So, I’ve been distracted from WoW lately, and thus also distracted from blogging.

One of my distractions from the game was school work done while my Undergrads (in my course & my research assistants) were all off partying it up for Spring Break. I’ve been working on organizing things for beginning to design & write my dissertation proposal. I front-loaded blog posts at the beginning of break, and then had to really push and get work done the last couple days.

My ..read the full article

Last week was my fourth pass through the Game Developers Conference, having also gone up to San Francisco in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

This year my expo pass was provided by the fine people at FileCatalyst.  They were at the show to talk to companies about their accelerated and managed file transfer solutions.  While they asked for nothing in return, I figured I would put their logo up as a thank you.

GDC was considerably more compressed than previous years.  Gaming may ..read the full article

Bethesda Softworks send word that newly-signed studio, inXile Entertainment (headed up by Brian Fargo, formerly of Interplay), will be making a videogame called Hunted: The Demon’s Forge. It’s a game of the “third-person co-op action” genre. What kind of genre is that? Well, I’m glad I asked myself that, because Bethsoft say this: “Taking control of either E’lara, a ranged weapon expert, or Caddoc, a master swordsman, you must use a variety of weapons, powerful spells, and cover tactics to ..read the full article

The battle for galactic domination has been reduced to just a handful of titanic empires. Victory, however, hangs in the balance. Will exhaustion finally exact its toll on the generals of this epic war? If you’re enjoying these reports then EXCITINGLY SLOW SPACE WAR AWAITS YOU in Neptune’s Pride. You can also read a version of this diary over on PC Gamer. (more…)

Related stories: Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 5 Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 4 Pride And Falls: ..read the full article

Gpotato have announced that their latest MMORPG, Aika Online, will enter it’s open beta phase tomorrow, March 16th. The open beta will include all six playable classes, all the level 1-50 content, a full range of PvP options, and a player-run political system. New and returning players will also be able to participate in a regular lineup of PvP events, including the 1000 vs. 1000 battles. There will also be weekly castle sieges where guilds will battle for political dominance. ..read the full article

Things have been a little quiet in EQ2 as of late. Quiet isn’t bad per say, but it’s just different (for me at least). Battlegrounds have been pretty much down since release, a lot more then they’ve been up. I’m sad but not surprised by this. They were down all weekend, and hopefully, maybe, if we all wish really hard, they’ll be up some time soon. I, however, will not be holding my breath.

I managed to reach 30,000 faction with ..read the full article

I was playing Borderlands yesterday, and an enemy dived behind some cover. Naturally, I pull out a missile launcher and squeeze off a rocket. As the smoke clears, something strange happens. The cover is still there, untouched by the explosive death I spat at it. It stands, defiant and unmarked. This is what Battlefield: Bad Company 2 does to you. It ruins everything else. (more…)

Related stories: Demolition Men: More Bad Company 2 MP Eurogamer Battlefield Heroes Review BFBC2: Single Player, Server Rental, Beta Battlefield: ..read the full article

Is Patch 3.3.3 this week?Nop. The latest PvP PTR testing was made on the current build and developers were still looking for a couple of very annoying bugs. If you add it to a few random bugs like people disconnecting from the game as soon as they enter water and a few other things, I would definitely say that we will have to wait at least one more week before we see the patch on live servers.

Patch 3.3.3 Pet - ..read the full article

Today is the day.  Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver launch today.

The web site for HeartGold and SoulSilver has been updated with a lot of new information about the game, along with some hints of things to be revealed later.

We pre-ordered through Amazon.com, which means that a Sunday launch date guarantees that we won’t get the game for at least a day or two after launch.  Nintendo seems to be pretty strict about shipping early, since it looks like Amazon won’t even ..read the full article

I’ve been playing Star Trek Online at a rather relaxed pace so far.  It does seem to be designed to let you drop in for a quick mission or two.  But that does not mean I have not been paying attention to the game.

Still on the press release mailing list, this fell in my inbox today:

Season 1: Common Ground Fact Sheet

Our latest content update, Season 1: Common Ground, is releasing shortly. Here’s just a bit of the updates ..read the full article

Empires have risen, and now they are falling. The fifth part of our battle for Neptune’s Pride sees the final contenders struggling for ultimate victory in a long, drawn-out attrition that would tax their very souls… (PCG’s version of this diary is over here.) (more…)

Related stories: Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 4 Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 3 Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 2 Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 1

Writer: Kieron Gillen. | No comments

Post ..read the full article

And I thought my Sunday was bad..

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Sundays are for being at the Image Booth at Seattle’s Emerald City con talking to anyone who has the misfortune to walk past about splendid comics. Do come and say Hi, if you’re around. Which means that Saturday morning is for compiling a list of fine (mostly) games related reading for your delectation while trying to avoid linking to a pop-son, before heading off for the day. And setting it to post.

US First Glory of the Raider (25) by MidwinterMidwinter (US-Ysera) was the first guild to complete Glory of the Icecrown Raider (25 player) and I totally forgot to report it. Shame on me, and congratulations to them!

Patch 3.3.3 Battlegrounds and Honor ChangesPatch 3.3.3 brings a couple of changes to the Battleground system, the new system is heavily inspired from the current random dungeon system and it should be pretty easy to understand.

Random Battleground and Call to ArmsCall to ..read the full article

Who will rule space? No Sponge, that’s for sure. But who else might take the crown? Could it be Graham’s exploding Empire? Or Jim’s embattled corner of space? Or the vast Empire of Quinns? Place your bets for part four… And maybe go sign up to Neptune’s Pride yourself. (PCG are also running a version of this diary, over yonder.) (more…)

Related stories: Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 3 Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride Diary Part 2 Pride And Falls: Neptune’s Pride ..read the full article

Filmed off a screen at GDC, sadly, but it’s accompanied by game director Dave Jones talking through the various features. He talks about the way the two factions have different abilities and aims, the way characters weapons and cars can be upgraded, how players can become “famous” within the game world, and how the ranking and matchmaking work within the game world. All interesting stuff, although it’s tough to gauge if there will be any long-term appeal in all this. ..read the full article

(( I’ve slacked with posting these lately, but. Here’s another book of the day for people to enjoy. These are all books from my Norrathian Library on the Oasis server. You can visit me in the North Freeport mage tower, bottom floor, under the  name of Ellithia. If you’d like to donate a book to my library you can mail me in game and I’ll send you supplies, I eagerly accept books from other servers as well, I’ll give you ..read the full article

Yes, honour. We will rebrand the games industry with our Old World spellings! Anyway, EA’s cavernous developmental innards have spawned a trailer for Medal Of Honour. It’s one of those trailers were a dude talks huskily about war and how badass his shooty comrades are, while dudes get shot and stuff explodes on screen. There’s talk about sledgehammers and scalpels, but it seems more like you’re going to be using rifles and air-strikes. (more…)

Related stories: EA Exec Down On Consoles The EA ..read the full article