Lawncare and the Undead

In the division of household chores between my wife and myself, I am the one tasked with mowing the lawn.  I can’t complain about it too much, since it only needs to be down for six months out of the year (as opposed to laundry), and it takes my only about an hour to do the front, the back, and trim with a weed-eater.  Despite all of that, I don’t like lawn-care, or gardening, but  I love Plants versus Zombies.

This game was not on my radar until I heard an interview with Jason Kapalka on the Gamers With Jobs Conference Call 133.  I bought it on Steam for $10 ($9.99), although you can also get it directly from PopCap but it’s listed as $19.95.

I’m not going to do any kind of in-depth review because I’m having too much fun playing (4.8 hours according to Steam).  Plus Syp over at Bio Break already did a better job than I could have.  I will say that the sense of humor and quirkiness reminds me of World of Goo.

Update – Destructoid also has a review up if you want something even more detailed or just to see some screenshots.  You can also find a demo on both the Steam and PopCap sites.

Ered Luin Revisited

I haven’t been to Ered Luin since the game launched.  My first character was an Elven Hunter on Gladden that I got to 15 during the head-start week.  I ended up re-rolling a Man Hunter on Landroval after I read on the forums that it  was going to be the unofficial role-play server.  So it’s been nearly two years since I’ve spent any time there.  I have an Elven Rune-keeper, Calenel, that I’d started but only played to level 8, so Book 7 seemed a good time to get back to him and see what kind of changes Turbine had worked out.

First thing of course is the XP curve change, I killed a rat and dinged 9.  Pretty nice.

Celondim has been streamlined a bit.  I remember a fair bit more running from Celondim to Nen Hilith and to Limael’s Vineyard and back again.  Now there is a quest NPC that sends you out to Nen Hilith and then is a small quest hub of four NPC’s that the mouth of the dell.  The same thing Limael is now at the tower on the hill just before her Vineyard instead of back in Celondim.  So now instead of two or three trips out and back, it’s one.

Duillond has a bit more running, but it’s still much improved.

As Calenel reached the teen levels, I noticed I couldn’t find any elites and had no trouble soloing all of the quests I was given.  I was especially surprised to find that you can solo all the way through the Prologue now.  I’m working through the Bree Prologue quests on a Man Warden character and there are still Fellowship quests towards the end of that chain.  I’m interested to see if Turbine changes the Bree and Shire prologue quests as well with the next content release.

Overall, the new zone is much more streamlined and enjoyable.  I’m not sure why the Prologue quests were made solo-able but it might point to a general shortage of low-level players in the Ered Luin region.  It’s certainly nice to be able to join a Fellowship as an option, but not be blocked.  I remember the Lone-lands being especially bad for that, I would login with a quest log full of Fellowship quests that no one was doing.

Now Excited for Arkham Asylum

Growing up Batman and Spider-man were my two favorite superheroes.  My experience of both were limited to Saturday morning and weekday afternoon cartoons.  Living in a small town, I didn’t get any exposure to comic books until I got to college.  I’ve enjoyed the recent reboot of the Batman movie franchise and I loved the Spider-man movies, although the last one was the worst of the three.  I’m also reading some of the classics.  Currently I’m reading Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One, and I’m planning to get Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: The Long Halloween next.

So despite being a Batman fan, I wasn’t really looking forward to Batman: Arkham Asylum until I saw this video over at Destructoid.  If you like the Frank Miller era Batman, go watch this now.  The game play looks good, the atmosphere looks awesome, and the graphics look fantastic.  It sounds so minor, and it’s not something I’ve really though much about, but I think Batman’s cape is a major element to the character and this game really seems to have nailed it.

Mount and Blade

After recommendations from Bill at Dubious Quality and Darren at Common Sense Gamer, I finally made some time to download and trout the Mount and Blade demo through Steam.  Did I like it?  Yes.  How much?  I started with the tutorial around 9:30 pm, after my wife and son went to bed.  After the tutorial I started a game.  I played for a bit: got some quests, failed one and completed others, gained a few levels, got captured once.  I was having fun and then some part of my brain wondered, “What time is it?”  It was 2 am, and I needed to get up in 5 hours for work.  While this isn’t too out of the ordinary, I actually continued to play for another 30 minutes.  Just had to finish one more thing.

So yeah, I’m really enjoying the game.  I’ve since hit the level 7 limit of the demo and purchased the complete version.

I’m actually surprised I liked it so much. I’m a pretty shallow gamer.  Graphics are a big part of games for me, enough so that I don’t usually play older games or indie games.  Even when the gameplay is great, if the graphics aren’t good then I’m not interested.

My only complaint isn’t actually game realted.  When I purchased the full version, Steam didn’t convert my existing installation but re-downloaded the full game again.

So if you like RPG’s go get it.  It’s a little bit Oblivion and a little bit Total War.

Fable 2 Follow Up

Last time I posted, I was enjoying Fable 2 but not loving it.  It turns out that I didn’t have to restart my character.  Apparently I had turned off the game without saving my progress so the marriage and a couple of evil actions I had performed were undone.

After sinking fifteen more hours into the game, I can now say that I’m loving it.  I think the major problem was getting over the initial learning curve.  There are so many activities, with very little structure, that you can get to a point where you are missing some expressions that you need but haven’t yet gotten.  That’s how I got into the situation where my character was married, his wife was constantly asking for sex, yet he hadn’t picked up the social action needed.

Having completed the sortyline as a good/pure character.  I’m working through the story again as an evil character.  I haven’t decided yet is he’s going to be totally corrupt or not.

The story itself is very good and there are several interesting moral choices that come up when playing.  Some choices even have game play repercussions.

Moria D2

After a great first day, I was looking forward to playing again.  While I did spend some time with my hunter, I did not get a chance to play my Warden any further or create a Rune-Keeper.

With my hunter I did finish the Dwarven Expedition quest line, which is gone once you unlock Moria, and several more chapters of the Book 1 quest.  My initial encounter with the Watcher was fun, and the session play flashback to the fall of Khazad-dûm was excellent.  I also received my first legendary item.  When you get your first weapon, in my case a bow, you have to get it identified.  For me, this involved a trip to Thorin’s Hall.  I’m hoping that other classes don’t have to make that same trip, since it is about as far away from the Walls of Moria as you can get.

In Thorin’s Hall, I identified and equiped my bow and then slotted some settings, gems, and runes to add some different bonuses to it.  Slotting these items into the weapon is semi-permanent since you can’t get them back out without having the weapon reforged, although you can slot someting new but you’ll lose whatever is currently in that slot.

After your legendary weapon is ready, then next step is to get it to level 10 by fighting anything that will give you experience.  I mapped back to Echad Dûnann and picked up several quests to get started on levelling my bow.  Like with a new character, the first few levels with a new item come pretty quickly, then the experience curve gets a little steeper.

Moria D1 – Play Experience

You can read about the UI changes for Moria here: Moria D1 – UI Changes.

As a hunter, anytime a new area is opened I check around for the fast travel intro quest.  I was in Forochel so I got the quest to travel to Eregion from an elf wandering the frozen city of Sûri-kylä.  Next, I went to Bree to the Prancing Pony to turn in my preorder tokens for items.  The preorder items were ok.  Mostly just cosmetic but in-line with most of the previous bonus items.  Finally, I travelled to Rivendell before getting on my horse for the short ride through the Trollshaws to Eregion.

