Month: August 2007

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Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.

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I must have revenge.

My pal Ben from ars’ Opposable Thumbs got to go to PAX, and I didn’t. I’ll just let that insult sink in for a minute.

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Good? Good. Wronged as I was, I still would like to point to their pretty good coverage of the event. In particular, to draw your attention to Wil Wheaton’s keynote, which was trés cool, and almost required listening if you’re an old ricketty gamer like me. If you have time to spare, give it a spin.

All this courtesy, of course, of the good folks at PA and Op.Th. . Thanks guys. Thanks for not taking me. ;)

So Long

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night
I hate to go and leave this pretty sight
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu
Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu
So long, farewell, au revoir, auf wiedersehen
I’d like to stay and taste my first champagne
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye
I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye — Goodbye!
I’m glad to go, I cannot tell a lie
I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly
The sun has gone to bed and so must I
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye

Goodbye!

Thanks to Everyone in the Central Wastelands — 08/31/07

With Auto Assault closing down tonight, we wanted to thank all of you for creating a tremendously cool and dedicated community of Wastelanders. We just didn’t want to give you guys a wild, crazy event tonight, but something else that may be just as fun. In the coming days those that are eligible will be receiving a “Parting Gift” message in your e-mail inboxes, with opportunities to take a part in some of our other products, including Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa and City of Heroes. It’s our way of saying “Thank You” to the diehard Auto Assault fan base and we hope to see you in are other virtual worlds.

Another RL Invasion

I work for the government. I get to tell our partners, “Good news, your project has been approved! Once you enter the edited application into the online system, I can review it and route it to financial section and the grants manager, then if they don’t have any issues I can immediately send it for final review from the section manager. After your authorized official officially submits it, our division director can approve and then we will send you the approval letter. Then you are set to run it through your local bureaucracy! (This is all conditional, of course, on approval from the State Administrative Board, along with the state and federal funding coming through, but we will run that paperwork concurrently.) I will let you know if there are any questions or revision requests along the way. We are almost there!” This is the fastest and most streamlined the process has ever been. We start planning for fiscal year 2009 soon.

Today I sat at my desk thinking, “I hate lag.”

: Zubon

PC vs. Console

One question…

How many of you have played games on a console but not on your PC? Alternatively, how many of you play games on your PC but haven’t bothered to buy a console, or have one collecting dust somewhere?

I’ll comment more after I see what the responses are like.

End part one….

LoTRO tries too hard

While I’ve been nuttily busy, a friend passed me a 10-day trial code for LoTRO. I had mentioned previously that this is pretty much the only major MMORPG I hadn’t played, and so I felt I had to give it a try. Summary: It’s a decent game, but it tries too hard to please too many people, and thus ends up leaving some wanting.

Continue reading LoTRO tries too hard

Spin To Win

“…the Hottest MMO of the Year”

“…the second largest MMORPG”

We're Number 2!

What game is this? No, not that one. Guess again. Give up? It’s Lord of the Rings Online, at least according to the latest press release. 4 million characters? What does that even mean? I have 5 characters. Lets even assume everyone has 4 characters, that translates to 1 million subscriptions. Are they counting people that cancelled? Free trials? Where do they get these numbers?

Oh look here – way at the bottom: “Comparison data includes subscription-based MMORPG titles developed in North America based on reported data.”

I am more interested in seeing how these companies spin the statistics than almost any other aspect of the game.

– Ethic

Dungeon Maintenance Fees

You can play Dungeon Runners for free, with no limit to time or levels. You can go sign up right now, play until the level cap, then start a new account and do it again.

Your $4.99 per month buys you the full features. You cannot equip the top three tiers of items unless you are a paying member, meaning you will have worse damage and defenses. Members can use the good potions that stack in inventory, meaning you get more pack space. Only members can use the bank to hold items. If there are queues, members go to the front of the line.

Is it worth it? There is no box to buy, so your cost really is just $5 for each month you play. If you played Diablo II for less than 6 months, you would have been better off with this. Also, you can play for a month, leave when you get bored, play another month after a few dungeons are added, and so on. It might take you years to get through six months, over which time there will be the equivalent of several free expansion packs.

It is a free download with unlimited trial, so give it a shot. Play through the newbie area until you get to Townston. If that was fun, play until level 10, to see if the gameplay is sphexish. If you are still having fun, throw them $5 and start using the good items. It was much better entertainment than I got from that matinee of Terminator 3.

: Zubon

A week in the dungeon: day 1 2 3 4 4.5 5 6 7

G.I. Letdown

In non-game related news, a new G.I. Joe Movie has been announced, and the specifics of the plot and setting changes have created one of the largest letdowns in classic Americana history.   The “Real American Hero” is actually going to be changed to appeal to a broader international audience, and instead, the initials GI JOE will stand for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity.

I couldn’t make this crap up even if I tried…

Continue reading G.I. Letdown

Sphex Mage

Log on mage, enter the dungeon for your level. Option 1: fight one group at a time by pulling with fire bolts, shooting down enemies as they come. Use AE as melees swarm. Clean up with more fire. Option 2: aggro multiple groups and get enemies to cluster. Use AE attacks while chugging potions as needed. Clean up with more fire. Option 2 works better with melee enemies, and it is more interesting as option 1 is mostly holding down the left mouse button.

Still, there is only so much fun you can get from this. It does not vary. The attacks are a few options with different colors for different types of damage. Fighting red rats at level 20 is much the same as fighting brown ones at level 2. Each dungeon does add new models, along with new versions of old enemies, but skeletons with plasma rifles fight just like rats with flamethrowers. The only changes of pace are enemies with annoying abilities (heals, stuns) and champions, who are the same enemies with more hit points. Increasing the numbers does not change the fundamental.

Four dungeons into it, the boss fights are nothing special. Sissirat is my favorite so far: the first boss and a huge fight with poison everywhere. Algor is just a melee bruiser. Vergrim was annoying and frustrating, constantly floating around while summoning exploding rats (that knock you down for three seconds. Each). Widow Maker is a big spider who summons little spiders, who also roots and debuffs.

I think I got all the gameplay in my (less than) one month of play. I may return at some point when I feel the urge to kill ten rats.

: Zubon

A week in the dungeon: day 1 2 3 4 4.5 5 6 7