Hey look, a post about Dragon Age

Posted on November 16, 2009 by SynCaine

I think I’m close to the end in Dragon Age. Not ‘one fight to go’ close, but reasonably close. I’m level 18 right now, and looking at the skill trees and such, I don’t think you are intended to level much higher. Also the usual RPG hints of ‘the end is near’ are starting to creep up. I’m happy about this because I want to wrap up my singular focus on DA and put more time into DarkFall again. The few hours I’ve been online since transfers have been interesting, and I’ve yet to really meet most of the major players in our new clan (VAMP) and alliance (ShadowPact).

Back to Dragon Age though, I just finished the dwarf portion, and once again I must say I’m floored. The trek through the Deep Roads, all the lore (I don’t remember the last game I’ve been this excited when finding a new piece of lore, kinda cool/odd), the choices and plot twists, it’s all just great stuff. One other thing I’m impressed with is that while each major area (delvish forest, mages tower, human keep, deep roads) has its own unique feel and gameplay, it still all feels like one world. It would be all too easy to have each area be its own thing, and not really relate or work with everything else. It all comes together in DA though, and it keeps you both focused and motivated.

One final note for today, I really like how your standing with other party members impacts gameplay. My guy has a thing with Morigan, and word has spread throughout the camp. While walking around different part members will either talk about it between themselves, or they will ask Morigan directly about it. Morigan being her charming self, the conversations are rather hilarious. In addition to this, Alister is my most liked party member, and so when things go down it seems that he is always the one who is there for advice or assistance. Very curious how some of these events play out if your relationships are different with various characters.

In addition to that replay value, I also suspect that the order you choose to rally your allies has an impact on events. My guess is the actual events themselves will be similar, but the lead up and aftermath will be a little different. Just another reason to press on and wrap up the story, and then try it again with a totally different approach.

Posted in Darkfall Online, Random | 18 Comments

Enjoying the Dragon Age themepark, minus the sub fee.

Posted on November 13, 2009 by SynCaine

Having read a fair amount of reviews and impressions of Dragon Age, I’m a bit confused by the complaint by some that it’s too linear, or not ‘sandbox’ enough. I view those statements the same way I view “Aion is too grindy” or “CoD:MW2 needs more user mods”; what the hell did you expect going in?

The oddest comparison is Dragon Age to Oblivion, because how far does your head have to be in the sand to think DA is trying to be Oblivion, or that Oblivion was trying to do what DA does? One is very clearly a linear RPG, while the other continues a series that has always been more sandbox. If you don’t like linear or sandbox games, why go into DA/Oblivion and expect anything else?

I’ve also seen a few comments about people expressing surprise that I’m enjoying DA as much as I am, given my preference for sandbox MMOs over themeparks. To me the answer is rather obvious, DA is a SINGLE player RPG, MMOs are (or should be) MULTIPLAYER games, but I guess some further clarification can’t hurt. The reason I want my single player games to be a little linear is because I’m there for the story, and I don’t intend to hang around forever or become truly invested in that world. I accept and enjoy the fact that in a single player game everything revolves around me. The concept of a ‘solo-hero’ does not really apply because, well, that’s the one and only point (hero in this case does not mean you do everything and are all powerful, just that everything is driven by only your actions).

Part of the appeal in an MMO for me is that things DO happen outside of your control, and in ways you don’t always expect. That’s what makes them living, breathing worlds, or should anyway. To me a solo-hero friendly MMO like WoW removes that aspect, and you are left with the tedious aspects of an MMO (poor story, limited gameplay, treadmill gaming) without the benefits that a single player game really provides. Add in that you are paying $15 for that sub-par single player adventure, and I’m all set. And really that’s why I do enjoy a game like Dragon Age so much, can dislike WoW, and love DarkFall.

WoW (and other solo-hero themeparks) to me are stuck between DA and DF. Their not the player-drive, interactive worlds that a game like DF has, but their also not the top-notch story-driven adventure that DA is. They have little bits of solo-driven story (Wrathgate) and little bits of virtual world (auction house, raids, arena), but each piece is weakened due to having to co-exist with everything else. DA can have imbalanced gear or skills if used in PvP because PvP is not a factor. DF can have a lack of PvE-driven story because the PvP moves Agon’s story along daily. The story in DA can be expertly paced because Bioware knows your exact progression before you even do it, while Blizzard can only provide short bits due to the unpredictable nature of 80 levels and thousands of gear/class combinations.

So yes, I do indeed enjoy a linear, themepark-like ride for my single player gaming. But when I’m logging into a virtual world, I also fully expect it to be just that, a world, where I’m just a cog in a far greater, far larger machine, one that is cranking 24/7, spitting out changes and ‘content’ at all times.

Posted in Darkfall Online, MMO design, PvP, Random, World of Warcraft | 18 Comments

Bambie is coming to DarkFall!

Posted on November 11, 2009 by SynCaine

Another day, another Spotlight, more drool in the drool cup.

I’m happy that the wildlife coming to DarkFall will be part-time scenery, part-time resource node for leather/meat. That’s exactly what they should be, and I think the addition will really bring more life to Agon. It’s funny to watch the ForumFall community cheering the addition of non-aggressive deer to the game, so much for keep up the basement-dwelling sociopath image, at least outside of the General forum.

The mob AI and difficulty/loot changes also sound interesting. While overall I feel mob difficulty/reward is more or less on target right now, there are still certain mobs that are way too tough for the loot they drop, and some mobs are a little too easy to solo using some clever (but legal) tactics. It will be interesting to see how players adapt to the strength/weakness aspects as well. Will we see more players skilling up multiple weapon types, or will most people just avoid mobs they are not skilled to take on? How effective will brute force be? Will this AI update help or hinder exploiting? Will anyone finally kill a devil legitimately? And finally, how in the hell is Aventurine able to add so much stuff into one expansion given the size of their dev team?

Now just give us some info about caravans, boats, and a release date, if that’s not asking too much of course.

Posted in crafting, Darkfall Online, MMO design, Patch Notes | 7 Comments

8 hours, 30 hours, Dragon Age is still awesome

Posted on November 11, 2009 by SynCaine

Still drooling over Dragon Age here, now being over 30 hours into it (thanks Xfire). The challenge has really held up, and even though I now have more options in terms of party members, gear, and abilities, many of the encounters still require a few tries before I see success. The mental reward for such a challenge is also nice, because when I do come across an easier encounter, it just feels like it’s easy because my guys are heroes with some real power, rather than it being easy for the sake of easy. Hopefully that makes sense… I’m also very interested to see how Hard mode plays on a second run through, or even Nightmare mode.

I also want to address something I mentioned in my review concerning the story and the layers of gray in the choices you make. Having dug a little deeper, there ARE some tough choices to be made in the game, and things don’t always play out like you would expect them to. Even though the main enemies you face are evil demons, at times even they make you pause and consider options beyond just killing them, or the option to kill them is not always the ‘best’ option in terms of being a good guy. When you start factoring in how your party members are going to react (and this depends on who you have with you at the time), things can get gray very quickly.

Finally, I’ve completed both DLC additions (included in the pre-order CE edition), and while nice, they felt a little tacked-on, and if I had to pay for them now I would elect to skip them. It’s decent-enough content, but it does not really add a whole lot to the game’s story overall, which is generally one of my issues with DLC. I think (hope) more happens with the keep, but the golem party member for me is very meh in terms of abilities and function, although the little side quest to get him was interesting. He is also limited in gear selection much like your dog companion, which is a negative for me. At least he seems to have an interesting personality, but I wonder how much he integrates into the overall story, considering he is a ‘tacked on’ extra.

Not to spoil anything, but the entire quest line around getting the mages circle to help you, wow. Just wow. I was up till 1:30am last night because I simply could not walk away without seeing the conclusion, and it was worth every sleepless (ba-zing) minute.

Posted in Random | 24 Comments

A hooker or CoD:MW2?

Posted on November 10, 2009 by SynCaine

Now this is a bit of a ratings disparity.

Now personally I don’t really care for FPS games, but just looking in from the outside, how amazing does one night of gaming (the length of the single player campaign, reportedly) have to be to justify paying $60 for it, given that multiplayer has been neutered down to console levels? Seems Kotick is charging cheap-hooker prices for one night of fun; makes you wonder how many tricks are going to pay up in the next few weeks.

Posted in Console Gaming, Mass Media, Random, Rant | 18 Comments

It’s now officially an expansion.

