wow gold

Patent: 6,264,560 - USPTO grants re-exam request

wowgoldeu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 05:52:54 +0000

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office agreed to re-examine online-gaming patent 6,264,560 after the Electronic Frontier Foundation challenged it on the grounds that the technology covered by the patent had been used extensively before it was issued.

The patent is entitled “Method and system of playing games on a network” and allegedly claims all Internet gaming systems that use tournament-style play, display advertisements and have real-time updates of rankings in multiplayer games. Seems pretty broad, except for the fact that it potentially has priority back to December, 1996. The patent issued on July 24, 2001.

Abstract from patent: The present invention is a game playing method and apparatus for automating games such as blackjack, poker, craps, roulette, baccarat and pai gow, wherein players may play continuously and asynchronously, and information related to advertised items can be exchanged between players and advertisers. In one embodiment, each instance of a game is likely unique from all other current game instances. The games do not require a manual dealer and in one embodiment, played in a gaming establishment using low cost gaming stations. The present invention may also be used to play such games on the Internet or an interactive cable television network wherein a game controller communicates with players at network nodes in their homes and at their leisure since there is no game tempo requirement. During a game, advertising is selectively provided by comparing player personal information with a desired demographic profile. Player responses to advertising are used for evaluating advertising effectiveness. The invention is useful for test marketing of products, advertisements, and reduces advertising costs.

Relevant claims:
Claim 1: A method for conducting one or more tournaments, comprising:

identifying players requesting to join one of the tournaments, wherein each tournament includes a plurality of instances of a game for playing by each of the players identified, wherein for each of the players, at least one of the following (a) and (b) must be satisfied for the player to complete one of the tournaments:

(a) a predetermined number of instances of the game must be played by the player;

(b) a predetermined amount of time must elapse between the commencement of the tournament and the termination of the tournament;

for each tournament, the following steps are performed:

(A1) selecting the identified players to be included in the tournament;

(A2) grouping the players into groups, wherein for each group, the players therein compete against one another in playing instances of the game;

(A3) determining one or more winning players for each group;

(A4) establishing a modified version of the game by changing a rule of the game while retaining another rule for the game;

(A5) combining the winning players from different groups into one or more new groups for competing against one another in playing instances of the modified version of the game.

Claim 81: A method of playing a game on the Internet, comprising:

first receiving player identification at a game playing Internet accessible node (GPIAN) for first and second players;

transmitting, via the Internet, from the GPIAN, first information related to communications between: (a) the GPIAN, and (b) a first Internet accessible node from which the first player communicates with the GPIAN;

wherein said first information is utilized in subsequent Internet communications between the GPIAN and the first Internet accessible node;

causing said first information to be stored on the first Internet accessible node so that it is available in subsequent different Internet connections by the first player;

second receiving, via the Internet, at the GPIAN, first responsive information indicative of said first information being present on said first Internet accessible node;

first playing with the first player a first game, wherein one or more game play representations are transmitted to the first player via the first Internet accessible node;

second playing with the second player a second game, wherein one or more game play representations are transmitted to the second player and from the GPIAN while the first player is playing the first game;

playing of a third game between said GPIAN and the second player, wherein a third collection of one or more game play representations is transmitted to the second player, and wherein the transmissions of the game play representations for the third collection and the first collection overlap in time;

wherein said step of second receiving at the GPIAN occurs when the first player has reconnected the first Internet accessible node to the Internet after said first information has been stored on the first Internet accessible node and said first Internet accessible node has disconnected from the Internet.

Claim 87. A method of playing a game on a communications network, comprising:

receiving, at a game playing node of the network, a request for selecting a pace of play of an instance of the game by a first user at a first node of the network;

first transmitting game plays between said game playing node and the first user using network communications between the game playing node and the first node, wherein at least a second user has played an instance of the game; and

transmitting to the first node a ranking of said second user, wherein the ranking is indicative of a proficiency of the second user in playing the game.

