Crimson is back!

It's been well over 6 months since I last posted here on the blog. I will explain why, but the short answer is that time constraints caused me to have a lifestyle change.

Just after Christmas (now 6 months ago) my girlfriend and I moved in with her parents to save money for a our own house. This threw a bit of a spanner into the works of my daily gaming routine. My gf's parents house is located 1.5 hrs travel time away from both mine and my gf's work. Essentially my gf and I were getting up at 5:30am for work and getting home around 7:30pm. Once dinner was cooked I'd get about an hour and a half of gaming in before I needed to be asleep ready for the next day. Shortly after starting this routine, my gf decided that she wanted to start doing a TV writing course after work. The downside to this, is that we catch the train home. Her classes wouldn't finish until 9pm at night, which meant she would have to catch the late train home. Unfortunately our train line has some shady characters around and it gets even worse the later you catch it. So of course I had to wait around and catch the train with her to ensure her safety. This meant that I had a gap between 5:30pm and 9pm after work where I would do nothing. I couldn't play games because my gaming rig was 1.5 hrs away. What was I to do? On our second late train home of this routine, we encountered a rather aggressive young fellow who was insistent on smoking a joint on the train while punching windows randomly (seriously wtf?). Anyway it scared the crap out of both of us and I decided that if we would continue this routine, I would need to learn some self defense. So I signed up to a Karate class after work which filled the void nicely. So for the last 6 months or so I've been training Kyokushin Karate four days of the week, as well as going to the gym. You can imagine the change in fitness/body shape going from a regular gaming geek who does very little exercise to a full fledged killing machine...

Let's just say, I don't worry about the crazy people on our train line any more.

With all this going on, I started to lose touch with gaming and the blog-o-sphere in general. Oddly I didn't actually tell anyone about it either. Poor Melf was probably wondering where the hell I disappeared to. Cheers Melf for keeping the blog going btw.

Unfortunately there is a downside to doing anything excessively, and that's 'burnout' (yes it happens in the real world too!). All the exercise was becoming physically taxing and it lead to some minor injuries. Mostly neck and back problems. I knew there would need to be another change in my lifestyle or else I would hammer myself into a wall. So a middle ground was found. I now do karate two nights of the week and gaming on the other nights. My gf has also adjusted her night classes to fit this schedule. She's so awesome :)

So what game did I start playing again once I started getting back into gaming? Guild Wars. All this talk about GW2 has me excited about MMO gaming again. Plus I still think Guild Wars is the best MMO available at the moment. It was weird firing it back up after over a year of inactivity. A couple of weeks back into it, I organized a 3 day LAN with Melf, his gf and the brother of my gf. I started a Mesmer and relived the good times of starting a character from scratch. GW is so awesome, and it's great fun gaming with friends! You can expect some more posting on Guild Wars to come, but for now, lets just say:

It's good to be back!

Moving in with the gf's parents

Ha ha, yeah... My girlfriend and I are getting old (28) and want to buy a house sometime soon. It ain't going to happen unless we save a deposit, so long story short, we are going to be moving back to her parents place (in the outer rim) to save money for a year. Ordinarily I would have been against the idea, but there was potential for something that pushed me over the line:

LANange!!!

My girlfriend has a younger brother (21) who still lives at home and he loves video games and so does his girlfriend. He's never actually had a computer powerful enough to play anything other than Farmville, but luckily I have two. I've been buying up a bunch of Steam specials (and then some) in preparation for the LANage. Dawn of War and Company of Heroes could be good. I might even dig up Diablo 2 (love that game).

I also want to introduce him to the MMO world, but I'm not sure which one to show him first. He's still studying for his diploma, so I don't want to corrupt his free time too much. WoW is definitely out of the question. There is also the problem that my second computer is 5 years old and can't run much above Guild Wars, CoH or WoW. I was thinking Guild Wars because I love that game, but it seems to be slowly dying at the moment. I also have 1800+ hours on it and have played through all it's content a few times over. It would be fun for him, but not so much for me. My other thought was Wizard 101. He plays Magic the Gathering with his mates and Pokemon on his DS. Wizard 101 seems like a good combination of the two and should run on my old computer. It's also cheap in comparison to most MMOs. I reviewed Wizard 101 when it was first released and thought it was an excellently designed game. My only issues were the slow battles and repetitive card animations. These aren't exactly horribly bad points, so I'll most likely be firing it back up again just after Christmas (when the move happens).

In the mean time, I'll keep enjoying Torchlight and the other 10 Steam specials I've purchased over the last week. I swear, I have a weakness for game specials...

AFK Over!

