I’m a Sinner… Yes Sir.. After buying Sins of a Solar Empire sight unseen I’ve been playing it non-stop through my evenings over the last four days.
If there’s one thing wrong with this 4X strategy game, it’s that you get completely sucked in and completely lose track of time. Before you know it, a quick glance at your clock will show it’s 1am and you still haven’t conquered the game after a marathon 3-4 hour session. In fact most small random games often take as long as 5 hours total to complete. Or you can attempt to do a frigate ship rush which can cut that in half, however it’s nowhere near as satisfying.
Now how does the admission of sin come into play? I haven’t even touched my World of Warcraft account, nor my EvE account, not even an inkling of desire to log into those since installing SoaSE.
This game is turning out to be the indy hit of the year, and I won’t hesitate to recommend it to fans of any type of PC strategy game. There’s something here that will appeal to everyone.
After months of intense research a Syracuse University Study has come to the conclusion that MMO’s do more damage to gamers health and responsibilities but also provided a much rewarding experience compared to other forms of gaming.
DUH.
How did they come to this amazing conclusion? They took a batch of 100 students splitting them into 4 groups playing outdated and largely irrevelant games in todays market.
The first group of 25 were given tokens to spend at a local arcade, most likely wiping out their entire allowance during the study within days…
The second group played Gauntlet: Dark Legacy on the PS2 (Metacritic Rating, 73).
The third group got to play Diablo II on PC, but apparently never played on or became Bnet addicts.
The final fourth group of ill-fated subjects played the MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot. (One has to wonder how different would the results have been if they were forced to play the original EQ or Star Wars Galaxies?)
The study had the following to say on the results of the MMO gamers:
After a month, the MMORPG players — the fourth group — reported playing on average 14.4 hours in the previous week, more than twice as much as the next most avid players, the “Diablo II” group.
The “Dark Age of Camelot” players also reported significantly lower overall health and poorer sleep and were more likely to find the games interfered with their studies and social lives.
On the other hand, they had more fun playing and were more likely to say they had made new friends, presumably online.
So there you have it, proof that studies waste just as much time and money proving the obvious, but we didn’t need a study for that did we?
This is a definate “WTF Second Life” moment as HBO has announced it bought the rights to film a seven episode documentary shot entirely in Second Life.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - HBO said on Tuesday it has acquired the rights to a short-form documentary shot entirely within Second Life, as entertainment companies increasingly turn to virtual worlds as a source for new content.
“My Second Life: The video diaries of Molotov Alta” purports to tell the story of a man who “disappeared from his California home” and began issuing video dispatches from Second Life. The popular virtual world, which has its own currency and a growing economy, has drawn millions of users who create alter egos called avatars and interact with people from around the world.
Game of the day, leave a comment naming one of the Second Life subcultures to be documented! Fun for the whole family!
Source: WP
Part public service announcement, part me being sick of the damn Guild Wars box mocking me across the room as it sits there in its factory sealed box of instanced multiplayer suckage.
The game is completely instanced after you leave town. You can’t jump over a log, a rock, or a even small ledge. There’s so much contrast and bloom to the graphics you’ll go blind quicker than looking directly at the Sun. No auction house to waste hours upon hours in like WoW. Virtually zero character customization. Only 4 character slots.
How can any (mistakenly) claim this is an MMO without then making every other multiplayer title from Diablo on also qualify as “Massively Multiplayer Online” when they allow no more than a small party of players and in/out of game instanced towns and lobbies for matchmaking?
The Rules:
To enter simply reply in the comments with the line
“Guild Wars is NOT a MMO!”
… On second thought, any comment to back up your belief in this multiplayer game, just as long as you promise to never again claim Guild Wars is a MMO. Ever. I’ll be watching…
You may only enter this contest once. If you don’t win, we plan on having another VERY soon!
The randomly chosen winner (to be decided on September 28th) by myself (or another blogger from the MMO community) will win the above full retail copy of Guild Wars.
Contest Restrictions:
You must be a U.S. resident to claim the prize (ie. have the box shipped to you). Non-U.S. residents (Canadian’s too I s’pose..) may particpate for a yet to be named prize.
If the winner agrees that Guild Wars does indeed suck and is NOT an MMO, they may choose the alternative prize instead.
Watch out SOE! The Minnesota Zoo and eduweb partnered up with the help of $508,253.00 in tax payer funded grant money to develop the multiplayer sensation WolfQuest.
