Star Wars Galaxies

Ultima Online, Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot, Sims Online and countless other games have been created to whisk the gamer into some fantasy world or another and allow them to be an active participant in the creation of an online world. Now there is Star Wars Galaxies.

Set in the Star Wars Universe, you create an alter-ego and start playing. There are hundreds of players on-line and hundreds of non player controlled characters in the world. Your goal is to learn skills and go on adventures. I tried this game for a 14-day trial period. I won't be buying anymore time.

The problem with all these types of games is that the really cool stuff, you can't do right away. On the surface, this isn't really a bad thing. Afterall, it took a few missions to be able to access the light saber and jedi powers in the last Star Wars game I played, Jedi Knights 2. But that wasn't an online game in the MMO genre (Massively Multiplayer Online). I payed one price, played at my own pace and eventually I got to the cool stuff in the game. And I knew that I would get to it, as it was only a matter of time. That's where MMO's are different.

"Only a matter of time" means you're going to be shelling out cash. The 14-day trial I received was for just that, 14 real world calendar days. How many days did I play? Maybe 5 days for a total of 10 or so hours. This is hardly enough time to give the game a fair shake review but therein lies the problem. I could only devote 10 hours of time to play this thing over a 14 day calendar period. Because I was not able to play extensively, I have pretty low skill/ability in the game. Because my skill/ability is low I can't do any of the cool stuff in the game. Because I can't do any of the cool stuff, I think this game sucks. Do you see the problem here?

Obviously, the 14-day free trial is a gimmick to try to lure more casual people into the game. After all the diehard fanatical fans are into this just because of the Star Wars name. They don't need a trial, they are buying as soon as it hits the shelves and will be playing every waking moment. I wanted to find out what this was going to be like; tough to do in only 10 hours. My point is that a 14-day trial ought to be 14 days of logging in to the game.

The game environment looks great. You can travel to many familiar Star Wars locations like Tatooine. All the major Star Wars races are there from the Wookie to the Tuskan Raider. Imperial Soldiers patrol some of the cities and various critters lurk outside the cities.

The interface is mostly point and click but there are also hot keys available. The help system is good and comes in the form of an R2 droid that follows you around. You can choose not to have them visible if you like. It is kind of funny watching twenty different R2 droids chasing various players around the environments.

Your purpose is to build up your skill in one of several categories. There is pretty much everything imaginable here. From Scouts to Marksmen and Artisans to Entertainers. You build your skills by completing missions given to you by NPC's or accepted from mission terminals scattered throughout all the cities.

The missions are catered to your character's abilities so there is some risk but not a huge amount. This is another area that makes it very difficult to judge whether the game is something I would want to keep playing. Most of the missions available to me were going out and killing a set number of bugs or similar critters or delivering a package to someone. Doing this over and over became tedious and I still don't know if the missions get more complicated, or dangerous because I didn't get to see any. It would have been good if I was at least teased by a future mission when selecting from the mission terminals.

From a technical perspective, the game ran smoothly even with large numbers of players and characters on the screen. The only jumpiness I encountered was when I entered new areas and the game engine had to render the new environment. My only complaint in this area were the very long initial load times when you first logged onto a server. Traveling via shuttle from city to city or planet to planet also caused long load times. Hopefully they can optimize this in the future.

Other cool stuff I wasn't able to do (but I saw others doing) included riding vehicles like speed bikes and landspeeders as well as animals (none of which I remember names for). I've also seen screen shots of light saber battles. I know I only scratched the surface of this game. It's too bad there wasn't a better trial system in place.

A roll of quarters

Through high school and post-secondary school, I spent entirely too much time and money at the arcades. Especially at University, I would skip class to play some games at the student centre.

Or, instead of jumping on the second bus I took to get home, I would spend some time downtown at the arcade. This site takes you back to the golden age of video arcade games. It literally brings back floods of memories of some of the best wasted time of my life. And these don't require you to feed them real quarters. The cool meter is off the charts!

My favourites were Joust and Spy Hunter. What were yours?

Charity begins at home.

Well, actually, with the nicer weather, it begins at my front door. It must do. Why else would I have a steady stream of people wanting to make my pockets lighter in the name of every charity possible?

It seems that each year there are more and more door-to-door charity collectors. Some are slick salesmen types while others you know are just volunteering for a cause that may be close to their hearts. But really, I can't give to everyone.

Does anyone else feel under the gun when these people come to your door looking for donations? With the lack of education funding I seem to be constantly reaching into my wallet to fund something. My kids' school had something like five different fund raising events this year. I can't go to friends and family on five different occasions asking for hand outs. They are supporting their own kids' schools. On top of that there are sports team fund raising and scout/guiding popcorn/cookie sales. It gets to be a little bit much. This year we refused to participate in one fund raiser at the school and most of the other events I just paid the "expected" per child minimum. I hate putting people on the spot by asking them for these things.

