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Hi all…

Wow. It’s been a while since I had to admit an addiction to a game. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Civilization 2, 3, and 4 are the most recent forms of addiction for me, but I have to add a new one…

Fallout 3…

Damn you Bethesda Scrollworks!

Fallout 3 Banner from Bethesda Site

Do you know what this game does to a roleplayer like me? It taps into some subconscious need to not only play UPS or FedEx driver, but it drives me to reload each time I die just so I can kill the monstrosities or bandits that happen to have sealed my doom…

Saphrym talked about it on his blog a while back. I waited. But evidently not long enough. This thing has created an itch I have to scratch!

It sucks you in so innocently… You start as a baby, grow up in the Vault, and then start chasing your Father down across the Wasteland. One thing leads to another and you get irradiated, blown up, shot at, eaten, stung, and who knows what else.

The images are clean and crisp (until of course you have radiation poisoning and you start getting blurred vision) and you do your best to not stare at the scenery too long or a sniper might get a lucky shot at you from a hidden position… It’s Oblivion all over again. [sigh]

Lucky for me I’ll get a break when I’m gone to Germany next week. But I’m guessing you’ll be seeing more updates from the Waste before I’m done.

If you get addicted to video games like Oblivion, stay away from Fallout 3. It’s insanely addictive. Insane. I can stop any time! Any time I say! Ha hahahaha hahahahahahaha!

[Sounds of sirens can be heard as the men in the white suits come to fit me for a snug fitting jacket...]

–Fitz

p.s. Whatever you do, don’t click these links to pick up this game from Amazon!

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Hi all…

This falls into the “me too” realm of gaming, but as a long-time Civilization and other strategy game fan (including Populous and Alpha Centauri and the upcoming Sid Meier Colonization update), I have to share this comic with my “peeps”…

(A hearty thanks to xkcd for making me laugh out loud this morning. I haven’t thought of Populous in YEARS!)

–Fitz

p.s. You can read about my long-standing Civilization addiction here. I’m eagerly awaiting the update to Sid’s Colonization game (originally out in 1994), which should be out sometime this fall! Yay!

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Image via Wikipedia

Hi there!

I have noticed that digital download of games over the “net” are becoming more available. This is true for PC gaming with the highly successful service Steam where you can buy a game, download it, and play it on any pc. No CDs, DVDs to keep track of, and a big advantage is that you do not have to have the disc in the drive to play. I use this type of service a lot on my Playstation 3 on the PSN (Playstation Network). You put some money into your “wallet” and when you see a game you like you just use the funds from your wallet to purchase it. You can download it at anytime and it is already activated.

I think on the other side of the coin, you get your shiny new disk and box which you may or may not keep. I do like the feeling that you always have the media on hand, but there have been times where the disk is scratched or you just can’t find that nostalgic old game you really want to replay. The boxes that the games come in are getting more compact and less of a waste and can store in a DVD tower, but personally I am getting tired of keeping discs.

I think the digital download age is coming about for games. It is very convenient, and, if the service or company is popular enough, you do not need to worry about it going under, etc. There are only a few downsides that I can think of off the top of my head:

• Bandwidth issues (downloading large games)
• Do you have to be connected to the service to play the game?
• Ongoing charges, if any

The only real problem I have right now for some of the games is when they are cheap (e.g. $4.95) it is too easy to just buy it without thinking about it. Then if you do that many times it could get expensive. The small inexpensive downloadable games I have recently bought for the ps3 (Super Stardust HD, PixelJunk Monsters, etc) have provided a ton of fun play. Moreover, some of these have provided more fun and play time than the $60 Blu-ray disk games.

What do you guys think?

–Andrew

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Hey all…

Sometimes I get the opportunity to review games slightly before they are released. Not often, but I’m very happy when it happens. The Princess Bride Game is based, of course, on the classic book and movie The Princess Bride. The book was written by William Goldman in 1973 and Rob Reiner turned it into a classic film in 1986, starring All your favorite characters are included - Wesley, Buttercup, Inigo, Vizzini, Fezzik, The Grandfather, Miracle Max, and all the rest…

Worldwide Biggies has made The Princess Bride Game available for download at their official site: http://www.princessbridegame.com.

