Frontier: Elite 2 Intro - The Dangerous Remake

I have the original intro somewhere on this site but for me this is brilliant.

Highlight from last nights stream

Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak aka Shipbreakers

Twitch

I now have a Twitch channel:

http://www.twitch.tv/quanhanbin/profile

I don't have anything on it yet except a test stream of TQ from Guildwars 2 but I do plan to start streaming some of my game dev work and more Guildwars 2.

Tis the session for the Moba, mobaaa baaa baa ba ba da ba meh

And I thought it was bad when every game was about WW2.

Elite: Horizons next week

Yep the game is released to everyone who brought the expansion next week. Its launch week =D

Theme

The theme for this site sucks on mobile.

I need to do something about it.

Overwatch to not sell maps or hero's

Since overwatch was announced as buy to play people like my self have been concerned that they would be doing a pay to win model with post release hero's.

Today blizzard announced that there would be no dlc hero's or maps.

They will sell cosmetic skins for stupid prices but those do not effect game play.

Still the game seems over priced for no single player. I didn't get battlefront because it seemed shallow for the full price tag. Compared to battle front 2 which has a ton of content to play with.

This is a good move for blizzard. Just not sure why they weren't ready to answer it at blizzcon.

Elite Horizons Beta delay

The beta has been delayed a few days but we have been treated to this orbit video.

I can't wait to explore these planets and moons.

Total Warhammer Trailer

[BAF] Fractals and raids

Just a heads up that Berna & Friends [BAF] in GW2 is running regular fractals in guild and we are looking to start trying raids very soon. Also we have our Guildhall up and running and any donations to the guild bank will be used to build this up or direct material donations to the treasury.

Imperial Cutter, *DROOL*

Guildwars 2 raids

Guildwars is launching is raids on the 17th. These are 10 man encounters that feature challenging content and reward legendary armour.

Personally not sure if I will be doing them, but if any of the guilds I am in need a experienced necro, Pudding will be there.

Space Engineers Planets: Nov 12 2015 this week !

WvW Tomorrow

[WOLF] WvW will happen tomorrow afternoon on Sea of Sorrows, probably a hour after reset. Going to try for the camp guild mission and see what happens.

This will become a regular slot for GW2 WvW unless [BERNA] has something more interesting going on or we team up with [USB].

Reset is every Saturday at 6:00 PM PDT (9:00 PM EST), which is around 2pm Sunday. So looking around 7 - 8PM PDT or 3 - 4pm NZT.

Lets just make it after Tequatl for simplicity. See you there.

Elite Horizons Misty Zoom

Fallout 4 Launch Trailer

More Elite Horizons Hype

Elite Dangerous - Rover

Mordheim trailer

This is a game which I have early access too which has been worth it. Constant progression towards release. Its been nearly a year but its was always in a playable state.

Elite Planets Reveal

Hype train has left the station again.

Battlefront open beta

The battlefront beta went live last night early for nz/oz and I gave it a good go. I enjoyed what I saw and really enjoyed what I heard. The audio is fantastic.

The game play is very fast paced with short cool downs.

I haven't preordered yet but after this beta I will be ordering very soon.

This is how you sell your product. Open beta demo, let us try it first. So we'll done EA.

Elite Dangerous 1.4

Elite was updated today adding the Close Quarter Combat arena's ( CQC ) which have been in beta on the Xbox One and PC for early backers.

Also added is a 3 new ships:

Imperial Eagle
Federal Gunship
Federal Assault Ship

I might have to pick myself up a Imperial Eagle.

Video of CQC with flight assist off, this requires a ton of skill, more than what I have:

The Hype is real !

I love the Radar display, its the little things and the big things that make Elite so good.

Warhammer Fantasy

A ton of Warhammer fantasy games are coming out very soon and in the future.

Vermintide - Left 4 dead style game
Mordheim - Board game recreation
Total Warhammer - Awesomesause extereme.
Blood Bowl 2

And I can't help myself. I have had Mordheim early access for nearly a year and have been quite happy with its progress. The latest patch gives a real feel for the final game and I am enjoying it. Its not for everyone as it is a slow 3rd person turn based game with random dice rolls.

I watched a video on Vermintide and was impressed with what I saw. I just looks like a complete rip off of left 4 dead with Skaven. I can't think of anything better.

Total Warhammer is still way far off but I can see it being the only Total War game I throw my wallet at.

