Happy Valentines Day
Feb. 14th, 2013 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
misguidance ...I wish I was able to actually spend it with my other half, instead of spending it here, alone, fielding calls from a dozen different people with problems that I can't solve. >_<;
Seriously- first it was my Dad, complaining about my brother who has pulled one of his usual douche moves on a day when no-one needed it. Then I get a call from my brother's girlfriend, in tears because my brother has stormed off in a rage (mad at my Dad for not giving him more money- good on Dad, I say) and wondering if I could talk to him. I finally get her off the phone, and I get a call from one of my Uni friends who is in a rage over the bus situation at work. I have made peace with this, but nothing I can say will get her off the phone. There's no polite way to tell someone to shut the fuck up- trust me, I tried, and she just kept on talking.
Throughout all of this, I discovered (with a phone wedged to my ear) that Steam has stopped working on my computer, which means I can't play Skyrim. Fuck. I had to write a ticket to Steam's support team while an angry Scottish woman flung massive amounts of rage into my ears. -__-;
And then.... a few hours of peace, before Ad got home and started being a pest. And then Dad called again, still upset with my brother, and I've literally just gotten off the phone with him. And suddenly it's the middle of the night, and the whole day has flown by in a haze of crazy phone calls. >_<; So yeah, this has been a shitty Valentines Day. And not even for the usual reasons.
One good thing, though: I managed to speak to Rory. Skype was being a git and was all bitty and weird, but at least we saw each other and had a chat. <3 Which is the main thing.
In Other News:
I am something of a god of multitasking- at least when one of the tasks is playing computer games. What can I say- it's a skill. >_>
Sadly, none of the games I usually play have offered me much comfort today. Skyrim runs through Steam, so won't work. I can't find my game-pad, so I can't play Kingdoms of Amalur. And every time I log into Rift, I have to contend with an angry Guildmate who now hates the game but won't leave, and a yaoi obsessed stalker who bombards me with whispers if I don't reply ASAP. So that's a complete no-go while talking on the phone- far too much to keep up with. >_>
I spent a lot of today playing Minecraft, and while that was going on I got to thinking about how much I miss City of Heroes. Most of the games I play these days are fantasy themed, but fantasy is not my only interest. I adore sci-fi, and also super heroes. CoH closed down for good not so long ago, but I had already stopped playing it. I never did find a decent replacement.
So, while my ear was being burned off by various people, I did a search around some of the free-to-play games currently on offer, in particular, 'DC Universe Online' and 'Champions Online.' Amusingly, I was actually offered a spot in the open beta of Champions Online, but at the time I didn't have a computer that could run it, so couldn't take part. Mind you, this was a long time ago- 4 years or so, I think- so its already a fairly old game. Anyway, I decided to give it a go, because something about DC Universe was really off-putting. Possibly the fact that free-to-play members are even more limited than counterparts in other games. I mean, I get why they do that- they have to sell something to get the money coming in- but halving the size of character's inventories? Seriously? That's one step too tight for my liking. >_>;
Anyway. Champions Online.
Well, the good news is, it's free. That always rates a game highly for me, because I am always broke. Like a lot of f2p games, it makes its money from selling microtransactions, which include costume items, transport options, character slots (you only have 2 by default), pets, and power-ups. I am not a fan of games that offer experience boosters and special combat abilities for real money, but it's a fact of life these days so I try not to write games off just because they are trying to make money. So long as you can actually progress without the items (and realistically- not like 'grinding for 4 years for a level' kind of progression) then fair enough.
