Do You Have Valor?

Achievos is proud to welcome new Honorary Achievo Kate Luckdragon.  She is a self-proclaimed sci-fi junkie and bookworm.  She's also a graphic designer, comic book nerd, and all around awesome chick.  Even though she has been totally swamped with the final stages of college she still makes time for getting her game on.

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“In this life you were born to CONQUER! Take charge as commander of a city and dominate the landscape. Ally with the strong in the land to establish mighty guilds. Outsmart and out-build your enemies in this intensive multiplayer strategy game.”

Sounds bad ass right?

I've never been a huge fan of real-time strategy games…I was always more of a puzzle and rpg kind of gal. But one night, I was looking through games on my iPad and came across Valor. Though the game starts slow, I've been playing for a few months now and currently have 4 cities on 3 different worlds and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

In a nutshell, the object of Valor is to build up your city and conquer other cities with the army and scholars you've built up. Once you conquer other cities, those cities are yours to rule as you see fit and the other player loses their spot on that world. As with most things, there's so much more to it than that.

First, I'll start with buildings. There are several different building types that you can construct in valor and each building has a specific purpose to allow for advancement and all around brutality. If you were to start playing today, I would recommend building up your resources, warehouse, and farm production as quickly as possible. The more resources, food and storage you have, the better your chance of faster advancement. This game is real-time, which means that when it says it's going to take thirteen hours for you to level up your lumbermill, you're gonna have to wait thirteen hours. The wait isn't that long in the beginning, and if you have a mellow night at home just hanging out, you're guaranteed to get your city up and running in just a few hours…but you'll need to go back daily (or, several times a day) if you want to keep advancing.

After you've gotten a decent production of lumber, clay and iron, you can move on to working on your City Hall, which is where you upgrade and construct buildings & your Market, which allows you to trade resources with other players.

Here are a couple screen shots of my cities on Lynx: World 64.

Then comes probably the most important part of Valor…your army. Your army consists of three buildings; barracks, stable and workshop. Inside the barracks you will find lancers, sentries and berserkers as your choices for infantry. In the stable there are scouts, knights and guardians for cavalry. The workshop holds your rams and ballistas for siege. If you are interested in reading further about each one, click here for the Valor Wiki (http://valorgame.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Units)

As you upgrade your city, you receive 'research points' that you can use to upgrade your units to higher levels. One mistake that I made in the beginning was that I spread out my research points between each category. In retrospect, that wasn't a good idea. I decided to specialize my guardians, berserkers and ballistas. After getting rid of my scouts, sentries and rams - my attack score went through the roof because I was condensing my research points and making my army extra awesome! It was excellent. I would also recommend checking out this chart, it helped me tremendously in choosing what units to recruit and pour my skill points into.

I bet you're thinking something like this right now: “So, Kate, you've told me all about what units are, now what the hell do I do with them?!”  That's simple…ATTACK EVERYONE! J The world that your city is on is filled with hundreds of other cities, doing exactly what you're doing and just waiting to be attacked. I gauge my attacks based on point level and only go after those with similar points to me so it's more of a fair fight- but that doesn't always work. Players with smaller armies have wiped me out before. That is where your strategy comes in…you can send scouts to the opposing city to see what you're getting in to, or you can just charge in and see what happens. The latter is usually my preferred method because I find it more fun that way.

One thing that's gotten me hooked on Valor is the team playing. The game allows for guilds to form. Find yourself a good guild and be active in the forums, then you've got all the back up you need for large scale attacks. I've actually met some cool people through this game and it's quite enjoyable to work together to take another guild out or conquer a series of small cities. For more reading on strategies, go here: http://valorgame.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Strategies

So, there you have it, my extremely basic guide to Valor. There is obviously so much more but you will learn if you pick up the game and start playing.

Happy slaying!

We Want to Celebrate with FREE STUFF !!!

For anyone who doesn't know, my partner in crime Linz has finally given birth.  I am taking this opportunity to welcome her new son Ezekiel to the world and more importantly to Achievos!! 

This little guy has been wreaking havoc on her electronics for months now.  From within her belly, he has been killing car batteries, phone batteries, televisions, laptops, and more.  We suspect that Linz has given birth to the first of the X-Men.  Baby Ezekiel, aka Magneto, is here and his power is peaking with today's monster solar flare.  I assume the only way to appease our infant overlord is by giving away free stuff.

