tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80073822024-03-07T19:06:11.668-08:00Games. Tech. Musings.Games offline and online. Technology. Random stuff.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.comBlogger320125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-6288088554483781032008-04-09T10:16:00.000-07:002008-04-09T10:19:54.849-07:00New Guild Wars CMIn another what-a-small-world-it-is announcement, it turns out that <a href="http://acidforblood.net/">Brinstar</a> is the <a href="http://acidforblood.net/2008/04/07/job-news/">new replacement for Gaile Grey over at ArenaNet</a>. Honestly, it's a pretty thankless job (people whine about <i>everything</i>) but I guess congratulations are due. Best of luck to her!Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-11920998506421138562008-03-17T10:32:00.000-07:002008-03-21T23:07:42.084-07:00TwitteringI'm experimenting with <a href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a> at the moment.<br /><br />In the unlikely event that you want to know just how damn tired I am every day, you can <a href="http://twitter.com/Clamatius">now find out</a>.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-27687026625254542402008-03-17T10:25:00.000-07:002008-03-17T10:32:34.909-07:00MTG ForgeHappened to stumble across a M:tG singleplayer game last week called <a href="http://mtgrares.blogspot.com">M:tG Forge</a> (although it's officially called Card Warrior 2 due to legal reasons).<br /><br />I was saddened but not surprised to learn that it didn't have a real AI - just plays a card it can at random, basically. Still quite the achievement and the guy must have invested a staggering number of hours to get to the point he has. In a world of infinite time, I'd pitch in to build a simple AI - basic minimax, say. Alas, I suspect that the underlying game state model he has is too simplistic to make even a trivial position assessor & minimax analyzer in any kind of reasonable amount of time. Especially given the lack of spare time I have right now.<br /><br />Anyway, I tried playing it and was immediately frustrated that I was having to continually scroll the playing area back and forth. Luckily, it was open source so I whipped out the latest version of Eclipse and modified the main gui class so it would resize properly. Better than nothing.<br /><br />That patch was accepted in the latest version so hopefully that should help. If you're a Magic fan it's a fun way to while away some time, so check it out.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-10810022409634502342008-02-18T10:49:00.001-08:002008-02-18T10:51:25.351-08:00GuildomaticWent to a party and met up with Matt E, Yang and Walter last night. I've been meaning to write something about one of Yang and Walter's projects for a while now: <a href="http://www.guildomatic.com/meta">Guildomatic</a>. If you're a WoW enthusiast looking for a better home online for your guild than a random php forum, this is probably what you're looking for. Yang and Walter are both very sharp and their stuff is always top-notch.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-90854474793557818852008-02-18T10:40:00.000-08:002008-02-18T10:47:48.782-08:00Game Design: Lost in the Shuffle<a href="magicthegathering.com">WotC's Magic site</a> posted a selection today from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garfield">Richard Garfield's</a> old Duelist column, <i>Lost in the Shuffle</i>, predominantly about general game design. Always thought-provoking stuff, it was one of my favourite parts of that magazine.<br /><br />As a sidenote, one of the things Richard and Skaff Elias were up to recently was <a href="http://www.spectromancer.com/Default.aspx">Spectromancer</a>, an online card game mentioned on <a href="http://penny-arcade.com">Penny Arcade</a> the other week. I've been meaning to check it out for a while but haven't got round to it.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-67537288227105286892008-01-23T10:49:00.000-08:002008-02-18T10:48:46.565-08:00Status UpdateIt's been a while since I posted anything, mostly because I didn't have a whole lot to report. With the baby sucking up most of my free time, I'm not playing any Guild Wars PvP at the moment. By the time I get to play a game (usually 11pm or later), most of the guild is asleep and it's too late to go through the get-a-group rigmarole anyway.<br /><br />So I've been playing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars instead. The 1.4 patch didn't end up coming out by Christmas, but it was released last week. I'll probably write more about that later.