Gaming update

Still a little short on gaming time at the minute, but heres an update of my latest activity:

Star Wars: The Old Republic:

Currently have a level 16 Sith Assassin, slowly getting the hang of the game now. Spent a while running about with a colour crystal in my sabre that I was too 'evil' to use... Muhahah - meant my companion was doing most of the damage though. /facepalm. Geek fail right there :p

Skyrim:

Still keeping track of my adventures, should have the next installment up when I get round to typing up from my notes. Currently level 10.

UFO: Enemy Unknown:

When I have time to squeeze in a quick shoot about, I have had this game in the background. My latest adventure has been a pistol challenge on Superhuman difficulty. Currently a few research items from Cydonia... Have everything I need to get there, and have had 2 missions using plasma pistols and the last one with laser pistols. Before this it was allll normal pistols... They work well with a scout/sniper combo :)

More to come,
-V

~Generic Seasonal Greetings!~

Merry Christmas to all :)

Been busy as hell prepping for the big day, now hopefully its a good relaxing, and moderately drunken one :D. Squeezed a little bit of time in on Star Wars tonight after polishing off to relax, and I am thoroughly enjoying the Sith Assassin with his double-light sabre :D

-V

Xcom UFO Defense, and others: discounted on Steam

I am kicking about my parents tonight and have been unable to play Star Wars or Skyrim due to being on an old laptop instead of my desktop. I took a looksie on steam when talking to my dad about buying Terror From The Deep a few days ago... and seen that Steam has a sale on... all the games are discounted... Damn it!

If you have been considering getting one of these games - or even any other game that steam has for sale, it is a good time to take a look. Cheap cheap cheap!

-V

Star Wars: The Old Republic, continued thoughts.

Sith Assassin, From Deadmanwalking182 at Deviant Art.

I have accumulated enough time in game now to hit level 10 and get out of the start area, and have moved to 'The Fleet' area. I must say, my experiences so far have proven to me that this game is pretty damn good. I played WOW from UK release day, until about 6 months ago. This game blows it out the water in pretty much every way so far. Only downside being the hardware requirements, my laptop will NOT run this game, and the increased level of complexity (steeper learning curve, but in no terms difficult for someone experienced with MMO's)

When I arrived at the flee, I was led to my next task... choosing which Sith path to take... This proved to be much tougher than I expected...

Sith Assassin: Dual-Bladed sabre, and the talent trees span down to Tanking, DPS (Rogue style) and another form of melee DPS

Sith Sorceror: Healing, or two forms of ranged dps...

I kinda wanted to be a healer, but I dont want to do that yet.. I ended up picking the Roguesque class... Apparently you can respec - but I think it is just a talent point reset.

A whole new array of abilities was unlocked upon seleting this, so I have two hotkey bars to use my powers - I am not sure if the initial ones are needed, but I still have them on the hotkey bar to move... Complicated - but Ill work it out next time I play. As a bonus, I got a goodie bag which contained my Dual bladed light sabre (no item level, I think these are like 'heirloom items' in that you keep the one as you level and can modify it as you go with the use of components and crystals to modify the buff effects.)

After this I also picked up my trade skills (3 gathering skills... it looks like gathering is done by companions on missions though... confusing much!)

Thats about as much as I have done so far... I heartily recommend anyone that likes MMORPG's to take a look at this. It is more demanding (computer and brain!) than World of Warcraft, but it is also more mature, and humorous in its own way. Server queues seem less of a problem now, although queues still exist.

Happy hunting!

-Velk

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Initial Thoughts

So, The Old Republic officially launched this morning. I jumped on a RP server where most of my old gaming community from Star Wars Galaxies, and World of Warcraft: The Second Sun, are residing.

I joined the queue to get into the server at about 7:30 am, and had access by about 8:30am (queues galore just now, Im sure its an issue that will be resolved in due course, and hopefully not via a loss of customers) then rolled myself up a Sith Inquisitor. It seemed the closest thing to a Mage which is what I played in Wow as my main.

So far, I like it. It is definitely based on wow, but hugely improved. I really like the combat system, no targetting system, it plays more like an fps - there is no auto-attack, you point at a target and hit your attacks. You can click on a target to face them and attack - its all a pretty fluid and easy system.

