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Choose My Adventure: Goodbye for now, Elder Scrolls Online
My time with The Elder Scrolls Online has come to a close for this month's edition of Choose My Adventure, and while I have enjoyed myself, I've taken a lot more away from this experience than I expected. One month and 14 levels later, I have not only this character we've built together but several alts spanning every race, class, and alliance. But did I like the Nightblade the most? Will I continue to play after this Choose My Adventure is over?
Choose My Adventure: Testing addons in The Elder Scrolls Online
My adventure in The Elder Scrolls Online continues this week with my Nightblade Fa'saad making his way through Stonefalls for the Ebonheart Pact. As the format of Choose My Adventure has changed slightly, the polls from the first two articles mold my journey through the rest of the month. At the end of it all, I'll give my summary impressions and tips I learned along the way. This week it's all about addons as I tried out a dozen or so to report back on my favorites. Addons can aid your gameplay in so many different ways, from stat counters to UI mods to quality of (virtual) life improvements, but they're not for everyone. I'm not usually an addon fan because I think they verge on cheating in a way, so I've approached these addons from the perspective of a skeptic. Did they really help my game? Will I continue to use them?
Choose My Adventure: Approaching level 10 in The Elder Scrolls Online
As I make the approach to level 10, I realize that The Elder Scrolls Online is not "just another fantasy MMO" as it's sometimes billed by skeptical players. I'm continuously finding myself pleasantly surprised by the storyline, the crafting, and world, and the execution of it all. And even though I'm playing it as a single-player game still at this point, it's not a single-player Elder Scrolls game. I'm dying way too much for that.
Choose My Adventure: Elder Scrolls Online welcomes another Khajiit
I'd like you all to welcome your new character in The Elder Scrolls Online: Fa'saad! Get it? Fa'saad...like façade because he's a sneaky Nightblade ... oh nevermind. The character you created for me is a male Khajiit Nightblade from the Ebonheart Pact. I will be playing him for the rest of the month from the perspective of a veteran MMO gamer who is excited to see what this year's triple-A MMO can bring to the table not only for MMO fans but for fans of the Elder Scrolls series. This week's article will be an introduction to the character and more polls for you to vote on to help this character progress in the early game.
Choose My Adventure: The Elder Scrolls Online
The Elder Scrolls Online has launched into its early access period, and I couldn't be more excited for the timing on this new edition of Choose My Adventure. I've always been a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls series, but I didn't have access to this MMO beta for various reasons. As I stated in my last column, I even avoided reading impressions articles here at Massively because I wanted this to be a fresh experience for me. I'm kinda weird like that. But I've purchased the game now and have been enjoying myself this week during early access. Of course, I'm still saving the good stuff for this column, and I don't plan to release my impressions until a future article, but I'll reiterate that I'm very excited about this next month.
Choose My Adventure: My final week with PlanetSide 2
I'm sad to say that this is my final week in PlanetSide 2 for Choose My Adventure, but I did come away with some new thoughts on the game. Playing the Heavy Assault, Light Assault, and MAX opened up my eyes to the other side of the fence and showed me that these are more than just run-and-gun classes. And with more information on the Valkyrie aircraft revealed over the weekend, we can certainly see that Sony Online Entertainment is still dedicated to supporting the game. This is a good thing considering so many MMOs with PS2's ambition often fall flat merely months after launch when the numbers inevitably drop. Not so for this one, it seems.
Choose My Adventure: MAXing out in PlanetSide 2
Back in PlanetSide 2 for this week's Choose My Adventure, I found myself strangely drawn into the game every chance I got. And that's really part of the beauty of PlanetSide 2: You can jump in and out of the action without any unnecessary foreplay. I continued to play my Heavy Assault for most of the week but did flirt with both the MAX and the Light Assault trooper to see what I'm missing. My verdict? I miss my Engineer.
Reminder: Vote for the 2013 Engadget Awards!
Engadget readers are nothing if not opinionated, which is why we open up the Engadget Awards for your voting each year. We solicited your picks for the best products of 2013, narrowed them down to the most popular (and weeded out those that didn't qualify) and arrived at a list of finalists across 12 categories. Vote for your favorites here -- the poll stays open till 11:59PM ET on Wednesday, March 19th. We'll be announcing Readers' Choice winners, along with the Editors' Choice picks, soon after.
Vote for the 2013 Engadget Awards!
We asked, and you delivered... a ton of nominations for your favorite products. We narrowed down your picks across 12 categories to the most popular choices, and they're now finalists for the Readers' Choice part of the 2013 Engadget Awards. Head past the break to weigh in -- you don't need to answer every question, but you're only allowed one pick per category. Voting will stay open until 11:59PM ET on Wednesday, March 19th. We'll give you a reminder or two before then, but why not just get to it now?
