::A Geek in Korea::

Battle for Wesnoth 1.4 got released today, and it’s a substantial improvement over the default version currently available in the Ubuntu apt repositories. I went ahead and compiled the source so I could have my own up to date copy of the game (!) because it’s such a huge improvement.
I had been playing the 1.3.15 unstable release for a few weeks. When my friends from England visited, we played a few local games which got me playing again. The new 1.4 stable release builds on all the awesome new features and even had some more surprises in store. All this in a free game? It’s hard to believe.

The new animations and portraits of the characters are so much better and more professional. I haven’t played enough of the new game to know if the balance is better, but the classes and factions seemed very balanced to begin with. If anything has been tweaked, it’s almost certainly for the better in my experience.

I’m working through one of the new campaigns that are included in the 1.4 release. I’ve moved on to playing at “Intermediate” levels. Right now this is providing a good challenge, but is in some ways less challenging than “easy” levels. Larger enemy armies means more experience, which translates into more upgrades for my characters.

I hit a wall several times in some of my previous campaign attempts, but I’m having an easier time these days. This might be due to better balancing, or that I’m learning the game rules better.

(For those of you impatient enough to download the new version, but hate compiling for whatever reason, get the Windows version and run it in WINE. It runs flawlessly.)

I’ve also learned that the core team that’s made Wesnoth is moving on to “Silver Tree” that hopes to create a 3-D RPG game. Basically the game is “Wesnoth 3D”. This is both good news because modifying 3D models and creating new ones is much easier than doing good 2D art. That means more interesting things will be produced, easily, and open up people’s creativity. While I want the Wesnoth game to continue to flourish and grow, a new groundwork being laid out in 3D will allow for more things to be done (hopefully!).

Back when Cloverfield was released in January, some foreigner friends invited me over to Rodeo Town to play some Call of Duty 4. I went from being the “noob” of the group to being able to shoot and occasionally toss a grenade when I needed to on the first game day. By the second time around, I was shooting with more precision, and I learned the perks of the different classes in the game to a better degree. By the third time we played, I had found the class I liked best, and was running around holding my own for the first time, affecting the outcome.

Today, I dominated the game for the first time. We played free for all and I’d slaughter people. I was completely surprised to be getting the drop on people the first time and shooting first. We played teams and I’d have a higher kill to killed ratio. We’d play domination games where you needed to hold certain points of the map, and even short handed (2 vs 3) my team would still win. Yay! I only got shut down on the “elimination” game mode, because I tend to never pick up sniper rifles, and have problems aiming “up” while drawing a lot of fire from everyone else trying to eliminate me.

I’ve got to keep my head about myself and not get cocky. I’ve got a terrible habit of getting a big head when I think I can win. I know I don’t like playing people like that, but I always realize something I say might come off as cocky only after I’ve said it.

I’m also going to need a speedy delivery of Super Smash Brothers Brawl now that it’s been released in America. I want to host a series of games at my house, and I’ve got to get people to come over and play. Being a bad winner is never good for encouraging future gaming sessions.

Everyone I know that teaches in Korea played a game of Scrabble with students from time to time. I haven’t played this in for a while due to our school’s “no game” policy. Whenever I did play Scrabble, I’d get my ass kicked by students.

It’s not because I am a terrible player. It’s just that when I teach I value helping other players and learning more than winning. I’ll frequently tell students long words that will hand them the game even at the expense of using tiles I need on the board. I’m there to teach them new words and spelling, so if I throw a game to help a student win, at least I’m still getting paid to play Scrabble.

I threw down the Scrabble gauntlet via email with a few of my buddies. Scrabulous is an online version of Scrabble completely free. The best part of this service is that you can play live, or by email. That way a group of friends can play a casual game at their leisure. It keeps track of all the legal moves, tiles, and everything else for you. It even uses the official Scrabble dictionaries to keep people from cheating on their words.

One of my friends is a Scrabble master, and he’s been kick my ass. We’re on the honor system NOT to use an anagram program, or google for new words. You can only check spelling. This is how I intend to keep playing. I’ve already learned a few words too. It’s dead simple to set up a game, it doesn’t require any sort of log-in, and it doesn’t spam your email account with excessive messages. I’m really very surprised at the elegance of it.

Now if I could only score a few points to WIN a game from time to time.

The game that I ordered specifically to avoid being bored during the Lunar New Year holiday later this week has arrived. Super Mario Galaxy! It came well recommended, and people were basically asking me, “What’s the deal? Why haven’t you played it yet?”

The answer is due to bad timing, Galaxy was out the week after I purchased my Wii. It’s actually the reason I ordered a Wii. I figured that once a Mario title of that magnitude was out, trying to find a Wii before Christmas was going to be impossible. I wanted to get a Wii, because if there was difficulty trying to find one before Mario, after would be much harder.

