Showing posts with label mmorpg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mmorpg. Show all posts

Starship Troopers Review

Starship Troopers
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I have had this game in a closet for a few months now. It is not compatible with either of the laptops in the house. My son has been nagging me to buy him a gaming computer so he can use it. You really have to look into the graphic card compatiblity before buying. The game itself may be OK, we'll probably never know and since my son ripped open the box I'll be stuck with it.

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Neocron Review

Neocron
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I'll start out by saying that I've only been playing Neocron for a couple of weeks (it only came out in the US 3 or 4 weeks ago.) So far, I completely love the game. I've played other MMORPGs (Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot), but Neocron is by far my favorite.
I am a big fan of the cyberpunk, post-apoclyptic setting, and Neocron does it beautifully (both in the specific sense of graphics and sound, and in the more general sense.) I think the developers at Reakktor learned a lot from the experiences of past MMORPGs, and made great strides toward solving many of the biggest problems. PKing is one area where I think they did a great job:
Everyone starts with a "Law Enforcer Implant" - basically an item that prevents them from damaging OR being damaged by other players. This implant reduces EXP and money gain, and makes it harder to use the items in the game (higher stat requirements.) Removing the implant is an easy task, but takes long enough that you won't do it accidentally. If you leave your LE in, you will never have to worry about being PKed. However, once you take your LE out, you can be PKed, but *only* in certain areas - which do not include most of the newbie areas.
Neocron also includes a very robust tradeskill / crafting / whatever you want to call it system. Tradeskills are very important, as many items cannot be bought in stores, or are a) prohibitively expensive, or b) very poor quality.
A very exciting feature of the game is the Outpost system. Outside the city, there are outposts of five kinds: Labs, Forts, Uplinks, Mines, and Factories. A Clan in the game (an organization of players) can go and capture one of these outposts. All the players in that Clan will then receive a bonus to the appropriate skill when at the outpost. This can be vital to constructing high level or high quality items. The outposts are one of the driving forces behind the PvP activity in the game.
I'll conclude by saying that this game is, as every MMORPG I know has been, a work in progress. There are still bugs in the game (though recovering from them is usually painless), and the devs continue to release patches tweaking the existing content and adding new content. Please try this game, but do understand that it is early in its lifetime!

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Fight against horrible monsters and hideous mutants for power, glory and wealth! / Rated T: Teen

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The Lord Of The Rings: Shadows Of Angmar Review

The Lord Of The Rings: Shadows Of Angmar
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I've been playing since the middle of closed beta. I never leveled up very far, but I have nonetheless spent countless hours in Middle Earth, primarily as a Hobbit. Now I plan to purchase a Lifetime Membership!!
Lord of the Rings Online is, of course, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game based on the story of J.R.R. Tolkien's work, The Lord of the Rings. The game is true to the books, as much as the New Line Cinema motion pictures were, although not so much true to the movies (which it doesn't try to be). What I find impressive is that every little corner of Middle Earth that was mapped out in the books have in fact been mapped out here in LOTRO--and indeed the books were plentifully detailed in maps and in written descriptions of the fictional universe of Middle Earth. But, for the most part, the subtleties of what is described in the book have been referenced if not fully implemented in the game, particularly in the Shire, all the way from the Sackville-Bagginses to the former Baggins home on the top of the hill at Bag End to the shoeless hobbits' feet! Of course, most LOTRO players will put shoes on their hobbit feet since shoes add armor, but at least the NPCs (non-player characters) are true to the shoelessness.
One step into Michel Delving and you'll quickly notice the unique music system implemented in the game. People are often standing around holding their lutes playing Stairway to Heaven or Row, Row, Row Your Boat. The ability to play notes directly into the game world has been implemented, albeit not in any way comparable to MIDI-driven music software.
While the graphics and landscapes and sky effects ("ooohh, pretty rainbow!", "wow, look at that flock of birds in the sky!") are very impressive, I must concede that the animations such as those of wildlife and monsters are not flawless, particularly where the beasts are idle. But these animation deficiencies are made up for when in combat, with few exceptions. For example, one of the Mature Bear attacks is simply a deep inhale, followed by the loudest bear growl you ever heard, as your character's hair stands on end and the steam from the bear's lungs fills the screen. Or, witness the presence of a Black Rider, and suddenly the screen starts zoom-blinking (very cool effect) and you start to see flashes of The Eye. These are player experiences that go a long way toward immersion of playing agaisnt NPC enemies.
There is an adequately diverse crafting system that would seem interesting but for the fact that it is a money sink. During the betas, farming in the Shire was lucrative, but profitability was dropped by the developers after players showed up in droves to stand around the workbench processing seeds.
The quests are plentiful to keep you busy indefinitely, so long as you are willing to leave the local vicinity. By the time most of the basic quests are completed in Eriador (which will take at least a couple months for most casual gamers), a free expansion will be offered in June. The quests are not typically grinders. For example, in The Shire, some of the quests will involve sneaking past Nosey Hobbits or Hungry Hobbits to deliver the mail or a mushroom pie from one town to another. One quest involves sneaking past a rooster to pick up chicken eggs. Another quest is to simply catch a little kid at midnight pretending to be an evil monster. Of course, these are "safe" starter quests; otherwise, there are plenty of quests that, for example, involve fetching a stolen item from a monster encampent, or killing off a monster boss. (As with some other MMORPGs, one learns that in these dangerous types of quests it is best to find nearby players and create a fellowship, since the power of two is better than the power of one, and success of one typically means success for the other as well.)
The game is not flawless, but I think that where there were compromises and cut corners the game makes very wise trade-offs. Stiff animations for incredibly immersive subtleties, for example. Because trade-offs do exist, I wish I could knock off 1/2 star, but this game seems so much more than just a 4/5 game.
People talk about how this game copies that game, but The Lord of the Rings franchise is the origin of so much modern folklore for RPG elements it's surprising to me that a LOTR-based RPG hasn't been tried before. I suppose no one was daring enough to take on the challenge of bringing Tolkien's work to life with honorable results. I'm really glad that Turbine did, though, because LOTRO is a real treat for fans of LOTR. And for what LOTRO tries to do and be, it does it exceedingly well--not necessarily to be a WoW-killer but to bring Tolkien's work to life in an immersive world full of other real players just like yourself in a PvE environment that would give absolute sheer joy to anyone who fantasized being in Middle Earth after reading the books.