Choose My Adventure: Heavy Assault with PlanetSide 2
Jumping back into PlanetSide 2 is always fun because, as they say, war never changes. Sure, the maps might get tweaked and new vehicles might be introduced here and there, but it's still a contest of shooting one's enemy in the face repeatedly. For this edition of Choose My Adventure, you voted for me to play a gutsy heavy soldier fighting for the Terran Republic, someone who's not afraid to run into the thick of battle with guns blazing. This goes against every fiber of my nature, but you might be pleased to hear that I'm really enjoying the polar opposite of what I usually play.
Choose My Adventure: PlanetSide 2
Welcome to this all-new edition of Choose My Adventure! We've made some changes to the way this veteran Massively column works, so I wanted to take some time to explain how things will work from here on out. In the past, you chose mostly everything for the column's writer to do in a particular game (that you also chose). We've decided to streamline the process and make it more of a three-part "review" of sorts with a fourth part set aside for voting. I will select the game to prevent the recent problems we've had with cheating, and you will choose my path within it. That means there will be one week of voting and three weeks of my impressions of those choices for each game. So let's go ahead and get into the polls for this PlanetSide 2 edition of Choose My Adventure.
Choose My Adventure: Riding into the sunset in EverQuest
No matter how much I want to hang on, no one can manage to forever; this wild Choose My Adventure bronc is just about to buck me right off, freeing the saddle for yet another rider. But woooeee, what a ride we've had together! From the jailbreak of Gloomingdeep Mine to the infamous Battle of Big Badgers, we've gotten a taste of gaming on the EverQuest frontier. And thanks to ya'll, it's been an adventure worth having. But the show ain't over quite yet! Before I grab my ten-gallon hat and ride off into the sunset, we've got some unfinished business to attend to. Ya'll told me to go out and poke through the native EQ dwellings, which I surely did. I even got me my own little spread. So come on in to my home on the Norrathian range and sit a spell while we chew the fat and I share the impressions of the run I've wrangled up just for ya'll.
Choose My Adventure: Taking EverQuest by the reins
Another week, another wild Choose My Adventure ride through EverQuest. And this time, I have a better understanding of this beast I am riding and feel more confident and in control! Contrary to my experiences in newer games where things feel familiar from the outset, it has taken me a little longer to start getting comfortable in my Norrathian skin. That total-newb-outsider feeling has been slowly diminishing so that I feel like a real citizen. Between knowing where to find things in the world and just getting the hang of the controls, I can now start relying on my gaming muscle memory to guide me instead of actively searching for everything. Of course, that doesn't mean that the world is now a piece of cake and that there is nothing left to learn! Far from it: There are still many new experiences to be had, some of which you will be selecting for me for this week's adventure. But before we get into that, let's take a look at this past week in EQ.
Choose My Adventure: Get along little EQ Froggy
Now that character creation wasn't there to soak up the majority of my gaming time (as minimal as it may be in EverQuest), I had the chance to move forward in my famous Froglok adventures -- as directed by you, of course. And while there's always a chance that votes will ultimately set the Choose My Adventure host up to be bucked right off the bronco of fun in a new game, y'all done me good. As per your latest votes, I moseyed along instead of galloping through the content; I checked out all the nooks and crannies of my areas, poking my striped nose into places it may or may not have belonged. This appealed greatly to the explorer in me, so thanks! I also grouped up when I could, which made everything that much more enjoyable. And I took special care to follow your final instructions: slaughter everything! And to tell you the truth, this past week EQ has grown on me more than ever before. I have had some of the funnest experiences this past week!
Choose My Adventure: Through the starting gates of EverQuest
And we're off! The gates of EverQuest have opened, and thanks to the advice of my very own pit crew (that means you!), I am planted firmly in my saddle as ready to take on this wild Choose My Adventure ride. So let's get this show started, shall we? Figuring out where in EQ I was going to go was pretty cut and dried; Firiona Vie was the server winner by a landslide. Either you know me well enough and placed me accordingly, or you're just saying that's an awesome place to be. Of course, it could be both, which is a double bonus. The racial fight was more of a nail-biter. Tier"Dal, Iksar, and Froglok battled it out, but in the end, good won. Well, actually let's not be too hasty tossing that "good" label around: As for classes, only two choices were running pretty much neck in neck, and both were decidedly evil! Ultimately the caster lost and tin can won. So instead of summoning and commanding my own hordes of undead (for which I thank you profusely), I dub myself Sir MJ, the Shadowknight. As much as I have rarely played plate or tank classes, I do appreciate this; necromancy is definitely not a favorite pastime of mine. Add in your final decision to start me off in my racial lands and we are all set to go.
