And you wonder why I need a games blog? 

This blog isn’t supposed to have anything to do with games, but I managed to get myself addicted to Bejewelled Blitz and yesterday was by far my best score; I scored roughly 308k in that game, though I’m wondering how people can get scores of 500k plus in 60 seconds!  Anyway, that aside I’ve also signed up to a new browser game, much like Lord of Ultima (LoU), called Might & Magic: Heroes Kingdoms (MMHK).  It’s quite similar to LoU, except it reminds me more of the Heroes of Might & Magic series, except it’s in real-time.  Sadly, all games of these nature I end up dropping after a few weeks, sometimes months, so I’m likely to get back to Guild Wars and Lord of The Rings Online.  I might have to play a bit of Star Trek Online at some point soon too, seeing as I haven’t played it in a while and I pay for it monthly!  Anyway, still games related but in a different vein, I attended a Joystick Junkies (JJ) party for the first time in at least 3 years!  It was great to go there, although the venue was extremely posh… read that as I’d never be able to go there under my current, normal circumstances!  All that aside though, it was good to get back in touch with Chris as I hadn’t seen him since the second JJ party, the first being back in September 2004 after Game Stars Live… oh, those were the days.  I have pictures up online somewhere of the GSL Event, but damned if I know where they are on Fotki!

Of course back then, I was more obsessed with booth babes and freebies!  Oddly enough though, I was kind of working on stuff back then what would have fit into my current game site project; I still actually have some of the promotional materials from that as well.  This reminds me that I really need to get myself some business cards.  Anyway getting back on track, at the JJ party, I had the pleasure of meeting Ian Livingstone, the guy regarded as the father of Lara Croft (you may recognise him as being involved with Eidos, Fighting Fantasy or the Game Workshop).  Admittedly, I didn’t actually know what he looked like, which happens a lot with me.  I know of people, but don’t necessarily know how they look!  That said though, I imagine I’d have recognised Peter Molyneux and I know for a fact I’d recognise Jon Hare given I’ve met him a few times now!  Anyway, I asked him if I’d be able to interview him for the Gamed Up website and he said yes, so I’m happy about that.  I actually haven’t contacted him since then as I amn’t sure of what to say at present, though I might just send him an email to explain more about Gamed Up.

Given I want to have some features up for the site which will be sometime within the next couple of months (properly), I’m going to approach industry people and ask them if I’d be able to interview them sometime.  I eventually hope to do this on the Gamed Up site proper, even if it’s just a temporary blog on there – indeed I’m putting up the multi-blog system so I can start blogging about games somewhere; given that my games blog will take a different format to the rest of the site, I should be able to get away with using it while the site is still being built! – but for now, I’m going to field interview questions here, so if anyone reading has a question they’d like to ask Ian Livingstone, please comment below, or if you have my email address, you can send questions that way.  Please do title it “Re: Interview Questions” though so I know what it’s about.  In the future I’ll have a dedicated interview email address, but that’s a little time off yet, same for the other email addresses.  Please keep in mind though that I may choose to combine, rephrase or even not use questions to help things flow smoothly.  Lastly, if anyone is interested in Gamed up and either wants to know more about it, or sign up to it, they can comment here or email, and I’ll answer what I can.

I eventually plan on writing a nice long blurb about it, but that’s not going to be for a while yet as I need to think about how to word it, although admittedly I may have to come up with it sooner, so I have something to show people when they ask about it!  Watch this space for details and I’ll get back to you.  At the very least, I hope by the start of November to at least have my WordPress installs in place.  I will eventually be adding my project blog to here as well, but I need another few weeks to sort that out.  It’s becoming increasingly likely as well that this will be my only personal site for a while!  I do also plan on getting back into writing, but for now, that’s limited to games design documents that I’m preparing seeing as Notepad doesn’t quite cut it, no matter what I’d like to think!  I would love to code some sort of reader thingy though, so people can read what I write in a more linear format.  Anyway, that’s something that can be worked on in the future.  I’m going to let people in on a little secret though… I’m designing an RPG with a friend of mine of which we’re using RPG Maker 2003 (it’s simpler to use!) to design a concept with; it’ll be a fully playable game, though the full game mechanics won’t be present, due to the limitations of RPG Maker.  Also what won’t appear is the entire story, given we’d save that for a more professional release.  Still though, it’s better to have something basic down before taking it further… it’s a given the planned mechanics won’t work too well, but at least if nothing else the story, characters and maps can be fleshed out in this manner; it provides a means to see how well the basic components work.

