Friday, March 30, 2012

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium MMO Cancelled.


Well...this sucks.

 Eurogamer reported THQ would not be making the much anticipated Warhammer 40k MMO  but instead a single player / multi-player game due to financial problems after quarterly losses. 

Was hoping to play the MMO but what's even worse is...

...They had to let go 118 employees. 

Hopefully, if things pick up again, these people will be offered their jobs again.


Saturday, March 24, 2012

Can We Escape"WoW Syndrome"?

Oh that's right. 
Because every MMO you seem play there is someone that has to bring up something about Blizzard.

And for me, it's gotten pretty damn old. Every. SINGLE. MMO I have played, it is only a matter of seconds after joining a server when you start seeing people rant and rave about either how this game you are playing will kill WoW and Blizzard or why this game you are playing is so much different and better than WoW. 

I used to like WoW (in Vanilla) myself.  Even when I came from  Lineage 2, where they were trash talking WoW while it was in development, I thought it was one of the best games I had ever played and it became my home for many years.  

And I even understand the impact that WoW had on the MMORPG genre as a whole. 

But what I don't understand is why people have to bring up WoW constantly. 

You could talk about anything! Anything! 

And there would be someone comparing it to WoW, usually in a pessimistic way.

I feel it stems from players who don't really hate WoW but more likely had really bad experiences in WoW. Things like not being able to progress or just not being good at the game at all. I mean, even I hated WoW for some reasons such as Blizzard seemingly abuse of "paid services" and constantly changing the game to the point it wasn't even the same game anymore etc.

These things made me dislike WoW. When I played another MMO, the last thing I want to talk about or hear about was WoW. And it appears there are plenty of gamers that feel the same way. Except they can't stop talking about it or bashing it everytime they join a new game. 

Doesn't make me think they have real legit reasons for disliking it by spamming chat with how bad it is. I mean it's at the point where it's no longer about WoW, it's about Blizzard and anything they do. It's as if they think Blizzard is the ONLY company that practices in the way they do. As if their favorite game company wouldn't take a chance to get some extra money out of their fanbase. Some won't, but most do.

Because if you really hate WoW, the worse thing you can do is keep talking about all the time. And if you are going to bash it constantly, at least make it more than "WOW FAILS!" "BLIZZARD FAILS"...

...it's not 2010 anymore.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Tera Online To Prove Interesting

So I recently bought the Tera Online collectors edition from the Enmasse website, (clicky me) and got into the Mach 23-25 beta event. I must say I am intrigued by this game. There are a total of 7 playable races and 8 playable classes and the character customization is pretty thorough to boot. Its not as great as Aion,s, but its a lot better than a lot of others. The graphics aren't as cartoony as swtor which really turned me off to swtor. 

One thing I always liked about mmos is the fantasy setting of them. It may be a cliche setting but lets face it, when has a sci-fi mmo been successful? Besides Eve Online.

One thing I hated about SWTOR is how bad pulling the map up was. You couldn't even move it and I felt restricted as most other mmos allowed me to freely zoom in, zoom out, and explore the world via the map. Well guess what? Tera online gives us two maps!

  The picture above shows us the area map. You can see quest npcs and waypoints of where you need to go to complete a quest. It also shows spots like campfires, vendors, trainers, etc. What is a campfire? A campefire quickly helps you restore your hp if you don't have any potions. In this game you don't quickly recover hp and mp aka swtor style, which made the game pretty boring in my opinion. (SWTOR not Tera.) You can toggle the area map on and off by pressing N.

   Here we have the classic map interface above me. By pressing M on the keyboard it toggles the interface and brings up my area in all its fine glory. *Sniff* I'm sorry folks, its been such a long time since I have seen such a great map interface I got all teary eyed. Time to move on.

     So now we are looking at the world map right above. From the previous picture there is an option called "Zoom out" right next to the "X" in the top right hand corner of the map interface that lets me zoom out of the map. Notice you can see where you are on the map, and its in the center. Charming, quite charming. Also a good thing to note is Tera starts you in a tutorial zone which is in fact the middle of the map where I am. I don't know about you, but I hate tutorial zones. It reminds me of Champions Online all over again.