Bloodbowl 2 is a good improvement over the original game. The maps load super quick now and its a lot of fun to play. Just its a real time sucker with matches going on for lengthy amount of time.

Good times ahead and I am so glad I have unlimited high speed internet now.

Heart of Thorns release trailer

Elite dangerous

Planets, multicrew, drones, mother ships, omg excited again !!!!

https://community.elitedangerous.com/node/300

Blood Bowl 2 Launch Trailer

Guildwars 2 Pax video round up

Guildwars 2 goes F2P

As of now you can play the core game of guildwars 2 for free. With restrictions a bit like Starwars the old republic.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/play-for-free-today/

Sword Coast Lengends Trailer PAX

October 23rd: Guildwars 2 Heart of thorns launches

The Elderscrolls : Redguard and Battlespire on GoG !

These are two Elderscrolls games which I missed and I am glad to see you can now buy them seperately via GoG.com

They also come with Arena an Daggerfall

http://www.gog.com/game/the_elder_scrolls_adventures_redguard
http://www.gog.com/game/an_elder_scrolls_legend_battlespire

Satellite Reign - Launch Trailer

As someone who played the crap out of Syndicate on the Amiga, this looks amazing.

Mount & Blade Bannerlords Video

Guildwars 2: Heart of thorns beta has started

Star Citizen Multicrew demo

Better demo than what has been shown recently but after arena commander, is any of this going to work in the real world. Eg, the helmet never worked when it was in Arena Commander for me, was always invisible.

Battlefront Trailer

Elite Dangerous: Horizons expansion

OMG

More TotalWarhammer in game footage

More Blood Bowl 2 gameplay Trailers

More on Warhammer: Vermintide

Total Warhammer: Ingame

YES !

Guildwars 2 Revenant beta weekend

The Guildwars 2 Heart of Thorns Revenant beta is on now. So bring out your Revenant's !

Killing, My Friend

I loved Action Quake. Played it a ton back in the day on 33.6k dial up.

Action Half-life not so much, Counterstrike had come along and so there wasn't may people playing:

But now there is this:


The trailer is cheesy but I just loved this kind of game play in a First person shooter ( Max Payne etc ).

So I will be keeping a eye on it.

Is easy PvE bad for your game ?

Recently I just go back into playing Counterstrike Online again. Its been over a decade or so since I really played it. I started playing vs bots, just re-learning the maps, controls and the differences with Counterstrike Global Ops.

The bots, even on the highest difficulty provided no real challenge. While good they just can't simulate the randomness of real people. I ran the risk of building up my perception on how good I was vs what it really was which was predicting the patterns bots have.

So I dove online in the intention to just give it a go. I died a lot but I learned a lot more and really enjoyed myself.

Funnily enough the last 10 years is about how long I have been playing MMO's. MMO's are a illusion of skill but the skill is actually all in builds, gear and rotations. Once you learn the basics in a MMO they can become trivial to play in a PvE environment. You end up just using what works the most effective, learn the routine the mobs use and just sleep your way though the game.

Very few mmo's provided any real personal challenge while leveling up. They don't want to scare away their player base and instead keep the 'challenging' content for raids and pvp. This can create a bad state of mind in a lot of MMO players who only PvE when they enter PvP.

The game has built them up for the last few months ( or weeks theses days with the length of mmo's ) to be the unstoppable hero. You slayed the dragon, pushed back the pending evil, got the epic loots only to be auto shot down by a ranger at 30 yards range in a Structured PvP Match.

This breaks your self esteem and I am sure it will cause people to just never try it again when really, you just got to go in with the perception, you are going to fail.

Like I did with counterstrike once you break this down, you end up with a much more enjoyable game. You look at why you died, learn and adapted. With some mmo's you are going to fail a lot because of the game design around loot = skill so you have to grind it out. Others like Guildwars 2 will allow you to instead change your setup and just try again.

Ultimately what I am getting at is PvE needs PvP for the simple fact as it will keep you more grounded. There will always be someone better than you and failing can be more healthy than always winning. You learn more, you get faster and you become a better player.

Lastly the main thing to remember, is its just a game, have fun what ever you do. This is just my observation on my own experiences.

No paid mods for Fallout 4 - For now

Todd Howard : How long was the online payment system? 24 Hours? I can only speak for the present time, but currently there are no plans for a payment system.

Source: http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/games/fallout-4-interview-mit-entwickler-todd-howard-a-1039395.html

Phew

Guildwars 2: Guildhalls

More on Doom 4

15 years of Total war and 2 seconds of Total Warhammer

What made me hyped for Fallout 4

Arma 3 - Expansion ?

