Nefchast’s Gaming Blog

Mostly about Video Games, but boredom often breeds endless creations…

Archive for May, 2009

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Titan Online.

Posted by nefchast on May 29, 2009

Another F2P Asian port here. I tried this one, and could only make it through an hour of play. Here’s a screenshot to help illustrate [the pain]:

Titan Online

Titan Online

Yup, aged graphics, auto-attacking, grinding… All of it is pretty poorly done. Or, pretty average to below average for F2P I should say — which is pretty awful. Perhaps I’ve just played too many of these MMOs and become horribly jaded, but I’m quite sure it’s just it sucking.

I really question why these games get produced here, though I know the answer. They do make some money. They have to make some money, the budgets to make these things are so tiny. But to keep churning out horribly average or below average Asian F2P MMO crap? It’s just going to continue hurting the genre’s image over here.

I really do like this genre of MMO, but it will never be taken seriously as long as games like this are mass produced.

I’m going to be playing Killing Floor and Team Fortress 2 till I forget this experience now…

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UT3 Free Weekend.

Posted by nefchast on May 28, 2009

So, Steam is having another free weekend for Unreal Tournament 3, along with it being 50% off. This post isn’t so much about the game itself but the marketing ploy being used. (I do own UT3, I got it in the last free weekend/half off deal — as I’m sure many others did and will do so this weekend)

Digital distribution is unique in this way. Not the discount — retailers could do that — but in the ability to allow full, free, limited time use of a product. That’s a big seller to me, and a big reason why DD is going to keep growing. (discounts do help — really, really help) 

There are some sales charts floating around somewhere, I think they depicted the sales of Left 4 Dead on Steam, that show some great info on how effective these weekends can be. Having proven results like this makes me wonder, why isn’t this done more often? For more games? I would bet that if a game, at launch, offered a full version of its game to be played free for a weekend’s worth of time that it would sell far better than without the free play time. Typically this is done with demos, but those are usually created before the game is fully finished and can be a bit… buggier or less polished than the actual release. Letting people fully see what they are going to purchase and test drive it first would increase sales significantly — I believe. Digital distribution could offer this easily. Even consoles could do it; they have their online stores. I’d especially want to see it in consoles, considering how much their games cost — honestly, if I’m going to be spending 60 bucks on a game a bit of play time with it first is not only nice but required. 

And there’s today’s rant. I’ll be looking at something with more content for tomorrow. Perhaps find some F2P MMO that’s in beta and do a brief overview of it…

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Neo Steam.

Posted by nefchast on May 27, 2009

Launching open beta today is Neo Steam. It’s a steampunk fantasy MMO that’s F2P. This is just a brief overview of a few basic things in the game.

Character Creation

Character Creation

One thing you’ll probably notice throughout this overview — nothing too original here, it’s a F2P MMORPG, from Asia, the difference is the steampunkish flavor. At least this is how the game feels starting out, perhaps it changes during the later levels? I don’t really know as there’s some 100ish levels in the game.

Anywho, the screenshot above features the character creation — there’s two factions to choose from and 4 classes. (Warrior, Scout, Mystic, Machinist) For a steampunk themed world there’s a surprising emphasis on magic on melee. Even the machinist starts out using swords and heavy armor. Of note, the machinist is also the crafting class — so if you want to make stuff choose it. There’s numerous races to choose from, though I don’t think they differ in any way save appearance.

Once chosen you’ll be dropped in the newbie area which is a somewhat large island. Here you get quests to kill stuff and you do them, level up, etc.

Newbie Pet

Newbie Pet

One interesting feature is the pet that you start with. While on the newbie island he won’t be of much help — save hints and tutorial type messages. Once you move off the island and get to a pet trainer though…

Gear Pet

Gear Pet

There’s three types to choose from — at least at the initial pet trainer — that evolve your newbie pet into something useful. The one pictured is a gear pet that provides a heal. (as you can see) The other two did things like steal an item off enemies and I think some damaging ability.

