INJUSTICE: Gods Among US Trailer! DC Fighting game from NetherRealm!

 

        While this story is everywhere right now.  The thing that seems very interesting is that they are downplaying; at least marketing wise that this is a DC Universe fighting game.  From all the footage and the interview this is definitely the case but for some reason the DC logo doesn’t appear in the title for some reason.  In any case this looks like an amped up version of DC Universe versus Mortal Kombat without the Mortal Kombat.  The game is looking great and considering it isn’t coming out until next year(I would be guessing October if I were a betting man).  The game certainly good get to look even better.

       As a big fan of everything that Ed and the guys at NetherRealm do, I can’t wait to see the finished product.

The Battle for the Ages: Diablo 3 versus Torchlight 2!(Torchlight 2 is in Beta)

         This is not exactly the perfect comparison as Torchlight 2 is currently in Beta and Diablo 3 hasn’t even been out a week.  But it seems like a lot of people are really interested in comparing these two games.  Given that Torchlight 2 is still only in beta and a release could be as much as 5 months away, I think the average player has nothing to worry about and would definitely be able to play both games if they wanted to.

         Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2 are both currently PC only; hack’n slash, point and click dungeon crawlers.  Diablo made this genre what it is today.  But there are STILL very few games out there like either of these titles outside of their own respective franchises.  These games are about the finding of loot(treasure!) and all the things that come with it.  Both games could be accused of veering too much into the MMO space with their recent releases.  Given one has an Auction House and the other lets you play with up to 6 other players(not confirmed as of this article).  But both games can be played single player in their traditional fashion(for the most part).  Both games are incredible time sinks and that is probably why the question of which one is better exists at all.

        Let’s start with main most obvious differences and move on from there.  First and foremost Diablo 3 is out now and costs around $60.  Torchlight 2 will be out sometime in the near future and it will cost around $20.  Diablo 3 you can go to the store and buy or download from Blizzard.  Torchlight 2 you will probably have to buy on Steam; at least for the first couple weeks to months.  Then, probably,you will be able to get it through a boxed copy or perhaps other downloadable services.  But as I believe Torchlight 2 will be getting Steam Achievements your probably going to activate a Steam key to play it anyway.

       In Torchlight 2 and Diablo 3 you can play with other people online.  In Diablo the top number of people is 4, in Torchlight 2 they are currently going with 6.  Torchlight 2 you can play offline in a single player game.  In Diablo 3 you MUST be connected to the internet at all times in order to play.  This is due to their Auction House and it functions like a DRM.  There are also some technical reasons for multiplayer, but with multiplayer you would have to be connected online anyway, so this isn’t really part of the all ways online restriction.This was also true of Starcraft 2, by the way.

      Torchlight 2 has a whimsical art style.  Diablo 3’s art style is much more serious and more like the previous games that were dubbed at the time as horror titles.  An example of each follows.

Diablo 3

 Torchlight 2

 Torchlight 2

 Diablo 3

       While put side by side both games don’t look incredibly different environmentally.  The characters and story are definitely much different in that Torchlight 2 features a more cartoony style while Diablo 3 is trying for the dark fantasy vibe I mentioned earlier.  Torchlight 2 also features pets that can help you out in combat and can run items to town for you and sell them.  These amazing creatures can also somehow buy items for you in town as well.  I guess it’s best not too think about how and why they can do this.  In Diablo 3, the closest you get to this are your companions.  Who are humans who come along with you on your quests and fight by your side.  They can only be equipped with a limited number of weapons and equipment.  Also, your companions actively take part in some of the story you are on, they talk to you.  They are equal members in the story.  In Torchlight and Torchlight 2 pets are just there. Torchlight 2 petsare different mechanically because they have bag space.  This was obviously done to increase difficulty and slow down the player’s progress in Diablo 3.  This also brings up another major difference between the two games.

    Torchlight 2 on (Normal) and Diablo 3(Normal) are pretty different.  While both games have their hard spots, it seems like both games are more or less tuned to be relatively easy on Normal difficulty.  However, I leveled to 13 in a matter of an hour in Torchlight 2, while took me more like 3-4 hours to do the same in Diablo 3.  You level much slower in Diablo 3 but the levels mean a lot more.   In Diablo 3 a level can mean the difference between knowing a skill or not.  It can also mean having a particular Rune or not.  Both can dramatically effect gameplay.  While playing Torchlight 2 it seemed like every 3 or 4 levels were significant.  I really wasn’t seeing too much difference in a skill I was using at level one to one I was using at level 4.  I’m sure there was a numerical improvement, but considering how much I changed weapons and armor I really couldn’t tell if it was the skill that was making me better or my loot.

   While in Torchlight 2 you DO have direct control over how many points you put into what attributes.  Something that Diablo 3 doesn’t let you do.  This feature seems a bit on the inconsequential side.  As all I usually did was take the three skills that effected my class the most and put all the points there.  My one criticism of Torchlight 2 is that no matter how many points you seem to put into Focus and Vitality you all ways end up losing it ultra-fast.  I don’t remember this being that bad in the original Torchlight.  Perhaps they are just trying to make the game harder.  This is interesting considering Diablo 3 elected not to let you touch these attribute points and yet I’m wondering if this was out of simplification or simply because it streamlined the design. 

     Torchlight 2’s less stressfully technical specs make it a better online game.  But as a single player game while some things seem perfectly fine; you sometimes get the feeling like you are going through the same four environments over and over.  While this repetition can be seen somewhat in Diablo 3, the game does go out of it’s way to make areas look interesting and fresh as much as possible.  I never got the feeling I was ACTUALLY going through the same area over and over.  Even if it was just a variance on the same tile set.  While Torchlight 2 definitely attempts this.  The art style is SO paired down that there is just SO MUCH you can do with it.

