first-impressions
Latest
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR, a wretched operation of Scum and Villainy, part 1
Sometimes it's good to be me. When I mentioned that I had not had a chance to test out the latest operation in Star Wars: The Old Republic Rise of the Hutt Cartel on the public test server, one of my Twitch followers known as Jedi Consular put me in touch with the Memories of Xendor guild. You might remember that guild from my column about the tools of the raid. Its members made the real-time parser that I use all the time. MoX invited me to join a 16-man Scum and Villainy operation last Thursday. When we started the raid, I was shocked to find out that we were running hardmode. My groupmates told me they don't even run storymodes anymore. They skip right to the most difficult. I want to give a big thank you to Tensa, Jedi Consular, and MoX guild for helping make this article possible. Because of this group of awesome gamers, I experienced the complete raid. From Dash'roode to Dread Master Styrak, we fought every boss. SWTOR has expanded as a raiding game; each boss has its own merits and shows the game's growth from the previous raids. Read on to get my breakdown. However, I will warn you: There are major mechanics and story spoilers.
Hands-on with Neverwinter's Control Wizard
This past weekend was Neverwinter's second beta event, and with it came a number of new additions. The Foundry was open for business, the tutorial was expanded, the level cap was increased, and new zones were available to explore. Above all that was the availability of a fourth class over the first beta event's three: the Control Wizard. Along with what seemed like the entire state of New Jersey, I rolled a Control Wizard to give Neverwinter's offensive magic user a test drive. The Wizard is a mixture of familiar fantasy aspects with a dash of unexpectedly awesome differences. So while I was casting the same-old elemental spells (all fantasy magic users seem to know only four elements due to a lack of imagination on behalf of the creators), I was also tossing in spells to mess with enemies and keep them off my back. Here are my early hands-on impressions of the Control Wizard, a class that I'll definitely be playing at launch.
Neverwinter Days: Beta blitz
Welcome to Neverwinter Days, a fresh new column that will be pulling on our +1 boots of game exploring while we go tramping through dungeons and fantastic locales. I'm fairly excited about this game and wanted to explore it from top to bottom while bringing you along for company. Neverwinter is a Cryptic title, and with that comes a laundry list of expectations: Players will be pretty divided on it, it'll skew toward "fun" and "buggy," there'll be a lot of visual customization, and "F" always, always interacts with the world. And it's a Dungeons & Dragons title, so there are even more genre expectations. For example, we're going to be laying the smackdown on Kobolds early and often. Poor buggers. Usually we begin a column by showcasing the community resources out there, but we're going to put that off until next time in favor of discussing this past weekend's beta event. Yours truly and several other Massively staffers were on the scene to chow through Neverwinter and see how it's shaping up in these final months prior to release. So what did I get out of it? It's going to cost you one click to find out!
Path of Exile hands-on: The sequel Diablo II deserved
Like many gamers in their mid-20s, I spent countless hours in my teenage years smashing through dungeons and hunting for loot in Diablo II. The deep itemisation system made building effective characters a real challenge, and periodic ladder resets kept the loot-hunting economy fresh. Fast-forward 10 years and the highly anticipated sequel Diablo III was released to some serious complaints. The servers were unstable for weeks at launch, the always-online DRM caused a stir, and the endgame item grind was severely underwhelming. Indie developer Grinding Gear Games aims to beat Blizzard at its own game with its new free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile. The game boasts a dark art style and an unprecedented level of character customisation that lets players build truly unique characters. Each skill is itemised as a gem that can be slotted into your gear and augmented with dozens of different support gems. The sprawling passive skill system is better described as a "skill octopus," with millions of different ways to build a character. I've spent the past few weeks smashing up monsters in the Path of Exile open beta and absolutely loving it. Read on to find out why I can honestly say that Path of Exile is the sequel Diablo II deserved.
First impressions of Neverwinter's beta
Neverwinter is all the rage these days among MMO fans as the promise of a Fourth Edition D&D MMO in the Forgotten Realms setting has many old-school tabletop gamers jumping at the opportunity to get into the early testing stages. Thanks to last week's short press beta and this weekend's first early head-start glimpse, I was able to play through the game for a few days to get a feel for what to expect when the game launches later this year. We first heard rumblings of a Neverwinter MMO in 2010 and got to see a live demo of it at E3 2011, just before Perfect World Entertainment took over Cryptic Studios. It was a very early build, but I was so excited to see a comprehensive drag-and-drop dungeon builder that seemed to work beautifully. Even during the demo, I was daydreaming about what I could do with this thing and the adventures I could have with my friends. Of course, that all changed when Cryptic announced a complete overhaul to the original incarnation of the game. Luckily for us, this meant that the dungeon-creating RPG was turning into a full-fledged MMO.
