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Borderlands.

Kate — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:00:48 +0000

What? Another Wasteland? Another Vault you say? Sweet another Fallout! Oh wait whats that, its not another Fallout game? What the heck is it then?

Ahhh Borderlands Its only been out for a short while but in the end I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. This game is an Action RPG. What makes this game an Action RPG? Well in this game when you shoot something little numbers pop up when you do damage to a creature. The part that makes it an action game is that the controls are all based on how you would play a shooter.

If you’ve ever seen me broadcast any FPS games you’d get a nice visual of me stumbling around lost. I love to run into things, get stuck on things and back myself into walls. But because I suck at shooter does not make me shy away from them. Actually In Battlefield Heroes I think I’m quite good.

Borderlands is pretty tough, I’ve seen people run out of bullets in the first battle only to die and I had to revive them. The toughest part about the game is managing your loot. If your weapons and shields are not up to par with where your at in the game, things are gonna get really tough.

Yes I said that I was fighting with other players. This is a Multi player game which you can play co-op with up to 4 people. With the 2 or 3 games that I played in co-op mode I can tell you that the action gets pretty crazy when you hit more than 2 people. I was playing solo and went into an area and it was pretty calm. But the same area with multi player was tough with some crazy monsters I had never seen before.

You can drive vehicles with this game and each vehicle can hold up to 2 people, one driver and one gunner. It can be pretty fun with 2 vehicles going around slaughtering monsters. I especially love to drive over them, who doesn’t like roadkill?

I can’t emphasize enough about how much I love the loot system. I see one of the red cases that I know has guns in it and I get all tinglie inside. It does help that when you find a case of weapons your character talks.

I’ve been having a blast with this game and suggest it to everyone who asks me about it.

So grab a gun, jump on the bus to Pandora and get ready to duke it out with some ugly skags.

Technorati Tags: 2K Games, Borderlands, Co-op, Gearbox, multiplayer

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Modern Warfare 2 – first play

Maddy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:37:06 +0000

Thanks to the strikes by Royal Mail Game decided to ensure all their pre-order customers had their copy of COD: Modern Warfare 2 in time for release – for us that meant it arrived around 1.30pm this afternoon.

Unfortunately I couldn’t open it as my son had bought the game :-(

Here are his first impressions and initial gameplay **kinda spoiler alert**

Firing up the disc and through the first hours of play I was impressed by the graphics – much improved and lots of scenic backgrounds. There is more realism in things like blood spatter and grenade drops too. Plus, even playing at Veteran level I found the game even more challenging than COD4.

You start off as a private training what were termed in COD4 as FNGs – shooting at targets, grenade launching and so on. Running through the training course as fast and as accurately as you can you fire at the enemies and (try to) avoid the civilians. At this stage you are also introduced to melee attacks and tactics – for instance it is quicker to switch to your second pistol rather than reload.

Depending on speed and performance, at the end of the training section you are given a suggested level – mine was Veteran! Once that’s decided you are thrown straight into the battlefield – hiding behind cover and firing on enemies. Advancing in a HumVee you move through the area and its buildings before arriving at a school riddled with enemy combatants. These all need to be cleared out in order for you to complete the mission and save the allied squad.

At this point you are then approached and picked for a special commando team ‘Task 141′ and you become a different character (as in COD4) and you take on a branch mission ‘Cliffhanger’. As you can imagine this involves traversing cliffs and using ice picks.

So that’s it folks – off to complete another mission.

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Building Cities

Benjamin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:00:55 +0000

In most world building scenarios your players will end up in cities frequently and if you don’t do enough prep work all your cities can end up looking about the same. There are many different GMing philosophies on this but I’m going to share what’s worked for me.

When I first started I tried to map out every single house in each town. I ended up with very small towns, which isn’t always a bad thing but definitely not something you want all the time. This tactic made villages seem more homey. I knew each character, it was easy to know exactly what dynamics where going on in the town, and it took a lot of the improv work out. I still use this for small fishing villages and really most towns that aren’t major cities.

Larger cities are a bit more difficult though. You want to give an idea of scale while also not mapping out every character, or anywhere near that, and spending all your time on planning and none on playing. So I’ve slowly made a compromise. In many cities there are certain areas for certain things. The downtown area tends to be where government buildings are along with any headquarters or major businesses. Along the main roads are going to be a lot of trade areas. There will generally be poorer housing towards the center of the town, middle income housing just outside of that, and the rich housing generally in a certain section of town farthest away from the others. In a highly religious culture churches may replace some of the shops on the main thoroughfare and in less religious places the churches will be scattered with one or two large ones for the rich and many small ones dotting the poorer areas. Only for particularly special or amazing buildings do I actually put them on the map, other than that everything that would fit into that category is just generally in whichever area it fits best into.

As for how the towns are laid out others may see the world differently then me, and they may be more correct as I’ve not officially studied this, but the idea is to take ideas from the real world and how cultures in it similar to your fantasy ones behave. I usually have general areas and only know which areas main NPC’s live without ever marking exactly where they live. I try to time out how far it would take to travel from one place to another by how many miles I think it would be so it gives players a bit more of a sense of scale to the place. The culture to the cities is up to you. Few cities are uniform in culture, but there often are trends. I try to get the general feel and then have certain people play against their culture and others be immersed in it.

Finally you add your main NPC’s. I don’t think you need to have everyone mapped out. If there’s crime I try to get an idea of what major crime families and who their main players are, same with government and policing officials. Then I move to who else I think the party might interact with or could be an interesting product of the culture of the city. Once I have my main NPC’s mapped out, usually there’s about 15-20 per large city, I make a list of random the names to use in a pinch. I hopefully now have an idea of how the cultural dynamics works to the extent that if the players go in a surprising direction I’m always prepared with a name and can usually figure out a character as it comes. I always mark down and make a note next to names I’ve used. I also try to keep a few spare NPC ideas in my head for such occasions, that way random NPC’s aren’t too bland or too zany compared to my other NPC’s.

What are your tips and tricks for building cities and towns? Have any cities or cultures you’re particularly proud of? Leave your ideas, thoughts, and stories in the comment section below for others to see.

Technorati Tags: Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Role Playing Games, World Building

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Dragon Age: Journeys

Tyler — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:00:39 +0000

With Dragon Age: Origin’s street date right in our faces. Bioware has released a short but sweet browser game to state our hunger.

Dragon Age: Journeys has you traveling through the dwarf realm of Orzammar. I wont give much away. But mechanics wise its turn based, the story while not extremely deep(Hah!), is a good example of what were likely to find in retail game.

Another interesting tidbit about the game, earning achievements in the game will unlock new items which you can later use in Dragon Age: Origins. Like the Helm of the Deep, and Embri’s many pockets. While none are anywhere game breaking or all-powerful. But, If your obsessed with achievements or want to collect every piece of DLC for Dragon Age. Then click here to begin your journey into the deep!

Note: to save you’ll need to create a EA account if you don’t already have one.

Technorati Tags: Dragon Age, Origins, Journeys, RPG, Turnbased, Browser, Flash, Bioware, EA

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Champions are you ready?

Kate — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:00:22 +0000

I’ve been wanting to check out this game since it came out last month. I unfortunately did not have the resources to get the game, so Ben the creator of “Troll in the corner” graciously stepped in.

When I first started the game I was presented with a download like most MMO’s. It was 700mb and downloaded rather quickly. Every day after that I have had to download a 150mb patch. Now I don’t think this is really a “Normal” thing, I think its just because I just happened to start playing the game near Halloween. They are running events, adding new content and likely patching their patches, so its OK.

When you create your character you are given a ton of choices. The first choice you are given is which power set you want to choose.

I would say that the character creation is standard but its anything but that, as you can see from the picture (Left) there are a good number of powers to choose from. The best part is they give you the option to mix and choose between powers which is selected in the picture. Next they give you the option to pick your gender and change your face. They present you with a series of pre set options as well as a custom setting. Inside of the custom settings there are a ton of sliders for just about every feature of the face, so that you can truly make your face unique. Next the selection of your body type. You are also given a few main body types to select from as well as a custom settings with sliders.

The next major part is the costume or clothing. This is the most detailed part of the character creation process. It is quite similar to the City of Hero’s / Villians costume creation but there are some area’s where its more in depth. There are not as many options as there are in CoX but I blame that on the fact that the game is still pretty new. You can create an interesting array of characters, robots, beasts, aliens, undead or just a snazzy looking human. What really stood out are the extra color options, you can touch up on all the little nicks and cranny’s in your outfit.

