XBox: Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD is  port from the PS Vita to the Xbox 360 and PS3.  Earlier this week I tweeted that I was undecided with the game being somewhere between utter crap and almost decent.  Now that I’ve completed the game, has my opinion changed?

Actually it is still middle of the road on the fence opinion.  Gut reaction is that the game should have been released on the consoles as a full game and ported to the PS Vita.  There was more than a sufficient  potential story line for a full game but Ubisoft failed to take a risk and release a full Assassin’s Creed game with a female protagonist.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The ugly first, the graphics are muddy and are very obviously retextured from a much smaller screen.  This is particularly obvious with the sequence involving Connor from Assassin’s Creed III. The game undoubtedly looked much better on a handheld device than it does our large screen television.

Now for the bad and there is a lot of bad to report unfortunately.  The story is all over the place and often times makes no sense.  There is no backstory on how Aveline came to be an assassin and that isn’t remedied as the game progresses either.  Story threads are often poorly written and incomplete.  Don’t get me started on the weird, uncomfortable, and awkward relationship with her “business” partner.

Then there is the whole issue with her triple personas. It is an interesting game play idea and it could have worked but it doesn’t unfortunately.  It forces Aveline into one of three roles in pre-American Revolution New Orleans: Assassin, lady, or slave. 

Time for some brutal honesty, it is incredibly unlikely that given her parentage and complexion Aveline would have been accepted as a lady in New Orleans social circles.  It requires a LARGE suspension of reality to believe acceptance of Aveline as a lady.  Now for the slave persona, really Ubisoft?  Slaves running around New Orleans with weapons visible and not one guard gets suspicious and citizens act like it’s no big deal?  Again, requires a huge suspension of belief to play.

Aveline, our heroine, suffers from the same caped crusader problem that Connor suffers from in AC III.   Game play is often frustrating and often I wanted to throw my controller across the room.  Invisible walls, sticking to stuff for no good reason, jumping when you don’t intend to and incurring notoriety for it, and desynchronizing more often than I ever have an any previous installment in the franchise.  The Assassin persona is always restrained because she can never lose twenty-five percent of her notoriety.  The male characters do not suffer from this same handicap so why does the only female character Ubisoft created? 

Now for the good, Ubisoft gets a lot of credit from me for making a mass market game with a female lead.  Yes, it is a highly flawed game but it is one of the few games with a female lead.  I’m by no means a raging feminist but it is so damn nice to play a female lead on a character not created by me.  There is lot of potential in the Aveline story and I hope the Ubisoft doesn’t relegate her to the dustbin never to be heard from again. The good is mostly potential however.  I wish it were otherwise.

Overall, I give the game a two and a half stars.  It isn’t so horrible that it is a two star game and it is too much of a mess to warrant middle of the road status.

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Elder Scrolls Online: Oh the Angst & the Humor of Pre-Order Bonuses

 

Yesterday, The Elder Scrolls Online released the pre-order bonuses and the hate immediately began to flow.  People are outraged over complete nonsense and I am enjoying their tears immensely.  The majority of the tears go something like this: “OMG they destroyed faction pride!”  or my personal favorite, “It is a money grab by ZOS and it destroys the lore!”

First off let’s deal with the race issue.  Past Elder Scrolls games, you fire it up pick the race you want and you are on your adventures in Tamriel.  No restrictions, no artificial barriers.  ESO had artificial barriers in place, and still does for those that do not pre-order.  Those barriers restrict your race choice to one of three factions.  That severely limits role playing opportunities for those that want to actively role play in game.  You cannot, without pre-ordering, role play an Orc Sorcerer orphaned and raised by childless Khajits in Elsewhyr nor can you play an Altmer who disapproves of the blatantly racists and elitist attitudes of the Aldmeri Dominion and decides to go fight for the personal liberty ideals embodied by the Ebonheart Pact. 

The pre-order bonus allowing players to play any race in any alliance gives players more freedom, more creativity, and the personal choice that has always been present in Elder Scrolls games.  Racism has always been a part of Elder Scrolls games too.  The blatant racism of the Nords and High Elves in Skyrim for example.  I do not believe the pre-order bonus in any way fundamentally alters that racism of the game.  A Breton Dragonknight that sells his sword to the Aldmeri is going to be paid and utilized but not respected.  The Orc Nightblade that matures in Ebonheart territory will always know she is different that those around her.  The Argonian that choose to heal the valiant warriors of the Daggerfall Covenant will be accepted and thanked for her efforts.

