Out for a bit.

This will be my last post for a few days as me and the family are heading to Disney Land this weekend. We fly out tonight and come home on Sunday afternoon. In fact, the ride is hear and I must end this brief post. Take care everyone, see ya when I get back!

LOTRO Lifetime sub at $200!!

I just read at Massively that Turbine has brought back the reduced lifetime subscription price of $200! I think I might just do it. When I pre-ordered LOTRO way back when, I had every intention of purchasing the lifetime sub at that time, but I didn't. And ever since then I have waiting for Turbine to reduce the price and now they have, at a time when I have free time left in Champions and Aion.

So now comes the tough part, convincing the wife that it's a good deal.

What's up.

I have been spending a considerable amount of time with Aion over the past few days. I reached level 13 with my Assassin tonight and was able to buy a few skill books.

What I really would like is some new weapons for some killin', but they are just too expensive for my taste on the broker. I have been gathering resources like a champ while out questing and have a ton of iron to make some new weapons, but that costs kinah too.

Tonight was the most frustrating play session thus far. I had a simple quest to kill some critters and loot some items, seems harmless. I must have been on that quest for nearly forty-five minutes before I completed it. It was the worst grind so far in my short time of playing. Makes me appreciate Champions that much more.

After tonight, I would have to say that I can't wait to get Fallen Earth. I think I might be getting to the point where I might be tired of fantasy based MMO's. But maybe it's because I am tired and I worked an eleven hour day, and that's made the evening seem worse than it really was.

MUA2 is now complete, sort of.

I have finally completed Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 as the Anti-Reg side. It didn't nearly take me as long as I thought would. I competed both sides of the story and unlocked all of the super heroes, with the Hulk being the last one for me to get. I still have some achievements that I want to get including trying out the co-op.

There are some really good things about this game that I like, and it is a lot of fun. But there are some things that are not so good either, like it feels really lite on extra features compared the other Marvel RPG's.

So is this game better that the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance? Well yes and no. But if you are looking for a fun super hero action RPG, then I would recommend MUA2.

It's here!

Well it's here, my review copy of Aion showed up today. This was met with some anticipation and excitement, and with some sadness as well.

The problem is that I have three MMO subs going right now, some single player PC games that I have been wanting to play, and a NHL 10 season to play through.

So this means that I need to make a few tough choices, do I stick with Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings Online, or even Champions Online and run the risk of paying for a game that I am not playing. I was also looking forward to getting Fallen Earth in a few weeks, so add that to the mix as well.

I do know that I committed to writing a review so I will be playing Aion for a few months I'm sure, and Champions has just over two free months still left, so I think I might have my answer to my question.

Champions, Aion and Fallen Earth sound like a good mix of games to play!

Champions Online Review

Well it's happened, I have written another game review, this time for Champions Online. The nice people at GameSquad were kind enough to humor me and post up the review on their site. You can read the review here.

A few words about the review, I stand by what I wrote, but it doesn't change the fact that I have fun when playing the game. The review was written a little over a weak ago and there has been some improvements in the game even in that short amount of time.

When a game is bad it's easy to give a low score for it. But when you really like a game and see that it has alot of potential, it's hard to overlook the negative aspects of the game and give it a really high score. The fact is that Champions could have used more time in development.

I like Champions because it's not fantasy based, it's easy to pickup, the combat is fun and you can play casually and still feel like you have accomplished something.

Monkey Island done CryEngine way!

I found this video on Joystiq, it's a fan mad mod using the CryEngine Sandbox editor.




I think this is really awesome. I am not what you would can a fan of the Monkey Island series, but I am a fan of mods and good looking games, and this just looks great. When the Source Engine was released many years ago I thought all games should use it because it looked wonderful. But after seeing this, I think all games should use the CryEngine2 or even CryEngine3 when that is released. Of course the Unreal Engine is still awesome too.

Direct2Drive Sale

Direct2Drive has had a $5 sale of various games for a few weeks now, and this week is the MMO/RPG game sale. There are not alot of games for each category, but at $5 there are some good deals for some really good games.

I was hoping for a few more games to choose from for this week, but there is at least one game that I might pick up, Drakensang: The Dark Eye. It is a rpg based on a German table top game and seems comparable to Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights in gameplay, I like that. Sid Meier's Pirates is still on sale too, so I might pick that one up as well.

