Video Games

World of Warcraft – Part 02 – Giving it a Chance

So, I was trying to hold out just a little longer before writing another one of these for something else… something, better. I will probably get to at least one more of these posts, maybe two if I manage to get to my level 20 cap. If you’re just tuning in, or have not gotten what’s going on here, I’m working on playing through some of these many Free to play MMOs available on the market and giving some thoughts. I’m starting with World of Warcraft since it is “the game”, or at least, it once was and seems to still be what other MMOs are measured against. Part one, where I start my adventure can be found here.

I wanted to go ahead and get a part two out there. At this point in my play, I can not fathom any reason why anyone would pay a monthly subscription to play this game. Ever. I have absolutely no clue how this game is so popular even from a social aspect angle, there are much better experiences out there. There are also way better gameplay aspects out there.

Now, I am still sticking it out to see if things get better, which they might. Firstly, I am currently at level 9, which as near as I can tell in this game, is synonymous with being on the edge of *more*. Or even on the edge of possibly what could be called the “real game”. For example, There are several features, even basic things like achievements, which I currently can’t get which say “Unlocks at level ten”. I’ve encountered several quests and even a phantom ghost wall which said I had to reach level 10 in order to access them. I remembered that I needed to upgrade my hunter skills and while so far I’d unlocked something like one per level, level ten adds at least half a dozen including things like the ability to train more pets.

So once I pass this level 10 mark, I can already see a whole new wealth of possibilities. As i said, there will be at least one more post on this topic, after I’ve done some of this new stuff.

I also have made it to some sort of very large city. So far, I’ve been to three towns, all were mostly deserted of other players and all could be viewed end to end from any point in the town. I have recently arrived at a large city and it was chock full of other players, many riding mounts and all considerably higher level than I.

On the other hand… the combat is boring. Traveling is boring. Here’s the pattern as I travel between towns, I wander through a vast open empty area, eventually I reach an area full of enemies, these enemies all attack one at a time and often only after being provoked. Being an archer, primarily, this means i target the enemy. I walk towards them mashing “2” until i am in range of my special attack, then I stand there mashing 2 while the normal auto attack shoots arrows and my pet runs in to take all of the damage. After killing the enemy, I walk up to the body, i look a few useless trinkets that I’ll later sell, then i find the next enemy.

This is slow and tedious.

The travel itself is also slow. There may be a way to point to point travel that I have not discovered, but as much as I think, say, the fast travel of TES or the point to point TPs in Second Life kind of “break the experience” (when I played oblivion I made a point of NEVER fast traveling), trudging through the land of Warcraft is really really laborious. I’ve left several old quests behind from my current city and I am absolutely dreading the idea of wandering back to complete them.

So, I’m really holding out for more excitement, and I have a feeling that I’ll either find it soon or not at all.

World of Warcraft – Part 01 – Newbie

Feb 14th, 2012

by Ramen Junkie.

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I’m doing something here that may or may not stick, not the WOW thing exactly but something related to it.

Anyway, this morning, I did something I have not done in my many years of being a “gamer”. I opened a World of Warcraft Account. This is supposed to be the end all be all of MMORPGs so I figured that I should probably at least try it. I mean people make a living doing this apparently. Or at least Chinese sweatshop managers do. Also people break up with their families and lives for this game and forget to eat or feed their babies over it.

I generally steer clear of MMORPGs. It’s a pay per month grind trap. The new trend though is limited “Free to Play” style MMOs which either rely on micro transactions for income or limit how far the player can advance. I really am not up to a reoccurring $15 monthly fee. Yeah, I could afford it but frankly, I’d get more enjoyment out of an Audible subscription.

On to WoW.

The first task was to choose a character. I picked an Orc, because Orcs are pretty bad ass and being Evil is “cool”. I then had to choose a class, which I ended up with a Hunter. Hunters use bows and can do sort of some of everything, at least that was the impression I got. In other free form games, The Elder Scrolls as the obvious example, I tend to migrate towards a bow wielding magic using sneaky sort of assassin play style. Hunter seemed like it would work all right. Later research would show this was a good choice as apparently Hunter is a good class for “Soloing”. I really am not interested in befriending a bunch of strangers on my foray into this game right now, so Soloing is good.

After choosing my class, I got a little story about some names which sound vaguely familiar from Warcraft II and Warcraft III. I then get dropped into a small village with a pet to keep my company. Then I get to undergo a series of quests.

So my chief complaint about MMORPGs is the overall shallowness of it all. The joke is that they are nothing more than “a series of fetch quests”. “Go collect XXX of item YYY”. “Go kill ZZZZ of Enemy WWWW”. That was always the joke. I’ve only really played one MMO for any length of time, and it was Final Fantasy XI, which I hated. World of Warcraft, is like playing that joke. Maybe there is more later, I keep hoping there is more somewhere but so far, all I have done for about 3 hours, is wander through an empty desert killing XXX scorpions and YYY boars for various people. I also, made the mistake of picking the “best armor” options as my reward, which means I now own a pretty cool set of Mail armors, which I cannot wear until Level 40. I should probably add that my free account caps out at level 20. I am a GENIUS like that…

Anyway, I eventually got myself sent to another village where I get to kill soldiers instead of scorpions. Also, I died for the first time. The death experience seemed mostly inconsequential other than my pet ALSO died, and now I am lonely.

