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So, moving on....
Jul. 28th, 2012 12:07 amSo, yesterday I spoke to my academic advisor about the whole mentor situation (and by 'spoke', I mean I cried on the phone to her... a real good moment for me there), and she told me to spend the weekend getting a lot of sleep and generally taking it easy. She explicitly told me not to do anything course related.... so I'm not. I'm spending the weekend playing video games. >_>
Specifically, I picked up a copy of 'The Secret World,' and have spent the evening prodding it with a stick.
And, you know, playing it.
Or.... trying to.
Now don't get me wrong- this is a good game. It's just very, very different from any other MMO I have ever played. There is no levelling up - even though you earn experience. You can pick any powers you want- literally any on the ability sheet- and there are no set classes. There are some suggested builds in the game (and you get achievements for using them), but they are completely non-compulsory. This means that the game is even more free-style than Rift, which says a lot! The power set-ups are different too, as are the locations and set-up of the quests, the voiced NPCs, and the abundant cut-scenes. In fact, it handles a lot like a single-player game rather than an MMO.
It takes a lot of getting used to after my recent Rift binge (Rift, incidentally, has exactly the same control system as WoW- only the classes, skills and fine details are significantly different) but after some fiddling about, I have decided that it's worth it.
A few other little gripes I have are as follows:
- The character creator is limited, and all the men seem to have rather odd looking eyebrows. That's not to say that you can't make a lot of unique looking toons, just that for some reason they all look like they have escaped from Second Life or the Sims. I'm not sure why, either.... they just look.... odd. It's not so noticeable in the game itself- just on the character creation screen.
- Sometimes the graphics skip and jump a little. The game is only a month old, so there are going to be teething problems, but I have a good, high-end PC and it's irritating to see it not working.
-The factions are a bit, well, lame. Or maybe they are just not my style, I dunno. XD This game has a really good feel to it, and so far they just don't seem to quite fit with it.... although I am still only in the first stages of the game, so I may be judging things to quickly.
-The monthly subscription is a bit higher than other MMOs.
-They sell clothing items for your character in exchange for real-world money, which I think is a bit cheeky. You can also earn clothing in-game, but yeah... I think they could have laid off on money-grabbing extras. If it was free-to-play, or if the subs were lower, this would bother me a lot less (which is why it's at the bottom of the list.)
BUT- things I really like are:
-The music is amazing, and really helps immerse you in the world.
-The surrounds... OH MY GOD but this game has stunning environments! They still need to work a little on the shadows (sometimes my character's shadow looked like it was escaping) but other than that... just... wow!!
-The monsters.
- The freedom of class building. It takes a bit of getting used to, but now I have the basic idea I like it!
-The cinematic atmosphere.
-The voice acting.
-The PVP set-up. Now, bare in mind that I really dislike PVP generally, but reading up on it in this game... it just sounds like fun! :D It's not something I am tempted to join in with, but I can see hard-core PVPers really getting into it, and the results of the various PVP battles has consequences for all 3 factions across the game!
-Having a character who looks normal. I don't know why- normally I love crazy-ass fantasy characters- but I had really good fun making someone who is just... a fairly normal human being.
-The atmosphere. This is basically a survival horror MMO, and it borrows from a lot of different horror set-ups and sources. There is a lot of variety. It has a really good feel to it, and I am looking forward to exploring it further.
-Smacking zombies with a giant mallet.
So yeah, overall I we are off to a good start with 'The Secret World.' I'm not sure if I am going to be renewing my subscription after my 30 day free trial , but that is purely because I have no idea what shape my finances will be in next month. If it's good, then I will. If not... then I will stick with Rift for a bit until I can afford it again. ^__- I already have a year's subscription to Rift, after all, so that one is nice and cheap on a month-to-month basis. XD
Anyway, just so this is not all words- have some spoiler free pictures of my character:
So, this is Jamila Gerges.
The game allows you to pick a first and second name, and then a unique 'nickname' that is your character's in-game ID. So, you could have five guys all called John Smith, so long as they all hid different nick-names.
