Level Four

Three days ago marked three years of Avert Your Eyes. The third year was a rough one, to be sure. Out of the entire year only one month had the four weeks worth of posts it was supposed to have. Two months had only one post for the entire month. A lousy season for sure, but there still were some highlights, and that's what this post is for.

The season kicked off with the demo of Northland - a game I meant to buy. Like many things this year, I never got around to it. Still, you can't deny the appeal of a quirky RTS featuring vikings as the main characters. I still load up the demo every now and then just to tinker around with them.

The award for most talked about game of the year goes to Sauerbraten. I started following it back in March, and continued to follow its progress for most of the year. The game has improved by leaps and bounds since I've been keeping my eye on it, and it seems poised to continue with this momentum throughout 2007. I can't even begin to speculate where the game might be by this time next year. I will however speculate that, by this time next year, nobody will even remember EDM. Good riddance I say. Also, don't forget that Sauerbraten's predecessor, Cube, hasn't yet thrown in the towel. At least not if ActionCube has anything to say about it.

If you combined the GPotato games - FlyFF, Space Cowboy Online, and Rappelz - they'd have beat out Sauerbraten in the most-talked-about category. FlyFF doesn't seem to have much staying power, I haven't even played it since I mentioned it. SCO and Rappelz, however, have had much more play time than their respective mentions might have led you to believe.

How could I mention MMORPGs without giving a nod to one of the more personal series of posts of season 3 - my retreat from Anarchy Online. It was tougher on me than it may have seemed. I'll admit, there are times when I miss it - quite a bit, in fact. There are even times when I think about going back. I don't know that I could, in fact I'm almost sure of it, but it certainly is a testament to how much gaming really can affect you.

Those were the major events of the season, as far as I'm concerned, but they're far from being the only event. At the beginning of the season, the Wii was still called the Revolution and nobody knew a damned thing about it. The year saw the 2.0 release of Glest, two amazing shooters - Gunroar and Z-lock - from Kenta Cho and Jumpei Isshiki respectively, the liberation of Savage: The Battle For Newerth, and probably the last mention of a UT2004 mod on the site.

What will the next season hold? More posts and a more regular schedule, if I have anything to say about it. Aside from that I can't say I know. There's only one way to find out... wait and see. And keep on reading, I hope.

What A Novel Concept

It's been a quite while since I mentioned a UT2004 mod on the site. Hell, it's been quite a while since I've even played a UT2004 mod. Tactical Operations: Crossfire was the only interesting looking thing on the Happypenguin front page this morning, so the choice of topic was fairly obvious.

TO: Crossfire is another mod in the "extremely influenced by Counter Strike" vein, what with the buying weapons and what not, but it's far more of a straight up action game. One stray bullet is not going to kill you, unless it's a headshot or a grenade, and this alone makes it a bit more interesting than the countless Counter Strike ripoffs out there (not that they can't be entertaining).

Weapons sound convincing, voice work is well done, and the music is more than serviceable. The highlight of TO: Crossfire, however, is the map design, at least for me. Each map has certainly had a lot of time and effort put in, not to mention that by this point in UT2004's lifespan, mappers have gotten to know the limitations of the engine very well.

I hopped on a few public servers and had a good enough time. Nearly everybody I played with was far better than me, but what the hell, I've only been playing since this morning. It's good to see that there is a community built around the game, as playing with bots is certainly not as fun as it could be. To be fair, the bots are lackluster in pretty much every UT2004 mod out there.

Next week is the 3rd anniversary of Avert Your Eyes, so a year's recap is in order although, with as many posts as I've missed this year, I could probably just cut and paste every post from this year and it wouldn't be too long of a read. See you next week folks.

Well, They're Used To Shareware Anyway...

Late last night I decided it was time to scrap my current Linux install and go for something exciting and new. I'm still in the middle of configuring the new install, and I'd like to get back to that as soon as possible, so it's going to be a short post today folks.

Today's subject is AstroMenace, an old-school style vertical scrolling shooter with new-school 3D graphics. It's closest relative would probably be Chromium B.S.U, if you happen to be familiar with it. right down to the (optional) mouse-driven control scheme. An interesting twist is that you earn upgrades to your ship not from powerups, but from money you earn on a per-level basis.

AstroMenace has a bit of a narrative, a welcome addition for those who desire a bit more motivation than "kill it because it's there." It's mostly a gimmick, but it's a gimmick that works well in AstroMenace's surprisingly consistent world. The graphics definitely help this cohesiveness - it almost looks like a 3D space shooter that has been restricted to two dimensions of gameplay.

Something to take note of for those of you who don't happen to run Linux: while AstroMenace is freeware (yes, freeware, nothing open source here) on Linux, it's shareware on Windows. Yep, you've gotta pay. Would I pay if I had to? It's an interesting question but not one I can give a definitive answer to. Would I consider buying it? Sure.

One One One

Well, now that the holidays are out of the way, it's back to posting in full force. Rappelz Epic 3 came out a few weeks ago - essentially it's an expansion pack.

The pace of the gameplay has been sped up, albeit not considerably. It's definitely faster paced, but it hardly feels like an action game as the patch notes would have you believe. It's not just the gameplay that has been sped up, either: experience gain is now nearly doubled and the rate at which you gain job points has been increased as well.

Not everything about the update is sunshine and roses, however. Players started to realize that, once installing the (mandatory) update their stamina was not regenerating when the were logged off, as it had before. Now the only method of reacquiring stamina is stamina potions which are either given as quest rewards or, more commonly, bought from the cash shop. I'm not into paying real money to build a fictional character so, more or less, it means no stamina for me.

As far as I'm concerned, the experience gain was raised, so it evens out: no big deal right? Not everyone seems to share my opinion on this matter. Within a day or so every other message on the Rappelz message board was pleading for the offline stamina gain to be brought back. "Now paying players have an advantage, it's unfair" they cried. Guess what? Paying players always had an advantage and, no, it's not unfair.

The people at Gpotato are in business. A key part of being in business is, you guessed it, making money. It's a free game, folks. Nobody forced you to download it, and nobody is forcing you to play it.

Menus That Abandon You

Sorry about the lack of posts over the past few weeks. Last week I decided to migrate AYE to the new Blogger beta - a process that ended up taking the rest of the day - and the week before that I just plain didn't have much to write about.

Sauerbraten had an interesting release last week. Not only have we got some new fancy graphical effects since the last time I checked, but also a host of other tweaks and improvements. The new water effects (which were actually introduced in the "water edition" a little while back) are quite a step up. As shiny and pretty as the new mater may be, I'm not noticing much of a performance hit, aside from on maps that are just plain covered in the stuff. Still, if it's too much for your machine to handle there is - as always - an option to turn it off.

When I hit the escape key to bring up the menu for the first time, I was a bit surprised. Gone is the familiar old menu system we've been used to since the days of Cube, replaced by a fancier and arguably less functional menu system. It's nice looking sure - the menu basically hovers a foot or so off the ground in front of you and you navigate with mouselook - but, depending on where it is you're standing, it can be a downright pain to use. Hit the escape key while you're falling and watch that menu stay firmly planted above you as you continue to plummet.

The single player mode has received a few small updates, including a new (to me, anyway) gameplay mode that appears to be somewhat of a mix between Cube's "invasion" themed DM-SP mode and straight up single player. The new maps are, as usual, very well designed. I know it's quite an engine, but every once in a while I almost forgot I was looking at the Sauerbraten engine instead of something along the lines of UT2004.

I jumped into a few games online to make sure the net code is still holding up alongside all of these other tweaks, and it remains as smooth as ever. Instagib is still an insanely fast experience that will get your hands sweating in the first 30 seconds or so. My only complaint is that you can't download only the updates you need. When Sauerbraten was smaller, this wasn't a big deal, but now that it's pushing 100 megs, it gets a little annoying when you know that half of what you're downloading is already sitting on your hard drive.

I'll return next week. With what? No idea. But, I assure you, I'll be here.

ActionCube or ExcitementSphere?

This week you get a brief reprieve from my exploits in the world of Rappelz. The reason? A Cube mod (who thought that we'd ever see another one of those?) that's recently come out: ActionCube.

As the name suggests, ActionCube is inspired by ActionQuake (as are most of the various Action* mods floating around). More realistic environments and weaponry meet the fast gameplay Cube is known for. ActionCube takes a more team-oriented approach to the world of Cube, something I've been waiting to see for quite a while.

The release I'm playing is the most recent - before that the Linux package apparently had some problems. The problem with this is that either the master server is still showing the older version, or compiling ActionCube themselves. Every time I've tried to get online, the servers in the server browser simply say "[unknown]" under the "players" tab.

Luckily for me, ActionCube has bots. Not like the monsters in Cube which just run towards you while shooting either - I'm talking actual bots. At the moment, the only single player game type is straight out deathmatch, but that's enough to get used to the weapons and maps before taking it online.

The five maps included are all pretty well designed, and they definitely play very well in the deathmatch mode. How well-balanced they are is something I can't yet comment on since I haven't had a chance to try out the game's team modes. I'll have to get back to you on this aspect (as well as a whole lot more) of the game.

It's easy to wonder why we're seeing a mod for Cube so late in the proverbial game. It seems that Sauerbraten would have been a better choice, although there could be some engine maturity issues I'm not taking in to account. Either way, ActionCube still looks pretty good - there's still life in the Cube engine yet.

