Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 41

Explaining my Review Scores

This is something I perhaps should have done when I first started the blog… six years ago… but it occurs to me that I’ve never really explained my thought process when scoring my reviews.

[image error]Better late than never.

First, I will be honest and say that they are pretty arbitrary. There’s no particular math or codified logic behind them. It’s as much about feelings as rationality.

That said, I do still put a fair bit of thought into them. I often change a score several times before a post’s publication as I go back and forth on my opinions.

The scoring system is identical regardless of whether I’m reviewing books, games, movies, or TV. Since I’m measuring the total quality of the finished product and how it left me feeling, the medium doesn’t really change the process.

I also have a pretty consistent idea of what each number range represents, which I will now outline:

10: Perfect in every way. A score I have never given and likely never will.

9-9.9: Brilliant. The item I am reviewing may have a few minor flaws but is otherwise exemplary in concept and execution. Something that everyone should experience, regardless of taste.

Examples: Lord of the Rings, Warcraft III, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Greatshadow, many Continuum episodes.

8-8.9: Excellent. Strongly above average, with strengths that significantly outweigh any weaknesses. Recommended to most people, unless it’s a genre or franchise you strongly dislike.

Examples: Mass Effect: Andromeda, The Summonstone, Remember Me, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

7-7.9: Good. Either items with significant flaws but also impressive strengths to compensate or all-arounders that do everything decently but don’t excel at much. Recommended to all fans of the genre or franchise, and may appeal to others as well.

Examples: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, a lot of Defiance episodes, most books by Lawrence Watt-Evans, X-Men: Apocalypse.

6-6.9: Imperfect. Not bad, but struggling to rise above the pack. Recommended to devoted fans of the genre or franchise, but not the general populace.

Examples: Mass Effect 2, Logan.

5-5.9: Mediocre. May have some things going for it, but usually not enough to make it worth spending time on in a world so awash in entertainment. Possibly worth it for ardent fans of the genre/franchise, but even they’re likely to come away underwhelmed.

Examples: Dungeon Siege II, Honor Amongst Thieves, Diablo: Legacy of Blood.

0-4.9: Bad to terrible. Severely flawed with few if any redeeming qualities. Entries in this range are not worth it for anyone.

Examples: Immortals, Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome, Warlords of Draenor.

I realize that having such exact numbers for what I will freely admit to be an inexact science may seem a bit strange, but I think the granularity is important. There’s a difference between a 6.9, which fell just barely short, versus a flat 6, which is much closer to total mediocrity.

I do not agree with the viewpoint that numbered reviews don’t serve a purpose. It provides a helpful, at-a-glance way to organize things, and it helps provide clarity in cases where it’s difficult to fully articulate the feel of a certain product — cases where something is more or less than the sum of its parts.

[image error]MMORPGs are a special case, as they are constantly evolving. That makes giving them a specific numbered rating less helpful, though it can still work if you’re reviewing a specific snapshot of an MMO’s lifespan (like my reviews of WoW expansions).

I have never been paid or otherwise compensated for any of my reviews. I’m not opposed to the idea, but no one has offered. If I did accept compensation for a review, I would offer disclosure of the fact in the review. I’m greedy, but I’m honest.

Filed under: Misc., Reviews Tagged: Off topic, review

Judging the Secret World’s Future by the Past

It’s a pretty grim time to be a fan of The Secret World. The other day I logged on for the first time in a while, and the game was just dead. Agartha was a ghost town. No one was talking in chat.

[image error]And this is just a few weeks after the announcement of Secret World Legends. Clearly TSW is not long for this world now.

One way or another, the future lies with Legends. For my latest article at MMO Bro, I look at previous relaunches of MMORPGs in an attempt to understand what might await TSW’s successor. The conclusions are less than comforting.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: fantasy, The Secret World, writing

Review: Mass Effect: Andromeda

It’s funny to think I was so skeptical about a continuation of the Mass Effect series. For a while there are I was considering not trying Andromeda at all. But having now finished the game, I’m very glad to have kept an open mind.

[image error]I will be avoiding major plot spoilers as much as possible.

