Two games you should be playing right now

Posted on June 15, 2010 by SynCaine

Indie-game update time!

Inquisition has been exposed to Eschalon, and some heavy hours have been put into the game as they too have been sucked in. As I said before, if you love old school RPGs, this one is a real gem, and the free demo you can download gives you a very solid sample of what to expect (no bait and switch here). Personally I’m just under 20 hours played now, and as into the game now as I was at the beginning. The main plot has really picked up, good twists abound, and as your character grows more powerful you get nice access to interesting decisions. Again, highly recommended.

On another note, I think I’ve mentioned Battle for Wesnoth here before, but I’ve just recently started playing the multiplayer portion of this outstanding TBS title. Aside from having a fully functional multiplayer server and lobby (seriously, how is it an indie dev can do this, but someone major like EA can’t get it right…?), the multiplayer itself is just excellent. The pacing is perfect; fast enough to not take hours to finish a game, but long enough to allow for some seriously deep strategy. With a great selection of maps, good faction/unit variety, units that level with some possible promotion choices, BfW is more or less everything a real strategy fan could ask for, and all for the amazing price of free. I just don’t see how anyone with even a remote interest in TBS titles could pass this up. And did I mention it comes with a bunch of single-player campaigns of various length, style, and challenge? It’s absolutely crazy that they are giving this game away, as at something like $20 it would still be a complete steal.

Oh, and it looks like Zealots are up for round two against our alliance in DarkFall. They dropped a siege on Bladethorpe, set to go live Wednesday. Lets see if we can go 2-0.

Chuck-o-the-day: Chuck Norris’s roundhouse kick is an optical illusion. His right foot doesn’t swing around and hit your head, his left foot spins the earth so that your head hits his foot.

Posted in Darkfall Online, Inquisition Clan, PvP, Random | 9 Comments

DarkFall Community Publisher update #3

Posted on June 14, 2010 by SynCaine

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an updated on the Community Publisher program for DarkFall, mostly because nothing really noteworthy has happened concerning it until today. Sales slowed a bit after March, which seems like a rather random time when looking at major dates for DarkFall. That time is long-past the date I would have expected sales to slow if they were simply based of a set audience that reads this blog. My best guess is lack of a real promotion combined with the lack of a headline-grabbing expansion caused a decrease in new-user interest. And while the final release date of the ‘June’ expansion is anyone’s guess, today Aventurine has solved the ‘lack of promotion’ issue, reducing the purchase price of DarkFall to $30, with hints of online retail and boxed sales incoming.

I’m very curious to see how DarkFall being available on Steam or D2D will affect CPP sales here. Also of interest will be how the $30 price point plays out for CPP earnings; obviously per-sale profits drop, but will they be made up for in volume? And now that DarkFall is no longer priced at the expected ‘new release’ price point, will that have a general effect on people? Is there a crowd that was sitting on the fence with DarkFall, just waiting for a price drop to jump in? While I would say that seems somewhat unlikely, the CPP numbers will be telling either way.

Even if sales don’t increase from the additional exposure of Steam/D2D/Others, the amount of income generated already is miles ahead of things like donations or paid advertising, and this is for a niche title. If WoW had a CPP I have no doubt you could actually make decent part-time job money out of it, all from doing what many of us already do anyway, write about MMOs.

And while I obviously might be a bit bias, I’m far more comfortable making money from promoting a product I actually use and enjoy than getting money from random ads or just outright asking reads for it. If you became interested enough in DF because of this blog, or this blog has in some way helped you get more out of the game, I’m perfectly fine with Aventurine giving up some of their profits and passing them down to me. From the buyer’s perspective, you would have spent the $30/$50/$80 anyway if you bought the game directly. And while the actual money itself is a nice-enough side bonus, I’ve gained far more from the CPP in terms of buyer trending data, helping a product that ultimately helps me (more players = more dev $ = more content) and perhaps best of all, troll feed. Because while they might not be real people, trolls need love too.

Chuck-o-the-day: Chuck Norris has been to Mars, that’s why there’s no life there.

Posted in Darkfall Online, Mass Media, Site update, World of Warcraft | 3 Comments

This. Is. Darkfall!

