TallGuyCalif's Computer Gaming and Entertainment Site

Category: Games I’m Playing

  • Too Many MMO Special Events, Too Little Time

    The number of daily things I need to do in two of my favorite games keeps growing, yet my time to do them in does not, sadly. In LOTRO, I should be doing Hytbold dailies with my level 85 Lore Master, and, until recently, I’ve been pretty good about doing so. The two things that have changed that are: a) I can’t find any more things to fix in Hytbold, though I know there must be more; and b) Star Trek Online has started the Crystalline Catastrophe special event!

    STO’s new event has us run an improved version of the old and horrible Crystalline Catastrophe encounter. The new one is actually winnable with a PUG (pick-up group for those of us who aren’t MMO aficionados) and includes lots of nasty Tholians to deal with, too. It is not particularly easy, as the Crystalline Entity can do lots of damage, especially after it finishes absorbing energy for the attacks of the players who weren’t paying much attention. I have to do it twice each day, once for my Fed Tactical guy and again for my KDF Engineer. It takes about 15 or 20 minutes and is pretty fun. The end goal is a big chunk of dilithium and more, so it should be worth it.

    I’ve also been doing some of the New Romulus Embassy daily missions to get some Fleet Marks so I can help my moribund fleets progress in construction of the embassy and space station. Generally, those are short missions, the longest of which involves flying around the planet to scan for radiation, so maybe 6 or 8 minutes.

    But now back to LOTRO, the 6th Anniversary Festival has started. I put a couple of my alts through the main festival quest line, but probably won’t do more. I have both of of the festival mounts among various mounts, and while I like the fireworks one a lot, the Anniversary mount isn’t my style. I do have some advice for players in the beer fight in Thorin’s Hall, though: stay in the arena after you get your points so others that aren’t as awesome as you can get their points too. There’s plenty of time to turn it in, so get knocked around a few times to help others out. I did that last night with my Hunter and I think the gesture was appreciated by a couple of people that hadn’t finished yet.

    So I suppose this is a good problem to have – my favorite games are keeping things interesting with special events. Now if only I had more time!

  • Got a War Steed for my Hunter in LOTRO

    Yesterday’s 10.02 patch to LOTRO fixed at least one of the annoying bugs I mentioned in my previous post: the ability to track Legendary Items now works properly again. I haven’t checked if the goats are still gliding their way across Dunland, Eregion, and Great River, but that’s a minor issue that just damages immersion, but doesn’t significantly impact the game. I have high hopes that it is fixed and will report later if it isn’t.

    I’ve been working hard on Tallhelm, my Hunter, to get him up to level 75 and into Rohan so he could get a War Steed. I finally managed to do so, and I like it. I also made him a level 75 First Age bow, since I got a Worn Symbol of the Elder King in a lootbox (perhaps the greatest lootbox ever?). The war steed skills for Hunter differ significantly from my Lore Master’s skills. The Hunter has a few more ranged damage skills, while the Lore Master has a health steal skill and a damage reflection buff. Perhaps the Hunter will get a heal skill later, but if not, then he will need to kill quickly and get out of trouble fast, while the Lore Master may have more ability to stay in the fight longer because of the heal ability. We’ll see how it goes, but so far, I’m very much enjoying having 2 characters that can use War Steeds and do the excellent mounted combat added to LOTRO with the Riders of Rohan expansion.

    My Lore Master has been busy with the Hytbold daily quests, and has rebuilt part of the town. Some of the quests are great, but others are terrible. I tried a race from Cliving about 4 or 5 times, but either kept being unable to find a race gate (pillar of light) or, in the last case, server lag meant it didn’t register when I went through it TWICE! So I gave up on that one. Another very frustrating one is climbing the tower in Eaworth. I got pretty far up last night, but fell near the top after about 10 minutes of trying. Gave that one up too. I like the mounted combat missions the best. In fact, I wish the devs would come up with mounted skirmishes. I’d love to do those over the conventional skirmishes any day (assuming they are good).

    As an experiment, I put the Send to Kindle button on the website. Why anyone would want to use it for this content is beyond me, but it’s neat and I’m a nerd, so it’s there. Enjoy!

  • Buggy LOTRO updates make it not quite as fun

    The LOTRO developers have been doing a tremendous job of adding features with the many updates they’ve been doing recently, but perhaps quality control has been suffering. This latest update (#10) made a number of significant changes, including adding some instances around the Lonely Mountain (surely to try to exploit the publicity surrounding the Hobbit), as well as changing the primary stat for Wardens from might to agility and changing/nerfing some of the armor set bonuses.