Exploring the unknown:

First of all, let me say that this is very much a Mass Effect game. A few things are different, but nothing’s radically changed. If you liked the previous ME games, you’ll like this one. It does have its flaws, but most of them are things you would naturally expect of any Bioware game.

That doesn’t entirely excuse the problems, of course. One of the biggest is that this is once again a game that has favoured side content to an unhealthy degree. In the end, it’s maybe not quite as obnoxious on this front as Inquisition was, but it’s still kind of obnoxious.

It’s not just the amount of side quests and exploration, but how repetitive a lot of it is. I think something that dragged Andromeda down is how little environmental variety there is. More than half the worlds you visit are empty deserts, and the monotony of the scenery really wears you down after a while.

It’s very disappointing in a game that is supposedly about exploring the unknown and discovering wonders, and doubly so when you contrast the endless wastes with the sections of the game that are more creative. One of the most memorable parts of the game for me was the planet Havarl, a bioluminescent jungle world that is absolutely breathtaking.

[image error]We needed a lot more locations like that, and a lot fewer endless brown desert zones.

Something else that inhibited the game’s sense of exploring the unknown is how much time you spend fighting criminals elements of your own people, the Andromeda Initiative. I’m okay with the idea that some people went Lord of the Flies when confronted with the challenges of Andromeda, but it’s, like, half the game. How did so many immoral, unstable people even get admitted to the Initiative?

I know this much: I didn’t buy a game about exploring another galaxy so I could fight generic human crooks.

In general some more variety in threats would have been nice. Andromeda has a better variety of enemies than past installments, but it’s still mostly lacking boss fights. When they want to ramp up the difficulty, they just throw more of the same old trash mobs at you. Some more creativity would have been nice.

The one exception is the Remnant Architects, open-world bosses analogous to Inquisition’s dragons, but even these quickly become repetitive.

You see, every Architect fight is exactly the same. The mechanics never change at all. And their mechanics also happen to be virtually the same as those of Dark Matter Monoliths in Defiance, which made them feel even more repetitive for me.

[image error]I have killed a lot of Monoliths.

But when those issues don’t apply, exploring the Andromeda Galaxy can be a real treat. You may spend too much time trekking through the desert, but you’ll also marvel over wondrous new worlds and delve into profound alien mysteries.

A few weeks ago I said that Andromeda is the best Star Trek movie in years, and while I was half-joking, there is a lot of truth to that. There is an incredible sense of mystery and discovery running through many parts of this game. Not as many parts as there should have been, but when it delivers, it really delivers.

It’s not just about the sights and the story, either. A wealth of puzzles and environmental hazards constantly remind the player that exploration is a difficult business. It makes the game world feel much more like a real place — it’s not always an easy road, but that’s what makes it rewarding.

The feeling of exploration even helps make the wealth of side quests a little more tolerable. It’s easier to justify wandering all over and investigating every little thing as a Pathfinder exploring a new galaxy than as an inquisitor in a race against time to stop the world from literally exploding.

Similarly, the combat has its repetitive elements, but fundamentally it’s still very fun, and it can offer some real thrills. Andromeda doesn’t change a lot about Mass Effect combat, but it changes enough to matter.

[image error]Combat in Andromeda is a lot more mobile, a lot more dynamic, than in past installments. You can’t just camp out in cover and snipe enemies with impunity anymore — not all the time, anyway. It’s a little more challenging and a lot more exciting.

The build system helps with this. In Andromeda, classes are gone, and you can instead pick any skills you want from combat, tech, or biotics. You can even save multiple skill sets and swap between them in combat.

Now, this isn’t quite as much flexibility as advertised. It took me until relatively late in the game to unlock a second set of skills (a vanguard-style melee set-up) without compromising my main build, and I never had enough skill points for more than those two builds. But it’s still much more flexibility than we had in past games, so I call that a win.

One final thing about the gameplay that bugged me is that Andromeda has taken a step backward by returning the Mass Effect franchise to a vertical progression grind wherein you have to regularly update your gear, and where loot (most of it entirely worthless) drowns you at every turn. Not a change I welcome.

The best gear by far comes from crafting, which means you don’t have to be at the mercy of RNG, but it also means all the dropped gear is just a waste of space.