If the cheesy 80’s style trailer done in Windows Movie Maker doesn’t get you excited, we don’t know what will. This action packed 3D multiplayer role-playing game allows players of all ages to join up in wolf packs of friends or AI controlled wolves. The game features “complex” actions such as howling to declare your territorial claims, barking to warn opposing packs, and well relieving yourself to establish dominance and mark your territory.
Make sure to visit the Official Wolf Quest site and experience the call of the wild for yourself! The final version to be released in December ‘07. Is a MMORPG version is the cards? The developer states it’s just a matter of securing additional funding to budget for a future version. We can only hope!
Finally, a game for furries of all ages.. (Yeah we went there)
Normally we might have skipped this announcement, but the game name is kinda catchy don’t you think?
Our namesake of a game appears to have finally launched. You can now setup an account for free with NCSoft if you don’t already have one (You did try City of Heroes yes?), and apply a free serial code to activate the DungeonRunners account.
If you haven’t already heard about DungeonRunners it appears to be a multiplayer game crossed between Diablo and a World of Warcraft visual style with wierd monsters to boot. If you like the game and don’t want to be an undergeared scrub with a wooden sword and shield battling it out you can pay $4.95 a month to upgrade your account for increased bank space, access to better gear, potions that stack, and login queue priority.
If you do try the game, make sure to drop us a comment or post in the forums with your feedback!
The story was originally broke by Charles Onyett from IGN as it was happening on the floor at the Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea aproximately an hour ago.
So far here’s the details:
- No release date has been announced.
- Simultaneous release on Windows and Macintosh platforms.
- The game UI remains very close to the original.
- Graphic style and unit proportions are nearly the same.
- Enhanced lighting effects (Think C&C3, and Supreme Commander)
- Massive battles with hundreds of units for large scale fights
- Single player, and online play through upgraded Battle.net service
- Realistic physics system for particle debris
- New unique gameplay mechanics for Protoss, Terran, and Zerg races.
New units such as the Protoss Mothership with a weapon to slow time while also creating black holes or launching a devastating massive laser against ground targets, Protoss Immortals with defense shields, Protoss Stalker (four legged unit) with self teleport, Protoss Colossus with dual lasers and long legs to travel over difficult terrain easily, Protoss Phoenix with the ability to overcharge weapons for a one-time shot with a cooldown, Protoss Warprey flying unit with a damage over time laser that increases in effectiveness but vulnerable to ground troops, Terran Reapers with jump packs, and Zerglings that can now mutate into rolling kamakazie bombs.
New abilities, Protoss can create shields whereever they want, and can warp in units from manufacturing facilities within range of their pylons. Protoss in general apparently will have great mobility for all units using phase fields and teleporting to move large groups of forces around.
Overall it sounds like SC2 is shaping up to be a solid sequel to the original released in early 1998. It likely won’t be blazing any new ground for the RTS genre but with Blizzards careful development its sure to be yet another bestseller with the polish and action packed gameplay that its die-hard fanbase expects.
Starcraft 2 Gameplay Video:
Starcraft 2 CGI Teaser Video:
Update: As of 4am CST Blizzard has launched the Starcraft2.com website.
Sources: IGN.com, Blizzard.com.
There’s nothing quite like a free game, especially one modelled after the classic Tribes series. Legends is a multiplayer first-person shooter for both Windows and Linux that features Tribes-like qualities, such as the ability to ski down slopes, use a jetpack to manuever around, and weapons that has the characteristics of the series.
The game uses the Torque engine from GarageGames, which is a quality engine used in a lot of superb games (I still fire up Marble Blast every once in a while for a quick fix.) Legends is in beta, and features skinnable GUI’s, an editor to create your own maps, and its own server browser.
NCSoft unveils a new online game in the works, called Soccer Fury, which combines 3-on-3 arcade soccer (football for you non-Americans) with kung fu fighting. The game will be part of a new series of games that comprises of the NCSoft gaming portal.
Under the tagline of “No rules. No limits. No mercy.”, the game seeks to allow aspiring Diego Maradonnas/Chuck Norrises to “tap into a devastating arsenal of martial arts, trick moves and team tactics as you power your way up the field and tear down the opposition in epic online pitched battles.”
According to Xavier Carrillo Costa, CEO, Executive Producer and Founder of Digital Legends, the company was very pleased to be working with NCSoft and that Soccer Fury would represent a “key element of PlayNC’s online games portfolio - integrating soccer, fighting and character evolution to appeal to a large audience.”
Tinywarzs is “a massively multiplayer, turn-based, strategy-game where players battle each other and computer controlled bandits on distant worlds.” (now supports Firefox)
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