The developers at Trion never cease to amaze me.  I wonder if they get any sleep at all.  Nearly flawless launch.  Monthly updates and new content.  Regular bug fixes.  And now, they had time to create an addon system??

I hope it provides a lot of ‘quality of life’ improvements, without going overboard and making the game too easy.  I remember some addons in World of Warcraft that automated far too much and made parts of the game rather trivial.

Here is a short and simple guide (by Deathfairy in the official Rift forums) to help you get geared for expert dungeons.  This guide for mages by Bluedots provides some detailed information.  Although it’s aimed towards mages, a lot of the information is appropriate for other callings.

It is surprisingly easy to buy the gear you need to qualify for T1 experts from the Auction House.  In many cases, it’s even possible to buy the necessary gear to qualify for T2 experts with a little effort.  Don’t forget to upgrade your runes and planar focus (buy the six slot for 7500 planarite).  That can make a huge difference.

I recommend against buying the level 50 mount (125 platinum!) until you are geared for T1 expert dungeons or have a steady income.  If you haven’t spent the 35 platinum to buy the level 40 mount, buying the level 40 PvP mount is another option.  It costs around 14,000 favor.

I highly recommend looking at some expert dungeon guides to avoid wiping your party.  This is especially important if you are the tank.  Ciderhelm and Rift Junkies have a lot of great guides (and detailed videos).

I play mostly on a PvP server.  Zone invasions can be pure madness.  Usually, both factions work together.  Sometimes, fights break out, resulting in crazy PvP battles involving masses of people.  Once the final invasion boss is dead, most of the time, a huge battle erupts.  It’s a lot of fun.

Trion (the developers) did a great job designing and creating the dynamic content for Rift.

My second favorite thing about Rift is the freedom to customize your own character.  The class/role system is extremely flexible and I love it.  In addition, each class can play different roles depending on the build (tank, dps, healer, support) and it only takes 2 seconds to swap.  It adds so much depth and flexibility.  If your group needs a tank or a healer, I can easily swap roles and fill the position.  Unlike other games with a lot of flexibility (i.e. Champions Online), respecs are very cheap.

It’s now been 3 months since Rift launched.  I think Trion can safely pat themselves on the back for a job well done.  The launch has been a huge success.  Unlike other triple-A MMORPG’s released in the past few years (like Age of Conan and Warhammer Online), Rift seems to be doing a good job holding on to their subscribers and attracting new gamers.  After a few months, Rift still has more than enough depth and content for most gamers.  And they are adding more at a breakneck speed, with monthly content patches.

To an MMORPG gamer, I wholeheartedly recommend Rift with very few reservations.  Rift does stick to a lot of tried and true MMORPG conventions like questing, the basic combat system and instanced PvP battlegrounds.  But the important thing is that it does it very well…polished and relatively bug-free, which is extremely rare for such a new game.  The major innovation, the dynamic content, makes a very real and tangible difference to the standard MMORPG gameplay.

As always, I’m alt-crazy.  I’m currently playing a 50 Defiant Warrior (Tank & DPS), 50 Guardian Cleric (Healer, DPS & Support), 30 Defiant Rogue and 30 Guardian Mage spread over 2 servers.  50 is the level cap.  Yes, it’s kinda interesting playing both factions on the same server, especially when it’s a PvP server.  I’m gearing up in the endgame expert dungeons, running with guildies or using the random LFG dungeon finder.  I’m having a great time.

For people looking to get into Rift, I highly recommend picking a populated server.  There is a huge difference between playing on a high versus low population server.  Check out Rift Shard Watch for some basic population information to help you pick a server.

The problem is that very few studies have been done that show whether e-cigarettes are safe or not.  The product is too new and it’s not backed by big money like a tobacco or a pharmaceutical company.  Unfortunately, this means that far too many people are speaking about e-cigarettes without adequate knowledge.  In fact, some groups are lying and misrepresenting shoddy information.

1.  Without any doubt, e-cigarettes are a far safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes.

There is no doctor or engineer in the world who will disagree, once they understand the device.  The basic science behind e-cigarettes is sound and very simple.

2.  Tobacco cigarettes cause cancer.  We all know this as a fact.

3.  Switching from tobacco to e-cigarettes will significantly improve your health.

Some people may debate, but honestly, I think this is a fact, based on the science.

Maybe there hasn’t been any long term studies done on the impact of e-cigarettes, but I have no doubt in my mind that e-cigarettes are a far healthier alternative to tobacco.

It is better to completely avoid nicotine, but as long as you are going to use it, don’t smoke tobacco.  Use an e-cigarette.

4.  E-cigarettes are not marketed towards kids.

This is one the stupidest arguments I’ve seen.  Just because nicotine juice for e-cigarettes comes in various flavors does not mean that it’s made for kids.  Adults appreciate different tastes as well.

I have yet to see a single advertisement that markets this device towards kids.  In fact, the device itself is very anti-kid.  It is expensive and can be fairly complicated to use.  If you shop around, you can start vaping for around $30, but realistically, it’s going to cost far more than that.

