Okay, well, I’m not a king, but I did get to return to gaming last night.  The issue was that I left my check card in the ATM a while back, and my EVE subscription just happened to come up after I had cancelled the card and was waiting for them to issue me a new one.   So no EVE.  And no Conan.  And no DAoC.

So I spent some time transferring games to my new laptop to open up space on the shared desktop for my wife.  Her photgraphy business has taken off and we were starting to have storage issues.  And so I spent a few days playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.  I’d never gotten all that far into the game, and I enjoyed Two Worlds better (crazy I know) for the simple reason that I hate the leveling system that they use.  I decided that in playing it this time I would throw the guide out the window, pick the seven skills I wanted and go with it.  And you know what?  So far its been good.  I’m sure it will bog down at higher levels, but I’m having alot more fun.

For those not in the know, basically the more you use a skill, the higher it gets, and for every ten skill ups in our major seven, you gain a level.  You also get to pick attributes to raise, which raise somewhere between 1 and 5 depending on the number of related skill ups you got in any related skill (not just the majors) during that level.  The problem is that you quickly outlevel your ability to handle enemies, especially if you have a specialized character like a magic user or stealthy rogue type.  Even worse, some of the storyline quests box you into areas where you are at a disadvantage being either.   Still its a good game, and this time rather than stress myself out over counting strength related skill ups, I just decided to make judicious use of the difficulty slider bar! 

Morrowind was a little better I think – better setting, better storyline, more fun random events.  On the downside, it was way more exploitable.

Anyway, got my new card yesterday afternoon, so its time for a little Dominion of EVE and explorin’ in DAoC.  Yay!

Fan of TNA Wrestling? Fan of video games? Worried what would happen to the TNA video game license with Midway’s demise? Well, worry some more.

From that awesome game blog site, Destructoid.com:

In its financial report, SouthPeak Interactive revealed that it had acquired “certain assets” from Midway relating to the TNA iMPACT wrestling brand. Already announced are two games that will be released next year — TNA iMPACT: Cross the Line for PlayStation Portable/PSPgo and Nintendo DS.

The good news, there will be a TNA video in 2010. The bad news, it’s for the PSP and the DS. The even worse news, it’s being made by SouthPeak Games. SouthPeak… eww!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with SouthPeak, think your lucky stars. They’re notorious for making really shitty games. Shitty games like… Two Worlds and Legendary, to only bore you with two. I’m almost giddy with anticipation to see what kind of abomination these guys at SouthPeak can cook up for a TNA game. It’s gonna be epic. Congrats TNA!

And no, that isn’t a screenshot from the PSP or DS game being made by this horrible, horrible company. That’s from the TNA game for the iPhone/iTouch, which is actually decent.

Two Worlds 2 official site

Trailer Videoも新しく公開されているようだ。全体的に良く出来たVideoだとは思うけれど、どうも後半の戦闘シーンが微妙というか。

Two Worlds est un RPG (role play game) édité par Zuxxez et développé par Reality Pump. L’histoire se passe dans un monde médiéval fantastique où l’on incarne un chasseur de primes à la recherche de sa sœur.

Au début du jeu, le joueur a la possibilité de définir les caractéristiques physiques de son personnage, bien que ces choix restent limités. A la différence de beaucoup de RPGs, le joueur ne choisit pas directement sa classe de personnage (mage, guerrier…). Cela permet de monter des personnages hybrides d’autant plus que la magie ne s’apprend pas par des points de compétences mais par l’obtention de cartes.

Une fois passée la création du personnage, on arrive sur une cinématique nous présentant l’histoire. Celle-ci est fade et graphiquement en dessous des capacités de la Xbox 360. Les voix des personnages sont sans expression, le scénario n’a rien d’original et les graphismes font peur. La cinématique nous mène jusqu’à notre première quête. La prise en main est difficile, d’autant plus qu’aucun didacticiel n’est là pour nous apprendre à jouer. Une fois la première quête résolue on se retrouve largué au beau milieu du monde, libre, certes, mais sans savoir quoi faire. Il ne sera pas rare de mourir prématurément…

Pour résumer, les quêtes sont souvent redondantes, les PNJs (personnages non joueur) qui donnent des quêtes ne sont pas indiqués ce qui oblige à parler à tout le monde avant de trouver ce que l’on cherche et les dialogues de ces PNJs sont souvent les mêmes et aussi fades que les cinématiques.

