Saturday, October 31, 2009

How to buy Dragon Age: Origins

Maybe I'm alone but buying Dragon Age is pretty complicated.  There are standard editions, collectors editions and digital deluxe version.   You can buy it online or in stores and most of the time what you get is different.  Hopefully this post can help you decide how best to buy DA:O.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Friday Black-Hole

Does it feel like a black-hole is stationed next to your cubical, slowing time down to a crawl?  Each second seems to take longer than the next.  Sure, you could buckle down and work, but who are we kidding?  The answer is out there, somewhere (like after the break). 

WAR unveils a new Free Trial

In this months newsletter, Mythic announced that they have made some changes to their 10-Day Free trial.  At first the news worried me a little, but the more I thought about it, the better the idea sounded.  Once it goes live, it will be a great time to try out WAR.  Read on for more details. 

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Torchlight Video Review

Usually, I don't like to do game reviews.  One reason is I feel you cannot really sum up a game with a number.  Another is that often times it is hard to get a feel for how a game plays. For the new Action RPG, Torchlight, I decided to do a video review.  You can watch how the game plays while I talk about what it has to offer. 

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

WAR comes to the Mac

That's right Mac users, Warhammer Online is now officially released for you.  If you want to check it out, head over here and download the trial version.  To remember the occasion, I threw together a quick commercial.  I do mean quick, so I apologize in advance for the quality ;)  Check it out after the jump.

What WAR can learn from Aion

Soon my time in Aion will come to an end.  As I expected, the game is just not for me.  It isn't a bad game and I did have some fun while playing.  Even though I won't be playing it, there are some things that WAR can learn and hopefully be an even better game.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

The truth about zombies

Fallen Earth tells it like it is.


Werit at WAR: Daemon Moon Rising

Most of my WAR playtime this week has involved the current Live Event, Daemon Moon Rising.  I think this has been one of the best Live Event's yet.  It has sparked quite a bit of RvR with the PQ and bringing the back High Pass Cemetery scenario.  See for yourself after the jump.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Action Points get Fixed

One of the long standing criticisms of WAR is that it require zero to little 'skill.'  I won't debate what 'skill' really means, as that is a whole a post in itself.  In this case, it comes down to just being able to SPAM abilities.  In 1.3.2, WAR has taken steps to fix this problem.

Werit goes to GameX

Much to my surprise there was a video game conference close to where I live over the weekend.  It was called GameX and it was a developer conference plus an expo.  I've never been to a game conference before, so I drove over to check out the expo.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Friday Time Accelerator

The weekend is almost here, but a long Friday at work stands in between.  You could pass the time by working... or you could do whatever you can to make it seem to fly by.  I'm a big fan of the latter, so I offer you these links.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Daemon Moon has Risen

The newest Live Event for WAR has begun.  It is a day early, but I'm not complaining.  This event has me pretty excited, so let's get to it.  You can find the task list and other info after the break.

Q&A with Soldak's Steven Peeler

Yesterday, we had a preview of Soldak's new game, Din's Curse.  I was able to catch up with its creator, Steven Peeler, and ask some questions. Thanks Steven!

Werit:  Please tell us a little about yourself and your new game, Din's Curse.

My name is Steven Peeler. I’m the owner of Soldak Entertainment, the lead designer of our games, and the only programmer over here.

Din’s Curse is our upcoming single player and co-op multiplayer action RPG with 141 class combinations, infinite number of dynamically generated towns, real consequences, and a dynamic, evolving world.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Fallen Earth Freebies

Another 3 post day, I'm turning into Syp.  I just can't help myself though, there is so much game stuff to talk about!  Out of nowhere, an email from the Fallen Earth team arrived.  It was a nice coincidence as I was in game catching up on my crafting.

Re-Enlist in WAR

Are you tired killing that same old monster over and over again?  Do you want to take out your frustrations on others?  Have an urge to yell WAAAGH?  If you do, now may be a good time to give WAR a chance.  There are a number of reasons why.

