Jan 2010: What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying

Welcome to the first What I'm Playing and What I'm Paying post for 2010.  In the future I will attempt to have these posts ready for the first of each month, but Heartless_ Jr is teething and when I finally had free time this past week all I wanted to do was own face in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

I have embedded the new What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying spreadsheet for January below.  The overall spreadsheet can be found here.

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Game of the Month 

Mirror's Edge
Cost: $4.99 (Steam Holiday Sale)
Played: 7 hours
3-words: Fun action puzzler.






My game of the month was Mirror's Edge.  Unfortunately, the fun for Mirror's Edge ended after 7 hours when I completed the game.  I tried to move onto the time trials, but became bored trying to shave another second off my runs.

Early in January, I compared the game to Portal in a post and it really sums up my thoughts: 

Mirror's Edge is a racing puzzle game, not an action FPS.  The sooner that is understood, the sooner the game can be enjoyed.  Forget that there is gun-play, this game is all about getting from point A to B in the fastest time and most efficient manner.

The only game I can compare Mirror's Edge to is Portal.

At 7 hours played, I feel the price tag of $4.99 was worth it.  I enjoyed the game.

February's Game of the Month: Mass Effect

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/Played

In the /Played section, I will cover the other games I've played during the month.

Civilization 4 (Civ4)
Civ4 caught me off guard.  I didn't anticipate liking it as much as I have.  While it is a simple game to pick up and play, there is a wide variety of things to understand and master in the game.  Even after 22 hours of play, I feel like a fish out of water.  I agonize over every little decision, wondering if it was the right one.  As it is with most involved strategy games, its impossible to tell in most cases whether you made the right decision or not (outside of military conflict that is, its pretty easy when your army is eating dirt and the enemy's is not).  However, I am learning how my decisions will affect each game and therefore making better decisions because of it.

Trine

Trine is a great platform puzzle game.  Also, its a gorgeous quasi-3D game.  It took me about 6 hours to finish and was another $4.99 winner from the Steam Holiday Sale.

Mass Effect

Sure, Mass Effect 2 just launched, but I'm old school and am just catching up on Mass Effect 1.  I've warmed my hands up with a couple hours of play this month and will dive into it hardcore in February. 

Defense Grid: The Awakening
A great tower-defense game which I purchased solely to play on my underpowered laptop when I'm away from home.  Two hours of mindless fun enjoyed so far.

Braid
This is a puzzle game caught between crazyland and Super Mario World.  All I can say is that I'm lazy and routinely have to look at cheats... for level 1!  However, that is due to some basic things not being explained in-game (like moving the puzzles around to create platforms to jump on).  Even knowing how to do something does not make it any easier to pull off.  Also, watching the cheats gives a good overview of some of the "basics" that any Braid player will need to survive.  I feel a lot less frustrated after having watched some cheat videos and am confident I can tackle the rest of the game cheat-free (or not).

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl
A lot of people love this game, but after roughly an hour with the game I have mixed feelings.  I'm not sure if I have the time or motivation to keep playing.  There are a lot of nuances and "omg its like real life" things I need to figure out about the game.  And I keep forgetting to save my progress.

Allods Online
I enjoyed a few hours of Allods Online and look forward to the launch.  This will be my main MMOG for 2010.

Rome: Total War

Sorry, Civ4 won my strategy side over and not sure I will play Rome: Total War past the one hour I invested.

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/Paid

Total spent this Month: $55.17
My Value Rating: Excellent

It is rare for me to spend money on a game that I am not going to play immediately, but the Steam Holiday Sale was insane.  I had to stock up!  Plus, it will only take a few hours of play to get my money's worth out of each game.

NOTE: This report includes data from a short period of time from Dec 2009 as well as all of January 2010.

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Scribblenauts Is Here! Scribblenauts Is Here! Scribblenauts Is Here! Scribblenauts Is Here!

Ok, Scribblenauts has been out for a little bit now and I still haven't gotten a chance to buy a copy. However, I wanted to throw a post up to let everyone that hasn't heard of this little gem of game that it is now out and about.

Ars Technica has their review up:

Scribblenauts was the darling of E3, rounding up a hojillion awards—including a Golden Ars—and impressing everyone who stopped by for a demo. It was a game that showed very well, especially with a developer on hand to point out any number of interesting situations. The premise is simple, although it hides an abyssal depth: you are asked to either reach a star, or to fulfill the requirements to earn one. The tools at your disposal? The world.

