I have fallen in love with BioWare’s RPG’s. Many of you may have been experiencing the quality games they’ve been putting out for quite a while now, but I was a relative RPG newbie – until recently. I had not played Mass Effect 1, but had ME2 on pre-order, especially after having played Dragon Age: Origins. Nearly 3 weeks after I started the game, I have completely finished the game on Insanity difficulty twice. I did it first as a Sentinel and second as a Vanguard. I also played about half the game as an Adept, and a did a few recruiting missions as an Infiltrator. The moral of the story is that I played ME2 alot; I’ve played it daily since I purchased it and enjoyed it immensely.  I thought it was a bit too short, but I’ll not get into that too much as this isn’t a Mass Effect 2 review except to say that I loved the game.

I dove into ME2 so heavily because I wanted to gain some insight as to what the game play is like and to get a taste for next year’s Star Wars: The Old Republic. It has been stated that it will utilize the conversation wheel like ME2, and that seems to work just fine. However, there are more elements both games will have in common.  One of the first things I wondered upon seeing BioWare’s vision for the planet Coruscant was how Mass Effect 2 might give me an accurate feeling of what this “city world” might feel like. After playing it so much, I think Mass Effect 2 does a great job at clueing us in as to how these modern environments will feel in SWTOR. I also wondered if I might be able to get a feel for the Smuggler/Imperial Agent’s cover mechanic in ME2. It appears to me that ME2 shows pretty clearly what the urban Coruscant environment, cover mechanic and blaster fight style game play will feel like. First, look at the urban city world environment from Mass Effect 2 and then the Coruscant video from BioWare and compare:

Mass Effect 2′s “Thane recruitment” mission city scape:

Coruscant “city world” in Star Wars: The Old Republic:

I just have to believe that seeing ME2′s implementation of space age urban cities are exactly what we’ll experience in SWTOR. I realize that the performace issues will be different however. In ME2, I’m the only player connected to that world, but in SWTOR there will be thousands. But from a graphical rendering perspective, I got no graphical stuttering at all despite all the objects appearing on my screen and immediatly thought that my ME2 experience was probably a good preview of what my SWTOR experience might be like in Coruscant.

Next, check out the Smuggler’s cover mechanic:

Compare that to just about any mission in ME2:

You can jump straight to the combat part of the video above at 05:31 to see the cover mechanic in action during a firefight, or watch the whole thing to see some storyline and dialog wheel action as well. While the ME2 footage looks much better in my opinion, but it still illustrates the similarities. Playing a Smuggler/Imperial Agent in SWTOR will probably feel alot like playing Sheperd Mass Effect 2. You will find yourself pinned down with a hail of blaster fire whizzing around and you’ll likely only be able to get out with special moves and/or help from friends. Let’s just hope SWTOR feels more like ME2 at launch in that regard.

So there you have it. My recent (and very much enjoyed) stint with Mass Effect 2, and a few things that give us indicators of the great things to come in SWTOR.  These things indicated by my time in ME2 lead me to believe that we could be in for the next great MMO in 2011.

~br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 02/16/2010.
Posted in: Featured, Misc, Opinion, Video Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

Last night brought me to the completion of the main story line in Dragon Age: Origins.  I had alot of fun with this game, and while some parts seemed a bit drawn out, the end campaign was not.  I’ll post full spoilers and video in another post, but for now I thought I’d take the time to pass along some useful information that I would have liked to have known before getting started.  There’s shouldn’t be much in the way of spoilers below, but if you get satisfaction out of doing it all on your own (even if it means making some mistakes) then you might want to pass on reading the rest.  If you could stand to know 5 things that might help your adventure, then take in the items below:

• You can re-specialize your character, or any character in your party.
  While the core game does not provide a way to easily do it by default, you can download this modification from the BioWare Social Network’s projects area.  In reading up on this topic,  I found that is not recommended to use the console to do it as some have.  I’ve used this mod and it worked flawlessly, so I recommend the mod install route, as it works just like installing DLC does.  It places a Raven at your camp (or by the load in area for the Flemeth’s hut area) that you can talk to for a re-spec.  You select the first dialog option to get a potion of re-specialization that you can use to relearn all those skills and talents, so if you messed up and explored a specialization or talent that you regret, you can correct it.  If you are like me and think Morrigan’s shape-shifting skills are not as useful as the Spirit Healer skills are, you can correct that too.  Just make sure you’ve unlocked a specialization before you unlearn it, or you’ll have Allister unable to learn how to be a Templar like I did.  Luckily the book for that one is at the camp’s vendor!

