Category: Games

I enjoy playing video games. I used to play PC games since early 1990’s. I played anything from real-time strategies like WarCraft, StarCraft, Age of Empires, Transport Tycoon Deluxe, etc; to first-person shooters like Half Life and Quake III.

In the recent years though I have completely moved to consoles. My favorite gaming device is Sony PlayStation 3. Now I play mostly first-person shooters (Kill Zone, Call of Duty series, and the like), driving simulations (Colin McRae’s Dirt), adventure quests (Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted), and sports (NHL09 ice hockey).

I don’t write much about games, but when I do, I publish my posts in this category.

Quake 4 is out and shipping

Here is a paradox that I encounter most often – the more news and announcements I read, the more I stay behind. The most recent examle of this happening to me is the release of Quake 4. This game is something I has been waiting for the last three or four years. It was The Reason for all hardware upgrades. It was The Reason for all gaming SPAM I receive. And now I missed it.

On October 4, 2005 id Software announcent that Quake 4 was done. On October 18, 2005 Quake 4 started shipping. Trailer has available for some time now too.

And all this passed me by – unbelievable…

Ladies and gentlemen, charge your credit cards!

Sleepless night

Yesterday I made a big mistake. After I came home from work and found everyone sleeping, I should have gone to bed myself. But instead I went to see the list of things that I wanted to do, but skipped. And I found this post bookmarked there.

Transport Tycoon Deluxe is one of the most addictive games I ever played. Fromt the first sight it looks overly complicated. After an hour or so it looks oversimplified. And than you just lose the track of time. I knew that, because I played it many times before.

And even knowing that I still did the download. It installed easily without any problems what-so-ever. And I decided to try if it runs OK…

10 hours later Olga was trying to kick me out for a walk with Maxim. After a short battle she succeded. But I was back in three hours. And played for 4 more. Than I just had to go to sleep…

No pain, no basketball. At least for the first time.

Everyone knows that white men can’t jump. That’s a fact. Fat white man jumping not only look rediculous, but are endangering the lives and well-being of other people on the court.

Never-the-less that was exactly what I was doing today. Jumping. While attempting to play basketball. It was far from a real game and I am sure it looked pretty pathetic.

Continue reading No pain, no basketball. At least for the first time.

Quake III Arena source code GPLed

id Software has released the source code for its Quake III Arena for the public under the GPL. That is even before Quake 4 has been released! If you’re interested, you can download the source code here.

Now game writers all over the world can unite and produce some really cool games for Linux, Windows, and Mac. Yeah!

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

I’ve been playing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory for the last few days. It was originally designed to be an expansion pack for Wolfenstein, but than the plans were cancelled and the game was released to the world for free (as in beer). The best of part of it is that the software is multiplatform.

It is possible to download the installer from a number of places (here for example). Game manual is also something that you’d like to scroll through before playing the game.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is somewhat different from all the multiplayer games that I used to play before. Mobile objectives and rewards I haven’t seen before anywhere. Rewards add to the functionalities or abilties of the soldier (more ammo, more equipment, faster reloads, faster running, etc). Medals and ranks come as a visualisation of skills so to speak.

I’ve been having lots of fun on some European servers with as much as 30 people plaing the game (15 on each team). My favourite soldier class so far is Covert Ops, although I must admit I didn’t use the full functionality of it yet. Sniping is my favourite activity, although it’s not that easy to do with a 100+ ms ping.