A Green Mushroom

Writing every day is hard work.  Seriously.  Today is the last day of the Wordcount 2010 Blogathon .  Participants were asked to write at least one post every day for the entire month of May.  I made the rash decision to sign up and somehow I've survived.  This is my last post in that series. I have learned that writing every day is difficult to accomplish on top of working 40 hour weeks and having a life.  Getting married during May certainly made it more interesting. Despite the difficulty - or maybe because of it - I feel a huge sense of accomplishment today.  It was a lot of work and some days I really didn't feel like writing but I did it anyway.  Don't get me wrong though, I'm still enjoying writing a lot.  If I could make a living as a full time writer I'd be extremely happy.  I wouldn't have a problem writing each day if it was my only job. My writing is flowing easier than it was when I started posting a few months ago....

Here's a quick version of Sunday reading without my standard commentary. Tobold: When is an add-on cheating ? Penny-Arcade: Everything you need to know about Blur . And the comic . Professor Beej: Are you buying in to The Old Republic ? Wolfshead Online: A real MMO Cataclysm . As usual I don't agree with everything that authors write but all of the articles have some interesting food for thought.  Expand your mind with some reading and enjoy your Sunday.

  Beta Testing Frustration Beta testing isn't what it used to be.  A beta test used to be the second formal round of testing (after the alpha) and it was used to test all the ins and outs of the game.  Players find thousands of ways to break a game that developers would never think of.  Bugs pop up when your testing base goes from a few hundred to thousands.  Betas were used to solve these problems. Some companies still use betas this way, but more often than not beta tests are glorified demos that are released to the public for a limited time.  Look at the giant media push for the Halo Reach beta.  They were trying to give everyone a small taste of the game in the hope of getting them to buy it in the fall.  They aren't the only culprit. MMOs are among the worst offenders.  "It's still in beta" isn't an excuse that MMO beta testers accept anymore.  They expect the game to be content complete with all the features in place.  ...

  Mmmmm... Bite Size This is what I envision: I boot up my computer, run my MMO of choice, and start the raid finder which pairs me automatically with a group of 9 other people.  This happens within five minutes of starting my computer. Then I am transported to a random dungeon with my group.  The dungeon has one to three bosses and the entire thing can be run in 30 minutes or less. The bosses would be randomized so that I never encounter the same boss twice.  With random bosses I would be able to create strategy instead of simply memorizing pre-set patterns.  Also, there would be no trash mobs to clear out since they only serve to lengthen the amount of time the raid takes but pose no real challenge. These bite size raids would have no lock outs of any kind.  There would be no need to wait out a timer when I want to participate in a raid.  Anytime I feel like raiding I would be able to start up the raid finder and be grouped up in a matter of...

StarCraft 2 not only has single player and multiplayer games, it also allows custom games to be built. Blizzard gives everyone who owns StarCraft 2 access to a very powerful map editor which can be used to design many different styles of games.  Most tend to be RTS type games but I've even seen things like Tetris recreated using falling supply depots.  The map editor can be used to create a diversity of games. Sometimes these custom games become entirely new genres.  DoTA was created in the WarCraft 3 map editor and has since gone on to spawn League of Legends , Heroes of Newerth , and other games in the "battle arena" genre.  In battle arena games you use an RTS control scheme but only control one hero unit.  You are put on a team and face off against an opposing team of heroes.  Both sides get minor AI controlled allies to fight along side them.  If you liked DoTA I would highly recommend looking into League of Legends.  It is my favorite ba...

After a long two weeks of work I'm taking today to just play games.  I try to remember to play games and not just read and write about them. I'm spending most of my gaming time in Blur, Trine, and the StarCraft 2 Beta. So, dear reader, what games have you been playing lately?  Anything I should check out?

This makes the game look way more exciting than it actually is. The Forgotten Sands is a lesson in being underwhelmed.  I wanted to love it, I really truly did.  I loved The Sands of Time, The Two Thrones, and the re-imagined "Prince of Persia" but I just couldn't make myself enjoy Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. It's all been done before by other games in the Prince of Persia series.  The Forgotten Sands has the same old platforming without any new or interesting mechanics.  I got the same feeling I did when comparing Bayonetta to the Devil May Cry series.  It's the same gameplay mechanics with a new coat of paint. The combat feels extremely out of place.  It amounts to a generic hack and slash.  Most of the time the combat flow goes like this: hold x for 2 seconds, release, hold x for 2 seconds, release.  It got in the way of the platforming and probably should have been left out altogether. The platforming isn't anything new....