    Fortunately for the average player both games will run very well on just about any machine made in the past 4 years.  In fact, you can probably play Torchlight 2 on a machine older than that as it is simply an enhanced version of the original Torchlight engine.  Unfortunately, there are definitely areas where this shows.  The main starter town is rather 2 dimensional even if it is a multi-level area.  The area just seemed flat to me.  Perhaps that is my main criticism of the game.  It just seems rather flat.  Even though in this title they definitely attempted to make use of vertical spaces.  Usually this does more harm than good by simply making the player wonder whether or not his character can reach up there or not.  This isn’t mitigated by the fact that sometimes your character isn’t even SUPPOSED to try to reach for the vertical space.  It’s only a monster spawning area or maybe there to make the level seem more open.

      One thing that Torchlight 2 will allow that Diablo 3 will not; is support for Mods.  This allows players to create their own levels, areas, classes, stories, and other fun things.  The new level of quality that comes with Torchlight 2 from the original will certainly make this a title to watch for community Mod-makers who can really take things in a whole new direction.  I remember my favorite class from the original Torchlight is a Mod-makers class called,”Valkyrie.”  Which was a cross between a Warrior and a Alchemist class; or pretty close to it.  I loved playing the class and that character ended up being my main one in the game.  Things like that are really at the heart and soul of Torchlight as a franchise.

       Finally, I would just like to mention that no matter what I’ve said in this article, I will be excited to play Torchlight 2 when it comes out of beta and I’m having an excellent time playing Diablo 3 right now.   For $20 it’s hard not to buy Torchlight 2, no matter how you might feel about it.   In closing, I just want to say that Torchlight 2 is currently in Beta so many of the things I said will probably change before it’s final release.  Especially the leveling and loot drops.  These are the kinds of things developers tweak at the last minute.  Also, they might take another pass at the graphics.  Many developers leave that for last as well.

 

           Final note:  Just wanted to also mention that a preview for Torchlight 2 and a review for Diablo 3 are on the way.  But as both games are rather large this will take some time…..

 

     

Elder Scrolls Online: I’m sorry I don’t think you know what I wanted

 

    Considering it was around 2 weeks ago you probably remember where you when you heard that Zenimax was making a Elder Scrolls MMORPG.  You probably also remember that when you heard that Bethesda had made a new studio, Zenimax Online Studio that was going to make it.  You probably remember that your heart sank a little.  Why might this be?  Well, Todd Howard works over at Bethesda and he has been instrumental in making Fallout 3 and both of the modern Elder Scrolls titles(Oblivion and Skyrim).  He has a certain reputation for making quality products that might be a little broken at launch but that we love anyway.  Yes, he and his team who have been together for more than 10 years in all most completely intact form are the reason why Elder Scrolls has become the mainstream monster that it has.  There is no doubt that when people think of Elder Scrolls; they think of Todd Howard.

    That might soon change; when next year(probably); the Elder Scrolls are going to venture into the MMORPG arena.  A place that really has been ripe for a world so rich and wonderful as those that have been presented to us over the past all most eight years in the modern Elder Scrolls titles.  Many people have hoped and prayed that Bethesda would see their way clear to make such a game.  Well, back in 2007 they heard your cry and have been working on this MMORPG ever since.  And wow, does it look like a product made in 2007.  The upper screen is a confirmed screenshot from Gameinformer’s recent story on Elder Scrolls Online the bottom screen is one from Elder Scrolls Skyrim.  Do they even look like they were made in the same generation?  I’m not even sure that the top screen is even pushing DirectX 9c, let alone Skyrim’s maxed out version of DirectX 11.  Now I certainly understand that some compromises must be made to have an RPG become an MMORPG.  But I think Aion, Guild Wars 2, and Tera prove that you can make a MMORPG that looks pretty.

       But the problems don’t stop there.  You see this MMORPG takes place 1000 years before Skyrim.  So it takes place at around the time of the end of Oblivion’s last expansion pack or perhaps a bit after that.  I think that probably would have been around 2008 or 2009.  I guess, they really were looking at current material and working from it.  The player has a class.  Not like in Skyrim where you just pick skills and go.  Well, this was probably for armor sets, weapons, etc… Right?  Probably…  But to not work from a construct that has impacted the most players and certainly had the best effect seems half hearted.  In the Gameinformer article they are all ready talking about features not being ready for launch and being shut away in expansions.  Really?  You have been working on this game for supposedly 5+ years and your telling me that there are things your saving for expansions?  Why?  Just take longer making the stupid game.  It’s not like anyone would have been the wiser had you not announced the game and it came out in 2015.  Perhaps updating the graphics and textures would have been a good idea as well.

      From the sound of it the game is going to feature big battle PVP.  This is awfully exciting except that every game that has tried to do this: Aion, Warhammer, World of Warcraft, currently Guild Wars 2(still in beta) has been having trouble keeping people from getting caught in lag wells.  Or worse, just not knowing what the heck is going on from moment to moment because there are so many skill effects popping off.  I remember playing a healer in Warhammer Online and just sitting in back row in World Battles just clicking on squares and pushing heal.  Because I could see or didn’t know what the heck was going on the actual battlefield.  This game looks about as low resolution as a modern game can; so I guess lag won’t be an issue and we can probably run it on our laptops so if you have a descent PC it’s probably not going to cause too many problems.  Except those skill effects are probably still going to be an issue.  I think developers need to give up the whole MASSIVE BATTLE thing until we all have Gigabit Ethernet and we all have PCs capable of running their games at MAX settings without any slowdown.  For most games I would say this would take five years.  But considering how terrible the graphics look in this game maybe, 2014 or so is about right.  At least outside of the US; currently the US government is happy with their, “who cares about infrastructure.” attitude, after all it wouldn’t create jobs or anything.  Let’s just leave all that to ATT and Comcast, they have done SUCH a good job so far.