In comparison, it is cheap and easy for kids to buy and smoke tobacco.

Kids don’t start smoking for the nicotine.  They smoke to be ‘cool’ and ‘rebellious’.  Why in the world would a teenager use an e-cigarette?

5.  E-cigarettes are a great way to quit smoking tobacco.

In the US, e-cigarette retailers and manufacturers don’t talk about the health benefits because they don’t want the FDA to regulate the product.  But the reality is that a huge percentage of people who switch to e-cigarettes quit smoking tobacco.  I have heard hundreds of people say that the day they starting vaping, they quit tobacco.  That includes me.  The day I got my first e-cigarette in the mail, I completely quit smoking tobacco.

That is simply amazing.  We all know that quitting smoking is incredibly hard.  The smoking cessation industry involves an incredible amount of money because it is so difficult to quit smoking.  Yet, e-cigarettes is a product that is safe (well, far safer than tobacco) and actually works.

As a result, everyone who is currently making money off worthless smoking cessation products are going to work their asses off to stop the sale of e-cigarettes.  Pharmaceutical companies care about making money.

6.  The success of e-cigarettes will cost many companies and the government a huge amount of money.

This is the number one problem facing the e-cigarette.  Currently, the US government, Big Tobacco and pharmaceutical companies make a ridiculous amount of money off the tobacco industry.  Billions of dollars.  Countless people depend on tobacco for their jobs.

These people don’t want e-cigarettes to be successful.  They don’t care that millions of people die because of tobacco related cancer.  They care about the money and their jobs.

For years, I always felt a twinge of regret whenever I perused various rankings of the best PC games (like Metacritic).  After so many years, HL2 is still sitting pretty at the very top of the Metacritic PC game rankings.  Incredible.

I’ve had HL2 installed on my computer for the past four or five years!  It became part of my new computer routine to install Steam and automatically download HL2.  As a self-proclaimed hardcore gamer, I felt I owed it to myself to finish HL2 at some point in my life.  I would try to play it every couple months or so, but invariably the painful motion sickness would prevent me from playing for more than 15 minutes at a time.  The nausea and headaches were so bad that I had to lie down and close my eyes for a long time before I felt human again.

I recently installed my brand new XFX Radeon 5850 (beautiful card, by the way).  I was having fun going through my library of PC games and checking them out at the highest visual settings.  When I got to HL2, I started maxing out the visual settings when I saw that Field of View (FOV) was a tweakable setting in the options.  By default, the FOV is 75, so I raised it to 90.

My motion sickness went away!  Some fast moving sequences and areas with small corridors did cause some minor headaches, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle.  I couldn’t believe that such a small change made a huge difference.

The FOV setting might be the reason why some games make me sick, while others are perfectly fine.  I always thought it was strange that there were a small number of FPS and driving games that didn’t make me sick.  Maybe these particular games had a FOV setting that didn’t trigger my motion sickness?

I don’t have the slightest explanation for why a small change to the field of view would mean the difference between throwing up and having fun.  But I’m finally hopeful that I can play some of those action games that I’ve been drooling over for so long.  Bioshock!  Borderlands!  Call of Duty!  I hope I can tweak the FOV in those games as well.

I bet everyone who was unfortunate enough to be teamed with me probably hated my guts.  It’s like my poor character was made of glass.  I couldn’t seem to do anything without getting gunned down (or run down by a car or blown to bits by grenades).

While this was a somewhat frustrating experience, I have to admit that APB was a lot of fun.  I had a small adrenaline rush going the entire time because the APB gaming experience is an endless stream of PvP missions where you and your team is pitted against another team (hopefully of equal number and ability, although sometimes mismatches do happen).

I’ve spent a handful of hours in the APB world as part of their ‘Key to the City’ beta event.  I think I had 5 kills and maybe 50 deaths.  It was a really, really sad ratio.

I simply could not compete against people who had logged hundreds, if not thousands, of hours playing action shooters.  I run around like a headless chicken, spray bullets at anything that twitches.  I have a vague idea of using cover to protect my poor defenseless body, but that’s about the depth of my tactical ability.  I’ve come to the realization that I have trouble moving and shooting.  That’s a rather important skill to have in these types of games.

Everything I’ve heard about APB is true.  The game looks and feels great.  Customization is ridiculously awesome.  PvP is a lot of fun and very compelling…for a short time.  There are only a handful of missions and it quickly becomes repetitive.  The game itself is nicely polished and feels like a real commercial game.  Each instance can only hold up to 100 people (50 per side).

The core gameplay is a lot of fun.  Driving around the city as a criminal or enforcer feels right.  Your teammates can all jump into the same car, run over pedestrians and shoot their guns out the windows.  If your enemy sprays enough bullets at your car, it explodes.  Gun fights are exciting and can last for a while if everyone is playing turtle, or can be over in a few seconds.

The problem is that, after a few hours, you soon realize you are doing the same things over and over.  Get mission, head to checkpoint, fight over checkpoint, repeat.  It doesn’t matter what the mission is supposed to be.  They all basically boil down to the same thing.