  Tips:  You can re-spec Ohgren from 2-handers to shields for tanking, since you have to take him to certain fights in the Dwarf campaign.  That way you can sit Allister on the bench, especially useful if you want to keep 2 mages in your group.  Also, there is another download in the projects area that will put a chest in your camp that you can use to store items.

• You only need basic Health and Lyrium potions, and you can have them in unlimited supply.
  With basic herbalism you can make these crucial potions in nearly unlimited supply.  Go to the Elf (Brecilian Forest) and Mage (Circle Tower) campaign areas and talk to the quartermaster/vendor there and buy Lyrium dust and Elfroot in unlimited supply.  In the tavern in Denerim you can buy unlimited flasks.  Buy all the stacks you can afford and crank out as many potions you need to ease the burden of healing, crowd controlling and damage on the Mage(s) in your party.  Your Rogues and Warriors will be able to use the health potions quite regularly as well.  Rinse and repeat as  you run low on potions.  There are areas where you can buy unlimited reagents for the larger potions if you wish to go that route, but that is a more expensive thing to do and you can get by without them.

  
  Tip:  Need room for all those potion materials?  Check the full item list of any vendor you interact with, some of them sell backpacks that will add to the total amount of items you can hold at once.  The Dwarf vendor in your camp has one.

• Two Mages are better than one, so pick up Wynne as soon as you can.
  Wynne is a playable party member you pick up during the Circle of Mages campaign. I recommend going to gather that part of your army first since she is there, and so is your unlimited supply of Lyrium dust for mana potions.  Wynne is already specialized into Spirit Healing, but you can change that (see above) later if you wish.  With Wynne and Morrigan re-specialized in Spirit Healing for group support you will struggle less to get through the tough encounters.  You won’t regret having not one – but two – resurrection spells to cast in some of your fights.  If you don’t mind tripping over traps and leaving many doors and chests unlocked because you don’t have a Rogue, you can play a Mage yourself and have 3 in the party!

  Tip: Get one Mage into cold and one Mage into telekinetic spells and have your mages sustain force and cold weapon buffs for your Rogues and Warriors.

• Crowd control is key, and AOE damage is icing on the cake.
  Mages are pretty much the way to go here (see two mages are better than one above), but which skills you choose for Mages is even more critical.  Force field, Cone of cold, Crushing prison and other spells like Blizzard and Fireball for AOE damage also have crowd control components.  You can light the slippery AOE grease spell on fire with any fire spell for the double whammy.  Blood magic specialization has a great crowd control spell, with quick re-use for creatures that have blood – like Darkspawn.  Its not only Mages that are useful here, as your tank’s shield bash or two handed pummel will knock enemies down for s short period.  Shield bash can also interrupt that Ogre from pounding your healer into the Dust too.

  Tips: When faced with a group of nasties coming at you, one or two of them are usually tougher than the rest.  Look for baddies with a yellow or orange colored name, and use force field or crushing prison to take these guys out of the fight while you kill the rest.  Better yet, when a Mage (or anyone in your party) gets aggro and is about to die, have another mage put a force field on them since you can put it on party members to make them invulnerable as well.  When the mob leaves, have the other mage dispel the force field to put them back in action!

• Learn to use your tactics, and the pause and escape keys are your friends.
  I started using tactics way too late in the game, but these basically allow you to program the behaviors of the party members you aren’t controlling at that moment.  You can set Mages with healing spells to heal anyone under 75% health, and you can have Mages drink potions when under 75% mana – automatically.  Have your characters apply the buffs they have automatically with tactics too.  There is much more you can do to program behavior so that these common things you’ll constantly do will happen without you having to do them.  The fights can get large and hectic with many things happening at once.  Not only will tactics help, but so does pausing.  Use the pause button (space bar by default) to plan out every move you need to make to get through a tough fight.  Also, use the escape key to skip dialog.  While the story is great, there are some parts where you just don’t want to hear it.  When you go to the same vendor 20 times in a game, you probably don’t want to hear his diatribe just to see what he’s got to sell.

  Tip:  You can set the game to automatically pause the game when combat starts.  This will help you visually locate and assess the bad guys.  Preparing for that Mage’s fireball by running other people out of the way or crowd controlling them to prevent it are much easier things to do when you pause first.  Having the game automatically do it for you helps you get a jump on the action.

Well that about wraps up the tips.  I hope these help you on your journey in Fereldon without spoiling too much of the game for you!

