Well yes, it is correct. I am back, where I have been is a bit irrelevant. If you must know writing for a website but the owner can't upkeep the website anymore so. I am back! Awesome.
So yes, more information to come on here, so keep checking back if you want! I learned a lot of things from the website I wrote for and the knowledge is invaluable to me, so expect much better writings. Much, much better!
Thursday 8 September 2011
Monday 11 July 2011
Guild Wars 2 Leaked Document
Now before I even write this (something I did not want to) this is completely speculation. I am just posting this because it is something recently I have seen from a supposed leaked document. I will post all information I have found and try to keep it as easy to understand as possible. Let's begin!
A while ago on May 24th a youtuber I follow posted a video. This video is related to a supposed leaked document with and the youtuber was sharing this because the info was relevant to his channel. He was doing a Sims update for his subscribers and I watched along. In the video (here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5Hnqtj5juI&feature=channel_video_title ) at 00:40 seconds you can see the leaked document. Here it shows a bunch of different dates mostly Sims related but the one that of course caught my eye was Guild Wars 2. Now of course I knew for sure this was no verified source and something I couldn't attribute as being legit so I passed it off as a fake.
Now a month and a bit later and another video comes out from the same guy I mentioned above. This is confirming the release date of the Sims 3 Pets expansion pack. Now usually this is irrelevant but in the video I linked above the date it speculated for the Sims 3 pets expansion was October 25th, 2011. Now the thing that caught my attention was the fact that the release date for the Sims 3 expansion is October 27th 2011, two days from the leaked document. This to me gives the leaked document now seems a lot more legit.
Now this is where I come to with Guild Wars 2. On that leaked document (something that could be legit) there is the glorious Guild Wars 2! On the document it states that the Guild Wars 2 release date being September 1st. Now I understand completely that this is virtually impossible. I see no possible way for the beta test to happen and the game ship for September 1st, but this says something to me. That very well could be the date they had planned for, but are missing once again.
All of this is pure speculation I understand but just something that peaked my interest. The document seems a little suspicious so I am just stating what I believe. Other then that I hope at least that will be the beta date. I just hope Guild Wars 2 isn't pushed too far back like everyone else!
Ramble complete, good day!
A while ago on May 24th a youtuber I follow posted a video. This video is related to a supposed leaked document with and the youtuber was sharing this because the info was relevant to his channel. He was doing a Sims update for his subscribers and I watched along. In the video (here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5Hnqtj5juI&feature=channel_video_title ) at 00:40 seconds you can see the leaked document. Here it shows a bunch of different dates mostly Sims related but the one that of course caught my eye was Guild Wars 2. Now of course I knew for sure this was no verified source and something I couldn't attribute as being legit so I passed it off as a fake.
Now a month and a bit later and another video comes out from the same guy I mentioned above. This is confirming the release date of the Sims 3 Pets expansion pack. Now usually this is irrelevant but in the video I linked above the date it speculated for the Sims 3 pets expansion was October 25th, 2011. Now the thing that caught my attention was the fact that the release date for the Sims 3 expansion is October 27th 2011, two days from the leaked document. This to me gives the leaked document now seems a lot more legit.
Now this is where I come to with Guild Wars 2. On that leaked document (something that could be legit) there is the glorious Guild Wars 2! On the document it states that the Guild Wars 2 release date being September 1st. Now I understand completely that this is virtually impossible. I see no possible way for the beta test to happen and the game ship for September 1st, but this says something to me. That very well could be the date they had planned for, but are missing once again.
All of this is pure speculation I understand but just something that peaked my interest. The document seems a little suspicious so I am just stating what I believe. Other then that I hope at least that will be the beta date. I just hope Guild Wars 2 isn't pushed too far back like everyone else!
Ramble complete, good day!
Saturday 9 July 2011
Minecraft 1.8 Thoughts
With the release of information about the upcoming 1.8 Minecraft update I figured I would go over some do or dies. Things that implemented could strengthen the game and some that could tarnish it. I feel Notch has a big gap to fill here, one that he could hit head on or one that he could greatly miss. Below I will go over a few things for me that have been released, and what I think they should entail. Now before I start I have no knowledge of coding with java so the ideas I throw out could be impossible or they could be simple, I have no idea. I am just tossing these ideas in the air hoping some I will catch. It is all just in theory and my minds ponderings, nothing else. No beg or claim for these features. I just think with these upcoming features some things could help it go a long way. Let's begin!
Some of the features have been released on notch's blog so I will start with one, sprinting. This could work really well if implemented correctly. Now most likely it will be related to either a cooldown or some sort of stamina bar, otherwise it would be too easy to get away from mobs. Now of course, if mobs AI were to be improved upon then maybe unlimited sprinting could work. But for this let's just say it will have some sort of limit. Now some people have claimed Minecraft "too easy." Sure for your first night you are scared out of your mind and digging yourself a protective shell from the onslaught of zombies, spiders and such. After establishing some sort of base the difficulty plummets. With a shelter monsters have nothing they can do. You are "protected," something people are discouraged about. There are mods that give monsters the ability to break blocks, Mo Creatures ogres for example, so it isn't impossible. But I am not sure this is a feature Notch wants implemented in the base game, I have no idea but to me it doesn't fit the game. Now who knows, Notch could be implementing it. But obviously there should be some sort of blocks to protect against mob destruction. But of course this is thinking far, far ahead so I will jump back on track. Sprinting will add more of a realism feel to your character. You have a sort of quick back-up to escape death, a few quick extra seconds of speed to save you from certain death. This feature sounds great to me!
The next feature I will discuss is the NPC villages. There have been other mods showcasing these villages so it isn't something unseen but I assume Notch will not be basing it off of a mod and will be making it from scratch. We have seen a picture of the villages from the game, something that makes me worry. Here we see giant above ground mushrooms around the village and that is something that disgusts me. I do not want every NPC village to have giant ugly mushrooms above ground for you to whack at. I really hope it was just an early prototype and will not be released in 1.8. It would be better suited for underground I think, underground NPC villages if you could find them and such. The NPC villages will give the world more life, more activity. Right now we have a small seldom amount of animals that roam the land and other then that it is pretty barren. Hopefully with the addition of these villages it will add to the immersion, making the game world feel more realistic. Let's hope for the best!
The next feature that Notch is implementing is "Randomly Generated Dungeons." Now for this I am pretty clueless as to what it entails. Something tells me though it could be very similar to Terraria's dungeon system. Where instead of in Minecraft it being a small and tiny room, it could be a large expansive place to explore, with multiple mob spawners, chests and rooms. How this will work? I have no idea. With the dungeons in Minecraft now there is no real challenge. As soon as torches are placed around the spawner and the mobs are killed there is no hazard. I hope that the new dungeons will provide another engrossing experience in the underground!
Another feature would be more farming options. This is something I must say is really long overdue. There are so many plants and other things that could improve on the blatantly boring farming system in place. Right now we only have one plant to grow, and the way of making bread is just stupid. You would bake it in an oven and not in a crafting bench. I really hope they can add at least a couple of new plants and seeds to harvest. A big thing for me is rare seeds, if he added rare like "death plants" or something you could find deep underground or in the nether that would be really awesome. I think adding more rare things to find would increase the difficulty and excitement of exploring for them. Here's to hoping we get some awesome new plants!
Now the final feature I would like to talk about is New Biome Code. I think that this will help even out the biomes as they are a little wonky as of now. I feel that they are way too small and jammed close together. i hope that there are new biomes added which can give us stuff to look for and explore. Take Terraria for example, as soon as you enter a new biome you can tell. They have key distinctive features showing you which biome is which, of course their's are simpler but you get the idea. In Minecraft there are three distinctive sort of biomes, snowy, grassy and desert biomes. The problem is there are a lot of variations of each (except desert I believe) and I would love to have noticeable changes in biomes. The slight change in grass color isn't enough, I want actual different things to happen in certain biomes. Like find specific seeds and mobs in some biomes. I want there to be rare biomes that are terribly hard to find, I want biomes to have more depth other then grass colors. Biomes need more complexity!
Well that is all for my ramble about 1.8, hopefully this patch will not take too long. I am anxiously waiting for it! Also hoping that more core features are brought in and some sillier ones are ignored. Keep up the good work Mojang!
Ramble complete, good day!
Friday 1 July 2011
Guild Wars 2 Beta Thoughts
Recently I have been doing some deep thinking about the Guild Wars 2 open beta, a little about the closed too. The Guild Wars 2 beta is something ArenaNet isn't taking lightly. They understand that when we, the players, play the game for the first time it should be perfect. They want the game to be extremely polished and with as little bugs so our first experience is one to remember. This totally makes sense and I cannot complain one bit about.
My complaint with others not doing this is that too many times there have been game-breaking bugs in betas that aren't ironed out until after or during the beta. This really is disheartening to the game as I feel like that will be included in the finished product or it provides a bad portrayal of the game. I think ArenaNet understands that we are changing, the players expect more. This isn't some mediocre game being released, it is 2011 we have extremely advanced gaming technology and this is a triple A title. ArenaNet sees that we deserve the best they have to offer, and they are right.
Another thing I have discovered during my pondering and abstract mind tumbling that there is the Paris Games convention from Oct 21-25. And if they are playing demo's there how could open beta be released before this? This completely solidifies my sad and unwanted belief that Guild Wars 2 will not be a 2011 title. As many times as I have denied and wanted it to be untrue, it is true. There is no way humanly possible for ArenaNet's 270+ crew can rush this amazing game out for 2011. However the beta is confirmed for this year so I am assuming it will be sometime after October, unless something happens at PAX, because big news should be there. I don't know what more big news is left really? The Sylvari redesign, guilds, PvP, last profession, one more book and maybe beta. There really isn't a whole lot of information left for ArenaNet that is something we don't already know and is groundbreaking. We have now seen underwater combat, one of the bigger ones on their to-do list, so what is left?
Not a whole lot, and man does that make me happy.
Ramble complete, good day!
My complaint with others not doing this is that too many times there have been game-breaking bugs in betas that aren't ironed out until after or during the beta. This really is disheartening to the game as I feel like that will be included in the finished product or it provides a bad portrayal of the game. I think ArenaNet understands that we are changing, the players expect more. This isn't some mediocre game being released, it is 2011 we have extremely advanced gaming technology and this is a triple A title. ArenaNet sees that we deserve the best they have to offer, and they are right.
Another thing I have discovered during my pondering and abstract mind tumbling that there is the Paris Games convention from Oct 21-25. And if they are playing demo's there how could open beta be released before this? This completely solidifies my sad and unwanted belief that Guild Wars 2 will not be a 2011 title. As many times as I have denied and wanted it to be untrue, it is true. There is no way humanly possible for ArenaNet's 270+ crew can rush this amazing game out for 2011. However the beta is confirmed for this year so I am assuming it will be sometime after October, unless something happens at PAX, because big news should be there. I don't know what more big news is left really? The Sylvari redesign, guilds, PvP, last profession, one more book and maybe beta. There really isn't a whole lot of information left for ArenaNet that is something we don't already know and is groundbreaking. We have now seen underwater combat, one of the bigger ones on their to-do list, so what is left?
