More Beta thoughts on Archeage

     I'm regretting my lack of cash for a founder's pack and eagerly awaiting the launch. Which is on my birthday! I can't help finding that a bit awesome. After getting into Closed Beta Event 3 I was lucky enough to also get an invite for Closed Beta Event 4 and  then did a bit in the Open Beta too. In Open Beta I was able to drag a friend in and do have hopes she'll play with me some when it's live.
    I gave the Nuian a shot in CBA 4. Made this handsome fellow:

     And leveled him high enough to make him into a Templar just because I could. I will have a Nuian in live eventually but not sure he'll bear any resemblance to this fellow -or- be a Templar, but it was Beta and I was experimenting.

     The starting area for the Nuians was lovely and very medieval Europe. I loved it. And another thing I loved... the horses. I'm a little bit of a snob when it comes to horses in video games, particularly their animations. I grew up around the real things so when the animations are wrong it bugs me and after having seen a lot in video games I've come to the conclusion that they're a very hard thing to get right. ArcheAge does horses amazing. They're not perfect but I think they're the best I've seen, though Lord of the Rings Online horses are also pretty spot on. Trystan named his grey horse Ghost.

    After playing around with that I'd gone back and done a bit on Aelithar. Most of it involved taking loads of lovely screenshots as my new computer not only let me play with the graphics turned up as high as they'd go, but the new keyboard I got with it lets the F9 screenshot button function so I was finally able to really play with screenshotting. Archeage is amazing for that too. There's the camera I'm used to that is fixed on your character... but also the option to free it for really creative shots. Best of both worlds.

An airship. I couldn't resist screencapping the first one I saw... or later riding the first one I found that I could get on.

Some interesting heavenly bodies in the night sky.

I love night skies in MMOs

This is a gorgeous game with some beautiful lighting effects and areas. I can't wait to explore it further.

     In the first Closed Beta Event I was in Aelithar had gone to Mirage Isle and purchased a Black Sabrefang Cub. But then my google-fu was weak and I couldn't figure out where to get Battle Pet Formula (milk) for it so it sat in his bank through the second Closed Beta Event until finally in open Beta I found a place that told me where I could find some cows to milk. He was below the level to quest there, but it was Beta what was the harm in just trying to go, so off he went on a very long expedition to milk cows. After milking cows he raised up an adorable companion to help him fight enemies.

    Here they are enjoying the beach on one of the last days of open Beta. On the last day I went to Mirage Isle to explore and see if there was anything else he could spend his rather meager wealth on before the wipe. There wasn't, but he and Laurel had a lovely time galloping on the beach and into the sunset. Only two more days until I can play too.

Archeage Beta

     Where to start. I've been dying to try this game and waiting with bated breath every time they announced a Beta event in hopes I'd get an invite and finally I did. The character customization is great, in fact I'd taken many screenshots of it, and of several other things at the very beginning of my playing... at least I had before I realized the game screenshots aren't bound to print screen but to F9. F9 to F12 on my keyboard don't function in MMOs for whatever reason and the silly game would not let me rebind it. Frustration ensued. And I'm still a little frustrated that my current screenshotting process for ArcheAge involves alt-tabbing to Photoshop. I need a new keyboard. Still once I'd figured out what happened with the screenshots I managed to get several to illustrate this post with.

      I made an Elven Archer novice name Aelithar. Promptly spent several minutes trying to figure out how everything even worked, though once I figured it out it actually wasn't that complicated. The story is interesting, the game world and characters are gorgeous and  before level 10 you get a free racial mount to raise and love and take everywhere with you. I've always wanted a feature like that in an MMO, so I'm feeling pretty sold on it for the mount that follows you in the world.

     He named it Laurel. And they've had many happy adventures together so far. So far Aelithar's reached level 17 and Laurel's close behind. Classes are really interesting too. At the beginning you pick a basis, at five you pick another from the list and at ten the last one and then you find out the name of the class you've cobbled together. Aelithar went with Archery, Witchcraft, Songcraft, so he's a Hex Ranger. It's not bad, though right now I am not seeming to get as much use out of the witchcraft as I'd anticipated. I might be inclined to try a slightly different set up in live.
     After playing with the elves for a bit I had to switch over and try out the one other race I'd really been wanting to play.