Riding into Eregion initially, you come over a ridge into Glad Ereg and the elven camp of Gwingris.  Glad Ereg looks much like any other hilly woodland in Middle-Earth.  I wasn’t sure how packed the new area would be, especially given the fact that Moria itself must be unlocked, although I was hoping that it would be heavily populated (meaning that the expansion was selling well).  Eregion was heavily populated, but not so much that I couldn’t complete quests. From Gwingris in Glad Ereg I explored south into High Hollin and Low Hollin, finding the camps of Echad Eregion, Mirobel, and Echad Dûnann.  Echad Dûnann became my new base camp, as that’s where the fast travel quest giver is located as well as the entrance to Moria and the dwarf who gives the Volume 2, Book 1 quest to open the gates.

While Eregion is a beautiful zone, it wasn’t until I entered the Gates of Moria area to start on the Expedtion and Book 1 quests that I had a Weathertop moment.  Basically that describes anytime that I see a landmark in the game that I loved from the books.  Early on in the game, I enjoyed visiting Hobbiton and similar places, but it wasn’t until I entered the Lone Lands and first saw Weathertop in the distance that I really had an emotional involvment in the game.  I had a similar moment the first time I rode around a mountaint corner and saw the valley of Rivendell layed out in front of me.  With Moria, it was climing the stairs to be confronted with the Black Lake.  Even before seeing Durin’s Door, just seeing the lake and the darkened atmosphere was a great moment for me.  Turbine has completely nailed the feeling of these iconic areas, and it made me even more excited to open Durin’s Door and see the interior of Moria.

After working my way through most of the Expedition quests and the first three chapters of Volume 2, Book 1, I decided to try out one of the new classes.  I created a Warden and played through the introduction and the first two quests in Archet (created a Man of Rohan).  It’s wasn’t long enough to know whether or not I’m going to enjoy the class, but it is enough to know that I might.

My next play session, I plan to get through a few more chapters of Book1 and then try out the Rune-Keeper.

After the first few hours, I’m extremely happy with the Mines of Moria expansion, and judging by the chat conversation on Landroval last night, it will only get better.

Moria D1 – UI Changes

Weeks ago I pre-ordered the digital upgrade from Turbine and registered both the pre-order and expansion keys.  Once it became available, I torrented the Moria update patch, and then on Monday installed it.  So, when I got home from work on Tuesday around 6 pm I was able to launch the client right away with the intent of getting some time in on the new content.

Unfortunately, Turbine was in the middle of an emergency patch and the servers weren’t scheduled to be back up until 7:30.  Oh well, that gave me time to do some stuff around the house and take over baby duties from my wife for a bit.

After checking back around 7:30, I found the servers were up and I logged in.  First thing I found out was I was overdue for my housing upkeep, so I pushed enough silver into escrow to carry me through the end of the year.  Then I was ready to play with my level 50 Hunter, who was currently in Forochel.

There were some small UI changes to accommodate the new trait and legendary item buttons.  The icons on the left-side of the bottom-bar were staggered up and down instead of in a straight left to right line.  I liked how Turbine reorganized the bottom-bar without making it any bigger.  I’m always trying to minimize the UI as much as possible so I can see more of the world.

The Legendary Items window is going to remain a mystery for a while since I haven’t yet completed the Volume 2, Book 1.

I like the new Traits window.  It’s a much clearer presentation of the information and it makes traits easier to manage.  At a glance I can see all of the virtues I have slotted and with a quick mouse-over to see what each one does.  I especially like the ring icon displayed on any virtue which has an available deed linked to it.  So I can click on a virtue I’m interested in advancing and jump straight to the deed I need to work on.  Awesome.

There are also quite a few new deeds.  It seems like every time I used one of my abilities I was getting a new deed popup.  Most of these new deeds unlock new class traits.  Also all of thetraits have been reorganized into three sets along with set bonuses.  So, now if I slot two or more traits from a set, I get an additional bonus.

A UI change I wasn’t expecting was moving a lot of the quest item junk from my bags to a quest bag.  There’s really no bag space to look at, but the items show up in the quest log for which ever quest they belong too.  Unfortunately some items didn’t move, since anything that needs to be used or traded needs to be accessible.  Overall a definite improvement and one of the features from Warhammer that I was hoping other MMO’s would copy.

