After IGN leaked details and screenshots concerning the long rumored Bungie replacement to the Halo series, Bungie confirmed the screenshots and details as accurate.
Bungie appears to be aiming for a broader audience than the Halo franchise. Which will probably provide many more avenues to explore, both for those that enjoy shooters and those that don’t.
Two months post release of the Mists of Pandaria and the first major patch was released this morning. Here are the highlights of those patch notes, (official notes are released):
DC Universe Online received Patch 21 today. Patch notes contain the following goodness:
Star Wars: The Old Republic patched for the first time since the release of the conversion. Official notes can be found here, and an unintentional bugged surfaced.
Patch 1.51 notes first:
When you open your launcher you are confronted with the wonderful news of the bug and here is the dev posting:
There is currently an issue with companion stats not working properly with their equipped gear. This occurs whenever a companion is summoned after being dismissed. As a workaround to this, please unequip all gear on your companion, and then re-equip all of their gear again in order to get their proper stats back. You will need to do this whenever you summon your companion.
Please know that this is a priority issue for us and that we are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Hopefully, Bioware fixes this issue immediately because that bug is something more than a minor glitch in the game mechanics. Admittedly, game is still playable but it is still HIGHLY annoying.
So I tweaked my back and sitting at my desk today just wasn’t going to happen, so I popped in The Witcher 2 and the Game of Thrones for the Xbox 360. Short review, they both SUCKED and thank god for Gamefly! Seriously, I was mildly interested in Game of Thrones and seriously looking forward to The Witcher 2.
And then I started the game, I found myself bored to tears trying to stay awake and play Witcher. Finally, i succumb and switch things up and put Thrones in the Xbox. It started much better but I was quickly bored with too. Both games are being returned to Gamefly in the morning and I am eternally grateful that $120 bucks wasn’t wasted on those two crap games.
We had two demos I wanted to try Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two and Fable 3. I had tried Fable 3 when the game came out and hated it. I didn’t make it through 20 minutes of game play and I couldn’t explain why. I loved the demo today and we’ve downloaded the game via Xbox. Hubby is playing as I type this and I’m quite sure I will be playing tonight if I can’t sleep.
Epic Mickey is AWESOME, platforming Disney greatness. This is definitely one we will be purchasing from Gamefly when we get the disc. Mickey painting and the cuteness factor is off the scale.
First impressions are rarely wrong in my experience, but I am most thankful that I gave Fable 3 another chance.
Based on player feedback Star Wars: The old Republic announced this afternoon that in the patch being released next week (not maintenance tonight 11-26-2012), all Preferred Players will now be given a total of 4 quick bars. While I consider this an excellent example of customer service in action, I also don’t believe it was warranted however. I think Bioware and the development team caved to the whiners of the community and I hope that it isn’t representative of things to come.
This just in, Patch 5.1 will go live tomorrow morning 27 November 2012. I will post a summary of patch note highlights as soon as they are released tomorrow. I would anticipate extended downtime for patch implementation.
A week ago, Star Wars: The Old Republic converted to the freemium model, so has it been a success or failure? My best answer is a resounding success. Servers are full. there are multiple instances on each planet, market place transactions have picked up, and the amount of cash shop transactions appears to be healthy.
There is a loud, vocal, and whining minority both in game and out that are determined to bitch and moan about what non-subscribers get compared to subscribers. The ones generally complaining are subscribers however. They are bitching and moaning like two-year olds without naps that have had their blankies and favorite toys stolen by the boogie man. For the most part, the free to play players and those returning players are simply happy to be there and enjoying the game and have more than once told whining subscribers that they are enjoying the game just fine the way it was released last week.
Bioware did an excellent job with the conversion. The cash shop doesn’t have pay to win items, the “risk and reward” (i.e.. Crime Lord Packs) have highly sought after rare items (i.e.. Meditation Throne), and seriously the ability to unlock Legacy Perks for a couple of bucks versus millions of credits is pure gold.
I am tempted, seriously tempted truth be told, to start a Free Account on a different server where we have no characters, not spend a dime, and level a character to level 50. Mind you, I don’t have a level 50 on my subscription account yet, but I’m willing to play two accounts just to prove it can be done.
The last week to ten days has been jammed packed with the release of titles from beta, expansions rolling out, and game updates hitting test servers much earlier than expected by player bases.
Rift’s first expansion Storm Legion was released on 13 November 2012 and has generally received positive reviews. As readers know, we haven’t purchased it or played any of the content so I cannot comment on how it looks or the changes to the game.
Everquest II: Chains of Eternity also released on 13 November 2012. The player base is thrilled and a lot of former players have returned revitalized about the game and its content.
RaidersZ released on 20 November 2012 from Perfect World International. It is a fantasy based. free=form class system game with the ability to transform monsters. I haven’t played the game but the screenshots look beautiful, which is on par for the team over at Perfect World.
Star Wars: The Old Republic released Game Update 1.6, Ancient Hypergate, to the Public Test Server on 20 November 2012. This game update brings with it new PvP Warzones and space combat missions. SWTOR also released this new gameplay trailer with the successful launch of the conversion to free-to-play:
Today is the day, Star Wars:The Old Republic has converted from a subscriber only to a freemium game. Official patch notes have not yet been released, I will update this posting once the official notes are released.
What does that mean for the new player? With an entirely free account, meaning you never get tempted to purchase anything from the Cartel Shop, here are the restrictions and benefits you can expect:
For returning players and those that make at least one purchase from the Cartel Market without a subscription, your account is automatically converted to a Preferred account. Here is a breakdown of the benefits of a Preferred account:
Subscribers will see very little change. There are perks and benefits that exist automatically for subscribers:
A purchase from the Cartel Market in excess of $4.99 automatically switches a player account from free to play to Preferred status. Former subscribers are automatically Preferred members.
