Sold*.
Nothing more than the old DVD check we’ve gotten used to. It’s not ideal, but I’m willing to do business. I have other concerns about the game, but I’m content to sort those out myself after purchase.
* Assuming my poor aging box can run the thing. I can run Oblivion just dandy, so if they haven’t done anything foolish I should be able to play it.
The character creator in CoH is the antithesis of the one in Tabula Rasa. When it comes to concept, appearance, and gameplay, CoH offers so much variety and so many possibilities that at first I was paralyzed with choice. It took me over an hour to get into the game. It was like I was standing in the middle of an amusement park with no lines and I couldn’t bring myself to just pick a ride – I wanted to try them all. At once.
This game makes a very compelling first impression. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “City of Heroes:
First Impressions”
The latest Stolen Pixels brings us to the world of… whatever they call that planet depicted in Tabula Rasa. That is to say, the comic is about Tabula Rasa.
A note on the previous one. It became obvious from some of the feedback that the adventure game references sailed right by a lot of readers. If you’re one of those whipper-snappers that thinks that the dawn of videogames happened with the release of the PS2, then allow me to correct some of the deficiencies of your education:
I really wanted one more in there, but those last panels were getting too dang crowded. I would like to have squeezed in a nod towards Full Throttle, Leisure Suit Larry, Day of the Tentacle, or the King’s Quest series.
Ah well. I liked how it ended anyway.
I’ve mentioned before that I do most of my writing on the weekends. I write the bulk of the articles on my days off, and then go over them a bit the evening before they go live.
This weekend I did nothing but play City of Heroes. I filled up a whole server just making new characters and playing them to level 3 or 4, then dumping out and making another.
I fully realize the showing off your character is barely one step removed from drawing a picture and putting it up on the refrigerator. However, since this is pretty much all I did, it’s all I’ve got. So, with apologies, here is what you’re getting instead of posts this week:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “A Weekend of Sloth”
I know this game is much anticipated by many readers. I don’t know what the actual subscription numbers are like, but I’ve come to think of it as the “other” World of Warcraft. It seems to have the same ratio of fans (many) to detractors (very few) and the same level of long-timers that have been playing for ages. As with WoW, I have invites to just about every server out there from various friends and readers. So once again I just blindly rolled the dice and picked a server at random.
I’m on Liberty.
I’m a few days into it now, but I’m still several days from writing about it. Still, I thought I’d give a heads up.
EDIT: Based on advice in the comments below, I’ll probably be playing on Freedom, too.
UPDATE: Wow. Freedom is indeed much different. Just hit level 6 and the crowds make for a very different experience.
For everyone like me who get bored running all over Azeroth to turn in quests in World of Warcraft:
T w e n t y S i d e d
But… I don’t understand why they needed to dress like their characters. Anyway, the whole thing reminded me of my post on exercise-based games.
I’ve said in the past that the addictive nature of World of Warcraft comes from the vast number of connected activities and player-driven goals. It’s a buffet of things to do, and you can focus on the parts you enjoy the most. Combat, looting, leveling, questing, auctioning, crafting, fishing, cooking, harvesting, exploring, raiding and PvP-ing. Each is a fun activity, and each one enhances your ability to advance and enjoy the others. Auctioning lets you get loot which lets you level up easier which lets you push into new areas where you can gather new materials you can use to craft items which you then put up for auction, etc. It is a game where there is no good time to quit, and another reward is always around the next corner.
The major problem with Tabula Rasa is the small number of activities, several of which are unfortunately hamstrung in some way.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Tabula Rasa:
Activities”
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