At that time, I didn’t know that Super Smash Brothers Brawl was going to be delayed until March. I figured I’d get a Wii, wait a month, get Brawl, then work to getting Super Mario Galaxy when I had the time. Mario games never go out of print, and they never go down in price. Even though I paid a premium for my Wii online, the store I bought it from pushed up the price again. So, while I might not have one game I want, I got the Wii 100 dollars cheaper than it can now be found online.

Regardless, now that Brawl was delayed, I’ve got time to work through Galaxy. The game is amazing. I’m only three hours in, but I’ve seen some amazing design elements. I haven’t done the same thing twice on any stage. There is so much to do, and it’s a lot of fun. I’m not a fan of “Ray Racing”, but other than that, the game controls like a dream. There are so many nice touches and things to do that it will keep me busy all week.

I’m lucky it arrived, as I would have been bored out of my mind this week without it. We aren’t going to the countryside to visit relatives, and our only plan so far is one night at my mother-in-law’s place. The foreigners I hang out with are all gone on vacation, so there isn’t much else to do.

Time to go collect more stars.

It’s all over the gaming Internet web sites. Mario Kart DS has it’s own television show in Korea now. People still act like it’s a surprise that Koreans watch video games on television. Entire generations of children are used to this. I’ve been watching Starcraft on television for seven years now. If things like ESPN Classics can exist, it should surprise no one that people will watch video games, even DS games, on the television.

The game show is on Champ! which might have the most annoying, least web standards complaint website in the history of bad Korean websites. I wasn’t able to link to the page for the show itself, if it even exists on their horrid page. From what I know, the game is called “Run&Run 마리오카트 DS”. Brave people can search for more info. I’ll be satisfied with that.

It seems there is an interview with the hosts to draw out as much time as possible, then a series of races. 6 players go head to head. I don’t know it is a one off show, or going to be a tournament. If I get a chance to see it, I’ll look out for it.

My students are CRAZY about Mario Kart, and the popularity of the DS has EXPLODED in the past year or so. I get challenged to races all the time now. Since Champ! is the cartoon and Japanese animation channel, I’m sure their target audience is in the new DS target market. I hope this sort of trend continues for other Nintendo products. A Smash Brother’s league would be astoundingly awesome on TV. (Watching others play via the Internet is already a feature of the game, but a tournament on Korean television would be awesome.)

I had called some friends to see what they were up to this weekend. They mentioned a trip to a console gaming room, and then a trip to the movie theater to see Cloverfield. I had planned on seeing that movie, so I was totally in.

The console gaming room was in Rodeo Town department store not far from where I work. Since this is my most frequented shopping place, I had actually seen the place we were headed to weeks before and had checked it out. I had passed it up because there wasn’t any kind of game I’d have been willing to play on a lunchbreak.

Our group of four had four hours to kill before the film. We got hooked up with four different screens, four different Xbox 360’s, and some copies of Call of Duty 4. I’ve never played a game on the Xbox before, I don’t play modern shooters, and I don’t really like team based death match stuff, but this game was a blast.

There are different soldiers with different attributes, weapons, and abilities, and they all change the game in subtle ways. I was a touch overwhelmed with the controls for the first hour or so, but once I adjusted to the playstyle and weapons I felt like I was having a good time. I don’t have the patience for sniping though.

The Cloverfield movie was really interesting and different. I went in completely unspoiled. I didn’t know more than what was on the poster.

The monster and the “meta-story” that was going on in the background was interesting, and I’d be willing to follow another set of survivors through whatever was happening to find out more of what was going on. The problem is that the way the story was set up, no one else DID know what was going on.

The shaky camera wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be, but occasionally it stretched my belief to think someone would hold on and continue filming despite the obvious danger. There were several parts that left me scratching my head, as people walking around unarmed, expecting to be attacked when things are readily available to defend themselves with is an annoying oversight.

My feeling of the movie is that it belongs to the “Youtube” generation, and is something you experience as much as you watch. It’s fundamentally different to everything I’ve seen for a long time, the same way that “Survivor” was fundamentally different than everything else on television 7 or 8 years ago. I’m sure it’s going to inspire a lot of other movies in similar styles, which I’m not sure is going to be good for movies ultimately. There are only so many “Blair Witch Projects” I’m willing to watch. The Koreans in the theater let out a groan when the movie ended, and a lot of people complained of headaches because of the subtitles. I don’t think I could have watched this with subtitles.

I liked it a lot more than I expected I would. If I had been spoiled to the plot, or had been following the viral video stuff, I’d probably have felt disappointed. Since I didn’t have any expectations whatsoever, I was pleasantly surprised.

