I'm a horrible liar. Of course this post is about Starcraft 2.
"Hell, it's about time."
The unnamed marine in Starcraft 2's trailer put it best. It sure was about time.
You know that a game is going to be huge when it's the #1 news item in the splash screen of World of Warcraft. The PC gaming market definitely needs a successful game that's not an MMORPG at the moment.
(On a side note, can anyone believe it's already ten (10) years since Starcraft was released? Sweet Jebus.)
And am I ever glad that Blizzard's big announcement wasn't a Starcraft MMORPG. Not only did it make little financial sense, as WoW is still going strong, and a Starcraft MMO would be a bitch to balance properly, we didn't really need another MMO. Honestly, the market is becoming saturated as it is, there is no real need for another MMO based on a well-known and beloved franchise.
Of course, this being the Internet, many people were disappointed by the announcement, my favorite type being the ones who accused Blizzard of being afraid of creating something new and original and not as derivative as Starcraft, while at the same time demanding Diablo 3. Ah, Irony, how I love thee.
There are a few things about Starcraft 2 that worry me a bit, but now is not the time for that. Excitement is still high over the announcement, and there's no reason to spoil that mood. I'll make another post regarding this game in the near future.
Monday, May 21
Tuesday, May 8
Devotion
As you may or may have not guessed from my previous post, oh faithful reader, the team I was supporting in the Euroleague final won.
Panathinaikos is the new Euroleague champion, for the fourth time in history. It's the first team in history that has managed such a feat, and its captain Fragiskos Alvertis is the only player who has managed to win the title four times in his career.
It's funny, this guy was just starting when I first started watching basketball, and seeing the amount of titles he has won in his 17-year career was a strange feeling. I guess you don't realize how important or even legendary some people are until they retire.
At any rate, the game itself was excellent. I'm kind of bummed I couldn't have a ticket for it, but on the other hand I'm also kind of glad. Every time Panathinaikos got a decent lead (up to 12 points at some point), CSKA kept coming back again. And again, and again. It made for a very tense game, and given that I get hilariously stressed when watching sports, I'd probably get an aneurysm or something.
But yes, it was a great game and a great final, worthy of the two (arguably) best teams in Europe at the moment. The final score of 93 to 91 is also one of the highest ever for a final. In the end, and in my ever-so-humble opinion, the better team won. Every single player from Panathinaikos did what they were supposed to do, while CSKA depended a bit too much on Papaloukas -who played unbelievable well, by the way. But sometimes one man can't make the difference, at least on his own. Sorry Stan Lee.
An interesting thing, Panathinaikos had offered to do a little tour in the States (sort of like the "NBA in Europe" yearly event, but reversed), and now that they've won the Euroleague, they are allegedly requested to go to Texas to play against the Rockets and the Spurs. The way I see it, after suffering several painful losses lately (former champion CSKA destroyed the Clippers 95-73 last fall), NBA teams are looking for an excuse to bitchslap the finest that Europe has to offer.
It should be interesting, and I hope that Panathinaikos manages to attend. I honestly believe we can defeat the Rockets if our key players are in a good day. It should be a dreadful match as far as beautiful plays and "showtime" basketball is concerned, since both teams are very defensive (unless JVG does leave), but it should still be an interesting and very technical match. When it comes to the Spurs, I don't think any European team can defeat them or any other high-level NBA team.
Yet.
Panathinaikos is the new Euroleague champion, for the fourth time in history. It's the first team in history that has managed such a feat, and its captain Fragiskos Alvertis is the only player who has managed to win the title four times in his career.
It's funny, this guy was just starting when I first started watching basketball, and seeing the amount of titles he has won in his 17-year career was a strange feeling. I guess you don't realize how important or even legendary some people are until they retire.
At any rate, the game itself was excellent. I'm kind of bummed I couldn't have a ticket for it, but on the other hand I'm also kind of glad. Every time Panathinaikos got a decent lead (up to 12 points at some point), CSKA kept coming back again. And again, and again. It made for a very tense game, and given that I get hilariously stressed when watching sports, I'd probably get an aneurysm or something.
But yes, it was a great game and a great final, worthy of the two (arguably) best teams in Europe at the moment. The final score of 93 to 91 is also one of the highest ever for a final. In the end, and in my ever-so-humble opinion, the better team won. Every single player from Panathinaikos did what they were supposed to do, while CSKA depended a bit too much on Papaloukas -who played unbelievable well, by the way. But sometimes one man can't make the difference, at least on his own. Sorry Stan Lee.
An interesting thing, Panathinaikos had offered to do a little tour in the States (sort of like the "NBA in Europe" yearly event, but reversed), and now that they've won the Euroleague, they are allegedly requested to go to Texas to play against the Rockets and the Spurs. The way I see it, after suffering several painful losses lately (former champion CSKA destroyed the Clippers 95-73 last fall), NBA teams are looking for an excuse to bitchslap the finest that Europe has to offer.
It should be interesting, and I hope that Panathinaikos manages to attend. I honestly believe we can defeat the Rockets if our key players are in a good day. It should be a dreadful match as far as beautiful plays and "showtime" basketball is concerned, since both teams are very defensive (unless JVG does leave), but it should still be an interesting and very technical match. When it comes to the Spurs, I don't think any European team can defeat them or any other high-level NBA team.
Yet.
Monday, May 7
Sunday, May 6
Mirror match
Today's the day. It's the Euroleague final, Panathinaikos Vs. CSKA Moscow. Dimitris Diamantidis Vs Thodoris Papaloukas. The three-times Defensive Player of the Year against the two times Euroleague MVP. Arguably the two best European players currently playing in Europe, still. But what's more interesting is that they're both the same type of player, hence the title of my post.
They're both point guards, tall, athletic (for Europeans anyway), fast, and with long hands, which make them excellent for stealing passes and contesting shots. It's thanks to their skills that the Greek national basketball team became a force to be reckoned with again. The only slight difference between them is the fact that Diamantidis is better at taking three-pointers, while Papaloukas is better at scoring inside the paint. The battle between the two should be very exciting tonight.
But what's more important is something that can't be shown with statistics. Just by being on the court, they make their teams better, more coherent. Even if they don't score points, steal the ball or make assists. I'm not sure how or why they do this, but it happens.
