Elder Scrolls Online: Quick “Class” Breakdown

So Hubby said I should share, just in case you were on the fence about what “class” to play.

DragonKnight: Ardent Flame – deals AOE

DragonKnight: Draconic Power – increased armor (tanking)

DragonKnight: Earthen Heart – Crowd Control

NightBlade: Assassin --  Close up; quick kills

NightBlade: Shadow – Fears; Pet

NightBlade: Siphoning – Damage over Time

Sorcerer: Dark Magic – Crowd Control

Sorcerer: Daedric Summoning – Pet class

Sorcerer: Storm Calling – AOE

Templar: Aedric Spear – Crowd Control

Templar: Dawn’s Wrath – Damage over Time

Templar: Restoring Light – AOE heals

 

If you are undecided, try a NightBlade DOT Mage.  I played one in Beta, and it was a bloody blast of death and destruction.

 

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Beta: Wildstar–Revised Opinion

I played some more Wildstar today and even got a beta key for Hubby.  My opinion has changed.  Ok, I’m still not a fan of the wildly disproportionate female characters but some things never change.

I played a Medic and an Esper, Settler and Scientist paths respectively.  I am finding the classes a ton of fun to play.  Medic and Esper have no trouble killing anything they come across.  I died twice and both times it was completely my fault because I was distracted by the hubby across the room.  But hey, that’s ok it happens.  Haven’t healed anyone or anything on my Medic but I usually play a dps healer class anyone, healing as an offspec or off-healer.

Hubby had a blast bouncing around and shooting stuff on his Spellslinger, Explorer character.  He was laughing and pointing out all of the NPC’s he wished he could play.

The bouncing and floaty feel doesn’t bother me nearly as much as earlier today.  I can see how it will come in handy later in the game.  I must admit for the several hours we played this afternoon, I never got bored.  It appears there will be sufficient quest for a quester and explorer like myself.

There are still issues that I think need to be addressed.  The UI needs as ability to change the size of quest text and coloring without scaling the entire UI up.  It is incredibly hard to read 10 point font that is light gray in color.  Also, the frame rate being in the dead center of the screen has got to go.  There will be addons but I’m definitely one of those who favor minimal UIs and having to run a ton of addons to handle developer mistakes is irritating.

So, I was wrong.  I committed the ultimate sin I hate in other game reviewers and I apologize.  I should have played more than an hour or two before churning out a published review.  I don’t know if we will pre-order it but we had fun.

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Beta: Wildstar

I finally scrounged up a beta key to Wildstar, even though I’ve been in the beta waiting pool since they opened beta sign-ups.  I’m not impressed.  It certainly isn’t going to be an investment I’ll be making, I’ll wait until the game goes free-to-play.

Basically, it is a space Western WOW clone.  The cell coloration is overly saturated and graphics are flat.  It looks like exactly what it’s creators wanted, a WOW clone. 

Character creation is uninspired, too similar between races and nothing truly unique.  Jewelry is excessively large and gaudy, personal opinion obviously.  After you wake up from stasis you take a step and immediately notice how incredibly floaty walking is, and jumping?  Jumping is like being a living, breathing rubber ball.  It is disconcerting, you just float and bounce alone.  Landing on the planet didn’t change that feeling either.

Classes and paths are unique, I will grant the team at Wildstar that but otherwise it is completely forgettable.  The game isn’t fully voiced, which dates it and sets it apart from it’s competition, which is a good thing because dialogue and text never match up.  As for quests themselves, they could have been written by a third grader.  Language and concepts are overly simplistic and dumbed-down to the lowest common denominator.

If you are looking for a game were you can fully customize your character, this is not the game.  The females are all young and skinny.  Boobs have decreased in size from previous pictures I have seen from the game, but seriously look at the size of my characters waist compared to her boobs.  No thanks, I’m not that unrealistically proportioned in real life and I don’t need to perpetuate adolescent male fantasies in a role playing game.

Happily, passing on Wildstar.  If I want a space opera MMO, I’ll stick with Star Wars: The Old Republic it is much more my type of game.

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Elder Scrolls Online: Changes to Cold Harbor

The very first time I logged into beta for the Elder Scrolls Online way back when I was filled with excitement and trepidation.  Would it live up to previous Elder Scrolls games?  Would my fears be confirmed?  Would I fall in love with the game like I did Oblivion?

Amazing how those answers would be so INCREDIBLY different if this weekend had been my first experience with ESO.  Way back then, the game lived up to its predecessors, my fears were unfounded and I loved the game.  Not just loved it, I told my husband that it was gaming perfection for me.  Now, Cold Harbor DESTROYS that experience entirely. 

The original Cold Harbor was an escape from death as all Elder Scrolls games begin.  Only this time, Daedric Prince Molag Bal was responsible and I had to fight to escape his realm.  It was immersive from the beginning.  A creepy old dude appears and not only can I see and talk to him but I escape from my jail cell as a result.  None of that has changed but here after, the immersive aspect disappears.

The old dude, aka The Prophet, tells me to follow the kind Argonian who opens my cell door and to arm myself.  Used to be you ended up in a forge with a large variety of weapons to choose from, as would make sense in a room known as the FORGE.  New version, there is one weapon and only one weapon choice a sword.  Really a sword?  Yes, I know you can use any weapon in the game with any class but if you are like me and get horrible luck with weapon drops then guess what?  That is your weapon until a better one appears. 

Sucking it up, I equip the sword and moved on.  First play through Cold Harbor this weekend, I played it like every other time I’ve gone through it.  That was a mistake.  Chests and enemies are far less, there is no longer a sense of improving through successful battles.  No weapons, armor, books, lock picks, or recipes dropped and I looted every possible urn, crate, chest, and barrel I could.  I rescued the Prophet, not caring for the first time about Lyris and her sacrifice. 

