As mentioned a while back I grabbed a load of cash and spend it on Lord of the Rings Online - Collectors Edition. While this was done at a moment of weakness it turned out I had plenty of opportunity to change my decision. As I found out a slight error in my shipping address caused almost a week of delays, and a lot of email correspondence with the store, before I was finally owner of the game.

As it happens bol.com apparently has a rule about sending games (or possibly expensive games?) out of the country. The strange thing about it was that it seems they are not fully aware of this themselves. So when my first order has been returned to them, due to the addressing error, I asked them what to do and was told to reorder. Okay no worries I did - only to have my order cancelled with the formerly mentioned reasoning. That seemed a bit odd to me since my order had already been shipped once. So I wrote a message to them about this and I was then told they couldn’t reactivate the order and I should order again (seemed like an cookie-cutter answer since it was pretty much what I had gotten after my first failed delivery). But in any event I ordered again and the package was sent.

I checked the order page all day and then pretty late in the evening, before the status had changed to ’sent’ (or ‘Verzonden’ as they say it in Holland) I pressed the cancel button by mistake, “NOOOOOOOOO!” I thought and almost gave up. But as luck would have it I apparently pressed the button too late. And even tho I got a mail that they would do everything to stop the order the status was changed to sent next morning. A word of caution btw. bol.com does not subscribe to the notion of having confirmation dialogs for something like a cancel button. So if you press the button you get no second chances (except “reorder because they cannot reactive the order” I suspect).

But finally last tuesday the game arrived. The box was a bit of a letdown. It had been slightly damaged in the shipping. But whatever. It’s not like I am gonna put it on a shelf and look on it anyway. The included map is a bit of a letdown too. Vanguard shipped with a, not very nice, cloth map. Seems LotRO make due with a, somewhat boring, paper version. The game manual is pretty nicely bound as a hardcover book tho. And sadly it seems I didn’t win a trip to Tubine or a Zune (not that I would want the latter) as there was no ring in my package. But the in-game collectors edition cloak is pretty nice. Haven’t entered the key for the extra cloak I got from bol.com yet. But the one screenshot I have found looks pretty nice too.

A couple of the extras of the collectors edition was not in the package. The leather armband I should get in a couple of weeks from Codemasters as it didn’t make it in time for package production. And the mini-guide I will only get as a PDF… And I wonder what is keeping it. I registered for those things last week. Hmmm…

But on to the game.

Having played a bit in the beta I pretty much knew what to expect from the start of the game. So I wasn’t exactly blown away by the initial game experience. The graphics looks pretty good and it runs well. I am not sure everyone agrees with me. But I personally think the graphics of DDO and LotRO is at least on par with anything else out there in the MMO-sphere. And it looks better that most other games I have played recently. I simply can’t see how people can claim games like Vanguard has nice graphics when Tubine is making engines like this.

As for the actual game mechanics there is nothing wildly new except maybe lack of things we have gotten used to. Some good, some will need to be added sooner or later.

Choosing a race and a class might pose a bit of a problem. I know it does for me. I am partial to elven characters with the possibility of playing as ‘man’. Hobbits and dwarves is just really my cup of tea. But in Middle-Earth the (hu)man race is a bit boring, while the other races all seem to have their strong characteristics. So i am mainly playing as an Elf.

That in turn limits my options on classes. Not that it matters too much as none of the classes really speak too much to me. It all fits pretty well with the Tolkien lore I suppose. There are no flamboyant magic - except for the Wizards who are, of course, higher beings and are not a playable class/race. Instead there is more subtle ones like the lore-master and minstrel. But even the minstrel is described in a very down to earth fashion. And the rest of the classes seems refreshingly “realistic” where swords are swords and attacks with them is just technique and not super-magic-combo-action. It also helps that you do not have hit-points - instead you have “moral”. It works much in the same way. But you never truly ‘die’. Instead you retreat as you are defeated. A nice workaround of established Middle-Earth lore where you die when you die.

