Also, Don’t forget to vote for me in the .eduGuru Blogger Contest: 
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DotEduGuru/~3/463906741/id1326-blogger-search-vote.html

Thanks!!

http://waaagh.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/realm-war-changed-or-standing-still/

Check it out!!

http://weekendgamer.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/weekly-warhammer-wrapup-episode-3/

http://weekendgamer.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/the-weekly-warhammer-wrapup-2/

Go check it out.

http://weekendgamer.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/the-weekend-warhammer-wrapup

WAR has everything the casual to hardcore MMO player wants in game, minus a few things (A little about that later).  They really do a lot for the “I’d kill my grandmother just to get 1 more hit point” peeps while keeping the game fun and engaging for the casual to mid-core gammers.  Let me go over a few of the features:

Realm -vs- Realm

AKA Open World RvR, it wouldn’t be a mythic game without it.  I don’t think any other MMO has come close to replicating Mythic’s RvR.  It is by far my favorite aspect of the game.  One realm against another.  I think Mythic took it a step father this though.  This time they’ve taken the aspects of RvR and Battlegrounds from DAoC and merged them into what they’ve called “WAR is Everywhere”.  Not long after you begin you are given the opportunity to go kill players from the other realm.  You can actually run straight to it at level 1 and never look at the rest of the game.   So you can see why this is called Open World RvR.  To tell you the truth, without the rest of the game, this alone would be enough reason to plop down the cash for this game.

On top of that, there isn’t just one realm versus another another.  It’s 3 realms against three realms.  Each of which has it’s own starting city, open RvR tiers, quests, scenarios, …  If your not catching my drift yet, this game is HUGE!

Scenarios

Some people like em, some don’t.  I in particular do.  The idea behind a scenario is RvR in a closed smaller sense.  2 to 8 groups (1 to 4 for each realm) battle it out in a small map.  There are several different types of scenarios, and they are themed to go along with whatever area of the game you are in.  In one you battle for control of two point.  When one realm has locked down both points for 10 seconds you invoke Khaine’s Wrath and everything explodes and resets.  If you one of the unlucky to get hit with Khaine’s Wrath you die and go back to the spawn point.  Those lucky enough to get out of the way quick enough get a head-start on trying to lock down the control points again.  Many of the basic FPS type encounters are included here.  Capture the flag, Control Points, VIP, Free for All, and much more.

Public Quests

Public Quests or PQs are repeatable quests that everyone in the area can get in on.  The game is split up into chapters.  Each chapter has a number of PQs available in it.  Each PQ has 3 stages.  When you help you comrades acomplish the goals of each stage, you get Influence points.  You can then turn in your influence for items, 3 per chapter.  At the end of a PQ everyone rolls for the loot, which Mythic has taken the liberty to do for you.  Those who contributed the most get a bonus to thier roll, and those that have been in the area for while and not won anything yet also get a bonus for each time through the quest without winning.  This mechanic of the game works out very well in my opinion.  It gives those that don’t want to go around doing a bunch of stupid quests a way to make money and get some good gear before they run off to RvR.

On top of those three major features there are of course a myriad of other things to do in the world.  From quests to dungeons to crafting, WAR has it all.  So, what is it missing?

Voice Chat

Honestly Mythic, would it be that hard to give us in-game voice chat?  I think this is the next step in MMOs and really gives the player a better sense of immersion.  I guess I got spoiled by LotRO, but think this is one of the most important features to have in an MMO.

Yup, really, that’s all I can think of.  WAR really has it where you want it.  And the nice thing is, if you don’t want it, it is easily ignored.  So that’s my review, feel free to post your comments.  See you in game.

Just in case you want to join me …  The plan is to create my first toons on the Badlands Server.  You’ll probably see me on as Spazter.

Blue Dragon Box Art

I just started Disc 2 of Blue Dragon. So far I really like the game. Perhaps it is because I have not played a jRPG in quite a while. Nothing new or groundbreaking in this title despite the hype they put into it, in fact I don’t think you’ll find much here that hasn’t been done over and over. However, I still find myself more than eager to get to the next part of the story.

One thing I definitely do not like so far is the “Examine Everything” aspect to the game. I don’t mind do a little digging here and there to find some cool stuff, but in Blue Dragon you literally have to check every single rock, tree stump, pot, drawer, and piece of junk lying on the ground to make sure that you don’t miss that high level spell or awesome accessory that you would’ve otherwise missed.

I also thought the beginning of the game was a little too easy for my liking. Though, don’t worry, the game quickly picks up in difficulty as you go along. There was a couple boss fights in the beginning that left me feeling cheated. Then, as I got toward the end of the first disc there was some normal monster fights that I thought would take me out. But, for the most part, I haven’t had to do a lot of grinding to play along with the story line.

So that Brings me to the story line.  I think it is the game’s selling point.  Sakaguci has always been one of my favorite game writers and he delivered another good one with this title.  The story is enough to play the game for.  To add to that Uematsu’s scores are always exceptional.

All in all, I still think it is a good enough game for the $20 you’ll plunk down on it at GameStop.