Month: May 2009

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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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One solution to the fiasco

(or at least, one of many)

A long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away, I was a reviewer. People agreed or disagreed with my opinions, but far and by large everybody thought my reviews were fair and hitting the points that needed to be hit. I liked that, because that’s how I set out to do the reviews – as fair opinion that hits the highs and the lows equally. I did that gig for a little shy of two years, and got to review a few titles, so I’m sure I wasn’t catastrophic at it.

So if Adventurine (or whoever) is looking for a fair review, send me Darkfall. I have no intention of “playing” the game, so you can set me up with a timed account that expires whenever it reaches the number of hours you think it’s appropriate for a fair appreciation of the game. I might form my opinion earlier, or maybe the time expires and I have to make do with what I have (which I doubt). Also, since I have no veiled interest in this game one way or another, that’s probably the best place to be to approach a review. If it’s good, it’s good and if it’s bad it’s bad and no skin off my back in either case. Not planning on “playing it” regardless, since I’m about to start dealing with a house move soon.

All I offer is fair; if I think it’s good, good for you. If you think it’s bad, then eat it, basically. Drop me a line if interested. If not, best of lucks.

Darkfall Strikes Back!

For Darkfall fans, I’m probably not their favorite blogger.  Twice I’ve titled articles with the word “DarkFail” in it.  But grumblings about me are nothing compared to the whirlwind the Eurogamer review has created.  In the Darkfall general discussion forum today, 13 of the top 20 threads are about the Eurogamer review.  Creatively, players in the game created a block of spam-text all stating “so and so has declared WAR on Eurogamer.net”

Darkfall players Protest Eurogamer
Darkfall players Protest Eurogamer

Such passion for an MMO is uncommon.  Sure, people will insist the game they play is the best and call anyone who is biased towards a different game a “fanboy”, but for Darkfall fans it seems to go deeper.  An assault on Darkfall is an assault on the playerbase itself.
Maybe it’s because Darkfall is so unique?  No other MMO allows full player-killing and looting of their corpse anymore.  For fans of that kind of gameplay, Darkfall is their last hope.

Plants vs. Zombies

Regular readers know my fondness for tower defense games. Still, I must say: Plants vs. Zombies? Fun. Syp covers most of it in his review. My bonus tip is to try the mini-games once you unlock them and Crazy Dave’s Shop. Completing the mini-games gives you a bit of money, which you can use to buy upgrades like the Gatling Pea. Quad cannons? Yes indeed.

I am through 3/5 of the Adventure mode. Super fun. I recommend the read me/FAQ. Get the trial from the official site, but buy it from Steam for half price ($10).

: Zubon

Darkfail: Critic Response

The word “schadenfreude” referrs to the guilty pleasure of watching other people fail.   It’s like watching the Angry Video Game Nerd play Superman 64.

Today’s dose of schadenfreude comes from reading Eurogamer’s review of Darkfall.  Eurogamer isn’t known for being the harshest reviewers in the biz.  Dofus and and Conan both earned 8 out of 10 by their estimation.  Even Pirates of the Burning Sea, which they describe as “broken” and “disjointed”, can get by with six-thumbs-up out of 10.  So how did Darkfall Online fair?  It got just 2 out of 10.

Here’s some quotes from the review that had me laughing:

“Enemies’ AI boils down to running in circles, which is actually surprisingly effective, considering how slow and floaty the controls tend to be.”

“Not even old-school EverQuest – which was actually graphically superior- felt quite as stiflingly slow and ponderous in its levelling curve.”

“It doesn’t even have the basic features that make up even the most lackluster and dull cookie-cutter MMOs”

“Underneath the lack of originality, there’s a hole where the game should be: a loose, incongruous mess of bad controls, horrible user interface, and broken combat system.”

“Even if you were so inclined to take part in this painful experience, it’s rather difficult to actually buy it.”