Finding a home:

[image error]But the story and the characters are the true heart of any Bioware game, so let’s talk that, shall we?

The main story in Andromeda is pretty sparse, but unlike Inquisition or ME2, it doesn’t feel underdeveloped. It tells all the story that it needs to.

The villains this time are a race of imperialistic aliens called the Kett. The Reapers were some of the greatest antagonists in sci-fi history as far as I’m concerned, and the Kett can’t live up to that legacy, but they’re scary and alien enough to serve their purpose.

Really my only complaint is how dorky they look. Everything about the Kett themselves and their technology looks like it came from the bottom of Star Trek: Voyager’s reject pile.

But ultimately the Kett are just one part of the grand galactic mystery that makes up Andromeda’s story. I can’t say much without spoilers, but it’s a story that exemplifies the sense of wonder that lies at the heart of speculative fiction. I loved it, and the ending is magnificent.

The characters, too, are strong, as one would expect from Bioware. This is perhaps the first game I’ve played from them where I didn’t strongly dislike any core characters. Liam started getting on my nerves after a while, and Vetra’s a little boring, but there’s no one I truly hate the way I did Vivienne or Zaeed.

[image error]The biggest surprise was Drack. I’ve never been a Krogan fan, but he actually became one of my favourites. Turns out “adorable Krogan grandpa” is a pretty good character concept.

Jaal also stood out. It took me a while to warm up to him, but in the end he really won me over. He reminds me of Garrus — he’s the one you can trust to always have your back when it hits the fan — but he’s warmer and all around more likable than Garrus was.

However, I was disappointed by the amount of character content. It’s definitely less than you’d expect from a Bioware game, and it’s quite imbalanced, too. Some characters get a lot more attention than others.

PeeBee seems to get quite a lot of content — of course the sexy Asari is going to get plenty of time in the spotlight (eye-roll) — and Jaal and Drack also get a decent amount, but Suvi has hardly any content at all. Which is a crying shame because she’s easily the game’s best character.

Anyone who complains about the facial animations in this game has never seen Suvi nerdgasm.

I also found Ryder, the main character, a little flat-feeling. This despite the fact I like Fryda Wolff a lot better than Jennifer Hale (sacrilege, I know). I think the dialogue changes might be to blame.

[image error]I don’t mourn the rigidity of paragon/renegade, but the new tone options are so similar to each other it’s hard to define a specific personality for your Ryder.

There’s also a surprising dearth of “mean” options. It’s like instead of blurring the lines between paragon and renegade, they just made everyone paragon. This shouldn’t bother me since I was always pure paragon anyway, but somehow it does. Being the good guy doesn’t feel as meaningful if you don’t have the option to be the bad guy.

Still, there is enough character here to give the game real heart.

We made it:

I’ve been reviewing things on this blog and elsewhere for a long time, and I’m coming to the conclusion reviews can be surprisingly hard, because there’s a lot about how things fit together and how things feel in the moment that can’t be explained in rational terms. Andromeda is a good example. I can rattle off no end of things I didn’t like about it, but the end result is still a game I deeply and truly enjoyed. It’s somehow more than the sum of its parts.

Reading it back, this sounds like a fairly lukewarm review, but the fact is I loved Andromeda. Partly it’s that a lot of my favourite things about it are things I can’t talk about without spoilers, but partly there’s something special about this game that can’t be readily quantified.

[image error]I can’t wait for DLC. I’m most hoping for stories relating to the “benefactor” and Keelah Si’yah.

Overall rating: 8.7/10 Familiar enough to be nostalgic, but fresh enough to be exciting.

One another thing: I was surprised and delighted to discover the song that plays during Andromeda’s credits is by none other than Norwegian prodigy Aurora Aksnes. I’ve been a big fan of Aurora’s for a while now, and I can’t believe I didn’t know she was involved with the game.

I hope the extra exposure gets her more fans; she totally deserves it. If you’re looking for it, the credits song is called Under Stars, and while you’re at it, I recommend checking out her other stuff, too. Warrior, Winter Bird, and Runaway are my favourites.

