A Bit of a Blur
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: My Gaming

     I picked up Blur a couple of days ago, not out of really any desire to play the game honestly, but because I had found a decent sale and ended up paying only $20.00 for it at my local Best Buy after coupon  It's not to say that I thout it would be horrible or anything along those lines, but after playing the last couple of Project Gotham Racing games, I will admit I thought Bizzare had lost their touch.  Truth is, I don't care for them at all.  Despite the hype and great reviews, the truth is the last couple of PGR games were poor handling messes.  Sure they looked great, but the racing action and gameplay were simply sub-par.  So far, this one has beeen pretty good fun.  I think the best part is that the Kart Racing aspects of the game have so far kept my mind off the fact that it doesn't seem to handle quite right.  Oh, well, will update later as I move further through the game.  Right now, I think it was worth my twenty bucks.

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
Topic: My Gaming

       Although most of the weekend was taken up with things like barbecue, beach going and a night on the town, there was an amazing amount of gaming that was still done, and perhaps most amazingly of all, it all centered around the second MotorStorm game.  True, it is a fine game and great fun to play.  Also true, it is a great multiplayer game offering four person split screen play and online play as well.  Although we never did dig out those other two controllers.  Things to remember for next time.  The most interesting thing about MotorStorm is its ability to not only entertain the person playing, but also those watching the game.  Not many games can keep the interest of spectators, but the frantic speed and spectacular destruction seems to do the trick.  Whether it's a monster truck and a school bus colliding in mid-air off a huge jump (That one I'm guilty of creating) or pieces of racing truck flying about like so much debris as it rolls off the side of a cliff, there's always something to see.

      Also, it was nice to get someone else to work off some of my races.  Ok, not really, except that one that I was really having trouble with. That's the very odd thing about the game:  sometimes the speed and quality of the AI's racing can vary widely with little real reasoning behind it.  For instance, I finished second with a time of 3:03 on one track that had a target time of 2:55.  Next race I dropped my time to 2:47 and finished, second again. A few minutes later of friend of mine beat the race in question with a time of 2:54.  Now, I'm not so much upset about him winning the race as I am the race having a target time to beat, destroying that time, and losing by two seconds.  That kind pisses me off.  If the track has a time to beat, you shouldn't lose the race after besting that time to beat by at least eight seconds and to come in second again after knocking over fifteen seconds off your time is just absolutely ridiculous to me.  Let's get that AI working better there developers and have some consistency.  I understand the game is predicated on keeping everyone bunched up and bashing into each other for extreme effect, but really, if you give a track a target, let's make sure the AI doesn't go stupid fast and win over and over again.  It feels exactly like cheating and cheap AI, which it is.

Tags: Racing, Playstation 3, PS3, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Motorstorm, pacific rift, offroad, mutliplayer

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Return to Hyborea
Topic: My Gaming

And so it came to pass that I couldn't stay away anymore. Yes, it's sad but true, faithful readers, that I have returned to Age of Conan, for at least a month, to look around and to try and level up to 40 so I can finally ride my war rhino thing. Ha ha ha. Finally, after all this time.

Now some may remember my bittersweet love-hate relationship with Age of Conan, and how it finally came to an end some months ago when the fun stopped out weighing the bugs. It is also important to not that I did say I would be back to see how things were going, even as I was walking out the door. I so I figured at the one year anniversary, the time was right to return and see how things are on the ground.

First thing that is to be noticed is that there was a server merger. My character, previously on Thog, is now on Wiccanna, and from what I can tell just with my playing since I've been back, this hasn't really helped population that much in the lower level areas, or at least not the areas meant for play by 30 something characters. This isn't to say that other MMORPGs are not plagued by this whole top heavy thing as well, but most not as quickly and completely as Age of Conan. Really, this issue was becoming pervasive in Age of Conan within a few short weeks after it's release. Guess that's what happens when developers don't bother to complete and test the game prior to launch.

That's all water under the bridge though. My goal in returning to the game was not to be bitter about my experiences with the launch product, even though it was clear to everyone in beta that when it launched, it still needed at least a year more dev time, at least. It was also obviously that the powers that be at Funcom were not going to let that happen, and that pre-order sales were going to drive the game into the wild way before it was ready to actually sustain the player base that purchased those copies of the game. Really too bad, because the game could have been a great success instead of the abysmal buggy mess they released.

To continue though, there will be alot more posts regarding Age of Conan in the coming days as I explore the content that is there, search out new bugs, and the ones that have been fixed, and generally just see how things are in Hyborea at the one year anniversary. Now that the storm has passed, is there a rainbow for the returning player? We shall see.

captainzoli

torchedthreads.com

Tags: age of conan, mmorpg, rpg, gaming, games, pc, conan, hyborea, adventures, game, gamer

X-Blades - All the Hacking You Can Stand
Topic: My Gaming
     I had pre-ordered X-Blades at the same time as the binkini zombie slayer game who's name I don't remember right off, while in a fit of hack-n-slash enthusism that probably would have best been waited out. :lol:  Now that it's here, and in my 360, I'm kinda sorry I did.  It's a compentent hack-n-slash action game to a degree, but not nearly as much fun as games like God Of War or Conan.  The box to box, or room to room, style isn't particularly fun, and hasn't been in a decade, and to call these rooms "levels" is absurd.  Stil, I've only just begun to play it, so I don't want to shit on it too soon.  Who knows, maybe the best is yet to come.  I'm not holding my breath on that, but you never know.  Oh, and the cut scenes will give you that warm, nostalgic feeling because it looks for all the world like it was ripped straight from the old FMV games from the early ninities. :lol:  Provided you enjoyed that kinda thing.  If not, it's fucking horrible. :lol:

Return to Everquest 2
Topic: My Gaming