Weekly gaming update 27/09/09

So good news, I managed to get some gaming during my much appreciated long weekend this week. Well, I shouldn't say some. A "shitload" is probably a better term. Friday was my day off, followed by a day of gaming on saturday and more sunday when myself and a few buddies again had a LAN session, though this time hosted by myself. I will tell you now, hosting one is fun and all but the aftermath (cups, plates, pizza stains, bawls bottles, now-sticky spills that no one cleaned up earlier, and random bits of things you're unsure of touching) isn't.

This week, WAR was a big one (surprised face!). This is probably because I convinced my friend to give it a try and I also decided to come back myself for a bit. It won't hold our interest for long (probably) but it is enjoyable. He rolled a choppa and I decided to come back to my lowbie Shaman from a while back, so that worked out well. I also had a solid 6+ months of rest XP, which managed to boost me from 6-9 relatively fast. Our realm (Dark Crag) pretty much died while I was gone, which is a bit of a shame. I had trouble finding almost anyone in T1 but when I did they were willing to group and do some PQs. Scenarios on the other hand, took almost an hour to pop at times. ORvR felt kinda dead too. Maybe it's just T1, but man DC has lost a lot of players. As I'm sure many of you know, WAR pretty much blows without other players to kill/group up with.

Champions is definitely next on my must-play list.

Other notable mentions:

• Unreal Tournament Gold (on sale for 2 bucks on steam, great classic FPS)
• SourceForts (this one was big at the LAN party. Basically HL2:DM but CTF and with a building mechanic)

-Rav4ge

Snafzg returns to WAR

I'd just like to link to this really good read. It's an experiment Snaffy (of The Greenskin fame) did to see if WAR could manage to pull him back in after a couple months. I'd give it a look if you are an ex-WAR subscriber like myself, and you've been wanting to see how the game has turnbed out since.

WAR first impressions

Last week I finally went out to my local EB Games and picked up a copy of Mythic’s new MMORPG Warhammer Online. I went home, installed it, and began playing.

I’ll start by saying the game does not disappoint. It either meets your expectations or exceeds them. Everything is very nicely done.

The first thing I liked was the starting area. Unlike WoW, the game does not start in a peaceful little village in the middle of a forest. You begin in the midst of a battle, with your race defending itself from enemies (in my case, greenskins). Not only is this a good way to start a game, but it makes you familiar with your race’s enemy and really gets you motivated to start fighting them, weather in NPC or PvP form.

The combat system is great so far. I like the whole “action points” idea and how you can attack as fast as you can click/press the attack button. There are also turrets/cannons you can use which bring you into first-person mode and do plenty of damage. Other than that it’s not much different from most other MMOs. I got tired of reaching for the 1 on my keyboard so I mapped the melee attack to one of the side buttons on my mouse.

Classes in WAR are very unique. You be surprised to find a lot of original class ideas you haven’t seen before in an MMO, such as the Team Fortress 2-esque Engineer and the goblin squig herder among others.

I am really enjoying PvP and Public Quests. They are both fun to play and the game awards you in different ways for playing them. Arguably one of the best portions of the game. Would be even more fun with a friend battling beside me…*sniffle*

The HUD is really well done, probably one of my favorite things about this game. Everything is bright and visible, making it easy to play the game. Looks alot like the WoW HUD but they’ve done a better job.

So overall, I would say this is probably the best MMO I have played (so far). If you have the chance to pick it up I would do so. It’s a little expensive since it’s a new game (50 bucks) but if you’ve got the money and the interest go for it.

-Rav4ge