Dragon Age is really bad for an MMO blog, direct your blame correctly.

Seriously though, you know the game is good when all other gaming stops and you only play that one title. Especially considering DarkFall EU-NA transfers just happened, Apollo merged into VAMP, and rumor has it the server has been rather busy with all kinds of PvP. Hopefully I’ll have DA finished before the next patch/expansion for DF hits, otherwise it might be difficult to keep a solid balance, and I really don’t want to lose my momentum in DA and not see the story to it’s conclusion.

And when not playing DA, I’ve been reading about it (why is it that reviews of a game are more fun to read once you have played the game? That makes no sense to me, but there it is). Are the graphics on the PS3 and Xbox360 turned down for DA compared to the PC, because I keep seeing references in those reviews to the graphics not being all that good, yet on my PC the game is flat-out gorgeous. I mean it’s not Crysis in terms of graphics tech, but it IS a damn good looking game. Anyone have an explanation?

Not that the game is graphically perfect, and I can somewhat understand a few of the complaints, especially about clipping. Now for me clipping is just what happens when you use 3D models, but I get that it might drive others crazy. For Dragon Age, I can fully understand the occasional clipping issue with armor or weapons during a cutscene, as these things vary depending on what you are wearing. It does seem like ALL heavy armor shoulders clip into your chest whenever you move your arm, but for me it’s a non-issue to be honest. What I do find odd is when a dwarf merchant crosses his arms, and both hands just blatantly clip into each other. I mean the dwarf is wearing normal clothing, in a normal situation, and this could not have been corrected by Bioware? Again, it’s a TINY detail that does nothing for me in terms of breaking immersion or anything like that, but when everything else is so polished, how does that escape?

And one other complaint/question, is everyone else playing getting a TON of gear they can’t use? I mean I literally have 10-12 pieces of gear I can’t equip yet because of stat or class requirements, yet I pulled them out of chests in areas I believe I should be. Gear I can’t use + certain fights giving me a ton of trouble does make me wonder if I’m ‘doing it wrong’. I have to keep shutting of that MMO-driven part of my brain, but it’s tough.

What helps to quiet those wonderings is when I win a fight I just assumed was going to murder me. Be it overwhelming numbers or just one seriously tough mob, I’ve had a few very surprising results, and yet they all seem to lead down the natural story progression, which again makes me wonder if DA is just that hard, I have gimped characters, or I’m doing things in the wrong order. I’ve had a few fights where I literally have to pull out every last trick and item, and even then I just barely win. Maybe I’ve just been playing ez-mode MMO PvE for too long…

And the hardest part of Dragon Age though: deciding which character to bring along. I don’t really care for the big guy with the two-hander, but everyone else I find very interesting. Playing a human rogue, Alister has become a good buddy and together they make a good front-line combo. Morigan is odd in a good way, and the combo of her and Alister is gold. Finally I have the rogue/bard, who brings some needed ‘be nice’ to the party. I wish I could have the dog around as well, but with only four spots he rides the bench, as does the assassin I just picked up. Funny that I could be running a three rogue and one dog party if I wanted to, but something tells me that would lead to a lot of ‘defeat’ screens.

As I stated in my Dragon Age review, I was very impressed with the combat engine when, after finally defeating the first boss, one of my characters jumped on him and put his sword through the Ogre’s skull. All of this was done in slow motion, but in-game and without any delay. Yesterday as I was playing I had another such moment, although this time my guy was on the receiving end of a dragon tackling him to the ground and then clawing his face off. Again all in-game and happening while I was still able to control my party, and just another ‘oh shit’ moment. Good stuff.

Oddly a new patch is out, and I’ve had none of the issues it fixes, while it makes Normal difficulty easier. As I’m really enjoying the challenge at Normal (and with rumors of Hard being brutal and requiring some min/maxing), I think I’ll just hold of on the patch unless I come across some great need. Another bonus of D2D over Steam, I can patch when I want. (Steam forces you to patch, right?)

In MMO news, our DDO group has left the docks and started questing in the Market area, where much of the content is pay-to-play. I doubt we will be putting up the cash as a whole, because while DDO is a fun distraction, it’s just not that great. The dungeons are well designed, the graphics are great, sound is good; no issues with any of that. The problem, like I’ve mentioned before, is that the combat is too fast and fights are either mash-attack easy or insta-gib hard. You never really get the feeling that playing smart is needed, that using all your abilities is important, or that coming up with a strategy before an encounter will alter the result.

