The End Game, Finally

After playing my account on and off for 3ish years, with over 14 days of play time logged (that's 336 hours in case you were curious), I hit level 70 with my Shaman. Originally christened Sturm, Sturmheld will surely be a feared opponent on the battlefields of Arathi Basin and renowned adventurer of the halls of Karazhan.

Well, most likely not. But roleplaying is part of the game, right?

I played a little PVP with some friends and it was pretty fun. I still think the PVP is a bit weak when playing solo, but working with a group of friends while chatting on Skype is great. I also managed to do my first Karazhan run, and in the process netted 4 new purple gear items. It's interesting how important gear is at 70. Obviously it's a big incentive as you're leveling up, but a geared 70 is really more like a level 75 character, so it can really seperate players quickly.

Karazhan featured two absolutely brilliant moments that brought a huge smile to my face. For one boss fight, we fought our way backstage, then onto a stage before a roaring crowd of ghosts and spirits (they actually applauded). Then, the stagehand announced the show, which just so happened to be the Wizard of Oz. We fought Roar (lion), Tinhead (Tinman), Strawman (Scarecrow), and Dorothy, before taking down the witch. The whole thing was done under the fiction of us participating in the play. It was simply brilliant -- not what I'd ever envision us doing in a level filled otherwise with dragons and gigantic warriors.

The other fun boss fight was really a chess match of sorts. We each took control of a character on the board. Being fairly new at this still, I took a grunt (pawn). From the perspective of our "piece", we had simple moves like move, rotate, and fight. I assume the bigger characters (bishops, kings, etc.) had more interesting skill sets. Regardless, another brilliant piece of game design.

Overall, Karazhan was a huge and impressibe piece of game content. I have no idea how long it took them to lay it out, model it, create the bosses, do the art -- it's quite the feat.

Good stuff, Blizzard.

(posted by grant at 4/27/2008) (0) comments

The Wire is Good. Ya Feel Me?

We're on Season 4 now, and the show continues to exceed expecations. Just when I feel like I'm ready for a break (we've been watching Season 1-4 continously for the past few weeks) the show does something else that just sucks me completely back in.

I LOVE how they constantly bring in new characters, yet still manage to keep the old characters involved, interesting, and always around. That is, unless they kill them. I really miss D'Angelo and String Bell, but there's always Cutty, Carcetti, the retired police Major...it's great.

There are times when I have no clue what the actors are saying. Perhaps I'm just not street enough? But, I do find myself picking up on a thing or two here, bringing me ever closer to my goal of being both hip and hop. I'm really curious to know what, say, a sociologist would think of the show. Specifically a criminologist. The show starts with the streets and the cops, evolves towards corruption, then city politics, the federal outlook, back to the street, then to the source with school children.

It's just so brilliantly written and seems to be just so...real? I guess that's partially the scary thing. Holy crap do we live in a messed up world.

(posted by grant at 4/21/2008) (0) comments

Too Much World of Warcraft?







I saw this on the front page of the New York Times and my mind immediately went to WoW. Perhaps I'm playing too much? I finally hit 68 late last night...the path to 70 is almost complete. The work over the past few years will finally be settled.

(posted by grant at 4/21/2008) (0) comments

I'm a Terrible Bloggist

Is that even a noun? I've been busy with hobbies lately, which is a good problem to have. I'm completely enamored of the Sharpe's series of historical fiction novels, written bey Bernard Cornwell. They are the infantry equivalent of Horatio Hornblower -- the epic, daring saga of a British infantry soldier rising through the ranks during the Napoleonic Wars. It's pretty much my favorite thing on Earth, and luckily there seem to be about 20 books in the series. I'm only on the fourth, "Sharpe's Trafalgar", but I've already purchased the next two books. The last book ended a trilogy in India. I love the setting, but there isn't enough destruction of the French army. Hopefully "Sharpe's Trafalgar" will get right on that.

I put a little over a month into Pirates of the Burning Sea before I became overly frustrated with the game's shortcomings. None of my friends picked it up and the "socieity" (read: guild) I joined was lacking in group efforts. The developers did an extremely poor job telling players what quests entail. For example, it may just say "go destroy this fleet", which could mean you fight 3 ships...or 18. Death in a game like World of Warcraft sets you back 2 minutes of time and a slight weapon durability tax. But if you lose your ship in Pirates, you can lose cargo, upgrades, or the ship itself. That's just lame. Also, I expect to see lots of people online during prime game time hours. So, when I cannot get a group because NOBODY is online at 9:30 pm, I get really frustrated.

My two current obsessions are Call of Duty 4 multiplayer (which is keeping me from finishing the campaign) and World of Warcraft. I re-subscribed and transferred my 4 year old, level 53 character and have leveled him up to 57. One more and I can take him to Outland, which means I can finally play the Burning Crusade content I purchased last Spring. WoW is still a really great game, especially when you aren't held up waiting for others in a group. I doubt I will play much PVP (it's very weak), nor do I see myself running raids over and over. But, I like the game, I like doing quests -- it's a good way to drop $15.

