Cack Handed Gamepad

MW2 - a turning point?

2009-11-11T12:39:00.005Z

I have not really bought into the Call of Duty: MW2 hype, don't get me wrong the first Modern warfare was a enjoyable game. The campaign was solid and multiplayer was really impressive plus it dragged the CoD franchise out of the same old World War 2 setting for a little while. My problem is Activision has built this up into a game which will define video gaming, since this is a pretty well told and solid FPS it has been hailed as a great game but I doubt it will redefine video gaming like Doom/Command and Conquer/Halo did. What it could very well do though is change the perception of video games amongst non-gamers.

Activision doe seem hellbent on exploiting this licence and the Guitar/DJ Hero games along with Blizzards usual Midas touch with WoW continuing to dominate the MMO space alongside the new IP they are cooking up and Starcraft II/Diablo 3 selling millions of unit each. I blogged a while back about the £55 price tag for the game, thankfully before Christmas market forces kicked in and retailers have been cutting the price. The PC version of the game is roughly £30 on amazon.

Yet the game itself has garnered huge attention, gaming websites and magazines have been falling over themselves at every teaser trailer and announcement. It has already reached the mainstream press, something only the launch of a Warcraft expansion usually does and even the negatives have gathered responses which have not been totally hysterical.

The UK's leading critic of video games, Keith Vaz MP, has raised his head above the parapet to lob his opinion into the mix. Vaz is a staunch opponent of violence in video games, but he is also a media hungry MP who sees these controversies as a great way to get himself in the Daily Mail and other newspapers which make a living off peddling fear, this is very reminiscent of the "Video Nasties" of the 1980's which griped the UK.

Thankfully there are MP's (via facebook) and newspapers who realise that games have come a long way and now are on the cusp of breaking into the mainstream, while MW2 may not be the greatest game of the decade it certainly maybe the one which alongside the Wii and guitar based games (rock band/guitar hero) could bring the games industry into the mainstream with people realising they are on a par with the movie and music industry in terms of what they produce and its popularity.

Modern Warfare 2's going Nuclear

2009-11-03T09:50:00.005Z

While doing my morning read up of news I came across news that apparently a Kill streak of 25 in MW2 will allow for a Nuclear Strike upon the map. While unconfirmed this does seem over the top, yet I would imagine the widespread appeal of it. I remember it was difficult enough getting 7 kills for the gunship in MW so getting 25 will be almost impossible so to do it would be a pretty impressive achievement.

Hat tip GamePex

Bioshock 2 also seems to be coming along nicely, in the last few months it has disappeared from my radar but several recently released trailers along side news on the storyline mean this is now firmly back in my top 5 most wanted PC games.

Certainly the new weapons and plasmids look good and combining them is something that should really have been done in the original Bioshock as they seemed a really cool idea which instead became just another set of weapons. The architecture builds upon the unique look of Rapture and adds in some great sounding areas. Adopting little sisters to harvest Adam for you is another good idea tying in with you as a Prototype Big Daddy.

However I hope there is more beyond a few new areas and weapons, the storyline of bioshock was centered around the "WTF!" moment 2/3 of the way through - this time I would like to see some more characters beyond some clones of Ryan/Tenerbaun/Atlas from the original. The main protagonist this time around is called Dr. Sophia Lamb who is the head of a cult rejecting Ryan's ideas - I hope she is elaborated more than this and other characters are brought in.

Hat tip Gamespy

Finally again on Gamespy Metro 2033 looks quite promising, a cross between STALKERs survivalist game play and the underground&urban ruins that remind me of Hellgate London or Fallout 3. This will hit in early 2010 and could be impressive, I have included the preview trailer which doesn't give to much away but does look impresive.

The more I see games within this Genre the more I want to play an MMO based around this, I may have to give Fallen Earth a try.

Space Marine List (2000 pts)

2009-10-21T17:13:00.002+01:00

So after checking I had the right models (I believe in WYSIWYG) this is the list I plan to have finished by the end of the year. Hopefully then I can start gaming with it and make tweaks as by then I also plan to have a Auto-Cannon dread in the works as well as some custom SternGuard and VanGuard veterans. I will put a 1500/1750 point list up soon so I can cover any requirements when I finally get down to GW Bromley.

At the moment I am unsure of what to do with Vulcan, the Librarian+terminators will be hammering into an opponents line via the LandRaider which will also deal with any infantry with its flamestorm cannons. The pred gives me some roving firepower as the scouts + combat squaded tactical 3 (plasma cannon) secure my back field. I just don't know what to do with him.

Tactical Squad 1&2 as well as the other combat squad (flamer) will follow behind the LandRaider in their Rhino's to exploit the gap and secure objectives. The Landspeeder and Attack Bike will be tank hunting and moving around the flanks.

Type	Name	Points

HQ	Vulkan	190

HQ	Librarian (100)	190
	Epistolary (50)
	Terminator Armour
	Storm Shield (40)
Troop	Tactical Squad 1 x9 (170)	250
	Sgt with Power fist (25)
	Melta (5)
	Multi-Melta (0)
	Rhino - extra armour (50)

Troop	Tactical Squad 2 x9 (170)	245
	Sgt with Power fist (25)
	Flamer (0)
	Multi-Melta (0)
	Rhino - extra armour (50)

Troop	Tactical Squad 3 x9 (170)	250
	Sgt with Power fist (25)
	Flamer (0)
	Plasma Cannon (5)
	Rhino - extra armour (50)

Troop	Scouts x9	214
	Sniper Rifles
	Tellion (50)
	Missile Launcher (10)
	Camo Cloaks (27)

Elite	Terminator Assault Squad x5 (200)	200
	Thunder Hammers x 3
	Lightning Claws x2

Heavy	Land Raider Redeemer (240)	250
	Multi Melta (10)

Heavy	Predadtor	85
	Auto Cannon (60)
	Heavy Bolters (25)

Fast Attack	Attack Bike (40)	50
	Multi Melta (10)

Fast Attack	Land Speeder (50)	70
	Heavy Flamer (20)
	Multi Melta (0)
		Total
		1994

World of Goo promotion - Pay-What-You-Want viable?

