Social

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Warface

04

Warface from Crytek is coming to the Xbox360 and PC.  It will be free to play, have traditional Player v Environment and Player v Player aspects.  The beta for the PC is underway.  The game was announced for the Xbox 360 today, and it will land on consoles next year.

Dragon Age: Inquisition: Dragon Keep Announced

blog-keep

Dragon Age has always been a story where your choices and decisions impact the world.  For the third installment of the game, the details on how past decisions will be handled and implemented has just been announced.

Dragon Age Keep will allow players to customize the world of Thedas according to past decisions made.  Don’t worry if you’ve lost files or if they’ve become corrupted over time.  Past decisions can be implemented by the player within the keep without having to access previous saves.  The Keep will exist on the cloud.

Head over to the announcement for more detailed information on the decisions behind the making of the Keep.

Assassin’s Creed III

assassins-creed-3-playstation-3_xbox-360_wii-u_pc_150525_ggaleria

Assassin’s Creed III is amazing.  No seriously, it is amazing.  It is beautiful, the soundtrack is haunting, and the quality of the story telling is equal to that of the best in the industry.

We have burned through the franchise in the last couple of weeks, well ok hubby more than I, and have enjoyed the stories immensely.  I’ve skipped finishing Brotherhood and Revelations because I know how Ezio’s story concludes through hubby’s games.  I’m sure I will go back and finish them if time permits. 

The alternative and imaginative history telling is fascinating.  There have been many a sparked conversation around here about whether or not Sam Adams is a Templar or not.  I will also admit that there are all kinds of comments and discussions about parallels to modern day issues. 

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag releases October 29, 2013 in the US and we are both looking forward to it immensely.  We will be getting it for the XboxOne.  It will be worth the slight wait for the release on the new console. 

Now, excuse me, I need to go back to playing Assassin’s Creed III so I can do more homestead missions and find Daniel Boone.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

The Elder Scrolls Online Payment Model Revealed

f8e75680cc7b1ab067

The German gaming site, Game Star, released an article this morning interviewing  Matt Firor, General Manager of Zenimax Online.  The Elder Scrolls Online will be a subscription based game. The first thirty days of game play are free with the purchase of the game, after that there is a per month fee associated with continued play.  The monthly fee will be the standard MMO subscription fee of $14.99/€12.99/£8.99. 

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Gamescom 2013: EA Press Conference Gamess that Energized Me

 

DRAGON AGE INQUISITION … I cannot begin to say how much I am looking forward to the release of this game.  It is going to be a long year of patient waiting however since it doesn’t release until Fall 2014.  I am more than willing to wait for a polished, immersive game in comparison to the huge disappointment that was Dragon Age II.

Exclusive Boss Mode for XboxOne!  Boss Mode game play will be available via Kinect or Smartglass and is playable as Crazy Dave or as Dr. Zombot.

Titanfall new game play footage on new map looks engaging.

While I’m not interested in the game, FIFA 14 on XboxOne and PS4 does look bloody fantastic.

Gamescom 2013: Fable Legends

Love Fable?  Love Multiplayer?  Then be prepared to be amazed for Fable Legends was announced this morning with the above stunning trailer.  You can play in multiplayer mode or in single campaign mode with three AI companions.  So rejoice, your return to Albion will be far more than just the anniversary addition of the original Fable game.  Oh did I mention you can play as the hero OR the villain? Our XboxOne will be getting quite the workout in the coming year!

Gamescom 2013: Lords of the Fallen

1146148_498068570276771_1209641973_o

Gamescon started today in Cologne, Germany and the first game that caught my undivided attention was not even on my radar: Lords of the Fallen.  The RPG is coming to PC, PS4, and XboxOne in 2014.  The video for the game can be seen here and it seriously has my full attention.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Xbox One: Thief Release Date and New Video


Thief fans rejoice, there is now and official release date for the next installment of the game: 25 February 2014. 

I love the atmosphere of the new video.  Must admit, we are both really looking forward to this new Thief adventure.

Hearthstone: Closed Beta Begins

 

Hearthstone is the trading card game from Blizzard which entered closed beta this morning.  No, I wasn’t lucky enough to get in the first round of testers.  Hearthstone is based on the lore and characters from The Warcraft mythology.  The closed beta does not have a Non-disclosure Agreement and thus testers will be able to share their experiences directly.  The game will be free to play when it releases but it will have a cash shop.

