This Has Little To Do WIth Videogames...

I have certain tendencies that make it, how do you say, easy for me to become more than a little bit obsessed with things. Let's say that I come across an author I like, it's never long before I've consumed the vast majority of said author's works and start looking for something new.

This effect isn't limited to novels either - it's happened with quite a few things. I Love Bees stole much more of my time than I am proud to say. Webcomics galore. When I first found Penny Arcade I'd read nearly everything (news posts included) in their archive within a few days. This exact same thing has since happened with Scary Go Round, VG Cats, Spells and Whistles, and Megatokyo. It's just something I do.

The latest target of my mind beams has been Red vs Blue. Yeah, I know, it's been around for quite a while now, and everybody loves it. This is not news to me. Sometimes I'm just slow getting around to checking out things that I've always meant to check out. This is one case in particular that I really wish I'd looked into sooner.

I think it was Monday (yes, as in four days ago) I took a look at my first video - by now, I've watched the entire 3rd season around 5 times. I really had no idea what I was in for. I expected lame ass Halo-related in-jokes and probably nothing else. I'm sure there may be a few (you know, I don't play Halo) in-jokes, as there certainly are quite a few general gaming-related jokes, but I'm sure they won't be lame ass. I didn't really think it was possible for most people to do comic timing well anymore. I don't just mean internet videos either, just comedy in general.

With Season 4 starting at this end of the month, I guess I picked a pretty good time to get into this whole thing. If you haven't already, definitely check this out.

A Salesman

Sorry about the no-post situation last week. Let us just chalk it up to a sick day - fitting, as that's exactly what it was. I'll spare the details, but I was in neither the condition or the mood for an update. Now - fair warning - this post is about to get all Anarchy Online on you so, if you've got a problem with that, come back next week.

It's been a while since I've played AO, so my Trader spent quite a while stagnating at level 21. guess I've been on a roll this week, since I've just made level 36. It took a few runs in the Subway, and quite a few more missions, but the overall process was much quicker than I was expecting it to be. It's also been quite a lucrative week for our heroic salesman. Upon hitting level 25 access is granted to user special Trader-only terminals which pay quite a bit more than your standard shop terminals. Combine that with the tips that accompany the high demand for "Wrangles", as they're called - a line of nano-formulas that boost attack skills and allow better equipment - and cash is quite a bit easier to get than it was for my Adventurer at the same levels.

I've got mixed feelings about the inevitable trip to Temple Of The Three winds coming up soon. The experience isn't bad and some really nice items drop there, but if you don't have a good team the bosses there will send your ass packing back to the (soon to be obsolete) reclaim terminals faster than you can say "run!". The positive side is that when you do go in with a good team (like a take down the final boss with no doctors good team) the rewards are pretty damn sweet.

I'm still not exactly sure which character I'm going to focus on if my Trader gets up to the same level as my Adventurer before I play him again, as they've both got their benefits. Self-equipping weapons far above what others could self equip is awesome (that's the Trader), but so is being able to heal almost as well as a doc and turn into wolves (Adventurer). Ah, well - decisions, decisions.

That's all for this week, gentle reader, and I feel like you're being shorted. After the absence of a post last week a cheesy Anarchy Online cop-out feels a little lacking. Maybe, if you eat all your vegetables this week, next week's post will be really special. Probably not, though.

What About Rome?

At first I told myself that I'd just wait until the Linux version came out, since the words "coming soon" give you a certain expectation of how soon something may be coming. Well, it has been far too long for my tastes, so this week I downloaded the Windows version of NERO and gave it a try.

It's beyond the scope of this post to try to fully explain what NERO is and what it does. For details, look no further than the above link. For a very brief (and mostly fictional) description, read on. The product of a scrappy rag tag team of computer scientists, all-around general brainiacs (to use the proper term), and a few artists - NERO is the answer to the eternal question: What happens when you take the results of artificial intelligence research, add some figurative dressing in the form of the Torque Engine, and see what type of game comes out of it. It turns out that the answer is "Quite an interesting one".

Gameplay wise, NERO is of the oft overlooked school of "set it up and let it whirl" of games. The first phase is the training mode, in which you're tasked with teaching a group of bots basic tasks - such as navigating around obstacles on the way to the enemy, how much to avoid too much enemy fire, and other basic necessities of a fighting robot's very short life. You don't have direct control, so you can only set which behaviors are rewarded and which are discouraged via the "Smite!" command. Besides placing obstacles to create ever-expanding mazes the only other commands you have available are "Converge", which makes the other bots act more like the selected unit and "Milestone", a command that I'll admit I don't understand yet. It can take quite a while to get your NERO (short for Neuro Evolving Robotic Operatives) performing how you'd like them to but this phase of the game takes an almost god-game approach to the process, making a nice relaxing counterpoint to the next phase.

The battle phase is much more simple compared to the above. You take your hard trained team and throw them into battle, either against another team you (or somebody online - Network play is possible) created, or one of the other pre-trained teams included with the game. From there, interaction is limited to moving the camera around, watching the fight, and moving your team's flag around (it isn't what you think, it's just a way to get slightly better control over your troops, assuming they're trained to follow the flag). This phase is surprisingly intense, especially with a time limit. The intensity wears off after a few rounds against the same team, but the attachment you have to your boys (or your girls, call the robots whatever you want) keeps it interesting.

It goes for all games, but with NERO especially - it's certainly not for everyone. It's a game that requires quite a lot of patience as well as the will to start team after team, creating for each different methods of training. There's even some patience involved in the battle mode, as matches without time limits can often take quite a while. The payoff - watching your well trained team kick some ass - is entirely worth it.

Cue Freaky Zither Music

CodeRED: Alien Arena popped up on The Linux Game Tome this week I didn't really give it a second thought at first. With Thursday looming and nothing more entertaining to write about, I figured I'd give it a go. The idea was sent back to the factory due to a recall when I realized that this game was being brought to us by the fine folks behind Alteria. Yes, that Alteria.

Then again, I figured, there were no other options. On with the show. The download is around 130 megs or so which, while not the most pleasant way to spend an afternoon, is still within the realm of possibility for dialup users. As I prepared to launch the game, the terrors of Alteria were still undulating inside my mind. Lovecraftian visions of bad gameplay and worse voice acting - causing nightmare and reality to exist, to me, as one nauseating... OK, I think you get it.

At least I can say CodeRED: Alien Arena is much better than Alteria. Its sense of style is probably the strongest thing Alien Arena has going for it. There's a sort of colorful cartoony sci-fi look permeating the maps, and the characters follow suit. The sounds follow the same theme, but they're sort of a weak point when it comes to weapons. Some weapon sounds fit well, but the vast majority just don't carry the power or impact you're looking for.

Even though it's main focus is net play, there is a single player mode of sorts where you square off against bots. To Alien Arena's credit, the bots aren't too bad. It's a good thing they're included too, since I had no luck finding a server with more than 2 other players. One issue I have with the single player portion, though, is that you can't pick and choose which maps you want to play, but instead have to complete them in order. It gives more of a campaign feel, but I'd prefer to try out maps whenever I wanted.

You may notice that under the Linux Game Tome entry, there are quite a few people being fairly loud about the fact that the only GPL'd part of Alien Arena is the engine, ie. all the art and maps are not. I felt I'd warn you, in case you're the type of person that takes these issues very seriously. All in all - CodeRED: Alien Arena is no Alteria, but it just didn't really appeal to me. I like it a whole lot more than Nexuiz, but I can say with quite a bit of certainty that I probably won't be playing it much, if at all. Your mileage may vary.

This Should Be A Title, But Isn't...

Sometimes, for reasons entirely unbeknownst to me, I'll go months on end without actually checking out games that I really meant to give a try. Such is the case with Glest, an open source (GPL) 3D real-time strategy game and relative newcomer to the scene. It's been out for a few months now, so I really have no excuse for taking so long to give it a look but, since it had an update this week I realized it's time had come at last.

Let's start at the beginning here. I was in no way prepared for the level of polish I was presented with upon running Glest for the first time. Its menu screens are beautiful, with the camera gracefully navigating fully 3D backgrounds as you make your way through the initial options. In most of the open source games I've seen (a few, like Planeshift, are excused from this discussion) menus are, quite rightfully, more of an afterthought than anything else. After all, what is the point of lovely menu screens when the actual game suffers as a result?

Beyond the main menu, Glest continues to sparkle. Although I haven't yet had a chance to play through them all, the maps I've seen appear to be well crafted, both from the gameplay and aesthetic sides of the fence, although with current lack of multiplayer, I could see certain balance issues popping up in the future. The background music, oft lacking in many open source offerings (for obvious reasons, we're not all composers), fits nicely with the epic nature of a game like this. For the more graphically-oriented among you, there are also some really nice particle effects at work, especially for burning structures, which look awesome.

Gameplay is more or less your standard RTS fare, but I doubt that most people looking to play an RTS will mind this. One area where Glest stumbles is an apparent pothole that most of its open source peers have hit as well: its lack of an in-game tutorial. Granted these aren't the easiest things in the world to build, and I give all due slack in this case, but this is something that could end up driving many a new player away. Any RTS veteran will know from previous experience to start harvesting, building, and cranking out as many units as possible, but this knowledge shouldn't be expected as a prerequisite.

