Buff Me, Bitch!

I'm back from the grave!

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 14:09:00 +0000

And I mean it, this time! Sort of? Kind of. In a different way.

I've been thinking about the blog and how much I love it. But it's hard to keep reviewing MMOs in the way I had been. Do I try old ones or ones that no one really plays or has heard of? Do I try out the pay to play ones? I've also been playing a lot of games that aren't MMOs; do those count?

And then I started feeling nostalgic. I wanted to play something that I enjoyed and something that I hadn't played in a long while. And no, it wasn't Fiesta. God help me, I will never play Fiesta again. Although I did look into it not terribly long ago and it still looked just as bland as when I first played it. I poked around my games lists and then I realized what I wanted to play: Ragnarok Online.

I tried to play iRO ("international Ragnarok Online") again, after many years of having not played it. I decided on Renewal mostly because it seemed like the system I wanted to play. (For those of you who may be scratching your head and asking "what the hell is Renewal?"-- Gravity, in an attempt to revamp the game, so to speak, and draw in more players, overhauled nearly everything, from drop rates to EXP mechanics, etc. It was met with... mixed results.)

Let me tell you. I really dislike iRO. The server is, first of all, overloaded with spam bots. I swear I tried to disable my chat window log because of the near constant "HEY CHECK OUT THIS SITE FOR RO CURRENCY" spam messages in towns. And speaking of towns, oh my god the population of vendors.

So for those who aren't familiar with the game, Ragnarok Online has -many- classes to choose from. And unlike other MMOs, you can actually sell items to other players as a sort of shop market stall with a skill called Vend. Mind you, only certain classes can do this-- the Merchant (and its higher classes) and the Super Novice. It's really neat because your character basically has this little bar that has a store message you can put in that pops up over your character's head, and you can set up a "vending" store to sell items or a "buying" store to buy items from other players. And that's all well and good until you get things like this.

And then suddenly, moving in the cities becomes nearly impossible, because you have to click to get where you want to go. I swear, trying to walk through the main city (or even the Eden Group headquarters) without clicking on someone's store was a nightmare. And then you get the spam bot spam on top of that.

Between that and an absurdly frustrating time with leveling, I gave up. Playing the game became irritating and frustrating and I swear I ragequit more in this game trying to level up than I had in any other game. I barely had hit transcendent levels as a character.

But I still wanted to play Ragnarok Online. I loved the concepts and I loved the game itself, but I just could not go back to iRO. And then it hit me: private servers. They exist. Tons of them do. So I began researching. I tried out a few of the larger private servers. I investigated close to 20 of them. Eventually I decided to try out LeikaRO.

It was, at the time, one of the most updated, having content from Episode 15.1 (Fantasmagoria), as opposed to many private servers which were still in Episode 13 or 14. Even the official servers were on 14.3. (The Japanese and Korean servers are vastly more up-to-date than other servers. Last I heard, the updates were like, 2-3 years behind on iRO.) Leika also hybridized between Classic and Renewal server content and had made a lot of updates outside of just bringing in items, monsters, and maps from jRO and kRO. The staff claimed to have made a lot of "quality of life" updates, fixed many bugs that had been released on the official servers and left as is--something which I hadn't been aware of-- and had fixed a lot of grammar and general Engrish. It seemed to be worth a shot.

And I think I fell in love.

The rates seemed a little high for me at first, at 15x for Base and Job EXP. When I started playing, I thought I was leveling far too quickly-- I had barely completed the novice training area and was Job level 10 and I think Base level 15. But then I realized that the EXP leveling system used the system from the Classic servers, which meant that EXP requirements to get to the next level sort of increase exponentially, instead of linearly like you find in other MMOs. I was still leveling faster than in iRO but not so fast that it just felt like everything was too fast. I was still hunting monsters, still grinding a little, still doing quests and such.

What honestly sold me on this server was the quality of life changes. If you've read anything else on this blog, you know I play a full-support healer role. It's what I do. I tried that on iRO and leveling was painful at best. I found myself in dire need of other people in order to be able to level successfully, and even then it was still painful. In retrospect, I should have leveled up with a more offensive role, but the game shouldn't force players to level up with a build they don't like in order to actually, y'know, play the game. But on Leika, I was easily able to play as a full-support Priest. It was glorious. Sure, I had moments where it was frustrating, maybe dying unexpectedly or something, but I didn't actually ragequit like I had so many times before in iRO.

