Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Theatre of War 3 Korea announced

Perhaps right on time with current news events Battlefront has announced that the next installment of the Theatre of War series will be in Korea. Not modern Korea mind you but the 1950-1953 conflict.

What is new you ask? Well personally I could not stand TOW2 Kursk. I thought it was a jumled, laggy and crappy RTS game with poor controls and unit information. The new TOW however promises to add new features.
In this title, and for the very first time in the series, armchair generals can test their skills on an entirely new strategic level as well – the operational game mode allows you to freely move your forces over the entire Korean Peninsula, managing reserves, as well as fuel and ammo supply, and adds whole new dimension to the tactical battles.

Won't sell me really since games like Operational Art of War cover Korea better and are like 8 years old but who knows. I have little faith in Battlefront to be honest. By the way if you do not buy their digital download insurance to download a game after about a year if you need to they basically tell you to fuck off. So in return I tell them to fuck off. Enjoy.

Monday, November 29, 2010

LOTRO releases its November update and it is mammoth

Lord of the Rings Online announced a GINORMOUS patch today providing even more free content to totally free to play players and expanding on many classes and quests. The full patch notes are so large they had to be presented in outline format on their site and you can read them all here:

http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release_Notes_November_2010_Update_Official

For the lazy I have, as usual, taken the honor of cut and pasting some of the jiggly bits.
Free and Premium players will now be able to enter the regions of Moria, Lothlórien, Mirkwood, and Enedwaith for FREE! We have adjusted the access of Free and Premium players. You may now follow the Epic Storyline through Moria, Mirkwood and, Enedwaith. This includes free access to the following:

  • The Legendary item system

  • Attain level 65

  • Access Moria, Mirkwood, Lothlórien, and Enedwaith regions


Note: You will still need to purchase the appropriate quest packs or expansion packs to access other content (quests, deeds, instances, classes, etc) in these areas.

Tasks are free repeatable quest that players can use to augment their leveling within the game world. Here are highlights of Tasks system:

  • Over 250 Tasks

  • 100% FREE to all players

  • Use existing trophy drops

  • NEW Deeds and Rewards

  • Available starting at level 8

  • Infinitely repeatable


For all of the details on this new system you can read Allan “Orion” Maki’s Developer Diary.

The Elf and Dwarf starting areas in Ered Luin have been completely revamped! Create a new character and try it out for yourself! You can read the all the details in Lauren “Budgeford” Salk’s developer diary.

You have given us a tremendous amount of feedback since our major overhaul of the Vault and Shared Storage systems. We’ve heard you! These systems have received a major rework. Read Ransroth’s Developer Diary for the full details.

The scoop on Aion's return to the game special

Beginning on December 3rd and running through December 13th, NCSoft and Aion developers are beginning a reactivation campaign for players who have not played in awhile and whose accounts are in good standing. The campaign will allow former Aion-ites to check out the game free for ten days, earn double XP and 99% off of Soul Healing on the 11th and 12th.

That's it. Nothing too special but for current players hop in there and take advantage of that double XP!

Pirates of the Burning Sea has gone F2P

Wait wha? You may say to yourself "This game is still around?" but it is and it has gone the way of the free to play.

The patch went live November 24th as per this post on their official site

http://www.burningsea.com/page/news/article&article_id=271055

There is of course a premium membership available. The differences between free and premium are outlined on their site. The game has lasted two years which is amazing to me as I have tried TWICE to give it a shot but just didn't get "it".

Perhaps this post on the game's forums sums it up?
It's a real tribute to the incompetence of the MMO gaming industry that POTBS is the only game that has really good ship combat.

And no, don't even bring up EVE. Of all the positive things to say about EVE, "good ship combat mechanics" is not one of them.

STO is a distant second place on this one. The shield arcs and 3-D combat were good but the over-reliance on magic abilities and arcade style speed did not appeal to many Star Trek fans.

DAOC does deserve an honorable mention for at least having large, sensible outdoor combat.

The latest WAR patch notes actually look really good but their initial design was unforgivably stupid.

Anyway, POTBS as a "classic"? I guess. In PC game terms, anything over 2 years old is either a classic or in the garbage bin.

edit: Oh wait, how could I forget Planetside? Now there was a game with some epic PvP combat. And maybe Battleground Europe, depending on how you feel about realistic simulators.

Notice Darkfall never makes the mention on any MMO site? That is because it is shit. Like Shadowbane. To be forgotten in the morass of failed MMO's.

Fallen Earth: a case of cloned wives

Jacob Phillips was cloning his wife. It has been discussed before. Unfortunately for the entire town of Terrance he stores the failed clones in the fenced in backyard of a local house. They are all there. Maura Zero who was a pathetic failure and barely human, Maura White, Maura Red and even Maura Blue. In Fallen Earth one of the quest chains has you dealing with Jacob Phillips and his insistence on returning his dead wife to her former glory. One such quest has you taking DNA samples and bringing them to a local doctor so that he may try to decipher what Phillips is doing wrong and fix it once and for all. Until then you are stuck having to witness the terrible price of his failures as they wander around the backyard displaying their idiosyncrasies. From the drooling hairless Maura Zero to the psycho Maura Red they are all there waiting to talk to you.







Sunday, November 28, 2010

EVE Online Incursion patch notes

While I still dabble in EVE Online from time to time I just find the game incredibly too boring to get involved in its e-peen PVP drama and whatever else the players would tell you is so "awesome" near end game.

I just do not enjoy the game as much as I think I should but perhaps the more I play and the more I gain monetarily I can up my equipment (aka ship) and play with some big corporation in the future. For now however I have too many other games to write about and too many other more FAST MOVING titles to jump into and beat the crap of things.

The new patch notes for Incursion are lengthy and include a ton of new changes to game however so I may have to jump in and play around with what I have access to at my puny little level.

You can read all of them here but I will cut and paste a few notes for the lazy.

  • A dedicated salvaging ship, the Noctis, has been added to EVE Online

  • The EVE client is now resizable in Windowed mode

  • Fighter Bombers now have a new missile effect, which looks awesome and doesn’t make the servers beg for mercy at the same time

Avoid the Massively MMO news site as it is pure journalistic garbage

With its click to read ads and now spamerific Joystiq support the site has become a cess pool of shitty free to play articles and content written by MMO noobs that have lost all touch with the games they are covering. In general most the advice they give is either wrong or downright out of date for the premium MMO's and their free to play coverage includes some games that many do not even consider MMO worthy.

Almost as bad as Ten Ton Hammer (but not quite) the site has taken on the keen ability to simply grab content from other sites, post a quip then claim it as a new article on their front page.The only issue with Ten Ton Hammer is you have to click 5 times or so to get to the actual article so that they can collect advertising per click on their site.

Massively has always had the worst commentators and the most mundane articles but now more than ever it is and should be the last place a true MMO gamer should get their information.

Instead of wading through the contrived articles and low knowledge writers the site sports the best way to get information on the game you are playing is to go directly to the site of the game. Follow the devs on Twitter, check them out on Facebook, do a little legwork for yourself and learn about your game. Don't accept the tripe on Massively to be the ultimate truth.

