This week was a week of initiation. My first week with those MMORPGs was
hectic and sometimes painful. While I haven’t become a master yet, you will
see that I am a little more used to the genre this time around.
This Weeks Games:
After upgrading
my computer, I was finally able to experience the splendor that is PlanetSide.
Grouping up with a squad and defending your base from enemy invaders is a
priceless experience. EverQuest: Evolution was a bit easier to get into than I
had thought it would be, due to my experiences with EverQuest: Online Adventures
the previous week. While more complicated, technical and deep, I was at home
with the game in a matter of an hour. I have yet to get back into Anarchy Online
so I will give you yet another flashback from my summer train wreck with the
game. By the way, this is the launch of VGCITY’s new editorials format, so we
hope you like it. So lets see, where do I begin?
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Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) |
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EverQuest: Online Adventures (PS2)
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Click |
| Character Class: Warrior |
Race: Barbarian - Level: 7 |
Week 2: IceMasters In All The Wrong Places
The
EverQuest: Online Adventures Frontiers beta is well underway, and
when it is finally released I will give you all the inside information, but for
now lets talk about the current version of the game. My Barbarian Warrior has
fared quite well in the last week. While I have yet to reach level 10, the
adventures I have experienced so far have been very interesting. One of my next
quests was to slay an Ice-Master. While this sounds like cake, the guild master
advised me to group up. I of course ignored that request and made a very
devastating mistake. I took on the Ice-Master myself and was killed in seconds. I
had obviously ignored that his health bar was the color red (Wake Up!). So my
next challenging task came when I decided to finally group up. Believe it or
not, many people are already at high levels and not many people start new
characters that often, which left me choosing from a sparse amount of people. In
fact, I didn’t even get to choose, there are quite a few picky people on that
game. Not enough to detract from my experience but I learned to ignore some of
the more snobbish players. I finally found a female Warrior who traveled with me
for a long distance until we reached a large hill, filled with different
variations of the infamous Ice-Master. The strategy was not to attack an IM in
front of others because they would all gang up on us and we would surely be
dead. We managed to lure one of the stray IMs to the base of the hill. The
female Warrior began furiously pounding on the creature and I fell into a gaze
until I finally realized I was suppose to be helping. I used my kick and slash
abilities along with my basic sword attack and finally realized that this was a
gem of a game. The grouping factor of EverQuest truly turns the game into an
excellent experience. I returned the IM remains to my guild master and oddly, he
wouldn’t give me another mission. So I assumed that I should level up before I
got a new mission. So I went out in the wilderness alone to go hunting. I found
a group of two other players who asked if I wanted to join them. I gladly
accepted of course. We went farther into the snow than usual and came up upon some igloos and inside were (Surprise!)
Ice-Masters. I had thought they would be
too difficult to take them on by myself, but all of the group had taken their
own IM so I followed suite. To think that an axe that big would take that long
to kill a creature that small is beyond me, but I did outlast the bugger. We
went around clobbering numerous creatures, several of whom started the fights
(just in case the animal protection agency is concerned). So I am now at level 7
and will be heading out of the snow pretty soon so that I can see what lies
beyond the mountains.
Ill be sure to bring you along…..To Be Continued.
Week 2: Let the Pain Begin:
Due to the extremely poor performance I had been receiving
from the game last week, I had all but given up hope. That is until I got my new
hardware and to be quite honest with you, this game is extraordinary. Before I
would never even consider hopping into a vehicle due to the extreme slowdown I
would experience, but now I can do anything I want, and the freedom is simply
amazing. I finished up my training in the virtual simulator and received a Heavy
Assault certification. Something I regret now is that I never went for a vehicle
certification, which is what im struggling to receive now. I began looking for a
squad to pick me up and found that it was as easy as pie. Picking the Vanu
Sovereignty was a good and bad choice. They are the most commonly attacked group
but then again, there is no shortage of action. We traveled to Verica base which
was where we planned to stock up and move out to another base. Boy were we so
wrong. Minutes after arrival the base was attacked by endless Conglomerate
forces. All of the units expect these kind of battles, but this attack felt
planned, something which isn’t usually successful due to the seamless nature
of the game. I hopped into the turret gun on top of the base and began shooting
towards the enemy dropships. One of them seemed to plan on crashing into the
turret so I furiously began shooting with incredible aim and right before he
crashed into me, the ship was knocked down into the dirt below me. My luck
wouldn’t last too much longer as a more heavily armored ship arrived and began
bombing the base. I received a “missile lock” warning inside the turret and
immediately jumped out and onto the base floor of the
facility as the turret exploded behind me. This is by far one of the best
game experiences you could possibly have. That whole moment I told you about
felt exactly like a slick
Hollywood
movie and no feeling can beat that. We lost the battle that day, mainly because
the armored suits had reached the spawn tubes in the facility and slaughtered
any troop who tried to spawn in. The next day was a surprise more than anything.
Verica would once again be the center of attention and one of the numerous
locations that were massively attacked by Conglomerate forces. My first
intention was to secure the spawn tubes so I positioned myself by the entrance
door while my other squad mates continued to guard the generator from hackers.