En dehors de quelques bonnes idées (système de réputation par exemple) ce jeu reste dans l’ensemble mal réalisé. L’ennui s’installe rapidement : quelques minutes de jeu suffisent.

2012 THE NEXT LEVEL…..

ARE YOU ONE OF THE 144,000? SOME BELIEVE THAT THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END, DO YOU?

WHAT IF THE WORLD SPLITS IN TWO WORLDS OF EXISTENCE, ONE OF ALL POSITIVE AND ONE OF ALL NEGATIVE ON TWO DIFFERENT REALMS. THIS  WOULD BE THE FIRST TIME THIS HAS EVER HAPPENED IN THE UNIVERSE.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT LEVEL?   

Two Worlds was a promising looking RPG that could have been another reason to dip into a fantasy realm once we’d finished with Oblivion. Unfortunately Reality Pump’s RPG was no where near obtaining such an accolade with poor graphics, poor controls and laughable sound effects. Not one to be beaten and sure of the potential, Reality Pump has been busy creating a sequel, Two Worlds II, and even given it a brand new engine too. GRACE is not just the name of your elderly relative anymore, oh no, it powers TWII in order for it to have the graphics which you see above in the screenshot (with three more after the break). Pretty good considering the first Two Worlds. A neat device which the engine will do is hamper mobility depending on the terrain. Walk into the marshland of Antaloor (the game’s world) and watch as the bog slows the character down. Neat but how long before it becomes an annoyance? There are alternate paths and wooden walkways to use so here’s hoping the experience will be broken up. The press release assures us too that the developers have upped the detail on the audio with suitably squishy noises to accompany the marshland.

Yeah those things sound interesting but nothing we haven’t seen before and lets face it, in this generation the sound effects would have to be pretty impressive to warrant getting excited over. Reality Pump have a lot to do in order to win back those burned by the first game. Hopefully they’ve learned from pervious shortcomings and Two Worlds II will be delightful fantasy adventure. Keep those fingers crossed until later this year when TWII gets released on both Mac and PC (leaving out the Xbox 360 this time around).

While I’m thinking about how I will develop my site, I’ve been working in photoshop, to maybe get some inspirations. Here’s what I came up with:

Practicing my “J” stroke…blade deep in the directionless, murky water, the only sounds were distant calls of the eager day.  I watched the swirls form beside me and disappear behind the canoe, like Orion fading from an autumn night…needlesly looking over my shoulder.  Water droplets, resembling the sparkling eyes of my children, migrated and gathered…going nowhere, but inherently finding each other and security…motivated by gravity, a powerful influence unshakably established in all things.

The Heron remained off our bow, refusing to pass overhead, keeps a wary, attentive eye towards the approaching canoe.  The redundancy of her unpleasant cry….the venom of the blackberry bush…does nothing to enhance her elegant flight.  Nevertheless, she is equipped…hand-tailored…perfectly suited for this milieu.  This is life.  The delicate ebb and uncontrollable flow of things…The natural order of our surroundings…situations..emotional ecosystem…inward predator…and social prey.

I felt the canoe hit and jut alongside an indelible stump, submerged in the shallows…simply lifting my blade…letting the canoe go where she is forced.  Resistance is unnecessary…certainly futile…Colossal sycamores demarcate separate worlds as they line the water…On the surface, she lives in one….but her existence not doubt depends on the unseen root structure that undoubtedly reaches into another.  And my mind immediately races back to the stump…and the results of living in unbalanced worlds.  A stalwart foothold in foreign soil…or trespassing unknowingly near a rising river..where we cannot live…the fine line separating adaptation…extinction.