Claim 92. A method of playing a game on a communications network, comprising:

receiving at a game playing node on the network, a contact by each of a plurality of users, via a corresponding node on the network for the user, for initiating a corresponding instance of the game between the game playing node and the user’s corresponding node, and at least some of said instances overlap in time;

transmitting game plays between said game playing node and a first of the users, for the corresponding instance of the game;

transmitting from the game playing node to the corresponding node of the first user, the ranking of a second of the users, wherein said ranking is indicative of a proficiency of the second user in playing the game, and said ranking is updated to present a change in said ranking while the first user is playing the game.

Claim 94. A method of playing a game on a communications network, comprising:

first receiving, from each of a plurality of users via a corresponding node for the user on the network, a contact at a game playing node on the network, so that each of the users initiates a corresponding instance of the game between the game playing node and the user’s corresponding node, and at least some of said instances overlap in time;

second receiving, at the game playing network node from a first of the users via the first user’s corresponding network node, a request for selecting a pace of play of the corresponding game instance;

playing, by the first user, the corresponding instance of the game with the game playing node at the pace selected by the first user.

Claim 95. An apparatus for playing a game on a network, comprising:

a display area for electronically displaying an instance of the game to a first user;

an input area for allowing the first user to input a game play;

a communications network connection for communicating, on a network, game related information, between: (a) one or more of said display and said input area, and (b) an addressable node on said network accessible by a network address available to said apparatus;

wherein a plurality of users communicate with said addressable node for playing instances of the game; and

wherein between at least a majority of game plays by the first user, there is a game play related network transmission via said communications connection; and

a game speed of play control for allowing the first user to control the pace of the instance of the game.

Claim 102. An apparatus for playing a game on a network, comprising:

a display area for electronically displaying an instance of the game;

an input area for allowing a first user to input a game play for said instance of the game;

a communications network connection for communicating game related information between said apparatus and a game controller, wherein said game controller communicates with said apparatus via a network, said network also connected to additional network nodes for allowing simultaneous play of instances of the game with the game controller by a plurality of users;

a control for allowing the first user to cancel a previously entered wager;

a card reader, wherein when an identification card identifying the first user is provided thereto, data identifying the first user is communicated to the game controller.

Claim 103. An apparatus for playing a card game electronically, comprising:

a card generator for generating one or more electronic card representations for playing the card game;

a game playing engine for playing a first electronic instance of the card game between a first player and a substantially electronic dealer module, wherein the first player is dealt a first sequence of the card representations, and wherein a second player plays a second instance of the card game with the dealer module so that said first and second card game instances overlap in time, and wherein the second player receives a second sequence of the card representations; and
wherein, for an initial series of one or more plays by said first player using said first sequence, when said second player also initially plays said initial series of one or more identical plays using said second sequence, then for corresponding identical plays by said first and second players, their corresponding hands of card representations are identical.

Claim 104. An apparatus for playing a card game electronically, comprising:

a card generator for generating card representations for playing said card game electronically;

a game playing engine for playing said card game with a plurality of players simultaneously, wherein said game playing engine transmits, for each player, a corresponding collection of one or more of said card representations through a communications network to the player;

a timer in operative communication with said game playing engine for changing a time limit for accepting an input from a first of said players when said first player transmits a communications network request to change a speed of play of said game.

wowgoldeu 0
wowgoldeu 1
hiphper 2
wowgoldeu 3
wowgoldeu 4
hiphper 5
wowgoldeu 6
hiphper 7
wowgoldeu 8
hiphper 9

It has been awhile since the linky…

wowgoldeu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 05:38:13 +0000

I am going through the RSS reader today… here are some fun links to 360voice.

Threevue.com
"…maybe pretty soon my 360voice blog will stop guilt-tripping me…"

PhilCanavan.com
"It redefines the term ‘blogging’. so if you have a 360 pop along and sign up!"

FDNY Shadow
"Its pretty cool. It even writes the blog for you."

Video Games, I Play Them
"Seeing my 360 complain about what a jerk of an owner I am on its own fake blog makes me sad…"

Everyday Gamer
"The website tracks what games are being played for each registered user and automatically displays them in a blog…"

Comic Relief
"…it makes me pick up a controller, just to keep my streaks going!!"

