Path of Exile-- Impressions

So I decided to go wade in the shallow end of the MMO pool and installed a few FTP MMOs on Steam.

Now, if you know me, you know I have an abject TERROR of playing online with people. There are various reasons for this. Horror stories I've read about the way women are treated in online games, my own personal experiences on gaming sites (if they treat me like that typing imagine what they'll be like in game), nervous that I wont be skilled enough and get made fun of, you know, a shitton of neurosis.

Given these feelings MMOs are like the last thing my crazy ass should be touching. But, you know, I like to branch out and some of them look kinda interesting...
I've played a bit here and there in multiple games like Pandora Saga, Rusty Hearts, Spiral Nights, Mabinogi etc. But never really committed much time to any.

I don't remember how I stumbled on Path of Exile but I did, on Gamespot and started watching a video where they were talking to the dev.

As I watched it, it looked pretty much like Diablo 3 and Torchlight had a kinda depressing colored baby. This wasn't exactly a bad thing , it just wasn't a very exciting thing. But, I decided what the hell, I've played so much crap, what's one more game?

So I downloaded the beta and started playing...and promptly died..a lot..numerous  times....frustratingly often. But it was late and I was tired and I gave up.

Next day the game went into Open Beta and everything was wiped, clean slate. Not that it mattered I think I had been like level 2 or 3.
I had intended on playing early yesterday but as you guys that read my FB know I had a personal crisis. Later in the day when things had settled down I decided to play a bit just to blow some steam and calm my nerves.

I chose the same character as I had before, a Witch and since every name I usually use was taken I somehow ended up deciding on the name Jannessa (hell if I know where that came from).

This time I fared a bit better than the first time and even figured out how the hell to use a fireball spell and that made my life much much easier.

Playing the game, its very much like Diablo 3 (I have only played 3 so I have no clue how it compares to the previous ones). Interface, enemies, locations, they all have the same flavor as D3 with bits of Torchlight thrown in here and there for good measure.
If you're looking for innovation look elsewhere, if you just wanna play another fun hack n slash time killer then this is it.

Currently my character is at level 10, I would have probably gotten further despite exhaustion and my joints complaining but, the game went all janky and started freezing up and stuttering until it finally just locked up my PC causing me to reboot. (I will add that at the time I was playing with someone else and they didn't have these issues).
I am thinking of starting new characters just for comparisons sake, particularly a Shadow which appears to be a thief/rogue type character, at least based on his acrobatic dance animations that's the impression I get. My friend was playing as the Duelist and he says its a good class. Basically he's your typical Flamenco dancing Swordsman. (if you are wondering about the dancing...i'll explain that in a moment) Before you ask I have zero idea why Flamenco seems to = Swordsman but when I watched the Duelist's video first thing I thought was "Raphael" from Soul Calibur and his lovely Flamenco dance in the Second and Third games.

so I keep talking about Dance...wth?
Yeah really, I know.

So yeah, the game is FTP as so many other MMOs are these days and of course its gotta make money somewhere, no? Microtransactions! A word all gamers just love *eyeroll*. But, here's the thing...unlike most games that are Free to Play but in actuality are Play to Win, all of the microtransactions in Path of Exile are cosmetic only. They change nothing at all in how well you character fights, just how cool they look doing it.
The above dancing is one of those microtransactions. Each Class has their very own dance that suit their character's nature/fighting style) and for a few coins you can purchase your characters dance animation.

You can also buy a pet, that will help you not at all, but will just look cute hanging around with you so you don't get lonely.
Or, my personal favorite (and since I have some coins from my closed beta I'm totally gonna buy it) for my Witch, replacing my fireballs with fire dragons. Yeah, doesn't make em work better, just looks cool.
There are other things like weapon glows etc and I'm sure more to come but, they are all optional, and you won't be at a disadvantage if you don't purchase any (well unless they do a fashion show, then you're totally screwed)

FTP without shitty microtransactions makes me a happy girl. Something else that makes me happy is that I can play alone, at least so far. I really don't relish having to team up with a bunch of people in order to get anything done. Don't get me wrong I do like co-op and I am willing to play with friends, I just don't want to feel obligated to play with strangers or to try and find people to play with because it can't be done solo.