Along with their ridiculously noobish articles comes their even more ridiculous podcast with their so called "experts" that host an hourly long synopsis on why they cant level in a game or some games are too hard and no one should be forced to pay subscription fees. Not only do they play the worst games on the market they are terrible at what they do and totally out of sync with the majority of the MMO players. I guess if you play a game one hour a day and hate using your wallet to subscribe to anything from HBO to MMO's then this may be the best podcast in the world for you. Otherwise take a pass on it and spend your time with other quality casts devoted to the game you are playing.

Massively has done as much work to dumb down the MMO community and create a cadre of whining casual players as World of Warcraft has and frankly it is a shame that they have as many followers as they do. I could run circles around all those asstards in any MMO conversation. Get me on there Shawn Schuster and I will take great pride in exposing your weak gaming knowledge to everyone that listens to that banal podcast. Then I can take the show over and turn it around to a real source for gamers.

Is DCUO just "average? The answer may be yes

You only get one Launch Day.

It honestly doesn't matter that much what you hope to add in a year, what neat things you're holding to release along side the Green Lantern movie, and how excited your staff is to still have jobs that let them keep piling missions on this engine. If the game isn't widely appealing AT LAUNCH your subscriber base will evaporate before you get a chance to show them how good you could be, maybe, sometime down the road, if we just pay we a fee every month to prove it. "Starting to build..." Is not gonna cut it.

I honestly don't understand what DCUO is shooting for - I keep hearing "its more action game than RPG" as justification for some of the design choices, but the PS3 has lots of action games and the ones that hit big have better graphics, smoother/more accessible gameplay, and most importantly of all, only expect to hold your attention with their particular mix of features for about 50 hours. Kratos, Belmont, and Starkiller don't expect you to pay a monthly fee to do it all again with a minutely different build the second time through. Depth and variety of customization is where DCUO may distinguish iteself from its action game competitors, eventually. Where it may justify a recuring fee.

You've done some good work here. The environments are 90th percentile or better (that's intended to be complimentary). The weapons combo trees give a good range of player-side experiences, balanced against the inevitable repeation of enemy behavior as you level up your 4th or later alt. Voice acting is passable. Putting enemies in 6 kinds of balls is cute (if grossly overused).

The giant list of DC Universe Online tips and tricks

Thought I'd start this post of a things I wish I had figured out when I first started playing.  A post so big I will have to insert a break. Click the jump to read the entire post:

UI/CONTROLS

1) Use the Mouse-wheel during the Character Creation process to see all the options.  Scroll bars were apparently recently added, but the Mouse-wheel also works great.

2) You don't have to hit "E" if you use a mouse.  You can just click both mouse buttons at any npc or item that is "E" interactive.

3) Slash commands...there aren't a lot ingame yet, but here are the ones posted so far (you can hit "o" to get to the chat window):

/say - Say something to anyone in your local area
/s - Same as /say
/groupsay - Say something to members of your group
/group - Same as /groupsay
/g - Same as /groupsay
/party - Same as /groupsay
/p - Same as /groupsay
/tell [name] - Send a private message to another person (use quotes around names with a space)
/t - Same as /tell
/reply - Send a private message to the last person that sent you a private message
/r - Same as /reply
/shout - Shout a message to everyone in the same region (like say but broader)
/invite [name] - Invite another person to join a group with you (no quotes needed)
/leave - Leave your current group
/kick [name] - Kick the specified person from your group (no quotes needed; must be leader)
/promote [name] - Promote the specified person to be the group leader (no quotes needed; must be leader)

Friday, November 26, 2010

When making in game Aion stores be creative with your name

Title says it all.

Effective too, I sold everything. Apparently hardcores hate WoW as much as I do.

Final Fantasy XIV gets a new UI patch


Not following our American holidays the folks at Square Enix were busy working away on Thanksgiving to bring Final Fantasy XIV players a much needed patch. Included in the patch was a HUGE upgrade to the sluggish and laughable UI. Hey to video game nerds this is way better than cranberry sauce and stuffing. The full notes can be read here: HOWEVER to me the most important fixes are listed below:


Main Menu

  • Reponse time of the user interface (UI) has been improved.

  • Skill and experience bars have been added to the main screen.

  • Attributes & Gear has been split into two options on the main menu, Attributes and Gear.

  • The profile displayed when examining another player has been changed. Item details can now be viewed without selecting a slot. Active linkshell details are now displayed in the log.

  • Scrolling on the map can now be performed by dragging the mouse.

  • A Loot option appears in the Interactions menu whenever one or more items occupy the loot list.

  • The display of inactive UI widgets has been altered.

  • The gamepad can now toggle auto-run on and off, even when a UI widget is active.

  • Cursor positions are now saved independently for the Ctrl and Alt macro palettes.


These are just a FEW of the things that were fixed. The list is huge so check it out for yourself and see if your most hated bug was squashed over the holiday.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

DC Universe Online: how targeting works

Not sure how something as basic as targeting can confuse today's dumbed down MMO crowd but apparently it does.

=== TARGETING in DCUO ===

Mouse and Keyboard Default Behavior:

If you're using the mouse/keyboard, you can target by using your camera. Whatever character is closest to a position just above your avatar's head becomes the "soft target," identified by a square red reticule. If you steer that over an enemy, he'll light up with the "soft target" reticule.

Once you have a soft target, hit TAB to hard lock it. The red square will tighten to a red circle and won't let go until you hit ESC or knock out the enemy. When you have hard lock engaged, you can hit TAB again to cycle to the next target to the left, or you can hit Q to cycle to the next target to the right. When targeting cycling this way, the game first chooses from nearby targets, and if you cycle through all of those, jumps to distant targets.

Mouse and Keyboard Options:

Help Reticule: If you activate Options/Targeting/Help Reticule, a yellow box will appear on your screen, showing you the "targeting hot spot" the game uses to soft lock enemies. If you steer the "hot spot" near and enemy, the red "soft lock" reticule will appear.

WASD Targeting: If you activate Options/Targeting/WASD Mode, you will soft lock enemies based on your character's facing instead of the camera heading. This makes targeting function as if your keyboard was a giant joystick. If you want to attack something, turn your character to face it.

People that think WoW is hard are the reason I left

"I dont know how people even play WoW in moderation, as it is a game that is specifically designed as a time sink and 99% of the high-level content REQUIRES that you spend a significant amount of time every day to even see this content."

Don't be a clueless twit. Shows how much the typical Blues News poster knows about MMO's. WoW is the most casual idiot friendly MMO out there, something even a moron can level cap in and spend 30 minutes a day doing a dungeon at level 80 and eventually getting good gear.

It is also the reason I am not there anymore due to the huge stream of morons that play this game, a huge percentage of them not knowing how to play properly at end game. A huge percentage of them being total inadequate buffoons when it comes to MMO playing 101. All of the cosmetic ballyhoo that Cataclysm brings and the recent price drop only means that tons of rerolls, alts and under geared morons will infest the new 80-85 level dungeons and will simply have to be taught basic MMO mechanics. I am not down for that and after 6 years I am quite tired of it.