Right now, it's Linux and Windows only, but at one time Glest was a Windows-only project which was quickly ported, so it's fairly safe to say that ports to other platforms aren't out of the question. Give it a try, I'd say it currently outclasses most of it's competition. I know I liked it a lot more than I was fully prepared to.

I've Had It

That's it. From here on out, the only commercial games I'm buying are wacky Japanese RPGs. It's been looming on the horizon for a while, and now it's finally come - games are just getting too "cool" for me.

Take a look at any game related website or magazine, and I'm sure you'll find the words "gritty", "urban", or "starring" in there at least once. As much as the series' merits are touted, the game to blame for the current situation is clearly Grand Theft Auto 3. Its improvements on the previous games in the series can't be denied, but as soon as it was realized to be the cash cow it is now, other companies couldn't help but throw their hats into the proverbial ring.

"Gritty" and "urban" don't really need much elaboration - it seems all gamers want to do these days is commit crime in large cities - be it through street-racing, underground boxing, or all out shooting sprees. "Starring", though, may come off as a little confusing at first - and it works from different angles. The first permutation would be the most direct - people starring in a game like someone would a movie, ala 50 Cent: Bulletproof or Shaq-Fu (if I was drinking milk right now it would have squirted out my nose from typing that). The second is directly related to the Screen Actors Guild demanding that they get a larger cut of the profits from the games they "star" in.

I don't give one crap whether or not the main character in the game I'm playing is voiced by Gary Busey, nor do I want every single game I play to be set in a sprawling city. I don't care about tricking out my "ride", I don't care about hot polygonal girls shaking it for no reason, I don't care about what music is licensed from who, and I really don't give one fuck about actors/athletes/musicians who think that their very presence in a game is enough to drain the masses of all their worldly belongings. I've had enough.

From now on it's quirky music, characters with dangerously large heads and even more dangerously large swords, and unknown voice actors (if there is voice acting at all) who were probably dubbing hentai before they were hired for the game. Be warned, the next time you see me, I may or may not be wearing large purple bunny-ears.

A Rich Tradition

There have been a few notable releases this week, which I'll try to touch on next week. I'll be honest, it's not this week because in the limited amount of game time I've had, it's been spent playing Anarchy Online.

I was pretty busy with a number of other things this week, so my Trader has only leveled up to 21 or 22 (I can't remember) in the two nights I was actually able to play. I've actually been finding good teams this time around, which helps things go quite a bit more quickly leveling-wise. One thing I did not expect was to actually make some in-game friends. The buddy list of my level 65 Adventurer is so empty it's begun to collect cobwebs, but so far I've actually got quite a few on my Trader's list.

You may remember this old post, in which I mention a kind soul who gave my lowly Adventurer a lovely bag of pistols and some (ok, quite a bit more than some) credits, on the condition that I pass them on when I outgrew them. I'd actually outgrown them quite a while ago, but hadn't found the right person to pass them on to.

The other night, I was teaming with some people and everyone save myself and another player logged off. We were in the process of selling our "Ph4t l00t" when he mentioned that his pistols sucked. Having teamed with him, it seemed he was worthy of such a mighty bounty so, a few minutes later, he had a fresh new bag of pistols. Once again, the condition was that he pass them on when they were outgrown.

Hopefully, those pistols will enjoy a long lifetime of being passed from Adventurer to Adventurer, seeing much more of Rubi-Ka than any other weapon could dream. If they end up in the hands of someone who doesn't deserve them, I suspect they will "malfunction", resulting in the wielder wondering where all this blood is coming from, and why he feels so lightheaded.

Better Late Than Never

I goofed up and didn't actually upload this week's post. It's below, original date and time intact. Sorry about that.

A Change Of Pace

The cause may be that I simply didn't have enough time to play anything new this week, or just that I felt like it but, whatever the reason - today's post is once again about Anarchy Online. To tell the truth, once I got my hands on my Yalmaha and hit level 60, I hit a wall of sorts when it comes to leveling. Not that it's difficult, I just haven't found myself doing it much. I spend more time just cruising the Yalm around, trying to find "dyna-bosses", as they're called, and killing them. That, along with a few missions, has gotten me up to level 65, but I was still itching for a change of pace.

What did I do? Well, I started a new character. I've tried this a few times before, but none of them ever got higher than level 5 before I'd just go back to using old faithful. This time, I tried a Trader, and it's been pretty damn fun getting him up to level 15, even if it did come at the price of being in a few bad subway teams. The differences between playing an Adventurer and a Trader are nearly night and day when it comes playing the classes. I've got to admit, as an Adventurer I got pretty used to being able to solo pretty much anything that came my way with little effort. A Trader's capability for soloing is nothing to sneeze at, it just takes a different approach.

I wouldn't recommend Trader as a first character to someone new to the game, since there's a bit of finesse required to make the class shine. Traders get nano-formulas called drains, which hinder an opponent's offensive skills while improving yours, which is cool right off the bat. It gets cooler when you realize that drains boost nano-skills which are used to get better drains, and said drains stack. Draining to be able to cast better drains has a ladder effect that soon lets you equip a much better weapon than you should be able to. As long as you keep your drains up high enough that your weapon doesn't become less effective, you've just turned yourself into quite a badass.

Traders also get a nice line of roots (which render an opponent unable to move) and calms (which, well, calm) that make blitzing missions for easy cash a breeze. Needless to say, it's quite a bit easier making money than it was when I started my Adventurer. If you read the description linked above, you'd already know that making money is more or less what a Trader does. The name gives a slight clue. Once I get him up to level 25 I get access to the Trader Shop, to which you can sell items for a much higher price than your normal shops. Pretty soon I'll be wiping my ass with credits, if that's possible in any way.

One last note to those of you who already play Anarchy Online, before I wrap this up. Somewhere in the options is a little check mark to use "Offscreen Surface Technology". I'm not sure what types of videocards can use it, but I'd suggest trying to turn it on as it basically amounts to a "Make Water Way More Pretty" button.

All Frosting And No Cake

I've been hearing a lot about Nexuiz lately, so I decided to download it last week (still trying to get rid of the weird feeling that accompanied last week's post), and gave it a try. I'm all for the idea of a GPL first person shooter (you may be thinking Cube, but that's under the zlib license as far as I know) but, having played this game, I can't really understand why everyone is so excited about it.

The title of this post says it all, when it comes to Nexuiz. Sure, it's got realtime lights and way too much bloom, but the gameplay is nothing more than the standard deathmatch we've all been playing for years. Additionally, the graphics aren't even that good. Normally, screenshots pale in comparison to the actual game in action - here it's a case of the exact opposite. The screenshots look nice, but the first thing you notice running the game is the janky animation of the character models.

For it's engine, Nexuiz uses a customized version of the Darkplaces engine (edit: it was pointed out to me in the comments that it's actually just the stock Darkplaces engine). Hey, for something based on the Quake (not Quake II) engine, it looks pretty good. That being said, there isn't much that can be done to improve the actual level geometry so, even with new particle effects and textures, it's just not as impressive as it wants to be. The Nexuiz web site makes a big deal how some of the features can only be used by fairly recently released high end computer hardware, but who the fuck cares when games with lesser system requirements end up looking and running better?

I haven't even gotten to the sounds yet - they're not good. At least on my system (on which every game sounds fine) firing a weapon sounded suspiciously like throwing pebbles at a tin roof. Weapon models and tracer effects are unimpressive, some character models (animation aside) are just plain ugly. You want my opinion? Go play Cube. Don't care about open source? Go play Enemy Territory. Don't even care if it's free? Go play any game in the Unreal Tournament series. Any of the aforementioned games are infinitely more enjoyable than Nexuiz. How the fuck are you supposed to pronounce that name anyway? To me it seems like it would be "Neez-weez"...

Now 100% More Disturbing

I doubt that many people think of me as a strictly blood and guts type of gamer - after all, my favorite genre is RPGs, so that goes out the window right there. Still, I'm a little bit frightened to be as far away from familiar territory as I am with the Hanihani -Operation Sanctuary- demo.

In the Linux Game Tome entry (the link is back there), the game is described as being "A typical japanese 'choose a phrase' adventure based on a famous anime." I've watched some anime in my time, I'm not averse to it. You can hardly be a fan of the RPG genre and not have had your share of anime at some point. So, I decided to give it a go, although I'll admit I had second thoughts when I realized the download (torrent only, by the way) was ~150MB.

To try to put this as nicely as possible: This is not so much a game per se, but more of an interactive visual novel. I think that's what they call them, anyway. You can actually throw the whole thing into auto mode and just kick back while the story advances. You'll sit through the demo for a long while before you actually get to the point where you can make a choice, and I do mean a long while.

As far as I can tell, the story is mostly about a young man who goes to school and has a very short teacher. There are also some bizarrely uncomfortable moments of apparent sexual tension between this guy and the school nurse, among others. What I saw would be allowed in a PG-13 movie, but was still quite embarrassing to watch. One note, on the download page is does say that you must be 18 or over to purchase the full game - apparently it's a bit racier than the demo. It's also in Japanese, only the demo is translated as far as I know.

