Thats right, there is now an official Qwerty controller for the Xbox 360. Now I know that the name of the keyboard does not have an ‘_’ in it. That however is not a problem because most people leave it off anyway 
Here is a question for you. How many people when looking at a keyboard think of me? 
Leave a comment below.
[Via Engadget pic from Engadget]
Everyday for next two weeks I will be bringing you ways to enhance you Tremulous skills, skills that I have learned/picked up from other ‘pro’ Trem players and worked out all on my own. Some of the articles may be influenced by the knowledge of other top Australian Tremulous players, in which case I will let you know and give credit where it is needed.
Dretching is just a term used when you are using the most basic of the alien units, the Dretch.
The Dretch are very weak life forms only having 25 hit points, but if used effectively, they can really set aliens up for a good game.
A common problem I see is that people are just running in and looking at the humans (opponents) legs. Dealing out only 24 damage on a non-armoured human. However if the Dretch looks upwards about 2/3 of the screen (approx head height) they can land in an attack dealing out 96 hp,(non-armoured human) that leaves the human with only 4 hp left another quick nip and hes down.
Download the demo of the Dretch foot attack to see how long it takes to kill the human.
To use the demo you must copy it into /tremulous/base/demos folder (if demos does not exist create it). Then to run the demo type the following code into the Tremulous console. (` will bring up the console.)
/demo dretchfoot.dm_69
The dretch foot attack demo will begin to play. See how ineffective it is.
Now download the demo of the Dretch Head attack to see how much faster it is to destroy the human.
Again copy into the base/demo folder, then run the following code.
/demo dretchhead.dm_69
I hope that from the two demos and you practicing the technique of looking up whilst dretching, you will see how effective the Dretch unit actually is.
Got any questions about Dretching be sure to leave a comment below.
For the next two weeks or so I will be bringing you a step by step tutorial on how to improve your Tremulous skills. I will update this post frequently so you can come here for the full run down of posts.
If you don’t know what Tremulous is about, and would like a rough overview of what Tremulous is then I suggest you read my Tremulous Review
I will use a variety of ways to help educate you on playing Trem, some of them will involve videos of actual in-game Tremulous footage to help give you a better idea of how to play better.
Other things will just be simple screen shots showing what I mean.
If I do show you game footage it will most likely be in the form recorded fresh from a Tremulous game. This is known as a demo, I will guide you through on how to play demo’s as the time comes.
This week has been a rather successful one for me, quite a few comments.
Madhur took out top spot this week. Madhur blogs about lots of things, topics on blogging, gaming, and lots of other misc things.
I found that his post on 48 Blogging Mistakes To Learn From was quite a good post and I suggest you check it out.
Madhur also has a rather informal post on how you can speed up your Windows Vista computer with the use of a simple USB flash drive.
Rory had quite a few good gaming related posts during the week, this one in particular about playing Nintendo games in your browser, might appeal to you.
Aniela has some ahh good posts if your interested in the latest fashions. If that interests you check out their blog.
Scot Smith of Meridiancrest has a great post on To Blog or Not to Blog.
Sutto, on his blog has a rather interesting comic he has made. Check it out here and lets hope tomorrow is not like this for you.
Arpit, has a post on gaming the social website Digg.
Thats it for this week’s blogosphere in review. Want to be apart of the blogosphere week in review, all you have to do is get in the top commentators. The top commentator for the week will be the feature of the blogosphere week in review.
Also I am cutting back the top commentators list to the top 4. So you better get commenting.
I don’t! I think that this product would be rather useless.
Our powerful Mii Manager software lets you edit your Mii on your PC. It�s a doddle to use. Just import your Mii into the editor, then edit it until your heart�s content. You can even share your Mii with Wii gamers from all over the world over the internet!
These are just a few of the questions I have.
Anybody else see much of a use for this, or have any questions about it?
The MMORPG based off The of The Rings story, will be free to play until April the 24th. After that you will have to (like most MMORPG’s) pay to play.
However, you will not be able to level up beyond level 15 during the world tour (time you can play for free). But its something for nothing so you can’t really complain.
If you don’t know what LORTO is all about then I suggest you read Internet Gamers.org’s post on their time with the game.
I think it’s quite a good marketing strategy letting you play for free for a few weeks. I guess that their idea behind it is that, if you start playing the game then like most MMORPGS you will get hooked and thus want to continue playing the game, therefore signing up and paying for it.
Gamerzines have just published issue 3 of HGZine a free online magazine for hand held platforms (DS, PSP mobiles etc).
Inside Issue 3 of HGZine:
The Wii blaster which is a gun for the Wii, will soon be arriving. Gamestop have it set to come out on the first of May priced at $19.99 (I presume US price).
I think the Wii is in need of a piece of equipment that lets you play FPS games in the manner that you would if you were shooting a real gun. We may as well take advantage of the controls the Wii has.
I got my brother to make a Lego Wii gun a few weeks back I should take some pics of it and post later. Thats if anyone is interested.
The picture of the ‘Wii Zapper” above is from Joystiq when they were at E3, at the time of this the Wii Zapper was still a work in progress, so who knows how far it has gotten along now.