The updates the staff made are smart. From what I've heard from other players, the updates made on LeikaRO make builds that were normally obsolete or wholly unusable on iRO actually playable. Skills are behaving as they were intended. Bugs were fixed. New content, on top of that, is being released steadily. Two megapatches, in fact, have been released recently, with the newest one coming out yesterday. And the list of fixes is impressive. And to top it off, this server is only roughly 8 months old. It blew my mind to think about the amount of work that has gone into this server in such a short amount of time.

If you liked Ragnarok Online and want to get back into the game, I urge you to play on this server. Even if you haven't played Ragnarok Online, but wanted to, I would really suggest you check out this server. You can check out the server's information and get more details here: http://leika-ro.net. I've become sort of addicted to it. It's everything, honestly, that the original game should have been. And don't even talk to me about Ragnarok Online 2. I'm trying to forget that that game even happened.

Random Updates!

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 04:46:00 +0000

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!111wtf!

I swear I'm alive! Promise! I've been playing a few MMOs recently (Eden Eternal, ASDA 2, Allods Online, Guild Wars 2) and have been juggling my time between that, work, random single-player games (blasphemy, I know), and outside projects. I have, however, been putting some considerable time recently into a project that, unfortunately, I can't discuss too much right now. But once things are officially released, I will give y'all plenty of updates on the latest developments of the new project I'm working on. It's kinda big and very exciting so I'm hoping you guys look forward to that as it comes time to reveal it!

If y'all had to choose between a review of GW2, Eden Eternal, ASDA 2, or Allods Online, which would you prefer to see first? Feel free to comment below, send me a message, etc. and so forth! I want to make sure that I post something y'all are still interested in. :)

Review: Granado Espada (aka, Sword of the New World)

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 18:16:00 +0000

Well, I finally have decent internet! This is something I've been itching to do and, to be honest, was also something I was afraid to do, mostly because of expenses on my end. But I have better internet and such so my reviews are officially commencing! I imagine y'all are excited about this. I know I am, at any rate!

Some quick things before I actually get the review started. I've decided to work on some new artwork for the blog. I'm not sure if I want to redo my logo but I do plan to do some art for smilies and the like, so keep an eye out for that! I'm also trying out some "spoiler" style tags, so that the content of the reviews is short for those who want shortness, and if others want more detail, they can read as they please. I'm also trying out anchor tags, so you can click the headers of each section to jump to them automatically on the page, to make it easier for you guys. Let me know if you guys like these features or if there's anything else you'd like me to try out!

Without further ado, ON WITH THE REVIEW!

New Interwebs!

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 03:51:00 +0000

I now have a better internet service provider!

I was talking to one of my friends who lives near me and he recommended an ISP called Clearwire, which basically provides wireless internet via cellphone towers. He said he really liked it so I figured I would give it a shot. And I must say, I am in love! It may not be the best internet speed but it is definitely better than the network I was using in the house. So that means, of course, that I will be able to play and review games a lot more easily and more frequently! I'm really, really excited.

I was wondering what to actually review. I haven't found any new MMOs that are actually out right now, aside from Guild Wars 2, which I could review if y'all want me to (do let me know if you're interested in my thoughts on it). I've decided to replay Granado Espada (also called Sword of the New World) for a review. It was one of the first MMOs I played and it's rather unique in its design, so I figured it's worth a mention. If y'all have something else you'd like me to review, by all means, feel free to suggest it! :) So look forward to more reviews more frequently in the future!

Review: Ragnarok Online 2

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 18:39:00 +0000

Hey all, Little Miss Squish here! Well, I finally have been able to play an MMO with relatively little headache from my internet, which seems to do what it wants to do, in terms of lag spikes. Some days I have great connection, other times I get small spikes of lag, conveniently in the middle of a dungeon boss fight, but that's beside the point! Right? Right. Steam recently launched Ragnarok Online 2 into its massive tome of games list and, naturally, I had to jump in.

borrowed from anjelsyndicate.org

I have a lot to say about this game, so let's get on with the review, then, shall we?

Read more »

Suggestions and/or Feedback?

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 14:01:00 +0000

Hey everyone! I'm working on a review for Ragnarok Online 2 (or possibly a comparison between the original RO and the sequel). I'm hoping to have that up in the next couple of days, I just need to play a little more to really get a feel for it. I've been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 so I haven't been playing RO2 as much as I had been a few weeks ago. For the record, RO2 feels and inherently seems very different from the original.