If really slow moving anime/manga or those creepy (sorry, but they are) dating sims are your thing, check out the demo - I'm sure you could do worse. Anybody who's interested in a game for the sake of a game, stay far away.

Vega Strikes Out

Vega Strike has been out for quite a while now, but during the Vendetta Online beta, there never really seemed to be a good reason to download it. Vendetta has been in the commercial realm for quite a while now, so I can't play that anymore. It started to seem like a good time to give Vega Strike a try. At around 200MB the download is pretty hefty, albeit still dialup-able for someone with the time and patience. Is it worth it? Read on.

I'll be honest, I find myself trying to like Vega Strike more than I do actually liking it. Hey, it's got promise. Decent 3D engine, space - you know, the prerequisites for a modern-style space flight simulator are all in place. What isn't in place is the controls. I like to use the WASD keys for control, not the arrow keys. I'm sure there are better buttons to use for speeding up and slowing down than the + and - keys. Why the hell did they make the secondary fire button the enter key when the primary fire is the space bar? I find myself hitting the wrong keys constantly, and there is (as far as I know) no way to remap them.

The controls are my main aggravation, but there are other nuances of the game's design that I just don't like. I know space is big, and that stars don't fly by you super quickly, especially in a small spacecraft. I'm sure most people know that. You know what, though? That hasn't stopped every other space sim in the fucking world from flinging them at you with vigor. You know why? It gives you a sense of movement. In Vega Strike, there is no sense of movement at all until you get to some of the highest speeds available with your SPEC drive, and it's annoying.

There are things that I do like about Vega Strike. The open-ended gameplay is nice, no missions crammed down your throat when all you want to do is fly around for a while - maybe trade some cargo. Um, wait a sec. There's more. Like, um... space?

This Title Has Been Procedurally Generated

For this week's post I present to you this, a link to a link to a video clip of (as I've called him before before) master-of-the-art Will Wright's presentation at this year's Game Developer's Conference. Most of the presentation, which changes titles quite a few times throughout, is dedicated to Wright's upcoming game Spore. The presentation is mainly aimed at other people in the field of game development, but Will's humor combined with the gameplay aspects we're shown make it a must see to anyone who takes gaming seriously. A registration is required to watch the video, but sites like bugmenot.com help you to retain your anonymity during the process, if that's your cup of tea.

I'm not going to ruin the presentation by going through all the details for the remainder of the post, but this is clearly something to be excited about. With all the flash and sparkle of this year's E3, I haven't seen anything come out of it that seemed truly next generation. With it's procedurally generated everything, and all the possibilities hinted at with it's transparent player created content, Spore is a game that shows that real innovation is still very possible. Several times while watching the presentation, I was unable to stop the creeping of a huge grin on to my face, while other moments literally caused my jaw to drop. Go see for yourself.

In other, ahem, "news" - I've been playing the Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst open beta a bit the week. Honestly, the more I play of it, the less interested I've become with the game. If the combat were more interesting, or if the game world offered more to explore, I could see myself enjoying the game quite a bit more. I guess I've been spoiled by the dynamics of Monster Hunter's combat system, which has a whole lot more depth than PSO's weak attack, strong attack, heavy attack system.

Just because I'm only going to be allowed to play it for a short time, I'll continue to mess around with PSO: BB, but I can't see paying a monthly fee for it, or anything for that matter. Hopefully more games will start to take the route that Anarchy Online has taken with it's "pay if you don't like ads but do like expansion packs" subscription model, because I can see the bursting of the bloated MMO bubble coming sometime soon, and the small time players may be entirely forced out of the industry. Anyway, go watch that Spore presentation.

Bursts Of Blue And Other Curiosities

As someone who's heard an awful lot about the Phantasy Star Online series, but never actually played any of the games, I figured it was my duty to try it out at least once. From now until June 9th, you too can try out the Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst Open Beta.

500MB is quite a hefty download, but considering Blue Burst includes PSO Episodes I and II right out of the proverbial box, it's seems to be worth it. I'll tell you, today's world of in-game tutorials being considered a near-necessity has softened me, more so than I originally thought it had. Starting up Blue Burst for the first time, once I got past the character creation screen I was quite hopeless. The Ship/Block thing I was used too, as it's analogous to Monster Hunter's Land/Area/Town system for separating players into more server friendly portions. After that, I could barely move my character around the screen. I actually had to log out and, gasp, read the manual.

I can definitely see Monster Hunter's roots firmly planted in the Phantasy Star Online series. That alone allowed me to have a vague idea of what I should be doing without having to log out yet again for another quick glance at the manual. Though, for now, I still prefer MH's signature brand of co-op boss fights, I can certainly see why PSO has left so many people with night sweats whenever unable to get their fix. I'm assuming that the somewhat simplistic(albeit still pretty) environments are an artifact from the series' Dreamcast roots, as are the comparatively low system requirements. The game still looks good, especially for what it is, and most people don't seem to be into PSO simply for the graphics. I'm not going to tell you what the rest of the game is about, since most people already know. I will tell you this: While I'll definitely not be paying a monthly fee for the privilege of playing Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst, I will be playing the beta until forced to stop.

So, E3 has shown us quite a few pretties this year hasn't it? The videos for Killzone 2 and Killing Day on the PS3 were nothing short of amazing if, indeed, these were straight gameplay videos we were looking at. For current systems, there were still quite a few really good looking games coming out, too. What really mystified me was the news on the upcoming SOCOM 3. 32 players online, vehicles, maps with sub-sections for smaller player groups, and a message from Zipper basically saying "Yeah, the lag's gonna suck. There's nothing we can do about that." Fascinating.

6 Games - One Post

This week's post is something new and exciting, at least for this site. I've done a few roundups before, as you may recall, but until now they've been split up into multiple posts and, more importantly, have been games or mods by entirely different teams/individuals. All that and more goes out the window, and this week's one-post-roundup is devoted entirely to the arcade shooters by Kenta Cho.

The word "abstract" can often be in the same sentence as the title of any of the games I'm about to mention today, which is very fitting. I'd imagine that these games are what people thought the future of gaming would look like, back when Space Invaders was hot shit. They're all simple to pick up and play, and absolutely mesmerizing to look at. From the fast paced intensity of Parsec47, to the art-deco simplicity of noiz2sa - from the boss fight after boss fight of rRootage, to the "reinforce your ship with parts of theirs" mechanic of Tumiki Fighters - from the evade and conquer dynamic of A7Xpg, to the WipeOut meets Tempest bliss that is my favorite, Torus Troopers, there's an awful lot of variety here.

While, for me at least, none of these games are going to keep you playing for hour after hour, each one is perfect for a quick half-hour of fun, or whatever amount of time you may need to kill. The learning curve is steeper for some games than others, but even the strangest can be picked up within a matter of minutes. The graphics for each game follow the theme of "retro-futuristic", and while each game uses OpenGL for some awesome effects, there's a simplicity to the graphics that is very refreshing in this day and age. The only game that doesn't have strictly 2D gameplay is Torus Troopers, my aforementioned favorite. That's not the reason for my affinity for the game - the intensity factor is - but I'm definitely looking forward to some more 3D oriented gameplay if Kenta decides to do some more games in the future.

Each of these games is very polished. I haven't encountered any bugs with a single game, and each one seems a finished game, not a work in progress. Plus, the fact the so many of these games are very random in execution certainly ups the replayablity factor quite a bit. Each download is under 10mb, some a quite a bit smaller - so there's no excuse for anyone reading this right now to not download them immediately. By the way, Windows versions are available for all you non-Linux types.

Ann and me. Terri, Tory?: Part 3

OK, so I said this wouldn't happen again, and it did, but it's still all ETF's fault. After a member of the team suggested that my download might be corrupted I downloaded the full 1.3 version of Enemy Territory Fortress, and it still didn't work. I did finally get it to work by installing it in the stock ET directory, instead of my home directory like I'd been doing all along. So, yeah, my bad - but keep that in mind if you're having problems with the game.

Perhaps because it took so long to get the game working, when I finally did log on to a server and start to play, I was overwhelmingly underwhelmed. I've heard a few people complain about the graphics, and they're not really that bad. The characters look kind of cartoony, which I think is a nice touch, but where things start to fall apart graphics wise is the maps. It could be that a lot of them are redone versions of maps of historical significance among the Team Fortress community, but I've seen much better looking maps in Cube, not that I meant that in a bad way toward either game. Intermittent lack of prettiness aside, the maps included with Enemy Territory Fortress seem to be well-balanced and fun.

Gameplay in ETF if much faster and generally more Quake-like than stock Enemy Territory or Total Combat: Elite. This and the class mechanism, I'm sure, are part of the reasons that Team Fortress mods have remained popular for so long. Anybody who's been reading this site since back in the day knows I'm a huge CTF fan and, luckily for me, most any game I jumped into involved flags and the capturing thereof. That's one huge edge over both ET and TC:E in my book.

