Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 34

Gaming Round-Up: A Return to SWTOR, Wolves of Midgard, the Horners, and More

I finally got a bit burnt out on Legion, so I’m taking a break before I tackle the last few class stories. In the interim, I’ve been bouncing around between a few different games, which means it’s time for another multi-topic gaming post.

[image error]Back in the Republic:

Long-term, I want to give some serious time to SWTOR. Catch up on the story and maybe finish the last two class stories. However, there’s supposed to be a major content patch soon, so I figure I should wait for that before I get too heavily invested, and as a result I’ve just barely dipped my toes in.

Despite my obscure tastes, I did lose a couple of character names during the recent server merges. I’m rather pissed to have lost my bounty hunter’s name, as it was already my second choice for her name, and now she’s down to like my sixth or seventh choice. The others I don’t mind, but boy is it hard to find a new name now. Absolutely everything is taken. Who the hell even knows what “Bagrada” is other than me?

I did eventually think of a name for my knight that wasn’t taken, and I actually really like it. I should use it more. And thankfully my main characters — agent, warrior, and consular — all got to keep their names. The reign of Empress Maigraith Numin continues undisputed.

Another mild annoyance is that SWTOR apparently stores UI data client-side rather than server side, so I had to set everything up again since I’m playing on a different computer now.

Unlike most MMO players, I’m not fussy about my UI. I’m usually happy to play with the default settings of any given MMO. Even ESO’s much maligned interface is fine by me. But for whatever reason the default UI in SWTOR makes me want to punch kittens, so I have to rekajigger it a fair bit.

[image error]On the good news front, I am delighted to be able to customize the armour of my KotFE companions. Well, Lana, anyway. I never much bother with the others. I put together an outfit based around the Protoss-looking armour from the new light side vendors, and she is now the glorious space paladin of my dreams.

Mr. and Mrs. Horner:

In other news, this week saw the hotly anticipated (by me) release of StarCraft II’s latest co-op commander(s), the husband and wife team of Matt Horner and Mira Han.

My early experiences with them were actually something of a baptism by fire. I was struggling even on normal — something I haven’t done since I first started on co-op. I’ve come to the conclusion they’re a bit like Karax, despite having a totally different playstyle: They have a very steep learning curve, and they’re highly dependent on leveling upgrades.

I’m getting the hang of them now, but I would definitely say they’re one of the most challenging commanders in co-op.

The thing is that Matt’s units are extremely strong, but also extremely expensive. Meanwhile, Mira’s are pretty much just trash. The goal, then, is to mass up a large force of Matt’s air units while using Mira’s mercs only as a mineral dump. The trouble is getting to that point. You simply can’t afford Matt’s units in the early game, but you can’t spend too much on Mira’s or you’ll never get ahead.

[image error]Thus, while the Horners are a force to be reckoned with late game, the early game is a nerve-wracking ordeal.

Their one saving grace in that regard is the Assault Galleon. These are Mira’s main production structure, but they’re also powerful capitol ships. They’re a lot like Tempests — long range, high damage — but with much more health, and you can build them right off the bat, and they only cost 200 minerals. And later on you can upgrade them to also be Carriers.

Galleons are kind of amazing.

My strategy therefore is max out on Galleons (you can only have a maximum of five) ASAP, lean on them to survive, and try to fast tech to the truly valuable units: Wraiths and Battlecruisers.

As far as Mira’s units go, my preference is for the Hellion. Their range means they don’t die quite as quick as her other stuff, and their damage is quite respectable. A lot of people seem to like Reapers, and that can work, but they die so much you end up replacing half your army after every battle.

The good news is the Horners definitely scratch my itch for an air-focused commander. Five Galleons plus their fighter bays plus Wraiths plus Battlecruisers is the unstoppable doom fleet I’ve spent all my life longing for.

[image error]Also, dropping a space station on people is every bit as hilarious as I dreamed.

Overall I do think they’re a fun commander, but you definitely need to bring your A game. You have to work for your wins.

One final thing to note on the subject of StarCraft: I recently managed to solo a brutal mutation for the first time ever. My ally DCed on the load screen, and I was left to fend for myself. It was very challenging, I had to base trade with Amon, and there were only 21 seconds left on the clock when I killed the final objective, but I did it.

