Console
Fallout: New Vegas gets some screen time
So Fallout: New Vegas has been getting a bunch of screen time this week. With a new first impressions being posted on a bunch of different blogs and sites.
I’ve been pretty keen for this to come out since it was first announced last year. I liked Fallout 3, I mean it was no Fallout or Fallout 2 but it was a pretty solid game and I’ve recently been wanting to go back and have more of an explore.
But when it was announced that Obsidian would be developing this game under licence I was pretty stoked. Knights of the Old Republic 2 (despite the ending) was a great game and I’m also really looking forward to the long over due Alpha Protocol.
So I look forward to more news about this next part of the franchise, and the ability to zoom in for those messy and devastating headshots through V.A.T.S.
Links? On a Thursday?
Who would have thunk it?
- Charles Stross writes on the issues to do with spaceships.
- Lev Grossman chooses his top 5 fantasy books of all time! (via i09.com)
- Something Awful dissects the art of Traveller.
- Paizo are having another of their RPG Superstar design competitions.
I think the internet is playing Dragon Age too…
Service Temporarily Suspended Due to Dragon Age
Not exactly, but more or less all my geek time is being spent on Dragon Age at the moment, and I suspect Sophie’s is too. I’m on the PC, she’s on the Xbox. I’m sure thoughts will come but right now? Too busy playing…
It’s Thursday. Want some links?
- I personally don’t especially care about covers – I choose books based on reviews and previous work and I think most SFF covers are rubbish. But some people care a great deal. Here’s a post at A Dribble of Ink about the changes between editions of Mark Charan Newton’s Nights of Villjamur. The comments are pretty interesting if you like that sort of thing, with all sorts weighing in, including Newton’s editor.
- Filming of the Games of Thrones pilot has wrapped. Now we wait to see what the chances of a actual series are.
- Sex advice from D&D players. Actually serious advice, not a parody.
- The AV club’s best 15 video games of the noughties.
- Next time you’re at a loss for PC or NPC, try looking up this print of Characters for an Epic Tale. (via Boing Boing)
- The BBC discusses committing war crimes in video games. (via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
- The Times covers ‘adult gamers’. Shock, horror!
- And, finally, Kotaku celebrates World of Warcraft’s 5th birthday by finding out from people why they’ve never played it. The intro where the writer discusses how it just doesn’t live up to tabletop gaming experiences is the most interesting one to me.
Project Natal
Here’s a trailer for Project Natal – the full motion capture controller thing for the Xbox 360. It’s an obvious attempt to get to the casual/family gamer element – wii buyers who are apparently put off by the Xbox’s ‘hardcore’ reputation.
Colour me deeply sceptical – if it works like it says it will on the video (which would be amazing) I’m still not sure that a) programmers will figure out how to use it (the wii and the PS3 motion sensors haven’t done a great deal for game design) and b) gamers will like feeling like idiots as they jump around their living rooms.
I’m particularly sceptical of voice activation (what if I’m talking with my wife while playing?) and the video is a real play for the family element and I’m just not sure that most families actually want to sit around playing video games together.
Thursday LINK DAY!!!
- Does your barbarian or dwarf warrior need a more interesting weapon? Try this out.
- What war is really like.
- Rising star Mark Charan Newton interviews established tie-in writer Dan Abnett about writing tie-in fiction. I’ve you’ve never read Eisenhorn you should – it maybe a Warhammer 40k book but it’s also excellent! And very cheap now it’s in a omnibus format.
- How we write about the Apocalypse has changed in the last 20 years. And here’s an interesting piece about how Sci-Fi looked at the Cold War. (Both from io9.com which is now on my RSS reader)
- The Brainy Gamer get into why Dragon Age is filled with “RPG things”.
- Bioware on what they’ve learned from Bethesda.
- The AV Club keep up the good work with the latest Gateways to Geekery on Philip K. Dick.
- And, finally, The Times online has 70 facts you didn’t know about Marvel Comics in honour of Marvel’s 70th birthday. There’s a bunch of other articles there too.
Thursday Link Day
It’s Thursday link day!!!
- The Onion AV Club have done another ‘Gateway to Geekery’, this time focusing on H.P. Lovecraft.
- Critical Hits have written a pretty good piece on how to get most (and longest) bang for your buck with Game Workshop minis games.
- Apparently dreaming about games makes you better at them. Does that mean that if you dream about sex you get better at that too? (via Felicia Day‘s twitter.)
- Joss Whedon is bidding for the Terminator rights. Sort of. Background is here. (Via the A.V. Club)
- EuroGamer has a big, informative and pretty balanced article on the campaigns in Germany to ban violent video games.
Crap – console versions of Dragon Age lack isometric view (plus RPG info)
Well something had to ruin the party. According to Kotaku (and all over) only the PC version of Dragon Age will have the classic CRPG isometric view. And my PC won’t run the game! There’s rumours of other issues as well, including smaller battles.
Not sure exactly what I’ll do here – I’m planning on getting a new PC but it probably won’t be until next year and I don’t want to wait for Dragon Age. Stink!
In other DA news, there’s some details of the pen and paper RPG in a new podcast at the Green Ronin site. I haven’t listened but there’s details in this RPG.net thread. It sounds interesting actually – simple but with a stunt die sort of system called a ‘Dragon Die’.
1st DragonAge review
By Game Informer. It’s of the PC version when Soph and I will both likely get the 360 version, but it’s very good! 70 hours sounds like quite the time sink… As far as I can tell this is the first review, but there will be more!
A Ton of Links
I’ve been busy – what can I say? But I’ve been saving stuff up to post!
- Inquisitor – Another cool looking isometric indie RPG. I hope that and Age of Decadence come out!
- The Magicians – this book looks pretty cool and based on this interview, the author Lev Grossman is pretty cool as well! He’s also writen a great article about the improtance of plot in the Wall Street Journal.
- Erik Mona is doing a new blog – there’s no RSS but Erik Mona, Publisher at Paizo is going a blog over at ENWorld. The 1st entry is all about his history as a gamer.
- DragonAge‘s lead writer – here’s an interview with David Gaider! Pretty interesting stuff…
- A huge list of sci-fi – writen by people who aren’t white men.
- Tim Holman’s new blog – Mr Holman is the Publisher at Orbit. He’s writen some cool stuff including the state of the Urban Fantasy sub-genre and what gets onto the covers of fantasy books.
Phew.