A Good Start

Lots of really great things seem to be releasing this year, as far as MMO games are concerned. I'm really looking forward to Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3. D3 having a release date seems just a tad bit within reach and I can't wait to try it out, my son is excited about it too since he played the first two and still does play the second on occasion. MoP looks beautiful and interesting and already some new exciting content in the games I'm still playing. A good start thus far!

If you have't heard about Vanguard Saga of Heroes, it is going F2P this summer. I am so excited about that, more development, a real team working on the game and content, while all that is nice I also hope to see an influx of new blood. Myself included. I'm very tempted to resub, there are rewards for subscribers, leading up to the F2P launch, it appears more will be added in over time. Check out the post here by Zatozia, on the official VSoH forums. So tempting, I always miss the game even though I've never gotten horribly far in it, I really love the game setting and mechanics. The look and feel, not to forget the music, are just so lovely.

I've been working on my Magician in EverQuest. I love the class and felt like playing her a bit more, she's my main and so I've taken a bit of a break on the monk alt again. I love the name Magician, not a Mage, a MAGICIAN. I'll pull some crazy hocus-pocus on you! Anyhow... For those who haven't ever played one, it is a pet class that focuses on the pet tanking (they're beasts, currently the strongest pets of all the pet classes) and nuking. I enjoy pet classes a lot too so this one is perfect for me.

In EverQuest we have pet focus items which can greatly increase your pets power, such as boosting it's level, hit-points, attack and so on. Currently there are 16 ranks of pet focus and I managed to snag a rank 14 item. My pet was a dark blue con to me at level 90, with pet focus 8 and now at 14, a little less than double that, he is an even con, thus being the same level as my character. I'm locked into my level to work on my alternate advancement points. First working on my pet AA's to make him even more of a beast. I have a ways to go but they're rolling in pretty quickly when I group with Dire.

Dire is working on the other mage, so it will be a really fun combo! We're in the process of power leveling it, me two boxing both mages. I don't enjoy boxing as some people do. I could with all the characters I have but I just can't be bothered unless Dire needs me to. I did it for my Beastlord epic 1.0 quest but that was the last time I seriously boxed.

The guild is sort of at a standstill. I've recruited a few people but most want a large guild. While we're not huge or even close to that, we do play a decent amount and we're always wanting people tag along with our team and it's really awesome xp or aa. With his Shadowknight he can swarm masses of mobs for xp which is ironic, so many people on our server pay 100k+ an hour for the same thing. We don't always use the Sk but it is great xp when we do.

Dire has been a big help with recruiting, even inviting people out of the channels to try us. Last night we watched a guy spam for a guild for hours after deciding he wanted something bigger, after Dire had offered him a chance to get to know us. His loss, he could have tagged along with us instead of spamming the global channel all alone. Can't win them all I suppose.

I've also been messing around with Free Realms a bit. I go in cycles with playing this game. I suppose I like new content on a more regular basis than FR consists of but I am enjoying myself with the farming. It is fun in small amounts of time and the game is really casual and laid back for those times when you just want to putter around and do fun stuff.

You can gain some neat rewards such as clothing and clicky items, which shrink, grow or turn your character into something creepy. It is a nice incentive. I'm enjoying playing it more as there is always something to do, it might be gathering plants for seeds, fishing, questing, farming or just hanging out with a boombox, lol. It's the ultimate chillax game. Great for anyone wanting a real casual experience with a lot of fun things to pick from. I'm still glad I decided to go with a lifetime sub, for me it was a great investment and I've gotten back so much from it already with monthly member packs, even if I don't play.

If you play there is a limited time offer from Alienwear and FR for a really nifty in-game Alienwear shirt. I happened to ask someone where they got it and found out that it was still going on, there are only a limited number of keys so if you want one check out this post on FRInsider.

Forsaken world has flying mounts now! I had to log in and check it out. Basically you gain a free hot air balloon and a flying license if you're 25+, you just find the flying instructor behind the auction area, and it appears there are more quests later on as you level and higher ranks of flying. It was pretty awesome to log in and fly in Forsaken World. It is not limited, you can sit in the air and fly around as long as you like, there is a speed boost and that is what is consumed by using it, which I am not sure what regens it, time or a component. Very cool and I'll want to fly around more this week in the game to some quests, hehe. The picture at the top of the post if my character flying in her new Hot-air Balloon

That's it for me this evening. Have a great week!

Forsaken World- One Year Anniversary

My shiny new mount, Humphrey, and purplez title!