You can type in or write any word you can think of, and get that item or person to help you in your quest. No dirty words, and no proper nouns, nothing copyrighted—but even without those limitations, you're looking at tens of thousands of items. Type in "pirate" to fight a ninja. Type in "bridge" to cross an expanse, or type in "motorcycle" and "ramp" and jump it. You gain currency by using fewer items, and also by using creative solutions, and you use that currency to unlock new worlds.

There are two types of levels: action levels where you simply have to get to the starite item, using your reflexes as well as your wits; and puzzle, where you are given a one-sentence instruction about what to do. It may say "get rid of the rats," and in that sentence are dozens of possibilities. In fact, you only completely clear out a level by finishing it three times, without using any item more than once. Much harder than it sounds.

I'm working on getting my copy still (hopefully before the weekend). Chances are I will hate the game since I'm hyping it up, but that's life.

Introduction to the "A Game of Thrones" Card Game

Fantasy Flight games has a neat little tutorial to introduce new players to their card game based on George RR Martin's book A Game of Thrones.

Its a neat time waster for anyone interested in the books in the Song of Ice and Fire series. The introduction covers some lore and the game play that can be found in the game.

The official game page is here.

Like Section 7, But Better! Section 8!

An article over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun caught my eye; mostly for vague references to "Tribes" and "Planetside", two games I rather enjoyed back in the day. The new game being compared to the latter is Sector 8.

I want to say up front that I’m having great deal of fun with this. It’s the kind of game I go into for five minutes to take a screenshot, and emerge from two hours later. Read onwards for why.

When people were throwing the “Tribes” word around to explain where Section 8 sat in the big scheme of things, I was unconcerned and not particularly inspired. I assumed it would be another vague sci-fi squib that wouldn’t really satisfy anyone. Tribes-alikes have a habit of not quite hitting the best things about multiplayer gun-violence on the head. As much as I respect the original games, their weapons, physics and environments never quite grabbed me in the way they did so many other people. So you can imagine that I was pleased to find that despite some similarities in the sci-fi, jetpacks and vehicles sense, Section 8 is very much its own game.

Just running down my "What makes a good FPS" checklist:

1. It looks good, both UI and atmosphere.
2. It has classes, not just guys with guns that they shoot people with.
3. The maps look BIG.

Now, does that make it worth the price-tag? Probably not. It is an Xbox360 release, which always makes me leery (For example: Halo was great on Xbox, but sucked on PC). Also, without any apparent digital distribution via Steam or another platform, it doesn't appear that the PC is their primary market. I'm not the only one with the digital distribution question either.

I'd be interested to know if Section 8 will be downloadable at launch on Steam - and if so if there will be a preload offer?

*coughs*I won't mind a free weekend and if you offer one you are bound to sell more copies. But yeah, you'll never do that.*coughs*

+1

So where is the response to this post? Purchasing this game on steam would really motivate me to purchase this game. Direct2Drive and all of the other content systems are a joke.

I would consider purchasing this game in store, but lately I have made it a hobby to secure all of my games with steam so that there is no worry of losing cd-keys and such.

I'll be keeping my eye on the game in the meantime.

Free Realms' Similar Demographics

While surfing Aeria Games' twitter feed for any updates on Shadowbane's future, I cam accross this gem of a quote:

We're interested to see what you think of Free Realms. Our Hello Kitty Online will also have similar demographics.
about 24 hours ago from web

Ouch.

Following Failure With Failure

It seems that closing the doors on Auto Assault isn't the only thing Netdevil is up to these days. MMOsite has the news that Netdevil has announced another post apocalyptic MMOG, entitled Warmonger. The basics: Warmonger will be an action-oriented MMO FPS set in a post apocalyptic future.

The kicker? It won't just be vehicles this time. Players can blow shit up and stuff, but not with vehicles. Understand?

The bigger kicker? It will be available for digital download on October 16th, 2007!

So, why will this be a failure? Because it is built around the AGEIA PhysX processor, perhaps the most worthless piece of computer hardware ever invented for gaming. Don't get me wrong, I am sure all 250 people worldwide that own an AGEIA PhysX processor will be just tripping over themselves to download this baby.

Fortunately, the AGEIA PhysX processor has dropped to somewhere in the neighborhood of $130, not terribly unreasonable. Players will just have to pretend they are buying the AGEIA PhysX card for access to it's vast library of enabled games. It worked for FFXI and the hard drive for the Playstation 2!

Turbine, Get Your Head Out of Your Ass

Turbine Inviting Over 1,000,000 Players to Play Lord of The Rings Online.

Lord of the Rings Online will never hit one million subscribers. It will never even get to the 500,000 mark. The game is not that great, and it definitely offers nothing new or exciting. These are all bold statements, but if Turbine can spew them, then so can I.

