the net raiders

Christmas morning of 1996 will live on in my memory as being the first day I turned on a Gameboy and began my adventures in the wonderful world of Pokemon. It was a day that has taken part in shaping the rest of my life. Now I can venture anywhere and know that I can find common ground with anyone who crosses my path.

But in all seriousness, Pokemon has been a series that has been able to stay consistent and adapt new and interesting gameplay that keeps people like myself coming back for more. I really doubt that the newest addition to the Pokemon line up will be any different. Heart Gold and Soul Silver are due to be released March 14 of 2010, and it looks just as exciting as when the originals were released back in 2000. As an extra incentive pre-orders will also receive  the Pokewalker, an external adventuring device! (Learn more by watching this video!)

Recently I’ve been exploring Diamond and Pearl, trying to catch up to all of the new interface changes and Pokemon. While some of the new features can be aggravating (like the dance competition) there haven’t been that many changes from the older games. Spoiler alert! Team Rocket is no longer around. Instead they’ve been replaced with a new threat, which is basically Team Rocket but with a “green”er perspective.

For those of you have played the newer games in the series, you may or may not be happy to hear that they have remade Heart Gold and Soul Silver in the same style as Diamond and Pearl. There have been many complaints about the newer series, generally revolving around how strange the newest pokemon look. I have to admit, the character designs have slowly began to decrease in the awesomeness of the original series. On the other hand though the designs of the world, and the variety of activities in the gameplay make up for it in my mind.

Hence my excitement for the newest addition to the series. I expect for Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver to have all of the awesomeness of their originals, and all the variety of Diamond and Pearl. Perhaps my view is a little biased. Gold and Silver were my favorites because they were close to the original games (Red, Blue and Yellow) but had been updated with better graphics, a larger variety of pokemon that were still within the realm of reason and had new applications to increase the variety of gameplay.

I strongly suggest this game to anyone who loves Pokemon but feels overwhelmed by the changes the series had gone through over the years. This game will be fantastic, and I believe that with my heart and soul.

There’s a great little flash series called “Grow” by EyeMaze that I’ve been messing around with for a few weeks now. Depending on what version you play, the set up is a little different. My favorites so far are Grow Cube and Grow Tower. The game is simple, choose objects in various orders to set off their chain reaction and help them grow to their maximum potential.

I really like Grow Cube because you actually pick little people, and you can watch them interact with their environment, just as if they were our ancestors learning how to live off the land. On the other side there’s a weird tree house and a tube that fills up with water.

Grow Tower is fun in that not only does the game challenge you to place the objects in correct order, but it also challenges you to make the highest tower you can. The animations are a lot of fun and the team is very creative with the way the objects you use change and grow. I really recommend this game, but don’t take it lightly. I have yet to beat any of them so far, which is a testament I think to how well their put together.

I know that with the Holidays coming some of us have a rather tight grip on our wallets. I know I find myself saying things like, “I could buy that awesome new video game, or I could buy that thing my Mom has been wanting.” (Speaking of which, Red Dead Redemption looks AWESOME!) For this I decided to give you a few names of free online games that are actually enjoyable. Keep in mind that these are MMO’s, however seeing as MMO’s are some of my least favorite games, I hope you’ll find this list helpful.

First on the list is Maple Story. Perhaps you’ve seen some of the cute little chibi avatars on adds inside gaming magazines, or little flash adds on other websites. I like Maple Story because unlike most MMO’s, this is more of a hack’n’slash and the slashing is done on adorable little mushrooms, or trees, goo things, etc. The characters clothing and appearance are customizable (my favorite!) and it’s 2D. This does lead to it’s own problems, like getting cornered by a difficult enemy. The enemies are pretty hard and leveling is slower than I prefer, but over all this game is a lot of fun. Check your compatibility before hand because this is one that you have to download to your computer.

I’ve written about Adventure Quest before. Poor graphics, weird creatures, but lots of fun. This could at least help you kill a couple of hours and you don’t need to be a Guardian to play. Although it is a plus as far as server space goes. On the plus side, it’s a web based adventure, so no downloading or taking up hard drive space!

