NearScape
ZOMG Tribes mod for Crysis?!!??!??
Check out the promo video. This could be sweet if they can make it run on, you know, computers that people actually own.
http://www.project-rise.org/downloads.php?cat_id=1
CJOS
I bet Weezer had to pay a lot of theoretical dollars to get these celebs in their video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI
CrowScape
Well, for reasons I, myself, am not entirely too clear on, I signed up for a month of EVE Online. I think that I just find the concept of the game to be irresistible. Plus, I felt that I should give the game a real shot at convincing me of its merits. I came away from my second 14-day free trial with a better opinion of the game than on my first go around, and thought that if I could try it without the more maddening limitations (e.g. the inability to fly anything but a standard combat ship), that it might grow on me.
My first few days on the service have been less-than stellar, with trial by massive error being the rule. I've been pod-killed numerous times by indiscriminate players that didn't notice there was nothing on my ship to justify the ammo and were spiteful enough to kill me afterwards. But, I'm guessing those kinds of lower lifeforms are par for the course in MMORPGs. Still, EVE seems to have stacked the deck in favor of the pirates, mainly because the equipment for stopping a ship's warp drive readily overwhelms the supposed countermeasure. Thus, my time as a space trucker turned out to be nasty, brutish, and short. I'm going to have to join a corp if I'm going to get anywhere.
intrigue
hmm, the 2040 lofts are open to non students.
http://2040lofts.com/faq.html
the 4 bedroom VIP is sweet looking.
NearScape
Is anyone playing this game? I've heard lots of talk about it and it sure looks pretty.
http://www.ageofconan.com
NearScape
Oops! A little trigger happy. I just thought that website was cool with the retro look and dragable windows.
intrigue
http://modmyifone.com/forums/downloads/dialer_v1.1_8C5.png
now that is some really hot iphone theming.
Sysop
NEW EVENT POSTED
Signup available.
NearScape
Good article, but it also reinforces the fact that the Googles and the Ciscos of the world are a much bigger threat to freedom than George Bush. Neither our government nor Beijing (apparently) is technically skilled enough, well funded enough, or agile enough to develop Police State 2.0 without buying it from Corporate America. Which is convenient, because Corporate America is also less accountable, thanks to lobbyists and the politicians who cash their checks.
I assume now, Intrigue, that you will immediately cancel your XBox Live account and your Gmail account so as to not support Police State 2.0. Oh, and better get rid of your I-PASS too since L-1 is so cozy with Illinois government. ;)
intrigue
adam, i do have a tux, although it is not the most comfortable attire.
intrigue
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chinas_allseeing_eye/print
this article is great, but the outlook is grim.....
the scariest part is how China sites the Patriot Act as an acceptable reason to monitor and filter INTERNET traffic.
NearScape
I also picked up UT3, which I'll call UT2008 because the UT3 name doesn't make any sense since it's the 4th version. I haven't played every map/mode of course, but I can definitely say that it is very efficient. It runs on my old desktop with all last-gen obsolete hardware (AGP, IDE, etc) at moderate settings, which still looks better than UT2004 (polycount aside, the bump maps and glows are a nice improvement), and gets framerates much like Bioshock. If you can run Bioshock, you should be pleased with how UT2008 runs. It runs MUCH better than Supreme Commander.
Gameplay feels pretty good, they brought back a few nods to UT99. The Enforcer is back, and the new Coret map remake is amazing. The stupid lightning gun is gone, good riddance. Double jumping seems to be gone, but you can still dodge, so flag runs feel just a little slower and more difficult than 2004, but much more like '99. I still have to explore Warfare mode, more on that later. But so far it looks like a worthy successor, and it should be running on budget laptops before long (before SupCom at least).
NearScape
Review: Sins of a Solar Empire
Short: Plays like Homeworld + Ascendancy, with a dash of WarCraft III
This game is fantastic. It looks good enough but it runs on my $600 laptop. It plays a lot like an RTS, but you can scale the games way up to a Master of Orion-style epic scope if you want to. You harvest resources and build structures and units much like a Blizzard RTS. But you can zoom in and out to a huge scale like Supreme Commander, from a tiny fighter all the way out to multiple solar systems. The space battles look and play a lot like Homeworld, though ships tend to arrange themselves in a flat disc, so you don't have the complicated z-axis controls that Homeworld had, which can be a minus if you enjoyed that. You can still fly the camera around the z-axis and view the game from any angle.
The unlike a Blizzard RTS or even Supreme Commander, the tech tree is massive, like Master of Orion. Actually, there's three tech trees, each of the 3 playable races have a bunch of custom stuff. If you have a limited number of systems, you may have to choose which areas you're going to focus on, it's not usually practical to just get everything; you can only go X levels deep based on how many of one type of research station you have, and systems can only support so many orbital structures. If you focus on Sim City style tech and not on weapons of war, the game presents an awesome balance mechanism to keep you from getting attacked too easy: You can use your superior economy to hire pirates to harass the enemy and keep them somewhat on the defensive. Also, you can try and manipulate black market prices of resources, which may help starve out an overly militaristic foe.