Choose My Adventure: Hanging my hat in EverQuest
If ya'll were all fired up to see a rousing round of Age of Conan over the next few weeks, yer gonna be disappointed. This rodeo don't take kindly to cheatin', so AoC's been disqualified. What I can't figure out is why the perps would brag so brazenly about tryin' to fix the event. Do they think we don't read forums? Maybe some folks just fell off a horse and hit their heads one too many times? I'm sadder than a frog without a lilypad; I feel bad for all the genuine rule-followin' fans who wanted to see their favorite game get the spotlight it certainly deserves. And this will really put a bee in their bonnets: AoC probably woulda won even without the tamperin', so those fools who decided they didn't want to play fair an' square just blew it for the rest of ya. And here I was looking forward to returnin' to Hyboria. For those supporters who voted legitimately, I hope ya still get your time in the ring in another Choose My Adventure. With that unfortunate business outta the way, I'd like to introduce ya'll to the star of our show: EverQuest. It edged out Anarchy Online by just a few votes to takes its place as the next CMA title. Ya might find it a bit ironic that the keeper of the Norrathian Notebook is heading to Norrath, but since my first attempt to sink my feet in that soil didn't pan out, I'm hopin' it'll be different with ya'll directing the adventure. 'Sides, seems kinda fitting, it being the Year of EverQuest and all. Now there's a whole mess o' choices this week, from race to class to server, so get in there and brand yours before 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, January 31st.
Choose My Adventure: Back in the saddle again edition
Yeeehaw! Now that Mike has finished his ride, they're lettin' me back in the saddle for another round of rootin' tootin' Choose My Adventure fun! And the opportunity has come not a moment too soon: I've had my spurs on and been raring to go for weeks now. As you know, this ain't my first CMA rodeo, and I'm sure as shootin' excited for this next wild romp through a new world. Of course, I won't be doing this alone. This ain't a one-woman show, and you ain't just spectators. I'm the rider all right, but y'all actually have a hold of the reins and will be leading me through the adventures. I'll wrangle up some options each week, and y'all will make the choices for what we do, where we go, and how we get there. Our first choice: which game we're going to tame! I've corralled a herd of titles that ain't seen their time in the spotlight yet (or at least, not for a long, long time). We've got an assortment of breeds to choose from -- some I've the barest hint of experience with; with others, I've none at all. Look 'em over, size 'em up, and then tag the one you want us to spend our next six weeks in. Y'all have until 11:59 p.m. EST on Saturday, January 25th, to make your selection. Then we rope the winner and get this ride started.
Choose My Adventure: So long, Allods Online
Choose My Adventure, in my mind, is as much an investigation as it is a voter-led romp through a particular title. There's a reason each writer who takes on a CMA limits the voting pool to games he or she hasn't previously experienced in-depth; it's always more interesting to discover and explore than it is to travel across well-beaten paths. Writing and playing for Choose My Adventure almost always involves being surprised, either for the better or for the worse. When the community chose Allods Online as the subject of this edition of Choose My Adventure, I was skeptical. The game looks, on the surface, like another cheap World of Warcraft knock-off designed to siphon a few players away from Blizzard's enormous subscription MMO with promises of free gameplay and some sci-fi/steampunk tweaks. What I discovered over the last five weeks, however, is a solid, charming traditional MMO that is hindered at almost every turn by the incompetence or greed (I can't be sure which) of its publisher.
Choose My Adventure: Deep in the dungeons of Allods Online
Last week, I presented Choose My Adventure voters with one simple choice: Where, exactly, should we go next in Allods Online? The community responded by sending my low-level Psionicist directly into what many consider to be a core component of the modern fantasy MMO, the instanced dungeon. Understanding how a game approaches bosses, loot, grouping, and raiding is key in understanding that game's design philosophy, so it makes sense to dip a toe or two into the instanced content Allods has to offer. Assuming, of course, that I can find a group.
Choose My Adventure: Allods Online's compelling crafting
While it may seem longer due to holidays with family and other time-crunching stresses, it has been just one short week since our last jaunt into the community-chosen Allods Online. In that first glance, we created a brand-new Arisen character, gave him a few magical abilities, and set off on a course for action and adventure. Quests were completed, loot was packed up, and enemies were destroyed. This week, based on the results of last week's Choose My Adventure polls, we slowed things down. The community elected to stop and smell the roses and to pick up a crafting profession along the way. Taking a moment to observe details in Allods Online's character and environment design helps emphasize the title's unique and attractive aesthetic, which isn't much of a surprise. But our baby steps into the title's leatherworking profession unveiled an engaging and nuanced crafting system that's sure to deliver big payoffs down the line.
