Gaming specials

Sometimes the intra-tubes offer up something that needs to be shared. Behold! I bring you… CAKE!

Delicious cake! You must eat it!

[Undead Tuesday] Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines

In my preparation for this post, I read up a bit on another person’s replay of the game. First though — I was introduced to World of Darkness rules set by the authors of this blog, and this game follows that system. From what I’ve heard this game has even introduced players to the pen and paper RPG. Something not a lot of other PC adaptions of RPGs can say.

My girlfriend (now fiance) hated that I played this game — for several reasons:

1. The game is violent and bloody, and doesn’t sweeten the dark society that is reality in our world. In fact it portrays it with a realism that is disturbing. Also the Nosferatu are pretty darn ugly.
2. Not sure if she knows this, but the game covers some shady areas, like strip clubs, adult stores and snuff films. Playing the last mentioned part of the game was truly sickening, and not a part I’d really like to play again.
3. I tended to play from about 23:00 to 1:00 (2:00?) on week nights. And some weekends when we should have spent time together.

Everyone (ok not everyone) should at some point experience the game play of the Ocean House Hotel. It is absolutely spooky beyond anything that’s tried it before, and immerses you into the rich history of what happened there. I literally jumped from fright at the unexpected spooks you’ll experience.

Several other reviewers complain about melee  becoming tedious towards the endgame.  I have a couple of things to say to them… You can customize your character! Don’t turn on Auto-Level, there is fun in building the character’s strengths where you want them.  Initially I wanted to create brawler, but at the end of the game, guns and katana is the way to go (but for the weak races out there dunno what your strategy will be).

My suggestion, if you buy the game now (I saw it for R80 at CNA not too long ago) is to get the unofficial community patch (which includes all previous patches, and some new “plus” features which is optional) before you start playing.  Another modification, which I have not tried (and probably due to fiance issues won’t) is the companion mod.  You can somehow convince some NPC to join you in your endeavors!  Sounds like great fun, and will make those physically weak races a bit more competitive in combat.

As a side note: My fiance is loving Plants vs Zombies!

[Zombie Tuesday] There is a zombie on your lawn!

Welcome, Welcome. Welcome to the first instalment of the tenletter Zombie Tuesday. Zombie Tuesday is a tenletter attempt at posting something about the adorable abominations known as the undead, which include, but are not restricted to, the brain munching decomposing deceased known as zombies.

To prove that zombies are not the only the stuff of B-rate monster movies, I kick off this Zombie Tuesday with the cutesy Plants vs Zombies pc game from the dark overlords at Pop Cap.  For those that don’t know, the evil conglomerate that is Pop Cap specialize in small made-my-garage/basement  type of games (but with the polish that only loads of money can bring).  These games are generally what one would consider small ball-bouncy pretty puzzley games. So why do people want to buy these instead of a main stream 3D shoot ‘em up?  Because they are highly addictive and fun and easy to play.  Plants vs Zombies is no exception….

Postcard Quest Status: Completed

ADOM is probably my favourite roguelike of all time. I’ve written about it before (and you can read all about my failings through that link), but there was one thing I neglected to mention:

Though the game is available for free, the creator, Thomas Biskup, does have one request:

“If you are enjoying ADOM and are gaining hours of fun out of playing it, please “pay” me by sending a postcard from whereever you live…”

After many years of playing ADOM, I have finally undertaken this most noble of quests.

The front of the postcard.

YASD = Yet Another Sad Death

- jatori

miniDotA 1.04 nearly ready for release

As usual tenletter is one of the first places to hear about miniDotA developments – and as it turns out, I’m nearly ready to release 1.04 – there are only two (major) issues still outstanding.

First is a new loading art in development by Ambra-Lioness (find her on http://ambra-lioness.deviantart.com/ ) who is creating an outstanding image that really is looking promising at this stage (line art). And may I add that she’s in recent weeks developed and mastered the technique to increase bust size on the girls she draws. A very important feature that.

The second issue is that I’ve had a fair amount of contact with them Chinese DotA fans. Apparently the scene is so big there, that they have enough space for a miniDotA project. As I found out they had enough energy to go and crack the protection on 1.03 and change the strings to Chinese to make the map more accessable to their non-english-speaking countrymen. Well, not one to ignore such efforts – I’m hoping to get the strings officially translated into Chinese and have an actual CN-version of the map available.

So – you ask – what is new?

Map-wide changes, many balance fixes, and a new hero!

Dawneyes, the Spiritmender

Who possesses these wonderful abilities:

• Peaceful Departure – enemies you kill gain you a 10hp/s healing and immolation aura for 4/8/12/16 seconds. The magnitude stacks, so if you kill 10 creeps using cleaving attacks, you’ll have 100hp/s regen and immolation for a duration.
• Ghost Evasion – when Dawneyes is dealt damage, she has a 15% chance to gain “Ghost” for 1/2/3/4 seconds. In “Ghost” mode the hero is invisible but can STILL attack without losing invisibility.
• Spirit Force – on target point cast an AOE spell, the area increases with every passing second for 6/8/10/12 seconds. Enemies inside the area of effect are dealt double damage (from all sources). The AOE is very small initially and grows for its duration.
• Soul Scar (Ultimate) – target enemy has its soul ripped from its body. This has the effect to give Dawneyes “Ghost” for 5 seconds, but also, the further the enemy moves from his soul, the more armor he loses, and the more the Spiritmender becomes empowered (increasing movement speed). The rate is -1/-2/-3 armor lost for every 100 units away from soul and 5% movement speed gained. Caps at -10/-20/-30 armor and 50% movement speed bonus.

