March 03, 2008
Which one fits me?
From Penny-Arcade:
"Enforced fairness has a way of feeling unfair to those who excel. If you're playing to have fun with your friends, these are all opportunities for joy. If you play videogames to express your dominion over others, they are impediments to your regime."
I think the second one fits me. But that's just me. =)
Posted by Michael at 11:26 AM | Comments (1)
December 19, 2006
Lots of fun with the Wii
Mojo was in town a couple weeks ago, and he brought his shiny new Nintendo Wii over for some gaming goodness. I've been pretty excited about this system for a little bit, so I was looking forward to finding out how good it really was.
First impressions. The controllers work very well. Any controller issues seem to be related to how the games were designed as opposed to the mechanical/electrical workings of the Wii-mote.
I got the chance to play Wii Sports and Red Steel. Wii Sports (Tennis and Bowling specifically) is a lot of fun. Mojo and I stayed up until 6am playing Tennis. Doubles tennis against the computer is awesome. It was a ton of fun. I can only imagine how 2v2 matches would go. Bowling is also a ton of fun. We didn't play that one as much, as most of our time was spent playing Tennis.
Red Steel left a lot to be desired. The controller works fine, which is what I was initially worried about. They (Ubisoft) just didn't do a good job at implementing how the controller interacted with the game. After an hour or so of play, my arms were getting tired from having to constantly hold my arms out. I was really hoping for good things from Red Steel and it failed to deliver.
I do see a ton of potential with this system though. I expect lots of coolness in the future. It's still my belief that they need a Jedi Lightsabre game where you can duel other people, even over the internet. That would be _awesome_.
Posted by Michael at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2005
Gamefest 2k5
I couldn't sleep on my flight back, so here's a recap of Gamefest weekend.
I had originally planned on flying out at 2pm on Friday afternoon to go to Indiana. In hindsight, this was a really stupid idea. I would have gotten in at like 11pm, which would have meant that I would really only have Saturday to play games/hang out, so I first tried to change my flight to an earlier one (6am out of Oakland), but all the agent could do was put me on standby. So I arrived at Oakland airport at 4:30am Friday morning. Fortunately, there were still seats available, so I got on that plane no problem. I got into Chicago around noon. There were flights at 1:45, 2:45 and 3:50 out of Chicago into Indianapolis, but these flights were full, so I would have more difficulty getting onto those. Unfortunately, I had zero success in getting on those flights.
But instead of keeping waiting for flights that I might never get on, I decided to just go and rent a car to go one way from Chicago to Indy. Anything was better than waiting around Chicago O'Hare for 3 more hours not knowing if I'd get on a plane or not. I would rather just drive and know that I am actually making progress. So I did. And I got there about 8pm. Thanks for the directions Dave. ::snicker:: In another act of hindsight, I would have just driven as soon as I arrived in Chicago. I would have been in Indy by 3pm and all would have been good. But no worries. I got there safe and sound.
Then the fun began. The games of the weekend were Warcraft 3, Quake 3, Tekken 5, Ultimate Frisbee[0] and Rainbow Six: Raven Shield[1]. We mostly played Hero maps in War3, as it put everyone on the same team, as we found at last year's Gamefest, which is much more enjoyable to have everyone working towards a common goal. Dave and I played some 1v1 Quake 3 matches, but we were unable to complete the 5th and final match as the series now stands 2-2. I had such a blast. It's great to see everyone from school that I haven't seen in a long time. I think the final count of people was somewhere around 18. Many thanks go out to Jerry and Elizabeth for opening their house to all of us (and to Mel for making a delicious dinner =)).
I missed my plane to fly back to CA, but fortunately, I was able to get on another plane that left an hour than my original flight.
Good times and I can't wait until next year.
[0] Yes, physical exercise _was_ experienced during a weekend reserved for video games. We have to keep that in there so we don't all feel like slugs. =)
[1] A Gamefest tradition
Posted by Michael at 02:14 AM | Comments (2)
May 14, 2005
Blah
Ryan kicked my butt in Tekken 5 today, 61-39.
Blah.
We're gonna play Quake 3 now. We'll see if Ryan can stay on the level.
Posted by Michael at 04:04 PM | Comments (0)
December 02, 2004
World of Warcraft Review
Now that World of Warcraft has been out in retail a little over a week, I thought I'd throw my $.02 in about how I think the game is.
