Moody Gamer

If you have been having slow or no internet since 19th December and are frustrated with your ISP because they still didn’t fix the problem, then you might want to know that they are not to blame. It seems someone/something has cut undersea cables between Egypt and Italy which caused huge reduction in internet performance around the region and especially to Middle East and Asia.
It seems this will take a long time to get fixed and an estimated Dec. 31st has been announced for a full recovery.

Be happy that it wasn’t a total black out!

BBC News has the full story.

Oh and that also means NO WoW!!!

Yep, unless you have been living under a rock (Couldn’t resist writing that!), Geekay is one of the leading (not sure if it is the only one) UAE game stores. They have opened up a tiny branch in the new tiny City Center in Al Qurum. You will find them on the second floor (or first for those who consider ground floor not as first floor) opposite the ice cream store (Can’t recall the name, but it definitely isn’t Baskin and Robbins).

Since they are fairly new, don’t expect a lot but you can be sure to find the latest games at prices that are far cheaper than the rip-off prices of Al-Emad (25 RO for Wrath of the Lich King anyone!) and I hope they don’t get Omanized when it comes to prices and stick closer to the UAE prices which are still expensive but nowhere near as Al-Emad outrageous prices.

The store still lacks a lot of hardware and currently have a few shelves with new games. Hopefully that will improve and will get better. They are already beating Al-Emad when it comes to pricing (18 RO for Wotlk!) and maybe that will pressure Al-Emad to use proper pricing this time since this will create competition.

You can call Oman Geekay at +968 24470498 and +0968 24470499. Their email is gkoman@geekaygames.ae.

Yep, I couldn’t help it. WoW is great fun and even though many hate it for being an addictive game, for whatever reason, it is just that good that I went back. Lots have changed since I left back in March 2008 which is when patch 2.4 was released with new content on the Island of Qual’Thalas that brought the Scryers and Aldor together against the forces of Kael’Thas who is planning to bring Kil’Jaeden back in the new and tough raid instance: The Sunwell. In addition of lots of new dailies (almost all daily quests are on that island) and badge gear, lots to keep people busy. Oh and lets not forget the cool new 5 man instance: The magisters Terrace.

Now that I am back, post patch 3.0.2, lots have changed and have been added since 2.4. Mainly in preparation of the second expansion pack: Wrath of the Lich king. Talents have been changed a lot, lots of class changes, the new inscription profession, the cool achievements system and huge raid encounter nerfs (Reported by many as 30% reduction from mobs to bosses) are just some of the main highlights of the patch. You can check the patch notes for further details. Also because of WotLK release date is nearing, you will find Argent Dawn officers around the cities asking for help to kill the undead showing up because of the Scourge invasion. There are cool rewards that you can find there so easily that can compete against Tier 5 items but as of writing, the invasion has stopped and only the vendors are still around.

The best thing is, everywhere you go in Azeroth or Outland, you will find huge amounts of activity going on. Mainly because people are trying to earn achievements or leveling their alts. I also started to level two new alts as well on separate accounts and using dual boxing to level them. Dual boxing is simply controlling two or more WoW characters at the same time on one or more machines. For me am using the same PC but having two windows open. The idea is that both characters level at the same time and help each other quickly to finish quests.

As for my main who is a Warlock, he is trying to finish any remaining quests in Outland and get exalted with remaining factions before the expansion arrives.

One big change I noticed is how much the latency has improved since early this year. Currently the ping stays in the range of 200-400 ms which is damn playable compared to the disaster that was before in the ranges of 600-1000+ ms. Also, a nice graphical update has been done to the game as some cool lighting and shadow effects have been added. It would be nice if Blizzard adds more shaders to the game to make it shinier at least.

Will keep you posted on new stuff as they arrive with my progress as time goes.

Since I updated. Lots happened during that time: Ramadhan, Eid, started Masters program, excessive workload and working on some new reviews at MEGamers. So on the gaming scene, a huge amount of new stuff came out and/or happened that I don’t know where to start. Maybe a good starting point is what was I doing related to gaming.

