01/16/13

MMO Radio Ep 4 – Without Pants

Hello again, podcast faithful! It’s another week and we’re happy to present you with another episode of MMO Radio. We’re pleased to be joined by our friend, guild mate, and blogger colleague, Grimnir, to talk about Big Picture mode and the upcoming “Steam Box” code named Piston. Will this shift in Valve’s focus open up a new realm to our console brethren or will technology once again act as a barrier to PC gaming?

Later in the show we discuss MMOs that have a special place in our hearts but that we just can’t return to. After that we have a spirited discussion of the bot issue in Guild Wars 2 because, hey, a thousand naked guys with bears can’t be wrong, can they?

If you haven’t yet, please consider leaving us a 5-star rating on iTunes! Not only will this help the show grow in exposure, it will also enter you in the contest to win a copy of The Guild Leader’s Companion 2E or, if you’d prefer, The Raider’s Companion! (Written reviews only for the giveaway since we need a name for the entry).

Kickstarter of the Week: Elemental Clash – The Master Set

Adam’s links: Epic Slant Press
Chris’ Links: Game By Night, Vagary.TV, Hooked Gamers
Grimnir’s Links: Grimnir’s Grudge

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02/13/12

PS Vita comes out Wednesday and I will have it; Making Money in SWTOR

A new handheld hits the gaming market Wednesday and I’ll be picking it up. The system, I’m sure you already know, is the PS Vita. It’s Sony’s last great effort to prove handhelds are viable. They’ve packed everything into this thing to make sure it sells: advanced HD graphics (early PS3 level), dual analog sticks, touch screens in the front and back, 3G and WiFi, motion sensitivity, AR — not to mention huge developer support. Still, it’s expensive. The wifi version is $250, the 3G fifty dollars more, plus the cost of a proprietary memory card that begins at $20. That’s a bit of a joke, though, because $20 gets you the smallest possible card (4GB). With PSN and downloadable content being a big push for Sony on the Vita, most users will want at least 8GB ($30) and possibly more. Factor in a couple games, a screen protector, and case, total investment jumps to around $375 for the most basic version. Thankfully, I have a bunch of stuff to trade — including my 3DS.

So why am I getting this thing? Because it’s effing cool, that’s why. Sony went all out to make sure it’s impressive and succeeded. The graphics, as shallow a consideration as that might seem, look great on that 5″ screen. The rear touch panel is an immediate win, too; though admittedly it sounds like a bit of a gimmick, but with the way you hold the Vita it feels incredibly natural to have that extra finger control. Developers are already using it to great effect. Another nice thing about that rear touch screen is that sections can be mapped by game creators to simulate a traditional DualShock controller. More than anything, though, is that developers have really gotten behind this thing. When it “officially” launches on February 22nd, it will do so with the biggest launch line-up of any game-dedicated machine ever. There are some really cool things devs can do with this system and it really is like a console in your pocket.

I’ll wrap by sharing this amazing trailer for Gravity Daze. It’s a game coming out in May that looks really innovative and fun. This trailer, though, just like IGN says in their caption, is stunning.

(If you can’t tell from the trailer, turning the Vita alters the direction of gravity)

The second thing I wanted to mention is that I seem to have found a sweet spot making money in SWTOR. Everything in that game becomes ridiculously expensive as you get up in levels (anyone else notice this?), so I took up slicing early on. Now, at level 34, I’m sitting on 350k in credits with another 36k in stuff for sale. I don’t know if that’s great or average or what, but I have a feeling that if I keep this up all the way to fifty I might be sitting on close to 700k or more even after my level 40 mount. This is a load off. I hate feeling like I’m perpetually broke, so having a steady income for once is pleasant.

If you’re having money problems, this is what I do at 400 slicing: send multiple companions out to gather, but only on Bountiful and Rich yield missions. There’s a common misconception that slicing gets you rich out of the money lockboxes. In fairness, they’ll usually pay for the mission, but the real money is in the rare and legendary mission discoveries. Bountiful and Rich yield-types have a much better chance at including these in the reward. Underworld Trading, Treasure Hunting, and Slicing missions (340), all net around 15-18k each. I send another companion out on Bountiful/Rich yield augment missions. Augments have a huge range in sell value but sometimes you get lucky. I sold one a couple days ago for 85k.

