Really, Funcom? REALLY

I’m a colossal idiot, there is no other way to put it.  COLOSSAL IDIOT.  I downloaded and played early access for The Secret World this afternoon.  Why did Funcom have a beta if they refuse to take input from their beta testers?

Examples:

• Character customization sliders
• Head and hair improvements
• Text size and coloration on menus

Look here’s the least offensive female character I could create, and she’s got bad, bad hair, and could there were any more angles on that excuse for a face.  I named her Godawful “Apeface” Ugly.

Character customization is worse than it was in beta, yeah I know hard to believe.  There are FAR less choices for clothing options, female makeup is a JOKE, no new hair, heads are atrocious and still not one single slider for body choice.  Yeah seriously Funcom, I don’t care that you plan to put plastic surgery clinics in at some point.  Your word has no value, you will do what you want and not listen. 

There is absolutely no excuse for the character customization you released on the game client today.  You were told by closed and open beta testers that character customization was god awful.  Men look like prepubescent children and woman like look apes.  You were told repeatedly that height and weight sliders were needed, yet they are missing.  Hair is so bad it makes it impossible to actually look at your character, ever.

I realize the Funcom apologists will defend the game at all costs, but the sad truth is that character creation is the first impression people have of any game.  The first impression that the game leaves makes three-day old diapers look more attractive.  The fact that I can’t even purchase a skirt or dress of any kind from Funcom’s cash shop is appalling. 

Technorati Tags: Funcom,The Secret World,TSW,character creation,cash shop

Everquest 2: Qeynos Rises aka Game Update 64

The upcoming game update has hit the test servers and so far reaction is mixed for the remodeled Qeynos.  There aren’t any good pictures from the test server yet on the updated art of Qeynos but reports are that the changes are not as drastic or dramatic as the update to Freeport. 

General update notes can be found here.  There are class and/or archetype changes, PvP changes, battlegrounds, and ability changes. 

Technorati Tags: Everquest 2,EQ2,SOE,Sony Online Entertainment,Game Update 64

MechWarrior Online: The Four Pillars of Combat

Four Pillars of Combat

It’s not much of an understatement to say that every time the developers over at MechWarrior Online release another glimpse of the upcoming MMO my husband drools.  This release talks about the four pillars of combat and aims to make piloting your own mech a little less intimidating to newcomers.  The above video will detail the four pillars and provide some amazing game play footage.

Technorati Tags: MechWarrior Online,four pillars,MMO

Skyrim DLC: Dawnguard for the XBox 360

Yesterday saw the release of the first download content for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  The content is exclusive to the XBox 360 for the first thirty days and then will be released on all other platforms.  The DLC includes Kinect voice support, mounted horse combat, and a whole new vampire related quest-line.  If you enjoyed Skyrim then enjoy the expansion of the story of the Nords.

Technorati Tags: Bethseda,Skyrim,The Elder Scrolls,Dawnguard,DLC,XBox 360,Kinect

Mass Effect 3–Extended Cut DLC

Bioware’s blockbuster trilogy, Mass Effect improves the ending of the final installment with the release of the Extended Cut.  The DLC is designed to flesh out the ending to the conclusion of the story without dramatically altering the original ending. 

I haven’t actually finished the third installment of the series so I haven’t seen the revised ending released by Bioware.  I have also made a personal decision to not view spoilers on the web. 

Technorati Tags: Mass Effect 3,Bioware,Extended Cut,DLC

Star Wars: The Old Republic–Patch 1.3 Allies

Allies went live yesterday for Star Wars: The Old Republic servers.  Highlights of Patch 1.3 include:

• Group finder: now it will be much easier to find a group on your server
• Legacy system has been updated to allow players to customize the way they play
• Ranked warzones
• Adaptive social gear
• Augmentation

Sign-in and check out the improvements and changes that have come to the Star Wars universe.

Technorati Tags: Star Wars: The Old Republic,SWTOR

Mass Effect 3: the ending saga continued …

Bioware DLC

On Tuesday, 26 June and 4 July 2012, the latest DLC for Bioware’s epic conclusion to the trilogy will be released for the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3, respectively.  The DLC will be free.  The DLC is the long awaited ending clarification.  The DLC doesn’t change the ending but rather seeks to flush-out and better explain the three possible endings.

