Friday, May 30, 2003
GameSpy has a preview/interview up about NWN: Shadows of Undrentide, the first official expansion for Neverwinter Nights.
It has a lot of interesting and encouraging information, especially about the new NPC features (since they totally fucked that in the original game)....but the little info they gave on the story leaves me wondering if that's going to be okay. Your school is overrun by kobolds, lookout! What's that? Standard adventure hook #45? Yes.
But, I'm sure it will suck less than the original campaign...mostly because I havnt played Baldur's Gate in a long time, so the sheer difference in the two games will likely be a lot less apparent.
The big problem I have with this expansion is that they are making us pay for it. They are giving us all the features that we EXPECTED from the original game (infact, the most basic ones that they had put in a game they made 4 YEARS AGO but seemed to forget about when they made the jump to 3D), in addition to 3 new tilesets and a campaign. The new tilesets and campaign wouldn't be so bad...except for the fact that you can go out and download player made ones for FREE that are likely of similar quality for the small price of having to dig through some shitty ones to find the good.
This is not an expansion. It's a big patch. It's a big 50$USD patch that they are going to force us to get to play with other people.
Did I mention that the original game was 80$ Canadian? Yep. It cost almost as much as the collectors edition boxed set of Warcraft3 after taxes.
At least when it comes out and all the online servers make the switch to it and prevent anyone who doesn't want to get monetarily raped from playing it online anymore, we can pull out our copies of Baldur's Gate and probably have just as much fun.
PS: HL2 movie was beyond amazing.
It has a lot of interesting and encouraging information, especially about the new NPC features (since they totally fucked that in the original game)....but the little info they gave on the story leaves me wondering if that's going to be okay. Your school is overrun by kobolds, lookout! What's that? Standard adventure hook #45? Yes.
But, I'm sure it will suck less than the original campaign...mostly because I havnt played Baldur's Gate in a long time, so the sheer difference in the two games will likely be a lot less apparent.
The big problem I have with this expansion is that they are making us pay for it. They are giving us all the features that we EXPECTED from the original game (infact, the most basic ones that they had put in a game they made 4 YEARS AGO but seemed to forget about when they made the jump to 3D), in addition to 3 new tilesets and a campaign. The new tilesets and campaign wouldn't be so bad...except for the fact that you can go out and download player made ones for FREE that are likely of similar quality for the small price of having to dig through some shitty ones to find the good.
This is not an expansion. It's a big patch. It's a big 50$USD patch that they are going to force us to get to play with other people.
Did I mention that the original game was 80$ Canadian? Yep. It cost almost as much as the collectors edition boxed set of Warcraft3 after taxes.
At least when it comes out and all the online servers make the switch to it and prevent anyone who doesn't want to get monetarily raped from playing it online anymore, we can pull out our copies of Baldur's Gate and probably have just as much fun.
PS: HL2 movie was beyond amazing.
And now for an irrelevant rant on Aliens:
Just finished watching Alien Ressurection (the fourth in the Aliens series for you UNCULTURED SCUM). I think it's such a great movie, on par, if not better than the 2nd. No sequel will ever surpass the orginal Aliens, though. That one was way too ground breaking, and I consider it one of the coolest, most inventive and moody sci-fi movies EVER.
Aliens 4, though. It has the creepy, the sexy, the awesome, the cool, the continuity, the inovation and the MOOD. You know why those ships look so awesome and dirty and junky? Because they use MODELS not CG. It looks SO much more beleivable and fits perfectly with the Dirt Future. Exquisite.
Weaver kicks ass and I hope to God that she has full control over the next movie even if she herself does not return as Ripley. It would be HILARIOUS if the next movie dealt with Ripley and MonkeyMan's kids (MonkeyMan is the big guy with the ape face that "mostly just hurts people") and maybe some robots or predators or something. Why not have the kids be the next evolution of both Alien and Human? Hmm? It'd be fun to see some preds get their asses kicked.
Anyways. Need to watch this HL2 movie then cut off some heads with my new Vorpal Shortsword.