For those who maybe have thought about giving Age of Conan a try but did not want to spend the money on it, well it's on sale for only $5! Only five bucks for this great game is a steal in my eyes, but of course I am biased. I would say the only downside besides spending money would be downloading the 13.7 gb files, and then the eventual installation and patching, but it's sooooo worth it.

Aion Headstart

Yesterday was the beginning of the Aion headstart. But things apparently did not go all that smooth for many. Long que times, crashes, or just not being able to log in seemed to plague some players yesterday.

I for one must have been lucky, I had none of those problems at all. Maybe it's because I was playing on a supposed West Coast server. Either way things went smooth and I made level 10 and ascended to become a Daeva.

Aion is not a bad game, in fact it is quite good. But it doesn't offer the EQ2, WAR, LOTRO or WoW player many things they don't already get in their respected games now. It's actually like all four of those games rolled into one pretty Asian looking game. I will need to play more of Aion to see if the late game is any different from the early part of the game. That could be the biggest problem, Aion could be this awesome great game when you get close to level cap.

Here's a topic for a post; may be the release of Aion shows that fantasy MMO's have hit the wall with regards to innovation.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Last night I was able to finish the new Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the Xbox. It only took me maybe just over ten hours to finish the game as the Pro-Reg side. Not it's time to play through on Legendary difficulty and choose the Anit-Reg side this time.

Unfortunately MUA2 is not perfect, and I do think there are some good things in the game, but it's not as good as the first Ultimate Alliance. Even though I was enjoying the game, I was glad that it didn't take me long to finish it. The good thing is that there is a reason to play through a second time, so that should put my play time at something around twenty-five hours, not bad.

I am looking forward to giving the co-op a try, I think it will make the game much more fun.

Talk like a pirate day!

So today is the official Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yarrrrrrr...

Hero Con

I happen to receive an email from NCSoft that Issue 16 for City of Heroes has gone live. Also the CoH exclusive Hero Con will be coming up and this year it is in San Jose! Last year Hero Con was in Santa Clara so there was no excuse to not go last year.

So why would I be interested in going if I don't have a sub to the game you ask? That is a good question, and maybe just to go and see what it's like would be the answer.

I have been interested in buying a game card for CoH just to see how the game is now, and to see the differences between that and CO. I haven't played CoH in awhile and there are some things I can remember and some that I can't, but CO is fresh in my mind so I would be able to tell what is different between them.

I just thought of another reason why I would want to go to Hero Con, to see all the people in their cosplay outfits!

Pirates of the Burning Sea free expansion.

I just learned today that there will be a free expansion for Pirates of the Burning Sea. You can check out more details here if you would like. When PotBS was first released, I thought it was not very good at all.

But then a few months ago GoGamer has a sale and I picked up PotBS for less than five bucks. Heck, the shipping cost more than the game. So I tried it again, and this time I liked it, really liked it. The avatar combat is soooooo much better than it was, and the ship to ship combat is great.

I have been looking for a single player pirate game that has combat like PotBS, and have yet to find one. The only reason why I did not stay past the free thirty days was because at the time I was thinking that I would be only playing Aion, and I didn't think that I would be into Age of Conan as much as I am.

I believe God created game time cards for gamers like me. I pay my thirty dollars and it's up to me to get my moneys worth, no guilt over not playing something I am paying for, because it has already been paid. So there may come a time when I will fire this one up again!

Why not WAR?

Lately I have really been wanting to do some PvP. I think it comes from reading Syncaine talk about Darkfall and explaining some about the game. I tried pvp in Champions Online, but it is utter crap. I also gave it a try the other night in Age of Conan in the PvP mini-games, but I got my butt handed to me early and often.

I think I am going to give pvp another shot in AoC, but I began to wonder what game I can play for some pvp? I did consider returning to WoW, but that thought lasted a mere second. I would love to give Darkfall a try but I don't want to spend fifty bucks on a game that I am not sure I will even like. You see, I am a carebare player at heart, I avoid conflicts with players as much as possible, so Darkfall may be too hardcore for me.

So I got to thinking of what this game would need to have that would make me want to play. It would need to have PvE, would help if the game looks good, have interesting classes that would make me want to try each one, and have PvP that matters and is rewarding. Well wait a minute, that sounds like Warhammer Online.

According to Xfire I have played 110 hours of WAR in the short few months that I subbed. So if WAR is the game I am looking for, why am I not playing it then? It's because of the lackluster PvE. Being a carebare, I view PvP as a diversion from the grind of questing and dungeon runs, which is how I played WAR when I did.