    Those are mostly good changes, but a number of bugs were introduced as well, and they vary from trivially annoying to show stoppers. A trivially annoying one is that the game forgets which Legendary Weapons you are tracking (displaying their level on the screen). You can turn it back on, but the game forgets when you log out. A worse problem that hit me last night was that as I entered the Great River region, everything stopped. I couldn’t move, get off my mount, activate any skills, or even log out. Eventually, I killed the game, which resulted in a graphics driver hang. Upon trying to log in again, it hung pretending to try to clean up the old connection. Killing the client a few times had the same result. Eventually, I waited a while, rebooted, and it worked. So not a terrible thing, but annoying and unfortunate. Lots of others are running into the graphics driver hangs that are making the game unplayable for them. At least in my case, it didn’t prevent me from playing once the crazy server connection issue timed out.

    Another bug that I’ve noticed since the patch before Update 10 is that the goats in Eregion, Dunland, and Great River are gliding rather than walking. Obviously their animation is broken. Their run is okay, because if you attack them, they run like crazy to get you, but their usual walking behavior is messed up. Again, not a big deal, but it sure breaks the illusion of the game world to have magic gliding goats.

    In short, I’m happy that LOTRO is getting new content and is being actively developed, but some of these bugs are annoying and should have been fairly obvious to catch. So the devs should keep up their good work and QA should stop drinking on the job. 😎

  • Enjoying iPad game Acheron Prime

    In addition to playing LOTRO and STO, I’ve been playing a fun iPad space RPG called Acheron Prime.

    Like Egosoft’s X* games, it’s clear that this game was not created by native English speakers, as the voice acting and spelling are terrible, but, as with the X* games, it doesn’t take much away from the game. (For the two of you who aren’t familiar with regular expressions, X* means games like X2, X3, XTension, etc.)

    In Acheron Prime, you play a space pilot flying in a 3rd person view from just above and behind your ship. In the game, you must fight pirates and mercenaries, mine asteroids (actually, mineral or gas pockets), and trade so you can buy bigger and better ships and equipment. You equip your ship with weapons that do various types of damage, sensors, mining lasers, missiles, salvage or repair drones, exploration drones, and armor plate, in order to handle bigger threats. Then you explore the solar system in order to figure out why you have no memory and what you were trying to do when you were attacked, causing your memory loss.

    The game is pretty, as the image below shows, and it has surprising depth, both in the plot and the side-quests that make you explore and fight.

    IMG_0142

    The controls are very good, and, in my opinion, much better than Galaxy On Fire 2, which had controls that made it hard to hit anything. Here, the stick on the left side controls your ship’s turn, while the large thrust button controls whether you move or stop (yes, there are only those two options). The A, B, and C buttons control weapons or other equipment in your ship. Up to 5 buttons can be enabled, and each has context sensitive rules which allow you to, for example, not fire a missile if the enemy is too close or is very damaged. These rules are pretty flexible, and you can define ones that suit your needs. I use A for most weapons, B for mining, and C for missiles.

    There are a few bugs and issues. The biggest issue/bug is that finger registration is poor in the lists for buying and selling stuff. It is very hard to select the right item. An annoying issue is that the game only saves when you dock at a space station, so if you push the home button to check your mail and the app gets purged from memory, then you lose your progress unless you just docked. That should be fixed in any game for a mobile platform. It is crazy to assume we can always spend the time to get back to the space station to save.

    All in all, it’s a terrific game, and I’m only part way through. I have no idea how far along I am, but I’m level 39 (lower center of the picture) and I’ve seen people in forums that are in the high 60s! So there is a lot of game here, making it a good deal if you like space games. If you like Galaxy on Fire, try this one. Killing targets is actually possible here, though they aren’t always pushovers. I’ve died a few times. Even my battlecruiser has had its shields knocked down before I destroyed the pirates attacking me.

  • Choose your favorite Free-To-Play MMO: Star Trek Online or Lord of the Rings Online

    Massively is having a vote today between my two favorite F2P MMOs: Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and Star Trek Online (STO). I enjoy them both tremendously, as I think both have created compelling stories and fun content based on their respective universes, so I decline to vote one over the other (though frankly, I play LOTRO a bit more than I play STO).

    If you want to cast a vote, go here.

  • Guild Wars 2 is great, so why do I not love it?

