So we get stiff once in a while. So we have a little fun. What’s wrong with that? This is a free country, isn’t it? I can take my panda any place I want to. And if I wanna buy it a drink, that’s my business.
Darn. I accidentally swapped a high-tier robe for a lower one in Realm of the Mad God loot, and I'm not sure I'll see another that good in days or weeks.
The shooter aspects can be fun. The leveling and permadeath makes it look at first like it's intended for you to rush in and die with wild abandon, but in fact loot and stat potions really encourage safe play once you hit max level (20). I'm only on my first medium-term L20 character, but I've probably spent more time playing at 20 now than getting there in all my previous incarnations combined.
Right uh just came back from a short vacation. It seems I only have to update some tags in my Acces file re: cbt/obt. That's a relieve. :P I'll do it tomorrow or this evening. Got a lot to do now, but this should not take long.
Started playing Eden Eternal for realz this time. It's really not bad at all. Pretty basic MOO fare but its done with a certain polish and style that most free titles completely lack.
citizen059hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited July 2011
In the last thread I was really down on the kid-focused Super Hero Squad Online because of its pretty repressive cash-shop model.
That hasn't changed, but my opinion of it isn't quite as harsh now.
My 6 year old son really enjoys the game. As you might remember, I'd mentioned previously that I'd redeemed a code to grant him a few free weeks of premium account status (the game refers to it as "Jr. SHIELD Agent") because as a "free" account you're very limited in being able to access new characters and missions.
He was working at it every day, trying to get the in-game cash he needed to buy the characters he really wanted, and he was down to just missing Wolverine. He was at about 750 of 1000 gold needed when the account status ran out.
When I explained to him that he had run out of time and fallen short of his goal, he did what you'd expect a 6 year old to do. He cried. He cried a LOT.
Now, for anyone who has kids, you know the different types of "crying" your kid can do. Some of them are forced, some are angry...this one was sincere. He was genuinely hurt and upset, and in between the tears complained to my wife and I that he had worked so hard and it just wasn't fair.
My wife and I discussed it and ultimately we decided to pay for his account, so he'd not only be able to get the characters he wanted but actually be able to play them, too. You see, when your account status runs out, characters marked "Agent Only" are disabled. You still "own" them, you just can't use them.
Now my son has a paid account, and I play the game with him using the more limited free account.
And you know...once you get past all of THAT bullshit, the game itself has some redeeming qualities. Instanced missions are repetitive, sure...but really you're playing an online side-scrolling beat 'em up. The action is simplistic but it can be a challenge to maximize your score. Your characters level up and gain new abilities, and there's even a Pokemon-like card game that was just added where you can collect hero cards and use them to battle other players (complete with the characters from the game launching the attacks).
My kid loves it and plays nearly every day, so it was definitely worth the cash on our part. If you've got kids that are into Marvel Superhero comics/characters/shows, it's definitely worth a look. The free account comes with four starting characters (Falcon, Cyclops, Thing, Ms. Marvel) and should give you a pretty good idea early on if it's something they'll put much time into.
@citizen059, didn't you also point me to Vector City Racer a long time ago? That one was amazing.
If you don't mind sharing: how much money have you spent on Superhero Squad and what would the monthly costs boil down to? (ignoring one-time fees) As much as I hate the bait & switch stuff of Freemium services ("oh so you want to listen to your music, without a subscription?... no we can't do that. Also, we upped the costs just because") as long as the total costs are the equivalent of buying a ticket to the movies I'm not very bothered by it.
My one problem with marketing MMOs to kids is that the developers might fuck up and your kid will be disappointed. At least Pokemon delivers a product that won't change overnight with a bullshit patch.
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citizen059hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered Userregular
edited July 2011
I don't think that was me; I haven't heard of Vector City.
I think right now they have options for your monthly sub (he's on the $9.95 a month plan) that include paying every month or paying for blocks of them at a reduced rate, and then they also allow you to buy in-game cash for way more than I'm willing to fork over. But he gets 500 in-game gold a month just for being a member and can win up to 150 a day by playing, so I see no need to buy more.
My account gets by on the in-game silver coin; the more limited currency where few things are available for purchase and they cost much, much more than gold items.
