BRAAIIIINNSSSS…

That’s right, if every other game works, no virus/malware/spyware, hardware check or patch finds a single problem in the space of the universe. Then this is blizzard’s answer.

Since I’ve hopped onto Warhammer until WOTLK (or slightly before) and hooked up with a few FPM guildies, it should be a decent past time.  Anyway, a few things seem to pop up when you start playing.

1. Everything seems very quick, no grind like WOW.  Literally no downtime when doing anything.
2. PVP you can jump straight into it from the get go.
3. It’s all dumbed down, it’s an mmo-espresso.   It’s like DAoC without the massive depth, and of course doesn’t hold a candle to Eve-online.
4. Dwarves. Naked dwarves.

   
   

5. You thought WOW had spam? You were wrong!

   

6. Lots of little annoying things. Intro clips always have sound. You can’t skip them. EULA every single time you log in. By day two it’s already making my eye twitch, I’d hate to imagine what it’s going to be like by week 2.

So they forgot to include the game executable on the DVDs in Australia. Epic fail.

Due to the previously communicated problems with the installation of Warhammer Online Standard Edition, we are pleased to announce that we have located the file that was corrupted. The file is available for download from the link below. Instructions for installing the patch:

download the patch from http://ll.cdn.static.jp.eaplay.com/u/f/eacomasia/ea.com/files/patches/warpatch.exe
drag it into the program file where you had saved the install
click on the patch
enter login and password
run download
then click play

We apologize for any inconvenience caused.

It seems to be the year for overhyped games, that just end up as terribly horrible pathetic excuses for what the game companies would like to try and call a game.

It took me less than a day in between doing house chores to complete the game.

It’s like I’m playing a game on the old xbox/ps2. That’s what the graphics quality is like out of cut scenes.  They’re chunky, blocky and the characters walk like the proverbial drug dealer after a bad encounter with airport security.

The game in Apprentice mode difficulty makes this unbalanced game just bearable.  Barely. Get knocked down once?  Guess what’s that’s game over as you’ll get knocked down over and over and over and over and over and over and over.  Let’s not mention the hulk smash purge troopers.

Did they even play-test the goddamn game. Darth Vader fight, I tested it and got myself suspended in the air for at least five minutes before I got bored of spamming the O button.  Gotta bring down a destroyer? No problems. If. And I stress IF you don’t hurt yourself trying to destroy the TIE fighters.

Then let’s not mention repetitive.  Gotta kill wave after wave after wave after. Well you’d wish there was some variation. In fact the same planets are repeated twice with the same enemies.

Oh and annoying.  Climb up and up and up, oh whoops you jumped onto a slope. Back down all the way you go.  Let’s not mention a certain stomach wind which keeps on blowing you back lest you accidently stick your nose out in the way.

Don’t buy this game.

But I forgot to take photos of most of the zones, so you will just have to take my word on aforementioned travels. Either that or I will upload some more later on.

Stay tuned for some Warhammer Online screenies.

Word getting around the water cooler is there are some preferences that are available for change to reduce the number of RSI and tourettes inducing events.

That way you shouldn’t have to rage back across the Galaxy to shoot a couple of ships down for your completely incapable Empire who deems that you should be the only spaceship for the other Empires’ 50gazillion* ships.

[spoiler /See all the cheats by clicking here/ /Hide the cheats/ ]

1. Go find your Spore’s directory. It should be located in your applications directory.eg. C:\Documents and Settings\<<USERNAME>>\Application Data\SPORE\Preferences
   
2. Make a backup (make a copy) of your original preferences.prop file.
   
   
3. Open the file preferences.prop and add some of the lines to the end, where x is the set variable of your choice.  Using Notepad is probably the easiest way to edit this file.universeSimulatorPirateRaidFrequency x
   universeSimulatorPirateRaidAllyFrequency x
   universeSimulatorPirateRaidPlunderFrequency x
   universeSimulatorHappinessDisasterFrequency x
   universeSimulatorBiosphereCollapseFrequency x

   Some other potential things to play around with.

   universeSimulatorGrobTeaseAttackFrequency x (default:100)
   universeSimulatorGrobWarAttackFreqExtremelyAware x (default:40)
   universeSimulatorGrobWarAttackFreqVeryAware x (default:80)
   universeSimulatorGrobWarAttackFreqAware x (default:160)
   universeSimulatorWarAttackFrequency x (default:300)

   0 should disable the given event normally.

4. Save the file.
5. These apparently can be entered during the game the same you can enter Spore’s cheat system by pressing ctrl+shift+c, but then you’d have to do that all the time and Spore gives you enough RSI as it is.  On the subject of console cheat entry, entering “help” should bring up the list of all the available cheats.

[/spoiler]

Also got word from EA game support on Spore crashing a little too often. Not that it’s very helpful for me but might work for other people.

Hi Jort,

It might be worth trying the Nvidia beta drivers that have solved a lot of issues for folks.

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx?lang=en-us

Regards,
EA Support

If like me you have been blessed with Spore’s excellent saved game feature of giving you only one saved game. Then only to find at some stage become stuck with a broken saved game, where by it crashes every time you load it. There is some hope.

1. Go find your Spore’s saved games. It should be located in your applications directory.

   eg. C:\Documents and Settings\<<USERNAME>>\Application Data\SPORE\Games

2. There should be a folder called Game0 (or similarly otherwise) as well as a folder Games0.old (again similarly otherwise).   Copy the folder Game0 to a spare location, as backup in case it doesn’t work.
3. Open the .old folder of the relating saved game you’ve just backed up.
4. Copy all the contents of this folder into the normal folder (eg. Games0) and overwrite all the files in there.
5. Load up and Spore, and check out when you saved your game previously.

Of course this may not work for everyone. Also it’s somewhat dependent on your saving habits.

Best of luck. Or not.

UPDATE: If you can’t find your “Application Data” folder. Go up to your menubar and go Tools -> Folder Options. From there go to the View tab.  Go down and look for the Hidden files and folders option. And select “Show hidden files and folders” from the radio buttons. That should then make the hidden “Application Data” folder visible.

I said I’d have a nice writeup of the spore game with pictures. Unfortunately my game’s locked up due to some screwed up bug, and as such there’s no progressive individual saved game option so I’m stuck with my one broken saved game.

Spore. So far, very disappointed. Will post some more up later on.

My advice, skip the game and go anything not-EA.