    I picked up Guild Wars 2 when it was on sale at Amazon over Christmas, and have played it for a good few hours. I’m impressed by many things about the game, yet I don’t feel drawn into it and am not too compelled to play it. It’s an attractive game, and has a number of good features, but it just doesn’t grab me.

    I played and loved the original Guild Wars and got a fair way through the expansions, as well. The story was compelling – you start out in an idyllic world with a few tasks to do to learn about the potential classes (yes, you can try each class and then choose: how original!), then armageddon brought on by the Charr destroys human civilization and you need to fight for the survival of your race. The expansions also had compelling and interesting stories.

    Guild Wars 2 – not so much. There are clever bits, like each race/class combo seems to have a different initial quest line, but overall, it just doesn’t grab me. In addition, humans are nearly wiped out, and the Charr are featured prominently as a major character. I still have a bit of a problem with the Charr being heroes, though the lore claims they had the land before the humans came. Anyway, the story so far doesn’t make me have a strong desire to continue. This is in sharp contrast to, for example, Lord of the Rings Online, where we all know the main story and the devs expertly wove our quest line into the story of the Ring. Star Trek Online‘s story isn’t quite as good, but it is Star Trek and you get to fly a starship, and the story is still pretty good and filled with gifts to the fans.

    Technically, GW2 is strong in many areas and weak in others. It looks really great, better than any other MMO that I’ve seen, sometimes by a wide margin. Much of it is voiced and the voice acting is very good, which is an improvement over STO and LOTRO, where not much is voiced, though both are changing that with each new release. The combat is good and varies. I started out as a Charr Engineer (yes, I’m trying to overcome my prejudice against the Charr), which is neat, because I get guns and can make turrets. The problem was that as I progressed in level, I wasn’t able to do damage quickly, so it took a while to kill the baddies, so it was getting boring. I created a hunter of a plant-based race new to Tyria, and she can kick ass and take names. She can do good damage and is more fun to play. I haven’t tried the other classes and races, but I’d bet there are other classes that are more fun than others.

    The game has fewer skills than LOTRO and STO, in that you only get a 1-line quick bar. The first 5 skills are fixed, and you learn them as you get experience with attacks, so by level 5 or so, you can do a basic attack, perhaps a debuff, maybe an AOE attack, etc. The 6th skill slot starts as a health potion skill, though you can replace it with other skills as you learn them. Then you earn the other slots as you level up. Unfortunately, before long, you have several skills that you’d like to use and only one slot to put them in. And skills can’t be swapped in combat. So that seems bad.

    There is a fast travel system and it works well. The map is pretty good. The ability to share XP in kills is built in, so helping others is always a good idea. The remote looting present in LOTRO (since the Rohan release) isn’t present here, so you need to run to all the baddies you felled to pick up loot. Annoying. There’s also no voice chat in the game, which is surprising, disappointing, etc., but at least they didn’t put a crappy one in like that of Planetside 2. And I suppose most guilds will put their own chat server up.

    The game is quite dynamic, which is good. There are lots of group events that spawn as you wander around. They show up in your quest list and on the mini map automatically, so just join in the fun. That part is terrific and may be the best part of the game for me.

    I am not in a guild yet, though will probably try to join the guild a friend is in. I haven’t done any guild vs. guild or world vs. world play at this point, and I imagine they are fun, but will likely not be the biggest draw for me.

    So in short, GW2 is technically nifty, great looking, pretty fun, and just not all that compelling to me.

  • Loving the mounted combat in LOTRO Riders of Rohan

    The mounted combat in the latest Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Riders of Rohan, transforms the game in fun and interesting ways. When you are on your war steed, you have a new set of class-specific mounted skills. So my Lore-Master can shoot fireballs, stun enemies, and more, while Hunters can use bows from horseback, which I assume would rock! When you’re on the war steed, you’re harder to hit, and damage is distributed between you and your horse. There are skills to heal both of you, so that helps. The biggest issue with mounted combat is that the mounted skill require “power” (the blue bar) from the horse, rather than from you. This runs out fairly quickly, though there are traits to help and stances that conserve horse power (ha ha).

    Mounted combat against unmounted foes is nifty, because they have a hard time hitting you, while you hit them and the gallop away, then swing around for another pass. Mounted vs. mounted combat is a fun challenge, because the enemy has similar capabilities to yours, so it gets tougher. If the enemy hits you enough to dismount you, you’d better get back on quickly or else you’re dead. I got knocked off by a warband leader (mini-boss) and figured I’d make a stand from the ground. My health dropped so fast it wasn’t funny. I was able to re-mount the war steed and finish the fight, but it was quite a challenge.

