Video Games: Excuse me Sir, the machine ate my quarter

[Melphis Amekia]

I have tried out the new multiplayer features of Legacy of the Void. The automated tournaments, Archon Mode, and co-op mission are all a ton of fun.

The tournaments essentially run every two hours and are played in 3 rounds single elimination, meaning if you win all three matches you won the tournament. There are also 6-round tournaments at 5 and 7 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday which feature first a group stage then 3-round brackets. I prefer the 6-round ones better but all are pretty cool.

The Archon Mode is really fun if you and someone(or more someones) know what you're doing. Essentially, two, three or four people can play controlling only one base or rather as one player. The micro and macro and coordination strategies which can be executed like that are amazing.

The co-op mission are maybe the most lackluster feature for now, because they are rather easy and have only 5 'modes'. I say rather easy because with a fully upgraded hero and his/her abilities I could probably solo the mission on Brutal, and I am not even a pro player by any means. And the 5 'modes' are essentially re-used and and more polished missions like you faced in the campaign or similar to those, which is great but still. This mode has some serious potential with more difficulties, hero levels, and missions.

[Shryke]

Running some Vanilla WoW on a crowded PvE server which is currently not even patched up to Azuregos, so this is the original experience. ZOMG it is HARD! Two normal level mobs and you struggle. Three and you run. Oh and running. You run everywhere since a flight is 6 silver and it will break the bank. Above all it really shows how dumbed down retail wow is. I'm kinda loving it, in a masochistic way.

It's also hilarious to watch all the Wrath/Cata baby nubcakes wonder why the summoning stones aren't working, why lvl 18 blues aren't selling for 5G, why levelling as moonkin is a bad idea, that the CC button is there to be used, why going to an instance at the level it is first available is a bad idea, and why they can't DPS before the tank is pulling.

It also made me realise *I* have forgotten how to really play this game. Like the nubcakes I was laughing at, I spent talent points on damage talents instead of utility, for instance. And respeccing is too expensive, so that will have to stay until lvl 60.

This just makes me remember why Blizzard overhauled most of this and how much crap release WoW had.

[karaddin]

Running some Vanilla WoW on a crowded PvE server which is currently not even patched up to Azuregos, so this is the original experience. ZOMG it is HARD! Two normal level mobs and you struggle. Three and you run. Oh and running. You run everywhere since a flight is 6 silver and it will break the bank. Above all it really shows how dumbed down retail wow is. I'm kinda loving it, in a masochistic way.

It's also hilarious to watch all the Wrath/Cata baby nubcakes wonder why the summoning stones aren't working, why lvl 18 blues aren't selling for 5G, why levelling as moonkin is a bad idea, that the CC button is there to be used, why going to an instance at the level it is first available is a bad idea, and why they can't DPS before the tank is pulling.

It also made me realise *I* have forgotten how to really play this game. Like the nubcakes I was laughing at, I spent talent points on damage talents instead of utility, for instance. And respeccing is too expensive, so that will have to stay until lvl 60.

This is making me think back to EQ and despair.  Current WoW is to Vanilla WoW as Vanilla WoW was to EQ, absurdly dumbed down and easy.  I can't imagine what made putting myself through that seem like a good idea, some of the friends I made in it get it into their head to try recapture that feeling every few years and start again on a private server and I'm all "nope".  My warlock on a PvP server took a long time to level, but it flew by in comparison to the druid I very very very slowly got up to 60.

[Lyanna Stark]

Yes it is a private server and no it's not really an awful grind.  Nostalrius PvE (go to Timeline and pick "PvE")

I mean yes, it is slower than retails faceroll, but not at ALL as bad as it was when I played it myself the first time. At that point I didn't know where to go, it was a PvP server so ganking was rife, I only realised things like thottbot existed during my last 10 or so levels, etc.

We've done 1-36 in just under 3 days played, with a lot of AFK time, because that's how we roll.  Also, we're on the PvE server which helps a lot with the lack of useless ganking all the time. While the running is meh since it just takes ages going places, it also hammers home that in retail you are not encouraged to see the world you are in, at all.

It's a strangely new experience for me as well since I've always been Horde (apart from some server transfers as max level) and now I am levelling as Alliance for the first time!! I got murdered by Stitches in Darkshire!!!  I had to run away from murlocs (Horde doesn't have a huge amount of murloc quest chains). I've killed Hogger three times. We walked through the Barrens and there was no Barrens chat. In fact, there hasn't been a single Chuck Norris joke so far.

This is making me think back to EQ and despair.  Current WoW is to Vanilla WoW as Vanilla WoW was to EQ, absurdly dumbed down and easy.  I can't imagine what made putting myself through that seem like a good idea, some of the friends I made in it get it into their head to try recapture that feeling every few years and start again on a private server and I'm all "nope".  My warlock on a PvP server took a long time to level, but it flew by in comparison to the druid I very very very slowly got up to 60.

