Everquest 2: SOE Live, Boosting, & Bugs

We decided to attend SOE Live, formerly Fan Faire, this week and are looking forward to a vacation.  Hubby managed to take time off in the middle of summer and a busy time for him so we are combining multiple celebrations into one trip (my birthday, his belated birthday, vacation in general, and our upcoming ten year anniversary).  We are both low key about celebrations and we generally have a horrible track record with vacations (usually they turn into unmitigated disasters).  So, we aren’t making a big deal out of this trip rather, it’s just a long weekend away.

That being said, I decided that since I do the blogging in the family and we are going to a gaming convention I should get at least one character in Everquest 2 to max level.  I have a pack of characters between 20 and 37 and two between 60 and 61 and there are only two characters that have level appropriate Alternate Advancement Points. 

So, I had to decide do I boost a character or do I earn my levels honestly?  I picked my favorite characters to play and tried out each class at level 85, the level you can boost to, and decided from there.  Ultimately, I decided to earn my levels rather than skip the very thing I love about EQ2 the lore and stories it tells.

I decided to play my Templar to level.  She’s the character closest to my heart and although she was only at level 34 and 15 AA points behind where I liked, she’s still my pick.  Luckily, her crafting is high enough that she can use a glider already and shortly she will be able to fly.  I completely suck at glider maneuvering and usually steer myself into a sticky situation.  Hubby graciously tried to use Call of the Veteran to port me into Neriak to pick up the Shadowknight mercenary.  Unfortunately, CoV was once again being buggy and frustrating, so he sacrificed himself to the epic gate guards as I ran in behind him. 

Seriously, the placement of just those two mercenaries compared to all the others is bad.  If you are a good characters without a guild or friends to assist, good luck getting the best tank that isn’t a veteran reward or Collector’s Edition.  I wish they’d make CE mercs available for loyalty points when the next expansion comes out.  I’m praying that the 10 year vet mercs become available for loyalty points once the 11 year vet rewards are announced. 

Maintenance should be completed and my coffee is brewed, enjoy your gaming day!

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Everquest 2: Continuing Alternate Advancement Catch-Up

As dawn breaks in Qeynos, my newly recreated Fury pauses her relentless acquisition of AA to admire the beautiful thunderstorm illuminated so majestically via the protective ward over the city.

Same morning but an excellent view of the dragon threat facing the city, plenty of motivation to work on AA and discover the reasons why they are there.

Nothing sadder than a dead Asarai or Fae is there?  Yep, that’s my darling hubby standing there silently contemplating why I ever decided to make a tank.  FYI, I’m not the best tank in the world obviously.  However, relearning to play my Shadow Knight is improving every outing so there is that.

My Troubadour had to pause and admire the night sky while out cleaning out quests and working on the gathering quest chain for Qho Augren (aka The BRAT in this house).

And finally, Air Lute apparently happens all too often in Crushbone Keep but so long as the spell fires off I’m ok with playing the air lute now and then.

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Xbox: Assassin’s Creed: Unity & Ubisoft’s Woman Problem

Assassin’s Creed is one of my favorite gaming franchises, which isn’t a surprise to anyone really.  However regular readers of this blog will know that I have been critical of the last couple of installments of the franchise.  Black Flag was a thinly disguised sailing sim with pirates and III suffered from frustrated cape crusader complex.  With each iteration of the franchise the story telling and character development has gotten weaker, thereby weakening the franchise as a whole.  Ubisoft has gotten much better at marketing and selling fans stuff but the gameplay and story has suffered.

Unity is their chance to redeem the franchise but can they pull it off?  That us the question I keep asking myself and the E3 coverage and social media responses left me with more questions than answers.

Set in the French Revolution, Unity has all of the potential to tell an amazing story and return to its roots of Altair and Ezio.  Political intrigue, historical characters, and the fight for freedom set amid the violence and romance of Paris. 

But what is once again missing from a AAA Ubisoft release?  The ability to play as a woman.  I’m sorry but let’s be honest, there is absolutely no excuse that Ubisoft cannot seem to tell a story that has a main character that can be either sex.  There might have to be some dialogue changes based on one gender or the other but those are minor and not hard to do.  The franchise makes more than enough money to justify the expenditure for two voice actors and animating both sexes.  Hell, the franchise would make MORE money if the option to play as a woman existed.

