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.

This post is going to be a little small a bit larger than I expected, and later I’ll be following up with a post about another company, but I do believe it’s time for an update on things, even if it is a bit late.  I don’t expect to write anything else about Sony anytime soon, unless there’s a major change in developments, but we’ll see what happens.  Anyway, over the past week we have had these articles:

http://news.spong.com/article/21176/Sony-No-PS3-OtherOS-Refunds
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/04/19/sony_firmware_compensation/
http://www.thinq.co.uk/news/2010/4/14/sony-refuses-to-sanction-ps3-refunds/

It seems that judging by the above, getting refunds is proving to be a problem.  I still haven’t persued the possibility of getting a refund though it doesn’t look I’d have much luck at present.  There is also mention here of a 3.30 patch and as you can see, there’s no mention of the Other OS (OOS) feature being restored.  I imagine if (and at the moment it seems a big if) it does get restored, it’ll be on the next patch after this one.  Still, it’s madness that Sony pull the plug on a feature that was advertised as a selling point, especially as to actually exploit the security issue in the first place, it requires more effort than all but the most dedicated of individuals are willing to commit to.  Let’s face it, who but the most dedicated would want to open up their PS3, void the warranty on the machine and risk bricking it?  I’m not knocking them by any means, but the point is that only a handful would even consider doing this, so why would it even be considered that serious and issue?

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First of all, I figured that I should put on my activist hat and also elaborate more on the PS3 comment from the last blog.  As you may already know, Sony recently disabled the “Other OS” option on the “fat” PS3s  with the release of their 3.21 system software update.  If you don’t know, I’d suggest you stop here and Google the 3.21 system software update before continuing, just so you have some basic background on things, and also have had a chance to read people’s responses, seeing as I have my own opinions, based upon the responses I’ve read. That said though, I will be using some links as well though not necessarily ones that’ll provide background.

For those of you that already know, or have gotten yourselves up to speed on things just now, not many people actually use the Other OS option.  I mayself don’t use it but I was considering it at some point, though now I haven;t the option to.  Sony’s excuse was apparantly “security concerns”, but essentially that’s like putting a small fire out with a few million gallons of water, when a bucket would have sufficed.  Of course, as a result of the Other OS removal, a lot of people are annoyed though some couldn’t care less.  Of course, this is only scratching the surface of things; first of all, the removal of this option now means that Sony has broken an EU Law; Directive 1999/44/EC to be precise.  As you can see here, someone already attempted to claim a refund from Amazon UK and was successful in doing so.  This sets an interesting precident and certainly one I’m going to both explore and follow through; this blog entry is the second step in that process.  I’ll explain the first step shortly but here’s a bunch of links in relation to the EU law and the PS3 3.21 software:

http://www.yellowdog-board.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=7266&sid=dff956c5372ab577ba5d29f2fd2b7ace&start=180#p37999
http://lists.fixstars.com/pipermail/yellowdog-announce/2010-April/000223.html (Yellow Dog Linux announcement)
http://labby.co.uk/2010/04/playstation-3-ps3-firmware-update-3-21/ (a fellow UK blogger’s post on the update; seems an argument with his wife was caused, oh dear)
http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/PlayStation-3-General-Discussion/PS3-Firmware-3-21-coming-April-1st-no-joke/m-p/10495082
http://www.thinq.co.uk/news/2010/4/9/sony-says-sorry-for-other-os-take-down/ (Sony apoligise, but it’s a bit too late for that now)

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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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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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I stumbled across this a few minutes ago and thought I’d share it with others.  Unfortunately, as of yet I’ve not got myself a proper games blog (but it is in the pipeline), so I’m posting it here.  Anyway, although the title says that there’s a free Sackboy on offer, unfortunately they’re now all gone, much to my disappointment as I’d have liked my own one!  Instead, there’s a free Sackboy t-shirt on offer instead, provided you follow the requirements on the site.  Do keep in mind though that it’s only available to UK and Ireland residents, so anyone reading this not from any of the covered areas unfortunately cannot take part in this.