Playing both DDO and DarkFall at the same time makes me realize how vastly different two combat systems can be, even if their ‘basics’ are similar. Both games melee combat (DF ranged and magic is far more FPS than DDO, which is more similar to WoW tab-targeting) is click-to-attack, enemies dance, block/dodge player driven mitigation, and yet they don’t even remotely feel the same. DDO feels mindless, just hold down attack and wait for the mob to go splat. DarkFall is a challenge with every swing, and dodging/blocking is absolutely critical, and I’m just talking PvE here.

I’m not even sure it’s a speed issue either, DF might be a bit slower than DDO, but it’s not massively noticeable. I think the major difference is the overall length of combat. In DDO either you or the mob dies in 3-8 seconds. In DarkFall you can be fighting a decently challenging mob for 30-40 seconds, if not more. So in that 3-8 seconds of DDO combat, what good is using sunder armor or other debuffs? What good is coming up with a pull tactic when one cleave attack kills most of the enemies? And most importantly, what good is strategy when one attack hits you for 50% of your HP, with a second hit coming in 1-2 seconds?

One final note about DDO and its cash shop, which some have recently used as an example of the ‘inevitable’ F2P wave. First, let’s keep in mind that the only reason DDO is F2P is because it failed as a sub game. It’s not like Turbine was racking in the cash with DDO, and one day just decided to let everyone get a prolonged free sample. Second, while the cash shop in DDO is better than most (although you can still buy plenty of items that make the game much easier), it has zero effect on how fun the actual game is. F2P or sub, DDO is IMO just a somewhat average MMO, one that does some things very well but overall feels off. It makes a good first impression, which is why everyone is throwing around that 40% number now, but lets see how that persists 2-3 months down the line, when more players are out of the initial area and see more of the game. My bet is that F2P won’t turn DDO into an MMO success, but rather give it a nice initial boost before it returns back to it’s previous level (if not slightly lower due to how the F2P model works).

Type “dragon age review” in Google and check out the first link on page two (currently anyway). Yup, ‘kind of a big deal’ blogger me. Now go ALLLLLL the way to the middle of page three. Yup, the trash heap that is EuroGamer. Finally some Internet justice.

Sad part is I probably played more Dragon Age in the one day before my review than whoever had a review copy from EG, but that’s expected by now. One things for sure though, they spent WAY more time in the pre-release character creator.

(If you can’t tell, it’s ‘one of those days’ around here, enjoy)

((And italics makes it all better, in case you were wondering))

For those who prefer real MMO gaming over Barbie accessories or playing a fairy, DarkFall transfers go live today, along with a special offer from Aventurine. Full info here, but basically totally new players can buy the game+6 months for $87, while a 6 month sub plan can be purchased for $63. With the combination of transfers, this pricing offer, and the NEW clan on NA to help you learn the ropes, now might be the best time to jump in and try DarkFall for anyone who has been on the fence. Plus by the time you become familiar and comfortable with the game, the next free expansion (patch) will be out, bringing (hopefully) better balance to melee/archery/magic and many great new features.

This post brought to you by Aventurine, who pay me a boatloads of cash to hype their game.

I guess when the government shuts you out, it’s time to sell some fluff in the pasture. And when the market smacks your stock around the bean counters demand action, and what better way then to charge for Barbie accessories, right? Next stop, true welfare epics.

Dragon Age Origins is out now, and much like I had hoped, it’s RPG gold once again from Bioware. I was cautiously optimistic about the game going in, and had avoided digging too deep into the pre-release hype, really only setting up a character with the free character creator and playing Dragon Age Journeys to get some more backstory. I’m about 5-6 hours in as of this writing, and I’ll warn you now that the below can be summed up as just me repeating ‘that was awesome’ over and over.

First thing I want to mention is my experience with Direct2Drive and my preorder. As readers here know I’m a huge D2D fan (and greatly prefer it over Steam), and their execution for Dragon Age was spot on for me. I was able to pre-download it a few days ago, and thanks to their online countdown widget, I knew exactly when the activation key was being release to allow you to install and play the game. I got the key promptly, the install went smoothly, and in less time than it would have taken me to even put the physical DVD in, I was installed and ready to go. Very happy with this experience overall, as I usually am anytime I’m dealing with D2D.

I was able to fire up the game, download all the pre-order, special edition, and DA Journeys content after logging in to my EA account, get my pre-generated character loaded, and start playing. Just as with D2D, everything here was flawless, and really set the tone of an extremely polished and well thought-out execution. Hats off to Bioware and EA (yes, good job EA).

It took only a few minutes in-game to make me realize I’m playing 3D Baulders Gate, and I mean that as the highest compliment. It really was a ‘holy shit’ moment too, as I had to blink, stop, and just marvel at the fact that in 2009, with a gorgeous game on my screen, I really was looking at Baulders Gate. The adrenaline was flowing at this point as highlights of Baulders Gate flashed in my mind and I could only begin to speculate what Dragon Age was going to offer. Yes, I was hyping Dragon Age in my mind to an almost unfair level after only having played it for about five minutes, but so far it’s lived up to all of it and more.

