OneButtonController.com

http://www.mortalonline.com/content/open-beta

I have been trying to get in but it looks like the patcher is down. Game looks like the spiritual successor to Ultima Online. Hopefully I will get a chance to play some this week.

Update: After DAYS of downloading and re-downloading the client and patches, I have given up. I finally got it to patch to the correct version and what do I get….Invalid version, please re-install game client. I GIVE UP! I have played plenty of buggy game beta’s but this might be the worst.

If you have the time and energy, it looks like there is an interesting game once you get past the patcher but for me I am done!

I am getting ready to purchase my 2010 Gencon badges and I was wondering if anyone else is coming.

If not, I plan on bringing a camera and HD video camera. What would you like me to focus on the first couple days? (I plan on taking pics and lurking the first couple days and then getting some gaming on the last couple days. )

Suggestions?

I have been gaming since the early 80’s and I could not tell you what half of these consoles are.

http://consollection.de/

See if you can do any better!

I started playing Bayonetta a couple days ago and I don’t know what words I can use to explain it other than…..WOW!

Anyone familiar with Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden games will feel right at home here. The combat system is tight but forgiving and the moves are insane. For anyone that has not heard about this game, you play a Witch who carries two guns (Normally) in her hands and two attached to her feet. As a character she is completely over the top but in a good way.

You are fighting “Angels” to appease the underworld so they don’t drag you to “Inferno”. Unlike most action games, the story actually seems interesting. That probably has more to do with the insane cut scenes and crazy supporting cast.

But the star of the show so far are the fights. Every fight seems epic in scope and I don’t have that feeling that I am fighting huge waves of low level enemies. Every enemy I have faced could kill you quickly if you go down the normal button mashing path.

The only issue I have had was in one area where there was a wall that you had to knock down by beating on on. Once you reached a certain level it would blow-up and then return. You would get a cryptic message stating that you need to use your “Temporal Witch” powers to get past. After about 10 minutes of messing around, I finally figured it out. (This was in the second level of the game)

1) Near the entrance to that area there are 2 statues. These 2 statues allow you to “lift” then and a 10 second timer starts.

2) Run as quickly as possible to the wall that you need to knock down.

3) Hit the button to “activate” the timer (X on the 360)

4) Then a lightning bolt from the sky begins to charge. You need to dodge this at the last minute to put you into Witch Time. (aka Bullet Time)

5) Now you have about 20 seconds to knock down the wall

6) Once you knock the wall down, you need to run through it before it solidifies back.

If you are slightly off on any of these steps, you will have to start all over again. I could understand a puzzle like this later in the game but I barely was through the tutorial at this point and was unaware of the terminology being used.

Other than some minor annoyances, this game is FUN! Expect a full review shortly.

On 1/2/2010 I purchased a copy of C&C: Red Alert 3 from Steam. For $10 I could not pass it up. Maybe I should have done a little more research…..

My main reason for purchasing it was for the Online Co-Op campaign.

The first thing I did after watching the intro (Which was awesome by the way) I attempted to get connected to a multiplayer game. Much to my surprise, I get an “Invalid CD-Key” error.

My first thoughts are that I need to enter a CD-Key somewhere and I managed to skip that step. After 20 minutes of searching online, emails and in the game, I realized that the CD-Key is only found by checking your registry.

I checked the support forums on Steam and found that I am not the only one that had an issue and it looks like this has popped up before. Based on what I found online, I needed to contact Steam support. Since I had never done this, I had to setup ANOTHER account with Valve to submit a support ticket. One of the questions that the support ticket asks for is the CD-Key (Which I do not have unless I want to dig through my registry).

I am currently running Windows 7 64-bit which made a couple of the guides I found online incorrect. So after some searching, I found my CD-Key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Electronic Arts\Red Alert 3\ergc

I am now ready to finally submit a support ticket. I copy and paste the CD-Key into the field and upon submitting the form I get “Invalid CD-Key”!!!! This is from Steam….(Or at least the support system) that I get this message. At this point I am just short of furious. I find it amazing that a game I bought a couple hours ago has an “Invalid CD-Key”! I decide to leave that field blank and then add the CD-Key to the message of the body.

So now begins my journey to find the one CD-Key to rule them all!

Stay tuned for updates as I traverse the realm of Customer Support and Digital Distribution. May god have mercy on my soul!

Update #1: Still no word from Steam support so I decided to do more digging. I found a link to an EA forum that states to reach out to Customer Service. http://forums.commandandconquer.com/jforum/posts/list/29390.page

I am waiting for their live chat customer service to answer. Will update shortly.

Update #2: Just got off the live chat and they are stating that I need to uninstall and reinstall. I figure…what the hell….might as well give it a shot.

Update #3: After some investigating, I found that the retail version has a 20 character key. I found a 32 character key. Maybe this is the problem? Not the problem.

Update #4: I uninstalled and reinstalled the game…..no dice. Surfing forums looking for a possible fix. Looks like I will have to wait until the experts get in tomorrow.

