I was pretty skeptical about Dark Arisen at first. Sure it would add more things to do in the game as well as address some issues (although I am not fully aware of what all the issues were), but I just couldn't decide whether or not to spend my money on it. Well, my roommate was pretty set on getting the game apparently because when I got back from class on the day of its release, he was sitting on the couch playing the game. After an hour of watching him play, I have to admit the game looks even better than its predecessor.
In terms of extra content, it's 50% new and 50% old. The extra content that I consider to be old, is basically the stuff that was available before but is now actually included in the disk: extra hair styles (there are brand new hair styles available in the game as well), extra hair colors, extra voices, extra mission board quests. But that's the old, here's the new. First off, they expanded the item upgrade system so that your weapons and armor can go past level 3. You have to kill some form of dragon (the drake by the lake counts) in the Dark Arisen location which will automatically upgrade a random piece of equipment to level 4 or Dragon Forged Level 1. After that, you just need to acquire the necessary items to reach D.F. levels 2 and 3. There are of course more weapons and armor to be found in the game as well.
Of course the biggest addition to the game is the new location and story for Dark Arisen. While it's connected with main story in terms of the dragon, arisen, and pawns, it doesn't modify or add onto the main story in any way. I say this for those who haven't played the original Dragon's Dogma and haven't read spoilers online or anything. I won't spoil the story for you, but I will say that once you reach the end of the game, that's it. There is no let's hang around and deal with things you may have missed. I am not going to get into the Dark Arisen to much here (mainly because I haven't played it myself, but also because I don't want to spoil anything), but I will say it looks incredibly fun and provides an endless and entertaining challenge.
That's all for now. Time to go back and hit the books for my final exams. Until next time.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Interesting Indie Titles
During Steam's recent indie sale, I came across some interesting titles that are worth taking a peek at. I bought two of them, of the other two, one isn't available yet (in fact it isn't on Steam, I came across it searching one of the titles I bought) and the other I just haven't bought yet. The games I bought was Towns and Recettear: Item Shop's tale.
Towns is a very interesting game in that it is one of those simulation games that you build and manage a village. What makes it interesting is the various role playing elements added to the game. See, instead of playing as some hero who wanders into a village that could use his/her help, you're actually running the village itself. I'm still in the beginning stages of my town so I haven't gotten a hero or anything special yet, but it is tons of fun.
Item Shop's tale is also a interesting game with a twist. Your character is in charge of an item shop and has to deal with an enormous debt left on to by your father. But you're not just running an item shop, you can also explore dungeons which is where you can get a lot of your stock from (or you can play the markets but let's be honest, that's not as fun). You have to make each deadline to pay off your debt or you get a cute little game over cut scene of you living in a cardboard box.
The third indie title is Starforge, currently in its alpha stage and available on Steam. What caught my interest about this game was the fact that it is a survival, adventure, sandbox, fps, role playing, etc. rolled into one AND it looks promising. Since I don't have access to alpha, I can't personally share my experience with the game but I do intend to buy it so when I do I will write a post about it. For now head on over to Steam and take a look at it for yourself.
The fourth game, which I stumbled upon while looking up towns via google (website link on steam wasn't working) and it is called Cube World (not sure if that is the official title yet). There is no official release/demo/beta, but it looks pretty cool. Oh and before I forget: No it is not a minecraft knockoff, and creator even said he wasn't going for a minecraft type game.
Well that's it for now. I am going back to playing Towns and if I don't lose track of time maybe Item Shop tale. Until next time.
Towns is a very interesting game in that it is one of those simulation games that you build and manage a village. What makes it interesting is the various role playing elements added to the game. See, instead of playing as some hero who wanders into a village that could use his/her help, you're actually running the village itself. I'm still in the beginning stages of my town so I haven't gotten a hero or anything special yet, but it is tons of fun.
Item Shop's tale is also a interesting game with a twist. Your character is in charge of an item shop and has to deal with an enormous debt left on to by your father. But you're not just running an item shop, you can also explore dungeons which is where you can get a lot of your stock from (or you can play the markets but let's be honest, that's not as fun). You have to make each deadline to pay off your debt or you get a cute little game over cut scene of you living in a cardboard box.