Would you believe that I haven't posted in over 3 months! If you were wondering why (or you never noticed until now, but still want to know why), I've been traveling around Europe with a few of my mates for a few months. It's been a hell of a trip and for the most of it I didn't have access to a computer, nor did I want it. Hence the no posting or game playing. I saw many great cities and land marks in my travels, and had a tonne of fun doing it. My itinerary looked something like this:

London -> Madrid -> Barcelona -> Paris -> Bruges -> Amsterdam -> Berlin -> Prague -> Vienna -> Munich -> Venice -> Rome.

I really wanted to cover Ireland, Scotland and Northern Europe (Denmark, Sweeden, Finland etc), but there just wasn't time.

The highlight of the trip was definitely Oktoberfest in Munich. I was there for 5 days, with a best effort of 8 steins in one day. I still can't believe how many people there were in one place drinking beer. If you haven't been, then I suggest you make plans to go (assuming you like beer, and even if you don't).

My favourite city was a tie between Amsterdam and Berlin. Amsterdam had a few things to offer that would normally be considered illegal (++), but the beer was expensive (-). Berlin had the best pubs/clubs and party atmosphere (although I'm sure Dublin would have been a winner had I of made it there). The best beer I had was in Belgium and was called 'Strasse Hendrik', although Germany definitely had some close seconds. Best land mark went to Rome for the Colosseum. You have to see it to believe it.

All in all, I've had a wonderful time and was glad to completely put computers out of my life for 2.5 months, but now that I'm back, it's back to business! :) Melf has informed me that Aion is worth a look, but he hasn't made up his mind on the PvP yet. I downloaded it last Sunday and have a level 13 Cleric. My early thoughts are that Aion is blatant diku based MMO that makes no attempt to conceal the kill ten rats side of things. Unless the PvP is good, I can't see myself sticking around for any more than a month. Graphics are gorgeous though (I'm sure you've heard the same thing from 50+ sources). Moving on..

In other news Guild Wars released an update today that has my attention. A new type of PvP mode called Codex Arena, which sounds like the game designers from ArenaNet have their heads screwed on right (as usual). I'll post some thoughts once I give it run.

P.S.
Good to be back ;)

It's finally happened!

I spent the entire weekend playing an MMO with my girlfriend!

If you're wondering why that's such a big deal, then perhaps I need to fill you in on a little history. My girlfriend very rarely plays video games. I'm talking maybe 20 hours of gaming every 6 months. The only way I've managed to get her interested in games in the past, was by appealing to her love for fantasy and sci-fi (i.e. Star Wars). KOTOR on Xbox and Pokemon on GBA were winners, but almost everything else failed miserably.

There was a period nearly two and a half years ago, where I managed to get her playing WoW. She loved the game, but she stopped playing after about 20 hours online. It was completely my fault. I'm a min-maxer by nature and so I tend to rush through MMO games in order to have the most awesome PvP character available. My gf had no interest in PvP. She was having fun picking herbs and using emotes in the Evermoon fountain. I tried to push my min-maxing style of game play on her in order to improve her character, and it consequently destroyed her entire WoW experience.

If I had of just let her do her own thing, we'd probably have spent the last two and a bit years playing MMOs together. Lesson definitely learned. You cannot try and push 6+ years of MMO gaming experience onto someone completely new to gaming and expect them to understand, or even enjoy it. You have to let them take things at their own pace. This includes learning about the dynamics of the game through VERY slow PvE exploration.

So how did I manage to get her interested in an MMO again after the scare I gave her with WoW?

Friday night, I downloaded the trial version of City of Heroes. I'd been reading about it for quiet some time through various blogs, and I thought that it was a good idea to check it out before Champions Online hit the shelves. I installed the trial and created a female Scrapper (melee DPS). I got to the screen where you create your super hero costume and my gf walked into the room:

GF: "Wow, that looks interesting! What game is that?"

ME: "Just some super hero MMO that lets you design your own costume and then go around beating up baddies"

GF: "Your hero looks like a slut! You should give her some more clothes. Bad guys are more likely to ask 'how much?', than actually run in fear."

ME: "If you think you can design a better costume, you are welcome to try..."
(how good was the bait?)

Ten minutes later, I had a trial account set and the game running on her computer (my old beast). We spent the next 3 hours or so having a blast designing super hero costumes. It's amazing how many combinations there are. Then came the big silent breath hold for me... did she want to play her newly designed super hero? Luckily she instinctively pressed the next button before I even had to ask. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it certainly did me a favor.

