http://www.damodred.net/ No Title en-us In this case, "game" and "play". See, I* won a bunch of workplace contests by which I obtain access to free games of choice. These tend to be so-called AAA titles, and in this summer of releases have been some things I typically wouldn't get - and admittedly some I definitely would. I knew Just Cause 2 and Crackdown 2 would be winners, but Lost Planet 2 and Transformers mosthttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1157 News Aggregate #9 July 12, 2010, 9:54 am Double Mountain Devil's Kriek 2010 (cask). Went to check this out at Belmont Station as one rarely gets to try a fresh Kriek on tap, much less cask since that noble tap method is still less used in this country. Reading the descriptions of lambics and krieks (a sour cherry lambic), I think that the only lambics I must have had were ... bad - vastly sweet, syrupy and cloying, with very little actuahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1156 News Aggregate #9 July 9, 2010, 4:31 pm Matilda by Goose Island - malty ale with just a hint of yeast. If it sat in a barrel somewhere for a couple of years it'd probably be great, but as it is there's just not too much to it. Go for their Sofie instead, surprising complexity there. Spotless by Full Sail - a double IPA that's disappointingly straightforward. Lots of hops and little else - I prefer the hops to be delivered at the end,http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1155 News Aggregate #9 June 19, 2010, 5:49 pm So I took another gander at the map since yesterday's route proved less than optimal and contained entirely too much SHEER TERROR. Turns out that I can take Salmon nearly all the way to the river. Then I cleverly followed a lady who seemed like she knew where she was going and sure enough, ended up right on the east bank esplanade (view below). That took me neatly right out of traffic, all the http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1154 News Aggregate #9 June 9, 2010, 9:28 am Apparently 2 days + 2 hours = 3 days. What math is that? I just want to know what higher math degree is needed to make that happen. Because let me tell ya ... that's not math. That's some sort of .... being an evil bastard, is what it is. Anyway.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1153 News Aggregate #9 June 7, 2010, 9:41 pm Neat camera for peeping at Icelanders. I think that's the bestest web cam I've ever seen. So it seems at least *this* part of setting up my server didn't fail. I see I still need to fix the toast (it'll be on .net rather than .com since I lost the domain and some squatter set up shop), but hopefully that's it. Having issues with the squeezebox again, but once that and the Toast are done, server mhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1152 News Aggregate #9 June 3, 2010, 10:47 am The Secret of Monkey Island:SE powered by InstantAction And hopefully, this is just the start of something big. Some press Rock Paper Shotgun Shacknews GamaSutra 1Up Kotaku Joystiq I'll make them into purty links later, now I have launch bugfixes to attend to. http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1151 News Aggregate #9 April 29, 2010, 5:34 pm Just Cause 2 mods - guess I'll be picking up the PC version at some point! Boss Rush - a bullet hell game where ... you play as the boss. Neat! Some great stuff on the masterminds behind Evony - and why if you ever considered "playing" you should probably stop. http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1150 News Aggregate #9 April 7, 2010, 12:24 pm Neato, and very relevant to what I'm playing right now! Wonder if they're modeled in the game? It is April 18, 1940, and I'm hopefully on the last mission in the Type II boat - and if I'm not, I'm cheating and declaring it so anyway. I did some calculation based on renown earned vs. what I'm showing earned, and for some reason I'm being cheated by about oh, 2000 or so. Which just so happens putshttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1149 News Aggregate #9 April 5, 2010, 2:37 pm Couple of articles on our stuff coming out of PAX: article 1 and http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1148 News Aggregate #9 March 31, 2010, 10:49 am Not sure why, but IrfanView is just not wanting to capture my screen. I guess I'll set it timed at 60 seconds and see what I can see. I guess I'll miss out on the awesome firing shots but at least I'll get SOMEthing. Had a great patrol, downing one lone british cargo and then ducking some warships escorting a blacked-out convoy. Surfaced long enough to plant two fish in a largeish merchant and hihttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1147 News Aggregate #9 March 25, 2010, 5:32 pm I was going to see if I could do a Silent Hunter 3 blog type thing, but it looks like someone already has. Still, I might follow in their steps, although history has shown I tend to lose interest around the 3rd entry. If I can only find where my screenshots go, and do it safely - last time I hit PrntScrn, the game crashed. The SH series seem to be quite crashy ... or at least they don't play welhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1146 News Aggregate #9 March 22, 2010, 11:23 am So I was thinking about the recent Superman game which was an utter failure, and it came to me that it was probably a game that could actually benefit from an increase in narrative structure - which some games can use, and some can't. However, Superman always was more about the stories of Clark Kent and Superman - that is, the human and the superhuman - not just Superman's fights with the lateshttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1145 News Aggregate #9 March 13, 2010, 10:18 am Game updates: Finished Bionic Commando. Good times, worth the 9 bucks I paid for it. Horribly linear though, but good for what it was. It's just a pity that with Just Cause 2 on the horizon I kept trying to explore and to enjoy the swinging, only to be penalized for it constantly. Played Just Cause 2 demo about 10 times (30 minutes each). 