StarCraft II : The Eldritch Mystery of Custom Maps Part II

3 Sep Features
Games and Gaming




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Part I to this aimless ramble is here.

By not allowing users to distribute their custom maps and requiring  authentication to get a map hosted on their servers, Blizzard make themselves the middleman. They want to control the types of games you can play. Censoring out ones they don’t like so much, you know, with the iron-not-quite-gentle-fist-of-oh-watch-out-almost-Godwinned-this-post of corporate control.

But it’s really, I suspect, a way to monetize content. To take advantage of novel games that might get far more popular than one could reasonably expect; and even more harrowing, free.

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Full Glass Empty Wallet: CIV V Winner!

3 Sep Features
Games and Gaming
Software
5

CivVLogo

Congrats to wulfhere for winning a copy of CIV V, email has been sent. Prize will be handed out on confirmation of email.
Thanks to everyone who entered.
See you next time.

Worms: Reloaded, Renewed, Reviewed, Rejoiced!

3 Sep Games and Gaming
Reviews



4

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Now that Worms: Reloaded has been out for a week, I figured it’s high time we got a review for it all up in here. I feel there should probably be some disclosure though: I LOVE ARTILLERY GAMES. I have loved them ever since playing Gorillas in QBasic in elementary school with similarly quick-typing, computer-savvy friends (this and Nibbles made those miserable typing classes bearable when you’d finish the half-hour lesson in five minutes!).
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Microsoft increases price of XBox Live Gold

1 Sep Features
Games and Gaming
News 5

Microsoft increases price of XBox Live Gold

With a gentle beep the email arrived in my inbox, to approximately the same welcome as viagra-sales spam. Worse, in fact, as it wasn’t blocked by my spam filter at the server before being served to my desktop like a freshly-laid dog turd.

“Thank you for being a valued member of Xbox LIVE. We want to let you know about an upcoming price increase for Xbox LIVE Gold subscriptions…”

Now there’s one significant problem with a price increase for XBox Live Gold – actually, there are several, but let’s start with the fact that I let my subscription lapse a couple of months ago and have been on the fence about renewing ever since. Looks like Microsoft have made my mind up for me. So from a US perspective (the price rises and the benefits of a Gold subscription vary depending on where you are in the world), let’s take a look at what $60/year buys you…
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Full Glass Empty Wallet: CIV V Edition

27 Aug Features
Games and Gaming
Software
49

CivVLogo

Welcome back to the feature formerly known as Do You Like Free Stuff. This time around, I am offering up one pre-order Direct2Drive copy of Civilization V.

The contest will run til 8:00 P.M. Eastern Thursday September 2nd.

How do you enter? Just leave a comment below. I will randomly choose one winner this week and announce it Thursday night.

StarCraft II : The Eldritch Mystery of Custom Maps Part I

26 Aug Features





11

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It isn’t often I’m moved to rant about video games. There are plenty of other nerds with better thought-out opinions, usually supported by graphs and proofs and the phrases “non-trivial”, and “Let N be…”.

But this, this is a hill where I plant my flag, affix bayonets, and take a stand, with all the power in my laughably flabby body with questionable hygiene.

Custom. Maps. In StarCraft. II.

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How am I SO BAD at a game that I play SO MUCH?

25 Aug Games and Gaming



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I miss building my own (entirely useless) palaces, though.

Civilization IV is a fantastic game. In fact, any game starting with “Sid Meier’s” is probably going to be awesome. But the Civilization series in particular has always gripped me, and kept me playing for hours on end. There’s something so satisfying about finally taking over the world through an ideal combination of war, politics, culture, science and/or religion.
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FUEL TV does Excitebike

24 Aug Quickies Videos

3

1 Comment

RAGE on Steam

Link→

Now, that’s interesting. And only 54 weeks before the scheduled release, too. But if it uses Steamworks for multiplayer, that’ll be a mighty good thing indeed. See also…

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Demolition Company: The Simple Fun of Breaking Things

22 Aug Games and Gaming
Reviews







6

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The core strength of gaming’s appeal is, I think, the fact that a game’s success or failure essentially boils down to one question: is it fun? All the other factors that we judge a game’s quality by are essentially tacked-on items that either increase or decrease the fun contained in the game. There’s a lot of wiggle room as to what constitutes fun or not fun, as well as a few absolutes – particularly in the way that games can fail to be fun – but what really matters as far as a game’s worth is concerned is whether or not you as a player enjoy the experience of playing the game. It doesn’t matter how ambitious a game’s design is or is not, as long as you get a kick out of playing.
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I am not normally this nice!

18 Aug Games and Gaming





9

What usually happens when I choose to walk.

So there you are, having just finished riding out into the middle of nowhere Mexico to find that last damn woolly blue curl for your Survivalist challenge, and blammo, you fall down a little cliff that your 90yr old grandmother could have stepped down and your horse dies. Now, you have a couple choices here:

  1. Walk in the direction you want to go and wait until your horse re-spawns and you can whistle for it again.

    2. or

  2. Find the nearest road and shoot the first person you see and take their horse.

In a game world, one would think the choice would be obvious: Shoot a dude and take his horse. After all, you’ve got places to go, and this is the Wild West, where it’s every man for himself. Also, that’s not a real dude! But what do I do? I walk.
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Has John Carmack Joined The Dark Side (In There) Or Lost The Plot (On That)? Part I

17 Aug Features
Games and Gaming
Retrospectives






10

Has John Carmack Joined The Dark Side (In There) Or Lost The Plot (On That)? Part I

John Carmack is, perhaps, the nearest thing to a demigod the gaming world can claim to have. Half man, half deity, touched by the hand of the eternal, wandering the earth, solving really hard math problems, Sisyphean, DOOMed forever like Leonardo (or any of the other ninja turtles) to eternally strive for a goal that can never be reached — to capture reality.
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Web Game: Solipskier

15 Aug Games and Gaming
Quickies

8

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More web game goodness: this one’s heaps of fun once you get the speed ratcheted up (hint: go through the blue tunnel marker thingies). Paint landscape, whiz crash woohoo. You know the drill.

Deus Ex: Boomin’ Revolution

15 Aug Videos



2

New trailer with some actual in-game footage of Deus Ex 3: Electric Boogaloo in between the cutscenery.

Two observations: 1) man, that’s some rumbly and expensive-sounding audio design, and 2) hopefully they got those strippers from Mass Effect at a discount!

1 Comment

QuakeCon Steam Sale

Link→

Just in case you hadn’t noticed: all of id’s and Bethesda’s games, currently on sale. If you want to play Rocket Arena 3 with us, or any of the hundreds of Doom maps and mods here, now’s the time!

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