Din's Curse Preview

Action RPG's, such as the ever popular Diablo, tend to be relatively simple hack and slash games.  Soldak Entertainment is taking them to a whole new level.  In their upcoming Action RPG, Din's Curse, they bring a dynamic and meaningful game world to the genre.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Dawntide Giveaway UPDATE

All the invites for the Dawntide Beta Giveaway have been sent out.  Be sure to check your SPAM boxes just in case.  Thanks to everyone who sent in a request.  If you missed it or did not get an invite, be sure to register at Dawntide's Beta Center

2 weeks, 3 games

Is it almost November already?  It seems like I was just talking about the huge MMO month of September.  Not to be outdone, October and November are teaming up to bring us the launch of 3 new games.  While they are not MMO's, they definetly deserve your attention.

Dawntide Beta Key Giveaway

Dawntide is a new sandbox style MMO which is currently in its 2nd beta phase.  Some of the main features are: Skill based, Open World, SWG-like crafting, sailing and town building.  I happen to have a number of beta keys to give out, sound interesting?

Monday, October 19, 2009

Days of the Dead

Fall is upon us and that means the start of MMO holiday event season.  Fallen Earth is launching their first event, Days of the Dead, just in time for Halloween.   Most holiday events are pretty lackluster to me, but I am excited about this one.

Werit at WAR 10/19

In this week's 'Werit at WAR' segment I decided to try something new.  As I'm on a video kick, I recorded some of the action I saw this weekend.  Most of the clips end up with me dying though.  I also made up a new title sequence, so let me know what you think.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Werit Gets Owned

Three posts, on a Friday?  I know, it is a bit out of the ordinary.  To celebrate Friday and the release of the 1.3.2 patch I have another video for you.  This time it is of my character, Tirew, getting demolished in a fight.
Enjoy!

Producer's Letter - What was missing

The Producer's Letter released yesterday was pretty good.  It will be a much needed patch even if it doesn't get players all excited.  There are a few things that I would have loved to seen in the letter.  Hopefully they will be realized in an upcoming patch.

WAR Producer's Letter

Yesterday, the much anticipated 1.3.2 patch was released on the live servers.  Along with the patch, we also got another Producer's Letter which outlines the current and future plans for the game.  What does Mythic have in store?

Thursday, October 15, 2009

WAR Siege Video 1.3.2 Part 2

In Part 1 of the 1.3.2 PTS Siege Event we saw Order on the offensive.  Performance was very good, but the video did not really show the true scale of the Destruction force.  In Part 2,  Order is defending the keep.  This actually happened prior to the first part.  Did performance hold up inside the keep?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

WAR Siege Video 1.3.2

As I mentioned in the last post, I took 60 gig worth of video from last nights PTS event.  I think this does a good job of showing just how far WAR's performance has come.  My graphics were set to Balanced and I was using Fraps to record.  Over 250 players participated and still the video came out pretty good.  Check it out after the break.

NOTE: Part 2 is up!

1.3.2 Impressions

Last night, Mythic held a PTS event to test their performance improvements.  The goal was to get a whole bunch of people attacking a very well defended keep and see how it holds up.  Over 250 players ended up fighting over the keep. How did WAR do?

NOTE:  Check out the video of the siege
NOTE:  Part 2 of the Siege Video is up.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

WAR PvP video 1.3.2

In preparation of tonight's PTS event for WAR, I logged in to get all patched up.  After patching I thought I'd look around and see what was going on.  The map showed some action in Reikland so that seemed like a good place to start.  I took some video of the fight, it's after the break.

Fallen Earth Tips - Auction House

It is good to know that commerce has survived the apocalypse.  The zones in Fallen Earth are big... really big, so it can be a bit of a pain to find things.  This weeks tip reveals the location of the Auction House in Sector 1.  Hop on your horse or ATV and load up your junk as there are chips to be made.  Check out the video after the jump.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Kindle vs Sony Reader

I saw a commercial for the new Sony Reader which said it started at $199.  As a Kindle user my curiosity was peaked due to the low price.  Amazon recently lowered the Kindle 2's price to $249 and this was even cheaper.  So I set off to find out why it was so 'cheap.'

