Gawain mentioned this game not to long ago. The video he linked to was just the middle of Will Wright’s presentation from the GDC of 2005. I’ve been lucky enough to have been following this game since Gaming Steve first posted about it. Below is the uncut video:

The game is called Spore. It’s one of those must haves to me. Check Gaming Steve now and then for updates on this game.

I’m sorta playing Dark Age of Camelot again. I just keep coming back to it. It’s Come Back to Camelot time again. Not like me to turn down something free. So it’s the life of a mid for me this time out:

Which was something I didn’t want to do. I associate mids as those nasty bogey men under the bed in a child’s feverish imagination. I guess getting your ass handed to you as much as it seemed like we did on Bors you just start to hate those rat bastards. And it’s no coincidence that Gawain is playing it too. In fact I blame it all on him. Stealing me away from my horse.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has gone gold! Here is the press release:

Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games Announce
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to Ship March 20

Quintessential RPG for the Next Generation Coming to Xbox 360 and PC

Rockville, MD – March 2, 2006 – Bethesda Softworks® and 2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), today announced that the highly-anticipated role-playing game, The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivion has gone to gold master and will be available in stores in North America and Europe during the week of March 20. Oblivion will be available for Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC in both regular and collector’s editions.

“Our most ambitious project ever is finally done,” said Todd Howard, executive producer of Oblivion. “We’re excited to get the game into everyone’s hands and let them experience it for themselves. We hope they enjoy it. I think it’s our best game yet.”

Oblivion is an epic, open-ended single-player RPG for the next generation providing gamers with one of the most life-like gaming experiences to date. The powerful combination of unprecedented graphics and freeform gameplay allows gamers to unravel the main quest or explore the vast world at their own pace. Oblivion is the fourth chapter in the award-winning Elder Scrolls series that includes Morrowind® (2002 RPG of the year – Computer Gaming World), Daggerfall (1996 RPG of the year — PC Gamer), and Arena (1994 RPG of the year – Computer Player).

“Oblivion will set the new standard for next generation gaming and change the way role-playing games are viewed forever,” said Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks. “We set very high goals and ensure they are reached because that is what our fans deserve and have come to expect from Bethesda Softworks. We are very proud of our team’s accomplishments with respect to Oblivion.”

Oblivion has already garnered numerous awards and an impressive collection of accolades, including being voted “RPG of Show” in 2005 by the Best of E3 Game Critics Awards. Oblivion ranks as one of the “Most Anticipated Games of 2006” according to PC Gamer, GameSpy, IGN, and Yahoo Games among many others, and has been featured on nearly thirty magazine covers worldwide.

“Oblivion is one of the most anticipated video games of 2006 and its release will be a milestone for the Xbox 360 and PC,” said Christoph Hartmann, Managing Director, 2K Games. “A shining example of next-generation role-playing, Oblivion breaks new ground in the genre with unparalleled graphics, revolutionary gameplay and an expansive RPG world.”

Oblivion for Xbox 360 and PC, co-published by Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games, has been rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB.

Hurray!

When I built my new computer I used the recommended system requirements (listed in the faq) for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion as my guideline. They released some new screenshots and I snagged them up:

If you never played any of the previous games (last one was Morrowind) the easiest way to describe the game is that it is a mmorpg without all the other people to bother you. It looks hot and everytime I read a preview I get all giddy with excitement. The rumor mill says this one will be out in late March.

Imagine a good Star Wars rts for a moment. Imagine a rts with 3d accelerated graphics that didn’t have fucked up camera control and many other problems. Push back the bad memories of that other one and pretend that this time it will be different. Star Wars Empire at War will be different. The demo is out right now and you can get it at the usual places.

The game is exactly what you would expect. No tricky camera angles and 360 degrees of freedom in the space battles. Which is not a bad thing at all. This is a real time strategy game that has a pedigree that is hard to over look. Empire at War is being made for LucasArts by a developer called Petroglyph. Take a look at the companies about us page to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

The demo lets you try out the set of tutorials and a sort of skirmish mode. You will want to go through the tutorials just to get used to the games way of doing things. The full game will also come with some sort of campaign when it ships in February. It looks good and plays good. It is quite a beast if you try to run everything on high and you don’t have an up to date system. But it does allow you to tweak quite a bit of the details so you can get the game to run good even on the older systems. The readme.txt has all of the details if your interested in the actual system requirements.

Nothing like getting your ass kicked first thing in the morning. I get home wait for the servers to go up and I get to have my ass kicked by someone 20 levels above me named Pyrrhus! You just can’t understand how excited it makes me feel about the PvP in City of Villains. This roleplaying fuck named Pyrrhus was having himself a field day pounding the shit out of us lower level types. Check his bio and list of powers. His goddamn list of badges goes off the screen.

For an example of some ass kicking in the game be sure to check out Gawain’s video:

(Right Click and Save As)

It also should be mentioned that me and Gawain have joined the Penny Arcade guild Power’s Allegory/Affliction. This being the second guild I’ve been a member of outside of the Acolytes of Destruction. So far they appear to be a nice bunch and I think we will fit in.

So this is the start of my vacation officially as I requested it. Once again the sheriff took it upon himself to give me something other than I asked for. Nice of him, but not what I requested. Makes me wonder if this is his idea of kissing my ass so I’ll be the helpful employee. Because that won’t ever happen without a raise and back pay.

So far I spent the morning of the first day of my vacation playing City of Villains with Gawain. We both made it to level 26 and I have six pets now. Here are some screenshots of the highlight of this morning:

The last two pics show the mission we were on. We happened to both lag out of the goddamn thing as we were trying to kill the arch villain that had just killed us moments before. So close. It was decided that breakfast was in order and we would try again at lunch time. What a vacation!