Just finished watching Alien Ressurection (the fourth in the Aliens series for you UNCULTURED SCUM). I think it's such a great movie, on par, if not better than the 2nd. No sequel will ever surpass the orginal Aliens, though. That one was way too ground breaking, and I consider it one of the coolest, most inventive and moody sci-fi movies EVER.
Aliens 4, though. It has the creepy, the sexy, the awesome, the cool, the continuity, the inovation and the MOOD. You know why those ships look so awesome and dirty and junky? Because they use MODELS not CG. It looks SO much more beleivable and fits perfectly with the Dirt Future. Exquisite.
Weaver kicks ass and I hope to God that she has full control over the next movie even if she herself does not return as Ripley. It would be HILARIOUS if the next movie dealt with Ripley and MonkeyMan's kids (MonkeyMan is the big guy with the ape face that "mostly just hurts people") and maybe some robots or predators or something. Why not have the kids be the next evolution of both Alien and Human? Hmm? It'd be fun to see some preds get their asses kicked.
Anyways. Need to watch this HL2 movie then cut off some heads with my new Vorpal Shortsword.
Thursday, May 29, 2003
This post's purpose is to spite Shane.
Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Some more formatting. I was reading Ian's blog and wandered over to Shane's blog and became aware of the massive text size difference. Then I realized that at my resolution, that giant crayon text size looks even smaller than it would on a desktop that isnt maxing out the resolution of a videocard (so I can fit more buttons on screen in big programs like Maya and Aurora). So I changed the size by 20% to make it look more professional.
Job update: I am still unemployed. I received a couple leads from my...um...what the HELL is her relation to me? Um...the mother-in-law of my step-sister...my step-mother-in-law? Whatever. Anyways, like her family title, she's a little crazy and these leads are probably way out of my league. The 'banks' are also supposedly hiring again, but as to which banks are looking for someone with my pitiful qualifications, I'll probably never know. Not that anyone has called me back ANYWAYS.
So, prepare for a job rant (like a big one) in the next few buisness days.
Game Update: I've been playing a lot of Neverwinter Nights recently...although not because its a good game. Infact, if the multiplayer was even half of what it is it would be the most overrated game in existance (DOOM3 isn't out yet). It's a Persistant server module that has me in its soul-draining grip. This particular one transforms an already Diablo2-esq engine into something like Diablo3 in its horrid addictiveness. Its pretty pathetic with its massive items of destruction that are available to even a lowly level 1 character...infact its the anti-christ of a Pete campaign (a campaign where characters rely VERY little on items and equipment and roleplay their way out of extremely dangerous and complicated situations).
I could quite easily go on, but Caitlin just called saying she's coming home from work early because she's sick. Consider you and your eyeballs saved.
For now.
Job update: I am still unemployed. I received a couple leads from my...um...what the HELL is her relation to me? Um...the mother-in-law of my step-sister...my step-mother-in-law? Whatever. Anyways, like her family title, she's a little crazy and these leads are probably way out of my league. The 'banks' are also supposedly hiring again, but as to which banks are looking for someone with my pitiful qualifications, I'll probably never know. Not that anyone has called me back ANYWAYS.
So, prepare for a job rant (like a big one) in the next few buisness days.
Game Update: I've been playing a lot of Neverwinter Nights recently...although not because its a good game. Infact, if the multiplayer was even half of what it is it would be the most overrated game in existance (DOOM3 isn't out yet). It's a Persistant server module that has me in its soul-draining grip. This particular one transforms an already Diablo2-esq engine into something like Diablo3 in its horrid addictiveness. Its pretty pathetic with its massive items of destruction that are available to even a lowly level 1 character...infact its the anti-christ of a Pete campaign (a campaign where characters rely VERY little on items and equipment and roleplay their way out of extremely dangerous and complicated situations).
I could quite easily go on, but Caitlin just called saying she's coming home from work early because she's sick. Consider you and your eyeballs saved.
For now.
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Penny Arcade had an interesting rant with the theme of "Games that don't fit the current mainstream=shit and deserve bad reviews."
Here's a big chunk of what Tycho said:
"You know how when we killed Jesus, he asked God to forgive us because we just didn't know any better? You need to show that brand of divine benevolence to these animals who mar gaming with their ignorance, with their sloth, and with their ineptitude.
