Thursday, May 20, 2010

Sparkle Pony has invaded EQ2!

I am not a big fan of the sparkle pony, I wouldn't personally buy one, but I can't fault Blizzard for thinking outside the box to make some money. Imagine my surprise when I received and email from SOE pimping out their new mounts for sale in EQ2. The price, $25.00! But instead of one mount, you have your choice of three different looking rides. I don't know what to think of it all, being so soon after Blizzs' pony sale makes me instantly think that SOE saw how successful it was and wants to try and cash in on some easy money as well.

Have players really been asking for this in EQ2? Again, not against it, just not sure why someone would spend so much on something like this.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

A few RoGS Impressions.

The Age of Conan expansion Rise of the Godslayer was releases last Tuesday, and as you can expect it was a bit of a bumpy launch. By the time I got home from work in the evening the servers were back up and not long after I was able to get a taste of the new content.

After a little bit of debate with myself, I decided to take my lvl 21 Stygian Tempast of Set into the new content rather than role a new Khitan character. In order order to get to Khitai I had to take a caravan from Khemi. The cool thing was there happen to be a random encounter on the journey to Khitai, and from what I read there are 9 such random encounters.

You will eventually come to the Road to Khitai, the new 20-40 level zone. From looking at the map, there are only five zones in Khitai, and four of them are level 80 areas. The nice thing in AoC is that the zones are pretty large, and the Road to Khitai is much flatter than the launch zones so it seems even larger.

So far I am having a lot of fun, the new content is tough for my ToS because most of time I seem to be fighting two enemies at once. I have noticed an increase in performance in DX10 mode in most areas except one, the broken down caravan area in the new zone. I have a feeling it has something to do with the smoke coming from the broken down wagons, but other than that it still looks great.

Here is a screenshot of the new crocodile pet I got. It doesn't do anything special that I know of, but it's a crocodile, how cool is that!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Getting in is hard to do.

Has anyone ever had a game that when you watch it being played you think that it looks great and would be fun to play. And has said game been just so overwhelming that any enthusiasm and excitement you might have for playing the game are squashed by that overwhelming feeling? Well if so then I am not alone! And if not, well then crap, something must be wrong with me!

I bought Empire: Total War a few days after launch and Steam tells me that I have played a total of 25 hrs. That averages to almost 2 hrs of play time a month, that's not a lot. When I watch a friend play I think 'Wow, that looks looks great, I should play that game!'. But once I get into a campaign I almost immediately get crushed from the overwhelming scope and complexity of the game.

I think my issue comes from me trying to do way too much that early into a campaign. The best plan is probably to pick one of the large factions and play the game on the easiest setting while I grasp the game. I really have this urge, this desire to play some of the strategy games I have like Empire and Hearts of Iron III.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Becoming Unstuck

Speaking of MMO's, I am thinking that I really need to just choose one MMO to play, and stop dabbling. I recently resubbed to WoW, and even though I am having fun now, I am just not looking forward to WotLK, not one bit. I am however thinking of reserving the Moria expansion for LOTRO and even doing the lifetime subscription. That way I can play as little or as much as I would like, and not worry about feeling like I am wasting $15 a month. So do I stick with WAR? I or how about going back to CoH, that game is pretty awesome, and it's not fantasy based!

It was this little paragraph from a post back in 2008 that caused my melt down a few weeks ago. Why Jason, that doesn't sound so bad what seems to be the problem? The problem is trying to pick one MMO coupled with the feeling of not wasting money on a monthly sub has plagued me for quite some time now. There are other factors involved with my feeling of being stuck in a rut, but this started the ball rolling with me coming to the realization.

I have many interest when it comes to games, not only in the MMO genre but also with single-player games. I am going to come out and say it now, I have a touch of OCD, I can't help it. I also have a bad habit of purchasing a game and not playing it for long length of time. So what happens is the OCD kicks in and wants me to play all those games that are sitting on the shelf, and I can't decide on which MMO I want to play, and what you get is a situation where you become stuck in a rut. At least for me anyways. The wild card in all this is time, I tend to use it unwisely.

I still don't know what MMO to play some days. At the moment I have WoW and AoC subbed, but I was thinking of renewing my WAR sub and even trying out STO. I have no problems with playing more than one MMO, heck I've had up to four at one time. But I am getting off track here.

I need to get out of my rut by developing better gaming habits, using my time wisely, maybe play less and just play whatever I am in the mood for. It's going to be tough, but my games are counting on me!

Saturday, May 1, 2010

And the you realize...

Have you ever come to the realization that you might be stuck in a rut? That the same random thoughts, struggles and questions for almost the past two years are still the same today? And does that realization suddenly remind you of a conversation you had from nearly twelve years ago that dealt with a pretty significant life changing experience? And now that conversation makes sense and you begin to wonder what the heck have you been doing for nearly a decade and a half.

And you see now why there is no contentment, your faith is weak, your walk has failed, the joy seems to be gone. Sounds bleak doesn't it? Welcome to my Saturday.