I realise the launcher says they’re working on increasing server capacity. But I can well empathise with people complaining loudly on Twitter the last day or so, saying they can’t log in at all.
Never have I been more satisfied I’m in a different time zone to the majority of players. It means I get to play some of the game and have no problem logging in.
Considering my last night’s review was based on a ‘first impression’ of sorts, I decided I’ll try the game again. Only got to try for less than a half hour actually, since it decided to boot me off the ‘busy server’ in mid-loading screen and I haven’t been able to get back in since.
I’ve also looked in on the forums and what other players are saying. Aside from a lot of angst about the servers or fanboys being optimistic, there are a few good points raised by non-fanatic players.
1) Auto-grouping for group instances. Great feature or no? Great that you can go straight into it without waiting around for an age. But wait… the server’s booted half the team off mid-battle and we’re doing the ‘dead, respawn, pummelled’ routine again. And no more players coming into battle because apparently we’ve got a full group.
2) The game is unfinished! Well of course it is. It’s a beta. But this guy’s got a point: ["to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before."
To be fair, there’s an ‘exploration area’ called Delta Voranis. Shame some of those quests are bugged beyond the telling of it. And the map… jeez, the map! It does not function as a map at all.
3) The quests are strangely boring. Go near a quest giver, press F, click, click, accept. Go to flashing console/door/item, press F (to interact), click, and you’re done. WoW-haters/rejects will always tell people that the quests are “collect this, kill this, how many of each, etc.” True. But at least they make them interesting with variety. Variety is what is sadly lacking to Star Trek Online quests.
Even Torchlight, with its strangely addictive “click, click, click, loot” pattern was more interesting. Because of the different types of things you could loot!
Oh, and apparently, variety does come into play when you’re above Lieutenant to Lt. Commander rank. If you’re lucky enough to stay logged in to level that much, that is…
4) Copy and pasted off a thread about busy servers:
“Seriously, you’ve offered the keys, now, have the servers. Period.
Otherwise, limit the number of purchases on the client side. But, don’t have a bunch of people buying software and no way to play the game.
That’s just dumb.” [according to a guy called Traim]
That’s it in a nutshell.
Sorry, my second impression of the game may have got slightly worse than my first impression. I think the game has potential, because it’s part of a huge franchise with a huge fanbase. But it needs to work on its debilitating flaws straight away or the same thing that happened to Vanguard (incidentally, a game that did have diplomacy – ST is supposed to have it, but don’t) is going to happen to this one too.
Downloaded the beta, and played it this afternoon. It’s had a lot of hype, plus it’s Star Trek. Sorry to be negative, but my gamer instinct tells me this won’t be around for long. Why? Here’s the list:
Bug1: I’m a tiny spaceship at Starfleet docking station (you’re supposed to see your character, not your ship), then I’m my own tiny character out in airless space (supposed to be ship, not character). Oh, and I can’t move.
Actually, this one was amusing. According to general chat, quite a few people found it funny.
Bug2: I want to move forward dammit, not jog on the spot! Oops, just moved several yards apparently and now I’m dead.
Sadly very inconvenient. Getting stuck in scenery was the reason we stopped playing Star Wars Galaxies and City of Heroes in its early days (and a host of other MMOs that have come and gone in the last 5 years). When getting stuck means you get killed, it’s not fair the first time. Second time and thereafter, you start thinking this game’s got a lot to sort out before beta finishes.
Major Problem: Scaling of diffculty is practically non-existent. No way to tell (like in so many other MMOs) whether the quest is too hard for you to solo at your level. So you blithely go in and get pummelled, death, respawn, pummelled… etc. It’s just not fun! To add insult to injury, you have a team of other players in your instance who also get pwned by these all-invincible npc mobs.
Another Problem: Respawn point. Respawning away from combat area is good. But does it have to be so damn far from where you were? After running through the same ol’ passages time and again to get back into combat (see Bug2 and above paragraph) I got bored and abandoned the quest.
The manoeuvrability of your ship… now that sucks. Maybe I’m not used to it, sure. But half the time, response is so damn slow you may as well not have pressed anything. It’s the frantic button-mashing that’s getting quests done. And why oh why is it so boring to do quests? It’s not as if there’s an interesting backstory here and I’ve completed less than 10 quest chains, but I can safely let you all know if you’ve done 5, you’ve done all the variety there seems to be!
Yeah, it’s in beta stage. I get that. But they’ve got a long way to go. It needs to be a bit more bug-free to be enjoyable.
Oh and Cryptic, you guys need to check out those ’supply aid’ quests. They’re seriously bugged – undoable. In fact, all of the chat in the area was about how bugged it was, never mind quest help. (I was on there for about 4.5hours straight, and most of chat was of rumours about how Cryptic’s not going to iron out the problems before releasing it proper.)
Appliya has announced it’s upgraded its features for their sound camera series. Now those constantly moving pets might just be photoed without blurs. Perfect for these.
In other news, Ys Online ～The Call of Solum～ is to be released as a MMORPG sometime this spring, due to its popularity on other platforms.
The most colours sold on the DS series has been confirmed as Crystal White(DSL), with Ice Blue(DSL) and Platinum Silver (DS) following. My Ice Blue, through much use has become quite worn and when ’shut’ can sometimes switch itself off… time to upgrade soon I think.
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Most people know what that is, but not the Japanese. They have a skewered version instead.
The Japanese believe the day is solely for girls to give ‘gifts of adoration’ (to use a WoW term) to boys, usually chocolates. It’s a one-way deal, you think. Not so! Exactly a month later on 14th March, we Japs have what we call White Day (don’t ask me why) where boys are required to give back gifts of equal value to girls, whether any mutual feelings exist or not. By no means are boys allowed to give gifts to the ones they like on Valentine’s, god forbid, though going on dates aren’t covered by this rather ridiculous rule. (Even businessmen aren’t immune to this forceful gift-giving operation. My dad works in an office full of girls… and every year, he brings home a load of chocolates around Valentine’s. Every year, my mum packs whatever they can’t manage and sends to me. Then about a month later, my poor dad has to fork out a few blings to give little gifts at his office.)
So, in the grand tradition of Japanese Valentine’s, some of the online games over there are having special events on. This article even has the headline: 女の戦いが始まる – A woman’s battle begins.
Sad news for DQ fans in Japan: DQ IX release date has been pushed back by nearly 3.5months. Originally supposed to be out 28th March, now it’s new date has been confirmed as 11th July. The ‘why’ has been explained in this article. The debugging process is expected to take some time. Mind, Europe release for these titles has been as usual, slow, so we won’t mind waiting a wee bit longer, do we?
Kojima, the celebrated guy behind the MGS series, is giving a talk at the GDC this year. Nintendo’s Iwata is also making an appearance. Hope the translators are good, or everything that gets reported is going to sound garbled.
More trailers available now for Street Fighter IV. Just to keep European gamers drooling probably. We won’t get this game for another while yet.
Apparently PSP sales have gone up to over 50million worldwide. So here goes the PSP-related news:
1) A PSP game titled 勇者30 (Heroes30) is due out 28th May. An RPG taking place over 500years of battles between humans and evil, from 4 different perspectives. The aim, apparently, is to win the battle in 30secs.
2) Another PSP game titled 遠隔操作 (Enkaku Sousa: Remote Control) caught my eye. Already out in Japan, it’s the detective-type story. Except you’re framed and in jail for a murder you didn’t commit, and you have 23days in which to solve the crime and thus get out of jail. So, gathering evidence via the only contact you’re allowed to have with the outside world (your lawyer), you ‘remote control’. Wonder if this will come over here? In Japan, they have a few titles from the Phoenix Wright series out, as opposed to just one here, so maybe not.
A Wii game that actually looks good? I know, I think I may have been fooled by a fox… in this case, famitsu. But look at Oboro Muramasa and tell me it doesn’t look even a little bit interesting (compared to all the dregs that’s been released for the Wii and DS lately, at least in Europe). It’s about a magic sword (妖刀) and you fight ‘youkai’ (妖怪… think monsters and creatures from fairy tales) like oni and dragons to tengu and bouzu. Maybe it’s my interest in things fortean, but hey, this looks good, and will gladly wait for reviews to come out! (game itself out on 9th April)
Super Obama World is actually quite good. Arrow keys and space bar to jump – fairly simple – except I’d gotten used to using the WASD keys for movement, so my Obama suffered unnecessarily (2 knocks and it’s game over).
For the DS (on 28th May), 逆転検事(Gyakuten Kenji) is another mystery/logic puzzle type game that’s become very popular within the last couple of years in Japan. Maybe it’s a reflection on the ineffectuality of Japanese police forces or we’re genetically addicted to crime solving (through repeats of 金さんand水戸黄門, crime busting heroes in period setting). Not many of the genre has made it abroad, but we can always hope, right?
NobiNobi Boy is not coming out after all until 19th Feb. instead of 29th this month. Still priced at 800yen (121.574yen per £1 apparently, so do the maths). BandaiNamco says it’s to do with quality control. I realise that in some quarters, the game title has been translated to ‘NobyNoby’ but ‘NobiNobi’ actually makes a lot more sense if you read Japanese in romaji. ‘Nobiru’ is ‘to extend’, so ‘nobinobi’ denotes something that stretches a lot. Fairly simple, huh?
