Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Aion Servers Crammed! NCSOFT isn't ignoring it. Really...
"There are numbers and stats that help us predict servers. We know what our average percentage of users is per active accounts at a peak time based off our beta events and our other products. We know how many users our servers can handle at capacity, and we know how many users makes for an ideal game play experience in Aion. Most importantly we know that there will never be a time when every single Aion customer wants to log in and play all at once than when we first turn on the servers. All of these go into picking the correct server count and the right time to spin up new servers.
We had to keep max server capacity low at first because everyone was crammed at the starting area. Had we opened it up to everyone, no one could have progressed. As the day went on, we opened up the servers more and more. We want to ensure that our servers are healthy during Head Start, but also once a retail code is applied. These next few days we will be calculating data and weighing the ideal time to open more servers. I think that the community will understand that in a game with PvPvE how important a healthy populated server is and that we do not want to go down the low pop server path..."Brian Knox..
Well, I can certainly understand Ncsoft's hesitation to go crazy adding servers when the current servers aren't balanced. PVP balancing seems to be VERY important to them which is impressive. Considering neither Warhammer or World of Warcraft have even attempted to do this.
I certainly hate the que times which seem to range anywhere form 2-7 hours. Today they were worse for me; in fact I'm waiting in line while writing this. But these are the first few days of this game and there is SO MUCH work to be done that takes place in the first month of an MMORPG. This is REALLY only the beginning.
I will say that I love Aion and I've been playing since the beta. I was kind of down on it to begin with. But I guess their tweaking during the beta period has improved the game a great deal. First and foremost, leveling has become ALOT easier and faster.
At least the waiting has been more or less worth it. I only wish I could play for a few more hours than I can now. Like the hours I'm waiting in line. But like I said this is only the beginning people. So stop complaining, your loud annoying childish voices have been heard. No offense to all the sane people out there.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Sony might want to look into keeping the promises they make in their E3 Press Conferences to a minimum(PSP)
Destructiod interviewed Eric Lempel of Sony and he said this when asked about when are going to see ALL PSP games on PSN.
"It's something we are looking into. There are a lot of rights issues behind that, legal clearances, and a lot of these games were made without intentions to go digital, so we are working with all of our third party partners to get as much as we can, and the goal would be to have the entire library up. It might not be possible due to issues around those titles."
So were these issues not there when they made the promise that ALL PSP games would be on PSN for download for those folks spending the crazy $249 for the PSPGO. I guess they were mistaken. Kind of like the promise that Gran Turismo PSP would launch 2 years ago or that Littlebig Planet was coming out on PSN by last Christmas.
I know Microsoft sometimes stretches the truth, but geez Sony, what is the deal with your PR department. No advertising for your first party titles and now out and out lies. Perhaps it is time for a change.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Aion's Topping Steams Weekly Sales!
The entire top 10 list is as follows:
- 1. Aion Collector's Edition - NCsoft
- 2. Batman: Arkham Asylum - Rocksteady/Eidos
- 3. Resident Evil 5 - Capcom
- 4. Star Wars: Jedi Knight Collection - LucasArts
- 5. Garry's Mod - Garry's Mod Team
- 6. Left 4 Dead - Valve
- 7. Red Faction Guerrilla - Reactor Zero/Volition/THQ
- 8. Aion Standard Edition - NCsoft
- 9. Counter-Strike Source - Valve
- 10. Champions Online - Cryptic Studios/Atari" From Big Download...
Batman is a new addition to the list but Aion KEEPS coming up with top numbers! It's no wonder this game has recorded a record number of pre-orders!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Giant Bomb Presents Ron Gilbert's DeathSpank!
There are certainly lots of trailers up on this game, but this is a demo with actual gameplay and some really good explanation.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Where Have All the Pretty Words Gone?
I feel I have to comment on what seems to be a growing trend in MANY recent video game magazines. In fact, as of this writing I currently feel like this trend is spiraling into a horrible place that began a few years ago with a little magazine called GamePro.
Back then, in the days where there were SO MANY game magazines that I believe they bordered on around 15 or more; and those were just the domestics. The year was 2007, but it might have been 2006. Don't quote me. It doesn't really matter but back then as now. GamePro had a minimum of words and a maximum of screen shots, but that was their MO and everyone knew that if you wanted lots of screens on every game out there, GamePro was the place to go. There was no big mystery and there were plenty of other publications that had both screens and long articles. Including my ALL TIME FAVORITES the dead EGM and the longer dead Games for Windows magazine. Both of which had some very exciting and wordy articles. Both magazines took chances and had incredible stuff; did they lose because of that; I hope not.