Also the graphic style is more “realistic”. Armor and weapons are largely made in a fashion that fits with something that COULD maybe be true. Even tho I think sometimes my characters wear a little too much purple for my taste. I suppose I will be able to fix that with some dye once I move along in the game. And maybe some of the one hand weapons are a bit on the heavy side.

The game-play in itself is very much standard-MMO maybe with a bit extra emphasis placed on your personal story. This is one of those things I always hate. The current game time is before the books start. In the shire the party tree is being prepared and Strider is apparently spending his time in Bree tasking hordes of dwarf, elf, hobbit and men with the same tasks. It’s is a tricky problem to get over in an largely automated game world. But it just don’t feel right that in a MMO I am supposed to be the only real hero when I can clearly see 20 people standing around me speaking with the same guy and moving in the same directing afterwards.

The actual flow of the game is that you have one core story you play, I am at the prolog part so far. And then there are a number of side quests in the same region. So far it seems most of the story (epic) quests happen in instances that is pretty much the zone, you are already in, tailored to the given quest. I suppose that works pretty well. But I wouldn’t mind seeing some truly different and amazing places in instances. Since you pretty quickly become familiar with the zone you are in.

One of the ‘unique’ things in the game is a concept called deeds. I think I have seen something similar before, but can’t think of where. In any event the idea is you have a separate task/reward system outside of the quests. So for instance you can get a title by killing a number of wolves in an area. And if you kill even more you get a trait that can be applied to your character for some small benefits. The cool part is they are not visible in your deeds book until you triggering them. So for the wolves thing you would kill a wolf and you will be told you are working on this deed.

Other deeds are more subtle. For instance you get titles as you progress in levels without dying. So for instance at level 5 you will be told you now have a title for not dying for the first five levels. And so on at level 10 and 14 with more coming further ahead. Once you have died once with your character you can no longer gain any more of those. This can be extremely addictive if you have a bit too much time on your hands and is a hopeless perfectionist. In the first week I have redone and made new characters several times because I died. And I have loose the will to play a specific character once it’s died once. I suppose it is a hurdle I need to work past if I want to get further in the game. But oddly enough I have not been quite as bothered, as I usually am, about doing the same stuff over when I have started over.

Crafting is hardly worth mentioning. Most of it works pretty much like WoW where you have gathering and making professions. You can choose between a number of ‘vocations’ that is essentially three separate trade-skills strung together. Usually so you end up having to rely on someone else to make something out of the stuff you gather. Or the other way around. The only one that really seems interesting so far is, oddly, the farming profession. As I just read something about you being able to crossbreed strains and make new plants. From what I understand the number of outcomes are, however, preset. But it is something I am going to have to investigate.

In the end crafting is more or less pointless tho. Like other mainstream games the crafted items are not nearly as useful as looted ones or quest rewards. So you end up with being able to equip yourself with basic equipment until you can win something better. Only a couple of the professions seems to have any market value. Cooks make food that buffs you and reduce downtime. And scholars make other buff scrolls, potions and the ever popular dyes for the fashion conscious.

The UI of the game is also very much standard. It has what you would need. It’s nice enough and supports custom skins. It is not, however, very customizable. Windows and panels cannot be resized. And skins can only change the graphics, not the window sizes. That leaves us, who have a large display, with some small windows that does not show nearly as much information as we would like. One of the UI team members have said (over on LotRO Interface) that they are planning to add resizable windows at some point. And also that much later they want to make something like what WoW has. But they can’t just go do it because it is the same engine they are running DDO on.

Also, as usual, the UI is plagued by bad design. I seriously do not understand who designs these MMO UIs. But they must all have a degree in bad user interface. One of the worse things is the multitude of multi-tabbed windows. Common among them is a number of top level tabs in the top of the window. And then tabs in the bottom that change content inside of that tab. Trouble being there is no real visual clue what does what. And worse it seems a lot of people miss the ones in the bottom, leading to a lot of questions on the advice channel in-game.

