Been a while since I last wrote... Yeah life just seems to get in the way sometimes. Summer is over which means I am done working in the garden and on the house for the most part. It also means that I have had a bit more time to play games. And thank god for that because there has been no shortage of good titles lately..
EQ2 continues to be my main squeeze. The guild has been working through some of the TSO raid instances. We are farming the first 3 named encounters in ToMC, first named in Palace and the first named in Ykesha's. We also had our first clear of Ward of Elements last night. Yay! Go RnH! Also new in EQ2, I was promoted to an officer within our guild. This was flattering as there are a lot of really good people in the guild. I am still a little intimidated by the whole thing, but I am having fun helping people out and moving the group forward.
Next up, I had a brief fling with Torchlight. It's fun brain candy that's good for a short session when I have a little down time. I do like the cartoonish graphics. Reminds me of some of the models and style from Full Throttle. Hmmm.. Bet this game would port to an iPhone real well. The graphics aren't all that sophisticated and the UI is just a lot of tapping.. err I mean clicking.
Dragon Age - Yep it's great. I keep hearing RPG of the decade thrown around. Suppose that means that title gets handed back by Bethesda for Oblivion or Fallout 3. My how game reviewers have such short memories. They remind me of Hammy from over the Hedge. I do think the game succeeds in delivering a great story that immerses the player though. I have, at times, felt like there hasn't been enough action. That may be due to how much I actually enjoy the combat system. It's rich and rewards smart tactics. Almost like an RTS within an RPG. Good stuff!
Uncharted 2 for the PS3.. Working through it slowly. It's the one game my wife will sit and watch me play. Also a great story and fun action game. A must have for the PS3
Demons Souls - Jury still out. Needs more play time.
Plus this week MW2 is released.. I promised a colleague I would hop onto their TS server to play with them to try it out. I'm gonna get schooled!
Last I keep hearing great things about Assassins Creed 2. I haven't even seen the first game, but I am interested in seeing what the hubbub is all about. I will probably check this out in the very near future.
Thank god fall and winter are here!
11/17/09
7/31/09
Reflecting back...
It's summer time where I live which means I am riding my bike to work about 3 days a week. This allows me to kill two birds with one stone; I get exercise AND I get to work. Score!
The other bonus is that cycling in takes just a few minutes longer then a drive would, which allows me a to listen to a podcast or just think about whatever is on my mind.
On the ride in the other day, I found myself thinking about how I got started with computer games. This turned into a journey down the 'memory lane' of lost but not forgotten titles... I always smile when I think back on my time working through these games. Back then, PC gaming was so very new and fresh that you could consider each game to be revolutionary in some way.
Chronologically my timeline went something like this:
Zork I - 1980:
This was a Christmas or birthday gift from my parents I have pictures showing the box standing up next to a pile of wrapping paper. I spent hours playing this game with my dad. I was too young to be able to get through it all myself but with his help and a pad full of graph paper we would do a little 'Zorking' a few nights a week before I had to go to bed. I'll always remember that.
Wizardry I - 1981
There was a drugstore on the corner down the street from my house. My dad used to help the family with their Apple computer. In return, they gave us a copy of Wizardy I on some 5 1/2 inch disks along with a photo copy of the game manual.... I would be lying if I said I didn't take that manual to school with me every day for 3 months straight. I used to read the spell names and descriptions. I'd study class and race stats religiously. I loved that game. My dad and I would sit for hours playing. One of us would man the graph paper and the other would drive at the keyboard. Every move down the hall or into a new room was a coordinated effort between the driver and the mapper. Forward, Forward, Kick... An encounter!!!
Ultima - 1981
My wife has this game and Wizardry to thank for my computer RPG fetish. We used to play this in the computer lab (Apple II) back in school. Not sure how we pulled that one off, but hey... I still got into 'Collej'. I remember roaming big open continents in an Isometric perspective.. Quite cutting edge for the time.
Escape from Rungistan - 1982
This was another handed down copy from our friends at the drugstore. One of my first graphic adventure games. I loved some of the puzzles in this game and I can remember trying to dodge trees while skiing down the hill over and over and over... Take Candybar.... Give Candybar...