Not a whole lot, and man does that make me happy.
Ramble complete, good day!
Thursday 30 June 2011
1.7 Minecraft Update
Finally the long awaited 1.7 Minecraft Update has arrived. The only thing missing is the adventure, planned for 1.8. It seems like Notch is really going all out for this adventure update. He has trickled small bits of information about the update to keep us all waiting also! Anyways...
The 1.7 update brings the following changelog:
+ Added pistons
+ Fire or redstone is now required to trigger TNT
+ Fences can be stacked
+ Added shears
+ Shears can be used to pick up leaf blocks
+ Shears can be used to shear sheep without hurting them
* Sheep no longer drop wool from being punched
- Removed Herobrine
For each of these I am fine, except the TNT requirements. It was fun punching TnT and blowing up friends. But now you cannot just plop a block down and light it. You need some other mechanisms, I guess this could be helpful for griefing as they will actually need to find iron before blowing things up. Anyways that seems to be all, the shears seem to be nice and the pistons I cannot wait to try. The pistons open up a whole new plethora of options for weird and wacky contraptions, of course some that were present before but now without a mod!
Great work Jens and Notch, finally 1.7 has arrived!
Ramble complete, good day.
The 1.7 update brings the following changelog:
+ Added pistons
+ Fire or redstone is now required to trigger TNT
+ Fences can be stacked
+ Added shears
+ Shears can be used to pick up leaf blocks
+ Shears can be used to shear sheep without hurting them
* Sheep no longer drop wool from being punched
- Removed Herobrine
For each of these I am fine, except the TNT requirements. It was fun punching TnT and blowing up friends. But now you cannot just plop a block down and light it. You need some other mechanisms, I guess this could be helpful for griefing as they will actually need to find iron before blowing things up. Anyways that seems to be all, the shears seem to be nice and the pistons I cannot wait to try. The pistons open up a whole new plethora of options for weird and wacky contraptions, of course some that were present before but now without a mod!
Great work Jens and Notch, finally 1.7 has arrived!
Ramble complete, good day.
Saturday 25 June 2011
Guild Wars 2 Underwater Combat!
Here are my first impressions of the amazing Guild Wars 2 underwater combat system!
To start I applaud ArenaNet and specifically the devs that brought this amazing creation to us. Thanks!
Now let's start!
The drowning downed system is wonderful. They looked at being downed at a whole new angle (get it, z axis! :O) and implemented an extremely smart downed state. If you are downed underwater you will be but into a "drowning" state. Here you can either, kill somebody, get revived by an ally or reach the surface. This mechanism will work extremely well in my opinion. Firstly, the deeper you go the harder it will be to come out of this drowning state. So that means all the epic bosses will be really deep underwater, awesome! One of the developers during a video stated that at some parts of the water you swim down for approx. 45 seconds. That is bloody deep considering the movement speed is fairly quick underwater. Also they have stated that there will be actual underwater events that take place! How many though is undecided yet. But if we take that 1/3 of the world will be underwater and approx 1500 events, I would say probably less then 500. That is awesome, so much underwater immersion for a game is unheard of! Until now!
Ok now, the transfer from land to water is seamless, and I have seen it. There was one part in a video where a dev was getting mauled by a lot of higher level pirates. On the land he went down right next to the shore. In the down state he was knocked backwards into the water and from there he instantly entered the water downed state. The transfer from land to water is fast and easy. You can go from fighting enemies on shore to launching harpoons at them in an instant. ArenaNet has really thought about the annoyance of underwater seen in other games and has completely eliminated it. There is also no breathing! You don't have to find some potion or spend a bunch of money, you are fitted with a breathing apparatus as soon as you enter water. Also on a side note the breathing apparatus looks really nice, it really fits well with the character.
The weapon sets provided underwater seem to give a similar play style to your original character but of course with that extra axis. Which is always great. Each profession (the 7 so far) have two different weapons available underwater except the elementalist. Which technically has 4, for each attunement. The engineer seems to stick with explosives like torpedoes and also with nets. The Necromancer uses a spear but more at a short range, with his main attack throwing spears. The ranger of course has the longer range harpoon gun and spear although I haven't seen much game play. And also with the other professions I have seen limited underwater game play.
Now with that being said there is one not so much of a big deal complaint. Clipping. I completely understand that clipping is inevitable. With 5 different sized races and 8 professions the armor, weapons, environment provide quite a clipping disaster. Normally above ground the clipping is not that bad, mildly noticeable. The problem was underwater. I could see a lot of ground clipping with the players swimming around freely in the open 3D space. The problem only seemed to occur whilst swimming backwards because the character is at a weird angle. Some armor did clip noticeably with the underwater weapons. For me, clipping is not that big of a deal. I can easily ignore it, but for some serious RPer's it might become a huge issue. Not game breaking, just an issue.
TL:DR It is awesome.
After the huge bombardment of information this week it has been amazing. All the fans that were lucky enough to be pulled into the ArenaNet studio had a blast and it seems the staff too. I think that the Fanday was a huge success, and those that didn't attend were blessed with loads of new information.
Victory!
Ramble complete, good day!
To start I applaud ArenaNet and specifically the devs that brought this amazing creation to us. Thanks!
Now let's start!
The drowning downed system is wonderful. They looked at being downed at a whole new angle (get it, z axis! :O) and implemented an extremely smart downed state. If you are downed underwater you will be but into a "drowning" state. Here you can either, kill somebody, get revived by an ally or reach the surface. This mechanism will work extremely well in my opinion. Firstly, the deeper you go the harder it will be to come out of this drowning state. So that means all the epic bosses will be really deep underwater, awesome! One of the developers during a video stated that at some parts of the water you swim down for approx. 45 seconds. That is bloody deep considering the movement speed is fairly quick underwater. Also they have stated that there will be actual underwater events that take place! How many though is undecided yet. But if we take that 1/3 of the world will be underwater and approx 1500 events, I would say probably less then 500. That is awesome, so much underwater immersion for a game is unheard of! Until now!
Ok now, the transfer from land to water is seamless, and I have seen it. There was one part in a video where a dev was getting mauled by a lot of higher level pirates. On the land he went down right next to the shore. In the down state he was knocked backwards into the water and from there he instantly entered the water downed state. The transfer from land to water is fast and easy. You can go from fighting enemies on shore to launching harpoons at them in an instant. ArenaNet has really thought about the annoyance of underwater seen in other games and has completely eliminated it. There is also no breathing! You don't have to find some potion or spend a bunch of money, you are fitted with a breathing apparatus as soon as you enter water. Also on a side note the breathing apparatus looks really nice, it really fits well with the character.
The weapon sets provided underwater seem to give a similar play style to your original character but of course with that extra axis. Which is always great. Each profession (the 7 so far) have two different weapons available underwater except the elementalist. Which technically has 4, for each attunement. The engineer seems to stick with explosives like torpedoes and also with nets. The Necromancer uses a spear but more at a short range, with his main attack throwing spears. The ranger of course has the longer range harpoon gun and spear although I haven't seen much game play. And also with the other professions I have seen limited underwater game play.
Now with that being said there is one not so much of a big deal complaint. Clipping. I completely understand that clipping is inevitable. With 5 different sized races and 8 professions the armor, weapons, environment provide quite a clipping disaster. Normally above ground the clipping is not that bad, mildly noticeable. The problem was underwater. I could see a lot of ground clipping with the players swimming around freely in the open 3D space. The problem only seemed to occur whilst swimming backwards because the character is at a weird angle. Some armor did clip noticeably with the underwater weapons. For me, clipping is not that big of a deal. I can easily ignore it, but for some serious RPer's it might become a huge issue. Not game breaking, just an issue.
TL:DR It is awesome.
After the huge bombardment of information this week it has been amazing. All the fans that were lucky enough to be pulled into the ArenaNet studio had a blast and it seems the staff too. I think that the Fanday was a huge success, and those that didn't attend were blessed with loads of new information.
Victory!
Ramble complete, good day!
Wednesday 22 June 2011
Less or More?
Don't let the general title confuse. I am just trying to find a balance within my blogosphere. Here are the scenarios...
If I release say 1 blog a day I find I sometimes end up cramming a lot of jumbled ideas together. I usually do it all really unorganized and sometimes I even forget what I am talking about. For me, this scenario gives a lot of content in a short amount of time, but it is of lesser value. And not to mention I have to release one every day meaning that I get no real break or extra time to work on it with schooling and the rest.
Now with the second scenario, I release say 1-2 blogs a week. This way I can plan out the blog over the week revise it, organize it more. I can look around, do some research and really make sure my facts are correct. This scenario could give me a break every few days. That way every week there could be a powerful blog or two instead of 7 all jumbled up blogs that should really be only 1 or 2 longer blogs.
I have come to the conclusion, after my beginner bloggers mistake, I will not do one blog a day. I realize I end up trying to cram and most blogs turn out, well they turn out like shit.
Anyways, what I'm trying to say here is I will do longer blogs. Where I can throw all the things that interested me in the week into a few blogs. Of course I will separate them so you aren't getting like 4 different games jammed into one boringly long blog post. This way I can think over my blogs. Save them as drafts, edit, revise. It can give me more time to perfect each blog post. This way they aren't shit!
Success!
Ramble complete, good day!
If I release say 1 blog a day I find I sometimes end up cramming a lot of jumbled ideas together. I usually do it all really unorganized and sometimes I even forget what I am talking about. For me, this scenario gives a lot of content in a short amount of time, but it is of lesser value. And not to mention I have to release one every day meaning that I get no real break or extra time to work on it with schooling and the rest.
Now with the second scenario, I release say 1-2 blogs a week. This way I can plan out the blog over the week revise it, organize it more. I can look around, do some research and really make sure my facts are correct. This scenario could give me a break every few days. That way every week there could be a powerful blog or two instead of 7 all jumbled up blogs that should really be only 1 or 2 longer blogs.
I have come to the conclusion, after my beginner bloggers mistake, I will not do one blog a day. I realize I end up trying to cram and most blogs turn out, well they turn out like shit.
Anyways, what I'm trying to say here is I will do longer blogs. Where I can throw all the things that interested me in the week into a few blogs. Of course I will separate them so you aren't getting like 4 different games jammed into one boringly long blog post. This way I can think over my blogs. Save them as drafts, edit, revise. It can give me more time to perfect each blog post. This way they aren't shit!
Success!
Ramble complete, good day!
Monday 20 June 2011
5 Days, and Finally News!
Well after hearing about it on the forums and lurking around twitter it appears there is some sort of "open house" going on at ArenaNet. It appears the contest winners are going to be getting access to the studio and other members in the community. The total number appears to be 15, which was tweeted by Martin Kerstein. This appears to be an exciting event for all involved.
