GeekwithEnvy

Richard Vincenti Jr

All-TIME 100 greatest video games

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C’mon, you know we all love lists of things and what better list to have then the All-TIME 100 greatest video games? TIME has posted a list of what they consider to be the best of the best. Starting back in the 1970’s with Pong and Asteroids, all the way up to Mass Effect 3.

While I feel that the positions of some games in the list may need a bit of tweaking, I think they did a pretty good job. There are however MANY games that didn’t make the cut that probably should have. What’s nice is that you have the ability to cast your vote on whether or not you think a game should be included in the list.

What do you think about the list? Head over here to check it out.

Gamer Bars, Something We Need More Of

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The gaming community, contrary to popular belief, is a very social community that rivals the competitive nature of any group of sports fans. This is my main case for for the rise of the gamer bar.

MLG Info
Source (MLG)

The competitive gaming market is growing rapidly, in-fact  it’s blowing up. Major League Gaming is seeing a viewership rise that has surpassed 10 million. Big prizes are at stake, not to mention a chance to have the ultimate bragging rights. These competitions are intense and are won or lost based strategy. Often, a competition will come down to the wire, the deciding factor could come down to one kill, this stuff is addicting.

We stock pile our favorite snacks, grab some drinks and immediately become immersed into our favorite gaming competition. We pick apart the strategies of the pros and we try to employ their techniques in our own gameplay. We are after all, a new generation, a generation of gamers, and we love everything about gaming.

We are very passionate about our games, you only need to head to the nearest game store on a game release night to see fans queued up in the cold and rain, waiting patiently as they discuss everything from strategy to artwork with other fellow gamers. There’s no doubt in my mind that the idea of a social gaming establishment will catch on in more communities as time goes on.

Some have already jumped into the game (pun intended), places like the AFK Tavern, Battle and Brew and EXP offer a place to have a drink and rack up your DKP. Tournament nights, geek trivia, battle.net tournament broadcasts and other MLG broadcasts, all coupled together with good food, brews and friends is simply amazing.

Many people will travel great distances just to have a good time and watch a tournament, but they shouldn’t have to. Hopefully these establishments will catch on, so this kind of experience can reach fans in their hometown.

 

Starcraft II Heart of The Swarm Available For Pre-Purchase

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Starcraft II Heart of the Swarm Logo

It’s official, StarCraft® II: Heart of the Swarm™ will be released to the masses on March 12, 2013, but you don’t have to wait to buy it. You can pre-purchase the new Starcraft expansion now by logging into battle.net. The expansion will cost $39.99.

Heart of the Swarm is the first expansion set to Blizzard Entertainment’s sci-fi real-time strategy game StarCraft® II: Wings of Liberty™. Heart of the Swarm continues the epic story from Wings of Liberty with an all-new campaign that focuses on Kerrigan, the former Queen of Blades. This expansion will feature 20 new campaign missions, new gameplay mechanics, new multiplayer maps, new units, and new pre-rendered cinematics.

Zerg ScreenShot1

Multiplayer Unit Rundown

Shredder

The Shredder is a new unit built from the Factory that allows the terran player to control the battlefield. In its mobile form, the Shredder has no attack — but when set to stationary mode, it channels area-effect damage to both the air and ground. If a friendly unit enters the range of the Shredder, the weapon shuts off.

Warhound

 The Warhound is a small, walking ground mech that wields an effective anti-air weapon with splash damage, much like the Thor from Wings of Liberty. The difference is that the Warhound is smaller and much more nimble, though it gives up some range on its anti-air missiles in exchange for this mobility. The Warhound also wields a small ground attack weapon that does additional damage to mechanical units, making it particularly well suited to taking out enemy Siege Tanks — though it’s not particularly effective against non-mechanical units.

Viper

The Viper is a new flying unit with three unique abilities. Blinding Cloud temporarily reduces the attack range of all ground units inside the cloud to melee range, and prevents energy-based abilities from being used. Abduct allows the Viper to physically pull a unit to the Viper’s location. Finally, the Viper has a one-time ability called Ocular Parasite, which allows it to detach its eye stalk and meld it onto any friendly, non-massive unit, turning that unit into a detector.

