30.9.08

Warhammer Online: hand let go of his with ease n' grace, don't let him bleed under your nails.

oops not the German death metal band I meant...

D+D's other brother, Warhammer. Warhammer has a pretty rich history and is probably the second largest classic dice throwing role playing game out. More based on miniatures and manmade boards than pen and paper I always felt Warhammer made for a better visual game than trying to imagine the invisible gelatinous cube attacks. That aspect always helped to better sympathize with those that chose it over D+D even though true role players only do it with their imaginations.

Games Workshop in conjunction with Mythic and EA (why cruel world) decided to vest their interests into a MMO after making their previous renditions all in the strategy based realm.

Peaking my interest from reviews, having been a long time MMO player(Everquest, FFXI, WoW, Age of Conan, etc), and giving me something else to distract my time from more responsible things since I didn't have enough to play, I decided to give Warhammer: Age of Reckoning the one month trial to see if it can stand up to the large and in charge competition.

The hardest part, in the testing of an MMO just to see if you like it or not, is the selection of which character class to play as. You can spend time trying out each, but the true play that you'll find is not the intro levels, but instead the mid to upper levels where the meat of the MMO can be felt (like the fax machine who said it was 18).

I was intrigued by a few classes and tried them each to about level (called rank) 5-10 but decided to stick with one that most MMOs seem to have trouble with which is a melee dps/healer hybrid. The class name is called Disciple of Khaine and as usual I promptly named my character after who I thought it looked like: David Bowie.





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Here's what I liked about the game:
1. Very large focus on PvP (RvR) which very few MMOs have.
2. It's relatively easy at least to level. Quests are manageable/descriptive and maps and markers light the way. Exp is given for so many different things from PvP, quests, exploring, new encounters, etc that it feels like they are just giving the milk away whether you want the cow or not. There are many ways to improve equipment from public quests to RvR rewards to random drops to chapter influence rewards (general participation in public quests).
3. The RvR is fun and has a decent variety. Scenarios (much like WoW BGs) can be joined anywhere at any time and types include capture the flag, hold the territory, capture all territories, attack/defend, etc. Raiding in the regular game is fun and holds guild oriented tactics and bonuses.
4. Guild life. The guild is a separate entity that receives experience from RvR and allows guild members to bask in rewards after new levels are attained including guild only auctions, to battle standards when raiding (bonus aura around person holding or where it is laid), to the opportunity to gain taxes and tithes from it's members, to even a guild calendar for scheduling.
5. RvR has a separate leveling system. You gain renown (exp) from contributing to any RvR and as levels are gained new equipment may be bought from vendors. The stuff that can be bought looks to be some of the best in the game in comparison to PvE drops. Leveling renown also unlocks extra points that can be spent on RvR only bonuses such as added exp, gold, or base stats during any RvR encounter.
6. Classes (can't tell if it's entirely balanced) are good variety and even healers or tanks can get in the fray. Playing disciple of khaine I found that even as a healer I was able to deal a decent amount of damage without being bogged down by only having to heal. Most heals are HoT type or are almost all instant cast.
7. Travel isn't annoyingly slow. The areas seem decently compact, walking speed is fairly fast, and level speed and new area progression keeps from staying in one area for what seems like forever. Mounts are available at later levels.
8. Public quests. There are random area quests in the game that have 3 stages each and anyone in the area can contribute to the overall progression of the quest. At the completion of the quests a random roll (1-1000) is done for the 10 ten contributors with bonuses applied to those that contributed the most of have done the quest and have yet to receive a reward. General participation also rewards you with influence points and after reaching certain amounts, a few pieces of equipment can be picked up without the expense of money.
9. Small aesthetics that create more individuality. Most major armor pieces in the game can be dyed different colors (2 areas of each piece) and vendors have general colors or more rare dyes can be created, found or bought. This makes for either looking different than everyone else no matter what the level or being able to all look the same as everyone else in your guild. The UI is also completely customizable without needing extra mods.
10. More benefit for helping random people. This aspect was something I really enjoyed and is only realized once you play it. This difference in comparison to other MMOs is hard to explain but there's a lot of RvR or public quests that allow you to just walk up and join in on the fun without having to say a word to anyone else. Most other MMOs force you to micro manage groups and this game has almost all but done away with it. Dungeons can even be run as large raids over and over until everyone has what they want instead of being forced into small party situations which put a lot of responsibility on individuals (may change in the future).
11. Money gained seems larger than most MMO. Most things are very inexpensive and not having a repair bill for anything saves quite a bit. The first mount in the game is attainable at lvl 20 and is only 15g. With the way the game scales cash rewards I could see this was going to be an easy feat.

What I Didn't Like:
1. Graphics. The look of the game seems odd to me. Understanding that a large scale MMO graphically can bog down everyone if set too high this game seems to take a mediocre graphic look and does away with a lot of possible small detail. I would place the graphics back toward EQ.
2. Lag. It is still early in the release of the game but no matter who you might be or what connection speed you have lag occurs. It can get very annoying or hard for quality RvR play. Damage can occur to you and make slow reactions to it that it becomes a preemptive guessing game more than a reactive game.
3. Visuals. Abilities when used can bug up or just look very simple and bland. Sometimes abilities will be used and no visual will happen at all which doesn't seem too bad until it was something used against you.
4. Very little differential ticklers for damage differences. Most games use rolling combat numbers (red is for damage taken and green is for heals) and scale size based on amount. This game barely scales the font up or down or sometimes is very slow and laggy to show you what the number is which can make for very slow or non-existent next moves.
5. Some crafts seem unnecessary. Apothecary (potions) seems unnecessary for the amount of potions that are rewards, drop. Cultivating (potion, dye, talisman ingredients) doesn't seem to reward you with anything worthy of using or at least anything of quality/necessity. Scraping can give you a lot of money but blocks you from other good crafts to pair it up with.
6. Upscaling of your level in RvR. To give you a better opportunity to play in some RvRs the game will auto scale you up to almost the highest possible level for that respective RvR. The problem is it scales only your base stats. You still only have what equipment you have on and the abilities of your level therefore you are still severely disadvantaged. The appeal of the rewards of RvR are too great to steer people from coming into it very under-leveled and can make your team as a whole become severely crippled if the differences is too large like most other MMO PvP.
7. The need to rely on others. If you wander into a PQ area and are all alone there is no way you can complete all 3 stages. If you log on during a time when no random people are around or possibly later when most core gamers are up in the higher levels with so few low levels being around this can become a giant issue and a loss of some great benefits. Communication with general areas is almost non-existent or easily lost in the default chat settings.
8. Party default settings. They initially set all parties to be open for anyone to join and the occasional weirdo can wander in asking to touch you where you may not like the digital handprint. The other default is for rolls on loot which are open for anyone to ninja the hell out of everything. Most gear is class/race restrictive and can come at such a fast speed in large parties that most leaders can have a difficult time observing who is playing nice and who is being a grabby grabberson.
9. Music, sound effects, ambiance. Very few MMOs can make sound and music work for them without the feeling of extreme repetitiveness so it's not a huge loss but this is one more thing that could of been improved upon creatively to put themselves ahead of the pack.
10. Friends/Ignore list. Barely works.
11. Huge RvR focus. Yeah if you have more of one you'll have less of the other and I'm guessing the end game PvE is probably non-existent in comparison to RvR. I'm not sure what exactly there will be to do beyond sweeping lands with your high level guild once you get to the top brass level section.
12. Not Mac compatible. Yeah it's not the first game but hell this is an MMO and those are all about the number of possible customers.
13. EA is involved.
14. The cost to play isn't less than any other MMO out there. MMO monopolies send your butt directly to jail if you can't pay their steep $15 per month with the initial cost of $50 for the game with one month free.


Overall the goodies are pretty big if not unique to this game. If you can muster up the courage to look past the first three dislikes the rest aren't too bad and Warhammer becomes the usual MMO mix of problems, i.e., a balance of what to spend the most time playing, financial issues, what are your friends playing or will something else better come up.
Update as of Oct 24th: I have since closed my WAR account as WotLK is coming out and I cannot foresee any reasonable explanation for paying for 2 WoW and 1 War accounts when I can only play one game or the other. If my guild had given up on WoW or was PVP heavy I would of probably chose the latter but thems the breaks.

21.9.08

Fallout 3 preview + latest purchased Music: I was good with names, I had a way with faces

Years ago, 1987-88 to be exact, a game called Wasteland (also here) was released for the Apple II. This game taking a few years to create was released during the Cold War era and was an RPG much like the King's Quest or DragonWarrior games. The game dealt with post-apocalyptic survival in well, you guessed it, the wasteland. Interplay produced the game and in 1997 made what was what some penned as the sequel:Fallout.
Fallout showed as well as any Mac OS/DOS/Windows 95 games could a world devastated by nuclear war. The introduction alone became iconic with the phrase "War, War never changes" and was done by the famous raspy voice Ron Perlman who later becomes the permanent narrator for the series. Keith David, Tony Schalhoub and R. Lee Ermey are some of the other famous voices through the series. The idea of voice acting took off near the time of the release of this game as it was appealing for actors to get paid and never make a visual appearance anywhere within the actual video games unlike Mark Hamill's old Wing Commander days as Blair.

