Grumpy Old Nerds

"Holy Shit!" Those were my first words when I read the e-mail saying that I was chosen to test out Star Wars The Old Republic last weekend. I felt like I won the lottery until I was told that everyone was testing it out this weekend. Still even though I was one of the mere common folk I still had my time to test it, and by the maker I used Friday night, weekend, and Monday night to play the game to the fullest. There is so much to cover where do I even begin?



Well I will start off about with how I progressed. I didn't do what Mimic and Numbspoon did and took something to 20. I didn't want to progress that far knowing I would just have to do it over again, but thinking about it now, I would have no problem with doing exactly that. Instead though, I had the Consular at level 13, Inquisitor at 12, and Smuggler at 12 and tested the rest of the classes to about 4 or 5.

Let me just say this about the game, this isn't one of those "my basic computer should be able to handle the specifications" games. I have a fairly old pc that ran World of Warcraft fine with no lag. This game I had moments of severe lags and crashes, which while yes the game was still in beta, I was having more problems than my buds were, so I know the problem was coming from my system. I recommend getting one of those video cards in the hundred dollar range and above for maximum enjoyment. Regardless of the few crashes I had and some of the graphics being not so great on my screen, the game is amazing,

Don't get me wrong though, it's not true perfection. Here are some down sides that I discovered. Customization is really lacking, basically it's the same customization that you have seen in other Bioware games; limiting, and being Pre-Mass Effect 3, lacking long hair options for the female characters. That's not to say that this game in the future isn't going to have more customization options or an expansion down the road with a galactic barber shop, just stating what was there at the start. The choices in customization so far were limited also, like the Miraluka as you can alter what mask they wore and give them scars, but no tatoos or facial hair, while another race you can have scars and facial hair but no tatoos or masks. Also there is only four body types: scrawny, average, tall and muscular, and husky, you can't adjust the height or weight to your liking. Oh and being able to customize your companions? I was under the impression that once we earned them we could customize them just like we did for our character. Instead of that we earn certain packs and items to help change the characters looks just like upgrading your own equipment, so unfortunately everyone runs around with the exact same companion from the start (level 9) because you can't customize them right away. Overall, customization is disappointing, but it's an obstacle that for me, is easy to get over.

Another down side I can point out is a bit of a double edged sword for me. The voice acting is definitely a blessing and a fresh concept for the MMO's and well done through the majority of the quests. However, as I went through, I noticed that the downside can be with your companions spamming their chatter. Even if it's not your companion you could walk by someone else's companion and hear them speak. There was even a bug to where you would randomly hear Mako (Bounty Hunter companion) in the starting levels even when no one brought their companion to the level 1-8 areas. Most of the time though I was too focused on what I wanted to accomplish to notice these things, but this was brought up in our discussion through ventrilo.

Other than that there were a lot of bugs, but most of them could be summed up as minor, However, let's not forget people, every game even at launch time suffers from bugs, that's why there are things called patches and maintenance days. Hell, even to this day, WoW still used patches to fix bugs, and it's been the number one MMO for how long now?

During my gameplay, I realized something that set SWTOR apart from the usual MMO. From the start the character you create is a bad-ass, which is much different than my last entry stating that your character is usually always worthless in an MMO. Right from the start you are already in the thick of things: whether it's a slave training to become a Sith Apprentice, a Smuggler who landed at the right place at the wrong time, or a Consular Apprentice about to train with his master when the shit hits the fan. Action is intense from the get go, usually involving you killing 3 enemies at a time. Not to worry though, at the start you shouldn't have any problem dispatching them as your skills are more then enough to handle the starting crowd. Another great addition to the gameplay is having a rest button that restores your health and force powers to full in about 15 seconds (and that ability has 0 cooldown so you can constantly fight and rest up). The rest ability is unique to all characters, imperial agents have a droid that brings up a holo screen and he swipes through the profiles of his targets like Tom Cruise did in the Minority Report, Bounty Hunters test their equipment, Smugglers practice shooting a coin out of the air, Sith Inquisitors pace back and forth like Darth Maul waiting to battle Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace, just to give a few examples.

