Archive for April, 2006

Warcraft III Box ArtWell, as the comment on last night’s entry goes, I’m now up to my eyes in Undead. It’s really quite strange seeing units charging about the place that I recognise from WoW :) In particular, the big three armed blokes who guard Undercity are pretty fearsome.

I now have access to Priests and Sorcerers, which is making things a little easier. Point-healing is all very well with two or three units, but many more than that and it gets a little hairy. Fortunately, my priest units seem to be pretty smart healers. If only I had them in Warsong Gulch :)

Ok, so Nintendo have announced that the console codenamed revolution is going to be called the Wii. I have to say that, much though I’m looking forward to this console being the saviour of gaming, that is the worst name I’ve ever heard heard.

I can see it now – people wandering into Gamestation. “Hi, can I have a ……, erm, just give me a PS3.”

I don’t know *what* they were thinking.

Warcraft III
Ok, so a friend at work has been waxing lyrical about all the ingame lore and history in World of Warcraft which ties into the Warcraft III RTS scenarios. Except I’ve never played them, and I’m feeling all left out.
So, off to game for a rummage in the bargain bin where I managed to find both Warcraft III and the Frozen Throne expansion pack for next to nothing. It’s a pair of old games, so I wasn’t expecting the beatiful pre-rendered cutscenes and beautiful cartoony (although low polygon count) graphics which have greeted me so far.
The good thing about playing older PC games is that I can turn all the settings up to 11 on my laptop (with 2GB RAM and a nice X300 mobility video card) and run it as the devs intended. Having said that, WoW clips along at a steady 30fps as well, so it’s not that bad :)
Anyhoo, I’ve only done the Orc tutorial / prologue and the first mission of the (filthy) Alliance campaign so far, but it’s ACE. I particularly like the fact the, even in an RTS, there are quests to be discovered in each area and the hero units level up and can be upgraded RPG stylee. I can see where the Warcraft interface elements come from too – in fact, with a well picked squad and the ability to use a caster, it’s almost like playing Warsong Gulch with a whole party at your disposal :)
Now if only there was a Shenx unit…..

According to Adelaide Skilled Processing Center, we have another 6 or 7 weeks before a case officer is allocated.

Guh. That’s a while. Absolutely nothing we can do about it, though. Here’s hope they don’t move the goalposts again within that time.

We’re still in the throes of attempting to clear out some of the rubbish we have. As part of the process, I’ve ordered a pile of really useful boxes from, er, reallyusefulboxes.com . As you might expect, they’re boxes and they’re really useful. Ordered a few dirty great big ones for the copious quantities of books we’re taking and a pile of smaller ones for the DVDs and games. It’s really just to give us an idea of volumes, more than anything else.

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence
I’m a sucker for Resident Evil. We’ve already established that, more than once. So it’s only right that I should wax lyrical and enthuse A LOT about a handheld version.
Deadly Silence has two modes. The first is a straight port of the PS1 version (i.e. the original) and the second, Deadly Silence, is a remix with more zombies and some DS specific things (i.e. a first person stylus-controlled face-stabbing mode and some stylus specific puzzles). Overall, though, it’s the same old resident evil that we know and love. EXCEPT IT’S HANDHELD!
Some things worth mentioning – first off, initially at least, the graphics are horrible. Once the initial nausea passes and you discover that the atrocious voice acting is, if anything, worse than the PS1 version, you get used to the look and – well, they’re actually pretty good when they’re in motion. I’m sure the DS could do better, but would it really suit the rest of the game? Don’t think so.
Second thing worth mentioning – it still managed to make me jump three feet – even while playing on two tiny little screens in the middle of a busy bus in broad daylight.
Thirdly – having the map always visible on the top screen is perfect.
Lastly – the dreaded controls. The controls in Resident Evil games (excluding four) have always acted as a pansy-foo-foo repellant, ensuring that only cool people in posession of the rudiments of hand-eye coordination are able to play it. In the DS incarnation, the digital controls are spot on. A lot of people have, I suspect, only experience Resident Evil using analogue sticks. Listen carefully: Resident Evil is uncontrollable with sticks. The controls are DIGITAL. Use the D-pad. Sure, you steer like a tank, but you get the hang of it.
So, so far, we’re fairly easy on and haven’t found any bosses yet.

Battalion Wars Cover

It’s ACE! It’s mental madness though. Imagine a real time strategy game. Then imagine it as a direct-control third person shooter. With vehicles. Then make it all cartoony. That’s pretty much Battalion Wars. I’ve only done the first few missions so far, but my fingers are nearly bleeding with frenzied button pressing.

Graphically, the game is gorgeous. Beautiful sound. Just lovely. If this was on the Xbox or PS2, everyone would be charging about going ‘OMFG!!11!WTF??/?/?THIS IS TEH B3sT0r!!11!one!’. As it’s on the cube, though, we have to make do with the more erudite, learned, and civilised gamers casually walking past each other in the street and giving a discreet nod and smile, or carelessly saying ‘Battalion Wars, eh?’ in passing, before moving to whatever stylish destination was originally intended.

Oh yes – this is one for the discerning cube owner. Best not tell the Microsoft or Sony fanboys about it – it’ll only upset them.

Animal Crossing: Wild World Cover

Bah! 109 bells for white turnips. That’s RUBBISH! I’m beginning to think Nook and Joan are in cahoots :-/

Did some low-scale deforestation this morning, and replaced a load of the deciduous trees with nice fruit trees. And my palm has grown successfully. I must resist the temptation to sell the coconuts, though, cos I want to grow a row of palms along the shore.

Trollbert and Clawbert


Here they are – Trollbert and Clawbert, during a little expedition from Crossroads to Ogrimmar. I’m becoming strangely attached to little clawby – he’s a cheerful wee chap.

Advance Wars DS Cover ArtAnother of those ‘I really should give this a go’ games. Only done the first five (largely tutorial) missions. Just really saying I’ve started, is all. It’s a strange thing about this series. When I actually play advance wars, I love it to death. It just seems really hard to get around to actually picking it up. Fire Emblem is the same. Obviously, there’s something wrong with me.

All content (C) 1996-2008 John Dow