Sheesh, time slipped away from me. This might be the longest I’ve gone without writing, but at least there’s been a decent discussion going on in my last two entries.  I haven’t been hiding under a rock doing nothing. I’ve actually done quite a bit of gaming this past week and I want to catch you guys up.
In WoW, Graev and I are both at the point where we have nearly the best gear possible pre-raid. On one hand it’s a good place to be, but on the other it’s dangerous. It’s dangerous because this means the mental state has been reached where we question “what now?”  Our guild is just about ready to begin raiding — next week we’ll schedule our first official night — but until then we’re just running heroic dungeons for no real reason.  I don’t feel bad saying that the game feels boring right now. This is the reason why WoW’s model of themepark dungeon grinding is so terrible: You can love the game and then flip on a dime. Pugs make it worse; they bring out the worst in me. It will subside, though, once we start raiding.
I’ve also been playing some Battlefield Bad Company Vietnam. I really, really like it! It’s slower pace than BFBC2 since the weapons are more crude and there’s a lack of the modern tech that lends itself to fast and fraggy. The destructible environments are a lot more realistic and the maps aren’t completely leveled like they are in BC2.  I would like to see some better vehicle utility from boats and helicopters, but what we have is acceptable. The maps are nice, although I wish we had planes. Overall I feel like it’s a great value for $15.
Now… here’s something you might be interested in.
Graev convinced me to play DC Universe Online. The game has gotten mixed reviews and a skeptical sit-back-and-watch attitude from me so far. However, I’ve watched enough of the videos, seen Graev play, and think it’ll be worth a deeper look. It’s 75% downloaded which means I’ll be able to play it tonight and write up my thoughts for tomorrow. We’re going to play Villains on a PvP server and see just how close we can come to being true villains by becoming infamous world PvPers. If nothing else, this will provide us a good opportunity to bring you guys some interesting analysis of what the game did or did not do right. The guinea pigs are here and ready to go.
If you have a 360 or PS3 controller to attach to your PC, I highly recommend it for DCUO.
IMHO, the extensive button combos required for weapon skills and just generally playing the game are both more enjoyable in DCUO with the controller. You can still use the keyboard and mouse, so it’s a nice addition.
I’d be interested if you’d be willing to try out Champions Online (again?) when it goes free to play on the 25ths. I think a CO F2P v. DCUO blog post or two would be worth reading.
I’ll take the challenge.
Looking forward to your review on DCUO, but please try it with mouse and keyboard to give us a real taste for the game.
Hey, can you post a link or two of the mixed reviews you read about DCUO? I went to Metacritic, and they dont have any posted. I’m about done with the video watching, and am looking for some writeups on the game.
Well I bought DCUO Friday to hold me over until next Rift beta. I have no problem with the combos. But then I’m always a big fighting games. I also use a gaming mouse. My ice tank is 17th right now. I see my self on this game for couples of month.. when rift comes out.
I’ve been following DCUO, it actually looks pretty tempting. I watched all of Total Biscuit’s beta videos, and the game actually seems like a very solid effort: A deep combat and character building system, top quality voice acting, polished network code, and (in Total Biscuit’s opinion at least) good support for both PC and PS3.
It’s especially tempting to me as someone who’s interested in seeing at least some MMOs shift toward an action-oriented control scheme, and away from the spreadsheet-and-hotkey setup (as in RIFT, for example). I’ll be curious to see what you and Graev think of the game. 🙂 Perhaps I’ll buy and play for a month or two, we’ll see.
I’ve watched a few vids on DCUO and from what I have seen its a duplicate of city of heroes. That’s not a bad thing but meh I’ve done it before.. what’s different here? I even saw the mundane quests they have of kill 10 of these etc…ugg i cant do that shit anymore..
Actualy there is very little(apart from general mmo fare) resemblence to City of Heroes, lots of mechanics are actualy similar to Champions online – your normal attacks build power (actualy killing something does that, but atmount of combo hits supposedly gives more), there is a block ability, good thing is its executed much better, block is not all powerfull, as there are breaker attacks in weapon combos.
@Keen
Glad that your are chosing to go PVP, as pve doesnt encourege ppl to move away from mashing trough, nor does the game does of good job of explaining what does interupts at vulnruble to block means in attacks. I was clueless drone for most part until i started running into serious pvpers in Legend PVP and getting my ass handed to me. Now i have some grasp of normal, ranged and heavy attacks for both.
