Friday, December 31, 2010
Happy New Year!
Well, it's almost 2011! Not much interesting in this blog post, I'd just like to wish you all a happy new year!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Is Apple the new Microsoft?
You know what, we haven't given Microsoft enough credit. For years they have maintained a monopoly by providing and then denying services to it's users, questionable business and data collection policies, and utter ruthlessness towards competition. So it would only be natural that the biggest underdog would start emulating them.
Take a look at apple's business policy. They don't want the user to know that, with a little knowledge, they can fix their own computer. It makes sense as a hardware manufacturer, but you'd think it would just be easier to make all the port connections proprietary. I mean, it was good enough for Intel.
It just shows that nothing is free of catches anymore. It's depressing, really.
From the Wall Street Journal
This might as well been expected. Since the start of the internet, marketing firms and large companies have considered the user as more of a hassle then an actual customer, and nowhere else will you find as much customer disservice as with them.SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Apple Inc. (AAPL) and a handful of mobile app developers have been sued for allegedly transmitting user information to advertising networks without the consent of owners of its mobile products, like the iPhone and iPad.In a complaint filed Thursday, Jonathan Lalo of Los Angeles County, Calif., said Apple and a group of mobile application developers were selling personal data, including his age, gender and location to ad networks. Read more here
Take a look at apple's business policy. They don't want the user to know that, with a little knowledge, they can fix their own computer. It makes sense as a hardware manufacturer, but you'd think it would just be easier to make all the port connections proprietary. I mean, it was good enough for Intel.
It just shows that nothing is free of catches anymore. It's depressing, really.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Reviews - Hugo 3
As the third part in this little block of gaming nostalgia, I'm going to do a review of Hugo 3, the last of the series that was actually an adventure game.
Hugo 3 takes the story straight from Hugo 2, where after leaving the player becomes stranded on a island when thier plane crashes. Penelope gets bitten by a spider, and that starts a strange chain of events that... honestly, dosen't make alot of sense. The graphics are beautifull, and the animations are a nice change from the 5 pixel floating torch animations from the previous games.
Hugo 3 takes the story straight from Hugo 2, where after leaving the player becomes stranded on a island when thier plane crashes. Penelope gets bitten by a spider, and that starts a strange chain of events that... honestly, dosen't make alot of sense. The graphics are beautifull, and the animations are a nice change from the 5 pixel floating torch animations from the previous games.
The Artifices of my youth…
I’ve been sorting through all the old posts on my ancient(and now defunct) personal blog, and I found all of my old art tiles. I had originally made these for a mod to a game I had been working on, but then either lost interest or got overloaded with life in general. I have hundereds of these, scattered all over my computer now. I’m not too sure exactly what I could do with them. Killer powerpoint presentations, maybe?
Any ideas?
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Top 5 sources for goods to make money on Ebay
Hey guys, thought I would post a fun little article on the rise and deadfall of making your own Mini-Ebay empire. At one time I was a Ebay'er, but I ended up leaving all the fun and thrills to... a place that ended up having no internet connection. Here are the top places I went to find goods to sell on the net.
Reviews - Hugo 2
The second chapter of my gaming youth was with, ironically, the second chapter of the Hugo story, Hugo Two - Whodunnit? It was a realatively good detective mystery for the time, really strange and with more ways to die then I can care to count. When I say this game was hard, it was REALLY hard.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Reviwes - Hugo
Well, the weather outside is frightfull, with just about a foot and a half of snow in an hour, and no sign of stopping. With nothing to do, and essentially imprisoned in my home, this has lead to many hours of contemplation, going all the way back to my beginnings.
Beginnings of what, you may ask? My beginnings as a gamer.
Beginnings of what, you may ask? My beginnings as a gamer.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Version 0.0.0.20 is up!
Welcome to the new version 0.0.0.20 of Tester Game! In this version:
The Source!
- Combat is More Streamlined
- Fixed some grammar issues
- Added the King
- Decreased the number of active artifacts required
The Source!
How to make money in Kingdom of Loathing
This is a simple guide to make money in the kingdom of loathing. I hope it helps you entrepreneurial dreams.
