PC PC GAMES

Ep. 60 – It’s here! Enjoy raw and uncut. I believe it’s safe for all ears, I think.

Fascinator — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:16:12 +0000

Good times, turn up the volume and wave at Kommie.

Howdy Folks – we haven’t decided yet if were going to keep bringing more out, but if we do it’ll be less frequently and they’ll be raw and uncut (so you may hear some language or Kommie’isms that you haven’t heard before.) But this was super fun and good times to be talking gaming again with the crowd from PCPC Games. We covered a ton of topics here and we bounced around quite a bit but in the end it all makes sense.

There were some feedback issues from a few folk, so you’ll probably here a few mic scratches here and there and some open mic feedback, but nothing too bad, just wanted to give you a heads-up.

Enjoy. -Fascinator

Ep. 56 A busy 2011 for PC gaming!

BlackThunder — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:48:16 +0000

Our first live stream while recording. So I hope there is not too many references to things you don’t see when you just listen. We pick up from the week before. Talk about hardware and what cool new gadgets there are. But we switch pretty quick to whats important and you will hear us go plenty about PC gaming.

Hardware talk and why Curlen purchased Intel
More Nook and Android talk
Tims Watercooling Update
BobJr tells you why you should own Magicka
Mafia 2 a disappointment?
Neptunes Pride
Dungeons impressions
Cool games we want to play this year
Portal cross-platform play
Deus-Ex first hands on
Homefront goodness
No more CoH Online
STEAM makes how much money?!
Starcraft Themepark (if you travel to China)
Pachter again… and yes for the record I think he is wrong!
Crysis 2 springs a leak… who let the code out?

Free stuff you can get on STEAM

BlackThunder — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 10:29:25 +0000

Thanks to IvanDoomer we have a list of cool free stuff you can download via STEAM. Enjoy!

For ATI/AMD (Radeon) graphic card users: install - storefront
- Half-Life 2: Deathmatch [6]
- Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

For Nvidia (GeForce) graphic card users: install - storefront
- Half-Life 2: Deathmatch [6]
- Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
- Portal: First Slice (demo install - storefront)

For all Steam users:
Alien Swarm: install - storefront
America’s Army 3: install - storefront
BattleForge [1][4][7]: install
Between [1][4]: install - storefront
Codename Gordon: install
COIL [1]: install - storefront
Mightier [1]: install - storefront
Moonbase Alpha: install - storefront
Peggle Extreme: install - storefront
Sam & Max: Episode 4: install - storefront
Spacewar: install
TrackMania Nations Forever [2]: install - storefront

Free addons and resources for already purchased games:
Half-Life (high definition models): install - uninstall - comparison - screenshot
RACE 07 (Crowne Plaza Raceway track) [5]: install - storefront

Steam delivered MODs:
Age of Chivalry (requires Source SDK): install - storefront
D.I.P.R.I.P. Warm Up (requires Source SDK): install - storefront
Darkest Hour (requires Red Orchestra): install - storefront
Defence Alliance 2 (requires Killing Floor): install - storefront
Dystopia (requires Source SDK): install - storefront
Eternal Silence (requires Source SDK): install - storefront
INSURGENCY (requires Source SDK): install - storefront
Mare Nostrum (requires Red Orchestra): install - storefront
Pirates, Vikings, and Knights II (requires Source SDK): install - storefront
Smashball (requires Source SDK): install - storefront
Synergy (requires Half-Life 2): install - storefront
Zombie Panic! Source (requires Source SDK): install - storefront

Related stuffs:
BioShock: Breaking the Mold [Art]: download - storefront
Company of Heroes: All Heroes Rise OST [OST]: download - storefront
Company of Heroes: Songs From the Front OST [OST]: download - storefront
GREED: Black Border OST [OST]: download - storefront
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II OST [OST]: download - storefront
Zombie Movie [Mac/Win][Mov]: install - storefront

== notes ==
[1] mistakenly listed as a demo on storefront
[2] already included on TrackMania United
[3] deployed and deprected, but continues working
[4] mistakenly named as a demo on “My games” list
[5] will install addon on your title and a demo to run feature standalone
[6] does not include Source SDK tool (required to run some MODs)
[7] offered by Play4Free license / micropayment
[8] storefront not available in some contries
[Mac/Win] operating system compatibility*
[Art/OST/Mov] content type (Artbook/Original Soundtrack/Movie)**

Ep. 55 All about cool new hardware

BlackThunder — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:15:51 +0000

This week it was a LOT about hardware. Last but not least Curlen purchasing the Sandybridge (that was before all the trouble with Sandybridge was known). Also why Curlen sold his 30″, why I got a Nook and even all about the Google toy.