This week marks one year for Forsaken World! While I don't play it steadily, it is an MMO that always stays installed on my machine. I pop in from time to time and mess around, check things out. I'd like to pick up again, soon, and work on my character a bit more to see the new content that has been added over the year. Soon FW will have flying mounts too, which is exciting. I can't wait! Level 25 is required to obtain one, not bad IMO.

Back to the anniversary, there are rewards being handed out for a limited time. There are some requirements, listed below, the rewards are really great! Looks like both Dire and I will have them by tomorrow, he's still waiting on his. I was so happy to get mine tonight. Wonderful gifts, I've played for a long time and received all of the veteran gifts! Everyone gets gifts in this event, which is great.

It is still a very good game, getting better with time. It has a lot to do, questing, solo, groups, pets, taming, daily events, daily quests, afk faction/xp system, mounted combat system, automated dungeon queue, auto-routing, teleports and more. Really awesome for free to play. It has remained one of my favorites, I think this is a good time to dust off my account and work on my character some more! I want to use the snazzy new pet that I have for level 65. Check out the official site for more info on the anniversary here. Happy Anniversary Forsaken World!

Gift Information:

To celebrate our one-year anniversary, we're giving all players a free in-game prize package! All players (including new players), are eligible for a prize package:


FW players with a Lv30 character created on/before 3/31/2011 are eligible for:
Humphrey mount (Lv20)
Selarion pet (Lv65)
VIP Pack
Diamond Event Pack
10 Edge Badges
Forsaken Veteran Title
Forsaken Anniversary Title


FW players with a Lv30 character created on/after 4/1/2011 are eligible for:
Selarion pet (Lv65)
VIP Pack
Diamond Event Pack
10 Edge Badges
Forsaken Anniversary Title

Choices

Things are going along nicely in Forsaken World, I finally hit 35 and trained for the pet tamer job. I'm hoping to get a nice blue pet but so far I've not gotten anything to write home about. Pets come in three different types, white (normal), green (above normal quality) and blue (superior quality).

Other than getting all giddy about taming my own pets, I've been doing some instances which have been going quite smooth, for the most part. There is always something to do in Forsaken World. I think that's a reason I like it so much.

I've been waiting seven days on a ticket I put into support and I am a bit peeved that it's still sitting there. I don't know how the customer service is with Perfect World Entertainment, but so far it's not too impressive. It feels like being left to the wolves, not a feeling I like very much. I think that would be the one big complaint I really have with the game so far.

Well, that and not having much choice on some things. I don't like games where they give you too much choice. For instance Champions Online gives you far too much, to the point where you could really gimp a character easily. I like playing a set class and having certain abilities and roles. I just wish we had the option to dual spec at least. So many times, lately, I get thrown into a group with two priests and it kind of is annoying because we both over heal, or the other wastes mana topping people off at a mere 10% health while I conserve letting my big heals hit when players are lower or my HoTs get overwritten.

I've even read that certain classes like the bard and vampire are getting asked to heal. Many of the players that created these characters are not going to want to heal. I think a role check needs to be input so players have some choice at what role they want to fulfill.

However, there are many games out there that add lots of choices and some that don't offer enough. Do you prefer having lots of choices in your games when it comes to play style? Or would you rather have things more defined?

-kaozz

Entertaining (RIFT, FW)

Hope everyone had a nice weekend, mine was pretty laid back and entertaining, besides a brief migraine. I poked into RIFT, briefly, and saw the new coin lock system has been implemented. I expect many people have already heard about all the hacking of RIFT accounts. Mine was fine, the main reason I logged in was just to check.

To top it all off a player was the one to catch the security breach, joking that he could log into a gm account to prove it. So, Trion swoops in, follows up and saves the day. Saves the day? How about being on top of things to begin with? Harsh, I know.

Now that is an appearance outfit!

On a better note I hit 31, almost halfway to 32 now, in Forsaken World. Yay! I don't feel very far behind, I think they highest player is only in their mid 40's, currently. I am still enjoying the game a lot. Its got bit of a learning curve, getting to know how things work and how to make money. With there being two types of currencies, one to players and one to NPCs, it can get confusing. It's not something to cry over though.

While I do wish the game had player housing, I suppose I would just end up 'playing house' too much and slack off on leveling. There is so much to do in the game, plenty of daily quests for: Faction, coin, xp instances, guilds, tradeskills and so on.

