Tag Archives: MMOs

Girls and Zombies

I had been looking for something new to play co-op with my girlfriend and it doesn’t seem like there are many good, local co-op games for the Xbox 360 that aren’t some sort of totally uber manly shooter games. Sure, I’ve got Rainbow 6: Vegas 1 and 2, along with both GRAWs, Halo 3, and Gears of Wars but she just doesn’t seem to be feeling those. To be honest I haven’t tried to get her to play them yet because I know they’re not her taste thematically never mind that she hasn’t really played many FPS or TPS games.

She’s actually usually a very quick study when it comes to games and tends to be a bit better than me at most of them. Perhaps that’s another good reason not to introduce her to one of my favorite genres – it’d really hurt my ego to get smashed by my noob girlfriend at a tactical FPS. 😛 Then again, it’s fun to daydream about us going online and working as a deadly duo. It could open up a whole new world of possibilities! She could finally play something other than World of Warcraft or The Sims 2 on her PC and I could have a permanent partner in crime. Probably just a pipe dream though…

“Come on, you know you wanted a screenshot of a bag vendor!”

We’d dabbled with a lot of different games in the past but the only ones that had ever really hooked up were World of Warcraft, Rock Band 1 and 2, and Carcassonne. The latter two we still play on a fairly regular basis. We could probably still be playing WoW if I didn’t start playing it with her well after having a main to max level and multiple alts scattered around at various level ranges. In other words I feel like I had exhausted most of the pre-expansion content and, in general, was pretty burnt out on WoW. We both felt a brief resurgence in interest after The Burning Crusade came out and ended up rolling some new Draenei characters which I was enjoying quite a bit at first but, again, burnout hit me.

I’ve been seriously considering going back, especially since Blizzard has bumped up lower end experience gain a few different times since we last played. The most frustrating thing is that I’m absolutely sure we could play and enjoy other MMOs together, ones I’d be slow to become exhausted of – hell, it would have been cool to have her along the ride with the rest of my guild in Warhammer Online. The main problem there is that her PC is somewhat outdated and she can’t really afford to stay in the hardware race at the moment. Maybe in a few more years!

I ended up dusting off my copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. I actually got it for free, bundled with my Xbox 360 alongside Forza 2. Neither of them are games I was particularly interested in but both are pretty well respected and reviewed and nothing I necessarily object to owning either. We had played Ultimate Alliance a little bit when I first got my 360 but tired of it quickly and, for no particular reason, never picked it back up. Our save was literally a year old!

“Mission accomplished: We’ve looted Valhalla’s entire supply of beer.”

I quickly remembered why the game didn’t grab me. The graphics are decent, the game is pretty polished, generally, but it just doesn’t do anything for me. My top two complaints are probably that I find the combat to be far too button mashy and chaotic and the RPGish elements (character advancement and customization, for example) to be less than intuitive. I actually remembered having similar complaints when we rented a copy of one of the Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance games years ago. Regardless, for the time being it is getting the job done without my having to step foot or cloven hoof back into Azeroth.

Speaking of co-op games I had mentioned in a previous entry that I was annoyed about trying to grab the Xbox 360 Left 4 Dead demo as I thought it was something my girlfriend and I could potentially play split screen. It would have actually probably been a great introduction FPS game for her – pure co-op, fairly simple, and in a theme she could probably better appreciate. I also mentioned that a lot of friends had been trying to talk me into buying the PC version but I figured time zones would be a major issue so I resisted temptation. Well, that has changed.

“Da plaaaane!”

Some of the guys from The Untitled Games Podcast and I grabbed the game during a 50% off Steam sale on it. We definitely don’t have the time zone issue as we’re all local and as an added bonus it gives us something common to talk about on the show. We haven’t played together much yet but so far it’s definitely worth 25 bucks! Now I’m wondering if a second copy might not be worth it as it would surely run on her old gaming rig. Maybe I should rent the 360 version for us?

Marvel Ultimate Alliance screenshot lifted from somewhere else since I can’t easily take HD console screenshots.

Farewall to WAR…

As I had mentioned before I’m pretty burnt out on Warhammer Online and MMOs in general for the time being. As I still haven’t felt any kind of resurgence in interest despite lots of cool announcements from the fellows over at Mythic I suppose I’m going to go ahead and cancel my account.

Frankly I’m sure I’ll return to WAR eventually and I’m definitely not saying adios to MMOs forever – I can’t. In fact I’m very interested in how Jumpgate: Evolution, Star Trek Online, The Old Republic, Global Agenda, Free Realms, and Champions Online amongst others all turn out.