I have no idea where Turbine has gotten the idea that Lord of the Rings Online will be joining the Million Player club. Before beta even started, they were trumpeting the idea that they were going to hit the one million player mark. This misleading headline is just another notch on the pole of misleading quotes from Turbine. There is no evidence, either provided by Turbine or from any other source, that says there are a million interested players in the market looking for a new game. To hand out a million beta invites is nothing more than a spam rush on our already spam ridden e-mail accounts. Shame on Turbine.

The most popular MMORPG of all time, World of Warcraft, didn't even break the one million mark in beta. It was amazing that they hit 500,000+ without the servers melting in a fiery cataclysmic event. WoW surprised most of us and went on to become a smashing success beyond anything we could have imagined. However, it was a Blizzard product, so a million+ copies being sold was not unrealistic. Can anyone name the last Turbine game that shipped a million copies?

Turbine is quickly transforming itself into a spin machine, drudging up emotions reserved for the likes of SOE. Turbine, get your collective head out of your collective ass.

I've Been Invited to the Lord of the Rings Online Beta!

Since I have been talking about Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) as of late, I guess it is time to put my money where my mouth is without opening my wallet. I have received an invite to the late stages of the LotRO beta.

I will reserve my comments until after I am done playing around a bit.

They Put Magic on My Lord of the Rings Online!

Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) has dropped it's NDA. Tobold has his quick hit review up here. The following quote just destroyed the game for me:

"I created a hobbit minstrel as my character. You can also play humans, dwarves, or elves. And there are 6 more classes: Burglar, Captain, Champion, Guardian, Hunter, Lore-master. If you wonder why there are no "priests" or "mages", this is due to the Tolkien lore. There is no commonly available "magic" in the game. But that is only semantics, the abilities of the character classes in practice work exactly like magic spells in other games. The minstrel I'm playing is a kind of healer / bard, and plays very nicely. Besides a healing spell, an improved melee attack, and a "cry" that works like a direct damage spell, I have a series of ballads to sing. These ballads combine a short-duration buff with some direct damage to the enemy. Thus I can't buff before the combat, I need an enemy target to hit to use them. The ballads exist in several tiers, tier 1, tier 2, etc., and I can only use a tier 2 ballad if I have a tier 1 ballad buff currently on me. So keeping up all the buffs during a longer combat isn't trivial, and makes for some quite interesting gameplay. If there are still enough people remembering the original Everquest, I'm sure that this will be called "twisting" ballads, after the EQ bard gameplay."

LotRO has failed the "something here is not like the others" test. If you lined it up next to WoW or Everquest in terms of gameplay, there would be no discernible differences. What a way to fuck up the most beloved fantasy work of all time. First Dungeons and Dragons and now Lord of the Rings. Someone please stop licensing top notch intellectual properties to Turbine!

Vanguard Launch Wrap-up

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (V:SoH) has launched and their servers have gone live. While I am not planning to buy the game, I still felt it was my duty to bring a wrap up of sorts to see what is going on in the house that McQuaid built. In order to do this, I have grabbed a selection of links and quotes from around the Internet.

From Gamebunny:

When will the suits at Sony learn their lesson? The game is in development for ages - then it’s forced out the door before being ready for its close-up. STAR WARS GALAXIES anyone?

From GameSpy:

"After getting the game to a playable frame rate, I found that on a very basic level, player movement in Vanguard feels very floaty, with characters that don't have much weight to them and whose animations make them seem like they're sliding back and forth across the ground instead of strafing. It can be painful to negotiate closed doors and cramped halls in the game's many indoor areas, and you'll need a dose of good luck controlling your jumps mid-air when you encounter things like broken stairs and assorted platforming elements. The way movement and spellcasting worked, in particular, was fun and had enormous PvP implications: You can cast spells on the run."

From IGN:

"Vanguard's environments are reminiscent of fantasy oil paintings. Sigil Games hopes that three layers of gameplay (diplomacy, adventuring and crafting) and a comprehensive character creation tool will make for a more absorbing online experience."

That is a pretty good selection of material for everyone to read through. If words aren't your thing here is a little video for you courtesy of Game Trailers.

If you are actually playing this game I want to make sure you are aware of the game's first official downtime and it's first official patch.

In conclusion: I don't know what to think about Vanguard. The MMORPG industry has made me tired and I really can't seem to get myself steaming angry about this title any longer. I want to bitch. I want to complain. I want to tell everyone what I really think, but I am going to follow my own advice. I am going to vote with my wallet.

Pirates CSG: The only SOE game I would probably ever consider playing!

