GWJ Looses Fletcher

Wow...still negligent on my own website. Amazing how gaming takes away from actually writing about games, but this post will have some of what I've been doing over the weeks.

First off, my favorite pod cast over at Gamers with Jobs Radio is loosing one its more talented personalities, Russ...or Fletcher as he's known. He has the voice for radio and a sense of humor that had me in tears at some points during the shows life. He's unpredictable in what he'll say on the air, which just added to the charm of the show. The other personality on the show is the GWJ CEO Shawn. Temperament wise, he's the exact opposite of Russ...calm voice, even keel etc. This type of pairing is what makes the show perfect IMHO.

This pod cast is (I don't want to say 'was' yet) THE best post cast on the net. Its funny, informative and extremely witty. I've bought many a game just listening to this show because I trust it and it will be a shame if it dies completely. I'm almost positive that they will be back, and I look forward to that day.

Now, on to the gaming section. I've gone back to WoW...that’s right, I've gone back...I, am officially Blizzard's bitch and I will do anything for this sweet mistress. Unbelievable. DDO did not hold my interest for too long, which is disappointing. Being a Rogue in that game was just perfect. It was so different from a Rogue in WoW (i.e. useful)...finding and disarming traps, finding secret doors and doing really nice damage. I had really great times with my friends there...buuuut, what kept it from sticking was the fact that I HAD to have my friends there. There is nothing for me to do without them. So, back to WoW I went and there I will stay. I think the next thing on my horizon MMO wise is Vanguard, however, rumor has it that this one will be very "old school", so I'm not sure how I will react to that considering how much I didn't like EQ (...Put that tomato down....).

I've gotten back into Battlefield 2 as well. I really need something to satisfy the twitch gamer in me, and this seems to scratch that itch. I'm thinking of getting Special Forces, but I've heard mixed things about it...so we'll see. This is a great game, but its made by my mortal enemy EA...so believe me, I'm holding my nose the whole time I'm playing it.

I bought a month in City of Heroes, just to see how its changed since I left. If you like MMOs, you've got to try this game out. It lasted me about 8 months, which is good for a game. I really just wish it was a deeper MMO than it currently is...its just missing a certain something that keeps it from being a mainstay game for me.

Oblivion has blown me away. My rig can barely keep up with this game, technologically speaking. I won't even try to sum up this game, because it would take me waaay too much time to do. Wait...I take that back, here is my summary: GO BUY IT!!! There. This game will easily last you the rest of your life. If you like open ended games that are RPGs, FPS with adventure elements and a hint of lemon, then this game has years of game play just waiting for you. I've put it down for the last couple of weeks because a) WoW, and b) I heard a rumour that the patch may fix broken quests...so I didn't want to get too far in order to fully experience the game properly. Also, I'm trying to get a computer upgrade which will further help me enjoy this ground breaking game. Thinking of getting the nVIDIA 7600GT with a new PCIe motherboard to replace my current 6800GT and AGP MB.

Not much more going on gaming wise from my end. Couple of games coming down the pipe for the PC: Ghost Recon:AFW, HOMM IV and for MMOs, like I mentioned, Vanguard.

Thats it for now...

I'm soo negligent

Like every other gamer on this planet, I've been hit by the Oblivion bug, and may never return from its depths of gaming goodness. Wow, what a complete game. But make sure you have a at least an Nvidia 6800 or equivalent in your rig for this beast...cause you'll need it. If you're having trouble getting good graphics settings, go here and here. This posting over at the main Oblivion website sets the .ini file that has made the game as smooth as a babies bottom without making it look bad...actually, it looks fantastic.

I've completely neglected this site as well as other games, and I apologize to my two readers. But, I did warn you all, that I'm more a gamer and less of a writer. Add to that the great weather that we're getting up here...yes, spring has sprung.

I also have so much to talk about on the Common Sense front as well. My daughter got her report card last night...and being in Kindergarten, we don't take it that seriously, because it’s not a real grade. But I was looking at the letter that came with it. Instead of parent/teacher interviews, they now have "student-lead presentations"...WTF!!!?? Apparently, when a teacher wants to talk to you about how you're kid needs to improve, they don't so much talk to you, but get your kid to put on a presentation so that he/she can work on their bullshitting skills and tell you how well they are doing.