Considering I normally struggle to solo even standard matches, and that brutations are generally the toughest thing in the game short of PvP, I feel pretty proud of myself.

Nova OP.

Favoured of Skadi:

On top of that, I also played through a single-player RPG I got cheap on a Steam sale, Vikings: Wolves of Midgard. It’s a Diablo clone inspired by Norse mythology, which also neatly explains why I bought it.

[image error]

Most folk’ll never lose a toe, but then again some folk’ll, like Cletus the slack-jawed Jokul…

Even after having finished it, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.

It has some neat ideas. One example is the exposure mechanic of environmental hazards. For example, if you’re traveling in a cold area, you’ll need to warm up by fires regularly or risk freezing to death. I really wish more games made the environment part of gameplay like this.

The combat is also very fun, and it does an admirable job of bringing the world of Norse mythology to life. It’s clear they actually did their research, even if they still take liberties in places. The story’s junk, but the strength of the setting carried it through, and the main character’s voiced by Alix Wilton Regan (if female), which is always a plus.

I did enjoy the class system, as well. Rather than traditional classes, you gain bonuses based on which of the Norse gods you follow, and it’s possible and even encouraged to put points into two skill trees at once, with the option to swap between them at will. I enjoy that level of versatility.

Most of the trees still more or less correspond to traditional RPG archetypes — Skadi, my main choice, is an archer class — but the Odin tree is a bit different. It’s the caster class, but it’s melee, focusing on acrobatic staff fighting. I suppose that might be bad for people who prefer traditional casters, but for my part I think “Gandalf + ninja” is a pretty awesome class concept.

But Wolves of Midgard a lot of rough edges. Despite some solid graphics, it’s nonetheless clear the game was done on the cheap, and it has many polish issues. That I could live with, but what really surprised me was how old school and unforgiving it felt at times. Save points, for example, are few and far between, so a single death can prove very punishing.

[image error]

This is the first game I’ve played where the snow actually behaves like snow.

It got worse near the end. There’s a massive spike in difficulty in the last few levels. The intention seems to be to grind earlier content to level up, which is fairly awful. You can get around this by lowering the difficulty, but it’s just not a great situation all around.

So that put a damper on what had otherwise been a pretty fun game up until that point. If you really like Norse mythology and/or you want a more “hardcore” RPG, it might be worth a look, but otherwise I’m not sure how strongly I can recommend it.

And finally…

There’s actually one other noteworthy thing I’ve been playing lately, but that deserves it’s own post, so it can wait.

In the meanwhile, why not check out my latest article for MMO Bro? This time I’m pondering if and how the stories of MMOs can be given satisfying conclusions.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: fantasy, mythology, sci-fi, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Starcraft, Vikings: Wolves of Midgard, writing

Review: Star Trek: Discovery, “Into the Forest I Go”

Picking up where the last episode left off, “Into the Forest I Go” sees the crew of the Discovery on course for a confrontation with the Ship of the Dead (or the “T’Kuvmobile” as some have dubbed it). In order to save the planet Pahvo, Discovery must find a way to defeat the Klingon cloaking technology, but it is a plan with many risks.

[image error]Stamets will have to conduct over a hundred spore drive jumps in order to gain the readings necessary to pierce the cloak, putting his health and sanity at severe risk, whilst Burnham and Ash beam aboard the enemy ship to conduct crucial sabotage.

This episode works very hard to be an epic tour de force, and in places it does succeed, but it also has many flaws that detract from what could otherwise be a great experience.

I got off on the wrong foot with this episode immediately because the fundamental premise is so flawed. Starfleet orders Lorca to retreat, but he refuses to leave the Pahvans to their fate. This is the exact opposite of the dynamic that has been established to date. Starfleet abandoning a new species to suffer a likely genocide that would be the direct result of Starfleet’s own actions is a breathtaking betrayal of everything the organization is supposed to stand for, and Lorca of all people being the one to put his foot down and stand for what’s right is equally baffling.

There’s a theory going around that Discovery is going to visit the Mirror Universe soon, but in this episode, it seems like at least one character has already crossed over, because the Gabriel Lorca of “Into the Forest I Go” is, again, pretty much the exact opposite of the character we’ve grown accustomed to over the course of the series to date.

