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Why we solo
Lauren of the Mystic Worlds Blog has a new post up called "Why we Solo in MMOs," offering her perspective on why, over many years and many MMOs, she has always tended to ignore the grouping game and instead go it alone. While I'm not against grouping at all -- I was very active in the 40 man raid game, and tend to run Heroics around once a week and Karazhans around 1.5 times a week across my 3 70s -- I've always felt that the solo game has a valid spot in MMORPGs, and I've often indulged in it myself. In fact, I'd bet that most WoW players do so on a regular basis these days, whether leveling up or doing their dailies. She rattles off the usual list of reasons for going solo -- having a weird schedule, needing to take frequent "real life" breaks, not having enough time to go LFG for a dungeon, unwillingness to deal with the infamous horrible PuG group -- then takes it a step further. She believes that many people use these types of statements as excuses or defense against people who can't understand why they wish to solo in a multiplayer game, or actively flame them for it, and that the real reasons are a lot less complicated.
GDC08: LEGO Universe more than mere child's play
When we first heard that NetDevil was beginning development tentatively titled LEGO Universe late last year, our minds boggled at the creative possibilities. After all, creativity is really what LEGO is all about, using one's imagination to take a mere thought or idea and recreate it with multi-colored blocks. Sure, the game is being aimed primarily at youngsters between the ages of 8 and 12, but that's never stopped me from enjoying or getting excited about the franchise before. The game's main mechanic will essentially give players more blocks to play with and more real estate to play with it the more of the game's colorful work they explore. They describe a world where one player can build a fortified LEGO castle and try and stop a friend from invading it. They make it sound so simple one wonders what's taking Warhammer Online so long?What's perhaps more interesting is the clever merchandising tie-in being planned for the game that the team is talking about at GDC. According to their director for business development, players will be able to order real, packaged LEGO sets based on their virtual creations. While this has the potential to be extremely cool for savvy youths and eccentric adults alike, it also betrays LEGO's ulterior motive. Not content merely with fistfuls of money from software sales and further brand exposure, now they want to sell you stuff in the game too. Again, there is a potential for something really cool here, but only if their focus is on a fun MMO experience and not on working on a device that prints money. When your director for business development is described as the "guiding force" behind the game instead of a crummy old designer, you've already made the first step towards turning my LEGO-loving heart to stone.
Today's most re-sellable video: Lego Star Wars trailer
While LucasArts says it's adding some new content, we fear that the upcoming Lego Star Wars game, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga will just be a new name on an old title. Still, the humor in this series is worth a second look -- at least in cost-free trailer form -- and this ad for the game reminds us why we enjoy this unlikely franchise at all.In time for the 30th anniversary, see epic Star Wars events reenacted with Legos after the break.
Honor your Wiimotes with a brittle, knobby throne
For those of you whose Wiimotes are heart-breakingly horizontal, and whose Lego bricks are crying out to be moderately useful, then we have the perfect solution for both of your problems. Everyone else: we have a picture of a Wiimote stand made of Lego for you.When the Wii-playing Lego robots win control of all of Earth's resources in a series of high-stakes Wii Sports Bowling tournaments, we will all be locked in their vast factories and forced to build giant versions of these thrones from which they'll beep their terrible edicts. There's no stopping them, so we might as well get some practice building those thrones.
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga for Wii
Not exactly the first lightsaber experience we were looking for with the Wii -- but we'll take it. Codename Revolution reports that Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is coming to Wii this holiday season. The assumption is that this will be a one disc version of the sleeper hits in the Lego Star Wars series. Beyond this basic information, discovered through a distribution contact, there is no news on how the Wiimote will be used.If they somehow change the camera to over-the-shoulder or attempt to keep it behind the character in classic platformer style the blaster and lightsaber may be incredibly fun. If it's from the top down or random camera angles, like it is in the versions available now, we fear for a Marvel: Ultimate Alliance on Wii feel. That experience need not be repeated, thank you.