First of all, I played and finished Devil May Cry 4 on the PC. Easy recommendation for button mashing players. You get to play as both Nero and Dante with each having their own play style. The game does suffer from one of the most horrible repetition of levels and boss fights. It is also worth to mention that it runs great on the PC compared to it’s older brother DMC3, so good job Capcom.

I also managed to grab a PS3 and a copy of Metal Gear Solid 4. All I can say that it is AWESOME. I can’t remember a game having a more complicated, twisted and emotional story better than this. I must warn you that it is very much recommended that you play MGS 1 to 3, which you can play on the PS2 (MGS1 was released on the PS1 and PC, while MGS2 was released later on PC after PS2 release). Keep in mind that MGS4 is about granting the player an experience through both cinematics and gameplay which both complement each other very well. The game is quite lengthy since I managed to go through it in about 19 hours without checking many features out because I aimed for the story. Though that time can be extended thanks to the replay value MGS games have. I haven’t checked out the multiplayer part of the game but from various feedbacks, it seems to be a blast.

Going back to PC, As I told you before, I purchased Crysis Warhead from Steam. Being in Oman, I totally recommend against this. It is both slow and expensive to get the game that way. Since you will have to pay 30$ for the game and then pay for the gigabytes to download through Omantel which many of you know, is bloody expensive (1RO per GB or about 2.6$ per GB). So you will end up paying more that 60$ for the game over here. Check out the review of Crysis Warhead to know more about the game.

One thing many of you know, Warhead is quite demanding on the PC, so I went ahead and bought me a Gigabyte Radeon 4870 512MB card (Contact me if you want to know where to get one in Oman) and am happy that I did. The game is now very playable on Enthusiast setting at 1680×1050 resolution. Though I can’t enable Anti aliasing ore Anisotropic Filtering. I also got me an extra 2 GB of RAM which helps a lot since Warhead is very resource hungry. Of course I did suffer the penalty of using Windows XP 32Bit version hence my PC shows only 3.25GB instead of 4GB. I guess 64 Bit OS is the way forward, but an extra GB is still useful.

I still have a lot to write about and because of time, I have to stop here and will update another day. Feel free to let me know of your experiences about the games mentioned above.

Well, it seems we have been discovered! Not sure if it was the first time or not but a recent report has been written about gamers in the middle east, more specifically in the Gulf area by rockpapershotgun. A website that has been around since the eighties!

I couldn’t have written about gamers (well the general gamers, not the “literate”) better than this. Since most who call themselves gamers around the region play one or a combination of the following: Counter Strike, WoW, C&C Generals and Dota. While the console gamers play Pro Evolution Soccer (especially modded ones which I came across personally). Regarding PES, it is widely known around the gulf as “Konami”. So don’t look puzzled when someone asks you “hey, wanna play Konami?”.

The report also mentions about the censorship here in the region which is true and many times are properly applied yet I fail to see why ban CoD4 and on the other hand watch ten year olds playing GTA4. With my own eyes I saw a mother buy a “P”ed GTA4 game for her son which was in that age range. Imagine how many bought it that i did not see. I played CoD4 and I don’t see it different than the many war books that you can easily find in the libraries.

In regards to the “P” word, the government tries to fight it, on PC only! It is so easy to find bootleg PS3 or Xbox360 games displayed at many shops at 10 times cheaper than the original’s price.

All in all, I recommend anyone who wants to have a current view of gaming in the Middle East to read the report at rockpapershotgun. Oh and laugh out loud at the “Really, All your games are original? Why?”.

Am sure many are very familiar with this Warcraft 3 mod map. Choose your hero, start at the opposite side of your enemy’s base, help your creeps by killing the others and cooperate with your friends to beat the other team by destroying their base. Simple idea, nice balance between the heroes and fun for quick games.