I’ll let you know when the final map is released, but it shouldn’t be more than a few weeks from now.

Which Starcraft Race are you, and why?

Well, Starcraft 2 is probably going to see light of day in 2009 so I recently got a legal copy of Starcraft I at a local computer shop (Broodwars included). These days by the way you don’t need the CD in the drive to play anymore.

So I’ve played through Starcraft, and I am now busy with Broodwars. I’ve finished the initial Protoss campaign, and now I’m busy with Terran. The first round the Terran was ok, as I was getting to know it again, but now, round 2… it sucks. I *hate* terran. In campaign mode the Terran tactic is typically to build up defenses and go slowly at the opponents. Bleah. It takes forever. Nukes are fun, but they are easy to disrupt, and it focusses your attention on micro management of the units.

Protoss aren’t very much into micro management. In fact they can be pretty effective in terms of low management. It’s awesome to be able to set up “intercept” bases close to enemy bases. Though I’m sure in multiplayer that tactic will just lose you money. They are actually more pricy than I initially remembered — we used to lan on basically limitless resource maps… in retrospect that was a disservice to the game, and taught bad tactics and not particularly good play.

In the Protoss campaign in Broodwars there is a mission where you can choose to either play Protoss, or Zerg. Wow, did I enjoy the Zerg. I enjoy lots of units, and literally “swarming” the opponents. It’s fun. In limitless resource games it usually loses… but it is still fun.

Anyway… so I rank my races 1. Zerg 2. Protoss 3. Terran.

I think I will be in a vast minority here, but I think it’s because Terran is the first race introduced to the game, and most people play Zerg like they play Terran, and then they hate Zerg, because Zerg doesn’t work if you think … My precious little Siege Tanks… let’s repair them… No… You build those 24 Zerglings and 12 Hydralisks with 12 Mutalisks 6-12 Guardians for air support to die… The fact is… 4 Hatcheries can spew out half of that army in the time it’ll take 4 barracks to build 12 marines.

Just build another of those armies while the first one dies… Then if you lose… go play Guitar Hero while the rest finish…

So which race is your favourite? And why?

J’s Top 10 PC Games of the 90s – The Final Two

So I’m safe and sound in Utrecht. There were a few hiccups involving getting money from ZA (bleh) – good thing I managed to smuggle some Jungle Oats in my luggage, so I did manage to eat. Stay tuned for posts about the gaming scene in Utrecht and Amsterdam in the near future. Anyway, back to finishing off my list of favourite 90s PC games. First, however, a few honourary mentions (in this particular order):

• Sim City 2000
• Diablo
• Fallout 1 and 2
• Baldur’s Gate
• Lemmings
• Worms
• Sim Tower
• Doom
• Duke Nukem 3D
• Wolfenstein 3D

And now, number 2:

Planescape: Torment

Long-term readers will know that this is my favourite CRPG of all time. Long-term readers also know that I’ve been promising to write a review about this brilliant game. Unfortunately, the wait hasn’t yet passed. Sorry. Just know that this game is amazing and it was nearly my number one of the 90s.

J’s Top Game of the 90s:

STARCRAFT

Of all the games I’ve listed, Starcraft is one of the few gems that I can pick up at any time and get right back into it. Recently, at my office, we’ve been having the occassional after-work Starcraft lan events (with me winning 50% of all the games so far). I am a Terran player, through and through, using small tactical groups and superior micro-managing rather than swarms (hence I don’t play Zerg – yuck) to gain victory.

The multiplayer is awesome and allowing for so many different tactics and counter tactics, but this isn’t all that the game has to offer. The single player story (as with all Blizzard games) is really good (as game stories go). The end of the original Starcraft (not Brood Wars) had me in tears as we see Tassadar take on the Overmind. It is one of the few allowable reasons for men to cry. Um, I should write more about SC as well, but it’s time to  go grab some koffie verkeerd. Maybe more next time.

- jatori

J’s Top 10 PC Games of the 90s – Part 2

Carrying on from part 1.

6. Ancient Domains of Mystery

This rogue-like game was first released in 1994, but I only picked it up in 2002 and have been playing it, off and on, ever since. Sadly, I have never completed the game. That’s like 49 dog years of not winning! This is one of the few games that has actually beaten me (just like being in Soviet Russia). This game has even led to me creating a support group for other losers like myself on Facebook over here.

The game (like all rogue-likes) has a fairly steep learning curve, but once you get into it, progressing through the game is quite rewarding. I find all the classes and races (though not all that balanced) to be loads of fun.

