Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 44

ESO: Endgame Expectations, Costumes, and Sandbox Gameplay

I press on in Elder Scrolls Online. It’s taken a long time, but I feel like I’m feeling shedding my status as a newbie and starting to get a complete understanding of the game and what it offers.

Endgame expectations versus reality:

[image error]With the help of Thieves Guild and the holiday XP bonus, I’ve now managed to hit level cap in Elder Scrolls Online, despite not yet finishing the Aldmeri zones.

Well, sort of.

I have now been introduced to the Champion Point system, which fuels progression after level fifty, and boy, is it strange.

Once at max level, experience instead counts toward earning Champion Points, with the total number of points serving as a sort of secondary level. The points can then be spent on a wide variety of incremental bonuses. Spending enough points in a specific constellation will unlock further bonuses that are more noticeable.

It’s a very strange system on a variety of levels. For one thing, you don’t start at Champion Point one, but ten. You also earn the first few dozen additional points incredibly fast, since you’re immediately given full Enlightenment, which is similar to the rested experience bonus found in other games but spectacularly more powerful.

It’s also a system whose function is very unclear. It feels like it’s meant to be a horizontal progression system, but most of the bonuses you can unlock are direct increases in power.

[image error]Most, but not all. Some unlocks are more utility-based, relating to crafting and the like, but these often have completely unrelated combat-focused prerequisites. It feels like they had two totally separate progression systems they couldn’t decide between, so they just rammed them together in the most inelegant fashion possible.

The Champion Point system is also tied to gear progression, with many tiers of gear and crafting locked beyond your CP level. This caps out at the very arbitrary number of Champion Point 160, so you could argue that is the actual max level for the game.

I find the continued gear treadmill a bit frustrating. I had hoped to finally have some permanence in my gear upon hitting level 50, but I’m still going to replacing pieces regularly for a while to come.

Along that line, my crafting skills still remain far from maxed out despite my ostensibly being max level and the great amount of time and effort I’ve put into staying on level with them. This is exacerbated by the fact the rapid leveling in early Champion Points means you’re going to pretty much entirely skip at least one or two tiers of crafting.

I realize a lot the wonkiness of the Champion Point system is due to it being salvaged from the previous Veteran Ranks system, but I have to imagine they could have hammered it into something more coherent. I shudder to imagine what a mess Veteran Ranks must have been if this is the improved model.

[image error]The end result of the Champion Point system is that I’m having pretty much the same leveling experience I had before, except less rewarding because I no longer get skill points from leveling. This is a problem because I still needs lots of points to finish off both my crafting and combat skills.

Of course, there are still lots of skill points to be had from Skyshards and quests, but those are slower and less reliable sources.

The good news is I decided to download an add-on that marks Skyshard locations on your map, and after a few hours of collecting a lot of the easier to reach ones that I’d missed while wandering the world, I’ve caught up quite a bit. I haven’t maxed out everything I want to, but I’ve got most of the important stuff covered, and I can afford to be a bit more patient about acquiring new skill points now.

It also needs to be said that a lot of my skill point starvation can be blamed on my need to be a jack-of-all-trades. I’m spreading myself thin over two types of armour, two weapons, two class lines, three crafting skills, various theft skills, and more. If I was a bit more focused I’d probably be fine.

Similarly, my frustrations over the Champion Point system are as much the result of misinformed expectations on my part as any innate flaws of the system. Leveling in ESO is far from an unpleasant experience, and there’s not really anything wrong with the fact that life after 50 is almost exactly the same as life before 50. It’s just not what I was expecting.

The search for the perfect look:

[image error]My biggest complaint about Elder Scrolls Online continues to be its lack of a wardrobe. To that end, I’ve acquired a number of costumes from the cash shop and in-game sources, but nothing is quite clicking.

The problem with costumes is that they’re, well, costumes. They’re very specific outfits, and most of them are pretty clearly non-combat attire. You can try to squint and convince yourself some are decent adventuring clothes, but the fact remains these are basically town clothes. Very nice town clothes, but still.

I don’t understand why the developers are okay with us charging into battle in sundresses and formal suits but won’t let us reskin our armour into different armour.

You can’t really customize them at all, either, beyond dye jobs. I love the top part of the Glenmoril Witch Robes, but I don’t really like the long skirt. If I could only use the top with some pants…

So I don’t really stick with any costume for long, and I’m starting to regret the money I’ve spent on the ones I got from the cash shop.

Instead, I’m leaning more on my growing collection of crafting motifs and trying to make my own gear as much as possible. I like a lot of the Skinchanger pieces, and I’ve recently unlocked the Barbaric style.

[image error]The mid-level Argonian chests remain my favourite, but I’ve now out-leveled them. Instead, I’ve turned to the Minotaur motif as a substitute. I had to spend nearly all my gold and probably sink my hopes of home ownership come Homestead’s launch, but I found a player willing to sell me the Minotaur chest motif.

It’s pretty good. I’d prefer if it was maybe a little more realistic, but it does fit my character’s barbarian aesthetic, and you can at least see a little of her tattoos.

One real money purchase I don’t regret, though, is the emotions personality pack. The “cheerful” personality has really added a lot of, uh, personality to my character. She feels more real to me now.

Playing in the sand:

That’s a lot of complaints about ESO, but I’m still playing it, so clearly I’m finding that the good outweighs the bad. So what am I enjoying about it?