Filed under: Games, Reviews Tagged: Mass Effect, review, sci-fi

Mass Effect: Andromeda Space Porn

Not the kind of porn you may have been looking for if you found this on Google. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[image error]This post is not about porn in space, but porn of space. Mass Effect: Andromeda’s interstellar graphics are nothing short of breath-taking, and the game helpfully lets you hide the UI and explore all sorts of different camera angles from which to view the planets, stars, and stellar phenomena.

For a screenshot nut like me, this is basically crack, and I’ve developed an extensive collection of photos from my exploration of the Heleus Cluster. I now share the best of them with you.

There’s no plot spoilers here, but if you’re really passionate about exploring, you may prefer to stumble on these vistas yourself.

[image error]

Filed under: Games, Misc. Tagged: graphics, Mass Effect, sci-fi

iZombie Season Three Is Still the Best

Are you watching iZombie yet? If not, start.

[image error]Season three of the show has begun, and while I’m still going to avoid doing formal reviews on it because it is my favourite show for relaxation and I don’t want it to feel like work, I did want to take the opportunity to once again sing its praises.

We may only be two episodes in, but so far iZombie season three continues to delight. If anything this might even be a little better than past seasons.

Of course, it’s still hilariously off the walls. I missed a lot of lines of dialogue in episode two because I was laughing too hard at the preceding line. Ravi’s eyes while Liv and Major were bickering… my sides…

Liv and Ravi have always been a joy, but Clive and Major are really starting to come into their own, too. I always liked them, but season three is giving them much more freedom to shine than ever before. The guy who plays Major is a better actor than I’ve given him credit for, and one gets the impression he’s immensely enjoying the role he’s been given.

It’s not just funny, though. So far season three seems to be taking the show in a bit of a new direction, and the implications are intriguing.

Without spoiling too much, the scale of the show seems to be broadening. No longer is it just about the trials and tribulations of Liv and those close to her. iZombie is beginning to think on a more cultural scale as the battle lines are slowly drawn between humans and the undead.

[image error]It’s different, but so far, I really like it. The show is going down a darker path — while somehow still maintaining its off the walls comedy — and I’m starting to see a certain sophistication in the writing. Maybe it won’t ever be quite as cerebral as Continuum, but iZombie is getting smarter.

*Insert brain joke here.*

Anyway, I’m thoroughly enjoying myself, and I can only reiterate that if you haven’t tried iZombie yet, you totally should, because it’s excellent.

Filed under: Misc., Reviews Tagged: iZombie, review, sci-fi, TV

The Secret World’s Combat Is Fine

From the very beginning, complaints about combat in The Secret World have been all but omnipresent. It’s virtually impossible to read about it anywhere on the web without someone lamenting that they would have loved the game if not for its awful, awful combat.

[image error]I, of course, never agreed. In fact TSW’s combat ranks among my favourite combat systems in any RPG, and none of the arguments against it have ever made sense to me. It was always frustrating, but in time I learned to grit my teeth, ignore the faulty logic eternally present in criticisms of TSW’s combat, and move on.

But now things have come to a head. TSW is being shut down to make way for a new game with different mechanics, and a large part of the reason for this is to allow for a new combat system. I’ve been robbed of my favourite MMO, and while I don’t think that can necessarily be blamed on the combat haters, I don’t think you can entirely separate the two issues, either.

I try to respect other people’s opinions, but I can hold my tongue no longer: The Secret World’s combat is fine, and those who say are otherwise are wrong, period.

The double standard:

The easiest and most obvious argument to make here is to point out that TSW has almost exactly the same combat system as Guild Wars 2, a game where nobody ever seems to take issue with the combat.

There are differences between the two systems, but they’re negligible.

[image error]Really the only major mechanical difference is that GW2 has more realistic mechanics surrounding projectiles. If I fire at an enemy, and there’s another mob between me and my target, my shots will hit that mob rather than whatever I had targeted. In TSW, my shots will always home straight to their target, as in other tab target games.

But that’s it. It’s exactly the same system otherwise.

Even the tuning isn’t that different. It does take a bit longer to kill mobs in TSW — or at least it did before the global nerf; maybe not now — but not by so much. I haven’t exactly sat down and timed myself with a stopwatch, but having played both games heavily, I never found it to be a drastic difference.

