Were you there at midnight for the N-Gage “Midnight Madness” event, or perhaps the slightly less prestigious but still very exciting “Dawn Madness” event? The guys we’ve talked at the stores around here have only pre-sold two or three of them, total, it’s starting to look like the only “madness” lies in Nokia persisting in their game phone adventure.
A truly wild confluence of events conspired to make me play Final Fantasy XI practically all day yesterday. I’m not exactly sure why. Gabe had asked for another access code yesterday, in the hopes that someone on the beta had played their fill already - rest assured that I was able to put one of those codes to work. So after playing it all day, I dreamed about it all night, swords and spells, Kara backing us up with healing magic and then hitting a goblin square in the jaw with a bronze ankh. My on again, off again love affair with the Massive genre has been well chronicled on this site, Asheron’s Call, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, played my share of Ragnarok Online, Shattered Galaxy, another Asheron’s Call, I even played Eve Online and never told anyone - I’m fascinated by the genre’s social possibilities primarily, if not always the underlying game mechanics.
The social possibilities are usually what gets me out of the games, as well. The arc of my involvement with a game usually goes like this.
1) Get a new online game, play it a lot and meet some interesting people.
2) See some those people online a couple times and really enjoy myself. “This is great!” I exclaim.
3) Something happens in real life that keeps me from logging in for a while. This might be anything from a desperate assault on my home by black tailed tree rats to touring blues festivals under a pseudonym.
4) Because of my shame at missing Clan events or what have you, I never log on again.
I mean it. This process has iterated on three separate games. Now, this last part I could probably work on. I’m fairly assertive in these newsposts and almost nowhere else, so owning up to why I was not at the raid is difficult for me but it’s something I could get better at, probably with the help of lies. But It’s actually Gabe that got me into FFXI, I know him, and I’m used to disappointing him. I shrug, and he scowls - that’s as hard as it ever gets.
I’ve played so many of these games that, really, they all sort of run together. So as to how it compares to other games of this type, I mean, you won’t be too shocked - at least, not at the lower levels where I am. You choose the classic Jobs that are synonymous with Final Fantasy, mages of different colors, warriors, monks, and different levels of ability in these basic classes allow access to advanced classes, like the deadly ninja. You’ll cast spells with names that you have probably heard of, and eradicate adorable rabbits that bear you no ill will, even in death. Really, all of this is just a template that rests atop the basic assumptions this genre has - do things over and over again, until you are strong enough to do them over and over again on a more powerful foe with more powerful abilities. I’m not saying that’s good or bad, I’m just putting it out there. The thing that will keep you in this game or any other game of its ilk is the social group that binds you to it. Either that, or OCD.
(CW)TB out.
the bridges burst and twist around
The Playstation 2 version and the PC version connect to the same servers, which is pretty cool. Playing on the PC, Gabe asked someone for help on how to heal himself - and the felpful traveller told him to press the square button. After a fruitless search for this key he realized what had actually occurred.
The other thing: I often see disparaging remarks about the game as relates to the graphics, and I would counter that by establishing how selective that critique actually is. Cities, I’d agree with them to a certain extent. They don’t look as good as city might in the sequel to Asheron’s Call. On the other hand, the game plays well enough to enjoy it on a Gigahertz machine, something I would challenge you to do in AC2. In San d’Oria, the town we’re haning out in, it has side streets that have a lot of architectural character, and large open areas that are sort of bland - but the player characters themselves, as well as monsters, are works of art. I’d put FFXI’s angry fungi, orcs and goblins up detail wise against any game you’d care to name. The animation, also, is top-drawer. Combats feel substantial because the all participants are represented in dramatic ways with smooth, purposeful animations.
The user interface that gets you into everything, PlayOnline, is interesting to look at but suffers from the same things you see in any console to PC port - things are never scaled right for our resolutions and you see a lot of pixels. I’m not sure why they didn’t just re-render some of this stuff, but if I’m only going to see that crap on my way into the game I can probably deal with it.
