Gonna Fly Now

"Turtle Rock One Versus One Tournament, 14:30."

There it was, my eyes instantly drawn to the top right part of the interface, yet another automated tournament on Battle.Net, on one of my favourite maps no less. I wanted so to partake, but with a new crash-hack plaguing the ladder, I assumed it would be nothing but a test of my patience. I decided, however, after a moment's deep thought, to give it a shot, but stop as soon as I got hacked.

Four games in and I had yet to meet a hacker, winning every game quite convincingly. A fifth game seemed reasonable, I convinced myself while pressing the "search" button. And a fifth opponent was indeed found for me, a Human player. Up until then, every crash-hacker I'd met was Night Elf, so I was quite surprised when everything started lagging, and I was quick to suicide-rush his base to grab the win before disconnecting (for more on the crash-hack, read this, or this).

Some would call me insane, but, running on the high of denying a hacker his would-be ill-gotten gains, I went for yet another game, figuring I was close enough to reach the top 16 (who later go on to the elimination rounds) to not let some dopey hack stand between me and e-glory eternal. But lo and behold, my next opponent was a hacker, too, and one far more intelligent than what I'd previously faced. Disarming his crash-hack at the price of all but giving him the win, I felt discouraged. He was levels ahead of me, hero-wise, and had every other conciveable advantage. Luckily for me, I remembered the golden rule of hackers; They always suck ass at the game, you know, since they resort to hacking. Humiliated, he conceded the game after what can only be described as godlike multitasking on my part, harassing him all game, never letting up. Foolish hackers should know better than to try their hand at besting Starshaped - cyberathlete extraordinaire.

Sadly enough, I made it all the way to the semifinals before facing yet another hacker, who successfully defeated me (despite having the Rocky Theme playing in my head). A plague on his Battle.Net account!



Anyway, I am now anxiously awaiting e-mails from any of the major e-sports teams (SK, WemadeFOX etc.) with their offers. SK.Starshaped, anyone?

Addendum: Here are a select few replays, for those interested:

Versus crash-hackers: (Note the incredibly high APM of the hackers, a tell-tale after-the-fact way to see if they really did hack)
http://tft.replayers.com/?action=view&id=141042
http://tft.replayers.com/?action=view&id=141043

Round one of the top 16 elimination rounds:
http://tft.replayers.com/?action=view&id=141056

The Times They Are a-Changin'

My favourite music is from the 60's and 70's. The games I've played the most are from the mid 90's to the early 00's. I still play my Super Nintendo, from time to time. The Nintendo 64 almost feels too modern for me to have nostalgic memories about. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm a bit stuck in the past. Though, in my defence, today's popular music sucks.

I recently stumbled upon a Youtube show called Matt Chat, where the host, author Matt Barton, talks about important games (mostly RPGs, though there are other types of games, too, like one about Starcraft, for example) of the past (but also newer games are mentioned). I happened upon an episode on Dungeon Master and was hit by a wave of memories. My brothers played the sequel (which apparently is quite a bit worse than its older brother) and I remember enjoying watching them take it on best they could.

I quickly found myself over at Abandonia to download Dungeon Master 2: The Legend of Skullkeep. I also got my hands on DOSBox (so I can run old DOS games on my not 20-year-old computer)

"This will be great," I thought, after setting up DOSBox and configuring the game. Sure enough, I was really excited once the game started up, staring at the menu screen I instantly remembered from my childhood. The game looks great, too, even to this day. Though, I may be slightly biased.





When it comes to gameplay, however, it would seem nostalgia is a deceiving snake. I could hardly play more than five minutes without wanting to quit, uninstall and never play the game again.

Dungeon Master 2 is tedious, slow and disorienting. You don't move fluently, you move one block at a time. That is, One press forward makes you move quite a bit (one step on a square grid), with no animation in-between. Battles are mundane and repetitive, and since there are little to no puzzles to solve, this makes for a boring game. And lightning randomly striking you dead is not my idea of good gameplay (realistic as they may have thought it to be). Couple this with a lack of story and you're left with an abysmal experience, by today's standards. Another precious gaming memory ruined, in other words.

In stark contrast to DM2, and in a rare move by yours truly, I started playing a modern game (the first time in years, it feels), Dragon Age: Origins. I recall being in the mood for a good RPG, and DA:O was recommended by a plethora of sources, and rightfully so.

Barring the slight worries about whether or not the game would work on my less than perfect computer (I'm forced to run it on the lowest possible settings), it's been an incredible experience so far.

The story is so deep. I've spent most of my time just reading stuff in the game. It really sucks you in and you want to keep going, to learn more.

The battles can be quite daunting. I remember giant spiders freaking me out something fierce when they unexpectedly dropped from above, the ferocity of their attacks all but trumping their startling, sudden appearance.

I haven't even gotten that far in the game yet. I can only imagine how overwhelming it will prove to be in the near future. A great game in every meaning of the word, if you will.