Merry Christmas from all of me to all of you

The great Pagan holiday, known in Christian countries as Christmas, is upon us once again, ready to smother us with inappropriately large sized servings of food and piles upon piles of meticulously wrapped gifts.

I hope that you will all have a great Christmas and that Santa has left a little science fiction present underneath the Christmas tree, whether it be in the form of a video game, a movie, a book or something else entirely.

I myself have asked Santa for a shiny new copy of Anno 2070, though how I'll find time to play it in between Old Republic and my extended Christmas feasting sessions I don't know.

What will Futurama Santa bring us this year?

I will be spending Christmas with my family, but I should still be able to keep up posting here on the site, so please do check back in and see what's up, if you get a chance to make your way onto the interwebs.

So Merry Christmas and best wishes to everyone from me here at Light Speed Gaming!



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Commentated Alderaan PvP Video - I'll melt your face with lightning!

I've already dumped more hours into Star Wars: The Old Republic than probably any other game that I've played in 2011. I'm really enjoying the game so far, even if it can't quite match the addictive qualities of WoW (can anything really be expected to recapture that feeling again, though?).

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you my first experience of the PvP battleground system in Old Republic. So I give to you this video of me noobing around the Alderaan PvP battleground and trying to violently burn my republic enemies into a crisp, through the use of Force lightning.

I hope you'll excuse the slightly too loud sound effect volume in the video. I had some technical issues with the recording, but I hope you can still manage to hear most of my commentary.

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Is all fair in love and games marketing? - 3 nasty trends in games marketing

I'm sure that a lot of people have a distinct dislike for marketing people. A dislike that is only topped by their dislike for lawyers or having an ice pick wedged in their eye socket.
I myself have a fairly positive view on marketing workers and their trade in general. I understand the need to drive sales for a product and that this practice will sometimes create situations that can perhaps be a little obnoxious or a small hassle for me as a consumer.

But I must say that certain trends that I'm starting to see in video games marketing has made me question if we're starting to reach a point where the marketing decisions are starting to really hurt the games and the people that are going to play them?

Using highly advanced word alchemy, I have condensed my complaints into three main categories that I feel sum up fairly well, what my issues with the current game marketing situation is and why I think they are negatively impacting the games being made.

1) Preorder Bonuses

Getting a lot of preorders is great. Firstly, it's a lot of guaranteed revenue for your company that will come in as soon as you release your game, and secondly, it is also a great figure to brag about (if it's high) and show the world how great your game must be since so many people have already ordered it without it even being out yet.

One way of increasing the number of preorders that your game gets is by creating a "preorder bonus". Something in the game that will only be available to consumers that placed a preorder on the game.
If you look at it in a positive light it is the game company's way of saying thank you to the fans for preordering and believing in the game. If you take a more cynical view it is a way to sucker people into laying down a deposit for a game of unknown quality by promising them a slightly different looking gun/costume/hat etc.

Anyway, my gripe is not as much with the preorder bonuses themselves. I think that it's alright to reward your most dedicated fans a little. What I mind is the practice that is becoming more and more common, where every retailer has their own specific preorder bonus.
Want the silver machine gun? Preorder at Best Buy. Oh, you want the purple striped hand grenades? That's an Amazon preorder bonus.

This got completely out of hand with "Batman: Arkham City", which had so many different preorder bonus arrangements that there are entire dedicated web pages that explain where you need to go to get which preorder bonus!

So many... Batmen? Batmans?

Not only does this mean that some people that preorder may feel cheated when they discover that there was actually a much cooler preorder bonus at another retailer than the one they placed their order in. It also means that the people that care the most about getting all the content for your game will be unable to get it unless they place multiple preorders (now I'm sure some marketing people would actually like them to do just that, but I'd also like those same marketing people to spontaneously combust and go out in a massive fireball of aggregated greed and pure evil, but that's probably not gonna happen either).

Of course, you'll most likely be able to get your hands on all the preorder bonus content later...by buying it as paid downloadable content (DLC). That's right, kick those preordering fans right in the nutsack by taking away the one identifier they have of being dedicated fans.

Announcing the winner of a Fallout: New Vegas

My giveaway of a Steam copy of the game Fallout: New Vegas has ended and it's time to pick a lucky winner.

There were several interesting great sci-fi experiences of 2011, from the movie "Inception", to the audio book version of the Star Wars book series "Fate of the Jedi", or even a blast from the past from a reader that just watched the 1997 movie "Contact" for the first time.

Another very interesting top sci-fi moment from "DC" was the movie "Another Earth"

But I ended up picking a comment that really tickled my inner sci-fi geek. Oasis789 nominated the convention "Singularity Summit", which is a convention for high profile speakers to discuss the possibilities of the future.