I’m actually finding that surprisingly hard to nail down, but I think part of it has to do with the game’s sandbox nature.

[image error]I’m not much of a sandbox player, but as I understand it, the main appeals of the genre are the freedom to do what you please, and a greater level of immersion — an emphasis on non-combat activities and other things that make you feel a true citizen of the virtual world.

Ironically, ESO is generally not viewed as a sandbox by the community at large, but it still provides that experience better than the actual sandboxes I’ve played.

Much like Guild Wars 2, this is a game where you can pretty much just walk in any direction and find something cool before too long. It’s a bit slower-paced than GW2, but also less mindless.

Now, mind you, I’m still roughly following a linear storyline — albeit with frequent tangents whenever I see something shiny — but I’m doing so because I want to, not because I have to, and I’ll branch out even more once I finally finish the Aldmeri zones and the main story.

Meanwhile, no other game has given me such pleasure from non-combat activities — except maybe Landmark, I suppose. I spend a great deal of time gathering, crafting, stealing, and just wandering around seeing the sights. It feels like a more complete experience than most other games.

I don’t play MMOs because I crave connection with other players. Whatever desire I did have to adventure alongside my fellow gamers perished upon contact with the average MMO player.

[image error]I play MMOs because I love imaginary worlds, and I want to be a permanent resident of them, not merely a tourist. Single-player games don’t offer that. MMOs do. And right now ESO is doing a better job than most of selling me on the idea that I am a citizen of this virtual world, not merely a guy playing a game.

In other news…

Also on the subject of ESO, one of my latest posts at MMO Bro compares its build system with The Secret World’s.

It’s funny how many parallels there are between the two games. Even my faction preferences are mirrored. In both cases, the green faction is by far and away my favourite (Aldmeri Dominion/Dragon), the red faction is a distant second (Ebonheart Pact/Templar), and the blue faction just doesn’t appeal at all (Daggerfall Covenant/Illuminati).

Also at MMO Bro, I risk the Wrath of the Comments Section by sticking up for lockboxes, at least a little.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: Elder Scrolls, fantasy, The Elder Scrolls Online, writing

I Guess It’s not Fan Art if I Paid for It?

Still cool, though.

Recently I commissioned the very talented Mel Addams, whom I met on The Secret World’s official forums, to do a sketch of the heroine from my World Spectrum novels, Leha, the Hero of Heart.

I gotta say, it turned out pretty well (click for full size):

[image error]I really like the claws.

This is actually the second sketch Mel has done for me; some years ago, they also did a sketch of some characters from one of my unpublished works, and it also turned out brilliantly.

I would definitely encourage everyone to check out Mel’s Tumblr to see more of their work (mostly TSW fan art), and if you have anything you’d like to see drawn, get in touch with them. They’re quite good, their prices are reasonable, and they’re a pretty friendly and pleasant person in general.

Filed under: Misc., My writing, World Spectrum Tagged: books, fantasy, graphics, sci-fi, steampunk, The World Spectrum, writing

Fan Fiction: The Alfar

As you may know, I have, shall we say, strong feelings about one of the cosmetic items introduced in The Secret World’s most recent holiday event. This led to the creation of an entire new peace of head canon, which I now share with you.

Fun fact: This is exactly 666 words. The dark gods have clearly smiled on this endeavour.

———————-

Our wisdom flows so sweet. Taste and see.

TRANSMIT – initiate Ljósálfar codex – RECEIVE – initiate the Huldra cadence – SO I DRIFT AWAY AGAIN – initiate Alfheimr anthem – TO WINTER I BELONG – welcome the children of winter – WITNESS – the Alfar.

[image error]In the far north, up Lapland way, you will find people fair of hair and bright of eye. There is something about them that both draws and repels the gaze, some quality that is all at once wholesome and repugnant.

All who see them find their hearts filled with a hopeless longing, but something warns against ever acting on these feelings toward the fair folk. Their skin is always cold to the touch.

Once, every few years, a terrible blizzard will blow through the Nordic lands. All the world turns white, and the wind howls like a hungry wolf. Sweetlings of all stripes cower in their homes, clinging to their electrical lights and artificial heat as the primal fear shivers through their veins and they pray to see another dawn.

Unbeknownst to them are the figures who walk unscathed through the storm, barefoot and barely clothed. The howling wind caresses them like a lover. The snow settles upon their skin like the finest jewellery.

Who are the fair ones? The world has passed them by, but we recall the ancient names.

Huldufólk. Tallemaja. Tuath Dé. Alfar.

They are the ancients, who first named the trees and marked the passing of the seasons. They were the bringers and the curers of disease, the hand of plenty and the breath of the grave.

[image error]You remember them, sweetling. Deep down you do. Not in words or even in images, but through the longing in your heart, the nostalgia for the place you’ve never been, the reverence for the name unspoken.

They were mighty once, feared and loved in equal measure. They were the raging cry and the soulful voice of the natural world.

But there was one power even they could not master, and it was time. As the centuries progressed, the world changed, and they could not adapt as quickly. Inch by inch, moment by moment, mile by mile, year by year, the world they knew slipped away.

It happened too slowly and yet too quickly. A world of mystery and superstition was supplanted by a world that no longer respected the old ways, and the Alfar faded into obscurity.

Echoes of their influence percolated through the simmering soup of simian consciousness, coalescing into cartoon caricatures and clean cut film stars swooned over by young girls.