Notice anyone else in this picture^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Fallout was a unique RPG in the fact that it was extremely focused on it's environment and having a very dark sense of humor. A play on the 1950's, cheesy instructional videos that downplay the horrific aspects of post nuclear survival is the everlasting time period within the game that adds to the dark humor. Now I promise that the name for the band Fallout Boy did NOT come from this series and instead came from the Radioactive Man's sidekick from the Simpsons.

Included with the throwback personality comes extreme violence (in an RPG), a very unique combat system, and the opportunity to open fire upon anyone be they enemy or friend. Walking through the towns and the wasteland was grid based and at any time you could change into a turn based combat mode spending action points per turn on attacks or movements, etc and still do the typical RPG leveling as well as equipment and character changing. These were all very creative innovations especially for a PC RPG game that was in a market dominated since the early 90s by console RPGs.

Based on the large success of the first, Fallout 2 was released in 1998 this time being developed by Black Isle Studios and was more of the same great game and for some was too much more. A ton of references to pop culture (yes this includes those things called books too), many bugs before the age of internet patching, and even more over the top violence, sex and drugs were some things that people hated or loved compared to the original with the addition of slavery, marriage/adultery, and a porn studio owned with by a crime syndicate. The quick release foreshadowed the problems that would later change Black Isle and Interplay.

In 2001 Micro Forte and 14 Degrees East made a separate Fallout universe game called Fallout Tactics. This game could be played entirely real time and really downplayed the RPG aspects of the previous games. Large focus was set on the squad strategy play instead of soloing till you found help. It was considered separate because of the vast differences in gameplay overall but, besides a few bugs, was actually a great game.

At the same time Interplay was bought out by the French company Titus which was a company spiraling downward with large amounts of debt. This begins Interplay's large amounts of financial problems their decisions to sell rights for the Fallout series just to survive a near 59 million dollar debt.

Prior to 2003 Black Isle was in the works of producing a third Fallout game that was being called at the time Van Buren. It was largely anticipated and was said to be another close replica to the original two. In December of 2003 Interplay laid off their entire PC development team Black Isle therefore the project was on hold and eventually cancelled.

In 2004 Interplay released an action game called Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel with Vivendi Universal's help (they were in charge of Titus) and this game was more like a top down scroller with so few RPG elements and a plethora of problems that it was almost entirely unplayable. This release showed exactly where Interplay was at as a company. Later in 2004 Interplay was evicted from it's offices for failure to pay rent.

2005 the IRS stated that Interplay had a backlog of unpaid salaries as well as rumors of bankrupcy.

2006 Interplay released financial documents stating it had an MMO project planned involving the Fallout Universe but sold it's rights to Bethesda Softworks for about 5.75 million. This meant that Interplay only lost the rights to publish new Fallout games beyond it's MMO unless it couldn't finish the MMO by 2010 when it will loose all of it's rights.

Since that point Bethesda has continued the short but great legacy that is Fallout with Fallout 3 to be released Oct 28th this year. Bethesda has chosen what has worked for them with their previous two Elder Scrolls games and have explained that they intended on producing a game that stuck to the core of the Fallout theme only using the technology of today. Like their previous games this will be open-ended letting you make decision after decision using your nuclear wasteland ethics as you see fit.

Centered around Washington DC, you are a son of a survivor living within a fallout
shelter (vault). No one has left the vault before and suddenly one day your father disappears. With nothing but your 1950's training videos, you set yourself in search of your father in the wasteland. So strap your rusty rifle to your back, throw some dog treats in your pocket, and get ready to monitor your rads: It's time to blast the post-apocalyptic Tina Turner and make sure you're the one that leaves the Thunderdome.


Music
Cocteau Twins - Stars and Topsoil: A collection (1982-1990)
Halou - Sawtooth EP
This band has members in it from Cocteau Twins and Imogen Heap
Emiliana Torrini - Me and Armini
Obi Best - Capades
This band is a side project from the backup vocalist from The Bird and the Bee

¡Forward, Russia! - Life Processes

Step away from other released albums now sounding more like Bloc Party

12.9.08

iPhone/Nokia: snowshoes and hunters carried the curtail for you



So those that know me personally understand the extent of my hatred for the piece of technology that calls itself the cellphone. I'll try my hardest to not impart facts like cellphones are the newest accepted necessity causing more inconveniences, poor drivers, and added financial struggle even though it is still very much an unnecessary luxury, etc etc. No instead I'll choose the newest annoyance I've seen from people far and wide.

