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LOTRO: My new MMO quick-fix

January 31, 2012 in PC gaming by with 0 Comments

As you might have read, I decided pretty early on that SWTOR wasn’t for me. As much as I enjoyed playing it, I wasn’t enjoying it enough to really justify the subscription, something I have trouble with historically in my time with MMOs. It’s not even about the money itself, rather than the commitment.

If I put down $15 a month, I feel like I’ve made a commitment to the MMO in question, and if I go off to play other things in-between, I feel like I’m almost cheating on the MMO. It’s really not a healthy mindset, especially because I love variety in my gaming time. I like jumping around from game to game if I feel like it, and I like playing something for the sake of playing it because I know I’ll enjoy myself. Launching a game to gain a level, or do this or that, because I feel I need to play it is just not how I want to feel about video games, and usually MMOs does just that. It ties and holds me down, even when I don’t want to play it. Yes, I know it sounds like I simply have no self-control, but you have to remember money is at play here, and $15 could easily be put towards a new major release or any number of small gems on Steam.

Pretty recently though, I got a craving for some character progression, the kind only MMOs can provide. I thought about getting back into Skyrim, but decided against that because I knew this “itch” had to be satisfied with an MMO. There’s something about playing in a persistent, large open world with countless other people that makes progression so much more satisfying. Not playing a game like Skyrim doesn’t make me feel like I’m missing out, because the world is my own and will remain paused for as long as I don’t return. MMOs however, are constant, on-going worlds, so if you decide not to login for a day, you are actually missing out. On what specifically, it’s hard to say, but I love feeling like a part of a larger world, of that community. Single-player games will never be able to replicate this same kind of feel, and that’s perfectly okay. Imagine playing your favorite MMO with noone around but NPCs. It’d be totally eerie –  not to mention creepy.

I always end up doing this, where I go on about other things without ever getting to my original point behind the post, but here it is.

I’ve found that LOTRO is the perfect answer to my problems with the MMO genre. The game is totally free, not to mention one of my favorite MMOs I’ve played. A friend and I grabbed the retail version a few years back (read this post for the results), but again, because it was subscription-based back then, we both forgot about it after the initial free month. But now that it’s free –  oh man, this is just perfect. I was playing it today, and instantly I was having more fun with it than I ever did with SWTOR. It’s not even that the game is better than SWTOR –  it’s not, in most ways. But just being able to go at my own pace, and not feel like I was being forced to play it was great. I can already tell this game and I are going to have a great relationship.

Commitment-wise, no, I won’t be playing LOTRO every day of every week. But that’s the beauty of it! Whenever I want to play it, it’ll be there, totally free of charge. And when I don’t feel like playing it, I’ll be playing other things, and it won’t bother me one bit. Awesome.

If you’re ever in a similar mood, my character is a Dwarf Guardian, Barrgor on Brandywine. I’m always up for smacking some goblins around or something, if need be.

-rav4ge

Some thoughts on Mass Effect 2 and my fears for Mass Effect 3

January 23, 2012 in PC gaming by with 0 Comments

I’m well into Mass Effect 2 now, clocking in a good number of hours into the game over the weekend. Coming from the first Mass Effect, I was happy to find out how polished the combat had gotten, and just how much more satisfying it was to engage in combat, whether with guns or biotic abilities like throw and warp, the game just felt instantly better to play.

I was, however, a little let down when I realized the inventory system was pretty much completely gone. While it was a little overwhelming at times, I liked picking up all these different weapons throughout my adventures in space and selling them all later, while keeping some for myself and keeping my crew’s weaponry as good as it could get. I get that BioWare was trying to streamline the game down and put more emphasis on the combat and story instead. It especially makes sense when you look at the jump from ME1 to ME2 – they realized the combat in Mass 1 wasnt great, and that it was held down even further by the smaller things like the cover system never quite working all the time, and of course, the cumbersome inventory system. I say cumbersome because a lot of people didn’t like having to sell and sort through everything, so like I said, it makes sense that they took it all away in the sequel.

When I watch trailers and gameplay videos of the game, I get a little worried about how this game is going to play. As much as I love Mass Effect 2 right now, it’s about as light of an RPG as you can get. Sure you can pick up items, equip upgrades, and build upon your powers, but it’s all been very, very streamlined. I don’t want ME3 to really take this further, instead I want BioWare to actually take a step back and build upon the RPG side of Mass Effect 1. I’m not looking forward to playing a straight 3rd-person shooter, there are enough of those out that already. What I want – and I know I’m not alone here – is a game that combines the best of the first two, that doesn’t sacrifice those RPG elements, and that keeps up with the great combat of ME2.