AutoDuel - 1985
I was into CarWars for a little while and this game was based on that IP... We didn't have a joystick for our computer and I remember playing this using a Koala Pad as an input device... I know, I know... Ghetto to be sure. I remember running missions in this game to advance the story and gear up my vehicle... I also remember lasers being way too overpowered and the fear I had of getting lost on the roads outside of town.
Bard's Tale - 1985
I loved this game... I liked the packaging, the town of Skara Brae, the music, the dungeons... It was great! I would come home from school and plunk down in front of the PC for a bit each afternoon to see what I could discover in the world. You can still find ports of Bard's Tale and Wizardry for today's PCs. Ahh the nostalgia. I was soooo disappointed at the crappy reuse of the Bard's Tale IP on the console generation. fail.
Sentinel Worlds I - Future Magic - 1989
A great Sci-Fi rpg. This one also had great music and good graphics for the time as well if memory serves correctly. I played this through to the end and enjoyed the whole thing. Nice balance between ship combat and party based combat. This was my Eve minus the whole online persistent world thing...
...and I'm rolling through the gate at work. Another nice ride and some good memories. I wonder what I'll be playing with my son when he is old enough... I only hope he doesn't roll his eyes and tell me 'That's for old people' if I show up with graph paper.
Jose
The other bonus is that cycling in takes just a few minutes longer then a drive would, which allows me a to listen to a podcast or just think about whatever is on my mind.
On the ride in the other day, I found myself thinking about how I got started with computer games. This turned into a journey down the 'memory lane' of lost but not forgotten titles... I always smile when I think back on my time working through these games. Back then, PC gaming was so very new and fresh that you could consider each game to be revolutionary in some way.
Chronologically my timeline went something like this:
Zork I - 1980:
This was a Christmas or birthday gift from my parents I have pictures showing the box standing up next to a pile of wrapping paper. I spent hours playing this game with my dad. I was too young to be able to get through it all myself but with his help and a pad full of graph paper we would do a little 'Zorking' a few nights a week before I had to go to bed. I'll always remember that.
Wizardry I - 1981
There was a drugstore on the corner down the street from my house. My dad used to help the family with their Apple computer. In return, they gave us a copy of Wizardy I on some 5 1/2 inch disks along with a photo copy of the game manual.... I would be lying if I said I didn't take that manual to school with me every day for 3 months straight. I used to read the spell names and descriptions. I'd study class and race stats religiously. I loved that game. My dad and I would sit for hours playing. One of us would man the graph paper and the other would drive at the keyboard. Every move down the hall or into a new room was a coordinated effort between the driver and the mapper. Forward, Forward, Kick... An encounter!!!
Ultima - 1981
My wife has this game and Wizardry to thank for my computer RPG fetish. We used to play this in the computer lab (Apple II) back in school. Not sure how we pulled that one off, but hey... I still got into 'Collej'. I remember roaming big open continents in an Isometric perspective.. Quite cutting edge for the time.
Escape from Rungistan - 1982
This was another handed down copy from our friends at the drugstore. One of my first graphic adventure games. I loved some of the puzzles in this game and I can remember trying to dodge trees while skiing down the hill over and over and over... Take Candybar.... Give Candybar...
AutoDuel - 1985
I was into CarWars for a little while and this game was based on that IP... We didn't have a joystick for our computer and I remember playing this using a Koala Pad as an input device... I know, I know... Ghetto to be sure. I remember running missions in this game to advance the story and gear up my vehicle... I also remember lasers being way too overpowered and the fear I had of getting lost on the roads outside of town.
Bard's Tale - 1985
I loved this game... I liked the packaging, the town of Skara Brae, the music, the dungeons... It was great! I would come home from school and plunk down in front of the PC for a bit each afternoon to see what I could discover in the world. You can still find ports of Bard's Tale and Wizardry for today's PCs. Ahh the nostalgia. I was soooo disappointed at the crappy reuse of the Bard's Tale IP on the console generation. fail.
Sentinel Worlds I - Future Magic - 1989
A great Sci-Fi rpg. This one also had great music and good graphics for the time as well if memory serves correctly. I played this through to the end and enjoyed the whole thing. Nice balance between ship combat and party based combat. This was my Eve minus the whole online persistent world thing...
...and I'm rolling through the gate at work. Another nice ride and some good memories. I wonder what I'll be playing with my son when he is old enough... I only hope he doesn't roll his eyes and tell me 'That's for old people' if I show up with graph paper.
