High Hopes for Guild Wars 2

     I see myself looking forward to the release of Guild Wars 2 and It's like I'm watching a close friend who is fixing to make a decision that they'll regret.  I want to stop myself from having such high hopes for this game but I can't for some reason.  I haven't been truly gripped by a game in such a long time (Balders Gate and Elder Scrolls level of gripping) and I want GW2 to suck me in and tell an epic story that I'll remember.  Will it?  I really don't know.

     I'm skeptical and a bit cynical because all of the recent MMO's I've played have all been no fun.  Like a lot of people, I went from playing Everquest to WoW, from WoW to Warhammer, from Warhammer to Aion, and from Aion to Rift.  I don't really enjoy bouncing around trying out all of these different games, investing months of time and realizing they suck.

     I honestly don't remember too much about Everquest.  Playing WoW from beta through the completion of its first expansion cycle was great, I just never understood how people could stick with it after that.  I thought that the attunement quests and the entire Onyxia / Nefarian story line was great.  The world-wide Ahn'Qiraj gate opening event involved a spectacular story line.  WoW sucked me in for a long time but once the expansions started pouring out it was so obviously more of the same I lost the will to even play...

     Warhammer was a different experience.  It was always extremely buggy but enjoyable anyway.  Warhammer didn't suck me in quite as deeply as WoW did because of its bugs.  You couldn't achieve any level of immersion into the world because it was constantly reminding you about how seamless it wasn't.  PvE in that game was as bad as Conan in that it was nothing more than a string of endless bug exploits for free gear.  I remember I had similar hopes for Warhammer that I have now about Guild Wars 2, but Mythic really screwed themselves on the game engine.  It was a tragic failure.

     I didn't have that sense of hope for Aion.  It was just there when Warhammer's grind started to get to me, and the people I regularly play with were trying it out.  PvP in Warhammer was fun, but they never implemented any kind of ladder/arena system so it turned into a gigantic grind I couldn't ignore.  Aion's "asian" style leveling was brutal.  The brutality was compounded by the fact that there was no enduring story line in the questing, and no apparent attempt at creativity whatsoever.  It was neat to fly, but that was the only highlight in Aion.

     Rift is a PvE'rs game.  The end game had some interesting mechanics, but again no ladder/arena system in PvP.  I actually love the way they constructed their class system, with all of the variety of mixing and matching different skill trees.  The PvP system in Rift is just another grinding time sink however, like the old days of grinding weekly for High Warlord in WoW, or grinding 80 Renown ranks in Warhammer.

     For Guild Wars 2 to succeed for me (an average gamer) its got to pull off a few things.  Consider this a wishlist for the perfect MMO.

• It needs to have a rich immersive environment (which apparently it has from the videos I've seen)
• It needs to have some form of competitive PvP which is more than just another grind with an end point (it needs a ladder/arena system)
• It needs to have some form of open world PvP that matters.
• It needs to promote local server culture.  (limit the amount of clustering and involvement between servers).  Guild rivalries are where its at, but this only works with a thriving population so it's hard to pull off and I don't reasonably expect it to happen.
• I needs to have some PvE but not so much that it becomes the main focus.  Let it tell a well thought out story, but let the fighting between factions be what animates the story.
• Progression needs to be non-linear and open ended, with quests that do not have a single fixed outcome.
• It needs to offer horizontal expansion at a 100 to 1 ratio (or more!) to vertical expansion.  Releasing $60 expansion packs every few years that completely reset your heroes progress just demolishes my will to play...

     They've been talking up the game like they're really trying hard to exceed all expectations and deliver a game of extremely high quality.  I wish them luck.

The Importance of Gaming Mice

Wikipedia Image

     The single greatest thing you'll do for yourself playing games is invest in a solid gaming mouse. Not only will it make you perform better in any game you play, but it will keep your hands and wrists healthy so you can enjoy those games for a long time.

     I tell this to people all the time (in person and online) when discussing key binding, macros, and afflictions like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The fact is you can do some serious long term damage to yourself playing video games for long periods of time using a keyboard and mouse. I'm going to show you what I do to prevent some of the stress on my hands and wrists. If you set yourself up correctly you'll play better and have more fun not worrying about injuring yourself. Right now I'm using a Logitech G9x, but there are a lot of good quality mice out there, Razer makes some good products also.

