Hello again.

Yeah, it has been a while - what of it?

Anyway, I was just thinking to myself about World of Warcraft and the new Worgen playable race coming in Cataclysm. Remember back in 2005 when we were all waiting to find out what the new Alliance race would be for Burning Crusade? A lot of people were speculating that, among a few others, the Worgen were a good possibility.

As we all know, it turned out to be the Draenei, and fortunately they weren’t as ugly as everyone expected them to be - but there was a very strong rumour at the time claiming that official information had been leaked, and the Worgen were coming.

Present day - the Worgen are coming. There may indeed be some truth behind this story. Remember, this was originally posted back in 2005:

Their zone is south of Silverpine, and it’s called Gilneas. It’s a level 1-10 zone and the general flow of the quests there focuses on fighting Worgen and agents of Arugal, as well as various enraged species of wildlife. There’s also a threat from a renegade navy that disbanded from Kul Tiras and is ravaging the coasts with cannonfire.

The Greymane Wall is under lock and key and you are not allowed to pass through it until your mid-20s, when quests begin pointing you to Shadowfang Keep.

Their 10-20 zone is on Kul Tiras, an island south of Gilneas and west of Menethil. It serves as a sister city to Menethil. One boat transports you between Gilneas and Kul Tiras, the other between Kul Tiras and Menethil. Kul Tiras is an island with strong navy tones and mood to it, and there’s lots of crab-bashing and pirate-killing on it.

After that, logically, you leave the protected areas and head to the contested zones. The closest, of course, is the Wetlands.

No details about their play mechanics were leaked, so unfortunately there’s no info about their racials.

The expansion pack site had a URL like… www.worldofwarcraft.com/yaddayadda/bloodelves.html. Someone changed the URL around, plugging in various race names and eventually hit worgen.html. It was posted on the general post, but the URL was deleted within two minutes of the post. I myself saw it. All the images were broken, but the text was there.

Take it as you will

The people of Gilneas entombed themselves in their isolated peninsula at the outbreak of the Undead Scourge, erecting the Greymane Wall to keep out the demons and walking dead of the cursed army. To this day, refugees from the ravaged villages of Lordaeron gather at it, crying for safe haven from the Forsaken that now claim Silverpine Forest as their own.

Yet it is not much better behind the wall. For agents of the crazed wizard Arugal have infiltrated the once-prosperous land and spread a dark curse among the populace. As the first tainted moon climbed into the sky, screams rendered the countryside as the inhabitants of Gilneas changed forms and became the crazed Worgen. Few retained their minds. Many became wild and bloodthirsty.

Those who remained in control of their thoughts waged a war hidden from the eyes of the rest of the world, slaying former friends and family in an effort to preserve what little life still hoped for survival. Naming themselves the Nightcry after that first terrifying moonrise, they fought until they found themselves drained of resources and the will to continue the bloody battles alone.

Unable to conceal their horrid existence from the world any longer, a new sun rises over Gilneas. The Alliance has opened its gates to the refugees and an effort is now underway to restore humanity to the Nightcry Worgen. As one of their number, you must prove yourself a capable ally to the Alliance’s cause and master the powers granted to you against your will in order to free your land…no matter how much blood you must shed.

Pangya is perhaps the greatest golf MMOG ever.

That could be because:

• It is the only golf MMO. or more likely because…
• It is very fun.

I’m currently playing on the EU servers under the guise Mikuso. Why not pester me for a game sometime?

Hello Flamescape Cultists.

I have a nice and shiny new OpenTTD dedicated server. The server address is simply: flamescape.com

Here is a copy of the OpenTTD distro + addons which we play by: Download OpenTTD TiPP FSC (.zip 13.8mb)

• When noone is playing, the server will pause. (should make the games last longer)
• The games currently last 200 years, starting in 1950.
• After 200 years, the game will automatically restart itself and begin a new one.

You might also notice that there are live game statistics shown at the top of the page.

Any questions?

I can’t believe 2008 is over already.

I’ve been playing WoW a lot recently — so much so that I’ve neglected ALL other games.

So my apologies go out to: Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Prince of Persia, GTA4 (PC version), Call of Duty: World at War and Left 4 Dead. I am sorry for not playing you yet - you are on my to-do list.

