Hooked

Nerdgasm to follow:

So when I first got Rift it was just cause Chad was pestering me to try it, and I figured I was pretty bored on the weekends anyway since Ryan moved so I’d give it a shot.  I did not expect to get into it much, I thought I was done with MMOs.

Wrong.  I am hooked to this game.  It feels like the first game to do MMOs RIGHT since WoW.  And it’s learned from WoW and other MMOs along the way.  It has the best of WoW, Warhammer, Aion, etc all in one with beautiful graphics.  And it does a few new things really well.  The fact that you can have 3 “roles” and re-spec on the fly out of combat is great.  And the rifts are awesome.  Rifts open up throughout the world and they’re like mini raids / public quests. 

It was a free-play weekend so Chad and I convinced Brett and Linda to give it a shot and they’re now seriously considering picking it up too.  Over the weekend we all played together and it was a ton of fun.  Facetime on iPhone is an awesome addition to gaming together! 

It just seems everyone is at a weird time in life where they have a lot of free time.  Chad doesn’t do much on weekends other then spend time with Olga, Brett and Linda are biding their time until they move to Vancouver, and I have a lot of free time on weekends now that Ryan has moved.  It lets us play without any guilt!

Today Chad and I did our first instance.  It was hands down the coolest instance I’ve done in an MMO to date.  It starts in summer and as you progress the seasons change.  At the end you’re climbing a mountain in an insane blizzard where you can barely see in front of you, adding to the epic feeling and sense of confusion.  Incredibly well done instance, and it was only the first.

The world is beautifully done and the graphics are amazing.  The game feels amazingly polished and balanced, especially when you consider it just came out and from a no-name studio!  There’s always something to do as well.  Plus my friends are playing.  Not just close personal friends, but friends from BioWare and Longtail play too.  I think I’ll be playing this game for a while…  In fact, I’m considering getting a new PC next month to run it better.  My PC is 5 years old, it’s been time for a new one for a while, and I can afford it.  But it’ll have to wait until after I pay for my wisdom teeth coming out and then my plane tickets to and from Winnipeg for my Dad’s wedding.

It’s exciting to be into an MMO again.  Forgot how fun they can be.
Nerdgasm over.

Rift

Well, I never thought it’d happen, but I somehow let Chad talk me into trying a new MMO.  Rift.  It’s been getting good reviews, most saying it’s the first real competitor with WoW.  I quite enjoyed Aion for the short time we played it, but it had its issues.  None-the-less we’ll see how long we play this one for.  I was certain I was done with MMOs altogether.

It’s pretty fun so far, and the graphics are beautiful.  While I can run it comfortable at Ultra, makes me realize I should probably start thinking about an upgrade or new PC soon.  This computer is almost 5 years old now, with a few upgrades keeping it alive.  I rarely game on PC anymore, so it’s not a priority, but even in just every day use it’s starting to show its age.

It is nice having an MMO to play again though.  I don’t have much of a social life for it to interfere with.  I still plan on trying to meet people, but that can only fill up so much of the day.  And it’s a great way for Chad and I to spend some time together.  Although the 3 hour time difference between Halifax and Edmonton makes it hard to schedule a decent chunk of time to play together.  But we played tonight and it was good fun.  One of the guys at work plays too!

Hooked

This game just keeps getting better and better.

Aion / Dragon Age

Work and play meet!  Full-page advertisement on Aionsource!

Life In Edmonton

A collection of small video clips taken over the past 3 or 4 months, with some cool cameos by Andi and Chad!

WoW vs Aion

So Aion is doing really well, and it’s no surprise that because of the similarities it gets compared to WoW a lot.  The people that jumped over to Aion say WoW is for kiddies, and the people who stuck with WoW call Aion another wannabe flash in the pan.  I’m not that polarized, WoW was great but I just got sick of it, and I’m loving Aion now.  But any time someone tells me Aion sucks and WoW is amazing, I’m sending them this video.  You’ve probably seen the original video by now.  This is the same video, just made 1000 times more epic.