Levelling on a PvP server is much much slower than on a PvE server. Like, miles different. I've done both and the PvP server was half pop, this PvE server has 2500 players as of last week, and the lowbie areas are constantly crowded. The only problem we sometimes experience is mob camping, because there are so many players.

On the other hand, a lot of people are fine or very positive with grouping, very few are aggro douches and people often either thank me or whisper me thanks for a buff.

Overall, I thought it would be a worse slog, but it really hasn't. But then we really aren't stressing to get anywhere, so we can take it easy. 

If anyone feels like giving it a whirl, give me a holler. My dorf (BECAUSE OF COURSE!) char is "Laseen". 

 

 

[Rhom]

Yes it is a private server and no it's not really an awful grind.  Nostalrius PvE (go to Timeline and pick "PvE")

I mean yes, it is slower than retails faceroll, but not at ALL as bad as it was when I played it myself the first time. At that point I didn't know where to go, it was a PvP server so ganking was rife, I only realised things like thottbot existed during my last 10 or so levels, etc.

We've done 1-36 in just under 3 days played, with a lot of AFK time, because that's how we roll.  Also, we're on the PvE server which helps a lot with the lack of useless ganking all the time. While the running is meh since it just takes ages going places, it also hammers home that in retail you are not encouraged to see the world you are in, at all.

It's a strangely new experience for me as well since I've always been Horde (apart from some server transfers as max level) and now I am levelling as Alliance for the first time!! I got murdered by Stitches in Darkshire!!!  I had to run away from murlocs (Horde doesn't have a huge amount of murloc quest chains). I've killed Hogger three times. We walked through the Barrens and there was no Barrens chat. In fact, there hasn't been a single Chuck Norris joke so far.

Levelling on a PvP server is much much slower than on a PvE server. Like, miles different. I've done both and the PvP server was half pop, this PvE server has 2500 players as of last week, and the lowbie areas are constantly crowded. The only problem we sometimes experience is mob camping, because there are so many players.

On the other hand, a lot of people are fine or very positive with grouping, very few are aggro douches and people often either thank me or whisper me thanks for a buff.

Overall, I thought it would be a worse slog, but it really hasn't. But then we really aren't stressing to get anywhere, so we can take it easy. 

If anyone feels like giving it a whirl, give me a holler. My dorf (BECAUSE OF COURSE!) char is "Laseen". 

 

 

This makes me wonder... how many people does a typical WoW server hold? 

[Lyanna Stark]

This makes me wonder... how many people does a typical WoW server hold? 

Checked one of my old server (Sylvanas EU) and it has a total of 4800 characters listed (wow census). But that is an old server and I imagine some of them are alts. The private PvE server is something like 5 weeks old and has in rough numbers some 2500 chars, but probably not a whole lot of alts since well, time. As for activity level, no clue. This one feels more crowded than anything after release week of a new expansion I have ever seen.

The PvE Server isn't even patched up to Azuregos yet, so it's really bare bones. The only raids up are UBRS and MC. I only got my account in Dec 2005, so I've never experienced the super early days of Vanilla. Think BWL will be released during spring 2016 so I've even got a chance to go into original MC before BWL was even out.

[GallowKnight]

Looks like the Steam fall sale has started.

[MerenthaClone]

Looks like the Steam fall sale has started.

Ia Ia!  Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Wallet Steam wgah'nagl fhtagn

 

(e:  Shadowrun: Hong Kong is 50% off and you all should get it.  Game is amazingly good.  Witcher 3 is also 50% off)

[The Anti-Targ]

Sony just announced 30 million PS4s sold to consumers in 2 years. By Comparison PS3 after 2 years was at about 16 million, and it took PS3 slightly over 3 years to hit 30 million.

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/gaming/621900/PS4-sales-30-million-units-Sony-worldwide

So PS4 getting very close to experiencing a 100% increased sales rate over PS3. Not sure it will keep that up in the long term as I can't see PS4 reaching the rareified PS2 and DS heights of 150 million total. But it's certainly making a go of things right now.

[Clueless Northman]

The PvE Server isn't even patched up to Azuregos yet, so it's really bare bones. The only raids up are UBRS and MC. I only got my account in Dec 2005, so I've never experienced the super early days of Vanilla. Think BWL will be released during spring 2016 so I've even got a chance to go into original MC before BWL was even out.

Wow, that's early WOW indeed, since Azuregos was added in early March 2005 (just looked it up). Basically my first 2 weeks of WOW
Indeed, that was tough. Heck, I had the bad luck of playing a priest (luckily PVE) and a PVP shaman. No need to say it went slowly on both counts, and took me until the very end of the year to hit 60. Heck, I had to wait until lvl 44 to buy my first mount - then I noticed my priest talent tree was horrible and had to waste money to reset it...

Good old days of insane priest talent tree, where you had to waste points on useless shit before being able to get the useful talents - like better shield or Fortitude HP bonus, and even more importantly, reducing the ludicrous "weakened soul" debuff that forbade you to get another shield on for something like 30 sec. All in all, Priest was atrocious to play solo between lvl 5 and 20, and was only less insane if you carefully picked your talents.