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The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is an authentic recreation of Middle-Earth. In this massive multiplayer online game, you'll explore legendary lands & interact with famous characters like Gandalf and Aragorn. Create your own heroic story as the Fellowship embarks on their quest to destroy the One Ring. Defend the Free Peoples against Sauron's evil minion, the Nazgul Witch-King. Adventure solo or forge fellowships, battle hideous monsters and rise to fame in the most epic MMO ever launched.

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Call of Juarez: The Cartel Review

Call of Juarez: The Cartel
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I'll save writing a huge review here and refer people to look at the reviews for this in the Xbox 360 version. If a console version of a game is bad, then the ported-to-PC version will likely be as bad and sometimes even worse.
Now, usually, I try to play a game all the way through before writing a review, no matter how much of a turkey it is. (See my Duke Nukem Review)... All in hopes that maybe, just maybe, it would get better near the end... But in this case, I just COULD NOT finish the game... The dialog sounded like it was written by a home-schooled 12 year old that just discovered how to cuss. The controls, Keyboard, mouse, AND 360 controller were complete B.S... The textures on everything from the ground to the guns was horrible. They spent more time texture mapping all the de-badged GMC and Chevy vehicles in this game than anything else (Don't even get me started on the vehicle controls and clipping issues). Just as a reference, there is a Beretta 92fs inox pistol in this game and it does not even have a texture map... They look like the "chrome" gun textures out of an old N64 game for the most part.
As for story and characters.... Nope! Michael bay characters are more fleshed out than this... That is pretty bad on its own. There were moments when my buddy had to face palm at the whole "Vato, Homie, essay" Mexican stereotypes. I'm a fan of fun stereotypes but, my gawd, this game just over-does them to painful proportions.
This is on a computer that has no problem playing just about every recent game out at max settings... A quad core 3.0ghz Intel chip (sometimes overclocked to 3.6ghz if needed), with an evga 790i ftw digital motherboard and a 460GTX Nvidia card running graphics and an Nvidia 9800gtx+ handling physics. Vista x64, 16gb of DDR3 1600 ram.
As for this being a Call of Juarez game... NOPE... This has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PREVIOUS GAMES. Zip, zilch, nada, no deal. Though one of the characters wears a cowboy hat... Maybe the game should have been called "That Old Hat From The Other Call Of Juarez Game." Maybe there was something tying it in past the halfway point, but I doubt it, as I just couldn't stand this game any more.
So after buying this, under the impression it would be like the last games... I installed it, then played it for a few hours, then uninstalled it and took it back to Game Stop where I argued with a manager for 30 minutes to get my money back. "And game companies wonder why piracy is on the rise..." Mmm sarcasm... >.<
I really have to stop buying games new and should just wait for the reviews to come out before wasting my actual money.
Bottom line:
Rent it on a console if you are a glutton for punishment.