While the combat is fun, especially since it’s usually a team vs team setup, it’s not particularly deep.  Maybe I’m just too sucky to understand the depth, but it seemed pretty straightforward to me.

As a result, APB is most definitely a casual game.  It’s not a game for a typical MMO’er who wants to spend long stretches of time.  The combat is player skill based.  If you suck at action games (like me!), you will suck at this game.  There is a nice social aspect to this game that focuses on the great customization options, but I’m not really sure how long that can keep a person’s attention.

The payment plan reflects the more casual nature of the game.  To play APB, you prepay by the hour.  More hardcore fans can pay a monthly rate (I think it’s $10).  It’s a great game for someone who has a busy life or already has a primary MMORPG and wants some team based PvP fun with an MMORPG twist.

APB is really not an MMORPG.  It’s a third person online shooter with some MMORPG elements.  Unfortunately, I think gamers looking for a competitive shooter are better off playing games like Call of Duty or Halo.  Gamers looking for an MMORPG are better off playing one of the many real MMORPG’s.  It’ll be interesting to see how well APB sells and whether they can maintain a solid player base.

I dug through my storage closet and pulled out a huge box filled with loads of old DVD’s (and CD’s!) of MMO’s I had played so long ago.  I shuffled through them, but nothing really jumped out at me.  Unfortunately, most of them were dying or I had stopped playing for one good reason or another.

I was tired of dealing with half-assed MMO’s with huge content gaps, bug ridden gameplay, broken promises from the developers and unstable player populations.  The last dozen or so MMO’s I had played were all brand new.  I played them during beta or at launch.  We all know just how successful most of the major launches have been over the past few years (all disappointing).

I wanted a polished gaming experience that provided a full range of content and supported a large stable population.  In the MMO genre, there are only a few games that fit that simple criteria.  Other than EVE Online, all of them are fantasy MMORPG’s.  Out of these fantasy MMORPG’s, most of them are basically Everquest clones.

I probably would have picked Guild Wars, but I had spent hundred hours playing GW’s several months ago.  So that was out.  I’m still not sold on EVE Online.  My last couple attempts at playing EVE were both huge flops.

As long as I’m going to play an Everquest clone, why not play the best one?  World of Warcraft.

The last time I had played WoW was several years ago.  I hated the graphical style then and I hate it now, but that is my only complaint.  The folks at Blizzard really are amazing developers.

Many people complain about the loads of immature gamers playing WoW.  That’s true enough, but you can find plenty of older and very mature gamers playing WoW as well.  WoW has a full spectrum of gamers.  It doesn’t cater to only one subgroup of the gaming population.

It has tons of content, both during leveling and the endgame.  PvP is pretty solid and Blizzard has had years to try to balance the game.  It is practically bug-free which is incredible for a game of this magnitude.  I love the addons.  The gameplay itself is rock solid.  There is a wealth of knowledge online and an endless list of forums and blogs where you can discuss the game as much as you want.

My highest level character is level 63.  I quit playing shortly after the Burning Crusade was released.  So there is plenty I haven’t seen yet, including most of the endgame.

I think the main reason why I haven’t played WoW is because I was being a bit of an MMO snob or a rebel or something stupid like that.  I didn’t want to play the same game as the masses.  WoW had become too popular.  But WoW is popular for a very good reason.  It really is one of the best MMORPG’s.

So I downloaded the game from the Blizzard website (all 8 gigabytes) and resubscribed.  I’ve been playing WoW for the past couple days and it’s been good.  Not great, since the low level gameplay in WoW is rather slow and there aren’t many players in the low level zones (I rolled a new paladin).  It’s nice to play an MMORPG again.

Bittorrent and other piracy networks are going be lighting up like crazy.  Both the Xbox 360 and PC versions have been leaked 5 days or so before the official launch date.

Bioware is so screwed.  ME2 is definitely going to be one of the most pirated games this year.

Note to pirates…BUY THE GAME!  SUPPORT BIOWARE.  They are one of the best development houses and deserve to be compensated for putting a ridiculous amount of effort into creating their games.  They don’t cut corners like so many other developers do and they make amazing games.

Anyways…

I’m playing ME2 right now!  It’s awesome.  It feels and plays like a sequel to ME1, except it somehow feels more cinematic and grander.  The game looks and runs perfectly on my computer (Max’ed out settings.  My Radeon 5770 is giving me a solid 60fps, which seems to be the max framerate.)

Bioware recruited several Hollywood actors for the voice parts, which is actually a bit jarring for me.  One of the companions is voiced by the actress playing Sarah in the TV show Chuck.  I love that show, so I’m having a hard time adjusting to her new character, especially with the Australian accent.  She has a really distinctive voice.  Bioware even make her character look a little like the actress.

A negative so far is that the combat feels looser and faster paced than ME1.  I’m having trouble aiming and using my special abilities effectively.  Everything seems to die really quickly and my character gets hurt faster.  Maybe this is just because I’m still only a couple hours into the game.

