Thanksgiving Sale on My Debut Cyberpunk Novel
Posted on
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
by Gary A. Ballard
Thanksgiving is coming up and that means it's time for all you responsible bastards to start doing your Christmas shopping early, unlike me who waits until the last minute to do anything. What better gift to give than my thrilling debut cyberpunk novel, Under the Amoral Bridge? From now until Dec. 1st, I'm offering two discount codes, both for 25% off this fantastic read. For the paperback version, go to the CreateSpace store link and use the coupon code HC86CZSY to get the book for $9 + shipping (regular price $12). If you'd prefer the Ebook version, it's available in a ton of Ebook formats on Smashwords.com. Use the coupon code RS46Q to get the Ebook for $6 (regular price $8). I wish I could offer the book on Amazon or the Kindle store with similar coupons, but they do not offer such options at this time. If you're looking for a gift for that science-fiction fan on your list, or if you are a sci-fi fan yourself, you'll love this book! Let's move some paper, people!
Labels: Cyberpunk, Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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Shooting Synergy in the Foot: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Wii) Review
Posted on
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
There are some pairings so perfect, so obvious, so absolutely made for each other that thinking of one will automatically cause the other to come to mind without urging. Peanut butter and jelly, the Internet and porn, Kirk and Spock, these things just fit together so well one can hardly be blamed for preferring the combination over its individual parts. One of the first thoughts that came to my mind when I saw the Wii in action was Star Wars. How perfect would the nerdgasm be were Lucasarts to create a lightsaber-focused Jedi game with the Wiimote's motion-controls? Without question, Star Wars and videogame nerds everywhere got chubby in the corduroys upon seeing the videos of the release title Red Steel, with all its sword-fighting glory. Why is it then that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Wii is such a stunning disappointment?
All the stars were aligned. A Star Wars game about Darth Vader's hidden Sith apprentice with customisable force powers, motion-controlled light saber fighting and two-player duels would be the ultimate geek wet dream. But from the very get-go, I was left with a puzzled disappointment. Leaving aside the ultimately irrelevant narrative retcon of the Star Wars mythos, the presentation of the game is mediocre at best. The graphics are not even on par with the better PS2 games, and games like Metroid Prime: Corruption has already ably demonstrated that the system has the horsepower to push some impressive graphics. Yet this title is rife with flat texture works and inconsistent use of lighting and shading. Star destroyers in particular look awful, flat colored polygons with tiny bits of detail and no lighting effects. Yet your character's personal ship has plenty of detail and shading applied. The technical aspects of the system's graphics hardware count for nothing if the artists half-ass their way through the game.
The voice acting suffers from a similar inconsistency. While Vader and the Stormtroopers are certainly well-represented, the main character cannot seem to decide whether to speak with an affected British accent or an accentless American reading. This could all be forgiven if the game play lived up to the potential. Unfortunately, that is the exact area where the game falls apart the worst.
Now I realize that the original Wiimote with the addition of the upcoming MotionPlus attachment is probably not as precise an instrument as I at first thought. But a very flawed game like Red Steel managed to do what a Star Wars game could not, make sword-fighting fun even though the Wiimote does not map 1:1 arm movement onto the screen. Perhaps it was Red Steel's use of first-person perspective as opposed to the FU's 3rd person, a change which makes a big difference in immersion. But I tend to think the reason FU doesn't feel that immersive is because the controls are downright sloppy. Not only does the character not respond in kind to the Wiimotions, I never felt like I needed to do anything more than flail around in order to kill anything but a boss. I am reminded of the typical gameplay of No More Heroes, which was overly boring except on the boss fights. The force powers are fun, but many require motions on the nunchuk that aren't intuitive. The 3rd person camera was one great big bag of dick, constantly flipping around the character unbidden, causing me to lose my target. Though the D-pad allows me to control the camera, the D-pad isn't really well-placed for the kind of quick use I needed to switch the camera in combat situations. The Nunchuk's imprecise analog stick doesn't help in this respect either.
But one of the most irritating things about the game involved the boss fights. Rather than the exciting swingfests of a game like No More Heroes, the boss fights in FU are tedious affairs littered with jarring QTE's (Quicktime events). Rather than relying on the player's skill with the lightsaber and force powers to defeat bosses, every boss has certain stages of health loss that necessitate passing a QTE. Failure results in the boss's health being reset to the last stage. While some games use these effectively (Resident Evil 4 comes to mind), the use of QTE's in FU just breaks what little immersion the game has. Two hours into the game and I decided that I had had enough. The story wasn't interesting enough to endure mediocre gameplay and sloppy controls.