1) Try Crafting. Take a look at the mall, and compare prices of items and their components. Take a look at any one of the many market tracking sites out there, like items of loathing, and watch the number of sales each item makes per day. Simply, if it sells lots, you can make money with it. A real simple in right now is Pumpkin Beer
1) Try Crafting. Take a look at the mall, and compare prices of items and their components. Take a look at any one of the many market tracking sites out there, like items of loathing, and watch the number of sales each item makes per day. Simply, if it sells lots, you can make money with it. A real simple in right now is Pumpkin Beer
Katrama, A game of Skill
Katrama is a simple game of luck, dexterity, and intelligence. A large, triangular board made out of enchanted redwood, separated into four separate "zones". The board is about two feet on each side, and the last five inches of each tip of the board are designated into a zone. These three zones have a minor enchantment that reflects back anything thrown into them up and towards the center. To play the game, the character must take a small, metal pyramid and fling it towards one of the three zones. The goal is to fling the game piece as many times as possible towards the center. The key to the game is that even if the piece touches one of the tip zones even slightly, it will be flung back up. Depending on the skill(or lack of), this game can get quite violent very quickly. For a hit to be scored, it must land in one of the four zones. If the last time the pyramid land it falls off the board, it is not counted.
Virus, A game of Tactics
Virus is a simple game situated in the D20 modern campaign setting. This is usually a pub game, and simple prizes are given for winning; nothing too extravagant. This is a good game to test your players intelligence and speed. In Virus, the entire game replicates the initial tests with a nanovirus known as Grey Goo. The playing area is a small, glass table in a octagonal shape. There are five seats on one side of the table, and a single seat on the other reserved for the dealer. Each seat has three slots into which a card can be placed, except for the dealers seat, which has five. The game is played a lot like twenty-one, only with percentages. There are six different cards in the game, with the totals 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50. There is only one fifty card in the game.
Infinity Chronicles - Baldur's Gate
Today I thought I'd review the classic RPG Baldur's Gate for the first episode of this series. Baldur's Gate was the Showcase game for Bioware's Infinity Engine, thier new state of the art Isometric Top-down RPG engine. When it came out in 1998, it blew many of the other games out there out of the water, including some of the failed attempts at 3d by some other, less quality controlled companies.
The story starts you off in the fortress city of Candlekeep, under the care of the main character's foster father Gorion. During your initial explorations of the keep, the character is accosted by mercenaries and finds himself beconed by Gorion, with the news that it is imperitive that they leave as it is "no longer safe". Once outside the town walls, the character and his foster father are assulted by a group of armed thugs. Gorion is killed, and the character flees into the forest.
This starts one of the most epic tales in RPG history, as the player solves problems from Nashkell to Baldur's Gate, and eventually defeats the mysterious armoured figure that killed Gorion, Sarovek. The story is deep and involving, and this is one of the first RPGs that gave you full controll over most of what the character can say and do, leading to unique and often comical dialoge. It's fun to minimize your intelligence and loose the ability to speak properly.
Now with such a work, there are exceptions to the rule. The system Uses Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition rules, which leads to some really strange and funny sights. You are guarenteed to watch your character flail uselessly at enemies, and watch them be just as uneffective.
The last thing is they took a unique twist on Critical Hits. If a character takes a sufficient amount of damage past 0, they explode into tiny bits and are unable to be revived. You loose them, forever. Which is tragic when you have a level 18 Minsc(Fighter) going up against a Anhkeg, and he explodes into tiny floaty bits.
If you want to see one of the staring games in late 90s RPG history, this is well worth both a look and a play.
The story starts you off in the fortress city of Candlekeep, under the care of the main character's foster father Gorion. During your initial explorations of the keep, the character is accosted by mercenaries and finds himself beconed by Gorion, with the news that it is imperitive that they leave as it is "no longer safe". Once outside the town walls, the character and his foster father are assulted by a group of armed thugs. Gorion is killed, and the character flees into the forest.
This starts one of the most epic tales in RPG history, as the player solves problems from Nashkell to Baldur's Gate, and eventually defeats the mysterious armoured figure that killed Gorion, Sarovek. The story is deep and involving, and this is one of the first RPGs that gave you full controll over most of what the character can say and do, leading to unique and often comical dialoge. It's fun to minimize your intelligence and loose the ability to speak properly.
Now with such a work, there are exceptions to the rule. The system Uses Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition rules, which leads to some really strange and funny sights. You are guarenteed to watch your character flail uselessly at enemies, and watch them be just as uneffective.