Posted on June 11, 2010 by SynCaine

No matter how I write this post it won’t do justice to what happened last night. Last night was, without a doubt, the most fun I’ve had in an MMO in a long, long time. And not only was it a metric shit-ton of pure fun, it was also a night where everything just lined up perfectly, where game design on paper played out exactly like it was intended to in-game, where all those impossible pre-release visions you have of a game suddenly materialize in one giant wtf moment of awesome. I’m still hyped from last night, and I write this twelve hours later with a smile still on my face. So. Damn. Good.

The Zealot alliance, basically the elite allstar team of Darkfall PvP’ers, sieged Blood’s (my clan) city of Kvitstein, while Vigilante sieged our allies city of Marithain a few hours later. At the same time, DHW sieged VAMP’s hamlet of Oethrain, while Revolution sieged VAMP’s city of Seelie after that. The plan was to split people up and get solid fights at every location, and that’s exactly what happened.

As we arrived in Kvit to get ready to defend, we noticed that Zealots had only dropped one large siege stone (out of a possible three), meaning that in the hour before our city went vulnerable, all of the action would be in that spot. Going into the siege everyone knew Blood would outnumber Zealots by a heavy margin (numbers ended up being about 2v1), but that most Zealot players are, as Paragus likes to call them, raid bosses. Classic David vs Goliath, only with David bringing his brother Dan to help even the odds a bit.

Nothing gets you going like seeing 50ish people geared to the teeth for a siege. Dragon, Infernal, Sithras, Cobra Staffs, R60s; most had on their Sunday best (I did spot one guy in some chain; step your game up buddy, step your game up!). We rode down towards the siege stone to engage the enemy just as it was about to go vulnerable, with the goal being to knock down the one siege stone before the hour was up and Kvit went vulnerable. We rode along a mountain west of a giant tree you can see in this video of the siege, and as we drew near all of Zealots popped up and started nuking us. Initially a bit of panic set in as people did not know whether to charge in and engage or pull back and recover. As mages nuked from and into the tree, bouts of melee broke out at the base and around the mountain. While neither side was crushing the other, it was clear Zealots were slowly grinding us down thanks to superior group play. Whenever one of them would get low, they would pull back and get assistance from others, while our fighters were not nearly as coordinated or disciplined.

As the fighting raged, the siege stone went live, and one of the Supreme Generals of Blood, with a cannon in his bag, rode away from the fighting and to the south of the stone itself. Noticing it was undefended, he spawned the cannon and made the call in vent for the rest of us to head over and start destroying the stone. We broke away from the fighting, leaving our allies to hold up Zealots, and rode to join our SG. As we started to work on the stone, I was shocked that Zealots were not responding quicker to the threat. I credit our allies here for doing a good job in stalling the enemy, but ultimately it was a massive tactical mistake to not only leave the stone undefended originally, but to then react so slowly when it was threatened.

As two of our cannons shot cannonball after cannonball into the stone, each of us threw our battlespike as well, all in the effort to burn the stone down as quickly as we could. After five minutes or so, and with the stone at a critical 30%, Zealots arrived with a furious mounted charge that broke into our ranks. Those too slow to react were cut down immediately, while the rest were left to delay as much as possible and get as many cannon shots off as we could. After some intense fighting, most of us were down and back at the Kvit bindstone. In  this video by Cattboy from Zealots, at around the 5min mark, you can spot yours truly (in a stylish dragon helm) hacking like a madman with my Justicebringer. Moral victory for me as Cattboy is forced to (temporarily) flee. I was cut down shortly after by one of his allies.

As we regrouped in Kvit, it became very clear to us that, with the stone at 25% or so, and with over 40 minutes remaining before Kvit goes vulnerable, we should have little troubling making another push, dropping a cannon or two, and finishing the stone off. Yet even as plans were being made, much to our surprise scouts reported Zealots making a push into Kvit itself. Sure enough, a group or so of Zealots were trying to push into Kvit from the west, so while our allies engaged them, the call was made to go straight south and head back to the siege stone to finish it, as losing control of Kvit at this point was near-meaningless due to it still being invulnerable.

