If Mac played WildStar, turn to page 32....

Ok – E3 is over, I didn’t get as much of it covered last week as I would have liked, but it gives me something to strive to improve on next year. I will get at least a wrap-up done within the next week with games that sparked my interest most. For now back to my usual ramblings.

WildStar

I am taking my time with WildStar, partly due to a busy life lately and partly so I don’t burn out on it in one binge. Made it to level 15 over the weekend and after getting my skills settled, buying my mount, and exploring my housing a bit…I went to bed. The next day however, I set myself up for a bit of game time and entered the queue for my first adventure – The Hycrest Insurrection. Adventures are instances for 5 group members that follow a “choose your own adventure” format. At each junction, you are given three paths to choose from, and the choice that obtains the highest number of votes wins for the group’s choice. There is a final boss to fight, and everyone gets rewarded for their efforts, plus reputation to spend at the vender at the instance entrance. A major difference between this and a dungeon is the lack of exp awarded for monster kills here. And that I have heard dungeons are far more difficult.

The fact that dungeons are more difficult both excites and scares me, because the adventure wasn’t a walk in the park. Starting off in a hover-copter, we listened to a briefing and then jet-packed down to Hycrest, a territory currently heavily under Dominion control. Our job was to help them successfully rebel and throw out the oppressing forces. We hunkered down with a leader of the insurgency and were presented with our first choice. The choices range from outright rebellion and target elimination to collection and destruction of resources.

My group went with the latter, and we set out killing the guards and destroying their property as smooth as can be. The only stumbling blocks we came upon were the constant artillery barrage as a group member carelessly stepped into the warning reticules scattered about and the annoyance of the snipers knocking us down as we ran around.

At our next juncture, we set out to free some prisoners, and were presented with some heftier enemies to take down. At this point I let my enthusiasm get the better of me, forgot to watch my threat level, and bit the dust. Up on my feet again, we pressed on and finished the objective smoothly. We did encounter a bug of not being able to see one another until we met at the rendezvous point, but it cleared itself up. We finished our last mini quest and went on to tackle the adventure boss. Here we wiped a few times, all new to the experience and not knowing the tactics. These aren’t the hardest bosses in the world, but they still require a fine level of tactics and finesse.

Overall, I love the idea of adventures. As I understand it, your story sculpts visually depending on the paths you choose, including more or less friendly NPCs, destruction, etc. I am excited to grab another group and try again, choosing different paths this time. I love the change of pace from normal exp grinding without the insane challenge I have heard the dungeons present, though I look forward to those just as anxiously. It’s definitely a unique take on group content, and it helps keep you engaged in the world’s storyline in a fun new way.

Carbine Studios is doing awesome so far, and though we are plagued with gold spammers, what MMO isn’t? Patches are coming rapid-fire, fixing bugs and rebalancing what needs rebalancing. I love where the game is, and can’t wait to see where it goes.

Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook, Google+, Twitter @Driachan or via Email or RSS to the right!

If you still haven't jumped on the WildStar bandwagon, get on board!

-Mac

Anyplace, USA - A Zombie Story

The past few years have brought us a myriad of survival sandbox style games, many of which are zombie based. A little over a month ago Sony announced their first step into this genre with H1Z1.
Having a powerhouse developer like Sony take on a zombie survival project? Yes please.
I am a fan of Sony. Sure, they have made some poor choices some of their games don’t always pan out, but they know MMO’s and how to create huge worlds full of life and detail.
H1Z1 uses Planetside 2’s engine which already has proven mechanics for vehicles, weaponry and faction infrastructure. Unlike most of Sony’s games that are fantasy based, H1Z1 will take place on Earth 15 years in the future. Specifically, H1Z1 will take place in America. Though the map will be significantly smaller upon early release, the goal is to make the playable map BE the US in size, landmarks, and appearances. This mirroring of the real world will allow for some fun mechanics, including familiar places for the players to fight through, maybe even staking out your old neighborhood. It also allows them to get creative with tailoring scavenging. They have mentioned that guns will be found throughout the world, but maybe down south they are found more easily in living rooms and sheds, where in the north you will mainly find them in hunting supply stores or locked and hidden away.