2009-10-21T16:27:00.004+01:00

On Gamepolitics.com (recommended site - great for mature game new info) the results of 2D-boys "Pay what you want" promotion seemed to be a success.

PR wise the move gathered only praise and pushed a year old game back into the main news streams of most big game websites. Apparently 57,000 people purchased the game and a 40% increase in purchases over Steam.

Where this falls down a little is the price - the average was $2.03 paid and 17,000 paid $0.01. Personally I thought it would be around the $5 mark as I had hoped gamers would react in a more positive way. This is after all a company giving them a choice of what to pay for a game and not putting any shitty DRM in it, something many people in favour of file sharing have argued for.

I guess those people who paid a cent would probably not have ever bought the game so $170 for thos downloads is something and if even a few thousand enjoy it enough they may buy any follow up games from the studio. The main response on the survey for people buying World of Goo was "I Like the Pay-What-You-Want Model and Wanted to Support It" with 24% so it got a postive response.

I hope that gamers would rally around developers like 2D-Boy and support them when they act in such a way, similar to the way Stardock has acted with its game. Who knows maybe people will not pirate their games because all the arguements in support of file sharing can;t argue with the way they have acted....

Whats that, this is the internet....oh well!

World of Goo

2009-10-19T01:11:00.005+01:00

World of Goo is on special offer until the end of today.

The publishers 2D-Boy are allowing people to make donations for whatever you feel the game is is worth. There will have been people paying $0.01 for the game but with DRM i assume those same people will have pirated it anyway, for me i paid $15 as i felt that was a fair price for a few hours of fun. It also makes a great deal of sense, creating interest in a game that has been out for a year. Steams special offer weekends seems to use the same idea as it normally propels games into the top 10 downloads when thee is 50% off such as with left4dead which I purchased recently (more on that in another post).

My girlfriend certainly agrees that it was a good deal and has been happily directing those cute balls of goo around all day. What makes her happy makes me happy so thanks 2D-boy!

Sons of Orar

2009-10-12T15:58:00.009+01:00

Well my painting is going really slow at the moment as I am lacking motivation. It seems to easy to blob out in front of the PC than get stuck in. However I am determined to get moving again and have a squad of Sniper Scouts, Assualt Terminators and another squad of Tactical Marines assembled and ready for undercoating.

I was torn about using a new Marine Chapter of my own but have decided to stick with my Sons of Orar rather than start again as I like the Fluff around them.

“Orar is a mythical figure in the histories of the Space Marines, an Ultramarines Captain who won great reknown during the Horus Heresy. Details of the Sons of Orar's founding are lost to Imperial records. The legends of the Chapter claim Orar as spiritual patriarch."

My Marines will now be part of the 4th Company and I will also be fielding lots more Multi Meltas and Flamers to go with a scratch built Vulkan proxy. I know it is ultra cheese to use him but he seems like a great chance to scratch build an HQ and also scratch build some Sternguard/Vanguard venterans which I call "Shield guard" and "Spear guard".

I also have ideas for my custom chapter, the Emperors Shieldbearers. Shown here using B&C space marine painter I am still not 100% sure I should not start again so who knows I may about turn and start something new entirely.

Hopefully have pictures of my progress coming soon.

Behind the scenes at Blizzard

2009-10-07T13:36:00.002+01:00

Gamasutra had a really interesting article Blizzard and how they structure their different teams. It's funny to think of how many people who never get a mention or even thought about by the masses of Blizzard fans, such as 37 people designing everything from classes to encounters and loot and 123 staff for cinematics which are something Blizzard always does well.

It doesn't even stop there as Blizzard even have "two full-time lore historians, keepers of blizzard's past"

So I guess this post is to recognise all the hard work members of games companies put in without ever really getting recoginition from gamers.

Viva Cuba

2009-09-28T12:51:00.003+01:00

Sorry for a lack of posts - I was away for 3 weeks in Cuba sipping Mojitos and Smoking cigars.

Did write some stuff while i was away so will be posting shortly

Dwarfs of Chaos Army Book

2009-09-03T11:18:00.007+01:00

The Indy GT Dwarfs of Chaos Army Book

"Below you will find the link to the new Indy GT Dwarfs of Chaos Army
Book, a complete, 92-page Army Book in the Games Workshop tradition.
The book, professionally written, designed, illustrated, and thoroughly
play tested, will be legal for use in participating Independent Grand
Tournaments. As of this writing, the Crossroads, Conflict, Colonial,
Destruction Derby, NEWCC, and War Camp GTs will allow the book as
legal, and we expect the number to grow with the publication of the
book." Warseer

Great to see this kind of things being put out for free - certainly it looks good!

Dwarfs of Chaos Army Book

High Elf WiP

2009-09-01T17:07:00.008+01:00

My new camera came though the post yesterday so I will be now posting pictures of some of the stuff I am working on.

This High Elf model is a test of where I am at after 10 years of not doing anything even remotely related to painting. I am quite pleased with how he has turned out and the frosting on his armour and weapons took quite a while to get right.

I have been working on getting my Space Marines into a fit state for the table top with the plan being to have 1500 points finished by the end of the year. The three above are part of the first squad I have painted up for my "Sons of Orar" chapter.

Once they are done my Orcs and Goblins will be next along with a small scale Tau project and after painting this would quite like to get some High Elves as well. So thats four projects I need to get on with before I allow myself to buy anything new.

Microsoft Fail

2009-08-26T15:53:00.004+01:00

Well they are showing how you can use their IT tools .... to doctor images removing the black guy. D'oh!

But why do this, does Microsoft believe the guy isn't photogenic or do they believe all Polish people are racists but then why leave the asian guy in.

