Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.
.Guild Wars 2 worked beautifully at launch. I had a couple of disconnects, but the game seemed to run perfectly even with 40 people escorting an NPC.
Right now, servers are down and have been since I woke up. Either the marketing people are there and bored or they pre-scheduled something, because I just received an e-mail encouraging me to join the headstart, buy Guild Wars 2, and start playing now! Bad timing, there.
While you wait, this is Jumping Line, a platformer with no buttons.
: Zubon
I snagged all the names I wanted in my new MMO, which is of course the most important thing in life. My Guild Wars 2 stable is a tour through all the major MMOs of my gaming career, carrying forward names from Asheron’s Call, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes, and Lord of the Rings Online. I also kept the names I used in World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 1.
If you have played with me in any of those games, you probably know how to find me. If you are looking for me anew, you could look up Agrimony, Bookbag Pocketshoe, Empedocles, Frosta, Habibu Angela, Lilfa, Osmethne, or Zubon.
: Zubon
It felt appropriate to re-use my Engineer’s name from WAR, but my time there seems not to have been meaningful enough for me to remember it or write it down anywhere.
Eric asks how he should set up Kickstarter rewards to encourage early investment in his solo MMO project. I want to point out three examples with a few key points that seem to draw backers (and I like):
All of these Kickstarts received more than 1000% funding, and I would like to highlight a few things. Continue reading Designing Kickstarter Rewards
The Guild Wars 2 headstart begins Friday night … sometime. Servers go live at the strike of midnight, Pacific … or up to three hours earlier.
I don’t mind staying up until midnight or waking up at 3am so I can reserve my character names. I do object to needing to camp the login screen for those three hours.
If you’re a player committed to getting in first to grab that character name of your dreams you’ll want to be keeping an eye on things during that time period.
Can we get the name of the person who thought that was a good idea?
: Zubon
Update: servers actually went live exactly three hours early, at the stroke of 9pm PDT. And then I ended up staying up most of that time anyway, making characters and bouncing around the newbie zones.
I came to the farewell event from the opposite position of Ravious. I am not a veteran player. I started in December and played hard under the then-common expectation of an early spring release date for GW2. I have not played much since April after trying almost everything, burning out a bit, losing the monkey, and trying GW2, at which point there was little Exploring left and any Achieving felt a bit like cleaning something before throwing it away. I have memories, but they are not old enough to be nostalgia. I have no birthday presents.
I said “almost everything,” and the Reverie showed me some things I had missed or scarcely noticed. Large areas are (or became) optional; you can complete the game and get 30/50 without visiting every zone and certainly without seeing all the sights. Of the 32 locations to visit, I had not been to 8, including one of the most important, Ventari’s sanctuary. I did not realize that was even in the game, rather than an idea developed between games. The tour does one thing dramatically right: it starts with the Searing crystal and ends at Ventari’s sanctuary. The former starts the storyline, the latter is the birthplace of GW2’s new race. When you meet Ventari, he still has another century of life ahead of him, and the first Sylvari will not be born for a century after that. This is a transition point between games that could only be strengthened by then ending on a reference to slumbering elder dragons.
As gameplay, it’s a guided sightseeing tour with nothing new. It is rather pleasant, if you are in the right mood. The only weakness is a fondness for picking the most inconvenient point in an area as a point of interest. Apparently the best landmarks in the game were, whenever possible, placed at least two zones from the nearest outpost and at the far end of that zone. In this, you can see how game design varied between the four parts of the game. Prophecies is the worst for putting the sites at the end of a long run filled with troublesome foes. Factions is the quickest, some just a short walk from the zone door. Nightfall falls in between and feels less thematic, with the lands beyond the portal a neglected afterthought. Eye of the North is a mix of instant gratification and dangerous journeys, with two points needing no combat, two that synergize, and one under a dungeon boss.
In terms of rewards, completing all four awards a Tormented weapon, which is a much quicker HoM point than completing an Armbrace of Truth. I did not have that one, and I ran Domain of Anguish several times. You also get eight plat. While I was there, I cleaned up several quests and vanquished several zones. That required dungeon, by the way, has 19 hidden treasures that can yield rare materials, so bring the Light of Deldrimor and work on your other HoM points.
: Zubon
Does this thing get better?
I played through the first segment of Quantum Conundrum, another one of those FPS puzzle games. The game this time involves changing the physics as they apply to objects. In the first segment, you get low gravity and high density. Slow and reverse gravity are coming. So far, it is mostly about moving boxes around rooms.
So far, the puzzles and writing are mostly uninspired, and the internet tells me it will turn into platformer Hell involving jumping with dodgy physics, precise timing, and invisible feet. And heck, I had heard that before giving it a shot, but I’m a MMO player and therefore willing to drag myself through broken glass in search of a bit of good sport. I am not even to the broken glass yet, and I’m overwhelmed with “meh.”
Checking Steam’s global achievements, I don’t feel alone: 92.7% of owners have at least tried it, 59.4% finished the first segment, 30.2% finished the second, and 25.1% finished the third. About two-thirds of players met the game half-way, and half of them bailed. Most folks who finished 2/3 were pleased or determined enough to finish the game.
So I ask you, the reader: anyone played further and care to comment on Quantum Conundrum?
: Zubon
After having played through Orcs Must Die! 2, I echo my first impressions: more of the same with some improvements. If you enjoyed the original Orcs Must Die!, you will like Orcs Must Die! 2 more. It is good action defense.
Difficulty is moderate. Returning players will beat most maps on the first try but not with a five-skull score. You are not playing for the story, so you unlock the next level to have access to the new map, not to see what happens next. You can always dial the difficulty down; once you have beat all the maps, you can dial it up.
As I said, there is a grind for “character advancement”: upgrading traps, weapons, and trinkets. The grind is short, past which you are just adding options. You can respec costlessly at any time, so you only need enough skulls to top off 10 things, and you only need 10 fully advanced if you are competing for high scores. I am in the 250-skull range, and I capped my favorite traps while getting a small array of options without needing to respec between them. (Easy grind: a “perfect” Nightmare level nets at least 9 skulls for every repetition, and there are a few quick and easy Nightmare levels.)
I like the Sorceress. Her base weapon comes with a charm spell, and nothing quite slows the multi-ogre rush like making them hit each other. It is perhaps too easy to clear the game with the tricks you learned in the first game rather than using the new toys. I like the trinkets: convert that trap slot you don’t need into a passive bonus and occasional active ability like “make more money” or “reset all traps” (or hit both at once). The addition of endless mode gives you a way to stay on your favorite map longer and keep building more traps.
Co-op is the great new feature I have yet to try. My friends list is not full of OMD2 players. You definitely can beat the game solo, even when a map has eight entrances to watch, but several of the maps would be much more reasonable with a second wand or shotgun. Then again, several of the classic maps would be much more reasonable with a second wand or shotgun.
: Zubon
Orcs Must Die! 2 has the often-condemned “DLC in the box” … of sorts. 10 levels from the original game have been re-done for the new game, which means you can play them co-op, use your OMD2 character with all its upgrades, etc. How do you get this? Own the original game. This makes it a bonus for returning players and an incentive for new players to try the first game (which can be under $5 with all DLC when on sale).
If you’re going to put DLC in the box, the polite option is to give it away to most of your target audience.
: Zubon
I was pleasantly surprised last night to realize that Orcs Must Die! 2 (OMD2) had been released. I had not realized it was being made until there was a pre-order sale, and that seems to have been on the cusp of release. I enjoyed the first one and found it contrasted with the competition by having higher quality content but fewer hours of it: better gameplay, no grind. I stayed up too late sampling OMD2.
OMD2 is a much broader experience. It has three modes (story, classic, endless), three difficulty levels, cooperative play, and a chance to play as the villain of the first game. Levels are recycled within those options.
Character progression has been added. In the first game, you could upgrade a trap once, ever, done. There was also a within-map tech tree for enhancing traps and abilities. In the sequel, you earn skulls and spend them to unlock and upgrade things, in addition to what you unlock for completing levels. A trap might have five possible upgrades, and the total cost to cap everything must be in the thousands of skulls. I do not know how grindy this will feel in the long run; I did not use all the traps in the first game, so I don’t feel a need to unlock and upgrade everything. There will be the question of how many upgrades the game is balanced around.
I remain a fan of scaling difficulty by number and type of monster, not having monsters scale. Don’t give me a 80,000hp orc. Give me some ogres or 80,000hp worth of orcs. OMD2 continues saying that an orc you can one-shot on the first map is an orc you can one-shot on the last map. To give some options between orcs and ogres, orcs come in light, medium, and heavy, and they can again have shields or crossbows.
OMD2 starts faster than OMD1, presumably assuming you played the first one. The backstory is only briefly explained, and our Bruce Campbell protagonist continues his impudent dialogue. The first level of OMD2 is much more complex than the first of 1, and it ramps up more quickly. So far, the maps have been fair challenges: you can beat them on the first try, but getting a five-skull score will probably require a replay. I had a blast spending an evening mostly in story mode, and I will be back after having played more.
: Zubon