Call of Duty 4, as the sales figures and critical reception might have let on, is absolutely brilliant. Gorgeous visuals, perfect controls, and an RPG multiplayer system that I am thankful for every night. I think it is unacceptable for a shooter to ship without some variant of persistence. Halo 3 gave me ranks, Rainbox Six Vegas gave me ranks, some weapons, and other stuff. Battlefield 2142 gave me ranks and weapons. CoD4 gives me ranks, weapons, perks, challenges to fulfill, levels -- it's absolutely addicting, brilliant, and so innovative it puts so many other multiplayer offerings to shame. I've put the game on hold so that I can play it with my friend (who needs to buy a 360 now that he doesn't have access to his former roommate's).

I need to jot down my thoughts on Sins of a Solar Empire. I also need to go off on my huge expectations for Fallout 3, Red Alert 3, and some other gems to come out.

Also, my baby.

(posted by grant at 3/17/2008) (0) comments

Yarr!

After a few weeks of following the launch and the first reviews I grabbed Pirates of the Burning Sea. I love the idea of MMOs, I just hate the sword/fantasy thing that has been done to death. World of Warcraft has perfected that -- other developers need to do something new.

Flying Labs Software did with Pirates, which is why I purchased it. I love the time period. Love it, like I love perfectly cooked red meat or personally having a hand in the destruction of the French...even ficticious Frenchman. The Napoleonic War was such a fascinating time in history, essentially the world war of the 18th and 19th centuries. Dictators, glory, freedom and all that.

I am a British Naval Officer. You can also be Spanish or French (ha), or even Pirate. Each group has its own conquerable territory, so the Caribbean is constantly at war. I'm currently sailing a 14 gun Light Cruiser, but in a level and a half I'll be able to get my first frigate. It's a 20 gun demon and I'm really looking forward to it.

I've joined a society, essentially the equivalent of a guild. The members seem really friendly so far and are always willing to group up for missions or PVP. I even found a cool website from an allied society where you can order a ship from them. It's all part of the in-game economy where everything can be built, traded and sold. They just made a website for convenience.

The story missions in the game are quite interesting and varied. There's treachery within the admiralty, sailors that need to be pressed into service, and poodles that need to be abducted and sunk to see Davy Jones. It's a nice splash of historical context and humor that I really enjoy. Plus, it's completely unlike any game, especially when I'm in the middle of a 3 fleet battle between two pirate clans and the British Navy.

Epic!

(posted by grant at 2/13/2008) (0) comments

The New Monster

I've been jonesing for a new PC for a while now. My Alienware is 3 years old finally, and though it runs most things really well, games can and should run at their highest settings. Dell had a grea deal on a desktop with 3gb of RAM, an nVidia 8800 GT w/ 512 mb of memory, an Intel Quadcore processor and more memory than I plan to use in this lifetime. So I took the plunge.

I really like it so far, aside from learning to use Vista. I especially enjoy my new 22 inch widescreen monitor. It's pretty ridiculous actually.

I spent the majority of the weekend installing iTunes, Steam, transferring files over (pics, music, writing), and patching all my games back to full. I only have one or two left and neither of them are on my current play list.

World in Conflict looks absolutely gorgeous with the final tweaks on it and Company of Heroes looks smoother and more vivid than ever. they are really masterfully crafted games. I'm patching Supreme Commander now, because I'm interested to see how it looks at the resolution it's meant to be played at. And, there's always Crysis. Computers are fun.

(posted by grant at 1/27/2008) (1) comments

Muir Some More

I was able to spend about 2 more hours on Muir tonight, so I thought it'd be cool to take a few more screens and go over what I've changed or added.

I felt that the town didn't look very lived in. It looked like a collection of houses. So, I tried to beef it up a bit.






Hopefully it's easier for an infantry commander to hold that position, but also more fun and interesting to destroy. It's also important that the area looks real or believable.

I moved the trees around a bit on the hill to the infantry approach, which overlooks the town. It still won't be an ideal place for tanks, but artillery can now go there to snipe and trucks can quickly shuttle infantry to the top.



I think I'm happy with my first pass of the Team 1 (USA) spawn point. Here are two views. Notice the second one looks into the valley.






Here's a quick look from Team 2's spawn (USSR), which also happens to be their route to the peak.



I took a first pass at the command point I'm calling Truck Stop. It's wide open and sparse with cover. I'm hoping this is where armor will feel able to maneuver and dominate.



A slightly updated shot of the river crossing.


Lastly, an overview shot.



I've added far more trees to really flesh out the lush, forest atmosphere of the map (as well as it being more and more of an infantry haven and tank nightmare). I love tanks...not sure why I'm doing this to myself. Also, I've been consistently tightening the map by making it smaller. As I add more objects, I can see how my initial scale was way too big. So I keep bringing it in so that it's not so massive.