Anyway, I play to stick it out some more in this game but the overall time may end up being less than I had planned. I am already 1/4th of the way through my level cap and, honestly, I am rather bored by the game.

Stay tuned for more updates on World of Warcraft in the future.

Review – Battle Arena Toshiden (GB)

Jan 28th, 2012

by Ramen Junkie.

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1-2 Players

Fight to be the ultimate fighting master in this uh.. fighting game! I haven’t played any other Battle Arena Toshiden Games, so I can’t really comment on how close this comes.

Graphics: 8/10
Super deformed anime characters all around plus the occasional cut scene sequence. There’s even a nice little animation of Ellis at the beginning. It’s easy to tell your fighter from the other fighter and when a character fights himself the opponent is darker in color. I haven’t played two players ever so I don’t know if the player controlling is always normal colored to themselves. It’s also Super Game Boy enhanced with it’s own border!

Sound: 7/10
A good selection of music is nice, and the sound effects are pretty good. No digitized voices or anything though, all blips and beeps.

Game Play: 7/10
Each character has strengths and weaknesses as should be expected for a good fighting game. However like any good fighting game it can be repetitive as it’s the same thing over and over and over. It’ not too hard though and is fairly easy to get to the later bosses, who are quite a bit more difficult. The text speech between battles is cheesy. There are 8 normal fighters and at least two boss fighters (probably four). I forget if there is a way to play as the bosses.

Overall: 7.3
This is one of my newest Game Boy games, I bought it so I would have a fighter besides Mortal Kombat 2. I’d say it’s pretty good, if you need a Game Boy fighter I would recommend this game.

Tip: I have no tips for this. I don’t even know any moves.

Review – The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (PC)

Jan 16th, 2012

by Ramen Junkie.

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Aside from Saints Row the III, I’ve been spending a decent amount of my gaming time playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I have made it no secret that I am a huge fan of this series of games. I like free form games in general, Skyrim is no exception. While it is very enjoyable, there seems to have been some core focus shift in the design of this game, especially when comparing it to Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout, and New Vegas.

Here’s a few general observations…

The game seems to be much more story focused. Or possibly the story is just more interesting than Morrowind or Oblivion were. I have played a lot of Morrowind. on the main quest, I think ONCE I delivered the letter or whatever, that was involved in the first quest. I have never done anything else quest wise in Morrowind. For Oblivion, i did stick somewhat with the quest, but I took an approach I like to compare to the old Xena and Hercules TV shows, where I’d do little side jobs and missions as they came up, you know, to help people out, and maybe make a profit. So I did pretty well on the quests, then, after destroying a Black Gate i happened across, I stumbled upon the Shivering Isles.

I mentioned this once to someone who said they thought the idea of just stumbling in was kind of funny. Anyway, I rolled with it and set a rule that, even though I could leave, I was “trapped” there until I completed it. I may get there eventually. I think I’m maybe 75% of the way through.

In Skyrim, so far I have been fairly compelled to stick to the main quest. At this point though it’s become a bit hard since I’ve been put on a quest to find some junk in a cave clear across the map by these monks (Davokin or whatever). This is so I can become the Dragon Born Master or some rubbish. Basically, it’s starting to become a chore, and so I’ve started heading after other quests.

Combat is pretty epic. This is not a hard and fast rule, but combat in this game feels better than the previous games. My chief complaint with all of the Bethesda games is that the combat sucks. The enemy AI is dumb as hell and everything is very similar and stiff. This is very obvious next to say, Saints row III, which has people ducking and dodging behind cars and peeking around corners etc. I’m not saying SR3 has the best combat engine or anything, it’s just not “most of the guys just run at you blindly”.

Skyrim seems to have improve this quite a bit. It is still kind of weak but at the very least all of the humanoid characters don’t feel like direct clones of each other with different faces. Also there are interesting enemies, like Giants, and mammoths and Giant Spiders and Giant Dragons. You know, BIG ENEMIES.

The Dragons are a central focus to the plot and have very fun combat. They will swoop off and around and dive down to land nearby and snap at you as you get close. It’s very cool. It’s also a little creepy. I’m not sure if there are a set number of dragons but so far I have faced three. The first is scripted for the introduction. The second seemed ot be a scripted attack on a tower for the plot, this was the first one you actually get to fight. The third, I was simply exploring and suddenly i hear a low roar overhead. Next thing I know, I’m being assaulted by a dragon. i got killed due to the combat being outside some temple and me being pretty restricted in my movement area. I reloaded and left the place assuming that the Dragon was a scripted event I wasn’t meant to face yet. Still, the dragon apparently followed or something because soon out in the field I was attacked a second time. This time I had more room to maneuver to shoot arrows and whatnot, and I was victorious.

Like I said, it’s pretty epic.

