Over this long weekend I had some extra gaming time, which then led to me commenting out loud (to no one) about the games I was playing as well as games I was reading about. Talking to myself is bad enough, but not recording the conversation so I can listen to myself at a later date is just wasteful.
So, I decided it was time to once again put my thoughts on to virtual paper.
First up: My dead Xbox 360.
It went sort of like this:
- Sit down. Grab Controller. Turn on Xbox. Red flashing lights. *sigh*
- Turn off. Unplug. Cross fingers. Plug in. Turn on. Red flashing lights. *Deep sigh*
- Turn off. Unplug all plugs. Let sit. Read support site. *sigh* Plug back in. Turn on. Still red lights. *tear for my wallet*
- Call nearby Best Buy. Out of stock of new 250gig model. Target. Out of Stock. Walmart. Out of stock. 3rd Gamestop called. *yay* One left, but we close in 10 minutes. Drive. Pick up. But no transfer cable. *sad*
- Start calls again. Yay. Best Buy has one. Drive across town. Pick up cable. Drive home. *happy*
- At home. Unpack and set up new box. Shiny, quiet, lots of drive space. *Very Happy*
- *wallet still sad*
Yes I could have repaired the old one, but it was going to cost $100+ and I would have still been left with a 1st gen 360 with a puny 20gig HD, and loud DVD drive. I would have easily been able to wait if not for the upcoming Halo Reach, and Dead Rising 2. Which leads to …
MrAnderson EQ2, Final Fantasy, Free2Play, Games, LOTRO, Musings, XBox360 Dead Rising, EQ2, FFXIV, Free2Play, Games, Lotro, Musings, Xbox360
Last week our family had to face the death of our long time canine companion, and that event weighed me down a lot. In response this week consisted of a bit less “playing” and a bit more sleeping, though here is my quick list of things I played last week.
Everquest 2
I toyed around a bit with my characters, but did not spend a whole lot of time playing EQ2 last week. Actually as the leveling up, in both tradeskills and adventuring, slows down I started thinking I might need a break. I enjoy the depth of activities and character/guild growth the fame offers but I miss the connections I had in the past with some friends here in town that are playing another game.
Which leads me to ….
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MrAnderson EQ2, Games, Musings, World of Warcraft EQ2, Games, MMO, Musings, World of Warcraft
The Situation
Returning to limited play time that comes with work was a bit jarring. Over the holidays I could slip off almost anytime and sneak some play time in, while being at work for 10-12 hours a day limits that dramatically. I have settled back into a good routine and am wonderfully grateful for the couple of hours I get each day to play, even if it does mean I going back to being a one or two game at a time player.
It also means that while I consistently seem to have drafts of posts saved, very few will actually get posted and as usually I probably won’t be writing up well thought up comments to others posts. That’s my situation and now for my report.
MrAnderson EQ2, Games, Star Trek Online EQ2, Games, MMO, STO
After three weeks of playing I have found several items that have struck me as much better than my previous impressions led me to believe.
Though before I start that list I wanted to re-iterate the three items I feel EQ2 is most ‘hurt’ by. These items are subjective, of course but I wanted to get them out there.
“The Ugly”
Art Style and Direction
I believe the game’s art is not inviting, or presents much in the way of “pop” and “zing”. When people see me playing they never walk up and go “wow that is awesome looking. What are you playing?” That, to me, is a problem. These days, you want people to be wowed by the look of your game.
Accessibility
EQ2 has a lot of depth and variety, and with almost six expansions out now (as of this writing) there is a lot for a new player to take in. Yes there are help tips, and I suspect buried in the game is some documentation, but none of it is presented well to a new user.
UI
The problem I have with the game is that the default UI when you first launch the game is a mess. I think they need to two things: 1. Have an artist take a pass at all the windows, looking at some of the more popular skins and see where the default can be improved. 2. Build a more cohesive initial layout of the windows, so things are nicer for new players.