So far, I'm enjoying ActionCube, and I'm most definitely looking forward to the chance to actually play it online. I'll report back here either later today in the form of an update, or next week in the form of a whole (or at least half) post. For now, the best way to find out more is to play it for yourself. Keep in mind, this does not need the original Cube. Just download and enjoy.

Yep, Like A Soft Drink

Well, it's been a week since I last touched base (as usual), and Rappelz is still interesting. I guess that's not a bad sign.

My main character on the Tortus server, an Asura Strider, has only made it to level 21 since last week. I mentioned last week that leveling wasn't too fast in this game - I wasn't kidding. I suppose I'd be a bit higher level-wise if I hadn't started a new character: A level 13 Gaia Kahuna.

Yeah, it's a silly name, Kahuna, but it's a fun class to play so far. Unlike the Strider which, in either the melee or ranged variety (I chose ranged), is basically a straightforward class, a Kahuna is a little bit of everything. You've got damage over time spells, direct damage spells, you even get some heals later on. Don't feel like wasting your mana? Well, you're pretty handy with a mace as well.

Still, I've been playing the Strider more, as my Kahuna hasn't even made it off of the Trainee Island yet. Although the leveling is slow, the game hasn't lost its Diablo-esqe reward system. If you're not about to level up, your pet probably is. If you're not about to finish a quest, you're probably on the virge of affording that new weapon or armor upgrade. I've yet to feel the "grind", though at my low level I suppose that's not uncommon. Still, from what I can tell, it seems that even at higher levels the game still maintains its fine pacing.

One thing I neglected to mention last week was the music. Usually in an MMO the music is either annoying or nonexistent. It's almost never likable. I've spent more than a week hearing the music in Rappelz, and I've got to say: not only has it not started to annoy me yet, it's by far the best music I've encountered in an MMO. Epic symphonic swells definitely do a much better job at instilling a sense of purpose or accomplishment than the off-the-rack J-Pop that accompanies your adventures is either other GPotato game.

I've been playing it strictly solo, as is my style, but I hear that around level 30 partying (not that kind of partying) is pretty much required. Actually, I don't mind one bit. I'm sort of looking forward to the prospect of it, especially since I'm not a Cleric. Strange for antisocial me, I'll admit, but I can't deny that I'm waiting to see how my own skills match up against other's. I doubt I'll have information on that by next week, but I won't say that next week's post won't be Rappelz-related.

Rappelz Sounds Like A Soft Drink Company

It's always a good sign when I have to tear myself away from playing the game of the week so I can actually write about it, and that's exactly what happened this week. The culprit is Rappelz, the latest MMO from GPotato, which officially comes out tomorrow.

I've got to say that GPotato seems to have a keen eye for highly addictive games, a statement their latest entry supports. It's another straightforward "kill everything in sight to upgrade your character so you can kill everything in sight" MMORPG, but as with their other games, the magic of Rappelz lies in its pacing.

Leveling is actually slower in Rappelz than it is in either Flyff or Space Cowboy Online, but this issue is resolved by adding other methods of character advancement. Not only do you get experience from fighting monsters, you also earn Job Points. These go towards new skills, upgrading existing skills, or raising your Job Level, which is necessary for unlocking higher level skills.

A big point of Rappelz is taming and summoning creatures, and this is something you can start doing fairly early in the game. My character is only level 13, and I've had a pet Pantera (no, not the metal band) since I was level 11. Like you, your pet also gains both experience and Job Points. Unlike you, your creature doesn't need to worry about Job Levels. There are also ridable creatures which you can't own, but you can rent for 6 hour (in game time) periods. These make getting around a lot faster and easier.

Personal shops are implemented - something I think no MMORPG should be without anymore. I love being able to walk away from the computer for a few hours and return to find my character much richer. One issue arises in the form of "stamina", which doesn't effect you character's performance, but the rate at which you gain experience points and job points. The fastest way to regain stamina (besides potions) is to log out of the game, so you may find yourself torn between raising your stamina levels or your cash flow.

There are three different races to choose from: Asura, Deva, and Gaia, each with their own home city. When I first left the Trainee island and arrived in the Asuran home city of Kahlan, I was breifly awestruck. Towering statues spouting flames, huge stone walls rising on all sides around me, this looked like the home city of the race which represents everything dark should look. I've since taken a brief sightseeing tour of both of the other cities (by teleporter, walking or riding at my level would be impossible) and they're both nice looking, but not as impressive.

PVP is possible, but I find it surprising that there is no storyline set-up for it. Sure there are other races, but you're not at war. You just live in different areas. I suppose I've been a spoiled in this area by my time playing Space Cowboy and Anarchy Online, but PVP, especially large scale PVP, is what keeps long time players coming back, in my experience. There just doesn't seem to be much motivation for it at the moment in Rappelz.

The game officially launches tomorrow, so if you want to join in on the chaos that usually ensues on the first day of games like this, I suggest you start downloading soon. The download is 1GB (as in one gigabyte - ie. big) so depending on your connection, it may take a while.

I Love Being Told What To Do

It feels good to be back. Believe it or not, I'm still not feeling 100% better, but I am feeling well enough to get back in the posting saddle. A lot has happened in the month I've been away, most of it unremarkable. So what do I do, you ask? The answer is simple: I don't write about anything that has happened in the last month.

Savage: The Battle For Newerth is a game that had me interested, but for some reason I never even got around to trying out the demo. Since it was liberated last month, I figured it was about time I tried it out. Honestly, I can't believe I've deprived myself of this game for so long. It was definitely a smart idea on the part of S2 Games, as I'm now also very interested in the sequel.

If you're unaware of the game's concept, Savage is a novel mix of a first/third person shooter, and a real time strategy game. One player is elected commander and sees the action unfold RTS-style, while the rest of the players see the battlefield through the eye of a traditional soldier.

The part of Savage's recipe that appeals to me so much is actually knowing what it is I should be doing. I'll admit it, in most games, I'm just following the largest group of my allies. Having a little notification pop up, telling me to attack, followed by a glowing column of light showing me exactly where I need to go is something wonderful, as far as I'm concerned.

Of course, it's not like there's some unseen hand forcing you to bend to its will. If you don't like your orders, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from running off on your own and doing whatever the hell you please. Sure, chances are your team will hate you and your base will end up a flaming ruin, but it's your choice.

The battles I've had a chance to partake in have generally been nothing short of epic. The music is a big help in this case, so much so that even losing is fun due the dramatic score swelling up as your comrades fall around you. If there's one fault, it's the melee combat. It feels clunky, there's no way around that. The best you can hope is that your team does well enough that you'll have access to ranged weapons soon.

I'm going to give Savage: The Battle For Newerth a very high recommendation. I did myself a tremendous disservice by not trying it out until now, a mistake I certainly won't make with its sequel which, like its predecessor, will have a Linux version available from day one.

Don't Support Pointless Forks

Still in recovery, folks, but I wanted to comment on EDM. Basically, some guy who doesn't get along with Sauerbraten head honcho Aardappel decided he was going to take his ball and go home. Thus began EDM. Forks spawned by ego, no matter who's fault, are never a good thing. Do yourselves and the rest of the community a favor, folks: Stick with Sauerbraten.

That's all I've got to say for this week. Hopefully I'll return in full form next week. Thank you for your patience.

Apologies

Sorry for the lack of posts. No, this isn't a cheap cop out. I've been pretty sick over the past too weeks, definitely not feeling well enough to post. Hopefully I'll be back next week. Hold tight.

Next Up: Underwater Cyclist Online

So I take a month-long break, then miss a post only two weeks in. Only here at Avert Your Eyes folks, only here. Anyway, as was alluded to last week, this is going to be another Space Cowboy Online post. Take it or leave it - it's all you're getting.

My I-Gear has made its way to the not-so-stately level of 35, something that actually didn't take too long to happen. I've been playing casually at best, with only one long grinding session taking place over the weekend. Weapon drops, at least for me, have been plentiful enough - there's almost always been a new piece of gear a few levels away. Combine that with the skill upgrades, and you've got that whole Diablo II feeling, pushing you to progress.

The main reason this game has got such a hold on me is my recent introduction to the world of Nation Wars. Yes, I've managed to bag a few killmarks (an item that drops when you take down another player's gear), some quite a few levels above my own. It's a great feeling when, after firing off a few Edrills, you manage to take down the enemy gear that almost took you out in one hit. The fact that skill plays such an important part in combat levels the playing field considerably. No longer are you constantly killed by opposing players simply because they log on twice as much in a week as you do.

There, of course, is some bad that's crept up during my playing time. First, it's always annoying when the (much overpowered) enemy decides to invade the area you're currently attempting to level in. All too often will you be happily chasing down mobs when one missile, out of nowhere, turns your gear into a hulking wreck of smoke and metal. The other, far more annoying problem - present in every MMO out there - is the incessant bitching of other players. They get killed, it's your fault - you should have stopped grinding and joined the raid. I've heard this at least 20 times in my time playing, and I'm not exaggerating for effect.

That said, I'm still going to be playing SCO for quite some time, and I'm sure you're going to be hearing about it. Especially if you don't stop grinding and come to Bark City immediately.

Well, I'm Back

After a month long break I return, rested and refreshed, to the world of Avert Your Eyes. I'd been looking at Space Cowboy Online - a MMO/shooter hybrid - for quite some time now, as it seemed the sort of thing that would be right up my ally. This week I decided to take the plunge, and there is definitely a whole lot to like.