To me it doesn't seem too big. They are not allowing them to film any game play but they are allowed to speak about it freely. This to me seems still to be something exciting, just nothing ground breaking. The ambassador contest winners seem to be showing up there also (mentioned by Rubi in her last flameseeker chronicle article).
There has been a lot of speculation as to new content that may be showed at this open house. I assume so, but you never know. Some speculation has been PvP as 15 people are being brought in so it could be something like that. Although I think the WvWvW would be better tested with either the closed or open beta tests. Just my opinion.
Well to those who are going congratulations! Have fun, can't wait to hear what kind of amazing things go down in that magical place.
Ramble complete, good day!
To me it doesn't seem too big. They are not allowing them to film any game play but they are allowed to speak about it freely. This to me seems still to be something exciting, just nothing ground breaking. The ambassador contest winners seem to be showing up there also (mentioned by Rubi in her last flameseeker chronicle article).
There has been a lot of speculation as to new content that may be showed at this open house. I assume so, but you never know. Some speculation has been PvP as 15 people are being brought in so it could be something like that. Although I think the WvWvW would be better tested with either the closed or open beta tests. Just my opinion.
Well to those who are going congratulations! Have fun, can't wait to hear what kind of amazing things go down in that magical place.
Ramble complete, good day!
Wednesday 15 June 2011
Blogging Material
For the moment I have run out of material to blog about. The information that has completely stopped has really affected my blog. I have no new and exciting news to blog about. Sure I could blog about old happenings but that is kind of boring in my opinion. Not to mention my exams this week are seriously hovering above me and bombarding me with guilt as I push it later into the night. I am a terrible procrastinator, terribly terrible. I cannot commit to doing homework or projects until the due date is staring me in the face. I go without sleep as my project is quickly tossed together. I feel this way with my exams and projects to be due by the end of this week.
I will get it done eventually, just blogging to push it even farther!
Ramble complete, good day!
Monday 13 June 2011
Guild Wars 2 Business Model
Rubi has kicked up a huge cloud of dust with her latest Flameseeker Chronicles post. She talks deeply about ArenaNet's business model for Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. I am mostly glad that this can start, gives us more to ponder whilst the news is creeping along at a snail's pace.
Rubi's states that ArenaNet needs to make people want to play Guild Wars 2 because there business strategy allows for a lot of flexibility. If you aren't attached to the game through a subscription fee it is easy to put it down for a second and forget about it. Then that second turns into minutes, days, and you get the idea. This is the whole case and point around ArenaNet's business strategy. The content has to be engrossing, to keep us hooked without tying us down. I think this is something they can excel at, as long as they know this themselves.
Now for their microtransactions they need to find where they want to be. We have already established that cosmetics will be prevalent and no advantages in game can be paid for. This to me is perfect, too many F2P games are unbalanced due to some people tossing money in for bonuses. If you give people stuff they actually want to buy, even if it is only cosmetic, it will be profitable. Just like the game-play the microtransactions have to be engrossing and of course reasonably priced. The first Guild Wars was a great testing ground for the microtransactions to appear in Guild Wars 2 and I am eagerly awaiting to see what they do with it. Character slots seem like a must and we know about transmutation stones. The transmutation stones seem like a wonderful idea if put to use properly. They will need to define how they want the transmutation stones to work so we, the players, don't feel ripped off. I think ArenaNet needs to balance price and usability with their microtransactions.
If they can pull off this huge list of things, their business structure will work.
Ramble complete, good day!
Rubi's states that ArenaNet needs to make people want to play Guild Wars 2 because there business strategy allows for a lot of flexibility. If you aren't attached to the game through a subscription fee it is easy to put it down for a second and forget about it. Then that second turns into minutes, days, and you get the idea. This is the whole case and point around ArenaNet's business strategy. The content has to be engrossing, to keep us hooked without tying us down. I think this is something they can excel at, as long as they know this themselves.
Now for their microtransactions they need to find where they want to be. We have already established that cosmetics will be prevalent and no advantages in game can be paid for. This to me is perfect, too many F2P games are unbalanced due to some people tossing money in for bonuses. If you give people stuff they actually want to buy, even if it is only cosmetic, it will be profitable. Just like the game-play the microtransactions have to be engrossing and of course reasonably priced. The first Guild Wars was a great testing ground for the microtransactions to appear in Guild Wars 2 and I am eagerly awaiting to see what they do with it. Character slots seem like a must and we know about transmutation stones. The transmutation stones seem like a wonderful idea if put to use properly. They will need to define how they want the transmutation stones to work so we, the players, don't feel ripped off. I think ArenaNet needs to balance price and usability with their microtransactions.
If they can pull off this huge list of things, their business structure will work.
Ramble complete, good day!
Sunday 12 June 2011
Guild Wars 2 WvWvW Leveling
We already know for sure that getting from level 1-80 in Guild Wars 2 is doable. I was just pondering the thought of it's comparison to PvE leveling. Will the time frame of about one hour and 30 minutes hold up? I mean if you are actively participating in events and combat in the WvWvW then will that be possible?
It is very interesting to me that I have this sparked interest in PvP. Normally I rarely PvP and the only time I think I have had a really heart beating, enjoyable experience would be Runescape. I have never felt so scared in my life and involved in PvP. Guild Wars PvP was something I dabbled in but nothing that held my flailing attention span for more then a couple rounds. ArenaNet has really just stepped back and looked at both aspects completely. They have created a pure PvP experience which is the 5v5 hot join-able PvP. Then they have taken WvWvW and transformed it into a PvE/PvP mix. You have aspects of the PvE going into it like leveling obtaining items and events. Then you have a whole world (or worlds) to explore for PvP. The fact that it isn't some tiny map with enemies around every corner sounds interesting. I can see sneaky tactics and strategies playing out really well. There is an aspect of this crazy unbalanced chaos thrown into the mix too.
ArenaNet is not only giving us a one of a kind PvE experience, but they have an astounding PvP to match it.
Ramble complete, good day!
It is very interesting to me that I have this sparked interest in PvP. Normally I rarely PvP and the only time I think I have had a really heart beating, enjoyable experience would be Runescape. I have never felt so scared in my life and involved in PvP. Guild Wars PvP was something I dabbled in but nothing that held my flailing attention span for more then a couple rounds. ArenaNet has really just stepped back and looked at both aspects completely. They have created a pure PvP experience which is the 5v5 hot join-able PvP. Then they have taken WvWvW and transformed it into a PvE/PvP mix. You have aspects of the PvE going into it like leveling obtaining items and events. Then you have a whole world (or worlds) to explore for PvP. The fact that it isn't some tiny map with enemies around every corner sounds interesting. I can see sneaky tactics and strategies playing out really well. There is an aspect of this crazy unbalanced chaos thrown into the mix too.
ArenaNet is not only giving us a one of a kind PvE experience, but they have an astounding PvP to match it.
Ramble complete, good day!
Information Stand Still
It feels like as we get closer to summer a lot of the information about some games I am following fervently are going to stop. Minecraft is slowly progressing towards the end of this year. Guild Wars 2 is slowly creeping towards the conventions this summer and the few sparse interviews I pick clean of all hints or details. I feel like everything is just frozen and people are just working hard. It feels like they are going to just work over the summer and information will be locked.
I am suffering from information withdrawal! And only Notch or ArenaNet can help me :P
Ramble compelte, good day!
I am suffering from information withdrawal! And only Notch or ArenaNet can help me :P
Ramble compelte, good day!
Saturday 11 June 2011
Guild Wars 2 Forum Hate
I find the 52 pages and 1000+ replies to the "What do you dislike about Guild Wars 2" forum thread to be a little depressing. If we can point out so much wrong how close are we til release? I am not worried about the status of it, I know ArenaNet is capable enough to fix all of it for sure. I just wonder how much time, effort and resources they will have to put in. I mean I have been following Guild Wars 2 since 2006 and I will play the hell out of that game, I just worry if the balance between finishing the game and fixing everything is leaning too far one way. I completely understand the game should be finished but I mean we could help! With a beta we could give constructive feedback! Although they do want us to be blown away when we play it but, how does it make it that different from the demos? Even if they just released the content on those demo stations to the public for a while it would be good. But then we run into the problems of going to conventions for exlusive only demos. Humph.
So many decisions, and they aren't even mine!
Ramble complete, good day!
So many decisions, and they aren't even mine!
Ramble complete, good day!
Friday 10 June 2011
Tap-Repeatedly Interview for Guild Wars 2 Professions
First of all, Lewis B you are an interview genius. The question you came up with and picked from the community delved so deep into all profession aspects of Guild Wars 2. From creation to innovation it covered it all. And if you haven't seen it already do click here -> http://tap-repeatedly.com/2011/06/10/exclusive-interview-arenanets-jon-peters-and-jonathan-sharp/
What I would like to do is go over some of my favorite points of the interview. As the interview is fairly long and complex I will briefly describe each.
Firstly, the thief's blinding power sounds superb. "You ground target it, it hits all the enemies in that area and blinds them all and it cloaks all the allies in that area at the same time." I can see multiple PvP uses for this and PvE too. It really slots into the "all classes can do it all" saying. Because this is strictly a support skill in my opinion that could get you and your allies out of a dangerous situation. ArenaNet really has thought of everything!
"I think the ranger pets are terrible right now..." Now for a developer to actually say that about his own game is mind-blowing. ArenaNet is actually seeing their problems and not hiding them from the public. They realize what is wrong with the Pet A.I. and are fixing it. They aren't going to ignore it and maybe slot in a quick patch after release. They are going to do their best to fix it, after all the pets and rangers have to work in unison.
At one point Jon P talks about having 12 professions in the game. They then went to 7, 10, 7 and finalized on 8. This shows they aren't a static group of people and will make changes if necessary. The best way to fix things are to change them or improve them. Even scrap them if it is completely necessary and I am amazed ArenaNet sees this because some companies would not. "Juggernaut" also sounds like it would have been an interesting warrior hybrid. Expansion pack perhaps?
Another thing once again I disliked ArenaNet has fixed. Death Shroud, where casting when not downed would teleport you back to where you casted it once the duration is done. They have not only made it so you stay where you are once the duration is over but it will not be a downed state. It will be a castable spell which is better in my opinion. I think that Necromancers would have been a little too overpowered after death compared to the other professions. Also they mentioned specifically the Elementalist got a nice skill revamp too. They mixed a few and tweaked etc. That should be interesting to play out.
I could go on for ages about all the rich content contained in the interview but might as well find out for yourself. The above is what I found most intriguing to me personally. Feel free to comment on anything you thought was cool about the interview!
Ramble complete, good day!
What I would like to do is go over some of my favorite points of the interview. As the interview is fairly long and complex I will briefly describe each.
