Starcraft 2 Beta launch and crazy developers.

 

As mentioned in the topic - the beta of Starcraft 2 is underway. The rumors were absolutely true. We are dealing with absolutely closed thing here with tense NDA restrictions, nevertheless there are info leaks all over internets. For the luckiest peeps within gaming scene Blizzard prapared full multiplayer mode - with all 3 factions aviable on multiple maps, supporting up to 4 players in match at the moment. The replay recording is also in there. Supposedly there is also a skirmish option to play vs. AI.

Mail services providers are probably having a bad time now as most of the internet population is refreshing their mailboxes like mad, in hopes of getting that highly anticipated beta invitation from Blizzard.

 As usual when Blizzard betas are launched there is a signifficant increase of scam attempts. Double your defenses everyone and carefully verify any email with invitation you might recieve. And for the love of god - if you still haven't - get the Blizzard authenticator token/mobile app!

Some crazy stuff is going on since the begining of the year 2010 - game developers are literally THROWING quality games at players, leaving myself with a growing number of games that i want to play as soon as i finish the one im working on at the moment.

Tomorrow Heavy Rain hits the store shelves and that is probably going to be my main highlight in the upcoming weeks. Since im having one more night left ill spend it on getting further into Bioshock 2, hopefully ill be able to get far enough to have a proper opinion on the game. The Aliens vs. Predator is waiting next in line - i've been hearing all kind of bad and good stuff about it. Its to controversial to be ignored... Let's just hope ill be able to finish the Heavy Rain before Bad Company 2 ships - as this will seriously block me for playing anything else for copule weeks.....unlesss i'll get into the Starcraft 2 beta somehow!

Starcraft 2 beta before the end of February.

 

Blizzard's CEO Mike Morhaim confirmed the rumors of Starcraft 2 beta going live this month, with release of the retail aimed for mid-summer 2010.


Good news indeed :) The beta is planned as a global, meaning that all regions will get it simultaneously, and will include the multiplayer mode of the most anticipated RTS game in history.


Not open thou, so register your games on your region's battlenet account and apply to take part. Hopefully for people that will not get into the game, the good old ripping community will release the cracked beta for the larger public not long after its given out of the Blizzard's development studio.


Be VERY CAREFUL in the account security department in upcoming weeks as information's of this kind usually spawn numerous phishing attempts. And get the goddamn authenticator for your WOW account. Its available for 50 cents on 95% of all mobile phones! If you're unlucky 5% just get the  token - its 7 Euro now with free shipping.


You get the core-hound pup pet no matter which option you choose.

Bioshock 2 disconnected.

 

 

Today Bioshock 2 lands on the store shelves.


I haven't had a chance to play it yet - and hopefully i will get my hands on the game later today. My hopes for singleplayer are really high.


I wasn't following the information about the game, and just today i noticed that we have another major PC game with multiplayer that was stripped of dedicated server support.


I shouldn't be banging Bioshock 2 about this - the first part had no multiplayer at all so even if the designers implemented 2 player only multi it would still be a thing to be glad about - BUT - The trend is clear. We are witnessing a downgrade in the PC multiplayer design standards thanks to bold movements first made by Infinity Ward and Activision. I'm a gaming guy since i first pronounced "mama" - and that is more than 20 years now, and I wasn't that much depressed about direction the industry has taken ever before.


Sadly, because of overwhelming amount of console games sales vs. pc games sales the major companies will not care, and all that can be done, is live though it. I guess electronic entertainment has to have it's own version of "early 90's in Hollywood action movies" moment.


Sadly, thanks to overwhelming console games sold : pc games sold ratio theres not much that can be done.


I will be buying 2 copies of Battlefield Bad Company 2 - at least those guys did not flip me yet.

Interception. Touchdown. GG.

Saints get it :)

24:17 for The Saints.

After challenge - no touchdown in my opinion but since im going for The Saints - im happy panda !

The Colts again.

The Colts back in the lead after 3rd quarter.

Going to get the beer now :)

Touchdown!

Fucking AAA touchdown for The Saints in 3rd minute of 3rd quarter!

13:10 now.

Halftime for Colts.

It's the halftime - The Saint's are fighting hard but The Colts just dominate them.

10 : 6 so far - with a nice touchdown for The Colts, and just the kick goals for The Saints.

Wasted chance at the end of the 2nd quarter when only a yard was left for the game to be equal again.

Aszune Weekly archives.

Well... 3 editions is not really an archive but in case anyone is interested, they will be back online for download later on.

Arena results.

Since season 7 is now closed, it would be nice to check how do Aszune teams look on the table.

