Alright, this was the week I was supposed to move but things have changed. There is a bit of downtime on postings right now since I’m busy.

As for gaming — being distracted is keeping me from UO so I’ve decided to mess around in Dungeons & Dragons Online and Runes of Magic.

DDO, now that it’s free and I haven’t played it since launch, is quite good — I command all of you to play it for self-study till I return! *chop, chop!*

A few days ago we were hit with the news that the supply had almost run out… then was out. It seemed to be pretty shocking to quite a number of people (the announcement forum on CO’s site has hundreds of pages to testify that). I had been waiting till this coming pay day to grab my sub, and I was a bit unhappy with the news.

Luckily, Cryptic has brought them back till the end of August — with no limit of supply. Now I just have to order one… I’m thinking the lifetime deal.

Why? It’s a pretty darn good deal! After a year and a month the savings will kick in, but should CO last as long as CoH has… 5-6 years now? That’s a lot of money saved from subscription fees. Add in the extras… well, I’m an alt-a-holic so 8 extra character slots was about as tempting as the lifetime subscription. It’s just a good deal, should you enjoy the game.

I’m also hoping this initial influx of capital will help further the games lifespan and get even more fixes and content rolling out. The giant robots were fun to bash, but I need more giant things to fight!

Seems id has a sale going right now for Doom Resurrection and Wolfenstein 3D on the iPhone/iPod Touch. I’ve got them both so if you’re wondering whether or not to get em: do!

Wolfenstein 3D’s controls may be a little awkward at first, to those not already use to the touch controls, but at 99 cents it’s worth the mobile nostalgia…

Doom Resurrection is made for the iPhone and is quite good. I think I may have a post on here somewhere about it… anyway — it’s on rails, so no movement of the player. The only movements you have to make are aiming your weapon via tilting. It likely isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but for the reduced price it is very worth it. I fully enjoyed it at the full price.

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.

If you’re a fan of gaming and keep up with the news, it’s likely you’ve heard about the Warcraft movie that’s going to be happening sometime in the future. Can’t say it’s much of a surprise, but what will this movie mean — from a gaming standpoint?

The movie likely won’t launch for a few years more. A few years that will allow Blizzard time to prep for… something. Any guesses? What’s that? a WoW sequel? Perhaps Warcraft 4? I think so!

Blizzard did it before with WoW; the release of Warcraft 3 and its sequel paved the way for hype and story. Now we have a Warcraft movie coming.

I’ll go on record here and say that Blizzard will release 1 more expansion for WoW before the release of the movie. This expansion will set up the story and backdrop of the movie. Afterward, we will see one of two things: another expansion that will pick up after the movie and lead into a WoW sequel, or the movie itself will lead into a WoW sequel. I’m going for the latter, as it seems the best choice — unless Blizzard does something really different and carries WoW1 characters over to WoW2…

In any case, the hype will be phenomenal — and not only in the gaming sector *should the movie turn out well*. I can already see the merchandise for the movie, that would also tie directly into the game(s). Unique vanity pets with the limited edition DVD set! Free trials for you and friends for WoW2 in each DVD! (before they offer a free trial to everyone, of course) And so on, and so forth.

WoW has been going pretty strong for 5-6 years now, the movie likely won’t hit for another 3-4. WoW will be nearly a decade old. The time will be ripe for a sequel, and the hype will be huge.

(let’s just hope they can fix Barren’s chat by then, eh? eh?! *sigh*)

Just in time, too. Just saw on Steam a few moments ago that they’re having more sales… This week: Paradox Interactive’s games. The list includes three that I’ve wanted, but haven’t gotten — King’s Bounty: The Legend, Europa Universalis III (with expansions), and Mount & Blade. All 50% off. I’m glad I got paid last Friday.

In other (personal) gaming news, apart from The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, I got my teeth into a couple Star Wars games this weekend — they’re both FPSs and a bit old: Battlefront 2 and Republic Commando. In my gaming binge fervor I went ahead and beat them both (or, as much as Battlefront can be beaten…).

No real need for reviews on them, here’s the skinny.

If you like Star Wars, like FPS games, and don’t mind graphics that are a bit outdated (for a reasonable price) — go ahead and get em. I think Republic Commando was 10 bucks on Steam; for that price it’s not bad, in fact it’s quite good. Both games are not top notch pieces of gaming history by any means, they’re fairly average.

And apart from Star Wars I also got around to try Dawn of Discovery — this one I will be doing a bit more on in the future. If you like real time strategy involving city building and management, along with colonial conquest and exploration, then you’ll likely enjoy this game quite a bit.

Now, I’m off to some gaming!

I managed to sneak in a bit of gaming this weekend! The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is on Steam, for those unaware, and I couldn’t resist. This is a classic adventure game filled with humor — an excellent time throughout.

Arr!

Time for a short review! To start off with, you can notice the nice artwork here, but if you prefer the old game… hit F10 and it’ll instantly swap to it — no matter where you are. It’s basically two games in one! (only the two games are the same game, at different times in the same place, yeah? yeah)

If you’ve played the original, you’ll know the game — not too much in the meat of it that’s different (though there is some, explained later here) — but if you’re new: this tale follows Guybrush Threepwood on his adventure to become a pirate.

The game is fairly short (pretty much to the original, as far as I can remember) and I finished it in a few hours. Should you not know what you’re doing, and don’t want to use the hints, then you could get several more hours out of it. Just don’t blame me if they’re somewhat frustrating hours.

As said before, the game is still pretty much the same with the exception of the inventory/interface. It’s pretty minimal, as you can see from the screenshot. Instead of having everything displayed before you, your mouse will do a bit of a ‘smart-ish’ morph around certain things — mostly defaulting to look at, or you can use hotkeys. This is somewhat awkward and something I kinda wish they hadn’t changed. The inventory isn’t too friendly, either, as it closes whenever you select an action on something — even if you want to use it on another item in your inventory. Luckily there are few real needs for it.

Apart from the interface, there’s voice acting! I think it’s well done and adds a good bit to the game and its humor. Sound is pretty good, all around.

I’ve heard of bugs on forums, but didn’t see any during my play through. Be warned that there likely are some.

Okay, now… why should anyone get this? First, you like adventure games. Second, you liked the game when it first came out and want to see an updated version. Third, you’ve got money burning in your pocket and want something humorous. Why shouldn’t you get this? Cost vs. Time. Like I said, it only took me a few hours to really get through it — for 20 bucks. The replay-ability isn’t really there, either. Perhaps in another 20 years or so. If you don’t like puzzles or adventure games — then of course you should stay away…

Overall I’d say the game is a lot of fun, and a great trip down memory lane. The inclusion of the original style with the push of a button really makes it worthwhile. Just wish it were a bit cheaper.