I hit 11k pageviews this week, which is super exciting! Hooray! Thank you, everyone, for reading and [in theory] supporting me. It's been a very exciting adventure so far and I'm hoping to keep going! Playing MMOs as a healer-oriented person has always been very enjoyable to me and so in reviewing the games for others, I hope to entertain you guys as best as I can and help you find games you might be interested in.

I'm not actually going anywhere, I swear.

Do you guys have any other games you'd like for me to review? Any feedback y'all have for me? Anything you particularly like and want me to keep doing or don't like and want me to change? I'm totally up for comments, critiques, feedback of any sort, and all that good stuff. Let me know via email, a comment below, on Facebook or Twitter, etc.

Thanks again guys!
Little Miss Squish

Review: Dungeon Rampage

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Thu, 30 May 2013 17:57:00 +0000

Good god, it's been, like, forever since I've posted. I've actually been quite busy lately with life so my gaming and consequent reviewing hasn't been a top priority of mine.

I got, approximately a month ago, turtles! Three of them, actually, all super teeny. One map turtle, one yellow belly slider, and one painted turtle. I don't know how old they are, but I can assure you, they're all smaller than the palm of my hand. I named them Soldier, Spy, and Scout (from left to right in the picture) after the TF2 characters. They are all really adorable and tons of fun to watch!

Unfortunately, Soldier died last night due illness. He fought for two weeks but he wasn't eating and he was too small for the vet to give any medicines to (Yes, I did bring him in. He weighed a whopping 10 grams.) so we basically played a waiting game. We did all that we could for the little guy but, unfortunately, it just wasn't enough. I had really hoped he was starting to turn around since he had gained a lot of energy the past few days but sadly, he didn't. We buried him in the front yard. I'll eventually get a third turtle but I'm waiting out of respect for the little guy.

I've also been playing a lot of L4D2 and TF2 (it's actually consumed most of my evenings...) on top of some other work I've taken on the side. So I haven't been doing much in the way of MMOs. But I have been able to play some here and there. I played a little of Dungeon Rampage at the request of a reader (Thank you for the suggestion, by the way!) and I've been playing Ragnarok Online 2 since it became available on Steam. But I do have some thoughts on Dungeon Rampage so I decided that I probably should post a review on it at some point, ~~because I'd been neglecting to do so for quite a while, now~~.

So, ON WITH THE REVIEW! :D

More Beta Testing?

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:53:00 +0000

Hey there! I received in my email on Monday a notice from Square Enix saying that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was going to have another round of beta testing this upcoming weekend. I think I had made a mistake in that I thought last weekend was round 2 of closed beta testing, but it seems this weekend is actually round 2. I'm not entirely sure what they would have developed/fixed/etc in a week that would warrant another weekend of testing, but I'm not complaining!

If you're sad that you missed out on the application for this beta and want to participate in it, have no fear! It seems Square Enix is still accepting applications at this handy dandy link right here. Please keep in mind, of course, that this IS an application and I am not saying you're guaranteed to get in. But it can't hurt to apply, right?

I'll definitely give my thoughts on the game once Square Enix says we can disclose that information. I enjoyed the test last week and I think the game is off to a great start so I'm very excited to see what the product will be like at the end. I imagine that it will have a subscription fee attached to it but I hope that they go the GW2 route and increase the game's initial price and eliminate the subscriptions. Somehow I don't think that'll happen, but a girl can dream!

Speaking of Guild Wars 2, the game has officially stolen my soul. Aside from work and chores and things, it's just about the only thing I've done this week. Unfortunately, I had to restart my character (rolled a human Guardian) because my boyfriend and I switched servers to an RP server, as we both enjoy that sort of thing. Luckily for both of us, we weren't too into the game, with our characters just barely into level 15. But we did do a hell of a lot of crafting and we're both scrambling to make that up. But after a couple of nights of play, we're at level 11, so it's not the end of the world! It's definitely a great game and for those of you who haven't tried it, I seriously recommend you check it out and buy it while it's on sale for $40 (which ends this Sunday). I'll post a review of it after I get a bit further into the game, so keep an eye out for that!