Learning from my previous mistake, I took things very very slow. We did the tutorial together, but I made sure I was always 2 steps behind her. She was the expert and I was the novice. She loved thinking she was teaching me and I loved pretending she was as well...

We spent the rest of the weekend leveling our characters in the City of Heroes. We even ordered pizza and ate it in a LAN party style fashion. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

A big thank you to NCSoft/Cryptic for City of Heroes and to the bloggers that got me interested in the game to begin with: Sente, Tipa and Syp.

Teh 100th post

Woot, finally got there!

I was going to say something intelligent about blogging milestones, but honestly I'm just amazed that Melf and I made it to 100 posts.

Now for a funny fact. Did you know I originally named this blog "Da Teh Leetsauce Ninjazor" (seriously), but then later on decided against it. Plus the URL looked a little funky:

http://datehleetsauceninjazor.blogspot.com

Probably for the best ;)

Cheers to everyone who reads this blog.

Village of the LANed

Just recently I went with a mate to visit his grandfather in a retirement village (nice word for a nursing home). I really hate those places. To me it feels like a bunch of old people waiting around to die. The whole time I was there, I couldn't help thinking how much better it would be if the entire place was LAN enabled. It would be like one giant LAN party. How awesome would it be playing network or MMO games with the 100 other old folks in the place? I think gaming would be the ultimate retirement past time. You don't have to worry about going to work or preparing meals. You can just play games with your mates until you die (seriously). Who knows, the mental challenge might even prolong their lives.

As the gaming generation gets older, I really hope this becomes a reality. I'd certainly look forward to being shipped off to the old folk's home if it was just one big LAN party. I'm sure my family would be grateful too ;)

What have I been up to?

Well Xmas and New Years... obviously, in which I strangely didn't feel like blogging much. Spent my holidays playing games, drinking and going fishing. Sometimes all three at the same time ;)

Steam had a boxing day sale for all their games, which largely caught my eye. Melf thinks I've been putting the kids of the devs at Steam through college with my spending habits lately and I'm almost inclined to agree. I purchased another 5 games games in the Steam sale, which were:

• Defense Grid: The Awakening - $15
• Bioshock - $5
• Ultimate Doom - $1
• Doom 2 - $1
• Bejeweled - $1

I probably shouldn't have mentioned the last 3, but meh... I like the old games. Actually the Doom package included the 'Master Levels', which I had never seen before and provided a few good hours of entertainment. It's quite funny playing a game that was designed for 800 * 600 resolution on a 1680 * 1050 monitor in full screen mode. Here's a screen shot I took (click to enlarge):


Luckily my computer was just able to handle it at an acceptable frame rate ;) I must admit, going from TF2 to Doom 2 and then back again was some what of an experience. Put your hand up if you're thankful for video game evolution?

/raisehand

I spent last weekend having a LAN over at Melf's house playing Left 4 Dead, TF2 and Guild Wars. L4D is a bucket load of fun (and zombies). If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend it. TF2 is the ultimate PvP game, which is right up my alley... if only they could convert it's leetness into an MMORPG somehow...

So all in all it was a good holidays. I'll do a proper review of Defense Grid when I've finished playing it. It's by far the best tower defense game I've ever seen. Don't worry I'll spare you my Doom 2 review... for now ;)

The WAR is over for me

I canceled my WAR subscription just before the renewal kicked in today. I'd actually stopped playing over a week ago mainly because I was no longer having fun. The game has a slew of issues, which I'm not going to re-iterate over here. Keen covers them off nicely. I might go back to it when Mythic fixes up a bunch of the existing problems, but I can't see that happening for at least a year.

On reflection, what did I like most about WAR and what did WAR really bring to the MMO table?

I loved the fact that the game was designed from the bottom up for PvP with some PvE thrown in for good measure. Although I love my PvP, it's just not as fun without the PvE around. When talking about what new things WAR introduced to the MMO-a-sphere, many people would say Public Quests, Tome of Knowledge and Open RvR. Honestly I thought these were all pretty crap. PQs sucked when there was no one around, ToK could have been better (I barely used mine) and Open RvR had issues a mile long. If you ask me the best thing that WAR introduced was Tactics, Morale skills and the ability to level up via PvP. I've never seen interchangeable passive skills (Tactics) used in an MMORPG before. I thought it worked very well. Moral skills provided the player with a a sort of bonus super skill when the battle started heating up (very cool), and leveling via PvP made it much more enjoyable for PvP players like myself. It provided an alternative to questing and the hopeless PQs.

So where to now?