The last thing is they took a unique twist on Critical Hits. If a character takes a sufficient amount of damage past 0, they explode into tiny bits and are unable to be revived. You loose them, forever. Which is tragic when you have a level 18 Minsc(Fighter) going up against a Anhkeg, and he explodes into tiny floaty bits.
If you want to see one of the staring games in late 90s RPG history, this is well worth both a look and a play.
Why I hate Zanga - One Man's Opinion
I hate Zanga. I have a utter hatred for the slop they publish as games. I hate mafia wars, I hate Farmville, cityville, frontierville, and all of the other clutter. It endlessly confuses my wife, who loves the games. She's always on me for being way to resistant to try any of them.
So why do I hate them?
1) They are not really games. A game requires some skill, planning, preparation. These... require clicking. There is not skill, no forethought, just mindless clicking. Each "game" is repetitive and boring. There is no challenge, no skill involved.
2)They are nothing but social tools. Going back to the first one, all the game is there for is to get you to hook other people into getting other people int the game, who... and it goes on. The whole purpose is to rope people in with the expectation that they will at some time pay into either the pyramid introduction method, or pay real cash to unlock some "frill".
3) They are not filling. There is no substance to these games. Only expectation. You never go anywhere, and there is never any storyline. Just get more. I never leave feeling like I've accomplished anything.
They're just repeat layers of the same engine, with different shines. No RPG elements, no story. Only the same.
So why do I hate them?
1) They are not really games. A game requires some skill, planning, preparation. These... require clicking. There is not skill, no forethought, just mindless clicking. Each "game" is repetitive and boring. There is no challenge, no skill involved.
2)They are nothing but social tools. Going back to the first one, all the game is there for is to get you to hook other people into getting other people int the game, who... and it goes on. The whole purpose is to rope people in with the expectation that they will at some time pay into either the pyramid introduction method, or pay real cash to unlock some "frill".
3) They are not filling. There is no substance to these games. Only expectation. You never go anywhere, and there is never any storyline. Just get more. I never leave feeling like I've accomplished anything.
They're just repeat layers of the same engine, with different shines. No RPG elements, no story. Only the same.
Review - Fallout: New Vegas
Hello folks, today I'm going to be doing a review of Fallout: New Vegas by Obsidian Entertainment on behalf of Bethesda Softworks. And to do this properly, we're going to have to go back in the history of the company a bit, to explain what bethesda softworks does with most of it's titles.
The first game I ever played from Bethesda Softworks was Elder Scrolls: Arena. Arena was a bare-bones game, which was one of the first to try perspective 3d, much like doom. It had a entire rest/regeneration system, mana and health, stats and the whole kit and kabootle. It was also ball bustingly hard. You start the game being mobbed by rats, goblins and other unfriendlies, and you're first quest is to fight your way out of the dungeon in which you're imprisoned...
I should also touch on Bethesda Softworks history of releasing glitched games. To my knowledge, absolutly every game released by this company has at one point or another a fatal glitch that will doom the game. Arena, Terminator 2029 and Daggerfall had savegame glitches that would corrupt everything if you saved in the wrong place. Morrowind has some texture and coordinate issues. Oblivion has the AI screwups. But by far and wide, Fallout 3 was far and wide the best for strange stuff.
You had ragdoll physics issues. You had collison issues. Savegame corruption issues. Texture muckups. The works. It was also one of the most Kick-ass games to be released by bethesdasoft in a while. So, what went wrong with this one?
First, it's not made by bethesda softworks. This game is crafted by Obsidian Software. While it contains alot of the old Black isle team, the batting lineup of the old RPGs seems to have changed for the worst.
The first thing that kills this game by far and wide is the acting. It's pure and utterly godawful. Fallout 3 was immersive with it's voiceacting, making believable characters and situations. It really helped that absolutly everyone had a voiceacter, making the expirience that much better. Fallout: New Vegas has... a team of wanna-be voice acters. Just look at the character sunny smiles. The ater is bored, and obviously putting no emotion into it whatsoever. And this is the tutorial! This is one of the first things the player sees. Now on the flip side, the voice acting for the doctor is spot on, even though the volume cn be somewhat troubling at times.