        The above picture just shows what the game looks like without the area map. (N.)

 This is a unique feature I really enjoy in Tera Online. Walk near an aggressive mob and they don't charge you and try to kill you. Instead, they warn you with that exclamation mark above their head and the monster itself takes an aggressive stance and faces you the entire time. You can get away from the monster and it will no londer be hostile towards you. Stay near it too long and it will attack you. You can also just attack it.

Thats all for now. Before the beta ends I will play some more and give more thoughts on the game. This playthrough was only 30 minutes of goofing around and exploring the features. Could I been more in depth? Sure I could of but I wasn't. Until next time, Aesr signing off.

Quit SWTOR. Sucked Then, Sucks Now, Will Suck in 1.2 PT.1

Seems alot of SWTOR players have forgotten the rocky road torwards SWTOR's launch which stilll continues it's jagged path today but I'll try to refresh their memory. It's kind of hard to say anything good about the way Bioware handled all of this because most of it was bad.

I followed the SWTOR development on and off since 2008. Coincidentally, I was in my "star wars fanboy" phase and playing Star Wars: Jedi Knight Academy a ton. So you can imagine I was pretty excited when I heard about Star Wars: The Old Republic being in development.

Not only this but I was a huge Bioware fan after Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins.



I never paid attention to the forum that much except for a quick peek to see what the community was talking about. It's better to stay away from the forums before the game is released since it's mainly filled with people dreaming and hoping (sometimes dictating) about what will be in the game.

Some years later with Bioware releasing small amounts of content /information on the game, I start to get the feeling the game isn't all it was being hyped up to be.

 Well, that along with the EA Louse thing and Warhammer team working on SWTOR...

Fast forward. Bioware dodging questions, still barely any info on SWTOR, strict NDA beta.

 I actually managed to find more "information" on SWTOR and got into beta. I pretty much went along with the whole "It's beta! It will get better!" idea people usually use to justify their favorite game looking nothing like what they imagined.  And though I turned my hype meter off long ago after disappointing games like Warhammer and APB...There was something about this game that was...wrong.



Fast forward. Bioware focusing more on hyping SWTOR, launching with tons of bugs and broken features, Wiped forum of past evidence.

SWTOR is launching with it's "early access" plan over a seven day period. Not only was this probably the worse idea ever, but it made it the worse MMO launch I have ever experienced.

Basically, people who paid the SAME PRICE for the game had to wait in a "que". This que was Bioware letting players into the game in order by which month they bought the game. Now I hope you can imagine how much the forums were on fire at this time. It was the people who were already in the game proclaiming how well a job Bioware was doing vs. angry customers who were...well..angry.

Biowares' whole reasoning for what they label as a "staggered release" was you create a "smooth launch". In other words, they wanted to pretend the servers were stable and would NOT have player ques by letting players in slowly...

That would have been acceptable I suppose...if it actually worked. Which it didn't.


Not only were the servers dead and empty because of this, but there were STILL huge ques. I'm talking, "Wait three hours to get in the game." ques. Then I get into the game and there is barely anyone to play with for group content.

Fast Forward. Leveled up, dealing with tons of bugs (some game breaking, some just annoying) and forum wars continue. Also, tons of exploiters either getting rich off the Slicing. Which nothing was done. In fact, there is a post on the official forums asking how many are millionaires.

Bioware gets tons of negative feedback on the forum about the amount of bugs and broken content. My guild is literally raging, myself included, about how much of the game is either not working properly or just frustrating. Bioware seeks to remedy this by releasing patches.

Now...normally, patches are supposed to "FIX" the game. Most of the patches released either didn't fix what they claimed to be fixing, made things worse or went into the game in what appeared to be untested states.