Seeing the mess that Lucasarts came up with for FU (a wholly appropriate acronym I might add) makes me appreciate the flawed brilliance of No More Heroes' boss fights even more. The fact that FU for the Wii has a duel mode that is not online-enabled is just another sore spot. Given the sloppiness of the controls, the weak graphics and voice acting, I'm forced to give this title a 5 stars out of 10. The only thing saving it from a lower score is the fun force powers like Choke and Lightning. But not even choking the shit out of a Stormtrooper can make up for the title's shortcomings.
All the stars were aligned. A Star Wars game about Darth Vader's hidden Sith apprentice with customisable force powers, motion-controlled light saber fighting and two-player duels would be the ultimate geek wet dream. But from the very get-go, I was left with a puzzled disappointment. Leaving aside the ultimately irrelevant narrative retcon of the Star Wars mythos, the presentation of the game is mediocre at best. The graphics are not even on par with the better PS2 games, and games like Metroid Prime: Corruption has already ably demonstrated that the system has the horsepower to push some impressive graphics. Yet this title is rife with flat texture works and inconsistent use of lighting and shading. Star destroyers in particular look awful, flat colored polygons with tiny bits of detail and no lighting effects. Yet your character's personal ship has plenty of detail and shading applied. The technical aspects of the system's graphics hardware count for nothing if the artists half-ass their way through the game.
The voice acting suffers from a similar inconsistency. While Vader and the Stormtroopers are certainly well-represented, the main character cannot seem to decide whether to speak with an affected British accent or an accentless American reading. This could all be forgiven if the game play lived up to the potential. Unfortunately, that is the exact area where the game falls apart the worst.
Now I realize that the original Wiimote with the addition of the upcoming MotionPlus attachment is probably not as precise an instrument as I at first thought. But a very flawed game like Red Steel managed to do what a Star Wars game could not, make sword-fighting fun even though the Wiimote does not map 1:1 arm movement onto the screen. Perhaps it was Red Steel's use of first-person perspective as opposed to the FU's 3rd person, a change which makes a big difference in immersion. But I tend to think the reason FU doesn't feel that immersive is because the controls are downright sloppy. Not only does the character not respond in kind to the Wiimotions, I never felt like I needed to do anything more than flail around in order to kill anything but a boss. I am reminded of the typical gameplay of No More Heroes, which was overly boring except on the boss fights. The force powers are fun, but many require motions on the nunchuk that aren't intuitive. The 3rd person camera was one great big bag of dick, constantly flipping around the character unbidden, causing me to lose my target. Though the D-pad allows me to control the camera, the D-pad isn't really well-placed for the kind of quick use I needed to switch the camera in combat situations. The Nunchuk's imprecise analog stick doesn't help in this respect either.
But one of the most irritating things about the game involved the boss fights. Rather than the exciting swingfests of a game like No More Heroes, the boss fights in FU are tedious affairs littered with jarring QTE's (Quicktime events). Rather than relying on the player's skill with the lightsaber and force powers to defeat bosses, every boss has certain stages of health loss that necessitate passing a QTE. Failure results in the boss's health being reset to the last stage. While some games use these effectively (Resident Evil 4 comes to mind), the use of QTE's in FU just breaks what little immersion the game has. Two hours into the game and I decided that I had had enough. The story wasn't interesting enough to endure mediocre gameplay and sloppy controls.
Seeing the mess that Lucasarts came up with for FU (a wholly appropriate acronym I might add) makes me appreciate the flawed brilliance of No More Heroes' boss fights even more. The fact that FU for the Wii has a duel mode that is not online-enabled is just another sore spot. Given the sloppiness of the controls, the weak graphics and voice acting, I'm forced to give this title a 5 stars out of 10. The only thing saving it from a lower score is the fun force powers like Choke and Lightning. But not even choking the shit out of a Stormtrooper can make up for the title's shortcomings.
