Thursday, October 2, 2008

Quite the weekend coming

And it is all thanks to the "Please come back to us" trials that several of the games are attempting.
I wonder how many will actually try these?

With LOTRO and Vanguard pushing the "Hey looks at us, we made updates, and you may like us now" free time, it is a chance to go back and see what changes have been made...

First off, I already did some Vanguard last night.


My first login was met with disaster, as all 3 of my characters were gone.

Deleted. History.

WTF???

It has not even been 6 months, and they just haphazardly delete your characters? Makes no sense to me.
I left AoC for 4 months, and all of my characters were still there. LOTRO also had kept my characters from the 6 month hiatus I took, and they were on my login screen when I came back for the year anniversary previously.

So, already my impressions were soured.

I then proceed to make a new character using the revamped models.
What a difference. A few issues still exists like limited hair styles for each race. But, dang you could make a pretty Elf now.
I then proceeded to try out the new trial Isle.
I arrive, and as I start to move I am met with massive stuttering.
8500 CPU with 6mb cache, ATI 4870 video which runs AoC at a smooth 60FPS, and 4 gigs of 1066 DDR2 with 64 bit Vista. (For those who do not understand that garbage...just let me say ..."VROOM")

But, hey, maybe I need to make some adjustments. Okey doke.

I change a few settings in graphics, and hit apply...the screen starts flashing between my desktop and the game. All of the UI components disappear. I finally after wrestling with this for a few, get it to shut down (The secret?...I held my tongue in my left cheek, and stuck my right thumb up my nose as I proceeded to chant in Latin. I personally think the sacrifice of the virgin rat helped.)
I proceeded to start it back up (Did I mention I am a masochist?)
And got back in.
I ran around a little to see if textures would load up. I was hitting about 40+FPS, so getting better.
I then realize I have no control to spin my camera to look at myself (usually 99% of MMO's allow you to hold the right mouse, and rotate the camera to look at your character), so I went into control options to see if an item was unchecked.
I did not find anything and hit cancel.
The demonic strobe effect started again.

ARGH!

This equals too much frustration. I was done.

I am sure there are some ways to fix this, but why should I have to hassle with such issues.
And the character deletion really just ruins the whole "Come back and try" deal.
SOE has said "over 1000 bugs fixed..."

Cool. Now only 99,000 more to go!

As to LOTRO, it is loaded and I have sent an email to my old friend to let him know I am coming back, and that I am ready to max out my character (this way I give the game an honest trial...I have a level 40 or somewhere around that, so he is ready to hit 50).
Hopefully we can team up and knock out some quests and see if the game gives me an honest feeling on if I would be willing to give Turbine the benefit of the doubt.
I am still peeved over some things I have seen, but at the same point, many believe I have not been fair to the game.

So, Vanguard got it's shot and I am officially done there.

Lets see if LOTRO can at least offer something better.

Also, as a final note on this wall of text...the wife and I hit level 20 in Tortage strictly doing all of the regular quests. It was a total blast.
We could have left at level 17, but we decided to follow some of the other quest lines which were quite fun (and were not the Destiny quests).
And we eliminated EVERY quest in our log.
I am duly impressed that the quests for one do not ever turn Gray (so they become non-xp quests) and that they last until you hit max.
Basically, the Tortage experience gives you two ways to play the island, and fun can be had in either format (Destiny or Non-Destiny).

We did find one problem.
One zone (The Ruins) has a hidden entrance that when we try to access the door says we need the quest to open it.
Now, we are mystified. I really wonder what is behind that door, and I plan to look into that.
So, our problem? A QUEST WE DID NOT DO!!!!
(lol)
Ok...completionist attitude there, but I GOTTA do it,....ya know?

Anyways, there it is...all this text I am sure you skimmed over.

If you paid attention, you will see that I also am adding a read more option. As I tend to write quite a bit in a day, I figured this will make it easier to skim my posts and just read more of the ones you like...
Hope you enjoy it...
Glad you stopped by...comments always appreciated...
(I feel so happy, that I may be turning off moderation soon...woohoo)

5 comments:

Stargrace said...

VG:

There is an option for sure to turn off the swing to look at first person dealie, I forget how but I know it's there, found it myself without too much issues.

Odd that your characters were missing. I've left for long bouts of time before but all of mine were still there. Shame that happened, too.

I run a fairly outdated computer, but have no issues with VG as far as stuttering or FPS goes - as long as I turn off shadows. Shadows hurt. Though I only run a 8800 dual core something something and I don't really expect games to run all that great for me anyhow.

I'm of course biased towards VG, since I actively play it (despite what my posts may show) and enjoy it a great amount. The new starter island has had over 100 people on it in prime time every day that I've played, and 40+ typically in the 'off' day time hours. It's great to see.

Yes, there are still bugs. Depth of the game and the fact that they actively work on everything in huge amounts keeps me coming back.. I can't help it. ;)

Gamer Hudson said...

Vanguard was supposed to be my next EQ1, instead it really stunk. I honestly think they tried to do TOO much too soon when launching this game. Well that and the fact it was a buggy piece of trash.

Everytime I try to go back, it lets me down.

Anonymous said...

The freebie trial for returning customers only allows you to make new characters, not play existing ones. I'm fairly certain that why you weren't seeing your old charcters.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and I'm with Stargrace on the subject of Vanguard. I think it has a lot to recommend it, and almost all of the obstances to enjoying it are gone. My system is admittedly fairly badass (or at least it was a year or so ago when I built it,) but I run Vanguard as smoothly as anything else.

I am certainly going to get back to it sooner or later.

Elementalistly said...

@Ardwulf

I came back on the "return" weekend on my old account, and not on a trial.
It would seem odd that they would not allow you access to your old characters on a "return" weekend.
But, looking at VGPlayers, you are correct.
Now, this is what I read about the "return" weekend...
MMORPG
If you still have Vanguard installed, just log in and start playing. If you've misplaced your disks, you can reinstall the game through Station Launcher, our simple one-click application that delivers all your Station games, friends, and community news right to your desktop.

It states nothing about it being a "trial".

But, it is ok, as the performance is still less than adequate for a "hoss" system like mine with all new tech.
I would prefer games that run well instead.
Good effort on their part.