Most of the links in my queue were articles about the GamerDNA/360voice merger… so I spared you that rehash as they all linked to the same press release and all said the same things… and we already linked about that, so we didn't need the retread!

Thanks everyone for the mentions!

wowgoldeu 0
wowgoldeu 1
hiphper 2
wowgoldeu 3
wowgoldeu 4
wowgoldeu 5
wowgoldeu 6
hiphper 7
wowgoldeu 8
wowgoldeu 9

A survey of 2007s role playing games

wowgoldeu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 05:25:41 +0000

Last year was a fairly interesting one for RPG fans. Some of the biggest names in the genre finished their PS2 swan songs long ago, and went off in search of new platforms. This left 2007 as a year for new ideas and lesser known series to take root and grab the hearts and money of fans. 2007 may not have had a big new Final Fantasy, but perhaps that is a good thing, as it allowed these other games to stand out, rough edges and all. While it comes a bit late, the following is an assessment of some of 2007’s biggest RPGs from both Chris (vl’s resident RPG expert) and Christian (who continues to look for the genre’s masterpiece). We also included FF12 in the mix. It may be a bit old to us modern folk living in 2008, but it is such a major departure from Square’s usual offerings that it deserves a bit more discussion on the site.

Christian
In terms of introducing ideas, be they bad or good, Persona 3 makes some subtle suggestions that are nevertheless incredibly potent. The entire game revolves around the idea that a person is made by their choices, and so every single decision you make likely has an effect on your character’s stats or Persona. RPGs often like giving us choices, but they are usually only an illusion (for example, you simply may not be able to say “no”), or are nullified by allowing the player to earn the rewards of all the choices through means of brute force leveling and exploration. When you do something in Persona 3, it sticks, and there’s nothing you can do about it except reload the game. I absolutely love this concept, as it makes each playthrough a little different depending on what you do, and also makes you feel like you are playing the role by investing in this character.

Chris
Persona 3 is my favorite RPG on the PS2, and for good reason. It’s not that it does everything well - in fact, it’s often repetitive, somewhat slow, and occasionally downright unfair. What it does do right, however, is what so many games do wrong: it doesn’t have one aspect that really sucks.

Persona 3
The battle system is easy to learn, yet throws the occasional curveball at you to get you thinking. Only the main character can change his persona (which affects the three As: attributes, affinities and abilities). By the same token, he is also the only one who can be directly controlled. It’s a refreshing simplification after the earlier games, which involved too much management in battle. This comes at some expense of control, but it is worth it.

The plot has a gradual buildup, but the gaps are filled with steady side-plots and well-done characters. When a game gets me to care about a nameless taxi driver, it really says something. Far more questions than answers are to be had early on, which can get somewhat frustrating, but as the plot begins to unravel, the wait feels very much worth it. As Christian pointed out, even the silent character is very well done, as rather than being simply a guy who is there, you get to make decisions left and right for him, many of which feel quite natural.

As a bonus, if you’re one of those people who waited before buying, Atlus has granted you an unusual reprieve: P3’s expansion pack FES, once thought to remain Japan-only, has been released stateside. It even includes the original game for a total price of $30 (a sight better than the $70 you would normally buy it off eBay for).

P3 also realizes just how shitty RPG combat can be, which is why battles are only one aspect of the experience. Adding in the high school/social/story/dating aspects to Persona 3 makes for a varied experience that never tries to drag you down or wear you out. As any DnD fan would know, roleplaying can mean more than fighting and rolling dice. Persona 3 gets this, and we are better off for it.

I have sadly not finished Persona 3, though I know it is not the game’s fault but my own. I smile every time I boot it up, and I always watch the intro video. The reason I can’t push farther into it is because years of playing other jRPGs have trained me to think that the only way to play this genre is the OCD way. There simply is no way to see everything in P3 in one playthrough. That’s fine and dandy, but I am constantly afraid of being screwed over. What if the choices I made were the wrong ones? What if I find myself grossly underpowered when I get to the end of the game? There is a time limit after all, and so I will be unable to grind. More than a few RPGs have put me in such compromising situations, and no, none of them were roguelikes. I know Persona 3 isn’t tricky. It is meant to be balanced enough that it can be beaten in many ways. But I constantly wish to fire up an FAQ and see what I “should” be doing, and I refuse to sully the experience this way. P3 wants to be a pleasure, and I am trying to make it into work. Thanks Square.