Posted on November 10, 2009 by SynCaine

Each Spotlight post on the DarkFall forums about the upcoming expansion (it’s now officially an expansion in my mind, given the bat-shit crazy amount of stuff included. I know MMO games with shorter feature lists than what has been mentioned for this expansion) reminds me that I really, really need to finish Dragon Age before it’s released, because something tells me I won’t be doing anything outside of DarkFall for a long, long time.

Yesterday the Spotlight was about the upcoming changes to melee and archery combat, with both seemingly getting multiple abilities and features. I think many expected 1-2 changes rather than the somewhat extensive (and incomplete mind you) stuff talked about in the post. I’d love to speculate how it will all play out once live, but it’s so much stuff I honestly have no clue. Will melee dominate? Will archery require a totally different approach? Will magic still be OP, niche, or useless? No one really knows, but what is very clear to everyone is that come the expansion, combat in DarkFall is going to look and play very differently. I’m cautiously optimistic here given the success of the previous expansion, and with Aventurine’s core delivery of DarkFall overall.

Today’s Spotlight hit far closer to home for me. It details the new player vendors, and I’m honestly blown away. This is, almost to a T, the UO player vendor system, and that’s EXACTLY what I was hoping for. When player vendors in DarkFall were first mentioned, I half-heartedly wished for UO vendors, but the realist part of me knew it would be something different ‘just because’, so I’m overjoyed that it’s not. I spent countless hours in UO around my vendor: restocking him, crafting new things to sell, checking on prices, talking to shoppers. To me the vendor was an almost endless catalyst of content, and I have little doubt the DF version will deliver as well. My only concern is actually getting one, as currently owning a house in DarkFall is an expensive venture, but with vendors, that’s just more motivation to gather the required gold and further pursue my crafting skills.

On top of vendors, the post also mentions that a new style of house, a keep, is being added. The keep will be bigger than a large villa, and allow (once finished) up to ten people to bind to it. Can you say mini-hamlet in a village? With house-based local banking, a player vendor, and small clan binding capability, the keep will be the perfect addition for smaller groups of friends to have a home of their own to operate out of.

I’ve said since day-one that DarkFall has a rock solid base for a sandbox game, with by far the best combat system in any MMO and a huge, beautifully constructed world. And it’s that solid base that allows Aventurine to focus on expanding the game in ways that are both unexpected and yet demanded. Each addition has truly been a step forward for the game and not the usual ‘one step forward, two steps back’ patching that other MMOs at times suffer from. It still has its flaws, and it will NEVER be a game for most, but you can’t argue it’s already delivered a great gaming experience for those interested in what it offers, and that experience is only going to get better as time goes on.

Posted in Combat Systems, crafting, Darkfall Online, Housing, MMO design, Patch Notes, Ultima Online | 4 Comments

And this little piggie went to market

Posted on November 10, 2009 by SynCaine

I’ve written before that to most game companies, the only real voice a gamer has is his money. Word-of-mouth, positive/negative buzz, petitions, blog or forum posts; none of these count nearly as much as you making the decision to pay or not pay for a companies product. Yet it’s that most important voice or vote that many either ignore, or hypocritically abuse. Be it ranting for something different and buying more of the same (Aion), complaining about a lack of updates and then rewarding something trivial (WoW pets), voicing your anger about a companies greed and at the same time getting in line and asking for more (CoD:MW2), or complaining that gaming is being marginalized and becoming too profit-focused, and then playing/paying for a ‘game’ like Mafia Wars or any of it’s clones on Facebook, countless examples exist of gamers asking for more abuse.

And as Tobold correctly writes, you can’t blame the companies. Why would Blizzard kill themselves and release a ‘free’ content patch more often when they just got however many thousands of players to give them 2/3rd of a subscription for one pet (or 4/3rd if you bought both)? Why try to match the content/patch rate of other titles when clearly millions are willing to continue paying $15 a month and getting next-to-nothing, only to hand over $40 on day one for an update every two years? When Kotick proclaims he is being a nice guy and ONLY charging $60 for CoD:MW2, why get upset at him when plenty of little piggies are lining up and gladly handing him $120 for an obviously cash>player product? And why blame EA for not releasing original titles when each year millions rush to buy the same version of Madden rather than some original IP?

