I'm Just A Dwarf Stuck in a Horrible Mess of a Situation

So LotR: Online  apparently recently hit its two year anniversary and was offering the game + expansion for 9.99, with a sale of monthly credit at 9.99 a month as well. 
Having literally just finished university I realized I would need a time sink, and immediately began my quest in Middle Earth as a Dwarf champion (a DPS tank).

How is the game might be a question to ask. But put simply the game is World of Warcraft, with a gritty style of graphics, and the Lord of the Rings mythology. Which is another way of saying that it is absolutely awesome. Assuming you enjoy Lord of the Rings. And it follows the books, so lovers of the cut material can rejoice, the Barrow-Downs are in.

Of course the game has numerous differences from WoW, most quite subtle, but overall the game works, has a nice community (from what I've seen so far, I typically solo in MMOs) and has one hell of a bitching player driven music scene that is pretty awesome when you're in town and hear 3 people just jamming on their horns and lute's. 
I am very pleased with it overall and shall resume my adventure, I have recently met Strider and shall help him.

Farewell.

More Cheese With That Demigod Whine.

Okay, so Demigod. 

I'm still playing it. Multi-player is easier to connect now that a patch hit. And the number of players playing it has really jumped up, so that is heart-warming, and makes me think that the game really does have a future, contrary to my previous posting.

There are still many issues that make playing the game frustrating. Like most abilities seem to be limited only by your mana reserves rather than by cooldowns. This means a good ability can be spammed to hell once you buy mana boosting shit. But overall I think there is alot more good in the game than bad. 

Its pretty, competitive, challenging and most of all, pretty fun. Now if only the average length of a game could get shortened by 10 minutes. I'm sick to death of every game ending in one hour or more.
But I heartily recommend Demigod, although I still think DotA is at the moment a better game. DotA does not have the maps, the graphics, the stat tracking, the achievements, the favour items, the diversity of different match types. So Demigod is looking better everyday. 
Cheers. and Ciao.

I Could Be A God But I'd Rather Be An Ancient Allstar!

It is here. The retail release of DotA... except think for a second about that. DotA exists as it does only because it is a mod for a game that is mindlessly simple to get running. That has low system specs, that is easy to find a match, and (heres the kicker) that is actually balanced. 

None of the issues that currently afflict Demi-God are beyond repair. In fact DotA has struggled with balance since its inception.

The problem is that DotA doesnt have to pay employees, it only has one. Demigod has a fucking assload of accountability. It may get better, but I seriously doubt it. The game will get some good patches but the player base will have moved on. I mean the entire time I play Demigod the only thing I'm think is that DotA did, and does, it better. I think I'll talk about the actual game now.

So Demigod is a retail attempt to cash in on DotA's game. Specifical taking the AoS (Aeon of Strife, a very old starcraft custom map mode that has had more spin-offs than Happy Days) in a direction for the mainstream. The game works like this. You get a hero and he is a sargeant in his sides army (light or dark). He can be a hero killer ("assassin") or a summoner/hero killer ("general" in the game's nomenclature) and his (and yours) is to level him to make him stronger, kill your enemies, and eventually achieve the objectives that have been set out before you. They can be hold flags to obtain a certain amount of points. Completely obliterate the enemy. Deathmatch to kill points. Or break a specific number of forts first. 
These specific objectives are nice, and may be one of my favorite parts of Demigod. 
Perhaps one of the most important parts of an AoS is the heroes you get to play as (or Demigods as this game calls them). They are nice, the artwork is unique, the models look and animate great. But they probably look too good. Lag not a good thing in this kind of game. All heroes feel clunky, slow, unresponsive. 
Perhaps even worse is that there are only 8. But then you can realize that there are multiple ways to play each hero, depending on what role you feel like playing in the battle. However this makes me ask... Why not just make each role into a seperate demigod? Oh right because making those 8 models was likely very expensive so might as well role 30 hero classes into 8 model types. This is suppose to be a game friendly to the noobs. But making heroes have such diverse paths just makes you wonder how to play them most effectively, and will mean that numerous people get gimped heroes.
This is compounded by the fact that it is not easy to get into a match. At all. Period. I had to keep trying dozens of time click the button. Wait. Someone's router is not forwarding ports. Game wont ever start. Woohoo. You know I've got this thing with my multiplayer games. They should just work. I dont care how pretty the game. How much fun the game is. If I can not get and out quickly. I am not going to start playing it.
What really burns me most is the little things. Death makes it so you cannot see the map anymore. Nifty graphic overlay, but really ineffective for gameplay reasons. I cannot tell if my friendly heroes need help in the east. Further there is no easy way to look around or jump to a section of the map. You have constant tunnel vision on your hero. Nice for focusing on him. Shitty for thinking about the larger battle you're fighting.
It is like the developers of Demigod looked at Dota. and ignored all the little things that make it great, and just went off to their own little corner. You cant look at whats in the shop unless you are right beside it. You cannot upgrade your side's stuff unless at the base building. Everyone seems to move at the same speed. Items make little to no sense, beyond raising your mana and health, i have no clue how good +25 dmg is. You cant tell what items you or your enemies, or even your friends have equipped. health seems super high for no reason. The developers should take every number in the game and divide by 10. Makes nice small hundreds. Thousands are scary. People dont like thinking in thousands. Thousands of dollars? Thousands of Cats? Thousands of litres of blood? I mean, hundreds is much more easily grasped by our minds.

