Tales of the Rampant Coyote

Adventures in Indie Gaming!

EA Launching Ultima Website…?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 1, 2011

GameBanshee has some more information, including a screenshot of a page that was up only briefly. They’ve also confirmed that EA is the owner of the site. Dang, fans are just too diligent, and won’t let a company sneak something like this past them for long… Ultima Forever Website Leaked The web page screenshot suggests […]


Filed Under: Mainstream Games, Retro - Comments: 10 Comments to Read



“RPGs Were a 30-Year Detour?”

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 24, 2011

What. The. Frack? Okay, Matt Findley doesn’t actually say this (it’s just in the title of the article) , but he does offer some choice quotes, like: On the fantasy genre tending to be represented by RPGs: “Well, you know, we analyzed the long history of video games. I think these games always wanted to […]


Filed Under: Biz, Mainstream Games - Comments: 32 Comments to Read



Matt Chat: Baldur’s Gate

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 16, 2011

Baldur’s Gate and it’s sequel rank very highly in my list of favorite role-playing games. Matt Barton shares a retrospective and a play-through. I especially enjoyed the envy he expresses for those who haven’t played the games (yet): Boy are you in for a treat! Man, has it been that long since I played this […]


Filed Under: Mainstream Games, Retro - Comments: 16 Comments to Read



A New Wizardry – Kinda

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 13, 2011

I’ve posted about this one briefly before. But I’m just sayin’ – I *would* be buying this if they port it to the PC. Not expecting that, but I would. Or for XBox, for that matter. Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls coming to the U.S. There are several PS3 exclusives that collectively almost convince me […]


Filed Under: Game Announcements, Mainstream Games - Comments: 9 Comments to Read



Gamestop Buys Impulse

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 1, 2011

Gamestop, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall that their brick-and-mortar business model is becoming, if not obsolete, at least marginalized the way video stores and record stores have been, has bought Impulse, formerly the online games distribution branch of Stardock (reasonably indie makers / publishers of the Galactic Civilizations series, Elemental:War of Magic, etc.). […]


Filed Under: Biz, Mainstream Games - Comments: 8 Comments to Read



Yet More Ways to Use Your Console to Learn to Play Guitar…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 15, 2011

Rocksmith. Coming this fall… Ubitsoft’s New Rocksmith Game to Let Players Use Any Real Electric Gutar… An interesting point that’s just thrown out there in this Hollywood Reporter article about the game is this:  “Another Guitar Hero killer was the cost to license music. But Key says that’s not an issue yet with Rocksmith because […]


Filed Under: Mainstream Games, Music - Comments: 3 Comments to Read



A Whole New Game of Rock Band…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 14, 2011

My new Fender Squier Rock Band 3 guitar arrived on Friday.  I’ve been saving up for this puppy for a few months in preparation for its release. Fortunately, I’d already picked up a $40 Mad Catz midi-to-XBox converter that I knew it required. This was the kind of thing I’ve been waiting for since the […]


Filed Under: Mainstream Games, Music - Comments: 4 Comments to Read



Hanako Understands the Problem with Dragon Age. Bioware Doesn’t.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 24, 2011

I got riled up about this article.  I was planning a big retort, though I still feel kinda bad commenting on a game I feel I’ve barely played.  But that was kind of the point. I was one of those people who quit only a few hours in. And my reasons were almost the exact […]


Filed Under: Design, Mainstream Games - Comments: 23 Comments to Read



R.I.P. Guitar Hero

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 9, 2011

Okay, so I haven’t played Guitar Hero since GH3, so I can’t say I’m really gonna miss it all that much… Activision Dissolves Guitar Hero Business Now I feel a sudden urge to dust off the PS2 controllers and rock out to the original. It had a good run. Not like the original game-maker Harmonix […]


Filed Under: Biz, Mainstream Games - Comments: 5 Comments to Read



Matt Chat Interview with Brian Fargo, Part 2

Posted by Rampant Coyote on January 24, 2011

A continuation of last week’s interview, Matt Barton grills Brian Fargo about Wasteland, Stonekeep, Fallout, and modern RPGs vs classic 80’s RPG design: To support Matt’s desire to keep his drinking horn full, please consider a donation if you enjoy these.


Filed Under: Interviews, Mainstream Games, Retro - Comments: Comments are off for this article



Making Big AAA Games: Not the Dream Job (Anymore)

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 17, 2010

Cliff Harris talks about working in the AAA games biz at Computer And Video Games. He’s done it, I’ve done it. I’ve even interviewed a bunch of mainstream games industry refugees gone indie and wrote an article about it a couple of years ago. I was reflecting on this a bit earlier when talking about […]


Filed Under: Biz, Mainstream Games - Comments: 15 Comments to Read



Expanding My Horizons – Traditional Game Expansions vs. DLC

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 2, 2010

I think the first-ever commercial “expansion” I ever bought for a game was Wing Commander: The Secret Missions. Followed soon thereafter by The Secret Missions 2: Crusade. It was a novel concept that I was all too ready to get behind. I mean, when you really love a game, at the end you want more. […]


Filed Under: Biz, Mainstream Games - Comments: 10 Comments to Read



Blizzard Jumps the Shark?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 11, 2010

Is this for real? Suspending or banning people and revoking their CD-Key for cheating in single-player against the AI? If it’s for real, that’s beyond the pale. Maybe I’m just an old fossil who remembers some games that were so buggy and poorly balanced or just plain vicious that they couldn’t really be won without […]


Filed Under: Biz, Mainstream Games - Comments: 10 Comments to Read



State of CRPGs This Summer: Lucky Thing I’ve Been Too Busy To Notice…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 4, 2010

RPGWatch contributor VoxClamant states that for CRPG fans, it has been a long and disappointing summer: “…it was largely a summer of disappointments and failures.  And it was matched by some discouraging trends in the game industry that are slowly trying to sap the life out of gaming.  Were it not for mods to old […]


Filed Under: Mainstream Games - Comments: 5 Comments to Read



Diablo II – Ten Years Old?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 1, 2010

RPS reminds us that Diablo II just turned ten years old. I still have the collector’s edition box in my closet. It’s, uh… collecting. Dust. I make my snide remarks about action RPGs, but I still love ’em – the good ones, that is. And Diablo II is definitely an example of excellence, and is […]


Filed Under: Biz, Mainstream Games, Retro - Comments: 6 Comments to Read



Twisted Metal Lives

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 23, 2010

Sadly, I’m probably not going to spring for a PS3 to play this one. But I’m glad to see the tradition lives on. Twisted Metal and Warhawk were the first two games I ever worked on (I worked on both games simultaneously; For a while, they shared the same code base, and you could fly […]


Filed Under: Mainstream Games - Comments: Comments are off for this article



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