I'd like to think I can compile it and throw some bots into it this weekend.

(posted by grant at 1/24/2008) (0) comments

Muir 2

One more quick update for a few more changes that I made. I fleshed out the point with the small, wooded hill. I turned it into a small town square.



Behind it you can see the river crossing, which I started working on a bit more as well.



I think I'm going to focus on this point next. Then, I'll head to the other side of the map and beef that point up. It's currently naked. After that I think I'll work on general map flow -- roads, points, and the little tweaks to get distance right.

I found a pretty thorough texture tutorial, so I can add things like concrete, dirt patches, and grass pretty easily. Then I'll run it w/ bots and see how it plays.

(posted by grant at 1/21/2008) (1) comments

Welcome to Muir

I finally booted up the World in Conflict Editor, provided free from Massive. Not only is the tool pretty polished (rare crashes, sure), it's incredibly easy to use. There are some very intuitive and powerful tools. My favorites include the ability to "grab" a spot of terrain, then pull it up or push it down to create quick mountains or valleys. I also like that I can easily create ramps. First, I create a low elevation point, then a high elevation point somewhere else. I select the tool, click on the low point, then drag to the high point. The editor then creates a natural, traversable slope between the two points.

My map right now is called Muir, and is based around the Muir Woods park north of San Francisco. It's a beautiful redwood forest tucked into the mountains, so I thought it'd be a cool idea to mimic...somewhat.

This is the point at the base of the mountain, which is the centerpiece of the map.



If you go up and around the mountain path (there's another one on the other side of the mountain)...



...you eventually get to the top. My hope is that it will make for some daring infantry assaults, as well as a good perch for artillery to annoy everyone.



On the backside of the mountain is a fairly straightforward capture point. I think I may leave this point fairly barren of trees to give armor a point where they can really dominate.



I'd like to put a bridge crossing here, but I'm still working on the flow of the map. I'm not sure how it will work out. Off the top of my head, I think I'll move the bridge to the other side so that it can be used to gate team 1 if necessary. Blow the bridge!



This is my favorite capture point. It has three circles, one of which is only accessible via air drop or infantry moving through the woods. I like the idea of napalm opening this area up to armor as the battle continues.



The second point for this command point is going to be a narrow canyon. I really like it.



Here's the overview of the map, which includes the two current spawn points. I'd like to make custom shapes for the spawn regions, but I don't know how to do that yet.



Obviously, I need to texture the ground and add a lot more trees, buildings and overall scenery. I'll add it as I go though, with the primary focus being layout and map flow. I'd really like the map to be a fun one for infantry and transport choppers, like the Ellis Island/New York map (I cannot remember the name!) that shipped with the game. I also want choppers to have a field day, assuming they intelligently maneuver behind the mountains.

I'm having fun -- such a great tool!

(posted by grant at 1/21/2008) (0) comments

Battlefield Heroes

EA today announced Battlefield Heroes, a new free-to download and play game. It's essentially Battlefield, only now it has a new art style -- a pretty significant departure from the realistic look of other Battlefield titles.



Other changes include a more casual friendly design. Most importantly, revenue for the game will be generated from ads and micro-transactions. One can customize their character with new outfits or weapons. Senior Producer Ben Cousins even states that new features and content will be added over time:

"With the new online model, we will continually add new content to keep the game fresh and keep players engaged, while integrating player feedback in real time. As a game developer, it is such a cool new way to make games." Thanks Shacknews.

I think the game is a fantastic idea. For starters, it's a pretty bold and risky move to make a game featuring a non-realistic visual style. It's hard to pull off and it's something the majority of game developers aren't doing. I'm pretty sure I've read the Valve guys say that Team Fortress 2's brilliant art style was a fairly large risk that really paid off. I think it's just a good, smart change for EA. Things need to be shaken up from time to time.

I also think the casual friendly focus is a great one. Nintendo has proven time and time again that more casual friendly games can lead to great design innovations and are frankly great for business. My parents, great uncle and girlfriend all love the Wii. They have zero interest in my Xbox 360. That's important.

I also love that the game is free. Sure, ads can be annoying, but we have no idea how they will be shown. On the website you get the game from? No problem. In game every time I die? Less awesome. I also love Downloadable Content when it's done correctly. I've purchased at least 20 songs for Rock Band already. I've purchased a few picture packs to customize my Xbox Live Avatar. The ability to add new storylines, quests and game features for $1.89 a pop in Oblivion were also very appealing. I honestly think that the DICE guys can provide great content for a reasonable price. I always found the Battlefield booster packs worth my money, so I'm hoping that trend continues.

Most of all, it's great that EA is trying a new business model. Games sell at $60, and will continue to do so. But I think it's very wise to pursue other revenue types. It's good to remove some of the barriers to entry and try to introduce others to games.

It all saddens me to see the internet just rip the idea apart though, simply because it's EA. Updated: Seems Kotaku isn't so negative.

(posted by grant at 1/21/2008) (0) comments