I don’t really do formal reviews, mainly because I’m not paid to do so, but here’s a few bullet points on my likes and dislikes about the game from my 10 hours in beta:

Thumbs Up:

• It was easy to pick up and play.  I thought the learning curve for doing missions wasn’t very steep at all.
• Believe it or not, the PVP is consentual.  You can only attack players that have accepted a mission or backup call against you.  Once the mission is over, no one can attack.  If you don’t feel like fighting, ignore the mission and backup calls.
• The customization is beyond fantastic.  Customize your physical character, their clothes, your car, your music…and more.
• Driving is a chaotic affair, just getting from point A to B without blowing up is its own meta game.  Learning to drive is fun, and driving well is a challenge.
• You can catch some major air if you know where to find the ramps and hit them right.
• Enforcers can kill.  They don’t have to arrest criminals, they can just be vigilantes and kill them.
• The matchmaking was nearly flawless.  I got put into groups consistently and was almost never alone.
• Aiming takes a steady hand and can be challenging.  Prepare to die.  Alot.
• Calling for backup often works like a charm.
• Teamwork pays off.  It is awesome to get a kill because the enemy is distracted by a team mate, or they kill them before you get ganked.
• The mix of different mission types was refreshing.  Some times I was guarding an area and the clock was my friend, sometimes I was racing to catch a guy with a critical item in a hectic car chase with the clock working against me.  I never knew what I was gonna get.
• The game has true crafting.  Make your own shirt decals, theme songs, you name it.  And you can sell it in the marketplace for cash!
• There are many unlockables to keep achievers busy.  Many of them help your character stand out in the crowd.
• Unlimited action district time for $10 bucks a month.
• Creating a clan (guild) was painless and easy.

Thumbs Down:

• Performance was iffy.  In two long sessions my system locked up and had to be rebooted 4-5 times due to the game crashing.  Not good, but the game is solid otherwise and can recover if this is stabilized soon.
• Only 80 players per instance might not be enough, but the city map size still kept things pretty action packed if all the car crashes I had with other players was any indication.
• Adding players to my clan was confusing.  What I tried either didn’t work, or I wasn’t doing it right and had no clue how.
• Being limited to only 5 hours of action district time stunk, and there was no way that I could tell to increase it.
• This isn’t an every day type of game (yet) like World of Warcraft .  Right now it feels like doing missions over and over will get repetitive like the early days of City of Heroes.
• What’s the end game?  Getting the best weapon and vehicle?  Then what…more missions?  See the item above this one…
• $10 bucks a month for unlimited action district play will likely not keep many people paying when they can continue to unlock hats in Team Fortress 2 and new prestige emblems in Modern Warfare 2 for free.  Even doing a pay as you go style with rollover minutes may not do the trick.  Can’t beat free in online play where shooters are concerned.
• It lacks mass appeal simply because it is a shooter.  Many people just won’t enjoy getting killed all the time because they can’t aim and shoot fast enough to compete.

With some more depth added to the action style of play, I could see myself committing more time to APB.  I had alot of fun running missions, and at the end of the day games are supposed to be fun.  APB delivered that, and I pre-ordered the game.  It has potential and I’d like to see where Realtime Worlds takes APB in the future.

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 06/14/2010.
Posted in: Beta, Commentary, Featured, Impressions, Opinion, Reviews, Video Tags: All Points Bulletin, Realtime Worlds

I never played Guild Wars.  I guess EverQuest, EQII, SWG, WoW and all the games in between never left me much room to try it.  I won’t make that mistake this time around.  I think this is going to release in 2011 (?) and if so, poses quite the problem for me as far as MMO’s go.  What happens if I love SWTOR and GW2?  How can I devote enough time to both?  Where does WoW fit in?  A good problem to have I guess, considering all the crappy MMO’s out so far.

So far just the Warrior and Elementalist have been revealed.  I’m left wanting for more.

And that Charr warrior just looks wicked cool…

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 3 comments on 06/09/2010.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, News Tags: ArenaNet, Guild Wars 2

We are in an age of stagnant online entertainment my friends. We now live in a time where creativity and innovation have been trashed for statistics, mindless grinds, and false achievements. Story and plot have taken a backseat to repetition and grinds. We are players in games where the destination is now more important than the journey. We are a people starved for innovation and lacking the key narrative element.

Read on my friends and I shall try my best to discuss what’s been bothering me and many others regarding this famine of RPGs.

World of Warcraft is a lazy dungeon master. Rather than mystify us with smoke and mirrors and throw red herrings at us to veer us from our path, WoW simply just tells us to go kill a certain number of this monster, grab components from that mob, or deliver a parcel to this NPC. WoW does not make us guess or have choice in our game. There is no mysterious figure lurking in the shadows or some hidden force with evil motives placing pawns in our way. Nope. Things are pretty cut ‘n dry in World of Warcraft.

We’ve often compared MMORPGs to their roots from tabletop and pen ‘n paper games, but how often have we turned the tables (excuse the pun) and looked at how MMOs these days would be translated into a pen and paper game? How would WoW measure up as a pen and paper game? I know Warcraft has a PnP based game out there, but it’s using a core ruleset based off of White Wolf’s previous games. How would the MMO as we know it measure up in a basement of people crowded around a table with only paper, dice, and their imaginations to drive the adventure? After killing ten rats, twelve boars, and finding ten red silk bandannas, we’d be pretty bored out of our tree.

MMORPGs have now been sterilized down to simple move and click combat simulations. Immersion is no longer a design decision and placed on the backburner in terms of priorities. Questing has been turned into a factory-line repetitive grind. Gone are the RPG components of these games and they’re now being referred to as simply MMOs. How did we come so far from those ancient days huddled around tables, tossing dice like they were made of molten lead, and using our *gasp* imaginations?

