Sorry for the slow few days around here. Â We’ve actually been *gasp* playing games.
The Elder Scrolls Online
ESO launched two days ago, and I’m actually having more fun than I thought I would. Â No that’s not an April Fool’s day psych-out. Â I think it’s partially how we’re going about things. Â Three days in we are still only level 8. Â We are going really, really slow. Â I long for the days when I could play 10 hours at a time — those are my weekends — but playing slow has helped avoid the burnout. Â ESO is quest-heavy leveling. Â The quests themselves are 85% boring and “go here do this” lead you by the nose stuff, but you don’t get lead one quest to the next — that’s part is less linear. Â If I can actually get to 10, we’ll be able to PvP! Â Stay tuned.
Live Streaming
We are making a serious push to stream more of the games we play and even upload to Youtube. Â I got Graev a microphone, the new Playstation Gold headset, and a Live Gamer Portable. Â He better stream or I’ll kick his butt.
Look for his streams every morning between 9am-12pm pacific time. Â He’ll most likely be streaming a lot of Xbox One Plants Vs. Zombies Garden Warfare. Â Then look for me to stream in the evenings. Â Probably a lot of ESO and EQ Next Landmark. Â You can find our stream on Twitch.tv or on our stream page here on the blog. Â Be sure to follow us to know when we go live!
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
Graev and I picked up RoS and started completely new characters. Â We’re now on Act 5 and just (minor spoilers) beat Adra. Â So far so good. Â I think Diablo 3 has been patched for the better over the past year, especially in loot patch 2.0. The legendary loot drops are pretty sweet now that they have been tuned to give you pretty much a guaranteed drop every 2-3 hours. Â Each boss you kill for the first time is also a guaranteed drop. Â We’ll write up more formal thoughts once we finish the campaign and run some of the new Rift and Bounties.
It’s still, hard as it tries, not Diablo 2 . Â Really fun though, and much improved. Â Now that I think about it… D3 is probably awesome on consoles. Â More on that in the D3 post to come.
So many games…
Aside from Diablo 3 and Elder Scrolls, I’m also enjoying the heck out of Landmark. Â I claimed an awesome bit of open land where I’m going to build a a Harvest Moon style farm (pictures coming soon!). Â It’s an awesome piece of property overlooking a lake and the ocean on a flat hilltop. Â Man I love Landmark. Â I’m also wanting to jump in and play more Albion Online, some original EverQuest, and Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. Â Sheesh, there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
RoS for me was the true launch of D3…I thought that would be the game of Spring/Summer for me but ESO has completely won me over and I haven’t even got to pvp yet. With zero lag in jam packed cities I’m beginning to think ESO has finally pulled of the tech req’d for large scale pvp keep taking action?
We shall see. All I can say is that it is a very good time to be a gamer.
Really? I have nothing to play. Just sitting here waiting until wildstar launches. Landmark is boring to me without caves and combat.
I don’t know about other games you listed buy I really love TESO its really fun I can see my self playing it for a long time after my 30 days runs out I’m going to buy the 180 day sub to invest both to help game and to be apart of it for the long run.
I honestly believe TESO will be more popular then wow but I never bin a Blizzard fan of there games Wow I liked tho but I didn’t stay with it longer then a few months due to the horrible pvp World of warcraft that didn’t feel like there was wars at all just a bunch of pve and dungeon queing and the pvp was all que based so ya I didn’t like wow.
Wildstar Tho I will never play or try it due to there PvE more focused content and pvp and pve separate gear and the queing to dungeon and pvp thing.
TESO I just hope the devs can keep up with there own game with keep improving the game by added more immersion and more content and adding updates to fix the game to improve it.
Long as TESO can deliver content ill stay with it and only play TESO due to only perfering to play one mmorpg at a time due to how time consuming they are.
I Hate crafting tho but in TESO its ok for non-crafter I don’t mind it and having fun with it just think its hard to level it up tho.
Any whys if you haven’t bought TESO(The Elder Scrolls Online) And you love mmorpgs you should buy TESO its so much fun and the immersion and first person view is so much fun all the quest are voiced overed and the story good.
Each faction has there own story plus once u beat your own faction you can advanture to other parts of Tamerial to experance the other faction storylines and quest.
The amount of questing and exploring and story is so huge this game has enough content to keep you having fun even after level 50 for few months for sure.
It will not go Free too play its too good.
I’m waiting for more Dark Souls related posts!
“playing slow has helped avoid the burnout” Isn’t the game like 3 days old?
This Spring went from looking like a dry spell to being the busiest game-wise I think I may have ever been. A big part of that is how out of right field ESO has been for me. I fully expected to not buy the game and now I cant stop playing it. Its the first game in a long time where 3 hours feel like 30 minutes. I have vacation time where I wanted to get some sundry stuff done (clean, taxes, etc.) instead all I do is play the stupid game…
Add to that:
Dark Souls 2 – Love the game and the series. I’m about 60 hours in and I’d like to NG+ it at some point. I’m probably 20 hours from the end.