In particular, Oasis 789 pointed out the lecture given by Stephen Wolfram, of Wolfram Alpha fame, where he discussed, among other things, such sci-fi sounding concepts as computational equivalence and the inevitable unlocking of human immortality and it's impact on society.

PS Vita launches in Japan -321.000 units sold in two days

The PS Vita, Sony's PSP successor launched a few days ago and Reuter's is now reporting that the handheld gaming system sold 321.000 units during the first two days of it's availability to the Japanese buyers.

This is a little lower than what the latest handheld from Nintendo, the Nintendo 3DS managed to do, as it sold 371.000 units in the first to days of it's launch in Japan.

The new Uncharted game on the PS Vita is probably the biggest draw for me

I've previously looked at the PS Vita and put forward why I think that it will not manage to be a big success.
I believe that the time for expensive single purpose gaming devices has passed, and while the PS Vita is packing some very impressive hardware and even looks to have a pretty strong launch line-up, I think it is going to be a small hardcore minority that is going to be willing to lay down so much money for a PS Vita, when they can enjoy a pretty decent gaming experience on their smartphone.

Having said that, I have yet to decide if I will or will not be part of that small hardcore minority that purchases one of these systems. As a huge gadget lover there is a lot to like about the PS Vita, and I might just end up giving in to my gadget lust and get a Vita when it launches around the end of February.

This is a mistake I've done once before. I bought a Nintendo DS and I probably played a total of 20 hours on the system before it ended up as a space filler in a drawer. Hopefully, if I do end up getting myself a PS Vita, it will see significantly more use than my poor neglected DS.

It will be interesting to follow the sales development on the PS Vita and see if my doomsday prophecy on high-end handheld gaming systems will turn out to be true, or whether consumers are still ready to pay a large lump of money for the ability to have a "true" gaming experience on the go.



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4 tips to have 100.000 credits by level 25 in Star Wars: The Old Republic

Money makes the world go round, they say. This is true even a long time ago in a galaxy far far away in the game of Star Wars: The Old Republic, where money not only makes the world(s) go round, but will also enable you to go round the worlds faster, by buying yourself a ground vehicle as soon as you hit level 25.
Not to mention being able to expand your inventory holding capacity or just picking up a nice new piece of gear or mod from the auction house when you really need to.

So you'll want to get your hands on some credits in SWTOR and I'm gonna tell you how. At level 25 I had amassed just around 100k credits in game, and I had still bought every single skill available to me as I leveled up, and even expanded my inventory space twice (that's a total cost of 25k credits alone).
This meant that as soon as I got back to the Imperial fleet, I could go train the first speeder skill and buy my very first speeder, allowing me to ride in style and separate myself from those filthy filthy poor people that were still travelling using their feet.
How quaint!

My inventory (expanded twice) brimming with items to sell and my cash balance looking good

So tell us, oh rich one, how can we also amass these piles of currency and be part of that elusive 1%?
Well, I'll tell you. My tips are simple and straightforward, but judging by the amount of people that were complaining about lacking money for a speeder, they are not heeded by a lot of the player population.


1. Gathering skills are key

In SWTOR you're allowed to pick three crew skills, of which only one can be a crafting skill. But there's no rule that states that you *must* pick one crafting skill. Instead of going for two gathering skills and one crafting skill you should pick three gathering skills instead.

I suggest you pick Bioanalysis, Scavenging and Archaeology.
Why these three? Well, all these gathering skills are skills that you can use out in the play areas. You'll find nodes that can be gathered for all of these skills and for Bioanalysis and Scavenging you'll even be able to gather resources off some of your slain enemies. That means that you'll be able to get materials for 0 cost, so the sale of them is 100% profit straight into your pocket!

I've seen a lot of people advocating the advantages of Slicing, which is more aimed at straight up bringing in money directly, without the need for the middle step of having to sell an item to another player.
The big issue I see with Slicing is that it's not going to be corrected for inflation. That is, you'll always get X amounts of credits for a Slicing mission of a certain level, but the price of crafting material Y is going to increase as the economy gets going and players grow wealthier.

Saints Row: The Third Review - Please hold still while my pimp friend slaps you with his giant purple dildo bat

As I slam my VTOL jet into hover mode, I hear the targeting tone indicating that I’m locked on to the tank that has just emerged from around the corner of the street. I hold down the fire button and let loose with a volley of missiles before I climb out of the cockpit and jump out into a dramatic free fall.

I pop my parachute and look for my gang, which is already waiting for me on the ground. There’s my purple ninja guy, my fat luchador wrestler and my good friend the black pimp, who only speaks in auto-tune sentences powered by his golden microphone staff. Making my graceful landing, I pull out my giant purple dildo bat. It’s clobbering time!