Hitting 30 granted us the ability to buy mounts, except we're too broke and a tad shy of having enough faction. Before long we might sink some into the CS for mounts. Holding off, for now. We also gained access to some cool pets and soon, at 35, we will be able to tame more neat pets.

When we can, Dire and I, we make sure to do the Gods Trial instance. If you use a double xp scroll, well, it's amazing xp. It's also a great place to level pets, they gain xp at a crazy rate. This instance has one boss and if you have a sub-par group if can drag on but it's not too bad. Just sort of dull but the great xp makes up for it!

We've had some good groups and lacking groups. Sometimes people are just plain stupid or ignorant. That's just how it is with MMOs. Sometimes I'll just call them out, other times I just ignore them. It's nothing horrible though, mostly just ignorance. It's not like the random WoW groups of people blatantly being stupid and rude just because they can. Sometimes you will get a great group of people and the group is so enjoyable. I really like the instances, it's a breath of fresh air compared to what I have been doing for the last few months. The instances are fun, simple but not stupidly easy and nice rewards are to be had. They are not too time consuming, something I really embrace.

There are also many daily events (hit the U key to access the window pictured above), if you catch them at the right time you can net some really nice rewards. While I am not big on the idea of stuff being available only certain times of the day, they are available, most of the time, twice a day on different days. I try to do a few a day, even one if I can.

I even managed to snag some free zen for the cash shop. On the home page, under billing, there is an offer wall to earn zen. Some of these sites are total scams, I got nothing for many of them. Others award right away and others take 1-2 days. It can be time consuming with the hit and miss rate and it's not something I'd do all the time. I did want to see how much I could rack up and I got enough to get a statue (sell for gold) and a lovely appearance outfit, I had to have it!

The game isn't perfect. It is quite laid back and enjoyable though. Some people hate click to move games- use WASD, I do. I also click, at times, sometimes it is a nice change. The autoroute system is just great, run a quick afk or tab out while running to that quest turn in. I absolutely love it. Sometimes it runs me into walls though! There are things like characters bugging out and not being able to invite or receive invites. When this happens, you can click on the friend's name in the friend (F to open) list and click update. Seems to work every time. There are other annoying little things but I try to look past them. Overall the game is a really great game for being FTP, it's very smooth and polished and better than many subscription based games. Content isn't blocked off and throwing a few bucks into the game, here and there, funds something you enjoy. You're not mindlessly grinding on mobs either, questing is centric in this game.

I'm pretty happy these days with my MMO choices, who would have thought going to a free to play game would be what is keeping me so entertained.

-kaozz

Where I Am (RIFT, EQ2, FW)

Wandering around.

RIFT
I've not written much about RIFT lately. I suppose after the initial first area, the part of the game I enjoyed so much sort of evaporated. I mostly leveled to 19 from invasions and rifts, I find them to be the best part of the game, the most fun. Heading to the new area I noticed nobody was engaging in rifts and most of the invasions, well, I had to run away from them because nobody was around.

Another thing that sort of got to me was the travel. By the time I left the city gates to get to my destination I was already bored from the travel time. I'm sorry but making people travel on foot isn't going to make a game seem bigger. If you want a cutting edge MMO, don't leave in the most tedious aspects! I suppose I just got a bit bored with questing and not seeing much action in the new area. Maybe it's being on a lower population server, I'm not going to over analyze it.

All in all it's a really fun game and it has a lot of potential but for now it's just sort of losing it's sparkle for me. So I'm just going to let it go for awhile and pick it back up later.

My Hero, carry me from quest to quest!

Forsaken World
What has been keeping my interest mostly? Forsaken World. It's really been a lot of fun and I'm a smidgen away from 27 now. There are lots of daily quests, tons of quests in general and lots to do on the side. Groups are easy to get in and out of and not too complicated. While I notice some of the boss mechanics are changing a bit, more awareness required, it's still pretty fun.

I really want to get to 30 for new gear a permanent mount and the pet trainer skill. So, I'm looking forward to that stuff and enjoying the game along the way. I wasn't sure how engaging the game would be, upon starting, but it's really a game with a lot to offer, and free at that! If it had a subscription would I still play it? I really think I would.

Dire really likes the game a lot, it's his main game these days. He seems to enjoy the protector class a lot and tanking with it. We're pretty close in the same level range, which is good as I don't want to level too far ahead of him. It's a great game for him to get in and out of quickly, do a group here and there.

