Just Spit It Out Already!

Here's the breakdown of gaming at my house lately: I've been playing Defiance, my husband has been playing Sid Meier's Civilization: Revolution, and my daughters are obsessed with Animal Crossing: New Leaf.  We're kind of all over the board.  But do you know what the combination of listening to these three games has taught me?

Voice overs are totally important.

All three games have a different way to handle voice overs.  Defiance has inane, repetitive chatter, but it's completely voiced and in English (or whatever language, I'm guessing??)  Civilization has constant, interruptive voice overs, but the characters just jabber.  Kind of like Sims.  And Animal Crossing is completely voiced, but it's just bleeps and bloops, not really word sounds at all, except when you type it says the letters you hit in a majorly robotic voice.

So different, and what do they all have in common?  SO ANNOYING.

Of the three, I would say Animal Crossing is the least offensive.  I am not crazy about the fact that every time a character talks to you it makes a steady stream of noise not unlike a dial-up modem in the 90's, but it's easily tuned out.  Civilization might be the worst.  You have advisors helping build your civilization, and they are constantly popping up to talk at you.  It stops game play to have you read their blurb and make a decision. But the whole time they're up they are just jabbering away in nonsense.  Why?  Why did they even spend the time recording this inane blabbering?  If you're going to record someone talking away, just have them actually speak the words.  It's super annoying to me.  I wish they were just silent.  My husband stands up for the game by saying this way it could be shipped worldwide without recording multiple languages.  It still grates on me.

And Defiance voice overs are annoying in a category all their own.  There is tons of voiced dialogue during quest hand-outs and cut-scenes, all voice acted and well done.  But during actual game play you have your very own Navi-like computer chick, who talks incessantly but repeats the same lines over and over and over.  Everyone who plays can recite EGO's lines.  And everyone hates her.  I'm not generalizing.

I love the work programmers and designers put into games...but how about going that extra mile, or going a mile less, and just not annoying the gamer?

When Good Games Go Bad

Yeah, I know, the title is a bit on the dramatic side...forgive me, it sounds awesome and I had to use it.

Debbie & I have been playing a ton of Defiance on the 360 lately.  It came out in April 2013 and the price point dropped embarrassingly fast.  It is an MMO which is pretty intriguing and awesome on the console, as my MMO experience before this was only WoW.

Us ladies of Achievos have fairly similar taste in games, but somehow we rarely end up playing the same stuff.  If we do play the same game, I'm usually playing it about a year after Debbie has already completed and re-sold it.  So it has been super fun to have this game that we can run around in together and kill all the evil, diseased masses.  The game is an MMO, so we do see lots of other people in game as well.  But seeing them running around is pretty much as much interaction as you're going to get.

And this is where the good game goes bad.

Defiance has an unbelievable amount of potential.  It is fun.  It is a functional console MMO.  It has a large world map, easy travel, a number of weapons that would rival Borderlands, and multiple skill trees to build out your perfect character.

That said, it is the least multi-player MMO that I have ever heard of.  The grouping option is sloppy at best,

Hey, I see you over there. Wish we could interact.

as we are constantly booted from our group for no apparent reason.  And the group questing is also confusing.  If one character has already completed the mission, they often can't see everything going on, and their partner will freeze and disappear during cutscenes or to fight bosses that are no longer available to you.  There are clans, but we have unsuccessfully joined a couple and there doesn't seem to be much benefit to being in them.  Although that might just be because we haven't found a great, active one yet.

The world map is large, but the quests are extremely repetitive.  I hope you like ranchers, because you're going to be saving the same few groups of them day in and day out.  Yes, it is a reputation daily quest, but there are story lines and side missions that have you doing the same thing over and over too.  And the game is notoriously bad for having you travel 100 meters to pick up a quest, then 200 meters to get the next piece of information, 150 meters to kill 3 guys...etcetc..  It gets old quick.  At least there is fast travel, and the vehicles (while easily stopped on any small barrier) are super fun and quick to drive.

Finally, the weapons.  There are approximately 80 gazillion to choose from.  There are all of your favorite types. Prefer pistols? Snipers? Shotties?  We've got it all.  And on top of that, there are 4 or 5 different variations.  Sawed-off shotguns, pump action, combat...  And you are constantly getting loot.  New and amazing things to shoot.  And mods to make them even better!  But heaven help you if you can manage all of this with the awkward menus, impossible to compare weapon lists, and constant juggling of those mods.  It's fun, but good luck.  I find myself keeping my old trusty weapons and mostly scrapping or selling everything else.

Now you may be wondering why we're playing if it's just got so many hiccups.  Why?  Why are we pouring hours and hours into leveling up our guns and characters and searching Paradise for the random information stash?  Because it is really fun.  Even though the game has its issues, it is still a blast.  And remember when I said the price point was embarrassingly low soon out of the gate? That is a glaring hint to you, readers.  If you haven't picked up this game, go get it.  The more of us who play, the more fun it will be.

The Secret World Developers Give Intimate Demo

A giant display in the middle of the convention room floor advertised a game, The Secret World.  There was a barely noticeable black curtain that allowed convention goers inside to three rows of seats and a giant screen.  In there were two Australian men, developers of the game, talking about making and playing the game.  Here is what I learned.

The Secret World is an MMORPG.  Its based in real time but has a lot of "old world" elements.  Characters have modern clothes and use current language and diction.  The game has secret government agencies and exploring buildings and sewers.  They also implied that there may be some abilities to use or interact with helicopters at some point in the game.  But they wouldn't say more, they just smiled and said "no spoilers" over and over.  All of us in the audience could tell they were dying to tell us something but they managed to restrain.

The "old world" elements refer to some of the other skills that players have.  There are varying levels of magic and skills that are obviously not conducive to modern times.  They fall more in line with that sort of alternate reality medieval time that is seen in Oblivion.  Spells like fireballs and electricity are available but will naturally upgrade as the player upgrades. 

The developers repeated several times that "there are no classes or ranks".  Players will not be locked into or out of special abilites based on classes.  However, they didn't explain the factions.  There was a huge display of computers where convention attendees could take a quiz.  The answers of the quizzes determined if the player will be in the Templars, the Illuminati, or the Dragons.  I answered questions in a way that leaned towards knowledge and peaceful advancement which resulted in me being a Dragon.  The characters are not actual dragons, its supposed to be modern times, and they claim there are no classes.  So these factions and their significance in the game remains unexplained.

They were also really excited about the system they established for teaching players the games.  Each skill is taught and utilized through an area.  Mini bosses must be beaten before players can move on in the game and learn the next skill.  They focused on not only learning spells or skills, but making sure that players are able to combine them effectively as the progress.

The game looks like a lot of fun.  The style is not particularly new but the story line sounds intriguing and complex.  Even with the convention center's crappy WiFi, the gameplay still looked smooth as they tapped into their servers.  This game will definitely be one to check out in the future. 

Also, are you following us on Twitter ?  I have a ton of swag to bring back and give away.  Plus you don't want to miss out on any PAX tidbits and info.  @achievos