2/25/2006

Call of Duty 2's multiplayer entered the year 2003 with the announcement of some multiplayer fixes that should have been there in the first place since a game like Enemy Territory did these same features almost three years ago. 

    • Punkbuster functionality
    • Two new multiplayer maps.
    • HTTP redirect in multiplayer, which adds an option for modders to send players to an external website to download their maps and mods.
    • Repair of multiplayer exploits and minor bug fixes

The boys at Sony don't lie in this article when the discuss freedom of movement or choices in the newest expansion to Evercrack 2.  The new islands in the sky look incredible.  But, underneath the shell is more of the same. Get quests, finish quests, get rewards, rinse-repeat. Yet, I enjoy playing this for some damn reason.  The new achievement system whereby you can customize your character some (beyond armor and gear) gives player development a little twist though.  Basically as you explore the world of Evercrack, finish quests, or slay big monsters you get points.  Those points can be put into a skillset tree which goes beyond just your normal spells and attribute buffing.  The trick though is that once you add points you can not move them and each skillset tree is a column of skills with each column requiring more and more points. For example, as a healer you put in one starting point into the top most level.  That then opens up I believe six choices to put your next point.  If you put four points of achievement into one of those six choices you can then add a point to the next choice in that same column.  

You can't subtract points from any choice once you've made it  so you must choose wisely which path you want to use.   Even more confounding is that for some of these skillset buffs to be active you must have your character armed with certain weapon types (one-hand, two-hand, etc).  So do I have to carry many different weapons or what?  

Regardless, the game is fun to play and a nice break from Battlefield 2 whose bump pack was delayed again earlier this week anyway. 

Hey EA, seriously I said I only had a passing interest in the Godfather game. That's no reason to go ahead and announce a plan for sequels.

I cut my computer gaming teeth on Sierra games and now the classics are coming back. Very exciting.

2/22/2006

Gamasutra features an article regarding graphic design for the upcoming Star Trek: Online MMORPG.  I do not envy graphic designers who have to consider such things as luminosity, reflection of light, and a myriad of other things which a person such as myself take for granted in everyday life.  But, the results are definitely impressive. 

Everquest 2 continues to remain my secret shame of gaming.  By saying that, however, I guess the secret is not such a secret.  Kingdom of Sky, another expansion, came out yesterday and adds to this already deeply addictive game.  Most of the major zones which already exist in the game now have a portal which takes you to a new zone located in the clouds.  It's really quite impressive visually to be honest even on a graphics card like mine. 

Phantom continues to live up to its name.  Still no product, they've switched focus, and have spent more on consultants than product development. 

2/20/2006

I'm still unable to decide what to do about a new graphics card.  True, my 9700 Pro still can crank out the pixels on games like BattleField 2 and EverQuest 2 but I prefer a nice soft cushion with computer hardware so I don't face complete obsolescence with each new game I purchase.  Therefore, I am greatly intrigued by this news from Tom's discussing the Nvidia 7800GS which is an AGP card version of the very robust 7800. But then in a year or so this just flips the issue since I don't know how much longer companies will sell AGP/PCI-E combo motherboards. 

2/17/2006

At first when I started seeing the previews for the Godfather game I didn't think much of it thinking it would be just another movie spin-off.  But, the more I see of it the more I'm slowly intrigued. However, I'm trying to temper my curiosity since I'm worried about my own love of the entire Godfather series (including the third one dammit!) clouding any rational thought about this game. 

But I must admit, having high speed car chases while trying to get to the safe house is very, very appealing.

2/14/2006

I was out of town, deal with it. Thanks

But I come back just in time for the release of a new Battlefield 2 patch. Now when I think of a patch I think it might be a few megs of new data or a few borked files here or there.  EA/DICE appear to take umbrage with this notion as even their incremental patch from 1.12 to 1.2 is a whopping 82 Megs!!

2/7/2006

Basic Instinct 2?  Nah, how about Benny Instinct 2! Caution, naughty bits.

Most RTS games devolve into how many units you can produce faster than your opponent.  However, they all pale in comparison to Empire Earth I which makes you do that operation across the entire span of civilization.  And for those who just can't get enough of three hour slug fests micromanaging thousands of little sprites, Empire Earth II is nearly here.

I'm getting convinced that when a website sits down to interview some of these game developers the developers play a nasty trick and have a subprogram to answer their questions.  Let's take this droll example from an interview regarding Star Wars: Empire at War.

When a game draws upon a story as well known and loved as the Star Wars trilogy, the developers are faced with a tricky balancing act. On one hand, you need to create an awesome gameplay experience that offers players the freedom to make meaningful choices but you also need to deliver an authentic Star Wars experience that remains true to fans' expectations. You run the risk of making a great game that doesn't feel very much like Star Wars, or a mediocre game that's extremely faithful to the source material.

All the right adverbs and adjectives like tricky, awesome experience, authentic, and fan expectations are present which appears to be standard operating procedure. I wonder if these developers, being computer programmers and thus complete social morons, simply grunt or rub their body parts to indicate which adjective they're trying to convey. So if they rub their Cheetos filled belly it means "awesome" and if they grunt while looking at their anime blow up doll it means, "awesome!"

2/2/2006

The full version of Star Wars: Empire at War went gold today.  After playing the demo I found it to be good but not great.  To me it doesn't seem worth the $50-60 they will probably ask at release but $30-40 seems reasonable. I just can't get past the land mission in the demo and so it seems that you'd have to repeat a mission over and over again in order to beat it unlike a standard RTS where you can just build yourself to victory.  Not that this is a bad thing but it's more akin to Homeworld 2 where you had to do things in a certain manner or have certain units to win. Without any sort of game guide or help online it will probably be difficult to finish the game.