Labels: Entertainment, George Lucas, Lucasarts, Nintendo, Science-Fiction, Star Wars, Video Games, Wii
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Evolution in Action: Warhammer Online Open Beta (MMOG PC) Review
Posted on
Monday, September 15, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
I have not been eagerly anticipating the impending release of the PC MMORPG Warhammer Online. As a matter of fact, I've been critical of Mythic Entertainment for the conduct of their beta. Not only did they not bother to invite me to the beta, giving me the free preview of the game I demand before I will spend money on an MMOG these days, but they held the non-disclosure agreement over the heads of the testers for entirely too long. Keeping an NDA in effect until just a few weeks before release always makes me seriously doubt the quality of the final product, reminding me of the bad old days prior to the release of Anarchy Online, World War II Online and other such notable flops. But once I finally gained access to the Fileplanet Open Beta this past weekend, my fears were allayed. Warhammer Online is not a colossal failure, a bug-ridden cluster fuck or an empty clone of other games. Unfortunately, while it certainly iterates successfully on the formula of previous successes in the genre, the new features of the game don't raise it beyond the level of other competitors.
Before I begin my obvious comparison, let me be clear. I am well-versed in the Warhammer universe, having played the tabletop miniature version Warhammer Fantasy Battles for many years. I am quite well aware that the Warcraft universe was an almost direct homage to the Warhammer universe, and that all things Warcraft owe more to the Warhammer universe than Warhammer Online owes to World of Warcraft. And yes, I'm also aware that the Warhammer universe is a darker re-imagining of the Tolkien universe through the drug-addled lens of British metalheads. So do believe that I have ample background to claim that Warhammer Online is at its heart a fun mashup of World of Warcraft and Dark Age of Camelot, taking parts of both games and successfully creating a PVP-focused, casual-friendly MMORPG.
If you've played any of the ever-growing number of fantasy DIKU-based MMORPG's that have infested the medium since the success of Everquest, you know the mechanics Warhammer Online. Create a character of various classes, move him with the WASD key configuration, attack monsters or other players and hit hotkeys 0-9 to launch special abilities until you gain enough experience to raise your level and purchase new gear and special abilities. Along the way, your character will perform quests for various NPC's that wait around in warcamps. Some of those quests will bring the player in conflict with other players from the opposing faction. The gameplay is really nothing new. In execution, it lies somewhere between World of Warcraft's frantic style and Dark Age of Camelot's slower version of the same thing. In short, if you aren't sick to death of this style of game, you'll enjoy WAR as well as you would other games.
WAR improves on its predecessors in a few areas, namely the public quests, tome of knowledge, open parties and integration of PVP objectives into each character's narrative. The public quests are entertaining and easy to find. As a matter of fact, the player will usually trip over a public quest without even knowing it exists. As long as that player is in the area, he can contribute to the quest by killing certain mobs or completing objectives, all of which are tracked on the player's HUD so long as he remains in the PQ area. One need not be in an existing party to contribute, and all who aid in the quest have a chance at getting one of six rewards which are comparable to the best gear for that player's level. Combining the best parts of raiding without the catassery normally required, public quests are a fun way to gear up and gain experience.
The tome of knowledge takes the place of the quest journal from other MMOG's, and improves upon it greatly. Not only is every monster cataloged in the bestiary, but maps, quests and just about any other useful information in the character's career is tracked and cataloged. The tome is rife with achievements that grant custom titles to the player, and is a OCD collector's wet dream. The tome is a feature that every MMORPG developer needs to copy and improve on, because it is a slick way to build a character's individual place in the world.
Open parties is another improvement on the normal MMOG grouping mechanic. A group can declare itself open, meaning that anyone can join the party just by being in the area. In a game where many objectives will require groups, removing the need for the traditional "looking for group" tools is genius. A party can turn off the feature if it desires to avoid the pitfalls of pick-up groups, but for the solo player, the ability to find a group that easily is a godsend. In addition, if the normal group is filled but finds it needs more slots for friends or to increase its strength, it can declare itself a "warband," opening up more group slots. Guild leaders should trumpet this feature from hill to dale, because it should significantly improve the problem guilds have had in the past with certain members feeling they are being ignored for groups.