The remaining fair ones learned to blend in among the talking apes. With subtle glamours they concealed their true natures and forced themselves to find a place within the distant corners of your society.

[image error]In the far north, up Lapland way, you will find people fair of hair and bright of eye. They have learned to swallow the indignities of pop culture. They have learned to live among your crude kind.

Yet they have not entirely forgotten the old ways. Every few months, when the moon is bright and the stars burn like a million tiny candles, they will gather amid trees and upon the tundra. They shed their illusions and dance with the wind. They sing songs in languages never heard by human ears.

And they remember. They remember a time when they were second only to the gods. They remember a time when they did not have to hide. They remember a time when they were feared and adored and coveted and worshipped.

And they remember how the worshippers abandoned them. They remember how the talking apes took it all away.

That is not dead which can eternal lie, sweetling. The Alfar have dwindled, but they are not gone, and they have never forgotten. As the dark days fall and shadows come to embrace all that you have ever known, how will the fair ones react? They are the disease and they are the cure. Will they be your salvation, or your doom?

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

ESO: Honour Among Thieves

Feeling burnt out on SW:TOR and having finally cleared out my backlog of single-player titles, I’ve decided to invest some time into Elder Scrolls Online once again. My theoretical goal is to finish the main storyline and the Aldmeri Dominion zones, but before embarking on that, I picked up the Thieves Guild DLC. Being a fan of the game’s justice gameplay, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while.

Sun and larceny:

[image error]The Thieves Guild storyline begins when you are approached by a fellow thief in your local Outlaw’s Refuge. She offers you a lucrative job, but when your perfect heist is crashed by a group of fanatical mercenaries, you and your accomplice find yourselves drawn into a web of conspiracy centered around the Thieves Guild and their crime-ridden home city of Abah’s Landing.

One minor design flaw of this scenario is it means you’ll be dumped into an unfamiliar city full of guards with an active bounty and an inventory over-flowing with stolen goods. Not the greatest situation to be in.

Like a lot of things in ESO, I’d rate the Thieves Guild story as firmly in the category of good but not great. I found it pretty dull at first, but it does evolve into a fairly interesting mystery over time.

It has an interesting structure, too. There’s a sort of cadence where every major story quest is followed by a simpler quest to flesh out the stories of the various cast members, and vice versa. It’s like a Bioware game, but with better pacing.

On that note, the greatest strength of Thieves Guild is definitely its characters. Nearly every character is colourful and entertaining. There’s a quest at one point where you have to infiltrate a fancy party, and you get to choose which character you bring as your “date.” I think it says something that I kept wishing I could bring all of them.

[image error]Of course, I still chose Quen without hesitation. If you don’t think I’m going to immediately pick the quirky Elf girl, you don’t know me at all. But still.

The DLC includes access to the small but well-made zone of Hew’s Bane. Next to the characters, the new zone is probably the best feature of Thieves Guild. It has a small but satisfying collection of side quests, delves, world bosses, and skyshards to encourage exploration and provide some content beyond the main story.

Normally I’m not a fan of desert zones, but Hew’s Bane has enough foliage, variety of environments, and interesting geography to avoid becoming the endless smear of gray and brown that most desert zones are. It’s actually quite a lovely place, and I greatly enjoyed my time in it.

It also seems to have an unusually dense concentration of crafting nodes, making it a good place for farming.

Similarly, its main settlement, Abah’s Landing, is one of the more impressive cities I’ve seen in a video game, with beautiful architecture and an incredible level of detail.

However, there is one thing about Thieves Guild that did frustrate me. Your ability to get new story quests is gated behind the progression of your Thieves Guild skill line, and the only way to increase its rank is by doing quests for the guild. This essentially makes it a reputation grind by another name, and we all know how I feel about those.

[image error]It sneaks up on you, too. For most of the story, you get enough “reputation” simply by playing through the story normally, but then eventually you hit a roadblock where the only way to progress is to start grinding the guild’s daily quests.

And nothing in the game explains this. I only figured it out after some Googling to find out why I had suddenly stopped getting quests.

Now, as grinds go, this one is pretty tame. Even calling it a grind is stretching the definition of the term a little. Still, “stealth dailies” are two words I never wanted to see combined, and it just kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

It’s unnecessary. Even without the extra padding, Thieves Guild is quite a meaty DLC with far more content than I was expecting from it.

Overall, I think I’d still recommend Thieves Guild, but the daily grind aspect does somewhat dampen my enthusiasm for an otherwise excellent DLC.

[image error]Readjustments:

Coming back to an MMO after a long time away can often take some getting used to. I’m still learning how Elder Scrolls Online has changed following recent updates, especially One Tamriel.

While One Tamriel has undoubtedly been a net positive, I am starting to find some things that I’m less than thrilled with.

For example, crafting surveys from writs can now apparently send you to any zone in the game. This might be a positive for someone who’s reached endgame and unlocked every wayshrine, but as someone who’s still leveling and had only ever been to the first few Aldmeri zones up until recently, I’m really not enjoying having ride off to the ass end of High Rock to finish my crafting tasks. The point of something like One Tamriel should be to allow the player to make use of the entire game world, not to force them to.