We arrived at the siege stone with as much surprise as the first time, as again the stone was undefended (well not exactly, Zealots had spawned a half dozen mounts around the stone, but the poor animals were shortly butchered by cannon/battlespike fire). We again began to burn the stone down, and while Zealots did eventually arrive to fight us once again, it was far too late. As the victory message flashed on my screen, I ran to a couple of tombstones (the field looks like a complete graveyard), grabbed handfuls of loot, and made my way out. Blood had won the siege (and the 200k wager) against Zealots, bringing cheers and congratulations to all on vent.

My summery of the battle is this: Blood showed up to win the siege, Zealots showed up to kill people. In the end, both sides accomplished their mission, and best of all, both sides had a blast doing it. Had it not been for our focus being drawn to the siege stone, I believe we would have faired much better in the actual Player vs Player engagements. Whether we would have won either open field battle is debatable, but without question we would have performed better. But that was simply not our goal; we intended to keep Kvit, and we did. Whether it was overconfidence, arrogance or simply a mistake, Zealots only using one siege stone, and then not properly defending it, lead to our victory. I highly doubt they will make the same mistake twice, yet at the same time we did not have to pull out all the stops to win either. If there is a round two, it will no doubt play out very differently.

Ah but our night was not over just yet, far from it in fact. With Kvit safe, it was time for us to head over to Marithain and help our allies defend their city. We ported over to a house owned by Sethdrone (SG of Blood), only to find Cattboy in his house. We had a few battle spikes left, so we broke down his door only for him to spawn a new one (might need a cooldown on that AV). More spike, door down, another spawned in its place. Eventually we were out of spikes, and with just about everyone ready, we were all set to head out. Only right as we go to leave, we see Cattboy log back into the game, and unfortunately for him he was placed outside his house. As you can see at the end of his video, it did not go well for him.

We had intel that the siege stones were placed north of the city, just outside the hamlet of Spiral Peak. As we drew close, we started getting harassed by small groups of enemies, and eventually an all-out battle broke out on the slopes of the mountain. There was not a whole lot of coordination on our part here, and while we held out for some time, eventually we were worn down and scattered. Taking the beating in stride, we re-geared and returned to Marithain just in time for the actual attack on the city, having failed to destroy their siege stones.

A large group of Blood members occupied the keep, while I took up a spot on one of the houses. Marithain being a Merdain-styled city, all of the structures were build around tall trees, making them great high ground to nuke down from. The city itself is inside of a massive crater with a lake in the middle, the city sitting on the northern side, and a small elevated island right in the middle. Two rope bridges and an automated zeppelin provide the transportation from the southern entrance, while it is also possible to drop down from the edges of the crater directly into the city.

The first fighting broke out as the enemy occupied the top of the crater and attempted to rain down some magic on us, but due to the distance this was mostly ineffective in causing any real damage. They slowly started jumping into the city, while a secondary force moved in from the southern entrance. What followed was some of the crazies urban fighting I’ve seen in Darkfall, as both friends and foes ducked in and out of houses, behind walls and rubble, and generally ran around in utter chaos hacking, slashing, and blasting each other as best they could. From my elevated spot on a house roof, I did my best to rain down magic on any enemies I saw, while also having a great view of the overall battle. This continued for so long that I eventually ran out of regs and had to drop down to scavenge some up. After looting a ready bag off a tomb to resupply, I did my best to assist with any enemies that were called out, and managed to take a few down as they crossed my path. Having the hardware to run a massive siege certainly helped here, as while others were near single digits with their FPS, I never dropped below 25, and would often hover around 40.

At one point the enemy made a hard push into the keep, and over vent it was called out that everyone should come to assist. As I made my way through the chaos to the base of the keep, I spotted a number of enemies on the second floor raining down magic and arrows on those below. They had managed to push our forces out, and were now using the keep to regroup and stat up. Attempt after attempt was made to break them, but time and time again they would push us back and maintain their position. Attrition eventually set in however, as one by one we managed to kill them off, and eventually a push was made and the keep was cleared after some brutal close-quarters fighting. Victorious, we ‘cleaned up’ the keep, banked some spoils, and turned our attention to the western side of the city, the new location of the enemies push.