(CW)TB
They aren’t advertising with us anymore, but the Rubies guys gave me some kind of a code that is like a coupon for their game. Apparently, entering the referral code “FIVEFINGER” will guve you the first month for five dollars, that’s after the ten day trial. So if you were thinking “I’d try that, but only if the first month were five dollars,” boy do I have an offer for you.
(CW)TB
Mainly for Gabe, but here’s an article and a bunch of screens GamesDomain put up from the new Links. Won’t be long now, it drops in about a month.
(CW)TB
The Cardboard Showdown website has been update with some pictures of their upcoming Penny Arcade MOD. I gotta say these guys are doing an amazing job. This month’s update shows off some of the character models and they totally blew me away. I told Tycho, this is exactly how I picture the PA universe in 3D. It’s like these sons of bitches are in my head or something because everything they’re doing is exactly how I would want to see it done. I can’t wait for this bad boy to get released.
I was over at EB the other day with Kara. We were hunting for a copy of FF:VIII since we are nearing the end of IX now. Anyway, when I went to the counter to purchase it the guy tried to get me to pre-order Double Dash. Now Mario Kart is a game I am actually pretty excited for so I considered it for a second. “What’s in it for me?” I asked him. I mean at this point if you want me to pre-order something I better get some kind of special wanga-ma-jig or something. So he tells me that the pre-order bonus is a demo disk with Five playable demos: Mario Party 5, F-Zero GX, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars Rogue Squadron III, and Sonic Heroes. Not only that but I wouldn’t get it until the game actually comes out.
Now I love me some Nintendo. I think they are just great, but that sucks. I mean if we were talking about any other system I would get that demo disk for free with a magazine. What they should have done is something similar to what they did with Legend of Zelda:WW. That game ended up being one of the most pre-ordered games ever and it’s because they gave you the N64 version for free with some juiced up features. Well Mario Kart is another perfect opportunity to get some extra mileage out of another N64 title. Blow off the dust, slap it on a GC disk, make it so that if you have a GBA hooked up your copy of Pokemon chartreuse will explode leaving in its ashes a tiny magical unicorn that you can raise as your very own and then call the whole package a collectors edition. I’m telling you the pre-orders would come pouring in.
Speaking of the Gamecube, Tycho and I played the battle mode in Billy Hatcher the other day and Goddamnit that was a blast! It could have been the fact that I totally fucking dominated him with my army of hatched creatures or that I constantly crushed his eggs just before he was able to hatch them. As my hatching of new and exotic creatures became more and more prevalent, I took to ushering in their births in a fairly dramatic way. As my egg would hatch I’d stand up on the couch and with my finger pointed at the screen I’d scream “FUCK YEAH!” as each new animal burst out of its egg.
Oh and my mail is still broken. If you need to get a hold of me you can still reach me with this address. If you work at or run a theatre in the Seattle area, east side or west side and you can help us out with a special PA screening of House of the Dead could you drop me a line? Also I will be in Spokane this weekend visiting the fam. If people are interested I could drop by one of the comic book shops in town and do some sketches or whatever. Let me know if you are in Spokane or would drive to Spokane and that sounds cool. If there is enough demand I’ll set it up with one of the shops.
-Gabe out
Half Life fans rejoice, Kiko has seen fit to bless us with a new design. Head on over to Gameskins to get your hands on his latest masterpiece.
-Gabe out
Okay it looks like we’ll go ahead and have a little PA meet and greet in Spokane this weekend. I’ll stop by Merlyn’s comics and games at 19 West Main Street on Saturday at 1:00 pm. I’ll hang out as long as there are people there who want sketches or stuff signed. So if you live in the area come on down to Merlyn’s this weekend and bring all your friends. I couldn’t get a hold of my buddy who runs the joint but I’m sure he will be okay with it. I’ll try and bring some cool Penny Arcade stuff to give away if I can.
-Gabe out
I tracked down their website here - when I left Spokane, it was about the only place you could really get dork stuff anymore.
(CW)TB
