Yarr - Blogging FTW!

Arr, I have a cold :( So I haven't been feeling too well the past few days, mostly snottering through the day on to the next. Hopefully I'll get better soon, or we'll run out of tissues.

Sooo, I've finally managed to get The Game Drone back in action. It's been up again for a week already, which has resulted in 6 enjoyable posts for you to read through! There's still a fair few things that I have planned for The Game Drone, including the return of a few old fan-favourite entries. That's not my main concern right now though, because The Game Drone is running quite well right now.
    Yes, now that The Game Drone and even this blog are back in action, there's only one blog still left to renovate! It's still getting dozens of pageviews a day, but I really aught to start posting again - and as such I'll start work on The Anime Drone again tomorrow! It might be down for a while - and all the old blog entries will disappear - but I'll make sure to have it back up and proper again as soon as possible. I'll even throw in a few rewritten old entries :)

Once I've got The Anime Drone back on properly again, I'll post up a nice entry here announcing it's return to the land of active blogs! Until then, just wait and keep your eyes pealed for the good news!

More Blogging! Yarr

If you're visiting this blog then you've probably seen a sight similar to the picture on the left before. Aye, The Game Drone blog - my blog which is geared towards providing whoever visits with plenty of good reading and watching material regarding PC gaming. As you probably know, I've been working on renovating that blog for quite some time now - and have been using this blog as an outlet for my gaming-related blog entries in the meanwhile...
    Well, there'll be no more of that now! The Game Drone, while looking entirely different from before, is back in action! I've been posting up new entries for the past few days now, so go check it out here. If you want to read some blog entries related to gaming, then you'll want to stick to The Game Drone from now on. There are already some pretty interesting entries on there, so take a look and leave me some comments while you're at it ;)

This will of course not mean the end for this blog as I'll be using it as more of a personal blog, rather than a dedicated blog towards gaming or anime or whatever entries. You'll probably still see the occasional game-related rant here, but not quite so much anymore. I know it's been a while since I last posted an entry on this blog too, but I'll have a few more entries up soon enough! :)

I have returned!

I returned from my trip to the United States a few days ago. I didn't sleep much while I was there and couldn't sleep on the plane back to The Netherlands either so I slept like 13 hours on the day I came back, which must be a new record!

Overall my vacation was nice. I got to see a fair bit of Wisconsin and what it's like there compared to back home in The Netherlands - it's certainly a lot different. Some highlights of the trip include: seeing Kayla, driving a 4-wheeler in the snow, the view at the hill we went to and the truly massive Mall of America in Minnesota.
    It didn't quite work out as expected and it could've been better, but it was still enjoyable. I'm glad I went over there and experienced all of this. I've grown more fond of some of the nicer aspects of living in The Netherlands, but also more aware of some of the negative aspects (such as no online Wall mart service to upload your pictures to so you can go pick them up an hour later! The outrage! :o).


Anyway, I'm back.
Oh - and before I forget: Happy New Year!

Aion, Neverwinter and Spellborn!

I've decided to leave The Game Drone and The Anime Drone under construction for now. I'll return both of them to activity after I return from the United States. I've already managed to write up a fair few articles for The Game Drone, but I don't see the point in posting them up already when I'll be leaving again in 6 days time. As for The Anime Drone: it hasn't even been transferred to the new Blogger service yet, so that blog might take a while longer to reappear.

With The Game Drone currently 'unavailable' as a gaming blog I'll just post some of my thoughts on gaming stuff here for now. I mentioned that I had played through the Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign in my last blog entry... now I've managed to play through the original Neverwinter Nights campaign again, which lasted a lot longer than I remembered (well over 50 hours), but not for the same reason as NWN2.
    Neverwinter Nights lasts long due to it's difficulty and annoying encounters, as well as rather repetitive sequences (10 level dungeons, 9 level towers, etc) - whereas NWN2 lasts 80 hours due to it's vast amount of content. Personally I prefer the NWN2 approach, although I have to admit it was quite a bit too easy in comparison to the original game... it wouldn't have hurt to have made the game a bit more challenging.
    I'm currently playing another Neverwinter Nights campaign, namely it's first official expansion pack Shadows of Undrentide. It very obviously improves on a lot of things compared to the original game, but it's much shorter and so far I don't like the companions much. I can't take along the pretty loud-mouthed Paladin girl, but rather have to choose between a Dwarf Rogue or a Half-Orc Sorceror, both not exactly optimal combinations for my Lawful Good Half-Elf Paladin. The rogue is good for a lot of comic relief, but I'd still rather have taken the Paladin with me or have had some sort of alternative such as a cool bard, druid, ranger or wizard. I imagine there will be a fair few new companions along the way, so I'll just hope those are fun.