I'm sorry, but this is crap. I want to talk to the teacher. I want to know where my kid needs to improve and I want to know where she excels. I don't need the kid giving me power-point slides trying to snow-wash me...I don't even want my kid there when I do discuss his/her progress.

So good job teachers...yet another way for us to sugar coat every facet of life.

Urge to kill.....rising

What a bunch of boobs...

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3148721

Oblivion and DDO

Well...I preordered it yesterday....Elder Scrolls:Oblivion that is.

That burning sensation that was the EB gift card has now been put out. It should make its way to me by the 21st of March. I'll post my impressions once I have some. Looking on the net, you'd think that this game is the second coming. Hopefully, such high expectations don't ruin the game for some.

So far, DDO has an 88% on Gamerankings.com. This really means nothing right now, since there are only four reviews in at the time of me writing this, however; this game is turning into a hit for most who play it...ummm...correction, a hit for those who play it with the correct expectations.

This game is not a direct port of PnP...if you think it is, then you'll be disappointed. This game is not for WoW fanboyz and power levers...if you are, you'll hate this game. If you're a 13 year old l337 dude, please stay away from my server. If you have a group of 4-5 friends who you like to play games with and they enjoy the DnD ATMOSPHERE (damnit..there's that word again), then you'll love this game.

Right now, I've only seen one of my favorite creatures, the Minotaur, and I tell you, it was a blast to see that thing charge our fighter and knock him on his ass. I can't wait to see my first Beholder.

Sorry for no review yet, but you're getting the idea of what I think of this game. Once I get my head out of the game, I can actually start writing. MMOs are hard to write reviews for due to thier dynamic nature. There are rough edges in this game that need to be fixed, so I might hold off the review until 2 or 3 updates go in. Part of an honest review for an MMO should be how the company providing the MMO moves forward with the game...and its too early to tell how that will go yet.

...more soon.

More on GalCivII

If you ever wanted to get a behind the scenes look at GalCivII, here is a great podcast by the folks at PoweruserTV.

They've made some great company milestones with this game. One of which is surpassing the TOTAL sales of GalCiv I within the first week of GalCivII sales. They're already into the second manufacturing cycle.

Gamerankings for this game are great as well....not sure if I linked that before, but regardless, its worth doing again.

Congrats to everyone at Stardock for a great product.

I know...I know...I've been pushing this game quite a bit and you're probably sick of it by now. Well, I just love it when an independent game company creates gold like this....and no, I don't work for them, though I sometimes wish I did :)

Cheers...

Lots of news

Wow....lots of news coming down the pipe lately. Sorry that I haven't updated lately...I know my whole 2 readers out there are crying uncontrollably due to lack of updates. But I play more than I write...as a result, I'm kind of behind on the news.

First and foremost. Elder Scrolls : Oblivion has gone gold and will be shipping March 20th. I'm listening to Gaming Steve's preview as we speak. He had the opportunity to play it for about 6 hours a couple of weeks ago. This is shaping up to be a must have title. I'm still on the fence on it....not because I won't like it, but because DDO and GalCiv II are taking up most of my time right now. I might get it anyway...I'm such a whore that way. There is also Neverwinter Nights 2 to think about as well...which I will no doubt get.

GalCiv II just got patched to V1.0X. If you haven’t picked up this game and are a 4X strat fan...get this NOW. Excellent game. The ship design is awesome and the game play is very deep. Check it out and support these guys so they can get to work on GalCivIII.

World of Warcraft hit the 6 million mark last week and is getting ready to release the 1.10 patch within the next couple weeks. 1.10 is on the Test Server right now. Since I'm out of the loop now on all things WoW, I can't comment on the changes, but the weather effects that I saw look great.

Oh...and my wife and I got our monthly news letter from the school today. Although these things are usually blogging gold for me, my wife informs me that there is not much there. I plan to read it tonight to see how much they piss me off this time.