With all the work, social gatherings, and other things I’ve been up to recently, my chances to sit down and play a new video game for a few days straight have been rather limited. I will have the entire Lunar New Year holiday to do nothing but laze around and play games, so I ordered something in anticipation.

Wii Sports has still got an appeal, as I am flirting with Pro on several games. Keeping my ranking for Bowling is tough, as I have a high score of 210+ now. My tennis skills are in the 700 range. I can kick someone’s ass in Boxing and get a knock out, but STILL have my points decline. Grrr. I can’t win a game of Baseball anymore that the pitchers throw inside at 700 level.

Zack and Wiki has offically been put on the back burner. I’ll echo what the guys over at “Totally Rad Show” said that vocalized my exact opinion of the game in their review. “This game punishes you for experimentation too much. If you make a mistake, it kills you, and that means you don’t want to experiment. That’s bad for this kind of game.”  They also have the same “explanation” menu when you use a tool 20 times, which breaks the immersion. I KNOW how to use the tool, give me an option to TURN THAT OFF PLEASE.

Nags against my current games aside, Mario Galaxy is in transit to remove any drought in something new until Brawl. Several people have left comments saying, “Hey, wait, why haven’t you played this yet?”

To be honest, I didn’t order it because I suck BADLY at 3d platformers. I beat Mario 64 on the DS with the minimum number of stars required, and a lot of cursing. I like traditional 2D gameplay mechanics, and I’m a little worried that adding “Relative Gravity” as a gameplay mechanic might make my mind explode. I know it’ll be a good game, despite being burned on Super Mario Sunshine, a Mario game I couldn’t find enough interest in to beat (which is rare). Also, No More Heroes wasn’t available to order with a promise of being here on time.

It took some arm twisting with the wife, but I’ve got it in the mail. It should be here in time for the holiday before the mail stops being delivered. I’ll have five days or so to play it to my heart’s content. Yay! Traditional Korean holidays!

What if Worms, Soldat, and Kirby had some sort of weird threesome? The result would be Teewars. The cutest little buggers with guns ever.

What is it?
This is a mutliplayer, 2D, stylized deathmatch game with five weapons. Characters look like they would fit in any Kirby game, except for the guns they carry around to blast each other. The levels are bright and cheerful, with an anthropomorphic sun grinning in the background as you rain death on your opponents below.

The tools of death:
Hand to Hand:
The Ninja rope deals no damage, but lets you swing around the level. It also works great with the Hammer. The Hammer (default, no ammo), is for the up close and personal kill.
The Sword is for a slashing swipe of death. Lethal. This is the most powerful weapon, but spawns infrequently and has a timer to limit you from slashing everyone for the rest of the round. For 25 seconds you are a complete bad ass.

The Guns:
Pistol (default) is when you want to shoot it out John Woo style.
Shotgun, for that bird shot spray of death for those people that tend to hop around on the Ninja rope.
And of course, Rockets. No deathmatch game would be complete without them. These are more like grenades, but the explode on contact. They have an arch that lets you shoot when you don’t have a direct line of sight on your opponents.

Pick up health, as well as armor in the level to keep dealing out death for longer. In addition to the ninja rope, characters also have a double jump to help them navigate the levels.

How do I play it?
It’s available for free on Windows, Linux, and Mac version too, for Intel AND PPC computers
There are multiplayer servers. Just connect and start blasting away.

Modes?
Death match, Team deathmatch, Capture the Flag…all the normal game variations are available. The most common server set up seems to be Death match to 20 rounds.

I’ve been playing this game for the past few weeks. It’s a great find for anyone looking for a less tactical shooter than Soldat with a similar style.

(not my flickr)

Korean road trip! Some friends of my wife had a son that was going to Australia to study. Someone decided to make this an excuse for a road trip to a Sokri mountain two hours away from Daejeon by car. Little did we know there was a giant Buddhist complex to visit called Beopchu temple.

We went to a traditional Korean restaurant and ate a huge meal. I met the group my wife’s been hanging out with on the weekends, and their teacher. He’s a really nice man who speaks English fluently. Not only that, but some of my friends also came along. We had a nice walk to the temple chatting.

The most astounding thing at the temple was the giant 33 meter tall gold plated Buddha. The original statue had it’s construction stopped when the Japanese invaded Korea. They later completed a second version in concrete, then spent 4,500 man hours improving the statue complex. Then they sprayed 80 kg of gold in a 3 micron thin layer over the entire statue. There was a museum in it’s base, and an even shiner Buddha below hidden from the weather. Unfortunately, that statue hadn’t been dedicated yet, so it was partially covered.

The temples and buildings reminded me of Bulguksa. Beopchusa is closer, but I don’t know if you can reach it easily without a car. I’m scouting out new places to take my friends when they come to Korea. I might want to switch up the tour, since my parents were really tired from running around all of Korea. If we could go to a few places that are closer that would keep down the travel time while still giving them the flavor of Korea.