So for some naive poster to claim over and over again that ALL MMO's are timesinks and WoW is just "horrible" simply means that the majority of gaming so called enthusiasts are simply out of touch with the genre and not the experts they quite thought they were. MMO's span a huge range of grindy to casual. From the kindergarten mind level of Free Realms to the terribly disgusting Lineage II you can find one to fit any gameplay style. However WoW just happens to mix it up the best. Unfortunately it does it too well and wading through the cesspool of retards at the bottom has become more and more difficult due to shrinking guild sizes and elite player base.

Ok now I am done.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Little holiday blogging time off

Well for Thanksgiving I am taking a little week off from blogging but that does not mean my gaming is slowing down. I am still heavily active in Fallen Earth (another story coming soon) and I hit about 38 hours played in Aion yesterday in less than 6 days. Not too shabby. My cleric is level 12, my templar is level 12 and my scout hit 9 and he will become an assassin. I have still been dabbling in Final Fantasy XIV and my verdict is still out on that one. The game is clumsy so I am just not sure I like the UI.

On the wargaming side I picked up Horse and Musket Volume 1 over at Matrix games as they have a holiday sale going on and a sale at Matrix Games is rare indeed.

Here are the titles on sale:

http://www.matrixgames.com/news/738/Matrix.Games.Announces.their.2010.Holiday.Sale!

Alright everyone have a good holiday and I will be back afterwards with updates on what I pick up during the STEAM sale and a little Fallen Earth tale of the cloned wife that failed....part two.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Fallen Earth: Frank Grimes is insane

In my return to Fallen Earth I have decided to have one character craft and one be the rifleman and the combat guy that gets the jobs done. This approach is not unusual for an MMO player in a game that is heavy on making your own way like Fallen Earth, EvE Online and say Ultima Online were. So it was that my "combat" character was stuck facing a tricky quest chain in Terrance (a little starter town) involving turning off a zombie making machine. You heard that right. Frank Grimes, in an effort to clone or replicate a dead love interest, had been failing and his invention had been producing disgusting half dead mistakes.

I had been laboring with this quest for a while. When I first started I was level 4 and honestly had a tough time with it. The way into the complex, the way out and all around were full of zombies. After I leveled to five and then six I had a much easier time and finally buckled down and decided to finish the quest. Upon entering the complex and turning off the machine and power hub as well as assisting Frank Grimes with his "issues" I returned to him for the quest turn in.

I got the battery from Grimes and knew this was some sort of setup because now I had to go into Terrance and hijack the radio signal there so that the machine could broadcast a message. To me it was obvious that Frank Grimes had grown to worship the machine like a messiah. When I told him the machine told me to do its dirty work he flipped out.





Well that was enough of that. Off I went with the battery to finish this HUGE quest chain and maybe hit level 7 today. Of course the radio was not in a easy place but in a building full of freaks that had moved in outside of town. I fought my way upstairs with my trusty garden hoe and activated the radio.

I finished the chain and managed to get outed at the same time. Thanks radio broadcast.

The quest texts in Fallen Earth are top notch for the most part and do tell some good stories. Make sure you read them ok? This is not a WoW like click and take fest for phat lootz. There is a little RPG in this MMORPG.

Below is a video showing how much fighting I had to go through. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9riWRSGZg4

Monday, November 22, 2010

Mistakes I made early in FF XIV

So I got the game and started it out making a few crucial errors that some people may want to avoid. I made a lancer that started in Ul'Dah. I did a few of what amounts to be FF XIV's daily quests called "leves" but one that I grabbed was for a botanist rank 1. If you didn't know you can change careers in this game by simply equipping a new item in the main hand and leveling up with it. for example if I wanted to go from a "warrior" to an "archer" I would ditch my sword and start shooting with a bow. This would gain me ranks with a bow and the abilities of an archer. If I went back to a sword my warrior abilities would reactivate. Weird I know since it seems spending the ability points you get on certain level gains would gimp one type of character over the other.

So what did I do wrong? Lots. I attempted to buy a botany tool and bought the off hand wrong version, so I was not able to swap it out to do the leve and thusly failed it due to time running out. This was mainly caused by me having to run around the city vendors and find one that sold the tool. The vendors in the game have NO descriptors over their heads. You have to check the inventory of each one to see what type of vendor it is. Without using the internet I failed miserably at this and ran out of time due to the ever laggy menu system that takes forever to appear on the screen. I also ran out of money after I bought the off hand botany tool.

I also noticed I was not able to UNEQUIP armor. I just wanted to try and get naked. There is a reason for it though and I found this out later after asking for some clues on a message board.

  • The main hand tool is the hatchet, you must have it to switch to the botanist class. You need this tool to chop trees. The second tool is the scythe, which is for harvest points.

  • You must always have a main hand weapon equipped, which is why you can't unequip your lance. You also cannot equip a secondary tool without first equipping the main. In this case, you need to equip the hatchet first to change to botanist.

  • You cannot have no weapon equipped. There is no neutral class, you will always be a class of some sort and the weapon or tool equipped in the primary will always designate what class you are. You cannot be "no" class.

  • You can un-equip any of your clothes except the undershirt and underpants unless you have a replacement item in your inventory. You cannot run around butt-naked.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

How the Fallen Earth respec saved my fears of playing badly

There was never a doubt that Icarus Studios has done a bang up job supporting their MMO but there was a doubt for me each time I log in. My doubt stems from the fact that the game is so open world I have no clue where to begin. Mostly the problem I have is the issue of whether or not to spend the coveted AP that I earn through questing. I am starting over again for the third time as I attempt to grasp the game and each time I am stuck with the issue of what I want to do. I do not feel in Fallen Earth that crafting and leveling go well together. I feel like if I want to be a crafter I will most certainly suck at everything else I try to do. This is in sharp contrast to excellent crafting titles like Everquest 2 or Vanguard. In those games you are not PUNISHED for crafting by sucking at combat, or vice versa. Early on in Fallen Earth I feel that any points I spend AP wise must be allocated toward combat or I will not be able to survive.

Most of the people I talk to have regretted AP expenditures at max level and are gimp in one way or another and there are NO respecs in the game. Part of me wants to wait until they add some system like that into the title before I start to play earnestly because despite all my research and the handy in game templates they have I still read that certain things will ruin your character. All of this is a tad bit overwhelming and has prevented me from approaching the game as a happy go lucky player. That is exactly what I was until I started listening to the podcasts and reading the forums, at which time I freaked out and became afraid to spend one single AP.

In Fallen Earth, for those that have not played, AP's are king. Every stat begins at 11 and increases by level in addition to points gained through Advancement Points. Since certain stats effect combat and crafting putting the AP's into the wrong areas as you level can be killer. There used to be no way to respec so depending on what you want to do you were a little locked in. AP's are gained through quests and such so it is possible at higher levels to have hit up all the quests you can and suddenly run out of AP's to spend.

Now in my opinion since you are a "clone" there should be some respec option involving erasing your memory and allowing you to respend AP's. This feature has now been added. This flies against the grain of a lot of the game's purists as they want it hardcore and I understand that. However, even UO and later EQ2 had some sort of way to fix mistakes. With the documentation and guides about Fallen Earth split all over the place even research makes it difficult to pinpoint how to play or which way to go. Also I refuse to use cookie cutter builds like World of Warcraft. I also do not want to pick some flavor of the month combat spec. What I want to do is play the game free form and not worry that my early mistakes will ruin my character in the end. Even in Everquest 1 if I needed more AA's I can turn off XP and go grind to get more points. In Fallen Earth you really have to watch what you spend.