5. Z

Another strategy game that stepped away from the more common Command & Conquer resource harvesting game. Units require no resources (in the traditional sense of RTS) to produce. Instead, if you could capture and hold a territory with a factory, it would automatically produce units for you (did I forget to mention that you control a bright red robot army?). Each map was divided into several territories and the more territory you held, the less time it would take for your factories to produce new units. To win, you had to capture or destroy your enemy’s fort.

However, it wasn’t the gameplay that made this game stick in my mind (and heart). Instead, it was the characters that populated the game. All of them, from the characters in the cut scenes, to the lowliest of grunt infantry units had, well, character. And each one wasn’t above telling you how crap you are at the game when losing a match.

4. System Shock 2

Shock 2 (as it’s sometimes called) is a truly amazingly scary game (unlike that cheap rip-off Dead Space). Shock 2 is a space horror FPS action game with a few RP elements (unlocking and upgrading various skills and abilities as you progress through the game – which allowed for increased replayability). Players take on the role of a lone soldier that must somehow survive a strange infection aboard the experimental faster-than-light ship, the Von Braun.

My favourite part of the game was the development of the story through the audio logs and ghostly apparations of the deceased crew. Though this technique is quite common in more modern games, the delivery of the story in System Shock 2 kept me glued to my seat.

3. Half-Life

Do I really need to explain why I included Half-Life on my list? One day, I’m going to grow up to be Gordon Freeman.

J’s Top 10 PC Games of the 90s – Part 1

I have a fetish for top ten lists. Today, I take a walk down memory lane and present my 10 favourite PC games of the 90s.

10: Jones in the Fast Lane

Jones in the Fast Lane taught me everything I needed to know about life (except for that icky, girlie relationship stuff, which obviously isn’t critical to self-actualization, because it’s not in the game). Jones in the Fast Lane is a life simulation game and was released by Sierra back in 1991.

At the beginning of the game, the players (up to 4) had to set goals to achieve with regard to career, wealth, education and happiness (which was achieved through the buying of material goods and goofing off). Players took turns (one in-game week) trying to reach their goals through job hunting, grocery shopping, investing on the stock market, surviving economic meltdowns, getting mugged, grocery shopping, buying a hot tub and getting your salary garnished for late rent payments.

And, best of all, the game is available to play online here.

9: X-COM: Terror from the Deep

Other X-COM fans out there are probably cringing at the very idea that somebody would rank the crude sequel rather than original UFO: Enemy Unknown on their top ten list, but it was through this game that I was introduced to creepy atmospheric isometric turn-based strategy series of complete and utter awesome.

In this game, you play the leader of an elite, multi-national military organization tasked with defending our planet from hostile extraterrestrials. In Terror from the Deep, the aliens are amphibious and launch their attacks from our oceans. It’s up to you to use our pitiful earth technology to defend the planet, capture alien technology, research it and turn it against the aliens and eventually take the fight to them.

Currently, there’s an open source project running, which is developing a clone of the original X-COM games using the Quake 2 engine. Check it out here.

8. Myth: The Fallen Lords

Myth changed how I thought of strategy games. Myth was completely different from the other strategy games of the time. There was no laborious resource collecting/base building; the 3D terrain and exploiting it well really mattered; weather mattered (rain put out fires, for example); the game used near-real physics (most visible with projectiles); and, best of all, the corpses of fallen units and the blood and gore of battle permanently stained the battlefield, making Myth one of the grittiest games I have ever played.

In the single player mode, you were given a set starting group of units used to battle vast, numerically superior undead and monstrous forces. With clever tactics, good use of terrain and knowledge of one’s units’ strengths and weaknesses, a player could defeat large hordes of foes with much smaller groups. Myth is the survival horror game of the strategy genre.

7: MDK

Earthworm Jim made me like David Perry. MDK caused a boy crush. In this third-person-shooter, you take on the role of Kurt Hectic as you try to save the earth from giant alien strip-mining mine crawlers. At the beginning of every mission (except the final one), you are required to re-enter earth’s atmosphere, dodge the anti-air fire to get onto the minecrawlers. This blew my tiny mind.

This game is amazing and my poor vocabulary is insufficient to get the feelings of this game across. And it’s only number 7 on my list.

- jatori

zombie night tonight

Left 4 Dead is a great zombie game. It’s easy to pick up and play (even for FPS newbies), but can still provide a challenge for seasoned gamers. I really enjoy the ambiguous backstory,  simple replayability and team work dynamics of the game and its 4 zombie apocalypse survival scenarios.

Best of all though, both Valve and fans can and probably will be releasing additional scenarios. With thinking cap on head, I have come up with the following zombie survival scenarios I’d like to see made for the game:

Blast Off: The only safe place left on earth is… outer space!

The Last Free Man: Freedom is only one resonance cascade away.

Now, can we grow this list even more? Remember, each scenario in the game currently revolves around the survivors getting to an evacuation zone and then holding out until help arrives. Also each scenario has a cheesy movie-esque name and tagline. Anybody willing to share their scenario ideas?