I LOVE YOU MICROSOFT

10Sep08

I just opened my “repaired unit” from the Microsoft Repair Center. Instead of ol’ faithful with some new parts, I discovered that they sent a brand new 360 unit. With HDMI!

I am now a Microsoft Xbox customer for life.


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Red Ring of Death

25Aug08


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And the Gods Have Smiled Upon Us

28Jun08

As I’m sure you have heard by now, Deckard Cain is back.

It’s officially time to wave the fangirl flag. Diablo 3 is my new most-anticipated game. :)


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My New Favorite Race

15May08

It has always been my belief that if I’m going to play a fantasy game, I’m going to play a “monster”. It’s just more fun to me to play a non-human character. My old favorite face was the Tauren, but a new race has captured my heart. Who are these monstrous beauties?

My new favorite race of all time is EverQuest II’s Iskar. The artists did a beautiful job on these character models; the race looks elegant, intelligent, and merciless. I’ll post images of my own Iskar soon but until then here’s what they look like:

Thanks to the EverQuest II Vault for the image.


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Addiction’s a Terrible Thing

15May08

Has everyone had time to digest the smorgasbord of new information about Wrath of the Lich King? You can check it out here if you’ve missed the news. :)

I am determined to not return to World of Warcraft until the new expansion, I’m so tired of the Burning Crusade grind-fest. It seems to me that Blizzard is finally implementing some actual casual-friendly mechanics instead of thinly veiled faction grinds that are based upon time commitment, not skill. Casual gamers don’t suck at games; they just have a limited amount of time to play them. I think that message is finally getting through and I can’t wait to leave all of the Burning Crusade content behind me. I enjoyed questing in the new zones of the expansion and the quests in Zangarmarsh, Nagrand and Netherstorm were all fun but the other areas were sort of poop. The Burning Crusade was definitely a sophomoric slump, but I think that Blizzard has and is definitely learning from their previous efforts and the future looks bright indeed.

Some of my favorite announcements:

  • Sidecar Mounts! I love this idea and have wanted it since shortly after I began playing the game. Sure, Aspect of the Pack was decent for helping lowbies but a mount with a sidecar is so much cooler. Having an actual sidecar you could hitch to you mount would be a goofy touch; I think it’s actually going to be a larger mount with two saddles but either design decision has me excited.
  • 10 or 25 person raids! I LOVE this idea. I think every MMO on the planet should borrow this idea. Most “casual” players don’t really mind having lesser gear; they mind not being able to experience content. Whoever thought up of this idea should get a big raise, pronto.

I also like the continuation of heroics and many of the new areas look gorgeous. I love the cartoon art style as it stands up to time very well. Free Realms has the same sort of feel – I hope that game does really well but that’s another topic for another day.

J and I are also considering switching factions, just for something new when we decide to re-subscribe. I’ve played Horde 100% and I’d like to see the Alliance quests and towns from a non-PVP perspective. I just want to play something fun and easy and cruise through the content at a leisurely pace. I’m thinking Draenei hunter or Human mage. Or maybe I’ll completely lose my mind and play a Night Elf hunter.


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Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts

14May08

All of my hopes and dreams have been crushed to bits. I’m not even sure what to say beyond I thought it was near impossible to screw up the Banjo Kazooie formula. Once again, game designers in their quest to be “fresh and original” have proven me wrong. You can be fresh and original but leave the core game play intact! That’s what makes it a series, when the core of the game is the same with new content on top.

Well, at least I can still hope that Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie will come out on XBLA or Virtual Console.


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Finally an MMO to be Excited About

01May08

I’m quite often asked what MMOs I’m looking forward to playing in 2008 & 2009. I used to say none as PvP bores me (Warhammer Online) and being a woman, the thought of more titties isn’t, well, titillating (Age of Conan). There are a few of expansions that interest me but no new games. I admit I was worried that with all the recent cancellations of big-name MMOs the industry might be cooling off, but the reality is that making an MMO takes immense amount of business planning in addition to game development. I don’t think anyone can argue that this industry lacks some serious business management skills with the exception of a few studios.

After a long dark winter of nothingness there is a shining star on my horizon and it is the unannounced MMO from 38 Studios. I knew they had been quietly picking up talent from all over the industry but thus far had been mum on the progress of the actual game. Details are finally starting to trickle out of the studio and I will admit I am a tad bit excited. Reports MMORPG.com:

“While the team still isn’t talking in specifics about their MMO, we do know a few things. For instance, we know that that they are trying to make a story-driven MMO where player action matters to the world.”