- br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 4 comments on 11/24/2009.
Posted in: Featured, Opinion, Tips Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG

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

Last night, thanks to a welcome back weekend promotion and my own lack of ability to keep money in my wallet, I resubscribed to LotRO.  The good news is that I was given the wrong options when I bought Mines of Moria recently, and was unable to take advantage of the $9.99 monthly pricing that the accounts page said I should have been able to.  I sent this complaint to Turbine’s account support, and this week I got a reply e-mail saying I’d been credited a 3-month subscription and will receive Siege of Mirkwood as a free bonus.  So while I might not have received my work bonus this year (long story…) I at least got some little gaming stimulus from the folks at Turbine.

I got to start my adventure last night, and while my own experience wasn’t as disorienting as Keen’s, I must admit… I feel a little lost.  So many changes have happened to the game in the time I’ve been away that it took me a while to figure out what all the new doo-dads were for.  You can now track quests with map-markers that pop up showing you the general direction of your objective, you have two different slots for appearance armor and clothing, you can buy a house, work on oodles reputation rewards, get a hobby like fishing, and several zones have been completely reworked to provide a better questing experience.

My level 37 Champion had been logged out for so long, and I’m not sure how the rest experience works, but when I killed just one bear I went from level 37 to 39 and I have no idea where a trainer is to get any new skills that might entitle me to.  Playing the Champion is a little easier than getting acquainted with all the new features I’d been missing though.  My hotbar setup came back to me in no time, and I was killing bears, bandits, orcs, and wargs like a pro soon enough.

I remember quitting LotRO because I felt the solo content stretching thin in my upper 30s, but when I logged in yesterday I found my quest log filled to the brim with solo quests appropriate for my level.  Maybe I was delusional back in the end of 2007?  All I know is now I’m having a blast.  Maybe I just needed an extended break.  I’m nearing the appropriate level to start Angmar and work my way to 50 and the Mines of Moria too.

But I’m finding myself very tempted to start a Warden now that I have the Mines of Moria expansion, and level him up.  Champions are a lot of fun, but quite squishy and not exactly easy to solo with in some cases.  The Warden’s mix of DPS and tanking might be more up my alley.  I think I’ll split my time between the two.  I hear the starter zones have been reworked completely, and so have places like the Lone-Lands, so I’m anxious to see how some of the old world has been changed.  Plus on top of all that, Skirmishes come to the game in just a couple weeks, which will add yet another way to play.

I guess what I’m saying with this long and meandering post is that it feels like the perfect time to resubscribe to LotRO if you’re at all curious as to what’s changed in the game since you last played like I was.  My article at MMORPG.com should be going up today, which talks about a great deal of the changes coming to the game in December.

One of the most important ones?  The combat system has been reworked so that the auto-attack no longer keeps your special skills from triggering.  It will run in the background as it does in WoW or WAR, making the action far more fluid and reliable.  That little facet alone would have been enough to get me playing again, but all the other new things like Skirmishes, mounts, and the like are just icing on the cake.

Look for me as Begud on Silverlode.  I’ll be around.

- JoBildo

© Posted by JoBildo for Im Talkin Games with No comments on 11/17/2009.
Posted in: Opinion Tags: Lord of the Rings Online, LotRO, RPG, Turbine

Confessions of an RPG Virgin
I was not interested in playing Dragon Age Origins, even through all the pre-launch hype and marketing blitz. I’m a multiplayer kind of guy, and sadly there is no multiplayer in Dragon Age. It’s a single player only game, and my frame of refernce to these kinds of games have been set by my experiences with games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft. My first RPG was an MMORPG. When I first logged into EverQuest some years ago, I was amazed to see all these other players running around and doing their MMORPG things. They were doing their own quests and slaying their own monsters, and I could join them if we both agreed. I was soon raiding with my newfound online friends, and I brought that love of online gaming with me through everything I’ve played ever since. Playing a single player game like this was a sub par experience as far as I was concerned. The explosion of MMORPG’s on the market really makes that point for me, people like playing with other people.

I love multiplayer games because I enjoy interacting with other people in games, and I feel that scripted NPC’s just don’t do it for me. It’s merely a matter of time and some trial and error before I conquer any type of player versus environment (PVE) content. Against other players however, tactics and play style change. We learn from our mistakes and challenge each other (or work cooperatively) in ways that programmed characters simply cannot. There are some good players that I will never beat, no matter how much trial and error I have fighting them.

MMORPG minus the MMO
Despite my love for multiplayer games, it’s been a great change to take the MMO out of the MMORPG game right now. There are many benefits for a long time MMORPG gamer when playing these kinds of single player RPG games. Need a bathroom break, or want to stop to eat lunch? Pause. There’s no need to tell teammates that you are AFK, making them wait for your return or to find a replacement. My NPC team mates wait as long as I need them to wait. If I made a key decision that I regret, I can simply load up a saved game and try the other path.