       What’s also a feature in that game is that one player can actually become the new Emperor!  Really?  Didn’t some Free To Play do this a couple years back and fail miserably.  No one wants to have a player be Emperor…  What possible advantage would anyone get from this.  Your faction gets more stuff?  Well that’s exciting…  How about I send them a copy of Fable 3 and they can let me know how exciting it is to be a ruler in an RPG.  These ideas are all old…  Warhammer tried most them and none of them worked out.  I often wonder if these developers don’t get ideas and while trying to implement them; don’t play or pay attention to any other game until their game launches.  Because this isn’t the first example of a situation where it seems like it.

      At this point, unless things drastically change; I don’t think I’ll be too interested in picking up Elder Scrolls Online.  By then, Guild Wars 2 will have been out about a year and I’ll be fully into that or I might go back to playing Star Wars the Old Republic.  You know, modern MMORPGs that have the sense to ACTUALLY change the way MMORPGs are played and not going back to 2007.  And just a side note, I DO realize that it takes a VERY LONG TIME to make an MMORPG.  After all, according to ArenaNet they have been working on Guild Wars 2 since 2005 and they still aren’t finished.  But then, the game looks amazing and has some incredible new features that have never appeared in an MMORPG before.  They just didn’t remake Dungeons and Dragons Online and slap the Elder Scrolls logo on it.  Which sounds like that might have been better.  Because at least then, they would have had dragons in the game.(Oh there aren’t any of those in there either.  No playable werewolves, vampires….)  But there would definitely be a way that I would get excited about Elder Scrolls Online.  If they announced it was launching Free to Play.  Because that looks like about what the game is worth and heck for free I’ll try just about anything….  Well, maybe I still wouldn’t, some of those games can be really large downloads…  I do have my data cap to think about….  I’ll get back to you in 2013 about the whole Elder Scrolls Online thing, after all, things might be better by then…

Anarchy Reigns: It’s a well Umm, just watch this trailer of the Online Modes.

Diablo 3: Blizzard’s Tips for INFERNO difficulty? Someone is thinking a little far ahead I’d say…

Your Doing it Wrong! Game Reviews and Reviewers….

        First off, I would like to give props to the person who gave me the idea for this article.  That being Kyle Stegerwald of Medium Difficulty.  Who wrote a nice article called,”Bad at What? The Question of Skill in Game Criticism.”  It was a lovely article and while it didn’t do a very good job of answering his question it gave me an excellent start at writing this article.  Please go read his first, if you think me plagiarist.

       I read a lot of game reviews, watch a lot of previews, and watch a lot of game demos done by game journalists.  Mostly in an effort to be knowledgeable about video games and also because I have this sick liking for watching other people play video games.  But what often happens, especially if the game is one I’ve had any experience with.  I tend to feel like the author or demoer, just didn’t get out of the game what I did.  In fact, sometimes I scream at my computer screen,

“Jesus Christ Man, what are you doing?”  Which is usually followed by me wondering what the hell I’m doing and me shutting up.

       This is a feeling I tend to have when I’m watching the typical game journo play a MMORPG, Fighting game, or even some RTS games.  In fact, I even had this reaction while watching some guy play Dirt Showdown the other day.  I later kind of felt sorry for him because he admitted he was terrible at the game.  But it made me wonder why in the world he got the job of demoing it to an audience.

        After all, if you wanted to show off how great Football was; you wouldn’t be getting me to show it off.  Perhaps you would get Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers.  But not me…  But when an outlet that covers video games needs someone to sit in a chair and play the game for what is usually a live audience they just seem to grab anyone that’s around.  Even if the outlet has a guy who usually plays RPGs, Shooters, etc…  They sometimes are a very small staff and may not have such people.  But then, who is going to be reviewing this product?  Someone who knows nothing about the genre, isn’t good at the games, and probably doesn’t even like the game?  Can’t be the best person to do the job.  Right?

        What usually happens in that case is that the game gets an 8/10 or whatever the equivalent.  Because the reviewer was too underprepared to know what else to give it.  The reviewer complains about things that are staples of the genre and the reviewer all most all ways says that the game should have included a feature or mechanic that doesn’t exist in the genre.  For instance, I read some reviews for Soul Calibur 5 that said that the Story mode was too short and that the game didn’t have enough modes.  In fact, Story Modes in fighting games are usually throwaways and therefore very short and uneventful.  And the game had a complete set of modes.  Nothing was missing from the game at all.  In fact, feature and quality wise this game was one of the best fighting games to have come out in years.  But the reviewers didn’t have this perspective and just assumed that the game should have more to it than it did.  Another example could be someone playing a game like Ultimate Marvel versus Capcom 3 may complain that Marvel versus Capcom 3 just came out eight months pervious and therefore this game is cheap cash in.  Well, that is a problem considering the level of changes made to the game would justify a $30 upgrade purchase through DLC making it just about the same price as the boxed complete game ended up being.  Therefore, Capcom did have a problem getting DLC in the pipeline and approved due to the earthquake and probably other factors.  But they made good on their promise of new content by making Ultimate Marvel versus Capcom 3 for just about the same price as it would have been; had it been DLC.  In the end, however, most people looking at this from an outside perspective entirely might argue that the price and frequency of these two titles shouldn’t effect their scores at all.  Considering that in a few months when both games cost $20.  No one is going to remember any of the circumstances of their releases.  But someone will want to know of the quality of the games and dropping a game’s score to the circumstances of it’s release are a little unfair.