Red alert sounded and the lights dimmed. One heck of a battle was going on
outside and all I could do was wait for one lone ranger to come in and attempt
to stop everyone from getting out. An armored suit began to enter the room and
numerous Vanu soldiers came to my aid and we destroyed it in under a minute. My
troop leader called me to provide support in the back of his airship. I hopped
in and we proceeded to provide air support for the base. I shot down about four
soldiers before the ship began to come down fast, we were crashing. I at the
time didn’t know how to exit the ship, so the ground became my untimely grave.
We won that night, who would have thought?......To Be Continued.
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Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) |
| EverQuest: Evolution (PC) |
http://www.everquest.com |
| Character Class: Warrior |
Race: Froglok - Level: 5 |
Week 1: Hopping Along
Froglok Swamp:
As I have said
in the earlier section of the issue, EverQuest: Evo was much easier to get into
than I had thought it would be. Due to my experiences last week with EQ: OA I
had a better idea of what to do and what would be expected of me. This version
is harder in every way and it requires a much more severe time dedication. This
is truly a PC role playing game and they have always been notorious for being
deep. In the case of EverQuest this was a godsend. You truly live the life of
the character you play and you actually begin to feel as if your in this world
of Norrath. I hope to bring you coverage of the new expansion The Lost Dungeons
of Norrath but until then I decided to try out the newest addition to the EQ
family, the playable Frogloks. Yes they are a race of frogs and yes they hop and
YES they can breathe under water for a very long time, but are they goof
fighters? Well you wont find out from me this week mainly because I have
basically began the basic newb quests that are provided by the Warrior guild
master. They are mainly fetch quests but I felt they were more seamless than in
EQ:OA. The environments are very detailed with plenty of different textures and
anyone with even minimal knowledge of frogs can tell you that their city is
essentially a swamp. It seems that not many people care for the Frogloks at this
point. Frankly I find them to be a very versatile race and they posses advanced
skills in many areas that the other races never fully develop as well as they
should. My first two quests were simply to go talk to various merchants and
important people around the town. There was one that had me delivering a letter,
but it was cake. My current quest is to go into the swamp and bring back the
remains of Spiderlings. So I left the city and went into the city………..To
Be Continued.
Flashback: August 2003:
My character in Anarchy Online is at level 21. Has been for a couple
weeks in fact. I haven’t been able to play it lately due to a cramped
schedule. Next week I will have up to date coverage of the game. So now for
another flashback. To be honest, I have not gotten at all better with this game
since I got it. It’s a great game but I haven’t clicked with it. Hopefully
my new hands on experience with EverQuest and PlanetSide will help me mesh with
the game better this time. Last month I was level 16 and I decided to go into
the subway in the city of Athens. I grouped up with a few other people and we went on our way. The Subway in Athens is a common place for people who do not like the missions to level up and
become stronger. The biggest problem with the Subway is that its almost endless
and you are usually forced to reach the end to get out. If you stop halfway
through you will never make it back because enemies begin to attack you
relentlessly and kill you. This causes you to lose all the hard earned
experience that you received. Guess who made that dumb mistake? Yea, I guess it
wasn’t that hard to figure out. I went with my group deep into the depths of
the subway and we were doing very well. I had to go out that night so I told my
group that I needed to leave. I began to make my way back and it started off
slow but a few enemies began to chase after me. By the time I reached the exit
there were about 30 after me. Lets just say I didn’t make it out alive. I lost
all the experience I received but luckily I had gotten my self to level 20. To
get to level 21 I played a few solo missions. Once again, solo missions get
pretty dull as this is an “Online Game” so its not recommended to play alone
because the experience isn’t nearly as fun as it could be…..To Be Continued.
|
BuzzWorthy Online Component: |
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RockStar Games |
| Midnight Club 2 (PC) |
Click |
| Online Component: Internet/Lan |
Players: 1-8 Internet |
If you are an online gamer who wants a short trip out of the MMORPG realm
but still wants their game to be online, then MC2 for the PC is just for you.
This port of the Playstation 2 hit has one of the best online racing components
ever. From capture the flag to a new take on circuit racing this game has all of
the features you’d expect in a basic racing game, but this is no ordinary
game. If you want a little side adventure then this game is the perfect
diversion when your friends aren’t on your EverQuest server. You can also find
a review of Midnight Club 2 for the PC here on Video Game City, so check it out.
As you can see, this week was very hectic for me and its
only going to get more wild. While im still getting my feet wet in some of them,
in others im already on the front line of action. I hope you will join me once
more next week where I will delve even deeper into the MMORPG lore and show you
what it means to be new to the genre. PlanetSide was truly my best experience of
the week and that can change quickly because online games all have different
things to offer. As always, you can mail me at this address lifeforce@vgcity.com
with any suggestions or questions that you may have. If I receive enough of
them, I will post them in the column every now and then. It is now time to
defend the base of Verica once again. Long live the Vanu Sovereignty!