The next thing the player sees is the massive map. When I saw this, I had an expectation of what Fallout had brought to the table, massive Capital wasteland full of buildings to explore and caves to spelunk. What greeted my eyes? This. Only half of the bloody map is used, and even though they cut back on the ammount of space, New Vegas still feels... sparse. The towns that you come across are mostly borded up, and once you hit the actual strip(the place that should be most hevily populated), the actual number of internal locations totals at most, about seventeen. This is from fallout 3's almost innumerable ammount of buisnesses and houses that the player could spelunk. Yeah, sometimes there would be a good amount of houses that were boarded up, but it at least felt like you could go almost anywhere.
Truthfully, though, it's probably the games utter sparsness in buildings that makes it feel like this to begin with.
Dialogue in this game is pretty good, taking alot from fallout 3 but keeping the same level of immersivness. Expect the capital wasteland to be mentioned quite a few times, as well as old friends and foes. The story is just great once you get into it, and there's alot to see and do quest wise... just don't expect anything like the previous title. IT's a good story, but like the last one, its incredibly short and ends on a blank note. And yes, like the previous one, once you're done the main quest in vanilla, the game is over.
Art in this game... except for two of the new creatures, it's all just recycled from Fallout 3. There's very few new textures, and even all of the new hats are just recolors of the Pre-War Hat from fallout 3. The weapons are more varried, and the new ammo system gives you alot of flexibility, but at the same note is also much, much more frustrating. If youre used to changing weapons when you see that ammo counter reach zero, this might not be the game for you. I found multiple times that I had other sets of ammo and just didn't know it.
They've added a mod system for weapons, and brought back fallout 3's style of blueprint discoveries, although it's overshadowed by a cluttered and confusing crafting system. Much of the new options aren't explained, and I found myself usually going back to the fallout 3 standard of loading up on stimpacks and hoping for the best. once you bulk up on the survival skill though, campfires can be somewhat a lifesaver, if you cook the right things.
The reloading bench, I'm guessing, is usefull to some people. I couldn't find a use for it. In fallout, I carry around three or four different weapons, and if one runs out of ammo, I switch. I don't like the fiddling with the bench, and find that the time it takes to get anything done on it is... bulky.
I also wanted to touch a bit on random generation in New Vegas. If you think that things our going to be like fallout 3, where everything has a chanc of being beatable, you're dead wrong. One word. Deathclaws. Wearing full T147b Power armor, 100 guns level twenty eight character with 7 agility and 8 strength, wielding a souped up Plasma Caster, I was able to kill a total of two deathclaws before being thurouly disembowled. This isn't balanced! I'm almost as high as I can go, and I'm still taken out by bloody deathclaws! How the frig do you kill them in this game! Ten fat men and a holy hand grenade?!
Beside all of the glaring problems, this game has some bang up writing. Conversations are fluid, and some of the options you can choose are downright hillarious. They've tried to include every situation(If you kill the Legate in TOWN and live, the Ceaser scolds you for it), and they do a pretty tip-top job... for the most part. There are some sections which are still a bit wierd, but that can be expected.
In summery: If you're a fan of fallout, and you have every other good RPG on the market, this is worth a shot. The story is good, and for all of it's glaring glitches, problems and slopy work, it's still a good game. I sincerely hope Obsidian Software picks up it's act, and the next project they work on they actually devote 110%, instead of the 62% we've seen here.
This is Mr.DKI, signing off for Knight Reviews.
The first game I ever played from Bethesda Softworks was Elder Scrolls: Arena. Arena was a bare-bones game, which was one of the first to try perspective 3d, much like doom. It had a entire rest/regeneration system, mana and health, stats and the whole kit and kabootle. It was also ball bustingly hard. You start the game being mobbed by rats, goblins and other unfriendlies, and you're first quest is to fight your way out of the dungeon in which you're imprisoned...
I should also touch on Bethesda Softworks history of releasing glitched games. To my knowledge, absolutly every game released by this company has at one point or another a fatal glitch that will doom the game. Arena, Terminator 2029 and Daggerfall had savegame glitches that would corrupt everything if you saved in the wrong place. Morrowind has some texture and coordinate issues. Oblivion has the AI screwups. But by far and wide, Fallout 3 was far and wide the best for strange stuff.