However you have to love the Internet, these kinds of gaffs get picked up almost as soon as they appear. Plus they have a macbook in the shot as well....(facepalm)

Also a comment by Veronica made me chuckle "I think the intention was to make this ad even more PC, since you now have an Asian guy, a woman and a black guys body with a white guys head. When you can't add more people, fuse them together!"

Genius

Hat tip Photoshop Disasters

Blizzcon - dropping the Blizzbomb

2009-08-22T00:27:00.002+01:00

Well seems the announcements have come thick and fast - Diablo 3 has the Monk class returning (kind of) from the original Diablo expansion Hellfire. Unfortunately it looks like a 2011 release date with SC2 and Cataclysm releasing 2010 for maximum effect.

Speaking of that massive surprise - World of Warcraft Cataclysm is on the way for 2010 and Blizzard announced the following

Two New Playable Races: Adventure as one of two new races--the cursed worgen with the Alliance or the resourceful goblins with the Horde.

Level Cap Increased to 85: Earn new abilities, tap into new talents, and progress through the path system, a new way for players to improve characters.

Classic Zones Remade: Familiar zones across the original continents of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms have been altered forever and updated with new content, from the devastated Badlands to the broken Barrens, which has been sundered in two.

New High-Level Zones: Explore newly opened parts of the world, including Uldum, Grim Batol, and the great Sunken City of Vashj'ir beneath the sea.

More Raid Content than Ever Before: Enjoy more high-level raid content than previous expansions, with optional more challenging versions of all encounters.

New Race and Class Combinations: Explore Azeroth as a gnome priest, blood elf warrior, or one of the other never-before-available race and class combinations.

Guild Advancement: Progress as a guild to earn guild levels and guild achievements.

New PvP Zone & Rated Battlegrounds: Take on PvP objectives and daily quests on Tol Barad Island, a new Wintergrasp-like zone, and wage war in all-new rated Battlegrounds.

Archaeology: Master a new secondary profession to unearth valuable artifacts and earn unique rewards.

Flying Mounts in Azeroth: Explore Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms like never before.

No announcements about Starcraft 2 as i can see, guess maybe something tomorrow. Then again we already know that

"Blizzard Entertainment has moved the anticipated release date of StarCraft II to the first half of 2010 to coincide with the relaunch of its upgraded Battle.net^® online -gaming service." (hat-tip SC2.blog)

Plus quite a bit of info about multiplayer and the single player campaign is already out in a series of videos and preview pieces dotted around gaming sites.

Anyway got to hand it to Blizz they do know how to get players going! Even though i quit WoW quite a while back after 2 burnout years of playing practically nothing else, it still excites me to read all this stuff and may tempt me back. However.....

It will be going head to head with probably the most eagerly anticipated MMO to date - Star Wars The Old Republic. The Hype train is full steam ahead and it has a lot going for it if and if they deliver it could be a real match up for WoW if they release within a few months of each other.

I guess many gamers will play both if SWTOR is as good as many people hope it to be, i confidently predict as long as SWTOR doesn't pull a WAR maneuver and release without being polished to a fine shine of excellent content and gameplay it will be the second most popular MMO easy enough and break a million plus subscribers. If it fails there is no wrath compared to how Starwars fan+the MMO community and the Internet in general will react and Bioware better re-hire Mark Jacobs to have someone to blame for it.

Still good news from Blizzcon so far - have to look into it more as 12.30am in the UK so bed time :)

Fallout 3 DLC - the way forward or just a money spinner?

2009-08-19T17:32:00.006+01:00

The last part of the downloadable content for Fallout 3 seems to be getting relatively good reviews and Bethesda has confirmed this was the last one of the batch they were working on. I assume this means Fallout: New Vegas is well into development and other games based around the Fallout universe are also coming together, perhaps even an MMO if the rights have passed from Interplay to Bethesda.

The first of the DLC was a bit hit and miss, “Operation Anchorage” was nothing more than a prolonged run and gun segment which lasted an evening and the only memorable thing about it is at the end it gives you access to power armour much earlier in the game than usual.

I enjoyed “The Pitt” and it’s imagining of Pittsburgh as an industrial nightmare you must navigate through some profound moral choices about slavery and order in the wastelands, playing through as an evil character after being a goody two shoes when I first completed the game I spent most of it being a complete and utter bastard but still it was complex.

I must admit “Mothership Zeta” is a weird end to the DLC and Fallout 3. I would have thought a climatic ending to the adventures in the capital wastelands would have been in order and requiring a few visits to old haunts rather than spending the entire time away from one of the stars of Fallout 3 – the haunting post nuclear image of Washington DC which was so well done. Still along with Broken Steel and Point Lookout it has certainly kept players occupied over a year after its release.

My real interest outside of the gaming side and the fact it prolongs such a great RPG is the whole idea of DLC, for sports games it normally is nothing more than updating teams and adding more aesthetic things. With First Person Shooters it is multiplayer map packs and Real Time Strategies have extra unit and maps for DLC.

With RPG’s adding in extra storylines is normally reserved for an expansion pack or two, I remember eagerly awaiting expansions to Baldur’s gate and Oblivion to stretch out the experience. DLC also gives developers to go in different directions from the main game, while “Operation Anchorage” was not my cup of tea it did introduce new areas and storylines to Fallout 3.

With DLC becoming more and more common I enjoy the fact that now gamers can receive extra storylines for a small fee. As well as this future DLC has now become a major selling point for gamers, Microsoft seems to have taken the lead on this by securing DLC to games such as GTA IV and Fallout 3 while the PS3 the DLC is only just rolling out for Fallout 3. I must admit if a game is exactly the same on both consoles then things like the option of DLC would swing my purchase. I guess with Microsoft putting a low price and Xbox live/DLC spin on the Xbox 360 the PS3 superior graphics and Blu-Ray is not making the impact Sony expected.

It’s a moot point however for me as I am predominately a PC gamer and we thankfully get most DLC for free or at least at the same time as the consoles.