Now for my second favorite complaint, the lore destroying money grab.  I think the lore can be easily handled by players.  Zenimax Online did nothing to destroy the lore yesterday.  I am at a loss to understand the concept of the pricing being a money grab.  The box price for the digital and hard copy is the industry standard of $60.  The fact that anyone was surprised by this is funny.  The digital collector’s edition is a mere $20 more and it includes the Imperial race, mudcrab pet, a HORSE, and Rings of Mara.  The physical edition of the Collector’s Edition is underpriced at $100.  No seriously, for that additional $20 bucks you get a statute, a map, and a lore book in addition to the items that come with the digital collector’s addition.

I think the money argument is based on consumers expecting far too many things for free this days.  There is a blatant attitude of entitlement that is rampant and out of control.  Truth be told, if the initial buy-in (which includes 30 days of free game play) and the monthly subscription is too much then perhaps playing a video games isn’t the wisest decision you could be making.  Everyone has different finances and priorities but the sense of entitlement is outrageous.  ZOS spent their investment money on the title, and are entitled to see a return on that investment.

I can’t wait for the game to be released.  I will utilized my Rings of Mara and enjoy my horse while my playing against the race-alliance barrier.

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Elder Scrolls Online: The Arrival

This morning the new cinematic trailer and pre-order bonuses were released for the Elder Scrolls Online.  Mudcrab pet and early access?  Here take our money, please take it already!  Ritual of Mara and the ability to play any race in any faction?  No seriously, excuse me while we place our orders.

The best part about an amazing cinematic, the female character saves the day.  I want her incredibly awesome whip spell!  Seriously, she kicks serious Molag Bal and daedric minion asses in the video. 

There is no doubt what I will be playing once ESO releases. 

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Weekend Activities: SWTOR and Xbox

SWTOR got a lot of play Thursday and Friday, easy stress escape and I got caught up in leveling my bounty hunter.  What is really irritating me is that since the last time I played the fine folks over a Bioware have for some unfathomable reason disabled the ability to take a screenshot during a dialogue scene with a NPC.  I’ve missed countless great shots of humorous lines or facial expressions as a result.  Hell, I’ve just missed great shots of my characters up close.

I have a plethora of screenshot for the wildlife or environment but not one of my character.  I am going to have to remedy that next time I log on.  I fell into the crafting trap this weekend, you know the one.  You spend more time logging in and out of various characters to craft items or send raw materials.  I wish they would release an app for one of the mobile platforms to let gamers do that stuff while away from their gaming rig.  I would definitely spend more free time in SWTOR or any game to be honest, that let me get some of the more mundane but vital activities, like crafting, accomplished while waiting at the doctor’s office or watching television.

I fired up the Xbox demo for Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD before I had my first cup of coffee on Saturday morning.  It left a bad taste in my mouth and I quickly moved on.  Hubby woke up and he tried it thankfully and I was instantly charmed.  So a couple of cups of coffee and a trial by hubby and AC: Liberation wound up on my game rotation for the week.  A full review when I am more than a couple of hours of game play in and more than one cup of coffee consumed.

Thanks to the fine folks at Gamefly I also played some Diablo III on Saturday.  I created a female barbarian and set off on my single adventures.  I got to New Tristam and learned that there was no way to link my battle.net account to my Xbox account and was instantly frustrated.  All those fine goodies from virtual Blizzcon tickets are going to go to waste because of my platform choice?  Seems like a oversight that should not have happened.  Diablo III never felt like a PC game to me and there is no way I’m paying PC prices for it when I can rent it or buy it from Gamefly.  The one thing I do really like about the port to the console is that cooperative game play isn’t fouled up by a split screen which drives us both bonkers.

Hubby fired up Mass Effect and started the ugliest character he has ever created on Insanity.  No seriously, the Shepard he created was so ugly I cringed every single time I looked up at the television and caught a glimpse of him.  He took pity on me and recreated Shepard as Sheldon Cooper and started over on Insanity.  All I have to saw is that Insanity is a difficulty setting I will never be attempting!