You had ragdoll physics issues. You had collison issues. Savegame corruption issues. Texture muckups. The works. It was also one of the most Kick-ass games to be released by bethesdasoft in a while. So, what went wrong with this one?
First, it's not made by bethesda softworks. This game is crafted by Obsidian Software. While it contains alot of the old Black isle team, the batting lineup of the old RPGs seems to have changed for the worst.
The first thing that kills this game by far and wide is the acting. It's pure and utterly godawful. Fallout 3 was immersive with it's voiceacting, making believable characters and situations. It really helped that absolutly everyone had a voiceacter, making the expirience that much better. Fallout: New Vegas has... a team of wanna-be voice acters. Just look at the character sunny smiles. The ater is bored, and obviously putting no emotion into it whatsoever. And this is the tutorial! This is one of the first things the player sees. Now on the flip side, the voice acting for the doctor is spot on, even though the volume cn be somewhat troubling at times.
The next thing the player sees is the massive map. When I saw this, I had an expectation of what Fallout had brought to the table, massive Capital wasteland full of buildings to explore and caves to spelunk. What greeted my eyes? This. Only half of the bloody map is used, and even though they cut back on the ammount of space, New Vegas still feels... sparse. The towns that you come across are mostly borded up, and once you hit the actual strip(the place that should be most hevily populated), the actual number of internal locations totals at most, about seventeen. This is from fallout 3's almost innumerable ammount of buisnesses and houses that the player could spelunk. Yeah, sometimes there would be a good amount of houses that were boarded up, but it at least felt like you could go almost anywhere.
Truthfully, though, it's probably the games utter sparsness in buildings that makes it feel like this to begin with.
Dialogue in this game is pretty good, taking alot from fallout 3 but keeping the same level of immersivness. Expect the capital wasteland to be mentioned quite a few times, as well as old friends and foes. The story is just great once you get into it, and there's alot to see and do quest wise... just don't expect anything like the previous title. IT's a good story, but like the last one, its incredibly short and ends on a blank note. And yes, like the previous one, once you're done the main quest in vanilla, the game is over.
Art in this game... except for two of the new creatures, it's all just recycled from Fallout 3. There's very few new textures, and even all of the new hats are just recolors of the Pre-War Hat from fallout 3. The weapons are more varried, and the new ammo system gives you alot of flexibility, but at the same note is also much, much more frustrating. If youre used to changing weapons when you see that ammo counter reach zero, this might not be the game for you. I found multiple times that I had other sets of ammo and just didn't know it.
They've added a mod system for weapons, and brought back fallout 3's style of blueprint discoveries, although it's overshadowed by a cluttered and confusing crafting system. Much of the new options aren't explained, and I found myself usually going back to the fallout 3 standard of loading up on stimpacks and hoping for the best. once you bulk up on the survival skill though, campfires can be somewhat a lifesaver, if you cook the right things.
The reloading bench, I'm guessing, is usefull to some people. I couldn't find a use for it. In fallout, I carry around three or four different weapons, and if one runs out of ammo, I switch. I don't like the fiddling with the bench, and find that the time it takes to get anything done on it is... bulky.
I also wanted to touch a bit on random generation in New Vegas. If you think that things our going to be like fallout 3, where everything has a chanc of being beatable, you're dead wrong. One word. Deathclaws. Wearing full T147b Power armor, 100 guns level twenty eight character with 7 agility and 8 strength, wielding a souped up Plasma Caster, I was able to kill a total of two deathclaws before being thurouly disembowled. This isn't balanced! I'm almost as high as I can go, and I'm still taken out by bloody deathclaws! How the frig do you kill them in this game! Ten fat men and a holy hand grenade?!
Beside all of the glaring problems, this game has some bang up writing. Conversations are fluid, and some of the options you can choose are downright hillarious. They've tried to include every situation(If you kill the Legate in TOWN and live, the Ceaser scolds you for it), and they do a pretty tip-top job... for the most part. There are some sections which are still a bit wierd, but that can be expected.
In summery: If you're a fan of fallout, and you have every other good RPG on the market, this is worth a shot. The story is good, and for all of it's glaring glitches, problems and slopy work, it's still a good game. I sincerely hope Obsidian Software picks up it's act, and the next project they work on they actually devote 110%, instead of the 62% we've seen here.
This is Mr.DKI, signing off for Knight Reviews.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)