My first impression of the game is that it is fun. Blizzard took some of the tedium of the MMORPG genre and made it easier. One of the places that I see this is crafting. Now I hated crafting in Dark Age. It was boring and time consuming and took forever to be able to make armor/weapons/items for yourself that you could actually use. In WoW, it's easy, fast and useful. I actually enjoyed crafting. That's huge. They make the game...fun. ::gasp:: Thumbs up to Blizzard on this. My only concern is if things will get monotonous at higher levels. But I'll just have to wait and see on that.
The game is visually appealing and I am already aware of the backstory of the world because I played through Warcraft 3 so I feel immersed when I am playing the game. I am enjoying the combat/spell system. Character specialization[0] seems like it's working. All in all, I am very impressed with this game, but I really didn't expect anything less.
I just have to cancel my Dark Age account now. =)
[0] What makes 2 characters different from each other if their class/race is the same.
Posted by Michael at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2004
Halo 2 Complaint
Yes yes, I actually have found what I consider to be a flaw in Halo 2. There do not appear to be any good maps for 1v1 play. Battle creek[0] is the smallest map I have found so far. And that's just good for 2v2. I haven't tried all the maps yet, so I am not 100% that there are no good 1v1 maps though. Hopefully Bungie was smart enough to make it so that there will be downloadable maps through Xbox Live.
[0] Or whatever they call it in Halo2.
Posted by Michael at 08:58 AM | Comments (2)
November 09, 2004
Halo 2 Quotage
My brother sent me a quote by the head of Bungie about Halo 2:
"Halo 2 is a lot like Halo 1, only it's Halo 1 on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas ... And, the ninjas are all on fire, too."
Posted by Michael at 10:49 AM | Comments (3)
Halo 2
So Halo 2 came out last night at midnight. Several GameStops were going to be open at that time so that people could pick up their copy of Halo 2 that night. I pre-ordered a copy for myself because I wanted to get it on time, and after finding out that they were going to be open at midnight so that I could pick it up, I thought to myself, "Sure, I'll go and grab it". Little did I know that everyone in creation was planning on doing the same thing. The GameStop that I pre-ordered it from only had about 200-250 people waiting to pick it up last night.
I arrive at 12:10am[0] only to see the monstrosity of a line that I am going to have to wait in. After waiting about 10 minutes I decide that waiting around until probably 2am or so just to get a game that I will be too tired to play tonight anyway _probably_ isn't the best use of my time. I mean, heck, I could be sleeping for the next couple hours. Needless to say, I didn't pick up Halo 2 last night. They hold my copy for 48 hours, so I have today and tomorrow to go pick it up. I am definately thinking I'll go at a significantly less insane time to pick up my copy.
[0] I was late on purpose, I figured all the people that were fanatics would already be there like an hour early and I could just walk in and walk out...WRONG
Posted by Michael at 10:47 AM | Comments (3)
September 24, 2004
Cool Program of the Day
There's a program called In Game Chat which makes it easier to talk with people via IRC while gaming. It supports World of Warcraft, so that might be a nice thing to have. Too bad it doesn't support DAoC, although I don't expect I'll be playing it for much longer. =)
(edit)
The program also allows you to control winamp and eventually use other chat mediums.
Posted by Michael at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)
June 17, 2004
Gamefest 2k4
I had a great time at gamefest. A huge thanks to everyone who organized and for Jerry and Elizabeth who opened their house to a bunch of gamers and high energy bills. =) As Dave already mentioned, Quake3, Warcraft3 and Raven Shield were the games of the weekend. Towards the end, we were having a lot of fun with some tower defense-type maps in WarCraft3. Mental note to self: get more tower defense maps for next year's gamefest.
We played some 004 vs the world at Warcraft3, and a couple rounds of Quake3. Dave owned at dm17 (as to be expected), but we played a 1v1 at tourney3 and I squeeked a victory by him 20-17.
On the more physical note, we also played a game of Ultimate Frisbee. I was a tad concerned, considering that my leg isn't 100% yet, but after (and during) the game my leg/knee didn't give me any problems, and I was pushing myself pretty hard. You see, I forget that I am injured and do things that one might call "unintelligent". But on the bright side, nothing bad happened. =) Long story short, I played an intense game of ultimate and my leg felt great.
Unfortunately, weekends have to end and I left Sunday morning. It was a great time and I am really glad that I went.
Posted by Michael at 11:25 AM | Comments (4)
June 03, 2004
Gamefest soon
I am leaving a week from today to go to Gamefest. I am really excited to see Dave, Nate and Jerry. We plan on doing some 004 vs the world games of WarCraft3. That should be a lot of fun.