Anyway, back on to WoW — It really is a lot of fun. Among other things, I have just bought my TTM and I’m now saving for a CWH and a sweet hog.

So thank you WoW for such a great year. I hope the next one is just as fun. I leave you with this picture of my one minute at the top, when I achieved Realm First! Grand Master Angler

In other news — After hours and hours of patching the beta, I present to you a lovely screenshot of a death knight elf. See how the shadow is cast over her face? That’s something special right there.

I can also reveal that as a death knight, all races (except undead) can choose to either have a regular or undead appearance, which make for some interesting race hybrids.

Update: Here’s what I look like after three more hours of gameplay.

Take a look at the screenshot above. Notice anything different or unusual? Really? You don’t?

Look again - it’s a red train in a green station!

You may be saying “OMG” right now, understandably so. Want to get in on the track-sharing goodness? I know you do.

Download OpenTTD TiPP FSC (.zip 13.8mb)

You don’t even need hamachi anymore.
The server address is: openttd.flamescape.com

Vent me up for a game and I’ll let you know the password.

Read more to see how track sharing works and other features.

(more…)

Now, I like trains. I really do like trains - more than a normal person should be allowed to like them - but thankfully, not as much as those freaks in museums. I just want you to realise that this non-review is not skewed by my train-liking amount.

This game is boring. Mega boring.

I suppose that is a bit unfair, as this non-game was designed to simulate what some people do for a living. As a game concept though, it has failed.

There are two goals you can aim for with this game:

1. Do it right. Pick up passengers and drop them off.
2. Derail. Crash or roll it.

The game is almost playable just for the ability to derail — if only those very short moments of glee weren’t woven together with loading times akin to Postal 2 (back in the day).

If all of this hasn’t put you off already, here is one final very good reason not to install this game:

It really does take that long.

I do have a plan.

Want to hear read it? No? Fine, whatever.

Behold! A three step plan to my ultimate success in the games industry.

1. Get qualified
2. Get noticed
3. Get paid

Read on to learn of the intricacies….

(more…)

Looking back at the recent OpenTTD related goings on, I thought I should post some post-mortems on our empires.

It’s all here - from terraformed graffiti, retarded rail networks, huge cities and the effects of global warming.

To begin, let’s have a look at the four-player game of Miku, John + Adam (Finningbury Transport) and Mark (Mark Transport).

(more…)

The game is set in the future and involves killing Germans and other aliens.

Yeh, it’s an old game - but it’s fun, right? Find me on the Ventrilo and let’s play a game!

Regarding WoW BG AFKers:

You honour leechers should be ashamed of yourselves! If you’re not willing to stop for the good of other players then stop for the good of yourselves. Here’s the blue response:

…purposefully avoiding the “AFK” tag in a battleground, regardless of the method used is an actionable offence. Anyone found by us to be leeching honour in this way will be first removed from the Battleground, and then action will be taken on their account, up to and including permanent account suspension.

If you should see anyone avoiding AFK in a battleground, please report them to us in game, and we will try to witness the offence and take appropriate action in accordance with our policies.

Would it be fair to say that maybe over half of all battlegrounds are made up of leechers now? Check out this screenshot and see for yourselves. I count 26 horde AFK, leaving 14 horde to win a 40 vs 40 battle. Needless to say we lost that one, with a score of 599-0.

Assholes.

Was playing OpenTTD with Alsamus yesterday. I’ve got a small craving for it now.

Want to join in the Chris Sawyer-based funtimes? Here’s a shopping list and some instructions:

1. Install Transport Tycoon Deluxe
2. Install OpenTTD 0.5.3
3. Extract FSC GRF Patch to your OpenTTD directory.
4. Install Hamachi, connect to the following network:
   • network: flamescapecult
   • password: fsc

Ok good. When you’re ready, seek me out and we’ll set up a game.

Yes, ok, I know this is getting quite tenuous now but the pictures are so pretty. Last one, promise.

Play PORTAL!

Still I speak to people who haven’t played portal yet. What’s the deal with that?

Forget what you’ve read and the trailers you’ve seen.

Not only is Portal canonical to the Half Life universe, but it also has a story of its own. This is way more than a puzzle game. It has everything you’d expect from a FPS and even more still.

If you haven’t already - Play it!