The Division - Hype level, could be like Watchdogs

Final Fantasy 7 Remake - Hype level, need gameplay not CGI

Ghost Recon Wildlands - Hype level interest

South Park: The Fractured but Whole - Hype level Very high

Starwas Battlefront Gameplay Trailer - Hype level high

Doom 4 trailer

Elite update Powerplay is now live

Fallout 4

Interesting thing is, if this is actual game footage ( could be cgi ) is that it doesn't look like the creation engine and instead more like Id Tech 5 ( Rage, Wolfenstine ) or it could even be the Unreal engine

If it is Id Tech 5 then don't get your hopes up for modding. The amount of data required just to change a map is well beyond the standard moder.

Update
Looking closer it does seem to be a updated creation engine. The blocky shadows on the dog etc.

Xcom 2

Wildstar going free to play

Terraria: Otherworld

Guildwars 2: The Reaper

Necro's this week

Pudding can't wait !!!!!

Guildwars 2: Dragonhunter

Guildwars 2: Chronomancer

KSP Launchers !

Paid mods for skyrim is now dead

http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/3434it/paid_mods_in_the_steam_workshop/

This battle has been won but we must continue to fight this in the future when it returns. As a modder myself I have this to say:

Mods should always be a open and free to everyone.

If you want to make money then make content for Unreal / Unity and other asset stores. Leave the mods to be free and liberated as a place for unlimited expression.

GOG Galaxy

Note: In my Rant about mods I said I don't have adverts on my site. This is a advert above but it is something I wish to promote - FOR FREE - as I feel it will better the PC gaming community. So to clarify, I get no money for having this on my website or from clicks. I just love GOG and what they are trying to do.

Dota 2 Compendium

Is up for sale again for this year.

Thoroughly enjoyed it last year.

Won't be buying it this year.

My stance of selling mods

The long and the short of it: Mods should be FREE

In the past I done a bit of modding. Started on the C64 with a few constriction kits. One being Aliens in the Adventure constriction kit ( which would be foxed if it was ever released ).

Later some Doom maps.

Most of the work people know me for is the quick maps I made in JK2. The 1 hit 1 kill mod my server used to run and my work in Neverwinter Nights with Tyranni.

During this time, I never felt entitled to being paid anything for my work. During the JK2/Neverwinter time I was in fact putting money in to keep the free services and games running. Even today I do this without any advertising or other kinds of funding. I don't even collect revenue from any of my You tube videos.

I am sure people think I am crazy as I have put a lot of work into everything I do but I just don't fell justified claiming money built upon other peoples games.

So steam selling mods has me disillusioned as to where things are going. Today I learned that Space Engineers might follow suit.

This is a early access game which is no where near complete wanting to make more money by getting the community to build content for it. Will they opt for the gold standard 75% cut of profits ?

Because of this, I utterly refuse to even think of getting Medieval Engineers.

Garrys Mod as well and I am waiting for Bohemia to say something about Arma.

If you want to make money from modding I feel you are better off getting Unreal or Unity and selling assets in their assets store or building a complete game. These days I am tinkering away inside Unreal and if I do make something worth selling I am going to get a far better return on money earned:

Once you make over $3000 a quarter with Unreal you pay Epic 5% of your earnings. This is a good Deal.

With Unity 5 you must buy Pro once you make over $100k. Even better deal

Steam workshop, they take 75% of what you make.

So if your like me and don't like all this rubbish, what can you do about it. One of the best things you can do is stop buying games that support this money grab. You can also buy games off other platforms. Here is the prefect example.

If you are going to get the Witcher 3:

PLEASE BUY IT OFF WWW.GOG.COM

You loose nothing but gain so much.

1) The game is cheaper
2) You are directly supporting the devs CD Projekt Red
3) You get a DRM Free version of the game

This is the prefect example of a protest option. Valve get no cut of the game as it isn't a steam works title.
I know I will be checking other platforms before buying something off steam.

My thoughts on Steam Workshop selling mods

There are full complete games up for cheaper than some of the mods for Skyrim.

It's finally Happening !!!!!!

Planets and New Multiplayer for Space Engineers

Details here:

http://blog.marekrosa.org/2015/04/guest-post-by-ondrej-petrzilka-space_17.html

With the new oxygen system, planets would make for interesting survival situations. Being crashed on a planet and then going out looking for ways to repair your ship enough for launch.