As gaming has become more mainstream, the model of quality=profit has been all but forgotten. ‘Back in the day’ the only people buying shovelware were unsuspecting moms at Walmart picking up a new game for little Billy, and look, it’s just $5 and has bright colors on the box. Today millions of ‘gamers’ are ‘playing’ Facebook games and buying (or being scammed for) points to push their name up some virtual board. Sure the ‘games’ suck, but look, your name on the internet! Even in the MMO space millions of people are literally paying to NOT play the game, or paying for something that REMOVES content for them (XP pots, items, mounts), because by paying they can get their shiny epics or whatever other meaningless achievement system is being used. At least some years back, you only had to shake your head at all those movie-based games that sold well, fully knowing they are terrible games aimed more at tricking someone into a purchase rather than trying to deliver anything of quality. Today it seems it’s every other title (if not more) on the monthly sales chart. On top of all this, many who consider themselves gamers and bitch and moan about the lack of originality or quality are the first ones illegally downloading a title. Congratulations, you are not only a hypocrite, but a parasite as well.

In any market that explodes in popularity, at some point a shift away from cash-grab crap will be made. Sadly as recent examples clearly indicate, we are not even close to that point, and unfortunately the piggie and parasite population is currently determining what titles are brought to market, at least at the AAA level. Until people like Kotick are proven wrong, and millions of ‘gamers’ stop asking “how high” when he says “jump”, don’t expect things to change.

Posted in Aion, Console Gaming, Mass Media, MMO design, Random, Rant, World of Warcraft | 15 Comments

More Dragon Age

Posted on November 9, 2009 by SynCaine

Dragon Age is really bad for an MMO blog, direct your blame correctly.

Seriously though, you know the game is good when all other gaming stops and you only play that one title. Especially considering DarkFall EU-NA transfers just happened, Apollo merged into VAMP, and rumor has it the server has been rather busy with all kinds of PvP. Hopefully I’ll have DA finished before the next patch/expansion for DF hits, otherwise it might be difficult to keep a solid balance, and I really don’t want to lose my momentum in DA and not see the story to it’s conclusion.

And when not playing DA, I’ve been reading about it (why is it that reviews of a game are more fun to read once you have played the game? That makes no sense to me, but there it is). Are the graphics on the PS3 and Xbox360 turned down for DA compared to the PC, because I keep seeing references in those reviews to the graphics not being all that good, yet on my PC the game is flat-out gorgeous. I mean it’s not Crysis in terms of graphics tech, but it IS a damn good looking game. Anyone have an explanation?

Not that the game is graphically perfect, and I can somewhat understand a few of the complaints, especially about clipping. Now for me clipping is just what happens when you use 3D models, but I get that it might drive others crazy. For Dragon Age, I can fully understand the occasional clipping issue with armor or weapons during a cutscene, as these things vary depending on what you are wearing. It does seem like ALL heavy armor shoulders clip into your chest whenever you move your arm, but for me it’s a non-issue to be honest. What I do find odd is when a dwarf merchant crosses his arms, and both hands just blatantly clip into each other. I mean the dwarf is wearing normal clothing, in a normal situation, and this could not have been corrected by Bioware? Again, it’s a TINY detail that does nothing for me in terms of breaking immersion or anything like that, but when everything else is so polished, how does that escape?

And one other complaint/question, is everyone else playing getting a TON of gear they can’t use? I mean I literally have 10-12 pieces of gear I can’t equip yet because of stat or class requirements, yet I pulled them out of chests in areas I believe I should be. Gear I can’t use + certain fights giving me a ton of trouble does make me wonder if I’m ‘doing it wrong’. I have to keep shutting of that MMO-driven part of my brain, but it’s tough.

What helps to quiet those wonderings is when I win a fight I just assumed was going to murder me. Be it overwhelming numbers or just one seriously tough mob, I’ve had a few very surprising results, and yet they all seem to lead down the natural story progression, which again makes me wonder if DA is just that hard, I have gimped characters, or I’m doing things in the wrong order. I’ve had a few fights where I literally have to pull out every last trick and item, and even then I just barely win. Maybe I’ve just been playing ez-mode MMO PvE for too long…

And the hardest part of Dragon Age though: deciding which character to bring along. I don’t really care for the big guy with the two-hander, but everyone else I find very interesting. Playing a human rogue, Alister has become a good buddy and together they make a good front-line combo. Morigan is odd in a good way, and the combo of her and Alister is gold. Finally I have the rogue/bard, who brings some needed ‘be nice’ to the party. I wish I could have the dog around as well, but with only four spots he rides the bench, as does the assassin I just picked up. Funny that I could be running a three rogue and one dog party if I wanted to, but something tells me that would lead to a lot of ‘defeat’ screens.