A few posts ago I wrote how I was thinking of just quiting WAR and LOTRO for good and never going back to them. But if Champions is the same three months from now as it is today when my free times runs out, I may need to revisit my thoughts about giving up on WAR.

Zone don't work.

Just a note to all the Defensive Coordinators in the NFL, the zone defense does not win you close football games. Maybe if you have the talent you might get away with the Cover 2, but in the end it's almost as worthless in the late stages of a game like the Prevent D was.

Also, if you were running the ball effectively in the first half, why go away from that and let a first round bust try and lose the game for you. Frustrated I am, not liking the start of the season am I not.

It has arrived!

The other day my Collector's Edition of Age of Conan arrived! If you notice one disc is missing, that would be the soundtrack that I left in the car. And to be honest I only really wanted the soundtrack. GoGamer had a nice deal so I picked this up for only $8!!

This is a shot of my cool Collector's Edition chilling out and keeping my company while playing some AoC. The only other MMO Collector's Edition I ever bought was Star Wars Galaxies, but that was because the regular edition was sold out.

Blog question.

Thanks to Ysharros I have discovered the wonderful world of Google Reader, and as such my blog following has grown ten fold. But I was wondering if there is an easy way to track comments, not just for one post but for a whole blog?

I was also wondering what other blog reader type services there are that others use. I like Google Reader and so far it seems easy to use, but if there was something better I would like to give it a try.

Time to quit.

Lately I have found that I am lacking any real interest in playing MMOs. I'm not sure why, maybe it's a little burnout from playing a whole lot of Champions in the past month, or maybe it's that I just have an overwhelming desire to play some of my other PC or Xbox games.

I have also been struggling with the thought that I just need to give up on a few of the MMO's that I am playing and just move on and not look back. I have a nasty habit re-subbing to MMOs only to just quit them after a month or two.

The two games in question that I am feeling this way about are Lord of the Rings Online and Warhammer Online. Both are good games, both I like for various reasons, and both just do not keep my interest for very long. So maybe it's time to uninstall, cancel and just get rid of both.

More Aion

Well it's Friday and the Aion open beta is almost over, and I find myself having little motivation to play more, at least not till the headstart. There's nothing particular that I don't like about the game, I think it's really well done, I am just bored.

I did level two classes to ascension, an Elysian scout and an Asmodian warrior. The warrior took me far less time and frustration to reach ascension than the glass canon that the scout is.

The one thing I did notice after playing both sides is that the started zones are nearly identical in progression. Both sides do have different quests, so they are not exactly the same, but when leveling my warrior I had a hard time shaking the feeling like I had just done all this before.

Maybe worse than just being a bit bored is the amount of running back and forth that you will do in the starter zone. One thing that makes Champions so fun is that you get a travel power about 1-2 hours into the game. Makes a tremendous difference in the game for me.

I do plan on writing a review for Aion, but I think it will take me a bit longer to finish because of the boredom factor. With my time being stretched between a few other MMOs and some awesome games coming really soon, I don't see myself playing this past the free thirty day time period.

What a difference...

Two months ago I was in the already apart of the closed beta for Champions Online. Two months ago I was fortunate to receive a beta code to participate in the Aion closed beta weekend events that would happen about every other weekend.

Two months ago I though Champions not a good game; it did not run well, I didn't understand the combat, and I was just bored. Two months ago I was blown away at how much I liked Aion; the game performed really well, looks wonderful, and the combat is great.

Two months ago I was looking forward to Aion. Two months ago I though Champions Online was not as good as City of Heroes and had no interest in it what so ever.

What a difference two months makes.

I think Champions is a slightly flaw but fun game that I am enjoying greatly. The game still has some performance issues, but again it's just so much fun to play. Aion still looks great, runs better that CO does by a long shot, but I find myself bored after awhile.

As it is now I have way too many MMO subs going and I am going to need to make decisions on which one or two I am going to stay with, and right now I don't know if I would stay with Aion after the free month, we shall see.

Tough day of Aion.

To say that today was a huge disappointment for those wanting to play Aion would be an understatement. The problems began when the population of a small country tried to launch into the game at the same time this morning, and just continued to get worse from there.

To be fair, the first few hours were great. But sometime around 1pm things really began to fall apart. The game began to lag something fierce and hasn't let up much since. At first your attacks would not fire off, then eventually the rubber banding took over. Trying to quit and relog back in did not always fix the problem either. Sometimes if you tried to choose a server you would get an error telling you that you can not log into that server, followed by the game just exiting you out.

