Okay, as I previosly mentioned, I played the City of Villains beta. Over it. Started off cool. Really nice character customization. Nice level designs. It felt like I was in a 3D comic book. Nice music score. Very little lag. But, that was it. I found it a rather empty experience. Pointless. Missions were bland. Is there any story or throughline? I don't know. It definitely wasn't apparant.

Now I have become a major fan of the MMO games. When they are done right, they are very good, but many are pointless exercises of random slaying in an effort to level up. I've been trying a lot of these MMO's lately, and very few really offer a compelling experience. I guess FF XI has me spoiled. I am enjoying Evercrack II. After all the hype I finally tried it out. (I got a demo of it at the Digital Life convention.) I see the addiction. I also tried out Star Wars Galaxies. I would have enjoyed it more if there wasn't heinous lag times. I played Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst. It looked really nice, but again, it left me kind of empty.

To me, an MMO needs to offer several things: Good character customization, good graphics, massive maps and levels, and, most importantly, a reason to be. I want a MMO's where the goals and reasons to progress are apparant. I want to do more than just level up. I want an adventure and a sense of discovery that can be done solo and/or shared with a party.
That said, it's back to the FF XI for me, with a little Anarchy Online and Evercrack thrown in for variety.

OOOO... I also finished Shadow of the Colossus. Wow! Beautiful. Sublime. Get it! Enough said. And, I finally bought Jak X Combat Racing. I was a beta tester for that one, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have always enjoyed the Jak family of games, and this one is a nice addition and a fun experience online.

So, back to the games! Been playing a lot lately while I'm bashing my head against my desk trying to develop these screenplays I'm working on.