Ugh. This is it?!?!

This is Bioware/Mythic’s big announcement?

A new Skaven race (that you can’t even level from level one!) and an increase of the Renown cap to 100 from 80?

That’s it?!?!

Before you say it, yes I know we don’t have all the details yet but, come on, this is a big letdown.  No matter how you fancy it up, a single race and renown cap raise is not enough to keep people interested in WAR.  WAR needed some big news this week, something to keep people interested.  Something to give people hope that there was actually new content coming.

Instead we get this??

Oh, and I love this quote:

With the RvR pack Bioware Mythic wants to move away from the standard “Release a huge expansion every 2 years.” system and wants to adopt a system that allows players to“customize their game experience”.

Why don’t they just admit that they do not have the staff nor the players to justify a proper expansion?  It is pretty obvious that WAR is being run with a skeleton crew and that EA has pretty much abandoned it in favor of  ”The Next Big Thing”  a.k.a. Star Wars: The Old Republic.  At this point, WAR is not even on the back-burner, it has been taken completely off the stove.

Carrie and all the WAR fanboys, I hate to break it to you but this is not content.  An added race and twenty new Renown levels to grind is not content.  This game needs new zones, new endgame experiences.  It needs a lot of things but this is not it.

Hate to be Chicken Little but this is it, the beginning of the end.  WAR is just about over.  RvR while you can, folks.

WAR is a Strange Beast

The review and video for Global Agenda is still in the pipeline but, while I am waiting to build up enough raw video for the PvP video, I wanted to talk a little about Warhammer Online.  I had recently given it another try and it just really confounds me.

WAR, as I have said before, was easily my most anticipated MMO ever.  I loved DAOC and I awaited WAR with the anticipation of a little girl at a Justin Whatshisname concert.  Of course, like many, I was immensely disappointed.  I have tried again and again to return to WAR, hoping beyond hope that things had finally improved enough to return to full time.  Time and time again, it has disappointed me.  Not only that but I can get no feel for what Mythic is trying to do with the game.  None at all.

For one, WAR is the only MMO I can think of that, two years out from release, has seemingly removed almost as much content as they have added.  They have removed Fortresses, reduced Auction House functionality and, although not removed completely, have reduced each side to one viable Tier One zone.  On the flip side, they have added Land of the Dead.  As far as I can tell that is really all they have added.  To me, that is a net loss.

Additionally, there are many parts of WAR that come across as amateurish at best.  Take NPC pathing for instance.  In AoC, WoW or just about any other MMO I can think of, when you pull a mob it paths right to you, every so often you will see weird bugs or pathing issues but that is the exception.  In WAR it seems to rubber band back and forth, run backwards to you or teleport past you.  No rhyme or reason, the pathing is just bad.  Really?  Two years out in a AAA MMO and they can’t even get pathing right?  I just don’t understand that.

The PvE is extremely poorly implemented.  The instances and their boss encounters are a joke.  The pathing issues extend to the instances and the boss abilities are just strange.  It is hard to describe but they are just not as tight as they are in WoW, LotRO or AoC.  It is so bad that no one does PvE instances anymore from what I can tell.  Bastion Stair is dead, no one does the low level city instances and the PQs are empty more often than not.

Now, I know that WAR is a PvP game but, damn, if you are going to have PvE in your game then do it right.  Seems Mythic is lost when it comes to coding PvE and Mob AI.  I just don’t understand it.  The PvE is not up to a AAA MMO standard.  It is amateurish at best.

I understand Mythic is supposed to have a big announcement this week and, for their sake, I hope it is big.  They need it, badly.  No new content in almost two years will kill a MMO.  There is only so much of the scenario/Keep Siege/City Siege treadmill that people can take.  Even for the biggest WAR supporters it will get stale eventually.  New content is a must and it better not be something minor like a new race or two.  It better be something major.  New instances, new zones and new things to do at endgame.

If the announcement this week is anything less, I think you might as well start writing WAR’s obituary.  It will be a sad day but it will be time.

A short, unfortunate return to WoW.

I mentioned that I tried WoW again at the insistence of some friends on mine from work.  I leveled a druid up (very quickly thanks to the recruit a friend system) and found myself completely disgusted with the game in its current form.  Short list of things that I hated:

• Server community is dead.  No one knows anyone, everyone queues in Dalaran for instances, BGs and arenas.
• Gear score has made the community even worse than before.  Elitism abounds, much of it unfounded.
• Everything is easy mode and homogenized.  Crowd control is a dirty word that no one ever uses anymore in PvE.  AoE pulls are the norm.  Strategy is gone.
• World PvP is non-existant for the most part.

WoW is in a horrible state right now, in my opinion, and I don’t think Cataclysm can fix it.  I found a picture on Keen’s forums that summed up how lacking in atmosphere, community and exploration WoW is right now:

I miss the big, sprawling dungeons that had atmosphere and encouraged exploration.  You could get lost in BRD or UBRS and it was awesome.  The dungeons are now a joke and designed for quick, easy runs instead of immersion.  Fine for some people but not for me.  Having explored the alpha leak of Cataclysm, I can say it gets worse.  Single hallways are the norm there.  Sadly old WoW is dead.