Posted in Random, Site update | 15 Comments

Little more Dragon Age, and some DDO F2P thoughts.

Posted on November 6, 2009 by SynCaine

As I stated in my Dragon Age review, I was very impressed with the combat engine when, after finally defeating the first boss, one of my characters jumped on him and put his sword through the Ogre’s skull. All of this was done in slow motion, but in-game and without any delay. Yesterday as I was playing I had another such moment, although this time my guy was on the receiving end of a dragon tackling him to the ground and then clawing his face off. Again all in-game and happening while I was still able to control my party, and just another ‘oh shit’ moment. Good stuff.

Oddly a new patch is out, and I’ve had none of the issues it fixes, while it makes Normal difficulty easier. As I’m really enjoying the challenge at Normal (and with rumors of Hard being brutal and requiring some min/maxing), I think I’ll just hold of on the patch unless I come across some great need. Another bonus of D2D over Steam, I can patch when I want. (Steam forces you to patch, right?)

In MMO news, our DDO group has left the docks and started questing in the Market area, where much of the content is pay-to-play. I doubt we will be putting up the cash as a whole, because while DDO is a fun distraction, it’s just not that great. The dungeons are well designed, the graphics are great, sound is good; no issues with any of that. The problem, like I’ve mentioned before, is that the combat is too fast and fights are either mash-attack easy or insta-gib hard. You never really get the feeling that playing smart is needed, that using all your abilities is important, or that coming up with a strategy before an encounter will alter the result.

Playing both DDO and DarkFall at the same time makes me realize how vastly different two combat systems can be, even if their ‘basics’ are similar. Both games melee combat (DF ranged and magic is far more FPS than DDO, which is more similar to WoW tab-targeting) is click-to-attack, enemies dance, block/dodge player driven mitigation, and yet they don’t even remotely feel the same. DDO feels mindless, just hold down attack and wait for the mob to go splat. DarkFall is a challenge with every swing, and dodging/blocking is absolutely critical, and I’m just talking PvE here.

I’m not even sure it’s a speed issue either, DF might be a bit slower than DDO, but it’s not massively noticeable. I think the major difference is the overall length of combat. In DDO either you or the mob dies in 3-8 seconds. In DarkFall you can be fighting a decently challenging mob for 30-40 seconds, if not more. So in that 3-8 seconds of DDO combat, what good is using sunder armor or other debuffs? What good is coming up with a pull tactic when one cleave attack kills most of the enemies? And most importantly, what good is strategy when one attack hits you for 50% of your HP, with a second hit coming in 1-2 seconds?

One final note about DDO and its cash shop, which some have recently used as an example of the ‘inevitable’ F2P wave. First, let’s keep in mind that the only reason DDO is F2P is because it failed as a sub game. It’s not like Turbine was racking in the cash with DDO, and one day just decided to let everyone get a prolonged free sample. Second, while the cash shop in DDO is better than most (although you can still buy plenty of items that make the game much easier), it has zero effect on how fun the actual game is. F2P or sub, DDO is IMO just a somewhat average MMO, one that does some things very well but overall feels off. It makes a good first impression, which is why everyone is throwing around that 40% number now, but lets see how that persists 2-3 months down the line, when more players are out of the initial area and see more of the game. My bet is that F2P won’t turn DDO into an MMO success, but rather give it a nice initial boost before it returns back to it’s previous level (if not slightly lower due to how the F2P model works).

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, DDO, Dungeons and Dragons Online, MMO design, Patch Notes, Random, RMT | 13 Comments

Suck it Eurogamer

Posted on November 5, 2009 by SynCaine

Type “dragon age review” in Google and check out the first link on page two (currently anyway). Yup, ‘kind of a big deal’ blogger me. Now go ALLLLLL the way to the middle of page three. Yup, the trash heap that is EuroGamer. Finally some Internet justice.

Sad part is I probably played more Dragon Age in the one day before my review than whoever had a review copy from EG, but that’s expected by now. One things for sure though, they spent WAY more time in the pre-release character creator.

(If you can’t tell, it’s ‘one of those days’ around here, enjoy)

((And italics makes it all better, in case you were wondering))

 

 

Posted in Mass Media, Random | 14 Comments