Sandybridge coolness
Google freebies
Nook Color
Magicka
Monday Night Combat
STEAM top 10
Battlestar Galactica

Ep. 54 It’s DC Universe

BlackThunder — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:47:37 +0000

A podcast full of surprises. First Will makes half the people buy DC Universe Online and than Curlen drops the bombshell that he is back on the WOW crack. So you can hear us talk about DC and some participants will breaking and getting the game as we talk.

Other items we touched on are:

DC Universe Online
Curlen went back to WoW
Chronicles of Ridick
Desktop Dungeon
Are Lifetime MMO subscriptions worth it?
Minecraft Server Pain
League of Legends New Patch
Natural Selection 2 Beta
Steam Top 10
Sony Online and it’s reputation
Mail call
Android / Phone Talk

And if you are wondering what we are laughing about in the outro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uef17zOCDb8

Ep. 53 A snowy Georgia

BlackThunder — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:28:26 +0000

The week of this recording saw snow chaos in GA. Little did we know that we would have a lot of time to work on projects at home that week. or if you are Curlen play some of your 40 games you purchased during the STEAM sale

We talked about all sorts of stuff and did go quite deep into… what would we like to see this year. Here is a rough list of topics:

WOW looks very different
DODA
Battlefield Vietnam inpressions
Curlen has too many games
Wired tells us what we should look forward to
Our weekly LOL talk
Some 3D talk
Cureln loves Bulldozer (AMD future)
Tablets
CES gear
Pros and Cons of a Cool Keyboard (Josh still looking for keys)
Assassin’s Creed 2 DLC
Warhammer 40k expansion
Weird patents

Ep. 52 A Year of talking about PC games

BlackThunder — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 10:44:49 +0000

So here it is finally. I needed a break and had some work at home that needed taking care of, I am sorry for the long delay in posting this. Pictures of my home project will soon be on the page, so you will see what I have been up to. I also had to switch over to a new system which also set me back a little. Anyway, sorry I kept you waiting, but it is finally here for your enjoyment.

Thanks for everyone that called in or send us greetings. It was and is very much appreciated! I hope you guys have as much listening as we have recording the show.

Thanks to all my friends that are a part of this and enjoy hanging out with me and each other! Wouldn’t and couldn’t do it without you guys!

In this Podcast:

Looking back on a year of Podcasting
Games we are looking forward to
UBI DRM
Assasigns Creed 2
Our Youtube Cannel – 1080p gameplay baby
Darksiders Gameplay and impressions
My little phone story
Phone talk
How much did you spend on STEAM games?! !!!!!
Get your message from Duke Nukem

Ep. 51 Merry Christmas

BlackThunder — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:05:26 +0000

Hope you are still in the spirit of Christmas, since we recorded this leading up to the big day. Steam Sales are still in full swing and I hope all of you have found something really cool under the tree!

Ep. 50 Post Cataclysm Report

BlackThunder — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 08:49:02 +0000

Well… so here we are. Almost a year ago we posted our first podcast. This however, is not the anniversary edition you have been waiting for. That one will take place next week. So call in your well wishes and I make sure they make it into the podcast. It’s as easy as calling (657) 201-7272. So go ahead, and do it! Your chance for a free game will increase quite a bit!

This podcast… some LOL stories, some Cataclysm excitement and some invitations to play with us Oh and I gave some stuff away while recording this. Enjoy!

