Ajira.eu

Ooh lala, who's that pretty girl ?! Well, actually... it's me! Last Monday, the game All Points Bulletin: Reloaded started it's open beta; and I'm totally digging it! The game play is awesome, and the graphics are just amazing!

APB: Reloaded is a "Massive Multiplayer Online" game where players are either criminals or enforcers (sort of a freelance cop, I guess). You're given missions to complete, which pretty much always involves PVP with someone from the opposing faction. For example, a group of criminals could get a mission to steal some cars; and at the same time a group of enforcers gets a mission to prevent just that.

The game is free to play, but optional subscription gives perks like a bigger variety of weaponry, a slight bonus in gains and more decoration space for your characters and vehicles.

Recently I discovered a funny little game that has kept me entertained quite well. The game is called Minecraft, and it is a sandbox construction game that involves players creating and destroying various types of blocks in a 3D environment.

The game looks very simple, but has a lot of features that make it 100% kick-ass. The basic idea is this: You spawn in a world, all alone (or so you think...) with nothing but your bare hands and some clothes. What you do from then on is your own choice, but as soon as the sun sets, skeletons, zombies and other monsters will come; and they're hungry for human flesh! The only way to survive is to use your creativity.

For example: to make tools or weapons you need wood. How do you get wood ? well... by punching a tree, of course! With the wood you can make some simple tools and weapons, but they won't last long. So you can use your wooden tools to get stone tools. You can use the stone tools to make iron tools, iron tools to make gold tools, and so on.

You can play the game in either stand-alone in single player mode, or you can connect to a multiplayer server for some co-operative fun. I run a multiplayer server, where I play with some friends. I've fabricated a little script that renders a 3D isometric map of the world every hour. You can view the map at http://mc.ajira.eu/, or... if you happen to own a copy of the game, connect in multiplayer to mc.ajira.eu, and you can walk around and see it for yourself (sorry, guests are not allowed to build).

Ajira Kimberly says (2:11 PM):
   wanna draw my thing ? :P
Noshi says (2:12 PM):
   eh?
Ajira Kimberly says (2:12 PM):
   :P
   www.drawmything.com
Noshi says (2:12 PM):
   O.o

MSN conversations can be funny if one party doesn’t know what the other is talking about Recently i discovered draw my thing, an highly addictive online drawing game. You can challenge friends via E-mail, or just challenge someone who happens to be online. Go check it out

After having played with my new iPod Touch for a couple of weeks, I’m still impressed with its performance as gaming platform. I’ve always liked portable gaming consoles, but the problem is that the vast majority of the games cost between € 40,- and € 60,-; which just takes the fun out of it; especially if the game turns out to suck ass.

On the iPod Touch, however, the cost is a lot lower. Most games are between € 0,80 and € 4,99; and a lot of them also have a free preview version. This makes the iPod Touch much more interesting as a portable gaming system than, for example the Play station Portable or Nintendo DS.

With that being said, here is my top-5 of iPod Touch games.

1. Hero of Sparta Hero of Sparta is a 3D “hack ’n slash” game with absolutely impressive graphics. The controls can be a bit dodgy at times, but the overall gameplay and superb graphics just make it a killer game.
 

2. Bobby Carrot I love these kind of games. You have to work your way through mazes filled with traps and puzzles to collect carrots. A very entertaining brain cracker.
 
 

3. Rick Rocketson If, like me, you were addicted to old school platform games like Duke Nukem, Rick Dangerous and Commander keen, this is the game for you. Too bad it has just 14 levels.
 

4. Bounce on Bounce on is basically Super Mario III, but with a red ball. Somehow you fell out of your owner’s pocket and have to get back home. I’ve always loved “jump ’n run” games.
 

5. iDracula iDracula is simple.. a guy, some guns and a shitload of monsters. Try to stay alive as long as you can, and don’t let the masses get to you. The controls are awkward at first, but you get used to them quite rapidly. This game is perfect for killing some time while on the toilet.

Because I will be releasing the new collection of “Loud ’n Proud” necklaces next week, I had to expand my store space in Second Life a bit.

The old one was 10x20m, but since i needed 40+ panels just for the necklaces, a bit more space was required. I Replaced the entire building with a nice 20x20m shop, that has a nice patio in the middle.

Maybe it looks a tiny bit empty right now, but that’s no problem; I’ll get that space filled up in notime. I’ve got plenty ideas for new products

A rainy day, a fresh copy of a new game and a new computer… sounds like a good day to me!

I installed Crysis and finished the game in about 6 hours… how disappointing… I don’t know if it’s a gift or a curse, but for some reason no single-player game has managed to keep me occupied for more than a week; I knew there was a reason why I like MMORPG’s so much :P

As I was browsing through some old backups, I ran across a couple of old video clips that I made in my early days of World of Warcraft. *sigh* Brings back good memories Let’s see what we’ve got...

First we have the early beta period... together with my buddy Kilmir (who was also an old guildie from Everquest), we eplored the wonderous lands of Kalimdor. It had just gone live in the Beta, so it was all new and exciting. I also ventured deep into the bellows of the Deathmines.

Next up, we have more beta material, but in a later stage of the beta. I explored various places and a dungeon called “Blackphantom Deeps” with my rogue alt. I already decided that my main character would be a priest (I’ve always played healers in MMORPG, it’s what i do best ), but i wanted to give the rogue a try in the betas.

This video is actually a live recording of the very first Lucifron (the first boss monster in a dungeon called “Molten Core”) killing by Cantonium Elites, one of my Guilds in WoW. And uhmm... my apologies in advance for the music. This kind of music kept me awake during late-night raids that could last for hours If you’re into this stuff, though... the song is called “Visions of Sound” by Amp Attack.

And lastly, we have some dancing ogres In the alphas, betas and early versions of WoW, the ogres looked differently. In one of the later patches they changed the graphics of the ogres, and gave them a very uhm... “cheery” dancing lesson These ogres were found dancing in the North side dungeon of Dire Maul.

Sunday afternoon i returned to World of Warcraft after a short 6-week break. I joined the guild “Chronicles of Chaos, which is a fairly active raiding guild. about 5 minutes after i joined them i was invited to my first raid, which led me strait to the 2nd boss in the endgame dungeon “Blackwing Lair”. As of this writing i’ve been a member of Chronicles of Chaos for about a day and a half, and already i’ve experienced more adventures than i could have ever imagined. Hell yeah

When I launched Guildwars today, I was welcomed with a fresh, new login screen that it just looks amazing! They also made some changes to the User Interface, and it runs a bit smoother too. I’m running Guildwars in 1610x1050 pixels, and to use Steve Jobs’ words: “It scrolls like butter”. Can’t wait till the new content update goes live in a couple of weeks.

I’ve put all my current MMORPG activities to a halt. Both Everquest and Asheron’s Call 2 just don’t cut the cheese anymore. I’ve seen pretty much all there is to see, fought pretty much all monsters and finished most of the quests. They getting boring and are starting to look more like a drag and less like exciting entertainment. I’m very anxiously awaiting the release of World of Warcraft at the end of this year. For the summer I think I’ll give my social life a refresh. Just hang out with my friends and visit nice places.