Video Games
Star Trek Online First Impressions Pt.2
Jan 28th
The Open Beta for Star Trek Online has now finished and we are only 3 day away from the head start that is available for people how have pre-ordered the game.
My initial experience was one of frustration and revelation. I liked what I saw however due to connection errors, piss poor graphic driver support and server downtime I was left wondering what the game really involved.
Well after my initial teething issues and a heft 900mb patch from Cryptic, the game suddenly came alive for me. Finally I was able to log in, finally the graphic driver issues were gone and I could really have a go at the opening part of this game.
The player creation I found to be pretty good, the detail in which you can alter your Star Trek character is pretty good and I found myself playing and tweaking with this for a good half hour before I finally decided to play the game proper.
The opening missions are pretty standard in terms of getting you familiar with the controls and guiding you to your destiny of getting your own ship.
Once you have your own ship you are sent to the SOL system, for those who don’t know that would be our galaxy. You are stationed around Earth Base. This is the player hub that allows you to get to walk around talk to people, buy items, sell items, the usual really. Picking up quests from people is pretty simple too, just go to someone who has a “Q” over the head and hey presto they will have something for you to do.
Skipping forwards and beyond the initial quests, I managed to experience space travel which I have to say the mechanics take some getting used to as sector space is like a big map that you move your ship over to reach the next galaxy. This allows for player encounters, trading ships and random missions to interrupt your journey. If you look at the Star Trek Online forums you will see a lot of fans hate this sector space approach and wanted more of a Bridge View travel and warp system. I am sitting on the fence at the moment as what is there works and serves a purpose.
The missions structure seems to be pretty much the same and I am hoping in full release to see some more variation from the what I have seen. You essentially have a space battle, then beam to a ship or a planets surface, kill some people then beam back to you ship and warp out of the galaxy. Turning in quests is pretty easy seeing as we are in the age of Star Trek we can just simply hail Starfleet and talk to the quest giver and hand it in. Saves having to fly back to the person in question and hand it in that way.
So I know this is brief as was my time in the Beta due to the hassle of getting in. However I can say right at the end it seemed to all slot into place. Now I need to play the game for real, I want to boldly go and discover new worlds and races. I hope Cryptic keep adding to this game, refining it and I hope for a real experience soon. Will let you know how get on after my first week of play, I will be in the Head Start which starts on Friday of this week.
Star Trek Online First Impressions pt. 1
Jan 22nd
So finally Star Trek Online has gone into open Beta, followed very shortly with a Live release date of the 2nd February 2010 in the US and apparently 5th February 2010 for the EU release. The Open Beta began on 12th January 2010 and is due to finish on 26th January 2010.
Those that have pre-ordered the game will be able to get a head start on the 29th January 2010, giving them a few days before general release to be able to mission up and get out of the starting zones before they are inundated with people.
I have only managed to play the game for a total of 4 hours, 2 hours on Wednesday night this week and 2 hours on Thursday night this week. Wednesday night was absolutely painful and very nearly put me off the game before I had even really got into it.
The basics are pretty easy to get to grips with and without spoiling it for those who have not played the game yet but are going to, lets just say the mission structure is pretty much the same missions structure than the original TV series had. So you on a ship, you have to shoot some other ships, beam down to a planet or onto another ship shoot some enemies, save the day and beam back to your own ship then shoot some more enemies from your ship. Space flight is pretty simple to get to grips with and I found that very laggy on the Wednesday night, when I beamed down to the first missions planet surface this is where it all went very wrong for me. With a mixture of Lag and just incredible jittering graphics, I actually had to stop playing us the game became unplayable.
After scouring the internet for people with the same issues it turned out not to be an issue as such with STO but an issue with the latest Nvidia driver set. So be warned if you are like me and update your drivers regularly then you will probably have the same problems. The fix is simple enough and that is download the 190.26 version of the Nvidia drivers or I believe they are soon to release a new set of drivers that fixes the issue. Either way revert or wait for a new set.
So on Thursday night I finally got the old Nvidia drivers installed and began to play the game again. The lag and the pausing screen has now gone and the game has started to actually look good.
I finished the starter quests and was handed the captaincy of my ship, picked up a few missions and off I set to boldly go where a lot of people playing the beta had already gone before me.
First main mission was to find the USS Azure and aid in its rescue, which involved fighting about 4 ships to get them out of the USS Azures way, quitting the mission because an enemy vessel was stuck in an asteroid therefore I could to proceed to the next part of the mission. So starting the mission again, killing all the ships this time, then guess what? I had to beam aboard the USS Azure and rescue the crew and then beam off the ship and the game kicked me off the server because it was too busy.
From what I saw I liked, I appreciate this is a BETA and expect things like this to happen, but I am scared that the game is about a week and a bit away from release, and it does still seem full of bugs.
