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E3 Highlights of the Highlights June 5, 2009

Posted by Lyle in News.
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electronicentertainmentexpo

I was not there; except via the power of the internets.  Here’s a brief synopsis of some of the bigger announcements:

- Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the first MMO where the story is all up in the player’s face.  The game from Bioware will feature full voice acting for every playable and non-playable character in the game.  Yeah – that’s A LOT of voice-overs. The trailer that was shown for this game instantly evaporated any coolness and calmness I may have been wearing and my inner geek exploded to life…  If the trailer and the hands-on impressions I’ve seen are any indication – this game will bring Star Wars back to life to many a jaded Star Wars fan.  The word is that if you liked Knights of the Old Republic; you’ll love this.

- Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker was announced for the PSP; but a decidedly more monumental announcement was that a new game in the franchise called Metal Gear Rising (which is a Raiden game) is coming to Xbox 360 (gasp) and PS3.

- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is looking great in single-player mode, and features tons of snow in the level “Cliffhanger.”  No Multiplayer was shown that I am aware of (WHY?).

- God of War 3 is gross; and apparently is God of War in hi-definition (as in not much is different – but most fans won’t care).  And it’s really gross.

- Dante’s Inferno is gross; and apparently is God of War in hi-definition and on Xbox 360.  It features an action game based on a literary classic and it seems that some game journalists are worried that the blockbuster action title is trivializing its subject matter.  Pardon the skepticism but we’ll have to wait and see if Dante can play the role of angry-action-super-hero guy…  Plus I heard that the developer has included unbaptized infants in the evil monster line-up… Wait what?

- Nintendo’s press conference was the snoozer of the week.  While they did announce some exciting games (New Super Mario Bros. Wii – 4 players, a new Metroid game, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 were the big ones), they did it very slowly, with lots of words…  There was a fair amount of yawn-enducing bragging from Microsoft and Sony as well – but Nintendo excelled at it…

- Microsoft and Sony both showed off new motion-sensing technologies that they are working on – and both of them looked like they have great potential for the future.  MS’s Project Natal is camera-based and controller free; Sony’s ‘wiimote’ is very promising and they both looked like they actually work; which is a plus.  Speaking of plus; Nintendo also talked about new motion-sensing technology (Wii Motion Plus) which was also talked about last year at E for All.  Hmmm.

- Halo ODST was demoed; looked great.  Halo REACH was announced which would have to be a prequel to the first Halo and has it’s own novel to draw from HALO: Fall of Reach.

- Peter Molyneux showed off the downright freaky Milo – an artificially intelligent ‘game character’ that uses Microsoft’s Natal project to recognize real people in real time and talk and interact with them.  Amazing as it was; all kinds of scary sci-fi stories popped up in my head… Hal 9000, Skynet, SHODAN, the Matrix and WarGames anyone?

- Oh yeah, and there was this little announcement made about The Beatles: Rock Band game.  And it’s quite funny that the most awkward part of Microsoft’s press conference featured rock legends Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr being paraded around and obviously not knowing what they were doing there or talking about…

There were so many games mentioned at the show that it’s very difficult to absorb the amount of info that has been circling around.  I’m gonna try and make a list of the ones that I think will be noteworthy… But for now I need to simply conclude that 2009 and 2010 will be a lot like 2008 – great years for gamers…

Free Realms Impressions May 11, 2009

Posted by Lyle in News, Now Playing.
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Freerealms screen

This is the website you launch the game from

Sony Online Entertainment used to entertain me with the game Star Wars Galaxies.  My friends and I quickly tired of that rendition of our favorite galaxy far, far away but recently I found myself brushing off my old Sony Station ID to beta test this new “kid’s game” that I kept hearing about.  Well Sony, you seem to have won me back.

