So this Monday (July 19th) Valve released a free (yes, free) game called Alien Swarm. It is a 4 person birds-eye view shooter that can be played solo, co-op, or multiplayer.

This mod was originally created by Black Cat Games for Unreal Tournament 2004 - the developers were hired by Valve (these devs have also been working on the Left 4 Dead series as well as Portal 2). Interesting that they only announced this game 3 days before launch.

Best news of all: this game comes with source files and a map editor so players can create maps and campaigns for the community!

Client size: ~2gb


Characters
There are 8 characters with their own specific stats - these stats are all "boosts" to certain areas, such as healing more or bigger explosions.

Classes
Officer
Special Weapons
Medic
Tech

Difficulties
Easy
Normal
Hard
Insane

I'll have a proper review later... when I'm not busy playing it. :)

Alright, so whenever I have free time at work (aka lunch break) I like to take some time and read Massively articles. Unfortunately I think most of their commenters are haters because finding a positive comment is like digging for a needle in a haystack. Seriously, since when have gamers become so whiny and ranty about games that aren't even released yet (such as SW:TOR)? I'll have to agree with them on Allods though - from what I've observed I might not even be trying out the new patch at all. Their rep as an mmo pretty much continues to sink, I've yet to see a single supportive comment, and many Massively readers aren't giving the game a chance.

This week was a bit rough for gaming - a storm caused my internet cable to fray and thus I didn't have stable internet from Tuesday until now. :P I've been playing a lot of Diablo 2 lately - mostly because I've never played it before (gasp, I know!). Just finished Act 1 of Nightmare mode... :)

I'll be hitting up Team Fortress 2 tonight, so add me on Steam if you have it... I'm a complete noob though, so be nice!

Lately I've been playing a lot of Transformice... it has a silly name, and it's a silly game, but it's tons of fun and perfect for people who can only squeeze in a few minutes a day. Just imagine 20+ mice, 1 shaman who can create planks (and more) affected by physics, and a mad scramble to be first to return the cheese.


Basically you get to play a mouse, who wants to collect some cheese and return to your hole. Except... usually the cheese is placed in an unreachable area, and you need help from the shaman who has building powers. Now this can go either way, the (good) shamans can help you and keep everyone alive, while the (bad aka troll) shamans will abuse their power to kill you. Sometimes this creates hilarious circumstances.

It's a web browser Flash game, and you can play it here: http://www.transformice.com/en
Each round only takes a maximum of 2 minutes and the game keeps players coming back by implementing a store that sells hats and such (at the price of cheeeese *-*) aside from sheer fun factor. The 2 people who created this game are constantly adding updates and new servers! The latest update introduced several new maps, and now the game has a whopping 81 levels to play.

Continue reading...

For those of you checking out free to play mmos: Turbine is making Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) free to play soon! It just entered closed beta and you can sign up for it here. The client is 10gb and their downloader goes pretty slow... Is it worth it? We'll see either tonight or tomorrow when I get my hands on it!

I've got the latest Allods patch downloaded, but haven't had a chance to play. Seems like there is so much to do on my list - I've got art commissions to finish up and about 4 different games I want to finish.

Bioware announced that Dragon Age 2 will be released around March 2011. (I still haven't finished Dragon Age: Origins, and yes its on my to-do list!)

p.s. Excuse the random template changes, I'm seeking the best structure to tweak - a bit lazy/busy to start from scratch.

p.p.s. Don't forget I'll be undergoing a url change today. I still get a few hits from people searching up "Life in Tensess" on Google.

So I didn't have the time last night to log on Allods (or even download the patch haha, gg me) but I'll definitely check in within the next day and have an "impressions" post sometime up this weekend. Perhaps it'll come earlier if the changes infuriate me as much as some of the posters are expressing on the forums. I know Allods gets a lot of flack when patches come, but the onslaught of negativity on the forums has me worried - generally there aren't SO many and usually there are a group of people diligently defending the game.

For people who have already experienced the new patch - what makes you go yay and what annoys you the most? So I can prepare myself...

I don't understand people who stick around the game complaining though, and predicting the game will die... I posted this on the forum yesterday (yes I'm lurking!) and I'll rewrite it here: Allods is more or less still a free to play game. I don't care how much you want to argue it, but without a subscription cost it can still technically be called that. People only predict doom and gloom for subscription games (like APB), when these games fail (Global Agenda) they hop on the free 2 play wagon. After that there is no real "death" to the game. Since Allods is already free, it will continue to attract random players... it won't die off for a long time. Yes the turnover rate will be extremely high (lack of substantial amount of long term players) but it won't die.

Some people are still keeping an eye on this game (Massively) hoping it will redeem itself from the very first cash shop fiasco to the last few patches, because (usually) the only thing to lose is time.

Speaking of BURNN 1up posted their APB review yesterday and the verdict was a D... Ouch! Several people who commented even went as far as an F! Personally I would give it a C+.

"A dev releases a mediocre game that is full of problems, yet many still play it. What incentive is there for a dev to do it properly?"

Something to think on!

I'll be checking out the new patch with my psi (who still hasn't hit 40) - but since all my friends have also quit, I'll need to find a place to call home. With that being said, are there any casual guilds on Tensess recruiting? If not and if everyone is on Nezeb, I feel a reroll coming on... :P (I still have my healer on Nezeb!) With that said, any guilds that are recruiting - please leave your faction/server/contact info in a comment and I'll stop by later tonight or tomorrow. :D

I'm mostly looking forward to player addons. I saw a video on cursed items, and it looks like it doesn't occur that often so I'm not too bothered by them. There's a lot of random rage about them (like on Massively) but I guess we'll all get to see for ourselves tomorrow. I didn't read all the patch notes but.. disappoint @ lack of psi skill/ruby fixes.

Right now I'm playing the other acclaimed free2play mmo, Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO).. so once I reach (or almost reach) endgame there, I'll do a comparison of what works and what doesn't when it comes to cash shops.

Edit: Reading the forums makes me want to strangle people again, I think Allods has one of the less enjoyable mmo communities I've been in. Not sure if its because people are angry the game requires money (that they prob aren't paying anyways) or if its because there is a mass of younger players (free games tend to attract that group).

Hey readers! Since I'm undergoing revamping of this blog, the name will no longer be "Life in Tensess" and the URL will no longer be "lunith.blogspot.com"

Instead, they will change to Just Duet and justduet.blogspot.com respectively. The name "just duet" is a play on my alias Duet and on the phrase "JUST DO IT!" I'll be changing the address on July 9th.

Speaking of names, what names do you typically use in games/forums/etc and why?

I've used the name Airu (or Eiru for male chars) for maybe 4-5 years now - in mmos this character is probably a healer. Duet is fairly recent, being only slightly over a year old. If those names are taken I use a variation of Aeso. I love short names (less than 5 characters) and none of them really have any special meanings. :) Where did Lunith come from? Well that's a really old name of mine, definitely over 6 years!

I'll be back on Allods for the July 7th patch, and as usual, I'll be uploading mirror patches!