I do not like SOE. Never have and probably never will. However, they acquired a pretty good CCG/TCG company that they are now using to bring popular card and miniature games to the online space. Since there are very few commercial successes in this area I have to question the move, but none the less I am happy to see some quality coming out of their line up.

Case in point. Pirates CSG Online. This is probably the only game from SOE I would consider paying to play and it more has to do with the fact that WizKids made a damn fine game that SOE is just publishing an online portion of. Even then it will not be in a "buy a virtual booster pack of cards for virtual play pieces at the same price as the real stuff". I would pay a small monthly or reasonable one time fee for access to whatever I need to play.

It is currently in beta so head on over and get the client for free. All you need to play is a Station pass. Unfortunately or fortunately I already had one :P

Pirates CSG: The only SOE game I would probably ever consider playing!

I do not like SOE. Never have and probably never will. However, they acquired a pretty good CCG/TCG company that they are now using to bring popular card and miniature games to the online space. Since there are very few commercial successes in this area I have to question the move, but none the less I am happy to see some quality coming out of their line up.

Case in point. Pirates CSG Online. This is probably the only game from SOE I would consider paying to play and it more has to do with the fact that WizKids made a damn fine game that SOE is just publishing an online portion of. Even then it will not be in a "buy a virtual booster pack of cards for virtual play pieces at the same price as the real stuff". I would pay a small monthly or reasonable one time fee for access to whatever I need to play.

It is currently in beta so head on over and get the client for free. All you need to play is a Station pass. Unfortunately or fortunately I already had one :P

Dreamblade

If anyone has been following my gaming activities lately they may have noticed that I haven't touched or talked about an MMORPG or even a PC game in a month or so. That is because I have been at my local game store!

I have been pretty much glued to collectible card games (aka. trading card games). Well along with the card games comes another form of gaming nirvana; tabletop miniatures. I decided last week to get into Dreamblade and tonight will be my first full night playing it. Hopefully it will be a ton of fun.

What attracted me to the game is the chess like play. While each player can and often does have different miniatures it does not mean the game rewards the player with the better pieces on the table. This game rewards the person who is a better player.

The rules for Dreamblade are dramatically different than most table top miniatures games. It is played on a pre-defined chess like board. The figures come pre-painted and all rule information is printed on the bottom of the miniature. Pieces move around the board one square at a time and combat is decided via the roll of a set of dice.

With dice comes randomness, but even the newest player learns quickly how to mitigate the luck factor and strike only when the odds are in their favor. There still is the chance for GREAT dice rolls that can turn a game around, but even then a good player will have control of the board to prevent luck from stealing a victory.

This is a great game for those players who don't want massive miniature armies to manage and collect. The warband size is limited to 16 and it is not too often you will find the need for multiple copies of a single high value miniature to be successful. With just a starter set and a quick romp through your local game shop's common/uncommon bin (or eBay) you can piece together a working warband.

Hopefully I will have more to say later when I get done with my night of Dreamblade, but until then have fun!

The Spoils TCG Pre-Release Tournament 11/12

The Spoils

The Spoils is a trading card game developed by Tenacious Games Inc. that is being dubbed as a Tournament Card Game (TCG). The development team is a veritable who's who of the card gaming scene. With names like Jon Finkel, of Magic: The Gathering fame, this card game has been built from the bottom up with competitive play as the core.

On top of making a game that rewards skill while minimizing luck during play the team at Tenacious Games have literally put their money where their mouth is. For competitive play they have developed The Spoils Tournament Experience (STE) where they will be doling out over a million dollars worth of prize money. Not only does that show confidence in their product, but it shows a true understanding of where they plan to take The Spoils as a game.

Casual Gamers?

With all this talk about tournaments and pro-level gaming won't the casual card gamers be pushed out? I have never gotten heavily involved in any card gaming tournament scene, but I have played Magic the Gathering for several years and I’ve dabbled in various other card games along the way. I was able to pick up The Spoils for the first time and within a few games I knew enough to know where I was making mistakes instead of cursing bad luck.

The Spoils plays in such a way that you learn as you go. Every single turn and every single card played brings you one step closer to grasping the possibilities that lie within The Spoils TCG. Immediately upon picking up your first set of cards it is more than evident that the game is filled with many complex combinations.

Fortunately The Spoils has learned from the past of other games like Magic and have improved upon them. There are several common keywords that are clearly defined. The structure of each turn is well documented and well thought out. Throw in a glorious mulligan rule, two starting resources, and you have a quality game on your hands that begins play on the first turn.