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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Plague breaks out on Alderaan

Rakghoul Plague has infested the peaceful planet of Alderaan and I’ve participated in the event for the first time when the event went live yesterday.  The last time the Rakghoul event was in game I was playing something else and didn’t participate.  However, I jumped in with both feet on two Republic characters yesterday.

My consular, Laughlynn, took the opportunity to further explore Alderaan and pick up some bonus series quests.  I particularly love the taxis on Alderaan that are non-mechanical.  There is just something so peaceful and majestic about taking a taxi on Alderaan.  I’m a little biased admittedly since Alderaan is my favorite planet to date.

First off, the Rakghoul tunnels on Alderaan are beautiful.  I spent a lot of time just enjoying the beauty of the environment yesterday while exterminating the affected victims.  There is a definite challenge to the event when you aren’t at maximum level and at the low end of the level range for the planet.  However, I love the challenge and had fun yesterday. 

Laughlynn did great even against the level 55 creatures when others were around.  They were hard to touch at level 39 but so long as she wasn’t fighting alone they were fun and a challenge.  Now those elite level 55 creatures and bosses were impossible to touch, every once in a while I’d manage to get a hit one of the but it was rare.  Still it was a blast!

Abi’gail had a much more difficult time at level 28.  The tunnels and the infected were definitely a challenge for Abi’gail.  More often than not her light sabers were nothing more than flashing purple sticks of ineptitude as they failed to land a hit.  Against the level 25 Rakghouls she was successful but those level 34 plus creatures were an exercise in misses.  But you know what?  I didn’t care, the tunnels were beautiful and I still managed to complete event quests and gain reputation while having fun.

This morning I logged on to my level 15 bounty hunter, Steph’ana, who has been stranded on the Imperial Fleet for a year now.  However, she is getting play time these days and she contracted the plague while on fleet.  Steph’ana is now on Balmorra and setting out on the great Hunt.  I got this great picture of the effects of the plague before she purchased a vaccine from the medical droid in Sobrick.

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Mobile Gaming: Rule the Kingdom

Rule the Kingdom from GameInsight is available for free on idevices, Android, Windows, and Facebook.  Knowing my love of the RPG genre and games focused on questing I downloaded it to my Windows 8 tablet as soon as it became available.

The game is charming but it suffers from what I consider a fatal flaw: over monetization.  It is possible to play the game and not spend a cent but to do so you would have to have the patience of a saint.  Seriously, should your character die you have to flee to the castle and wait on hour before your can resume playing or your need to spend real world money to continue playing.  While I don’t mind spending money on good games, I do mind when every possible action almost in a title is possible to complete with cash.

So, while charming it isn’t going to get a recommendation from me despite the wide number of platforms the game is available on.  I would much rather have a small purchase price associated with a mobile game than have every move in the game monetized.  If you have children, then this game is a definite pass.

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2014 Gaming

2013 and 2012 I was a MMO tourist.  I couldn’t find and settle down in any one game for any length of time.  Instead, I’d play game X for a couple of months while “cheating” on it by playing a couple of other games on the side.  2013 isn’t going to be touristy for me.  I know what games I want to play and what games just hold no interest for me any more.

WOW is off of my SSD and my subscription cancelled once again.  I’m not going to jinx myself and say I’m never going to play it again but that’s how I feel.  BlizzCon left an incredibly sour taste in my mouth and I honestly don’t want to continue to support Blizzard economically via gaming.  I prefer my WOW lore in book format where actual stories can be told and finished.  I loaded up on several WOW novels when they were last on sale as an Amazon Daily Deal.  Raiding isn’t enough to keep me continually paying a subscription, hell let’s be honest it is as boring and trite as running the same five-man instance repeatedly.  End game boredom is the reason I first “cheated” on WOW and nothing has changed since I started playing the game back in 2008.  I’m a woman over forty-five who doesn’t enjoy raiding, clearly WOW doesn’t care about what interests me and thus I’ll spending my gaming dollars elsewhere.

Games that I’m “Quitting”

Guild Wars 2, Rift, and SOE games are definitely no longer on my radar. 

GW2 was a huge disappointment for me and every time I pop back in and retry it my initial disappointment is reconfirmed.  There is no one playing the game and thus the whole “events” theory of gaming is utter crap. 

Rift is still enjoyable but I still can’t stand my questing being interrupted by rifts.  I do thoroughly enjoy Rift’s PVP but that isn’t enough to keep me interested in playing the game. 

SOE has its own particular set of issues.  I love Everquest 2 but I do not love the artificial blocks they have established to character progression.  Also I’m not going to spend money on SOE games when the benefits of subscribing are constantly in flux and are detrimental to the gamer but highly beneficial to SOE.

2014 Games

This year, the MMO’s I am going to playing Elder Scrolls Online, Lord of the Rings Online, The Secret World and Star Wars: The Old Republic.  The one thing these games all have in common?  Fantastic story telling and characters I am utterly invested in. 

TSW is a game I can play for small doses at a time but I love every moment of that play time.  TSW has expanded my reading base and thus my knowledge and I cannot fault any game that pushes me to become a better read individual.

LOTRO may not be a perfect game and it may not be hundred percent pure for the lore purists, but it is more than reasonably close for me.  The cosmetic system and the stunning screenshots I get are worth minor inconveniences like purchases not being account wide from the cash shop for almost every purchase.  I admit, I lose complete track of time while playing LOTRO and that alone is an endorsement for me.

Elder Scrolls Online releases on 4 April 2014 and I am eagerly looking forward to the official release.  I fell in love with Oblivion on the Xbox360 and have been a fan ever since.  Elder Scrolls games will always hold a special place in my heart, with the exception of Skyrim, and based on developer statements and interviews ESO will be a game that perfectly fits my play style.  I will also admit the Skywind mod for Morrowind has me intrigued.

SWTOR is going to be my guilty pleasure this year.  I have characters with unfinished stories and I will admit that bothers me immensely.  I may pop in and out of SWTOR this year as a break from high fantasy games like LOTRO and ESO and I’m ok with that.  I will complete story lines and enjoy myself immensely doing so.  I am a complete sucker for anything Star Wars, Yoda slippers & Jaina Solo shirt I’m looking at you, so it shouldn’t be a complete shocker that unfinished stories in a Star Wars game is driving me bonkers.

Console & Mobile Gaming

I will still be playing games on the 360 and the One this year.  Fable Anniversary releases next month and I’m looking forward to it.  I still have several games to finish on the One purchased on release day.  I like the titles just fine, I’ve just been in the reading mood and not the gaming mood the last month or so. 

Mobile gaming caught my attention in the last couple of weeks.  Games like Dungeon Hunter 4 and Royal Envoy 2 have me engaged and interested.  It is safe to say that mobile gaming reviews and impressions will be forthcoming this year. 

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Christmas Week Abbreviated Adventures

Pippa managed to run into Krampus finally in The Secret World and blindly followed him into the portal he opened.  He and his buddies immediately kicked my rear and Pippa was dead on the floor faster than wrapping paper on Christmas morning.  She wisely exited the instance upon regaining her sense.

Pippa, the original character of that name, and the bevy of 90’s opened presents and rescued Metzen until one of them was lucky enough to get the Rotten Little Helper companion.  He is decidedly evil and miserable looking.  Can’t say I feel the effort was worth it.  I will admit, I think I’m over WOW for quite a while.  Yes, I still have characters I could level and I haven’t completed the loremaster achievement.  But I’m not enjoying myself.  I enjoy reading the lore in novels much more than I am repeating myself in game. 

I can’t say I won’t ever be returning to WOW, I’ve made that claim too many times before and Pippa always get’s missed.  I wish Blizzard would wise up and give the non-raiding crowd a reason to stick around, like adventure or quest packs.

I stopped into Guild Wars 2 again this year.  Same even as last year it appears, I didn’t stick around that long to find out.  I decided to try out one of the event instances and imagine my delight in learning my level 10 warrior was stuck (until I logged out) in an instance filled with level 80s.  I can’t deny the game is lovely but there is no quest content and thus no interest for me.

I’ve dropped my LOTRO several evenings this week and completed the quests in Frostbluff for cosmetics.  Luckily, LOTRO will run on the Surface Pro well enough to do things like festivals and crafting so I’m not trapped in the office.  I think I’ve gotten almost everything I want from the festival this year.  Trying to decide if I want this year’s horse or not.  I’ve gotten one, not sure how interested I am in the other. 

