4
Jun
2011
Rift – One Step Closer to Guild Wars 2
So there Trion finally came out with a 7 day trial of Rift last month. I gave that whirl and ended up buying it after 3 days. It is one step farther from the old MMO and one step closer to Guild Wars 2′s questless system. I still employs a full range of quests, but many of them are outleveled because of the rift system.
The invasion system is almost like the GW2 system but without much of the longer term effects. A zone is invaded with many rifts and invasion forces at once and you have to group up to complete a goal and then defeat a boss. Which is basically one of two major factors that differentiate Rift from other contemporary MMOs.
I love these invasions. The problem is that it still seems like the side part of the game. During most of the game I’m still doing lame “kill 15 squirrel quests” which is exactly the part of WoW that drives me to rush through it all and try to hit the end game.
What Guild Wars 1 did best was having a series of chained plot quests that got you through the game. There was a little gear progression after that in certain dungeons and some higher level dungeons but in general you level did not determine your progression, the plot did. It was not a matter of being a certain level to progress, it was a matter of doing certain plot missions to progress, like you do in most single player RPGs. Of course you could still run ahead and skip bits, but the natural progression was that you completed missions and did plot quests to ‘beat the game’.
Guild Wars is the still the only MMO I’ve played where I’m not looking at an experience bar but just playing the game.
6
Nov
2010
Little Review of Global Agenda
So I started playing Global Agenda about 10 days ago, starting with the trial (most of the game, up to level 12). It was originally released 9 months ago at $50 + some subscription fee for playing. That fee used to provide the MMO side of the MMOTPS game, stuff like the auction house, mail, agencies (guilds). It has since been removed, the game dropped to $21 ($15 with a friend discount) although you can still pay $12/mo to advance at about twice the speed.
I just hit level 30 with my first character after those 10 days. Level 30 is basically access to all content and all skills, but there are a few items with level requirements that are higher. It also allows you to play with all the other big boys in the 10v10 mercenary arena that is most of the day-to-day PvP in the game. Read the rest of this entry »
1
May
2010
PS3, S/PDIF output to computer
Recently posted this on a forum but I figured this might be a good place as well:
Goal:
5.1 output from my PS3 through my computer.
Why? I don’t have any other way to output to 5.1 from it without spending money (receiver + different speakers).What I have:
First gen PS3, HDMI and TOSLINK cables.Monitor has HDMI -> analog stereo output
Problems: Constant low hum (monitor has bad quality output) and only 2.0 sound. This requires the monitor to be on HDMI output to passthrough audio as well.This motherboard. It has a Realtek ALC888 chip. I also have the separate bracket for TOSLINK in.
Problems: This can do stereo but no DTS/Dolby, but it fixes the buzzing problem. It can also play when the monitor is on different output.And a Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio card.
This has S/PDIF in, but I am not spending $100+ on the options they have to actually use it. Instead I am trying repin the gigabyte bracket and have it connect to this card. It does have DTS/Dolby decoding :DSo, the gigabyte manual says that the bracket has three pins.
1. red – Power
2. yellow – SPDIF_I
3. black – GNDSo I switched black and yellow to match up with this pinout diagram of the creative card (top left, +5V, GRN, SPDIF0 IN)
Plugged that in and… nothing. I can hear feint popping when I switch audio output devices on the PS3, but the Creative card never shows a signal (“Unknown or invalid signal”, just like when disconnected).
Any help or insight would be appreciated, thanks.
P.S. I think I may have destroyed any input on my sound card by fooling around with this. My microphone no longer works on that sound card :(
11
Apr
2010
Gaming, gaming and more gaming
So I’ve been doing a lot of gaming recently, and, non-standardly for me, on the PS3. I finished both Heavy Rain and God of War 3 in about a day each and then started on FF13.
Heavy Rain was pretty damn good and a unique kind of game I wouldn’t mind playing again. Could have used some more polish in places but it was a great foray into a new kind of game. I want more of it, just… not too many. I don’t want another age of brown WW2 shooters.
God of War 3 felt like more God of War. Which is a good thing. I got to finish my God killing quest although the ending was a built lengthy and not-so-action-game style, all I wanted was a prettier game with more killing random things for the hell of it.
Final Fantasy 13 was, as many people have already said, very linear. Takes about 20 hours to actually make a decision in where you go. I wasn’t disappointed with this though. I went for this game purely for the visuals and they don’t disappoint. The hair on every character especially. As much as it is partially overdone asian JRPG hair, it’s much better than the everyone-is-bald-or-ugly syndrome of Mass Effect. Not to mention the combat mechanics which I absolutely love. Every character can fulfill three separate roles (or all 6 later on) instead of being stuck with a healer all battle when you don’t need one. I may not be always picking my attacks (auto feature does a pretty good job) but I am constantly switching paradigms. I’m not really a fan of the lore and the universe, but it works well enough for me.
On the PC gaming side I’ve been working on Battlefield: Bad Company 2 which I picked up for $40. It has many buggy parts to it but it still ends up being a bunch of fun. I’ve already maxed out the recon class (love those long range sniper shots) and I’m working on the rest. If this game had a few bug fixes it would probably top my favourite shooters this year.
I’ve also invested a bit of time into Plain Sight which is a little nauseating but the core mechanics are inherently balanced for risk/reward. Kill people to get energy, more energy for people who have more energy, turn energy into points by blowing yourself up. More points if you had kill streaks and if you catch people in your suicide blast.
Also recently I’ve been playing League of Legends (although this has died down a bit). A DotA clone that manages to be fun although bit rage inducing at times. The problem with games like this is that the learning curve is ridiculous. A player is basically required to know everything before playing a game. There is at least a tutorial in this clone (and I’ve played other before so I was fine) but there is still way too much content to cover.
P.S. Still waiting for that SC2 beta invite Blizzard.