23rd is so far away! Re-fired up Silent Hunter 3 + GWX shttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1144 News Aggregate #9 March 9, 2010, 10:02 am This is silly. I am very close to obtaining the game to end all games - Just Cause II - and my want list is suddenly expanding thanks to these wonderful indie developers. To wit: Shank - old school, brutal side scrolling action. Joe Danger - old school, Trials meets Excitebike meets Racing Destruction Set. Scrap Metal - XBLA game that's channeling Death Rally very, very hard. And then there's thttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1143 News Aggregate #9 February 26, 2010, 6:05 pm There she be. Interesting thing about hitting that level - it's not just an armor and officer upgrade, it's a full-blown do-over of your chosen play direction. You get so much new stuff that you have to start thinking about what direction you want to take yourself, your ship, and your crew. Good times.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1142 News Aggregate #9 February 5, 2010, 10:50 am Tower Knight is down, the hard way. Hard way turned out to be ... not so hard. Just had to get over that OMG he's HUGE thing, and then it was ... well, not easy. Fun, though. More STO shots below. Tons of stuff to do so far, and I'm 2 levels away from my new ship. I got exploration missions, patrol missions, new base missions, and storyline stuff as well. Therefore, whee!http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1141 News Aggregate #9 February 2, 2010, 10:48 pm So I'm trying to kill the Tower Knight without cheesing it, and he intimidates the crap out of me. I remember when I used to do boss fights with giant things, but this guy just scares me. Maybe it's because the entire game is so full of creepy tension. Oh, I just realized what the game reminds me. Vagrant Story! Same creepy dungeon setup, same very fast death if you don't pay attention, same sihttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1140 News Aggregate #9 January 30, 2010, 11:01 pm Apparently someone snuck in the original Alien vs Predator onto Steam without telling me. 5 bucks to revisit some of the most tense gaming ever? Yes please. GoG has acquired rights to Activision's old catalogue, hopefully this means Interstate 76 will show up there one day soon. There's a classic and atmospheric game, even if I did get stuck on the dream race and ragequit because dammit, it's a dhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1139 News Aggregate #9 January 28, 2010, 11:14 pm HistoGrafica - old pictures of your hometown. Very neat concept for a site. Looks like only larger cities are covered, but still nifty. Almost to the end of Dragon Age. You know a game drags on just a tad too long when you get more suspense out of what you will play next, and not what will happen in the game you're playing now. Not that Dragon Age drags, but it does have a lot of content - whichttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1138 News Aggregate #9 January 27, 2010, 1:49 pm Now this is something; a Dwarf Fortress that's been going for 200 in-game years, and 1.5 realtime years. For those of us who actually played the thing and know all of its peccadilloes, this is even more of an accomplishment. For those who haven't ... well, it's hard to describe, but basically everything in those screenshots has been built by dwarves that you give "hints" to in the game. http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1137 News Aggregate #9 January 25, 2010, 10:33 am The Star Trek Online beta is surprisingly captivating. It's some sort of combination of IP that does tolerably well in an MMO setting (even if there are some terrible omissions that would greatly enhance atmosphere) and gameplay that is familiar and different at the same time. It's amazing how many MMO conventions can be handwaved away as sci-fi fluff, and Cryptic's done a tolerable job of addinghttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1136 News Aggregate #9 January 16, 2010, 3:28 pm Here's my rogue, Tremendo (don't ask), dealing the death blow to an Ogre. I really like the fatality moves, especially the Ogre ones; never really get tired of them. Tremendo's sporting dual axes (yay master dual wield), the Honnleath helm and a set of assassin leathers. Loot-tastic! I also started up a second character, an elf mage. Two mages on the field is a lot of fun, and I found my secondhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1135 News Aggregate #9 January 10, 2010, 11:32 pm This looks neat. Sort of a Captain Forever thing, but in 3D and with multiplayer. I'll be checking it out lunch - Space Pod. Also, Crayon Physics is on sale today - pay what you want.