Technorati Tags: DLC,Mass Effect 3,XBox 360,PlayStation 3

Everquest 2: Game Update 64

Live on the PTS 26 June 2012, Game Update 64, which focuses on the revamp of Qeynos and improving PvP.  The quick and dirty breakdown of the overhaul of PvP includes:

• Stat Adjustment: gone are the days of separate gear for PvE and PvP.  PvP stats will now be derived from normal PvE gear.  This allows PvP gear to be of use in PvE and vice versa.  Not to mention, freeing up bag space!
• “We focused on player skill being the biggest deciding factor in PVP combat, not gear.  Gear will still give you an advantage, but it will be a more minor advantage than what we have seen in the past.”
• Open world and battleground PvP will now award the same tokens, which will be used to purchase PvP gear and consumables.
• Old PvP gear is being removed from brokers, old tokens can be used to acquire PvP consumables.
• “New full sets of PVP gear have been added for every tier, starting at level 10.  At 90-92, there are 3 sets of gear at different power levels.”
• Open world PvP combat has also been improved.  Infamy has been overhauled, the longer the enemy stays alive the more they are worth.
• Open world PvP tokens now drop directly from enemies and not from writs.  Writs can be completed for additional rewards.
• Frozen Tundra Battleground map has been removed until it can be updated and polished
• Our other maps have seen a few tweaks:
  • Gears of Klak’Anon – now rewards more points for a kill, and more points for successfully killing the murderball holder.
  • Battlefield of Ganak – The flag carrier now suffers a movement speed debuff.  This debuff has an incoming damage buff which scales up the longer you hold the flag.
  • Smuggler’s Den – The amount of time required to cap
  • all of the towers has been adjusted.  The value of the center tower has been increased.  Ground mounts can now be used!
• Time spent in a battleground match determines the amount of win/loss tokens awarded instead of a flat amount.
• Crowd Control has been changed in PvP, the overall duration has been lowered.
• Individual class changes update are still coming.

Technorati Tags: Everquest2,Sony Online Entertainment,SOE,EQ2,PvP,battlegrounds,open world

Dragon’s Dogma–the Gem of the Console RPG

 

Let’s face it, the weather here is bloody hot in here and thus a week ago Sunday hubby tried the demo for Dragon’s Dogma.  We were both hooked and thus he went on the hunt to obtain the title locally.  An hour or so later, he managed to secure a copy. 

Japanese RPG’s are not my favorite genre by any means.  However, Capcom has scored a true gem with this console only (currently at least) title.  The game is available on the PlayStation 3 and XBox 360.Character creation is deep, completely open world environment, difficult and unique boss fights, and a unique, if somewhat irritating companion character system. 

It is a single player game, but not quite.  The companion characters, aka pawns, are hired at Rift Stones.  These pawns are created, outfitted, and developed by other players.  These pawns are there to heal, tank, or dps.  Which allows you to create one character and to change your class whenever you want.  You can play a wide range of classes and the freedom to vary your class is a very refreshing change.

There are also no level caps in the game.  You continue to level and grow your skills for the varying classes the longer you play.  Makes it a very nice change to hitting the level cap and suddenly everything is too easy and not hard enough.  It will be a very nice game to play when I need a break from the office or the lands of Norrath or Alderaan or Hoth just aren’t appealing.

Technorati Tags: Dragon's Dogma,XBox 360,PlayStation 3,pawns

Everquest 2– or the game I simply cannot quit

Four years ago, I had started WOW but was getting bored.  My savvy husband was ready and pointed me in the direction of Everquest 2.  This was way back when there were still islands outside Freeport and Qeynos for new players.  I was immediately hooked.  Here was a MMO that had what I missed most about the The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion – quest driven stories with the ability to explore the world.

I tried to convince myself and hubby that my computer was running the game adequately.  Truth be told, it stuttered so bad that today I wouldn’t last thirty seconds in-game trying to play that way.  I played for almost a month, but then went back to WOW which ran much better on my machine.  So while I spent another four years playing WOW on and off, trying other games, I never forgot about Everquest 2.  I would dabble for a month and then go back playing lesser games. 

