I spent about 4 hours yesterday digging deep into this title after several attempts to start over and try to see a pattern in how I am supposed to run the defense of the planet.

One thing I am worried about is making mistakes early on that no matter what I do I will not be able to fix it later. Pretty much working my way into a corner.

Though I started with the tutorial I am already having issues with understanding the lack of engineers, building the base, the proper build order, which countries to let go into chaos and more. Do I put at least two medkits in the squad? Do I need that stun device to capture aliens? How many aliens should I plan on capturing? What about Interceptors?

There are a lot of questions in this game that I just have no idea about. It is very deep but I do have some issues. One is the camera. It is terrible. Since it doesn't rotate like normal and in "segments" it makes it hard to get a good shot on the action. To my liking it does not zoom out enough either. Also the distinction between the floors and getting troops to go up steps or onto roofs is incredibly annoying.

The directions per missions are a little cloudy as well. On the bomb mission I thought I could still deactivate it when standing next to it even though it had been activated. Instead I had 3 turns to bug out and everyone blew up and died. If I am standing next to it why can I not just still shut it down?

I have a lot to learn in this game but I may hit up the Steam workshop and see what mods are out there to fix some issues I have unless anyone can recommend good ones here for me.

Despite those problems I have to say the game is a blast. I cringe when I lose certain troopers and there is a lot of depth, I just hope there is not one linear path to winning and multiple strategies can work.

My first Barbarian is in ACT IV now but he is mainly a sword and board build. By the way the cutscene for ACT IV was freaking awesome. Quite a twist in the story.

Anyway my second Barbarian is a two hand build and she had gotten all the best gear so far including two Legendaries. I had an epic battle in ACT III with GHOM on monster power level 7 earlier. I had to really kite him around in between swigging health potions.

He is dead now...barely. Sonja, the two handed wielding Barbarian, uses a Legendary weapon and helm. Of the three items I have found only the ring did I give away.

So far I was unable to defeat Balil on Monster Power level 7. He is just too tough and we don't do enough damage. After numerous deaths we had to drop it down to 4 or 5. I haven't tried him solo on level 7 yet but I am guessing it will be the same result.

I have not hit the auction house yet. This is all from drops. I suppose I could get more legendaries off the AH but I want to see how well I can do with drops.

I have three other characters in ACT 3 now. My goal is to finish the game on Normal with each character class and then go from there to see if I want to continue and play the game the way Blizzard wants us all to play it: farm and play the Auction House. I am not sure my heart will be into it but at least right now with the difficulty adjustment ability it makes Normal mode much more fun.

First off this is my 37th post of the month, a new topper for me and only makes me realize that I talk way too much and post way too many things that no one is reading. I need a press job somewhere. I admit I am bored. I traded in about 7 XBOX 360 games last night to get ONE new one, and I have 40 dollars of credit left over allowing me to put a reserve on Mercenaries 2, which comes out next week. I can handle Mercenaries 2 because it is a 3rd person shooter for the most part, and at least I can aim like that it flows better for me. With the reserve I get special downloadable things and some other nifty items I didn't really pay attention to. Now on to the review of Too Human, which I mentioned last week. Apparently the 5.5 review reward handed out by Kevin VanOrd over on Gamespot caused quite a stir in the console world. Kind of like a Brent review of Warhammer Online, some people are accusing him of not taking the time to understand the game. I was a little harsh on Too Human because I hated the controls. Lately though I have found many of the console titles I own to be lacking in, how do I say this, FUN. Especially the first person shooters which I stink so bad at because of the controller (I swear that's why). Other than sports titles I never play anything else but maybe Mass Effect. So when I saw Too Human was coming out and was basically Diablo 3 with a norse theme and sci fi, I wanted to get it badly. I let the demo scare me away, as well as the initial reviews. I still had an itching to get the game however. Like I said I got one game last night with my trade in money, and it was a brand new copy of Too Human. That is right I took the plunge. I was getting so bored with stealth and stalking and shooting terrorists I just wanted a game I could boot up and kill stuff in that was NOT on my PC. So I got the game that many are saying is not worth 60 bucks. I felt better about it since I did it all with store credit, and had credit left over. At least if it is so bad I cannot play it I can trade it in for maybe NHL09. We will see. I wasn't able to get into the game though as I had company over and had to cut my playtime short. My night was also very busy with football drafts and other complicated things that sucked the hours away from me.Meanwhile, over on the HotSpot podcast on Gamespot they mentioned a video rebuttal to the review by Kevin VanOrd had been posted at the G4 site by Kevin Pereira who is the host of Attack of the Show. So this argument went back and forth in the podcast and on the web much like our beloved blogger feud over Warhammer Online. I have taken both sides with a grain of salt, read the reviews and listened to the podcasts and come to the conclusion that before I totally give up on Too Human or pick a bad or good side in this battle I had to dig in and PLAY IT. Is that not the truth with most review criteria? My only problem now is finding the time as I am booked SOLID this weekend. I have basically late Thursday, all night Friday and some Sunday morning to get under the hood of this game, but otherwise it is all BBQ's and beer for me this weekend. If you skim the forums after any podcast, such as Virgin Worlds or Shut Up We Are Talking, you will find thought out responses to the content. The same was true for The Hotspot. This fellow quite nicely summed up what he LIKED about Too Human as follows: "Anyway, it's not about being "for or against" a game. Too Human is a fun, addictive experience. It has glitches, but so does just about every game released. He also makes fun of a ****c gameplay ****while talking about it in The Hotspot. Oh, and for the record, if you can't stand the Valkyrie scene Kevin, it means you died too damn much because you never understood how to play it. I can perform some pretty impressive combos that fill up the combo gauge to unleash Calls and Ruiners that keep up the hurt, with little to no damage taken (thanks to properly timed rolls, an important defensive gameplay mechanism)." Before I go any further I want to say good job to GAX Online's WAAAGH Podcast Number 2 and Shut Up We're Talking number 32 for presenting calm, meaningful discussions on what went on the past few weeks. On the flip side I have to say I was disappointed in Wilhelm2451's review of Warhammer Online and missing some of the basic concepts of things like Public Quests and having an issue with the quest log and such. We all know him as The Ancient Gaming Noob, and I have to admit in that review he DID sound like a noob. I am not sure how a Public Quest is so difficult to understand, but apparently they are. Also you can filter the radar, the quest log can be reached with a simple keystroke, and yes the start of Public Quests is chaotic but as it progesses you must work together to finish it. "This is supposed to encourage community and cooperation. It does so about as well as WoW battlegrounds do, from my own limited observations."Who cares if you have people running around nailing mobs and going crazy when you have to kill 60 of THEM TO ADVANCE TO STAGE 2. Just get in there and help out and progress the story arch.As the public quests go on you WILL have to work together, but of course not in the early ones. That is like needing a raid to kill Hogger in WoW at level 11. Give me a break, why make it hard to start out? Just get in there and wack on stuff and have a good time. Later on, when you level up, it will get difficult and people DO have to work together. Jump into Gunbad dungeon when the game is live and tell me what you think months from now about your statement. Yes your observations were limited, and no "most will not lose". You will have a chance to win something and at the same time WORK ON INFLUENCE. You are making progress in the game no matter what you do, which sets it apart from most current MMO's. Cap your influence, get those rewards, and leave the zone.Just FYI, you cannot go in and keep winning loot from a public quest. You get a certain amount of items and then you must move on, allowing other people to come in and win finally. More research, less complaining. "Public Quest Rewards*Players eligible for a PQ bag that do not receive one will accumulate bonuses for attempting a PQ multiple times to increase their chances of winning a bag. The bonus will increase the minimum roll for these players, increasing the chance that they will receive loot bags, up to a max bonus. Once a bag is received, or a player attempts a new PQ, or leaves for an extended amount of time the bonus is lost."