One of my WAR specific issues is that it’s simply not a great solo game. Its PVE level treadmill is decent enough but hardly feels rewarding enough on its own. Public Quests are nifty but hardly compelling enough to justify sticking around and I don’t have enough time to do many other group activities even if there were more dungeons and/or raids in Warhammer. World PVP, for me, seemed to devolve into a bunch of repetitious running back and forth and combat that never really felt that fun or interesting, and I’ve already had my fill of the PVP scenarios.

I’ve come to a new realization after thinking about my recent experiences in WAR. Something I’d love to see, and I know I’ve said in that I’m more of an advocate of sandbox style MMOs, is an “theme park” type MMO that feels like more of a single player game – that’s rewarding when I play it solo in more ways than just the occasional whiff of the carrot on the end of the stick you get from normal treadmills. I know some of the above upcoming games, most notably The Old Republic, are making strides in that direction and I can’t wait to see how those efforts pan out.

Sadly enough I’m tempted to give Age of Conan, a second try. I’m resisting though – it hasn’t been enough time and not enough has changed (or at least appears that way from the patch notes) since I last played it to guarantee I’ll even notice the difference. Saldy enough I suppose the lack of updates was part of the reason I cancelled in the first place.

Anyway, here’s a final batch of older Warhammer screenshots:

“My level 40 White Lion mugging it up for the camera.”

“Wait… my ride!”

“One of my guild leveling pact group’s early outing.”

“We eventually graduated to killing daemons.”

“…and guarding objectives in PVP!”

“Power tanking with my Swordmaster and a Knight of the Blazing Sun.”

“Taking a break from all of that grinding to pose. This could make a decent desktop wallpaper.”

Katagraw

After beating Warhammer: Battle March I jumped right into my Xbox 360 backlog.

I decided to hit up something entirely different first and started Beautiful Katamari. I’m certainly familiar with the concept behind the Katamari games and indeed have tried them in very short bursts in the past but this is the first time I’ve actually tried to sit down and play through one. I don’t feel like I need to say much about the quirky characters, stylized art, bizarre, catchy music, or how it is all hilariously countered by the disturbing concept of “rolling up” living people, destroying cities, and even uprooting entire continents. The controls take a little getting used to which I’m sure is quite intentional but, even so, I found myself sucking at Beautiful Katamari lot more than I’d anticipated. I had to retry some stages several times before beating the required goals which doesn’t even guarantee you got a good score a long the way. The king is also a pretty big dick when you do any less than fantastic. Thanks Dad!

I blasted through the entire single player campaign in just a few sittings picking up an easy 245 achievement points along the way. Definitely a unique, enjoyable game but definitely not something I felt like I wanted to invest a lot of time into especially considering the size of my backlog though I admit I was definitely tempted to try to beat some of my more lackluster scores. If you are the type who wants to complete games 100% though Beautiful Katamari gives you plenty of goals to chase after – collecting hidden cousins and presents in levels and completing your collection of rolled up items as well as other achievements will have you playing for quite a few more hours. There’s also several additional DLC levels you can purchase as well which I’ve heard are pretty good.

“Sure, don’t worry about why I’m in cover guys, just stand there in the open.”

Next up was Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2. I’ve been a long time fan of the Ghost Recon series although the original Ghost Recon is quite clearly my favorite with all subsequent games taking different directions to try to break out of its hardcore niche into a more mainstream audience. I’m only about a third of the way through the single player campaign at the time of this post but so far GRAW2 definitely corrects some of the issues I had with the first GRAW: The campaign feels much shorter, with less drug out and strung along missions. The game as a whole feels a lot easier and, more importantly, less frustrating than the first one. Overall I’m having a lot more fun with GRAW2 than I did with GRAW as well – I’m not sure if this is because of some of the changes and the extra polish that it’s received or maybe just because it has been a while since I’ve played this kind of game. Regardless so far I’m considering replaying the whole thing on the hardest difficulty when this run is done with which is in stark contrast to GRAW’s single player campaign that I couldn’t wait to be done with by the time it was nearing the end.

My Warhammer Online burnout morphed into a general MMO burnout after taking a very quick hop around space on my Eve Online account thanks to a free reactivation promotion. I was quickly reminded of why I quit the game and, more importantly, if I wanted to get the most out of hopping back into it I’d have to invest way more time than I currently have running around with a corporation (Eve’s equivalent of a guild or a clan) and the like. Besides that I’d simply rather be playing other games than any particular MMO right now. There are certainly some interesting looking ones on the horizon, such as Jumpgate: Evolution though. It may take one of them to get me back in the fold after I finally decide to cancel my WAR account.

Please forgive the horrible photograph of GRAW2. This is the first time I’ve actually posted a photo of a 360 game despite being tempted many times before. It’s better than nothing, perhaps? I definitely prefer posting my own screenshots over stealing someone else’s in any case.