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Are you enjoying the lack of level 50 characters in your warzones? Or do you miss the challenge of taking on a vastly superior opposing force?

http://www.mmocrunch.com/2012/01/27/get-your-filthy-50s-out-of-my-warzone/

First in my minecraft series…

Ahhh the gaming drought is over! I love this time of year, even if  my bank balance does not.

1. Driver: San Francisco (Xbox 360)
2. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Xbox 360)
3. Minecraft (PC)
4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360)

Driver took the number one spot this month despite heavy competition from Deus Ex. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Driver is really good! A lot better than I was expecting, and quite possibly some of the most fun I’ve had with a driving game.

Not far off completing Deus Ex now, just need a chunk of time spare so I can sit down and crack on with it. Not the type of game I can play in 20 minute chunks really. Is it as good as the original? Well, no.. but it’s still a great game and certainly more enjoyable (to me) than Mass Effect or most of this generations RPG offerings.

The new Minecraft 1.8 patch added a lot of reason for me to pick it up again. Lot’s of changes and reasons to explore and fight things again. Game had kind of got boring once I set up the Wheel of Pain mob grinder and had no need to ever leave my ice lake, now I’ve started a new world, minus the mob grinder, and gone back to basics.

Creative mode was probably the best update with 1.8 though. I started out using it to test out some redstone ideas and before I knew it I was working on an adventure/puzzle map! I think I put more time in on creative now than I do on survival. Maybe because I feel like I already beat survival, many times on many worlds. Creative actually gives me a point to all the building beyond killing time.

As you know, Bad Company 2 is a frequent guest of the “Playing this month…” section so not a lot to say on that front. Although… I will say, I’ve seen more cheap tactics over the last three nights than I’ve seen in months! Crate bashing, 8 man strong medic trains, 8 man strong USAS recon groups, circle jerking, tank sniping, even C4 on the bloody UAV has been going on. From level 50 players too? I know you’re probably bored of the game at this point, but really? No need for the cheap tactics..

Just read there will be an RTS game based on Game of Thrones (or, A Song of Ice and Fire, depending on your preference) released at the end of this month.

Should be interesting to see how the game plays out. The press release mentions commanding assassins, setting up secret alliances, and sending spies to cause havoc, so it sounds in keeping with the backstabbing nature of politics in Westeros, although pretty much standard features for most RTS games.

More to follow after I play it…

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I just read they are basically getting rid of threat mechanics by buffing tanks threat output through the roof!!

Learning optimal rotations just became pointless, as did learning any tanking tricks outside of your classes skill bar, as did several threat reduction abilities, as did any need to play DPS tactically – just keep on spamming those buttons and posting recount stats!

In Kara, one of the things I enjoyed the MOST about tanking was the constant fight against the rising DPS and aggro of the damage players. Half the game to me was more about fighting players DPS gains than tanking mobs. Once you know an instance and patrols/boss fights, the challenge is purely in holding threat from other players.

…and now that’s gone.

All that is left is to soak up boss hits and position the boss when something on the floor is on fire. Big fecking whoop! If I hadn’t already quit, I’d be clicking my way to the cancel subscription page and copy/pasting this rant into the reasons box!

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Still pretty slow on the gaming front… even more so with the PS3 drive dying.

1. From Dust (Xbox360)
2. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
3. Minecraft (PC)
4. Jedi Academy (PC)

Minecraft and Jedi made it back into the rotation again as they usually do when other sources of games dry up. Finally completed Donkey Kong, can’t recommend that game enough. Even though I’m an established “disappointed with the Wii” kinda guy.

From Dust is a nice throwback to the days of my Populous past. I loved that game back in the day and have been following From Dust for a while now. Was going to pick it up on PSN or PC but as the Xbox got an early release I grabbed it there instead. Very, very fun game. Will try and get a review up asap.

For the first time I’d like to open “Playing this month…” up to the readers for once. Any suggestions for games to play this month? Any platform, any genre… within reason.

Leave a comment or shoot me an email with your game suggestions.

You know we don’t like DRM. You especially know we don’t like the “constant internet connection required  for OFFLINE play” DRM.