Then the neighbourhood kids come by and are looking to have their particular school funded. Then someone else is looking for help for their hockey team, or scouts, or baton twirling, or dance or....well you get the picture. I hate to disappoint the little ones and will try to give them something but one can only eat so many chocolate almonds.

And then there are the young teens that come by with a bag full of over priced chocolate. I feel so bad for them. They recite their little speech and pull out their "goods" but, c'mon...five bucks for a two dollar candy bar? And some of the candy bars look like they are six years old. I'm really glad you are off the street and learning about business but a three dollar delivery charge for an old candy bar is a little steep. And just how much of that will these kids see? Probably next to nothing.

But some of the adults are the worse. They show up at the worst times, look completely defeated and then launch into their rehearsed pitch. Then when you inform them that you will not be donating, they kind of humph away like you just told them to piss off. Man, if rejection hurts you that badly you should not be going door-to-door.

With the election going on, I am sure I will be having the candidates or some volunteer canvas my door for that as well. They'll be trying to show me how great they are and how much they have done for the community and how they plan on being my voice in Ottawa. Well, unless their boss says shut up and vote how I told you to. Then I guess my voice gets kind of quiet. While not asking for money, these canvassers will be asking for my vote. Hmmm. Maybe I should ask to be paid for my vote then I can use that money to give to charity?

Manhunt

Rockstar Games is at it again. Already insanely successful with their Grand Theft Auto games, they upped the ante of brutality in video games with Manhunt. The game is rated "M" for mature(17+ to play) and earns this rating over and over.

You play the part of James Earl Cash, a death-row convict who is supposed to be dead. He was executed but it was all a show so that an even more twisted individual could use him as the star of a reality murder film. Cash will be taken to different locations and let loose while other criminals and street gangs hunt him done. The body count determines the winner.

Normally, this game would not have made me interested in it. I would never have even bought it, but I wanted to see what all the noise from the would-be game legislators was about. Two of the stores I normally buy games from, do not carry the game. I assume due to the controversy. That just made me want to see what was really wrong with the game, or right with it, since it was getting so much attention. So I played the game trying to be critical of not only the game play but also the content and entire premise behind the game.

The settings in the game are done very well. You view the proceedings mostly from a third person view. Your goal is pretty simple, kill or be killed. But you are given your tasks by the director of the movie you are starring in. He tells you where to go and who to kill. He opens the gates to your freedom, or at least he keeps telling you that you will be free.

The game control is simple and easily mastered. The toughest part in the whole game is learning to be patient and stealthy. One-on-one, face-to-face confrontation is not rewarded. Those characters that are hunting you are rarely alone for long and all are better fighters than you. So you must be stealthy and learn to hide in the shadows. Pouncing on your prey from the dark is the best method of winning the game. The more bloody the executions, the better the "scene" ratings. The executions are carried out in a cut-scene style and some are quite graphic. But there is also a cartoonish element to some of them. Getting a good rating on a scene will unlock some bonus features in the game which will extend the life of the game and gives you more bang for your gaming dollar.

Adding to the atmosphere of the game are the characters themselves. Gang members and various psychopaths wander around the levels searching for you. They taunt you and try to bait you to show yourself. And the language is not the Queen's English. The dialogue is every bit inspired by the streets. If you have a problem with the F-bomb being dropped on a regular basis, then give this game a pass. But the most (and best) aspect of the atmosphere is the omnipresent voice of the director, Swackhammer. He just makes your skin crawl. Two-thumbs up for the voice acting here.

The AI in the game is pretty mediocre. Nothing ground breaking in this department. In fact I think they could have done a better job in having the bad guys hear footsteps behind them. Most of the time I was able to walk up behind my prey from a good distance and execute them. I could hear my own footsteps but the bad guys were oblivious to them. But the AI does get a little tougher later in the game when dealing with the SWAT teams and special Cerebus Guards.

Overall, I found this game to be everything it should be. The stealth element adds a level to the gameplay that forces the player to ponder situations a little more carefully. The brutality of the killing was a little unnerving at first when learning the game but soon it was a challenge to get the most gruesome executions when there were many bad guys hanging around.

Simply put, the game works. But remember the rating. The game earned the rating. I can imagine this game being made into a movie one day. Bruce Willis as Cash and Danny Devito as Swackhammer. It could work!

Roses are red...

Got this from Garry's blog. Petals around the rose game. There is also an interesting story about Bill Gates' encounter with the game. My wife is mad at me now because I won't tell her the solution. But I can't tell her. I'm in the Fraternity of Petals Around the Rose now.