I got a survey for Craglorn the over day. Craglorn! I mean, I know they nerfed it a bit, and level-scaling means I can technically go there now, but even so…

[image error]I don’t know if it was part of One Tamriel or not, but somewhere along the line world bosses also got massively buffed and are no longer remotely soloable. Finding groups for them isn’t enormously difficult, but it isn’t entirely trivial, either, and it just doesn’t feel good to see content get more restrictive. Especially when you consider the rewards for killing them don’t seem to have increased alongside the difficulty.

Filed under: Games Tagged: Elder Scrolls, fantasy, The Elder Scrolls Online

Things I Have Never Done in WoW

I have been playing World of Warcraft off and on (more on than off) for over seven years now. That’s a Hell of a long time to play a video game, and in that time, I’ve seen and done almost everything the game has to offer.

[image error]Almost.

There are still a few things that, for one reason or another, I’ve never done. I thought it might be interesting to look at those things that I still have never experienced within the world of Azeroth.

Played a Gnome:

Over the years, I have tried every class and every race at least once, and in many cases more than once.

Every class and race, that is, except for Gnomes.

I just don’t like Gnomes. They’re a comedy relief race that isn’t funny. They’d work fine as some background element like the Grummles in Pandaria, but Blizzard’s halfhearted attempts to make them a race worthy of sharing center stage have just created an unhappy medium where they’re still not terribly compelling as heroes but have also lost whatever quirky charm they once had.

[image error]Plus, they’re about as deep into the uncanny valley as you can get. Gnomes are so horrifically disproportionate they make Orcs look like beauty queens.

I might have played one if they had their own unique starting zone — completionism and all that — but since they share Dun Morogh with the Dwarves, there’s just no point.

Quested through Bloodmyst Isle or Loch Modan:

As mentioned above, I’m a serious completionist when it comes to story, and as a result, I have played through virtually every zone’s quest content at least once — though a few I haven’t been through since the Cataclysm revamp.

Two zones have slipped through the cracks entirely, though.

The first is Bloodmyst Isle. Despite my disdain for the Draenei, I have played through most of their first zone, but my interest always drops off by the time I get to Bloodmyst Isle. I’ve managed to do the first few quests, but I don’t think I’ve ever even gotten to the halfway point of the zone, let alone finished.

I tend to think of Bloodmyst as the only zone I’ve never done, but in writing this post, it occurs to me I can’t recall having spent much time in Loch Modan, either. I remember riding through there a lot of times, and I’ve probably done a quest or two, but I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and properly played through it.

[image error]I don’t really have anything against Loch Modan. It’s a pretty zone, and Dwarves are okay. I guess it got neglected because I like the human and Night Elf leveling zones so much. Shame you can’t do Loch Modan as Horde — it surely must be nicer than the Barrens.

Roleplay:

This entry almost doesn’t qualify for the list, because I have flirted with the periphery of roleplay for a long time. I have fairly strong backstories/personalities for all my characters — the potential to build new stories is a strong contributor to my altoholism — and half my characters are on a roleplay server.

I enjoy watching other people roleplay as I walk by — gives the world some real texture — and I used to attend the regular Thunder Bluff story-circle. Arguably I was RPing then, as I was in-character for the event, but mostly that just entailed walking to my seat, sitting down, and occasionally applauding or offering a brief comment.

I am eternally tempted to give RP a try, but I have no faith left in the WoW community, my experience as an outside observer has been that RP tends to entail a lot of drama, and I don’t think my characters would be accepted by the greater RP community. I’m not interested in playing ordinary people, and I would likely be labelled a Mary Sue and summarily rejected.

Also, most people type much, much more slowly than me, and I am not a patient man. That’s pretty much why I stopped going to story circle.

[image error]Pet battles:

Thanks to some bad experiences in childhood, anything resembling Pokemon is anathema to me.

And even if that wasn’t the case, pet battles still wouldn’t much appeal to me. They have no story-relevance, no rewards that I care about, and just nothing at all about them appeals to me. I didn’t even like pets when you couldn’t battle them.

That said, I have a lot of respect for pet battles from a conceptual perspective. They’re a very deep mini-game that offers many, many hours of play for those who enjoy them, but those who don’t care (like me) can ignore them without consequence. All the game’s systems should follow this model.

Rated battlegrounds:

Despite the fact my opinion of WoW PvP runs the spectrum from disinterest to disdain, I have participated in most every kind of PvP the game has to offer at some point.

I even had a brief, disastrous arena career back in early Cataclysm when a guildie roped me into it. You’d think, being a rogue, I’d be good at this sort of thing, but no.

[image error]Rated battlegrounds, however, elude me. It’s not the sort of thing you join up with on a whim. It takes a fair bit of planning and organization. And I only pop into PvP once in a blue moon when I’m bored and can’t think of anything better to do.

Faced Jaraxxus:

I had pretty poor luck with Trial of the Crusader back in the day. Every PUG I ever joined for it back in Wrath failed.

Later — I think sometime in Cataclysm — I finally joined a group who managed to finish it, but by the time I joined, they were already on the faction champions, meaning I have never killed the first few bosses. That includes Jaraxxus, Eredar lord of the Burning Legion.

He’s such a famous meme of a boss that I almost feel guilty — like I’m not a true WoW fan — that I’ve never actually encountered him.

At this point I’m sure I could go back and solo him, but it’s just not that interesting of a raid, so I haven’t been strongly motivated to do so.

