Owning Words?

Hey, everyone. To start off with, I would like to remind everyone of Dead Island coming out in about two weeks. The trailer's are making it look like plenty of good zombie-slaying action, which is two thumbs up from me. Another few upcoming games I want to mention are Stronghold 3, Battlefield 3, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Bethesda, the company developing Skyrim, is actually the main course of this post. I'm sure if you have read any previous posts of mine, you can see that I'm a fan of Minecraft. The endless digging in hopes of finding something other than dirt and stone never seems to get old. And recently, Bethesda (the owners/developers of The Elder Scrolls Series) are trying to sue Mojang for making a game that they plan to call Scrolls.

I personally think this is ridiculous! To me, it sounds like a big company is getting jealous or feeling threatened because of a smaller company and is looking for a way to calm their nerves. Mojang has even specifically stated that their future game is not related to The Elder Scrolls Series in any way.

That's all that I have for today. I just hope that everything works out fine with both companies. I have nothing against either company and think that this is all just a big misunderstanding. I, myself, respect both companies and their games and wish the best for both companies in the long run. Good luck to both sides.

There's not too much other news going on right now that I feel everyone should know about. If you want to share some news, please do so in the comments at the bottom of this post. Also, let me know what you guys think about this whole situation between Bethesda and Mojang in the comments. Until next time, happy gaming!

An Incredible Indie Game - Terraria

Hey, everyone. It's been far too long since my last post. I usually get busy with school but right now is the summer so there is no excuse for taking so long to post...and for that, I apologize. I keep saying that I will keep posting more often but that always ends up making me post less, so I'm gonna skip that part this time around.

Before I get into the main topic of this post, I'll start out with my list of upcoming games I'm looking forward to.

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2. Dead Island
3. Battlefield 3
4. Star Wars: The Old Republic (Which has also recently been available to pre-purchase...and has a release date for THIS year!)

In other news, Dungeon Defenders is still not out yet. And there is still no release date set in stone. Maybe it will come out before November, the month that it was originally supposed to come out last year.

Also, for those of you who love cheap games, Steam is a great way to get a variety of games for cheap. Especially since they started having a daily sale that changes each day in addition to their usual weekly sale and weekend sale. Sometimes they will even have special sales events (like a summer sale) in which many different games are on sale for a week or two. In the summer sale that just passed, I bought an incredible indie game for only $2.50 (it was actually supposed to be a $5 sale but someone goofed when it went on sale.) Some of you may have heard of this little game called Terraria.

When I say little game, I mean in terms of hard disk space. But this game has an enormous amount of content packed into a little package. It's even more incredible when the game took less than 6 months to make and has been one of the most played games on Steam since it's release. Another added bonus is the free content updates that the developers have promised.

I like to describe Terraria as a mix of 2-D Minecraft and the old side-scrolling Castlevania games. It's also, in my opinion, really well designed because it rewards the player for exploration at just the right intervals to keep the player interested and satisfied without getting bored or tired. There are also events that happen throughout the game, some by chance and others by using certain items, and these events also keep the game exciting and, at times, intense.

Another great aspect of the game is the social aspect. This game can be played completely in single-player, but the developers really wanted it to be experienced as a multi-player game. The multi-player can support up to 8 people on the same world by default and as many as 24 or more if server mods are used. Lately, I have been playing with a few of my friends and have had a lot more fun than I probably would have if I had stuck to single-player.

The whole point of the game is to mine (or dig), explore, create, and fight monsters. The creating can be anything from buildings to furniture to weapons and armor and many other things. It's these different activities in the game that all work together to make something that feels very rewarding when you play it.

I recently had an event happen in the world that my friends and I play on called a Goblin Army in which we received a message at the bottom of the screen telling us that a Goblin Army was approaching. After a few minutes, we were surrounded by goblins on both sides of our house (that we built) and had to defend ourselves until we had defeated the entire goblin army. It's events like this and others that really keep me from getting bored quickly.