The Level system is streamlined. Skyrim seems to have done away with stats. I’m sure the planning session behind this used the term “accessibility”. People who play Modern Warfare all day don’t want to screw around with picking strength or Dexterity. They just want to kill things. You still naturally improve abilities as you use them and you also get to buy perks themed around different abilities based on level. For example, because I shoot a lot of arrows, I have leveled up my Archery stat. As a result I have unlocked Zoomed aiming and bonuses to damage.

They also, thank god, removed the need to “sleep and rest on what you’ve learned” when you level up. This was probably the most annoying feature of the previous games. There’s nothing better than leveling up early in a dungeon, now you’re stats are stuck until you burn your level off, but you can’t sleep because there are enemies everywhere.

On a related note for “accessibility” they need to dump the random useless loot gimmick. Back in Morrowind, when I found out i could pick up every cup or pitcher or cracked plate, I loved it, it was neat and gimmicky and I quickly amassed more crap than I could carry. Now, it’s tired and pointless. This stuff isn’t even useful to sell off for quick cash.

Everything looks nicer. My second complaint about these games, is how vanilla all of the characters are. Because there has to be this “one size fits all” aspect to armor and helmets and clothing, every humanoid in the entire world is the same height and build. They also have some of the ugliest face meshes around and they are topped off by worse hair. I have modded Oblivion fairly heavily for visual appeal and it’s still fairly iffy in some points. I have yet to apply any mods to Skyrim. It’s not perfect, but it is better. Even the clothing itself seems a bit better. The armor looks like armor, and it’s kind of ornate, but not garishly so. I always hated that the better armor in the previous games was ugly as heck. This actually is part of why previously (not in Skyrim) I play these games in “god mode’. So I can wear some of the earlier better looking armors.

Anyway, it’s quite a bit of fun. I know there are some mixed reviews on comparisons, and I do kind of wish the world were a bit larger, but I would say Skyrim is probably better than the previous titles. I need to go back and replay Morrowind some probably, a lot of people still tout it as the best game in the series.

Review – Trine 2 (PC)

Dec 14th, 2011

by Ramen Junkie.

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Frozenbyte | 12.07.2011

It feels uncommon for Indie games to get sequels. It really probably isn’t but it just seems to be the case. There could be a myriad of reasons behind this of course, return doesn’t work out to enough from the investment or even just the developer exhausted every angle they could push for a title in it’s fist outing. Whatever the reason, Frozenbyte, the creators of Trine, didn’t follow that model and gave us a sequel.

Really, Trine deserves a sequel more than most indie games anyway. The original game is extremely well done all around. It did have some minor clipping issues in a few parts but overall the presentation is fantastic.

Trine 2, follows the mold set forth by it’s predecessor with essentially nothing but improvements. You get the same basic gameplay, side scrolling platformer with character based puzzles to solve. Trine gives you the same three heroes from the first game, The Knight, The Wizard, and the Thief, each with unique abilities and special traits. The Knigt is useful for bashing things and combat, the Wizard can conjure blocks to use to stack and build platforms or even just use to bash enemies with, the Thief has her grapple line and bow for distant targets.

Trine 2 also carries over’s it’s predecessor’s rich well build levels and backgrounds. It’s insane how much detailing has been poured into this world. At the same time, it’s so well staged that you rarely get lost in as to what is happening in the background or foreground environments. Despite being played in a 2D world, the environment flows in three dimensions. Enemies and other critters often jump in from the fore and background.

Speaking of enemies, they are so much more improved this round. One of my main complaints with Trine 1 was you pretty much just battled the exact same skeleton over and over. Sometimes there were sword skeletons, sometimes archer skeletons, sometimes giant boss skeletons. But they were all essentially the same. The game had blown it’s design budget on environmental and forgotten to design more than one enemy. Trine 2 introduces Orcs and Goblins and that sort of ilk, which gives a while new variety to the enemies encountered. Even if half the time their actions amount the the same as those boring old skeletons, they at least look different, which is a huge plus.

The gameplay itself has also been nicely tweaked. The needlessly limiting mana bar is gone now, you can create blocks and use skills all you want now. The experience and skill system has been streamlined, giving less skills overall but removing some relatively needless extra steps. You also no longer find items in chests, instead you collect little poems and artwork. These don’t affect gameplay making missing a chest less painful later on.

What somewhat does hurt is that the game seems to have been simplified a bit too much making it possibly too easy. The health restoring checkpoints are extremely frequent, often in the middle of the larger battle fields, making it nearly impossible to get killed. Also there are experience vials everywhere. It’s actually kind of frustrating when you feel compelled to try to get them all to upgrade your character’s skills but it ends up breaking the flow of the game.

On the subject of upgrades, though the upgrade tree has been simplified, the Wizard is still pretty much the only one worth updating to allow for more and more blocks to be built.

Despite some minor gripes, Trine 2 is still fantastic. if you enjoyed the first game or even just platform titles in general there is no real excuse not to play through Trine 2, though I suppose starting on the first game would be better if you’re fresh to the series.

Trine 2 is available on Steam.