All in all, I hope the game tonight will be fun, and nothing like the borefests of Friday. Euroleague basketball isn't as flashy as NBA basketball (even though the recent Rockets-Jazz series was bad enough to almost make me change my mind on that), but there have been some really great games over the years.
Speaking of the NBA and the Rockets, how bad must it be for a team when the coach doesn't trust more than 7 players? Seriously, how can anyone expect the same 7 people to just go through an entire full season and still have stamina left for the playoffs? Yes, I'm sorta bitter because Van Gundy didn't give V-Span enough time this year, but JVG was doing the same to most of his bench players. I don't get it.
Oh well, Warriors-Jazz should be interesting. I wonder if the Warriors have it in them to go all the way to the Western Conference finals. I'll be rooting for them in that series, a Jazz-Spurs WCF series sounds a bit too much like the Euroleague semis for my taste.
Enough blabbing, ΈΛΑ ΜΩΡΗ ΠΑΝΑΘΑ!
Thursday, May 3
Liverpool Vs A.C Milan, round two!
Technically, it's still "tomorrow".
I sort of had this long-winded rant ready about how Liverpool managed to disqualified Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals because they had the balls to do so and Chelsea just had a lot of expensive players and an arrogant (and pretty douchebag-y) coach. But I decided against actually writing it, as I'd just be reciting what people have been saying for the last few days. Moving on then.
So it's official, the Champions League final here in Athens will be a rematch of the 2005 final between Liverpool (which I'm supporting, as you may have already guessed) and A.C. Milan, a team that was supposed to be disqualified from the competition originally, and only got through in the end because they're A.C. Milan. And people still ask me why I think cosmic irony is the driving force in this universe.
At any rate, it should be a very interesting match. Not because either team is known for their fast-paced football, full of technique and skill, on the contrary. However, their last match in the 2005 final was one of the most memorable matches in recent years, Milan got the lead 3-0 early in the game, but Liverpool managed to tie the game and win the cup in the penalties. Not the most beautiful football game ever, but definitely one I (and others) will remember for years to come.
It's a shame that the tickets for the final are so expensive, I had no chance of getting one on time. I would have loved to hear Liverpool's fans sing "You'll never walk alone" in the middle of the Olympic stadium here in Athens. Oh wells.
What really sucks is the fact that the Euroleague final four (think European basketball) is starting tomorrow, again here in Athens... And the team I'm supporting, Panathinaikos, is taking place in it. Of course I haven't found any tickets for either game, seriously now.
It's funny, I went all the way to Paris when I was 15 to watch Panathinaikos win their first European championship, but I haven't gone to either Final Four that has taken place in Greece, that would be 2000 in Thessaloniki, when I was studying Geology there, and the current one.
I'd say that's pretty fucking ironic as well.
I sort of had this long-winded rant ready about how Liverpool managed to disqualified Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals because they had the balls to do so and Chelsea just had a lot of expensive players and an arrogant (and pretty douchebag-y) coach. But I decided against actually writing it, as I'd just be reciting what people have been saying for the last few days. Moving on then.
So it's official, the Champions League final here in Athens will be a rematch of the 2005 final between Liverpool (which I'm supporting, as you may have already guessed) and A.C. Milan, a team that was supposed to be disqualified from the competition originally, and only got through in the end because they're A.C. Milan. And people still ask me why I think cosmic irony is the driving force in this universe.
At any rate, it should be a very interesting match. Not because either team is known for their fast-paced football, full of technique and skill, on the contrary. However, their last match in the 2005 final was one of the most memorable matches in recent years, Milan got the lead 3-0 early in the game, but Liverpool managed to tie the game and win the cup in the penalties. Not the most beautiful football game ever, but definitely one I (and others) will remember for years to come.
It's a shame that the tickets for the final are so expensive, I had no chance of getting one on time. I would have loved to hear Liverpool's fans sing "You'll never walk alone" in the middle of the Olympic stadium here in Athens. Oh wells.
What really sucks is the fact that the Euroleague final four (think European basketball) is starting tomorrow, again here in Athens... And the team I'm supporting, Panathinaikos, is taking place in it. Of course I haven't found any tickets for either game, seriously now.
It's funny, I went all the way to Paris when I was 15 to watch Panathinaikos win their first European championship, but I haven't gone to either Final Four that has taken place in Greece, that would be 2000 in Thessaloniki, when I was studying Geology there, and the current one.
I'd say that's pretty fucking ironic as well.
Wednesday, May 2
Sunday, March 18
Veronica Mars addendum
It seems I may have spoken prematurely. The lovely miss Kristin Veitch updated her blog later on Friday with new information about the future of Veronica Mars, and it seems like the series hasn't reached the end of the proverbial line yet. To quote the CW rep from the above link "The final decision will be made on May 17."
Still, it looks like the show as we know it may be over for good, as it is presumably heading for a total make-over, with the rumored new season taking place 4 years after the events of the season three, at a time when Veronica has become an FBI agent. These are all just rumors yet, but they are strong rumors.
I'm kind of torn on this. Throughout the second half of the third season it has been heavily hinted that V could very well join the FBI in the future, so this isn't a surprising development, but it may be a premature one. I'm not sure how well I'd stomach a fast forward to the future, with most of the main cast gone.
But what I'm mainly worried about is what the tone of the series will be. CSI: Neptune? The uh, VM-Files? Monk 2,0? There's so many things that could go wrong.
On the other side, there's also a lot of things that could go right. After watching the second (and arguably worst) episode of the first season, Credit Where Credit's Due, on television again, I realized just how much better it was than anything we've seen recently. I keep mentioning this, but the first season was just so much edgier than the following two. Even visually, all the moody colors that gave VM a certain cool neo-Noir feeling that made it stand out of the rest of the TV shows out there are gone. Plus, my favorite bit is gone; no more brooding monologues from the protagonist herself. Heck, even all the characters seem to have lost their realistic flaws that made them so endearing to us.
Perhaps an all new, FBI-based, setting could provide with the darker atmosphere that the show is sorely missing since its first season, especially if it will be targeted to an older audience than season 3. You see, the execs decided that season 3's target group would be teenage girls, and that's why we got all that groan-inducing relationship drama between Veronica and Logan. Rest assured that there's a special place reserved in Hell for people who mess up that much with a good story *nods*.
Furthermore, a new cast could mean that the supporting characters wouldn't feel so out of context anymore, and they would also be as dark and deeply flawed as the ones in season one.