They claimed to had fixed "ability delay" (When you attempt to click your skills, it won't work if it's right after you do another skill. This leads to you not really being able to time attacks or have fluent effective combat responses) which was still very much in the game. They released the notorious "Ilum patch". Now, EVERYONE knew this patch was going to completely destroy Ilum content. There were so many post about it on the forum Bioware just seemingly ignored.



Well, not seemingly, they DID ignore them because they went ahead and patch it anyways. And sure enough what happened? Here's a clue for those that don't play SWTOR:

There are two factions. One Empire and one Republic.What used to happen was these factions would take turns destroying each others "war assests" which I agree should have been changed. However,
 on almost EVERY server, the Empire outnumber the Republic about 3:1.

The patch Bioware added to the game was one that would FORCE players to fight each other OR collect these "armaments" which have a slow respawn, are only in ONE place and you have to gather 30 of them.

Not only did this destroy Ilum as a "world PvP" zone. It helped most of the Empire players max out their valor ranks in ONE day. They did this by camping the Republic base due to sheer numbers. The guns that were SUPPOSED to keep them out were not working properely (go figure Bioware) and there was low FPS.

What did Bioware do to fix this? Nothing. What did Bioware do to fix the fact tons of Empire/Republic players gained max or near max valor in one day? Nothing.


To be continued....I'll discuss how linear the game is, how broken the end game content was/is, how there is no soul to the game and why legacy 1.2 will not fix the core problems with the game.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Aion Going Free 2 Play

Clicky me
Finally Aion is going free to play and thats a good thing. Aion has a lot going for it and I am sure many people will play it again. Its not that Aion wasn't a fun game its just that it had a lot of Korean aspects to it that didn't appeal to Western audiences. (Ex. Korean leveling model.) From what I am reading on the website, since its been out Aion has taken a 360 degree turn and is more appealing to Western audiences now, and is worth another shot when it goes free to play on April 11th, 2012. I for one loved the character customization on Aion as no other mmo goes as in depth as Aion did. Also with Aion 3.0, they have added a ton of stuff which makes the game sound fun.


OT: Prototype 2 Release in NA April 24, 2012 / EU April 27, 2012! Hells Yes!

Man, I've been waiting for Prototype 2 for a while now. 

Thank you Radical Entertainment!

And yes, I know it's just a huge hack and slash game... but at least it does it in damn good fashion.

I haven't tried Prototype 2 yet demo wise, but if it is anything like the first then I expect alot of mayhem, a big city and tons of carnage. 



It's also nice to see a game break through the race barrier and put a black character in the lead role...

Sure Sgt. James Hellers character design is very similar to Alex Mercer and he looks like someone you wouldn't want to meet after the sun goes down but...

Apparently, SGT. Heller Isn't Fond of Alex Mercer.
..it's something I rarely, if EVER see in lead roles of games.

Not that it should matter....

...Unless you played Mass Effect 3 and noticed Jacob was the only one that cheats and has a baby momma...

It's possible we might even see the antagonist Alex Mercer in this game. Whether he turns out to be an actual "enemy"...we will have to see.

Also, this game was the only game people actually liked at Comic-Con...

...I'm pretty sure that has something to do with Venom...

...Just a guess.

What DOES suck is that the PC Port is coming out later on July 24 2012.


I'm not a console gamer but that's fine I suppose. 

Just going to avoid every video about the game until I get my copy!

"Entitled Generation"...

Probably the worst phrase I've ever seen become"cool" to say on gaming forums. What makes it worse for me is that, the phrase seems to be used usually against people who have disagreements about ideas, features or what not of the said game.

I started to notice the phrase usage on the SWTOR forum. Usually,  people would complain and then you would have a few responding with "Entitled Generation" to quell the upset...However, fact is they didn't realise that if they EVER complained about anything, (and most people have) they also have felt "entitled" at that point in time.

I feel some gamers act as if though video games are free and "I" owe the company my devoted love and affection to them no matter what they do.

If anything, they owe me more than a game I can beat in one day.

Why is that? Because...