Annabelle leaned into her paddle, gulping a blade-full of water…Her little shoulders tightened….flexed…as she powered forward.  Routinely, she put her feet over the side, with paddle resting across her legs..simply watching the world pass.  Baker trailed quietly in a separate boat as in maritime pursuit…cannons packed and smelling of powder.  We had been sprayed repeatedly…unexpectedly.  A trio of wood duck, beautifully marked, squeaked a departing shrill as they shot out of the grass with a velocity only allowed by a forward thinking creator…strangely incomparable to the lumbering heron.

At water’s edge, I pulled the canoe to shore….tilted on her side…kneeling beside the boat until the collected droplets could be returned to familiarity…back into the place for which they were meant to exist.  Loosening the grip is difficult…allowing innate fluidity…respecting the natural order of all things.

You might be surprised by the games we’d call stinkers

With AAA game season just around the corner (you know that special overcrowded time when the big games usually compete to get your attention and almighty cash), we thought we’d look back on the year so far and pick out some games from all platforms which wasted our time and money.

Sure, there may be more stinkers to come, but they usually don’t dare to face off against the big end of year hitters.

We all have games we hope will be great fun but end up being stinkers and our writers have come up with our own games we hated to play this year.  Some of the games chosen may have been released earlier than this year but it is when we caught up and played them.

What about ‘your’ stinkers!

We would be very interested in your opinion of games you’ve played this year that you didn’t like too, so please do comment in the box at the end of the article.

Axis of Reality

• Terminator Salvation (Xbox 360)

After seeing the movie, I was interested to check out the game. Sure, I’d seen the reviews but the main (perfectly valid) complaint was its direct cloning of Gears of War. Not a problem to me, I love Gears, and adding robots is always a good idea.

Oh how wrong I was. Never before have I played such a BORING game. Not like it’s broken, or glitchy, or anything like that. It was just so completely devoid of fun, despite following the Gears of War bible to the letter. Makes you realize how hard Epic must have worked to really make Gears as much fun as it is.

• Saints Row 2 (PC)

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Saint’s Row 2 on 360. I found it a lot more fun to mess around in than GTA IV, and the constant flow of rewards for stepping outside the story to just play in the massive sandbox were endless.

The shaky framerate did bother me though, so when I got a brand new powerhouse of a gaming PC I quickly snapped up the unusually low-priced PC version. This taught me a good lesson that there’s always a reason why certain relatively new games can be found for dirt-cheap prices: it was broken, as simple as that.

Horrible performance on a top-of-the-line PC, a disgusting number of bugs and glitches (even post-patch) but most of all a problem Volition have said they won’t be fixing where the game plays at about double-speed on Windows 7 that makes it run like a Looney Tunes cartoon. Not fun. Not fun at all. Especially since for some reason it requires a 13 gb install.

Shadow Wave

• Two Worlds: (Xbox 360)

It took me awhile to get to this game, but this year I finally gave it a go.  Kill. Me. Now. When it took me 30 minutes to get out of the bloody first room in the game I was already in a rage.

Why the hell was it that to progress from the first room, you had to do more than simply walk straight out the exit, when in the intro the guy walks straight in?

So uhh what was the whole point of the intro then? Weird… then I finally got out, saw the horrible framerate, awkward controls and hilarious dialogue. And I put the controller down before playtime even hit 1 hour.

• Resident Evil 1: Archives (Wii)

For those of you that don’t know, Resident Evil: Archives is essentially a port of the amazing Gamecube remake of Resident Evil 1. It landed on the Wii with ‘enhanced graphics’ among other things.

Sadly, upon booting the game up in 480p, the game is forced into a 4:3 resolution, giving you large black bars on the sides of your TV.

Yes, I realize that it would be very difficult to convert pre-drawn backgrounds to widescreen, but come on, just give us a stretch screen option! I’d prefer slightly stretched characters than a smaller screen accompanied by huge black bars.

The only way to get this game to take full screen is to turn your Wii back down to 480i on the Wii menu. A simple stretch option would have been much appreciated! But sadly, by doing this it brings the games graphics quality essentially back down to what it was on the Gamecube.