It is no secret that I do not harbor any ill will toward Sony Online like most people do. They have a rep for trashing MMO's, but honestly I don't see any of their games as deplorable like the psycho SWG crowd does (lets face it that game was doomed from the start with the time period they set it in anyway...bleh). Granted they threw a wrench into SWG and flubbed it, but that is in the past and we have to move on to better things. Most of their games are rescue jobs that would have failed anyway, like Vanguard and Matrix Online. Other than that, their titles are legendary, such as EQ1 and EQ2 (even though they took EQ1 over after a while).

So I look forward to The Agency, I think it looks cool and will provide a breath of fresh air in online gaming. The creators want to make it a spy game in the tradition of some of the great movies, so I expect a lot of over the top destruction and gadgets. The key will be to make sure the interface allows you play it no matter what your skill level and stay competitive. Soemthing along the lines of Tabula Rasa meets Golden Eye.

MMO Gamer has an interview with Matt Wilson, Executive Producer of the game. The actual interview can be found here, but I will cut and paste liberally to spare you all the "Hey tell us what you do how are the kids" BS in the start of the interview. He doesn't go too much into the details of the game so much as he does the philosophy behind what they want to design, and from the sounds of it it plans to be a pretty fun action oriented game.

"Matt Wilson: Well, when we first started thinking about the game, we definitely wanted to go for fast action. We felt that was where we wanted to move the space a little bit. Now is the time when we can start approaching that, the hardware has the capabilities, the back-end servers have the capabilities, we've done enough MMOs at SOE now to know all the latency aspects we have to attack. Now is the time for us to move forward on that kind of stuff." "There's a lot of things we thought about, from game design and UI, that the console provided a box to work within. Hal spends a lot of his time simplifying the game, more than making more complexity. It's a lot easier to make more complexity in a game than it is to simplify it. To really hit that audience and have them accept jumping into the MMO space, we have to simplify it, we have to lower the barriers to entry, we have to change a few paradigms on how people play, and we have to be willing to accept those. A simple paradigm is, Hal wrote this bullet down right when we started developing the game that said, one of our key components when developing this game is: "Fun now. No waiting."

No, I'm not talking about the recent subscription problems that Hellgate:London is having. I am talking about the atmosphere and the brooding mood set by the game. Finally got my collectors edition copy on Saturday and before I came down with a nasty cold was playing it right until raid time Saturday night.

Before I get into Hellgate, let me throw out there that our guild in WoW one shotted Terestian Illhoof and then cleared the free epic chess event before we decided to call it a night. It took us a while to kill Illhoof, but we got him down and he coughed up a plate healing piece and another cloth item. Unfortunately as the night went on I got more and more sick and was really not all that into raiding. I eventually logged out at around 9pm and crashed on the couch. Terestian Illhoof is an optional boss in the library section of Karazhan. Another great week in Kara for the guild and next week we will pick it up again and start from boss one to get some more purples flowing in.

Got up Sunday morning and cranked out some more Hellgate: London before I went back to sleep. Why I wake up at 5am on the weekends I have no idea. My collector's edition is kinda "collectory" but again it comes no where near rivaling the Burning Crusade edition. It has a nice fold out map in it, a bonus disc with a short film about Flagship Studios and some typical videos they took off their website. Along with this I got a dye pack for in game that turns my armor red (dye packs are worn like gear, you don't actually dye the item) and a cool manta/nether ray pet that I can summon and have follow me around. The edition came in a huge box with really cool artwork on it and a nice fold open inside container that held the bonus goodies and snap case.