Filed under: Games Tagged: fantasy, Warcraft, World of Warcraft

Where Does StarCraft Go from Here?

The StarCraft II trilogy has now wrapped up, and Blizzard doesn’t seem to have any immediate plans for more stories in-game. For better or for worse, though, Blizzard doesn’t let any of their franchises lie fallow forever, so sooner or later the StarCraft story is going to start moving forward again.

[image error]I have to wonder, though, where does it go from here? Both StarCraft games formed a pretty coherent story arc, all building to the conclusion in Legacy of the Void, and now that arc is finally over. For the first time, we’re in uncharted waters with no clear indication of where to go next.

Still, there are some possibilities. Obviously, there will be spoilers for the StarCraft story to date here.

Rogue elements:

Even if the main factions of each race — the Swarm, the Dominion, and the Daelaam — manage to stay on mostly friendly terms, there’s still the potential for rogue elements from within each race to cause trouble.

I definitely think this is the intended role of the Tal’darim. They’re a readily available bunch of nasty Protoss for the player to beat on, and they serve that role well.

Terran society, as well, offers plenty of opportunity for further conflict. It’s just human nature; we’re a fractious bunch. We’ve already seen that with the Defenders of Man in Covert Ops, and there’s also the potential for renewed conflict with the Kel-Morian Combine or even the Umojan Protectorate, though the latter is a bit of a stretch.

The Zerg are theoretically homogeneous, but there’s still the possibility of feral broods wandering the cosmos, mindlessly consuming all in their path, and there’s Dehaka and the Primals to consider. Their loyalty to the Swarm was always tenuous at best, and they have no code beyond the desire to feed and grow stronger.

[image error]This is the safest route. It won’t radically change the feel of the StarCraft universe, and it’s a logical evolution of the current story. It doesn’t lend itself well to the kind of epic story-telling we’re used to from Blizzard, though. The Tal’darim are scary, but they’ll never equal Amon.

Other aliens:

One of the interesting things about StarCraft is that it’s clearly established there are many intelligent races in the galaxy beyond the big three and the Xel’naga, but we just never see them. The only species beyond the majors even mentioned by name is the Kalathi, and we know next to nothing about them.

If Blizzard were to introduce new aliens into the StarCraft universe, it could be in the form of an entirely new playable faction in all areas of the game, or maybe just something that only appears in campaigns and/or other story-telling mediums (like novels).

I think my preference would be the latter. I loved it when Warcraft went from two playable factions to four, and the sheer ballsiness of adding new playable races would be exciting, but at this point the traditional StarCraft triad is so entrenched and iconic I’m not sure it should change.

But if they’re just a story-telling element, it could be interesting. There’s no limit to what Blizzard could come up with, so from that perspective the prospect of new aliens has the most potential of all the ways to continue StarCraft’s story.

[image error]Earth:

Then there’s the United Earth Directorate to consider. Their last attempt to conquer the Koprulu Sector ended very badly, but there’s no guarantee they won’t try again.

For my part, though, I rather like that Earth is some distant, unknown thing in the StarCraft universe, and I’m not sure I’d want to jeopardize that.

Actually, I would like to see what Earth is like in the StarCraft universe, but I’d like to see it in some spin-off that’s unrelated to events in the Koprulu Sector. Let the two realms stay separate.

Amon’s legacy:

Legacy of the Void wrapped up the main story very well, but one thing it did leave a bit unanswered is what became of Amon’s armies after his defeat.

Of course, the simple answer is that they were destroyed, and I’m sure that’s true… but were they totally wiped out?

Moebius Corps and the feral Zerg broods were just mindless tools, so I don’t imagine they’re still kicking… but what of the Hybrids? Was every last one of them eliminated?

[image error]And what of the Tal’darim? Surely some must have remained loyal to Amon in their hearts, even if they dared not speak out against Alarak openly.

Amon is gone for good, but the horrors he unleashed may not be so easily caged.

Continuing with Amon’s legacy is of course the most predictable route, and it risks simply rehashing Legacy of the Void… but tell me the thought of a lone Hybrid lurking in the dark places of the universe and plotting its vengeance doesn’t give you chills just a little bit.

The WoW route:

Everyone just starts fighting again because reasons.

Not a great option, but it wouldn’t be quite as illogical as the transition between Warcraft III and World of Warcraft was, at least.

* * *

Those are the possibilities that immediately come to mind for me. It’s entirely possible there are some I over-looked. You could also combine elements of the above. Maybe a heretofore unknown alien race conquers Earth, and the survivors are forced to seek refuge with their cousins in the Koprulu Sector. Maybe a surviving Hybrid stumbles upon the Kalathi and uses their hatred of the Protoss to turn them into an army.

Do you have any theories for where StarCraft can go from here?

Filed under: Games Tagged: sci-fi, Starcraft, tinfoil

Retro Review: No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way

As regular readers may know, there was a period of several years in my life where I had to give up video games due to various Real Life issues. There are a number of games I regretted missing out on during this period, but few that stung as much as No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way. The original had been an instant classic, and I sorely wanted to play the sequel.

[image error]Now, fourteen years later, the fan-made Revival Edition has at last given me the opportunity to play through NOLF 2. I went in with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. How could it possibly live up to the impossible standard set by its predecessor?

Aging in reverse:

There are a couple things that gave me a negative impression of No One Lives Forever 2 out of the gate.