Ep. 49 It’s about the Cataclysm

BlackThunder — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:43:51 +0000

This was another big week for PC Gaming. Yet again a midnight opening around the US and maybe even in some other Countries for a Blizzard PC exclusive. We recorded just a little while before the release of Cataclysm and Josh was ready to go to the store to pick up his copy. So the first half we hear of the hopes and dreams of the ones that sell their Soul to Blizzard (yet again). It will be interesting to follow and see how much stamina this latest expansion has. Here is the list of topics:

Cataclysm
Deux Ex
Why are Rockstar Games not on PC anymore?
Retail vs Digital Distribution
Black Friday Deals and Stories
Blizzard bans Asians
How not to pay for University
PS3 move impressions
MiniLan
The Walking Dead Season Finale
Consoles holding PC gaming back
Where will we be in 5-10 years?
Why PC’s make more sense (right now)
Why small Devs need to be supported
Battlefield DLC
We need your Audio Files for the One Year Anniversary Edition

Ep. 48 Thanksgiving Sales for EVERYONE!

BlackThunder — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:10:35 +0000

One can hear our anticipation of the STEAM Thanksgiving sales in this podcast. We talked about quite the range of things that did keep us busy while we waited for that oh so sweet weekend. If you outside the US… I am sorry!

Getting ready for Thanksgiving
Risen sold like MAD
How low is low enough for a game you want?
Sniper Ghost Warrior
Fallout: New Vegas
Minecraft
Microsoft has a way to go with digital distribution
Wikipedia got Kommies support
League of Legends
Black Ops Impressions
Tripwire and Red Orchestra 2
Blizzard Tournament fail
Are we done with WWII shooters? (Comments welcome)
Little more RISEN
The Witcher 2
How many hours of Source can you play in a week?
Cataclysm talk
Retail Cains threaten boycott of PC game sales
Will coming Consoles have a media drive / slot?
Fallout MMO confusion
Guildwars 2
New Steam feature – Recommended for you
Apple talk
Dell Inspiron DUO
New ATI Video Cards… lets see them already!

Ep. 47 It’s about LoL

BlackThunder — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 08:54:46 +0000

League of Legends made a HUGE splash after the Lan Party. So we took a little more time and talked about it. But not just it but LoL but also about last weeks big release “Black Ops”.

Again my appologies for running late, for that you will get another episode in just a few days

We are getting close to our first Birthday and we want your input! So make sure you listen an participate. We will give away a ton of stuff around Christmas to celebrate our anniversary.

Ep 46 Post Lan Party Chat

BlackThunder — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:46:46 +0000

I finally had a chance to try the new voice recorder and since we still Lan Partied it up at our usually recording time on Sunday we sat together last night and talked about the Lan, the people at the Lan and the hardware issues during the Lan.

I rounded the podcast out with a couple minutes of sound recording from the Lan… and yes you can hear all about Joshes Party foul!

I’ll add some pics as soon as the Fascinators Offices release them

Ep. 45 More Battles in Space

BlackThunder — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 07:13:51 +0000

Special treat for this episode is our second interview with Cliff Harris (if you didn’t catch the first one yet, go download it here) the creator of Gratuitous Space Battles and man behind Positech Games. We talked about a lot of topics, but one of the highlights has to be the “run-in” with Mark Rein. To hear Cliff tell how it happened is just great.

It’s also great to get his perspective on Indi Development and the recent success of Minecraft. I hope Notch will get a chance to listen

Here is the list of things we touched on:

Why is there no new Cliff Harris game?
DLC the pros and cons
Feedback from your fans… it might be painful but ask for it!
Some insight into STEAM and DLC releases
How Positech games get onto the MAC
More DLC for GSB?
Planning new games
Whats with the price difference with the Nomads DLC?
From concept tp product live cycle
Minecraft… Notch you did it wrong… but so right
The Indi Dev community
Advice for Notch… and other successful indi developers
Dangers of running a bigger studio
Casual, MMO, Social Game Gold Rush Dangers
What Cliff thinks of Cell Phones
What Cliff thinks of Civ V
Length and size of games
The problem with multi-core programing
Why it is harder to program for the PC
The Pros and Cons of PC Gaming
Bumping into Mark Rein
Will we see Cliff ever at PAX?
The reason Cliff does not want a special Tax break
The strange new game of Cliff Harris
The board of directors of Postitech
All Points Bullitin Fail
Cliff is a Trekkie
Talking with “potential” customers and how it influenced Positech games
Live shout-out to the people who purchased the DLC in Las Vegas
Getting Married in Vegas
Gratuitous Mine Battles
Parting wisdom for Notch and thoughts on Minecraft
BUY Gratuitous Space Battles!