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Call of Juarez The Cartel is the third installment of the Western action shooter Call of Juarez franchise. When a Mexican drug cartel bombs a U.S. law enforcement agency, the U.S. government puts together a special task force to bring them down. Play as Ben McCall, a brutal LAPD cop and descendent of Ray McCall, or Eddie Guerra, a DEA agent with a chronic-gambling habit, or gang-affiliated street kid turned FBI agent, Kim Evans. Each character has their own unique story. As you fight to dismantle the Cartel and unfurl the mystery of the bombing, you'll embark on an epic, bloody road trip from the streets of Los Angeles to Ciudad Juarez. Experience the lawlessness of today's Wild West as you hunt down the Cartel in a world where the ends justify the means.

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World of Warcraft Review

World of Warcraft
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This game is, quite simply, the best Fantasy MMORPG I have ever encountered. Having played during the entire 11 day Stress Test, I can honestly say it will probably be around even longer than EverQuest. This work of art has all the magic of EQ, without the many frustrations that finally caused me to give up on EQ (such as extreme grind, a very punitive death penalty, and being forced to group at high levels).
The graphics in WoW are awesome. Some people complain about the "cartoonish" colors, etc. I find these graphics to be very pleasing to the eye, and extremely well detailed and arranged. Guess this just shows that it isn't possible to please everyone, particularly those who go out of their way to find a flaw in other people's creations. To me, it is just right.
I won't elaborate on the basics of the game, such as the 8 races and 9 classes. Others have already covered them. Rather, I will focus on some other areas that are important to older players (I will soon be 60 years old, and no longer have the lightning-fast hand to eye coordination and sharp vision I once enjoyed).
There appeared to be no need for extremely quick reflexes in this game, but instead a player needs to use strategy and planning to avoid getting in over one's head. The wonderful hotkey bar across the entire bottom of the screen was very helpful and well thought out. Kudos to Blizzard for making such a great interface. The screen is not all cluttered up like it is in most games.
The game runs on a 24-hour clock, so it is dark nearly half the time. Blizzard wisely chose to not make the game black as night in most locations. It is possible to play effectively in caves and other usually extremely dark areas, without benefit of an external light. I thought this was a very wise decision and really enjoyed playing in those locations for the first time ever in an MMORPG. Some players complain that it is too bright. I would say to them: Turn down your Gamma control in the game if you like. Many of us do not have your young night-vision, and we are paying customers too. I think that Blizzard got this part just right.
The quest system in this game is better than I have ever seen. I actually liked doing quests, something I haven't previously enjoyed. Also, quests give lots of experience, and since they can usually be done on a casual basis, they don't require the same level of one-track focus that they do in other games I have played.
During this "way too short" Stress Test, I decided to try a variety of different characters and locations, so played the following characters: Night Elf Druid, lvl 12; Tauren Hunter, lvl 13; Human Mage, lvl 8; Human Warlock, lvl 6; Gnome Warlock, lvl 6; Troll Shaman, lvl 6. Unfortunately, I have a full-time job and could only devote about 40 hours a week to the game. The initial leveling rate is quite quick, with it slowing down a lot at about level 12. Just about right, IMO.
The game is bug-free, for the most part. It is way more bug-free than SWG is even today. I would be willing to pay a subscription now, if it would "get me my game back!". There are only two problems I see with this game:
1. Even though the Stress Test ended at 6pm Sunday evening, three days later I am still going through withdrawal and still have no desire to play on my two City of Heroes and three SWG accounts.
2. World of Warcraft is still not out, so my pre-ordered copy hasn't arrived, nor do I know when that will happen. The sooner, the better, IMO. There is no doubt in my mind that this game will be way more popular that EQ2, which I also plan to try. Hopefully WoW will arrive first.
I for one really appreciate these Reviews that Amazon has. I find them very helpful. The only problem I see with them is that there are only FIVE stars in the rating system. This is a shame, for World of Warcraft certainly deserves a TEN.


