Category: Video Game

DCUO

Published January 4, 2013 by Leprekawn

I was trying to work out a clever sub-title but I couldn’t come up with one specific to DC Universe Online.

Originally, I wasn’t a big fan of DCUO. I spent a number of years with City of Heroes and had a lot of time and fond memories invested. There was a depth of character design with the class-based structure and variety of powers inside those classes that made for some excellent and varied concepts.

So for a while I passed on DCUO. CoH closed it’s doors for good in November and with that I’m left looking for a new surrogate cape game. As sometimes I just wanna bounce thugs.

DCUO is pretty, steeped in DC Lore and riddled with characters guiding you to missions or advising on strategies. You play as your own hero within one of their few powersets. Each powerset comes pre-packed to do damage with an alternate roll unlocked later.

The game is well engineered and available on PC and PS3 with separate servers for each. It feels like a console port which is bad, but it feels like a well-built game which is good. The balance has prompted me to plug in my old gamepad for the first time in years and give it a go.

As another F2P game it’s worth giving a look at if you like Superhero games and are interested in playing as someone other than Superman or Batman. This isn’t an iconic character game. I’d also more heavily promote it if you were a fan of DC comics. I’m not as big a fan as I could be and so the encounter with Gorilla Grond was almost lost on me.

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The Secret World: Bump Uglies

Published January 3, 2013 by Leprekawn

I’m still adjusting to TSW and I’ll be back with more details later as I give it a cursory week of play during my core evaluation. It’s B2P following conventional MMO design ideas. Those ideas are pretty easy to follow: You have gear that mandates what content you can push into such as dungeons or quests, you get xp that lets you improve abilities and you have quests that involve running around and picking up things you might rather reconsider.

TSW approaches the conventional ideas unconventionally and to a point I find amusing. While you will find hubs like the local sheriff station that has various people in need of help or instruction, you’ll find other details and items around the world that will add further clues to the events at large. I’ve since returned a bit of bone that has lead to further instruction on travelling to Cairo, for instance. You are limited in how many you can pick up, forcing you to choose on what paths you work and emphasizing the story elements tied to each quest.

Skills and abilities are tied to experience you earn as you complete quests and vanquish monsters, these points in turn being used to buy abilities on the Ability Wheel (Google Image Search: TSW Ability Wheel). You’re not forced into a canned class or path instead allowed to pick your road down a winding variety of powers that synergise into your character.

I’m not sure what else I’ll see in the game that could change what I’ve said. I find it amusing and I’m deeply thrilled by the freedom of class design. My only qualm about the game is the minimum barrier for entry as it cost me via Steam Sale $22 and I’ve heard you can get it for less via Amazon.

Otherwise this is a game of modern horror with supernatural elements. I’d recommend TSW to anyone a fan of Lovecraftian horror or looking for a World of Darkness approach to online gaming.

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MMO’s and me: How my next month or two is going to go..

Published January 3, 2013 by Leprekawn

Some time ago I gave up World of Warcraft for a variety of reasons. The highest on my list was a personal insult of RNG vs You problem of not getting one recipe for a stupid achievement I didn’t need but I sure as hell wanted.

With Guild Wars my interest in subscribed online gaming has moved into Free to Play and I’ll give you money for amusing things I want idealism. To date I’ve put cash money on starships in STO, locked chests in GW2 and an occasional costume DLC from CoH or DCUO. Acronyms are probably boggling you at this moment. I’ll clear them up farther down for your digestion.

I have a range of itches that form gaming habits as the year rotates. Strategy empire-building games, space combat, superhero, fantasy dungeon marauding and treasure collecting. My interest shifts and follows a fairly well structured path I’ve failed to note. Here in the mid-winter I tend to drift a bit. Poke around and see what’s out there. For your benefit you’re going to see some posts about various MMORPG’s that are F2P and worthy of my interest. I’ll talk about some other games too, sure.

DLC – DownLoadable Content (Usually for money.)

F2P – Free to Play (No box cost)

B2P – Buy to Play (Box cost, no subscription)

STO – Star Trek Online

GW2 – Guild Wars 2

CoH – City of Heroes (offline and no longer in service: for the record)

DCUO – DC Universe Online (my fallback Superhero interest approach)

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Star Trek Online: How I spent my Winter Holiday

Published January 3, 2013 by Leprekawn

During the last week of December I made a cursory recommendation to a coworker regarding STO. In hindsight I thought maybe I should eat the porridge I’m going to serve and play the game for more than 5 minutes during beta several years ago.

So it being Free to Play and me being something of a Star Trek fan I set my download for Friday night and started in Saturday, December 22nd. At no point in the following week would I have told you with a straight face that “I liked the game”. 66 hours in, it became rather apparent that whether or not i could vocalize my appreciation, I found something there worth my time.

STO breaks the traditional quest model a little with allowing you to phone in your completion, saving you a lengthy trip back to Spacedock or Planet 12 or wherever you need to go. Space is big and reading your mission text carefully is necessary to know where you’re going. All the missions are level adjusted to your character so as you move along you’re constantly fighting klingons and romulans and borg within your reach. Missions are a nice variety of exploration, combat vs the local antagonist (I killed a LOT of Orions Raiders) all with a mild level of puzzling built in. At one point I had to help a Ferengi put his replicator back online by routing power in a necessary order.

For all my time playing I only got 1/3 the way through the second mission ‘Episode’ arc, involving Romulans, and can easily guess I’ve got another week of just solid story mission progression. Each arc having a theme, i’m looking forward to the Borg arc.

If you like Star Trek, don’t mind the massive multiplayer nature of MMO’s and have a hankering for space combat you should give Star Trek Online a chance. It’s only available on PC and for Star Trek there aren’t a lot of alternate options out there.

Addendum –

There I was.. midweek.. sitting at my computer exploring some cluster on the edge of space at 2am. I beam down to a planet that some colonists had commented on strange detections. I’m scanning a plant-pod and look up to see the rocky formations that form shaded areas. The abstract nature of it all just kicked in. “Oh yeah.. i’m playing Star Trek.”

Strange new worlds indeed.

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Kickstarter

Published December 5, 2012 by Leprekawn

My god… so many games that I’ve put money into or want to put money into.

Elite: Dangerous sounds delicious. I played Elite briefly when I was a but a small child with many dreams and little understanding. I didn’t get into heavily as I just had no idea what was happening. 20 odd years later and I’m deeply excited to see this happen. I’ve always remembered it as a complex game about space and trading. Was I right? No clue, I’ve never gone back. But I always look forward to a rebuild that looks great.

Legend of Dungeon I put money into, i’m a sucker for quality rpg dungeonish games. I played the demo briefly and I can see a quality here that will be fantastic once it’s farther along. If you remember Gauntlet, Castle Crashers, TMNT: Turtles in Time or some of the other early 90’s games you’ll understand the controls easily enough and perhaps even enjoy the approach.

Wastelands 2 is on my radar. I gave them what it took to get a copy when it launches and I expect to be talking more come next summer. I’m not normally into post-apocalypse games. The time after The End is often boring, brown and full of zombie-mutants as though someone forgot to have ideas when building their game. Wasteland hit many radars forever ago and I decided they had a quality idea after watching the introduction video on Kickstarter.

Numenera is probably not on your radar as much as mine. My first love was Tabletop RPG’s and it’ll always be a love I come back to. Monte Cook has been in the industry for nigh unto forever and his other projects I’ve enjoyed. Numenera stands as an RPG approach to a world that’s seen many civilizations that came and went. The ninth is the current one you play in, a realm of mystery as the previous civilizations projects or experiments still roam the world. Also scheduled for sometime next summer.

Planet Annihilation is the last for now. Real-Time Strategy games were frequent among my rommmates as the easy option for 3/4 person multiplayer. We played them a lot and we played most of them. PA looks to take the idea up a notch. Why settle for smiting a bulding when you can drop a moon and obliterate a planet? I was so tickled with excitement I barely remember giving them money. But I’m getting emails about it so clearly I gave them something.

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Multiplayer

Published December 5, 2012 by Leprekawn

It was a conversation I had briefly. Some friends I’m likely to invite here once I have something worth saying or reading. But the conversation was rooted on the idea that there aren’t a lot of games that have cooperative multiplayer. Local or otherwise.

I agreed and I still agree. It’s been a rough idea for a long time. My sarcastic words “What!? You have FRIENDS and want to PLAY with them? Bah!” have been with me for years and years. I had four roommates and we played everything together. Either, at the same time or in the same game. Tricky for games like Skyrim, easy for games like Borderlands.

So I took to myself the challenge of sorting out my options and seeing what I can find to solve this query.

Expect more this month as I dig into blogs and comment on what’s out there.

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Far Cry 3

Published November 27, 2012 by Leprekawn

This one will be short so you can get back to your lives quickly. If you liked Skyrim, the open-world exploration and crafting and villain hunting and questing but were thinking: Gee, if only I had a gun. Well, then Far Cry 3 might be for you.