Comment on this Podcast for your chance to win GSB!

Ep. 44 And than there was BlizzCon

BlackThunder — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 08:10:12 +0000

What happens if you put a few geeks together in a room and let them watch the Blizzcon virtual ticket… don’t worry, not everything this podcast was about Blizzcon. But as fans of Diablo, Starcraft and WOW it is needless to say that we talked quite a bit about everything that happened last week. Here are the things we talked about as well:

GIGABYTE woes…
New Vegas and the Spinning Head Bug
Minecraft Admin
WOW Cataclysm looms large
Call of Duty BlackOps
FIFA 11
Microsoft going after STEAM with the LIVE reboot
How awesome can a SC2 match be
R.E.D the Movie… go watch it!
LAN Parties are not easy to organize, be friendly to your host!
Vietnam DLC gets a price
ATI6990 is in Tim’s future
Size Matters (Monitor Size
3D…
Gunnar Glasses, we all will have them
Blizzcon Streaming FAIL
Diablo III
SC2 Tournament
It’s about the fun when you get together!
A lot of BlizzCon talk
PvP in D3

Ep. 43 The 26 Million Dollar Rage quit!

BlackThunder — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:18:39 +0000

Drawing on our European connection we made BobJr from Denmark stay up till 6am his time just to be a part of the podcast. What happens when you give a Dane too much energy drinks… you can hear it here! And we talked about these fun topics:

Vindictus
FF14… Mayor Rage Quit
Fallout New Vegas
Duke Nukem 3D Demo Access now for all Borderlands owners
Steam News and what the Wallet is there for
Metal of Honor
Source Engine
DODA2 by Valve
The EA Louse
Battlefield Vietnam DLC
Starcraft 2 Patch Changes
Logitech does something right
Console News
Steam Top 10
Cities XL
Reader Mail
STEAM Hacked, what now?!

Ep. 42 Steam, Microsoft and Silos?

BlackThunder — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 07:35:09 +0000

You have to love when people make funny comments about the game industry. Last week we talked about how “There is no good shooters on the PC” , this week we talk about Silos… and why STEAM and Microsoft should get along… oh brother!

Minecraft chat
FIFA 11
Dead Rising 2
Bioshock 2 no more PC patches or DLC
STEAM and Microsoft are building SILOS???
Duke Nukem, you pre-paid… will you get your game?
Get the Demo of Duke… if you buy Borderlands
OnLive… now no monthly fees
Blizzard talk
Cataclysm
Hardware talk… AMD CPU performance

Ep. 41 New Headset Fun

BlackThunder — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 07:13:00 +0000

So there we are recording and chatting about games and the Dead Rising 2 description hits us… Co-Op and Multi-player… before we made it to the end 3 people purchased the game. Now… as far as the review goes, you will have to wait one more week. And we also talked about:

Games on our wish list
What is the Killer Game this Christmas season
The new improved MOH… now without Taliban
Starcraft2 vs Friends
Watch game replays… watching can be fun!
Sword of the Stars and what 4x games means
Some Minecraft talk
FIFA Soccer 2010 and EA Digital Distribution
BestBuy continues to rip customers off
3DS… is 3D worth $300?
L4D2 New Episode this Tuesday
Why you should backup your Game Saves!
Blizzard Real ID now optional
Bobby Kotick is making waves… yet again
Team Fortress 2 gets a HUGE update… now you can buy stuff
Tim has new hardware… New Headset
Some new Duke questions
Curlen made us buy a console game (Dead Rising 2)
Gunnar Optic Glasses
STEAM top 10
Blizzard unpacks the BAN Hammer
World of Darkness

Ep. 40 This is Minecraft!

