You all probably know how much of a Total War Fanboy I am. It all started with the Japense flavored Shogun Total War, and then piqued with the gargantuan Medieval Total War ( a game I feel might be the best of all time). I then followed the prelease of Rome Total War as though I was camping the backdoor of a rock concert.. But unfortunately Rome was a quite bit of a let down. The game was far smaller than MTW with fewer units, fewer buildings, and a factions that didn’t live up to their historic potential (The Gauls were just bearded madmen.. hardly true).

But Creative Assembly might have a saving grace. Next winter they’re release MTW 2. Mark your calendars now, because I’ll surely disappear for about a month while I lock myself in a room and conquer France from Aquataine-out.

There should be a crapload of improvements this time around, including be a multiplayer strategic campaign (finally!), and a more advanced engine. Like, RTW on crack. Check this stuff out:

We’ve captured 1000’s of mo-capped animations, which allows us to create synchronized attacks with defenses and fatalities. Sequenced attack combos also allow the soldier to string together attacks to cut a swathe through his opponents. As an example, a swordsman might do a swing to the left, a swing to the right, followed by a stab to the stomach knocking his opponent down. He might then spin around, and deliver a merciless finishing strike to the enemy while he’s lying helpless on the ground.
You’ll see these kinds of moves being executed all over the battlefield and as soldiers fall you’ll see them continually scanning their surroundings for their next kill.

If you look at the screens, you’ll notice some other things here. Detail on the units has been increased, but more importantly, individuals in each of the armies look a tad bit different. Some are wearing helmets while others are wearing leather caps and some have beards while others don’t.

The game will support 10,000 units at once. Each will be made of random body parts: Different arms, different shields, different heads, etc. And based on some orther bits I’ve read, it seems the game will be gory. We’re takling a limb-flying good time.

I’ve gotta stop thinking about this now.. it’s making my heart beat faster and I still have to wait a year. Bah! I know… how about some visuals.

Yeah - That’s the stuff. You can read more about the game in this IGN Q&A Session, and check out some more of these colorful screens here.

I recently came across this Japaneese Beatbox artist: Dokaka and hes got some sweet NES beatbox covers. I highly reccommend a listen.

Well, in WoW, all the talk lately is of the first server to open the Ahn Qiraj gates, unlocking 2 new dungeons, and a boatload of hurt on the rest of the world of Azeroth.

When the gates finally opened for the lucky server to do it first (Medivh), last night at midnight. And as you can guess, the servers crashed. But things are back up, and reports are all over the net of what the are finding.

Basically, anywhere in Azeroth that the Silithids were (Silithus, Un goro, Tanaris, the BARRENS…) its hitting the fan. Crystals pop up from the ground, and raid bosses are spawning and wreaking havoc. Sounds awesome

Here is a cool narrative that a medivh player wrote up..
Medivh Realm Forum -

Poke around on the forums for more stories. Though most pics are not working (not…enough….bandwith!).

I’ve been reading Terra Nova and loving it. They had predictions for last year, and the writer batted a .500 not too shabby, but not great.

Here is This Year’s list:

1) A winning candidate in the 2006 US Congressional elections will have campaigned in an MMO or virtual world
2) Apple’s share of the PC market will double to 5%
3) Second Life’s peak concurrency, currently at 5000, will reach 20,000
4) WoW will end 2006 with fewer players than it has today
5) Peter Ludlow won’t send me an autographed copy of “Only a Game”
6) A Second Life resident will begin selling a service for exporting SL items to a Fab Lab (such as Berkeley’s Squid Labs) in order to create them in the real world
7) A Virtual Research Foundation, based in a virtual world or MMO, will be created to gather games and virtual world research, create research standards, and provide funding to researchers
8) The US Democratic Party, in an attempt to capture the “family values” vote, will demonize games during the 2006 election cycle
9) A business or service in a virtual world will successfully file for a trademark
10) A Terra Nova author will testify before Congress about virtual worlds

For those of you who’ve enjoyed the Double Dragon smackdown fest that is Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks, then revel in this — Another installment of the new ’side scrolling’ franchise is set to hit store shelves this October for Xbox and PS2. The game is said to have 60 some odd playable characters (all characters who’ve ever been in a MK game will be playable). Hopefully this won’t water down any of the action.

Gamespot has a brief news story, but there really isn’t anything more than what I just told you.

~DDB

Gamespot has word that the Empire at War demo will debut on their site sometime next week. The demo will include some 5 tutorial missions, and a skirmish map from the campaign. Oh joyous joy of joys!

Q: Discounting ‘betas’, How often does a demo come-out before a game these days?
A: Not very freakin’ often.