Machine Core

Machine Core

Crafting comes in a few forms. There’s item enhancement, which is like most Asian MMO’s — ya know with the +#’s added to the equipment to show they’re getting buffed. Then there’s the regular item crafting that Machinists get to do, and lastly there’s machine cores. Machine cores are kind of like gems that fit in to socketed pieces of equipment. The big difference comes in what these cores do — they add abilities to your equipment. Take the one in the screenshot above for instance, it adds a special damaging ability that I can use. It’s triggered and uses the Neo Steam — bottom bar on the player profile, currently empty in that picture — to function. Neo Steam is essentially another type of mana, however you are limited to how much you can have at a time — through items and actual in-game limitations. Neo steam is essentially crude oil and what the two factions fight over; you get a ration every hour of it to use — it’s a good amount, no need to really worry about running out at the lower levels, unless you want to craft a lot. Which reminds me, crafting uses neo steam, so try to get as big a steam tank as possible.

Enhanced Weapon

Embedded Ability

Here’s a screenshot of what I left my newbie weapon at; enhanced and machine cored:

Enhanced Weapon

Enhanced Weapon

It looked fancy enough for me.

Combat

Combat

Combat is pretty standard; right click to begin auto-attacking, use hotkeyed skills. Of note: skills do have levels, to level them up you need SP and TP — SP is gained through leveling, TP is gained through using skills.

So, I guess I was wrong on nothing original, there is a bit of originality mixed in with many familiar features. Neo Steam is a pretty decent MMO, considering it’s F2P, and — should they support it well — could go on to do quite well. Already I suspect myself of getting a few vanity items in the item mall… like the seraphim wings or gas mask. (both?) I do wish the graphics were a bit more updated, they just don’t look good — my biggest complaint.

I could have more on this in the future, so… we’ll see.

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Damnation.

Posted by nefchast on May 26, 2009

*Screens coming later today, Neo Steam tomorrow*

Damnation is a over the shoulder shooter/platformer set in an alternate history steampunk western United States during what I’d guess is the 1800’s or early 1900’s. I don’t think I ever saw a date. Now, I bought this game because I really enjoy steampunk and was hoping this would deliver on that — it does, in a sense. The style is a bit more ‘wild west’ meets steampunk and it works pretty well I think; the weapons and motorcycles are the best examples of steampunk for me.

This shouldn’t be considered a real review, or a full review at least for the PC version. I’ve got about 10 hours logged into the single-player campaign, and I haven’t had a chance to try the multiplayer or online co-op yet. (largely because none of my friends have the game… rather doubt they’ll get it) I feel I can make a pretty accurate judgment on the single player campaign and that judgment is — it’s pretty average, perhaps a bit under average. Reasons?

The game play is pretty solid for me. Running up and down buildings looking like a cowboy ninja is a little odd, but it does work. The shooting is fun; if you’ve played any over the shoulder shooter you’ll be familiar with it — nothing really new here.

I haven’t run into many different bugs, none game breaking, but the AI is pretty awful — friendly NPC AI especially it seems. Going through the campaign solo you’ll quickly learn that you can’t really rely on your NPC buddies — they often have little to no tactical ability and will be unresponsive much of the time. (in the sense that they’ll follow you, usually, but won’t really be much more than a tag along to provide a bit of extra firepower) It’s best to think of the single player campaign as just that, single player.

The game is not too terribly difficult as health is done in the ‘you can take so much damage at once’ style, with no set min/max numbers — just hold up under cover and you’ll recover, then go back to firing. That said, the game does pose some challenges at times — like the robots that can take a crap load of damage and have rocket launchers.

The most fun I’ve had in the game so far involves the motorcycles that you occasionally use — think of the warthog sections from Halo, you drive from point A to point B with some flashy explosives and stuff in between — mostly because of how the motorcycles look; I really want one in real life now.

The graphics were perfectly fine to me, the animations could probably use a bit of work. I’m thinking this part would be better on the consoles as the game seems to be made first for them, then ported over to the PC.

