Farewell Tabula Rasa

Well, I’m very sad to see this title go. With NC Soft’s announcement that it is shutting down TR in February, I think the MMO genre has just lost one of it’s more original offerings. Say what you will about it’s flaws and shortcomings, you can’t say it wasn’t different and innovative in many regards. With it’s porting of FPS style play into the Massively Online world, it’s character cloning system and it’s setting based on a completely original IP ( yes I know, very much influenced by a slew of others, but still…), I think TR could not be considered as ”just another MMO”. It definitely had it’s own distinctiveness. 

Strangely enough, if I have to think of one thing that I will miss about this game, I’d have to say it is base defenses. In TR, the Bane ( the Bad GuysTM ), would constantly be mounting attacks on various forts and outposts throughout the game zones, and you as a player would have the option of joining others ( or try to do it solo ) in repelling these incursions. Often in general chat calls would go out that such and such a place needed defenders because it was about to fall, or that a given place needed to be retaken. It gave me quite a rush to speed off to one of these hot points and fend off the alien raiders, standing on a parapet and emptying magazine after magazine of machine gun ammo into the oncoming Bane waves, only to eventually lose my head and jump down into the fray, pouring shell after shell of shotgun ammo up close and personal style !

Oh yes those were indeed exciting times!

Few MMOs have given such visceral and sustained adrenaline rushes and I think that this intense action-trip was a feature that set TR very much apart from all other MMOs.

It’s too bad all this will enter the realm of pure memories come February, I believe it deserved a better fate, eventoday’s highly competitive MMO  niche market.

/Salute Tabula Rasa

I don’t want to set the world on fire

Can’t get that song out of my head since I’ve started playing Bethesda Software’s Fallout 3. In fact, I’ve pretty much got all the old time tunes that feature in the game on permanent rotation in my head. The Galaxy Radio play list is by far my favorite part of the game ( yes I need help ).

I’m a big sucker for atmosphere in a game. A well conveyed setting, that adeptly lets you experience various moods and feelings, really scores points with me, which is why I think Fallout 3 may well be my game of the year. Age of Conan had the same effect, with it’s rich Hyborian tapestry. I play computer RPGs mainly for reasons that center on a need for escapism, and games like Fallout 3 and AoC hit that particular button well as far as I’m concerned.

Before playing Fallout 3, I had a;ready played all the Elder Scrolls series games from Bethesda, including their famous Oblivion offering. That being said, I was never a huge fan of the game mechanics in those titles, the first person twitch-based combat system and improve-as-you-use character advancement they featured never having been a hit with me. But I always managed to overcome these obstacles to enjoyment by immersing myself in the rich world the games were set.

It’s the same with Fallout 3, but to a even higher degree. This time the game mechanics for me are even less of an obstacle than was the case with oblivion. The change from the isometric turn-based combat of previous fallout titles to Bethesda’s first-person hybrid turn-based / realtime system has not demanded that big a level of adaptation and I am glad that they kept the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats system and the perks of previous Fallouts. I think Fallout 3 is a very smooth transition from the old Fallout to the new. I now realise that all of the the misgivings I had about the new direction in game-design Bethesda’s takeover of the franchise would bring were for nothing. Even if Fallout has been ”Oblivionised” to a large extent, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

I’m still relatively early into the game, my character is a level 8 talker / scientist type guy, but so far I am very happy with Fallout 3 and would recommend it to anybody who enjoys old time music and truly atmospheric RPG gaming !

Finally ! A Wheel of Time MMO !

I’m sure many massive gamers, who like me have slogged through Robert Jordan’s imposing  Wheel of Time fantasy  series, have said to themselves that this rich setting would translate quite well into an MMO. Jordan’s world is huge and well fleshed out, with the kind of depth and variety that one would think allows any MMO developer a huge variety of creative options. It’s notoriety and level of appreciation by it’s fans I think would garner a wide spectrum of interest and certainly help the marketing of the game. In short, Jordan’s universe has a lot going for it as the setting for a massively online title.

Well, looks like a company called Red Eagle Games has come to the same conclusion and is actually acting on this idea and making a bunch of Wheel of Times games, which includes an MMO, as announced here. My first thought when I read this was a hearty ”It’s about time!”. Among all the numerous fantasy book settings out there at the moment, I think Jordan’s is one of the most accessible and easily adaptable to MMO gaming, with enough of it fleshed out to give a solid base to work from while still leaving plenty of room for creative innovation. The only other fantasy book settings ( which I am familiar with ) that I think has as much potential in this regard as the Wheel of Time universe are Steven Erikson’s Malazan setting and Raymond Feist’s Midkemia.

So I’m pretty excited about this announcement and am looking forward to rolling up my Ogier Swordmaster, White Heron specked of course !

Giving Star Wars Galaxies another go and enjoying home decoration in the process !

I’ll admit my enthusiasm for SWG has been hot and cold up to this point. I’ve had a bit of trouble getting into the game. Why that is ? I’m not quite sure really. Maybe it’s because I’ve been able to get my Star Wars fix elsewhere, in single player games like KotOR for example.

Since the announcement of Bioware’s The Old Republic MMO, I’ve been thinking about Galaxies more and more, realising that I may not have given the game a fair shake. While this thought process was going through my head, what did I find in my email in-box : a free month of SWG play ! Coinciding with the in-game Moon Festival event.

So with this momentous coincidence happening, I have decided to give SWG another go. A serious go this time. My characters in WAR really need to have their rest XPbars topped off, so this is perfect timing for me to re-acquaint myself with SWG.

But, before jumping back in I’ve resolved to read all of the player guides related to the game ( some aspects of SWG being quite arcane, at least to me ) and make sure I’m as informed as I possibly can be before returning to my Wookie Bounty Hunter.

This approach has really paid off. I’m not as bewildered as I was during my previous attempts at getting into SWG. I’m even enjoying some aspects of the game that rebutted me previously. An example that immediately comes to mind is space combat. Another, strangely enough, is house decorating ! Yes you read that correctly ! Having consulted the player guides on furniture placement in SWG, I finally discovered how to move around pieces in my house, a task I had in the past given up on in disgust. This time I made some macros as suggested, and have spent a few hours immersed in the minutia of home decoration, SWG style ! Which is quite hilarious, seeing as my real world dwelling is rather spartan and carelessly unadorned, functional but rather bare.

This just illustrates the to me the fact that even though SWG has, in my opinion, some seemingly strange, archaic or just plain counter intuitive aspects to it, if you make an effort to go the extra mile and understand the dynamics behind the way these elements work, you may actually come to enjoy this venerable title despite it’s lack of shiny newness.

May The Force be with me !