This is a guy who has a secret lab full of exotic weapons, a Gorn skeleton, and for some reason a collection of agony-murder balls whose only possible application could be in war-crimes. From his introduction, Lorca has been nothing but nakedly sinister and conniving, and now all of he’s sudden he’s selflessly fighting for the innocent and waxing poetic on the nobility of exploration? Overnight he’s transformed from a Bond villain to Jean-Luc frickin’ Picard.

[image error]It’s also a bit convenient how the spore drive turns out to also be the miracle cure to the Klingon cloaking, and I am bothered by the fact that that neither side deigns to send more than one ship to the battle over Pahvo.

Discovery’s lack of back-up could be explained by Starfleet’s decision to abandon the planet — though that in itself is, as discussed above, incomprehensible — but why does the Ship of the Dead come alone? I realize Klingons can be a bit reckless, but one would think that their flagship would travel with an escort as a matter of course.

Really, it’s just to set up a dramatic confrontation between two ships. And this is the problem with Discovery. It has repeatedly proved itself all too eager to throw logic to the wind if it can up the drama or cool factor. Any story will do this sometimes, and in small doses it’s fine, but Discovery has done it so often and so flagrantly it really damages the integrity of the show.

It happens again with Ash. Why would you send someone who spent seven months being tortured by Klingons onto a ship full of them? That is so obviously a bad idea. Ash is the absolute last person who should have been sent on that mission. Yes, we get some good character moments out of it, but it’s so dumb.

All that ranting aside, there is still a fair bit to like here.

I have been harshly critical of Burnham’s character from the outset, but she’s grown a lot over the course of the season, and “Into the Forest I Go” brings her arc to fruition. She’s every possible kind of badass and awesome there is, and I think she’s finally succeeded in winning me over.

[image error]

Song of the Month: The Naked and Famous, The Runners

Time for the latest installment of my “link a song so I have more time to work on my books” series.

New Zealand’s The Naked and Famous are a strange band. I find their music can be quite hit and miss, but when they get it right, wow, they get it right.

Case in point: their most recent album, Simple Forms, which came out roughly one year ago. There’s a number of songs on this album that don’t quite do it for me, but the ones I like, I adore.

None more so than The Runners, which is still the best song I’ve heard over the past twelve month period.

Not much to say beyond that. I just really like this song.

Filed under: Misc. Tagged: music, Off topic, Song of the Month

Review: Star Trek, Discovery: “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum”

After suffering heavy losses in battle, finding a way to counter the Klingon cloaking technology becomes a priority for Starfleet.

[image error]This is the premise of “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellem,” an episode that devotes itself mainly to two very unrelated story arcs.

The first focuses on Starfleet’s efforts to defeat the enemy’s cloaking. To this end, Burnham, Ash, and Saru are sent to a strange forest world called Pahvo, whose unique ecosystem produces a constant harmonic signal that Starfleet believes can be used as a kind of sonar to detect the Klingons.

Their mission is quickly complicated when they discover a race of intelligent energy beings native to Pahvo. Following Starfleet protocol, Saru initiates first contact procedures, but the alien nature of Pahvo soon begins to takes its toll on his mental state.

I know expecting scientific accuracy from Star Trek is a fool’s errand, but I have to say I did find the absolutely outlandish nature of Pahvo and its inhabitants a bit hard to swallow. It’s just pure space magic, and the fact they throw all of this at you in this wall of magitechnobabble right out of the gate doesn’t help matters.

Also, while I’ve wanted to see a Saru-focused episode since… well, since the very first episode of Discovery, it’s a shame it had to take the form of him going space crazy. I think the character deserves better. His scene with Burnham at the very end was nicely done, at least.

As an aside, it occurs to me that Saru’s people could probably benefit a lot from Vulcan philosophy, or at least elements thereof. Like the Vulcans, they seem to have trouble keeping their emotions under control. Wouldn’t it be interesting if Burnham started instructing Saru in Kolinahr?

[image error]Meanwhile, the other main thread of “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” abandons the Discovery crew altogether and focuses on the Klingons, especially L’Rell, who seeks to curry the favour of Kol… or so it would seem. This is a very confusing story, and I’m not exactly sure what the writers were trying to achieve.