The key structure in this area was the mages guild, a tall structure with a tight spiraling staircase in the middle that was occupied by numerous enemies. It became very clear to us early on that the enemy was using this as another base to launch attacks from, and so it became imperative that we clear them out to regain this valuable location so close to the city stone. As with the keep, the fighting was brutal, with every spiraled turn of the building resulting in another bloody melee. Again however attrition was the determining factor, and with the building cut off from their main force, we were eventually able to clean out those at the top.

This moment of victory was short lived however, as the enemies had spawned a couple of cannons on the central island and began bombing the now-vulnerable city stone. We tried to push our way up the rope bridges to reach the cannons, but heavy magic fire deterred us each time, and those who did make solid progress were often knocked down into the water below thanks to various forms of knockback. I was one such victim, and after splashing into the lake below, I was engaged by multiple enemies on the shoreline. I did my best, still feeling the adrenaline rush of the entire night, but with the odds against me, not to mention my computer begging for a break, I was brought down. In a fitting ending, I was not only ganked but also had my computer finally give out and freeze up Darkfall. I think it was a sign from god, or Aria telepathically sabotaging me so she got some attention. I’m leaning towards the latter.

As I would later learn, the enemies ended up winning the siege, as even though their cannon position was eventually countered, they bombed the little health the city stone had from the crater above using battlespikes. Well played by Vigilante and Co with that move, and the entire night overall.

Spent yet still hyped and extremely satisfied, I stepped away from the computer to watch the Celtics beat the Lakers in game four of the NBA finals. Not a bad way to cap off a truly epic night, and a night that represents exactly why we all love Darkfall. The peak moments that are so far much higher than any other, the events that you are likely never to forget, and the battles that forge the identities of multiple clans and intensify in-game rivalries to new levels. Welcome to Darkfall.

Chuck-o-the-day: If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, not only does Chuck Norris hear it, he probably had something to do with it.

(DarkFall-related post disclaimer/reminder. If you click the image link near the top-right of this page and buy a DarkFall account, I get paid 20% of the client cost. If you believe this taints my views and reporting on DarkFall, your opinion is wrong.)

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, Housing, PvP | 20 Comments

Wizard101 and AoC reviews

Posted on June 10, 2010 by SynCaine

The EG review of Wizard101:

Cute and polished, but did we not learn from FF7 that no one wants to watch the same overextended summoning animation after the 10th time? Bonus points for making the first battle seem like I have some control, but do I really need to click the little box after every… single… short… little… text… blurb? I thought this game was designed with the ADD generation in mind? 5/10

The EG review of AoC:

You swing a stick, one guy dies, you ding. Really? The epic-spewing loot piñatas in WoW have nothing on AoC progression speed. Oh and FunCom, SoE called, they want their 1995-speed downloader back, people need those EQ2 trials delivered at the end of the month. 5gigs at 100k, GO! Digging the setting/look/style in all of the 10 minutes I had with it though. 4/10

Chuck-o-the-day: Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, but Jack still couldn’t dodge Chuck Norris’s roundhouse kick.

Posted in Age of Conan, Mass Media, MMO design, Wizard101 | 8 Comments

Anyone playing Mortal Online?

Posted on June 9, 2010 by SynCaine

Mortal Online went live today, and while I don’t have plans to play it, I’m certainly interested in seeing how it goes  and what players think. Has anyone seen any good posts about how launch is going or some early reactions? Only thing I’ve seen is a few comments over at Massively, which indicate that so far the launch is going well.

And while I’ve taken the occasional shot at MO, it would be nice to see the game shaped up and gave DF some competition. Having someone chasing after you and pushing you to do better is ultimately a win for fans of both games (look back on when WAR launched and how WoW reacted).

Bonus Chuck-o-the-day: The best part of waking up is not Folgers in your cup, but knowing that Chuck Norris didn’t kill you in your sleep.

Posted in Darkfall Online, Random, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 6 Comments

Guild Wars fail

Posted on June 9, 2010 by SynCaine

The quest to find an MMO to play with Aria has hit another snag. In short, here is how Aria views Guild Wars “go kill plants, kill more plants, then more plants. We do the same thing every time”. Granted I don’t view it quite like that, but I can see her point.