Ughhhh. Honestly thinking about Demigod is strange. It demands balancing and patches. It wont get them because it needs to sell units, needs to make money, needs to be big. Being big means making it simply. Adding complexity makes it less likely to appeal to a broad audience. 
DotA is the pinnacle of a complex game that those who like adore it for that. From last hitting, to juking in the woods, from understanding which heroes function better with early game stats and which need those skills. I mean there are 90+ heroes in DotA, and for the most part they are all balanced. Most have one role. But alot of them can be played differently. 
I think Demigod is a nice effort, I'll keep trying it out. But If i cant play a single match of DotA before I even get to play match of demigod, and DotA's gameplay is just as if not more compelling why on earth would i bother with Demigod. I think thats my answer. 

But damn I hope I'm wrong.

I Like To Think April Brings Out The Best of My Worst Qualities

Having the new computer back is great fun indeed. Until I realize of course that I have dozens of "new" games to play through. Meh, could be worse.

Currently I'm looking at many, many games.

Assassin's Creed; Also known as spider man without all the swinging, and slightly more lethal.

Brother's In Arms: Hell's Highway; Also known as shootie Mc-Think or Shoot.

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valour; Also known as dear sweet god never let this pleasure end, or what over so soon?

Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope; Also known as lolita monster rape-esqueish. With Swords. (Technically a 360 game, but meh)

The Club; Also known as I hate you on the inside and the outside so why would I run on your PC?

Unreal Tournament 3; Also known as Mc-Shootie Shooter with strange and diverse weapons and scenarios beyond deathmatch, but still very Quake-esque.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary; Also known as Face Lift the poor old girl's control schematics but not combat. 

Demi-God; Also Known as I'm not actually out till Tuesday the 14th so squirm little man.

Empire: Total War; Also known as I'll take your natives, your women, your forts, your cities, your colleges, your ships, and your monies. But you can keep the 20,000 dead you committed to defending your capital. Also who cares if the British are your archenemies why would you ally with someone against them? They'll just buy Louisana first chance a crazy midget emperor gives them the chance.

Thats pretty much it. I mean job 'questing' begins soon, which hopefully will end nicely and if it doesnt things will get strange. But meh.

I continue to put hours into L4D, half done expert, and the new stuff arrives in a week or so. TF2 continues to delight. Waiting on final piece of DLC for Fallout 3. Working my way through Dawn of War 2  on Primarch which is interesting. But in a good way. And Defense Grid's challenge mission is being a bitch. I have missed gold by like 80 points 3 times in a row. what the fuck is it's problem. 
Oh and I'm also going through the back catalog of Steam games for fun stuff. It includes Max Payne 2; Dark Messiah of Might & Magic; Bioshock; Half-Life series; GTA IV; Titan Quest; And Call of Duty 4 & 5 (4's Multiplayer, 5's singleplayer); and then some Alien Shooter Vengeance.
And I'm finally getting back into The World Ends With You, awesome rpg for the DS.
because i havent said enough game titles in this post.
yeesh. Ciao. Enjoy your finals if you're writing them.

I Think I'm A Flaming Emblem

Oh thats right. It is time at last for more discussion  of my favorite portable franchise ever.

No not Pokemon. I mean Pokemon is fun and all, (The legit games at least) but rather of Fire Emblem.
It is certainly an interesting scenario, Fire Emblem is a great SRPG. But this is not the next generation of Fire Emblem. It is a remake of the first, and boy does it show. Keep reading and I shall enlighten you as to this.