I think that all this worry stopped my initial fun factor I was having in the game as a bright eyed and bushy tailed player that was just having fun and spending points where I thought it would be cool (rifle, crafting both at once etc etc). Now I log in with a fear that I have to pick a path and stick to it and thus the game becomes a lot less fun for me. Luckily they added this free respec option and that has eased my fears a little.

Thoughts from Fallen Earth experts?

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Aion 2.1 will fix drop rates and change the game's outlook

I didn't say it the community manager did:
Aion 2.1 has changed the way that you experience your favorite game thanks to this update’s significant increase in drop rates. Please give us your thoughts and experiences on how these changes have impacted you as a player and the way that you play Aion. To join the conversation, visit our Aion 2.1 feedback thread at the official forums. (Remember to keep your feedback and posts civil and constructive.) Do you want the Aion team to answer your question or discuss a topic of your choice? Send an email to community_aion_en@ncsoft.com with your character name, server, and question!

The Koreans are play testing this patch right now as they sit at their keyboards starving to death playing 24/7. Here are the patch note sneak peeks:

http://powerwiki.uk.aiononline.com/aion/Patch+Notes+2.1.0.1

How did patch 2.0 fix the game to my liking?

RMT is gone, bots are gone, PvP rifting has been nerfed, exp and drops have been increased, servers have been merged and solo as well as new instances have been added. Sure I am not level capped, nor do I care. The journey is GETTING THERE. So far I have been bored at every MMO I have level capped in so that is not a priority for me.

Aion has a lot to learn for a new player

This game is not for the timid and certainly not for the casual at heart. This makes it a uphill struggle for any former WoW playing retard that joins the game. A recent podcast, Grind It Out, had a great quote in their episode 15. About 9 minutes in it was said that "90-98% of the WoW playerbase does not know how to play their class" and I have to agree.

WoW's ease of play breeds morons. This is a fact. Aion is not an easy game and is very geared toward supporting other players and working together much like Everquest 1 used to be. Remember communities in MMOs folks? Yeah I bet many of you dont since you are post 2004 WoW babies. But I do REMEMBER communities and people working together and I do remember MMO's being hard and that is what I miss. Aion fits that bill well. Aion is not easy, but it is not hard like pre 2004 MMO's. It is a great in between game and fits my needs well. You can die easily if you are not careful, you need to WORK for your gear, you need to pay attention and most of all you need to not be an idiot.

Aion caught a lot of flack about a month after it launched and over the past year it lost a lot of people but I am approaching it from a new standpoint and I have to say I wish I had stayed in the game when it launched instead of falling for Blizzard's shit and going back to WoW. I recently hit level 10 on my new Templar and level 10 on my new Cleric. My girlfriend has a level 10 sorcerer and when she is not on I play my alts. My goal is to get all my alts out of Poeta (the starter island) and have them all ready to level up and go.

Want pictures? Check out the Blunt Force Gamer Picasa account. I will update as my travels continue.

As far as WoW goes I am done. WoW does lead all MMO's in technology. I will miss the ease of getting dungeon groups with that PUGinator I won't lie. Nothing beats logging in and knowing you will get a group in 10-15 minutes even as DPS. Now in Aion it is back to LFG spam and begging for group invites. I am used to it though I used to do in Everquest all the time. Still I will miss Blizzard's innovation but I have come to realize what I hate most about WoW isn't the game it is the whiny crying little bitch ass people that play and suck 99% of the time. Sure I may be elitist and need a harder game but I freely admit that. I don't like my MMO's easy, never have. Never will. Time to not follow the sheep blindly and get out of dodge before Cataclysm brings in a whole new slew of level 1 morons.

Friday, November 19, 2010

LOTRO plans new expansion Rise of Isengard

Hot off the presses!


Rise of Isengard will expand the online world of Middle-earth where players will join forces to press further eastward into the legendary region of Isengard.  Rise of Isengard will be available for purchase in the LOTRO Store in the Fall of 2011 with an increased level cap, the new region of Isengard including the legendary tower of Orthanc, enhancements to monster play and much more!

“2010 has been a year of unprecedented growth for The Lord of the Rings Online with our successful introduction of a free-to-play option for our players,” said Kate Paiz, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online.  “This is going to be another outstanding year for the game as we progress on our journey toward Mordor and it all begins with our upcoming November update. The journey will carry through 2011 ending with our arrival in the epic region of Isengard where players will confront the raging war and shadow that has spread across Middle-earth.”

NEW FEATURES:

  • Experience the Rise of Isengard – The Epic Story continues as the Grey Company makes its way south into Dunland, but troubles arise as their road takes them into lands where Dunlending forces, marshaled by the Wizard Saruman, prepare for war. The Rangers must seek new allies and face dangerous new foes, chief among them the traitor Saruman, whose web of intrigue threatens to endanger your quest, your friends, and your life.

  • Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 70, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests.


  • Expanded Monster Play – LOTRO’s monster play system will get a major revamp including opening up the feature to all players, changes to monster player skills and advancement and a brand new region for players to battle for or against the forces of evil.

  • Thursday, November 18, 2010

    Comic book resurgence

    I used to be a big time comic book collector and I guess you could say my tastes are more mainstream than Independent titles. Mainly this is due to income and the lack of a will to spend so much money on the titles I would LIKE to read. In reality I can afford only 7-8 titles a month if that and I have to be very picky.  A long time Captain America, Avengers, and Iron Man fan as well as Thor and you can see how fast my monthly allotment is used up. Still I have all my comics from the 80's when I started through the 90's and into the 2000's and they are all kept nicely stored away. I mainly started in 1985 and collected off and on since then. While my collection is not crazy like some people you see with full walk in storage facilities in their basement I think I did ok for how much money I had. Are they worth alot? Not really. Most of the titles I had from the 80's were Marvel and they are not worth too much on the market. I went cold turkey through a lot of the 90's and then around 2001 picked it up heavily again.

    Recently I have gotten back into the groove of reading my titles since I last stopped back in June. I had a huge backlog of things to read and I am now just slicing into them. You know how you sometimes collect things but don't actually ever use them? That was me and that was why I stopped last summer. I had too many coming in and not enough being read. Eventually I filled a long box with unread titles and had to stop. I made a pact with myself to not subscribe to anymore titles until I caught up. Some of the things I had to read went all the way back to the Secret Invasion and Dark Reign story arcs in the Marvel Universe. I wasn't a big fan of the Secret Invasion as I just viewed it as a limp tool for Marvel to bring back some dead heroes.

    So I cut into my unread stack rather well but ultimately broke my own promise. I still have all the Avengers, Iron Man and Captain America backlogged issues to read and I did subscribe again recently but I will continue to maintain a steady reading pace. Currently I am knocking out War Machine 1-5 and hope to tackle Ultimate Avengers 3 by the end of next week. Part of what is taking my time is play MMO's and computer wargames. I may have to set aside some rotating schedule. While I have stopped playing WoW I do have an active subscription in Aion, Fallen Earth and the DCUO beta. If I can take my time during the day to unplug and just relax I could get more titles knocked out.

