The Rift beta NDA has just been lifted, and there’s so much I want to write about. I want to tell why this makes me feel like I felt when playing EverQuest, even though it really is nothing like EQ. And in fact, EQ did certain things better. So maybe I’ll work something about that into this article, more in others. For now, this is just going to be a stream of consciousness ramble through the second Beta event, the fantasy-based Guardians. ...
Delera’s Tomb has some sort of unhealthy obsession with dead girls. You have the “Dead Girl’s Notebook” one-off. Then you have the whole Delera questline proper, where you free the spirit of the dead girl and then hunt down the evil necromancer what did it to her. It’s as if Turbine’s quest scripters had come off a weekend binge that included a half dozen Japanese horror movies, stumbled into work on a Monday with their brain cells still crackling, and wrote what they saw when they closed their eyes. ...
I SHOULD be playing the BTCNBM… oh what the heck, I should be playing in this weekend’s Rift beta event. And I have, but … past few days, I’ve been getting closer and closer to finishing Celestia. The turning point was getting Ra and the Forest Lord. With a one-two AE punch that could clear through trash in a couple rounds, the remaining quests went MUCH faster. ...
While the above isn’t a real photo from Titan’s surface, such photos DO EXIST. (You can even hear the actual winds from another world). We can DO stuff like that. When reality is so amazing, how can mere games possibly compete? That’s the dilemma Blizzard faces as it ramps up the publicity machine for its next MMO, code named Titan. Leaked in a not-so-secret memo last month, Destructoid cornered a Blizzard exec who admitted that Titan would be the long expected follow-up to the world’s most successful MMO ever, World of Warcraft. ...
This mysterious e-mail just mysteriously appeared in my in-box. My in-box OF MYSTERY! I can neither confirm nor deny that I will be leveling my lower gluteal regions over the weekend as a warrior brought from the past to defend the Vigil against the rifts – and from the evil warriors summoned from the future by the Defiant. E.g., the folks that were the community of the first beta event. ...
It seemed level 58 would never come to my dynamic wizarding duo in Wizard101. Slogging through grindy grind after grindy grind. Last night, The Friendly Necro kindly help me kill a bunch of Megamind-style Minions in the Science Center for one sort of thing. THAT took forever. Then the quest continued – I had to go back and kill the OTHER kind! Ugh! So I logged off. ...
Plant a tree for charity! KingsIsle is using its new Gardening system as an innovative way to give to local children’s charities. Simply buy a Giving Tree seed in its cash shop, plant it, and harvest the unique rewards while helping kids in need. Give the Gift of Magic with this Giving Tree! Last year our players raised $125,000 for Charity! This year, we are offering our players a chance to give a little Magic to someone in need. ...
FFXIV opens with a fantastic character generator, shows you a wonderful cinematic that soon includes you and segues smoothly into the tutorial. You soon are dropped into a crowded inn with quest givers that you will come to know very well. They give out your “guildleves” – kill quests, and your “local leves” – crafting quests, and finally your “field leves” – harvesting quests. Your remaining days in FFXIV will consist of filling up on leves, going to the place they tell you to go, killing trash mobs, making items you won’t be able to keep, and whacking away at harvest nodes. ...
Yeah, that was the easiest trap to find EVER! We were running past and someone (I want to say Ulan, but it probably wasn’t) suggested taking a screenshot of us. I’m like, great! Look at all these bridges and ladders! Perfect spot! And then they pointed out the giant goat head behind us. First on the menu – getting Ulan, our Friend from the North, into the exclusive ranks of the Order of Cannith. You know, I’d like an order of toast, an order of iced tea, and an Order of Cannith. Anyway, not just anyone can be a member of the Order. There’s a long application that will take a few hours to fill out, and hitting the ‘submit’ button at the end gives you a PAGE NOT FOUND error. Then you’ll have to talk to our HR person about doing a personal interview over Skype. Dress nicely! ...
“Next Island” just opened today in the Entropia Universe. The time travel-themed island asks players to “join the utopian scientists, great artists and successful entrepreneurs who populate our tropical paradise of Next Island.” Sounded intriguing! I made an account, downloaded the approximately 3 Gb client and headed in. Avatar creation was easy enough. Though the game let me see my character in several different outfits, it warned me that I would arrive on the island clad only in a used, tattered, worn and SEVERELY unfashionable coverall, and shoes that have seen better days. Years. DECADES, OMG! ...