By far the biggest is that an RPG-style skill point system has been implemented. I barely tolerate these sorts of things in RPGs; I definitely didn’t want one in No One Lives Forever.

And this particular skill system embodies pretty much all the worst sins of RPG design. In essence, they nerfed the player’s capabilities into the ground and then let you buy your way out of the suck with skill points. Upgrading a skill doesn’t feel like a reward; it just makes you feel less broken.

A lot of the skills are really basic quality of life things, too. I shouldn’t have to spend hard-won skill points just so it doesn’t take an eternity to loot a body.

[image error]The only silver lining is that it doesn’t take very long to earn enough skill points to overcome the most irritating disadvantages.

NOLF 2 is also missing a lot of the things that made the original special, such as being able to choose your equipment before a mission. This was one of the biggest contributors to the original’s high replayability. Missions could be a very different experience when you redid them with equipment earned later in the game.

It feels like a cheap way to add difficulty, too. There were lots of situations where I found myself badly wanting a specific tool or gadget, but the game had forbidden me from bringing it.

Dialogue choices are gone, too. The original game didn’t exactly have a lot of these, but they were a great element of flavour, and they added some interesting non-combat gameplay at times.

I’m not really fond of the addition of health power-ups, either. It’s a small thing, but I liked the balance between armour (which could be replenished) and health (which couldn’t) in the original game. Now armour and health are virtually interchangeable.

[image error]Having replayed some of The Operative recently, I’m left with the very strange feeling that the first No One Lives Forever was actually a lot more modern in its sensibilities than its sequel. Aside from the graphics and a few minor quirks, The Operative could pass for a game from the current year, whereas NOLF 2 feels like a product of a somewhat outdated school of game design.

Remember what H.A.R.M. stands for:

Something else that disappoints me is that they replaced the voice actress for Cate Archer. The new actress is not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s just not the same. It’s especially distracting given that most if not all of the other returning characters have their original voices.

In general the characters this time around don’t feel as fleshed-out as they did in The Operative. Now, NOLF was never the most character-driven game, but it feels like the original put a bit more time into dialogue, backstory, and character development. The villain had a strong motivation, whereas NOLF 2’s villain is given no such depth.

One notable exception to this, though, and one major highlight of the game is a new character named Isako, who is the leader of a clan of ninja assassins. She’s a bit cliche in some ways… but this is No One Lives Forever. That’s the point. And I think she actually has a pretty interesting backstory and character arc.

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Found this one on Google. Somehow managed to go the whole game without getting a decent shot of Isako.

I tell you this: If Tumblr had been a thing back in the day, Cate/Isako shipping definitely would have been a thing.

Overall I would rate the story of NOLF 2 as good, not great. It’s a fun ride, but it’s a bit straightforward, and the ending is a bit of an anticlimax. There definitely aren’t as many twists as there were in the original.

This is one area where I’m willing to grant my nostalgia may be a factor, though. I’m definitely a more critical player now than when I played the original.

Super groovy:

But there’s still plenty to like about A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way. If I’m harsh with it, it’s mainly because the original was such an incredibly tough act to follow.

A lot of what made the original excellent remains. The core gameplay is still pretty fun. You still have lots of cool gadgets and toys. There are still informative and amusing intelligence items hidden everywhere. There are still hilarious conversations to eavesdrop on. Nothing like creeping through an enemy base only to have the tension shattered when you overhear an anguished voice wail, “Who keeps eating my mango chutney? My mother made that for me!”

[image error]And then there were the fruit vendors and their growing fears of a vast and nefarious monkey conspiracy, and many others.

The Operative had some of the best level design in gaming history, and while NOLF 2 doesn’t quite equal it, it does make an admirable effort. One dramatic moment has the player fighting a boss while trapped in a mobile home that is being tossed around in a tornado… though in practice it’s just window dressing, since the tornado doesn’t do much to affect gameplay.

The real highlight of the game is a not so high speed chase in which the player pursues a tiny mime on a unicycle whilst riding a giant Scotsman riding a tiny tricycle.

Yeah, you heard me.

You also once again get to visit a dizzying variety of exotic locations, including India, Japan, Ohio, Antarctica, and a secret base at the bottom of the ocean.

Also, while NOLF 2 introduces a lot of new annoyances, it does scale back on the main problem with the original game: stealth missions. There’s really just one true stealth mission in the game; otherwise it’s mainly left up to the player whether they want to sneak around or do their best Rambo impersonation.

[image error]The graphics also hold up very well, considering their age. In particular I was impressed by the quality of the facial animations. They’re not only good for their time but would even equal or surpass many more recent titles. The eyes, especially, are very expressive and realistic.

The soundtrack is still full of delightful retro cheese, too. I’ve still got the theme song stuck in my head as I write this. (“Cause no one lives forever… but evil never dies…”)

Overall, A Spy in H.A.R.M.’s Way is a good game. It’s just not the must-play eternal classic the original was.

Overall rating: 8/10

By the way, while I chose not to factor it into my review score, it is worth noting that I had a lot more technical problems with the Revival Edition of NOLF 2 than I did with the original’s. These range from minor graphical hiccups to frequent crashes and other catastrophic bugs. It wasn’t enough to stop me finishing the game (obviously), but it was undeniably frustrating.

At least I was able to get it to work through Steam and take screenshots this time.