What can I say, I really love the first season of Veronica Mars. It's one of those things I'm pretty sure I'll still love in twenty years from now, which is more than can be said for most of the things that are on TV or in film these days. I like Lost, Heroes, 24, but in ten years from now I'll probably look at them nostalgically rather than say "Damn, this show is still great even now!"
P.S.
While Credit Where Credit's Due is pretty mediocre by season one standards (Paris Hilton is in it, 'nuff said), it also has one of the best lines in the entire series:
Troy (looking at V's flat tire): "Flat?"
Veronica: "Just as God made me."
More sardonic humor like that, less teen-drama, please.
Still, it looks like the show as we know it may be over for good, as it is presumably heading for a total make-over, with the rumored new season taking place 4 years after the events of the season three, at a time when Veronica has become an FBI agent. These are all just rumors yet, but they are strong rumors.
I'm kind of torn on this. Throughout the second half of the third season it has been heavily hinted that V could very well join the FBI in the future, so this isn't a surprising development, but it may be a premature one. I'm not sure how well I'd stomach a fast forward to the future, with most of the main cast gone.
But what I'm mainly worried about is what the tone of the series will be. CSI: Neptune? The uh, VM-Files? Monk 2,0? There's so many things that could go wrong.
On the other side, there's also a lot of things that could go right. After watching the second (and arguably worst) episode of the first season, Credit Where Credit's Due, on television again, I realized just how much better it was than anything we've seen recently. I keep mentioning this, but the first season was just so much edgier than the following two. Even visually, all the moody colors that gave VM a certain cool neo-Noir feeling that made it stand out of the rest of the TV shows out there are gone. Plus, my favorite bit is gone; no more brooding monologues from the protagonist herself. Heck, even all the characters seem to have lost their realistic flaws that made them so endearing to us.
Perhaps an all new, FBI-based, setting could provide with the darker atmosphere that the show is sorely missing since its first season, especially if it will be targeted to an older audience than season 3. You see, the execs decided that season 3's target group would be teenage girls, and that's why we got all that groan-inducing relationship drama between Veronica and Logan. Rest assured that there's a special place reserved in Hell for people who mess up that much with a good story *nods*.
Furthermore, a new cast could mean that the supporting characters wouldn't feel so out of context anymore, and they would also be as dark and deeply flawed as the ones in season one.
What can I say, I really love the first season of Veronica Mars. It's one of those things I'm pretty sure I'll still love in twenty years from now, which is more than can be said for most of the things that are on TV or in film these days. I like Lost, Heroes, 24, but in ten years from now I'll probably look at them nostalgically rather than say "Damn, this show is still great even now!"
P.S.
While Credit Where Credit's Due is pretty mediocre by season one standards (Paris Hilton is in it, 'nuff said), it also has one of the best lines in the entire series:
Troy (looking at V's flat tire): "Flat?"
Veronica: "Just as God made me."
More sardonic humor like that, less teen-drama, please.
Friday, March 16
Farewell, Ms. Mars
Rather unsurprisingly, it has been pretty much confirmed that Veronica Mars will not see a fourth season. With the way the ratings were going, it's hardly earth-shattering news, of course.
Still, it's kind of a shame since the recent three or four episodes were really damn good. The dialogs and acting were always good throughout the season, but in these latest episodes they managed to provide us with good storylines too that made us care for the characters again. Also, I really liked the ending to the main arc, which is a first.
I guess, at the end of the day, it's for the best. It seems like Rob Thomas and Co. could never top the excellent first season, so it was all downhill from there. In other words, it's better to cancel the show now, while it's still one of the best shows on TV despite its declining quality, than let it drag on and become awful.
Anyway, since a certain person insisted that I'd provide a link for Sarbel's Eurovision song "Yassou Maria" because he wanted to listen to it, here's a link for ya.
Still, it's kind of a shame since the recent three or four episodes were really damn good. The dialogs and acting were always good throughout the season, but in these latest episodes they managed to provide us with good storylines too that made us care for the characters again. Also, I really liked the ending to the main arc, which is a first.
I guess, at the end of the day, it's for the best. It seems like Rob Thomas and Co. could never top the excellent first season, so it was all downhill from there. In other words, it's better to cancel the show now, while it's still one of the best shows on TV despite its declining quality, than let it drag on and become awful.
Anyway, since a certain person insisted that I'd provide a link for Sarbel's Eurovision song "Yassou Maria" because he wanted to listen to it, here's a link for ya.
Sunday, March 11
Oh and I saw 300
This information needs a separate post, just because.
Anyway, of course I saw 300. I was there on the opening day, March 8.
It's exactly what you'd expect from the trailers. 2 hours of ass-kicking, badass action involving Spartans. It goes without saying that I loved it.
It really is a shame that a few of the best moments of the graphic novel were lost during the transition to film. I guess they were too quiet and somber for the badass feeling the director was aiming for. *shrugs* Stuff happens.
Apparently the movie had a great opening in the Box Office, I hope it keeps this pace and ends up making a buttload of money. That way, the movie version of "Gates of Fire" may actually become a reality (with Michael Mann at the helm, please!)
"Zeus Thunderer! Hellas and Freedom!"
Anyway, of course I saw 300. I was there on the opening day, March 8.
It's exactly what you'd expect from the trailers. 2 hours of ass-kicking, badass action involving Spartans. It goes without saying that I loved it.
It really is a shame that a few of the best moments of the graphic novel were lost during the transition to film. I guess they were too quiet and somber for the badass feeling the director was aiming for. *shrugs* Stuff happens.
Apparently the movie had a great opening in the Box Office, I hope it keeps this pace and ends up making a buttload of money. That way, the movie version of "Gates of Fire" may actually become a reality (with Michael Mann at the helm, please!)
"Zeus Thunderer! Hellas and Freedom!"
The (sorta) unthinkable has happened
No, I'm not referring to my updating this blog again after 10,000 years. Between being out of the city for several days, getting a new PS2 because my old one was stolen and other random things, I didn't have much of a chance to write anything, plus I really didn't have anything interesting to say.
Anyway, I'll start with something interesting. Tom made a series of posts on his blog about MMORPG's, they're really well-written and accurate, definitely worth reading if you're into that kind of games, or just gaming in general.