     This is Zurrath the Firran, looking extremely dignified. He didn't turn out exactly how I'd meant him too, the graphics settings were turned down when I'd first designed the two of them (before I realized how well my computer handled it and turned them up. But that led to me not seeing exactly where I was putting his scars. Still I think  he turned out a handsome and very manly cat guy. Zurrath was destined to be a paladin. Looking over the options months ago I'd determined I could make the equivalent of a paladin in Archeage, and that It would be Battlerage, Defense, Vitalism. Then I realized the classes actually had names and saw someone mention paladin in world chat. So when I went to pick a second at level 5, I googled it to see what went into the 'official Archage paladin class'. As it turns out I know my paladins, no matter what game they're in. I was 100% right. And Zurrath's now a paladin.

     A manly feline paladin with a giant sabertoothed cat to ride, what could be better. The bundle of silly fur is named Winterwind. Have I mentioned how I love the mount system in this game? They level, you can give them armor, and they follow you around while you fight. I love that so much.

A little catch up

     In the month(!) Since I've posted here, Tirasiel has reached level 38, Sadrondir has been promoted to an officer in his Kinship, tons of things have happened in WoW and finally today I got that Archeage Beta Invite I've been hoping for!
     I really can't wait to try it out Thursday, though I'm a teeny bit afraid I may have hyped myself up for it a bit too much and be disappointed as a result. Only time will tell, though. And I have to wait until Thursday for that time to start. I anticipate hours on the character creation screen and as many screenshots as it will let me take, some of which are bound to find their way here.

Swordsman Beta. More thoughts.

     The world is pretty. I poked into it a bit more last night. Got to I think Level 14 very quickly and easily and developed a few more thoughts on it. I like the world... It's got a very in a movie feel to it. A few quests in you're just very unceremoniously given a horse of your own. I like that.  It's a pretty ugly horse but then I'm overly picky about what horses look like in MMOs anyhow.
     I think I like the combat, though I'll admit I'm still sort of confused at figuring it out and kind of just flail around occasionally as a result. I like the animations and the graphics a lot. I am not sure this would be a game for me. On the one hand the fact that it feels a bit like being in a kung fu movie is pretty amazing and I'm curious to figure out what happens next.
     On the one hand at the moment at least this feels easily like it could have been a single player game perhaps better than an MMO. There's a very linear storyline that progresses in a very straight line and all these other guys are doing right now is crowding stuff up... and insuring that world chat is filled with announcements like: Myballs has killed Yourmom and taken such and such off of their still warm corpse. -.- Okay it's pvp, I get that. People will name their characters stupid things. I get that too, but ugh.
     The other thing that bothers me a lot that may or may not bother other people at all. Lots of epic battles most of them end in a really nifty cut scene. Thing is: If most of the gameplay gets taken out of my hands and put into gorgeous cut scenes at the end. Can I please AT LEAST have the option of screenshotting my character doing all this badass shiznit during the cut scenes that I am not playing in anyhow? That would be nice. Lots of screenshots I'd have loved to have... super clunky camera mode function that you can't use during cut scenes anyhow...ugh.
     I will try to stick it out a few more levels, find some bugs I can coherently point out so they can hammer them down and see if it stays a straight line story where all the coolest stuff happens in cut scenes that I just watch, but I am not sure that even Free to Play this one would be a game for me. I think end game is almost entirely pvp and I am not a fan of pvp. If you were though... seems like it might be pretty epic at end game for that.

     The world, though, like I said. Is gorgeous. Quilian got a new costume as a beta prize while joining his school and though I didn't end up really liking the hairstyle it changed his to, I do like the robe part and so he's keeping that for now. I forgot to screenshot him after I realized that it was a costume item and I could take the hair part off and have him look more like  made him but in the neat robes. Maybe when I pop on again.

     Some other gameplay stuff that I both like and don't like. The quest stuff on the map isn't very easy to figure out sometimes. Doesn't matter because you can just click on the name in your log and your character will automatically run there. If it's far enough they'll even mount up on the run (which is pretty nifty.) This is a great feature for when people are twenty deep on the quest NPC and clicking on their name in the log lets you interact with them anyhow. But I'm not convince it's engaging gameplay. I kept trying to get myself to not just click to run there, but you know... why would I do that when it accomplishes nothing the game won't do for me and when I can stop at any point if I want to spend five minutes wrestling with the interface for a screenshot.
     The cut scenes are still really amazing. I like that they kept the original voice acting and just subbed it. I love the costumes and the character designs.