I stopped by Star Wars: The Old Republic this week.  I activated one character, my Consular.  She’s on Hoth and I want to finish her story line.  I didn’t play her, I browsed the Cartel Market and realized that I need to change her gear out if I’m going to play her without subscribing.  Two years after the game launched and I don’t have a character at max level yet, but I keep wandering by for the story which speaks to how compelling the quest writers at Bioware are.

This time next year, I imagine I will still be happily immersed in Elder Scrolls Online.  I hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas.  Happy New Year and may all your football teams be victorious!

 

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Beta: Project Spark First Impressions

When Project Spark was announced at E3 this summer I was floored.  I signed up for the beta as soon as they started accepting applications.  This afternoon I got my beta invite and downloaded the game immediately.

I have never been into building games, so I have a clean slate when it comes to experience and intuitive tools.  First impression is mostly positive.  World s gorgeous and immersive.  The ability to create what I want, how I want is the draw. 

There are a large variety of pre-created items to place in the environment you create.  Everything from the background sounds to the way fish interact with the environment.  However, the only thing you can create from your imagination is the environment itself and then only within the color palette and terrains provided or you’ve purchased.  There is no ability, at least so far, to create your own houses or building structures and no way to go inside that I have discovered.

Trees and just about everything else can be recolored to suit your fancy.  However, once again the shape and style of trees, etc. is limited to what is available for free or purchase.  There is a very Seussian sense about the world, I find charming. 

I will continue to explore the world in beta.  I’m not sure it will be everything I wanted it to be.  Time may change that initial judgment and I definitely think the couple of hours I spent exploring today mean the game deserves more play time.

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This Week’s Adventures

Not much happened in the gaming world this week.  Last full week before Christmas and I spent it reading, cleaning, and writing.  But there are at least two screenshots this week.

 

Yule Festival has arrived in Middle Earth and Moirareth, my rune keeper when off to Frostbluff as soon as possible.  She built snowmen and did the first day’s daily and watched as experience accumulated.  Needless to say, I purchased the Stone of the Tortoise immediately.  I had been considering it anyways so I wasn’t overly upset at purchasing the Stone.  I haven’t been overly diligent about acquiring tokens or completing quests this year.  I did them all diligently everyday last year and burned out on LOTRO for months to come.  I like the mounts but I do not like the manner in which Yule Festival cosmetics dye so the pressure just isn’t there for me this year.

Winter Veil has arrived on Azeroth and off went my wee Goblin to visit great Father Winter.  She did notice immediately how close the Goblin decorators placed the Winter Veil tree to an open fire barrel.  Perhaps there is a Goblin plan underfoot to burn Orgrimmar to the ground? I must admit to being HORRIBLY disappointed that all of the Winter Veil quests are once again unavailable to characters above level 20.  Make it dangerous or require a group but there is no reason to exclude non-max characters from being able to fully participate in holiday activities.

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World of Warcraft: Nostalgia and Love

I was struck with a case of nostalgia last night as Taalina began to level through Ashenvale.  Darkshore and Ashenvale were the first places outside of the starting zone I ever leveled, and how those places have changed.  Penelope, my first character, did a brief fly though this morning.  I know all this scenery and questing changed with the release of Cataclysm three years ago but this is really the first time I’ve extensively quested through the zones.  Cataclysm was the first expansion release I ever experienced to be honest, since I started playing shortly after the release of Wrath. 

Unfortunately, when I originally played through these two zone with my husband I wasn’t taking screenshots, heck I doubt I even knew how to take a screenshot back then!  I hit the coast line of Ashenvale last night and the Zoram Strand instantly smacked me with a strong wave of nostalgia.  I remember playing with my husband killing Naga and not understanding why he was so upset when he “missed” or why he was so frustrated when I pulled critters off of him.  I was a complete noob and he had the patience of a saint.

The memories are all good ones however.  Even if the beauty that is Ashenvale is currently being destroyed by the Horde, I will always smile and remember how deeply my husband loves me because of these memories.  The landscape and our play styles may have changed over the years, but these first few months when he introduced me to MMO’s are a precious memory I cherish.