The third indie title is Starforge, currently in its alpha stage and available on Steam. What caught my interest about this game was the fact that it is a survival, adventure, sandbox, fps, role playing, etc. rolled into one AND it looks promising. Since I don't have access to alpha, I can't personally share my experience with the game but I do intend to buy it so when I do I will write a post about it. For now head on over to Steam and take a look at it for yourself.
The fourth game, which I stumbled upon while looking up towns via google (website link on steam wasn't working) and it is called Cube World (not sure if that is the official title yet). There is no official release/demo/beta, but it looks pretty cool. Oh and before I forget: No it is not a minecraft knockoff, and creator even said he wasn't going for a minecraft type game.
Well that's it for now. I am going back to playing Towns and if I don't lose track of time maybe Item Shop tale. Until next time.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Tera Online - Inspiration to build a new PC
So a while ago, last month I believe, Tera Online implemented free to play, and ever since it did I have been playing it a lot. It's just so much fun and everything about it is amazing. The environment is beautiful, the characters and races are beautiful, and the game play is just amazing. Unfortunately, I can't enjoy the game to the full extent because my laptop's video card (NVS 3100M) is not supported. I can still run the game, just not very well. In fact there are a lot of games that I try to play but have a hard time doing so because of my graphics card. But before I started playing Tera I've never really felt motivated to build a new PC that would be better suited for gaming. Of course Tera is not the only reason to build it, but it is what has gotten me started. I've already looked up most of the parts that I need, the only problem is that I need to get a hold of a job close to college so that I don't have to wait until summer time to go home and work. It's won't be top the line but it will still look kind of sweet. Until next time.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Old Republic is not worth the trouble anymore
First off, I would like to say that this post should not be taken to heart entirely. I don't hate the game, far from it. However, a combination of issues has made it not worth my time trying to log into the website or even getting into the game for that matter. If this is the kind of thing you watch out for when looking for games to play, then I am glad I could give you some idea of what you might be getting into.
I had an account for SWTOR since I was offered a 7 day free trial through email a few months after the game was first released. Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to continue playing the game after the trial had ended. In fact, I hadn't started playing the game again until F2P was an available option. So I started playing again, and about a month after I had started playing again is when the problems began. The issues were mostly related to my account and only with the website. The issues with the game didn't happen until a few days ago.
At first, the issue was that every few days (up to a week) when I try to log in to my account on the website I am taken to this page telling me that the computer I am using to access my account is not recognized. I found this incredibly odd considering it's the only computer I have as well as the only one that I have ever used when logging into the SWTOR site. So of course it would ask my security questions, questions that I set up well over a year ago. I only remember the answers to two of them and unfortunately those two were only asked about 3 times total. Why haven't I just changed them? Well most sites that use security questions usually make it incredibly easy to change them, however SWTOR is the first website I have encountered that does not give the option of changing security questions/answers myself through some option under Account Settings. No in order to change them I have to contact customer service, a feat that I have found to be near impossible.
Another odd bug is that sometimes when I'm logged in on the site and try to access another page on the site, it will load with me logged out of the site. If I try to log back in, then it sends me back to the home page and when I try to go back to the page that logged me out it will log me out again.
What ultimately made me decide to give up was when the first issue became even worse and even spread to my game client. Eventually, every time I tried to log in to the website it would always state that it doesn't recognize the computer I was using. But it eventually it made its way to my game client and it unfortunately asked one of the security questions I didn't remember. I was only allowed two attempts apparently until it locked my account. However, something I've also never seen other mmo games or websites do, my account is locked indefinitely (rather than for a certain amount of time) until I get a hold of customer service.
This is the second issue I have with SWTOR, customer service is incredibly difficult to get a hold of. There is no email address given on the contact support page and the phone lines are always packed with a large number of callers (I bet a good number of them have the same issues I'm having).
The longest I've waited to get a hold of customer service rep was about 5 hours until I decided to give up.