The most amazing thing in gaming

You've got to see this to beleive it. The upcoming Wil Wright game called Spore. Gaming Steve put up a video with some gameplay...amazing:

http://gamingsteve.com/

Well well well....

Apparently I'm not the only one that sees the incoming iceberg...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/03/01

Scroll down and take a look at the continuing saga that is Gabe vs SOE.

He is dead right though (Gabe that is). This game will not do well with SOE at the helm. Everything they touch eventually rots due to bad managements/design decisions.

Even if its good, SOE has a huge rep to overcome...and getting players to believe in the SOE brand again is going to be a very large issue for SOE to tackle.

We shall see...oh yes...we shall see.

You've got to be kidding me...

Check this out.

Specifically about who is in charge of this upcoming MMO based on the DC comic universe. That's right, Sony. The same guys who brought us fine hits like EQ2 and SW: Galaxies.

Don't worry, I'm working on the obituary for this game as we speak.

DDO = Great

...the only reason I haven't been writing lately.

What an intelligent MMO this is. I'll be writing up a review as soon as it goes live.

Mixed Bag...

Couple of links here.

First one is a very interesting article at CBS regarding the state of Star Wars: Galaxies. Man...apparently, they really screwed this one up.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/21/tech/gamecore/main1335511.shtml

Can anyone, please, for the love of all that is holy, please make a good Star Wars game...anyone?? Hello?? (cue cricket sounds)

Next up is an article that relates a bit to my first Common Sense article regarding a school memo that me and my wife got last moth. It touches on why we're so concerned with safety and butterflies and cute fury things. I kid...its about our fear of risk taking these days. Part of the reason why I'll never see a manned Mars mission in my lifetime.

Here it is:

http://www.reason.com/rb/rb021706.shtml

Oh, and BTW, we get these school memos every month. I personally find them to be pure blogging gold, just due to the stupidity alone. So, look forward to one of these at least every month.

More on gaming violence

Excellent article regarding the non-issue of gaming violence.

It’s really interesting how these politicians and "parent" groups really don't understand basic human nature and historical context when it comes to violence. Our society is relatively non-violent when you compare it to 18th or 19th (even 20th) century cultures...especially when it comes to violence portrayed in the media of the time. This article explains this concept very well.

Their crusade to rid us of all violence is both futile and, I dare say, unhealthy. Its unhealthy because the darker side of human nature needs to be expressed...and truthfully, I'd rather see it expressed digitally, because the other option is not so much fun. Repressing of any natural human trait has never gone well.

Layoffs at Atari

20% from last count...and hey, from the press releases that I saw, they didn't use the word "realign" even once. How refreshing.

Looks like this is becoming a trend now.

If there wasn't a trend of layoffs in the industry, I wouldn't be so surprised at the Atari announcement. I got burnt by The Temple of Elemental Evil. That was the buggiest game that I have ever played and hit Atari's reputation hard, and rightfully so.

The Revolution

So I've been doing more thinking about what this delay of the PS3 means for Nintendo...and the more I think about it, the more I think that Satoru Iwata has probably got a serious case of the giggles right now.

It’s all about the Japanese market. Right now, Sony owns the branding market against Microsoft in Japan...70% to 30% were the last numbers that I saw, not sure about how that translates to market share of Play Station systems vs XBox. Microsoft knows they have a problem in Japan because Japanese will always support a Japanese product...its partly culture driven. This will always be the case no matter how cute they get the XBox360 to look.

Now, imagine if you take the PS3 out of the picture for the next year...who fills in that void in the Japanese market...not Microsoft, but Nintendo. True, Nintendo had an edge anyway because it is Japanese, but with PS3 not showing up this could give it a nice little boost.

Time will only tell what this will do this the American market. People who passed on the 360 in the hopes of the PS3 might just grab the 360 just to get into the next gen, or they might just grab a Nintendo...not really sure.

Wow...speculating is so much fun...

