/gquit...er ninja?

Bit of a crazy weekend.

Had a minor freakout on Thursday over some guild action that pissed me off and very much tempted me to /gquit.

However.

Maybe I’m getting older, or maybe I’m just understanding that there are certain aspects of online social interaction where some stuff gets lost in translation, but I decided to wait and first talk to my guild leader. I’m glad that I did so.

It’s very easy to get wrapped up in yourself if you don’t have a lot of friends in the game. You see others forming groups and heading off to instances or raids and you start feeling a bit left out. To be clear, this isn’t what prompted me to quit. It’s close, and I won’t get into details, but let’s just say that it was a combination of my overreaction and guild growing pains. In short, I was asked not to leave and am moving forward with intent to get more involved in guild conversation and activities.

I took away a few important lessons. One, it’s almost always beneficial to talk things out before doing anything rash, if possible. Two, if you’re feeling left out, it may be because you’re just not active enough in guild chat or events. The guild has grown a great deal since I joined it nearly a year ago, and more members mean less emphasis on the individual and more focus on group/community goals. You’ve got to put something in to get something back, and unfortunately if you’re a more passive personality, it’s easy to slip into the background.

In any case, I did get to join a heroic Botanica run last night, so that was fun. Also signed up for a Kara run happening tomorrow night (We will crush Moroes, We will crush Moroes, We will crush Moroes…), so we’ll see how that goes.

On the Botanica note, I consider myself a pretty competent player, but I did make some serious fuck-ups. First I left Aspect of the Pack on for a few pulls, until the warrior politely asked me to remove it. And THEN I, in my infinite ignorance, leave auto-loot on and ninja the Primal Nether from Warp Splinter. Thing is, I didn’t even notice I had done it and no one mentioned it. I don’t know if they were all so pissed that they didn’t even whisper me, or if they felt like walking on eggshells after my near-/gquit. I pray to God it’s neither of those.

I didn’t notice it was in my bag until I was doing dailies over an hour later, and by that time, most of the group had gone to bed. I whispered one of them with my apologies, explaining what had happened, and got a simple “np.” I put the Primal Nether in the guild bank and PM’d the rest of the group with my apologies. And that’s all I can do I guess. It was an honest mistake (Note to self – turn off the goddamn auto-loot BEFORE entering Karazhan).

Other news: Hit 375 in engineering, and crafted my butt-rocking Turbo-Charged Flying Machine. Tight.

Awesome.

Comic relief

A friend of mine recently gave me a gift certificate to a cool little shop called Things From Another World. It’s a geeknerd store with all the usual actio- er…collectible figurines, posters, guides, DVDs and of course comics. Very commercial compared to my usual shop, Excalibur Books and Comics, but full of cool stuff all the same.

Picked up a compilation of the first three issues and the fourth single issue of Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass (which is a most agreeable title – highly recommended). Read AICN’s thoughts on it here. I plowed through all four issues in less than an hour. More please.

Also found Spider-Woman: Origins from Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed. Fascinating look at my favorite New Avenger. The art drove me nuts, though. It’s stylistic and very well visualized, but the illustration is very basic. I like that the artists, the Luna Brothers, chose a certain style and stayed consistent, but it really wasn’t my cup of tea. Excellent story from Bendis and Reed, however.

I can’t seem to get enough of Bendis’ shit. “Discovered” (read: I’d been living under a fucking boulder) him with House of M in April and have been steadily consuming everything by him I can get my nerdy hands on: New Avengers, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers: Illuminati, Secret War, etc. I’ve been trying to check out Powers, but haven’t been able to find the first volume anywhere yet.

And finally, I picked up Abe Sapien: The Drowning in trade paperback. I love Marvel, but it’s an incredible pleasure to go from something like Spider-Woman to the dark unknown that is Mike Mignola and the world of B.P.R.D. and Hellboy. It’s like admiring sleek new dresser from IKEA and then looking over and seeing a richly polished Victorian sea chest, older than you can imagine, with God-knows-what lurking inside.