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Vivendi (72212) World of Warcraft PC

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Final Fantasy XIV Review

Final Fantasy XIV
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Going to get the strong points out of the way first. Graphics and music. As far as I can tell, that's about it. The cut scenes and story are nice, but they make up such a tiny fraction of the game they're barely worth mentioning.
As for the bad... it's pretty much every thing else.
UI/controls - This has been beaten to death, but I want to hit it one more time. Quite simply the worst UI for any PC game in the past decade. UO and EQ1 were leaps and bounds ahead of FFXIV in terms of the interface. There is no drag/drop, clicking rarely does anything, limited keymapping, and everything is buried behind several menus.
Combat - Sluggish and consists 90%+ of hitting 1111111. Threat is extremely broken in groups, ie you can get aggro for casting 1 spell even if you don't jump in until the mob is half dead. There aren't any special mobs or mechanics to deal with. You just stand there punching each other in the face until somebody dies. It's like Rockem Sockem robots online. Although the music kinda works against the combat because you're rocking out to a pretty hardcore battle theme while fighting tiny rodents and insects well into your 30's.
The world - The cities are actually really well done, albeit inconvenient. Once you get outside though you find a barren, empty world. There are essentially some random mobs thrown around and aetherite camps where you can activate guild leves. The few actual buildings and settlements are not functioning. They have NPC's who don't do anything and all the doors are locked. There aren't any really dungeons, unless you count being underground as in a dungeon. It's just the same mobs as everywhere else but now underground.
Economy - Sweet zombie jesus, this is quite possibly the biggest game breaker. The entire game is centered around the crafts based economy. Problem is there is no way to find what you're looking for except running around spamming or searching every retainer in the game one by one. The lack of a search function and mail system are killers. Weapon repairs are also a huge hassle. I've taken to buying multiple of the same weapon because you can only fight for about 2 hours before you have to go back to town and find a crafter to repair your weapon or pay astronomical fees to NPC's later in teh game.
Content - Content? Simply not there. The closest you'll come are guild leves which are essentially bare bones "Kill 6 of these things" dailies on a 36 hour timer. The story is interesting but you can only do the one for your city state and SE stated that you can't do the other 2 without creating a new character which would require an insane amount of time. Just watch it on YouTube. To compound the story problem the missions are relatively short, requiring you to do little more than run from cut scene to cut scene. There are no epic battles and all the mission mobs are tuned to be killed by crafters whos only take is Throw Rock which deals 1 damage.
Overall - It's no where near ready. Having played other MMO's in their beta phases I would have guessed that this game is still in alpha. Maybe in half a year to a year it may be fun but right now it is simply an exercise in frustration and what looks to be the longest grind to nothing since Lineage.

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Embark on the myriad journeys of an epic in FINAL FANTASY XIV, the revolutionary MMORPG from Square Enix. As denizens of the new and visually stunning realm of Eorzea, players will actively engage in compelling storylines narrated through high-definition, real-time events featuring the players' own highly personalized and versatile characters. While exploring even the farthest reaches of this magnificent world, adventurers are given the freedom to entirely alter their gameplay experience by simply swapping out equipment, and realize objectives with or without the aid of others. The entire experience is crafted to accommodate the widest variety of play styles—from the lone mercenary with only moments a day to spare, to the legion of comrades campaigning for days on end, and every combination in between. Join players from around the world in an adventure of infinite possibilities.

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DC Universe Online Review

DC Universe Online
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I wasn't a beta tester, and I'm not a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) expert.
When I play a game, it comes down to how much fun I had playing. The graphics, the music, the controls are all a part of that, but ultimately, it comes down to the experience.
In the case of DCU Online, it becomes very repetitive very quickly. Nearly every mission is "beat up generic bad guys before beating up iconic bad guys." This isn't necessarily a bad thing if the fighting is fun (which it is, at first). But even with the unlocked skill sets that allow for more complex combos and flashier moves, the lack of variety in the fights eventually takes a toll, and it becomes a chore.
Also, while the interface is usable but clunky, my main gripe is that it makes it difficult to team up with other players. The reason I choose to play MMORPGs to begin with is because I enjoy playing with others (or seeing others run around when I want to go solo: it makes the in-game world seem lively). In DCU Online, it seems that I'm only able to team up with people in the immediate vicinity, and am only able to communicate with people who are on my (hero or villain) side. As such, the game feels surprisingly dead at times.
Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the fight mechanics of this game (for anyone who's played Batman: Arkham Asylum (great game, highly recommended), it's similar: melee attack, distance attack, block, and a variety of special skills 1-8). I appreciate the fact that the game is updated nearly ever week with improvements. I appreciate the thoughtful, intricate level design (the developers must have hired architects from detail in the two in-game cities). I appreciate the fact that they got Mark Hamill and Kevin Conway to do the voices. The music could be better, the graphics are nice to look at, and I don't mind paying $15 a month to continue playing provided that a game is really fun.
But DCU online starts off strong and within 10 hours (a very short amount of time for MMORPGs) becomes routine. If it was possible, I'd like to have rented this game.
On the collectors edition: you're paying more for a plastic statue, an in-game item (a mini joker blimp or mini batmobile that hovers by your character's shoulder and shoots at your target), a small sized comic, and a poster. I'm on the fence as to whether these things are worth an extra $30. -------
Update: 2/3/2011
After 20+ more hours of play, I'm sticking to my original 3 star rating: the missions are nearly identical, but there is player vs. player (PVP) either in the arenas or in selected servers to vary things up a bit. For the PVP arenas, however, there is often a wait before you're able to enter and the time you spend waiting seems to be random (from as little as 5 minutes to over an hour).
Also, the interface isn't the most user friendly. You can make a group with people by typing: "/invite" and their name, just as you could privately message people with "/tell". It's functional, but I would have preferred to do these same things by selecting people off a server list.