Finally, the integration of PVP into the natural narrative of the character's career is almost seamless. While PVP isn't required ever, it feels so natural both for the setting and the mechanics that I can't imagine why anyone would avoid it. The PVP is very similar mechanically to both World of Warcraft and Dark Age of Camelot. Both open world obejctives and instanced battleground scenarios are available, and all PVP progress is tracked zone wide, leading to bonuses for the side winning the most battles in the zone. Level disparities in PVP are diminished in comparison to other games, as all players are boosted to three levels below that area's maximum level. While this does help lower-leveled players compete in PVP, there are drawbacks. While levels are added, the player does not get that level's commiserate special abilities, making them underpowered against the highest level characters in the area. Lower level characters aren't quite speedbumps in the RVR areas, but they aren't exactly what I would call competitive. It does encourage players to achieve at least the minimum level before engaging in significant PVP.
All is not rosy with WAR, despite the positives I have mentioned. There are certainly bugs, as one would expect of an MMOG these days. Network lag was also a bit of a problem at various times during the weekend, which is again to be expected during an "open beta." As the game matures, new players will find their progress stunted because the majority of the population will outlevel the starting areas. I shudder to think of the grinding difficulties a player starting the game six months from now will find when trying to finish public quests all by their lonesome. Population imbalances among different factions may also become a significant problems, and I'm not sure anyone has found a solution this problem that plagues all PVP-enabled games.
The game is fun, of that there is no doubt. Still, during the entire time I played, I couldn't help wanting more out of the game. At its most basic level, the core gameplay isn't that different from World of Warcraft or other games of its type. And as someone who is entirely too experienced with that sort of gameplay, I am inevitably bored by it. While the world is well-realized, and is worth exploring, I don't think it has enough new features to be worth my money. For those who aren't hopelessly burnt out on DIKU, I can recommend it as an entertaining alternative to World of Warcraft. I can't say that it is better or worse, just different. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give the game a 7.5. It's not spectacular or innovative, but it's entertaining for those who like that sort of thing.
Labels: Entertainment, Game Design, Game Reviews, MMOG, Tolkien, Video Games
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 9:51 AM
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Bridge Chapter 12 Posted
Posted on
Friday, June 27, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
My blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, has been updated. I've added a new Chapter, Chapter 12 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Bridge returns to Angela's apartment and discovers the reason Kira made the recording. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter.
Labels: Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 3:21 PM
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Bridge Chapter 11 Posted
Posted on
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
My blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, is coming into the home stretch. I've just added a new Chapter, Chapter 11 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. I've also set the total size of the novel at 14 chapters and an epilogue. Bridge attempts to return the recordings to Mayor Sunderland, only to find that not everything is as it appears. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter which will be posted on a weekly basis until the novel is finished. *fingers crossed*
Labels: Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 10:08 AM
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New Bridge Chapter Posted
Posted on
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new Chapter. It's Chapter 9 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Danger closes in on Bridge as Stonewall reveals the fate of the bouncer, Paulie. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.
Labels: Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 10:20 AM
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Misplaced Priorities: The Age of Conan PVP Weekend Beta Rant Review
Posted on
Sunday, April 27, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
Last weekend was the Age of Conan PVP Beta weekend for those like myself lucky enough to get into the extra-special free preview of this upcoming MMOG. I would have reported my thoughts earlier, but I've been suffering from the chest cold from hell all last week. Said cold is still lingering in my concave chest, and though my head is fuzzy, my thoughts on AoC are clear. The game releases in May and I can safely say I will not be buying this game.
Age of Conan, for those who were unaware, is Funcom's follow up to Anarchy Online, an MMOG based in the world of Robert E. Howard's Conan character, Hyboria. It boasts of an innovative, action-packed combat system, a mature attitude containing both copious amounts of blood and nudity (except in the US!), mini-game and world-based PVP and the buzzword of all unreleased MMOG's, innovation! It also boasts a DX10 capable graphics engine that is rumored to be gorgeous. As someone whose computer was not built next year, I can't vouch for that, as what I saw was butt ugly.
The PVP weekend consisted of the first five levels of the PVE game, which can be played solo offline, and a couple of PVP minigames that bump your character's level to 20 automatically and allows the player to select different skill options and respec those options at will. The player could make multiple characters, so I dialed up both a melee character that I played into the PVP minigame and a caster that I did not.