Back to the voice acting, for the most part it is okay, but I feel like, even though it would have cost a lot more money out of Bioware's pocket, they should have had multiple voice actors for each class. I feel like the male voice actor for the soldier really didn't fit how a soldier should sound. Plus the male voice for the consular really didn't match the husky build I created. Some are really good though, I enjoyed the voice acting of the male smuggler and the female inquisitor.

One thing to mention is that two classes share the exact same starting area but they both start off at slightly different points. Each class has their own individual story but other than that you share the exact same side quests. Also, traveling about, there are some zones that only your specific class can access unless you partied with a member of the other class, then they can help you out, but they don't interfere in your story options. Entering those class specific zones are like entering your own instance where you don't see other players taking your kill, making you wait for respawns, and other bits of frustration so you can enjoy your storyline progress in peace.

Eventually at around level 9 you end up getting the ability to get your first companion. This varies from class to class, for example, the Smuggler's companion will join right away starting with the level 9 quest of your story, and others like the Sith Inquisitor involve you going through an incredibly hard fight to defeat your companion to earn having him by your side. Once you earn your companion, they are a significant help to fighting enemies, any of the quests in the starting area that are deemed as heroic are now easy to complete and sometimes they will chime in on character conversations and there will be a special option in certain instances like these, for instance, I was able to use the Sith Inquisitor's companion as a threat to eat some enemy out for your head. Once you hit level 10 you can send them off to do crew skills, which is your crafting for the game. You can choose from 3 skills and those are abilities that your companion will be able to use. These skills so far from my progression can range anywhere from 3-6 minutes, that might increase depending on higher skill levels. I will tell you this right now: diplomacy is not the light side/dark side speed booster that you would think it would be. You only gain a +1 to either side depending on which to pick (which are easily labeled as light side or dark side options so you can remain on the path you wish to rise in), though in return you gain medical items (which are good for some of the bio-chem creations) and companion gifts, which just like in other Bioware games help gain approval ratings....very handy if your Sith Inquisitor has a heart...which your starting companion will hate the options you pick with a fiery passion.

There are some down sides to the crafting, however. Companions can come back from certain tasks that you send them on as complete failures, which I wouldn't mind if it didn't actually cost credits each time you sent them out on a task (if they are actually crafting an item for you it's free). Sometimes the item you get back is completely random then what you need. Archeology was the only one I seen that was constantly giving me the materials I needed for synthweaving (didn't get to try salvaging, scavenging, and the tech crafts though). Bio-analysis I would seem to have a 50/50 chance of getting what I needed, the other item might have been for later crafts, I have no idea at that point. Another downside is if you just have the one companion and you get out of the starting area, some conversation spots actually require having your companion around, so if you sent them off on a six minute task and find the conversation spot just a few seconds later you have a long wait on your hands. These were just minor problems and the credit issue I didn't really have a problem with at the start, and that's just selling any items and junk to a vendor, I didn't even bother trying to market the items.

At level 10 you get to pick out how you are going to specialize your character. You find a quest giver on a ship to talk to a person (normally the person you need to go see is right beside your class trainer) and that person will explain your two specs. You also get to preview each spec before you hit confirm (decide carefully as there is no specialization switching...you only get to re-do the talent trees for that particular specialization). Usually you get a gift that will be in a big in your inventory once you specialize, like the Consular, if he went the sage path, you'll get a off-hand item that will boost your force abilities, Smugglers that spec into gunslinger will get there second pistol, Inquisitors that spec for assassin will get there double-bladed saber, and so on.

