So, I went ahead and got myself some Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 for my Wii. The port to Nintendo's new console was released on March, so Alt+Games is right on schedule when it comes to new footie games on Wii (see the Fifa 2008 feature here). Konami has preserved the basic engine of PES 2008 but has revamped the whole in-game (and menu) user interface to provide a different kind of play experience for the Wii people. And I have to say I like it. Even though it really isn't comparable to PES for any other machine.

One of me and my friends' favourite pastimes is playing multiplayer Pro Evolution Soccer on PlayStation 2. Although the controls of the game take some time to get used to, when you get the feel of the game the experience is awesome. Add 5 of your friends interacting with you through the game to this experience and you have the perfect definition of great time.

Well, who wants to have great time when you can enjoy the gut-flinching feeling of fierce competition with your peers? I thought that sometimes you could switch the relatively laid-back feeling of generic PES multiplayer gaming to somewhat more competitive mode. As it is, we try to divide the players evenly between teams to avoid having to play against AI and also to avoid clogging up the field too many players in the same side.

But how would you arrange such a competitive event? Here are my thoughts how to best arrange a PES tournament for two-player teams among your friends. What you need is an interesting setting and parity (or balance) between the teams.

I stumbled upon Robert Bohl's The Inpependent Insurgency podcasts earlier this week on the Story Games forums . And yesterday I listened to podcast n:o 006 featuring Joshua A.C. Newman on Shock: Social Science Fiction . What an excellent show! It made me want to try Shock immediately. The way Joshua described the main idea behind the game (to allow people to create social science fiction stories together) and what features of the game make it achieve its goal were very inspiring. 

Podcasting is a difficult art, requiring the ability to produce interesting stuff that pleases the ear so that you can bear to listen to the 'casts. The latter part has been lacking in many of the more promising podcasts I've listened to in the past but II doesn't have that problem: For my ear it is really well produced (at least in the latter episodes) and Robert also has a good radio voice which always helps.

And the content: Who wouldn't want to hear an indie Rpg designer talking about his/her game for an hour? I mean (as Joshua A.C. Newman also noted) writing is the hardest part of making indie rpgs, so much of the writer's intent tends to not get communicated. So hearing about the game from the one that knows the most about it and is the most obvious champion of that game is very important. And also (at lest with Joshua A.C. Newman) it is always fun to listen two guys knowledgeable with the important genre movies (such as Blade Runner) talk and talk and talk...

So, now you have to go to Independent Insurgency and listen for yourselves.

This series of articles will document my online rpg campaign Kingdoms in Flames, a rpg set in the Hyborian Age as depicted by Robert E. Howard in his Conan short stories. It is a campaign, meaning that it is a series of stories, each spanning one or more play sessions. It's online, meaning that we will be playing over the 'net with tools such as Skype , TeamSpeak , OpenRpg and Vassal Engine . It uses the rules of Dust Devils rpg. The setting is the Hyborian Age from Conan stories, in particular the Kingdom(s) of Koth and nearby areas.

The article series will consist of two kinds of articles: Session reports and in-depth coverage of specific areas of the game. Session reports will be more narrative whereas the coverage articles will thrive to cover specific areas (such as the tools used in the game) from many viewpoints.

In this article I will kick off the series by providing a short introduction to the campaign. 

After spending most of the weekend playing Guitar Hero III on Wii, one question crossed my mind: Could you use the Guitar Hero controller with the Flash Games for the Wii Browser?

Wiicade has already developed the Wiimote API that allows using all of Wiimote's buttons, up to 4 Wiimotes and even some functions of the Nunchuk controller in Wii Flash applications. It should be possible to track the guitar controllers controls too, as they are bound to be similar to the Nunchuk's.

Okay, the game weekend is officially over. Actually it has been over since agent OH left the premises about 14:00 yesterday. So it is time to take toll of the weekend and related casualties.

 Games played (on a very approximate order of first play):

• Wario Ware on Wii, namely the darts minigame
• Guitar Hero III on Wii
• Galaxy Trucker
• Citadels  

• Don

• Jenga
• Bang!
• Pro Evolution Soccer 6 on PS2 with 5 controllers (gotta get the new version soon, ditto controller n:o 6) 
• Texas Hold'em Poker (with actual chips and cards)
• Chinese Poker 
• Wii Tennis
• Other Wario Ware multiplayer games on Wii

Out of all the games, Guitar Hero III was played the most (by far).