Ragnar’s Realms

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Filed under: Fan stuff, Videos

Known for his withering opinions on popular titles, a gamer in Australia known as Yahtzee releases a new episode of his video reviews via The Escapist every Wednesday. Known as “Zero Punctuation” due to the lack of natural pauses and breathing, Yahtzee takes on games for the purpose of humor and sarcasm. This week his victim is Devil May Cry 4 and boy, does he make it weep. Touching on everything from anime conventions to unentertaining cinematics to the nature of the main characters and plot. Despite giving the game it’s due for fun and stylish combat, he finds a ridiculous amount of stuff that detracts from it (for him and review anyway) and really takes the game to task for it’s retracing of steps and short length. As always, the humor is the highlight and if you disagree with his opinions, best to simply find what you can to be funny and move on. As a final parting note we leave you with this: Old Meat. Wasp+Spider+Slipknot+Gummy Bears.

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Today,  

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action, Adventure

Lady Croft may be the first true comeback kid in gaming with a return to form in recent years in Tomb Raider Legend and Tomb Raider Anniversary. IGN got its hands on a demo of Lara’s latest adventure in Tomb Raider Underworld and it appears the series will continue its upward trend.

A pre-alpha build of Underworld showed enemy AI actually going for cover and using squad tactics instead of just suicidally staying in the open to get picked off (which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s revolutionary for the series). Lara has also been given new melee abilities, including the use of a pole to whack jaguars and send them scampering. Not riddling creatures with bullets should make the animal rights people happy.

Check it out and prepare yourself for the inevitable question, “Who is the cooler tomb raider? Ms. Lara Croft or Mr. Nathan Drake?”

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Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Fan stuff, BioShock

The photoshop mavericks over at Something Awful based last week’s picture alterations on a shopping cart safety warning sign. You know, those little warning “seats” that you place kids in and they tell you what not to do while using them? Yeah, those ones. Anyhoo, one example of some great photoshopping is the Portal themed one you see above in all its cake glory. There’s another Portal one after the break jump and even a BioShock themed one too. All are great photoshops and are based on themes that made us laugh. And before you ask (because we know you will), we say yes. Yes we would shop at a store that had these seats in their carts even if they were that nastified and dirty. That’s just how we roll.

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Today,  

Filed under: WoW Social Conventions, Virtual selves

Ippy on LJ has been thinking names of late. He asked for people to tell him how they came up with the names for their characters. Coming up with a character name is always a challenge for me. It’s not that I don’t have ideas, it’s just that for the most part, when I start a new alt, they are a blank slate on that character selection screen, and I find it hard to pigeon-hole someone I barely know with a name that might only allow them to play a certain way or take certain talents.

As it turns out, there are all kinds of places that players get their names, from mythology to foreign languages to household pets. I currently tend to use two different types of naming conventions. I have those boring character names I have been toting from game to game with me over the years, and I have the “I should so name a druid Roflmeow” inspiration moments. Yes, I can be silly too on occasion.

In any case, I extend this question to you, the reader. Where do you glean your inspiration for naming your characters? Or are you the brave type to choose names from the randomizer and have done with?

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Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Culture, Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Business

After gaining some traction by calling Nintendo out a couple weeks ago for being a massive environmental offender, eco-terrorist environmentally conscious group Greenpeace is calling for reforms across the game industry. Greenpeace says that console manufacturers are “lagging way behind” mobile phone and PC makers in reducing their “toxic load” in the last year. They say that game consoles have many of the same parts as PCs, so the manufacturers can do “a lot more.”

The console manufacturers have yet to respond to the Greenpeace allegations. The campaign gives a list of toxic materials used in manufacturing and introduces really peripheral things like Chinese and Indian workers in production facilities are at risk of exposure to chemicals. Greenpeace has created a 90-second video aimed at gamers in which iconic characters from the major consoles compete for greener consoles. When we see this thing and get an embeddable version we’ll place it after the break.

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Today,  

Filed under: Patches, Events, PvP

We’ve been preparing for the stress test, are mostly gemmed and enchanted up, and are looking to fight! I’ll be updating this post as things happen, hopefully with riveting tales of victory and triumph over Alliance Care Bears. (Kidding of course, my main is an Human warrior.)

Read on after the break for the updates! We’ll keep this front page only for things that are affecting everyone.

Update 1:50 p.m. PST: Server’s up!

Continue reading Stress test live blog

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Today,  

Filed under: News, Peripherals, Rumors

The mystery of the “Lips” game (news that was leaked days early thanks to Microsoft’s press site) is seeing another twist, with word that “Lips” really isn’t a game. Instead, “Lips” is rumored to be the codename for a new Xbox 360 accessory.

8Bit Joystick is reporting that months ago they got a hold of insider documents from the Xbox 360 engineering team and came across mention of a new 360 voice accessory code named “Lips”. No more information was detailed in the supposed insider documents, but 8Bit Joystick speculates that these “Lips” will either be a new way to communicate or will add voice recognition to games. We aren’t sure if that makes much sense seeing that we have a perfectly functioning headset that does voice recognition, but we’ll go with it seeing that “Lips” speculation is more fun when thinking about new accessories. So … is tomorrow’s news here yet?

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Today,  

Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Rhythm

According to IGN, EA CEO John Riccitiello confirmed the “coming launch” of Rock Band for Wii in a rather roundabout way. The confirmation came during a conference call to discuss EA’s quarterly earnings when Riccitiello referred to the “coming launch” of the Wii version. Just in case that wasn’t clear enough, IGN did get confirmation from EA that, indeed, the rock star simulator would be making a Wii debut. There was no release date given for the launch — or information on instruments, price, or DLC - but hey, at least now we finally know it’s coming.

