Tuesday, August 31, 2010

August.

It's been quite the interesting August. Actually not really, hence why the lack of posts on the blog. The rash of negative posts from bloggers about the new Everquest 2 Extended service really chapped my hide. For that reason I decided to just take a small break, try to refocus and decide if I really want to keep blogging. It does seem a bit overly dramatic when I look back on it, but I like to write, I have enjoyed meeting others through the blog and there are some really good bloggers out there I love to read.

It was almost a year ago when I wrote a few extremely negative posts about Modern Warfare 2, all from a lack of knowledge on how the game was going to work because it hadn't even shipped yet. When the game did eventually ship, I held off purchasing the game on principle, but after a few weeks I did pick it up and proceeded to play something like 130+ hours of the game, so obviously I liked it.

But that period of anger and ignorance about the online portion of Modern Warfare 2 reminds of the number of posts on EQ2X, and that made me think. It made me ask myself why am I taking this so seriously, why do I feel the way I do. I don't really have an answer for that. But regardless, that excitement I had for EQ2X has slipped away and has been replaced with Warhammer Online, so it was all for naught!

I never started the blog because I wanted to use it as a platform to move onto bigger and better things, it was started because I wanted to write about games and give my thoughts and opinions because I felt that the online and print publications were writing terrible reviews. That's how it started, and over the course of a few years the blog has molded into something a bit more, and I've been happy with it. Far be it for me to tell someone how and what to write on their blog, but I have become increasingly annoyed with some bloggers that write up these essay style posts they call articles as though they are trying to get a job at Massively, or somewhere else.

Sometimes putting my thoughts into a post is a way for me to work things out, helps get the gears moving and get me to thinking, and that's what this post has been about, nothing more. August has been a good month; the weather has been pretty decent, I turned 36, and now that it's ending I am just that much closer to NHL 11, Civ V and Dead Rising. Oh and I can't forget about Raiders football!!!

Saturday, August 14, 2010

So Productive.

Talk about a productive day at work; I spent the better part of my eight hours watching Youtube gameplay videos of various F2P games that are out now. For some reason my mind was trying to convince me that I might somehow be interested in playing some F2P games, ha! I admit that some looked alright, but I know myself I have a hard enough time staying focused on a pay to play MMO, how in the world am I going to keep interest going for a game that I have nothing invested in?

What I was looking for was one of those Asian MMO's that had some sort of martial arts combat. I had played one a long while ago called Dragon Sky, but it no longer exists, and with good reason - it stunk. But the martial arts combat was soooooo awesome. Too bad it was a terrible game.

I did happen to catch a gameplay trailer for Star Wars Galaxies, the music alone is almost enough to want me to resub. I also watched a few more gameplay trailers for City of Heroes and Champions Online. Yep, it was a pretty boring day at work.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Shooterific!

Does anyone remember when First Person Shooters ruled the PC market? Well I do. Back in the day it seemed like that was all there was to play, but not anymore. I have had a real thirst for a good fps lately so I busted out Battlefield Bad Company 2 multiplayer again. I also tried out ArmA II, a game I bought during the Steam sales, and I bought Far Cry 2 for my birthday the other day.

I find that with any online fps there is a warm up time of maybe ten or so minutes where I have to adjust to the speed of the game, and that's definitely true with BFBC2. There are still some 'BS' moments in the game that make you want to cry hacker in chat, but I have learned that if I am not having fun and I am not 'in the zone' so to speak, then it's just best to just exit out of the game and avoid the rage chat that I have been prone to doing in the past. My main problem with BFBC2 is that it runs like crap, and to get it to run better I have to force DX9 and turn down a few settings without destroying the graphics too much. If only there was a game that played like BFBC2 but looked and ran like Modern Warfare 2. Actually, I think that's what the new Medal of Honor is going for.

ArmA II is an interesting game. For those who don't know, ArmA is a military simulation developed by Bohemia Interactive, the same folks that made Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. If you're looking for a heavy dose of realism in your shooter, these are the games you want to play. OFP was ugly, ran terrible at times, and AI was superhuman at times, but it was like nothing I had played at the time. Shooters have evolved since OFP was released, but my initial impression of ArmA II made me feel like I was playing the same buggy game just over ten years ago. To be fair I have only played about an hour of ArmA II, but I did like what I played enough not to regret my purchase.