The only problem I find with these huge character creation games is the amount of time it takes to create your character. I guess showing it off later is the real prize.

The game starts off with a tutorial, you are in Millenium City which is being attacked by aliens.

A crash from across the street alerts me as I am drinking my morning cup of tea. I quietly excuse myself to the lady’s room, slip on my goggles, dawn my suit as I like to call it and squeeze out of the bathroom window. Just down the street I see the police talking to champions. I make my way to the broken building and and officer pulls me to the side. This is where my story begins.

Next I’ll start going into game mechanics and what I like and don’t like about how they work.

Technorati Tags: Champions Online, CO, MMO, MMORPG, Video Games, Cryptic, Super Heroes, Atari

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Torchlight – the Definitive Review

Ben — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:49:45 +0000

Having spent more than a few hours with Torchlight, a new action/rpg-lite from those folks at Runic Games, I have the be all end all of review for you.

Do you like Diablo 2? If yes, you’ll like Torchlight. If no, you won’t.

That’s it. There’s the gist of this review. Torchlight is very much Diablo 2 with updated graphics. Was it worth $20? Well, if you liked Diablo 2 and want a refresh then yes. If you LOVE Diablo 2 and don’t want anyone else treading on it’s sacred territory I’d keep your $20 until D3 arrives.

The rest of this will be details, petty nitpicking and praise for lightweight, fun games.

The Good:

The graphics are much improved, if cartoony. I’ll admit that for the first ten minutes of the game I wasn’t terribly happy with the graphics but they grew on me. The outsized weapons and outfits, the silly beefiness of fighters, the cartoon zombies – they carry their own certain charm.

The game is incredibly easy to pick up and put down. Got 4 hours? Go for it. Got 20 minutes? You can still have a blast.

You now have two inventory screens – yours and your pets. Yes, your dog or cat (the only two options) can carry stuff for you, which is kind of a neat idea. They can also wield certain items (like rings) themselves. A big, fun perk is that you can load them up with the various crap items you’ve found and send them off to town to sell it for you and bring back your cash. Of course, they’ll be away from your side for a minute or so and not fighting for you.

It’s almost exactly Diablo 2 but not quite. Random dungeons, quests from town, slots in equipment into which you can insert things to give them abilities, skill trees divided by path and level, mana and health. Sound familiar? This is a good thing if you loved Diablo 2.

It’ll only set you back $20 and it can do nice big resolutions.

The Bad:

The plot is about as thick as a human hair.

You are limited to three classes. The Destroyer (fighter) the Vanquisher (ranged/rogue) and the Alchemist (magic/pets).

Should you get it? Well I had fun with it. I still have Diablo 2 laying around. Somewhere, possibly in a box. Truth to tell, dropping $20 was easier than finding it and wrestling with it to get it to run on Vista. Plus the updated graphics and resolution are a real perk.

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The Most Amazing, Bizarre, and Wondrous Thing I Have Heard in Years

Jared — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:11:42 +0000

I was planning on writing a quick review of an anime show for tomorrow, part of my plan to force myself to stay writing and posting. Instead I want to tell you about something truly amazing. (And thanks to Alf of Bridge Troll fame for introducing me)

This is a project called “The Symphony of Science.” (http://www.symphonyofscience.com/) Basically they have taken footage of Carl Sagan and other scientists talking about the Universe, some of their most beautiful statements, and turned them into music by digitally adding musical tones to the words and syllables. I know that sounds really strange and “A Glorious Dawn” doesn’t help any by starting out with cut up film of Carl Sagan making very peculiar sounds. (It’s him imitating a Whale Song, BTW) Heck, you might not even like it the first time through at all. I can guarantee though that most of you, if you actually listen to the lyrics, will not only have it stuck in your head after a couple times through, but love the songs. It’s a message about man’s potential, that despite being utterly insignificant in scale to the Cosmos, we are part of the cosmos and therefore extraordinary. Put simply it is sublime stuff.

Both songs are available to download for free of the website in both audio and video forms. We are also told there is more to come.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Personally I wish we would see more ideas like this. Science is vital to humanity, shaping most of what we know and indeed how we know it yet is often one of the hardest things to get kids excited about. For me it was Bill Nye the Science Guy who did it, along with a book called “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.” Carl Sagan singing like a Cylon might not capture too many kids imaginations, but if it gets even one child to study science (be it biology or mad-science, I’m not picky) it was well worth it.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

“A still more glorious dawn awaits, not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise. A morning filled with 400 billion suns, the rising of the Milky Way.”

“The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves we will one day venture to the stars.”

Technorati Tags: Science, Carl Sagan, Bill Nye, Music

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Don’t forget Twitter for deals and quickies. Yes, quickies.

Ben — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:29:58 +0000

A reminder to our wonderful readers. I post a lot of stuff on Twitter that you won’t find here. Lots of deals, quick links and other goodies that don’t justify a full post on Troll in the Corner.

Today alone I’ve tweeted about 5 (so far) freaking awesome video game deals. Don’t miss out!

Technorati Tags: deals, twitter

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Using More Skill Challenges

Benjamin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:00:18 +0000

Skill Challenges are something I think many GM’s have been using for years but was finally officially introduced to the D&D world in fourth edition (though notably things like this have been in other RPG’s long before this). They are a tool to help you award experience fittingly for out of combat action (or sometimes in combat skill checks).

For those who’ve not read about them yet they are for skill checks that would normally take an extended period of time and wouldn’t necessarily live or die based on one roll. So if you’re trying to climb a tall mountain maybe you need to succeed at four athletics skill checks before you miss two to successfully scale the entire thing. This way it looks more at your average aptitude, but still allows for a bad some bad luck occasionally. How many you have to make before how many you miss determines the complexity. Making four is complexity 1 and for generally for every two more successes after that you add one more complexity. Each number in complexity is worth about what killing a single monster your level is in experience. I love this because it allows me to reward my PC’s easily and fittingly without them having to enter combat or complete a quest.

All this you probably already know but this brings up a few more ideas beyond the basics. The first is using this on a larger scale and not necessarily with actual skill checks. For a while now I’ve just been setting up goals for my party and will treat each step towards that goal as a success whether or not it involves an actual skill check. All parties at some point or another end up taking the long way around a goal, this helps me reward them according to effort rather than just the end goal. It’s also a much more flexible way to do skill challenges, because your party always figures out a different way to solve a problem then you’ve planned.

The other cool thing you can do with this is combine it with a combat. Maybe there’s a trap releasing poisonous gas into the room and the rogue needs to complete a Thievery skill challenge while skeletons attack or some woman is about to give birth just as goblins burst in and needs help with heal checks. This can make an otherwise fairly normal combat a lot more difficult and a lot more interesting.

Skill challenges aren’t new to most people, but I have seen a lot of local DM’s end up just using them plainly when really I think they’re meant to help guide a DM in how to reward a party for completely (or partially) out of combat actions regularly. Obviously it should be used at your discretion and may not work for some campaigns, but I enjoy having a campaign session where there is no combat and the party still gains a normal amount of experience for their effort. I think it also encourages some of the players that are more achievement focused to not worry as much about killing as much as possible because they’ll get experience either way.

What are your ideas for how to use skill challenges? How have you uniquely used them before? Give us your feedback in the comment section below.

Technorati Tags: Role Playing Games, Dungeons and Dragons, Skill Challenges

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EyePet for the PS3

Maddy — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:43:02 +0000

My new pet arrived in the post Saturday morning and I spent a couple of hours hatching and playing with it Saturday evening.

It’s an exciting concept and makes use of the Playstation Eye camera accessory for the PS3. I already had a camera (bought with Eye of Judgement) so got the solo game for £17.99. The full package is around £35 from what I can see in the shops.

The initial set up is easy but you do have to have the right lighting and place the camera at the right height and position for it to work properly. By electric light the images (of you) are a bit grainy but look better in natural daylight.

