zondag 26 februari 2012

Working the Gaming Rig

Since i have been streaming a lot lately i noticed that it's not always that good for my framerate, trying to do some roof jumping in Star Wars The Old Republic for example can become quite frustrating if you're running at 10fps.
So obviously i went out to see if i could improve my system somewhat.

Initially i thought about only buying a new videocard and ordered one.
However, streaming doesn't only require a good videocard but also a good processor and since my motherboard is pretty "old", i couldn't really upgrade it to much processor wise.

So i ended up buying a new motherboard, processor, videocard and memory :)
This is the cool new stuff that will be added to my gaming rig (hopefully) soon:

Videocard: Point of View GeForce GTX 590 3GB
Motherboard: ASRock z68 Extreme4 Gen3
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9 kit
Processor: Intel Core i5 2500k

It has been quite some time since i really upgraded my gaming rig (last major upgrade was in 2009), so i reckon it's about time :)
My current system is by no means bad, most of the current games still run pretty well to OK on it, but going all out on buying new stuff (not to mention installing it) is pretty cool :)
And i can't wait to see how my gaming is going to improve on a system like this.

Gangstas in Space.

SaintsRowTheThird_DX11 2012-02-26 00-13-49-96

After the latest DLC released Saints Row The Third kept crashing on launch for me, luckily they were on it and it was fixed with a patch within a day.

And i have to say it was worth the wait, this latest DLC, Gangstas in Space was a lot of fun.
As in, you're starring in a bad B-Movie, over the top, shooting a lot of stuff fun.
It took me roughly 2 hours to play through it and i have to say it was too short, i was almost sad it ended allready.

Really hope Volition keeps it coming as i am really curious to see how they are going to top this.
And yes, if you  haven't played this game yet i definitely recommend it.

zaterdag 25 februari 2012

Mass Effect MMO a possibility?


A really interresting article on Penny Arcade (The doctors from BioWare discuss the Old Republic launch, ending a trilogy, and a Mass Effect MMO) were they interview the doctors and of course eventually come to the "rumor" of a Mass Effect MMO and eventhough they are not saying yes, there is also not a no in there, so jumping the conclusion: yes a possibility.

Of course the biggest question, besides will it happen or not, is how they would pull this off, i mean imagine a 1000 Shepards running around going after the same mobs.

But then again if anyone could pull this off, it would definitely be BioWare.
The Mass Effect universe/lore definitely has a lot of potential for making a great MMO.

Keeping my fingers crossed for a Mass Effect MMO :)

SWTOR: A new legacy created.

swtor 2012-02-25 02-02-43-75

I have finally been working on my smuggler again, reaching lvl 32 and finishing chapter 1 in the smuggler storyline and recieving my Legacy Surname and a new companion: Risha.

From the start i planned on using Hauntshade as my legacy surname, also why i never named a character Hauntshade.

I was allready questing on Alderaan but decided to go back to Nar Shadaa to finish up the bonus series, which i somehow missed and just picked up while finishing up my quests in the chapter 1 storyline.

So far the smuggler class story has been a lot of fun and i can't wait to see what's next.

donderdag 23 februari 2012

Saying goodbye to SOE after 8 years

Yes, for almost 8 years i have had accounts with SOE, i played practicly all their MMO's since i started playing Star Wars Galaxies in 2004.
I played The Matrix Online, Everquest, Everquest 2, Vanguard, Pirates of the Burning Sea, DC Universe Online, Clone Wars, Free Realms, Planetside.

Until i was able to get Station Access (later called "All Access Game Pass") in the EU, i had several accounts going, so you could say i was a pretty loyal customer.
Eventhough i hardly played any of the SOE games lately i still had my account going, just in case i wanted to jump into one of their games.

But like they say: all good things come to an end.
I don't think i have to go into details as to why i am now cancelling all my SOE accounts, as an EU player it is pretty much obvious.
Stargrace over at MmoQuests has a pretty good summary about the whole ProSiebenSat.1 thing over here

For me it is enough to say goodbye to SOE after so many years of playing their games..
To me it is quite obvious SOE only cares about money and doesn't give a shit about their customers, so my wallet will speak for me and i will cancel any account i have with SOE.

The End.

woensdag 22 februari 2012

SWTOR: Get that datacron or fail

swtor 2012-02-18 21-39-51-58

While out questing on Tatooine with my Sith warrior, in and around Mos Ila i spotted a datacron after turning in a quest, now i had past this spot several times before i noticed it. It was up on a roof and i though how hard could it be?
So i decided to have a go for it and boy was i in for a surprise..

What followed was a 3 hour trial of patience, yes it took me 3 hours of jumping and falling off ledges.

It was easily one of my most frustrating experiences, some of the ledges and pipes that looked like they were easy to get to were in fact very difficult, it almost felt like the spot were you could land was way smaller than it looked.
I was streaming my gameplay while i  was trying this, but eventually turned it of to reduce some framedrop/lag in the hopes of making it a bit easier.

swtor 2012-02-18 21-40-22-01

Now i have to admit, when i finally did reach the datacron it felt pretty good, but i still can't forget it took me 3 hours of frustrations.
I had the plan of saving this "datacron hunting" until i reached max level and after this experience i am probably not going to be trying this kind of stuff again anytime soon.