<br /><br />Ok, so here's my current playlist. First, games I'm actively playing, in rough order of the amount of time I spend playing it:<br /><ul><li>Enemy Territory: Quake Wars</li><br /><li>Guild Wars (with the kids)</li><br /><li>New Super Mario Brothers (DS) (with the kids)</li><br /><li>Bioshock (yeah, I still haven't finished i)t</li><br /><li>Brain Age 2 (DS) (when the wife isn't playing it)</li><br /><li>Geometry Wars (DS)</li></ul>And here's the list of other games I still want to play, but don't really have time until I cross some of the above off my list:<br /><ul><li>Half Life 2: Episodes 1 & 2</li><br /><li>Team Fortress 2</li><br /><li>Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)</li><br /><li>Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)</li><br /><li>X3: Reunion</li><br /><li>TES: Oblivion</li></ul>I'd probably play more Bioshock but honestly it's a bit scary and I'm playing it right before I go to bed. Jump-out-and-go-boo horror isn't the most restful game mechanic in the world.<br /><br />I've had at least 4 or 5 people point blank order me to go out and buy Call of Duty 4, but the list of shooters above is too long for me to be able to do it. Maybe once I've finished Bioshock and the Half Life episodes.<br /><br />Quake Wars is still seeing play in the office. It's really very good, overshadowed by other big shooters released around the same time. Get the demo if you haven't tried it. I'm pretty bad but I feel like I at least make some positive impact for the team. For comparison's sake, there are some very well reviewed games in my list there but I still find myself firing up QW as my default game of choice at the moment.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-43332655439982154362007-12-12T10:48:00.000-08:002007-12-12T10:51:22.487-08:00Quake Wars 1.4 patch due out before ChristmasFrom <a href="http://community.enemyterritory.com/?q=node/212">the horse's mouth</a>.<br /><br />Adds a sorely needed Training Mode, adds QWTV (a la HLTV) and a ton of little goodies. Can't wait!Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-83028976303285553992007-12-10T14:34:00.000-08:002007-12-10T14:39:01.637-08:00Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Beginner TipsI've been playing a whole lot of lunchtime Quake Wars at the office as well as a little practice time against the computer at home. The more I play, the more I like the game. It's definitely got a learning curve though and a lot of things aren't obvious unless you read the manual in detail. Here's some of the things I've picked up so far, in no particular order:<br /><ul><li>Pressing “1” (by default) on any vehicle (including Icarus and Husky) launches a decoy flare<br /></li><li>Alt-fire (right mouse button) with an Engineer’s mine makes it a laser tripwire mine instead of a proximity mine<br /></li><li>You have to activate mines via looking at them and hitting f before they actually work<br /></li><li>Grenades detonate enemy mines but shooting them with infantry weapons doesn’t seem to<br /></li><li>If you’re playing a class with deployables (e.g. Engineer, Field Ops, Infiltrator, Covert Ops, etc.) you should have one placed all the time - they’re very powerful. Don’t forget that the medic class has a supply deployable!<br /></li><li>If you’re the sniper class, your first priority is making sure that your radar is up all the time. Don’t forget the GDF side has the 3rd Eye radar, which is particularly useful indoors.<br /></li><li>Multiple weapons are sometimes bound to the same slot (e.g. the deployable tool and the repair tool for the Engineer are both bound to slot 5). Pressing the same weapon key toggles between them.<br /></li><li>Use your context menu (“v” default) A LOT to spot enemy vehicles and deployables. Also use it to request a gunner in appropriate vehicles, health from medics, etc.<br /></li><li>When playing Strogg, learn how to use <a href="http://4newbies.planetwolfenstein.gamespy.com/ETQW/stroggvgdf.php">Spawn Hosts and Stroyup/Stroydown</a>! Note that you can claim spawn hosts from the limbo menu as well as in play.<br /></li><li>If you’re playing a Soldier/Aggressor in the outdoor sections, you probably want to pick a Rocketlauncher/Obliterator or MG/Hyperblaster instead of an Assault Rifle/Hyperblaster.<br /></li><li>The Soldier’s HE charge (Aggressor’s Plasma charge) can be used to do a lot of damage to deployables. Place it, arm it and it will detonate after 40 seconds.<br /></li><li>The GDF smoke grenade that the Covert Ops has is useful to cover up planted HE charges and infantry advances.<br /></li><li>Covert Ops and Infiltrators can pretend to be members of the other team via looking at a body and using their Hacking Tool.<br /></li><li>Alt-fire on Strogg grenades makes the grenade sticky.<br /></li><li>Alt-fire on GDF grenades rolls the grenade.<br /></li><li>F/mousewheel on scoped weapons zooms the weapon.