First off is the hatching which doubles as a training session to get you used to how everything operates and how you should move you hands etc. At this point you also get to name your Pet – mine’s called Cookie because I’d had Hot Cookie Dough dessert at Pizza Hut earlier in the day :-) There’s a friendly scientist who gives you instructions and encouragement through the different stages. You’re also introduced to the Magic Eye board which enables you to use virtual implements such as hairdryers. Once the egg has been warmed and rocked it hatches out into a cute little monkey type creature (side note – will there be other creature options at a later date?).

The controls can be a little difficult to get used to and sometimes you can get very frustrated because your creature will not do as it’s told. I don’t think a young child would be able to do this totally on their own at first. However, once you get the hang of it you find yourself playing with and loving your new pet.

There’s levels you have to achieve before others are unlocked – this is to ensure you know what you’re doing I guess. You have to regularly scan your pet to make sure it’s well-fed and well-exercised plus you have to see to it’s creative side by encouraging it in creative activities such as drawing. Of course, my daughter’s pet is already far in advance of mine as she has spent more time with it. While I was doing the housework this morning I could hear her laughing at her pet’s antics.

It’s a different game from many PS3 titles; more on a par with the DS’s pet games but more physically interactive and loads more possibilities. You can customise your pet – mine has purple and black feathers – and also dress it in clothing and accessories that you either unlock as you spend time with your Pet or purchase from the Store. I can see me spending some time with Cookie. Worth the £17.99, I was glad to see it was sensibly priced to be honest.

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Leaked Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer

Kate — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:00:22 +0000

I saw this and just had to pass it along. I love the first Left 4 Dead even if it does scare the heck out of me.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

There’s a new set of people and it looks like there’s new types of zombies as well. I’m ready to get scared all over again. November holds so many great releases I just can’t wait!

Technorati Tags: L4D, L4D2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, Valve, Ea

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Castle on TV: Hyper-reality blurs with reality a little bit more

Jared — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:40:59 +0000

First off, I must apologize for not having posted anything for such a long time. It’s not what I would have liked, but certain family problems and occurrences beyond any of our control have made it very difficult for me to do any writing the last few months, both logistically and emotionally. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but hopefully I can start posting with more regularity soon, especially since I have a couple dozen review subjects backlogged, from books, anime shows, to a few pen and paper rpgs, especially the unfinished review of Unhallowed Metropolis and Unhallowed Necropolis that I have not forgotten about.

Anyway, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Castle is an ABC crime show, in the more humorous vein of shows like the Mentalist and Psych. The shows titular lead, Richard Castle, (Nathan Fillion of Firefly and Dr. Horrible fame) is a mystery writer on par with Patterson or Cannell, fresh off killing his main character out of boredom. Meanwhile Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic, The Spirit) is looking at two seemingly unrelated murders with one odd thing in common: Both were killed almost exactly like murders out of Castle’s books. She brings him in for questioning, leading to him volunteering to help with the case because of his familiarity with the crimes. Really though, he offers to help because a copycat is the “Red Badge of Honor” for a writer like him, to the point that he asks for copies of the crime scene photos to take to his poker game with Patterson and Cannell. (Who make a splendid appearance as themselves in the episode)

Beckett doesn’t like Castle at all of course; He’s a womanizing man-child who doesn’t take anything seriously, lacks empathy, and gets away with everything (including, apparently, stealing a police horse naked) because of his close friendship with the mayor. By the end of the pilot they’ve solved the mystery and Castle has found his new inspiration, Detective Beckett. Again thanks to the mayor he get himself made Beckett’s unofficial partner so he can write the first novel on Nikki Heat, as much because he simply enjoys the novelty of solving real crimes as writing inspiration. The cast is rounded out by Castle’s crazy(er) mother, his 15 year old daughter who is rebelling from her family by being totally grounded and responsible, Beckett’s captain, Lanie Parish, her medical examiner friend, and Esposito and Ryan, the other partnership of detectives. All of the characters are charming and funny in their own ways, and very believable. Castle is actually in its second season, the first ten episodes airing last spring as a mid-season replacement show.

Now, why am I plugging a fairly normal (if extremely fun) crime show on a Geek blog?

Part of it, of course, is the presence of the amazing Nathan Fillion, who has somehow missed becoming a big star so far despite outstanding performances, including that of Mal Reynolds in Firefly and Serenity. Most sci-fi buffs I know love the guy, who is extremely affable for a movie star and very expressive in his work.

The main reason though is one extremely hyper-real thing to come out of the show. First though, I suppose I should explain what I mean by hyper-real. This gets me back to certain core theories of virtuality and simulacra (simulations) that are becoming much more prevalent now thanks to the internet. Basically there are several orders of simulation. The first is something like a reflection, a good and faithful representation of something else, but clearly nothing more than a representation. Second order simulacra involves things such as mass-production copies, even photo-copies themselves, where the distinction between the original and the copy is blurred, even hidden completely. Third order simulacra actually precede the original, so that it is in fact a simulation of nothing. A bit hard to understand, I know, and harder to point to in real life. The Matrix could be considered third order or high second order (the actual construct, not the whole film) because what the matrix copies doesn’t exist anymore. In anime the idea of Stand Alone Complexes (the Ghost in the Shell television series) is much the same thing, dealing with copycat crimes and behavior when no original exists.

The inevitable question is how can a mystery show deal with such post-modern ideas, beyond the level any television show does as a fictional representation of life? Well, remember I said that Castle officially follows Beckett around so he can write a book based on her? Well, as of last week’s episode it had been published and released in their fictional world, getting rave reviews and great sales. Here’s the thing though. In the real world the book, Heat Wave, was released to good reviews and an instant spot on the New York Times bestseller list a couple of weeks before that episode aired. It’s listed as written by Richard Castle, with glowing blurbs on the cover.

“Castle hasn’t lost it, Heat Wave looks like another bestseller for the thrillmaster. It’s Hot!” –James Patterson, New York Times bestselling author

“Rick Castle must have been doing his research because Nikki Heat has the unmistakable ring of truth. This book is gold. Couldn’t put it down! I’m getting jealous.” –Stephen J. Cannell, New York Times bestselling author

I’m sure the book started out as a marketing ploy, another way to promote the show, but without (probably) realizing it the produces of the show and the book’s ghost writers (Who I am guessing are named Tom and Andrew based on the post script where “Castle” called them his Sherpas) have breached the hyper-real, a simulacra of something that doesn’t exist. Luckily the book isn’t bad at all, better in fact than a lot of mysteries I have read recently. I even liked it better than the last Alex Cross novel I read (sorry Patterson) though that one was certainly well written.

It seems with every passing year “reality” becomes more distorted, less secure. Is a romance any less real because it happens entirely on a server of WoW? What about Facebook or Myspace? We are on the verge of true robotic prosthetics, (BTW, the Bruce Willis Movie Surrogates was excellent from a cyber-punk viewpoint, most of the negative reviews are because the reviewer simply didn’t get the point of the movie) exoskeletons of an Iron Man bent, (without the flying of course) and connecting computers to people’s brains so they can ‘talk’ for the first time in decades in some cases. Reality ain’t safe or secure. Enjoy the ride.

P.S.

Tonight is the Halloween Episode of Castle, and from what I can tell in the previews, Castle’s costume is that of himself, sort of. In the episode Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) is dressed as Mal Reynolds. (Nathan Fillion) Nothing major (though undoubtedly good for a few laughs on our end) but still another indicator of how fluid reality had become.

Technorati Tags: Nathan Fillion, Richard Castle, Stana Katic, Hyper-Reality, Simulacra, mystery

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Hulu no longer to be free?

Tyler — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:00:16 +0000

It looks like Hulu’s co-parent Newscorp may soon seek to end Hulu’s free viewership and replace it with a premium fee based system.

Here’s the money quote from NewsCorpian Chase Carey, so there’s no confusion:

It’s time to start getting paid for broadcast content online. I think a free model is a very difficult way to capture the value of our content. I think what we need to do is deliver that content to consumers in a way where they will appreciate the value. Hulu concurs with that, it needs to evolve to have a meaningful subscription model as part of its business

As to weather Hulu will become a only fee based system or a mix of both is yet to be seen. As plans to implement a paid permium service appear to still be in the works. With Hulu releasing the following statement.

Don’t worry, Hulu’s mission has always been to help people find and enjoy the world’s premium, professionally produced content. We continue to believe that the ad-supported, free service is the one that resonates most with the largest group of users and any possible new business models would serve to complement our
existing offering.