        This is not limited to fighting games.  I’ve seen a number of previews lately done for MMORPGs where the people doing the previews have no knowledge of what is or is not a modern MMORPG staple and therefore constantly say,

“This game seems all right; but I don’t know… Isn’t this something most MMORPGs have nowadays?  The last time I played an MMO, was WoW about three years ago.”

        A total lack of foreknowledge of the genre and what it’s current conventions are.  This is the type of thing I would expect from fanboys posting stuff on Youtube.  Not paid professionals.  If your outlet doesn’t have an expert in that particular genre perhaps you have no business doing commentary previews of it.  Also, if your really terrible at a particular genre.  Like fighting games, shooters, or MMORPGs then maybe you shouldn’t be reviewing them or previewing them without help from someone who is.

       I also, have a bad habit of reading other people’s reviews for games I’ve just reviewed.  Often, this is due to Metacritic.  Most evil or evils.  Which has shown me that for some reason, in a sea of 8/10 there is some guy who gave the same game a 4/10.  Now this is usually because they want the traffic that being the lowest review can often bring.  It also, usually brings waves of angry fans.  But that’s good for advertising too I suppose.  Everyone is chasing the clicks in this business.  But to do this at the expense of being truthful or worse not even playing the game and just giving it a bad score to get those clicks takes any small amount of credibility this business might have once had and  flushes it down the collective toilet.   These reviews usually have a back of the box explanation of the game and then some words of criticism for instance;

“I didn’t like the graphics” or “The story didn’t make any sense.”

        Wow some real wordsmiths there for sure.  If these folks are being truthful then, perhaps they could explain what was wrong with the graphics or perhaps explain why the story didn’t make any sense.  After all, if it was SO BAD, your not really spoiling anything for anyone.  There wasn’t anything there to spoil, right?  I also love the whole, “I didn’t understand the story.”  Argument when reviewers try to explain why the game was bad.  Well, if you didn’t understand the story perhaps we could have someone from the internet wiki read it to you.  Then maybe you would understand it.  Saying that your not smart enough or not paying enough attention doesn’t make the game look bad.  It just makes you look stupid.

         There is obviously a difference between people not playing a game at all and giving it a bad score and people just being bad at the game.  But both of these things come from the same source.  People who manage outlets want to get by on the fewest people possible.  They don’t want to pay freelancers for what they can do in house.  And what’s more, they want everyone to be able to where all the hats in their office.  So there are no specialists.  This might work for books or movies, because you can spend a couple hours reading wikis and be an instant expert on those.  But unfortunately games are often as much about the experience of playing them as having the knowledge that they impart on the player.  If you are unwilling or unable to achieve this; perhaps your outlet should get out of the business and do movie reviews instead.  I hear they are much easier.

         What I find the most appalling is that most of these situations I presented above in my direct criticism of previews; were done by reputable outlets that have plenty of employees that know their stuff.  But a deadline based work place can take it’s toll.  Even someone who is normally considered the office expert; if made to wear too many hats can certainly drop the ball due to emotions or just a lack of time.  What I would really like to see is a case where people are not made to review multiple games in a very short span and reviewers and even previewers given a chance to do a long thoughtful review rather than something quick and dirty just to get the day one traffic ping.  Because as we move into the future and there is more and more competition your audience is going to notice your lack of knowledge and believe me; there is nothing more aggravating for the average gamer to be watching someone play your favorite game and you say,

“God Dammit!  Your doing it WRONG!”

So You Don’t think Call of Duty is Popular Anymore? I guess you REALLY don’t know ANYTHING!

   According to Gamespot, they just posted a recent news article stating that according to Amazon UK and US,

“Preorders from Day 1 of Black Ops II were more than 10 times the amount of preorders for the first Black Ops on its first day of availability. Black Ops II even out preordered the first day of availability for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by more than 30 percent. Modern Warfare 3 currently holds the record for the most preordered game of all time and was amongst the top 20 preorders ever on Amazon.com, including books and movies”

      This comes just days after the announcement of the existence of the game and a trailer showing the new futuristic features the game will have.  Most of the press that were at the recent event held for the announcement were very impressed with the new story driven gameplay that the new COD BLOPS 2 will be featuring.  There was no mention of multiplayer however, except to say that the game will feature the futuristic time period for it’s multiplayer and the survival based zombie mode will be returning.  I’m sure all the old folks are hoping Oliver North is in the Zombie mode as an unlockable character; but this number of pre-orders can only be seen as unprecedented.  Especially considering Amazon even stated that the numbers are greater than those for MW3 which was at the height of the console cycle thereby having the highest installbase to participate.

     While these are JUST pre-orders and most outlets, even Amazon, don’t require up front payment.  To say that this “new take.” On Call of Duty is just what the doctor ordered for an ailing industry that has believed over the course of the last six months that nothing could get into the same league as MW3 and Black Ops.  Apparently all we needed was another Call of Duty.  I think this shows one VERY IMPORTANT THING and that is that there is plenty of money and interest out there.  You just have to make a game everyone is interested in playing and market the game properly.