Firstly, the thief's blinding power sounds superb. "You ground target it, it hits all the enemies in that area and blinds them all and it cloaks all the allies in that area at the same time." I can see multiple PvP uses for this and PvE too. It really slots into the "all classes can do it all" saying. Because this is strictly a support skill in my opinion that could get you and your allies out of a dangerous situation. ArenaNet really has thought of everything!
"I think the ranger pets are terrible right now..." Now for a developer to actually say that about his own game is mind-blowing. ArenaNet is actually seeing their problems and not hiding them from the public. They realize what is wrong with the Pet A.I. and are fixing it. They aren't going to ignore it and maybe slot in a quick patch after release. They are going to do their best to fix it, after all the pets and rangers have to work in unison.
At one point Jon P talks about having 12 professions in the game. They then went to 7, 10, 7 and finalized on 8. This shows they aren't a static group of people and will make changes if necessary. The best way to fix things are to change them or improve them. Even scrap them if it is completely necessary and I am amazed ArenaNet sees this because some companies would not. "Juggernaut" also sounds like it would have been an interesting warrior hybrid. Expansion pack perhaps?
Another thing once again I disliked ArenaNet has fixed. Death Shroud, where casting when not downed would teleport you back to where you casted it once the duration is done. They have not only made it so you stay where you are once the duration is over but it will not be a downed state. It will be a castable spell which is better in my opinion. I think that Necromancers would have been a little too overpowered after death compared to the other professions. Also they mentioned specifically the Elementalist got a nice skill revamp too. They mixed a few and tweaked etc. That should be interesting to play out.
I could go on for ages about all the rich content contained in the interview but might as well find out for yourself. The above is what I found most intriguing to me personally. Feel free to comment on anything you thought was cool about the interview!
Ramble complete, good day!
Thursday 9 June 2011
Wii U
I have a big fear for the Wii U, the cost of all the controllers and stuff you need to actually play. It seems like a great console for having a bunch of friends over for a party or whatever. But then they are talking about using older Wii controllers and the tablet. It seems like the tablet alone will be upwards of $100. I am worried that how much I am willing to spend for all the gadgets needed to play the console enjoyably. I am glad they have allowed the Wii equipment to be carried over but I can see after the Wii U release another improved tablet coming out which you need for certain games. Just like the Wii remote was introduced with the Wii MotionPlus accessory which was required for most of the newer games. Nintendo seems to be making a small fortune off of us gamers jumping out to buy each new game but if we have to stack controller accessories on top that is a little ridiculous. I am unsure whether or not the Wii U will be on my list of consoles to buy in the near future, I don't know if I will have the money with wanting to go into University etc. Money doesn't grow on trees and I probably won't be able to afford each new game and console to roll off the shelves. And the list of games coming this year is a little overwhelming.
Good grief.
Ramble complete, good day!
Good grief.
Ramble complete, good day!
Wednesday 8 June 2011
Guild Wars 2 PAX Prime
The lull in news for Guild Wars 2 is to be expected. I imagine they are working their asses off to get finalized for the conventions this summer. My guess is that PAX Prime will be the biggest of them all. After all "our entire studio will descend upon PAX Prime...expect big surprises..."
I would go in heartbeat being only about 5 hours away but I guess all the tickets are sold out? Checking the website it appears so, I might try to find some online or something. It would be a once in a lifetime experience for sure. After all, ArenaNet is going to change the MMORPG gaming world forever.
The conventions this summer seem to be building up for something big, my guess the open beta! The open beta will be very dependent on the release date so it is very important. I will be fervently playing the beta and reporting bugs like a madman. I will contribute to progressing the bug fixes as fast as possible.
Now as for the next race week I am unsure when this will be. I am going to guess the Asura week will be first as the Sylvari redesign should be a big reveal during one of the conventions. Hopefully ArenaNet has tweaked the Sylvari more and found it's niche in the Guild Wars 2 world.
The suspense is killing me!
Oh and the blog before this I said I would blog each day. And then I miss June 7th... haha. Sorry! Don't hurt me!
Ramble complete, good day!
I would go in heartbeat being only about 5 hours away but I guess all the tickets are sold out? Checking the website it appears so, I might try to find some online or something. It would be a once in a lifetime experience for sure. After all, ArenaNet is going to change the MMORPG gaming world forever.
The conventions this summer seem to be building up for something big, my guess the open beta! The open beta will be very dependent on the release date so it is very important. I will be fervently playing the beta and reporting bugs like a madman. I will contribute to progressing the bug fixes as fast as possible.
Now as for the next race week I am unsure when this will be. I am going to guess the Asura week will be first as the Sylvari redesign should be a big reveal during one of the conventions. Hopefully ArenaNet has tweaked the Sylvari more and found it's niche in the Guild Wars 2 world.
The suspense is killing me!
Oh and the blog before this I said I would blog each day. And then I miss June 7th... haha. Sorry! Don't hurt me!
Ramble complete, good day!
Monday 6 June 2011
Attracting The Masses
Guides across the Internet promise fame and glory for your blog. They can give you tips and tricks on how to increase your viewing. I think the best way to improve a blog is to just blog. Sounds silly but I think it is the truth.
So more content on the way. I will aim for a minimum of one blog a day. Throughout the summer it could become a bit harder with vacationing and limited computer access but I will try my best. Maybe even just write them out and transfer it to a computer when I get back. This way a huge influx of material could come out at once boosting my views. Blogging seems like a great way to get my thoughts out to anyone interested. So if you are reading this why not keep an eye on the little establishment I have started here. I take inspiration from a great blogger Ravious from Killtenrats and hope to reach his level eventually. He has such inspiring work and I am amazed by his writing talent. If you haven't already check out Killtenrats on the sidebar to the right. They have an amazing group of bloggers talking about games.
I just hope to really improve my blog and my writing skills. Hopefully I can increase my viewings and build a fanbase. A little money wouldn't hurt either :P
Ramble complete, good day!
So more content on the way. I will aim for a minimum of one blog a day. Throughout the summer it could become a bit harder with vacationing and limited computer access but I will try my best. Maybe even just write them out and transfer it to a computer when I get back. This way a huge influx of material could come out at once boosting my views. Blogging seems like a great way to get my thoughts out to anyone interested. So if you are reading this why not keep an eye on the little establishment I have started here. I take inspiration from a great blogger Ravious from Killtenrats and hope to reach his level eventually. He has such inspiring work and I am amazed by his writing talent. If you haven't already check out Killtenrats on the sidebar to the right. They have an amazing group of bloggers talking about games.
I just hope to really improve my blog and my writing skills. Hopefully I can increase my viewings and build a fanbase. A little money wouldn't hurt either :P
Ramble complete, good day!
E3 Confusion
I am not sure what to make of E3 this year. With Nintendo seeming to come out of E3 stronger then Sony and Microsoft it could be an interesting year. With the new Xbox looking for a 2015 release and a slightly rumored PS4 I have no idea what to think of it. The vast selection of new games coming out this year should give us gamers something to look forward too. 2011 seems like an amazing year to be a gamer and I am glad to be included.
Nintendo's switch to hardcore gaming seems like a reasonable decision. The "family gamers" can have their stupid 3Ds's and Xbox Kinects. This will help them appeal to a larger audience. Nintendo's booth will be buzzing with excitement this year.
For Sony I have no idea, they need something to make it up to the fans. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some new console reveal but the network problems might have slowed them. All I know is they need something to make it up to the fans, something big.
If only I could have made it to E3, some revolutionary stuff is probably going down.
Ramble complete, good day!
Nintendo's switch to hardcore gaming seems like a reasonable decision. The "family gamers" can have their stupid 3Ds's and Xbox Kinects. This will help them appeal to a larger audience. Nintendo's booth will be buzzing with excitement this year.
For Sony I have no idea, they need something to make it up to the fans. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some new console reveal but the network problems might have slowed them. All I know is they need something to make it up to the fans, something big.
If only I could have made it to E3, some revolutionary stuff is probably going down.
Ramble complete, good day!
Sunday 5 June 2011
Advertisements Officially Up!
Adsense has approved me I guess. Now I am just really going to experiment and get a feel for it. I don't expect to be bringing in the millions but as I improve my blog and slowly increase my views hopefully I can increase the amount I earn. Hopefully this is the start of something big.
Wish me luck!
Ramble complete, good day!
PS: I find it ironic some World of Warcraft Ads as I blog about Guild Wars 2, just funny :P
Wish me luck!
Ramble complete, good day!
PS: I find it ironic some World of Warcraft Ads as I blog about Guild Wars 2, just funny :P
Guild Wars 2 Hype Fluctuation
In a perfect world hype would be steadily maintained, you would get information on a regular basis. But that, of course, is not the case. We have moments of high activity like with Guild Wars 2 during summer when the multiple conventions are met. I am extremely excited for this year with the huge plans they have in store for the convention.
I think finally ArenaNet is seeing their magnificent creation near completion. With a mere single profession, one book and missing content our release is right before our eyes. The hype in my opinion is going to build up over the summer and explode by late summer. I absolutely cannot wait for the summer convention surprises as the hype train will be fitted thrusters and take flight.
After that, the sky is the limit. And I hope they go past it.
Ramble complete, good day!
I think finally ArenaNet is seeing their magnificent creation near completion. With a mere single profession, one book and missing content our release is right before our eyes. The hype in my opinion is going to build up over the summer and explode by late summer. I absolutely cannot wait for the summer convention surprises as the hype train will be fitted thrusters and take flight.
After that, the sky is the limit. And I hope they go past it.
Ramble complete, good day!
Minecraft 1.7 Adventuring Update
As most of you will probably know already, the 1.7 update for Minecraft will be focused generally, if not entirely, on adventuring. But what though, we have no idea. It seems at E3 Notch will be working on a bit of developement for that (without testing, eep!).
If I stop and think about what I would want for an adventuring update I am not entirely sure. Adventuring... what would that entail? Cities, outposts? Transportation? There is a lot of things that come to mind for me when I think of Adventuring. Travel could be entailed, moving from one place to another. But I am not sure what else he could add? Horses would make sense, vehicles not so much. In the not so distant future I could see some sort of ridable animal make it's way into Minecraft. With the addition of maps this would be useful. A land speed increase entity would be great. For adventuring this could definitely mean underground too. I think some new ores are much needed or even just being able to make obsidian tools. The problem now is what they could do. I mean diamond tools already collect the resources pretty quickly. If Notch maybe gave some new ores and those tools could have special properties. For example maybe a pickaxe that could have a 10% chance of dropping 2x the ore, or a hatchet to do the same. This would be a very cool feature the new tool wouldn't just generically break things faster.
Another aspect of Adventuring could be NPC life. He could add small civilizations you could find and maybe trade with. Maybe finally a currency could be added like coins or something. This would be usefull. Or they could just trade in some other useless item like slime balls.
Adventuring totes at a wide range of addable features. Hopefully Notch can realize what the community is wanting and throw in a nice flavour of his own to these ideas. As the community I would love to see a bunch of these things I said above, and I also would love some of the community to stop complaining. Sometimes if there is something really bad like the 1.6 problems, but some of it is just silly.
