Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Friday, June 23, 2006
DDO Trial
Yepp, I got me a free 7 Trial on DDO *there you go Ogi*. So here are my rough frist impressions of my first couple of hours play.
* Character creation is just like in the old DDO games, stats, classes sound all pretty familiar, the customization looks good, which in total is a good average but nothing special.
* Start - Kinda nice tutorial, pretty short but gives you a hint about how the game will be. I still have to adapt to the controls but besides that it's okay. Again a good average but nothing special.
* The world - loading into zones and instances. The environment is realy good, all rich and detailed but the game feels a bit "static". Though a lof of people are running around, it certainly is not like Coronet Starport during PRE CU, those places with their advertising bots and docs buffing and buff lines, where like a real metropolis. Players interacting with other players.
* Gameplay - you talk to an NPC, get your quest, load into it, check the quest goals and then return to the NPC. Though the stories are kinda well written, it lacks something IMHO. It lacks the freeform kind of play I had with SWG mission, how boring those might have been, they left room to fill what was missing with my own fantasy. Taking mission in my guild town in SWG was like patroling and guarding my city, add some more RP players and it's a lot of fun and way more interactive than just doing quest.
* The quests itself in DDO are as far as I have played some realy nice, some puzzles, some monsters primary and secondary goals - even more fun with a group. Just like going to the DWB with the guild or doing some other high end stuff in SWG. But so far from my side, that's it. It lacks the immersion "being in that world", it feels like playing a single computer RPG with it's more or less static environment and story with friends - I miss building or creating my own saga.
All in all a good game, even better if you are a fan of D&D, but my D&D time is long ago. I'll gonna play more during the weekend but I don't think I'll stay.
* Character creation is just like in the old DDO games, stats, classes sound all pretty familiar, the customization looks good, which in total is a good average but nothing special.
* Start - Kinda nice tutorial, pretty short but gives you a hint about how the game will be. I still have to adapt to the controls but besides that it's okay. Again a good average but nothing special.
* The world - loading into zones and instances. The environment is realy good, all rich and detailed but the game feels a bit "static". Though a lof of people are running around, it certainly is not like Coronet Starport during PRE CU, those places with their advertising bots and docs buffing and buff lines, where like a real metropolis. Players interacting with other players.
* Gameplay - you talk to an NPC, get your quest, load into it, check the quest goals and then return to the NPC. Though the stories are kinda well written, it lacks something IMHO. It lacks the freeform kind of play I had with SWG mission, how boring those might have been, they left room to fill what was missing with my own fantasy. Taking mission in my guild town in SWG was like patroling and guarding my city, add some more RP players and it's a lot of fun and way more interactive than just doing quest.
* The quests itself in DDO are as far as I have played some realy nice, some puzzles, some monsters primary and secondary goals - even more fun with a group. Just like going to the DWB with the guild or doing some other high end stuff in SWG. But so far from my side, that's it. It lacks the immersion "being in that world", it feels like playing a single computer RPG with it's more or less static environment and story with friends - I miss building or creating my own saga.
All in all a good game, even better if you are a fan of D&D, but my D&D time is long ago. I'll gonna play more during the weekend but I don't think I'll stay.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Pirates and Bam Lee
That's me and since Bam Lee seems to get passed to me over and over again you get it here as well:
My pirate name is:
Iron Harry Bonney
A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!
Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.
My pirate name is:
Iron Harry Bonney
A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You can be a little bit unpredictable, but a pirate's life is far from full of certainties, so that fits in pretty well. Arr!
Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
Münster
So I have been to Münster last weekend. Though the occasion was a not so pleasent one, my godchild Lou, Conni and Ansgar had to come to Münster for this weekened. I'd had called Conni on tuesday but didn't catched her and so she called me back on wednesday. With Satori aka Nenotar aka Dave as well living in Münster this gave me the chance to spend an extended weekend and not just a day in Münster by just dropping at Daves place.
It all went well, well except that I missed one train by just a second, but I arrived on a beatiful day in Münster. With her other godfather living as well in Münster we all spent two very nice days, considering the occasion. We have been playing a lot in the sandbox and Lou definitly hit the 120 dB(A) loudness level.