So, they gave a game most people won't play a bad score. Why is that? Well, you need to understand that "genres" are like deep grooves worn into a solid oak bar. Think of Publishers as barmen, sliding beverage after beverage along those known channels, and the press are like the pretty maids that wait ready to receive them. These sweet things are batting their eyes at the barmen constantly - understand, that's how they got the job in the first place - and they're ready to ferry the drinks out to you and me, just so long as they arrive along the expected trajectories.
But sometimes something comes out that, gol durnit, just don't run right on the tracks. Maybe it slides right between two channels, maybe it's not even on what you might call the bar, per se. There's no-one there to catch it, it just hits the lip and flings into the void. And none of them care, because, why should they? They have plenty to do already with just the games that fit the standard scheme. They certainly don't have time for some sort of Gaming Activism, finding and exposing games people might not have seen or heard of. Gaming journalism today isn't about journalism, assuming that it ever was. It's about people who don't give a fuck reciting hip scripts from Industry one-sheets, hitting all the right notes until the next crate of games arrives. I'm surprised that you're surprised."
(CW)TB
This hit such a cord with me thanks to my fairly recent complaints because of the raves and reviews games are getting for their 'inventive' gameplay when a smaller company made a game MUCH better just a few years ago.
Specifically, I'm speaking of the RTS genre and the current leap its making from "pound your enemy to dust with a barrage of throw-away soldiers" to "level up your hero and use them to vastly influence the flow of battle and THEN pound your enemy". Thus adding the concept of RPG to the now stale RTS genre. Warcraft 3 was hailed as the first to do so and the supposed Warcraft3-Killer, Lords of Everquest, will be the next level of it.
I say, fuck that. SSI, famous for the Turn Based Strategy games Warlords (up to like #7 in the series now, I think), 3 years ago made an RTS called Warlords: Battlecry. It had MORE RPG stuff than Lords of EQ and War3 have combined, better and faster gameplay and CONTINUITY (you take the same character with you throughout your battles....YES, even in multiplayer).
Why have you never heard of it? Two reasons:
1) It had 2D graphics and animations. HOLY SHIT! TRAVESTY!!! Yes. Reviewers DESTROYED the game simply because they wanted 3D graphics and no game deserved a rating over 70 if they didn't have them. Graphics are not the fucking point. Too much emphasis is on graphics. What the hell about the gameplay?
2) The timing. While, I was more than ready for a game like this, the mainstream of gamers were ready for another boring Starcraft or Age of Empires clone game. And they got them. By the dozens. So finally when people got bored enough, Warcraft 3 happened to be just finishing and released in a giant lull of games and SLAUGHTERED everything. Don't get me wrong, the game was awesome, but the story wasn't as compelling as other Blizzard games and the gameplay, while extremely competative still relies more on exploiting the race with the most powerful units and the random luck of finding that almighty item drop from a creep.
Warlords:Battlecry managed to form a loyal following from the first game, however. SSI, no stranger to sequels, decided to make W:BC2 which is equally awesome and has expanded units, magic, items, characters and singleplayer. The graphics are better (much better than say Starcraft) yet still 2D. And still, it gets axed 20% on the reveiw scores because of it.
So. The moral of this rant? Graphics and repetative gameplay are more important than creativity or anyother aspect of a game. Need more proof? DOOM3. Halo2. The various Starwars games that are like clones of degenerate clones. Go read any preview/review at GameSpy or Gamespot or IGN and see what I mean.
Here's a big chunk of what Tycho said:
"You know how when we killed Jesus, he asked God to forgive us because we just didn't know any better? You need to show that brand of divine benevolence to these animals who mar gaming with their ignorance, with their sloth, and with their ineptitude.
So, they gave a game most people won't play a bad score. Why is that? Well, you need to understand that "genres" are like deep grooves worn into a solid oak bar. Think of Publishers as barmen, sliding beverage after beverage along those known channels, and the press are like the pretty maids that wait ready to receive them. These sweet things are batting their eyes at the barmen constantly - understand, that's how they got the job in the first place - and they're ready to ferry the drinks out to you and me, just so long as they arrive along the expected trajectories.