Some MMOs (yes I’ll use that term now) have tried and to some degree have been successful. With Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine has been unparalleled in their ability to mix the almost sacred stories of J.R.R. Tolkien directly with their gameplay. Their opening sequence for new characters is fantastic as it starts you right off talking with key characters and making you feel like you’re taking part in something heroic.

Even the free to play Dungeons and Dragons Online: Unlimited manages to sneak some key elements into their gameplay. Facing a dungeon instance and having a narrator tell you: “You wish these bones were a little cleaner. The air reeks of rotting meat.” – you know that something is amiss!

This has been a fairly common topic these days as the MMO field has grown rather stagnant these past two years. Many folks like Scarybooster and the guys over at Ten Ton Hammer are screaming for something better and innovative than grind fests like WoW. Syp over at Bio Break longs for those pen and paper days where imagination was the driving force.

It’s funny because one of the initial sparks was single-player games like Bioware’s: Dragon Age, where people got to see what story meant to a game and how good immersion truly can be. Maybe if enough people talk about it, MMO developers will finally listen?

We need to make our demands. We need to demand that story and plot get put back in our MMOs. That we can once again label them as MMORPGs with confidence! Developers throw us some curveballs and don’t be afraid to mix things up now and then. Why not place some traps and red herrings along our path and see if we’re intelligent enough to find a solution? Have us use our brains and, more importantly, use our imaginations!

Having said all this, there are some hopes on the horizon. Many out there just might be seeking to destroy the current MMO mould. One popular example, Star Wars the Old Republic, totes itself as a fully story driven MMO. Here’s hoping they succeed with that. With fully voiced quest lines, and separate quest chains for each class, they’re evidently on the right track, but will that immersion carry through the rest of the game? Will we see an MMORPG out there that breaks out expectations and really makes us pause and think about our next step? Will we have an MMORPG with decision based consequences?

I feel we’re on the verge of a new way of thinking. Here’s hoping that having enough people talk about this, it will make it clear to developers they can start taking risks. Here’s hoping we’ll see a new generation of games over the next couple of years that simply blow our notions of what an MMORPG truly should be.

My imagination is bored and longs for something better. Let’s hope it will find it soon.

Want to stay up to date on Rackham’s posts? Follow me on Twitter @RackhamGreg

© Posted by Rackham for Im Talkin Games with 3 comments on 02/01/2010.
Posted in: Comics, Commentary, Featured, Opinion Tags:

Are you a fan or a fanboy?

In most dictionaries, a fan is defined as “an enthusiastic devotee, follower, or admirer of a sport, pastime, celebrity, etc.”  A fanboy as defined by the Urban dictionary, is “a passionate fan of various elements of geek culture (e.g. sci-fi, comics, Star Wars, video games, anime, hobbits, etc.), but who lets his passion override social graces.”

How does this affect the MMO world?  People can become very passionate about their game.  Those that play MMO’s, for instance, tend to spend a lot of time in their virtual world, developing a passion for it that can become addictive.  But that doesn’t make them a fanboy, does it?  They are enjoying their pastime and just happen to be devoted to it.  They aren’t necessarily so passionate for their game that they might disregard or override social graces.

So why do people lash out at others who choose to play a different game than them?  What is the reasoning behind the whole my game is better than your game attitude?

Are fans predestined to become fanboys?

Do people that play ” game A” have to hate people that play “game B?”  For instance, do people that play EVE automatically have an animosity towards people that play WoW or EQ2?  Can they curb their feelings and be civil to each other without all the mud-slinging and name-calling?  Do we really need to choose sides in this so called MMO vs MMO conflict, or can we just say that both games win because both companies get our hard earn money every month?

I enjoy playing World of Warcraft, but I don’t spend my days trolling Everquest 2 forum sites telling people how they should dump their loser of a game for something as exciting and rich as World of Warcraft or spend my free time pointing out how superior WoW is over their game.  I respect that people have different tastes and some people favor Everquest 2 just as I would expect them to respect my enjoyment of WoW.

Will I defend my decision to play WoW?  Of course, because I enjoy the game, but that passion for WoW doesn’t make me a fanboy, it makes me a fan – someone who will enjoy the game for what it is a simple mmo game.  Sure I’ll be cheering its accomplishments, but I’ll also be telling people when developers screw up and do something stupid to break the game, because being a fan means being able to criticize as well as praise something you enjoy.

The truth is you can be a fan without being a fanboy.   The trick is to not become so passionate that you forget your social graces or common sense.  You can have a difference of opinion, but you can also be civil to each other and understand that there is no us against them mentality when it comes to gaming.  We are all MMO players no matter what game we play.

- Oakstout

© Posted by Oakstout for Im Talkin Games with No comments on 01/25/2010.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, Opinion, Uncategorized Tags: World of Warcraft

The active rumor out there is that the Curse client has a keylogger in it. Curse asserts that their client is clean, AS LONG AS YOU GET IT FROM THEM. It seems a lot of people don’t want to pay for the added convenience that is in the Curse Premium Client, and have been downloading a “cracked” version from other sites, including torrents. Guess what, that kind of stuff may contain keyloggers. If you don’t want to pay for added functionality that is your prerogative, but if it causes you to get your account hijacked and all your virtual goods stolen, then I have no sympathy for you. Shame on you for stealing the intellectual property of others, and congratulations on your just desserts.

These examples I noted above which are anecdotal reports are just part of the discussion though. WOW.com reported a couple of weeks back that Blizzard is so inundated with trouble tickets from this kind of account and virtual goods theft that they just can’t keep up with it any more. They have taken to offering players a “Care Package” which contains gold, emblems, and items to get them back up and running again. That’s fine for a lot of people but if you get your guild’s stuff taken and you want it back then you are looking at weeks before they get to you to do an investigation and the possibility of recovering your items.