At Daves I must say, he lost his mind. His roommate is as screwed up as he himself and they both multiply eachother into the infinite, which is ... very exhausting. Two martial arts wannabee geeks in one appartment = lots of martial artsbooks, stuff, equipment, food, .... geekness. Anyway it was a hell of a lot of fun to see Dave again and to get to know his not less geekiness roommate. Not that they are even close to as good as these but that's definitly what they are aiming for.
For more details just call me ;).
So with having said or written that, here are todays link:
Apple ad by Steve Chapell
Yoda
And for the console freaks something forwarded by solarkaine
Streetfighter and Tekken.
It all went well, well except that I missed one train by just a second, but I arrived on a beatiful day in Münster. With her other godfather living as well in Münster we all spent two very nice days, considering the occasion. We have been playing a lot in the sandbox and Lou definitly hit the 120 dB(A) loudness level.
At Daves I must say, he lost his mind. His roommate is as screwed up as he himself and they both multiply eachother into the infinite, which is ... very exhausting. Two martial arts wannabee geeks in one appartment = lots of martial artsbooks, stuff, equipment, food, .... geekness. Anyway it was a hell of a lot of fun to see Dave again and to get to know his not less geekiness roommate. Not that they are even close to as good as these but that's definitly what they are aiming for.
For more details just call me ;).
So with having said or written that, here are todays link:
Apple ad by Steve Chapell
Yoda
And for the console freaks something forwarded by solarkaine
Streetfighter and Tekken.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
"All Blizzard franchises will become MMOGs."
Monday, June 12, 2006
Hu Chuan Pai Kung Fu
I just graduated to the yellow belt in Hu Chuan Pai Kung Fu.
It was okay, I could have been better, wasn't that good prepared, at least in my opinion.
Kicks okay, blocks and punches okay as well. Stances mediocre, to quote yesterdays movie (Lethal Weapon) "I'm to old for this job." Arm locks, okay as well but my self defense was ... well pretty messy. The attack was a pretty simple straight punch and I had the freedom to choice "what ever I wanted" for my defense - and that was kinda the problem. "What ever I wanted" is pretty much, looking at my martial arts history, but on the other hand the time I've been practicing martial arts started to slowly sink in some favourits, which are a mixture of what I've learned so far.
And that mixture is not applicable. At least I tended to hesitate to applicate it toward my training partners. Sure I could force them but that surely hurt. I mean realy hurt. And that was not the point and it was just a yellow belt anyway.
So, happy me ! Yay! Wish I could cheer, I'm so dead exhausted I can hardly type.... Can anybody cary me to bed?
It was okay, I could have been better, wasn't that good prepared, at least in my opinion.
Kicks okay, blocks and punches okay as well. Stances mediocre, to quote yesterdays movie (Lethal Weapon) "I'm to old for this job." Arm locks, okay as well but my self defense was ... well pretty messy. The attack was a pretty simple straight punch and I had the freedom to choice "what ever I wanted" for my defense - and that was kinda the problem. "What ever I wanted" is pretty much, looking at my martial arts history, but on the other hand the time I've been practicing martial arts started to slowly sink in some favourits, which are a mixture of what I've learned so far.
And that mixture is not applicable. At least I tended to hesitate to applicate it toward my training partners. Sure I could force them but that surely hurt. I mean realy hurt. And that was not the point and it was just a yellow belt anyway.
So, happy me ! Yay! Wish I could cheer, I'm so dead exhausted I can hardly type.... Can anybody cary me to bed?
Friday, June 09, 2006
So ...
... many days and hardly an update. Well it's not that I'm living in the high life metropolis. So far everything is going fine, I'm partially out of work again as in work has slowed downn a bit, but I usually find something meaningfull to do to keep me occupied and if it is just keeping my work bench in a tidy shape.