Since this is a roundup of sorts, I'm going to go ahead and do something I've always thought previous roundups were missing: I'm going to pick a winner. I'll tell you right away, it's not ETF. Sure it's fun, but it just doesn't stand up to True Combat: Elite. Enemy Territory on it's own is a blast, but there's something about True Combat: Elite that just... does it for me. So, there's your winner. That being said, both mods and the stock game itself are as fun as they are free, so if you've got a fast enough connection(you could try dialup, but I wouldn't) go ahead and try them all anyway. By the way, stuff should be back to normal now so expect weekly posting to resume.

Yeah, It Happened Again.

So, there was no post last week. This has been happening with a startling frequency over the last couple of weeks but, I assure you, it won't happen again in the near future. The reason for last week's no-post was, once again, Enemy Territory Fortress. As was previously mentioned, I found it impossible to connect to a game running the mod. I was so sure that the 1.3 patch was going to A). solve my problems, and B). be released before last Thursday, that I was completely unprepared when it turned out that neither happened. The not-released-before-Thursday thing is the reason for the missing post. But yeah, that's right, I still can't play ETF. The same problems are present, and it's pissing me off.

So, I played some more Anarchy Online. After "blitzing" missions for so long that I nearly gained a level from picking locked chests, I finally gained enough money to buy my very own Yalmaha at the modest level of 62. "What's a Yalmaha?", you may be asking. Well, it's a vehicle that not only let's you move much faster than foot travel allows, but also grants the ability to fly. The world of Rubi-Ka seems to change immediately, as you're no longer restrained to explore places that are more or less "safe" to travel. Out of the range of enemies, you're free to travel anywhere you please. This I did - as soon as I had my Yalmaha equipped I must have spent an hour or two zipping above the treetops, checking out the sights. Then, satisfied, I decided to take a break. Too much of a good thing, you know how it goes.

So, I've been playing Monster Hunter quite a bit more again, lately. I haven't really "accomplished" anything, as if that really matters, but I did manage to log on for the first time and find out it was "extra materials at the material shop day", so I've got a whole bunch of level 3 pellet ammo just begging to be unloaded in some dragon's ass. A strange fact regarding Monster Hunter - whenever you enter an empty town and signal that you're playing solo, other players show up faster than an N-Gage to a landfill. As soon as you signal that you're looking for some people to team up with, the town is so empty that you start to think of the tumbleweeds rolling by as friends.

One more thing this week, on the free stuff front. I don't know how long it's been around, but with all the hubbub surrounding the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy movie(which I'd love to talk about, being a huge Douglas Adams fan, but this is a videogame site, after all), it's popped up onto the radar. What, you ask? A slightly graphic-ized version of the 1984 Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy text adventure game. Yeah, that's right, the Infocom classic. There are apparently not one but two versions of the illustrated version available, so choose the one you prefer. Don't forget the junk mail.

Um, Sorry.

OK, sorry about the whole no post thing last week - I'll explain what happened. In keeping with the recent theme of things I'd planned to spend last week's post writing about Enemy Territory Fortress, another total conversion for Enemy Territory in the theme of the many Team Fortress mods. The ET2.60 patch threw a stick between the spokes of my gaming bicycle, so to speak, and I found myself unable to connect to a server. Hence, no game to write about for last week's post. When I realized this I panicked, figured I'd never figure out a backup plan in time(which I didn't), and gave up on the whole thing. I'm not the only one having the problem with ETF, so hopefully by this time next week we'll be back on the right track.

So anyway, I've been playing a little bit of Anarchy Online again lately. The new advertising system is in place and, honestly, it's not that bad. Billboards have been scattered about Rubi-Ka since I got my first glimpse anyway, now they're just advertising real-world products instead of in-game items like Yalmahas. The really sweet part of this deal is it's starting to look like stock Anarchy Online is going to move into the realm of being free for quite a while. Sure, there haven't been any major announcements, but I give you this quote from the news bit linked above: "... I am confident our free players will welcome the permanent continuation of our complimentary subscription in the ultimate sci-fi MMORPG". Seems like a solid hunch to me.

I've bumped my Adventurer up to level 53 by now, but it's been a slow process. Leveling in Anarchy Online, at these levels anyway, is actually quick and easy - it's me that's slow moving. For me, the draw of an MMORPG has nothing to do with leveling, quests, or even socializing. No, for me, it's all about exploring the massive, intricate worlds laid out in front of you. I spend the vast majority of my time in AO doing just that, running around looking for cool areas and maybe taking a screenshot or two, if the mood is upon me. Maybe, if ETF isn't patched by next week, I'll post some of my favorite snapshots of my travels.

I often wonder how different my character would be if I'd never met the kind soul who gave me a million credits and a backpack full of BBI Faithful 22 pistols. I'm sure that I'd be quite a bit more impoverished, as well as having died quite a bit more. I've just recently equipped the last two pistols of the bunch, so that means that pretty soon I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands when it comes to weapons. It also means that pretty soon, I'll be able to do the same favor for another clan Adventurer - I just hope I don't end up giving away hundreds of thousands of credits worth of free pistols to someone who, later on, reveals themselves to be a walking pile of crap.

By The Way...

The Linux version of the Darwinia demo, as well as the full version, are now available. OK.

Ann and me. Terri, Tory?: Part 2

This week it's all about True Combat: Elite, a total conversion for Enemy Territory. It's also a sequel of sorts to the original Quake 3 engine-based True Combat. I'd already downloaded TC: E before last week's post, and I'd like to say I've been enjoying it straight from then until now. I would - I've enjoyed what I've played so far - but, as is too frequent an occurrence, I hit a snag.

What snag, you ask? Well, if you already play Enemy Territory, you already know. The 2.60 patch was released on Monday, as well as the Mac client. I, the type who upgrades as soon as one is available, had the patch downloaded and installed minutes after I'd heard the news. The problem? I guess nobody else did. When I loaded up Enemy Territory, there were four servers running. Two were empty, the others had about eight players combined. While the amount of available ET servers quickly started to grow, the servers for True Combat took a while longer to catch up.

Anyway, I've only had the chance to play about five games of True Combat: Elite but, what I've seen, I've liked. The gameplay can best be described as a mix of Counter Strike, the SOCOM games, and vanilla Enemy Territory. There are two gameplay modes: Objective and Bodycount. Bodycount is more or less a slowed-down, objective-less version of the ET gameplay. You get killed - no big deal, you respawn in a few seconds. While this mode is pretty damn fun, Objective is where the real meat of TC: E lies.

In Objective mode, you're limited to one life a round, just like the other two games mentioned above. There are also, yes, objectives to be accomplished. While that sounds pretty ET like, especially with the addition of classes, right now it's basically what most other games would call Demolition mode. It's almost right in the middle of the Counter Strike and SOCOM Demolition modes. There's one bomb, which needs to be picked up, only accessible by the Terrorist team. The other team defends one of two points where the bomb can be placed. Slow-paced fun ensues.

The people behind True Combat: Elite have done an excellent job on this game so far. The maps I've played so far are great looking, as well as truly well balanced. Of course, these guys have probably had some time to get used to the Quake 3 engine, since some of the team members worked on the original True Combat - but they've really gotten it to shine. I do have one major gripe though. The server list keeps disappearing after connecting and playing one game, seemingly only fixable by a complete reinstall. I can't even use XQF to find a server, as the 2.60 ET patch uses a different master server than the 2.56 version. Luckily, tcetest games show up in the normal ET server browser, but it's a less than optimal solution to an annoying problem.

Still though, True Combat: Elite kicks at least as much ass as the game it's based on.

Ann and me. Terri, Tori?: Part 1

How I could have let something like this slip by me while it was fully in the scope of my radar for so long remains a mystery to me. Maybe in the days before I had broadband it could be considered acceptable - the download is pretty big, after all - but it's simply inexcusable that it's taken me so long to finally try out Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.

The list of commercial games available on the Linux platform is growing, but it's still fairly minute. The list of commercial games available for free on said platform is considerably smaller. As you may already know, since the game has been out for more than a year, Enemy Territory was originally developed as an expansion pack for Return To Castle Wolfenstein. The project was canned and, thanks to some kind soul, released for free shortly thereafter.

In retrospect, it was probably Call Of Duty's multiplayer aspect that kept me from downloading Enemy Territory as soon as I was broadband-enabled. Anybody who's played COD multiplayer knows exactly what I'm talking about - it's as addictive as... well, something really addictive. I don't know if it's longevity will match that of COD but, at least for now, Enemy Territory has me pretty well hooked.

It's really nothing new. An objective-based multiplayer shooter with different player classes set in WWII... I can think of quite a few games that might describe. The execution of Enemy Territory is where it really shines. All the stock levels, while small enough to keep it fun with small groups of players, create an impression of being massive - even though, in actuality, they're quite confined. Where the genius is, when it comes to level design, is the inclusion of very well-placed chokepoints that ensure that most of the action is happening in no more than one or two particular areas at any given time. Of all the online shooters I've played, the only one that used chokepoints almost as effectively as Enemy Territory was, yes, Call Of Duty.

You may wonder why this post's title has a "Part 1" at the end of it. You see, the world of Enemy Territory includes more than just the one game. There are a few mods out there - from small server side mods that add a few nifty features, to full blown total conversions. In the next couple of weeks I'll be taking a look at those mods, so stay tuned.

