April 2002

April 28, 2002

Mileposts

5:57 AM EST

Happy Sunday everyone! Just wanted to point out two pretty cool mileposts that are about to be achieved or have recently been achieved. Stronghold Heaven has had its 100,000th visitor seige its site! As usual at HeavenGames, it's a combination of great content, great activities and, of course, great fans and staff that are to thank for that. Naturally, the developers and their enchanting products and forum contributions as well as other forms of support should not be forgotten to say the least! A big thank you to all of you!

The second milepost will be achieved by the 5000th visitor or so who comes to get the latest news right here. She or he will push the HG counter to 600k. :-)

April 21, 2002

HeavenGames

Quick Comments on Age of Wonders Beta Demo

1:20 AM EST

It's refreshingly wonderful! Sure, it has some graphics glitches, like my desktop's hidden toolbar keeps on flashing at me during gameplay but that's probably because I'm playing on a Sony Viao FX 120 portable, but all else seems to be working properly. It is after, all, a beta demo.

I love the opening graphics: shades of blue and icy, lozenge-like buttons projecting clearly out of the dark set the mysterious tone. The battle zoom, as I like to call it, gives you full control of the individuals comprising your war party. Once you learn to click twice to get members of the war party to execute your battle orders, the rest of gameplay is extremely intuitive. After just a few hours of testing, this one is already on my 'must have' list.

April 19, 2002

HeavenGames

Dizzying Downloads!

1:42 PM EST

Do we have sharp staff or what? In the last 24 hours we have had the links up for a beta download for Age of Wonders and the demo for the equally greatly awaited Dungeon Siege. Grand job AoWH and DSH crews! Be sure to download them both, enjoy and then give Draco, FarmGirl, other HG staffers and the developers your opinions in the forums.

Be warned however, the downloads weigh in at an awesomely hefty 183 and 96 megs respectively. It took my ADSL connection about 40 minutes to trickle AoW from down under after I waited for about 20 minutes to start downloading and just under one hour to land the big whopper of a demo. It was worth it because guess what I'm going to be doing this weekend.

April 1, 2002

HeavenGames

April Fools!

6:57 AM EST

No one has caught me asleep yet but today is the day in many countries in which you are either foolin' or gettin' fooled, so watch yourselves! I know that especially in Holland some of the pranks can really get out of hand (usually preying on one of the country's major cultural icons: frugality).

My 5-year-old, Carolina, and 7-year-old, Natascha, have both been trying their hand at Stronghold. My 10-year-old, Lina, is still creating ideal families with the Sims. Carolina is the 'laissez faire' type who loves to build all and a lot of it. To her it doesn't matter that cesspits are within wafting distance of other forms of torture and punishment. It all adds to the colour and bustle of her village that just needs these things so that her Escher-like requirements can be met. Like most artists, she is oblivious to the suffering.

Natascha, the pragmatist, drifts over to the computer and informs her little sister that under no circumstances are any of the peasants to be tortured save but one: if any segment of the bread-baking process is threatened by lazy bones, you have license to string 'em up high. No cold and stale bread for that young princess.

It's a real treat to watch kids play in the sand box mode. They are so adept at finding balances if things are not going right. They can even explain pretty complicated aspects of the economic model and accept the rules of supply and demand, happy denizens and unhappy ones so much faster than any economics class could teach them. The best part: they don't even know they are learning advanced concepts because of all the fun they are having. Now that's my idea of a virtual school!