MMOpinionated

Gone Overboard

2008-02-20T17:15:00.001-08:00

I really have dropped off the face of the internet lately. I apologize for anyone that actually reads this. I am in my last two weeks of College, and am incredibly busy lately, so that is my excuse. In my little spare time I've been logging on Pirates of the Burning Sea, which I really enjoy. I'm currently a level 22 Privateer of The Queen's Royal Navy, aptly named Howard Moon from the punchy Mighty Boosh television program. Anyways, I've picked up a few new domain names recently, and I just need to find an appropriate host. After that I'll try relaunching the site, and reclaim my love of gaming. That will probably happen in a month or so after I get my life together. I hope you are all doing well out there, I look forward to getting back into the swing of things in two weeks time.

P.S.(I removed the ads, as I'm not really putting a whole lot of effort into this right now)
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Cheston

Taking the plunge.

2008-01-16T06:44:00.001-08:00

Well I broke down yesterday and picked up the pre-order box of Pirates of the Burning Sea at the local Gamestop(which had a nice stack at the front desk). I am very excited to try it out, alas my excitement has faded as the process of downloading the client has taken well over 15 hours. I've tried the direct download, then switched to try the slim client and then patch the game which some claimed would only take forty minutes(HA!), and now I am back to the direct download hoping that at some point I will be able to play this game before it actually releases.

So far this is probably a worse experience than the Vanguard beta, which is shocking as I didn't think I could wait longer for a game to download. But at least VG was 20+ gigs which however absurd makes some sense it would take awhile. Pirates however is only 5gigs, which should be done in under four hours easy. I've scanned the forums, and seen a few people with my problem but it doesn't seem to be widespread which is always depressing. There is nothing worse than complaining about a problem by yourself. Why oh why Flying Labs, did you not include a beta build users could just patch, and go? I'll report back later when I can actually play the game. In the meantime, have any of you picked up the game? If so where are you playing? As I have no idea where to begin.

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Cheston

Maybe another day.

2008-01-09T14:51:00.000-08:00

Well I tried Vanguard, I really did, but I have not logged on in probably two weeks. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It is a beautiful game, diplomacy kicks ass, their use of a defensive target is near game changing as a healer, and the amount of race/class combos provides a fantastic amount of options to a new player.

Now that I have the praise out of the way, on to the complaints. The client crashes more often on my machine now than it did at release(it never crashed for me at release, now it happens at least once a play session). As I said in my previous post, I just cannot stand the UI "look and feel", I honestly feel like I'm looking at the world's most beautiful landscapes through a viewfinder. Not to mention the default font used just looks pre-EverQuest, even my roommate commented how terrible the font looked against the environments. Anyways, I quickly grew tired of my lonely cleric running about post Hathor-Zhi, and rolled a Halfling Bard. Which to my disappointment was a lot less fun than I was expecting, also a bit confusing, there is little at all in the way of informing the user how to actually create songs and us the different abilities to make powerful songs. I spent far too much time dicking around with the same ol' junk before I figured out I really needed to do something about it. When of course the game crashed and I lost serious interest in returning. Not to mention that there were very few people in the newbie area to help out, so I ended up getting my arse whooped by a bunch of brownies repeatedly in an attempt to complete a few quests. And while in Everquest this was a regular occurence, I just couldn't swallow it and go on.

I'm not saying I'm done with Vanguard, there is as everyone says a lot there. It just isn't in order quite yet. There is a rumored relaunch occurring in a few months maybe I'll give it a shot then when they get the new models, and more has been done. But for now I just have to let it go. Which leads me to another topic, what to do now? But that is for another time.

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Cheston

A look into my Crystal Ball of pwnage.

2008-01-01T14:10:00.000-08:00

Well since Darren is getting all up in the spirit of the new year, I figured "Hey! I can make educated guesses too!". And so here we are. '07 was overall a disappointing year, with launches ranging from the mediocre to the down right terrible. Though it was a pretty darn good year for expansions, EQ2, EVE, Warcraft?, and probably a few others I can't remember right now, released to favorable reviews. But enough of the past, lets get to the future!

- Warhammer will suffer two more delays, and will be released in Q4 of '08. It will be a hit, and I will be sad because there will be no OSX port.

