BioWare is awful and I can’t stand it. There. I said it. To add to the gravity of my situation, Avault never retracts its articles and I will have to deal with the consequences for so long as I continue working in this field. Or until I get a name change and a face transplant. If I suddenly disappear, it’s because BioWare’s hired goons took me out. It’s OK though, I am ready to face the music. It took me a few years to realize that my relationship with one of my favorite developers was over. Having puzzled for a while over how this could have happened and why, I am finally at a point where everything is sorted out. Now, standing at the grave of my freshly buried romance, I want to share, with whomever is willing to listen, the tragic story of how it all came to be, and how it then came undone.

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Last week dozens of Mass Luminosity Facebook fans were intensively engaged in a contest to conduct an interview with CEO Angel Munoz. Over one hundred interview questions were submitted by fans around the globe, and the following ten questions were selected as a representation of the whole. As far as we know, this is the first instance of an open interview conducted via Facebook and then published on the Web.

Simon Grant: If you could have predicted 10 years ago how far graphics design and gaming would come, do you think anything would be different?

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Today the Adrenaline Vault is pleased to offer a unique inside look at a new young-adult fantasy book series being launched that’s heavily influenced by the world of gaming. This spring, Toonopolis: Gemini will be available for purchase. It’s a book featuring characters who inhabit a cartoon-themed universe created by author Jeremy Rodden. I was recently able to speak with Mr. Rodden about the new book series.

Rodden describes Toonopolis as “a combination of different genres, broken up into subgenres organized in a fashion not unlike videogames, cartoons and comics.” The focus of his novels is on their cartoon characters, which populate the “Tooniverse” and its various themed cities (a medieval town, an underwater environment, and even a city entirely based upon the rules and feel of classic role-playing games). Toonopolis explores the adventures these characters have as they interact with one another and with mysterious outside forces beyond their understanding.

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Dear Avault Reader,

Recently two independent events took place that reminded me of an article on gaming and violence that was published on our website back in 1997. The first event was the announcement and marketing, of the soon-to-be-released Duke Nukem Forever. The second was the enlightening chat with Penn State Professor, Ali Carr-Chellman on the Avault Podcast. The subject of violence and its potential relationship with video games is as relevant (and unresolved) today, as it was 14 years ago.

So without further ado, we present to you once again our take on this sensitive subject, written by David Laprad and aptly named The Children of Doom.

- Angel Munoz

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If you ask Scott Hartsmann, Executive Producer of the new MMORPG Rift, to compare his game with World of Warcraft, he won’t. Instead, he’ll passionately detail the Rift experience, leaving you to make your own comparisons. I had the opportunity to join several other games journalists in a Q&A session with Hartsmann to discuss the game’s beta testing and longevity. As expected, the session included a healthy dose of the standard PR rhetoric, but our primary focus was on the game’s ability to deliver on its promises. The MMO genre is full of promising games that launched successfully, only to suffer from lackluster content and ensuing player disappointment. So we gave Hartsmann the opportunity to convince us that Rift would succeed where other games have failed.

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A new year has begun, a year that promises to be another great one for gamers. But before we close the books on 2010, we’ve asked our writers to think back to the year just completed and select the best of the best. Here, then, in no particular order, are our choices for the best games that we reviewed in 2010. You’ll find the diversity of games matches the diversity of our writers, who stretch from London to Seattle, and who do this all for the love of the hobby. Read on and enjoy, and don’t forget to let us know what you think!

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Although the proliferation of games designed for new mobile platforms is rapidly accelerating, the casual computer games market continues to flourish. The personal computer (because it is so open and virtually everyone owns one) remains a primary development platform. While many other game sites focus their attention exclusively on conventional retail offerings, I unearth for your playing pleasure the very best hidden computer treasures that casual gaming has to offer. Selecting the dozen 2010 award winners was extremely difficult. There was a highly competitive range of contenders for this latest in a series of annual awards articles that has lasted for over a decade and become the longest consecutive casual games award series anywhere! I spent many hours playing all the way through hundreds of full, registered versions to discern their overall value. Of the twelve winners, the worldwide scope of great game programmers is noteworthy, as only two were developed within the United States. Because of increasingly intrusive and annoying copy-protection schemes, and the presence in many casual gamer homes of multiple computers (some of which lack online access), I tested only offerings where I received a version from the developer or publisher in which it is possible to register and play the single-player mode on a non-Internet-connected machine.

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If you’re reading this, chances are really good that you love to play video games. And a large percentage of you are also hooked on at least one MMO. Gamers, a new documentary directed by indie filmmaker Ben Gonyo, is not for you, but it is about you. It’s not for you because it’s essentially a primer for the uninitiated, a light-hearted, humorous and surprisingly balanced look at MMOs and the people who play them.