The graphics represent the problem that is inherent in this remake. One the one hand alot of the graphics are beautiful, the map screens, and menus, the unit model also look very nice. 

Once the animations start running though. In a word, ugly. But to be honest it is really more lazy than anything else. Criticals usually have no extra flair at all added, and most animations are stiff. Some of the upgraded units have animations that look nice, but that is the exception rather than the norm. Spell effects do look much nicer with the new engine. Of particular dissappointment is the lack of weapon models available to units. It is not a huge deal, but even the Royal Weapons lack special models, Which greatly lessens the thrill of using them in combat. The white flash across the screen is nice, but thats all you get.

Sounds are fine, the music is moving enough to grant some emotion to the drama that exists.

The story is garbage, the plot itself is servicable, but it shows that it was a NES game with the razor thin dialogue, and complete lack of support conversations there is no emotion as to why you give a fuck that Marth deserves his Kingdom back. Characters have next to no emotion, and there are more characters than you can count. You easily collect dozens upon dozens within the first few moments. This is the first Fire Emblem game where losing a few units didnt affect me at all.  

The actual combat though is the real meat of the game, and it is also a mixed bag. On the one hand it is classic Fire Emblem, but on the other hand, it is the easiest I've played. The game simply throws huge numbers of units at you. You sit back let your knights tank them, while the others move in to finish them. Class switching is interesting but only makes me think that the units in the game are even more disposable and that the developers were too lazy to tailor each unit as a specific class as such. 

I suppose the thing with Fire Emblem is that it really shows it age. Things that were neat in the first game, are no more. I suppose I should add that I did enjoy the game, and I have not tried the online stuff yet, which could greatly enhance the replayability. I recommend the game to fans of Fire Emblem who are bored of the other English ports and are looking for something new. If you havent played the other ones yet though, try to cut your teeth on those first, they are far more enjoyable in almost every way. Hopefully this was just a quick job for the developer as they work on the next legitimate sequel Fire Emblem/Advance Wars. 

Time Apart Really Makes Me Miss You

Why?  Most likely because you leave all these unresolved feelings that demand to get out but you have no way of releasing them.

Of course I refer to my PC which died a few weeks back. Which sucks, but I have classes to worry about (something about a Term paper for a seminar course) and also I have plenty of other games to get into. 

But then I remembered that my Space Marines had not yet saved the day, and that Empire: Total War came out last week, and the tears, well they did not flow, but inside they did. And the TF2 Scout update (which isnt that big a deal because my old PC can play TF2 just fine). And there was my Farcry 2 game which remained unresolved. 
Man, I really want my PC back.
It really reminds me that the good games call you back after time spent playing something else. Sure I'll always dive into the new games, but the truly great ones bring you back. I'm not sure that any of the ones mentioned above will do that in the future but maybe they will.
So my point?

That great games are defined by how long you can keep coming back to the well over and over again. And right now I think I'll list some games that have already accomplished this feat for me.

Warcraft 3: Oh the mods, the gameplay, it is to die for.

Zelda OoT: I mean come on.  Its the Zelda game you have to play.

Diablo 2: Because they mastered the flow of killing demons and evil things perfectly, hopefully the sequel finally wrests it away.
Chrono Trigger:  Man, this game is probably the best RPG you can play. It is purely exquisite, even after playing through it half a dozen times I still love playing through it.
Duke Nukem 3D: He's the king of innovative level design. Along with hilarious enemies I usually get pulled back in every coupla years.

Well that'll have to do for now. And I'll end this post with a quote that has shown up far, far, far too often in the past few days for me.

You Are Likely To Be Eaten By A Grue.

NOW ONLY NINETY NINE NINETY NINE NINETY NINE NINETY NINE!

So's I got myself a new PC. It works wonderfully. Although getting everything installed was a bit of a 4 hour excursion. And installing all the old games will likely take a solid week, given that most of them need to be downloaded, and that's gonna take some time. 
But the machine cuts through games like a vibroblade through a wookie. Just in time for Dawn of War II on Thursday. It will be glorious. In a mass blood, and robots throwing corpses across a battlefield kind of glory way. 
Well that will have to do. I've got more stuff to do. And more Vista smashing to work on. Getting rid of UAC, seems to only have been half the battle.