But what about the dangers, of course it is the problem of what the developers cut out of a game to save for DLC, do they detract from the main game to make sure they have enough to fill a few bits of DLC to make some extra money. I am happy if a DLC fleshes out quests and areas beyond the main storyline or carries it on like an expansion but if I pay £40 for a game I expect it to be enjoyable and not requiring buying another £20+ worth of DLC to make the game what it should have been to begin with. Developers could also be tempted to throw in all the cuts they made to the original game to maximise profit, after all they are businesses and if you have worked on something I guess slapping a price tag on it some people will download it.

On the whole I felt that Bethesda got the number and quality of DLC right in the end, it was a little ropey to begin with and the fact all my old save games got deleted was a major cluster F***up I have enjoyed each one and can see the two RPG’s on my radar - Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins – making good use of DLC to flesh out the experience and I hope not cash in to much.

Space Hulk

2009-08-17T12:26:00.014+01:00

After some great marketing from Games workshop which got fans on both blogs and forums into a right tizz with their "mystery box" we now know they are re-releasing the classic space hulk. My parents bought this for my cousin back in the 90's and endless hours were spent playing it with him and his friend. When my brother was old enough we bought a second box set and had four a four way game with my cousin and his friend versus us. Certainly really excited to see this old classic reborn and it is already on pre-order, expensive at nearly 60 quid but worth it for the nostalgia factor alone.

From Games Workshops site the blurb sounds interesting...

From the depths of space an ancient vessel drifts slowly towards the Imperium of Mankind - a space hulk. Within its confines, untold thousands of Genestealers slowly emerge from hibernation. The Space Marines must enter the cramped corridors and tomb-like chambers of the ancient ship to defeat this alien menace.

Space Hulk is a board game for two players, recreating the
battles fought between the Space Marines and Genestealers. One player commands
the Space Marines as they carry out deadly missions in the ancient Space Hulk, and the other commands the horde of Genestealers opposing them. Space Hulk's fast-paced rules simulate the tense atmosphere of a mission deep inside the cramped confines of a derelict space hulk, where split-second decisions are needed for victory.

This boxed game contains: a 23-page Rulebook, a 47-page Mission book and 35 finely-detailed, plastic Citadel miniatures, including: 11 Space Marine Terminators, one Space Marine Terminator Librarian, 22 Genestealers, and one Broodlord.

Also included are: 105 gaming counters, 24 corridors, 10 rooms, eight crossroads, eight T-junctions, six corner sections, four dead ends, four end pieces, 20 doors with plastic stands, one mission status display, and three plastic mission objectives, including: a dead Space Marine on throne, a Blood Angels artefact and a Cyber-Altered Task Unit. Plus a sand timer and five bone-coloured dice unique to this game.

I think the Terminators show some of the new Blood Angel miniatures’ they will be working on next year after Space Wolves are released and those Genestealers look quite nifty. One of the good things about Games Workshop in recent years is the amount of models you get in its starter game sets. Assault on Black Reach had a sizeable number of Orks and space marines which you could build a starter army around. The fantasy equivalent - contains equally a substantial number of Goblins and Dwarves which i have based a good part of my army around.

I might look to make these terminators along with the 5 from Black Reach into the "Deathwing" an elite force of the Dark Angels Chapter who are exclusively in Terminator armour hunting their traitorous former brethren around the galaxy. Might be an idea for a new army....doh!

2009-08-14T10:57:00.003+01:00

This was something I wrote a few days ago but then got ill and didn’t post it. Still I enjoyed writing it so I thought I might as well put it up.

While having my usual morning peruse of blogs and gaming sites I nearly spat porridge over my computer when I saw on WoW.com that Worgen and Goblins will be the new races for the next WoW expansion “Cataclysm”.

BlizzCon ticket…..$125
Plane ticket…..£399
Hotel…..$390

Having the new races and expansion revealed by leaks two weeks before you go….Fail!

This news comes apparently from “multiple sources close to the situation” although of course caveats still apply to this as might be a load of crap. However sites like Massively and Gamespy have been running with it so I assume they may have heard similar rumours to not treat the news as mere speculation. Certainly rumours have been floating around for quite a while going back to Burning Crusade that the Worgen would be a playable race. I am surprised by the Goblins, I always assumed it would be some offshoot of ogres but I guess they want to give the horde a diminutive cutsey class and the Alliance a savage class so as to try and rebalance the factions.

The fact Blizzard has its own convention and does not feel the need to attend big gaming events like E3 shows the incredible popularity their games have, companies would kill to even have one franchise with such recognition and sheer money making potential let alone three. Blizzcon is a major part of Blizzards yearly PR and I can’t even imagine how much work goes in to prepare for those two days.

So I do wonder where these rumours have come from and what “multiple sources” would have revealed it. I assume it is someone Activision side who has dropped these hints as Blizzard has always been very media savvy and ran a tight ship, while rumours always surround their games, in the past when they announce they will reveal a new game at a convention most people will have sussed which of their three main franchises it would be. Not to hard to work out Koreans love Starcraft – announce Starcraft 2 in Korea = Mass hype, Blizzard love and mountains of cash come 2010.

However while we may have known what was going to be announced we never knew any details. I was lucky enough to go to the worldwide invitational in Paris where they announced Diablo 3, while everyone I met apart from one insistent German pro gamer who told everyone who would listen that they were announcing World of Starcraft, knew that it would be Diablo 3 we didn’t know what else was being announced. I expected a few screenshots of early work and some artwork but instead we got an onstage demo and an in-depth look at the Barbarian. By the end of the weekend I was sold on Blizzard, bought Diablo 2/Starcraft again and even re-subbed Warcraft for 2 months before getting WoW fatigue.