I do hope they are not all this difficult to reach.

maandag 20 februari 2012

Today i am ashamed to be a gamer...

I allready knew the internet can be a very shitty place, but just when you think it couldn't get any worse something like this pops up (see link below).
If this is what gamers are about then i am ashamed to be called a gamer....

Personal attacks like this are just not right.

I always thought it was pretty amazing there were so many BioWare people out there on the social networks and i really hope this is not going to destroy all the great stuff they have been doing over social media like twitter.

Today i am ashamed to be a gamer...

BioWare writer's vagina versus the Internet -Destructoid

Edit: more articles:
The ire of the internet gets it wrong.
Gamers Launch Harassment Campaign Against BioWare Writer.
This is why gamers can't have nice things - the Jennifer Hepler 'debate'
Inclusion: What Jennifer Hepler's Story is All About


21/02:
Sign the petition to support Jennifer Hepler!

BioWare Corp: Come Out Publicly in Support of Jennifer Hepler


22/02:
BioWare statement:

zaterdag 18 februari 2012

Ding: 5 Years

So it's been 5 years since my first post on this blog and i am still going :)
Thanks to all of you who have been reading and (hopefully) enjoying my blog, this one is for you!

THANKS!!

woensdag 15 februari 2012

Mass Effect 3: More FemShep

MassEffect3Demo 2012-02-15 20-13-19-39

Eventhough i initially felt like i didn't wanna spoil anything by playing the demo (i allready pre-ordered), i am somewhat glad i did, i really think they are not giving much away with the demo, which is good.

You initially start at the beginning of course, which is somewhat of a tutorial on how to move and such and it sets up the story (invasion of the reapers).
After that tutorial you basicly advance to a later part in the story (you are suddenly level 14 i think) and play one level and that's it.

I did however like the fact that i could import my Mass Effect 1 & 2 character into the demo, by using the character code.
Apart from the hair color, i am pretty sure my character was a redhead, she looks pretty good.

It felt really good to see her again and can't wait for the release of the full game and see what trouble she gets into now :)

dinsdag 14 februari 2012

SWTOR: It's good to be Sith

swtor 2012-02-13 03-14-39-97

Ever since i started playing my new Sith Warrior i have not touched my main, i really enjoy the smuggler story but the Sith warrior is just so much fun to play.
The story for the Sith warrior is pretty good so far and it is definitely fun to be the evil guy for a change :)

Just over the weekend i played him all the way up to level 20 and i have been enjoying the heck out of it, i am afraid my main might be neglected for a while.

zaterdag 11 februari 2012

SWTOR: Having a look at the other side.

swtor 2012-02-11 01-35-27-80

FInally been getting back into SWTOR and also found out i've not been paying much attention to my skills :)
I found that in particular one of my smuggler skills was very good when dealing with bosses.
I had this one fight with my smuggler (i can't remember the boss, but it was a solo mission) that i just kept dying at and couldn't get that boss down.

That is until i finally figured out that if i used my "distraction" skill (which is basicly an interrupt) at the right moment i could prevent a boss from executing his special attack and as a result i would not get as much damage and could survive longer, and of course deal more damage to get that boss down. Until now i never really used that skill.
Guess that's what you get for not paying attention to your skills, yes i know i am a noob :)

Things definitely got a bit easier now, however getting the timing wrong on hitting that skill a few times and i still loose the fights :)

swtor 2012-02-11 09-06-02-93

I also started a new alt (i have a few more alts but those were mostly for "reserving" a few names, as i do intent to try out all classes), this time i thought i would have a look at "the other side" and made a Sith Warrior, first ten levels have been a blast, storyline is really cool and combat with a lightsaber is definitely more fun than i thought it would be :)
I didn't think i would enjoy a lightsaber class, i think Star Wars Galaxies (NGE) kinda spoiled Jedi for me.
I decided to take him down the Sith Marauder tree, which is a pure dps class.
Of course i went with a Sith Pureblood and not only does he look very arrogant and mean, he is, although he does seem to have a soft spot for women :)

I do try and go with the dark side choices a lot, although sometimes there are choices that i just can't take the dark option and end up with light side (remember the soft spot for women), so there goes my evil sith :)

vrijdag 10 februari 2012

In Honor of #FemShepFriday

Just a few screenies of my FemShep as i played her through Mass Effect 1 and 2, in honor of #FemShepFriday.

Mass Effect:
MassEffect 2008-12-10 18-29-18-09

Mass Effect 2:
MassEffect2 2011-03-06 00-37-05-97

And another cool one from Mass Effect 2:
MassEffect2 2011-07-15 17-25-58-05

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Reckoning 2012-02-10 02-05-40-38

I have to say i am always a little bit worried about a game when i see the EA logo, but so far Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has been a lot of fun.
At times the game reminds me a lot of Oblivion, which of course is no surprise.
They definatly took a lot of the great designs/ideas from games like the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series, which are definatly my favourite game series.