Have a question, comment, suggestion, etc.? Have a game you want me to review? Feel free to let me know! Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. me any time! I enjoy getting feedback from y'all. Subscribe to my feed or comment below.

Post-CBT and More

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:55:00 +0000

This weekend was definitely very exciting and busy! The second round of closed beta testing for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was fantastic and I'm looking forward to hopefully participating in more testing. I can't, unfortunately, discuss the game because of confidentiality agreements, but I'll post my thoughts once Square Enix says I can. I look forward to seeing how the game fleshes out and what the final product will look like, at the very least.

Guild Wars 2 also had a free weekend of play for people who haven't tried the game yet. So, naturally, I jumped on the band wagon on that one. I'd been wanting the game for months now, as I had played on my boyfriend's account and loved it. Of course, I loved it just as much (if not more) this weekend. The good news is that my internet evidently didn't die when I tried to play it! It's a very exciting thing for me as I can't really run most MMOs without significant lag and connection drops. I seemed to have none of that this weekend.

The next step for me, of course, was to buy Guild Wars 2. "But it's $60. I can't really afford that..." I'd tell myself. Luckily for me (and for you!), the digital version of the game is on sale right now for $40. That's right, $20 off the game. I totally bought it for myself as that's a lot more feasible than the original price of the game. So expect a review of this gem in the near future, after I've played some more of it, of course! If you've wanted to play the game but, like me, couldn't afford that chunk of money to disappear from your wallet, consider picking up the game. It's on sale until the 28th and, with no subscription fees, the game pays virtually pays for itself.

Quite a Weekend Ahead!

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:24:00 +0000

Little Miss Squish here! This weekend will be the weekend in which I have no life. Aside from my busy weekend routine, I have lots of things that I want to do. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is having its second round of Closed Beta Testing this weekend and I got chosen to participate in it! I'm super excited for it, the game sounds like it'll be awesome. Unfortunately, I cannot disclose information related to the beta testing until Square Enix gives the A-OK to do so. But I will definitely take notes on everything and post something as soon as I can!

In addition, Guild Wars 2 is having a free weekend of play this weekend! It sucks that it's at the same time as the CBT for FFXIV--it seems like bad planning on someone's end--but either way, I definitely have to give it some time this weekend. I played it a bit on my boyfriend's computer one weekend and I. LOVE. THIS. GAME. If you don't already own it, PLEASE give it a shot this weekend! You won't be disappointed. If you want to participate in the free weekend of play, click this link. You have to get a key for it that's valid for only this weekend but any of the sites on that link will give you that key. As a warning, the game is large, so you might want to download it earlier than you intend to play it.

If my internet holds up while playing GW2, I definitely plan on buying it. Either way, expect a review for this game! :)

Links for these games:
FFXIV: A Realm Reborn - http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/
GW2 - https://www.guildwars2.com/en/

Review: Game of Thrones Ascent

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:11:00 +0000

Hey there, LMS here. I'll say this up front: this review doesn't follow my normal requirements for a review. It supposedly is an MMO (much like how Wartune or Call of Roma are) but I've yet to come across multiplayer elements. There are no healing classes or options to my knowledge. And I generally can't stand this game. I tried getting into it, I can assure you. Game of Thrones was something I'd been told I'd enjoy. I had every intention of getting into the series when it first came out but my brain decided to go off into outer space and next thing I know, I've forgotten about it and it's gained some sort of cult-following.

So watching me try to make decisions in this game, like which house to swear my fealty to, would probably be vastly entertaining for those that actually follow the damn thing. But for me, I kinda stared blankly at the screen and tried to make the best objective decisions I could. It was really, really hard because I had no idea what I was actually getting myself into. Which house should I swear to? Is there one that's generally good or evil? Are they all just sort of... there? Who the hell are these people, anyway? How does this or doesn't this affect my game? What the fuck am I actually doing?

I don't think I ever got the answers to those questions.

Read more »

TERA now F2P

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 17:47:00 +0000

So, I'd been poking around, looking for a game to play to keep my brain occupied. I wanted something free to play, mostly because with my crappy internet, there was no way I would want to pay a subscription for something I'd only be able to play a handful of hours a week. Someone had posted a comment on my Blade and Soul review that the game was super awesome, so I decided to check it out.