Just thinking about this news I feel it is pretty big for World of Warcraft and how now Blizzard may need something else on the cards that weekend to blow the fans away; we all knew the name of the expansion when Blizzard did legal fillings for the name. That in itself isn’t much of a big deal but two entirely new races are pretty important to what they will do with WoW. With Aion getting good press, the Star wars Old Republic MMO creating hype tsunamis every time a little bit of information on the game comes out and a few existing MMO’s like Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings and Warhammer looking to siphon off as many bored WoW fans as possible a major announcement at Blizzcon of the expansion coupled with subsequent Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 announcements it would have helped Blizzard start up the hype train and maybe try and steal back the position of most eagerly awaited MMO from Starwars.

Of course this isn’t doom and gloom for Blizzard even if I may have made it out to be, the fans will still lap the convention up and I am sure Blizzard has some great ideas for the new races – if they are actually being introduced. It could very well be a bit of viral advertising to get the fans hyped up and then completely screw with WoW fans minds by showing something else entirely. There also is all the information behind “Cataclysm” which I assume will mean Vanilla WoW content being cluster bombed with new content via some kind of major world event and one or even two new hero classes. I expect a great amount to be revealed and another classy intro movie to be shown.

Then there will be the Starcraft 2 details plus the game will be playable, hopefully with even more screenshots of the campaign along with the next Diablo 3 class and Warcraft the movie getting a few mentions.

Just expect on the main stage at the opening announcement

Mike Morhaime: And now to announce Blizzards newest game…World of Warcraft:Cataclysm

Crowd: …..

Mike Morhaime: With new races…the savage Worgen and the enterprising Goblins

(Crickets Chirp)

Mike Morhaime: AND …..MURLOC

Crowd: Oooohhhhhh….

(I can dream)

BlizzCon Sells Out in Eight Minutes

2009-08-10T00:32:00.003+01:00

I have been away this weekend so while catching up on gaming news I ran across this Blizzcon story. With 20,000 tickets on sale at $125 a pop the fact it sold out in a mere 8 minutes is pretty impressive. What's more it seems this 8 minutes is just the time it takes to process the payment so in fact the tickets probably sold out within a minute of going on sale. I was luck and went to the worldwide invitational event last year and was impressed by the scale of the event and how loyal a fan base Blizzard has built up that they are willing to pay 125 dollars plus travel/accommodation based upon the love of just three franchises.

As for what is going to be revealed this year - I am pretty sure more information on Starcraft 2 beta/campaign, another class for Diablo 3 and the next World of Warcraft expansion. I would love to know what the new MMO is that Blizzard is working upon but gut feeling is this will be 2010 with Blizzard using the release of Starcraft 2/WoW expansion as a launch pad for their latest endeavour.

Also Ozzy Osbourne is apparently going to perform after his stint as the prince of darkness it isn't to surprising he has been booked, certainly he has a degree of coolness associated with a Rock legend even if his wife wears the trousers and he seems incapable of even making a cheese sandwich because his brain is so addled by drink and drugs. Plus I am sure he will perform with level 80 elite Tauren chieftain - brilliant PR on Blizzards part.

The Launch of a MMO – the most important time?

2009-08-06T12:40:00.008+01:00

I was quite sad to see the Matrix online being closed down, while I never played the game it is always a shame to see any MMO get cancelled with its player’s months or even years of input into their characters gone completely when the servers close down.

A friend who played the game chatted to me about this and in his opinion the writing was on the wall for the Matrix MMO from launch – surprising for something that lasted so long.

This got me thinking about other MMO launches, are they the most important part of an MMO life cycle. Is having a bad launch with all the word of mouth it creates across the internet one of the main reasons for an MMO failing and can they come back from such a failure. Or does it make no difference having a great launch or not if the MMO is a dud regardless.

I have been involved in a few MMO’s at launch and talked to people I know who have been involved in others.

World of Warcraft

Well I may as well start with the most well known MMO, now as much part of popular culture like Ipods and the Wii. I sunk nearly two years of my life into Warcraft with levelling, pvp and raiding. General consensus seems to be that the game itself is quite smooth and polished but it was not always like this.

As is common with the launch of most MMO’s, World of Warcraft had its share of problems when released in November 2004. This was due to the huge number of people who bought the game along with server instability. The bane of many players online experience also reared its ugly head, periods where players had to wait in queues before playing, as some realms were at their maximum player limit. I don’t mind waiting 10-15 minutes but after I find I have been in a queue for 20+ minutes that’s when I get a little pissy.

Blizzard chose to stop selling copies of the game for a time after the launch to try and tone down the unexpectedly high demand on the servers. With 250,000 copies sold in one day which was huge for the time. The launch on the whole was a success

Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment summed it up “We were all extremely pleased with the success of World of Warcraft on its first day of launch. Once we saw the numbers for the first day, we knew that we had to immediately increase capacity to accommodate the huge numbers of players joining our game”

Warcraft still had issues, I remember all the free time I was given by Blizzard for those issues not allowing me to play but it was pretty small fry in the end.

Vanguard

Sigil's original Vanguard team was composed of many EverQuest developers, including designer Brad McQuaid. Development began in early 2002 but it was not actually released until 2007.

Brad McQuaid admits that the game was released to early and the launch had not gone to plan “Had I had the financial resources, ability to place the product later, etc. I would have given us about 3 more months to get more polish in, more high level content in, and to distance ourselves from the WoW expansion. That said, we knew the launch date for many months before we released. And we made a promise and we stuck to it. I understand why that date was given and why we had to stick to it and I don't blame anyone”

Complaints at the launch of Vanguard ranged from the large numbers of bugs and performance issues which plagued the game as well as a lot of the planned high level content was not included. Players could go 15 minutes walking through a barren lifeless world until you came across some mobs.

In an interview with massively Vanguard producer Thom Terrazas said “I would say bumpy, rocky, just goes to show you if you have a great launch that great things can happen, but if you have a bumpy launch it holds you back a little bit.”

The launch went so badly Brad McQuaids reputation was in tatters, he removed himself from the MMO limelight and only recently seemed to be prepared to offer his side of the story. Vanguard has gone on with Sonly and has seen a great deal improve to the extent that my Warhammer Online guild was really positive about vanguard to the extent some even went back after a short stint in Warhammer.