Chances are they will win you too.  This is a classy game that has something for just about anyone.  Here’s quick rundown of the game:

  • Free to play (mostly – I will guesstimate that 60%-75% of the gameworld is open to free players)
  • Membership option is cheap at 5 bucks per month
  • Cash shop for special items (such as pets) – yep that means you use real money which could get expensive
  • 15 character classes (”Jobs”) that can be freely switched between at any time and leveled up separately
    • 5 of those jobs are members only
  • Very pretty and vibrant, but very simple graphics that can run on most PC’s
  • Very kid-friendly – no serious content issues
  • So far it looks very safe for kids – chatting is seriously limited and strongly filtered (some gamers always find ways to be crude, but so far I haven’t seen anything offensive)
  • Pretty small download and very quick installation (the tech is pretty amazing)
  • Has an integrated trading card game with a good balance of easy to learn but still deep gameplay mechanics
  • Integrated web site that serves as the game’s launching platform.
Need a band-aid?

That's what a level 2 Medic looks like

And without further ado; What I like and what I don’t about Free Realms:

Like:

It really is mostly free. You can experience a whole lot of game and never spend a dime… This is a huge plus for those of you with kids and/or tight budgets.  The membership doesn’t cost a whole lot if you want to try it out, but it is optional.

You don’t have to fight. Less than half of the jobs in the game are combat oriented – but it is there for those that want to take out goblins and trolls (like me).

It’s refreshingly casual and kid-friendly. This is the most relaxing, stress-free gaming available today.  Sick of Xbox LIVE potty-mouths ruining your downtime?  Sure it’s for kids, but there is something really cool and appealing about it no matter what age you may be.  There are some challenging areas, boss battles, and minigames that you can tackle when your mood goes competitive, but you can also, for instance, train your dog to speak… or become a chef and prepare a tasty meal for your friends. Which brings me to my last great like:

There is, quite literally, always something to do. You have 10 free and 5 member-only jobs to switch between at any time.  The level cap is 20 for each one.  The quest-lines make leveling up pretty easy and the quest-givers lead you around and teach you the game fairly naturally.  There are mini-games such as chess, checkers, a tower defense game, and a full-featured trading card game.  You can team up with friends and take on some basic, but still fun combat areas.  Getting new loot from quests or leveling up is always addictive…

Don’t like:

Some of the member’s only stuff can be frustrating even though I understand they need to make money.  I wish that everyone could get one free pet.  I wish the most useful combat class (medic) was a free class.  They really do make you want a membership sometimes or make you want to spend real cash for game items (like pets).  Still, the amount of content available for free players is huge.

Haven’t found a story yet. Lots of little side quests, but there isn’t any epic main quest line to follow that I have found – maybe later?

Some bugs. I do think Sony jumped the gun and released the game a bit early.  There have been a few downtimes, the friends list is currently broke, and there are some areas of the game that aren’t implemented yet.

Although the game is free to play, and cheap for memberships (most online games cost 15 a month these days); you could easily spend a fortune on it. The cash shop and the trading card game can add up quickly.  4 dollars for a 10-pack of virtual cards seems a bit much for a kid’s game…  It’s fun, but be careful out there :)

Sweep the leg

Is that a Karate Kid reference?

You know what?  This game is pretty amazing for what it is; and although it needs some polishing I would recommend that you give it a try at least.  It’s pretty, accessible, great for kids and adults alike, and there’s a great amount of fun to be had here – most of it for free.  Run, don’t walk to www.freerealms.com and give it a try :)

This impressions article is from playing some uncharted hours in beta testing and about 11 hours of play in the full game.  My highest level jobs are Pet Trainer and Brawler (7 and 6, I think).  I have yet to unlock the Wizard, Warrior, and Blacksmith jobs.

Free Realms May 4, 2009

Posted by Lyle in News.
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You may have heard about this, you may not have.  Chances are if you’ve ever played World of Warcraft or any other online game and liked it then you at least know about a variety of “free” online games that exist.  You may have even tried a few.  You may have tried a few only to learn after that extremely large download and installation process exactly why it might be free.  Don’t get me wrong there are a few of these free online games I have tried and liked; but only a few.  They typically just don’t have the production values of a pay to play game like WoW or Lord of the Rings Online.

