I didn’t spend much time in Diablo 3 or World of Warcraft over the weekend. In fact I did almost no gaming whatsoever. Obviously I spent some time working on the website and the change should be rather obvious.
I upgraded the site layout to a cleaner more efficient theme. This change will allow me to have a bit more control of things behind the scenes. There have also been some minor changes to the way content is being presented as well.
As you can see there are still three posts on the main page but there are now only excerpts of each so you won’t have to scroll as much. It might take some getting used to but in the end it will be better for the blog. Most of the previous changes to the blog were merely cosmetic in nature; the changes over the weekend are functional as well.
In the middle of last week I received an E-mail from Trion saying that they gave me a free month of play time in Rift. I have been un-subscribed for a few months so this was a bit of surprise. Just for giggles, on Saturday I logged into Rift to say howdy to some old friends. All I can say is the server felt like a wasteland. Even though it was relatively early in the morning it was still dead. SWTOR has really put a hurting on Rift.
Are any of you playing SWTOR? I haven’t really looked into the game and know almost nothing about it. If you are playing drop a note in the comment section and let us know what you think. I would be interested in hearing your opinion of the game. I don’t plan on buying it so your information would help a bunch.
I do not have access to the Diablo Beta and I’ve already seen everything there is to see in the 4.3 patch. So … I’m downloading SWTOR now.
Always one looking for an excuse, I used this blog as a reason to purchase SWTOR this morning. I too, know absolutely nothing about the game. With that said, here is what I can report on so far:
The purchase. I was a little taken aback by the cost, $59.99 or $79.99 for digital copies and yes, a whopping $149.99 for the “Collector’s Edition” physical store copy. After a little research, I found the $79.99 came with what I believe to be an equivalent “mount” and therefore granted myself the upgrade through the early Christmas present excuse.
The download. Although my internet connection is not as fast as past providers, it still moves along at a pretty good pace. After dropping $80.00 on the game, I was eager to check it out. After registering, loading the serial number, and going through the steps necessary to setup my account, I was pleased with my ~2mb/sec download. 10 minutes, 30, an hour … what I wasn’t prepared for (goes with my lack of patience) was a 20GB download. Even at ~2mb/sec you are looking at around 3 hrs for download. While the entire installation process went extremely smooth I just wish it would have went faster.
Game setup: Server choice is nice because it lists westcoast/eastcoast, along with your preference of PvE/PvP. There are two factions, each with their own races with four character classes to choose from. The graphics overall are much more detailed that WoW, but a little lower than Rift.
Gameplay: As of now I am a level 3 Judi Consular. Overall movement and initial start of the game is intuitive with a few well placed help screens. The interface is extremely smooth, which is probably my number one complaint with previous games I have tried. The biggest thing you notice up front is the interactions with the NPCs for your quests: You verbally speak back/forth and have MANDATORY INTERACTIVE CHOICES that, from what I understand at this point, will actually impact your longterm gameplay. How? Certain choices grant you either “Light” or “Dark” points, at least for my character, depending on choices you make through your NPC interaction. Those points add up and at certain levels allow you to gain specific skills (or something) based on how you’ve developed your character. This is outside the normal training skills all classes would get through leveling.
Overall: I have found my leveling (all 3 of them) to be extremely fun. It is easy to learn, very different in class roles, and has a unique perspective by utilizing a classic movie that everyone can relate to. The face I SMOKED a level 3 (as a level 2) when he challanged me to my first duel did not exactly hurt my gameplay experience either! I am eager to get back. Who knows, maybe some of you will venture into it as well. May the force be with you!
@ Kik – Once again I seem to bear the brunt of your wayward purchases! Thanks for the mini write up. Now it has me wondering if I am missing something by skipping SWTOR.
The world may never know.