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1134 News Aggregate #9 January 8, 2010, 8:58 am Somewhere in there I obtained and finished Assassin's Creed II - review up on the Toast now. Other than that ... Demon's Souuuuuuuuuls! Although admittedly more watching my sister play than playing it. The game is quite ... grueling. Although not as grueling as Uncharted, which may win the award for Most Inexplicably Lauded Game ever. I hear 2 is better, but this time around I'm waiting for demhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1132 News Aggregate #9 December 18, 2009, 1:24 pm The Renault 5 Turbo is a lot of fun, and the Mazda is just fun to mess with. The only hitch is that it's the Japanese variant and the steering is on the other side, but other than that it feels just like my own car. Well, sort of. http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1131 News Aggregate #9 December 4, 2009, 11:30 am As can be seen over there http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1130 News Aggregate #9 December 3, 2009, 11:42 am Witcher finished (A++, best game ever, you should play it). Thanksgiving loot obtained. XMas giftage procured. Windows 7 installed. Insurance changed. Roof cleaning ... pending. Not bad, I guess. I did lose the ability to play Silent Hunter 3 (GWX) but I haven't touched it in a while anyway. Too bad - I suspect SHIV will work, but it's surprisingly flat compared to SH3 - I guess the really primhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1129 News Aggregate #9 November 30, 2009, 1:45 pm Damn, but The Witcher is a fantastic game. I'm in Chapter 4 now, and everytime I think I have the game figured out, it blindsides me. Mind you, there *are* a handful of technical issues and WTF script moments - but for the most part, it works. However, it helps to have read the books initially; I'm not sure how someone new to the universe would deal with all that is going on.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1128 News Aggregate #9 November 21, 2009, 8:38 pm I posted some stuff on the Toast. The other two slackers are being slackers. Why? No idea. Maybe because I'm playing actual games again. http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1127 News Aggregate #9 November 16, 2009, 11:46 am Finished Eve of Destruction over the weekend, out of angst over not having Forza 3. Thing is, I suspect Eve was a better game. I highly recommend it - it's backwards compatible on your 360. Great physics, great feeling of CaRPG improvements, and lots of events to do that involve a bit of economic cleverness - do you pick the car that's faster for this race although it's almost destroyed, or do youhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1126 News Aggregate #9 November 10, 2009, 11:13 am It's a nice calm 40 degrees here, and I'm pedaling easy on my new Trek 7000 (still gotta tweak the handlebars and the seat a bit) in two layers (long-sleeve shirt and a t-shirt on top of that), my fingers are a bit nippy in my Level 2 gloves but the rest of me is just fine, feeling good because the balance between clothes and temperature is just right. Then I get to work and park the bike, and it http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1125 News Aggregate #9 November 3, 2009, 9:34 am Well, it did look pretty silly sitting there, didn't it? After going crazy in PoP: TTT and its lack of Invert Y setting, I realized its combat was still a tad too much of a QTE. Admittedly it's a QTE that takes some skill in tactical positioning and is very time-sensitive (if you're HERE at THAT time and hit X, you will decrapitate 3 enemies; miss it by a smidge and you'll tackle just one), but ihttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1124 News Aggregate #9 October 16, 2009, 11:47 am Been playing quite a few games lately. 99 cent sales at GoGamer make it pretty tough not to pick up things I've wanted to check out for a while - and it's been a pretty good couple of months for indie gaming as well. You probably already saw Captain Forever. I picked it up because it looked fun and quirky and ... it is. I am hoping the next one is a bit more fleshed out, though. Gratuitous Shttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1123 News Aggregate #9 October 3, 2009, 9:57 pm After 15+ years of riding a mountain bike I switched to a hybrid. In theory it is better for riding around the city, mostly on road or bike paths. The visible differences are narrower tires (which of course could be put on a mountain bike too), a more relaxed frame (smaller tolerances between frame and wheel since the wheels aren't expected to be bouncing on the nonexistent suspension), and ... I http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1122 News Aggregate #9 September 24, 2009, 11:51 am I almost fired up WoW yesterday. The only thing stopping me was the fact that my Blizzard authenticator was downstairs. It was just too far to walk. That's right, only the direst of hazards can keep me from Azeroth! I played GTA4 and Captain Forever instead. So gratifying, in utterly different ways.