For those looking to get into the game or get an alt account (with the added bonus of using the buddy system to get some extra game time) Steam has EVE on sale for 5 bucks through the 17th.

I’ve got my third account now up and running because of it. The newbie is training the basics (learning skills), just have to decide what the heck I want it to do now…

Ever had one of those rare sick days from work where you were too sick to even game? That was me yesterday; never thought it would happen.

Not too much going on lately, game-wise, but there’s a lot going on in the future. I’ve got pre-orders set for Aion, Champions Online and Mortal Online now — getting into the betas of the latter two later this month. Spent the weekend working (part of the reason for being sick yesterday) and so didn’t get any work done on my gaming maps like I wanted. Hopefully will get some of that done later this week before the Champions Online open beta starts (next Monday). I’ll see about getting some rough maps scanned in today or tomorrow.

For now, my gaming is taking it easy with some trading in EVE.

Yesterday’s lack of posting was due to a long awaited phone upgrade — to the 3GS. My former phone was a plain old phone that I’ve had for years, did calls great but nothing else. Now? Gaming, lots of gaming. And books.

My last portable gaming system was the Gameboy Advance SP several years ago, so it’s been awhile. The first thing I really noticed about using the phone for gaming is that the controls do indeed suck — for most games. Most would cite the phone’s design for these flaws, and in some ways it is its fault, but I think the problem lies elsewhere.

UI design. Of the games that I really notice problems on, Sonic the Hedgehog stands out as a great example. This is a straight port of the Genesis game (one of my childhood’s favorite games) and is designed for a system that has separate controls… not so with the iPhone. The result is small, transparent buttons on the game screen that cause much of the viewable world to be taken up with your thumbs (or, my big ol’ thumbs, at least). For a fast paced game like Sonic, this is horrid. It is playable, after getting use to the differences, but no where near as fun as it could be.

The next example is Doom Resurrection. I feel this game actually gets it right — the controls and the game play. For those that don’t know, this version of Doom is similar art-wise to Doom 3 and it is a shooter… on rails. You don’t control the actual movement of your character, just the weapon aim (accelerometer) and firing/reloading/dodging. The buttons are around the screen and small enough to not take up much space and the thumbs stay on the edges — mostly out of view. Just following along with the story and kill anything that pops up (there’s a lot of killing). Having the game on rails does make it seem more story driven than Doom 3, at least I notice the story more, and the enemy encounters are a bit more scripted — no running away when zombies come to gnaw on you.

Really thinking about Doom, I think Time Crisis or House of the Dead — it’s more similar to that than Doom 3.

OK, so gaming on the iPhone isn’t terrible, but it’s far from perfect. What I think needs to happen is a shift in design… for the UI used by games. Interaction with the iPhone is different from any other system and thus needs a different approach to using it. We haven’t gotten there quite yet. Once this does happen, I think the iPhone will be a very solid portable gaming device.

Oh, and Aion beta was this weekend. Only played a bit of it though, for some reason I was getting more lag than I do on the Chinese servers. Crazy.

And, for those that care, the third part of the Necropolis campaign is going to be posted sometime tonight/tomorrow morning.

*Spoilers*

When I left off yesterday, I was talking about the corrupt priest’s involvement with the corporations. The small village (named Bedford — a town near the real Pittsburgh) is agricultural based with the chief export being cotton. Clothing being needed by everyone, they do get good deals from the Church and the corporations (though the corporation trades are secret). Knowing this, it’s easy to see the corporations already have a foothold in the city, but to get involved directly with the local cult… they needed a little something more. Rephaim (the undead) technology.

For the simple back story explanation I chose: on a routine (illegal) sweep through the fringes of Dead Zone Gamma, a corporate team managed to secure a young vampire that was in the midst of testing some new weird science he created. The tech was supposed to make his undead servants more resilient, powerful, and longer lasting — while also providing some regenerative powers. Whether it had any effect on the undead is unknown, but the scientists were able to come up with some new uses for the stuff… specifically in corporate super soldier programs. But, those will be for a later date…

Right now, this small village of Bedford is the site of a smaller experiment — using the tech on plants. What the scientists hope to produce is a far superior strain of cotton, one that could provide cheap, flexible and powerful body armor — body armor that would look like everyday clothing. Again, it’s a minor project, but one that could have some very good results. To further the tests they’ve also insisted that some of the food crops grown for local consumption use the tech — to see if it gives them better yields (and what the effects of human consumption might be, but the villagers won’t know about that).

The corrupt priest and his disciples are essentially the head figures of the village, the six disciples being of the six head families. The people follow what they say for the most part, though most people are not as zealous in their worship to the Dark. The cultists see the corporation as a ‘brother’ in support of the Dark, they have no clue of the real motives or facts behind the tech given them, just that it can provide ‘miracles’ that draw in many converts.

And, that’s the basic interaction between the two enemy groups. Tomorrow I’ll (hopefully) have the next part… names and the etc.