I’m at work, waiting to go home and check out WoW’s 3.3 patch — reading up on the new goodies. I think I may actually have to try PUG’ing again.

In case I haven’t posted it before — I did hit level 80 on my warlock and am leveling up my death knight (spend most of it tradeskilling, it seems), so these new features should be pretty interesting and useful.

On the EVE side of things, the newest expansion launched — Dominion. This provides some shiny new UI features (new character select screen, mail system, in game browser, etc) that I enjoy. Everything else hasn’t really mattered since I don’t do null-sec stuffs. Maybe some day.

Lastly, the broken record, I’ll get some screenies of what I’m doing and deeper posts someday… when I’m not busy working or playing (sleep? nah, none of that).

I’ll be doing some posting at some point, I swear… As far as gaming goes — when I’ve had time — it’s been WoW mostly, going to hit 80 tonight on my Warlock. I’ll have more on that later. The rest has been spent with games I got during Steam’s one-day-only sales that happened last week — I got several games I had been wanting on the cheap. Now I just need the time to get through them all *and* write about it…

Oh, also — Paizo publishing that does the Pathfinder RPG seems to have some contest going on. If I can find the time I might try it.

There’s one MMO that I never really thought I’d play again, one that many — many — people seem to enjoy… Got a guess? Yeah, the ‘many’s probably gave it away — WoW. I stopped playing it back around Burning Crusade, after getting my gnomish warlock to 70 and burning out. So, why start back?

Guildmates! Yup, my old guildmates went back to it and said they were having a blast — so I gave the trial a spin. After discovering that you can’t level past 70 on the trial (sneaky, that) I was upgrading and subscribing. Really, it’s improved more than I thought it would have. (the community, though, still sucks — yay for disabling channels)

I’ll have a better write up and such later on this week. The decline in posting is thanks to work picking up (I’ve got to work this entire week, in fact, except Thanksgiving), hopefully I’ll get more time soon.

Happy Turkey Day, everyone!

Well, my weekend’s plans were wasted. I was going to spend the time catching up on writing for NaNoWriMo (did quite well with it Friday night…) and that just didn’t happen… Instead I got back into Eve, picked up GM role for another RPG (Spite, it should be really cool), and played Torchlight/L4D2 demo. To be fair there was a birthday party that took up most of Saturday, and threw me off (was quite fun, though).

So, now this week will be dedicated to catching u–er, no, no it won’t… Left 4 Dead 2 launched tomorrow (as you no doubt know by now) and will be sure to shred any possible time I have left to catch my writing up… Thanks Valve, like Bioware didn’t do enough damage by themselves…

Anyway, if you haven’t checked the demo for L4D2 out yet — do so. And if you’re in Eve and bored, or have an alt that you never knew what to do with it, Red vs. Blue stuff is still around — join the Blue side and kill stuff! It’s cheap (T1 frigs, mostly), easy to get into, and fun.

Well, I had hoped that I would have the will to finish NaNoWriMo this year, but I don’t know if it’ll be possible now… most of the blame can be laid on Dragon Age: Origins. (no, really!) The RPG is great, nearly as good as the Baldur’s Gate series. I think I’ve put nearly 40 hours into it so far — 30ish into my first, and another 10 into a second. Even with many of the same quests, having different companions or choosing different options can change things completely. Love the replayability.

And if Dragon Age wasn’t enough, we’ve got Left 4 Dead 2 coming soon (just over a week) and I’ve spent a bit of time on the demo for it. I noticed quite a few changes just on the surface (and no doubt many hiding beneath), it’s really no wonder they made it into a sequel.

And if those two games aren’t enough to distract me, I finally got a Google Wave invite — seems like there’s plenty of RPG potential in it. Could make for some exciting times as gamers.

Ok, I really need to do some writing before killing more darkspawn or zombies…

It took all weekend, but I managed to complete all the unlocks for the Blood Moon event in Champions Online. Even got my Foxbat Zombie action figure! (I was lucky, only took 7ish tries) So, for those that don’t keep up with the game, are simply curious, bored at work, or confused — what was Blood Moon?

The main story revolved around Takofanes’ invasion of Millennium City, raising hordes of zombies and the souls of 13 heroes and heroines that died in the Battle of Detroit. You have to release their souls from Takofanes’ grasp and chase him off. To do so you: run around town looking for the open missions for each undead hero(ine). Once the mission starts you have to kill 50 zombies. Afterwards, you get the chance to beat the undead hero(ine) and enter their crypt. Once in the crypt you make your way to the end where the hero(ine)’s soul is trapped and defeat the Harbinger of Woe that is guarding/torturing them. Once you’ve freed all 13 and done the celestial crystal quest (kill zombies, collect 40 crystals — easy) you complete the In Memorium perk and gain access to the Celestial power set. You then go and make an angel themed character to make use of the Celestial powers (wings and halo are a must, it’s in a manual somewhere).