Speaking of class skills, there were a few minor issues that I believe will be fixed up. My Consular was a healer and sometimes the ability didn't register properly; sometimes my 1.5 cooldown bar went past it's mark, sometimes it would reset itself halfway through a heal if I was spamming the heal button, and other times it took a few clicks to register the ability. Some of those problems could have been with my computer though. Another problem I had was the cover system of the Smuggler and Imperial Agents. While it's absolutely fun, sometimes I just wanted my character to crouch where they were to face an enemy and instead they would roll over to the green image of them that only popped up after you hit the cover button (usually if the green image appears when you hit cover you automatically take the space of that green spot...otherwise you crouch down) which ended up making you face away from your target. Once your facing away from the target, if you use the mouse in the slightest, like holding right click down to bring the enemy into the center view, you would break cover. A minor problem, sure but if you're doing a flashpoint, that could be a waste of DPS, which could cause some unnecessary extra damage that the party will be taking.

One last thing I can discuss is flashpoints, which most might know as dungeons or instances. You come across your first one at level 10 once you board the ship that leaves the starting area. The republic side was definitely more entertaining than the Sith side, but that's not to say that the Sith side was bad, and maybe the fun factor evens out with the Sith have a few that are more fun than the republics and vice versa. The Esseles, which was the republic's flashpoint, was action packed from start to end and each side had several conversation sections through each flashpoint. While your entire party gathers and picks their options and you see who wins the rolls you get sucked into the story but each character having their own say-so throughout the entire flashpoint. There are certain scenarios during the flashpoints to that effect the outcome, but does not affect the points you earn. For example there's a section where you either got to spend time helping engineers out, fighting more enemies, or you choose to sacrifice them and continue on. If the dark side person won the roll and they die, but you picked to spare them, you'll continue on from the dark side section of the story, but you still earn your light side points that you picked.
The action is intense in these flash points too, enemies are trying to take over your ship and the walls will explode and then enemies will pour out of that hole in the wall, you'll be rushing through the cargo bay and you'll witness a ship crash close to you, and all sorts of intense shit that simulates an downright space warzone.

I really have nothing else to say at this point. The few days I had to test the game proved to be an amazing experience, and while there were a few small bugs here and there I would say this game is ready to go. I know I'm anxious for the early access bonus in less than two weeks time. I can tell you I'm already hooked on this game by making game references in real life already. I came out of a convenience store and my receipt fell to the ground when it was suppose to go in the trash can. It was freezing rain at that moment and at first I shrugged and walked to my car, but then I had a change of heart, returned to the receipt and put it in the trash can. After I did that I immediately said "Light side points" and went in to my vehicle. So I've already shown that I'm addicted to this game and when it comes out, I will be more than happy to call this game my new MMO to get zombified into. It's kind of amusing that I managed to cleanse myself of World of Warcrack and now I'm getting into a new drug call Star Warscrack: The Old Republic.

Earlier in the month, DC Universe Online was announced as being free to play. While it is cool to have another MMO free to play there is another MMO that had an official launch on September 28th called Dragon Nest. So which is the better one to play? Well honestly if you have time for both or are playing a better MMO then the two mentioned, more power to you. However since these two MMO's are so close together in releases, I am going to pit these two against each other and give you my opinion on which is the better one to play. I am going to pit the two freebies against each other in gameplay, graphics, sound, and overall fun factor. So without further adieu, lets start off this battle.

We'll start off with the sound category. This I'll give the edge to Dragon Nest as the sounds of connecting with the enemies and connecting with an object are a lot better. I feel like DC Universe Online's sound effects could have been a lot better if they actually wrote out the sound effects along with your moves like the Adam West days of Batman. It just sounds off, for example, the sound effect of flinging a punch sounds like your flag being swung as fast as possible, another example is an acrobatic taking big strides create a woosh sound instead of actually hearing feet hitting solid ground. Dragon's Nest on the other when you hit a barrel, it sounds like you connected with a barrel, and breaking it you get the sounds of shattering wood and swinging a flail (which glad to see as a weapon in a game by the way) sounds like a flail being swung.