Of course, the issue is that we need to work out how RPG Maker 2003 works although we’re making progress in that regard but we’re gonna make something basic first before expanding upon stuff, so we understand how the engine works and such.  I’ll eventually start a blog with regards to it going but again that’s a while off.  I imagine though that the independent (yet related) blogs will take off sooner than the main site will, which is by no means a bad thing… may as well get something started with it, right? Part of my plans though is to get a blog up for every section I have planned for the site, so there’s at least a placeholder, which saves me from doing anything later, plus has the added benefit of making sure that everything works correctly.  I’ve always been more about function over aesthetics, but in the case of Gamed Up, I really want to site to look professional and have something to show for when it’s up and running, hence why I’m gathering up staff atm, and preparing for interviews early as well.  Indeed, the sections are still being planned but I at least have a small idea of what I want to get on the site, although the list gets bigger as I realise the scope of what I’m doing.

I can’t really say anything else at the moment with regards to it, but I do hope that when it does finally get up and running, it’ll be something amazing… although given that my sites tend to have a slow takeoff, I’m going to have to accept that there might be a small userbase at the start; of course, it will help if I can start tying the site into other sites on my network and also places like Steam, Mypace, Bebo, Tagged, Facebook, etc. just to have some sort of presence there.  I do at least plan to have the site’s internal backbone working soonish, though there is already a clan presence at least; it’s all about the small steps.

I really need to give my LiveJournal some love at some point, seeing as it’s supposed to be a more personal blog, as opposed to this one which is more for sharing my views, insights and generally having a rant. Anyway, I spent Saturday and much of Sunday at my friend’s house, where we played Rock Band 2. And I have to admit, I’m pretty hooked on the game now! I also got to play quite a few songs on there including Color Theory’s song If Not Now When and some other songs such as Attack and The Kill from 30STM. I was really impressed with the game to be honest, as you could really get into it… I certainly found it easier to play the bass or guitar standing anyway! I was so into the game, that I started dancing while I was playing! And thinking about it, playing the guitar in any of these games, be it Rock Band, Guitar Hero or even Band Hero, no matter what the format, is a great way of learning to play the proper thing. Why do I say this you ask? Well, I have some books on learning how to play the guitar and from what I recall of them, you’re to hold an actual guitar a certain way and with the guitar controller, it works best if you hold it the same way. Playing with the controller (GH controllers are more durable) gives you a great start with playing an actual guitar because you have to hold the controller like you would a normal guitar, so it gets you used to the awkwardness of your hand being put into and awkward position when fretting.

Admittedly though, it won’t help your fingers get used to pressing on the strings… that’s something you’ll have to face later on and they do tend to make your fingers hurt for a while because the strings are pressing into your fingers. I haven’t played with an actual guitar long enough to be able to get protection from the strings as of yet, although the guitar isn’t my instrument of choice at present; that honour belongs to my keyboard (the piano type), which I’ve decided to learn first as it’s a little easier to get into. I’ve actually paid for the learning pack for Synthesia to help me in this goal. It’s much like Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the like, but it uses a keyboard or MIDI synthesiser instead. Admittedly, I’ve not touched it for a while now, but my Rock Band jam session has both rekindled the interest and also made me want to get Rock Band as well! I’m looking at getting the Band Hero Super Bundle, which is 100 quid in HMV at the moment, seeing as it has all the instruments I need to get me started, although the drums are a concern; would they be compatible with Rock Band? I know the guitar is compatible, and the mic should be as well, but I’m not sure about the drums. As for why I’m worried about this, I really don’t want to get another set of drums just so I can play all the games! One thing I noticed though that one of my friends would be happy with is the fact that the Band Hero drumkit has 3 drums, with 2 cymbals, I think they are those anyway. It still has the pedal, but that said, I don’t think it would be used as much in Rock Band, so his foot won’t hurt so much!