So my account is now completely inaccessible and even when it was, it was a giant pain. And it doesn't look like this issue will be resolved anytime soon. I love the game, I really do. But it just doesn't seem worth it, and already having 3 email accounts (two personal and one school) I really don't want to have to make a 4th just to play SWTOR.
Again, I'm not trying to bash the game nor am I trying to tell anyone that they shouldn't start playing it. If it weren't for these issues I'd still be playing.
Until next time...
I had an account for SWTOR since I was offered a 7 day free trial through email a few months after the game was first released. Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to continue playing the game after the trial had ended. In fact, I hadn't started playing the game again until F2P was an available option. So I started playing again, and about a month after I had started playing again is when the problems began. The issues were mostly related to my account and only with the website. The issues with the game didn't happen until a few days ago.
At first, the issue was that every few days (up to a week) when I try to log in to my account on the website I am taken to this page telling me that the computer I am using to access my account is not recognized. I found this incredibly odd considering it's the only computer I have as well as the only one that I have ever used when logging into the SWTOR site. So of course it would ask my security questions, questions that I set up well over a year ago. I only remember the answers to two of them and unfortunately those two were only asked about 3 times total. Why haven't I just changed them? Well most sites that use security questions usually make it incredibly easy to change them, however SWTOR is the first website I have encountered that does not give the option of changing security questions/answers myself through some option under Account Settings. No in order to change them I have to contact customer service, a feat that I have found to be near impossible.
Another odd bug is that sometimes when I'm logged in on the site and try to access another page on the site, it will load with me logged out of the site. If I try to log back in, then it sends me back to the home page and when I try to go back to the page that logged me out it will log me out again.
What ultimately made me decide to give up was when the first issue became even worse and even spread to my game client. Eventually, every time I tried to log in to the website it would always state that it doesn't recognize the computer I was using. But it eventually it made its way to my game client and it unfortunately asked one of the security questions I didn't remember. I was only allowed two attempts apparently until it locked my account. However, something I've also never seen other mmo games or websites do, my account is locked indefinitely (rather than for a certain amount of time) until I get a hold of customer service.
This is the second issue I have with SWTOR, customer service is incredibly difficult to get a hold of. There is no email address given on the contact support page and the phone lines are always packed with a large number of callers (I bet a good number of them have the same issues I'm having).
The longest I've waited to get a hold of customer service rep was about 5 hours until I decided to give up.
So my account is now completely inaccessible and even when it was, it was a giant pain. And it doesn't look like this issue will be resolved anytime soon. I love the game, I really do. But it just doesn't seem worth it, and already having 3 email accounts (two personal and one school) I really don't want to have to make a 4th just to play SWTOR.
Again, I'm not trying to bash the game nor am I trying to tell anyone that they shouldn't start playing it. If it weren't for these issues I'd still be playing.
Until next time...
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Path of Exile: Consuming my free time since start of Open Beta
I actually found out about Path of Exile a week before Open Beta started from my friend in college who I play League of Legends with frequently. As soon as he told me about it, I went to the site and took a look at it. It looked really nice and figured I could give a try, so I made an account so that I would be ready for Open Beta. I am still playing it to this day, I just find it to be so much fun. I am not saying it's the greatest game ever or anything, after all it's gone tons of bugs and stuff (but that's because it's still in beta), but that doesn't take away from the fun for me. Right now, I have three characters: a witch (she was my first, although I didn't like the way her build turned out so I may delete her), a shadow (really enjoy), and a templar (solo farming). That's all I really want to say for now. I know it's kind of a lame post, but I didn't really want to talk about the game much until at a point where I felt like writing a review.
Off topic: Game development progess:
-programming is still at a stand still
-story development is moving along just fine
-haven't even thought about doing art yet
-still haven't got around to embedding twitter feed for small time blog news to blog yet
Until next time.