The game is based on alternate history so the argument that “well a woman in that time period wouldn’t have done that” is utter crap.  The co-op play doesn’t even feature the ability to play as a woman.  Maybe Ubisoft doesn’t read the latest studies but forty-five percent (45%) of gamers are women and women purchase forty-six percent (46%) of games sold.  So, women aren’t some small minority of the market and I hate to break it but women in general vote with their wallets.  Women buy and play games were they aren’t included and were they are represented. 

I will give Unity a chance but should Ubisoft fail to deliver a story and gameplay worth of Altair and Ezio then it will be the last installment in the franchise for me.

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Xbox: E3 2014

I flat out ignored E3 this year.  Sure there are a couple of games that I’m looking forward to but overall E3 turns out to be all hype and little substance.  And honestly, I can stand watching those presentations.  They are either boring, start LATE, or feature that oh so annoying Aisha Taylor.

Only games that have my interest and attention from E3 are Dragon Age: Inquisition and Assassin’s Creed: Unity.  But let’s be honest, those games had my attention prior to the conference.  I could care less about Halo 5, Crackdown, anything Nintendo, or space battles.  Oh hell, maybe I’m getting old but I prefer my games to have strong stories and not just be a rehash of the last iteration with new graphics.

I don’t anticipate my view on E3 changing for conferences to come either. 

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Everquest 2: Everquest Worlds Mobile App

 SOE did the smart thing and made a mobile app that covers all Everquest Worlds in one app.  The app is available for Android and Apple users.  I understand why they excluded Windows users, even if it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Carrying on however, I’ve used the app since I have access to an Android device.

It is a very well done app and in one evening sucked me in completely and I drained the phone battery from full to depleted without realizing it.  There are news and video feeds for whatever Everquest franchise you play and they are separated out so you don’t have to wade through Landmark video trying to find one that pertains to Everquest.

I watched the first EQ2 Insider yesterday and will watch the second one today.  I don’t normally watch dev videos either but it managed to keep my interest over the hour even if it were a month old.  The one thing they could do to improve the news/video feed is to put dates on the feed rather than just the newest on top. 

The mini-games in the app are addicting.  I fully admit I got sucked into Mineral Match and Book of Magic.  I won in-game rewards as well, a mount for Everquest and an appearance weapon for EQ2 (pictured below).  The EverGuess game kicked my rear and I’m normally good at those games.  The EQW Trivia mini-game was the clear winner for me.  It proved that my lore-foo is WEAK and needs improving to day the least.  I will be improving that over time, especially since I play EQ2 for the tremendous lore and involved storylines. 

I’ve barely begun to dig into the app but I can say, well done SOE well done. 

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Everquest 2: “Gamecation” Screenshots

Well, summer is in full swing here with temperatures over 100° every day for the foreseeable future and thus we decided to spend the last week on a “gamecation” instead of fighting high temperatures and invading hordes of tourists and families attending graduation ceremonies.  Norrath was the destination of choice and we had a blast.  Here are the postcards from our “gamecation”.

Our wee Berserker and Inquisitor characters stopped off to enjoy the beach with a Mystic Merc after returning the undead to their graves in Stormhold.

Beautiful evening in Norrath was caught in the Thundering Steppes.

On a Griffon flight in the Thundering Steppes.  I love the design of the griffons in the game, the look fully capable of killing you if you managed to piss it off.

Here we are on our Paladin/Wizard pair that worked on heritage quests and acquiring AA points over the week.  I really like how the arrow over Valhakar’s head is obvious and easy to see even in a crowd.

The robe dropped in Runnyeye and it was better looking than the boring white I had on s it went in the appearance armor slot.  Even after all these years, the evil eyes creep me out and thus they were valiantly tanked by hubby.

Overall, it was a great week and a great gamecation.  Time to get back to reality and remember there is a world other than Norrath.  Never fear though, Norrath will be visited throughout the week from here on out, all I have to do is decide on a “main” when I’m not paired up with hubby.

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