At this point I'd like to point out that I didn't change my site's description because he did it, hell, I hadn't even realized that the word "musing" is derived from the Muses (pathetic, I know), I've just been meaning to do so for a while. So there!
Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to refer to the title of this post, which is a reference to the fact that a local channel has started airing Veronica Mars (Message to all Greeks: Κυριακές στο Star Channel, 3.30 με 4.30, να το βλέπετε μη σας πάρει ο Διάκολος!)
I guess since the series is getting cancelled in the States at the end of this season, its royalties must be pretty cheap now, so that even a Greek channel can afford them...
:(
Sorry 'bout that. The good thing is that it will be on the same timeslot that Smallville was on previously, so the target audience is there. Almost.
As for the show itself, watching the pilot again (for like, the 12th time) has made me realized just how much better season 1 was compared to the following 2. Season 2 had its moments and season 3 is pretty solid, but it feels like the writers were a lot more concentrated during the first season. It's kind of like what I read on a forum, the characters in Veronica Mars were created with a specific storyline in mind, that of season 1 of the series. Once they're out of that context, they just seem out of place, we can't relate to their stories as much anymore. But I'll be damned if that whole season isn't among the finest I've ever seen on TV.
Another thing that becomes painfully obvious if you watch any episode of season one of VM today is that its darker elements were lost on the way. No more Noiresque voice-overs by Veronica, hell she's gradually becoming less and less of a badass with every episode. At least some of the storylines are still pretty interesting, and often delightfully cynical.
I think this show will never get over the fact that it tried to go head-to-head with Lost on its second season. Talk about a bad idea.
While on the subject of TV shows, last week's Lost and Heroes were pretty great. I mean, a Lost episode that actually provided some answers, what the fuck! Last weeks "Tricia Tanaka is Dead" was a fun and enjoyable episode, but it was just filler material. This week it was great. But it was a Sayid episode, Sayid episodes are awesome by definition.
I've been wondering why the writers don't show Sayid more often since he's easily one of the best characters, but I think that he's too much of a badass for his own good. If he were always around when a mystery or an Other/Hostile popped up, he'd find a solution in nanoseconds, but we can't have that, can we?
Heroes is really shaping up as well. I never cared much for the writing and the somewhat awkward dialogs, but the plot is finally becoming interesting. Plus, hey, who doesn't love superheroes? Peter Petrelli Vs Sylar, fight!
Anyway, I'll start with something interesting. Tom made a series of posts on his blog about MMORPG's, they're really well-written and accurate, definitely worth reading if you're into that kind of games, or just gaming in general.
At this point I'd like to point out that I didn't change my site's description because he did it, hell, I hadn't even realized that the word "musing" is derived from the Muses (pathetic, I know), I've just been meaning to do so for a while. So there!
Now that that's out of the way, I'd like to refer to the title of this post, which is a reference to the fact that a local channel has started airing Veronica Mars (Message to all Greeks: Κυριακές στο Star Channel, 3.30 με 4.30, να το βλέπετε μη σας πάρει ο Διάκολος!)
I guess since the series is getting cancelled in the States at the end of this season, its royalties must be pretty cheap now, so that even a Greek channel can afford them...
:(
Sorry 'bout that. The good thing is that it will be on the same timeslot that Smallville was on previously, so the target audience is there. Almost.
As for the show itself, watching the pilot again (for like, the 12th time) has made me realized just how much better season 1 was compared to the following 2. Season 2 had its moments and season 3 is pretty solid, but it feels like the writers were a lot more concentrated during the first season. It's kind of like what I read on a forum, the characters in Veronica Mars were created with a specific storyline in mind, that of season 1 of the series. Once they're out of that context, they just seem out of place, we can't relate to their stories as much anymore. But I'll be damned if that whole season isn't among the finest I've ever seen on TV.
Another thing that becomes painfully obvious if you watch any episode of season one of VM today is that its darker elements were lost on the way. No more Noiresque voice-overs by Veronica, hell she's gradually becoming less and less of a badass with every episode. At least some of the storylines are still pretty interesting, and often delightfully cynical.
I think this show will never get over the fact that it tried to go head-to-head with Lost on its second season. Talk about a bad idea.
While on the subject of TV shows, last week's Lost and Heroes were pretty great. I mean, a Lost episode that actually provided some answers, what the fuck! Last weeks "Tricia Tanaka is Dead" was a fun and enjoyable episode, but it was just filler material. This week it was great. But it was a Sayid episode, Sayid episodes are awesome by definition.
I've been wondering why the writers don't show Sayid more often since he's easily one of the best characters, but I think that he's too much of a badass for his own good. If he were always around when a mystery or an Other/Hostile popped up, he'd find a solution in nanoseconds, but we can't have that, can we?
Heroes is really shaping up as well. I never cared much for the writing and the somewhat awkward dialogs, but the plot is finally becoming interesting. Plus, hey, who doesn't love superheroes? Peter Petrelli Vs Sylar, fight!
Friday, March 2
Yassou kai esena
It's crazy, everybody in this damn country had only one thing to talk about today, the song that was selected to represent Greece in the contest that embodies all that's wrong with the world today, the Eurovision. Unsurprisingly, the song (Yassou Maria *groans) that was selected represents everything that's wrong with modern-day Greece, and for some fucking reason it's been stuck in my head all day long. Gah! And I love the use of the word "Yassou", it looks so stupid. What's with the two "s"'s too, huh? (Yassou/Geia sou being the Greek version of "hi").
I refuse to talk more about this topic though, the less said about it, the better off we all are. Instead, I'll talk again about 300, the other topic that's sure to be all the rage here in a few days. Better yet, I won't say much about it, as I've already established that I'm really looking forward to this movie, and chances are I'll love it. Instead, I'll let the following clip do all the talking for me:
Link because embedding doesn't want to work: Clickez moi.
I believe "Holy shit" are the words you're looking for.
I refuse to talk more about this topic though, the less said about it, the better off we all are. Instead, I'll talk again about 300, the other topic that's sure to be all the rage here in a few days. Better yet, I won't say much about it, as I've already established that I'm really looking forward to this movie, and chances are I'll love it. Instead, I'll let the following clip do all the talking for me:
Link because embedding doesn't want to work: Clickez moi.
I believe "Holy shit" are the words you're looking for.
Monday, February 26
The Crusade that Burns.