I have a rather high-end system (especially now thanks to the 295GTX), and the game picked up on this and defaulted the settings to the highest level, which I’ve left as is and not tinkered with. At this setting, the game is just flat-out beautiful. Characters look amazingly real while somehow avoiding the uncanny valley, great details fill every shot, and the animations are both epic and fitting in combat. The engine is this amazing mix of hack-and-slash LOOKING action will PLAYING exactly like a slower-paced, pause-at-any-time, tactical RPG. It really is the best of both worlds here, and an amazing accomplishment for Bioware. The sound, voice acting, and music are all top-notch as well. I’ve had zero crashes or errors in the 5-6 hours I’ve played, which is just fantastic for keeping you in-game and focused on the story.

Gameplay is Baulders Gate. You have a party of four you can switch control of at will, pause at any time, and highlight interactive objects with the tab key. You have a hotbar for character skills and items, there is poison/trap/potion crafting, and your party members will gain/lose respect for you depending on your actions. You loot barrels/chests/sacks, you slay monsters, you talk to NPCs using dialog options, etc. Dragon Age has all the ‘basics’ you would expect, perfectly executed so that they become second-nature within the first hour or so of gameplay. So far nothing feels like it’s missing, and there is nothing that sticks out and makes me wish it was different. This is exactly how I expect a ‘traditional’ RPG to play.

One aspect that brought a huge smile to my face was when I lost an early encounter because I just stumbled into it and got overconfident, and then got defeated again when I went into it with a poorly thought out plan. Dragon Age is no push-over on Normal difficulty, and rewards smart strategy well. The first ‘boss’ encounter took me a few tries before I was successful, and that ultimately made the victory that much sweeter (not to mention watching the jaw-dropping ‘finishing move’ that happens without any loading or switching from the in-game engine. You don’t have a pulse if after watching that the game does not leave you impressed)

The story/setting so far has been very solid. I was half-expecting a Witcher-like world due to the mature rating, but Dragon Age is more NWN/BG-harsh than Witcher-harsh, think PG-13 rather than R. Which is not to say it’s all fairies and rainbows, it’s not, but it has so far lacked that very gritty tension that the Witcher had with it’s theme of racial prejudice and true ‘no right answer’ options, where most choices resulted in something bad happening, with the choice usually being ‘to who’. The Witcher really made me stop and think about some of decisions you had to make, and while the choices in Dragon Age are not always the clear-cut good/neutral/funny (there is never a true evil option) of NWN, I do wish they were a bit tougher/grayer at times. That aside, the story so far has been very interesting and well executed, while moving along at a good pace.

Obviously, I highly recommend Dragon Age to anyone with even a slight RPG interest, as so far it’s played as just one of those games that’s head and shoulders above the norm. I write this while sitting here excited to get back into it, and baring a complete 180 at some point, Dragon Age should put itself among the top RPGs I’ve ever played.

On Friday I tossed out some flame bait with my post about Aion, and while it was mostly posted to cure Friday boredom (and not because I was upset, my sickeningly happy friend:) ), there is a very real aspect behind the whole “your MMO is your religion” people bring up. Go back 10 years, and most MMO fans were just hoping this silly genre would catch on, so ANY win was good for everyone. Today however, now that the genre is very well established and here to stay, the focus shifts from the genre as a whole to its smaller sub-sections.

Think of it like turn-based strategy titles vs first person shooters. Any fan of TBS games just hopes ANY title catches on today so that more TBS games get funding, since the next TBS game might be the last. On the other side are FPS fans, who also follow their game of choice like a religion/cult, because the next FPS game coming out is not in jeopardy, it’s just what kind of FPS gets made. If a realistic shooter sells 5 million, and a horror or comedy shooter sells 100k, guess what direction the genre is going in? Now if you have a blog, and can’t stand realistic shooters, what are you going to blog about?

The analogy of rooting for ‘your’ game being like a religion might be a little off. To me, it’s more like division one college sports. The more successful your team, the more likely top-rated high school prospects will be interested in attending. As the future success of your school depends not only on you winning, but your rivals struggling, rooting not only for your school but also against your rivals makes perfect sense. Even when Ohio State is not playing Michigan, you can bet everyone at Michigan is hoping Ohio State loses every single game.

