WOW! This one took me by suprise. Congratulations to the guys who made XFire. I use it and love it.
Unfortunately, I fear my XFire days are numbered. I do not fit MTVs demographics and I am sure they will find some way to mess it up.
This Blog has more details.
AP reports: Some humbling news for professional musicians like Madonna and U2: By a wide margin, TV viewers prefer the amateurs.
Nearly twice as many people – 28.3 million – watched “American Idol” than watched
the Grammy Awards – 15.1 million – when the two music programs went head-to-head in prime time Wednesday, according to Nielsen Media Research.
I played my first MORPG (not Massively, but definitely Multiplayer) game on AOL way back in 1996. It was a single server that would hold 500 people at any given time. The name of this game? AD&Ds Neverwinter Nights. This was the original online gaming social fest for me. In 1997, AOL shut it down and I have never been the same since. I have been trying to recreate the fun and adventure I had in that game without much luck.
With nothing better to do, I joined TEN (Total Entertainment Network) and picked up AD&Ds Dark Sun Online. Graphically, it was a much better game. Overall, it lacked the fun factor I had experienced in oNWN.
Soon after, I jumped into Ultima Online and it was fun and all of the old NWN guild came along. We were a thriving group of 50 or so players. We had a good social network and we enjoyed working together for a goal. However, it lacked something. I could never put my finger on it, but this was no oNWN.
Well, I think I finally know what it was missing. The recreation of the paper and pen D&D games I had enjoyed through my late teens. Meeting once a week with the same group of people to make it just a little further down the path set before us. It was exciting and enjoyable. It was social and fun gaming all at the same time. The one thing it was not was about getting “Phat Lewt”. Sure, we loved getting cool new items, but we always put the need of the group before the needs of the individual.
This is the problem with todays MMORPGs. They are all about the reward and never about the adventure. They require the efforts of large groups, yet only reward the individual. They are about instant gratification and never about the adventure.
I can hope this will chance soon. Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach may be just the game to bring me back to the days of Neverwinter Nights on AOL. It may not appeal to the “l33t G4merZ”, but it should appeal to those of you who are just like me. Looking for the adventure along the way rather than the reward at the end. If this sounds like something you are interested in, check out this article on DnD Vault. It goes a long way to describing what type of adventure you can expect to find in the new Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach. In the meantime, Ill keep my fingers crossed that my Beta application will be accepted so I can get my first taste of adventure.
In the spirit of Christmas, we bring you a few new Flash Arcade Games. A few of them have a Christmas theme or Snow/Ice theme. A few are fan favorites. As always, dont forget Bloody Pingu Throw. After all, it is our number 1 most played game….
Here are the new games.
Pazzo Francesco – Escape from Rakoth Dun
PS A BIG THANKS to Raze for the Holiday Theme!
Top publisher Electronic Arts has announced that it is the new holder of the rights to create videogames based on the hugely successful The Simpsons franchise, with a next-generation title already in the pipeline.
More can be found at www.gamesindustry.biz
If you have a FilePlanet account, even the free one, you are now eligible to beta test the new Star Wars Battlefront II game. You may remember the first game. It was the most successful Star Wars game ever sold. However, if you look for any online servers, you will be hard pressed to find one worth playing. You see, the first game played like a console game and the in game browser was the worst I have ever seen in a FPS.
Game companies gage the success of a game based on the number of copies sold. Initial sales were through the roof. Continued sales were terrible. I judge a game on its longevity and ability to endure. This game had neither. You may ask why I am so jaded? Well, I bought it the week it came out for the full price, played it once, then never played it again. It was a terrible game based on an awesome concept. So, if you have any interest in the sequel, I recommend checking out the beta before wasting your money a second time.
After you play it, be sure to drop back by and tell us what you think of it. Im curious to hear what others think about the sequel.
I added some new flash games to the Arcade. I tired to get a little bit for everyone. The new games are:
Mole Hunter
Moonlander
AmiraGame
Sniper
Sonica
Alien Colony V1.3
I hope you enjoy them. Remember, tell your friends this is the best place to waste your companies time….. Enjoy….
Just a couple of days late with this one…
Redwood City, Calif. and Bellevue, WA – July 18, 2005 – Electronic Arts, the world’s leading interactive entertainment company and Valve®, the award-winning studio behind the blockbuster franchises Half-Life® and Counter-Strike™, today announced that the two companies have entered a multi-year agreement to deliver a collection of Valve games to players worldwide. The first two games to be released under this agreement are Half-Life 2: Game of the Year and Counter-Strike: Source™ for PC, both launching this fall. In addition, Half-Life 2 for the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, currently in development at Valve and targeted for release in October, will be published and distributed worldwide by EA.
New Starcraft patch
Its nice to See a gaming company still supporting a game they released almost eight years ago (02/28/1998). Its even better to see a game that old still in the level of play that Starcraft is.
It may not be the end-all-be-all of RTS. But its the model by which all others are judged. Continue reading Starcraft 1.13 patch
Several of us have been looking at this new game, Brothers In Arms: Road To Hill 30. Thanks to |GRB| Ducks hard work, we now have a very detailed review of what he thought of the game. If you are a big fan of WWII games and like the idea of squad based single player action, then check it out.
The NPD Group has released their latest PC software report.
The table shows the top 10 selling PC games for the week of May 15 – May 21, 2005.
1. Guild Wars—NCsoft
2. The Sims 2: University—Electronic Arts
3. World Of Warcraft—VU Games
4. The Sims 2—Electronic Arts
5. Empire Earth 2—VU Games
6. Lego Star Wars—Eidos
7. Stronghold 2—2K Games
8. The Sims Deluxe—Electronic Arts
9. Half-Life 2—VU Games
10. DOOM 3—Activision
Guild Wars is the MMORPG that doesnt have a monthly fee. I wonder if it will continue to do so well… I am really suprised Doom 3 is still in the top 10, but I look for the release of BF2 to push it out of the list.
The trailer for Quake IV is out and available at GameTrailers.com
There are three versions available. Low and High-definition trailers, and some gameplay footage from an MTV event. No release date for Quake IV has been announced at this time.
Ever throw away your manual for a game by mistake? Replacement Docs is an online archive of thousands of game manuals and instructions for just about every system out there.
Thanks to BoingBoing for the link.