My mates at work have been bugging me for a very long time to download the Orange Box from Steam, so I did. I've never been a huge fan of FPS, but I don't mind it if the game is well built. I completed Portal over the weekend, which is the coolest puzzle game ever. Although it only took four hours to complete, I highly recommend checking it out. Well worth it's weight in gold. I wasn't sure which part of Portal was better, the game play or the story line - both brilliant. Team Fortress 2 is awesome fun, but I really need to level up my FPS skills again to play competitively. Half-Life 2 is insanely well built, but I can't see it entertaining me for more than a few weeks. I do like how the NPCs interactive with you. RPGs could definitely learn a thing or two from that game. OpenEdge has convinced me that The Witcher is worth a look. I'll probably check that out after I finish with my little FPS binge.

I'm not sure when the next 'big thing' in the MMO space will occur, but I'm welcoming the single player break for a while. Mind you, if Guild Wars 2 got released tomorrow, I'd say: "to hell with these noob single player games" ;)

Been watching Carnivale

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been watching Season 1 and 2 of Carnivale. With the MMO world being in somewhat of a state of flux at the moment, I thought it would be a good time to earn some brownie points with the girlfriend in preparation for the launch of WAR.

For those who haven't seen Carnivale, I highly recommend doing so, it was one of the best TV series I have ever seen. When my girlfriend first told me about it I was very skeptic and convinced that it definitely wasn't up my alley, but I was wrong... very wrong.

The series is set in the US during the Great Depression (a nice change from my usual sci-fi) and explores the concept of good and evil via walking avatars of God and the Devil. The story is based on a combination of Christian theology, gnosticism and Masonic lore (the Knights Templar). Very very cool...

Worth a watch if you haven't seen it already.

Hardcore Gaming and Fitness?

If I spent as much time at the gym as I do playing MMO games, I'd look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. The trouble is that it's very difficult to be a hardcore gamer and keep fit at the same time. This is usually due to the fact that my brain and body would much rather be playing video games than lifting heavy weights and jogging long distances. It's a pity there isn't a Wii fit MMO or some kind of RPG linked to a body suit, where you actually have to fight with real physical movements to level your in-game character. I think it would solve a large portion of the worlds' health issues.

In the meantime, I still need to solve the issue of balancing fitness with gaming. It occurred to me whilst I was eating my take away Chinese noodles for lunch today, that since getting fit is just a matter of willpower and the proper mentality, why don't I just apply my hardcore gaming mentality to my home gym equipment? I'm talking about the same willpower and state of mind that I used to level my WoW Warlock to level 70. The same willpower I used for farming 200 Guild Wars platinum from the Troll Cave. I simply need to treat my own body like my in-game character and add a few points to my strength and constitution (and maybe a few to willpower to begin with).

Naturally this is just a theory, but I'm willing to give it a shot. I'm kind of in between MMO's at the moment, and WAR is still months away, so I think its a good time to start. Here are the rules:

You get 5 XP for each sit up, 7.5 XP for a push up, 10 XP for a bench press and 15 XP for a chin up. For jogging, its 75 XP per kilometer (120 XP per mile). You start on Level 1 and need 500 XP for Level 2, 1000 XP for level 3 etc.

The plan is to be at level 10 within three months, so I think its time for some power leveling... gulp ;)

Some MMO respite!

Being a hardcore MMO gamer is hard work! You have to put in enormous amount of your spare time to level your characters and build online friendships. So every so often I like to take a break from the online world and mellow out with some good old RTS and TBS games for a week or two. This way I can get some respite from the endless grind and also satisfy my game addiction.

This week I have been playing Sins of Solar Empire (SoSE) and Galactic Civilizations 2 (GC2). SoSE reminds me a lot of Warcraft 3, except set in space, and GC2 is what Masters of Orion 3 should have been. Both are awesomely challenging strategy games with enough content to keep any gamer amused for a month or two. SoSE is a really well built little RTS with an emphasis on game play and user experience rather than graphics. GC2 is probably the best TBS I have ever played (Hero's of Might and Magic 5 was a close 2nd).

At this point your probably wondering why I'm not on the AoC band wagon? Past experience with MMORPG releases has taught me many things:

• Expect many bugs and exploits for the first few months
• Often the hype is about the graphics and not the long term game play
• Time is always required for class/archetype balancing
• Extra features aren't often implemented until long after the game's release
• By reading forum posts of long term player's you can make an educated decision on which class to play and tactics to use.
  

It's these reasons that I'm am holding off buying AoC, because if it's really as good as it says it is, then it will still have my attention in 2 months time. Mind you, all these lessons will go out the window when Guild Wars 2 is released. I'm going to be taking 2 weeks off work for that game :)