Roll credits

Today is a sad day for me, I’ve just finished Fallout 3. When I originally started playing the game, my intention had been to stretch things out and see as much of the map as I possibly could, but alas my enthusiasm for the main storyline got the better of me. I finished the game with a level 15 character, 5 levels below the cap of 20.

I will miss very much the game’s ambiance and it’s peculiar form of humor, which made the whole Fallout 3 experience feel quite unique. It’s been a while since an RPG has engrossed me as much as this tile has and I think I will be going through some form of withdrawal symptoms in the coming days. That’s how much I enjoyed immersing myself in Fallout 3’s setting.

Here’s hoping for an expansion pack or three in the near future!

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 !

Star Wars : The Old Republic and Star Wars Galaxies

So yesterday the one of the worst kept secrets in MMO land was finally revealed : Bioware’s next big foray into the Star Wars universe will be a massively multiplayer title. No big surprise here, the announcement in many ways being a mere formality following the considerable speculation and leaks surrounding the project in the past few months. Bioware’s returning to the Old Republic setting does make perfect business sense in light of the popularity of the Knight’s of the Old Republic franchise. Releasing an MMO in this segment of the Star Wars timeline is a pretty safe bet and it’s success, to some degree or other, seems  guaranteed.

While the launching of an MMO set in the Old Republic era of Star Wars is for me an exciting prospect, I can’t help also feeling a twinge of sadness for the eventual fate of Star Wars Galaxies, which may with time become simply known as ”That other Star Wars MMO”. Yes, I know it is already a rather old title and has suffered some serious player base attrition with the whole NGE episode, which incidentally is around the time I started playing SWG, yet I also know that it has recently been enjoying a modest resurgence in popularity, with many returning players seeming rather pleased with the direction in which the game is going.

With the oncoming appearance of a competitor on the Star Wars MMO scene, I am worried for the title and it’s viability, and many questions come to mind concerning it’s future. How will the fact that is no longer the only Star Wars themed title in the MMO market affect it ? Will it be able to develop distinctly enough from the Bioware game to retain it’s originality and give it’s current subscribers reasons to stay and maintain their accounts ? Will SOE keep supporting it to a decent enough level ?

I hope the answer to all of these questions is yes, but I have the feeling that this is far from certain. A while ago I remember listening to a Yivvits and Mr Bubbles SWG podcast where the hosts seemed to be saying they would leave Galaxies in a heartbeat if the Bioware game lived up to it’s promise. And this is from some pretty dedicated SWG players, which I would say is reasonable cause for concern.

Only time will tell I guess.

Back to some old friends : Vanguard and Lotro Monsterplay.

In the past few weeks I have been taking advantage of two free game time offers ( is it me or are they getting more frequent these days? ), 30 days of Vanguard, starting September 18th,  and the Lotro double XP weekend, running October 2-6, and boy am I glad I took advantage of these opportunities !

Regarding Vanguard, I have to admit that my enthusiasm for this tile has always been at best lukewarm, I have tried before to really get into it, but to no avail. That is until this free month came along. This time, I think I finally ”got” why some people are so into this game and I believe I know why my attitude towards Vanguard has changed. The first reason is that believe that I have been brainwashed by countless hours of listening to the Voyages of Vanguard podcast, which has surrepticiously implanted in my brain the idea that this game is actually quite fun. You can’t be a regular listener to the show without at some point starting to buy into the host’s and other contributor’s enthousiasm for Telon. The second reason is that instead of taking up my Orc Dreadknight where I left off and slogging on with him, I decided to re-roll a Vulmane Druid and give Vanguard a fresh start by going through the new Isle of Dawn starter zone. This somewhat restored a certain ‘’shiny newness” to the game and rekindled in me a sense of discovery that is quite enjoyable. Lastly, the most important reason why I am liking Vanguard more and more is it’s old-school feel and it’s nostalgia inducing ”vibe”. I can’t explain it rationally but Vanguard really does bring me back to simpler MMO gaming times and I am surprised to see that this strikes a chord in me. I guess today’s more modern, more polished and more ”in” MMOs lack some of the stripped down straightforwardness that a title like Vanguard brings to the table. In essence, to me Vanguard is ”old”, but in a good way. When I log into the game I no longer bring with me the kinds of expactations I would bring to AoC or some other recent titles. Now I rather go in considering that I am in a time machine to the past which enables me to enjoy a more ”innocent” and ”naive” flavour of MMO gaming.