A lot of talk around The Spoils has been how it is just another Magic with a few tweaked rules to prevent abuse. What I've discovered is a game that is far more organized and far more rewarding than other major card games. Many luck aspects have been removed and you often find yourself actually playing the deck you built instead of the cards you were dealt.

The Spoils is a refreshing change of pace. What seemed like a Magic clone beforehand has become an entirely new beast to conquer. The cards have a more adult and nerdy theme which suits my interests. On top of that the flavor text is just plain funny… any game that has a card proclaiming “I’d hit that” is a winner in my book.

Pre-Release Tournament 11/12/06

I was fortunate enough to attend a pre-release tournament at my local gaming store, Reality Check Games, this past Sunday. The store owner asked if I could spin up a little event wrap up so here it is.

The tournament started with 10 players in a Swiss format. The initial deck building period was set to 30 minutes which seemed wholly inadequate considering most of the players had no idea what they were doing. Those are the rules though and everyone struggled equally to grasp the deck building concepts. Some players spent more time reading the rules while others spent more time reading cards.

Time rounds began at 40 minutes per round which was extended to 60 minutes due to the fact that we were all struggling to get games moving at a reasonable speed. Once players started clicking with the rules the games started going faster which is a testament to the “learn as you play” flow of the game.

While I don’t have a break down of the rounds I will post the end results.

1. Chris C.
2. Teresa
3. Thomas
4. Josh
5. Matt (aka me)
6. David
7. Dan
8. Meagan
9. Buda
10. Scott

Prizes were given out for the top 8 spots and a consolation prize was given out for 10th; so 9th place was truly the only loser. Even then all 10 players walked away with the cards they played with and an invigorated interest in the game.

The top two players, Chris C and Teresa, were both seasoned Magic players along with the fourth place finisher, Josh. Thomas is a young gun and is the current shop “man to beat” in the World of Warcraft TCG.

Most of the other players also had various gaming experience with card games. Finishing in fifth I have several years of casual Magic game play under my belt. David and Dan cleaning up in 6th and 7th both have varied backgrounds in several games from tabletop miniatures, pen’n’paper RPGs, and other card games.

It was apparent that the more experienced card gamers had the better tactics in winning the games. I don’t want to say better decks because every game I played or watched it was easy to identify where the mistakes were made. Often times a mistake or two resulted in a loss. Unfortunately for me that meant a few too many losses.

Everyone made mistakes. Even the top finishers had their fair share, but with years of card gaming under their belt they knew how to recover and play well enough to overcome to take home a win. And that is the point I want to make. The Spoils is a game that rewards the thinkers and the strategists in all of us. While there is sure to be great deck builds in the future I doubt many of them will make it far without a smart and canny player playing them.

Overall the tournament was fun, well played, and hosted in a great venue. I look forward to plenty of The Spoils in the future. Until then…. wanna touch it?

The Spoils TCG Pre-Release Tournament 11/12

The Spoils

The Spoils is a trading card game developed by Tenacious Games Inc. that is being dubbed as a Tournament Card Game (TCG). The development team is a veritable who's who of the card gaming scene. With names like Jon Finkel, of Magic: The Gathering fame, this card game has been built from the bottom up with competitive play as the core.

On top of making a game that rewards skill while minimizing luck during play the team at Tenacious Games have literally put their money where their mouth is. For competitive play they have developed The Spoils Tournament Experience (STE) where they will be doling out over a million dollars worth of prize money. Not only does that show confidence in their product, but it shows a true understanding of where they plan to take The Spoils as a game.

Casual Gamers?

With all this talk about tournaments and pro-level gaming won't the casual card gamers be pushed out? I have never gotten heavily involved in any card gaming tournament scene, but I have played Magic the Gathering for several years and I’ve dabbled in various other card games along the way. I was able to pick up The Spoils for the first time and within a few games I knew enough to know where I was making mistakes instead of cursing bad luck.

The Spoils plays in such a way that you learn as you go. Every single turn and every single card played brings you one step closer to grasping the possibilities that lie within The Spoils TCG. Immediately upon picking up your first set of cards it is more than evident that the game is filled with many complex combinations.

Fortunately The Spoils has learned from the past of other games like Magic and have improved upon them. There are several common keywords that are clearly defined. The structure of each turn is well documented and well thought out. Throw in a glorious mulligan rule, two starting resources, and you have a quality game on your hands that begins play on the first turn.

A lot of talk around The Spoils has been how it is just another Magic with a few tweaked rules to prevent abuse. What I've discovered is a game that is far more organized and far more rewarding than other major card games. Many luck aspects have been removed and you often find yourself actually playing the deck you built instead of the cards you were dealt.

