covert.creations

All of these games are released, but I’m waiting for payday to start delving in.

#1 Dragon Age : Origins



From the RPG experts comes Dragon Age : Origins. The excitement I have for this has not waned over the years, in fact the various YouTube developer previews have exceeded my expectations. The combat looks plain fun, together with a rich detail in environments, spell effects and gritty melee action. It’s obviously a heavily story-driven game, so I’m hoping it isn’t too cutscene heavy. This is my next game purchase and I can’t wait to have a go!

#2 Torchlight



Torchlight came out of nowhere, and I’m honestly not sure where I heard about it. For the quick and fun Diablo-style dungeon crawl, this will be a nice ‘casual’ game to break out once in a while, as the content randomization doesn’t suggest I need to remember any story arc or quest objectives. I lament the lack of anything multiplayer, but I did enjoy it’s spiritual predecessor, “Fate”. Just something to tie me over until Diablo 3.

#3 Borderlands



This one got my attention recently. The “RPG and Shooter made a baby” tagline is an idea whose arrival was only a matter of time. The “RP Shooter” aspect is displayed readily, and is easily grasped right away. It’s a shooter, but as you ‘level up’ you’re obviously taking on bigger challenges and pouring out more damage and extra abilities. I like the idea of a small co-op mission-based style of game, ala Left4Dead. And I have to say the trailers are pretty funny.

Oh yes, loved it! Had it’s suckage but all in all…. thumbs up.

… more later!

I would very, very, very much welcome this.

According to RPS, this may be in the works. Per http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/09/26/sony-to-develop-planetside-2/.

As a somewhat seasoned (but inexpert) Planetside player (CR4), Planetside had a great mix of teamplay, massive battles, and a wide variety of individual player choice (specializations, vehicles, objectives). It’s probably one of my favourite games of all time. I moved on when it was clear the game was dying a slow death (empty servers, etc.).

My thinking on PS2:

• A PVE axis that contributed to the overall battle (and your XP). This was planned for, and never implemented in the original. There was a real lack of solo content in PS, and this would have really helped.
• Better base design, thus removing the layout silliness that players would exploit. Also base placement was a huge problem, very odd design decisions were made in that regard.
• Better LFM/LFG system. Enough of the hunting for extra squad members.
• Proximal VOIP system would allow you to shout at nearby players to get them moving. Teamspeak was great if you were already grouped, however the whole server couldn’t be on your TS server.
• If the game has a “Command” specialization that allowed them special privilege to direct the battle, then reward players who following your orders. This would ecourage better organization and get groups moving in the same direction. Having more people on one side of a battle made all the difference.
• Reward the support activities of players who chose to perform roles that don’t involve battle. The ANT drivers and the GAL pilots should be encouraged, not excluded.
• Outfit/Guild Housing is absolutely required. The implementation of Outfits was an aborted design, obviously. There must be clear benefits to joining an Outfit and sticking with it. And then rewarding the successful ones. A game built around teamplay should structure itself around the entire concept of “Team”.

The list goes on, now that I start thinking about it. Planetside was THE GAME that realised the goal of most MMO games. Massive battles, massive coordination, esprit de corps, and most of all, fun! I miss that game.

http://www.killtenrats.com/2009/09/14/fallen-earth-first-taste/

I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.

There are three titles that may appear with great frequency as one meanders the gaming news these days. Each are certainly worth discussing on their own, simply on the merits of having such attention bestowed upon them. However, there is a common thread to be pulled from these stories in particular. These companies, and their gaming products, are faced with tremendous obtacles. The bigger and better they become, the harder it is to grow beyond . In essence, their fight is a fight against themselves. Success can be a cruel instructor. Read on to see what I mean.

(continue reading…)

Experimentalizing…

Here’s to covert.c, turning gameblogging into bloggaming. I came back to my site to find I had let it lapse again, OOPS! So I re-signed for a whole year to make sure it doesn’t happen anymore. At my rate, that means about 2 posts before I have to re-new again.

Anyhow. Thoughts coming. I’m motivated this time! Thanks for (not) reading!

/covert

Very well done, to both Obama and the person that WoW-ified his inauguration!

I’m jumping off the fence for a while on the gameblogging thing, and thought that perhaps rather than just idly thinking my thoughts about Games, I should just post them!

So covertcreations is back and I’m not liking the look of this site anymore. I intend on making a few custodial changes and fixing it up again! Is this a new years resolution? I hope not, or it will never get done! Hah!

My Top Five Memorable Gaming Moments of 2008 :

5. Leading a guild in World of Warcraft.

I had a reasonably strong guild in Warcraft (Bonechewer) only because as a rogue, the chances of being invited to raids was very low. So I decided that starting groups gave me a better chance, and for better or for worse I ended up with a guild out of it. Good times through 2008. Weird times, too. Warcraft is a game of rather broad scope, and the polish makes it enjoyable to play. However, the strong social vector that is present can be a boon and a bust for many things. The role of guild leader that I found myself in taught me a bit of politics and annoyingly, a lot of skill in appeasement. I’ll write more guild anecdotes later, but for now Warcraft was firmly entrenched in my gaming life in 2008…

4. Casual games on Facebook.

I went from Srabulous to Scramble to Word Twist and Word Challenge. Ultimately, the best game was ‘Who has the biggest brain”. Unfortunately for me, I plateaued at a certain stage with no hope of ever beating some of my esteemed facebook friends, as one is a certified genius from high school that routinely memorized entire encyclopedias and solved rubik’s cubes in under 20 seconds. AD&D made a brief appearance on FB this year as well. It was an aborted turn-based questing game that was somewhat entertaining, if not a little flawed. What one COULD do on Facebook with D&D gets my gears turning. More on that later!

3. RSA lose the token deal to VASCO on the Blizzard Authenticators.

Ouch. I was hoping this was a big chance for RSA to get into gaming security. Alas, to no avail. We are just too expensive for Blizzard. Vasco won it, and now you can do 2-factor authentication into Warcraft. And as I said a long time ago – this is GOOD security!

2. Not being able to log into WARHAMMER after changing my password!

WAR was interesting and entertaining. But I was really pissed that after changing my password that I could no longer log in. After hiatus, I’m sure I will return. However my friends in the game seem to be already trickling back to WoW. I’d like to see some good Planetside-style MMO action in WAR, but I don’t have my hopes up. And I’m only level 7 or something… who has time for all this stuff?

AND

1. Counterstrike!

So with my new leet gaming rig, I decided to log CS:S for a night. And I haven’t stopped! It’s crazy and intolerable just like it ever was, however it’s still a boatload of fun that I can’t seem to give up. Really, I wonder.. how OLD is this game??

So there you have it. My top 5 list for the year and the first content post in at least 2!

Happy New Year!
/covert

So long without a peep in this blog, so I intend that will be rectified soon. Very soon, in fact!

As real life intervenes in one form or another, the blogging world seems to shrink in relative importance. I suppose that’s a common ailment.

But having left my limited readership bereft of any content of any significance in a very long time, I’ll just say, “if you’re reading this sorry about that!”. I’m going to start updating with some amount of regularity again.

Yours in blogging (again)
Craig