Thanks,

Betina Chan-Martin
Hulu

This is obviously a vague statement. So as to not alarm anyone, but its apparent with Newscorps continued talk of ad generated revenues longer being sufficient and paid memberships the way to go. It will be only a matter of time until Hulu changes formats. Maybe if were lucky the clips will still be free to watch.

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Post tags: Hulu, internet, Newscorp, TV

Vampire’s Assistant (brief) review

Maddy — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:41:44 +0000

It’s half-term and my daughter wanted to go out somewhere so we ended up at our local cinema to watch The Vampire’s Assistant. I did mention that it’d better not be frightening!

I’d heard of Darren Shan but never read any of his books and didn’t even know this film was based on one til just before we went. In effect I walked into this film ‘blind’ not knowing anything about it.

The titles were a bit long (although the animation was good) but the film was worth waiting for. OK , it’s a bit of a cliche – two boys, best friends, something happens… don’t want to spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it.

The teenage actors were believable and there were some well known adult actors who brought plenty to the film. Not having read the books I can’t say how good the freak show people effects were in comparison with the written descriptions but they were enjoyable and suitably freaky. The story moved at a decent pace and the ending left it open for the sequel(s). My daughter thought the fight scene towards the end was fab although she didn’t much enjoy the soppy stuff lol. No romantic teenagers in our house.

Result: We both were glad we’d gone to see the film and want to go and buy the books now.

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Interview with Warfare Studios

Tyler — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:00:13 +0000

Below is a interview that was conducted with the Lead Designer, Raphael Delmaschio over at Warfare Studios. Makers of the Dark Souls series. 1 - Tell us a little about yourself: I'm Raphael Delmaschio, 18 years old, I live in Brazil, a small city called Governador Valadares, in the state of Minas Gerais. I was introduced to RPGs by my father, I have always liked the genre over any others, actually I rarely play anything other than RPGs. When I'm not working on my games I'm mostly exercising, I'm a very athletic person, I work out since I was 13 years old, I like jogging and I train MMA as well. (Mixed Martial Arts). 2 - What games has your studio released so far? Dark Souls 1 and 2. 3 - What gave you your inspiration to start your own game studio? Well... when I played RPGs, my imagination always went wide on that world I was playing... I liked how that felt, the idea of creating something so powerful to drag a person inside it. When you're playing a RPG you feel like you're inside the game, like you're part of that world, at least the good ones offers that experience, that's something I always wanted to try myself. When I first found out about RPG Maker... well, that was amazing, it's an easy tool that allows you to create very good games, you just need imagination, that's when I decided to give it a try. 4 - Which games inspired your work on Dark Souls? Every RPG I ever played. Seriously, I've been playing RPGs for a very long time, and during that time I've been planning a game, so every game I played inspired me, but I guess what inspired me to create Gauly, was probably Ryudo from Grandia II, except Gauly doesn't get soft at the end of the game. haha 5 - What are your favorite games of all time? Valkyrie Profile, Breath of Fire III, Legend of Dragoon, Suikoden, man... so many... 6 - If you could go back and change anything in Dark Souls 1 what would it be and why? Nothing, I think I managed to give the game the feel I wanted it to have, obviously if I have had more time to develop it, it would have turned out to be much more polished, and I didn't had funds to develop something more unique. Something I accomplished with Dark Souls II. 7 - What are you most proud of accomplishing with the Dark Souls series? The fans. That's what keeps me moving foward, all the compliments and support I receive from the fans, that's a feeling that can't be described... 8 - Do you have any plans to continue the Dark Souls series? Sure thing! Right now I'm working on a direct sequel to DKSII, having Kara as the protagonist. Plus, I have many other games planned, I have up to DKSIV planned. I should mention that this one I'm working on will be entitled Kara's Quest and direct sequel of DKSI will be entitled DKS: Redemption. 9 - Do you have any plans for other games perhaps non-rpg ones? I do have other franchises planned, but they're all meant to be RPG games. 10- Do you have any shoutouts or plugs you would like to make? Shoutouts go to Amanda at from Amaranth games, which helped me alot, Eric from Blossomsoft and Damimen from Aldorlea games, they all helped me when I first started and they still do. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us here at Troll in the Corner. We look forward hearing about and playing more games from Warfare Studios. Warfare Studios

Technorati Tags: Warfare Studios, Dark Souls, RPG, RPG Maker, Indie, Indie Games

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Post tags: Dark Souls, indie, Indie Games, rpg, RPG Maker, Warfare Studios

Dragon Age: Origins looks like a modders paradise. The video to prove it.

Ben — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:13:44 +0000

Check out this great (but very short) video released from Bioware discussing how freaking amazing the mods for DOA will be. Awesome for a Friday afternoon.

Nov. 3 looks like it’s going to be a fun day!

Technorati Tags: video games, videos, modding, dragon age origins

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Post tags: dragon age origins, modding, Video Games, videos

Ar Tonelico III annouced for the PS3

Tyler — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:00:51 +0000

Ar Tonelico III is the newest game in the Ar Tonelico series. This time you’ll be visiting the world of Sol Clusta where Reyvatails are the ruling class and humans are treated as slaves. The series will also be taking its first step into full 3d territory. Since the previous two games were done in 2d sprites. This may not go over well with some fans. Below is some basic info on the Ar Tonelico series as well as the trailer, screenshots, and link to the newly opened Japanese website. There is no current release date for the NA version. But rest assured it shouldn’t be more than a year after the Japanese release for the game to be translated over.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Website: Click Here. (Japanese only)

General Overview:
The Ar Tonelico series takes place on the planet of Ar Ciel. Due to a prior catastrophe, humanity is forced to take refuge on one of 3 towers, called Ar Tonelico, located around the planet.

Ar Tonelico I takes place on Sol Ciel
Ar Tonelico II takes place on Meta Falas
Ar Tonelico III takes place on Sol Clusta

Sol Clusta is dominated by Reyvateils which are the ruling class. The ideal world to them consists only of Reyvateils and purified humans (ie. slaves)

Characters:

Saki – Heroine (CV: Gotou Mai)
Reyvateil who was created in a laboratory for a plan that would have far reaching effects on the world (unclear if it’s limited to Sol Clusta or the planet of Ar Ciel). She manages to escape shortly before the plan was to be set into motion and runs into the protagonist after being on the run for a number of years. When under sever duress, she exhibits a power called “miracle” on occasion.

Finnelle – Heroine (CV: Kitamura Eri)

Some type of reyvateil (no human bloodline) born in the kingdom of Clustania. Ditzy girl who works in a restaurant on Tocociez Highway (i think?). Her existance appears to have a connection with the Clustania conspiracy but…

Aoto – Protagonist (CV: Sugiyama Noriaki)

Is an apprentice of a master who specializes in construction at high elevations. Doesn’t think about consequences when he acts, but has a strong sense of obligation to complete what he’s started. Has always had a slight dislike of Clustania, but after meeting Saki, he starts viewing Clustania as an enemy.

RAH System (Hymnos Synthesis):

This title’s Hymnos isn’t limited to heroines just “singing” them. If you “combine” hymnos parts that are bourne from the heroine’s psyche, the player himself/herself can create hymnos. Merging this RAH system and player’s actions, the real-time BGM changes, which the Active Music Generation System accomplishes, brings a presence never experienced before (I’m assuming in regards to game BGM). Creating a good hymn and having the heroines sing it will bring effects such as increasing the vanguard’s attack power.

What else we know about Ar Tonelico III:
Deeper bonds with reyvateils allow them to “unleash” their attire which is probably what is being shown with the twin tailed girl (Finnelle)

As before, the deeper you dive into the heroine’s psyche, the more song magic you can unlock

Multiple personalities (not sure if singular or plural) exist within each reyvateil. Different personalities prefer different song magics, which will have an effect on the RAH system.

Aoto’s town is at the border of the tower’s climate control system, thus it’s not completely protected from the elements, resulting in violent winds. The town has wind mills to make use of the winds, however.

Clustania has the highest level of ameneties in the tower of Sol Clusta and is the central location for Reyvateils. Humans are brought into Clustania to help further develop Reyvateil’s skills. Also, anti-Clustania individuals are brought in for cleansing.

