Wandering far

I've finally finished playing Fallout 3 (PC) for the time being. I've visited every significant location, though not found every bobblehead nor triggered every quest, and you know, that's fine. I never wanted the experience to degenerate into a complete fetch quest, I just wanted to see what the wasteland had to offer.

Leaving the confines of Vault 101 I played the game pretty much as myself, in so much as I can be myself in a fictional post apocalyptic future, letting my personal morality be my guide. As such, as tempted as I was to put a .44 magnum shell into the back of the likes of Moriarty's head and blow the residents of Megaton to kingdom come, I never did so. Maybe next play through. And that's the biggest ringing endorsement I can give. Despite almost 100 hours of wandering the wastes I'd be more than happy to start all over again. Sure the ending is a bit of kick in the happy sack, but that doesn't detract from the delights that have gone before.

I could of course continue playing now, with the Operation Anchorage expansion, though as it's only available through the Games For Windows Marketplace, which would be a reason to disregard it in itself, and the reviews giving the impression that it is akin to sprinkling powered turd on my cornflakes, I think I'll give it a miss.

There's other expansions in the works and I'm sure when Bethesda have finished milking it they'll put a nice little expansion compilation together as they did with the Knights of the Nine for Oblivion and that's when I'll jump back in, only this time as a twisted killing machine bent on intensifying the pain and misery of the inhabitants of this ravaged DC. [insert Vincent Price laughter here]

So with an ever expanding backlog of games it was a tough choice deciding where to go next. Being the FPS lover that I am Far Cry 2 was always going to be favourite, though with the recent system wipe I need to restart both Colin McRae DiRT and Psychonauts so there was a temptation to go back to them. I've also got Beyond Good & Evil and Company of Heroes Gold Edition sitting in my Steam list eyeing me disappointedly. I've not given nearly enough time to zombie blasting in Left 4 Dead, and Mass Effect and Grand Theft Auto IV aren't going to play themselves. Add to that the recent release of F.E.A.R.2: Project Origin and Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box demo's, that gave me just enough to tempt me in with their wily ways, and the excitement is palpable. How am I going to cope?

One notable absentee in all this is Warhammer Online. There was some debate about Warhammer over at the ZTTB site, which I'll expand upon my input in order to explain that while I am still playing it, I'm not doing so as much as I expected.

I dabbled with Warhammer briefly in school, though I was primarily a D&D kind of guy, and maybe my memory isn't too good because I wasn't expecting, well, what Warhammer Online is. I've tried to love it, tried to warm to it's charms, but once the initial excitement wore off I felt that there's just something missing. Now it may just be me being the anti-social nay sayer that I can be, but the reason I liked Guild Wars was because I got to play with people I liked and had fun with. Once all the guildies stopped playing I had no reason to go back and finish it. I was never really into running around alone, and not being sure I could invest the time needed for character development I was never convinced a proper MMO would fit, so I avoided the likes World of Warcraft and Everquest II for this reason and because of the monthly subscription, despite the number of people I knew who where jumping in and splashing around while telling me how lovely it was and to get the water wings off and join them.

Warhammer, I told myself, would be different. Surely going into a massive bloody conflict with several hundred others as body parts fly across the battlefield in a hail of flame and bullets would be my dream ticket, particularly as we had, an all be it brief, history.
It seems strange then that I'm having most fun going off doing the PvE alone. I certainly didn't expect that. I think the cause of this unexpected development is that I've found people still play as individuals, and as such the PQ's work best because people can do their own thing but it still contributes to the overall goal. In the PvP scenarios, unless you have at least a party and preferably a warband going in, it just becomes a free for all. That makes the experience feel somewhat unsatisfying. Hollow.

Having said all that, I still think it's worth picking up and having a play, and despite my reservations I have put my money on the table and will be playing until May, but I really don't know if I'll go beyond that. There's no doubt that WoWers who came across for the launch didn't find it compelling enough to stay once Wrath of the Lich King was released, and there was a significant juggling act to balance the servers. There's also been a number of changes in game since launch that have improved things with Mythic being swift to implement them and the speed with which they've responded to criticism has been commendable. They've reintroduced classes that were removed to ensure the game launched on time and balancing and UI issues have been rectified. All in all it is very solid and well implemented.

The environments are fantastic. The characterisations are brilliant. The Tome Of Knowledge is a stroke of genius. There's a wealth of material in and around the game world that you can delve as deep as you like into. There's an abundance of content, and you're free to sample whichever takes your fancy. Want to play as a High Elf but like the Dwarf story? Go do the Dwarf story then. Once you've basically got through the training quests and got to your first warcamp, your race doesn't have to dictate your quest path. The quests themselves can range from a quick walk down the road to chat to someone, to sprawling multi-part epics. Should you find some like minded people to adventure with, your quests can be shared with the others in your party, with re spawn of components/quest items happening swiftly enough that you don't get bored waiting for everyone to get the loot.

There's so many plus points and great things in there and I want it to be a great success. That's why I'd love to recommend it to everyone as an essential purchase. The fact that I can't saddens me. I hope that anyone who does buy it likes it. I hope it's just that MMO's at the end of the day aren't my bag. I really do.

Not that I can worry about that now. I've got some bloke going by the pseudonym “The Jackal” to kill.