Apparently Forever Was Eight Years Ago

There's been a whole lot of videogame-related news this week, although most of it's been crap. That which was not crap I deemed largely unworthy of my attention. The Game Developers Choice Awards were given out, basically all to Half Life 2. We all know how I feel about that whole thing already, so I won't get into it - but the only game this year that actually did anything ground breaking in terms of gameplay to deserve the awards it received was Katamari Damacy. Kudos to them.

The Independent Games Festival portion of the GDC was a bit more interesting. The titles that got the awards(Alien Hominid, Gish) definitely deserved them and, at least in the case of Gish - they were probably more interesting and original than the games that got the "Big Boy" awards, Katamari Damacy excluded. Aside from that, the most interesting part I found in reading the coverage of the GDC was Emily Dickenson - The Game, a competition of sorts between masters of the art Will Wright and Peter Molyneux, as well as some guy I've never heard of named Chris Hocking. It would take me entirely too long to explain so I'll just link to the Slashdot article and let them sort it out for you.

But wait! There's More! Sony and Microsoft both continued to hype their new consoles, Shigeru Miyamoto and Nolan Bushnell both got "walk of fame"-style stars and, there was some possible news on the supposedly most realistic physics engine yet. What game is it to be used in? Halo 3? Half Life 3? Unreal 3? Not by a long shot. The honor goes to, wait for it.... Duke Nukem Forever? That's right. The game that's taken so long to come out that even jokes about how long it's taken are way too old has finally resurfaced... again.

Am I excited? Crap no, it's Duke Nukem for fuck's sakes. What's wrong with you?

This Week: GL-Pong... Really.

So, Darwinia is supposed to be out tomorrow, and there is still no Linux demo available. That's certainly no way to make me happy, but the game is so good I'll let them slide on that one. Sure, you can play the Windows version of the demo via Cedega, but there are quite a few people out there who either can't or won't install Cedega, myself included. Let's just hope that the Linux versions of both the demo and the full game are out sometime soon enough. Anyway...

My post two weeks ago was titled "Next Week: GL-Pong". Honestly, I sort of intended it as a joke. Little did I know that there are actually quite a few 3D Pong variants out there, the most interesting of which is Pong2. See, most 3D Pong clones are just the original Pong with 3D graphics, nothing more. While it's not the first to try this, Pong2 moves the whole operation into actual 3D space.

There's just one problem. Actually, there are a few problems. The first is that Pong2 is just not fun. Playing by yourself, this game is literally impossible to win. No, it's not hard - it's impossible to win. You're not playing against an A.I. or even another player, it's you versus, well, a wall. Yep - one big, infallible wall. Network play is supposed to be the heart of Pong2, and here's where another problem comes into light. If you want to play Pong2 against one of your buddies, you need to know their IP addresses. I'm sorry, but in this day and age, this is simply unacceptable. Server Browsers aren't the way of the future, they're the way of now. Hell, with the right utility we didn't even have to worry about this shit in Doom.

Another problem: Pong2 just doesn't feel right. There are a couple different camera modes you can try out, but none of them really feel like you can see what you're doing as much as you'd like to. Your paddle is green and transparent, so there's no missing shots because you couldn't see the paddle or because you couldn't see through the paddle - but there are quite a few occasions where you miss a shot simply because you were sure you had the paddle in the right place but, thanks to the camera, misjudged your paddle placement a little bit.

OK, you do have to keep in mind that Pong2 is only at the 0.1.0 stage, so this is a release where bugs should be expected, and I got them. Actually, I've had to re-type this entire post because while trying to switch Pong2 to fullscreen mode it, for some reason, saw fit to crash the X server, thereby erasing the entire post. Keep that in mind, and maybe Pong2 will keep you entertained for, oh let's say, 5 minutes? Maybe.

I Wish I Was A Darwinian...

I decided I couldn't wait any longer for the Linux version of the Darwinia demo to come out so, a few days ago, I downloaded the Windows version and took it for a test drive.

First things first, this game is oozing with style. The still screenshots hint nicely at the look of the game, but to get the full effect you need to see the game in motion. Sound, although not as impressive as the visuals, is very well done - from the little confirmation bleeps and bloops to the sound of dying virii. Yes, virii. See, the world of Darwinia - if memory serves me correctly - is(or was, we'll get to that later) a theme park of the virtual variety. Then all hell broke loose, and there are evil virii trying to take it over.

Darwinia, for the most part, is an RTS in the classic sense; but there are quite a few nifty features that set it apart from the rest. The first is the "task manager". Much like the little sidebar you have in, say, Starcraft - the task manager is responsible for unit creation among other things. What makes it unique is the "gesture system", much like the one in Black & White, where you draw certain symbols with the mouse to get the desired effect. Once you're used to what the gesture for a certain action is, this is a much easier system than the old-fashioned sidebar approach.

Another not-so-common feature of Darwinia is the squad. I know that doesn't sound as special as it's supposed to, probably because it's a word that's used in most games nowadays. Darwinia's squad however, is a group of four soldiers which are under your direct command. Sure, left click on the map and they'll go there, but right clicking will cause them to fire at wherever the mouse pointer is, giving the game a bit of a Diablo-esque point and click hack and slash feel. One more interesting feature is the way you move Darwinians around. They can't be directly controlled, so only by promoting a Darwinian to an Officer, which can order other Darwinians around. As you might have guessed, there seem to be a lot of opportunities for some very deep gameplay here.

I, for one, am thoroughly impressed by the one level packaged with the demo, although it's lack of a mid-demo save feature is responsible for my not finishing it yet. The Linux version of the demo is supposed to be out by the end of February, and with the release date of the game(March 4th) quickly coming up it should be Linux-demo-fied soon. If you have Windows and can't wait, don't. The file is only 10.8 MB to download so, even with a modem, it's worth downloading twice. The fact that it's so freaking cool is just one thing, the fact that it comes from an indie developer(Introversion Software, who also did Uplink a while back) pushes it into obvious territory. I will buy this game, no doubt about that.

Next Week: GL-Pong

Well, in keeping with the old-school tastes I've had as of late, I've downloaded and tried out not one but two Quake clients - FuhQuake and Tenebrae.

Tenebrae is, at least in most ways, the better looking of the two clients. Two features - stencil shadows and per-pixel lighting - are Tenebrae's claim to fame and, for the most part, it looks pretty good. There is only so much you can do using comparatively primitive art and a modern engine, but textures have the same "sheen", for lack of a better term, that Doom 3 constantly overuses. The intro map as well as the first mission of episode 1 have had slight upgrades to the lighting and even some slight additions that really show off what the engine can do, but after that is where things start to get a little dicey. Every other level has not had it's lighting redone, and Tenebrae's new lighting technique serves to darken every level apart from the aforementioned two. That is... not so cool.

FuhQuake(I'm still waiting on Fuh Q2... heh) is much more simple in terms of scope - it's basically GLQuake with support for colored lighting and snazzier particle effects. It's also the one I prefer to play. Tenebrae is all well and good, but until every level is re-lit I'm going to stick with something I can actually see. Take a look at the screenshots for each one and see for yourself. One word of caution though - FuhQuake actually has Linux binaries available but if you want to play Tenebrae on Linux, you're going to have to get it though CVS and compile it yourself.

Steam, By Definition, Is Constantly Evaporating.

So, honestly, the few times I've played anything this week, it's been Counter Strike or Starcraft. I've said various things to this effect before, but I'll say it again: If you're not familiar with those two games, you have absolutely no business reading obscure gaming weblogs. If you have to ask, you'll never know. That being said, the remainder of this post does have to do with CS.

So this week, it's all about Steam. As you may have noticed from a certain previous post, I'm certainly no fan of Valve Software. When it comes to Counter Strike, more specifically the Condition Zero version, I'll make an exception. So, for that one game, I'm forced to use a "service" that I'm very much against. Why, you ask? Read on, I say, read on.

Sure, I play CS online using Steam. After all, it's the only way you can play online. What I can't comprehend is how anyone with the mental capacity to understand how a computer works could purchase a product they intend on keeping via Steam. In that respect, Valve could not have picked a better name for the system. Within the recent connection problems lies a vision of the future. Buy a game through Steam and you're at their mercy. What has to be kept in mind here is that the game industry is quite volatile. I'm sure certain employees might want to think otherwise, but the fact of the matter is that Valve Software is not going to be around forever. No Valve, no Steam. No Steam, you're out 50(or 90, depending on the package deal) bucks.

If you have a box with a CD, you can be fairly certain that said CD will not self-destruct at the same time as the company. The exact opposite can be said about Steam. Not that I'd ever consider this(for reasons stated in the aforementioned previous post), but the only way to actually get a CD(or DVD, I'm not sure) and a box for Half Life 2 through Steam is to pay ninety dollars for the super duper "platinum package".

Everyone knows that with any online game supported by a central master server(which is pretty much all of them), it's all over the minute the developer decides to pull the plug. We accept that. What needs to be asked is: Can you really accept the same for an offline game?

Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup Part 4

This week's entry into the venerable Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup is netPanzer - a game that unlike, let's say netHack, is actually playable over the internet.