Finally, when I quit WOW for good last year I immediately dived back into Everquest 2 eagerly.  This time my machine could handle the engine much better and the stuttering was limited to a few places here and there.  The graphics weren’t as stellar as hubby’s machine put out but they were still stellar compared to my first EQ2 experience.  We played Everquest 2 and Lord of the Rings Online for the majority of last year, until hit the hyperspace button and played Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Once I deleted the failed Funcom experiment this morning, I immediately reinstalled Everquest 2.  It felt like coming home.  There is a reason it is called Evercrack.  LOL  Sneakily, literally behind my back, hubby bought me a year subscription and the expansion I was missing, Age of Discovery.  I got in-game, said howdy to the guildies, and went about cleaning out my quest log.  I know I am going to enjoy the next couples of weeks and months in Norrath while it is blazing hot here.

Technorati Tags: Everquest 2,EQ2,World of Warcraft,WOW,Star Wars: The Old Republic,SWTOR,Age of Discovery,Norrath,Lord of the Rings Online,LOTRO,Oblivion

MechWarrior Online

Long ago, on the opposite side of the country Chromehounds launch on the XBox360 and hubby spent hours upon hours customizing his mech and playing online with friends.  We moved and within a couple of years the servers for Chromehounds had been closed.  So he has been without a decent mech game for a very long time.  Then today, his inbox delivered him the news that brought the smile from ear to ear MechWarrior Online was available for beta signups and pre-order packages.

Needless to say, he immediately opened the web and dived into the site.  He is signed up for the beta, has bought his founder’s package, and is beginning to recruit his friends.  They are planning strategies and builds.  Their joy is contagious and their happiness is infectious. 

Technorati Tags: MechWarrior Online,Chromehounds,founders package

The Secret World–Deleted

It’s official, we have both deleted all game files for The Secret World from our computers.  It wasn’t a difficult decision truth be told.  Between the attitude of the developers, the poor optimization, the disconnected combat, jerky animations, and the incredibly poor character creation choices deletion was an actual relief.  $500 lesson learned, words from Funcom are insufficient.  It is abundantly apparent that Funcom has learned nothing from two previously horrible launches: Anarchy Online and Age of Conan.  Who knows, maybe in six months they will have worked out some of the issues and the game may actually be playable but I doubt it will happen that quickly. 

I sincerely hope that those players who stick it out with the game help make it better.  I just don’t have the time or energy to help a gaming company put out a polished product post-launch.  It is just sad that a company has failed to learn from past mistakes so completely.

Technorati Tags: TSW,The Secret World,Age of Conan,Anarchy Online,Funcom,beta

The Secret World: Hell Raised–or the Open Beta weekend that changed everything

Last weekend was the third open beta weekend for The Secret World and unfortunately, convinced me that the game is unplayable.  We pre-ordered the game based on the strength and uniqueness of the IP and the belief that Funcom had learned from past mistakes.  We both have Grandmaster packs to the game, and I at least, feel like an idiot for having faith in Funcom.  For years the pictures, above and below,

and the catch-phrase, “play how you want, look how you want” has been out there by Funcom.  However, it was confirmed this weekend by Ragnar Tornquist, Creative Director and Senior Producer, that there would be no sliders (post no 157 which is on page 8) in the game for character creation.  Basically it all boils down to their team is too lazy to design (post 56, page 3) for any variation between characters. 

I’m sorry, he can claim it isn’t laziness all he wants but it is a flat out lie.  The first open beta weekend, hell even the second, I made excuses for Funcom and still had faith that character creator would be fixed by launch.  I am supposed to be able to look the way I want, so why wouldn’t it be fixed?  Apparently, Funcom believe that men and women are equally tall, equally, slender, and equally ugly.  There are only so many head choices and your head choice determines your skin color choices.  The facial features themselves (eyes, nose, jawline) are equally limited.  There is no height or weight slider.  Hell, there are no sliders at all for any feature.  You can’t be old, wrinkles or scars are non-existent.  There is absolutely ZERO excuse for what passes for hair options.  They are all god-ugly awful and basically variations on the same, short choppy haircut – with the exception of the mohawk styles.  Hubby tells me that the male choices are equally limiting, although it has been confirmed that Funcom will at least be giving the male characters the option of being bald.