Build your own WiigoBot, the Lego NXT Mindstorms Wii Bowling Robot
Other than causing excessive pain to people walking around carelessly with bare feet, there's a lot of things you can do with Lego bricks. We recently saw that it's possible to make a fully automated Wii Sports bowling machine using Lego NXT Mindstorms, and now the complete guide has been posted over at BattleBricks. The fun has to be in the construction here, because unlike previous efforts, about all you can expect to gain from completion is a machine that can repeatedly throw a virtual bowling ball. You'll need a fair amount of kit here too, so be prepared to scrounge around that box of bricks to find those eight "Technic Pins with Friction and Slots" which you swear you saw at the bottom the other day. In the end, we're left wondering how abstract all this can get: will someone end up building a real life bot that automatically flies virtual, long haul flights? If so, how enthralling.
Lego Warthog and Spectre built brick by brick
We're adding to our ever expanding Lego creations collection by showcasing these two Halo inspired beauties. Over on his Flickr account, legohaulic posted a few pictures of his newly created Lego Warthog and Spectre models from Halo 2. Great craftsmanship and just very well done, gold star for you legohaulic. Our favorite has to be the Spectre with its curvaceous front and perfectly framed proportions. That's not to say we don't enjoy the Warthog, but we just wish he could have made it into a a limited edition Puma.[Via Digg]
Gears of War gets the Lego treatment
Gears of War in Lego form, built by Dunemaster ... how cool is that? These little guys were created by Dunemaster who loves building video game characters out of Legos and posting them on Flickr. He has previously made a bunch of minifigs from various video games, but we think the above Gears Lego creations are his best work to date. Now only if we could get some Locusts for our mini COG army to disassemble. Dunemaster, you've been challenged and have some work to do.[Via Wonderland]
Lego Star Wars producer unlocks secret of gaming success
Gamespot had a chat with Lego Star Wars producer Jonathan Smith and learned nothing about the upcoming Lego titles, except that they are working on more. What Gamespot did learn was something far more precious: How to ultimately design and test games. One of the more interesting things Smith talks about is that game developers should create games and test them on 8-year-old-boys. Smith says, "They like moving forward in a game. They like funny things happening in a game when they press buttons. They love, more than you can possibly believe, cheats. ... They dislike waiting for anything, and the universal phrase is that if something is too difficult, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's too challenging, it means that they don't understand what they're being asked to do ... the game designer is asking something from them, but they're not asking the kids clearly enough and not giving appropriate feedback to their attempts to overcome the challenge. It's rarely a skill difficulty."We tip our hat to Mr. Smith. He's absolutely right. The clarity and genius of that statement is incredible. Do the sales of Lego Star Wars prove Smith knows thirty-something-year-old video game players are the same as 8-year-olds? The only real difference being puberty, a driver's license, bank account and the ability not to ask mom if they can get an M rated title -- well, most of them anyway.
Halo Lego Elite is brickalicious
Halo.bungie.org got word from Mandalore that he has finally perfected his Lego version of the Halo Elite. The Lego mini-fig is well constructed and even includes a make-shift sword to pwn all those noobs. Any fanboys out there ritually play ... I mean build with Legos and create some video game inspired work? We'd love to see someone create Viva Piñata, Gears of War, or even Geometry Wars inspired creations. Be creative, get building, and send them in![Via HBO]
LEGO Digital Designer
You may have noticed that we seem to have a bit of a thing for LEGOs here at TUAW. We previously told you about the open source LEGO design program Bricksmith, but now LEGO themselves have released version 1.6 of the LEGO Digital Designer. This cool little app lets you generate HTML building instructions for your design, check the cost of your raw materials, and perhaps best of all, upload your creation to an online gallery.LEGO Digital Designer is a free download from LEGO.[Edit: it "runs on Intel Macs" but is not a UB] [Via FreeWareMac]
Santa vs. Sith in Star Wars
Santa is a jedi knight, which explains how he makes it through the chimneys ... he just force pushes himself through. By following these easy steps you'll be able to play as jolly St. Nick in LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. Step 1: At the Mos Eisley Cantina, enter the following two codes: CL4U5H (for Santa hat and red clothes) and TYH319 (for white beard Extra) Step 2: Go to the Character Customizer and create the proper costume. Use a human head, the appropriate red clothing ... and don't forget the red cap! Santa can wield the weapon of your choice -- we recommend the green or red lightsaber to seasonally complement his shiny red duds. (Remember, the color of his lightsaber decides whether his Force powers are naughty or nice.) Step 3: In the Extras menu, activate Disguise 3. Step 4: Enter the character-based level of your choice in Free Play. A cute little thing for the holiday season. Now it's time for Santa Miis, Santa Sims and whatever else you creative people out there can come up with. Tis the season.