BlackThunder — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 01:55:17 +0000

Was it Minecraft that made this podcast so late… close, but no. Sorry to all that waited till the end of the week for our 40th episode.
We did however talk a little about Minecraft and if you listen till the very end you will hear Fascinators live first impressions as he purchased and logged in for the first time while we recorded. Other things we touched on are:

Sins of a Solar Empire
Civ V
Minecraft
AION
Microsoft and the commitment to PC gaming
Tim’s top 15 list of PC gaming
GOG (Good old Games) is not dead… funny fail!
Is Bungie making an MMO?
STEAM top 10
Josh is discovering Minecraft
What Curlen is using his new computer for

Ep. 39 What is this DEMO for?

BlackThunder — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:34:28 +0000

I hit a raw nerve last week when I wrote about an experience with a game demo. The game might have been pretty and great, but the DEMO got more in the way of the presentation or made things overly difficult, than showing me the cool things. So we took some time this week and talked about the purpose of a game or software demo, what it should accomplish and what good or bad experience we had in the past with them.

The other talking points are:

RIP All points Bulletin (Dirty Laundry Included)
Why you shouldn’t get a Tattoo for a game
New Flight Sim from Microsoft?!
Pirates of the Buring Sea more content
Activision CEO in the news again
Intel now sells unlock codes?!
STEAM now updates your AMD (ATI) drivers
SC2 cheaters, watch out!
STEAM Wallet
Battlefield Vietnam DLC
Let’s talk about a Date… errr… DEMO
Mafia 2 and another DLC
Hardware Talk (AMD, Intel and Video Cards)
Corsair Obsidian 800D Computer Case
And a heck of and “Outtro”

Ep. 38 Duke Nukem Memories PODCAST

BlackThunder — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 08:15:06 +0000

How can we not talk about one of the biggest news that hit PAX. So we stroll down memory lane and take a look back on good times and what Duke Nukem means or meant to us. But not just that, we also look at what Duke promisses or rather should promise to a whole new generation that does not come laden with grand memories of Duke.

Other things we touch on:

Brink
APB
Firefall
Borderlands expansion
Need for Speed Online now ALL for free
STEAM adds you a wallet (add money now in anticipation of the Christmas and New Years sales)
Elemental War of Magic on the way to recovery
Civ 5… a week from release
Duke Nukem Memories and Expectations
More community gaming in planning
Battlefield Vietnam Tokyo reveal
Win a game or two, submit some sounds!
Torchlight II
What will WOW look like after the expansion
We are down on Chris Taylor (what happened to you man?)
Whats the deal with Diablo III Beta pop ups (be careful!)
Amnesia The Dark Descent
Waiting for Tim to buy RUSE

Space Quester 3 Help (Starcraft Spoof)

BlackThunder — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 02:29:44 +0000

If StarCraft Was Even More Complicated — powered by Cracked.com

Ep. 37 PAX and other travel destinations

BlackThunder — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:56:34 +0000

Markus (Markee Dragon) gave us a in-dept report of what it is like traveling around the world for cool interviews with game dev’s sake. While he sounded a tad tired, and who can fault him for that it was great to hear about GameCom in Germany and then even more about PAX in Seattle. I wanna go to PAX now…

GamesCom Germany
PAX West
Terra (MMORPG)
Firefall
Tron Evolution
Red Orchestra 2
The EVE Party is the party you want to be at
How big can PAX get?
World of Tanks
Duke Nukem is alive!!! (Pigs do fly)
RUSE and why it won’t do well (no, it’s not the DRM)
StarCraft 2 talk
Company of Heroes Online now live for everybody
RealTime World troubles continue
Elemental saga continues
A little XBOX love…. NOT

Ep. 36 AMD and Intel have something up their sleeves!

BlackThunder — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:21:36 +0000

As you will listen to this weeks podcast you will also notice that it went quite a bit over two hours. Lots of fun talking about games and diving deep into hardware and hardware purchase experience. Wonder if you should buy the Best Buy warranty… (or any other extra warranty offered at different stores), we give you a good idea!
Last but not least Curlen will get you all hyped up for what AMD and Intel have coming up with the next generation!