(Jamila's nick-name is Jamila. Because I totally mis-understood how it worked when I made her and only picked it up afterwards and by then... well... it was too late. Her name in-game comes up as Jamila 'Jamila' Gerges.)
( Some more... )
Specifically, I picked up a copy of 'The Secret World,' and have spent the evening prodding it with a stick.
And, you know, playing it.
Or.... trying to.
Now don't get me wrong- this is a good game. It's just very, very different from any other MMO I have ever played. There is no levelling up - even though you earn experience. You can pick any powers you want- literally any on the ability sheet- and there are no set classes. There are some suggested builds in the game (and you get achievements for using them), but they are completely non-compulsory. This means that the game is even more free-style than Rift, which says a lot! The power set-ups are different too, as are the locations and set-up of the quests, the voiced NPCs, and the abundant cut-scenes. In fact, it handles a lot like a single-player game rather than an MMO.
It takes a lot of getting used to after my recent Rift binge (Rift, incidentally, has exactly the same control system as WoW- only the classes, skills and fine details are significantly different) but after some fiddling about, I have decided that it's worth it.
A few other little gripes I have are as follows:
- The character creator is limited, and all the men seem to have rather odd looking eyebrows. That's not to say that you can't make a lot of unique looking toons, just that for some reason they all look like they have escaped from Second Life or the Sims. I'm not sure why, either.... they just look.... odd. It's not so noticeable in the game itself- just on the character creation screen.
- Sometimes the graphics skip and jump a little. The game is only a month old, so there are going to be teething problems, but I have a good, high-end PC and it's irritating to see it not working.
-The factions are a bit, well, lame. Or maybe they are just not my style, I dunno. XD This game has a really good feel to it, and so far they just don't seem to quite fit with it.... although I am still only in the first stages of the game, so I may be judging things to quickly.
-The monthly subscription is a bit higher than other MMOs.
-They sell clothing items for your character in exchange for real-world money, which I think is a bit cheeky. You can also earn clothing in-game, but yeah... I think they could have laid off on money-grabbing extras. If it was free-to-play, or if the subs were lower, this would bother me a lot less (which is why it's at the bottom of the list.)
BUT- things I really like are:
-The music is amazing, and really helps immerse you in the world.
-The surrounds... OH MY GOD but this game has stunning environments! They still need to work a little on the shadows (sometimes my character's shadow looked like it was escaping) but other than that... just... wow!!
-The monsters.
- The freedom of class building. It takes a bit of getting used to, but now I have the basic idea I like it!
-The cinematic atmosphere.
-The voice acting.
-The PVP set-up. Now, bare in mind that I really dislike PVP generally, but reading up on it in this game... it just sounds like fun! :D It's not something I am tempted to join in with, but I can see hard-core PVPers really getting into it, and the results of the various PVP battles has consequences for all 3 factions across the game!
-Having a character who looks normal. I don't know why- normally I love crazy-ass fantasy characters- but I had really good fun making someone who is just... a fairly normal human being.
-The atmosphere. This is basically a survival horror MMO, and it borrows from a lot of different horror set-ups and sources. There is a lot of variety. It has a really good feel to it, and I am looking forward to exploring it further.
-Smacking zombies with a giant mallet.
So yeah, overall I we are off to a good start with 'The Secret World.' I'm not sure if I am going to be renewing my subscription after my 30 day free trial , but that is purely because I have no idea what shape my finances will be in next month. If it's good, then I will. If not... then I will stick with Rift for a bit until I can afford it again. ^__- I already have a year's subscription to Rift, after all, so that one is nice and cheap on a month-to-month basis. XD
Anyway, just so this is not all words- have some spoiler free pictures of my character:
So, this is Jamila Gerges.
The game allows you to pick a first and second name, and then a unique 'nickname' that is your character's in-game ID. So, you could have five guys all called John Smith, so long as they all hid different nick-names.
(Jamila's nick-name is Jamila. Because I totally mis-understood how it worked when I made her and only picked it up afterwards and by then... well... it was too late. Her name in-game comes up as Jamila 'Jamila' Gerges.)
( Some more... )