Do not grab this title if you already own the Gamecube version, even if you are a fan of the series.  It’s a bad attempt at milking you of your cash.

dkpatriarch

• Eat Lead: The Return Of Matt Hazard (Xbox 360)

You’d think the concept of a shooter game that made fun of a bunch of other video games that take themselves seriously (it has an ally called ”Master Chef” instead of Master Chief…get it?) would be full of fun and laughter.

Instead what you get is a boring old school game that makes you groan in dismay more that giggle with glee.  Even the 2D pixelated tribute to Wolfenstein 3D’s look wasn’t enough to make me finish it.

I got my son to do that for me so I could still get the achievement points and was very glad I had borrowed and not bought it.

• Damnation (Xbox 360)

Another game with potential that had an interesting concept but went horribly, boringly wrong.  In my review I explain it all, but suffice to say that it was a painful slog to the end and I was in damnation playing it.

• Bejeweled Blitz (Facebook)

Okay I hate this game, but not for the reasons you might think.  I hate it because when I’m talking to my wife, she’s playing it trying to beat her Facebook family and friends’ scores.  When we watch a movie or TV show at home, she’s half-watching and half playing this stupid jewel game.

I tried the game and found it too boring and just stupid.  The worst game I’ve played this year! My opinion may have been predisposed to dislike it though, because my wife likes it too much.

Of course she claims I’ve pretty much been doing the same to her for years with my various console games…but it’s not the same is it?

TWODOGSz

• FUEL (Xbox 360)

An open world driving game should have two core principles to its design. To keep the player immersed in a seamless, free flowing, minimalist UI environment and to have core driving mechanics that provide fun and challenge for the player. FUEL has neither.

• Flock! (XBLA)

Never judge a book by its cover! Herding farm animals to “the Mother Flocker” will raise a brief smirk, until you quickly realise that under a colourful exterior is a rainbow of butchered game design, with so many problems that you’ll wonder if there ever was a competent game hidden amongst the entrails in the first place.

ChiefJimbolaya

• Prison Tycoon 2 (PC)

I bought this old PC gem in the bargain bin at Wal-mart. It was completely, 100% broken. The controls didn’t even work. I guess I was being punished for my sadistic desire to entertain myself by instigating shiv-jabbin’ lunchroom fights in my own supermax.

• Ghostbusters  (Xbox  360)

And not because it’s a bad game. It was an awesome game that I had been looking forward to for a long time. But the clunky controls would have to land it in this spot relative to the rest of the games I played this year. Sorry Dr. Veckman…

GrathiusXR

• Wolfenstein (PC)

Compared to its console counter-parts the game on the PC felt somewhat clunky and a bore to sit down and play through. The movement gave me a headache and the amount of bobble whilst running was nauseating.

The little open city where you can upgrade your gun and walk around and accept mission to me sounded good on paper but did not suit this game.

I was expecting a Return to Castle Wolfenstein-esque game but was left disappointed.

• Stormrise (Xbox 360)

As excited as I was with another RTS on the console, I really didn’t expect much from this title, and upon playing it I knew my expectations were still too high.

Whilst the Whip Select was a useful tool, the fact that only 1 squad could be chosen at any moment was annoying and the amount of casualties even on Normal made the game a complete chore and bore.

The insanely glitchy movement and attack of both the AI and the player made me wonder if this game was released at the right time.

Betheo

• Metal Gear Solid Acid (PSP)

I know this game wasn’t released this year, but I’ve been lucky enough to have played mostly great games in 2009.  I really, really did not like Metal Gear Solid Acid.

I will admit it was my first MGS game, and the style it was done in just confused the hell out of me. The graphics were nice enough, but I prefer to be able to move the character myself, not have to take turns with annoying cards.

Also, I really got fed up with being forced to watch the intro all over again when I started a new game. It’s a few minutes of my life I’d like back.

• Nintendo DS Games (in general)

I know the DS is a console, and I know this will flame alot of peoples keyboards, but I dont like the DS, it just feels like a silly console with basic kiddie-styled games that mostly suck.

I guess what they say is true, once you go for a PSP that is black, you dont go back. Other than that, I really, really hate styluses, I mean, with a passion.

