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Conglomoblog After the Plague

Got hit hard with the plague out here. Nasty upper and lower respiratory infections all around. Disgusting and debilitating, right at the launch of the Switch. Bleh.

I want to catch up on a few things I would have otherwise posted about individually in a more timely manner.

Mass Effect Andromeda Blunder?

Mass Effect Andromeda is making news for all the wrong reasons. The overall impressions of the game are coming in mixed from people who have played, but the mockery over the character models, animations, or gameplay is overwhelming.

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-msmx9yW5Q” width=”720″][/su_youtube]

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUfZMocgHKc” width=”720″][/su_youtube]

I don’t feel like subscribing to EA access to play the first 10 hours, so I haven’t tried it myself. I’ve played all of the other installments in the series and liked them well enough, but I think I’ll ultimately wait for the reviews before committing.

Dark Age of Account Creation

A good friend of mine and I started up characters on Uthgard and I think we’re like 17’ish. We’re thinking about making to switch over the the actual DAOC servers now. I’m not sold on the idea since I can’t imagine myself competing in RvR or PvE for that matter with people who have 10+ years of no reset (hard or soft) on me.

Trying to make an account has been an exercise in futility. First I tried signing up for an account and it kept telling me my emails were claimed. Huh? Then I realized it’s linked with EA’s account system. Huh again… I thought Broadsword owned it now? Is Broadsword EA? Using EA’s servers? What’s the situation here. Then I tried to sign up for a trial and couldn’t get that to work because apparently the accounts I have — which would be used for a trial — can’t be? So I have to create another account with an email I don’t have in order to take advantage of it? Having an account that isn’t linked to DAOC was requiring a key. I got frustrated and gave up. Not great for potential players to face these struggles.

I don’t want to seem whiny or ignorant or unwilling to try, so I’ll give it another go this weekend.

World of Aint No One Got Time for That

I put myself on hiatus from WoW. I was down to only logging in for raids, and with my work schedule being what it is and trying to find time to do ANYTHING else with the free time I do have, I couldn’t be tied to a schedule. So I’m now officially off WoW again.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing up until the end there. Raiding does weird things to people and twists games into knots. We all know that, though. Raiding just isn’t for me anymore. I’ll simply have to try and remember that before I ever consider jumping in again.

  • Holy Hannah! Those Andromeda videos are positively scary! And it’s not only the very, very bad facial animations and the Ministry of Silly Walks leg action. The voice acting is diabolically bad. Did the director forbid the actors to allow even a hint of emotion into their readings or is there some S.F. backstory I’m not aware of that lets us know none of these people is actually human?

  • As far as EA access goes, it’s 4.99, and buying into it gives you 10% off all EA titles. So the first month pays for itself. I have been playing the mp and honestly really enjoying it – although EA went with peer-to-peer to form games instead of setting up their own servers for mp. So your Internet connection will be the host for mp games at times, which is such a mistake since quality will vary from one game to the next depending on whose Internet is hosting the game. Total cheap move on EA’s part.

  • What I can not believe is how many people it seems are paying $5 to basically play an extended demo of the game. Yes you get 10% off if you buy it but once you add back in the $5 sub you are almost paying full price. I personally fail to see the benefit since you can just buy the game at launch via Origin and you have 24 hours from the moment you launch the title to return it.

    • Didnt know about the 24hr refund policy – will be curious to see if they honor that for those who have pre-purchased and played the trial. Personally this was just going to be a day 1 purchase (barring catastrophically bad previews). With EA access I can also download some free EA titles that i’ve wanted to try anyways – I actually got tons of value beyond the 10 day trial.

  • The faces are animated poorly but the models themselves are awful. They look terrible in screenshots, they look terrible in game. I’ve played most of my 10 hours, I made it to Eos, I’m going to buy it and play through it because there is a lack of big budget RPGs. But having just finished FFXV this week, these character models are jarringly terrible. Also, the entire game so far feels like some sort of subliminal SJW statement, which is off putting.

  • I’m curious about your thought process with DAOC. You made some characters, you’re enjoying the nostalgia of the Uthgard experience, so you’re… going to play live?