World of Warcraft: Lack of Story Differences

WoWScrnShot_081613_100355

I have always been an Alliance player, ever since I first picked up the game almost five years ago.  Alliance is the natural fit for my personality and general life outlook.  However, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been interested in the other side of the story.  Early on I tried playing the Horde but quite honestly, the character models spoiled my immersion in the game immensely.  Those early Horde characters have been scrapped and never brought back to life. 

Last spring I once again decide to experience the Horde story line and made the above Pandaren priest.  She dinged 61 this morning and I’ve got to tell you, there are almost no story differences.  Quests so far are all the same, wording changed but otherwise there is no story difference.  I am beginning to question long term viability of playing the Horde for story differences when there are none.  Now, his may change when my priest hits later expansions but I really doubt that right now. 

I don’t know how much play time my Horde priest is going to receive in the future unfortunately.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

World of Warcraft: Patch 5.4 Siege of Orgrimmar video

 

All I can say is, I’ve never wanted to kill a boss more than I want to repeatedly slaughter Garrosh Hellscream.  As everyone knows, I’m not a raider and thank god I can handle raiding in LFR groups.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

World of Warcraft: Burdens of Shaohao Part One: Doubt

 

World of Warcraft's second installment in the Burdens of Shaohao animated series.  Smashing story telling in under five minutes.

World of Warcraft: Burdens of Shaohao Prelude: The Vision

 

World of Warcraft has released a stunning new series further documenting and solidifying the lore for Pandaria.  I was blown away by the video.  It is stunning in it's simplicity and art direction.  It begins the beautiful tale of the last emperor of the Pandarian.

I may not be playing WOW any longer, but the truth is I love the lore behind WOW.  Particularly late because of much of the lore is available outside of the game and I can consume it at my own pace.  I think this was a wise move on Blizzard's part a couple of years ago.  Video games come and go from our lives like waves, some waves we ride a little longer and some waves crash upon the beach violently.  I may no longer be interested in the grind of MMO's but the lore and stories Blizzard is telling outside of the game I find fascinating and engaging.

World of Warcraft: Connected Realms


Do your characters reside on an dead server, dead raiding community, or have an auction house that is sparse? Relief is coming sometime after Patch 5.4 lands.

Blizzard is connecting struggling realms together into one large shared space. Your server won't be going away and there won't be the possibility of name conflicts arising. Instead, like servers which are under-populated will be linked together to share guilds, raiding, auction houses, etc. The goal is that this will help alleviate the concerns players have regarding dead servers and the constant forum pleas for server mergers.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

The Elder Scrolls Online: Gameplay Video at QuakeCon 2013

Aldcroft

Yesterday, Bethesda and the team working on The Elder Scrolls Online presented actual game play footage at QuakeCon 2013.  Here is the link to the footage, I can’t embed it unfortunately.  Presentation starts about 41 minutes in and lasts until about 1:10 minutes into the twitch.tv recording.

Highlights of the video:

  • FULLY voiced
  • INSTANCED loot –that’s right your shinnies are yours and aren’t subject to rolls against others!
  • First person mode
  • Third person mode
  • Looks and Feels like Tamriel
  • fast travel via Wayshrines
  • LFG is built into the game already
  • You can play the way you want, just like all other previous installments of the Elder Scrolls
  • Combat was fluid and NPC’s reacted to being attacked

Overall, completely blown away and it lived up to and exceed my expectations for the game.  I and my husband are both looking forward to this game’s release.

Thank you Bethesda, Zenimax, and the entire ESO team for making a game that was true to what ESO games have always been.  Now if only our beta invites would arrive!

Everquest Next: Reaction to the Debut

When I first started playing Everquest II over three years ago, it was with a large tinge of regret that I hadn’t been there from the beginning.  Everquest II is my perfect game almost, until you get to the reasons why it isn’t (I’m glaring at you insurmountable, AA grind that I’m unwilling to devote my free time to and to ignore other things in my life for).  As a game, Everquest II has amazing stories and collections, a never ending set of quests, tired of leveling in one zone?  Then it is possible to hop on over to another zone and level.