I think this translates into lots and lots of my favorite mechanic, questing.

“Some time back, it was announced that Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, was a huge fan of MMOs, particularly of EverQuest II. Being a fan, he even did some promotional work with the folks at SOE. From there, we learned that he was beginning his own MMO development company. Not only that, but he was also bringing together two of the hottest names in geekdom, artist Todd McFarlane and writer R.A. Salvatore.”

I’ve been waiting for a new MMO to get excited about and it sounds as though the ladies and gentlemen at 38 Studios are on the right track to deliver.


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The Merits of Stream

15Apr08

I am a PC gamer at heart. Consoles come and go but the PC is forever, right? :) I enjoy the fact that I can pick up and play a pc game from 1997 and it will work on my modern computer equipped with Vista.

One of my favorite innovations for pc gaming is Valve’s Steam service. I am late to the party, having installed it after I purchased a retail copy of The Orange Box. Before then, I didn’t get it. My reasoning was that Steam could fall apart at any time and I would lose my purchases, besides, I like having a box to place on my shelf with a hard disk. I enjoy reading game manuals from front to back. The experience of going to the store (or Amazon.com), browsing for sales and making my selection is something of a rare treat. The excitement I feel on the drive home is palpable, contagious. How, in my mind, could a digital distribution service possibly compare?

I went through the same process with The Orange Box. I popped the first disk into my drive and installed the game. It asked me to set up my Steam account and I did so. The latest version of Steam downloaded and deployed and away I went! Except Steam was automatically downloading patches! So I decided to peruse the game selection.

Most of what was available on Steam at the time was first person shooters. Not my favorite genre. There were a few adventure games and some old games worth looking at – the prices weren’t half-bad but I knew I could find better sales. And then I discovered that I could download demos.

It is no exaggeration to say I downloaded every single demo on Steam. I even found some games to add to my “eventually purchase” list (Tomb Raider: Legend, Bookworm Adventures, the Runaway series). By this time The Orange Box games had long been ready for my gaming pleasure and so I returned to my games tab and fired up Portal.

The point of this story is how easily I was converted. I now enjoy loading up Steam and seeing the new additions to their catalogue. I like their seasonal and holiday sales, automatic patching, and my achievements list. If this is the future of game purchasing I am already there and waiting for more game publishers to get onboard.

So what does this have to do with the industry’s view on Steam? There are plenty of good reasons for developers to place their product on Steam – here’s Valve’s press release for Steamworks:

Steamworks offers:
• Real-time stats on sales, gameplay, and product activation: Know exactly how well your title is selling before the charts are released. Find out how much of your game is being played. Login into your Steamworks account pages and view up to the hour information regarding worldwide product activations and player data.
• State of the art encryption system: Stop paying to have your game pirated before it’s released. Steamworks takes anti-piracy to a new level with strong encryption that keeps your game locked until the moment it is released.
• Territory/version control: The key-based authentication provided in Steamworks also provides territory/version controls to help curb gray market importing and deliver territory-specific content to any given country or region.
• Auto updating: Ensures all customers are playing the latest and greatest version of your games.
• Voice chat: Available for use both in and out of game.
• Multiplayer matchmaking: Steamworks offers you all the multiplayer backend and matchmaking services that have been created to support Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2, the most played action games in the world.
• Social networking services: With support for achievements, leaderboards, and avatars, Steamworks allows you to give your gamers as many rewards as you would like, plus support for tracking the world’s best professional and amateur players of your game.
• Development tools: Steamworks allows you to administer private betas which can be updated multiple times each day. Also includes data collection tools for QA, play testing, and usability studies.

I would also add the Steam creates a new audience for old games. Without Steam I never would have considered picking up Thief: Deadly Shadows or Deus Ex. The hassle of finding retail copies is just too much work. Steam makes it simple and that’s why I like it.

Note: I also consider services such as GamersGate to be a viable way to get hard-to-find non-US games such as Pathologic and all those point ‘n’ click adventure games I love. If I decide to take the plunge and try this service, I’ll do a write-up.