We are clearing out the gift closet and there are some serious goodies that need distributing.  We have t-shirts, posters, key chains, stickers, and other random paraphernalia we've picked up along the way.  We even have a brand new OnLive console that we are Giving Away For Free!  Unfortunately, the OnLive console is only compatible in the US, but anyone, anywhere in the world could walk away with plenty of other goodies.

The only way to get free stuff is by commenting.  Comment here on the blog and tell us who your favorite video game character is and why.  We will also accept you defending who your favorite X-Men character is, but you better have a pretty good argument if you chose anyone other than Wolverine because he is obviously the best.  You can also comment on the Achievos Facebook post.  You have until next Friday (March 16th) at noon to make your move.  Come on, we want to give you free things !!!!

And of course, Congratulations Linz !!!!

Skyrim: First Impressions

Instead of trying to do some kind of review, or tell you everything you've already read before release on all that is awesome about Skyrim, we here at Achievos have decided to hit up our friends and give you snippits of what their first impressions are after a day of play.

That repetitive date couldn't have come soon enough for many of our friends.

Mini Bezz says:
When I started the game I was excited and was ready to see if this would be better than Oblivion...and guess what IT IS. Skyrim is so amazing that I've had the game only 30 hours and I have already been playing the game for nearly 20 of those hours. It's graphics are amazing, the controls are easy and feel natural, and the views and environment just leave you staring at it thinking 'OMG is this real'. With Oblivion, I had spent at least a good month of my time playing....with Skyrim, I think its going to the rest of my life playing.


Parker says:
Skyrim is massive; in terms of content and scale.  Possibly one of the best examples of this is demonstrated upon the first dragon battle.  Not only are you small on screen next to the dragon, but the power difference is daunting.

Debbie's original hunch was right: there ARE dragons in this game!

Rob says:
I've just finished a 13 hour marathon session of Skyrim and haven't even scratched the surface (only one Nirnroot so far!)  The game dwarfs the size and scope of Oblivion.  I'm enjoying the gameplay more as I get comfortable with the controls and work out the intricacies of customizations, leveling, and all that RPG gooey goodness.  You have the ability to switch between 3rd and 1st person perspectives at will.  I used the 1st person in the dungeons, giving them a very Halo-ish feel.  Very interesting, and for me, it works very well.  Standard issue plots (so far) and menus.  Unspectacular AI and I did think the environments would look a little more polished.  However, I'm nitpicking and the total world immersion makes up for a lot.  I'm in for the rest of the weekend.  Gotta make my run at 10,000 now!

Dylan says:
When I first started Skyrim (after Character creation) I was speechless. Right from the start I felt myself falling into this world. I felt the terror and exhilaration as I was escaping Helgen, felt a little torn for a moment when deciding who to follow, was in awe of the beauty of the landscape as I first ventured out of the caves into the daylight, I even felt a little cold when I was high in the mountains! My heart was racing as I went toe-to-toe with a bandit warrior that caught me trying to sneak into a fort occupied by bandits, and I found myself moving my head from left to right in sync with my character, dodging arrows as I tested my marksmanship against his three archer comrades. I knew I would not be able to play any other game for a long time after playing Skyrim for an hour.


And finally, Debbie weighs in with her opinion:
This game blows my mind.  I bought Modern Warfare 3 on Tuesday.  It's a good thing I played for those three days because Skyrim is the first game to take me away from Call of Duty and it doesn't bother me at all.

Debbie's laying it on the line.

Are you already entrenched in the world of Skyrim?  What're your first impressions?

Kevin WK Likes Dragons

If it's good enough for Kotaku then it's good enough for us.  Of course I am slightly partial to Kevin's videos, probably because I live with him.  But please believe me when I say that you are going to feel a lot sexier after watching this. 

In Defense of Duke Nukem Forever

In Defense of Duke Nukem Forever - Because Somebody's Got to Do It

by Elyse Schuler-Cruz

And so it seems twelve years worth of hype is a damn hard thing to live up to.  Everyone and their mother got so worked up over the long-awaited release that it came as no surprise to me when it failed to meet the lofty standards that had been set for it.  I mean honestly, what did we expect?  The Godfather?

 

(I'm talking about the Oscar-winning film; not EA's repetitive GTA cash-in.)

I hate to break it to you.  Yes, they hold their hands in the same manner.  No, they are not of the same caliber.

We've had over a decade to create this ideal game in our imaginations.  There was no way that we could ever get what we wanted.  Personally, I wanted a touching look into the childhood and repressed memories of Duke in relation to their current effects on his motivations.  That and I wanted the aliens to also be Nazis, so I could double my murderous satisfaction.  What can I say?  I'm a simple girl with simple tastes.