New multiplayer code also sounds good. But I hope they are planning a linux dedicated server that doesn't require steam hoops to jump though just to get it installed.

Starwars: Battlefront (3)

In engine rendered footage not actual game play and expect downgrades at launch.

More Blood Bowl 2 Gameplay Video

Dying Light mod tools

will this become the Skyrim of Zombine games ?

By the look of that video, quite possible.

Age of Wonders 3: Tigran

I do not give this game enough time but I still love it and will be getting this on release.

Arma 3 Marksman DLC

The 3rd DLC for Arma was released today with the platform update adding weapons resting and bipods.
The platform update is fantastic adding more realistic sounds and AI along with better weapons game play.

As for the new DLC content, its a bit light. I got the session pass a while ago and together I guess the new content is nice but so much is free its does seem silly paying for just a handful of guns but I can understand putting most of the free content behind a paywall would make the game pay to win. 

As I am a fan of the series I don't mind but a few more single player missions would have been nice.

The Yamama server has been updated just I forgotten what its password is =P

Elite Dangerous now on Steam

You can now buy Elite Dangerous via steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/359320/?snr=1_4_4__106

And the NZ price isn't too bad.

I have been playing this game now for a year and have enjoyed every part of it. It breaks my

EvE -> Freelancer -> X3 -> Back to EvE cycle

I would start on EvE but feel that the universe was just disconnected and boring, so I would move onto the faster pace Freelancer but then loose interest due to lack of ship management and choice so then I would move onto X3 and find another stale universe that lacked multiplayer. Then I end up back in EvE.

Now its just Elite -> Elite for me its the perfect space game. I can dip in and out of multiplayer, experience and do everything on offer without the need of a large group of other people with their own agenda.

Another look at the new WvWvW Map for Heart of Thorns

This just looks so amazing cool. The fire stuff, puzzle boss what ever it is. Can't wait to do that.

Bloodbowl 2 Trailer

I am looking forward to this. Its the only 'sports' game I really enjoy and is one of the most fun turn base strategy games around:


The sequel looks to have a much improved interface as well as a big boost to graphics.

Heart of thorns: WvW Map

Well I know where I will be spending most of my time at release.

The original WvW maps are some of the oldest maps in the game and only the Home Borderlands got a make over in the center of the map when they added the ruins so this new Borderland looks amazing.

I hope this becomes part of the mists wargame and not turn into Edge of the mists as while edge is fun its more of a PvE karma train with the odd mass PvP if two trains collide.

Elite: Dangerous wings gameplay trailer

Elite Dangerous 1.2: Wings released

Age Of Wonders III – Eternal Lords

Heart of thorns: First Person view

May not seem like much as a lot of games do this, but Guildwars 2 always restricted you to 3rd person.

No real reasion was givin but I guessed they wanted to put time into it and not just slap it in. Which they have done:

• First-person Camera
  Zooming in all the way will allow players to experience a first-person view. First-person mode is available while standing in place, walking, running, jumping, playing PvP and just about anything else. There aren’t any restrictions on where first-person can be used.
• Field of View
  A much requested feature, the field of view slider is a setting that will allow players to adjust how much can be seen in the game world. Players can use a slider to shrink or enlarge the field of view.
• Position Slider
  The Position Slider has been split into two different options, horizontal position and vertical position. The horizontal position slider will offset the camera to the left and right. An ‘over-the-shoulder’ view can be created as well to keep the centre of the screen clear. The vertical position sets the maximum height the camera can go when the camera is at maximum distance from a character. The actual camera height will adjust the more you zoom in to ensure that your character is always on the screen.
• Collision Sensitivity
  When enabled, this setting will adjust how much stuff (trees, walls, rocks, etc.) needs to be between a player’s character and camera before the camera snaps in.
• Character Height
  No matter the race or size, the camera will now focus on a character’s head. This is going to give norn players a relatively taller feeling than their asura-playing friends. This change might affect players who frequent jumping puzzles, so to counteract this, there is an adjust camera to character height toggle. When unchecked, the camera will move to a consistent position above the character’s feet, regardless of how big or small the character is.

This should be a huge boost for GW2 machinama.

Warrior's Secret Weapon

By GW2 Smash

I need to play warrior now, dam pesky rangers need payback.

Heart of Thorns: Revenant Weapon skills

Dulfy has a break down of the latest Points of Interest from Arena.net analysing the skills which were  shown:

http://dulfy.net/2015/02/20/gw2-revenant-weapon-skills-legendary-skills-and-traits/

The Revenant does look like its going to be fun to play but annoying to fight.