Swordsman Beta

     When I went to load Neverwinter a few weeks ago it popped up a window at me asking if I wanted to sign up for the Swordsman Beta. Eh, why not? It's an MMO with martial arts and a quick glance over it looked interesting enough so I clicked the button to sign up and then promptly forgot about it. Until they sent me a beta key two days ago. Beta started today, and I was mostly excited to spend time in the character creation screen, which is seriously one of my favorite things in a new MMO.
     Not bad. Don't like it quite as well as Aion's which is the best I've seen but it beats most of the others I play in some ways. I made two characters before I actually got around to...clicking the enter world button and actually seeing what the game was about. I haven't done much. It's a beta. It just launched and is very very crowded. But since I double checked and there is no NDA here are some initial impressions.

     This is Quilian. A website assures me that this name means Autumn Lotus in Mandarin. (It's probably a girl's name if the site is actually correct. Oh well. Still a better name than most I see in Betas.) Quilian belongs to the Zephyr school. Martial arts school where he gets to dance around hitting people with a fan and being ridiculously pretty? Yes, please. The other character can be the tough, manly one.
     The game is pretty. Unfortunately, remember me complaining that Neverwinter is obnoxious to take screenshots in? Swordsman is oddly much much worse for me. There's a lot more freedom with them, a lot more control but to me the controls for them feel very counter-intuitive and worst of all they can't be taken without entering a special camera mode and using an on screen button rather than the keyboard one. To make this even worse, my keyboard, which I love for fitting onto my very small tray with room for my mouse is a media one. so Buttons F9 to F12 are functionally useless for most MMOs. F9 is supposed to be the quick camera mode toggle... so to enter the fabled camera mode I have to hit escape, select it from the menu then try to figure it out before I can take the screenshot.
     I feel like the universe heard me complain about Neverwinter screenshots and said: Want to see how it could be worse? Maybe it won't be worse when I get the hang of it... and if I can ever find a free hotkey to bind the camera mode to. Won't recognize my mouse buttons for keybinds, so I can't use the one I use to clear the interface in Aion either. First world screenshot addict problems.
     Now onto gameplay. There are three control mode set ups. I've tried two of them. Right now I'm using the 'action' one... which is... interesting and I don't really like it but it's similar-ish to Neverwinter so at least I'm not utterly lost. I'm still very much figuring things out.

    The world is pretty so far. Not eye-popping spectacular, never seen this before yet. But then maybe I've been too annoyed with the screenshots. Quilian has a fan. He beats people up with it.

He also periodically takes time out from beating people with his fan to dance around the battlefield making himself feel healthier. I freely admit that I love the dancing around healing. Makes my day.

     So far... at the exalted and experienced level of 6. (Level ups are incredibly unobtrusive and I keep missing that they happen) this is where he got left until more playtime happens. So far the story modes are my favorite part of the game, but I think only because they are not crowded with other players. Still this little area I left him in is really pretty lovely. (And I think he's about to learn more sword techniques or something.)
     I'm definitely not sold on this yet. But I will be fair and give it more than a few minutes and six levels before I drop it. More thoughts to come.

Wildstar Beta Weekend: Final thoughts

I love the occasional ear perking and listening the Aurin do... it's too cute.

     Well the beta weekend ended last night. I was very sad to see it go. I really wish I thought buying and playing this game was in the cards for me. More than that I wish it worked on my husband's computer. I'd have loved both of us playing together, two different classes, two different paths, probably both Aurin. It was fun. Insane amounts of fun and just lovely... I don't know how many times during gameplay I'd just pause a moment and savor how incredibly pretty it was.
     The UI was buggy as heck, I assume that's why it's still in beta, but when it was working there were some neat concepts. Little mini games for certain tasks instead of just: right click, interact, done. Of course those got a little annoying when the UI didn't work enough to pop up that interface for you.
     I logged onto Frith Sunday, I'd hoped to level him far enough to check out the housing, but that didn't happen. I did get as far as tradeskills though I hadn't figured out mining by the time I logged off for the last time. I did make my first weapons though and he goes off into whatever sort of oblivion beta characters go to well armed.

Don't know if you can tell but this is way up on top of the world... or at least on top of a really huge tree.

     I really suspect I'd have gotten further with the leveling and tried out housing and everything if it hadn't been for all the time Frith and I spent climbing everything that could be climbed by an enterprising catboy. This game was designed for climbing, for getting up onto things and into things and just exploring. I didn't even care that I failed to level enough to check out the housing because I had so much fun climbing. Explorer is definitely the path for me.
     Back in WoW today I miss double jump... and just a little bit I miss those flicking ears and the twitching tail. I don't wish them terrible luck but if this game ever goes free to play I will be there. If I ever scrounge up the money for a preorder... I'll be there... probably taking a million years to level but climbing all of the things.