      The Day after the trailer aired all I saw on weekly gaming shows or heard about on everyone’s website was about the new Call of Duty and what it would feature.  Other game companies could learn from this.  Having a message hit all at once; first on television and then on the internet; makes a much bigger impression than just one or the other.  And while God of War Ascension tried to do this a few days before this announcement.  It would have been much more interesting had they shown at least a little of the single player and not worried about the multiplayer quite so long before the game was actually going to come out.

      As any PR department will tell you; video game advertising is hard.  That’s why it’s best to use history to dictate your decisions about the future.  It seems like Activision has been paying attention.  Sony on the other hand… Well, I guess if this whole electronics thing doesn’t work out there is an probably some more growth in the collectible card market.

Shhh! Don’t Tell Anyone but the Final Diablo 3 Reward Unlock is! Well Watch this Interview/Trailer and you’ll Find out!

Persona 4 Arena Tutorial Trailer!

         Looks like a very old school fighter.  It also takes into account not using a fightstick but rather a controller.  Considering there is SO MUCH come back potential this could actually be a cool game.  I will really be interested to see this in action.  I’m guessing the average casual player will have a blast with this.

Last Diablo 3 Developer Diary was just Unlocked! That was Fast! Good Community!

       Go over to the main site to watch them all.  They are pretty interesting…

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 the Reveal Trailer!

      So they took MW3 and put robots and futuristic stuff in it.  Well, that’s different.  I guess I’ll it a shot when it comes out in November.  At least it isn’t ANOTHER let’s all go to unnamed Eastern European Country and kill people.  I hope…

Magically the Wizard Reveal Video up a day Early on IGN!

Guild Wars 2 Preview(Beta Weekend #1)(PC)

          I believe the very first time I saw any of Guild Wars 2 was PAX 2010 as a streamed from booth video.  I was a pretty big fan of the original Guild Wars.  But in the end, I found that I liked the multiplayer far more than the PVE game.  Especially as I approached MAX level.  But Guild Wars #1 came out in 2005 and everything that they made as far as expansions had to fit into that.  Which severely limited the game.  At one point I could run Guild Wars Nightfall on my laptop and listen to itunes at the same time while I had Tweetdeck open.  Guild Wars 2 is definitely a MODERN MMO.  With modern graphics and mechanics to go along with it.

         This last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were the first days of the First Closed Beta Weekend(which consisted mostly of folks that pre-purchased the game, got a code from PAX East, and press).  So of the three races available for this week; I played the Norn and the Human.   I was not going to play a Charr; as I’m saving that for when the game actually comes out.   When you start the game one the first thing you will be asked to do is pick your server which cannot be changed(this wasn’t the case during the beta weekend for obvious reasons).  Then you are asked to make your character.  The developers smartly gave the player many, many options in this area.  But not so many that it created completely terrible looking characters.  I know a lot of people like funny looking characters running around.  But personally, anything that looks that god awful is pretty hard to stomach if your constantly watching it go walk by freak show style(see DC Universe Online, Champions Online, and Aion).  After you’ve chosen the look for your character; you are asked some very specific questions about your character.  Things like,:”how do you solve problems?” You then pick from: a)with violence, b)with intelligence, or c) with charm.  This seems to effect some of the under the hood starting numbers for your character.  But these questions, not that one in particular; but these sorts of questions, can effect what your “personal” story consists of.  This can be anything from the kinds of friends you have, to you’re the NPC you turn your quests into. etc…  This is very interesting considering that most of the dialog that matters takes place in screen filling dialogue events.  Where both sides are voiced.  There aren’t usually choices here.  But when you reach the screen back in the game proper you are sometimes given a choice as to how you complete a certain quest chain.  This is certainly interesting, even if the demeanor of your character is pretty much set by those opening questions you had during character creation.  Unlike Star Wars Old Republic.

        This “personal story” is a completely separately instanced part of the game. Much like Star Wars the Old Republic, it is by and large separate from anything you’ll be doing in the public part of the game.  The places might be somewhat the same; but the personal story usually takes place off to the side in some building or area that everyone else either doesn’t have access to or very limited access to.  Much like in Old Republic when your class could go down that hall that no one else could.  From what I’ve heard from others and experienced for my self, the personal story seems to be kind of tuned to either be incredibly hard for one player or just an OK challenge for two or more. This is pretty funny considering, it’s your personal story… But for some reason the developer felt like kicking your butt and making sure that you play the game the right way. Because if you don’t, or god-forbid, you make some mistakes your going to die. And when you die you can retry the instance. Well for your sake, I hope the instance is multi-tiered because if it isn’t your just starting from the beginning again. This particular thing never happened to me, but I’m told there is a particular part in one of the Charr personal stories that if you happened to spec wrong; you might end up not being able to get through it alone or at the suggested level. That is after all an option, the way I played the personal story parts; was that I would do everything else and then do them. Which seemed to work out the best.

       Guild Wars 2 is one of the first MMOs that MIGHT actually have a fantasy story you care about.  Might care about because, I think it depends a great deal on which race you play.  To me, it’s amazing how different each race’s area is from another.  This certainly isn’t new to the genre.  Certainly, in World of Warcraft; the race you choose does affect your experience for the first 10-20 levels.  The funny thing about Guild Wars 2 is that leveling is quite a bit slower than in World of Warcraft.  So your starting area will actually dictate quite a lot of your experience for the first 4-8 hours depending on your play style and character class(as opposed to Warcraft where post Burning Crusade starting areas usually took a total of around 2-3 hours).  There definitely are some reused enemies like bandits, Skritt(rat men), and Wurms of various colors.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  But this is where the similarities stop. 

