Category Archives: Retro

Lord British is back!

  March 12, 2013 - 11:37 am | Game Development, Game Previews, Retro, RPG
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I cannot tell you how excited I am about the news I received this morning! The person who probably shaped most of my childhood, the creator of worlds, the epitome of all that is great in RPG, has decided to grace us with a new game. Richard Garriot, creator of the greatest and longest-running RPG series in the history of computer gaming, has launched a Kickstarter project for his upcoming game (Hopefully October 2014) – Shroud of the Avatar, Forsaken Virtues.

As you can see from the early preview above, and from reading the Kickstarter project details, great stuff are coming our way. A true RPG’er wants to immerse himself in the game, not just hack away to fill an experience bar, and I think that from the meagre details available at the moment, they are doing a good job of it. I especially like the trade, crafting and housing system that they are planning, as well as the fact that it’s NOT BLOODY ONLINE DEPENDENT! If you want to play single-player, you can without a connection. If you want to be able to play this game again in twenty years, you don’t have to worry if the servers are still running. Hey Blizzard, EA and all you other money-grabbing bastards – take note.

The game seems to expand upon the ideals of the Avatar, the protagonist of the Ultima series, and Ultima and I share a long history. My first meeting with the Ultima series was actually a book, more specifically a novelized walkthrough called The Avatar Adventures. A friend of mine had the book at school when I was about 10. I read it voraciously in my lunch breaks and was then overjoyed when it turned out that my neighbor had Ultima IV on his PC. I then spent the next few months firmly robbing said neighbor of the use of said PC. Then, much later, when I finally had a PC of my own with an actual graphics card (a monstrous EGA card), I was lucky enough to find the complete Ultima collection at a second-hand store – a collection I still own today, which sits proudly on my shelf of all things gaming.

Anyway, go check out the Kickstarter, give Lord British and his cohorts your money, and help shape what is sure to become a classic!

2012 Top Games Round-up

  January 10, 2013 - 12:14 pm | EA, Game Reviews, MMO, Musings, Other games, Racing Games, Retro, Wargaming.net, World of Tanks
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What a year it’s been. The world should have ended, but we’re still here and going strong. And in gaming it’s been quite a trip too, with the market ever shifting towards the casual online scene and small developers really hitting it big. The trend for Indie games making it up there against the AAA titles has continued, with the dare-to-try-something-different approach that was seen in the 90′s.

Since I’ve stopped playing all major MMORPGs, I’ve had a lot of time to test a huge range of games this year, so without further ado, here’s my Top Games of 2012, in both single player and online.

Single player:

Without a doubt the highlight of the year has to be FarCry 3. Improving leaps and bounds over FarCry 2 (which was a stunning game in its’ own rights), the new installment puts you on a beautiful island somewhere between Japan and Australia – with the signs of early civilization and the ravages of World War 2 apparent at every turn. You’re one of a group of fun-loving friends that gets kidnapped by drug manufacturers with the intent on holding you for ransom. You escape, and what follows is a tasty exploration through a well-sculpted world of big guns, bad guys, vicious animals and bewbies!

The story-line is intense, the game drips open-world and everything just works so well, no matter what your playing style. Anyway, a full review will be up soon, so just know that FarCry 3 is a masterpiece of graphics, gameplay, guns and rich characters. Oh, and the ending will make you scream and force you to play again, which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Honourable Mentions – Single Player:

Among the quirky Indie games available, two stand out for me: Kerbal Space Program and Game Dev Tycoon.

Kerbal Space Program (Still in Alpha, but good enough to play) is exactly what it sounds like. Design your own rocket ships to conquer the solar system. Sounds simple enough, but this game is closer to rocket science than anything I’ve seen before. My brother and I have been running challenges between ourselves, setting goals and seeing who can match them first, and as he put it: “Sometimes the difference between getting a sattelite into orbit and blowing up on the launch pad is one rivet – you have to respect the guys that do this for real.” It’s a great little simulator, really worth a shot.

I spotted Game Dev Tycoon on the Windows 8 marketplace and decided to give it a try during one bored day at work. An hour later I was scrabbling for my credit card and got the full version. The premise is simple: it’s about 25 years in the past, with home gaming just starting to gain momentum. You’re one guy trying to develop his own games and make a profit. Do well and your company grows, and so does the technology. The nice thing about the game is the fact that unlike 99.9% of the silly games on the marketplace these days, there are no microtransactions, there are no “Invite your friends to play otherwise you can’t get this crucial piece of kit”. If you have Windows 8, go check it out on the marketplace.

Online:

This was a tough one, with tons of games really vying for top spot, but in the end I had to go for World of Tanks. Yes, it was not released in 2012, but I think it has finally matured enough to be called a product. New tanks, new maps, and a host of new battle types has turned it from a grindfest into a thing of beauty. I’ve already reviewed WoT in a previous post, so have a look there for the full details.

Honourable Mention – Online:

I was fortunate enough to Alphatest War Thunder, and now that it’s on public beta I can actually write something about it. It goes on the same lines as World of Tanks – a World War 2 simulator with planes instead of tanks. Great game modes – you don’t just get to shoot the enemy, you actually have to complete objectives – and an all-round fun game. I think the only reason this didn’t get top spot for me this year is because it does still have its flaws – loading times are atrocious and the player base is still too small – if selecting the EU server, you tend to wait quite a few minutes before a game is ready for you, and you tend to play with the same group of people over and over again. If you select All servers, then queues are much faster but you’re shit out of luck communicating if you don’t speak Russian. With a bit more development (some artifacting does occasionally occur, as well as some physics glitches, but it’s improving) and a bigger fanbase, this game can be huge. Well worth the massive download.