After spending more time patching the game client than I had spent downloading the 983MB installer, I finally made it to the character creation screen. The four "gears", as they're called, are SCO's equivalent of other MMO's classes. Only having four choices may seem limiting at first, especially since there is no branching out at later stages in the game, but different choices in equipment and stat point distribution can produce radically different characters. I, playing for the first time, decided to go for an I-Gear. After choosing your gear, you're introduced to the game's control system by a quick succession of tutorials.

After finishing the tutorial, you'll find yourself standing in Bygeniou city. This is where the game actually begins. You could just hit the Take Off button at this point and start taking out mobs left and right, but the game will take the liberty of offering you missions that help you level up a lot more quickly (I hit level 16 in my first session). These missions usually task you with killing a certain amount of a certain type of mob, but every now and then they mix it up by having you find some items laying around a map or (gasp!) fly through a cave.

The real time combat instantly makes the "grinding" inherent in every MMORPG much more enjoyable, simply because it's so fun. Barrel rolling to dodge enemy missiles and trying to get in to position to return a volley of your own is much more enjoyable than watching your character fight slowly, an eye on your skill refresh meter, wondering how it's possible for 15 seconds to last 30 seconds.

Unlike FlyFF (another GPotato game), which is fun but doesn't give you much motivation to level, Space Cowboy remedies the situation by offering up some very interesting PvP. Upon reaching level 11, you're offered the mission "Decision", which requires you to side with one of two warring nations: Bygeniou City United or Anti-National influence United (I picked the latter). This is the basis of the game's focus on large-scale PvP which, though I haven't yet participated, has got me very excited.

I've only seen a small portion of the game so far, so I'm going to wrap it up for this week. I'm sure that, as interested as I am here, I'll be writing about this one again.

The Odds Are Even

Had the Z-Lock Linux port dropped last week, bandwidth issues would not have not been able to stop the admittedly-very-stoppable force that is Avert Your Eyes. Created by Jumpei Isshiki, who you can also thank for Area 2028, Z-Lock is another amazing little shooter that manages to fit in a paltry 6mb archive.

Z-Lock's major gimmick is that the power of your ship's weapons are directly proportional to the number of enemies locked on to your ship at any given time. This serves two major gameplay purposes, the first being that odds that would otherwise be overwhelming are swayed a bit in your favor. The second is more interesting: the level of strategy it adds to the game. While smaller fighter-type ships are numerous, there are also larger, slower ships that take a lot of firepower to bring down. Do you take out the smaller enemies first, for safety's sake, or do you leave them hanging around to boost your firepower?

As I've come to expect from pretty much anything evilmrhenry ports to my operating system of choice, Z-Lock is a visually stunning game. No single element is responsible for this as, taken individually, the components are nothing more than simple geometric shapes. As a whole, however, the graphical elements are far more than the sum of their parts. While not as colorful as Area 2028's, the graphics are still a treat.

While it hasn't supplanted Gunroar as my favorite shoot-em-up, Z-Lock is a strong contender in the field. The sheer fun that occurs when you stop paying attention to other things and let yourself really get in to the game is not something to be missed.

I'll try to be back later on today with another update, but other things need to be taken care of first. If I don't return, there is always next week.

Oops: Part 2

The bandwidth issue I mentioned last week still stands. My remaining bandwidth is barely enough to get to the end of the month, and that's without downloading any large files of any sort. As I watch the floating point number trickle even further down, I realize - there is no way I can do a post this week. So, I'll return next week with either a super feature or a double feature. Either way, I'll do everything in my (extremely limited) power to make up for the two missed posts. See you next week.

Oops

I figured I'd just get this out of the way, rather than wait until next week to explain: there is not going to be a post this week (well, except for this small post which serves to explain that there is no post). I've only got a tiny fraction of my monthly bandwidth allotment remaining, no backlog of games to touch on, and no "special something" - this is, indeed, the fastest route to a no-post. Next week's post is near enough to the end of the month that I'll be in a much better position for downloading, so hold tight.

"I Will Revenge Grownup Lawolf"

Yeah, sorry about that. Once summer arrives it's much, much easier to miss a few weeks worth of posts than it is in the dreary depths of Northeastern mid-winter. Anyway, as I promised you a few weeks back, here are some of my impressions of FlyFF.

First things first - it's an MMORPG. Hence, it's got a lot of the elements that would cause one to describe the game as such, aside from what is clearly pointed out in the first three letters of the genre's quirky name. After you've played one of these types of games, you know pretty well what to expect from the next 15 or so. It's a combat focused MMO, so you're not going to find harvesting, crafting, or any of the trappings of a more complex game here. Luckily, it seems to work for FlyFF, at least in the early stages of the game.

The game's chibi styled characters and generally cartoon-ish look are reminiscent of R.O.S.E Online - something you may or may not find appealing. A less masculine version of myself might call the FlyFF's look charming. I'll just say that I have no problem with the graphics. Much like R.O.S.E, the enemies you find in the game are either cute, disturbing, or both at the same time. If you take a bit too long to think about it, you'll eventually realize that you've just murdered an entire village of serial-killer children. My advice? Just try not to think about it.

I haven't yet run into the "grind" that is the most recognizable trait of most games like these, as my character is only in the low 20s, but I've been assured that it is very much there. Once (or more likely, if) my Magician hits level 60, I'll be able to pick a more advanced job; but beyond that, there isn't much pushing you to level. This is a characteristic of myself I'm sure does not apply to many others, but I really need some motivation beyond "level up to get better gear to level up..." and so on and so forth.

Now, the flying. Yeah, sure, it's fun to an extent, but it serves more as a way to reach far-off places more quickly than it does a fun-dispensing device. This also brings up an interesting point - the economy. My Magician has already obtained the best board (it's like a snowboard, but it can fly!) available in the game, and it was nothing short of very easy to do so. I'm sure that this situation is not exactly what the designers intended. Inflated economies do eventually collapse, and they often tend to take a large section of the player base with them when they disappear.

The final verdict? I'm going to keep playing it here and there, for sure. The combat system is interesting enough (for an MMO, anyway), and the look of the environments is enough to push me to level, simply to be able to explore further, but that can only last so long. Definitely a good enough choice for making a few hours disappear here and there. Days? No.

With A Whimper

For a long time, it seemed like the moment of which we are now standing on the cusp might never come. Now that I'm staring it right in the face, I know that it has been in the back of my mind for quite a while. Ladies and gentlemen, it is with a somewhat heavy heart that I present to you this: the last Anarchy Online post ever.

Simply put, I couldn't do it anymore. When a game starts to feel like you have to play it, it just really isn't a game anymore. At least, not to me. I should have known what I was getting myself in to - I'm not a guild type of guy. I'm aware that the concept of being a loner in the world of MMORPGs might be an alien concept to some, if not many, but that (excuse me for using an awful RPG pun) is just how I "roll".

Just leaving the game is one thing. The manner in which I left, however, is another. Well, I just stopped showing up. At first, I was even trying to trick myself: "Maybe I'll feel like logging on again soon. Maybe this is just a break." I knew that wasn't true. It started slowly enough - first I stopped logging on often, then not at all, then I stopped even bothering to read the organization forums. Then, one day earlier this week, I uninstalled the game. Perhaps not the most tactful way for the second-in-command to leave his organization, I'll admit.

All that said, I feel great. Until now, whenever I was playing something that wasn't AO, it almost felt as if I was "cheating" on AO with the other game. That's no way to spend your gaming time. Now, I can actually enjoy gaming again, and that's no small victory. I'll be honest, I even feel like playing MMOs again. I'm just going to make sure not to get wrapped up in the game, so yes, it's back to being a loner for me.

Speaking of MMORPGs - I downloaded FlyFF (Fly For Fun) the day after I uninstalled AO. I've only made it to level 14, and you don't get to pick a job until level 15, so I haven't really seen much of the game yet. I will, though, and I'll be back with more on that next week.

Again, Not The Food

Sometimes, this project hits its rough spots. One of the problems of having an Open Source gaming focused blog is that, if nothing particularly interesting happens over the course of a week, you're left with no subject material. Two times in two weeks I was struck by this nasty occurrence (insert bitching about your favorite game never being mentioned on this site here) but, luckily, the drought has ended.

I'm consistently impressed with the quality of each Sauerbraten release, and the game is only getting better. The most recent update includes a whole slew of new features, maps, and other various improvements. Nexuiz also had a new release this week, a 2.0 release at that. I'll be honest - I'm becoming less and less optimistic about Nexuiz turning in to a game I'd actually like to play, so much so that I haven't bothered downloading it yet. I may not at all, only time will tell.

Back to Sauerbraten. It looks like Nexuiz won't be able to wave its "prettiest open source game" banner (something I never agreed with, anyway) for much longer. Full screen shader support made it in to the game with this release, allowing light bloom and all that stuff the kids go crazy for these days. It's in its infancy stages right now, but it looks quite good already. Enough about the graphics stuff - moving on.

The "Capture" gameplay type (along with the maps this game type takes place on) is, hands down, my favorite new feature. If you've played any of the "Battlefield *" games, you'll be quite familiar with the mechanics at work here. There are various control points scattered about the maps, and your objective is simple: control more of them than the other team does. The "Capture" maps are generally much larger and sprawling when compared to the deathmatch maps, further adding to the Battlefield-esque feel. Make no mistake though, this is still Sauerbraten - you're not playing this game looking for realism. You're still moving at around the equivalent of 60mph, and it's going to take a hell of a lot more than a few shots to bring you down.