I'll give an example:
Most characters in the 'standard' store can only be bought with the 'premium' currency, gold. They normally cost 350 gold for lower-end characters, 600 gold for normal ones, and 1000 gold for new/popular/featured ones. Right now there are only three characters in the 'standard' store that you can purchase with the 'standard' silver currency. One of them costs 5000, one costs 15000, and the final one costs 25000.
There's also a 'premium' store featuring characters that you can only purchase and use if you're a paid account. Oddly enough, this store uses only the 'standard' silver currency, at prices ranging from 1000 to 3000.
Performing tasks in the game, completing missions, and playing card battles rewards you with prize tickets, silver coins (usually no more than 25-30), and XP.
The prize tickets are then exchanged for a spin on a prize wheel. From this wheel, you win money and items. The items are only for show, however (there is a 'home' area for your characters you can customize, and then watch them run around like pets or something).
The money part of the wheel works like this:
Premium account: All money tiles on the wheel start out as gold, quantities of 5, 10, and 20. There is a total of 150 gold on the wheel at the start of the day. As you land on these and win the gold, the tile flips over and becomes a silver coin tile, x2 the amount of the gold (so, 10, 20, 40). Each day the tiles reset to gold.
Free account: All money tiles start out as gold, and as you land on them they change to silver. They never change back to gold.
As you can see, the system is set up to almost force you to pay in order to get anything. If you're going to play for free, then you have to be okay with a very limited selection of characters, as well as limited access to missions. For a parent playing along with a child, it's not a problem. But knowing kids, they're going to want more. And that's where you'll pay.
And on your point re: changes to the game - that's happened once already. End of mission rewards were cut pretty drastically because of an unannounced change in the scoring system. You earn points as you play missions, and at the end your points are combined to determine how well you did by a series of medals: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Adamantium. Higher level medals grant you more tickets, money, and XP.
My son and I worked pretty well together and were scoring gold + adamantium on a regular basis. Then the scoring system was changed and you have to play a near-perfect mission to even get into the gold range. It seems like they tweaked some of the bonuses you would get in order to lessen the amount of points people were bringing in - meaning less in the way of rewards.
citizen059 on
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citizen059hello my name is citizenI'm from the InternetRegistered Userregular
I should also mention that Gazillion, the company behind SHS Online, is also working on Marvel Universe Online. That title is also slated to be F2P, so I wouldn't be shocked to see it follow the same pattern.
Did they get official licenses for both DC and Marvel? Holy moly, I might have to take a peek inside some time to see what all this is about. Thanks for explaining, I think that's pretty expensive for a small MMO. I mean, for 5 dollars more you get complete unrestricted access to nearly all p2p MMOs, although those games have initial start-up costs of ~50$.
Aye. You can get a subscription to Wizard 101 for 7 bucks and that game is quite outstanding for a small title.
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
You might want to remove COH: Online from your list. Last time I checked THQ scrapped it because the lead guy died, which sucks monkey tits because it was a free COH and I loved it. The leveling up and the heroes were awesome, but I have heard people bitching that it split the player base.
Realm of the Mad God got another patch that added even more interesting monsters. Halfing mages now do aoe dmg, there's harpies in the woods, killer crabs along the coast (cone aoe) and plenty of new mini-bosses.
You might want to remove COH: Online from your list. Last time I checked THQ scrapped it because the lead guy died, which sucks monkey tits because it was a free COH and I loved it. The leveling up and the heroes were awesome, but I have heard people bitching that it split the player base.
Thanks
*e: actually, I already have it listed as vaporized. I had no idea their lead guy died. The game wasn't doing too well anyway, though.
*e2: Rusty Hearts does have working servers, but it's hardly working as of yet. It seems it's pretty much like Dragonica, only with cooler graphics. I'll have to play more to see if it gets challenging in a good way.
Yeah. I only played through the tutorial and one other dungeon, but wasn't really feeling it. It was almost impossible to read the text prompts as they either auto-scrolled way too fast, or took forever to be able to read the entire thing, and the combat seemed...I don't really know how to put it...kinda slow paced. Not in the good way either. Of course, I have to play it some more to really be able to tell, but out of the 2 MMO's that came out today, Rusty Hearts and Dragon nest, My vote goes to dragon nest. Really dig the music in rusty hearts though.
