Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Eye Candy


Yay, 4.3 is here! Finally I can wear that S1 gear!

<3 tank alts.

My posse- DA2. Minus the charming Varric :(

What a naughty Hawke...

But really, who can resist a moody elf like Fenris?

Holidays are best spent with friends <3

Second Life... TOR.

My Twi'lek girlie again.

An (me) android and her kitty.

Tea time.

Bubbles.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Catching Up



Watch out, Alistair. you've got some competition!

Unfortunately I didn't log into SWTOR beta this weekend like I had planned. I just ran out of time and before I knew it the weekend had flown by. Dire had a bit more time off than usual so I wanted to spend what I could with him.Though BioWare was close to my heart still, I spent most of my gaming time playing Dragon Age II.


Dragon Age II really has stolen my heart, I put off playing it for quite awhile and since I've gotten Skyrim I thought I'd wait it out a bit longer, but watching Dire play made me miss the Dragon Age scene. I thoroughly loved the first and will probably give it another play through after I finish the second. The companions are so humorous, there are a few I like more than the others. My favorites would have to be Anders, Fenris and Varric. Varric is hilarious, jarring at first but he is a comical one, Anders has a soft spot in my heart and I didn't expect to be so drawn to Fenris, even if he does hate mages... Luckily I'm not a mage. The music has also struck a chord in my heart, it's just as enchanting as the first game.

I suppose the companions make the game, for me at least. They bicker, they approve and disapprove, they seek your interaction and just make the game feel alive. I find myself laughing out loud listening to their dialogue. BioWare really has something special there with companions tied in with great stories and I look forward to TOR because of this. I also liked how this game has a much faster pace and the story seems to just flow. I really get into the game and it doesn't feel like slaying 1000 monsters, bad guys, whatever; to advance in the story. The combat was more fluid and I enjoy the fact that my companions are pretty competent at doing their job and... if they aren't, well, I can always take over for a moment.

Shots taken by my son.



I did manage to poke around in Skyrim a tiny bit, I really enjoy the game, as does my son who has since passed me up by many levels. I plan on working on this one more so this week. I want to advance through the story as I have been dilly dallying around exploring.

One of our best friends started playing WoW again and started up a new rogue alt who is already 43 or so. It has been nice to see him on and we're wanting to get each other around the same levels to do some grouping on the horde side together. I also made another DK alt while I wait on them to catch up, maybe I'll tank a bit with it, who knows.

I am wondering if 4.3 will come out this week, if not this maybe on the 6th. I hope sooner or later, we've been waiting forever it seems! It would be nice if it came out this week, we could get in on this month's Darkmoon Faire. The revamped faire looks like a lot of fun.

That's about it for me, have a great week!









Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!


Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone has a blessed and wonderful holiday. I'm thankful for family, friends, my readers and my fellow bloggers :) Don't eat too much turkey!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Skyrim



I've been playing Skyrim a lot lately. I wasn't sure if I was going to buy it, I thought it might be nice to play an RPG for a bit but I already have enough to keep me busy with MMO games. I waited around and tried to resist, which didn't last long. After hearing so many raves about Skyrim I just had to get it! It was really worth it. My best friend has been playing it on the PS3 and we sometimes text other pics and my son and I have been watching each other play or just sharing thoughts and tips too, which has been fun. It's so infectious the excitement.

I played Morrowind years and years ago, Oblivion a tad (my son and brothers devoured these games in the past), but I really feel more of a connection with Skyrim. I suppose it offers a lot of what I want out of an RPG. I still don't have a house, I explore waaaay too much but there isn't any pressure to rush, no reason to not stop and explore every nook and cranny. I do have a horse, I absolutely adore having one! So much stuff I just love doing in this game, looking forward to and working on.

I enjoy sneaking around caves, having a companion to help me out and galloping across the lands on my noble (sometimes not so faithful) steed. For my mercenary I chose the Dark Elf in the Witerun tavern. I seem to prefer her over my house carl, the carl seems to whine at me about stuff, like if I sneak into someones house. She once yelled at me "You shouldn't be here!" Thus putting me in an inconvenient position as she wouldn't leave with me and I had go back to an earlier save. So, for now, I prefer the cold indifference of the hired hand. That isn't to say I want a mindless NPC following me, I think the Elf is a better mesh for when I want to be sneaky and go steal some stuff or maybe sneak into some locked houses.