    Next post I will look at how I organize my comics with the Comic Collectorz software.

    FF XIV players will get some extra time

    Hot on the heels of a free month to play in October Square Enix has announced that yet ANOTHER month will be added to people's playtimes as they attempt to recover from the disastrous launch of the one of the biggest MMO FLOPS of the year.
    Today, we have decided to extend the free trial period an additional 30 days. Please refer to the following for more details. We have also added a Topics post detailing a portion of the content heading your way in the two large-scale version updates slated for late November and mid-December. This month's version update, tentatively scheduled for November 25, marks the first step in bringing about significant improvement to FINAL FANTASY XIV, guided in large part by the feedback you, the players, have provided.

    Of course there is some fine print so lets take a look at what you need to earn this free playtime. First off you need to have used 50 dollars to buy the game purely based on hype and not knowing what you were getting into. Right now there is a lot of hate for the game but you know how that goes just read the fansite forums. Lastly here are the other niggles:
    All users who registered a FINAL FANTASY XIV service account and purchased a character by November 19, 2010.

    * Character purchases must have been carried out no later than November 19, 2010 at 23:59 (GMT).
    * Accounts terminated due to User Agreement infractions are ineligible for extension.
    * Holders of multiple service accounts may receive extensions on all accounts.
    * Users who took advantage of the first free trial extension announced on October 15, 2010 are fully eligible for this extension.

    Wednesday, November 17, 2010

    Bethesda Blog announces first New Vegas downloadable content

    It is for consoles so who really cares but the content is there. If you have an inferior gaming system like a console that is...
    The first downloadable content for Fallout: New Vegas was just announced!

    “Dead Money” will tell the tale of a deal gone bad. After teaming up with three fellow wastelanders, players will need to pull off an intense heist to find and recover the treasure of the Sierra Madre Casino.

    If you’re looking for a sneak peek at Dead Money, we might have something In The ‘Works. For now, here’s the official release:

    BETHESDA SOFTWORKS REVEALS DETAILS FOR FIRST FALLOUT®: NEW VEGAS™ DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT

    ‘Dead Money’ Available December 21st Exclusively on Xbox LIVE



    November 17, 2010 (Rockville, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax® Media company, today announced that Dead Money, the first downloadable content for Fallout®: New Vegas™, will be available exclusively on Xbox LIVE® for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft beginning December 21, 2010.

    Guild Wars 2: What is the Hall of Monuments?

    http://hom.guildwars2.com/en/faq

    Well if you were wondering the above FAQ link will lay it out for you. There is even a Hall of Monuments Calculator so you can see what things your Guild Wars 1 characters will bring over.

    Of course NC Soft saw fit to permanently ban and FUCK UP my Guild Wars 1 account so I have no idea what I will bring. I guess nothing. By the way my CLOSED FOR SEVERAL MONTHS account was not the only that was banned for no reason.
    In the Hall of Monuments, a revered chamber in the Far Shiverpeaks, trophies and tapestries celebrate the victories and achievements of heroes. 250 years in the future, the glory of your previous deeds still shines through the ages. With our new web application, the Hall of Monuments Reward Calculator, you can see what rewards your Guild Wars 2 characters will inherit from your Guild Wars account!

    Fallen Earth login tips

    I like the Fallen Earth launcher because I am able to control and read the player tips they put the in the window. I also like the concise news area and the fact that I have a few seconds to scan everything before the game launches me into the world. Here are some of the tips from the loading screen. You can also find  a good text file with tips in it in your Fallen Earth install directory. Depending on where you installed the game just search or look for "tiplist.txt'

    • To swing a weapon you first need to go into aim mode by clicking on the middle mouse button or the TAB button.  You exit aim mode the same way.  You may interact with objects and characters in the world while in aim mode by placing the reticule over them, at which point the reticule will change into the appropriate type of cursor.

    • Advancement Points, or AP, are a measure of what your character learns and are gained by advancing in level or completing missions.

    • To use an item click on the target and then right click on the item in your Gear or Inventory window, selecting Use from the context menu.  Alternately you may activate it from your toolbar after dragging it to your toolbar.

    • Yellow names in a chat window are in game GM's.

    • Science merchants also offer eye wear to further boost your stats

    • Create custom waypoints with ALT P

    • Harvesting nodes are scattered throughout the world, allowing you to gather resources and items by left or right clicking on them.  These show up on the tactical map as piles of junk or plant symbols.  Nodes can require skills, knowledges, or items in order to harvest them.

    • A green symbol above a converser's head means you have completed a mission for that converser and may turn it in. A red symbol above a converser's head means you have an uncompleted mission for that converser. A yellow symbol above a converser's head means they have a mission to offer you.


    Those are just some. When you next login to Fallen Earth take a gander at the messages and scroll them yourself! Say while you are browsing looking for wargaming things why not check out the blog Real and Simulated Wars? This guy plays the same games I do and he writes up some good reviews.



    Tuesday, November 16, 2010

    Battlefield Academy is my newest addiction

    Right on the heels of my total addiction to Field of Glory comes a new test for my lack of sleep and that is a great WW2 turn based gem Battlefield Academy.

    Battlefield Academy, a slight touch up of a 2004 game, has been shuffled and fixed by Slitherine and offers the same addictive goodness. Not only does it feature Slitherine's revolutionary multiplayer server, it also has extensive mod capabilities and great support. The game auto patches itself so need to go fishing around for patches to download and all that nonsense.

    In short many people compare Battlefield academy to Steel Panthers. Only a light version. If you are not in the know about what Steel Panthers is it is probably one of the greatest computer wargames to date and has survived over 10 years to provide great gameplay. You can find out more about that game here but for now we are focused on my first attempt at playing Battlefield Academy (or BA from here on out).

    Out of the box (or digital download in my case since I don't bother going to the store anymore) BA provides the following features:

    • Control British, US, Polish, Canadian forces in 3 epic campaigns covering more than 30 varied battles or take control of Italian and German forces in multiplayer.

    • Select from a vast array of equipment including 100 units from 6 nations - Shermans, Fireflys, Panthers, Tigers, Stukas, Hurricanes, P47s and much more!

    • Gameplay features include ambushes, line of sight, artillery barrages, airstrikes, scouts, morale, APCs, flame throwers, heavy bombers, snipers and suppression.

    • Your units gain experience as they fight. Get promoted to Veteran and Elite status and gain new skills.

    • Addictive multiplayer modes using Slitherine’s revolutionary multiplayer server that’s linked into an online ranking system.

    • Huge modding opportunities. The game has been designed so that it’s easily moddable and accessible scripts control all aspects of combat, user interface and the game's appearance.


    That is just the start but I immediately dove into the single player game before I hit the multiplayer challenge. I first did the tutorial which was pretty basic considering all the game has to offer. A simple north african campaign tutorial consisting of blowing up some infantry a few 88's and another Italian tank. Once you finish that you are allowed to start the campaign game in earnest and that is where I left off.