Far Cry 2 is a purchase I made for a couple of reasons; A host on a podcast I listen to talks highly of the game and I wanted something that ran well and looked pretty. I loved the first Far Cry, that too was a game like none I played at the time. It looked great, played great and was a lot of fun. Far Cry 2 takes place in Africa this time as opposed to a tropical island like the first game, but it's still just as pretty looking. I have only put about two hours into  Far Cry 2 and done only a couple of missions of jobs I think they are going to be called, but so far it's fun. Far Cry 1&2 are known for their large open world but not in the traditional sandbox kind of way. It's more like you are confined to a certain area of the map, but you are free to traverse any part of that area you want to. This allows the player to approach missions any way they want to.

So those are my shooters for now, eventually I am going to pick up Singularity and the Crysis pack, but for now these will have to do.

Fallen Earth Revisited.

Thanks to the blogosphere craze over Fallen Earth after launch, I decided to pick myself up a copy. Here's some advice; sometimes it's ok not to listen to bloggers, cause Fallen Earth for me was a big dud. There's no real one thing I can point to as to why I wasn't enjoying the game, I just wasn't. Mostly it was that the ranged combat was borked and by not wanting to craft, I felt like I was only playing half a game. I never hated Fallen Earth for what it was trying to do, it just wasn't for me. So after playing less than ten hours during my free month, I cancelled.

The almighty Jaye Dubb
As time went on and the game was patched more and more, I had a slight desire to return to Fallen Earth and see how the game compare to when I first played. I won a code to FE off another blog, but instead of using that, I thought I would start with the 14 day free trial, give myslef an extra couple of weeks in case I was enjoying the game.

The good news is I am enjoying the game thus far. It looks better, runs smoother and I am actually interested in trying to craft this time around. The bad news is that crafting is still overwhelming, the starting towns are very empty and if I quit today I don't think fell like I am missing something. Like I said, I am enjoying the game, I'm just don't see myself playing FE like I have other MMO's.

The basic tutorial hasn't changed; you wake up in some facility that I wasn't paying attention to learn where and you must escape. What has changed is some of the extended tutorial you can do once you pick a started town. I picked Zanesville because it was a combat town that focused on pistols and rifles. The once was a mission to get a free horse, but it seems to be given to you, at what point I don't know cause I wasn't paying much attention to the mission text.

To be fair to FE I have only been playing very casually, maybe and hour a night. But I do think that part of my enjoyment comes from knowing what to expect this time around. I know how the combat is, I know half the game is crafting and I know that it's not a great looking game. I am not interested in trying the PvP, and I have no idea what the 'end game' is like, but I am interested in getting out of the started town and crafting some of the better gear and weapons. It would be great to not be using BB guns for once.

Tates like chicken!
The month of August is shaping up to be a good one for MMO addicts such as myself. There's the new EQ2X beta starting in about a week, Champions Online is getting some huge patch I believe, City of Heroes Going Rogue launches and all of this on the same day if I heard correctly. All of this along with a renewed interest in WAR that has been growing for some time. I am going to continue with Fallen Earth after the trial  for at least the free month and possibly playing WAR, but who knows with these things.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Runes of Massive Patching.

Here's a tip to those companies that are F2P or have a free trail - have the latest version of the client for your game to download. Nothings more frustrating than having to spend about an hour and a half downloading a client only to turn around and spend the next half hour to forty five minutes patching, not a good first impression.

For anyone wondering I have decided to try out Runes of Magic. Since I have no active subs at the moment and Fallen Earth still has free time remaining, I thought I would try out RoM to see what it's like.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Alpha Protocol Review.

Well the great folks at Gamesquad have allowed me to write them a review for Alpha Protocol for the PC. If interested you can check it out here.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

It clicked.

As I was finishing up my review for Alpha Protocol for Gamesquad today, I had a thought; I am giving this game a low score, but I loved it, how can I do that to this game. I am required to give the game a score so I gave it a 6.0. Is this game really a 6.0? It has some really bad AI, doesn't look great and there are a number of bugs in the game, so yes it does. But I love Alpha Protocol; I finished it 5 times and invested almost 70 hrs into the game. Something about the game really clicked with me. I am really hoping that my review isn't so negative that it will deter people from ever playing AP, because it should be given a chance.