Adventuring eh? What a wonderful topic for Minecraft!
Ramble complete, good day!
If I stop and think about what I would want for an adventuring update I am not entirely sure. Adventuring... what would that entail? Cities, outposts? Transportation? There is a lot of things that come to mind for me when I think of Adventuring. Travel could be entailed, moving from one place to another. But I am not sure what else he could add? Horses would make sense, vehicles not so much. In the not so distant future I could see some sort of ridable animal make it's way into Minecraft. With the addition of maps this would be useful. A land speed increase entity would be great. For adventuring this could definitely mean underground too. I think some new ores are much needed or even just being able to make obsidian tools. The problem now is what they could do. I mean diamond tools already collect the resources pretty quickly. If Notch maybe gave some new ores and those tools could have special properties. For example maybe a pickaxe that could have a 10% chance of dropping 2x the ore, or a hatchet to do the same. This would be a very cool feature the new tool wouldn't just generically break things faster.
Another aspect of Adventuring could be NPC life. He could add small civilizations you could find and maybe trade with. Maybe finally a currency could be added like coins or something. This would be usefull. Or they could just trade in some other useless item like slime balls.
Adventuring totes at a wide range of addable features. Hopefully Notch can realize what the community is wanting and throw in a nice flavour of his own to these ideas. As the community I would love to see a bunch of these things I said above, and I also would love some of the community to stop complaining. Sometimes if there is something really bad like the 1.6 problems, but some of it is just silly.
Adventuring eh? What a wonderful topic for Minecraft!
Ramble complete, good day!
Saturday 4 June 2011
Pondering Adsense
Obviously Ads on websites, blogs, flash games etc. make people money. They give people the difference between maintaining a website or not. Some people can live off this and some can not. I am really not sure about the whole concept. I have no idea how much you would make for this kind of ad revenue. Obviously I won't know until I try and I don't expect much. The little blog I have going isn't going to be raking in the cash for me. Even tiny amounts of money to me would be satisfying, to know that my humble though and works were accomplishing it. That a simple 5-10 minutes of my time for a blog could be potentially attracting more people and revenue. I mean hey, with no penalty for trying why not. Millions of people probably make money on the internet and it is simple. Why not do what I love, play and blog about video games while making money! To me that is an amazing concept, to be able to play video games and just blog my thoughts about them bringing in revenue would be surreal. I mean at the moment to start making money simply even small amounts would be awesome. Even if the amount of money I got increased over time this way I could just use this money for University or even more games to blog about. I mean a lot of youtubers get a lot of money from making videos. I myself am not talented in really making videos etc. and so many videos are uploaded each day that my videos just get washed away in the whole tsunami of content. But with blogging I find a much better satisfaction. Sure it may be easier but the time and though is still there. You have to be pretty talented to be able to write stuff people actually want to read. Since blogging uses only one sense of sight and say making videos would use sight and sound. In this way I think us bloggers have to put more thought to make our words jump out of the page at the viewer.
So I will try Adsense. It is not going to hurt anyone, majority of viewers will most likely neglect advertisements anyways. It is a simple advertisement that no one has any obligation to click. Cough. :O
Ramble complete, good day!
So I will try Adsense. It is not going to hurt anyone, majority of viewers will most likely neglect advertisements anyways. It is a simple advertisement that no one has any obligation to click. Cough. :O
Ramble complete, good day!
Thursday 2 June 2011
Project Zomboid First Gameplay
In a zombie stricken town you play a balding devoted man. His wife hurt badly by some unknown reason, possibly bitten by a zombie. You are thrust into this terrorized town and are left to fend for yourself. Just like you would in real life. The game although still in closed pre-order only alpha shows great promise. At the moment there is just a single fairly linear storyline.
The game throws at you what other zombie survival games don't, realism. Barricading doors and other decisions give the game an experience we could relate too. It gives us a look at the real side of a zombie apocalypse. Hunger, starvation, insanity and mostly survival.
[Spoilers most likely below, don't read if you want to find out for yourself.]
After loading up for the first time and starting my adventure I was amazed at a few simple things. It gives you a very brief tutorial and leaves the rest to you. The first thing you do is tend to your wounded wife. She has a bleeding leg and is bed-stricken. You are also left with the pillow and one fiendish option. Using the pillow on her will smother her, isn't that just awesome! You head to the shed grabbing some hammer, nails and wood. Here you barricade yourself in and sleep the night.
The next morning you head out to scavenge for food. Another house to the east you approach gives you a small taste of combat inside. Here in the kitchen you get to hammer your way through a zombies cranium. And the blood splatter was marvelous. The walls and floor became covered with blood behind where I splattered the zombie. For such a chunky and pixelly game it was amazing. It is just the small details that make a game in my opinion. Now throwing the soup you find in the oven is a very delicate process. Running upstairs while it's cooking your wife will ask "You turned the oven off before you came up here, right?" .......woops. And the fire spreads like mad, what do I do? Panic! I hid in the bathroom upstairs as the zombies broke down the front door and the fire spread quickly. Death quickly followed.
For a first play through it was extremely enjoyable. Realistic consequences plopped me on my but in the bathroom reliving the mistakes as the smoke crept under the door. The surreality of it all was just so amazing. My next playthroughs followed the same fate. Leaving the door open causing a flood of zombies at night, my friendly neighbour dropped by for a quick after-soup shooting to leave me and my wife dead. The next followed me running madly down the street being chased my numerous brain-thirsty zombies.
[Spoiler part ends here!]
Each playthrough ended with me lying dead on the ground, not usually what happens in your average zombie survival game. I never reached no safehouse or found the helicopter to take me away. I didn't blast my way through waves of zombies and find ammo around every corner. It was real. Which will make it so unique once it is a finished product. If you haven't already I say buy it, 5 euros or about 8 canadian and american. Just head on over to http://projectzomboid.com/blog/ With a similar Minecraft buy and free update structure it will be worth it down the road. At the moment don't expent oodles of content though, so wait if you want to purchase with more content.
Ramble complete, good day!
The game throws at you what other zombie survival games don't, realism. Barricading doors and other decisions give the game an experience we could relate too. It gives us a look at the real side of a zombie apocalypse. Hunger, starvation, insanity and mostly survival.
[Spoilers most likely below, don't read if you want to find out for yourself.]
After loading up for the first time and starting my adventure I was amazed at a few simple things. It gives you a very brief tutorial and leaves the rest to you. The first thing you do is tend to your wounded wife. She has a bleeding leg and is bed-stricken. You are also left with the pillow and one fiendish option. Using the pillow on her will smother her, isn't that just awesome! You head to the shed grabbing some hammer, nails and wood. Here you barricade yourself in and sleep the night.
The next morning you head out to scavenge for food. Another house to the east you approach gives you a small taste of combat inside. Here in the kitchen you get to hammer your way through a zombies cranium. And the blood splatter was marvelous. The walls and floor became covered with blood behind where I splattered the zombie. For such a chunky and pixelly game it was amazing. It is just the small details that make a game in my opinion. Now throwing the soup you find in the oven is a very delicate process. Running upstairs while it's cooking your wife will ask "You turned the oven off before you came up here, right?" .......woops. And the fire spreads like mad, what do I do? Panic! I hid in the bathroom upstairs as the zombies broke down the front door and the fire spread quickly. Death quickly followed.
For a first play through it was extremely enjoyable. Realistic consequences plopped me on my but in the bathroom reliving the mistakes as the smoke crept under the door. The surreality of it all was just so amazing. My next playthroughs followed the same fate. Leaving the door open causing a flood of zombies at night, my friendly neighbour dropped by for a quick after-soup shooting to leave me and my wife dead. The next followed me running madly down the street being chased my numerous brain-thirsty zombies.
[Spoiler part ends here!]
Each playthrough ended with me lying dead on the ground, not usually what happens in your average zombie survival game. I never reached no safehouse or found the helicopter to take me away. I didn't blast my way through waves of zombies and find ammo around every corner. It was real. Which will make it so unique once it is a finished product. If you haven't already I say buy it, 5 euros or about 8 canadian and american. Just head on over to http://projectzomboid.com/blog/ With a similar Minecraft buy and free update structure it will be worth it down the road. At the moment don't expent oodles of content though, so wait if you want to purchase with more content.
Ramble complete, good day!
Monday 30 May 2011
Who you want to be.
In the world of gaming who are you? What do you want to be? A strong brutish bulk of a man crushing skulls and ripping throats? A soft-skinned maiden frolicking through the meadows? Why is it so hard for MMORPG's to give us the choice? Just because I am wearing heavy armor should I be the one taking all the damage? Sure it makes sense but our skills shouldn't define what we are, we should.
ArenaNet sees this, they pluck this little thought out of the huge scheme of things and plop it right into Guild Wars 2. They say, "Here, be what you want." They don't hand you a pre-written character biography as same as the next guys. They aren't telling you how to play your character. You get to make the decisions, choose your destiny. Why should I have to attack those orcs? Maybe they are just having a rough day. What If I want to just run by and maybe drop by later? Why can't other games clue in to this idea of choice. One of the most marvelous ideas ever created, or thought of.
Choice is what defines us, we are independent creatures at heart. We make our own decisions in the real world so why not in a fantasy reality? Guild Wars 2 isn't pre-cooking your meal and packaging it up for you pre-made to toss in the microwave. They give you the ingredients and the know how then saying "Go for it, do what you want." Sure maybe you mix a few wrong spices and it turns out terribly. Next time around you correct what you have done wrong learning from last time.
If we approach a centaur encampment and all rush the center dying then we should rethink. Instead of having a static set of skills and charging into battle thinking "I have to mash the buttons faster," Why not just be given the choice to mix things up. Maybe since the centaurs are closer together a flamethrower kit could be handy to quickly hit a bunch of them together. Then maybe in the next part of the encampment they are stationary archers spread out. Maybe the ranger can switch to a longbow because he can stand still instead of having to dodging melee. These are our choices. These are given to us.
ArenaNet has taken a deep breath and thought hard. What do the players want? What is missing in all these games? They have found it, and it is beautiful. The power of choice feels good, so good.
Ramble complete, good day!
ArenaNet sees this, they pluck this little thought out of the huge scheme of things and plop it right into Guild Wars 2. They say, "Here, be what you want." They don't hand you a pre-written character biography as same as the next guys. They aren't telling you how to play your character. You get to make the decisions, choose your destiny. Why should I have to attack those orcs? Maybe they are just having a rough day. What If I want to just run by and maybe drop by later? Why can't other games clue in to this idea of choice. One of the most marvelous ideas ever created, or thought of.
Choice is what defines us, we are independent creatures at heart. We make our own decisions in the real world so why not in a fantasy reality? Guild Wars 2 isn't pre-cooking your meal and packaging it up for you pre-made to toss in the microwave. They give you the ingredients and the know how then saying "Go for it, do what you want." Sure maybe you mix a few wrong spices and it turns out terribly. Next time around you correct what you have done wrong learning from last time.
