My 30th Post – Neatly timed for Guild Wars 2

And what a wonderful game it is!  (Kind of makes Wow look like a stodgy old dinosaur).

One of my characters, pondering her new life

Reading other blogs, I see a few people complaining about the launch, servers full, crashing etc. Come live in Australia!  The servers crashed at about 10:30 last night, I waited for a while and then decided bed was the best place.  Up nice and early and everything was back running smoothly again.

I’ve been looking forward to GW2 for ages now, like 1/2 the other gamers on the planet.  At some stage (being a butterfly and all), it crosses your mind that perhaps it’s just another hyped up game and you’ll start playing and it won’t quite be right, won’t tick all the boxes.  So far, GW2 is everything I hoped it would be and more.  Well done ArenaNet! Let’s hope other companies follow in your lead in the future and release with a such a polished, well thought out, complete, utterly fun game.

So what’s so great so far?

Gorgeous graphics, everyone can rez everyone, no need for trinity, events!, discovery’s in crafting, big areas to explore, achievements!, Asura, individual crafting nodes, underwater combat (done well), bank available at crafting stations, crafting items have their own massive collectibles section, move your crafting collectibles to their section at any time – anywhere, salvaging, Asura, crafting gets faster the more you do at once, Vistas, daily – weekly – monthly rewards for all kinds of stuff, no subscription!, exploring, Asura, lots of friends playing, guild up and running ,  etc etc etc.

Edit: More that came to mind, groups are remembered between sessions and accounts (eg, hubby and I change characters and are still grouped ), mail is instant send – instant receive – no hunting for a mailbox, share in other people’s story quests, don’t like your starting area (or done it too many times) – go to another one, characters are automatically down leveled when you go to or return to a lower leveled area, bank and crafting items are shared between all your characters – great for those of us that like to be self sufficient in crafting .

Want your hard earned HoM goodies? Visit the ruins of the Hall of Monuments

All decked out in my Hall Of Monuments spoils

I even tried WvW (I’m not PvP player), and it was fun!

So far I’ve rolled (all Asura) an Engineer, Necromancer and Ranger.  Love all 3, hmmm, which one am I going to level first?!

Hubby and I out adventuring

I wish I could take a month off work right about now

Waiting for GW2 – Endless Space et al.

Not long after the 30 quest weekend challenge I pretty much stopped playing The Secret World.  I will probably go back later, but for the moment I’m not feeling much of a pull to log in.  I am going through serious MMO withdrawal, but, with Guild Wars 2 only a week or so away there’s no point in getting into a different MMO.  A good time to play a few single player games.

I bought Endless Space on Steam last week, a pretty new turned-based 4X game.  Even on Newbie setting it’s giving me a run for my money.  I also bought a copy for hubby so we can play multiplayer (multiplayer games are done through Steam either with your Steam friends or open to the public).  Ganging up on the AI certainly helps!  If you want a great summary of the game, the Cynical Brit has a WTF is … Endless Space episode, well worth watching.  With the disastrous launch of Sword of the Stars II last year, and Legends of Pegasus this month, it’s nice to see a polished game on launch.  Sure, it could do with a few more bells and whistles, but in the last month there have been 4 or so updates, one of the them chock full of additions, so both the present and future look bright for the game.  The UI is so clean and well designed, everything is at your fingertips and the graphics in general are a pleasure to look at.  A first glance it seems pretty simplistic, but there’s plenty of depth to it, and I’m imagining more depth over time.  I’ve played about 20 hours so far, and I’m not feeling at all bored yet, quite the opposite, still figuring out strategies to nail the AI!

Galaxy View – yes I know it looks like I’m in a good position here, but I’m not, trust me. 

Pretty AND functional Solar System View

Part of the large tech tree

I’ve been a typical butterfly over the last few weeks, trying to find things to play while waiting for Guild Wars 2.  As well as Endless Space I’ve dabbled with a couple of Alpha Indie games, Gnomoria (kind of a better looking version of Dwarf Fortress) and Stardrive, another 4X space game (I was a contributor to the KickStarter for that, hence access to the Alpha).  Fieldrunners 2 is still keeping my ipad busy .  What’s everyone else doing in the lead up to Guild Wars 2?!

 

TSW – 30 quests in a weekend challenge

I like in-game events, what can I say, I’m a sucker for fluff; those new pets, or a title, or swanky clothes.

This weekend The Secret World is running a weekend long challenge (that coincidentally runs alongside a free weekend for those yet to purchase).  Complete 30 quests over the course of the weekend and get 1200 points for the in-game store (pets!), and a special in-game T-Shirt.  Clever.  Don’t just play free for the weekend, play free and make sure you do 30 quests so that you see a good portion of the game (and are therefore presumably sucked into their scary world) before the weekend is up.

30 quests is a lot, so I’m going to have to track them as I go, I wonder if I can use this post to do that, update it a few times over the course of the weekend and see if I can get to 30

I must say I need the extra ability and skill points … I die a lot in this game.  A lot meaning enough to have nearly given up a couple of times.  I’ve been mostly playing alone (hubby sprinted on ahead) but he’ll be joining me for this challenge and two is always better than one, so things should be infinitely easier .  This is definitely a game better played with a friend.

My other aim is to reach the third area, Blue Mountains (no, I’m not even that far yet, it’s been a slow month moving house).

TSW Quests – need to get to 30!!!

1.For a fistful of zombies
2.Bullets for Andy (SQ)
3.Elm Street Blues
4.Draugnet
5.Missing perons list (SQ)
6.Supply run
7.Dirty Laundry (SQ)
8.Horror Show
9.The tentacle trail (SQ)
10.Neither Snow nor Rain nor Zombies (SQ)

Added 5 Skill Points and 13 Action Points with first 10 quests – not sure if side quests (marked as SQ) count, but they haven’t said otherwise anywhere.

11.The curious case of Joe Slater (SQ)
12.The Ravan
13.A sacred place
14.Dust to Dust
15.Idol of Nergal (SQ)
16.They never stop coming
17.Tomb Raider (SQ)
18.The slaying of Dixie Bull (SQ)
19.Message in a bottle (SQ)
20.Book of the Bokor (SQ)
21.That’ll leave a mark (SQ)
22.Death, and the instrument thereof
23.Journey’s End (SQ)
24.Appetite for destruction
25.The coming down (SQ)
26.Rolls Downhill
27.The pick-up
28.ATC
29.Trapped (SQ)
30.Full metal golem

Added altogether 15 Skill Points and 44 Action Points.

Checking the store a couple of hours later I have my 1200 bonus points .  I think I’ll buy a couple of pets with that .   My newly acquired points will certainly help buy a couple of new abilities too

Oh yes, we apparently all get free fireworks too.

TSW is one month old – lets celebrate says Funcom