Age of Conan

Some people thought Age of Conan would be the World of Warcraft killer, most however did not. This was one of several MMO’s given this misleading title, treated like some shinning knight who would slay the big bad Warcraft dragon and steal the Blizzard golden money egg. Certainly it had potential, an adult themed MMO with a PvP theme along with more interaction and great graphics.

The launch of Age of Conan seemed to go quite well, Funcom scaled its server to cope with 600,000 players on day one and with over 800,000 boxes sold they were aiming for 50% retention of 400,000 players to begin with. Things went well to begin with, Tortage got massive praise from players and the outlook was good.

However Age of Conan became a victim of its own early success when players complained about the problems with the game. Over hyped and being released far too early Age of Conan arrived during a massive summertime lull that took place in Warcraft with player’s bored waiting for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion later that year. They dived into Age of Conan but shortly after launch they found key problems.

Firstly the lack of PvP and endgame which in fact was really just a complete lack of any content outside of the early-game quest zone of Tortage. From level 20 onwards players went from the single/multiplayer area of Tortage with the destiny quests to a complete lack of content. Age of Conan also put great stock in its mature setting and the fact it would be a great looking MMO compared to the cartoony look of Warcraft. Now I actually quite like the look of Warcraft but with a DirectX 10 machine with Vista 64 I was quite keen to see how this looked. What we got was Age of Conan launched without full support for DirectX 10 and major memory leaks which spoiled the experience, when I went back for the free return with gamespy it does look gorgeous now but back then it was a major failure on the developers part.

Age of Conan does seem to have recovered somewhat from its poor launch, to the extent that it has recovered enough that people doe not think it will close down anytime soon and some players are returning. The game has been improved and new content added to flesh out the zones after Tortage, however much good will was lost and Age of Conan probably will never raise itself to join the MMO A list due to its reputation from the launch no matter how much it improves.

Warhammer Online

I am a major Warhammer fan and love the fluff Games workshop has put together over 25 years, which is why I put major hopes on this being the next MMO I took real interest in after Warcraft.

Mythic did a great job with the launch; I never experienced a server crash but I did have some lag spikes that sent you back to the character selection screen. With starting areas full of players, I was able to always get groups for the various Public Quests and scenarios popped up quickly whenever I wanted to play one.

However this popularity led to servers being backlogged with huge queues. This was a no-win situation for Mythic because if they stuck with just the existing servers, people would whine about queues at launch. So Mythic went ahead and opened more servers for the one-month crowd and so then eventually had to deal with empty servers which Mythic was forced to close. Not the greatest of PR when Mark Jacobs before launch said if they had to close servers it would be a failure.

The general consensus however was Warhammer had a fairly good launch; the main issue came up a week or two afterwards when people started to complain about the polish of the game or the lack thereof.

The game just felt rushed, it seemed Mythic were trying to get the game out before Wrath of the Lich King which came two months later rather than playing a long term plan. Maybe if Mythic had delayed the game until after Christmas giving them more time to polish the game as well as allow Wrath of the Lich King fever to die down.

Not including 4 capitol cities and 4 classes (which were added in later but was sold as an update, not adding in originally promised content) and after the first tier it felt that there wasn't enough to do apart from wait for scenarios to pop up. Michael Hartman at Bright Hub has a good article on the issues behind Warhammer Online not fulfilling its potential. Suffice to say the 750,000 subscribers soon dropped off to 300,000 and Warhammer didn’t deliver on its potential or the hype around it.

Signs seem to suggest Warhammer is like Age of Conan massively improved, the Land of the dead content was added and all the cut classes were reintroduced with well run live events. Still with Mythic being merged with Bioware it is obvious that the cream of the Mythic talent who worked on Warhammer online will now be working on the Starwars old republic MMO. Warhammer will continue on but I don't expect any far reaching changes to Warhammer or major content outside of an expansion with EA now putting itself firmly behind Starwars. Just goes to show a great launch does not make up for the game not being finished.

The Matrix

Sadly this MMO has finally closed down; it suffered from a very dodgy launch as well as its association with Matrix Reloaded and Revolution, regardless of their massive budgets, they just killed the hype from the first film and made it hard for the MMO to make any impact. If that was not enough for fans of the movies, a 16-month gap between the final film and the launch of the MMO put many people off.

The Matrix introduced “Bullet Time” to peoples vocabulary and the special effects were way ahead of its time and made up for the silly mumbo jumbo dialogue/plot as well as Keanu Reeves wooden acting - a man might be ever so slightly surprised to find out that the whole world is a lie and is actually a computer simulation designed to keep humans enslaved as big car batteries but oh no not our Keanu with his slightly confused/constipated look for the whole movie.

On paper it seemed a winner being set inside a computer simulation with bullet time and small crews taking on agents. The live events team which were like dungeon masters interacting in game with players as film characters like Morpheus also seemed a great idea. Combined with the fact Warner Bros allowed everything that happened in the game to be canon so it was actual lore for the Matrix universe after the films.

A work colleague was a massive fan of the Matrix and was a long term player of the MMO, in his opinion the games launch was a failure for 3 reasons.

1. The time between the last film and the MMO was far to long for people to retain interest
2. Four months of beta testing for the game was not long enough and beta testers told everyone that it wasn’t ready when it launched.
3. Launch issues damaged the games reputation, again the word of mouth put people off with the usual disconnects and lag causing disruption and anger. Players exploiting also became an issue, especially when the developer’s heavy handed approach of capping experience to combat this hurt all players, not just the exploiters.

Monolith sold the game to Sony within 3 months of launch, who restructured and laid off most of the development team and most importantly the live events team which removed one of the key appeals of the game. It is surprising that the game lasted as long as it did, Sony may not put much money or manpower into the game but the game was always fighting an uphill battle to keep going, mostly due to the poor development and launch crippling the game from the outset and only the efforts of those developers left kept it going as long as it did. In the final stages only one developer was left working upon the game and his efforts I hope have not gone unnoticed.