• Call of Duty: World At War (Xbox 360)

Yes, I know, I’m going to be hung, drawn and quartered for this, and then yelled at, but honestly, I didn’t like it.

As a rule of thumb, I tend to avoid World War 2 games in general, but I had played COD4 and loved it, so I then played COD2 (I know, old school) and it was ok, but COD5 just really irked me for some reason. I guess im just a really picky gamer.

XboxOZ360:

• Infernal (Xbox 360)

Infernal, as the name implies, it an infernal disaster of mammoth proportions. What started out with a great premise, slipped into gaming hell the moment you started the game. The graphics were so ‘last-gen’ it had me wondering how such a terrible game could actually be passed and given certification?

I’ve never known a shooter where you can basically walk headlong into opposing forces with a pistol, and be shot with SMG’s, fully automatic rifle fire and have explosions all about you, and not DIE – Hello… It took me almost 20 minutes to die, with me trying to die to actually prove a point.

The developers need to be taught a lesson that they simply cannot, and should not dump their rubbish on us simply to make a profit.

If you haven’t yet had a read of OXCGN’s most frustrating games, jump over to the article by clicking here.

Please share us around

There comes a time in everyone’s life when the world seems as though it has been twist turned upside down and no, not how it as in “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.” Most definitely not like that. Good and wonderful things happen along with the worst things ever. On this side of the world we may be blissful and happy and loved but on another side of the world, someone could be shattered and crumbling to pieces. I guess my life has been set in between these two worlds. I witness the crumbling world and the sunny one. but feel as though i can’t do anything about either one. Through this clear screen I see the sad bruised world but as I sit here, on this side the sun shines brightly and the inhabitants of this world is happy. Am I the balance? Or am I merely another pawn in this game we call life?

My world currently has been twist turned upside down…..

and I hate it…

Na jesień zapowiada się kilka ciekawych tytułów gier RPG. Będą to:

• Dragon Age
• Gothic 4
• Two Worlds 2
• Risen

Szykuje się prawdziwa ucztwa dla fanów erpegów w klimatach fantasy.

I finished my previous blog posting with everything is not as it seems.

When I first started to digest intellectually that our own minds have such a major role in how we experience our life and reality itself it is a lot to let sink into me. It meant that I could no longer look at the world I see through my 5 physical senses as being in fact, reality itself.

Sure, it seems that reality of our physical world is where we best focus our attention. We are generally conditioned to de-value our imagination or day dreaming as these are often said to be *not real*.
Stop dreaming, get real! This basic message is drummed into us in various ways as we grow from children into adults.

We are often conditioned to be biased that the only reality is the one of our 5 senses.

This new information I was learning of mind powers was suggesting to me everything was not as it seemed. There was more to our thoughts and mind we would be best to examine because, if indeed the energy of our inner world of thoughts, attitudes, beliefs and emotions is having a role in how our 5 sense reality is both perceived and unfolds, then maybe it would be best I find a new way to think of reality itself that places much more value on that inner world we all are gifted with from birth.

It seems to me the common factor to the physical world and consciousness of our mind is energy. This changed me. Thoughts are in fact something to pay more attention to. There is energy at play here with our thoughts. An ability we have that can learn to tap into more and develop if we take the time to work with our gift of free will to think in our own way.

My definition of reality was never the same after beginnning to learn of mind powers. The potential to learn how to use this new knowledge awakens so many possibilities it can actually take time to just focus on exactly what to use if for specifically.

Towards the end of chapter one in Mind Power Into The 21st Century I highlited the main awakening for me that become apparent when I realized with our own consciousness we are constantly interacting and indeed impacting with how reality unfolds in our world.

” …..we can choose to live more creatively and powerfully. We need no longer stand on the sidelines watching things happen to us, for with our new understanding we now realize that there are no sidelines to stand on, nor were there ever. “

In chapter two John Kehoe describes what I found for myself is wonderful way to integrate this new knowledge into how I bring this new awakening to my everyday world. It is this….to think of our thoughts

“as a reality existing side by side with what we call the *physical reality* “

He proposes a model where we see ourselves living simultaneously in two worlds, two realites and understanding the unique relationship between the two:

“the inner reality of your thoughts, emotions and attitudes, and the outer reality of people, places, things and events.”