The last sentence was a bit of an understatement on the scale of "air is breathable by lungs". You see, netPanzer's main focus is hectic online play. Any player can jump right in to the middle of any game, at any time, no matter what. This small, seemingly inconsequential detail provides netPanzer with the bulk of it's staying power. When a player joins a heated battle, any multitude of things can happen. An area that had previously been thought safe can suddenly become a new source for a volley of shells, making an already heated battle even more chaotic - or the same battle can be swung in the favor of a struggling army if the newcomer decides to become allies. The ally aspect, by the way, is built right into the game, something I can't remember seeing in any of the other games in this roundup so far.

netPanzer's graphics, while not stunningly beautiful in screenshots, are a step up from, or at least on par with any of it's peers. Clouds of smoke billow up from still flaming ex-tanks, explosions are well animated, and the battlefields have a nice pseudo-3d look. One note against the graphics is that, while running 1024x768 resolution, the framerate is only around 48 fps. I'm not sure if they just have it capped but, at the same resolution, Cube gets 100+ fps. Only after pushing the resolution to 1600x1200, with 3x full scene anti-aliasing, does the resolution start to fall that low. Sound, while not the best I've ever heard, does a good job at capturing the intensity of a given situation with explosions-a-plenty.

Now, as I stated before, netPanzer's focus is online play but it is possible to get a game going with bots - it just takes a little more work than you may be used to. I'm not going to give step by step instructions here, as they're included in the README that comes with the game. For most GNU/Linux distributions, the game is either included on the installation CDs or available from a package management system like apt-get, so it's easy for most users to get their hands on. As with most any game now, Windows binaries are also available for download. Sorry OSX users, nothing for you yet. If you can, get your hands on this one, it's quite possibly my favorite out of all the games mentioned so far.

Level Up!

As I write this, I'm a little bit drunk. Drunk with a capital D and a whole lot of "unk" at the end. The letter "R" is also figured a little bit more prominently than it really deserves. Why, you ask? Well, I'm celebrating.

You see, three hundred and sixty days ago I decided to start a stupid little weblog like so many thousands(millions even) have done before. To be honest, when I started Avert Your Eyes I had no idea what was going to come of it, or what it was even going to be about. With the first two posts(two different links there), it was pretty apparent where things were headed. If you really need me to explain where it was that things were headed please go search now for something that you're actually interested in. Otherwise, read on because for the duration of this week's whatever-the-hell-you-feel-like-calling-it, I'm going to give honorable mention to the posts(Oh, I guess that's what they're called) I've done this year that I feel deserve some, well, honorable mention(be warned that there are many links to old posts ahead, you know, reminiscing).

I honestly can't remember why I started doing roundups, but that's when Avert Your Eyes started to feel like a real website. So far Free Linux RPGs, Unreal Tournament 2004 mods, and Free Strategy Games for Linux have all been a part of the roundup family, and I'm sure it will continue throughout the new year. Though, that's not all that's happened. Over the course of this year you've heard about my various addictions to Vendetta , Eternal Lands, Monster Hunter and, most recently, Anarchy Online. I've also tried my hand at serious videogame-related journalism. I've tried to cover E3 as well as newer, though just as disappointing developments. Most of all, though, I got pissed.

If not for the people out there making games that even a GNU/Linux user can play, or the(and I quote Penny Arcade here) unstoppable creative torrent of the mod community 2004 would have been a much more disappointing year. Even though many good games have been released this year(check the archives, I'm linked out...), with Electronic Arts deciding they're going to be the Microsoft of the videogame publishing world, more and more of us are going to have to start looking at what's being created by people who actually care about games. To end this post as others have ended: I'm out. Oh, and happy belated gaming new year, you fucks.

Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup: Part 3

OK, this week's game is Advanced Strategic Command, otherwise known as ASC.

Last week, before I revealed which game I was talking about, I mentioned that there were some things about it's interface that made it hard for me to get right into. The second time I tried it, I was able to understand the interface quite a bit faster, but this fact alone is one of the most annoying things about the whole open-source gaming scene. There are far too many games around where the developers have been working on it for so long, they've forgotten that not everyone is going to be a familiar as they are with the game's internals.

Anyway, back to ASC. As it's based on Battle Isle(apparently a classic I'm not familiar with), the gameplay is turn based. The feel of the game can actually be likened quite a bit to the Advance Wars series on GBA, except for two reasons. One, it's hex based like The Battle for Wesnoth, which lends a different feel to movement. Two, it doesn't look as good as Advanced Wars(a GBA series, if you weren't aware). If you're looking for graphics, don't look here. Both games previously mentioned in the Roundup surpass ASC graphically in every way.

Yeah, the gameplay is fun. The problem is, the game doesn't have a very "game-like" feel to it. It almost feels more along the lines of a game that should come bundled with Gnome or KDE than it does something you'd download on your own, for fun.

You Know I Hate You

Honestly, I was planning on Part 3 of the Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup for this week. However, a stick was thrown between the spokes of my progress with the as of yet unnamed game in the form of a difficult-to-use interface, which I'm sure I'll mention next week. So, this week, you get more about Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time.

Having put over 50 hours into it at this point, my fondness for this game is now firmly cemented. I know I touched on it last week, but I'm still learning new intricacies of the battle system all the time. The different play styles for every character are really unique - if every character looked exactly the same, you'd still be able to tell which one you were controlling by feel alone. The invention system - again, something I mentioned last week - had me entirely confused at first but, while it can be frustrating, the amount of depth it offers to anyone willing to take a look is truly impressive.

Now, here's where certain people are just going to start to laugh at me. I admit that with Star Ocean, the gameplay is where the strength lies. That said, I really ended up liking the game's characters and story. Granted, this is a Square-Enix production we're talking about, so that's not exactly unexpected. The story doesn't end up taking too much shit, but if you frequent certain message boards, you'll see an awful lot of bitching about every single character. Except one. Albel. I won't spoil it for anyone who has yet to play the game, but let's just say he's the type of guy who appeals to the Sephiroth crowd. Let's also just say I hate his guts. At least you get a chance to tell him, if you wish.

All the time I've been spending with Star Ocean has been keeping me away from my two other current gaming addictions: Anarchy Online and Monster Hunter, so I've decided the only thing that really can be done is to beat Star Ocean(or at least the story portion, there's more afterwards) as quickly as possible. In fact, I'm off to work on that now.

Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup: Part 2

So, it's been a while since the first part of this series, but it's finally back. When it comes to strategy games on GNU/Linux systems, the battle for the most popular game would probably be between part one's game, Invasion: Battle Of Survival, and this week's game: The Battle For Wesnoth.

This game has been around before, and I've played it before as well, I've just never mentioned it before. If you're not familiar with the premise, it's a turn-based game that plays out on a hex battlefield. It follows the "all your units move and attack, then all their units move and attack" formula, but with the possibility of more than two armies on the field of battle. The visuals, while not the best you'll ever see, are some of the most cohesive in any fully open-source game out there right now, and the story sequences in between and during battle are up to the same standard.

Where Wesnoth really trumps BoS is in it's inclusion of a tutorial to get players quickly up to speed with their surroundings. By the time you're in your first battle, you have a fair idea as to what exactly to do, and how to do it. The difficulty ramps up fairly quickly, to the point that the game's developers actually suggest that anyone playing through the campaign for the first time play on the easy difficulty setting. Of course, there are many who will ignore this advice and be promptly wiped out by the enemy's forces.

Anyone who's a fan of turn based strategy should check this out, without a doubt. While the developers will obviously continue to work on new content, game balancing, and everything else, the game is in a totally playable state right now. Oh yeah, I haven't even mentioned the fact that multiplayer exists. Multiplayer exists. There we go.

I Hope The End Of Time Isn't Soon

This last week, I've been playing Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time, a late gift. It's been a while since it's been out and, while there have been reviews both good and bad, I was somewhat suspicious of the game after seeing what Penny Arcade had to say about it. Reading other reviews seemed to paint an entirely different picture, but which one was right? Penny Arcade has generally been dead on, as far as I'm concerned, but this time we don't see eye to eye.

Yeah, that's right. I really like this game. The real-time combat system, which I thought I'd be maligning over in no time, is good to the point that it actually gives me some hope for Final Fantasy XII. While it doesn't sport a particularly liquid-smooth feel, attacks have a sense of weight which makes pulling off combos very satisfying, especially when switching between characters for maximum effect. While your AI controlled party members generally don't fight too well at the beginning of the game, an interesting system where you actually increase their skill(not strength) while leveling eventually has them fighting well enough to hold their own in any battle.

Yeah, any game has got to have bad parts. With Star Ocean, a lot of reviews have mentioned shoddy character detail but neglected to also mention that only certain characters look like crap. Why this is remains a puzzle to me - the character models themselves are well done, but the texture work on some(mainly NPCs you see clearly for a second or two) just looks awful. Does that really matter? Not to me. The only other problem is just as much a problem in any recent Japanese RPG as it is in Star Ocean: squeaky voice acting. At this point though, that's just come to be expected.

Yep

No, you didn't just go crazy. It's a new theme. It's almost the new year, a time for change. Sorry for any accidental deaths, murders, or deaths as the result of murders.

It's Anarchy Online Again, Sorry....