As for Hellgate, I really like this game. It has some stability issues (HG:L has already crashed more than Vanguard did and that is saying something), but it is a cool "collect items and kill lots of stuff" diversion and the setting is fantastic. What I like the most are the little features that keep you coming back. The monster types are always random, you never know what you may fight when you zone in somewhere. This keeps you on your toes. I am only level 6 right now, playing a marksman. I also made a engineer and a blademaster. The engineer is interesting because you can summon some really cool bots that follow you around and help you fight or provide benefits. I am prone towards kick ass guns and long range fighting in my shooters so I will probably stick with Abroxus, my marksman. I am playing the online game, but there is also a single player game like Diablo 2, where your SP characters are separate from those you have online. The ability to mod weapons and find interesting things by taking apart loot you do not need makes the game very adaptable. I only have three character slots unless I subscribe. Of course subscriptions are optional, and have been fixed as of Sunday morning.

"We have reactivated the ability to get a subscription membership. We're currently accepting credit cards as payment methods and are working to bring both Pay Pal and Pay by Cash back online as soon as possible. This has taken us slightly longer than expected as we've needed to work with several other companies and banks to ensure the security and integrity of our subscription service"

Bill Roper posted a state of the game announcement at the forums, which you can read here. Here is a small clip from that message:

"It's been less than a week since we've opened the Hellgate, and we're ecstatic at how many people have already joined us online. Overall, the game is running really well. Our game servers are incredibly stable and the community has been great about working with us to identify and resolve issue through the forums. We've been working through some issues as every new online game does, and as is befitting the season, we've our share of both tricks and treats."

I really like Flagship Studios, and being a huge fan of Diablo 2 I followed these folks pretty closely when they broke off. They seem to be the masters of random dungeon generation, random loot and quick hack and slash game play. For sure their games, even the FREE Mythos, are way ahead of any of the garbage that Titan Quest tried to deliver. After watching the DVD and the behind the scenes look at the company you can see how much work Flagship put into getting Hellgate off the ground. I am willing to overlook some of the early bugs and niggles to see the great game that lies beneath any issues I have, and I would gladly subscribe to support the product at this point, much like Dungeon Runners. I won't be subscribing though until I figure out exactly WHAT they are putting in for subscribers, since it has been a never ending news feed of rumors and ideas concerning that subject. Already however I am wanting more character slots and some of the subscriber only loot I am seeing on vendors. Sometimes when we write about a company and yell at them and rip them apart we have to remember that there are people behind those message boards, reading those things. Unless of course it is an Electronic Arts home page board in which case that is run by pod people devoid of emotion. So Bill Roper and others are replying and talking about the issues, just remember that. Oh and Bill if you should ever read this: you gotta fix that chat system, it destroys any community you are trying to work on. How games can come out and not have good chat systems is beyond me. This should be the FIRST damn thing you work on!

I am also working on the Halloween pet in game. This Zombot is manufactured by gathering the parts you need off in game rare zombies that spawn on maps. I still have a lot of blood to collect and luckily the event was extended due to problems Flagship was having with servers last week.

Of course if you know Flagship Studios you know that no game is safe from a "leg of Wirts" type quest, and Hellgate is no exception. Humans no longer rule the planet, and the Court Road was the first place where the atmosphere of the game really kicks in.

L'IL JOEY PART ONE

The first time Abroxus, my marksman, entered Tottenham Court Road, he was greeted with a dark and dreary landscape that no longer belonged to mankind. It was snowing, and my mission was to fight my way in and grab the prosthetic leg of Joey off a particularly nasty demon that had ripped it off his body during a narrow escape attempt.

"And I swear to you mister, as I stand here living and breathin', the thing ate my leg he did. Ate it clean off me like it was a snack!"

I still remember the look on the boy's face when he told me that. Most kids exaggerated and I was able to look at him and smile. He was rough looking, like a kid that had seen too much already but he couldn't have been more than 15 years old. He was aged far beyond his years, and his eyes had witnessed terrors unleashed on the world that no child should have to witness.

Tussling his hair I told him I would do my best to get his leg back, as weird as it sounded I found myself wanting to help him. I was going that way anyway, so I might as well investigate his claims. Little did I know they were right and that my doubts would be aswayed soon enough.

Hours later....

I entered Tactical Stance, jumping up on a ruined automobile for a good vantage, equipped my rocket launcher, and unleashed all sorts of brutal punishment on the demon invaders from Hell. The demons poured out of the ruined buildings to my left and right, and then up ahead more zombie type cadavers ran toward me. I fired volley after volley into the mass of evil that was encroaching on me, my rockets coming out in threes and spiraling off into the pulpy fleshed assailants.

In groups of two and sometimes three the undead hell minions were vaporized, disintegrating into a bloody mist that lingered in the air for an unsettling amount of time. From behind me a new sound: a chilling, deep grunt... and I spun around just in time to catch a new demon type I had never seen pouncing on me through the air. All four skeletal limbs splayed apart as I traced a rocket round up and into his gut. My tactical position was no longer secure and I leapt off the old Renault sedan I was on and into the street, firing blindly ahead of me as snow fell harder. Over head the enemy ships of the Demons scanned the air, directing the minions of evil toward my heading. Barrels, fuel cans, boxes and parts of the old city around me shattered to pieces and debris flew everywhere. Now and then I was able to salvage some of the goods that spilled from the containers, but the amount of enemy soldiers bearing down on me left me little time to stop and gather what I needed. I rounded the corner of the street and there before me was a creature of unspeakable loathing.

He did not notice me at first, but as I watched I had the distinct impression that he sensed something was wrong. The sheer amount of carnage I had laid upon his pathetic minions had to have alerted him to the fact that something was terribly wrong with his day. This creature was a Grotesque of some stature, of that I was certain. Named Tantorus, he was obviously a lieutenant with a good amount of power. I crouched down and prepared to unleash my first volley on him. Unlatching the safety, I rested the launcher upon my shoulder and zoomed on the one headed, hunched back freak. He was there in my sites now, and watching him raised bile in my throat, I had to fight back waves of nausea as he spawned some maggots from festering wounds in his back.

"For the living you son of a ****...."

I pulled slowly on the trigger, and the kick threw me back as a trio of rockets whistled through the air and screamed at Tantorus. Two missiles struck home, ripping out chunks of his flesh which coated the nearby surroundings. One missile careened harmlessly into a building, and I cursed my old and outdated targeting sensors.

Tantorus was aware of me now, and he spun about and released a hideous moan that made the hairs on my neck stand on end. I stood up and fired from the hip, spreading another volley across his chest and arms. One of the missiles sunk into his pustering arm and never exploded. I knew that he had some sort of ability to resist the physical punishment of the rockets. I had to adapt. Slinging the launcher I reached under my flak vest and took out two rocket pistols, one modified to inflict fire damage courtesy of Bodger at Covet Garden Station. I had paid heavily for the modification, but that was a small price to pay for the use it would be now. Jamming a clip into each pistol, I backed up to avoid the demon bosses first charge and fired round after round at him. The fire shells careened out and exploded on their target, one after another and Tantorus was rocked backward. Stopping for a moment he shook his head to clear it of the confusion, his neck muscles bulging and twisting as he scanned his lower torso and noticed the immense holes I had opened in his abdomen and waist. He was dying slowly, and he knew it now.

I never stopped firing, I emptied clip upon clip into him and he started to lurch slowly as he tried to catch me, limping now Tantorus released screams of pain and howls of terror. With my back to a few buildings at the end of a dead end street I watched as he drew closer, a glimmer of hope in his eyes... those cold, dark circle gateways to thoughts that I did not want to know. I had one last option, and I took it quickly. Holstering my pistols I pulled out a grenade and primed it. Waiting for the perfect moment, Tantorus rounded the corner and saw he had me pinned. I threw the grenade and bounced it off the nearby ruined wall, allowing it to go around the corner and land at the feet of the massive mound of flesh that was my adversary. Quickly I dove under a wrecked truck and covered my head. Tantorus screamed as the grenade went off, the corner of the building providing me cover from much of the blast. A stinging sensation ripped through my ankle and I knew I had taken some shrapnel, but as bits of flesh and body parts rained down about me, I knew that the great demon was gone, vanquished at last.

Once the smoke had cleared, I pulled myself from under the truck. The alleyway was eerily quiet now, and before me lay the mass of bone and gristle and pulp that had once been Tantorus. Amidst the goo, laying there like some Excalibur sword in a rock, was a small prosthetic leg covered in bile and stomach acid. So it was after all, the young kid hadn't lied when he swore the creature had eaten his leg.

"Ha, well look at that..." I muttered. Scooping up the limb and shaking it to clear it of its grime I tucked it away in my backpack. It was a long run back to the access tunnel, and I needed to gather my surroundings. The sky was red, red like blood. There was nothing left of the world as we had once known it. Now there was only the underground and the few people that I knew that had adjusted, survived and were trying to rebuild.

"I'll be damned." I said to myself as the snow started again, covering the road in a thin sheen of wetness.

It suddenly dawned on me that we already were.

http://wifeagro.blogspot.com/

There is nothing more satisfying in a shooter than a one shot kill. Which is why I think I am liking the marksman ****so well. My play time has been limited thus far this week to a few hours here and there and I am still getting the "lay of London" so to speak, but I have reached level 9 and level 5 or 6 on many many alts. The game is just too much fun not to test the waters on other ****s, especially engineers with their bots.

Once our guild one shotted the first four bosses in Karazhan in World of Warcraft, I logged out for some good shooter time in Hellgate:London and then hit the sack Tuesday night. Wednesday night I ran a few guildies through Shadow Labs which was almost too easy, then hit the streets of London again with a buddy of mine that just picked up Hellgate. After getting him used to the idea that as he played his engineer he had to hang back and let the droids do the work, he finally stopped getting owned and I teamed up with him with my female Guardian character. Yep, I made a female, mostly because of the awesome opening movie cinematic that comes with HG:L. She is now level 4 and plays almost exactly like your typical tank in an MMO, minus all the garbage and crap you have to put up with to have actual fun.

(/sarcasm on) Before I get into the party aspect of the game, lets talk about in game advertising and the fact that some said it would ruin their game or make it a no purchase. Well its terrible let me tell ya. Yup, its so bad I had to look real hard to find it. Posters on a subway wall. Posters on a subway wall for Mythos, Nvidia, and some other stuff that only Europeans would understand. My game is now ruined forever. Because we all know that in 2007 human beings would never put posters on subway walls (/sarcasm off)

The video above shows the damage I can do with range and the ability to enter tactical stance. Also in the video I make liberal use of grenade throws by rebounding them off walls and I also use my trusty napalm strike. My gun is fully modded out now and has a slight knockback factor built in plus a ton of + damage against various demon types. This was the firepower I was taking in to help my level 3 friend with and we really tore up those early instances in an attempt to get em caught up and ready to go on to the next few stations (or cities). One of the weapons I got last night was an orange rarity electricity firing gun called a "Proficient FS Volt Rifle". This orange dropped after I completed the built in mini game, which I can go into detail on in a later blog post. Basically the mini game gives you in game tasks like hunt X type of mob or use X type of damage to kill mobs and when you complete a whole ton of loot drops off the monster. I also cleared some in game achievements last night with my main character and got rewarded some AP Points. Only problem is: no one knows what they are for, but I guess they will come into the game later. One of the achievements I unlocked was the "I Hate Boxes" reward, I guess I have been really busting up crates and barrels. I also unlocked "Destroyer" which is rewarded for breaking down items into component parts. I usually stash them all in my storage bin for later.

So my friend got online and he is playing an engineer, at which point I got on my guardian and we proceeded to lay waste to many areas. One thing I like about the guardian is the really quick response times for the attacks. The shield bash is awesome, does not come with some gimpy rage mechanic, and really does the damage. Plus it can be modified for knockback and other damage types. So I jumped in and had my aura on, which heals me additionally for the more mobs I am in contact with, and we advanced through the maps. I know my friend improved his gun because by the end of the night he had switched from dual wielding pistols to using some napalm throwing rifle that was really killing most demons before they approached us. With his slow droids and my ability to rough things up, the maps really stood no chance.

We ran into one bug that always makes me grimmace. It is very important in this game to exit out of an instance before you log I have noticed. Sometimes it may not save your progress or if the server crashes you can lose quest progression. Also, the chat system is by far the most annoying thing about the online game. The window does not stay open, it is very clunky and the chat channels are all over the place. Luckily I found a guide on the main forums on the Hellgate website or I would not know what the heck was going on. I found it best when grouped to just use party chat and always hang out in that tab and just hit enter then type to respond.

A few other niggles to look out for: I seem to cannot get the hang of the inventory system. For example I would love to drop a mod on a weapon without having to unequip it and drop it in my inventory space, then re-equip it. Also I do not understand why a summoner can use a dart pistol and the other special cabalist weapon (the one that covers the forearm) dual weild, but cannot dual weild two dart pistols. At least I have not been able to get mine to do that.

The trading interface is a little weak as well, I would prefer to just be able to drop an item on another person and have it open a trade window. Not sure if this can be done but I usually right click their icon and do "trade with player". If you are trying to accept a trade and want to chat and hit enter, it cancels the trade effort. Very frustrating.

I have however found a huge amount of useful posts on the main Hellgate forums that offer some good tips and here are some I picked out and rewrote them to make them a little clearer:

• Use shift+rightclick to buy and sell without having to drag the itemwhen you have your item, skill, quest log, etc screens up, simply hit the spacebar to close them quickly
• Right click on a party members's icon to create a portal right to that person. Hit "P" to turn on auto-party, helps to find groups easily. Also you may not see your friend when you both first log in. It is usually because you have not been matched on instances and you need to portal over to his instance.
• Chat guide: http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=23212
• The yellow ring around your health that goes up and down is your current SHIELD value
• The big number you see when looking at the tooltip of the weapon is NOT the damage. Its the over-all rating of the weapon, mods and other attributes included.
• If you want to see the damage, right click the weapon. It will say what kind it is, how much it does, weapon speed and the radius of any AoE effects.
• If you get stuck (this has happened to me once) Enter the message /stuck. Last night this did not work for someone that tried it so I am not sure the status on this
• If you leave the area a vendor is in then instantly pop back in, the vendors items and engineers items have changed. It's randomized.
• Crafting Thread: http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=23158

So far Hellgate: London has been pretty much what I bought into it for. If you liked Diablo 2 and were seriously addicted to boss runs, the cool atmosphere and the loot drops, you will love this game. Despite the appearances it is a very deep game. The mods, crafting and the skill trees are some of the things I haven't even touched on yet. There just isn't enough time for me to go into depth with each post so I will have to split them up and do that over time. Hopefully with the patches and the content that can be added to an online game it will only grow from there. Well so far it is a blast for me and I have to say it is the setting also that particularly draws me in. I also like the random factor, especially when I zone into a map and get zombies. Nothing is more fun than shooting a zombie, watching the upper half blow off and having the legs continue to walk toward you. That kind of detail gets me hook line and sinker. Despite the naysayers and the anti "OMG I HAVE TO PAY 10 dollars A MONTH" crowd you owe it to yourself to check the game out if you like this kind of genre. You don't have to subscribe, it is optional. There are some bugs yes, and I have had it crash a few times. The thing is, unlike something like Vanguard, I find myself logging right back in for more goodness.

Bill Roper was right when he said he wanted to create Diablo 2 meets Half Life 2 and I think they pulled it off for the most part. The game seems like it assumes that Diablo 2 fans will be playing it and that they will just pick up on what needs to be done, which is why I feel the documentation is sorely lacking. One week in I have already seen level 35 people with some really decked out gear and I know I want to get that stuff. I also wouldn't mind being totally crazy and trying hardcore mode (a mode where if you die, your character is gone). There is a lot to look forward to and uncover, and hopefully Flagship can shake off a rocky launch and get things rolling ahead.

Not sure how many saw this story yesterday but Electronic Arts has announced that with the release of this years Madden Football 2008 they are throwing in a little promotion to actually win a Josten's Madden Football ring. The details of the ring are as follows:

"The Ring of a Champion series will serve as a visual tracking system for a player's success within the game. As Madden NFL 08 gamers accomplish various achievements, they will progress through five different levels. Once a player has reached level three, the ring can be purchased through Jostens' website utilizing the code provided within game. In addition to the 32 NFL team logos players can incorporate into their ring, the tops and sides of the rings can also be customized"

You can check out the full story here: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070716005328&newsLang=en

Rings will range in price from $149 for a non precious ring to $495 for a 10K Gold ring. This pretty much beats all the tie in promotions I have ever seen but back in the tiny spaces of my brain I actually want one. Sad isn't it? I am a huge Madden fan so I can't wait to "tackle" the newest version. Vince Young graces the cover, I hope it doesn't curse him.

I have noticed that my ability to create really kick ass super heroes and villains has not diminished in the 2 years I have taken off from City of Heroes. Although I have had my account since 2004, I have not gotten past level 23. I just always run out of steam and lack the proper SG or group of friends to keep my interest going. One thing I can do however is make really awesome characters, complete with cool back stories that I then play according to their past. If there was one game I would role play in, a super hero game would be it. I went about basically recreating every good character I had as an evil persona, but got names like Doctor Stranglehold for my plant controller and Power Ball for my lightening/energy brute. I also have a mastermind named The Scourge who has the back story of having a rare skin disease, being ridiculed and shunned, and taking his vengeance out on Paragon City by learning how to raise and control the dead. I also made an alien fleet commander named Zordoz, who is so advanced that his language is incomprehensible to our minds. This explains his sonic scream attacks. He is pretty decked out too, in a trench coat with military badges on his left breast pocket and a very stern commander type look. Yeah, you guessed it I am a hard core comic book nerd. That is why I can't but help wondering why Marvel has not tackled this genre yet. I know that something is in the works, but I have not seen any details on how the game will play out. I was able to find the announcement however:

"We are thrilled to finally be able to share the news that Cryptic Studios is the developer on the Marvel Universe Massively Multiplayer Online game. The trio of Marvel, Microsoft and Cryptic is truly a dream team combination and we are committed to delivering a ground breaking interactive experience drawing from Marvel's vast and diverse Universe of characters, locations, and timeless fiction that we believe will redefine the MMO space."

I guess until then I have Marvel Ultimate Alliance on the Xbox 360 to satiate my Marvel Universe addiction (I have the gold version which includes the Hulk, Hawkeye and other new characters). My goal now is to get all these City of Villains alts to level 4 to start that new crafting system so I can see what that is all about. Excelsior!

UPDATE: Speak of the devil, this just happened today:

"LOS GATOS, CA - JULY 17, 2007 - Cryptic Studios, Inc., a leading independent developer of massively-multiplayer online games, today announced that they have added to their growing talent pool with the hiring of a new Design Writer, John Layman. Layman, a twelve-year veteran of the comic book industry and an accomplished game writer, joined the team in their Los Gatos headquarters on Monday, June 25. He will be lending his expertise to Marvel(TM) Universe Online, the highly-anticipated MMO currently in development for PC and the Xbox 360(TM) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft."

Posted by Pvthudson at 9:37 AM

Labels: City of Villains, Madden football, Marvel

Monday, July 16, 2007

My console gaming era finally arrives

1 comments

Well it was a pretty crazy end of the week last week as I got bit by the console bug. I managed to finally get my XBOX 360 and lets just say that all bets were off for logging into any MMO's Wed - Sun. When I did actually touch my computer, it was to setup a Gamefly.com account so that I could get some rented XBOX 360 games in the mail and on the way to me. Gamefly is basically the Netflix for console game players. Pretty much the same deal as Netflix, with the option to buy the game if you like it at a reduced price at which point they send you the case and the instruction booklet. The turnaround time is a LOT slower though for Gamefly, so it is good to get the two games out at once option so you can rotate them quickly in and out of your "Q".

I started off with four that I purchased, and added Dead Rising to my collection Saturday morning after playing the downloadable demo. Ended up playing Dead Rising about 8 total hours this weekend, it is addictive and frustrating as hell with its save option. The game is so much fun though that I kept playing it even though I had to start over twice due to being stupid and not saving enough. The best thing about the 360 is the Live community, which is basically like I-Tunes for a console. You can download movies, game demos, arcade games and even have email and instant messaging, so it really is a cool multi media experience. I even hooked a USB keyboard up to my console to answer emails quickly. The way they added game achievements and things like that really makes you want to play more to unlock more things and bump your score up so you can compare unlocks and brag about things you have accomplished to buddies. Even more addictive about the online content is the demos that are available for download for so many 360 games. Even the Live Arcade games are downloadable then you can unlock the full version by using Microsoft Points. I am not sure if my stock 20 gig hard drive will be big enough in the future.

One thing I kinda got addicted to was one of the only MMO's on XBOX 360, in fact one of only two that I know of (the other being Final Fantasy) and that is Phantasy Star Universe. Now this game generally gets a bad wrap because it is just so...repetitive...but I used to play PSO back in the Sega Dreamcast days and I always like the way this game pulls no punches. It is a straight out grind fest, hidden beneath a very fun combat system and small online community. I compare it to Guild Wars without all the flare and polish. Basically the game plays like Diablo 2 but it is science fiction, has guns, and is real time combat. You pretty much meet other people in instanced community zones like Guild Wars, do your trading and upgrading and shopping, then take another mission and go back in and farm the instance. You can party up if you want or go solo. There is also an OFFLINE component which can be played through like a RPG if you want. The community is pretty hard core, and is very niche. The game requires a LOT of grinding time, but for some reason the masochist in me likes it, maybe because I can have GUNS and other cool weapons. You will spend countless hours grinding through missions to advance your character and collect things and there are even player apartments in this version, plus updates and an upcoming expansion. The expansion pack will be available for download from XBOX Live, and right now you can try the game out with a demo that is downloadable. However be warned that your demo character is subject to deletion and the crowd is, how can I say...less than savory. The full version however seems to find a more mature player base especially if you get in with a well established clan that can help you learn the ropes.

All of this console love (along with the COUCH and a wireless controller) had me lounging around and playing games like mad for hours on end, while my poor computer and EQ2 account sat there blind sided and giving me a frown face. So I didn't get anything done in EQ2 the past few days or really have time to watch too much E3 coverage, however I did download and watch the Microsoft and Sony press conferences. Interesting to say the least, some really good games coming out from Microsoft it seems, they are landing some quality titles. One thing I did do on the PC after reading Kill Ten Rats lately was download and try out City of Villains, and even though I only had a chance to play around with 3 newbie characters last night it was a nice change of pace from playing a goody goody hero all the time. CoH never really stuck with me due to its play ****and the fact that there wasn't much to do, but the new Issue 9 tradeskill thing has my interest up and I wanted to see the new character models and choices for the villains. At any rate I may pursue that this week and see how the game plays out. So far CoV seems to just mimic the good ****s, only toss them new names like instead of Tanker it's Brute. The Mastermind archetype on the evil side is really well done with the ability to summon some really cool minions like robot drones and zombies. I plan to stick with this since I need a change of pace until Tabula Rasa comes out, and I am really burned out on fantasy MMO's right now. Between this, PSU and EQ2 I think I am set for online content, when I get around to it. Right now the 360 games like The Bigs, Dead Rising and Marvel Ultimate Alliance have me hooked, as well as the Catan board game that is available on Xbox Live Arcade. It is an addictive little board game that we see being played every year at GenCon and now with this 360 translation I can play it with computer opponents and they really give me a run for my money. All this XBOX activity I had this weekend does not even include the FULL version of Sonic the Hedgehog I downloaded off Live Arcade as well as Prince of Persia and Gauntlet. I jammed so much gaming in this weekend my head was spinning. The great part was that even the old console ****cs have achievements to unlock so I was busy trying to get pretty far in those.

Right now that is pretty much what I have been up to the past few days. The console gaming has really satiated my need for pick up and play gaming and the 360 is a great little machine. I cannot say for sure when the next MMO update will be since I am pretty hooked on Dead Rising right now and I have hours of that in front of me to play. I have no idea when I will find the time to play all these games, so I think I will have to actually setup some sort of schedule to ensure that I give every game a fair chance at hooking me. That doesn't even count in the fact that NCAA Football 08 and Madden 08 are RIGHT around the corner. I need to win the lottery and just quit my job.

So this has been my routine since "X-Day" last Wednesday (the day the Xbox arrived):

* Come home, feed cat (just trust me if I don't, he wont shut up).
* Change clothes to lazy white man couch potato outfit
* Finish doing work from home I should have done in office instead of researching fantasy baseball (where I might add I am 10-5 thank you)
* Start downloading Xbox 360 demo of something
* Check TIVO to make sure I am not missing shows since I don't watch TV anymore
* Check forums and blogs on computer
* Wife comes home, talk about stuff, eat dinner, giver her time on TV.
* Wife decided to surf web or play EQ2, frees up TV, it's time to get my game on
* Play any of my XBOX 360 games for few hours
* Go to bed watching Big Brother After Hours on Showtime 2
* Rinse repeat the next day, except maybe get some playtime in before work.

As you can see, I have become consumed by console mania. I am starting to get "it" now. What is "it" you ask, besides an annoying Ebay advertising campaign? "IT" to me is the realization that a lot of the PC shooters I have bought the past year are absolute **** compared to their console counterparts, or at least the next gen console counterparts. This first hit me when my friend at work, the good crack dealer he is, lent me his Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 to test out and get ready for GRAW 2 which I had won on Ebay. So for a long time I had owned GRAW 1 on the PC, as well as Rainbow 6 Vegas and Lockdown.... I love all that stuff. So I pop in GRAW 1 for the XBOX thinking 'whatever, wimpy ass console can't compare the power and glory of my Dell XPS. I'll just take a look at this and give it back to him later.' Yeah, I used to be one of "those" guys that would accuse most anti PC haters that consoles were a cheap mans gaming rig. So anyway I load this up, crappy title screen push start whatever, and immediately I notice that this game looks good, damn good. I flip through all the setup garbage (I have played this game like a gazillion times) and get to the tutorial mission. The shadows, the light reflections, the city... all of it looks top notch and runs smooth as hell.

"Whoa ok that's nice" I say to myself.

I go through the tutorial, I notice the controls are tight: there are more options like night vision goggles, removing targeting icons, hugging the wall instead of that lame lean left and right crap, I can actually HUG the wall and shoot around it, like Rainbow Six Vegas. Ok that's cool, so far so good. My running speed is faster, I pull an actual trigger to fire instead of clicking a left mouse button, and all is good so far. Hey look I can jump over walls. In the PC version it's like a Guild Wars map where physics suspends itself and even though you SEE a slope, you can't go down it because of invisible walls: LAME. Not on the console though, I can actually hop over obstacles. Alright so the enemy comes out, and hey look at that, my targeting cursor gives back enemy health info. Sweet. Not all realistic but I can turn that off if I want. I don't want to though cause its cool to pop someone and know that I took him from 100% to 70%. Tutorial takes me to the squad mates. They look fantastic, one even has a mohawk. They all look different too not the same type of cloned guys I see in the PC version.

Squad controls as one unit, not individual which is something the PC has over this version I will admit. Also they seem a tad bit dumber. However, I can actually order them faster with the D Pad. Then the tutorial tells me I can bandage and heal wounded comrades. WTF? If I had had that in the PC version I wouldn't have had to restart half my damn missions because one of my idiot squad members went solo Rambo and walked into an MG nest. Oh hey what a concept, first aid for squad mates! NOT in the PC version. I get to the end of the tutorial and there sits an APC truck. The game tells me to highlight the truck, take command and move it. Are you kidding me? I was never able to do that in the PC version. How awesome is that. Not only that can I control it but I can tell it to attack targets with its MG. So the game runs well, requires no patches, and has more features and in some spots looks BETTER than the PC version. What the heck is going on here? The sunlight and the shadows actually blind me in some spots where they should and later on I get a Blackhawk helicopter for support that I can order around tell it to chaingun the enemies with (I actually put mine into trouble and it got shot down). All in all the game, while the missions are still kinda the same, is a completely better experience on the 360 than my PC version. Now I start to wonder how much better the OTHER games will be, especially after being blown away by Gears of War earlier last week. I mean, I am now looking at Rainbow Six Vegas on the console as well as Call of Duty 3. Got Perfect Dark Zero on Ebay for like 6 dollars and holy cow is that a great game. Gadgets, hit locations when you hit people that make them limp and fall down, the works. And it looks GREAT. All of us and all I have to do is pop a CD Rom in the drive? PLUS a wireless remote so I can kick back? No brainer. Then to top it all off, I try out GRAW1 multi player and EVERY single option, co op and all, is there including the "stay alive with a buddy against waves of dudes" mode. If anyone is looking for an awesome showcase of the 360 and has not tried this game, pick it up, it's older so it's cheap now and really is fun. The past few days I have been playing it more than Gears of War simply because I like the more tactical shooters, but I will get back around to Gears later.

So I am officially a convert now as the only thing my PC has going for it is looking up Xbox game hints and playing MMO's like EQ2 or soon Tabula Rasa. BUT....BUT BUT...I was watching E3 coverage and heard of this little Bioware title named Mass Effect, and suddenly I am thinking to myself:

"****, this game looks almost as GOOD as Tabula Rasa, but it lacks the online persistent stuff." Click that link, and watch that movie. Yeah, that's what I thought. HOLY CRAP is what I said as well. Follow along with me here people, I don't have links in these blog posts for nothing!

So now it is looking like the Xbox can take care of my sci fi roleplaying craving as well as replace all my PC shooters. Hell some of the options and the depth in Phantasy Star Universe alone have me thinking I may cancel most of my PC MMO's but EQ2. I just found out today that during random times of the month, a character race in PSU can be selected to be "lucky" and during that time loot drops are increased. This is denoted by a single, double or triple sparkling star next to your name in game. So last night I log in and BAM, single sparkling star next to my name. It's on baby, semi good luck for me! As I found out on the PSU forums:

The sparkly light has 4 phases:
No sparkle = normal / 0 luck day
1: Semi sparkle = 1 "star" luck day
2. More sparkles = 2 star luck day
3. Same sparkles as 2, but now it is glowing! = 3 star luck day

I also like the way grouping is done in that game. There are no level difference restrictions. If you participate and do damage to a mob in combat, you get some of the XP. This I could see leading to some griefing in game, but what game doesn't have retarded PUGS, especially after playing WoW. I have managed to find a pretty good community in game I just haven't had the chance to group with them too much due to my short play time on weeknights.

As of last night I am selling most of my PC shooters and replacing them with console versions, especially Rainbow Six Vegas which I hear is just awesome on the 360. FEAR and some others for the console though not so sure about. I think it would be hard to beat FEAR PC on a console just because the enemy AI may require some horsepower, but what do I know. Obviously from my many years in the dark about console gaming while I played with my "super" computer not much. The console also lacks the ability to really do RTS games is my guess, especially if a patch is involved. Then again the new Command and Conquer is getting rave reviews, but rumors abound of unpatchable exploits. I guess the thing to do nowadays is get a semi decent gaming rig computer wise and get the latest console system, but that is expensive. I know that now I have NO plans to upgrade or put anymore more money into my PC, I have had it with Direct X 10 garbage, video card upgrades and stupid patches. I think I need a break from it after all these years of keeping my rig a top notch gaming apparatus.

Agree or disagree about the state of PC gaming, I have to admit I was wrong on some levels. The computer I think can still deliver the MMO and the RTS better due to its brainpower, but the console has more than surprised me on many levels, and I haven't even touched a PS3 yet. I guess the war will rage on, but at least games like Shadowrun let PC and Console players duke it out. People have been touting the death of PC gaming for years, and I just won't give in to that theory. There are still plenty of A+ titles coming out PC wise. The console however is getting more and more sophisticated every three years, I expect that soon the gap may be closed and these machines will start to dominate. It can only be good for gaming in general as the industry continues to rake in ludicrous amounts of money. PC games sales were down 15% in 2006 then rebounded in early 2007, while sales for video games, consoles, and accessories hit a record $12.5 billion in 2006, up from $10.5 billion in 2005. Console gaming is the major force behind this, and I expect it will only be larger this year with the PS3 and Wii hitting the market hard. Last year the top games were Madden NFL 07 at 2.8 million units, New Super Mario Bros. for the DS at 2.0 million, Gears of War at 1.8 million, PS 2 Kingdom Hearts II at 1.7 million, and Guitar Hero II for the PS 2 at 1.3 million. As you can see, neither platform is going to "die" anytime soon.

UPDATE: Speaking of a game which needs horsepower:

Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced that it will launch Far Cry 2 in Spring 2008 for PC. Far Cry 2 is being developed in Ubisoft's Montreal studio. Also Gamespy has posted their "Best of E3 list."

http://wifeagro.blogspot.com/2007/06/online-games-do-funniest-things-to-rl.html

http://wifeagro.blogspot.com/2007/06/i-have-issues-with-bugs.html