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The 100 Point System Exposed

August 17th, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Media

With the caveat that I haven’t played Bioshock yet, and that when I do it will be the PC version, is there anything more ridiculous than giving a game 99 out of 100? I am more willing to believe that a game is perfect than that it falls short of Elysium by one tiny point. Struggling for “lows”, James Pikover cites “lack of personal shadow”.

That rant out of the way, it looks like Irrational’s highly anticipated title is winning raves from all sides. I so rarely buy non-strategy/non-RPG games that actually plunking down the bucks for a pseudo-shooter will be quite a milestone. I guess I’m not as immune to hype and buzz as I thought I was.

No surprise there, really. The other day, an IRC discussion of a Taco Bell ad had me craving tacos.

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Call for Contacts

August 16th, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Me

I’m doing research for an article and could use a little help from my seven or eight readers.

If you know someone who:

a) Plays The Sims and buys every expansion, and
b) Doesn’t spend a lot of time in the online Sims community, or
c) Has bought the core Sims game in the recent past (say last six months)

I would appreciate it if you could have them drop me a note at troy DOT goodfellow AT gmail.com

I can find the community people and modders quite easily, so don’t worry about that stuff. It’s the invisible hardcore that I need your help locating. New users are especially interesting because they are either late adopters or something else.

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Eight Things Not to Do

August 16th, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Design

Soren Johnson of EA/Maxis (that still doesn’t feel right…) is working on his own top eight list – Eight Things Not to Do in game design.

He’s only got the first four up so far, but I’ll certainly have comments when the list is complete. I think I see some common themes running through his work and his list.

Glad that he’s updating Designer Notes again. I really should have a blogroll for developers…

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Command and Conquer 3 Expansion

August 14th, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Electronic Arts, RTS

So it’s official. Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars will be getting an expansion called Kane’s Wrath. The story based campaign will be the biography of our favorite bald lunatic. Taking a page from other RTSes, there will also be a “global domination” game.

Oh, and can someone send a fact checker to Gamedaily?

While C&C3 became the Xbox 360’s first real-time strategy game, the radial interface that eased manage unit construction wasn’t included. On the BattleCast show, the development team announced that 360 players would get the radial interface in the new expansion pack.

Emphasis mine, and information incorrect.

Battle for Middle Earth II predated CnC3 by almost a year.

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Just In Case You Were Wondering

August 12th, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · CGM

Yes, I was aware that efforts are being made to resuscitate Computer Games Magazine.

Yes, I have spoken at length to Mr. Travaglino on a few occasions. He’s enthusiastic, curious and asking all the right questions.

Yes, I am on board for now, with the caveat that the magazine business is hard, reviving dead publications doubly so. There are no guarantees that anything will come of this.

And, yes, Mr. Bauman’s flight to the safety of a grown up job will make any resurrection bittersweet.

But, until there is something concrete to point to or announce, I’ll avoid much commentary on what is, at this point, plans and notions.

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Exhaustion

August 12th, 2007 by Troy Goodfellow · Me

I’ve just returned from an exhausting in-and-out trip out west to take a look at EA/Tilted Mill’s upcoming city builder SimCity: Societies.

I bought a huge biography of Timur to read on the flight out west but ended up going through the whole thing during my four and a half hour wait on the tarmac in DC. Then I had to sprint through the airport in Charlotte to make a connecting flight to San Francisco that had already been sitting there for ninety minutes. The flight back wasn’t any less hectic, as I had to dash to make my connection in Phoenix after my SF departure was an hour late getting off the ground.

And I got no sleep the entire trip. I’d still be in bed if I was less of a man.

So there will be little blogging today, especially since I should sit down in front of the Xbox and play Overlord (which finally arrived from GameFly while I was gone.)

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