I played the beta last weekend, for twenty minutes.  I may like everything else about the game, but I can’t stand the created characters.  They are ugly.  They are all the same height and weight.  There is nothing distinctive about them.  They are so seriously flawed that looking at any character I create in a cut scene means I immediately stop playing.  Those are not long term selling points for any MMO, let alone and MMO that is supposedly AAA and is launching with a subscription fee and a cash shop at launch.  Funcom stockholders should ditch the stock as rapidly as possible prior to the start of early access on 29 June 2012.  Once the closed beta NDA is removed, there will be a lot more people saying similar things I imagine.  I can’t believe that closed beta testers haven’t been making a stink about character creation for a very, very long time now.

Technorati Tags: The Secret Worls,TSW,chracter creation,Funcom,Hell Raised,Open Beta,Beta Weekend,Ragnar Tornquist

Star Wars: The Old Republic–Character Transfers have ARRIVED

The patch is complete and servers are once again live.  Character transfers have also gone live.  The FAQ can be found here, the list of servers can be found here, and there is the usually amount of forum outrage present as well.  The initial round of servers available for transfer are 4 in North America and 6 in Europe.  Bioware has been explicitly clear that the process would begin small and the number of servers would open up as time passed:

JovethGonzalez

Current Transfer Servers | 06.12.2012, 01:23 PM

I also wanted to point out that this process was outlined in our community blog last week and in our main transfer thread here. Specifically:

This process will be gradual and staged over time. Despite huge improvements being made to the Character Transfer Service by our server team, there are millions of characters to be moved and there is a limit to how many can be moved daily. We want your character to be transferred as quickly as possible, but we will need you to be patient as the process completes.                     (Source)

Forum outrage is being tempered well by community members themselves.  Bioware has been clear from the outset that this would be a staggered process but somehow players assumed that the staggering would be affect their servers or characters. 

Bioware is in a no—win situation, truth be told.  They either start the process slowly and ensure it works smoothly and anger/frustrate some members of the community or they start off running at full speed and the process potentially fails and characters are lost, or all the servers come down while rollbacks occur, potentially upsetting players completely unaffected by character transfers.  What would you do in their shoes?  Honestly, I would take the slow and steady route, better to start slow than have a potential public relations and stock holder disaster to deal with and resolve.

Technorati Tags: SWTOR,Star Wars:The Old Republic,character transfers,Bioware

Wreck-It-Ralph

 

So you love video games?  Played them growing up?  Then the following trailer is right up your alley:

Wreck-It Ralph

Hitting theater screens nationwide on November 2, 2012.

 

Technorati Tags: movie,Disney,Wreck-iIt Ralph,video games,childhood memories

Star Wars: The Old Republic … coming changes detailed

Class Changes

All tanking classes with benefit from increased threat generation by 50% in Allies, or patch 1.3,  which will allow for area of effect threat generation to be much easier to maintain.  Each tanking class will receive positive changes and Shadow/Assassin tanks are receiving a slight nerf to their self-healing capability.  The nerf is designed to bring all tanks to the same level of survivability.

DPS classes are also receiving some updates.  Sharpshooter/Marksman trees are having their final ability point changed to to Blaster Volley/Sniper Volley: an active ability that finishes the cooldown on Speed Shot/Series of Shots and greatly increases alacrity and energy regeneration for about 10 seconds.

Commandos and Mercenaries are also receiving updates when Allies is released to improve resource management and to allow Gunnery/Arsenal specs simplify stack upkeep.

Server Transfers

Beginning June 12, server transfers will be opened.  Server transfers are going to be limited in what servers are available for free transfers and where that transfer will land your character.  The goal of server transfers is to move low population servers to higher population servers to give all players the opportunity to have a more social gaming experience.  Legacy and Legacy unlocks will transfer as will. In the event of a naming conflict, you will have to pick a new name. 

Guilds will be allowed to move, individually not as a guild.  The guild will have to be re-established on the new server and guild banks will have to be petitioned through customer service to be re-established on the new server.

At some point, in the unspecified future, paid character transfer service may become available to the server of your choosing.  There is no estimated time for this service to become active.

Technorati Tags: SWTOR,Star Wars: The Old Republic,class chances,server transfers,nerf,guilds,tanking,dps

Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan Expansion

 

Turbine has released the expansion pre-purchase details this morning, along with screenshots, and videos.  So saddle up for mounted combat and join the Middle Earth adventure.  Your pre-order price points ranged from $39.99 to $69.99.  The adventure begins this fall.

 

Technorati Tags: Lord of the Rings Online,Riders of Rohan,mounted combat,pre-purchase

How Important is Character Creation to you?