Those up there are ME3‘s three modes of play. They work something like this:

  1. Action mode will auto-select replies during dialogue, basically making conversations into cutscenes. Normal difficulty will be set for combat itself.
  2. Story mode will still allow for manual conversations, but sets the game at a “minimal difficulty.” Ideal for people really playing for the story, and little else.
  3. RPG mode will allow for manual conversations and a normal difficulty mode, basically setting up the game to play like the first two.

This is a nice little addition since it doesn’t do anything to dumb down the ME experience most are looking forward to, but instead gives other players some different ways to experience the game. I can’t really say I’d want to play the game these ways, but hey, at least the option is there.

As nice as a new feature as that is, I bring it up because it doesn’t do much to ease my fear that ME3 will be even more geared (heh) towards being a more scripted 3rd-person shooter, but at the same time, I don’t want to immediately dismiss the game as one. I’ve heard and read things across the interwebs claiming otherwise, stating space-exploration will be preserved (but to what extent is the question), a weapon modification system will be present, and larger skill trees will be put to use. These are all great changes, and I’m happy they’ve all been added in. I just really hope that ME3 doesn’t just go the way of the scripted shooter. As great as that genre is, that’s just not how I see Mass Effect, especially when I know the overall experience has that potential to be something so much bigger.

At this point, the game is pretty much done development and there’s tons of coverage on the gameplay on YouTube, so I have little hope in the game returning to its RPG roots. Still, I won’t be disappointed if this is the case, come March. I’m still excited to play the game, and my pre-order is good to go. There’s always room for more Shepardy goodness in my books.

-rav4ge

Mass Effect Marathon: Mass Effect 1 thoughts

January 20, 2012 in PC gaming by with 0 Comments

With everyone SWTOR’ing it up lately, myself included until just recently, I had gotten a craving to play one of BioWare’s more recent RPGs. As great as SWTOR is, I have little motivation to play it. I wrote up a whole post about that last week, and I decided earlier to cancel now and return around March/April. Yes, I know the post contradicts that – I ended it saying I’d be giving SWTOR another month now, but that’s not going to happen. Instead, I have decided to play Mass Effect 1 & 2 in preparation for Mass Effect 3, which is coming out early March!

As much as I love BioWare RPGs, I don’t think I’ve ever finished one, until now. I snagged Mass Effect for PC a few years back when it was on sale at some point, and played it up to the part where you first get to the Citadel. I pretty much stopped playing it at that point for some other games, and then my hard drive died. So, that was the end of that. I haven’t tried getting back into it until just recently, and man, am I glad I did. Continue Reading…

SWTOR: Judgement Day

January 10, 2012 in PC gaming by with 0 Comments

Not entirely relevant, but a good way to start off this post.

Judgement day is upon us! Well, almost. And that’s what this post is about.

Assuming you bought and activated SWTOR as soon as possible, meaning around December 20-21st of last year, you’re probably in the same situation as myself and most SWTOR players. As the days go by, your SWTOR subscription time slowly dwindles away, until you are left with a potentially difficult financial decision. To sub, or not to sub, that is the question.

Sorry, I’ve been reading/analyzing Hamlet for over a month now in Literature class. It just kinda comes out, you know.

For most players, this is an easy decision. Hell, there isn’t even a decision to make, because most SWTOR players are enjoying the crap out of the game. On different levels of course, but I feel absolutely confident in saying “most players” as in the large, large majority. SWTOR is just a good game, and in a lot of ways, a breath of fresh air for the genre. There really isn’t much negative criticism to note – the launch was smooth, the game is at a good level of polish (that $135 million sure was put to work), and the game is just generally fun to play. I have yet to read a blog post or tweet in which someone just flat-out doesn’t enjoy the game.

Unfortunately, I’m in the middle of the road as to where I want to go with this game. Right now, I’m just solo’ing it up. I log in, do a few missions, and then log out to play something else. Some days I’ll have a lot of fun with the game – like today, and everything will just “click,” and other days – like yesterday – I find myself asking “why am I playing this?” It’s not a love-hate relationship or anything. There’s nothing in the game that makes me rage, or feel angry. I like SWTOR, but I just have trouble feeling compelled to play it. Like I’ve said before, MMOs suffer greatly when you’re just not compelled to put in the time, and suffer even more when you play them as if they were single-player RPGs.

I’ve thought about my subscription over the past week, and I’ve decided I’ll be giving it another month. I won’t be committing full-time (and by that, I mean full gaming time) to the game, but I do want to give it another month before I call it quits. I do enjoy the game, but sometimes I’d just rather play other things – and that’s okay. Part of paying for an MMO though is, you know, paying for it, so it’s easy to feel like I’m cheating on SWTOR when I go off to play other things.