Today's hottest game video: Lego DDR
Today's most-popular game video comes from GameTrailer's user-uploaded section. Lego DDR, as the title suggests, concerns the junction of Legos and Dance Dance Revolution. We've always wondered what it would look like if Lego people could play DDR. (Just go with us here.) And not even the articulated Technic guys, but the squat, smiling Lego men.Our questions have been answered by this minute-long stop-motion of frenzied Lego guys hitting some max combos. And then they follow-up with pommel-horse moves on the DDR safety-railing. Nice.See the video after the break.
LucasArts releases new LEGO Star Wars II screens
I know there are a lot of you out there who want to forget about the new Star Wars trilogy. Characters like Jar Jar Binks, a bratty Anakin and Watto just make me sick to my stomach. For those of us in this camp, we should all be thankful LucasArts is bringing LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy to the PSP this fall, and the company has just released a handful of new screens for you all to drool over.What will this game feature besides Ewoks living with half their bodies inside trees as the above image suggests? How about the Character Customizer, which enables you to take any of the 60 unlockable characters in the game and mix and match body parts from them to create your very own character - just like you would in real life. "Character customization was something we'd been looking at for a while," says Will Thompson, character artist at developer Traveller's Tales in an interview with IGN. "There are lots of cool ideas like that which come very naturally from working with LEGO. The best thing about the Character Customizer is randomization, which gives you a completely different character than you've ever imagined with the touch of a button. You never know what you're going to get!"LEGO Star Wars II looks like it's coming together rather nicely. The graphics look great, and if the game doesn't fall into the normal PSP pitfalls, it should be a sure-fire winner.(Via IGN)
Professional LEGO artist's 360 controller
"Nathan Sawaya is a professional LEGO artist and former LEGO Master Model Builder with a gifted skill set that he’s been honing since the age of five."The dude builds stuff out of LEGOs; apparently, for a living. While we're trying to wrap our heads around how it's possible to make a living off of LEGOs, and cursing our college educations, check out his next-gen game controllers. The Xbox 360 controller is 15"x10"x5" and the PS3 controller is ... well, it's a boomerang. Where's the Revolution love? I guess there's not enough challenge in building a rectangular wand to interest a LEGO Master.[Via Joystiq]
Frogs don't love Lego Katamari
Joystiq reader Aaron Broesky put together this Katamari-inspired Lego stop animation. Well done, Aaron! But what's with the senseless spaceman-on-frog violence? Rampant ranidaphobia means it's not easy to be green.
The Lego NES
Let's say you just stuffed your Mac mini into an NES case and now you want to play some old-school Mario Bros. 2 or Bubble Bobble. You've got the NES parts lying around, but no case for them--what is a gamer to do? One ingenious Lego fanatic took his love of plastic building blocks and retro Nintendo paraphernalia and combined them for the betterment of society: a Lego NES case mod. Everything is Lego--from the controller ports to the power and reset buttons. Although many Joystiq readers might consider this old (the article dates back to June of last year), it very recently popped back on the radar as one of TechEBlog's top 10 Strangest Lego Creations, just ahead of a full-sized Volvo XC90 made entirely of plastic building blocks.
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker... LEGO-style
When I was a kid my older brothers were always using their LEGOs to build the entire Star Wars universe. By the time I got older, LEGO was doing that for me-kinda took away from the fun, you know? I'm relieved to find out that you can't buy the LEGO-version of just any popular franchise... yet. That's right, if you wanna play Zelda, then you're gonna have to build Zelda! [Thanks, Shizzle]
Jenius Joystiq Lego Logo
For hours I stared longingly at the engadget logo made of lego, endlessly refreshing the tips page screaming "Give me the lego Joystiq!". Then early this morning, my jealousy prayers were answered! Here is Ben's Jenius Joystiq Lego Logo* in all its glory. *All donations go to the Association of Alaskans Addicted to Alliteration.
LEGO Grand Theft Auto?!
Tipster, Timá, dug this one up. It looks like it's been around for a while, but hopefully most of you have never seen it. It's good for a chuckle or two, and it's definitely office-friendly. And who knows... if they made LEGO Star Wars, why not take it one step further? [Thanks, Timá]