My time back in Lotro was short and very sweet. I only played my Black Arrow in the Ettenmoors, leaving my Elf Champion in storage till Mines of Moria comes out. It was nice to see some old faces, seems like a lot of of ex-Nimrodel creeps headed the call back. One thing that really made me happy was to see that I am no longer so emotionally invested in the PvMP aspect of the game, what I mean is that I am a lot more casual about the whole thing, enjoying it for what it is, warts and all. The unbalanced nature of the Moors no longer stirs in me any inordinate passions or inflames in me any rightous anger at the state of things. Which is a good thing because really, there are a lot more important things to get worked up about in life. Sadly I noticed that this was not the case for everyone, some creep players still venting copious amounts of bile towards the freep side and all their various manifestations of cheesyness.  As for me, I found my time geting zerged, farmed and cc-stun-mezzed rather enjoyable when all is said and done, and have now come to better appreciate Monsterplay for the zany creature that it really is.

Here’s a cheer then for happy reunions!

WAR and faction jumping: taking a lesson from LOTRO Monsterplay?

As we are inundated with Warhammer Age of Reckoning info now that the NDA is lifted, a few interesting nuggets of data about the game are now coming to light and one item in particular caught my attention. While listening to Keen and Graev’s Chaoscast, I heard it mentioned that players could not have both an Order and Destruction toon on the same server.

In a PVP / RvR game I can’t tell you how important I think this sort of measure is, side-hopping being in my opinion one of the biggest spoilers of good PvP / RvR play. But don’t take my word for it, just check out the Lotro Monsterplay forums and see what players there have to say about the instantaneous creep to freep mass migrations that regularly occur in the Ettenmoors. In Lotro you can indeed have a creep and a freep on the same server, which means that often people will flip-flop between factions for various reasons, thereby affecting the dynamics of PvPand preventing any sort of the stability and balance. Whether it be to take back with their creeps the keeps they just took with their freep,  to farm renown with the help of a cooperative friend on the other side or just to somehow grief in chat or otherwise an opposing player who just killed them or made them look bad, or better still just to spy on the opposition,  the ease with which individuals can switch camps in Lotro Monsterplay can be a source of endless frustration.

In light of this, I’m very happy that Mythic has nipped this problem in the bud and prevented the emergence of same-server flip-floppers.

Blackhorse contender : Stargate Worlds

Like a lot of people, I keep abreast of what Massive titles are in development and slated for future release, always on the lookout for ways to satisfy my MMO ADD. Recently I noticed myself checking up a lot on Stargate Worlds, my eyes being immediately attracted to any mention of it on news feeds and MMO related websites. This is strange because I don’t really see myself as a Stargate fan. Sure I watched the original movie, I even own the soundtrack, and I did catch of few episodes of the series on SpaceTV, but to say that I have an avid interest in the Stargate universe would be a stretch.

After seeing a gameplay trailer showing off the game’s combat engine, which I found quite interesting with it’s action-oriented approach similar to Tabula Rasa’s,  things have changed somewhat. My interest in the setting has grown, to the point where I have rented the two Stargate feature length movies, Stargate : The Ark of Truth and Stargate : Continuum,  to get back into the lore of the series in anticipation to playing the game.

I don’t really understand why I am so into this upcoming title, what makes me so want to check it out, but my interest for it is very real, which is all a bit suprising. Is it bacause it is a sci-fi title in a relatively fantasy dominated market? Is it because after playing DDO and Tabula Rasa, I am in fact becoming a fan of faster-paced combat in MMOs?