Sensitivity Settings

     Normally only an FPS concern, but now I think even in MMO's these are becoming more important.
A lot of times people hear something going on that isn't in their immediate field of vision and need to look left or right quickly but can't get there fast enough. Something important happens and you miss it costing you a death or something. Sometimes people have to physically lift the mouse to put it back on the pad because they've slid it off the pad. Sensitivity settings are very important for fluid movement when you need it, and quick reaction times when you need them. Turning 360 degrees in an MMO doesn't sound like something you'll be doing very often until you in the middle of 500 other people and you're trying to gain some orientation of the battlefield. "Uh, which way should I be killing again?" 

     Windows does have sensitivity setting adjustments available, but the software that comes with the mouse will help you fine tune what is most comfortable for you more effectively. Rule of thumb is that the higher your sensativity settings are then better off you'll be. It's uncomfortable at first, but once you get the hang of it you'll feel the difference. The repetitive twitching and jerking your wrist does will over time cause inflammation that can lead to more serious conditions. Once you get in the habbit of continually increasing your settings just to the range of making yourself slightly uncomfortable all the time, eventually you'll be at a very comfortable point and can stop (at a high sensitivity level). There is a "peak" out there for these sensativity settings, and I think every individuals is different. If you're pushing the mouse off the pad, or picking it up off the pad to move it somewhere at any point in time, your sensativity is too low.

Key Bindings

     There are a lot of benefits with understanding proper key binding. I hate pressing the shift key with my pinky, and I hate pressing the alt key with my thumb. Normally with your mouse hand your thumb goes completely underutilized (although thumb buttons are becoming more mainstream now). It just hangs there and your "gripping muscles" go to waste. You've got perfectly good fingers doing nothing for you... it's a handicap. The same problem exists with most Console game controllers. When was the last time you used your pinky or index finger on a console controller? Key bindings help your ability to utilize your fingers efficiently, which in turn allows you to interact with the game more effectively, which in turn makes you better at the game, which in turn allows you to have more fun! "I thought this was about Mice?" It is, because a good mouse is more important than a good keyboard... but having a good keyboard doesn't hurt. 

     What I do, using the button config software that came with the mouse, is bind the two thumb buttons (mouse 4 and mouse 5) to Shift and Alt. These are referred to as modifiers. So really, when I reach up to press the "1" key with my left hand, it's actually 3 different keys, and I can choose between which of those 3 abilities I want to use in game by a flick of my right thumb thanks to they key binding ability of this mouse... without having to play any kind of "Twister" with my hand to hit the key combos I need.

[1] + [Alt+1] + [Shift+1] I've turned one button into 3 buttons, and I can access all three with just two fingers. Think about the versatility you have with these buttons for a moment.
You have the following keys easily accessible to you with your left keyboard hand.
12345qwertasdfgzxcvb[Spacebar] and F1,F2,F3,F4

     25 keys easily in reach. It's difficult (and eventually painful) to hit key combinations like Alt+5, or Shift+F4. Your thumb squeezes in and your entire hand lifts and rotates so you can reach the 5 key. Your pinky finger and your first finger stretches way out of the range of comfort. Now, with Shift and Alt bound to my two mouse buttons (M4 and M5), I turn those 25 easily accessible keys, into 75 easily accessible keys without having to deal with contorting my hand. Generally there are not 75 unique actions you need on separate keys in any game I've ever played, so this has me covered. Games that feature an in-game macro system make this even more optimal.

The Benefits

     The benefits this give are numerous 1) Comfort because it eliminates hand gymnastics. (This is pretty huge for me if I'm going to play a game for a long period of time.) 2) I can play the game better, I can respond to the game faster, I can generally just perform better, and have more fun because of it. 3) Health, as I mentioned already... hand contortions can physically cause harm to you in the long run. 4) Giving yourself 75 ability keys on your left hand free's up your mouse hand for viewing things and looking around, (panning the camera) instead of having to click buttons. With a cheapo mouse you get a maximum of 3 buttons if your scroll wheel doubles as a button, but generally those cheapo mice don't come with software that allows you to configure them for enhancing your game performance. These mice generally cost a lot more than cheap crappy mice though, but "Is it worth it?" Yes, absolutely it is worth it. Logitech and Razer both make quality products, but you don't necessarily have to buy from them. Gaming mice in general will add a lot to your gaming experience if you spend a little time and get comfortable with them.

More Than Hardware

     In addition to preparedness in terms of equipment, you need to take breaks as often as you can and stretch your wrists. That would be an entirely separate post however, so you can search online for hand and wrist stretches yourself. (sorry!)

Why Heroes of Newerth Failed

     The debatably labeled MOBA genre has seen some growth in recent years with the release of League of Legends (LoL), Heroes of Newerth (HoN), and soon-ish Defence of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2).  Prior to the release of these games the genre's flagship was a user generated and maintained modification created for Warcraft III.