One of the common complaints about Duke Nukem Forever was the inability to carry more than two weapons at a time.  Yeah, I know the Duke of the 90s could carry two-elventy handguns, five shotguns, numerous rifles and a howitzer, and it was really inconvenient to get to a boss fight only to realize that I was lacking the right boomstick for the job.  Then I'd have to go back to a previous save and play through again whilst keeping the needed gun on me...oh wait.  That never happened because the right gun for the boss fight was conveniently located at my feet.  If you're judging a game's quality on how many weapons can be carried then you probably 1) hated Fatal Frame, and 2) should revise your rubric.

Now, I'm not too biased as to claim that this was Game of the Year material.  It wasn't.  All I'm saying is that just because it's not the ideal game you created in your imagination doesn't mean it's an abomination.  I reserve that title for Legend of Dragoon, and nothing's managed to usurp it in over ten years.

But seriously, that air hockey was bullshit.

Really, Duke?  You want me to win 7-0 for 30 gamerscore?  I can not even do this in real life.

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Elyse Schulyer-Cruz, today's guest blogger, has been gaming since it was old school.  She started out on the NES/Master System, and has always had a soft spot for Sega.  She went to college with Debbie & Linz, majored in theater, and has recently returned to school for a teaching degree.  That's right, she could one day be schooling your kids both on the quality of game remakes and how to use a comma correctly.

Guest Blogger Kevin WK: Gamer, Nudist, and Activist

Hi, my name is Kevin, and I have Gamer A.D.D. I can't to commit to a game for more than a few hours at a time, let alone finish it, even if I enjoy the game.   It’s a problem many people face, so bad that over the years, games have been made shorter to appeal to gamers with my condition.   I don’t know how many of you are out there, but if you have Gamer A.D.D. too, I feel your pain, temporarily…

There are many games out there that cater to this disorder, some great, some not.   We are going to look at a few of both.

I love you but, I'm not in love with you.

Games like the Call of Duty series, for instance, are great A.D.D. time fillers.  The single player experience can usually last 5-7 hours, making perfect play time for people who can’t commit.

Portal 2 so far holds my heart for best game of the year.   Its story is great, simple, and short, but not “I wasted 60 bucks for this!?” short.  The single player campaign clocks in at about 6-8 hours long, with a separate multiplayer story that can last about 4 hours.   Even then, only 63% of Steam users who have Portal 2 actually finished the single player campaign.

Shadows of the Damned is a bit of a niche title but I played this game from beginning to end in one sitting, the whole 6 hours it was.  It was entertaining with enough innovation to keep me playing without getting too bored.   The storyline was hilarious as well and kept me wanting to know what would happen next.  Shadows is pretty cheap if you can find it and definitely worth your short attention span.

Along with the good, here comes some games that people with Gamer A.D.D. should avoid, not for the game being bad, but just being a game that you would never see the end of.

Let’s just get this one out of the way early. You have to dedicate a lot of time to RPGs.  A person like me will never know the endings to any of these games. Don’t get me wrong, I love these games and will continue to buy and support them, but I’ll be surprised if I could put more than 10 hours into it.   I know my limits, and there is a point in RPGs where I’ve reached my level of enjoyment.  Once that hits, it goes on my shelf or is traded in at the game store for something else, never to be played by me again.

There was a time when all I played was RPGs, now I can only watch from the sidelines as friends tell me their experiences.   Final Fantasy has always been one of my favorites, since the beginning on NES, I have a special place in my heart for them.  But once again, ill start the game, love the first few hours, then I'm done.   Final Fantasy XIII had potential to win me back, it had everything I wanted in an RPG and looked amazing.  Still, I was too far gone to enjoy it.

There is one exception to the rule, and this is out of pure love , but I have always made time for this series…

Snake, I wish I could quit you ....

MGS is a game that can take a long time to complete, not because of the gameplay; this game is full of story.  Metal Gear Solid 4 rang in around 6-8 hours of actual gameplay, but the cut scenes made it last 12 hours.  There is one scene that is 90 minutes!!!!  I did laundry while I played MGS4, I folded all through Act 4.  Despite this, I will continue to play and enjoy every Metal Gear game that comes out.

In closing, I know that I’m not alone on this issue. There are many gamers out there that buy games just to trade them in within the first week of release, not because they hated the game, just because they got their fun out of it. Whether they saw the end credits or gave up during the beginning tutorial, here’s to you, my fellow gamers!  Have fun with your games, until there’s something else that comes out next week…

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"What's in the box???"