So why would I hate such a mod? Why are there even a lot of people who also hate it? Below I list some very strong reasons why I hate this very mod:

• It is the same map layout over and over again. Where is the diversity?
• Yeah lots of heroes, but controlling one character from a top view isn’t really strategic.
• New people get hooked to it so much that any other complete (read not a mod) game isn’t cool.
• A huge number of players play it yet never heard of Warcraft 3!!!
• Matches almost always take a very long time to complete, easily above 30 minutes and I estimate 1 hour on average for a single match.
• For crying out loud, you are just controlling a Warcraft 3 hero unit!
• Level up above the others and you are invincible!
• It is fun for a week or three months (I am even going too far with that) but years are too much, even WoW players don’t get that hooked.
• The PC has no other game except DotA?

Around here, the biggest contributors to DotA’s success are the LAN gaming centers. Why should they go and buy “expensive” 8800 GTs or 4850s to play modern and cool multiplayer games when DotA requires PCs which you can buy on wholesale or cheap (50$ PC anyone) that have year 2000 or up to 2003 specs. There are players who play DotA, who tell their friends how cool this “game” is and that it is available in your average Internet Cafe too! Get the picture?

It is indeed a great mod, but taking it too far like that is really sad, honestly.

Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath is the expansion pack for the successful Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. This is the first foray into 3D for the Tiberium Universe of the C&C series which started the RTS genre as we know it. Kane’s Wrath adds more units, sub factions, more multiplayer maps, a global conquest mode and 13 new single player missions to the core Tiberium Wars game.

The single player portion of the expansion focuses entirely on the NOD faction and Kane’s survival after the second Tiberium war, what led to the third Tiberium war and what happened next at the end. So through all the 13 new missions, you play as NOD only. The cut scenes do answer some questions about what happened between the second and third Tiberium wars from NODs perspective and explains some of the events happened during the third war in addition to the end. You will feel some disjoint sometimes if you aren’t familiar with the Tiberium universe story. The missions themselves are nothing special yet are fun for one or two days play, since they are easy and pretty much require destruction of your enemy’s base. Nothing ground breaking there.

The new global conquest mode is nothing new as well. It is very similar to the Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 2 War of the Ring mode. The idea is you have the whole map at display and you get to try taking as much territory to win or either by achieving curtain goals for each faction. The game plays in a turn based way. You make your moves and go for the next turn. Conflicts then can be resolved either by real time game play or via auto resolve which lets the computer determine who will win by comparing the two forces’ strengths. Personally, the global conquest mode doesn’t feel right and you really need to be good to win since making one or two mistakes can end the game easily.

Kane’s Wrath adds a lot of cool new units that change the balance of each faction yet still enhance the overall balance during conflicts. In addition, each faction has it’s own Epic unit. These are huge and powerful units that can seriously turn the tide of battle if properly used. Though they are left at the very end of the tech tree and are seriously expensive to build.

The new units are either shared or split throughout the six sub factions, two from each main faction. These sub factions are a more specialized version of their parent faction in a certain area. For example, the Black Hand NOD sub faction focuses on infantry and flame and has no stealth or air technology. The factions are marginally much more balanced when compare to C&C Generals Zero Hour sub factions.

Kane’s Wrath main feature is really the multiplayer section of the game. The layout is still the same of Tiberium Wars multiplayer where you can either ask for an auto match or go check the lobbies for matches that you want to participate in. With all these new units, maps and sub factions, Kane’s Wrath is really a lot of fun online. Add to that the dedication EA is giving to the C&C series, that new patches are more and more common these days with balance changes which are always important when dealing with online exploits. This is no Starcraft polish, but it is good enough to have a fair and fun online experience.

Nothing spectacular in terms of the graphics since it is really the old SAGE engine used in C&C General’s years ago with more shaders. So the game is smooth and will run on a wide selection of PC configurations. The music is mostly untouched and is the same from Tiberium Wars bar one track which is a remixed version of the NOD faction from the previous Tiberium game.

Kane’s Wrath is more of a fans’ expansion pack than for the general audience, yet if you are into online multiplayer RTS games, I strongly recommend you try this since it is fast and fun to play.

