Final Fantasy XIV takes me back, I played Final Fantasy XI back when it first came out it was my first real MMO game of any kind. I have some great memories of the game but I also have moved on as well and can recognize some of the more troublesome elements that I hoped Final Fantasy XIV would address. I am going to go down and cover my first impressions.
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The soundtrack for Mass Effect 2 is a stellar follow up to the first game’s soundtrack. Where the first game emulated Bladerunner and the 80′s synth pop sounds, the second goes for a more gentle melding of darker tones and aggressive synth sounds for an overall more epic score. I really prefer the second soundtrack to the first though both are excellent there are many songs that have a more diverse and aggressive sound, not to say that Mass Effect 1 OST was not aggressive but it had a very different tone than the second game sound wise. I will list my favorite songs and what I liked or disliked after the jump.
I love music and I think that music plays a huge role in my game playing experience. Ever since I was young some of my best moments from playing computer and video games is the music. From Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III to more recent works like Mass Effect and even World of Warcraft. I find that a good musical score can really make the difference between an okay experience and a great experience. I know this isn’t the same for everyone and I am also aware that many people play with the music turned off which is a shame but I understand.
Especially in games like WoW where the music can get repetitive after playing it for so long but still a good musical score can really set a good dramatic tone. I know for my own games, one day, I will demand a good music accompaniment that is appropriate to the setting and tone. I can’t even visualize a game without first putting a musical score to it, or listening to a work that seems to be fitting for the given scene.
One day I shall make it so.
The Toy Race Track and the Lego Blocks.
After reading this post by Keen I decided to make a response to the issue he has raised which I think is fairly interesting. I am going to tackle each subject on its own terms and then wrap them up at the end with any additional thoughts on either subject matter. The basic exercise is that you visualize a toy race track and lego blocks and then apply that imagery to the varying facets of an MMO game. Although I will try to refrain from mentioning any specific MMO and more so focus on the ideas.
After much debate, thought and, theory craft I have decided to propose a radical if crazy idea based on our mechanics changes for the protection paladin. Currently they are moving us to be much more attack power based and physical based, giving all our threat building spells attack power coefficients which are usually superior to the spell damage coefficients. I like these changes but something still bothers me and I thought it was Hammer of the Righteous at the time but now I come to see that perhaps the problem is our core mechanic Righteous Fury.
Short Answer: They are coming… but not just yet.
Long Answer: Quite honestly one of the reasons we saved paladins for last is because there is a lot we wanted to change with them. Paladins are changing probably more than any other class. The tiny little bit you heard at the WWI is just the beginning.
The discussion about a new healing spell was just to say yes, we think paladins need another healing mechanic. It isn’t finished yet. We don’t want to just hand them a thinly disguised druid or priest spell. We also want paladins to tank more actively and want retribution paladins to have a little better control over their damage without the bursts feeling quite so random. (And no, that’s not all we’re looking at).
It’s all coming. It’s just a lot of work. Try to stay positive. Everyone in the alpha was invited because they have a close connection to someone at Blizzard. You’re here because we value your feedback.
Emphasis mine; I am not sure what they intend to do here but I am all for a little more interactivity for the Paladin, we don’t need the level of a warrior tank I suppose but something a little more active then hitting my Judgment Macro, Holy Shield and Consecrate would be nice; and Exorcism depending on the encounter. It should fit into how we tank and not just be another cooldown but a genuine threat tool perhaps in reaction to a block akin to Revenge but we shall see.
The current dearth of news and the fact that we shall see significant paladin changes soon has my interest piqued; hopefully Blizzard delivers on the goods.
Well after perusing some forums and checking out MMO-Champion and World of Raids it seems the major news of the day is this quote by Tom Chilton (Kalgan):
PC Gamer: What else is changing?
Tom Chilton (Kalgan) : We’re also going to be doing away with spell-damage only type gear. We’ll be moving to a system that, as part of your talents, will let players convert healing into spell-damage and vice-versa as part of their talents. That way they can use the exact same gear, but their talents just adapt what it does.”
Now what that statement means is up to debate though if you take it literally it sounds like Blizzard is going to do away with spell damage specific or healing specific system and more of homogenized system that allows a player through talents to enhance their spell damage or healing.
Age of Conan (AoC) is coming and strangely I am not overly excited about this game, I mean I feel some sense of excitement about Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR), although I am not sure how excited I am about Realm versus Realm (RvR); I enjoy PvP but I like a good PvE game as well… so hopefully they deliver on both accounts. But back to Age of Conan, I know that this game looks pretty fantastic, the game play may be novel or tedious/button smashing according to some; but I guess I am just wondering where the meat is and if this is possibly an Everquest 2 (EQ2) retread with a more PvP focus.
I just read a small article, City of Heroes Senior Designer Joe Morrissey, on Issue 12: Midnight Hour. Now normally I tend to just glance over these since I played both CoH and CoV in passing, but this last bit on contextual dialog piqued my interest. His words below:
“Finally, I’d like to talk about some new tech for missions we’re rolling out this issue: Contextual dialog. Contacts can now know specific things about your character or the state of the mission you’re on and give you appropriate dialog to match it. I think almost every new story arc uses it in one way or another.”
I think this is probably one of the coolest ideas I have seen and I am not going to claim that other MMO games do not use this, but I am fairly certain World of Warcraft does not, and when I played Everquest 2, albeit at launch; it did not have this either. This to me is huge; this could add some depth to any MMO world. Coupled with the recent announcement that City of Heroes will be attempting to incorporate player driven/created content into the game may make me take a second look at this game, at least in passing.