Remember all that wicked awesome PAX swag I bragged about?  Of course you do.  We are giving away a little package of goodies to a lucky reader with our first ever giveaway!  The way to win is to tell us about your best Gamer A.D.D. moment!  Comment on Kevin's Facebook link, Lindsey's Facebook link, Debbie's G+ link, replying to our twitter (@achievos) or comment right here on the blog!  What exactly will you win?  You'll just have to wait and see!

Digging Up Dirt on Megan

I'm sure you all remember our fabulous guest blogger Megan from her three part review of Rift (found here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).  Well, we dug up some dirt on her and are here to fill you in on what's the haps in her gamer life.

Gamer tag?  Maegaan (So creative, I know!)

Where do you spend the majority of your gaming time?  The majority of time spent gaming is now on PC, a shift from my console based roots. Most time is spent playing Warcrack, but I also enjoy playing Spore from time to time still, and am avidly looking forward to the release of Diablo3. I also enjoy Rift, though trying to keep up two different MMOs to the standards I've set for myself don't allow much time for it anymore.

We have seen that your love is mostly spent on WoW.  What is your favorite character race/type to play?  My hunter was my first character, and I never truly enjoy playing on another character as much as my hunter. I like trolls, but goblins are way fun, as are Worgen (and are now the only alliance race I'll play). 

How do you feel about game guilds?  They are almost impossible to avoid in a game like WoW.  Game guilds can be both a blessing and a curse. I tend to view them much the same way as I do cliques in real life. Having a built in group of people to do things with is fantastic, but if you have no good way of 'breaking in' to one of these groups, it can be rough going. Much rougher on games like Rift or, to a slightly lesser extent WoW, where much of the end game content once you get to max level is solely ran by guild groups. People claim guilds aren't necessary in WoW, and it's true that they aren't 'necessary,' but having a group of people committed to completing things efficiently and well makes the world of difference in how much you enjoy your playtime (see: amount of Megan's swearing when forced to run a dungeon in the Looking For Dungeon matchmaking system, good lord there are a lot of idiots out there!)

And what about achievements?  They are a fairly new addition to the WoW world.  Achievements are a nice bonus for people that care about that kind of thing. I go on streaks where I will try to get more, but it's not something I care to focus on. Most of them are silly and don't mean much besides the point total. I am a closet DPS meter whore though, and that is what I focus my game around. I very much try to not gloat in game or anything, but I seeing my name at the top of the DPS meter, and I will pout and complain incessantly until I am able to achieve that. I don't let my love of meter topping keep me from avoiding standing in fire though!

She hunts. She heals. She focuses on DPS.. And when she's bored she creates beautiful fireworks shows.
If you're on WoW, look for this girl (server Ner'zhul).

 

Guest Blogger IDiivil Blows the Lid Off Gears 3 Multiplayer

Standing in line for the midnight release of Gears of War 3, I couldn't help but ask those around me what mode they were first going to be playing. Would they be unable to help themselves and jump directly into campaign, in desperate need to find out what happens to the war-torn world of Sera and the remains of the COG, or would they shun it entirely for all the new and updated features of Horde, Beast, and multiplayer madness?

In spite of the game being the last of its series, it seemed everyone was pretty excited about schooling some noobs over following any story, and when I loaded up multiplayer for the first time, I could see why.

The final installment in the Gears of War series brings several changes, and with it, some neat little tricks to help kick some player behind. Epic not only introduced Team Deathmatch - a multiplayer mode similar to Warzone, only with 15 lives for the team rather than one each - but also added in some unique cover mechanics. You can now vault over whatever you are hiding behind and kick away enemies hunkering down before you, giving you a few extra seconds while your opponent recovers to blow him away with your trusty shotgun.

Weapon changes have made your shotgun a little less trusty than before, though. While a gnasher or a sawed off is indispensable in close quarters combat, the lancer, retro lancer, and hammerburst have been given a few upgrades to make anyone with a hand for it a considerable foe. Snapping off a few shots of the lancer at a charging target, for example, now offers a push-back feature, so good luck to all you shotty players out there in getting close if your enemy catches you first!

If player versus player isn't your thing, there are also the Beast and Horde modes. The latter is similar to the previous Gears Hordes, but now includes a sort of tower defense mechanic. Unlike before, you now select a base before beginning the game and use the money made throughout in killing enemies to fortify yourself from the very same. Because Epic has since limited ammo and special weapons, no longer giving you an unlimited supply to heft up and kill with, you'll want those defenses!

