Author: Julian

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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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/afk

I won’t be posting much at all in the next following days for a very powerful reason: We’re moving to a new house. That includes of course packing all the stuff, transporting it, unpacking it, arranging it nicely and falling over from exhaustion.

This also includes having to deal with changing our internet provider. Unfortunately I could only choose between Comcast or AT&T for my cable/dsl needs, which is the same as saying “Would you rather be stabbed in the back or in the chest?”. Marginally, I decided to go with AT&T, but I have no idea when I’ll have internet at the new place.

The good news is I’ll finally be able to rejoin the ranks of those having decent internet. 6 meg pipe and better latency, hopefully. There’s just that matter of… yeah… when, you know, it will be installed and all.

At any rate, we’re very, very happy with our new home (it will be our first time as homeowners). I’m just dreading the actual “move your stuff” phase.

See you all soon. Fair winds, good pings, nice drops, great times.

Arena.Net: Set my people free

I’ve been revisiting Guild Wars lately (btw, the Zaishen quests seemed to reactivate things somewhat, so kudos there). If you’ve been reading these pages for a while, you know GW has a special place in my heart. No, I’m not married to it, it’s not even my girlfriend or a crush or anything like that. But it’s been a good friend, and we had a lot of fun together over the years.

Nobody’s perfect, though. However, just as in real life, you glance over other people’s imperfections just to maintain your sanity and play well with others. The problem with GW-as-a-friend is, to put it quite simply, it’s a very bossy friend. It’s a good friend, no doubt about it, fun to be with, special and entertaining. But there’s no escaping its rails; most of the time you do things the way GW wants you to do them, and may God help you.

With GW2 around the corner (ha!) maybe there’s still time for Arena.Net to take a look at the new friend they’re building up, and maybe make it a little bit more accomodating. The dynamics, I think, definitely need to change and players need to be given more freedoms.

Continue reading Arena.Net: Set my people free

Sorry to interrupt…

… the ongoing festivities, but Shack has been reporting that apparently 3D Realms has been shut down and Duke Nukem Forever has been presumably canceled. (seems to be confirmed by the updates on the news article).

Damion pointed us to the list, which is amazing.

“Let four captains
Bear Duke, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldiers’ music and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.
Take up the bodies: such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
 Go, bid the soldiers shoot.“

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.

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

Creative Anger 1: X-COM: Phoenix. An Introduction.

(if we can’t get the X-COM name rights from Take 2 we can always call it Raspberry or Doom Wombat)

This project is a remake and expansion of the classic PC title “X-COM” and its sequels. It will attempt to introduce new, key elements of gameplay which were not present in the original, while at the same time expand and cross over into a new genre, which is always risky. In addition, many elements of the original work must be kept in place and remade only as necessary.

In order to do this, the first and foremost item is to identify the original work, its elements, determine which core elements, systems and flavor we are going to keep, which ones we are going to discard, what kind of new elements we are going to introduce and determine the best possible ways to integrate them seamlessly with the main vein of the work, making sure they are conceptually sound.

Continue reading Creative Anger 1: X-COM: Phoenix. An Introduction.

Creative Anger

I’m in a rut. I could definitely use some intellectual stimulation, and I also need to work out some deep-seated anger issues through a creative outlet. So I’m going to design a game on paper. Of course, by ‘design a game’ I mean ‘just write down the design’, and by ‘paper’ I mean this very lovely blog of ours.

I’m thinking about dispensing the whole thing in chapters, as the ideas come along, so as to not crash the net with a wall of text. It could also be a good opportunity for our distinguished readership to chime in and express their likes and dislikes about the thing as I go along. Given my history (and luck) I’ll get a ton of bad comments, but the odd thumb up is bound to slip through, which makes it all worthwhile. Somehow. It would also give me a chance to defend “design decisions” against a live audience, and not just the wife whom I suspect is tired of hearing me elaborate about game theory, cuadruple-guessing player motivations and why “Diku” would be an awesome baby girl name in 20 years.

Chapter 1 will come “when it’s done”.