Gaming

Charity Fragathon!

Lou Vega — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:55:10 GMT

For those who hadn't already heard, my good friend Chris Williams has put together an awesome event to raise money for Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota. He calls it the "Charity Fragathon" and if you have the opportunity to attend I would totally recommend it. You can find out more at their website (clicking on the logos below) or if you *know* you're going to go, register now.

The picture says it all...

Lou Vega — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:08:54 GMT

Free game from Microsoft?

Lou Vega — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:24:05 GMT

Since Microsoft's Xbox live network was so slammed during the holidays and people weren't able to connect it appears Microsoft is offering (at some point in the future - details still to come) a free game to those affected by the outages.

See the full story on Yahoo.

So apparently my daughter wasn't alone in her frustrations with the Webkinz network this holiday as that one appeared heavily slammed too...but sadly for her and all the other kids out there, no free KinzCash for their troubles!

Fallout 3 - sweet!

Lou Vega — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:04:22 GMT

Having played (and completed!) both Fallout and Fallout-2 I was disappointed (as were so many Fallout fans) to hear that Fallout-3 was cancelled a few years back. There were rumors now and again that Fallout 3 would be resurrected but now it seems it really will be…the question remains though whether this will be a good thing or not in the end.

The company currently developing Fallout-3 is Bethesda Softworks – if you’re a gamer you’ve no doubt heard of them. I’ve enjoyed their games in the past (Elder Scrolls Arena and Daggerfall especially) but one of the things I’ve heard is the new Fallout-3 will be in the same style as those previously mentioned Bethsoft titles…they are taking away the three-quarters top down view of Fallout and making it into a FPS style interface. Now there are many hardcore Fallout fans who are disappointed by this move and I have my reservations about it too…but the main thing I’m interested in is how well they do with the story this time around. As those who have attended my Game Development presentations before will note – killer graphics are great, but it’s the story that draws most into the game as evidenced for example by the countless aggregated hours spent by so many waiting for old King’s Quest screens to paint while playing that game on an Apple IIe in the 80s

One thing I hope they do keep is the ability to keep playing the game after you win like Fallout-2 (don’t remember if this was available in Fallout or not – a lot longer since I’ve played that one). After you win the game in Fallout-2 you were given the option to continue playing your character in the world. There are some pretty neat things you can do by then – especially after you visit the Church in Vegas.

I suppose it’s time to dig up my old Fallout and Fallout-2 CD’s and re-install them so I can play through once more before the release of Fallout-3 – which is supposedly due in Q4 2008 (they have a ship date of 9/9/2008 but we know how that can go with development!)

Online Game that Pays You?

Lou Vega — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:30:19 GMT

Sounds like an interesting concept - but I'll be curious to see how it fans out over time. There's a company in Gibraltar that's beta testing a new FPS game where you get cash (eventually turned into prizes) for damage you do to other people in the game.

Reading a bit more about it there seems to be a good foundation for a pretty neat concept...they've taken measures to try to group people of similar skill level together so there's not a repeat of the type of thing that happened to me for example at the Halo 3 Launch (I got beat by a bunch of younger kids in Halo 3).

Here's a link to the company's web site: http://www.kwari.com/ - have a look for yourself - enjoy!