The log of the gamer

The idea of web-based MMO is really old. All you need is to set up a site with database, store all user’s actions inside and probably do some interaction. Easy, huh? No wonder that people keep playing those for last 10 years or so.

For me first of those was Outwar back in 2003 - I played for about half a year, which was long time considering how simple (and stupid) the game. You had to post your link around the net and wait for someone to click in order to gain strength.
Then came Hattrick in which I spent about three years. Hattrick wasn’t so occupying - you could log on twice a week for 10 minutes to set up your team, pick up new player and probably arrange sparring in the middle of the week. At first, the game was funny - yet another football manager, but different, with lots of people around. Then the economy changed and I simply dropped - no fun anymore.

In the meantime there were few others - Travian (civilization-alike), The Crims or Monstersgame, to which I devoted maybe a month each.

Most time I spent at oGame, of course. I built two empires, one at universe 3 of ogame.org and second at universe 37 of ogame.pl. I had a friend who kept sitting with me all days and nights doing crazy actions. This stuff was really addictive, no kidding. Every time I see ogame now, I turn around, I don’t want to make the same mistakes anymore. Lost two years for it I guess.

Now I don’t want to indulge myself in such pleasures. I do have one account in erepublik (login phobosq, of course), but (at least that’s what I say to myself) it’s really innocent.

Be warned. Web MMO’s can take your life away if you’re not careful. That’s why I want to create one. if you come up with any ideas, contact me - maybe we’ll figure something out.

In the previous post I have mentioned installing Prince of Persia, so now it’s time to go deeper into the story.

The game installed OK but then I had trouble finetuning video details. In the end, I chose 1024×768 medium details. The game looks okay, but I’m not the fan of hand-drawn characters. Besides, the difference between medium and high details is enormous - I switched to high for a moment and even if it was unplayable (low framerate) it really looks much better. Time for new VGA, I guess (should have known it while trying out World in Coflict lol).

About gameplay itself - it’s real arcade, which hasn’t changed much since Sands of Time six years ago. You have to run, jump, do some fighting, climb the walls etc… You can’t die - your partner in journey, Elika, has got some magical protection over you, so every time you fall from a distance or are about to die in combat, she saves you from trouble - you’re back in the moment before death would occur. This can be annoying during fights, but who cares?

I’ve played about an hour - passed the tutorial, completed the introduction in the temple and saw how the map works. While I have some more time, I’ll probably proceed further. For now - it’s worth the try. 7 out of 10, I guess.

I guess it was early December when I got Red Alert 3 and promised to have some fun with it. Well, it had to wait for a long time, my fault, but finally I’ve done it.

I’ve got a terrible cold, so I’m at home now, have some time off (work is exhausting, believe it or not - I don’t have time for playing then) so I’m having a bit of fun. I started Prince of Persia (later about it) and Red Alert 3.

I was wondering why some sites keep calling RA3 “sexiest strategy ever” until I launched it. I started, of course, with Soviet campaign and was really amazed by debriefing chick… the game sucks, I thought, that’s why the EA decided to make it interesting this way. Then it gets better, when you start Allied campaign, the chick’s even hotter. Unfortunately, the Japanese isn’t showing off at all.

The gameplay is fairly standard, so if you’ve ever played any C&C-like RTS, you’ll be familiar with it very quick. I think the only new stuff is extra bonus weapon, which is unlockable based on your achievement during mission. Soviets have magnetic satellite and a kind of orbital drop, I don’t know about the others - haven’t played that far.

By the way, the game has rather big requirements - I could play only 1024×768 with medium detail. The visual experience is rather poor then, so I guess that 8800GT or HD3850 is reasonable minimum for the game. If you wanna play in HD-resolution you’ll probably need HD4870 or something similar. Hope that Starcraft 2 doesn’t follow this trend.

Final judgement - nothing new, big requirements, poor graphics. I would recommend it only to C&C series fan. The score would be about 6 out of 10.

Just a quick post - I’m not going further into Fallout 3 as I have started over with King’s Bounty. New character class will be Mage - I’m level 3 now with difficulty level Hard (Normal ’s OK for beginning). More to come, as always.

After more than three months of struggle, I’ve complete my journey through Capital Wasteland. The time spent with Fallout 3 was so fun, that I decided to start over just to check what other possibilities are. I will report my progress from second approach, of course.

Speaking of game itself, it’s quite of a gem. At first, I was wondering a bit whether Bethesda ruins Fallout experience (I am die-hard fan of first two Fallouts) - there were lots of response on blogs and forums that F3 is nothing but Oblivion with guns. Yes and no. Indeed, you can sense Oblivion’s spirit, but the engine is tuned to post-nuclear reality just fine. Oblivion was astonishing with it’s candy-ethereal graphics, grass, leaves etc, but in F3 almost everything is dusty, wasted or rotting. This gives amazing sense while walking through ruins of something, what once used to be a great city, but now there are only winds of death blowing slowly.The leveling is dealt with also OK, but could be better.
The developers, sadly, didn’t avoid few bugs.

First of all, the enemies are morons, so to speak. They run purposeless all around, trip on mines, set off their own traps or just run all over the place. The game in 2008 should incoroporate a bit more sophisticated AI than just “run and shoot”, IMHO. Moreover, the enemies sometimes get some weird “speed” - Mutants or Raiders run several times faster than usual.

