A Quick Round Up

It's been a quiet week for me game wise, hence not much updating going on here. Saturday night saw my usual static group in ESO which was good fun, as always. More questing with my little static group, including ticking off a few more dungeons and slaying a few named beasties out in the wild. We finished up at level 14 by the end of the evening which means not far to go now until unlocking the alternate load-out granted at level 15! That'll make a nice difference to me, being able to spec for ranged or melee combat at the flick of a switch. I'm considering using the second set of powers to augment my healing abilities by slotting a Restoration Staff and some of it's attendant powers, and moving the healing powers currently in my main skill bar over there and replacing them with more melee damage abilities. That would mean that my secondary skill set is incredibly Magicka dependant though, and I think I'd have trouble with running out of juice all the time. So my other option is to keep my main skill bar as it is, (which I'm finding very versatile and useful at the moment anyway), and augmenting that with a secondary skill set made up of bow skills which will keep a similar balance of Magicka and Stamina use that I'm already used to and my character build is set up to handle. I'll have to have a chat with the rest of the group before I decide I think, get some advice as they are both a lot more experienced with the game than I am. Saying that though, I have spent a little solo time in there this week. I spent a fun hour or two running around with my Nord Dragon Knight smashing things over the head with a two-handed hammer the other morning, and then last night I rolled up a new Sorcerer and got her to level 6. I'm finding jute much harder to come buy than iron ever was in those areas. I've managed to keep both my Templar and Dragon Knight in full suits of level appropriate armour all the way up so far, but my level 6 Sorcerer is currently stuck in 2 pieces of level 1 gear appropriate for her class and a few odds and sods I've looted on my travels! I think next time I go in with that character I'll ignore the quests for a bit and concentrate on some resource gathering. It's a fun class to play though. So far I've played three of the four class types available and each is a lot of fun in its own way. Zenimax has done a good job in that regard, the combat feels quite meaty and fun no matter what type of role you choose to play.

There's been no PlanetSide 2 to speak of yet this week, despite a big patch that has brought quite a few changes to the medic profession, including a nice new gun that seems pretty good and has seen the introduction of implants as a way of tweaking your soldiers abilities. This is the second time the implants have been introduced, they were taken out almost immediately first time around after a massive outcry from the player-base after it was felt they were massively overpowered. I haven't heard any crying about them yet this time around, so maybe they've had a more thoughtful implementation now. My outfit is looking to have a bit of a get together in there on Friday night, so i'm looking forward to that.

As the last post makes clear there was a little War Thunder as well, which I haven't had much time to play since so I won't go over that again here, which just leaves an hour or two in EVE to round out my list. Very little done in there to be honest. I'm currently umm-ing and ahh-ing over weather to buy a Battle Cruiser or just keep saving up and training until I can properly fit a Battleship. I can probably pull off a Battle Cruiser now, but as my current standings mean I can't do Agent 3 missions yet, I'm not sure if there's much point. I would like to get a Brutix at some point though, because I love how they look, even if the Myrmidon is probably the smarter choice.

The Art of Sneaking

Ragnar Grimhammer, Dragon Knight
of the Daggerfall Covenant

I had my first taste of PvP in The Elder Scrolls Online the other night. After my little static group had been adventuring around Auridon in the Aldmeri Dominion for a few hours on Saturday night we were joined in our Mumble channel by a few other folks who were going to take their Daggerfall characters to Cyrodiil to partake of some PvP. I'd recently got my own Daggerfall alt, a fierce Nord Dragon Knight called Ragnar Grimhammer, up to the required level 10 and so for the first time was able to join them.