He explains that we generally are conditioned to

“allow ourselves to become dominated by the Outer world of appearances, and we use the Inner world solely as a “mirror” for whatever happens to us.”

This is our societal conditioning to think and feel things just happen to us and simply reacting to our Outer world and thereby never realizing that our Inner world can be used creatively and powerfully to be pro-active and begin changing our reality from the inside out.

When, or if we start to realize the power of our free will to choose, then life has a whole new feel. To recognize that change begins from within when we consciously manage what we allow to be going on in our Inner world then we get the opportunity to approach life with a new found zest.

Getting excited with a new feel for life and potential for change is one thing. These concepts are in fact quite simple to grasp intellectually. Where the rubber meets the road so to speak, and taking it further is in using and applying these concepts into our life. Making our life work means learning how to develop and use skills to work with our mind so the potential and hope these concepts can awaken in us, can move from being dreams to becoming results experienced for the better in our own life. That is the challenge. To actually experiment with these concepts in our life and develop skills and techniques that work for us.

The foundational skills and techniques to begin practicing our mind powers more consciously in our life is the next area to study and apply.
The next few chapters of the John Kehoes book covers the basics and I will be sharing some of this is my next blog entry.

Karlsruhe, 3rd July 2009 – in the coming winter, the role-playing world of Antaloor will once again open its portals to PC, Mac and Next-Gen consoles. Following the fantastic worldwide sales success of the game’s famous predecessor, TopWare Interactive will once again open a radically new chapter in the fantasy world of Reality Pump.

“Two Worlds II” presents a totally new gamer experience, one in which 2 years of intensive development has enabled quantum leaps in all spheres: completely overhauled AI and balancing standards, experienced authors, the active combat system and the brand-new engine all combine to provide an unforgettable experience where excitement, sheer enjoyment and graphics rule. “Two Worlds II” simply sets new technical benchmarks in the RPG genre, thanks not least to its seemingly unlimited number of dynamic light sources, micro-detail Parallax Mapping, 24 Bit HDR Post Processing, Space Ambient Occlusion and Human Eye Accommodation.

The story of “Two Worlds II” is staged a couple of years after Part 1 – and it will lead you into hitherto unexplored parts of Eastern Antaloor where you’ll find many brand-new locations packed full of atmosphere – from dusty deserts to awe-inspiring temples.

Alexandra Constandache, the Executive Producer of TWII commented, “We intentionally opted for a completely independent game with radical new technology. This was the only way to ensure that we harness the enormous potential and experience gained from the making of the first “Two Worlds” project – and make full use of the further technical development of internal Reality Pump tools that has been on-going since the first “Two Worlds” was developed. This new release window gives us enough time to systematically implement both our own requirements and the feedback of the “Two World” fans, enabling us to create a breathtaking RPG experience.”

AND – we’ll shortly be bringing out the next version of your hotly-awaited ““Two Worlds” magazine, the “Antaloor Post” – and in it we’ll tell you all about the latest developments direct from the developers at Reality Pump! If you want to be on the inside track when it comes to having inside info about Antaloor, go to www.twoworlds2.com and register for the newsletter – you won’t regret it!

20 internautes Anglais ont été interpellés pour partage illégal de fichiers.

Mais, il y a un “mais”, le gouvernement Britannique a de sérieux doutes sur l’identification des internautes.

Selon techno.branchez-vous.com, les FAI émettent aussi des doutes sur Logistep, une société Anti-piratage qui inspecte les sites de partage grâce à un logiciel, ils affirment n’avoir aucune confiance dans ses capacités à identifier les pirates.

Reality Pump et Topware Interactive ont quand même entamé des procédures judiciaires contre les 20 internautes.

Parmi les 20 internautes certains n’ont jamais entendu parler de Dream Pinball (Reality Pump) ou encore Two Worlds (Topware Interactive), des jeux qu’ils auraient soi-disant partagé sur le P2P.