The NightFall campaign, while better than Prophesies, still has some pacing and direction issues, and overall the PvE of Guild Wars is not what I expected. I think going in I was expecting something a little closer to Dungeons and Dragons Online in terms of instance use and pacing structure. Not AS heavily instanced and on-off as DDO, but more along the lines of the very first NightFall mission rather than all of the explorable areas that follow. I must say the PvE that we have experienced so far feels very much like a poor-mans co-op fantasy action game, but with tab-target 1-2-3 MMO mashing combat rather than some decent action game combat. My plan is to stick with GW a bit longer (at least to the cap) and see how it plays out, as I don’t mind the repetition as much as Aria does, and I think I’m a bit more into the skill combo stuff than she is.

But this means we are back to square one in terms of finding something to play. So far we have failed with DDO, EQ2, Allods, and now GW. Games we have already played a considerable amount of time and enjoyed include LotRO, WoW, and WAR.

Aria is pushing for a return to WAR, but my main concern is that what we found entertaining in our first pass through the game (a heavy mix of PvE (PQs being the highlights)) and some PvP, more so once we got into T4) might not be available should we reroll now. I’m sure tier 1 would be great, but am I wrong in assuming that both T2 and T3 would be empty-ish, and we would have considerable difficulty finding others to complete PQs with or to find some random RvR? I am curious to see how WAR has improved since we last played (just after LotD arrived), but that curiosity is tempered by the fact that no major addition has really found its way into the game. The new city siege mechanics do sound like fun though, and while we never had heavy performance issues before, that area being improved can’t hurt either.

The other option might be Aion, although that heavily depends on HOW the grind plays out. I’m not questioning that the game is a grind, but rather what you do while grinding. If it’s combat-heavy and not a direct repeat day-in-day-out, and some progress can be made in hourly chunks, that could work. If it is just doing the same exact uninteresting thing for hours before moving on to the next area to rinse and repeat, that would obviously be bad. I’m leaning heavily towards the latter based on what I know of Aion atm.

WAR is currently ahead if for no other reason then the fact that we already own it, so the initial cost to try it again would be lower (Aion still sells for $40). Reader thoughts?

Chuck-o-the-day: Leading hand sanitizers claim they kill 99.9% of all germs. Chuck Norris can kill 100% of whatever the fuck he wants.

Posted in Aion, Allods Online, Combat Systems, DDO, EQ2, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Site update, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 35 Comments

You can’t just DDO LoTRO

Posted on June 8, 2010 by SynCaine

Rumor has it something happened with Lord of the Rings Online that sparked some discussion?

But before that, this is one the better recent DarkFall videos (really picks up at 30sec), be sure to check it out.

Anyway, putting aside the general evils associated with bad F2P models, I do want to comment on one aspect of this recent move that I’ve yet to see covered; the difference between Dungeons and Dragons Online going F2P and LotRO going F2P. I think far too many people, perhaps Turbine included, are looking at DDO’s success and expecting the same thing to happen with LotRO.

Simply put, I’d be very surprised if LotRO experiences anything close to a DDO-like boost in revenue/profit. The key that everyone seems to be forgetting about DDO is that it had one foot in the grave before it went F2P. Triple of a few thousand (just assuming) subs is still not anything to write home about for a title with the lofty expectations of DDO, while tripling the amount of subs LotRO currently has is an entirely different level. Was it a smart move to go F2P for DDO? Yes. Is DDO making everyone at Turbine stupid-rich? Not likely. More likely is it’s now profitable-enough to actually get a half-decent sized crew to maintain it and add the occasional update. Those updates are of course also far easier to justify when you sell them piecemeal in a cash shop.

LotRO is very different. As far as we all know, LotRO has a solid player base that over the years has really established itself. It’s not the biggest MMO out, but I’m sure it was making a nice profit for Turbine to fund whatever they have coming out next. The change to F2P is simply far riskier for LotRO than it was for DDO, because if subs don’t go up, if for whatever reason profits don’t increase, you have take something already generating good money and messed with it. I’m not saying I think that will happen, but it’s simply a risk that did not exist with the DDO move.

