Monkey Island

My collegues and i were talking about it over months before we finally could agree on a date, but we did and just 5 minutes ago we got through: Playing Monkey Island 1 once more over my video beamer with the cordless mouse and keyboard from my colleque.

Here is an image from the test (if it works on the beamer):

Oblivion Patch is out

Waiting for it for a long time it is finally out. Bethesda released the Patch for Oblivion:
http://www.theelderscrolls.com/
It has a lot of Bugfixes, unfortunately they did not add this Fix into it which gets the fence Fathis Ules back to the Imperial City after the Quest in Chorrol. (Needed for the Thieves Guild Quests).

Oblivion Quest "GoFish" (Warining Spoiler)

Since i have some Problems with that Quest and after searching found that i am not the only one i thought i just write a post for it. But warning, it's a spoiler, so if you don't want to know stop right here.. or here... or here ;-)

The main Problem with that Quest is to find the right Slaughterfishes, becouse the Green Marker will not show it to you after you killed about 6 of them. It will still show the location where the dead ones swim.

I am not completely sure yet, since i have not finished it yet but most of the threads i read say they have just left and made some other quests. After they went back there were additional fishes.

My guess is, there aren't all 12 Fishes there at the same time. You have to wait until new ones have been bread, only i don't know how long it takes and if you need at least one or two fishes alive for it.
I don't think they added it, but it would be funny if you killed all fishes in that water and there are no more fishes, since there are no descendeds any more.

I already killed all the ones i found and now i wait and go for some other quests, maybe the main quest, which i did'nt follow yet. If there are another Fishes then, we know.

Oblivion Teaser

Yesterday i got oblivion and well.. it's just great! I am not really able to tell much more, but in time i may write some impressions.

Until now i just played the tutorial and my first dungeon.. and the only thing that stopped me was my wife towing me into bed so i am able to work the next day ;-)

The only thing i want is a safe deposit ingame so i can keep their my precious stones and other things.

Now another adware: if you like some information about alcemy go to Darliandor's Alchemy Lab.

Battle for Middle Earth 2 Review

I happen to get a look at the game through a friend of mine and was like in the demo impressed by the stability of the game.

When playing BTFM 1 the game was a little laggy, meaning you had problems navigating through the menu since the animation of the "eye" made everything uneasy. But they improved everything and also the game itself runs good. And that on the same machine where i had problems with the first game.

Another goodie are the new Races, Goblins and Elves. Two Races, Rohan and Gondor, has been put together and are just called Men. And they added more Weight on Heroes by allowing the User to create their own Heroe. This is really nice, becouse you can adjust a little the look of the Heroe and some stats. But it is also limited, since a friend of mine created a Harradrim which was able to disguise and kill a Person in an instance, but was also very slow. There was no indication how quick he will be and there is no way of changing the speed.

As a rpg playing gamer i would expect another advanced button to change more stats, but that's just a love to have, not a need to have.

What's really bothering me is that when you capture a building you use the Flag of the building. That Idea is great, but what i don't like is that when you move the cursor over the Flag you see the same cursor which was used in C&C Generals... hello? That should not have been necessary.

As in BTFM1 the Maps have not very improved. There is only on Map for 8 Players and most of the Maps have moved from BTFM1 to 2. What's good is they added a nice Minas Tirith, Helms Deep Map and some other cool locations. We already started searching for new maps, especially which needed a little more water.. I would like an Osgiliath Map for 8 Players with a huge Water Part in it.

Another good invention is that you can build your own Walls, which means you can make your own minas tirith if you'd like (i usually do) ...

But speaking of Walls, there is one catch i definetly don't like. Every good race is able to build a Wall, every single one. On the bad side there is only Isengard... hello? Did they hear about the lack gate? You know the one from Moria...

It's really anoying since you can't stop a group of Horseriders with some Archtowers. But with a wall they would have some problems. Looking at the Races in General it's like in BTFME 1, the good have a greater advantage like healing, they can build fountain, walls, legolas...