- Conan is released a few months before Warhammer to mediocre reviews, suffering a tough launch that will alienate their initially large audience but will soon suffer serious sub loss after the free month is over. Conan will maintain a small niche audience ala EVE but less interesting.

- Warcraft will lose some sub numbers, but nothing as serious as many think.

- While the alarm horns are sounded for Warhammer, Blizzard will make a pathetic attempt to patch in "serious" PvP. While their PvP only zone will be much hyped, it will turn into little more than Tarren Mill 2.0.

- Wrath of the Lich King will be a disappointment because you can't play the walrus people. Much photoshopping will occur post launch.

- Everquest2 will announce their next expansion, which will include the return of some of the Planes. Someone mentioned the next EQ2 expansion pack being a rehash of Planes of Power but I cannot remember who.

- The MMO Startups will finally release what they are working on, many will be unconventional, and there will be much turmoil amongst bloggers. At least one web based MMO, all will include RMT.

- After much thought I don't think anything incredibly interesting will happen to LOTRO, but will continue to release quality episodic content. Travel time will be improved.

- Bioware's announcement will be a disappointment, and tears will flood the streets of the Internet.

- None will care about Huxley.

- I will play Warhammer until my eyes bleed.

The last one I can guarantee.

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Cheston

Oh the Holidaze.

2007-12-27T08:08:00.000-08:00

What a long week it has been! Since I've come home for the holidays I've been chopping ice, shopping, visiting relatives, and being just sick as a dog. Oh the fun of the holidays.
Unfortunately I have not had nearly as much time for Vanguard as I would have liked. I've created a cute Halfling Bard on Shidreth, haven't gotten him above level 10. I've been having a pretty good time, as everyone else has already stated the world is huge, the skylines are incredible, and diplomacy is neat. I did however remember what turned me off about the game(aside from the bugs). The default UI theme, the widgets, the look and feel of the interface just feels so plastic fantasy, it seriously turns me off from the game. Not to mention the target font is ugly as sin, and in every screen shot it is exactly the same, big, and blocky. So my next big thing is to try out some of the UI mods over at VGInterface. I've had the client crash on me a few times, which is strange because at launch I actually had no problems with client stability, unlike most people.

In other news, for Christmas my Mother was so adept at present getting, she picked me up Call of Duty 4, and Guitar Hero 3. Now I've been having a great time with CoD4, I beat the campaign on Normal, and have now advanced on to Veteran(omg hard), and have had a damn good time of it. Though short, the campaign is high on quality, and wow does it look amazing in HD. GH3 however I've been having my troubles with. Basically watching me play GH3 is sort of like watching a 90 year old taking a typing test, I fail horribly on anything but easy. So I am trying to hone my skills and get to a respectable level before I ever play it in front of anyone. CoD4 multiplayer is a ton of fun, and if anyone reading this is on XBox Live, my username is Chestone. It is very interesting, CoD4 multi-player has added a few common RPG elements, including level based advancement, context based rewards, and even a mild quest system. For example, if you assist in a kill you get 2 exp, while a normal kill is worth 10, and a kill after death is worth 20. Your character can also gain bonus exp from calling in air support when available, your position on your team, and winning games. Big exp bonuses come from completing "Challenges", which are essentially quests with "Get X Kill with X Weapon", or some variation there of. All in all it is a great game, with a a class based system akin to Team Fortress, with the ability, when of appropriate level to create a custom class, and with each level advancement diversify your custom classes weapon selection. All of this talk about the game just has me ready to go, so I will bid you all adieu, have a great holiday!

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Cheston

Vanguard: Someday I'll be playing you.

2007-12-19T17:56:00.001-08:00

Well I had been planning on some hot Vanguarding this evening. But as the patcher says I still have three hours left, it is 9pm EST, and I have a presentation along with a test tomorrow... perhaps not. But hey bonus, there was a patch today, and look what came along just in time for __insert_holiday__!

Hotfix Notes December / 19 / 2007

GAMEPLAY

GENERAL

- All three spheres have been given a 50% experience bonus during the holidays. The bonus experience will last from Wednesday, December 19th at 5:00am PST to Thursday, January 3rd at 5:00am PST. Enjoy!

Well that will certainly make things a little bit more enjoyable in the weeks to come. Also I wanted to ask, where is everyone playing? I'd love to find some friends in game to group up with, start a guild or throw down diplomatically, the possibilities are endless!