It seems to put a more sympathetic angle on L’Rell, making her a bit closer to the honourable Klingons we’ve known since the days of The Next Generation, but it’s not really clear if this is genuine or just a part of some elaborate ruse.

If it is genuine, that runs totally contrary to how Discovery has thus far portrayed Klingons in general and L’Rell in particular. I want to see Discovery’s Klingons gain some any nuance, but this is all a bit out of the blue.

The end result is a fairly uneven and overall rather mediocre episode. They had some interesting ideas, but the execution is lacking.

Overall rating: 6.9/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: review, sci-fi, Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery, TV

What Makes MMOs Special and Other New Articles

I’ve had a few more articles published on MMO Bro for you to check out. First, I take a break from the usual negativity that so many in the community (myself included) tend to get bogged down in to take a look at what is good in MMORPGs.

[image error]I imagine most people reading this blog already have their own views on what makes MMOs special, but if you’re more of a single-player person, or not a gamer at all, this article can perhaps help you understand the appeal.

In other news, I also take a look at the rather bizarre history of Dark and Light, and I eulogize a number of noteworthy MMOs that died too young.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: Dark and Light, video games, writing

BlizzCon 2017: Battle for Azeroth, the Horners, and Questioning My Fandom

BlizzCon is once again upon us. After an utterly cringey video trying to sell the Blizzard community as some warm and welcoming place (a notion easily disproved by 30 seconds in WoW), the announcements started coming hard and fast. And yet in all that news, I found very little that excites me.

[image error]The Battle for Azeroth begins:

Let’s get the biggest news out of the way. The next World of Warcraft expansion is Battle for Azeroth, focusing on the war between Alliance and Horde.

Again. Seriously.

Sigh…

So many awesome expansion ideas. So many potential plot threads. And they decide to once again flog the same dead horse they’ve been trying vainly to resurrect for over ten years. What a waste.

The thing is, we know this is a story that can’t go anywhere. No faction can either win or lose. We already went down this road in Pandaria, and while there was some great story-telling along the way, it was a story that ultimately went nowhere and changed almost nothing.

It makes the characters out to be such numb-skulls, too. By working together, the Alliance and Horde just defeated the most powerful army in the entire universe and saved countless trillions of lives. And now they’re back to clubbing each other over the head for land. Sure, that makes sense.

[image error]And honestly, it’s just depressing. Every day I wake up to news of the world spiraling deeper into hatred and despair, intolerance and paranoia spreading like wildfire, conflicts that will never be solved claiming more and more innocent lives. Do we really need that in our entertainment, too?

Urgh…

To add insult to injury, Azshara will be in this expansion as a raid boss, but that means we’ll never get an expansion all about her. The most legendary and exciting villain left in the Warcraft universe is being thrown away as an afterthought. It’s like if Wrath of the Lich King had been just one tier.

Now maybe — maybe — if she’s the last boss of the expansion, if it turns out everything else builds to her, maybe they might be able to do her justice. But I’m not hopeful right now.

I’m not sure if this is a silver lining or salt in the wound, but a lot of the actual features of the expansion are things I like. There’s two new continents this time, Kul Tiras and Zandalar, and those are both places I’ve wanted to see in the game for a very long time. I just wish they weren’t tied to such a pathetically dull meta-plot.

This time the continents are actually faction-specific, though you can access the other at max level. My guess is as an Alliance player (for example) you will never have access to Zandalar’s main stories, but you will be able to do world quests and dungeons there.

[image error]The most big ticket feature, at least in my view, is the oft-requested sub-races, though Blizzard is calling them allied races, and mechanics-wise they’re closer to full new races. There will be six at launch — including two new types of Elves — with more coming later.

Oddly, you’ll have to unlock the right to play these new races. The cynic in me is expecting some terrible pointless grind, but maybe it will be more story-driven like artifact quests, in which case it could be fun.

The new content types -Warfronts and Island Expeditions — are the sort of thing I’ll need to see in action to form an opinion of. And we’re getting a new artifact, but this time everyone gets the same artifact, and it’s a necklace. So basically the artifact system is continuing minus everything that made artifacts interesting. Sure, why not?

