Tuesday April 22nd 2008

	Hellgate: Gawain 4:43 am-Turk Comments Off Games Permalink Gawain tries retail Hellgate: London. Below is his e-mails to me detailing how it went. From: Gawain To: Turk Date: 04/21/08 6:56 PM Subject: And now a report. 7:00 - Hellgate Installed. 7:10 - Startup. Hellgate Begins autopatching. 7:20 - Patching Complete. ERROR: You must download the patch from the website. 7:45 - Patch Downloaded. Patch Installed. ERROR: Game is already patched with the latest version. 7:46 - Startup. Hellgate Begins autopatching. 7:55 - Game startup complete. Loading. Game is running. ***HURRAY FOR HELLGATE!** 7:55 - Character Creation 7:56 - Character Creation Complete. Chat window still borked. This doesn’t surprise me. I hope he got some screen shots of it. Here is the post from the beta when he first had the chat window problem. From: Gawain To: Turk Date: 04/21/08 7:06 PM Subject: Further Reporting Visit to knowledge base on hellgatelondon.com = useless Visit to forums = useless. sigh. Again not surprised he didn’t find any help in the Hellgate forums. Not one Hellgate Dev responded to Gawain’s forum post when this stuff happened in the beta. From: Gawain To: Turk Date: 04/21/08 7:21 PM Subject: Update 8:21 - Uninstalled. I’m not surprised Gawain lasted as long as he did. If the bugs didn’t get him, the souless Hellgate gameplay would. The game had so much potential. It’s a shame the Hellgate Devs all had their heads stuck up their own asses.
	Crap, Hellgate: London Print	Views: 218 Popularity: 20%

Wednesday November 7th 2007

	More Hellgate: London 5:47 am-Turk Comments Off Games Permalink Hellgate: London flavored chat log: [05:01] Turk: HELLGATE! [05:02] Gawain: I’m not as crazy as that. [05:02] Gawain: thats fucking crazy ass crazy. [05:02] Gawain: I saw that and I was like.. oh, hes just fucking with me. [05:02] Turk: sorry [05:02] Gawain: no.. you really did buy it. [05:02] Turk: yes [05:02] Gawain: so then I was like… well, they must have fixed a bunch of shit. [05:02] Gawain: and then I was reading and you’re like “they haven’t fixed shit” [05:02] Turk: I’ll update later with the current status [05:03] Gawain: the extra funny comes in when you see that post right above the post with the forum pic on it. [05:03] Turk: yeah yeah [05:03] Gawain: jesus you’re not… subscribing… are you? [05:03] Gawain: oh my god. [05:03] Gawain: you’re subscribing. [05:03] Turk: just to for a month [05:03] Turk: to see, it’s only ten bucks [05:03] Gawain: jesus christ you are sick. you need help. [05:03] Turk: yeah [05:03] Turk: the december patch sounds nice [05:03] Turk: stonehenge as a hub [05:03] Turk: outside areas [05:04] Turk: again if they can fix shit [05:04] Turk: and that is a big if [05:04] Gawain: I don’t know you anymore. [05:04] Gawain: fucking subscribing to hellgate. [05:04] Gawain: jesus. It gets worse. Below are two entries from my online banking statement: 11/05/2007 POS PURCHASE 11/03 20:55 HELLGATE PING0 800-346-3425 CAUS VCP 9.99 11/05/2007 POS PURCHASE 11/03 02:40 HELLGATE PING0 800-346-3425 CAUS VCP 9.99 So I’m already in for more than I wanted. Though the official website makes no mention of this billing issue (why scare away more suckers?) in the private forums the do at least admit they are aware. They offer little help. You can fill out an Ask a Question form. I received an email with this very unreassuring message: Your inquiry has been received. You should receive a response from a Hellgate Customer Service Representative within 24 hours. By my clock 24 hours have passed and I have yet to hear back from them. My bank account has not been credited. Perhaps Gawain is right and I’m sick and need help. But I hope they get the game in order. The glimmer of fun is there. The december patch also sounds like it has potential. I’ve heard mention of Stonehenge as a hub and the inclusion of more outside areas like forests. I just hope it doesn’t take longer than a month or two to fix these issues. Here are some links from the game sites with more on this billing fuck up: Hellgate Billing Issues, Hellgate Subs Gone Wild?, and Hellgate London Subscribers Report Extra Charges, Restricted Access to Membership Benefits. Also worth reading is the Shacknews review of the game. Which gives a honest dead on review on how the game really is.
	Chat, Crap, Hellgate: London Print	Views: 434 Popularity: 46%