To battle this, rumor has it that Blizzard wants to require everyone to use the Blizzard Authenticator to log in to their accounts. I’d be interested in how they want to roll that one out to the user base. I think requiring hardware at this point would necessitate them distributing them at no charge, or including them in the box in Cataclysm. Some additional in-game benefit should be given to those of us who have already spent our $6.50 to secure our accounts. That concern is minor though.

What is the driver behind all of this account theft? Gold sellers. Gold takes time to farm. Time=money. Delays in delivering cause canceled orders. So if you are running a gold-selling business you can staff up and spend real money to have real people generate your fake money, or you can buy a keylogger and find a way to get it into wide distribution. Then all you have to do is log in to accounts that you capture and steal the gold, then sell it for real money to those who want to purchase it. Kinda pokes a hole in the “victimless crime” argument that proponents of gold selling like to make. There are real victims here. Blizzard is a victim. People who are inconvenienced or lose enjoyment are victims.

In part, Blizzard is a victim of their own policies. I lay part of this problem at their feet for banning bots but not being able to do the same with gold sellers. Part of the problem is how the battlenet login reduces account security by also giving the thief an incentive to also hijack the user’s email account. At least with bots, they sellers were in a perverse way earning their gold. Now they are just stealing it. So bots are getting crushed, demand remains the same or continues to rise, depending on who you believe, and all that gold that is getting sold has to come from somewhere.

What’s the solution? Increased account security with an Authenicator is an absolute minimum. I have checked the box on the launch page which remembers my account name, so I don’t have to type it in. If I never type it again, no key logger can capture it. Make sure your email account has a different password than your game account. It’s not that hard to change it up. And NEVER share your user name and password with anyone.

Blizzard needs to keep developing their tools so they can more effectively track and ban accounts that participate in theft activity, as well as the down-the-line accounts where the proceeds end up.

I guess it’s a testament to the power of the gaming sphere that a stolen WoW account is now worth more on the black market than a stolen credit card number. We wanted gaming to be mainstream and now we are living with the criminal element that comes with anything that has potential monetization.

For all of us gamers, be careful out there. Don’t let one of these common criminals ruin your day.

-Genda

© Posted by Genda for Im Talkin Games with 6 comments on 01/21/2010.
Posted in: Advice, Commentary, Featured, Opinion Tags: Blizzard, World of Warcraft

As gamers we’ve all experienced the anticipation of a new game that we are really looking forward to playing. With that anticipation, we usually devour all the information we can get about a title. When a game company releases a cinematic intro for our anticipated game, we drool over how awesome the game will be based on how well the cinematic was done. Great cinematics for many games have been released, and I can tell you not one of them gives the average player a decent idea of what the actual game play is like. Game cinematics need to go away.

These cinematic movies are like concept cars at auto shows, they are merely showing you the future that will likely never come to pass. These cinematics often don’t accurately portray game mechanics or visuals, and I get that they usually aren’t intended to. They are there to get people excited for a given game, to raise interest and ultimately sell the game. They may serve that purpose somewhat, but they are misleading. They are the result of classic advertising, like the hamburger you see on TV looking nothing like the one you get served in the restaraunt. These cinematic intros are also expensive to make for the development studio, and are often done by a 3rd party.

I am far from an expert on high end cinematics, but it seems that these clips generally employ large amounts of computing power for high resolution graphics and animation. I also assume that the consumer level gaming rigs that could run a game with cinematic style graphics just doesn’t exist at an affordable price point. At this point, I also assume that it’s still to expensive and time consuming for game studios to even think about creating a game with these kinds of jaw dropping visuals anyway. If all those assumptions are even somewhat correct, it’s safe to say that these movies are unrealistic representations of the games they are made for, and there’s no way the game will come close to the visuals and epic feelings conveyed in most of these movies. For the most part, they are an injustice to the game and tough for the developers to live up to. See Warhammer Online’s first cinematic and gauge that against actualy game play and visuals. That cinematic featured two classes that didn’t even make it into the game at launch. Great cinematic quality, but poorly represented the game.

The most recent uber cinematic of recent memory is that of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m sure everyone under the sun has seen it, but if not you should take a peek at it to see my point:

The video above shows nothing of how the game will actually play or what the game actually looks like. However, the first time I saw this it got my heart racing. It is so well done, so epic feeling, that my fanboy meter shot through the ceiling. For this very reason, cinematics (at least for large AAA productions) are likely here to stay.

I think the perfect middle ground lies with the machinima artists of the world. Using the game’s very own engine and assets to produce a movie is a better bet in my opinion. That way, the graphics are not as misleading, and good story telling can still bring an epic feeling into play. I’ve noticed such a trend with Blizzard entertainment for example. While they have done the high quality cinematics before, they seem to be turning away from that and using their own game engine to produce the movies made for the game, ala Wrath Gate.

Do you agree? Should cinematics go away, or are you ok with them as they are? Should they change? Holla back.

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 01/20/2010.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, Misc, Video Tags: BioWare, Blizzard, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic, World of Warcraft

I’ve been in Global Agenda’s closed beta for a few months now, and I must say that the game has progressed nicely in that time.  The starting tutorial went from being something very short to one that is very well fleshed out and can take about half an hour to get through.  I recently went through the tutorial as the Recon class and took the video below.

Shown here is the class selection screen, facial customization, opening story and most of the training mission with me playing a Recon character.  I took the liberty to chop out some very boring parts of me progressing through the mission to speed things up and give a bit more condensed version:

But will I buy it?
Global Agenda is not a bad game.  Ultimately, I can’t see that I will be playing it much though and am going to wait on this game.  I already own Modern Warfare 2 and Team Fortress 2 and get all the FPS style play I can handle from those two games.  I almost feel bad because I really do support indie developers like Hi-Rez, but I just don’t feel drawn to this game as I initially hoped I’d be.