There will be leveling changes, as well, and at least some of these will be available before the expansion launches. While they’re not implementing the “One Azeroth” system I dreamed of, they are expanding level-scaling to give the old world broad level ranges. Legacy content is still irrelevant to max level players, but at least leveling will now flow a bit better. And you can skip Outland.

It’s unclear what, if any, other changes there will be. The plot of the expansion includes massive geo-political changes, most notably the destruction of Teldrassil (which means Horde are bad guys again, because absolutely everything about this has to be as tired and stale as possible, apparently), but there’s no talk of actual world changes. Will it be a phased thing? Will it only be in lore and not reflected in gameplay? You’d think if they were doing another Cataclysm, that would be a big headline.

[image error]Battle for Azeroth is also missing a lot of other things I was hoping to see: No playable Vrykul, no new character customization, no new classes or specs.

Eh… I don’t know, man. I can’t muster any enthusiasm for any of this right now. Not even new Elves, and that’s a red flag if ever there was one.

Warcraft classic:

Here’s something no one saw coming: Blizzard is finally caving and planning to implement official vanilla servers.

There are a lot of people with a lot of very strong feelings on this. I’m not one of them. Honestly I never really saw the appeal. There are a few things I’d like to able to revisit about classic WoW, but it’s not enough of a draw for me to want to actually put in the time needed to actually level through it all.

I just don’t have much to say about this. I’m including mention of it for the sake of being thorough, but I just don’t care either way.

StarCraft: Meet the Horners

If there’s one thing about this BlizzCon I’m unabashedly excited for, it’s the new StarCraft II co-op commander(s): Matt and Mira Horner.

[image error]The idea of Matthew and Mira Han being a joint commander has been floated in the community a couple of times, and I’ve loved the idea from the beginning, but I never imagined Blizzard would actually do it. That they have is just delightful. The banter, people, think of the banter!

The gameplay video makes them look so fun, too. You can crash a space station into your enemies!

They will also be implementing the winner of the fan-made co-op map contest, though at this point I think I want a map veto more than I want new maps, so I’m not so excited for that.

The other news is that StarCraft II is about to go free to play… which is a little confusing, because it already is. And while the new update will relax some of the restrictions on non-paying players, it won’t eliminate them entirely, so really this is just a marketing gimmick more than any meaningful change.

But if it gets more people in StarCraft II, that can only be a good thing. Even if it’s winding down now, SC2 is one of the best things Blizzard’s done in the modern era.

The rest:

Blizzard’s other titles have gotten pretty much the news you would expect. Overwatch is getting a new map and hero.

[image error]The map is BlizzardWorld, a theme-park based on Blizzard’s non-Overwatch games. It’s the most meta thing in the history of meta. The Protoss section is so beautiful I almost cried, though, and I admit I did laugh at “Snaxxramas.”

The new hero is an evil Scottish scientist named Moira. She’s a support.

They also had another animated short (about Reinhardt this time), which once again gives a hint of how amazing the Overwatch universe could be if Blizzard actually did anything with it, but they aren’t, so my ability to care is pretty much gone at this point.

Heroes of the Storm announced some general tweaks, including what appears to be massive nerfs to all stealth heroes, plus two new heroes: Overwatch’s Hanzo and Warcraft’s Alexstrasza. My enthusiasm for Heroes is greatly diminished these days, but I have to say the cinematic for those two was absolutely nerdgasmic. Man, I wish my Elven characters in WoW could look like Alex did there.

I’m probably reading too much in, but I was also intrigued by the repeated hints to “events in the Nexus” that will be unveiled at a later date. Not sure what that means, but it sounds important. Again, I may be reading too much in.

Finally, Hearthstone is of course getting another expansion, Kobolds and Catacombs. This was mainly amusing for watching the developer tie himself in knots trying to describe an expansion based on Dungeons and Dragons without using the phrase “Dungeons and Dragons.”

[image error]Engage cynicism:

I have to be honest: Mayhap soon the disappointment will wear off, or things will turn out better than I expect, but I have never questioned my Blizzard fandom as much as I am right now. This is a pretty big BlizzCon for news, and the only thing I’m genuinely excited about is a minor patch for StarCraft II. That’s bad.