My biggest concern with the game is the potential to run dry on content very quickly. Already now I see level-maxed characters running around and the game has been out a month! Personally after a week I have a couple of level 15 characters. And I have been wasting several days remaking some of them. While there are always the “hardcore” players around who just race through. It is a worrying thought that I may be through the game-story inside of a month with only the content updates to look forward to. One is coming in June but if you are already maxed in levels. How fun is it going to be if not all new content is made for top level characters?

So would I recommend the game to my friends? Maybe. I’d have to stress I can’t see it as a long term game. But for some short sighted fun it seems to do the job. The client is fairly stable and it runs well on the systems I have tried it on. And in general I have not experienced any glaring, deal breaking, faults in my first week.

Technorati Tags: LotRO

Well it’s been a couple of crazy weeks in the world of gaming. So I figured I’d exploit this relatively unread place to vent my takes on the whole thing.

First let’s deal with Blizzard. Earlier this month they told the public that on May 19th they would announce their new game. Of course that sparked off a whole bunch of more or less likely rumors. The best example was a Diablo MMO. Yeah that seems likely. The makers of the biggest MMO around is going to make another MMO to compete with themselves AND put it in the same general genre. I mean Diablo is an arcadeish fantasy RPG. Pretty much what WoW is just with MMO added.

I swear I have no idea why people even coming to the conclusion that Blizzard would make another MMO. They pretty much own the market as it is with no real sign of it slowing down. So why would they go out and spend time and effort to then essentially compete with themselves? Sure a StarCraft MMO would be a different setting. But looking at the Blizzard lineup I don’t exactly see much promise of doing anything major revolutionary. Sure they make good solid genre games. But I can’t think of anything major they did that changed the world before. But maybe that is just because we have become too accustomed to the changes by now?

Of course more reasonable suggestions was made. Not surprisingly StartCraft II was thrown around along with a Diablo III. I am not sure what exactly Diablo can do in the gaming industry anymore unless the concept is changed a lot. But if they could do it with Warcraft I suppose Diablo could be retooled as well.

I think to no-ones big surprise it turned that indeed it is time for StarCraft II. It’s going to be fun to see since the RTS genre seems to get smaller and smaller compared to the ever dominant FPS and the growing MMO counter-parts.

But with the big news of the week over lets turn to my favorite soap right now: Vanguard.

Rumors have been flying around for ages. I guess ever since SoE took over as being the co-publisher. It was never much of a secret that Sigil was in a bit of a hard place at securing finances for making a game that could live up to The Vision of Brad McQuaid. After four years of work the game was finally forced out to the waiting masses and it turned out it wasn’t really ready at all.

Sure some people seems to enjoy it. But some people enjoy the weirdest things. And when it comes down to it MMOs is mostly about the social aspects anyway. So even if the game stinks you can keep people paying if they hook up with some nice people in it..

But in any event it seems that last week it finally hit. SoE bought Vanguard and Sigil was closed down. The fallout seemed to start immediately with disgruntled, former, employees informing sites like F13.net that they had all been asked to come outside and had then been informed they where all fired. And that some of them would be rehired by SoE.

Shortly after an interview with one of those people was posted in F13 with lots of sharp remarks about how poorly Sigil was managed. I specifically noticed two interesting remark that made a lot of sense to me. Apparently the final game had mostly been put together in the last 15 months. And he claimed that their internal tools where really poor because the top guys didn’t think they where that important.

It is not that much of a surprise that stuff was made late in the game, so to speak. Diplomacy, in it’s current form, wasn’t really fully added until late in open beta. And is receiving a major rework as we speak (I understand the system is more or less in place. with a lot of content needed to be redone for it to be fully in place). But that pretty much all of the game is not more that 15 months old, to para-phrase something that may be an exaggeration, seems to sit well with me considering the overall quality-feel of the game.