 Beast mode, on the other hand, is entirely new. It is similar to Horde with its COGs and its defenses, but as the name suggests, you are no longer a human being, but one of the Locust. You have twelve waves with about a minute timer each to destroy the humans, and with every person downed or fortification destroyed, a few precious extra seconds are awarded. As you progress farther into the waves and earn more cash and kills, more locusts unlock, all the way to the bottom tier where you can choose to be a mighty berserker (oh, and how mighty she is). The humans are backed up by heroes, though, such as Jace, Dizzy, and Marcus Fenix, and the game has acknowledged their power by only allowing executions to fully kill them. This isn't too problematic in the easier difficulties, but once you start choosing hardcore and insane, getting to heroes to properly finish them becomes very trying.

With all these new modes, it's hard to keep track of one's kill/death ratio or how much butt you really are kicking, so Epic decided to make it a little easier for players who love to know just how good they are. By adding an updated Stats & Awards page, players can see their statistics in every mode of the game, and the medals and ribbons pages show one's progress and boasts of any difficult tricks one has managed to pull off.

Of course, that just means I get to stare at my less than remarkable score and wonder why I'm so freakin' awful.

Overall, a ten out of ten from the IDiivil. Gears of War 3, in this gal's opinion, is certainly the most polished and thought out game of the series.

Now, I'm going to pick up my controller and go back to filling someone with bullets.

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This week's esteemed guest blogger, IDiivil

IDiivil is a gamerchick model who spends her free time chasing herself some Auburok tail. With a penchant for achievement hunting and laughing manically while dominating some poor player, it's otherwise rare to ever find IDiivil away from a television screen and her ever loved Xbox 360.

You can find IDiivil on Facebook here.

Guest Blogger Auburok Drops Some Serious Gears 3 Campaign Knowledge

It’s done, if you’ve been without the Internet for a few months; Epic’s Gears Trilogy has come to a close. Marcus Fenix can finally hang his gun on the wall.

But it was glorious.

The campaign and it’s story have evolved since the first Gears of War waded on the 360. No longer are you forced to pick just one lucky pal to play with, or watch story characters die avoidable, almost Darwin-Award-winning deaths. For those of you picking up Gears of War 3 before the other two, the stage the plot is in at this point will inevitably disorient you: “Who are these guys? We’re where? What the hell are those things? She wears what shade of lipstick while fighting those things?” While I might recommend working your way up from the beginning, Gears of War 3 has you covered in the form of a recap special. You will need the background to understand anything going on at this point- trust me. 

Gears of War 3 campaign picks up two years after Gears of War 2: Jacinto is still gone, the COG is now a fringe organization, and the world is becoming a more dangerous place. Marcus and the rest of Delta return, along with several newcomers, and a return of just about every character still alive in in the Gears of War universe. Gears of War hasn’t really been lauded for it’s story in comparison to games by the likes of Mass Effect, but players following the story to this point will be satisfied: this is the best, unforced writing Gears of War has produced in a game to date. For once, players are shown how people other than Marcus are coping with the war. Rest assured, this isn’t the "WHERE'S MY WIIIIFE" diatribe from the second game. Gears of War 3 runs five acts, and a total of thirty chapters, and is by no means a short game, especially on harder difficulties. Despite this, the story is well paced, and the gameplay sections are broken up from time to time with very enjoyable boss battles and mechanized/vehicular combat.

This time around, the game features four player cooperative play for campaign mode, doubling the amount of people that aren’t controlled with “Hey, I’ll help you back off the ground once I finish killing these guys and looting the ammo you wanted” bot AI (which can still be a problem, from time to time, on harder difficulties). The mechanics are the tightest they’ve ever hoped to be all around, from basic movement, to weapon balancing despite new additions like the controversial sawed-off shotgun. There’s even new options to switch weapons and trade ammo with party members, and to mark enemies and weapons for other players to see. The overall experience, even in the old school tight corridors skirmishes, has a lot more teamwork to actually participate in, rather than raising friends and killing the same enemies. In addition to all of this, there’s literally a plethora of new enemies, so many that I’d have to make a list (and inevitably forget one or two) to cover the new lambant and Locust enemies. Many of the new enemies force the players to use different tactics, or work together as a team to bring something down; a welcome addition to the game.