On Blade and Soul's FAQ, one of the questions asked if the game would be implementing game play features that are in Guild Wars 2. The answer was, of course, that Blade and Soul, like Guild Wars 2, offers innovative mechanics and such that basically change up and revolutionize the MMO industry. That got me thinking.... TERA was pretty interesting, too, with it's action-oriented combat. The graphics were pretty, questing wasn't bad. What was the cost of it again? Hell, how was the game even doing since my original pre-view of the game and my review of it during its CBT testing. It'd been over a year since I pre-viewed the game and at the end of this month, it'll be a year since I participated in the CBT testing.

So, I poked around at TERA's site. And, much to my surprise, it became free-to-play. I really do mean that I was incredibly surprised by this. To me, TERA was going to be one of those games that would have remained subscription-based like World of Warcraft. Or, at the very least, would convert to that pay-for-the-game-but-pay-no-subscriptions model that Guild Wars 2 uses.

"Why the sudden jump?" I had asked myself as I looked at different forum threads and such discussing this. Evidently TERA switched over to the F2P model just over a month ago on February 5th. I know that there is a push in the gamer community to remove subscription costs in MMOs; hell, it was part of the reason why a) I stopped playing WoW and b) found private servers after a while. So, I'm not terribly surprised by this information.

Read more »

Review: Wartune

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 01:07:00 +0000

Hey guys, LMS here. First of all, I'm sooooooooo sorry for not posting in... what, friggin' four months? Good god. It's been sucky at home, my internet has been crapping out on me so much that I haven't been able to play much of MMOs except for when I visit my boyfriend, which is once every two weeks, for the weekend. Basically, I haven't been able to play MMOs much. I know, I know, it's not much of an excuse.

Also, I know I had said I was going to review Lineage 2 but, honestly.... It makes me cry. For some reason the NCSoft download client just kinda wants to repeatedly kick me in the face because downloading and installing the game hardly ever works for me. And, of course, when I was going to originally sit back and write the review for it, the friggin' game decided it wanted to throw out a download patch. I swear I nearly tore out my hair. Forget the game itself. That's bad in its own right. But trying to be able to PLAY the game was just as bad, if not worse. So, I kinda gave up on reviewing it because it literally gave me headaches when I thought about it.

BUT! There IS an MMO that I had been able to play, because it was browser-based and therefore lighter on my internet. I played it for several weeks, actually. I liked it at first, mostly because it was something new and shiny for browser games, at least in my experience. I then fell out of it because, frankly, I was getting bored. But I recently received an email from them, which was basically "come baaaaaaaaaaaack please! I have shiny things that you'll love! -dangles keys-" so I decided to give it a shot as I have been itching for something new to play that I could, in fact, play in my spare time.

That game? Wartune. Haven't heard of it? If you poke around on Facebook's games, I'm sure you've at least seen advertisements for it. It has gone under several different names but the "official" (I think?) name is Wartune. It's supposedly the, like, "up and coming" browser MMO. My quick summary: It's shiny and new on the outside, but it sucks on the inside. It has great potential, sure, but it falls flat on its face. Hard. Really hard. And here's why.

logo found on Google, with a URL that makes my eyes bleed when I look at it.

Aaaaaand We're Back! (Online)

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:32:00 +0000

Hey guys! Just letting you know, it seems that I've been able to address and fix my internet issues that I've been having. Make a long story short, it turns out my computer had some services and processes running that constantly hit the network, so it slowed things to a grinding halt when I actually tried to use the internet. I've had two nights of no disconnects, so it looks pretty good so far. I'm still playing through Lineage II, hoping to get to Awakened class on one character before I post the review. Will have it up as soon as I can. Thanks for being patient with this [rather frustrating] issue!

Just Some Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:52:00 +0000

Hey guys! This is just a bit of a rambling update, really, to sort of keep y'all in the loop. I know I've been saying that my internet has been really bad in the past couple of reviews and such that I've made, but it's a bit more than that. For the past couple of months, the internet at my house has been beyond sucky. It goes down about 3-5 times on average in the span of five minutes, conveniently right when I need to use it. It typically happens in the evening times (post 6:00) and weekends and lasts until the early morning at the least (when I pass out, anyway, and has been going on as late as 2 AM to my knowledge). In addition, sites are sometimes very slow to load during this time period. I'm living with my parents right now until I can afford to move out on my own, and we have my 1 PC and their 2 Macs. While I'd thought that had been the issue, due to "Apple chatter" and such, we've had this setup for several months before this problem. We are using AT&T internet and they're the only ones available in our area, aside from Comcast, which we've had problems with. Like I said, it's only been like this for about a month or two, and I know that other AT&T users are also having these sort of problems in other areas.