[Via Joystiq pic from Joystiq]
GamerZines have just published 360Zine issue 5. If you don’t know what GamerZines are yet be sure to check one of my numerous GamerZines posts. This one about GamerZines issue 2 is a rather informative one.
“As well as the biggest previews, the issue features the most Gold Awards we�ve ever given out,” says Editorial Director, Dan Hutchinson. “It shows that the Xbox 360 is really getting into its stride and with some of the releases lined up for Q3 and Q4 this year, the battle with Sony�s PlayStation 3 is beginning in earnest.”
Inside this months Issue of 360Zine:
What are you waiting for download 360Zine Issue 5 today.
I was lucky enough to spend some enjoyable time playing World in Conflict (pre alpha edition) at the recent GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo. All I can say is wow, it’s an awesome game. World in Conflict I think will redefine the whole RTS genre with its very different attack on game play.
Nice nuke there.
First off what is World in Conflict all about? World in Conflict (WiC) is set during 1989, in West Germany where the Soviet Union are advancing into Europe, NATO responds to the attack only to be under fire from a second front. By this stage the Soviet Union, have made a diversion attack on the American homeland. In the single player campaign you are a field commander fighting to reclaim American cities and suburbs.
The graphics in WiC are absolutely amazing, words cannot describe how awesome they really are, and its only in pre-alpha so who knows how far they will go. One of the things I did notice was lacking in the pre-alpha is that when the tanks go over the bridge you will see in my video, they are not reflected on the water. Thats about the only criticism I have to give on the game though. The nukes are just awesome and when you move in and out of the nuked area your vision goes all black and white with lines moving around.
Go Go Go
WiC is underdevelopment by Massive Entertainment, and will be published by Sierra.
I feel that WiC will redefine the RTS genre with it’s new and original attack on game play (I certainly haven’t seen anything like it). Think of a hybrid between Battlefield and Command & Conquer, the RTS side of things in C&C and the holding of checkpoint game play style of Battlefield, effectively combines to create one fast intense game.
The controls in WiC are very different from what you would expect of an RTS, it took me a few minutes to work out what was going on, but once you have it worked out you can control your units easily and effectively.
In WiC you don’t use the mouse to change the part of the map you see but rather wasd, which is a very interesting new way of controlling an RTS game, I found this rather confusing at first seeing as traditional RTS games use the mouse to move the view screen around. Luckily Andy from Sierra was there and helped me out on getting things underway. Once the basics of the game have been grasped it’s very intuitive to play.
The menu that appears is also very helpful in terms of working out how to play the game.
One of the really cool things about WiC is the wide range of camera angles you can play the game from. Almost any angle you want. This is thanks to the MassTech Engine, which is propriety software of Massive it gives you full 360 range of camera movement, and lets you get right into the midst of battle almost like an FPS. Scrolling the middle button zooms you in and whilst holding down the middle button and using a combination of wasd you can move around the map like being a spectator in a FPS game, it’s fantastic!
WiC is not like your ordinary RTS in more ways than just the controls, for instance there is no need to sit around and build a base, your straight into the game starting off with resources that let you buy units straight off and start fighting.
You don’t even have to collect resources, you get a constant flow of resources that is controlled by the amount of territory you control. The more territory you have the more resources that come in.
Controlling territory is very much like taking checkpoints in Battlefield, you sit a unit on it and you take control, that simple. To get units onto the battlefield, you simply select your dropzone (where you want to deploy your units) select which units you would like, then click deploy. The units will then be air dropped onto the battlefield ready to fight!
WiC has four different battlefield roles, Air, Armour, Infantry and Support. Each role has its advantages. I only played as Armour since using tanks to destroy opponents really interested me, in light of things now I wish that I had tried out different roles. I did however, see the other roles in action though and the infantry units are very highly detailed. (Really good for a pre-alpha)
Destructible scenery, everything within WiC can be destroyed, even forests can be burnt down, giving a tactical advantage for getting units across a map. In the video footage I have you can see how my tanks actually push burnt out tanks out of the way when moving around.
Burnt out trees
WiC has got some great super weapons, that are not only extremely powerful, the damage that they cause is amazing from a graphics point of view. Nothing like seeing a nuke go off in WiC the graphics are far superior to C&C3, and any other RTS currently on the market.
In most RTS games you can’t join the game once it’s started, this however, is not the case with WiC as you can join a multiplay game at anytime. You can just jump into battle and immediately start assisting your team, to help take control of the map.
Whilst I was playing WiC at GO3 I had a nice little chat with Andy from Sierra, and the general gist of what I herd was that, there will be an open beta. Andy also said that there will be some new information about the game (something big I think) coming out within the next few weeks.
I know that I have missed something about this awesome game, there is so much to tell. Well worth getting at the end of this year, along with a new PC upgrade that will most likely be needed to play the game to it’s fullest.
WiC will be a new extremely tactical, fast and furious multiplayer game, that will diversify the RTS genre and start something new.
I am going to give the pre-alpha 8/10.
I am having trouble converting the video footage I have check back in a few days and I will have it all sorted.