Technorati Tags: Ar Tonelico, Ar Tonelico 3, Ar Tonelico III, RPG, PS3

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Post tags: Ar Tonelico, Ar Tonelico 3, Ar Tonelico III, ps3, rpg

I am not a zombie – a shirt to easily identify yourself as a living person during the zombie apocalypse

Ben — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:01:35 +0000

This started off as a joke between a friend and I. I whipped up a quick shirt so that, when the dead rise, we’ll quickly and easily know who not to shoot. This shirt signifies that we are not zombies and are equipped with the knowledge to survive. This simple phrase lets others know where you stand.

I am not a zombie do not shoot me in the head. Hell, check out more than just the T-shirt.

Note that the shirt is white. Tell-tale gore and ripping will be easily visible, thus helping us quickly determine your current status as living or non-living.

Technorati Tags: zombies, apocalypse, survival, in style

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Related posts:
Inviting Zombies to game – integrating a zombie apocalypse into your RPG system
Zombies in Fantasyland – or creating a fantasy world that experienced a zombie apocalypse 100 years ago.
Living with the dead – Zombies in Role Playing Games part 2

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Fort Zombie opening sequence video.

Ben — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:15:09 +0000

Offering a chilling glimpse to those who think they are ready to take on the evil foes of Fort Zombie, Paradox Interactive invites players to view the opening movie sequence from the upcoming lite action/RPG title, which is set to release on all digital distribution channels this fall. The game’s opening sets the stage for the latest entry into the zombie gaming genre, introducing players to the characters and challenges that await them in Piety, Indiana.

“We are absolutely amazed at the reception that Fort Zombie has received so far,” said Chris Stewart of Kerberos Productions, the development studio behind Fort Zombie. “What started out as a fun little side project for us, which was designed simply to give gamers and zombie fans a couple of great laughs along with a great gaming experience, has attracted serious attention from fans of the zombie cult phenomenon even before the game’s actually release. We can’t wait until they get a chance to pick up a shotgun and hit the zombie-infested streets of Piety!”

In Fort Zombie, players must save the town of Piety, Indiana from an impending wave of zombies migrating from a nearby major city. Players are challenged to take control of a single building throughout the entire campaign. By effectively building this structure into the ultimate fort, as well as carefully searching for supplies and finding and training survivors in Piety, players have a chance at conquering and outlasting the flesh-hungry zombies.

Fort Zombie will be available this fall for purchase exclusively through all major digital distribution channels for the hauntingly low suggested retail price of $9.99 and €9.99

For more information, please visit: www.fortzombie.com

Technorati Tags: zombies, video games, videos

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Post tags: Video Games, videos, zombies

Microsoft to disable unauthorized hardware for the Xbox360.

Tyler — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:00:10 +0000

I hope your only using certified microsoft harddrives and accessories with your Xbox otherwise you’ll need the customer service contact number I provided in this article for your rage outlet.

The new update for the 360 will disable all unauthorized hardware currently connected to the 360. Meaning, any saved games or profiles you may currently have on your third party hardware will no longer work. It will also provide a few worthwhile updates such as, integrating the Zune, Facebook, and Twitter into the Xbox 360’s interface. Gamers will be able to stream video onto their Zunes, and use both Facebook and Twitter while on Xbox LIVE.

Seems Microsoft is trying to get tough with gamers who swap out their Harddrives and use third party accessories such as memory cards. Obviously this is for two reasons. Well, just one really. Consoles have been experiencing a large increase in piracy due to the modding community growing substantially over the years. It’s almost as easy to pirate games for your Xbox and PS3 as it is to just torrent and load the ISO file on your PC. By cutting out unauthorized hardware for the 360 Microsoft hopes to stem the tide of piracy. In doing so, this means they’ll make more money. It also means by stopping third parties from releasing accessories like memory cards and HDDs without microsoft’s approval and no doubt high approval fees. They will be able to rake in more cash by forcing legitimate gamers to purchase only Microsoft approved goods.

Of course, like with most attempts to stop piracy. It will only hurt microsoft more. As consumers will be angered by micorsofts attempts to control their spending. Causing many to just mod their xbox and only pirate games. Or for many to just buy less in general, or spend their money on other systems instead of the 360.

While it is true that times are tough. I don’t believe it’s microsoft that’s really ailing. So their attempts to rake in more profit can only hurt them at this time. If this situation does happen to affect you. Then behold, I have provided you with Microsoft’s xbox divisions customer service number. Feel free to complain and tell them your on to their scheming! Or maybe, you prefer to express your outrage through text. If so, use the contact email below.

Customer Service Number: (800) 4MY-XBOX

Customer Service Email: Click here

Technorati Tags: xbox, 360, microsfot, piracy, unauthorized, authorized, hardware

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Post tags: 360, authorized, hardware, Microsoft, Piracy, unauthorized, xbox

Drunk VS Zombie – great short flick

Ben — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:38:37 +0000

If you like your zombie films short and to the point, at one minute, fifty three seconds Drunk VS Zombie is certainly that. It’s also worth the almost two minutes you’ll put in to it.

That is all.

Technorati Tags: zombies, drunk, video

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Fort Zombie opening sequence video.
Become a Zombie pin-up and get yourself on a calendar

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Post tags: drunk, Video, zombies

Pulp Wave Fiction.

Kate — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:30:46 +0000

I have been a fan of Google Wave since I saw the long introduction video of theirs about 2-3 months ago. But I recently saw a video on youtube that threw the usage of how google wave can be used over the top. Check it out. (Harsh language from Pulp Fiction warning.)

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

I found it humorous and really educational on what you can really do with Wave. Most people think that Google wave is just another chat program, but its so much more.

Its supposed to be an open source email program where they took the concept of a chat and forum like structure where you can add maps video’s and see everything updated in the wave as its done. Its truly a next step in email and the fact that its open source is really showing Google wants to share their work.

Particularly I like the part where you can send someone a document and everyone that you’ve added to the wave can edit the document and improve it. Its like Google documents without all the hassle of getting someone else to sign up so they can edit with you.

I hope you all are as hyped up as I am to get to try Google wave. In all honesty this video just fanned the flames!

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Wave, Pulp Fiction, Pulp Wave Fiction, youtube

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Post tags: Google, Google Wave, Pulp Fiction, Pulp Wave Fiction, youtube

Dealing With Problem Players

Benjamin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:00:24 +0000

There always has to be that one guy. The guy that just isn’t quite on the page with everyone else. Maybe he’s obsessed with being as evil as possible in an otherwise good group, possibly he’s good but just likes to pick fights, or he just disrespects the other player’s time by talking out of game too much or being too distracted. These people aren’t bad people generally, they just honestly have trouble fitting into the group and cause group disruption either in game or out of game. So what are some ideas to help these players get along with the rest of your group while hurting the fewest possible people?

In my groups the biggest type of problem player I’ve found is generally the type that thinks the answer to any problem is the sharpened head of their axe. Some like to play more evil characters and others just don’t get that though they might just run in there swinging that’s not necessarily what the party wants to do. Some extreme examples in games I’ve been in are the lawful good elf ranger that thought he needed to talk to the king but the king wouldn’t listen, so this elf decided to try to lasso and then attack the king so he would be forced listen. Another example is a human warlock ruining hours of planning on how to deal with a pack of feral gnomes because he decided he’s racist against gnomes. The party had set up a whole long way of dealing with the gnomes that would be advantageous to everyone involved and this person just starts killing gnome’s on sight causing one of the largest instances of genocide in D&D history.

You have to wonder what these people were thinking and why they chose to antagonize the rest of the party. I’d say both of those examples have two different causes. In the first example the player was frustrated by a lack of direction. He didn’t work well without clear guidance and so he’d try to force the GM’s hand. When he got confused he would just do random, generally violent, things to try to figure out what he needed to do next. Sadly the GM of this game recently gave up on that campaign in large part because he let this player go on for too long and the player had literally wasted months of play and 10 or so main story leads. At the end there really was no way for the entire country the party was in not to hate the party and want to kill them on sight. So how best to deal with the frustrated player? This may sound like holding their hands too much, but for the sake of the other players when I’ve had that player in my campaigns if he is about to do something stupid I will explain more about the situation and specifically say things that make it obvious that what he’s doing is a clearly bad idea. Sometimes I’ll just have an NPC much stronger then that character hold him back if he’s really on a tangent. He is a good guy and not a bad player all the time, but he has ruined campaign sessions for people with his antics and those have to be dealt with. Sadly he continued to have a negative effect on the campaign and I eventually had to tell him he needed to change his play style or find another group. I see this as the absolute last option, but sometimes that’s the only way. He chose to find another group. We are still friends and he’s happier with his new groups which are more on the belief that if it’s an NPC it should be killed at some point.