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1121 News Aggregate #9 September 16, 2009, 11:26 am                                         http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1116 News Aggregate #9 September 11, 2009, 11:21 pm This is the awesome ship that I built in Captain Forever. It's ... somewhat lopsided.                                 &ahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1115 News Aggregate #9 September 10, 2009, 3:48 pm Cliffski has released the beta of his Space Lasers and Explosions game, Gratuitous Space Battles. I've had my first battle with the novel concept of missile boats (ZOMG!) that I created all by myself (hee hee) and ... well, got beat up. The missile boats work though! I think I just need more frontline soakers while they do their work. Perhaps another fighter wing to harry those guys hanging inhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1114 News Aggregate #9 August 31, 2009, 11:05 am Between Fallout 3 and selling the house, I've had very little time or inclination to post. So here are some pictures from our Portland trip.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1113 News Aggregate #9 August 25, 2009, 4:43 pm Man, between Borderlands and RAGE, the post apocalyptic driver/shooter is going to be quite well served for a while. For me it will be served even better, as I tried out Fallout 3 again and it appears to not be crashing while outside anymore. Fingers crossed, because exploring and looting is a lot of fun. In Portland this weekend (actually by the time you read this we're on our way back after shttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1112 News Aggregate #9 August 16, 2009, 8:57 am Beat Crysis. Overall I give it an B+. Great combat, great mechanics (although the supersuit could use a slightly longer usage time - maybe offset by a longer recharge time? - to be more Predatorasque), awesome world, looks nice, and of course in the final act it's spoiled by utterly boring combat against really dumb alien enemies that take entirely too many bullets to down. Still, the story was prhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1111 News Aggregate #9 August 12, 2009, 9:37 am Our CEO talks about Instant Action. Good stuff. Concept art, game and otherwise, just a random find. I'm playing that stupid game again.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1110 News Aggregate #9 August 10, 2009, 11:46 am I've been playing Crysis lately; I always wanted to, but it took a while for hardware to drop in price sufficiently. I thought it was going to be something like Far Cry 1.5, but it is really a quite standalone piece of gaming goodness. Wide open vistas, freedom to approach any way you like (although cloaking is a must what with the amount of opposing forces), occasional in-game cutscenes, quality http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1108 News Aggregate #9 August 4, 2009, 11:20 am House of the Dead: Overkill is indeed that good (#3 on that list). You'll want a couple of these so you can bring your partner in crime to the zombie shooting spree, or go in dual wielding. Hee! http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1107 News Aggregate #9 July 29, 2009, 10:23 am All productivity ceases as temperatures reach 90 degrees and continue to rise. I've fired up Mass Effect; I think I can just about handle that, since I've already played it once. However, if someone was evaluating my Shepard as a person they would definitely diagnose some sort of spastic schizophrenia. No further communications until temperatures drop below melting point.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1106 News Aggregate #9 July 28, 2009, 8:37 am Mwahahahha berserkers! Of course now that I boasted I will probably die a horrible and quick death, but still, the combination of berserking, regeneration and fiend summoning sure is nice! Edit: Found a hive. Of bees. Poisonous, poisonous bees. Still, level 9 isn't bad!http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1105 News Aggregate #9 July 23, 2009, 3:17 pm If you haven't seen this then this might be a surprise, but I'm thinking most of my readers already know - Garage Games is moving to Portland (at least my half of the company, the other half is going to Vegas), and I'm going with it. Obviously this is a pretty big deal, since we moved to the PNW for love of the ocean and mountains, and then got really comfortable here in Eugene specifically becaushttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1104 News Aggregate #9 July 21, 2009, 11:27 am I have managed to get into the guts of Torque Game Builder and turn it into a turn-based engine. It's kinda annoying, as there's tons of helpers things in there for realtime games - I could knock out a Crimsonland, PacMan, Galaga or tons of others in relatively little time, but getting the very basic go-stop-go-stop cycle in there has been tricky. I am currently tying "turns" into playerhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1103 News Aggregate #9 July 17, 2009, 2:46 pm Old Video Games from Citizen Spain on Vimeo. More awesome video game 5-second projects here.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1102 News Aggregate #9 July 15, 2009, 9:18 am Who's up for a Portland beer fest meeting next year?http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1101 News Aggregate #9 July 14, 2009, 1:58 pm Well, it's live. There are still some teething problems, but there it is! http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1100 News Aggregate #9 July 7, 2009, 11:45 pm All systems should be on the new machine now. Please report any weirdness. It's already quieter in here, and the thing's sitting in front of me. Tomorrow I'll doublecheck that everything is working and move it into the closet, and it should be pretty near silent. Noice! (I think a Mac Mini would be quieter still, but at 1/3 the price I can't really complain)http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1099 News Aggregate #9 July 5, 2009, 12:05 am Oooh, a beta for New Zealand scenery just came out - I should try that. Seems like the island should have some really nifty terrain to fly over. That and Hawaii, come to think of it. Hmm, need to find a good island-hopping plane. I subbed for a month of EVE. For the moment, something a bit more in-depth, analytical and a bit slower (although when you get locked by a battlecruiser on a milk runhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1098 News Aggregate #9 June 30, 2009, 4:47 pm I re-tested the hard drive in another PC yesterday. It seems to work fine and even stopped making noise, but the moment I put it back in the MSI Wind it started up again. I took it out of the Wind to make sure it wasn't the chassis, and it persisted in emitting the high-pitched whine. I'm really uncertain as to what it is, but it's going back for a replacement. This is supposed to be a quiet servehttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1097 News Aggregate #9 June 26, 2009, 9:57 am Server arrived, and the good news is that it's completely silent. Unfortunately, the hard drive I chose for it is not, and emits a piercing high-pitched whine. I'm pretty sure none of my other 4 or so do, so ... back to NewEgg it goes, after I make sure that it's the HDD and not the enclosure. Darnit, I hate it when parts come in dead. Rawr! Ah well. I guess I'll wait a bit longer.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1096 News Aggregate #9 June 25, 2009, 9:29 am ... is quite a few hours. Yeah, I can throw what I made into XPlane and most likely nobody will be able to tell, but if I'm having aspirations to contribute to the Open Scenery Project - and why not - I should probably spend a bit more time figuring things out. Anyway, here's a preview. It's textured with just the one image for starters, and that's going to be the next part of the fun - figuring http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1095 News Aggregate #9 June 23, 2009, 10:26 pm Well, I've placed 50 buildings or so and 20-odd planes at KEUG; unfortunately there's no easy way to add roads or make custom shapes in the Overlay Editor (I guess that's why it's called that, and not Overlay Editor and Shape Maker ) so I have to get a bit more advanced now - that's right, a new career in 3D modeling is in store for me Still, it already looks lots better than just a barren runwayhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1094 News Aggregate #9 June 22, 2009, 9:42 am Crane Wars is out! I finished Red Faction, and it was quite satisfying all the way to the end. I'm glad I turned the difficulty down to Easy though - it's basically the button that turns off the "if shit goes bad, run away and try again later" method of playing, which I just plain don't have time for. It provides a longer pause between respawns, and enemies that don't hit quite so hard http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1093 News Aggregate #9 June 16, 2009, 9:31 am Blackberries are blooming, chestnuts are starting to fruit, and we went strawberry-picking. Life is good here in the state of growing things. ^_^ roBurky's on a roll, this time with a homeless Sim 3 family. I used to write game diaries, but they were way too wordy, not enough pictures-y, and well, not very clever. Here's a Dwarf Fortress one, also very good. I'm almost done with Red Faction andhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1092 News Aggregate #9 June 15, 2009, 9:39 am All Aspect Warfare, the latest shoot/fly/drive/do anything ... thing (I hesitate to call it a game, just as I won't call a sim one) from 3000AD (of Battlecruiser fame) is out. I am certainly going to give it a shot. Halfway through Eos now. Should have Red Faction complete relatively soon. Speaking of which, there's an http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1091 News Aggregate #9 June 11, 2009, 9:35 am Yes, it's time for another bits update. Pretty busy at work, and playing Red Faction exclusively at home (it really is that good), no time for real updates! I'm on to the last sector, but it's a big one - I probably won't have time to wrap it up before Prototype arrives. Whee! This Just Cause 2 trailer has to be seen by as many people as possible. I don't even have words, except "GIMME NOW.