Enter Free Realms; which has definitely bucked the trend.  Now this is a preview of sorts rather than a review, as I am just getting started.  But I can already see some things that I love about the game, and a few things that I like…  Here’s the launch trailer:

So that’s the video that Sony Online Entertainment want you to see.  Is it really fun?  Is it really free?  Is it safe for kids?  I am on a quest to find those things out.  In my limited time with the game so far I think the fun and safe questions can be answered fairly positively yes.  The game is pretty fun; even for this old guy.  Safe for kids – well so far I haven’t seen anything terribly offensive, and you can bet that I am watching carefully.  Some parents might be turned off by the bare midriffs their kid’s female character can opt for.  Some parents might be concerned about the fantasy creatures and monsters and the use of magic.

So far my only real concern with the game is it’s not really totally free – but anyone who has let their kids play Webkinz knows how that works.  There isn’t any software to buy but they still make money (and indeed – they probably have to make money to make the game happen).  There is a premium membership you can buy for 4.99 a month (really cheap for an online game) and you can purchase special items in a shop for the in-game currency that you buy with real money.  I really don’t have any problems with SOE making money off of the game; I have heard that they are a bit misleading in their approach – but am withholding judgment until I see for myself.

And I will see for myself!  I plan on playing a lot in the coming weeks and trying out many aspects of the game.  If you see Kade Wolfrune running around in the game stop by and say hello!

Old Computer Dies; New Computer Really Lives April 21, 2009

Posted by Lyle in News.
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So my home computer, which my wife and I both use for work and I use for gaming; died. It was hanging on by a thread and was well past it’s expiration date so it was to be expected. I was able to save the backups of all our important things on a USB hard drive, so all was not lost :)   We decided it was time to stop scrapping old systems together and get a new one. First of all a disclaimer: I am NOT a computer expert; I’m a somewhat cautious enthusiast. Don’t rely on this as a guide or how-to… just a story:

Old Computer:
(Too old and sad to mention – was a Frankenstein monster from two even older computer’s parts)

New Computer:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 2.5ghz
4gb RAM
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
640gb Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

It’s rather exciting to start up a game like Lord of the Rings Online; grab every slider I can see and stick them all on the highest settings available and play it that way… And that’s a gorgeous game. I’ve been running through all my old PC games and trying them out – well, because that’s what geeks do when they get new gadgets! Unreal Tourney 3, Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40K Dawn of War 2, Sacred 2, Spore, and more are installed and running beautifully beautiful!

And it’s not all about fun and games, though. I was seriously out of space on my old 80gb hard drive, and now both wifey and I have plenty of space for everything (for now). Also the RAM makes switching user accounts a lot snappier.

Here’s what I did: I went to a local PC shop (Microcenter in Columbus). I told the very nice salesman what I wanted to do and he helped me out splendidly. I bought the cheapest quad-core processor based PC I could find (a Gateway DX 4710-07). It had all of the specs above except for the nice video card (there was a generic on-board intel something or other in it). I had done some research on video cards before I left and had pretty much decided on the GTX 260. The salesman and I thought about which make of video card to get. I knew I wanted the 260 but there were 4 or 5 manufacturers to choose from. I went with the not-too-overclocked EVGA. I bought a 600-watt power supply to replace the terribly skimpy 300 watt original because the old PSU would have pretty much exploded and destroyed my house had I added that video card to it.

When I got home I realized the primary mistake I had made – not thinking about the case size and not knowing about the video card size. It’s been a while since I had bought a new video card and I had no idea from the pictures I’d seen just how ridiculously huge they have become! There was not much room to move in said case, but I was determined to make it work…

3 hours later; victory.

Computer guts installed

  1. Removed the PCI Modem (they still sell those?).
  2. Got the old power supply out and the new one in.  I had to take out the large CPU cooling system to do it.
  3. Moved the hard drive to a different bay so the video card would (hopefully) fit.
  4. Put in the new video card… or as I’d like to call it from now on; the leviathan (epic biblical sea monster anyone?  anyone?)
    1. You can sort of see that the back of the card was very snuggly with the back of the drive bay – just getting the thing in there was quite a trick.
    2. I had to reroute quite a few wires.
    3. I took some of the thin metal sheeting out of the back side of the case (for a very small amount of more space).
    4. Noticed the blood; went and cleaned up my poor finger.
    5. Finally ready to get -the leviathan- set in the PCI E slot; but it wouldn’t go. He’s a rather unruly beast, it seems.