If you claim to be surprised at customer reaction I’m calling BS. If you are serious, I’d strongly suggest poking your head out of your office for one second and, oh I don’t know.. paying attention to customer reaction to EVERY game that has been released with internet connection DRM. How you can be a VP of a gaming company and claim to be surprised at this is beyond me, it really is.

Personally I couldn’t give a damn as I’m always connected to the net. That doesn’t mean I can’t see the problem. I have plenty of friends who have no need for a PC internet connection. They get what little they use of the internet from mobile devices and avoid paying an additional line rental here in the UK for a land line.

All these people are now barred from playing. In an attempt to combat piracy, you lock legit paying players out of your game and chances are they wont be back to buy anything else you try and sell them. In addition, all these DRM games get cracked eventually anyway so pirates get to play without DRM but paying customers have to jump through a few hoops to play the game they legally bought.

At this point you are better off either buying legit, then downloading a cracked copy to play (but unfortunately this sends a pro-DRM msg – More pirates = More need for piracy protection), or simply voting with your wallet and not buying/supporting these DRM games.

Tycho calls it what it is and I agree with him…

Who is being cheated? This is the part of the movie where, in a series of retrospective realizations cut with you looking at your own face in the rearview mirror, you come bit by bit to the heart of it. The person you are cheating is Blizzard, Blizzard in the aggregate, with your attempts to interfere with their digital marketplace. You mustn’t play offline or goof around with your files or any other naughty business because they are endeavoring to transform your putative ownership into a revenue stream.

There, now don’t you feel better?

Two Playstation1 consoles.

Five Playstation2 consoles.

Three Xbox360 consoles.

What do all these have in common?

If you guessed they all stopped working within 12 months of purchase you’d be 100% right! As of last night I can now officially add my PS3 to that list too. Roughly six months after purchase and it no longer reads disks.

I never thought it would come to this but I’m seriously considering saying my final goodbyes to console gaming.

I put PC gaming on ice in the late 90′s rationalising that constant hardware upgrades would wind up more expensive over time than converting to consoles. Over the years I’ve been proven wrong on that count not once, not twice, not even three times…  eleven console failures now. Fair enough one was in warranty when it went down, and luckily the PS3 is still under warranty, but that’s still 9 consoles I’ve either had to pay out-of-warranty repair costs, or purchase a new console, or rip one to pieces and self repair it when possible.

I keep all my consoles free of dust and well ventilated at all times. I don’t move them around, they don’t get dropped, bashed, and they are not in direct sunlight. They are as well cared for as they could be without me sealing them in an airtight container and never turning them on.

Console hardware has been a joke for decades now. Even cartridge based consoles required you to blow into the slots numerous times to get stuff working at times.

To say I’m narked off with console gaming at the moment is somewhat of an understatement.

Hectic month for gaming. Been hammering the Socom 4 beta, Minecraft again, plus a few PS3 titles I picked up preowned.

1. Socom 4 – Has issues but still a lot of fun!
2. Minecraft – Just playing with the update. I now have wolves!
3. Burnout Paradise – Was not keen on this at release for various reasons. Have put a little more time in and I’m enjoying it a lot. Still has some annoying things though. More to follow.
4. Metal Gear Solid 4 – Completed all the others. Thought it about time I conquered this one too. Lots of upgrades, still the same old game.

I had to laugh when a cut scene reminded me no less than about 8 times that the guy I was speaking to sold guns, and I could buy guns from him, because that’s what he sold. Guns. If I ever wanted any guns, I could go see him.. because he buys and sells guns.

“Say, did I ever tell you I sell guns?”

“YES! I get it already… I got it 20 fecking minutes ago when you first said it!”

Then of course Otacon has to tell me twice more over the radio that the dude I was just talking too sold guns. Just in case I missed it being repeated in every other sentence.

Don’t get me wrong, I dig MGS. I just have to laugh at some of the dialogue and cut scenes. For example… given that Solid Snake is a hardened battle operative who has seen his fair share of action, does anyone really believe he wouldn’t know about terms such as “war price”? Or general war economics?

I understand you may need to inform the player what it is… but the way it is presented makes Solid Snake look like some rookie who has no idea about anything. It’s like this throughout all the games too. In trying to keep the player up to speed, it makes the main character look like an idiot.