There comes times when unique games pop up out of no where such as Portal, Braid, Darwinia, or Audio Surf. I stumbled across a video for Crayon Physics. It just may join those ranks. I admit I havent tried it yet but here is a video that makes me think I may like it. I wonder if the fact that the person in the video is using the same laptop I own has anything to do with it. It’s nice to see games play nice with tablet PCs.

Crayon Physics Deluxe from Petri Purho on Vimeo.
 

I spent all day yesterday playing Spore and I must say it’s one of the best games I’ve played in a while. However, I feel like the game should be patched already. I literally played the game about 10 hours straight. I received the achievement for playing the game from a single cell organism to a space civilization. However, when I quit the game, everything was lost and I had to start over!

It’s not too clear how to save in the game. I was creating buildings, creatures and vehicles though out my game. There is a save button you can click on as you did in the Spore Creature Creator. This was the only way I ever saw to save. When you are a space faring race you can NOT save on the planet. The save function is grayed out. I had no idea what to do so I went into a building creation mode and click the save there, since it’s the only way I could save. Well that wasn’t the right save after all. When I quit the game, all my game history was lost. What happened to “Would you like to save and exit?” Apparently, you can only save the game while in the solar intersteller view (this is very inconsistant with the rest of the game).

This makes zero sense since I can view all the saved versions of my creature from a cell organism up to civilization. Additionally, and vehicles I built are still in “My creations”. Yet, when I load up my game to continue, I’m still a very early form of myself just out of the primordial soup. Talk about frustration. Well I’m not going to bother playing the same species all over again after that. I guess I’ll start another. But talk about a complete waste of time. If you played spore already, you know how it records a complete timeline of everything your species has done and accomplished. My sporelings were literally erased from the history of time. (more…)

In the absence of Wrath of the Lich King, I decided to reactivate my Phantasy Star Universe (PSU) account. I stopped playing initially because it wasnt PSO (Phantasy Star Online). PSO and PSU are an alternative to the average online game. It’s kind of surprising that they are not more popular. I think many people fail to realize PSU has absolutely nothing to do with traditional Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG). It’s not a true MMORPG and it should never be compared to World of Warcraft. I always called PSO an online hack and slash game.

The Phantasy Star Online games are for those who want to play an online game with others but do not want to get involved with the current structure. These things include the issues of playing solo, customize your character’s stats a particular way in order to be accepted by others, making sure your party always has the Tank/Healer/Nuker’ mold (oh please go away already! I have nightmares about people shouting “We need a ‘Tank for Heroic WTF!”). Don’t get me wrong, I love MMORPGs and definitely love World of Warcraft, but after playing a thousand games that follow the same structure, I tend to long for something that doesn’t exist; which is an MMORPG that doesn’t follow any of the current MMORPG rules. (more…)

Today, Blizzard just announced Diablo III. First Starcraft II now this. Apparently, Blizzard is also working on a hush, hush MMO as well. Their are job openings for a “Top Secret” MMO on their site. I have never been more excited to play PC games than now. Let’s see I have Wrath of the Lich King, Starcraft II, Spore, and now Diablo III to look forward too.

How could you make a mass multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) better than the World of Warcraft? Other than superficial improvements, such as graphics, I don’t know what you could do better. Personally, If I were going to attempt to create a new experience for an online RPG, I’d think really hard about getting rid of the Tank/Healer/Nuker format. That concept has been embraced by ever online RPG game. Luckily, in WoW you don’t have to follow that format unless you do Instances or Raids. I never bothered with Instances and Raids in WoW till I was level 60. Even then, I rarely did them. WoW is probably the most casual friendly MMO you’ll find. When you hear about people playing WoW obsessively it’s not because you are forced to do this, it’s just that addictive. Unlike most games, WoW constantly rewards you. They do it just to keep a smile on your face, but not too much to bore you. Personally, I found WoW very easy to play. (more…)

OK, I couldn’t take it. I figured I’ll at least purchase World of Warcraft (WoW) and only play the 30 day free trial. I finally found what I was looking for and had missed. Everything I ever wanted from an online game was in World of Warcraft. I found it hard to believe that whenever your character would die, all you had to do is “the walk of shame” (obviously not the same walk of shame your probably thinking of). This and a little money to repair your armor for each time you die 10% of it’s durability goes down. I asked over and over was that it? While most online games penalized you for dieing by taking gained experience points or slowing it down, WoW simply made you pay to repair your armor. (more…)

I found myself yearning to play a new Mass Multiplayer Online RPG (MMORPG), so I discovered Rose Online. It’s actually a very beautiful game. At the time I was playing it, it was still in beta. I really can’t have a fair opinion on it since the game wasn’t fully completed at the time. The battle system seemed fair enough. Quests were somewhat repetitive. Being in beta, there weren’t to many quests available. I swear I did about ten then that was it. When the beta period was over, I never bothered continuing. By now it’s probably a decent game. I began searching the net for free MMORPG games. (more…)

I have been left very cynical from my experiences playing Final Fantasy XI (online). Yet, I continued to search for an ideal online multiplayer experience. I moved onto EVE online. The game was very attractive to me being a science fiction game. It was very nice for a while. I began working on upgrading my ship by mining ores and selling them. Buying raw materials on one planet and selling it for more on an other. One day I ventured deeper in space. The nightmare returned…PK. It’s an understatement to say that PK is part of EVE. The game is built around player killing. After getting shot down while mining for no reason at all, I abandoned ship. Sadly, the human nature to destroy anything whenever it is possible without any reason whatsoever, will always ruin the online experience (I’m staring at you, Xbox Live). (more…)

Ok, I’m interrupting my extensive MMORPG postings so I can say that the Spore Creature Creator is out and available for download on EA’s website. It’s not the full spore game but for $10 you can use this software to start creating Spore creatures. When the full game is out, you will be able to use them there. I put hours into it already. I’m anxiously waiting to see which of my creations can survive or how they would adapt once brought to life in the world of Spore.