Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend

This is the first time I've been able to play in the Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend events.  I wasn't cool enough or invited to any of the others.  Apparently I had to pre-purchase the game, not just pre-order it (which I did as soon as I could).  I'm not really big on giving a company money for a product when a release date isn't even available.  Just my "thing".

That aside, I was super excited to see that I had finally made it!  I finally got my shot to to give the game a go.  This seemed like the best time, too.  This looks the last event before launch AND it finally gives us a look at two of the classes people have been very excited about.

I don't really have a lot of free time, so I didn't get a chance to play a whole lot.  I got a couple hours last night and I am going in for some more tonight, but I've got enough that I can get out some first impressions.

The game looks boring.  Visually it is absolutely boring.  The models and game world doesn't look bad, far from it.  The game just isn't an over the top super polished masterpiece that we are used to seeing.  The game runs on a very wide array of PC specs and seems to pretty much cater to the ENTIRE audience of those who can run the first one.

I played a Ranger and a Thief.  I was excited to play both and I think that both classes will be very good.  I will probably give them both a shot.  The game has moved on from the originals class system (or multi-class system).  There isn't a whole mini-game of making the best class based on certain abilities, that has been replaced with a weapon system that is fluid and absolutely awesome.  It might just be some of the most customized fun I have ever had.  I'm not sure how it progresses as you level, but in the lower levels (sub 15) it is great.

The Ranger is your normal ranged class.  You can get in close and do some work depending on your weapons, but it isn't nearly as fun.  What sets the class apart is how neat some of the ranged stuff is for them.  Using melee weapons does give the class a very interesting feel, but it isn't what I want when playing a Ranger.  The pet aspect is also very fun.  Picking your own pet and allowing it follow you around or attack.  There are even weapons that make your pet better.  It will be fun to see how this class plays in all of it's different ways at max level.

The Thief is probably the class I will play first.  A sneaky-stabby class that can also use a gun.  It's like my Witch Hunter fantasy all over (best class ever in WAR).  Hopefully I will get to play this class for a good amount, though.  =P  The class looks like a blast and the only reason I didn't play it as much as the Range is because I found out that I hate the Sylvari.  That aside, it's fun.  The seamless gameplay between gun and dagger is so amazing.  The fluid motions and the easily understandable use of abilities is a breath of fresh air.  I am very happy with the entire experience.

It's the Steam Sale!!

The time has come and it's summer.  It's hot.  AND.... it's time for the Steam sale!

I honestly couldn't give less of a fuck.

There is one game that I even care about getting.  I want to pick up Half Life: Source, so I can have ALL of the Valve games.  Other than that I don't really care about anything else being offered, at all.  Most of the games either aren't appealing or just don't place on my list of things I want to play.  I still have a ton of games that I haven't played on Steam already.

I do play a good amount of games.  I play all sorts and find different kinds enjoyable.  Contrary to popular belief I am not just a bitter, hateful fuckhead.  I do enjoy games.  I just REALLY hate games with huge budgets that don't hold up on their end.  Failed promises, piss poor optimization and dumbed down console controls will kill a game before I even get to play it.  So what if I'm picky, I think I should be allowed.  When PC gaming are shelling out 300 bucks for middle-of-the-road video cards every two years or so, we are allowed.  When we are dropping 200 bucks for second-tier CPUs on the same time table, we are allowed.  When we fork over the SAME amount and receive so subsidy, that's shitty, and we are still allowed.

I still love Steam as a platform.  I am still excited that they have sales.  This particular sale is lackluster because.... WHAT HAS COME OUT SINCE CHRISTMAS?!  What amazing game has come out since the holiday season (their last sale).  Not much has popped up on my radar and with Guild Wars 2 coming up in six weeks, I can't see spending too much on games I might never play.  A new WoW expansion will be out shortly after that and that 40 dollars will have WAY MORE content than just about anything Steam currently has on sale.  I understand that entertainment will be different, I just find it so hard to care about this.

I'm more excited about getting a tablet.  I bet I can play a ton of cheap ass tower defense games on a tablet, too.

How to make Spotify better

I have been a fan of Last.fm for a while now.  I do not care for Pandora, however.  Pandora seems to be VERY random and put a lot of strange things on my list.  Why am I hearing Rhianna on a list of 80's music?  Why is Beyonce on my Less Than Jake station?!  It makes no sense.  I feel like Last.fm leanrs my listening habits much better and is able to give me music more focused at what I am looking for.  Last.fm always pays attention to what I've listened to and can play back those songs as well.  ALL OF THEM.  Well, anything that they have the appropriate rights to.

I have switched to Spotify for a little bit now.  My brother seems to like it and a lot of people are on the bandwagon.  It isn't bad, but it isn't all that good, either.  I have compiled a list of things that I would like to see added that would make it more well-rounded and worth of it's 10 dollar a month fee.

1. Love/hate, upvote/downvote.

2. More variation based on selected radio.

3. More easily manageable playlists (online/offline).

4. Support for MORE artists.

I have used Spotify for many things, but one of the things that I really wanted to do was find artists similar to those I already enjoyed.  It is very hard to find good music these days and Spotify doesn't make it any easier.  On top of the mediocre radio (which is supposed to lump like groups together), it moves further away from band similarities and almost becomes hilarious in some situations.  The "New" and "Popular" songs and albums are hilarious.  I was hoping that a music provider with such a huge tie to social media would at least understand what I enjoyed.  It doesn't.

If they could somehow find a way to implement Last.fm type features into this, I'd buy it 100%.  It isn't all bad, but it's bad enough that I can't help but wait for improvements.  If those don't come, I'll be ditching this service.  I just hope others are smart enough to do the same.

E3 always disappoints

Not that I can blame E3, though.  The move to consoles for most games doesn't rev me up like it used to.  There were some good looking PC games, though.  There just didn't seem to be very many games that thought about PC first. =(

Planetside 2 looks solid.  The gameplay footage looked very tight and the action looked intense.  The world looked gorgeous.  They already had a good thing going with the first game, bringing that sort of thing over into a new generation (PlanetSide just celebrated it's 9th anniversary) is very exciting.  I am sure a lot of things have changed, but the constant pressure to act and feeling of war still seem to be there.  I was very pleased that it didn't turn into an all out suckfest, because we all know Sony isn't the most reliable publisher out there.

Borderlands 2 also looked pretty good.  I know it isn't a title exclusive to PC.  It still looked pretty damned fun and hopefully they will build on what they learned from the first game.  While it was a good bit of fun, the connection issues killed the game.  That and the fact that you had to play it more than once to actually enjoy much of it.  Hopefully they also release some creative and fun DLC, much like they did the first time around. I still don't care too much for the cell-drawn art style, but as long as they have fixed the FoV and some of the frame rate issues, I don't really care.

The new Unreal Engine looks... unreal.  I have been a long time Unreal fan and this new engine is nothing to laugh at.  This thing is a beast and boasts some pretty impressive tech.  I can't help but wonder if they will make another Unreal Tournament or if it will be focused entirely on Gears of War, since that is the cash cow for them now.  I still hope that they bring back my favorite way of playing Unreal (XMP, multiplayer from Unreal 2).  It's a long shot that we see any new Unreal news, but here's to hoping!

Assassins Creed III seems to have everyone spellbound.  I don't really see it myself.  It does look cool, but I'm not sure that as a PC gamer that I give a fuck.  Sometimes those games just don't transfer to the keyboard very well.  I'm a lot more interested in.....

WATCH DOGS!  This game looks like it could be really, REALLY, cool.  It has been a long time since I saw something and said "Holy fuck, this is running on a tricked out PC and it looks awesome as shit!"  Seriously.  A LONG TIME.  The game looks neat and with it running on a PC now, I have high hopes that it will end up there eventually.  I really look forward to this and I might actually check up on it and follow it's progress for the next year or so until it ships.

I'm too much of a team player.

I rely almost entirely on others to have my own fun.

I have to play with people.  If I don't, I don't have fun.  I prefer to play with others that I know in small groups. The old days of of 5v5 or 8v8 competitive play was perfect for me.  When I have 3 or 4 other people with me I find myself very excited and performing at my best.  My strength is being with other people.

I'm a good healer.  I'm a focused tank.  I'm passable DPS.  I'm an excellent support player.  I'm a mediocre shot.  I'm a fairly capable strategist.  I'm a quick thinker.  I bring all of these assets to the people that I play with.  I am at my absolute best with others.  When I play with others I attempt to make up for what they lack.  If someone is a tank, I'll heal.  If someone is going to be a support class, I'll be a badass and take down as many people as I can.  I always try to round out the group to give us the best chance to finish our objective.  That means: I like to win.

In any team activity the final objective is victory.  I want to celebrate with others, too.  Completing an instance. Winning a battleground.  Owning some fools in CTF.  It's a rush, it's fun.  It is amplified when I have other people to share success with.  Even when we lose, it provides motivation.  I don't want to lose, then other people don't want to lose.  BOOM!  Now you have the motivation to not let others around you down.  It doesn't always have to go swimmingly, but it's nice when it does.

I don't always have to lead a team, but I find that a group of people dedicated to one particular strategy and willing to take orders works best.  I don't mind making tough calls or executing quickly in a tight spot.  Making decisions on what to do or where to go, I suck at.  Asking me to pick a map or decide where to go is bad.  Allowing me to take control and call the shots once we get there is a win.  Not always an actual win, but I always do my best to manage the people I have to get the job done... or as close to done as I can.

I wish I had more people to play with these days, because I seem to be running incredibly short or enjoyment.  Maybe it is because I am too picky or because I can't get everyone together on the same page.  I miss the old days of having people available all the time and everyone enjoying the company of each other.  I don't know what it is or how to fix it, but I sure do miss playing with other people.  I kind of think that if I can find more people to play with that I might just give up the hobby entirely.

G4 is dead. Finally.

Adam Sessler recently left G4.  As much as I respect him and think that he was really what kept that shithole afloat, I was sure that him leaving wouldn't kill them.  Kevin Pereira, however, will.  He has announced that after E3 he will be leaving.  Maybe there is a God after all....

For years I have railed on about how shitty G4 is and about how it is pandering to stupid fucking assholes.  This could easily be a death blow for them.  While it might sound weird that someone who loves gaming so much is cheering for G4 to die, you have to understand how shitty they are.  G4 generally shows 16 hours of infomercials and Cops or Campus PD.  Another 2 hours is devoted to past shows that may or may not have been good.  Two more hours highlight everything that is wrong with gaming.  The final 4 hours contain content that might be relevant.... if you played on a console.  So, basically, the network is shit.

G4 went from having tech-driven shows to shows about shitty pop culture.  They went from having 4-man LAN competitions hosted by guys who looked like they were on steroids to the endless cycle of Cops.  They lost out on many talents over the years from ditching some of the good TechTV shows to basically shitting all over the Screensavers.  What a fucking nightmare.

A lot has changed in game, and a lot has change in G4.  I guarantee that in the next year they will close their doors.  With the face of the franchise walking away and the brains behind everything leaving before him.... oh man!  It's fucking over!

Grievances: Tribes: Ascend

I have been playing a lot of Tribes: Ascend lately.  It allows me to go quickly into and out of matches, without losing a whole lot of momentum.  I can miss out on part of a game and pick up pretty quickly.  With a new baby and a lifestyle change this is very helpful.  I didn't feel like the BG grind in WoW was built for this, nor did I feel like the pacing of BF3 allowed as much flexibility.

In the last couple of months Tribes has changed considerably.  The game got a sexy little overhaul in the terms of classes and UI and it got some balance and further UI improvements.  A lot of what has happened with the game has been positive and I'm pretty excited, however, I still have a list of things that need to GTFO.

Experience.  Today I sat in a game that was 4-0 for almost 20 minutes.  It wasn't hard to get their flag and there wasn't a whole bunch of D.  We didn't get the flag because the experience would be greater if we simply let the game end at 4-0, but made it last forever.  There wasn't a reason to cap out because the experience is based so heavily on the amount of time that the map is played.  What this means is that while I wanted to set up turrets and defend a base, everyone else was racing vehicles.  While I was hoping to get some competition and have some fun, the entire other team abandoned their base and raided ours in heavies.  We could have probably played 2 or 3 games in the time it took for that one, but we got somewhere around 25-40% more experience for just waiting it out.  That sucks and should be addressed immediately.

Hitscan weapons.  The automatic rifles in this game not only take away from some of the feel, but they pretty much blow.  Take a great deal of the immersion away from the Tribes universe.  Bring back the old Chaingun and get rid of this mess.  Several classes are able to easily exploit the gun, due to the nature of their class.  It's really very annoying.  A lot of people claim that it is ruining the game.  While I am not happy with it, it far from ruins the game.

Team-based cohesion.  The game needs to motivate people to do things.  Showing up and getting points is cool, but people want to be motivated.  A HoF and an Tech running D make a great duo.  Allow them to sync up their efforts to make it more beneficial.  Let the Tech heal the heavy, let the heavy provide a shield for turrets.  Allow teams to make sense.  Providing a bonus to the team based on who is going where and what class or loadout they have should provide something.  A Pathfinder certainly makes a good capper, while a well played Raider can make getting to the flag much easier.  Make people want to participate with each other to win the game.  One-man-army syndrome could easily take over a game like Tribes: Ascend.

And finally... community.  We need to lay the groundwork for a GOOD community.  The fucktards at TribalWar should not represent the best that we have to offer.  There should be a strong community that wants to participate together, instead of troll and hate on each other.  I'd much rather get my ass whipped in a game where the best players mad sure that they evened out.  I got to participate in a TDM that was 92-0.  NINETY-TWO.  That's retarded.  That wasn't fun for anyone involved.  If that was your first experience in a game... would you play it again?  I doubt that I would.

The game needs work.  As the game stays in beta longer and longer I almost wonder what is pushing back a release date.  I appreciate getting a complete game, but I am also a little uneasy about how long we have talking about this game.  I am also concerned with how it will play out in the long run.  I really hope it's for the best, I'd love to see another great Tribes game.