If we approach a centaur encampment and all rush the center dying then we should rethink. Instead of having a static set of skills and charging into battle thinking "I have to mash the buttons faster," Why not just be given the choice to mix things up. Maybe since the centaurs are closer together a flamethrower kit could be handy to quickly hit a bunch of them together. Then maybe in the next part of the encampment they are stationary archers spread out. Maybe the ranger can switch to a longbow because he can stand still instead of having to dodging melee. These are our choices. These are given to us.
ArenaNet has taken a deep breath and thought hard. What do the players want? What is missing in all these games? They have found it, and it is beautiful. The power of choice feels good, so good.
Ramble complete, good day!
Sunday 29 May 2011
Surprises All Dried Up
It seems to me the surprise is gone. Of course I am not the one for surprises, I would always pester my parents before christmas because I couldn't bare waiting. I would want to know immediately what I was getting. It was quite funny because as I became a teenager mostly I wanted to know because it was fear of getting something I wouldn't like, this is sort of my feelings toward Guild Wars 2. At the moment mostly everyone has stabbed at the Mesmer becoming the returning profession. I really don't know like everyone else. But, that being said, I don't think it will be the Mesmer. I mean everything points to it but something tells me ArenaNet has something up their sleeve. I do not know. If it is the Mesmer I am wrong and life continues.
The point where we hit a speed bump is the excitement. The build up towards a profession release. If ArenaNet were to just release all the professions at once there would be no excitement. They are Hype-Masters keeping us all glued in our seats. We speculate and guess at each profession. Now as the final profession is coming closer and release too I think I will miss that excitement. All the hype of ripping apart every new interview or article. Shredding it for all of its credible information is so thrilling. I think ArenaNet has nailed down how to keep their fans hooked until release. There will be no lack of excitement this summer as ArenaNet has already stated for huge plans at the upcoming conventions. To go PAX in Seattle would be a dream come true for me. Hopefully around that time in summer I might have saved up enough to head out there. Of course if I had my N I would be planning on driving there already! But of course, I had to be born in December. Meh, life goes on...
Ramble complete, good day!
The point where we hit a speed bump is the excitement. The build up towards a profession release. If ArenaNet were to just release all the professions at once there would be no excitement. They are Hype-Masters keeping us all glued in our seats. We speculate and guess at each profession. Now as the final profession is coming closer and release too I think I will miss that excitement. All the hype of ripping apart every new interview or article. Shredding it for all of its credible information is so thrilling. I think ArenaNet has nailed down how to keep their fans hooked until release. There will be no lack of excitement this summer as ArenaNet has already stated for huge plans at the upcoming conventions. To go PAX in Seattle would be a dream come true for me. Hopefully around that time in summer I might have saved up enough to head out there. Of course if I had my N I would be planning on driving there already! But of course, I had to be born in December. Meh, life goes on...
Ramble complete, good day!
Thursday 26 May 2011
250 Years
If you take our civilization 2011 and minus 250 you get 1761. Go back to 1761 and we had what? Forts and small civilizations. We had horses and no technology whatsoever. In 250 fifty years we have advance so much it is ridiculous. And yet for a fantasy world we see a simple turret or landmine out of place. A small LED light possibly. The world of Tyria is a evolving place. Some have stuck with medieval methods while others have chosen to evolve. Like the Charr, and in real world modern day citizens. For example the Natives did not change but the English and others inhabiting America, USA etc. did. 250 years is a bloody long time to advance. If ArenaNet made Guild Wars 2 actually advance the way we did Tyria would have planes, trains and automobiles. They would be at a similar position as us. I am just glad they decided to keep medieval roots in the game but throw in a much needed splash of technology. The Engineers to me seem like the pioneers of Tyria, the Albert Einsteins. They are the ones driving change.
Who knows, maybe in Guild Wars 3 we will be flying around on hoverboards shooting nukes out of our fingers.
Ramble complete, good day!
Who knows, maybe in Guild Wars 3 we will be flying around on hoverboards shooting nukes out of our fingers.
Ramble complete, good day!
Wednesday 25 May 2011
Terraria
A game full of adventure, yet so short. I feel stuck now, this game is such an enjoyable experience and yet after 37 hours I feel like I have done it all. The amount of updates will most likely not keep me hooked with new content. I understand now that they will be doing bug fixes and getting settled. Obviously the 200,000 sales has hit them in some way. You cannot just walk that off, it takes some getting used to. The developers definitely deserve it for making a unique game that stands out in a market of Minecraft copycats. It manages to defy the odds and hold true to its own style.
For that the Developers deserve credit. Now I just wish updates were more frequent but I know they will not. The game is an adventure game, once you have the best items there isn't not much else to do. I think that is where Minecraft has exceeded so well, I can easily just start up a fresh game and play for hours. I will not get bored too often. Even the infrequent updates don't bother me because there are so many things I can build. It is amazing because I never feel that my town or house is completely finished. Each new world starts a fresh character where as Terraria it is carried over. This could be one of its weaknesses. Sure I could start up a new character but the annoying painstaking process to obtain all those items does not seem fun to repeat. In Minecraft it isn't overly difficult but at the same time it is. That may not make sense but I think Notch has found a perfect balance. He has perfected all aspects of a great game. An amazing exploration, building and monster fighting game. Now each update is just slowly boosting its re-playability. For each new redstone gadget and mob he adds the game gets so much better. Even know with a fairly smaller item base that could be so much better it is amazing. I can just see in between now and the full release all the stuff to be added.
Over the summer it will most likely die down as people go off on vacation, including Mojang. So over the summer updates will probably be less frequent. Finally as summers comes to a close they will pick up dramatically until November 11th. From there the sky is the limit. Notch will continue and I am glad, for Minecraft will never be finished.
It will continue until all is done. Which I hope is never.
Ramble complete, good day!
For that the Developers deserve credit. Now I just wish updates were more frequent but I know they will not. The game is an adventure game, once you have the best items there isn't not much else to do. I think that is where Minecraft has exceeded so well, I can easily just start up a fresh game and play for hours. I will not get bored too often. Even the infrequent updates don't bother me because there are so many things I can build. It is amazing because I never feel that my town or house is completely finished. Each new world starts a fresh character where as Terraria it is carried over. This could be one of its weaknesses. Sure I could start up a new character but the annoying painstaking process to obtain all those items does not seem fun to repeat. In Minecraft it isn't overly difficult but at the same time it is. That may not make sense but I think Notch has found a perfect balance. He has perfected all aspects of a great game. An amazing exploration, building and monster fighting game. Now each update is just slowly boosting its re-playability. For each new redstone gadget and mob he adds the game gets so much better. Even know with a fairly smaller item base that could be so much better it is amazing. I can just see in between now and the full release all the stuff to be added.
Over the summer it will most likely die down as people go off on vacation, including Mojang. So over the summer updates will probably be less frequent. Finally as summers comes to a close they will pick up dramatically until November 11th. From there the sky is the limit. Notch will continue and I am glad, for Minecraft will never be finished.
It will continue until all is done. Which I hope is never.
Ramble complete, good day!
Thursday 19 May 2011
Guild Wars 2 Engineer
I knew it, and I called it. Yeah everyone says that but I did, I came up with the name engineer back when the ranger had no guns and I figured a gun class would be. Why add guns to a game with no class specified for it? The engineer is a grenade lobbing technical master of explosions. If I wasn't already hooked to the thief this would be my profession on release. Everything about it is just so explosive. I feel like every second I could just be blowing the shit out of everything left, right and center.
I wonder how the Roleplayers will take this. They might think this kind of advanced explosive warfare shouldn't be at the time where Guild Wars 2 takes place but I think it fits in. Even if the Charr have only developed most of it I think it would still be present. I am just glad they didn't add lock on missile launcher turrets, that would be a little crazy. I think this is a welcome addition to Guild Wars 2.
My one worry is just a general over inflation of this class. Like we saw with the races, the Charr. I think the problem is it just such an intense action packed profession. I can sense no lack of Charr Engineers on release. But still all in all I have to congratulate ArenaNet. They have broken the mold and created a mix of amazing professions that will work together like peanut butter and jam. Now we just have one more to slot into place. Speculation on this points to Mesmer but I am unsure. It seems like the most logical choice but you never know. ArenaNet seems to have multiple tricks up their sleeves. Keeps us hungry I guess.
Ramble complete, good day!
I wonder how the Roleplayers will take this. They might think this kind of advanced explosive warfare shouldn't be at the time where Guild Wars 2 takes place but I think it fits in. Even if the Charr have only developed most of it I think it would still be present. I am just glad they didn't add lock on missile launcher turrets, that would be a little crazy. I think this is a welcome addition to Guild Wars 2.
My one worry is just a general over inflation of this class. Like we saw with the races, the Charr. I think the problem is it just such an intense action packed profession. I can sense no lack of Charr Engineers on release. But still all in all I have to congratulate ArenaNet. They have broken the mold and created a mix of amazing professions that will work together like peanut butter and jam. Now we just have one more to slot into place. Speculation on this points to Mesmer but I am unsure. It seems like the most logical choice but you never know. ArenaNet seems to have multiple tricks up their sleeves. Keeps us hungry I guess.
Ramble complete, good day!
Wednesday 18 May 2011
Terraria Awesomecosity
Now to start, I am a huge Minecraft fan. This game is definitely not its replacement. More of a adventuring game to keep my appetite wet until more updates from Notch. With that said, Terraria is epic.
A smooth mix of action and combat plus the 2D arcade style makes for one hell of a trip. So far with a friend we have only gone down about 1500 feet and still the adventure is never amiss. I think the difficulty is challenging and with losing only money on death it is welcomed gladly. The pool of monsters add variety to the game something Minecraft cannot compete with (yet).
Minecraft for now is my 3D build epic things and have little wolfies kind of game (which all 20 are named!). And the latter Terraria is to become my futuristic adventuring game. If only a blend of Minecraft's 3D sandbox elements and Terraria's amazing adventuring components were mixed. Some unique items in Minecraft would be so great and I think that is where Terraria exceeds.
All in all I guess both games have their pros and cons. Terraria seems to have a smaller group of devoted developers which is handy. A 2D game also (to me) seems to be easier to provide updates? I am not entirely sure but assuming that more frequent updates would be awesome. By no means am I complaining about Minecraft's time period for updates. I think at the moment a lot of things are piling in and updates aren't their highest priority. That being said more would be nice, just throwing it out there. Need those pistons, my trap temple of doom must be finished!
Ramble complete, good day!
A smooth mix of action and combat plus the 2D arcade style makes for one hell of a trip. So far with a friend we have only gone down about 1500 feet and still the adventure is never amiss. I think the difficulty is challenging and with losing only money on death it is welcomed gladly. The pool of monsters add variety to the game something Minecraft cannot compete with (yet).