It took me a while to figure this out because there was nothing I could see that was in the way anymore. Then I realized that since the monster card takes up two slots on the back of the PC case, it has two metal tabs on the bottom that have to slide down in the space between the motherboard and the case. I looked and sure enough, one of the tabs was being caught on the back of the case. So I grabbed my sea-monster video card and bent it with some pliers (just those two tabs). Fit perfectly (very snuggly).

3 hours. Blood and sweat, but no tears. Totally and utterly worth it. Also I saved quite a few hundred dollars by way of ‘do-it-yourself’. It’s not the fastest thing you can buy; but it may be the faster thing you can afford… Be careful if you try stuff like this. One small zap of static electricity and it’s all over for your new PC.

PlayStation 3 Price Drop Rumored Tomorrow March 30, 2009

Posted by Lyle in News.
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441px-playstation3vectorsvg

Big rumors today all over the internets about Sony (finally) dropping the price on it’s very awesome, but very not-selling-like-hotcakes PlayStation3 console.  No one really knows if it’s true or by how much it’s going to drop but the gurus are saying 50-100 dollars.  How nice would a $349 80 gigabyte PS3 be?  Not as nice as a $299 80 gigabyte PS3.

The PlayStation 2 is set to drop as well, and this is actually the more believable of the two rumors.  The people that somehow know this stuff say that your older brother’s generation system is going to be sub $100 starting tomorrow.

Moral of the story – don’t buy into the rumors completely – but also don’t buy a PlayStation console til tomorrow

:)

UPDATE – It appears that Sony reps have been calling around to internet sites and telling everyone that the rumors are false.  Nothing to see here folks, move along; sadly…

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Installation Thoughts March 25, 2009

Posted by Lyle in Just For Fun, Now Playing.
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sacred2art

Sometimes I like to play games on my computer.  I don’t have anything top-o-the-line, but it can handle most games that I throw at it.  Yesterday, however, when I tried to “Install” Sacred 2, I remembered why I love consoles.

I’m glad it was my day off.

I started the process around 10am.  Put DVD 1 in and went and hung out with the kids as it installed.  Came back later to swap the other DVD into the drive – worked fine.  That process only took about 20 minutes or so.  Then I decided to download the latest “patch”.  Apparently, Sacred 2 has been a pretty bug-ridden experience for a lot of folks, and so it wasn’t that surprising when I found out that the cumulative patch was 722 mb…

No problem.  I gave it a click and went and started planning lunch.  I came back to the pc to find that the patch was fully downloaded (didn’t check how long it took).  I found the file and hit it and my machine suddenly acted as if it was a 386.  For about a minute, nothing at all happened; I’m a patient person sometimes, so I figured that it needed that minute to primp or something.  What finally popped up was the typical install message/user agreement to hit accept on and away it went… verifying my files.  Verifying what, exactly?  I assume that this was an anti-piracy program doing some snooping.  It crawled along at 1% progress per minute or so and stopped dead at 6% and told me that my files had been changed and the patch would not be installed.  That’s funny, because I had previously installed and played the game on my laptop; this was a fresh install on my desktop.  How were the files changed?

I took a long, dark journey onto the Sacred 2 internet forums to find some help, and I finally found the answer after reinstalling the game and failing with bad advice 3 or 4 times.  I read this very overlooked post by a self-proclaimed nerd who checked the error logs (he was having the exact same problem as I was).  What you have to do is extract a file off of the game DVD (explore it, open up a cabinet file and explore it; then copy a file within that file into the installation directory on my hard drive) and replace the one that was originally placed in the install directory.  No really… I essentially had to patch their game with a user-discovered fix, in order to get their patch to work.

I finished installing the patch at 9:00 pm.  I installed/wrestled with the game (off and on) for 11 hours; played it for 30 minutes.  Great game – should have waited for the console version that is coming out in May.

Little Big Planet is Huge March 20, 2009

Posted by Lyle in Just For Fun, News.
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littlebp

600,000+ Huge, that is.  Media Molecule has sent out an email to the cooler video-game blogs out there (um… no I didn’t get one) that there are now 646, 135 user-generated levels available for Little Big Planet.  Most of those are simple points and trophies collecting levels that are silly and fast, but there are some really awe-inspiring and very professional looking levels as well.

