To bring my point of view to those who may be interested.
I was wandering around on the World of Eldin server, and found a massive city. So I took a quick video and toured the sites. They have done some amazing building on this server already.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-zlht4mHjE
If you are interested in a fun multiplayer server, check out www.worldofeldin.com
The Power of Gameplay
Along with several other games, I am still playing Minecraft quite a bit these days. I have joined a multiplayer server that restarted recently, and have enjoyed playing Minecraft a different way. There are several "RPG" style mods currently running which enhances the gamelpay to a new level. Things, like level up skills to mine certain material, land ownership, and city warefare.
I believe the adventure update that Notch keeps talking about will have some these features, if not all of them when it releases. I do have some videos posted of some of the new cities that have just started construction.
The last few months have been absorbed in a great game by Mojang, who until recently was a one man game company by Markus Persson.
The concept:
Randomly generated world where everything from trees, grass, sand and stone are made up of blocks. A player in the First or Third person view, can move around this world and interact with everything they see. Left click a block of dirt and you dig up the dirt which can be picked up and placed in your inventory. Right click a block from your tool bar, and place the block back into the world. This allows for gathering resources and using them to create anything your imagination can dream up.
Add in the ability to craft items from combinations of blocks, which can range from a workbench to a minecart. Many of the items have differnt uses, build a shovel, and you can dig dirt and sand quicker. Build an axe, and you can chop down trees quicker. Grab enough iron ore from the ground, smelt it in a furnace to get iron bars, and craft those into a full set of armor.
Which brings us to the last but most important game mechanic. There are creatures in this world with you. Some are beneficial, some will try to kill you. During the day it is mostly safe, but at night the monsters come out looking for you.
Put all of this together and you have a Randomly Generated Survival game where you race against the setting sun to gather, craft, and build all those things you will need to survive the night.
Dont be fooled by the graphics, as they are a throw back to the 90's, look deeper into the gameplay potential and you find a game that will make your top 10 list.
I have posted a few videos of my adventures in this great game.
Downloaded and installed Darkfall yesterday, and logged in about 6 hours of play so far. I have heard the comparison to Ultima Online and Lineage, but having never played those games, I can only say it reminds me of Mortal Online.
I have played many MMO's staring with Dark Age of Camelot, and missed the early era of games that had little guidance for a new player. Most have extended tutorials, expansive in game manuals, and rabid fan bases who update any number of player created info sites or wikis. Darkfall is very minimalist. I couldn't find the command to quit a group for the first 5 hours of play. The UI is functional but not user friendly, the control scheme is counter intuitive and seems to make things more difficult then needed. The graphics are dated, and tend to a darker palette.
But as you get past these things, you find a small hidden gem of game deep inside. It has given me the feeling of an adventurer in a wild and dangerous place. Caution is needed for every encounter, wonders are hidden across a giant expanse of land to explore. You never know who or what you will face, and they never are sure about you.
In some ways this is similar to Eve Online, but different. In Eve you have so much info the key is finding the right bits and pieces at the right time to make good decisions. In Darkfall it is not having enough information, so you must use subtle clues, and caution to win the day.
I don't know how long I will play in Darkfall, but I must say I am enjoying it so far. It is good to know that not all MMO's are the same, that there are games that have taken different paths. No path is better than the other, just different, and we as gamers benefit from so many paths to chose from.
I wanted to throw a shout out to Perpetuum Online by Avatar Creations, a Hungarian indy developer. This is a Robot/Mech/Nano MMO with the depth of Eve Online when it released so many years ago.
http://www.perpetuum-online.com/
They are in the Open Beta phase of development, but it I think it is also a marketing phase, it feels like they are trying to generate some interest from gamers and business partners. My guess is, they haven't made too many of the big game conventions or conferences this year so the hype meter on the game is nill.
This reminds me a lot of little known Icelandic developer CCP, (well at least little known 6 years ago.) I could see a good community making this game theirs, and getting a grass roots campaign of support to keep this game alive, to give it a chance to grow over the next few years. The game already has loads of content and plenty of room to grow.
Here is some Features from their website:
Every player is a part of one server, one scene, one storyline.
The whole terrain can be formed by military, agricultural or even aesthetic aspects.
The flora is changing perpetually, its parameters can be modified by the player, so even huge plantations - containing useful raw materials - can be established.
No need for 'grinding'. You can be qualified despite you're not playing, since players get XP even if they are not logged in.
The position of liquid materials change during exploitation. Controlled algorythms manage the respawn of raw materials.
No turns, therefore no time restrictions of combat moves.
Robots can be specialized in several kind of operations or tactics. The only barrier is your imagination.
Exploitation, refinement and even manufacturing are all controlled by the players. The speed and efficiency of fabrication processes can be developed throughout the game.
A complex corporation founding and management system is available for players, with additional communication systems in- and outside the game.
Several missions can be undertaken on the numerous Syndicate departments. These varied missions provide challenge for every sort of specialties.
Help me get the word out about the game, these ladies and gentlemen have put a lot of hard work into this already, and deserve a chance at success.
edit: I have made an effort to explain lingo and acronyms.
I have been playing several matches in between fixing my helmet and armor, (none gaming hobby), and have realized that Amumu is my current favorite champion. Granted this weeks "free" champions hasn't been as fun as Week 1 champions for me.
