My Cimmerian Barbarian, Lanidia, is in her twenties, level wise, and as such I have been putting her through her paces in the Cimmerian area for such characters, Conall's Valley.  Prior to making it this far along, I had heard quite a bit of back and forth opinions on whether Tortage was the end all be all of the game, and everything else was just broken, neglected, etc., or if leaving Tortage was when the real game started, and Tortage was the area that was to be ignored and abandoned as soon as possible.  Post launch of course. 

Of course, like everything else in life, things are what they are.  Tortage was a great starting area and the most complete, polished area in the game, by a large margin.  Having said that, I'm having fun on this, my first post beta, run through Conall's Valley.  It's great looking and packed with content so far, and my only real complaint is that they never added more voice work after Tortage, for the most part.  It really is a stark difference at first, after being conditioned to listening to them rather than necessarily reading the quest stuff.  I miss the voice overs.  Age of Conan is still a heck of a lot of fun, despite it's rough edges.

captainzoli

Torched Threads

Tags: MMORPG, AoC, Age of Conan, Conan, MMO, RPG

Posted by the Captain at 10:27 AM CDT

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Mood:  not sure

     Yes, it is true.  I have stayed on for Age of Conan after months of beta.  I wasn't sure I was going to, so much so that I had not pre-ordered a copy of the game (a mistake on my part).  I had, for quite some time leading up to the launch date, felt like although there were many things to like about AoC, that it would probably not be for me.  This was not exactly what I had hoped for either, being a huge Conan fan for as long as I can remember.  I had hoped the game would just be fantastic.  Truth is though; no game could ever meet the expectations that I would have for any game bearing the "Conan" name, despite the terrible games that had borne it previously.

     Having said all that, it was the reviews of the game leading up to and right after launch that changed my mind and caused me to give AoC another shot.  Not sure why, since I don't generally place that much emphasis on the reviews of others, especially after playing AoC in beta for so long.  I pretty much had a good an idea of what was going on with it as anyone else.  I guess in the final accounting, I just couldn't stay away.  Despite all the issues that the game has, and it has a few, it is just damn good fun to play.  The active combat system really makes up for a lot of the things that aren't that innovative in the game, or that are buggy or flat out broken.  

     So, AoC has been added to my already way too many games to play list, and I'm happy about it.  Not to mention Funcom seems to be working overtime to try and fix many of the issues the game has, releasing patches two times a week and reportedly working on more content for places that quests become rare and grinding necessary to continue leveling.  For all it's issues, man, the upside to this game could be amazing, depending on what the direction Funcom ends up taking it.  Those decisions could ultimately determine whether AoC builds on its initial launch success or becomes another in a long list of underperforming failures.

Age Of Conan

captainzoli

torchedthreads

Posted by the Captain at 10:02 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 16 June 2008 10:31 AM CDT

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     So, around Thanksgiving, my computer decided to start giving me issues, again. Those readers that have been around a while know about my previous issues that were finally resolved after a year of work. Anyway, luckily enough with a few adjustments and a reinstall of XP (all the fun) the PC seems to be working well enough, so far. And this means I can jump back into middle earth, join up with my long time guild, The Old Timers Guild, and adventure again. Not to mention get some use out of my Founder's Membership.

      I've spent the last couple of days working through some of the lower level quests that I'd not completed previously, mainly in the Shire and Breeland. Lots of chained quests in the Shire. Also finished up some of the Old Forest quests, like killing off twenty-four wolves. Seems like I'm always trying to kill off a crapload of one thing or another. Killed off all the wolves, then got a quest to kill off a bunch of bats. Killed off a bunch of goblin sappers, then got a quest to kill off some neekers. Guess it's the way of the MMORPG, but it would be nice if there were some new types of quests instead of always the fetch quest or the seek and destroy quest. At least Lord of the Rings Online does have the main story quests which are cool and, in my opinion, really set it aside from other MMORPGs that I've played, which are many, indeed. Despite my complaints, I'll be back at it again tonight, I'm sure. The OTG are a great bunch to play with, and it is loads of fun to explore Middle Earth.

Tags: lord of the rings online, lotro, mmorpg, rpg, role playing, game, gaming, guild, the old timers guild, otg

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Posted by the Captain at 10:00 AM CST

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     So far, the wife has played far more Assassin's Creed than I have.  She saw me start playing it when I received it for Christmas, from Dwarfer17 (thanks again, man), and claimed it for her own shortly after I had finished my second mission.  Really, I had just played it long enough to get a good taste of it, when it, and my PS3 as well, were commandeered for the wife's own purposes.

     In a shocking twist of fate, however, (ok, maybe not shocking) I was able to get some time in on it once again.  Long enough, in fact, to complete two more missions and all their accompanying side quests (except for the informer flag collecting missions which are fucking useless and stupid, in my opinion).  One thing I have noticed with this added time spent with the game is that I'm not sure how much further I'll be playing in to it.  Don't get me wrong, what I've played has been a blast, but the game is starting to show its repetitive nature.  Very repetitive it seems.  I'm going to tough it out, I guess, but I'm not sure how much fun it will be from here on out.  Although, I would imagine that there are certain aspects of the gameplay that will never get old, like the stealth kills.

Tags: playstation, ps3, assassin's creed, review, 360, xbox, ubisoft

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Posted by the Captain at 1:00 PM CST

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Ah, rumors and innuendo--such a big part of each and every gamer's life, and it is the same here.  Today's installment brings us Farcry 2, and newly surfacing rumors that it will be dropping 360 support in favor of release on only the PC and PS3.  Now, before all the 360 owners get all worked up, this one is, admittedly, based on some fairly week (imo) observational evidence, but hey, who are we to let a nice juicy bit of unsubstantiated rumor pass by.

 Anyway, before the PS3 owners in the audience get all worked and and start celebrating, there is just as much of the same kind of evidence to support the game going PC only as there is the 360 version being dropped by itself.  Either way you want to look at it, you can hit the link and read the information first hand.  Personally, I'm going to be picking it up on the PC.

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Posted by the Captain at 9:08 AM CST

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In an afternoon update, Dwarfer17's Mass Effect review is now live and available for all to partake of here.  I think by now most of us who are interested in video games, the 360 and RPGs already have a good idea of what Mass Effect is, especially those of us that are fans of the Knights of the Old Republic games on the Xbox and PC, so what, may you ask, would be the benefit of reading yet another review of the game.  Well, this isn't your average Mass Effect review.  Dwarfer17 gets past the hype and right to the heart of the matter, no matter what anyone else thinks. 

Posted by the Captain at 4:53 PM CST

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So, I played the first Condemned game on the 360, and it was a good time.  Something satisfying  and visceral about its gameplay that makes the short time required to finish it all worthwhile.  This has, of course, made me more than just a little interested in the upcoming sequel,  and from the looks of the media being released, it seems to be shaping up to be a worthy successor.

Posted by the Captain at 10:02 AM CST

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Mood:  lazy

     And so the wife has pretty much taken over the PS3 to play Assassin's Creed.  This happened right after I finished my second assassination in the game, but it's been ok with me.  Given me a chance to do some reading (yes reading) that I have been meaning to do anyway.  Also, I managed to fit in Uncharted:  Drake's Fortune between her gaming sessions, which while no easy task, was worth the trouble.  It does continue a troubling trend of somewhat short, overpriced games that plagues this generation, however.

     Prior to my wife's interest in Assassin's Creed, I was making good progress with games that I had picked up over the past few months.  I finished Blue Dragon after around ninety hours of play, and also knocked out Conan for the PS3 in around seven and a half hours (another of the too short for the money games).  Both of these games were a good time, depite the length issues for the Conan title.  I was also able to spend an enormous amount of time with Call of Duty 4's (PC version) multiplayer games over this holiday season.  More on all this stuff to come.

captainzoli 

Posted by the Captain at 2:12 PM CST

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