The best in the way of cellphone technology comes from Nokia. The N95, for example, is and has been one of the more underestimated super computers that's only the size of a fudge bar. The amount of features that come standard on the phone as well as the software compatibility and application availability has kept the N95 above every other piece of junk before it.

Apple's latest and fastest upgradedest iPhone is another in a long line of Apple products that has taken some of the best features of other companies and made them a little more user-friendly while allowing Apple to horde the market in areas for more profit. As usual they have taken the classic PC look and made it their more visually appealing gum drop interface which always plays good with the ladies somehow.

Both Apple and Nokia, as well as some other companies, have taken what used to be a phone with a few added features like a camera and instead, made what is now a glorified laptop with skype. And so begins the newest annoyance. It is the scathing fact that people don't want to admit what these pieces of technology truly are. It's how underused they are by the people that buy them because they don't want to admit that these are really just computers.

Lately I've seen many people that can barely fumble through a computer with a new iPhone in their hands. Don't get me wrong, some are resourceful enough to find on the internet how to put a different SIM card in and use a different service provider, but what I tend to see from those same people is they are using it to the equal extent of their friend Sally's pink Motorola SLVR. I've seen people with an iPhone that never touch any applications beyond contacts, voicemail, and texting. The beauty (if one can search hard enough and resist so much hatred) of these cellphones is that they are an all-in-one laptop and can also be used as a phone, music player, or even a camera.

Those that understand the purpose of a laptop versus a desktop know that it lays purely in it's mobility while not sacrificing versatility of applications and uses. Cramming all this into something handheld does appeal to some for that purpose but those people are few and far between when you start to talk to them about their investment. Maybe it's the worry that people will start placing the iPhone into the PDA category. The worry might be that anything related to PDAs because they are so outdated and people need to feel they are on the cusp of the edge of the tip of the latest trends? Well hell, if you do want to ride that crazy train on the fringe of trendiness at least put the technology next to the Jesus is my co-pilot statue and make the little electronic hamster turn not only the wheel but have it send a little email, pull up some maps and even do a little remote desktoping.

10.9.08

Spore + Fable 2, Pub Games:and if you really want to shake it off, you've got to re-arrange us.

EA is a company that I tend to loathe and despise and yet have to hand it to them for producing very creative games that other companies didn't pick up first (or can afford the rights to). Even though the latter doesn't make up for the former too often, their latest production, Spore, is a game everyone should take a crack at or at least the free trial creature creator.
Starting from the single cell stage and evolving one small step at a time into a space exploring race is the direction for this very creative game. Much like the Sims, there isn't much to compare this game to because of all of the aspects that make it a one of a kind experience. My Trogdor creature is an example as to how uncreatively creative you can be. Most character building is done very simply and has so many options that an seemingly limitless amount of possibilities can be chosen to combine into your little crumudgeon.

The first choice is whether you would like to be a carnivore to rip the cute creature creations apart or a benign and passive trust fund hippie herbivore. From there you begin anew in the cesspool working to gather up food, aka, DNA, defending yourself, and exploring the liquid world around you. After gathering enough DNA you have the opportunity to mate and change your appearance adding and subtracting parts and pieces for aesthetics and utility further continuing on as an offspring. Evolving enough times will allow you to progress onto land and begin interaction with other creatures that also made it past the goo phase and so on and so forth.

The other interesting thing is that not only do the creatures evolve but the type of gameplay does too. The first single cell stage feels more like a classic 2D arcade game as you float around gathering food (DNA). As you evolve the game turns into a type of platformer then onto a strategy based game as you begin to hunt/gather/build. Now not as complex and difficult as other games that are a single type of play, the other novelties with a focus on survival for your creature's race make it enjoyable and replayable. This game also has an attribute few games have: Watching what friends and family can do when they put their little imaginative minds into work is often times equally as enjoyable as being able to play. So get out there, disperse, deposit, and germinate your spores.


In preparation for it's release later this year, Fable 2 creators Lionhead Studios (yeah their French so they already start at a large loss) in conjunction with Microsoft have made a trial game of something very interesting available for download. So it claims it's a trial game and the free version does have limitations put on it but it is no where near the stops that every other trial game has. You can still play all 3 minigames in addition to a few versions of each but if you preorder Fable 2 at Gamestop or want to pay about $8 you can download the full thing which in the end also has rewards for when the full game comes out. It's well worth either the $8 or preorder (free if you preorder online choosing the in-store pickup through Gamestop and go to your local store to tell them you did that).

