I'm not dead, yet, ... I got better!

Hi Virtual Sports Fans,

Coming to you live, not dead, from a long day of work here. I 've been mostly playing non-MMO games lately. My Life as a DarkLord is entertaining me a little but it certainly isn't the most cleverly designed Tower defense game ever made, as there are only a few ways to win certain levels but I like the Final Fantasy theme and music. Yes I know, it came out in 2009 and you want 'news' not 'olds' but I just was able to afford it. This is the 'budget users' MMO + random gaming blog after all ;)

I dug up some old games and started playing Harvest moon (the game cube one) again and was reminded that it wasn't a bad game. They definitely improved some things in rune factory but actually I like having the marriage thing be not quite so ridiculously hard to accomplish and not take so long. I can only handle so much grinding before things get tiresome. (I spent a year on rune factory frontier and the girls still didn't say yes) I also found animal crossing, and have been showing my wife Chrono Trigger which she had of course never played before.

I haven;t heard tell of any MMOs lately that really get me excited. I did enjoy Guild Wars for a bit but it doesn't really have the same charm that WoW (vanilla) did and I am interested to see what Blizzard cooks up next with Titan or after it. I have kind of fallen out of Lord of the Rings online even though I spent years in there and I haven't sworn it off or anything I just don't have a working computer that would run it. Gotta save save save the bucks right now since buying a minivan for our new baby arrival was a higher priority. They do have nice desktops and even laptops sometimes at Frys though for 600 bucks or so if I just save 6 birthdays worth.... Its gonna be a while.

In Big COOL news, there's Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced Edition coming out the 15th (four days) but I cannot afford it. I will of course be asking for it for Christmas along with some more necessary things...

That's all the news I have so far. Oh I played Bastion until I got tired of clicking like mad. The game is ok. I love the art but the plot is not really riveting stuff.

Why I Can't Really Stand Nintendo Any More

Nintendo licenses are a funny thing. I used to love Mario and Zelda, but now I can't stand them any more. What happened?

On the other hand, Square Enix puts out one Final Fantasy after another, and I continue to be fascinated by their games.

Something dawned on me the other day. I don't hate Nintendo's games, I am simply tired of their characters.
What if, instead of making a "new Mario game" every E3, if they just announced their new "platformer"?
And instead of announcing their new "Zelda game", they presented their new "Action Adventure game"?

Nintendo franchises have become synonymous with game genres.
Mario/Mario Galaxy - 3D Platformer
New Mario/Kirby - 2DPlatformer

Pokemon/Paper Mario? - RPG
Zelda - Action-Adventure
Metroid - Shooter
Fire Emblem - Tactical RPG
Star Fox - Flight Sim

It seems to me that they are doing this deliberately. Metroid wasn't always a shooter. They seem to be honing in on genres more specifically over time. They've even gone so far as to bring back sidescroller platforming with the line of New Mario games.

My problem, I realize, isn't so much that their games have gotten too hard, too easy, or poorly designed...my problem is that they are just lacking creativity. Every time I see an ad for Nintendo, it's the same dozen or so characters over and over and over.

People adore these characters. I can see why they keep it up. But on the other hand--Think of how much we've been missing the last ten years--if they had put in the effort to expand into new worlds, new characters, new stories, new visual designs...

-Anton

Wish Guild Wars could be... more... something!

I really enjoy Guild Wars 2 and I intend to still play an explore it, I just wish it could be ... more. The combat is intense with npc's and ok against pc's though gear still has too much sway I think rather than skill but its still ok fun. I like the "world changes as you do things" aspect, but it jsut gets me wishing things stayed saved a little longer or that the chains were a bit longer. It seems like the moment I save something and after I defend it for a while it just gets back in jeopardy the moment I turn my back. This breaks the "immersion curtain" and makes me feel like I'm just in a clock instead of a world. I'm not dissing the game. I like it better for world pve than pretty much any other mmo. I just wish it could be "more" of what it is. Maybe Guild Wars 3 will be. Anyways, I also wish the dungeons were lower level as I haven't seen them yet and I don't hear good things on the forums about the first dungeon. One of the things I loved in WoW and Lotro was the dungeons and other group sequences. There are times I've played in group in GW2 but only for convenience of survival to beat some boss or defend someone and it was mostly a flash mob. I've tried to catch my firneds online playing but it seems like we have different schedules. I'll keep trying though.

Other than that I'm really enjoying playing Terraria for our game night and I've been toying with the idea and some day having them play the black pits together with me for game night. That would be interesting. In Terraria I faced the wall of Flesh for the first time last Thursday and he cleaned my clock. I recommend Not touching him. We actually had him half dead when I died though. Maybe next time.. with more friends, most had gone to bed when he showed up. ;)

My new game ready to share!

Hi, this is Anton, I haven't posted here for a long time, but have some important news!
I've been working 3 years on an indie game for 3 years, called Siphon Spirit.

Please play the demo and visit Califer Games on facebook, or in the forums to give feedback!

http://blog.califergames.com/

("Anton" is just my blogger alias, of course, so don't be surprised if you don't see it here)

Neverwinter MMO is in Open Beta and Enhanced Edition ok on Vista now

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=9&cad=rja&ved=0CGEQqQIoADAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcgamesn.com%2Fneverwinter-mmo-enters-open-beta&ei=ayWEUYPEFab8igLA2oH4Bg&usg=AFQjCNHO3b24rqjrrDKS37hw3ksVINbaHw&sig2=reXA6Y_znQrrZyuLUXkXRg&bvm=bv.45960087,d.cGE

The link above goes to an article about the Neverwinter Nights MMo's new open beta that just launched. I'm going to check it out when I get some time. In other news, I want to say that Baldur's Gate Enhanced edition now works on Vista, and I am having a LAN party for my birthday tomorrow where we will do the black pits in baldur's gate and do a Terraria adventure time maybe or some Dungeon Siege. :)

No Enhanced Edition on Windows Vista

Don't attempt to play Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition on Window's Vista, it has nasty bugs wherein you will want to close your client and reopen every time you grab arrows for example. Use Windows 7 instead.

I got Guild wars 2 for Christmas! Now I can play it with Anton on Northern Shiverpeaks! So far I haven't seen anything in guild Wars 2 other than the opening areas and those are pretty normal MMO fare but I am hopeful. Its enjoyable combat and questing for me anyways.