Hoarders - The MMO

I was watching the A&E show, Hoarders and couldn't help but think of MMO's.  If you're not familiar with the show, it is about people who cannot throw anything away.  Their homes and yards end up turning into junk yards.  In real life it turns out to be a very serious problem, but in MMO's it is standard fare.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Dawntide: And so it begins

Dawntide has entered phase 2 of its beta.  With some luck, a bribe and a sacrifice or two I was granted access.  Since they don't use a NDA I can freely talk about (and show) my experiences.  It should be pretty fun to document its development. Oh and of course help them find bugs :)



Some of the graphics are very nice, much better than I was expecting for a beta.  I especially like the water and sky.  For more articles about Dawntide, click on the tag.

You may still be able to get into this round of testing, head over to their beta center

Passing the time

Another Friday is upon us.  What better way to help the day go by faster than surfing the web?

This week on Werit we saw...

Warhammer Online gets a new beginning.
We watched many a ship be blown up in Gratuitous Space Battles
Cliff Harris came by to chat about said space ships blowing up.
We learned about WAR's plan to get everyone involved in RvR... well almost everyone. 

Elsewhere...

Syp tells us what Star Trek Online should learn from Champions Online.
Guess who's back? JoBildo's back!
Syncaine tells the tale of how they lost a city.
Triumph at the Star Wars opening.  Yea it's old but still hilarious.
Grimnir  discovers the long sought after WAR poems.

Have a good weekend!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

WAR for Everyone

Another one of the features coming to WAR in the 1.3.2 patch is an apprenticeship system.  Due to the always entertaining chicken system, higher ranked players are forbidden from participating in lower tier RvR.  It also isn't feasible for lower ranked players to participate in higher tier RvR.  With this new system,  all of that should now be possible.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Q&A with GSB's Cliff Harris

Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Cliff Harris, the creator of Gratuitous Space Battles.  If you are not familiar with the game, be sure to check out the video preview.  GSB is all about designing your fleet, giving them orders and then watching the carnage that unfolds. Thanks Cliff!

Werit:  Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your new game?

I'm cliff harris, most people call me cliffski. I used to be a programmer working at Lionhead, and I left there to set up my own little one-man games company. I've been doing that for quite a few years, doing games like Kudos and Democracy, but my latest game is a space strategy game called 'Gratuitous Space Battles'. It's a new take on the whole war-game genre, because it's all about planning and strategy, rather than fast reflexes and direct control of your forces.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Gratuitous Space Battles - Video Preview

Gratuitous Space Battles (GSB) is a new title from the one man programming band, Positech Games.  The best way to describe it would be to take Master of Orion (or Space Empires), pull out the ship design and tactical combat and then build a game around them.   As the name suggests, you end up with some very cool (and large) space battles.

If you pre-order the game you are able to download the current beta version.  I ended up doing that a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd put together a video preview for the game.  Check it out after the jump.

NOTE: Check out a Q&A with the creator.

Monday, October 5, 2009

WAR's New Beginning

One of the new changes coming to WAR Patch 1.3.2 is a revamp of the new user experience.  As it stands now, new players will start in their racial pairing, of which there are 3.  This is not in itself a bad idea, for a PvE game.  Multiple starting areas are usually a must when PvP is not a concern.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Rifts

One of the more interesting concepts in Aion are the Rifts.  These portals allow for limited PvP in zones outside of the Abyss.  Over the last couple days I've had a chance to play with them.  They provide a bit of spice to an otherwise bland PvE experience.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Daemon Moon Rising

Live Events have always been one of the great features of Warhammer Online. Yesterday they spilled the beans on the next one which is called Daemon Moon Rising. Is that the moon that just hangs out in the background? Is it too early for a computer joke?

Check out the details and a video after the jump. I am experimenting with using page jumps, so if you love them or hate them, let me know.