The game combines simple but classic animation with a number of puzzle, arcade, and logic games featuring your favorite Princess Bride characters. Help Wesley and Buttercup around the farm, outwit Vizzini (he’s a Sicilian you know) in a Battle of Wits, and use Wesley & Buttercup together to escape the fire swamp, among others.

Amazingly enough, Worldwide Biggies got the original cast voices for the game. Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright Penn, and Wallace Shawn. I know what you’re thinking… Inconceivable!

It has five different stages, each with its own interface and feel, including As You Wish, Battle Of The Wits, The Fire Swamp, Miracle Max and Storming The Castle.

The game is among the first to be designed by women for women, but I got a kick out of it too. It didn’t take me long to play through it, but I can see that it has a lot of replay potential. I expect my eldest daughter will love it!

Now… I have to say that I did run into some issues with the game early on. I ran out of time with the demo copy I was given and was unable to uninstall it. I enjoyed the little bit I did play, so I decided I’d go ahead and pick it up (it’s only $19.99 to download, so it’s not a big investment). But even after I bought the game, I had a ton of issues getting it registered.

That said, the nice folks at tech support for Worldwide Biggies were great. We must have exchanged about 50 e-mails before we finally got it working, but we were successful eventually. To this day I’m still not sure if it was Microsoft Vista’s fault, but I still have two copies showing up on my system… Oh well.

But even with that, I have to say that the game is a lot of fun. I especially enjoyed working with Miracle Max and the Battle of Wits!

If you have young children and you want them to engage their brains on the computer, be sure to check this out. As they say, I think it’s geared for girls to get them more involved in playing computer games.

I give this a solid 3/4 and vote it a great game for pre-teens and young teenagers.

(Plus, any time I get a chance to show my daughters classic 80s movies like The Princess Bride, I have to jump at the opportunity!)

So check out the game. Again, Worldwide Biggies has made The Princess Bride Game available for download at their official site: http://www.princessbridegame.com.

Until next time… Play a game!

–Fitz

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Hi there!

My first article was about the playstaion3 (ps3) trophies. I think the best game to review to start off would be the only game currently on the Playstation network (PSN). This is Super Stardust HD. It has its roots in the old Asteroids game we played when we were kids pumping quarters into a black and white arcade game. This game is based off this simple concept of blowing up rocks on a 3d spherical planet, and not getting crushed in the process!

(Gameplay 3.3)

Even though the game play sounds very basic, the depth they built into the game play is nice. There are three basic types of rocks: regular, gold, and ice. Along with that you get three types of blasters: Rock Crusher (good overall and nice spread), Ice Splitter (very fast and great for ice), and Gold Meter (a gold stream which is flexible and great against gold rocks). Each weapon has its arch rock type and situational use to keep in mind when destroying the asteroids.

You also get two more tools that can make or break your survival and that is bombs and boost. The bombs blow up most small and medium objects in a set distance from your ship. The larger rocks will just break apart into smaller chunks. Your boost will propel your ship forward very fast and temporarily makes you invulnerable. It took me a bit, but the boost can be a nice weapon especially when there are enemies in a line.

Once you learn the weapons and when to change blaster types, each stage gets a set of enemies that has their own patterns, attacks, and vulnerabilities. For example, there are two types of UFO round enemies. One is small and has fast maneuvering and they are vulnerable to the ice splitter. The other types are larger spinning ships (like a band saw) that chase you around and gang up on you.

There are five planets with five stages each. At the end of a planet you face a boss enemy. I really enjoyed this game for what it is. It is very satisfying the way the rocks break up and inside of them sometimes are bonus (neon green) cores that have weapon type boosts, new ships, bonus points, etc. The game play is challenging in the beginning, but once you master moving and shooting and when to choose which weapon type it becomes much easier, but never easy (as you get up in planets).

(Graphics 3.5)

The graphics are beautiful in 1080p HD. The colors are vivid and on a bigger screen the universe behind you (not that you get a lot of time to look at it) is a nice touch. It goes to show that even a fairly simple game can look great. With the colors, planet maps, background you tend to really become immersed into the visuals.