The single player mode of the game has been greatly improved since the last release, feeling a little less Quake and a little more Quake 2. Checkpoints have been introduced at various points throughout the levels, and the general layout and design feels a lot more solid than Cube's singleplayer mode did. The respawn points alone are very handy, given the tendency of some of Sauerbraten's mappers to create brutal single player levels.

That's about it for this week, folks. If you already know and like Sauerbraten, make sure you get the new release. If you aren't familiar with Sauerbraten or Cube at all - download it anyway. I highly doubt that you'll be disappointed.

If Guns Can Roar, Can Lions Shoot?

The "special something" alluded to last week is something I've handily managed to avoid over the course of the days following. Needless to say, but said anyway - that's not something in the cards for today's post.

As someone who keeps as close an eye on the scene as I do, it's nothing other than a damn shame that it's taken me so long to get around to playing Kenta Cho's latest game, Gunroar. It's a mystery to me how one man can consistently create some of the best shooters I've ever encountered, but it's not necessarily one I'd like to see solved. All the Cho trademarks are in place: Abstract blocky yet startlingly beautiful graphics? Check. Crazy music? Check. Frequent boss battles? Check.

While I'm not sure yet if it's going to claim the place of my favorite of the "series", Gunroar is most definitely a strong contender. For the first time in a Kenta Cho game, the element of cover has been introduced in the form of islands scattered about the vertically scrolling levels, complete with emplaced weaponry. This seemingly inconsequential new element gives the shooting a much more tactical feel, as the islands do block shots.

You'll be warned of enemy ships from a distance, as you see their red tracking beams long before you see the ships themselves. Not only is this incredibly handy when the difficulty picks up, it's a nice looking effect as well. In fact, Gunroar may be Kenta Cho's best looking game yet, a fact not to be understated when discussing someone with such an impressive body of work under their belt. Particle effects fill the screen so completely that, at times, you may briefly become confused as to where on the screen your ship is. Luckily, in my time playing, this never became an issue that effected playability.

There are a large number of control schemes available, including gamepad support. The mode I found worked best for me was the "mouse" control scheme, which basically lets you control the game as you would a first person shooter - the WASD keys control movement and the mouse controls aiming.

If you enjoy shooters at all, and have an OpenGL capable videocard, do yourself a favor and download this game. It's only 5.5mb, so even the slowest dialup can fetch this game with ease. If this is your first Kenta Cho shooter, be warned, you'll probably download the rest immediately after trying Gunroar.

Wii-bles Wobble, But They Don't Fall Down

Weeks without posts are starting to become routine around here, but let me assure you, I'm not exactly happy about the current state of affairs. Last week I was still halfheartedly absorbing the E3 coverage, and the only game I'd played all week was the latest alpha of OpenArena, which is in such an alpha state that it didn't really deserve it's own post. Anyway, more on that later.

As I'm sure most folks are aware, Nintendo's Wii had a good time at E3 - enough so that people aren't talking exclusively about the name anymore, but not enough to stop people from dubbing the controller the "Wiimote". I've got to say, over the past week my opinion of the system has shifted from something I was merely keeping an eye on, to something I'm genuinely interested in. If the price point is as low as some people are speculating, I'm even more interested. There's just the one problem, something I was discussing with a friend the other day - I'm not a kid anymore.

When I'm gaming, my primary reason for doing do is to relax. My days of jumping around like someone being stung by bees on the mat that came with the NES Track and Field game are, how do you say, over. I really can't see myself standing ready for battle, sweat on my brow, swinging the controller, shouting "Hyah!", or "Take that!" with each thrust of my pseudo-sword. It's something my neighbors could probably do without as well, especially since I do most of my gaming at night. I suppose we'll see. If the same results can be achieved in a more relaxed fashion, I'll really be inclined to take a look at the system.

I mentioned OpenArena at the top of the post, or rather, I mentioned it's un-postworthy-ness. I suppose, coming from the Linux world, I'm used to the possibility of things labeled alpha being usable. OpenArena is not one of these pieces of software yet. It has a lofty goal for sure - to (as the name implies) implement a completely free (as in freedom) version of Quake 3: Arena. Hey, I'm all for that. But, for now, there's just not a whole lot there. I'm in no way writing the game off, and I'll revisit it again for sure, but there's just not much you can do with the game in it's current state.

Well, that's about all I've got prepared for this week. I've been planning on doing a "special feature" of sorts for the past few months, but it keeps getting sidetracked. Seeing as the loyal people still reading after all the missed posts deserve something special, I'm going to try to pull it together for next week. See, AYE is pretty much a "Oh crap, it's Thursday, what the hell am I going to write about?" thing most of the time, and this is going to take a bit more time than that. Anyway, if it's not up next week, it is on the way, so stay tuned.

Two To The Uh Oh

Once again, apologies are in order due to two weeks of missed posts. Every time update day has come around I've felt like a wet sack of sick - something that doesn't exactly manage to put me in the prime mood for posting. Anyway, enough of that. The linux installer for the 2.0 version of Glest came out on Monday, so I figured I'd give it a whirl and try out the new techs/units.

Although both factions have received some fancy new units and tech upgrades, a lot of the focus seems to have gone towards the Magic faction. It definitely needed it. Previously, Magic was a heck of a lot harder to win a game with than Tech - now it's just somewhat harder. Units still don't seem to stand head to head with the opposite faction's rough equivalents - the new Golems are too slow to be of any use (they're basically defense structures that can move), Drake Riders seem to keel over nearly instantly, and the new Daemons (whatever the hell comes from a Wicker Daemon, I can't remember the name at the moment) don't seem much stronger than their lower-class brethren.

Still, it's the same old Glest we've come to know and love. Maybe a bit too much so, considering this is not a point release upgrade. I'd have loved to see more new maps, maybe a new tileset, and maybe some refinement in the pathfinding code. Hang on a second, what's that other thing? That thing I can hear people screaming off in the distance? Oh yeah. Multiplayer. Actually, I don't give a rat's ass (or any other part of it, for that matter) about multiplayer. Maybe I will when I stop getting my ass handed to me by the (non-Ultra mode) AI.

That handily brings me around to a subject that I've managed to safely avoid over the course of the 2+ years I've been doing AYE - I absolutely suck at real time strategy games. How I still suck at one of my favorite genres is a complete mystery to me. Turn based, that I can handle - I know my way all around Alpha Centauri; Final Fantasy Tactics is like taking candy from a baby; whatever Wesnoth (the AI, not other people) throws at me, I can handle. Change the "T" to an "R", and suddenly I'm curled up in the fetal position on the floor as flames cover the entire viewing area on my monitor, tiny enemy tanks rumbling over the ruins of my base, pissing on my corpse.

I don't know why I continue to take the abuse, but I know that I do. As long as there are games like Glest around to drag me through the dirt - I'll cough it up, wipe the blood from my chin, and grab back on. Keep up the good work, folks.

Out With The Old... In With The New

Sorry about the missed post last week. A). I was doing some maintenance on my main box, which ran a bit longer than I expected B). I haven't been doing anything gaming-wise besides playing AO over the past two weeks or so. This week, I'd planned on writing up Glest 2.0, but I'm having a fuck of a time getting it to build, so I suppose I'll hold out for the installer. So get ready for yet another of installment of "What's Going On With Anarchy Online". Go ahead and hit the back button on your browser... now.

For a while there, I was starting to think we were dying out. People started to show up less often, then not at all. I hadn't seen our President in weeks. Eventually even my best buddy within the group hightailed it the fuck out of town. Sure, he gave me his gear, but what the hell was I going to do with it alone? I'm a fucking Trader. It seemed that, at this point, all that was left was for someone to come by and hammer a few nails into the top of our collective coffin, make it official. We weren't dying out. We were already dead.

I'd all but given up. Sure, I'd continue to show my polygonal face, it's something I couldn't not do, but I didn't expect much more than that from myself. When I logged in and saw people - people I didn't know, I was pleasantly surprised. When they kept on coming, well fuck, I damn near shed a tear. Our population had more than doubled, literally overnight. And they're still coming.

Of course, there are going to be a few bad eggs when you have such a large volume of people coming in to the organization so quickly. We're going to have to keep an eye out, and it's not going to be fun having to boot people, but it's a necessary evil. Most of the people coming in are great - a lot of them are quite new to the game so they have the eagerness to explore, excitement, and intensity that the few of us who were hanging around had been loosing. It's hard not to get caught up in their enthusiasm, to the point that it's really reignited my love of the game.

That about wraps it up for this week, you brave few who have continued reading up until this point. You deserve something special, but I doubt I'll be the one to deliver said thing. I'm figuring if nothing comes down the pike between now and next week, I'll boot in to "the partition whose name shall not be spoken" and give Glest 2.0 a whirl.

Mix 'Em Together - Then You've Got Something

Well, fuck. The GDC has come and gone, and there's not an awful lot to say. Both keynotes I mentioned being interested in last week turned out to be reiterations of what we already been told so far. All in all, it was a real lackluster year for the GDC. So, forget that - I'm not going to rehash the same info you've been reading all week. Two of my current favorite games in the open source scene - Sauerbraten and GalaxyMage - got updates this week. Read on for details.

