Rant 938 / Herpa Derpa

Played some Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Totally unimpressed.

I'm only level 2 so I might be changing my opinion in the future... if I don't uninstall it first.

Combat is terrible. Maybe I've been spoilt by Bethesda's Skyrim and Fallout games in recent years, but that's the impression I have right now about this game.

I'm surprised they even have the gall to price it at the same level as Skyrim (now higher because games' prices drop as they age).

First, stealth.

How do you stealth-kill the troll boss in the very first part?

It is impossible.

Even if you had crept your way to the door and crouched as you opened it, the boss battle begins with the three of them staring into your face as you stand upright after the cut scene ends.

What's the point of stealth?

Second, dagger Charge attack.

You cannot adjust the direction of the attack nor move a muscle after you begin charging.

NOT FUNNY, MAN!

These two alone were enough to make me ragequit the game.

50-60 bucks for that?

No. Just no.
















Tried Magic the Gathering: Tactics.

Gameplay is fine. The rest isn't.

I like the tactics but the game isn't solely about battling others.

The cards are simply too expensive. US$2.99 for 14 virtual cards?

No thank you.

The other way to get new cards is to buy more through auctions using another virtual currency, gold.

You get 2 per day via the daily quests, and the cheapest cards at the moment go for 3.

It also costs gold to put a card up for auction.

I used to be a big MtG fan (played between 6th-8th Ed) but this is just too expensive a game for me.

I think they really need to consider the fact that once bought, virtual cards cannot be sold for real money, unlike real cards, without selling the entire account.















Tried Tribes: Ascend for the second time.

The first time was terrible. I entered a Capture-the-Flag game in the America West server and it was a 1v2.

Gave me the mistaken impression that the game is dead.

So when I asked my bro, he was confused because it was nothing like that for him.

That's why I decided to give it a second shot and it was totally different.

That is, until 9pm (+8 GMT). I joined a game and it was a 1v0.

Derp.

So the game is dead at certain hours, which means it's not that popular.

Still, it's a pretty nice game.

The skiing is so fun! Had to play the tutorial to get it (got totally confused when I jumped straight into the game because I was wondering why I was sometimes speeding up and sometimes slowing down when I hold spacebar) and now I'm trying to get the hang of using the jetpack with the ski to maximise all the effect of the downslope skiing.

The most important thing is that all the upgrades and locked classes can be unlocked without spending money. Class upgrades cost only 1000 points and I can easily get that in one or two rounds.

Items (all reusable or passive) and locked classes cost over 10k but that's ok.

The game itself isn't that interesting but as a free game, it's pretty good.

What I learnt after a few games is that camping the flag is quite pointless. Most of the time, it's the experienced players who do the flag-capturing, and they never just run to the flag unless you're lucky.

The most likely scenario is that he would just ski like the wind and snatch it before you even know he's no longer in front of you.

Or he could leap up if the flag is on a raised platform, and that slows him down a bit. However, that's still way faster than a stationary flag camper.

The better players would then ski all the way to the sides of the map before proceeding back to base, thus avoiding all the people in the middle of the map where most of the action occur.

If the guy isn't that good, he would try to ski his way back in the most direct path, but that means he has to run through most of the players in the map.

Either way, he would have a headstart compared to the camping defender in terms of acceleration, though it's far easier to kill the latter flag-capping guy.

There are automated turrets to defend your base, but their heavy-duty shots are so slow even the slowest class can dodge them as long as they see them.

Moreover, they're frequently placed on raised platforms that block their line of sight when you're close enough below them, and they have a limit range.

This means with a grenade-type weapon with the trajectory, you can easily run close to it and destroy it.

It's basically a mere decoration. I have no idea why anyone would bother to upgrade them. They don't even slow me down! I can just keep skiing forward so thatas long as I don't stop, I'm safe.

So skiing is the main thing that makes the game fun, but it's hard to hit anyone with my weapons at 110km/h.

:(