Rogue Galaxy
Christian
I was anticipating this one more than any other RPG in recent memory. Too bad it did not live up to its potential. It had so many good ideas, such as its item synthesis system and load free combat. After the initial wow factor, it all begins to fall apart. The combat gets tedious, and making new weapons and learning skills will cause you to farm item drops as you would in an MMO. Rogue Galaxy is a lot like Dark Cloud 2 (items, monotonous dungeons, etc.), including having most of its major issues. Not a bad RPG, as it doesn’t stray terribly far from the mold, but it wasn’t nearly bold enough for my liking. At the very least they could have made the space pirates actual pirates and not a bunch of do-gooders.

Chris
Rogue Galaxy mashes together every anime and video game cliche it can and ends up with something so derivative you have to either love it or hate it, but its plot and characters are not really the focus of the game. Rather than worrying you with complex issues like real character development, a realistic plot, or thinking, Rogue Galaxy has you swing your sword and shoot your gun a lot. That about sums it up, and initially it is a refreshing game. After FFXII, which I found overly dramatic, Rogue Galaxy was a breath of fresh air.

Unfortunately, after a while I found I had had enough of the whole “fresh air” business. The weapon-mixing system is neat enough, but gets every bit as repetitive as the combat. The mini-games, hunts, et cetera are fun for a while, but in the end it’s just even more fighting. There’s ultimately no motivation to do much of the “100% completion” for all of the minigames and weapons because there’s just too much of it to deal with. RG is great for the first 30 hours or so, but the fighting doesn’t stay fun forever. Dungeons grow from being sort of interesting to incredibly boring, even with the quick battle loading.

Odin Sphere
Christian
This is a technical wonder. Some say Odin Sphere’s 2D graphics look too good to be true, even though the game was made with little time and money (thus shattering any excuse Konami might make about their laziness to create new Castlevania sprites). Unfortunately, storybook visuals do not instantly make a good game, and Odin Sphere is too confused to know what it wants to be or how to do it properly. For instance, the combat is less action RPG and more straight up action game; it even has rankings for your performance. However the controls aren’t fast or responsive enough to be up to the task. Combat requires more than mashing the attack button, yet that is the one tactic that is most reliable. The nail in the coffin however, is item management, or rather the lack thereof. It is important to constantly plant seeds and mix potions in order to have good stats and powerful items, but the ring style item structure of your inventory is confusing and slow, making it easy to forget what you have and easier to throw away what you might have actually wanted. It adds up to much more downtime and resource management between fights than there should be. It isn’t that the gardening concept is bad, it simply ends up chewing away more time than it needs to.

On a final note, Odin Sphere can have massive slowdown, either due to the PS2 struggling to render the visuals, or because of bad coding. Either way, this only makes it harder to succeed in combat.

Chris
Christian is spot on with Odin Sphere. It looks beautiful, and is fun for a time, but item management and the battle balance really ruined it for me.

My only additional comment is regarding the perspective. The sprites are amazingly well-drawn, but the reason you see so much detail is that your character takes up about 1/5 of the screen. As a result, you can’t see anything but your immediate surroundings. Even with the minimap, I’d find myself under attack by long-range enemies I couldn’t see, or have closer-range enemies charge in from offscreen unpredictably.

This one is cheating, I know, but I finally got around to the latest Final Fantasy this Christmas, and I am sad I waited so long. This is the most wonderful, honest script the series has ever seen, delivered by quality voice actors that minimize bad deliveries and awkward pausing. The story dismisses many of the epic, schlocky tropes of the genre in favor of a more straightforward tale of politics and war. The combat is different and yet effective, awarding strategy but also allowing for a brute force approach. In short, we may never see a FF game like this ever again. For one, Matsuno went crazy and left the project (and Square in general). Two, fans seemed to hate it. So many years of bad design choices by Square have made the kids believe that unless you are killing God with a team of anorexics with zipper and hair gel fetishes, then you simply aren’t doing it right.