But sometimes something comes out that, gol durnit, just don't run right on the tracks. Maybe it slides right between two channels, maybe it's not even on what you might call the bar, per se. There's no-one there to catch it, it just hits the lip and flings into the void. And none of them care, because, why should they? They have plenty to do already with just the games that fit the standard scheme. They certainly don't have time for some sort of Gaming Activism, finding and exposing games people might not have seen or heard of. Gaming journalism today isn't about journalism, assuming that it ever was. It's about people who don't give a fuck reciting hip scripts from Industry one-sheets, hitting all the right notes until the next crate of games arrives. I'm surprised that you're surprised."
(CW)TB
This hit such a cord with me thanks to my fairly recent complaints because of the raves and reviews games are getting for their 'inventive' gameplay when a smaller company made a game MUCH better just a few years ago.
Specifically, I'm speaking of the RTS genre and the current leap its making from "pound your enemy to dust with a barrage of throw-away soldiers" to "level up your hero and use them to vastly influence the flow of battle and THEN pound your enemy". Thus adding the concept of RPG to the now stale RTS genre. Warcraft 3 was hailed as the first to do so and the supposed Warcraft3-Killer, Lords of Everquest, will be the next level of it.
I say, fuck that. SSI, famous for the Turn Based Strategy games Warlords (up to like #7 in the series now, I think), 3 years ago made an RTS called Warlords: Battlecry. It had MORE RPG stuff than Lords of EQ and War3 have combined, better and faster gameplay and CONTINUITY (you take the same character with you throughout your battles....YES, even in multiplayer).
Why have you never heard of it? Two reasons:
1) It had 2D graphics and animations. HOLY SHIT! TRAVESTY!!! Yes. Reviewers DESTROYED the game simply because they wanted 3D graphics and no game deserved a rating over 70 if they didn't have them. Graphics are not the fucking point. Too much emphasis is on graphics. What the hell about the gameplay?
2) The timing. While, I was more than ready for a game like this, the mainstream of gamers were ready for another boring Starcraft or Age of Empires clone game. And they got them. By the dozens. So finally when people got bored enough, Warcraft 3 happened to be just finishing and released in a giant lull of games and SLAUGHTERED everything. Don't get me wrong, the game was awesome, but the story wasn't as compelling as other Blizzard games and the gameplay, while extremely competative still relies more on exploiting the race with the most powerful units and the random luck of finding that almighty item drop from a creep.
Warlords:Battlecry managed to form a loyal following from the first game, however. SSI, no stranger to sequels, decided to make W:BC2 which is equally awesome and has expanded units, magic, items, characters and singleplayer. The graphics are better (much better than say Starcraft) yet still 2D. And still, it gets axed 20% on the reveiw scores because of it.
So. The moral of this rant? Graphics and repetative gameplay are more important than creativity or anyother aspect of a game. Need more proof? DOOM3. Halo2. The various Starwars games that are like clones of degenerate clones. Go read any preview/review at GameSpy or Gamespot or IGN and see what I mean.
Friday, May 23, 2003
Dear Diary,
Last night I met a cute NPC in a Persistant NWN server. He was dreamy. I talked to him and he didn't give me any dialogue choices at all. Near the end of the conversation, he gave no warning what was about to happen. He then summoned in 5 clerics into the MIDDLE OF A LOWBIE TOWN which were all aprox level 10-15 monsters. Even the town guards got their asses kicked by these guys. My party was doing fairly well (because the clerics were all targetting our pets) until one of the 'clerics' cast Horrid-freaking-Wilting and gassed us all. By the way, dying meant we lost exp AND gold and since we were level ONE we lost half the exp we had gained so far and about 10 gold which is about an hours worth of play.
So I dragged some guards over to the clerics to fight them and got a bit of exp for helping to finish them off while they killed several guards. Then we went back for our grave stones (to pray for 50% return on the exp we lost). Ofcourse, some prick smashed the stone of one of my party members.
