ZOMG #2 Thursday, 5 June 2008

Welcome to the second installment of ‘ZOMG’ for Thursday, 5th June 2008. News has been fairly quiet so to speak. We are going through the transition of early year sales, and not quite moving into the third quarter when developers and publishers start to announce titles getting ready for release.

Before I get this article going, I want to mention that I just destroyed my [very] comfortable computer desk chair. It’s one of those really big, leather cushy ones. I feel devestated that my chair is no longer usuable. So now I’m resorting to one of those cheap-o office chairs :(. But the show must go on. Allow me to tune in to my favourite radio station, grab another slice of pizza, rub my now aching back and get this on the road!

Sony announces In-Game ad deal with IGA Worldwide

“Enjoy your PlayStation 3? Like looking at product placements? Then you’re going to love this. On Wednesday Sony announced a new partnership with in-game advertising company IGA Worldwide which will provide interested game-makers or would-be in-game advertisers with a venue for providing in-game ads in PS3 games.

IGA Worldwide has previously partnered with id Software for the forthcoming browser-based, ad-supported Quake Live, as well as with Electronic Arts to incorporate advertisements in Battlefield 2142 (which you may remember caused no shortage of controversy). This new deal with Sony is far wider-reaching, effectively placing IGA as their first intermediary “advertisement distribution partner,” which will connect advertisers with interested game developers who have spots suited for advertisements in their games.“

Most of you will remember when the release of Battlefield:2142 was on the horizon, IGA worldwide announced advertisments for Battlefield:2142 and everyone kicked up a dust storm at Electronic Arts. If you lived anywhere but Australia, you would have had a slipped come with your copy of Battlefield:2142 that informed you of these ads, luckily, Australia [law] saw this as Spyware and our version didn’t get these ads at first. Highway Tampa however, not associated with IGA Wordwide, was released, which had a lot of product placement (Advertisement Boards / Signs, Objects covered with Intel logo’s, Map description containing Intel stuff etc) which for the game genre kind of ruined the immersion. But people just looked past it.

I’m all for ads in games, if they reduce the overall cost of buying it. Paying AU$100+ for a game is acceptable if it doesn’t contain ads and crap. But if they want to put ads and product placement in it, then lower the price of the game!

Hideo Kojima makes Guinness World Records

“The company has sent word that Kojima was in London earlier this week to receive his Guinness World Record certificates, including awards for the following records:

• First videogame to fully utilize stealth (Metal Gear)
• Biggest selling stealth game on PlayStation 2 (Metal Gear Solid 2

The company notes that while earlier games used stealth elements, Metal Gear was the first game to use this as the backbone of the gameplay. Keith Pullin, editor of the Gamer’s Edition of the World Records Book, presented Kojima with his certificates, stating the company “hopes he breaks many more.” With MGS4’s hype building to critical mass, that day could come pretty soon.“

It’s good to see the [gaming] industry getting some acknowledgment in the Guinness Records, especially when one of my favourites [Kojima] is in it!

GameSpots Aussie Game charts – May 26 / June 1

GameSpot has recently released the Aussie Game Charts by Australian Data Trackers GfK Australia.

Top 10 Full-Priced Games
1. Wii Fit, Wii
2. Mario Kart Wii, Wii
3. Wii Play bundle, Wii
4. Grand Theft Auto IV, Xbox 360
5. Grand Theft Auto IV, PlayStation 3
6. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, PC
7. SingStar Party Hits, PlayStation 2
8. Haze, PlayStation 3
9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Wii
10. SingStar Party Hits bundle, PlayStation 2

Grand Theft auto IV still holds top dog on the Xbox and Playstation 3 Top 10 charts.

Crytek releasing Crysis Warhead?

“Crytek has been toying with the idea of naming one of its upcoming products Crysis Warhead for some time, a fact first revealed in an application to trademark filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in March. However, as could have been the case with other trademark applications filed by Crytek–including ones for Crysis Wars and World in Crysis–Crysis Warhead very well may have been the Germany-based developer’s attempt to squat on a name for some potential and undetermined future use.

As it would turn out, that will not be the case. Crytek has updated its official Web site with a promo for Crysis Warhead. In addition to the game’s name, the teaser page depicts a scowling man brandishing a pistol and outfitted in the franchise’s distinguishing nanosuit.“

Rumours are flying about that this version may contain ports to Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 but obviously nothing official yet. If you head on over to http://www.crysis-thegame.com/ a new splashscreen has taken the main page, with a man brandishing a pistol and wearing the nano suit from the original Crysis.

Finishing Up

You all probably heard that Jack Thompson walked out of court during a hearing held on June 4th, Thompson had appearntly walked out of the court after telling the judge he didn’t have the authority to hear his case. This may end in Thompson being Disbarred, meaning he won’t be able to practice law for 10 years.

If you would like to check out the Full Articles of the above stories (and Sources) here they are:

• Sony In-Game ads Story [1UP]
• Hideo Kojima and the Guinness Records [1UP]
• GameSpot Top 10 Aussie Charts [GameSpot]
• Crysis Warhead Story [GameSpot]
• Jack Thompson Article [Slashdot.Games]

That sums up this weeks ZOMG for Thursday, 5th June 2008. Thanks for reading, and yes, I enjoyed the pizza thank you very much.