Dragon Nest is getting zero points from me because Nexon forgot to mention you can't play it in Europe. :x
I rolled the redhead girl in Rusty Hearts and she's a slow-hitter what with the demon-possessed two-handed sword. She does take more than half a second to regain her posture after the 4-hit combo, during which you can't move at all. That's very frustrating. I also noticed the key to loot is the same as the key to hit, which is kind of weird, but so far hasn't posed any problems.
Also, you should read the quest texts, because they're witty. Basically: our 3 heroes consider themselves super important and awesome, while everyone else just finds them either annoying, hasn't heard of them or thinks they're full of themselves. One quest text goes roughly like this:
Quest guy: Now that you are part of the city militia, you can earn this ring, if you kill 5 skeleton archers for me!
Frantz: Not interested
Quest guy: It comes with a built in compass
Frantz: How tacky
Angela: I want that ring!
Quest guy: Now that's the spirit!
And the next is "kill 100 skeletons"
Frantz: The amounts of foes I have slain is uncountable
Quest guy: Well, time to start counting
Angela: Counting and killing at the same time? That's difficult!
Quest guy: Look, just don't think about the quest. Do what you always do and come back to me after a while.
Actually the first quest has Frantz going "ok, we've arrived, bring me to your boss and we'll sort this out." and the quest giver just bluntly tells him she doesn't have time for him and he should make himself useful in the sewers.
So it's: fun music, nice graphics and witty quest texts. I'm sold!
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Liquid GhostDO YOU HEAR THE VOICES, TOO?!Registered Userregular
Yeah, Nexon and Perfect World don't really have a say in regards to what licensing rights their ports have, but it would be nice to have a little bit of transparency over there. Instead of burying "may not be available in some countries" in the middle of an obscure post, why not just come out and mention exactly who can play and who can't? There must be some way to know what areas are going to be blocked, since I assume that PW is working directly with the company who actually owns the game.
I would if there were a way to turn off the auto-advance. I don't see any option to, sadly. It's a bit hard to follow the text when it advances before it's done being typed out.
I.. did not have any issue with the text. If anything it's too slow and was relieved to see that you can just ignore it when it automatically pops up since it will advance on its own.
I'm decidedly more positive on Rusty Hearts. I rolled up the monk guy (His name is Tude. Are you kidding me? How can I not pick him. My only regret is not naming him ATTITUDE). I am crushing monsters like nobody's business, so I have no idea where the slow combat thing comes from. Maybe the sword girl is just the lumbering bruiser of the current characters.
Game is structured a lot like Dungeon Fighter. You go into dungeons and move from cell to cell, killing all the enemies in that stage to progress to the next arena, ending in a boss fight. It's got all the arcadey stuff you expect like grab'n'throw attacks, juggling combos, dodge-counters.
I also enjoy the atmosphere. It's some kind of unholy mishmash of Castlevania, Hellsing, Devil May Cry, and SMT, which are all things I like. Music is good.
Plays very friendly with my controller. Automatically configured itself properly with my logitech dual-action, which shocked me because all games these days expect you to have a 360 pad or fuck you.
My only concern is the presence of a Fatigue system, so we'll see how that plays out.
Scosglen on
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Liquid GhostDO YOU HEAR THE VOICES, TOO?!Registered Userregular
I literally start growling whenever someone mentions a Fatigue System. It starts deep in my throat and rumbles outward like a wave of power. There's a beast inside my body and it's allergic to really fucking horrible design decisions.
Here goes to hoping more people follow after Vindictus and DFO, and take our their stamina systems. I really wanted to like that SHMUP mmo but stamina systems just make shit not worth it.
Angela is the caster, she does most damage with magic power. Frantz is the heavy hitter and Tude is the martial artist who just happens to be possessed by a ferocious wolf. Pretty run of the mill. I haven't run into the Fatigue limit, but they're probably still in the "lets get you hooked first" stage of the game.
Gave Forsaken World a shot. Generic gameplay but not terrible. Then again I might not have hut the grindy bits yet.
