A Matter of Perspective

The last one of my Wheel of Time books was finished yesterday. That leaves me without any decent fantasy books as I’m spending time at my parents place over the summer. The only fantasy here is those books that I left behind when I moved into my small student apartment two years ago. I had quite a bookcase back then, and books are heavy. So I made some tough decisions between which books I wanted to read again and which that just didn’t cut it. David Eddings and his twenty-or-so books were left in that Bookcase of Shame. This was a bit weird, since I had loved Eddings before.

Back in the days when I first started reading fantasy, David Eddings was my thing. I couldn’t possibly understand why he wasn’t the crowned king of fantasy. Then I expanded my circle of writers I read to more than ten, and Eddings slowly faded away. I read Tolkien (again – first time I almost choked on The Lord of the Rings, it was just too massive for my inexperienced mind), Stephen Donaldson (also again), Robin Hobb, R.A. Salvatore, Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, and many others. All these writers gave me a new perspective on what rich and entertaining writing meant for me. The next time I picked up an Eddings book I was amazed on how horrible it was. The writing was thin, the characters were shallow, the jokes were dumb, and the story was silly. Not at all what I had experienced when I first picked up The Diamond Throne – the book that started my fantasy interest - all those years ago. I just couldn’t understand how I had actually loved these books.

That’s what a wider perspective gives you. Don’t think you know what’s best if you haven’t seen it all. It just might be something that you have missed, something so beyond what you are used to that it becomes your new standard.

Trolls, there is a special place in hell just for you. It’s right beside bad humor, and Adam Sandler is your host.

See what I did there?

This is why I don't go to events

Seriously, couldn't Wired have Photoshopped it a bit?

Who watches the watchmen?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

I will.

Don't know how this could have eluded me, but I had no idea they were making a film out of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen until they threw the trailer (see it in HD!) in my face. And the trailer is just... well, let's just say I mentioned people wetting their pants over a KOTOR MMO yesterday and leave it at that.

Before the normal people shy away from the aspect of yet another damn superhero movie, understand that Watchmen is unique in every aspect a superhero movie can be. It's as different Batman Begins is to the Batman TV series. In fact, if you hate superheroes, you will probably love this movie.

Since a lot of people have read the novel, and many are waiting for the film, I won't spoil the story for you - you got Wikipedia for that. Big Bear Butt summed it up pretty nicely in his post about the Watchmen trailer.

Now I will go and see the trailer again. March 2009, that's a long waiting.

E3 goodness - Dragon Age and KOTOR

While the previous trailer for Dragon Age was nice, it wasn't that impressive. And it wasn't in-game footage.

Wow, bet if I was surprised when they release a new trailer for Dragon Age, now with in-game footage, and it actually looks great. This game just climbed more than a few steps on my Looking Forward To 2008 ladder.

A commenter on Rock, Paper, Shotgun said pretty much what I was thinking.

Oh my god, he just mounted that thing and stabbed it in the throat, was not expecting that, jesus

Not only does the game offer what seem to be pretty good party support, it has some truly unique things you can do with the engine. Ice magic can be used to put out fire and fire magic can set fire to grease (like our trigger happy mage did). Who knows what more stuff you will be able to do? The lightning looked really nice as it bounced around the room long after the spell was cast.
I noticed you were able to pause the game, something used much in Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. This truly is a RPG to check out.

And for all future wizards out there, don't forget the golden rule of magic and companions: don't throw chain lightning into the group. Just don't.

Knight's of the Old Republic MMO
While thousands of fans just wet their pants in excitement, I must I admit that I have only briefly played Knights of the Old Republic. Which is probably a shame, since I have heard plenty of good things about it, and it's from Bioware (/kneel /praise). I don't remember exactly why I stopped playing it, but I think it was something with my computer that just didn't get along with the game. I just might try it out again, now that the news is out that a KOTOR MMO is in development.

Just earlier this week Relmstein complained about the lack of sci-fi MMOs, and I commented that "KotOR MMO will probably never come". Yea, I got pretty owned there. Damn you, Bioware!

I'm a fan of Star Wars (h3ll, who isn't?), I like sci-fi games (more for the exploring endless worlds than ships with laserz I admit), and I like MMO game. So a KOTOR MMO would probably be pretty sweet. H3ll, light sabers PvP action, sign me up.

E3 goodness

What kind of gamer would I be if I didn't follow the E3 and checking out interesting games?

New WAR footage, featuring what seems to be a siege!

Looks pretty awesome, don't you think? Only wish they would fix the lightning sometime. EA has their own trailer of WAR that show more impressive graphics.

In-game footage of Fallout 3. It's a bit different that I expected, it look like a combination of STALKER and Oblivion. I love both games so the result can't be anything than good.
For the uneducated plebs, Fallout take place in a post-apocalyptic future, where the world is devastated by atomic war. If you have trouble comprehending what that would be like, Wired has a new article with images of nuclear blasts.
It's definitely one of my most anticipated games for this year, after WAR. Also a trailer - reserve a spot in a Vault today! Got damn, I want this game! Ah the horror for not being at E3 and indulge some real Nuke Cola.