My conclusion is: if you had liked BTFME1 it is not bad to buy BTFME2. They have improved much, but i don't know if BTFME2 would kept me from playing C&C Generals Zero Hour in the Future..

oblivion - will there be a generate button?

Hi!

As many others i am already waiting for the release. A friend of mine made a site for it: http://oblivion.melian.cc


But that's not why i started the post. I was thinking while looking at the screenshots, that the trees and nature are completely generated by the computer. So when i start the game it will generate my version of oblivion. But will it remember it or will it generate it new every time i enter the game or dungeon or.. i don't know, like diablo 2 the map.

I thought of running through the forest in circles becouse everything is generated over and over again and you have no point of reference (except of a map) where you have to go..

Playing Gothic 2 we started to memorize which plants we find on which sites.. like a specific tree... now what? The tree is there but the plant not... the tree and the plant are moved 50 meters to the west.. the plant is there but the tree not..
That's a new way of playing scottland yard.

The other way would be that the forest is generated only one time after creating a new character, specific to the hardware you have installed. But then, what if you change it to a better one, will you still see the old version. Will there be a generate button to recreate the forest?

Let the question enter yourself and think of it as activity for the break until the game is in your hands.

Civilization 4

Playing Civilization since Civ 2, i had to buy the new version. Civ 3 did not have any multiplayer posibilities so i just played it once or twice. But with Civ 4 they have really made a multiplayer Gamers Dream come true. Not even the Hot Seat Function is a ingenious old fashion Idea, which nowadays is very rare, but also the Email and LAN Game Possibilities are good.

And they really made a good Job with the LAN Option. In CallToPower2 we always had Problems at some time where we had to save and all had to load it again becouse the LAN mode was collapsing from time to time. But in Civ 4 we had no Problems at all.. even when somebody touched the Windows Key in Error... no Problem. That's a big THANKYOU!

The new Animations are also quite nice as the Idea not having one scout, but a scout unit. That shows how much work they put on it. The new Startmusic is great and also generating a new World when you start a new game.

What i am not able to understand is the diplomatic part. I am searching for threats and so on, but can not find anything. There is also no trade part as in CallToPower, where you built camels and trucks to ship goods through the continents.

And what they completely fucked up are spies. All they can do is show you were all Units of a country are or you can sabotage the current production of a city. Wow.. really.. where the hell are the features like steel technology?
Why isn't there an option to spread false information somewhere? Why can't i start a demostration in a foreign city so they begin a revolution and join me?

I really would like to spread false information to foreign countries so they start a war against each other and i just help one of them.... that's what i am missing... more possible options on spies and foreign affairs.

In war when you are winning, you can not force a surrender so they join you, no way, you have to fight until the last man.

And one more thing about the Mulitplayer Mode: In Singleplayer you get a Window with a Video when producing a Worldwonder, but in Multiplayer there is nothing like that. I miss an option for that.

Last but not least i want to talk about Religions. I think it is good to have the Religions now, but why do i have to invent them all to get throught to the end of technology? Why can't i just find one and be like that for the rest of the game, if i wish it?

I think Civilization 4 is a great game when it comes to Grafix, stabilitiy, Mulitplayer. But they have to work more on the diplomatic and spy part again. Hopefully a new addon will make some adjustments there.

Fable incompatable to WindowBlinds

I just got Fable and wanted to play it... but as soon as it starts it crashes...
Then i tried multiple things until i found out: it has a Problem with windowblinds...

You have to thing about it: A microsoft programmed game does not work on a microsoft operating system with an in coporate with microsoft prgrammed styling tool....

Damn microsoft, another reason they don't know what they are doing!

Fortunately you can unload windowBlinds any Time and play fable...

As for Fable: The Intro is nice.. but has no real Story.. and What the hell with that BIG microsoft logo?? If the Title of the Game is that Big ok, but for microsoft?

I know. . it already says in Fable narcism is perfectly normal.. seems like microsoft thought of themselves...