StarCraft2 Replays… not just for the pros!
Our first meet and game with the Steamgroup
Simon needs a gaming Laptop
Steam News (no Linux, AI director and a Movie?!)
Cryptic to MMO, or not to MMO
Elemental War of Magic (Fail Launch)
Elemental War of Magic (Fail CEO and why you should not blame DRM for a sucky game)
APB… how long can it last?
A little touch of Bioware
Mass Effect DLC
BlizzCon Stream
Big dive into the mailbag
Hardware talk (The wisdom of the Wizzle)

Ep. 35 Steam can make your game!

BlackThunder — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 08:40:52 +0000

There was quite a bit of news this week, mainly coming out of GamesCon in Germany. We bucked the trend and hardly talked anything GamesCon. We rather focused on what we played and took a closer look at STEAM’s top 10 for the week. Here is the list:

The Witcher 2
Call of Duty talk
Steam top 10
Deluxe Editions… how much are they worth?
Some Mail
Funny Game Questions
Left 4 Dead (2) DLC
Bioshock 3 and no Multiplayer is an asset
Josh got some new Hardware
Some more SSD talk
HP Envy follow up talk
Some mobile phone talk
Some people need to learn how to control their life
Farcry 3… do we expect much?
APB… buy it now… no, not a subscription… the WHOLE MMO!
UBI… DRM or not DRM?
City’s in motion
Shout-outs

Ep. 34 Live, raw and unedited!

BlackThunder — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 06:38:12 +0000

Because we had a mini Lan last weekend and also had some scheduling issues the days after we all sat together this Wed. and just did our first live round table show. It’s quite a different animal when you sit in the same room and talk. We all had a great time and figured this format will make an occasional appearance. That we don’t have pro gear to record such a live event will be apparent when you listen, but I think you will get quite some entertainment out of this podcast. Since I want this to be up quick I also kept the editing to a minimum, so forgive the occasional Kommie rant!
Here are the main issues we talked about:

Lan Recap
John Carmack… and other high profile Developers
BFG not taking anymore RMA’s… there goes that lifetime warranty
How good is Starcraft2 in the strategy aspect?
Quake Live
Guild Wars 2
APB… not so good news
MMO talk in general
It will be released when it is ready… big publishers and small developers
UBIsoft… will R.U.S.E. use the UBI DRM or not?
Listener Mail
Mafia II Demo impressions
Joe’s new PC and impressions
Hardware Questions and Answers
Small Movie Review “The Expendables“
The Female perspective (Luna shoutout)
Join the Steam Group of PCPCGAMES
Reader Mail… Our Top 10 Games?!
Crazy Josh (Fascinator) outtakes

Ep. 33 Torchlight 2 has us giddy!

BlackThunder — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:04:57 +0000

Few news this week had us as exited as Torchlight 2. We are great fans of anything MultiPlayer and it looks like the new year will start well with Torchlight 2. Heck, we got so exited that we got in the sharing mood and if you pay attention you can join SkippyDog and win a classic game or two! Our other talking points are:

Our playlists
World of Tanks
Torchlight2
A few words about Starcraft 2
Borderlands Rumors
Defense of the Ancients rumors
Steam Top 10 and what we think of it.
The old Republic Space Combat
DC Universe
Big Joe’s PC rig
Solid State Drives fail too
Reader Mail
Win 2 Games
A little Droid talk

Guild Wars 2 – Why you should be excited!

LibertarianGamer — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 05:45:29 +0000

In this article I will try to explains why I am excited about Guild Wars 2 and why I think you should be too. I’ve only played one “MMO”, the original Guild Wars, so I can not really compare and contrast Guild Wars 2 to much of anything else, except the original. Some of this article may be incorrect because I’ve had to use a bit of deduction where things were not explicitly stated; Caveat Emptor.

