Star Wars: The Old Republic Game Play Video
Bioware has finally released a game play video of Star Wars: The Old Republic that shows what low-level grouping looks like and I have a few complaints. See the video for your self (you must enter your date of birth before you can view it):
My first reaction was that the graphics do not look that great. For a brand new Grade-A title, it seems they have lowered the bar a tad too low. Sure, you want your game to play on as many machines as possible, but not at the expense of looking dated on day one. In my opinion, it looks too much like Star Wars: Galaxies, which as been out for years.
Another complaint I have is how the user interface looks. I do not like the design aesthetics at all. Just as I mentioned above with the graphics, the UI looks dated, and to put it bluntly, ugly. They have a long way to go to match the quality of World of Warcraft’s UI.
A third complaint is with the Jedi Consular in the player group. The Consular is the healer for the group, so for the entire video, she heals her group mates and never uses the light saber in her hand. Is the light saber just for show on this class? That would be terribly disappointing if it turns out that way.
There are a few things I liked in the video. The sound effects are very good, especially the sound of the Trooper’s gun when he fired it. The “spell” effects were not bad, either. The flames that erupted around the large droid were nice and I liked the way the ground cracked underneath it when it hit the ground after jumping at the Trooper.
The group dynamics were interesting to see. The Jedi took on the “adds” that appeared during the main fight. I am not sure what to think about that. The Jedi reminded me of how an Everquest Ranger played back during its initial launch. The Ranger could tank decently for a time, and was excellent at handling adds. I would have thought that a Jedi would be reserved for taking on the meanest of the bunch, but it may not be that way.
I am not sure what the Smuggler was supposed to be doing. The narrator said that she was supposed to be doing damage from the sidelines. Well, from what I could tell, she didn’t do anything for half the battle. It is possible she was doing other range damage that did not involve firing her gun, but if she was, I could not see it.
I was most impressed with the Trooper. He obviously carried a big weapon and stood toe-to-toe with the large droid. What worries me is that the Consular focused almost all her attention on healing the Trooper. That can only mean that this game relies heavily on the “must haves” in a group. The old “can’t do anything without a tank and healer” argument seems to be valid here. The narrator even said that if the Consular makes a mistake then the group is done for. Those players looking for new game play dynamics may be disappointed.
I know that I am being fairly harsh on a three minute video that shows off low-level grouping, but it does worry me how the group play is turning out. I certainly hope that there will be more than one way to “skin a cat.” I look forward to seeing more of the upcoming game play videos.
Read MoreLOTRO: Impressions Of The First 10 Levels
It has been a long time since I have played Lord of the Rings Online. I started playing on launch day and made it into the late 30′s until my friends and I moved on to other things. With my return, I was curious to see how things have changed from the way I remember them. I recently completed the first ten levels, and from what I can tell, the changes have been subtle.
LOTRO: Archet After The Fall
Anyone who has played a human in Lord of the Rings Online will be intimately familiar with what I recount here. Be that as it may, I must start somewhere, so I now begin to tell the tale of my human hunter named Wolfbow.
Once you complete the starter instance, which takes place in a small town named Archet, you are placed in the “real” game world. Archet is not the same town you started in. It was terribly burned during the invasion, and as you would expect, the world has greatly changed around you.
 Archet after the burn |
The first few quests I picked up were: Burying the Dead, A Threat from Spiders, Disease Among the Boars, and a quest started after I had previously killed the Marsh-Fly Queen. The quests are pretty straight forward. I had to find the bodies of three men and bury them, kill 10 diseased boars, and kill some spiders over at Quigley’s farm.
The spider quest led me to finding the famous dwarf Bali just before he died. It ended with me killing a big spider named Iornaith in the spider infested tunnels beneath Quigley’s farm. These quests netted me around 90 copper per quest, better shoulderpads, and a better helm to wear.