Next part of the sound category is music and voice acting. The music in Dragon Nest is ok but quite common for the fantasy MMO. If you don't understand what I mean, I'm talking about the folksy festival music that almost sounds like you should be clapping your hands to a gypsy dancing circles around a bonfire or that sounds like a flute away from being a legend of zelda song. The music side for DC Universe Online is a bit bi-polar, some places like the police headquarters/nightclub places (yes you heard me police headquarters and night clubbing are apparently one in the same in this game...) deliver such horrible music that sounds like a techno version of elevator music while other places like outside in Gotham City, the music is well orchestrated and almost sounds like the start of the Batman theme. If only Metropolis had the same care as outside of Gotham City...I would have loved to have flown around in a knock off version of the Superman theme. Even though DC Universe has some bad music I do like that it strays from the common MMO music, so that's why DCUO gets the edge there, leaving it down to just the voice acting to determine the winner.

The voice acting for Dragon Nest is ok, but there's no voice you hear in the game that you will actually recognize and fan-gasm over. I read up that the asian version of the game gets Gackt as a voice actor, which Gackt to me is a talented enigma, but that doesn't help us with the U.S. version of this game. The Voice acting for DCUO, all I have to say is "Hey Kids! It's Mark Hamil! Applause!" (A Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back reference to those that didn't get it). That's right, Mark Hamil as The Joker, and various other voice actors from the actual animated series put there voices into the game to enhance the gaming experience. That's a win, and that's why in this category DC Universe edges out over Dragon Nest.

Onward to gameplay! Both games have the same mechanics in that left mouse click is your basic attack, right click is a stronger attack, and then you have the number keys for your various powers and skills you earn. I have to say I give the edge to Dragon's Nest on this because Dragon's nest if you actually hold your left mouse button down you can pull off your four hit combo, there's that and I haven't ran across problems with my moves not registering, where as DCUO is so fast paced that sometimes where your combos involve alternating which mouse button you click, it doesn't register the exact combo you are trying to pull off. I also feel that DCUO also hurts itself with the energy bar and having to recover it by unleashing combos on your target. I understand the argument of "some of the heroes and villains don't use there powers often" which is true but in the case of needing heals and needing your defensive abilities, I find this to be a huge pain in the ass. Also a pain in the ass with DCUO is the boss battles. You will never have a easy boss battle which I can understand the need for back and forth fights making the whole comic thing more authentic but when you can unleash all of your abilities and attack as fast as you can and you still only end up whittling about half of the boss's bar down before he completely destroys you is absolutely cheesy. Also, it makes the battles look horrible with both the boss and you flailing at each other, it looks like two fish out of water flapping against each other (which doesn't look any better with a friend helping out...just looks like more fish flapping against each other). Dragon's Nest fights are smooth and the boss battles are less challenging thanks to having an actual mana bar and the bosses actually taking there times telegraphing moves having patterns like any boss in a video game would so you can fight them stress-free, unlike the DCUO bosses that have no predictability and then rushing up and zerging you.

Onto graphics, I feel like the edge once again has to go to Dragon Nest. DCUO's animation in it's fast paced combat I find to be too choppy, and sometimes the animation of the energy attacks do not appear on the screen, for example the Hand Blaster types have a combo where they charge up a beam of energy, then after connecting with that form a big ball of energy over head and toss it at the target, but sometimes the ball doesn't show and you just have a over head flinging motion, though it still registers that the move connected. I have not experienced that kind of problem with Dragon's Nest and all of the moves have a smooth complete animation behind them. Both graphic wise are cartoony, which doesn't bother me one bit, though I feel Dragon Nest is a lot more colorful and livelier.