The Spoils is a refreshing change of pace. What seemed like a Magic clone beforehand has become an entirely new beast to conquer. The cards have a more adult and nerdy theme which suits my interests. On top of that the flavor text is just plain funny… any game that has a card proclaiming “I’d hit that” is a winner in my book.

Pre-Release Tournament 11/12/06

I was fortunate enough to attend a pre-release tournament at my local gaming store, Reality Check Games, this past Sunday. The store owner asked if I could spin up a little event wrap up so here it is.

The tournament started with 10 players in a Swiss format. The initial deck building period was set to 30 minutes which seemed wholly inadequate considering most of the players had no idea what they were doing. Those are the rules though and everyone struggled equally to grasp the deck building concepts. Some players spent more time reading the rules while others spent more time reading cards.

Time rounds began at 40 minutes per round which was extended to 60 minutes due to the fact that we were all struggling to get games moving at a reasonable speed. Once players started clicking with the rules the games started going faster which is a testament to the “learn as you play” flow of the game.

While I don’t have a break down of the rounds I will post the end results.

1. Chris C.
2. Teresa
3. Thomas
4. Josh
5. Matt (aka me)
6. David
7. Dan
8. Meagan
9. Buda
10. Scott

Prizes were given out for the top 8 spots and a consolation prize was given out for 10th; so 9th place was truly the only loser. Even then all 10 players walked away with the cards they played with and an invigorated interest in the game.

The top two players, Chris C and Teresa, were both seasoned Magic players along with the fourth place finisher, Josh. Thomas is a young gun and is the current shop “man to beat” in the World of Warcraft TCG.

Most of the other players also had various gaming experience with card games. Finishing in fifth I have several years of casual Magic game play under my belt. David and Dan cleaning up in 6th and 7th both have varied backgrounds in several games from tabletop miniatures, pen’n’paper RPGs, and other card games.

It was apparent that the more experienced card gamers had the better tactics in winning the games. I don’t want to say better decks because every game I played or watched it was easy to identify where the mistakes were made. Often times a mistake or two resulted in a loss. Unfortunately for me that meant a few too many losses.

Everyone made mistakes. Even the top finishers had their fair share, but with years of card gaming under their belt they knew how to recover and play well enough to overcome to take home a win. And that is the point I want to make. The Spoils is a game that rewards the thinkers and the strategists in all of us. While there is sure to be great deck builds in the future I doubt many of them will make it far without a smart and canny player playing them.

Overall the tournament was fun, well played, and hosted in a great venue. I look forward to plenty of The Spoils in the future. Until then…. wanna touch it?

So I Met an MMORPG Player in Class Today

I haven't really announced it on the blog that I have gone back to school for the fall semester. If you ever met me in real life you would think that I am not a day over 18. Fact is I am approaching 25 and am just starting technical college. I am often confused as just another "kid out of high school", but that does not bother me. Anyways this is all besides the point. I am in school and go to class everyday.

Today we had a lab to do. A simple lab: install Windows 98 SE on our hard drives. While doing the lab I started talking with the older female that was sitting next to me. We ended up talking about routers while we waited for Win 98 to install. She didn't know how to secure her wireless so I told her about a story involving my roommate and how our old neighbor found out he was piggybacking for free on their wireless access. Long story short she said "As long as it doesn't effect my games."

Being the self asserted genius that I am I put some clues together. What game or type of game could be so important that you wouldn't want it to be affected? MMORPGs... duh! What is the most popular MMORPG out right now? World of Warcraft... duh!

This doesn't mean everyone I meet that talks about video games or gaming is automatically thrown in the WoW category, but for this particular instance it was my best logical guess. So I said bluntly... "You play World of Warcraft." Not a question... a statement. Of course I was correct.

Turns out she is also playing in a couple of beta tests. Specifically Lord of the Rings Online and Vanguard:SoH. And here is the meat of this post:

Me: So how's Vanguard?
Her: Sucks. Can't even kill level 1's and the graphics run like crap (she has a moderate gaming rig, but still relatively new). Death penalty is stupid.
Me: I agree.
*senseless jabber occurs about Brad McQuaid*

Me: So how is LotRO?
Her: Great. It's beautiful and runs really well.
Me: I saw a video and I think the game looks boring... combat is slow and unimaginative.
Her: You have to try it because the combat is very fun.

Now these aren't exact quotes, but it gives the jest of what she was saying. On one hand it gave me some insight into LotRO which I was surprised to hear was going so well. I just lack faith in Turbine after Asheron's Call 2. Of course the other side is Vanguard and I must say she confirmed what I've been bitching about all along.

So overall it was a productive lab even if it took me a bit longer to install Win 98 than I had planned.