But how does H1Z1 differ DayZ, Rust (read my views here) and WarZ, to name a few? There are a few key points that make the game stand out, but John Smedley, President of SOE, basically came out and said it’s not going to be 100% different than these games. At heart, it is a zombie apocalypse survival sandbox game. He pointed out his love for a variety of zombie movies, which at heart are all just zombie movies, as an example as to why the games don’t need to be black and white to each other.
That said, there definitely are differences between the games that excite me. Vehicles are already in game, though their exact mechanics and variety will vary as development progresses. Though all vehicles are ready to drive now, they hope to add mechanics that will allow for missing or broken components, requiring scavenging to repair them before you can just drive them off the lot.
DayZ’s world consists of already set infrastructure, collapsing and decomposing due to neglect and zombie carnage. Rust contains almost no pre-existing infrastructure, relying on players to scavenge materials and build structures on their own. H1Z1 hopes to fall in the middle of these two. The world will be prebuilt, starting with small villages and eventually getting to the point where large, broken cities will be added to the game. But in addition to these existing structures, the world will rely heavily on player build objects. And where things can be built, they can be destroyed. Players will be able to attack you structures and break in to kill and steal from you, so strategic building will be essential. Though strategic building may be tested with the addition of fire to the arsenal. The ability to burn structures is not in yet, but has been promised. It is unclear at this point of NPC’s will be able to do the same destruction, but I for one vote for this possibility.
The main difference between H1Z1 and other zombie survival games is an important one, in my mind. Where DayZ and Rust have devolved to flavored shooters on most servers, H1Z1 hopes to keep the players focused enough to work together by making zombies a real threat. Smedley points out his desire to focus on this game being about survival against the world. There will still be PVP, of course, and players will be a serious threat, but having zombies not just be easy targets full of loot will be a breath of fresh air in the genre. Oh, and he has mentioned the ability for GMs (or whatever they will call the admins) to spawn hordes of zombies at will. So that will be fun.

The game is very early in development, and John Smedley has made it clear the early access alpha coming soon will be all about finding what is and isn’t fun, bug smushing will come later in beta. The game has a lot of potential and a very dedicated group of developers at its helm. My wish list for a few mechanics to be added? Make zombies killable with headshots only. Sure, maim the crap out of them with body shots, but I want them dangerous until you damage the head. Add some sort of lasting damage from zombie attacks. Maybe special attacks like biting that will slowly kill you, letting you have a few minutes totry to get back and store some of your valuables before dropping on the spot. One thing that has been mentioned by other fans that I am on board with is making player corpses turn into the undead. This will discourage, or make much more chaotic, any large scale battles the players intend on having. Imagine fighting an enemy crew 10 vs. 10, and as the battle winds down, suddenly your 7 lost buddies are trying to eat your brains? The possibilities are endless really, and I think this dev group will be good about listening to the players and tailor fitting their game to its fan base.

I’m excited for H1Z1 to hit early access release on Steam for $20. An exact date hasn’t been mentioned, but about a month ago they said 4 – 6 weeks. They have promised a strong showing at E3 this coming week, so maybe we will see it hit steam right after the conference? I’ll keep you updated as I hear more.

Thanks for following!

-Mac

Check out the H1Z1 Reddit
Or their main site

Wildstar Update...AKA My newest Addiction

As you could probably guess from my initial write-up forWildstar, it has captured my interest just a bit. This past weekend marked the start of the head-start event and the official launch. I had a busy weekend away from my computer, but I managed to set aside a decent chunk of time to enjoy the comic goodness on Nexus.

My first instinct was to roll a different class than I had in beta, so I rolled a Granok Engineer. Huge difference from my Stalker, and I definitely was enjoying it. Made it through the first ship teaching grounds before deciding I like to hit things hard and fast when playing a game, so I knew that my main should be a Stalker. I have my Engineer waiting for me, and I look forward to his hard hitting, slow deliberate, bot enhanced game-play, but for now, I will explore with my fast DPS Stalker.

I rolled human this time. I usually don’t like rolling humans because well, that’s what I am in real life, why play that in an RPG? But aesthetically I like their look and it seemed to fit this world well, and I’m pretty happy with the results.
I put a bit of thought into which path to choose this time, and decided to embrace the hitting hard and fast aspect fully, choosing Soldier. I definitely enjoyed Explorer back in beta and will be choosing it on an alt before too long, but I really do feel that the Soldier path fits my “Kill Everything in sight” mentality as a Stalker.

