USC IMD takes the Go Game Gold!
Stein and I played the Go Game this past weekend and our team won the whole shebang!
I'll post a bit more on how it all went down soon.
All I know is I don't see any Go Game championship at CMU...
December 19, 2007
August 6, 2007
Mario Strikers & Wii-fi
Finally!!! A Nintendo Wii Wi-fi multiplayer game! Now I can play with my friends online just like I have been doing on the 360.
Mario Strikers Charged is another quality multiplayer game from Nintendo. It's just as fun as the original with a few new features that make it even more enjoyable. But I already knew that from playing the original... My main reason for buying this game was to check out Nintendo's multiplayer online functionality.
I've been a big fan of Nintendo from the beginning and, like most people, during the 64 and GameCube years they let me down but with the Wii they were beginning to win back my trust. After playing the hell out of Wii Sports, Zelda, and a few other forgettable titles, there was not much left too play on the Wii. It soon became useless, taking up space on entertainment cart, and I forgot about it.
Working at Pandemic, with a lot of hardcore gamers pushed me to get a 360 and engage in the online fun that is Xbox Live. It was all so seamless and simple. It took seconds to add friends and even less time to invite them to games online. Elegantly simple. Because of this I couldn't wait for Nintendo to try their hand in the online market. I hadn't been a big fan of their virtual console (over priced if you ask me - I own all of those games and they still work on my original consoles). So I assumed Nintendo would improve upon their rival's online functionality and ease of use. After all, the Wii was one of the simplest consoles out there and it's all about group gaming!
So when I heard about Mario Strikers being their first multi-player online game I was happy to run out and buy it. Of course, the first thing I did was to try and play online with a friend. I thought it would be funny to just invite him in the middle of a game (assuming Xbox Live functionality)... I was sorely disappointed. The first thing I end up facing is the dreaded "friend code" input screen. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!?!?!?! Can't I just access my Wii friends and choose one of them to play? Perhaps see if they are online??? Ugh... After cursing Nintendo and it's makers, I shut down my Wii and started up my 360 to play some Carcassonne online.
Why Nintendo... why?
March 29, 2007
2nd year Week Cabinet Project
There was once a kitchen cabinet that you used to crawl into as a child... Inside there was lush green garden with a small stream that ran into a pond. You could change the time from day to night and sit back to gaze at the stars and moon. A quiet breeze came over the hill, across the grass, and kept you cool and soothed your tumultuous thoughts. It reminds you of all the parts of nature that you no longer see in the city of Los Angeles.
October 31, 2006
Swahili web game to tackle Aids ("Serious Games")
The United Nations children's agency (Unicef) has launched the first computer game in Kiswahili, aimed at halting the spread of HIV and Aids.
October 3, 2005
Dungeon Keeper and Evil Genius
So I've been trying to get some playing time and try out a few games I haven't had the time to play.
I picked up Dungeon Keeper 2 a bit ago and besides all the crashing involved (due to it being an older game) it is splendifferous. More on that later.
Evil Genius... Starts out as a great concept. It's like Dungeon Keeper but instead of a dungeon you get a evil lair with which you will fend off super secret agents trying to stop you from taking over the world.
Real fun to play when you start and go through the various tutorials... Pretty basic set up and you quickly learn how everything works but then... it gets much more complicated... much much much much more complicated.
So you quickly learn you can't kill the damn super agents until you get to the next island (oh and when you transfer to that island did I mention that you lose ALL YOUR MONEY that you've been working hard to steal this whole time!!!!). So these agents end up being a problem as they are very powerful and end up killing off various minions you have. Luckily you have your own henchmen who are also semi-powerful. So what I ended up doing is locking them all in a room and keeping the super agents in a constant loop of capture, interrogate, re-capture, etc... Now this is INSANE micromanagement I shouldn't have to do and you probably are asking me why I am doing this...
Well... Lets look at what these agents can do...
First off they can kill my minions. Now sure you can just go and buy some new ones but the problem come when they start killing off my minions that are 2nd-4th level minions that took hours to train up to that point. So that isn't exactly too fun when they die.
Second they destroy various parts of my base with explosives and thus I have to rebuy and rebuild.
Third some turn invisible and then run into the middle of my base and start killing.
Fourth others don't kill the minions but make them drop in loyality then just leave... that sucks.
And finally... One specific agent starts playing with your security system... Now sure at first that sounds kind of fun... but then you realize what that really entails. It entails me looking at however many doors I have made (40 or more) and then manually changing them all back to the correct setting... Also there's the Base Alert which goes off and basically stops all production and all minions run to get guns... Not fun.
This game has a lot of great ideas but just gets more and more complicated and not more and more fun. I like the choices but having to research all the various choices and spend time getting my minions up to those levels and then watching that all be destroyed in seconds is not fun. Especially the 4th or 5th time.
So I quickly learned how to cheat the system and kept all super agents in stasis and then used my one extra henchmen to teleport around killing the minor agents. It still ends up being a hassle because you have to go back to your security room and keep putting the agents back to interrogate.
At this point I felt I had pretty good control of the game, though not in a fun way - more like beating it down, when I realize i have to switch islands. So I spend hours and hours getting my base perfect when I have to switch to another Island??? SO this was all just one huge tutorial level???? You're kidding right?
Nope... So this doesn't bother me too much until I actually move to the other island and realize not only do I have no money (about 16 million down the tubes) but I also have no base at all... they give me NOTHING to start with (well there's the little shack... I hate you... so much.).
Well time to turn to the cheat codes and see how this game ends. You lost me at the 3rd tech tree.
(note to self... edit later)