<br /></li><li>If you change class, any deployable you have built will self-destruct.<br /></li><li>Deployables have a 170 degree field of view, so the direction you pick for turrets and artillery guns is important. Note that they will turn out of their field of view if attacked.<br /></li><li>The Strogg Cyclops has a “stomp” attack to squish infantry close to it. Hit Jump (space) to activate.<br /></li><li>The Strogg Cyclops and Devastator can enter “siege mode” to fire faster (although they can’t move then). Hit crouch (C by default) to activate and jump (Space) to deactivate siege mode.<br /></li><li>Lots of vehicles have more than one seat. Press Use (F) to toggle between seats. It’s often pretty effective to have more than one person in a vehicle, so listen for people asking for gunners or ask for a gunner via the context menu if you’re driving a vehicle with extra seats.<br /></li><li>The sniper weapons are good against aircraft.<br /></li><li>If you get the Vehicle Drops XP upgrade, you can call for a Husky/Icarus to be airdropped to you via the context menu (V).</li><br /><li>You can bring up a command map with "n" by default</li></ul>Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-51880911432736284902007-11-30T10:36:00.000-08:002007-11-30T10:42:56.088-08:00How to design a gameI'll spare you the pain of trying to find anything via the impenetrable <a href="http://gleemax.com">Gleemax</a> interface. My favourite <a href="http://gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=8168&pagemode=2&blogid=7088">game design ninja</a>, <a href="http://briantinsman.com/">Brian Tinsman</a> strikes again with a series on how to design a game.<br /><ul><li><a href="http://gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=20906&pagemode=2&blogid=7088">Part 1</a>.</li><br /><li><a href="http://gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=22794&pagemode=2&blogid=7088">Part 2</a>.</li><br /><li><a href="http://gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=25776&pagemode=2&blogid=7088">Part 3</a>.</li></ul>Mostly more relevant to meatspace game design than computer games although at the end of the day, both have the same primary aim: provide entertainment for players. Pay particular attention to the sections on emotional rewards - this is a really key area I don't think most designers think about in such concrete terms.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-62473514298044826582007-11-28T14:08:00.000-08:002007-11-28T14:15:09.980-08:00TF2: Playing the Spy and PyroThe two most confusing classes for a newbie (like me) in TF2 are the Spy and Pyro.<br /><br />So here's a couple of nifty videos on playing the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-qD30EOO-o">Spy</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGIISxhYRYE">Pyro</a> by EvilDaedalus, who is clearly some kind of TF2 ninja compared with me.<br /><br />The main thing I picked up from these that I didn't know previously was for the Pyro: using mostly hit-n-run flanking tactics and copious use of the shotgun. I'd thought of it as a hide-round-a-corner-and-go-boo class, which may have been why so far I've sucked whenever I slipped into something more <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/rdonlyres/50AB36E6-CCB7-48F7-ACCE-DF99D2A46D14/12012/04ctf_2fort0054.jpg">rubbery </a> and haven't played Pyro much at all. As for Spy, well, there always seems to be a sneaky guy on the team already and I like to fill in the roles that the team isn't covering at the moment.<br /><br />Mmmmph mmmmmmph!Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-83033909168629353192007-11-21T15:13:00.001-08:002007-11-21T15:19:39.523-08:00Team Fortress 2 Initial ImpressionsI played my second night of Team Fortress 2 last night. It has the important advantage over Guild Wars PvP that if the baby wakes up mid-game it's not a major disaster.<br /><br />Valve may have taken their sweet time getting this game out, but clearly they spent a good amount of time polishing it. It's surprisingly forgiving for an online shooter - unlike Natural Selection, Quake Wars or the Battlefield lines, where noobitude is punished heavily - I felt that I was actually helping my team despite being terrible.<br /><br />Art direction is excellent throughout and the game design is solid. I'd say my major criticisms are:<br /><ul><li>I prefer the capture-the-flag mode over capture-the-point, but there's only one CTF map.</li><br /><li>There's a bit of a dearth of maps all round. I assume Valve is relying on the game community to fill this gap.</li><br /><li>No bot support means no lunchtime games at the office.