The screenshot below is one that I took while fighting the goblin army.


(click on picture for larger size)

If, after reading this post, I have given you any interest in Terraria. I highly recommend checking out this piece of indie gold. The original price of the game is $10 which is very cheap for a project of this quality. Until next time, happy gaming!

Is EA Crazy?

In my last post, I talked about the free third-person shooter, Battlefield Heroes, released by EA. Is EA crazy?! Why would a huge company like EA release a game for free?

Well, EA is not crazy. The game is free but they are still making money from it. The money is being made through the ads and through micro-transactions. Micro-transactions are small purchases within a game using real money. For instance, you may pay $1.00 of real money for a better weapon or some unique armor. The game industry has seen a lot of micro-transaction activity lately and it will only get bigger.

Blizzard Entertainment is a large company we see beginning to use micro-transactions. They are allowing players to spend real money on unique mounts but they also have the subscription fee in place which might stop most players from using their micro-transaction system.

On the other hand, Dungeons & Dragons Online from Turbine was a subscription based MMO but they have stopped charging a subscription fee. Instead, they have switched to a completely free game with a store where you can buy things for your characters using real money aka micro-transactions. According to the MMO Report on G4TV.com, Turbine has found that they actually make more money now using the micro-transaction system than they did when it was a subscription based game.

Facebook is another large market for games with micro-transactions. Farmville, one of the most played games on Facebook, has a micro-transaction system and it actually makes a decent amount of money. There are many other Facebook games that use a similar system. In fact, most every game I have seen on Facebook uses a similar system.

I don't think that micro-transactions with be the only thing in the future of the game industry. I do, however, think that they will become a large part of the future of the industry, and we should get used to seeing them and maybe even using them because it looks like micro-transactions will be around for a long time.

Thanks for reading. If you have any suggestions, I'm always open to ways I can improve my blog. I am still working on the design of the blog so please just give me some time. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to leave me a comment and I will try to answer it.

Battlefield Heroes

Hello, again. Recently, I've been playing Battlefield Heroes from EA. For those of you who have not heard of this game, I would recommend trying it if you enjoy the other games in the Battlefield series...especially since this game is FREE! What is Battlefield Heroes? That's a good question.

Battlefield Heroes is a free to play game for PC release by EA. It is part of the Battlefield franchise but its system requirements are much lower than others in the series. Since the system requirements are lower, the game is not limited to only people with gaming machines. There are always people playing and you can jump in and play regardless of the amount of time you have. Does this mean it is a casual game? No. It's not a true casual game, but a full sized game aimed at both hardcore gamers and casual gamers.

Unlike the other games in the franchise, Battlefield Heroes is a third-person shooter and has a light-hearted, cartoon feel to it. Some people might not enjoy this style but it's hard to complain because it's Battlefield action for free. The game controls well and truly does feel like a Battlefield game. It also has a lot of content for being a free game. I think my favorite part about the game are the vehicles. Players can take advantage of jeeps, tanks, and airplanes to achieve objectives. These objectives pretty straight forward game modes, including "capture the flag" and "king of the hill". My favorite vehicle is the airplane. The airplane is a bit difficult to fly but once you have the hang of it, it's be a lot of fun to fly around the maps and shoot at enemies. There is also an experience system and a mission system. The mission system allows you to choose which personal objectives you want to complete (i.e. 10 Kills in one round). Completing missions along with dealing damage to enemy players grants experience points that let you spend on different skills for you character class. Each character class has its own unique abilities that can help them in combat. This adds a bit of depth for those who are looking for something more.

Battlefield Heroes is being updated often with new content. For instance, they currently have special gear to use to customize your characters for the world cup. There are new weapons, items, and bonuses added regularly to keep the game fresh and exciting.

Enough talk, the only way to truly experience a game is to try it. If you are enjoy the Battlefield franchise or similar games, you might like this game...especially since it is free. Here is the link to the game. Battlefield Heroes

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think. I'm always looking for advice to improve my blog. Thanks.