To keep the battles from turning into spam fests, there are Capital ships, which work exactly like Heros in Warcraft 3. They level up with experience, which unlocks special ability points that you can spend in different orders, they even have "mana". Your first capship is free, additional ships are very expensive, and use your limited upkeep and command points quickly. So you don't want your capships to blow up, but only because they're costly to replace, but they hand big experience to your enemies. The AI knows this and is smart enough to retreat from hopeless battles like Blizzard's AI. There's 5 cap classes per race, each has 4 spells (with multiple levels), and many also build fighter squadrons over time. So there's a lot of fleet possibilities, not quite as much as designing your ships from the ground up in MOO, but enough to keep the game interesting for a very long time.
A small game with just a few planets can run about as fast as a good SupCom game, maybe 2 hours. Maps with multiple stars will take weeks, but you can "save" and it essentially creates a new map where you start with all you units and tech from before. Between planets navigation is done through lanes like Ascendancy (and I think MOO 3 did this?). Since there's a ton of non-random maps provided, there are often strategic choke points intentionally built in. Pirates (and other players) must all originate from somewhere (not random like MOO2 Antarans), so you can shield out-of-the-way planets by flooding key chokepoints with ships, which is kind of nice because you can specialize planets a little more since you don't have to defend them all equally (like usually happens in MOO2).
Well, I'm loving it, and I hope you check it out before the June LAN. There's a free demo now.
NearScape
Okay! Time for some gaming. Here's how I think it's going down.
17 May: Wii and Keg party, 217 N 111th
21 June: LAN, Bucketworks
Adam
I really do think this sounds like a better idea!
http://xkcd.com/422/
-Adam
intrigue
http://revver.com/video/874984/datastorm-v10/
not a perfect video, but worth it to see a girl scout fire a rifle saying "this is my boomstick"
adam
Oooh.. Heroes... Still mad at writers for short season and having to wait 'till next season for new ones.
Peter
B5's Captain Johnny (Bruce Boxleitner) joins Heroes!?! Apparently Captain-Obsessed-with-Oranges will may be playing a senator who was originally conceived to be like John McCain.
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Ausiello-Scoop-Bruce/800039151
Nearscape, I guess you're stuck watching Heroes now!
adam
Where are you moving to?
So guess who probably has an interview @ WITI this coming week!
NearScape
Okay so it looks like I'm gonna have to move on the 17th. That means I'm having a party at my place that night, but it will be more of a Wii and drinking party I think. All here are welcome.
There seems to be a lot of complications on Memorial Day weekend so I'm not going to bust my ass trying to plan a LAN there unless people start telling me they really want it.
Bucketworks is doing a "DevHouse" event on the 31st. There'll be lots of people there with computers, probably myself included, but it's not my event. Although it pretty much turned into a freeform LAN party last time.
Pushing back, June 21st would be a good weekend for us to do a proper SpooLAN at Bucketworks, Intrigue will be available to help make that happen.
So if you see something there you'd like to attend let me know. If people want to game after the 17th of May but before the 21st of June, I'm up for that at my new apartment in Tosa. But the next best chance for a really big SpooLAN may be the 21st of June. Please let me know who's in for what. I'm going to keep a keg filled for the duration, just in case. ;)
NearScape
Happy 16th birthday to Wolfenstein 3D.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6300416539473165189&hl=en
CrowScape
Definitely need Wii action now that Nintendo got their big party games out (Please don't tell me that I'm the only one here with Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. Brawl).
intrigue
http://bucketworks.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=49
# MilwaukeeDevHouse2 Saturday, May 31 6:00pm
i believe that MilwaukeeDevHouse2, is doing their meeting through all of BW, but starting in the Greehouse, if you want to do a lan there, BOOOOOK IT NOW. I may or may not be in town. Who knows if there is someplace for me to crash, and there is a lan planned, I might just stay in milwaukee long enough to share in it.
Option 2 for a date is on my bDay weekend on June 21st, but then I will have to be with the parental units for some of that.
NearScape
I want to do a LAN party, and soon, with maybe some bonus Wii action. I'm in the middle of moving this month so I'm not sure what day it should be. Intrigue as also made claims of a move but I don't know what the details are. Memorial weekend is the tradition, though it's a little early this year it seems. My new apartment is going to be much more LAN-friendly, it even has parking. So we could theoretically hang out there. Or, we could try Bucketworks again. I'm told that if we set up in the center space we'll be both shield from the sun, and other events. What do you all think? Are people free on, say, the 24th-25th? Or is the 1st of June better?
I wasn't planning on going to ACen, I'm still paying off Japan'08 and there's a huge backlog of anime to watch with the ladyfriend.
CrowScape
Don't know. Anyone going to ACen?
Dream BBQ Child
Is there a LAN being planned for the Memorial Day holiday?
CrowScape
Must... have... awesome... beyond... words...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXRfZV25n6I&eurl
Should... have... sent... a poet...