Why should you care? Well, obviously, it's going to affect my MMO playing time which means it'll also affect my reviews. Unfortunately, I don't know how badly it will affect everything. I'm going to try to download Lineage II this weekend (which I'm anxious to play with their newest updates) and see how it goes. Maybe it won't be that bad. Who knows. But I know I lag to hell sometimes when I play Team Fortress 2, sometimes I can't even connect to Steam because I lose connection conveniently right as I'm going to open the damn thing. It's extremely frustrating. And since, as a healer, it's rather essential to have a half-way decent connection in order to do my job, I can't really play MMOs while my internet is like this.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been trying to be active on Twitter and Facebook in order to promote the blog. I feel really obligated to tweet frequently (though half the time I don't really know what to say...) so don't mind me if I seem like I'm just spouting random tweets to get your attention. I have questions for you guys, though, you readers of mine!

How do you guys find me and/or keep up with me? Do you like the tweets and/or Facebook posts? Do you use that more than other means to find out about my latest blog posts? Do you want me to do something different in terms of communications like that? How did you find out about me?

I wanna reach out to you guys and expand my audience (~~I want to rule the world one reader at a time~~) so any feedback like that is definitely appreciated. Twitter and FB links are on the side, you can comment below, send an email, etc.. Let me know!

Free to Play versus Pay to Play

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:19:00 +0000

Also known as "Why I dislike most MMOs' gameplay"

(and the return of the meme faces)

Hey all, Little Miss Squish here. Now, before y'all freak out and such that I'd be posting two reviews within one week... I'm not. For those that have poked around old posts and such, every now and then I put aside the reviews to discuss MMOs in general, particularly relating to the healing classes ("uh, durrrr, LMS. That's obvious, you retard."), and all that good stuff. I'd been thinking about what to review next, whether I wanted to replay something I'd played before or play something new entirely. I'd poked around www.mmorpg.com (which you should totally also check out!) and found an article on free-to-play versus pay-to-play gaming, specifically, RIFT versus WoW. While the article itself isn't exactly about free-to-play games versus pay-to-play ones, it did make me think about why exactly I play free-to-play ones specifically and question why I tend to review those more than the pay-to-play ones.

Well, there are a few answers, most of them fairly straight-forward, honestly.

Read more »

Review: Team Fortress 2

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 18:18:00 +0000

Hey guys, Little Miss Squish here! Sorry for my lack of posting for.... god knows how long. The internet where I'm living right now has been ridiculously horrible and incredibly unstable so my actual MMO playing has been.... well, non-existent. That and my life has been taken up by a lot of other things lately. BUT, I was thinking about what to review next. I knew I hadn't posted in a while and I felt really badly for not doing so but I was like "I haven't been able to really -play- anything, let alone enough to review a new game on the blog!"

And then it hit me. There was one game that I'd played a lot, loved the healing class for it (enough to start to put together a costume of it!) and went back to it over and over again. It always plastered a huge grin to my face whenever I played it or even thought about it. And when my boyfriend suggested I reviewed it, I knew I had to.
Read more »

Review: Age of Conan

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 17:15:00 +0000

First off, I apologize for not posting as often as I had been in the past or when I say that I will. I'm still kinda adjusting to new things in my life and I'm also working on making rather large changes in my life. Things like settling in with my new job, being in a long-distance relationship, working on buying a house and moving closer to my job... Things like that. It's taking up quite a bit of time out of my day and energy from me, so by the time I can sit down and hammer out reviews, I'm ready to fall asleep, most often. But, I've decided to sit down and write a review, since I owe you guys at least that much.

Also, on a side-note, I'm working on making and implementing a more standardized review layout/template, so don't be surprised if you see some things changing a bit over my next few reviews. I'm trying to find what looks best and what would work for y'all and myself. If you guys have any suggestions/comments/opinions, I'm glad to listen to them.

Anyway... On with the review!

Guide: Healing 101

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:24:00 +0000

Hey guys, Little Miss Squish here again. Sorry for my lack of posting over the past few weeks. I've been a bit busy between starting a new job, moving, and working lots and lots of hours lately, so I haven't really been able to play any new MMOs as of late. I'm working on getting my hands on something new to play so y'all will have something to read soon. I'm considering replaying Mabinogi as I have a friend who was curious about my thoughts on the game. I've also been told by several people now to play Star Wars: The Old Republic and I'm looking into that as well. (If you have any thoughts on the subject, feel free to contribute.)