First impressions are good. In principle it has a lot in common with the old Warhammer Online RvR gameplay; a huge open map with keeps and outposts for the teams to capture. In this instance though there are three teams instead of Warhammer's two, meaning there are usually multiple fights to choose from rather than just steamrollering or being steamrollered in one huge zerg. Cyrodiil, the map in which the PvP takes place, is gigantic. So much so that I felt totally out of my depth without a horse and I feel I really need to get one before I go back again. Fortunately I have the Imperial edition of the game meaning I can pick up a basic horse for the princely sum of 1 gold piece, so that's not a problem. The fights themselves tend to be of two types; large zergs attacking and defending keeps, and smaller skirmishes out in the open countryside between small bands of players. I prefer the latter, although the former is far more productive as far as XP and loot is concerned.There are also several PvE missions available whilst in the PvP zone, and this adds a sense of purpose to the proceedings, giving you something else to do other than tagging onto the back of your Empire's main zerg and hanging on for dear life. We spent a good deal of time doing these missions and so didn't really see too much of the huge pitched battles, though we did take part in a few keep defences. We spent a lot of time out in the wilds creeping about either trying to get to our quest destination without being spotted, or trying to get close enough to a group of enemies that we had a chance of taking down ourselves.

Sneaking outside an enemy Keep.

The sneaking mechanic is what makes the game so fun for me. As long as you stay crouched and far enough from an enemy player you won't show up on their screen. This makes for some fantastic moments of gameplay. Such as crouching behind a tree as dozens of enemy players stream past on horseback, just praying one of them doesn't stray too close. Or the time we spotted a couple of enemies lurking around some rocks on the brow of a hill, we fanned out to surround them, crept up as close as we could without being spotted and then all charged in for the kill with arrows whistling, spells crackling and swords and hammers swinging. It felt really epic!

The respawn map. I see a lot of this.

It's very fun, although with only limited ranged attacks available to me at the moment some of the fights, (mainly the big Keep defences/assaults), can get a little frustrating. I'm going to get a little more time sunk into that character I think to get him up to level 15, meaning I can have a bow and a melee weapon equipped at the same time and maybe even spend a couple of skill points on some bow attacks. All in all though, the PvP game in ESO gets a big thumbs up and Im looking forward to our next outing!

Adventure Time

The lighting effects in ESO are superb

My Saturday night this week was spent gadding about in the new shiny on my list of currently played games, The Elder Scrolls Online. I've got a small static group on the go in there with my RL friends and neighbours Welshtroll and his good lady wife. We get together on one of my nights off and spend a pleasant few hours questing through Tamriel with our Aldmeri Dominion characters, helping the needy, fighting monsters, exploring dungeons and generally fulfilling our destinies as great heroes of the age.

It's a very nice game. The quests are well put together and unlike most MMOs it doesn't feel like you are traipsing from one quest-hub to the next. The quests are nicely spread out through the world and there are plenty that are just out in the wild, waiting to be stumbled upon by adventurous explorer types. Best of all I've yet to come across a typical "Kill 10 rats" type quest. It's all fully voiced and the quest objectives are nicely varied, meaning we can spend several hours just chaining quests together without getting bored.

We seem to have accidentally put together a fairly synergistic group of classes. We've got a Khajiit Dragon Knight who is quite tanky whilst still being able to deal a good amount of damage; a Wood Elf Nightblade who does lots of stealthy sneaking about and has high point damage DPS; and I'm playing an Imperial Templar with a nice mix of damage and healing. So far we are able to pretty much burn through any foes we come up against before they have time to do any serious damage to us, but for the trickier ones our individual abilities often mean the difference between succeeding and the group wiping. We've had a few deaths along the way, but way less than I would have expected by now. In keeping with the differentness of the quests in ESO, similarly the characters feel different to most other MMOs. The limited hot bar and the directional FPS style attacks make for much more involved combat than in something like LOTRO or WoW. The combat feels solid, and while individually characters can sometimes feel a little underpowered, as part of our little group I do feel like something of a badass, which is always good!

The main thing the game has going for it though is it's graphics engine and world design. It is quite simply the best looking MMO ever released. We often find ourselves stopping mid quest to take in the scenery and the level of detail in the world is simply mind-boggling. Combined with a really good score and subtle but atmospheric ambient sounds the Tamriel of Elder Scrolls Online feels like a fully realised and lived in world. I can think of far worse places to spend a Saturday night.