   Between the Norn and the Humans I saw practically nothing repeated either thematically or literally. Which is wonderful, but I wonder how interested the average gamer is going to be in playing anything in the Human starting areas or human cities. I know Humans are pretty and familiar but I dunno; there is this big hole in the middle of the human capital city for some reason; I never did find out exactly why. Also, the Humans lands are being attacked by Centaurs and while that sounds cool and is cool for the first few battles. After awhile, I just started saying, “Centaurs! Why does it all ways have to be Centaurs?”

   They are a little annoying as enemies. As they get to higher levels, they get even more annoying. But I suppose I understand, considering in the story the Humans are for some reason at war with the Centaurs. But by the third or fourth time you fight them in a big battle; you just wish you could march on their capital and kill them all. Which is perhaps the point, but still…

       There ARE other things to do.  Every area you go into has two major types of quests.  The first are world events that happen whether you are there to complete them or not.  The other are more specific types of events that require certain prerequisites before they begin.  Such as clearing a road of enemies so a trade route might open up a quest that asks you to escort a merchant down the road.  If you don’t clear the road, the merchant never appears.  Sometimes these things are linked; sometimes(rarely that I’ve seen); they can work independently of each other.  Both of these quest types are incredibly fun and can be taken part in by any random passerby.  Which makes them even more fun.  If I’m out there killing something and someone comes along and helps me kill it.  I’m STOKED!  Why?  Because I get just as much experience and just as much loot as I would have doing it alone; but it’s EASIER!  What’s also fun about both of these quests is that the participants get Karma.  Karma is basically just like PVP points in other MMOs.  You use these points to buy SPECIAL ITEMS that are usually sold by the quest giver of whatever events you participate in.   These are usually especially good items, like a sword with really nice magic effects on it.  Or a trinket with an awesome buff.  In fact, the only REAL ways to get trinkets are from this or perhaps buying one on the Auction House.  So these are all great.  No one is telling me that I MUST do this or I MUST do that.  Except they kind of are….  If you don’t do at least 4/5 of these events your going to end up being too under leveled to do the “personal story” quests and not be able to move anything along.  But that still leaves the average person with some choices and I’m sure this opens up later on.

     One of the other big changes to Guild Wars 2 from other MMOs was supposed to be getting rid of the whole sacred trinity thing(Tanking, Healing, DPS).  Which usually works really well in other games(as long as people want to play those classes, SWTOR and WoW players can attest to this).  I played a Necromancer for my Human and a Warrior for my Norn.  Both of these classes played quite differently.  My Norn for example, had access to every weapon in the game except daggers(which seems strange).   She was even able to use guns, bows, and crossbows.  Which, She ended up being very good with.  I was very hard pressed to go back to using my melee weapons when I could just stand outside of the ring of death and shoot things.  Of course, that often meant that those things would just come up to me and start hitting me.  But unlike a normal DPS player; I didn’t have to run away, I just proceeded to keep shooting them.  But this time at point blank range.  Which was fun as well, even if only a handful of skills allowed for this.  When I was playing her in melee mode, I was usually wielding a very large hammer or sword.  In either case, I would do some direct damage to the thing I was hitting but I also had a nice “aggro” area of effect skill that would collect guys and send them after me.  But again, unlike a normal tank; I wasn’t just trying to survive.   I could dish out enough damage to kill just about anything that I fought at least one on one.  If I fought more than four guys at a time and they just so happened to be my level.  I was usually in trouble.  But in the Norn Lands, that just doesn’t happen too much.  If your out there killing a group of enemies at least two or three more folks will show up and kill them with you.

       Which means that someone, usually, ends up needing reviving.  Which is also fine, because every character can revive.  Just they don’t do it particularly well.  Which is why, I’m guessing that they make the game so difficult so that at some point you will experience watching one person trying to revive you and it taking like 40 seconds.  40 seconds is a long time to watch someone kneeling over you and little green numbers to pop out while color is filling in on your  life bar.  What this means is that every time I’m walking around a battlefield; the first thing I do if there are no monsters trying to kill me, is revive all of the fallen.  Which I’m happy to say other people do as well.  If you do it often enough, you even get an XP reward for it.  Fortunately you can prevent your own death by achieving your second chance.  What that means is that right before you die you are given a chance to kill what is killing you for a sliver health to get you off the ground and away from the enemies.  This would be fine except that usually the reason that you died, is usually standing over you pummeling you while your doing this.  So unless you died just a last moment before you killed them; you probably will have a hard time with this.  I could see this working better in a raid situation where you kill an add to get you up so you can heal before going back to fighting the boss.  In most other circumstances however, it’s kind of a luck of the draw kind of thing.

      All of these mechanics and options certainly give the soloing character, in this case; more flexibility and even if playing in a traditional style isn’t as effective as in the previous games.  The character, at least in this case can both Tank and DPS.  However, what this doesn’t do for the character is give them a clear role in a raid or even a world event.  In the hairiest world events(like killing a group of 20-40 enemies, yeah they send that many); I usually grabbed my big hammer and pummeled enemies into oblivion while the Elementalists, Mesmers, and Rangers shot them in the back.  But if something was more unpredictable.  Like an event in an area, where it was hard to tell where the enemies would be coming from or what types of enemies they would be.  I was back there with the casters and ranged folks shooting my huge gun or my longbow.  I was just as effective in both capacities, not better as one or the other.  That’s fine, for the Warrior who is heavily armored and specs a little precision to go with toughness/power/etc…  But when we move to the Necromancer things change a little.