The PVP plays a bit like Team Fortress 2, but without the wacky style that TF2 brings to the table.  Class selection is a bit limited, although it brings the MMO-like quality of being able to specialize through talents.  Its awesome that there is no subscription fee required, but this game may have gained more benefit from a free to play model with an item shop.

Global Agenda brings many MMO style features to the game that give it more depth than Team Fortress 2 or Modern Warfare 2.  However the core game play, animations and visual style of the game just haven’t grabbed me in the months I’ve been in beta. I never felt motivated to level up so that I could unlock things and see how the conquest campaign might play out.

Global Agenda is still doing enough things right for me to keep an eye on it, but in a crowded gaming landscape it just didn’t have the fun factor I’d hoped for to this point.  Between MW2, TF2 and the upcoming Mass Effect 2, I’ll have all I can handle and don’t feel like I absolutely must put Global Agenda in that mix somehow.

Here’s a thanks-but-no-thanks to Hi-Rez Studios.  I know that comes off as a back-handed congratulations, but the game is solid…just missing something for me.  I know many others will like the game and I wish the studio all the good fortune in the world with Global Agenda.

~ br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 01/15/2010.
Posted in: Beta, Commentary, Featured, Impressions, Reviews, Video Tags: Global Agenda, Hi-Rez Studios

Gamers are indeed set to see some radical changes to gaming in 2010. The big change to gaming in 2010 will be on the PC, as we see the entry of OnLive and Gaikai who can *theoretically* use cloud computing technology to bring us high end gaming on netbooks, old and dated computers or even on our mobile phones. Unless they delay their launches, OnLive is set to launch in February 2010 and Gaikai is also slated for a Q1 2010 launch. As I look at my calendar, February is only a few weeks away. We’ll soon see what the real possibilities are for these technologies.

While I remain skeptical, it is potentially exciting. If these services can even come close to delivering what they say they can, many things will change. You will soon see the technology coming to the Xbox and PS3 if either of these cloud gaming companies have any success. 2010 will bring some huge changes to gaming, so long as both of these companies don’t outright flop.

I haven’t really heard much on the progress of their beta testing and don’t know how their progress is coming along. I think it is very likely that these Q1 launches might be a bit too aggressive given the radical nature of the technology. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see both companies delay their launches and slip into Q2 or even into Q3. Even if their launches are delayed, it’s still likely that we’ll see 2010 launches from both companies. Whatever the case, I’ll be investigating both services as soon as they are available to me. Here’s to hoping we get to run Crysis on a toaster!

Are you looking forward to these services? Do you think they can pull it off, and will it change everything as many think it will?

~br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 3 comments on 01/13/2010.
Posted in: Analysis, Commentary, Featured, Opinion Tags: Gaikai, OnLive

So the wait for SWTOR is almost over right? Wrong. It was widely rumored from EA chief John Rittecelo’s recent statement during an EA earnings meeting that SWTOR’s target launch date would be in the spring of 2011. I didn’t know how to feel about that statement as SWTOR wasn’t specifically named in his statement, but it was obvious that he was talking about that game. EA doesn’t have any other MMO with an equal or higher production value to potentially impact EA’s earnings the way SWTOR can, so that had to be it.

Today, BioWare confirmed that target date. Upon reading this I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced:

While we have not announced a specific date, we can confirm that we are targeting a spring 2011 release for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. We’ve got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game. It’s not too late to sign up to be a game tester, so go to www.swtor.com/tester and sign up today. We can’t wait to share more about the game with you as we progress through the year, so make sure you stay tuned to the official website for details.

This one caught me off guard. I was fully convinced that BioWare had made more progress than they were leading on. They had announced beta sign ups a few months ago, released information on all the classes and most of the planets. I was sure beta would start in Q1 2010 and the game would launch mid to late 2010. To hear that their target date isn’t this year, confirms what many have predicted. SWTOR won’t launch till 2011, and possibly late in 2011 if typical MMO developers have shown us anything. Don’t be surprised to see that target date slip, EA has too much riding on SWTOR for it to be anything less than stellar so I’m sure BioWare has all the time they need to get it right.

Looks like 2010 is Blizzard’s year, again.

~br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 5 comments on 01/12/2010.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, News Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic, World of Warcraft

So a whole new world has opened up to us. While I’m not one of those that thinks that 3.3 will trivialize guilds, I do believe it is changing the role of the guild. Guilds will no longer have division between the geared and the ungeared in the sense that the geared will be able to do things and the ungeared cannot. Unless you are one of the lucky ones whose guild is helpful to new 80′s you had to find your own heroics groups and get your own gear until such time that you reached a gear level that is appropriate for doing what the more-geared people in your guild are up to. That used to be difficult, and could cause division in the guild between the haves and the have-nots.

Now with the dungeon finder your new 80 can gear themselves relatively easily. All you have to do is run a lot of PUGs with the Dungeon Finder and collect the emblems you need and whatever gear drops, and before you know it you will also have the gear you need to do more with the guild or others you want to run with.

So what does that have to do with the title? That’s a fair question. In the past, if you could get 2 or three heroics in that wasn’t a bad night’s work. Between getting a group together, traveling, doing whatever else you needed to do, and turning in quests you had a good chunk of time that got eaten. Last night, Tark and I ran that many after we were done doing everything else we had going on that day, which included messing on alts, doing some glyph making and posting, running a couple of raids with the guild (our first Ony 25 on the new toons!) and whatever else we wanted to do we still had time to do those runs.

On other days, we have run a LOT of heroics. Tark is nearing 100 runs. In (less than) a week. So here is where my inner grouch starts to worry. Are we going to get tired of running instances? Is this going to make it harder to bring up a new character because DEAR GOD, if I have to run Oculus again I’m going to jab a fork in my eye? OK, the Oculus example is probably not the best one, since I already felt like that, but I do worry that we are in danger of burning content, premium content, faster than they can create new stuff. And while we are all having fun now, what is to keep us from getting dungeon burnout.