Swarm Host

The Swarm Host is a slow-moving ground unit that has no standard attack. When burrowed, the Swarm Host spawns a continuous stream of slow-moving melee units called Locusts that can be used to lay siege and pressure entrenched enemy positions.

Tempest

The tempest is a new capital ship that deals massive area-of-effect damage to air units. It also has a standard ground attack, but its chief role is to help gain air superiority.

Oracle

The Oracle is a psionic warship, built from a Stargate, that uses several unique abilities to raid and harass the enemy. The first is Entomb, which can temporarily block mineral fields from being harvested. Another ability, Preordain, grants vision of a targeted enemy building, allowing the protoss to see which units or technologies are being researched. Rounding out its kit is Phase Shift, which phases a target building, preventing it from being attacked, using its abilities, or granting technology. Not only can structures like missile turrets be prevented from attacking, but using this ability on a zerg Spire would block the production of Mutalisks, Corruptors, and air upgrades.

Replicant

 Replicants have one ability: to transform itself into any non-massive unit. They’re expensive, so cloning a Zergling would not be very cost effective, but transforming into a specialized unit like a Raven, Infestor, or Siege Tank could open up interesting strategic options for the protoss.

New Multiplayer Maps

SCMapWinter SCMapJungle SCMapCity

New Multiplayer Units

SwarmHost
Starcraft II Multiplayer Unit: Swarm Host
WarHound
Starcraft II Multiplayer Unit: War Hound
Viper
Starcraft II Multiplayer Unit: Viper
Tempest
Starcraft II Multiplayer Unit: Tempest
Shredder
Starcraft II Multiplayer Unit: Shredder
Replicant
Starcraft II Multiplayer Unit: Replicant
Oracle
Starcraft II Multiplayer Unit: Oracle
BattleHellion
Starcraft II Multiplayer Unit: Battle Hellion

The Used Game Business Could Disappear

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In my last podcast I discussed the possibility of next-gen consoles being released without optical drives, this is something that doesn’t sit well with businesses that rely on used games to keep the lights on.Blank DVD Cases

Just a decade ago, it would have been laughable to imagine that anyone would consider removing optical drives from a gaming console. We have changed the medium many times since the first true gaming console hit the market back in 1972, but we have never seriously considered completely removing physical media until recently. The idea is simple, the gaming industry asks that we download all of our content digitally and then they can control the pricing of the game over time as it eventually gets older.

So how will consumers feel about this move? Based on the recent reaction to the new Apple desktop line up, which no longer includes an optical drive, it would seem that there are still quite a few people out there who would be very upset at the removal of an optical drive in next-gen consoles.

Can you blame them for wanting a disc? Unfortunately, there are many people out there who have a poor connection to the internet, some people are still under a 1 Mbps. Slow internet speeds combined with overall much higher internet traffic could lead to consumers having to wait days before they can complete a download of their favorite game.

There is more to this story though, it’s not just about the optical drive. Even if console makers decide to stick with physical media, the used game business may still suffer. Although it’s still just speculation at this point, there are multiple reports that mention next-gen consoles moving to a system that will only allow you to play your game if you’re connected to the internet and logged into your account. If this idea ever comes to fruition it will permanently lock a game to a particular console, therefore making it impossible to trade in later.

This is clearly a good way to keep software piracy at bay, at least until they figure out a way around it. What impact will this have on the industry? I can tell you one thing for sure, gamers will be unlikely to play along. There has to be some compromise here and it could likely appear in some type of registration system. Perhaps we could simply activate and deactivate a particular game to work with our specific hardware and maybe the ability to do this would be limited to a certain number times in a month or year. This is a system that is already in place for many software titles in the desktop/laptop world. For instance, Adobe software enables you to activate and deactivate the software which allows you to move a product between separate machines, a feature that works really well.

Using the in-store credit system at one of my local used game vendors, I was able to go a full year without ever having to pay more than $10 for a new game title. Granted I only bought a few new games that year, about five, but that’s still a heck of a deal. I kept playing games, beating them and the turning them in before they lost a lot of value. After awhile I was able to keep a stockpile of points that allowed me to get any title for dirt cheap. This all would disappear in a heart beat if the industry takes a rigid approach towards digital downloads.