Picked this up here, and the guy who reviewed it enthuses about the tenacity of the creator. I’m just plain impressed – he must’ve had a lot of time – it’s a labour of love… of sorts.
Nine Dragons is a MMO from Japan, played and downloadable for free. Something I’ve had my eye on since it was first announced (it was hyped, and it apparently is playable in both China and Korea too). So here I am downloading for the past half hour (only 10%) to see if I’d get to have a go on it. I’ve had troubles from Japan-based MMOs before, so I’ll have to see how things go. Here’s one of the PV trailers available on YouTube:
The first impression that Age of Conan gives is pretty positive. For the last week, any other games I’ve been playing has been put on hold, and I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time in the world where Conan’s king.
Like any MMO, choose and customize your character, but the starting place up until you’re about level 20 is in the Barachan isles, more specifically around the town of Tortage. You were shipwrecked, and have no idea of who you were… so the story goes that by playing, you find out more about yourself. During the time spent around Tortage, you can set yourself to play Night (single player only) or Day (multi-player). Level 20 is when you can get yourself a gathering skill, level 40 when you can learn to make things. Just bear in mind though that you will have to travel quite a ways in some areas to get to where the professional trainers are.
The interface is pretty easy to get used to, especially if you’ve been playing other MMOs like LOTROnline or WoW. Mobs will give up on you if you zone out or you run far enough away, WASD are the directional keys… But there are a few differences that make this game refreshing:
1) Climbing – surprising that none of the MMOs I’ve come across so far has had this feature. But here it is. You can climb vines, walls, ladders… as long as your skill in climbing matches the skill in whatever you’re trying to climb.
2) Succubus – we’ve said this all along, and I’m so glad someone’s noticed. Warlocks in WoW can summon a succubus, but it always got to us that whether your character was male or female, the resulting minion was always female. In AOC, if you have a female character, your minion is male! And vice versa.
3) Traders – they are both a bank and auction house. Yes, you can store items in there, but should you wish to sell things, right click and set your price. The price can be changed at any time without additional cost. (Lowest currency is Tin, then Copper, Silver, Gold.)
4) Cooldowns – Path of Asura (HearthStone function) has half an hour, potions have 60secs. Either way, half the time of WoW items, which helps a lot!
5) PVP – Guilds can build their own town, their own buildings etc., and these can give rise to PVP action. Pretty cool idea.
6) Quest – whichever quests you choose, you will always know where to go. Follow the arrows and you can’t go wrong.
7) Instances – you can choose Normal or Epic mode. Either way, you do not need to party up before entering, and most missions can be done on your own.
No doubt I’ll be playing this MMO for a while to come.
Excuse my lapse for the last week or so. Ordered myself some games last week, they arrived, and I’ve been spending most of my time with one – The Lord of the Rings Online. It’s like a mixture of WoW, Vanguard and a bit of Oblivion mixed in for good measure. The basic manoeuvers are the same as WoW, although quest-related NPCs are marked with a yellow ring overhead (and on mini-map) to make it user-friendly for players finding them. The graphics resemble Oblivion in that it’s detailed but not so overly, and the characters look realistic enough. You can play as one of four races: Man, Dwarf, Elf or Hobbit (though Dwarf is only playable as male), with seven differing classes to choose from (5 characters are permitted per server). Each have their own stories along which your quest choices differ, as does some part of your location. The ‘Vanguard‘ bit is the crafting side – the professions. Fortunately, it’s not as complicated as that half-finished game, which made crafting so very laborious. Just a bit detailed: you have to be at a specific workbench/forge/oven/field to start the process, and have the right tools equipped.
While I’ve been trying this rather new fancy game obviously, my WoW time has suffered… so I apologise to friends and guilds alike. And if you’re a fan of any other games mentioned above, give this one a try. For your info, most of the quests at the beginner stages (only played one of mine ’til level 12 so far however) are solo-able, even those marked as a ‘fellowship’ q. So even if you don’t know anyone else there, not a hard job at levelling :)
A new Zelda game for the DS is coming out 23rd June for approx. £24. The days when you moved Link via ‘trial and error’ method is almost over, as now the map can be drawn on with places of interest and ways to go around certain areas. So, Link doesn’t have to die too often :)
DK Barrel Jet Race is out 28th June for £29 on Wii. The classic moves of DK is available in the forms of throwing various barrels at your opponents. According to the article, the Wii remote makes it all so much fun.
