So Friendster is back from the dead and they’re here to make you play online games.
Truth is, this is old news as the pioneering social network announced their shift from social networking into social gaming as late as last year. It’s only this 2012 that they’re making a huge marketing push bringing things like the “biggest gaming event” to SM North EDSA. I have some friends from the Level-Up eGames merger who will emotionally contest this claim.
Got to play Diablo III over the open beta weekend and it was a great experience. The game is worth the pre-order and it looks like boyfriends and husbands will be AWOL starting May 15th. Although I got a decent playthrough, I wasn’t able to finish the game with the Barbarian nor the Demon Hunter. I spent most of my time with the Monk, Witch Doctor and the Wizard and albeit 13 levels of play doesn’t give you the clearest picture of endgame builds, it’s still a great sneak peek. It’s on beta after all.
But this isn’t what this post is about.
**Raise your hand if you’re on Sky Broadband**
After moving into our new place at The Fort, we subscribed to a new Sky Broadband plan. I was very sold on Sky’s fixed line cable service in Paranaque and have been with them for years. Barely any problems and service was epic. It seems that my move to a different location coincided with a problem with their connection that’s being replicated by other users as well, as seen on Twitter.
The symptoms are as follows:
– if you have a download meter installed, it looks like there’s no problem as we’re getting spot on 150Kbps speeds for the price we pay for surfing. And it jumps to 250Kbps. Even more sometimes!
– BUT downloading huge files like email won’t work
– BUT downloading seeds doesn’t work (these are purely legitimate seeds because a lot of legitimate services make use of torrent technology)
– AND playing online games is abysmal; Diablo III barely loads and you won’t even see enemies. You can’t even open crates. Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer is unplayable.
Here’s the thing: I tethered my iPhone4s to my computer and everything runs really well on HSPA (Go SMART!). The photo above shows my lag on an iPhone. It’s just silly that we’ve come to the point that mobile data is actually more reliable than this wired connection. And that’s how I’ve been playing Mass Effect and Diablo III ever since. This is most probably a DNS issue for Sky. I tried doing a direct connect, eliminating the possibility of the wireless router being the problem, but it didn’t help. Port forwarding doesn’t do anything as well.
Just wondering — has anyone experienced similar problems with Sky Broadband and if you’ve fixed the issue (I really think it’s DNS!) What did you do? Been trying to talk to someone from @skyserves but talk isn’t happening.
@SkyServes, please fix this problem before May 15 2012. That’s when Diablo III launches worldwide. I will have to point out that in 2010, on the day Starcraft II launched, your service went black throughout the whole of Paranaque for a couple of hours and many gamers from the south couldn’t authenticate their copies. Sad panda.
Your service was great! Let’s keep it that way!
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I love the Android mobile platform but when it comes to this little niche of board game / card game titles, iOS is always first to market. If you’re a board game geek, you’ll be pleased to know that Nightfall is coming to the App Store very soon. I previously did a short overview and unboxing of the Nightfall: Martial Law a standalone expansion on GeekOut and if you read closely, the physical card game, albeit fun can bring about a huge impediment with the setup process as there are over 300 cards to organize. Bringing the game to iOS removes this hassle!
Added bonus: Check out this interview with Playdek and AEG.
[Download Streetfood Tycoon for iOS — FREE]
I’ve known Erick Garayblas since my “way back” days in the old MaPalad.org and Pinoy Windows Mobile forum groups. Back then, he was already rocking the mobile gaming scene with hits like Traffic Jam and the highly addicting Tower Mogul that ran on both the Palm OS and Windows Mobile, the top two “advanced” mobile platforms at that time.
Just yesterday, Erick released another home-grown game for iOS under his new development house, Kuyi Mobile. Streetfood Tycoon is a strangely addicting “Jolly Jeep” simulator where you have to fulfill orders from walk-in customers by combining ingredients in the right order. Other than the time limit given to complete each order, you have to deal with restocking your ingredients, upgrading your facilities and buying better ingredients.
Huge, huge realization about the PC gaming industry today. You see, I finally found the time to install Mass Effect 3 for the PC. Yup, you read it right. You actually need to dedicate time to installing it as if it were a chore. If the multiplayer wasn’t so epic, I would have thrown a fit.
Here’s why:
Installing Games Before:
1. Buy the retail box
2. Insert disc into PC
3. Install the game
4. Play the game
Installing Games Today:
1. Pre-order the game to get exclusive in-game bonuses
2. Buy the game (either from the retail store or via digital download)
3. Insert disc into PC (if retail copy)
4. Install Download Client (EA uses Origin) by downloading it (you NEED Internet)
5. Figure out if Origin carries over from previous EA Account
6. Retrieve old password from EA Account
7. Install the game
8. Download the patch fixes
9. Retrieve pre-order rewards via DLC
10. Purchase Day 1 DLC that DID NOT come free with the game, yet still very important because it contains a huge crux of the game’s lore
11. Download 500+ MB of data for update
12. Play the game
I mean, WTF right? I’m all for giving money to the gaming industry but I can really understand why people pirate games. It isn’t just about not being able to afford an original copy, but also about how bootleg versions don’t put you through such a tedious process.