I have a feeling mine is going to be Charr .... making my accounts 5th charr in total ....... I already have its warband name sorted.

Server Migration

The migration process to the new hardware is now complete and most services are running again.

Server Migration

Currently in progress. Estamated down time 60 - 120 mins from this post.

Game server downtime

On February 17, 2015 between 08:00 and 02:00 UTC the game server will be offline while it gets migrated to new hardware. The expected down time is to be around 40 mins.

Only game servers will be effected:

• Arma 3
• Minecraft
• Forge - Alpha
• Starbound
• Jedi Knight 2
• Teamspeak 3

This is simlar to the other update a few weeks back that got delayed.

Website will not be affected during this migration.

Heart of Thorns - Stronghold trailer

Heart of Thorns: First look at Maguuma jungle

Frontier: Elite 2 Intro

Seamless planetary landings in 1993, Over 20 years later and Elite Dangerous still doesn't have this but maybe soon.

Guildwars 2 Expansion: Heart of Thorns

Only bad news No playable Skrit =(

New Features:

• Mastery System
• New Zones
• Gliders
• Class Profession Specializations
• New Class Profession - The Revenant
• Guild Halls
• New PVP Gamemode - Stronghold
• New WvW Borderland

Other features:

• NO LEVEL INCRESS
• NO INVALIDING GEAR
• A way to get precursors that doesn't rely on RNG

This seems like a expansion in the form of Eye of the North. One which is intended for max level characters. A proper extension of the game. Not increasing the level cap or forcing me to grind new gear is what I am talking about. This is fantastic as they said, this won't invalid the current world.

You get to 80, then you can go to the jungle to do more horizontal progression on your character.

 Profession Specializations lets your character use a new weapon. The 3 shown are Rangers get staff and can become druids, Necromancers get greatswords ( Pudding is excited ) and Engineers get Hammers which they should have always had.

The whole feeling for this expansion to me is Arena.net adding more Guildwars 1 into the game.

The only disappointment is the lack of new races. The effort to add one though would have taken focus away from what they are trying to do. Which is add brand new challenges and 'end game' to the players. A new race would have required ether them recording brand new dialog for the personal story of GW2 and injecting them into it or creating a new 1 - 80 level up experience from that races perspective.

So did the hype train pull up to expectation station, for me it did. I am very excited about what is to come.

Full details on the expansion can be found here:

https://heartofthorns.guildwars2.com/en

Daggerfall in Unity

Mind blowing, I know daggerfall is a old game but this is no easy task. Many modern games can't even begin to dream of the features this game had.

Raptor Arma Update

The best mod for arma just got better.

Download and details here: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=27164

Elder Scrolls Online Drops Subs

I have to thank ZeniMax for stopping me in making a huge mistake of getting this at launch. Thanks to them lumping my part of the world in with Europe and the euro, thus making this the most expensive MMO ever to subscribe too thanks to exchange rates I never got the game.

Will I try it when it goes subless ?

I am not sure, it seems like the whole company was running a pay to beta for the console versions and if at the console launch this becomes hugely popular you can bet the PC version will be put on the back burner.

The only thing that interest me is the WvWvW aspect of the game, but I currently have this, in a much better game.

Also ultimately this game fails to capture what Elder Scrolls is about

Anubis AI for Elite Dangerous using Voice Attack

Voice attack is voice recognition software for gaming allowing you to issue commands by speaking and then get a responce. The above video is a work in progress of new voice profile that a Reddit poster Zenuel has been working on. No download link yet but it sounds rather cool.

More info can be found here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/2t1lhw/anubis_a_wip_free_voice_attack_ai/

Guildwars 2: Heart of Thorns - Teaser Trailer

Here is the video which was played at the end of Point of no return.

WARNING SPOILERS

Guildwars 2: Heart of thorns

Trademark was registered a few days ago, but now at the end of the Living story there was a teaser trailer featuring the new logo so that part is official.

Still unsure if this is the expansion we have been waiting for or just more Living story content. Ether way it looks exciting, just waited all Xmas for this final part and I have already finished it.

It didn't help that it was so exciting.

On the 25th we will find out more from Pax South. I really do wish for it to be a proper expansion of the likes of what we got from Guildwars 1.

This is still my favorite game.

Pudding is ready for what ever happens next.

Next week in Guildwars 2

Session 2 returns: