: Star Wars: The Old Republic

I was invited to participate in the closed beta of Star Wars: The Old Republic this weekend. Unfortunately, I've been sick the past five days or something, so I haven't been able to play as much as I wanted. But I got to test out two of the classes. One I liked very much, and one I... Well, I didn't dislike it, it just wasn't as fun in my opinion.

Also; The non-disclosure part of the Game Testing Agreement has been lifted, so I'm free to write about the game and what I think about it. So, here I go.

Smuggler

The first class I tested was the Smuggler. I chose this class because I thought it was some kind of rogue-class, purely based on the name, and when it comes to games like this I am very  fond of rogue-classes. It also uses an energy system very similar to the one Rogues in World of Warcraft use. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The Smuggler seems to be a purely ranged class, mainly focused around taking cover behind stuff, as several of the skills can only be used while in cover-mode.

Cover-mode can be activated anywhere, but the Smuggler will merely crouch down unless there's a cover-point nearby. If there is a cover-point nearby, the Smuggler will leap to it when you press the cover-button. Cover-points aren't usually visible, but they will appear once you target an enemy.

This is the class I didn't like too much. I think the cover-based combat is a bit too much of a hassle, but that's maybe because I'm not used to playing games with cover-systems. I think this might've been my first? I can't really remember.

Jedi Knight

The second class I tested was the Jedi Knight. I chose this class only because I wanted to try a melee class, and this was, as far as I could tell, the best choice. Playing this class was a lot more satisfying to me, it felt much better to run (or rather leap, once you get the skill) into the midst of my enemies and cutting them down, than to shoot them from behind a rock.

This class seems to be focused around stances, but it's difficult to tell. I only got up to level 9 I think, and therefore only had one stance available. Aside from that, though, I got quite a few nice skills already at that low level, and using them was fun and felt good.

The Jedi Knight uses a resource system that is sort of similar to a Warrior in WoW, called focus. It's generated by regular attacks and certain skills, like the leap skill, and degenerates when out of combat. It's fun alternating between skills to generate and use this resource.

Other Classes

There are two more classes for the Republic, Jedi Consular and Trooper. The Empire has four other classes, though I didn't check them out. The only one I remember is the Bounty Hunter. I imagine they're not too dissimilar from the Republic classes, but I can't say. It seems there's also some kind of advanced classes, two for each base class, but I think you have to choose them at level 10, so I never got to do that.

Gameplay

The actual combat in this game is overall more satisfying than other similar games, like WoW, no matter which . There's no auto-attack in this game, you have to actively choose every single action you perform. It's not as extreme as Age of Conan, where you have to perform combos by attacking from different angles and stuff like that. That system was a bit too much if you ask me. I like this better, and the resource systems are rapid enough to prevent much "downtime" during fights.

There seems to be some kind of companion system in this game, where you get NPC's that follow you that you can control. While playing my Jedi Knight I got my own little R2-D2-clone, called T7-O1, to help me, and it seemed like I got to keep him as a permanent companion, and I'm guessing there's a system where you gain more companions and can choose which ones you want to bring with you at all times. I don't know for sure, though, but that's what it seemed like.

Presentation

The game looks and sounds good for an MMO, in my opinion. I had to turn down the graphics settings, even with my "super-laptop", but it still didn't look bad. Graphics and sound isn't what I focused on during my short play-time, though, so there's not much more I can say.

Conclusion

There's still a lot more to this game than what I experience in my short time playing it, but I only saw some hints at some of it, and I assume there's a lot more that I had no chance of seeing that early in the game. But the little I did experience left me wanting more. I'm very much considering getting this game when it's released. I might even pre-order it, to get an early start in hopefully not-as-laggy areas. And I'm not even really a fan of Star Wars.

: Dungeon Siege 1

This is the first in a three-part "review" of the Dungeon Siege series.

Dungeon Siege is a game by Gas Powered Games, released in 2002. The game is a sort of cross between Diablo, Morrowind and D&D-type games (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights); A party-based, loot-fest hack & slash with skill-progression based on usage. I used to love this game back when it was released, and I'm currently playing through it again to see if it's holding up.

(Sorry about the lack of pictures, all of my screenshots was somehow corrupted.)