Another thing I like about the game is the map. If you move when its activated, it becomes a transparent overlay, and you can actually run around with the map up. Nifty ^.^

I have not found any bugs or glitches so far (Perhaps with the exception of when I have my training-light-sabre out (Pressing Z - the controls are all identical to WOW) - it clips through walls, but never mind :D )

The graphics are ok, nothing spectacular. They are nice and clean, this PC has no issues running on max everything (560gtx graphics, AMD X55 processor and 8GB ram - 22" monitor at 1920*1080).

Aaaand... thats about it. Maybe Ill write another more in depth review once I spend a bit more time in game and level my char past 6 ^.^

-V

Skyrim: Velk's journal - Part 1. *Contains spoliers*

As previously mentioned, I wanted to keep an in-character game journal, much like Arwen. It will contain spoilers, I have no intention of editing thme out, if you dont want to see them, please don't read. I am a veteran of Morrowind and Oblivion, so I am going to try my best not to use any exploits I find in the game, Im likely also going to stick fairly close to the main quest line with this character, and explore all the fun to be had with guilds when Im not trying to keep notes as I go! And with that over with: INTO IT!

*****

I awoke, with no memory of where I am, or why I am here... I was in a cart, being transported in convoy with what appears to be prisoners. Ulfrik Stormcloak introduced himself to me. A few others rode beside us... We arrived at a keep soon after... One by one the prisoners were lead forth to be given their last rights before... before being beheaded. I was not on their list, but nevertheless, the captain ordered that my head should be removed along with the others...

The first man hurled taunts and insults at the guards, and was promptly dispatched. The lucky one. A freshly sharpened blade took his head in a single stroke.

By now, eerie sounds could be heard echoing from the mountains... but it made no difference... I was next. Perhaps the sounds were my own imagination as I stared death in the face... As I lay my head on the block, some strange beast flew in from behind the keep, and landed on a rooftop, and started raining fiery death to the village. A Dragon! 

AArrgh! Death!

 I made my escape with Ulfrik, into the keep with a few other injured survivors...

We made a break across town, and I met with Hadvar, the guard that tried to bargain for my release with the leader at the executions, and we headed into the Keep, and made way through catacombs.

We fought our way through a number of Greycloaks that decided they fancied some hostile negotiations, but we managed to fight our way through and out the otherside. When we got out, the dragon flew right over our heads and over the mountains in the distance...

Spot the dragon!

we watched the Dragon fly off into the distance. Hadvar informed me the local town of Riverwood would be a good place to shelter, so we headed off along the path. He pointed out an old ruin, and we paused at some blessing stones.

Thieving time!

We then continued heading on towards the town, being halted briefly by a pack of Wolves, though they were easy to dispatch with my bow, and Hadvar's sword.

We entered the town of Riverwood where Hadvar and I met his father, Alvor. We went inside his house to talk...

Alvor and his wife

I talked to Alvor in length about assistance he needs. Soldiers from Whiterun seem to be his prime concern, he told me a little about Whiterun and the Jarl - this may be tricky, he is quite opposed to the war, although he doesn't side with anyone, it may make it tricky to coerce him to assist...

I spent a little while milling about, cooking some Cabbage Apple Stew, and sharpening my weaponry at the blacksmiths and had a brief run around town. It was dark now, and a full moon was out.

The mountains at night. Pretty. Dangerous. Hide.

I decided I want rest, and somewhere to sell all my loot, but Alvor and his family had been hospitable enough, so I headed to the Sleeping giant inn. Hopefully I can get some rest, a clean and some coin for my troubles. After coughing up 10 gold pieces, I rested for the night. Whiterun can wait until tomorrow... I need rest, lest I will fall to another wolf pack and never even get the alert out!

*****

Thats it for now folks - I did not get much time to get into the game as I am still in the midst of studies, but the more notes I get, the more I shall post :) My thoughts so far: plotline seems good, the game is very immersive. Full HD on a 22" screen, with headphones on makes it very immersive, and I love the water and the atmosphere, especially walking through the valleys and looking up at the misty peaks above! :-)

-V

Xcom: Enemy Unknown - aka, Xcom UFO Defense...

Studying hard for the exams I am in the midst of, but I have my distractions...

Namely You Tube.

I have been watching SillyGoosesinc's 'Let's Play X-Com' videos, they give me giggles.

I also found this article on Ufopedia...

http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Murphy%27s_Laws_(X-COM)

Oh yeah!