Second, it occured to me a few times to get stuck between bushes or trees. No further comments required.

Third, I stumbled upon some creatures in places they were not supposed to be at. There is an example of floating Centaur I made some time ago (there were more of those):

At the end, it took me about 68 hours of playing, so it is a lot. I haven’t explored a lot and, to be fair, have cheated with level cap - at the end I was level 22. I join those who say that the players gains XP too quick - that’s the fact. At least set the cap higher - around level 30 or 40.

Overall score - 8,5 out of 10.

I have some time off since I hurt my foot last weekend, so I spent a bit more gaming. This let me finish King’s Bounty at last after about two months of struggle. I liked it very much, though.

Final score was 786, which places me on the third spot. I doubt that it’s possible to achieve much more on Normal skill, because of final score calculation formula. I was level 29 Paladin at the end.

Now the only thing left is to wait for expansion - Armored Princess. The story revealed so far is somewhat simple, but what the heck, if it’s still as playable as the basic version. I hope for more army slots available - had more than a million of gold that couldn’t be spent.

Fallout 3 is a world of its own, as in two previous parts. Bethesda did a really good job and created fantastic mood for the revisited nuclear Wasteland. Although it was feared that porting Fallout to Oblivion-like engine will screw things up, I think they stood up the pressure.

The only thing I can complain is instability of program itself, which results in rather frequent crashing to desktop. The situation got better after my upgrade earlier this month, but still it’s not perfect - I did not play the game without being interrupted for longer than two hours. I wonder if upgrading to 2 gigs will finally solve the problem.

I am currently at level 14 in Rivet City just going after father - the optional quests are literally optional as you can easily reach maximum level going the path told by main storyline. However, it’s so much fun that I can’t give up on them so fast.

Well, made a little fun with King’ Bounty over last weeks. As I mentioned in previous post, I chose Paladin and pressed forward.

Right now, I’m level 19 half way to 20. The game is really addictive, so much that I sometimes want to go to bed, but there is still a quest to complete or enemy to beat. Let me write something about the game itself.

The area in game is simply enormous. First there is human kingdom, which consists of four locations (Greenwort, Arlania, Verlon Forest and Marshan Swamps) and two islands (Eastern and Western Island of Freedom). Then you have land of dwarves with also six locations (Creiston Mines, Upper Hadar, Lower Hadar, Taron Mines, Ardan’s Peaks and Mehgard). And then there is elven kingdom, which I haven’t explored fully, so far I know I’ve been to three locations (can’t remember the names right now).

The difficulty increases slowly but steadily, and there are also massive jumps while entering new continent. The troops you have, which own in human lands, like you Sea Dogs/Archmages/Guardsmen combo, suddenly become weak as you approach the dwarves. Similarly, when you meet the elves with Dwarves/Cyclops/Giants/Canoneers it gets really tough. But once you pass the initial step (first few fights with new enemies) it gets really smooth and easy.

There are two method of cast spells - regular magic and Chest of Rage. While magic works just the same way as in every other game, the Chest of Rage contains four creatures capable of inflicting damage upon enemies. Those creatures are heroes themselves - they have their unique abilities (each Spirit of Rage has four spells), which can be developed as the Spirits gain experience and advance levels. It makes the tactical phase really interesting.

The items are also performing rather originally - first of all, some of them are living - they have their own Morale, which, when drops to zero, makes them go out of control and in order to restore control, the player must fight the item. The upgrade of items is done the same way - if you want to upgrade the item, you have to fight its’ Keepers.

You can also have a family - have a wife, who carries your items, thus making possible to take advantage of more bonuses and finally you can have children, which also benefit to you (+4 to spell book capacity or +10% experience growth). Of course, family is not constant (as in real life hehehe) and you can divorce - your wife leaves, takes children, items, and one fifth of gold. Cruel.

There will be more to come, as I am inclined to complete the game. Maybe it will take another month

I found just a little bit of time to sit in front of computer. It’s been a damn long time since I’ve posted for the last time.

In fact, I really had a little time to do something - Christmas, New Year, new duties at work, graduation, but what the heck? That’s things happened and now I will have some more time for myself to what I really like.

As a proof let me just tell I'’m pushing forward in both Fallout 3 and King’s Bounty, so maybe I’ll try to write about it some other time. Now my eyes are set on Starcraft 2 - as you can see on starcraftwire.net the beta keys give-away has begun. I’d like to play SC2 as soon as possible - it’s settled deep in my mind since 19th May 2007 that I have to upgrade to have full pleasure of playing it. As always, time will tell.

It’s been six days since last post. I had a little work to do around, but most of all King’s Bounty got me into it.

I made it to level 5 with my Paladin and it took me some long hours of fighting Thorns, Dragonflies and Bowmen. The game is simply amazing - someone took a long time to take what’s best from Heroes of Might and Magic and then extend the gameplay, so you can spend limitless hours playing. In addition to what I’ve written recently, let me mention one thing - the music is great. I have it on for some five days, and I like it even more than first time I’ve heard it. It’s not going to go away that easy, I guess