I'm not playing World of Warcraft

The lack of posts though would suggest otherwise. To make matters worse, the only real point of this entry is to bring to an end the information drought. So what has little me been doing?
Oblivion (PC) - Riding Shadowmere all around Cyrodiil and heading all the guilds except the Mages. Apparently I'm not magic enough for those dress wearing biatches. Pretty much boxed off what I need to and am considering installing Shivering Isles, but I'll give it a bit of a break first.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Shadow of Chernobyl (PC) again. Yes I know it's a little rough around the edges but it's such a great game that leaves so many questions unanswered or open to interpretation that I just had to have another run through before Clear Sky comes out.
Guitar Hero III:Legends of Rock (Wii) - I know the Wii version suffers from poor graphics and no DLC, but the experience is the same irrespective of version so whatever console you own (if any), pick this up and let your tennis racket strumming inner brat out.
Warhammer Online:Age Of Reckoning (PC) - The MMO I've been waiting for will finally arrive on September 18th (open beta access and live game headstart excepted). No doubt will be massively disappointing given the length of time I've been waiting and my now almost infinite expectations.
Other than that the family trip to Disneyland Resort Paris was, and I must apologise ahead of time for resorting to this: awesome! TIP: If you're taking kids I wouldn't recommend going by car without overnight stays on route unless you can do it in less than 6 hours, even with Nintendo DS's.

Excitement At Lofty Heights

Finally finished clearing and insulating the loft, and with only minor fatigue around the thighs this time. The force 10 gale that blows up the hall whenever a neighbour sneezes or closes their door hard, or a car drives up the road (it’s drafty, and I’m again too tired to try and be clever so shoe horning remains the order of the day) will soon be sorted and my home will finally be a warm and snug place. Actually, it won’t. That’s a big fat lie. When I’ve decorated, got new carpets, re-sealed the windows, re-decorated, got newer carpets, replaced the central heating; replaced the insulation and the 1,001 other things that as home owners we have to do and re-do to keep the never ending upkeep going so that one day, maybe, we can lie down and die, then it will be warm and snug. Ah, life! Forever a work in progress.

So, in good news I’ve ordered my new gaming PC. Got a bit of a bargain so am kind of expecting one of those “we made a mistake” e-mails and “if you want to hand over another bundle of cash we’ll think about it!” offers. Assuming that doesn’t happen, I’m excited at the prospect of playing Bioshock (PC) as it was meant to be seen. Of getting decent frame rates in Crysis (PC) even if the game is just a better looking Far Cry (PC) but with all the fun removed. I might even have yet another run through S.T.A.L.K.E.R (PC). Then maybe get my hands on Call Of Duty 4 (PC) and Gears Of War (PC). I might go crazy and book some time off work so I can have another crack at Oblivion (PC). On top of all that PC goodness, I’m ridiculously excited at the prospect of finally getting my hands on Super Mario Galaxy (Wii). News that Deus Ex 3 is in the works and the Ghostbusters trailer for the game that is in development are too exciting for words, see

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Time Waits For No Gamer.

Something happens as you get older, time speeds up. Add a family and time not only speeds up but starts playing tricks on you too. It knocks on your door and runs away and hides so that by the time you find it in order to have that bit of time to yourself, it’s already time for time to move on. Take this blog entry for example, I’ve been writing it for weeks. Not literally of course, I don’t type that slowly, but the original idea manifested some weeks back as I desperately tried to find time to play through the Orange Box (PC). Excusing TF2’s online shenanigans, Valve’s 2 little nuggets of newness are not particularly expansive. HL2:Episode 2 can be run through in about 6 hours. Portal in 4. There was a time when I could do both of them in one sitting and still get a few levels of whichever console game was flavour of the month. No chance of that now though. I’m lucky if I can even get close to 10 hours game time in a week.

There are numerous factors involved in this, but the primary one is simply that while gaming is far and away my favourite leisure activity, what should be my leisure time is no longer mine. In the evening’s it’s either my wife’s or works, and at the weekend it’s my daughters. Whereas weekends could be spent watching complete series of favourite TV shows or Star Wars movie marathons, now if we’re not out on some form of activity, my TV is owned by Dora The Explorer, Scooby Doo & Wonder Pets.

This leads me to thinking that the games industry is in danger of losing a significant proportion of its user base. I’m one of those people who was pretty much around at the start. I played on Intellivision, Atari 2600, ZX81, Spectrum, Amiga, SNES, PlayStation, N64 etc. I’ve aged with the industry and helped nurture it to its current maturity, yet I feel it's stopped making games for me. Developers seem intent on making games longer, seemingly to justify the price. They boast about 30+ hours of gameplay. At moments like this I like to get out a big pointy stick and point it’s pointyness towards Max Payne 2. Max Payne 2 could be completed comfortably in 8 hours, and yet on completion I’ve yet to hear of anyone complaining it was too short. On the contrary, I get the impression that the community seem to agree with my sentiment that The Fall of Max Payne was a beautifully crafted and executed interactive experience. The value came from the joy of (repeatedly) playing it. Movies aren’t judged on their running time so if gaming wants to move closer to being as respected then developers need to get over their hang up on length (I know there's an innuendo in there but I'm trying to be serious and avoid flaccid dick jokes and accusations of inadequacy). I’m now put off buying games such as Metroid Prime 3 Corruption (Wii) due to tales of fetch quests and save locations that mean there is no way to jump in and out of the game. Oblivion (PC) sits on the shelf, 30 hours of questing in and I fear I’ll probably never continue. I simply can’t commit to a multi-hour gaming session these days.

On the flip side we have the multi-mini-game simplicity of many a Wii title. While these are fun and easily accommodated in to what little time I have, they lack the compelling story or drama I want from a modern, mature, gaming experience. This is where I feel we risk losing the middle ground. People who have grown up with gaming and want to keep gaming. The hardcore gamer with casual sensibilities. I want mature themes. I want action. I want tension. I want drama.

I need it in a concise package.