I also think context is needed when making the comparison here. If someone asked me about DDO pre-F2P, I’d tell them it’s a good game but one that’s hard to justify a monthly sub for due to it’s structure and overall content length. If you asked me about LotRO, I’d tell you its well worth the sub cost and that it’s a top-notch product in the more tradition MMO style. In other works, while DDO started as a sub-based game, one could argue it was designed from the ground up to support the F2P model, and hence why the transition was so smooth for both Turbine and most fans. It’s going to take a lot more adjusting to get LotRO to fit into the F2P model in terms of cash shop features, pace/style of payment, and future additions. That transition, again for both Turbine and the fans, won’t be nearly as smooth.

So while I’m not nerdraging over the change, I do think the ultimate result is not nearly as assured as it was with DDO, both from a financial angle and also for LotRO’s future content updates. It’s definitely something interesting to keep an eye on, as LotRO’s results could very well shape how future and current MMOs adapt their pricing structures and content delivery methods.

Chuck-o-the-day: Chuck Norris can play Russian Roulette with a fully loaded revolver and win.

Posted in Darkfall Online, DDO, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design | 22 Comments

That oldschool RPG feelin’

Posted on June 7, 2010 by SynCaine

I’ve been playing an oldschool RPG called Eschalon Book 1 by Basilisk Games for a little over a week now and loving every minute of it.  If you ever played any of the original Ultima games, or Might and Magic, you should feel right at home. There is also a lot to be said about enjoying a game stuck in 800×600 so much, and this indie title gets so many of the little things right, from the pacing, the setting, the writing, the mechanics, that it all subtly works to keep you playing and having a good time.

No, that’s not a typo above, the game really is playing at a fixed 800×600 resolution, and in that very limited window are graphics that an Apple II could probably handle. There are better looking NES games out. Hell, I’m playing the game on my second PC because things just got creepy pixilated on a 24” monitor. But with all that said, the graphics, much like everything else, just work here in that “use your imagination to fill in the gaps” kind of way. Aware-winning they are not, but after a few hours they have grown on me, and if nothing else they certainly set the game apart and add to the whole ‘this is something a little different’ vibe the game has going for it (which is funny in a way, because the overall point is to go old-school RPG, not something that feels new).

The sound and controls are much the same, nothing amazing, but just good enough to draw you in and make playing enjoyable. As the game is turn-based, you don’t need the controls to be lighting-fast, and the sound has just enough variety to keep you interested and listening, plus the way it is used (wind noise when near a chasm for instance) are nice little surprises when you come across them.

What I like most about Eschalon however is how it plays both very open-ended yet at the same time guided enough to continue a (so far) solid story. The game world is broken up into zones, each one flowing into the other (no desert to jungle zone lines here), and you are free to explore however you want. Of course the local monsters might attempt to stop you if you go before you have leveled/geared up, but there are no magical barriers keeping you on a fixed path, no giant “you must do this now” roadblocks. There is a main quest chain and side quests, but how/when you accomplish things is up to you and your characters ability.

The plots general mystery and slow discovery is also enjoyable, fitting the overall pace of exploration rather than “rush to the end” save-the-world type stuff. Everything really is set up to feel like you are playing a lost adventurer just trying to survive and find out what is really going on. When you talk to different NPCs in different towns you get that same sense of inevitable doom and struggle, of people simply hoping today is not their final day while still trying to make the best of the life they have now.

The game is not without its faults of course, but most are of the player-driven/controlled variety. It’s entirely possible for instance that you roll up a terrible character and find the game a huge struggle. It’s then also very possible to ‘cheat’ by saving after every good turn and reloading after every ‘bad’ one. Fighting a tough enemy? Save, swing, if you hit and they did not, save. If they hit, reload. Rinse and repeat until the enemy is dead. About to open a chest? Save, open it, and reload until the random loot roll gives you something really great. Is it cheap? Of course, but ultimately the only one being cheated is you so I can’t exactly say it’s a huge deal. One could argue it’s a nice way to get around certain challenges without having to totally restart the game.

Other things, like how certain subsystems work and just how different stats impact different abilities could be better documented, but again this could be written off as something to slowly discover. You might make mistakes when assigning skill points or stats during a level up though, and one too many of those could lead to a restart or a whole lot of save/reload combat. I know I would have certainly done a few things differently if I was playing all over again, but my character is ‘good enough’ to continue, and the game not being a total pushover is not a bad thing IMO.

