The doors of the lift opened and we all piled in hastily. The elevator would take us straight to the heart of the tournament. We would either struggle to win or suffer crushing defeat. It was shared knowledge that there would be no easy victory today.
I cleared my throat to begin the pep talk.
“Alright everybody. Here’s the strategy”
The men gathered around me, their looks of rapt attention in place. The bright lights in the lift highlighted the shadows on our faces. We must have looked quite the sight, serious appearances and all.
NOTE: Usage of real names have been replaced with in-game handles. If you’d like to know more about us, check out the DYRM Clan page – links are on the right/top right.
Getting to the Sydney Gamers League 5.0 was an absolute mission for Clan DYRM. Despite the chaos (or perhaps because of it), hilarity ensued. Hope you enjoy this recount of what it took for us to get to SGL.
…
It started off so badly.
Harli had it planned so well too. It was obvious that they couldn’t make the Counterstrike: Source tournament – clan member Maltesers had work and wouldn’t be able to make the start time.
So Harli had risen early with plenty of time to get ready. She started up her PC, meticulously cleaned its exterior, and had begun patching her games when it happened.
So I’m on my third playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins when a most interesting realisation hit me.
One of the central characters, Loghain Mac Tir, bears a striking resemblance to Varian Wrynn from World of Warcraft!
On the left is Varian, on the right Loghain.
I shall lay out the evidence and let you judge for yourself if indeed the two look as though they could be brothers. Or the same person.
So first up is Varian Wrynn. His character is currently king of alliance city Stormwind and his biography details that he is very much a warrior as he is a leader. Varian also made a prominent appearance in the ‘Secrets of Ulduar’ in-game cinematic for WOW’s Ulduar patch.
The heavily armoured Varian.
Physically, the first thing I noticed was the hair. Both characters have very similar hair and faces. The second distinguishible feature they had in common was that they were both heavily armoured.
Loghain Mac Tir serves as one of the central plot character’s in Bioware’s RPG Dragon Age: Origins. Like Varian, Loghain is a human warrior who takes up a leadership role amongst his people. The similarities don’t end there.
Loghain in his heavy armour.
Besides physical appearances, both characters have a number of other things in common.
Widowed
Famous for having fought in great battles
Both command an army and serve some leadership role
Reside in a fantasy world populated by dwarves and elves
What a marvelous coincidence! And I shall put it down to nothing more then that. Although they do look like they could be brothers, couldn’t they? Even their in-game personalities are similar.
I wrote up a post some time ago listing some of my scariest moments on PC gaming (click here for that one). I love scary games. There’s something about the immersion which draws me in, something about being scared that gives me reason to laugh at myself.
Looks like I have a new title to add to the list – Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
This is a game which does scary differently. It’s intensity requires that I quit the game after every 15 minutes of playing so that I can realign my mind with the real world. Seriously. Being the thinker I am, I channeled my inner journalist to pinpoint what exactly makes this game so damn horrifying.
My past experiences with horror games have taught me a valuable thing - sewer levels are always the worst.
Is it perhaps the inability to defend oneself from the monsters present? That they run faster then you, that you will spend a good thirty seconds running down a corridor and turn around only to find it in your face?
Or the build up of suspense as your character shuts the door and hides in the cupboard as the creature breaks in and sniffs around for you?
Maybe it’s the unsettling visuals. Your character starts to see things – imaginary and not – as he loses his sanity. Staying in darkness for too long chips away at your sanity, but stepping into the light will reveal your location…
I think it’s the sound. You hear a lot of strange noises. Footsteps are constant. Weird grunts of otherworldly creatures. You investigate a room you were certain a sound came from. You find nothing. This happens a lot. Then some footsteps prove to be real and belong to something coming after you.
I recommend that you play this game at night time with the lights off, headphones in and sound turned up. Unknowing of what I was in for, that is how I approached the game the first time I started it up. I have since decided to give my poor heart a break and play in more pleasant conditions.
Happy New Year everybody! Ah my, what a great year 2010 was. Especially for gaming. But as I look on to 2011 I spot an emerging trend – one that I do not necessarily like.
For the majority of games to be released in 2011 are comprised of sequels. Seriously. Look at the list and all I can see are the numbers. This may not be an entirely bad thing but… I was hoping for more new titles. Innovation! New! Shiny!
So thus far my eye for the big titles has been glued to:
Portal 2
Crysis 2
FEAR 3
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim (!!) – The ‘Goodbye Life’ edition
Infamous 2
Diablo 3
Half life 2: Episode 3 (A double dose of numerics!)
Dragon Age 2 – Goodbye life x 2
Bioshock Infinite ∞ (cheating a little but hey – still counts)
As for titles which are not direct sequels in some way of form that I am looking forward to -
I Am Alive
Duke Nukem Forever
Although even then Duke Nukem is tied to existing game content.
So I guess that just leaves ‘I Am Alive’.
There are always the Indie titles which serve as the pinnacle of creativity.
Despite what I say, its the sequels that always generate the most excitement. With an existing fanbase and content to draw upon it is easy to see why going down the road of a sequel may be more rewarding. From a developer perspective I’d be hard pressed to say that I would not do the same thing.