The sound was alright, seemed pretty normal to me.

The story is kinda meh. It follows one of those ‘rich, powerful, evil corporation is taking over the nation and/or world’ plots where your small cast of characters will have to go in and save the day. The biggest problem I have is the lack of background details or knowledge — this is an original IP (I think, yeah it should be) and I know nothing of the world — some details on what is going on before I hop into the middle of it would be nice. To give a bit of a spoiler here, there’s one character that your main is looking for — turns out to be his lover/girlfriend/wife (?) — and you get to face her as after she’s turned into a weird ass steampunkish cyborg killer. I didn’t even know who she was till I was fighting her, and that took any emotional response I might of had and strangled it. Original IPs need to give more story to draw the players into them, especially worlds that are fantastic and unlike our own. I like the world they have and it seems there’s plenty of potential for it, but the characters — and especially the dialogue — are quite average.

I can’t comment on the co-op or multiplayer game play, but I’m thinking — hoping — that they could fix or at least alleviate many of these problems. I’m thinking multiplayer death match could be a lot of fun with this game — if it is I hope the developers will support it in the future with more content.

I’m not really good with review ratings, but I think I’d give the single player campaign, thus far, a 5/10. It’s pretty average, to a bit under-average.

Who should get this game? Reasons to get this game?: If you like steampunk and have no other game featuring that theme, you might want to get it. Should the multiplayer prove worthwhile, that would be another reason. If you really don’t care about a game’s story or characters and just want to shoot something while jumping from building to building, this might work for you. Otherwise, I’d likely wait till the game goes on sale and pick it up on the cheap. If the developers pop some patches out and fix up the AI and bugs though… it could be worthwhile to get even before a price drop.

*Update: As promised, here’s some screens*

Shootout

Shootout

Leaping...

Leaping...

Headshot!

Headshot!

Motorcycle

Motorcycle

Trike

Trike

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Quick Update.

Posted by nefchast on May 25, 2009

Everyone having a good weekend? Yes? Great! No? Sorry!

I’d likely fall into that last category right now — my router died Friday and I couldn’t get my connection back up till yesterday, so my update plans for today are a bit off.

Tomorrow will have some Neo Steam and Damnation, played em both just a bit so far and I am enjoying them.

See you all (whoever cares to read this, eh?!) tomorrow.

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Memorial Day Weekend.

Posted by nefchast on May 22, 2009

Nice long weekend ahead for us US residents. No new posting till Monday for me; I’ll be filling that time with some serious gaming.

Weekend Forecast:

Damnation

Neo Steam

Killing Floor

Team Fortress 2

Dragonica

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Expect some steam punk game talk on Monday.

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Warrior Epic.

Posted by nefchast on May 21, 2009

Launching earlier this week is the F2P MMO(?) Warrior Epic. It’s got some different features than most MMOs(?) and a bit of the same-old. Here’s a brief overview of some basic points.

Now, you may be wondering — what’s with the (?)’s? Well, let the first screenie fill ya in:

Game Lobby

Game Lobby

Yup, there’s a game lobby — similar to many FPS multiplayers. Or something like Diablo 2. It seems the game is hosted on their servers, but you can host or join a game. The hosting/joining leads you to:

Warrior Hall

Warrior Hall

Here’s what would essentially be a ‘town’ in a typical MMO. It’s your warrior hall where you can get quests to go on, outfit your character, recruit a new character, etc. The book and map on the table lead to the quest selection screen:

Quest Map

Quest Map

There’s three game modes: Adventure, PvP and campaign. Haven’t gotten to see the PvP so I’m not going to go into that. The other two are the PvE based leveling fodder. Once you grab a mission you click on the ‘Start’ orb on the table and you’re off to your instance — or you and 2-5 others.

