Star Wars: The Old Republic: Having a Blast

It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for a good story, be it in a book, a game, or a performance, and the one thing Bioware has consistently provided over the years are great and compelling stories.  I’m back playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, SWTOR, (no surprises there at all) and loving the stories once again, even the Consular story line which so irritated me into taking a break earlier in the year.   

When I resubbed about two weeks ago I was in a PvP frame of mind, and still in am honestly.  I had heard so many complaints and horror stories about the PvP in SWTOR that I was reluctant but bit the bullet and jumped right in.  It was a blast!  Seriously why do people bitch and moan like preschoolers that just had their balls taken away?  Maps are fun, wide range of skill levels makes for challenges, and there are decent rewards.  Seriously I don’t fathom why there is so much angst about the state of PvP in SWTOR.  Yes you aren’t going to be at the top of the damage or healing charts if you are in the lower half level wise of your bracket.  But really who cares?  It grants you experience, credits, commendations, and is a break from questing.  The PvP gear doesn’t take a lot of commendations to acquire either. 

I played the WOW version of Huttball (Temple of Kotmogu).  Huttball is superior in EVERY way.  There is no one shotting members of the opposing team, which was consistently my experience in Temple of Kotmogu.  The commentary in Huttball amuses me to no end also.

So, if you haven’t given PvP a go in SWTOR, then jump on in and experience it yourself.  Remember having fun and helping your team be successful is far more important than topping some meaningless chart in a match.

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Neverwinter: Development, Exploiters, and You

Yesterday was a hot mess for the fans and developers of Neverwinter alike.  Exploiters decided to take advantage of an in-game bug in a massive way that resulted in netting the exploiters real world money in-game and non-exploiting players with an in-game economy that quickly spiraled completely out of control.  Ultimate resolution was that when servers were brought back online characters had been rolled back seven hours and the auction house remains offline. 

Players, however, are reporting inconsistencies with the rollback, like losing characters progress and items earned but retaining all their Astral Diamonds earned during the affected hours.  Forums were on fire yesterday with claims that the exploit which caused the server shutdown has existed since closed beta and was repeatedly reported by multiple players many times.  Players were also reporting that the exploit is identical to the one to hit Star Trek Online a while back. 

I can’t confirm or deny the veracity of any of the forum claims, but if true then the developer is responsible for everything that occurred yesterday.  Alpha and beta testing exists to find and close bugs in software.  There appears to be a growing trend to push out games and content as quickly as possible and damn the consequences to the customer base if there are known bugs in the code.  If you have an open beta with a released cash shop, it is no longer a beta product especially in the free to play gaming market.  Developers may be on safer legal grounds by calling their product beta, but the only people they are fooling into believing that the game hasn’t launched are the legal system which cannot move at the speed of technology.

Personally, I was enjoying Neverwinter immensely when I found time to play.  However, after yesterday I doubt I will be going back unfortunately.  There are FAR too many games out there that are equally enjoyable that have developers and development teams that track down and close bugs when reported.  Had the servers been wiped completely, the game taken offline until the exploit bug which caused the mess yesterday, and the other mass reported exploit bugs surrounding the Foundry, then I would have enjoyed returning to play Neverwinter. 

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Rift: Free to Play Announced

Set your calendars for June 12th, Rift just announced that when Update 2.3 Empyreal Assault goes live Rift will be converting to a free-to-play model.  The FAQ for the change over can be found here and don’t worry if you are a subscriber, there are and will continue to be benefits to maintaining your subscription to the game.

If you haven’t tried it, Rift is immensely fun (especially PvP) and well worth playing both as a subscriber and as a freebie.  Admittedly, I find the constant opening of rifts annoying when I’m out trying to complete quests and get the story but the atmosphere is great in the game.

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Defiance: The Irathient Vagabond

The first in-game cross-over content from the television series was released late yesterday afternoon.  Details can be found here, if you did not see the episode on 13 May 2012 (aka Episode 5: The Serpent’s Egg) then I don’t want to spoil it for you.  For those of you who have seen the Episode, go find Lawkeeper Jon Copper for missions.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Patch 2.1 Customization

Tired of the sometimes drab brown world of the Republic or perhaps you have an inherent distaste for purple armor of the Empire, well then my friends never fear the fine folks at Bioware have released Patch 2.1: Customization today for Star Wars": The Old Republic!  Patch notes can be found here in full.

Hate everything about the way you created your character except for class and gender?  Then rejoice because for Cartel Coins you can have everything from a new race to different eye color.  Hate the hair style you picked, then head on over to kiosk by AesthTech and pick a new one on your fleet or Capital city.  If you wish to create a new character using the new models, those models must first be unlocked via Cartel Coins.

Have you longed to rename your character, legacy, or guild?  Then you too have a reason to head on over the the AesthTech kiosk and deposit your cartel coins.  Renaming in now an available option, ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 Cartel Coins.

