Archive for the ‘ videogames ’ Category

Roma Gioca 2016

Every year we can have our Roman wargame convention in spite of logistic problems. In the 2016 we were guest in locals under a large technical school. We had a lot of tables with Gothic Wars, zombies, WWII, Star Wars, Gundam and other delicacies. As Ganesha Games we propose Rogue Stars and Faustus Furius.


















As addendum some reenactors showed us Viking and Medieval times.




Share

Lucca C&G 2016: Computers [part10]

Videogames entertainment is more profitable than cinema industry. Videogames require updated computers for their heavy graphic use. Videogames are something that you can find in Lucca Comics & Games.



Visors are the new 3D evolution. Monitors and games for 3D vision on screen are dead, instead.

Some sexy cases with neon and liquid veins.




Share

Modena Play 2016

After 5 years I’m in Modena Play again. A lot of things changed in my life but some are always the same.

Here I’m with an anthology of adventures for roleplay game Kata Kumbas on Savage Worlds game engine. I’m one of the 8 authors. Out just for Modena Play. Read and play in an medieval Italy where Brancaleone da Norcia rode.

Modena Play is the annual appointment for boardgames and roleplays in Italy. Furthermore you can find card games, 2D wargames, 3D wargames, videogames, reenactment and cosplay. Players illustrate games so you can play with it freely after few minutes. And in these two days you could play even 20 games if you are an hardcore player.

While I was walking around I was approached by two chaps who were playing around. It is so simple to find mates to play here. So we formed a temporary player group of 3 people to play with what we could find around. This was a game about the management of Roman provinces.

Another game that we played was about the training to be a knight.

Sometimes there is someone that do it bigger.

Card games can be designed for adolescents with hormone storms. Like this one with an ass as advert. More sexy poses inside…

The ritual auction for games. Gems and garbage mixed in a crowded and fun moment.

I met Paolo in the fair! Now he is full involved with videogames as profession. Here he was in a play-by-play together with a mate of his. Good luck! ; )

A more traditional game than games on videos: a foosball table, but a very small one.

A more traditional game than foosball: wooden tops. Bigger ones were made on request with a lathe. Cool!

A more traditional game than top: war!!!

I found this book in the reenactment part of the fair on fighting with armour in ‘500. He is the curator of the modern edition of an ancient work. I bought Fluxx Cthulhu, MDF terraces for a new gladiatorial arena and 35 vallejo colours too.

After 5 years I could eat tigelle again, a kind of soft bread made with lard filled with a mix of lard and parmesan cheese. Available only in Modena. A long wait…

Here can view people who eat and the corridor between the two main pavilions. Moreover there were the upper storey, another pavilion and a tensile structure.

Unexpectedly you could find a lot of cosplayers around. A stage was setted for them. Every opportunity is good to show your costume. Even during the play of games.

And now some of the best cosplays that I picked from an unofficial photographic report of the event:



Next time Modena Play and wargaming!

Share

Lucca C&G 2013: modding

These days I’m thinking to buy a new desktop computer because mine is more than 10 years old. It still runs but it is a little slow and problematic at start and to manage graphics. So I need a trustworthy beast for the next 10 years. I like modding, so I want something with an aggressive look in addition to power. And in Lucca there was the usual modding contest.

Well, these things are a little too much radical for my taste of home. However I need neons. A computer with neons works better!

A cabinet wash and a sort of flower…

Water cooling is so sexy but maintenance problems are time exhausting.

Another area was devoted to vintage gaming. Do you remember mr. Pac Man?

Where real money is in gaming industry: videogames. Here the little space owned by the preview of Playstation 4.

Another little space, always in the Games pavilion, a stage only for an online game that I ignore because I pass my free time only with little soldiers made of lead.

Share

Lucca C&G 2012: computer fever

In Lucca Games there was the Miniature Island. Yes, we were on an island in the sea of Lucca Comics & Games (and Cosplay, remember). We were only an island in Lucca Games pavilion too. Boardgames had a larger space and importance because in Italy we have various publishers on the market. This means that more money is involved in this sector than wargames one. Roleplay games are another sector and it has a respectable market. Live roleplay is an obscure sector to me and it was located in another pavilion. But the videogames market rules upon us all.

