World Conquerors in Review (the NEW Cracked LCD!)

By on May 17, 2012 with 0 Comments

Oh, hi there. Welcome to the NEW Cracked LCD in its NEW home, here at Nohighscores.com!

That’s right, my weekly board games column is moving here so don’t go looking for it in its old spot. Details are limited right now, but watch the skies. But yeah, Barnes Best, editorials, reviews, trolling, everything is going to be right here from now on and I’ll keep to my Thursday schedule- because I haven’t missed a non-holiday, non-E3 Thursday since 2007.

Without further adieu, read on for my take on Gorilla Games’ World Conquerors.

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One More Time

By on May 17, 2012 with 10 Comments

While the rest of the gaming world is staring at Error 2389742 screens, waiting patiently for Blizzard to switch the servers back on, or- if they’re lucky- Pavolvianly clicking monsters until they dispense money and items, I’ve started on my second playthrough of 2012 Game of the Year The Witcher 2. It’s Roche’s path this time, and I’m playing a “no mercy, bed everything that moves, jerkwad Geralt” game this time around. Last night I punched a peasant for not paying me. Felt so wicked. I’m markedly better at the game than I was the first time through, cutting through foes without struggling with learning the controls and how to leverage the tools at the Witcher’s disposal. Difficulty? Dark.

Let me be clear about something here. I almost never play through story-based games twice. If a game has a specific narrative line and the gameplay isn’t score or skill based, then my time with the game is pretty much done after the credits. Exceptions are rare. Dead Space 2, Arkham Asylum, and Metro 2033 were the three most recent games I played through more than once. And I’m almost always trying to get back to another playthrough of Resident Evil 4 and any of the Metal Gear Solid titles. But those are top-shelf favorites. Eternal and timeless. And it says a lot about The Witcher 2 that I am buckling down for another bajillion hour trek with Geralt not a week after completing it. Continue Reading…

38 Studios — Not Looking Good

By on May 17, 2012 with 13 Comments

This is what it all comes down to.

Governor Chafee of RI:

“How do we avoid throwing good money after bad?”

This is not likely to end well.

Cooking Papa

By on May 17, 2012 with 5 Comments

Given my penchant for writing food related columns, it probably comes as no surprise that I do all of the cooking in our household. My wife can cook, barely, but she really doesn’t enjoy it to the point where she gets stressed out by it. The fact that she finds most meat icky doesn’t help either. She also refuses to cut vegetables with anything but a three inch paring knife, making things like chopping onions a wee bit difficult.

Lately my daughter has been asking to help me cook, a deeply, deeply ironic notion given that she doesn’t eat. Now, when I say she doesn’t eat, I mean that she doesn’t eat. Not that she’s picky or she only eats two or three kinds of foods, but that she doesn’t eat. On Sunday she ate a piece of a bagel about the size of small granola bar, a string cheese and a very small slice of lemon meringue pie, but not the crust or the meringue. See what I mean? Without getting into the whole background of her eating and not eating, let’s just say that her being the only person in the house interested in learning how to cook is hilarious in the same way someone winning the lottery only to get hit by a bus advertising said lottery is hilarious.

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Blizzard Offers Apology; Real Money Auction Delayed

By on May 17, 2012 with 39 Comments

In case you didn’t notice, the Diablo 3 servers are down again today for “maintenance.” So my plan of playing some Diablo 3 this morning before getting into my workday has been shuttered, forcing me to actually read emails, reply to emails, and finish up E3 scheduling (I hate E3 scheduling). How long will the servers be down? Who knows? Blizzard said it was to be from 4:00AM to 7:00AM PDT.

When you buy an MMO you expect this sort of thing as it goes with the territory but it didn’t have to be this way for Diablo 3. In speaking to Todd yesterday he made a great point. I remember because that doesn’t happen every day.

This is less about Diablo. People are going to jump through hoops to play Diablo because it’s Diablo. It’s an “event” game. However, this will most assuredly affect the next new Blizzard IP if the company tries to pull this online nonsense off again with a game that isn’t built specifically for online play. I’ll be your monkey to play Diablo. But not the next game.

Of course I have no idea if Todd really means that, but I’m willing to bet there are going to be people who remember this launch because I’m looking at a $60 piece of software I cannot use until Blizzard says it’s ok to do so. Will all of these hiccups get worked out in the coming weeks? I hope. I think they will. But that’s not really the point though is it?

At least Blizzard has acknowledged this. The company released a statement asking for patience.

