Words of Replicant Jesus

This is a beautiful looking game, downright gorgeous in some places.  It strikes less of being a game and more of being a cinematic adventure interspersed with scenes of an actual video game.  Overall it works well but there are some things I find disappointing.

The game is currently too linear, you basically just go from zone to zone with no real breaks or towns or chance to involve yourself in side plots.  Valkyria Chronicles has more choice than this game at this juncture.  About 6 hours in perhaps maybe less.  Vanille has a terrible English VA and I expect her Japanese counterpoint is probably squeakier than I have the stomach for.  Hope is just annoying for a variety of reasons; mostly dealing with his mother and being a total douche.  Lightning needs to get punched in the face for blaming Snow for her problems and Snow is kind of wishy washy.  If you are going to introduce a combat system it should be enjoyable at all levels, not just after you “get” everything.  The story thus far is not terribly exciting, but hopefully it gets better.

Things I like.

The game is gorgeous and it’s hard for me to pick out at times the cinematics from the in-game engine.  The character models are well done even if they are annoying.  Combat system looks deep with the Paradigm Shifting.  But so far I have yet to see the full potential.  Musical score is fantastic thus far, and is simply massive.  Character advancement system is similar to Final Fantasy X which I like, though it has the potential to be annoying.  Overall a good game thus far but not what I expected.  Not sure if that is good or bad.

Tonight I pick up Final Fantasy XIII and get to see what all the hype is all about.  I have not played a Final fantasy game since XI so I am interested to see what the game is all about.  In other news I am still slamming my head against the Lich King and we had a some hiccups on Sindragosa last night.  But nothing we can’t fix tonight and hopefully take down the Lich King.

Also I really like this advertisement.  Courtesy of Really Cute Asians.

Tank Threat

Some replies by Ghostcrawler on Tank Threat.

I am not sure what to think as of yet on some of the comment on the one hand I do agree that tanks could use stronger single target threat and that the reliance on Tricks of the Trade and Misdirect while interesting from a group dynamic strong point make the tank classes as a whole feel incomplete.  Again we reach the issue of threat scaling, and I agree it was absolutely perfect in Naxx and solid in Ulduar but after that it seemed to not really keep up.  Can we still hold threat, of course we can and I doubt I can lose it once I get going.  But the amount by which threat has scald with damage is not consistent with the increase for DPS classes.

Given this is the second time this has happened though not as bad as Burning Crusade, I am not truly confident they will find an adequate solution.  But I do have hope they will do their best to enhance the tank classes in the places they need it most.  I am not too terribly thrilled about losing more AE threat but I understand why.

Glorious Asian Taddies

How you doing?

Courtesy of Really Cute Asians.

I got nothing else, probably see The Crazies tonight.  Should be fun.

Between Mass Effect 2, school, and a general unreliability to keep my site updated I had lapsed on my updates. But thanks to some encouragement from a fellow guild mate I am back to try and remedy that. I don’t have anything particularly moving to say today but I do have much to talk about.  I picked up Mass Effect 2 in January, hard to believe it is already March and Final Fantasy XIII is right around the corner.

Speaking of Mass Effect 2, what an awesome second act for the series.  I know some people don’t like some of the elements but I found it amazing.  Being able to transfer my character into the second game and continue his story was awesome and hooking up with Tali’Zorah vas Normandy was the icing on the cake.  from start to finish it is an awesome ride and the combat system is so much tighter and better than the first game I absolutely love it.  My main grips is that I wish there was more armor customization, more conversations between and with quad mates, and deeper friendship paths for all the characters.  My enthusiasm is high for Mass Effect 3.

I also started up on Valkyria Chronicles for PS3, which I got over Christmas and I am enjoying it.  The story is so-so but the actual game mechanics and the tactical combat is very fun.  I should beat it here soon.  I am getting Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3 as well, don;t really know much about the game story wise so it will be interesting to go into it blind.  I also started playing Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition with some friends from school.  It’s really nice to run a game again after so long and it keeps the creative juices flowing.