I've heard a lot of complaining about the Skyrim UI. I don't really mind it, I suppose I just come to expect something of the sort with an RPG. Sure, it is clunky but it just doesn't seem to bother me that much. Would I trade it for a better one? In a heartbeat! I'm not going to let it deter me from enjoying the game though.

I was pleasantly surprised with how good the character models looked. What a nice change! Talking females especially here. Plenty of great hair options and the characters are really well done. I had just created a DA2 character a few days before, while I don't think they are ugly models (Dire's Hawke is actually pretty handsome), the females though have some 'meh' hair, nothing a helmet can't fix eh? I enjoy both artistic styles though. Apples and oranges.

DA2- Dire's Hawke. (He just loves it when I share pics of 'him', what a ham ;)
My son is quite enjoying the game, spending a bit of his holiday week playing through the game, he's already passed me. He has also encountered a lot of bugs, many more than I. Some of which have impacted his game, he's overlooked them though. Like what? Mobs falling out of the sky... Imagine having a dragon plop down at your feet, just out of the blue. Kind of confusing and immersion breaking. He's also had higher level items drop off of mobs that shouldn't. Just a few bugs, nothing that can't be overlooked. He's read a lot of information and has shared a good bit with me, most of the time I am the one doing so but I just jumped into the game relishing the feeling of sauntering into the unknown, ready for anything.

I suppose there are a few things that slightly bother me. Sound problems, which I hear can be band-aided. Oh, and my horse flying across the screen and off a cliff to it's demise. I was heartbroken when I found out he wasn't 'running to the stables' but galloping at the speed of light to his death. Pony? Pony? Where are you? *sobs* I had to go to an earlier save which was a bit annoying. That horse causes me so much grief sometimes. He's died a few times :( I am heavy handed with the saving, if I think there is a chance he will die or I might, I save. SAVE, SAVE, SAVE. I just hate having to play through something I just did. Auto save is nice but it doesn't always do the trick, even though it saves every five minutes for me. And... Don't get me started on the limitations of what I can carry. I'm going to be working on stamina some, to make that burden a bit easier.

All in all I am quite smitten with Skyrim. I'm not rushing through it though, just taking my sweet time, stopping to smell the flowers. I love the vast open world, it is so lovely. It is truly a gorgeous game. The game has a similar feel to the previous ones and it feels familiar to me. The music is wonderful too. The characters in it feel alive and ofttimes it seems, if you listen close enough,  you can hear the world breathing around you (figuratively speaking). It feels alive. Skyrim is an enchanting treat. If I could add one thing to it, just one thing, I'd add a co-op! I wish I could just, at least, play with one other person at times. One can dream, right? I wanted to share some lovely shots- Enjoy!


My first taste of snow.

Die, scum!

A lovely scene in a cave.

The light at the end of the tunnel!

Whiterun.

Foggy morning.

*Pow!* Bam!*

Casual wear, a gals gotta dress up sometimes.

A girl and her horse.

Dragon!

I wonder if he notices me... *pokes with sword*

Pondering on where to go next.

Evening.
Exploring, sneaking around as usual.

Dragon bridge.

One day I'll have me a grand house like this!

Just another gorgeous scene from my travels.

A pic my son took of the sky, he loved it.

There be dragons... Falling from the sky?


Monday, November 21, 2011

It's Good To Be A Hunter



SWTOR Beta Thoughts- Goodbye NDA!



I figure it is about time I jotted down some thoughts on my beta impressions from my time in the SWTOR beta. I've only spent one weekend in beta, my brother had more time to test and see the game and passed on some pictures and information for me to also share. He got much further than me. I've been so very lazy this week and have been meaning to talk about this a little sooner, I was really excited about the NDA being lifted.

I enjoyed my time spent there, I really appreciated the chance to test and see the game ahead of time, I was so excited to see the beta invite sitting there in my in-box. There is another beta coming up which opens for even more players than in the past. Not sure if I will participate in the next round, my main reason being the massive queues I experienced. At one point I was 2871 in the queue. Over a weekend, for testing, I just don't have the patience to sit there. Then again... I did hear we get to access our last characters. It depends on queues.