     Even with all of this growth the population of players that enjoy this type of competitive game is relatively small. If you compare this genre to First Person Shooters, or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games... this population would be microscopic.  The fact that there is such a small population of players is signification because each of these companies competing for player traffic (resulting in revenue) has to appeal to a very specific and very small audience.  The wedge driving most players into an either/or dilemma is the steepness of the learning curve for these games. The balance between obtaining the approval of the players that have played the original DotA for years, and broadening the horizon of the genre to make it more palatable for new players is proving to yield some nice drama.

     The Free to Play (F2P) model seems almost inevitable at this point given how hard LoL is crushing HoN in popularity.  The cause for such a lopsided bashing can be reduced to how the two games were released.  LoL was designed and release from the very beginning as a free to play game.  HoN hit the market with a 30$ price tag.  Based on that alone as a new player who is merely curious about a genre on the rise its no contest which game will be chosen.  Similarly, as a DotA veteran who hasn't had to pay for Warcraft III save for once a long time ago why should he/she drop 30$ now when there are two free options on the table.  ...and so LoL crushes HoN.

     In July of 2011, S2 Games figured it out and adopted the Free to Play model.  Unfortunately as the numbers have shown over the past few months that it's too late for HoN.  Population in-game at prime time usually peaks at around 50,000 and its not rising (number of unique accounts means nothing).  This number is equivalent to the traffic HoN saw during open beta.  There is a stronger inertia that exists with the MOBA player base because they know that they enjoy the game 100% more once they've overcome the learning curve.  The steeper the learning curve, the stronger the inertia.  All of the players that have been playing League of Legends prior to Heroes of Newerth going F2P have become very comfortable with the game and see no reason to make the change because they gain nothing (except another hero pool to grind, and more micro-transactions to make).  When new players are recruited into the genre, even though HoN is now free to play, all of their friends are now playing LoL so naturally they're going to play with their friends.

     Whats more, there is very little chance of Dota 2 not adopting the free to play model.  Free to Play is going to be the future of PC gaming whether you like it or not (and I don't personally) because micro-transactions are much more profitable over time than selling a 30$ box.  What the HoN community was hoping is that the competitive scene in DotA would migrate eventually to HoN because its game engine is superior.  A lot of the players that played HoN from closed beta (including me!) wanted HoN to be the new DotA, and if HoN had started out as a F2P game that may have been possible.  If you're a DotA vet still playing DotA over LoL and you're looking to move en masse to another MOBA you're going to choose DotA 2 over HoN or LoL.

     If HoN had the exposure that LoL is getting right now (which it would have if it had been F2P all along) and some seriously dedicated developers working on balancing for a competitive scene (as opposed to releasing imbalanced do-it-all new heroes so frequently that they have no time to rebalance before more new heroes are injected into the pool) then it might stand a chance against DotA 2.  The saddest truth about all of this is that HoN is objectively the better game in terms of game engine, stats, replays, etc...  There are a lot of absolutely top notch features in HoN that are going essentially unnoticed by the majority of MOBA players (albeit not by MOBA developers at Valve). HoN is being reduced to a small niche group of players that once saw its potential, but who refuse to see the bigger picture.  That niche group will only strink when DotA 2 comes out.

     When DotA 2 does finally come out (likely sometime in 2012) the chips will fall where they may.  My prediction is that DotA players will make up their mind.  They will likely choose DotA 2 over any of the alternatives, and the bulk of the player base will follow them.  Some people believe that multiple games can succeed in this genre now, but the reality is that only one of them can be a blockbuster.

Review: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Wikipedia

First Impression

     I didn't play any of the Assassin's Creed games prior to this.  I was hoping it would be a stealthy game like Hitman.  I haven't played all the way through A.C.B. yet (couldn't take it) but I can tell you know if you're looking for something like that you won't be getting that from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

Console Controls

     The PC version of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood began torturing me with its poorly adapted controller layout from the very beginning.  Lets be clear about this, the PC version of this game was an after-thought released to a market it was never intended for.  This control layout might be fine for the console kiddies that only have 4 buttons to press but when you make a game for the PC you don't have to automate every movement.  The game engine attempts to compensate you for your lack of control over the character by automating 80% of actions.  You initiate an action and it interprets what it thinks you want, and executes it for you.  I thought to myself, "No problem I'll just go into the options menu and change the keyboard layout to be something similar to what I've been playing in MMO's for years" but you're not even capable of doing that.

