Slow weekend for content around here as usual. I’m sensing a calm before the storm… hopefully a good storm. Before I go into talking about what I’ve been spending my time playing this past week, I want to share with you all what I’m looking forward to most in this coming week so that maybe you can find some interest in it as well.
On Tuesday (16th) WAR’s Land of the Dead will finally release. I’ve played around on the PTS and the new Sigil system is going to be a godsend for me. I’ve had the worst luck trying to get my greater wards. I refuse to spend 500g to buy the conqueror gear off the AH (which would put me at 3x greater wards), when after this patch all I’ll have to do is kill a few hundred people with the appropriate realm rank. I progressed in my Sigils really well in the short amount of time on the PTS that I’ve even lost interest in running Blood/Bile.
On Wednesday (17th) America’s Army 3 will be released. I never got into 1 or 2 but I do like tactical shooters and hopefully my friends will be interested. It’s on STEAM and pre-loaded already. You can’t beat the price tag on it either. It should provide a nice distraction until later in the week when…
On Friday-Sunday (19th-21st) Aion’s second beta weekend begins! This will be the highlight of my week as they allow us to play the Asmodians up to level 10 (hopefully with arena access). The band is getting back together (and combining with another) to form a fantastic guild. We’re going to play together this weekend officially as a group for the first time in-game and it should be a lot of fun. The more the merrier if you’re looking for friends.
This past week I’ve been splitting my time between Fable 2, Warhammer Online, Battlefield Heroes (can I say I’m in that beta?), a beta I know I can’t mention, and bursts of TF2/CoD4. I’m working my way through Fable 2 as a little side project.  I played it a bit at E3 2008 and thought it was decent, but I never actually played it at launch when Graev bought it. I’m playing through as ‘good’ and earning the love and admiration of the citizens of Bowerstone. I use guns/ranged the most with melee to finish off large groups in close combat. The game is more fun than I thought it would be, but still not quite what it could have been given all of Molyneux’s hype that it would be what Fable was not. I’ll finish it off sometime in the next two weeks.
My WAR time consists mostly of defending against pushes or participating in zerg pushes of cities. I blame the “realm war” system.  I’m still trying to get RR 50 to wear my Invader stuff, but it’s a long ways off (only RR 41 right now). I’m hoping that simply having the invader gear will unlock the sigil requirements rather than having to equip it… *crosses fingers for Mythic overlooking that little detail*.  LotD and how well I’m able to participate in the content will be huuuuuge for me and a lot of other people. It’s going to determine whether or not I play WAR a lot or not at all.
Very much looking forward to Land of the Dead. This is make or break time. I’m glad you mentioned AA3. I kinda forgot about that one and I somewhat enjoyed 1 and 2. Never really stuck with them, but I did appreciate what they were trying to do. I guess I have to much CS:S in me. But I’ll give 3 a look.
I also don’t mean to “WoW” up the article here but I ran across Blizz’z new Battleground and I must say this is the closest they appear to have gotten to a battleground they should have had a long time ago. I very much liked the old AV and if this BG holds true with “real” objectives that “really” will help turn a fight, then this may be good.
I haven’t yet tried WotLK, so I have no idea how the vechicles really work in a PvP atmosphere. But I am curious to know from you “WoWers” your opinion if you think from the description that it could make for good PvP.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p2/isleofconquest.xml
@Howdy Doody
I’m sure it will be fun for the first 30 or so times I grind it.
Loved Fable (the first one) — haven’t played Fable 2, but I heard its not as good.
I played Fable 1 and I actually enjoyed it. It was faaaaaaaarrrrrr (x10000) from what was promised, but it was still a good play. Fable 2 is actually just as good as Fable 1. I think I might like it more. It’s different and there is more to it than the first. If you liked the first one then I can’t see any reason why you wouldn’t like the second.
” crosses fingers for Mythic overlooking that little detail ”
Originally on the PTS you would get the unlock for the ward as soon as you had the item. Now it has changed so that you need to equip it. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news!
@Bartlebe
Baaaaah…you are right. Nothing brought back a rush of memories till I read that!
I’ve been playing Fallout 3 a bit lately. Pretty fun game, wish I had unlimited ammo 🙂
Yeah, I think you need to equip it now or something. They were going to do it differently at first but then found out people could simply trade around BOE gloves and boots to unlock sigils without having to actually earn them. God forbid Mythic not force you to grind for gear. 😛
With regards to the beta event this coming weekend, I saw mention somewhere that Aion pre-orders get access to all of the beta events. Can anyone confirm that an Aion pre-order yields beta access? Where does one go to preorder the game? (It seems like this should be obvious from the Aion website, but I couldn’t find it )
@Mlepinski: http://onlinecdkey.com/index/aion-online-presale-wbeta-p-243.html
I’m really hoping LotD works out. If it is terrible/buggy/boring… I’ll almost certainly cancel before the end of the month. I suspect I won’t be the only one too.
@mlepinski: Yes, pre-orders get access to all the beta events. You can pre-order from Gamestop or EB Games (same owner) in the US either online or in-store. If you do it in-store all you need to do is put $5 down and make sure they have the pre-order boxes. THe good thing about doing it in-store for only $5 is you’re essentially only using store credit and you can transfer it to another pre-order if you end up not liking Aion. If you pre-order from the Gamestop website then you’re probably going to have to spend the full price and be stuck with it.
You can also use that link Bartlebe provided, which a lot of our friends are doing if they live outside the U.S.
Regarding Aion pre-orders, does anyone know what the story is for European pre-orders? I couldn’t find any info about getting into the beta with it.
Beem playing Fable 2 as well and enjoying it. Lots of great games just around the corner!
hey guys, especially keen, I just heard the NDA for Aion online North America just dropped..so lets see some of them Screen shots and Vids..maybe? hehe….Always enjoy your review/commentary..thanks..here is where i got my info. http://www.aionsource.com/
I haven’t been playing WAR for the past few months. I enjoyed it, but the treadmill was getting to me. 1.3 is a welcome patch, but now i’ve filled my time with other things and the time sink that mmo’s are may limit my time in WAR anyway.
Because games like Halo can be quick and doesn’t seem when you pick them up to play them to have fun, I think I may eventually cancel my WAR account for good in anticipation of Global Agenda. Assuming that game is more about fun rather than being a time sink, I think it will win over many people.