Presentation

Graphics

This is a relatively old game, so the graphics aren't great. They're pretty decent for the time, though, particularly later in the game. You know what it is you're looking at, and while it doesn't look awesome in any way, it doesn't look awful either. For a game this old, that should be more than enough. My only real problem with the graphics is that there is sometimes too much of it. If you're walking through a forest of some kind, it's very difficult to see through all the trees and foliage.

This game does have one particular feature that I missed in other games at the time, and that I consider a plus; Visual effects for elemental properties on weapons. It might not be a big deal anymore, but back then I found it amazing. It's still neat, though.

Sound

There's not much to say about the sound either. The sound effects are generic, and the music is... Well, not very fitting, most of the time. It's always a very calm, ambient type of music. There's never any kind of battle-music in the field, not that I've noticed anyway. There's only battle-music the few timer there's some kind of real boss fight. And particularly at the end boss, there's some rather nice and fitting battle-music.

Camera

The camera controls feel very outdated and clumsy. The middle mouse-button can be used to move the camera, but it's very clumsy. You're better off using the arrow buttons, or, as I did, re-bind camera movement to the WASD buttons. It's not an ideal way to do it, but it's actually not too bad when you get used to it. The camera still isn't optimal, it never really feels like you can position it right.

Story

Main Quest

You start out as a farmer, there's an attack by a savage race called the Krug, aaand... Then you're off. I haven't really paid much attention to the actual story, it's such a small part of the game that it's difficult to remember what it is from town to town, particularly considering how few and far between they are, and how few NPC's there are out in the wilderness.

I've never actually played through the game before now, but I feel the end is a bit... Abrupt. At least when playing the Steam-version, which might be altered somehow, the game just cut to the game menu as soon as I had killed the end-boss. Why he dropped stuff if that's the way they game is supposed to end, which means I will never be able to actually use it, I have no idea. Oh well.

Side Quests

There are a few side quests in this game, a couple of them every chapter. They aren't very obvious, though. There are no indications where they are, or where you're supposed to go. There are quests that I haven't been able to complete because I didn't know what to do, or that there were more things to do. I can't really go back either, as there are no travel or way-point system like in Diablo II. Walking back to finish those quests would take an insane amount of time.

Game World

One of the problems with games like these, with big exceptions being Diablo II and Torchlight, is that the game world is always the same, and too linear. This game isn't any different in that department. Granted, there are several rather huge areas, and there are a few sidetracks that can make you question whether you're going the right way or not, but for the most part you just follow a rather straight path.

Gameplay

Skills

This skill-system in this game is very simple. There are no active skills like in other games. When you start out you're just a simple farmer, with no combat skills whatsoever. The very first thing you have to do in this game is to choose what kind of character you want to be by starting to use the associated weapons or spell scrolls; If you start using melee weapons, you'll gain levels in melee. If you use bows, you'll gain levels in ranged. If you use magic scrolls you'll gain levels in the associated magic school.

Leveling either melee or ranged will do... Nothing, actually. It seems weird, but leveling the actual skill doesn't really seem to do anything, other than change your class-name. There are no special skills or abilities within these skill-types, all characters with these skill-types can do is attack. But using melee weapons will also increase your strength, which increases health and melee damage. Using ranged weapons will increase your dexterity, which increases armor and enables you to use more powerful bows.

There are two different schools of magic; Nature and Combat. Nature is mostly ice, lightning and healing spells. Combat is mostly fire, with some random other stuff thrown in there. Spells come in the form of scrolls, that you can place in a spell-book. Gaining levels in the magic schools will increase the potency of most of the spells in that class, as well as allowing you to use better spell scrolls. The biggest problem with leveling spell-skills, particularly nature, is that using spells that doesn't do damage, like healing spells, doesn't seem to increase your skill in that school.

There's nothing stopping you from choosing more than one specialization, which opens up for more varied gameplay, but it can be risky. You will most likely have more total levels, but you're still more likely to be weaker than a single-spec character.

Party

You can have up to eight characters in your party. That might sound like a lot, but you can decide yourself who and how many party-members you will bring along. You will meet your potential party-members along the road, some are just mercenaries for hire, others are somewhat important to the story. No matter why they want to join up with you, though, they will almost always ask you to pay them for their services, which sometimes seem a bit weird.

If you choose to leave some character slots open, they can be filled with pack mules, that have greatly increased inventory, but run away from battle. I'd recommend always having at least one, maybe two, pack mules in your party, as the regular character's inventories gets filled up too quickly, and, as mentioned, there's usually a rather long trip between towns.