As far as World of Warcraft is concerned, I was burnt out for awhile but I am getting back into it and working on the Lich King.  Interesting fight, I like it, keeps you moving and thinking and is quite the challenge for my guild.  I am interested to see new Cataclysm stuff and I am still debating if I want to race change to a Tauren or not just for the fun of it.  I also plan to do some writing over Spring Break and try and put some progress on this crappy novel idea I have.

Also despite what my guild mates think I am not an atheist or a scientologist.  But I do love me some Asian women.  One final note the soundtrack for Mass Effect 2 is awesome.

I am not sure what to make of this EA Mythic + Bioware merger today.  I am excited because I think the merge could mean some experienced talent on the Old Republic MMO but I am not sure what this means for WAR, EA Mythic’s MMO title.  On the one hand I think losing Mark Jacobs will be a morale blow to that team but I think working with Bioware could really sharpen that product up as well.  Bioware usually brings polish and quality to their products and I am excited to see what this new group will do with their established titles and forthcoming products.

Although I never played Dark Ages of Camelot (DAoC) I recognize that the game was rather successful in it’s time and although still kicking and going is in decline as newer products come to the fore.  I recognize that Mark Jacobs played a large part in that initial vision for DAoC and should be respected at least for bringing an influential product to the MMO scene.  The game was successful and although not World of Warcraft numbers at the time it was an MMO blockbuster as far as subscriptions go and impact on products that followed.

Having beta-tested WAR I was not too surprised that it’s success, relative to World of Warcraft, was not what EA thought it would be.  The game never really hooked me and seemed to emulate much of what Blizzard had done without understanding the why it was done.  I do think the game has plenty of legs though and I think it brought some really good ideas to the table that I am sure we will see in future products.  I hope that the success of WAR did not affect this departure but I suspect it may have played a role.

I wish him the best of luck and I hope this merge brings good things to us in the future.

Link: http://kotaku.com/5302069/ea-combines-mythic-and-bioware-into-a-giant-rpg-robot

Coming in 3.2 is the Crusaders’ Coliseum which promises to bring another tier of raid difficulty and content to the game.  Along with that is the inclusion of a new Heroic raid dungeon system which according to Zarhym which include the Hard Modes of the bosses and the tribute system.  It seems that according to the official website raiders will have to unlock the Trial of the Grand Crusader by completing the normal version of the raid dungeon on 10 or 25 versions.  Once done they can attempt the Trial but only get a certain number of attempts per week to try and clearing the dungeon with the least amount of attempts used will net higher rewards.

Which means we will 10-man and 25-man normal raid dungeons and 10-man and 25-man Heroic dungeons, giving us 4 completely different lockouts for a given week for a single dungeon.  This will be interesting and I am not sure how it will play out but hopefully it works.  I am intrigued to see how the achievements will work for these encounters and I can almost assume that any mounts will be given for the Heroic mode of the dungeons only but we shall see.

Hopefully more information will be forthcoming once the PTR goes into full swing.

It’s like Christmas but better.

New patch notes!

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I love achievements on the Xbox 360 and in World of Warcraft; I am not sure why but they drive me to do things that I normally would not care about.  Perhaps it’s just another carrot on a stick but it drives me and it resonates with my gamer instincts to continually achieve especially if I enjoy the game.  Last night I finally hit level 60 in Mass Effect, over fifty hours of play time and a third partial play through.  But I scored 50 extra nerd points.

I have to wonder if I am just addicted or perhaps wired to continually achieve especially in World of Warcraft, although no where near the top I have a respectable amount at 6500… I don’t play often now, just login to raid but with new content coming I will probably get my dailies going again for extra money and tokens.

I love me some nerd points.

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.

After E3 I have quite a few new projects I am looking forward to; three of them from Bioware; Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dragon Age: Origins, and Mass Effect 2. I am really excited about all three projects, especially Mass Effect which I have beaten about 6-8 times on the Xbox 360. I think I am most excited about Mass Effect 2 but the prospect of messing with the Aurora toolset for Dragon Age has my interest piqued as well. 2009 and 2010 will be an interesting year for gaming and my continued growth as a programmer and game designer… well one day game designer. Below the jump is the Mass Effect 2 E3 gameplay trailer; I think I have watched this trailer like 50 times and I am still not tired of it.

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