The combat gameplay is "innovative" in that unlike other MMOG's, it doesn't have a form of auto-attack. You must actively produce every attack, every swing, every special ability and power and spell. Similar to Guild Wars and City of Heroes, this type of combat system is much more immersive than the auto-attack systems, but it means combat tends to be a lot of furious button-mashing. Where AoC differs from other games is its addition of attack zones. Each combatant has three zones it can be attacked from, left, center and right. The player can choose to both attack into one zone, as well as shift his defenses to favor one zone over others, leaving him vulnerable in another zone. Attacking a zone that is not shielded causes extra damage. In addition, special abilities can be used in conjunction with specific zone attacks to increase damage, add buffs or debuff opponents. Compared to older auto-attack systems such as say Everquest, it's a fun take on typical MMOG combat. It works particularly well for PVE content, because the player can always see where his opponent's shields are gathered, while this information is hidden in PVP. The combat wasn't so incredible that it could override my biggest complaints about this beta.
Limping Through Mud
Age of Conan was built to take advantage of DirectX 10 and the latest greatest hardware available for the PC. What that means, however, is those with less than stellar computer specs are shit out of luck. If you are one of the unlucky many who do not upgrade your computer every 12-24 months, if you do not have a video card made in the last year, you will likely not enjoy this game very much at all. I'll start by listing my meager computer specs:
AMD FX64 2800+
1 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 w/ 256 MB RAM
Windows XP
Yes, I fully realize the video card is decrepit, probably even out of spec for this game. However, I'm flabbergasted at just how badly the game looked when I finally got it to a playable framerate. I don't mean it was mediocre, I mean it looked like it had been rendered in crayon by a crack-addled five year old. Not only that, but any length of playtime resulted in the screen exploding in gigantic polygonal artifacts, or worse, the interface going kablooey and becoming totally unreadable. This might be acceptable if that made the game playable, but it couldn't even approach that. Framerates were dismal and the artifacting caused me to restart the game every 20 minutes or so. Again, if my card just won't render this game at an acceptable level, the game should just tell me that upfront and refuse to run. The fact that it doesn't is going to lead me to expect at least some level of playability.
And this is where the review turns into a rant. The MMOG market is becoming more crowded every day, even if one discounts the glut of cloned Korean MMOG's being foisted off on the American market. Even where it not crowded, the competition from World of Warcraft is likely insurmountable, especially considering the type of gameplay (both PVP and PVE) is targeted at those who also like World of Warcraft. From a technical perspective, someone leaving World of Warcraft for another MMOG of similar playstyle is going to expect performance that is at least comparable to their departed MMOG. AoC doesn't provide that. A very large part of World of Warcraft's raging success has to be chalked up to its tolerance for older, mediocre machines. Guild Wars success can likewise owe something to its tolerant, yet capably-degrading graphics performance. Running like a hobbled pig in slop with graphics that can be charitably described as "wouldn't fuck her with YOUR dick" ugly is suicide. It's a guarantee that the service will suffer from lower than expected subscriptions.
Now, Age of Conan is never going to get WoW numbers, even if it did degrade gracefully. But every barrier to entry thrown up for little gain is one less subscriber. In a market as crowded and competitive as subscription MMOG's are right now, there is nothing more damaging than poor performance. In a game with a significant focus on PVP, performance is going to be critical to the most vocal proponents of that gamestyle, because performance is the difference between life and death. Making players lose matches because they don't have a $500 video card in a $2000 machine is yet another barrier to entry. Competitive PVP'ers are people who turn off shadows immediately to gain 2 FPS. All the money and development time you spent on specular lighting and shading, pixel shaders for DirectX 10 and the like are going to be completely wasted on the PVP customer.
It's all a damn shame too, because I had looked forward to AoC, and from my limited playtime, I could tell there seemed to be a worthwhile game underneath all that fluff. But I fear it will be wasted on a Vanguard level of failure, simply because the developers wanted to create for only the latest and greatest without any thought to the rest of the pack. If you have a decent computer and the will to sit through what will likely be a bumpy release with multiple bugs, I'd say Age of Conan might be worth it. If not, wait for something like Warhammer, which is almost guaranteed to be more tolerant to aging hardware.
Age of Conan, for those who were unaware, is Funcom's follow up to Anarchy Online, an MMOG based in the world of Robert E. Howard's Conan character, Hyboria. It boasts of an innovative, action-packed combat system, a mature attitude containing both copious amounts of blood and nudity (except in the US!), mini-game and world-based PVP and the buzzword of all unreleased MMOG's, innovation! It also boasts a DX10 capable graphics engine that is rumored to be gorgeous. As someone whose computer was not built next year, I can't vouch for that, as what I saw was butt ugly.