Right now the queues are relatively short and everyone is playing, but what is going to happen when everyone is all badged up and not as many people need heroics any more? I think it’s going to slow down, but it is going to be OK. Why do I think that? Well it was near impossible to get a BC dungeon before, and it’s not hard to get them now with the dungeon finder. I think that’s how the Northrend intances will end up.

One bonus: I think more people will roll up more healers and tanks, or at least alt spec them. The one thing that holds up the queues is a lack of one or the other of these. I know I alt-specced my Ret Pally to Prot, and found out I am one hell of a bad tank. That’s bad as in stinky. Hopefully I’ll get it figured out but thanks to the helpful paladin that was on his alt who gave me some advice. And stuck with the group until the dungeon was done.

-Genda

© Posted by Genda for Im Talkin Games with 7 comments on 12/14/2009.
Posted in: Analysis, Commentary, Featured Tags: Blizzard, Opinion, World of Warcraft

A few weeks ago I completed my first run through BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins on normal mode.  With Allister, Wynne, Morrigan and my rogue Bushwick grouped up we battled through all the campaigns. After winning the support of the mages, elves, dwarves and humans we descended upon the final battle.  We made our way through ogres and darkspawn to reach the top of the fort tower in Denerim to come face to face with the arch demon.  Everything was stacked against us, including the fact that I was out of lyrium potions for mage mana.  Obstacles be damned, we pulled victory from the jaws of defeat.

Check out the videos (two video play list in one embed) below with my play by play commentary of this epic win: And duh…spoiler warning…just in case you hadn’t figured that out yet.  If you don’t want to know how this fight plays out then don’t watch and have fun when you get there.  If you’d like to see a bit about what awaits you, or just to see the miracle I pulled off after running up to the archdemon rather blindly:

Two mages is key for this fight, and for that matter pretty much every encounter in Dragon Age. Force field and dispel magic are clutch, as well as healing spells, obviously. Remember to check out my previous post about 5 things you should know before playing DAO.  This game pretty much guaranteed EA/BioWare another 60 bucks of my paycheck once Mass Effect 2 launches.

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with No comments on 12/05/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, Video Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins

Here we have a preview video of the upcoming Icecrown citadel dungeons coming soon in patch 3.3 for Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. It seems that Blizzard is taking a cue from the likes of BioWare and bringing more story into the game, something that can only improve WoW and prolong its already crushing dominance on the MMO market in my opinion. I haven’t played WoW regularly in months, and watching this video got me pumped up for the new patch.  And its not even an official video.

The video below is player made by a member of the guild <Vodka>, a top raiding guild on the Alterac Mountains server.  The preview is from footage taken on the public test realm from an Alliance character’s point of view (the Horde travel with Sylvanas) and shows off some serious video production skills. Warning, it contains spoilers, so if you want to be surprised when this goes live then maybe you should pass.

However, many of the people in WoW’s player base are feeling sort of stagnant (including ITG’s resident WoW players) while they’ve been waiting for new content so something like this could get your juices flowing again. I highly recommend watching this one:

If the creator of this video isn’t working in the video production field professionally already, some game development firm should look into hiring them.  Well done.

Bleh! or Woot? What’s your call?

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 12/05/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, Opinion, Video Tags: Icecrown, World of Warcraft, WoW

From the land of der wienerschnitzel we get some leaky updatege about BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. Apparently PC Gamer magazine in Germany got the rights to an exclusive on SWTOR’s last two remaining classes, and the latest issue of that magazine tells us (albeit in German) the scoop on what these two new classes are likely to be.

An industrious fan scanned images from the magazine in anonymous style, and posted the scanned images online. I took the liberty to download and provide those here for your viewing pleasure in case those disappear into the void of the internets. The classes by the way are the Jedi Consular and the Sith Inquisitor, and this has been confirmed in an interview at Darth Hater with LucasArts producer Jake Nerri. This means that 4 of the 8 classes in SWTOR will be of the force using variety.

As fans tend to be, some are a bit dismayed at this news. Moon Over Endor is contemplating an end to their blog because of the news, while Bio Break is a bit crabby this morning and thinks 50% light sabers are not so good either. I consider myself a fan, but I am not bothered about these classes as announced. I theorized in earlier post comments about what the last 2 classes might be, and figured that in true MMO style that they would either be pet classes or healing classes. Since I don’t read German I can’t be sure, but my guess is that the Templar and Inquisitor are indeed healy types.

I don’t know why I should be bothered that they are force types. Even if BioWare can’t make them stand apart from the Knight and Warrior (unlikely!) it isn’t a big deal to me, the game still looks like it will be great. After logging quite a few hours in Dragon Age: Origins, I have faith that BioWare will provide fantastic voice acting and story for every class no matter which classes we choose to play. For me, this doesn’t ruin a thing.

So what say you? Fail for too many force classes, or are you unshaken by this news?

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 11/23/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, News Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

Ravious of Kill Ten Rats has even gone as far to call this feature the potential future of the MMO landscape, and while that may be a bit of hyperbole, he’s on the right track.  Repeatable, variable, scalable encounters with lots of rewards and story-driven content tied in aren’t new in and of themselves.  The old missions of City of Heroes were something akin to this.  But once one plays a Skirmish in LotRO, they’ll see the difference between the two is stark.

Skirmishes are closer to the dungeon content in Turbine’s DDO than anything else on the market.  Each one is heavily story-driven and ties into the overall narrative of the game.  They can be played solo or by a full raid group of 12.  The enemies, objectives, and content changes each time you play them.  There are daily quests tied to each Skirmish.  Rewards gleaned from the system are some of the best rewards obtainable in the game outside of the raid encounters.