As Bioware promised, ME2 does read your old ME1 save files and it does seem to have an impact on the storyline continuity.  I fiddled around with it a little bit by downloading a couple random ME1 save files from the Bioware forums.  In my current game, I started from scratch and the game just fills in the necessary blanks, so it’s not a problem.  I’m not sure if you get any bonuses.  I’ll have to go rooting around my archives to see if I can find my own ME1 save files.

I’m moving to my new house in two days, so I have to pack up my computer in a few hours!  So sad.  I can’t keep playing ME2 for much longer right now.

(Yes, I will buy the game!!  I couldn’t resist playing it a few days early.)

I’m not alone in feeling this way.  I would wager that millions of players feel exactly the way that I do. It’s human nature.  If you spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing one activity, you will get tired and bored of it.  The magic is gone.

The huge failures of the past few years (Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Tabula Rasa, etc.) was probably caused in large part by disappointed and jaded players.  Players jump from game to game looking for something exciting to grab their attention, but after a month or two, the novelty wears thin and the only thing remaining is the infamous MMO grind.

Why?

There is no real depth to MMO’s.  Very little skill is required.

In MMO’s, hard work is rewarded…not skill.  To reach the highest peaks in an MMO, all you have to do is invest the time.

When you achieve a goal in an MMO, like leveling up or obtaining loot, you feel a sense of accomplishment for the time invested.  This is not the same as the sense of accomplishment you feel for achieving something skill based.

In comparision, let’s take a look at two other hugely popular genres of online games: first-person shooters and real time strategy games.  For both FPS’s and RTS’s, skill is rewarded, not hard work.  You can spend thousands of hours playing Call of Duty or Warcraft 3, but if you aren’t any good at playing these games, you will never achieve anything.

If you suck at FPS’s or RTS’s, you will constantly lose to other players.  If you suck at MMO’s, it’s doesn’t really matter.  You can die over and over again, but as long as you have the patience to keep trying, you will eventually succeed.

Skill based achievement is ultimately more rewarding than work based achievement.

Let’s take a look at the core gameplay in an MMO: Combat.  Pick a target and hit the same sequence of keystrokes.  For many combat encounters, that’s about the depth of gameplay involved.  In comparison, combat in FPS’s or RTS’s is far more involved.  Let’s take the analogy further and compare it to real life combat.  There are countless people in the world that devote their entire lives to learning combat skills.

Combat in an MMO is boring, stupid and repetitive.  No skill is required.  There is little sense of achievement for killing something.  The same holds true for practically every aspect of MMO gameplay, like crafting, gathering and exploring.

I am oversimplifying it a little bit.  You do need a minimal level of skill and a reasonable online social ability to find and join a like minded group of players.  Nothing more is necessary to excel in an MMO.  The primary attributes for MMO success are patience and a lot of free time.

Veteran MMO players looking for something more usually look to PvP or top tier raiding to find some sense of satisfaction.  To be a top PvP’er, you need a lot of knowledge about the game and a reasonably good level of skill.  Top tier raiding is primarily an exercise of organizing a big group of people together to achieve the same goal.  Even PvP and raiding eventually lose their appeal.

Unfortunately, in the current MMO market, innovation seems to be dying.  It is too costly to create a new MMO and even if millions of dollars are invested, there are no guarantees.  Game publishers and developers are largely unwilling to take risks.  As a result, we get dozens of cookie cutter MMO’s.  Occasionally, there are little evolutionary advances in gameplay, but it’s not enough.

The Good

Cryptic drew heavily from their Champions Online and City of Heroes background to create this game.  As a result, they were able to create STO at record speed and incorporate a lot of time tested code and design.  Some players have noted that sometimes STO feels like Champions Online in space.

Gameplay is split into two major aspects; avatar based and ship based.  This fits the Star Trek theme where there are away teams that explore planets and ship combat.  Avatar based combat is mostly standard MMO fare.  The primary difference is that you are almost never alone.  Other than the introductory missions, every mission seems to be team based composed of your own NPC bridge officers and/or other players.  Your NPC bridge officers are pets with limited controls.

Whenever you enter an instance to do a mission, the game always tries to team you up with other players.  This is true for both avatar and ship based missions.  This is a great feature to promote team play.

Unlike standard MMO quests, most missions in STO are multipart affairs.  It’s clear that Cryptic tried to focus on story by making every away team mission into something more complicated than the usual kill ten rats or delivery quests.  This is a nice change from the norm, but I fear that it might mean that Cryptic will be slower at creating new content for the game.

Ship based combat is probably the biggest highlight in the game for me.  You have to juggle your shields, energy levels, your movement (speed and direction) and your attacks all at the same time.  If you aren’t paying attention, it’s quite possible to become overwhelmed very quickly.

One example of how ship based combat is interesting is the management of 4 different shields (front, right, left, rear).  As long as your shields are up, your ship is safe from high damaging attacks.  As a result, space combat is a constant back and forth where you are trying to attack the same shield to break it down, while protecting your own shields.  To protect your shield, you can boost power to a specific shield to raise the regeneration rate, use a special engineering power or consumable or simply turn your ship in another direction.  In addition, the basic starter ship has two lasers, one in the front and rear.  So to be the most effective, you want to broadside your target so both of your lasers can attack the same target.  The entire time, you have to juggle your power input into your offense, defense, movement and auxiliary functions.  When facing multiple enemies, combat can become really hectic.