Controls

Just like the camera controls, the gameplay controls also feel outdated and clumsy. Both left and right mouse buttons are used to attack, however, only the left mouse-button is used for regular movement. The right button can also be used to move, but it's more about positioning formations, which I feel is a pointless feature in a game like this. When attacking, it's better to use the right mouse button, as the left button is used to select characters, and it's very easy to miss-click and deselect all but one character.

By default, every character is bound to the F-buttons. The first character in the character list is bound to F1, the second to F2, etc. These can be changed, though. You can rebind these keys to any character, or combination of characters, you want, just like control groups in RTS-games. This is particularly useful when dealing with pack mules.

You will always have four different attacks to choose from for each character, visualized by four quick-slots beside your characters portraits; One for your melee weapon, one for your ranged weapon, and two for spells. The number keys can be used to change attack configurations. By default they change attack mode for all characters to the same attack slots; 1 is melee, 2 is ranged, 3 and 4 is the two magic slots. But they can be re-bound to any attack mode configuration you want. Switching between these configurations is the most active part of combat besides choosing which enemy to focus attacks on. This can't change between spells that are in the rest of the spellbook, and not in the two quickslots, though.

Saving

There are no save points or checkpoints in this game, which means you can save anytime you want. And you'd better save often, 'cause this is not an easy game; You will die a lot.

You can also use the F9 button to quick-save and F11 to quick-load, but with this game I think it's better to create new saves every time.

Conclusion

The game itself isn't really as boring and monotonous as it might sound, it's actually pretty good in my opinion. But it's a bit too long considering the limited combat-system. Took me more than 26 hours to complete the game, and that's not including reloading over and over again. There's a reason why I never finished it 9 years ago.

I give this game a 4 out of 10.

: Triple Town

The last week I've been playing a cute little game on Google+* called Triple Town (also available on Facebook). Unlike most of the other Facebook/Google+ games, this is an actual game that requires a bit of skill and has some sort of goal. Even though that goal is to just hold out as long as possible before you lose, and get the highest score... =P

The game is pretty simple, really. Your goal is to create the biggest town possible by connecting three or more items of different types in a 6x6 grid (-1 plot that is reserved for storage). When you start the game, it places random objects in the grid. Some grass here, a few bushes there, maybe a tree or two and a couple of houses. And also possibly a bear, a gravestone and a rock or two. 

The game gives you a random object that you have to place in the grid, usually some grass, but occasionally something better. Whatever object you get you have to put in the grid, preferably connected to something similar, and if three or more similar objects get connected, they will merge into an object of a higher level and appear in the spot where you placed the last object.

You only have a certain amount of moves available, but they increase by one every minute, up to a max of 150. You can also buy more moves, but it's rather expensive.

There are also special objects you can get, like bears and crystals. Bears wander around the grid, terrorizing the villagers. If you trap a bear, so it has nowhere to move, it will die and leave behind a gravestone. If you connect three or more gravestones, they will merge into a church. The crystals are special in that they can be used to merge anything. If you place them somewhere where they connect with two or more objects of a similar type, it will merge them to an object one level higher. However, if you place it somewhere where it can't merge anything, it will turn into a simple rock. 

An example of a game in progress.

Rocks can also be merged to create bigger rocks, but I haven't tried that yet, and don't know what will happen if you merge three larger rocks.

There's also an Imperial Bot that will destroy or kill any object you use it on.

If you get an object you don't want to use yet, you can place it in the storage plot. At the beginning of the game, the storage plot is empty, and the first object you place here will simply be stored for later. Whenever you want to store something later, though, you have to switch the item with the one already in the storage.

There's also an option to buy items, but they're limited in quantity and rather expensive. When you buy an item, the one you're already holding will be put aside until you've placed the bought items. Be careful how you spend your money, though, as there are no easy ways to get more.

The game is finished when the grid is completely filled out. The game then awards you money based on how many moves you've managed to use (the more the better) and what kind of houses you have, amongst other things. And then you have to start over again.

*Give me a shout if you want an invite to Google+.

: WoW - Mists of Pandaria

So, I've been thinking about making another seperate blog for games and game-related stuff. Not in any way a review-blog, just a place to voice my opinion on games that I like. Or dislike. Or just have an opinion on, in the case of unreleased games. And I thought that the announcement of a new WoW-expansion was a great way to kick it off. So here I go.