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Enter the world of your favorite DC Comics' superheroes and villains in DC Universe Online. Get ready to experience the high-energy action that encapsulates this fabled world, and become engrossed in thrilling battles with or against famed heroes and villains, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and The Joker.


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Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa Review

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa
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I bought this for my son after he found & read the reviews for it and it looks good. However, THE MAKER PULLED THE PLUG ON REGISTRATIONS in Feb 2009, leaving anyone who buys this holding the bag. Can't register to complete the install, can't update, can't get to anything inside to even look at. This also explains why a fairly recent game was available on Amazon for only $4. I hope that anyone reading this does so before they buy so that the aftermarket discount sellers can keep what they hoped to pawn off to unsuspecting buyers. It's not their fault, but consumers on Amazon shouldn't have to shoulder the load for an unusable product that the manufacturer has pulled offline.

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World of Warcraft Review

World of Warcraft
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This is a very long post, but well worth it if you're seriously considering this game.
Pros:
First and foremost this game is a milestone in the both the MMORPG and online gaming industry. With over 11 million subscribers, it's the largest online game to date, and for good reason.
The graphics, while cartoonish, indulge you in a moving work of art with flowing waterfalls, freezing tundras, and shadow-ridden caves. The world itself is simply huge (though surprisingly easy to navigate), spanning across four continents (one in outer space), and leaves the gamer with an unparalleled sense of citizenship. Once you log into World of Warcraft, you truly plug into a hidden universe.
The music is truly worthy of mention. When you first launch the game, you are met with a symphony of heart-pounding drums, violins, bassoons, or what-have-you. The music/ambience then changes frequently throughout the game depending upon your current location and really adds an element of class to the experiences of stepping into a haunted mine, or riding up to the gates of a citadel.
The gameplay ranges from simple to slightly complicated depending upon your class selection, but always maintains the smooth controls that are oh-so-user-friendly. You can select from 9 different classes at the start (another is available further on in the game), each of which have their own roles to fulfill by either Healing, Tanking (taking the hits for other less-hardy classes), or DPSing (DPS: Damage per second, a term used to explain classes adept at dealing damage). Also with the introduction of "dual-spec," a character is able to switch between two customizable talent builds (determines your main role: healing/tanking/dps, through the selection certain talents) at the drop of a hat.
The most basic gameplay consists of leveling your character from 1 to 80 via the completion of quests, invading of dungeons, and slaying of monsters, all of which grant "experience," and move you closer to the next level. If you grow wary leveling, it is possible to "que" into a battleground from anywhere in the world. There are four different types of battle: capture the flag, protect the resources, defend/attack the keep, and control the territory. You compete against real players controlling real characters on different computers, which is typically referred to as "PVP," or player versus player.
Once you have reached the maximum level, the fun has just begun. You will continue advancing your character by upgrading his or her equipment (or "gear"). Raids, dungeons and "heroics" offer thousands of powerful monsters that, when killed, give weapons and armor that strengthen your character. Dungeons and heroics are typically conquered by five players effectively working together to defeat the obstacles and creatures within. Raids follow a different suit, requiring 10 to 25 skilled players able to communicate and coordinate themselves in order to (hopefully) kill the most difficult monsters in the game.
Another option to the post-leveling stage (or "end game content") is coordinated PVP. Beside the four available battlegrounds, the game contains four "arena" maps offering extremely competitive play in the form of 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5. If you are successful, the rewards are some of the most powerful upgrades in the game.
Guilds, world events, seasonal events, mounts, professions, mini-games, parties, transportation and real-time economies are just a few more of the many other unnamed aspects to this game. Some things are simply best if discovered.
Cons:
In recent times, the game has found difficulties in PVP in terms of equality. Some classes seem to always be more powerful than others, however, the developers of the game promise that they're addressing this situation.
It is fairly expensive if thought of as simply a video game. The game runs at (I believe) $15 a month, or $12.99 if you pay for 6 months at once. By the time you've purchased the original game and the two expansion packs, you're out $100+, which doesn't include subscription fees. The cheapest route to take is to purchase the Battle-chest (the first two games), the second expansion pack (soon to be added to the Battle-chest) and a large chunk of game time.
A key thing to consider in terms of price is that you're buying much more than a game. You're paying for the new content which is released almost every two months, the server maintenance, and in-game customer support. Also, keep in mind, that this game will (probably) entertain you for much longer than a TV or DVD or Console game. Sure, an XBox game is only $59.99, very cheap compared to World of Warcraft, but within a few weeks/months the XBox game will become dull, whereas this game will have already released new content to be conquered.
*This is why I only gave it 4 stars*
The game is addicting. Extremely. Dangerously. No, seriously, if you have any history of alcohol/drug/gambling abuse, you should reconsider, or at least be informed prior to purchasing.
I offer to you this solution: first, download the 10 day free trial. Next, keep a log of the amount of time you spend on the game during these 10 days. It's expected that you will 1-3 hours a day initially, but will quickly fall into the 4+ hours as your trial nears its end. After the 10 day trial, take a look at how much time you've spent on this game. Some might find themselves in "good shape," with only a couple hours of play time. Most will find that they've spent an upwards of 30 hours (or much more) on the game in only 10 days.
Determine for yourself if you truly have that much free time to spend on a video game. If you do, wonderful, then this is the game for you, and I hope you enjoy your experience. If you believe this is too much time to spend on a game, don't fret! Within the account creation process, you will be able to set up "parental controls" for the availability of play. It is in this device that you can limit your playtime to a healthy and sustainable amount.
I hope this was helpful.