Oh one thing though, next Monday I'm having my yellow belt test in Hu Chuan Pai Kung-Fu. And another thing that might interest my lower saxony friends: Next thursday is a holiday for me, one of the two more holidays I have here in NRW. Anyway so much for now, I'll gonna bother some of you per phone during the weekend if I get bored LOL.
Oh one thing though, next Monday I'm having my yellow belt test in Hu Chuan Pai Kung-Fu. And another thing that might interest my lower saxony friends: Next thursday is a holiday for me, one of the two more holidays I have here in NRW. Anyway so much for now, I'll gonna bother some of you per phone during the weekend if I get bored LOL.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Thursday, June 01, 2006
So how is Dark and Light?
That's the common question and according to the DnL Forum it's the best MMORPG and launch ever and at the same time the worst thing some have ever seen and utterly doomed to fail.
So what's my take on it?
It's what I expected it to be. It's not better than I hoped, it's not as worse as I feared and what some tend to forget, it's not Star Wars Galaxies and especially not the NGE.
I don't know SWG from launch but to my knowledge, day one in SWG was not day one, since the server broke down during start up. So compared to that DnL launch was pretty okay, they had their break down already with the SoG launch and it looks like, at least stability and network wise, they did their home work.
The game runs smooth on my current computer and I had only one forced crash since somehow I got stuch in the map mode with my keyboard not reacting.
So how does it look compared to SoG.
The environment engine goes up one level again, was the immersion in SoG already fantastic with the tremendos view you had, SoG is like DnL in minimal settings. There is grass, trees, stuff all ove the place and the landscape together with the upped details is rich and immersive. Picture yourself in one of those landscape shots in LoTR, just you and now lift off with a glider flying around just like the helicopter in those shots and you get the idea - breath taking.
The characters and their animation are ... plain. They lack variety in character customization during creationg and everbody gets the same outfit at start making everybody looking like clones. Now looking back at SoG this was pretty much the same, I don't see any big improvemens, but also recalling SoG the diversity in looks came with the outfit. There are 9 different slots for different armor parts and I expect when more armos is going to be looted or better crafted the characters start to look different. At least in SoG the variety in the end was pretty good.
Some complain about the crappy animations and the lack of emotes and compared to the emots of SWG well DnL is not even playing in the same league but as far as I know, they weren't there at launch. This is something they can updated over time, more important is ...
Game mechanics: You have 7 attributes which all more or less are tied to your skills, you have for different paths, each of them branching off into at least two different classes and again each class again with at least two specialisations.
As far as I know you can specialice in crafting an invidiual item. You gain social XP, crafting XP and naturally fighting XP. You can meddle with in different paths, going for fighter, hunter, healer and spellcaster at once or you can specialize.
You can re distribute your skills.
Now are they any good?
I don't know yet. It's rich and challenging to find what you like. I don't want to say its complex just for the sake of it but it offers a wide variety of possible playstyles, which I for sure want to try.
PVP - something a lot of people focus very much on. Well PvP in DnL is not PvP just for the sake of it and interestingly it is very tied to socializing, if you want to give your death and victories a meaning. You occupy land by owning forts for which you need social XP, you loose these in PvP battles or to conquer other lands in destroying others.
This will need more time - and IMHO not just a few weeks - to show its beauty or faults but it's certainly more interesting than ganking in bestine.
Quests. As important to me a detailed terrain landscape is to immerse myself into the world, quests are important to me to immerse my character into the history and live of a MMORPG. Now I haven't found a single quest yet, which is pretty disappointing ... but I have the Alchemic Dream Team working on SoG with their live events. I am pretty confident that they will introduce some not to say a lot of quests and that the live events have a very interesting style in happening. I just say GM RPing NPC and events with an open outcome.
Multiple language live events each supporting each other in sub task to a common goal.
In SoG even dark and light working together - or not - in open PvP areas, so those events are not "static".
Also add that players and their guild where able to write their own quests for their guild integrating their guilds into the history of DnL - an option my guild and partially myself failed to take. So there will be quests and I'm willing to wait.
It's not that I ever have been a lot questing in SWG anyway. I was there for the player made content.
