rav4ge's gaming blog

moved

2009-12-06T21:54:00.001-08:00

Long story short, new blog is here: http://nomnom.info

Peace out blogger.

Youtube comment of the day

2009-11-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

blood elves dont count as horde
horde are mature players

blood elves are rerolled alliance who are tired of horde assraping them

or they are fags who want a pretty character

fucking every server is infested with blood elves, and there is a blood elf hunter called legolas in every server.

Kinda true.

Modern Warfare 2 sucks

2009-10-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

Guess who?

2009-10-22T08:23:00.001-07:00

Bonus points to whoever knows who this is without using google. Think back to the early days of Dun Morogh ;)

- rav4ge

Dungeon Runners shutting down

2009-10-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

*sniff*

This may be old news for some, but I just read this and it made me a bit sad. Dungeon Runners, a game I talked about pretty postitively about a couple of times on this blog is shutting down in the new year. Full details here.

Why am I sad? Well, for starters Dungeon Runners was a good MMO. Not only was it 5 bucks a month (an even better deal if you got the 20 dollar retail box which got you 6 months of premium membership) but the game itself was actually pretty good. If you want to hear me talk more about why, have a look around because I posted about it here and there. The game had a great sense of humor and just felt really really classic and good. Even the goddamn news post is full of the same (crap sandwich... heh).

Anyway, there is some good news coming out of this.

NCsoft has worked with us on a plan to compensate Dungeon Runners players. I think we've come up with a nice package for all players with paid memberships as of today (9/16/2009). You'll be getting a 30 day game time serial code and digital copies of City of Heroes Architect Edition and Guild Wars Prophecies. FREE games FTW! I know, it's not Dungeon Runners... but it's still frigging nice! Of course, any of you guys that need refunds for multiple-month membership purchases will be taken care of. And, as always, our helpful support staff will be available to help you with any issues you have.

That is awesome! Wow.

Wait, there's even more good news! While we may be going out, we're going out in style, with a few changes to the game for the coming "End Time". Mythic loot will drop much more frequently. We're significantly reducing the cost of expensive King's Coin vendors. We're also quintupling the rate of XP gain to help you finish the game before year's end! Finally, we're adding a huge nuke to Townston that will blow up on New Year's and take the game down with it. There's more, but what fun is there in spilling all the beans? Oh, its gonna be a fun time till the end of the year! Loot finding, leveling madness. I may finally make it to level 100 myself now...

Huge nuke? Quadruple XP? Better drops?

I love you guys, and I am sorry to see your big project bite the dust. Really hope that all of you will find another place to apply your awesome talent, cause you guys rock.

- Rav4ge out.

The state of Champions

2009-10-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a month since I bought Champions, and I'd like to talk a little bit about it and why I will not be continuing my subscription.

First off - Cryptic did an excellent job on this one. I said it all before but it really does feel like a superhero MMO. As fun as you would expect it to be and it offers what it should be offering.

The problem with it though, is that Champions really does not deliver what I usually would expect from its genre. Usually with MMOs, you get very diverse, addicting and large worlds where there is plenty to do and plenty to see. Champions doesn't do this, it feels more like a very casual online game with the MMO label slapped on it.

My other problem with it also relates to the above, in that the subscription fee is still the normal $15 a month, which is pretty lame. Champions just doesn't offer enough to get 15 bucks a month from me, not happening. 10 or even 5 would be reasonable.

What Champions is though, is a great casual superhero MMO. There is nothing wrong with the game itself - infact I greatly enjoyed my free month and will probably come back at some point - but Cryptic needs to consider that this is a PC MMO. I can see the Xbox 360 version being huge, but right now the PC version just isn't worth it with bigger and better things coming and already out.

-Rav4ge

Work, Work, Work

2009-10-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs this addon. It is probably one of the coolest I have come across. Forget fancy UI mods, who needs those when you have a Peon saying "Work Complete!" after every quest you finish?

Download here

So yeah, I resubbed to WoW

2009-10-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

Literally a month ago I bashed the shit out of WoW, telling my friends that it sucks, it's boring, the PvP sucks, ect. But, WoW being the crack demon that it is got my subscription money once more for this month. My friend John started playing again, so that was even more tempting.

I will admit it, I have barely played WoW. I own none of the expansions and have never gotten a single character to 60. This is probably why I didn't enjoy the game, seeing how WoW is all end-game content now. It can be hard finding people your level to help with a certain quest or instance. But the good news is that Blizzard knows this and have made the road to 60 easier than ever.

Anyway, this is my mage Zubbyy on Earthen Ring. He's my highest level at 31, and I really am enjoying him. Mages get some really kick ass abilities, my favorite being Conjure food and Water cause it's so handy.

So expect more WoW talk, because it's coming.

- Rav4ge

MMOs are a sometimes food

2009-10-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well, not food. You know what I mean.

