Lance and I dug out the old game CDs and had the best time playing Quake II over the weekend. I played a ton of Quake II in the old days, as I ran the Focus on Quake site. I have not played Quake 2 in a very long time, so I was amazed that the levels were still so familiar. It was like going home, in some odd way.
We played some single player, some 1 on 1 deathmatch and then decided to go find a public server to see how poor our skills had become.
Well, it took some time to find the latest patch file and a working server list, but we were able to find a lot of active Quake 2 servers. Most are running crazy mods, but they are fun.
This motivated me to dig out all my focus on quake pages and see if I can put together a new directory of Quake 2 links that still work. It would be great to find those old maps, mods, models, and skins.
When was the last time you played Quake 2? Dig out the old disks and check it out.
I'd love to hear about your Quake II stories, or links that you have discovered.
It's official - Dungeon Siege II is out! I've played the demo and it looks to be an excellent game.
Graphically, the spell effects are prettier and the environments are more interesting over the original. There are some new choices for character models (elves, etc) and new skills and abilities. Instead of a list of spells and basic ranged or melee attacks, there are now special attacks and a full skill tree to develop. Sure, it sounds like Diablo II, but it adds some depth that was lacking in this department.
The user interface has improved along with some of the commands and party controls. You can turn off some of the automatic actions if you want to have a more granular control over your party as well.
What remains to be seen is how the game handles multiplayer saving. In the original, the save game "feature" created a chaos of mismatched starting locations and disjointed questing. Hopefully that has been addressed.
Have you played it? Drop me a comment to tell me about your experience.
Visit our developing Dungeon Siege page for links to excellent sites and conversion mods for the original game.
I heard about this over at Aggro Me and I haven't stopped laughing about it. So, they picked the real Antonia Bayle in this stupid Everquest II contest for Stuff Magazine. Congratulations to the winner, she is beautiful and I'm sure she will serve her purpose as advertising for the game.
However, it is hilarious to read in this Sacramento Bee Article, It's no fantasy: Davis woman is game royalty, (registration is required to read) that a Sony Spokeswomen made the following ignorant quote, "despite the bikini-time, the contest was intended to prompt more women and girls to play the game. It's all in the name of girl gaming."
Sure it is. All the gaming girls I know sit around and read Stuff looking for games promoted by bikini-clad women. Idiots!
I'm sure she will get the attention of young men, but I can't see one woman trying this game because of this contest. I love Everquest II, but it has nothing to do with the models on the box.
The tenth EQ expansion is due out within a month's time. The highlight of new features includes mentoring (using your high level characters to play with lowbied friends), playing as monsters and of course, many new zones and quests.
EverQuest:Depths of Darkhollow includes a revamped Nektulos forest (hurry and take your screenshots for nostalgia) which will serve as a hub of sorts for the new content. Much like the successful Dragons of Norrath, (and even Lost Dungeons a few years ago), the expansion will focus on missions.
The newer direction of EQ's development team seems to have kept people coming back, allowing for more meaningful playing sessions. The missions and adventures that use "instanced" zones (it's for you and your group alone) tend to provide a better experience than just "hanging out and killing stuff". You have a goal and a timeframe in which to complete it.
While checking out the new expansion details, take a look at our EverQuest links library. We're revamping many of the pages that have existed for many years to help you find useful EQ information!
A few months ago I read that Heroes of Might and Magic V was in development. Naturally, I was skeptical, since I knew both New World Computing and 3DO were long gone. What I didn't know is that Ubisoft bought all licensing pertaining to the franchise. As a result, a new game in both the strategy (Heroes of M&M) and the RPG (Might and Magic) product lines are deep into production.
The new RPG game is called Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Little is known about it besides that it will be first person oriented and use the venerable Source (Halflife 2) engine. This is excellent news considering the poor quality of both the graphics and design of M&M 9, which in my opinion, was one of the worse in the series.
As for Heroes V, Nival Interactive is the development company, which seems logical since their Etherlords games were inspired by Heroes. I predict Heroes V will be "Etherlords III in a Heroes setting". We shall see...
We put together a directory of the Everquest II sites that were the most helpful to us while playing this game. There are tons of Everquest 2 pages out there, but we only included the ones that were really helpful. Everything from the free trial link to the map mod, and our favorite quest guides.
check it out
Feel free to add your own comments or questions below, or suggest some of your favorite Everquest II links.
It's the tenth anniversary of one of the most popular tabletop board games of
all time. Although the Settlers of Catan isn't a traditional "board" game, it does provide a unique and challenging experience each time.
Check out my article to learn more about this revolutionary game, and afterward my new Catan resources page to further your explorations!
- Lance
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