EverQuest II
I'm mostly playing around on the EQ2X server again, as I am letting my subs go for everything next month. Since a free game is getting most of my attention there really isn't a need to sub for anything next month. I do really enjoy all of the fun stuff EQ2 has to offer so it's nice being able to pop in and do the events. I am glad the option is available for this reason.

Recently I figured out how to 'break out of my house' and put some neat stuff 'outside' my house. Basically you need a teleporter set and you can do this with the houses that show an outdoor area. It's not frowned upon by SOE, but it's also not supported. I've made a little cottage but have plans to do more as I get more items. It's looking neat and I am having fun with it, thus far. Other than that I'm just messing around with Brew Day quests and taking my time.

Some pictures below of the outdoor area. It will be a work in progress for awhile. Feel free to visit it in-game though. Sable-EQ2X- (Freeblood Lair) located in South Qeynos. {To break out of the Freeblood Lair all you need is a set of teleporters. You do not need to change any layout files, like needed in other houses. You simply stand on the patio/deck area zoom the camera out all the way and spin around the invisible wall. From here you can place a teleporter below. Pretty simple!}

Hall leading to the patio.

Looking down off the patio at the outdoor area.

My little beachfront cottage.

Up close.

Looking up at the patio.

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That's what I've been up to, where I am now in my games, I just have to play what feels fun. I hate to let RIFT go, so soon, but it will be there in the future. I'm having fun and cutting down on some subs in the process so it's all good :) Oh and don't miss the EQ2X event this evening- 6:00 pm PDT (Freeport Server): Brewday Party!

-kaozz

Forsaken World: A More In-Depth Look

Dire and I, after an instance.

Over the weekend I had more of a chance to take a good look at Forsaken World. I've been interested in this MMO since hearing about it and I had hoped to be drawn into it. Unlike most F2P MMO games it seems to have much lasting power. I didn't play it and push it to the side as just some random crummy MMO that feels generic because it's free.

Dire and I have been looking for something fun and laid back to play together (still playing EQ2 but at times we need a refresher) and this game has really hit the sweet spot. We've been playing it together and really enjoying ourselves. If you're looking for something free and fun, it's worth a shot. So today I thought with more play time under my belt I could give some more thoughts and insight about the game.

Big mean boss fight!

I've gotten to level 23 thus far. I'd like to have gotten further but I've been working on my son's computer a lot this weekend, finally fixing the 'old hunk of junk' (it's not really but I sometimes despise that machine). It did give Dire a chance to catch up to me. My main character is a priest and he is playing a protector. Priests are the big healers of FW and protectors are the better of the tanks, while warriors can tank it's the protectors that have the easiest time due to many AOE attacks. Bards can heal but only group based healing at level 30. So we decided to do a tank healer combo and it's been quite fun.

The quests lead you to the next, you're constantly being lead off to other areas never staying in one place long enough to really get bored. many of the 'fex ex', or rather delivery quests, offer a lot of xp, so doing them nets nice rewards and leads you to where you need to be going anyhow. With autoroute it's cake doing them. We're both in different parts of the quest lines but we do group together often, in instances.

Mount up!

How are instances in this game? Well first off you have a looking for dungeon feature, hitting T pulls this up and you 'apply' for a group, which sticks you in the queue. You can queue as a party or alone. Sometimes groups are instant and other times there's a wait. During peak times it seems very easy to get in a group. When the group has been assembled a little conformation window pops up asking if you are ready and you hit ok, wait for everyone else to do so and you're whisked off to the instance. Yep, a very similar mechanic to WoW, and I actually love it in this game. It pulls the people from your server but the servers are divided into 10 realms which you can play on any of these with any of your characters, at any time.

'Hearthing' home.

Getting back to instances, they have been very enjoyable so far. I've done several and for the most part people are quite nice. It basically throws you into a group with a healer and a tank and dps. Sometimes you get two tanking classes, sometimes two healers, not as often are healers doubled up I noticed- as I level higher. The instances are short enough to be sweet and enjoyable but long enough to be fun. Basic tank and spank gets you through them. Most parties are nice, sometimes the dps will try to pull but after asking many to let the tank pull, in most cases they do listen. Generally people are nice. I've yet to have anyone be really rude to me in the game. Only one moron misread something I said in chat and I promptly put them on ignore.

The loot in the instances, if it is class specific only that class can roll on it. I suppose it makes it easier and helps against ninja looting. Nice blues have dropped but the one time I saw what I wanted... there was another priest in the group. Woe is me. I've enjoyed the priest though and it's nice having a tank with me I trust. It's really been quite fun queuing up for instances!