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1090 News Aggregate #9 June 9, 2009, 8:54 am Got the heads up about this Space Shuttle simulator today at work; one of our guys got the heads up from one of NASA's guys about it - apparently it's the most accurate SSM sim out there. I think it might be just a bit much for me - I'll stick with X-Plane for now. That cockpit looks intimidating as hell. Speaking of which, I hit a bird on takeoff and it impacted on my altimeter. I had no ideahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1089 News Aggregate #9 June 2, 2009, 9:11 am I flew from Eugene to Portland in a twin turboprop. I even filed the flight plan and stuck to it, although my navigation was purely dead reckoning + compass. I don't really get the VOR navigation yet. Or well, I kinda do, but the UI to get it all set up in a plane is a bit spartan. I finally figured out how to put some letters into the GPS, but even then it would just give me the distance and ETA,http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1088 News Aggregate #9 June 1, 2009, 9:02 am ... bites the dust. My list of "must have"s is decreasing with every release - this is not a good trend. First was the mediocre (well, overly linear and Capcomized) Bionic Commando, and now apparently FUEL is even worse than mediocre. Just as well. I'm still in the middle of my evil Fable 2 playthrough (I'll redeem myself eventually ... when I'm rich and own the kingdom, that is), and http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1087 News Aggregate #9 May 27, 2009, 9:41 am Hands on with ArmA2 at Eurogamer. This line from the first paragraph blows me away: The editor is truly remarkable, and astoundingly accessible. This, from the people who made OFP and ArmA? I'm pretty sure that violates the basic physical laws of this universe Either way, I think this might be the next bundle of fun I pick up and play with for a goodly while. Rock Paper, Shotgun has some videoshttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1086 News Aggregate #9 May 26, 2009, 12:15 pm Still bloomin'! P.S. Fable 2 finished.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1085 News Aggregate #9 May 23, 2009, 4:43 pm I forgot about this Halo live action short; turns out the director now made this (District 9), which claims to have a release date of Summer 2009 and I guess came out of nowhere? Maybe considering that Terminator is apparently quite horrible, this will be cool? Here's hoping.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1084 News Aggregate #9 May 22, 2009, 9:21 am After penning an irate (say, where DID Irate vanish off to?) entry regarding the faults of the PC, I dove into some forums and some of my settings and got both games to work. Frontlines' issue was my DirectX sound acceleration not being maxed out - this was a relic of a day spent trying to get Fallout 3 to work - and after moving the slider and firing up the game, all stuttering vanished. Republichttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1083 News Aggregate #9 May 21, 2009, 8:58 am I broke 10k gamerscore with Fable. Not that it means anything, but there it is. I guess I play a lot of 360 games? Might e a reason for that, as I tried to fire up BOTH of my recent acquisitions (Bionc Commando and Frontlines) and they BOTH are unplyable due to bugs. One crashes the moment a mission starts, and the other has a sound stuttering bug that lasts about 2 minutes every time a scene chahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1082 News Aggregate #9 May 20, 2009, 8:51 am I have so many of these "random bits" posts ... sometimes, one might say that the entirety of my blog is random bits. That one would probably be right! Fable 2 is still great. I can't wait to replay it as an utterly villainous, downright cackling and murderous character .... oh wait, looking at my achievements now it appears that I *am* playing that, yet somehow remaining about 95% Purehttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1081 News Aggregate #9 May 19, 2009, 9:08 am The only question is ... will we last the entire day? Fable II is great. Go buy it and play it.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1080 News Aggregate #9 May 15, 2009, 11:30 am I have completed Mercenaries 2. Next up, Fable 2 (thanks Microsoft!), Crysis and Zeno Clash, probably not in that order. I should probably finish Rogue Trooper at some point, it was surprisingly entertaining until I hit a checkpoint issue (saves too far apart in a very linear game). Also, Stikfa fight!http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1079 News Aggregate #9 May 12, 2009, 12:34 pm I usually don't post my weekends, but this was a particularly productive one. Yes, productive. Leaf piles much reduced, second deer deterrent artillery installed with the help of some hose surgery (I'm an expert hose surgeon, call me for your hose needs), some weeding done so that the front looks a little more kempt ... good times. Also went out to Hendricks Park to look at rhododendrons and cohttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1078 News Aggregate #9 May 11, 2009, 8:57 am Death Star destroys the Enterprise. Man. The "booyah" at the end just makes the whole video. 