I picked up a copy of Horizons: Empire of Istaria today. It’s a game I had the “pleasure” of beta testing. Not that the beta was as bad as Shadowbane or anything. Horizons does have a very cool trade skill system. But that is really it.
I install and patch. When the game loads it tells you your in que for authorization. I was 150 something in line. Finally the game loads. All I see is sky and fog, and a few buttons for character creation that don’t do anything when clicked on. I decide to go look at the support page over at the games site. These two paragraphs were in red:
3/10/04 Following today’s maintenance, players are reporting that when they login the only thing they see is the sky and fog. Our development team is aware of this issue and we are currently working on a resolution for this. Please do not open a case regarding this since it is an issue that we are already looking into.
3/10/04 (3PM PST) There is currently an issue with players logging into the website and into the game. We are aware of the current situation and we are limiting the number of players that can login at once, lessening the load on the web and game servers. If you are having difficultly logging in, please do not submit a support case. Instead please wait 15 minutes and then try logging in again.
So I’m supposed to wait? I can’t open a support case. I can’t do dick with this game I wasted 50 bucks on? But I did do something. I uninstalled the game and canceled my free 30 days for this piece of shit. It’s now my back drink coaster, just in case my Shadowbane disk fails in that job.
This is just another event that makes me really happy with Mythic and their game Dark Age of Camelot. Some of these game developers should quit before they have to inflict this shit on the people that play these games.
So in summary. If you see this game on the shelves in your local software retailer just walk away. It’s not worth the trouble. Play Camelot or even that god damned EQ if you have to.
Uwe Boll’s days as a human tax write-off are over: in January 2006, the Make Money By Investing In Failed Movies loophole will be closed. So, where is the guy going to get his funding now? Are you thinking what I’m thinking? FREEDOM!
One can hope that his movie making days are numbered.
Fileplanet has a sign up for the beta of Dungeon and Dragons Online going on right now. You have to be a registered member of Fileplanet to sign up. Not to be confused with the paying member of Fileplanet.
Sign Up Now! for the Dungeons & Dragons® Online: Stormreach Beta for your chance to join thousands of other adventurers in playing the first-ever Massively Multiplayer adaptation of the fantasy game that started it all, Dungeons & Dragons®. During the Beta you will be able to explore dangerous dungeons, defuse cunning traps, and defeat iconic enemies that could only come from the legendary world of D&D.
I’m very curious about this one. I’m a fan of pen and paper D&D. I hear that it’s a little like Guild Wars in the way it handles the game world. Cities are open for players to hang in mass, but everything else is an instance.
Dark & Light is a supposed next gen mmorpg. It comes out next late year sometime. In the mean time you can play the prequel game Settlers of Ganareth for free. Except when they say play for free they mean not play some buggy piece of shit hack job of a game.
And don’t think your going to find any help on the official forums, because they are a cesspool. If you really want to try playing this piece of shit head over here if you have problems.
The sad thing is they duped some poor souls into actually buying the privilege to play (test) this game. I guess some people like throwing their money away. I think it’s safe to say this one can be added to the list of mmorpg’s to stay clear of. Good luck if you do try it and I hope you have more patience than me.
I love playing mmorpg’s. The one thing I like better than playing mmo’s is reading about those really shitty ones that seem to come out of the woodwork from no where. My favorite train wreck used to be Shadowbane. But now I have to switch over to the mmorpgThrones of Chaos. A game that has had many names: Realms of Krel, Realms of Torment, and Age of Mourning. Who if you remember (or read the wikipedia entry) was the focus of a Something Awful’s article and then legal threats made by the developer.
So it surprised me when I read an article over at mmreviews.com and followed the link to the games forums to see a forum post announcing an interview over at Shacknews. The article called Shacknews – Thrones of Chaos Q&A, which naturally made me wonder does the Shack do pr spin for those assholes now? That forum post was up late last night. Yet there is no link to this article on the Shacknews frontpage or a comments page like the other articles have. And they can’t ask anything about the “games” troubled past at the least? Just seems odd.
I’m sure it’s nothing. But it is odd that such an ass kissing write up like that is posted before the actual post date and then the fact it’s missing from the main page of Shacknews. It will be interesting to see if this article ever appears on Shacknews, I would love to see the comments section once it does. The way it’s going this game will have more drama than Dark and Light.
Update
Shacknews finally “published” their Throne of Chaos piece at 10:55 am. The comment thread for the article is here.
So I watch CNN quite a bit at work. I’m starting to wonder when did “the news” become like some kind of tabloid? Does Anna Nicole Smith really deserve all this airtime? A gold digging floozy who had more than her fair share of the fifteen minutes of fame is now news? Just because the wannabe Marylin Monroe died? Does anyone give a shit? Is it just me? I didn’t give two shits about this chick when she was alive.
But now she’s died. End of story. But now I have to see all about whether or not the fucking lawyer is the father or not of the kid? Again is this news that should be on CNN? Larry King has this shit on his show even. And what happened to Larry King while I’m talking about CNN. A few weeks ago it was American Idol losers the whole week. American Idol is not news people. Is this what American News has become? Tabloids?
I’ve decided to not watch tv anymore. I’ve decided to listen to BBC News instead. So far I’ve not heard one mention of Anna Nicole Smith, her bastard kid, or the fucking lawyer scumbag.
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.
[drain file 50 show]
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.
Mastodon me on Mastodon ooh.directory a place to find good blogs that interest you. Acolytes of Destruction a Bors Server Guild Gawain the Blind The new home of Gawain on the internet. Penny Arcade News Fucker 3000 Zero Punctuation The Escapist’s groundbreaking video review series starring Yahtzee The Awful Forums The Something Awful Forums Broken Toys A blog about stuff, by a guy who breaks and sometimes fixes stuff. TWiT This WEEK in TECH Evil Avatar Daily Gaming News… With Attitude Kotaku Kotaku: a gamer’s guide that goes beyond the press release. Voodoo Extreme IGN.com is the #1 gaming site on the web! Reviews, ratings, etc. Blue’s News All the carnage that’s fit to post!
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