Cataclysm? Werewolves and Goblins? Awesome!

.....Or why I may just be popping back into World of Warcraft. (The Joy of MMO's)

So awhile ago I wrote a blog entry about a new Star Wars MMO coming out that had me all excited. And while I'm still looking forward to it, Blizzard just released word about a new expansion to the World of Warcraft series. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Their last expansion gave gamers an incredibly powerful class in the Deathknight and a couple of new zones were added, but overall, I didn't see enough to bring me back to a game that is a huge time sink. I'll get more into the new expansion after a brief explanation followed by some nostalgia bragging.

Now for the unfamiliar, MMO's are a unique genre of game where instead of the goal being to complete the game, you instead have to set up goals within the game: to reach the next level, to kill a particular bad guy, to get a powerful weapon, etc. "So what is the fun in this?" you might ask. Well, for starters, there is a social aspect to the game that you just don't get when you play on a console (PS3, Xbox360, etc.). Sure there are a few co-op games where you can play side by side with a buddy and run through a game, but take that experience, multiply it by a hundred and then you have an idea of what the online community is like. It is a whole different feeling when you realize that the group of friends you have met all come from different parts of the world and that you are all uniting to take down some big bad monster.

Some of my favorite gaming memories involve my best friend and me running through Azeroth in World of Warcraft. We'd both been playing for a few months on a PvP server and so we were getting pretty good a defending ourselves against other players. We decided to set up a couple of Horde characters on a new server that we could just run without having to worry about other people joining us - and thus House Savanhi was born. We were a fearsome duo - Kaylos (me), a bloodelf paladin, and Bastille (Chip), a bloodelf hunter. We were fearless running through Alliance territory while hunting for new pets for Chip. But our true crowning moment didn't occur until we hit level 24. Up until this point, we had attacked and destroyed players who were up to 9 levels higher than us (read this as: significantly stronger). However when we hit level 24 and were hanging around an area called Southshore, we were attacked by a human warrior whose level appeared not as a number but as a skull. This meant that attacking him was instant death. House Savanhi bows to no man though, so we fought back and brought his health down considerably.

We lost.

Afterwards, Chip and I discussed the fight in the little chat box -
Chip: "Dude, we almost had him."
Me: "I know...we did get him down pretty low."
Chip: "I think we can take him!"
Me: "...."
Me: "Let's go for it."
We both realized that we had held back some of our more powerful abilities.Sure enough when we got back to Southshore, the warrior spotted us and charged in. This time though, we had a plan. We spread out and I alternated between attacking the warrior and healing Chip and myself while Chip blasted away. It was a fierce battle but we were victorious. After the fight I looked up the warrior on the Armory, and found out that he was a level 44 human warrior. He had 20 levels on us, and we - just the 2 of us - beat him! Within 10 minutes of this fight, we slaughtered a 36 dranei paladin, 31 night elf warrior and a 32 human warrior. We were actually being solicited for help by other players to protect them against Alliance players.

Moments like this just don't happen on console games. The sheer adrenalin of matching wits and skill against a human opponent (outside of a First-Person-Shooter game), knowing where and when to use skills and abilities, working in tandem with your best friend to take down a stronger human player. Exhilarating!

And it is moments like that might just cause me to head back when the new expansion comes out. As I mentioned in the title, thar be Werewolves! Granted, they're called Worgen, but the principle is the same. And I do love me werewolves (see my first Twitter tweet if you doubt it). The sheer novelty of playing that race might be enough to draw me back where deathknights and flying mounts failed.

Now before this blog entry gets too much longer, I'm just going to stop here. I'll get more into some of the cooler details of the expansion in the future and I'll also point out the debate between monthly fees and paying for new console games.

Next time: A retro-game review: Secret of Mana followed by Dragon Quest VIII.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Game Review)

…Or how to use Force Lightning to fry Jawas*. *note - no Jawas were hurt during the making of this blog

I finished Star Wars: The Force Unleashed yesterday and was overall pretty happy with the game. The plot is very straightforward but adds more depth to the already impressive Star Wars canon. The timeline for this game takes place between Star Wars III and Stars Wars IV. Vader has decided to train a secret apprentice and is using him to hunt down enemies of the empire, all the while promising him that they will destroy the emperor and together rule the galaxy (sound familiar? Like the end of Star Wars VI, maybe?).

