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Posts Tagged ‘PC’

RIFT impressions, a feel of level 1-15.

Friday, February 25th, 2011

By Michael Jordan

I told myself back in Japan, I would hang up my MMO hood and never touch the seductively life crushing ways of the MMORPG. I have been playing MMOs for the last 13 years, kind of hard to believe when I look back on it. You name it; I probably played it, and more. When I quit playing MMORPG, it was not difficult at all to my surprise and dismay, as the style and the want to play that style of game died. Sure I have experimented with more social media MMOs and some passing tries on the iPhone, but nothing like what I used to play with strategy values, in-depth story that you needed to emerge and invest yourself. Now here I am, in another MMO after 2 years, without even thinking of picking up any of my past gaming library of MMOs, sucked in once again, now more than ever, feeling like I have come home again.

Rusty does not begin to describe my rebirth into this new MMO world, lucky for me, as well as everyone that is picking this game up, as Trion Worlds has taken the long history of MMO gaming, streamlining the learning curve, quickly bringing me back up to my “A-Game” Making everything clear and easy while incorporating all the game world’s systems in an easy to use and understand manner, without making the player feel like an idiot.

Right off the bat, Trion Worlds shows you that it wants you to feel and know you’re unique to the story. Character customization, is not only simple and clear but highly advanced allowing players to change their eyes,eye color, nose, face, skin color, size and more. This not only makes for a level of personalization that will start to engross you in the story but makes the world feel unique and more alive than millions of people in cookie cutter armor for the level bracket you’re in.

What really pulled me in was the story, and how you start off the game. You are an Ascended, hero brought back to life as an almost blank slates by ether the gods or science, tossed in to a chaotic time of great need of your abilities. This makes the for a great sent up for the journey your about to embark on as well as a clear goal for each faction.

Factions as split in to the Guardians, who have been chosen by for there might by the Vigil, a group of winged angel like beings, and the Defiance who have picked technology as well as taking their own fate into their hands to try to save the world that they live.

I find myself playing this game more like a solo RPG with others in it, reading books and artifacts that are scattered around the world for you to collect, with intermissions of Rift raids that take over the map putting the responsibility on the players to act as there character would, defending towns and outposts. Hoping in to a raid to defend an area is simple and easy to pick up on, link that together with their reward system, based on individual performance, pushing skill not luck when it comes to drops makes the experience highly rewarding.

Well the day of launch is over, and many have started on their day 2. Can’t wait to see what the game has in store for me in the coming week, but something tells me, I am going to like it.

Tags: PC, Rift, Trion Worlds
Posted in Games, PC | 1 Comment »

PC Review: Magic the Gathering: Tactics

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

By Michael Jordan

Sony Online Entertainment, Wizards of the Coast, online single(~$20.00) and multi-player(Price may very), PC

I remember the days of playing Magic the Gathering with friend and in tournaments when I was younger. Many fond memories and hundreds of dollars spent, that would only be reclaimed when I sold off my collection when I moved back to LA. These whimsical days when being a multi-player gamer meant you had to face your opponent face to face, in a battle of luck and wits rather than reaction time and graphics. I am sorry to say those times are officially dead.

Magic the Gathering: Tactics, or MGT, is the latest iteration of the online series turned digital, to take out the last bastion of human to human geek off gaming, that I truly loved. We see in this installment of the series has taken the idea in to the realm of what seems to be animated HeroClick mixed with the leveling system of World of Warcraft. How could this go wrong as I download the game, as it stats that it is free to play but adopting the dreaded freemium system of charging players of additional items to help them through the game, much like how you would by a pack of cards at your local shop.

While the game has a simple if not clunky to use system of leveling up your avatar and gaining ability much in the vein of World of Warcraft’s tiered skill system, with the player putting points in to the five magic sets as they see fit. This, being very interesting an a great idea on paper, clashes with the overall system of card games in general as well as any luck to strategy game that DOES NOT OFFER ANY REGULATION OF PLAYER VERSE PLAYER MATCHES, meaning a level 1 could be going against a level 100 that has spent, possibly loads of money buying packs to get every card he could possibly want, on top of having a set of rule advantages in his favor for playing longer. Let me just stop there and say YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. Here is an example, I start a tournament match to see how the system is implemented and how it is structured, first match was placed verse a player that seem to start off with 150 health compared to my 200 health, good news for me right? Wrong, this said skill also had the effect of making the player have 30 attack, compared to my 5 attack. Now while there was some distance between us, you might think that is enough time for me to run away till I get something to attack him with, except for the fact that his 30 attack will signal handily destroy anything that attacks it with a counter attack which will happen every time an attack is made unless otherwise stated. Combined with the fact that with his first turn summoned a monster, across the board, right next to me with one of his skills that was as power full as anything I had, just to make things apparent that I was about to be chewed up before I could summon a single creator.