Vanguard : Watch how boring our game really is!

Ten Ton Hammer has a set of four Vanguard:SoH beta videos up for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately for Brad and friends they are just four more reasons not to play Vanguard.


Comments

• The animations are stiff and repetitive. They do not look dynamic or fluid at all.
• Whack. Whack. Whack. Nothing stellar at all found in the combat portions. Actually the combat looked quite boring and repetitive.
  
• Did that big bad wolf just run through solid stone? Yep it did. Next generation graphics... same old problems.
• Can the camera be any more jerky? It is commendable that they shot in game footage instead of a developer hacked ride by of the game world, but god damn is the camera really that laggy in the game? Were the graphical settings turned up a little bit high?
• Hello I am "insert NPC name here" and my legs don't work. Once again this is supposedly a next generation MMORPG, but the NPC's still don't move and still need little indicators over their head to get the players attention. After playing with Everquest II's voice acting I was quite surprised by its effectiveness. Even if I just want to skip through the bullshit and get to the quest/merchant/etc. it was still nice that an NPC would beckon for me to come over and talk.
• Did I mention how BORING combat looked? Just checking.
• The one thing that I did like was the UI that was in a couple of the videos where they were fighting in the desert. It looked clean and manageable. It was hard to tell what everything did, but it seemed like there was a good and solid base to play the game.

Vanguard:SoH is going to fall flat on it's face. An MMORPG just can't afford to launch with next generation graphics when the majority of gamer's computers are still last generation. World of Warcraft hit on the fact that a lot of potential gamers just don't have souped up gaming rigs. Next generation graphics require bigger budgets and the choice to go with better graphics means you are sacrificing a good 3/4 of your potential customers. No I don't have numbers to back that 3/4 up, but the WoW vs. EQ2 has been more than enough evidence to convince me.

I truly feel sorry for Brad and friends... I truly do.

That Gaming Itch: Call of Juarez MP Demo

That Gaming Itch

Every once and a while I get an itch for some type of game, in some sort of setting, that I don't always see in the spot light. For a while now, I've been wanting to play a good western-themed shooter. There are a couple Half Life 2 mods floating around that have been working on the idea, but none of them have produced a playable mod yet.

The other night I was surfing for gaming news, and I came across a multiplayer demo for Call of Juarez. It is a soon to be released western-themed shooter from Techland and Ubisoft. Without hesitation, I decided to satisfy my gaming itch.

Pros and Cons

I am going to break this down into a Pros and Cons list, as it will be the easiest way to review this game's multiplayer demo.

Pros

• The setting feels authentic. The two available maps felt like towns right out of a good spaghetti Western.
• The concepts behind the game modes make sense with the western setting. One map is centered around the Outlaws robbing the bank and the Lawmen defending, while the second map is just a straight up timed team death match (TDM).
• Graphics are up to snuff. Nothing to complain about. I didn't have a single issue related to graphics and I ran the game on max settings.
  
• When zooming in with a weapon you lose focus with everything except what you are zoomed in upon. A unique twist I haven't seen before.
  
• Not a single crash to desktop for the entire time I played.
  

Cons

• Due to the unbalanced nature of the weapons in game, the two classes, Six Shooter and Rifleman, didn't really provide enough variety.
• Piggybacking on the first con: the rifle is the most effective weapon in game. It can be fired as fast as the trigger is pulled and does two times the damage of the Six Shooter's pistols.
• The in-game server browser is trash. It makes Battlefield 2's server browser look like a golden nugget. The update and refresh buttons rarely worked and the game froze several times while at the server select screen.
• The game suffers from several connection issues. I can't remember ever actually quitting a server. Every game I was forced off by connection issues, or a flat out server crash.
• The Outlaws are Native Americans (Indians) and the Lawmen are White Men. Hmmmm... anyone crying injustice yet? Racist? Got me, but when I think Outlaw in the old west I'm thinking of Billy the Kid, not Chief Tonka.

Conclusion

In the end, the demo was fun overall when I was able to connect to a server not having connection problems. The action was quick and refreshing. Unfortunately, this game didn't make enough use of it's western theme. Besides the idea of shooting it out in an old mining town as an Outlaw or Lawman, there isn't much else that puts the western in Call of Juarez. Maybe I was looking for horses, trains, or Mexicans. Maybe just something other than White Man vs. Indian. I really don't know, but Call of Juarez just didn't deliver anything that screams "must play".

If you are interested in a western themed FPS, then Call of Juarez can satisfy you for a few minutes. I make no guarantees that the server browser or connection issues will be fixed, but I can't imagine them giving up on the title before some major holes are plugged. Call of Juarez is just another FPS that fails to innovate or impress.