[Thanks, Fernando]

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Today,  

Filed under: Virtual selves, Lore, RP, All the World’s a Stage

All the World’s a Stage is a weekly column by David Bowers, published on Sunday evenings, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.

We’ve talked before about roleplaying as an art form, whether you think about it as acting or puppeteering, fiction or improv, there’s definitely something creative going on here. But like any art form, roleplaying is best when it means something; that’s to say, when it expresses something ultimately “true” about human experience, and perhaps even illumines the minds and hearts of the roleplayers in some way.

Roleplayers all want to achieve that creativity, of course, but one problem often stands in our way: it’s a rare work of art that really works for everyone. That’s why the regular old art world is such a complete mess — one man’s fingerpainting is another man’s post-modernist masterpiece. People constantly disagree about what subjects make for acceptable art, whether some art pushes extremes too far and becomes obscenity, and whether real art actually requires talent and skill. One person may curl up with their favorite Jane Austen novel and read it for the 10th time, while another may come home from the comic book store with the epic adventures of the Bone cousins. Each story conveys very different things to the reader — but then the people who want to read these stories are looking for different things to get out them as well. Each form of storytelling speaks its own language for its own special audience.

We have the same problem in roleplaying. To illustrate, imagine there’s a teenage boy going through public school and not getting along with his peers very well. When he roleplays, he plays an intimidating character who likes to try to get in your face, pick a fight with you and insult you to show how very powerful he is. That power fantasy may be very annoying for you and me, but for him it really means something. That’s not to say it’s high-quality art by any means, but nonetheless, his feelings are important too, and he has his right to play a character on an RP server the same way we all do. It’s just that for us, the “/ignore” command starts to look really tempting every time his sort comes along.

These creative clashes of one sort or another can pop up when you least expect them to. Just today I saw a character named “Ironotron,” a female blood elf, whose player apparently thought it was funny to prance around and say things like “Cheese makes me soooo hoorrnnnnyyyyy!” and “mount me!” and so on. Once I heard that much I typed “/ignore” right away and fortunately I didn’t have to bother about it anymore. It could very well be that the character was actually supposed to be a malfunctioning android robot whose player actually thought would be clever — but just like I don’t need to visit every museum in the world, I also don’t have to interact with roleplayers (or any players, for that matter) who want to play or communicate ways that I personally find distasteful or completely off the wall.

A somewhat more difficult problem comes when we encounter the Sephiroth Syndrome we talked about last week: when someone’s idea of an interesting character means copying a page from some other fantasy world and pasting it into WoW, or else making up something totally unrelated to the general context of the Warcraft universe. Such a character may have little or nothing in common with other characters in WoW. However, a player in the early stages of Sephiroth Syndrome can often be assisted by a compassionate and experienced roleplayer with an eye for talent, but if not they’ll usually end up finding their own little circle and lose interest in you after you lose interest in them. They may bother you in some extreme cases, but “/ignore” should not be necessary most of the time.

Probably the most difficult creative clash, however, comes when players who are really reasonable and creative people, or even good friends, nonetheless have trouble enjoying their roleplaying time together. For example, one friend may want to play out particularly emotional, stubborn, or prejudiced character that just unintentionally offends the other; one may want to roleplay a romantic story that another isn’t comfortable with; or one might want to goof around and be silly while the other wants to explore serious themes. This can be tough to work around, and sometimes ends in people losing faith in roleplaying altogether.

But the secret here is that creative clash isn’t always a bad thing. In my experience, there was one time when one person’s character wanted very much to have a romantic involvement with my own. I didn’t feel that my character was in love with her that way, so I tried to be “just friends” instead. I didn’t know this person in real life, but for some reason the other character didn’t want to give up — for her it had become a strong attachment to my character (though nothing spooky like a stalker or something). Naturally, as the one saying “no” in this case, I was the one with the power to determine which way the relationship would go, but by patiently coming back again and again — showing a bit dedication to their friendship and recognition of the good things they shared — our characters were actually able to work out a satisfying conclusion so that both could be friends without any negative pressure. By sticking with it rather than just going separate ways, I ended up forming a real life friendship with that player as well, which today means a great deal to me.

All in all, roleplaying can be somewhat more of a risk than the regular task of leveling up and fighting monsters. Any time you introduce new people or new characters into the mix, you may find yourself either looking for an excuse to get away, or having an unexpectedly wonderful time. Other aspects of the game such as raiding or arena fighting involve quite a bit of risk as well, but roleplaying is unique in that it is entirely a social, creative activity — there’s no concrete task to eventually overcome, no goal of loot or levels to reach.

Yet a lot of the same practical attitudes for learning and overcoming challenges are needed in order to have a good time. While obviously there are some roleplay situations it’s best to avoid entirely, there are quite a lot in which the only way to succeed is to give it a break, think about it, and come back again the next time ready to try again. The phat loot you get might even be one of the greatest “true” human experiences: friendship.

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Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Online, Business

Is it Christmas again, already? Xbox.com is acknowledging what many of you probably already know, which is that Xbox Live is having some issues. The service is “up and running,” but users may experience matchmaking and voice communication issues.

Now it’s time to play the half-glass game! Glass is half-empty: Why are customers paying for a service that can’t fulfill its basic promoted functions? Broken services should be free. Glass is half-full: At least it’s happening now. It could be worse, this could still be going on next week during the GTA IV launch.

[Via Engadget, X3F]

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