More important the lack of good internal tools makes it hard to do a lot of content and tweaking rapidly. If it is indeed true it would mean a programmer would have to do something a lot of the time things are changed. Or at least that more time is spend doing simple changes instead of the designers being creative.

Of course the biggest point of that interview was that it seemed top-management simply didn’t listen to people further down the food chain. No point in many comments on that. Hiring people you are going to ignore is just plain stupid.

Shortly after the same site posted an interview with a remorseful Brad. Not a lot to say about that except that at least it seems he knows he shouldn’t be management. Maybe a major problem here is that he still took the role instead of spending some of those millions of dollars on a qualified CEO to manage the company. But considering we likely haven’t head the last from the man with The Vision. Maybe he will know that for his next project. Let me be the first one to suggest Vigil as company name. Maybe that will remind them not to just let things flow.

From my perspective it’s going to be interesting to see how the situation is going to turn out for the game. SoE has promised to fix the technical things that are wrong with it - without pulling an ‘NGE’. I guess we will see how that will turn out. I know I will personally wait a month or two before I will consider trying it out again. Just to see what happens first.

Technorati Tags: Blizzard, Sigil, Vanguard: SoH

As life continues new games go into beta. And once again I am ignored. Recently several games I want to try has announced activities of the beta variety. Namely Age of Conan, Tabula Rasa and The Chronicles of Spellborn. Okay so TCOS didn’t actually go into beta just now. Instead it announced the beta would last longer and that they would likely add more players. Also I suppose PlayNC can excuse the lack of an invitation in my inbox by saying I technically signed up for the European beta. No idea if that one is supposed to have started yet.

So life goes on with nothing new to play. As I am writing this I am waiting for Rappelz to complete updating just to try something new. I can’t say I am looking forward to yet another “free” game that sells in-game stuff for actual money. But as always I allow myself to be positively surprised.

Also the one month anniversary day for my third tour of duty in PlanetSide. Last time I wrote something here I was going to find an outfit to play with. And soon after I stumbled across someone from AoJ who got me invited into the outfit he is playing with. Well actually he contacted me when he noticed my name in-game (presumably one of the many times it showed up in the wrong end of a ’someone was killed by someone’ message). So I ended up in the biggest Terran Republic outfit of the Werner server: Outcasters. Likely I wouldn’t have needed to actually getting an invite, since they seem to sign anyone up. But it helps to fit in when you actually know someone, if only a little.

I think I played with the Outcasters, last time I played PlanetSide, but left for some reason and instead joined MoX. This time around it seems like a good deal tho. While not exactly the most structured people around they do usually have an outfit platoon running. And usually someone who has a clue will be in charge too. And of cause being on TeamSpeak does help making the experience better than some random platoon. Even if often most of the commands end up being given in-game anyway. Since not everyone is on TS.

Still it is soon time to see if I want to spend money on PlanetSide. I doubt SOE will grant me with another month of free game time once this month is over. But right now I have nothing else I am paying to play. And I do have some good times from time to time. So odds are pretty good I will do at least one more month.

But something does loom on the horizon. I have a weak spot for limited editions of stuff. And today the temptation became too much. I had to have it even if I am not sure I wanna play the game. The precious item I am speaking of is the Lord of the Rings Online - Collector’s Edition. I finally broke out my trusty VISA and bought it the Dutch online store bol.com. Turns out it was cheaper place to buy it and I didn’t even need to call on a native to figure out the store. Still at a price of 249.99€ it is no bargain even if everyone else have jacked up the price after the game launched.

The upside of buying this edition is I can look forward to another game I can play really casually. The box includes a lifetime subscription. So I won’t have to consider if I want to continue spending cash on it. Instead I can just log in when I feel like and not feel bad for wasting cash on a subscription I am not using… I already wasted the cash in one go. Water under the bridge now =)

Technorati Tags: Beta participation, PlanetSide