</li></ul>For what it's worth, right now my favourite class is the Demoman - in a world where capture-the-point is the most common game type, area denial via sticky bombs and grenade spam is clearly strong. Quick caveat here: given that I only started playing, any tactical insights I have at this point should be basically ignored.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-92210235832710646292007-11-20T16:35:00.000-08:002007-11-20T16:56:34.198-08:00Quake (Office) Wars: Initial ImpressionsI noticed a pile of new graphics card boxes sitting in a cube at work adorned with a sticker saying they included a free copy of <i>Enemy Territory: Quake Wars</i>. I asked the IT guys if that meant they had a few copies hanging around that noone wanted and sure enough, they did.<br /><br />Turns out to be a pretty good game. It's a lot like Battlefield and certainly draws a lot of "inspiration" from the Battlefield line. I've only been playing it at lunchtimes at work since my free time is nil at the moment, but it's well suited for that.<br /><br />Here's the "lunchtime game" assessment.<br /><br />Pros:<br />1) You only need 1 install disk for a LAN game (although we have several).<br />2) The bot support is decent and certainly playable.<br />3) The games are capped at 20 minutes for a map, so you can get in a game without manager-types getting all upset (however, campaign mode is more like an hour).<br />4) Due to (2), you can play a game with only a few people - with, say, Team Fortress 2, you'd need a bunch of people for a reasonable game.<br /><br />Cons:<br />1) Learning curve is a little rough. There's no in-game tutorial at all, so it just drops you in and slaps you on the back. I could give you a (lengthy) list of all the stuff you need to know, or you could just go <a href="http://community.enemyterritory.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11603">watch GreasedScotsman's excellent tutorial video series</a>. However, the videos are pretty long, so if you'd rather read something on the subject <a href="http://4newbies.planetwolfenstein.gamespy.com/ETQW/">this is the pretty much definitive source</a>.<br />2) You will need bots to play unless you are playing on a pub Internet server or have a lot of friends (at least 5-8+ per side).<br /><br />As for the actual game itself, well, it's good. I like it more than BF2142, which is the most recent Battlefield game I've played. The games progress in a series of objectives rather than just capture points, with different classes having useful inputs at each stage, which helps to concentrate both sides on single areas at a time. Deployable buildings add tactical depth and varies the gameplay from round to round. Dropping an artillery gun and then sighting it in with the Field Ops laser sight was particularly satisfying.<br /><br />I suspect that playing it online won't be as fun for me just because I don't have time to get actually good at it and historically the Battlefield games have been rough going for me. I tend to die from sniper shots across the landscape and not even really know what killed me, which isn't terribly exciting. But playing with people in the same skill ballpark was enjoyable.<br /><br />As for criticisms, I think my main issue would be that the sides could be more asymmetric. While there are definitely differences between the Strogg and GDF, predominantly the classes have the same abilities with different flavours. It seems technically well executed.<br /><br />One final note: if you have multiple monitors and a NVidia card, your framerate may well be terrible. If you have this issue, you'll want to <a href="http://www.collectivecomputing.com/~reed/etqw/ss/nvsetting.jpg">tweak the driver</a>.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-88041720034389715722007-11-12T09:59:00.001-08:002007-11-12T10:22:06.826-08:00Delicious Portal (no spoilers)I finally decided that the Portal spoilers weren't going to evade me forever, so I broke down on Friday night and bought the Orange Box.<br /><br />I finished the main plotline of Portal last night. I think <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2541-Zero-Punctuation-The-Orange-Box">Yahtzee had it about right</a> in describing it as "the most fun you'll have with your PC till they invent a force-feedback codpiece". A moist, delicious slice of awesome.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />P.S. Best. Ending. Ever.