That being said... I've decided to make another healer's guide. Why? Because I think that there's more to healing well than just knowing what skills you have, which is what I focused on in my last guide, Bandaids and Disinfectant Required. I'm aiming for this guide to be more beginner-healer friendly than the last one and I'll explain things [hopefully] a little better than I had the last time. As a warning, this will probably become a little long, so I hope you're prepared! (Though, I hope it'll be more entertaining and less textbook-ish.) So let's get started, shall we?

Read more »

Review: Blade & Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:13:00 +0000

Hey all, Little Miss here again. Well, it's official: I've graduated college! It's surreal to say the least. I don't honestly feel like I've graduated. But I digress; I'm sure that's not why you came here, is it? You're probably demanding me to get on with the review.

(Sorry, I couldn't help it. As soon as I said "get on with," this is the first thing my brain thought of. You can attempt to throw a brick at me if you like but... I wouldn't recommend it.)

Anyway, yes! The Blade & Soul Review. Without further ado...

Review: Call of Roma

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 17:54:00 +0000

Hi again guys, LMS here. I got a request to review Call of Roma, based on an advertisement that kept floating around a WoW RP server that I'm on. Specifically, it was this image:

Now, I know what you're probably thinking. "Holy crap, a Roman orgy! That sounds fantasti-- Wait what does this have to do with an MMO?" And then you're probably going to look at the screen slightly creepily and sketched out. And yes, I would have, too, if I were you. To be honest, I believe the review request was more for jokes but I figured, "Hey! Why not actually review it? Maaaaaybe it'll be interesting?" On a side note, I know I said I was going to review Fallen Earth, but the game refused to cooperate so I kinda had to give up. The environment wasn't rendering no matter what I did. So I kinda had to give up, sorry guys. Without further ado, here's my review of Call of Roma!

Read more »

Somehow I Ended Up Playing WoW: Cataclysm

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:50:00 +0000

This is the story of how I lost my soul, otherwise known as "Somehow I Ended Up Playing WoW: Cataclysm." To make a long backstory short, I was waiting for TERA Online to come out for CBT and needed to play something in between that was new and entertaining as I was getting bored of the same old thing day after day. Since the server I play WotLK on just released Cata realms not too long ago, I decided to sell my soul and try my hand at Cataclysm. I had heard horror stories from enraged fans about how Blizzard destroyed X and Y classes, the talent system was completely changed, and this that and the other. But.. Surely it couldn't be that bad, could it? I mean, when I heard of Cataclysm's changes to Priests (my default class in most games), I looked into them and was rather excited. Not to mention I was curious about what environmental changes Blizzard had done to different zones now that Deathwing was prowling about. And, to be honest, I was really frickin' excited to see those underwater mounts and zones. That sounded really friggin' cool. (And shut up, I know I'm easily amused sometimes.)

Read more »

Glimpse into TERA Online

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:25:00 +0000

Hey guys, LMS here. I FINALLY got into the Closed Beta Testing of TERA Online this past weekend. I was very happy to have the opportunity to play the game as I was really looking forward to the combat system the most. I only got to play for a few hours due to a tight work schedule this weekend, but my overall opinion is very positive of this game so far.

Read more »

Pre-View: TERA Online

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:43:00 +0000

Hey all, Little Miss Squish here! Sorry I haven't posted in... well, god knows how long. School has been kicking my butt with graduation and classes and all, so I haven't had much time for trying new games. I promise come summer I'll be a lot more active. I have, however, been keeping up with the up-and-coming games of 2012 that I'm interested in. One of these games is TERA. I don't know whether or not a lot of news related to the game has been circulating around MMO/game sites or blogs or anything. But I found it kind of by accident, to be honest. I had been looking for new up-and-coming MMOs to try out and this was listed on most of the sites I happened upon on Google. I looked it up and I WANT IT SO BADLY.

Review: ARGO Online

noreply@blogger.com (Little Miss Squish) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 18:54:00 +0000

Hey guys, LMS here again. :D I don't really have anything exciting to say so I'll just cut to the chase and present my review of ARGO Online. :)