Games...

So this is my first post. Someday down the road this blog may be known, or it may fade to the background never to be seen. Whatever this blogs fate may be I will write what makes sense to me and hope people enjoy reading it. This blog will be focused primarily around games, but I like to discuss all sorts of things so I may stray from time to time. At any rate, here goes my first post!

I like all sorts of games. I play real time strategy games, massively multiplayer online games, single player role playing games, shooters and the occasional puzzle game. I've been gaming for most of my life, but over the past 2 years MMOs have taken the spotlight. I started off with Lord of the Rings Online and played that from beta until the launch of Warhammer Online. I'm currently still playing Warhammer, but I'm watching a few games on the horizon. Empire: Total War and Darkfall are 2 games I'm interested in right now though I'm having second thoughts about trying Darkfall at release. I imagine the game will be very fun for many people and I hope it succeeds whether I get around to trying it or not.

In order for games to evolve Developers must go out on a limb and try something new, but it has to be done successfully for an idea to really stick. Many small studios seem to have a go for broke approach and often indie and small dev games aspire to be things that would rock the gaming world, but they often don't succeed. It's tough enough to create anything other than a cut and dry sequal these days. For example, I'd be plenty happy playing Madden 04 over Madden 09 simply because they are the same game. Each year they add some bullshit scam of a feature and call it revolutionary. This type of game making doesn't help the gaming industry evolve, but it does help it expand. The more people buying games, the wider the audience "niche" games can appeal to. So in a way it does help the gaming industry evolve, but only as much as the customers allow it to with their wallets.

I'm going to change the focus for a minute and talk about what I'm currently playing.

Warhammer Online: Warhammer is a game I had huge expectations for and now after having played it for a few months I feel it delivers on some while it doesn't on others. I'll break WAR down into different categories.

PvE: PvE in WAR is abysmal. There is nothing to keep you wanting to quest or mob grind other than being at max level so you can escape the process. At the same time the only real reason to level in WAR is to PvE because you can PvP in every tier. It can be argued that gaining new skills makes ranking up worthwhile as it makes PvP become more diverse, but it's undeniable that the endgame is comprised of mostly PvE content. All Keeps, Forts and Cities have NPCs and the only way to take each is to kill a PvE boss. PvE instances help players get better gear that allows them to continue reaching new levels of PvE farming. Gear is PvE in WAR. Fortunately true PvP can be done without special gear, although better gear will offer an equally skilled player an advantage.

PvP: Extremely well done. Overall class balance and playability is awesome. There seems to be this expectation these days that every game has to have 3 things; 1) a perfect launch, 2) every feature under the sun, and 3) perfect class balance for every situation. These goals cannot be met by most gaming teams and it shouldn't be set as the standard since no online game that I know of has had any of these things. So why is it the standard to which many hold games? Because we are often lied to and told games will have this or that and so our expectations rise, but are then smashed when we see that the beach is really a sandbox with a shovel and bucket.

Immersion: There are pros and cons here as well. I personally cannot enjoy myself if I'm not doing PvP (or RvR/Realm vs Realm as Mythic calls it). Exploring the game world for hidden lairs is fun as well and I think Mythic did a good job of offering cool places to explore, but they didn't give us much reason to do so. Many gamers are already fairly lazy when it comes to time spent in game, but that is especially true with how simple WAR is. You are told where to go, when to go and exactly what to do. Frankly in a game with levels I like that because I want to get through the content quickly once I catch glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel (sometimes it's not the light you expected though). I don't consider this a "carebear" system, but even if it is I don't think that makes it a "bad" system.

Overall I'd say WAR is an 8/10. It's fun, but it's still not quite what I expected or hoped for. I imagine I'll be playing it for a while especially with Slayers/Choppas on the horizon.

Left 4 Dead: Left 4 Dead is a great shooter in the short term, but it runs out of steam (pun intended) after a while given that there are only a handful of maps. I had a lot of fun using the console to change settings with a few friends, but after a while even spawning tanks on unsuspecting friends gets boring. The straight up game offers a ton of fun though as it pits you up against the environment, infected and special infected all randomly with the aidirector. I am a huge fan of zombie type games/movies, but I often feel a little let down after playing/watching them. I hope a sandbox survival zombie game comes along that fits the visual style of L4D. That'd blow my mind.

Medeival II Total War: This game has been out for a while now, but I often go back to single player games like this after a few months break. Normally I don't stay long and I suspect that I will cease to play this in the coming week, but it has offered my a little bit of fun. I'm a huge fan of the series and I highly anticipate the release of Empire Total War.

That's about all I'm playing now. Most of my gaming time is spent with Warhammer Online. I have been testing Slayers and Choppas on the public test server and I like what I see.

And that's that. I hope some folks stumble across this blog and enjoy my posts. Please leave comments and feedback to help make this blog a place of discussion and to allow me to improve. Later =).