There were a few big things that caught my attention this weekend.<\/p>\n
Champions part 4<\/strong><\/p>\n There have been some significant changes in Champion Online over the course of the last four days. First it appears that they fixed the teleport Travel Power bug, which makes it usable. Yay.\u00c2 Second there have been many quest bugs addressed, along with some passes on balance, and corrections to UI issues.<\/p>\n Those were all fairly welcome, but there have been two changes, which in some ways baffle me.\u00c2 They adjusted the experience point curve lowering quest reward rates and increases xp needed to level.\u00c2 The result is much slower leveling, which I guess<\/em> they needed to do a little bit but this was a bit harsh.\u00c2 Apparently this was just a test and they “plan” to make further adjustments, I sure hope they do.\u00c2 Leveling was a bit too fast, but now its WAY to slow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I also discovered they drastically increased the cost to undo character choices, which I believe is a HUGE mistake; particularly in the first 15 or so levels.\u00c2 The old cost structure allow you to almost always be able to go back and revise your level several selections.\u00c2 One of my favorite parts of the game was the customization and ability to adjust those choices.\u00c2 As of last night, that aspect of the game is gone and if not adjusted back in some way I know it will limit my ability to enjoy the game as much as I had before.<\/p>\n What I would suggest is:<\/p>\n Before the XP and respec costs had gone into place, I was having a great time in the game and really looking forward to some super heroic action.\u00c2 \u00c2 Now not so much.\u00c2 The beta closes today and I really believe the game needed at least another week in open beta, if not two.<\/p>\n Star Wars the Old Republic<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week brought with it some gameplay footage from the Old Republic.\u00c2 Being marketing video cynic that I am, I don’t want to read to much into this footage yet the Star Wars and Knights of the Old Republic fanboy in me screams for joy.\u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2 My balance reaction; it does in fact look a lot like how I imagined a KotR MMO would look.\u00c2 That is enough for me to want to play it, and to simply enjoy the footage for what it is and not read to much more into it.<\/p>\n World of Warcraft<\/strong><\/p>\n I took most of the last week off from the game, logging in each day simply to work on a couple of daily quests.\u00c2 It was a good break, one I need a bit more of I think.<\/p>\n Of course then there was the all the big WoW news that came out of blizzcon. I am not about to list everything off, there are plenty of other sites out there doing that.\u00c2 \u00c2 What I will say is, whoa! Go Blizzard.<\/p>\n There is a bunch of “new” stuff in the actual expansion, but the changing of the world I feel is the most significant, and they said it will be available for everyone.\u00c2 That is a huge free* content patch for everyone. Reshaping and remaking much of the old world and providing a good chunk of that content outside of an expansion purchase, is a fantastic idea.<\/p>\n Of course if you buy the expansion you get all the other stuff, and it adds up to almost a whole new game.\u00c2 Heck, if Blizzard was any other company they would probably pull all the old vanilla, BC, and wrath boxes off store shelves and simply sell a single title which includes everything for $50.\u00c2 \u00c2 Of course they are Blizzard, and can probably continue to get away with selling individual expansions.<\/p>\n\n