The Chronicles of Spellborn is a game that's being developed in The Netherlands. A lot of elements about this game really appeal to me. It's setting is very unusual, with ships flying through a giant storm encompassing shards where people live and the like, not quite the standard orc or elf bashing fare such as World of Warcraft. It's art style is also very unique, featuring a European drawing-style for it's graphics, which actually works really well and looks quite beautiful, unlike World of Warcraft's cartoony visuals. Combat in Spellborn is also unusual, because it relies a lot on player strategy and skill for a role playing game.
    Similarly unique is it's musical influence, because the developers have opted to work together with none other than Within Temptation! They're actually developing an entire album based off the game - and you can see the first song's music video right here - featuring loads of Spellborn footage of course!
    Spellborn's final closed beta phase will be in very early 2007, so this game isn't very far away from going retail. Don't worry if you want to try the game before you buy: the developers are planning to give you the chance to try the game in an open beta phase shortly before it's released. In any case: if you're even remotely interested in role playing games, then you'll want to check this game out.

Aion is a game that's currently being worked on by the well known development studio NCSoft. As a long-time Online RPG player (dating as far back as the beta test for NCSoft's original, 2+ million player, game Lineage in 1999/2000) I am very, very, excited about this game. It looks set to become the best Online RPG ever made - and I say that after having experienced well over 3 dozen Online RPGs over the years, including some that didn't even make it to retail and some that became amongst the most popular games ever. No other big-budget online RPG in development right now can match this game in terms of originality and sheer quality.
    An awesome new trailer was released on GameTrailers a while ago, detailing some of the progress they've made since E3 2006, when the game was announced. Aion has certainly come a long way since then. At E3 you could only fly your Angel or Demon along specific paths in the world, much like gryphon rides in World of Warcraft. Now that has completely changed. Now you can take flight anywhere in the world and have full control. And on top of that you can even fight in flight with some of the most fast and action-packed combat I've ever seen in a role playing game! NCSoft proves once again that they listen to their fans: the single comment heard at E3 was "make flight controllable" and now they went above and beyond just that by offering even in-flight combat!
    Still, a lot of people are worried that this will become just another Asian grinding game like the Lineage games. To those people I say: your worries are for naught. For Aion will feature the best of both worlds! Western character customization, questing & interface. Asian animation, character models, combat and massive Player vs Player implementation.
    All of this already sounds great of course, but this is far from all there is to say about this game! It's Unreal-engine powered graphics are amazing. There's a screenshot in this article where you can see angels flying: that's Aion in-game! Yes, it looks that beautiful and yet it's one seamless world where you can fly at will and do combat with players and non-players alike, on the ground or in the air!
    But wait, there's more! Aion will offer an ever-changing world. Each server will look entirely different. The world will actually change depending on which faction maintains control and on how the quests in the game are accomplished. One server could literally look like hell, whereas the other were to be an Angel's paradise: true Heaven, but with a touch of Demonic and Draconic combat along the way. The over-arching storyline of a server actually changes depending on the cumulative actions of the players!
    As a player you will be in control of either an Angel or a Demon. Naturally the factions are at war with each other, so you'll be fighting Demons if you're an Angel or the other way around if you're a Demon. So what happens when one faction totally decimates the other you ask? The NPC Dragon faction steps in and starts attacking the strongest faction. That's right, you'll be in a constant three way battle for total world domination in this game.
    Of course even that is not all there is to be said for the unique features of this game. Spells are affected by weather conditions (fire spells are weakened by rain for example), you can climb cliffs, you can soar through the clouds and of course do all the basic RPG stuff you're used to from other games like WoW. So yes, you can form a Guild and raid dungeons, in fact, your very own actions will influence which dungeons will open up to you on your server!
    Does this sound too good to be true? Yes, I'd think so. Still, if NCSoft manages to do only half of what they've promised, this will become the best online RPG for years to come. And knowing NCSoft from their previous games (Lineage, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Auto Assault) - I certainly wouldn't put it beyond them to actually pull this off. In fact, the only company out there that has the talent to make this work... would be NCSoft.

