The first true modern Multiplayer game I got into was Final Fantasy Online. I have been a fan of Squaresoft games (now Square-Enix) and figured an online game based on the series would have been, ideal. Unfortunatly, I was in for a rude awakening. I cant explain my experience playing Final Fantasy Online any less than calling it self torture software. I felt like every aspect of the game was built to take up hours and hours of my time achieving nothing and leaving me miserable. This is the only game I ever played where every time I stopped, it left me in such a bad mood I wished you never started playing. (more…)

I know it’s becoming an age old question at this point, but is there life after World of Warcraft (WoW)? In my opinion, WoW took some of the best ideas from all other online games, perfected them and put them in one package. Unfortunately, there still lies a few issues that even WoW hasn’t solved. I’ve dabbled in online role playing games ever since the days of MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons, yeah, that ages me doesn’t it). My next few blog posts will be on this subject. I have such a long history I had to break it up in parts.

My first graphical online game was the first one of it’s kind, Neverwinter Nights on America Online. Back then, the thrill of being online at all was exhilarating enough, let alone playing a role playing game with other people. America Online soon got to expensive for my part time job wages and I had to abandon Neverwinter Nights for good. (more…)

A few days ago Forbes has posted an article titled “America’s All-Time Favorite Videogames’.  An article at Aeropause,  Joe Fourhman brings up some good points that question the motives of Forbes. Ok even if you accept the skewed parameters and the blatant exclusion of any Nintendo titles, why absence of The World of Warcraft. Also, what about The Sims? Something is definitely fishy here.

Article here

Valve has recently announced that its Steam service will soon utilize it’s new Steam Cloud Online Network. What does this mean? First of all, many people don’t even know what Steam is. Steam is a free downloadable game hub that offers features seen on Microsoft’s Xbox Live. You can purchase games online for download for anywhere from $3.99 – $49.99. Steam includes all sorts of genres as you would expect from PC games. There are tons of games for casual gamers who just want to play cards as well as tons of shooters for the more elite players.

Steam includes an instant messaging service as well as a voice chat service that runs over any game played through Steam. This service notifies you when your friends are online and what game they are currently playing. You can also point Steam to games you have previously purchased to include these features. Multi-player games can be hosted through Steam and made available to other Steam subscribers. Additionally, all your games purchased through Steam receive automatic updates. A really nice feature is once you purchase a game on one PC, you can access this game on a friends or one in a cyber cafe. As with Xbox live, game achievements can be gained through certain games. Also there is a free demo for practically every game available on steam. (more…)

The folks at Penny Arcade have achieved what every video game blogger could dream of… which is get a video game based off of their creations. Today, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness arrives on Xbox Live Arcade. The characters are alter egos of Penny Arcade creators Mike ‘Gabe’ Krahulik and Jerry ‘Tycho’ Holkins. If your not familiar with the Penny Arcade characters, the web comics are located here. I am looking forward to playing this game.