It’s Alive!

It’s up and running! Stop by the new e-AAGH.net today!

New e-AAGH.net Unveiling Soon

Well everyone, the new e-AAGH.net is in place and it seems to be working behind the scenes. All that’s left is to open it up to the masses. However, before we do, I thought it would be nice to leave a memorial of e-AAGH.net’s old look’s last day.

This is what the site looked like just before I locked it down for reconstruction. What will it look like now? I can assure you that this:

Isn’t exactly what to expect. This was an earlier build and while close to the final take, it’s still off. What will the new look be like? Find out soon!

All Aspect Disaster?

I gave All Aspect Warfare’s demo a shot. I really did. But either it’s messed up or I am. My vehicles wouldn’t shoot, I constantly died without ever seeing an enemy, and I was absolutely of no use whatsoever. For those who’ve been reading these posts and think I just suck at shooters, allow me to present a little counter-evidence.

I’ve stuck with Call of Duty: Black Ops (a shooter that once kicked my butt) and now love the hell out of it. It’s an awesome shooter, and the tension in the air during a tight match is palpable.

I’ve also stuck with Bloody Good Time (another shooter that previously owned me) and like it, too. So why is All Aspect Warfare so frustrating? It’s in the controls and presentation. I’ll pick up the full game delve into it in more detail in a review soon after e-AAGH.net’s update goes live tomorrow.

It’s Coming

The new, improved e-AAGH.net is coming this weekend. It’s basically done, so now I’m just error checking it and making sure everything is where I want it. I hope everyone likes reading it as much as I liked making it. Beta was a massive help, too, so thanks to her.

e-AAGH.net – Game News and Reviews for the Average Gamer

Dragon Age 2 is Awesome

I just got done playing with the Dragon Age 2 demo and loved it. Dragon Age Origins was fun – in fact it won my e-AAGH.net Game of the Year award in 2008 – but this demo is amazing. The combat is worlds better, I prefer the interface, and amazingly, despite looking even better, it plays much smoother on my PC. I’m going to have to review this game on the new e-AAGH.net when it comes out.

Speaking of the new e-AAGH.net, I’m just putting the finishing touches on it, and it should be ready to go live in no time.

New Steam Beta Interface

There seems to be a new beta for Steam. It’s layout change is minor at this point (as far as I can tell) but I like it nonetheless.

Here’s the top panel of the Library pane as it is now.

This is how it looks now. As stated, the change is minor but I like it. I’ll update if further changes occur.

Mid February Check In

Checking in again, I’ve been working through some more Test Drive Unlimited 2 and playing more League of Legends.

The recent bot change on League of Legends produces a much more challenging match, but it’s not perfect. My biggest complaint is that the bots don’t seem to perform evenly, based on user participation. What I mean is that the bots on my team tend to get leveled when facing the the other team’s bots. Also, when playing Summoner’s Rift, the most common map, when I start in the bottom-left base, the other team usually storms through from the top-left route and gets in my base no matter what. This leaves me with two options: try and push another lane before they can complete their attack or stay in that one and help stem the tide. It would be more entertaining if there was some variance from match to match but every game plays just like the one before it now.
That leads to my second complaint, and that is that the bots still play like bots. You never deal with bots camping in the weeds, they don’t seem to jungle, and once they pick a lane they tend to stay there. Some randomness would do them a world of good.
I’m also well on my way to finishing e-AAGH.net’s rehash. You may remember that the site, when last seen, looked like this.

I’ve gone over the entire look and started again, producing a look like this.

I reintroduced green to the color scheme, slapped together a new logo and cleaned up the layout. I like it better so this is probably how the site will go live.
That’s all for now, everyone. I’ll hopefully be back before March with the finished site. Later, all.

Taking an Unlimited Test Drive

I got my preorder copy of Test Drive Unlimited 2 for the PC yesterday and have been tooling around in it here and there since. I’m not a great racer (Betasim, on the other hand, is pretty darn good) but I wanted to give TDU2 a try after all of the good things I’d read. I selected the car you see above for my first ride (the other two were sharper looking, but the classic ride was harder to control and the other one looked like a ‘trap,’ with less performance for better looks). I took it for a spin and then went through the racing license test section (which I hated, by the way). I’m now doing random jaunts around the island, buying clothes, hairstyles and the like. I was on my way to the nearest car detail shop in the picture above. I  guess I’m kind of rough on my car.

Quick Update

e-AAGH.net’s rebuild is still coming along well, so here’s my latest gaming trials.

• BULLETSTORM DEMO – I’m honestly not sure I understood half of what was going on in this demo, but I know I liked it. Does the leash ability – which you can use to yank foes to you, even from behind barriers - have any limitations? I didn’t find any while I played, and it made the demo easy as hell. It also made it incredibly fun. To hell with figuring out what’s going on… I just want to rack up as many skill shots as I can. This demo is a riot.

• MAGICKA DEMO – I had high hopes for this one but it’s really let me down. My biggest complaint is the control setup.I don’t like having to hold down my mouse button for my little mage to move. Just let me click where I want him to go and have him do so. Is that so hard? Mixing and matching magic isn’t much easier, in my experience. So far, so sad. Oh well.

Continuing Work is Continuing

I’m making excellent headway on e-AAGH.net’s update/conversion. It needs a few more coats of polish and some tweaking, but I’m finally ready to share a preview.

It’s allot more basic then what I have now, appearance-wise but thanks to it’s new blog base, it will be allot easier to update, maintain and improve, without the huge downtimes changes like this one take. I’m taking suggestions for improvements, if anyone has any.

Changing subjects, I’m going to again share what I’ve been playing.

• BLOODLINE CHAMPIONS – This is like a high-octane take on the MOBA formula. Just non-stop action with nothing but your team of champions versus another. The controls are nice but I would prefer an over-the-shoulder perspective, personally.

• BATTLEFORGE – If a real time strategy game had a baby with Magic: The Gathering, Battleforge would be the result. I’m just getting started here and haven’t gotten much done (my deck is still the starter deck, for crying out loud), but I’m really enjoying myself so far.

• SUPER MEAT BOY - Bloody and very challenging, Super Meat Boy doesn’t sound like my type of game, but I like it. I picked it up on recommendation and, while I suck at it, it’s so crazy and easy to play that I keep trying.

• OCTODAD – This the real fringe stuff. A project from some DePaul University students, the controls are incredibly unwieldy. You click the mouse buttons to lift your legs and move them, releasing the button to drop them, thereby moving yourself about. You seem to be made of Jell-o (fitting, since octopus don’t have bones) and this control scheme makes the game much harder then it has to be, but without the unique controls, I never would have given it a first look, let alone a second. As is, it’s clumsy as hell but is such a unique experience that people should try it just to watch octodad stumble and bounce without remorse about the rooms. It’s worth checking out just for the laughs.

• TWO WORLDS II – I wasn’t going to bother with Two Worlds II since disliked the original so strongly, but all of the new features they were offering were to tempting to pass up. A customizable magic system where you combine elements to make your spells? A strong physics engine base? A huge, open world? Sailing? Where to do I sign up?? I had trouble getting it to boot at first, but now that I’ve got it running it’s better then I’d expected – I wasn’t anticipating much after the first game’s huge let down.

I’ll probably be reviewing most of the games above, once e-AAGH.net finishes it’s transformation. Back to work!