One new twist to the single player/campaign experience is arcade mode. Similar to the “Campaign Scoring” mode in the Halo series, players now compete for points. However, as they compete, they must work together to not get downed or hit, as it reduces a multiplier that is earned from killing enemies. This multiplier effects every player and all actions that receive a score. In addition to scoring, game modifiers, dubbed “mutators” can be unlocked by particular actions in the game. Some are fun, some make the game easier, and some make the game harder. Those that effect difficulty, reduce or increase experience. If you want a live studio audience laughing to your mayhem, or enemies that bleed flowers, mutators are what you’re looking for. This mode is arguably a more streamlined experience, as a player’s death doesn’t automatically lead to the team’s defeat; a modest thirty second respawn, along with the multiplier reduction, is the alternate punishment to halting the entire team’s fun. The team is still able to fail, though, if everyone sucks enough to die at the same time.

Gears of War 3 is definitely a defining affair on the Xbox 360, even before really cracking in to the alternate multiplayer modes. With promises of campaign downloadable content in the months to come, this is possibly the best singleplayer/cooperative campaign 3rd Person Shooter experience available.

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Our distinguished guest blogger: Auburok

Auburok is an ex-writer for Gamersmark.com, an ex-intern for G4 and an ex-quality assurance drone for 2K Games. When he’s not stomping heads or chasing the achievement dragon with his girlfriend IDiivil, he’s probably writing about games.

KevinWK Unboxes Gears and Our Hearts

Recent guest blogger Kevin WK has garnered quite the YouTube following.  His unboxing videos have riled up nerds and massively trolled the interwebs.  You can see his latest blog about Dead Island here.  But if you are more of a visual learner, check out his video featuring "Eduardo the gardener" and the latest Gears release.

KevinWK Hearts Dead Island

Have you ever had a bad day?  Do you have unchecked aggression?  Want something to take it out on?  You should try the living dead!  Dead Island has already shipped 2 million copies, which is no small feat for Polish developer Techland, who is better known for the Call of Juarez series.  This game is full of surprises both good and bad.  But there is one thing that is constant, this game’s world will infect you and keep you coming back for more.

I have been playing Dead Island for about a week now, and I have no plans on stopping.  I started off as the character Sam B., the one hit wonder rapper from New Orleans.  Sam is performing his song, “Who do you Voodoo, Bitch” when he is bitten by one of the undead.  Sam then discovers he is immune to the infection.  I picked him because of his melee skills.  He is pretty much a tank for punishment which I always find useful for online play.

The weapons in Dead Island vary from location to location.  Since it takes place on a resort island, you aren’t going to find shotguns and AKs everywhere.  You are more likely to find blades, boat oars, and tire irons from vehicles.  Melee weapons are plentiful, but can wear down and break over time.  Carrying multiple weapons is vital so you always have something to fight with.  You can repair these weapons at workbenches, as well as modify them ala Dead Rising 2 style.  I just made a machete with a shock attribute that slices and electrocutes the zombies.  I want to marry it.

The voices in the game are a mixed bag.  The zombies are terrifying, but some of the NPCs and main characters will make you lower the volume of your game.  Sam has so many accents, I don't think he always knows which ones to use.  The undead should start a chorus group because I can only describe their moans and growls as pure evil.  As a true horror fan, this is beautiful to me.  Some of the other characters though, live up to whatever stereotype they are trying to portray.

Give him the shocker !!!

The game is meant to be played online with friends as you will forcefully find this out when you get to the city portion of the game.  Once there, you will have to avoid many battles because you are way outnumbered by the living dead.  I usually prefer to play alone, but this game had me calling people to play with just to get through certain parts.  There really isn’t much of a death penalty, they just take money from you.  But it still gets frustrating when you are dealing with 3 infected, 1 walker, and a thug, which knocks you down with every hit.  This game is about survival and you will need your friends to last!

Dead Island is very reminiscent of Borderlands.  Skill trees, quests, maps and everything were definitely inspired by Gearbox’s masterpiece, but taken to another level.  It may not have the same weapon engine, but there is enough here to keep you bashing in zombie heads for a long time.  You can load up on the quests and take them on at your leisure, enabling you to take a fun tour of everything the island has to offer.

I am having a blast playing this game, and you will too if you enjoy first person, action RPGs, or if you just want to beat the bloody hell out of the undead.

Today's Guest Writer, Kevin WK

Rift in Review, Part 3

The final wrap up of Megan's extensive review of Rift. This is the clincher - the part where she...well, I won't ruin any surprises. We certainly enjoyed having her as a guest blogger! If anyone out there wants to post, please email us at achievos @ gmail.com and let us know!