Far Cry the first was hailed as a serious performance test on your computer. It was developed for high-performance computers and low-end systems were wheezing to keep up with it’s vicious needs. Far Cry 3 isn’t hailed as heavily as such a beast but I’d step into these waters carefully. Far Cry 3 features an open world island where you’re completing tasks/quests for some local villagers to help fend off the encroaching pirates that have taken up residence. You’ll harvest plant and animal for ingredients to health kits or grenade pouches, you’ll activate derelict radio towers and other esoteric quest to get access to weapons cheaper. It’s a quest/adventure game set with modern terms and ideas. Guns, boats, grenades, etc.

So if you liked Skyrim but wanted guns. Or if you like the ‘roam and shoot’ options Fallout 3 provided but wanted more color or more gameplay then I think you’ve found your next time-sink. This is an Ubisoft game and for reasons I won’t go into here I won’t be touching it. But I will admit it’s right up my alley of shoot and loot and craft. And it looks fun.

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Squire

Published November 20, 2012 by Leprekawn

I’ll never know how he found his way into my possessions. Half a rusted lantern and a tatter of penant were all there was and yet the ghostly spirit hounded me.

I noted to make time to try and communicate with it someday, should it prove to be a manifestation of spiritual energy and not a hallucinatory emanation from the Mad King.

Cohorts within the Bubblegum Brigade coerced me to join them in assaulting the Mad King’s private sanctum. I assured them it was a bad idea, that nothing good could come of this and yet they insisted. I won’t say I regretted the choice though I won’t admit I enjoyed it either.

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Four Days of Mild Hell

Published November 19, 2012 by Leprekawn

I was sick. Like: Sinus pressure so bad I can’t sleep til 2am when fatigue takes hold and I spend the day numbly blowing my nose and largely oblivious to what’s going on around me.

And of course the obnoxious pain was just enough that I spent four days parked in front of my computer. Mental note, Chlorox the keyboard when I get home. Did I check my email? No. Did I answer my phone? No. Did I post to Facebook? No. What did I do then? Guild Wars 2. Something like 40+ hours in four days.

Highlights from the memory reel. Warning, this is in no particular order or by any means complete.

Made 10g

Spent 11g

Cleared 7 dungeon wings

Cleared Arah Story mode

Cleared Twilight Arbor Story mode

Started leveling a warrior

Started leveling an elementalist

Deleted elementalist

Made decision to reroll warrior with different color skin

Made five bags

Remarked at how I now have 104 item slots on my mesmer

Decided to play more of my mesmer after 40-odd hours of my guardian

Completed exploring Orr

Found an Exotic

Found some rares

Sold all of them

Took part in the weekend Lost Shores event

Promptly got bored of the Weekend event and went back to regular questing.

Met an awesome friend

FB’d awesome friend

Made myself semi-famous with “Dungeon 101”

Dungeon 101: Don’t Stand in It, Don’t Stand in Front, Try not to Suck

Nearly rolled a second guardian what cause I like them so much more than Warrior.

Finally found a staff I can stand looking at for long periods of time.

Got an exotic sword for my guardian what glows blue at night.

Finally learned how to tell time in Guild Wars 2.

With that being said, I was rather sick. What would I have done instead? Played a crapload of Pokemon. On account of some technical hurdles I restarted my game. I wasn’t far in. But when I really wanted to play Pokemon I couldn’t focus on fine details or long-range strategies. Yes, we’re still talking about Pokemon.

I’m feeling better now and hope to have better focus on what I’m doing for the next while.

Edit: I’ve added a new category, MMORPG. Now you can filter based on even more criteria and largely avoid my Guild Wars 2 rambling.

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Dragon Age 2

Published November 13, 2012 by Leprekawn

You would really think I’d be caught up to all the various high-profile games I’ve played in the last five years.

I’m talking about Dragon Age 2 today because I feel it warrants a brief discussion. I liked Dragon Age for it’s approach to storytelling and prefer DA2 to DA1 because of it’s comparison to Baldur’s Gate. If you were gaming RPG’s in the late 90’s, you’ll get what I’m talking about. I liked Baldur’s Gate, don’t get me wrong. But I liked the graphical and technical approach to DA2 more. I liked that they deviated from making two games with similar designs. That each game has it’s own story, mechanics and approach to the world themes they share in common.

Now, I went into DA2 thinking as many Computer Gamers would think. Get the PC version, it’ll be prettier.

Was it pretty? Yes. Pretty-er? I’m not so sure. My roommate got the Xbox 360 version and I got to compare the differences first-hand.

I appreciated the interface on console more than I did on PC. I was looking for a single character experience with sidekicks that I didn’t have to manage and a quick and easy interface for using my special powers. If you’ve played Fable or Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning then you’ll pick up the controls quickly.

PC was great for allowing me to pause the game, move between my party members and setup actions before unpausing and moving on. I liked it, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. Hindsight being 20/20 I figured I’d share, in case you were considering picking through the bargain bin for something new to play.

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