Was just scrolling through my RSS feeds and saw that Brinstar has taken a job as a Community Manager for Guild Wars! Congratulations Brinstar! In celebration I will stop what I’m doing and play Guild Wars for a little while.

*edit* Not sure if it was me or this new version of WordPress but, the original post somehow ended up as a “page” and not a “post” so - I’m fixing that now…

Currently Playing

I’m starting to get a bit overwhelmed, trying to find time to check out all the games I want to play. Currently, I’ve got a few titles sitting on my plate that I’m going to focus on - not counting Guild Wars, which I may have to give up sleep for.

The Orange Box (Xbox 360)

It’s been a little while since it’s release but, I finally made it over to Target to grab a copy for the Xbox 360. Over the past week I put in around ten hours and beat my way through Half-Life 2 again. As expected I still love the game. My only gripe about is about the damn load times - I wish Valve had done something about that. It’s that way in all Source engine games, even Portal - which has a excellent area to mask loading during the elevator ride between levels - comes to a screeching halt. Maybe when Half-Life 2 Episode 3 comes out in a few years they will finally have taken care of it. The Orange Box is my absolute favorite game/package of the year.

Orcs & Elves (Nintendo DS)

Although it arrived on Tuesday, I did not have a chance to try it out until yesterday morning. Even then I was only able to put in about ten minutes before I had to put the DS down. It was just enough time for me to realize that this game is going to be awesome - an old-school-style turn-based 3D action-RPG hack-n-slash adventure is just what my DS has been waiting for! I was able to cram in another hour or so of play time before going to sleep last night. During that time I was able to clean out a couple of levels worth of monsters with my trusty talking magic wand. Orcs & Elves puts you in a 3D grid based dungeon where you move square by square hacking your way through enemies in an effort to save dwarves from some orcs and elves. Hopefully, during my Thanksgiving downtime I’ll be about to put in the seven or so more hours needed to complete it.

Fireteam Reloaded (PC)

Way back in 97 or 98, I was involved with a beta test for an awesome on-line only multi-player game called Fireteam. After the beta ended however, I lost touch with everyone I played with because I didn’t have the time, money or a stable enough internet connection to continue playing. I’m pretty sure it’s the first on-line arena style combat game I ever played. Fireteam did receive generally favorable reviews, if I remember correctly but, being sold on-line only at $59.95 limited it’s impact. About a month ago I received a press release for an upcoming game known as Fireteam Reloaded - and much to my joy it turned out to be a re-hash of the classic. It even has a couple of developers from the original game. The game is just entering closed beta - which you all should join - and since I haven’t read the NDA very closely that’s about all I’ll say for now…

Exteel (PC)

I remember hearing about this game a while back and then promptly forgetting about it. Well, yesterday while mucking about on the NCsoft web site I ended up over at the Exteel official site and noticed that the open beta had just started.

Exteel is in no way an MMO - it’s basically a third person giant robot arena combat game. Once the beta ends Exteel will join the ranks of free to play, pay for some item on-line games. So far it seems pretty fun, I’ve only played three deathmatch rounds so far but, I’m hoping to squeeze more in. This might be one to watch.

Upcoming - once I finish (or get bored) with something else

Assassins Creed (Xbox 360)
Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360)
Guild Wars: Nightfall (PC)
Guild Wars: Eye of the North (PC)

Earlier today Kris and I were discussing the upcoming Christmas season when she asked me what I wanted. My reply was along the lines of “A stack of games please!”. So, along those lines I was just browsing around the Internet and I ended up on the Guild Wars web site and saw that there is a new holiday promotion! It seems that with a purchase of Eye of the North you can get a second campaign 50% off! Which is right up my alley since I need Eye of the North and Nightfall. The offer is good from now until December 31 so, if you haven’t picked up GW:EN and one of the other campaigns now may be the time.

Now, all I have to do is get over my need for the physical boxed copy… I suppose paying the same price as a brick and mortar store can be over looked in this time since there are no subscription fees and there is the whole 50% off thing.

After spending some time last night in the wilds of Kryta working on finishing up the open quests I had in the area. I decided that I would stop at Lion’s Arch and board a ship bound for Cantha. It turned out to be a great decision! The handful of quests that I had been working on finishing up carried a reward of 500xp - while the ones in and around Kaineng Center dish out a monstrous 3000xp. Needless to say, within about an hour I quickly went from 14% into level 17 up to the level cap of 20. Now, it’s all about earning experience which will earn more skill points. Anyway, after hitting the level cap I traveled back over to Kryta so I could continue working my way through the Prophecies campaign.