Jose
7/23/09
The Anti-Climactic Epic
Last Sunday we headed back to Veeshan's Peak for another shot at Silverwing to get our MT his mythical. The poor guy has had to hold aggro against an increasingly mythed out raid force... Ouch.
Without going into a ton of detail, this fight is another heavily scripted event that requires some good coordination of raid resources. It doesn't have nearly the bad luck = wipe factor that a Venril Sathir fight has, but it is still a technical encounter.
To be succesful, you have to coordinate tanking the main mob, burning and mezzing adds, jousting a nasty AE, work through a seemingly random charm effect, and clicking statues when called to. Lots to manage.
I was also assigned Main Assist duties, flinging the raid dps onto targets for the Off Tank and then back onto Silverwing after the adds had been killed.
This fight had adrenaline written all over it.
The call for the pull went out and the action started.
Next our guild leader announces that we are going to take a shot at Shade of Khalan Dar and Phara Dar. I need Shade for my Monk epic... Cool!
We pull both mobs and proceed to burn Shade down for the kill..... Phara gets away from us but it is late and we need to break for the evening.
So yeah, I got my epic... But in all honesty, it was anti-climactic compared to the fight with Silverwing. For me, the best part of the evening was seeing my guild click like a machine on a very tricky encounter.
Gratz on the kill, Revelry and Honor! Well Done!
Without going into a ton of detail, this fight is another heavily scripted event that requires some good coordination of raid resources. It doesn't have nearly the bad luck = wipe factor that a Venril Sathir fight has, but it is still a technical encounter.
To be succesful, you have to coordinate tanking the main mob, burning and mezzing adds, jousting a nasty AE, work through a seemingly random charm effect, and clicking statues when called to. Lots to manage.
I was also assigned Main Assist duties, flinging the raid dps onto targets for the Off Tank and then back onto Silverwing after the adds had been killed.
This fight had adrenaline written all over it.
The call for the pull went out and the action started.
- People in the raid are jousting like champs! Things going well. Heartrate is up!
- Clicky classes getting called out and doing their jobs... Pulse rate rising rapidly!
- Mobs health down to 60%... Here come the adds... I start slinging dps.. Pulse up, perspiration incoming!
- Adds burning fast and dps back onto Silverwing.. awesome! Knuckles on mouse hand whitening visibly!!!
- Silverwing's health continues to drop... Looking good people!
- Oh MY GOD! I'm charmed and getting crushed! Heal me please!
- Awesome! Healers came through... Back to burning adds. Off tank needs a quick Monk heal from me... Feet dancing nervously on the floor!!!!
- Silverwing is at 9%... GO! GO! GO!
- Mezzing rest of adds and all dps on Mob for final burn!!!!!!!!!
- Silverwing Down!!!! Heart rate has to be about 200 beats per minute.
Awesome fight! Great job by everyone!
I am super pumped that we just pulled that off. The fight was a total blast and we have a good time hooting and hollering in voice chat... This was Epic!Next our guild leader announces that we are going to take a shot at Shade of Khalan Dar and Phara Dar. I need Shade for my Monk epic... Cool!
We pull both mobs and proceed to burn Shade down for the kill..... Phara gets away from us but it is late and we need to break for the evening.
So yeah, I got my epic... But in all honesty, it was anti-climactic compared to the fight with Silverwing. For me, the best part of the evening was seeing my guild click like a machine on a very tricky encounter.
Gratz on the kill, Revelry and Honor! Well Done!
6/22/09
Java is Down...
My wife and I both work in IT oriented fields... We tend to field many 'help' calls from our customers and co-workers. It amazes me how much people have come to rely on internet technology and how much we have learned as a culture about IT tech and lingo.
Case in point: My wife calls and asks for some help drafting an email response to a question she has received from someone. The person asking for help claims that they can't connect to 'Java' and wants to know if 'Java' is down?
At first we both chuckled at this.. But the more I thought of it, the more it occurred to me that the person asking the question was pretty savvy for a non-techie. They knew their browser was looking for a 'Java' resource but couldn't find/load it. Since everything tends to be 'connected' to the internet these days, their first step in diagnosing their problem was to determine if the resource on the internet was down...