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-18112828178035438152007-11-09T16:50:00.001-08:002007-11-09T17:01:43.134-08:00Guild Wars: Mind Blast ArenaGiven that my computer has <a href="http://clamatius.blogspot.com/2007/11/im-meeeelllllttttiiiiiiinnnnnng.html">decided to melt whenever I try to play Bioshock</a>, I was back in the Random Arenas last night. I was running a variant of a <a href="http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2937687&postcount=15">creative Mind Blast build</a> I'd seen posted by Patccmoi:<br /><blockquote>E/Me Clumsy Mind Blaster<br /><br />12+2+1 Fire Magic<br />10 Illusion<br />8+1 Energy Storage<br />Mind Blast<br />Glyph of Immolation<br />Liquid Flame<br />Fire Attunement<br />Clumsiness<br />Imagined Burden<br />Flame Djinn's Haste<br />Resurrection Signet</blockquote>I subbed Liquid Flame for Fireball and Glyph of Immolation for Mark of Rodgort, because I'd rather avoid 2s casts and the Mark wasn't sticking a whole lot.<br />Easy to play, decent damage and melee shutdown and the all-important ability to kick an assassin in the nuts. I'm not sure that you really need Fire Attunement but it doesn't hurt to have it. No self heal, so knowing when to run away is pretty important. For the most part, you can just load up with Attunement and a Glyph and then just alternate Mind Blast and Clumsiness on a hapless melee type, while keeping another one near-perma-snared with Imagined Burden.<br />Don't forget your high energy (+30e/-2r) equipment swap - very important for Mind Blast builds.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-25803337860501453192007-11-09T10:57:00.000-08:002007-11-09T11:10:54.183-08:00Guild Wars: Metagame ShakeupWell, the <a href="http://www.guildwars.com/support/gameupdates/">major skill changes</a> I <a href="http://clamatius.blogspot.com/2007/11/latest-gossip.html">predicted</a> came out last night.<br /><br />By far the biggest change is effectively removing Light of Deliverance from the flagstand builds. The metagame has been balanced on LoD for quite a while now so I expect a period of turbulent flux while things sort themselves out.<br /><br />I saw iQ's latest smurf on obs last night running condition pressure with traps, a Rotting Flesh mesmer and Ensign on an old-school Ether Prodigy / Heal Party runner. Here's Ensign's <a href="http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3312212&postcount=5">post on the subject</a>. Personally, I think he may be jumping the gun a bit - it's been a long time since we've seen Martyr, for example. There are a lot of other possible previously second-tier options - e.g. Motivation Paragons providing small party-wide heals, Restoration ritualists - that may emerge. Right now Word of Healing is amazingly strong and clearly the best replacement on the monk that was running LoD previously. I saw Tommy had Heal Party and Mantra of Concentration last night on a WoH monk and apparently some Euro guilds are running dual WoH monks.<br /><br />The idea of this update, as I understand it, is to make normal play more exciting than the block/protection metagame that's been around for quite a while - i.e. instead of all the bars staying static till a sudden collapse, a more dynamic situation where spot healing is important and not everyone is always at full (well, with the old LoD, 80%) health. We'll see if that actually happens.<br /><br />In other news, Weapon of Warding is back, and Conjure Nightmare got nerfed. Yes, paradoxically it got nerfed by making it cheaper, since you only ever cast it when you already had Auspicious Incantation up. Healer's Boon is also looking pretty hot - in general, the Healing line as a whole just got a lot more important.<br /><br />Splinter Weapon got a nerf so you can't destroy all the NPCs in one shot. It's still good, just not quite as ridiculous. There is a question of whether you can fit that character into a GvG build now though.<br /><br />The recall change is clearly aimed at Hero Battles and I don't see it making a big change a lot in GvG.<br /><br />Bloodspike got a nerf. Cry me a river.<br /><br />And for the PvEers out there, watch out - Mhenlo in GW:EN is a LoD healer, so he'll be feeling this nerf where the sun doesn't shine. If you're heroing it up, you may want to bring a hero monk and skip Mhenlo for the moment.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-8411006128436359822007-11-08T10:04:00.001-08:002007-11-08T10:07:46.632-08:00I'm MeeeelllllttttiiiiiiinnnnnngI got a chance to squeeze in 20 mins or so of Bioshock last night. The computer overheated twice in that time. At least, I think so - the symptom was that it hard froze and needed to be reset. I guess I need to spring for the optional 80mm and 92mm fans for the <a href="http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15138">Sonata</a> case I have.<br /><br />Bioshock seems rough on the graphics card - since I got a new case fan I haven't had any overheating in Guild Wars. Maybe this is nature's way of telling me to play more Guild Wars instead of Bioshock.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-3987045450181683192007-11-07T15:50:00.000-08:002007-11-08T10:08:09.398-08:00Latest GossipJust a little gossip from the last week or so.