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Cheston

When the teenager inside sheds a tear so sweet.

2007-12-19T17:23:00.000-08:00

I was browsing the usual suspects today, and saw Heartless Gamer had posted the Duke Nukem Forever teaser video. Wow did my heart nearly jump out of my chest like a sweet baby alien ready for face munching. Duke 3D was a staple of my early teenage years(for better or for worse), and after all of the press releases(lies) over the years, the entire gaming community(myself included) have all but given up on this piece of classic vapor-ware. But I still have a soft spot for the big man with the dirtiest mouth in gaming. So without further au-do some serious flexin by Duke:

P.S. Love the epic metal soundtrack.

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Cheston

Return to Vanguard(Cancelled Account Free Reactivation)

2007-12-16T12:13:00.000-08:00

So I was listening to the SOE Official Podcast #27, and somewhere in there was a mention that all Vanguard accounts that have been closed for over 60 days will be reactivated on December 18th, and staying open until January 3rd! Now there wasn't much mention of this on the official forums that I could tell, but I've seen a smidgen of posts here and there. This is very exciting as GU3 has just completed its three phase roll out, including their first raid dungeon entitled "Ancient Port Warehouse". So get ready with this great forum guide if you are of able level.

This is fantastic timing as I will have the Christmas vacation to really pour over the changes that have been made to the game. I have not played the game since release, and at that time it really ran like crap on my Macbook Pro. So I will be looking forward to performance improvements most of all, as I am sure many people will be doing as well. Now if only they could push a free trial out could I get my friends involved, as they are quite weary of becoming involved with such a notorious game. I've always felt Vanguard had the big "P" word(potential), but was squandered by a polarizing figure at the helm, and a schedule that was impossible given the technical problems during beta. Anyways I'll be very excited to see what they have done with the place when I return, and I hope to see you all there!

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Cheston

Google Ads

2007-12-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

You will probably notice some Google text ads around the site right now. I am just playing around with them as I've never really used AdSense before and wanted to give it a shot, so don't expect them to become permanent. I am just Ad-Curious.

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Cheston

Well it is official, farewell sweet prince of the Norrath.

2007-12-15T08:01:00.000-08:00

It is official now, Scott Hartsman is leaving EQ2/SOE, and he left the community a farewell letter on the forums. As I've said already in a previous post this is really a shame, and quite upsetting for many in the EQ2 community. Scott has certainly lined himself up a nice replacement who goes by the name of Bruce "Froech" Ferguson, who has been involved with the Everquest2 team for quite sometime as a producer. Bruce is the best candidate from within the team and I wish him the best of luck. And good luck to Scott Harstman wherever he may end up. I will by virtue of his reputation surely check whatever he gets involved in.

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Cheston

Oh my sweet Italian lover.

2007-12-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

Well it certainly has been busy around here. Last week I had some serious family matters to attend to back home, then this week is the first week of classes for the Winter quarter at RIT, and once again that sweet mustache has made its way into my heart yet again. Of course I am talking about Super Mario Galaxy.

As many have already said, it is easily one of the best in the series. Now I cannot claim to have played every Mario title, I have played the majority of major releases. Galaxy is one of the most entertaining and edge of your seat platformers I've played in a long time. I am currently only 47 stars in which I believe is almost half way, and I cannot wait to get back to it(I've already put in almost ten hours today, which is almost more Mario than I can handle). With Mario jumping from planet to planet on his outer space mission you get the feeling like you are constantly on the edge of falling into oblivion, but fear not, most of the planets have a strikingly high level of gravity and will grab you right as you are sure its over.

As nearly all Mario games are very similar in plot I feel no need to really go over that in any detail what-so-ever, Princess Peach, Bowser, blah, blah, blah. But hey at least Peach sends you 1ups from her prison cell. Now I don't know what kind of country club prison Bowser is running, but the fact that Princess Peach the most highly valued prisoner in Bowser's castle can send unchecked mail to her boyfriend via a bunch of mushroom people seems highly irregular, and makes me seriously doubt Bowser's sincerity to his cause. I think secretly Bowser enjoys the cat and mouse game he and Mario have played out over the years, and without it he would probably be lonely with his castle full of spinning fireball turnstiles, and haunting music.