Then last year at SOE they announced that the next Everquest game would be ready for unveiling and that SOE Live attendees would get to see the game first.  Well, they broke that promise when they showed the game to select media outlets at E3 in Los Angeles in June of this year.  Then those same journalists all turned around and awarded Everquest Next the game of the year at E3.  Mind you, they couldn’t explain why but hey we were supposed to blindly take them at their word.  My “trust” for these “news” outlets and blogs, and in these “journalists” evaporated instantly.  I firmly believe that Sony bought and paid for those awards for game of the year.

Yesterday was the long awaited reveal of Everquest Next.  I watched, heck so did my husband who took an extended lunch break to do so, and we were bitterly disappointed over all.  Upfront I will tell you I wanted to fall in love with what was revealed yesterday, I wanted to be there at the beginning of the next game in the spectacular franchise that is Everquest, and most of all I wanted to see what amazing things had so impressed those so-called game journalists at E3 a month and a half ago.

Instead, what was revealed were some incredibly cool features with a lot of CRAP thrown in the blender and then poured into the Everquest universe.  And the cherry on top of that blender of crap?  There was no announcement of a target date for release or even beta.  In essence, what we got was a “here’s what we’ve been working on the last six years please tell us how amazing we are” presentation. 

First the good things I think Sony nailed correctly:

  • Norrath isn’t just a surface world, but rather is a world of many layers all of which have a story to tell
  • The weather and time effects were beautiful
  • the few lands they showed were beautiful, especially Feerrot
  • Facial expressions were nice
  • World that changes based on actions taken in the game, especially important over time but may have long term consequence for new players entering the game

And now where I think Sony just looked around the industry and said “Oh that works, let’s do that!”:

  • REINVENTING THE LORE: wait what?  No just HELL NO
  • limited skills: Guild Wars 1 (and in case you didn’t make the leap this means they will be able to bring the game to the PS4)
  • change your weapon, change you skills: Guild Wars 2
  • play the way you want to play concept: The Secret World
  • Telegraphing moves (i.e. where the NPC weapon strike is going to hit): Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World
  • cell shading art direction: every other damn high fantasy mmo on the market almost
  • no quest hubs; dynamic, public, organic, or whatever the word of the day is for these type of events: Guild Wars 2
  • Kerran art style: really?  Thanks for giving us a Charr rip-off almost identical to the Charr in Guild Wars 2
  • Dumbing down drastically what it means to play and understand an MMO

Those are just the first thing that pop into my head and onto the screen as I type this.  Then came the announcement of Everquest Next: Landmark which is basically you the player being given the development kit to aid Sony in creating Everquest Next.  Landmark will release in Winter 2013.  Sounds cool doesn’t it? 

And then you realize that you are being given a game to basically be Sony’s unpaid intern staff.  Thanks, but no thanks.  Want my talent to design, or the top most talented fifty designers out there waiting for a chance to show off what they can do while making a salary and receiving benefits?  Then hire the staff needed to complete the damn game!  Why not just say hey, we are too lazy to make it ourselves but you the players design whatever you want for lore, quests, building, etc. and we here at Sony will provide the tools, servers, and technical support to back it up?  Oh wait, that’s basically what they said.

I don’t want an Everquest world where only the most popular choices make it into the final game.  A Norrath where it is possible that Ratonga are not present?  Oh did I forget to mention, that only the popular choices made by players in polls and such will make it into the final product of Everquest Next.

Overall, I’m so extremely disappointed in what was presented yesterday.  I shouldn’t have been, Sony has already disappointed me twice already this year with Wizardry Online and Dragon’s Prophet.    The only positive from the reveal was the announcement that there would be offline stories and that the first book was available for download, The Last Stand of the Teir’Dal by Michael Alexander Drake.  I wish that Everquest and Everquest II were provided the same courtesy of e-books and/or real books to flesh out their stories, settings, characters, and lore.

I’m sure the whole team has worked very hard on the game, and will continue to do so, but there was nothing truly new, innovative, or ground breaking revealed yesterday.  If I want to go play another cartoonish, high fantasy MMO then I’ll go back to World of Warcraft.  At least Blizzard retains control of their game’s direction and doesn’t expect the players to build the world for them.