Wonderland

Twas a beautiful night

... in Azeroth. A lovely note in World of Warcraft is that the weather changes. Sometimes the sunsets are magnificent, and sometimes they aren't - last night's was pretty good.

And tonight I finally hit level 60. I'd lined it up to take a photograph, and just at the moment of fiery glory, my pet came running to heel (that's the blue thing, not Jonathan).

Gaaaah! Some lol.

This is what was missing

... from the XBox 360 prelaunch day: someone on hand to evangelise and demonstrate the Live & Marketplace elements of the machine. Sounds like fun.

Elf boobs.

And more. (Links probably not safe for work, unless you work somewhere cool or where people will laugh at you for looking at elf pr0n.)

"Where can I find a nude patch for NPCs?"

.. asks someone over at the Darknest site. MMOrgy has the details on the whole scene.

 

What about the night elf boys, did they get the treatment too? No.
:o(

I Got My GMail

OMG this is too wild: some bloke called Doug Dyson has written a song entitled "I Got My Gmail", and performed it - in the Sims 2.

Lyrics taster:

So what
If that's not her real name
And she'll never write me
Or ever see me again?

Completely brilliant video:

Doug - you're a genius.

Calling modders: feeling diplomatic?

The University of Southern California has more details up on its competition that I mentioned briefly before.

USC Center on Public Diplomacy is looking for people to showcase their talent with a bit of world class game-making. The challenge to the game mod community, and current and aspiring game designers is as folllows: design a prototype or modify a game incorporating the fundamental characteristics of public diplomacy.

This is so cool. What are the fundamental characteristics of public diplomacy, you say?

Public diplomacy focuses on the ways in which a country (or multi-lateral organization such as the United Nations), acting deliberately or inadvertently, through both official and private individuals and institutions, communicates with citizens in other societies.

Then the USC says:

Now incorporate that into a game or virtual world. How? That's for you to decide.

Wow. Talk about blank canvas. Dreamy!

Definition of public diplomacy here, and details of the competition here. It's US-centric, of course, but it's also a nice little brain exercise. If you could make a game that would communicate a country's culture and interests to other countries (and that would listen to the replies), what form would it take?

XBox Launch Party

Aw. Work got some invites, so I'm going. w00t! Anyone else in? I wonder if the finger-food will be green.

Off to the Dentist

+10 pain :o(

XBox PreLaunch UK Tour

I went this morning, and stayed for about 20 minutes, during which time I...

1. ... played Kameo. It's a pretty obvious platformer with not very pretty art direction. Disappointing in the first two minutes, so I put it down and scratched it off my list. Harsh, eh?


2. Looked at Project Gotham Racing. Nothing new here, although very, very shiny. Gotham TV looks like it could be interesting - watching what your friends are doing. Good. We like voyeurism.


3. Poked at Dead or Alive, but the demo only allowed 2-player versus, and I was on my own. Damnit, I LOVE kicking games.


4. Played Quake 4. I hate playing FPSes with sticks. It's like controlling a particularly stupid and slow-moving robot with no peripheral vision. Lumbered about bumping into walls for a while. It's not a patch on mouse and keyboard: and this is where the Revolution could really change the system - please Nintendo, please be developing something in the FPS genre!


5. Crashed Condemned: Criminal Origins. Heh heh, woops. This game looks like it has potential (if you like films like Se7en), but there's the sticks thing again. Hmm, and the crashing.



6. Played Perfect Dark Zero. See above about sticks. Looks a bit like Quake 2, but blueish. It's nice having a girl as the hero though - good catsuit. Might get this one.


7. Watched a bunch of people playing a football game. Almost fell asleep standing up. It was the most popular game in the room though. Fifa 2006, I think. I couldn't get past the "There's No I In Team But There Is An EA" tagline.



8. Got told off for taking pictures.


9. Waited for the 12-year-old and his mum to get off the only stand that I could see with King Kong on it. Gave up and left, to find this parked outside:

   

   Wahaha! Everyone knows that a Hummer is a penis replacement. The security guys kept stroking it. I couldn't stop laughing.

Overall - the XBox 360 is a pretty machine. It's bigger than you think, but smaller than the black box, and still twice the size of the Ps2. Slightly less macho than the original XBox, but the old tendencies are still hovering around the edges with the Hummer and the number of FPSes. The games have truly beautiful backgrounds, but facial animations are no better yet, nor is most of the voice acting (this will change over time, of course  - the stuff coming out on the PS2 these days is streets ahead of what came out at its own launch back in 2000).

The titles lineup is a bit thin and samey, except for the stuff that's very Live'd up. But there wasn't someone on hand doing Live demos, which was a pity because it's by far the most interesting bit about the XBox 360, and also the bit I haven't seen enough of. As a launch event, it was clearly geared towards the hardcore - there was no handholding, no greeting, and very, very low (and green) lighting. Casual gamers in the second wave, I expect.

It's an interesting beast, this box: expect many firmware upgrades as functions are added (or removed, as seems to be the tendency) and flaws are ironed out. And yes - possibly lots of crashing. Dear old Microsoft.

Tonight I shall dream in green.

Pac-Man Tournie winner

Poor man wins a tournament, then is forced (one presumes) to wear a Pac-Man hat for the winning photograph. He looks like he's about to cry.

54,450. Awesome score, hat man!

Felt Bracers of Loveliness (+15 comfort)

See my new epix: Fiona bought me these from Finland. They're beautiful hand-made felt cuffs, and they protect my wrists from my glass desk which is both fancypants and quite lethal, especially round the edges.

See? No accidental wrist-slashing for me!

Yes, Disneyland mug. Yes, that's WoW too, but I betcha can't work out which inn I'm in.

(Thanks Foe!)