It was pretty much inevitable. I had even bought the damn game, just hadn't installed it. But when Anton and Jon asked me why on Earth I'm not playing the Burning Crusade (the recently released expansion to World of Warcraft) I answered "Uh, I dunno."
Hell, I mean, it seems that everyone has played TBC for a while at one point or another. Even Ragnar Tornquist and Ron Gilbert are playing too, the latter even making his own Blood Elf guild! I'd so join that if I could play on his server. Oh, wells.
In all honesty, one of the reasons I started playing WoW again was because I wanted something to drive me away from Justice for All, which I had begun to rush through. And I really want to savor this game, enjoy every single bad pun, figure out every single reference etc. I dunno, it's kind of a weird feeling. From what I've been told, I'm not the only one who gets it with certain games, that feeling of sweet melancholy you get when you're nearing the end of a game you really liked. On one hand you're happy because you had a great time with it, and on the other one you're kind of sad because it's about to end. That's exactly what I got, and since it's gonna be a while before we get Ace Attorney 3, I'm in no rush to finish #2. Besides, playing Justice for all while in bed in the early hours of the night rocks.
So anyway, back to the Burning Crusade. I started playing with my level 60 Druid Erdalion, in my old server Argent Dawn, which is a roleplay server, in theory at least. Thing is, pretty much everybody rushed to level 70 (the new max in TBC) in the first few weeks, so leveling so far has been a pretty lonely experience. Sure I've teamed up with a few people here and there for dungeons or difficult quests, but it feels like most of the people I've met have characters level 70 already and just use the characters I meet them with as a past-time for when they're bored. So yeah, TBC is a Massively Singleplayer Online RPG for me so far in the Outlands. Still, I had a lot of fun with certain quests, and Blizzard's love for pop culture references made me laugh out loud a few times, a good example is the Tenacious Defender.
Unsurprisingly then, it wasn't long before the sameness of everything got to me. Quests so far don't really vary from the "Go there, kill X of this and get Y of that" variation. Sure, the new locations look pretty nice (except Nagrand and Hellfire Peninsula, fuck that place) but it gets boring after spending so many hours in the same place. I've been told that quests get better, and there are several dungeons to explore, which don't take that much time, but there are only so many times you can run those before it gets tedious. At this rate, I'll probably quit the game before I reach level 70 for the ranked Arena matches, but really, single-player grinding is not my favorite past-time, I rank it up there with shoving searing needles in my eyes.
And it doesn't help that the level of roleplay in my server is... Well, I'll let the following video describe it better, even if it's not made for my realm:
In all fairness, WoW isn't exactly tailor-made for RP, and I have found some occasions of excellent random RP. But generally, that's how it's been in the Outlands so far.
So what's a guy to do then? Why, roll a Blood Elf of course! I initially made a male hunter with the intend to level him because hunters are great fun, but I also made a female rogue because I had this storyline idea about such a character and thought I might as well give that a try. The result was, I got hooked on the rogue style of play. Stealthing everywhere is so much fun (even for a druid player, who's used to it) and the starting areas are so well-designed, Silvermoon City is one of the most beautiful cities I've seen in a game, and the quests are interesting and quite balanced. I decided to take this rogue business seriously, so at level 14 I swam all the way to Westfall (one of the starting areas for human characters) and got the Red Defias Mask, a rogue trademark, here's Gil at Undercity:
I'm up to level 21 currently, struggling a bit with the poisons quest, but leveling has been a blast so far. There are many people around leveling their Blood Elves as well, so it's really easy to find a good group, not to mention that most of them are really nice, which is quite surprising. Sure, there's the occasional jackass around, like one guy who expected me to run him through a series of high level quests so he'd get a certain item, when I wasn't really able of doing some of those quests on my own to begin with. And all that for just 5 gold! People these days. But hey, you can't avoid idiots in real life, so it's hardly surprising when you run into them in such an anonymous environment.
I have to say, on the roleplay side of things, I've been lucky enough to find a lot of it so far. Most people react in-character if you approach them that way, and I've had a few excellent RP sessions so far, more than I've had in a whole year almost. Only last night I run into an Orcish/Trollish celebration at Ratchet, apparently they had killed some boss and they were celebrating about it in excellent in-character fashion. They didn't seem to like Elves though, and my character isn't that fond of Orcs either, so this resulted in some hilarious misunderstandings, all in-character though. I hope I can run into more of these soon, here's a screenie of the aforementioned party:
Still, I agree with Ragnar Tornquist when he says that the first 20 levels are the best, after that it gets a bit boring for me. Initially, my goal was to get the Mask, the Cape seen in the screenshot above and a really nice dagger. Now that's over, I only feel like finishing the quest that gives me access to poisons, but after that is done... Chances are, I'll lose interest again, and with many games to play like the new Sam and Max episodes, WoW will be left behind, again. At this point, I doubt I'll ever get Gil the rogue to the Outland (the new area in TBC).
As it is now, I only have one goal in the game. I met this Tauren Shaman called Atlas, my mission is to make him shrug at some point and take a screenshot of that. 'Nuff said.
Hell, I mean, it seems that everyone has played TBC for a while at one point or another. Even Ragnar Tornquist and Ron Gilbert are playing too, the latter even making his own Blood Elf guild! I'd so join that if I could play on his server. Oh, wells.
In all honesty, one of the reasons I started playing WoW again was because I wanted something to drive me away from Justice for All, which I had begun to rush through. And I really want to savor this game, enjoy every single bad pun, figure out every single reference etc. I dunno, it's kind of a weird feeling. From what I've been told, I'm not the only one who gets it with certain games, that feeling of sweet melancholy you get when you're nearing the end of a game you really liked. On one hand you're happy because you had a great time with it, and on the other one you're kind of sad because it's about to end. That's exactly what I got, and since it's gonna be a while before we get Ace Attorney 3, I'm in no rush to finish #2. Besides, playing Justice for all while in bed in the early hours of the night rocks.
So anyway, back to the Burning Crusade. I started playing with my level 60 Druid Erdalion, in my old server Argent Dawn, which is a roleplay server, in theory at least. Thing is, pretty much everybody rushed to level 70 (the new max in TBC) in the first few weeks, so leveling so far has been a pretty lonely experience. Sure I've teamed up with a few people here and there for dungeons or difficult quests, but it feels like most of the people I've met have characters level 70 already and just use the characters I meet them with as a past-time for when they're bored. So yeah, TBC is a Massively Singleplayer Online RPG for me so far in the Outlands. Still, I had a lot of fun with certain quests, and Blizzard's love for pop culture references made me laugh out loud a few times, a good example is the Tenacious Defender.