The latest release of Sauerbraten has two main features. The first - the addition of the Grenade Launcher - finally has me understanding what the whole "Physics Edition" business was in the last release. Although the projectile it fires doesn't exactly look like you would expect it to, it does act how you would expect it to. It's definitely a fun weapon to play around with, especially bouncing grenades around corners, but I have noticed that, at times, there is quite a distinct "skating on ice" effect when the grenade is moving across the floor. I'm sure this will be taken care of in a future release.

The title of this release is "Shader Edition", which gives you a pretty good idea of what the other major new feature in Sauerbraten is. This one, of course, doesn't have any effects on game balance or anything else besides the visual aspect of the game, so I can't really say I feel too strongly about it. Your weapons, as well as the various powerups and various static meshes peppered throughout the levels are all shiny now - that's it. I've noticed that mesh heavy maps take a performance hit from the new shader effects, so it's something mappers are going to have to take into consideration.

GalaxyMage basically has one major update for this release - Network play. Sadly, this mode isn't fully implemented yet. When selecting multiplayer you get a nice unfriendly screen asking you to input the IP address of the server you want to connect to. I've talked about this before, and my opinion on the matter hasn't changed any since the last time I mentioned it. I have good faith that the GalaxyMage team will pick up the slack and tack on a server browser some time in the near future.

Even if they do, I doubt I'll ever experience GalaxyMage's multiplayer mode. In my eyes, this type of turn-based strategy-RPG gameplay just doesn't seem to work in the online world. I'm sure this is an area where opinion vary wildly, but I just can't see it. At the moment, all the multiplayer mode means to me is that I had to install Twisted.

Well folks, that's it for this week. I've no idea what's coming down the pike for next week, so we'll just see what happens between now and then.

GDC '06 - Part 1

While writing last week's post, I completely forgot that the GDC (Game Developers Conference, for the uninitiated) was going to be happening this week. The aforementioned conference makes up the bulk of this post, but not the entirety. Warning - there are a whole lot of links to Gamasutra, which may require you to register at some point. You can probably use BugMeNot, but honestly I'd deem Gamasutra as a register-worthy site.

First things first. Reaffirming that good things can still happen to good people, Darwinia won the top prize at the Independent Games Festival Awards - something I was hoping would happen. The awards ceremony's bigger, louder brother - the Game Developers Choice Awards, was basically swept by three games. Shadow Of The Colossus was the big winner, an event I have absolutely no problems with. Nintendogs and Guitar Hero were the other big winners, with Psychonauts putting in a small appearance.

On to the GDC. There were two major keynotes at the event yesterday, the first of which was the Sony keynote. Phil Harrison was the main speaker, although there were quite a few others showcasing PS3 demos. Apparently, what was shown was not that different than what we've seen and heard before, but there was a very interesting tidbit thrown out in the Q&A session after the keynote - the PS3 will be region free. Not the system itself, of course, but the software. That's great news already, but it gets me wondering if it will play PS1/PS2 games region-free as well. Not being a mod chip type of fellow, this could finally give me the chance to get my hands on some imports I've always wanted.

The next keynote speaker was Ron Moore (Slashdot link so you can see Cylon misspelled as Pylon), formerly of Star Trek fame, who is now working on Battlestar Galactica. It didn't have an awful lot to with games, from the coverage I've read, but it does give me a long-awaited opportunity to mention who much of a Battlestar Galactica fan I am. The original show I watched for the same reason I watch MacGyver - the cheese factor. The new one is just, well, I don't know what to say except that it's the only show on television I try not to miss an episode of.

That's it for now, but there are two keynotes of interest going on today that I'd like to cover - Satoru Iwata with some info on the Nintendo Revolution (I believe that keynote is going on as I type this) and Will Wright (Spore, man, Spore!), so if I get the chance, I'll be back later today with more on those. Otherwise, you'll get more GDC goodness next week.

Consider This A Stew

Sorry about the missed post last week, this is becoming too frequent. As the title suggests, this is another hodge-podge post, sort of summing up what would've been mentioned last week and this week's happenings all at once.

First off - Final Fantasy XII was finally released yesterday (sorry about the 1up link). Of course, there are still many months to go until the game makes it out of Japan, but we're getting closer. This particular iteration has had more mixed feelings in the previews than any other Final Fantasy game this side of XI. Honestly, the game could score 1/10 ratings across the board and I'd pick it up without a second thought. When you've got the art director from Final Fantasy IX onboard, that's all I need to know.

I suppose that last week's missed post could be considered a blessing in disguise, as all you would have gotten is a short post about Triplex Invaders. Don't get me wrong, Triplex Invaders is an awesome "schmup", but there really isn't enough material there for a whole post. The game looks awesome, think Kenta Cho's shooters, but even more psychedelic. The game plays, well, like a shooter. The controls are tight, enemies are huge, and the explosion effects are satisfying. Throw in the fact that it's written in my language of choice, and you get a big thumbs up from me.

Things start to move faster at this point, so keep up.Sauerbraten has some more servers up now, and I've been playing quite a bit of the game. It's a bit of a shame that some of my favorite maps have yet to show up in a server rotation, but I keep logging on, hoping to see one of them loaded up. I tried to check out Stendhal, something I've been meaning to do for a while. The catch? I figured I'd run it on my old laptop, which apparently is not up to the task. I might have more on that next week, once I try it out on my main machine.


That's pretty much it for this week, loyal readers. With some more time on my hands, hopefully I can have a double feature up next week, but only time will tell. Anarchy Online can be a demanding mistress, for which an unheeded call can be disastrous. If I can break the spell of the siren song, there is hope.

No, Not The Food

Sauerbraten finally popped up on the Linux Game Tome this week, with a release that actually came out late last month. Since it is, after all, the successor to Cube, every release is a reason for me to be excited. The engine has taken shape, so the next few releases should be when it starts to get "really good".

The download is listed as "Physics Edition", and I'll admit, I don't know what that means. At the moment, the gameplay feels nearly identical to that of Cube, but I'll admit I haven't found a multiplayer game going yet, so my speculation is based purely on the single player modes. Speaking of that, the few single player maps included in the package far outclass even the best of Cube's single player maps. It's still pretty much Doom with every dial turned up to 11, but that is hardly a complaint in my book.

Of course, as with it's predecessor, Sauerbraten's main focus is on the multiplayer game. The multiplayer maps (and there are already a ton included) are really impressive. While my two current favorites - "moonlight" and "darkdeath" have already been around for a while, there are plenty of new and impressive maps that have come out since the last release I grabbed. "metl3" has made its way over from Cube, and "roughinery", "serpentine", and "face-classic" have all been ported over from the UT series. "legoland", which is exactly what its name would suggest, is absolutely surreal. There are even a few maps, such as "ladder" and "spiralz" that exist simply as a reference for mappers. If you really want to see how promising the engine is, take a look at the sprawling RPG maps included.

The biggest additional improvement over Cube is the absolutely gorgeous lighting/shadow effects. The aforementioned "metl3" looks significantly better than its Cube incarnation as a result. "nmp7" is another map with some brilliant lighting. Some other minor tweaks include better particle effects and it seems that textures can now be "fullbright". Either that or it's just another case of excellent lighting.

Now, I find myself wishing for two things. The first and more easily attainable is for some more servers to pop up. I'm seriously jonesing for some deathmatch action to test out the playability of the new maps. The second is to see some other projects start up using the Sauerbraten engine. As easy as it is to create maps, it would be great to see some mods with altered gameplay come to the scene.

So, come on. Give this baby a download, and we'll get this party started.

Update: I've had a chance to play a bit of Sauerbraten online, and it definitely plays as tight as Cube. I still don't really understand the bit about "Physics Edition" - the only difference I've noticed is that the "bouncing" effect on stairs seemed ramped up a bit. The larger, sprawling maps definitely make the Instagib mode quite a bit more enjoyable since you can have a fun time with more than four players. We still need some more servers online so, if you're that type, fire it up.

I Really Couldn't Think Of A Title

A no post last week was bad enough, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you somewhat hanging again this week, as I'm rather sick. So I don't feel entirely guilty about this, I'll give you a quick rundown of my recent gaming activities, and maybe expand on some later if said expansion is required.

First off, just as I said I would, I gave Nexuiz another look, even if it took me a bit longer than I expected to. Long story short - I still dislike the game as much as the last time I played it. The CTF mode, albeit welcome, didn't do much to mitigate the effects of all the other parts of the game I don't like. By the way, I still don't find the graphics all that special - yes, even for an open source game. When I see the "it looks better than some commercial games!" comments (look at the Tome entry linked above), I can't help but wonder what games these people are playing.

I finally got around to checking out Narcissu, which is one of the most depressing things I've ever encountered. It's very well done, and the translation is solid, but stay away from this one if you're looking for something cheery. That's pretty much all I'm going to say about this one, anything else would be superflous.

I also checked out Outgun, which I suppose could be an alright game. I've only had the chance to play with the (newly introduced) bots, so the verdict is still out on this one, as I'm sure the game is entirely different with a little strategy thrown into the mix.

Well, the post ended up being a bit longer than I thought, but I still owe you folks something special. Check back next week, when I expect to be healthier.

Loki: The God, Not The Publisher

Before we get started, apologies again for the underwhelming start to this season of AYE. Anyway, the Linux version of the Northland demo hit today, and since I'd never managed to get into the beta, I figured I'd give it a try. The game has obviously aged a bit at this point, but I came away from the demo feeling much more impressed with Northland than I had prepared myself for.