Little Big Planet is one of the best family-friendly games of all time in my book (my 5 and 3 year olds are always wanting to play it with me)!  For those of you that are on the fence about purchasing a PS3, this could be the game to win you over.

Resistance and Resistance 2, Heavenly Sword, and Warhawk are all jealous of Sackboy and the amount of attention he gets at our house…

What’s Up This Week March 19, 2009

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I finished Chapter 6-2 of Resident Evil 5 yesterday (one more sub-chapter to go). About to beat the game, but went back to chapter one to help a friend in some co-op (by far, the best way to play the game). Still stand by my first impression about the game’s content. It’s not for kids, but for grown-ups who don’t mind gooey monsters – it’s pretty amazing once you adjust to the controls.

Resistance: Retribution on PSP is the first shooter that I’ve played on the system that I’ve liked. The fact that it has fully-functional online multiplayer is pretty amazing. And it’s fun until you get up against some glitch-abusing-spawn-killing foes that are just in it for the points. Parents be warned about this one as well, but more for the swearing in the campaign than anything else.

Played some 3-player Little Big Planet last night and that’s pretty much always a winner. Some of the user-made levels are absolutely incredible.

And supposedly the Call of Duty:World at War Map Pack 1 will be out today featuring a new zombie-level and 3 new multiplayer maps. It’s ten bucks on PS3 or 800 MS points on 360 (the mega-corporation proprietary currency of Xbox LIVE equivalent of 10 bucks).

Parents: Nintendo Does Have Some Mature Games March 18, 2009

Posted by Lyle in Must Read, News.
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Some folks I’ve talked with are under the impression that the Nintendo systems (Wii & DS) are the “family friendly” video game systems.  I would agree to a point.  I’d say they are the most family-friendly systems available.

In the light of recent releases on both the Wii and the DS that should concern the concerened parent, I thought I would do a little experiment.  I navigated over to the esrb website and did some simple searches.  Here’s what I found:

A search for M-rated games on all major platforms (some games are rated and have yet to be released – some are download titles):

  • Xbox 360: 135 games out of 751 (18%)
  • Playstation 3: 89 games out of 450 (20%)
  • Nintendo Wii: 26 games out of 954 (3%)
  • Nintendo DS: 7 games out of 1072 (<1%)
  • Playstation Portable (PSP): 41 games out of 532 (8%)
  • PC Games: 770 games out of 7963 (10%)
  • Playstation 2: 259 games out of 1892 (14%)
  • Xbox: 193 out of 1006 (19%)

Unscientific but common sense conclusion – Nintendo has a smaller amount of Mature rated games than any other console.  There are some very mature rated titles on those systems however.  Grand Theft Auto (which has been on every system BUT Nintendo until last week is now available on Nintendo DS in the form of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.  Some titles on the Wii to be wary of are the recently released Madworld and House of the Dead: Overkill; as well as older titles No More Heroes and Manhunt 2.

I recently read an analyst’s report on the GTA Chinatown (DS) game.  It is believed it will sell 2 million copies.  That’s a lot of potential for unknowing parents to allow their kids access to a very mature rated game.  Head’s up mom and dad!  Your kids could be playing GTA right under your nose…

And hey I’m not calling for any boycotts or for developers to be shut down or anything – I just hope parents are aware of what’s out there…

Edge Reports Wii Game is “Most Profane Game” March 16, 2009

Posted by Lyle in Must Read, News.
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According to the Guinness book people, that is.  Funny, in a world of useless, uncompromisingly trashy talk the king of the curses in the video game medium is found on the Nintendo Wii (y’know; that family-friendly console)…

The game in question is Headstrong Games’ House of the Dead: Overkill. Here’s a quote from the Edge article:

The records authority says the lightgun game drops the “f-bomb” 189 times in about three hours of “relatively limited dialogue,” or just over one f-word per minute. The Queen Mother of All Swear Words accounts for about 3 percent of all spoken words in the game.

Unfortunately the developer is proud of their achievement.  The article goes on to explain that the profanity is exactly what they were looking for and is OK with the “dubious honor”

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