Unsurprisingly then, it wasn't long before the sameness of everything got to me. Quests so far don't really vary from the "Go there, kill X of this and get Y of that" variation. Sure, the new locations look pretty nice (except Nagrand and Hellfire Peninsula, fuck that place) but it gets boring after spending so many hours in the same place. I've been told that quests get better, and there are several dungeons to explore, which don't take that much time, but there are only so many times you can run those before it gets tedious. At this rate, I'll probably quit the game before I reach level 70 for the ranked Arena matches, but really, single-player grinding is not my favorite past-time, I rank it up there with shoving searing needles in my eyes.
And it doesn't help that the level of roleplay in my server is... Well, I'll let the following video describe it better, even if it's not made for my realm:
In all fairness, WoW isn't exactly tailor-made for RP, and I have found some occasions of excellent random RP. But generally, that's how it's been in the Outlands so far.
So what's a guy to do then? Why, roll a Blood Elf of course! I initially made a male hunter with the intend to level him because hunters are great fun, but I also made a female rogue because I had this storyline idea about such a character and thought I might as well give that a try. The result was, I got hooked on the rogue style of play. Stealthing everywhere is so much fun (even for a druid player, who's used to it) and the starting areas are so well-designed, Silvermoon City is one of the most beautiful cities I've seen in a game, and the quests are interesting and quite balanced. I decided to take this rogue business seriously, so at level 14 I swam all the way to Westfall (one of the starting areas for human characters) and got the Red Defias Mask, a rogue trademark, here's Gil at Undercity:
I'm up to level 21 currently, struggling a bit with the poisons quest, but leveling has been a blast so far. There are many people around leveling their Blood Elves as well, so it's really easy to find a good group, not to mention that most of them are really nice, which is quite surprising. Sure, there's the occasional jackass around, like one guy who expected me to run him through a series of high level quests so he'd get a certain item, when I wasn't really able of doing some of those quests on my own to begin with. And all that for just 5 gold! People these days. But hey, you can't avoid idiots in real life, so it's hardly surprising when you run into them in such an anonymous environment.
I have to say, on the roleplay side of things, I've been lucky enough to find a lot of it so far. Most people react in-character if you approach them that way, and I've had a few excellent RP sessions so far, more than I've had in a whole year almost. Only last night I run into an Orcish/Trollish celebration at Ratchet, apparently they had killed some boss and they were celebrating about it in excellent in-character fashion. They didn't seem to like Elves though, and my character isn't that fond of Orcs either, so this resulted in some hilarious misunderstandings, all in-character though. I hope I can run into more of these soon, here's a screenie of the aforementioned party:
Still, I agree with Ragnar Tornquist when he says that the first 20 levels are the best, after that it gets a bit boring for me. Initially, my goal was to get the Mask, the Cape seen in the screenshot above and a really nice dagger. Now that's over, I only feel like finishing the quest that gives me access to poisons, but after that is done... Chances are, I'll lose interest again, and with many games to play like the new Sam and Max episodes, WoW will be left behind, again. At this point, I doubt I'll ever get Gil the rogue to the Outland (the new area in TBC).
As it is now, I only have one goal in the game. I met this Tauren Shaman called Atlas, my mission is to make him shrug at some point and take a screenshot of that. 'Nuff said.
Tuesday, February 20
Spine tingling legal action!
Mind numbing legalese!
You will say "wow"!
Wait, I used that last line in my previous post. Oh, well. Since I can't sleep, here's another Phoenix Wright video, something of a recap from the first two games, with a few scenes from the (as of yet unreleased in the Western world) third game, so spoiler warnings apply to those sensitive to uh... spoilerage.
I think this is a really beautiful video. I have no flippin' clue of what they're talking about either, but I just like how they say it. From what I understand, they are reciting lines from the first two games, so that's definitely no bad thing.
It also got me thinking. A Phoenix Wright game with speech, if done wright, erm... right, would be like the best game ever. And given the care that goes to the script and dialogs, there's no reason to suspect Capcom wouldn't try their hardest to hire some really good actors for the job. Though given that they are Capcom, finding good actors may actually be impossible for them -Resident Evil series, anyone?
Still, such a thing could never be done on the DS anyway, and I think the system is perfect for the game, so it's just wishful thinking, really. Perhaps on the Wii, who knows. Plus, hey, if Resident Evil 2 was released on a Nintendo 64 cartridge, anything is possible.
You will say "wow"!
Wait, I used that last line in my previous post. Oh, well. Since I can't sleep, here's another Phoenix Wright video, something of a recap from the first two games, with a few scenes from the (as of yet unreleased in the Western world) third game, so spoiler warnings apply to those sensitive to uh... spoilerage.
I think this is a really beautiful video. I have no flippin' clue of what they're talking about either, but I just like how they say it. From what I understand, they are reciting lines from the first two games, so that's definitely no bad thing.
It also got me thinking. A Phoenix Wright game with speech, if done wright, erm... right, would be like the best game ever. And given the care that goes to the script and dialogs, there's no reason to suspect Capcom wouldn't try their hardest to hire some really good actors for the job. Though given that they are Capcom, finding good actors may actually be impossible for them -Resident Evil series, anyone?
Still, such a thing could never be done on the DS anyway, and I think the system is perfect for the game, so it's just wishful thinking, really. Perhaps on the Wii, who knows. Plus, hey, if Resident Evil 2 was released on a Nintendo 64 cartridge, anything is possible.
Court is back in session!
In my second post ever in this blog I mentioned a DS game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. I recently got the second game in the series, Justice for All, though now Capcom officially renamed the series Ace Attorney. I still consider Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney as the best game I've played in the last oh, several years. Bring me your Twilight Princesses and your Halos, your Half-Life 2's and your Oblivions, WoW's, anything. Nick Wright's misadventure of comedy and turnabouts is that much better. If you're interested, you can read my review in Adventure Lantern,
Here's a trailer from the second game:
I've been playing Justice for All a lot these days, I'm currently at the beginning of the third case, out of a total of four. Sadly there is no special fifth case with new gameplay elements this time around, so the game initially feels like a step backwards from the previous entry. That, combined with a few music tracks that are kinda "meh" and some mediocre writing in the first case, troubled me at first. But after one hour in the second case, when the game really starts rolling, oh my. As Maya Fey says, "You will say 'wow'!"