I have a strange relationship with MMOs. I do play them often, but most of the time when I have time for gaming, I tend to go for a simple, less diverse game such as an FPS like Team Fortress 2 or the like, something where I can just jump online and blow people into chunks of flying meat with a rocket launcher (once again, TF2 is a great example). I do enjoy MMOs, but I like to think of them as a "sometimes food," as Cookie Monster might say. When I feel like playing them, it's usually towards the end of the day when things start to slow down... when I start to get the urge to grind. Or when I've spent too much time gibbing people with mah lazerz. Sometimes I really get into an MMO, and as a result my time spent on FPS will drop.

I know most people who play MMOs jump at any opportunity to play them, but that's not me. I have two types of games I enjoy, and they both balance each other out. There's no way I could just play MMOs, my brain would likely explode. But such is the case for FPS games too. I am almost always subscribed to an MMO (usually just one at a time) and when I get the urge for something new, I get the newest, dammit. Well... aside from Aion that is.

-Rav4ge

Touch my body...

2009-10-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

Just freaking watch this.

This guy is like the Korean version of William Hung.

So I picked up the COD:WaW PC collector's edition...

2009-10-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

...and the friggin' canteen doesn't open.

There goes my dream of drinking grape gatorade out of the thing. At least the CE was less expensive then the regular version.

Will most likely be playing it all of this weekend - I haven't played it since open beta and holy shit was it fun.

Champions update

2009-10-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

More stuff on Champions! Yay. I hit 13 on my main, Demonium today (as pictured left). So far I've created 3 heroes and he is my favorite by far. He is built on the Ice powerset, which is pretty self-explanatory.

I read somewhere on Syp's blog that everyone should go with the Desert as the starting zone INSTEAD of Canada, and it turns out he's right. I've played both and the Desert is WAY more fun. I actually despise most desert/barren themed zones *cough* Westfall *cough* but the one in Champions has mutated zombie-people, so yeah.

Things I like about Champions:

The Combat - it's fast, fun, and it just feels right. This is one of the only MMOs I've played where I feel like running around zones just killing the same enemies over and over. The good news is that there's quests that tell you to do just that but in clever ways, usually where you have to get a resource a specific enemy carries. There's a few "kill X of X" type quests but if the combat is as fun as it is in Champions, I couldn't care less really.

The Graphics - They're really, really nice. Everything is well detailed and fun to look at.

The flight powers - I swear I've spent half my time in Champions just rocket jumping all over the place. Who needs a mount when you've got freaking rocket boots?

The customization - The costume, the powers, the color of the powers, Champions is just full of customization. I have yet to see any heroes that look the same or even similar. Sure you can end up gimping your character, but it's avoidable as long as you don't stray too far from your current build. My favorite customization-related thing in the game? The powerhouse! Try before you buy, why haven't MMOs done this before?

The gameplay - From killing things, flying and questing, Champions delivers and delivers well. When I play this game, I play for hours on end. That's surprising for me considering I get burned out in most MMOs in less than a 2 hour session.

The UI - Yeah, I like it. It's very bright, simple and attractive. Functions well too.

There is a few things I don't really like in Champions though. The item system really pisses me off, in that I spend large chunks of time browsing through my inventory for the best items I have. Selling them takes even longer. Can't there just be an "equip best" button or something? Another minor annoyance is that the quest givers are spread out all over the zone, and they aren't really linked. So what happened with me is that I started doing level 11-13 quests at like 10, and then later found myself doing level 9-11 quests at 13. Neither produce good results, and because of this I'm a little behind (ahead?) of the leveling curve.

Still though, Champions is really really good. I'm really enjoying it. Kudos to Cryptic for pulling this one off so well.

-Rav4ge

Geoff

2009-10-04T21:33:00.003-07:00

This is Geoff, my main in Champions so far. I'm pretty happy with the way he turned out. He has the munitions powerset so this means pistols, shotguns and all that other fun stuff.

Really liking Champions so far! Combat is awesome and the game just has a lot of character.

updates lol

2009-09-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

Quick, nice and brief update since the last thing I posted was that hilaaaaarious L4D video three days ago.

Not much has been going on gaming wise for me this week. I'm gonna pick up Champions for sure on friday, so that should be good. I'm looking forward to creating a sweet looking hero and then whooping some ass soon after. Actually I've been thinking of character ideas all week (during school, I should add) and I have some pretty good ones thought out.

Anyway, I'll see you guyz friday. Peace.

-Rav4ge

Grabbin' PEEEEEEEEELZ

2009-09-27T21:18:00.001-07:00

Weekly gaming update 27/09/09

2009-09-27T21:14:00.001-07:00

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

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

Champions is definitely next on my must-play list.

Other notable mentions:

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

-Rav4ge

Done with A3... for now.

2009-09-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Yeah so I froze my account for 30 days. As predicted I don't login as much as I used to, and chances are I'll be playing bigger and better things instead of this silly text-based bullshit.