We’ll let you know as soon as the demo is available.

EDIT: Just found this page on Gamespot. It says the demo map puts you in control of the Rebel troops on Hoth. There’s also a countdown clock for demo release, which hits 00:00:00 tomorrow afternoon! Hot!

Before Russ and I lost ourselves in the Land, ‘Sea’, and Air battles of WWIIOnline, we had a short stint at flying the ultra realistic online air combat game Aces High. Although the WWIIOnline experience was better as a whole (the combined arms of land and air units made an enjoyable game out of coordination alone), Aces High still holds something above what WWIIOnline could do with Aircraft. Their physics engine is top notch, and their corps of gamers is a devout and friendly group of experts to say the least.

Well HiTech Creations just did something ingenious. Tour of Duty lets you join a squadron with friends, and cooperatively undertake missions designed by the game’s AI. You’ll fight both AI opponents and other Squads as you work through the online game’s narrative. You’ll earn promotions that unlock better ground crews, better physical abilities for your pilot, and I can only assume new planes.

I think that the key over WWIIOnline is that these are generated missions that add a story to your experience. WWIIOnline had a lot of off nights where patrolling netted very few targets. In Aces High: Tour of Duty, you’ll always have action right there waiting for you every night. And given Aces High’s strong community-base, the cooperation with strangers will net fantastic experiences.

Here’s the Official Press Release. The game is set to ship sometime in the first half of 2006.

From Terra Nova comes this discussion about how the American Cancer Society is performing community outreach, and fund raising… you konw… IN A VIRTUAL WORLD!!?!?!?

Yep… Here is a copy of the statement from the ACS rep:

The American Cancer Society, building off of its success with the first virtual Relay For Life in Second Life, is expanding its community presence in the virtual world in 2006. The Society has plans to purchase an Island and create a center for ACS related activities. The goal of the Virtual ACS Office is to provide the residents of SL with cancer related programs ad services including education sessions, peer support groups, advocacy activities and fund-raising opportunities. The goal is to engage the residents of SL in the same way that we would engage any community. Our proposed time-line is to have this Virtual Office constructed and running by the beginning of summer 2006 to coincide with our second annual Relay For Life.

The Relay planning committee is already working on ways to improve the event for the residents. In the 2006 Relay there will be opportunities for team fund-raising, and sponsorship fund-raising. We look forward to more people waking the track, more fantastic campsites, and more interactive activities. As the only virtual walk-a-thon we are actively looking for ways to draw on the benefits of holding this type of event in a virtual world. We are open to ideas and suggestions from Terra Nova readers and hope to post updates here throughout 2006.

Randal Moss
American Cancer Society
Futuring and Innovation Center
404-329-7573
randal.moss@cancer.org

Um… damn.

So.. Based on this, it seems you can go into a virtual world… make “therebucks” or whatever… GIVE that to a fund raiser in game, who then converts it to REAL money, and applies that to the fight against cancer.

Um…is that tax deductable?

A friend at work sent me this gem.

Basically a blogger’s kid really wants a PSP.. but they didnt buy him one for financial reasons. Well the kid is obsessed.

Like.. REALLY obsessed. He’s taken to drawing PSPs to scale on paper, and selling them to his friends for a quarter.

The blogger decided to start a fund drive for his kid, raising money for the psp, and he’d send the highest donor some original PSP artowork.

Well it worked, and little Junior got his PSP.

Let’s hear it for this heartwarming story about budding gamers of the world!

Now… whats that kid doing obsessing about playing GTA? Hes not “mature” yet!

I’ve had a PSP and DS for well - over 6 months each. The PSP I went with Miner on launch day and the DS I got about a month later. The DS orginally went unused as I waited for Animal Crossing and other games.

I purchased just about every game for the PSP, downloaded videos, made movies for it, and then in the end…stopped playing the games as they would last a week, and only recently enjoyed playing the new Harry Potter game on it.

The DS over the past 3 months however has increased in use. Once I got a decent game like Animal Crossing, Mario & Luigi Partners in Time, and Mario Kart - it was like I never had played a game system so complete. Since then I’ve played more DS than I ever did on the PSP. Some days I’ve played for 2-3 hours. The stylus input - the battery lasts forever - and the games are nothing short of fun - REALLY FUN.

So I’m not sure why I had to write this but I did somehow have to express how incredible the DS is. The two screens are amazing. The controls easy.

It’s light - the games - THE GAMES!

I just received electroplankton - wowser. It’s nothing short of well - fun. FUN I TELL YOU!

Okay - I’m mad with DS love. Mad I tell you.