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Lego: Universe Review

Lego: Universe
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First, the pro:
-Entertaining characters, animations, and ideas.
-Some good instruction/tutorial aspects, but. . . (see cons)
-Build modes are good for creative expression and a must for a lego game, but. . . (see cons)
-Cute pets.
Now the cons:
-Many of the instruction/tutorial aspects become annoying, almost to the point of frustrating, since the are location triggered and repeat every single time you pass that location. The pop-up type are only slightly annoying, while the slow-camera-pans are incredibly frustrating the 50th time you see them.
-Build modes: while there is a lot of freedom, the interface/camera can be awkward. There are even some parts that I've never been able to figure out how to line up and connect. One example would be the medium rock monster II body and medium rock monster II arm, obviously meant to go together, do not line up as there is no way to "lift" the arms off the ground.
-SHORT. Very short. The amount of actual content in the game is not worth a monthly fee. I completed every quests (except those which require 3 or more people to happen along at the same time, such as the racing quests) within the first week of playing (I pre-ordered and started playing with the early founder's launch, not the general launch). I had also collected all pets and a completed a very large majority of the achievements. This was with approximately 18-20 hours of game-play that included traveling to every vendor and standing around browsing their entire inventory, playing the pirate shooting gallery mini-game at length, spending time building on my properties, and standing around grinding the same monsters over and over in order to collect infected bricks and faction tokens (more on those later).
-MMO? Where's the MMO in this game. Let's look at what makes an MMO different than a single player game.
-Grouping: Nope. No grouping or teaming. . . other than getting lucky and having someone else join in a couple of the instanced mini-games at the same time you are doing them.
-Auction or item sale mechanism: Nope. There is a direct person to person trade mechanism. That's all.
-Chat with others: Well, you can send a "tell" or "whisper" type private message that creates a private chat channel, if you have someone specific with whom to chat. Then there is the "local" chat; this is a general open-world chat that is only seen/heard for a very, very short distance. That's a about it for chat avenues, but what about chat content? Being a game intended for a younger audience, a somewhat restrictive chat filter is expected. Unfortunately, being that it's a white-list system rather than a black-list system, it's overly restrictive. The difference is that a white-list system is one of specific inclusion, rather than one of specific exclusion. The result is that you cannot even say the names of other players or even the names of the monsters themselves at this point. "Where would I find 5 (or five) spiderlings to finish this quest?" becomes "Where would I find fingers on my hand of the long leg things to finish this quest?" (numbers, in numerical or alphabet, are restricted as a way to prevent kids from disclosing private info). Of course, you have to get lucky enough to be near to someone long enough to type this out.
-Factions, tokens, and gear: In a word, pointless.
-Factions give you specializations; classes in other games. All attributes are linked to gear, including your the skills/powers you get from specializations. So, this leads to:
-Gear: your faction specialization gear isn't the strongest gear in the game. Once you've completed all of the quests, and a large number of achievements, you'll find that you are better off using some of the reward gear from these instead of the faction gear (at least, in the case of the specialization I played), even though you forgo the powers given by specializing. And how do you get your faction gear, anyway?
-Faction tokens; the only MMO mechanic actually included in the game. Unfortunately, it's probably the worst one they could have included. You may know this mechanic as "the grind". In order to buy the faction gear, you have to collect and spend faction tokens. This is the only reason to pay a monthly subscription, since it will most likely take you months to collect enough tokens to get all of your gear. . . But then, see my previous point about gear. I will say that each faction has useful, inexpensive consumables that can also require faction tokens to purchase.
In short, what is there is generally fun and well done, there just isn't much of it, and it's not much of an MMO. Some of the critiques I have will surely be addressed in future patches (such as balancing the gear to make specializations worthwhile, which I'm sure they are working on and is probably part of the reason the third specialization for each faction has been delayed, and grouping, which they have said will be added in the future). They have also said that they are going to release frequent content additions. Unfortunately, with as small as the initial game is, I don't think they will have many subscribers left playing by the time they get there.