Who knows. Maybe it’s just that I have a repressed need to have a toon dressed up in pseudo-ancient Egyptian garb shooting bolts of energy at anything that moves !

Back To Tabula Rasa!

Today I got an email notifying me that my account for Tabula Rasa had been reactivated till August 31st. Seeing that I am a sucker for free gametime marketing ploys and that my WoW sub expires tomorrow, I will gladly jump back into this title and see what it has to offer.

I’ve been listening to Tabula Cast on the Virgin Worlds website for a few weeks now and I am a bit curious to see what has changed since I’ve been there. I’ve actually been thinking about reactivating my TR account for a while, the timecard for it already purchased and sitting on my desk ready to use for a few weeks now.

I wonder if I’ll take the plunge and join a clan and see what TR group play has to offer, the few PUGs I’ve joined in the past having been surprisingly pleasant and stress-free ( apart from the Bane focus-firing on me for some reason !) .

It’s not dead Jim!

Star trek Online is back from the dead, as per this announcement from the Cryptic Studios official website for the game. As a fan of the franchise I am thrilled to see this title returning to life and I think that the coming of Trek to the universe of massive gaming was long overdue. I think few settings can potentially offer as many avenues of gameplay types as Star Trek’s, being easily adaptable towards satisfying the straight-up roleplaying and story-telling oriented players, those interested in exploration and discovery or  those looking for a game that provides some compelling military conquest, ship to ship or straighforward avatar combat centered play. Now if Cryptic will include and develop to a decent level all or just some of these elements remains to be seen, but I think that the Trek Universe easily allows them to pursue all of these avenues, each one being perfectly plausible and consistent with the lore and feel of the Trek setting. In short I think that adopting Trek as a backdrop for a sci-fi MMO is an excellent decision because of the flexibility and diversity that it can offer from the game design point of view, which is what excites me the most about Cryptic’s announcement.

Oh how I am so looking forward to going to red alert and putting my shields up, or better yet setting my phaser to stun for the first time. Geek heaven I tell you!

Age of Conan : gets me in the mood.

Well, I’ve hit level 30 and have seen what the game has to offer out of Tortage and I thought I would comment briefly on one global aspect of AoC which has really struck me so far, which is the game world and it’s atmosphere.

AoC’s game world is relatively small compared to titles like Vanguard and even WoW, but this isn’t a bad thing in my book since I prefer quality, well fleshed out zones, as opposed to endless tracts of often generic landscape. AoC’s zones are quite well rendered and beautiful to look at, and I only play on medium graphic settings.  I especially like Tarantia, a truly epic and majestic city, although with a bit of “civilisation past it’s zenith” grit thrown in. Cimmeria and Stygia are also very well presented and I think that overall, Funcom has succeeded in capturing the essence of Howard’s Hyboria. This being said, there is one area in which I have noticed a surprising lack of effort on Funcom’s part when it comes to the cosmetics of AoC and that is the utter lack of variation in male NPC faces, which, when compared to the attention to detail that is exhibited in other areas, is rather astounding and disappointing. It may be my imagination, but it does seem that at least for minor male NPCS, such as vendors and caravan drivers, the same basic face was used with only minor variations being done to differentiate them. This spoils a bit of the atmosphere for me and I hope they would take a look at this in the future ( not likely I know).

If the whole look of the game overall definitely contributes to giving AoC a compelling atmosphere, I think it really takes a back seat AoC’s in-game music, which I find extremely atmospheric. I rarely leave game music on when I play, I will usually listen to a podcast while doing my MMO thing, but AoC is the exception for me. I leave the music on and often stop to enjoy a particularly moving piece, which is something I have not done in a long time in an MMO, the one exception being CoH / CoV and it’s gnarly techno-future soundtrack.

Age of Conan is a very moody game in my opinion, and that is a good thing so far as I am concerned. I like it’s feel and it’s look, the in-bred vendors excepted.