Now that was if you were smart enough to log out first. If you just chose quit and exited the game that way, you are truly screwed. The reason is the game will try to log into the last server you played on, and if there are problems all you get is a screen with no servers, and no way to exit the game normally.

I will say this, I like the game, but it's nothing that I nor any other MMO vet hasn't played before. But I am more that a little disappointed about the server issues Aion is having.

Aion today.

As I write this, I sit here in anticipation of the Aion open beta that will be starting in less than an hour. I just can't wait for the starting area to be flooded with thousands of players taking my kills and waiting for respawns. And who can forget the global chat that will no doubt have many references to how Aion sucks and is a WoW clone.

Seriously though I am excited to play Aion again, I really did enjoyed the closed beta sessions. I will be creating a female character named Collyssa, so if you see me, say hi!

The Henchmen.

Netflix is a beautiful thing. Tonight I was watching one of my Chow Yun-Fat movies that I received from Netflix called The Corruptor, not a bad movie. As it was coming to the end, there is a small firefight on a container ship between, in the process there were alot of these evil gunman who get shot and die.

My first thought was why don't the good guys ever pick up the weapons of the dead bad guys? Why can't movies be more like first person shooters?

The my second thought was how come these bad guys are always bad shots? In fantasy movies they are always unknown swordsman who gets hacked, in Star Wars it's the Stormtroopers, and in G.I. Joe they would be the Cobra soldiers. What do these all have in common? They are all henchmen! They couldn't hit the broadside of a building if they were standing two feet away.

So why is it in Champions Online that three henchmen can waste me like some scrub? Would Superman be so super if he had to respawn at a restore point because he had a little trouble with a few henchmen?

Games, games, games...

As of right now there are only five games on my will purchase list between now and the end of the year. But I realized today that this month is going to be a bit overwhelming maybe.

Right now I have Champions Online that I am playing that I am working on a review of, but the Aion open beta should be starting in a few days, and I will be doing a review of that as well. Then in the middle of the month Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and NHL 10 release on the same day, two of my five purchases.

It's going to be an interesting month, I have never put out two reviews in the same month, and I know for a fact that I am going to play NHL 10 online, and possibly MUA 2 as well, and still have a few MMO's to play.

And that doesn't even include a few of the games that I still want to play like HOI3 and Heroes of Might and Magic 5 which I purchased on the cheap today at GoGamer.

Games, games, games, gotta love 'em.

Adventuring in Champions.

A few screenshots of my adventures in Champions Online.

This one is of Xerxes, my powerarmor character standing over the carcass of Black Talon.

This is me and Defender, he's such a great guy!

This is Dirk. Dirk was just admiring the public service announcement.

Pulse here has somehow found his way to the sub-level of Millennium City.

WoW, literally!

Well Hudson has posted up that faction transfers are now live. What does this mean? Well it means that you can change your faction from Horde to Alliance and vice versa. You can check out the FAQ site here.

There's alot of information on there, but one thing that did catch my eye is that now you can have both Horde and Alliance characters on a PvP server! Let the trash talking begin folks.

I must say that I am amazed that this feature was implemented so soon. So if you've been wondering what the Devs have been doing lately, here it is. After reading this I almost entertained the idea of resubbing, almost.

That something old.

Have you ever tried something, let's say a game, and you liked it, even thought it was great in the beginning. But for one reason or another you decided to go back to something else, let's say another game, because there were some problems. And even though you were having fun, the game just wasn't doing it for you, possibly there was just not enough there to make it worth playing.

So now let's say that you are thinking of trying that old something out, let's say a game, because you remember having some fun at the time. But let's say that this time something is different, say a certain patch, and you are interested because this is exactly what you had hoped it would be back when you first tried it. Then, let's say that you find out that you like, no, love the old something that is now somewhat new, let's say a game, and you are happy that you gave it another shot.

Let's say that said game happens to be for me Age of Conan, a game that I did like when it was released, but was so empty on substance that I stopped playing. I came back to the game just after the 1.05 patch, and have been loving it ever since.

So has this happened to anyone else before?

Release day blues...

Champions Online releases today, and so far the server hasn't blown up. But what is blowing up is the forums. This morning there was a release day patch, and apparently the game was too easy and fun before, so the patch made the game hard so that you feel less like a super hero and die alot. Oh yeah, it has made the game not fun all of a sudden, go figure.