A Pixel Nomad

ArcheAge? Don’t Mind if I Do

Practically everyone I know decided to buy Elder Scrolls Online, and I decided to sit it out. I knew it wasn’t my type of game, I didn’t even make it through Skyrim, and if I really crave that sort of game.. well, I’ll play Skyrim. I lived vicariously through their posts and streams, looking at screenshots and debating with myself whether I would play the game or not. Thing is I had access to the alpha and didn’t log in once. I mean, why pay to play the game when I couldn’t even be bothered to play it for free.

When ArcheAge started getting a bit of publicity through Trion, it piqued my interest right away. I actually signed up for the game ages ago, before Trion ever got involved. I’m a huge fan of sandboxes, after all I have been playing Wurm Online fairly steadily for almost three years now. The thing is, Wurm Online is not a AAA title, and while I adore it (I truly do) I find it hard to justify the monthly cost. You can’t “do it all” in Wurm Online on one character. You don’t get an account, either. You pay per character. For me to “do it all” I have four characters, at $22 CAN each, every two months. That doesn’t include the cost of my deeds, either. That is just to be premium. A lot of people play Wurm Online because of the amazing terraforming players can do – but – that has never been my appeal for the game. I actually prefer to purchase finished deeds so I can avoid terraforming. ArcheAge doesn’t have terraforming (that I’m aware of) but it does have customization and player created content from every which way. It is also an open world, has navel (yes, leaving this spelling in there, but I did mean naval!) battles, a huge amount of crafting, and a commerce system that will rely on players, much like it does in EVE Online (another favourite game of mine).

Knowing that, and after watching a few videos, I decided to purchase their founders pack. I know, they’re expensive. I wanted in the alpha, and the items the pack came with appealed to me enough to take the plunge. That’s 90 days of subscription time, access to alpha & beta events when they occur, in game potions, a mount, gear, a title, some currency, and I’m not sure if there’s anything else, there probably is.

Right now I’m level 6, and I already know it will be a game I play for quite some time. It DOES start out as a themepark, but don’t let this deter you. One complaint I see all of the time about EVE Online is the learning curve. In ArcheAge they work very hard to make sure that learning curve is something you can overcome. For now, yes, I am killing 10 rats and collecting plants and playing errand girl for various NPC while I learn the basics of the game (crafting, combat, etc) BUT eventually (from what I have heard) that stuff leaves off, and you’ll be on your own in the world.

I have watched a few videos that talk about the player customization. You can upload images to a folder in-game, and use those images as ‘stamps’ on virtually anything. House items, houses (walls), boats, gear. All customized with your images that you have uploaded. A guild emblem, a trader icon, want to be a pirate and have everyone fear your logo? You can. Want to “paint” your house with a stamped image, that you can adjust and rotate and change the placement of? Go ahead.

The graphics are amazing. It IS still in the middle of being translated to English since the game is Korean, and there are some differences between the Korean and English versions of the game, but the basics are all still the same. I’m excited about this game in a way that I haven’t been for the past few releases I have seen. I have been waiting a long time for a AAA sandbox, and I can’t wait to explore this one further. Expect lots of posts over the next while!

What are your thoughts so far of ArcheAge? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

It’s all about Rat Anus

I know, the title is a little bit misleading, after all there’s only been one incident of rat anus mentioned in The Banner Saga so far, but it caught my attention right away so of course I had to write about it.

I was gifted this game some time ago from a good friend of mine (thank you again!) but I had not gotten around to actually playing it. That’s the way it goes with nomadic gaming, I flounder about where ever my attention takes me. Anyway, since I have a clean PC with no games I decided it was time to fix that and eagerly browsed through my steam list.

The Banner Saga is a turn based tactics game, rich in story and details. The art style appealed to me right from the get-go, and I love the choices your characters are able to make throughout. You don’t just play a single character, either. You play whatever the story dictates, as you’re introduced to characters.

I did turn the difficulty down to easy because I wanted to focus more on the story than I wanted to on actual game play, but that was just me.

Live through an epic role-playing Viking saga where your strategic choices directly affect your personal journey. Make allies as you travel with your caravan across this stunning yet harsh landscape. Carefully choose those who will help fight a new threat that jeopardizes an entire civilization.

I only played an hour or two into the game so far, but the art style is really what made me fall in love with it. There are cut scenes, load screens, and game play that just scream out to me with details. I think this is one of those games where watching someone else play would be just as entertaining to me as playing myself.

