Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Walking Dead trailer finally appears

The first season of “The Walking Dead” will only be six episodes and it will make its debut during AMC’s Fearfest in October.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Great Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 review

One has popped up on Board Game Geek. If you want to see exactly how the heck a WW2 card game would play out give it a look see.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/550195/rogers-reviews-quick-and-light-but-surprisingly-sa


The game is actually quite simple to set up and play. Each player decides which side they want to take. Then they select between 80-100 points worth of infantry, armor, aircraft, and crews to make up their battle deck. The rest of the cards are set aside and not used. Each deck has 284 points worth of units, ranging in value from 2 for a tank crew to 21 for a Tiger tank.

Iconography on the cards will tell you if the card you've picked needs a crew, and if so of what kind, and also has other icons on it to show how effective they are against other kinds of units.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

World of DKCraft Cataclysm collector's edition info posted

There appears to be some new expansion coming out for World of Warcraft.

You can see the details about the collector's edition here:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/collector.html


CATACLYSM EXCLUSIVE BEHIND-THE-SCENES DVD:

• Over an hour of developer interviews and commentaries, discussing the game's development from early design through finished gameplay.
• The Cataclysm intro cinematic and major content patch trailers complete with Director's Commentary.
• A special Warcraft retrospective examining the rich gaming history of the Warcraft universe.




COLLECTOR'S EDITION SOUNDTRACK:

• Seventeen epic tracks from Cataclysm, featuring exclusive bonus tracks.




THE ART OF CATACLYSM:

• 176 pages of art, featuring never-before-seen images from the archives of the Blizzard Film Department and the World of Warcraft development team.
• Progressive visuals from every stage of development - from early concepts through to finished, detailed art.




WORLD OF WARCRAFT®: CATACLYSM™ PC/MAC GAME:

• The full World of Warcraft expansion set on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.




WORLD OF WARCRAFT TRADING CARD GAME STARTER PACKS AND EXCLUSIVE CARDS:

• One 60-card deck from the new Wrathgate series featuring two extended art cards and visuals from several of fantasy's top creators.
• Two exclusive hero cards, marking the first appearance of goblin and worgen heroes in the WOW:TCG.
• One full-sized rule book to teach you how to play.




EXCLUSIVE IN-GAME PET:

• He may not be a breaker of worlds... at least not yet... but Lil' Deathwing will still aid you in your titanic struggle to save Azeroth from his much, much larger counterpart.




CATACLYSM MOUSEPAD:

• A special-edition mouse pad depicting Deathwing menacing the ravaged continents of Azeroth.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Stuff that helps me play RPG's via the web

Been running a small play by post Pathfinder campaign. I put up a message board and installed some nice tools like spoiler text, a built in die roller and things like that and I am running a forum based Pathfinder campaign and testing that out with a buddy of mine. We also messed around with Map Tool which allows a person to remotely connect and move his map piece around and roll dice and such.

Tools for playing RPG games via the internet have gotten vast improvements over the years and now with Skype or Ventrilo you can pretty much run any D&D or whatever session over the web.

I still prefer play by post however archaic that may seem. Sure it takes longer but you want to write and have a good record of things I find it nice and accommodating. Plus you can update on your time and there is no sitting at the PC for hours.

What I do like to use though is Map Tool (at www.RPTOOLS.net) to make my maps, them post them on the forums. You can even scan in an old module you like, slap a grid with coordinates on it and use that.

The program is easy to learn and you can download a massive amount of icons, tokens, set pieces and other things from their site.

I have done some research on other items and some you may want to look at are:

Roleplay Market

http://www.roleplaymarket.com/

TTopRPG

a simple VTT with some PF support.

http://www.ttoprpg.com/TTopRPG/index.htm

Open RPG

http://www.rpgobjects.com/index.php?c=orpg

D20 Pro

http://www.d20pro.com/

Important Things to remember:

* To play in d20Pro monthly games all you need is an internet connection, a computer, and d20Pro.
* It is 100% FREE to play!!!
* http://help.mindgene.com/
* http://forums.d20pro.com/

Fantasy Grounds

http://www.fantasygrounds.com/

Battlegrounds Links

http://www.battlegroundsgames.com/links.html

Map Tool

http://www.rptools.net/

Thursday, August 12, 2010

No one likes a nature loving ranger

Not even the people watching the EQ2 mechanics panel at Fan Faire.