 

I never really thought about it, but it’s incredibly important to me.  I only play female characters and the choices have always been diverse enough during creation that I haven’t noticed shortcomings during the process.  Recently however I have been extremely irritated with the limited choices being presented by developers at character creation.

So here it is my list of pet peeves:

• Hair:  As a woman, it is incredibly important to me in real life and in video games.  Why is it that all the hairstyles lately are short, shorter, and punk?  Long hair is not some rare, obscure phenomenon so why on earth can’t developers put it in game?  And if you are going to make hairstyles that are updos (buns, pony and pig tails) developers, for the love of all that is holy we do NOT want to see the skull peaking through or have ponytails that are so wimpy as to be pointless.  Dear god, please hire actually woman to design hair!
• Character Size: ranks right up there with hair. I don’t always want to play, ok rarely, a tall, thin, teenage character. I want to be able to age my character, to have her be short, rotund, and old or any combination of attributes. I don’t want to look perfect or like I just stepped from the pages for a fashion magazine. Life is full of wonderful variety, why aren’t video game?
• Makeup: another biggie for me.  There are more choices than none, harlot pink, and whore red.   The whole color spectrum is available, please learn to use it.
• Text: most developers get this mostly right.  If you are going to have loading screen tooltips, menus, etc. please don’t make them in the smallest, lightest font known to mankind.  And do not use white text on light gray background.  No player should be forced to go blind trying to read your text, this is especially true when the problem continues to exist even when you put on your reading glasses.
• Character movement: not running but things like hair, cloaks, coats, etc. moving with your character.  If I’m running at full speed how is it possible that my cloak and hair are still plastered against my back?

As E3 2012 officially opens in a couple of hours, I still vaguely hold out hope that a developer will actually design a game that solves my pet peeves.  What are some of your pet peeves?

Technorati Tags: character customization. character creation,video games,MMO,reality,E2 2012,hair,makeup,movement,text size,The Elder Scrolls Online,The Secret World,Star Wars: The Old Republc,Tera,Guild Wars 2,Lord of the Rings Online,Age of Conan,Aion,World of Warcraft

Vacation Over …

Well, our impromptu too vacation is over and rime to get back to reality.  Where did we go you ask?  To a universe far, far, away.  We both have resubscribed to Star Wars: The Old Republic and are loving it.  It is such a different experience than March when we last played mainly because my computer isn’t overheating anymore.   A couple of rig improvements and now my machine no longer contemplates torching itself when I fire up SWTOR.

Admittedly, part of the reason we’ve been MIA for the last ten days is that we’ve rerolled characters on a new server.  When we came back to the game our server was empty, not nearly as bad as some server stories I’ve heard since being back, but still the economy was non-existent and fleet never had more than 25 people at peak.  After a quick web search I found an excellent site for server stats in SWTOR and we reolled on Jedi Covenant on the Republic side.  Starting planets routinely have over 75 people per planet and we’ve seen well over 100 people on Coruscant.  The atmosphere is generally positive and players are excited about the game. 

In other gaming news around the web before E3 next week:

• Star Wars 1313 details leaked ahead of E3, more details to follow at the convention
• The Secret World made several announcements:
• Launch delayed until July 3
• Third Beta Weekend entitled “Hell Raised” is June 15-17
• Fourth Beta Weekend is June 22-24 and players will get to experience PvP
• Early Access begins June 29th
• A new pre-launch Alternate Reality Game has been launched
• Rift announced its first expansion, Storm Legion, set to hit a retailer near you this fall
• The Elder Scrolls Online team has been talking and are unapologetic for bringing the series to the MMO format or for how they’ve structured the game
• 38 Studios closed its doors, laid off the entire staff, and then revealed how close the MMO based in the Kingdoms of Amalur setting was to completion
  
• South Korea raided the local offices of Blizzard during an ongoing investigation of customer complaints concerning the inability of Korean customers to return Diablo III
• Guild Wars 2 next beta weekend was announced June 8 – June 10

 

Technorati Tags: Star Wars 1313,Star Wars: The Old Republic,The Secret World,Rift,The Elder Scrolls Online,Kingdoms of Amalur,38 Studios,Guild Wars 2,SWTOR,TESO,TSW,Diablo 3,Blizzard