Anyway, here’s a pic of one of the 5000 Sackboys sent out (courtesy of a bloke named Josh who posted the pic on the comments page):

No wonder Stephen Fry went “Aww, bless!”

They’re selling one on eBay for 50 quid, but honestly, as much as I’d want one, I’d not pay that much!  I do agree with many of the commenters saying that they’re very well made.  I hope they’re gonna bring out one people can buy eventually, as I would most certainy get one!  Anyway, here’s hoping that I get my t-shirt.

And before I forget, there’s a new LBP DLC coming out which features stuff from Shadow of The Colossus, arguably the most gorgeous-looking (certainly the most rare!) game for PS2. I happen to have a copy and shelled out 20 quid (Euros, I think) for it a few years ago now. I’ve not properly played it (though I should soon!), but as a gamer, there’s a certain pride in owning the game.  Also, I signed myself up to ScrewAttack, at long last, so I’ll most likely be commenting on there.  There’s a blog on there, like there is with GameTrailers, but I dunno if I’ll be posting to it… I might just use it as a mirror blog for the main one I’ve planned, to get larger community coverage… I’ll think of something!

I’m only just after finding out that Tetris has hit the grand age of a quarter-century!  That’s just one year shy of my age!  Anyway, I remember Tetris as one of the first games I had for my GameBoy Pocket, and for that matter, still have.  It happens to be one of the most cloned games ever, and has appeared on multiple systems and has also seen a lot of remakes and also sequels and spinoffs.  For instance, there is at least one Tetris game for the DS out pretty recently and I’m fairly sure there is one for the PC that is more recent too, along with a mobile release.  And although I don’t have an XBox, I’m sure that it has one too.  So, not only has it appeared on practically system (illegally or not), it’s also become one of the world’s most recognizable games as well of the most influential.  I say influential as it seems that everyone and their dog has wanted to make a Tetris-type game.  If not that, then they’ve wanted to do Breakout, Pong, Space Invaders or Asteroids.  As well as being influential in their day, they have another thing in common; simplicity.  The games are simple to pick up and play.  All you need are the controls, and no more than 2 sentences to explain the game.  This also makes them accessible to the masses, which is why Tetris is still so popular to this day… although the game has been updated each generation, the playing principles remain the same.  This was supposed to just be about Tetris’ 25th birthday, but it’s evolved into talking about simplicity in games also, which to be fair is a logical progression.

Anyway, simplicity is why the Wii is popular (I imagine this has its own take on Tetris too), as the games are easy to understand and get into.  I’d even go far as to say that Tetris is perhaps one of the main reasons why some people became gamers.  Of course, you can still see the influence of Tetris in other puzzle games, even if it’s not obvious.  I’m pretty sure that Tetris was in the back of the developer’s heads for games like Peggle and Zuma, to name a couple of games I’ve played recently.  The major influence of Tetris in games like that is simplicity and accessibility, which is at the core of casual games.  Addictiveness is another factor too… how many of you can honestly say you haven’t looked at the clock and thought “just one more game/level and I’ll stop, and it turns into 3 hours?  I know I have had that many a time.  Granted, it may not be towards our birthday game, but it has been towards a game.  Another aspect of Tetris that is also recognisable is the music.  How many of you reading this remember the Tetris music, the A one?  I bet anyone who has played the game remembers it quite well.  It’s like the original Super Mario Brothers song; it’s catchy and hard to get out of your head, although admittedly, there’s not a lot of music in SMB, so it’s all most likely remembered.  For me, anyway the A Song is my most remembered song of tetris, apart from the main theme.  The B Song, while I heard it and know it’s there, I don’t remember quite as much.  I just read up about Tetris and there was a C song too… I don’t remember that at all!

Another large post!

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