The graphics for this game were very impressive, with very well fleshed out environments that just help to add to the feeling of being on an alien world or running along the decks of a star ship. The cut-scene cinematics were fairly impressive with a wonderful attention to detail, e.g. stubble on the main characters face removing a level of plasticity usually seen on computer animated humans. Once again though, the main problem with the cinematic cut-scene comes from trying to have the lips move to match the words being spoken. Computer generated graphics and motion captures have come a long way, but we’re still not quite able to capture the nuances of the human face.

The gameplay was very fluid, with the action flowing quite nicely during fights. The combos were easy to execute and easier to remember, allowing the user to use his lightsaber effectively to mow down enemies in front of him. I’d personally classify this game as a platform/action adventure game (with some role-playing elements) and as such I do have some problem with the platform aspect of this game. At times, the appropriate platform on a wall or bit of rubble won’t be as apparent as it should be, especially if it is necessary to advance further in the level. While the double-jump and dash is helpful for trying to fix mistakes made while reaching the next platform, it takes some practice to get used to, and ultimately use it effectively. Compounded with this problem is the issue of missing a jump and hitting an invisible barrier that prevents you from performing a double-jump and/or dash to salvage the situation.

Another technical issue that bugged me was the camera for this game. The user has some measure of control over the camera using the right analog stick, but at times this makes little difference as items in the foreground block your view or worse, become only partially transparent leaving thick lines that still impede vision while somehow becoming more distracting.

Finally, throughout the game are various achievements, like collecting “holocrons”, objects that either give you items that change your lightsaber or contain costumes. While playing this game I decided to make it my mission to finish all the objectives including getting all the hidden holocrons. I was looking forward to the last level, because it contained the famous “Black Lightsaber Crystal”. Needless to say as soon as I picked it up, I equipped it…and was very underwhelmed. Maybe I had built it up in my mind too much, but honestly, it just wasn’t as cool as it should have been. The costumes were nice but quickly lost their novelty.

In the end, I don’t think that this game has a high replay value, but idea of being able to run around and use Force powers at will is definitely appealing. If nothing else, I’d get the game for the ability to play the first level as Darth Vader. It is just the coolest thing on earth. Fun Fact: He only has two speeds while you play as him – walk, and walk with more anger! He never runs. Ever. And I’ve got to say that there is nothing better than Force grabbing a wookie who’s leaping toward you and throwing him back at his fellow wookies. One of life’s greatest pleasures.

Next time: A retro game review – Secret of Mana.

KOTOR - And it is finished (A retro-game review)

...Or how I destroyed Lord Malak, saved the girl, and looked darned good doing it!

Alright so I finished Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) last Sunday. That particular file took me about 26 hours to finish (I probably could shave off a bit of that time, but I’m guessing no more than a couple of hours at best). All I’ve got to say is this: Wow! BioWare once again lived up to all my expectations.

*Spoilers Ahead! Do not read this if you intend to play the game and don’t want the final battle ruined*

My main character was the ultimate light-side Jedi, one who maxed out persuasion every chance he got allowing me quite a few of the special cinematic scenes or encounters – like saving Bastila (who admitted her love for me….awwwww) or resolving the Romeo/Juliet storyline on Dantooine by not only uniting the families but also encouraging them to buy the kids a home for the purpose of establishing “neutral ground.”

When it came to the last fight of the game, I figured out quickly that I was going to have to out-duel the end boss and avoid a straight battle of Force Powers (much like Count Dooku and Yoda). I must have tried that final battle about 5 or 6 times Saturday night, each time getting quickly frustrated. To summarize, the first time I just tried to overwhelm Lord Malak and unfortunately was just worn down via attrition (namely, Lord Malak uses the power of the Star Forge to refill his life by using captured Jedi – all being held in tubes placed around the room). The second through fifth tries I ran around the room and tried to free the Jedi and thus prevent Malak from refilling his life.

It didn’t work.

By running around, I was leaving myself wide open and Malak would just pick me apart. I became very frustrated and decided that I’d better just come back to this later.

Sunday evening, I sat down in front of my gaming system while Misti called her grandparents to tell them the good news. Having had a chance to think about this final battle, I decided to take a more patient approach. I loaded up my character with every enhancement possible, saved the game, and walked in. After a bit of dialogue, I saved the game again (just in case I died, I wanted to avoid all the dialogue again). Once again, I out-dueled him with my lightsabers (yes, I was dual-wielding), but this time, I didn’t follow him or try to free the Jedi. Instead, I got a bit of distance between us and used the time to refill my health and reset my enhancements. Each time he came back with refilled health, I was also at full health. Rinse and repeat X number of times. Finally he had no one else to tap for health and I used a couple of flurries and down he went. Some more dialogue about the quirks of fate and then a final scene similar to the end of Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV).