This happened for the next seven games. Feeling confused as to why there was no regulations in place or level tiered tournament system of matching, I went on to play the games single player campaign, thinking that, maybe I missed something buy not trying it first outside the tutorials. I have to admit as a single player experience it was fun, challenges where scaled and mechanics where interesting as well as entertaining. “Aww..” I say to myself, “..silly me, I should have known. I’ll just level up here till I am ready to take a Jab back at the multiplayer. O how wrong I was. Ending the last chapter, I was excited to play the next, until I noticed that the last chapter had a Purchase Next Chapter button. I was shocked. I had played maybe five to six, very short battles. I tried to justify this to myself, as a sort of demo of the game, and the fact that it is not a free to play game at all. Thinking well ok, since I have to buy booster packs, which are $3.99 each, I probably wont had to spend that much for the remaining chapters. Once again I was wrong. Every chapter is $5.00 for a total $20.00 to play though the rest of the single player campaign. This game takes the loosest forum of “Free to Play” I have ever seen, combined with the uneven multiplayer basically eliminates any real fun that this game could potentially give you without gritting your teeth through the games leveling system. Even putting in the cash for booster packs of new summons would not give you enough of an advantage to overcome the balance issues with higher leveled players, making a long time Magic the Gathering Fan like myself totally disappointed.

So what’s the verdict?

2.5/10

While the graphics are nice and the overall game is an interesting concept, there is not enough there to warrant your hard earned cash for its content, nor playing through its multiplayer though buying booster packs. Trash it.

Tags: PC, Sony Online Entertainment, Wizards of the Coast
Posted in PC | No Comments »

Next Island, why you need to play this. (Day 1 and 2 of play)

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

By Michael Jordan

Now for the last 2 days, I have put it upon myself with a small group of internet pals to an experiment. The experiment in tales that we all play Next Island(The new area that was added to the Entropia Universe) something that many where agents, with some rules to see if a minimalist could enter into the real cash economy world of Entropia.

Rule 1: You must play at least 1 hour each day for 7 days.

Rule 2: You may not pull any cash in to the game world from your bank account.

Rule 3: You may not look online for any guide; you must gain all info from within the game.

End goal: Gain as much money and explore as many places as possible.

From the first day, I thought this was going to be slow boring hall. The only real way for anyone to gain starting currency without a deposit is to “sweat animal” which requires you to use a tool to gain “sweat” that can be later processed into other item. This process is not only difficult but painstakingly slow at times. Taking me about 2 hours my first day of play to gain around 180 “sweat” , from monkeys and boars around the area of Club Neverdie. With the ending of my first day, I felt like I was going to end up failing this experiment on the first day. Then day 2 rolled around.

I decided to push through the process of sweating, to try to earn some money to get some items like guns or what not. I decided to try to enlist the help of some of the native game players and to see if they would be willing to help. The first thing I noticed is the lack of “newb” spewing players that grace the worlds of most MMO games like World of Warcraft. I was instantly graced with the presence of Narfi Hungry Willem, as well as some others that were quick to put in a helpful word. Narfi Hungry Willem traded me a gun and some ammo for the sweat that I collected, and even told me quick trick on how to set up some hot keys.

In no time where we off and away in HIS PERSONAL SPACE SHIP THAT NEARLY FILLED MY SCREEN. During the demo that I was shown a while back, I saw some flying crafts that seemed to handle well and multiple people, but nothing like this mammoth that just memorized me. Leading me around on a more personal look around, helping me discover some locals that I was unable to reach previously, then landing in an area filled with dragons where we presided to test my new found gun on some co-op blasting in 3rd person as well as First person view, much in the style of Fallout 3 or New Vegas without V.A.T.S.

Now I will stop you here at this point and explain, There is a very big barrier to entry here to most people that are just picking this up and it needs to be noted, that in my opinion, that not starting everyone off in a small tutorial island that is not connected to the games economy is a missed opportunity to lower the barrier of entry to increase the players willing to try the game. I will also note that this also forces everyone to come together more as a community, so it is much like a double edge sword. With that out of the way…..

Our next stop was to The Neverdie Race Track, which looked more like a giant rollercoaster then a track, to have a fun little racing with dune-buggies. Now while the buggies where owned by the players, the use of the area as you saw fit was free. There are also many, areas just like this that would be very worthwhile for you explore and see if you have the money to buy these vehicles.

Reaching the end of the day, we parted ways, for me, gaining a new found sense of respect for this game, and a new found sense of sorrow that most my fellow MMO gamers, playing games like World of Warcraft and the like, which complain about things like vehicle controls, or sense of worth for there time, would not be able to experience this game from my past mentions of barriers of entry, making me wish there was a subscription model so that more people could see all the work and wonder that has gone in to this game.