2v2

1. Hydra is Gary Glitter (Sykezqt, Nequam, Anomi, Noratadin)

2. Bananer I Pyjamas (Pewpewrenew, Emokaramel)

3. back to back (Ilni, Jiggaboo)

3v3

1. Radioactive RMP (Piao, Superxili, Icymage)

2. toucha wee wain (Nortadin, Jamie, Winry, Betrayal)

3. on a rock n roll mission (Blaq, Icanfly, Dasherx)

5v5

The results were wiped before i had a chance to get them - sorry!

Congratulations.

The games begin.

Couple of days ago Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, officially announced that he will not be taking part in presidential elections that are scheduled for late summer this year. That's clear message that the electoral games have begun.


In the upcoming months we are going to witness shitstorms all over, more post-communistic files opened to be shown to the public, accusations of not believing in god and doing dirty business with foreign agents, flaming debates on wether rape victims should be allowed abortion and why should we issue government decree on how Russians suck, and how Germans want to steal our women.


Elections in Poland are generally very entertaining to witness. That is until you realize that one of the retards on TV is going to be a president. We have had a marvelous time in past 5 years - with pearls like Prime Minister and President being identical twins, arrests of political enemies, and my favorite - Vote in "Sejm" (our lower house - kinda equivalent of House of Commons or Congress) wether Jesus Christ should be elected as the King of Poland or not. True story.


Fortunately some time ago we had early parliamentary elections that took a part of the steering wheel from ultra-right wing "Law & Order" party - Yes we have a party that is named "Law & Order" - and gave it to a bit more moderate "Citizen's Platform", so for some time we at least have a clinch that makes it impossible to rule overtly retarded bills - like the Jesus one that i mentioned. Bad part of the deal is that the much required Healthcare and Civil Department bills are on hold also.


Whoever wins the Presidential elections will not be the ideal candidate for me. There is no party around that i could vote for, that fits my opinions, so I'm reduced to one of the guys that put their vote on anyone that ensures that Lech Kaczyński (current President) fails to be re-elected. I'm waiting for someone with balls that can push through things like the drug legalization bill that was ruled in Czech Republic by the end of December. We on the contrary had movements towards exacerbation of already damn harsh anti-drug law that puts people to jail for 3 years if they are caught with ANY amount of ANY illegal drug. So joint = jail. And jails are not fun in Poland.

Superbowl XLIV

This Sunday the USA residents are having their ultimate holiday - Superbowl.


The game this year is going to be played in Miami, between Indianapolis Colts and a newcomer - New Orleans Saints.


My money is on the Saints - because:


a) Their uniform colours are way better

b) They never played in superbowl


As you see I'm not an expert at all when it comes to this kind of sport stuff predictions, but I really enjoy the superbowl games and the fact that I can have one additional excitement every year.


In Europe you can see the game on not encrypted on Rai Sport Piu channel on Hotbird. Its available on most major platforms.

Ensidia's 72 hour suspension.

It turns out that Ensidia people lost their world first 25man Lich King kill.


Whole team received a 72 hour suspension, got their loot removed and had the achievements taken.


All because of glitch in the fight mechanic that causes shit happening when Saronite Bombs are used. Controversy is about the fact that many rogues use those bombs everyday to max out their dps output, and the situation causing a suspension was an effect of Ensidia's rogue usual approach.


Wether this is fair or not, doesen't change the fact that Paragon guild is now holding the official World First title.

Aliens vs. Consoles

Just got my hands on the multiplayer demo, it's available on Steam. The PC gameplay is mediocre at best, but while it would be great to have a dynamic and immerse multiplayer mode in AvP i belive it's the singleplayer what this game is all about. So I'm going to give the demo one more shot on PS3, even thou i don't like playing fps games on a console, and then wait for the retail to play the campaign. The 8 player limit is ridiculously low, the action is strangely non-dynamic, controls don't suit my taste, and the kill animations - while excellent - get boring in couple of minutes and only annoy as you're basically frozen for couple of seconds while the character you are playing executes the fatality. Nah... not my kind of game. Has very good chances to join my list of games broken by console-design.

Bad Company 2 Beta

I've been really enjoying recently opened Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta.


It's made of 1 map in "rush" game mode, which is the classic Counter-Strike bomb scenario, with a twist.


You get attacking and defending team. The attackers have to blow 2 "objectives" marked A and B, and the defenders have to...well... defend them. If both of the objectives are blown, larger portion of the map unlocks and the game continues until either all other objectives are blown, or the attackers are left with no more reinforcements. Reinforcements work exactly the same as the system introduced to Alterac Valley except for the part where defenders are not limited there.


Fun part is - you can get the job done as attacker in plenty of ways. Rig the box, plant C-4 on it, suicide strike it with a rigged quad buggy, drop mortar strike on it, hell - even bazooka works. Entertaining but at the moment the C-4 rush seems a bit overpowered and game breaking. I've seen games where the attackers were done with first part of the map in 2 minutes from the start - true story! In addition the friendly fire on the boxes is messed up. While you can't kill your team-mates you can destroy the objective, efficiently breaking the game for the whole server, and theres not much anyone can do about it at the moment.