It's not like this hasn't come to be expected by anyone who reads this site with any amount of frequency. It's happened before, and it will surely happen again - deal with it. As you already may have guessed, instead of Part 2 of the Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup, I've decided to spend this week's post talking a little more about Anarchy Online. When I posted about it last week, I hadn't yet had the time to explore the intricacies and deeper areas of the game. That's not to say that I've seen everything the game has to offer, but now I definitely have a better idea of what's happening in the world of Rubi-Ka.

My character, at present, is a level 23 (male)Adventurer, which(as the link above confirms) is supposed to be one of the easiest professions to learn the game with, as well as one of the better all-around character classes. I've had quite a good time getting to where I am although, up until this point, I've played entirely solo. I've mentioned things before that, while based on a slightly different subject, still explain my reasons for being largely antisocial in a gaming world that encourages exactly the opposite. Much to my surprise, people in Rubi-Ka can do quite a bit to change that attitude.

A few days and quite a few more levels after starting my character, I was sitting near the mission terminals in Old Athens searching for a mission that I felt like doing, when a character who will remain as nameless as my own asked to see my pistols. Quite skeptical, after thwarting many a scammer in Eternal Lands, I did as I was asked. The stranger also asked how many credits I had, a question to which I replied honestly, "not many". As I answered, this mysterious character vanished and I assumed I was too poor to be scam-worthy; then they returned. A trade window opened, and my previous assumption that I was too poor quickly vanished, apparently anything was enough. A private message appeared - "Accept" - no cash request. I did, and what I received was a backpack full of weapons much better than my own and 1,000,000 credits. All the stranger asked was that, when I outgrew them, I would pass the weapons on to another low level Adventurer who needed them. I assure you, I will.

I'd quite wrongly assumed that outside of the free, open-source community everyone would be worse than they are in the free games; for all I know, that could be true. I'm not really so sure though, everyone I've had a chance to talk to was nothing but helpful, and I've not personally encountered a rude person since beginning the game. Even if it's not the paradise I'm describing, it's certainly a world worth exploring so, once again, it gets another plug. Again, it's only free until January 15th so, if you want it, hurry up. By the way, it's entirely possible to get Anarchy Online running under Linux, as long as you don't mind using Cedega.

Not That Kind Of Anarchy, Unless...

Although this wasn't planned, I'm taking a bit of a break from the Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup to touch on something that the majority of GNU/Linux users probably won't give a damn about. That something? The recent "free for a year" release of Anarchy Online.

Expansion packs excluded, the developer(or publisher, or whatever) of Anarchy Online has decided to provide folks with a Christmas present/gateway drug in the form of a free client/no subscription double whammy for the original, "classic" Anarchy Online. Being the type of person who really can't turn down something free, I decided to take a look.

My experience only being with the free MMOGs out there, I've always made sure to try to look past certain bugs and "issues". Sure, it's technically free, but that still doesn't excuse all the bugs and aforementioned "issues" that seem to plague Anarchy Online. Frequent crashes, unbearable lag, and a few much smaller problems were all mentioned in reviews when this game first came out, years ago. The fact that they still exist is annoying, but it doesn't keep Anarchy Online from being an enjoyable online experience.

I'm a fan of sci-fi and, besides Vendetta, Anarchy Online is really the online MMOG out there with the exception of Star Wars Galaxies, which is a big plus in my book. Even if I had to pay for a retail copy of the game, minus the monthly fees, it seems as if it would be a worthy purchase for a year. If it's totally free for said year, why not. Of course, that's assuming you have broadband to download it - over 800mb is quite a hefty download for dialup.

Linux Free Strategy Game Roundup: Part 1

Yes, once again it's time for another roundup. RPGs and UT2004 mods have had their share, now it's strategy's, ahem, turn.

This week, however, it's not turn based strategy, but the real time variety. Now, no free strategy roundup would be complete without a nod to the Stratagus engine(formerly known as Freecraft) and the one game worth playing on it, Invasion - Battle of Survival. Anybody familiar with Starcraft is going to feel very at home with what is presented on the screen after starting a mission. The graphics aren't quite as spiffy, but you definitely know what you're supposed to do as soon as the game screen loads.

Therein lies the one major flaw in Invasion - Battle of Survival. If you haven't played any of the *Craft games, you'll have absolutely no idea what you're supposed to do. Even if you manage to find out what the objective is(destroy all enemies..) - which by the way you have to look for - you'll still probably get trounced while you're gathering resources, assuming you've figured out how to do that by now.

I love Starcraft, I still play it all the time, so I knew what needed to be done right away. If you're familiar with the way RTS games work, than you'll probably have as good a time with BoS as I did. Once this game can get some sort of tutorial and/or campaign mode to slowly fill in those who aren't RTS veterans, it'll have it all.

Oops

I forgot to actually publish last week's post, so here it is:

This week I've been playing Scorched 3D, which is an open-source, prettified clone of an older DOS game, Scorched Earth. The game itself is a simple yet addictive "artillery combat" sort of game. You'd almost think of it as a strategy game if you could actually control more than one unit, but at it's core it's a turn based action game, as counterintuitive as that may seem.

As the name Scorched 3D implies, yes, it is in 3D. Quite lovely 3D actually, at least for the most part. The terrain, water, and skies all look great, as do some of the explosion animations. What isn't as impressive are the models for the units. While they do a good job of looking like what they're trying to look like, they just seem to pale in comparison to everything else. Some units you'd expect, such as tanks and helicopters, sit alongside other units you'd never expect, such as the grim reaper(I don't know, maybe the rockets come out of his ass). It's a cool feature, but it's one I wouldn't have missed in favor of some more highly detailed(or at least bigger) models.

The main bread and butter of Scorched 3D is in the online play, which I haven't gotten around to trying out yet. I've taken a look at the server browser, and some pretty filled out games always seem to be happening, but I'd like to get a better hand at aiming(which is controlled by rotation, elevation, and power - quite tricky) before I take on some real competition.

Hell On Mars: It's Vaguely Frightening

Well, last night I downloaded the Doom 3 demo. Why so late, you ask? Because I like to steadfastly remain behind the times. All of them...

When I first loaded the game up, I was a bit more impressed than I was prepared to be at the opening sequence, when you first arrive on Mars. More so than any other game I've ever played, the idea that I was in a outpost station on a strange world was thoroughly reinforced. Maybe somebody at id software decided the best course of action would be to simply travel into the future, see what it was like, then built it into the game and turned off all the lights. The creepiness factor of the station can not be denied although, at least in the beginning of the game, it's a very real kind. The same kind of creepiness you feel when it's your job to go into the freaky basement alone.

As soon as all hell broke loose and I was tasked with trying to make it back to HQ, my peers screaming in terror over the radio, I lost interest and went to sleep. Now, I'm pretty sure that was not the reaction that id was looking for, but the speed with which the game turns into a prettified Doom 2 with a stupid flashlight mechanic is startling. The flashlight issue has been maligned over many times by many people since the game first came out, so much so that mods exist that place your flashlight smartly on your gun. The second issue is more of an issue I have with games in general. Some RPG's aside, there is never a point in most games where things calm down again, you never get a break. I'm sure that a lot of hardcore gamers out there feel that they don't need a break, some may explicitly not want a break, presumably to keep up the intensity levels.

My realization was that I'd prefer Doom 3 without the monsters and combat. I could perfectly happy wander around the station for hours, performing the occasional menial task while I continued to discover the backstory of this strange place on Mars at my leisure. Of course, I'm entirely sure that id would not have had a very good time of selling the game in that state, except maybe to me.

Are The Clouds Iron?

This week, I decided to try out Beneath A Steel Sky, which uses the ScummVM virtual machine. Both are apt-getable if you happen to use Debian.

Overall, the game has me quite interested. I've always been a fan of point and click graphic adventures so, since that's what this game is, we get along fairly well together. The game came out back in 1994, so by today's standards it's nothing that you're going to lose bowel control over, but that's mostly to be expected. That aside, the art style of the game has an undeniably cool look.

The fact that the original resolution of the Beneath A Steel Sky was so low means that, if you can stand it, it's one of the few games out there that really should be played in windowed mode. On my monitor at least, blowing it up to fullscreen almost completely strips the visual appeal. While a game this old has got to start showing it's age at some point, it's actually surprising how well most of the visuals hold up.

The sound is a different thing all together. See, there was a time when voice acting in a videogame was cool because it was there, not because A-list voice actors were being hired to voice the characters. The part that I find strange is how bad the main character's voice acting is. While certain members of the supporting cast obviously knew a little bit about what they were doing, he sounds entirely emotion-less.

Anyway, the game is fairly large(around 70MB) for an older game of it's ilk, so 56k-ers may be more inclined to go for something else, but even then, it's still worth it.

I Have No Rhythm

I've done something this week that I've thought about doing for quite some time now. I enabled comments. Sure, last week's controversial post would've been a better time to try out the comments, but it's far more likely that it's simply going to cement the realization that no one reads this site. Anyway, the link to leave comments is right at the bottom of each post, and anyone is allowed to do so, so feel free.

Tendrils has been around for about a year, and I've known about it for a couple of months, but it's only recently I've had the chance to try it out. It's an RPG with rhythmic combat, hence the title of this post. Of course, I do really have rhythm, but that wouldn't make as interesting a title, now would it? Anyway, Tendrils is described as a "remix game" since most everything is taken from other games. Artwork, dungeons, music - it will all seem very familiar.