Unfortunately, being free is one of the best things about Champions Online. It's a fairly old game now, and it shows. Even with the styalised, comic-book look to it (which is cool) the surrounds and details show up it's age. It feels old, too- the interface and the game mechanisms are clunky and slow, and while it compares well to City of Heroes (it was a step up from there, it's true) it can't compare to modern MMOs. And that's a shame, because it has a lot of promise- just doesn't quite follow through. Another area where this is clear is in the character creator. I mean, I don't know if I was doing something wrong with it, but it took me two hours of fiddling to get my character finished. It appeared that the only way to get items and costumes other than a very, very basic list was to use the 'random character' generator, as that pulled up items that weren't available through the normal interface. >_>; You can then 'lock' items in place and only randomly roll other parts, but overall that is not an efficient (or fun) way to make a character. As I said, I might have been doing something wrong, but man.... it was a LOT of hard work!
Having said that.... the colours are awesome, and the level of customisation is pretty good. Better than City of Heroes, and much better than, say, Rift (which I really enjoy). The end result was pretty good, too- I remade Pink Champagne:
My main points of concern with this were in the face sliders, that had no option to change the height of the mouth or the thickness of the lips. The result? He kind of has a duck-pout. >_> But seeing as the 'default' character I got to start with was a hulking, blue-skinned gorilla monster, I think I've done quite well.... XD Especially when compared to how Pink looked in CoH:
Not quite identical, but certainly close enough. I like that Champions Online has an option for male heroes to have long hair that isn't scraped into a pony-tail, and also options for non-human feet, among other things. You can also have cloaks and wings right from the word go, which is something that always bothered me in CoH- why did I have to 'earn' my cape?? If I have the inclination to wear funny coloured tights, I can probably manage a funny coloured bedsheet too... >_>;
Having said that, capes in Champions Online jitter around like seasoned caffeine addicts, which is really annoying. The in-game graphics are also dogged with so much flare and bloom that even on the lowest settings, it's hard to make out my character's features. It might be because Pink's outfit is very pale compared to the primary colours favoured by other players, but even so, it seems excessive. It's not as annoying as the clunky controls, but it's definitely a tick in the 'do not want' column.So... overall, I'm not yet convinced. I am going to try it again tomorrow, with less distractions and annoyances, but I have a nasty feeling that this may end up being uninstalled, just like Star Trek Online (which is owned and run by the same company... *sigh*.)
On the plus side, though, I did get to throw a park bench at a giant mutant bug. Which is always a positive in my book. >_>
So there is that.
Seriously- first it was my Dad, complaining about my brother who has pulled one of his usual douche moves on a day when no-one needed it. Then I get a call from my brother's girlfriend, in tears because my brother has stormed off in a rage (mad at my Dad for not giving him more money- good on Dad, I say) and wondering if I could talk to him. I finally get her off the phone, and I get a call from one of my Uni friends who is in a rage over the bus situation at work. I have made peace with this, but nothing I can say will get her off the phone. There's no polite way to tell someone to shut the fuck up- trust me, I tried, and she just kept on talking.
Throughout all of this, I discovered (with a phone wedged to my ear) that Steam has stopped working on my computer, which means I can't play Skyrim. Fuck. I had to write a ticket to Steam's support team while an angry Scottish woman flung massive amounts of rage into my ears. -__-;
And then.... a few hours of peace, before Ad got home and started being a pest. And then Dad called again, still upset with my brother, and I've literally just gotten off the phone with him. And suddenly it's the middle of the night, and the whole day has flown by in a haze of crazy phone calls. >_<; So yeah, this has been a shitty Valentines Day. And not even for the usual reasons.
One good thing, though: I managed to speak to Rory. Skype was being a git and was all bitty and weird, but at least we saw each other and had a chat. <3 Which is the main thing.
In Other News:
I am something of a god of multitasking- at least when one of the tasks is playing computer games. What can I say- it's a skill. >_>
Sadly, none of the games I usually play have offered me much comfort today. Skyrim runs through Steam, so won't work. I can't find my game-pad, so I can't play Kingdoms of Amalur. And every time I log into Rift, I have to contend with an angry Guildmate who now hates the game but won't leave, and a yaoi obsessed stalker who bombards me with whispers if I don't reply ASAP. So that's a complete no-go while talking on the phone- far too much to keep up with. >_>
I spent a lot of today playing Minecraft, and while that was going on I got to thinking about how much I miss City of Heroes. Most of the games I play these days are fantasy themed, but fantasy is not my only interest. I adore sci-fi, and also super heroes. CoH closed down for good not so long ago, but I had already stopped playing it. I never did find a decent replacement.
