It took me a while to find a decent one, but I finally have a boonie hat in Second Life
It was Friday night, I was browsing through my favorite online newspaper before going to bed when I saw a video where they talked about a release-date for Far Cry 3. Since I really enjoyed playing Far Cry 2, I decided to check it out. The news about Far Cry 3 was nice and I'm looking forward to playing it, but the video also mentioned a little bit of news about other games.
It mentioned that a game called "Dear Esther" was going to be released for Apple computers and they showed a tiny bit of video from the game. The video looked interesting, and I decided to check the game out. The game is available on steam for the modest price of € 7,99. This may seem like a lot of money for what is, basically, a user-created mod; but it's a very low price for what turned out to be the most awesome piece of art that I've ever enjoyed. Dear Esther is not like any game you've ever seen. In fact, I wouldn't even call it a game to begin with. There are no enemies, no weapons, no obstacles, no challenges or goals what so ever. In a way it's more of a digital storytelling or VR-experience.
The blunt of the story is this: Somehow you (the first person) arrived on an island somewhere in the Outer Hebrides, which is a group of Islands off the north-west coast of Scotland. A voice cites, what appears to be, a passage from a letter that a dying elderly man wrote to a woman called Esther at some point in time. From here on you are set free to explore the island that has a couple of ruined, decaying cottages, a huge cave system and a very prominent beacon tower on it. As you traverse across the island, various locations will trigger music and more passages of the elderly man telling about his life. Even though the route you take across the island is always the same, it never gets dull or boring. Every play-through has a unique sequence of snippets from the letters that the man sent to Esther.
The end result is just a mind-blowing experience. The story is touching as it is, and the sad music and often eerie sound effects put an amazing emphasis on the gloomy atmosphere. And the visuals are just... Wow! It will suffice to say that jaws will drop and drool will flow abundantly. Even though they use the 7-year old graphics engine from Half-Life 2, this game has the most photo-realistic graphics that I've ever seen in a game. It all just adds up: the water reflecting on the walls in the caves, the pebbles that all look different, the grass that waves in the wind... the details are just mind-boggling.
All in all, I highly, highly recommend this "game" to anyone that loves a good, touching story, loves to explore caves and decayed houses, or just wants to try something other than getting "pwned" by 12 year olds with a big mouth on shooter games. Seriously, guys.. give Dear Esther a try and world peace will be around the corner.
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.
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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
3. Rick Rocketson
4. Bounce on
5. iDracula
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.
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