The game is solid and I did have a great time. I still think my niche is high fantasy and that is where my heart seems to stay. But, I was a huge SW fan as a kid and, to an extent, all things SW still have a nostalgic feel to me. I can't say I didn't enjoy the change of scenery! So, here are my thoughts. I enjoyed getting the chance to beta with my brother too. He showed me some neat stuff and helped me out a bit, shared some nice blue drops with me too, he's such a sweet little brother!

The List...


Likes-
Things I really liked? The races and the character customization was great too. So many games don't offer different shapes for your character, SWTOR lets you choose from four which range from skinny to pretty beefy. Plus there were lots of different things like colors, scars and just things to make you feel a little more unique- always a good thing. Appearances looked good, there is even a dressing room to check things out.

The scenery was interesting, combat was fast paced. No need for food and drink. I've missed that from EverQuest. Except in SWTOR it is the push of a button and you start to regen quickly, I loved it. The story was another thing I loved. We all know Bioware is great at spinning some tails and adding in a great story. I loved interacting with the story and making my own choices, even if they didn't always get me very far. Twi'leks. I just love those girls, they are probably my favorite race, plus they get their own special dance. Medical probes rezzzing me, loved that too.

What else to add to the list? Ships, a unique little flavor to the game. You can have visitors also, which is really cool. I love the companions. In any game I love them and even more so in this game, Bioware is the master of companions.  Questing was smooth, for the most part due to the built in quest helper.

I enjoyed the personal quest phasing, the thing with this is that you can invite someone to your group and they can also enter the phase. Very handy. This for the main story line quest and it also is nice to have no interruptions while going through the story. You know, that person who likes to jump all over the screen and on top of the NPC while you're trying to get something done. Those are just the things that come to mind when I think of all I liked about the game.

Dislikes-
I didn't dislike much really. I can't say I didn't like the graphics, I love the character models. However the hero engine is one I've always wondered why Bioware chose to use, until I actually logged in and saw the massive structures and scenery that they were able to build with it. Sometimes it didn't always seem to mesh too well, still not sure how much I like that engine.

For me sometimes the loading was sluggish. Tabbing out wasn't always a smooth transition, beta I suppose. Queues in beta, really, really bothered me. I hope this is all in preparation for a smooth launch and it pays off. The sounds in the game were nice but sometimes the music got monotonous in some areas. Maybe it is just me.

The class selection felt rather modest. I guess that is remedied by the classes splitting off into two directions at level ten. It still looks like a small choice when starting out. Along with choosing your class, some of the starting areas are better than others. Some seem rather dismal while others are far more interesting. I found the empire to offer more of an appeal than the republic.

The last thing is the no auto attack. It really wasn't bad at all and with a companion it is minimally noticed, I just am a sucker for it in any game and will always miss it when I don't have it. Even in this game.

Final thoughts.
As you can see the likes outweighed the dislikes. I think it is a nice and very well rounded MMO which offers a solid experience. It isn't breaking the mold but it should stand on it's own two feet quite well. I will say it ties in good points and adds fresh new things to an MMO.

Where do people get that this is a single player MMO? I think the original design or idea was to allow small groups to advance together, or even solo players (a big focus on this at one point) which still seems possible. But things have changed direction a bit since then. I suppose if you add in companions and the story with the ability to solo, people will always think that. It is an MMO. It is very similar to WoW, out of any MMO I've played I suppose TOR is the most like it. TOR won't kill WoW. It is too much like it. However, it will add in another type of MMO experience for us.

Somehow the game didn't grab me with a death grip. I don't know if it is because I've been a bit tired of two years of hype or what. I did enjoy playing, I'm just not frothing at the mouth or holding my breath for it to release. I'm not knocking it at all, as I will play it.

So, now I'd like to share some pictures and a little video footage. You've probably seen tons of images and videos but I wouldn't be me without adding mine to the pile ;)

Big thanks to Nophoria for sharing his pics with me to show! The gorgeous one at the top is his character along with many others taken with his Sith Warrior! 



































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