Developers and publishers(big companies) get rich off of their fans and they RARELY, if ever, give  anything back to their devoted  fans.

Only time they consider giving is at the time they need you and your friends to buy their products.

And no, DLC and MTs are not "giving" back.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Found Some Secret World Beta Videos and...

...Well...this game is now off my "To Play" list...

Secret World Beta Videos

I had planned on playing this game but to be honest...

Now that I look at it, it's looking pretty bad. Especially the animations...ugh.

I suppose I expected too much from Funcom seeing as how Funcom created AoC...

...Which no one can deny is graphically stunning...

...But this game...

It seriously couldn't have been made by the same team that made AOC right?...

Oh wait! That's right it's not.

That explains everything.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

MMORPGs and Directors Lack of Imagination

Seems that plenty of games recently, especially MMOS, are suffering from really, REALLY horrible creative directors and others directing who just either don't really like games or have no clue about what they are doing.

It's those games that you log into and you are just like, "WHO THE HELL OK'D THIS?!"... One of those, "I know you could do better" games. And I could if I was the one directing a game. I have even written pages of ideas and concepts for a MMORPG that would have something for everyone. I will post that when I find where I put them...lol

Anyways...

People like blaming the publisher alot and though they may be at fault somewhat, when you get games with $300 million dollar budgets that produce crap...I think it's time to put a little blame on the developers as well. Though, I understand alot of times when games appear to be "unfinished" it is due to the publisher "rushing" the developers...SUPPOSEDLY...

But where was I...Oh yeah!

MMOs require good ideas foremost in my opinion. That's where it starts. Now in days, it seems that developers are just saying, "Ok, let's just copy WoW but make it look different!" which I think it's fine to get SOME ideas from WoW...but not just carbon copy it like alot of these MMO devs have done.

I think it's a good idea to pick up ideas from ALL types of MMOs, not just one that became extremely successful.

But in a way, that sort of let's us know which developers really want to make a game they love or who wants to make a profit. Though, that is how most or all industry works.

Even Pablo Picasso said, "Good developers love to innovate, great developers copy World of Warcraft."

Uh, at least I think that's right...

Thursday, March 1, 2012

SWTOR's "Social" System is a Huge Flawed Design / No Community PT.2

Most of us know that the "Social" system is nothing more than a tedious grind. Not only is it a tedious grind, it's about as "social" as FaceBook and Twitter are.

The "Social" system is NOT being social. It's as artificial as it gets.

SEEING AS HOW LEGACY, CHARACTER, and VALOR LEVELS ARE ALL 50+, I THINK IT'S SAFE TO ASSUME WHAT "SOCIAL" LEVELS CAN REACH...

At the start of this game, the only way you would have a real chance of getting your social level high was by grouping non-stop. Good thing there was very little reason to group other than with flashpoints and heroic areas. Most of which still gained you either no social points or very little.

If you hadn't focused on the "social" levels from the start ( And sadly most of us didn't as this game never really made grouping a selling point but rather an after thought), you are probably either grinding Esseles or trying to get into as many groups as you can for points.

Which is fine.I guess.

If that's what people consider is "standard" in "all" games they play, mindless grinding, then more power to them. However, while they can keep their "social" grind system in place I feel you should NOT have to go through this on every single character. I don't want to "grind" social levels on all my alts especially when "people"  keep implying that "rolling alts is the end game".

Most servers are dead or near dead at peak times and very rarely do I find people in that want to even group for heroics. If a month or less, I am almost very sure there will be no one doing them at all. So I shouldn't have to miss out on things just because no one wants to do it or Bioware has succeeded in creating the most antisocial "MMO" ever.

I feel there is no logical reason to grind all your characters social levels just to wear "social" gear. Social gear, you know the stuff most role-players want, is a slap in the face to people that want to role-play to begin with. Not only do they need to be a certain player level, but ALSO a social level?

Anyways...

Social System is flawed and if Bioware wants to keep this flawed idea in the game, at least make it less of a burden by making the levels pass on to your alts.