In this case, by Eclectic, I mean random, crazy, no theme or consistency…
I’ve been very busy recently with work and personal projects, so I haven’t had a lot of time to play games, and when I have had time, it has been in small increments. The exception to this was Fable III, which I wrote about previously. But other gaming times, I needed something comfortable that I could jump into an out of quickly.
Pocket Legends is perfect for that. I could jump on with the iPad, play for a bit, and jump out. The gameplay hasn’t changed too much since I was on many months ago, but everything seems a little better, with the guilds and the crafting and other features that have been improved. This time, I created a mage character, rather than my old warrior. Mages have the advantage that they can heal themselves and their party members, which is great. While they’re not as tough as warriors and perhaps can’t deal as much damage, they still do pretty well and the ranged attacks help keep them out of trouble a bit. Mages can also do AOE attacks that damage enemies around them and also party buffs and enemy debuffs. I’ll write more about my Pocket Legends experiences at a later date.
I’ve been given leadership of my Lord of the Rings Online kinship, Thirst for Power, and have created a website to try to build community in the kinship. Unfortunately, there aren’t many players participating these days, so we need to figure out how to revitalize the kinship. I finally took my highest level character, Tallborn, into Rohan, and the changes I’ve seen so far are big steps up. More in another post.
Sadly, I inherited the leadership of my Star Trek Online fleet, as well. Since I seems to be the only one who signs in, I don’t know how much effort I will put into rebuilding it, but I probably won’t disband it any time soon. At least there are no upkeep fees, unlike in LOTRO where you need to remember to keep paying rent on the kin house (and your personal house).
I also started playing Planetside 2, a new MMOFPS (Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter). It is fun, because you can play one of 5 or 6 classes, like medic, engineer, scout, etc., and can drop in and out at will, so no long-term commitments, unlike raids in LOTRO or other MMORPGs, which can last for hours and hours. It is a persistent world where 3 factions compete to capture regions and gain the advantage. The sides are well matched, so there is no innate advantage between them. Planetside 2 is annoying, because you will die a lot. Many higher level players have way better gear than you and they will use it to kill you. Often. Over and over again. Also, figuring out who your enemy is can be tough. I have been playing as one of the purple uniform guys, and sometimes it takes a bit to figure out if they guy in front of you is purple or blue, at which point, you die because you took too long. Annoying, though I presume it will get better with practice. I haven’t been back to Planetside 2 for a few days, because it seemed so futile, but I will almost surely go back. Unless Hawken is as good as it looks…