Dawn of War II trailer. If you can't have Warhammer Online, have the next best thing: Warhammer 40k.

Dragon Age Origins trailer. Not too impressive trailer, but since it's from developers Bioware who made Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Neverwinter Nights, KotOR and Mass Effect, I can forgive them pretty much everything.

Guild goes to Scotland, survivor tell the story

The third annual Tribe LAN has been completed, and all the participants try to recover best they can - it's only a year left until the next one. The previous two meetings was held in Sweden, but this time we invaded Scotland, just like in Braveheart. And we got totally crushed, also just like in Braveheart.

You travel all the way to Scotland and you buy American whisky...

- Heard more than once when a bottle of JD's was sighted.

We from Sweden gathered at the airport and had a few beer as we were waiting for the rest of the people, and then we had some more when they arrived, and some even more with the food (pay more, get less). After that we felt we had to stop, since we didn't know how drunk you had to be to not get on a airplane.

It's fun to see the faces behind the voices, and some can really surprise you as you get your inner pictures and expectations listening to their voice for years. You can have a imagine of some seven feet giant who wrestle with bears for a living and have arms as thick as your thighs, and see some tiny thing that could be your ten year younger brother half starved to death. Or the other way around. Imagination can do funny things.

During the entire LAN we didn't play that much WoW, we were busy doing other things. I can't recall what exactly. Drinking was probably one of them.
We did two groups speed running Karazhan against each other (which my group won of course, protection paladins for teh win) on the first day. I barely remember something about us doing Blackwing Lair late one night. I think we only were around 15 people and we had really fun running around in chaos on Razorgore. When we finally managed to destroy all the eggs and had Razorgore in tank and spank, the encounter bugged a bit and we had orcs respawning again. But down he went, and we barely had time to loot before we wiped on the orcs that piled up. Vaelastrasz would probably also have fallen if we didn't ninja pull him five times as we were positioning.

Other than WoW there was everything that could be expected when our guild comes together. We had drinking, singing, some drama, and plenty of laughter. A tank and a priest had a fight with toothpaste which led to some awkward moments when the cleaning personal showed up on the last day and wondered why there were toothpaste all over the walls.

This was the third annual guild meeting and it was the best so far. What is funny is that every guild meeting we play less and less WoW, next time we probably wont play any WoW at all. Location for the next meeting is under discussion, with Netherlands and Czech Republic as options.

At the writing of this post, no pictures or video have been released on the interwebs. I will see if I can post some harmless pictures when they do. If your looking for the real, hardcore stuff you probably have to be a member of Tribe and confirm that your age is above 16 18 20.

Diablo III - huh?

So it was Diablo III that was the big announcement that had been hyped out with just a few images and words. It must be good to be Blizzard (I mean, apart from all those hundreds of millions they make each month - those are also good), they don't even have to make their own advertising. They release a splash screen, revealing a bit each day here, drop a word about game announcement there, and press and fans do the rest.

Blizzard has a uncanny ability to keep things a secret. I mean, to do something like StarCraft 2 and no one had a idea until they announced it. And now the same thing with Diablo III. This also shed some different light on their purchase of the diablo3.com address earlier this year. Right under our noses!

Although I was both surprised and happy when I heard about it being D3, I wasn't really excited. I visited their homepage, read a bit about it, but still didn't feel that excitement I thought I would surely feel. And I have played both Diablo and Diablo II so it's not like I haven't been waiting for this.

I will buy the game, there no question about that. Still, I'm a bit disappointed. The game looks nice, but other than the graphics the game don't seem to have progressed much since Diablo II... 8 years ago. The game is still about ridiculous powerful heroes bashing uncounted monsters, gathering equipment from said monsters, only to be able to progress and kill even bigger monsters. I guess if something works, you shouldn't break it... but a little bit more innovation wouldn't hurt.

20 years after the end of D2 were back in Tristram (for the third time) and a comet come crashing down. Wait, wasn't that also in Warcraft III? Most probably D3 won't even be about Diablo any more as he stopped to be the center of the game in the D2 expansion. Just because you can make a third game and still sell it like ice cream in June doesn't mean you have to... well, maybe the stockholders disagree on that. But Blizzard can't just stick to the same game series all the time. The last time Blizzard created a entire new game that wasn't a expansion, sequel or game in the same universe, was 1998 with StarCraft.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe D3 will turn out to be really innovative, but I doubt it. It will be fun, I have no doubts about that, and I will probably enjoy hundreds of hours with my friends online. But still... Bill Roper and the rest at Flagship, come back to Blizzard!

I know what I want: World of StarCraft. Part StarCraft, part World of Warcraft, part EVE Online. People have wet their pants for less.