I love how people yell the announcement for rangers is to delete the class and no one defends them...classic!

Pathfinder RPG scores big at the annual ENnie awards

"The Gen Con EN World RPG Awards (the "ENnies") are an annual fan-based celebration of excellence in tabletop roleplaying gaming."

This year Pathfinder, the RPG that is pretty much the second coming of good old old school Dungeons and Dragons (before it was bastardized into a booster pack collecting miniatures game), by Paizo publishing racked up big time.

I noticed that tucked under every arm I saw in many meeting rooms was SOME sort of Pathfinder rulebook. Whether it was the Dungeon Mastery Guide or the Core Rulebook this game is taking off like wildfire.

Part of it is because Paizo has a great web presence. Not only can you get free supplements and things on their site but they have a subscription service AND offer all their hardcover books in downloadable PDF format.

Heck I even got into the action on the last day of GenCon and played a small pick up game of Pathfinder with one of the Paizo GM's and it was awesome fun. Think D&D but much more fluid, action oriented and with better accessories and support than WoTC currently gives the venerable title.

Pathfinder Website:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG

At the ENnie awards this year the game really took home gold medals in all the key categories:

Best Cover Art (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary)

Best Production Values

Best Aid or Accessory (Pathfinder RPG GM Screen)

Best Game

Later on I will discuss ways to play RPG's online so that people do not have the "but I dont have 5 friends that I can get together with!" excuse.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Gencon 2010 picture threads

Really quick here are all the spots for the best pictures that I have chosen to upload and one link to a super short video. Enjoy

Pictures uploaded to Facebook, FLICKR also

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/banstick

Facebook: http://to.ly/5Ulj

Of course for a load of more photos check out my TwitPic timeline:

http://twitpic.com/photos/Gamer_Hudson

Short late night video mash up here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBXyMLA8fAA

Sunday, August 8, 2010

2010 GenCon costume parade

I did not shoot this video but here are the costumes this year on parade at the Convention Center

Friday, August 6, 2010

Follow me on Twitter for constant Gencon updates and photos

That's right. A blog post is so 2005. Just follow me on Twitter @gamer_hudson for a constant stream of pictures and updates from GenCon 2010.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Off to GenCon 2010 and Torchlight 2: calm down people

But before I go.

People...calm down about Torchlight 2. Yeah yeah Torchlight 1 was fun and all that but only because we haven't had a Diablo 2 fix in so long.

Suggestion? Reload Diablo 2 and shut up. Then sit back and wait for Diablo 3 to break all the sales records and awards that Starcraft 2 and Diablo 2 got.

Jesus...one new game "announced" and already bloggers everywhere are jumping on the anti Blizzard bandwagon. Give it a rest.

Torchlight 1 was restricted, boring and bland. A pure Diablo 1 clone that did not even step outside the pretense it was totally ripping it off. Got bored with it as it only made me want to play Diablo 2 again. That jungle level in Torchlight with the blowdart guys? Guess what...ITS ALREADY IN DIABLO 2 yet more vast and done much better. And the graphics of Torchlight and camera control SUCKED. I also don't need cute anime cats and dogs to carry my crap back to town. Save that shit for Free Realms.

Before you post stupid things like "I would much rather pay for Torchlight 2 than Diablo 3" take a common sense pill for the love of God. Every time a Blizzard clone game comes out people shit and cry over their soapboxes then Blizzard releases the sequel to the game that was cloned and it demolishes everything published before it. Yet somehow bloggers and their ilk get off on ripping Blizzard and having their faithful followers agree with them and make asinine comments that have NO firm backing or solitary single dose of common sense whatsoever. Torchlight 2 will be "neat" but it will be no where NEAR the insane polish, gameplay, look, depth and overall content that Diablo 3 will have.

Hudson out.