This little area was so beautiful and the quest was rather touching. And I love those weird deer things, they're pretty.

So long, Wildstar. Feel free to invite me back sometime. And if not, well at least I've got the memories and some really gorgeous screenshots!

Wildstar Beta Weekend: Day 2-Black and White?

     One of the things I love in WoW is that, regardless of what people say about Horde or Alliance, there is no real clear cut 'good guy' or 'bad guy' faction. If you play the storylines on each side you'll see both do things that are wonderful and brave and heroic... and also things that are morally questionable at best. There's a lot of grey areas in WoW. There is no black and white, just red and blue.
     The Guardians and Defiants in Rift come across the same way to me. There isn't a right and a wrong so much as two different viewpoints. I like that, the different viewpoints make for interesting story but nobody is really playing the 'bad guys'. So I really expected it to be somewhat the same way with the Exiles and Dominions in Wildstar. And to my perception at least, it's not.
     I dragged myself away from Frith long enough for a taste of Dominion storyline today. And I made this charmer:

Kuurrim

To let me see it. I did the entire set of quests on the Destiny and then a few more after landfall on Crimson Isle. I like the Draken.  I had fun smashing things up with imposing Kuurrim. And though he's no cute catboy he's a little adorable in his own way.

Look at that face.

But I didn't find much of that moral ambiguity I expected. The Dominion are straight up, make no apologies evil. I really don't think I can sugarcoat it. Interestingly enough it wouldn't stop me from playing Kuurrim if I actually got the game, but he'd have his own personal narrative inside it. But it did give me plenty of room  for thought and with that and very limited time left in the beta I went back to Frith to try out other things. I'm definitely an Aurin lover. I'm pretty sure I'd be mostly Exile if I actually play when it goes live.

Frith played around mostly with his Explorer Path stuff, lighting candles at shrines:

One of which involved a jumping puzzle but was pretty fun... and climbing up waterfalls with weird high jumping mushrooms to enjoy the view:

He did get to level 8 despite all my goofing around, and I spent a lot of time just being impressed by how incredibly pretty this game is despite... or maybe because of it's cartoony style and bright colors. It's not WoW, but it's homey, at least on the Exile side.

Wildstar Beta Weekend: Day 1

I got it downloaded this morning and have not done a whole lot else all day. Such a pretty game!

I spent far too long in the character creation screen making myself a catboy... I mean Aurin... who was going to be called Therion except that somebody else had already thought of that name so he got a coloration change and became Frith.

Here he is a bit later running around in the first area after the ship. The bouncy animations are fun and he's a Spellslinger Explorer which was a good choice and was loads of fun for me. I had so much fun seeing what sort of things I could climb up.

Inititally I wasn't too impressed with the gameplay, mostly because I couldn't figure out where a bunch of my quests were. Eventually I worked out that there's just less hand-holding than in WoW or it's a different style and figured out how to find them and make my way to them. The combat is slightly Neverwinter-ish so I'm not great at it, but I'm getting the hang of it and finding it fun even if Frith has spent his fair share of time face-down due to my incompetence.

After several hours and six levels I love the Aurin and don't think I could have chosen a race/class/path combination that would have suited me better. I kind of want to preorder this game... I had fun, it's gorgeous, the characters are adorable and I could find stories here. Not sure that's actually in the cards for me but so far I'm a little bit in love. If I can drag myself away from Frith long enough tomorrow I'll probably spend a little time trying Dominion Side. After playing Exiles I'm curious how they'll manage to make the Dominion feel like something you're proud to be on the other side.

More posts to come!

Wildstar Beta Weekend!!

     I just got an invite for a Beta Weekend in Wildstar! I'm so excited, I've been desperately wanting to try it out but couldn't justify shelling out for a pre-order just to give it a shot when I don't know if I'll like it yet. Guess I know what I'll be squeezing in as much of as possible this weekend!
     There should be posts! Probably with screenshots! I don't know whether to hope I like it or not since I'm not sure I could ever afford a second sub-based MMO, but part of me loves the idea of starting in one right out the gate when it's brand new. I've already been clearing Hard Drive space for it and deciding what I'll probably want to try. More posts to come on Friday.