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Wish List for Changes to Games for 2014

Maybe it is a side effect of growing older, but my list for changes for games becomes a little longer every year.  It isn’t that I think any one game suffers or is unplayable, but with a few simple changes standardized across games, gaming life in general would be much improved.

My first wish is for area-wide auto loot to be implemented.  I much enjoy the auto-looting in Lord of the Rings Online.  Nothing is more convenient than loot automatically being deposited in your bags.  Yes, it can be inconvenient sometimes when your bags are cluttered with vendor trash, but that minor inconvenience is outweighed by never having to loot an enemy again.

Next up on the wish list, mentoring. Everquest 2 and Rift both implement this feature enormously well.  It makes sense and allows for friends and family who have differing play time to still play together.  Turning off experience, doesn’t make it possible for a higher level character to effectively play with a lower level character without it being unbalanced and in the end power-leveling. 

The ability to turn off experience directly from your experience toolbar.  EQ2 does this and it prevents the problem of out leveling a zone simply and elegantly.  This becomes more and more essential as games reduce the amount of experience required to reach maximum level.  Nothing is more irritating than constantly out-leveling zones and leaving stories unfinished because non-story content has become trivial.

Housing, for the love of all that is holy, HOUSING.  And not just any old housing, but housing as magnificent and immersive as the housing in EQ2.  I want someplace my characters can all home, display their spoils of questing, relax with a full hobbit second breakfast, or curl up and read a book.  I miss the housing in EQ2, and if there weren’t other issues preventing full enjoyment of the game, I’d still be playing it.  I don’t want small cramped hovels with over-priced rents and storage costs.  I want the ability to decorate and for all characters to be able to share the space.  I also want housing that looks like house, not some weird variant of housing that only vaguely resembles housing.

Shared banking and storage among all characters on the server.  How hard can this be to implement?  Personal storage and communal storage should be standard at this point.  And there should be separate storage for crafting materials shared among characters on a server.  Guild Wars 2 does this beautifully.  One of the few strong points of that game is the ability to send crafting materials to shared storage.

Cosmetic wardrobes and for this there are truly only two models to be followed: LOTRO and GW2.  GW2 has the most beautiful dyes and more importantly, find the dye once and it is yours forever.  Nothing I hate more than constantly having to search for the dye I want every time I want to dye a new piece of cosmetic clothing.  LOTRO has hands down the best cosmetic clothing system, minus the dye issue.  The ability to have multiple outfits to wear at a moments notice without changing or disturbing the stats on your battle armor is phenomenal.  I freely admit, my LOTRO characters change clothes frequently depending on mood and season.  Why can’t all games do this? Why can’t my casting class characters slip into heavy armor so they look intimidating if they want to, or why can’t me heavy plate warriors look less threatening and those surprise foes? 

I know I’m tilting at windmills.  I know despite he fact that I make sense and all games thieve from one another, no consensus amongst game designers and companies is magically going to unfold in the next year.  Doesn’t mean I am going to stop wishing that there will be dramatic changes for the better across all games or that new games releasing this year will come to understand that it is better to delay release and implement features from other games that a vast majority of players consider as standard.

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Leveling Screenies from this week

We both have colds and I will admit that those colds are kicking our butts.  No real thought intensive gaming was accomplished this week.  Most of the gaming time was spent in WOW where it is much easier to engage in mindless gaming activity with very little danger of dying because you aren’t paying attention.

So, onwards to screenshots from The Secret World, WOW, and Lord of the Rings Online.

Pippa meet Sam Krieg this week while continuing to explore the Savage Coast in The Secret World.  He in incredibly fascinating and I loved his quests. 

The dialogue from Sam Krieg is amazingly well written, not that is all that surprising.  I hope there is more of him to come otherwise I will miss his insights into humanity.

After the heaviness of the conversations with Sam Krieg, Pippa felt a need for a little whimsy and so she slipped into her pirate costume.

Taalina was been gifted a heirloom weapon and thus she spent her week leveling in Darkshore.  As you can tell, the Murlocs were incredibly happy when she stopped and rebuilt a dwelling for them.  Now if only game phased to permanently show for Taalina there rebuilt Murloc home.

Queen Azshara and Malfurion Stormrage decided to have words off the coast of Darkshore.  Taalina somehow escaped the Queen’s wrath despite the dead Naga scattering the island.