It boils down to this: I became a Blizzard fan for the stories. Say what you will about Blizzard’s story-telling, but it always made me happy, since I was a little kid. But now we’ve reached a point where every single one of Blizzard’s franchises seems to have given up on story altogether, except Warcraft.

And Warcraft? Well, the Legion’s gone. Azshara’s about to be gone, and apparently she’s just being thrown away as a side story instead of being treated as the epic legend she is. There’s still N’Zoth, but as much as I’ve enjoyed the build-up around him over the years, I don’t really have much emotional investment in him.

It’s hard to imagine a future where I’m not a WoW player, but I think Blizzard may have finally run out of stories that I want to hear in that universe.

And I just don’t know where I go from here.

Filed under: Games Tagged: epic nerd rant, fantasy, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, sci-fi, Starcraft, video games, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Review: Star Trek: Discovery, “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad”

So far, Discovery has had a fairly different style of story-telling from most of previous Trek, save parts of Enterprise and maybe DS9. That is, this is an arc show. It’s telling a single continuous story over several episodes.

Until now.

[image error]“Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” is a throwback to more traditional Trek story-telling. It’s a “bottle show” taking place entirely on the Discovery, and it’s (almost) an entirely self-contained story.

Irate from his abandonment on the Klingon prison ship, Harry Mudd returns to exact vengeance on Captain Lorca and the Discovery, and with the help of some spiffy alien tech, he has all the time in the world to make his plan come to fruition.

Only Lieutenant Stamets, with his mushroom-altered consciousness, has the ability to recognize what Mudd’s doing, and hopefully stop him.

This is an episode that I enjoyed more than it necessarily deserves. It’s campy, it’s silly, it’s predictable, and it’s complete filler with no relevance at all to Discovery‘s ongoing arc. Mudd is a shameless and unnecessary play to TOS nostalgia, but inconsistencies with his portrayal in TOS are likely to incense the same fans he’s meant to target.

This is, in short, an episode that shouldn’t work. And yet it kind of does.

The thing is, this is also the most like old school Star Trek that Discovery has ever felt.

This is exactly the sort of episode that has traditionally made up the bread and butter of Star Trek. And that’s not necessarily a good thing. I’m not really a fan of trivial filler episodes like this, and I’m glad Discovery is going for a more arc-based approach.

[image error]But as a one-off thing, there’s something warmly nostalgic about a cheesy, old school bottle episode. I don’t want all — or even most — of Discovery’s episodes to be like this, but I see “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad” as kind of a love note to Star Trek’s past, and seen through that lens, there’s something strangely charming about it.

Also, Anthony Rapp continues to be by far the best of this series. Gods Stamets is so much fun.

While there are a lot of things that could be criticized about this episode, there are only a few things about it that strongly bother me.

One is the ending, which makes no sense at all. I don’t know what more I can say without violating my admittedly ill-defined spoiler policy. It’s just dumb.

The other is that while Stamets is the only one who knows what’s going on, somehow this still turns into Burnham saving the day again. I know she’s the main character and all, but does she need to steal the spotlight from everyone else every single time?

Well, at least she does get to be pretty badass.

And it’s a bit strange there’s no reaction at all to the admiral’s abduction from last episode.

Overall rating: 7.3/10 More fun than it has any right to be.

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: review, sci-fi, Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery, TV

The Mustering of Azeroth: I Was Lightning Before the Thunder

Another class campaign in the history books: shaman. This makes for 75% of Legion’s class stories finished, as well as at least one class of every armour type at max level (a first in my WoW career).

[image error]Storm, earth, and fire…

The shaman story, to be honest, just isn’t that good. The fundamental concept is flawed.

Your mission is to unite the four Elemental Lords against the Legion. That’s something that seems reasonable at face value — shamans deal with the elements, after all — but is revealed to be powerfully stupid once you examine it.

It does draw some attention to one of the most confusing aspects of Warcraft lore (so confusing even I’m not exactly clear on it): What, if any, is the distinction between the elemental spirits and the elementals?

I have long operated under the assumption they are, in fact, separate. The elemental spirits are shown to be omnipresent and usually (but not always) benevolent, whereas the elementals are mainly imprisoned in the Elemental Planes and usually (but not always) evil.

But the distinction has never been clearly drawn, and WoW often seems to treat the two groups as interchangeable, so it’s all deeply confusing.