The other example is a bit darker. The player had a character quirk (a very unrealistic one) that he had to kill gnomes on sight for no reason other then he randomly hated short things. Aside from this he was an antagonizer to the party. He would use area of effect spells without a care about hitting party members and would threaten nearly every NPC they met. He wanted to be a nearly evil character and in doing so brought down the fun for everyone else. So how did I deal with him effectively? I killed his character. My policy is if you do something stupid, specifically something you know will piss off everyone else and that you know is stupid…well, I’m not going to hold your hand. Usually I’ll say “Are you sure?” and if they continue I have very little mercy. His character had gotten out of hand and he needed to die. When he went to make a new character I enacted a rule that all new players must be Chaotic good or better. This seems a bit harsh, but the party had already positioned themselves as a generally good one so realistically they’d only accept other good characters into their ranks anyway. Oddly enough he plays good characters fairly well. He’s still a bit of a jerk, but a good one. And overtime he’s become someone that actually argues for party unity…which is odd considering there were multiple occasions where there would be violent in-game inter party fights caused by him. It turned out the character he needed to play was the good, but still very prideful, character.

Finally there’s the type of player that’s a burden on the game but for out of game reasons. Everyone accidentally does these types of things. We might not know the rules well enough or can’t think about what we should do so we take a while on our turn. There’s nothing wrong with that, unless it becomes a habit. Usually the cause is genuine ignorance of the rules or people getting bored. The problem with the rules is usually fixed by time. Players getting bored is another issue and really it needs to be worked from both sides. Oftentimes I’m to blame for part of it. Maybe the group gets into too many long out of game discussion (I’ve seen Star Wars sessions get entirely spent by talking about various rules or comics) or maybe combat or GM preparation for an encounter is taking too long. I try to fix this by limiting out of game discussion to short bursts (no matter how excited I am about the topic), making sure I am prepared enough before the session that I never need more than 60 seconds to refresh myself on what’s coming up next, and keeping combat moving by informing whoever’s next that they’re on deck. For larger groups where combat becomes even more cumbersome I sometimes even enact a 30 second rule. If you take longer then 30 seconds to take you’re turn you lose it. The other side of the coin is the player. Usually this can’t be handled in game, but sometime out of game when I can get them alone I will talk to them about the distractions. I’ll mention it’s slowing the campaign down and ask politely that they try to pay more attention. It is rather selfish to be willing to impact other negatively because you don’t want to be bored while paying attention.

Helping problem players become better players is a very difficult part of GMing. I don’t want to kick anyone out if I can help it because oftentimes given enough time around the right group of people they will become better players. People who can work as a team. But the needs of the many outweigh those of the few. If the player can’t change and your other players are thinking of leaving your campaign because of how much negativity that player brings then you may have to take more drastic measures. It’s very important, for the sake of everyone’s enjoyment of your campaign, that you identify problem players early on and deal with them. Letting it go and hoping they will get better on their own usually ends in heart break.

Tell us your problem player stories and your ideas on how to deal with the effectively in the comment area below.

Technorati Tags: Role Playing Games, Dungeons and Dragons, Geek, Game Mastering

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Getting your players to care about each other
Getting Your Players to Work Together
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Post tags: Dungeons and Dragons, Game Mastering, geek, Role Playing Games

Zombies in Fantasyland – or creating a fantasy world that experienced a zombie apocalypse 100 years ago.

Ben — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:29:08 +0000

A friend and I are working on a high fantasy zombie apocalypse setting for play amongst our yet-to-be-formed group. We were toying with the idea of your standard, garden variety zombie apocalypse taking place in a standard, garden variety high fantasy world. One where Elves and Dwarves were in decline faced with the faster multiplying, less rigid Human society. Then one day – a patient Zero and all hell breaks loose. Now we find ourselves 100 years after.

This is more a series of notes than anything else but we’d really, really like to see your comments.

Most likely a D20 system.

100 years ago, a zombie apocalypse happened.

In the present, the population of intelligent races has shrunk to about 5% of what it once was.

Societies are bootstrapping and starting to pull themselves together.

Humans are susceptible to the disease – one bite = zombification.

Zombies will instinctively attack and try to consume any warm blooded creates. From mice up through dragons.

This means that a large portion of this worlds population has been killed off. Many races are currently living in walled cities.

New magical means of detecting the undead have been created. In addition to this, lighter-than-air craft have become the safest mode of transportation.

Clerics have become the new nobility. With their ability to turn the dead (undead) they have become the wealthy elite, admitting very few in to their ranks and supplanting kings and emperors as the new, untouchable power. Anger them and their protection can be withdrawn, leaving you and yours to fend for yourself.

The historic treaty of Groznakc, signed 29 years ago, when the High King Gronk, ruler of over 72,000 Orcs submitted willingly to the rules and laws of the human kingdom Fareweather. Now the Orcs labor as second class citizens, enjoying protection but little freedom.

Wizards have become something of a rarity, as the practice and study of magic is a luxury not often had when fighting for mere survival. While the number of sorcerers in the population haven’t declined, wizards have dropped to about 15% of the level they were previously at. In this world’s society, wizards are something of a legend to themselves. The lay people would look at a PC wizard as a curiosity and a person to put their hope into. What’s left of the old nobility would seek to manipulate them in their secret war against the Clerics. Clerics look at wizards as lesser magic users who are more shut-in scholars than a threat.

The once mighty Guild of Wizards have found themselves a client to the Clerics. Much reduced in numbers and wealth, the formal guild now exists solely to serve the whims of the Gods of Light. They assist the Clerics in such matters as teleportation, offensive magic and the creation of weapons and items to assist the Paladin Army. They are mostly kept out of the public eye and have found themselves subservient to the Clerics.

There are rumors of a small island containing the last operating wizards collage not affiliated with a Clerical overseer but at this point, they may just be rumors.

Hmm – some world building ideas.

The world of (your name here)

101 years ago.

Demographics – total world population 11,500,000 sentient individuals maintaining friendly relationships with humans.

Humans – 70% of the population. – 8,500,000
Dwarves – 15% of the population. – 1,725,000
Elves – 10% of the population – 1,150,000
Other sentient races – 5% of the population – 575,000

Orcs, Goblins, Trolls and other “unfriendly races” – total population 2,000,000.

Although no formal census has ever been taken, it’s felt that Orcs comprise roughly 85% of that number.

Today

Demographics – total world population 800,000 sentient individuals maintaining friendly relationships with humans.

Humans – 20% of the population – 160,000
Dwarves – 45% of the population – 360,000
Elves – 34% of the population – 272,000
Other sentient races – 1% of the population – 8000

Orcs Goblins, Trolls and other “unfriendly races” – total population 1,200,000.

With the rise of the Orcish empire it is estimated that roughly 1,000,000 of these are Orcs.

The Orcs have taken the opportunity presented to them with the fall of humanity and the subsequent decimation of the other “higher” races to form their own contemporary civilization. They have banded together under several kings, answering to a High King and are currently multiplying faster than the other races. Goblins, Trolls and other “lower” races who share a tendancy to tribal existence did not fair anywhere near as well as the Orcs and are now often finding themselves as client villages to the Orc state.

Technorati Tags: zombies, rpg, role playing games, high fantasy

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On change, death and the undead

Ben — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:17:44 +0000

This past week of days has been one hell of a week for me. Two significant life events happened and one not-very-significant-on-the-face-of-things-movie happened. Lets start small and get bigger.

Last night I finally had a chance to see Zombieland. I enjoyed the hell out of it. I laughed more at that movie with my brother and the other 20 people in the theater than I’ve laughed at much in the past few weeks. It wasn’t high theatre, it wasn’t a gore fest that held up a mirror to reality.

It was a wicked fun road movie that happened to take place in a zombie infested world. Right on! The principle cast did a bang up job and the cameo from the BM himself was great. So thanks to everyone involved in the film. You certainly didn’t make it for me personally but it came out at just the right time.

