www.vegard.net

Even though I’m now 30 years old and have left the happy twenties behind – and probably should focus on getting grown up hobbies like stamp collecting and gardening – I’m still a somewhat active gamer, either flying around in the EVE universe on my Mac or wrestling the PS3 controller.

On the console, I tend to play racing games and after I got the marvelous Logitech G25 racing wheel a while back, it has not turned out to be any less fun to put it that way. The only drawback with the three-pedal, stick shift G25 is that it takes about ten minutes to rig it, so it’s not very friendly to those 15-minute casual gaming sessions, it require a little planning.

The most recent racing game to catch my precious attention is Midnight Club: Los Angeles by Rockstar Games. I played through the demo of the previous Midnight Club game, DUB edition, but it was too arcadeish for my taste. Midnight Club: Los Angeles looks like it might be more of a simulator than an arcade game. It also has a couple of other things going for it. Continue reading "Dead Space Los Angeles." →

I know that this is not even remotely interesting for most of you, but here goes anyway:

Not only have I started playing EVE Online again, this time I’m even contributing. I’m a member of a corporation, and the corporation is a member of an alliance. Being a member of an alliance means that you have to participate in fleet and mining operations. Since I really don’t know how to blow up stuff in the game, I can’t really attend any of the fleet operations unless they need bait or canon fodder. So my way of contributing is through mining operations and this weekend I joined one for the first time.

It’s interesting to see the way the operation is organized. The mining barges and exhumers used by the miners are sitting ducks in the asteroid belts and they need protection from rats and enemy ships. The fleet commander also needs to make sure the gates to the solar system are secure and haulers are needed to transport the mined ore from the belt to alliance storage facilities. All in all quite a complex logistical operation. I think I counted about 60 players in the fleet when it was at its largest.

Personally, I think I’ll mine a little on my own right now.

Since Grand Theft Auto IV kept me busy during my designated gaming time for a while, I didn’t play EVE Online much. Except for logging in to start training a new skill whenever my character finished one, I didn’t play at all. But now I’ve finished the GTA IV story line missions and since I’m not much of a multi player person, I’ve left the streets of Liberty City and returned to the vast EVE Online universe.

And what remarkable timing it was. Just a day before I finished GTA IV, my Icelandic heroes at CCP released another free EVE Online expansion, Empyrean Age. To be honest, I’m not too up to date on the story line behind the expansion, but it introduces the concept of Fractional Warfare – great stuff if you like to blow things up, but not so interesting if you’re a care bear, like myself. You should go ahead and download the official trailer to have a look.