“It’s the emperor’s new clothes of 2009: such a marvellous game that only an idiot wouldn’t realise the beauty of the gaping holes in its content, its wonky control system, and its seemingly decade-old engine”

Hypothesis

The City of Heroes power Super Jump is a more entertaining method of travel than anything in any other game.

Competing claim: Inertial Reduction is an area effect Super Jump, letting everyone bounce like Gummi Bears, but that awesomeness is mitigated by its having a minute-long duration and requiring re-application.

: Zubon

The Newest Rat Killer

The last to be created in Ravious’ eventual world-conquering rat farming team was born healthy and happy today:

Brynn Yvaine, weighing in at a tank-like 9 lbs., 1 oz. zoned in to the hospital room with full HP.  Unlike her sister contemporary (who gave such fearsome battle cries), Brynn preferred to follow the path of the silent ninja.  All the rats in the surrounding five zones fled, fearing their imminent demise.

Continue reading The Newest Rat Killer

Fast Leveling in Older Games

Bug or feature?

Many games with expansion packs have started speeding their players to the end, so that they can be where all the other players are (and need to buy the expansion pack to advance). WoW does this most visibly, even before having you invite friends for triple xp and zebra love. The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢ made the early levels faster and started running nigh-continuous bonus xp weekends, weeks, and months.

City of Heroes may have done this with Mission Architect. Farming is more or less constant. You can pick the enemy best optimized for your character or make your own perfect foe. Grab friends, smash, repeat. A single run through a good farm will get you to level 20. This differs from normal powerleveling because Architect can be set up to auto-sidekick everyone to the same level range. You no longer need bridges, care in mission selection, or anything: pick your ideal enemy, fill a mission with copies of that one guy, and smash. If that is too hard, add pets that will increase your defenses.

City of Heroes, however, has no endgame. There are a few hard things to do at 50, but mostly you can just keep running missions. A variety of tools let you do pretty much anything at 50 that you could earlier, so it is always better to be higher level, but it is not as though you are raiding or something. Getting to 50 means being 50, maybe farming for those purples.

City of Heroes is, however again, very alt-friendly, complete with sales of extra character slots of more alts. Want to try a new character? Bam, level 20 in an hour, try a dozen new powers. Out of character slots? Bam, $20, 5 more. If people are racing to the level cap and re-rolling, that can only mean more money. Or they quit, but your most competent power-levelers are long-term players who came to peace with the lack of endgame years ago.

: Zubon

Darkfail: The Community

When I’m at work, supposedly working, I often read the Darkfall forums.  I don’t play Darkfall, and I hope I never do, but I love their forums.  I have a kind of sick sense of humor.   I enjoy reading the cries of disappointed new players.  I love hearing how broken and empty a game Darkfall is despite having launched their website eight years ago.

Today, I want to show-case their player base.  This is a post on their forum:

Dirty[JOE]:

You are lucky I haven’t had the window to purchase this game. When I do, you will all be dead. griefed. raped. empty. soul and bag.

I came from darktide, when there was no rules. you entered a portal to farm levels, you died. over and over. my ua/melee/missle spec’ed tank ripped your ass up. over and over. you ran the field, you saw me, i raped you as you ran, pott’ed, didnt help, you knew you were dead. Tank Abbott gave you nightmares.

I love the amount of people here. Lots of farmers/EU’s/noobs. You are mine for the pillaging.

Be warned. All your everything belongs to me.

Dirty

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The responses to this post included such delightful comments as, “Go back to WoW” and “I raped your mom while you were in diapers”

Creative Anger 2: Shaping the Game World

We have quite a few things to solve here, and a lot to translate. Unlike the original, for this one we will need a game world that:

-          Can accommodate many players, be persistent and offer different stages of experience to different players at all times.
-          Can do away with the original division between Geoscape and Tactical Combat.
-          Is structured in a way that can support many different avenues of play.
-          Is able to be instanced and portioned, as required.
-          Is a dynamic entity that can be transformed as the overall gameplay evolves.

Continue reading Creative Anger 2: Shaping the Game World