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Wednesday, July 21, 2004
When the time limit expires, a giant sneaker fills the screen
So, while I’m thinking about virtual CCGs that cross card gaming with established computer-gaming genres: Magnant is a real-time strategy game driven by card play. The CCG haters among you will be happy to know that any and all actual trading is not implemented yet. The geeks among you might be interested to hear that the engine driving the RTS portion of the game is open source - the Mac users will note that the above means the game is cross-platform. Plus, it’s got ants. You like ants, don’t you? [Update: there is not, in point of fact, a Mac version yet. The engine is portable, so it should happen, in theory.]
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Werewolf relaunch delayed to February
Originally planned for a November release, White Wolf’s Werewolf relaunch, Werewolf: The Forsaken, is now scheduled to arrive in February ‘05. Why the delay? According to Ken Cliffe, White Wolf’s Vice President of Editing and Development, “All of us have been working flat-out on Vampire, and it became clear to us that with Werewolf set to come out only two and a half months after Vampire, it was at risk of getting second-hand treatment. That wasn’t acceptable.” Bravo. Watch for teasers in the next White Wolf Quarterly, and keep your snarls of frustration to a minimum, Werewolf: The Forsaken will be along soon.
Cue the Odd Couple theme: Palladium Books and Nokia share presence at Gen Con
Now this is just weird: Palladium will be sharing their Gen Con booth with Nokia - yes, the Finnish cell phone empire and makers of the thus-far lackluster game deck N-Gage. The form-factor problems with the N-Gage have been at least partially solved, but the bigger problem was a games selection so utterly mundane as to interest no one. Nokia appears to have swung to the other extreme - they’ll be previewing a Rifts RPG for N-Gage. I think it’s fair to call Rifts fans a niche market within a niche market - but I suppose if Nokia hits enough niches, and finally fires up the online play that the N-Gage cries out for, they might have something. (As an aside, I bet their new hire had something to do with this booth-share.) I think it’s unlikely we’ll see online play out of this game, or indeed anything other than a demo video, but one thing’s for sure: Rifts for N-Gage will have characters that’d snap your neck like a toothpick if you so much as say “side-talkin’.”
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Essen 04: if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
GameFest has an Essen ‘04 preview that is mostly kind of perplexing. It’s meant to collect all the details for all the pre-announcements of board and card games coming out this year at Germany’s preeminent game fair, but sometimes the details are pretty sketchy. Some highlights: a European-map version of Spiel des Jahres winner Ticket to Ride, Eagle Games’ less-combat-oriented Bootleggers, a new standalone Carcassonne game, and plenty of upcoming action from Rio Grande and Uberplay.
But running them down in a burnt-out Hummer is no challenge!
Phil Reed, who among his other fine qualities has the distinction of being the very first financial contributor to OgreCave (he gave us a dollar!), has released a new PDF RPG called MotoCaust. I was disappointed to learn that it has little to do with motocross, the retro sport of the decade. Instead, it’s all about Mad Max crossed with Night of the Living Dead. Run and gun those zombies down, with a three-stat system (not to be confused with Tri-Stat) that appears to be d10-based. Peep the demo PDF, which mainly comprises fiction with dirty words in it, and some hot Christopher Shy artwork.
Saturday, July 17, 2004
New Line snags Vampire: The Requiem option
ICv2 has reported that New Line Cinema has optioned the rights to make feature films based on White Wolf’s upcoming release, Vampire: The Requiem. How this will impact that ongoing lawsuit between White Wolf and Sony Pictures over the movie Underworld remains to be seen. Hey, maybe the entire World of Darkness relaunch next month is just an attempt to recreate the game world as something that hasn’t been ripped off by a Hollywood director… Sorry, don’t mind me. It’s the cold medicine talking.
Friday, July 16, 2004
The prequel to Catan… of Catan
Candamir: the First Settlers is a new game by Klaus Teuber, author of The Settlers of Catan. Candamir will indeed be a prequel - the story of the very first settlement in the land of Catan. Due in October in Germany and who knows when in the States, it’s a standalone game with its own mechanics. It’d be particularly interesting if it also fed into Settlers somehow as a subgame or even a simultaneous-play thing, but maybe I have too much third-edition Talisman on the brain and just want to see something fit into the corner of something else.
Laws harps on LARPs
In his latest installment of See Page XX, Robin Laws points out the enormous popularity of LARPs in Hollywood these days (go on, think about it. I’ll wait). Laws goes on to compare TV’s version to the game convention version, with some interesting conclusions. In particular, he makes this statement: “I can see the creation of a cash-prize LARP circuit as a serious business opportunity for someone with the capital and vision to make it work.” Perhaps intentionally, Laws doesn’t mention True Dungeon, which has had player eliminations and significant prizes for a lucky winner from the get-go. Of course, True Dungeon doesn’t want to be called a LARP, so never mind.
Then again, it works for Games Workshop
Open letter to whoever’s in charge of the D&D Miniatures web presence: uh, it might be kinda good to have a PDF of the Quick Start rules booklet from the Entry Pack up there? You know, seeing as how the Entry Pack is now out of print, and the next packs that are going to have the rules in them have yet to be printed. Right now, the only way for a prospective new player to obtain the game’s rules is to buy the hardback Miniatures Handbook for $30. This is what some might consider a disincentive. Just a thought.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
My God… it’s full of… well, you know
I don’t think I ever mentioned that the Star Chamber folks had a booth at Origins, pimping the first expansion (at least I’m pretty sure the other title they toss around - which is “Origins,” confusingly enough - refers to their starting card set) to their CCG/4X masterpiece. The new card set, “Incursions,” even features two cards by Gabe of Penny Arcade. I had a great time playing this one back in the day and plan to peep out this new set. I remember back when those poor bastards who were trying to revive the old online-CCG Sanctum always had a presence at Origins… sorry, boys, but it does help when you have a coherent game to begin with. Star Chamber’s first-play experience is so much better it’s not funny.
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