Anyways Galaxy is a great game, if you own a Wii it is absolutely a must have, and you would be crazy to pass it up if given the opportunity. Also I should mention the Wii as a next-gen system really shines with Galaxy, and really shows what the Wii can do both with their unique control scheme, and graphical capability(it ain't no Bioshock, but it certainly does shine). As a last note, the co-op mode is fantastic and makes the game a heck of a lot more fun, especially with someone to collect star bits, and hold down enemies for you. Well its late here, off to bed with me, much holiday shopping lays ahead of me in the morning.

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Cheston

RoK, The Honeymoon is Over.

2007-11-28T11:18:00.000-08:00

I think it happened over the weekend or maybe just earlier this week, but undoubtedly the honeymoon period is over with EQ2's latest expansion Rise of Kunark. Ogre among others are reporting the raid content is too easy, Kendricke claims it is the lack of story. Massively is reporting on both of these stories lending their credibility to the rumors that RoK isn't all it was last week.

This is a trend that occurs with nearly every expansion and it is something I like to think of as the "Laporte curve" based on a well known tech journalist/podcast-overlord Leo Laporte. Leo has this nasty habit of once a product is released lavishing praise upon it regardless of the documented flaws, only to later come back and say it wasn't that great, and give a negative review. This is common amongst tech journalists but Leo is a good example. The time period between when journalists write a positive impression, and later a negative review is the Laporte Curve(this is not really a curve at all, but everything great has a curve associated with it, so why not). And this Laporte curve certainly applies to MMOs. Not weeks ago I was reading rave reviews and gushing first person accounts of how awesome RoK is. So what happened in a week? Well in short people sat down with it, got in depth, and found the flaws, no big deal, it doesn't mean it is a bad expansion. Only after a few months will we really understand the full impact of RoK, but for now it seems we are having a bit of RoK hangover.

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Cheston

(Side Note: Is it just me or does it feel like Massively is turning into the Valleywag of the MMO world?)

P.S.:
To clarify it was not my intention to paint Ogre or Kendricke as anti-RoK, just that we are now coming into the sober realities of the post-RoK game and gripes are popping up which is natural.

Hartsman jumps ship?

2007-11-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

/rumor_monger on

There is a heated rumor going around the MMO circles about the revered Scott Hartsman(the proclaimed jesus of eq2) has left SOE and headed for parts unknown. As Ogre said in his post, this makes sense in that if one were looking for an opportunity to move on, after shipping a successful product is ideal. Massively is also reporting on this rumor started by the head admin over at EQ2Flames forums in this post.

Now I don't really enjoy commenting on rumors(actually it is kinda fun, especially since I have none of that so-called "integrity"), but it does seem to have some weight to it. Now Hartsman is a stand up guy and in many players minds he has played a major role in rescuing EverQuest2 from mediocrity. Hartsman(aka Gallenite) I remember very well from this years FanFaire for being a straight talker, that really leveled with players. Hartsman always made me feel like he really played the game, that he understood the concerns of the player base and could articulate those concerns very well, and in what must be a first for MMO devs he sees things through the users eyes. While I sincerely hope that this rumor is false for all of use EQ2 players, a part of me does hope that Hartsman can move on to an up and coming title that he can get in on the ground floor of. Whatever his fate I hope that Hartsman stays in the MMO industry for the benefit of all of the players out there. We love ya Scott!

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Cheston

Sarnak Growing Pains

2007-11-21T11:59:00.001-08:00

Well I've managed to get Boourn my Sarnak Brigand up to level 24 the other day. And let me tell you it has been a challenge with all of the downtime the Antonia Bayle server has been experiencing lately. Now I'm not really upset with SOE as it is my understanding the AB along with Nagafen are the two most highly populated servers around, but its still a frustration for me on my vacation.

Anyways downtime is not something I wanted to talk about right now. My primary irritation(and it is most certainly not just me) is that once out of Timorous Deep I get pretty darn lonely. There is a nice flight path from Gorowyn to ButcherBlock Mountains, but really it just isn't the same experience. The transition is bumpy and though there is a nice small quest hub at the landing point, afterwards there is this gap between RoK content and EoF content. EoF introduced a lot of great content, and I really like some of it, but it just doesn't flow well. I felt pulled out of the context and reinserted into a new and slightly confusing world. EQ2 really does feel at least to me as three parts for the new player, Original World, EoF/post, and RoK. They do not blend well together right now, and that is something I fear will not be addressed anytime soon.