Could be the “COOLEST INSTANCE EVAR!!!!!!”

A ton of GDC news is breaking today about the new AoC expansion, Rise of the Godslayer.  Seems they went pretty in-depth about it at GDC and they revealed a bit of info.  One of the coolest things I have seen from it thus far is a presentation they did about some of the instances in the new expansion.  There seems to be some pretty unique features contained in these instances.  I am a PvP’er at heart but I do love me a good instance.

Check out the video:

Some added links for RotGS info:

Character Creation Video

MMORPG.com Coverage

Conan (IGN) Vault

Game Reactor Video

Ten-Ton Hammer

VGChartz Coverage

A Player Perspective

Kotaku Article

Eurogamer Article

Alternate Advancement Video

That is a metric ton of info. Thanks to Avery from the MMORPG.com forums for compiling them all in a single thread, located here!!!

All I can say is: Wow! This expansion is looking really, really nice. I really like that they are relying on lateral advancement instead of an increased level cap. It adds new content but does not invalidate all the old content. DAoC did all their expansions this way and I always prefered it to the WoW-style of raising the level cap.

The question I have, is there another MMO that has went from being a massively bad game to a very, very good one like AoC has? I can not think of another that has done as much to turn around a bad launch. WAR has improved a lot as well but nowhere near what AoC has. They have really impressed me with how they are treating this game and not putting it on life-support while they work on Secret World. That is to be commended.

Hopefully, the early adopters who left after the bad launch and the subsequent will be tantalized enough to give it a shot again. The game seems to have come a long way and I think they will be rewarded if they return. I know the servers could use a shot of returning players. Its not dead by a long shot on Cimmeria but I could stand to see a heavy population.

The Catacalysm will truly be the end for this old Hunter.

I played WoW since release and other than a month layoff before the release of TBC and WotLK, I have played it constantly up until about 7 months ago.  But, my time with WoW is at an end.  It is still an excellent game and I do not begrudge those who still enjoy it.  It still has some amazing art direction, some of the coolest boss fights in the business  and, except major patch days, a solid game engine.  But, alas, it is over for me.

I spent my last couple of weeks in WoW roaming all of my old haunts; Blackrock Mountain, Silithus, Hillsbrad Foothills and Stranglethorn Vale.  There was no one there, I saw no players except for the occasional lone leveler or gatherer but it brought back a lot of good memories.  Memories of intense PvP fights, 40 man raids, trying to get into Blackrock Mountain on a Horde dominated server.  All these memories dredged up.

Nostalgia.

The announcement of the Cataclysm expansion really drove it home for me; those days are gone and they are never coming back.  The game has changed and moved on and I am left wandering where it went.  I don’t blame Blizzard, they followed the money and there is certainly more players who enjoy WoW as it is now to WoW as it was then.  But, no matter the reason, WoW is gone for me.

Cataclysm even makes it worse somehow.  At least now I can still go back and visit those old areas, though there is no one there and little to do, they are still there.  After Cataclysm most of that area will be gone or irrevocably changed.

It is almost like an old child hood home.  If it isn’t torn down you can go back and visit, maybe even walk the halls.  The halls may be empty, the posters may be gone but it is still your home.  Then they tear it down and there is nothing to even visit anymore.  It’s gone.

Yeah, this may sound like a weeping sentimentalist post but I do it to illustrate why I will not be playing WoW after Cataclysm.  Why I did not cheer the expansion news like most of the other WoW fans did.  WoW was the most fun, for me, pre-TBC and Cataclysm will only take what I liked most about WoW and turn it into what I like least.

I will miss it but I hope the current fans enjoy themselves.  WoW will continue to be a juggernaut for the forseeable future and for very good reason.

Release the Kraken!!

One of the things I really wanted to see in the Darkfall expansion was the Kraken.  From the patch-notes:

The Kraken:

A new huge sea monster that eats ships for breakfast has been added to the world.

As usual with Aventurine, not much information to go on.  Where is he?  What does he drop?  Lots of questions but no answers.  Thankfully a European guild has faced the Kraken, bravely engaged it and were summarily executed for their temerity.  Not only did they face it, they filmed it, much to my delight.  I present to you, THE KRAKEN:

A few thoughts here.

• He is HUGE
• He is MEAN
• Graphically, he seems to be very well-done.
• I can not think of another MMO that has something quite like this.
• Many, many boats and swimmers will be lost to this monster.
• Queue the Jaws theme.

Come on Aventurine.  Patch NA-1.  NOW.

(The link above will allow you to purchase Darkfall, in addition I will get paid 20% of the purchase price.  This does not and will not taint my views of the game.  If I don’t like something about Darkfall, I have no compunctions about saying something about it.)

Edited to add another new Kraken video: