• 6Oct 08

  Hello!

  Long time no blog, I know, so I figured I'd just drop by and say hello. How's it going?

  Gaming's been slow for me, which is why I haven't blogged in such a long time. Truth be told, I tried a few games - Sam & Max Season One, Gothic 3, Sins of a Solar Empire - but nothing sticked, although I must admit that Sins is pretty awesome. Actually, I didn't dislike any of these games but felt like I wanted to play something else.

  So I decided to install Mass Effect PC again, this time doing a renegade playthrough without any of those tedious side-quests. Plus I juiced up the difficulty all the way and played a Vanguard class (proficient with pistols and shotguns but can also use biotic powers, which add some diversity to fights). It turned out to be good fun actually, I must say that ME's combat system is probably the best Bioware ever made (except the Baldur's Gate series). Plus, not doing the booooooring side quests really makes the game feel more focused and generally more fun.

  And since I'm replaying stuff lately, I decided to give NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer another go, this time with a Spirit-Shaman character. I'm gonna have a hard time but I'm almost done with chapter one and so far so good. Did I mention that I love this game? I'm probably going to play some more Sins of a Solar Empire too, it's a really cool (and different) RTS. I'd say try it if you don't mind the slow pace.

  This rant got longer than I planned so yeah, sorry about that. Hopefully I'll be back soon with some reviews and that Indie RPGs blog I mentioned probably one too many times. So until next time, peace! And seriously, what are you guys playing lately?

  • Posted Oct 6, 2008 7:29 am GMT
  • Category: Other
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• 16Aug 08

  Assassin's Creed Review

  Hi! How's it going?

  I finally got around to writing a review... they're not coming to me like they used to. Must be the damned heat, it's ridiculously hot over here. But after playing and finishing Assassin's Creed I felt that I had enough info to write a good review. It's an interesting game but not without problems. The score obviously suggests this. But in the end I got a solid 15 hours of decent fun out of it. Me and Assassin's Creed is defintely a love - hate thing. But like Yahtzee said in one of his reviews (he was making a point about immersion and offered Assassin's Creed as a good example), this game will suck you in if you approach it with the right mindset, despite the many bad design decisions. So without further delays, HERE is the review.Enjoy!

  

  I can't leave with just that though. If playing and/or reading about games is one of your hobbies then you might want to check out an interesting feature about Assassin's Creed on CG Society. It's a nice read and offers some insight on the creation of this breathtaking gameworld. Probably the best looking game I've seen so far.

  So yeah, Assassin's Creed was a nice experience after all, and a game I'll surely remember, for both good and bad reasons. Anyway, that's all for now. See you next time and peace!

  • Posted Aug 16, 2008 6:23 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 12Aug 08

  Storm of Zehir Preview... and Gloating

  Hi people! What's up? As promised, I'm back with a new blog, focused on Storm of Zehir, Obsidian Entertainment's other star from this year's E3. But with a little extra too. So let's get this blog going.

  1. Storm of Zehir Preview:

  So what is Storm of Zehir? It is the second expansion pack for the Dungeons & Dragons game Neverwinter Nights 2, an expansion that wants to take the series in a somewhat different direction. How so? Well, Storm of Zehir (we'll call it SoZ from now on) focuses more on open-ended exploration of the gameworld, being less focused on story and characters. It's set partly on the old Sword Coast, partly in the jungle of Samarach so we should be seeing some nice vistas along the way. Moving focus away from story might not sound too appealing at first, but maybe it will sound better after we go through some of the game's features.

  

  So what's new? The first feature that comes to mind is the ability to create a full party of characters, like you could in Icewind Dale, though the limit here is set to 4, not 6. There's also the option to recruit various NPCs you find during your quest so you'll have plenty of options concerning your party formation. This expansion also brings us back to lower level D&D adventuring. You'll start off at level 3 and you'll make your way up to level 15, which is a pretty sweet area to be in and could yield interesting results if encounters are balanced right. Hopefully, combat encounters will be more like in Mask of the Betrayer (the first expansion to NWN2), which had fewer of them, but of larger scale. This would play interestingly in these lower levels as some character builds that normally lose efficiency in epic levels will definitely be more useful here.

  

  Though probably the most interesting new feature is the Overland map. When you're in Overland map mode you're practically still in 3D mode and travel across a 3D representation of the explorable game world. You'll get to find various items and places or experience various encounters with hostiles or friendlies. Skills that have been put to less use in past NWN2 campaigns will be important in SoZ (Find Trap, Spot, Survival etc.) , as the Overland map takes them into account when calculating your chances of finding items of avoiding unwanted encounters.

  

  Another new feature is the Trading System, which plays an important part in the game and has a few quests tied to it. It basically offeres a reactive world economy which you can either exploit for personal gain or just be fair and do good for the economy as a whole. I suspect we'll find out more about this feature as we near SoZ's release. But the premise for it is certainly interesting. And then there's the Party Conversation System through which every member of your party can contribute to a convo by adding in his or her parlay skills. But this feature is still a mistery so I'll avoid making any speculations about it for now.

  

  Last but not least there are the extras like spells and enemies. SoZ marks the return of the Yuan-Ti, a race of snake people that can also take the form of humans, a shapeshifting power they use in order to infliltrate human society, so encounters with them might not be so obvious at first. Those who played Icewind Dale will probably remember Dragon's Eye and Yxunomei and they'll know what to expect. In terms of character types, so far we know of two new additions: the Swashbuckler (I wanted this one for a long time) and the Doomguide of Kelemvor. There are others too but they'll be revealed later. Also new are the Symbol spells, like Symbol of Death, which lets you inscribe a rune of power on a surface. When triggered it basically slays any nearby creatures. There are also some new Summoning spells; now you can call forth a powerful Baatezu (you'll probably remember them from Planescape: Torment, if you've played that game) to aid you. No words on any new playable races so far but who knows. It's also worth mentioning that all these features are going to make into the toolset, so you'll be able to create your own Overland map to use in your mod if you ever plan to make one. There's certainly potential for an exciting new experience in SoZ. I'll be waiting for this one. Also, if you want to see some footage of SoZ (specially the Overland map) head on over HERE and enjoy the video.

  2. The Gloating Part:

  But before I go there's also a small matter of me gloating over something. Today, ATI released its latest top of the line graphics card, the Radeon 4870 X2, but also officially announced (surprisingly) the Radeon 4850 X2, a cheaper dual-GPU alternative.

  

  Reviews of these new parts are coming in from all over the place and it seems ATI have got themselves an undisputed winner. Like the guys at The Inquirer put it, this is a clean kill in every way. The Green Goblin (a.k.a. NVidia) is in a bit of a pickle right now as it doesn't really have anything with which to retaliate. There's that GT200 revision on the way but I doubt a revision can boost the performance (of what essentially is a bloated G92 core) by 25 to 30%, in order to challenge the new ATI offerings. Add the problems they're having with the 8 series mobile graphics cards and you've got a hell of a situation. So why am I gloating? I'm glad that someone brought NVidia down to earth. Their ridiculous pricing policy and generally big mouth attitude needed to come to an end. I do so love it when big corporations receive a lesson in manners. Checkmate!

  Right, sorry for that fanboy moment, it's just something I really wanted to say. Anyway, have a nice week and peace!

  • Posted Aug 12, 2008 5:19 am GMT
  • Category: Other
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