Shaman would've been fine on PVE, since it was quite powerful at the time - not that it was really nerfed later, more that it wasn't improved while most other classes were significantly buffed, making shaman more "meh" by the end of Vanilla / BC era.

I also had the bad idea of trying warlock, which was quite the bad idea in early Vanilla, or in Vanilla  as a whole. Farming those souls and storing them was painful...

[Lyanna Stark]

Wow, that's early WOW indeed, since Azuregos was added in early March 2005 (just looked it up). Basically my first 2 weeks of WOW
Indeed, that was tough. Heck, I had the bad luck of playing a priest (luckily PVE) and a PVP shaman. No need to say it went slowly on both counts, and took me until the very end of the year to hit 60. Heck, I had to wait until lvl 44 to buy my first mount - then I noticed my priest talent tree was horrible and had to waste money to reset it...

Well, I have a priest.  Leveling it as mostly Disc, and it's not too bad, mostly because I am constantly grouped (or I would have gone shadow). But really all you need is a very, very good wand. MB or Holy Fire, SW:P, (5/5 wand spec) shield, wand wand wand wand spirit tap, rinse repeat. I find it harder to level a mage (tried that too) since I have to drink every 2-3 mobs, while the priest only need to drink when we overpull. It's slow, sure, but then most classes were far slower in vanilla as it is.

It's not weakened soul that is lowered, that is a more modern disc talent, improved PW:S just makes the shield absorb more % of the damage. So basically useless unless it's PvP since shielding the tanks make them unable to gain rage.   Mostly went Disc with spirit tap in shadow since I level with a feral druid and can easily heal dungeons without respeccing at higher levels. Also divine spirit cos I miss that buff (yes I am a saddo).

I got into a conversation with another priest when we randomly grouped with a bunch of other people, and we ended discussing wands.  And got really excited about "good" wands. I think the other people were just facepalming.

[Durckad]

I also had the bad idea of trying warlock, which was quite the bad idea in early Vanilla, or in Vanilla  as a whole. Farming those souls and storing them was painful...

My first character was a warlock. I think it took me 4-6 months to level to 60 and I had the absolutely great idea to spec primarily Demonology. And Demonology was awful back in early vanilla WoW. They redid the talent tree a couple of times and I don't think it was really a viable spec until sometime around the release of Ahn'Qiraj.

[karaddin]

My first was a Warlock too, and hey fear was pretty good for a PvP server back in vanilla! I levelled as affliction I think, although I was also mostly grouped. It's weird that I can't remember the asshole alliance that sped to 60 and griefed, but I remember the asshole horde (I was horde so he was my team) shadow priest that did it to alliance - his name was sforce. Ah blackrock, that cesspool.

[Rhom]

I leveled as a protection warrior...

I got the game in March of 05 and hit level 60 in about February of 06.  I didn't have much time to play that year, but then my ex-wife and I really got into it together and lost ourselves in it from '06 to '08.

Back then, it wasn't "trendy" to rush to endgame like all releases now.  That's part of the problem for games like SW:TOR; players rush to the end and then wonder why there's not much available for endgame.

[mgambino]

Has anyone here played The Witcher 3? I'm thinking about picking it up. I haven't played the first 2 games in the series, but I have read the books, so am I going to be able to follow the story decently?

[Rhom]

ZOMG!  Looks like I won't need to get that Vita after all... PS4 remote play coming to PC/Mac.

Finally I can waste time at work playing Destiny! 

[Shryke]

I leveled as a protection warrior...

I got the game in March of 05 and hit level 60 in about February of 06.  I didn't have much time to play that year, but then my ex-wife and I really got into it together and lost ourselves in it from '06 to '08.

Back then, it wasn't "trendy" to rush to endgame like all releases now.  That's part of the problem for games like SW:TOR; players rush to the end and then wonder why there's not much available for endgame.

People did try to rush to endgame back then, they just couldn't.

The problem with SWTOR is not the playerbase, it's the game design. They learned at least some lessons from WoW and it's streamlining and design of the leveling process, but never seem to realise that you need to back that up with something to do once you finish the process. WoW got away with this because by the time they had made the leveling process at least not-shit, the game had been around long enough there was stuff to do.

[Werthead]

Modders putting Fallout 1 in the New Vegas engine. Hmm.

[Lord Hanna]

Has anyone here played The Witcher 3? I'm thinking about picking it up. I haven't played the first 2 games in the series, but I have read the books, so am I going to be able to follow the story decently?

I know nothing of the story and it's one of my favorite games so far. 

[Artimicia]

My first post on the ASOIAF forums here is in the Video Game thread! Lol. I want to post about the books at some point too, but this caught my attention.

Anyway, TW3 has been pretty good, I still haven't finished it, TW series as a whole is pretty fun, been mostly playing FE: Awakening these days myself.