As I said in my first post all way back in September, Phoenix Wright has mastered one thing really rare among games; perfect balance between humor and drama. For every hilarious moment, there's a touching one, for every silly occurrence, there's a genuinely spine-chilling one. It's so well-written, it even puts several TV shows and movies to shame.
Which is why I personally like it so much. It has that elusive quality, a certain "je ne sais quoi" that ye old games of yore had, it's truly entertaining, but in a deep way, not a superficial one. It has characters and stories that will stay with you long after you've finished the games. Personally, after the seeing the quality of the second game, I now consider the Ace Attorney series one of my very favorite ones, up there with Castlevania, Street Fighter, Zelda etc.
Now some people, for example my good friend Tom, would say "But at the heart of it, it's just a traditional point & click adventure"
In response to those,
*slams both his hands on the desk and raises his left index finger towards the people in question*
Good games are more than just the sum of their parts. Sure, the core mechanics of PW's gameplay are based on a point and click system, but both games make significant advancements with regards to visual and audio presentation. Essentially, the trial parts of PW are a fighting game in adventure game format. Hell, Justice for All even has a health meter! And a person (Maggie/Maggy I think) calls for Phoenix to perform his "special move". Which is probably another reason why I like these games so much, given that since I were a teenager, my two favorite gaming genres were adventures and fighting games. So what better than a game that combines both of these genres?
Anyway, don't want to rant more than I have to (again). I have another video and a few more things to say, but I'll do that in a follow-up post.
Here's a trailer from the second game:
I've been playing Justice for All a lot these days, I'm currently at the beginning of the third case, out of a total of four. Sadly there is no special fifth case with new gameplay elements this time around, so the game initially feels like a step backwards from the previous entry. That, combined with a few music tracks that are kinda "meh" and some mediocre writing in the first case, troubled me at first. But after one hour in the second case, when the game really starts rolling, oh my. As Maya Fey says, "You will say 'wow'!"
As I said in my first post all way back in September, Phoenix Wright has mastered one thing really rare among games; perfect balance between humor and drama. For every hilarious moment, there's a touching one, for every silly occurrence, there's a genuinely spine-chilling one. It's so well-written, it even puts several TV shows and movies to shame.
Which is why I personally like it so much. It has that elusive quality, a certain "je ne sais quoi" that ye old games of yore had, it's truly entertaining, but in a deep way, not a superficial one. It has characters and stories that will stay with you long after you've finished the games. Personally, after the seeing the quality of the second game, I now consider the Ace Attorney series one of my very favorite ones, up there with Castlevania, Street Fighter, Zelda etc.
Now some people, for example my good friend Tom, would say "But at the heart of it, it's just a traditional point & click adventure"
In response to those,
*slams both his hands on the desk and raises his left index finger towards the people in question*
Good games are more than just the sum of their parts. Sure, the core mechanics of PW's gameplay are based on a point and click system, but both games make significant advancements with regards to visual and audio presentation. Essentially, the trial parts of PW are a fighting game in adventure game format. Hell, Justice for All even has a health meter! And a person (Maggie/Maggy I think) calls for Phoenix to perform his "special move". Which is probably another reason why I like these games so much, given that since I were a teenager, my two favorite gaming genres were adventures and fighting games. So what better than a game that combines both of these genres?
Anyway, don't want to rant more than I have to (again). I have another video and a few more things to say, but I'll do that in a follow-up post.
Friday, February 16
Prepare for Glory!
Hyped yet?Between Gates of Fire (which I recently finished reading -best book ever) and this, I'm in full-Spartan mode lately. When I'm not playing Phoenix Wright 2 anyway, but I'll talk about that in more detail in a future post.
I have to say, I find all the people drawing parallels between this movie and the current situation in Iran very funny, in a "come on!" way. Seriously, come the fuck on people, stop seeing propaganda and conspiracies all the time.
Sure, the Persians aren't shown in a very positive light neither in the graphic novel nor the movie, but have you seen how the Spartans are portrayed? Heroic, sure, but also militaristic, narrow-minded and undemocratic (is that a word?) as they were, in fact. Yet the whiners totally ignore this. And yes, in the end, despite all this the Spartans are the heroes, but y'know, that's kinda like the whole point of this story.
The only thing I'll give credit to the whiners for is that this movie has bad timing. Fairy nuff, that much is true. Anything beyond that is just stupid though; people just enjoy being paranoid I guess.
I won't even mention the Greeks whining about the fact that the movie won't be historically accurate, since talking to people who just won't get it it's simply a waste of time.
Sunday, February 11
In case of emergency, please call...
112. This is the EU equivalent of 911, one emergency phone number to rule them all. It's a welcome change, since currently most countries in the EU have different phone numbers for different services, like the police or the fire department. Moreover, none of these numbers are shared throughout the countries of the EU, so you'd have to memorize each and every one, or at least, you know, store them in your cell. At any rate, with this new number the whole procedure becomes much more simplified, and much faster too, hopefully.
In theory, at least. I somehow doubt Greeks will adapt to this smoothly. It's already a pain to call any civil service here as it is, grouping them up together could prove to be a nightmare. Or it could force the local phone operators to grow the proverbial pair, and actually do their job for once. We'll see, I guess.
The following picture has nothing to do with 112, 911, or anything in this post at all, but I just felt like posting it.
I'm truly sorry.
In theory, at least. I somehow doubt Greeks will adapt to this smoothly. It's already a pain to call any civil service here as it is, grouping them up together could prove to be a nightmare. Or it could force the local phone operators to grow the proverbial pair, and actually do their job for once. We'll see, I guess.
The following picture has nothing to do with 112, 911, or anything in this post at all, but I just felt like posting it.
I'm truly sorry.
Monday, February 5
O2 is alright
And so are The Gathering. Their concert in Athens last night was probably the finest of the last 30,000 years. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that they are one of the most important bands of the last decade.
Thursday, February 1
Just because
Since I earlier brought up Street Fighter, Street Fighter: The movie and um, stupid "things" I guess, there's a movie I need to share with you.