Grindy bits are plentiful after about level 30. You essentially end up just doing daily quests/instances to get xp, because mob xp and standard quest xp is right through abysmal and out the other side. Of course, daily quests and instances are capped at so many times per day/week whatever, so it's really painful after a while. I've hit 41 and am very quickly losing any desire to play.
Dungeon Fighter Online apparently released the Thief character earlier this month as well as revamping a number of the game systems. Enough to make me jump into it again, as I've been waiting to try out the Thief for a while. One of the more interesting changes they made is that unlocked difficulties for any dungeon are now shared account-wide. Makes playing more than one character far less of a hassle.
I have been playing Dungeon Fighter Online a lot lately
They massively reduced the XP curve; between that and effectively removing the Fatigue system you can get to 18 and your subclass in a couple hours instead of a couple days. Then you can get to 35 and (for most classes) the start of your major skills in a couple of days instead of a couple of weeks at a normal pace
So I made up a storm of alts, including an Asura from Slayer (fun), a physical Exorcist from Priest (also fun), and a Rogue from Thief (holy shit I'm gonna stab YOU and I'm gonna stab YOOUU and I'm gonna stab alla YOOOUUUUU)
Thieves themselves are just alot of fun. Even before class changing, I've never juggled enemies with my striker as much as I have with my thief. Haven't been playing Recently, but I'm glad I went for rogue instead of necromancer with mine.
@citizen059, didn't you also point me to Vector City Racer a long time ago? That one was amazing.
That may have been me, I used to work with one of the guys who worked on Vector City Racer. (No, I did not work on VCR)
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Liquid GhostDO YOU HEAR THE VOICES, TOO?!Registered Userregular
I'm not so sure about Rusty Hearts. It seems to favor style over functionality a bit and the interface, especially during dialogue menu selection, really is kind of clunky-ish. Whether I'm playing with a 360 pad or a keyboard and mouse set-up, the controls just don't feel amazing. It's less Ninja Gaiden Black and more Final Fight: Streetwise. Doesn't help that the combat areas feel incredibly claustrophobic and repetitive with a camera that almost immediately rubs me the wrong way. Not sure how much content there is, either, and having only three characters is a little bit on the shallow end of things.
I did a dungeon or two with the caster. A three hit combo and 2 spells. Not a lot of variety of variability. Less to do than either Vindictus or even that other game I tried a while back, even though it was terrible as well.
Having played Rusty Hearts a bit more I have to agree with Page- and Liquid Ghost: the combat just isn't decent enough to justify spending time looking at the pretty pictures. I tried playing Tude and although he is quicker, it's still just hitting X and moving in the right direction. I did try to counterattack once, but none of the skeletons even tried to touch me, they were just standing there waiting for me to kick their asses.
I mean, this certainly isn't a bad game, but just like most of the games in Perfect World's portfolio it doesn't have enough gameplay behind the polish to get hooked.
I don't want to be the Rusty Hearts apologist, but I have been enjoying it a lot more than you guys I guess.
Yeah the UI is not great. You spend 90% of the game in a dungeon not dealing with it though, so it doesn't hurt the experience that much.
The camera is basically hands off and it's perfectly functional for what it needs to do in dungeons.
Did you guys actually bother to level up and learn new skills? You start with a basic combo and two abilities, but you get enough skills by level 10 to fill your hotbar, and at level 10 you get access to a second weapon type with different basic combos and alternate versions of most skills.
The level variety and size expands, and the monsters become more difficult as you play. Every stage has 3 difficulty settings above normal if you think the skeletons are dumb. I have been soloing most of the game and I always select the hardest available difficulty for a given stage.
I guess it's the idea that I have to rely on skills I can select from the hotbar for diversification that I don't like.
Also the fact that we can solo a Very Hard dungeon level while it says "recommended for 3 to 4 players" shows that there's some work to be done on the difficulty of the game. That one is patchable, though.
Well, you get some more basic passive expansions to your abilities like dodge rolling, a monster pushback at the ends of combos, air dashes, etc (concievably extended basic combos later on) that are activated through basic inputs, but yes, a lot of your killing power comes from using an ability rather than executing a combo input. In the early levels personally I find that the basic attacks are mostly used as openers, or just for stitching together your skills to keep up a juggle or chain.