The first thing that struck me is that Northland has a lot of charm working in it's favor. From the little bit of music that plays when two of your Vikings get married, to the grunts and other audio cues given when your minions receive an order, the atmosphere of the game is well fleshed out. Graphically the game, while somewhat simplistic, has a very distinct cartoonish look. It's somewhat strange, since at first glance it may cause the game to seem lacking in depth, which is certainly not the case.

Even the amount of depth in managing your villagers, while not readily apparent, is nearly staggering once you move past the beginning stages. A series of tutorials is available to introduce you to the finer points of the game, and that is certainly appreciated, although the tutorials themselves could use some work. At a few points during the tutorial I happened to find situations where a simple mistake such as marrying a citizen to the wrong person, or turning the wrong farmer into a miller, left me unable to continue.

Combat in Northland is much as it is in similar title and honestly, my least favorite part of the game. This is, obviously, a personal preference - I'm the type of gamer who could tinker away with my town indefinitely. The economic simulation adds another interesting layer of depth to the game, and the combat certainly isn't bad, but I found managing the villagers needs and improving my village as a whole the most enjoyable part of the demo.

The game isn't actually available for Linux yet, but according to RuneSoft, it should be out soon enough. There seems to be a lot to do in the demo, especially if you're like and enjoy the village management, or if you're the type who will play through scenarios with different tactics. Definitely one of the more interesting commercial titles for Linux I've tried recently.

I Call It Pulling A Megatokyo

What a way to kick off the new season. I woke up today feeling fine - not so much now. Sorry about the no-post, folks. I'll make it up to you next week.

Level 3

Two days short of two years ago, Avert Your Eyes started off with the same vague ramblings that most sites like this do. I'd never planned on updating with any amount of frequency. In fact, I'll let you all in on a little secret - the only reason AYE updates on Thursdays is that, after a few weeks, I realized all my posts had been on Thursdays and decided it was a fine enough day to update. This week we're taking a look back at the past year, which henceforth shall be known as "The Year With Many Missed Updates".

I ended up writing about the Darwinia demo a mere two weeks after voicing my concerns about Steam. Strange, that - as less than a year later, Darwinia is being distributed through that vile service. That said, it's still great to see such an amazing game finally get some of the spotlight time it deserves. Hopefully it'll get some attention in the independents portion the next time I "cover" the GDC.

I suppose 2005 was a year for firsts as, at the very least, it saw me try my hand at "playing" a creepy visual novel. Another first? Me not liking a space-based game. Another? The complete awesomeness of the Spore video. The year also saw the first time I actually received a rebuttal of sorts from a disgruntled team member. By the way, sorry to say it Nexuiz folks, but your game hasn't gotten any better. I'll be over here playing Warsow while you're working on it. Last, but not least, you can't mention firsts without mentioning NERO.

Before I wrap this up, I'm going to give credit where credit is due and mention some of my favorite games that saw their first releases during AYE's last "season". Some of them I've already mentioned above, such as Darwinia and NERO. Other favorites of mine include Glest, GalaxyMage, and a handful of abstract shooters that finally made their way over to Linux.

Thanks to everybody who's stuck around and kept reading the site through all the missed posts, I'm going to try to make that happen less during the next "season". Although I did complain a little bit, it's been a great 12 months for the scene - let's hope it keeps up the momentum.

Like Mixed Nuts, Only Not

Yeah, yeah - I've been missing for two weeks. I guess that's what happens when I walk the streets with a bag on my head and a sign that says "You don't get this joke". Kudos to you if you did. Anyway, given my recent absence, today's post is going to be a hodge podge of a few different things. On to item the first.

It seems that the team behind a game I've always had quite the soft spot for - UFO: Alien Invasion - has gone MIA. Well, that was actually rather apparent a year ago. Anyway, fear not. It seems some enterprising members of our community have stepped up to pick up the workload. If you read what is currently the top post on the LGT page linked above, it seems their missing a few files, so if you happen to have what they're looking for, help 'em out. Watch out! It's item the second.

GalaxyMage has been rolling along rather steadily, hitting us with a 0.2 release that's huge improvement over what was already a very solid 0.1 release. The new features packed in are surprisingly in abundance. Terrain smoothing, random maps, new character classes, and improved A.I. are just a few. While there's still no apparent mouse control, the keyboard controls are as solid as the last release. Not to mention, they do add to the console feel of the game. I've got to say again that I'm really impressed with how this project is coming along. You knew it had to be coming, didn't you? Item the third.

Things have been damn fun in Anarchy Online lately, and apparently I've made a good name for myself within my organization. Last week I received a promotion to Squad Commander, meaning a whole lot more responsibility for myself. Granted, I've noticed this has caused me to log in quite a few times more because I felt like I should than that I really wanted to play. New responsibilities haven't stopped me from gaining level 80 and a nice shiny Yalmaha, which was actually bought for me by an org-mate who I now owe my soul, ass, and my sole ass. This turn of events effectively locks the door I had left open for myself as an escape route, meaning I'm not going to stop playing AO any time soon.

Well, hopefully this week's installment makes up for the lack of posts over the last two weeks. Anything I've forgotten to mention, I'm sure you've already read somewhere else. Next week is going to be special, as it's A.Y.E's 2nd anniversary post, so make sure to stop by.

The Sequel Will Be Called: UniverseKnight

This week, you get a bit of a break from the deluge of Anarchy Online related posts. That break comes in the form of GalaxyMage, another entry into the ever-growing lineup of Open Source strategy games, but this one's got a twist. GalaxyMage takes the form of a Strategy RPG (although the GM team seems to prefer the term "tactical RPG"), much like Final Fantasy Tactics and mostly everything Nippon Ichi has ever done.

It's no surprise that I downloaded GalaxyMage the minute, no the second, no the very millisecond I saw it pop up on the Tome. Chances are, between the Playstation and GBA versions of Final Fantasy Tactics, I've spent more time playing those games than I have breathing. Really, this is the kind of project I've been waiting for someone to start (and have thought about starting myself) for years. I would have found myself quite inconsolable if, after all these years spent twitching in anticipation, the game was a turd.

Luckily, it's not. GalaxyMage is still in a very early state - the sprite graphics have been taken from Wesnoth and the maps aren't anything that's going to knock you out of your chair - but, it's completely playable. Not that half-assed "Well, it's playable online if you know your friend's IP address" crap either, its got AI. This is a far cry from most of GalaxyMage's Open Source brethren, and earns the game a huge amount of brownie points in my book.

If you've ever played Final Fantasy Tactics, you'll be able to play the game as soon as you find out what key does what. The battle system is nearly identical, of course with the names of skills and such things changed. There seems to be, as far as I can tell, no character advancement system in the game at this point in time, but I'm sure that one is planned.

You'll probably see me writing about this game again - probably more than once. As good as GalaxyMage is in such an early state, it looks like the Wesnoth team may have some competition for the top of the Linux strategy heap on the way.

The Better Team

So, in case you were wondering - Yes, I picked a character. Yes, I'm going to make you wait longer before I tell you, as to build suspense. Yes, this is another post about Anarchy Online. Proceed.

It's the Trader, I picked the Trader. Yeah, I know, what a surprise. I picked the only character I've played in months. Anyway, there are other reasons I decided to stay with my lovable cash-hungry wrangle jockey. In last week's post (referenced above) I mentioned that my character was, how do you say, without an organization. Well, he's alone no more. As of Sunday evening, I'm proud to say I've joined an org - a great bunch of folks they are, too.

The aforementioned organization will, of course, remain nameless. I can say that I've had such a great time since joining, AO has almost become a different game. Pickup teams - although I'm sure I haven't seen the last of them for good - have gone to being my bread and butter to the equivalent of fast food. I haven't yet met a member of the organization who was an asshole - hell, I haven't met a member who I haven't liked immediately, and I'm not the type of person who goes around liking every person they meet. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I was a bit worried at first that joining an organization (or guild, if you'd prefer) might sap into my time for doing things such as blitzing missions, buying new weapons or, um, blitzing missions. Luckily, that hasn't been the case. If I need the time to do something along those lines (and I have needed it, what with installing a whole new set of implants and trying to blitz a new set of armor) it's mine, nobody's going to bother me about it.

One thing I am a bit worried about, a thing that worries me about the entire MMO genre, is that with my newfound organization, I'll lose out on time for playing other games. I'm sure I'll pull through - after all, if pretty much everyone in the world who does a webcomic can get their work done while remaining completely addicted to World Of Warcraft, I'm sure I can find time in my busy schedule for a few more games. See you next week folks.

The Good Team

Before anything else is said, apologies are definitely in order. The circumstances surrounding the absence of the last two weeks' posts (and the lateness of this one) are not something I'm going to get into - it should suffice to say that I'd be very surprised if an army of orcs ever tried to invade my house again. It's a sad occurrence, as this marks AYE's 100th post. To see it delayed is to see my own insides wrapped around themselves in a glistening knot of pain. Anyway, it's yet another AO post.

My Trader has been hanging around the Temple of the Three Winds the last couple of days and, being a Trader, it's not like I can just run in there alone and solo everything. Teaming is a necessity, albeit one that usually comes with more than it's share of pitfalls. Lately, though, I'm starting to wonder if some sort of mystical change is taking place in the world of AO. It's the teams - they've... been good. Not just good enough either, I am proud to say that I've been in some damn good teams this last week.

