My Corner of the Interweb

Here Comes The Storm

Mood: Good.
Music: There's More To Life Than This, Bjork
Game: Brothers In Arms
Book: America's Longest War, The US & Vietnam 1950-1975, George C. Herring
Muffin: I was hungry. I had a bagel. Should have bought a muffin.
Punchline: I did my taxes, and they owe ME money.

Did my taxes last night, as World of Warcraft was down all night (and is still down, actually.) The server burdens are getting worse, not better...and they keep letting people make characters on these servers. I'm starting to wonder if they're thinking rationally. They think they're plateauing...they're not.

Anyway, probably not bad for me to have spent a day not playing World of Warcraft. Played Brothers in Arms instead. Got it for my birthday.

Doesn't suck...but it's not quite what I had invisioned. I was hoping for a good first person shooter...and instead, it's more like "Full Spectrum Warrior" set in WWII. Same concept...fix fire to suppress, then flank and kill.

The voice acting is great, and it's always pleasant when a game isn't afraid to use profanity in good dialogue, rather than gratuitous cursing. The missions are apparently drawn from actual action reports of this platoon during the D-Day invasion, and they did a ton of research taking pictures and such to match the environments to real life.

The firing itself is a bit odd...no crosshairs, of course...and iron sights work...sorta. There are no healthpacks, power ups, or anything like that...which plays into the whole "You don't find healthpacks in a war" and I KIND of like that. You aren't going to run and gun this game...you WILL get shot.

The enemy AI is pretty good...and the enemy models and uniforms are great. The graphics are pretty good, really, and it's not as if the game is bad...but like I said, it's just that I was hoping for a good WWII mission-based first person shooter. Instead, I'm busy maneuvering squadmates, telling them to fix fire and such...it's OK.

I think I need to find another game to play. World of Warcraft is very fun...when it's up...which isn't often lately. Have to admit I'm sorta disappointed that at this late date, the servers aren't more stable. I'm sure there are business flacks saying "Well...let's say we double the number of servers...what are we going to do when we lose all these customers in a year?" They're undoubtedly playing the "How much can the userbase stand?" vs. "The cost of the proper fix." The longer they go without buying hardware, networking, and so on, the more profits they make.

I think they're misjudging the adoption curve of their software, and the user behavior. People are running alts on other servers because their server is down...and that's adding to the burden. Not decreasing the burden.

In any case, like so many other people...if I can't play it, I'll play something else. But what?

My birthday is Sunday, and since people have asked me what I want for my birthday: EBGames gift certificates are perfect, thanks! Maybe if I get enough of them, I can buy the PSP I'm having extreme difficulty trying to avoid. (By the way, thanks Firethorn!)

Posted by Glenn at March 30, 2005 09:55 AM