Archive for the 'Games' Category

Farewell, Gary Gygax

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

I was deeply saddened to find out that Gary Gygax passed away today, after struggling with health issues for several years. Gary Gygax co-created the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, and thereby invented the entire role-playing game genre.

Like any good geek, I grew up playing role-playing games during my teens. Even though we did not [...]

Wii Safety Manual

Wednesday, December 6th, 2006

Apparently the Japanese version of the Nintendo Wii ships with an insane Safety Guide. Who would have thought that it is not a good idea to stick four leaf clovers into the Wii?

Of course, the community was quick to respond with a spoof: Wii Safety: The Missing Pages

Initial thoughts on the Wii

Monday, December 4th, 2006

Last week, I was finally able to get a hold of a Nintendo Wii. Somehow the Wii resonated with me since details about it were first announced (and when it was still codenamed “Revolution”), and for the past few months I’ve been eager to try it out first hand.

Traditionally, I’m a PC gamer, and the [...]

Upcoming MMO Games

Thursday, May 4th, 2006

Joystiq posted an excellent roundup of 31 upcoming MMO games. Themes include everything from the standard fantasy and sci-fi fare to wild west, robot, zombie, sex, pirate, and post-apocalyptic themed worlds. Similarly, many of the titles are pretty traditional MMORPG games, but some provide an emphasis on strategy, FPS gameplay, chat and casual gameplay, or [...]

Oblivion re-rated M for Mature

Thursday, May 4th, 2006

Yesterday the ESRB re-rated Oblivion M for Mature. Bethesda’s response to the re-rating followed shortly afterwards.

Apparently the re-rating was mainly triggered by a user created modification that allows players to play with topless versions of female characters (Hot Coffee anyone?). In addition, the ESRB accused Bethesda of improperly disclosing the excessive amounts of blood and [...]

Some Thoughts on Downloadable Content

Thursday, April 27th, 2006

I just posted an article about downloadable game content on my Oblivion Blog. It’s not all that Oblivion specific and contains some thoughts on the current state of downloadable content as well as the future direction, so I am linking to it here because I figured that it might be of general interest.

Oblivion

Saturday, March 25th, 2006

On Friday I finally got my copy of Oblivion (thanks Amazon for taking so long on this one…). Anyway, I’ve been a big fan of the previous Elder Scrolls games (starting with Arena about 13 years ago) and really look forward to playing this latest installment. Rather than bore everyone else with this (as I [...]

Xbox 360 pricing and packaging

Sunday, August 21st, 2005

Microsoft has announced details on the pricing and packaging for the Xbox 360 that is expected in time for the holiday season.

Unofrtunately, Microsoft has decided to offer two different bundles for $299 and $399 respectively. The $399 bundle includes many features that were previously expected to be standard Xbox 360 features (20GB hard drive, wireless [...]

Xbox Live Nerds

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2005

When I upgraded my SBC / Yahoo DSL service a while ago, I received a free Xbox Live Starter Kit, including a one-year subscription. I finally signed up for the Xbox Live service last week.

Overall, I have to admit that Xbox Live is pretty neat. Signing into the service is very easy from any game [...]

Job Hunt and Fable…

Friday, October 8th, 2004

Please excuse the recent lack of updates on my blog. This has several reasons:

I am currently seeking a new job, which takes a fair amount of time. (On that note, if you know of a challenging opportunity as a Lead Software Engineer or Software Engineering Manager, please leave a comment). As I mentioned in my previous [...]

Bought an Xbox

Tuesday, September 14th, 2004

For various reasons, after using computers (and playing computer games) for 20 years now, I have finally decided to give in and buy a game console. Perhaps the main reason is that I’m fed up with the constant upgrades that are required in order to be able to enjoy the latest PC games. The console [...]

PC Games / Linux / Consoles

Thursday, August 26th, 2004

As I mentioned in my previous posting, I am currently in the process of converting my main desktop from Windows XP to Linux. One of the main things I know I will struggle with (unless I just give up and live with an annoying dual-boot situation) is support for computer games.

In many ways I am [...]

Paranoia XP

Wednesday, August 11th, 2004

I just came across this article on Boing Boing about the new Paranoia XP pen & paper RPG, which was publicly developed using open source methodologies, including a Wiki and blogs. This mostly caught my eye because I actually used to play this RPG about 15 years ago as a teenager…

Games * Design [...]

Thief: Deadly Shadows released

Monday, May 31st, 2004

I just noticed that Thief: Deadly Shadows, the third installment in the awesome Thief “first person sneaker” computer game series has been released a few days ago. I have been looking forward to this game for a while, so I’ll probably order it tomorrow or pick it up at a local store. Not that I [...]