In fact, I'd go as far as saying that you have never been truly alive unless you've seen this. This is from a SF VR ride*. The ride of your life.
*You know, those stupid pseudo-3D things they used to have in fairs back in the 90's.
In fact, I'd go as far as saying that you have never been truly alive unless you've seen this. This is from a SF VR ride*. The ride of your life.
*You know, those stupid pseudo-3D things they used to have in fairs back in the 90's.
Of clouds and silver linings (cont.)
As I was saying, sometimes even the things that will seemingly destroy your soul may one day be the source of something really useful.
Case in point: remember that god-awful fighting game, Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game (SFTMTG)? You know, that one, the black sheep of the SF family. The one with the Mortal Kombat-style digitized graphics? In all honesty I never really got the chance to play it, they never brought it at the arcades in my hometown, and the reviews I read all mentioned that it was horrible, so neither me nor my friends ever bought it. It is however commonly known as the worst Street Fighter game ever, and perhaps one of the worst fighting games ever as well, though that may be pushing it a bit. Still, the fact that it is based on Street Fighter: The Movie, a movie that succeeded in eroding the souls and minds of an entire generation of children, is bad enough to probably give it a place in that list.
At any rate, it's been more than a decade since both the movie and the game were released, so our memories of either started fading over the years, our wounds started healing. One question always puzzled me however; why did Capcom, a company I practically worshiped at the time, create such an awful game? Not that they had never created a mediocre title before, but the Street Fighter franchise has always been precious to them, especially back then in the mid-nineties, when fighting games still ruled the arcades. And hell, why did they even make a Street Fighter game that looked like Mortal Kombat, when most people acknowledged that Street Fighter was the superior franchise? Which it always has been, you MK fanbois reading this can go play Deadly Alliance if you disagree.
Over the years I would find out that Capcom had in fact outsourced the game to a little (and little-known) company called Incredible Technologies. That explained a lot, it wasn't created by the original team, such a change is usually a recipe for disaster. Still, it couldn't have been a crappy game from the beginning, otherwise it would have just been scrapped early on. So my questions still remained, how could the game end up like this, what went wrong?
So what do you know, about a week ago Alan Noon, a former Incredible Technologies employee and one of the main people responsible for the creation of SFTMTG decided to start sharing the story behind this game over at the ShoRyuKen forums. He's really going into a lot of detail, describing the whole procedure, from early designing to... actually I'm not sure since I'm still on page 6 of the thread, but I'm assuming he'll go as far as mentioning the feedback they received after it was released.
It's a really interesting read, and not just for people wondering how a game so bad could ever be released under the Street Fighter name. Noon's description of the whole game-designing procedure is really detailed, I think it's actually very inspirational for aspiring, well, game-designers. And yes, I fall under that category. Hell, even if you're not into that and just want to see what's going on behind the scenes of a game, it's still a good read. If nothing else, it shows that even though we now idolize the 90's as the "golden age" of gaming and a time when people cared more about the quality of a game than its potential sales, people still only cared about the money back then as well. I mean, do you actually remember the shit that Acclaim used to release in the SNES/Genesis~Mega Drive days?
Still, truth be told, back then there were less executives trying to boss around people like Warren Spector into making a mascot-based cart racer ("JC Denton's Ultimate Kooky Wheelz" for the win!) , but it was hardly the developer heaven that people claim it to be. Naw, that was old Infocom in the 80's. For more on that, you can read an interview of Brian Moriarty (Loom) over at Adventure Classic Gaming, another great read.
Case in point: remember that god-awful fighting game, Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game (SFTMTG)? You know, that one, the black sheep of the SF family. The one with the Mortal Kombat-style digitized graphics? In all honesty I never really got the chance to play it, they never brought it at the arcades in my hometown, and the reviews I read all mentioned that it was horrible, so neither me nor my friends ever bought it. It is however commonly known as the worst Street Fighter game ever, and perhaps one of the worst fighting games ever as well, though that may be pushing it a bit. Still, the fact that it is based on Street Fighter: The Movie, a movie that succeeded in eroding the souls and minds of an entire generation of children, is bad enough to probably give it a place in that list.
At any rate, it's been more than a decade since both the movie and the game were released, so our memories of either started fading over the years, our wounds started healing. One question always puzzled me however; why did Capcom, a company I practically worshiped at the time, create such an awful game? Not that they had never created a mediocre title before, but the Street Fighter franchise has always been precious to them, especially back then in the mid-nineties, when fighting games still ruled the arcades. And hell, why did they even make a Street Fighter game that looked like Mortal Kombat, when most people acknowledged that Street Fighter was the superior franchise? Which it always has been, you MK fanbois reading this can go play Deadly Alliance if you disagree.
Over the years I would find out that Capcom had in fact outsourced the game to a little (and little-known) company called Incredible Technologies. That explained a lot, it wasn't created by the original team, such a change is usually a recipe for disaster. Still, it couldn't have been a crappy game from the beginning, otherwise it would have just been scrapped early on. So my questions still remained, how could the game end up like this, what went wrong?
So what do you know, about a week ago Alan Noon, a former Incredible Technologies employee and one of the main people responsible for the creation of SFTMTG decided to start sharing the story behind this game over at the ShoRyuKen forums. He's really going into a lot of detail, describing the whole procedure, from early designing to... actually I'm not sure since I'm still on page 6 of the thread, but I'm assuming he'll go as far as mentioning the feedback they received after it was released.
It's a really interesting read, and not just for people wondering how a game so bad could ever be released under the Street Fighter name. Noon's description of the whole game-designing procedure is really detailed, I think it's actually very inspirational for aspiring, well, game-designers. And yes, I fall under that category. Hell, even if you're not into that and just want to see what's going on behind the scenes of a game, it's still a good read. If nothing else, it shows that even though we now idolize the 90's as the "golden age" of gaming and a time when people cared more about the quality of a game than its potential sales, people still only cared about the money back then as well. I mean, do you actually remember the shit that Acclaim used to release in the SNES/Genesis~Mega Drive days?
Still, truth be told, back then there were less executives trying to boss around people like Warren Spector into making a mascot-based cart racer ("JC Denton's Ultimate Kooky Wheelz" for the win!) , but it was hardly the developer heaven that people claim it to be. Naw, that was old Infocom in the 80's. For more on that, you can read an interview of Brian Moriarty (Loom) over at Adventure Classic Gaming, another great read.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)