In short, what it looks like Turbine’s done is create truly meaningful and dynamic content for everyone and anyone that’s not gated by party size, hardcore or casual play-style, or any of the normal divisive factors that split people of the community into small sects.

I recently had the pleasure of being walked through one of the Skirmishes by Aaron Campbell, and I left wanting to reload the very same encounter to see how it would change.  I wanted to play it solo, with a small fellowship, with a full fellowship, and in a raid to see how it evolved depending.  I wanted to change its difficulty setting, its level range, and go in and play.

It’s a remarkable system, and one that I foresee will be used in the future for the game’s Epic Quest series.  Right now there’s a fairly big problem of old Epic Quests being skipped because they require groups, and Orion (designer for Turbine) is currently going through the old books and making them more solo-friendly to help alleviate this.  If in the future the Epic Quests were handled via the Skirmish system, there would be no need to worry about such issues.  If the Skirmish system isn’t the future of MMOs in general, it’s certainly the future of LotRO.

- JoBildo

© Posted by JoBildo for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 11/19/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Opinion Tags: Lord of the Rings Online, LotRO, RPG, Turbine

There seems to be a #trending topic in the last few days here in the blogosphere in regard to MMO gaming nostalgia, with recent posts like this one from from Syp at Bio Break, then from Game by Night, and Kill Ten Rats even having chimed in on this topic. I realize that most of the discussion is about looking back at a previously played game with fondness for the good times we had, yet also realizing the displeasure leading to why we moved on.  However, I wonder where addiction comes into play for some gamers.

So many of us gamers, especially the MMO crowd, seem to be recovering as if we are heavily dependent addicts to “our” game.  What causes this? How many quests, levels, un-subs, re-subs, free trials must we go through? Personally I’ve been battling this with Wow, for the last year. It’s start a character and the fun returns, then it’s gone, rinse and repeat.

So how do you know – really know – when its time to just call it quits and move on, or quit all together? Here are some basic tell-tale signs that may signal that it is time to see what else the market has for you, or whether you should take a step back from gaming all together:

Full slate of characters from mounds of time invested
How long have you been playing, is this your 3rd expansion pack? Do you have all the playable characters maxed out? Can you hop on and have a character at various levels to play with new found friends or a fellow guild mates that are rolling an alt?  Can you casually jump back and forth between your main for whatever endgame content you need to do, but also have leveled enough alts that you can moderately play with them if you choose to?  In this case you’ve probably been playing so long you have all the different level brackets full of characters you can play at a whim.

Factions and servers
Not only do you have the different level brackets covered, but you may find your self wondering if the grass is really greener on the other side. Have you tried to level an alt on another server or another faction only to find that starting over isn’t as much fun as you thought it might be?

The Treadmill
Done that and got the t-shirt? Maybe your guild is so tight knit and goal oriented that you have done all there is to do in the current game.  Do you have all the major achievements and titles one would require to feel adequate? On the other hand, you could be feeling bogged down by the daily monotonous tread mill of game play for gear, emblems, or reputation.

Waiting for groups
Do you log on, only to find something else other than playing the game, grabbing for your attention? How about finding your self just jumping around Orgrimmar or Stormwind (for you Wow players) searching for that last hope of a tank for that pug TOC 10 man or a pre-made Pvp group LFM players?

New game or no game?
All of these are very good indicators that you should probably check out what’s new in the market, and maybe take a nice needed vacation in real life if you feel chained to a game that brings you little enjoyment.  Lastly, I would like to just touch on something that could be a concern to you (or not) and share a link to a video that may help you if you find yourself too glued to your game.

Video games may or may not become an addiction for you. I know that after the first time I quit Wow I would spend just as much time looking at Warhammer Online material.  Believe it or not, I spent just as much time waiting for the open beta and head start as I did when I was actually playing Wow.  Whether its a single game or gaming as a whole, its something to be cautious about.  I think it happens more often than we think, and to more people. We get so involved in finding the next hot title and trying to see were or what the best class/server/race etc will be and it becomes something more then a hobby.

If you are able to manage all that an MMO can throw at you, and still balance your life and other responsibilities – I salute you! As friends, gamers, and a community we should be able to talk, express concern and offer help to those we perceive may have a problem.

Addiction: What is addiction?
Addiction is a complex problem, affecting not only the physical and mental health of individuals, but also their families and social environment

Well, this has been a more serious post, but hopefully one that will get you to think, and even act, if you believe that you know someone who could use help. As always moderation is key and I hope you guys enjoy all the games that are out. I know I am, but remember to spend time with family friends and take care of your responsibilities before your game time!

Game on!

~Kaldeem

© Posted by Kaldeem for Im Talkin Games with 7 comments on 11/15/2009.
Posted in: Analysis, Commentary, Opinion Tags: Game addiction, Opinion, World of Warcraft, WoW

One week ago BioWare announced the Imperial Agent class at a press event in Europe. Today they published an official holonet entry on the swtor web site showing the Imperial Agent in all his glory, complete with stun darts, force fields and air strikes. Check out the 3 short clips showing off these abilities below:

The Imperial Agent appears to be the Empire’s version of the Rebellion’s Smuggler class, as evidenced by the shared cover mechanic. The cover mechanic can be seen in the video clips accompanying the holonet entry, where the green silhouette indicating positions to take cover can be seen. Both classes appear to use cover and ranged combat, while the Imperial Agent uses more conventional attacks and the Smuggler subscribes to a swift kick in the groin.

This reveal is icing on the cake since we already knew of the class but had no details surrounding his combat tactics, outfitting and focus on recon. We have a better understanding of what the Imperial Agent brings to the table (omg air strikes) and can now look forward to the last 2 classes to be revealed. From here, it’s anyone’s guess as to what the next two will be. So, do you like the Imperial Agent? Think you know what the next two classes will be? Sound off in the comments below and let us know!