Character rerolled and decisions made, I was ready to play. I hopped in and burned through the starter ship as quickly as I could; having enjoyed the flavor text in Beta already. I was sad to see gold spamming had already begun. I knew it was coming, but day one of head-start seems a bit ridiculous. I went to report the spammer and was greeted by my desktop. Seems that tool crashed the client. By now, I am very used to MMO launches so this didn’t surprise nor bother me, though I did find the irony amusing. What did surprise me was that a customer service rep was in the general chat replying to early complaints and that a patch hit the next day to remove this and several other bugs. There are still a good number of bugs to squish, but they definitely are doing well inspiring confidence in their commitment to getting gameplay perfect.

I still haven’t done much research into the game on the “greater internet”, just enough to build up my anticipation a bit. Upon leaving the ship, I expected to wind up back in the Northern Wilds but instead was pleased to find there were in fact multiple (2 per faction) leveling paths for the different races. I landed in Everstar Grove and was greeted with brand new quests to enjoy; an unforeseen bonus to rolling a different race. The ship every character starts in is great. It teaches some essential skills for newcomers to the genre, but I can see getting very tired of it if you are an alt’o’holic. The variety in leveling paths will lend itself well to keeping the early levels at least a bit fresher.

I have been paying attention to most of the quest dialogue as I play, wanting to take my time and to appreciate the humor and beauty that is the game, but I admit to being guilty of burning through some of the text just to keep chugging forward. I’ve made it up to level 10 so far; though I logged to go to bed as soon as hitting the level so I haven’t touched trade-skills yet. That’s this evening’s goal. So far, I am still in love with the game. The only danger I have come across is that time seems to slip by as I play it, and suddenly its 2 AM. I blame the wizards at Carbine for this sorcerous trick…..

Quests are categorized as Regional Stories and Tasks, so you can easily differentiate the ones you need to focus on to progress and the ones there for loot, experience and general fun. There are also challenges that pop up as you enter different areas, or kill different mobs. Some people find this obnoxious; I find them to be a nice flavor addition. They generally involve requiring you to kill X mobs or jump through X objectives or something similar within the given time limit. I’m not always in the mood to indulge in their demands, but when I am, the added time limit gives me a fun sense of urgency to not only beat the timer, but to do so in such a time that it makes the time given seem like an eternity. I don’t always succeed. I have heard tell that completing these can yield some pretty awesome rewards, so I will have to focus in on them a bit more in the coming days.

The other carrot that keeps the game-play fresh is the Path quests. There are eight different types of these that appear for Soldiers. Four are just simple variations of each other; given a starting point, defend the point/people around the point/against a LOT of attackers/quickly. There is also Assassination, Rescue, Demolition (which are all exactly what they sound like) and then S.W.A.T. This last mode gives you a shiny new weapon to go test out on the surrounding enemies. It’s basically just another kill quest, but the addition of a usable item as a new way to do it makes it a blast.

The last thing I got to experience this weekend was the basics of a guild. I hopped on board a community based guild as soon as I got word it was active, knowing that a big difference between MMOs I have stuck with and loved and those I have dropped quickly is the community immersion I experience. The interface seems good, from a member’s standpoint, though I haven’t had the chance to pick it apart just yet. It’s been a while since I have really participated in a guild and paid attention, so a feature like the Guild Tax is new to me.  I like it and think it can be a good help for end game guild play, especially with the PVP options offered. The one thing that weirded me out at first but I grew quickly to like was the way your guild crest was displayed. Some games just tag your name-plate and some add a cape or something of the like. Wildstar adds a set of projections from your shoulders and back. You can turn them on and off individually and toggle between near projection and far. I love it. I think that it fits the style perfectly.

The game has its bugs, and it has its faults, but for an MMO in 2014, I think it hits its mark quite strongly. The art design is beautiful, the character fluidity is up to par for modern game-play, the attention to detail is amazing, and the game is just downright fun. I can’t wait to delve into the content I have yet to see including, but not exclusive to, trade-skills, dungeons, furthering the Amp tree. I also anticipate my Stalker and Soldier class progressions will keep me plenty entertained for months to come.

I truly love the game, and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a new MMO, or just a good, fun, cartoon-y, over the top humor game.

I plan to keep up with the Wildstar posts approximately weekly as long as I play the game, and will have more focus in future posts. Check back in, and let me know in the comments if you think I should focus on anything in particular! I’ll happily tailor at least a portion of my playtime to explore what the community is interested in!