Maybe will do some pvp on new eu pvp server – Sapphire Hero Ice Martial Arts Flight
All in all game is not stellar, but its got its good points. And the DC brand should give it bit more juice than Champions Online. Voice overs are good, and mission briefings are the upside. Graphics are so so, the engine got some tech power, but textures and models are bad and bland for most part(flowing capes vs stone hairdoos), 3D team clearly didnt get the priority.
I am curious about your review. I just took a quick look and at first sight…it looks horrible. Arenas…instanced PvP combat…and even cries for cross faction PvP on their forums…that was too much to handle. It looks like there is the possibility of open world PvP but it sounds like it is meaningless (you get nothing for it? no real death penalty etc.)
Been following DCUO development and TotalBiscuit’s vids and the game looks much more solid and more has been made of the IP than the previous Superhero games.
I’m a bit wary of the 2 project leads though -very evasive in their mailbag vids and just a bit disingenuous so not sure how the mid or endgame will be or if the game is much beyond the 2 cities right now.
And yeah it was designed for game controller (since it’s a PS3 game too) and this comes across in the various reviews.
The game itself is pretty engaging. I feel like a super hero/villian and the graphics are good. It really is a fun game.
For an MMO, the big thing for me is being able to chat and strategize while in combat. With the controls and the frenetic action, chatting via text is really not an option – heck it took me a bit to figure out how to respond in chat. I’m not a fan of voice chat, I have too many people in my house and I talk all day for work.
So in essence, this game is a single player game for me. It’s a fun single player game, but that will only last for so long.
I’ll go as far as to say that it’s the best super hero mmo released so far. That doesn’t say much, but it’s a start.
Roll on Death and Glory punk! That’s where our League Jusice X is 🙂 Seriously glad you are taking a look at it. I honestly have not had this much fun since WoW first launched. The Open World PvP itself is a blast but no rewards, well sodas and epeen. They have talked about giving more rewards for bounties…the entire game is still so young but a ton of potential.
Does anybody have any experience of it on PS3? I’d like to know whether it’s better to PC or Console. I assume if you buy it for PC you can’t use the same account on PS3, do they share servers?
PS3 plays excellently. It won’t have the lifespan of the PC version and it won’t have the community.
@stompfoot – PS3 and PC are completely separate: different servers, different accounts, etc. From digging through both forums during beta, my impression is that playing on the PC (with a controller) offers the best experience – which is how I play, but I haven’t personally tried the PS3 version so YMMV.
They’re having some problems with DCUO this evening with an unexpected outage. I haven’t checked recently to see if they have the servers back online yet or not.
Servers supposedly out for “several hours”. Been down now for about four.
Oh Keen take Athletics and its first upgrade Rocket Glide. Flight and Super Speed pale in comparison. That is really about the only power I will miss from DCUO. It was a cute game and fun for a short period of time but nothing that would keep me playing for more then a month or two.
game is all right, fun to fight, a lot to explore
the chat system and the group/guild system are hands down the worst I’ve seen in any game so far, although I’ve only played games on the PC so I wouldn’t know for other console MMOs like the new FF (Borderlands is a good 2nd runner up for those categories)
aside from not being able to communicate with other players without raging for 20 minutes, it’s a bit repetitive for me
still having fun though, definitely worth my 50 bucks
Best super hero game ever? Really? To be honest I liked CoHs alot when it came out.
You can’t beat the best superhero license ever created, plus the game makes you feel like a super-badass hero from the very beginning, fighting alongside superman, batman, or whoever your mentor is. I would say that alone makes it worthy of “one of the” if not “the” best title 😉
I’m keen on (lolpun) seeing what keen enjoyed and what he hated about it, I have a feeling it will be insightful for those of you who haven’t yet made a decision on the game.
Pretty sure you guys killed me at the docks earlier today. Well I downed keen and then Graev came and finished me off lol
Yep that was us! 😛
Keen don’t be killing your readers….. (gtaIV mafia voice) That’s bad for business, kapish!
Hey Keen, just wanted to let you know that I will probably cancel my WoW account. I don’t know why, but it is hard for me to get into it. I’m thinking about getting this game, so I can’t wait for the review tomorrow!