Dead Island launched this week – a supposed cross between Fallout 3 and L4D. I haven’t purchased it yet (waiting for the sale) but very curious how this turns out. When I started doing research on the game, I came accross this video: Dead Island Trailer Couple of initial thoughts on that. 1) Dead child…
World of Warcraft Tanky McTankertons
Last week Crabby McCraberton wrote a WoW Dev Blog on hotfixed changes to threat in World of Warcraft. Basically, they are removing (or working towards removing) threat as a variable in gameplay. They feel there are enough variables for tanks to worry about. This came on the heels of tank-bribery, CC changes and other mechanic…
Fun Police for Jedi
EA and Bioware are wrapping everything into their ‘hail mary pass’ launch of SWTOR (pardon the pun) to do everything imaginable (and then some) to recoup their eleventy billion dollar investment. For those of you who don’t clicky links on blogs, they are releasing a PVP warzone based on a neutral planet where the good guys and the bad…
Solution to the USA Debt Crisis
Yes, yes. Politics on a gaming blog is bad for business. However, I can’t resist! In the mid 90’s Canada faced a very similar debt crisis – debt to GDP pushing 70%. Outrageous spending. Madness. The Federal Party at the time was the Liberal Party of Canada (I can already see my Republican American…
Feast or Famine
Going to a new blogging style. The exciting ‘when I can/feel like it’. When I blogged regularly I blogged pretty hard, 3+ posts a week, keeping on top of current events and all the “excitement”. I took an extended break once, and in the same breadth kept lurking and reading my favorites without posting. I…
Lambs to The Slaughter
After reading the comments of SWTOR’s latest QA from Friday, I noticed a couple of things: Seems to be a lot of MMO rookies following this closely There will be major disappointment for those rookies Some random ones, amid the rabid fanboyism: Can you imagine a small smuggler ship entering in Coruscant atmosphere with two passengers(you and…
The Sandbox Knows No Bounds
Interesting thread over on the Project Reality forums about putting together a Minecraft Tournament. The PR community is a war inspired bunch, their hobby being tactical shooter games. A lot of the forum members are members of the military as well (although not exclusively) and in the Politics sub forum there is a lot of…
Avoiding Disasters
Including Cataclysm. A part of me was actually hoping I would have interest to buy the expansion, and based off the generaly quietness of blognation I may be in the minority. Although, the things the bloggers have turned out seem to be a lot of ‘content is almost done, when is the next expansion’ fun…
Project Reality 0.95
I wrote a bit about Project Reality when 0.8 was released as it was my first experience with it. After my gaming break I recently rebooted up the franchise in it’s 0.95 version. This Battlefield 2 mod does so much right for my gaming style and in general, that I want to share, promote, hug…
How Not to Blog
Sorry, Peter Moore, your “blog” is a pretty big embarrassment. I was surfing EA sites to find anyplace to complain that they stopped their major sports title development for the PC. Yes, I have complained about it a couple times already. I really want to play some football. 1) Most of the comments on that…
Film Fund
Fun thing about being ‘successful’ and making contacts – I was asked, and agreed to, sit on a board of directors for a film fund. I just signed back the paperwork today. It sat on my desk for a week, and to be honest movies aren’t any more of my forte than games – I…
Nodding Wistfully – RMT, Gold Farming, and Jared.
Nodding Wistfully is a newer post-type here that has little content, but refers to a fellow blogger’s content that I either agree with strongly, or think is a very worthwhile read. Yes, I’ve only done two of them so far, but plan on continuing them! PlayNoEvil has a great annotated video interview posted up that…
Premium Market Position
While our MMO companies battle for the mainstream dollar, I can’t help but wonder if any are forward thinking to the premium dollar customers – or if that market even exists in the gaming world. In the simplest of comparisons think Price Chopper vs Whole Foods. The first provides basic food at cut rate prices….
Bioware’s New Game is Shattered Steel (probably).
A lot of speculation out there, but here’s a visual cue on why it is probably a remake of Shattered Steel. Capture from the video See those two, round black bulb things above his head (and to the left?) He’s not shooting out of a window, he’s shooting out of a cockpit. Oh look at…
More Proof of the Decline of Western Civilization
Stolen directly from Gregg Easterbrook of Tuesday Morning Quarterback (TMQ). The Zubon of the football world (meant as a compliment). And yes, it is game related. Not only did huge numbers of people buy the latest “Call of Duty” video game — which allows you to play the role of Richard Nixon killing zombies —…
Deferred Success
This title stems from educators wanting to remove kids from an ‘F’, or ‘Failing’ grade. No more failing – just deferred success! Clearly the change in terminology will make kids all become hugely successful. This Epic Defer is part of a longer list of deferrments by public offcials who manage powerful unionized employees (the same unions that…
Inventory Full
A friend and old guildmate of mine has jumped into blognation over at Inventory Full. I suppose technically he is a current guildmate from WoW (I am unsubbed, but details, details) and we always enjoyed parlaying in and out of game about games and other fun and relevant stuff. He only has a couple posts…
Don’t Spam Me, Bro
I don’t mind getting information pieces from various MMO’s I have signed up for. I actually appreciate being kept up to date on various things, without having to click or find them. Picking on WoW (I unsubbed a while ago.. again) a bit here as I got an email from them today. After the break.
I’ve Created a [zombie] Monster [survivor]
There’s a lot of coverage and interest with The Terminator vs. Video Games trudging through the Supreme Courts right now. I’m sure blognation will cover it much better than I but I’ll share a story about games and parenting as a gamer and a parent of a 5 year old. While I do not claim…
Combat Testing
I think I have mentioned it here before but worth bringing up again – if you like first person shooters and beta testing go apply for a slot as a Combat Tester. I’ve been in the group since 2007 and have enjoyed access to several betas through them. A list of previous tests through them…
Spinning Politics
I try not to write much when it comes to American Politics – it’s very polarizing and I’m Canadian. My University education was a joint honors in Poli-Sci/Economics so I do watch with much interest, and since what happens to my favorite neighbors to the south has an impact to us Canucks, it’s an important…
Vegas Baby
I’m in Vegas this week at a conference. I haven’t found the Lucky 38 yet, and not a Securitron in sight. Maybe I just need more to drink.
Straws, Backs, and Camels
Ok. I’m going to see how long I can NOT buy an EA product. I’m disconnecting my cash from the company. I’ve never had a major issue with the company, either. Their support (for me) has been just awesome. I’ve been buying their titles for as long as I have been gaming. Sometimes, you just…
Minecraft Zen (for you, Tesh)
Tesh often waxes poetic about forms of Zen grinding, and I found it recently in Minecraft. I realized in game I am not a fancy builder – but hey, can I strip mine with the best of them! When a much needed work break opportunity appears, I make 12 stone pickaxes (saving the iron ore for…
Nodding Wistfully : Diku
A thankful nod to this article over at Qblog from Mr. Dr. Bartle. While I started my MMO adventures in EQ beta, I still didn’t understand where the holy trinity actually came from.  I’ve always disliked it, writing my own musings on how silly it all is, and the challenges of getting people to adopt something…