Well, after the dismall failure of the Star Wars Galaxies Beta I had pretty much given up hope on ever playing that game again. I didn't even bother to buy the game after that bad experience. One of the things that really turned me off was the Customer Service of Sony Online Entertainment. These are the same CS behind EverQuest and Planetside and I was extremely frightened of having to deal with them again. Anyhow, I ran across the free 14 day trial on Fileplanet.com and thought. What the he...

A PC Gamer’s look at E3 2004 While everybody else was in looking at the DS and PSP, some of us had other sites in mind. E3 2004 was, for the most part, very accommodating for PC gamers. I got spend some time with PC developers from every major publisher. In fact, there was a Games for Windows section which displayed quite a few windows titles outside of there developer’s booths. If that wasn’t enough, ATI and nVIDIA displayed PC gamers in their perspective booths. Games like Tribes: Vengeance...

I was thinking today about how many developers aren’t very good partners to their publishers. I think too many developers don’t look at the business aspects involved in game making.  I think this is one area, because we’ve been a publisher too, that can help potential publishers as we look forward.A good developer should be thinking about how they can make the life of the publisher easier. Publishers have 3 major jobs:1)       Distribution. This is the big one ...

Another one of my articles (this time on "Crushing Genre Boundaries" in games) has been posted over at FileFront.com. Here's a little snippet from that article: For the last seven years, I’ve played countless games that can be easily-classified as a certain genre without so much as a neuron in my sad excuse for a brain being disturbed. This is a good thing if you’re a die-hard fan of a genre, but, come on, how many different 3rd-person adventure games do need? Personally, moving crates and hi...

I returned to Yahoo Games today to check out the most recent games that I could play. Zuma and Inspector Parker were excellent, but Cubis and Dynomite were terrible. Glinx was alright, but Noah's Ark is the better version. Why? Because it has animal sounds!!!!! Noah's Ark is a upside-down game of memory that involves linking two pictures together through an unobstructed field. The challenge is to remove all of the animals "2 by 2" before the water reaches Noah's Ark. If you remove similar pai...

I recently downloaded the full version of American McGee's "Alice." I saw a review of it on "Electric Playground," and was very curious about the game. I almost bought it before Christmas, but didn't because I don't like to buy presents for myself before my shopping is finished. Nevertheless, once the game was downloaded, I opened the game right away, just to see "how deep the rabbit hole goes." How deep is it? Not very. Although, I couldn't really tell you. With so many cinematic interruptions,...

Go on over to http://www.theprodukkt.com/ and check out the 96k FPS demo they have up there (screenshots below), it's very cool to see what they've packed into such a compact little EXE (though the actual program ended up taking up around 360mb when it was running).

Some of the old BBS hands out there may remember the door game melee. For years it was one of the most in-depth gladiator simulations ever made. In fact it still stands as a monument to games that favor depth and complexity over flash and fanfare. This being said I want to let anyone who stumbles on this know that the original developer Banzai software (with whom I am in no way affiliated) has resumed work on a newer version. The developer (and some of us gamers) would appreciate anyone w...

My copy of the special edition of Unreal Tournament 2004 arrived yesterday. Due to overwhelming pre-orders I had to wait for a second batch. That was fin for me as I have never purchased a game this close to release. I could be patient. And not only did Epic release a great demo but they have also released perhaps one of the all time greatest PC games ever. Everything just seems to be done right. The game is incredibly polished. The game modes, balance, weapons, everything is elegantl...

Over the months I've been playing WoW I've learned a lot of useful things that have greatly improved the game experience. Let me first say that WoW doesn't assume you've ever played a massive multiplayer game. There is jargon in the game at higher levels but by then you know it. And most of the jargon is really just slang.  For instance, "Tanks" refer to fighters who have no ranged weapons who are covered with armor. It makes sense because you start to feel like a tank as you go up in level...

I tend to travel to Yahoo Games frequently to partake in a little backgammon when the mood suits me, but one day I encountered a game called Inspector Parker. It was a murder mystery, and was one of those, "Here are a bunch of clues, solve the mystery" games. The ones that I got in math class. The ones I loathed so much, but nevertheless I beat it with impecable speed, and returned to Yahoo to find another gem. Oh i found a gem alright. It's name was Zuma Deluxe. One of the most addicting games...

= FAQ (== How to Take a Screenshot and Other CM Goodness The FAQ is composed of several parts that I posted on the game company's forum using the Ultimate Bulletin Board message posting system. One of the forum moderators (there are only a few company employees) "stickied" the thread so it is always one of the top threads. Galactic Civilizations Unoffical FAQ A copy of my Un-Official FAQ was posted on the official Galactic Civilizations website.

This past week I did something I have never done before. And it was something I swore I would never do. I preordered a game. Yep, I paid full price for a game before it was even released. I know there are a lot of gamers who do this, so for them it isn't a big deal. But for someone who has never, ever pruchased a game on release, while still at full price, preordering a game is monumental. And it was only a month or so ago I had sworn up and down that I never would buy a game at full ...

At this very moment, thousands upon thousands of players are waging war across hundreds of maps in order to achieve the ultimate goal: a high kill count and a low death count. There are numerous games players can choose from that will allow them to achieve this goal, whether it be through cunning strategy in games like Warcraft 3, Rise of Nations, or Command and Conquer Generals. Or it could be through a more action-packed game such as Call of Duty, Enemy Territory (which is a free downloa...

I've been gaming for over 15 years now, having started on the Atari and moved on to the NES, Sega Genesis, and the newer crop of consoles. I've also been gaming on PCs for just over 10. I'm accustomed to the release day ritual of making the trek to the local WalMart or EB to pick up a pre-ordered copy of whatever the newest hottest game is, coming home and loading it up and playing for the rest of the day. This started in a time where I practically had to beg mom to drive me out to the m...