Neverwinter's Cloak Tower: A photo essay
We've seen a lot of clock towers in MMOs, but I have to say that Neverwinter's Cloak Tower was a first for me. We got an up-close and personal look at this low-level instance at a recent press tour, and the first question on my mind was, why cloaks? The backstory of the tower explains it: Apparently, it used to be home to a guild of mages who were famous for their fabulous cloaks. They disappeared, the tower moved location, and Orcs decided to move in and redecorate. Now it was up to us to head inside and clean house. Having only logged into the game for the first time yesterday literally minutes before being artificially raised to level 10 and given a handful of skills and abilities that were foreign to me, I did my best as our group charged into the place and started button-mashing like mad. What follows is a photo essay I've put together of my enchanting time among the magical cloaks and evil Orcs.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Starting fresh in DC Universe Online
I'm not going to lie to you, gentle readers -- I did not have high hopes for DC Universe Online when I signed in. Why not? Lots of reasons. For starters, Champions Online turned out to be very good, and I'm not in the habit of expecting good luck twice in a row. My last outing with a licensed superhero game left me pretty cold. I already knew the game broke from a lot of accepted superhero conventions, and it sure didn't seem like a game that would encourage the same sort of roleplaying atmosphere I love. Last but certainly not least, it's always dicey playing a game designed for both consoles and computers, since frequently one or the other gets the better interface. Despite all of this, I am happy to say that these fears were unfounded. Or at least unfounded enough for it not to matter, which is close enough to the same thing. DC Universe Online is certainly not a successor to City of Heroes, but it's a lot better than I would have guessed, and it's certainly an interesting game thus far in its own right.
The Daily Grind: How long do you need to play a game before you get a fair impression?
First impressions are tricky things. Play a game for a little while and you'll get an idea of what the game is like, but you might miss some important parts that give it context. The combat doesn't change once you finish the tutorial in DC Universe Online, but you have a lot more powers and abilities afterward. Having your full skillbar in Guild Wars 2 changes a huge chunk of the gameplay, and you don't unlock your final slot until level 30. But some gamers would argue that you can tell whether you'll like a game earlier than that. Speaking as a journalist, I know I need to evaluate the game as a whole to make sure it's not just a good game that isn't to my tastes, but a casual player doesn't have that restriction. So how long do you feel you personally need to play a game to get a fair impression of the game as a whole? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
First Impressions: Make mine Marvel Heroes!
Sometimes it's best to meet a game at its level instead of trying to project wishes and dreams on it. That's the attitude I tried to take while giving Marvel Heroes a test drive. Instead of thinking of it as a superhero MMO in the vein of, say, DC Universe Online (blasphemy for them Marvel chumps, I know), I recognized what it was trying to be almost instantly: a superhero-flavored Diablo. And you know what? That's what it is. Whether that's a horrible, shirt-rending event or something that sounds like a cool mix is up to you. Personally, I like the idea of dealing with the massive Marvel cast directly instead of creating lame clones, especially since there are added layers of costume and build varieties on top of that. And I especially liked the notion of just jumping into a game without all of the typical MMO complexity and just pew-pewing with Iron Man. So for better or worse, here are my thoughts as I spent a couple of nights with Marvel Heroes taking a few characters through the prologue and chapter one.