Camus

Ok this is just cool.  Click the pic to take you to Aion’s version of the armory, full with 3d rendering (requires java).  That’s my Camus!

Aion Early Start

Servers went up at 1:00 today, and I logged in the second they did.  I didn’t stay on cause I promised Chad him and I would start together and he was at work, but while I was on I watched the flood of players log in all at once.  It was quite the sight.

Aion Pre-selection… Again

So I remade my characters.  Dropped the Princess Bride references and made some cooler characters instead:

Main: Camus, Gladiator

 

Alt: Malhavoc, Sorcerer

Aion Pre-Selection

Pre-ordered Aion and pre-selection went live today. 

After a bit of a bumpy start I preselected my characters names during my break and made their looks:

Fezzik, my main:

Indigo, my alt:

Anyone cool enough to understand where I got the names from will understand why the first thing I’m doing is making a macro for Fezzik: “Anybody want a peanut?”

Aion Pre-ordered & Downloading!

Already have it installed at home from the open beta, but downloading it at work to play on my breaks.  Can’t wait, early play starts on Sunday!  And they were smart enough to take out Gameguard!  Woot!

Going Viral

I was playing Aion last night, and a conversation popped up unprovoked about Dragon Age.  I found a safe spot to camp out and just watched the people chat about Dragon Age.  They talked about what origin there were gunna choose, what class, how they were going to play, rumors they heard about the game, and how long ago they pre-ordered.  It was hard for me not to mention that I worked at Bioware, because I knew if I did they’d all be pressuring me to tell them things I can’t, but it was definitely one of the coolest moments in my young career!

NYTimes

Check it out!  The New York Times wrote an article on the top 10 games you can count on this Holiday Season, and Dragon Age is in there!  Also, Aion, the game Chad and I, and many people at work have started playing, is also on the list!  A good read!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/arts/television/13schi.html?_r=1

This Week

Bill & Tia have had family over all week.  On the long weekend Tia’s family came out and her Dad and brother slept in the basement, which was a bit awkward.  Then Bill’s parents and brother (my aunt, uncle and other cousin) came to visit, and have been here since.  I’ve been eating some nice suppers!  My cousin Rick is sleeping in the basement now.  He’s a cool guy and I haven’t seen him in a while, since he’s been in Europe having adventures.

Chad and I continue to play Aion.  I’m absolutely loving the game.  Very addictive.

Aion Open Beta

At work today Devon told me he got into the open beta for Aion and let me watch him play during lunch.  It looks very awesome.  Then Chad called me up tonight and told me he got us some open beta keys...  I had been planning on holding off until release, but I caved.  This game is amazing.  I’ve been dying for an MMO to play since WoW, but was just burnt out on WoW itself.  I tried Champions Online, and it was fun for a bit but didn’t have enough content.  It was too casual an MMO for me, I wanted something a bit more involved.  Aion is similar to WoW in all the right ways, and different enough to be its own game, with a gorgeous world to explore and a lot of depth and balance.  Goodbye life.

Waiting…

Chad and I are eagerly awaiting the Aion release.  We have installed the clients on our computers, and just have to wait for the official release.  Technically, since we’re pre-ordering, we could get into the open beta, but we'd prefer to wait for the actual release.  Though we do get a head start by 2 days!  Until then, I will continue to stare at the login screen and salivate!

Aion

Chad and I are really psyched about this upcoming MMO.  Comes out on my bday, September 22nd.  Can’t wait!

Touchée, James. Touchée.

Furutani, Dale says:
I'm so pumped for Aion
you should get it!

Dang, James says:
yea i need to make a semi-gaming PC
probably near the end of this month

Furutani, Dale says:
it's really scalable, I bet it'd run on whatever you have now
though you would be missing out on the gorgeousness

Dang, James says:
i am not going to play a beautiful game and not get it looking good. it's like playing CoD4 wii version.