Gamespy got the scoop on the next big MMRPG coming to us from Microsoft. Titled Mythica, it takes place in a Norse inspired world…or afterworld, perhaps. You start the game having just died, and Odin enlists you in his army of immortal heros and… oh hell, just read the lengthy preview at Gamespy!
Official site (just placeholder stuff right now)
Gamespy preview
Here’s a laugh. ZDNet actually posted an article based on a survey done by Logitech, makers of cordless mice and keyboards, about desktop cord clutter. I mean, could anything be more self serving for Logitech? Anyway, setting aside the fact that its bad journalism, there are some fun factoids in here. Stuff like “Lay all desktop cords in the US end to end and they’d reach half-way to the moon.”
Just stumbled onto the Rubies of Eventide site. It’s an online RPG now in open beta. There used to be a pay-to-play MUD with the same name, but this one is graphical and from a brief glance, looks good! No clue how it plays, but I mean to find out!
This is old news, but I’m way behind in my gaming reading. At the DICE Summit there was a panel of game developers talking about doing sequels. Check out this excerpt:
…the panel was asked how the designers go about building a sequel; if they follow their own vision or if they try to cater to fans. Interestingly, most of the panel admitted that it’s hard to actually gauge the likes and dislikes of the fans, because focus group testing isn’t always efficient and the opinion of the vocal minority that tend to dominate message boards may not necessarily represent all the fans of the game…
My heart sang when I read the bit I’ve put in bold. The idea that the screaming arses that populate most busy gaming boards aren’t being taken at face value…maybe gaming has a prayer of growing up, after all.
Check out this Honda ad.
Then go read about how they did it.. It apparently isn’t CGI and it isn’t trick photography.
Anarchy Online got a patch today, re-invigorating the in-game mission system. From the patch notes:
The auto-generated mission areas have received a major upgrade in looks and layout, and should now be both more varied, challenging and visually pleasing.
New dangers in missions include proximity mines, cameras and gun turrets. The “Map Reader Upgrade - Machines” will help somewhat against some of these hazards, and you might be able to locate a central control unit for them. In addition, more variation has been added to creatures found in missions. In fact, some completely new creature variants will only be found in missions. Watch out!
Some other changes with missions
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I don’t usually bother talking about net virii and worms, but this one is so reprehensible that it bears mentioning. The I-Worm Coronex is being spread in an email with various subject lines referring to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). People are understandably concerned about this disease and so are more apt to fall for the attached virus and run the exe.
Pretty damned low, eh? Don’t let the scumbags get you. Practice safe computing!
Subject lines include:
I’m dividing my “review” of Star Wars: The Clone Wars for the XBox into 2 parts, one covering offline, the other online. Here’s the smack on the offline mode. Rather than rewrite stuff, I’m just going to post a couple of rants I left on an XBox message board.
The solo game is, to me, more annoying than fun. It’s very much a “you against the world” twitch fest. I thought it’d be slightly more simulator-ish with a bit more strategy to it. But its really a straight forward thumb-numbing shooter. Now, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but I was just expecting something slightly less arcade-style. I also hate games with whiney wingmen. 
And ones where, if your wingman gets his or her self killed, its game over for you. And enemies spawn behind you. OK, enough grumping…
On the plus side,
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Finished the audio book version of Ursula Le Guin’s The Farthest Shore today. Another Fantastic Audio production, technologically and aurally it was another fine product. Scott Brick did a fine job with narration, giving characters enough personality to make it clear who was saying what, without falling into the trap of over-dramatizing things.
As for the book itself… I know The Earthsea Trilogy is considered one of the classics of fantasy, but I’d beg to differ. I enjoyed A Wizard of Earthsea quite a bit, but I found The Tombs of Atuan started very slowly and only really got going in the second half. This last volume starts slow and ended slow. It was a classic quest story but, really, the questers never met with much in the way of obstacles, beyond the sheer distances needing to be travelled. The end result was a book that was more mood-piece than story. A very good mood piece…Le Guin can really paint a picture with words, but I wouldn’t enjoyed a bit more action/adversity.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars for XBox should be in stores today. Normally this would be No Big Deal since the GC and PS2 versions were fairly lackluster, but the XBox version has XBox Live! support, and all us XBL’ers are so starved for new content that we’d buy a Kate and Ashley game if it was Live! enabled.