Filed under: Games, Retro Reviews Tagged: No One Lives Forever, review

Mourning Landmark

Last night, I got an email from Daybreak Games about Landmark. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I clicked and found my fears confirmed: Landmark will be shutting down next month.

[image error]If I’m being honest, this isn’t hugely surprising. Landmark has struggled to find an audience since its inception, and while I didn’t expect the end to come quite this quickly, I thought there was a pretty good chance it wouldn’t survive the year.

But that doesn’t make the news any easier to hear. Landmark has never been a focus of my gaming time the way titles like World of Warcraft or The Secret World have been, but the 72 hours I’ve logged in it (according to Steam) is still more than you get out of most single-player games, and while my play has dropped off over the last few months, I’ve always enjoyed the time I’ve spent with it.

Landmark was a very bare-bones game, but the potential of what you could create was always exciting, the beautiful works of fellow players always inspiring. Gorgeous graphics, lovely music, a warm and welcoming community, and an endless stream of new sights to see made it a great game for relaxation.

I am reminded of some of the most impressive things I’ve seen. One person on my server bought up builds all along one coastline and built themselves an entire kingdom, with castles and towns and outposts. Another constructed a huge hollow tree with an incredibly beautiful and detailed home amongst the branches. I’ve seen screen-accurate replicas of the Enterprise and the Serenity, functioning Stargtes, and even a Tim Horton’s.

I think, also, of my own builds. I think of all the hours I spent perfecting my ambitious second build, and I can’t help but be frustrated that the Vale of Whispers’ life will be cut so short. I try to comfort myself with the knowledge of the players who’ve visited and enjoyed it.

[image error]I think the first build is what I’ll miss the most, though. I built Maigraith’s Grove to be a serene place capturing all that I love about the fantasy genre, the natural world, and the interplay between the two. It was a wonderful place for relaxation, a literal happy place, and even as my time in Landmark dropped off, the mere knowledge of the Grove’s existence provided me a certain comfort. I may have grown up to be a city boy, but on some level the forest will always call to me, and my first build was a way to connect with that part of myself.

In a few weeks, they will be gone forever. I have taken many screenshots, and I may take more, but it will never be the same.

The journalist in me is watching my own reaction to the news with a kind of cold fascination. I’ve long lived with the knowledge that MMOs don’t last forever and that sooner or later I would become one of those people mourning a game lost, but this is the first time an MMO that I actually care about has shut down (it’s the third MMO I’ve played to sunset, but I had no real investment in or attachment to Dragon’s Prophet or Trinium Wars).

I am curious to see how I will cope with Landmark’s impending end. Will it motivate me to enjoy the game while I still can, or will the futility of it all drive me away?

My feelings can and likely will evolve over the coming weeks, but right now one emotion is drowning out all the others: Anger.

[image error]To be blunt, I think the blame for Landmark’s end rests squarely on the shoulders of the MMO community.

When EverQuest Next was cancelled, the community turned on Daybreak, apparently not understanding that sometimes new concepts simply do not work. I, too, was disappointed by the cancellation of what looked to be a very promising game, but as someone who works in a creative field myself, I understood that it was simply a failed experiment. Unfortunate, but sometimes unavoidable.

The community, however, chose to demonize Daybreak as some sort of ogre. They took EverQuest Next’s cancellation personally. And a lot of that hate spilled over to Landmark, the proverbial lemonade made from EverQuest Next’s remnants.

People hated Landmark because it wasn’t Next. People hated Landmark just because it was made by Daybreak. People hated it because they had misinformed or unrealistic expectations of what it was supposed to be.

Landmark was never given a fair chance by the community. It was written off as a failure before it launched. It was lambasted with unfair and often misinformed reviews. It was attacked at every turn.

That’s not to say that all criticism of the game was unfair, or that it was by any stretch of the imagination a perfect game. It was grindier than it needed to be, its combat was weak, and it suffered from an unacceptable level of bugs and technical hiccups.

[image error]And it is true that Daybreak has mismanaged it in some ways. It didn’t seem to get much in the way of marketing, for one thing. But far less deserving games have succeeded where Landmark failed. If Daybreak is the one that steered it into dangerous waters, the community is still the one that sunk it. Again, it was simply never given a fair shot.

I have long been a harsh critic of the state of the gaming community, and I’m sad to say that my cynicism has once again been proven right. We live a world where people cheer for games to fail, where the slightest misstep by developers is met by a level of bile that should be reserved for war criminals.

People are always wondering why MMO developers are so risk-adverse. Why they so rarely try new things, why they tend to be so cagey and uncommunicative. Look in the mirror, because that’s where you’ll find your answer.

I did have a nice if bittersweet time commiserating with the other Landmarkians last night. Lots of people visiting each other’s builds while they still can, lots of support. I got a nice compliment on my build from one person. They’re trying to find a way to keep the community together even after the game shuts down. I haven’t played the game enough to rightly count myself a member of the community, but I wish them well.

Filed under: Games Tagged: epic nerd rant, fantasy, Landmark

Netflix’s Dirk Gently Series Is the Strangest Thing

Being a long-time Douglas Adams fan (as you all should be), I was excited to see a TV adaptation of his novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency appear on Netflix and started watching almost immediately.

[image error]It didn’t blow me away out of the gate, though. It was a strange, confusing show that didn’t seem to have much to do with the Dirk Gently story I know. I almost gave up on the show after the first two episodes, but something about it stuck with me, and I decided to give it another shot.