"Haha! That's so funny!" You might be saying. But let me clarify how easy it would be to add a script to prevent anyone lower than, say, level 10 from setting off that prickish trigger:
if (!GetHitDice(PCSpeaker) < 10)
RunYourPissyLittleTrigger;
else
LeaveMeTheFuckAlone;
Wow. I'm a scripting Mentat. No, wait, it took me 3 seconds to load the page that had that info on it. I guess the scripters for that module were too busy giggling with their 14 year old friends at how cool it was going to be for their clerics to be able to cast Horrid Wilting in the middle of town.
Well, I made a cool character on that server that I really would like to play again. Hopefully the rest of my party (Shane and a couple people from Deus Vincit) will want to try another server sometime. Hopefully one a little more scripted and a little less bitchy...
Afterall, it's going to be a long time yet before I get my modules finished and probably sometime after Never that I can convince Pete to make a Persistant version of Zheresia.
If, however you want it sooner than Never, here's his Blog
and if you can't find a way to contact him besides that, I'll stick up his email. Muhuahaha.
Last night I met a cute NPC in a Persistant NWN server. He was dreamy. I talked to him and he didn't give me any dialogue choices at all. Near the end of the conversation, he gave no warning what was about to happen. He then summoned in 5 clerics into the MIDDLE OF A LOWBIE TOWN which were all aprox level 10-15 monsters. Even the town guards got their asses kicked by these guys. My party was doing fairly well (because the clerics were all targetting our pets) until one of the 'clerics' cast Horrid-freaking-Wilting and gassed us all. By the way, dying meant we lost exp AND gold and since we were level ONE we lost half the exp we had gained so far and about 10 gold which is about an hours worth of play.
So I dragged some guards over to the clerics to fight them and got a bit of exp for helping to finish them off while they killed several guards. Then we went back for our grave stones (to pray for 50% return on the exp we lost). Ofcourse, some prick smashed the stone of one of my party members.
"Haha! That's so funny!" You might be saying. But let me clarify how easy it would be to add a script to prevent anyone lower than, say, level 10 from setting off that prickish trigger:
if (!GetHitDice(PCSpeaker) < 10)
RunYourPissyLittleTrigger;
else
LeaveMeTheFuckAlone;
Wow. I'm a scripting Mentat. No, wait, it took me 3 seconds to load the page that had that info on it. I guess the scripters for that module were too busy giggling with their 14 year old friends at how cool it was going to be for their clerics to be able to cast Horrid Wilting in the middle of town.
Well, I made a cool character on that server that I really would like to play again. Hopefully the rest of my party (Shane and a couple people from Deus Vincit) will want to try another server sometime. Hopefully one a little more scripted and a little less bitchy...
Afterall, it's going to be a long time yet before I get my modules finished and probably sometime after Never that I can convince Pete to make a Persistant version of Zheresia.
If, however you want it sooner than Never, here's his Blog
and if you can't find a way to contact him besides that, I'll stick up his email. Muhuahaha.
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Be my squire, earn me gold...and like totally stab people: EverWars
My character is Zabby and I'm level 11 going on 12. I've done pretty good for an undead with no squires to fund me.
My character is Zabby and I'm level 11 going on 12. I've done pretty good for an undead with no squires to fund me.
Well. Look what I've done - I started a blog.
I have altered the colours from the template to something easier on my eyes and have also added links to other blogs of people I know.
And now for some lunch. First I must delve into my inner psyche to determine what sort of food my body, soul and mind are craving to best keep my inner harmony. It's only with this perfect inner balance that I can blah blah blah blah. Or I could just find the easiest thing to cook like some mac and cheese. Then I will irritate Caitlin by eatting it directly from the pot I cooked it in, thereby saving extra dishes and freeing up more time for me to waste. It's a fine art.
I have altered the colours from the template to something easier on my eyes and have also added links to other blogs of people I know.
And now for some lunch. First I must delve into my inner psyche to determine what sort of food my body, soul and mind are craving to best keep my inner harmony. It's only with this perfect inner balance that I can blah blah blah blah. Or I could just find the easiest thing to cook like some mac and cheese. Then I will irritate Caitlin by eatting it directly from the pot I cooked it in, thereby saving extra dishes and freeing up more time for me to waste. It's a fine art.