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 5 comments on 11/13/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, News, Video Tags: BioWare, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

It has been many many months since we built our machines at home.  Tarkheena and I both build new machines every couple of years.  On this last build, we installed Win XP Pro on our two main gaming machines.  I foolishly didn’t anticipate how XP Pro wouldn’t play as nice with the XP Home machines on the network and set myself up for a permission-setting fiasco.  Luckily, I built a server a couple of years ago and installed Windows Home Server on it.  This serves as a file and print server, media server, as well as a backup device.  I won’t go into too much detail at this time, as that isn’t the purpose of this blog.  Suffice to say that the WHS has saved my bacon a couple of times.

As XP machines tend to do, performance degraded over time, as the registry slowly gave up it’s integrity to multiple installs and uninstalls.  So we decided to make the leap to Windows 7.  Since we both have machines that support a larger amount of addressable memory, we also decided to make the leap to 64-bit.  For the uninitiated among us, 32 bit Windows capped your memory at 4 GB, and it really didn’t quite make use of much over 2GB of user space.  Windows 7 64-bit (Ultimate, Professional, or Enterprise) will address up to 192 GB of physical memory.  Obviously much more than today’s motherboards will support.  Needless to say, the more headroom your applications have in memory, the better they are going to run.  This is because accessing the physical disk is one of the slowest processes in your computer and so if that can all happen at once, and up-front, the machine will do much better.

Windows 7 seems to be a little less of the pig, as well.  That is to say that it seems to run better on the same machine than Windows XP did.  This is a remarkable turn-around in Microsoft’s practices where previously each new OS was intended to take advantage of new as-yet-unavailable pieces of hardware.  In other words, products were designed to eat processor clock cycles so their friends at Intel could sell you a new computer.

As a discalimer, I should mention that I didn’t take advantage of the migration tools that MS offers, because I wasn’t comfortable with how they work and I don’t like to be my own guinea pig.  It’s always much easier to do with someone else’s data and asking them “Are you SURE you want me to try that?”  ”Well OK, then.”  Having Windows Home Server with a complete backup of the network does add a level of comfort to the process though.  And I’m glad I had it.

Tark and I decided to just add a new hard drive to each machine (you can never have too much storage) and change that to the primary partition and install the new Win 7 there.  That way we would have all of our data on the old drive, and a fresh shiny new Windows 7 installation on the new one.  In the interim, if anything catastrophic happened, I could always switch the boot order and get back to status quo.  Nothing bad happened, but there are some consequences to migrating already-installed games from XP to 7.

First of all- since Vista, Windows has changed the way that it stores user data.  I won’t get too technical but suffice to say that there is more to the change than renaming your “My Documents” folder “Documents.”  This causes difficulty if you try to migrate games from one platform to the other, because saved data, patch data, etc., might not be where the program expects to find it any more.  Or more accurately it’s not in the NEW place Windows is looking for it.  This happed for us with both WoW and Torchlight, while the remainder of my Steam games were perfectly happy with me doing a new Steam install on the new drive and copying all of the game files over.  For the Torchlight saved games I had to find where it used to store them, and then it was a simple copy and paste to the new location.  Not bad but not something every gamer is going to be comfortable doing.  When I moved the famously portable WoW directory to the new location it really messed with my Curse installation.  It mostly ran fine once I upgraded to Curse Client 4.0, until the mini patch Monday night.

On both machines, once WoW started to patch, it seemed to be confused about where it was in the patch process and it seemed to basically repatch everything from v 3.0.  While annoying and time-wasting, this was hardly a deal breaker.  On my machine, right-clicking on the patcher and choosing to “Run as Administrator” cut down a little on UAC asking me if I was sure so often.  Yes, I’m sure, Dammit!  On Tarks’ machine, however, there was a glitch.  Somehow one of the important WoW files got deleted.  WoW objected at the end of each patch.  Having the server backup I was able to find and reinstall the missing file and after that and a lot of patching WoW seemed happy.  It’s pretty much run better than it did on XP since.

So here is my recommendation to you guys.  If you are technically savvy and feel comfortable moving things around in your system, you can do what I did.  For two computers I spent the better part of a day messing with stuff, reinstalling certain apps, toying with the interface.  I lost some things that I can’t find the install disks for, but that was going to happen no matter what I decided on a new OS.  If you aren’t as savvy, You may want to use the Windows migration tool, do a migration and reinstall all of your games from disks.  To do that you will need to use an external hard drive, so that may be an additional expense for you. You can probably check the game’s forums right now and get good information about migrating since so many people are doing it at the moment.

Now that it’s mostly done (I still have one more machine to migrate) I have to say that I’m pretty thrilled with Win 7 so far.  It’s lighter and faster, and the interface is a step ahead of XP for sure.  The networking is so much simpler it isn’e even close.  And I love being able to use all of my physical memory.  I’m giving it a “thumbs up” as long as you follow the caveats above.  I’d love to hear what your experiences have been like!

-Genda

© Posted by Genda for Im Talkin Games with 6 comments on 11/11/2009.
Posted in: Analysis, Commentary, Featured, Opinion, Technical Tags: Torchlight, Windows, World of Warcraft

Demo for all!
In a previous post I showed you The Parish campaign from the Left 4 Dead 2 demo.  There I did some play-by-play game play in the demo and highlighted some of the new game play dynamics. The 3 new infected and “uncommon” common infected bring in a few new wrinkles to getting to the safe house alive.  The New Orleans themed map during the daytime is cool, especially for this Louisiana native.  The new weapons and items also mix things up nicely, and it all adds up to make for one great sequel.   Before I continue blabbering on further there is some good news: that demo is now live for everyone.  Go and try it out if you have any interest in having your turn at trying to survive Valve’s 2nd zombie apocalypse.  You can also play the demo as infected if you are up for some hackery.