    So far the game is intuitive, easy to control and features great keyboard commands to get around the map which I love. More on the gameplay later but I have uploaded a YouTube video showing the very first tutorial a new player will encounter. Be warned however that on my machine with a newer nVidia card and running Windows 7 64 bit the game is not fond of alt-tabbing as this disables the ability to click things in game once you return. I don't want this post to be a full review so I will continue with more on this game as the weeks go by. They have also announced a new expansion as well:
    After taking the wargaming market by storm with its revolutionary fast paced gameplay system, Battlefield Academy is back with this amazing add-on pack. Players will be able to take command of German forces and lead them to the conquest of Paris.

    With 9 single player missions and 4 multiplayer missions, 25 new units and a host of additional features, Blitzkrieg France takes Battlefield Academy to a new level. Blitzkrieg France is and add on for Battlefield Academy and requires Battlefield Academy to be played.

    Final Fantasy XIV devs cry that they needed 3 more years...

    Well now that makes a world of difference doesn't it? All the poor idiots that blindly bought the worst MMO release of the year feel much better now that you soothed their fears this game "may have been rushed". I am sure they cant wait for you to fix it!

    Interview with PC Gamer:
    Sage Sundi: If we had three more years (laughs), we would’ve had three more years worth of implemented content. But we had six months [from the first stage of alpha testing], so that’s where we are with the game.

    Monday, November 15, 2010

    My first big Field of Glory digital army generator battle

    Field of Glory, the digital version of the ancients miniature wargaming system, has a built in digital army generator that allows you build your army using units from expansions that you own. You and your opponent agree on a point total and you then buy what you need before you start. I hadn't used this system before but recently on the PBEM server that Slitherine hosts I decided to accept a challenge for a 600 point game.

    This turned out to be a lot of units and I was not ready for this. I took some video of it below but I will tough it out even though I will probably get my ass kicked. Here is the army I went with:

    German army, 1457 AD to 1500AD

    • C in C with a mercenary at arms bodyguard

    • 11 mounted mercenary at arms

    • 4 mounted crossbowmen

    • 4 halberdiers

    • 10 pikemen

    • 12 crossbowmen

    • 4 handgunners

    • 6 Heerban (a unruly mob)

    • 5 spearmen

    • 1 big ass heavy gun artillery


    Below is some video of the second turn. The armies have lumbered forward and the action is about to begin. I will let everyone know how badly I get totally schooled as this is my first largely complex game. I am pretty sure my opponent is about to demolish my left flank. Once a unit is routed it retreats and the game has some complex follow or don't follow rules so we shall watch it unfold.

    Are you a pre 2004 MMO player or a post 2004 MMO player?

    So which is it? Are you part of the "MMO school of hard knocks pre World of Warcraft generation" or are you a post 2004 casual "whinebag must have quests directing me everywhere and must get equal loot even though I cannot play as much generation"? You tell me. I have been MMO gaming since 1999. I don't like the way they have gone since EQ1 faded from the spotlight and I sure as hell do not like where they are going. The population of World of Warcraft or many of its clones is enough to make me want to vomit on a daily basis since the games are full of idiots but at least some titles have a population that is still mature (Fallen Earth). I find the harder the game and the less hand holding involved the more mature the player base.

    Old school players had corpse runs, were afraid of dying, worked to get gear and raided without Ventrilo or voice chat as a crutch. Sure technology has improved the games but do you like the hand holding? I still play EQ1 every now and then because it is HARD. Much like Fallen Earth has a degree of depth but is still too easy to solo in.

    So which generation are you? Old school or new school?

    You can vote here:


    Sunday, November 14, 2010

    DC Universe Online not my cup of tea

    The game is a straight up console port to the PC. Sad, but true. I assumed it would at least be two different UI's for the different players but it's straight up pure console UI and plays like a pure console game. Unless they redo the UI entirely for the PC the game will fail in record time.

    These kinds of games are just not meant to be played on a console with a controller. And while what they have for character creation is nice - and again clumsy as hell to use with the console UI - there isn't near enough of it, not even close to what CoX/CO has which means a lot of clones with slight variations will be running around. The game plays like an arcade game too in everything from combat to how mobs drop big glowing items Mario style when you destroy them. I could go on, but suffice it to say DCUO will not be doing anything big at this rate. When I create a character I have a specific origin and idea in mind and in DCUO I cannot accomplish this goal with their character generation system. I have it all planned down to the belt and what will be on my character's shoulders. Another thing I don't like about DCUO is that it is loot driven. You cannot have a superhero game like this.

    If you are an MMO purest I will not be able to recommend this game. If you want to log in and play a straight up console fighting game like Marvel Ultimate Alliance then this game will be for you.

    Saturday, November 13, 2010

    Champions Online reintroduces lifetime subs even when going free to play

    WHA? That's what I said. $299 dollars to permanently be a gold member. Below are the details. By the way there is still not enough there to make me pay them 300 bucks for a game that is going F2P due to lack of interesting things to do other than fight all the time. No thanks!
    Millennium City will always need heroes, and here's your chance to commit to saving the world forever. After it's been off the market for over a year, we're happy to reintroduce the Lifetime Subscription option to Champions Online. With a Lifetime Subscription, you can play Champions Online forever and never pay a monthly subscription fee again!

    But the perks of a lifetime subscription extend beyond just a great savings opportunity. We've also bundled in special features for Lifetime Subscribers as tokens of appreciation. Here are some of the benefits we've extended to our Lifetime players:

    • No subscription fee: Play without a monthly fee forever! (When Champions Online goes Free-to-Play, Lifetime Subscribers will receive all the benefits of Gold Members in perpetuity!)

    • Free digital copy of the game: No need to purchase a retail key. It's included in your Lifetime purchase!

    • Foxbat Action Figure - A miniature version of Foxbat to accompany you in-game.

    • Art Deco/Art Deco Future Costume Sets - Two free costume sets, original to Champions Online's launch.

    • Eight character slots - Create eight different heroes.

    • The VIP room - The VIP room in Club Caprice is restricted to Lifetime Subscribers and longtime Champions veterans.

    • Exclusive costume piece - Just visit a tailor in-game to add it to your current hero.

    • "Vanguard" Perk and title - Show off that you're committed to Champions Online for the duration.

    • Forum goodies - Change the color of your handle and show off that Vanguard title on the forums, too.


  • More on the way!

  • I'm in the DC Universe Online beta

    Sony threw me, a total and avid comic book lover, a little bone last night in my email.

    I'll let you all know how this game pans out as secretly as I can. I for one think NDA's are stupid and only a means to trick unwary subscribers into shitty MMO's purchases so I will be brutally honest if this game sucks. And don't give me that "but this game is beta" bullshit excuse anymore. Heads up morons the MMO bubble has burst and betas don't mean shit nowadays. You get what is in the beta on opening day and very little changes. So deal with it.

    The install is about 12 gigs. Not too shabby. I am downloading it now and will check it out this weekend.

    Friday, November 12, 2010

    Alright so day two of Aion and not much to report

    If anyone didn't know Aion is 50% off at Direct 2 Drive right now. I picked up two copies, one for me and one for the girlfriend then roped her into playing. The starter areas are pretty much the same but they have added some really cool in game video tutorials that you can check out in the YouTube video below that I posted. Other than that I am only level 5 so I don't have much to report. I saw all that content almost a year ago and only got to level 12 in the beta before I had had enough. According to some forum posters the gold spamming and botting has been much improved on. I am sure either way this game is better than that shitpile Darkfall Online. Of course a Commodore 64 game can be better than Darkfall. Not hard to beat a cheesy ass macro PVP game.

