MUDQuest

Whilst exploring the plethora of MUD's available to play, to find one I will settle with, I've gone from verbose complex MUD's through to quite brief action orientated ones, and then some. I found a very popular MUD the other day I decided to try out, that does have a great mix of complexity with newbie friendly hand holding. Now I'm not sure whether its popular because many many people are playing it, or just that it actually requests you submit a vote for it everytime you log in - something which seems very odd, and goes against my nature - but which I'm willing to do if I can delve into its depths and enjoy it. This MUD is called Aardwolf and it is a very friendly MUD indeed, in terms of coaching you through your early years, as well as providing you with tools that facilitate the downsides to only having a text based world to play it. It has an ascii based map not only for the wider world (like Dark and Shattered Lands) but also for your local journey's, so you're no longer left blind without much of a clue about direction. You don't need to buy software to help you map common places, to build up speedwalk strings to get from A to B. You can see it all on an ANSI coloured ascii map, with a symbol key. Not only that but it also gives you a list of speedwalks from recall points to popular questing areas. Something which I thought would be looked down upon by the MUD vets - who had to build their own lists. Anyway, the customisation of the MUD seems very accessible, the combat and skillsets seem very involved, but simple to run, and generally it feels like a good world to play in. The MUDquest continues..

Neriak

As I stumble through the dark, a brilliant indigo light draws me. Having spent months wandering through the forests of Nektulos, and finally emerging into the blazing dry sunlight of the Commonlands, I've gripped the starched mountain pass and hugged the dry pumice to emerge into the forest bowl known as the Darklight. Meandering past pocked craters and river gouges I finally cross the bridge over Innoruk's Scar, and behold the stories were true, the City of Hate, Neriak stands before us!



Luckily the Teir'Dal have also annexed a part of Neriak for Foreign Quarter so Ogres have free passage through to these slave areas, so I pass by the Teir'Dal Dread Guard easily, yet I feel their hatred towards me almost seep out of their armour. In Neriak I will always be an underclass, to be used and abused at their whim. They have a busy forge, creating more and more of the necessary equipment to kit out their ranks and furnish their city with ornamentation worthy of the palaces of Maj'Dul.



Delving deeper into the Nerian warren, you come across the Spires of Innoruuk, built to whorship the God of Hate himself. Their architectural beauty just amazes my simple Ogre tastes, I'm almost overwhelmed by their craftmanship.. dominated by it.



Have to keep hurrying, so that the Dread Guard patrolling this area keep their attention on other things.. I'm followed for a while by an Asari Guard, he seems very suspicious of me.. luckily he was distracted for a moment by a gathering of floating imps, kept as living gargoyle ornaments I think, they haunt most of the halls of this mighty place.





The Teir'Dal have constructed a place for the appreciation of their arts, the Nightsong Opera House, a three teired building of enormous beauty, I could stand and stare at it for many days...



but the guards are tracking me now. The Haunting Sirensong drifting out from the building lulls me into a sleepy state and I almost topple off the edge of a precipice.. this city is not very forgiving of bumbling fools... trip or stumble too near the edge and you will plummet hundreds of feet down onto stalagtite spikes. Even the Frostfell celebrities are not immune to a good spiking.



At the end of the warren, is the mighty Darklight Palace, flanked by the House of the Teir'Dal family D'Morte.



And Vampires. I had to make a quick retreat, fending off these biting shrews.. I don't understand why they are tolerated, the Dread Guard doesn't venture this deep..



For all its beauty there is always a price to pay, and I for one am willing to pay it. For the God of Hate, Neriak take me as one of your own!

Pox Nora

http://www.poxnora.com

A hybrid between a turn based strategic battler (like Advance Wars) and a trading collectible card game. The client can be downloaded for free, and you get 8 sets of 'cards' (champions) - although in game they look like miniatures - to play with. If you want your champions to gain experience and have equipment then you need to buy some sets.
As a free battler for quick games during lunchtime this could be a good effort.. as with most collectible games though, the first hit or two is free, but you'll probably want more..

It looks and plays really smoothly..
http://www.poxnora.com/images/screenshots/dow_02.jpg

Gods: Land of Infinity

http://www.gods-game.com/

Its a very well done Homebrew style RPG, with first person roaming, and chatting, and a turn based combat mechanism (ala Final Fantasy). Not sure its worth real money, but its worth having a look at the demo and seeing how the small independant developers are having a crack at some 3d RPG's.. and with a God called Arswaargh you just can't go wrong..

Ballerium

http://www.ballerium.com/

Free to play.. a Massive Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy, comes across as a Warcraft III clone, but with persistant multiplayer capabilities. From the brief play session I had, it was interesting to try and get a grasp on your unit types, but the game seems in desperate need of a decent tutorial. You spend time just wandering (very slowly, I might add) around barren environment, looking for a city to go into (as the start up blurb suggests). But once there, theres no easy instructions into getting established, and the normal well trodden RTS routes, seem all but a distant memory. So it does drop you in deep, without much of a clue what to do. Could be of interest to some RTS types looking to see how the genre can be moulded into a persistant world setting.

Alien Shooter 2

http://www.strategyfirst.com/en/games/AlienShooter2/

If anyone is interested, you can now buy Alien Shooter 2: Vengance from Strategy First as a download only game ($19.99). Its been out in the States on shelves, but hasn't surfaced over here, I've been on the lookout for it for ages..

Shadowgrounds kind of overshadowed it, with its proper 3d graphics and gorgeous lighting (especially in Shadowgrounds:Survivor), but Shadowgrounds tends to be a more personal closer perpspective shooter, the aliens are more difficult to die but a lot less in number.. which spoils it a bit. Alien Shooter 2 with its 2d isometric view (and some nice light effects of its own - only in 2d) does hordes of aliens that can be swathed through much better, and its further back isometric view affords you some tactical advantages when it comes to using environment and layout to bottleneck those alien swarms. Also Alien Shooter 2 has a lot more RPG progression in your character and its stats than Shadowgrounds. Top games for the "marine gunning alien action" genre, but Alien Shooter 2 pips Shadowgrounds by sheer numbers of swarming foes.

Bruce Parry does the Amazon

Bruce Parry of TRIBE fame, begins his journey..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/amazon/sites/map/index.shtml

He's using Googlemaps and video/blog entries along the way to tell the story interactively as he heads along the Amazon river. The expedition will culminate in a 6 part show in Autumn 2008, but you can follow it as it happens at this blogsite. I'm a big fan of Bruce, and I love this info tracking stuff when its focussed on a journey and a project.. onto Google Reader you go Sir!