So, while my ear was being burned off by various people, I did a search around some of the free-to-play games currently on offer, in particular, 'DC Universe Online' and 'Champions Online.' Amusingly, I was actually offered a spot in the open beta of Champions Online, but at the time I didn't have a computer that could run it, so couldn't take part. Mind you, this was a long time ago- 4 years or so, I think- so its already a fairly old game. Anyway, I decided to give it a go, because something about DC Universe was really off-putting. Possibly the fact that free-to-play members are even more limited than counterparts in other games. I mean, I get why they do that- they have to sell something to get the money coming in- but halving the size of character's inventories? Seriously? That's one step too tight for my liking. >_>;
Anyway. Champions Online.
Well, the good news is, it's free. That always rates a game highly for me, because I am always broke. Like a lot of f2p games, it makes its money from selling microtransactions, which include costume items, transport options, character slots (you only have 2 by default), pets, and power-ups. I am not a fan of games that offer experience boosters and special combat abilities for real money, but it's a fact of life these days so I try not to write games off just because they are trying to make money. So long as you can actually progress without the items (and realistically- not like 'grinding for 4 years for a level' kind of progression) then fair enough.
Unfortunately, being free is one of the best things about Champions Online. It's a fairly old game now, and it shows. Even with the styalised, comic-book look to it (which is cool) the surrounds and details show up it's age. It feels old, too- the interface and the game mechanisms are clunky and slow, and while it compares well to City of Heroes (it was a step up from there, it's true) it can't compare to modern MMOs. And that's a shame, because it has a lot of promise- just doesn't quite follow through. Another area where this is clear is in the character creator. I mean, I don't know if I was doing something wrong with it, but it took me two hours of fiddling to get my character finished. It appeared that the only way to get items and costumes other than a very, very basic list was to use the 'random character' generator, as that pulled up items that weren't available through the normal interface. >_>; You can then 'lock' items in place and only randomly roll other parts, but overall that is not an efficient (or fun) way to make a character. As I said, I might have been doing something wrong, but man.... it was a LOT of hard work!
Having said that.... the colours are awesome, and the level of customisation is pretty good. Better than City of Heroes, and much better than, say, Rift (which I really enjoy). The end result was pretty good, too- I remade Pink Champagne:
My main points of concern with this were in the face sliders, that had no option to change the height of the mouth or the thickness of the lips. The result? He kind of has a duck-pout. >_> But seeing as the 'default' character I got to start with was a hulking, blue-skinned gorilla monster, I think I've done quite well.... XD Especially when compared to how Pink looked in CoH:
Not quite identical, but certainly close enough. I like that Champions Online has an option for male heroes to have long hair that isn't scraped into a pony-tail, and also options for non-human feet, among other things. You can also have cloaks and wings right from the word go, which is something that always bothered me in CoH- why did I have to 'earn' my cape?? If I have the inclination to wear funny coloured tights, I can probably manage a funny coloured bedsheet too... >_>;
Having said that, capes in Champions Online jitter around like seasoned caffeine addicts, which is really annoying. The in-game graphics are also dogged with so much flare and bloom that even on the lowest settings, it's hard to make out my character's features. It might be because Pink's outfit is very pale compared to the primary colours favoured by other players, but even so, it seems excessive. It's not as annoying as the clunky controls, but it's definitely a tick in the 'do not want' column.So... overall, I'm not yet convinced. I am going to try it again tomorrow, with less distractions and annoyances, but I have a nasty feeling that this may end up being uninstalled, just like Star Trek Online (which is owned and run by the same company... *sigh*.)
On the plus side, though, I did get to throw a park bench at a giant mutant bug. Which is always a positive in my book. >_>
So there is that.