    Once more into the land of the emo anime avatars with wings

    I picked up Aion for the first time since its launch when I cancelled my pre order of the collectors edition. Back then the game was full of bots and farmers and this was BEFORE launch. I took a pass but my recent retirement from all things World of Warcraft had me searching the intrawebz for something new. I am currently tooling around in Fallen Earth and Lord of the Rings Online but I really wanted to go out on a limb this time. My choices were Final Fantasy XIV or Aion. FF XIV is getting such bad press and looks so retarded I had to go for Aion. At least it is functional and not being called the worst MMO release of 2010 (or 2009). Anyway I will let people know how it turns out. I don't expect much but I had 40 bucks burning a hole in my pocket and I am just bored silly of Everquest 2 and did not want to return to that ever again.

    Sure the game caters to recluse women that own 40 cats and like to wear cosplay outfits but I figure what the hell. I have time to waste what better way to do it than killing mascara burdened emo elves.

    The download on Steam is fucking 17 gigs. There better not be a patch involved after that...

    Two things I want to make sure of. My class gets groups and the server I am on is very Pro Asmodian. I will be damned if I will be caught dead playing a goody goody fantasy reject Elyos toon so I have to make sure I pick a server dominated by Asmodians. I am thinking Vaziel. I will probably steer toward Chanter or some sort of melee DPS character.

    Megan Fox calls Wonder Woman a lame hero

    Pulling from her vast memory bank of comic book knowledge Megan Fox made another statement this week sure to win her more support. She called Wonder Woman a lame hero. Citing most of her reasons from the terrible TV show and not actual Wonder Woman lore Yahoo News is stating the following:
    Fox called Wonder Woman a "lame superhero." Ouch! Lynda Carter, who was anything but lame when she played Wonder Woman on TV, recently spoke to Access Hollywood about Fox's remark, and said she was mostly perplexed by Fox's remark. "I thought that her comment -- she just didn't really get it. Like, who trashes Wonder Woman, right? What is there to trash?" The lighthearted snub inspired a slew of searches on Yahoo!. Everything from "lynda carter wonder woman" to "wonder woman movie" soared an invisible jet.

    Thursday, November 11, 2010

    More debates over Steam: shut up already

    I am so sick of the people that are afraid to use Steam or always cry about buying something on Steam. Steam is great, but comments like the one below just fuel people's fears and kick up retarded debates. Look I like Steam I won't lie. You would have to be an idiot not to use it an take advantage of the sales. There are other reasons as well. I can load it on any computer and have access to my games. The Steam cloud saves my games so I don't have to worry if I reformat my hard drive. I prefer steam over anything else because when my hard drive goes tits up, I don't have to dig up my disks or my piece of paper from my direct to drive buy. I have had more customer service issues with Direct To Drive than Steam ever has given me. Today on MCVUK.com a mysterious quote appeared from a Steam competitor crying about how Steam is kicking their ass.
    “I’ve fought hard for my customer, and never before have I had to give my customers away. Steam is killing the PC market and it is no wonder digital retailers are failing. Steam is locking down the market.”

    Oh blow me. By the way, I also hate having my CD ROM in the drive. Steam avoids all that for me. Tootles until later.

    Wednesday, November 10, 2010

    Lord of the Rings Online basic Warden gameplay

    Simple gameplay examples of a low level Warden in LOTRO. Where I was able to I clicked the buttons rather than using the keyboard so everyone can see how I initiate some of the gambits.

    Soundgarden on Conan O'Brien

    Nuff said. Someone please turn up Chris' microphone. Thanks.

    Blizzcon had some advantages

    Besides laughing at Hunter players I managed today to get my murloc code in the mail for the pet that you get when you subscribe to the con. I watched mostly for Diablo 3 coverage and it was glorious.
    Item successfully redeemed.

    Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of Deathy the Murloc (World of Warcraft), Murlocalypse Now and Tidehunter Decals (StarCraft II) and Murloc Marine StarCraft II Avatar. You will see your gifts the next time you log into World of Warcraft (check any in-game mailbox) and StarCraft II (in the “rewards” section of your character profile).

    Tuesday, November 9, 2010

    Champions Online Demonflame walkthrough

    Our second YouTube video shows a small walk through of the new Champions Online adventure pack called Demonflame. This is a module that you can solo or tackle as a team but a lot of people are confused as to how to start it off. In this video I simply logged in after a 5 month break and went through the paces of getting the quest and recording it.

    Demonflame was just released and has the following features (my comments in red):

    Explore the chaotic expanses of the Qliphotic Realm and its towering demon spires (this is not really that expansive. Basically it is a very arid zone with little to see or do but it is a nice touch. I feel this could have been better populated)

    Champions from levels 11-40, solo or with friends, can play Demonflame. The challenge will scale to match your play style. (this is true I was able to complete most of it so far at level 11 and one guy at level 17 all melee based. You will need some way to tackle packs of mobs though)

    Encounter the villains of DEMON, including Jack Fool, The Left Hand and the master magus Luther Black. (haven't gotten here yet)

    Earn UNTIL Merits from Project Hermes to buy special costume pieces, action figures, devices and more. (blah blah been there done that with the serpent module)

    I like these little one off adventures and I like the fact it scales to meet your playstyle. I had fun for as much as I have done and I have not finished the whole thing yet. I will leave that spoiler for you all to discover.

    The Droid has taken over the mobile market

    How quickly the Android phone rose to prominence is covered in article posted over on Network World.com. I love my Droid but I do have a first gen model and I find it very slow to respond on the main touch screen menu. Almost like some sort of graphical lag. Also I still do like the interface on the I-Phone a little bit better. I really need to upgrade my Droid to see the new keyboard. Overall however I cannot complain. I just want a newer model.

    Here is a brief article quote:
    Google plugged a large chunk of cash into bringing application developers on board with Android by offering a total of $10 million in prizes as part of its Android Developer Challenge during Android's initial launch.  Slain says that while his company and many others entered the challenge, they were still greatly unsure of Android's long-term potential since the operating system wasn't yet available on any marquee devices and there was a sense that Android was "all buzz" without anything to back it up.

    Monday, November 8, 2010

    The best kept secret in Field of Glory is its multiplayer


    The lobby in Field of Glory is a revolutionary idea that may save wargaming on the PC. Not RTS wargaming I mean REAL wargaming. Not some twitchy reaction based crap. Field of Glory has one of the best features in recent wargaming memory and that is the ability to play games online quickly and have them uploaded to the server so your opponent is notified and can respond without emailing a turn back.

    The concept is simple. You log into Field of Glory and select Multiplayer



    You then look for people that have issued challenges or see if anyone has accepted one of your challenges.



    You find the game, click play and take your turn. That is instantly uploaded to the server and then your opponent is notified.



    You can find games at any hour, anytime of the day all you have to do is log in and check for challenges and just hop right in. It is a brilliant innovation that removes the old message board spamming for an opponent and breathes great longevity into the title.

