Expensive Video Gaming Fall Coming
August 28, 2007
It’s shaping up to be an expensive fall for video games. There is a whole slate of promising video games coming out that I don’t know if I will be able to resist.
First, on September 25th, Halo 3 becomes available. As avid Halo fans that have finished the first two episodes many times over, Sean and I are very eagerly awaiting this release. This will be the final installment of the Halo series and should be quite the game. We still boot up Halo and Halo 2 to this day to play. The Halo series have all been first person shooters.
Then, in November, Call of Duty 4 releases. Again, Sean and I have been avid fans of the Call of Duty series and have played all of the previous versions. The previous versions dealt with the WWII era. For the first time, the Call of Duty series goes modern. The game will now take place in the modern era with modern soldiers and weapons. The graphics and gameplay look very nice. We still play Call of Duty 2 and 3 today. Call of Duty is also a first person shooter.
Also releasing in November is Mass Effect. This game has been hyped for a very long time. Right around the time of the Xbox 360 release, they began the hype. It was never slated for 1st generation game release, but has been hyped for several years none the less. The maker of Mass Effect is Bioware and they are best known for the Baldurs Gate and Knights of the Old Republic series. Years ago, we used to play a lot of Baldurs Gate. Sean still plays KOTOR today. The game is Role Playing Game.
Also, you may remember my posts about the Madden 08 game and how I was going to hold off on purchasing it. Well, I did, but Sean didn’t. Turns out he used the leftover Birthday money from the redecoration of his room in NE Patriots theme, to purchase the game. I haven’t played it since he bought it, but he has logged many hours.
In addition to the above mentioned games, a whole bunch more awaited games will debut this fall. This is just the short list that I am interested in. I am sure other titles will appeal to other people equally as much as these do to me.
World of Warcraft
August 22, 2007
Lately, I haven’t played much America’s Army (AA). In fact, I think I have played twice in the last six months. Most of this was due to internet issues with my provider. He panicked one day when he had some port scans going on and closed everything down. 
Ports required to be open for me to play AA (as well as some other internet applications) would no longer function correctly. It took me a couple of months to convince him that was the wrong approach and not acceptable. He got in some new equipment in and the problem was solved – I could again play AA. However, the damage was done and my interest waned during the down time. Couple that with several vacations this summer and AA dropped off my radar screen. I don’t think it will ever return.
Enter into the picture now World of Warcraft (WoW). WoW is a massively multiplayer online role playing game (mmorpg). That means you are playing online with hundreds or thousands of gamers at once. The role playing aspect means you assume the role/identity of a character and guide him/her through a series of journeys and adventures. WoW has been around for years, but I hadn’t ever tried it before downloading the trial version this past weekend. After about three days of playing it, I went out and got the full version.
As a youngster, I used to play Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D). Many hours were spent wandering though mystical worlds and dungeons. In those days, the game was played on paper and in your mind. Today, computers allow us to enjoy the same type of things visually. I actually decided to give the game a try at the urging of some coworkers and friends in my AA clan.
Thus far, I have enjoyed the game quite a bit. The graphics aren’t quite up to snuff with some of the recent Xbox 360 games I have been playing but they are far from a distraction. Some collision detection would be nice. One thing that has been quite noticeable is the lag playing the game. While it’s not horrendous and doesn’t detract from the game, being a frequent 1st person shooter player (ie Halo, AA , etc), its noticeable and would be completely unacceptable for those games. However, those games have a vastly smaller number of players at once and any lag is intolerable. WoW even has names/terms for the lag, such as loot lag (lag you get when taking loot off of dead bodies or chests).
Since getting the game last weekend, I have been getting in a couple of hours a night. I started a couple of sample characters to get familiar with the gameplay but have now reduced that down to two characters – one in each faction (alliance and horde). One character plays with the group from work and the other characters hangs with the guys from the AA clan.
Today, I am unsure which character will become my main one and which will become my alt character. I suspect the alliance character with the work guys will become the main one. This is primarily because I will likely join their guild (same idea as AA clan) and actually build up a website for the guild. So watch Mr Papa’s World for the go live announcement for that website.
I am still quite the noob at WoW and have a tremendous amount to learn, especially the lingo. I don’t know that I will ever become as addicted to AA as I was but I am sure it will give me many hours/days/weeks/months/years of enjoyment. If you haven’t tried Wow, you should give the 10 day trial a go.
If you want, you can look me up online in WoW on the Stormscale Realm. Just ask for Papalino.
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