Although i am not really impressed with the storyline, the gameplay definatly makes up for it, really solid.
At times there is a bit too much of the "onrail" feeling, where you can't jump over a few rocks or treetrunk and have to walk around it, while you should have been able to just step over it, it feels a bit like Dragon Age at times, where there is just one path to take and eventhough it looks like you should be able to walk up a small hill the game simply won't let you. So it's not really a full open world game.

Right now i started my playthrough as a rogue character which is a lot of fun, especially the "stealth kills" are a lot of fun, really cool to sneak up behind a character and stab them from behind, most of the time resulting in a "one shot kill" and a really cool animation.

I am pretty sure i will be spending a lot of hours playing Reckoning.

woensdag 8 februari 2012

More Origin/EA account problems.

In a post (Thanks EA, for not making it complicated...) not that long ago I wrote about the problems I was having trying to get my 3 EA/Origin accounts merged into one account.
According to EA CS this was not possible (personally think that's a lot of BS).

So on to my new problem.
I recently bought some simpoints through Origin and only after the purchase noticed I was logged into my main Origin/EA account (which logs in automatically) and not on my "sims account".

The simpoints were automatically credited to the main EA/Origin account, without a serial key or anything else given that would allow me to transfer/give it to my sims account.
So now I am stuck with simpoints on my main account and since that is not a sims account i can't use them.

I have contacted EA CS about this issue and they would contact me back (apperantly they abandoned the ticket system, hmm wonder why.. :) ).

Anyways it has been 2 days and they still have to contact me, so yet another bad EA/Origin Customer "Service" experience for me.
And it also leaves me to wonder how long it's gonna take to get this "fixed".

If they would just give us the option to merge accounts this would not be a problem at all, afterall i allready contacted them about this and allready told them i was afraid something like this might happen, if you have 3 accounts and forget you are not logged into the right account it's an easy mistake to make.

I never asked for 3 accounts, so give me an option to merge them, or let me transfer all of my stuff into 1 account.

Oh man how much i love Steam!!

Going back in time with the Sims.

TSM 2012-02-08 17-21-34-59

I have been playing a lot of The Sims 3 lately, really enjoying it.
I also (finally) started playing The Sims Medieval again, i only briefly played it when it came out.

Initianally i never got into it because it is quite different than playing The Sims 3, where The Sims 3 is quite the "open world", The Sims Medieval is not.
It is heavily quest based and very little open world, i don't know if later on the world will "unlock" for me to freeplay, but right now i basicly look at the questlist for available quests and choose one, when i finish a quest, i get the rewards for it and get to pick another quest.

Most of the time you have to pick a main character, that can be your king/queen or if another character is needed you will have to pick them (like a doctor or spy) and often you also get to choose a secondary character that will play as a support role.

Often two characters will work together in solving/finishing the goals in a quest.
This is quite different from The Sims 3, as usually you play with just one character (or a family), in The Sims Medieval you get to play all sorts of characters like the king/queen, a doctor, a spy, a wizzard etc.
Although you have to unlock these so called hero characters by doing quests and earn points to buy/unlock facilities for them.

So far i have been having a lot of fun playing through the quests as they have many, sometimes surprising, twists and turns depending on the characters and their traits.

And the expansion The Sims Medieval: Pirates and Nobles ads a lot of more options/fun to the game.

So, yeah if you like the sims and some questbased gaming you might like The Sims Medieval just as much as i do :)

dinsdag 7 februari 2012

SWTOR: Burning Sensation

swtor 2012-01-28 07-10-20-18

Finally got some time in to play SWTOR again and hit 27 on my smuggler.
I do have to say that how much fun the first 10 levels were it feels more and more frustrating since hitting level 25.
Maybe i am doing something wrong and messed up with my character skills, but often even the solo missions turn out quite difficult towards the end, and result in many trial and errors, meaning lots of dying. Very frustrating.

More often than not i have really big problems beating some of the "end bosses" of the solo missions and i can't imagine it was designed this way, i really hate to group up for solo missions, i don't mind for the heroics, as they are intended to be group missions.

I also tried soloing the Hammer station flashpoint, i could manage the dungeon until the first boss and there was just no way for me to beat him, the trash mobs were very easy (i am 10 levels about requirement) and i could have solo'd them but the first boss is a whole different story.
I really hate it, when there's no way to beat a boss especially if you are way above the level, it's almost like i am hardly doing any damage whatsoever yet they hit like a truck.

Maybe i have played too many single player games lately and have been spoiled :)

Anyways i am gonna try and stick with it, i really wanna finish the smuggler class storyline and definitely wanna play through the other class stories as i really think there's some awesome stories in there.
So hopefully i am able to get through these frustrations before i get burned out on SWTOR.