First Impressions: Marvel Heroes isn't a heroic marvel
Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get into Diablo. I tried several times, but whatever strange alchemy kept turning me off from other roguelikes was still in full effect. Despite that, I can respect that the game has made an enormous impact on gaming as a whole -- even disregarding the effect it had upon MMOs and RPGs in general, we're currently amid a glut of Diablo derivatives (including Diablo III itself). This is relevant because Marvel Heroes is very clearly meant to be Diablo: Online With Superheroes Edition. So I'm not fond of the design style. But I'm very fond of superheroes, and especially fond of the Marvel universe. A well-done Diablo-style game could have easily won me over and convinced me that while this wasn't the Marvel game I necessarily wanted, it was good enough. The trouble is that the game doesn't have the marriage of playstyle and source material that it needs; it wants to be Diablo with a superhero skin, and it misses both marks.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: A new start in Champions Online
Apparently, my phrasing in last week's poll was unclear, so let me make myself totally clear right now: Starting this week and with every subsequent week, A Mild-Mannered Reporter will be focusing on the whole genre of superheroic MMOs. Last week's poll was meant to be a place to start, not a place to end up. With that in mind, it's time to jump into Champions Online, a game that I haven't played since it was in beta... which was enough to convince me to cancel my pre-order after months of being excited. Let me step back. It's not that the game was terribly bad back then; it's that I could tell the designers loved active combat, and as it turns out my computer at the time could run the game in only the most cursory sense of the word. Trying to take part in semi-active combat when every action has about a half-second of delay attached is not what I'd call fun or smart. But that was ages ago, so it's time to give it the old college try once again. I loaded it up on Steam and got started anew, and after some frustration with login verifications and getting the subscription working, I filled in a month of subscription time and went to make my first character.
Teaming up with Hi-Rez for some Halloween SMITE
Halloween is a holiday when people typically dress up in outlandish costumes and go out hunting for treats. This year, I got to put a bit of a different spin on it by dressing up as a mythological god and going out to hunt for gold and items in some games of SMITE. Hi-Rez invited Massively along for its Halloween stream earlier this week, and I tagged along for some great fun. Despite being relatively inexperienced with the game, Reason Gaming's Lassiz was along for the ride as well, and his professional play helped lead us to a decisive victory. Although it's still in closed beta, SMITE currently boasts a surprisingly large playerbase with hundreds of thousands of players and a very unique twist on the MOBA style. If you're looking for more information or a way to try the game for yourself, read on!
First Impressions: WarMage Battlegrounds
WarMage Battlegrounds, by developer Burst Online Entertainment, is as simple game that pops up in a window and requires no large downloads. At first, everything about the game is simple, from the character creation to the layout of the map. However, after spending some time in the game tweaking my army loadout, and worrying about how to get my WarMage's mana pool to refill faster, I have to say that there is quite a bit of in-depth strategy packed into this unassuming indie title. You play a WarMage, a caster-type who has been set into the world to defend and conquer other WarMages. Your weapons consist of a small army, creatures, and a hotbar filled with scrolls, artifacts, and spells, and you battle it out with other players and NPCs on sometimes large (but always manageable) maps. If you have played Pox Nora, a turn-based title from Sony Online Entertainment, then you will be familiar with WarMage Battlegrounds. But WarMage Battlegrounds does some things that are well ahead of Pox Nora, things that take strategy gaming to newer heights.
First impressions of PlanetSide 2 through the eyes of an FPS noob
Rather than give anyone the wrong impression, let me begin by saying that first-person shooters are far from being my thing. I don't pant in anticipation for the latest Battlefield or Modern Warfare game. I do, however, like my share of third-person shooters. Global Agenda and the Mass Effect series come to mind immediately. So what in the world would make someone like me interested in Sony Online Entertainment's latest craze, PlanetSide 2? RPGs are my thing, and I have always had respect for SOE as a developer. Despite some obvious mistakes the company's made when under the umbrella of large intellectual properties like DC Comics and Star Wars, SOE has handled its own IPs very well. It was also one of the first Western AAA studios to step into the world of free-to-play (with Free Realms, which continues to perform well). And now PlanetSide 2 proclaims that online FPS titles can not only provide exciting vehicle combat but do so in a persistent world. So when SOE invited Massively to join Game Designer Margaret Krohn on a guided tour of PlanetSide 2, I thought, "Why not? At least I'll get to shoot some people in the face."
The Game Archaeologist: Reactions to a free Vanguard
Vanguard's just had its biggest month since its troubled release in 2007, I wager. Its turn to free-to-play makes it the second-to-last SOE title to make the jump, and it's getting a "do-over" of sorts. Personally, I'm glad to see it happen. Without going into depth on Vanguard's past problems, I'll say that this was a highly hyped game that fell about as hard as any MMO could without being outright canceled. For years, it has been subsiding on a meager population and extremely rare updates (I recall a tiny bug update for Vanguard being laughably big news last summer). Now? Now it's received a new lease on life and attention from players and the media. If you've been following the news, you'll know that Vanguard soft launched a week early, talked with Massively about the conversion, officially launched thereafter, and is now part of the PSS.1 deal. But the most important word is that of the player on the street, the ground-pounders in Telon who are checking out F2P (and perhaps the game) for the first time. I've gathered several of these perspectives together for your amusement and edification.