Saints Row: The Third is a game that is crazy and stupid in all the best possible meanings of those words. It is the Monty Python and the Holy Grail to GTA IV’s King Arthur. There is barely a serious moment in the entire game, and yet the story still manages to be engaging and make you care about the main characters, which is perhaps Saint Row’s biggest win and surprise. 

Oh, aside from the story there are also quite a lot of scantly clad women, or "bitches", in this game...

You would imagine that a game that is constantly hitting you with one over the top ludicrous mission setting after the next would be all about the showpieces themselves, and not care much for making an attempt at getting the player invested in the characters themselves.

Now granted, we’re not talking storytelling that is on par with something like we’ve seen in “To The Moon” (sorry I keep plugging this game, but you really should play it!), but for a game that is heavily focused on storming brothels or jumping through the windshield of a plane in mid-flight, it is certainly a lot better than what I was expecting.

The game sees you taking the role as head of “the Saints”, an infamous gang that has reached such incredible fame that they have their own clothes stores, comic books and can’t rob a bank without being asked for an autograph. 

Unfortunately a rival crime cartel operation by the name of “the Syndicate” (no connection to people in trench coats with mind control chips implanted in their brains) is set on encroaching on the Saints lucrative business. The Saints soon find themselves back to square one, having to rebuild their crime empire in the new city of Steelport and take down the Syndicate at the same time.

Coming up in the week of December 19 on Light Speed Gaming

In a surprising turn of events it is now Sunday again after the passing of exactly 7 days. I am sure you are all as surprised by this as I am, but that means that it's time to look at what went down here on Light Speed Gaming and what's coming up next week.

Firstly, I must apologize for the missing review of Saints Row: The Third. My schedule has been a bit more hectic this week than I anticipated, and I also came down with a bad case of being seduced by the Dark Side and spent too many hours with Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Anyways, let's look at what hit us here at Light Speed Gaming this week, kicking off with my own attempts at writing some sci-fi fiction. I would again like to ask that you give me some comments, either good or bad, so I know if you'd like to see more of my fiction writings in the future or if you'd rather get violently stabbed in the eye with a dull spoon (or somewhere in between).

Another Sci-Fi Do Want was posted on Wednesday, where I regaled you all with how much I love the ED-209 from RoboCop.

Next was the grand finale of the Light Speed Gaming Sci-Fi Game of the Year 2011 awards, which revealed that Deus Ex: Human Revolution took the title as our best sci-fi game of 2011.

Saturday coddled us with a guest post from Tyler, which contained his favorite sci-fi movies of 2011, perfect for some movie gift shopping.

Finally I ended the week with the second half of my own sci-fi writing, concluding the tale of the destruction of the Arisen Imperial flagship "Lightbringer".

Deus Ex was my sci-fi gaming highlight of 2011. Well done, Eidos!

Now let's check the navigational charts and see what's up ahead for next week, where Christmas Eve looms in the horizon as a giant nebula of glitter and flying reindeer.

The final hours of the Arisen Imperial flagship ”The Lightbringer” - September 4933 (Part 2)

You can read part 1 here. This is the second and final part of my little short sci-fi story, which details the devastating loss of the Arisen Empire's flagship "The Lightbringer", destroyed in a terrible battle by the techno-hating Neo-Luddites over the planet Foenix.

As the fleet began slipping into convoy formation and prepared to leave, the three Supernova class battleships, the heart of the Arisen Imperial force, formed a back line, protecting the retreating ships from the vicious attacks of the fast-moving sleek Neo-Luddite bombers.
Buzzing around just outside of the maximum weapon range, the bombers looked like a pack of blood crazed sharks watching a colony of seals swim away from them, but being unable to do anything about it. Clearly unhappy about the situation they tried taking pot shots at the convoy from extreme ranges, however they were much too far away for the required accuracy and the shots went wide and exploded harmlessly in an impressive display of pyrotechnics. Occasionally a bomber would get overzealous and fly too close in an attempt to get in a real shot and would promptly get obliterated by the combined firepower of the three battleships that made up the rear guard.

Then it happened. The sharks decided that they were through with trying to get to the prey and being slapped away by its noble guardians. They would settle for ripping their protectors to shreds. Moving in unison, the bombers came straight at the three battleships. With their guns mainly trained on protecting the convoy, the battleships were unprepared for a direct assault and wheeled to get all their guns in firing position to protect themselves. Even unprepared the ships represented massive firepower and many bombers were destroyed before even getting into range.

“No… no!”, Djenkato watched in horror as the bombers screamed overhead of the Lightbringer, having released a deadly payload straight into the side of the Vengance. The ship was now dotted with huge holes all along the side and from the wild fluctuations of her engine it was clear that the main power core had been breached and threatened to explode at any moment.