(Sound 2.0)

The sound is not bad. The music is clean and appropriate for the game. In the basic game there are three basic sound tracks. The main two are very upbeat and techno based which helps when the rocks are flying. The third is custom, so you can use a playlist of mp3’s from your PS3 if you have some. This is nice if you play this game a lot, since you can play and listen to an album that you enjoy. The multiplayer addition includes a grander orchestral soundtrack to give you more music in the game.

(Additional Content)

(1) Solo Pack: This pack includes a few new solo modes which really increase the replay ability of the game. These modes are extremely challenging. The almost impossible ones are bomber which you only have bombs, and survival which there are a ton of little pink objects that can’t be destroyed, and basically is how long can you survive. My favorite is endless where there are meta waves of enemies and asteroids which come at you from all over, and at the end of the wave there is a nuclear bomb, when you destroy the bomb a wave of energy clears the whole planet, and the next wave starts. I currently am trying to get the trophy on this level (destroy 10 nukes).

(2) Multi Pack: This pack is to add a few new modes. The first is split screen co-op mode where now you and your partner are basically playing your own separate screens, but on the same planet. When you are close to each other you boost your partner’s weapon power. In the basic co-op you have to always stay in range as only one screen (much harder). There is also some vs. modes with various types of battles (death-match, king of the hill, etc..). These are fun, and I think you can play up to four players. The only problem with multiplayer is right now there is no online play and the lack of online play keeps this from being a really great simple game.

(Final Comments)

I give this game 3.0 of out 4.0 Green Knights. It is low cost game with great visuals, fun game-play, and will challenge most game players. I think this game is a great example of what downloadable content should be for the PS3. Even if you are not sure there is a free demo on the PSN store for you to try out your rock crushing abilities.

– Andrew

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Hi all!

The Playstation3 (PS3) has just received trophies! Yea!

To anyone new to the PS3 or doesn’t have one, the PS3 hasn’t had a system-wide reward system in place until now. The XBOX 360 has had its gamerscore system in place for a while now. This change for the PS3 was introduced the beginning of July with the 2.40 (broken) and 2.41 firmware upgrades.

The introduction of trophies is a great addition. It adds that little extra incentive for people that like to push the limits of the games they buy, and see if they have the right stuff. On the other hand, there are some really weird or insanely hard trophies for each game that will have people pulling their hair out. Once you get all the trophies for a game (copper, silver, & gold), you achieve the platinum trophy for that particular game. Each of the smaller trophies boost your PS3 gamer level (score) and the platinum trophy boosts it a lot. As you “level up” it will be progressively harder to gain levels.

I am really looking forward to working with the PS3 trophy system. I play a lot of PS3 games and now I have a way to track my progression. In addition, this can be a fun community building tool. I can compare my trophies with the trophies of people on my friends list. Right now I have to believe my friends when they said they shot the fly off the general’s shoulder at a 1000 paces ;).

What does everyone think about these type of tools (“Carrots”) to encourage people to get as much out of a game as possible? It can have good and bad consequences.

**Super Stardust™ HD, a PLAYSTATION Network-exclusive released last year, will be the first game to leverage the Trophies system and will offer a variety of trophies. I am currently trying to get these now**

The following games will offer Trophy support:

• BUZZ!™ Quiz TV
• LittleBigPlanet™
• MotorStorm™ Pacific Rift
• NBA 09 - PS3
• PAIN** (out now, trophy patch coming)
• PixelJunk™ Eden
• Resistance 2™
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation
• Warhawk™** (out now, trohpy patch coming)

– Andrew

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Hi all…

Yesterday saw the loss of a huge influence in my life. Yes, an influence from afar, but a strong influence nonetheless. Without Gary Gygax, I would not be half the geek I am today.

(Photo from Wired article)

At age 69, Gygax was the co-founder of Dungeons and Dragons in the early 1970s with Dave Arneson. He died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He had been fighting health issues for the last several years, but was involved in a regular game as recently as January 2008.

