May 2008 Entries
Two new faces in the Tuesday N00b Club of late, which had previously been a very more exclusive club than is probably healthy, and with new members come new lists of completions to sort out. While much of Guild Wars can be soloed via clever management of Heroes and Henchmen, things really do go much more smoothly with more warm-bodies in play. The previous session, and our new Dervish Friend's introduction to How We Do Things went well, and was probably quite representative, all things considered, what with us all getting comprehensively wiped out down to -60DP...
Somewhat redundant information by now I suppose, but yes, we have indeed joined the Varied Integrated Resource Gathering Intelligence Network ("V.I.R.G.I.N.") Worlds Collective podcast network thingie, making it even more difficult for me to do my customary trick of getting so far into a project or idea, and then panicking and vanishing! With all that fuss, it would be rude not to do another show, so here it is! Hemlock, Van...Hemlock; Episode 007: In which Various News is mocked as is Customary, future MMO Gaming on the Console is considered in all it's various Promise...
All throughout my online gaming life, right back to 1999 and Everquest, my virtual monsterhunting existence has been shaped, defined, molded and even dictated, by one constant gripe, one eternal thorn in my otherwise happy-go-lucky side. Levels. In my EQ days, I came to know a number of other players, all decent, interesting and intelligent people. People who perhaps in other circumstances, I might have called friends. Being of a somewhat literary bent, many of these people I came to know via forums and websites, rather than the game itself; this was Rallos Zek - talking to...
All sorts going on Tabula Rasa at the moment, and for want of a better term, I guess this is probably my main game just now. For reasons mostly to do with altitis and accidental sociability, we find ourselves on Concordia, again. I do quite like these first three maps; Wilderness, Divide and Pallisades, you understand, but if I have to go through Torcastra Prison one more time, I may go mad.
This time, and in a bid to keep level levels with a new-person we'd met, we've started over and swapped branches, with my usual and previously Specialist friend...
So perhaps Last Chaos wasn't quite my cup of tea, but I'm signed up with an Aeria account now anyway, so thought I'd have a poke about in the rest of their portfolio. I'm glad I did actually, and I'm not sure it's entirely fair to judge the whole network by one unlucky first-play. Next on the list is Shaiya: Light and Darkness.
Also free-to-play, and as part of the greater Aeria experience, one account seems to cover it all, which is quite convenient - just download it and go.
Aeria Games: Shaiya Download
No further details necessary, and it's a little under...
Classes irritate me a bit. Of course you learn to get on with it soon enough, but there's always the nagging worry that someone else might be having more fun, or and easier time of it, than you. You know the kind of thing; you install, sign up, fire the game up and then are presented with a big old list of what 'job' you'd like to choose. Often you've no idea what a Jedi, or Bureaucrat or Shaman or Herald of Xotli actually is. You might have notions of what they might be historically, or mythologically,...
Hello all! I don't tend to do this a lot, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Over the last few months, I've been having increasing troubles being booted out of my online games. Mostly this had been happening in Guild Wars and Tabula Rasa, so I initially assumed it was some problem with NCSoft - perhaps those titles in particular are more finicky than most with dropped packets and suchlike. The trouble with this kind of troubleshooting exercise though, is that there are just so many links in the chain, between me and my Mesmer and/or Grenadier,...
Here we go again, and despite the unseasonal UK variable and fortnight-long sudden summer, and and complete lack of air-conditioning, we managed yet another podcast thingie. We'd forgot about Summer when we started in on this, but hopefully the heat-delirium isn't too apparent. Stick with us for another three shows and you will likely get to hear us expire...on air!
Van Hemlock & The Vandellas; Ep 6: In which more news is treated in an Extremely Irreverent Manner, a blogger demonstrates an enormous amount of Hypocrisy concerning Planetside, and because playing music is Much Easier than thinking up Interesting Things...
I sometimes get a bit listless; the regular games, through no specific fault of their own, sometimes pall. Its a momentary thing usually, and most Normal People tend to go outside for some fresh air at this point. Me? I hit the free-trial circuit instead and just find a different slant on the same ongoing obsession. Anyway, after reading this article a little while back: Massively: First Impressions: Last Chaos ...and deciding that "Yes! I would really prefer to run through this dungeon in a leather miniskirt and some fishnet stockings!", I downloaded it and gave...
Going to be one of those Nifty! bits where I'm in the minority this time, I think. The Age of Conan approacheth, and all up and down the Interwebs, fierce battles are being waged as we speak, with the Fanbois and Haters out in full force, all pitching in with their "Reasons Why I Think You Should/Shouldn't Buy Age of Conan", come May 20th. Quite emotive stuff in many cases, and Crom would be proud of the verbal bloodshed being carried out in his name. Me? I'm more ambivalent, and anyway, as a mater of principle, never touch any...
Bringing you the Planetside news that no-one else can be bothered to, I found this in my inbox just now: Greetings Soldiers of Auraxis! With the goal of maintaining a high level of battle between the three Empires of PlanetSide, the two North American servers, Markov and Emerald, will be merged into one server, Gemini, on May 20, 2008. Starting today, as a part of a select group of past PlanetSide players, you will be able to log in for free until May 21,...
In a world of thousands, all of whom by definition, have access to the Internet, it must be a very difficult thing keeping secrets. A level or quest designer might spend hours, or days, devising a fiendishly cunning labyrinth, or complex set of traps, or confounding conundrum of riddles, all of which are designed to ensure that the Adventurer has to work to achieve the prize.
More than that, in a genre where we can't stop bitching about repetitive auto-generated kill ten rats style quests and the dull legwork of the Fed Ex, these more unusual challenges are a well-meaning...