2-9 in Plants vs. Zombies. Need to make some more time to play it, but right now there's way too many things on my plate. There are rumours that Champions is pushed back to September, which is both bad (waaa have to wait) and good (3 open world games are coming out in May, June, July and I stillhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1077 News Aggregate #9 May 8, 2009, 10:05 am It's been a while since I posted one of these. Plants vs. Zombies demo is out!http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1076 News Aggregate #9 May 3, 2009, 9:16 pm Level 28 (he hit 28 from 12, not 25 - OOPS) Mastermind to 32, level 5 Brute to 15. Yeah, good times. Now I think I'll focus on my highest (the corruptor), get him to 50, and unlock the villain archetypes, which I didn't know CoV finally got. Then get each of THOSE to 20-ish (and my hero warshade), and then I can actually play some storylines and see if grouping for normal-style play is dead. So http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1075 News Aggregate #9 April 30, 2009, 8:10 am This is a pretty neat feature on how Introversion got their game onto XBLA, with some more background info in the forums. Pretty neat read, especially for us since we have a game approval system here as well ... So the mission architect is pretty cool in concept; in practice, it serves as a NCSoft-approved method to hose your characters down with XP. I can't say I mind, since I have a few I woulhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1074 News Aggregate #9 April 29, 2009, 12:32 pm I'm so hyped for Champions Online that I fired up City of Heroes again. Spent a few hours browsing through the new powersets and customisation options, of which there are quite a few. The Dual Blades set is new, Shield Defense is new, Scrappers now have Fire and Ice melee as do Brutes (I think), and Tanks have Willpower for those with a distaste for the supernatural (basically you resist damage juhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1073 News Aggregate #9 April 28, 2009, 2:07 pm San Francisco has some excellent food (and beer), but it sure is windy. Here in Eugene, we don't really know the phenomenon very well, so having it blasting our face almost all day Friday was a novel experience. Finally on Sunday, we found out what its real purpose is: kites! The marina at Berkeley was full of people flying kites, and the wind was so strong and steady some of them simply pinned thhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1072 News Aggregate #9 April 27, 2009, 9:41 am Perhaps a bit optimistically early, but we managed to grill two nights in a row. It's currently sunny and warm, which is a nice reprieve in the middle of the "rain season". Mushrooms, sweet potato, asparagus and feesh were on the menu and mmm it was tasty. The only hazard was getting randomly sprinkled by our Scarecrow, which is working so well we're considering another for the other endhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1071 News Aggregate #9 April 20, 2009, 1:27 pm I have finished it, and it was glorious. I suspect I'll fire up Fallout 3 for more post-apocalyptic survival goodness; hopefully it won't disappoint. Hmm, maybe I should read up on Stalker: Clear Sky, although everything I heard is rather bad, so far ... Anyway. Great game, so much atmosphere and excellent gameplay from start to finish - as long as you remember to set it on Easy http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1070 News Aggregate #9 April 18, 2009, 12:31 pm Turns out I had version 1.003 for whatever reason, and that version apparently crashes as you exit the Brain Scorcher (fun level, although the X18 labs were more freaky). I crossed my fingers that savegames would work with a newer version, reinstalled the game, and patched to 1.006. Lucky for me, it did indeed work - now I just need to add in the armor repair mod (although it might not be of any uhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1069 News Aggregate #9 April 17, 2009, 12:48 pm Servers were down, so I moped briefly and fired up Mercenaries 2 and Stalker. The first was kinda meh until I got into it, and then ... I hit another race. Way too many races in that game. Maybe if the vehicle handling was better I wouldn't mind so much, but it's a bit ... off to me. Still, some progress was made, even if I had to look up on gamefaqs what to do next to avoid the repeatable missionhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1068 News Aggregate #9 April 16, 2009, 1:17 pm You can find some good stuff at what we do (and what we've done) on our Vimeo channel. The good folk in the Legions presentation are my esteemed coworkers; perhaps one day I can be awesome enough to present at GDC too! o_O I sometimes hear people saying that we've "won the job lottery" here at GG. Seeing stuff like this makes it really ring true.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1067 News Aggregate #9 April 1, 2009, 4:25 pm So that was a week vacation of epic proportions. Much driving was enjoyed (ugh 15hrs Santa Barbara to Eugene, but driving in LA is still worse ), relations were visited, beer was had (and how), and Rockband was rocked. There was a surprisingly entertaining soccer game in there, too. Oh yeah, and GDC, mustn't forget GDC. San Francisco turns out to be quite nice, if you can afford it. If you can'http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1066 News Aggregate #9 March 31, 2009, 1:44 pm Three thousand words, here.