The PVP weekend consisted of the first five levels of the PVE game, which can be played solo offline, and a couple of PVP minigames that bump your character's level to 20 automatically and allows the player to select different skill options and respec those options at will. The player could make multiple characters, so I dialed up both a melee character that I played into the PVP minigame and a caster that I did not.
The combat gameplay is "innovative" in that unlike other MMOG's, it doesn't have a form of auto-attack. You must actively produce every attack, every swing, every special ability and power and spell. Similar to Guild Wars and City of Heroes, this type of combat system is much more immersive than the auto-attack systems, but it means combat tends to be a lot of furious button-mashing. Where AoC differs from other games is its addition of attack zones. Each combatant has three zones it can be attacked from, left, center and right. The player can choose to both attack into one zone, as well as shift his defenses to favor one zone over others, leaving him vulnerable in another zone. Attacking a zone that is not shielded causes extra damage. In addition, special abilities can be used in conjunction with specific zone attacks to increase damage, add buffs or debuff opponents. Compared to older auto-attack systems such as say Everquest, it's a fun take on typical MMOG combat. It works particularly well for PVE content, because the player can always see where his opponent's shields are gathered, while this information is hidden in PVP. The combat wasn't so incredible that it could override my biggest complaints about this beta.
Limping Through Mud
Age of Conan was built to take advantage of DirectX 10 and the latest greatest hardware available for the PC. What that means, however, is those with less than stellar computer specs are shit out of luck. If you are one of the unlucky many who do not upgrade your computer every 12-24 months, if you do not have a video card made in the last year, you will likely not enjoy this game very much at all. I'll start by listing my meager computer specs:
AMD FX64 2800+
1 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 9600 w/ 256 MB RAM
Windows XP
Yes, I fully realize the video card is decrepit, probably even out of spec for this game. However, I'm flabbergasted at just how badly the game looked when I finally got it to a playable framerate. I don't mean it was mediocre, I mean it looked like it had been rendered in crayon by a crack-addled five year old. Not only that, but any length of playtime resulted in the screen exploding in gigantic polygonal artifacts, or worse, the interface going kablooey and becoming totally unreadable. This might be acceptable if that made the game playable, but it couldn't even approach that. Framerates were dismal and the artifacting caused me to restart the game every 20 minutes or so. Again, if my card just won't render this game at an acceptable level, the game should just tell me that upfront and refuse to run. The fact that it doesn't is going to lead me to expect at least some level of playability.
And this is where the review turns into a rant. The MMOG market is becoming more crowded every day, even if one discounts the glut of cloned Korean MMOG's being foisted off on the American market. Even where it not crowded, the competition from World of Warcraft is likely insurmountable, especially considering the type of gameplay (both PVP and PVE) is targeted at those who also like World of Warcraft. From a technical perspective, someone leaving World of Warcraft for another MMOG of similar playstyle is going to expect performance that is at least comparable to their departed MMOG. AoC doesn't provide that. A very large part of World of Warcraft's raging success has to be chalked up to its tolerance for older, mediocre machines. Guild Wars success can likewise owe something to its tolerant, yet capably-degrading graphics performance. Running like a hobbled pig in slop with graphics that can be charitably described as "wouldn't fuck her with YOUR dick" ugly is suicide. It's a guarantee that the service will suffer from lower than expected subscriptions.
Now, Age of Conan is never going to get WoW numbers, even if it did degrade gracefully. But every barrier to entry thrown up for little gain is one less subscriber. In a market as crowded and competitive as subscription MMOG's are right now, there is nothing more damaging than poor performance. In a game with a significant focus on PVP, performance is going to be critical to the most vocal proponents of that gamestyle, because performance is the difference between life and death. Making players lose matches because they don't have a $500 video card in a $2000 machine is yet another barrier to entry. Competitive PVP'ers are people who turn off shadows immediately to gain 2 FPS. All the money and development time you spent on specular lighting and shading, pixel shaders for DirectX 10 and the like are going to be completely wasted on the PVP customer.
It's all a damn shame too, because I had looked forward to AoC, and from my limited playtime, I could tell there seemed to be a worthwhile game underneath all that fluff. But I fear it will be wasted on a Vanguard level of failure, simply because the developers wanted to create for only the latest and greatest without any thought to the rest of the pack. If you have a decent computer and the will to sit through what will likely be a bumpy release with multiple bugs, I'd say Age of Conan might be worth it. If not, wait for something like Warhammer, which is almost guaranteed to be more tolerant to aging hardware.