The success of an all digital system or an online-only system will depend greatly on its implementation. Clearly there should be a way for users to re-sell their games, even if it means redeeming points through Xbox Live Arcade or The Playstation Network. Maybe we could have some type of online used games channel that would allow us to swap games with others right on our consoles. We will just have to wait and see what happens, hopefully we can meet somewhere in the middle.

 

 

 

A Walk Down Windows Memory Lane

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With all of this talk about Windows 8 and all of it’s new features I can’t help but think about how much Windows has changed over the years. Windows has maintained it’s dominance over the OS market for decades now and it didn’t just happen over night. So, let’s take a look at the evolution of Windows.Windows 3.0 Logo

Here’s something pretty cool. If you don’t feel like popping in a few floppy disks to experience the Windows of the past you can head to this cool website that emulates the Windows 3.1 Desktop.

Windows 1.0 (1982-1985)

 

Windows1.0
Windows1.0

Code named “Interface Manager”, this was the first version of what was later renamed Windows before it was released. It’s important to note that prior to Windows, MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), was the primary OS used on PC’s. MS-DOS was powerful during its heyday and I used it all of the time to play some of my favorite games, even after Windows was released. Windows aimed to make using your computer much easier by incorporating a GUI (Graphical User Interface).

Some people thought that Windows would never catch on, little did they know what it would become.

 

Windows 2.0 (1987-1990)

Windows 2.0
Windows 2.0

Windows 2.0 aimed to take advantage of newer, more advanced hardware that had greater memory capacity. UI design improvements continued as well.

 

Windows 3.0 (1990-1994)

windows 3.0
Windows 3.0

Computers are getting much faster and graphics are improving as well. Windows 3.0 supported 16 bit graphics and introduces the new file management applications Program Manager and File Manager. Printing was made easier with Print Manager. At this time MS-DOS is still being used along side with Windows as many programmers continued to write for DOS instead of Windows.

Windows 95 (1995-1998)

Windows95
Windows 95

How could we forget Windows 95 and the introduction of the Start Button and taskbar, which offered a great way to organize and easily access all of your programs. At this time the internet was just beginning to take over the world . Windows 95 brought us into 32-bit computing and much faster and better looking graphics. The cd-rom becomes commonplace in computing and Weezer makes an appearance on the Windows 95 installation disc. Programmers begin to embrace Windows more than ever.

Windows 98 , Windows 2000, Windows ME (1998-2000)

Windows 98 brings us the Quick Launch bar and increased performance. USB is becoming extremely popular and Windows 98 takes advantage of this new technology. Windows ME brought us System Restore and Windows 2000 was the upgrade of choice for businesses from all previous versions of Windows. Software developers are taking full advantage of Windows and applications that run on DOS are becoming less prominent.

Windows 98
Windows 98 (Microsoft)

 

Windows 2000
Windows 2000 (Microsoft)

 

Windows ME
Windows ME (Microsoft)

 

 

 

Windows XP

The Windows kernel has forever changed and is now based on Windows NT. 64-bit systems are supported and security enhancements continue to be made. Wireless 802.11 support and remote assistance are added to the mix. Windows XP was hugely popular and is still used even to this day. Windows XP is very stable and extremely fast, it’s one of the best releases of Windows. DOS is starting to fade away and becomes more of a hidden feature that is only used for specific tasks.

Windows XP Desktop
Windows XP Desktop (Microsoft)

 

Windows Vista

Windows gets a cleaner look and UAC or user account control makes it’s debut in order to make Windows more secure. This version of Windows wasn’t well received due to consumers complaining about it’s stability issues.

Windows Vista
Windows Vista (Microsoft)

Windows 7

Windows 7 features live thumbnail previews and new ways to size and control windows. After many, many security updates and patched since Windows Vista, Windows 7 becomes very stable and unlike Vista, gets a thumbs up from consumers.

Windows 7
Windows 7 (Microsoft)

Windows 8 / 8.1

The new Xbox dashboard style desktop makes it’s debut. The Microsoft Store makes finding and buying applications very easy all while keeping your computer safe from malware by having a certification process in place that developers must pass in order be featured in the store. At this time some developers are a bit weary of using the new sandbox type system while others embrace it. The now “old” style desktop is a shell of what it used to be, but is still available in order to run legacy Windows applications.

Win8_1StartScreen
Windows 8.1