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Cheston

End Class, Begin RoK

2007-11-17T09:30:00.001-08:00

Well finally classes are over for the Fall Quarter at RIT and I've been able to sink my teeth back into Norrath. On release day like many I spent watching the patcher crawl as RoK was being downloaded. Then finally at around six pm I was able to log in and create one of them fancy new Sarnaks. At first I created a Shadowknight which I played up to level 16 or so when I realized that half of the other Sarnaks that I've been seeing around are also SKs. So I rerolled as a Brigand, as people say it is indeed a fun class. My Brigand's name is Boourn and is now level 17 and almost finished with the Mok Rent series of quests. I am having a ton of fun in Timorous Deep, which is incredibly well designed and polished(mmo word of the year!) with a very Warcraft like solo quest progression. Which for me is fun, I enjoy always having a full quest log to plow through and it makes me feel like I'm accomplishing things at a very fast pace. Also the quest rewards are incredibly compared to the old world or even GFay and Darklight. They are keeping new players at a very fast gear replacement rate as opposed to prior newbie zones. I have to say after experiencing TD, I don't think I'll want to start a character in any other zone.

So all in all RoK is a very nice package for the new player or even if you are just re-rolling a new Sarnak. I can't say anything about the higher end instances as I have no characters above level 37, but it seems people are out enjoying it as there were something like 7 instances of Kylong Plains on release night on AB, and I see more people everyday. Well I'm going to head back into Norrath to finish up some quests, if you are on AB and want to friend me, my name is Boourn and right now I'm level 17. See you guys around Kunark!

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Cheston

Happy Birthday EQ2!

2007-11-10T17:52:00.001-08:00

Well a few days ago EverQuest2 celebrated its third birthday! Its hard to believe it has been so long since the game first hit the shelves. Alas time has a way of getting away from us. Anyways to celebrate there were many a blog post and a cake. Also with the celebration came the drop of the NDA for Rise of Kunark, which is fantastic as I've been avoiding playing the beta, but just wanted a glimpse of what I will be digging into come Tuesday. For some awesome screenshots and other info check out Ogrebear, who has been doing a series of posts about Kunark.

Well I must get back to work, group project due Monday. Oh the stresses of higher education. See you guys in two days.

Two weeks 'til Freedom!

2007-11-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

Well it has just been one heck of a couple of weeks. School work is just dominating my life, which at the moment has little room for anything else but eating, and the occasional nap. Good news though, the flash game I am working on for my Digital Media class is almost finished. The game is very simple as it is really an intro to Flash, and basic game design/dev course. The game is based around this comic:

It is simple hack and slash action, with a fun premise. I will post it when I'm complete sometime next week.

In MMO news, this article floated around the webernets this week. It is a neat step through the creation of a mob in EverQuest. How things move from concept drawing to finished model. It is really neat how closely the finished product mirrors the drawing. Just some neat insight into the behind the scenes, that I always enjoy.

It seems Weblogs Inc. has finally made the leap into MMO news(WoW Insider doesn't count!) with Massively. Which has so far been pretty darn good, though I did not really enjoy their 24 Hours in Tabula Rasa, as it was more annoying than informative. Though this week they are giving some pretty neat prizes away, such as RoK and Secrets of Faydwer beta keys away and some WoW stuffs, so check it out. Anyways back to work for me. I'll be posting again soon, I hope...

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Cheston

Enough with The Cake already!

2007-10-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

Well last weekend, I finally had enough time to finish up Portal, and what a fantastic ending. It was surprising to me that a game so focused on puzzles could have a solid storyline, and a great soundtrack(specifically referring to the song within the end credits). I cannot stress enough how enjoyable this game was, I cannot wait to get the time to play through the bonus levels, and I simply cannot imagine that the community will not come up with some great maps.

And while the fall quarter at school is ramping up, and I'm swamped with work as usual, my roommate just had to go and purchase Bioshock. Now toward the end of the summer I played a little bit at a friends house, but never really got to the meat of the game(past level two). But now that I've been able to really sit down and play, I've fallen in love with it(that scary kind of love, like you aren't sure if some crazy lunatic isn't going to pop up behind you when the lights are off, that kind of love). I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys spooky first person shooters, and crazy twisted metal golems with spider eyes.