Minecraft for now is my 3D build epic things and have little wolfies kind of game (which all 20 are named!). And the latter Terraria is to become my futuristic adventuring game. If only a blend of Minecraft's 3D sandbox elements and Terraria's amazing adventuring components were mixed. Some unique items in Minecraft would be so great and I think that is where Terraria exceeds.
All in all I guess both games have their pros and cons. Terraria seems to have a smaller group of devoted developers which is handy. A 2D game also (to me) seems to be easier to provide updates? I am not entirely sure but assuming that more frequent updates would be awesome. By no means am I complaining about Minecraft's time period for updates. I think at the moment a lot of things are piling in and updates aren't their highest priority. That being said more would be nice, just throwing it out there. Need those pistons, my trap temple of doom must be finished!
Ramble complete, good day!
Sunday 15 May 2011
Terraria
Gonna grab Terraria tomorrow or tonight depending on release. Sucks that I am in school tomorrow but maybe the release will coincide with my computer animation class. I don't do anything in that class anyways. I guess with a month of school left and two of our biggest projects I should pick it up. Well anyways, Terraria looks like a pretty big game. I have this feeling in my gut the developers are about to feel the same as Notch. Money shouldn't be hard for them to come by with their release in the next couple hours. Hopefully they can get it out in time for people to be satisfied and not complain to much. Already seen that on some forums "inb4 release at 11:59 tomorrow" and stuff like that. Well the developers are probably eager to see how it fares so a release should be upon us soon :P
Ramble complete, good day!
Ramble complete, good day!
Playstation Network Back Online Here in Canada!
Just set my password after 24 days and boy does it feel good. Finally, I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing all the hate will stop and recovery can begin. But of course, for us it is virtually over. We can play online now, trophies and communicate with friends. For Sony though, it is still a constant battle. Now they must hit that deadline of May 31st for a full system restore and fortify their security. I really hope nothing like this ever happens again or it could be the final blow for Sony. I am glad now that people can stop bitching and whining about "I'm gonna buy and xbox" and that Sony are such terrible people. A lot of company go through hardships and hopefully this will help give Sony a kick it needs to get moving. Maybe no there will be no more BS and this magnificent company can run for us the players.
I am just glad to be able to stick with Sony through these times. I seem to be some of the many loyal fans squashing any xbox revolt, and I am glad. After all, Sony started gaming for me.
Well I am relieved, and one last word. I am grateful for Sony pushing through this time of distress and coming out on top. Hopefully this can continue, Sony will never die.
Ramble complete, good day!
I am just glad to be able to stick with Sony through these times. I seem to be some of the many loyal fans squashing any xbox revolt, and I am glad. After all, Sony started gaming for me.
Well I am relieved, and one last word. I am grateful for Sony pushing through this time of distress and coming out on top. Hopefully this can continue, Sony will never die.
Ramble complete, good day!
Monday 9 May 2011
WvWvW idea
Posted this on the Guild Wars 2 forums, reposting here as this was my post and might as well.
It seems ArenaNet has still been thinking about a way to restrict world switching to prevent players jumping to the winning world. They also want to make it so switching worlds would be convenient to meet up with friends.
I see a balance that needs to be found and I have an idea.
Switching to a world whilst a WvWvW week or whatever is underplace should provide restrictions on the players involvement in PvP and not directly on switching servers.
For example, if I am on the world "coconut" and my friend who had recently started playing accidentally created a character on the world "banana," we would run into a problem. If the WvWvW was undergoing and the world "banana" was winning it could be hard to get into that world. What if instead of preventing that person from switching to the world "banana" but instead they just are restricted from joining the WvWvW and play for the world "banana." This would allow the player to play with their friend in PvE but not allow players to jump to winning teams.
Then if the first player wanted to PvP they would have to switch to the world "coconut" to partake. This would allow players to PvE with their friends at all times whilst eliminating any manipulation in PvP.
Now finally (bear with me :P) the WvWvW week would end on tuesday lets say. But the first player on "coconut" couldn't play that day but he wanted to switch his WvWvW world to "banana" there should be an option to do that. For example "when the next WvWvW ends I want to participate on the world [drop down menu select 'banana']" This way it eliminates the players having to actually be on a world they wanted to be on for WvWvW.
TL;DR Switching worlds during WvWvW allows PvE to continue but PvP is restricted for the world switched to. An option to select which world you would like to partake in WvWvW when the week for WvWvW ends.
Anyways kind of like a blog I posted on forums for more feedback.
Ramble complete, good day!
It seems ArenaNet has still been thinking about a way to restrict world switching to prevent players jumping to the winning world. They also want to make it so switching worlds would be convenient to meet up with friends.
I see a balance that needs to be found and I have an idea.
Switching to a world whilst a WvWvW week or whatever is underplace should provide restrictions on the players involvement in PvP and not directly on switching servers.
For example, if I am on the world "coconut" and my friend who had recently started playing accidentally created a character on the world "banana," we would run into a problem. If the WvWvW was undergoing and the world "banana" was winning it could be hard to get into that world. What if instead of preventing that person from switching to the world "banana" but instead they just are restricted from joining the WvWvW and play for the world "banana." This would allow the player to play with their friend in PvE but not allow players to jump to winning teams.
Then if the first player wanted to PvP they would have to switch to the world "coconut" to partake. This would allow players to PvE with their friends at all times whilst eliminating any manipulation in PvP.
Now finally (bear with me :P) the WvWvW week would end on tuesday lets say. But the first player on "coconut" couldn't play that day but he wanted to switch his WvWvW world to "banana" there should be an option to do that. For example "when the next WvWvW ends I want to participate on the world [drop down menu select 'banana']" This way it eliminates the players having to actually be on a world they wanted to be on for WvWvW.
TL;DR Switching worlds during WvWvW allows PvE to continue but PvP is restricted for the world switched to. An option to select which world you would like to partake in WvWvW when the week for WvWvW ends.
Anyways kind of like a blog I posted on forums for more feedback.
Ramble complete, good day!
Saturday 7 May 2011
New Minecraft Video!
We have released another video for our Minecraft video channel. Minecraft Butcher Pete - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IunAbISvg7M&feature=channel_video_title
Go watch it if you like and the rest, subscribe etc.
If you can thanks! I really hope we can get some more views and subscribers as we progress and dish out more videos. If you have any ideas for a video feel free to contact me through the youtube channel, although it will only be for Minecraft :P
Ramble complete, good day!
Go watch it if you like and the rest, subscribe etc.
If you can thanks! I really hope we can get some more views and subscribers as we progress and dish out more videos. If you have any ideas for a video feel free to contact me through the youtube channel, although it will only be for Minecraft :P
Ramble complete, good day!
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Minecraft Pork Party
Tadaa!
Our youtube channel has begun. Soon more videos will come piling in. All random shenanigans related to Minecraft will be here. If you check this blog and want to see check out our first video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf9BiT6seHk&feature=channel_video_title
If so subscribe and such. You know the whole song and dance. Thanks a lot! Really means a lot to us.
Ramble complete, good day!
Our youtube channel has begun. Soon more videos will come piling in. All random shenanigans related to Minecraft will be here. If you check this blog and want to see check out our first video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf9BiT6seHk&feature=channel_video_title
If so subscribe and such. You know the whole song and dance. Thanks a lot! Really means a lot to us.
Ramble complete, good day!
PSN Over Reaction?
Alright, once again more PSN stuff.
I really don't understand what everyones big deal is? The Playstation network has been down for what 7, 8 days? I am sick and tired of every news site talking about how so many people are switching to xbox. Alright that is great but obviously they aren't the people loyal to sony. They are the stupid fanboys jumping to the nearest console available to them that isn't having difficulties. Just because there is a security breach is no reason to jump ship and if so you don't care about a company. I mean Sony is going through a tough time and people really don't seem to give a shit. I wanna play my CoD and Mortal Kombat. Suck it up buttercups, quick bitching about a service that is being worked on around the clock. They are working their asses off to get these games back into your grubby hands. What has our soceity become? Go outside for a few days, get some fresh air. Just because you cannot play Black Ops online for a few days is no need to shit yourself.
I truly thought people had more care in a company before. Unfortunately I was terribly wrong. Too many people don't give a damn about Sony and I am getting really pissed about it. If Sony were to shut their services down it is disappointing that few users would be hurt by it. I know for sure I would, I have stuck with Sony since the beginning. I had the Playstation. I had the Playstation 2. And yes, I bought the $600 something dollar shiny Playstation 3. All my friends had xbox's but I didn't care. I went for the console that had been there with me since the beginning. One of the first consoles I played and loved so much. Sony was the company that started gaming for me and I am so grateful. Sadly not too many would share these feelings with me.
One thing that really pisses me off is the fact that people think this couldn't happen to Xbox. All these xbox users (most my friends) laughing how Playstation is getting thrashed so badly. Wouldn't be the same if their precious xbox was getting hacked. Who is to say xbox has better security? They could have easily been hacked also but the hackers chose the PSN. Why? I have no idea. All I know is that all these xbox users are getting on my nerves. No need to be bragging about your network up, go play it then. Leave Sony alone because they have been around longer then you and have much more experience. Stop thinking your console is so superior. You got the jump on releasing the Xbox 360 first and what did that give you. A console crapping out after 1,2 years. That is great, personally I would like to wait for a decent console that can last like my old Playsation. I had that thing for 3+ years. Blu-Ray player, discs and great games that are still true to my heart.
Playstation all I can say is this, good luck in your travels. You have served the world valiantly and if it is your time to die, so be it. Nothing is forever, but I am glad the experience was there.
Ramble complete, good day!
I really don't understand what everyones big deal is? The Playstation network has been down for what 7, 8 days? I am sick and tired of every news site talking about how so many people are switching to xbox. Alright that is great but obviously they aren't the people loyal to sony. They are the stupid fanboys jumping to the nearest console available to them that isn't having difficulties. Just because there is a security breach is no reason to jump ship and if so you don't care about a company. I mean Sony is going through a tough time and people really don't seem to give a shit. I wanna play my CoD and Mortal Kombat. Suck it up buttercups, quick bitching about a service that is being worked on around the clock. They are working their asses off to get these games back into your grubby hands. What has our soceity become? Go outside for a few days, get some fresh air. Just because you cannot play Black Ops online for a few days is no need to shit yourself.
I truly thought people had more care in a company before. Unfortunately I was terribly wrong. Too many people don't give a damn about Sony and I am getting really pissed about it. If Sony were to shut their services down it is disappointing that few users would be hurt by it. I know for sure I would, I have stuck with Sony since the beginning. I had the Playstation. I had the Playstation 2. And yes, I bought the $600 something dollar shiny Playstation 3. All my friends had xbox's but I didn't care. I went for the console that had been there with me since the beginning. One of the first consoles I played and loved so much. Sony was the company that started gaming for me and I am so grateful. Sadly not too many would share these feelings with me.