Now the EQ2 does allow UI skins and installing them is fairly simple. Kudos to them, and yes that fact does mitigate part of my UI issue since you can correct things. Though I believe Users should have to do minimal work to get an organized functional UI. (yes I know UI layout is subjective, and many people might be happy with the default layout)
Now on to the fun stuff…
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MrAnderson EQ2, Games EQ2, Games, MMO
I thought a lot this week about my 2009 games of the year, as I saw gaming sites all over the internet posting their lists in various different formats. I was going to skip the whole thing, because I did not want to be a “me too” poster. Then I took a pause today and remembered this site is not for anyone else but me, and I a post about my thoughts on 2009′s game is something I would like to read later. And thus I bring this post.
How this works is I am going to list games that I have memories of , along with a bit of commentary. This is not a best of list by any means, just me thinking back on the year. It’s also not in any particular order.
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MrAnderson Games, Musings Aion, Champions Online, EQ2, Free2Play, Games, Lotro, MMO, Runes of Magic, World of Warcraft
Yes it is true I am playing Everquest 2 once more.
It all started a couple of weeks ago my wife and I chatted once again about playing an MMO together. I thought for a bit about trying Everquest 2 with her, and when I looked at my account status I discovered Sony had reactivated my account for the month. I am a sucker about free time so I reinstalled EQ2 and started messing around a bit from the perspective of teaching my wife how to play. Well the washed out five year old graphics engine and high learning curve was going to be a turn off to my wife and I suspect this venture into the game was going to be a passing fancy for me. Then I found out a friend of mine had also taken advantage of the free play time.
Friends make games more fun; that is a proven fact. So with the knowledge of my friend playing I created a new character on the server he was playing on which is now my 3rd server (all with characters no higher than level 22).
While we have only grouped together one time as we ran past each other, simply having someone to chat to made the game much more fun. He also encouraged me to get into the guild he joined for more social interaction, and that was the best meta game decision I have made. Guilds are the social heart of MMOs, as long as there are a few members online for me to chat to the game becomes much more than just a game it becomes a “watercooler”.
As for characters I started another Fury (half-elf) and a Troll Defiler (an homage to my very first troll shaman eq1 character), both of them have been fun to play but the Fury has been getting most of the play time lately. I am finding that as I level up and experience some of the games subtleties, I am enjoying it more and more. I think in my next post I will chat about those things EQ2 offers me that other games have not.
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Weekend Gaming
While this weekend I spent most of my gaming time in wow, I did mange to squeeze out a little non-wow gaming. I started with Brother’s in Arms: Hell’s Highway; why have I not played this before?  This game feels like a cake made by mixing some FPS with a puzzle game with a handful of story. I have a few issues with it, but over all I am really enjoying the experience.
I also played a bit of a ‘super’ mmo beta, that I shall not yet mention. I do have a post post with some thoughts that I will post at some point.
And I also played a tiny bit of EQ2, right before my trial account ran out. I had fun. No really, I enjoyed the game and if it did not have a monthly fee I would probably keep playing it a bit here and there.  Alas it does have a fee, and I already am invested in my friends and characters of WoW.  Though if I my friends and I ever leave wow, and EQ2 is still kicking, I could see trying to convince them to come play.
WoW Raiding Update
This weekend our raiding group was a bit odd, in that we were short several of our regulars. This left us scrambling to fill some DPS slots, which we eventually did but it was a bit on the stressful side getting it all together.  How did we end up doing? Read more…
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Since its been almost two weeks since my last update, I figure it was time for another quick report. First up our time in …
Ulduar 10
Great progress has been made! Our last two runs have ended with us standing in Yog’s run. The first time was just a fun run to see what the first phase looked like. The next time we actually made it out of phase 1, and saw part of Yog himself.
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MrAnderson Games, World of Warcraft Champions Online, EQ2, Games, MMO, Raiding, World of Warcraft