Halo ODST

2009-07-31T11:04:00.004+01:00

Halo 3: ODST - Desperate Measures

Video Games | Halo 3: ODST | Desperate Measures ViDoc

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

I knew Nathan Fillion has done voice over work in previous Halo games but I had NO idea he was actually in this one with his face and everything. Even if he just acts like Captain Malcolm Reynolds in this game it will still be pure awesome! Although his name Sergeant Buck is kind of… well … crap.

Still the voice talent is looking pretty good for the rest of the squad as well; Firefly co-stars Adam Baldwin and Alan Tudyk are voicing Dutch and Mickey who I assume will make up the hard ass ladies man and the smart mouthed pilot/techie comedy combo. Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer will play the usual token female/love interest. Still hopefully the talent will overcome the clichéd characters.

I guess the producers must be huge FireFly & Serenity fans...like me. Makes me tempted to dust off the Xbox and get this.

Good god why!!

2009-07-29T16:24:00.006+01:00

I read this and had to check it was not some twisted hoax but no the literary equivalent of having your testicales beaten with a rock is now to become an MMO. Joy of Joys!

Now I know women the world over as well as my Girlfriend and her housemates will be squealing at the idea of seeing more of Edward Cullen on the internet and can interact with him (I shudder to think what some women want that interaction to be) but god I read a few passages and it is awful stuff! It seems a cross between some stupid Dawsons Creek teen problems and a soft core porno – it is definitely not the best things since sliced bread (that would be actually bread which I assume they invented just before slicing it)

Makes me hope they rush out a Harry Potter MMO quick to beat this one because if this becomes the second most popular Western MMO after Warcraft I am going to have to go get that rock!

Massively

UPDATE: Apparently it is not an MMO (sigh of relief) but the concept of a Twilight game is being worked on by a student of game design from Florida and BrainJunk Studios who are all vounteers.

Painting Log

2009-07-29T12:49:00.004+01:00

I have decided to start a log of my painting; I will be concentrating on my Space Marines and hope to get 1500-2000 points done by the end of the year.

N – Not assembled
A – Assembled
U – Undercoated
B – Basecoated
P – Painted

Captain B
Chaplain P

Command Squad B
Razorback

Tactical Squad x10 P
Rhino A

Tactical Squad x10 U
Rhino A

Tactical Squad x10 A
Rhino A

Scout Squad x 6 U

Dreadnought A

Assault Terminators N

Land Raider B

Land Speeder Tornado U

Attack Bike B

Predator N

As you can see i still have a way to go with my next task getting everything assembled and undercoated, then working on getting them painted up. I may add in an extra squad of marines for a bit more flexiblity.

Fallout 3 DLC

2009-07-25T01:38:00.004+01:00

I love all things fallout - i played Fallout 1,2 and 3 as well as slogging through tactics (lets not mention that fetid turd Brotherhood of steel = console crap)

However I was slightly miffed when i purchased the first disc of DLC to Fallout 3 - Operation Anchorage & the Pitt. I found that when i installed them it deleted all my save games so I am going to have to play through again, not a terrible thing as it is a great game I will enjoy playing again as a baddie - i just am a bit annoyed i lost my character with all the work that went into him. Such is life i guess.

Sam Raimi To Helm World Of Warcraft Movie

2009-07-22T12:01:00.007+01:00

Up until now it has been something we all just expected to be made but now it's official - a World of Warcraft movie is in development with Sam Raimi brought in to direct, I recently saw “drag me to hell” and enjoyed it immensely and Spiderman was a definite success to me.

Certainly good news as most game to film adaptations have been awful – cheap films trying to sell themselves on franchises such as Street Fighter, Mario Bros, Resident Evil and anything by Uwe Boll. Max Payne was an exception as while not very good it at least was an attempt to make something of a popular franchise without it being cheap and tacky.

A rumoured 100+ million dollar budget and a quality director gives the project real weight, this is not an on the cheap cash in where only B list actors with no shame can be persuaded to come on board – I expect to see some big hitters involved in a similar vein to having Ian Mckellen, John Rhys Davies and Christopher Lee involved with Lord of the Rings.

Along with a massive fan base from all the Warcraft games (not just WoW) and aggressive marketing from both Legendary Pictures and Activision Blizzard means expectations of success will be high. Of course there is the chance of epic fail but I don’t see that happening – both studios will see the chance of ongoing films based in the universe and other Blizzard games – how cool would films be based on Diablo, Starcraft, Lost Vikings (ok the story might be a bit thin but still come on!)

Combined with the Halo and Gears of War films on the horizon I have high hopes they will herald a new beginning for films based upon video games

News from Edge

Modern Warfare.....against the consumer

2009-07-20T10:20:00.006+01:00

Apparently Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 is now 40 quid on the PC and 55 pounds on xbox or PS3 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Wow!

I realise that the pound has dropped in strentgh due to the recession but this is just using it as an excuse to overcharge people. Sure it will sell so well Activision CEO can finally build that platinum plated tank firing wads of cash at poorboy gamers for kicks but come on I know they would want to cash in on this franchise but you might as well just get the limited edition and get some night vision goggles for pretend military and peeping tom action.

Activision/Blizzard seems to be overtaking EA as the great satan of video games -

Dropping plenty of great IPs because they "don't have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises"
Getting into spats over games they dropped because they actually may turn out to make millions i.e. brutal legend
Producing any musical junk game with the title xxxxhero to make some more money from daft peripherals - a few on the horrizion could include Xylophone Hero, Tambourine Hero or my personal favourite Didgeridoo Hero where you face off with Rolf “two little toys” Harris for his wobble board!

Games i am looking forward to

2009-07-15T18:02:00.003+01:00

PC

Bio Shock 2 – Following on from the original with its Plasmids, iconic enemies and “that” twist it is a welcome return, especially as a big daddy prototype. More of the same from the looks of it, but that is no bad thing.