Final Fantasy XII
Christian
I can accept that perhaps XII, which I have yet to finish, may fall apart in the end. But who cares about how much it rips off Star Wars? FF has been doing that for years, only this time it borrows some themes and plot elements, rather than just meaningless name drops. And the story? Complaining about how the story uses classic storytelling methods instead of relying on cheap “character development” and anime stereotypes seems childish. Which, I suppose, it is; it was teenagers who fell in love with the genre back in 1997, and it is new teenagers who keep it going a decade later. The same people that download Naruto fansubs and worship Evangelion are the same ones who allow something like Xenosaga and Kingdom Hearts 2 to be considered good examples of storytelling in the genre.

All I am trying to say is that the problem is not with Final Fantasy XII. It is an outlier in the series no doubt, but it is a good game, and I hope someone learns some lessons from it.

Chris
Of all the games of the past year, my opinions on Final Fantasy XII have changed the most. Though I still agree with most of my review just after playing it, I don’t find myself wanting to play through it again at all. Part of this is because the game doesn’t really lend itself to replayability. In most cases, there’s only one “best” way to do things. You’ll always want to use Haste, Protect, etc in the same situations, you’ll always want mostly the same Gambits, and since the characters you choose don’t make a real difference, there’s no variation.

By the halfway point, battles are so hands-off that they’re not terribly interesting, and customization dies off as you fill in the last parts of your License Grid. The plot moves in spurts separated by rather long dungeons and (if you’re a completionist) dozens of hunts or side-quests. I usually like to give the completion thing a try, but FFXII made some of the hunts so difficult or random that I gave up.

Overall, FFXII feels very mechanical to me. Characters are all the same in battle, battles are set-and-forget, and by the time the better characters got any backstory, I wanted Vaan to die violently. The intrigue is all well and good, but not a whole lot is particularly deep - you can see most characters’ motivations simply by looking at them. That said, though, a couple of the story elements were refreshing. There are shades of gray everywhere in the plot, and very few people end up looking entirely good, and there are amazingly no evil religions. There are a couple of nods to the series stereotypes (such as Vaan’s lack of masculinity) but all in all it does feel different plot-wise. Hopefully the next entry does as much and brings control back into the battles.

Wild Arms 5 (bonus)
Chris
Ahh, the power of cheese. It might not be the absolute worst plot I’ve seen, but Wild Arms 5 is the only recent game I know of with enough cliches to rival Rogue Galaxy. If you are looking for a feel-good plot with maybe a few bits of darkness for contrast, an entertaining world to explore, and well-done if recycled characters, you should play… Skies of Arcadia, which WA5 seems to have pilfered from considerably. The world in WA5 is actually pretty decent, all told, but there is very little that can save the game from the mindless repetition of “Never give up!” from the main characters.

That said, the battles are strategic and, once you get going, the extras are pretty satisfying. Even the early extra dungeons were fun to go through, and any game that’s able to get me to play extra after 40 hours nowadays deserves a pretty hefty bit of praise. If anything, over time, I’ve come to like WA5 a bit more; I can ignore the plot to some extent because battles are fairly well balanced and it has really good music. I am willing to forgive a game almost anything if it has good music.

Wild Arms 5 feels a bit like a slow-running roller coaster. The early game is boring and the finale stretches itself a bit too thin, but right in the middle it has more than a few moments of exhilaration and has great pacing. If it didn’t start so gradually, end so poorly, or have horrible dialogue, it would be a really great game.

wowgoldeu 0
hiphper 1
hiphper 2
wowgoldeu 3
hiphper 4
wowgoldeu 5
hiphper 6
wowgoldeu 7
wowgoldeu 8
wowgoldeu 9

A Few Tidbits About WoTLK - 5 Mans and DK Creation

wowgoldeu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 05:12:57 +0000

CM’s Bornakk and Nethaera give us a little something about the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and I figured they are probably stuff you guys would like to know. Bornakk tells us something about the 5 man dungeons while Nethaera clarifies how Death Knight creation and server transfers are going to work.