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I figured now was a good time for me to update my blog, although really I should look at giving my LiveJournal some attention at some point.  As many of you already know, I’m a subscriber of Star Trek Online, only right now I can’t play it because the server’s full, which is rather amusing.  At the time I was player number 719/719 wanting to play but I exited the game.  Upon further reflection, this perhaps wasn’t such a hot idea.  I did get in eventually, so it’s all good.  Anyway, I’ve been playing it for about a week now and I’m rather surprised about the game to be honest… I do like it although admittedly, the ground sections are a bit dodgy… but the starship bits are pretty nice!  So far, I’ve been to Earth, Risa, DS9 and K7 which as many of you who watch Star Trek know are some of the more major areas in the universe itself.  I’ve also played the Command & Conquer 4 multiplayer beta, although quite frankly I don’t get it at all.  It doesn’t feel much like C&C and even the music, which at present I barely remember what the music sounds like, although it’s rather Star Trek sounding, ironically.

Unfortunately, I can’t take screenshots of C&C4, though I can of STO, and expect some in my Flickr gallery soon.  And just to talk a little bit more about C&C4, I’m honestly not sure if I like it, but it’ll be released next month, so we’ll have to see what happens then.  There’s noconventional bases in it and it sems rather remensicent of Dawn of War without the building options… actually, those of you who remember the game Z, it’s more like that.  Other than that, I’m having to wait for stuff regarding my new house and I’m hoping to record a DiggerCast pilot episode either tomorrow or next week.  I also plan on going to see Assemblage 23, which are pretty damn good.  I recently managed to properly listen to all their music and I do quite like them, so I’ll be seeing them next week.  I’ll post some more here later, although I think my LJ needs to be updated some more, seeing as it’s swamped with Tweets.  Realistically though, unless something significant happens between now and my next post on here, it’s likely that the aforementioned next post will be a better opinion on STO, which should really be put onto a games blog, but at present I have none so here will have to do.  I really need to give Guild Wars some attention too; although in a way I’m glad there’s no monthly fees as like I said in the past, it doesn’t feel like a chore in that I have to play it.  It also means I can save money.  Either way though, I’m going to start balancing it out.  Heh, I might even consider playing WoW again, just to use the trial time I have.

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Oddly enough, I’m not actually sure what exactly to talk about for this entry as I haven’t thought about any specifics.  I expect it may not be till near enough to the New Year, or after that I get to keep some consistancy.  Either way, it won’t hurt to mention any stuff I’ve seen, done or are going to do.  I’m also thinking that I may end up keeping my random style of writing to a degree, as it wouldn’t be random randomness if I didn’t!  Anyhow, I went into Central London yesterday to pick up a lab coat (I’ll explain later) from Foyles bookshop and ended bup buying a few books too!  This is by no means a bad thing to be honest, as the books will have some benefit.  Two of the books are talking about games design or project management regarding games projects.  I figured that these would be good for me to get so I can brush up on this subject in preparation for university/college.  Granted, design is my strongest skill, but it never hurts to get help with improving techniques.  I also finally managed to get a book on wolves; this too was one of my medium-term aims along with the lab coat.  I had to aquire an extra large one because of my broad shoulders, although that said, I could do with a little toning round the stomach, so it’s a good thing I’m going to the gym!  As for why I wanted a lab coat… well, I’ve always wanted one and I think it completes the scientist look although there’s the practical purpose that it keeps my clothes clean!

I also paid Maplins a visit as well and got some books on robotics, soldering and electronics, as well as a book on oscilloscopes, which sparked my interest since I studied at Greenwich.  I also got another set of LED Safety Glasses (which are gonna be modded, leaving the first ones I bought intact) and also an Audiophile 2496 audio card, which I was hoping to use for helping me with music composition at a later date, although it would be more nice just to have something professional to use with MIDI.  The problem is however that it needs audio cables, and while I do have them, I don’t have the space for them, so I’m either going to have to locate an external version of the card or make the space.  It’s occurred to me that I have also lost my reciept so I need to goo looking for it, damn.  That aside, I may have to just accept that this may be the best card for my price range (I don’t want to pay a lot more to be honest) and get a Game Port to USB adaptor, which to be honest may not be a bad idea, seeing as they’re cheap enough at 8 quid each!  I really only wanted that expensive card for the built-in MIDI port, and considering I can have a decent audio card with a cheaper separate bit, it may be best off just going down this route.  I have too many game controllers that require Game Ports to just drop the idea; I didn’t realise till much later that I had no MIDI port on my soundcard!  Another bonus as well is that it has some composing software with it, as well as some loops, so that’ll help me some more.