Cathar are now a playable race.  For 600 Cartel Coins, you can unlock the race to create a new character or change the race of your current character.  I expect to see quite a large number of player created Cathar in the coming days.

Collections are a new feature also being released today.  Collections will be where all characters, across all servers will be able to access most items available from the Cartel Market or Reputation, live fan events, Pre-Order, Collectors Edition, etc. items.  Once one character has collected an item or gear set, Cartel Coins can be spent to unlock said item or gear set for all characters on the account.  There is however an exception for level 15, 31, and 43 Adaptable fear and Cartel Reputation items.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with armor dyes and character customization later today.  See you in game!

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The Secret World: Revisited – Success or Failure?

Apparently it was retry old games weekend around here and Funcom’s The Secret World was part of that gaming experience this weekend.  Was it a successful experiment or did Funcom once again disappoint?  My past experience with the game was filled with frustration and disappointment, so to say my expectations were minimal is being generous.

The new team for The Secret World has apparently been very hard at work since the game converted from the subscription model in December 2012.  I decided to create a new character, not only because I wanted to see if there had been improvements made but because my two existing characters were “tainted” from the bad taste the launch of the game a year ago left.  I was floored by the cast improvements in character creation.  I was actually able to make a female character I could stand to look at for the first time ever.  Hairstyles have been expanded and improved, as has make-up options.  I won’t lie and tell you that it’s the best character creator I’ve seen in recent memory but it’s vastly improved from the game’s launch.  Also, there is FINALLY a height slider!!!!  Seriously this option alone was a significant improvement for me.  There is no body size modification slider unfortunately, but I think that is a hard and fast limitation of the game engine being used. 

After character creation improvements, my expectations for the game improved dramatically.  I was not disappointed.  The game still has an amazing atmosphere and creepy feel.  I immediately had the spark of excitement rekindled over the different types of quests available in the game.  I love not breezing thru quests and having to think in trying to solve a puzzle presented to me.  Now that my character no longer looks like a whore and I can stomach looking at her, I’m much more willing to tolerate the issues that still exist in the game.

There are still issues, no sense sugar coating them, but they aren’t deal breaking for me.  Combat still feels disconnected, at least against the zombies in Kingsmouth.  Zombies don’t react to a hail of bullets or a whack from my hammer, they just stand there and try to hit me while I’m mowing them back into the earth.  Now that good be because zombies don’t feel or react to pain or it could be that the engine is incapable of having enemies react to being slaughtered.  It is an annoying issue that mildly affects game play but it isn’t a deal breaker for me.  Item delivery from the cash shop can also be wonky and slow.  This is more annoying since, in theory, real life money is being expended to procure items.  But since the cash shop is purely cosmetic and optional, once again doesn’t impact the ability to play the game.  The biggest issue with game play I found is that my machine can’t handle certain areas well at all, I can go from 60+ fps to 4 fps in a couple of steps.  My machine isn’t bleeding edge admittedly but it’s no slouch either.  A couple of tweaks later, frame rate issue was resolved except for a couple of locations and that is something I can live with.

So final verdict?  We both immensely enjoyed our time and will continue to play The Secret World.  The stories and settings are just too good to ignore.

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Guild Wars 2: Revisited

Almost a year since the release of Guild Wars 2 and our immense disappointment in the game, we both fired it up recently and discovered the state of the game is horrible if you are anything but max, or close to max, level.  The game is stunning for artwork and visuals, but those cannot compensate for the overwhelming flaws in the game.

We stopped playing characters at level 10, thus nowhere near level 80, and the world is completely empty.  Doesn’t matter which race or city you are in, you are lucky if you see another player once every 10 minutes or so.  It doesn’t just feel empty, it feels desolate, isolated, and forlorn and more than adequately illustrates the flaw in the “questing” system implemented by Guild Wars 2.

With no other players to complete “dynamic events” with, you are forced to do them alone.  Good luck ever achieving a gold award for those events, if you are able to complete them at all.  Leveling is now very much work, and miserable work at that.  Quest hubs exist in MMO’s for a reason and without them, late adopters are better off playing other games.

I’ve said it before, but Guild Wars 2 is the most over-hyped, biggest let down in gaming for the last several years.  If you haven’t picked it up, save your money and go play something else.  I highly doubt we will be returning to Tyria without a major overhaul to the questing system, and frankly that just isn’t going to happen.

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Defiance: The Show & The Game

SyFy announced this morning that Defiance has been renewed for a second season.  This means for all of you enjoying the space Western set in a much different St. Louis area, the fun and alien mayhem will continue next year.

