ArcheAge: Our Impressions

Server queue at 4AM on a Sunday morning, and that’s after already being in the queue for over ten minutes.  Look I understand the positives and negatives of launching with too many or too few servers.  However, the amount of hype ArcheAge has received in the west for the last two years should have been an indication that servers needed to be able to hold more characters at a time or megaserver technology.  Now, all that happens is potential paying customers are waiting and this is after the reported horrendous wait times during headstart last weekend.

Our impressions overall were no favorable.  I first rolled on archer and it was flat, stilted, and uninspired.  No, seriously holding down the auto-attack key while your one skill refreshes is NOT good game play for a first impression.  Hubby rolled an occultist and his gameplay was better.  I gave the game another shot by rolling first a sorcerer and than a vitalist, both were better than the archer.  But that being said, I could care less about any of the three characters I tried. 

Yup, I stand out as unique among all these characters don’t I?  When every character looks the same in the beginning, why even bother picking a starting skill set?  A magic user should be distinguishable from a melee character, etc.  Instead it was mini-skirts, bouncing boobies, and covered up males in a pond (literally) of sameness.  Look I have nothing against boobs but really if you give me the opportunity to make a character that has wrinkles and is aged, then dammit give me the opportunity to not have unrealistic bouncy, round anime boobs!

The UI is a mess.  The mini-map takes up far too much of the screen which can’t be resized or removed and the chat window is filled with gold spam with no obvious method to ignore or report.   The options menu is non-intuitive and a mess.  Good luck finding the info you want, like screenshots or hiding the UI (I found them by trial and error).

Then there are the creepy quest cut-scenes, similar to  Guild Wars 2, only there is no sound and yet sometimes the lips of the NPC move.  Truly it’s just creepy and unnecessary.  Made me despise the game more rather than caring or feeling immersed in the world.

The only bright spot was character customization, it is fairly extensive.  However, it isn’t unique looking but rather looks like your typical Korean MMO.  Same faces, choices, and hairstyles appear to have been lifted directly from Guild Wars 2.

Overall, nothing about the game impressed either of us.  It certainly isn’t free-to-play friendly.  It isn’t unique.  It isn’t cutting edge.  Sure I probably could have played longer and maybe found something I could tolerate but honestly, I couldn’t be bothered to continue to play a character I didn’t like.

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“Gamer Gate” & Why I Could Care Less

For the last month of so, social gaming media has been in a self-induced uproar over “Gamer Gate”.  Both sides of the issue have their view points and opinions, and neither side has a chance of convincing the other that their side is correct. 

Synopsis of the issue, as I understand it, is that it was revealed that a woman indie game developer was sleeping with a reviewer of her game.  Suddenly gamers are in an uproar over gaming journalism ethics (or lack thereof) and it becomes blown completely out of proportion.  Sexism, sloppy ethics, paid reviews, favorites, elitism, misogyny, hard core, casual, ad nauseam are all words and phrases bandied about by both sides of the “debate”.

Look, it’s pretty simple gaming journalism is as corrupt and biased as non-gaming journalism.  Developers buy favorable reviews, games that step out of the box get little to no coverage, the face of gaming is changing, and much more are all easy to understand truths about gaming.  Here’s an even easier truth, the best way to change gaming and the gaming community is to vote with your wallet.

Don’t like the manner in which women are portrayed?  Don’t buy the product, no matter how much social pressure is applied.  Don’t approve of how a gaming site conducts itself? Stop visiting the site and its sponsors.  Learn to ignore people in games, don’t be afraid to talk because of who you are.  Your voice and opinion matter just as much as the rude, screaming, foul mouthed child on the other end.

I could care less about Gamer Gate.  I am smart enough to support games, sites, and sponsors that fit who I am as a gamer.  Question is, is the rest of the community smart enough to do more than just make a splash on social media?

Technorati Tags: gaming,Gamer Gate,journalism,ethics

Xbox: Upcoming Indie Games

 

The Fall/Winter gaming season is chock full of games on the XboxOne from AA publishers, also coming to PS4 consoles.  Games like Shadows of Mordor, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Halo: The Master Chief Collection (XboxOne only), Assassin’s Creed: Unity & Rogue, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will all be released between now and the end of the year. 

However, the indie developers (other than Project Spark) get little to no love from either gaming “journalists” or console manufacturers prior to the release of the game.  Well, so far the tripe AAA titles have all been lackluster or vastly disappointing, Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition being an exception.

There are three games very high on my radar from independent developers that look interesting and worth the investment. 

Lords of the Fallen by Ci Games as gotten the most coverage from gaming press and websites and releases on 28 October 2014.  The game looks to have a decent story and challenging gameplay without the penalties found in Darksouls. 

Crimes and Punishment: This is Sherlock Holmes from Frogwares releases this month on the One, PC, and the 4.  I admit it, I’m always interested in game play of this type since I’m an avid reader of mysteries.  The game play looks immersive and interesting.  I will post our review after we’ve had a chance to play and experience Holmes and Watson on the One.