<br /><br />Helped out over the weekend with a TV shoot for the <a href="http://angelquest.com/">Tinsman's nifty AngelQuest game</a>, along with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rosewater">Rosewaters</a>. Sounds like they'll get a segment and interview on a certain well-known TV talk show in a few months. No, I wasn't on camera, although my oldest son was.<br /><br />Played some <a href="http://clamatius.blogspot.com/2006/01/magic-gathering-winston-draft.html">Winston Draft</a> with <a href="http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Isaiah_Cartwright">Izzy</a> on Monday night. I drafted like a total muppet - one of the worst draft decks I've ever made. I'm really out of practice. In my defense, I hadn't played with <a href="http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/expansion/lorwyn">Lorwyn</a> yet and I was holding a grumpy baby for some of the draft. But really I just sucked. Still fun though - I really love Magic even after all these years. If you're a Magic player and haven't tried Winston draft, you really should - it's the best 2-man Limited format.<br /><br />The major mistake I think I was making was being too happy to settle for a pile with a playable card in my colours instead of being more choosy and skipping to try to find more removal. Izzy ended up with virtually all the removal and I only had one bomb (which I never drew) so it was a really savage beating. When you haven't played with a set at all, it's hard to gauge the average power level so you can figure out when piles are skippable.<br /><br />On the GW front, I don't want to give away anything too exciting, but it did sound like the upcoming skill balance will really shake things up a bit. That, and some interesting pricing updates. We'll see how the community reacts. All of this is really making me miss Guild Wars PvP and Magic, I have to say.<br /><br />The general community reaction to <a href="http://clamatius.blogspot.com/2007/11/guild-wars-shrines-in-arenas.html">introducing shrines to the arenas</a> seems to be negative, although I enjoyed it on the few occasions I've had a chance to try it in Random Arenas. The 20-point win total does seem too high for Random Arenas though - lowering it to 10 or having an auto-win condition for really lopsided matchups (as in Alliance Battles) would be sensible. I'm guessing Izzy will just take the shrines back out though.<br /><br />Maybe now the baby is sleeping a bit better I'll try to get in a little bit of pick-up GW PvP. I do want to try to finish Bioshock and move on to the Orange Box soon though. I've desperately been avoiding Portal spoilers but something tells me I won't keep it up forever.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-58450469697720923542007-11-02T11:00:00.000-07:002007-11-02T16:23:14.830-07:00Guild Wars: Shrines in ArenasSo apparently ArenaNet <a href="http://www.guildwars.com/support/gameupdates/">added Hero Battles maps to the Arenas rotation</a>. It only says Team Arenas in the update, but apparently they added them to Random Arenas too. Not sure whether that's intentional or just a bug.<br /><br />I'm curious as to how this plays out. Of course, I expect a lot of bitching right now no matter whether it's good or bad. Maybe I'll manage to get a few free minutes and check into the arenas this weekend. Oh, just in case you didn't notice the front page news, it's a bonus points weekend in the arenas too.<br /><br /><b>Update:</b> according to Izzy, adding the HB maps to Random Arenas was intentional. It was the change log that had the mistake.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-2476850933340381192007-11-01T15:42:00.000-07:002007-11-01T15:46:14.199-07:00Guild Wars: Beating Costume BrawlSince presumably Costume Brawl was pulled today at the end of Halloween, now seems like the perfect time to post a guide to how to win a lot. How2beet as the kids these days say. Well, I'm very lazy and <a href="http://momako.blogspot.com/2007/10/guild-wars-how-to-ranger-at-ball.html">Rex already wrote one</a>, so you can go read his endless waffling instead.<br /><br />My free time so far this week at home adds up to a grand total of <i>nullminuten</i> so I didn't get to play any more Costume Brawl. I for one think the Brawl will be back, so I'm not totally heartbroken. I bet the skill bars are different next time though.