Another minor change was upping the number of active quests from 40 to 43.  Not a big increase, but still appreciated.  I constantly have to cancel quests to make room for new ones.  If only there was no limit.

That’s it for the initial UI impressions; I’m going to break my initial play experience out into another post.

Fable 2

The opening and introductory section is really good.  Once you become an adult and get turned loose on the world, the game felt a little rough.  The world is pretty wide open which I like.  But the interface doesn’t give me enough feedback and is not intuitive enough.

The quest log interface is a pain, though I like the glowing trails that show up.  The trails are especially nice, since there’s no on-screen minimap (which I miss).  The map that comes up in the pause menus is ok, but there’s no way to distinguish what store is where just where stores are located.  I’m afraid I’m going to have to find maps online or make my own, because I’m constantly getting lost in towns.

The +/- purity and weight messages seem to disappear too quickly.  I haven’t looked yet, but I’m hoping there’s a way to increase the amount of time the on-screen status messages display.

Now let’s talk about the d-pad icons.  Can anyone else tell what’s what?  Beyond the thumbs up and down, I really can’t distinguish which icon is doing what.  Often the icons switch pretty quickly as well.  I spend most of my time just using the menu that pops up.

All of these feedback issues were highlighted when I got married.  I was able to bring the woman back to the gypsy camp and setup a marital house at my starting wagon.  Then I got some dialog about having sex and my wife keeps making suggestive comments, but I can’t find anything either on the D-pad or the popup menu.  Did I get married too early (which I can’t type without chuckling)?  Is there a social action I’m missing?  There’s nothing in the in-game help to address this.  Once married can I get a divorce?  How do I go about getting a divorce?

These kinds of questions illustrate the pitfalls of having such an open game without a more comprehensive and detailed interface (which are at least partly due to the platform).

So at this point I’m really early in the game and I already feel like I’ve messed up enough that I should start over.  I’ve packed on some weight (doing some taste testing in a bar) and married before I was ready.  Before I restart I’m considering going little nuts.  What would happen if I take a girlfriend (someone ready to marry me) back to the gypsy camp and see my wife?  What happens if I flip out and kill everyone in the camp?  If I kill my wife, what kind of reputation impact does that have on my character and on my girlfriend (would she still marry me after)?  While it sucks that I feel like I need to restart my current game, these kinds of questions are a good result of having such an open world in a game.

Overall, I like the game, its fun.  But I’m not loving it.  Yet.  I’m not thinking about the game when I’m at work.  We’ll see once I restart how things go.  I think I’ll do less exploring initially and stay a bit more focused on the primary quest line.

Warhammer Impressions 2

In case you missed it, in Warhammer Impressions 1 I talked about the launch and the high-level zone/quest design for the first two tiers

My initial class was an Elven Shadow Hunter.  My primary in LoTRO is a Man Hunter, and in WoW was a Night Elf Hunter.  I have a thing for archery classes.  So I tried out the Shadow Hunter first.  Unfortunately, I absolutely hate the shooting animation.   No bowstring.  No arrow.  The character aims for the sky like he’s firing an English longbow, which would be okay except the 90% of the time he’s shooting at something much closer.   Sometimes you see an arrow fly out and hit the target and sometimes you don’t.  I may be spoiled by LoTRO’s animation, but after about five kills the Shadow Hunter got deleted.  I didn’t even complete the first quest to kill sprites.

My second class was a Dwarf Engineer.  The animations were much more enjoyable, and I really liked the feels of the Dwarf areas better than the Elf starting zone.

Combat overall is good.  A little slow, but not too bad.  I always feel like I have something to do.  PvP has been great fun in the couple of scenarios I’ve tried.

Crafting.  Mmmmm, no.  Crafting seems really last minute to me.  I tried a little bit of both alchemy and talismans and didn’t like either.  Also, there’s no quest introduction.  So far I think both LoTRO and WoW handled crafting better.