vrijdag 26 februari 2010

Allods Online, my first impression

AOgame 2010-02-25 20-45-17-07

After hearing and reading so much about it i decided i had to check it out :)

First impressions.. well nice tutorial.
After that i went on my first quest, only to have the first two mobs i was trying to kill for the quest been stolen away from me, guess that's what you can expect from a F2P game, kill stealers.. general rude people.

And of course the gold spam, pretty annoying, especially if it's the same "person" doing it for quite a while, isn't there a GM online to take care of that shit and ban the fucker.

So yeah, so far my first impression is one of meh..

I might give it a little longer, but after hearing so many good things about it i had honestly expected more.

dinsdag 23 februari 2010

The ship seems to be holding together captain!

Star Trek Online 2010-02-20 03-35-34-61

Star Trek Online has pleasantly surprised me, since launch the game has definatly been running better on my computer.
The crashing problems seem to have completely dissapeared and i am running the game on pretty decent settings without problems while before i had to seriously turn down the settings to keep the game from locking up.

So whatever they did, they seem to have fixed my problems, great job Cryptic!

Only small things right now is the occasional "server not responding" message, which has not been a major issue as it usually connects anyway, just takes a little longer and some lag/rubberbanding while in a solo (ground) mission.
But other than that the game is running great and it has been a lot of fun, so far i have no regrets getting the lifetime sub as this is really a game i would like to keep playing :)

woensdag 17 februari 2010

Mount up for Mount & Blade

mount&blade 2010-02-13 14-41-04-86

I've been playing lots of Mount & Blade lately and have to say i forgot how much fun this game was.

I started playing this game in December 2008 and even claimed that for me it was the game of the year
http://hauntshade.blogspot.com/2008/12/mount-blade-my-game-of-year.html
But funny thing was shortly after i started playing i went on a vacation and never actually touched the game since..

Recently the game was on sale at Steam for 5 Euro and since i had to reinstal the game anyway, because i upgraded to Windows 7, i figured i would get it on Steam (i originally bought it on Direct2Drive).

I still stand by my post and say it was the game of the year and i really recommend getting it, as it is worth it.
At first you might be put off by the graphics, i was at first, but give it a few hours and you might really enjoy it.

The mounted combat in this game is simply amazing and a lot of fun. You'd think that after fighting so many battles it might become boring, but for me i am still enjoying every battle, that's just how much fun this game is.

The graphics don't look like much (although the game has it's moments), but the gameplay is so good that i don't even notice the graphics that much and for me that's a sign of a good game, as sometimes the graphics do make or break a game for me.
When the gameplay is not that good and the graphics start to bother me, that's usually a sign for me.

Now to wait for the Mount & Blade Warband expansion, coming March 30th!

vrijdag 5 februari 2010

Lifetime subs, the way to go!

After recently purchasing my second lifetime subscribtion (to Star Trek Online, I allready own a lifetime sub to Lord of the Rings Online), I am really starting to think about cancelling (all) monthly subscriptions.

Lifetime subs, I think are really the way to go for MMO's.

Personally I really like the idea of paying once and just being able to play whenever i want/like without worrying on whether or not I payed my subscription.
Although you're paying a large amount of money at the start, I really think in the end it's worth it.

You're showing the Devs you trust them by commiting yourself to their game when it comes out and to trust their "vision" of the game in the long run.
It's also very save to say you're gonna be buying any expansions they'll put out in the future.

Now I know people are gonna claim that servers will have to be paid for, well look at Guild Wars, they seem to be doing ok with just the amount of money they get from box sales (and of course RMT) and their expansions. So there must be a way to make it work for MMO's as well.

I really think it's just a way of having an easy money tree.
Players are simply forced to pay up or they're not playing.

I think the way Hellgate: London did it was awesome (or at least better), you could pay for a subscription to play online, as in MMO, but if you didn't want that, you could still play the game offline as single player.
Of course Hellgate London also showed the risk of getting a lifetime sub, when the game shuts down, your lifetime is gone..

donderdag 4 februari 2010

I am sad i finished Dragon Age

DAOrigins 2009-11-07 16-40-29-70

I finished Dragon Age Origins and i am kind of sad.
I really enjoyed the game but i am sad because you can't continue playing after you defeated the Archdemon.

According to my achievements i finished 75% of the game.

I can start up the game with my character that finished the game, but the only cities/regions i can access are the DLC locations, but since i allready completed those during the normal playthrough, there is nothing to do anymore, no fighting, no exploring.

Really wish i could just continue playing it, but i guess i'll have to start a new game..

I think this is a really bad choise, especially if it's such an awesome game.
You spend a lot of time developing/leveling your character and can't go back to play.

I hated Fallout 3 for it (although i still played it) until they changed it so you could keep exploring after finishing the main storyline, in fact i went out of my way to not finish it.

I also really enjoyed the fact that in Mass Effect 2, you can import your character from Mass Effect 1, so it kinda feels like you continue to play with your first character.

Now of course, Dragon Age Awakening is coming (and i allready pre-ordered), so i'll have something to look forward to, i (on purpose) haven't read or watched anything about it, but i do hope i can continue to play it with my current character..