Yep, after I got my copy of Kane’s Wrath, looking for the Red Alert 3 Beta went in vain. EA have given Command & Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath buyer the change to participate in Red Alert 3 Beta testing by providing Beta keys in the game box. To my surprise, I found nothing in my copy of C&C3 expansion pack, kane’s Wrath. I went to Red Alert 3 website and started looking up why. It seems EA didn’t put the Beta keys in all the regions. Was so eager to join the beta especially after how much fun is Kane’s Wrath. EA seem to have gone a long mile with their balancing and patching. It is enough to say that Out of Sync issues that plagued C&C Generals are none existent in C&C3. Still nowhere near Starcraft polish but good enough to have an enjoyable time playing online. With Red Alert 3 coming, even more attention is given to the multiplayer side of the game and from current impressions from the Beta, people are having a blast.

Hope next time EA gives our region a better chance with such opportunities and offers. There is still the possibility that EA might open Red Alert 3 Beta to the public at a later stage but no word on that at the moment, here is hoping though.

Digital Chumps has a nice comprehensive impression on Red Alert 3 Beta that you might want to check out here.

Probably the only one too that focuses on PC Games here in Oman. It is Al-Emad Computer Shop. These guys were in Oman since the days of pirated software was rampant in the area. Even now that PC software piracy has been almost squished in Oman, this shop has been doing well with their original PC Games sales. Considering that the demography of PC Gamers is low here in the country compared to the console gamers. Of course, nowadays you got other places to get PC Games such as Emax and Carrefour. But they are always extremely late in getting new titles and their prices are questionable.

Unlike Al-Emad who, as of writing this article, already have a copy of Devil May Cry 4 for the PC which was only released a few days ago. That is considered an achievement within Oman. I still remember the day they had Warcraft 3 on the same world wide release day. Their prices are also very quite reasonable too that makes you think how the hell do they do it.

If you are new in Oman or never thought of such a place existed, then you can check it out by going to Jawharat Al-Shati in Shatti Al Qurum (Next to DQ restaurant). This is in Muscat the capital of Oman. You can even call them on +968 24695964.

I will keep you updated of any new stores that retail PC Games in a serious manner (No thanks to Carrefour or Emax). As for the question of why I am not covering consoles and handheld stores is simple, they are everywhere thanks to piracy, partially. Though everyday that is becoming less and less due to the ministry trying to fight it in addition to the counter measures that developers use to stop it. Maybe that will increase the sales of PC games in the country and eventually someone will think of opening another PC Games Store.

If you go and search on the 3G+ (Also know as HSDPA) technology, you will know why it isn’t suitable for online gaming. The problem is that 3G+ uses the mobile network to transmit and receive data and then the data goes into a data line (Broadband) which takes it to the internet. The problem lies with the mobile transceivers (node) and mainly two major problems that can easily be recognized with such technology when it comes to latency. First is the coverage area. With many mobile devices connecting to a node, the coverage area gets reduced and hence your connection to that node will get worse. Generally, this doesn’t happen a lot since the people connecting have to be on 3G to affect your 3G connection but if happens, it can seriously affect your connection. Secondly, the mobile protocols used for communication have a larger overhead. So in addition to your TCP/IP overhead, you got the mobile overhead which is quite large due to the complexity of mobile communication. So even though you can reach to high bandwidth rates with 3G+, your latency is affected due to at least one of the two mentioned issues plaguing this technology. Especially when you compare it to hardwired connections like ADSL.

Now regarding Nawras 3G+, it gets worse since they don’t have their own internet gateway but rather use Omantel’s backbone, which the latter alone suffers latency issues. Just try calling the hotline and tell them you have a problem with latency, they will just go and refresh your line!

From my personal experience, the Nawras 3G+ connection suffers huge amounts of lag spikes (You will notice that everything is frozen for 5 seconds or so) which is really bad for online play. Omantel ADSL, doesn’t suffer from such an issue even on the lower 512kbps connection (again, latency has nothing to do with bandwidth). So if you plan to game online, you have one option: Omantel. Besides, Omantel’s 1mbps connection is 19RO monthly fee with 2gb free + 1RO per GB vs 39RO monthly with 10GB free + 4RO per extra GB that you get with Nawras (Golden package, the other packages are worse). Only way you can go Nawras is when Omantel tells you that you are far from the ADSL exchange in your area (more than 5km) then you are stuck until Omantel adds a new ADSL exchange closer to you.