 Burying the Dead |
Finishing these quests earned me level 10 and some nice new skills to go along with it:
 Spider Caves |
 Bali the Dwarf is dead |
The next couple of quests sent me to the town of Combe, one of which was to find a ranger named Toradan, who wants me to help find the missing ranger Amdir. With these quests, my stay at the little town of Archet it at an end.
Read MoreTime Flies When You’re Not Gaming
Wow, it has been a long time since I posted anything here. The job I started a year and a half ago began to take more and more of my time until eventually I had no time to play games. Not playing games makes it a tad difficult to write about them. I had also started another blog that dealt with computers and technology around the same time as this one (you’ll see its posts integrated with this blog). Again, the job took all my time away from it. Finally, things have slowed down to a more livable pace, and I am ready to start playing games and writing about them again.
The big question I am struggling with right now is which game(s) to play. I have a lifetime subscription to Lord of the Rings Online, so I am leaning towards it for now. I have already started a new character and I am working on the newbie quests now. Of course, with LOTRO becoming a free-to-play game soon, being a lifetime subscriber doesn’t mean much anymore.
I had focused heavily on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes when I started this blog. I contemplated starting it up again, but I just don’t see this game having much of a future. This dampens any desire I might have had to play it.
I have friends who play Star Trek Online. I gave the free trial a whirl but never got past that. Plus, my friends would be light years ahead of me by now. It was an interesting game, but it didn’t pull me in enough to make me stay.
The game I am really waiting for is Star Wars: The Old Republic. I just wish it was going to launch sooner than it is. It looks to be a fantastic experience, and I hope it is better than Star Wars Galaxies turned out to be.
So, the Ultimate Casual Warrior is back in the saddle. I will begin making regular posts soon.
Read MoreComputer Power Protection
There are many ways to protect your computer. You can use anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall software, but have you ever considered power protection? It is one of the most over looked areas of a computer setup. The video below will talk about power protection for your computer and what you can do about it. As with all upcoming content on this site, it will be explained in an easy to understand way that bypasses all the geeky terms and specifications and gets to the point as to why you should or should not use something.
Read MoreChanging Name And Focus
You might have noticed that the name of this blog has changed. I have decided to slightly change the focus of this blog so that I may talk about more technology than just MMO games. I would like this blog to be a place where non-geek technology users can come to get easy to understand information about technology in general. I will still write about my experiences with MMO gaming, but I will also mix in other tech subjects as well.
So I welcome you to the new Casual Tech Notebook blog. I hope you will enjoy what you find here.
Kevin
Read MoreArchet After The Burn
The newbie introductory instance in Lord of the Rings Online ended with me defending the town of Archet while it was under attack. The bad guys were driven off, but not before the town went up in flames. This is a good example of instancing done right. When you exit the instance and enter the game proper, Archet is a burned out town from that point on.
The first few quests are of your standard newbie type. I was sent out to kill diseased boars and a few spiders outside the Archet gates. I was whacking spiders around the Sprigley farm when I discovered their cellar. This is where my memory fails me because I can’t remember if this was in the game during the initial launch. I can only assume that it was.
When I entered the cellar I discovered underground caves full of spiders. I roamed around a bit and eventually came across an elite spider named Iornaith. The room this big spider called home was full of baby spiders but they did not attack me. I engaged Iornaith in battle and was easily victorious.
As it turns out, all of that was wasted time. I made it back to town only to be given a quest that would take me back to the caverns. I was tasked with finding a missing dwarf named Bali, and I found him near a cave entrance that turned out to be the rear entrance to the Sprigley cellar. Bali barely escaped the spiders with his life. His companions were not so lucky. He sent me into the cavern to find his dead companions and retrieve some journal entries from them. The bodies were wrapped in cocoons and were found in various sections of the cave. Once that was done, another quest sent me to kill Iornath, so I went back and slayed the big spider again.
Things have been easy so far. My character has not come close to dying, which is either good or bad, depending on how you look at it. The Guardian class has been fun so far.