WotLK 5 man Dungeons

We are currently planning to keep the 5 person dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King fairly short in length, but with a boost to their overall epicness - the preview we have of The Nexus is a great example of this.

The more vast and sprawling dungeons will be found in the raid dungeons which more players will be able to experience with the changes to the setup. Source

Death Knight Creation and Server Transfer

An online poster in the official forums wrote this:

Bornak (I think) clarified that if a server is not yet open to transfers, then you need a level 55 on that server to create a Death Knight. Once it’s open to transfers, though, it’s fair game.

Nethaera replied:

This is correct. At this point in time, we don’t have any further limitations on the creation. As always, I like to give a caveat that this could change if we feel it’s necessary.

taken from here

It’s good to hear that the 5 man dungeons of the next expansion won’t.be too long. It’s not that fun if a dungeon takes so long to finish. Dungeon length sometimes factors into whether or not someone can do the dungeon. Many times, I’ve been turned off by Botanica runs since it’s pretty long.

The eleven-minute Automatic Mario masterpiece

wowgoldeu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:59:51 +0000

Filed under: Culture

It’s been months since the e-fad of creating automated levels in Super Mario World to the tune of popular Anime soundtracks surfaced — normally, that’s much longer than the lifespan of most internet memes. However, this post-mortem contribution to the Mario-on-rails movement caught our attention (as well as the collective attention of Digg-dwellers) largely due to the fact that “months” is the amount of time the architect of the above masterwork needed to really hone his craft.

The above eleven-minute long video, set to a remixed hodge-podge of Anime songs (feel free to flaunt your knowledge of Anime theme music in the comments), is absolutely incredible. Not only do Mario’s predetermined movements match up perfectly to the music, the sound effects are often pitch perfect to the background track. It’s difficult to explain — we suggest you watch it to fully comprehend, then spend the rest of the day wondering if all those Journey covers you made on Mario Paint are still as breathtaking as you once thought.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

wowgoldeu 0
hiphper 1
wowgoldeu 2
hiphper 3
wowgoldeu 4
hiphper 5
hiphper 6
hiphper 7
wowgoldeu 8
wowgoldeu 9

Coming this fall: Madden NFL 09 PSP Entertainment Pack

wowgoldeu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:43:47 +0000

We know a lot of you PSP fans out there are big into sports games, and, with that in mind, we’ve just announced a special new hardware bundle built around the biggest sports franchise in gaming. Of course, I’m talking about Madden NFL, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year (big up to anyone who still has a copy of the original game).

The Madden NFL 09 PSP Entertainment Pack will include a limited-edition “Metallic Blue” PSP system, the highly anticipated Madden NFL 09 game, “NFL: In Just One Play” on UMD Video, a PLAYSTATION Network voucher to download Beats from PLAYSTATION Store, and a 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo. That’s a pretty good deal for $199.99 (MSRP).

Our friends at EA will be pulling out all the stops with this year’s edition of Madden NFL, so it’s an ideal game to sport on your shiny new Metallic Blue PSP to make the other kids drool. Check out the close-up below, and look out for this limited-edition bundle everywhere on August 12.

wowgoldeu 0
hiphper 1
wowgoldeu 2
hiphper 3
wowgoldeu 4
hiphper 5
hiphper 6
wowgoldeu 7
wowgoldeu 8
wowgoldeu 9

Casual Games not Cheap, Says UbiSoft

wowgoldeu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:29:59 +0000

As spotted on Joystiq.com, game developer, UbiSoft declared that although casual games may be far more inexpensive to produce, it takes much more money to promote and market.

This was revealed by UbiSoft North America president, Detoc, in an interview with San Francisco Chronicle. He also said that a big chunk of the recent success is due to the low development costs of casual games and the market’s acceptance on the genre.

Am I bitter or have you not played enough games?

wowgoldeu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:17:19 +0000

I recently played Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect for the first time. Both seemed to be very good games in the ten minutes I dedicated to each (reviews indicate that with prolonged exposure my liking of Ass Creed will diminish and my enjoyment of Ass Effect will swell). When I finally cave in and buy a 360 I will likely pick up both.