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1065 News Aggregate #9 March 23, 2009, 6:45 pm Tribes will be on the interwebs, if you're interested in that sort of thing. Also, this clip ran on the local TV recently - not sure how long that'll stay up there, though. Pretty sweet stuff, and even more to come. I'll know how much I can share by GDC, I think. Trin is 74! Must ... beat ... my sister ... to 80! Then it's Zav's turn. And then Nomain's. Then I can quit. Edit: Looks like GTA: DShttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1064 News Aggregate #9 March 19, 2009, 9:18 am I finished Call of Duty 4 last week and decided to pick up Stalker again. Sadly, I lost my savegame - I was just about to head into the X18 lab. Happily, I found that starting out on Novice difficulty (rather than the normal that I did before) greatly improves the chances of your survival, improves the amount of ammo found, and makes available armor at a far more reasonable rate (it's stupid you chttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1063 News Aggregate #9 March 16, 2009, 9:22 am Well, I killed some ancient processes running on the web box, but I suspect the site sluggishness is just due to the fact that the machine's been up for 207 days straight. Sounds like it's time for a reboot due to stale processes and whatnot. We shall see if this helps. The only problem is, I don't quite remember what all has to be restarted and whatnot. I'm also not sure how I login to the box http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1062 News Aggregate #9 March 15, 2009, 10:33 am We totally beat Burning Crusade.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1061 News Aggregate #9 March 15, 2009, 9:33 am So I've been busy and quiet lately (or quietly busy?) but now I can share the news on what we've been working on. Play Legions is live! This has been the new focus of most of us here at Garage Games (well, this part anyway) for the last mmm several months. There's much more to come yet, although the next part will probably take just as long, if not longer. Still ... it's the first major deplhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1060 News Aggregate #9 February 27, 2009, 9:53 am Battleships Forever is quite possibly the most awesome game of all time. Free! 3 days until I have my Nether Drake, my estimate of nine days being calculated by assuming all dailies were 250 rep. Turns out the one you have to travel for (which I do in my spanking new Roflcopter) is worth twice that, and another is worth a 100 more. Add the eggs (2-3 a day seems like) and it looks a lot more like http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1059 News Aggregate #9 February 19, 2009, 10:51 am Aren't they fancy? Now I can go to the rock gym and not be frightened of having my olfactory nerves shut down from the rental shoes. Nine days until I have a Netherwing drake; 2-3 days until I have Northrend flight, if I get lucky with some decent drops.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1058 News Aggregate #9 February 16, 2009, 1:42 pm Heh, heh, heh.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1057 News Aggregate #9 February 10, 2009, 9:54 pm I optimized the tables for comments and news items; they shrunk down from 52 megs to 4. Site should be considerably faster now. Snork got her epic flyer, at the cost of robbing Trin of all of his hard-earned cash. I am very curious as to how much gold I've made auctioning all the stuff I mined at epic mining speed ... it wasn't even that much, as I spent a lot of time running Netherwing dailies. http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1056 News Aggregate #9 February 10, 2009, 12:30 pm I have climbed and it was entertaining. Huge success! I shall go back for more throughout the week. I also won 3 of 3 of the magic games that I played. I think I'm OP somehow. This is from a sealed 75 card Shards tournament deck (a lot of that is lands, of course) and 2 sealed Conflux booster packs. Either I've once again drawn a really good set of things that work together well, or I just rock http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1055 News Aggregate #9 February 7, 2009, 1:09 pm So since it's cold and wet here now (28 in the morning the past 2 weeks; now it's 44 and raining, but 44 I should be able to do, perhaps next week), I decided to go check out the rock gym we have 2 blocks behind GG. I'm signed up for a "lesson" class tomorrow to see how exactly it works. I despise working out, so hopefully something like this where I can just do some stretches and then hhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1054 News Aggregate #9 February 6, 2009, 9:16 am At some point recently I found myself with entirely too much tea at the house. Since I do spend the majority of the day here in my abode of coding at Garage Games, I decided to bring some along. Some Oolong, some Darjeeling, and some tulsi chai. As an experiment I took some SGS tea, which is this .... purportedly healthy beverage of dubious flavour merit. It tastes like smoked broccoli juice, putthttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1053 News Aggregate #9 February 5, 2009, 9:05 am I hate boss fights. Let me elaborate. I don't really hate them because they're hard; I hate them because they take this fiction that you've been running with in the game - that foes are more or less similar to you, and if you use proper force, applied directly in a consistent fashion (shield ammo for shields, organic and toxic ammo for organics, and electric whatnot for synthetics), you'll achihttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1052 News Aggregate #9 February 2, 2009, 10:29 pm