Sandbox / Events

One innovative feature of GW2 is it’s pseudo sandbox. While GW2 *does* have a campaign story line (there are actually *TWO* story lines!), the world continues to operate independently of the campaign. This independence is driven by the event system.

GW2′s world is shaped by the event system. Instead of a green exclamation mark hovering over an NPC’s head, quests happen because of an event. A typical example of this would be trolls attacking a nearby outpost. The NPCs around you would “react” to this event, creating hysteria. You investigate the source of hysteria, to discover the troll attack.

Once you’ve discovered the troll attack, you can choose to join the counter attack or you can simply walk away. The event will scale up based on the number of participants. How the event scales is unknown, either the number of trolls attacking increases, their stats increase, or possibly both.

So, whats the big deal about this event? Nothing in and of itself. However, events are “chained” together. So, if you don’t defeat the trolls, they could seize control of the aforementioned outpost, which could cut off supplies to some town.

Because the town is in need of supplies, it may trigger a “counter attack” event. Where the towns people demand the outpost be recaptured. Or, the trolls could become emboldened by their recent success and attack the town itself.

All of these things simply “happen” in the world. Events, as I understand them, are independent of the campaign and personal story line.

Oh, one more thing about the world. IT IS PERSISTENT! Which is how you “stumble” into events.

Storylines

Two storylines exist: campaign and personal. The campaign storyline is the overall “game” storyline. Nothing new there.

However, your personal storyline is different. When you first create your character you answer series of questions, that make up your characters personality.

Some of the questions answered will be race specific. An asura will be asked what college they attended (Synergetics, Dynamics or Statics), while a human will be asked to define their social background (Gentry, Commoner, or Streets).

Your personal story affects your “home”. Each character has a home located in their racial capital. The home will be personalized according to their biography.

According to ANET, the different biography combinations allow for thousands of different personal stories.

Skills

Skills are a mixed bag. At this point, I’m not sure exactly how I feel about the new scheme, because I have not experienced it first hand. You be the judge.

In GW you had 8 skill slots. Your skill pool was based on your primary and
secondary profession.

GW2 has 10 skill slots. There are no secondary professions in GW2.

Your equipped weapon presets 5 of your available skills. Reread the previous sentence, THIS IS NOT A TYPO. No one knows for certain the rationale behind set skills per weapon. Perhaps it is to prevent people from combining incompatible weapon skills. For instance, in GW the sword skill GASH will inflict a deep wound provided the target is suffering from the bleeding condition. So, generally, it would not make sense to equip gash, if you do not have the skill Sever Artery which causes hemorrhaging.

Before you start whining about the preset 5 skills, realize that some skills are called “chain” skills. The sword chain skills are Sever Artery, Gash and Final Thrust. Chain skills occupy one slot on the skill bar and cycle. For instance, once you use the “Sever Artery” skill, it cycles to the “Gash” skill. So, what is now a common place warrior build, will actually require less slots because three core skills are bundled into one skill slot, leaving 2 skill slots free.

Of the other non-weapon specific skill slots, 1 has to be a heal, 1 has to be an elite and the other three are open slots.

Combat

Not much to comment on here. I’ll only remark that the two professions that have been revealed have *GREAT* animation.

Combat is much more intense than before. Mechanics for professions will change dramatically. Here are some of the changes for the warrior.

The warrior behaves a lot like the GW warrior, but there are also some noticeable differences. These differences range from adrenaline usage to weapon configurations.

Here are the weapons. If you aren’t familiar with “weapons” and guild wars, weapons are much more than tools of destruction. They also determine what skills are available. Skills and combinations of skills (builds) are what make GW such a great game.

SWORD (1 handed)
AXE
HAMMER
MACE
GREATSWORD
LONGBOW
RIFLE

Yes, you can shoot things in GW2. As far as I know the mechanics of rifles have not been discussed much. It’s a single target weapon that is ranged.

Each weapon now has a single designated “burst skill”. This special skill outputs damage based on the amount of adrenaline. So, the more adrenaline you have, the bigger the burst of damage OR the more varying conditions your weapon will produce.

Warriors now have the ability to duel-wield weapons.