Defeating Takofanes is not required to unlock the Celestial set, but you will need to beat his event if you want: Takofanes action figure, Foxbat Zombie action figure (rare drop off the *Deathlord* — note *drop* it’s not from the open mission loot), Thrash of the Lich King perk, Moonstruck perk, or the Takofanes follower masks. To find this event, join channel ‘takofanes_spawn’ and follow the chats. It seems Tako spawns at the opening of a zone, and then every 6 hours afterwards. Done right you can get a dozen kills in per 6 hour period or more. If you can’t get into an instance that is about to spawn — keep trying. As long as you can catch the instance as available you’ll be able to get in — just keep spamming the change instance menu. If it looks like it’s going to spawn before you get there go on to the next instance in line and wait. Once at the event make sure your graphics are turned down (if you don’t have a powerful system) and AoE spam the little guys till they’re dead, then nuke the Deathlord with all your might. It should only last a couple minutes. Rinse and repeat the whole process.

If hunting Tako isn’t your thing, try PvP! The Bite event is quite fun, provided there are enough people around to do it. I found, this weekend, that #1 Desert instance to be the best. To participate just look for the moon and silver star (thingy) on your map and run there. Talk to either the werewolf or the hunter and accept their quest, you’ll get an item. Use the item to transform into your chosen role and go kill stuff. Since there are no (custom) power sets involved this is likely the most balanced of the PvP forms in the game, and provides a good deal of fun. There’s also a few perks to complete by doing it: Leader of the Pack (unlocks Wolf 2 head costume part), Wolfsbane, and Bite Me (unlocks Woof action figure, must complete Leader of the Pack and Wolfsbane). There’s also Silver Bullet perk from killing NPC werewolves, but you don’t need to be PvP flagged to do this. And, for werewolves, Air Wolf and Sea Wolf (Air from standing on the inactive helicopter in Area 51 while in werewolf form, Sea from killing a submarine in werewolf form — in Lemuria). Haven’t seen any others yet.

And, if open world PvP isn’t your thing, there’s Zombie Apocalypse! A Hero Game that involves a group of players defending a cabin from hordes of zombies. One player will be randomly chosen at the beginning to be a zombie. There’s some new perks for Zombie Apocalypse too, not tied to Blood Moon, with some special rewards for getting the big perks. Hail to the King involves killing 10,000 NPC zombies in the map, you then gain access to a chainsaw item from the Hero Games vendors (in Westside), or King of the Zombies that unlocks the Skull Boy action figure after 10,000 Hero kills (yeah, that’ll take awhile). The perks and Zombie Apocalypse will last after the Blood Moon is gone, so don’t try farming 10,000 Hero kills this week… You’ll likely turn into a zombie if you do.

Annnnnd that’s about it for the events. There’s special costume sets in the C Store for Halloween, if all the unlockable costume pieces weren’t enough. (new costume pieces that I’ve found: Takofanes mask, Takofanes emblems, 2 zombie heads (one partial mask, one with skull exposed), zombie long gloves, zombie long boots, zombie tights (chest and legs), Wolf 2 head, silver bullet emblem, torn partial cape, celestial set (has several pieces and emblems) and I think that’s it, a good bit for free added)

Anyone else try this yet? Got it on the Steam pre-order for 18$.

Only played it a bit (along with some more CoH) but got to level 10. My first impressions? Great. I’m enjoying it a lot, especially the Diablo 1 feel mixed with Mythos-esque art. The initial offerings seem kinda small… three classes with three skill trees a piece and a couple pet variations (dog or cat)… but each skill tree has a different take on the main class (similar to Diablo 2 or even WoW) and there seems to be 100 character levels (found that info in the game’s forums, so I’m guessing it’s true) with 4 or so difficulty levels and hardcore mode. Plenty of content in the base game for 20$. To make the deal sweeter Runic Games is going to be releasing their modding tools soon… this could extend the game’s worth leagues and bounds past the original (great) deal.

If you’re a fan of action RPGs and Diablo in particular — pick this game up.

As to what I’ve liked about it so far: the combat is nice and familiar (click, click, click) — but is also flashy (screen shakes when shooting and blowing enemies away, particle effects, etc), the graphics are very simple and low end but the art is great — the game looks better then you’d think (that seems to be a staple in games made by these devs), the pets! they’re not really controllable but they do follow you around and help out — they’re not a nuisance — they have backpacks that allows you to store extra goods in them and *send them to town to sell stuff* without you having to break out a town portal or stop the action — incredibly simple and awesome feature, and all the great Diablo staples are in: TP’s, gambling merchant, unknown items, etc.

A newer feature that hasn’t been seen in a game like this (that I’ve seen, at least) is the fishing. This is a mini-game that you play by finding a fishing hole in the caves/crypts and clicking on it. A fishing lure button surrounded by circles (water ripples) will appear, once the outer ring moves on top of the inner one you click the lure — time it right and you’ll catch a fish. Fish have varying effects, mostly involving transforming your pet into various nasties to help destroy other nasties. Cool stuff.