In other news, yesterday I finally received my official FanFaire 2007 t-shirt, and in my size! When I attended FanFaire over the summer, they did not have my size, and asked me to fill out a form, include my email address, and size. I almost thought they had forgotten about me until three weeks ago when I received an email from SOE telling me that they had received a new shipment, and were going to send it to me. It is a little thing, I know, but it just made me feel good, knowing that I hadn't been left in the dust.

Of course with "The Orange Box", not only was Portal included, but also the revamp of the classic Team Fortress, aptly named Team Fortress2. Oh what fun it is! My friends and I have had a fantastic time blowing each others heads off, over and over again. The graphics are fantastic, and very in the spirit of The Incredibles. Again if you haven't, and you have the means, you should check out "The Orange Box", it is an incredible value. Also my Steam user name is "Chestone", if you see me on send me an invite, I love playing with new people. Well it is now time to finish this paper I've been procrastinating with so badly.

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Cheston

Things that make you go Oh!(GU #39)

2007-10-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

Well this week brought upon the release of GU #39 in EverQuest2(release notes here). And with it comes the ominous "Shard of Fear", which is essentially a small portion of the larger Plane of Fear that we are all so familiar with from EQ1.

Just looking at this screenshot I get goosebumps. The blood red rain, and the wall of fire, it all brings back such fond memories of my first real raiding experiences. It really makes me wish Chestone was level 70 and actually in a guild, just to experience what looks to be a pretty amazing zone. Alas Chestone will have to wait his turn, as he is only level 35.

Still there were other things in the patch aside from new zones. One thing I noticed last night as I was tearing it up in Crushbone Keep, was that they had finally separated out buffs and debuffs out into their own windows. This is certainly a welcome change as it sort of annoyed me for awhile. There were many other changes in the patch, guild banks, and all sorts of things that I havn't really gotten to play with yet, see the patch notes for official details. Well back to work for me, I have to have this form working and a whole bunch of other things by five this afternoon, later everyone.

P.S. Over at MMOQuests there is a great write up of their first time in the zone. I also stole the screenshot from there, just wanted to give credit.

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Chestone

Metaplace Scripting

2007-10-14T15:00:00.001-07:00

I think I'm a serious nerd, last night I had a dream about writing scripts for a Metaplace game and thinking "Wow this is so great!". The game/service hasn't even come out yet and I'm already dreaming of writing code! I'm way too excited about this. Sean Riley, lead programmer at Areae for Metaplace has made a pretty insightful blog post about their goals and philosophy of scripting in MetaScript. It is a must read for any would-be Metaplace coders, and gives great insight into what we can look forward to in creating our mini virtual worlds.

I have to say as a Python junkie, I am a little saddened that they didn't go the py route, or even Ruby, but Lua isn't so bad. I did a little work with Lua in some Warcraft mods I wrote and it was alright, so I am still pretty jazzed about the whole thing. And really I shouldn't be surprised the game industry as a whole has been Lua crazy and for good reason.

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Cheston

Portal? Yeah its amazing!

2007-10-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, if you havn't already picked up "The Orange Box" from Valve, just do it, there are so many reasons. The biggest in my mind is the short but incredibly fun puzzle game Portal. Though I'd love to go into excruciating detail, I really want to get back to playing the game right now. So let this video suffice.

BTW, there is cake.

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Cheston

Wait, which instance are you in?

2007-10-14T06:59:00.001-07:00

I have to complain about the seriously irritating problem in EQ2, where you are grouped with other members and when you enter a city not via physically walking into the zone(aka recalling, instance zoning, like houses) and if the city exists in multiple instances your group has a roll of the dice to see if it is broken up or not, without any pop-up dialog to choose which the user would like to enter. This has happened to me and my groups many times where I'm in Neriak instance one and they are in Neriak instance two after recalling or zoning from our houses back out to the city. While entering a city via just walking in you are given a dialog to choose. This is very frustrating and though you can deal with it, you shouldn't have to. Meeting up with other players in town shouldn't be this frustrating especially if you are already in a group. If you are in a group I'd like to think that the game would intelligently place you both in the same instance as that would probably be a good idea and is a pretty reasonable expectation on the part of the user.