I mentioned above that I was thinking of switching characters for comparison. Now don't get me wrong, I REALLY and I mean REALLY am digging my lvl 10 Witch. However, I don't know if its my setup, dumb luck, phenomenal cosmic power or the character is just really unbalanced but I devastate EVERYTHING in my path. After a few hours my friend told me I am no longer allowed to say I suck at games cause its all lies...also, thanks to my superpowered killing machine i felt like I was hogging all the kills and no one likes a kill hog :( So, I'd like to check out other classes and see how they measure up.

Now, I do have certain problems with the game, well mostly 1 big one. First tiny nitpick..INVENTORY! WHY YOU SO SMALL???? but that's a problem i have with most games like this. I LOVE loot and the space they give you in these games is ridiculous.
Now a bigger problem. There is no in game currency, as in coins or whatnot. You buy things using different kinds of orbs and scrolls...only one problem...the same scroll you buy shit with is the one you use to identify shit you pick up..WTF? Can I get an Identify spell a la Torchlight or something? Second, the Orbs you use to buy things with also are used in modifying things, like enchanting an object, etc. So then you gotta think..."do I enchant this, or hold on to the orb to buy something else?" "Is it worth wasting the scroll to identify this sword I picked up or not?" Not to mention that town is far far away, waypoints are rare and portal scrolls are hard to come by and expensive to buy (3x wisdom scrolls for 1 portal scroll).
I feel this whole orb/scroll thing just overly complicates things needlessly.
And a final one...and this might just be me since I like my games to be uncomplicated...the gem system. Objects have different colored slots for different colored gems. Each gem does something different. So now I have to weight the pros and cons of this thing with awesome attack and 2 blue slots as opposed to this one with a red, blue and green slot but shitty attack. (which btw I'm STILL using my first weapon in one hand because it has 3 slots for 3 different colored gems which lets me summon 3 zombies, toss fireballs and...fuck I can't remember the third thing. problem is it does a base attack of 4-7)

That is WAY too much shit for me to consider while getting bitten in the ass by chicken/crab hybrid thingies. Now I will say that the nice thing about it is that you can slot and unslot gems at will. Unlike Diablo 3 where there is a cost for removing a a gem, or Torchlight where you get the option of either destroying the gem or the item. But you know, its another way to make the game and your character more customizable, more personal and I'm sure some people dig it a lot.

Overall, its definitely something worth playing if you like that type of hack n slash gameplay. Bring a friend, its more fun, but you can go solo and still survive too. This is how FTP should be.

Fallout New Vegas and other stuff

Hellos.

  Another sporadic post from the queen of the procrastinators lol.

  Work keeps piling up and I keep putting it off. I need someone to stand behind me with a whip and make me work.

  Tuesday I got Fallout New Vegas and Wednesday I got my lovely Xbox back. I missed it so much.... So I've played a little under 20 hours of NV since getting it and so far, the best part of it was the pointless goodies in the CE. 

  Where should I start?

  I started by reading the..(way too tiny to call it a graphic novel)comic book All Roads, which left me in the exact same place I was before starting it...clueless.

Then I fired up the game and sat through the opening while thinking, "ok then"

Then it was time to create my character...Which is done by being grilled by some bald doctor. Seriously, I thought that whole stat choosing, SAT test would NEVER end. When it was all said and done, I was a fugly mannish woman and had no idea why that had to take so long. 

I proceeded to loot the good doctor's house, because nothing brings out my inner kleptomaniac like a sandbox rpg.

  Once that was done I stepped out the door and began my long roam through the wasteland. Emphasis on the LONG.

  I havent' really done all that much in my roughly 20 hours of adventuring, unless you want to count how many times I've gotten my ass handed to me by radscorpions. But in that time I've formed some decided opinions on New Vegas.

  First, Wayne Newton was cool for the first couple of hours, so was the music. Now its all just starting to grate at my brain like a rusty cheese grater. Love ya Peggy, but I'm really wanting to find "Johnny Guitar" and cut off his fingers one by one with a cigar cutter at this point. Fallout 3 had an infinitely better soundtrack and Three Dog kept things fun. Hundreds of hours of Fallout 3 and I never got tired of hearing Three Dog make dumb jokes about farting in vault 101 or listening to Danny Kaye and the Andrew Sisters sing Civilization. Hell, I've got the soundtrack in my  car and was listening to it this morning. Not so with New Vegas, I cant picture listening to these songs EVER again if I can help it.

  Second, the whole awesome concept of modding weapons, breaking down and creating ammo and the wider range of items to repair with. Couldn't they have made this a little less...well...shitty? I'm sure that as I level up and I explore more places these abilities will expand (at least I  hope so) but for now... I find it somewhere between "meh" and "utterly useless"

Breaking Down Ammo

  So, I've got all this 5mm and 12ga. ammo I dont need. Breaking it down into useful parts in order to create ammo I *do* need seems like an awesome idea.  I find a bench and I go to town. When I'm done breaking it all down I discover...I cant make any of the ammo I actually need...I can however make 12ga. and 5mm ammo, Yeehaw! I thiank god...or the creators of the game that the broken down parts dont weigh anything in my inventory,because I am carrying enough lead to destroy every single child on the planet with lead based paint-painted cribs. Cant even sell this crap as its not worth anything.

Modding Weapons

  I haven't really done much with this aside from getting a new barrel for my .357. Unfortunately right after I did I picked up a much more effective weapon and my newly modded magnum became obsolete again. Haven't seen much opportunity for modding things but I'm still just trudging along the vast nothingness of the wasteland.

Repair

  Repair is always a pain in my ass. Finding the exact same item to fix things with and the broadening of this part of the game is quite welcome...Its just...not enough. Now, i'm no expert on guns, but I remember watching a video to do with the difference between hunting rifles, semi-automatic rifles and automatic rifles.  One thing I remember is that by changing a few things the three looked incredibly similar while being very different. So, going by that, and taking also some game liberties....why can't I use parts from my shotgun to fix my cowboy repeater? Or to fix my double shotgun? No really, why not?

  Repairing my armour is an even bigger pain in my ass. Sure I have all the Powder Ganger (stupid name) armour and Wastelander outfits I could ever possibly want and/or need for repairs or making a tent mansion. But Metal and Leather Armour? Much harder to come by and so far, in all of the area I have roamed there is only 1 person...ONE DAMN PERSON who can repair it for me...at exorbitant cost. Someone glibly suggested to me that if I didnt want to repair my armour I should "not get shot" Brilliant! I'll keep that in mind when 5 radscorpions are chasing me across the hills because I hid behind a rock, shot one and the other 4 just appeared and decided nothing would be tastier than my ass (must say, my girl Triss has one hell of a swing when she walks).

  Ideally I would never get hit, but since I'm going to get hit eventually, it would be nice to find something to fix my damn armour with. Why is there no armour repair kit like there is a weapon repair kit?

Creating....stuff

  Now  I can create my own stimpaks and other concoctions in order to dominate the dumb creatures of the wasteland. Pity its such an inconvenience. Now I know, you hardcore gamers are sitting here reading this going "Man she's a whiner. Man up and play the game right, in hardcore mode, livin off the land, eeking out a pathetic existence in this post apocalyptic hell" You know what I say to that? STFU. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not "hardcore" i'm not seeking to develop awesomely leet gaming skills. I play because its fun and  I stop when its not fun. I'm not ashamed to play on Easy if I need to and I shouldnt have to play on Hardcore to get what the game has to offer. Much like that review savant Yahtzee's view on Multiplayer in games, "A game should stand on Single Player alone", I say a game should show me its good side regardless  what mode I play in.

   I know it sounds like I just hate the thought of creating my own items and gear, but thats not it at all. I have very fond memories of going nuts with the alchemy in Oblivion and making hundreds of potions and poisons for fun and profit. (nothing more hilarious that using a paralyze potion that only lasts 2 seconds on someone repeatedly.) My problem is with the inconvenience of it. In Oblivion I carried repair hammers to fix my weapons and armour, and I carried an alchemical set to create my potions. I could do this anywhere at any time. Had too much flora and fauna in the ole pack? consolidate by making a shitload of potions that weighed 1/4 as much and were actually useful. Not in Fallout New Vegas, find a campfire, a workbench, an ammo bench, can  I have a "make the wasteland suck less bench"? How about a "replace the DJ" bench? No? Of course not, then I wouldnt be playing it right would I?

  Its post nuclear war hell, it should be hard, it should suck, you should feel small and helpless...Well, somehow I got all that from Fallout 3 but without a lot of the useless aggravation.

  

  But, lets throw out all of my drama with my inventory. Because I can forgive much if a game can grab me by the (figurative) balls. Alas, this game does not. 

   I'm the kind of girl who likes porn with a plot. I love a good story. A nice twist or touching narrative can do much for me. (Bioshock knocked me on my rather ample ass)

   Gripping story? Arthritic grip maybe. Where Fallout 3 got me with family, New Vegas got me with..."How the hell does one survive a shot in the head and being buried alive?"  As Ron Perlman tells me at the beginning....I am a courier for the Mojave Express...you would think as such I'd know how to take better care of myself in the wasteland right? Then why is my character just as clueless as my vault raised softy from Fallout 3? i'm not talking about getting shot in the head...that plot device that didnt hold my interest for more than 3 seconds. I'm talking about after Doc Mitchell patches me up and sends me on my merry way.

  ...Where was I going again?

   I have no idea where i'm going...and I dont actually care. 

   The only fun I've had in this game is when I'm running around shooting Night Stalkers and praying one isnt behind me ready to hump my leg. Can't say I care about any town, any faction, any plot device..dont even care about the guys who tried to kill me, which I think is who I'm supposed to be looking for...maybe..I dunno.

  

  I'm gonna stop because this is almost as hate filled as my thoughts on Castlevania HD. really, its not that I live to hate on games, its just that lately games have done nothing but disappoint me...oh that reminds me...

  Tomorrow Fable 3 will arrive on my doorstep..That game I have high hopes for.  I know, I know...Everyone always has high hopes for Fable games which are always crushed upon release...Not I.

  Fable 2 was the first game I ever actually pre-ordered...I was so excited and giddy. When I finally got it and started playing...Well, even now I cant find a thing to hate about it, except maybe my own choice at the end of the game.  With that in mind, I highly doubt I will dislike Fable 3.

  But..but...how can you hate on New Vegas yet love Fable 2? Molyneux didn't deliver a third of what he promised!!

  

   That may be so but what he did deliver was a game that was (aside from the messy inventory) easy to get into, fun to play, with beautiful landscapes and memorable characters (I love you Stephen Fry but I cannot STAND Reaver) and most importantly he gave you an actual investment in the story line. So much so that I didnt even realize how much so until the end.   As far as I'm concerned the game gave me what I wanted from it. Could it have given me more? certainly... I mean, we could have real-time growth of plants or it could make my bed and make me breakfast but I've no complaints.

Wow, it seems my quick impressions are never as quick as I intend them to be....

   Before I go however I have a couple of things I gotta address... I will probably pop back on in a week to give my impressions of Fable 3 (hopefully to counterbalance all the haterade I've been drinking). But after that I will be silent for a while yet again. No, no, I'm not predicting my procrastination now. I'm planning on doing Nanowrimo

and will be busy trying to get it done. You would think with all the yapping I do 50,000 words would be no problem, however, its making those 50,000 words be part of a cohesive whole that causes me fits and starts. 

  

   After the month of November and my attempts at novel writing have come to an end, I will post all those back posts I've been putting off for like what? a year?    

                        

                                     Witch's Honor

  


Edit: I wanted to add something I forgot...you might be wondering why I have not said a word about the copious amount of glitches in the game...I want you to know that I did not miss them and yes I have seen plenty...Its just that this topic has been covered everywhere ad nauseaum. I wanted to give my feelings on the actual game...the glitches have gotten so much attention that they are overshadowing some real issues with the game itself.