As of this morning before work, Shadowbane’s login servers have been essentially down for 3 days now. Communication from Wolf Pack and UBISoft has been terse at best. If you’re thinking about picking this game up, don’t! If you’re reading this out of the archives weeks or months from now, please do your research before you waste your money like I did.
Phantasy Star Online keeps getting better. I’m learning how to raise my Mag properly now (its a kindof personal defense robot) and have seen some of the deeper (?) levels. Even watched a group kill a dragon! Very fun, especially with the XBox’s voice chat.
One drawback though, is there’s a long lag in the voice chat for this game. Haven’t noticed it on any other XBox games, though, so I think its some kind of glitch specific to PSO. Hoping they’ll patch it…
OK, addiction of the moment…. Phantasy Star Online 1 & 2 for the XBox. Play it over XBox live with voice support, and go and hack up stuff. Basically the game feels like Diablo or even Gauntlet, only in a 3rd person, over the shoulder format.
Why is it so fun? I think its a combination of the very basic gameplay, on the surface, with a lot of hidden depth that you can dig into as you get more into the game. Even things like how you name your character have an impact on its development. Plus, its a collecting game. Y’know how in Diablo you were always looking for a good drop off some monster? Same kind of thing here. Lots of looting, selling, buying…trying to make your character stronger while levelling him or her up.
Lots of fun, ONLINE. If you play it solo, it gets kinda dull. Oh, you can also do it split-screen with your friends.
Best Buy is evil.
I went to buy Spirited Away and wandered past the headphone display. Now, I have some cheapo headphones I use at work to try to block out the chaos, but after a while they hurt my ears and I have to take them off (they sorta hang on my ears..not buds, but no band either).
Well, to make a long story short, $50 later I walk out with a set of Sony MDR-V300 headphones. These come in a traditional format. Full ear cups, band goes over the top of my head, rather than the oh-so-trendy round the back thing that bugs the bejesus out of me.
And..oh my! These things are wonderful! I’m no audiophile so maybe the sound is shite, but it sure sounds better than my old ones. They’re also very comfortable and do a great job of blocking out the incessant nattering of my co-workers. Sound is crisp and very clear; listening to an old favorite live soundtrack (CSNY 4-Way Street) I’m hearing little details I never noticed before.
Here’s an Epinions review page to back me up a bit. They got 4 stars based on 12 reviews, and the lowest price they show is $35.
I’m groovin now!
OK, let’s get back in the saddle and get this blog moving again.
Having some down time over the past few days, I dug out my backlog of Computer Gaming World magazine and leafed through them. And you know what wisdom came out of that exercise? GIVE IT UP, CGW!!! In fact, why in the heck are we still getting paper computer gaming magazines at all? What’s the point? There’s nothing in this mag that I didn’t already know from the internet. For instance, the April 2003 issue had a review of DAoC: Shrouded Isles. When’d that come out? December, yes?
But speaking specifically of CGW, which was for years a decent rag…all I can say is, ick! The magazine now has the maturity of, I don’t know, EGM or GamePro or something. The Letters to the Editor section illustrates this most clearly. Among the “You guyz suxxors” letters is the odd person trying to get a point across or a question answered. Invariably, rather than addressing the issue, one of the staff just spouts off some rude comment at the letter-writer. That’s nice, eh? You take the time to write a serious letter to these bozos and they lip off at you.
My advice to Ziff: Put CGW out of its misery, once and for all. That, or just punt the current staff and get in some journalists who have a dash of respect for their readership. But even then, with the lag time of printing and distribution, your reviews are going to be horribly outdated, and your news ain’t gonna be new.