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-27913976121528257222007-11-01T15:10:00.000-07:002007-11-01T15:23:00.580-07:00Games: CascadeFelt curious and trundled round the Internet today for a bit of nostalgia. Turns out a little word game I wrote back in the day called <a href="http://www.iwin.com//iwin/games/pslobby-new.jsp?root=playsite.word.cascade&lpos=Classic11">Cascade </a> (registration required) is still going, albeit displayed in the prime <a href="http://www.lorentzen.org/quotedir.html">locked-filing-cabinet-beware-of-the-leopard</a> placement I'd expect. The original site it was on was PlaySite, but that's changed hands a few times now and now it belongs to <a href="http://iwin.com">iWin</a>. Cascade is certainly playable but needs a lot more love to be actually good. Still, when I left, it had had about 10 million games played and that was about 6 years or so ago now. I was sorry to see that apparently noone ever found the wacky intermittent tile freeze bug that cropped up occasionally.<br /><br />Cascade is somewhere between Tetris and Scrabble. My wife was always a lot better at the game than I am - and some of the players out there have notched up 10,000 games or more and are amazingly good. My verbal IQ can be contrasted unfavourably with a week-dead badger's, so it's not very surprising I'm bad at the game.<br /><br />According to Google, some other bright spark decided to put out a different game called Cascade (in 2002, which if I recall correctly was after when my game came out in perpetual beta) and since that's actually a money maker it hides all the entries for my little game. Alas.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-62464692882887740422007-10-30T16:03:00.002-07:002007-10-30T16:09:28.848-07:00Game Design: Making Games More FunAlright, it's plug time. Go read this post on <a href="http://www.gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=15736&pagemode=2&blogid=7088">how to make games more fun</a> in the design stage. Sadly, right now the <a href="http://gleemax.com">Gleemax site</a> is pretty horrific, as you might expect from Wizards' rather lacking IT expertise. Hopefully they'll make it better in due course.<br /><br />Full disclosure: <a href="http://www.briantinsman.com/">Brian Tinsman</a> is a good friend of mine. He's worked on <a href="http://www.briantinsman.com/Ludography.htm">a ton of games</a> in the hobby space at this point - oh, and his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Game-Inventors-Guidebook-Brian-Tinsman/dp/0873495527/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-1443897-5581268?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188763114&sr=8-1">book on game design</a> is pretty good too.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-87658077748013826072007-10-29T14:43:00.000-07:002007-10-29T15:01:53.635-07:00Guild Wars: Costume BrawlThis Halloween, we got a new mini-game - <a href="http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Costume_Brawl">Costume Brawl</a>. In a nutshell, it's a 5v5 PvP format with random team selection and fixed skill bars per class on Hero Battles maps. The actual costume flavour seems very weak. You get the skin of a Hero of the appropriate sex and class. Given that it's Halloween, monster skins would have been a much better choice. I'm guessing that was what they wanted but presumably it would cause animation issues since players have a much wider selection of animations than monsters. Alright, I'm not a big flavour person so let's get down to the important stuff - game mechanics.<br /><br />Personally, I think that the format itself seems pretty good although I didn't get to play it enough to be sure. The skill bars could use some tweaking but that's pretty par for the course at this point - ArenaNet's track record on preset skill bars is not good. Tactical splitting and play skill are definitely important in this format, and the lack of skill bar building makes it slightly (but only slightly) more friendly to casual players than the usual PvP formats with their near-vertical learning curves.<br /><br />For average to experienced players, the Ranger is head and shoulders above the other builds. This is a capping and splitting format, so survivability and mobility are the order of the day - and just as in GvG, the Ranger has the best average 1v1 matchups of all the choices available. The other bars are generally at least playable with the exception of the Paragon, which I wouldn't recommend.<br /><br />Note that this is a very violent format, with relatively weak healing options, so all the characters pack self-heals. The nice thing about this is that it fixes the good-monk-equals-win problem of Random Arenas - mixes of most character types are at least semi-viable, and player skill is generally more important than the class selection. That said, player skill is important enough that generally the key to winning or losing is who you get on your team, which can be frustrating at times.<br /><br />One more tip:<br /><br /><b>RUN AWAY WHEN YOU'RE OUTNUMBERED.