But on the bright side... no one can attack me for 30 days. WHAT NOW.

_Rav4ge

September 2009 is an MMO month!

2009-09-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

With so many good MMO titles coming out this month, it's been kinda hard choosing which ones I would like to get around too. Pretty much all of this month's releases are games I am more than willing to play. I though I'd share a bit of opinion on each... nothing too critical, just my impressions. Keep in mind I haven't actually played any of these yet.

Let's start off with probably the release that almost immediately fell on it's face - CrimeCraft. I actually thought this one would be decent, but from what I've heard it's nothing but a very empty lobby-based shooter. NOT APPEALING!

Champions Online! This is one I really want to try out, but I think I'll wait a bit. The costumes I've been seeing from bloggers and forum members alike have me pretty excited - and of course the combat looks epic. I actually did play COH once, and found my major problem with it is that the environments lacked polish/visual appeal. CO is the answer to that!

Aion - this one is on the "meh meter" for me. Looks too generic, aside from the flying. We'll see.

DDO -I actually really liked this one waaaay back when I bought the game and played it for the free 30 days. There's no way I would pay fees for it though, especially seeing how group-driven it is. I may come back to check it out, but group-based games aren't really my fancy. I like to be able to logon and fuck around while my friends aren't online.

Champions and WAR are the two MMOs I have my mind set on. I'll let you guys know when I make the final descision... I have some friends trying out WAR and whether they like it or not will have an impact on the game I pick.

Also: 3-day weekend this week! That means more gaming for me, and less for you!

_Rav4ge

Video of the Day

2009-09-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

Just cause.

P-P-P-P-P-PINGAS

Snafzg returns to WAR

2009-09-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

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

More on A3

2009-09-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

I know I did a review of A3 a while back, but I've been playing the game more often since and have a better knowledge of everything in the game.

The game went over some major changes while I was gone - for starters the "byte" form of currency was completely removed from the game. Bytes were special currency used to buy things like clothing and other special features in certain areas of the game. Now, credits are used for pretty much anything, and bytes you have can be exchanged for a tidy sum of 300,000 credits each.

Another thing that was changed (much to my dislike) was the Battle Village, and area were you would train daily to get some side EXP and some cash. It's not gone or anything, but it's been severly nerfed to the point were I get about 500 EXP total each day from it. That's about the same amount as I would get for killing another player in combat.

I really like this game, and despite what I said about feeling burnt-out from playing it every day, I have continued to play it. I took a break from the EXP grinding and decided to have a go at the crafting system, which is actually pretty deep. I chose the fishing career and have made several hundred thousand credits selling my catches on the ~~auction house~~ marketplace.

There's really a lot to do in this game, even aside from the daily tasks. A lot of people may overlook it as "just another text-based battling RPG" but it's not like that. I was suprised when I first started playing, and I still find it cool when I find something in the game I had no idea about. I think this is the first text-based game I've been able to play for more than a week without getting bored.

_Rav4ge

MMO update

2009-09-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

School started about a week ago, so I've all busy and such with that nonsense. My gaming career (heh) has been shelved for now and my studies have become "numero uno." My gaming PC has been temporarily retired and my netbook has become my primary computer.

None the less, I can't survive without gaming at all. I have to play something. Well, I have been playing something. Something I reviewed a while back, actually. A text-based battle RPG that goes by A3 or Alien Adoption Agency. Like I (might have) said in the review, this game gets pretty dull. There's a great community to converse with and I'm lucky to be in a very fun and helpful guild but still. I've been logging on everyday for the past week and now I think I'm close to being done with it. I mean, it's text based, what can you expect?

I do have my mind on some MMOs though, more specifically Champions and (strangely) Warhammer Online. Champions cause it's CoH but like... modernized and WAR because looking back at it, I didn't play it enough and when I did I really enjoyed it.

I'm leaning toward Champions... but that may change. What about you? What MMOs have you been playing? Leave me a comment.

_Rav4ge

I'm back

2009-09-17T16:53:00.000-07:00

Hopefully for good. Other blog didn't work out so well and this one is still sitting around so I decided to come back to an old friend, give it a bit of a facelift and see what happens.

I think I'll spare you guys from a long post full of reasons why and just get back to blogging :)

_Rav4ge

Blog move

2009-05-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hey all.

Just wanted to let you guys know I started a new blog with a friend over at his site. Not sure what's gonna go down with this one, I'll probably leave it up for a while longer.

Link is here - http://ct-reloaded.com/blog

Thanks.

-Rav4ge

Incredibly awesome Steam skin

2009-05-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

If you love steam like me, chances are you probably know that you can download custom skins for it. I have been on a hunt for a while now trying to find a really nice steam skin (mainly because the default ones just don't do it for me) and I came across "RoyDarkle" a nice, simplistic and shiny skin that fit better with my desktop.

You can download this beauty here. Props to rthaut for doing this.