At the end of Day 2, I can now say I am convinced, this game is worth my time and all of yours if you’re willing to put in a little work, or even give yourself a monthly budged, much like what you would be paying for most MMOs today, or willing to put in the extra time to go through the processes of building up some cash without depositing in to the real money economy. I will look forward to the next 5 days with the idea of mastering some more ideals of the worlds of Entropia and Next Island.

Tags: Entropia Universe, Next Island, PC
Posted in Games, PC | 5 Comments »

Next Island bringing time travel to MMOs, Thoughts and concerns of Entropia.

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

By Michael Jordan

Understanding and coming to grips with a very real present and a far more shocking possible future.

Many might remember Project Entropia, a real money economy based MMO (Yes, real cash that can be deposited ASWELL AS being able to withdrawal it from the game), started in Sweden in 1995 by a collective gathered by Jan Welter Timkrans, named MindArk. This in game economy’s currency is labeled PED with an exchange rate of 10/1($1.00=10ped)

Fast forward 15 years and here enters partner area Next Island, a seemingly cleaner and more user friendly addition to this game universe, with its major focus on the ability to time travel. This element of the game is speculated to have a major effect on the game world’s economy and might provide a chance for some smart as well as lucky individuals to really strike it rich in game as well as in pocket.

Walking in to this humble event was a great insight into all hands onboard with this project. Everyone generally seemed enthusiastic of this endeavor, almost making one forget about the bright pink elephant in the room that is the games real cash economy, until it was repeatedly pitched to the point of forgetting I was covering a game, and not just some pyramid scheme. Don’t get me wrong when I say this, everyone there was genuinely great, as well as very interesting to talk to, but the overall hovering idea that items in game have a huge investment value in real cash (said example was a particular weapon that was somewhat rare to find, being valued at over $13000.00 and was said to be an investment to the player for future events.) was somewhat shockingly thrown around as if it was not a sizable sum. This one gun is more than half the value of the car that I drove to see it.

This is a very real present time reality with very real and very large sums of money. This also speaks far more of the distant future of not only Entropia Universe but for the MMO space as a whole. While Entropia Universe stays unique in its nature (I don’t think anyone else in this industry has the guts to do the same system…yet…) but as Entropia Universe becomes more and more successful, it will not be long before we see this style of in game economy spring from other MMO makers.

All be it scary and shocking to me that someone with an unhealthy game addiction could potentially become destitute or extremely wealthy, I still have the duty to tell you how I feel about the overall game at this point in time. I have to say that I am no stranger to Entropia Universe (EU). Being an overall MMO fan, if I have ever heard it or seen it, I will find it again and play it, and EU was no exception. When I was writing for a site I was formally affiliated with about 3-4 years ago, I scrutinized EU, for being completely void of any user friendly interaction to new player, ghastly controls that felt unresponsive and dated without any real feeling of feedback from the game of what you’re trying to do and was met with many readers feeling the same. Now I site here in the present downloading Entropia Universe again, wondering what will happen, and genially being excited, and for only one reason, time travel.

As stated before, Next Island will be focusing on time travel for the majority of its upcoming content, giving the player access to jump in to the past to visit Ancient Greece, Ancient China, and Prehistoric Period; with more coming at a later date. Players will be able to go back in to the past to buy or hunt for goods and bring them to the present time period to sell or trade in with others. They also stated that each area has its own set of mythical monsters to hunt for players interested in finding the “phat loots”. This time travel system, which involves finding the right combination of gem stones to find each time period, is predicted to create a larger settlement base at its portal. In theory, this will cause a spike in player population in the area.

One of the more interesting things that I would love to see, that they can accomplish with the engine they are using in EU is the ability to drop in real world shops to buy clothes, shoes, and whatever else they can market, which might tiff some players, but makes way for developer funds to create more content, as well as giving a feeling of realism to a possible near sci-fi future, which I am all for, and encourage. The team over at Next Island, even stated that any company that joins, will be restrained to the constructs of the time periods and areas they would be associated.(No temple of Chees Itz. Sorry, you will not be diving in to that tasty endeavor.)

In summation I would have to say, EU is now well on its way to creating a more well-rounded niche in the MMO market that will appeal more to players then their wallets with Next Island. EU is now back on my radar and should be back on yours. I would suggest if you’re in the mood to get in to the MMO space again from dropping another more stressful MMO such as World of Warcraft. This should be right up your ally. If you would like to see more of Next Island, check out there site at http://www.nextisland.com/

Tags: Entropia Universe, MindArk, Next Island, PC
Posted in Games, PC | No Comments »

Alien Breed 2 hitting up PC PS3 and Xbox 360 September 22.

Monday, September 20th, 2010

By Michael Jordan

If you have not checked out the original title from Team 17, stop reading, get it and come back. Alien Breed is back with all its alien, lead pumping furry, for a title that is eager to please your multi-colored alien blood hunger. In just 2 days.