Last night, driven by my bottomless apitite for escapism, I joined the Lord of the Rings Online 15 day trial. The game looks like ass on my computer. Everything is aliased and the textures and models look like something done at community college 3D school.
I’ve heard the gameplay is kind of like WoW, which if true means I won’t be playing LOTR:Online much longer than 15 days. Can the simple fact that the storyline is familiar to me keep me in the game? Does it really matter that my 250th quest is the MInes of Moria? I don’t think so.
Netflix subscribers, if you’ve got an Xbox 360 and a Windows Vista PC, you don’t have to shell out $99 for Roku’s Netflix Player box to get your Watch Instantly library on your TV screen
—you already have everything you need. Using the free Windows Media Center plug-in, vmcNetflix, you can turn your Xbox 360 into a Netflix Watch Instantly box.
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Last night I was checking out some of the recent demos posted on XBox Live. Unfortunately I checked out Ninja Gaiden 2 and had my memories devalued by a 3D abomination unworthy of the name. Someone named “Team Ninja” published this and actually thought that the speed and timing of the original Ninja Gaiden would translate properly into a 3D world. I wish they would have stuck to the side-scroller.
But then I also downloaded a demo of Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1. Precipice of Darkness is an episodic role-playing game by the two geniuses behind the video game web-comic Penny Arcade and the Penny Arcade Expo.
Based on my limited experience with the demo I think it is safe to say that this game will not disappoint three demographics:
- Penny Arcade fans
- Old school computer games (fans of Space Quest, Monkey Island, etc)
- RPG video gamers
This game appears to be a slick combination of Penny Arcade humor, story-first presentation, and an interesting evolution of traditional RPG turn-based gameplay. The gameplay includes elements of turn-based mechanics such as that used in FFXI along with more arcade style mechanics such as button mashing and timing tests seen in games such as Mario Party.
I’m going to buy this game on Xbox Live but it’s also available for PC, Mac and Linux on it’s website: www.rainslick.com
and it hasn’t even been released yet.
I’ve been reading forums, watching videos, researching how to run a server, playing TFC and HL2. I am psyched for TF2!
The back story is: Team Fortress was a mod for Quake (yeah, the original quake) in 1996. Around this time I was just getting angry enough with playing Descent online. I think my joystick broke or something. Anyway, I got Quake for christmas and instantly was pulled into the online community. Team Fortress was awesome and I eventually joined a clan which I’m still a member of called the Green Panthers. We played for about 3-4 years until Team Fortress kind of fizzled out.
The reason for the fizzle was that TF2 was slated for development on the Quake 2 engine. A lot of new games started being released and people left the bustling TF community for smaller scenes. Half-Life, Quake2Action, Counter-Strike and eventually TFC put the nail in the TF2-coffin. TFC was a terrible remake of Team Fortress called “Team Fortress Classic”. There was nothing classic about it, the player physics were horrible, the game play was completely different and it was full of kids playing. So I never played TFC because it’s an abomination of the game.
Now, almost 7 years later, TF2 is finally going to be released. This Monday the beta begins, which you can participate in by pre-ordering the Orange box game bundle which includes HL2, HL2: Lost Coast, HL2: Episode 1, HL2: Episode 2, Portals, Team Fortress 2 and Peggle Extreme. All that for $45 and you get to play on a wonderful monday TF2 game.
I have almost completely ruled out team-based league play like the days of old. I used to play competitively and join leagues, enter tournaments and compete on ladders. I just don’t have the time for that anymore, or at least neither do my clanmates. We all have wives and kids now. The plus side to this is we also have job experience and money now and I am planning on spending some of both on attempting to monetize a game server that I will host. I’ve been researching dedicated, VPS and shared hosting for a TF2 game server as well as judging the general tone of the community so far. The idea is, I’ll be able to host a server and a bustling web-community just like the days of yore. I’ll be an enabler for all those 16 year old shitheads who won’t come to family dinner because they have a match.
At the GDC, Microsoft has announced their SideWinder mouse, built from the ground up specifically with gamers in mind. Featuring just about everything you could ever want (and things you’ll never ever need), it’s the “ultimate” in gaming mice. The mouse features a new “Quick Turn” feature, adjustable weight, adjustable glide, an LCD, a Vista Quick Launch button and more. The best news? It will only cost $79!
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Financial Security
At $14.99 a month, World of Warcraft is a wonderful money saving strategy. Just think, all those nights spent barely sustaining a pulse, parked in front of your computer completing quest after quest, those are nights spent not buying expensive dinners or drinks. By balancing your gaming addiction and your checking account, you can live a fairly frugal lifestyle without being bored. Read more to find out how.
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Duels.com is a social network and role playing game - create a World of Warcraft type character, buy him or her armor, weapons, etc., and then challenge other players to duels. Win and you get experience, gold and other stuff. Lose and you get nothing.
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From BlizzCon, exclusive photographs of huge groups of units–Archons + Colossus destroying Terran base, Battlecruisers destroying Protoss base, Protoss Carriers (thought not to be in the game), huge group of Motherships. Plus shots of menus, single-player tutorials, unit stats, nuke exploding, and the StarCraft board game.
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Look for me on Mal’ganis hero owning you.
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Toys R Us & Walmart’s August 12 Sunday Ads confirm a $50 price cut on the Xbox 360. Images available within.
These ads confirm the Hollywood Reporter’s scoop that a $50 price cut would begin in early August. Currently, it is uncertain if the $50 price cut is only valid for the $400 Premium system.
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The awaited Chatpad (which was announced back in May) has been priced and now has its own page up on Xbox.com.
* Chat on Xbox LIVE with ease featuring dedicated keys to letters and characters.
* Don’t hamper your style—the Xbox 360 Chatpad attaches seamlessly to your Xbox 360 Controller.
* Backlit buttons allow you to accurately type words even in dimly lit environments.
* Messenger Kit includes the Xbox 360 Wired Headset for the ultimate communication bundle.
Virtua Fighter 5 for the Xbox360 will indeed have online play. Not only that, but the game will be the latest arcade version and will feature an expanded quest and dojo mode.
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Gotta give props to cheapassgamer.com
You read it right. $100 price drop for the Sony Playstation 3 coming July 12th.
I wonder if we can expect lines and armed robbery again.
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According to an open letter to the 360 community by Peter Moore:
You’ve spoken, and we’ve heard you. Good service and a good customer experience are areas of the business that we care deeply about. And frankly, we’ve not been doing a good enough job.
Microsoft is extending the warranty of all Xbox 360 units to 3 years. This is in response to the recent reports of Xbox 360s breaking down and requiring service.
The full open letter is below the break.
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Sony has revealed at GDC their PlayStation Home network play platform similar to Xbox Live. The platform will allow users to invite to games, befriend and chat with other networked users, among other things. The main feature is it’s Second Life-esque, third-person interface.
This may be what Sony needs to spark the PlayStation 3 to mark it’s small territory in the mainstream.
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