What's impressive is that the trial game is actually minigames that are going to be in Fable 2. These minigames are gambling type games that you play in a pub. One is a card game, one is a mix between craps and roulette, and the third is a slot machine look alike. Even though each seems very similar to their casino counterparts, they have redone rules and added features to make it just as addicting as a trip to your local gambling boat. What Fable does extremely well compared to other games is adapting to the person playing the game with a karmic type of changing difficulty and humor. One warning given to the player of pub games is that problems may arise for you within the world of Fable if you borrow too much gold from the bank and have a large debt lingering over your head. I've also read speculation that if you have too much gold won from gambling that something else may occur like changing your character to look very ugly or giving you very bad luck with gold digging women.

You start off with a small debt and buy chips from the bar to play any of the three games just like a casino. Each game has slight variations like added rules or higher betting yielding larger payouts or debt. The extra variants have to first be unlocked by playing through and winning the earlier ones or playing in tournament style versions where you play against a set number of people and hope to place in the top five after a set number of rounds. Winning in tournaments also gains Fable items from weapons, to free haircut cards, to the "Sleepmaster 3000" bed as well as gobs as gold.

The best game is the craps/roulette hybrid called keystone. Keystone is played by rolling three dice and placing bets on a board with the possibilities like single numbers, black or red, Yahtzee rolls, etc. There is an outer arch containing blocks from three to eighteen and each time a number is rolled it's block is removed. Initial betting is done by choosing any numbers on the outer arch and becomes locked once the game starts. Other betting on colors, single number, etc can be done before each roll. If a number is rolled and it's block is gone already the next block going downward in direction on the arch is removed. So if the top of the arch (ten and eleven) or the bottom of either side (three or eighteen) is removed the arch falls and the game is over.

Opening up the in game minigames like this in preparation for a game's release didn't give me much of reaction at first and if anything a bit of confusion as to why that was chosen instead of a gameplay demo. The more I played each pub game and thought about it the more it helped me realize that if just these minigames (and mind you they're just minigames) are this fun, then the full game is going to be done quite well just like the original. Other games I have played that inserted minigames have usually been just to side track you temporarily for a small reward while playing something very basic like GTA's tetris game. These minigames are a little step above most others. For example one of the neatest things that is noticed is when the sound is turned on. The background noise while you play actually mimics the sounds of a pub and Irish type music plays over the top of that. The animations are quite fluid and charming which only adds to the appealing atmosphere. Lionhead has truly given these little games an entrancing and delightful experience instead of a bland basic quick finish and here's your reward scheme.

Since you can actually can gain items (a chance for 15 total) and unlimited gold you actually feel rewarded for the time put into playing these pub games whether you prefer to be sober or drunk doing so. The addictive nature of having the chance for large payouts is always fun when you only spend digital gold instead of the life's savings or kid's college fund. Or does little Billy really not need that degree in communications?



Notice what it says under the stack of chips in the upper left hand corner.

6.9.08

Mercenaries 2 + Force Unleashed:no escape from the circling place

Mercenaries 2 for PS3/360/PC is easiest to describe to everyone by saying it's GTA if you take away the city gang life and insert the military instead. The point is to make money and get revenge by doing contracts for colleagues and befriended factions while killing, destroying, and maiming everything that shoots back.

It's hard to argue against something that GTA has made successful and very entertaining.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is another in the large Star Wars franchise. I've seen terrible Star Wars games and I've seen amazing ones (X-Wing/Tie Fighter for example) and I'm still unsure where to place this one exactly. The story takes place after Emporer Palpatine orders the death of the remaining Jedi and you play as Vader's secret apprentice Starkiller (13 year old counterstrike name?). It plays out as a 3rd person action adventure with RPG elements and was very easy to pick up and play.

The sad thing is that this game made me reminiscent for an old era of baseball when I was younger. It reminded me of how one very bad situation (aka the player's strike) can change one's entire outlook for any future dealings especially those involving more than the cost of a movie ticket.

I can be inclined to take part in this game if it turns out that it's 40+ hours, has tons of unlockables, is replayable and still fun, and in the end reminds me more of golden days instead of recent times. Unless my demands are met now or in the future no more money will be spent on the Lucasarts beast and if the terrible path is continued down, you'll be thrown into the acid vat with Wal-Mart and the Jonas Brothers.