[image error]If my assumption is correct, it doesn’t really make sense for the shaman campaign to focus on elementals rather than the spirits, but even if I’m wrong, it still doesn’t make sense, because one thing that’s absolutely certain is that the Elemental Lords are bad news.

The Elemental Lords have historically been servants of the Old Gods, and they all hate mortals. Trying to give them more power is a colossally bad idea. Not that long ago at all, our characters were fighting tooth and nail to depose the Firelord and Windlord, and the shaman campaign asks us to end the chaos in Firelands and Skywall and appoint new ones?

This will not end well.

Heck, even Therazane — usually portrayed as one of the more stable and reasonable Elemental Lords — has some dialogue in the campaign implying the only reason she’s fighting the Legion is that she wants the privilege of destroying Azeroth herself.

And now we’ve unified all of the Elemental Lords into a single, powerful fighting force. And last I checked the protections around the Elemental Planes still haven’t been fixed after Deathwing punched them open, so there’s literally nothing stopping them from invading Azeroth en masse and launching another Cataclysm.

There are a lot of class campaigns that involve doing morally questionable or potentially dangerous things, but I never thought the worst one would be not demon hunter, or death knight, or rogue, or even warlock, but shaman. Gambling with the fate of the world might make sense for the Black Harvest, but shamans are supposed to be bringers of peace and harmony who serve to keep the forces of the world in balance.

[image error]The Broken Shore leg of the campaign doesn’t do much to help matters, either. It does wrap up a long-hanging loose end from Cataclysm, which I appreciate, but it does so by once again forcing you to work with someone unambiguously evil who will clearly stab you in the back at the first opportunity. You’re forced to play as a gullible idiot.

There’s other problems, too. In terms of the cast of characters, this is a very weak campaign. Half your followers are just faceless elementals we’ve never met before.

Stranger still, Azeroth’s two most famous shaman are almost totally absent from the campaign. Thrall’s disappearance is likely due to Metzen’s real life difficulties, which can’t really be helped (no matter how illogical it is in the context of the game lore), but there’s no reason Aggra couldn’t have played a starring role. Instead, she’s barely there.

With them out of the picture, the focus is on Nobundo, and while I like Nobundo about as much as I ever like Draenei (Broken > regular Draenei), he doesn’t really have the charisma or star power to carry a story like this.

At least Mylra’s still fun.

Gameplay wise, the campaign is also lacking. At one point it even commits the most cardinal sin of MMO quest design: Sending you straight back to the exact same location you just were to kill the exact same mobs you just killed. I couldn’t believe Blizzard would sink to something like that in this day and age.

[image error]And I don’t like the class hall. It’s too cold and uninviting. When I picture a shaman hall, I think a cozy spirit lodge with elders sharing wisdom around a bonfire.

One thing I can say is that the shaman campaign does more to illustrate the full extent of the Legion invasion than the rest of the expansion, even if does so mainly by telling rather than showing. It confirms that the invasion is far worse than is reflected in-game.

Also, as lame as the rest of the campaign was, the artifact quest for the Fist of Ra-den is absolutely nerdgasmic from beginning to end.

Even so, though, this is still probably my least favourite campaign so far.

…heed my call!

It’s not all bad, though. While I didn’t like the class’s story, the actual playing a shaman part was a lot of fun.

It’s something of a joyful reunion, really. You see, my shaman is actually one of my oldest WoW characters. He’s only a few weeks younger than my mage and my rogue, and older than most everyone else on my roster.

[image error]He was always on the backburner, though. A neglected third or fourth alt. And as time went on, I increasingly lost interest, mainly due to frustration with the “whack-a-mole with cooldowns” playstyle of enhancement.

As a result, my shaman was eventually abandoned in late Cataclysm (I think?), having never once reached the current max level.

Enhancement still doesn’t feel great to me, but with tri-spec now a reality, I gave elemental a try, and I love it. The spells are visceral and satisfying to use, and the toolkit feels very well-rounded: one DoT, a spammable filler, a powerful nuke on a short cooldown, a resource-spending instant nuke, a proc. It’s got everything you could want.

In retrospect I probably should have tried elemental a long time ago. It just seemed weird to have an Orc who doesn’t melee, but I’m having so much fun with elemental I don’t really care anymore.