While playing with friends is still a key component of gaming for me, I must say that it is quite refreshing to sit down for a gaming session and not see something like “lulz”, “wtf”, “chuck norris pwnz” or any sort of juvenile internet speak flying across my screen. There are no loot ninjas to worry about, no getting ganked in the middle of my quest, and no having to run back for minutes just to pick up where I left off. I know that most of that can be avoided in most games with some effort, but Dragon Age: Origins is just what the doctor ordered for me right now. It’s the RPG without the MMO, and it feels like its just what PC gamers need right now.

As much as I love not having to deal with the sewage of juvenile personalities crowding the virtual space of nearly every MMORPG out there right now, I do  miss being unable to experience with friends playing with me. It would be really nice if those other players in my small band of adventurers were some friends of mine instead of computer controlled artificial intelligence. If only there was a game like this out there right now.  A game that tries to bridge this type of RPG experience with an MMO game, allowing those shared experiences. None exist now, but can SWTOR can be the answer here? If it is, we’ll surely see the next big thing to hit MMO gaming next year.

Putting the MMO back into the RPG
I decided to try Dragon Age Origins for MMO reasons, reasons that have so much to do with my love of multiplayer games and Star Wars. BioWare happens to be launching the most anticipated MMORPG in recent history, Star Wars: The Old Republic. I will be playing that game when it launches, so I wanted to see how well BioWare delivers on the “4th pillar” of story in their games. Not only had I never played a pure RPG game, but I had also never played a BioWare game. It was time to kill two birds with one stone.

I purchased DA:O on launch day and I have not played anything else since then. I’ve put in some late nights and I have been really hooked. I’m not necessarily reviewing the game (yet) but I will say that there is much to like in this game and you’ll likely see it snatch up numerous game of the year awards. I’ve progressed quite a way through the main story arc to this point, the result of a monster (pun intended) session till 2 a.m. Saturday night Sunday morning. I very much like this game, despite the poor lip syncing and ever present long-and-drawn-out voice acting. The space bar (pause) and escape key (skip dialog) are my friends. I have been in single player RPG mode for a week now and have been happy without the MMO part. I’ve been itching to do some battlegrounds in World of Warcraft and to beat a few more zombies with a frying pan in LF4D2′s demo, but I have wanted to explore and progress in Dragon Age: Origins more.

Good news for SWTOR fans
Dragon Age Origins has been a gripping experience for me. It’s taken hold of me and provided me with a whole lot of entertainment, with much more waiting over the horizon. This bodes well for BioWare’s upcoming SWTOR MMORPG. I think that I can safely say that things look even more promising for SWTOR than I had originally imagined. If BioWare takes this style of story driven game play and applies it to the leveling process of SWTOR, they will likely have the next 1 million plus subscriber game on their hands. Its a refreshing change from the standard MMORPG, and I think its becoming very clear that BioWare can indeed apply what they do well to their upcoming MMORPG. Playing Dragon Age: Origins has been extremely enjoyable and further increases my anticipation for Star Wars: The Old Republic.

-br3ntbr0

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with 4 comments on 11/09/2009.
Posted in: Analysis, Featured, Impressions, Opinion Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG, Star Wars: The Old Repbulic

The web will soon be filled with blogs about the game’s greatness, it’s incredible lore, it’s nostalgic throwback to CRPGs of old, and hot elf-on-girl action (that’s right, Bioware got dirty again).  Pete will likely not come up for air until he’s beaten it.  And I’ve also got the game downloading at home while I work.  Provided my crappy connection stays fit, I should be delving into the world with my dwarven warrior later this evening.

I remember my first days of true PC gaming spent huddled over the keyboard and plugging hour after hour into Black Isle Studios’ original Baldur’s Gate.  I know, I’m the resident tyke here at ITG! but what better games to cut my teeth on than some of the best CRPGs ever made?  And today sees a hopeful return to form for the genre that the early 2000s seemed to have forgotten, and if all goes well, we’re bound to see more quality epic RPGs released in the future.

So let’s use this post as a place to geek-gasm about Bioware’s latest opus.  What are you playing as first?  What system are you playing on?  What do you think of the naked elf women?  And for those of us stuck at work, if you’re home playing it, stop by and make us more jealous by reveling in the game’s glory via text, won’t you?