</b><br /><br />In a splitting format, picking and choosing your fights is very important. If it's 3v1 against you, head for the hills and just try to stay alive. If you can escape without being snared, you'll either be taking up a bunch of their team, giving your team numbers elsewhere, or you'll live to collapse on that 1 other guy somewhere else on the map. I see bad players fighting helpless odds virtually every single match. Keep an eye on your radar and start running before all the guys in the area have you in spell range.<br /><br />If I was a betting man, I'd say that this format is a testbed for some similar stuff in Guild Wars 2.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-72426347016525648702007-10-23T11:46:00.000-07:002007-10-23T11:53:56.693-07:00Always Check the FansI had a bunch of graphical artifact issues since I started playing Bioshock - black textures and the like - and instability too. I upgraded the graphics drivers to the latest beta with the result that stability was a bit better but now other games (like Guild Wars) started crashing and showing artifacts too.<br /><br />Of course, I guessed it was the game and/or the new drivers that were doing it, especially since a lot of other people were reporting crash bugs. But I eventually figured out that the GPU was overheating. I have a XFX Geforce 7900 - and one of the ones that's pre-overclocked a bit on purchase - so I theorized that maybe it was just overclocked too far and spent too much time fiddling around with the clock settings. Still no luck.<br /><br />In the end, I cracked the case and saw that the rear case fan wasn't actually turning. Well, that'd do it. I had checked previously and it was blowing air but I guess the fan was full of gunk and the rpm was down enough that the GPU was overheating. Weirdly enough, in a land of Microsoft tech junkies, I couldn't get a replacement 120mm fan in Redmond and ended up getting it via the magical power of the Internet.<br /><br />So, the moral of the story - if you're having heat issues, always check the fans.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-25340371978060197562007-10-10T10:47:00.000-07:002007-10-10T11:01:31.871-07:00Still Not DeadContrary to some media reports, I am not actually dead. Just <a href="http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~ebarnes/python/dead-parrot.htm">resting</a>.<br /><br />Or anyway, I wish I was.<br /><br />Since my last check in with the online world, some personal drama happened that I won't bore you with and one other minor thing - I had a daughter. Turns out that babies don't have a pause button, especially when they have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_colic">colic</a>. This means that I'm watching a lot of TV and not playing much game-wise, which is all rather sad since I'd much rather play games than watch TV.<br /><br />In a few stolen moments of gametime, I've squeezed in a bit of GW PvE in the new Eye of the North expansion, which is nice although rather grindy. I guess enough PvE people liked all the previous title stuff that they figured they may as well answer the call for more grind, but this time reward it with in-game significance instead of just visual differences. I haven't got to play any PvP at all since the baby was born, which is a great shame.<br /><br />In other news, I've also been playing the ubiquitous Bioshock, about which <a href="http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/bioshock">plenty has been written</a>. My verdict is that <a href="http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/systemshock2">there's a reason "shock" is in the name</a>, but nonetheless a wonderfully atmospheric game you have to buy simply to know what <a href="http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/08/29">everyone is talking about</a> if nothing else. I should caution you that it's a bit demanding on the machine, though.<br /><br />One last thing for now - there's a <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view/Yahtzee%20Croshaw/posts">new king of online game reviews</a>. Highly recommended, if NSFW.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8007382.post-68263929184189001762007-04-24T15:45:00.000-07:002007-04-24T15:54:57.671-07:00Skill vs. TreadmillsInsightful post over at Raph Koster's blog on <a href="http://www.raphkoster.com/2007/04/23/the-game-without-treadmills/">why successful games invariably have treadmill mechanics</a>.<br /><br />As a sidenote, one thing that I've noticed is that skilled players of a given game (online or offline), when given the chance to influence game mechanic development, typically demand games that further reward skill. This isn't always beneficial in terms of making the game fun to play.Clamatiushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05388689495044350488noreply@blogger.com0