This turned out to be a good call.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is a very, very strange show. Far stranger than I have the ability to adequately communicate through a mere blog post, and almost certainly the strangest television show I’ve ever seen.

It’s also almost entirely unlike the book it’s supposedly based upon. Really the only common threads are Dirk himself (and even he’s changed somewhat compared to the books) and the underlying concept of the holistic detective and the “fundamental interconnectedness of all things.”

So much has been changed that the show is now a totally different genre. While the book was a lighthearted comedy, the show is definitely a drama, and a surprisingly dark and sometimes gory one at that. It’s not without occasional moments of levity, but it’s definitely more serious than silly.

Still, I’ve never been much of a purist. I generally try to judge each incarnation of a story on its own merits, and while the TV Dirk Gently is a radical departure from its source material, it manages to be pretty interesting in its own strange way.

[image error]And it is strange. I can’t overstate that. This show is just so weird. I don’t know if I could even attempt to summarize the plot, but it involves a kitten, a shark, time travel, anarchist energy vampires, and an heiress/corgi.

Alison Thornton plays dog very well. She’s very convincing as a corgi.

Early on, I was turned off by the show’s surprisingly gritty tone, by how different it was from the books, and how unrelentingly strange it was. However, over time, it began to grow on me.

There are a few reasons for this. The main cast members are all pretty likable and managed to feel pretty convincing as real people despite the oddness of the situations they find themselves in. Dirk is pretty bizarre, but that’s the point, and he’s entertaining.

Dirk is obviously the main character, but much of the story is told from the perspective of Todd, his hapless “assistant,” played by Elijah Wood of Lord of the Rings fame. Rounding out the core protagonists are Farah, a highly competent but not entirely confident bodyguard, and Amanda, Todd’s punk rocker sister, who suffers from a severe mental illness involving frequent and painful hallucinations.

There’s also a side plot following a strange woman named Bart, a holistic assassin who utilizes a method similar to Dirk’s (IE just wandering around doing random things for no reason) but with a lot more murdering.

[image error], review, sci-fi, TV, what is this I don't even

TSW: Because Elves, That’s Why

The Secret World’s holiday event this year was a tad underwhelming. No new content beyond some tacky decorations in Agartha and a very dull snowball fight minigame.

[image error]Some of the new cosmetics were nice, though. The moose and reindeer mounts are cool, though sadly out of my reach, and the new frost sprint is really pretty. Plus some nice general use winter clothes… and Elf ears.

Elf ears.

An item that gives your character Elf ears in The Secret World.

Elf.

Ears.

In.

TSW.

Aaaahhhh myyyy gaaawwdsss.

So, um, I had kind of a brain meltdown and a brief existential crisis and stuff happened, and…

Well, long story short, I bought yet another character slot and created a character I could RP as an Elf from the start.

So yeah.

[image error]This is my fifth character, and once again this is a game with very little use for alts to begin with and no reason at all to have more than three characters.

The worst part? She’s another Dragon — my third Dragon. It seemed to make the most sense from a lore perspective, and I wanted her to have as many green outfits as possible.

I don’t know if I’ll even play her to any serious degree. I still haven’t even finished Kingsmouth on Kamala…

I am at least trying to make her fit within the TSW universe. “Everything is true,” after all, and there’s already lots of Norse mythological stuff in the game, so I’m basing her character on the Elves the ancient Norse believed in — gave her a Norse inspired name and so forth. My thinking is the Elves in TSW would be a bit like the Jinn — embittered ancients struggling to cope with the modern world.

I’m waffling on her build at the moment, as I am wont to do. I started with elemental/chaos, but now I’m thinking elemental/blood makes the most sense, given Elves were viewed as the bringers and curers of disease. Shame — one day I’ll have a character that actually uses chaos seriously, maybe.

She did turn out to look pretty cool, at least — really surprised how good she looks in the geisha top from the issue ten CE — and if nothing else she’s been good screenshot fodder.

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And honestly? Just knowing I have an Elf in TSW makes me feel better. More at peace with the universe.

Because Elves, that’s why.

Tutorial changes:

This was also my first time creating a new character since the global rebalance whose proper name escapes me but is usually referred to by fans as the NGE or the EPEEN.

It’s not a huge difference, but it is noticeable. The main change is the section in your faction’s training area. It now includes more instructions as to the proper use of the builder/consumer system (tailored to the unique mechanics of each weapon type, which is a nice touch), and it makes sure you grab two weapons before leaving.

It’s still a long way from explaining all the complexity TSW offers — I especially think more attention should be put toward explaining the importance of using passives from multiple weapons — but it’s unquestionably an improvement.

One strange thing is that you no longer get a full set of white gear upon leaving the tutorial and now enter Kingsmouth with most of your gear slots empty, but that gear never made much difference anyway, and it was always replaced quickly, so I guess it’s not too big a deal.

[image error]Interestingly, not all the changes are mechanical. The cinematics for new characters have also received at least one change: The dark-clothed fellow who appears to speak for the Dreamers has had a makeover and now sports some gnarly face tattoos.

Exactly what this means is somewhat open to interpretation, as are most things in TSW, but if you read through the discussion I started about it on the official forums, it seems it may actually have some intriguing lore implications.

Filed under: Games Tagged: because Elves that's why, fantasy, Oh god why, The Secret World