Remember the GameSpy

"GameSpyDown". Taken from GameSpy.

I had this thing going on with posts lately where I missed the anniversaries of games I wrote about, like Dungeon Siege and Wolfenstein 3D. While that might not be as much of a big deal as I make it out to be in jokingly manner, I wanted to somewhat cross correct myself by following one of my ideas. Since I actually thought of about writing an "article" about this particular topic for around a month now. But this anniversary isn't the one you might expect.

Five days later, on May 31st, would reach the 8th anniversary of GameSpy's shutdown. Even though the announcement for its site closure (still available online, which is neat; kind of, at least) and other stuff arrived at late February 2013, it was at the end of May when the popular and truly ironic online gaming service ceased its activity. While I can't really fathom how important GameSpy was to many people since I just wasn't there at the time, my lack of experience with it still makes me pretty sad because of that.

Mysterious Forms of the Serpent Riders

Murals for The Serpent Riders from Hexen 2: Portal of Praevus. Thanks, anon.

"The Serpent Riders" trilogy is great. While I still haven't beaten Hexen 2, I'm having fun running around as Paladin on my quest to get through famous puzzles and defeat Eidolon. I really loved original Heretic & Hexen, even though I'm yet to proper beat additional episodes from Shadow of the Serpent Riders or Deathkings of the Dark Citadel. I wanted to talk about something related to this franchise for quite some time and I've got a decent topic for that.

Many players like to remark how D'Sparil is the only "Serpent Rider" in this demonic family while Korax himself looks more like a serpent and Eidolon prefers classic demon look. How did this happened? That's the question I want to poke by taking a look at each Serpent Rider and some random stuff in order to see what potentially could've been. Perhaps there's more to this than I'm about to present, but I think it's more than enough to make a point with my weird logic.

The Achievement Parable

The Stanley Parable's"Go Outside" and "Commitment" achievements' stats on March 15th, 2022. Taken from Steam.

There's been a few serious-ish monologues regarding certain aspects of video gaming written by me for this blog: from my perspective on messy interpretations for re-releases and such to just as weird situation with gaming companies and their "brand relevancy". Or something that like, I feel like I make it sound more professional than those "posts" actually are and this is very important for material. Because now we need to get serious! I don't even know what label I'll give to this post, this is so exciting!

One of the topics I wanted to touch upon in in-game/service achievements and everything that comes with them. For a long time I couldn't come across the perfect point of time to start this discussion, but the miracle that is the release of spectacular The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe has enlightened me to finally get professional enough to challenge this topic. And this is a very pleasing coincidence since the original version of The Stanley Parable is  directly related to the achievements monologue I'm about to write down.

May 2022 Update

Improvised "Hall Update" Thumbnail.

Initially I thought that this Update post would be as short as previous one due to just how basically nothing has been going on lately. I mean, of course there're still horrible events in certain parts of the world that I wish never took place (yes, I'm still too much of a coward to mention anything specific) because of how much pain and suffering it causes to the people around the world. In comparison to that, my struggles and problems doesn't really seem as serious or worthwhile talking about. That just doesn't seem appropriate.

At the same time, I need to get things off my chest from time to time. This is one of the reasons Ilko's Hall exists in the first place. While I wish that the time when I bring in some positive and exciting news to those random strangers who decide to waste their time reading this mess comes sooner than later, today is not that day and I guess I just have to deal with that for now. No matter how overly dramatic it sounds, I don't like that either.

Hidden Treasures of Wolfenstein 3D

Unsung Screenshot. Taken from ModDB.

A week ago we reached an important milestone when in comes to the history of first-person shooters: 30th Anniversary of Wolfenstein 3D. This game may not be an actual first title in its genre or even the franchise, but the third FPS by id Software played a key role in their later achievements. Which is why this classic definitely deserves more credit and popularity than it usually gets, but that's easy to see why a debut of Blazkowicz isn't talked about as much as DOOM and Quake.

Despite the charm that comes with the simplicity of Wolfenstein 3D, generally people rightfully note how this classic didn't break the ground as much as aforementioned future titles did. While I don't view this as a weakness of "grandfather of the first-person shooters", the truth is that there's not much interest in it. I've already talked about the franchise back in January and this time I would like to do something similar to an "article" where I've mentioned certain custom campaigns for Warcraft 3 by talking about some prominent total conversions (or whatever I should call the) for Wolfenstein 3D.

Rumbling About Warcraft's Mobile Arclight

Warcraft Arclight Rumble "Lineup" Cinematic Still. Taken from Blizzard.

With the recent reveal of Warcraft Arclight Rumble, I decided to (yet again) use that opportunity to write an article when I couldn't really settle on specific topic. Another Warcraft "article" every few weeks after my dramatic concussion of "Eternity's End" post and scuffed observation of Shadowlands is ridiculous and somewhat sad, but we all have some issues. Besides, it's about a mobile game and pretty much everyone knows that many gamers tend to dismiss that side of the industry and direct their attention to it solely for a quick joke about disgusting monetization.

Although many concerns and point of criticism regarding mobile games are usually very valid, I'm actually somewhat more tolerable of them. Probably because I played quite a few of them on my phone and tablet back in a day, which offered me a certain perspective on this side of gaming. Obviously I couldn't donate in any of those, so in "crucial points" I had to watch ads, suffer or just stop playing. Either way, I actually have a couple of things to say about Arclight Rumble and not sure about more worthy topic for this week... So yeah.