Responses to "Vanguard's beta in trouble?"

I have collected a few of the responses from around the net regarding this anonymous comment and there is one that really stuck out. It's buried in the 50+ comments so I will post it here for all to read.

Original source... FoH boards (I guess Fires of Heaven isn't just a book by Robert Jordan).

Vanguards beta is filled to the brim with fanbois. Any objective player pretty much bailed months ago.

So, actually blaming the fans, for once, is right on. Who woulda thunk it?

When all your left with is the sycophantic 'kool-aid' kids, the results are going to reflect that. Even worse, they're setting themselves up for a colossal failure by relying almost entirely on that part of the playerbase. (which by the by, will be the first to flee come release time). Then what are you left with? The game itself, judged on it's own merits.

It's not rocket science.
A) Make the game fun
B) Move on to the things you want to personally see accomplished.

Instead Brad has that reversed. He's almost like a guy saying: If I build it, they will come! Fuck it. I don't care if the game succeeds as long as it has "Teh Vision".

There's too many options nowadays. Utnayan hit the nail on the head for once with that observation. Another thing that has not been pointed out, or said nearly enough, is that EQ *MISSED* much of it's demographic. Many people in their mid to late 20s and early 30s would have loved to play EQ. But it was far too time consuming for them. Much of the growth in MMOs have been the kids growing from console to PC yes. But another part of it was older players waiting for a more casual game to play. 10 million people did not pop out of the woodwork one day and say "We Love Blizzard."

Blizzard simply met the challenge perfectly, and dominated by hitting every demographic they could and rejecting the belief that casual isn't fun or lasting. This was a mistake to many hard-core people. Yes, a mistake to the tune of roughly 120 million dollars a month in revenue. Vanguard biggest mistake seems to be catering to an even smaller demographic than EQ1 did, and that's bad news from a guy who claims the MMO market doesn't need anymore 30 million dollar failures. So damn true, and yet oddly ironic.

The biggest thing I'm looking forward to now with Vanguard is the enormous amount of spin that is yet to come. - Jait

Kingdom Hearts has me thinking about character creation in MMORPGs

Kingdom Hearts has me thinking about character creation in MMORPGs! How so you may ask?

Anyone remember back in the days of the Might and Magic and Ultima series where character creation was done with a set of questions. Usually they covered moral choices such as "You see a man begging in the street. Do you give him gold or do you berate him for begging?" While I can't remember the questions exactly they served the purpose that modern day attribute and stat sliders do.

I question in modern games whether seeing the actual numbers and making exactly the character you want helps or hurts the experience. In general RPG terms if I want a strong warrior I will raise my STR and CON during character creation. If I want a wise wizard I'll raise my INT. While this system gives me the ability to create the character I want does it really help me make a character that embodies my attitude?

Part of it comes from role playing. Good role players can pick up with any character regardless of the details. But we all know that modern MMORPGs are not really havens for role play. The mechanics are very anti-role play in the traditional sense. What roles are played are defined by the mechanics. You play a healer to heal... etc etc... there is a very weak sense of role play involved. Type-casting during character creation forces a role on you. Even if that is the role you want to play does it really reflect accurately of yourself?

What if you were asked a series of questions during character creation and answering them honestly would determine what skills, attributes, and alignment your character would be. What if you took the Bartle Test to determine your starting abilities? Or maybe through these tests and questions you are put into an advanced role in the world instead of having to progress your character with levels or skills?

What I'm getting at is that if the numbers didn't exist and you created a character that reflects your own personality and moral sanctions wouldn't you be playing a character that promotes role play? You would be more likely to enjoy the character for a greater period of time because you are actually thinking along the same lines as the character. The role playing barrier is stripped away because you are representing your real self in the game. Some may say their real self is lacking, but that is the point of the game. It gives you the power to swing a sword, throw a fireball, and slay the dragon. BUT your motives are guided by your morals and wouldn't it just be easier if you didn't have to play by a set of pre-defined rules because you created the character you wanted instead of a character that acts as you would?

Sadly, this is only a Utopian dream. The system would be broken down and attributes assigned to the questions. Eventually you would know how to answer questions in such a way that you get the character you want instead of a character that generally mirrors your persona. Fortunately those that are willing would be able to roll a true representation of themselves, but most likely would be cast out as "gimp" by the min/max crowd.

Real World Test: If you are a DM and run a D&D campaign the next time you get ready to roll characters have your players take the Bartle Test. Then divvy out pre-made characters based on the results. It is up to you how to figure out what classes/races/alignments fit with the various scores.