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Now that the power cut is officially over and out of the way (man it feels longer than 6 days!), I can start to talk about the Monkey Island remake, along with Steam and Battle.net. I decided to expand the post because Steam is the method I used to download the game and right now, I’m fully starting to appriciate Steam for what it is; a good way of getting games without the storage overhead! I mean, it’s nice having a CD, but when you’re on the move, it’s not practical to carry a game with you, is it? I applaud Valve for releasing Steam in the first place. Granted, it may have initially started off a bit rocky (most new things did), but it’s starting to really become a great way of getting games, or storing some of the games you already have! For instance, if you add your Half Life or Gunman Chronicles key to Steam, it gives you Half life and lots of goodies… this was a pleasant surprise for me, as I unfortunately lost access to my original Steam account, so it’s on their system, but I’ve no way of accessing it! Either way though, because of the advent of faster broadband, the retail landscape has been changed – you can now download a DVD worth of content in a matter of hours, rather than weeks! Additionally, digital downloads reduce the cost of a product, seeing as the distribution and manufacturing charges have been wiped off; those for the box, manuals, the game media itself and transport costs. Altogether, this does make for a cheaper game.

Another aspect to digital downloads is that the download is just data, meaning you can’t break it! I’ve lost one or two CDs and ended up just buying a replacement, as it seemed to be too much hassle to return it to the developer (the media cost almost as much as the game would have – plus I was in Ireland the devs pointed to the UK which wasn’t that cheap to post to!). At least with this method, people can keep their media safe and also carry it around with them – all that’s needed is internet access. That certainly means less baggage for me anyway, seeing as my laptop weighs a ton! There are a couple of downsides though, at least for me… firstly, although I may physically have a particular game that’s for sale on Steam, I may not necessarily be able to add it. This presents a problem as I have to purchase an entirely new copy of the game for it to be on Steam. For a game like the X-Com collection, this was less of an issue, as I could offset most of the cost by saying that I needed UFO to complete the collection. Granted, it’s just one game, but it does make the overall cost feel a bit less. I also have my eye on the id software collection too, as the value of the games I don’t have are nearly the value of the pack itself.

Decisions like that are a lot easier to make. Of course, one thing I do plan to do is compare the prices of games on Steam over what they are retail. If they’re cheaper or the same price on Steam, I’ll get it there instead. I can’t fully move away from non-digital downloads though as It’s not very practical for me. That said however, if devs like Blizzard are also hopping onto the DD bandwagon, I’ll be happy. The new Battle.net has impressed me so far, and I’ve only just signed up! They now offer the ability to download a digital copy of their games, which is cool. My copy of Diablo 2: LOD seems to be a bit screwy atm, so this is a welcome method of downloading a copy of the media that should work! I think my WarCraft III expansion suffered a similar fate as well. One thing I am concerned about though is the fact I selected US English for StarCraft by mistake. Now, don’t get me wrong, I can understand US English fine, but I’m concerned about the technical issues more to be honest. I guess this just means I have to download a different patch now. Either way, I do appriciate the facility to download my Blizzard games. I’ve also just downloaded a system checker for StarCraft II, so I can opt into the beta, or at least try anyway. Either way, after much grief (the checker told me it couldn’t upload my system info), it uploaded it anyway. Now I’m not sure if it’s because the app is screwy, but I figure it uploaded the data the first time, or perhaps it did it after I moved my PC into my router’s DMZ… either way I don’t think I’ll ever know. But it’s done now, so I can rest easy. That said though, while Googling some ports for the app, I saw someone mention that 400GB is needed to participate in the Beta testing program.

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planet rome.ro: a visit to id software, 1993

I’m literally just after finishing watching this video, which my friend Sean (of Spoofscript.com) showed me. The vid is a good half hour, but it’s definitely worth a watch if you’re interested in id Software and Doom. The above link is actually the blog entry, so if you want to watch the video, it’s here: http://vimeo.com/4022128.

One of the things that made me smile and also impressed me was Bobby Prince explaining one of the songs from the “lost episode” of the Commander Keen series; Keen Dreams.   I won’t be looking at that particular song in the same way again, and it has subsequently made me appriciate MIDI music more.  I’m not going to ruin the surprise, but suffice to say, once you listen to Bobby’s explanation while the song is playing, it makes a whole lot of sense… provided you didn’t know that already, that is.

Either way, it’s a fascinating look at id Software in their pre-Doom days and also in general.

Edit: Apologies for the big mess of everything… WP is being retarded and isn’t making proper separations