ZOMG #1 – Thursday 29 May 2008

My blog is really only getting started. I have plenty to write about, pretty much daily and I intend to write [interesting] articles daily. I want to keep things interesting, offer different prospectives and hopefully bring you something you enjoy to read. I’ve decided that Thursday will be titled “ZOMG” and will consist of a bunch of articles and news that I won’t do full articles for, but sort of tie them all together into one big article.

So without further ado, this week in ZOMG:

Saints Row 2 Delayed

THQ have recently announced that eagerly anticipated sequel: Saints Row 2 will be delayed from Aug. 26th to the new release date of Oct 14 – A 2 month pushback. A THQ Senior Executive stated “due to product quality and marketing considerations“. Although delays are always never good things to read about, it’s good to see they are taking Quality Assurance seriously. Will keep you all posted of any new updates when they come available. [Read more about the article over at Reuters…]

New FPS based MMO enters Closed BETA

I have been keeping an eye on this little gem. I will more then likely do an aticle on this tomorrow or the day after because it actually looks pretty cool. But for a bit of a background:

“Players will not only be able to personalize their soldiers, they’ll be able to modify their guns and equipment, accumulate in-game currency and experience points, and track their performance against others in the Combat Arms community. In addition to its free-to-play model, the game will have low system requirements, furthering its accessibility in a traditionally hardcore space.“

The game is being developed by South Korean MMO developer Nexon. The closed BETA will only be available to subscribers over at fileplanet and will only last 1 week. So make sure if you have an active account, go and check it out, the Closed BETA opens May 30th for 1 week. [Read more about this article…]

Sony USA Chief Executive saying PS3 is ‘back on track’

Recently, Sony U.S Cheif Executive, Howard Stringer stated ‘We’re coming along, I think‘ at the D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad – Calif. The PS3 has been doing rather well out of recent sales figures.

“Stringer admitted the PlayStation 3 was “sort of on life support before,” but has improved considerably, in large part because of features such as Blu-ray and PlayStation Network, which expand the machine’s capabilities beyond gaming. PlayStation Network recently reached the five million subscriber mark.“

You can read more on this article and more on the Q&A from the Digital Conference over at Gamasutra.

That pretty much sums up some of the gaming news floating around the internet as of Thursday, 29th May 2008. I will keep an eye out and update this article if anything else crops up between now and the time I finish my 14th coffee [I love getting 2 hours of sleep night after night]. I will post an article on the new FPS based MMO either tomorrow or the day after, so keep posted.

If you [readers] have any news, articles, games or antything you would like me to investigate, review, critique or what have you, be sure to let me know in a comment on this article.

Gaming Piracy and it’s demise?

Gaming Piracy is a pretty big issue in todays times, just as much as Video Piracy and Music piracy. Everyone has their own point of view on how much of an issue this is, but lets be honest, piracy is such a big issue because it is so easy to obtain illegal material like pirated music and movies and we can thank technology (especially the internet) for that, but this has existed for a very long time (VHS anyone?).

Earlier this week at the Wedbush Morgan Securities annual Management Access Conference, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell was pretty confident that new technology [A new encryption chip] will put an end to Gaming Piracy.

The TPM or Technical Protection Measure is a chip that has been put on most new motherboards in an effort to stop people pirating games. Gaming companies will now be able to encrypt their data with a “key” only they know. This “key” won’t be able to be cracked by people on the internet.

Obviously details on how exactly the chip works aren’t available and what we do have is vague at best, we can basically come to the conclusion that piracy will be in trouble, this is a good thing though right?

Bushnell went on to say that Music and Video piracy will continue, as long as you can see it and hear it, it’s pretty much able to be copied.

So what do you all think about this? Is this a step in the right direction, or will this merely be a stepping stone until people figure out a way past it? Let me know in a comment!

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games [MMORPG]’s have certainly been big sellers in recent years. No need to even list titles, as you read this, games like World of Warcraft, EvE Online, City of Heroes / villians, DAoC, EverQuest, Lord of the Rings Online and the list only gets bigger start popping in to your head. It’s no joke that the MMORPG industry is booming right now, with quite a few, very anticipated releases on the way. But just a few days ago [May 20th – 2008] Age of Conan was released to the public to indulge in the adventures of the Hyborian world – Based around American author Robert E Howard and his circa 1932 book “The Hour of the Dragon” spawning the Conan series. So grab your loinclothes, spear, shield and big breasted woman!

Seeing as though Australia is pretty crap when it comes to games and the fact it takes us 10 years to get games [Blatant exageration with a capital B…] I’m going to go over some of the interesting things posted by Jeff Buckland of Atomic Gamer on his review of Age of Conan: hyborian Adventures Posted Here. But before I begin, I have taken a pretty good look at the game, watched plenty of pre-release movies and listened to my American comrades who pre-ordered to get in early, talk about it. [Wait whilist I turn on some Conan style Rock music!]