So yes, I will be continuing with SWTOR for another month. It’s too early to give up on the game now when I know I’m having fun with it. The question is – and always is – how much fun will I be getting for another month?

-rav4ge

5 things I’ve noticed while SWTOR’ing

January 5, 2012 in PC gaming by with 0 Comments

I’ve been putting time here and there into SWTOR and leveling up my Sith Warrior, er Juggernaut, Octavio, who as of this writing is a mere level 17. I say “mere” because I’ve been already hearing about and seeing level 50s roaming the galaxies, but considering how much time I’ve spent on the game thus far (24 hours total), I can feel secure in my slow-leveling pace.

Anyway, I wanted to do a little list of things I’ve noticed about the game that are in some way oddly hilarious, recurring, or maybe just badass. Note that none of these are in order or anything. I’m not sure how I’d honestly rank these guys up, but that’s not the point – enjoy!

1) Sith Headgear makes everything better.

Darth Vader, Darth Revan, Boba Fett… well, technically Boba Fett isn’t Sith, but he is a bad guy right up there with the rest of Star Wars’ most legendary baddies. What do they all have in common? Wicked cool, fear-inspiring headgear, that’s what – and so can you, at a relatively early level!

It hides the mustache and makes me sound like a Principal over the school intercom, but my badass factor has increased.

2) The dialogue choice placement is hardly changed.

I’ve noticed this a lot while playing the Sith Warrior and interacting with quest-related NPCs. They give you a quick run-down on the situation at hand, and you respond in one of three ways:

Now, this isn’t always the norm, and you can’t kill quest givers obviously, but when you’re faced with meeting anyone outside of those specifics, that’s usually the recurring setup, which I find pretty hilarious.

3) Lightsabers rule supreme.

I basically covered this in one of my earlier SWTOR posts, about how I had gone from playing a Commando to a Sith Warrior because, you know, Lightsabers are awesome. And wow, what a difference that choice made. The flair, the animation, the unique humming sound, the light-freaking-saber itself… I just can’t see myself playing a non-lighsaber focused class before I get to 50 with Octavio. There’s just too much fun to be had with these iconic, bright shafts of death.

Heh… shafts.

4) BioWare loves to ravage.

I know ravage is a great verb/noun, believe me, I know. And apparently, so do BioWare, because I’ve seen several occurrences of the word throughout my adventures as a Sith. Funnily enough, I didn’t hear it anywhere as often when I played my Republic Commando. It seems the Empire has seized the word as their own and therefore established it with a negative connotation.

Still, “ravage” manages to make a place for itself in SWTOR as a melee ability (and an awesome one at that), a quest item (the Ravager), a server name (The Ravager), and a formidable Sith Lord, who goes by Darth Ravage.

Totally coincidental, of course, but a nice little observation nonetheless.

5) The Sith are pretty nice guys (and gals).

SWTOR is a solo-friendly MMO, meaning you could play all the way to 50 without grouping, talking, or acknowledging anyone aside from NPCs and your companions. However, this is an MMO after all, and doing so definitely has an impact on the experience. Hell, the only times I’ve ever really enjoyed playing this genre of games for a span of longer than two weeks is when I’ve been involved in an active, friendly, welcoming guild. Soloing MMOs for me quickly becomes rather boring and mundane, especially when there’s better, more engaging single-player games that work better in creating immersive worlds and compelling stories because they’re single-player focused. A good example being Skyrim.

I’m pretty much just soloing SWTOR at the moment, which does kinda explain why I haven’t put much time into it, but I can’t help but want to group up when I come across a Flashpoint NPC or an area of elites. I don’t like that feeling of having to “pass” on a quest because it involves grouping, and luckily SWTOR makes this process pretty easy (most MMOs do), even on the Sith side.

Now, I’m playing on a Role-Playing server, and role-playing a Sith character usually means being kind of a dick, to put it simply. Let’s be honest, Sith are basically power-hungry, self-centered, arrogant parasites who create alliances only to benefit themselves while they last – and when they don’t, someone usually turns up dead.

But even with all of this considered, all of – and I do mean all of the Sith players I have grouped with have been extremely pleasant to play with and talk to. Sometimes, I would honestly forget I was playing a ruthless Sith-in-training up until we’d reach a group NPC conversation and one of my groupmates would execute him or her. And even then, we’d all laugh about it after. I mean, it is just a video game after all, and I bet there are a few players out there trying their best to be the epitome of Sith Role-players, i.e. complete dicks. Which is cool I guess, if that’s your thing. It’s just nice to know that Sith can be nice people/players, too.

So there you have it, five things I’ve noticed in SWTOR that I felt were worth writing about. The adventures continue.

-rav4ge

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