Update #5: I was looking at the wrong CD-Key. It is a 20 digit code not a 32 digit code. The 32 Digit code is the product id. Still no update from Steam, EA, or Valve.

Update #6: I sent a PM to EA_Panoptico on their support forums to see if I can get some more info…..I will keep everyone updated.

Final Update: After 48 hours of waiting, the issue was finally corrected. It looks like it was an issue between the game and the Gamespy servers.

I know I am a month later that all of the respectable gaming sites but I figured I would add my 2 cents. (With the way the USD keeps going, that saying will need to change to “Add my $3.50″)

Test Parameters:

I played the entire Single Player campaign on normal difficulty. I played on my Xbox 360. I played on-line and off-line game modes.

Likes:

1) Spec-Ops is awesome. I am a huge fan of Co-Op games and this is just amazing. There are 20 or so Spec-Ops missions. They range from Defense, Seach and Destroy, Evasion and Nuke it from orbit game modes. (A little more on that shortly) All of the missions were interesting and challenging. Add in multiple difficulty levels and this could last awhile. With more levels, this could be a game all to its self.

2) Hercules AC-130 gunship from Spec-Ops. One of the missions in Spec-Ops one player takes control of an AC-130’s guns and the other player is on the ground trying to get from point A to point B. I loved this from the first Modern Warfare and I love the ability to play this through with a friend. I had a ton of fun with my friends on this level.

3) The polish on this game is amazing. Every level is beautiful and really entertaining. The production values and pacing are top notch. The multiplayer is extremely smooth and almost no lag.

4) Multiplayer is top notch again. I can not say this enough but the game just feels right. If you played COD4, you will feel right at home. There seems to be more game modes and the matchmaking seems a little faster. There have been some changes to the kill streaks (Which I never cared for to begin with) that have changed the way the game plays but nothing I have seen that has hurt the balance of the game.

5) From boot to game takes no time at all. After your first time booting, you can get into a game in a matter of seconds. This can not be over stated. I hate having to wait through long boot screens to get into a game. As a father of 2 (Soon to be 3), my gaming time is limited. My gaming also has a lot of starts and stops so those loading screens add up.

Hates:

1) The single player story….WHAT?!!? The amount of plot “twists” made me sea sick. I believe the levels were all designed and then the writers were asked to piece it all together. It made no sense.

2) I hate unlimited spawning enemies until you reach a special area. It was not as bad in this game but if I just cleared an area, I don’t want to have the same 20 enemies popping back up because I had not moved to the next checkpoint in time.

3) Short single player. I believe it took about 7 hours for me to beat the single player.

Conclusion:

This game is perfect in so many ways. The lack of story and short single player could adversely affect my opinion. But the large amount of content and the polish given to that content has me loving this game. I hope they release more Spec-Ops missions via DLC and maybe some additional single player content. I strongly recommend a buy!

Score:

10 Oscar Mikes out of 10 Oscar Mikes

I am planning on picking up a game this weekend but I am not sure which one to grab. It is a toss-up between Borderlands, Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Assassins Creed 2. Modern Warfare 2 is leading the pack but I am not sure for how long.

Just got my invite….now what do I do? I plan on playing around more tonight.I currently have 5 invites that I will give out. The first 5 people who are registered users on this site who post in the comments will get an invite nomination. (It says that it takes some time for it to be sent so be patient)

I have been very busy this last week or so and have neglected this site. I have been busy playing Forza 3, finishing up Brutal Legend and started playing Mount & Blade again…..man that is a GREAT game. I plan on giving full reviews to Forza 3 shortly.

About 8:00 PM EST I noticed that I did not have a signal on my G1. After a couple minutes of messing around I started getting concerned that something larger was going on. My first thought might be due to a past due bill or maybe my daughter using my phone as a hammer.

I tried to get on the T-Mobile website and the damn thing would not load. After a couple searches on Google turned up nothing, I was lost. Then I ran over to Twitter and found T-Mobile to be a trending topic. It looks like there is a ton of people with the same problem!

So far there has not been a word from T-Mobile but I have my guess. I have a data plan on my phone and my wife has an unlocked Iphone with no data plan. Her phone works great and is currently on the phone with friends.

They better have this fixed by tomorrow morning since I use my phone mainly for work.

Oh I forgot…..nice job T-Mobile.

Edit 1: Looks like T-Mobile announced it was having problems on it’s Twitter account.

http://twitter.com/TMobile_USA

Edit 2: I got word that a factory reset helps with G1 voice issues. Gonna give it a try and update.

Edit 3: Factory Reset did nothing for my phone. All I get is “Your Sim card does not allow a connection to this network”. Since my wife has a perfect signal, I believe it has to have something to do with individual Sim cards.

Edit 4: New update from T-Mobile. They state that they are making progress…..http://ow.ly/z2hQ . I will believe it when I see it here.