Friday, August 28, 2009

Felicia Day and The Guild



Honestly, I can't really imagine a cooler gamer. Game On, Ms. Day. Game On!

Felicia Day, born in Huntsville, Alabama, and now moved to LA to be an actress. Yet she still manages to be a gamer. She is the creative spirit behind the web phenom "The Guild" which can be seen at http://www.watchtheguild.com. She has roles on Dollhouse and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm sure she is soon to be an icon of legendary women in gaming--if not already.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Perfect World: Day 4

So after a few days of on and off play, I can say that Perfect World is still interesting. I do find myself wanting to figure out more about how the game works. The game is entirely stable and seems to be without bugs. I generally experience a bug or two in WoW on a regular basis. To get an entirely free game without them seems a bit unreal.

I have to admit that I suffer bit of WoW burn out. Now any morg that resembles elves in the woods sort of turns my stomach a little. My ability to enjoy Perfect World is hampered by this burn out. It is a different game, but certainly contains many of the same tropes.

I'll keep it loaded for a while longer and see if maybe it suckers my wife in. Then I can report on the wife factor.

Game On!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Perfect World: Day 1

I spied an ad for something called "Perfect World" on a game forum site yesterday. It appeared to be a morg that was "free to play" originally created in China. I wasn't convinced so I checked out the web site. They did not have an overwhelming amount of info on the game, but it was free and I figured, why not?

The client was a whopping 3.5 gig download. That a big client and on par with other full-sized, full-pay games. After the download was the required patching... then some confusion about account creation and then finally I could log in to play.

The toon creation system is sure to keep the aestetic gamer occupied for hours. There was a lot of detail to faces and body types. There are only 3 races, human, winged elf (mostly human), and untamed (human with animal head). But my wife is sure to enjoy just creating an avatar for hours.

After the few hours it took to download, install, and create a character I only got about 30 minutes to play. I ran a quest and learned a bit about the UI. It was all very well done (especially at the price). Graphics were very tuneable and on par with WoW. Animate was smooth. The game appearance was pleasing. I am intrigued. I'll have to fiddle with it some more as time allows... but no rush, it's free!

Game On!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex


I just finished watching the last 3 episodes of GitS:SAC on DvD. I have the whole series now. I have seen the first movie and read one manga (book). I have enjoyed all of them so far. I'm sure I'll go on to acquire the next 26 episodes of The 2nd Gig.

I think of all anime, GitS might be my favorite so far. I love the cyberpunk feel absent of weird Japanese mysticism. GitS is pure technology. The themes explored are mostly moral, but not usually deeply dark. GitS does dive deep once in a while, but it doesn't wallow in it. All the main characters are likable, honorable and generally free of fatal flaws. I find these qualities fairly rare in anime.

Often a series mixes technology and magic with characters that have glaring flaws. These stories often dwell on death and torture. Protagonists never seem fully deserving of triumph. Sometimes I cheer for the bad guys.

So if you are like me and have really wanted to enjoy anime more, but just struggle to find one that is a bit more intelligent yet fun to watch, definitely consider Ghost in the Shell. It is a wide spread classic for a reason.

I have discovered there is a PlayStation 2 title for GitS. I'll have to check it out, but my first searches for it didn't make it sound appealling. A GitS inspired roleplay would rock on toast...

Game On!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Evony and Ivory


Evony... I don't know about y'all, but this game's ad has been popping up on every game-ish site I have found. Each ad features a buxom model asking "Are you ready to play, My Lord?" The cleavage is massive. The hook is so obvious and ridiculous. So I clicked on it.

Turns out that Evony is a tech-tree medival simulator on par with early versions of Civilization. It just goes to show you how far computer gaming has advanced to make something like Evony completely free to play.

Evony is a web-browser embedded game. I'm guessing it uses Java behind the scenes, but I haven't pulled back the covers to look. None the less, it is a very complete and comprehensive game. You start as Lord of your city and must build up cottages, saw mills, barracks, etc and all the while upgrade various buildings to hit the quest goals. Typical for this sort of game you must manage resources and plan for player aggression--although you are give 7 days of peace to start.

There are ways to establish alliances and declare wars. There is a market system of buying and selling resources. There are wild, unowned valleys to explore with armies and plunder. It seems you can purchase (with real USD) resources directly and this seems to be the intent of the designers. To hook you with a free game and then let the first rube with $50 on Dad's credit card wipe you out with ill-gotten armies. Thus inspiring you to buy in. I don't think I'll be buying. But it is a fun easy diversion to run in the background.