I also continue to play restoration when in group content — being a healer is a crucial part of his backstory, and in my heart I consider that his “main” spec — and it remains very fun. It’s probably my favourite healing spec in Legion.

[image error]It’s actually remarkable how little resto has changed over the years. Oh, sure, there are some adjustments that have been made, the loss of Earth Shield being the most notable, but fundamentally it feels about the same as it did back when I first played it back in Wrath. Something comforting about that.

As with elemental, I enjoy how well-rounded restoration feels. It has a little bit of everything and a tool for every situation. Its strength lies in its versatility.

And beyond the raw mechanics, it feels good to finally have my shaman at max level, doing raids and heroics. It feels like the fulfillment of a promise, somehow. I’ve always loved the backstory I came up with for him, and I never stopped regretting abandoning him. Maybe he’ll never be my new main, but I’m glad he got to have his moment in the sun.

Lok’tar.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, The Mustering of Azeroth, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Review: Star Trek: Discovery, “Lethe”

A faction of Klingons wants to talk peace (yeah, that’s not suspicious at all). To that end, the Federation dispatches Ambassador Sarek, but his shuttle is sabotaged en route — not by Klingons, but by radical elements within Vulcan society.

[image error]Burnham senses his distress through their katric bond, and it falls to her and the Discovery crew to save Sarek before it’s too late.

This is essentially a filler episode in that it does very little to advance Discovery‘s arc, but it doesn’t feel like a waste of time.

The main thrust of “Lethe” is to flesh out Burnham’s past, and it does so well. Learning more about the trials of her Vulcan upbringing somewhat ironically helps humanize her a lot, and despite my initial dislike of the character, she’s growing on me more and more.

James Frain also puts on a solid performance as Sarek. I feel a little bad for him because Mark Lenard was so fantastic as Sarek, and that is an incredibly tough act to follow. I don’t think Mr. Frain has quite equaled his predecessor in the role, but he’s doing a very admirable job of trying.

I also appreciate that while the focus is once again on Burnham, there is a decent amount of attention given to the rest of the cast, as well. Nearly everyone is given at least one good scene, with the possible exception of Saru.

Another thing I liked is that I think “Lethe” is another example of Discovery following in the footsteps of Enterprise, something it’s done far more of than I ever would have thought possible. These are definitely the flawed Enterprise Vulcans much more so than the pristine Vulcans of earlier shows. I can easily see the current extremists being ideological descendants of V’Las and his Romulan-backed hardliners.

[image error]Also, the biological bomb the extremist injected himself with is very reminiscent of those used by the Delphic religious fanatics seen in season three’s “Chosen Realm.” I don’t know if that’s deliberate or not, but my mind went to it immediately.

So maybe “Lethe” isn’t a super important episode, but it’s very well done, and I enjoyed almost all of it.

The one complaint that really stands out is that, in stark contrast to Discovery’s normally excellent visuals, the nebula looked like masticated Froot Loops viewed through crappy 3D goggles. Not sure how that happened.

Well, that and I still hate what they’ve done with the Klingons.

Overall rating: 7.4/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: review, sci-fi, Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery, TV

Song of the Month: Aurora, Warrior

Time for the second installment of my monthly “post a song I like because I’m lazy” series.

This month being (probably) the twentieth anniversary of the Soulcleaver universe, I decided to post a song that I associate with that setting. Like a lot of authors, I like finding “theme songs” that capture the feel of particular characters or stories.

I have a lot of songs that make me think of various aspects of Soulcleaver, but I’ve settled on Warrior by Norwegian folk-pop singer Aurora Aksnes (or just Aurora, as she prefers to be known). It’s my “theme song” for Seesha Avallen, one of the main heroes of the story. You’ve probably heard me mention her before.

It’s actually kind of eerie how perfectly this song captures Seesha’s story. Adding to the oddness is the fact that Aurora herself actually kind of looks like Seesha. And I came up with Seesha’s look long before I discovered Aurora, so it’s not like she could have subconsciously influenced me or anything.

If you like this, I definitely recommend checking out more of Aurora’s stuff. She has a lot of amazing songs.

Filed under: Misc. Tagged: fantasy, music, Song of the Month, Soulcleaver