“Age of Conan starts off players as a slave, a survivor of a crashed ship on the island of Tortage. Character creation gives you a good number of options, and three races and twelve classes are included, all of which is chosen right from the start. Tortage is full of danger and is under control of a madman and the priestess that gives him power. During your first twenty levels, players work with others and alone as a sort of extended tutorial to the game. When you leave Tortage at level 20 or so, the world opens up and your real adventures begin.”

Players pretty much start out on a ship as a slave, at this point you create your character with all the facial features, body features, builds and so on. The actual customisations would rival any MMO’s out there, it’s very indepth, and I’d be suprised [unless using the default] that you would actually meet someone that looked just like you. The idea behind this was, instead of recognizing a player by their name [like most MMO’s] players would instead be recognized by what they look like as well as their name. Interesting concept and certainly an awesome feature, as we all know, everyone in an MMO want’s to be individual, not another generic being wearing different armour / clothes.

The combat mechanics are like no other. Instead of having Auto-Attacks and then a “Cast Bar” where you store all your spells / attacks / skills, then simply click a skill in some sort of endless-boring-spam-the-best-skill-you-got-then-insert-the-game-doing-an-auto-attack-for-you before your next skill starts style, Conan has changed this completley. No more auto attacks. Instead you have the ability to attack in 3 directions, Left, Centre and Right and as you progress in the game, you gain the ability to attack Down-Left and Down-Right. Combinations are also added to this, allowing you [when doing attacks in a certain pattern] to unlock combo attacks. Performing these combo’s [amoung dealing addtional stronger damage and cool animations] may include fatalities. Yes that’s right, you can Crush body parts, remove limbs and Cut heads off. Tell me that doesn’t sound like fun, eh?

“Healing is unique, as well, as the game allows healing classes to still contribute to much of the group’s damage. Players are supported mostly with heal-over-time spells that are tossed on before or during a battle and can be quickly unleashed, and in the meantime these classes are quite capable of doing some powerful combos and casting some nasty spells. In fact, their healing often actually improves when they get in the fight. There are some more classic-style heals with cast times as well, but they are fired out generally in a frontal cone – this requires people to coordinate their positions, something that many games don’t impose on healers.”

Coordination is something some MMO’s don’t have, especially when grouping. I remember a few times in some MMO’s that I have played, where we have to kill [generic boss] in [generic instance] and it seems as though, once you figure the fight strategy, it’s all pretty straight forward. Tanks up front, Ranged DPS at the back, healers on the tank/s and DPS group at the back et cetera. With conan, players will need to coordinate their positions so healers have the ability to heal them, instead of the healer just being able to click on the player, and as long as that player is infront of them and within range, the heal cast will procede. This also makes healer classes more desirable to play, healers aren’t gimped in Conan.

“Still, this is an incredibly fun game for a healer, who gets to keep their group alive but still kill stuff at the same time. Generally, most everything in this game has at least some partial area effect to hit multiple enemies or friends with, and that goes for melee attacks, spells, heals, and buffs as well.”

The zones within Conan aren’t contiguous, basically they don’t connect to eachother to make a no load game. Instead, travelling between zones [which is free] contains a load screen. Certain zones are instanced, which is good to avoid overcrowding but there are also “Normal” and “Epic” versions of zones, for those that wish to get a good challenge out of an area if they wish.

It’s also good to point out, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is pretty taxing on your system. That out-dated PC you are using to read this article may struggle to run the game. Recommended System Requirements are CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 or equivalent CPU Speed: 2.4 GHz System Ram: 2 GB and you will want a pretty decent mid to high end range Video Card if you want to start turning some of the vital options up [Draw Distance for example].

The reviews so far on Conan have been pretty good. A lot of the reviews out there mention issues that existed back in BETA that have been all but fixed is a good thing to hear. The fact that the game has had a smooth release, and little bugs to talk about is also a good welcoming. Here is what Jeff Buckland had to say at the end of his Atomic Gamer Conan review:

“Age of Conan serves up satisfying action and a style all its own in an MMORPG package that’s hard to resist – as long as you meet the system requirements, that is. It won’t put WoW out of business, but then again, nothing will for a long time, and that doesn’t mean this isn’t a great game with tons of appeal and a hopefully more mature audience. The future is always uncertain for any game going head-to-head against a Blizzard title, butFuncom has put forth the best effort yet and they deserve any amount of success they can carve for themselves.”

If you’re into MMO’s or at least looking into trying one out, this is certainly the one. Make sure your system is up to scratch however [go on, get that upgrade!] and you should be in for a good time.

Atomic Gamer Review by Jeff Buckland | Age of Conan Official Site

My question to the readers. What do you think of Conan?, What do you think of Conan compared to other MMO’s on the market? Is this the WoW killer? Let me know in a comment on this article!

Welcome to TZA

Welcome to “The Zombie Affair”, a blog dedicated to gaming. This isn’t your usual blog, I will be a critic, maybe at times a douchebag, but I will rant, rate & discuss games, gaming news, upcomming releases and anything I feel relevant to talking about Punk!

As this blog grows, I will eventually move over to my own webhosting. Design my own site and go from there. I want to use this as a stepping-stone to see if it’s worth the investment however. So please, comment, critique and enjoy.