The last two weeks have been a difficult time for Sony. The PlayStation Network has suffered some two weeks of downtime, initially thought to be some form of emergency system maintenance. The followed the announcement that the Network had been hacked, exposing the personal details and passwords of some 77 million gamers and users of…
Category: General Gaming
The Finished Next-Gen MMO Machine
Apologies for the lack of updates, but I’ve been a little busy. I’ve previously talked about putting together a new PC to handle the next range of MMO games on the horizon. This hasn’t been some kind of hypothetical question about building something in my mind – I was really planning on building a new…
An Appreciation of Developers
Earlier this week I stumbled on a brilliant idea from Scarybooster. For a couple of years now he’s been running Developer Appreciation Week, a chance for us to say thanks to all those in the video games industry who make our lives that little bit better. I know I’ve been a grouchy malcontent recently, poking…
Blueprint for a Next-Gen MMO Machine
This post is part two in my series on the Next-Gen MMO Machine. The first part is about salvaging and keeping your existing good stuff, while the part on getting the latest accessories is still to come! Once I’ve worked out what I’m going to keep and what’s going to get trashed or donated to…
Building the Next-Gen MMO Machine
Part One: Laying The Foundations I’ve been hoping to pull this off for a while now. My faithful companion, commonly known as “Gazdesktop” but affectionately known as “that black monolith that weighs a ton” is finally going to be upgraded. The stars have aligned, the gods have smiled upon me and the process has begun….
Encounters That Rock!
There’s a great shared topic over at BlogAzeroth right now: Naithin asks what causes an encounter to ‘click’ in our minds. When do we reach that point when a boss fight switches from being a difficult challenge to possible, then to trivial? It’s a good question, but I don’t think it’s just down to preparation,…
The Future of MMO Control
As MMO players we have a fond familiarity with the traditional keyboard and mouse interface. We use the mouse to click on something then use the keyboard to perform an action to it. Sure, we might look at getting a fancy mouse to perform more actions or a snazzy keyboard to automate some sequences, but…
Getting Real About Idents
Social gaming has been kicking around for a while. Anyone with a Facebook account knows what it’s like to be flooded with requests to join some game or another. Usually these games are joy-stealing fun vampires, purely designed to drain away any thought you had that they’re designed to entertain you. They thrive on being…
The Dying High Street Retailer
Back when I was a kid, my dad used to take me shopping for videogames. I can only half-remember the store – a brightly lit and almost empty room with shelving lining the walls and and a small island with a till in the centre. We’d go and spend maybe £3 on a cassette tape…
Where Videogames Go To Die
Back when I was a kid, one of the first videogames I remember playing was Horace Goes Skiing. I was about three years old, playing this basic Frogger clone on a computer with a dead-flesh keyboard. It was great, even though it was frustrating trying to steer this character down a virtual slalom course. There…