It’s always nice to be surprised by a title; to find that side-game to entertain you for a few dozen hours and get you out of the inevitable gaming routine that leads to burnout. If you are looking to enjoy some oldschool RPG gameplay, and don’t mind going very oldschool in the graphics department, I would strongly suggest giving at least the free demo a shot. I’m guessing more than a few readers might be pleasantly surprised.

I’ve been playing an oldschool RPG called Eschalon Book 1 by Basilisk Games for a little over a week now and loving every minute of it. There is a lot to be said about enjoying a game stuck in 800×600 so much, and this indie title gets so many of the little things right, from the pacing, the setting, the writing, the mechanics, that it all subtly works to keep you playing and having a good time.

No, that’s not a typo above, the game really is playing at a fixed 800×600 resolution, and in that very limited window are graphics that an Apple II could probably handle. There are better looking NES games out. Hell, I’m playing the game on my second PC because things just got creepy pixilated on a 24” monitor. But with all that said, the graphics, much like everything else, just work here in that “use your imagination to fill in the gaps” kind of way. Aware-winning they are not, but after a few hours they have grown on me, and if nothing else they certainly set the game apart and add to the whole ‘this is something a little different’ vibe the game has going for it (which is funny in a way, because the overall point is to go old-school RPG, not something that feels new).

The sound and controls are much the same, nothing amazing, but just good enough to draw you in and make playing enjoyable. As the game is turn-based, you don’t need the controls to be lighting-fast, and the sound has just enough variety to keep you interested and listening, plus the way it is used (wind noise when near a chasm for instance) are nice little surprises when you come across them.

What I like most about Eschalon however is how it plays both very open-ended yet at the same time guided enough to continue a (so far) solid story. The game world is broken up into zones, each one flowing into the other (no desert to jungle zone lines here), and you are free to explore however you want. Of course the local monsters might attempt to stop you if you go before you have leveled/geared up, but there are no magical barriers keeping you on a fixed path, no giant “you must do this now” roadblocks. There is a main quest chain and side quests, but how/when you accomplish things is up to you and your characters ability.

The plots general mystery and slow discovery is also enjoyable, fitting the overall pace of exploration rather than “rush to the end” save-the-world type stuff. Everything really is set up to feel like you are playing a lost adventurer just trying to survive and find out what is really going on. When you talk to different NPCs in different towns you get that same sense of inevitable doom and struggle, of people simply hoping today is not their final day while still trying to make the best of the life they have now.

The game is not without its faults of course, but most are of the player-driven/controlled variety. It’s entirely possible for instance that you roll up a terrible character and find the game a huge struggle. It’s then also very possible to ‘cheat’ by saving after every good turn and reloading after every ‘bad’ one. Fighting a tough enemy? Save, swing, if you hit and they did not, save. If they hit, reload. Rinse and repeat until the enemy is dead. About to open a chest? Save, open it, and reload until the random loot roll gives you something really great. Is it cheap? Of course, but ultimately the only one being cheated is you so I can’t exactly say it’s a huge deal. One could argue it’s a nice way to get around certain challenges without having to totally restart the game.

Other things, like how certain subsystems work and just how different stats impact different abilities could be better documented, but again this could be written off as something to slowly discover. You might make mistakes when assigning skill points or stats during a level up though, and one too many of those could lead to a restart or a whole lot of save/reload combat. I know I would have certainly done a few things differently if I was playing all over again, but my character is ‘good enough’ to continue, and the game not being a total pushover is not a bad thing IMO.

It’s always nice to be surprised by a title; to find that side-game to entertain you for a few dozen hours and get you out of the inevitable gaming routine that leads to burnout. If you are looking to enjoy some oldschool RPG gameplay, and don’t mind going very oldschool in the graphics department, I would strongly suggest giving at least the free demo a shot. I’m guessing more than a few readers might be pleasantly surprised.

Edit: This Chuck thing is harder than it looks…

Life comes at you fast. Chuck Norris comes at you faster.

Posted in Random | 6 Comments

Sounds like DarkFall is shutting down

Posted on June 4, 2010 by SynCaine

I mean look, it was a good run, but you can’t exact something like this to survive long-term when all anyone wants is to log in, trip over an epic, and get an achievement for it.