The community - well this is, at least for me, the biggest let down. The official forum only consists of fanboys, flamers, trolls and "I hate DnL". There is nothing going on besides that. Nothing. But I partially brought my own community with me, so there might be a chance that at least in game you meet some decent people.
With that said, so much from me to Dark and Light, I'll gonna play it for the two pioneer months and probadly go for a master subscription.
See you in Ganareth!
So what's my take on it?
It's what I expected it to be. It's not better than I hoped, it's not as worse as I feared and what some tend to forget, it's not Star Wars Galaxies and especially not the NGE.
I don't know SWG from launch but to my knowledge, day one in SWG was not day one, since the server broke down during start up. So compared to that DnL launch was pretty okay, they had their break down already with the SoG launch and it looks like, at least stability and network wise, they did their home work.
The game runs smooth on my current computer and I had only one forced crash since somehow I got stuch in the map mode with my keyboard not reacting.
So how does it look compared to SoG.
The environment engine goes up one level again, was the immersion in SoG already fantastic with the tremendos view you had, SoG is like DnL in minimal settings. There is grass, trees, stuff all ove the place and the landscape together with the upped details is rich and immersive. Picture yourself in one of those landscape shots in LoTR, just you and now lift off with a glider flying around just like the helicopter in those shots and you get the idea - breath taking.
The characters and their animation are ... plain. They lack variety in character customization during creationg and everbody gets the same outfit at start making everybody looking like clones. Now looking back at SoG this was pretty much the same, I don't see any big improvemens, but also recalling SoG the diversity in looks came with the outfit. There are 9 different slots for different armor parts and I expect when more armos is going to be looted or better crafted the characters start to look different. At least in SoG the variety in the end was pretty good.
Some complain about the crappy animations and the lack of emotes and compared to the emots of SWG well DnL is not even playing in the same league but as far as I know, they weren't there at launch. This is something they can updated over time, more important is ...
Game mechanics: You have 7 attributes which all more or less are tied to your skills, you have for different paths, each of them branching off into at least two different classes and again each class again with at least two specialisations.
As far as I know you can specialice in crafting an invidiual item. You gain social XP, crafting XP and naturally fighting XP. You can meddle with in different paths, going for fighter, hunter, healer and spellcaster at once or you can specialize.
You can re distribute your skills.
Now are they any good?
I don't know yet. It's rich and challenging to find what you like. I don't want to say its complex just for the sake of it but it offers a wide variety of possible playstyles, which I for sure want to try.
PVP - something a lot of people focus very much on. Well PvP in DnL is not PvP just for the sake of it and interestingly it is very tied to socializing, if you want to give your death and victories a meaning. You occupy land by owning forts for which you need social XP, you loose these in PvP battles or to conquer other lands in destroying others.
This will need more time - and IMHO not just a few weeks - to show its beauty or faults but it's certainly more interesting than ganking in bestine.
Quests. As important to me a detailed terrain landscape is to immerse myself into the world, quests are important to me to immerse my character into the history and live of a MMORPG. Now I haven't found a single quest yet, which is pretty disappointing ... but I have the Alchemic Dream Team working on SoG with their live events. I am pretty confident that they will introduce some not to say a lot of quests and that the live events have a very interesting style in happening. I just say GM RPing NPC and events with an open outcome.
Multiple language live events each supporting each other in sub task to a common goal.
In SoG even dark and light working together - or not - in open PvP areas, so those events are not "static".
Also add that players and their guild where able to write their own quests for their guild integrating their guilds into the history of DnL - an option my guild and partially myself failed to take. So there will be quests and I'm willing to wait.
It's not that I ever have been a lot questing in SWG anyway. I was there for the player made content.
The community - well this is, at least for me, the biggest let down. The official forum only consists of fanboys, flamers, trolls and "I hate DnL". There is nothing going on besides that. Nothing. But I partially brought my own community with me, so there might be a chance that at least in game you meet some decent people.
With that said, so much from me to Dark and Light, I'll gonna play it for the two pioneer months and probadly go for a master subscription.
See you in Ganareth!
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