So we have two games with virtually identical combat. One’s combat is beloved, the other is despised. Honestly, that alone should be enough to shoot down criticism of TSW’s combat, but I think it’s worth delving deeper to understand what’s really going on here.

The real issue:

As an ardent TSW fan, it would be very tempting for me to write all the combat criticism off as merely a meme parroted by haters. And I do think that is true in some cases. Funcom seems to have unusually devoted detractors, even for an MMO developer, and I think in some cases “bad combat” is just an easy thing to seize on for people who are looking to trash the game.

[image error]But the complaints about combat are too widespread, and they can even come from people who do play and enjoy the game, so as appealing as that narrative is to me personally, I have to grant that this isn’t a purely imaginary issue. There is something going on here.

But I don’t think it’s a problem with the combat. I think the “problem,” if you can even call it that, has to do with the build system.

In most MMOs, you choose a class, and that’s it. The game gives you a pre-designed rotation that works and should hopefully be engaging to play. Worst case scenario you reroll until you find a class you like. It’s easy to hit the ground running.

TSW isn’t like that. You basically have to build your own class from the ground up — you’re almost playing amateur game designer — and it can often take significant trial and error to find a build that works for you.

By that I don’t just mean a build that lets you complete content without dying. I also mean a build that is efficient, that doesn’t make killing enemies into a miserable chore. I also mean a build that feels fun to you personally, a highly subjective affair for which there are no guides. Contrary to popular belief, there are many different playstyles and rotations available to TSW players, but there’s no way to know which one is right for you without trial and error.

[image error]And this period of trial and error can take a long time. It took me until Egypt for my main’s build to start to click for me. I’m still tinkering with Dorothy’s build now and then.

If you haven’t found a build that you like, it would seem as if the game has bad combat.

Never step outside the builder x5/consumer x2 paradigm, and you’ll probably get bored fast. Neglect self-healing, and you’ll probably get slaughtered. Run around with too much health on your gear, and it will take a miserable amount of time to kill anything (I can’t prove it, but I strongly suspect a large majority of complaints about TSW’s combat come from people who stack too much HP, because that’s the only way the comments I’ve heard make any sense).

Even if you’ve been playing the game a significant amount of time, you still may not have found a build that’s entirely right. I’ve encountered plenty of people suffering through with terrible builds even at endgame, and even if your build is effective, again, it still may not be the right build for you.

There are other issues that could contribute. TSW’s combat has also traditionally been unusually challenging, and not everyone can hack it, even with a good build. I have definite sympathy for such people, especially if they’re being held back by age or physical disability. I’d like to see some solution to help people like that, but I don’t know how to do that without making things too easy for everyone else.

[image error]Some people are honest enough to admit the challenge is an issue for them, but I also suspect some people have let their gamer’s pride get in the way and have fallen back on the “bad combat” meme rather than admit they’re not up to the task. I have less sympathy for that.

A lot of people also like to bring up TSW’s mediocre combat animations. This is the one criticism I can agree with, because they’re definitely not great, but the same is true of nearly every other Western MMO of that era, so I’m not sure why TSW gets singled out for it.

Ultimately, though, I think the build issue is the biggest contributor. Not everyone is willing to put in the time and effort it takes to find a build that works for them.

And here’s the thing: I totally sympathize with that. It is a lot for a video game to ask of someone, and I can’t blame them at all for not wanting to put that level of effort into an entertainment. That’s totally understandable.

But it doesn’t mean the game has bad combat. It just means you weren’t able to find the build that’s right for you. TSW’s combat is actually pretty amazing once you find the build that truly clicks.

And what you have to understand is that for a lot of us, the challenge of the combat and the amount of experimentation it takes to find a good build aren’t bugs; they’re features. I like that I can spend limitless time tinkering with my build. I like feeling overwhelmed by it all.

[image error]This is what the people who trash TSW’s combat have never understood. Their complaints cannot be addressed without robbing the game of that which makes it unique.

I’ve never been that big a fan of investigation missions. I find them more frustrating than fun. I’d benefit greatly if they were simplified to let me focus on the story instead of tearing my hair out trying to translate Morse Code or whatever. But I also recognize that investigation missions have fans who are hugely passionate about them, that they are a very unique form of content not found elsewhere, and that the game would lose something very special if they were changed to suit me.