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World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack Review

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
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I have been playing World of Warcraft since a month after it came out. Not quite consistently, as I've taken a couple of 6 or so month breaks in that duration, but I've been there through all the changes. Having started playing the game again 2 years ago when Burning Crusade came out and being pretty disappointed, I have to say that restarting the game again this time with Lich King has been a much better experience. At first, I only got the expansion because all of my friends and all the old folks from my guild were getting back together. So I figured that even though I wasn't really looking forward to getting into the game again, at least I'd have the fun social aspect of it. But I'm having more fun playing the game with this expansion than I have had since the game started and everything was new.
So does that mean that the game has totally changed and we're playing a whole new WoW? Not exactly. It seems that this is the expectation that a lot of people are having. I'm reading a lot of negative reviews saying that this is more of the same. Well, unfortunately for them, it is. It's the same game, just more of it. There are still plenty of obnoxious people with bad manners and even worse skills in English, still plenty of quests that involve killing mobs and gathering items, still an opposing faction that kills you while you're questing (for me there is anyways) and so on. But in my opinion, the new content in Northrend has much more depth, much more detail and is just plain more fun than anything I experienced with the Burning Crusade Expansion. It really seems that Blizzard took their time in making the quests much more unique and varied as well as many other aspects of the content.
A lot of people jump on WoW to plow through the quests and instances and get to level 80 as soon as possible. Why? There probably won't be another expansion for 2 years, so what's the rush? That's my feeling about that anyways. I find that when I play the game more sparsely, I'm able to appreciate the time that was put into it and also prevent myself from getting burned out. I pay attention to a lot of things in games that other may not care about at all, such as environment and music. The new zones in Northrend look really cool (at least by the standard that WoW looks considering the graphics are outdated in general, but with an MMO that's not really a problem for me.) With the first zone in Northrend, Borean Tundra, I was just impressed by the scope of the place: four flight points, 130 quests, NPC ships raiding NPC towns, undead crawling out of the earth, gnome planes flying all over the place... It was all a little overwhelming. And I didn't find that much annoying repetition as I did the quests there, despite the fact that there are twice as many quests in that zone as there are in the first zone of Outlands. In fact, some of the quests were pretty innovative. And the environment for the second zone I went to, Howling Fjord, was simply amazing to me. The boat ride into the huge cove with the towering canyons, waterfalls, all around was unlike any WoW environment I had seen. Continually as I go into each zone, everything about Northrend just seems bigger and more grand than anywhere else.
Another thing that's impressed me with the expansion is the music. Most of the up-tempo quasi Lord of the Rings style score has been replaced with more mellow and melodic fare. From the first boat ride into Northrend you'll hear a somber but really amazing fiddle tune and much of the music in the many zones matches that tone. It's sometimes a little odd to be in the midst of slaughtering enemies to the sounds of fiddle and pipes in the background, but somehow it all works. A lot of the music throughout the rest of the world has been changed and enhanced for the better as well.
These things aside, everything else about the game seems to be enjoyable. PVP is one of my favorite WoW pass times and there's no shortage of that here. Admittedly, the Wintergrasp PVP zone isn't quite as huge and amazing as I'd hoped, but it's still fun, as is the new battleground. The instances are more attuned for my liking, since I rarely get a time to play video games for more than an hour or two at a time. The new smaller, more easily accessible dungeons are much more fun and like a lot of the quest lines, they're actually pretty fun and unique.
So perhaps it was the fact that I bought it with low expectations, or maybe it's just because Blizzard really put out a good product, but I really like Wrath of the Lich King. If you're looking for the childish and a**hole players to disappear, looking for less questing to do, less... Warcraft, then you're looking for another game. This is still World of Warcraft, but now it's as good or better than it ever was.