The arsenal of vehicles is well-balanced. Each of the things you can fly/drive serves its purpose, and the variety is just enough not to get bored fast, and not to get lost in the swarm of 28 different bicycles. So far we have:



    * T90 tank
    * Bradley
    * A kind of Shilka AA platform
    * Overgrown version of Humvee
    * Quads
    * Apache
    * UH-60
    * UAV
    * Multiple stationary weapons



From the list UAV stands out - good idea adding the favorite Modern Warfare's C-130 feel to it. You get to pilot it from the safe spot for as long as you want to, dropping hellfire missiles on people's heads, using nifty laser-guidance system. Watch out for the sniper fire thou ;)


Destruction 2.0 at the moment seems overhyped. Its not that useful and effective as it would seem if you watch the trailers. It might be just me but for my week's time in game I have yet to see effective building-leveling action. At the moment, it looks like it takes much more effort to demolish a building.


Map design is pretty good, there are chokepoints, there are stealth-friendly detours around those chokepoints, nice sniping spots, close-quarter locations, vehicle ready open areas and places to cover you from enemy choppers. If the other maps follow the level of Port Valdez, there should be nothing to moan about in that regard. The terrain-glitches still have to be fixed - i its possible to get into places that are definitely not meat to be accessible.


Game uses what is a standard now in class-based multiplayer. So you get to choose between couple basic classes and after unlocking weapons and perks you can modify the class to your tastes. It should be mentioned that there are important limitations, making it harder to construct the uber overpowered monkey. So if you get a sniper rifle, you will be limited to long range combat and to things supporting that approach, making you an easy target for a knife crazed SAIGA equipped butcher. And vice-versa of course.


The lag is a big issue, stability is not good, there seems to be a lot of crashes. The experience and leveling system is limited to first couple of levels of equipment, and the game still has that Battlefield "feel" to it. I cant really describe it - but it kinda feels "sluggish" sometimes and not very dynamic.



Oh... and it has dedicated servers AND matchmaking.

A bunch of links and death of The Lich King.

For starters I'll give you a bunch of links:

• Aszune Community Forum - Place to go for most of the community's activity around Aszune World of Warcraft realm.
• Aszune Twitter - A nice place to go for updates, not yet known enough, and deserving to get more visits.
• Aszune Weekly Thread - A thread on xsa forums about Aszune Weekly mentioned in the other post.

As most interested parties know, we had 3.2.2 patch implemented on live servers yesterday, opening the last wing of ICC, and allowing players to kill the Lich King. I'ts worth to mention that Blood Legion guild had a moment of glory when they got the World First 10-man Arthas kill, to be followed by Ensidia of course with their 25-man kill. So now we have got the first hard mode unlocks and the real competition can begin.

If you play a strength dps toon, like I am, get your Ashen Band of Might and higher versions now. I'm happy it has been added, and I'm not happy because we still have to pay for the exchange, considering the circumstances.

Also, Season 8 has just started, and another boss in Vault of Archavon is ready to be killed, and is said to give T10 set pieces for free to all that might be interested.

A blog huh?

Yes, a blog... Well I've been considering to get into this kind of publication for some time now, and here we are! The idea first hatched about 2 years ago after the miserable failure of my Aszune Weekly e-zine project. I have managed to release 3 editions, and even that was a formidable stunt, considering I was doing most of the work myself (editing, writing, graphical design, putting it all together...). Eventually I wasn't able to keep up to the set schedule, the 4th edition was first delayed by a week, then another, just to be cancelled in the end. I was thinking about turning the zine into a monthly release, but because of the sense of failure I had, I kinda lost the zeal and the project was postponed indefinitely. This little thing here, is an attempt to put some life back into Aszune Weekly, so ill be doing occasional post that will go along what we had in the original zine. Later today I'll get the links to the past releases back up so those that have no idea what I'm writing will have a chance to catch-up.   So you probably figured out by now that "Proceedings of Treadle Union" will host World of Warcraft as one of the topics. That is correct. I wont be making it a main topic mind you, as I have went past the point of being in the deep addiction to the game. What you will also find here are my random turn-ons, and frustrations that I would like to share. And being a Pollack i do have some frustrations to unload.  Why in English then you ask? Well - mainly because of you - the target audience.  I also intend to have a self-enforced ranting limit, and if i was writing in Polish, and to my fellow Poles, there would definitely be nothing positive in here at all ;) So in short words - this is going to be be about games both electronic and board, my Warcraft Realm's community, politics, business and how I'm occasionally pissed at my wife.  Stay Tuned!