Star Trek: Legacy

I'm cautiously optimistic.

http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=3576

Everytime I got one of these games build in the Star Trek universe, they're fun for about 5 minutes and that’s it.

This optimism is further fueled by the fact that Bethesda Softworks now has the license.

My kingdom for a deep and compelling ST game!

PS3 delay..12 months???

This is interesting.


Things are not looking good for the PS3...at all. I really think it was a big mistake putting the Blue-Ray format in the PS3. Given the current state of the format war, (or the fact that there is a format war at all), it was an extremely risky move. The expense of a Blue-Ray drive alone probably has the PS3 designers shitting their pants.

Now, if the PS3 is delayed for another year its going to take a serious bite into their market share.

I wonder what a 1 year delay of the PS3 would do for the Revolution....hmmmmm.

Death of PC gaming....again...

Interesting article regarding the whole "Is PC gaming dea?" debate...a bebate which I'm kinda getting sick of.

Interesting clip:

"PC gaming in general is in a rut."

Moore echoed that sentiment during his speech last week at the Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain summit.

"We are becoming like TV and film in that we are sticking to a formula," he said. "We are a superior medium, and we should take the next step to rekindling originality."

"I am very concerned that we are too reliant on sequels, formulaic gameplay, and licenses from outside our medium."

Despite the hurdles facing the PC gaming industry, few think that gaming on the computer will become a thing of the past.

"It's like saying people are going to stop browsing on the Internet," said Mark Rein, vice president and co-founder of Epic Games. "It's idiotic."

Boy is it ever in a rut. I call this the "reality TV" phase of gaming. I remember the first season of Survivor. Wow...what a show. Human nature at its most basic level, in all its splendor and glory just oozing out of the TV screen. Survivor II was ok...but I started to notice something, and thought...nah. Survivor III confirmed my fears...they're going by a formula of picking people to maximize drama and the network does not care about quality. It was no longer about viewing how humans interact to accomplish common goals...it was now about what loud mouth show-off will get their acting career launched after getting off the island.

Gaming is in the same phase of the entertainment cycle. They got to start taking more risks...especially companies like EA and Microsoft. PC gaming will never die because it is the main driver behind PC technology development (processors, video cards etc.). Without PC gaming, there would be no Xbox360...so I don't understand why this subject even comes up anymore.

Yikes...

I've been looking forward to Start Wars: Empire at War since it was announced, even more so since the playing the demo a week or so ago.

Well...the reviews are coming out, and its not looking encouraging. Check out Game Rankings. I think I'll hold off a bit before getting this one. I'll more than likely grab it if more positve reviews come out.

Sure, nothing wrong with an 80% over all, but thats only three reviews...and after the demo experience I would have expected at least 5-8 points higher than that.

More Links

Elysium from Gamers With Jobs has another excellent article up regarding his theory on the current "slump" that the gaming industry is in.

One thing he does not mention is the impact that MMOs are having on game sales. If you have 5 million subscribers to WoW, that’s got to hit the bottom line for game sales somehow.

I can only use myself as an example, but I know my game purchases have decreased since I've played WoW. Now that I'm taking a WoW break, I've bought two:Fable and DDO (pre-order). I'm picking up Star Wars: Empire at War today to cool off that burning sensation of those gift cards.

Penny Arcade had summed up my feelings quite well over EQ2 here. I played EQ2 when it first came out. Man, that wasn't a game, it was a job...especially after lvl20. After about 2 months of that, my whole guild left the game. I then went on to City of Heroes and then to WoW. My guild still hangs out to this day in WoW, and now in DDO. We were so disappointed in how EQ2 turned out, that every MMO we think about getting together on, we always ask ourselves, "will it be another EQ2?". That game was a classic case of reading the market wrong. This is even more evident given the success of WoW.

Star Gate MMO

If they do this right, it'll be huge.

The potential for this game is enless. If you're a fan of the series, you'll know why. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please go to your nearest Best Buy and start buying Start Gate seasons on DVD...you won't regret it.

I do admit though, everytime I see an annoucement like this one, I cringe and say to myself, "Please don't let them screw this up".