After the trip, we all went to Bennigan’s. We had a giant order, and even got desert. Cursing our swollen stomachs, I invited everyone back to our apartment. I hadn’t expected everyone to take me up on the offer! I needed to do something for the entertainment. I fired up Wii Sports, and got someone to make a character. Two minutes later, we were playing Tennis and everyone was having a blast trying to burn off the calories we had put on during dinner.

We played Wii Sports for 90 minutes! People that had never played a video game in their life got to try, and they were hooked. The older teacher said that he really liked bowling, as it was very true to life. He’d be able to play it at home on his own. Three of the couples present said that they’d buy the console simply because they watched us play and had that much fun with it.

My wife and I suggested holding off to a Korean launch so they could find it cheaper. People were asking where we got it online, and even the markup we mentioned wasn’t dampening their enthusiasm. I hope no one goes buying a Japanese version by mistake, because that doesn’t come with Wii Sports. The “everyone’s welcome” intuitive approach to gaming really works.

I need to buy some Nintendo stock. I’m their best salesman in the city.

Once again, I spend a Saturday totally geeked out on the couch. Ever since I beat Paper Mario on the Virtual Console, I had been itching to download a few new classic console games to play. The unfortunate thing was the Wii Shop absolutely refused to cooperate. From Christmas to New Years, whenever I would try to connect to the Wii store, it gave me an error stating their servers are too busy, try again later. I would try again every few days, and get shut out over and over. I think Nintendo underestimated the demand on their services just a bit.

Today, I decided I’d give it another go. I connected to the Internet with no problems, but the Nintendo store refused to connect. Knowing it was on their end, not mine, I just reset the software and tried for a solid fifteen minutes or so to connect. I had no luck, so I went off to walk the dog and do some dishes. I tried again a little later, and still had no luck connecting.

Damn you Nintendo. You have my Wii Points, LET ME SPEND THEM!

Totally convinced I’d never get in today, I tried one last time. I tried connecting to the store, walked away to use the bathroom, and heard the Wii Shop music start up. Success. A watched store never connects apparently. Worried I wouldn’t get another chance to connect for a long time if this problem persists, I decided to go on a binge and snap up a few games to last me a while (Read: Until Brawl.). I’ve still got points to spend if something good comes out later, but now I have a few more games to keep me busy.

Current Wii Virtual Console Games:
Super Mario Brothers 3: (Level 4 kicks my ass)
Gunstar Heroes: (Every level kicks my ass)
Paper Mario: (I beat this. Actually, I kicked it’s ass. Huzzah!)

My new games today:
Kirby’s Adventure: (I’ve beaten this before on the old school Gameboy, and I’ll beat it again. It’s held up so well for a late generation NES game.)
Starfox 64: (”How do I barrel roll? Oh, now I’ve got to save Slippy, wait, what does this button do? Who’s shooting me? Argh, I died!” Holy crap this game is COMPLICATED!)
Super Metroid: (This is a classic. I’ve played the sequels, beaten some of the GBA games, but needed to play the game people were always talking about in middle school.)

Not to be satisfied spending my time trying to download old games, I also watched the documentary “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” This is one of the funniest documentaries I’ve ever seen. It reminds me a LOT of Trekkies but is better due to the subject matter. The King of Kong is a journey into the world of competitive classic arcade gaming. People involved in this documentary treats it as the most serious thing ever accomplished by mankind. I laugh at how ridiculous the entire premise of the documentary is, but it’s a good movie.

A challenger to the Donkey Kong high score fights his way to the top to challenge this megalomaniac who was holding onto his last record of past glory. Both of the figures in the movie are sad in their own ways. One guy is holding onto the glory of his youth as he watches his records fall before him. He clearly questions his worth and will do ANYTHING to hold onto the record. Even cheating it that’s what it would take. The other is a man that’s been dealt such a long string of bad luck in his life that his high score in Donkey Kong is the only thing pushing him forward in life. He’s just a guy that wanted to get into a record book to prove that even though he didn’t have a job at the time, he could still accomplish something worthy of worldwide attention. Even as you see the game taking a toll on his life and family, you can’t help but root for him.

As the documentary plays out, you see the depths of social awkwardness and idol worship that play out in this scene. People really take something like a score in Donkey Kong seriously. I never really got into that side of gaming. I’m a gamer, and I can recognize when I’m really “into” a game. However, I’ve never, ever, approached the single minded focus and obsession these people have for their game. They play this game for HOURS to beat scores when a single mistake means defeat. I would never want to make such a sacrifice of my time, and ultimately, I don’t care that much about a score, even if it is for a record book. I’m not, and never hope to be, a competitive gamer. If it’s not fun, I’m not going to play.