To celebrate the release of the new chapter of the Assassin’s Creed saga, the third one, an entire pavilion was dedicated to it. A polite statement to say that Ubisoft bought it. They have got the money to do it.

Around the city you could see some projections of this videogame advertisements on the walls. More revealing was the reenactment event of the Saturday, the simulation of Bunker Hill battle (1775). Almost 200 reenactors and lots of gunpowder were involved. We play wargame battles with miniatures, videogame industries play wargame battles with real men. Money makes a difference.

Another money matter. Videogame stands were huge and customised. I forgot to take a picture of the new Nintendo console and its gorgeous girls stand assistants. Among these game giants I took a photo of a wrestling videogame with the straight edge wrestler guy. Weird. Minor Threat – the band who came up in the eighties with the “straight edge” term – didn’t think about this evolution.

Just Dance is the exhibitionists videogame of the fair. Every year a new edition, every year wild girls try to hypnotise men with their rhythmic movements controlled by a game console with video camera. Some stand assistants lead the game. Here at the end of a day. I saw them in the morning, before the open of the gates, dancing without public: they were so crazy for dance to do it for fun! After 4 days in Lucca I was dead tired. And these girls?

An alternative way to utilise your old CRT computer screen: using it as a stage for miniatures.

In Lucca there is always a little modding section. This one was kitsch for sure, a gun with inside and outside various bad taste things, as Smurfs and model cars. Ugly looking.

Something better. But not so practical with that finger-eat fan. Glamorous but too much “open” to be a computer case.

A great machine! Water cooled case. Clean design, neon lights, blue-black-white colours. What can I say? It is sexy.

Paolo from Switzerland came to Lucca by train. Here while he is wearing his new computer headphones. Saturday night we walk together to a place outside Lucca where were relegated the computer geeks. They organised an all night long videogames lan party. Someone fell asleep on the floor, indeed. Instead Paolo, our hero, killed millions of aliens and took the train the morning after at 7 to the watches country.

Share

Ludica Roma is coming!

A break from Lucca C&G reports. They will follow next week. Now is the time of Ludica Roma convention! I’m leaving with Andrea “Ganesha Games” Sfiligoi for a three days duty in a huge fair full of wargames, boardgames, videogames and more. A full report here after I will have ended the Lucca series.
See you in Ludica!

Ludica Roma website

Share

Lucca C&G 2012: aftermath

After 5 days in Lucca Comics & Games I needed some sleep. I was among thousands of staff people and 180000 paying people. I worked heavy at the Ganesha stand but I succeeded to take almost 250 photos, so you have to wait a little to watch a full report in thematic posts on this web. However now I’m offering you some official videos to understand what is this fair. Enjoy!

Share

Blood & Glory

The first time I watch the ad I thought: “They have stolen my game!”. I passed a lot of time to find the name “Ferrum et Gloria” and now exists a gladiator game called “Blood and Glory”! What a surprise! For my fortune it is only a computer game and not a wargame, so my name is safe.

You can see on these two promotional shots what kind of wonderful graphic it has, and even that the fighters only resemble gladiators because it is a fantasy version of what ars dimicandi was.

I downloaded this game for my Ipad. It is very nice because of the fighters great design and for the glamorous feel it give. But it is even a simple and classical coded fight between two digital puppets and nothing more. Boring to me. It is a feast for the eyes so I don’t care if I don’t play it, I see only the graphic and it is enough. It seems a free game but you can’t get past a certain point without spending real money to buy special abilities. It is another way to sell games: pay to have more levels, pay to play more. The sad thing is that at the end you will pay to play this game a lot of money little by little.

In the meantime I’m thinking about my gladiator game. Every time I re-take it after some time I find some new idea to improve it, so you are waiting to have something very special…

Share