The same is true of the combat/build dilemma. You can’t “fix” it without alienating those of us who do appreciate what Funcom has done, without robbing TSW of that which makes it such a special game.

The no-win scenario:

And now we come to the real heart of the problem.

TSW has always been a very niche game. Everything about it holds back its mainstream appeal in some way. Its gameplay is challenging. Its build system is overwhelming. Its story is almost absurdly complicated. Its setting is bleak. Its subject matter is disturbing.

All of those things can drive people off, but they’re also what makes the game so unique, so special. You can’t change any of it without losing something important, and you can’t change its niche nature without completely erasing the soul of the game.

[image error]This is why I am so skeptical of the new game. It’s changing so much that it threatens to drive away the fans TSW did have, but I still don’t think it’s changing enough for it to be a game with truly mainstream appeal. Funcom is tossing aside their loyal fans for people who never have and likely never will take the effort to appreciate what the game truly represents.

Filed under: Games Tagged: epic nerd rant, fantasy, The Secret World [image error]

New Banner, New Article

Given recent events, I didn’t really like having so many references to The Secret World in my blog’s banner. Too many unhappy memories. Plus I’m probably way overdue for a new banner anyway.

So, yeah, new banner. Whatcha think? It’s a lot simpler than the last one, partly out of a desire to do something different and partly due to my lackluster photo manipulation skills.

Try not to read anything into the fact this is the first time in my blog’s history the banner hasn’t referenced an MMO in some way.

Feedback welcomed. I’m not married to it and could always come up with something else if people don’t like it.

In other news, I’ve had another new article published at MMO Bro. This one deals with character stats and whether they’re actually serving any purpose. It’s a long-standing pet peeve of mine.

Filed under: Misc., My writing Tagged: graphics, video games, writing

Gaming: Thoughts on the Future

Right now I’m in the thick of Mass Effect: Andromeda, but massive as it is, it isn’t going to last forever. It was such a landmark release that all my gaming plans for the last several months have dealt with Andromeda and the lead-up to it. As a result, I’ve given very little thought to what I’ll play after I’ve finished.

[image error]Here are some of the leading candidates.

World of Warcraft:

This is probably the safest bet for where I end up after Andromeda, though I wouldn’t quite declare it a sure thing yet. As always, I maintain very mixed feelings on the game, but there’s still a lot more I’d like to do in Legion, and now that flying has finally been turned back on, now seems the time to start.

My main goal is still to go alt-crazy and see as much class content as possible. My monk has already started on the Broken Isles, so she’s probably next, but I’m not sure who to level after her. My paladin, shaman, demon hunter, priest, and warrior are all in the running.

Elder Scrolls Online:

I’m in a strange place with ESO. I almost always enjoy it, but I’m never particularly blown away by it. It’s good enough, and it’s consistently good enough, but it’s never more than good enough.

So I remain very open to playing more without feeling a very strong push to do so. There is an expansion coming soon, but there’s still so much in the base game I haven’t done yet that I’d be in no rush to move on to it.

[image error]I did rather like the templar alt I was tooling around with, and it’d be a shame for all the effort I put into crafting my gear to go to waste, so there are pretty good odds I’ll be back in Tamriel at some point, but I’m not sure when.

Star Wars: The Old Republic:

I was pretty heavily invested in SW:TOR for a while there, but as you may have noticed, I haven’t touched it in a few months. I was getting burnt out, but don’t think I’m done with the game. I just needed a break.

I will be back, but as with ESO, I’m not sure when. There’s a major story update coming soon, but I don’t necessarily want to jump straight from Andromeda into another Bioware game, so I may hold off on that for a while.

There are also still two class stories I fully intend to finish. Again, it’s all just a question of when.

The Secret World:

Sigh.

[image error]I’m still pretty heartbroken over what’s happened to TSW. I don’t like to ever rule anything out (I certainly never could have predicted getting into SW:TOR as much as I have), but I currently don’t have much interest in making the transition to the new game. It sounds like a much shallower experience, and I just don’t think I can start over from scratch.