Flyff (Fly for Fun) is another good one. It is a 3D environment unlike Maple Story or Adventure Quest, and once again, you have to download it to play. But it’s still free! Your character is customizable, like Maple Story (You pay real money for the super cute items). I like Flyff because it’s easier than Maple Story (the monsters are more compatible to your level) but isn’t as confusing as other MMO’s like WoW or EverQuest. It’s also a lot of fun to play with friends. The cool catch to this is eventually your characters get the ability to fly around. Considering it’s free the graphics are pretty decent too.

Finally I’d like to share with you the newly Open Beta version of Grand Fantasia, an online MMO by Aeria Games. I haven’t played it yet but from what I’ve seen the graphics are just as good as Flyff and it’s also free! Players who get to level 50 by the 5th of January get a special trophy and are entered in a raffle to win 1,000,000 AP (I’m assuming that’s money for the world).

I hope that some of these can bring you some Holiday cheer! Who knows, maybe that 20 bucks Grandma sent you will go towards supporting one of these excellent independent games!

I was talking to a friend about playing old school games when this memory hit me. To set the scene, I was probably 10-12 years old and Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo had just come out. I was still a NES junkie, so I had not gotten around to buying a Super Nintendo at this point. Although I was fortunate enough because my Grandfather had bought a Super Nintendo, had a big screen TV and lived near by to me.

Over the next few months as I periodically went over to their house I turned on Super Mario World and played it as fast as possible. I knew it was going to be another major stint before another chance came up where I was going to play again. It was my earliest version of speed running through a game. Every time I was sitting down to play I had most of my immediate family and some extended family nearby watching me play the game. Felt like being at the biggest event of gaming when I sat down to play.

I got this email earlier this morning. From a person I had been in contact with during my adventures in AION. I asked him for some thoughts on the game, the bot issues and the gold selling controversy that is currently riddling the game with holes. I was wondering how some of these higher leveled guys were able to keep up. Some are super human, and some buy super human programs. Turns out he was a botter himself, one way or another, the game drove him to it. Anyway, I thought I would post this up here with his permission and just blot out the name since he has a pretty detailed history with MMO’s…. anyway, enjoy the wall of text.

Let me first off start by saying that my name is ###### and yes, I botted in AION. Why did I do it? Well that takes a little bit of explanation. And don’t misunderstand me when I write this. It IS wrong. It’s cheating plain a simple. However, in light of this latest “Bot Exodus” there are a lot of kids spitting on the corpses of these dead bots. Understandable, I was one of them at one point. But I figured I would like to post some sort of reasoning behind the madness. I didn’t do it to be an asshole and sink an economy. But, like I said, this all takes a little bit of an explanation.

Like many who were sick and tired of the WoW fanfare, and disenfranchised by the fail that was Warhammer Online… I had blindly drank the NCsoft Kool-Aid thinking that AION was going to be the MMO to end all MMO’s (heh big mistake). It promised the depth and balance of WoW, merged with the epic fortress sieges of Dark Age of Camelot. The graphics were (are) amazing, the classes perfect; I was in heaven. What was even more amazing was the beta, where we had the opportunity to play all the way to level 30. I did so pretty quickly, and enjoyed what little PvP there was to be had until release came.

Well it’s been a long time coming but Assassin’s Creed 2 by Ubisoft is finally here. I will be picking my copy up shortly and looking forward to giving my first impressions. As of now, the Game Reviewing powers that be have given this game a favorable 8/9/10 out of 10 rating with the public reviews reflecting favorably as well. So they can just fix those glaring flaws from the first game (and I am confident that they have), we might have a contender for best game of the year. Until then, we just wait and see. I’ve got a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (console version) and a Phantasy Star Zero review in the works, so check back for those shortly.

At least judging by the massive disappointment shared by all PC gamers, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a big fat let down. Lets site the reasons why this game is being touted as the worst release this year for a game so highly anticipated.

The absolute biggest and most disappointing part of this game is the multiplayer. First off, Activision has done away with the Dedicated Servers. Really?? Why would anyone in their right mind pay for a game where you are force to play on a peer to peer network. There is already a petition in place with roughly 200,000 signatures to have this feature reincluded. Easily this form of online play caters to the host of the game itself and pits every other user at a disadvantage.

The other big dump on our faces was the drop in the allowed players in each match. Now the game only allows 9 vs. 9 gameplay. Not 64 vs 64 or not even 16 vs 16… 9. You and eight other people get to wander around ghost town’s of maps while you kill each other in host lagged combat. YES!