We played the Defiance beta, and truthfully I never expected to go back and give the game another try.  Hubby bought it the week it was released and he has a blast when he has time to play.  He convinced me to give it another go this week and I’m glad I did.  There is now a decent tutorial and much more immersive lore as to who, what, and why.  In fact, the lore has been improved so much in-game that it has made the television series much more interesting to me. 

I’m not going to lie, I die A LOT.  No seriously, A LOT of dying and right now I seem to be stuck at one particular extraction point which is just irritating.  However, hubby has promised to roll a new character and help me figure stuff out.  I’m horrible at shooters and this is my first shooter on the computer.  To say it’s challenging would be an understatement but it’s an enjoyable challenge and a very nice break from high fantasy games.

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Neverwinter: Verdict so far

I’ve played each of the five available classes in Neverwinter through the beginning quests and they were all enjoyable.  I have my personal favorites but no class felt gimped in comparison to the others.  The one flaw of the five classes so far?  Quite simply the scales are tipped in far of those that prefer melee classes, there is currently only one pure ranged dps class and one healer class that is also ranged for dps.

The Classes

Control Wizard, who unfortunately none of my screen shots took during severe server lag yesterday afternoon, is ranged dps.  They appear to be an arch-typical mage class (imagine that, archetypes in a Dungeon and Dragons game!).  Game play was fun without feeling uber squishy those first couple of levels and enemies were pretty quickly dispatched.

The Great Weapon Fighter class is a two-hander melee dps class.  Extremely fun and powerful feeling from the very first weapon attack, no feeling gimped by heavy armor and a huge sword. 

The Guardian Fighter class is the tank class.  The play style, at least initially, is very similar to that of the Great Weapon Fighter except for the sword and shield.  Holding aggro was not a problem and killing enemies did not take much longer than the dps classes.

  Trickster Rogue is the archetypical rogue, massive burst damage followed by stealth.  Damage the rogue puts out is incredibly, to be honest it felt more like I was dual wielding claymores rather than daggers.  Enemies were dying fastest on the rogue, other classes feel slow in comparison.

Devote Cleric is the ranged healer for Neverwinter and the class I’ve played the most.  High survivability and decent damage output make for an incredible immersive and fun play style.

Summary

So far, truth is the game is a blast but it isn’t going to entertain those looking for an immersive social game.  The feel of the environment and the quests are all very reminiscent of the Neverwinter series.  However, so far I haven’t had a need to group with anyone to kill anything quest related, I haven’t died or even come close to dying.  Players have the ability to heal others as they run by or stop and help kill a mob.  Personally, I prefer my games this way.  I prefer questing at my own pace and play style rather than being forced to play in a manner that suits the group.  This is not true for all gamers however, and if you want that elusive “social” experience will gaming I can’t see Neverwinter being the game of choice.  Don’t misunderstand me, servers are packed and chat is never quiet.  There is plenty of opportunity for social interaction and joining a guild, but the overall feel of the game is that of a single player game set in a muliplayer world.

There is a cash shop and the cash shop currency is called Zen.  The conversion rate from Zen to dollars appears to be 1:1.  Thus buying extra bag spaces will cost you real world money.  So the cheapest, non-quest reward bag, will cost you $6.00 for 12 slots or $10.00 for 24 slots.  Yep if you want extra bags be prepared to pony up real life money for at least 2 extra bags per character.  The cash shop contains cosmetic items, mounts, dyes, and various other items.  There is no subscription fee to play the game.  The cash shop, which is normal for Perfect World Entertainment games, is pretty standard.  Extra bank space is also a real world expenditure, as are extra character slots.

I don’t have a problem with the cash shop model or the free to play model.  Would I think it wise if they offered a subscription model option in addition?  That’s a no brainer, it’s asinine not to offer the option of a subscription.  Need models that work, try any Sony Online game or Turbine game out there.  Bioware has implemented a model that works well also.  Why would any company only go strictly free to play when there is a chance to have a sustained, reliable revenue stream completely baffles me.

I have completely enjoyed my experience in Neverwinter so far.  It reminds me of Guild Wars 2 in many ways, minus all the hype and BS that accompanied that title.

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World of Warcraft: Children’s Week

This year, for some unknown reason tucked away in my subconscious, I’ve decided to finish up all those partial holiday achievements hanging out there.  Thus Penelopa grabbed her orphan Monday afternoon and hit the road.  The tour of Westfall was just fun.  Whoever designed that quest has little kids and clearly they would have loved the cyclone ride!  This morning finally saw the successful conclusion of the School of Hard Knocks achievement with an assault on Tower Point in Alterac Valley.  I don’t mind PvP but I will admit that the Hard Knocks achievement can be quite annoying.  However, Pen did earn enough honor and conquest points to acquire her PvP weapon and equip her first piece of conquest gear. 

Children’s Week run’s through Sunday, so there is still plenty of time to finish off the achievement and gain the title of Matron or Patron.

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