…we’d also like to say that we’ve been humbled by your enthusiasm — and we sincerely regret that your crusade to bring down the Lord of Terror was thwarted not by mobs of demons, but by mortal infrastructure. As many of you are aware, technical issues occurring within hours after the game’s launch led to players experiencing error messages and difficulty logging in. These issues cropped up again last night for the Americas and Europe servers. Despite very aggressive projections, our preparations for the launch of the game did not go far enough.

Full statement is below:

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Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion Beta & Trailer

By on May 17, 2012 with 2 Comments

While I am still (slowly) tooling around with Endless Space, let us not forget the beta for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, which you can play by pre-ordering the game from Stardock. This is becoming quite the fad it seems – this whole pre-order/play the beta deal which really I like a hell of a lot more than the, “Pre-order from Gamestop/Amazon/Target and get a neato piece of armor or a pew-pew laser gun that causes +5 damage” scheme.

Of course here you are literally paying to beta test the game but you sort of know that going in, right?

Anyway, Sins was (and is) a great game so I see no reason why not to jump in and support Rebellion. We’ll have some folks from Ironclad on the podcast soon. Should be fun.

Redux: Dark Matters Dreamcast-bound

By on May 16, 2012 with 2 Comments

NG:DEV.TEAM is at it again. Known for creating hardcore games for retro systems (eg Gun Lord and Last Hope), the developer is teaming up with Rene Hellwig and KTX Software to create a new shmup for the Sega Dreamcast. Some might question the decision to develop a game for a bygone system, but the team has already blown past its Kickstarter goal in one week, leading to possible releases on other platforms.

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Soren Johnson on Why He’s Left EA for Zynga

By on May 16, 2012 with 17 Comments

Chalk up another designer heading to the foothills of social game design. This GI Biz piece lays it all out there as to why the designer of Civ IV will be setting up shop at a Farmville near you. This is worth a read, and Soren is such a nice guy — I personally wish him nothing but success.

Here’s a big takeaway and is something we continue to talk about here at NHS. This sort of says it all:

Q: You’re the latest in a string of former EA employees to join Zynga. What do you think this says about EA and what does it say about Zynga?

Soren Johnson: The shift we’re seeing with industry talent moving towards social and mobile games illustrates the challenges of the old model. That model demands selling a $60 box product, which requires exceptionally high production values to sway the consumer. Of course, AAA production means development costs measured in the tens (or perhaps hundreds) of millions of dollars, which then requires a game to sell at least several million copies at the $60 price to be worth developing. This business model can work, but the margins are not great, and they keep getting worse as development costs increase and retail sales soften.

Diablo III Impressions – Has it Been Oversimplified?

By on May 16, 2012 with 63 Comments

Along with about a billion other hosers, I picked up Diablo III yesterday and have given it a few hours of play time, basically enough to face off against the game’s first “big” boss, the Skeleton King, and then a couple of extra quests besides. I’m not remotely ready to start talking in absolutes about this game and I haven’t tried any multiplayer yet, but I do have some initial impressions to share.

Back in February –good god, was it that long ago?– I posted some thoughts and concerns after having played through the beta. Much of what I wrote there remains true. At its heart, this is just more Diablo. You run around with pointy weapons (or clobber’n weapons, or missile weapons, or spells) and you kill things by clicking the left and right mouse buttons over and over again until your fingers cramp up, decay into blackened dried out husks, and then blow away like dust as soon as you encounter a stiff breeze. This is not your go-to game if you’re looking for a revolutionary leap forward in general gameplay. How much the smaller touches and nuances and changes to some general mechanics change the balance of play I’m not comfortable saying just yet…

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Mice & Mystics- Coming from Plaid Hat Games

By on May 16, 2012 with 2 Comments

Plaid Hat Games, the folks that gave us the great Summoner Wars (“wretched”- Tom W. Chick) are preparing a new title called Mice & Mystics that has become my #1 most anticipated game- even though it’s a co-op and I am co-opped out. What I’m drawn to in this game the most is that it’s not the typical worn-out,  post-Tolkien fantasy setting and there’s an emphasis on narrative. It’s also apparently more of a family-friendly game (listed as ages 7+), with the focus on story, drama, and adventure rather than on rules, depth and strategy. I’m OK with that.

It’s being billed as a adventure game with a focus on storylines and something called the “Cheese System” that must be amazing, and obviously it looks like it takes a couple of pages from the Secret of NIMH/Redwall/Mouse Guard playbook with field mice heroes fighting against evil cats, cockroaches, spiders, and so forth. A couple of early eyewitness reports are claiming that there are 11 story-driven adventures in the box and that they are sort of one-shot deals. But Plaid Hat seems to be grooming this title to be an ongoing concern, so expansions are likely. You’ve got to see the miniatures.

Plaid Hat is running a preorder special, you can get it for 33% off retail plus you get a couple of promo cards.

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