      My Necromancer was Human and the Human starting area was quite different from the Norn(as I mentioned earlier).  The Human areas are very spread out(even more than the Norn) and people tend to move in big groups from one event area to the next.  Which means that the average player might think they are doing all right for the first two or three levels when in fact; they are not.  It’s easy to feel good about your class when you aren’t responsible for actually killing ANYTHING ALONE!  Even in your main human story for the first 2 levels, it’s unlikely that you will have to kill anything alone until it’s just a little too late to fix some of the problems you’ve created for yourself.  Mostly undergearing and not kiting enough.

    Necromancers are described by the in-game text tip as Healer/Summoners.  Which in most games would mean that they are a pet class and some of their powers can be used to heal.  It would be like a Priest and a Warlock had a baby to put it in WoW terms.  The problem here is that, Necromancers are not exactly that.  They are actually DPS/Summoners/Healers.  Most of their abilities, and I’ve used all most every skill that the game would let me by level 9(Which is quite a few actually) and none do DIRECT healing.  Many have healing side effects, like this spell will do X Damage, put on Y DOT, and then do 1% healing on the caster.  Which is fine, but I’m not standing out in a field keeping people alive, I’m killing the thing and if your standing next to me you might live longer, either because I killed the thing before it could kill you or because you would have died from 1% damage more.  But it’s not like I’m a Druid, Priest, or Paladin(WoW).  However, lest you think that the Necromancer is a DPS, I will tell you no.  The Elementalist and the Mesmer are much better at DPS than the Necromancer is.  She cannot tank, because she has many pets but they don’t live very long.  So what does she do well?  Not much…  She CAN DPS and she CAN Tank but only if there is no one else around and as long as someone is there to kill anything else that the Necromancer isn’t focused on.  Because she can definitely kill ONE THING at a time, REALLY well.  Or kill a group of things OVER TIME really well.  But if that group of things reaches her; she is all most certainly dead.  Even Death Shroud, which looks like an “Oh Shit! The Monsters are going to kill me” button doesn’t make you invincible for the duration of it.  It only increases your damage, gives you MORE health, and keeps you from being pinned to one spot.  Which are all great, except that it really cuts down on how much it is used.  I normally am kiting some creature all around, WoW Ranger style.   Or dropping sigil traps on the ground so enemies run into them; Wow Ranger/Mage style.  In fact, there is a ranger class  in this game and both classes seem to play surprisingly similarly.  Except that even at low levels, Ranger pets are more resilient and have more options than anything your liking to summon before level 10.

     Don’t get me wrong, however.  I really DO like the Necromancer as a class.  But she must be carefully specced and for some reason she must also be carefully geared.  Doing both of those things will help her be better DPS and maybe even a better Tank, probably eventually a better Healer.  Not that with Guardians around we need better Tanks or with Elementalists around we need better DPS.  The Healing aspect can  be explained by saying  that really high level skills and traits(by this I mean all the stuff that comes after level 13) and can be turned to healing rather than just DPS.  Which is fine, except that if I’m a Healer/Summoner;  That seems like a little late to get into the practice of keeping people alive all of a sudden.  While on the grand scale the first even 20 levels of a game like this are nothing.  It makes it incredibly difficult to understand your character if for the first 15 levels you do mostly one thing(DPS) and then are asked to do the exact opposite(Healing).  This is very much unlike something like Warhammer Online where the healers got power to do DPS with their healing.  Which blended both together so that the healers were constantly thinking of both.  But I’m guessing the developers are just giving us this option to play around with Necromancers.  They probably, except in rare cases; will be nothing more than DPS that can heal a little.  Which is fine because every raid needs lots of healing.  When the game goes live, I’m sure I’ll be rolling a Necromancer.  Just not a Human one.

      I played the two characters I mentioned, both to level 9.  Which is right before the traits begin to start affecting things.  I did play some PVP with more characters and while I didn’t try out any of the Necromancer’s healing skills my Fully Maxed Necromancer seemed to be mostly a DPS and kiting beast.  I played a Human Engineer which was a lot of fun, guns are very good in this game.  All most game-breakingly so.  My guess would be that before launch all the guns in the game get their stats nerfed.  I also played a Human Elementalist and a Human Mesmer.  Both were effective caster classes and were a lot of fun to play.  Nothing really struck me as being unexpected or crazy.  Except how much I loved playing PVP in this game(NCsoft does AWESOME PVP).  I only say unexpected, because judging from the PVE it seemed like the fights would boil down to a lag battle.   Where the people who had the best connections would win.  But considering that most of the battles were small and the maps spread out, this usually wasn’t an issue.

      In wrapping up, Guild Wars 2 is an amazing game and I can’t wait to play the other races when the next beta weekend hits.  Also, I can’t wait to see what the developers do with the MAC-LOAD TONAGE of beta data they got from this beta weekend.  The game mostly worked but some things were definitely just straight up broken.  The in-game store, the auction house, and a few instanced story quests were just not working properly.  But that’s why developers have betas and this weekend definitely gave the Guild Wars 2 team something to chew on come next week and even right now apparently.  Trying to get everyone in to play was their main concern and even with the sometimes infrequent updates and miscommunications; overall they preformed admirably.  I certainly have no fear going forward that this will be a great MMORPG.  I can’t wait to play as much of it as the developers will let me in the coming weeks and months before the game launches sometime later this year.  Go get your copy pre-purchased.  You better hurry I hear they are running out(really, I’m not kidding)…

Diablo 3 Beta Impressions(From the Open Beta)(PC)

         While I certainly understand that a lot of people have played the Diablo 3 Beta since it began around a year or so ago.  But I’m also aware that many people have not.  I would like to say first, that I played the beta during their last open beta weekend for around   The game looks great, as usual.  Some of the more updated changes(stuff that changed since last Blizzcon) was kind of odd to me.  A few of these changes included not being able to salvage any time I wanted; making it a purely Blacksmith only feature.  Also, the whole rune and skills system changes seemed strange.  Like just being doled out both runes and skills as you level; rather than choosing skills and finding runes.  I suppose the systems are fine but they definitely seem a little dumbed down from the way it was originally.  Which, I guess makes the game less complicated and more accessible.  Which is fine, I was just a little surprised when I played the beta how off-putting the changes were to me.  But I got over it.