There isn’t much point in investing much more time in vanilla TSW, as it will undoubtedly be shut down before too long, but I do think there are a few more things I might want to do before it’s over. Dorothy is very close to getting her Panoptic Core, and even though there couldn’t be less of a reason to do so, I’d kind of like to finish that.

I may also run some of my favourite missions one last time, and I’m thinking about where I want to park my characters before they log out for the last time.

For a game that I once considered my virtual home, this is really hard to cope with.

Old favourites:

When I was younger, I used to spend a lot of time replaying games. It was often a matter of necessity, as there simply weren’t enough good games to keep me fully occupied in those days, whereas now there’s more good games than there is time to play them, but I still kind of miss it. Lately I feel a slightly stronger pull to revisit some old favourites.

[image error]I’d really like to play through Dragon Age II again, but the lackluster gameplay has always driven me off. Recently I’ve been considering downloading some mods to try to make it more palatable, because I loved the story in that game. For that matter I’ll probably replay Andromeda at some point, but probably not right after I finish it the first time.

The thought of more StarCraft replays is also in my mind. At the very least I should do another playthrough of Covert Ops at some point, as I’ve only done it once so far. Plus there are still a few Legacy of the Void achievements I’d like to get, and I have a vague desire to do another replay of the original (via Mass Recall), if only to once again bask in the awesomeness that is old school Zeratul.

Then there’s Diablo III. I remain very bitter that the story is apparently being abandoned unfinished, but I still have a lot of fondness for the game, and the new necromancer class is seeming increasingly tempting. Have you seen the blood golem model? It’s the most disgustingly horrible thing I’ve ever seen, and I need it in my life.

I even briefly considered reloading Neverwinter the other day. I was organizing my screenshots and realized how badass my Half-Elf paladin looked. I never did try tanking in that game…

Other possibilities:

I maintain a list of games I’d like to get around to playing if I ever find the time. The Division is prominent on that list, especially now that I have a computer that can run it a bit better. I enjoyed what I played in the beta, and while I don’t think it’s a game I’d stick with for a long time, I think it could be an enjoyable diversion for a few weeks.

[image error]Star Trek Online also pops into my mind every now and again. It’s not a great game, but I did really enjoy the whole “I’m a Romulan commanding my very own warbird” part, and every time I get a jolt of Trek nostalgia I want to play it again.

Destiny 2 is apparently getting a PC release, which is tempting, but since I never had the chance to play the first one, I’m not sure it’d be worth it, since the story is the main thing that would interest me. Plus I’m not sure I’m okay with them replacing an MMO with its sequel so quickly. I know they don’t like calling it an MMO, but let’s be real here.

Plus I’ve got a Steam wishlist a mile long at this point.

For those who are playing Andromeda, what are your plans for when you finish it?

Filed under: Games Tagged: Destiny, Diablo, Dragon Age, fantasy, Neverwinter, sci-fi, Star Trek Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Starcraft, The Division, The Elder Scrolls Online, The Secret World, World of Warcraft

What MMOs Can Learn from Andromeda

Similar to Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda has a certain feeling of a single-player MMO to it. Given that, it’s hard not to draw comparisons between Andromeda and its multiplayer cousins.

[image error]For my latest article at MMO Bro, I take an in-depth look at how what lessons MMORPGs could take from Andromeda.

This also feels like a decent time to update on my progress in Andromeda (again, no spoilers).

So far I continue to enjoy it, though the nigh-endless side quests are beginning to grate somewhat. This is definitely Inquisition in space.

There doesn’t seem to be as much depth to the companion content this time (or I just haven’t gotten to it yet), but I am reasonably fond of them all so far. I’m waffling on PeeBee, but she has her moments, at least. Who could be considered my favourite changes from day to day, but at this very moment, I’d nominate Cora and surprisingly Drack as the frontrunners. I’m normally not keen on Krogan, but the big lug is growing on me.

Suvi and Kallo are still my favourite characters overall, though.

I also quite like how much variety there is in the gun selection. If you haven’t already, I recommend trying the P.A.W. assault rifle from Remnant research. Just be aware that every time you use it you have to shout “IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZOR” at your screen.

