Healer at Heart A healer's thoughts on MMO's.

11Nov/090

Busy Bee.

Sorry for the serious lack of posts.  I've just been playing all sorts of games lately.

Still chugging away in Aion.  My Cleric has reached level 34 and I've realized that I need to redo my action bars.  What I found out about action bars really made me happy.  Normally when you arrow down to get to another clean action bar it's just that one that changes.  Any extra bars you have on your screen stay the same.  Not so in Aion!  When I switched bars the other day to see how I would organize them, all the extra bars on my screen went blank.  Which means I get a clean slate.  So I've decided I need to spend time in setting up a healing layout and a grinding/DPS layout.  That'll be time intensive but definitely worth it.  I've taken over 320 screenshots!  You can find some of them here.

I've given up on Champions Online again.  I didn't get much further than last time either.  I did make a character I was loving and finally chose a powerset I was happy with but the controls and abilities just felt sluggish.  It seems I don't enjoy the fighting style.  This is just not a game for me.

Still playing Torchlight though not as much as last week.  I'm currently playing the Vanquisher on Easy mode (I think) since I've never really played a game like this.  I'm actually excited to go back through on another character and try a harder mode.  I think I'll try the Destroyer next.

I picked up Dragon Age: Origins as well.  I haven't gotten very far but I think the story is amazing.  Though this game does seem to be cut-scene heavy.  At least so far.  Not that that's terribly bad or anything.  As in Mass Effect, during cut-scenes you get to choose how you want to answer/ask questions.  I found this to be "meh" at best.  Your character doesn't talk or ask those questions.  The NPCs just respond as if you had.  Having played Mass Effect myself I find that a little disappointing.  I'm still trying to get the hang of combat since it seems I can't keep my teammates alive.  Though I love how I can give them roles to play that helps me out.

Uncharted 2 is finished!  Wow.  Just amazing.  That game is awesome!  If you don't have it yet ... what are you waiting for?!

30Oct/090

What I’ve been playing.

After my previous post I went out and bought a couple new games.  I figured that there will be times when I don't want to play Aion and to not burn out I thought I'd try some other games.  Here's what I've been playing:

Aion: I've reached level 32 on my Cleric and have been enjoying many Fire Temple and Eracus Temple Cavern runs.  I love PvE and instances so this method of leveling has me enjoying myself immensely.  Definitely loving the game right now.

Fire Temple

Fire Temple

Eracus Temple Cavern

Eracus Temple Cavern

Eufloria: I found this game on Steam and tried out the demo.  It's addicting at first but as the levels go by they get longer and longer, not necessarily harder.  It's been a nice distraction though.

Torchlight: After hearing a lot about Torchlight I decided to snatch the demo off Steam and try it out.  I played the Vanquisher and was having a blast.  These types of games don't usually grab me but Torchlight is something I'll most likely be buying in the near future ... if not today.

Uncharted 2: I've been watching Steve play through Uncharted 2 and I have to say I'm liking this game even more than the first one.  I think we're about halfway through so I'm looking forward to more great fun.

Champions Online: I've also purchased Champions Online.  I wanted to give it another go seeing as I didn't make it very far in the open beta.  My first character made it to level seven but I didn't like the feel of her.  My second character I'm loving and have played her to level 11.  The only down side to Champions (and it's a pretty big one) is the stuttering and graphics issue I'm having.  Now, I have a pretty good machine.  I can run Aion smoothly and even WAR ran better (just slightly).  But to play CO I have to turn off my second monitor, run Windows on default display, turn down the graphics, close iTunes, close Firefox, close Steam, and pretty much run nothing but CO fully maximized in order to stop the stuttering.  It doesn't make sense to me.  I still have some looking around to do to find any possible fixes/explanations.

Necthana

Necthana

Hopefully these games keep me occupied since I won't be buying any more until next year.

21Oct/092

Randomness.

Though most of my time is dedicated to playing Aion I've been dabbling in some other things.

First was the Dragon Age character creator.  I'm still unsure if I want to buy this game or not.  I love the teaser trailers/movies being released but I've never been able to get into that type of RPG.  I've tried and failed twice to get anywhere in Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.  I'll have to see how much time I want to invest in another game at the moment.

Here's a picture of the first character I made:

Saia Headshot

On the review of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves by Slurms on Multiplaying as well as it being talked about on their podcast, I went out and bought Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.  I'm a big fan of playing the first of something before playing the most recent release.  To be honest though, I'm actually just a spectator for this game, not the player.  I get much more enjoyment out of watching Steve (the boyfriend) play these games than playing them myself.  I have serious trouble aiming accurately in order to kill anything effectively or enjoyably.  The game does look fun though.  He's enjoying it a lot but did mention that the shooting/fighting parts of the game tend to get monotonous after awhile.  I don't pay much attention to scores sites give games (unless they're extremely low) but if Gamespot has given Uncharted a 8.0 and Uncharted 2 a 9.5 then I can't wait to see why the sequel scored better than the original.  I believe we'll be purchasing it this weekend.

Lastly I've been considering giving Champions Online another try.  This has been floating around in my head for a couple weeks now.  I don't think I gave it a whole-hearted attempt before cancelling my pre-order and giving up on it.  Like I mentioned previously though, I'll have to see how much time I want to allot for another game  since I'm already deep into Aion.