       I played all of the classes except the Barbarian.  So will give you a short run down of each…

       Demon Hunter:  I played the Demon Hunter to the completion of the beta which hits around level 10.  Which is fine, supposedly you can play until level 13.  But I was pretty done with her by then; as I played for around 3-4 hours straight with her by then.  I’m thinking that at higher levels the Demon Hunter is probably a lot better; as I see a lot of potential there.  But considering her, incredible feeble amount of damage and the fact that she only uses traps and dodging from her Discipline pool that there seems like there is something missing.  Also, playing with two hand crossbows looks cool, but I think the damage output is probably better with a crossbow or two-handed bow.  Of course, having two descent hand crossbows would probably change this.  Problem, is the way loot seems to be dropping in beta; that is pretty tough.  In fact, much of the class specific loot doesn’t drop hardly at all and when it does it basically drops as a grey, low quality items.  Which is fine, the class specific stuff looks good but isn’t a make or break.  At least not at level 10 anyway.

 

       Monk:  The Monk overall, is one of the strongest classes, even at low levels.  What makes the Monk incredibly powerful is the fact that you can dual wield all most any one handed weapon; by doing this the Monk gains both the damage and magical buffs from those weapons.  So if you have a fire weapon in one hand and a poison weapon in the other you get poison and fire damage.  Which makes the average enemy complete fodder.  The Monk has a descent amount of stamina so even if you get hit it’s not really that big of a deal.  I managed to get one vampric weapon and was able to constantly heal myself.  Not that vampiric weapons are very strong.  They basically just keep you from dying long enough to pop a potion or hit some health orbs.  Which is great, because if used improperly the frequency of vampric weapons in the game could certainly break it.  Especially when it comes to the Monk.  My only real complaint with the Monk is that he has no real way of getting to a ranged target.  Perhaps this comes later or your meant to constantly be using the rush ability.  But in some cases, this makes you take quite a lot of damage.

 

      Witch Doctor: My favorite character from my time with the Beta had to be the Witch Doctor.  The Witch Doctor is the pet class of the game, but no only does he have his wonderful pets.  He DOES have some really interesting attacks.  One is a thrown jar of spiders, another is a fiery swarm of bats.  All of which make the Witch Doctor pretty dangerous.  Strangely, the Witch Doctor has some really strange weapon choices and while I think the damage might carry over; all of the effects definitely don’t.  Works with some abilities, doesn’t work with others.  Which is fine because using any of his abilities do a ton of damage on their own.  What I found great was being able to use the snaring area of effect ability and getting health procs every time.  While the Witch Doctor can use a shield, it’s probably better to pick the right weapon for each situation.  Mainly because, the Witch Doctor has SO FEW choices that your probably going to NEED to do this.  Apparently(from screenshots and advanced character class videos) there are focuses for the Witch Doctor but you won’t see any of these in the 1-10 level stuff.  At least I didn’t in the Beta.  But what you might not be expecting is that just like all the Monk and the Wizard you will never actually be hitting anyone with those weapons.  Might get the damage or effect bonuses but you won’t actually be touching anyone with them.  So while the weapons themselves are mostly for aesthetics I’m guessing that no matter your play style the weapons that are favored by your chosen class are probably going to have the best bonuses for your character.  I suppose what I find sad about this is that you will probably use every weapon available to your class just to get the bonuses.  Rather than being able to choose those said weapons right off.  While I do realize that this game IS about loot.  It is also a game where every single piece of armor you pick up looks like your classes armor style.

 

       Wizard: The Wizard is the character I spent the least time with.  While to begin with the Wizard is rather difficult to use as the Demon Hunter has to play a little bit of a run and gun game; the Wizard must do this to an extreme.  The Wizard really needs any block bonus or health bonus she can get.  Most of the time your running into or out of a situation and getting grazed.  Unfortunately, when the Wizard gets grazed; she is actually taking the equivalent on any other character to two direct hits.  Eventually, the Wizard does pay off with this because she does do quite a lot of damage.  But the beginning skills the game gives you.  Really just make you want to runaway.  Perhaps, this is some kind of tutorial telling the player to be careful not to get surrounded.  Which your area of effect power works well for this.  But unfortunately, this turns into more spamming than strategy.  I would really like to see how this character plays out at higher levels.

       What was evident for me in the extended play sessions I had with the Diablo 3 Beta was that this game is deep and interesting.  While there may be some possible problems with going through the same areas with different characters with different skills sets.  But perhaps this should be seen more as a challenge and a window into replay-ability rather than a slight against the game.  While I have only played the first four hours of the game.  I have to say that I’m really excited to play more of it.  To play all of it actually…  If you love hack n’ slash games you will be completely addicted to Diablo 3.

The Doctor is in! Early Video from the IGN!(Diablo 3 Character Reveal)

      From the beta, I have to say that the Witch Doctor was definitely my favorite class to play.