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Video Gaming on a Budget

14Apr08

Video games are an expensive habit no matter how you slice it. I personally have a shelf full of games I have half played for one reason or another. Most of the time it’s because the game’s control scheme isn’t the best (Wii, I’m talking about you) or that the game reviews once again grossly over-praised a game.

In the past few months I haven’t purchased a single game. The last game I got in a store was Super Mario Galaxy in December 2007 and I got it entirely with Target gift cards. Before that it was October 2007 with The Orange Box, which I got on sale for $40 and free shipping.

My secrets?

Never pay full price for a game.
The single exception to this rule is if the game at launch is under $30. I will not pay more than $30 for a brand-new video game simply because I don’t have the budget to do so. This means that I still haven’t played the Fall 2007 blockbusters that are now forgotten by most gamers. Hell, I haven’t even played a fraction of Fall 2006’s blockbusters. The Orange Box was an exception because I got 5 games for $40 for an average price of $8 a game.

Use Game Trading Zone
If I find I have purchased a game and I end up not liking it I just post it on GameTZ and trade it for another game of similar value. I traded Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii) for Beyond Good & Evil for the Gamecube. Total out-of-pocket cost for the trade? $2.13 for one of my favorite games on my favorite system.

Track MMO Subscriptions
MMOs are devious because it’s “only” $15/month plus the cost of the original game and expansions. J and I had played World of Warcraft on and off since 2005. We had only paid the costs for the boxed copies, the Burning Crusade expansion, and the monthly fee. In March 2008 I sat down to figure out how much we’d spent in total to play World of Warcraft. The total cost was $825. I almost had a heart attack because World of Warcraft is definitely not worth $825. We promptly canceled our subscriptions.

If you love a MMO and know you are going to play it long-term it is almost always worth it to purchase a lifetime subscription (if possible) for a few hundred dollars. Another option is to play a game like Guild Wars where you pay $40-50 for the retail copy instead of monthly fees.

Don’t Purchase Current-Gen Consoles
This is something I wish we would have done. Instead of getting an Xbox 360 we should have purchased two Xbox 360 Controllers for Windows for $80 and then purchased the cross-platform games for significantly less. For some odd reason games for the PC drop in price much faster than their console counterparts. One could argue about the cost of video cards but you can get the BFG Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT for $215 and you’re good to go. I could also counter-argue that to get the “true” Xbox 360 experience you need to purchase a nice HDTV which will set you back at least $500. But Leah, you say, shouldn’t I buy the Nividia GeForce 9800 GX2? After all:

With two on-board GPUs, a GeForce® 9800 GX2-based graphics solution is bar-none the fastest graphics card available, and when paired with a 7 Series NVIDIA nForce® motherboard, creates the latest in a line of powerful NVIDIA gaming platforms. Be blown away by scorching frame rates, true-to-life extreme HD gaming, and picture-perfect Blu-ray and HD DVD movies.

You’ll also be blown away by the price and depreciation of your expensive new computer. One thing I would suggest is DO NOT PURCHASE BRAND-SPANKIN’-NEW-TECHNOLOGY of any sort. Wait one generation; it will save you lots of money and heartache.

One final note: the Nintendo Wii is for the most part a gimmicky piece of crap that isn’t worth the money or effort. BE YE NOT SO STUPID AS ME.


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Welcome to the Cesspit

05Apr08

I saw a forum topic today on The Escapist that I found highly ironic.

“The best FPS ever on any console”

Just in case you don’t know, FPS stands for First Person Shooter, a genre in which something runs/shambles/shoots at me so I must shoot it back. There’s the entire formula. Now to be fair I’m sure you can boil any genre down to one sentence but the FPS genre has always been the cesspit of idiocy in games, second only to the septic tank that is sports games, so the idea of having a “best” is humorous to me.

Inevitably people hold up Half Life 2 or System Shock or the recent Call of Duty 4. Which are all fine games but they all bored me silly because each game is “shoot at the moving pixels on the screen unless it’s un-obviously a civilian at which point you will be called a horrible person”. How you are supposed to know good guys from bad guys is beyond me considering everything is a shade of tan or brown.

I miss the old days when it was obvious you were supposed to shoot the giant flaming pink/red/purple demon or the big demon with red eyes that looked like a walking turd.

Yes I am talking about DOOM. That was the pinnacle of the genre and it’s all been downhill since then.


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