On death without zombies, last weekend my amazingly awesome, talented and smart Grandma passed away. She had a great life and did everything from own (and hustle at I’m sure) several pool halls to teach herself fluent Japanese (reading, writing and speaking). She also spent 60 some odd years becoming a master at the sumi style painting. Kick ass Grandma – we will all miss you terribly.

Was it strange to see a zombie flick so soon after the death of a beloved family member? I don’t think so. Zombie movies are some of my favorite things and losing myself into the world of Zombieland for an hour and twenty minutes was I think one of the best distractions this week had to offer.

The last reason I have not been around much as an Internet presence is the purchasing of a new home. I’ve seen the inside of many a box and done much paperwork over the last few days.

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University of Florida puts in place a plan for responding to an undead attack on their campus
Become a Zombie pin-up and get yourself on a calendar

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Dragon Age: Origins, Character Creation Tool released.

Tyler — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:00:03 +0000

Can’t wait to start playing Dragon Age:Origins? Well, good news! You can get a head start making your character when the game releases Nov. 3(PC). Just keep reading to find out how.

Bioware has recently released a character creation tool. You can download the tool here, at Bioware’s social networking site. But if you’d rather not have to sign up for an account. You can download it over here at gamersgate without having to jump through any registration hoops.

The character creator is somewhat limited compared to many new gen titles. But, you can still spend plenty of time customizing and nitpicking different parts of your characters, in anticipation for the PC release on Nov. 3rd. There is also the ability to transfer over your character when the game is officially released so all that time spent wont just be wasted.

Technorati Tags: Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age, PC, RPG, Character Creator, Tool, Bioware, EA

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Post tags: Bioware, Character Creator, Dragon Age, dragon age origins, ea, PC, rpg, Tool

WoW Vs Aion

Kate — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:00:50 +0000

In the red corner we have the defending Champion, tried and true, a fan favorite and even celebrities advertise for it! Woooorrrrrld of Warcraft! In the blue corner we have our challenger, winner of 2006’s E3 MMORPG “Best Graphics”, stated to have great character creation and recently awarded PAX’s “Best MMO” Award! Aiiiiiiooonnnnn!

I stated last week that I have been opening myself up to games that I previously played and re-exploring them. This happened to open me back up to playing WoW. On the other hand I have been broadcasting Aion when ever I play it. One of the questions I get from every person that happens to walk in on my broadcast is “How is Aion Compared to WoW?”.

This it seems is the perfect opportunity for me to compare the two since I have been playing both.

I’ve been playing WoW since beta and honestly when playing during that period there was a lot of controversy about WoW’s graphics. I constantly heard complaint’s about how cartoonish it was. Quickly those shackles were forgotten and the game has taken leaps and bounds making it “The Game to Beat”.

WoW’s selling points are constant content, great Arena and Battlegrounds PVP and the fact that if your in a room of about 20 people there’s at least 2 other people in the room that have likely played the game as well. Some might not consider “Lots of people play it” as a selling point but most people will if all of their friends are playing it likely break down and give the game a go.

As far as how I rate World of Warcraft? Well I was not one of those people who thought the graphics were bad in WoW, in fact I was amazed on how smooth it was running on my old PC to even notice the graphics. I do have to say that I started as a night elf and like the way the graphics really match and flow with the game. I like the combat system in WoW and I like how Blizzard constantly tries to make the classes evenly powered. When the developers listen to its players and make those hard decisions to make changes, it really shows the quality of the people behind the game.

One of the major flaws in most games out today is the immense dialog that they will force you to read before you accept a quest. Seriously how many people do you talk to for the first time that tell you their life story in a day? Most real conversations when someone wants you to do something go like, “So you know Jacob? Yeah, he sent you over here? Great this is what I need.” Not too hard to do but most games rely on the dialog to tell the story of the game. So its a tough decision for any game developer, I honestly think you should have to work for the person a couple times then after you’ve done some quest’s your rewarded with the story as well as your money and experience. One of the really smart things that blizzard did do in this situation is separate out the quest requirements from the dialog, so bully for them.

I’ve been playing Aion since beta 3, when they started letting people who preordered jump into the game. As far as Aion’s graphics, they are what pulled me into the game and have been getting constant praises. Aion’s selling points are the Amazing graphics, Midair Combat, an Open world Faction PvP that affects hunting areas and an immersive storyline that puts your character at the forefront of the story. I find the cinematic scenes both help me better understand what needs to be done in the quest as well as pulls me into actually wanting to read the dialog.

I have not been to the PVP area yet in Aion but am excited to get into it. I can’t sate enough how much I love the graphics in Aion often I’ll just pan around with the mouse to look at the beautiful environments. Speaking of the environments, there are amazing little animations that your character does automatically when ever you are in certain area’s. Standing on the beach? Your character will constantly brush themselves off. The hot Desert? Your character fans them self off. My favorite of them all though is when your character is in the water. Its really fun to watch them play with the water.

Combat is really intuitive and allows you some different combo’s that really makes the game fun. You’ll be doing the same combo’s over and over but in what game do you not use the skills available to you over and over? At least these chain together and the best part is you don’t need to set the chain of skills on your skill bar. When the next available chain skill is ready to be used you just press the skill that activated the chain again as it changes automatically to the next skill in the chain. I found healing to be a lot like WoW’s healing. There’s different types of heals, condition removals as well as heal over time spells.

I was talking about dialog earlier and Aion does not hold back on it. The problem I find is that I tend to skim through the dialog rather than read it. The problem with that though is when it comes to requirements for some quest’s is if you skip through the dialog when you see the little quest requirements tracker you will sometimes be sitting there scratching your head wondering what you are looking for. Specially when they want you to find some sort of plant then then in the next quest tell you they want you to get some berries and your stuck looking for berries on a tree when they are in a barrel’s on a little farm. As I said earlier though most of the main quest’s have a little cinematic movie that tells you what to do making those really easy. My suggestion? Make it clearer in the quest tracker what you need to do. I know most of its my bad because I’m too lazy to read the text but I bet I’m not the only one.

Aion’s flight system. The Dev’s explain it as if your a baby bird and just learning how to fly and as you age you learn how to fly longer and faster. The best part is that they tell you which quest’s to take to get more flight time and bonuses to your skills while flying right on the front page of the website.

My experience with flight is limited but I have died more than a few times by jumping and pressing space bar twice on accident and canceling my glide only to plunge to certain death. Aion limits where you can fly to only certain area’s which makes sense but makes you feel a bit boxed in. On the other hand Aion does not limit you to where you can glide. Gliding is faster than running and really fun, often I find myself going to certain hunting areas just because there’s a quick glide back to town. When you start flying you have a 1 minute time limit but as you level up you can do quest’s for better wings etc. I would like to see in the future a whole system for strengthening your wings to increase flight time as well as speed.

Comparison between WoW and Aion:

Graphically Aion wins when it comes to the visual aspect between the two games.

In terms of music Aion stunned me with its beautiful music as well as the drum beats for when you go into combat.

I find I like to group up with people in Aion more so than with people in WoW. WoW groups are pretty much for instances it seems. One good thing going for both of the games is that you can choose to play the game solo and fight the regular mobs or you can group up and fight Elites. The good part is how both games separate the two making it easy to play solo if you want to.

I’d have to say that I am having a lot more fun playing Aion than I have ever had with playing WoW. There’s just something about how the skills just chain together and flow together that makes the game really fun to play.

Who Win’s? I’d have to say that as far as the games go I prefer Aion but in WoW I know so many people that play it that I’m likely to keep both subscriptions. Its really hard to compare such a tried and true game like WoW to Aion. WoW certainly has a lot more content but it’s been out for quite a while so its hard to compare. Don’t mistake my review for saying that WoW is not fun to play because I’ve have some good times with WoW. I especially like when you get to fight huge mobs.

Take this review as you will but for the time being, I’ll be in both games kicking ass and taking names.

WoW:
I play as Seriene on the server Korgath.

Aion:
I play as Paulina on the server Triniel.
Technorati Tags: Aion, WoW, World of Warcraft, MMO, MMORPG, Blizzard, NCSoft

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Post tags: aion, Blizzard, MMO, MMORPG, NCSoft, World of Warcraft, Wow

Oddworld games being ported to PC

Tyler — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:00:51 +0000

Oddworld Inhabitants(Makers of the Oddworld series) Have announced they are bringing the remaining Oddworld games to the PC. In doing so, they are breaking a long period of console exclusivity for the Oddworld series.