Pick-up teams, as they're called, are all I've got. My character has no Organization (like a guild or clan in other games, for those of you who don't play AO) and no friends (yeah, I know, go ahead and start sobbing now). Well, that last part isn't entirely true, it's just that I haven't seen anyone on my friends list actually logged on in months. So, while the elite (no, not the l33t) sit back knowing they can team whenever they want it, I have no such luxury. I can only hope that some people around my level feel like teaming, and that they'll invite me to their team.

Most of time, I know what's going to happen before the first mob is targeted. This is ToTW we're talking about, not team missions which have the effect of forcing a little team work, whether you want it or not. No, this is ToTW - even if you're not killed instantly, chances are your teammates will train, kill-steal, and generally be assholes to any team in the vicinity. When you find a team who does none of the above, has people who actually know how to play their classes, and just generally stomps on through any mob they may meet, well, you can see why it brings a tear to my eye.

Next week, depending, we may bear witness to the final showdown between my two characters. At last, both the same level - the decision must be made. Who will level beyond 65? Who will continue the down the noble path laid out at both of their feet? Who will... well, you get the picture. Stay tuned, folks.

The Sweet Smell Of Free

...And we're back. It's been quite a while since an Anarchy Online related post, so that's what this week is going to be all about. Go ahead and groan, I hear you.

So far, I've only gotten my Trader up to level 55. That's not an awful lot, taking into account how many months I've had the character. The other character, my Adventurer, is only level 65. So, we'll knock off ten levels as part of the MMO formula that as levels go up they come slower - and we realize that, were I playing one character, after nearly a year I'd only have a level 110 character in a game where the max is 200(+20 with expansions). What's the point of this, you almost but don't quite ask? Read on, and all will be revealed.

The point I was trying to get to was this: There's quite a few good reasons I don't like the idea of paying monthly fees for a game, and the above paragraph is one of them. In a game where I'll go a month or so without looking at it, I really don't want it eating up my cash just to sit there on my hard drive - ready, shall I ever need it. Nor do I want some sort of 21 day game card solution where every time I let my character sit idle in the game for a second while I hit the bathroom it's costing me money.

I used to look at the AO message boards and, upon seeing the multiple "That's it. I quit!" threads, I'd always think: "Why don't you just stop playing the game for a while?" I could never understand the fanaticism at hand whenever a character class had some changes made: "Play another character, that's what I'd do". I guess you start to look at things a little differently if your character has literally cost you hundreds of dollars to hold on to. Now I'm actually starting to understand a bit.

Hey folks, go ahead and bitch about that new profession nerf - you deserve it, you paid for it. Me? I'll be over here. With my money.

Now With 100% More Seething Fury!

I suppose that today continues the new policy of picking a random game from the front page of The Linux Game Tome when nothing more pressing is at hand. At least that's what it was supposed to be, but I'll get to that... right now.

This week's pick is VDrift, a racing game. Now, I've been known to enjoy a few racing games in my time but, until now, all of my experience with the genre has been on consoles. Why? Quite simply, I don't own a gamepad. I know they're not exactly something hard to find, but since most of the PC games I play are best played with a mouse/keyboard control system, it's never been high on my list of priorities. Somewhat sadly, I never even got the chance to see how the cars would control with a keyboard, as the game (at least the most recent binary version, which is the version I downloaded) is broken.

I'm not even going to mention the various troubles I had even getting the game to run in the first place, aside from mentioning that if you plan to try running the game without installing it first, you'll need some luck. What really got me is this: The game comes with no default controls configured. The first time I tried to actually play the game, I was greeted with an idling but entirely unresponsive vehicle. I figured I'd take a look in the control section of the options menu and figure out what key did what. Much to my surprise, they were all unbound.

It was a pain in the ass, but I'm not so elitist that I can't be bothered to bind my own controls - that is, as long as it's really possible. Every time I tried binding a key to the accelerator, hitting the key would simply floor the pedal. It was quite effective at stalling the vehicle, but nothing more. The brake key did nothing to alleviate the problem, and there was no binding I could find for deceleration. Frustrated, I tried reinstalling the game a few different ways - wiping out any traces left behind (such as ~/.vdrift) each time. No luck. So, long story short: I'm not playing VDrift right now, I haven't yet played it and, as annoyed as I'm feeling right now, I won't ever play it again.

When the game's README file says things about pressing certain keys to do certain things, it can reasonably be expected that these keys will, in fact, do certain things upon being pressed. It's not fucking rocket science to hard-code some default controls. I know how these things are done, and it's absolutely bullshit that the game is downloadable in such a state. Apparently, from the messages listed in VDrift's Tome entry, compiling the game is an exercise in masochism as well.

Sorry, VDrift folks. Maybe instead of having flashy polls on your web site about which car should be included next, or whether car interior details are more important that more cars or tracks, you should be putting in a little time to ensure that the game runs on a system that's not your own.

Update From The Future: Forgot to post, here it is.

Well, I'm Back.

So, first things first, apologies are in order. Due to a seemingly conspiratorial series events including the unexpected longevity of an aforementioned sickness, long-term power outages, and a whole lot of being busy with other things, this site has been update free for two weeks now. For that, I'm sorry. The business mentioned above is largely the culprit for yet another problem - I had absolutely no idea what to write today. So, from now on, a new policy can be considered in effect: Whenever I've got nothing else planned, I'm just going to pluck a random game from the front page of The Linux Game Tome, give it a go, and relate my experiences.

This week's pick was Warsow, another entry into the ever growing pool of multiplayer-focused first person shooters appearing on the Tome. I wasn't expecting much going in, which isn't to say I was expecting to be disappointed. It's just that after a while, all the various deathmatch oriented shooters seem to blend together into one twitching mass, at least to me. In a way, I got what I had been expecting, but I did end up quite pleasantly surprised by what I found.

The first thing you'll notice about Warsow is that it has a whole lot going for itself in the style department. It's a Quake 2 based engine(QFusion I believe it's called), but it's cell-shaded - definitely a first for free FPS games. Most of the other features games like Nexuiz and Alien Arena have been cropping up with, such as light bloom, are also in effect. It's not this that really caught my eye, though - I've seen these effects before. It's the way they're used that really shines. The wdm2 map is one of my favorite deathmatch maps ever - credit definitely goes to the way it plays (we'll get to that in a second), but the look of the level is so unique but, at the same time, cohesive - it's a level of immersion I've rarely felt in a deathmatch situation. Not to mention, light bloom (and related new, shiny effects) look much better in a clean, crisp sci-fi setting than they do elsewhere.

When I first started up a local server and took a look around the maps, I wasn't sure if a game with so much style would have any gameplay to go with it. Luckily, it plays just as tight as any of it's peers, even Cube (which is a huge plus in my book). Since I just grabbed it today I've only had an hour or two online with it, but the DM games I took part in (both free for all and team varieties) played smooth and fast. The weapons don't stray from the standard shooter pantheon but they are represented well, and they look and sound great for the most part. Sounds in general are good - the power up and character sounds are especially good, although the rocket launcher sounds lack a little "oomph".

Warsow has definitely got a whole lot of promise. It's only got a small handful of maps, but the gameplay is already solid. Once they've had some more time to add some maps (capture the flag is apparently already supported, just no maps yet), it should be even better. Frankly, it's my favorite of the current multiplayer FPS games floating around.

Sick Day

Sorry, folks, but no post this week. I'm just feeling too ill to produce one. I'll try to make up for it next week with something special.

Who Needs 'Em Anyway?

If you read Slashdot with a fair amount of frequency, or even if you don't, it's safe to assume that you may have stumbled upon this tidbit by this point. For various debatable reasons, Yahoo (a site I'm sure you can find without my linkage) has decided to close off it's chat rooms to anyone under the age of 18. I'm sure you're thinking: what does this have to do with an obscure videogaming website? Well, I'll tell you. Just give me a moment.

The fact is, as someone who hates children, I'm all for this. Not that I'm the sort who frequents chat rooms - in fact, outside of videogames, it's a concept completely outside of my range of vision. What I'm hoping for here is that, eventually, people under the age of 18 will be barred from any sort of online activity. Videogames, message boards, chat rooms: you name it, they're not allowed. Far from a utopian society, but a step in the right direction nonetheless.

We've got enough of a problem already with the above 30 crowd who decide they're going to rekindle the magic of their youth by never capitalizing the letter "I". Cut out the teenagers who think that words can actually be spelled with numbers and I'll be pretty happy. Ban them from voice chat in online games and I will ensure that you will be paid handsomely, even if it's in blood.

To be serious, this whole measure is entirely overboard on Yahoo's part. It would not surprise me in the least if this decision was reversed in a few weeks time: both Yahoo and Eliot Spitzer doing their best to act as if A.) this never happened, and B.) if it did, they were totally cool for doing it, but they didn't so... back to A.

Anyway, next week will be back to normal (ie. something actually about games), so stay tuned.

That Shadow Could Hide A City

Much to my surprise, I received a Shadow Of The Colossus demo disc in the mail this week. I'd been interested in the game ever since I first heard rumors of a sequel to Ico, so I quickly popped the disc in and gave it a whirl.

As soon as you've passed the logo screens, you can see a strong similarity to Ico in terms of art direction. In the world of videogames, the word "cinematic" in thrown around with such frequency that its meaning has effectively become lost in the rubble. Shadow Of The Colossus, alongside its predecessor, is part of a small handful of games that actually deserve the term. The first time you mount your horse and start to travel, you'll be impressed. As soon as you catch a glimpse of one of the game's titular colossi, you'll be picking your jaw up from the floor with your hands.

