Weekend End


Dear blog,

Things have been real busy, as usual, and have several things I have wanted to talk to you about and just have not made the time to.

World of Warcraft Blues

I’m not talking item color but how I have been feeling about the game.  While I enjoyed the heck out of the new shattering content, as well as the new Cataclysm stuff,  I think I am done for a while.  I would love to be able to run heroics or even sneak a raid in, but lately I have not had more than an hour of contiguous time and that’s not enough time to get much in wow done.

I still log in almost every day to say high to my guild and complete some dailies, but I think it might be time to put my fifteen dollars a month toward something else.

Other MMOs

Rift will most likely be the game that gets the money I would have spent on WoW.   This is because it’s a whole new world for me to explore, all new quests, stories, and activities.  I hope to join the game with some twitter folk and enjoy the process of seeing characters grow for the first time.  Sure it might not be a paradigm shift in MMO’s, but its solid with just enough twists on systems to make everything feel new.

My decision to play Rift for a while, does not mean I wont be looking at other MMOs.

Lately, there has been a lot of twitter talk about STO and I’ve been very tempted to jump in and check it out.  Last time I looked at it was back in beta, and I walked away unimpressed.   If it had a Micro Transaction based payment model*,  STO would stay installed on my computer to constantly getting me to spend $0.99.   Alas they still have a Retail+sub model, which makes it easier for me to hold on to my money. *Like DDO or W101, not like Champions. I still can’t believe Cryptic cut out the best part of Champion’s (custom archetypes) in their current free implementation.  

DC Universe Online is another game that tempted me, but with such a high buy in price I was able to hold off on.  I had a blast in beta, and if I had enough friends jumping into play I would probably join them for a month. But I don’t see enough there to justify paying $15/month.

Then there is Everquest, the first one. They have a new server that is just about to open, in which content (and many rules) are being rolled back to that of the base game. Then over time they will be unlocked each expansion’s content.  This sounded so cool to me, and Sony just happened to reactivate my account for 10 days, so jumped in for look.   Since the new server is not up, I picked a random server and made a character.

Whoa has the game changed. *boggled* So many features I would have loved to have back in ’99 are now in the game, making it much more playable.  Though even with all the new stuff, the core pacing of the game after several hours left me yawning.  I am playing a bard, a class I never played, and my combats play out like this:

  • Select and approach an enemy
  • click the auto attack button
  • click the button for my songs
  • click on web browser window and read for a few minutes.
  • Look back at EQ to see how the fight is going. If I’m losing, run. If I’m winning wait until fight is over.

My playtime this weekend reminded me about how many books I read while I played Everquest. Sure I don’t have to stare at my spell book for 3 minutes to gain all my mana back, but the pacing is still super slow.   The strange part was I did not stop playing,  while the combat was a dull it sort of relaxing to be able to do other things while I played.    And I am sure that is not how things will be if I continued on to any significant content, but it was enough to know that I won’t be giving them $15 a month.

Other Games

Since I have not been putting in as many hours into MMOs, I have had time to play some other genre’s of games. There is something very nice about feeling like I am done with a game, or playing a game that has an ending.   A few of the games I have played:

Alpha Protocol: Sure it has some issues/quirks, but I had a blast with this game.

Uncharted 1 & 2: These were an absolute blast to play. So much fun my whole family played them.

Call of Duty Black Ops:  As I’m sure many others have said, It’s like playing a Bruckheimer movie. I didn’t bother with the MP, since I am terrible.

The new Medal of Honor: After CODBlops this felt a bit slow, but it picked up. I really enjoyed how they tied the different viewpoints together.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2:  I’m not sure how it compares to the first since I did not play it, but I really liked this game.  While the levels were still linear, having them more open than COD made me feel like I had some real options in how I approached a combat.

The Witcher: I am still playing this RPG from a couple years back, so I can’t comment about the whole thing. Though what I have played thus far has felt both familiar and refreshingly new at the same time.

Magika: An action adventure game that is all about combining elements of magic to create spells.  It has a bit of challenge, a lot of bugs, and a terrible save system,  but the humor and hook of the game make up for all the negatives.

iPhone Games: Since Christmas I’ve picked up several game (Game Dev Story, Dungeon Raid, DiscDrivin’,  Cut the Rope, 100 Rogues) for my phone and while I don’t put as many total hours into them as the above games, they sure are great when I need a quick fix.

Wrap up

Well blog, there you have it, or at least it when it comes to games.  I’ll have to talk about web sites, twitter apps, television shows, movies, and books in another post.  Just know that I definitely have thoughts when it comes to all of them.

Stay safe blog.

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