- JoBildo

© Posted by JoBildo for Im Talkin Games with 8 comments on 11/03/2009.
Posted in: Misc Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG

Torchlight is a game that’s been floating around the blogosphere quite a bit since its release early this week.  And with good reason.  This gem of a game is the product of a lot of love from a developer who’s had some major ups and downs in the past couple years.  Runic Games is formed entirely (with some additions) of the same team that was working on Mythos before Flagship went belly-up.  It should comes as no surprise that Torchlight bears a striking resemblance to not only Mythos, but Diablo 1 and 2 and Fate as well.

Max and Erich Schaefer (key developers on the Diablo series) and Travis Baldree (lead designer of Fate) are the founders of this little studio.  What’s astonishing is that in eleven short months they’ve made a game that, while derivative, is extremely satisfying in a way that few games since Diablo 2 have been able to replicate.

At very first glance, players familiar with Fate will see some very obvious connections.  As Syp recently pointed out, Torchlight is essentially the same game.  Good or bad, this little fact doesn’t mean Runic’s first entry into the world of computer gaming is something to pass over.  Fate has over a million customers (insert McDonald’s I’m Lovin’ It theme here) for a reason.  But even that game was missing, for me, the same thrill and drive to keep delving deeper into the dungeon that Torchlight captures.

It borrows heavily from the Diablo series, Fate, and even Mythos.  You have several skill trees for each of the three classes.  There’s a heavy reliance on potions, identify scrolls, and town portals (Diablo).  You have a pet that can change into different beasts by feeding it fish, run back to town to sell your gear, and learn spells to help you fight (Fate).  You can even purchase random dungeon maps that will give you a nice diversion from the main quest line (Mythos).

I mean, let’s call a spade a spade here… Torchlight is an amalgamation of many previous entries into the Action-RPG genre.  But where in the past games like Sacred  and Titan Quest have failed to capture the same addictive and enticing qualities that Diablo once did, Torchlight shines.

I don’t know why, but so very few games in this genre ever match the same feeling that the best of the best give.  I was rarely eager to keep playing Sacred, I didn’t sit at my desk and dream of the next shiny piece of loot in Titan Quest.  But with Torchlight, I’m already planning my next character and what skills I’m going to own little zombie faces with.

Our full review will be coming later, but until then why not check the game out yourself?  Steam has a demo available, and it only costs $20 to unlock the full game.  I will personally guarantee you’ll get your money’s worth if you’re itching for a good new hack-n-slash.  If I’m wrong, Br3ntbr0 will gladly pay you back.

(Though he may deny it…)

- JoBildo

© Posted by JoBildo for Im Talkin Games with 3 comments on 10/29/2009.
Posted in: Featured, Impressions Tags: RPG, Runic Games, Torchlight

The date: Oct. 27 2009. In less than 6 hours from now a plethora of gamers will flood the Steam client servers trying to download Torchlight. In what is a highly anticipated RPG game.  Br3ntbr0 has an article about this already posted here.

So I won’t dribble on about it for very long, just long enough for me to tell you about the Level Editor found on the Torchlight main page. Being released in what most would agree a direct download from their official site. You will have a probably a week, maybe 1 1/2 to level like crazy before the editor is released, and you can start hacking and slashing away in your own attempt to create a sick level.

While you are at it, take a look at this game play video by the guys from Giant Bomb (via Pete from Dragonchasers):

Are you ready, have you pre-ordered Torchlight? Or are you going to be one of the few and fastest to get the download. Only time will tell!!

I know I’m going to have to wait a week or two, before I’ll be able to get my hands on this great game!

Good luck and have fun!

- Kaldeem

© Posted by Kaldeem for Im Talkin Games with 6 comments on 10/27/2009.
Posted in: Commentary, Featured, News, Video Tags: Diablo, RPG, Torchlight

BioWare appears to really be bringin’ it with Dragon Age Origins.  Not to be outdone by Torchlight, Dragon Age Origins is offering an advanced software tool to download which will enable the average Joe like you and me to create “cut scenes, audio/visual effects, conversations, level creation and much more.”  Perhaps you need to be a little more technically savvy than the average Joe, but hopefully you get the point.  The tool set has documentation online here, and really looks to tap into the player generated content that made games like Neverwinter nights so popular.  Check out the clip below which showcases the tools:

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 10/26/2009.
Posted in: Featured, News Tags: BioWare, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG, Runic Games, Torchlight

Immediately upon firing up the DAO character creator client you’ll be presented with an intro movie that begins to introduce you to the game’s story.  You’ll learn how the Darkspawn came to be and the Grey Wardens that are mystically attuned to them.  Then you’ll see…aw hell, just check out the clip below:

© Posted by br3ntbr0 for Im Talkin Games with One comment on 10/16/2009.
Posted in: Featured, Video Tags: BioWare, BSN, Dragon Age: Origins, RPG