/rant_off

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Cheston

Legends of Norrath, I weep for what could have been.

2007-10-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Now this isn't about an overpowered card combo, or a rule misstep, it is that the biggest problem as I see it with Legends of Norrath(The recently released in-game card game from SOE) is that I can't play it! Well I should be more specific, I have to jump through hoops to play what should be a universally accessible card game.
There are two ways to play LoN:

While inside of EverQuest or EverQuest2 you can launch the LoN client software and play from within the game.

From stand alone client software that must be installed and run on a Windows PC

Now this probably covers 90% of those who wish to play LoN, but I am in the minority here. I'm a mac user. And its safe to say that SOE will never release a mac client(especially after their half attempt at EQ mac development). So what you are cutting out the mac users, oh well. Well really it is much more than that, you are cutting anyone who doesn't have admin on their machine(aka the working public), this is a serious chunk of folks who on their lunch break or downtime might play a game or two. Oh and those "linux" users out there, whoever they are...(internet sarcasm, I run linux on a few boxes).

This is a problem, both for SOE and for the potential users, what oh what could solve this catastrophe? Well in today's day and age we have this thing called "Internet" and the "Web" oh and "Standards complaint browsers"(the last one sort of). And with all of that fancy "Web 2.0" out there, why can't we just use a little bit of that black magic and have a web client for Legends of Norrath? I sincerely wish they would, I understand with the web comes a whole load of issues that are a pain in the neck, but SOE would seriously open up their possible customers by doing this, and in turn please me. Well I can just BootCamp it up to play, but really who wants to reboot their computer just to play a card game? Especially if you are just a casual player. So please SOE, just think about it, besides its what all of the cool kids are doing, web clients that is.

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Cheston

RoK Box Art, Shard of Fear, what news!

2007-10-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

Well it has been quite a busy week in the EQ2 world(aka Norrath). With the new box art for their all in one retail box, and the GU39 going live to test, including the Shard of Fear!

First the box art:

What can I say? Bad fucking ass! As a huge Dark Elf fan I can say that I almost wish I waited to pick up the box, I just love it. Though I think it is an interesting departure from their previous "all in one" box art which generally focused on the latest expansion(i.e. Echos of Faydwer, Kingdom of Sky). But this is an all in one box(meaning all expansions are included with the game), so it is a lot less about the latest expansion and more about the entire game itself, so I don't see a big issue with it, all in all good job SOE.

What can you really say about the Shard of Fear, except it looks amazing from these screens(Oh and these too!). All in all, I think the zone in context is pretty amazing(keeping in mind it is supposed to be a mini Plane of Fear from EQ1). The flesh colored dragon definetly looks a little weak, though I like the direction they are going with the decaying flesh thing(maybe draco got a skin graft?), it is something I really hope will change before release as I can just hear the bitching from the haters now. Shard of Fear(soon to be abbreviated to SoF) is a persistent instance just like Emerald Halls and Unrest currently, and will be a single level 70 group zone. And though it seems the Amygedons went on a diet, I am still pleased with how they look even if they had to downsize the temple a bit along the way. All of this just gets me more excited about EQ2 and its direction. I just hope that once the nostalgia trip is over we can expect some more original content in the far future, not to say I'm upset with the direction, I just hope it doesn't become a crutch.

Well back to school work again, it seems as if I'll never get to 70 before the expansion. Maybe someday...

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Cheston

Unplugged

2007-10-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

Well I wrote a post a few days ago about my Halo 3 binging, but unfortunately Blogger lost that post and I don't really feel the need to rehash a weeks old excitement for a game that is so overexposed I think it is almost to the point of irony. Never the less, my review(the digested digest version), it wraps up the series well, nothing exciting, extremely well polished(industry buzz word of the year!), and a lot of fun for any fps fan.

Other than Halo, I've been busy with midterms, projects, weddings(not mine, thank god), parties, and sleeplessness. I've been trying to get in some good ol' EQ2 time in, but those times have been few and far between. And with "The Orange Box" being released so soon I doubt I'll have a whole lot of time to return to Norrath at least until this weekend. Oh and god forbid I not mention that Phantom Hourglass is also being released this week! I am pretty sure that the gaming industry is making a final Coup de grâce on gamer's social lives everywhere.