Humorous, yes. But at least they were tryin'. That's not too bad in my opinion.
Case in point: My wife calls and asks for some help drafting an email response to a question she has received from someone. The person asking for help claims that they can't connect to 'Java' and wants to know if 'Java' is down?
At first we both chuckled at this.. But the more I thought of it, the more it occurred to me that the person asking the question was pretty savvy for a non-techie. They knew their browser was looking for a 'Java' resource but couldn't find/load it. Since everything tends to be 'connected' to the internet these days, their first step in diagnosing their problem was to determine if the resource on the internet was down...
Humorous, yes. But at least they were tryin'. That's not too bad in my opinion.
6/15/09
Venril Sathir must Die
Ok... My guild has been working VS now for a few weeks and the general consensus is that this fight just plain sucks. If you haven't done VS yet, I won't spoil it for you, but it is a real treat. Forget most things you know about named fights or raids in EQ2. This one is an exercise in micro management (power, curing, and healing) with a little bit of luck tossed in for extra flavor.
The message I have tried to deliver to my guildmates is that this takes a very well practiced and finely polished team to pull off successfully.... and yes, I know there are some uber myth'd out pickups that have pulled this off without having worked together as a team before... But chances are, if they have their mythicals, then they have been through fights like this before and know their business well.
So despite a good turn out last night and everyone in an optimistic 'go-get-em' mood, VS still spanked us. Repeatedly.
I tend to be more of a 'listener' on voice chat. I try and pickup player tones and moods to understand how things are going. Last night was a good example of this... You could quickly hear the tone of the raid change from 'we're gonna get him' to 'omg do we HAVE to pull this SOB again!?' This to me was clear indication that people were not having fun and frustatrion was setting in.
There are several problems with this raid. First and foremost, the fun factor in here is a big fat 0. The fight is just a stressing, taxing encounter that can very quickly take it's toll mentally on you. The other big problem here is that the zone is completely devoid of anything else to do. If you are doing a VS raid, you will zone in, take out 4 trash mobs and then get spanked until you figure the fight out and get it right. There is nothing else to do in the zone. No chances for drops, or updates.. nada. You just zone in and flail for as long as you can take it.
The message I have tried to deliver to my guildmates is that this takes a very well practiced and finely polished team to pull off successfully.... and yes, I know there are some uber myth'd out pickups that have pulled this off without having worked together as a team before... But chances are, if they have their mythicals, then they have been through fights like this before and know their business well.
So despite a good turn out last night and everyone in an optimistic 'go-get-em' mood, VS still spanked us. Repeatedly.
I tend to be more of a 'listener' on voice chat. I try and pickup player tones and moods to understand how things are going. Last night was a good example of this... You could quickly hear the tone of the raid change from 'we're gonna get him' to 'omg do we HAVE to pull this SOB again!?' This to me was clear indication that people were not having fun and frustatrion was setting in.
There are several problems with this raid. First and foremost, the fun factor in here is a big fat 0. The fight is just a stressing, taxing encounter that can very quickly take it's toll mentally on you. The other big problem here is that the zone is completely devoid of anything else to do. If you are doing a VS raid, you will zone in, take out 4 trash mobs and then get spanked until you figure the fight out and get it right. There is nothing else to do in the zone. No chances for drops, or updates.. nada. You just zone in and flail for as long as you can take it.
Contrast this with the Leviathan fight which I found to be fairly entertaining and fun. That fight is typicall spread acros two raid events. The first is a farming run to gather fluids to use on Levi. A second raid is then run to actually finish Levi off using the fluids gathered in the first run. The mechanics of this fight are unique and can make for a good time. The raid stays occupied, challenged, and interest level is maintained. Leviathan also has a fun factor associated with it. There are milestones in here that give the players a sense of accomplishment.
Trash cleared... check
Rotate players through for fluid farming...check
Clickies clicked...check
Levi killed...check
All in all - there is stuff to do that that rewards players along the way. It isn't a frustrating luck ridden encounter.
I like challenges just as much as the next person but when the challenge involves micro managing stats, or hoping that luck is on your side and then dying repeatedly when one of a hundred little things goes wrong... That is not fun...
Venril Satir, you must die.. And you will very soon. The sad truth is, it won't be fun for any of us.
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