Gonyo takes to the road, visiting fan conventions and talking to gamers, psychiatrists, and even a few detractors, from coast to coast. He spends a few minutes with pro baseball player (and avid gamer) Curt Schilling, who talks about 38 Studios, his game-development company. He chats with novelist R.A. Salvatore about his involvement in the gaming industry. He does some quick interviews with a number of game developers, including Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan. And he takes his camera into two of the major US fan conventions, Gen Con in Indianapolis and BlizzCon in Anaheim. But his focus is on MMO players, particularly those playing Blizzard’s 800-pound gorilla, World of Warcraft. Several other games are mentioned, including Everquest, Age of Conan and Lord of the Rings Online, but WoW gets the most face time. In fact, throughout the 60-minute documentary, Gonyo pauses several times to chart the progress of Jarvey, his gnome warrior.

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A little more than a month ago I shared my thoughts on the upcoming Cataclysm, the third World of Warcraft expansion. Although it won’t hit the stores until December 7, recently Patch 4.0.3a went live, and with it all the anticipated, and feared, changes to the world (of Warcraft.) Although I was still unsure of whether I was going to buy Cataclysm, I was unable to resist my journalistic zeal, so I renewed my subscription for the first time since May 15, 2009. After having played all night, I bring you my impressions of the new patch. Keep in mind, WoW is absolutely huge, and it would take me months to re-explore all the nooks and crannies of it. So as you read this, remember that I’m talking about a tiny percentage of the changes that have occurred.

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I decided for once to go against my better judgment and be an early adopter. Yeah I know, there’s a lot of risk in doing so, and this time around I feel there may be more than many of us realize. After recording the podcast last night I hopped in my car and drove down to my nearest big box store (the one that rhymes with “Fall Fart”) to try and “become the controller.” Of course, I’m talking about Kinect. I wasn’t sure what kind of crowd to expect so I arrived an hour and fifteen minutes before the 12:01am release. Upon arrival, I was shocked to discover that an area had been cleared and Kinect was set up with Dance Central running. I scanned the electronics area and seeing neither line nor crowd, knew I was guaranteed to score one of the new pieces of hardware.

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I, along with six thousand other like minded individuals, was fortunate enough to be able to pop along and have a good old nosey around the London MCM Expo last weekend. The event was sponsored by Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, so it wasn’t too alarming to see a few costumed assassins lurking about in the hall. In fact, I hardly noticed them, because nearly every other person was in costume, too! The games event was being co-held with a comic convention, so the costumed players were out in full colorful force! Watching Mario play Donkey Kong Country was visually entertaining, but I sidestepped all the costumed merriment and headed straight to the games section.

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We are holding yet another massive giveaway!

This time we venture outside of video games to host The Walking Dead Giveaway, based on the new AMC Original Television Series.

We are giving away two tickets to Comic-Con 2011 in San Diego, two round trip airfare tickets to San Diego, a double occupancy stay for three nights, ten copies of The Walking Dead Comic Book #1; and of course we had to add some video game goodies too like two retail copies of Fallout: New Vegas and two retail copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Plus ALL contestants immediately receive a 25% discount coupon from participating Play N Trade stores.

This giveaway expired 1 year, 2 months, 19 days, 3 hours, 56 minutes ago !

From the folks over at Legacy Interactive.

The meeting is at a local church. They’re kind enough to let us use their basement. A few of us trickle in one at a time, eyes down on the ground. A couple settle into the slightly dented folding chairs set up in a circle, while others try to act casual around the table with a pot of almost lethally strong coffee and the fresh muffins that Mrs. Kirschbaum brings every week. Some of the people appear to be shaking a little. The rest of us pretend not to notice. It’s harder and harder for any of us to get our fix lately.

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Written by: OmegaBob

Thursday 10/21 – Day Zero

Nerds. I hate them. The main reason that I hate them is that many are not even aware that they are nerds. If they have friends, more than likely they are nerds, too. When they congregate together, they can get loud and obnoxious, freely blabbering on about anime characters that no one has heard of before, making their little gaggle feel like an exclusive club. Within the nerd-type are various factions, one of which is the video game nerds. What happens when a large group of video game nerds come together to form an exclusive super club, where they can feel free to express their personal shame without fear of being ridiculed, mocked or punched in the eye? Blizzcon!

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When the Wii came out a few years ago, my friend and I had to camp outside Best Buy for three hours to get one on release day. We stood out there in the snow, sipping hot coffee and eagerly waited for the store to open. About 10 minutes before the doors officially opened, an employee came out and started handing out tickets to the people in line. If you got a ticket, you got a Wii. We got the last two tickets, apologized politely to the people behind us, and hurried into the store to claim our prizes.

I didn’t have to do any of that when I bought my PlayStation Move last month.

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