Combat

Combat

Combat is quite simple, as is movement — all can be done with the mouse — just right click to auto-attack something, then use the hotkeys for skills. You’ll notice the health in the upper left — it’s zelda style with the hearts. The chest underneath the character window is for experience, it’s given out at the end of the quest. Apart from those few things there is something you will want to know — the only health potions you can get are in the item shop, and heals don’t come till level 16ish (for the shaman at least) and death is a bit different from normal MMOs. When you die three (or four? think three) times in a map your character is turned into a spirit and will reside in your hall as such:

Spirit

Spirit

Supposedly you can equip these spirits and use them once per map as a special summon. Or use them in certain item upgrades. (infuse them into the item) But you can also revive them for a nominal fee to use again in the world of the living.

So, your character can die and turn into a spirit, what happens then? You start using one of your other characters, of course! Gained through recruitment:

Recruits

Recruits

This is where you can choose from the game’s 6 archtypes — each with 2 classes. (so, 12 classes) They do cost, so you may not be able to afford many or all of them from the start — really, about one that’s none Assassin/Illusionist. They’ll just be another character that you can swap out with your first — the pit fighter — and level up/quest/etc.

And there’s a brief overview. I will say, the game has some cool features — like the death system — but I’m just not quite getting into it. I’d really like to try out the Necromancer, but I went and bought a shaman from the start — it’s supposed to be a healing class and with healing potions be item shopped… well, I figured it would be needed.

It’s free so give it a go if you have spare time.

Warrior Epic.

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Dragonica Online.

Posted by nefchast on May 20, 2009

So, two new F2P games are out — or, playable at least. The first I’ll go over is Dragonica and the second is Warrior Epic. (WE will happen tomorrow, as to give me something to write about and because it just launched this morning — it’s got a few bugs to sort out)

Keep in mind that this will be just a brief overview of what you’ll find starting out.

OK, so you’ve never heard of Dragonica, eh? Well, it’s an Asian side-scrolling MMO that’s arcade-actionish. I’ve heard Maplestory is a good comparison. (played it for a few minutes once, years ago) If you don’t know what Maplestory is, then think back to those good ol’ side-scrolling action games like Golden Axe and you’ll get the idea. It is a persistent world, though the zones or levels are divided into different instances (that everyone shares) with the exception of dungeons — which are instanced for you and your party.

Character Creation

Character Creation

Pretty simple creation. Choose from one of four classes: Warrior, Magician, Archer, and Thief. The rest should be obvious.

Once created, you’re taken into a basic tutorial zone that will only last a few minutes and introduce you to the game and beginning main story with the help of your flying buddy Pororing.

After the tutorial you enter your classes city — they’re split up, but all are basically the same, save for rewards. Here you’ll find some quests and various merchant NPCs that will be useful. Run through and you’ll find the zone out to the first adventure area.

Basic Attacks

Basic Attacks

The adventure area is where you get to kill things, LOTS of things. The combat is the same aforementioned arcadeish actiony spamming of basic attacks and your specials. Starting out you’ll only have one trained skill — defaulted to the ‘A’ key, that entire row you see there is for skills, the one above for items — a basic attack skill and a special attack skill — the special attack is charged up, if you’re hit while charging it will interrupt it and you can see the Thief’s special attack below.

Special Attack

Special Attack

You can see the sheep getting knocked into the air here — mid-air attacks are used quite a lot in this game, lots of jumping around and attacking or attacks that throw the mobs up in the air.

I’ll likely have more on this game in the future. While cartoonish and cutesy the game is quite fun and free. Here’s a couple screens of some humor that I particularly enjoyed.

Silence of the Lambs

Silence of the Lambs

Just a loading scree- is that Bruce Lee?!

Just a loading scree- is that Bruce Lee?!

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Mortal Online.

Posted by nefchast on May 19, 2009

One of the upcoming MMOs that I’m anxious to see and play is Mortal Online. For anyone that doesn’t know — it’s a sandbox fantasy MMO, full loot, PvP everywhere, in-depth crafting, etc. It’s being developed by Swedish studio Star Vault and planned for a summer ‘09 launch. To further preface my actual post, here’s an article on it from IncGamer that was done last week.