Stay tuned for convention updates.

The case for WAR: Warhammer Online retrospect

Eurogamer has posted an interview with Eugene Evans and Carrie Gouskos to discuss the state or Warhammer Online. From visiting complainers in the Warhammer Alliance forums this is what I gather the state of the game to be in:
"The PVE is useless, Asian premades dominating the RvR, dungeons are empty, no one runs raids, everyone just hangs out in instanced scenarios and you have no hope of catching up."

Those are the typical whines I see. However I will judge for myself in the upcoming days. I feel you need to get past the FREE first Tier 1 to really see how bad the game is. So that is what I intend to do. In celebration of the 8th edition of the Warhammer Fantasy Miniatures game being released (we all DO remember this is based off a miniatures game that 80% of the players don't even know about right?) I will attempt to see if WAR even lives up to the universe it is supposedly based off of.

I do reserve the right to STOP at anytime I am forced to solo constantly (I don't play MMO's to solo it is retarded), get owned by clans that make premades and the game does not allow the player that is not guilded a chance in hell to catch up (World of Warcraft has these things called badges...look it up Mythic), or lag or other game related issues make it unplayable.

Next week I will give this game another shot after 2 years. I will choose Iron Rock for Order and Badlands for Chaos (because they win everything). Lets see how this pans out. The problems I remember are numerous. Population imbalances, total lop sided faction controls, poor class balance, dead low end content with maybe one or two people in your area at once, gold spammers out the wazoo and terrible customer support all must be erased from my memory!

As for the interview here is what the corporate types had to say:
"The important thing is, we're coming up to two years since the game was released. We're still running it. The game is profitable. We have a team that's engaged in it. We're seeing a great response from the community as they rediscover the game.

When we launched we were up against the biggest competitor in the business, and arguably one of the biggest franchises in our business, with World of Warcraft. That was a huge challenge."

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

GenCon 2010 prep

If you are bored why not take a look through past GenCons via War Realm FLICKR page?

You can see that photo album here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/banstick/sets/72157623469563440

My schedule is pretty busy but I am not sure I will attend all the events I signed up for. My interests have waned since I scoured the event list looking for things to attend. However there are a few I will make for sure. Here is what I have lined up:

THURSDAY
Zombies

FRIDAY



Mystery Express
Tannhauser

SATURDAY

Battletech
Small World
Stalingrad FOW

SUNDAY

Open

Everyone but North America, Europe will get a Transformers MMO

Cannot say that I care one bit but it is coming. Only not for North America, Europe or the Aussies.
The game has been officially sanctioned by Hasbro, will be a role-playing game, and...will only be released (at least initially) in China, "Asia", Russia (and CIS states), the Middle East and North Africa. No North America, no Western Europe, no Australasia.

The game is being developed by Dungeon Runners publishers Net Dragon. Now contrary to popular hatred I actually liked Dungeon Runners. It was a fun fill in for a time when things looked bleak that we would never hear of Diablo 3. Once Diablo 3 was announced people stopped caring about Dungeon Runners.

Anyway if Transformers are your thing then there you go. (thanks Kotaku)

DungeonQuest rules are online for download

The next big Fantasy Flight game, dungeon crawler DungeonQuest for 1-4 players, is about to hit the shelves soon and while I doubt it will be on time for GenCon the company has made the rules available for download on the official site:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=115&enmi=DungeonQuest

The great thing about this boardgame is that it can be played solo because as you move forward you reveal tiles in the dungeon so each game is random and you never know what you may encounter as you delve deeper.
"When a hero moves into a space, he or she must encounter it (first placing a new Dungeon tile if the space was previously unexplored). We’ve already seen the dangers of one tile, the Spider Web. This glutinous lair has become the final resting place of many unwary adventurers who, once trapped, lacked the strength to free themselves. Should your hero need to cross this tangled mass, a test of strength is necessary... simply roll two dice. If the resulting sum is higher than your hero’s Strength rating, you have failed and become trapped in the web. You may, however, attempt to break free on your next turn by repeating the test."

Overall the title looks great and I do want to pick it up at some point.