I kind of agree that it's a little silly that I could get SSS ratings when soloing merrily through very hard stages in the first dungeon, but a lot of these types of games are pathetically easy in the beginning, and it does get harder. Halfway through the second dungeon, on Very Hard mode especially, there are basic rooms that spawn (more or less) the stage-end bosses from the previous dungeon along with the normal cadre of skeletons and fishmen.
So nexon released a teaser site for Vindictus EU - http://vindictus.nexoneu.com/teaser/. Thing is, only Lann and Fiona are listed as characters... Now why would they not use the US version of the game for the EU which has 4 characters? I can't fathom any reason for this so I hope it's just remnants from the old EU site.
Dragons Nest got me hooked. I am really enjoying the Cleric. So far I've gotten to level 13 with him, and it's been a fun journey. I'm very much looking forward to getting to 15 to get the new class selection.
The only thing that is really bugging me about the game is that there is a limit on inventory space and storage space. There is not enough of either and it's something that I've seen in other F2P games that have made me stop playing entirely. Yes I'm a pack rat, but when a good item drops that I don't have the level requirement for, I'm going to save it. There are just so many good items. Especially when one of each of your armor, weapons, and accessories totals to more space required than your storage box allows.
EVE: TrueAnger
“The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians.”
― H.L. Mencken
“This Snow Crash thing--is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?”
Juanita shrugs. “What's the difference?”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
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On the one hand, it looks way better than the last one I found.
On the other hand, it still looks generic and boring.
I might try it.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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The shooter aspects can be fun. The leveling and permadeath makes it look at first like it's intended for you to rush in and die with wild abandon, but in fact loot and stat potions really encourage safe play once you hit max level (20). I'm only on my first medium-term L20 character, but I've probably spent more time playing at 20 now than getting there in all my previous incarnations combined.
That hasn't changed, but my opinion of it isn't quite as harsh now.
My 6 year old son really enjoys the game. As you might remember, I'd mentioned previously that I'd redeemed a code to grant him a few free weeks of premium account status (the game refers to it as "Jr. SHIELD Agent") because as a "free" account you're very limited in being able to access new characters and missions.
He was working at it every day, trying to get the in-game cash he needed to buy the characters he really wanted, and he was down to just missing Wolverine. He was at about 750 of 1000 gold needed when the account status ran out.
When I explained to him that he had run out of time and fallen short of his goal, he did what you'd expect a 6 year old to do. He cried. He cried a LOT.
Now, for anyone who has kids, you know the different types of "crying" your kid can do. Some of them are forced, some are angry...this one was sincere. He was genuinely hurt and upset, and in between the tears complained to my wife and I that he had worked so hard and it just wasn't fair.
My wife and I discussed it and ultimately we decided to pay for his account, so he'd not only be able to get the characters he wanted but actually be able to play them, too. You see, when your account status runs out, characters marked "Agent Only" are disabled. You still "own" them, you just can't use them.
Now my son has a paid account, and I play the game with him using the more limited free account.
And you know...once you get past all of THAT bullshit, the game itself has some redeeming qualities. Instanced missions are repetitive, sure...but really you're playing an online side-scrolling beat 'em up. The action is simplistic but it can be a challenge to maximize your score. Your characters level up and gain new abilities, and there's even a Pokemon-like card game that was just added where you can collect hero cards and use them to battle other players (complete with the characters from the game launching the attacks).
My kid loves it and plays nearly every day, so it was definitely worth the cash on our part. If you've got kids that are into Marvel Superhero comics/characters/shows, it's definitely worth a look. The free account comes with four starting characters (Falcon, Cyclops, Thing, Ms. Marvel) and should give you a pretty good idea early on if it's something they'll put much time into.
Also, gameplay:
If you don't mind sharing: how much money have you spent on Superhero Squad and what would the monthly costs boil down to? (ignoring one-time fees) As much as I hate the bait & switch stuff of Freemium services ("oh so you want to listen to your music, without a subscription?... no we can't do that. Also, we upped the costs just because") as long as the total costs are the equivalent of buying a ticket to the movies I'm not very bothered by it.
My one problem with marketing MMOs to kids is that the developers might fuck up and your kid will be disappointed. At least Pokemon delivers a product that won't change overnight with a bullshit patch.
I think right now they have options for your monthly sub (he's on the $9.95 a month plan) that include paying every month or paying for blocks of them at a reduced rate, and then they also allow you to buy in-game cash for way more than I'm willing to fork over. But he gets 500 in-game gold a month just for being a member and can win up to 150 a day by playing, so I see no need to buy more.
My account gets by on the in-game silver coin; the more limited currency where few things are available for purchase and they cost much, much more than gold items.
I'll give an example:
Most characters in the 'standard' store can only be bought with the 'premium' currency, gold. They normally cost 350 gold for lower-end characters, 600 gold for normal ones, and 1000 gold for new/popular/featured ones. Right now there are only three characters in the 'standard' store that you can purchase with the 'standard' silver currency. One of them costs 5000, one costs 15000, and the final one costs 25000.
There's also a 'premium' store featuring characters that you can only purchase and use if you're a paid account. Oddly enough, this store uses only the 'standard' silver currency, at prices ranging from 1000 to 3000.
Performing tasks in the game, completing missions, and playing card battles rewards you with prize tickets, silver coins (usually no more than 25-30), and XP.
The prize tickets are then exchanged for a spin on a prize wheel. From this wheel, you win money and items. The items are only for show, however (there is a 'home' area for your characters you can customize, and then watch them run around like pets or something).
The money part of the wheel works like this:
Premium account: All money tiles on the wheel start out as gold, quantities of 5, 10, and 20. There is a total of 150 gold on the wheel at the start of the day. As you land on these and win the gold, the tile flips over and becomes a silver coin tile, x2 the amount of the gold (so, 10, 20, 40). Each day the tiles reset to gold.
Free account: All money tiles start out as gold, and as you land on them they change to silver. They never change back to gold.
As you can see, the system is set up to almost force you to pay in order to get anything. If you're going to play for free, then you have to be okay with a very limited selection of characters, as well as limited access to missions. For a parent playing along with a child, it's not a problem. But knowing kids, they're going to want more. And that's where you'll pay.
And on your point re: changes to the game - that's happened once already. End of mission rewards were cut pretty drastically because of an unannounced change in the scoring system. You earn points as you play missions, and at the end your points are combined to determine how well you did by a series of medals: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Adamantium. Higher level medals grant you more tickets, money, and XP.
My son and I worked pretty well together and were scoring gold + adamantium on a regular basis. Then the scoring system was changed and you have to play a near-perfect mission to even get into the gold range. It seems like they tweaked some of the bonuses you would get in order to lessen the amount of points people were bringing in - meaning less in the way of rewards.
http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/07/27/age-of-wulin-videos-reveal-interesting-skills-non-combat-gamepl/#continued
It has a begging system!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RctNchhQXs
Rusty Hearts CBT is starting today
Added: http://en.wulin.gpotato.eu
Thanks
*e: actually, I already have it listed as vaporized. I had no idea their lead guy died. The game wasn't doing too well anyway, though.
*e2: Rusty Hearts does have working servers, but it's hardly working as of yet. It seems it's pretty much like Dragonica, only with cooler graphics. I'll have to play more to see if it gets challenging in a good way.
I rolled the redhead girl in Rusty Hearts and she's a slow-hitter what with the demon-possessed two-handed sword. She does take more than half a second to regain her posture after the 4-hit combo, during which you can't move at all. That's very frustrating. I also noticed the key to loot is the same as the key to hit, which is kind of weird, but so far hasn't posed any problems.
Also, you should read the quest texts, because they're witty. Basically: our 3 heroes consider themselves super important and awesome, while everyone else just finds them either annoying, hasn't heard of them or thinks they're full of themselves. One quest text goes roughly like this:
Quest guy: Now that you are part of the city militia, you can earn this ring, if you kill 5 skeleton archers for me!
Frantz: Not interested
Quest guy: It comes with a built in compass
Frantz: How tacky
Angela: I want that ring!
Quest guy: Now that's the spirit!
And the next is "kill 100 skeletons"
Frantz: The amounts of foes I have slain is uncountable
Quest guy: Well, time to start counting
Angela: Counting and killing at the same time? That's difficult!
Quest guy: Look, just don't think about the quest. Do what you always do and come back to me after a while.
Actually the first quest has Frantz going "ok, we've arrived, bring me to your boss and we'll sort this out." and the quest giver just bluntly tells him she doesn't have time for him and he should make himself useful in the sewers.
So it's: fun music, nice graphics and witty quest texts. I'm sold!
I'm decidedly more positive on Rusty Hearts. I rolled up the monk guy (His name is Tude. Are you kidding me? How can I not pick him. My only regret is not naming him ATTITUDE). I am crushing monsters like nobody's business, so I have no idea where the slow combat thing comes from. Maybe the sword girl is just the lumbering bruiser of the current characters.
Game is structured a lot like Dungeon Fighter. You go into dungeons and move from cell to cell, killing all the enemies in that stage to progress to the next arena, ending in a boss fight. It's got all the arcadey stuff you expect like grab'n'throw attacks, juggling combos, dodge-counters.
I also enjoy the atmosphere. It's some kind of unholy mishmash of Castlevania, Hellsing, Devil May Cry, and SMT, which are all things I like. Music is good.
Plays very friendly with my controller. Automatically configured itself properly with my logitech dual-action, which shocked me because all games these days expect you to have a 360 pad or fuck you.
My only concern is the presence of a Fatigue system, so we'll see how that plays out.
Grindy bits are plentiful after about level 30. You essentially end up just doing daily quests/instances to get xp, because mob xp and standard quest xp is right through abysmal and out the other side. Of course, daily quests and instances are capped at so many times per day/week whatever, so it's really painful after a while. I've hit 41 and am very quickly losing any desire to play.
Steam
Gonna try it some time later.
They massively reduced the XP curve; between that and effectively removing the Fatigue system you can get to 18 and your subclass in a couple hours instead of a couple days. Then you can get to 35 and (for most classes) the start of your major skills in a couple of days instead of a couple of weeks at a normal pace
So I made up a storm of alts, including an Asura from Slayer (fun), a physical Exorcist from Priest (also fun), and a Rogue from Thief (holy shit I'm gonna stab YOU and I'm gonna stab YOOUU and I'm gonna stab alla YOOOUUUUU)
Rogues are so much fun you guys
wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
That may have been me, I used to work with one of the guys who worked on Vector City Racer. (No, I did not work on VCR)
If Vindictus didn't crash on me constantly . . .
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
I mean, this certainly isn't a bad game, but just like most of the games in Perfect World's portfolio it doesn't have enough gameplay behind the polish to get hooked.
Yeah the UI is not great. You spend 90% of the game in a dungeon not dealing with it though, so it doesn't hurt the experience that much.
The camera is basically hands off and it's perfectly functional for what it needs to do in dungeons.
Did you guys actually bother to level up and learn new skills? You start with a basic combo and two abilities, but you get enough skills by level 10 to fill your hotbar, and at level 10 you get access to a second weapon type with different basic combos and alternate versions of most skills.
The level variety and size expands, and the monsters become more difficult as you play. Every stage has 3 difficulty settings above normal if you think the skeletons are dumb. I have been soloing most of the game and I always select the hardest available difficulty for a given stage.
Also the fact that we can solo a Very Hard dungeon level while it says "recommended for 3 to 4 players" shows that there's some work to be done on the difficulty of the game. That one is patchable, though.
I kind of agree that it's a little silly that I could get SSS ratings when soloing merrily through very hard stages in the first dungeon, but a lot of these types of games are pathetically easy in the beginning, and it does get harder. Halfway through the second dungeon, on Very Hard mode especially, there are basic rooms that spawn (more or less) the stage-end bosses from the previous dungeon along with the normal cadre of skeletons and fishmen.
The only thing that is really bugging me about the game is that there is a limit on inventory space and storage space. There is not enough of either and it's something that I've seen in other F2P games that have made me stop playing entirely. Yes I'm a pack rat, but when a good item drops that I don't have the level requirement for, I'm going to save it. There are just so many good items. Especially when one of each of your armor, weapons, and accessories totals to more space required than your storage box allows.
“The trouble with Communism is the Communists, just as the trouble with Christianity is the Christians.”
― H.L. Mencken
“This Snow Crash thing--is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?”
Juanita shrugs. “What's the difference?”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash