Rift beta: initial thoughts

Last weekend, I participated in a beta event for Trion's upcoming MMORPG, Rift: Planes of Telara. If you've been keeping up with this blog since I first started it, then you'll probably recall one of my earliest posts, expressing my feelings about MMOs. Let's just say that I'm generally not too crazy about them. While I have a pretty good idea of what makes them appealing to a lot of people, games like WoW and Final Fantasy XI/XIV tend to lack practically everything that I find makes video games enjoyable for me. However, despite this, I am determined to continue to expose myself to the genre as it evolves and changes, in the hopes that I will find something that I like. This being the case, when I received an invitation to take part in the three-day beta event for Rift this past weekend, I gladly accepted. Afterall, at the very least, who doesn't like freebies?

Given everything that I had seen/read about the game, Rift actually piqued my interest somewhat. One of the central concepts of the game is that, in order to make things more exciting and less "same old, same old" for players, in places where the barrier between Telara and the other dimensions are weak, openings called rifts appear at random and unleash all sorts of fearsome creatures. This idea was a major plus for me. I have always found the typical MMO formula--accept quest, grind, grind, grind, complete quest, level up--to get old real fast. In addition to the rifts, the process of creating your character and determining his/her class emphases seemed like an improvement over that of other MMOs. And it is...kind of. Ultimately, from what I've experienced so far (about four or five hours of gameplay), Rift is essentially a more polished and somewhat more advanced version of World of Warcraft.

While it's very difficult for me to pick out any specific flaws with the game, I can't really say that it's anything special. Another typical MMO, really. Though, it seems to be one that many MMORPG fans are thoroughly enjoying. While I would not be so audacious as to suggest that Rift is likely to boot WoW off of its throne--a claim that many players are already making--there is no denying that Rift is striving to take the genre to the next level. The game's premise is actually semi-interesting, the soundtrack inspiring, the artwork and animations appealing, the characters unique, and so on. That being said, as someone who has a very difficult time getting into MMOs, I would not pay for this game, as its central design is the same as always with a few perks, here and there. However, for those of you who enjoy games like WoW but are looking for something new to delve into, I would definitely suggest giving Rift a try.

Rift: Planes of Telara is due to come out March 1st, this year. I'll play as much of the beta as I can before the game comes out, and if my opinion of it changes, I'll be sure to make an update in a later post.

Website: RIFT

Image property of Trion Worlds.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty: game review/thoughts

Nearly two months after its release, StarCraft II fever is still running high. Finally, after forcing fans of the first StarCraft to wait over ten years for a sequel, Blizzard released StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty on the PC back on July 27th, and it's not ready to settle down just yet. Two expansion packs—Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void—are still to be released in the future. These expansions are meant to further explore the backgrounds and storylines of the Zerg and Protoss races, whereas Wings of Liberty mostly focuses on the Terran.

I, personally, have never played the first Starcraft, so I wasn't as psyched for SCII's release as, say, my boyfriend or half of my other friends. Before I get ahead of myself, though, I want to say right of the bat that I advise you take this review with a grain of salt, as I haven't really been able to play the game enough to completely stand behind my thoughts of it. With that being said, I think it's safe to say that I have mixed feelings about the game, though most of them are positive. In general, real-time strategy games and their ilk usually don't appeal to me all that much. However, with StarCraft II, I found that once I got into the swing of things and figured out what I was doing, the game genuinely took hold of me.

For the first couple of weeks playing online against other players, I was totally mesmerized by it. Even when I wasn't playing, my head was still busy with thoughts of all the methods and strategies to implement. However, after those first weeks, I found myself somewhat burnt out on the game. This was largely because--from what I can tell--the game has certain imbalances that still need to be worked out.

After having gotten a little tired of the online play, I decided to try out the campaign. I know that a lot of fans of the first StarCraft game had good things to say about it, but personally, after a few missions, I was straight-up bored with it. Granted, as I've already stated, I haven't played the first one and am only somewhat familiar with its storyline. However, I will say that the history behind the character Kerrigan (yay, Tricia Helfer) is rather fascinating, if not momentous enough to carry the rest of the game's storyline to the point of making it legitimately captivating for players like me.

Despite all this, StarCraft II really does have a lot of good things going in its favor. The ranking system alone is largely innovative and impressive, which, given StarCraft's status in the competitive gaming world, is a key component to its acclaim. Overall, a lot of care and effort went into the game, and I think it shows. I'm also fairly confident that a lot of its less favorables aspects will be addressed in the expansions and future patches. As far as RTS games go, this one is probably (one of) the best that you could ask for. If you're new to real-time strategies, I would definitely recommend that you give SCII a shot because it is certainly worth trying.

"The Online Gamer"

While I'm not a huge YouTuber (though my boyfriend has had me watch more Shay Carl than I can even properly wrap my mind around), it cannot be denied that there are a number of unique gems that have ascended all of the pointless nonsense, destined to become YouTube classics. I believe one of them is "The Online Gamer" comedy sketch series by Reckless Tortuga. Okay, maybe it'll never be a classic, but it's certainly an honorable mention. As of now, there are four videos in the series, and although I'm not sure if there's a fifth in the making, they are all quite funny.

That is, if you play games online.

If not, you may not be able to appreciate the Online Gamer's unmistakable, over-aggressive attitude, akin to that of so many real online gamers', or his awkward and obnoxious declarations of "LAG" and "HEADSHOT, B*@$!" My personal favorite is the fourth video where he is invited to have dinner with his new girlfriend/teammate's family, but all of them contain poignant gamer humor that should speak to just about anyone who's ever played online. His interaction with the WoW player in part 2 sure does tickle my fancy, as well as him making fun of the Wii in the fourth vid.

WARNING: Explicit content--lots of dropping of the "F" bomb. The 3rd and 4th videos are censored.


If you liked the first video, be sure to check out the rest.

Reckless Tortuga's YouTube page can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/RecklessTortuga
Their website can be found here:
http://www.recklesstortuga.com/