December has come!

It's actually already been over a month since I started this blog! So far I haven't exactly been posting much, but I'll certainly try to write more frequently during the coming months. At least the layout is decent enough now :)

I started working at the new Albert Hein store last week - it's simple work, but the days are a bit long and they've scheduled me in for a few too many hours (22+ every week), considering I'm still in college and all that. They've promised to get me a more reasonable schedule the coming weeks though, which should help.
    I didn't see Roger at work until Thursday, when he had to start working after my shift had ended. I also saw him around on Friday when he had an afternoon shift. More surprisingly, I met up with a former neighbour: a girl who used to live merely two houses away from mine now also works there apparently!
    The other guys and girls I've worked with so far were mostly nice as well. Talking with the my co-workers and the fact that I'm always busy help make the time pass quickly so I'm making money for what seems to be not all too much work. And it's also good for my condition I suppose, no need to be all sportive when you're working 20 hours a week anyway ;)

This week I managed to complete the Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign at last. The original game only lasted twenty hours - which by current standards is still above average, but really isn't all that much for a roleplaying game in my opinion - so I expected Neverwinter Nights 2 to last about as long. Little did I know that completing the Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign would take me a little under 80 hours... now that's what I'm talking about!
    Overall Neverwinter Nights 2 was a truly enjoyable experience. I'm definitely going to play it all the way through one more time - and probably a few more times. For the most part it proves to be completely superior to it's predecessor, but there are a tiny few areas that seem to be a little bit lacking after having played the original game. The amazing story more than makes up for any lacking parts of the game though. I honestly can't wait for the first expansion pack!

I've also played a few other games lately. I tried the Carpe Diem beta, which is some sort of Asian online roleplaying game. It's screenshots looked alright, but the game itself proved to be very disappointing. In the end I decided to remove it from my hard disk in favor of superior games which I'll undoubtedly be receiving from Santa Clause ;)
    The last two days have also seen some nice Unreal Tournament 2004 action. I had entirely stopped playing the game after I had started on Neverwinter Nights 2, but now that I had finished the campaign I figured I might as well join in on a few UT2004 clanwars.
     Thursday evening was a battle for a ClanBase cup featuring four different game modes. We got wasted horribly in the Bombing Run and Double Domination game modes. During the Capture the Flag battle I at least managed to score a point for our team (after carrying their flag from their base to ours and returning our flag from the dead bodies of our enemies, twice) but they scored 20 points so we still lost that one in the end. Even TAM proved to be a horrible failure on our part as we lost 10 to 3 rounds.
     Friday evening started about as bad as Thursday really, although this was merely a single TAM game. After their team (a premier division team btw.) scored 7 rounds, apparently it was our turn as I went on several killing sprees and the rest of the team fell in line too. In the end we racked the score back up to a 10-8 finish (in their favour, unfortunately).
    Playing through the entire Neverwinter Nights 2 campaign obviously didn't help my fragging skills, so I think I'll be playing a bit more UT2004 during the coming weeks to try and redeem myself in our upcoming cup matches. (although I have to admit: my teammates didn't do any better than me :p)


Well... now there are merely 22 days left until the next year, 2007! Time is flying by, but at least we're flying to some good times with Unreal Tournament 2007 and other great games, not to mention the new Gundam SEED movie! ;)
    Before I end this entry: within roughly two weeks I will not be posting entries on this blog for a while, because... I'll be off to the States! I bet it'll be loads of fun, albeit a wee bit cold. Anyway, it should be fun and I'll tell you all about it when I come back of course! :p