*End Spoiler*

All in all, it felt like I was playing through a Star Wars movie. The characters were great, with wonderful interaction, not only with the main character, but also chatting with each other. For a bit of humor, try placing Bastila and Mission in your party for a bit and watch their interaction.

The entire game was very heavily D&D based, starting with the choice of attributes (Strength, Dexterity, etc), skills, feats, and so on. Everything was determined by a d20 roll (a twenty-sided dice, the staple of all pen-and-paper games) and your success was based on the random number rolled plus your attribute modifier plus any ranks you may have in the skill check compared against a Difficulty Check (an established number). For example, trying to convince an enemy to trust you would have a higher DC compared to a neutral party or a friend (DC’s might be 25, 20, and 15 respectively). Let’s say your persuasion was at a skill rank of 10 (9 ranks of the skill plus an additional +1 charisma modifier). To convince your friend you would need a 5 or higher, whereas the enemy would require a roll of 15 or higher to guarantee success that he would trust you. Not too hard to follow.

The graphics on the game weren’t too dated all things considered, but honestly, anyone playing the game at this point would be playing purely for entertainment and nostalgia purposes anyway. The storyline itself was immense and had wonderful side-quests/branches that allowed you to not only make your main character more powerful, but also learn more about your companions and their personal quirks. Like all RPG’s (role-playing games, for you none gamers out there), it was important to talk to everyone, however (like most BioWare games), you quickly learned to look for named character’s only. Citizen didn’t have much to say to you, whereas Todd McEnpeesee could let you know about the increasing number of monster attacks in the area.

So the final verdict? This was a great game and well worth playing and replaying.

My next review will likely be Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Not quite a retro-game for the purposes of reviewing, but a fun one none-the-less.

May the Force be with you...

...Or why I'm excited about Star Wars again!

For those of you who may not know me (but are getting to know me via this blog), I am a longtime gamer. Board games, Consoles, Pen & Paper, and Computer games - I have played them all and will continue to play them all for as long as I am able. Now computer games for me have always been a bit hit or miss, not because the games themselves are inferior (far from it), but rather because of the resources necessary to often play the new games. Anytime a ground-breaking game comes around, it usually requires a new processor, graphics cards, and memory upgrade, none of which are very cheap. On top of that, a new graphics card will be middle-of-the-road quality after a year or two and obsolete in less than 5 - not a very solid investment and one area that consoles are superior in, since a console is all but complete from the moment you open it. Plus if you find the right console (Super Nintendo, PS2) you have a wonderful library of games for a very long time (the PS2 is still selling strong, almost a decade later).

That being said, every so often a game comes along that makes me look at upgrading my computer to prepare for it. And now, that game is Star Wars: The Old Republic. What is it about this game that has me so excited? First of all: It's freakin' Star Wars!!!!! I mean, it is one of the best, most complete universes out there with a rich sense of history, tradition, strong iconic characters, and so on. Secondly: It will be a collaborative effort by the company BioWare and Lucas Arts.

Check out the E3 trailer here: (awwww....yeaahhhh!)

I'm a huge BioWare fan. My love for the company starts with a computer game series that I picked up at Costco (the first Baldur's Gate) and then played through the sequels and expansions for the next year. I've never had a game hold my attention for that long, but the series itself had so much depth, so many story lines, that I just kept playing through, trying to find every nook and secret possible. Whenever I see a BioWare logo, I know that I'm getting a strong story-based game with wonderful characters (just ask any fan about Minsc).

Later BioWare teamed up with Lucas Arts to create one of the most iconic games for the Xbox (and, in my friend Chip's opinion, one of the main reasons to own an Xbox): Knights of the Old Republic.


Once again, you had a great character centered, story driven game set in the Star Wars Universe. Glorious, doesn't even do the game justice. *I'm currently playing through the game as I write this*

And now, that wonderful team has once again joined to create a new Massively Multi-player Online game (MMO): The Old Republic. My faith in BioWare is so strong, I know that this game will be great. Looks like it may be time to get back into MMO's, a particularly addicitive genre. But I'll talk about that later, as this blog is getting long enough.