:: Guy in a Suit Productions ::

Wednesday 6.26.02 - 11:02pm PST

The Neverwinter Nights tools have me in their grasp. Here is what my computer has been looking like lately.

I find it interesting that an activity that I loathed so much in college (namely coding in C) is something I actually do on my own time now. I never thought I would use that knowledge again.

Mike and I played some multiplayer NWN tonight. I designed a quick module on my lunchbreak at work so he could get this helmet he had his eye on. Needless to say, NWN is a brilliant multiplayer experience. I am currently working on porting the entire original Ravenloft module (© 1983). The hardest part has been coding the behavior of the people in the bar. No doubt, the players will just run right out of the bar and will not notice any of the activity going on. Oh well...It is fun to create. DMing a multiplayer NWN game is all kinds of fun. Once you get the hang of the menus, you are god. It will save me a lot of work in the Ravenloft campaign because I can DM most of it on the fly. It could be ready to play in a few weeks.

I really haven't played the single-player all that much, but this is a very good game all around.

Also, I preordered a copy of Warcraft III today. Free overnight shipping and it goes out on July 2nd. See the forum for the link. Damn Blizzard and their high demands. $59.99 for Warcraft III...they know we will buy it anyway.

Saturday 6.22.02 - 10:25pm PST

Neverwinter Nights is out and I really like it. I haven't even played much of the single-player, but the tools it comes with are exactly what I was hoping they would be. I have already started on creating Ravenloft in the NWN engine.

Thursday 6.13.02 - 8:44pm PST

Enough said.

Now to blaspheme, I see on Fileplanet that they have updated the Half-Life and Counter-Strike clients. Why are people still playing this? Half-Life is based on the Quake II engine, can't we find a Quake III game to obsess over? I'll give Counter-Strike its due. It does a lot with the Quake II engine. Day of Defeat also does quite a lot of great things using that engine, so the mod community has reason to cheer. Maybe I tire of games too fast, but I haven't played CS in a long time. As a matter of fact...*whisper* I don't even have Half-Life installed on my machine. Here are the games on my machine: Star Wars Battlegrounds, Star Wars Battlegrounds: Clone Campaigns, Disciples II, Dungeon Siege, Earth and Beyond Beta, Ghost Recon, and Jedi Knight II. I uninstalled Aliens vs Predator 2 and the Warcraft III Beta because AvP2 was not getting much attention and I was not able to compete at any level on the WCIII Beta any more. I'm excited about getting WCIII for the single-player campaigns, and maybe I can talk my friends into buying it so I can play against some normal people. People are still playing Diablo II like crazy. That baffles me because Dungeon Siege is so far superior. I'm just not into playing old games. That is why I sell my old ones on ebay and never look back. I sold Halo for Xbox, because Kim didn't like the multiplayer, I had beaten the single-player, and by the time I want to play it again Halo 2 will be out. I don't replay games much.

Sunday 6.9.02 - 12:45pm PST

Neverwinter Nights comes out on June 18th. You will be buying it at your local retailer on or around that day. Everything that I've seen about Neverwinter Nights leads me to believe that it will do for online role-playing what Baldur's Gate did for PC RPGs. NWN has a single-player component all its own, but it is the multi-player that interests me. Years ago, I sat in a basement in Glasgow, KY for hours on end playing D&D with my friends. That's right, laugh all you want, but I would guess those of you laughing have never played it. No, we did not dress up. No, we did not speak in voices. We DID, however, enjoy the time spent down there quite a bit. Ever since then, the makers of computer games have tried to capture the feeling of table-top role-playing and have been unable...until now. NWN will take the reins out of the computer's hands, and put them into the hands of a DM. No longer will you have to read through a dialogue tree to find the answer. Now you can ask the bartender, "Where is so-and-so," and he can tell you, or maybe he doesn't know, but you can ask him any question and he will answer because the DM will be speaking the dialogue. The point is that you will now be able to do anything you want in a computer game, and a good DM should be able to use the tools to make the world and its inhabitants react accordingly. Also, modules will be downloadable. So you should be able to find Dragon Mountain, Slave Pits of the Undercity, White Plume Mountain, and the original Ravenloft soon after the game's release. I plan on taking a run at creating the original Ravenloft myself. This will be a good game. Buy it.

Sunday 6.2.02 - 11:41am PST

I've compiled a wishlist of games on PC and Xbox that I want to get. The PC games I will consider buying. If they are listed as available, then I am have yet to buy them but I plan on it. Some of these may shock you. Most of the Xbox games will be rentals with a few purchases that may shine. If they are already available, I either want to rent them and haven't, or they are good enough to buy.

Avail - Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Avail - Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
Avail - Freedom Force
Avail - Ghost Recon: Desert Siege
Avail - Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Avail - Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
06-18 - Neverwinter Nights
07-02 - Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
07-30 - Unreal Tournament 2003
08-19 - Earth and Beyond
09-14 - Hitman 2
09-17 - Unreal 2
10-10 - Age of Mythology
10-15 - Lord of the Rings
11-07 - Asheron's Call 2
11-14 - Duke Nukem Forever
11-14 - Command and Conquer: Generals
12-05 - Star Wars: Galaxies
01-15-2003 - Freelancer
02-01-2003 - Deus Ex 2: Invisible War
02-14-2003 - Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms
03-31-2003 - Doom III
11-14-2003 - EverQuest II
01-01-2004 - World of Warcraft

Xbox

Avail - SSX Tricky
Avail - Genma Onimusha
Avail - Tony Hawk 3
Avail - Spider-Man: the Movie
Avail - FIFA World Cup 2002
Avail - Jedi Starfighter: Special Edition (RENTAL)
Avail - Hunter: The Reckoning (RENTAL)
06-10 - Redcard Soccer 20-03
06-25 - Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing
07-02 - Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon
07-17 - David Beckham Soccer
07-23 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
07-23 - Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
08-20 - Dead to Rights
09-01 - Robotech: Battlecry
09-03 - Sega GT 2002
09-10 - The Thing
09-11 - Kung Fu Chaos
09-19 - Brute Force
09-23 - Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
09-24 - The Terminator: Dawn of Fate
10-17 - Shenmue II
10-24 - Kakuto Chojin
11-01 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
11-01 - Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
11-01 - Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
11-05 - Superman: The Man of Steel
11-12 - Mission: Impossible 2