The one bug I did find which put a smile on my face, was that when I entered a space port my player character stayed as a ship for a while before turning into my avatar character, amusing as this was the next is even better on leaving a space port and going back into space my character stayed as a man and basically just fell through space.
So that is it so far… more to come when I get some more time and of course I am able to get passed the message telling me the server is full.
My top 5 games of 2009
Jan 5th
2009 was a pretty good year for games, whether you play on your PC, handheld or Console the number of releases was staggering, with the major players pushing their systems further and further as the year grew old.
I this year played a lot of games some of which I frankly wish I had not devoted the time to, and others that I simply could not put down and risked my marriage over.
The games below are not an exhaustive list of the games released in 2009, and certainly there are some good games missing the reason for this is firstly I don’t have endless amounts of money to buy all the games that are released, secondly I only have so much to time to dedicate to games as I am married with a family so the games I buy I normally try and get something that will last me.
I also want to point out that I have an Xbox 360, PS3 and a very good PC (laptop), however I choose to buy most of my games on the Xbox 360. This does not mean I am a fan boy and to be honest most of the games in my top 5 are available on both Xbox and PS3 so I am sure if I did not have an Xbox then I would have bought the same games on the PS3 and felt equally the same.
So here goes from 5 to 1 the game that in my opinion and collection where the best of 2009.
5. GTA IV – Xbox 360
What can be said about this game really. This for me was always going to be on my top 5 list. It very nearly could have been my number one game but I have tried to place these games fairly in terms of the enjoyment I got from playing them, and the amount of my life that I spent playing them. GTA IV had many hours of my life I can tell you that. I am a sucker for a game that adopts a free roaming style of play. Don’t get me wrong the story of GTA IV was very engrossing and very well told, but it is the freedom and choice you get playing such a game. With the addition of “The Lost and the Damned” and “The Ballad of Gay Tony”, this is one game that has kept on my shelf and away from the eBay pile. I actually managed to finish the main story line but yet to complete the expansion packs, again time is not my side at the moment.
4. Batman: Arkham Asylum – Xbox 360
I was a little late in getting this as in I got it just before Christmas and I have to say finally a game that does a comic book character some justice. The story is engrossing, the graphics and detail really capture the dark knight perfectly and I am still playing through this trying to get all the Riddler items and just taking in the scenery. The Joker is one evil bastard in this game and I am liking the way the game holds no punches literally when it comes to the fighting and action. I am still yet to finish this game but I hope to continue playing this throughout January 2010. Loving it so far and it is defo worth putting in my top 5.
3. Dragon Age: Origins – PC
Talk about depth and story, this game has it all and it seems that even 40hours in to the game I have only just scratched the surface. The graphics are nothing to write home about, but this is a game that shows story matters over anything else. The characters and the world the game resides in is one of the most detailed game worlds I think I have been playing in. It seems everything has a back story and the choices you make shape the game moving forward. Pure brilliance and if you don’t own this I suggest you get out and buy it, I even cancelled my World of Warcraft subscription to allow me more time to play this game.
2. World of Warcraft – Wrath of the Lich King – PC
Ok technically WOW has been around for many years, however it was 2009 when I really got stuck into playing it. I had always been one of these people that plays the game for a while, get a character to level 30 or 40 then restart with another char and move on. However in 2009 I purchased the Lich King and finally got a char to level 80. It is now I realise the amount of content within this game. I also realise that the game just begins when you hit level 80. Currently I have put my account on hold so I can continue to play Dragon Age, but I know for a fact that when Cataclysm comes out this year I will be back on WOW.
1. Fallout 3: All 5 DLC Packs – Xbox 360
Again I know technically this game came out in 2008, but it was in 2009 that I finished that game and then downloaded all the DLC. I think I have clocked in over 100hours of play on this game.
This game for me has it all, it has the story, the depth and as mentioned above with GTA IV it has the complete freedom of choice to where you go and what actions you choose to take. With the added bonus of the DLC which I am so glad the people on the PC and PS3 also have the ability to get and play it made the game even more interesting and made the hours spent playing so much more enjoyable. For me it was the game I played the most and certainly the game I am looking most forward to seeing a sequel to. Who knows if 2010 will bring us another Fall Out but I hope so. Don’t get me wrong Fallout 3 had its problems, but I am hoping that in 2010 they can create a new game with all the little issues resolved and a fresh new story with some updated graphics.
Worthy Mentions:
Forza Motorsport 3 – Xbox 360
Halo Wars – Xbox 360
Borderlands – Xbox 360
Games I wished I had bought (could not afford):
Uncharted 2 – PS3 (I will be getting this in 2010, it looks amazing)
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