The game is fun, I'll definitely give it that. There are, however, a few problems. The only one that really bothers me is that since you're so busy trying to hit the correct arrow keys at the right time, it's really hard to see how the battle is unfolding. This can be worked around by pausing the game, at which time you can also cast spells or use potions, but you're not going to do very well in a battle if you spend most of your time watching it. The only other problem, which could very well be intentional, is that it is often very easy to get lost, simply by forgetting where you are for a moment. Like I said, that may be intentional.

Anyway, I hate rhythm games, but I have quite a bit of fun play Tendrils, probably because I'm an RPG fan. If you don't like either, you may not like Tendrils. Everybody else, go get it.

Fuck Halo 2

Yeah I said it.

"Not A Thrillzone"... Wait For It

So, Killzone - one of the most overhyped games of the year - came out and, quite unsurprisingly, didn't live up to the hype. Who'd have guessed that, huh? Oh, the guys who made Fable? Yeah, probably.

What's sad about the situation is that the very same magazines and gaming websites that provide the hype for a given product take a 180 in their reviews and complain about the game being overhyped. Last time I checked, previews were supposed to be based on the game that is actually being developed, not some flying monkey technicolor fantasy dream freshly pulled out of the reviewer's ass. What I'm doing here is not trying to stand up and defend Killzone, I haven't even played the game, and that is my entire point. Take a look back at gaming magazines and/or websites at past preview/review cycles, and you'll see the same thing happen over and over again:

Preview: "This game will basically be god in videogame form. Sell every other game you own and prepare for the awesome game that will be [insert name here]"

Review: "I don't know who ever said [insert name here] was supposed to be god(we certainly didn't), but this game more resembles a turd."

That's basically the situation. Of course, the smart reader(like the type who reads this site) has come to accept this as a fact of life. There are many others who see a preview, take it as a review and buy the game, then look at the smugly worded bashing of the game they were previously told would be great and feel lied to. You know what, you were lied to, they never played a preview copy...

I Type As Well

Last Friday I finally got the Nyko iType2 controller I'd mentioned ordering a while ago. What can I say? It does what a controller is supposed to do - and it has a keyboard.

Overall, I'm fairly pleased with the controller. Typing is only slightly awkward, and after a while I was completely used to it. Plus, for the most part, if feels just like a normal PS2 controller. The face buttons are a little stiff, causing me to think that some games which really use the analog buttons may suffer from the all-or-nothing feel, but otherwise they're fine. The keyboard works really well, but there are two problems. First, let me explain how it works. It's a "qwerty" style keyboard, but with no numbers or "?!@*&(*#!@" signs. To access these, you must press the Fn button, which is all well and good. The problem lies in that some keys, such as normal punctuation keys, seem mostly unresponsive while in this mode. You can get them to work, usually by pressing it a few times in rapid succession, but this is a slight pain in the ass.

My other major problem is that while it has four macro keys, for easy access to repetetive sayings, the speed at which it "replays" the macro can be a problem. At least with Monster Hunter, text comes screaming down the USB cable at such a fast rate that the game can't keep up. For example: the phrase "Hello" can often show up as "ello", "Hllo", "elo", and "Hell". I haven't tested this with other games, though, so this could be a Monster Hunter related problem. Even with the above, and the fact that the vibration isn't quite as smooth as a standard PS2 controller, I like this one a lot, and it's probably going to be my primary controller from now on.

"The Turd Age"... Wait For It

So Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is out, and I'm supposed to be really excited about it. To an extent, I am. I'm certain that at some point in the future I'll own this game, and probably have a lot of fun with it. So why can't I muster up the same sort of excitement for this title that everyone else in the entire world seems to have?

Argument number one would be Monster Hunter. I still have yet to play anything other that what I described in the last post. The way my brain is wired right now, if there are no huge dragons to take down, or if I can't at least carve up a kill for new equipment, I have no interest in it. As a side note, kill carving(to a certain extent) could be pretty cool in a GTA game. Instead of having to buy clothes, you just kill somebody and you look like them from now on. Anyway...

Argument two would be the games coming out next Tuesday which may not have the mass appeal of GTA, are certainly a bigger deal in my book. Stuff like Killzone, and Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age. Killzone may kill zones, but it's not gonna kill Halo 2, no matter which is actually the better game. The latter simply has too much of a hype whirlwind built up around it to ever hit the ground at this point. Hell, there's no way Killzone is going to kill GTA: SA or anything else for that matter. It could be the best game ever created, and I can think of more titles than you can count with both hands that would probably out-sell it anyway.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age is somewhat of an interesting subject to me being both a PS2 owner and a GBA owner. The game is coming out for both platforms(as well as those "other" two consoles) but the console game and it's handheld counterpart are entirely different. The console version is a pretty standard turn-based RPG, while the GBA version is more of a tactics style of game, which makes a lot of sense seeing how well games of that ilk fare in that medium. How good either will actually be remains to be seen, but I'm sure that those of us who always thought the games would be better as RPGs are certainly anxious to see how it all turns out. For my own sake, I hope they do well, or else we'll all be hearing a lot of "The Turd Age" jokes.

Yeah, I Went Back In Time... So What?

I've got to admit it: Since purchasing Monster Hunter a few weeks ago, I've messed around with the Full Spectrum Warrior demo once, and I think I played one round of Hot Shots Golf: Fore. That's it. Beyond that, my game-related time has been spent exclusively with Monster Hunter.

Want to know something else? I've barely played it online. My Hunters Rank is only 03, and that came from soloing all the quests I thought I could solo(which I did, successfully, by the way). That's right, I haven't played with any other people yet. Why, you ask? Well, I don't have a USB keyboard and trying to type with the built-in software keyboard is somewhat akin to trying to play a flute behind your back; it just can't work. That aside, I can also see how putting down a controller to type "Help!" while being raped by a giant dragon can be particularly cumbersome. I've found a solution to my problem in the form of the Nyko iType2 controller, which is more or less a standard PS2 controller with a baby keyboard sitting on it's face.

I can't tell you my thoughts on said controller yet, as it hasn't yet arrived. I'm sure it'll take a little time to get used to typing with my thumbs(guess whose never used a PDA), but it's got to be better than balancing a keyboard on my lap while the cable from the controller continually hits the F4 key.

By the way, if you don't understand the title, don't try to figure it out. If you do... um, sorry.

Gold Plated Turds Part 2: That Made No Sense

With the slew of new games that are supposed to be arriving in the next six months or so, and the respective hubbub surrounding each of the larger titles, I find myself more than a little bit surprised at how indifferent I am regarding most of them.

As I mentioned back around E3, most of the games that I'd be interested in picking up this year are sequels with colons in the title - Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, FarCry: Instincts, Call Of Duty: Finest Hour, LOTR: The Third Age, and GTA: San Andreas are just a few. In fact, the only two games I can think of off the top of my heads that don't fit in the above sentence are Killzone and Oddworld Stranger(which is a sequel and might as well have a colon in it's name). All of these games, albeit some more than others, seem like they'll be pretty fun to play, but do we really need so many sequels? Jeez, even this post is a fucking sequel. In an age where every game, no matter how worthy, turns into a franchise how are we supposed to know what's really worth it anymore?

By now, you might have caught on to the fact that I haven't played anything new this week - hence the rambling sequel to a post about sequels. Honestly, I've been too busy with Monster Hunter. I did manage to download the Dark Horizons: Lore Demo, but I haven't yet found a chance to actually play it. Maybe you can find the time to - I know it's built on the Torque Engine(the same one that Legends uses), and that it's a sort of mech-combat game with a persistent universe, giving it a very MMO feel. I might have something on that next week, but we all know how I work by now.

Once I know all, I can be at peace.

I downloaded the Full Spectrum Warrior PC demo this week and gave it a try. Overall, even though I have some wonky sound problems with it, I'm pretty impressed by the game.

What doesn't impress me is the fact that this is based on a tool used to train the U.S. military. I understand that changes have been made to make the game more friendly to the general public, but what crazy world do the designers live in when you are absolutely invincible as long as you're behind some kind of cover? There's that, and the fact that(as many reviewers have mentioned) the game often plays more as a puzzle game that a strategy game or "military simulator" or whatever the hell it calls itself. Stay behind cover, flank your enemy, and you've got a guaranteed key to success. Sure, those factors may be part of a good overall strategy, but it's nothing that's going to absolutely save your ass every time in a real life situation. But, anyway, it's pretty fun and if you haven't tried it but can, you should.

In other news, Monster Hunter still has a hearty grip on my life, and nothing really has a chance to shake it in the near future. Since I've finally taken it online a whole new world has opened up, and it's a world I'll not soon be leaving. Once I know all, I can be at peace. Until then...

Anyway, there are words that want to come out of me, I feel the need to somehow describe the wonder that one feels while exploring the world of Monster Hunter. I still have no way to translate the emotions that I feel while playing this game into words digestible by mere mortals who have not yet experienced the glory that is Monster Hunter. If only you could see those wondrous cat-like creatures gleefully robbing you blind, you would know the importance of what you'd just witnessed.