Taming Troll Gods
In Northern Stranglethorn, we came across Pogeyan, the Fire Spirit! He’s a large cat with a metallic sheen to his coat, and a rare mob too.. I was about to attack him, but I was reminded that as a Hunter, I could probably tame him instead..
In The Grim Dark Future, There Is Only Single-Player
Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium is now only going to be a single-player game, thanks to layoffs at Relic and Vigil.
MMOs are expensive to make, so changing the game to a single-player saves them a considerable amount of money.. but what a disappointment.
Back to World of Warcraft
It had to happen eventually.. I’m back playing WoW! I’ve also signed up for the Annual Pass, which will allow me to play with the beta for MoP as well as granting me a copy of Diablo III. I suspect I won’t be playing a lot of WoW when I get my hands on Diablo III, but still.. I think it’s a good deal 🙂
I’m levelling a Troll Hunter alongside a friend’s Priest, at a somewhat relaxed pace.. enjoying the quests, especially when they involve explosions 😉
The Indie Gala III
The newest Indie Gala bundle has now been revealed: this bundle contains three games, with another two unlocked for those who pay more than the average, as well as an unnamed bonus game. There are also three secret bonuses to come next week, again for those who pay more than the average.
The first three games are: Trapped Dead, a third person isometric survival game by Crenetic; Greed: Black Border, a sci-fi action RPG by Clockstone Studio; Future Wars, strategy from Radon Labs. The next two games are Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes, a story-driven RPG by Silent Dreams, and Twin Sector, a post-apocalyptic action story by Dns Development.
This bundle is available for another two weeks, with additional bonuses being unlocked during the second week.
Indie Royale – The Ninja Pack
The Ninja Pack is another Lightning round from Indie Royale: available for just 100 hours, and with the same pay what you want scheme as the normal indie game bundles.
Games in this pack come from developer NinjaBee: Ancients of Ooga, a puzzle platformer; Cloning Clyde, from NinjaBee and Bacon Wrapped Games, a side-scrolling platformer; city-building game A Kingdom for Keflings; Outpost Kaloki, a humorous space station tycoon game.. and bonus strategy game, Band of Bugs.
There are 79 hours remaining on the bundle. The next Indie Royale bundle will be the April Fools Bundle, in two weeks time.
GAME Over and Other News
GAME has now officially filed for administration, after suspension of their shares this morning. Stores will continue to trade for the time being.
BioWare’s Mass Effect 3 woes continue this week.. gamers complaining about the ending, Amazon allegedly offering refunds on copies of the game, and now Dr Ray Muzyka, the co-founder and GM of BioWare, has released a statement which seems to suggest they may change the ending, or add more endings, at least.
To counter bad news with good.. I was pleased to see that the Chancellor has now announced tax credits for the UK gaming industry, this should hopefully boost the industry and allow the UK to compete with the rest of the world! (more…)
Amazon Refunds on Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 3’s ending has apparently disappointed so many people that Amazon have apparently decided to offer full refunds on the game.. gamers have been reporting that they’ve had refunds on their games, at least. I think this is the start of a slippery slope.
Now.. I’ve not seen this ending yet. I understand that it isn’t quite what people expected, and that people are disappointed. Mass Effect 3 is, however, not broken, and people should not be expecting a refund because they didn’t like how the story turned out. It’s pathetic.
If you played the game through to the end, you’ve had what you paid for. What’s next? Demanding refunds because you didn’t like the ending of a film? A book? Can I order a three-course meal at a restaurant, but then complain that I didn’t like the sauce on my dessert, and so refuse to pay for any of the meal?
Our right to a refund is supposed to be there to protect us from shoddy goods and services, not to allow ridiculously self-entitled people to use products and then end up not paying for them by claiming they were dissatisfied. It isn’t there to allow people to cheat their way out of paying for things.
If Amazon are offering a full refund on ME3 now, they are just encouraging people to buy the game, play it through, and then claim they didn’t like it and ask for their money back. If you claim a refund for a game you have played all the way through to the end, you are worse than a pirate, because not only are you a “lost sale”, you are costing people money in handling the order in the first place; shipping, dealing with your emails and refunding you. You would be less of a burden on the gaming industry if you just downloaded it, played it and deleted it.
And what does this mean for writers? Write the ending that fans want, or risk the potential that they can cheat you out of your pay?
If writers suddenly have to start making the ending the fans want, then we all lose. There’ll be no more creativity; only the same tired storylines that have ‘proven’ themselves satisfactory in the past. Or maybe no story at all. Or we’ll have fan-fiction.. and well.. that doesn’t have a great reputation for quality, does it?
Mists of Pandaria Info..
Loads of information has been released this morning about Mists of Pandaria, the next expansion for World of Warcraft!
There’s a full list of features on MMO Champion, including screenshots of the Pandaren female:
DLC Quest and Lair of the Evildoer
The latest Indie Royale bundle is The St. Patricks Day Bundle: pay what you want for five games: Hard Reset, Jolly Rover, Vertex Dispenser, DLC Quest and Lair of the Evildoer! Hard Reset, Jolly Rover and Vertex Dispenser came with Steam keys, while DLC Quest and Lair of the Evildoer were available through Desura or via download.
I played Going Loud Studios‘ DLC Quest first, a platform action game which takes a rather amusing swipe at the games industry and the increasing use of DLC, as well as gamers’ fears that we’re being exploited by DLC.
Indie Royale – The St. Patrick’s Day Bundle!
The latest bundle from the Indie Royale is up: The St. Patrick’s Day Bundle, containing Hard Reset, Jolly Rover, Vertex Dispenser and DLC Quest, and bonus game Lair of the Evildoer.
As usual, the bundle is pay-what-you-want with a minimum price; beat the average to knock the price down for others!
Hard Reset is an action shooter by Flying Wild Hog, set in a cyberpunk city with humanity verging on extinction and under attack by machines. The game features over-the-top destruction, loads of weapons, enemies and a plot inspired by the likes of Blade Runner!
Brawsome‘s Jolly Rover is a 2d point-and-click adventure following Gaius James Rover across three tropical islands, facing off pirates, villains, voodoo, love and a lack of loot, while following his dream of starting a circus.
Vertex Dispenser, by brog, is an abstract strategy game with mathematical puzzle elements: the game features a mixture of action and mind-bending challenges, as you collect power-ups and capture territory in the right order to maximise the colour of vertices, defend territory and eradicate enemies.
Going Loud Studios‘ DLC Quest is a platforming action game where you defeat the bad guy, save the world and get the girl.. while taking a swipe at the games industry’s DLC practices!
Bonus game Lair of the Evildoer, also by Going Loud Studios, is an RPG shooter with 20 levels procedurally generated with evil, over 30 types of enemy, 25 weapons with plenty of variation, and a stat-based levelling system. Escape the evil Dr. Odious’ lair any way you want to!
Impressions of each game to follow..