(Servers are currently down, and I did not think ahead to get screenshots of my own…so enjoy some more stock ones until servers are up!)

-Mac

--Sociopathic Score--

It only rates this high because it verbally rewards you for killing multiple mobs in rapid succession. I can see using this as a challenge to see how many I can kill how fast in the coming months.

--Sophomoric Score--

More cartoon-y humor; Ratchet and Clank style as I have mentioned. Haven’t encountered them yet, but fully expect actual poop jokes…

--Strategic Score--

So far, haven’t completed dungeons, raids, or upper level content, but judging off of the build structure of classes, and knowing how detail oriented the game is up to this point, I foresee upgrading this greatly as I reach end game.

Building a world...

Everquest was the first MMO I ever played. I sank more hours into that game than I care to admit. Let’s just say my high school years weren’t the most social times. When Everquest II was announced, I had my pre-order in the day they were available, and I played that game for a similarly embarrassing number of hours. I’ve played many other MMO’s since these games, and I am sure to play many more in the coming years. My play style for MMO’s has become quite erratic, playing for a while, losing interest, coming back months later. It suits me fine.

And then Everquest Next was announced and with it Everquest Next Landmark. I watched out of curiosity, knowing my MMO interest had faded, but still wondering what SOE would pull out of their hats next. I was blown away by what Next plans to offer. It still remains to be seen if this will come to fruition, but it’s ambitious to say the least. So EQN was still at least a year or two out, with no hints to narrow that timetable down. EQN Landmark however, was due out soon after watching these videos. I put in for beta, and after sadly not getting in, waited some more. They finally offered the ability to buy special packs to get into closed beta…and I bought in. I spent the full $100 because well, SOE owns a small piece of my soul, I wanted to help the game succeed, and the perks offered were nice.

I downloaded the game, waited on the patch and logged in. My computer made all sorts of pretty colors…but not the ones the game told it to. My graphics card (GeForce 630) was way too outdated. Long story short, I upgraded my computer, something that had been on my to-do list for months anyways, and got it installed and up and running.

It is a beautiful game. I could wander the world for hours just taking in the scenery, and I have. Now, for those of you who don’t know, EQN Landmark is essentially a gorgeous Minecraft. It uses the voxel system and smooths them so they form free flowing terrain, instead of 8-bit terrain. I plucked around in the closed beta for a while, starting to make a house, but understanding little to nothing about the tools. After a time, my interest faded for a while and I put it aside.

Open beta came, and my open beta keys I could distribute came along with it. Having a few friends in game helped reinvigorate my interest, as well as the major changes that had occurred since my last login. I came back, and started into harvesting big time. I built up my harvesting tools to the second to last tier, got the crafting stations and tools I needed, and got ready to build. Then I remembered something. A huge flaw in my plan to create beautiful masterpieces in this world. When it comes to this type of art (drawing, modelling, etc), I am awful. I can see what I want in my mind, but it usually comes out lopsided and sad looking. I still had a blast doing it though, because that was MY lopsided, sad looking tree house. The tools they offer, which constantly are getting refined, give the players a wide array of techniques to use to build and sculpt. And artists being clever, they have warped the intended uses into new, fascinating techniques creating even more gorgeous creations. I’m jealous of them, I really am. But at the same time, I get a sense of pride out of completing anything that ends up looking something like what I originally thought of.

I have taken another break, as of now, I want to be able to continue to have fun with the game, so I don’t want to burn out before they even complete it. They are in the process of adding water to the game, first as just scenery, but then as building blocks and swimmable areas. The dev team gets a patch out every week; whether it’s just a few small prop additions (pre made furniture, etc), or massive reworking of the game.

I can’t wait to see how their vision comes to life when it is all said and done, and I know the dedicated folks over at SOE will continue to add content for players to enjoy for years (decades) to come.

Thanks for following!

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-Sociopathic Score-

I personally don’t get any sociopathic joy out of the game…but early in beta I was wandering around the map and fell into a hole…down 2 claims deep into an elaborate prison someone had built. I had no way out except to use the stuck command…but I couldn’t even get mad because DAMN was it pretty….so the potential for sociopaths exists here…

-Sophomoric Score-

Open world sandbox, no scripting to judge by, gameplay fairly straight forward

-Strategic Score-

I am going to warp the definition of this one, because I believe the strategy involved with this game is the artistry involved. If you are an artist – it’s a great game in which to explore your creativity!

-Mac