Dishonourable mention:

Need for Speed – Most Wanted. OK, so Criterion has taken over from Black Box as the developers of the Need for Speed franchise now. Does that mean that they have to take one of their old titles, put in real cars instead of the fictional ones they used to use, take away half of the things that makes the Burnout series so good, and then call it a Need for Speed title? Fuck no!

The astonishing thing is the reviews by all of the top review sites – they all rave about it! How much did EA pay them? Yes, the franchise has been in decline in the last decade, losing out to the true simulators and the true arcade racers, while frantically bouncing between the two trying to find something that works, but I think they were actually on to something with The Run. Now instead they give us a watered-down version of Burnout Paradise and expect everyone to love it. The handling model is terrible (compared to older NFS titles, and to Burnout for that matter), on the PC the graphics are good for some parts and then awful for others, the Autovista 2 is counter-intuitive on PC (can’t say for the console versions) and the game modes are severely limited.

And then another thing – most of the last few Need for Speed titles have had some form of storyline – The Run actually had a captivating one, one that sucked you in and made every position you won or lost on your journey feel like it meant something. Most Wanted? Nope, it sucks. The Burnout series had some interesting game modes and a vast array of races. Most Wanted? An average of 5 races per car, limited game modes. At least the cars are nicely modeled.

Criterion, go make arcade racers like Burnout and leave Need for Speed to the publishers that can turn out games like the legendary Need for Speed: Porsche Unlimited. The original Most Wanted was a crappy title, this one was utter shite (Unless of course you haven’t played Burnout, in which case it’d probably be OK for you)

The Art of Video Games – Games as art

  February 1, 2012 - 11:29 am | Retro
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I’ve always believed that video games are an art form, an expression of the artists and developers. The Smithsonian American Art Museum seems to agree with me, and have started with an exhibition of video games through history. Since its initial conception I’ve voted on my favourites and watched as the idea grew from concept to exhibition.

They have done a successful tour with the idea and are now opening a permanent display at the Smithsonian on March 16, 2012. Sadly things like this don’t happen in South Africa so I’m once again left out, but from the pictures it seems quite impressive.  Games like Pac-Man, Super Mario and Myst will be available to play on the original hardware, and the top voted 80 games, including legends such as Pitfall, Minecraft, Portal, Earthworm Jim anad many others, will be viewable through screenshots and play footage.

There’s also a book available, which I’m seriously considering to add to the coffee table. If you’re in the area, definitely go have a look, and send me some pics!

Adventures in Nethack

  November 7, 2011 - 3:43 pm | Bored!, Retro, RPG, Wall of Text
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Basically I’ve gone utterly off 90% of the games that I own, and pretty much not looking forward to anything that’s on the shelves or coming out in the near future. The only thing that gives me a glimmer of hope at this point is Diablo 3, and that’s been set back by another few months again.

So I’ve returned to an old nightmare – Nethack. It’s one of those games that looks utterly simple on the surface yet has so many ways to kill you, so many different items, so many different ways to play that no two games ever pan out the same. I have to admit that I’ve not ever been any good at it. I’ve never ascended, I’ve never seen the Amulet of Yendor. I’ve never even gotten past the Oracle or Dwarf Town. This time is going to be different – and here’s my story:

I started off as a Chaotic Human Barbarian. I figured this would give me the biggest chance of survival. Things were pretty standard at first, with me only finding a Lawful altar and a fountain on level 2. Much to my surprise though, quaffing from the fountain gave me a Djinn, a friendly one at that. One wish later and I had a greased silver Dragon Scale Armor, albeit only +0. This would be my fighting chance! Bravely I ventured forth, clearing level 3 with ease. Sadly my wand of detect hidden doors failed to find the entrance to the Dwarf Mines, but I did manage to find a hidden vault. I let the guard escort me out, but I took note of it for the future. As soon as I find a pickaxe that gold is mine! Considering my axe is corroded, the gold will come in handy when the shop finishes taking inventory.

I descended to level 4, where a swarm of Hill Orcs made quick work of my kitten. With no time to mourn, I retreated to a tunnel and tried to take them one at a time. One of the Hill Orcs happened to have a wand of digging though, wreaking havoc on the room I had entered from. I dispatched of the Orcs (finding a cloak of invisibility in the process) and continued exploring – just to find the ghost of a previous adventurer – more specifically the highest level adventurer I’ve had. I kicked that ghost till he begged for mercy. Now I’m sitting with all his inventory, and boy was he a hoarder. Now to carry everything back up to level 2 to check for cursed items and then equip myself further, and give my hitpoints a time to regenerate.

Part 2 to follow!

In other news: My WoW account that’s been dormant for almost a year got hacked… No idea how – I’ve ignored every email from Blizzard or the hackers pretending to be Blizzard, I didn’t even have WoW on a hard drive that was plugged into my machine. Anyway, got notified about it on Facebook, quickly changed my RealID password, downloaded the MASSIVE patches and logged in. Damage wasn’t too bad, I didn’t have much to start with. The bot did leave me with a ton of ore and much more gold than what I started with, and a 30 day timecard loaded so I didn’t bother reporting it. Right after this, Blizzard sends me a “Hey, we’ve missed you, here’s 7 days free playtime” email, which turned out to be legit.

This was last week. How much have I played? A total of 7 minutes. Yup, the drug has worn off, it’s out of my system. I’m no longer driven by the WoWmachine.