The new boss battle at Anchor Mooring was a pleasant change however.  But of course I was underpowered with the crappy sword and rags I was equipped with.  The fight which could have felt epic in scale and ferocity, instead felt like I had been thrown to the dogs and would succeed only because the Prophet was throwing heals on me.  Boss done, I felt none of the urgency to escape.  I no longer had to collect shards to assemble the Skyshard, Prophet just magically conjured them up. 

Successful escape from Cold Harbor and I land in some house in Daggerfall.  I walk out the door and NPCs are acting like they’ve heard of my fighting abilities.  Really?  They have sources in Cold Harbor that regularly report back to them?  First reaction?  They are in league with a Daedric Prince and I am OUTTA HERE.  Tried to find a way back to the starter island but no luck there.  I was under-geared and under-leveled for the area I was thrown into and I was dismayed.

I played through Cold Harbor three times since Friday morning and it hasn’t gotten any better.  Now I just rush through to get to the end of a dismal experience that isn’t immersive and isn’t worthy of being in an Elder Scrolls game.  I miss John Cleaves as Caldwell because I flat out don’t believe that Molag Bal has stolen my soul or that I am in any mortal or immortal danger.  I finish the Cold Harbor mess always under-geared and thrown into some random location not caring. 

Luckily, I know how incredibly good the game is but if I were a new player I would be done with the game after this experience.  I wouldn’t give it five more minutes of my time and I would tell everyone not to waste their time as well.  I get that the developers wanted to make skipping “starter” islands a possibility but they implemented that choice in the worse possible manner.  The story is no longer cohesive, immersive, and it makes no sense. Now it is just another random MMO in a sea drowning in random MMOs. 

The forums are filled with other players equally upset with the changes.  I’m praying the developers come to their collective senses in time to save the mess they have turned the game into. 

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Xbox: Thief

Thief is quite honestly the biggest gaming disappointment in the last six months and that is saying quite a lot. 

I will admit I got sucked in by flashy videos and pretty graphics.  The game is disappointment from the moment it fires up.  Seriously Eidos and Square Enix you couldn’t give users the option to adjust in-game gamma?  No, you require that I destroy my finely tuned video settings on my television.  Didn’t happen for my game nor for my husband’s. 

Actual game play is atrocious.  I don’t have a great love of the series so I have no nostalgia that would keep me playing the game.  The story is abysmal.  Wait correction, what little story there is makes no sense and is just a series of words strung together in sentence format.  Or as I described the story earlier today, Plants v. Zombies: Garden Warfare has a better story and there is NO story whatsoever in that game.

Then there is the issue of Garret the master thief who must carry an gnome fence in his pocket who immediately purchases the items Garret loots.  And those items our master thief loots?  Yeah, they are so sparkly that every damn magpie bird in the game would have already made off with the items in question.  And a master thief that steals tea saucers and letter openers?  Seriously, he isn’t a master thief he is a petty thief.

Actual stealth is a joke as are his abilities.  He can scale some walls that make no sense with his “claw” tool but that average size fence, no way our alleged master thief would ever be capable of scaling such an obstacle.  Environments aren’t open, there is a definite approved path to accomplish tasks, there is only one “right” way to finish.

I only managed to finish the introduction and first chapter of the game.  I tried to play through the second chapter this morning but I flat out don’t have the time or patience to pull my hair out just to say I finished the game.  The game was a waste of $60 bucks and undoubtedly it will go on sale shortly on the game store and I will be irritated and pissed off even more. 

Honestly, save your money take someone you love to the movies or out for dinner.  The game is utter crap and unworthy of even 1 star out of 5, so I will get a 0 of 5 stars. 

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Xbox: South Park: The Stick of Truth is …

South Park: The Stick of Truth is truly amazing.  It is a game that was well worth the delays and wait.  It is like being in an episode of South Park.

If you aren’t a fan of South Park then skip the game.  No seriously, skip it.  You won’t find foul mouthed, rude, fourth graders funny or the game enjoyable.  But if you enjoy the show, then you will enjoy the game immensely. 

You play as the ever silent New Kid in town who first meets Butters went sent outside to play by your parents.  You are then immediately recruited into Cartman’s human army against the Drow Elves led by Kyle.  What happens next is an old school RPG set in the South Park universe. 

The are some truly epic battles in the game.  Not epic because they are difficult or you are forced to make complex and difficult moral choices, but epic in the scope and breathe of the level of destruction wrought by fourth grade boys on the rampage.

The characters you know and love are in the game, unless they are already deceased in the series.  Always despise Principal Victoria or Mr. Garrison?  Have no fear, you can hit any character with your weapon without impunity, well unless they are an enemy, and they don’t get pissed off at you. 

The interface is simple and intuitive, not overly complex constant stat weighing and convoluted quest lines.  Weapons are clearly indicated to be an improvement or not, armor is a personal decision (although I highly favor the Friar’s and Bishop’s robes) and quests are go there and do that.

And as I girl, my inner nine-year old girl truly jumped for joy when the girls appeared.

The game is quite literally laugh out loud hysterical if you have a sense of humor and have learned to laugh at anyone and anything.  It is a game for you inner nine-year old to play and enjoy.  Indulge!  Life is too damn short and too damn stressful not to enjoy when the opportunity presents itself.

Quite easily this game is a 5 out of 5 for both of us.  I wouldn’t let children under sixteen play it however.  There are most definitely adult themes and situations that are in no way suitable for young children.  But for adults, the game is incredibly funny and a trip down memory lane.  Thank you Trey Parker and Matt Stone for making what is truly one of the best video games of 2014.

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