Styx: Master of Shadows from Cyanide Studios releases in October for PC and next-gen consoles as a digital releases.  Game play looks interesting and much truer to the origins of the Assassin’s Creed franchise than the last several releases from Ubisoft.  Besides who can resist playing as a Goblin?

What I find fascinating, is that all three indie game developers are located overseas (Poland, Lithuania, and France to be precise).  So, is the future of good, unique gaming coming from Europe while North American developers languish and turn out tried and true games that no longer push the envelope?

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World of Warcraft: New Character Models

I admit it, I resubbed for a month of WOW, but I haven’t purchased the expansion.  I will wait until the “boys club” put it on fire sale after release before picking it up.  There are simply too many good XboxOne releases this fall and Alter of Malice also releases in November.

I went onto the PTR to look at new character models.  Keep in mind, almost all of my characters are Alliance and all are female.  I must admit they are all awful.  No strike that, they are ugly as a drunken hookup with serious morning after regret.

Pippa, one of the two characters I always come back to play.  Admittedly in the “real” picture her face is a little angular but she has a smile and she looks like a woman.  In the “new” picture, which Blizzard considers true to the previous face, she looks hung-over, flat nosed, and miserable.

Gone is the sweet faced Gnome warrior of the “real” photo and in her place is the overly bug eyed, heavily made-up Gnome with a sour face in the “new” photo.  Seriously, those eyes swallow her face completely.

Gone is my feminine Paladin and in her place, is a dopey looking face playing dress-up in Paladin clothing.  Worse part is the “new” picture gives no evidence of the ungodly, never-ending eyebrow wiggle that now accompanies female human faces.  She looks like she got caught playing dress-up in her mother’s closet!

Sure the “real” one has angular face issues and poor lighting but that “new” face is just dopey looking!  Same eyebrow waggling issue and she looks like she’s fifteen and incapable of controlling the fire and curses that fly from her fingertips.

Same issues, this face is at least a little better but she still looks like she’s sucking a sour lemon or two.

Overall, the new facial models on the Alliance side are downright bad.  Updating character models was a risky move and I give them credit for that, but it is like they failed to even look at the older models when doing so.  It will be a game breaking change for a lot of people I’m sure.

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Xbox One: Destiny

Hype and endless PS4 commercials later, Activision and Bungie have sold $500 million worldwide of Destiny since the release on 9 September 2014.  Reviews are hard to come by because professional reviewers received their copies on Friday and only had access to the game when the servers went live on 8 September 2014.

So, here’s my review … not worth the price of admission, and certainly not worth the pre-order bonus we paid.

The game is a beautiful and accessible first-person shooter but it is not ground breaking or anything new even.  What it is instead is a lonely and empty planet that has a lot of mixed-up, mashed-up ideas from other games and a cerebral not visceral story telling like the Halo franchise.  Halo grips you from the get go and really never lets go.  Destiny is not that way, instead it tells a story in short bursts without really saying a lot. 

The Good:

• Game is gorgeous
• Darkness zones: you must start from the last in zone checkpoint to kill the boss of the checkpoint if you die in the zone.
• Accessible first person shooter: you don’t have to be a twitch shooter player to hit the enemy

The Mediocre:

• Shadows are jaggy and horrible
• World is EMPTY
• Too much of the game relies on the game’s companion app and website for information about events in game
• Too much is left unexplained mechanics wise and the user stumbles upon the answer by luck (I.e dismounting your mounting)

The BAD:

• For a game the touted it’s cooperative play, it is unforgiveable that two friends in the same room cannot join the player playing.  Kills the title as something a group of friends can pick-up and play together.
• Lobby system: empty planets, players hang out on their mostly useless space ships waiting from matchmaking
• Three classes that are all the same, just different melee skills which then flavor their bland and dull covering
• Too much has been pulled from other games:
• Public events like that that exist in Everquest 2, Rift, Defiance, Guild Wars 2 … the list is endless really
• Reputation grind – really horrible, slow reputation grind for factions you neither care about nor understand why you are grinding the reputation
• Space ships: other than travel to other planets what purpose do they serve and why on earth would you ever upgrade one?
• Loot drops are horrible?  Oh look an unidentified green loot piece dropped.  Fly back to earth to get it identified and you get?  Oh look, white gear that was not worth the time to fly back and deal with the loading screens.
• Halo’s influence is clearly seen throughout the game:
• Thrall are the new Flood
• Ammo readouts on weapons just like Halo
• Jumping just like Halo
• PvP is the core of the game, sure there is a single player, that can admittedly be played through with two other players, campaign but it isn’t the quality or the depth of the Halo single player campaigns.
• LOAD SCREENS: seriously load screens are alright but when they last longer than 10-1 seconds it is unforgiveable.

World is just soulless and empty.  You log in and play for a bit and then you realize you are lonely and bored and would rather be doing other things.  If you haven’t already, wait until it goes on sale in a few months before picking up the title. 

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