One thing that really pisses me off is the fact that people think this couldn't happen to Xbox. All these xbox users (most my friends) laughing how Playstation is getting thrashed so badly. Wouldn't be the same if their precious xbox was getting hacked. Who is to say xbox has better security? They could have easily been hacked also but the hackers chose the PSN. Why? I have no idea. All I know is that all these xbox users are getting on my nerves. No need to be bragging about your network up, go play it then. Leave Sony alone because they have been around longer then you and have much more experience. Stop thinking your console is so superior. You got the jump on releasing the Xbox 360 first and what did that give you. A console crapping out after 1,2 years. That is great, personally I would like to wait for a decent console that can last like my old Playsation. I had that thing for 3+ years. Blu-Ray player, discs and great games that are still true to my heart.
Playstation all I can say is this, good luck in your travels. You have served the world valiantly and if it is your time to die, so be it. Nothing is forever, but I am glad the experience was there.
Ramble complete, good day!
Saturday 30 April 2011
Playstation Network Outage
Ahh yes. The wonderful topic. Luckily as I seem to be one of the only of my friends to not care for an Xbox I can provide honest feedback.
The network outage to me seems like there was an intrusion. The playstation network engineers or whatever detected this and shut the network down. A lot of people are going beserk about this and I think I heard someone is trying to take them to court (good luck lol). I see them shutting it down as a positive. Why leave the network open thinking that a small or big "intrusion" is irrelevant and personal information is stolen. Then we would have rights to be bloody angry. As is they can do whatever they want with the network. They could probably even shut it down, not smart, but plausible.
I really don't see what the big fuss is all about. I just move to the next device in my house when one is crapping out. Hello PC :D
Ramble complete, good day!
The network outage to me seems like there was an intrusion. The playstation network engineers or whatever detected this and shut the network down. A lot of people are going beserk about this and I think I heard someone is trying to take them to court (good luck lol). I see them shutting it down as a positive. Why leave the network open thinking that a small or big "intrusion" is irrelevant and personal information is stolen. Then we would have rights to be bloody angry. As is they can do whatever they want with the network. They could probably even shut it down, not smart, but plausible.
I really don't see what the big fuss is all about. I just move to the next device in my house when one is crapping out. Hello PC :D
Ramble complete, good day!
Friday 22 April 2011
None or Six
Laughter never is amiss in the world of gaming. That one sentence "None or Six" shows hopefully, humor will not be forgotten in Guild Wars 2. As we have already seen references to popular youtube (The lightning bolt audio clip) and other humorous antics.
The response has been sort of mixed I feel about throwing in references in a "older" game world. I personally would love any references to laugh at with my friends. This adds life and color to the gaming world that seems missed in other games. Some games I have heard slight humor for example "Global Agenda." Some commander in the Sonaron Desert marching with his henchmen goons beside him. He said something along the lines of "March faster, do you got sand in your butts?" This was sort of humorous but I guess immature at the same time. Still though the attempt at humor at that was the main point.
Humor can be welcomed in any game. Well any I play, anyways.
Ramble complete, good day!
The response has been sort of mixed I feel about throwing in references in a "older" game world. I personally would love any references to laugh at with my friends. This adds life and color to the gaming world that seems missed in other games. Some games I have heard slight humor for example "Global Agenda." Some commander in the Sonaron Desert marching with his henchmen goons beside him. He said something along the lines of "March faster, do you got sand in your butts?" This was sort of humorous but I guess immature at the same time. Still though the attempt at humor at that was the main point.
Humor can be welcomed in any game. Well any I play, anyways.
Ramble complete, good day!
Monday 28 March 2011
Crafting Celebrations
The crafting system unveiled a while back for Guild Wars 2 has taken a lot of controversy. I am one of the people who really hopes they don't change it because I personally believe it is magnificent. A discovery system seems perfect for Guild Wars 2 considering the exploration freedom and mind blowing customization. To me it is a warmly welcomed fit.
The wiki issue also comes up a lot. Why couldn't people just find every recipe on the wiki? Well I think if those people want to look on the wiki they can. It isn't hurting anyone and it worked fine for Minecraft.
I can just imagine the exhilarating moment when my friends and I are crafting together and someone discovers a new recipe. We could trade the recipe around and make a nice tidy profit in doing this. Then the following search for the resources and happy times while we make profit selling in the marketplace. This is one of the most enjoying moments I can see myself doing during crafting.
At the start of release the new recipes to be found will be astronomical in my opinion. Everyone will be scrambling for all release things like recipes, guild names, character names, max level and other things. Another problem that could encounter would finding all the recipes for a trade. This seems like a vast feat and not to mention that if you do there is still 8 crafting disciplines. I think by the time you master all 8 there will have been some sort of micro update to start you off again.
The discovery system, some people I think don't realize, could go on for months after release. The chances of finding every single recipe seems slim to none. There will probably be a lot of recipes that go untouched for months after release. I can see the smile already appearing on my face as the wiki turns up no results for my search of a new recipe I found.
Ahhh the joy that is to come :D Anyways...
Ramble complete, good day!
The wiki issue also comes up a lot. Why couldn't people just find every recipe on the wiki? Well I think if those people want to look on the wiki they can. It isn't hurting anyone and it worked fine for Minecraft.
I can just imagine the exhilarating moment when my friends and I are crafting together and someone discovers a new recipe. We could trade the recipe around and make a nice tidy profit in doing this. Then the following search for the resources and happy times while we make profit selling in the marketplace. This is one of the most enjoying moments I can see myself doing during crafting.
At the start of release the new recipes to be found will be astronomical in my opinion. Everyone will be scrambling for all release things like recipes, guild names, character names, max level and other things. Another problem that could encounter would finding all the recipes for a trade. This seems like a vast feat and not to mention that if you do there is still 8 crafting disciplines. I think by the time you master all 8 there will have been some sort of micro update to start you off again.
The discovery system, some people I think don't realize, could go on for months after release. The chances of finding every single recipe seems slim to none. There will probably be a lot of recipes that go untouched for months after release. I can see the smile already appearing on my face as the wiki turns up no results for my search of a new recipe I found.
Ahhh the joy that is to come :D Anyways...
Ramble complete, good day!
Friday 25 March 2011
Demo Focus
It seems from most of the PAX 2011 videos I have managed to find all revolve around combat. People playing Guild Wars 2 only seem interested in fighting. Sure combat is what holds an MMORPG together but it isn't the only thing. I just wish there was more videos of people actually exploring. Instead of people just doing the same events over and over again with the same weapons, more should have tried to explore. Granted there was a few very nice videos. The Vigil Keep was explored nicely and I saw some great video of Hoelbrak. It just seems every video all people want to do is run around fighting meaningless battles. The majority of clips I have seen are unsatisfying most of the time. It seems like most people have no idea what game they are playing. I understand they have never played the game before but basic knowledge of MMORPG's can carry over nicely. A lot of people weren't even switching weapons when they started and this made me a bit helpless to be completely honest. I would just love to be there and tell the person the information I know :D
If I got the chance to head to PAX east I would be thrilled first of all. But mostly I think my play experience would differ greatly from those that I have seen. One I would select my weapons and sets of the bat instead of just running in not knowing what I have equipped. Two I would quickly dye my armor so I don't look like every other adventurer wandering around. Three I would focus my attention on picking utility skills that match my current weapon. Four I would at least try and remember what each skill did so I could be at least prepared. Then I would adventure and explore!
I find too many times people just mash skills where they have no knowledge of what it even does. Also I am not sure if people know that right clicking on a skill makes it auto activate whenever it can. I am not sure if that is still in the demos but from an earlier convention I heard this. Supposedly right clicking on the skill activates it whenever it is available. This would prevent the common button mashing I could see apparent during PAX. This would be useful for having the first skill constantly going and using the others when needed. I really hope this is kept in the game as I do not want to have to mash 1 for each basic attack I want to perform.
Anyways, it seems the main focus of demos is revolving around combat. The few scarce videos of people actually exploring and trying new things is a blessing, hopefully more is to come. It seems that more videos are popping up from PAX and I just have to keep scouring I guess until someones focus is different.
Ramble complete, good day!
If I got the chance to head to PAX east I would be thrilled first of all. But mostly I think my play experience would differ greatly from those that I have seen. One I would select my weapons and sets of the bat instead of just running in not knowing what I have equipped. Two I would quickly dye my armor so I don't look like every other adventurer wandering around. Three I would focus my attention on picking utility skills that match my current weapon. Four I would at least try and remember what each skill did so I could be at least prepared. Then I would adventure and explore!
I find too many times people just mash skills where they have no knowledge of what it even does. Also I am not sure if people know that right clicking on a skill makes it auto activate whenever it can. I am not sure if that is still in the demos but from an earlier convention I heard this. Supposedly right clicking on the skill activates it whenever it is available. This would prevent the common button mashing I could see apparent during PAX. This would be useful for having the first skill constantly going and using the others when needed. I really hope this is kept in the game as I do not want to have to mash 1 for each basic attack I want to perform.
Anyways, it seems the main focus of demos is revolving around combat. The few scarce videos of people actually exploring and trying new things is a blessing, hopefully more is to come. It seems that more videos are popping up from PAX and I just have to keep scouring I guess until someones focus is different.
Ramble complete, good day!
Give Notch a Break!
Recently with the new 1.4 Minecraft update I am seeing a lot of crap. Too many people are tweeting notch about him "not releasing the update fast enough." In one tweet he says "Now, beers at Imperiet!" Everyone starts replying "I want my update!" and "wheres the update?" This is really pissing me off. Everyone seems to think this is their update and that Notch is being so lazy. He works his ass off and I think everyone is becoming greedy and impatient because there isn't huge updates every month. They have a small company and they are real human beings too! Let them go have beers if they want to. They aren't here to serve us and our gaming needs. If he wants to go and live life he should be able too without people shitting bricks.
Man, I really wish people would just grow up and realize that life goes on. Just because your bloody update with wolves isn't coming right this second doesn't mean you have to freak on Notch. I don't want to see Notch give up his game because of too many people hating on him for everything he does that isn't related to Minecraft.
All in all, let the man go for beers if he wants too! Life is to lived and he can damn well do so if he pleases. I want that update too but patience is a virtue young grasshoppers. May peace keep us together in the end.
Ramble complete, good day!
Man, I really wish people would just grow up and realize that life goes on. Just because your bloody update with wolves isn't coming right this second doesn't mean you have to freak on Notch. I don't want to see Notch give up his game because of too many people hating on him for everything he does that isn't related to Minecraft.
All in all, let the man go for beers if he wants too! Life is to lived and he can damn well do so if he pleases. I want that update too but patience is a virtue young grasshoppers. May peace keep us together in the end.
Ramble complete, good day!
Friday 18 March 2011
The Start of More!
Going to start blogging I guess. I don't know what to talk about so far, probably gaming and stuff. Mostly Guild Wars 2 and Minecraft probably. Just games in general. Well, onwards!
Ramble complete, good day!
Ramble complete, good day!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)