Pandaren

Finally! I've been wanting Pandaren as a playable race since the game launched. Or at least since the first expansion was announced. I don't know why, but they just seem like a very fun race to play. And they look awesome. I also love that they went with what people have been asking for a long time; A race that can choose which side they want to be on. It does, however, seem a bit weird that Pandaren on different sides can't speak with each other, but I guess they have to do it like that if they're gonna keep the tension between the factions. As for their racial abilities, well...

Epicurean - Increases stat benefits from food-buffs by 100%.
In my opinion, this is a bit overpowered, particularly considering the rather huge buffs you get from food at higher levels. Pandaren would get a rather big advantage over the other races with this. This buff should be reduced, to about 20-30%. It would still be a nice racial, but not too powerful.

Gourmand - Cooking skill increased by 15.
Eh, makes sense. If they are to get any trade-skill or secondary skill benefits, cooking is the best choice.

Inner Peace - Rested experience bonus lasts twice as long.
Hm, sure, why not. Seems to fit quite nicely with their way of life, and doesn't really give that much of an advantage in any way, and literally none when at max level.

Bouncy - 50% less falling damage.
Seems appropriate. =P

Quaking Palm - Put target to sleep for 3 secs, using pressure points.
I guess Monk-training is a part of the Pandaren lifestyle, no matter what path they choose later in life. I have no problems with that.

As for the continent of Pandaria; The concept sounds great and the screenshots look awesome. I'd really like to see it.

Monk

Once again; Finally! Another thing I've been waiting for since the game launched is a Monk-class. I've always loved the concept of Monks in RPG's. Bare-handed combat, and particularly staff-combat (one of the reasons why my favorite Turtle was Donatello). Now, I don't know if Monks in WoW will actually have staff-based combat skills, but I really hope so. Either way; Just having them in WoW is a huge step up for me. I also like that they can be both tanks, healers and dps. It fits very well with how I imagine Monks to be. I just hope they do it right.

New Talent Trees

Now this is something I don't like... Wowhead.com has already released a MoP-talent-calculator, and it just looks pathetic. I don't know what their plan is, as the section covering the new talent trees on the official MoP-site isn't available yet, but if they're seriously considering replacing the current talent trees with that, then I don't know if I'm gonna come back. I'd really like to try playing as a Pandaren, and particularly a Pandaren Monk, but if this is the way they're going with the talent-trees, I highly doubt it's gonna happen. I just... No.

If, however, this is some kind of secondary talent tree where you can mix and choose spells, and all the old talents are in the original talent tree, then maybe. But I highly doubt that's what's going on here. I fear that this is what the new talent trees is gonna look like, and I don't like it. Too simple. I like complexity and variety when creating my character. I already think that the Cataclysm-talents are too simple, but this is just ridiculous.

Challenge Mode Dungeons

Now this is an interesting concept. It's basically a time trial for dungeons, with gold, silver and bronze medals as reward. From what I can understand, you'd better find a particular group of people you like to play with to do this, as the medals will be given to the group, not the player, and the more medals a group get, the better prizes they can get. Mostly cosmetic prizes, but still.

One of the reasons why I like this is because the challenge mode will be purely based on skill and cooperation within the group. As mentioned, you'd better stick with one group for this (no PUG's) to get the rewards. In addition to that, all your gear will be changed to a specific set chosen for that particular dungeons difficulty level, no matter what gear you actually have, to make sure no one has an advantage. I know some people might not like that idea, but I think it's great.

Pet Battle System

Eh... I... Um... What? Ok, I read peoples comments about it before I started writing this, and I originally thought that people were exaggerating when they compared it to Pokemon. But... That is seriously what this is. Not just because you can battle the pets against each other, but you can also catch new pets by battling certain creeps you encounter in the wild, just like when catching Pokemon. The only thing really missing is Pokeballs and that the pets evolve.

I don't know what I think of this, to be honest. I guess it's just a cute little mini-game, I just hope it wont become a too big and/or annoying part of the game.

PvE Scenarios

I don't know what this is, as I haven't found any info on it. Or possibly overlooked it. The section about it on the official site isn't up yet either. So... I guess I'll fill this in when I find some info.


All in all I'm kind of excited about this expansion. But I'm not gonna make a decision as to if I'm going to try it or not yet, not until I get a clearer understanding of the new talent-system. I just hope that I'm wrong, and that they haven't dumbed it down as severally as it looks.