Of course, your mileage may vary. Have you picked up the game? What did you think? Let me know in comments! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Holding me Back from my Legendary

The ONE thing holding me back from getting my legendary cloak is the fact that there are two PVP components to the quest. You need to win a single fight in two 10vs10 PVP arenas. The first one was pretty easy. There are four orbs, you capture an orb and hold onto it. Hang out in the middle of the zone and your team earns more points. While being blasted of course because you’re carrying an orb. This arena only took two tries before my alliance side got a win.

The second arena is more complex. You’re in a mine, and three carts spawn and travel along rails. Hang out in a giant circle around the cart and it will be “claimed” for your side. The object is to walk alongside the cart while it moves towards its destination, and keep the cart on your side. Of course the opposing faction will come along and kill you and claim the cart for their side. As the carts reach their destination you earn points, as well as earning points for kills. Alliance has come close a couple of times but I have yet to win a single match. I have played through approximately 10 matches so far. I know these two arena matches are filled with others trying to get their cloaks too, but I sure would like a win so that I can move on from this step. I’m not fond of a PVE quest requiring PVP components, and vice versa. Some players just don’t like PVP. Now, I am not one of those people, I actually DO enjoy PVP quite a bit, but I dislike being forced into a specific battle, especially since if you queue for specifics you miss out on a lot of rewards.

I am hoping I have some luck today after work and I finally get my win. After this it is back to collecting trillium and raid drops. I think it would be fantastic to get my cloak before the next expansion comes out – although with the way PVP is going lately, I won’t hold my breath.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

It’s Fixed! It’s Finally Fixed!

One of the downsides to moving across the country was that I had to ship my PC, and lets just say that it didn’t handle the move too well. What I thought at first was a video card issue, turned out to be a power supply issue. Of course by then I had already purchased a new video card that was better than my old one, so why not keep it. I ended up getting the MSI R9 270 Gaming 2GB 26-Bit GDDR5 HDCP ready CrossFireX Support Video Card and then a brand new 850 watt power supply (replacing my broken 750). Unfortunately because of a bad crash (due to that power supply issue) I had to reinstall windows, and I lost everything on my main hard drive. On the plus side, I kept backups of all my photography and important documents, so the only thing I “lost” was video games and other odds and ends like skype, irfanview, etc. After a lot of downloading and installing, things are FINALLY running again.

Oh man do they run.

I did not bring my two monitors with me, so I had to purchase two new ones. My old ones were 22″ and the new are 24″ acer monitors, two of the exact same ones which is nice since my old ones were different brands and the colours between the two were different and bugged me. I also picked up a new keyboard, which is the exact same as my old one a G510s.

Two new monitors, a new keyboard, a new power supply, and a new video card later, as well as a month gone by (I haven’t had my PC since April 7th) and things are FINALLY working properly. My PC has been my “comfort” for years now, it is a way I connect to the rest of the world, a way for me to relax and zone out, and not having it around while I undertook a gigantic cross-country move was incredibly difficult for me.

It is nice to be back in game.

Finding a new Schedule

I know, I haven’t written since the 14th of April which is pretty much unheard of for me. Thank you very much those who expressed concern at my absence. I’m trying to get used to a whole lot of new things all at once and adjusting to a new schedule has been harder than I had thought it would be. Plus my PC was shipped across the country three times and when I finally got it this week I discovered that my video card didn’t make the trip. A new one was ordered and I’m expecting it to arrive either today or Monday. In the meantime that means I still only have my laptop for gaming, and while (as I have already mentioned) it does handle games pretty well, it doesn’t compensate for having a PC.

Things in World of Warcraft have been going well, when I can find some time to play. Yesterday I decided to queue for a few raids in order to finish off the 3k valor I needed for my cloak quest. It just so happened that healers were one of the required classes for an extra goodie bag, and inside mine was a white polar bear mount. That’s the first time I’ve ever gotten anything useful from one of those goodie bags, and I was quite pleased. I did manage to finish off the valor required, and defeated the named I needed – next is PVP which I am really not looking forward to. Alliance has a horrible time with PVP (my personal experience here) and a friend was telling me it took him 16 attempts before he managed to get his updates. Ouch. I was hoping to have my PC set up for the PVP attempts, but if I don’t have it by this weekend I may just do it on the laptop anyway. We’ll see how that goes. I believe after the PVP components comes the 40 trillium and some raid drops. I’m getting closer to completing the cloak, which really pleases me. Then I’ll have to do it all again on my hunter (my 2nd main, the first one being my priest).

WoW has been a great distraction and a wonderful way for me to lose myself for an hour here and there when the weight of the world becomes too much. In the past I would have gotten mad at myself for using games as a temporary escape, but these days I can see the value in it so long as I’m not using it as a permanent way to escape from my problems. With so much turmoil and change in my life, gaming has remained the one constant, and I appreciate that so much. It has done wonders in helping me to keep my sanity.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.