On to the topic of Fun Factor. DCUO does deliver when it comes to the inner child at first, having your child hood heroes or villains speaking to you and giving you quests and thanking you for your help (or thanking you for not being incompetent in the villains case). Sometimes getting a chance to actually fight alongside your favorite heroes was epic. I remember doing the battle of Smallville helping Superman fight Doomsday made me giggle like a school girl. However there is some moments where I just wished some of the chain quests could be skipped over and go straight into the fight, like the starting area for Superman, I just wanted to go "Ugh, can't I just go punch Gorilla Grod in the face now?" Circe and Wonder Woman's entire quest arch I found completely annoying as well. Another thing I find weird about the game is you fight the boss, then defeat them, then you get the cut scene on why that particular character wants to rule the world or defend the city, etc. Shouldn't the cut scene be before defeating them to add more impact to the story?

Dragon's Nest though I'm finding more entertaining. Mainly because it has cut scene driven storylines that at the moment seems to be going from the start of the game till the very end (I can't confirm that though since while I did level cap in DCUO, I'm only at level 18 out of the US cap of 32 at the moment). This leads me to one gripe and it could be said for the majority or maybe all of the MMO's so far. Why do they make your character seem so incompetent? It happened with World of Warcraft: Catacylsm where every new zone you went into led to you being knocked out or captured and it's like, ok I helped slay Ragnaros, Illidan, Lich King, but I get knocked out in a cut scene by non-elites of my level? What the fuck?! This game almost made me think otherwise at first because one cut scene a enemy in the game was tossed over to the boss and you just walked into the scene. I was like "Sweet! Change of pace!", but from that point on for the next three boss battles afterwards you get knocked out...and then a few levels later you end up getting bullied and then rescued by someone that deems you worthless and considers you a slave...it's like geeze this game is the worst then Final Fantasy XI in making you feel like you have a worthless character, and in that game your major enemy for 40 + levels is onion creatures, rabbits, bees, worms, and crabs...crabs that take 5 other people to kill! What the fuck Square-Enix?! Despite the worthless seeming character the game's story, graphics, and smooth gameplay just made this game more enjoyable to me then DCUO.

Just because I declare Dragon Nest the winner doesn't mean DCUO is horrible, and honestly both of them can use some major improvements in certain areas. Both of them can use improvements in customization, especially Dragon Nest since there's only a single digit amount of hair styles, clothing styles and colors that you can pick. Also gaining costume looks is rare in Dragon Nest unless you spend actual cash but earning levels do give you the gifts of obtaining different costume pieces that only last for a couple of days, so wait until you get the full set before using them all. DCUO needs to do the same, while it does have a variety of outfits it really needs to gain a lot more, I recommend taking a look at the customization of City of Heroes. While I do like the fact that there's extra styles to earn through quests and missions, there need to be more styles to gather in game, and not just through tokens to earn special armor, like using the currency that you currently only spend on sodas (your health potions so to speak) to devote to clothing. Also DCUO really needs to focus on boss mechanics, please look at other MMO's on how to do a boss battle as the bosses shouldn't be recklessly flailing on you with you defeating the opponent determined almost by a matter of luck. Dragon's Nest I want to feel like when I'm playing a MMO that I am playing a hero not an incompetent idiot, but saying that and I'm uncapped I hope the character redeems himself, he really needs to. Also the party mechanic is pretty terrible. You can only party up in the closest town before you go a few screens over to go into the appropriate dungeon portal. Why in the world can you not just find the party before the portal? I can understand trying to make the traffic in the game easier, but would it be that congested? Could you not keep the single player pathways and just have the portals end up linking together if your partied up and go through the portal so you can come out the same end?

So to end things off, they're free. So give both DC Universe Online and Dragon Nest a try and let me know what you think of both. I still do play both but I am playing Dragon Nest more. If you play Dragon Nest, feel free to find me on the Argenta East Server under Woowuo the paladin, or Alraphise the acrobat. On DCUO you can find me on the PVE server under Tenthmandown. Now to sum up and rate everything below.


DC Universe Online - Pros: Authentic voice actors of the animated series interact with you by assigning you the quests. Mark Hamil being a mentor as The Joker is pure win.

Interacting with the heroes and villains that you know from your favorite DC Comics and in some cases getting to fight alongside or against them.