Adventuring under the full moon.

Other than grouping I've been slowly working on tradeskills which are pretty easy and enjoyable. There are quests for them and daily quests. I've been questing in general trying to do almost every quest, they net really good xp. Plus, I am trying to keep at making my own drinks for instances and soloing, you drink and eat to regen health and mana- Or you could use potions.

Travel isn't so daunting in this game, it's actually very cool. Some games are reverting to the old 'walk twenty miles uphill in the snow' deal to get where you need to. Not here in FW (thank heavens). We have portals to different areas such as quest hubs, different lands, different parts of the city. Even people who teleport to different locations, well NPCs. There are mounts also! At 20 you get a five day mount and at thirty you can obtain a permanent faction mount or buy one in the cash shop.

The game is just lovely, it runs so smoothly and it's not hard on computers while looking fantastic. The armor looks great and the characters are quite charming, I just love my human priest. Speaking of armor there are many ways to obtain armor. Quests, shards for armor vendors, vendors and instance drops- That's just a few. I've had no problem gaining new equipment. Every five levels you get to open your little gift box, you start the game with it, and it has things like shards for some gear and helpful quest items, potions and other really nice stuff. A very nice aspect of the game. I don't know how long the box keeps opening, mine still says 25 so I assume for a ways to go still.

Got HELP?!

The game also helps you if you become lost. There are lists on the map to help you find where you need to go. click and you'll run there. There is even a feature to help you find what you should be doing, say you were to just lose your way. Clicking on the ? under your character's portrait helps information and direction (pictured above). This window has a lot of helpful information in general such as alerting you of new abilities to be trained, quest areas, instances and so on. Is it a bit of hand holding? I think it is a plus and helps players not feel so lost where some would just throw up their hands- I've done it in the past with games where I just got too lost.

Another thing I really love is the pet system! It's really cool. Many Asian MMO games offer neat pets to help with combat or other things and it's something I wish more western MMO games would pick up on. I love having a cute little pet helping me in my adventures! At level 10 you gain access to three pets which basically attack and help you along your way (yes, you can have all three). At level thirty you can obtain more with the pet tradeskill or 'job'. I found a cool link here that offers a lot of information on the pet system.

My trusty tank, attempting a warrior <3

The game does has it's flaws but I think the positive points outweigh them. It is probably one of the smoothest feeling F2P mmo games I've ever played. It is the most engaging, by far. I think Perfect World Entertainment got a lot of things right with the game. We're having a blast!

-kaozz

Forsaken World

This week Forsaken World launched into open beta. This is a game I've been interested in for awhile and never had the chance to get into closed beta. I'm excited to try it, Dire is even dabbling around with it. I've not had a chance to get very far but I am ambling my way through the first few levels, so far, and enjoying it.

The graphics are very clean and fresh. You could almost compare the scenery to WoW. It's charming and well done. The artists did a fantastic job. The characters and armor are quite beautiful, as well. Starting out in this game is nice, your character doesn't look like some poor homeless person, you aquire some pretty snazzy stuff right away.

The combat seems pretty fluid, I've not gotten very far to know how much this changes. Most games are cake at the lower levels anyhow. The UI is simple and easy to figure out too. The game is built upon questing for leveling, you'll get far more xp this way, grinding nets far less, or so I've read. There is also an autoroute system which runs you to quest NPC turn in's, mobs and so on. Some may call it lazy but it's pretty simple and I like it.

Groups are needed for instances and I've read there is a LFD system. How well it works is beyond me, I'm not high enough to access it. I suppose anything to help move things along towards getting a group is a plus. 

The game features many tried and true classes like priest, mage and warrior. It also has the vampire class which seems quite fun. You carry a big cross across your back, after doing a few quests. it's pretty bad-ass looking. The races are your basic fantasy with a few little twists.

There is also the zodiac system which awards different things at intervals. I've not yet grasped this system, instead looking to see my goodies pop up and grabbing them with a smile. Along with that there is a pet system and these pets do different things such as buff, debuff and so on.

All in all it looks like a pretty good F2P game. I have heard making money is quite hard and it's simply aimed for people to buy it from the CS. I don't like that idea but I'll have to spend more time in the game to see what the deal is.

Just a glance at the game, I'll post more thoughts as I progress. If you want a more in-depth review MMORPG-Tactics has a good one worth checking out.

-kaozz