Get Nintendo GameCube and Games Cheap

Have you been into an Electronics Boutique lately? They’re selling used (but certified) GameCubes for around $79 bucks. They have games for as cheap as $10.

Why is this cool? Because you can buy these as a second box for kids (to keep them off your shiny new XBox 360), or as a second setup for people who have LOTS of friends over to the house to play games all at once (they can use the second console on another TV while waiting for their turn at the big system).

Or, if you’re a huge GameCube fan, you can get another box and inexpensive games to augment your collection.

In any case, it’s a win.

(No, I don’t work for EB or any of their affiliates. I saw this at the mall and was impressed).

Cinematic quality or intelligence?

Everytime another game is launched, I hop onto Gamespot to check out what the critics have to say. After a lot of rant about the gameplay, the storyline and the MP factor it ends. The games today are no doubt nothing less than a technology revolution and if you have a system to keep up with their requirements you might jst enjoy them too. When on one hand we are evolving on the MP scene and the gfx quaity with sound engineering, one aspect of gaming is taking a serious beating, intelligence. Game after game its the same level theory with trigger areas and events. Where is this write-up heading, you wonder. This is about changing the way games are developed as a whole, rather than just a nice 3D game that ends everytime you make a blunder on a level, it should be able to decide the next course of action, i.e. generate a level by itself using the data it has already amassed over previous auto-gen levels. Something alogn the lines of a predictive system used in conventional chess games that creates a binary tree for all the possible opponent movements. Now THIS would be a real revolution in the world of gaming. Its like adding the 4th dimension to games, time.

Hidden Prison In Second Life Revealed

Although not playing the game as often as I used to, I still keep up at regular intervals with what happens in the world of Second Life. A few days ago, Tony Walsh at Clickable Culture posted an interesting article about the hidden prison of the ‘Corn Field’:

Nimrod Yaffle, a resident of the virtual world Second Life, has revealed details of a bizarre and dark prison Second Life’s maker Linden Lab is now using to lock up criminal avatars. Dubbed the “The Corn Field,” the moonlit environment contains only rows of corn, two television sets, an aging tractor and a one-way teleport terminal allowing no escape. It exists as an alternative to standard disciplinary measures, which traditionally prevent access to Second Life completely.

While this isn’t new in the little corner of MMORPGs (I know of at least one other game that makes use of a ‘jail’ to help unruly residents to calm down), there hadn’t been confirmation until recently of the rumor about the Corn Field, and lots of people simply were unaware of its existence. The prison is used as an alternative to standard measures, such as short-term ban. If a player ends up permanently banned from the game, s/he won’t have acces to it at all anymore, including the Corn Field.

The TV set in the prison only displays one “movie”, communications with the main grid are cut off, and one cannot create objects there. Of course, I suppose that nothing prevents the player from logging off and doing something else (I don’t know how long the punishment is meant to last–it probably depends on the offense itself). I’m not sure myself of what might get out of the use of such a simulator (as the article mentions it, people in Second Life are one bunch of curious fellows, and it indeed wouldn’t be that surprising to see some commit an “offense” just to be sent there and see the place with their own eyes!). At least it’s an original enough setting, in a way.

Conquer Online: Who Wants To Move From Kylin Server?

This is the latest announcement currently up on the Conquer Online website, and it may be of interest to anyone playing on the (overpopulated) Kylin server:

To ease the population of the Kylin server, we give the option for our players on Kylin server to move their characters to the new server named Saturn in Galaxy Group.

If you wish to participate, visit http://account.conqueronline.com/enzf/split/Kylin/ to learn the details and start the process!

After you submit your move decision, please remember to check your move status by selecting “I wish to check My Current Move Decision. Here is my Conquer account ID and password” at http://account.conqueronline.com/enzf/split/Kylin.

The new server will be named “Saturn”. Be aware, though, that you need to make your decision before Jan 17, 2006 9:59pm PST. After this date, the move won’t be possible anymore.

In the case of move, the characters’ guild, spouses, friends and enemies will be transferred along onto the new server. However, if the others players don’t follow this move and remain on Kylin, one won’t be able to meet them anymore, will find oneself in a guild without a leader, and so on. Better think the decision over, indeed!

(Source: MMORPG.com)

Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows - Review at Game Zone

For those who remember it, the original Gauntlet was an 80s arcade game, presenting the adventures a Warrior, an Elf, a Wizard and a Vakyrie, four champions of Good banding together against the forces of Evil–all in all, a classical storyline. The Xbox now welcomes its sequel, Gaunlet: Seven Sorrows, and the latest review about it is now up at Game Zone, which gives it a 7/10 mark.

Seven Sorrows is a tale told by the ghost of a fallen Emperor who, in his days, had the loyalty of the four immortal heroes that served him well. Yet even he admits that greed and other dark dealings had led him to commit unspeakable crimes, seven of them to be exact (hence the title), with one of them being the ultimate betrayal of his four champions. Tying them up and leaving them for dead in the Great Tree, he regrets his crimes and quickly frees them in hopes that they will put right all the evil he has unleashed on the Realm. Once again, the four heroes fight against monsters, spirits and other magical hordes that will put up quite a spectacular fight.

The game can either be played alone or up to four players. The gameplay itself seems to be close enough to the one of the original Gauntlet. Controls remain simplistic (we’re talking hack-and-slash here), and if the graphics aren’t anything breathtaking, the environments still stand out. If you like this “classic formula” of 80s games, this game may be (I quote) “a worthwhile experience”. In short: nice, but nothing new.