Labels: Entertainment, MMOG, Video Games
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 7:20 PM
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Bridge Chapter 7 Posted
Posted on
Thursday, April 17, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new Chapter. It's Chapter 7 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Bridge has to fight off an assasination attempt in cyberspace. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.
Labels: Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 8:17 PM
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Bridge Chapter 5 Posted
Posted on
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new Chapter. It's Chapter 5 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Bridge is assualted during his meeting with the hacker, Kira. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.
Labels: Cyberpunk, Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 11:41 AM
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New Bridge Material: GlobalNet GlobalPedia Entry
Posted on
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new GlobalPedia article. This week's supplemental article is an explanation of the GlobalNet, 2028's successor to the Internet. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new GlobalPedia material posted in the off-chapter weeks.
Labels: Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 10:41 AM
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New Bridge Chapter Posted
Posted on
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new Chapter. It's Chapter 4 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge, in which Bridge visits the Arsenal night club for some important business. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.
Labels: Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 10:17 AM
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New Bridge Material: Soto Campaign Video
Posted on
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new GlobalPedia article. It's another spotlight on the 2028 Los Angeles Mayoral Race, including a new campaign video by the challenger Arturo Soto. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.
Labels: Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 4:18 PM
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New Bridge Chapter Posted
Posted on
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new Chapter. It's Chapter 3 in the serialized adventures of Artemis Bridge. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.
Labels: Cyberpunk, Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 12:37 PM
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New Bridge Material: Campaign Video
Posted on
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
I've updated my blog novel, Under the Amoral Bridge, with a new GlobalPedia article. It's a spotlight on the 2028 Los Angeles Mayoral Race, focusing on the campaign of interim mayor Oliver Sunderland. Don't forget to keep checking there for a new chapter posted every two weeks, and new material posted in the off-chapter weeks.
Labels: Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
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posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 10:01 AM
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My New Experiment: A Novel Told in Blog Form
Posted on
Thursday, January 31, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
The time has come to unveil something I've been working on for a few months. Those who have followed my writing over the years may know that I've written a novel and have been trying to get it published, without much success. As a means to promote myself as a fiction author as opposed to some loudmouth blogging asshole, I've decided to publish a novel on the web, using the blog format. That novel's first chapter and introduction have been posted at my new novel blog, Under the Amoral Bridge.
This blog will still be updated, with as much regularity as it has been in the past. That means there will be more sporadic posts, depending on what I've got my dander up about on a particular day. I will keep this blog updated on the additions to the novel. This most likely will mean that The Stalin Monologues won't be updated with a new episode anytime soon, but since it hasn't been updated in a while anyway, that won't be much of a change. The plan is to update with a new chapter every two weeks, with some supplemental material released in the off weeks.
The novel is a cyberpunk science-fiction novel, but it isn't the novel I've been trying to get published. The introduction will explain more fully, but Bridge is a prequel novel in the same setting as the unpublished novel. Both are part of a planned series of sci-fi novels. Keep checking back here for new opinion pieces from me, and read my novel. I welcome comments on all my work, from all five of you that regularly read it.
For those who do regularly read my work, thank you for your support. I hope you enjoy it.
This blog will still be updated, with as much regularity as it has been in the past. That means there will be more sporadic posts, depending on what I've got my dander up about on a particular day. I will keep this blog updated on the additions to the novel. This most likely will mean that The Stalin Monologues won't be updated with a new episode anytime soon, but since it hasn't been updated in a while anyway, that won't be much of a change. The plan is to update with a new chapter every two weeks, with some supplemental material released in the off weeks.
The novel is a cyberpunk science-fiction novel, but it isn't the novel I've been trying to get published. The introduction will explain more fully, but Bridge is a prequel novel in the same setting as the unpublished novel. Both are part of a planned series of sci-fi novels. Keep checking back here for new opinion pieces from me, and read my novel. I welcome comments on all my work, from all five of you that regularly read it.
For those who do regularly read my work, thank you for your support. I hope you enjoy it.
Labels: Cyberpunk, Entertainment, Literature, Science-Fiction
Read more!
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 10:33 AM
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