It’s your typical Mike Mignola story – paranormal agents on a mission to root out some old forgotten evil. But it’s so lovingly orchestrated by Mignola, and beautifully illustrated by Jason Shawn Alexander, that I could care less about the formula. Maybe I should re-phrase: I don’t care so much that the B.P.R.D. books always involve disastrous field missions because we’ve got to accept that these are always the thin shell for the real stories that need to be told. These missions always spark major character moments while retaining that classic dark ambiguity Mignola is known for. I love that I always have to read his books two or even three times before I feel I really understand what’s going on in the frames and the dialogue. So much of it is left up to interpretation. Less is more.

MMo' time is needed

So now that WAR is in full effect, I hope to be playing it at least as much as WoW.

Unfortunately, right now that doesn’t look to be happening.

Couple things. First – and this is the biggest minus with WAR right now – the game is still very sluggish. At least on my computer. I’ve got 2gb of RAM, with an 8800GT 512mb card, but WAR is at best slightly rubber-band laggy. At worst, it’s completely unplayable – as in gotta wait five seconds before the character responds to any movement controls because the FPS is in the severe shits. I’ve got all video settings at “best framerate,” or other minimal settings.

The best FPS is out in the wilderness with minimal players around. The worst, of course, is around town hubs or public quest areas. And these are unfortunately the best place to be in terms of fun and progression. I love the public quests. I really do like WAR so far and want to keep playing. But the lag and choppiness are painful on the eyeses.

While I want to love WAR, at this point the low FPS and eye strain are really driving me back toward WoW. Well, that and the Brewfest, aka best in-game holiday ever. It was a blast last year and it’s almost as good this year, downsides being the loss of a few awesome quests and lack of any new ones.

Best part of last year’s Brewfest was getting plastered hunting the Wolpertingers, which you could only see whilst intoxicated. The end reward was a neat Brewfest tankard which could summon your own awesome Wolpertinger pet. You still get the free pet, but you don’t have to get drunk and work for it. That was kind of sad. I also recall some quest where you had to find the pink Elekks (also only visible while drunk) at beer gardens in Thunder Bluff and Ironforge. Nowhere to be seen this year.
I got three quests – to ride the ram (once for regular quest; afterward a daily), to pelt a robot with beer mugs (which gets you the Wolpertinger, I believe) and to bark for the Brewfest (another daily). Once you complete these you gain access to the quest to kill Coren Direbrew in BRD, another daily.

There’s also the intermittent assaults on the beer garden by the Dark Iron Dwarves, which are cool, but don’t really offer that much after you’ve done it a few times. So that’s about three daily quests for some beer tokens (also new; changed from tickets last year). Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like there’s so much more they could do with the Oktoberfest theme. That said, I’ve really enjoyed the Coren Direbrew fights so far. I got my Empty Mug of Direbrew trinket on Friday and then a completely unexpected Swift Brewfest Ram last night. Très cool.

I’m actually at a bit of a loss now in WoW in terms of goals. As mentioned before, I finally scrounged together 5200 gold and bought my very first epic flyer. I’m broke, but very happy with it. No more paying for transportation in Outland like a sucker. And mining? Hooomigod. It’s so much faster from node to node now (if I can find a node, since 99% of the population are miners at this point).

But saving for the mount – that was my big goal for the last month or so, after I got the regular flyer. First it was getting to 70 (easy two levels of rested XP), then it was getting my 225 riding skill and building my flying machine, then it was gearing up (moderately geared now), then it was getting exalted with the Shattered Sun Offensive and then it was getting the 300 epic flying skill and building the epic flying machine.

Still working on getting the 375 in engineering to craft the flying machine, but at this rate, I’ll have that in a matter of weeks. I’m having fun, no doubt. Accomplishment and improvement always fuel good feelings in WoW, but it’s honestly very strange to have accomplished everything I really wanted in the game, outside of raiding.

I’m going to say it’s a good thing. Wrath of the Lich King is only seven weeks away at this point, and we get a nice patch somewhere in the nearer future, which should make things interesting.

Now if only I could solve my WAR troubles…I want some smooth RvR action!