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Fans of World of Warcraft, prepare for Blizzard Entertainment's next installment -- World of Warcraft: Wrath of King Lich. In this latest expansion, something is afoot in the cold, harsh northlands. The Lich King Arthas has set in motion events that could lead to the extinction of all life on Azeroth. The necromantic power of the plague and legions of undead armies threaten to sweep across the land. Only the mightiest heroes can oppose the Lich King and end his reign of terror.
Enter the Death Knight This expansion adds a host of content to the already massive existing game world. Players will achieve soaring levels of power, explore Northrend (the vast icy continent of the Lich King), and battle high-level heroes to determine the ultimate fate of Azeroth. As you face the dangers of the frigid, harsh north, prepare to master the dark necromantic powers of the Death Night -- World of Warcraft's first Hero class. No longer servants of the Lich King, the Death Knights begin their new calling as experienced, formidable adversaries. Each is heavily armed, armored, and in possession of a deadly arsenal of forbidden magic.

If you have a World of Warcraft account with a character of at least level 55, you will be able to create a new level-55 Death Knight of any race (if on a PvP realm, the Death Knight must be the same faction as your existing character). And upon entering the new world, your Death Knight will begin to quest to level 80, gaining potent new abilities and talents along the way. This expansion allows for only one Death Knight per realm, per account.

New Environments in Northrend Await Journey through the remote, diverse lands of Northrend and explore Dragonblight, Grizzly Hills, Borean Tundra, and Howling Fjord. Named for bones of perished dragons and majestic shrines to the fallen creatures, Dragonblight is an arctic wasteland surrounded by dense forests.

Not everything is frozen in Northrend. The lush mountains of Grizzly Hills are the ancestral home to the furbolgs, who have grown accustomed to relative peace. Although their tranquility is being challenged by trappers, goblins, and ice trolls, Grizzly Hills remains a vast and dangerous wilderness.

The southwestern tip of Northrend is home to the sprawling Borean Tundra. The Horde has established a dominant presence in this icy portion of the continent and has formed a bond with the tuskarr, a walrus-like race of nomadic fisherman. Magical energy is afoot in the region, and it has caused increased tension.

High above the Great Sea at the southeastern tip of Northrend lies the Howling Fjord. Ancient mythology holds that a race of half-giant warriors, the vrykul, once inhabited the land, founding a prosperous civilization. They mysteriously vanished, leaving deserted villages and abandoned temples. In present times, the Alliance and the Horde have come to Howling Fjord to confront the Lich King. Strangely, this has prompted the return of the vrykul, who are attacking the Alliance and Horde settlements. Howling Fjord presents a difficult challenge on two fronts: withstanding the vrykul's onslaught and battling the evil Lich King.

A Multitude of Monsters Strange and terrifying creatures inhabit the frozen continent of Northrend, such as Nerubian Viziniers, Plague Eruptors, Shoveltusks and Flesh Giants, to name just a few. Half-spider, half-humanoid, the viziniers utilize sorcery and high intelligence to emerge as the rulers of Nerubians' underground kingdom. The Plague Eruptors are walking corpses created by the Lich King's evil experiments to spread horror and chaos across the living world.

Massive curved antlers make it easy to identify the Shoveltusks. These grumpy beasts are very dangerous, territorial, and best left alone. The Flesh Giants are nothing short of nightmarish abominations. Cobbled together from the pieces of giant body parts, the Flesh Giants employ tremendous strength to carry out the Lich King's wishes.

The World of Warcraft: Wrath of King Lich expansion pack allows you to engage in epic siege warfare. The pack presents the first Hero class and allows you to transform your Death Knight's look with character customization that even include hairstyles and dances. You'll enjoy exploring the Northrend and all its environments and dungeons, filled with some of the deadliest creatures -- and greatest treasures -- on all of Azeroth.




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