I have so much stuff left to do in the game it’s not funny. I have 17 co-op missions and who knows how many quests left to complete before I move away from Prophecies and on to Factions. I’m thinking now that I’m going to tackle them in the order they were released - and hopefully finish up everything with my main character sometime before Guild Wars 2 comes out. I’m going to try and tackle at least a couple of the co-op missions over the weekend - also I’ve got to pick up the bonus objective in the D’Alessio Seaboard mission.

“The Mad King is coming!” At least that’s what I was told when I first reached Lion’s Arch yesterday afternoon. I realized earlier in the day that my entire moving fiasco had seriously cut into the time I was trying to spend continuing my way through Guild Wars. I knew from past Halloween events the King would be making his way to Lion’s Arch so, I checked the map to see where I was in relation. Thankfully, I was not too far away and figured I should make the trek from the Gates of Kryta since they are right next to each other. I haven’t had the time to sit and play the last week or so but I figured an hour or two wouldn’t hurt. So, after trekking over I checked out the town and the ghosts - which was all I had time for before logging off.

This morning I arrived in Lion’s Arch just before noon and proceed to wait around with a large number of people for the king to arrive. Having people call out the minutes to arrival made the wait seem to take forever. After what seemed like forever, he finally turned up and the ‘party’ began. There was much rejoicing. After receiving 25 or so Trick or Treat bags for taking part in the festivities the Mad King gave everyone a nice new mask.
It’s too bad I don’t have a Nightfall account then I could head over to Kamadan and see if there is an alternate mask. Oh well. Actually, on a side note I noticed today that Shindakun Koji had received his second birthday present. Which wasn’t there yesterday so I guess the 31st is his ‘birthday’. I’ll have to check /age next time I log on - which might be just before 3 PM.

Yay! Just got home and my e-mail box had a present for me - in the form of a beta invite for Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa! So, I’ll be dedicating all of my bandwidth to downloading the client - along with 9,999 other people. I’ll have to go back and see if there was an NDA or something - I don’t recall signing one but… I better check before I post something I shouldn’t.

NCSoft and ArenaNet will be having a preview event for the upcoming Guild Wars: Nightfall! Starting on September 22 at 07:01pm GMT players will have till the 25th at 6:59am GMT to try the game free of charge! Players will be able to create characters Nightfall-specific characters from the six core professions as well as the two new professions, the Dervish and the Paragon, and to try out new Nightfall skills.

Sounds good to me!  Now, I just have to make sure I don't miss it like I did the last preview event. 

Massive Inc., creator of the world’s leading video game network and wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp., today announced that it has launched interactive in-video-game ads, allowing advertisers to engage gamers in new and entertaining ways. The first advertiser to utilize the new interactive ad unit is Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., with a campaign for its new 2007 Yaris sedan in “Anarchy Online,” a top multiplayer online game published by Funcom.

View Press Release

I've never played Anarchy Online but, from looking at some screen shots I'm not sure what the connection between the MMO and Toyota is. I'm sure the ad wizards from Massive have some iron clad "link" between science fiction role playing and the Yaris. There is a 7 day trial so maybe I'll check it out to see just how bad the advertising is. According to the press release the ad campaign is running in several games however, it doesn't state which ones.

Via HardOCP

I just recieved word that the Cartoon Network is planning it's very own MMO.

From the e-mail:

Cartoon Network announced today that it is developing its first massively multi-player online game (MMOG) in an unprecedented partnership with a leading MMOG developer, Seoul-based Grigon Entertainment. Cartoon Network New Media, already a leader in online entertainment and gaming, will debut the game in the United States. This is the first-ever partnership between a U.S. entertainment company and a Korean developer to create an MMOG for the global marketplace.

I don't think we will see Sealab or Auqateens in the game but, characters from the shows Mac and Bloo, Ben 10 and the Kids Next Door are included in the game. According to the e-mail players will also be able to develop their own characters.

*update*

Fixed a small typo. Someone visited (multiple times) the site from turner.com. I hope they buy my site. lol Or maybe give me the scoop on the game.

The word is out!

NCSoft Press Release:

The Guild Wars Nightfall PvP Preview event will kick off on Friday, July 28 at 08:00 BST / 09:00 CET and will continue through Monday, July 31 to 07:59 BST / 08:59 CET.

It's nice to see Guild Wars doing so well and that the additional content NCSoft promised is becoming a reality. It makes me feel kind of bad though, since I still haven't picked up a copy of Factions. As with Factions, during the PvP preview players will be able to try out the two new professions: the Dervish, a scythe-wielding holy warrior, and the Paragon, guardian angel of the Elonian people.