Daily Archives: Friday, December 5, 2008

Videogames

Videogames | Good Old Games

By Aidan Moher December 5th, 2008

If you’re anything like me, and feel an undeiable sense of nostalgia for those countless hours poured into computer games back in your younger days, then Good Old Games just might be the best news you’ve heard all year.

Put together by the guys behind The Witcher (which is based on a series of novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski), Good Old Games was put together with the intentions of getting old, classic PC games out of the gutter and reworking them so that anyone can play them. For Cheap. On top of that, they hook you up with a lot of cool swag like Wallpapers, Artbooks, Soundtracks and Avatars all for free with the purchase of a game.

The games cost $5.99 or $9.99. Not a bad deal considering their catalogue includes Fallout, Fallout 2 (two of the greatest PC games of all time), Arx Fatalis and Freespace 2.

Here’s what they have to say about their project:

1. We’ve got games your 10-year-old won’t be better at.

GOG.com offers you critically acclaimed games from major publishers in every genre. Don’t let your kids mock the graphics; remind them that the classics never go out of style, unlike their totally wicked haircut.

2. So you’re cheap. It’s okay – we are, too.

For less than the cost of a lunch at some lousy diner you can own some of the greatest games of all time. No matter how big the file is and how successful the game was, you’ll leave the table satisfied that you got a great deal for your money. As an added bonus, our house specialities won’t make you sick.

3. You buy it, you keep it.

Don’t let your DRMs turn into nightmares (clever, no?). You won’t find any intrusive copy protection in our games; we hate draconian DRM schemes just as much as you do, so at GOG.com you don’t just buy the game, you actually own it. Once you download a game, you can install it on any PC and re-download it whenever you want, as many times as you need, and you can play it without an internet connection.

4. All games are Vista and XP compatible.

Thanks to our handsome programming team, the classics are now Windows Vista and Windows XP compatible. Now you can use your lightning-fast PC to unleash the full potential of those games you just couldn’t play properly on that busted old 386.

5. Extend the experience with tons of cool and exclusive add-ons.

Buying the game is just the beginning. With the purchase of any game at GOG.com you’ll also get some great additional materials for free, including game guides, walkthroughs, MP3 game soundtracks, wallpapers and more. No joke.

6. We’re bringing together classic games and a classy community.

Dive into the GOG.com community, share your love for the games and meet other gamers with the same passion for classic games as you. Rate and review every single game, discuss your favorite titles on message boards, get support for your games and help others. Who knows, maybe you’ll find that special someone.

7. It’s so easy, your gramma’s probably already playing.

GOG.com is so easy to use. We have an easy account setup, game installers as user friendly as can be and simple, fast and hassle-free downloads. Thanks to these features, you’ll need just a few clicks to get you on your way to playing some of the best PC games of all time.

Who are you guys?

Everyone at GOG.com is a gamer, just like you. We’ve combined our real-life love for classic games with the amazing virtual world of the intarnets to bring some of our favorite games to your PC, with nothing – except maybe our budget – holding us back from conquering the world through gaming.

Why do you sell old games? Are you stupid or something?

Well, it looks like you haven’t played the PC classics much. Maybe it’s some sentimental attachment or maybe the games back then were different? Maybe a little bit of both; regardless, the truth is that the all-time classics never go out of style and we know that. So don’t criticize; play the game like it’s 1995.

So get on over there and support the cause. If you run Windows XP or Vista, the games are sure to work on your computer, so you have no excuses. Fallout 2 for $5.99 is the deal of the year, if you ask me!

News

An Aside | LA Times on Brandon Sanderson and WoT

By Aidan Moher December 5th, 2008

The LA Times, not exactly known as a bastion of news concerning the world of speculative fiction, has posted an interesting, if not exactly informative (at least for fans of the series who have been closely following Sanderson’s involvement), article about Jordan’s death and the subsequent decision to hand over the reins to a relative unknown author in Sanderson.

“I’m relatively unknown as an author; I’ve only been published for a couple of years,” Sanderson said. “I did not know I was being considered.”

Indeed, the most prominent question on fan sites such as seemed to be: Who is Brandon Sanderson?

That question was met head-on by Sanderson as he began interacting with “Wheel of Time” fans both live and on the Web, and taking the time to introduce himself to those who were still new to his work.

“Overall, I’m absolutely thrilled that Brandon is the man for the job,” exclaimed Jason Denzel, site founder of Dragonmount.com. “It’s as if they picked the most talented fan they could find and handed him the series to finish.”

As confident as Denzel and the rest of the fans on his website have become in Sanderson, they admit that there remains a trickle of skepticism.

“The thing that we haven’t seen yet, and whether or not it can be pulled off, is if this book is going to feel like someone else wrote it or as if Robert Jordan wrote it himself,” said Denzel. “Our biggest worry is whether or not it’s going to have the feel of the rest of the series.”

Sanderson empathizes with the fans.

“I can’t do a better job than Robert Jordan. I can’t even do as good a job as Robert Jordan, I don’t think,” remarked Sanderson. “He’s the only one that could’ve done it the right way.”

Fortunately for fans, the author wanted to give them the ending they deserved, one written by him. During his last days, the writer began dictating onto a recorder how the prologue for the final book would play out, and feverishly scribbling down the ending he had kept stored away in his mind for the past 17 years.

You can read the whole article HERE. Of more note, though, may be Sanderson’s own blog where he keeps a continuous flow of news and anecdotes on the process behind finishing not only someone else’s story, but a story that has millions of people enraptured worldwide.

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