I’m still seeing StarCraft allusions everywhere, too, but that would get into spoiler territory, so I’ll say no more.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: Mass Effect, sci-fi, writing

Secret World Legends: Funcom Goes Full Murphy

“Full Murphy” is a concept I came up with in a recent article, and I like the idea enough I’m kind of trying to make it a thing now. It’s when Murphy’s Law expresses itself in its purest form, when literally everything that could go wrong does, a cataclysmic confluence of awfulness. It’s a perfect shitstorm.

[image error]Suffice it to say, you should never go Full Murphy if you can avoid it.

Funcom just went Full Murphy.

Today the news has come down that The Secret World will be put in maintenance mode to make way for a new incarnation of the game called Secret World Legends. It revamps most of the game’s systems while maintaining largely the same content.

I’ve been pretty nervous about the relaunch of the game since it was first teased, but I am impressed by Funcom’s ability to vastly exceed even my most pessimistic expectations. This is bad in pretty much every way that it possibly could be.

Character wipe? Check.

No compensation for the hundreds of hours we’ve already put into the game? Check.

New business model that’s less player friendly? Check.

Requiring people to pay again for things they already bought (character slots)? Check.

Interesting and unique progression mechanics replaced with generic level grind? Check.

No new content to go with the new systems? Check.

The only way this could have been worse is if Grandmaster benefits didn’t transfer over. Thankfully, Funcom will allow lifetimers like me to keep our permanent subscription, but that’s about the only thing that gets transferred. You can reserve one character name for the new game if you want, and “some” of our cosmetics can be transferred, which sounds terribly ominous for someone who’s spent as much time collecting cosmetics as I have.

I’m pretty speechless, honestly. This is truly Full Murphy.

I have five characters in TSW. Two have completed the full storyline to date and have full ability wheels (well, Dorothy is at like 98%). I have full launch lore on one. I don’t have the words to adequately communicate my feelings on losing all that.

Yes, the old game will still exist, and I’ll be able to play it still, but it’s never going to see any new content, and I doubt it will survive for much longer. With no way to acquire new players (only people who already have accounts will have access to it) and no new content, it’s going to die pretty quickly, and once it’s no longer profitable, it will undoubtedly be closed down.

So it’s move to Legends or bust, practically speaking. And that means starting over entirely from scratch. As much as I love the world and setting, going through everything yet again is a less than appealing prospect.

In a way this is worse than if the game had simply shut down or gone into a more traditional maintenance mode. There will be new content (eventually, supposedly), but I have to repeat the entire game over again to experience it — several times if I want to keep getting the perspectives of multiple factions. I’m between a rock and a hard place.

And would it even be worth investing in Legends? I can’t imagine this is a game with a bright future ahead of it. You’re not going to attract huge crowds of people to a game that is still essentially five years old and has a reputation of having failed once before. Nor do I see a lot of veterans making the transition, as Funcom has been pretty thorough about burning their bridges there.

[image error]Honestly at this point I think I would have preferred a more traditional maintenance mode. They could have continued the IP through single-player titles. The current situation is the worst of all possible solutions.

The only positive I see in this unbelievable mess is that Legends will apparently be even more solo-friendly than TSW is. They’re not even calling it an MMO anymore. That’s good. At this point I think we can be honest that making TSW an MMO was probably the biggest mistake Funcom made (until now, at least). It was never a good fit.

It’s pure fan speculation at this point, but there’s some talk of maybe adding solo modes for dungeons. That would be nice. I enjoy the group versions, but it would be great to able to explore them solo at your own pace.

I would also love to see raids made soloable or otherwise made more accessible. They’re the one part of TSW I’ve never been able to experience.

At this point, though, I’m not sure if I’m going to play Legends or not. I’ve long said that if games can provide me with a story I care about I’ll put up with pretty much anything, but this is a bigger test of that principle than anything before. Even SW:TOR’s crumby business model and all of WoW’s mind-boggling blunders pale in comparison to this.

The Secret World is one of my all-time favourite games. I’ve spent years loving it, obsessing over it, and evangelizing it. It would take a Herculean effort to burn away all the goodwill I have for it. But right now Funcom’s answer to that seems to be, “Challenge accepted!”

Filed under: Games Tagged: epic nerd rant, fantasy, Oh god why, The Secret World