General patch notes:
Overall, the conversion of the game to Freemium is a good thing for the overall health and longevity of the game. I fully expect the first two weeks to a month for the game and gaming press to be full of negative nellies and naysayers.
However, once they have moved on to other games, the overall health of the game should be much improved. Servers should see an increase in population at all times, groups should be easier to get through Group Finder, Warzone should pop up much faster, and the planets should be full.
Do I think it’s going to have long term appeal to gamers that like to sit at end game and bitch and moan for months on end? No I don’t, but then again no game is capable of feeding content fast enough to these type of gamers.
Enjoy SWTOR for the story driven game it is and was always intended to be. Everyone has their favorite story line and companions. If you take you time and enjoy the cut scenes, dialogues, and companion interactions then you too, will find that SWTOR is a game well worth playing.
Rift has unleashed it’s first expansion ever, Storm Legion, this week. This is one expansive expansion, with the size of world tripling compared to the launch of the game.
Here are the highlights of the expansion details:
After the crushing disappointment with dimensions on the beta server, we did not purchase the expansion. The poor implementation of housing was enough for us to decide not to upgrade our accounts.
First, a small confession, I haven’t purchased the expansion yet or logged in since the expansion launched. As much as I love the game, my characters are below level 90 and I dread logging in and facing that hurdle to 280 AA points. That being said, I will someday get there, the stories and characters are still compelling to me but I just have not been in the mood.
So with further explanation, here are the highlights from the patch notes:
How’s your play time been with for the expansion? Am I missing the best expansion ever released for the game?
While I’ve been dealing with the cold that won’t go die, the world of gaming has been very busy this week. Everquest 2 and Rift have both released expansions on Tuesday. Tomorrow, Star Wars: The Old Republic released Game Update 1.5 which converts the game to Freemium. And on the international front, China is hosting their gaming conference and Neverwinter is sharing beautiful new screenshots.
All of the above goodness will be covered in posts to follow. Today is the first day in over a week where I’m reasonably capable of sitting down and writing a couple of posts. The best part about it, is that I’m able to write and post successfully from my Surface.
Unlio
Thanks to the fine folks over at Massively, there is now a confirmation date of November 15th for the conversion to free-to-play. Here’s a brief run down of what you need to know for the conversion:
Star Wars: The Old Republic will be converting to Free-to-Play later this month and hopefully there will be a flood of new players into the galaxy. So in preparation for that influx, I thought I’d put together a brief guide to planets and companions for new players. This does not include class quests which take you back to a planet as part of your class quest. After starting planets, all classes follow the same planet path. Every guide I’ve found has the order progression wrong for Republic players and can be quite frustrating.
All classes have immediate access to a healing companion once they earn their ship. The ship droid is ranged heals and heals as well as your healing companion once outfitted and equipped. Most players use the ship droid as they always available for crew skill missions. This is the only companion that does not come with appropriately equipped class gear and weapon.
Companion legend is:
For Republic Players, the order of planets (suggested level range), and companions are:
For Empire players, the order of planets, companions, and suggested level range is:
A couple of helpful hints for new players:
Enjoy the game for what it is and not what the critics demand it to be, a story driven game with multiplayer heroics, instances (flashpoints), and operations. If you’re on the fence about trying the game and have enjoyed previous Bioware games, then you will enjoy SWTOR. Just don’t expect to open the game and have a sandbox experience, the core of the game would suffer.
The week the team over at Zenimax Online Studios and Bethesda released an updated website for The Elder Scrolls Online. The redesigned website is packed full of beautiful and titillating artwork, more information about the three factions, and the most interesting thing by far was the announcement of a bi-weekly “Ask Us Anything” format with the developers.
I was initially very disappointed with the game when it was announced, it just seem poorly thought out and would destroy one of our favorite single player games. The last several months have seen a dramatic decrease in our concerns as more information and artwork has started to be released.
The first ever “Ask Us Anything” will cover the Ebonheart Pact, one of the three factions in the game. Ebonheart Pact is composed of Nords, Dunmer (Dark Elves), and Argonians. Odd collection of races at first glance, ancient enemies in working together for a common purpose. Needless to say. this is something I’m very curious to have answered. The leader of the Pact, is a Nord which raises questions about how well the Dunmer and Argonian’s respond to being ruled by Nord. The answers to these and other questions will be interesting.
Star Wars: The Old Republic has been getting a lot of playtime in our household this week. The server merger and my distracted self have created quite the little headache for me. I’m having to recreate all of my characters and re-level them. It sounds more painful than it really is since I don’t mind leveling and none of my characters had even completed Chapter One. I will say this much, Bioware holds some responsibility since their interface is clumsy and they still have an inability to rename characters.
Enough of that, today Bioware released the backstory for the new companion HK-51 the bigger, badder HK-47 from the single player game. Czerka Corporation has spent years denying that the HK-51 droid survived the crash on Belsavis but adventurers that were resilient and determined can find pieces of the droid. Once reassembled, HK-51 will be a dps companion for players level 50 and can be unlocked for your legacy.
HK-51’s quest line becomes available when Game Update 1.5 goes live and the game converts to freemium status.
Sony Online Entertainment had a busy week, so excluding Everquest 2, here’s a quick round-up of the news from SOE.
Exciting news out of Sony and the Everquest 2 team today, the Collector’s Edition of Chains of Eternity has been further upgraded (although the web page has yet to be updated). The Collector’s Edition now includes:
Here’s a photo gallery of all the Collector’s Edition currently contains (excluding consumables):