     For some reason Ubisoft decided to assign body parts to single keys, with minimal modifiers (right clicking, shift, etc...) so figuring out the sequences for button mashing reminds me of learning Brutalities back in my Mortal Kombat days.  All actions pertaining to the head (such as a head butt), are on your E key.  All actions pertaining to legs (jumping, and walking faster) are on the space bar (except when you want to run).  To begin an all-out sprint, you've got to right click (run), hold down the space bar (leg button), use your WASD keys to move, and guide your character by moving your mouse.  This must be the equivalent of someone just squeezing the hell out of a console controller, but that is a ridiculous amount of input to get Ezio to run.  My issues with the controls are the biggest, and that them will pop up continually throughout this review.

Combat

     Stealthing around and killing NPC's with your concealed blade is easy enough, and on par with what you would think a stealthy game would offer.  Figuring out basic combat with a sword (blocking and counter attacking) took a Google search for me because its not intuitive at all.  The little help bubbles that pop up hit you in the middle of battle and flash so quickly you've got to shift focus away from staying alive during a fight to read them.  What I learned after having to rely on a search engine (because the in-game how to information is so shit) is that combat is basically a whack-a-mole timing meta-game.

     You right click and move backward to block (which again confuses the hell out of me because right click is supposed to be the button for running) and then as an enemy NPC attacks you have to left click at just the right moment and the rest is automated for you.  You'll parry and counter attack.  Counter attacking could include a combination of moves.  From a single left click you can perform 3 actions automatically.  This is completely shitty because it takes the concept of "playing the game" and shits on it because you're not even involved in 75% of the gameplay.  25% is you doing stuff, the rest is scripted animations.

     Often you'll end up with 10+ npc's with terrible AI running at you and surrounding you, then you panic and mash buttons.  You think its going to be no problem to simply run up to a building and dive into a pile of straw, but when you're on the tops of the buildings everything looks so much alike that you get disoriented trying to figure out where you're at.  When you find that pile of straw sometimes you'll end up jumping off buildings in unintended directions only to fall to your death.

Environment

     The environment is incredibly monotonous.  Every building looks so much alike that you can easily become disoriented.  Bringing up a larger view of the map requires you to press Tab (as opposed to M, which is used for nothing).  When you press tab the game completely pauses and you've got to waste two seconds of your life watching the animations for pausing and unpausing.  This happens a lot because of how disorienting the sameness is all around you.  There is no way-point system for you to mark a location on your map to make your mini-map more informative.

     Every door is closed.  Exploring the insides of houses could have been interesting, but you're confined to the streets and the tops of buildings.  It's a shell of an environment, and I think mostly copied and pasted to generate the overall landscape.

General Game-play

    It's overly grindy for no reason.  Who honestly thinks its fun to run around a monotonous landscape for hours looking for chests of gold or completing mini-quests to become some kind of ancient venture capitalist investing in shops all over Rome (no story is given for why the shops were closed)?

Conclusion

     Don't buy this for the PC.  At 40$ its too pricey for a game that was never designed for the PC.  It feels like it was a last minute decision made by the company to see if they could milk some money out of the PC market.  It definitely doesn't feel like they spent any additional effort on development when they ported this for the PC.  I'll also not be buying the Revelations expansion because it's going to be more of the same.

Review: Portal 2

Wikipedia - Portal 2

tldr

     Portal 2 is a game with a great idea that has a lot of potential to provide a lot of entertainment in the future.  It took me a little over 19 hours to play through the campaign and cooperatively beat all of the multi player content with complete strangers online.

Single Player

     In the single player mode (which I refer to loosely as the "campaign") the story line gets redundant and beside the point very quickly.  The transitions between each test chamber are so recycled it becomes painful to sit through given the number of levels there are in the game.  The puzzles themselves are interesting and enjoyable however, so just remember that this is a Puzzle-Platform style of game and not an Adventure game.  You learn techniques for solving the puzzles cumulatively throughout in a very natural progression.

Overall

     Overall I think its a good buy simply because it's a unique experience, and it occupied 19 hours of time for only $30 on Steam.  Valve will be releasing some modding tools so users can create their own test-chambers and share them, so there will be some replay-ability down the road and maybe some kind of competitive community.  I think its going to be very important that with those modding tools Valve enables users to create their own game mechanics (such as designing the bridge itself, rather than dragging and dropping it onto the chamber).  User generated content is generally more creative and interesting anyway.  It will give the game a lot more vigor.  Valve plans on continuing to release additional test chambers through free downloadable content packs.  Personally, I scoffed when I saw the online shop gearing itself up to service a micro-transaction system because I absolutely hate micro-transactions, but I'm sure there will be some people out there that can't complete their experience of this game without a stupid pink head sock.

http://www.thinkwithportals.com/