Liddokun's Gaming Rave

This is my personal blog. I write about practically almost anything and everything but my favorite topic is about games, society and culture as well as technology and science.

Author: Liddokun

A long awaited F2P mmorpg called Grand Fantasia is now accepting beta participants. The game is a fantasy based 3D RPG with anime style graphics. The original game is called Dreamy Journey online and is published in the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan markets. The developer of the game is taiwanese developer EasyFun Entertainment. It is now currently being published by Aeria Games for the US market. The game features instanced adventures, PVP battlegrounds (15 vs 15), dueling and multiple class progression paths (beginners starts off as a novice and can choose basic path at level 5 then more paths open up at level 15 and 30. Click here for the beta application page (note: you must have an Aeria Games account which you can sign up for free). The official website is at http://grandfantasia.aeriagames.com There is a terrific game guide for your perusal here.

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In the nutshell:

Basically the Venezuelan government headed by Hugo Chavez has passed a law banning any violent video games such as those that involves guns, shooting, killing or any kind of violence. Breaking the law can land the poor Venezuelan citizen whose only crime is to seek entertainment 3-5 years in jail. The Venezuelan government justifies this new law supposedly in order to curb the escalating violence in the country. But of course this law is simply using video games as a scapegoat nevermind the real source of Venezuela's problems which is corruption, poverty and lawless elements that is so deeply entrenched in Venezuelan society. Sure blame the games that is making the children bad. Well what can I say, this is pretty idiotic in a country ran by a tyrant /despot.

You just bought a really nice game that you think you would enjoy for a few weeks and months to come. Then they announce additional content to your game that for only a few bucks more you'd get a nice shiny castle, a new henchmen, or a suit of armor or two and a couple of magical abilities that you would otherwise never gain while playing the game normally. It seems DLCs (downloadable content) are becoming more pervasive in the gaming industry. Just a few bucks more for that little shiny. Is our gaming industry becoming one which relies on shiny things to sell their game ? I mean there's absolutely nothing wrong with offering a little more content for a few more bucks but selling a game shouldn't rely too much on offering shiny things to it's fans.

 Cartoon source: Penny Arcade

I got a chance to play around with the Celestial Power set on my lvl 16 character and I must say the power set is pretty much a very support intensive power. Which basically means it's a power you want to get if you want to play a pure support role character with your friends. First and foremost I'll come out and say that trying to solo with pure Celestial Powers is stupid. The developers themselves said it that the power set is pure support. There's just not enough DPS in it to kill villain (and above) packs, in fact you'd probably get severely hurt soloing henchmen packs with pure Celestial powers. Don't even bother trying to solo a single super villain because you'll just get trashed. What the Celestial power excels at is as party support. Many of the celestial powers have some sort of healing factor attached to it (the powers act differently depending on what you are targetting). If you are targetting friends and allies it becomes a healing/buff power while it becomes a damaging/debuffnig power when you are targetting enemies. You also gain energy by healing your friends and allies. Soloing with Celestial powers is viable if you take up another primary damaging power set while using the celestial powers as secondary/backup powers as this makes your character more balanced and soloable but being party support is where this power set  shines the brightest.

It's been 6 hours now and I just can't put down Dragon Age: Origins. This game is freaking awesome. If you're an RPG fan and you don't have this game, then I will tell you that you are missing out on something wonderful. Bioware has outdid themselves and gave us something spectacular. I have no complaints about his game aside from the default controls that does feel a bit awkward but since every control is customizable you can make the controls whatever you want (WASD, Dirctional key or Click to move). I made mine to mimic a standard MMORPG controls (because I like it that way). If you have bought the pre-order collector's edition then it includes several FREE DLC (downloadable content) such as The Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep otherwise you will have to purchase them. The Warden's Keep cost 560 bioware points or around $7 bucks and give you additional dungeons, storyline and the ownership of a pretty cool keep and The Stone Prisoner DLC cost around $15 dollars (I believe). I can already see Dragon Age: Origins winning the RPG Game of the Year 2009 or 2010. I won't spoil the storyline for you but the story is plain epic and when I go thru it the first time I was literally gripping the edge of my seat. Also the game has great replayability if only to see all 6 origin storylines as each is different (depending on your race and class).

Just completed the rescue of all 13 heroes in the Blood Moon event and defeated Takofanes. The whole thing took around 2 days to complete (approximately around 8 hours with a lvl 30+ team and because we're lucky). I heard Takofanes is a bitch to find with a 6 hour spawn timer and randomly spawns in one of the 3 spawn spots in the Millenium city map. The quest starts in Millenium city and there's no quest starter, you simply go to the public quest spot and defeat the undead hero which ranges between level 15 (the easiest) up to lvl 27 (the hardest) and recieves a quest (as long as you have done at least some damage or killed some minion zombie). Also each hero is not made the same (they represent roughly the different archetype) and some are tougher than the others. I think the most we died to was about 8 times to Vanguard (because he is an archer/DPS and has insane AOE/Big ass nuke that does around 1500+ dmg a hit / 200+ if you block in time), the others are easier. Shadowboxer has insane evade as he is a martial arts fighter. After we finished the last rescue, what do you know, Takofanes spawned just 100 yards from us. After gathering an army of around maybe 30-50 heroes we pounded Tako to the dust (hey everybody free takos!) and got awarded some perks and a mini-Takofane action figurine (really cute!). Completing all 13 hero rescues also awards you with a set of zombie costumes unlock and the Celestial Power set (gives you a headstart on your celestial powered hero).

My thoughts on the Blood Moon Rising event:

I think the event was done very well. I enjoyed the public quest event although the dungeons are a bit repetitive (most of the dungeons have the same theme, mob composition just different layout). Basically run thru the maze, kill zombies, and beat the crap out of the demon that is holding the soul of the hero. I think if you're high enough you should be able to solo the instance. The problem is getting the quest to the hero (which is only awarded if you are present upon it's defeat on the world) but good thing is the quest is sharable with your teammates.

My only complaint is the hunter versus werewolves world PVP event. People with drone pets are exploiting the hell out of the event. Supposedly everyone is changed into a hunter/werewolf with equal abilities and it doesn't matter what level you are. But some cheaters have found a little exploit to help them win. Apparently your pet powers are NOT stripped away if you summon your pet before you change into a hunter/werewolf and you retain your healing drone or munition pet which CAN attack other people or heal them giving your team an unfair advantage. I reported this bug to the GM support and to Daeke on twitter. I can't stand the muthafucking cheaters.

In the Takofanes fight you don't actually fight Takofanes himself but you can actually see him sitting on his throne. He is targetable and is a level 40 cosmic level boss. What you fight is his general called a Takarian Lord which died in less than 2 minutes to the heroes beating on him. I suspect Cryptic might be reserving the real Takofanes fight as an instanced dungeon or world raid. It's kinda somewhat  anti-climactic actually.