Massively's first impressions of Pirate101
If you've been following the MMO industry for a while, you've probably been watching in near astonishment as Texas-based developer KingsIsle Entertainment grew a little-known MMO called Wizard101 from the level of "just some kids game" all the way to a very successful world for all ages. So when we heard about a new title in the works, we wondered whether it was possible for the KingsIsle team to duplicate its earlier successes. Well, after trying out new kids on the block Pirate101, I can say that it might even dwarf the success of its predecessor. Why do I say that? Well, there are many reasons. The game is in only a beta stage, but it's aiming for a launch this year. And even though it's still in beta, the current Wizard101 fanbase is going nuts over the game. If that, combined with the unique selling points of the two titles, is any indication, KingsIsle can count Pirate101 as a huge step forward. One that will make a lot of money, I'm sure. %Gallery-162820%
Massively Exclusive: Gauging the pressure on the City of Steam alpha
City of Steam doesn't look good for a game in alpha; it looks good for a game in beta. And yet you can tell that the game is still in alpha testing if you read through our last tour of the game and compare it with the state of the game players will experience over the weekend. This is a game that's growing by leaps and bounds, making huge strides in development at each turn. And that's all the more impressive when you realize that it's a browser-based title from an independent studio working on what I can only assume is a shoestring budget. If you haven't heard of City of Steam before now, I invite you to take a look at our last tour through the game at the hands of the inimitable Justin Olivetti, who gives an overview of what the game is and how it played during the previous alpha test. But what about now? What's been improved and expanded? I took a brief tour with Mechanist Games' Gabriel Laforge to see the latest client and get a sense of the game for myself.
A quick look at Sevencore's beta
I spent about an hour tooling around in Sevencore this past week. Since the game's closed period had, well, closed, it was just me and a friendly gPotato GM named Vi, so my experience was limited to a few solo encounters, a brief dungeon run, and some sight-seeing. What I saw was a familiar class- and level-based approach to MMO design. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but after spending a lot of time in both The Secret World and Skyrim over the past couple of months, I didn't find myself overly excited by the prospect of a throw-back free-to-play title. And I know, I know, Skyrim isn't even an MMO, so why would I bring that up? It's just a mental baseline, really, and an indication of where I'm coming from in the interests of remaining as objective as possible.
Massively's video impressions of RaiderZ
Do you enjoy getting your face smashed in by an oversized pillar-wielding colossus? How about being swallowed whole and regurgitated by a gigantic frog? Does the idea of getting pulverized between the metal mitts of a robotic construct get you excited? If you answered "Yes!" to any of these questions, then you'll want to take a look at upcoming free-to-play MMO RaiderZ. Fighting big, bad boss monsters is the focus of this action-oriented game. North American publisher Perfect World Entertainment urges players to "hunt together or die alone." You'll need to time attacks and dodges to avoid getting smashed to smithereens by the denizens of Rendel. To aid you in your quest, you'll form hunting parties with 15 of your closest friends in order to slay the toughest monsters RaiderZ has to offer. If you're victorious, you can gather up bits of flesh and bone to craft new and more powerful weapons. Massively recently had the chance to adventure through RaiderZ's closed beta test, and we brought back a detailed video of our impressions of the game so far. We cover the core concepts of combat, skill progression, questing, and crafting in order to illustrate what this MMO is all about. It's just past the break!
Excelsior! The cheerful insanity of the Guild Wars 2 Asura
It would have been easy for ArenaNet to make Guild Wars 2's Asura race just another batch of quirky MMO "shorties," playing into the standard fantasy trope. You know how it goes -- what the little guy lacks in brawn he makes up for in quick wit and charm. Throw in some floppy ears, a mischievous grin, and some mechanical gizmos, and you've got yourself a gnome by another name. So did ArenaNet rise to the challenge of porting and updating the Asura? We got a good look at the race and its starting zone in the game's final beta weekend event in the hopes of figuring that out. Follow on for our first impressions!
