Status update - 08/09/2010

It's been awhile since I touched my blog, but I'm back and ready to continue doing what I love. For those that don't already know (and probably don't want to know:) I came down with a swollen throat infection! It was so severe that it was hard for me to turn my head or swallow food. I had to go to a doctor and that gave me anti-biotics or whatever so I'm feeling better right about now.

This week in gaming, I'm taking a look at Zone 4, Vindictus (hopefully,) and MicroVolts.

OGPlanet's newest title: Zone 4 is a online arena fighting game like Rumble Fighter or GetAmped. It has some neat features here and there, but what urks me the most about it is that the gameplay is very reminiscent of Namco's "Urban Reign", a very underrated beat 'em up PS2 title created by both Namco's Tekken & Soul Calibur development teams, so I may or may not like the because of this.

The open beta started recently, so this is the perfect time to jump in.

Nexon's closed beta for Vindictus starts on the 10th, and I still didn't get a beta key. I'm still a bit peeved that my brother got in and I didn't. I've been hearing around the OnRPG forums that people submitted blank applications and still got in, so it sounds like they just used a sorting bot to pick applicants at random instead of actually looking at them. Sucks.

 
MicroVolt's closed beta starts on August 12th, and I had no problem getting into that one. FYI: MicroVolts is H.A.V.E Online, that infamous game that got branded as a TF2 ripoff for that early trailer they did even though it didn't show any real gameplay. The visual style may resemble TF2 aesthetically, but it has no class system (which is the point behind what makes TF2... TF2) and the gameplay is more of like Unreal Tournament in 3rd person.

I'm a moderate fan of TF2 and all, but I'm bored with it, and this looks like a fun change of pace. There's also talks in a steparu interview that they're trying to get a big name toy brand to include a special playable character into the game.

There should be plenty of MMO directories giving out beta keys right about now. I already got in and got four beta keys to spare so I'll probably give them out a day before testing starts.

Lastly: MOUSEPADS!

I picked up a free mousepad during ArtCow's free mousepad facebook promotion (which is no longer available since 4chan exploited the promotion to hell and back. Good job, guys!)
I decided to go with this hunter getting chased by a Tigrex since I like Monster Hunter so much. It came out pretty nice but colors are a bit blurry, though. I might buy another custom mousepad from these guys later on.

Run, hunter! RUN!