Gygax and Arneson created Dungeons and Dragons in 1974. It merged storytelling, dice, and medieval and mythical worlds. The odd-shaped dice made it stand out from other games, particularly along teen boys. And its influence was felt in video games, books, and movies even to the current day and beyond. Wizards of the Coast will be releasing Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition a year from now and has been actively working on several versions (3.0, 3.5, and 4.0) for the last decade.

From my own life, I was exposed to Dungeons and Dragons in Junior High — back in the 1980s. It was me and a few friends who learned the rules, read voraciously, and invented characters that went on to live in infamy as the killers of Tiamat. Yes, we were young geeks.

Dungeons and Dragons made me a better reader, a better critical thinker, and much more creative than I already was. Since then, those elements have continued in my life. I love gaming. It’s immersive entertainment that has no equal.

Though Gygax will be missed, his legacy will continue on forever in my mind. He and Arneson created a whole new way to play that will never end.

Gary, you will be missed.

–Fitz

Hey all…

As a long time gamer (Junior High was a long time ago) who has played D&D now in multiple forms multiple ways, I have to say that the announcement of D&D 4th Edition didn’t do much for me. But Massayrm’s article has made me at least consider looking at it, which is a step forward from where I was.

You can find his article here.

So here’s what I think (after the break)…

(more…)

Hi all!

Great news! The Moebius Adventures Core Rules book is available for purchase in both softcover and eBook formats on Monday, November 12, almost three weeks ahead of schedule!

To purchase the softcover book for $24.95 + shipping, go to the Moebius Adventures Lulu storefront.

To purchase the eBook for $10.95, go to RPGNow.com or DriveThruRPG.com.

And to help celebrate the ThanksGiveAway promotion from OneBookShelf, the eBook will be available for free for one day - Monday, November 12, from RPGNow and DriveThruRPG.

Please help us celebrate the release of the first Moebius Adventures book!

Thanks for your support!

–Fitz

Hi all…

Ok, I need to vent a little… I’ve been playing D&D since junior high… maybe 1983… yes, I know I’m old… I’ve purchased books from multiple vendors for different editions going forward, most recently for 3rd edition (3e) and 3.5 edition (3.5e)… Now next year we’re looking at 4th Edition (4e) coming out.

In the software world, when a new version comes out you have an upgrade path. Your old stuff doesn’t just immediately go defunct, but you have to upgrade to the new stuff before you can take advantage of any new features that may have been added in the new release.

However, Wizards of the Coast is evidently sidestepping the issue and just starting 4e without an upgrade path. Their statement is that you can play 3e or 3.5e as long as you want… But all the new stuff that’ll be coming out will be written for 4e — that includes all the major settings… Dragonlance, Eberron, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and so on…

So now that I’ve invested in two sets of books for D&D in the last 10 years (3e came out in the mid 90s and 3.5e came out a few years ago)… I invested in lots of 2nd edition (2e) books before that… And now they want me to invest in 4e books?

Funny thing is, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) is a business. They’re in the business of selling books and games and all the accessories to customers. So new editions are good for them. New customers buy books and old customers buy books. And WotC makes money.

I get it. I just wish there wasn’t this “keep up with the Joneses” kind of mentality brewing. Wizards opened the door this year when they stated 4e was coming out and their message boards have been booming since then…

But it’s like dropping a meteor in a lake… there’s big ripples. The entire d20 industry, individuals and small companies developing gaming settings and additions, will need to change to keep up with things. And that’s time and energy that may kill a lot of independent publishers.

And as a publisher, I have to say that I want to focus on content, not rules — but when 4e comes out, the rules change. You don’t have a choice but to retool and tweak your content to match it. Balancing issues come up, any rules that you’ve written to add to the base have to be reconsidered and looked at to see if another rule has cropped up in the base and made your change obsolete, etc…

And as a publisher, this is why I’m not a d20 content producer… The Moebius Adventures system is a unique system that we can add or remove rules from and settings without affecting tons of folks downstream.

It just makes me feel bad for the 100s of small publishers who will be affected by this large fireball from WotC.

Anyway… That’s my rant for the day. Back to your business.
–Fitz