Amumu the sad little mummy boy who head butts everything that gets in his way has made a decent tank and carry in a few games. As you progress through the match and level up, he becomes a real threat mid to late game with the right items. I found a build (order of items to purchase) in the forums that has been working pretty well which involves two sunfire capes. Many have complained that the range on the aoe (area of effect) damage isn't a big radius but I find it plenty for a short green runt who likes to charge into the middle of any group, be they neutrals (group of creatures scattered in camps through the center of the map), enemy champions, or creeps (the little mindless guys who run from your base to theirs).
His physical attack is the head butt, simple and straight forward. Tantrum, a triggered ability can reduce the damage I take for a short period of time and does damage in a small aoe. Despair, is a forward 45 degree arc aoe damage ability that while turned on continues to damage anything in short frontal range of Ammumu, with the only downside being how much mana it consumes every second. Bandage Toss is a fun ability that sends out a bandage to "grab" a player or creature and pull Ammumu to them. It does have a short stun effect and does some damage to the target. And last his ult (known as an ultimate ability) is "Curse of the Sad Mummy" which entangles surrounding enemy units in bandages, rendering them unable to attack or move and causes them to take damage each second.
I tactic to kill a champion is to engage a champion, trigger Curse of a Sad Mummy, toggle on Despair, trigger Tantrum, and as they run away keep up with them using Bandage toss if needed.
I have found the forums to be hit and miss, but some good champion guides do exist.
Well, off to play a few more rounds, still saving up for Pantheon.
So I have been playing this game non stop for the past 9 to 10 days and it is fantastic.
It reminds me of traditional games where the mechanics are simple to learn and seems easy at first, but then as you play more, the depth of strategy is amazing.
The premise of the game, 5 champions will help some mindless minions demolish the opponents Crystal in their base. The minions will start at your base and follow predetermined paths to the enemy. Along the route are defensive towers, and a large playing jungle with plenty of line of site issues. First team to destroy the crystal wins.
Kill mobs get XP and gold.
Kill champions get XP and gold.
Kill towers get XP and gold.
Use XP to level skills, use gold to buy items.
Choose one of 55 different champions, and so far each champion I have played is very different.
Each champion has one passive innate skill, and 4 skills that may gain ranks, and two spells.
I currenlty unlocked a couple of fun champions.
Amumu the sad mummy.
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... _sad_mummy
Alistar the Minotaur,
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... e_minotaur
Nassus the curator of the Sands.
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... _the_sands
and have played,
Blitzcrank the great steam golem,
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... team_golem
Fiddlesticks the scarecrow.
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... ddlesticks
Karthus the Death Singer
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... eathsinger
Kassadin the Voide Walker
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... oid_walker
Kayle the Judicar
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... _judicator
Nidalee the beast huntress
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... l_huntress
Nunu the Yeti rider
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... yeti_rider
Poppy the Iron Ambassador
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... ambassador
Rammus the Armordillo
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... armordillo
Sivir the Battle Mistress
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... e_mistress
Taric the Gem Knight
http://www.leagueoflegends.com/champion ... gem_knight
So having no real MMO of late that absorbs vast amounts of my time, I decided to convince my gaming group to try a Free Trial weekend event to take place of our regular "Friday Night Shoot Out". The FNSO was created back when we were WoWoholics and raiding, questing or pvping every night of the week, I created the Shooter night to fulfill our inner need to kill zombies and shot people in the face, (but only those who really deserved it.) Lately though we have all been playing alot of FPS games, and not getting any good MMO playing in.
So the idea was to pick three free trials of games that our group had somehow missed or not played due to various factors, mostly stemming from choosing a different game at the time of their mutual releases. Everyone would download the free trials and over the weekend we would devote on day to each game.
The three games I choose were Allods, due to plenty of article from this website and Massively.com, Everquest 2, we were playing WoW instead, and Star Wars Galaxies, since we had one Non MMO friend who loves Star Wars, and we thought this game could be his gateway drug to MMO's and we had never really played back in the day. So one new game, one old game, and one game from inside the middle of the MMO release history.
The order of gaming started with Allods on Friday, Everquest 2 on Saturday, and Star Wars Galaxies on Sunday.
Over the next few blog posts I'll try to put into words what transpired over "Free Trial Weekend".
For the past week I have been trying to download this game and try the open beta. Those of you who have also tried, have ran into the Game patcher, and the idea of using torrent files technology to distribute several 1.5 gig patch files is wearing on my sanity.
I assume this technology must work for other uses, but the implementation of it in their patcher is not a good sign for the game. I have tried to keep away from the forums before I pass my judgment on the game, and I hope to give a review of what I think once I do get in.
Being part of a gaming community, (Wife-Aggro.com) we are often looking for the next "Big Thing" as most of our members tend to keep a MMO and a Shooter handy. Recently most of them have been playing Lord of the Rings Online, while I have been dabbling with costumes and heroes in Champions Online, and waiting to find the next MMO our group will jump into.
The shooter we are currently playing is Battlefield: Bad Company 2 beta, and Alien vs. Predator MP demo. So as you can see, we are between games at the moment, I'll try to not only keep everyone up to date on where we are, and what we think of the games we play.
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