Fast Paced Action can sometimes get your adrenaline pumping.
A good bit of customization (though far from the greatest) Earning new costumes and styles in game can sometimes be better then what you originally chose you hero to wear.

Cons: Bad, almost horrible fighting mechanics if you are a melee fighter (it's much easier as a ranged fighter). To go along with this horrible boss mechanics.

No crafting, some might see that as a good thing but to me, it's just one less thing to do at end game content.

Game has more bugs then Joe's Apartment, resulting in a lot of downtime problems.

Graphics are just ok, almost PS2, regular X-Box quality.

Could use much bigger character customization



Dragon's Nest - Pros: Good graphics, smooth animation

Fun, flashy moves

Smooth controls

Excellent ongoing story with a quest tab that's easy to keep track of the entire story and current objectives

Most dungeons are pretty brief only last 10-12 minutes on normal difficulty. Excellent if you don't have much free time for MMO's.

Cool boss battles

Cons: Horrible party access in my opinions.

Could use more variety of music (dungeon music always converts into encounter music as soon as you get near enemies so your hearing the same music over and over)

Completely lack of customization, and not that much variety in appearance of armor changing (you do get better armor to increase your stats, but the clothing will remain looking the same)
NPC's find you annoying, cut scenes make your character seem like a loser so far (prove me wrong end content) almost feel like your stripped from trying to be a hero in the game.

Coolstorm here, and I want to thank Numbspoon for giving me the privilege to talk about MMORPG's, otherwise known as massively multiplayer online role-playing games. I'm here to cover not just the popular one's coming out, but also the free MMO's out there. Yes I do download a few of those from time to time to try to relieve myself of the boredom from waiting for the delays of one major MMO to the next one. Speaking of major MMO's, today I'm going to be talking about the one the majority of the community has been waiting for, that being Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic.

I'm going to start off by offering my opinion on one question. Is this game going to kill WoW (World of Warcraft to the few of you that might be living under a rock...with an internet connection)? My answer is, I certainly hope not. Now before all you anti-WoW people curse me up and down hear me out, for am I on your side. Trust me. I hope SWTOR makes mad profits, however I want World of Warcraft to stay alive as well, so the trolls that are there now can stay there and STAY THE HELL OUT OF SWTOR. Their kind is not needed in Bioware's upcoming MMO. This is where the grumpy old nerd in me comes out and screams "Get off my (trade chat) lawn!" I do not want to see people using trade chat as a general chat. When the entire population did that for World of Warcraft, that was a sure sign that the majority of MMO players out there are nothing but lemmings playing the role of rats and an ape playing the part of the Pied Piper. No, I'm not talking about an ape like Caesar, I'm talking about the kind where if you set them down in front of a monitor, one of the first thing's they'll do is take a shit, then fling it at the monitor. Let's bring nothing but civilized, mature players into SWTOR please though I know something like that is futile as there's always the batch of black sheep or attention whore types with mommy and daddy's silver spoon shoved up there ass no matter the MMO.

Moving on, I have to say I am really looking forward to this game. I know a lot of people are antsy because they pre-ordered the game for early access and beta weekends; which most haven't received that yet, and with the game being scheduled to come out in December 20, 2011, that's leaving very little time left before release. It almost makes pre-ordering just for early access mean absolutely nothing. To me though, even if early access is just for a week or two, if I get past the starting zones with one of my characters before the full launch then I'll be satisfied. I understand that Bioware has been listening to the beta players to try to make things perfect and I applaud them for that as well.

The SWTOR website just posted up a new trailer today showing off all out wars and between the two factions, more stories, and twilek's in slave leia outfits (yes yes, the pathetic perv in me caught that part and screamed out hell yeah!). I am really excited for this game. Though, I also have some concerns about it as well. If this game is treated with the love and care that Bioware had for the Mass Effect series and not Dragon Age 2. This game should be about as grand as they can get. Keep an eye out as I will have more SWTOR to discuss as well as other MMO's in the posts to come.