Still, I don’t think it’s necessarily good design to make players grind gold just to get something as basic as a mount, especially in a game as large as SWTOR. But I digress.

In any event, I’m here and playing. Hope you’re all well.

07/21/11

The Multiverse – Season 02 Episode 08 – “Milk Them Mode”

Hey Gang,

It’s been an interesting set of weeks and we thank you for sticking with us and awaiting this episode! Adam and I have our travel behind us, so we came together Saturday to talk about the utter WEALTH of MMO news that’s cropped up this last month. On the docket today:

RIFT’s state of the game address and looking into the future – too much open world PvP?
Fan Faire – What doth thou learn, ser Adam?
A brief trip down monocle lane…
Darkfall 2.0… a NEW game?!?
And much, much more!

This episode was very fun to record and Adam did a great job of putting it together. As always, if you like it, please consider dropping us an iTunes review!

Enjoy the show!

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05/25/11

The Multiverse – Season 02 Episode 06 – “Bone Dragons and Furry Things”

Hey Gang,

This episode was a blast to record! Both Adam and I feel that it’s our best one yet. In it, we discuss a multitude of things. Including:

The return of SOE! And why Adam and I disagree on the nature of Anonymous.
How expert dungeons have changed in RIFT and why you might be getting shortchanged. Oh… and the mini-event. Emphasis on mini.
Cryptic’s sell-off. The death of the “Cryptic Model of MMOs”.
Bone dragons and how they hell they reproduce. Bone dragons: the natural mate of the furry?

And remember, this podcast is endorsed by a guy I know, who knew a guy, who knew a guy, who once nodded cordially at a dude who helped make Diablo II.

Oh and pre-emptive apologize for me getting a little clippy at the end. I’m use a new recording set-up. Won’t happen again!

Enjoy the show!

Oh — and shoutouts to Player Vs Rift. Word to Casey.

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02/28/11

Where I’m at With RIFT; Cataclysm Coming to a Close; My PSP is Useful Again?!

... in freshly dyed armor.

Talk about radio silence! Sorry about that, guys. It’s been a busy week and time has been sucked away from me at every turn. Thankfully, it’s been mostly gaming doing that, since the schools were closed for mid-winter break in New York. I’ve used that vacation as it was intended, to relax and veg out in front of my computer.

So, RIFT. It launched. Just about everyone has commented on the queues, so I won’t go there. What I will comment on is this: this has been, bar none, the smoothest launch of any major MMO I’ve seen post-WoW. Lag has been non-existent on my server and performance has been top notch. As I was playing, I didn’t even consider the lack of lag until a good two hours in. I had to stop myself and note just how much further RIFT really feels than being in headstart. This is, no hype included, the new pinnacle for where an MMO should be at launch.

Okay, I will comment on queues. I wasn’t going to, but I will, and just to say this: please stop complaining about them. I’ve heard people deride Trion about it multiple times and it’s all a bit silly. Honestly, I’ve played every major release in the last four years and every… single… one of them had queues. It’s a fact of launch. You should be worried if there AREN’T queues. Now, that being said, I sat in one for four hours yesterday. That’s not cool and is almost certainly a result of the big miss-step of not releasing server names until two days before. It reminds me of the expression, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” If you’re not logging in earlier than you actually want to play at this point… As long as you’re able to, that is.

Moving on…

I made a Cleric to capitalize on their all-aroundiness. Open Beta really showed me how much fun healing can be, so I wanted a strong option there, while also being able to tank. I wound up going Purifier/Druid/Cabalist with Cabalist being my main spec. Purifier is mainly for some light off-healing and instances and rifts. Cabalist is turning out to be a blast, however, since they have some great nukes with inherent AoE. In dungeons, I start off nuking with my druid bombs and then switch off to cabal when the tank has threat. Right now, I’m level 17 and falling behind the rest of my guild. I’m pretty much used to that, though, so I don’t mind.