Now, many of the features they’re sporting can already be found in other games — EVE Online definitely comes to mind — but one of them I’m especially happy about…

Any guesses?

That’s right, non-pocketable horses! Horses can’t be stashed away in MO; you will have to watch them in case they try to wander off… or someone tries to steal them. Yup, horse jacking. If they can get the announcer from Unreal Tournament to do a “HORSE JACKED!” sound byte similar to the “CAR JACKED!” one… well, needless to say I’ll be quite satisfied. I plan on making, or having an alt make, a living stealing and re-selling people’s horses. Something I wish could be done in EVE Online.

The other feature that I’m quite happy about is the crafting. It sounds like it will be pretty in-depth — at least customization-wise — with, potentially, millions of item combinations to craft. Crafting has been one of those areas that’s rather… lacking, in most MMOs and I hope they do it some justice.

The last feature that really caught my eye, and I’m hopeful for, is the truly unique raid content. From what they said, a raid boss would be extremely hard to take down and could only be killed once. (also, they’re dev/GM controllable)  This might pose some problems — or fun — in a full PvP world, what with the competition, but it does provide a possible solution to the raid grind end-game seen in many games, like World of Warcraft. With the permanant death of raid bosses, there will have to be a steady stream of new ones to take their place. A steady stream of new raid bosses is what many games could use — world bosses, some unique loot tables… that sort of thing. I guess it would be far harder to do with sharded MMOs, though, as nothing is truly unique.

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To Play (more), or Not To Play (more)…

Posted by nefchast on May 18, 2009

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had a few subscriptions to different MMOs running. Usually, I keep one or two going at a time — a number I feel is pretty adequate for your average 9 to 5 worker — but this time I went with five: EVE Online, City of Heroes, Wizard101, Free Realms, and Lord of the Rings Online. So, is it better to have a wide choice in MMOs to play, or to just stick with one or two?

That’s a personal choice of course, but I think two is an adequate number — especially if one of them is EVE Online. I’ve found, while having the choice is nice, devoting time to that many games is… well, tiring — almost frustrating. It does give me something to post about, however, and for that I am thankful.

Now I’m on the topic of paring down my current selection to two paid choices, and I have a good feeling as to what they will be.

*Rationalizing Mode ON* My first choice is going to be EVE Online, I’m just days away from Battlecruiser V and Command Ships are just around the corner — no way in hell I’m going to give that up. The second… well, the second is a bit harder. Lord of the Rings Online is likely out; it’s a great game, but I’m simply tired of the traditional fantasy MMO and the housing left me wanting. City of Heroes is a likely contender; it runs on my iMac quite well, and the architect system is pretty sweet. Wizard101 is fun — I love the combat. I’m thinking I may leave it alone for a bit, maybe purchase a zone or two every now and then to play. Free Realms I’ll probably let go — paid-wise — since there’s plenty of content to enjoy for free.  However, the subscription is only 5 bucks… and that’s cheap enough to keep around for times when I don’t feel like playing anything else. *Rationalizing Mode OFF*

Well, there it is: EVE Online and City of Heroes. Now that I have tha… Oh, wait. Single-player/multi-player games. As you can see from the last two posts Killing Floor has been taking up a good bit of my time, and Valve is set to release two new class updates soon for Team Fortress 2. (the Sniper and the Spy, in case you haven’t been paying attention) Add in the release of Left 4 Dead’s SDK and you can bet there’s going to be some more content for it, too.

I really could use more time.

In the realm of gaming with limited free time, it doesn’t matter whether a game is single-player, multi-player, or massively multi-player — they all take up time. The point of the post is to show my thought process on spreading that time between various games or genres, specifically MMORPGs and FPSs — usually several of them. For anyone out there that might stumble upon this and care to comment — how do you go about splitting your time for gaming? Specific genres? Many games or only one at a time?

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