Spells are also done differently. If you remember Diablo 1 had spell tomes that you could use to learn spells — these work similarly, but any class is limited to some 4 spell slots. You can unlearn and relearn whatever you want — provided you match the spell’s use criteria.

And that’s just what I’ve gotten out of it in a few short hours of play… Like I said, pick it up if you like action RPGs — or even if you just want a good, cheap game.

It has been a busy time for me recently and the gaming has suffered. Recently I’ve reactivated my City of Heroes account as a friend jumped back into it. This has allowed us to level pact!

Champions Online is still going, too. Lifetime subscription and all. So, what do I think of the two after playing them side-by-side?

The obvious winner of the two: City of Heroes. Why start with that? because I can! CoH should be the winner, anyway, as it has been out longer and had time to balance/develop more content. The difference between the two is like night and day — CO still has a long way to go.

This isn’t to say CO is terrible and not worth playing — I wouldn’t have a lifetime subscription if it weren’t — it’s simply new and a bit different. CO is suffering from a lack of content at the moment, and the developers are trying to remedy that. The graphics are wonderful — CoH’s are definitely dated and old — and the custom frameworks are great. I like the customization. The downside is that most of the powers right now are DPS oriented… Celestial will help change that.

Grouping seems to be far less in CO than CoH… Even after all these years I still get group invites in CoH within minutes of logging in — even at *3 A.M.*. That’s awesome. One thing that I’ve noticed in CoH that helped me understand CO’s patching direction and the developer’s comments — the nerfs to various powers, the inclusion of Celestial are there to try and get more grouping. CoH is a pain in the ass to solo in when you’re a Defender… At least as my Archer/Empathy that’s totally group focused. I literally can’t do anything solo, but I get group invites all the time so it doesn’t matter. The difference between the two games when it comes to grouping? Classes. With the customization and the ‘individualization’ that can be done in CO comes a complete lumping together of players in the eyes of grouping — everyone’s pretty much the same, you just need warm bodies to do group content.

World layout is another aspect I noticed in CoH/CO. CO has varying climates and environments to explore, CoH has city districts that vary, but are still city elements. CoH, however, feels better laid out — a bit more… ‘natural’? When I run around I notice the zone content more, and the feeling of running/jumping/flying over various buildings, through various alleys and such is more enjoyable. I can’t really tell *why* it just is… Perhaps not a good reason or a positive/negative to either.

Leveling Pacts! This is what sealed the deal for me getting back into CoH. I had a good friend jumping back in and wanted to hang out with her — using leveling pacts we can keep the same level even if one of us can’t play as much. Leveling is a bit slower solo, but it’s fine when we’re both together. For couples/friends it’s excellent.

Missions. In CoH missions are almost all instanced and there’s many contacts to get them from — often you’ll never get all the contacts in one go through. Add in AE and paper/radio missions and you’ve got even more to do. Then slap on any task forces/midnight squad/what have you that’s ‘special’ and you’ll have more missions than levels or time. The best part of these is that you can profit from them even if they’re not yours or you don’t have them. How cool is that? Never having to keep track of who has what or needs what done is excellent and *really* promotes grouping. CO should take note of this, and it seems they kind of have with the newer content being added to Monster Island — with the Lost Caves and whatnot.

One last aspect, the C Store. CO’s microtransaction store… I like it. They’ve added a few new costume sets and some account stuffs so far. The costume sets I’ve liked, and gotten. This really isn’t much of a surprise to me though as I’ve also gotten the costume packs that NCSoft sold for CoH. (those were a bit more expensive, if I remember correctly…) Looking forward to more additions.

Anyway, just a quick update while I have some downtime at work… I hope to get writing more in the coming weeks, if not this blog then at least NaNoWriMo stuffs.

Yup, my PC’s monitor died the other day… So, gaming has taken a steep dive down.

Until I can get a replacement I’ve got my Mac to game on — mostly CoH.

Having spent a lot of time in a different superhero themed MMO (CO, of course) it’s nice to see the differences first-hand. The graphics are certainly aged, but the world design is still superior to me. The city feels a bit more like a city than MC does in CO. The always available content is great too. I *never* run out of stuff to do in CoH while leveling up. If the game had custom power sets, faster game play (it was pretty fast back in 2004, but it feels really, really slow compared to CO) and improved graphics — it would continue to dominate the superhero MMO market.

Still, this gives me a good chance to get back to creating that AE map while my leveling partner is offline. I forgot how annoying it was to solo as a defender… Luckily, even at 3 in the morning, I still get team invites quickly. Grouping in CoH is still years ahead of CO.

Just finished creating my soon-to-be main in Aion. Now for the intolerable wait till Sunday…

At least I have UO, DDO, and CO to keep me company till then.

Also, should have a DDO post sometime in the future — that is, if I don’t get absorbed into leveling in Aion ASAP and if Cryptic puts out the content gap fillers… This may be more gaming than one man can do…