Speaking of my guild, Immortal Council has been flourishing. My co-host, Jeremy, on Rift Watchers is the leader and we’ve had an enormous response — over 100 applicants within 2 days of head start! Everyone is forming groups, talking in vent, and really putting in the extra effort to make this guild a fun place to hang out. What’s more, and this is noteworthy, the amount of complaining is almost non-existent. In just about every new MMO I’ve played, new players go through the honeymoon-normal-annoyed-unsubbed pattern pretty quick. Everyone’ s been hitting it pretty hard (we have many players over level 30 and into the 40s already) and no one is hitting that wall we’ve found in other games. It’s really pretty enthusing.

Aside: I’m being pulled lots of different ways for the first time ever. There are two other guilds I plan on rolling with — Ferrel’s and Keen’s — but I’m hoping everyone understands I have an obligation to make the RW guild my priority. After all, it wouldn’t be very nice for me to help invite everyone over and then leave them!

Last night I got into Iron Tombs for the first time. How neat! I loved how atmospheric the place was. For being a first dungeon, it was no cakewalk either! I mean, we did well since the group was made of veteran MMO players. Still, fights were more than than tank-and-spank and even the in-betweens could be a little tough (ghosts and orbs, I’m looking at you!). It was a blast, though, and one of the most fun-and-fresh dungeon runs I’ve had in a long time.

Okay, more than just RIFT for this post. NEXT up…

Cataclysm. I think I’m pretty much done. Not because of RIFT, per se, but more because I’ve found myself at a point where I’m only logging in to raid. I’m hesitant to call it quits, however, because the Happy Fun Guyz are really an excellent group to play with. I’d honestly miss a lot of the people there (shout outs to Evalisa, Blarg, Alphaah, and Kotton). Still, I’ve been putting some serious thought into how much fun I’m having if I can’t bring myself to log in. The reward stream has slowed to a trickle and with it my motivation has dried up. Stay tuned for updates.

Lastly, my PSP. I’m using it again! Well, I’ve always used it for late night RSS reading (I don’t have a smartphone yet), but I’m actually using it for games again! Someone finally came up with a way to run emulators and ROMs without hacking the console and putting on custom firmware. I am finding it so satisfying to play some of my old favorite SNES and GBA games again. I put a good two hours into Metroid: Fusion today and it’s like stepping into the past. Those games were so good and really captured something modern games don’t have. I can’t link to any of the stuff here on how to do it, but if you’d like to know how to get ROMs running on your PSP without any modifications, shoot me an email.

Anyways, that’s been this past week. Oh, and Assassin’s Creed 2. Gotta love that.

I’ll have more to talk about this week now that vacation is done. That radio silence really is a downer.

01/25/11

SOE Floundering – Painful Observations From the Outside

I’ve been sitting on this post for a week because, well, I don’t currently play any SOE games, so who am I to make a judgment? You know what, though? This is my blog, a place to share my observations, so why be so vanilla as to hold something back I’m thinking on. That’s something I’m going to change around here. My thought today is this: SOE is mightily floundering.

That’s the image they’re putting forward. EQ2X has an ass-backwards approach to F2P gaming. One of the worst, most divisive ways they could have done it. Seriously. And frankly, it only speaks to a “get money where we can get it” Allod’s Online Plus Some Segregation mentality.

Then they have this $65 vampire race. And we thought the $25 horse was expensive. SOE: pushing the bar in calling their players stupid. How full packages did they really expect to sell? That whole debacle just tells me that Sony must not have much respect for their player base. Respect would mean reasonable pricing. Assuming their customers have too much money and too little smarts means $65 races packages.

Then there’s DCUO. Call me crazy but I don’t think it’s too smart of them to bank on this game. By most reports, it’s fun. Let’s be realistic, though. The whole “$15 a month for a PS3 game” thing isn’t going to fly in the long-run. You don’t confront console expectations with service fees and then provide your action-gamers with action-MMO combat. The two do not fill the same niche. Take Giant Bomb’s review. What’s good for action-MMO combat makes for bad console-action gameplay. Different standards. In the long run, either the PS3 will drop the subscription fee or dwindle into the nothingness of low-playerbase, low-consciousness MMOs that “could have been better.” The PC version will probably do alright in that “we’re in an over-crowded genre with an over-crowded theme” kind of way. Who knows.

Do you think Free Realms will have a subscription fee? Gotta make that money somewhere. Except, well, that won’t. The PS3 isn’t a casual machine (though casuals certainly play it) and your average console fan will scoff at the idea of paying for teeny-bopper mini-game online.

Then there are the mythical non-MMO MMOs like The Agency – more real in Facebook form than any “real” game. Or Star Wars: Clone Wars Online. A virtual world, or moneymaker, therein there’s not.

The whole public perception is that Sony’s biggest game is on it’s way out and, honestly, has been out of all but a niche audience for the past two years. EQ2 doesn’t look or function like it should and won’t be earning many more customers than it has now. Everything that surrounds it is overshadowed or perceived as dying. Who will be talking about Star Wars: Galaxies when The Old Republic comes out? Massively, maybe, once or twice a month as servers merge or expansions whimper out of the gate. Vanguard, Pirates of the Burning Sea… Planetside? Those games aren’t blowing minds anytime soon, apart from their continued existence despite being publically forgotten – and I like those games. Except for Planetside, before my time, that one.

You know what needs to happen? A complete graphical overhaul of EQ2. A complete performance overhaul of EQ2. The game needs to look like it released in 2009 and play like it came out in 2001, instead of the other way around (and that’s being generous, EQ2 runs HORRIBLY for how it looks). Vanguard needs to go F2P and get some extra developer support to back it up because, frankly, that’s an underappreciated game if ever there was one, and Sony is squarely to blame for its currently dwindling state – people should not be surprised to hear that the game is still functioning.

So, yeah, I don’t play Sony games. That’s not because I have something against Sony. Quite the contrary, actually, because I think their theoreticals are right where they need to be. They’re a company that has the ideas for a kick-keister, old-school, next-gen MMO. I don’t play Sony games because, frankly, every single thing is sub-par or on life-support. That’s the public perception. Free servers full, paid servers empty. No cross-over. That should send a message.

Instead, what they’re getting is “DCUO is the new black.” For now. In six months, it will settle. The honeymoon will end. Worse, I have serious concerns that DCUO will cause the industry to doubt the longevity of a console MMO. When it gets put by the wayside for the next multiplayer action game – because that’s what most console players will expect – there’s a great chance those players will never come back and see those MMO trappings as hindrances rather than selling points. For all the excitement and hoo-rah going on right now, what message will investors get when the next Call of Duty comes out and people realize there’s great, long-term gameplay for the low, low price of nothing one box over in their game cabinet?

That’s the gamble Sony is taking, so pleased to not be selling us a bill of goods or believe in your own hype, Mr. Smedley. I have a lot of respect for you – the you that brought us games like EQ2 and Vanguard. Not the one who lets those same games waste away like yesterday’s long-term plan.

Revision. Realism. And something worth getting excited about again. That’s what it’s going to take to change the public perception of Sony Online Entertainment.

That’s one gamer’s take, anyways.

07/9/10

The Wanderlust Experiment

Tasslehoff Burrfoot

Following all of the uproar of RealID, I thought I’d try something new this month. As we progress through MMO releases, we tend to let the games of yesterday slip from our minds. When was the last time you saw Star Wars Galaxies make the news? As the weeks wear on, and World of Warcraft comes under fire, I’m reminded that these old games won’t be around forever. Eventually, people leave and the games slowly descend into unprofitability.

In a lot of ways, that makes me sad, but for some reason, it also puts a little fire under my butt to get out and try some of these things before they go away. There are several that I’m particularly interested in: Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies being high on the list. To start, though, I decided to re-subscribe to Vanguard.

Vanguard is pretty much at death’s door. Some people who disagree but when all new content is put on indefinite hold, there’s cause for concern. That’s not to deride the game. I absolutely love the concept of Vanguard. But, out of the three I named, I’d say ol’ Saga of Heroes is most likely to go under first. So, I’m taking the opportunity while I have it.

It’s also a bit of a test that I’d encourage all of you to put yourself to sometime. A lot of us talk about how we like the old school way of designing MMOs, myself included. Vanguard approaches a lot in a rough around the edges, old school way (though, admittedly, it’s gotten much better in time). One of the biggest that sticks out to me is the game vs. world dichotomy. Telon, the setting of Vanguard, is absolutely a world’s world. It is filled with life and character. Plus, it’s absolutely enormous, so there’s lots to do and explore. On the other hand, it’s also old school in some worse ways, such as the grind (or so I’m told — especially to build things).

For the next 30 days, Vanguard will be in my game rotation. For better or worse, I’m going in and I plan to see more than I ever have in the past. The game encourages you to “step into” your character and experience the world through them. I’d like to bring you along with me.

The plan right now is to photoblog my way through my experiences. I know that many players refuse to try it after such a disastrous launch, but I’m hoping this pulls you into the fold a little bit. At the very least, it will be nice to share some of the games great vistas and landscapes with you all. I’ll still be posting my usual stuff up here, but I noticed that when I’m playing WoW, I tend not to write about what I’m doing in-game. This should help fill that void.

I labeled this post “The Wanderlust Experiment” because, if this month goes well, maybe I’ll take it up as a regular part of my gaming. I’ve always felt that trying a new MMO, whether you love it or hate it, is enlightening – freeing, even. In the end, maybe I’ll wind up staying with one of them. For now, I’m taking a stroll in Telon.

06/15/10

Cataclysm Cutbacks, My Thoughts and Hopes for E3, and Gaming Keyboards

I’ve been pretty busy managing games, work, and hardware upgrades this past week, so I’ve been a little behind on the news. Sorry for the lack of Monday update, but there’s a few big things I’d like to touch on, so let’s get started.

Cataclysm Cutbacks

Original ideas for Path of the Titans

Path of the Titans represented one of the most intriguing updates to them game since… well, ever. Alternate advancement. Can I tell you just how badly WoW needs this? I know a lot of people scoff at the idea, but let me just say that, compared to a lot of other MMOs, WoW is pretty limited. It’s standard “quest, level, dungeon, raid” MMO fare– and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. By the time most players have hit the mid-to-upper 4ks in their gear score, they’re burnt out on the repetitiveness of it all.

PotT was a great opportunity for Blizzard to do what it does best: take good ideas from other games and make them their own. And it could have been good. The idea that PvP balance could have been a key reason for its failure bothers me. That’s lazy and short-sighted. WoW is a PvE game, no matter how much Blizzard tries to push the e-sportiness of it all. If it doesn’t fit for PvP, turn it off during matches. End of story.

It could have been cool but now I’d bet on mediocre. Instead, players that take up archeology can get lore tidbits (a strange decision considering most players claim to not even read quests) and vanity gear. Vanity items and pets are neat, I’ll give them that, but not as neat as AA.

Okay, enough said on that.

E3 Hopes and Thoughts

To be honest, I didn’t realize E3 started today until Ryan from Vagary called me on six hour drive in. It was nice to see so much big news flashing on my feed reader, though.

Microsoft’s Kinect (does anyone else think of those construction sets, Knex?) looks interesting but no different than any of the other motion devices. I was surprised to see that they’re offering a 360 “thin,” though. Apparently, it will come with a 250GB hard drive and built in wi-fi for $299. Comparing that to Sony’s 250GB PS3 at $350 and it’s easy to see the undercutting going on. Competition is good, though, and the PS3 needs a price cut, so here’s hoping.

I’m more interested in what’s to come. The Nintendo 3DS has my hopes high. If Kotaku is right, it will be the most graphically powerful handheld gaming device on the market. Cooking Mama will never have looked so good, but I’m looking more towards a new Zelda. Or, perhaps, a remake of a certain Ocarina filled Nintendo 64 game? Please?

But, and here’s my big hope, rumor has it that Sony might be unveiling the PSP2 at the expo as well. I love my PSP but, I’ll admit, I pretty much only use it to reader Google Reader before bed. It’s long in the tooth. If they’re able to pack the power of a Playstation 2 into their handheld, port some classics over (San Andreas, anyone?) and get rid of that god forsaken UMD, it’ll be a day-one purchase for me.

Plus, the MMO news. SW:TOR announced that they’ll be doing player housing in the form of personal space ships. That’s cool, in theory. I’ll wait to get excited until we see how useful it is. Will it be a solo-instance? Part of the world? Customizable beyond simple exteriors? And then there’s FFXIV. Square-Enix has some major signage in place, so I’m hoping that means some big news.

Gaming Keyboards

As regular readers may know, I’ve done a lot of computer upgrading lately. Originally, it was a new motherboard, processor, RAM, and Windows version. It’s been fun getting into my favorite MMOs and seeing how much better (or worse) they all run. I’ve also installed a few single player games for comparison too, namely Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2. DA:O has more of my attention right now, since I’m not huge into sci-fi.

My new keyboard: Logitech G110

To top that off, I got my first full size paycheck from substitute teaching, so I treated myself to a new keyboard. You would be amazed at how in-depth things can get when you’re looking at gaming keyboards. I bought the G15 and returned it; the keys were too clunky (I’m used to low profile boards) and the LCD seemed gimmicky. I got the Razer Lycosa and returned it; without macro keys, it really offers very little to an MMO player other than its low profile. In the end, I settled on the Logitech G110. It’s much more powerful than the G15, the keys are nicer, and it’s more customizable in programming and color. I love it. Now comes the learning how to use it to its full effect.

That’s been my weekend. Now that I’m settled into my new hardware, I get to look forward to a fairly relaxed summer. This is the last week in session for the schools I sub at, then it’s summer break. I’ll work in between but not as much and not as frequently. Hopefully, that means I’ll be able to finally finish DA:O and gear out my Death Knight in badge gear.

Things look good. Now, how do I program MMO macros into this thing?

06/1/10

First Days in EQ2

Happy Monday, folks!

As I mentioned on a recent episode of our podcast, I never quite felt like I gave Everquest 2 a proper chance. Several of my friends and favorite bloggers play it almost exclusively, so I’ve always felt a bit of a gap in my MMO knowledge by not having played more of it. Well, never fear, because that’s officially changing!

My routine of dungeon running in WoW leaves a lot of open space in my gaming schedule, so last Thursday bit the bullet and re-upped. In truth, my new motherboard/processor combo was set to arrive on Friday, and I wanted the opportunity to see the performance shine; it was a little splurge to feel good about my other, bigger, splurge on the new hardware. Lo and behold, I was right. I’m now rocking on “Very High Quality” graphics settings and getting 30-50+ FPS outside of towns and villages. Not bad compared to the 20ish I was getting on “High Performance.”

But, back to my experiences.

If the whole game looked this this, I’d be sold for good.

If all of EQ2 looked like this, I'd be sold for good.

Let me get this out of the way first, unless you have a fast processor and decent graphics card (the latter being more important, it seems), EQ2 fails to impress — that is, if you value good graphics, which certainly varies from player to player. For me, anyways, I was initially let down. When I first created my character, some month or two ago, the game had assessed my system as suiting the “High Performance” setting, which really does the game little justice. Ground clutter is in a small circle around you. Textures seems to ram into one another with no blending. Shadows are at the most minimal across the terrain. In short, coming from WoW and LotRO, it felt like I’d stepped in a time machine back five years. And, at that, with modern day hardware, I was still getting a choppy play experience.

Fast forward to today. I’m now running with a 3.0GHz processor, 4 gigs of semi-slow RAM, and a 260GTX. With this set up, I’m able to kick the graphics up enough to where the game looks much, much better. There is still the issue with texture ramming, but it’s something I think I can get used to. On “High Quality,” character and building models look SO much better that the original “step back” effect is almost eliminated. It’s just a shame that the game is so processor dependent. I can’t help but feel like the game could do a lot better if they were to get performance in line with the graphics level. As a new player, those months ago, it was a major turn-off to play the game that way. If you’re coming from WoW, brace yourself.

The more important question, though, is how did it play. I’m happy to report that I’ve been having quite a bit of fun this time around. The combat is colorful and full of flair. You know, it’s a small things, but I appreciate a little bit of flash in my combat. When you have the same hotbar-focused, button mashing, gameplay in every game, it’s nice to get a little bit of eye-candy. Questing is pretty standard, but that’s to be expected. They seem to have a little bit of charm to them, though. One quest, for example, has you lure lizards into the tendrils of a flesh eating plant. Another has you investigate a small mine lead by Tucan Sam impersonators. Overall, it’s nothing new, but enjoyable enough to not be cumbersome.

There’s a lot the EQ2 offers that other games don’t. I mean, the game is filled to the brim with content. They seem to put out expansion every six months and regular patches on top of that. I’m looking forward to checking out some of the big name activities other players have told me about: mid-level raids, tons of dungeons, fully customizable housing, extensive crafting, and more.

I don’t know whether the game will ultimately be for me. I’m still having a lot of fun in WoW, and I still have lots of leveling/dungeon running left to do on my DK. But, since I’ve lacked the motivation to push too far into Angmar in LotRO, this might just give me something other than Split/Second to fill my free time.

It occurs to me now that it probably seems pretty shallow of me to come back with a positive write-up like this. After all, the only thing that’s changed is that I can turn the graphics up a little bit. I guess I have to admit to being a little shallow. It’s a little hard to step down, visually, once you’ve gotten used to the art style and fidelity of one game. But, as the more devoted among us are quick to remind, it’s the gameplay that counts. Let’s put that to the test :-)

05/29/10

First Impressions: Split/Second (PS3)

Since I’ve been piecing together my new and improved rig the past couple of days, I thought I’d take a minute and recommend to you a game that I’ve been in fallen in love with: Split/Second.

Now, before I go on, let me make a disclaimer and say that I’m not a fan of racing games. Well, since my days of working in an arcade, anyways (I loved some of those). Driving Sims don’t do it for me; I have a car, driving a virtual version of it in a game doesn’t really ring my bell.

Enter Split/Second, a game good enough to convince me to go from ‘rental’ to ‘purchase’ three days before it was due back. Split/Second is a high-intensity racing game that focuses on the speed and flair of racing as only Hollywood can show it: fast cars and big explosions.

The main trademark of the game is the Power Plays. Power Plays, in short, let you blow the track to hell and back, taking down the other racers in the process. By drifting (sliding around corners) or riding nearby to another racer, you earn points that you can use towards executing these plays; if you save them up until your power bar is maxed, you’re able to initiate some of the most powerful explosions of all. These range from detonating a nuclear power plant, to totally changing the direction of the course. One blocks off the lane you’re in and sends you down an airport tarmac as a passenger jet speeds at you in mid-land.

Real blockbuster stuff.

I don’t know if the cars are real or not, and I don’t really mind; usually, I would. This game isn’t about realism, so much as it is about getting to the core of what made racing games popular in the first place: speed (and boy does it feel like you’re going fast) and the thrill of intense competition.

The game also features a full-fledged online multiplayer system, so you can race with players from around the world. The only real drawback is that the progression system pales in comparison to the likes of Blur. You’re also limited to only racing with vehicles you’ve unlocked in the Single Player campaign, but it’s so good, I don’t even care – though, I’m sure some people do.

As an MMO player, I’ve found the game to be an excellent change of pace from the slowed combat of questing. It’s very different and, yet, seems to address that social desire I crave in games too—even in single player, though multiplayer is obviously better. The game does this by displaying the names of your opponents prominently above their position: you always know who you’re racing, and you will develop a nemesis. Online opens it up to voice chat, which is surprisingly appropriate compared to the likes of Call of Duty and Halo.

So, if you’re interested in spending a little time with your console, and are looking for a exciting, rewarding, and, most importantly, refreshing game experience, I recommend Split/Second for at least a rental. It takes a little practice, but, once you get the hang of it, it’s easy to sink in to.