Still, I am somewhat startled by the way many people view these games. Beyond confirming graphics are largely irrelevant to my enjoyment of a game, I realized that almost every game is clearly evolutionary, even great games. Despite fighting the urge to be reactionary, the fact that these games are praised so heavily forced me to pay special attention to each game mechanic. The result left me with a mix of “ha, told you these aren’t as good as you thought!”, “my god I am so grumpy I’m denying myself the obvious pleasures of these games”, and “at least I can write something boring about all of this.”

Here is a brief rundown -

Assassin’s Creed is Thief plus Price of Persia with a hint of Zelda and lime. People noticing dead bodies and much of the feel comes from Thief, the architecture and excellent climbing stuff comes from Prince of Persia, riding everywhere on a damn horse is reminiscent of many games, specifically from the Zelda series, and diving off structures into lava while an alien bursts from your stomach comes from Alien 3. I haven’t noticed the battle system anywhere else so I am willing to accept they didn’t directly lift it from another game, though there are thousands of titles I haven’t played so who knows.

Mass Effect’s lauded dialog system reminds me of Indigo Prophecy’s dialog system and of the simple choose-a-word-to-discuss system from the Ultima games. Besides being obviously descended from KOTOR, other specific bits reminded me of classics - the huge amount of info on every character, race, location, etc. is straight out of X-Com and the large number of planets to mine on seems Starflight inspired. While discussing the betrayal of some important alien I had a major Fallout flashback and in a moment of lucidity I realized that despite the 3D models and camera (which I hate, by the way) nothing had really changed in Western RPGs.

Now the caveat is that many Western RPGs, at least the Bioware/Black Isle ones, are amazingly well written. Almost all games, even classics, are compilations of earlier ideas slightly reinvented and one or two, if any, new ideas. What often makes a game great is how it combines specific elements, and like when preparing a meal, it is not necessary to invent new ingredients to end up with something spectacular. I do not want to begrudge either Assassin’s Creed nor Mass Effect and I still look forward to playing both. I simply want to suggest people who are not well versed in games watch their hyperboles.

Our missions are the following - I will stop being reactionary and fight my desire to hate everything popular (highschool is over, afterall) and you will go play more games and by doing so realize nothing is as impressive as it seems. And then kill yourself.

wowgoldeu 0
hiphper 1
wowgoldeu 2
wowgoldeu 3
wowgoldeu 4
hiphper 5
hiphper 6
hiphper 7
hiphper 8
wowgoldeu 9

BioShock officially coming to PS3

wowgoldeu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:02:24 +0000

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, First Person Shooters

We’ve heard rumors of it for months and now it seems that the most recent one circulated by 1UP’s Quartermann is indeed on the money: BioShock is coming to the PS3. The news will apparently drop in the July issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly.

All we know at this point is that the game may get some graphical improvements, it’s due in time for the 2008 holiday season and that the port is being headed up by new BioShock creative director Jordan Thomas, a designer on the original. Check out the July issue of EGM for screens and some more info.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

wowgoldeu 0
wowgoldeu 1
wowgoldeu 2
hiphper 3
wowgoldeu 4
hiphper 5
wowgoldeu 6
wowgoldeu 7
wowgoldeu 8
hiphper 9

‘Defense is important’ in Ninja Gaiden II

wowgoldeu — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:48:35 +0000

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

See? It’s not just about flipping out and killing people and slashing enemies into the air and tossing shurikens into their faces and lopping off limbs and doing totally sweet combos like that one where you kick the guy in the head before chopping him into pieces and then running up the wall because you’re the ultimate unstoppable mammal. Sometimes you just have to calm down and defend yourself. If the sage advice conveyed by the above video isn’t enough, you have until June 3rd to view the clips after the break and get educated on the ways of the ninja.

Remember: Ninjas fight ALL the time.

Continue reading ‘Defense is important’ in Ninja Gaiden II

Permalink | Email this | Comments

hiphper 0
wowgoldeu 1
wowgoldeu 2
hiphper 3
wowgoldeu 4
wowgoldeu 5
wowgoldeu 6
wowgoldeu 7
wowgoldeu 8
hiphper 9