Avatar ground based combat benefits from the addition of the shield mechanic as well, to a lesser degree.  Everyone has a shield and a health bar.  Both are healed by different classes.  There are no directional shields, but if you attack from the side or rear, you get a flanking bonus which results in significantly more damage.

Managing your bridge officers is a nice addition to the leveling process.  You have to manage their gear as well as leveling them up and allocating skill points.  Right now, I am somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer number of options.  Leveling up in STO is not as straightforward as it is in other games and that is a good thing for the games longevity.

As you might expect from a Cryptic game, both your avatar and your ship are highly customizable.  This is a big selling point for Cryptic and I’m sure that Cryptic will include more costume pieces as game rewards or purchasable items from their microtransaction shore.

STO runs great on my gaming rig.  I’m playing at 1920×1200 with completely max’ed out settings and getting 50+ fps in most areas.  Most people should be able to run STO without too many issues.  Network lag is currently an issue in some areas, but since this is beta, the lag is excusable for now.

In terms of graphics, STO is passable.  It’s not ugly, but, overall, it’s not particularly noteworthy either.  Considering I’m running at maximum settings, I did expect more.  The backdrop in outer space can look quite breathtaking at times.

The Bad

STO is heavily instanced.  It’s as bad as Guild Wars.  Everything is instanced.  The heavy instancing can sometimes make STO feel like a single player game and this is a real problem.  If I want to play a single player game, there are hundreds of better games where I can spend my limited time and money.

For many gamers, their primary problem with Champions Online was the instancing.  STO is far worse.  This is an issue for MMO gamers who love big expansive worlds to explore.  Missions are instanced for solo or team gameplay.  Common areas like the primary Earth starbase has multiple instances with a maximum cap on the population (similar to Champions Online).  The maximum population in the primary Earth starbase seems very low, which makes STO feel even less like an MMO.

Moving between star systems is rather strange as well.  You warp from your current star system into a strange meta-area called Sector Space, which is like a miniature version of the galaxy.  In this instance, you pick another star system and your ship flies towards the destination until it’s close enough to zone in.  Sector Space doesn’t look like anything real, so it’s rather jarring.  I don’t understand the purpose of this meta-area.

Because of the constant instancing, there are a lot of load screens.  I didn’t mind it all that much, but on slower machines, I can see it being a major annoyance.

On the plus side, Cryptic learned some lessons from the instancing in Champions Online.  Chat channels span multiple instances in STO and it’s also much easier to find, create and join teams.  This does go a long way towards minimizing the immersion breaking nature of having so many instances, but it’s not a perfect solution.

The ground based combat currently feels a bit rough.  Gunplay feels okay, but melee attacks don’t feel right.  It’s hard to explain the problem.  I suppose for an MMO, this is typical, but for a game released in 2010, I expected more.  After playing so many single player games recently, the combat in STO is really clunky by comparison.

I had some stability issues with STO as well.  STO managed to hard freeze my computer on multiple occasions, forcing me to reboot.  Since I’m running Windows 7, being forced to reboot is a big deal.  I’m sure stability issues will get ironed out in time, but it’s worth noting.

I haven’t played enough to experience much of the crafting or PvP, so I’ll reserve judgment on them until a later time.

Another issue is that Cryptic currently only allows TWO characters per account.  I’m sure we’ll be able to buy more from the Cryptic store, but TWO is ridiculously low.  I can understand the need for Cryptic to build in more ways for them to make money, especially in this horrible economy, but having only two slots is extremely restrictive.

Conclusion

My beta experience so far is a mixed bag.  I have a feeling that gamers are going to have wildly differing opinions of STO.  Some will love it.  Some will absolutely hate it.

As long as Cryptic doesn’t botch the launch, STO will probably do fine in terms of sales and subscriptions.  After the MMO debacles of the last couple years, everyone’s expectations have bottomed out.  The hype for STO is lower than I would expect for a Star Trek MMO and that is probably a good thing.  A lot of gamers are skeptical of a new Star Trek game and a new Cryptic game.  They are waiting around to see how well the game performs once it launches before making any commitments.

I am having fun right now, but based on Cryptic’s other games, my primary worry about STO is the longevity.  Does it have enough content and depth to keep players around for more than a month or two?  I don’t know.

As a final note, this post is my first impressions of the limited time I’ve spent playing the closed and open betas.  There could be some major inaccuracies (which I will correct), but overall, this post is indicative of how I feel about the game right now.

Surprisingly, I’m having fun!  But…

Haha, that’s about all I’m going to say right now.  I’ll write more in a few days once open beta starts and I delve deeper into the game.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sto+adarons&search_type=&aq=f

There are videos of both starship and avatar gameplay.  They look somewhat generic (spaceships and people shooting lasers), but until I actually play the game, it’s hard to tell whether it’s going to be a fun experience.  It has potential, but I refuse to buy into any pre-release hype.

I have to admit that I’m not particularly excited about the imminent release of STO on February 2nd.  The game is currently in closed beta and open beta is right around the corner (January 12th).

Once I get into the beta (should be very soon), I’ll post some first impressions.

There are a lot of mixed opinions of STO, ranging from blind fanboyism to blind hatred.  I did have a lot of fun playing Cryptic’s other MMORPG, Champions Online, so I’m hopeful that STO should be entertaining.  But based on CO, I question whether STO will have the depth of gameplay and content to keep subscribers interested for a long time.

Yes, all three are AMD videocards.  AMD recently released their new line of DirectX 11 based GPU’s, the Radeon 5000′s.  Every card is priced competitively and strikes a major blow at nVidia in terms of pricing and performance.  nVidia is now losing to AMD at practically every price point.

I wanted the top notch performance of the Radeon 5850, but no one had it in stock at a price I was willing to pay!  I didn’t want to pay an extra $50 or more over the list price.  In addition, after seeing my last graphics card die an early death, I wanted to buy the card from a company that offered a stellar warranty.  That meant XFX because they offer a double lifetime warranty (if you sell the card, the buyer also gets a lifetime warranty).

After failing for a month to get my hands on a Radeon 5850, I gave in and ordered a Radeon 5770.  I had somewhat low expectations, but when I finally plugged the card into my computer, I was very impressed.  I am quite happy with my new Radeon 5770.

Every game I’ve tried so far runs silky smooth at over 50 frames per second at 1920×1200, maximum settings, 8x anti-aliasing and 16x anisotropic (My CPU is an Intel Core i7 920 overclocked to 3.60ghz).  This includes Dragon Age: Origins, Left4Dead, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Tomb Raider: Underworld and several others.  Left4Dead runs with triple digit framerates.

How can I complain about a videocard that gives me 50+ fps on every game that I’m currently playing?  The Radeon 5770 costs around $165, so I’m not paying a huge premium either.

It is a DirectX 11 card, so it has some future viability.  What really appeals to me is that the Radeon 5770 runs fairly cool and quiet and requires significantly less power than its competition.  Looking an year or two into the future, I should be able to buy another Radeon 5770 for cheap and run the pair in a Crossfire setup.  Two Crossfired Radeon 5770′s are faster than a Radeon 5850.  That is a lot of power…far more than necessary for today’s games.

I still have a pre-order at Amazon.com for the XFX Radeon 5850 at the original list price ($259.99).  I have no idea when Amazon will get them in stock, but I’m thinking about canceling it.  I have no complaints at all about the Radeon 5770.  It does everything I want it to do.  In comparison, the Radeon 5850 is total overkill.

Should you buy the Radeon 5770 or the Radeon 5850?

If a store gets any in stock, the Radeon 5850 sells out immediately.  As a result, the price is far beyond the original list price of $260.  The cheapest online shops like Newegg.com are selling them for $309 and up.  I expect the price will continue to rise, especially with the holiday season just around the corner.

The Radeon 5850 merits such high demand.  Benchmarking shows that it outperforms the Radeon 5770 by 40% to 50%.  That is hugely significant.  The big question is whether you need so much power.  Once a game is running at over 30 frames per second, most people can’t tell the difference.  If it reaches 60 fps and over, the human eye can’t tell any difference.

The Radeon 5770 offers plenty of punch for most of today’s games, excluding the truly ridiculous games like Crysis that have insane system requirements.  At today’s prices, it is nearly half the price of the Radeon 5850.

For most gamers, the Radeon 5770 is a great choice.  It’s not overly expensive and has low heat and power requirements for a performance card.  At 1080p resolutions, it is quite happy with the vast majority of games on the market.

How about the Radeon 4870?

If you have a $150′ish budget and all you care about is performance, the Radeon 4870 is your best choice.  My only issue with the card is that it runs very hot.  That means the fan is probably louder than most and some people have stability issues due to overheating.  Make sure you pick up a model with a tried and true cooling solution.

Another huge allure for me is the Ratchet & Clank series.  It is my absolute favorite platforming/action series and I’ve missed it greatly.  I played every Ratchet & Clank PS2 game a half dozen times.  I’ve been playing a lot of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction since my UPS guy delivered my PS3 yesterday.  I don’t know why I love the furry little guy and his robot sidekick so much, but I can’t get enough of them.

I also installed a couple media streaming programs on my computer.  PS3 Media Server works amazingly well.  It’s simple to set up and use (and it’s free).  I also installed TVersity, which is one of the most popular streaming programs.  In terms of performance, PS3 Media Server seems to be faster than TVersity.  TVersity Pro version isn’t free, but you can download it and use it for as long as you want without paying a cent.  That’s an awful lot of trust in the customers and I wonder how well that’s working out for the TVersity developers.

The only issue I have with both programs is that they have some problems handling .mkv files.  Playback is fine, but if you try to fast forward or rewind, it crashes the streaming server and I have to manually recover and restart the program.  This is a bit of a problem because .mkv is the preferred format for high definition anime and TV shows that get posted online.

I’m looking forward to playing all the PS3 exclusives like the Uncharted series and Metal Gear Solid.  I already filled my Gamefly queue with 21 games!  That’ll keep me busy for a long time.

A couple days ago, I was searching the net and looking for some possible fixes for my poor Xbox 360 Elite.  I also wanted to find out how soon it dies after it starts showing signs of problems.

That’s when I ran into blog postings and short news articles mentioning the ‘Towel Trick’.  If the Xbox is suffering the RRoD hardware failure, people have found that wrapping it completely in a towel and turning it on for 10 minutes can resurrect the system.  For most people, the system returns from the dead for a variable number of hours before dying again.  Typically, if the Towel Trick worked once, it can be reused indefinitely.  There are reports of the Towel Trick permanently fixing Xbox’s.

I figured that I had nothing to lose.  My video problems were getting worse and a system failure was inevitable.

I loaded a graphically extensive game, wrapped my Xbox 360 in a huge blanket, and left it on.  I could hear the fan revving up, even under the thick layer of blanket.  After about 10 minutes, the fan whirred to a stop.  Curious, I looked under the blanket.  My Xbox was showing 4 red lights…the RRoD.  I turned it off, removed the blankets and let it rest for a while.

I was utterly shocked when I turned on the system and it booted into Xbox Live without any problems.  Hopeful, I loaded a game and started playing.

I’ve played about 6 hours since then….no video problems at all!!  (By the way, Tales of Vesperia is a great Japanese RPG.)

It’s so hilarious that a ‘next-generation’ console can be fixed (temporarily?) by wrapping it in a towel.  Reminds me of the ancient days when we used to blow on the bottom of Nintendo cartridges.

My Xbox 360 Elite is showing signs of video failure.  I think it might be the E74 error, which is caused by a problem with the hardware scaler, but it’s too early to tell.  Right now, I’m getting color blotches over the entire screen.  It looks kinda like I’m running a game on a monitor that doesn’t display enough colors.  The game is still playable, since I’m not crashing, but it’s a rather questionable gaming experience.

I specifically bought the Elite version because I wanted to avoid the Red Ring of Death (RROD) issue that was so prevalent.  I even bought it from Costco because at the time, they had a great return policy on electronics.

After a couple years had passed, I was hoping that I had gotten lucky with a solid console.  I guess not.  I suppose compared to a LOT of other gamers, I am lucky.  Many people have gone through multiple Xbox’s.

I ordered another HDMI cable to see if swapping it will fix the problem, but I doubt it.  I get the same issues when I use a component cable.

So at this point, I’m hoping my Xbox does die in a RROD or E74, so I can get it fixed under warranty.  The Elite model was released in 2007, which means my Xbox is less than 3 years old.  Microsoft will fix RROD or E74 problems if it happens within 3 years.

I have absolutely no idea where my receipt is now, so if Microsoft doesn’t automatically fix it for free, I’m in trouble.  I hear that Microsoft charges $110 + shipping to repair a console.  At that price, I think it might be better to buy a brand new model that uses newer components.

Either way, I’m going to buy and switch to the Playstation 3.  The PS3 has very, very, very few hardware issues and the gaming library is finally decent and worthwhile.

I’m also probably going to buy a Radeon 5770 this week.  I’m tired of waiting for the 5850 and since the holiday season is upon us, it’s going to be even harder to find.  Once the 5850′s are more available, I’ll pick one up and move the 5770 to my home theater PC or give it to a family member.

Sigh.

If you haven’t played Defense Grid yet, go out and buy it!  It’s a great tower defense game and it’s only $10 on Steam.  It’s also available on Xbox Live and probably selling for the same price.

I’m growing extremely impatient with ATI/AMD for doing such a bad job supplying the market with their latest cards.  It’s probable that the factories are having a hard time producing the new GPU, the Cypress.  With such a low supply, big computer makers get the highest priority, which doesn’t leave much for the enthusiast market.  In addition, the far more expensive 5870 is basically using the same components as the 5850.  The 5870 is also in high demand and sold out everywhere, so ATI is going to focus on making and selling the 5870′s which should have a bigger profit margin.

ATI’s newest generation of videocards completely spanks nVidia’s current offerings.  Unfortunately, nVidia is having a lot of problems, which means it’s likely they won’t provide any real competition for a while.

The Radeon 5770′s are in and out of stock, selling for around $180.  I’m tempted to just give up and buy it, but I’ve waited a month already, so I figured I might as well wait a bit longer.

By the way, if you are looking to buy a videocard right now as well, Tom’s Hardware has a great guide that provides recommendations for videocards at any price point.

I’m doing quite fine with gaming since I have my gaming laptop (Gateway P-7811FX) and my Xbox 360. It’s also a much needed break from playing MMORPG’s.  I spent several hundred hours playing Champions Online and Aion in September and October and I’m definitely burned out.

DA is a great throwback to the games that cemented Bioware as one of the best RPG developers: the Baldur’s Gate series.  It’s what a Baldur’s Gate game would look like if it had millions of dollars thrown at it.  Bioware’s polish and willingness to go the extra mile shows in all aspects of the game.  On top of a engaging storyline, unique characters and a deep combat system, the game looks and sounds great.

I’m running DA on my gaming laptop, a Gateway P-7811FX.  Running a game at 1920×1200 on the 17″ screen is a bit hard on my eyes, so I hooked it up to a 24″ LCD.  It’s giving me 30+ fps at high graphics settings, which is far better than I expected.  Unfortunately, DA heats up my laptop like crazy, which means I can’t play for more than a few hours at a time.  I just ordered a $20 Antec USB-powered laptop cooler from Amazon.  When I’m not using my laptop for gaming, I can use it to cool my Xbox 360.  Hopefully, it’ll quiet the loud Xbox fans a bit.

Every single line of dialogue in DA is voiced, which is an incredible feat for a game of this size.  It’s a great indicator for why Bioware is spending untold dollars to voice their upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.  When I first read all the press releases from Bioware boasting that every character in SW:TOR is going to be voiced, I was a bit skeptical.  It seemed like a waste of money that would be better spent on other things like creating more content.  But now I’m sold.  I have to admit that it adds another level of depth to the immersion that I haven’t encountered in other RPG’s.

Another great thing about DA is that the game is not a cakewalk, unlike so many other RPG’s.  Many of the encounters are quite challenging.  In addition, Bioware made a good choice when they enabled friendly fire even for normal mode.  You can’t spam devastating spells without hitting your own allies.  This simple change adds so much dimension to the tactical nature of combat in this game.

Unfortunately, DA isn’t the most balanced game.  There are some classes and powers that are rather ridiculous, so if you take advantage of them, it does make the game far easier.  For example, Arcane Warriors are mages that are tougher and more effective than warriors.  The worst spell is probably Cone of Cold, which is a close range AoE attack that freezes every single monster in the game, even bosses.  With two mages spamming CoC on cooldown, you can keep all the mobs frozen while you beat on them without much risk.  There are other spells that are nearly as overpowered (i.e. Force Field, Glyph of Repulsion, Sleep, etc.).

According to the game, I am 27% done with the content and I’m already dreading the moment when I run out of things to do.  I haven’t looked into the modding community yet, but I’m really hoping Bioware has given modders enough tools to create more content.

Right now I’m playing normal mode with a level 10 Blood Mage specialized in cold magic and crowd control.  Alistair is my tank.  Morrigan provides backup to my primary mage with more damage, control and debuffs.  Leliana is the rogue I’m using for opening locks, disabling traps and providing some damage.  When I get Wynne, I’ll probably swap her for Leliana.  Wynne’s healing and spells is far more useful.  I am trying to romance Leliana, though, so I hope talking to her in the camp and giving her tons of presents is enough.

I was originally planning to rent DA for my Xbox 360, but I’m extremely glad I decided to pick it up for my PC.  Playing on the PC gives you far better control over your characters.  You also can’t mod the game on the 360.

Playing DA has made me nostalgic for the older Bioware games.  Once I finish and replay DA, I’m seriously considering digging into my archives and finding the discs for the Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights and SW:KOTOR games.  In comparison to DA, they will look horrible, but the core gameplay should be as solid now as it was years ago.

Most MMORPG gameplay is too easy and might as well come with a guarantee that you will succeed.  As long as you stick to the clearly labeled areas and monsters that are appropriate for your level, it’s smooth sailing.  After a while, you can almost shut off your brain and go into cruise control.  I often find myself daydreaming, instead of focusing on the onscreen action.

In many MMORPG’s, it is possible to challenge yourself and find tougher encounters, but it’s often not worth the effort.  For efficient and effective leveling/grinding, it’s usually best to stick to monsters that die fast and easy.  Dying slows your progress, even in games without a death penalty.

As a result, I’m used to playing easy games and constantly winning.  I’m not used to dealing with difficult challenges.  MMORPG’s typically don’t require fast reflexes or good coordination.  When you level or quest grind, it’s like a leisurely stroll.  No fast movements.  It’s like a marathon that tests your patience and endurance.

In comparison, action games are fast and furious.  They test your reflexes…your ability to think and react quickly.  You’re constantly bombarded by challenge after challenge, which grow increasingly difficult.  It’s completely different from how it feels when you are playing an MMORPG.

I’ve been playing my Xbox 360 a lot recently and I’m finding that I’m horrible at action games.  I used to be really good (years ago…).  I’m trying to play Bioshock and Resident Evil 5 and I’m unable to react quickly enough to do well.  The 360 controller is horrible for shooters (compared to the keyboard+mouse) and that doesn’t help, but that’s not the primary problem.  I get flustered easily now.  When I’m supposed to see incoming attacks and perform split second blocks, I can’t do it!  I’m no longer used to dealing with so many urgent encounters one after another.  The feeling of constantly being on edge is almost foreign to me now.

I have to play the EASY or BEGINNER difficulty!!!  My gamer’s pride is taking a severe beating.

Other than MMORPG’s, I’ve been mostly playing strategy, adventure and role-playing games for the past few years, so that doesn’t help my reflexes either.

I’m going to train myself hardcore to get back my gaming edge!!  No more leisurely gaming.  No more cakewalks!