D3 RoS- The changes are great. I’ve played a crusader for a few hours and my Demon Hunter about 1/2 through act 5. I’d love to get into the Adventure Mode.
Plants VS Zombies – Tons of fun. Another “out of right field” game.
EDF 2025 – Dumb fun. I’m only about 25 missions into 80+. I want to play multiple classes too,
Dynasty Warriors 8 (ps4)- I haven’t played on in awhile and I wanted to get something for the system. These games have some serious legs if you get into them.
Infamous SS – About 4 hours into the game. Its a short game so if I can pry myself away from ESO I should finish it fairly quickly.
Titanfall – Honestly wasn’t feeling it but I only played a few matches. Lowest on my priority list to revisit.
Add in my backlog of games that didn’t come out in the past month or two and its getting ridiculous.
I think my only option to get through everything is to work at getting a fan base so I can make money streaming. I’m only half kidding….
err, Left field that is.
@Wulfus: I’ll let Graev know!
@Lodau: I really don’t like questing in any game, so I can burn out on that in like a day of constant questing. Slowing it down to spoonfulls at a time makes it easier to digest.
@Bart
How is it even possible to not have enough games to play with Steam, GMG, GOG, and Desura?
I have installed on a fraction of the STEAM Holiday Sale games I picked up. 😛
*only a fraction
So I tried 2 TESO beta weekends and the starting area was so boring I couldn’t make it out- am I missing out by letting that drive my decision? I loved Morrowind and Skyrim (Oblivion was kinda meh to me tho).
Crazy how I’m not in any kind of an MMO mood. Really worried about that.
I’m enjoying Garden Warfare a lot more than TitanFall, but since SMITE has gone live that’s all I have been playing. They have made some fantastic changes since I played last (year and a half a go).
Nice to have so many good games to play.
@Jadawin: ESO gets better as you go on. The starting area sucks. The questing is kinda… meh. The world is nice. The dungeons are nice. The overall ‘experience’ of playing is nice. It’s easily 3 months of content. Stay tuned to know if it’s worth playing beyond that.
Im so tempted to Pick up TESO. I have loved Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, but I am just worried I will burn out on content to quickly, or that the leveling will be so boring that I give up (happened in a couple MMO’s… GW2 the most recent one), or that the skill diversity will be lacking (like GW 2) though from what i have read the second one doesn’t seem like an issue.
I’m also only level 9 in ESO and really am having a blast, the combat is more clunky than Skyrim but leagues ahead of any point and click MMO out there today.
I am slightly disappointed in the questing, but if I get bored I just take a timeout and run in a random unexplored direction and then new Map icons pop up or even a public dungeon ready for you to explore!
I’m at the goblin dungeon with 3 attempts at the boss to no avail, but I will persevere!
I have decided not to attempt pvp till i get my second weapon switch at lvl 15 which(I’m assuming and hoping) will open up a whole new world of combat possibilities, I was thinking opening with bow, end off with dual wield or sword and board and templar healing to top myself up.
So yea, I am playing Eso for the RvR, but the PvE is pleasantly surprising me.
I think going slow in any of the new MMO’s is a big part of enjoying it. Too many rush to end game then get annoyed when there isn’t enough to do in end game. Take it easy and enjoy the scenery and you may just get pulled into the lore a bit. The RPG part of these games tends to get ignored lately, its at the point where many players have no clue to what the quest giver just said. They just accept it and follow the arrow.
Regarding ESO has there been any guarantees it wont go FTP? Id hate to SUB for content i can get for free later,
Early reviews have been encouraging especially from certain theme park haters!
@KennyG: No guarantees. I doubt anyone would ever make one. Could ESO go F2P? I would actually see it going “buy to play” before F2P, with a cash shop of bonuses to exp and pvp rank gain, etc., before a full-blown F2P conversion. Aka, I could see the sub dropping and other monetization coming in. But honestly… the Sub model DOES work in this market for a game that’s worth playing.
@Raistiff: Graev and I have the RPG part down. 😛 We had fun thinking up our Argonian common-tongue names.
@Joy-Energiser: We just hit level 10. I think we are going to jump into Pvp to give it a try.
@Drathmar: I haaaaaated leveling and PvE in GW2. It was awful. I like ESO so far. The PvE seems like a much more well-rounded experience than GW2.
I can’t understand all the subsription negativity or disbalief, it’s as if games like WoW and and final fantasy don’t exist ! I just can’t understand it
@Keen: I will have to give it a try once I get some more money together then. I had been dead set against getting it after all the shenanigans early on with it so never even bothered trying the beta, but now after all the reviews and watching some streams and your blog I am really itching to play it. Especially if it’s as immersive as it seems.
Yo Keen, tried Path of Exile yet? It’s a true modern version of D2. The atmosphere is as dark and gritty, and the skill system is kind of awesome.