If you have signed up for a CAD Premium membership, you should now be able to log in (link at the upper left of that page) and check out an exclusive wallpaper, as well as a promotional pinup and concept sketches for a project I’ve been working on. We’re also installing an exclusive forum for CAD Premium members to hang out in.

Winter-een-mas is in full swing now, with the season officially underway. Swing by the forums to chat with other gamers celebrating the holiday. I’ll be setting aside some time soon to create some greeting cards and fliers for you to use to help spread the word.

So the general consensus on Planetside is that the game is pretty much dead. Some hardcore players hanging on, but most people appear to have jumped ship. That’s a shame, because I was getting an itch for a good MMOFPS. I think that MMO first-person shooters are going to be the next big deal in the online gaming world. I’ve got my fingers crossed for Huxley to prove that for me.

It’s interesting though, watching MMO’s die. And not just dwindle in subscribers, but in the case of Asheron’s Call 2, actually shut down. Some of them just end up horribly butchered, like Star Wars Galaxes. I actually tried out their “New Game Experience”, and was really disappointed to find out just how mutilated that game had become.

Nine iconic professions, modeled after the major characters from the movies? Why? This has always bugged me about Star Wars. They have this enormous, rich, fantasy universe, with countless possibilities, and George Lucas and Co. insist on maing the universe as small as possible.

Throwing C-3PO and Chewbacca into the prequels, entirely unnecessary. It’s like they think we’re going to forget that it’s Star Wars if they don’t jam some familiar faces in there. At least with Star Wars Galaxes you had familar locales, but the adventure and legacy was entirely your own to create. Now you just have to slide into a cookie-cutter template of Luke or Han.

But I digress.

Put in a bit of time with DOA4 last night. The graphics are incredible, but they’ve really amped up the mechanics as well. It’s not quite the same DOA I’m accustomed to. It seems like they’ve put such a bigger emphasis on holds and reversals that where previously they were a neat way to turn the tide, now they are a requirement for playing competitively.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely welcome increased challenge and complexity in my games. But it sure threw me for a loop my first time through story-mode against the computer, getting my ass absolutely handed to me on a virtual plate on the last boss. Fun stuff.