Monday November 5th 2007

	Hellgate: Retail 12:46 am-Turk Comments (1) Show » Games Permalink I’m weak. I picked up my preorder of Hellgate: London. While it is buggy, I can’t help not enjoy the game. It has pretty much what I want in a rpg. Hack and slash light on the story. So far the two hours I can play at a time are a blast. I even joined the SA Goon guild Londen on the US server Shulgoth. Which brings me to the new poll. Simple question with two possible answers. Are you Playing Hellgate: London? Yes No View Results  Loading ...
	Crap, Hellgate: London, Poll Print	Views: 475 Popularity: 46%

Wednesday October 31st 2007

	Hellgate: London! 6:20 am-Turk Comments Off Games Permalink Hellgate: London is live. A view of the crashes forum courtesy of Gawain. It should be noted you have to be registered and logged in to see the Hellgate forums. They would not want people to see all of the problems still present in the game that may stop them from buying the game. The Blue text is more or less a hodge podge of developer quotes. Update 11/01/2007 1:53am Hellgate: London has a shitty launch worthy of the mmo wannabe it tries to be. I maybe sick perhaps because I enjoy this. Bad press anyone? Hellgate London Live, Subscriptions Not, Hellgate-gate 07: Subscription Servers Down As Game Launches, and Hellgate Servers Might Be A Go, But The Subscription Services Aren’t are all articles describing how launch day went. And if you go into the Hellgate Account Page it greats you with this message even now: Subscribing is currently disabled In red no less. My two favorite Technical Support Forum threads are Memory Exhausted and Single-Player Patch. I love how that developer build that was ahead of the multiplayer beta is shaping out.
	Crap, Hellgate: London Print	Views: 342 Popularity: 36%

Friday October 19th 2007

	Hellgate: London 9:12 pm-Turk Comments (4) Show » Games Permalink Hellgate: London just went gold. Me and Gawain had been playing the beta. The nda has been lifted now that it’s gone gold. First let’s take a look at one of my favorite bugs from the beta. The goddamn portals. Jesus they were everywhere. They did eventually fix this one. But there are so many more. Here is a movie of the portals. Keep in mind this is footage from a beta build. Also keep in mind supposedly the beta build players played was not the up to date build the developers had. Why one would have people test an old build of the game still baffles me. Filename: Hellgate-Portals.avi Downloads: 24 Size: 16.75 MB Version: 1.0 Updated: September 25, 2007 And on top of retarded bugs like the above the performance is shit on my pc at times. You can find more screens shots from this old beta here. And then some newer old beta shots can be found here. The best bug yet though has to be one Gawain has been suffering since we started playing this game. His chat window is fucking broken, patch after patch and new builds came and gone nothing ever fixing his problem. He couldn’t even get one dev to reply about the problem. If you have beta access you can see his forum post right here. The game is a train wreck if you want to play over the net with a friend. The single player is supposedey in better shape. I don’t know myself because I saw that the just released demo has adware built in. And on top of everything else wrong with this game they finally announced what you get if you pay the ten bucks a month (cut and pasted from VE3D): Elite Mode - Tougher mobs, tougher all round Hardcore Mode - Perma-death mode for your character Themed events and items - First begins on day of release, Halloween Guild Creation - What it says on the tin! Achievements - Slay 6,000 zombies, get a pat on the back, and maybe a bonus item too Extra Character Slots - 24 for you, 3 for non-subscribers Larger Stash - Twice the space as non-subscribers Name Color - Get a colored name, wooo! Forum Icon - Makes you stand out on the official forums when bitching about the in-game ads And that is it. What a great deal. Pass on the game and pass on the cheap ass shit you get for ten bucks a month. I’ll look at this one again in a years time. Just to see if it lasted and is finally playable.
	Crap, Hellgate: London Print	Views: 841 Popularity: 42%