    So mounted combat in LOTRO is great and highly recommended.

    The LOTRO devs have applied what they learned in Rohan to Moria. The areas around the 21st Hall and south are much improved. The open-tapping of enemies (meaning multiple people can get credit, encouraging us to help each other) and remote looting are there, as are location-based quests, including a bunch of new ones that are great. With many of these quests, you can turn them in anywhere, rather than having to trek back to the quest giver to get your reward. Great improvement, matching Guild Wars 2 and Star Trek Online.

    So LOTRO is a better game now than it has ever been. Nice work, Turbine!

  • Finished Diablo III

    I finished Diablo III last night and enjoyed the ending. Of course, as soon as I finished it, it suggested I start again in nightmare mode. Not bloody likely. I know of people that play games over and over again to get the platinum trophy or max achievement, but once I know how it ends, I can’t be bothered. I played through parts over Dragon Age Origins several times, because each origin story was unique and great, plus the origin affected later parts of the game.

    The only way I’ll revisit Diablo III is playing co-op if any of my friends get the game. But until then, it is shelved.

  • Diablo III is fun, but a bit too much work

    I have been mostly enjoying Diablo III lately, though I have been spending a fair bit of time playing LOTRO, too. LOTRO is still my comfortable, go-to game that is almost always fun and entertaining. I still keep playing the occasional A-List title, and my current one is Diablo III.

    I never finished Diablo I and Diablo II, but I enjoyed my time with both of them. Diablo III has great atmosphere and voice acting, decent, though limited graphics, and mostly fun gameplay. In Diablo III, you can choose to play one of several classes, including Barbarian, Demon Hunter, and more. I am playing a Wizard. Unlike previous Diablo games, where the two prominent status balls on the display showed your health and mana, for a wizard, they show health and arcane power. Arcane power is the stuff that powers Wizard attacks and spells, but it regenerates fairly quickly. Early in the game, I ran out often and had to run around a bit for it to regenerate so I could continue freezing, zapping, or otherwise nuking the enemies. Now, I rarely run out, because most of my battles end very quickly. I have the ability to wear a storm shield that zaps any enemies damaging me, so I often hear the cries of dying enemies even before they are onscreen. My primary and secondary attacks are also powerful ranged attacks that make sure most enemies never get close to me. If they do get close, I can freeze, then shatter them. So the combat is pretty awesome. I do occasionally die on some of the toughest bosses, but once I figure out how to avoid their attacks, they die pretty quickly. The mini-bosses tend not to last long under my withering attacks.

    So what do I mean about Diablo III being too much work? The two biggest problems I have with it are that it is way too click-oriented, so my poor hand can’t handle playing for too long, and the online login system that is required to play the game.

    In Diablo III, almost everything involves clicking the mouse. Movement? Yep, clicking, no WASD keys here. Attacks? Right and left mouse buttons. Changing camera view? Silly gamer, you can’t change the camera view, this is Diablo! Spells? They use number keys (1-4), but some of them require that you target with your mouse. Healing? The “Q” key. So, you end up clicking a lot, which is bad for your mouse hand. It isn’t quite as awful and stupid as Mass Effect 2’s planet scanning mechanic, but it isn’t too far behind. So take Diablo III in moderation and don’t overdo it.

    The online login system through Battle.Net is a serious pain in the butt. It is required to play the game, so you must create a Battle.Net account. Unfortunately, these Battle.Net accounts are under constant attack by hackers that want to break in and use your account for gold farmer advertising or more nefarious reasons (yes, WOW accounts seem to be linked to Battle.Net, so that attracts a lot of attention right there). Unfortunately, some scumbag gold farmer in China seems to have locked up the TallguyCalif account, even though I reported it to Blizzard months ago when I got the email that the account was created, so I had to use an alternate email address. I installed the game and played one evening, then the account was locked the next day, presumably because some hacker was trying to get in. So I connected the authenticator app on my iPad to the account and can now keep the hackers out, but it seems to require me to authenticate every couple of days, and if I don’t have my iPad next to me, I just switch to another game.

    So unlike most of the other good games I play, I can’t recommend you get Diablo III. It’s fun, but the hassles of Battle.Net and the carpal tunnel damage mean it is not worth spending much money for.

     

  • Eclectic Game Playing Recently (Pocket Legends, LOTRO, Star Trek Online, and Planetside 2)

    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…