Off topic: Game development progess:
-programming is still at a stand still
-story development is moving along just fine
-haven't even thought about doing art yet
-still haven't got around to embedding twitter feed for small time blog news to blog yet
Until next time.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Game Development taking a new direction
So that apocalyptic fantasy game I was designing has taken on a new direction entirely. I've been working a lot on developing the story with what little free time I have this semester, and it has led to some pretty dramatic changes.
Really the only change I feel I should mention right, which is probably the most dramatic one, is that it is no longer a post apocalyptic fantasy rpg game. Creating a story for an rpg was in itself a very time consuming and difficult thing for me to handle, not to mention that for my story I needed to create a world before and after the event that destroyed civilization. In the end, it was looking to be a very large game with a lot of complicated mechanics and the Ouya only has about 8GB. So the new direction is an adventure game with role playing elements. And I am not doing a post apocalyptic story anymore as well, making it easier to develop a world, a simple history that still explains key things really well, and still make it big enough to be fun to explore.
I already have some general ideas for the story, world, and characters, as well as view decent starting rough drafts but that's all I really want to share at the moment. Well actually, again since the memory is small, I will most likely not be making a 3D game but rather a 2D instead. Hopefully things will get easier as I get farther along.
Really the only change I feel I should mention right, which is probably the most dramatic one, is that it is no longer a post apocalyptic fantasy rpg game. Creating a story for an rpg was in itself a very time consuming and difficult thing for me to handle, not to mention that for my story I needed to create a world before and after the event that destroyed civilization. In the end, it was looking to be a very large game with a lot of complicated mechanics and the Ouya only has about 8GB. So the new direction is an adventure game with role playing elements. And I am not doing a post apocalyptic story anymore as well, making it easier to develop a world, a simple history that still explains key things really well, and still make it big enough to be fun to explore.
I already have some general ideas for the story, world, and characters, as well as view decent starting rough drafts but that's all I really want to share at the moment. Well actually, again since the memory is small, I will most likely not be making a 3D game but rather a 2D instead. Hopefully things will get easier as I get farther along.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
My opinion on when the next Mass Effect title should take place
As many, if not all, of you know Mass Effect's series executive producer Casey Hudson recently asked ME fans for their opinion on 'when' they want the next title to take place (1). Personally, I think it would be interesting either way. If it was before, there would be a lot of room to make a story surrounding all of the alien races as well as humans. Heck, it would be really cool if the next series took place when citadel council was first beginning to form/stabilize.
A sequel to the series would be cool too, but I feel it would be a bit more difficult to explain certain things. For instance, (oh btw, if for some reason you still haven't played ME3, then SPOILER ALERT) no matter which ending you got, the Mass Relays are destroyed. Because of this, all of the colonized systems are completely cut off from the other clusters. Not to mention that the Mass Relays are Reaper tech (2), so it is entirely questionable whether any species including Asari are even capable of constructing them.
While I don't mind whether the next title is a prequel or sequel, I think it would be better to make a prequel. Not only that, I think the story should revolve around the alien races more than the human alliance. So if it's going to cover the human-Turian war, then portray from a Turian's point of view.
Well that's really all I have to say about this subject for now. Just got Far Cry 3 today and now I want to play it. Until next time.
(1) https://twitter.com/CaseyDHudson/status/270668914273443840
(2)http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Relay (Origins section)
A sequel to the series would be cool too, but I feel it would be a bit more difficult to explain certain things. For instance, (oh btw, if for some reason you still haven't played ME3, then SPOILER ALERT) no matter which ending you got, the Mass Relays are destroyed. Because of this, all of the colonized systems are completely cut off from the other clusters. Not to mention that the Mass Relays are Reaper tech (2), so it is entirely questionable whether any species including Asari are even capable of constructing them.
While I don't mind whether the next title is a prequel or sequel, I think it would be better to make a prequel. Not only that, I think the story should revolve around the alien races more than the human alliance. So if it's going to cover the human-Turian war, then portray from a Turian's point of view.
Well that's really all I have to say about this subject for now. Just got Far Cry 3 today and now I want to play it. Until next time.
(1) https://twitter.com/CaseyDHudson/status/270668914273443840
(2)http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_Relay (Origins section)
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