Too Themepark

Crazy Fox-Wolf-Thingy

ARCHEAGE 2014-05-12 16-43-17-70 I find myself enjoying ArcheAge far more than I had really expected to.  I have not really even gotten to the “open world” aspect of the game, but I find the questing and combat systems really enjoyable.  At some point I managed to pick up the animal to the side of me that is some sort of a fox-wolf-thingy.  I am not sure if it was from a quest or if I looted it from a mob, but in any case I have a pet now.  My friend Errn informed me that this is my battle pet, but I had reasoned that much by noticing that it was fighting for other players.  Thing is… when I got it, it was already like level 30.  This means the thing probably kicks more ass than I do to be honest.  One of the weird things about the game is that you can either have a mount or a pet out, but not both.

As a result I tend to run around with my battle pet out, and then use the glider poorly to manage to get around quickly.  I really have no clue what I am doing when it comes to the glider.  No matter how I try and control the thing, it seems like I am just falling through the air gracefully.  I’ve watched various streamers be able to control where they want it to go, and I am completely in awe of their skill.  Right now the closest I can get is to hover over the area I want to go and then fold up the glider by hitting R, causing me to plummet through the air.  Obviously this works grand if you are close to the ground, but not so much when you have leapt off of a huge cliff with it.  In the later case, I end up cursing the screen as I seem to flail around in midair on the glider.

I feel bad that I have almost entirely ignored anything going on with any of the quests.  Since all of the cinematic are in Korean still I just end up skipping thing, which has lead me to feel like the quest dialog itself is completely meaningless as well.  So I have zero clue what is going on in the world other than I am helping a series of villages defend against all sorts of things, and I am perfectly fine with that.  The more killing I get to do in the course of the leveling the better, and right now I am really enjoying the “Over Achieve” and “Hidden Quest” options gained by going on a murderous rampage.  While I seem to be swapping out gear pretty frequently, it doesn’t really feel like I am progressing my character along that easily.  I’ve yet to figure out the rhyme or reason behind getting skill points, but I could really use a lot more of them.

Too Themepark

WildStar64 2014-05-12 22-29-17-945 Firstly I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression from this title.  I love Themepark MMOs, for what they give me…  a carefully curated trip through an interesting world.  I find that I enjoy both Sandbox and Themepark MMOs equally, at least generally speaking.  However there is just something about Wildstar that maybe takes it a step too far.  While playing this game, I literally feel like I am at Six Flags with so many things fighting desperately for my attention.  When I walk into an area that I just explored and hear the “Challenge!” sounder it reminds me too much of a midway barker trying to get my attention.  I’ve compared the visuals of the game to the Vegas Strip before, but really it reminds me a lot more of an actual real world Themepark.  Everything is bright and polished to a shine, with every single inch of space covered with something designed to get my eye to look there.  The above screenshot is of one of the rare sparse moments, and when the game is like this… I actually enjoy it.  However I had to wait for a few minutes to take this shot for various mobs and players to move out of the way.

I am basically in the same place I have been for a couple of months.  I recorded the above video on March 13th and I have had zero forward momentum since then.  I’ve gotten on each beta weekend so far to play for a bit, but just found the overall experience lacking.  There is a lot about the game that I think I would like, but something just doesn’t sit right with me each time I sit down to play it.  The last game I felt this conflicted about was Guild Wars 2, and the end result of that experience is a game that even though I have free access to play it… I never have any desire to do so.  With Wildstar I put in my pre-order in part to lock in my goodies for if I ever decided that I DID want to play it.  Each day I consider cancelling it, because I am just not “feeling” this title.  It isn’t the setting or the races or the goofy character models, but something more deeply set into the game itself.  The funny thing is, I have been back playing Star Wars: The Old Republic and enjoying the hell out of it…  but Wildstar that is a very similar experience just feels really odd to me.  Time will tell if I shun the internet zeitgeist and sit out of this one.

Blue Water Land

Screenshot_20140513_061222 I am still working my way through Coldharbor in Elder Scrolls Online, and last night I hit 48.  The quests out here feel more epic than the ones leading up to them, in part because everything in Coldharbor seems to be absolutely dripping in lore.  One of my joys in any Elder Scrolls title has been killing the various Daedra, and here I have an entire zone full of almost nothing but them.  What is interesting is finding all of the inhabitants of the zone that have been tricked into the service of Molag Bal in one fashion or another.  Last night I had a really cool moment where I helped out some Argonians and their Hist tree, and another where I gained the trust of a feral pack of Bosmer.  This section of the game feels very much like Mass Effect 3, where I am wandering around this zone building an army to fight the daedric prince.

I am trying to decide if I am going to hold out with my level 44 gear until I ding 50.  I have a really good daedric shield that just dropped, as well as my prismatic weapon that I am unlikely to replace until I leave cold harbor.  Wondering if I can limp along until 50 and then craft an entire set of nice gear then.  As of the close of the night I managed to make it roughly halfway to 49, and I still have large swaths of Coldharbor that have been completely unexplored.  Still very much loving the experience of the game, but I am definitely finding that I need breaks from playing it.  The gameplay towards the end of the game gets really intense, and if I am not feeling 100% I end up taking a lot of un-needed deaths.  As a result I have been perforating my long play sessions with trips into ArcheAge, SWTOR and now a little bit of Wildstar.  So far I really seem to be enjoying this mix.

#ESO #ElderScrollsOnline #ArcheAge #WildStar #Themepark

5 thoughts on “Too Themepark”

  1. My gear strategy while leveling was to craft myself a new set on the 10’s and on the 6’s. This enabled me to always be able to put on the latest white vendor enchants but not be replacing the whole suit every 2 levels.

    When I got to 46, though, I didn’t have any of the 46-49 material, though. So I just kept my level 40 set until I got to 48, at which point I’d managed to find enough mats to craft my set then.

    Of course then I hit VR1 and didn’t have materials for that either. . . . Fortunately I know all the starter zones well and was able to harvest up enough quickly so I’m in a complete VR1 set now. I’ve be happy to make a suit of level 46 or 48 stuff for you if you want. I’ve got plenty of mats.

    And I’m with you on keeping the Pristmatic weapon until you leave Coldharbour — it’s REALLY awesome in there. I just got mine on my melee sorcerer last night. Too bad I’m only 39 and can’t use it for another 4 levels yet. I got it at 38, so I’m already 20% of the way there. . .

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