At least they are going out with a bang, spending the last few remaining dollars on new devs, new testing hardware, and a mo-cap studio (different post). See you all in the parking-lot.

(With that said, anyone want to bet that ‘June’ expansion won’t exactly make it before July?)

Chuck-of-the-day: Chuck Norris was what Willis was talkin’ bout.

Posted in Darkfall Online | 16 Comments

It’s 3v1, we got this!

Posted on June 3, 2010 by SynCaine

Getting better at PvP in Darkfall is usually a rather costly process, but its one everyone who really wants to improve goes through. It’s easy to go out with a veteran group to PvP and get good results (you kill people), but most of the time you won’t really be learning what it takes to get better in small scale situations, as you are more or less being carried by those around you, or you’re group gets defeated and it might be difficult to identify what you specifically did wrong. The best, but most painful way to get better at PvP in Darkfall is to go out there and fight people, and while you won’t see much success initially, you will rapidly improve.

The learning process was in full effect last night for myself and my two buddies. We were coming back to a few mob camps that we had just been farming successfully for a couple hours when I heard another player moving about. As I rode closer I heard a mount spawn, indicating the player was most likely not a friendly target. Coming over a hill I spotted the player and he was indeed an enemy, so a quick decision was made to give chase. Even though this was a 3v1 situation, all three of us were in PvE gear sets that were very suboptimal for PvP, so perhaps the decision to chase was not a good one, but you play Darkfall to PvP after all, so ultimately why not? You can always replace gear, but you can’t replace a learning experience.

The terrain was such that the enemy had no straight escape path, and so despite his head start, we eventually were able to close the distance and engage. As I was the one closest to the enemy, my basic plan was to slow him down and stall him long enough for the others to catch up, but he was game and would not engage in a mounted fight for long. As he rode ahead of me I jumped off my mount and put enough arrows into his mount to get it very close to death (if I did not suck at archery it would have gone down), and due to his attempts to dodge my arrows another group member was now close enough to engage as well. He unfortunately made the mistake of getting off his horse too close to the enemy, and the guy was smart enough to quickly jump off his wounded mount and grab my ally’s full health one.  The delay however was long enough to allow my friend to fully bow down the fresh mount (unlike me he has good aim), and once on the ground we were able to catch up and fight it out.

The mount was downed near the top of a sand dune, and right behind the enemy a very powerful mob was prowling. As the enemy buffed up I arrived and started shooting some magic. Unfortunately I was using a slower-casting PvE staff, so my DPS was limited compared to my enemies, and as luck would have it the mob started casting at me rather than the enemy who was much closer. As the two focus fired me, my health dropped quickly and in a last ditch effort I spawned my mount, used the Rage ability, and tried to avoid death long enough for my friends to bring him down.

Along with the problem of my staff, our more magic-focused ally was in heavy armor for PvE, and so his best weapon was unavailable to him, and his back-up, archery, was also significantly impacted. This meant that the enemy was able to focus me without much worry for the others, and despite using Rage and dodging on a mount, he was able to not only bring me down, but then pull off a smart confusion/gank combo. He was low health now, but due to the lack of AoE magic or the ability to put heavy pressure on him, he was able to recover before engaging the others, and ultimately killing them as well long before I had time to ride back to the fight.

While on the surface it’s a bit embarrassing to lose a 3v1, it was certainly a great learning experience and brings us one step closer to really feeling comfortable in small-scale PvP situations. I’m still adjusting to my now more magic-focused character, while the others are still fairly new to many aspects of PvP such as mounted combat, keeping pressure on an opponent, and how to juggle being aggressive while keeping your own vitals high. It’s that meta-complexity however that really makes Darkfall PvP so enjoyable and such a huge rush. It would have felt great to bring down a veteran PvPer, even 3v1, and the defeat is just more motivation to improve our play.

Edit: Ugh first day fail, sorry!

When Chuck Norris gets pulled over, he lets the cop off with a warning.

(DarkFall-related post disclaimer/reminder. If you click the image link near the top-right of this page and buy a DarkFall account, I get paid 20% of the client cost. If you believe this taints my views and reporting on DarkFall, your opinion is wrong.)

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, PvP, Uncategorized | 3 Comments