covert.creations

http://google.com/profiles/kafka47/

Sometimes, I want to blast out content easily. Actually, let me qualify that. Using the word content for what I post in Twitter or (now) Google’s Buzz is very much using the word loosely.
At any rate, I just want to blast out ’stuff’ easily. Thoughts. Ideas. Sightings. Photos. Links. Rants. I think you get what I’m saying. I hope you get what I’m saying. When I joined Twitter in 2007, I thought that would be “the place” to do it. After a few years, I have found Twitter to be mind-numbingly AWFUL to use. 140-character limit? Photos in a separate place? Links shortened? Shitty clients as a gadget in the corner of my Gmail?

Now that Twitter has done the impossible and carved out a niche among even the most non-nerd of nerds out there, you’d think there’d be some improvements over what it was (in 2007). And as more and more tweets are beamed out, I have found the volume, the searchability, and the readership make it almost unusable. With the character-limit, many of the tweets I follow are abbreviated into something akin to a smear of text and letters from a ritalin-injected highschooler on their iphone. Do you understand this pain?

Google buzz. It’s clean. It’s easy. It’s integrated. And I could post this in Gbuzz if I wanted to. Twitter would look like… “#Googlebuzz i luv gbz bc it iz clean n coo oh n #twitter sucks 4 me”

Have a look. Trine is reminiscent of the platformers I played in the C64 era, but with zany light effects and physics! On Steam for $5!

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!