Sometime in the recent past, probably around spring of this year a VERY disturbing thing happened. At least disturbing to me. After all the game magazine closures we were really only left with EDGE magazine the old standby UK publication that boasts a crazy $9 and some US but all ways delivers with exceptional back of the book articles and some amazing inside game developer stuff. And we had PC GAMER, the American publication printed by the same publisher, FUTURE. PCGAMER boasted some amazing writing and had some equally incredible back of the book articles. Finally, good old PLAY magazine which used to have a large anime section but this had been sheered down and they had a back of the book editorial and even a couple in the front that were usually pretty amazing. In PLAY's case this seemed to happen right around the time the their other American competitors folded. Which was cool and interesting all on its own.
By the time spring came however, it seemed like PCGAMER had decided to go in a NEW direction and drop their back of the book articles all together. With the insistence that the magazine was doing this to increase the number of pages devoted to previews. Which they have done in one page pieces that really are no different than any other video game magazine. Which to me, turning something unique or somewhat unique into something common; is a VERY BAD MOVE. But hey, maybe it would work. It didn't at least not to me; and said editor called it quits in the latest issue. Maybe they will go back, or maybe not.
The magazine industry seems to be slowly homogenizing itself for some reason. I don't know if this is simply to make money or there is some kind of American Publishing standard that is probably intended to make more money somehow. The reason I'm beginning to believe this is that in the last couple months it seems like there is far more focus on getting screen shots than there is on getting some descent copy out there for everyone to read and enjoy. I can get my screens aplenty on the Internet for free; why am I going to buy your magazine for that? There are also a terrible frequency of magazines that have decided to make their "hard stuff," area's multiple pages. These are the pages that show off things like action figures, new hardware, and ridiculously expensive art pieces. Certainly in the past magazine have done this to fill space during the holidays but there are at least two current issues of magazines that have done this for their September issue. What holiday was this for, Labor Day?
I know that there are people reading this that are saying that I am torpedoing my future career at any one of the above publications over this topic. But the problem I'm bringing up here is more important than just about anything that has happened in video game journalism for years. At least as important as "Gerstman Gate." Mainly because this isn't one or two publications, this is seemingly the WHOLE AMERICAN PUBLISHING industry. How the UK and Japanese publications are missing this I'll never know.
I had originally believed that the contracting of the video game magazine industry would result in a stronger group of magazines. But it now appears the publications have dropped to such a degree that they are flirting with becoming simple advertising for game developers and publishers rather than commentators on video games. This is a side from the spotty review content and odd pessimistic previews that have popped up on a few occasions. I could have handled all this and ignored it as I have in the past if it wasn't for the total lack of insightful commentary in just about any magazine right now with the exception of PLAY magazine and of course Game Developer Magazine.
There was a time around "Gerstman Gate;" where someone(sorry whoever you are, I can't remember your name), that said that he was worried that video game journalism would become nothing more than PR for the video game industry and that the only hope for the industry was the blogosphere which would somehow fill the void that the professionals left behind. While this hasn't yet happened and everything, for the most part, has returned to somewhat normal. There is still an alarming number of publications that seem to be stooping low to pay the bills. Perhaps this is a simple matter of economics where the fewer people you have writing for you the fewer articles you can have. But it seems that the people writing one page to one paragraph previews could spend their time better on writing articles. But perhaps the publications believe that their previews which can be found anywhere online for free are more important than articles that would give their writers a voice rather than just another carefully worded paragraph in a sea of carefully worded paragraphs.
The simple point I am making with this piece is this, please put some words back into your work. Leave the screen shots and previews to the Internet and start giving the readers something they can't get anywhere else. Insightful, well written commentary! I'm not asking for Atlantic Monthly, just something more complicated than the Gamestop flyer with paragraph accompaniment.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
PSN to launch the reality show "Tester" in Dec. Really?
So the story is that Sony is putting together auditions for their upcoming reality show about videogamers, called,"The Tester." They are going to make it available for REAL MONEY on PSN this winter. Really! This isn't a joke. And they want people to apply. You have to fill out a questionnaire and a short video of why you should be in the show. So I guess this is a silly question but, "Why would anyone pay ANYTHING to watch a bunch of fools try to beat each other at video games?"
The only reason I can think of is that they are ALL REALLY HOT GIRLS. Considering according a study that came out today the average PS3 owner is a 28 year old male. So I would imagine that's about the only way to get his, or his 14 year old son's money.
I just think that is yet another ridiculous foray into showing video games in a television show format that is guaranteed to fail. But hey maybe some poor guy will get something out of this. But I would say that the line under the Tester open casting call should be, "Only beautiful women 18-25 need apply."
So I hope someone tells me how all this turns out. Because it will be a COLD DAY IN HELL before I PAY to watch a REALITY SHOW.