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I’ll go straight for the throat now – why, despite enjoying this game, did I go back to WoW? There is no singular, big, unifying answer; more of a lot of small things that gave me the desire to head back to Azeroth. Keep in mind that most of these centers around end game complaints, which will never be an issue for many MMO players. One issue I had was each server, or shard, is not assigned a time zone. This initially didn’t strike me as too much of a deal breaker until I had reached max level and wanted to proceed into more end game oriented activities (the more difficult 5 man dungeons, and raids). It’s quite disheartening to put all this time into leveling only to realize that there are no guilds wanting to raid at the times you have available.

My major debilitating feature was the lack of add ons. Anyone who has actually seen my interface in WoW can tell I’m an add on junkie. Now don’t mistake me, the game is quite playable as is. It’s perfect for the beginning player, as anything that gives you more information or customization inherently becomes more complex. But, there are ways to do it so much better, and add ons are a great way for this to happen without having to waste developer time that is better spent on creating new content, or running the risk of confusing new or more casual players. My character is a cleric, and I wanted to heal end game content, and I didn’t want to heal it just any way, I wanted to heal it as a warden, which is a heal over time based healer. Healing on a character who relies on HoT spells is absolutely infuriating when you have no way to track what characters have your spells on them already without clicking on the person and searching through a massive buff list to try and locate what might be your spell. Possible? Yes. Makes me feel frustrated, annoyed, and incredibly inefficient? Yes, yes, and hell yes. And it is so much easier with a threat meter to tell as a damage dealer when it is ok to go all out or when you need to hold back, and tanking so much less stressful when you can tell how far ahead of your group you actually are. I could go on and on preaching about how much I love add ons, but this isn’t the article for that.

A heavily modified WoW healer UI, from WowInsider.  Rift has some basic UI customization in game, but add ons allow much more customization for you to tailor to your specific needs, whether you need easier to read health bars or just want something more aesthetically pleasing.

I’ll limit this to the big three of my complaints, since this post is growing to epic proportions already. Last of the three is how rifting tapers off as you get higher level. In the first few zones you quest in, rifts abound everywhere, and if you log on for three hours in an evening, you can count upon a zone invasion happening for you to participate in. I love the zone invasions; the entire zone banding together to force back the enemy, and a certain amount of tactics having to occur to be successful is exciting. However, the zone invasions suffered an abrupt drop off once you reached a certain point; I went from approximately level 30 to level 50 without seeing more than 1 or 2. Once I reached 50, the only time I actually saw any was when I decided to forgo my entire Saturday or Sunday, and then maybe I’d be online for one. For something that I enjoyed so very much, it was, to say the least, a disappointment for them no longer occur much at all.

With that said, I expect I will give it another go in a few months. Of my major complaints, I am quite aware the Trion is either in the process of fixing or has pushed some fixes for all of them (there have been numerous tweaks to try and get zone invasions to occur more frequently, there is some sort of free server transfer service for your character (though I’m not clear on the specifics of how it works), and support for add ons is coming soon). With these complaints addressed, I would expect my interest in the game would solidify much more. All in all, Rift is a sold game that shows all the signs of sticking around for a significant period of time, and I expect that most anyone that has enjoyed WoW will enjoy Rift as well, and I think it has some innovations built in that even Blizzard could learn from and adopt. 

The tentacles from beyond are going to get you!

Rift in Review, Part 2

Couldn't get enough, could you? Welcome back for more of Megan's review of Rift.

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The Rifts also introduce you to another of the games quality of life improvements – Open Raid groups. Whenever you come near a Rift or Invaders, a button pops up on the top of the screen prompting you to join an open group to tackle the invaders. Auto forming groups such as this take away the annoyance of trying to get an invite to a group, particularly when the fight is going strong and people are perhaps too busy to manually invite. The open group format is also quite nice for quests with very specific kill objectives – all you have to do is click on a player’s name, select join party, and you are in a party with no confirmation steps needed. For those of you who want to play with a specific group of people, there is the ability to turn your group private, but I implore you to keep your group open as much as possible – it’s much less of a headache for solo players. The benefits of Open Raid groups are really shown during the Zone Invasion events (periodically the enemy will do a focused invasion attempt where everyone in the zone needs to band together to turn the enemy back) where you can join groups with those nearby in order to be the most effective.
The photo to the left is the party bars in Rift, showing the absolute mess of buffs and debuffs (the icons) on the characters in the party, in some cases obscuring health bars of the character shown below it.  Most of this information is largely irrelevant, and could do with some filtering to show anything that is actually an important piece of information to know.  Digesting this in the middle of the action takes a lot more work than it should have to

The other main thing that sets the game apart for me is their class set up. From a clearly superficial standpoint, 4 classes seem very limited. However, upon closer inspection, there is a great deal of customization within each class to give an incredible amount of variety. Within each class there are 9 ‘souls’ (8 Player vs Event based, and 1 Player vs Player based), which to those WoW players out there are analogous to each branch of a talent tree, and you pick any three of these to combine to make your character. There are obviously so-called ‘cookie cutter’ specializations involved, souls that are ‘meant’ to be paired with other souls, but you can combine them in many unique ways to create a playstyle all your own. Also available for purchase as soon as you can enter the main city are additional specialization templates so you can save up to 5 roles that are available for use anytime (able to be swapped to whenever you are out of combat), though beyond 3 can be very cost prohibitive for a low level player. This ability to mix and match souls is very appealing, and it’s a great deal of fun to see how you can combine the souls to do different things.

Rift in Review, Part 1

Linz and Debbie would like to introduce their first guest blogger: Megan. She and Linz went to high school together. Megan is an avid PC gamer, and was kind enough to give us a thorough rundown on Rift, especially on its points versus WoW. Here is part one of her review. Come back tomorrow for part two.

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It seems every new MMO brags that it will be the fabled “WoW Killer.” A slew of games have gone past with the label, including (but not limited to) Warhammer, Aion, Rift, Lord of the Rings Online. The only one of the many that seems to actually have a bit of steam to it to date, that can perhaps claim to have bitten a not insignificant portion of WoW’s 12 million strong player base off, is Trion’s Rift. No others seemed to take quite the direct aim for Warcraft like Trion did, with its “We’re not in Azeroth anymore!” campaign. My interest in WoW recently slid quite a bit, and I dabbled in Telara for a few months.

The game was quick and easy to pick up. Many WoW fanboys rant and rave about Rift being nothing but a WoW clone, and this complaint is not without a certain degree of merit. The default UI is strikingly similar to WoW, from the action bars to the party and raid frames. But, what people don’t remember (or refuse to acknowledge) is that WoW is now the Gold Standard in the MMO department. It redefined the genre, and it is what so many people expect in the new games. Way back when, before WoW became the monster that it is now, people also complained about WoW being nothing but an Everquest clone, which was the Gold Standard in its heyday. Part of what made WoW what it is today was its accessibility and its ease of pickup, and Trion uses this to its advantage. People familiar with WoW will be able to plunge right in and feel at home, while newcomers to the genre will be able to jump in with a very low learning curve. Being able to actually play the game itself very quickly is part of what will help it become successful, as nothing will turn you off a game quicker than having to slog through for hours just trying to figure out the basics.

An customizable raid and party frames, with indicators to show who has what buffs, debuffs, or heal-over-time spells active and a threat meter, showing exactly how far you have to go until the mob comes to gnaw on you.

 So what then makes Rift stand apart from WoW? The obvious - The Rifts! The namesake of the game is what the storyline revolves around. A quick story rundown: at your character’s creation, you are heralded as your world’s salvation. The world you are brought into has already been taken over by elemental Rifts and Lord Regulos. The remainders of your faction’s forces are now focused on holding the enemy back for just long enough for your character to be sent back in time, tasked with keeping Regulos from turning Telara into this Rift riddled wasteland. You are sent back to a point when the war is just beginning, when the Rifts reaching from the elemental planes are just starting to encroach upon the world. Your first encounters with Rifts are very simple, and a great introduction to the mechanic. As you level up, they become increasingly difficult, requiring greater skill, a larger group, or sometimes both to defeat. I enjoy this mechanic immensely, particularly the fact that they very often are not ignorable. The rifts at their beginning stages take over a swath of area, and any quest objectives are often unable to be completed until the rift is closed. As the rifts persist for longer periods of time, they spawn invaders that roam the country side, often going straight for quest locales, and if they aren’t defeated they may take over the quest locale, and any quests given or completed at that area are unable to be accessed until the invaders are defeated. There are some who detest this mechanic, who dislike having their routine interrupted for their playtime. Quite frankly, those people should go play a different game. The Rifts are one of the major differences of the game from its predecessors, and forcing you to confront them head on nails this difference home, as well as really giving you the sense that Yes, there is a War going on, and Yes, I am making a difference in this War.