“We are in the process of converting Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee and Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath to the PC, so that all four of the major Oddworld games will be re-releasing this winter in a package called ‘The Oddbox,“ “This will be the Abe games, Munch, and Stranger as one package for Steam’s digital distribution network, as well as a few other digital distribution outlets.” – Oddworld’s Lorne Lanning

The older Oddworld games, Abe’s Oddysee and Abe’s Exoddus, are already available on the PC and have been re-released on Steam to a loyal fanbase that are very excited to hear about the rest making their way to the PC. For those not in the know, Stranger’s Wrath is a western-themed first person shooter based on the eponymous bounty hunter, while Munch’s Oddysee is an action puzzler that bears the distinction of being one of the original Xbox 360 backwards-compatible games.

As for any plans regarding new Oddworld games, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Technorati Tags: Oddworld, Abe, Munch, Stranger’s Wrath, PC, Steam

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Post tags: Abe, Munch, Oddworld, PC, steam, Stranger's Wrath

Getting your players to care about each other

Benjamin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:03:55 +0000

Group unity is one of the most important things in a RP game. Without it the party spends more of their time arguing amongst each other then actually playing. Players quit games because of too much stress in a party so spending a bit of extra time focusing on keeping your party on good terms is time well spent. This is a follow up to what I wrote last week about how to get your characters to work together in the first session of a game. I’d like to expound a bit on that along with talking about how to keep them together.

You’re not always afforded the time to have a full session dedicated to character creation, but no matter how you do it it is good to keep the players talking to each other throughout the process. Encourage them to have pre-existing relationships. I’ve found a lot of players enjoy this and it adds to the roleplaying within the session. It’s hard for your PC’s to trust the others if they don’t know them. Sometimes though PC’s either don’t try or can’t think of anything. This is a good time to remind them, as the GM, that they remember this other PC from that one job they did a few years ago. Some GM’s try to be purist and not interfere with the PC at all, this is a good thing, but little suggestions like this can usually be good. Maybe the characters end up not getting along, but the fact they know each other and have semi-good memories of each other will facilitate the starting of the game.

The other big way to hook in players at the beginning of a campaign is to arrange a unifying event. Maybe they all witness some terrible event or they happen to be the strongest people to catch some curse they need to get rid of. I once had them all have died before the campaign even started and some elderly cleric chose to resurrect them at the beginning of the campaign to help fight a scourge of undead. Obviously you really can only use any one of these ideas once with any group but you can use various forms of each of these ideas to promote party unity. I, personally, try to let the PC’s do whatever they want in my campaigns. I feel it’s my job to create the playground and that’s it, rather then force them to play with any one toy. The only place where I feel like it’s almost always better to be a bit more controlling is the start of the game. Too many campaign’s fall apart because of a lack of party unity.

So now we’ve thought about how to get them started, but what about keeping them together? There are a lot of normal people I don’t get along with in real life, with the flashier characters that come out of a fantasy/sci-fi world you’re bound to have even more conflicts. PC’s can feel too good for each other or they have conflicting moral standards. This is when it helps to get them to feel like they owe the group their allegiance. Upon start up I always ask my PC’s to come up with a semi-detailed back story. Specifically I want to know where they came from, a bit about the culture there (if it’s not from a predefined country), who their family and friends are and any major figures in their young life. I then use this information along with things that come out during the game play to create hooks throughout the game.

Some examples are an Eladrin that comes from a land called Nagarythe. He’s well liked and trusted by the party already and when he finds out his homeland has ceased all contact with nearby countries the party rushes to his aid to help figure out what is wrong. Or another party member whose sister disappeared long ago being helped to find and bring justice to her kidnappers. Both these characters ended up feeling a huge debt of gratitude to their fellow party members, the trust level went up extremely, and the storyline ended up being something the PC’s felt strongly about.

Sometimes you can even work in a character mid-campaign in some way that creates better trust. Like the Gnome that was trapped in another dimension until the party rescued her or the Wookie slave freed by party members. You really have to look at any party as a relationship. You need to promote trust in it. Sometimes intrigue within a party is a good thing, but generally if you’re going to be fighting side by side with people, you’ll want a basic level of unity and for that you’re going to need to encourage situations that breed it. I’ve seen PC’s attack each other, in game, because of strife within the party. This might seem interesting, and it was for a short bit, but pretty quickly the disunity would just bring down every campaign. It became both characters (who had very different ideas about what chaotic good meant) arguing over what would be done. It got to the point where one of the characters chose to leave the party. This ended up as a good thing though since character that player introduced next had less conflicting moral views, but isn’t usually a good place to end up.

So, it’s important to always be on your toes as a GM thinking about party unity. Don’t force it, obviously, but set up situations that encourage it. Sometimes nothing can be done, but I’ve found, at least in my own mistakes, that you can usually do a lot more than you think to help a group play together. Another group I was in that had conflicting characters (that also came to blows in game) that ended up working out without any change of cast. The GM, wisely, set up a situation that he knew all three characters would feel strongly about and then put them in a situation where they all had to work together closely to achieve their goal. So they all went off to save a mutual mentor, nearly died in the process, but ended up realizing that despite their differences they had some commonality. It didn’t fix all the problems, but that along with a few other “team building” encounters helped those characters develop a passive respect for each other, even if they frequently disagreed.

Technorati Tags: Role Playing Games, geeks, Dungeons and Dragons, Game Mastering

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Post tags: Dungeons and Dragons, Game Mastering, geeks, Role Playing Games

Dark Souls (Review)

Tyler — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:00:40 +0000

Enter the world of Dark Souls. Go on a journey with the cynical mercenary Gauly and discover the mystery of the anomalies. In this Indie RPG from Warfare Studios.

This Indie RPG from Warfare Studios follows a very traditional old school system. While obviously not a bad thing. It does not improve or attempt to innovate in anyway. The story has you following the exploits of a very cynical mercenary named Gauly. As he takes a job for the church which spirals into a epic quest to discover the truth behind the anomalies that threaten the world.

The gameplay is solid if old fashioned and lacking in hardcore attack animations. Grinding is somewhat required though. But nothing too extreme, though some players would probably find the game alittle challenging if they just rush or avoid as many fights as possible. Your parties skills don’t start to get visually interesting until the end and even then. I wasn’t very wowed by them.

The music brings back some nostalgia from the good ol’ days of NES and SNES rpgs. Catchy tunes that while they can be repetitive, never drive you insane. The sound effects on the other hand are nothing spectacular and are half the time missing compared to many other rpgs.

The attention to detail is evident on the maps. There is a decent flow around the buildings and its usually obvious where you should be going next. But there are a few pathing problems, as sometimes a small flower or planet will block you and force you to walk around it. You will also have to watch the path carefully as to move to the next screen you can’t just throw yourself against a open space against the screen to move on. You have to hit the spots directly next to the path. This can be somewhat annoying as the path is not always obvious requiring you to bump along the side until your let through.

I must say that my biggest gripe with the game. Is it’s numerous spelling errors, some are very simple mistakes others completely change the sentence structure requiring me to sit there for a few minutes to try and piece together what exactly Tessa just said to me. My other issue is the price, currently Dark Soul’s is available for $20 directly from Warfare Studios website. While the game is not bad its length on average is just around 15-20 hours. I myself beat the game in just under 15 hours. I believe the game would be much better suited in the 10-15 dollar category.

You can read more about Dark Souls and pick up the Trial version of the game here, at the official site.

Gameplay: 70 – Solid JRPG style, but nothing new or innovative.

Graphics: 65 – I’m a big fan of 2d sprite based games. But the overall quality and lack of animation is a big let down.

Sound: 65 – Some pretty decent tunes that can invoke some nostalgia for the old school days. But nothing that really stood out for me.

Story: 60 – Decent Arc, but due to frequent spelling mistakes and text cuts the story was at times hard to follow and enjoy.

Overall: 65 – A decent JRPG. The price is abit high for length, but if your a fan of the indie scene and love 2d rpgs like me. Then Dark Souls is at least worth downloading the trial and taking a look.

Technorati Tags: Dark Souls, RPG, 2d, Sprites, Indie, RPG Maker, Warfare Studios

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Post tags: 2d, Dark Souls, indie, rpg, RPG Maker, Sprites, Warefare Studios