For £20, and coming out in August is a collaboration between Sega and two other firms: 音声感情測定器ココロスキャン – which roughly translates to ‘Mind Scan’. How? By talking into the DS mic using Sensibility Technology. Know your mood, what you may be feeling etc. What use would it be? Apparently by taking your DS into the conference room, you’ll know if your colleagues are interested in such and such a project or not. More than likely, if people suspect the use of such things, they might become one extreme of another of those ‘moods’ that the software can detect.
Lastly, a DS game currently out for £18 or so, might be nostalgic for some, but aggravating for others. Rubik’s Cube. In all sizes. Puzzle game obviously. For up to 4 players, battle other players in how fast or how much you can solve the puzzles. Fortunately the mini-game option does allow other less stressful puzzles.
Nintendo and Sega announced a title they’ll be working on together in which Mario and Sonic star: Mario & Sonic in Peking (Beijing) Olympic due to come out sometime this year. On the Wii platform, it’ll feature familiar characters from both companies like Yoshi, Tails and Knuckles.
Diddy Kong Racing (which some refer to as better than Mario Kart) is to be resurrected from the previous N64 platform onto the DS. The only difference would be its manoeuvrability and some character changes. Due to Rare’s rights, neither Banjo nor Conker will be making it in, but instead Dixie Kong and Tiny Kong (from DK 64) will be available. Although no date or price is set, release is due for both America and Europe, and possibly Japan.
Square Enix has announced the launching of FF Crystal Chronicles official blog site here. 4years since the release of their first GC title, they are currently working on two titles: FF CC Ring of Fate (DS) and FF CC Crystal Bearer (Wii). From tomorrow also, FF XI will have an upgrade available which features Chocobo Racing, although racing your own Chocobo against other players’ and gambling based on these races will not be available until this summer.
Not even in Beta yet, Nine Dragons looks set to be a good MMORPG from Japan. It boasts 9 factions and over 600 different moves from the world of martial arts. The first promo vid is of Shaolin monks for example. One for me to look out for, I suppose.
Unconfirmed, but definitely rumoured, due to a very shoddily written article. Bone was one hell of a series. I even dreamt of the Red Dragon and the Rat Creatures, and have almost promised myself that once I own a pet, it shall be called Bartleby (I’ll even take a cuddly version of that cuteness!). That’s how influential and brilliant those comic books are. The Telltale games forum do not confirm this piece of news, but yes, it’d be cool :)
After complications in downloading the patch the last two days (many people seem to have the exact same problem – download the latest version of Direct X or else!), I’ve finally been able to play Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. Another MMORPG as may be, it does seem to have some promise. It’s out 30th Jan. (in the UK at least) for £17.99 according to Play.com (Amazon doesn’t even stock it. somehow when you type the product name, it comes up with The Burning Crusade…).
The opening screen… is uncannily similar to WoW as is most of the game – in that sense, it’s very playable for me (I spend probably more than 15hours on WoW a week). But the characters are more in-depth – probably a lot more realistic looking than the comic-based looks from WoW, and the scenery – it’s really good. The details are more in line with Guild Wars though you don’t get the gay ‘every bit outside town is an instance’ thing here (that really put us off playing for good). The music’s soothing in an ambient kind of way too (or down right classical), but I kept having a deja vu of sorts – the elf starting place in WoW (Teldrassil) and some of the starting areas in VG kind of look similar to me. Of course, what with this being a Beta and the fact I’ve only been playing it the last couple of hours (and not having seen much of the continent), the comparisons to WoW may be uncalled for. But it’s there to illustrate my point – how playable this seems to be. Of course, as soon as you get used to the way your character moves, etc.
There are little problems, as any games would. There was even a shouted argument in the chat pannel – it turned out slightly one-sided as one person seemed to be the target of everyone else. But that one unnamed person was right. There does seem to be an awful amount of bugs (patching took well over 9hours, not to mention that Direct X problem which wasn’t highlighted until today), and a respawn rate of mobs from bloody awful (several players gathered in one spot trying to find a mob needed for quest) to a fastness that resembled popcorn (several players were killed due to ultra fast respawn rate in one area). I realise that there would be problems, especially in Beta stage, but yes, there certainly seems to be a lot going wrong. The Quest log does tell you where to go – or which direction to go to – but it doesn’t give you a detailed map of an area… so you could be wandering in the general vicinity for a while.
I can quite complaining though – every quest I finish, I get to leave feedback on, so maybe, in a couple of weeks’ time, the problems will be sorted :)
PS I never really thought I’d miss my left thumb, but there we are… I do use it for typing after all. Was dicing some onions last night for curry, and managed to slice a bit of the thumb along with them. Didn’t hurt at the time, but without hourly rests, it does now. Utter stupidity!
Square Enix has announced the launching of FF Crystal Chronicles official blog site 