    Everyone should check it out if you are into Ancients wargaming or just good computer wargame titles period. Find out more at Slitherine's website.

    HPS Sims releases Squad Battles: Red Victory

    The natural conclusion and follow up to the excellent Advance of the Reich title, HPS Simulations has a full page up detailing Red Victory. I have been wargaming since I was 12 and it is nice to see a company still make a hex based down to the math and detailed wargame every now and then in this generation of ADD kiddies and their RTS games. I can highly recommend these titles as well as many from Matrix Games. Take a look at the Red Victory features:

    · 90 stand alone scenarios and 3 campaigns to choose from.
    · 37 unique maps ranging in size from 900 hexes to 86,400 hexes providing ample ground for scenario designers to create their own actions.
    · 3D graphics with a wide range of AFVs being modeled.

    A game crappier than Shadowbane? Yup its Darkfall Online

    What a cess pool this garbage title is turning out to be. As if its pre teen angst filled hoody wearing player population wasn't enough we have an entire blogger so obsessed over it he actually advertises for the product on the website. What a joke. Hey pal here is a newsflash. You are backing one of the most retarded least played MMO's in the industry. Spamming your blog with anti Blizzard hate and throwing in keywords to get more hits won't do you any good once the shitty title you back goes under. I hadn't followed it since its launch because...well who cares about Darkfall....but going over to Metacritic and catching up on the game gave me a few minutes of some good laughs.

    Other sites have summed up its problems.
    What may be the Worst Executed MMORPG launch ever and major pre-order difficulties. Long Queue times and server downtime and rampant cheating and hacks in Darkfall. Darkfall Team over-reacted to server crash frustration and some GM accusations banning people left and right and with some very poor customer support. Next the Darkfall Team got really nasty saying “Those that don’t take our word for it, will be banned like those banned today.” – Darkfall Online Team

    Take a look at some of the recent reviews the so called "revamped" Darkfall is getting:
    "Great concept, but terrible overall technical realization. Graphics is good but uninspiring, animations are bad, sounds are ROFLMAO, combat system is clunky, city building is "meh", crafting is non-existant, skill system is grindy and lacking on variety."

    Summarized nicely by users Marcus J and H S. My problems are antiquated graphics, no 64 bit platform support, shoddy animations, unbalanced magic classes, a grind that would give EvE a run for its money, worst customer relations for any mmo * a month without a new update for example *, inane travel options with nothing to bridge the world together, pointless ship mechanics, pointless personal housing, and a quickly fading server population in short are all the problems with this below-mediocre game. Good luck staying afloat Aventurine you will certainly need it.

    Half developed pile of crap. Not ready for release and probably just short few months until it closes. Worst community of inbred degenerates on the internet. If we ordered the userbase of DF to death it would only improve our gene pool.

    It goes on and on. Minus the 20 or so readers of that dumb asses blog you can pretty much see the total hate for the game. Keep on chugging dude. By reading over your content not only are you a wanna be miniature gamer that probably was in diapers when Warhammer Fantasy was released but you back some really shitty computer titles as well. Great taste ya got there!

    Champions Online F2P info minus the Ten Ton Hammer bullshit

    I don't like Ten Ton Hammer. I never have. Their articles, while not as trite and stupid as say Massively.coms, are usually worthless and full of full page ads and marketing links you have to click several times just to get to the meat of the story. That out of the way they do score some interviews that matter, and unlike Massively they actually write their own stuff rather than poach from other sites and simply reword a few things.

    Recently Ten Ton Hammer sat down and talked to Shannon Posniewski from Cryptic. We all know most Cryptic games are made of fail so the free to play movement was not a big surprise. Look for Star Trek Online to do it next. Rather than give Ten Ton any free advertising, I will sum up the article below so you dont have to deal with their browser infesting spy ware.
    Well, we’ve been looking at free-to-play for a long time now. We started with a subscription game a year ago. The game did pretty well, but it didn’t do awesome.

    Well, an adventure pack is a self-contained story arc. The game has many, many story arcs in it, but an adventure pack is like a play-through movie almost, an adventure. It has multiple missions or quests that are all connected to each other. They usually start in the normal static world where you’re used to playing, and they usually go off to a new place. Subscribers get all of the adventure packs for free. They just come in as part of the subscription. If you’re a silver player, a non-subscriber, you’ll be able to buy them in the C-Store.

    Demonflame brings back a story that appears in the Champions pen-and-paper game, where a particular person, called Luther Black, is basically trying to become a god. He’s doing that by pulling in energies from the Qliphothic realm. That was 20 years ago, and he’s trying it again. He’s found a new way to become a god and he’s busy capturing the avatars of these deities that are in this place called the Qliphothic, which is this place of chaos and madness. Basically, it’s an alternate dimension of chaos.

    Once you buy an adventure pack, it’s for an entire account. In fact, when you buy stuff that unlocks something, it’s for the entire account.

    I hope that people who have previously tried Champions Online or people who didn’t want to pay for another subscription game stop by and try us. Champions Online is a different kind of MMOG.

    And blah blah blah. More corporate spin. I just saved all of you about 10 minutes of your life you would never have gotten back. Look I understand the need for free to play and how people that like that stuff piss and moan and try to defend it all the time but in reality it is a cop out. F2P by and large sucks and so do the games that use it. They are going that route because no one plays their garbage other than entitled feeling cheap gamers that refuse to cave in to Blizzard and play World of Warcraft. There is a whole society built around defending the genre and standing up for the rights of free to play but I do not buy it. Free to play gamers are like vegetarians and really just need to go away.

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    Fallout New Vegas ships 5 million

    Hard to believe but the sequel has already hit the 5 million mark according to a press release from Bethesda:
    Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax Media company, announced today that its highly anticipated title, Fallout®: New Vegas, has enjoyed record sales at launch, reflecting the huge consumer demand for the game. Five million units of Fallout: New Vegas were shipped worldwide for the Xbox 360®video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows®, with a heavy volume of digital downloads, representing well over $300 million in retail sales. In addition, the Fallout: New Vegas strategy guide was one of Amazon’s best sellers among all books.

    “We are delighted by the reception Fallout: New Vegas has received from fans around the world,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. ”Despite the large launch quantities for this title, we have already received substantial re-orders from our retail partners, underscoring the tremendous popularity of this highly entertaining game. We believe Fallout: New Vegas will be the “must buy” title for gamers throughout the holiday season.”

    The Walking Dead knocks em dead in the ratings

    AMC's newest series about the zombie apocalypse has scored well in the ratings according to USA Today. You can read the article here but below is a small quote:
    The opener of AMC's The Walking Dead averaged 5.3 million viewers Sunday, an original-series network record that more than doubles the typical audience of Mad Men .

    AMC has sent out a press release confirming that their new uber-hit zombie TV series, The Walking Dead, will indeed get a second season. The first season will only run six episodes, but the first two episodes have delivered big numbers so far. The debut on Halloween night brought in record-breaking numbers with 3.6 million viewers in the ages 18-49 demographic, and 5.3 million viewers overall. The second episode last night delivered 3.3 million in the 18-49, and 4.7 million viewers overall, making the second season greenlight a very easy decision.