TallGuyCalif's Computer Gaming and Entertainment Site

Tag: PC

  • Star Trek Online only gets one chance a day

    I’ve been trying to play a bit of Star Trek Online since the Season 3 release, but they’ve had some server troubles and bugs. Today, while I was in the middle of a mission, I was “disconnected from server.” Well, this sort of thing doesn’t seem to happen so often in LOTRO or other games I’ve played, so forget it. I’m only giving STO one chance a day, and if it craps out, then I’ll happily move on to the other games I have to play.

  • Star Trek Online Season 3 First Impressions

    I started a new character in Star Trek Online to see what the Season 3 update is all about. So far, when just starting out, the changes are just cosmetic. Sector space looks a lot better and less cartoonish. I think the developers wanted to make things look more cinematic, so there are small touches when your ship warps into or out of a system. The timing on these touches isn’t quite right, as sometimes there is a short period before or after the cinematic effect when things look odd, but I like the intended effect and think it helps draw players into the Star Trek universe.

    I also joined a fleet called Elite Force, so we’ll see how that goes. Last time I joined a fleet, it was for a day until I figured out what a bunch of weenies the leaders were, but I have a hunch Elite Force is better. I’ll let you know…

  • Too many games!

    Gosh, it’s a real problem that I have too many games to play and not enough time. Lord of the Rings Online had a recent update that fixed Lore Masters a bit and made positive changes to crafting. I’m really enjoying LOTRO!

    But now, Star Trek Online has put out the Season 3 update, so I need to check that out, perhaps with a new character, as they too claim to have improved crafting, among other things.

    I haven’t even had time to get back to Alan Wake for a week now, let alone Pocket Legends, Pocket Frogs, Dragon Age DLC, and all the other games that appeal to me. And I haven’t turned on either PS3 in over a month! Well, perhaps I’ll get some time over the holidays!

  • Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition and Impulse: Finally Working

    As a follow-up to my troubles with installing the Impulse version of Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition, I finally got it all working, though with a bit of trouble.

    Rather than just having Impulse download and install, I chose the “Download and Archive” option, which downloads the enormous install data, then saves it in case something goes wrong (like last time) and then I can use the already downloaded data to install again rather than another 12GB download.

    When I got home from festivities with family, I told Impulse to install, assuming it would use the archive. Instead, it started to download again! Aaagh! But after choosing to restore the archive, the installation worked, and on first run, I was presented with the DLC activation code so I could get all the goodies.

    So it all worked out in the end, but was painful getting there. I think perhaps this was not exclusively Impulse’s fault, as it was the Bioware installer that didn’t get rid of the old update service that caused the problems according to online forums. You’d think this would be an obvious test: install on a machine that either has the program already or has had it freshly uninstalled. Seems like a bit more testing is in order, StarDock.

  • Game download service Impulse seriously broken

    Note: I will temper my diatribe below by saying that buried in the emailed receipt is the DLC code.

    I wrote some good things about the Impulse game download service some time ago when I compared Impulse to Steam. At the time, I said that I would prefer to get a game over Impulse rather than Steam if they were the same price. Well Impulse is giving me fits and here’s why:

    When you get a boxed game, you get all sorts of little pieces of paper that have various codes you need to enter to activate the game and activate downloadable content (DLC). Occasionally you get a manual, too.

    Now when you buy a game from Steam or Impulse, you may or may not get a PDF of the manual (buried somewhere in the game folder), but you don’t get all the activation codes on pieces of paper. Instead, they will show the game activation code in the launcher app (actually Steam shows it to you when you launch the game, which is nice). Impulse makes you ask for it via a right click, but it is not hard to get.

    So what’s wrong with this?

    I bought Dragon Age: Ultimate Edition from Impulse because it was on sale. I already had a disk version, so I uninstalled that before doing anything. The new game downloaded and installed OK and was properly activated with the serial code. Then, when the game was launched, none of the added content (Ultimate Edition, remember) was there. Apparently what was supposed to have happened was Impulse should have popped up a window to show me the code to activate the DLC. That didn’t happen. And since I don’t have a simple slip of paper, I don’t have the DLC code. I’m not the only one with the problem – the forums are full of people in the same boat. It turns out (perhaps) that because I already had Dragon Age installed before, perhaps some update service was left when I uninstalled, so that broke the little DLC code window, or something.

    So now I’ve uninstalled and have to install again. Yes, that means another 12GB download. If I had the DVD version, I’d be done already. Perhaps these download services aren’t so useful after all…

  • Alan Wake and Half Life

    I’ve really been enjoying playing Alan Wake, if those are the right terms. Perhaps “experiencing” rather than “playing” would be more appropriate, and “sucked into” rather than “playing.” Alan Wake is quite a compelling story that is slowly being unfolded as I play. Much of the game is quite easy, with some fun puzzles and chase sequences, but sometimes, the combat can get pretty hairy. When lots of Taken are approaching from all sides with axes and such, your little flashlight and gun don’t seem enough. Sometimes a flare will help, but they are few and far between. But overall, good fun!

    While cleaning out  a storage space under the stairs this morning, I discovered a huge box of old CDROMs, Zip disks, and such. Among the junk, I found an original Half Life CD with manual, as well as an original Starcraft CD. Not worth much, since there are millions of them out there, but a bit of nostalgia before I’ll put them in the trash.

  • Too Many Games, Not Enough Time

    While I have spent what little free time I’ve had lately enjoying Star Trek Online‘s great Weekly Episodes and Lord of the Rings Online‘s vast virtual world (and skirmishes), I have acquired or ordered some new games that I don’t know when I will have time to play.

    I bought Alan Wake a week or two ago when Buy.com had it on sale. It arrived, but I have yet to put the disk into my Xbox 360 (or even turn on a console recently).

    Now I’ve ordered Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood for PS3 because I enjoyed Assassin’s Creed II so much and I had some game credit from Amazon.com.

    It’s an exciting time to be a gamer with all the seemingly great games coming out and well-reviewed older games coming down in price. Now if I could just buy some free time…

  • On “Freemium” Games

    I’ve been playing a lot of “freemium” games lately and have had some thoughts on them. A freemium game is free to play, but builds in mechanisms for the user to pay real money for premium features or goodies. Some of my favorite freemium games include Pocket Legends, Lord of the Rings Online, Pocket Frogs, and ElementZ HD.  In all these cases, the game is free to download and play and you don’t have to put any money in to have fun. There are other games that are very money grubbing and annoying about needing money to play well. Examples of that include GodFinger for iPhone and pretty much all the “farm” and “kingdom” games on iPhone and iPad. In these money-grubbing games, the grind would be made easier if you just had more mojo or power or whatever valuable stuff, and the game maker would be happy to sell you some. In most cases, you can earn mojo or power or gold, but at a pretty lousy rate. I’ll discuss premium features of the games I like in turn below.

    Some games, like Pocket Frogs, are freemium, but that doesn’t take away from the enjoyment one bit. In Pocket Frogs, the consumables are coins, stamps, and potions, each of which can be bought in the store for real money. The good news is that if you play the game “right,” meaning you play to earn experience to rise in level, you spend a bit of time out in the pond with your frogs gaining experience. In the pond, you occasionally come across gifts, most of which are a few coins, a stamp or two, some potions, or another frog. Sometimes, however, you hit a red gift that has 300 coins or a new habitat (usually worth a lot. Never buy habitats — you’ll get all you can use in the pond.). So if you have a modicum of patience and like taming the frogs in the pond, which I do because it is relaxing, then you can play the game without ever putting in a penny. While I really like this model and this game, it may not be making too much money for the game devs.

    In ElementZ HD, the commodity is “coins.” Certain special buttons that can provide significant advantage cost some number of coins to use, and while coins are occasionally won during the game, the total quickly dwindles if you use those power-ups. Since my wife and I play ElementZ HD for fun rather than trying to always beat the high scores (which we’ll never do), we have lots of coins and never use the power-ups, so again, not the best business model, but a fun game.

    Lord of the Rings Online, however, might have a viable business model. You can have fun without paying a penny, but if you put a little bit of money in, the game will be a lot better. Things you can buy from the LOTRO store include quest packs, more inventory, horse riding skills (and horses), small character upgrades, and potions and such. Some of the items, such as the quest packs, are unlocked for all characters in an account, while specific upgrades are linked to a particular character. The store also has occasional sales, so wait for them to buy things like quest packs, which you will get to later, but probably don’t need just now. I have bought the riding skill, inventory bags, quest packs, and perhaps one minor trait upgrade. You can buy horses in game for 500 gold, once you have the riding skill, but that took me a long time to get as a newbie character (but I did it). The truly lazy can buy horses in the store for somewhere around $8-10. The game awards Turbine Points (the LOTRO store currency) for certain deeds, but it does so at a slow enough rate that plonking down $20 will allow you to have more fun and less frustration (particularly with inventory – buy the bags).

    Since Pocket Legends is an MMORPG on the iPad (and iPhone), it too is made more fun with premium features. The items available for “platinum,” the store’s currency, include weapons and armor, outfits, potions, and quest packs. I bought some armor and a good weapon in the store for just a few platinum (less than 5 total, I think, so less than a dollar’s worth) and it made the game a lot more fun. I played with two others few some levels last night and it was terrific. I was a level 7 warrior, and my compatriots were a level 9 magic user and a level 5 archer, which was a great combination. While I tanked, the magic user healed us and blasted enemies and the archer did ranged damage. With my new armor, I was able to handle more punishment from the zombie hoards and my new weapon kicked butt! I haven’t bought quest packs yet, since I’m just getting started, but will do so soon. I don’t yet know if quest packs are account-wide or character specific, but I assume the weapons and armor from the store are character specific.

    So the bottom line is that putting some money into premium features makes good sense for the freemium MMORPGs, but perhaps less sense for more casual games. In any case, the amount of money needed is fairly small to make noticeable enhancements to the MMORPG games. With each of these 4 games, the feeling that you need to pay money to play is not prevalent and obtrusive, as it is in some other freemium games that I don’t want to play for that reason even if they were fun.

  • Free MMORPGs for all!

    I’ve been enjoying two free-to-play MMORPGs a lot recently. Lord of the Rings Online is a terrific MMORPG for the PC with good combat, skills, and even crafting. I’ve been working on my prospector and jeweler crafting in order to be able to make good stuff for my kinship. I joined a pretty terrific kinship that supports each other and helps those of us that get stuck sometimes. One member loaded me up with good armor and a staff that was way better than what I had collected. I went on a fellowship quest into the Great Barrow with several of my kin yesterday. It’s a good thing. Join LOTRO and find a good kinship.

    I’ve also written about Pocket Legends a bit. It’s an iPad (and iPhone) MMORPG that is easy to pick up and quick to get into the quests and find a group to play with (okay, it’s pretty much automatic, if you let it choose for you). It’s pretty darn cool to play with people from all over the country or world while just tapping away on the iPad. Very nifty!

    Now I see that Champions Online is going to go free-to-play. I’ve heard very good things about CO, but I think I will hold off, since I’ve already got way too many games and not enough time.

    Finally, I’m enjoying Star Trek Online’s weekly episodes. They have some pretty tough ground battles against interesting opponents. I know STO isn’t free, but I already paid for the lifetime membership, so it seems that way to me. It is still a bit annoying with the Cryptic Store where they want you to buy ships and more, but the hustling for money isn’t quite as acute as in Pocket Legends or LOTRO. I did put some money into LOTRO to buy some quest packs and some inventory space, so I’ll have to see if I continue to enjoy Pocket Legends before I put much money into it.

    By the way, I saw a tweet that said the closed beta for the Android version of Pocket Legends has started, so it will be available to even non-Apple folks. Of course the lack of consistency in the hardware (resolution, speed, etc.) may make the UI more challenging, but I’m glad they’re making the effort.

  • Pocket Legends

    Because my main gaming PC is still down for the count because of power supply problems, I started playing Pocket Legends on the iPad. This is a pretty interesting MMORPG that looks very good on iPad (and is playable on iPhone too). The user interface is very simple, with a tap to designate a target, a tap to commence attack, and other tap buttons to for special powers or attacks. Swiping sideways rotates the camera view (I would like to be able to reverse the direction, as it seems a bit unintuitive the way it is, but there doesn’t seems to be an option).

    I started as a warrior, which is usually the safe way to go. I had armor, a sword, and shield to start. After a few cakewalk solo training missions, the game puts you in a town where other players gather. Once you get a quest, you can transport to the start of the quest. The first quest started off really easy, but the difficulty level got brutal, as some very tough and fast zombies appeared. Luckily, other players are around to help thin the enemy, but they are all at different stages of the mission, so may have different goals, so player groups tend not to be coordinated. A few levels in, even though I had better gear, I was regularly being wiped by zombie hoards. I stopped there, so I don’t know if it gets better. I do know that I saw magic users doing huge damage and healing, so perhaps that would be a better way to go. I will have to revisit it.

    In short, if you are interested in an easy-to-pick-up MMORPG that looks good on iPad (and iPhone), try Pocket Legends. It’s free and really nifty.

    As an update, I just checked out PL on the iPhone. The same character is accessible there, since it’s in the cloud. Since the screen is so much smaller, navigation is done by a virtual joystick, but otherwise, chat and actions are available. Kinda cool, but I think I’ll stick to the iPad version and its larger screen size.