and you do most of your fighting with two keys. The left and right mouse button. Left mouse triggers your attack, Right mouse triggers your Spell ability. “Q” and “E” cycle through Attack and Spell presets in your hot bar. Making for easy mid-combat access. All in all the combat seemed neat, blending action and rpg nicely.
Now, to the reason why I won’t ever play Tabula Rasa. I know that sounds like a harsh turn around. As the rep explained to me, the game is completely instanced. Dungeons and PVP battlegrounds are all completely pre-built instances. Also the PVP is purely consensual, there isn’t even plans for a PVP server. I just don’t understand why this approach would be taken by the guy who founded open end gaming. The greatest thrill you will ever find in an MMORGP comes from the unexpected and unknown danger. Walking out into a world where you know you are in no immediate danger from player attack, and that you are guarded at all times, just ruins the excitement in my opinion. Gone are the days you will see a player on screen and wonder what deviousness he may be up to. Unfortunately this is the case with Tabula Rasa, the great game mechanics and pretty interface don’t mean shit when the gameplay depth is waist deep. I’ll be busy playing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars this summer instead of paying monthly for my FPS fix thanks.
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