We rarely see each other anymore, and even more rare is the time when all 4 of us are in the same location. It'll be a good time.
Posted by Michael at 03:56 PM | Comments (2)
May 12, 2004
War3 Build Order
I saw that Nagi posted his Human War3 build a while ago and I thought I'd throw my Night Elf build up for people to comment on.
Mikey's Standard Night Elf Build
Start with 5 wisps
2 wisps to gold
2 wisps to lumber
1 wisp builds altar
Build 3 more wisps
1st wisp out builds moon well
Bulid 1 wisp
Next 3 wisps out go to mine
Build 2 more wisps and send them to lumber
Send altar wisp to harvest lumber
Moon Well wisp builds Hunter's Hall
Build Hero
When resources are available, build Ancient of War
Build 2 more wisps
When resources are available, build Ancient of War #2
Build Moon Well #2
Build Huntresses/Archers
Build Moon Well #3
Build more Huntresses/Archers
I basically pump huntresses or archers (whatever I am in the mood for) and go beat on people. Sometimes I will throw a couple Glaive Throwers in there for seige if I am playing against a turtle.
Enjoy.
Posted by Michael at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2003
Final Fantasy XI: Online
Wow. I have been looking/reading up on this game and it looks awesome. Not just from a graphical point of view, but just the way it plays. It uses a job system similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, a game which I throughly enjoyed. I enjoyed the way you could customize your character and decide how you wanted to level him up. You could have a knight with black magic abilities or a monk that could wear plate armor. I am not exactly sure how it works in FFXI, but it seems like it has a whole lot of potential.
All I know is that I can be a Red Mage. I want to go pre-order it so that I can play it when it comes out. If it's as good as it looks, I would be willing to give up DAoC for it. Now if I can just convince Nate, Dave and Mel to come play FFXI with me.
Posted by Michael at 11:01 AM | Comments (3)
July 14, 2003
Why yes, I _do_ play other games
From the posts I have written about gaming, I seem to mention Dark Age more than any other game. Actually, I don't know I even have mentioned playing any other game. Well, I got a little sick of Dark Age Yesterday, so I decided to play some other stuff.
I am currently playing through the Night Elf campaign in WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne. I think I am just about done with the Night Elves though. In the game, I've met up with the Humans (really the regular Elves) and I can see a nice segway into the human campaign.
I really enjoyed playing the campaign in the orignal WarCraft III and am enjoying the Expansion's campaign very much. I actually lost a mission though, which I kinda like. I mean, it's not hard, but if you don't pay attention, the game is gonna kick you around a little. All in all, I want to finish single-player so I can get ready to beat down Dave in a little Multiplayer action. Viva la Night Elves!
I also cracked open Neverwinter Nights on Saturday and I enjoyed it very much. I started an Elven Ranger. I can dual-wield Rapiers in this game....drool. I didn't play too late last night as God[0] told me that I should go to bed instead of playing.
And yes Todd, my character does have Weapon Finesse. =)
[0] My machine locked
Posted by Michael at 11:55 AM | Comments (2)
June 23, 2003
It wasn't about the experience anymore
Game: Dark Age of Camelot
Time: Friday 6/20/2003 - 11pm PST
Place: Dun Abermenai
It was a somewhat typical nights in the Battleground of Dun Abermenai. There were about 13 Hibernians trying to take the Albion keep. I was playing my Valewalker, Dave brought his enchanter. The Albs were defending their keep fairly well, although it was mostly the NPC guards that were keeping us at bay, as we outnumbered the Albs about 2:1. "We can take this keep", we thought. So, we start by setting up a battering ram to knock down the doors. That was the first of many battering rams that night.
Fast-forward to 3am PST. We still hadn't taken the keep, Dave had left hours earlier (which in hindsight was the intelligent decision) and most of the original 13 were still there. The reason that I was originally desired to take the keep was because of a significant experience point reward for doing so. I figured that it wouldn't take too long and would get me a butt-load of experience. At 3am, I cared nothing for the experience points I was going to gain. It was a moral imperative that I take this keep. It wasn't even a question anymore, the decision had already been made. It was just a matter of how long it would take us. Finally, around 4:15am, we proud Hibernians stood atop our newly captured keep. It was a sweet victory, rivaled only by the comfort of my pillow as I feel asleep to the sun rising in the morning.
Posted by Michael at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)