Hello everyone. My name is Kishkumen, and I am a gamer. I am the founder of a very exclusive gaming group centered in Utah County, and we are currently accepting applications for a position in our gaming family. At this point we are focusing our gaming efforts on creating a long lasting Dungeons and Dragons campaign that will have a fairly regular but flexible playing schedule. No experience is required! Just a desire to play, and willingness to learn.

Our group offers a fun environment with experienced players who work well together. Sadly, one of or members is no longer able to join us for our activities as much as we would like so we are looking into expanding our team to include someone new. This could be you! Please send any applications to kishkumen at theabovedomain.com (and yes, sending it to the correct address is the first test). We do understand that finding a good gaming group in these trying times is important, and assure you that all serious applications with be considered. There will be an in depth interviewing process as well, including a trial run with the founders of the group. Please pass this information on to anyone you know who might be interested in an opportunity like this.

*Kishkumen is an equal opportunity DM. All applications will be considered, but an application does not guarantee an interview. Please contact for details. Some restrictions apply. Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball™

So, the current game is Heroes of Annihilated Empires. I’m going to give my best shot at doing a review of it, but as this is my first try… Go easy on me if it sucks.

Heroes of Annihilated Empires is a cross genre game, combining the realms of RTS and RPG. At least, this is what it claims to do. The rest of the “review” after the cut.
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So yeah. I own a PSP. Due to recent events, I’ve been finding myself spending large wads of money to keep my head above the depression level (But no more!). Yeah yeah I know spending money is just a quick easy fix that causes more problems in the long run, but lucky for me that’s all I needed! So, one large credit card bill later, here I sit with a PSP and 3 (at the time) games to play with. Lets see how this excerpt thing works, so you all don’t have to see everything if you don’t want to! Read on for reviewish things on the PSP, GTA: Liberty City Stories, Mercury, and Lumines!

The PSP itself is a thing of beauty. I know for a fact that I will never use it to it’s full potential, but what I have been able to use it for has been breathtaking to say the least. I was surprised with how easily it all fit in my hands, and how naturally the controls worked. Guess its to be expected as they did try to keep it as close to the standard PS2 controller as possible. I just liked it.

The first game I loaded up was Mercury. I’d been excited to play that one since I first layed eyes on it. The premis of the game is quite simple, you control a blob of mercury in a maze like environment. It’s a lot like the old table top game of Labyrinth where you tilt the entire level to move the blob around. But well… This is mercury! The greatest substance on earth! The PSP really makes this respond like a real blob of mercury. Splitting into pieces if it hits something etc etc. The game has been so much fun to play with! There are mutliple “goals” in the game for different levels. One, the goal is to get to the end as soon as possible, another is to do it with as much mercury left in your blob as possible, and the third involves solving “puzzles” with colors and switches. Then, as you continue, they start combining the goals together to make things just plain difficult. It’s a great game to play when you have a few minutes spare time and want to try and get the best score you can!

After that, I gave Lumines a shot. Can you say addicting? The game is surprisingly simple. Somewhat like tetris, where you have stuff falling from the top, and you can move and rotate the pieces. But, instead of different shapes, you always get a cube consisting of blocks of two colors. Always the same two colors that is. So, the goal is to make complete squares of the same colors once the blocks hit the ground. Might be easier if you see it… But wow, it’s a lot of fun! There is also an amazing multiplayer mode. With that, each person has their own PSP, but are still playing in a sort of split screen mode… You both see what the other person is doing as well. If you get more completions in a time period, you “attack” their side of the board, and they lose a column of space where you gain one. So, if you’re quick you can get them down to only having 4-5 blocks wide to work with. Quite satisfying to say the least.

Once I had my taste of those two games, I moved on to the biggest game I’d gotten at that point. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. I’ve been a big fan of the GTA games since GTA2 back on the PC. I have, or have at least played, every game since then. So, when this came out for the PSP I just had to have it! Honestly, the gameplay is exactly like it is on the PS2, and that’s a great thing! The game itself takes place in the same city as GTA3, but with different stories etc. Don’t know what more I can say other than it’s amazing. More than I ever expected I’d be seeing on a portable game system. The story, the voice acting, the people wandering the streets… All combine to make this by far the greatest game I’ve seen on the PSP. It also has a multiplayer feature, but sadly I don’t know anyone else who has the game yet, so I couldn’t tell you what it’s like… So someone get a PSP and the game so I can play it already!

I think that’s it. Well, other than the fact that I now own several more games… But I’m not going to write about them as of yet. But, look forward to hearing about Burnout Legends, Tokobots, Ghost in the Shell, and Pinball Hall of Fame. And maybe a few more comments on the PSP itself.

So, I did actually buy Doom 3 recently and have spent a while playing it. I am willing to admit I short changed their “story” a wee bit… But not much. Sure, there is a plot, and it has some nice ideas to it. But that’s mostly because it’s the plot to Half Life… Guy shows up at research station… is looking around… gets first “easy” assignment… all “hell” breaks loose… dead co-workers wandering around… often crossing paths with some “man in black” character… So far, I feel it’s just re-hashing Half Life with a bit of a Doom flair. I will admit, the Doom flair of it is really frickin creepy. This is not a game for kids, that’s for sure… The satanic ritual rooms are disgusting, in such a cool way. The game is also quite dark. Normally, when using that term with satanic ritual rooms one would assume “metaphorically” dark… but that is not really the case. I guess a factory on mars that produces roughly limitless energy doesn’t like having lights that work. The dark is just overdone to be blunt… sure there is using shadows to create suspense, but turning out all the lights and having a mob of zombies attack isn’t suspenseful, it’s just annoying. Good thing someone found a roll of Duct Tape! Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten all that far into it as I get a headache after about half an hour of playing. I’m still holding out for Half Life 2 though!

Speaking of which, IGN recently posted a couple vids of the intro to the game. From just those clips of the intro, I say again that Half Life is going to be head and shoulders over Doom 3. I mean, they actually have lights that work! how cool is that? In my opinion, the train station intro makes me feel far more creeped out than any gathering of shadows Doom 3 could put out… But, we’ll all be able to make our own comparisons eventually.

At work, it seems almost everyone is about to wet themselves over the soon to be released Doom 3. To stave off too many death threats, I am also excited about this game, but my eyes are set just a little higher with the coming of Half Life 2. I’m also glad to know I’m not alone on this! Why would I pass up Doom 3 you ask? well let us compare:

Doom 3: Amazing graphic engine. Simply amazing, for sure the best I’ve ever seen in a game hands down. Rich gamer history. Ummm… did I mention the graphics? Sure, it’s said it will have an impressive story line, but they say that about every game these days…

Half Life 2: Pretty darn good graphics engine. Lifelike physics engine. Defined, and interesting characters. Sequel to a game known to have one of the most immersive story lines known to man. Heck, people are STILL buying and playing the original! Dynamic AI.

Now, I will admit I have actually already played both of these games a bit. Through certain channels I have spent time with the leaked alpha versions of each game, and the above comments hold true. Doom 3 looked sweet, but as I didn’t have the highest end system at the time, playing it for more than 10 minutes gave me a headache… But the Half Life alpha… I’ve spent hours in just the physics demo rooms, stacking barrels, seeing how much weight the pallets can take before they sink, riding upside down tables around like surf boards… How many games can you honestly say you’ve spent over an hour in a single room watching a watermelon break after you throw it against the ground?

Now, I’ll tell you what really excited me about Doom 3. When someone else takes that amazing graphics engine and makes better use of it. But who knows, maybe after I play Doom 3 I’ll change my tune, guess we’ll all find out when the game hits the shelves!