Starcraft 2 & Diablo 3 – These two go hand in hand as Blizzard does not make bad games. Yes there are people questioning the art design of D3 and whether SC2 needs to be in 3 parts but I keep faith with the quality of the studio and Blizzard knows how to make quality games.

They are not massively innovative and they do not diverge from a few key IP’s but they make fun and enjoyable games. For me Diablo 3 looks good and if I have to pay 25-30 pounds per episode for Starcraft 2 I do not mind if it is worth it.

While the merger with Activision (the new EA for money grubbing) means there will be some impact to Blizzards team. I hope it does not mean they lose its “when it’s finished” mantra. Certainly it does not appear to be the case so far.

Champions Online – Another potential “WoW Killer”

I find people throw around the idea that the next MMO will be the one to kill off WoW, much like Warhammer Online and Age of Conan were touted to do and how the Star Wars old Republic MMO will be hyped up. Instead I expect this to do very well with a few hundred thousand subscribers which would make is a success. Warhammer and Conan in their own ways are successes as neither is hemorrhaging money – PR wise they are seen as massive failures as they were supposed to do toe to toe with WoW and failed.

Warcraft is now, like the Ipod and the Wii, a cultural/popular icon which even if there are better things out there, still remains popular. Champions does look great, the nemesis system is a great idea and is a real selling point to me. Cupled with a robust superhero creation tool and varied missions this could be my next choice of MMO.

Xbox

Splinter Cell: Conviction – E3 videos have brought this game back onto my wanted list. Assasins Creed 2 may look good but I found the first game a massively over hyped disappointment, Splinter Cell was always enjoyable.
Dark Void – Rocketeer-esque jetpack and 360 degree cover system could be great from the looks of the trailers.

Mass Effect 2 – I loved the original Mass effect, I have always had a very special place in my heart for RPGs after spending hours playing through Baldur’s gate games and Fallout 1&2 in my younger days. Improving on this game and hopefully making the driving sections fun in a way that you don’t feel your driving a disabled whale with a machine gun on its head.

Bringing back some classics

2009-07-15T18:01:00.009+01:00

Firstly Mechwarrior 4 and its expansions are going to be released free on Battletechs website,

Also Rebellion (who made Aliens vs. Predator) have picked up the rights to Ground Control, Evil Genius, Empire Earth, Lords of the Realm and Lords of Magic which were discarded during the Activision-Blizzard merger.

I really hope they make Ground Control 3 and Evil Genius 2!

From Kotaku

What I am doing – Warhammer

2009-07-15T15:55:00.005+01:00

I have decided after a 10 year break to get back into Warhammer as part of a larger goal to do more things for myself. I will be painting for some while, I do plan to start learning how to play (I have both 40k/fantasy starting game sets)

So far I have some Space marines for 40k and Orcs&Goblins for Fantasy left over from my old gaming days, plus quite a lot of reinforcements from a cheap site called Waylander games as well as ebay.

So far I have this list planned out

HQ – Captain

HQ – Chaplain

Command Squad

Razorback

Troops – Tactical Squad x10

Rhino

Melta gun

Missle launcher

Sgt with Power Fist

Troops – Tactical Squad x10

Rhino

Melta gun

Plasma Cannon

Sgt with Power Fist

Troops – Tactical Squad x10

Rhino

Flamer

Missle launcher

Sgt with Power Fist

Troops – Scout Squad x 6

Tellion

1 x Missle Launcher

4 x Sniper Rifles

Elite – Dreadnought Drop Pod

Multi Melta

Elite – Assault Terminators

Land Raider

3 x Thunder Hammers/Storm Shield

2 x Power Claws

Fast Attack – Land Speeder Tornado

Multi Melta

Heavy Flamer

Fast Attack – Attack Bike

Multi Melta

Heavy Support - Predator

Auto Cannon

Heavy Bolter sponsons

Not sure of the points for this, worked it out at home but it is a good mech based army with decent anti armour and anti infantry punch, plus it gives me lots of different things to paint.

My Orcs and Goblins

Black Orc Warboss - Heavy Armor, Enchanted Shield, Martog's Best Basha points), Warboss Umm's Best Boss 'At, And Bigged's Kickin' Boots

Black Orc Big Boss Heavy armour, Porko Pig Stikka, Boar

Orc Shaman (lvl 2) waagh paint

Gobin Shaman (lvl 2) Staff of Sneaky Stealing

Orc Big Uns 19 Shields Full Command Morks Spirit Totem

Orc Boyz 23 Additional Choppa Full Command

29 Night goblins -2 fanatics

30 Night goblins -2 fanatics

6 wolf riders

6 Spider Riders

Black Orcs 19 - Full Command

SpearChukka x 2

Orc Boar Chariot

5 Savage orc boar boy big uns

Giant

What I am playing at the moment

2009-07-15T13:31:00.001+01:00

Right now

Empire Total War (pc) - I am campaigning towards the end of a campaign as Britain, with America/India and the trade lanes under my control and only the Polish/Russian alliance now opposes me with France/Spain/Prussia/Sweden being ground into the dust of history. Thankfully it has been bug free but quite a few people have suffered major issues. It has been enjoyable but the AI does seem quite stupid at times.

Lord of the Rings online (pc) – I have a level 20 captain on the Eldar server, I have recently joined a nice kinship and am finishing quests around Bree and the Barrow downs. I really like how they have introduced an interesting storyline to run alongside both the books/films while you are levelling.

Fallout 3 (pc) – I bought this reduced along with the extra expansions, brilliant so far around the capital wastelands and hours of enjoyment. What more can I say.

Lined up

Call of Duty: World at War (xbox)
Prototype (xbox)
Sins of a Solar Empire (pc)
Dead Space (pc)

First Post

2009-07-07T12:30:00.000+01:00

This is my first post on my new blog - shall see where this goes!