Final thoughts on TFU

When I posted my initial thoughts on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed earlier this week, someone mentioned that the first few levels of the game weren't a very good litmus for the experience as a whole. Having finished the game at this point, I'd agree and disagree.

As Star Wars experience, the game is a stellar win. As I mentioned before, it seriously feels like you're in the Star Wars universe in terms of music, mood and environment. Those aspects are extremely well done. As a game and as a new chapter to be incorporated into the Star Wars cannon, it's a bit rough.

If you care to venture onward, heed my SPOILER WARNINGS.

The fighting and powers remain fantastic through the end of the game. The main issues I had were with the story and a few major moments in the gameplay.

Remember when you first saw that early trailer for The Force Unleashed? Big Imperial Star Destroyer, minding its own business, only to suddenly jolt forward and lurch toward the ground? Then you saw the hooded figure on a small ledge using the force to wrench the vessel out of the sky? Well you do in fact get this thrilling experience in the actual game - the problem is, it seems the developers didn't really want you to enjoy it. They must have really wanted you to ponder the motivations of your actions, since it TAKES AT LEAST THIRTY FUCKING MINUTES TO ACCOMPLISH.

You start the event and have to destroy several TIE fighters first to clear the air. Then you reach out and grab the Star Destroyer, following the analog stick directions and making minute adjustments to bring the ship in closer to you and the ground. Every 15 seconds or so another wave of TIE fighters move in and you must let go of the destroyer and deal with them. While you're fighting the TIEs, the destroyer veers back to its initial course. This cycle can go on forever, depending on how slowly or quickly you eliminate the TIE fighter waves. I gave up on it after nearly an hour of vulgarities. One of my friends, who had been observing, took up the controller and spent another 45 minutes on it before he found a nice groove and could take out the TIEs in two passes. He then had to find just the right spot to position the destroyer before the game would let him pull it down (hint: it needs to be pointed exactly facing you...exactly).

I can see this leg of the story being a gamebreaker for a lot of people. There's no need to have the difficulty rocket up 200% for what should be one of the coolest moments ever in a Star Wars game.

From that point onward, it's almost like the developers wanted punish you for loving their game and wanting to complete it. By the time you reach the Death Star, you're facing a ridiculous amount of enemies in the main hangar bay, all of which come in waves while you're trying to wrench apart some floor panels to get to the next area. And there are no save points at all.

Granted, I can buy this, because you're staging a one-man assault on the bloody Death Star. It's not supposed to be easy. But good god, it takes some time to get through.

It all culminates in fight with the end baddie, when can vary depending on whether you decide to finish the game with the Light or Dark side of The Force. I chose the Light during this playthrough.

So you finish the game and get the full impact this story has on the rest of the Star Wars canon. I like the idea, but it's not organic at all in terms of how it fits. There are revelatory moments with both Vader and the Emperor where you find out exactly how the Rebellion came to be, and it really doesn't make much sense.

So I do like the story. I can accept it, but it's an acceptance on the level of the Prequels. Fine, if that's the way it's gotta be, I guess that's cool. Kind of disappointing on the execution.

I'm also a bit disappointed that we didn't see more diversity in game levels. We got a total of seven playable environments, and three of them were re-cycled for return visits. That said, the level of detail is still insanely beautiful. I love the look of this game.

Of course, I played this on the Xbox 360. A couple of the my friends were over during the final 5 levels or so of the game, and one of them brought his Wii for some dueling action. We hooked it up to my HDTV, and I was aghast at how awful TFU graphics look on the Wii. I would even go as far to say it looked on par with early PS2 fare. My friend had not seen it on the 360, and when he saw my experience, he was also pretty disappointed. He'd already played the game through twice, and commented a lot on the differences between the two consoles, especially in terms of gameplay and upgrade options.

He said that the holocron spheres don't actually provide points for upgrades in the Wii version. He didn't get to go inside the Sarlaac to find Bail Organa, and he apparently didn't get the initial TIE fighter factory level either. However Wii players were spared the stupidly difficult Star Destroyer crash, apparently, since it occurs as a cutscene instead of a playable event.

I still maintain that any Star Wars fan with a 360 (or perhaps a PS3) should absolutely check this game out. Be prepared for extreme frustration at times, but overall I still think it's a great experience. I'll definitely be playing it through again on the harder settings. First completion was on Sith Warrior.

5200 gone

Never ever thought I'd actually get one of these.

Not a bad way to get around...

More on "The Force Unleashed"

I'm still playing through the fourth level or so, on Felucia, but I've heard some more mixed reviews from some actual gamers, some non-critics.

I heed the warnings, but I'm still having fun.

On that note, I just found an older interview on AICN with Sam Witwer, who plays Starkiller.

The man seems to know his shit. It's an excellent discussion delving deep into the structure of Star Wars and the finer points of certain movies. There's also some really interesting stuff on how Witwer came to the project, and his schedule and involvement during production.

In typical loose AICN fashion, they also wander over the critical reception of Return of the Jedi as it pertains to certain characterizations. I actually never understood the hate for Jedi. It ranks right up with The Empire Strikes Back in my book.

God, I'm a nerd.

Punch* a pirate.

Again it comes.

Why do people continue to support this stupid, gimicky and completely unnecessary holiday?

It was light-chuckle sorta funny once like three or four years ago. Now it's become a secret handshake sort of deal, like you've found a lifelong bond with a complete stranger all because you...*gasp*... you like pirates too?!

Ugh. There is nothing more obnoxious than to have a co-worker greet you at 7am with a hearty "Yarr!" and then provide a brief explanation of the special day and its history.

Oh yes. I nearly forgot, since we had the exact same exchange last year.

I like pirate history and films as much as the next person, but please stop this idiotic pirate obsession. This fad should have died YEARS ago.

Ninjas are a close second. Thank god no one's thought up a "Talk Like The 'Ask A Ninja' Guy Day."

Yet.

*Please don't actually punch the idiots who talk like pirates. They know not what they do.

Zap a Jawa - it's fun

The first 20 minutes of my experience with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed elicited the following emotions: cautious optimism, growing excitement, pleasant surprise, awe, sinister pleasure, LMAO, delight, holy shit and goose-bumps of the “that was fucking awesome” nature. In that order.

I’ve been waiting for this game for a long time – ever since I saw the first demo video way back in late 2005. Since then, the hype has thickened, and we’ve heard new tidbits exalting the game. In addition to all the buzz on the incredible physics, rendering, AI, innovative gameplay, etc., it’s also been said that TFU boasts a compelling story that will add a new perspective to the Star Wars cannon – the tale of Darth Vader’s secret Sith apprentice.

The impending release of this game is pretty much one of the major reasons I threw down for a next-gen console (along with GTA IV and Mercenaries 2, which I still haven’t picked up, actually). I’m also the biggest Star Wars fan I know. So needless to say, I was slightly crestfallen when a few less than positive reviews started rolling in on TFU.

Fuck those guys. If you love this universe unconditionally (which means you can actually still watch and enjoy the Prequels while ignoring all the mind-numbing shittyness), then you will gleefully soil yourself while playing this game. Because it’s BETTER than the Prequels. Oh my god, it’s so much better. The Devs told us that it feels like Star Wars, that you’re essentially playing a lost chapter of the Saga. And from my three-hour foray into the first three levels, they absolutely nailed it.

You’ve got the typical characters – the young adventurer, the sidekick and the tough-but-cute love interest, but I haven’t had a problem with any of it yet. The protagonist’s droid, Proxy, is like a fun mixture of Threepio and HK-47 (of KotOR villainy). The main character, Starkiller (a nice throwback to Lucas’s original surname for Luke Skywalker) is voiced and mo-capped by Sam Witwer, who I’ve actually really liked in his minor roles in Battlestar Galactica and The Mist.

The gameplay is immensely satisfying. The first level has you playing as Vader, and you essentially have all of the major Force powers at your disposal. As promised, the physics may blow your mind. Slam a wookiee into a giant tree trunk and watch the outer bark slough off. Force-pound a grove of smaller trees and watch them splinter. Storm troopers and wookiees are nothing to you – just masses of bodies to toss aside or cut down a single hit (one hit, ‘cause you’re Darth Fucking Vader).