 Meet Brynhildd my Dwarven Champion who was created this week.  Her name means Warrior Woman in German and she is my cosmetic vault keeper.  I already have one character of every class with appropriate leveled professions, but no Dwarf characters.  Making a female Dwarf isn’t possible in LOTRO, so Brynhildd is going to be a female Dwarf disguised as a male Dwarf out to seek adventures of her own.  Now she may never see more than Thorin’s Hall and gate but she will be prepared for the eventuality of leveling further.  She slipped into the Boots, Shoulders and Gloves of the Eastemnet (pre-order items for Rider of Rohan expansion) and the Leather Cloak and Hauberk of Mystery from Skirmish Cosmetic boxes.  All in all, I think she looks quite attractive.

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World of Warcraft: Patch 5.4.2

Patch 5.4.2 is currently being applied to World of Warcraft and according to the patch notes, the cash shop is now live in-game for WOW.  That’s right folks, if you thought the cash shop was going to be exclusive to Asian servers and it would never invade the rest of the game, today is a black day for you.  The cash shop will make it easier to purchase mounts and companion pets without having to go to the external website.

There are a couple of patch specific notes for mages and warriors, as well as some questing improvement implemented.

Bind-to-Account items can now be truly be considered BOA and not Bind-to-Realm items.  Starting today BOA items, and ONLY, BOA items can be mailed to your characters on other realms.  Simply follow this format: Jane–Silvermoon (no spacing) this will allow you to mail BOA items to your character named Jane on the Silvermoon server.  I’ll admit, it will make some of those languishing characters on other servers get some playtime now.

And finally, cross realm raiding is arriving.  No it isn’t the feature that will be coming with the release of the next expansion but it does take advantage of functionality already in the game.  Open the Social Menu (O) and click on the Raid tab.  This will allow you to queue for or find members for your raids from other realms.   This functionality is only viable for Mists of Pandaria world bosses (Celestials and Ordos) and the Siege of Orgrimmar flexible raid. 

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The Leveling Ladies

This week I did much more around the house or reading than I did playing games.  When I did venture into the gaming world, most of my time was spent completing Volume 1, Book 5 in The Lord of the Rings Online.  My time in World of Warcraft was much more limited.  I keep trying to force myself to play Horde and it is making me miserable, so this morning I returned to my last sub-ninety Alliance character and had a very relaxing time for a couple of hours.

So, without further ado, here’s a brief visual tour of this week in PC gaming.

The Misty Mountains were snowy when Moriareth ventured out of Rivendale and into the Misty Mountains.  Here she found a land inhibited by giants, dwarves, trolls, and servants of the Dark Lord.  The local wildlife was far from friendly but were beautiful on the snowy days she spent in the Misty Mountains.

Moriareth arrived in Angmar and promptly changed her clothing to her Rohan pre-order armor.  She immediately felt a change in the air and knew that there was something wrong with the land.  She has begun her quest to help the tribes and rangers that inhibit Angmar.

Mistalaina, or Mista for short, reached Northrend this week.  She is a rogue and is my last sub-90 Alliance character on Silvermoon.  She is questing and only running around with heirloom weapons because I hate trying to replace weapons when I don’t have to.  As you can tell, she’s currently landed at Fizzcrank Airstrip where the Gnomes seem to have gotten handy with the paint cans once again.

Meet Blessed, Mista’s Alterac Brew Pup.  His beer comes in quite handy now that she has ventured into Northrend for the first time. 

My lovely Enchanted Fey Dragon, gifted by my husband, that Mista named Bella.  She took flight this morning at Fizzcrank Airstrip and turned the perfect shade of Borean azure blue with violet blue accents.

Gwennya is currently in her mid-40’s and hanging out in Tanaris.  Apparently the innkeeper of Gadgetzan irritated her somehow this morning because she certainly appears to be giving him an earful.  She’s steam rolling everything, because of the heirlooms and the fact that old content hasn’t been retuned for new skills.  The end result, there is no challenge and I have to make a decision.  Remove the heirlooms and level content more slowly so that there is a wee bit of a challenge or suck it up and power level to 80 for the Horde story from 80-90.  I am leaning to power leveling, the old world quest content doesn’t differ between factions and I’m tired of trying to force myself to enjoy content where there is no challenge.

 

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