.NET From India

Age of Empire Online

It has been quite sometime since the last Age of Empire came out. If I remember right it was the Asian Chiefs Expansion for AOE III a couple of years ago at least.

Now Microsoft Games has come out with a new version. The difference is that this is an online version and it is free to play!! Even though it is called Age of Empire Online, it actually requires an install (of around 60 MB) and also download a number of updates once installed. But it uses Live Online for Windows (equivalent of XBOX online for Windows Games) to store your games state and so you basically do not need to save anything on the local machine itself. But the catch is that you cannot save a game in the middle, but only save the state of your capital city.

Also this works on a free for initial play and then buy premium features. I just started playing last week and for people who have played any of the previous AOE version, most of the game play remains the same.

There are also quite a number of things that you can use only if you buy a premium pack and obviously that is where the money is..

Uninstall a patch

One of my co-MVPs pointed out to a recommendation from EA on one of their latest patch, "to uninstall a critical security patch" to get their game to run.

This is so surprising that I read the post multiple times, before I could believe it and this is in the readme of a recent patch!!

I can understand if your program is broken due to a security patch. You then go ahead and try and fix your application so as to work with that and then release a patch. But to release a patch and recommend users to uninstall a security patch for it is work, is surely not acceptable at all.

(Update: Looks like MS has has released a hotfix that makes it work with the game now)

PS3 goes further away

Looks like Sony had delayed the release of the much awaited PS3. At one time XBOX 360 and PS3 were the most awaited for devices and people were expecting them to be released at approx same time. The question was who would be able to get their device out first.

Now with PS3 expected in Nov 06, MS would have one year to gain a lead...

Sony delays PlayStation 3 launch

New Prince of Persia

BBC has a review of the new Prince of Persia - Warrior Within.

Still basking in the relatively recent glory of last year's Sands Of Time, the dashing Prince of Persia is back in Warrior Within, and in a more bellicose mood than last time.

Professional Gaming??

kuro5hin has a post on the future of professional gaming.

Being a gaming hobbyist I am usually quite not sure if I am to believe it when people talk about professional gaming. But this really surprised me:

So far, Korea is the only nation where the concept of E-Sports is fully realized, with China coming in a distant second. Blizzard's Starcraft has an immensely huge cult following in Korea, to a point where there are TV stations that air games during leagues and tournaments that are held on a regular basis. Being one a professional gamer in Starcraft earns you thousands a month, even if you are not the top of the crop, a reason professional Starcraft players from all over the world migrate to Korea and live there permanently.

Halo 2

A trailer video of Halo 2

via Jason

Rise Of Nations Expansion

I just bought the new expansion for Rise of Nations called the Thrones and Patriots. It adds a new nation, Indian to RON and I just played that first..:-)

The main city, the capital was named Delhi and that was nothing great. The next city, I expected would be named Mumbai or one of the metros and imagine my suprise when it was named Vadodara. And I was amazed when the third city I built was named Coimbatore. Coimbatore is an average sized south Indian city famouse for its textile Mills and also happens to be my home town.

I am really curious to know how the RON team got all the names for the cities for different nations.

Adaptive AI for Games

Yves Guillemot the boss of game studio Ubisoft talks about a new Adaptive AI, that they are developing for the next generation of games. This will allow the game to change itself according to the skills of the player.

BBC Article: Computer games learn new tricks

Quake in .NET

Quake was a game that created a whole new meaning to computer gaming. The people at vetigo softwares have created a managed version of Quake based on the id software's original C code. They have ported the code from C to managed C++, with hardly any performance hits.

That is quite an encouraging thing and another thing I need to check out. (Well Quake was never one of my favourite games though. I prefer the more sedate but more challenging strategy games..:-))

Thanks to Deepak for pointing this out to me... Dowload from Managed Quake here

Rise of the Nations

Got my Rise of Nations CD two days back. Have been playing it for two days. First thought, great graphics and a lot of options to keep the player in me interested. A lot more ages to develop and a lot more of technologies and weapons..

But something seems to be missing. I am not sure, but can it be it is too much like Age of empires?? I am not sure, but will blog it if I get it...

Surely worth palying and amd sure will give a lot of pleasure for some time, atleast till the Titans Expansion pack appears...:-)