Also available is some game play video from G4tv.com about the alternate game styles, which I’ve embedded below for your enjoyment. L4D2 brings more than the co-op campaign mode. There’s versus mode, where 4 players play the survivors and 4 play the special infected zombies. There’s survival mode, where 4 players try to survive as long as possible against wave after wave of zombie hordes and special infected. In addition, L4D2 brings in a few new game play modes:

Realism Mode:
Realism mode is basically EXTREME OMG BEYOND HARD mode. If you die, that’s it your are dead. There is no respawning in a closet somewhere that your teammates can rescue you. You can only get a dead player back if you have the new defibrillator item. Character outlines are off, so you won’t be able to look for those green outlines surrounding your teammates when you get separated. It seems like this will be a very challenging game type, and I look forward to trying it. Check out the video on realism mode below:

Scavenge Mode:
Scavenge mode looks to be like Versus mode, but with a twist. You’ll have 4 special infected players versus 4 survivor players, but this time the objective isn’t just for the survivors to make it to the end of the map. In scavenge mode, the survivors must find gas cans scattered across the map get them to the generator. Adding cans buys more time, and the team that scores the most cans (teams alternate between playing survivors and infected) wins. Check out another great video on scavenge mode below:

The apocalypse begins (again) on November 17th.

~br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 11/05/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Misc, News, Video Tags: Left 4 Dead 2, Valve

Kill All Sons-A-Bitches
The title above isn’t just an excuse to be crass, but a quote directly from the opening cinematic by Southern boy Ellis from Left 4 Dead 2.  A few days ago Valve released the long anticipated PC demo for their upcoming sequel to the original Left 4 Dead.  Yours truly pre-ordered L4D2, so I was in the group of people that gets to play the demo early.  The demo is a short two stage campaign called The Parish, and has these survivors starting at a boat dock after being dropped off by a local fisherman.  From there, you have to blast and smash your way through New Orlean’s Jackson Square to a safe house near Interstate 10.  I’m here to tell you that I enjoyed every minute of my play time, so much so that I captured a whole gigamountain of video and took the time to give you the play by play.  Check out the 3 part video series below, where I get by with a little help from my friends and complete the campaign on expert mode:

The Devil Is In The Details
Left 4 Dead 2 is identical to its predecessor at is core. There is a zombie apocalypse, and you must kill hordes of zombies and special infected to get somewhere that you can be rescued.  Where it sets itself apart is the way it expands on L4D’s winning formula. The 3 additional special infected, along with zombies armored in riot gear, bring a whole new level of game play to the table. The new weapons are just different enough to make you want to go out of your way to look for them. The Magnum is (overpowered?) a godsend if you become incapacitated and are firing at zombies raining down on you. The defibrillator and the adrenaline shot also mix things up nicely, and the new characters have a certain charm that just makes you want to like them. The details like jukeboxes that play songs (and spawn horde if a special song plays) just add flavor to the already great feel of the game.

I say all this just based on a short demo campaign. I have not yet encountered zombies in hazmat suits, or many of the other unique infected that I’ve read about. I have not yet had the joy of firing the grenade launcher, or seen any of the new game play modes that exist outside of the demo. There is much, much more to be experienced with Left 4 Dead 2, far beyond what can be enjoyed in this short demo. Whether you are an old Left 4 Dead zombie slayer like me, or you are new to Valve’s zombie apocalypse survival game, there’s alot to like with this game.  My first impressions were all good except for the hitching, which can be seen multiple times in the video.  Regardless, I still recommend this game as a must buy.  November is a crowded month for gaming, but you should really consider L4D2 if its not already on your radar.

-br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 2 comments on 11/01/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, Video Tags: Left 4 Dead 2, Play By Play, Valve

Recently, Infinity Ward’s Creative Strategist, Robert Bowling, announced that Modern Warfare 2 would not ship with any dedicated server support.  Instead, the game would be using their new IWNET matchmaking system.   Robert “FourZeroTwo” Bowling’s on his own blog, posted some of the benefits of this new system, which were most likely crafted to quell the lynch mob forming in the shadows.  Here are a few highlights that got lifted for clarification:

• Matchmaking & Smoother Game play: Bowling says IWNET matchmaking allows players to find and join games much easer than scrolling through lists of servers, each with their own rule and mod sets. This new IWNET infrastructure will “automatically find you a game with the best performance, ping, and preferences based on your location and individual connection as well as matching you with players of your same SKILL.’

• Playlists and Private Matches: Bowling says the new playlist will allow for easier use to finding the type of game you want to play. “This now allows you to play custom games out of the box without the need to install mods, find a modded server with the rules you like, or worry about not being in control of the match,” Bowling explains.

• Party System and Friends list: IWNET’s friend list system allows players to see when your friends are online, and makes it easy to invite them into your party and move from game to game. Bowling highlights the fact this is great for Clan use.

• Cheat / Hack Free Games: “The biggest benefit of using IWnet by far is the fact that you don’t have to worry about joining a server full of aim-bots, wallhacks, or cheaters,” Bowling writes. He says this will allow them to control the quality of the game as well as utilizing the VAC (Valve-Anti-Cheat) system.

This has a large portion of the gaming community, especially those in favor of dedicated game servers in an uproar.  The short explanation is that this new matchmaking service basically turns their beloved PC into an Xbox or a PS3.  It eliminates or at the very least hampers the creation and implementation of mods for Modern War 2.  It takes a lot of control out of the gamers hands and places it firmly in the hands of the gaming company.  Why?  So  they can effectively control,  see and record everything thing the player does during their online play.

Sure that sounds very paranoid, but why else would they stifle creative control of the PC community in favor of a system that basically cuts players off at the knees?

-Oakstout

© Posted by Oakstout for Im Talkin Games with 3 comments on 10/30/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured Tags: Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare 2