Going back to MMOs, and specifically Aion vs DarkFall, it’s not hard to see how someone like me, a fan of DarkFall, benefits from Aion’s struggles. For starters, players who left DF to try out Aion might come back now that Aion has failed to deliver, not to mention other Aion players looking for a better PvP MMO. Had Aion been more successful all those players would have stayed, and that’s however many players not paying $15 a month to Aventurine to fund future DarkFall content, content that I clearly have interest in. Aion shutting down has zero negative effect on me, as I was never interested with what it offers to begin with, so it’s struggles only help further my game of choice. In addition to funding future content, those returning players also help populate the world and generate word-of-mouth buzz of leaving Aion and returning to DarkFall.

On a higher level, Aion failing has possible future impact on the type of games being offered in the MMO space. As readers here know I’m a huge fan of sandbox MMOs over themeparks, especially the recent trend of super-easy themeparks where instant gratification rains from the sky. The more themeparks that struggle, and the more sandbox games that see success, the more likely this trend is going to shift (if only slightly) and more attention will be given to games that interest me. Because at the end of theday, this is all about what’s best for me, everyone else be damned.

This is a good read from a returning player to DarkFall, with the most important point coming in the comments: just like in any good sandbox game, you have to go out and find the fun rather than wait for it to find you. Once you find it its great gaming, but just sitting around wondering why you are not having fun is not the way to play a sandbox. I don’t think any amount of design changes will ever overcome this simple fact: either you are someone who goes out and gets it, or you are not.

Aventurine is opening up EU to NA transfers soon in DarkFall, which should create some massive chaos on NA shortly. I know many players have been sitting on the sideline waiting for this event to get back into DarkFall, and it will be interesting to watch just how many new/returning players will be wandering around in Agon. Pure speculation here, but I think the plan is to see how transfers play out, release the expansion and stabilize it, and THEN release some kind of trial/buddy program. The next few months will be crazy enough in DarkFall without a trial, and when you do launch one you want your game in at least decent shape. At least, most studios do.

Finally, Dragon Age comes out tomorrow and Direct2Drive allows you to download the game now to avoid the launch day rush and start playing right away at 10am Tuesday. Nice move on D2D’s part, and just one more reason to go digital over a box copy. Very cautiously optimistic about this game, hopefully it blows me away.

Watching Aion bleed out in record time is, to be honest, enjoyable for me.

Part of that just comes from my general dislike that the genre of gaming I enjoy most has, on the AAA level, gone from persistent worlds and virtual communities to candy-covered themeparks full of solo-heroes. I know Aion failing won’t completely change that around, but it can’t hurt either.

Another part of the enjoyment is watching what is an obviously flawed PvP setup (forced two-sided gear-based PvP with an exploitable PvE element that gives PvP rewards) fail in dramatic fashion. How anyone can think a setup like that will just work itself out in 2009 is beyond me. 1998, sure, but we have over 10 years of MMO history to look back on now; did NCSoft learn NOTHING from UO/AC-DT/DAoC/SB?

And finally, on a more personal level, many of the fools that left DarkFall for the pretty pastures of Aion PvP are now rapidly flapping their fairy wings and flying back. While it may be rude to say “I told you so”, it does still feel good to say it. Welcome back to Agon fairies, rebind your tab key.

Last night the NA DarkFall server saw its first major player-driven event, a bounty hunter chase that went off very well considering it was the first of its kind in DF. I was able to log on just after the start, and Apollo already had a group together ready to rumble. Most of the server’s big names showed up, and the center of Agon became a PvP hotspot for a few hours on a Wednesday night.

The event showed me two things. First, the DF player base on NA is very willing to get behind community-driven events like this and things like the NEW clan initiative. I think everyone playing DarkFall is just happy to finally have a real fantasy PvP MMO not crippled by technical shortfalls (ShadowBane), and so are willing to pull together and make things happen for the good of the game. When server moral counts so much because your game is so reliant on word-of-mouth promotion, it’s interesting and encouraging to watch the players (with some GM support, which was nice to see) step up and provide some content to mix things up.

The other thing such an event shows is just how much potential a sandbox MMO has when it comes to player-generated content. The best aspects of DarkFall (PvP, huge world, zero instancing) were all on display because a few players decided to pool some funds together and have the entire server hunt them. As it was just the first such event, no doubt future events will not only be more creative, but also more tightly executed and with more refined twists and surprises. Plus like any good sandbox, such ‘content’ will never become obsolete because a new patch brought the next tier of shiny suits to collect. If anything, more options will be added as Aventurine adds more tools for the players to use as they see fit. This event was made possible, in part, because a crafters name shows up when you make an item. That simple feature, along with items never being bound, allows for a bounty hunter event to take place. You don’t need overly complicated systems and hard-coded motivational factors to get the most out of your game and player base in a sandbox, just some creative players and community support behind them.