I got my new favorite 360 achievement here: “Worst Day-Shift Manager Ever,” and I just about fell out of my chair laughing.

The main story is what we expected – you’re hunting down hidden Jedi some 16-20 years after the initial purge we saw in Episode 3. The levels are beautifully designed. Plenty of junk for you to play with and toss around. Each level I’ve played has ended with a Jedi encounter, and they’ve been very innovative so far.

Nice transition to my gripes. The boss battles are innovative in terms of dialogue, setting and events, in my opinion. The second one in particular was cracking me up – felt like one of the funnier WoW bosses, or the insane ramblings of some Rapture citizen. The problem is, they’re not straight-up lightsaber battles. They probably shouldn’t be, given the game’s heavy focus on The Force, but it’s not immediately obvious how you should come at some of these guys. You’re relatively weak compared to them, and while you can chip away at their health bars by tossing them around or zapping them with lightning, they can knock entire halves or thirds of your life away with single hits if you’re not careful, and there are no health pots or power-ups nearby.

Which takes us to the set-up scenes and loading times. LONG. Too long, in my opinion. I spent nearly an hour on a minor boss before I figured out how to take him down. The problem is, each time the game reset me to the saved position, I had to clear the area, wait through two unskippable cut-scenes, start an event and then kill the boss. Oh, and not fall from a very precarious bridge. This is pretty typical, I know, but aren’t we past not being able to skip the minor cutscenes at this point in game design?

Overall, the game is 10/10 for first impressions. Rent it, buy it, watch a friend play. It’s completely worth it.

First day of cool

Head Start key for the bloody win.

Only had an hour and a half to screw around yesterday after work, so I polished off some auctions and dutifully completed my fishing and cooking quests in WoW, logged off, and quickly jumped into Warhammer Online. Officially.

As an aside, I find it odd that I haven’t actually been asked to subscribe yet. I entered my billing information on the Mythic site over the weekend, but it doesn’t seem to have retained that info. Perhaps that will come on the 18th, when the rest of the players hit the servers.

So of course I logged in and immediately created my Dwarf Runepriest, Cottle. I briefly considered an Open RvR server, but upon reading the description in closer detail, I figured I should familiarize myself with the game mechanics a bit more before diving into that insanity. Maybe I’ll save it for my Destruction experience.

I plowed through all the starting Dwarf quests in about 45 minutes. Got into the first public quest area and parked my character for the night.

I really like the public quest system. It’s great how you can run in and have this ragtag group of players running around killing shit and still complete the quest objectives on the larger scale. And it’s repeatable! That’s also a great aspect of this game – options in leveling. You can PvP from level 1 for however long you want, provided your Renown Rank doesn’t bump with your level. You can grind mobs and get additional XP with kill collector quest turn-ins. You can hit up public quests and just run those over and over if you want. Or you can just fucking head off into the wild and explore. There are viable rewards for ALL of these paths.

Patience in parts

So my local comic shop finally got the latest installment of Ex Machina, from Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris. Seems this book has been months behind, but I’m sure there are valid reasons. The artwork, for one, seems a bit complicated. Early trades showed glimpses of Harris’ illustration process, with key frames based on storyboard-like photos of staff members. Odd, but I like the end result. Then there’s Vaughan’s contributions to LOST scripts and story sessions as well. That’s got to eat up some time.

Ex Machina is probably the single best comic I’m reading right now for characterization, writing and general cool factor. Quick hit: Mitchell Hundred is an average civil engineer in New York City who gets called out one night to investigate an anomaly on the Brooklyn Bridge. Subsequent freak sci-fi accident occurs, and he can suddenly converse with mechanicals and electronics. The comic constantly shifts between his time as a fledgling vigilante with unique powers in a pre-9/11 NYC, and his term as Mayor of New York City after the terrorist attacks. It’s seriously like The West Wing meets Spider-Man, but far grittier. Definitely a mature comic.

The trouble is, it seems flat at the moment. Early on, we got insane storylines involving…well, the coolest stuff just hasn’t been explained quite yet: time travel, interdimensional visitors, a shadowy nemesis, etc. I also want more on why Hundred has his powers and where they come from (which, supposedly, the Federal government has classified as top secret) and lately we just keep getting tepid political problems for Mayor Hundred with corresponding flashbacks to his vigilante days to give us some perspective. Granted, there was a recent situation with his trip to Rome, which culminated in a fucking great set-up for future storylines, but now it seems we’re back to his dealing with political rabble-rousers, all of whom seem to be female, blonde and spunky.

I’m positive the Ex Machina crew has big things planned for Hundred, but I’m getting a bit tired of these little throwaway bits that don’t seem to move the larger story along. Of course, this is the third issue of this particular arc, so perhaps there are bigger events or revelations on the way. Out of nowhere we got a nice flashback to some of the earlier sci-fi elements, which then drifted away without explanation, so maybe Vaughan’s just telling us to hang in there and all will be well.

Hope so. I came late to the Y: The Last Man party, and only got to experience that book through the trade volumes. I can see how reading it month-to-month would have been pretty frustrating, and maybe that’s how I should take in Ex Machina. The Last Man was a staggering epic with an absolutely pitch-fucking-perfect ending, so I find it hard to doubt Vaughan’s skill as an episodic storyteller.

Look who's back

Where the fuck have you been?

Seriously.

It is an epicker tale than I accurately convey in a few measly paragraphs, but essentially:

I bought an Xbox 360 shortly after my last post. I wuvved it greatly. I racked up many Gamerpoints on Xbox Live, and played through some amazing games like Bioshock, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto IV, Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect.

In this four-month period, I allowed my World of Warcraft subscription to expire, leaving my hunter blue-balled at level 68.

Reached a waning in 360 games selection around late July, and sought solace once again in the arms of that many-headed god of time-sacrifice and comfort, WoW.

Promptly discovered that the fan on my nVidia 7600 video card had kicked it God knows when, so for the first time I got to discover the joy and anxiety of selecting and installing a new video card all by myself. Still don’t know if I did it right. Dropped in an ASUS nVidia 8800 GT. Freaking BEHEMOTH of a card, but it appears to be in working order.

Got WoW working and dinged 70 on my hunter. Thus the angels sang “woot.” Yeah…not too much new stuff happening in WoW. Two level 70s potentially means twice the daily quest income, but going through those Shattered Sun dailies twice a day got old real fast. Got my engineer flying mount, got my epic engineer goggles, got my dimensional rippers, etc. The hunter is reasonably geared to poke around in Karazhan, but I think I’m destined for other things in WoW.

Surprisingly, my old guild did not boot me during my sabbatical. They’re actually doing regular Kara runs, which is cool, but they’ve become a rather cliqueish group. I don’t fault them for this, as it is the inevitable path of growing guilds. The higher-end, more skilled players stick together because that’s the only way they’ll move forward, and lower-tier players are often left to their own devices. Just the nature of the game. The friendliness and helpful attitude remain, however, as officers and crafters are always willing to help out when needed.

I’ll keep my WoW account active, as I still very much enjoy my daily cooking and fishing quests, and the release date for Wrath of the Lich King was announced today as November 13, 2008. So that will be fun when it arrives.

The big excitement for me right now (aside from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed being released TOMORROW!!!) is Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. I was lukewarm at first, having no knowledge of the intellectual property and no desire to dive into another MMO, I just didn’t follow any news on it for a long time. Then the new cinematic hit last month, and it looked fucking awesome.

Needless to say, I shamelessly raced to find an open beta key last week and was able to have at least one full evening of uninterrupted playtime on Friday before the beta ended on Sunday.

Here's a look at my little Runepriest with his hilarious new title:

I will be buying this game.

More to come on this topic, I’m sure, once my SE pre-order arrives next week and I’m able to start a character that is not destined for wipage.

Anyway, that’s the story of my spring-to-summer gaming experience. Obviously, I’m going to incorporate a wider range of games and platforms into these entries, as I plan to be playing at least two MMOs and whatever new Xbox games captivate me in the coming months.