Similarities to Ico don't end in the art department. The pseudo-sequel inherits Ico's loose, almost floppy feeling control system. This allows more realistic animation of the player character, and it looks damn good doing so, but the controls do take some getting used to. Once you're used to them, they feel like a perfect fit and you'll find yourself wondering how you ever found them clumsy.

The colossi themselves are, by far, the most impressive aspect of the game. Taller than some skycrapers - they are, in effect, giant moving portions of the game world. The sense of scale is simply amazing. Trying to hang on while the colossus at hand is doing its damned best to shake you off is a pretty harrowing experience, especially when you've still got a long way to ascend to its weak spot. Weak spots on the colossi are found by raising your sword to focus the light on the titan. It sounds easy, and most of the time it is, but sometimes it can take a while, and you can't just stand there while a colossus is swinging a hammer the size of a three story office building at you.

Shadow Of The Colossus is really a game that needs to be seen in motion to truly be appreciated. I had seen quite a few screenshots before and, impressive as they were, they didn't hold a candle to seeing the game move. More so, Shadow really needs to be played, not watched, to get the most out of the experience. Try the demo if you can, otherwise just buy the fucking game, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Anarchy Online: Now With More Green!

Sorry about this one being a day late, my bad. I suppose it's alright, though, seeing as it gave me some time to try out the Anarchy Online 16.0 patch.

This patch has been pretty highly anticipated within the AO community, as it contains quite a few major updates. The one you'll notice right off the bat is that the ground textures have been updated, which gives quite a different look to areas otherwise unchanged. As a side note, this had absolutely no impact performance-wise on my system. If you do find that game running slower than normal, it's possible to set a lower texture quality through the in-game options.

There have been other major changes, most notably the look of the city of Old Athen, which now bears little resemblance to itself a few days ago. The layout of the city has remained the same, for the most part, so it's pretty unlikely that you're going to get lost due to the city's face-lift. If you're the sort of person who constantly gets lost in Old Athen (and they do exist), you're probably not going to notice a difference.

I, as someone who spends a lot of time in Old Athen, think the city's new look is awesome. The buildings are unchanged - still the same drab old Omni architecture - but the remainder of the city now looks like a park. No other city (on Rubi-Ka, anyway, I don't know about the Shadowlands) has as many trees, bushes, and other various forms of foliage. Old Athen has become a much different, much more welcoming sort of place.

Not everywhere has fared so well, even though the changes were merely texture related. Avalon just looks wrong somehow - too green. The texture update had the unintended side effect of making certain places look plain, uninteresting, or both, sort of like an early alpha for an engine where all that's working is the terrain rendering. Luckily, this has only effected a few of the places I've had a chance to look at. Everywhere else looks much improved, especially forested areas.

As for balance changes and life without reclaim terminals, I haven't had any time to see the effects of the new changes. Maybe I'll have more on that next week, maybe it will be something else. It certainly will, however, be back on the regular schedule.

Open Sores: Part 2

So it's that time once again and, true to my word, what was started last week will come to its conclusion one week hence. If you're looking for an introduction, read last week's post (linked above in case you're not reading this on the main page), because I'm just going to get right into it. Proceed.

Grandeur, And The Delusions Thereof

Okay, so this was sort of touched on last week, but in the context of feature creep, not features planned right off the bat. What I'm talking about, if you're curious, is the over-ambition that sends so many new projects swirling down the crapper before the game is even playable. You want proof? Hop on over to the Linux Game Tome and see how many unfinished, never playable MMORPGs you can find before your eyes start to bleed. Sure, it's one of the most often attempted, hardest to create game genres out there - just because it's the best example of feature overloading doesn't mean it's the only one.

Even if you're using a solid pre-built, pre-tested engine and a solid toolset you don't have to develop yourself, building a game is a demanding task. Deciding you're going to build your own engine and spending three weeks working on the particle systems that still don't work isn't going to make this task any easier. Deciding early on that the open source MMORPG you haven't written any code for yet is going to have features that titles with multimillion dollar budgets haven't properly implemented yet isn't going to help either.

Isn't Everybody As Hardcore As Me?

Now this one isn't strictly limited to open source games, as it effects all games out there, but certain open source games certainly should be looking at their shoes and twiddling their thumbs in shame over this one. Game designers often seem to be at war with the people playing the games they create. People don't play games to be punished (at least not most people), they play them to have fun. There's a reason its called a game.

I think the reason that this seems to crop up in open source gaming so much is plain and simple: A.I. code is hard to write. There's a reason so many of the games coming out on the open source scene are strictly multiplayer focused. The problem is that boosting the hit and attack points of every monster and plopping down forty more of them doesn't boost the fun factor by the same amount. Just because you can plow through them all without a scratch doesn't mean that everyone will, or even want to.

Addendum

So that's it for my bitching, for now anyway. Before I wrap this up I'd like to say that for everything that's been said in the last two posts, I have nothing but love for the open source gaming scene. It's grown by leaps and bounds over the years in terms of quality, quantity and creativity and I'm sure it will continue. Thank you for the great games, folks.

Open Sores

This week's post is going to be sort of a full on rant-mode type of thing, so just be aware of what you're in for.

A large portion of Avert Your Eyes is dedicated to open-source gaming and gaming on open-source platforms, so it's obvious that I'm a fan. There are, however, a few things that drive me nuts about the whole open-source gaming scene, and that's the focus of this week's post. Proceed to number one:

If You Don't Like It, Fix It

Anybody who's followed open source gaming for a while has surely run into this one at one time or another. Someone submits a bug report, mentions something they don't like a game, or offers any other form of what could be considered constructive criticism, and is met with the response: It's open source, fix it. Because, you know, everybody in the entire fucking universe is a programmer. Nobody who enjoys gaming could possibly do so without a deep knowledge of how the engine rendering these beautiful scenes works, down to the machine code itself... You know, like how you can't enjoy a cheeseburger without being a butcher. Chop it yourself.

Honestly, I do know how to program - beyond that, I'm a roll-your-own type of guy. The type who runs a backup system he wrote himself, instead of one of the countless backup packages out there, more or less just for the hell of it. That being said, I have little ambition to slop through somebody else's shitty C code to add a feature I'd like to a game I don't care about that much in the first place. Non-programmers are going to hate you for this more than I do. If you want your game to be played by more than a few people, don't ever do this.

You Can't Please All The People All The Time...

...but a lot of open source projects try to. Ambition is a great thing, as long as it's actually within the scope of what you can and can't accomplish. Far too many games have died out when the handful of developers behind them start to become stretched too thin - not only having to accomodate their own feature-creep ideas, but those of the community surrounding the game as well.

It's an easy thing to do, especially if it seems that it's going to bring a more solid user base to a project that's lacking one. One of the problems (among many in this particular case) is that, often, users don't have any idea what kind of effort it would take to implement their ideas, as good as they may be. This, of course, is deliberatly leaving out the shitty, "d00d, w0t dis game n33dz is m0r3 r0ck3ts!! l0lz0rs!" suggestions.

This is starting to run a bit long, it's pushing midnight, and I'd like to get this up while it's still Thursday - so this bit may turn in to a two part kind of thing. I haven't covered all that I'd like to, so unless the Anarchy Online 16.0 patch comes out between then and now and I get sucked up in that, you can expect more. Out.

Zero To Pissed Off In 32 Levels

Well, it would appear that R.O.S.E Online is out of the open beta period. There will be a closed beta during the month of September (which would be the month that today is the first day of) available exclusively (I think) to Fileplanet (doesn't deserve a link) subscribers (ie. not me), which may (or may not) be followed by another open beta. A much more concise way to put it would be that I am not going to play R.O.S.E online any more. Not just because I can't anymore, either.

My feelings towards the game have changed dramatically between last week's post and now. Once you hit somewhere around level 25, leveling up stops being so quick and painless - quite the opposite, in fact. If you're not constantly having your kills stolen (this assumes that you have found something available to kill), you're being gang-raped by 20 of the same cute thing you couldn't find one of 30 seconds ago. I don't think I've died as much in any other MMORPG than I have in R.O.S.E. Hell, I don't think I've died as much in any game than I have in R.O.S.E, ever.

I think I made it to somewhere around level 32 before I decided to stop playing. It was only as was logging into the game yesterday, knowing it would be the subject of today's post, that I found something was wrong. Like I said above, I really found it hard to care. My entire time playing R.O.S.E felt more like I was trying to enjoy the game, rather than actually enjoying it. The whole process was tiring enough that when I started to play Anarchy Online again, it felt simple, familiar, and welcoming. Not that I haven't enjoyed my time with Anarchy Online, nor will I stop playing it any time soon, but when playing AO solo doesn't feel like a grind anymore, you know you've just come out of a bad relationship.

In other news, Cube had another release this week - I'm sticking this in here because there really isn't enough material to deserve it's own post - which, sadly, may be it's last. After this, the team (or just Aardappel, I'm not very familiar with their development practices) will be moving on to Sauerbraten, which could basically be considered the "sequel" to Cube. Anyway, Cube's maybe-last release is a doozie, throwing in new models for items, weapons, and teleporters as well as a bunch of new maps, both singleplayer and multiplayer. One word of caution - if you like (as most people do) to play Cube online, be wary of the new version. Even though it's been out for a few days, every server in my server browser has the nice little message: [different cube protocol]. Oh, one more thing I haven't mentioned - lots of Cube stuff over at Quadropolis.