PVP

Things get dicey here. Arena net has stated that the number of PvP participants will be less than 6, more than 4. For the mathematically challenged, that means 5 people per PVP “squad”.

I’m not too familiar with the world versus world mode. So, I took this from the GW2 wiki [http://www.guildwars2wiki.com/wiki/World_versus_World]:

World vs World, WvW, World PvP or Casual PvP, is a mode of Player versus Player combat which takes place in the Mists. Worlds, or servers, are randomly matched up against two other worlds. Those match-ups will be rotated every week to match worlds against those of similar strength. The combat is open and features many objectives and roles which players can do; “players may decide to fight alone against a supply caravan, join a single group and capture a mine or create a large alliance to assault one of the numerous fortress that could give an advantage in the zone.” The battle is on a large scale, where hundreds of people can fight on each side in week-long battles.

Each opposing world starts out with castles, mercenary camps, mines, lumber mills and villages. Separating the starting zones are neutral zones controlled by no one, also containing fortresses, mines, and villages.

The resources gained from mines and lumber mills are used to rebuild walls, create siege engines, and generally defend the team’s fortress.

These territories and control points will confer benefits to the world that controls them; “maybe everyone gets increased energy regeneration or healing rate or enhanced loot drop rate.” Players can gain experience and level their character in World PvP. Guilds will be able to take and hold keeps.

Players are free to come and go from the battle as they please and there is no limit to the number of players entering. Players enter with a character of any level and use skills they have available to that character. Characters can enter as a sidekick which will allow them to play as a higher level character.

World PvP is intended as a casual form of PvP, designed to be a more relaxed bridging point between PvE and the tactics and pressure of structured PvP. It is hoped that players of any level or PvP experience can participate and be useful.

I am not certain about GvG. I do not recall reading anything about this. The 5 player limit really seems to hamper the possibility of good GvG.

Take A Break

GW2 will have an array of minigames. These minigames will be varied, and include everything from bar brawls to snowball fights (snowball fights are in GW).

The minigames will be open to anyone, and will equip people with certain skills based on the game type. Bar brawling sounds fun, as it is a last-man-standing minigame.

I *think* the minigames will be tied to titles and possibly feats.

In a Nutshell

So, the dynamic event system, visceral combat, and cool storylines are just a few of the reasons I’m excited about GW2. What about you?

Ep. 32 Blizzard did it again…

BlackThunder — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:41:05 +0000

If you expect other things than Starcraft 2 from this podcast you are in luck. We found quite a few other topics to talk about. Thanks non the least to one of our forum members and the guy who wrote the funny article about the 5 issues with PC gaming.
But be forewarned, if you are tired about all the SC2 buzz… until the break there is a heavy dose of RTS love and a detailed, yet spoiler-less, discussion about SC2.

Just Cause 2… the game you should really own by now!
World of Tanks BETA impressions
StarCraft 2
Company of Heroes Online Beta impressions
Need for Speed’ssss
Kane & Lynch 2 DEMO impressions
Hard Ware Advice
Another Screen Size vs Video Card resolution
Dragon Age DLC
Richard Garriot aka Lord British is getting some money
5 Issues with PC Gaming?

Ep. 31 Starcraft 2 has landed, what does it bring to the PC!?

BlackThunder — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:15:58 +0000

Staying within my delayed release schedule. This week I blame it all on Blizzard and you know why! We talked quite a bit about Blizzard this week. What does it mean for PC gaming, how big is Starcraft2 going to be and is Blizzard going to be contending with STEAM for the Digital distribution crown?
Also talked a bit hardware. After Nvidia made a bit of waves with the GTX460 what will ATI do to answer? And on the CPU side, is AMD going to challenge Intel with it’s next generation of CPUs? Competition, it’s a wonderful thing, so let’s hope so.

And this is what else we talked about:

Alien Swarm
Magic the Gathering
Midnight opening for Starcraft 2
CGI in Blizzard games
What makes a real gamer
BIOWARE and DLC
AMD CPU talk
Mail call
Monitor size and video card relation
Digital distribution, what would it take to compete with STEAM
Blizz-Con, now you too can be there