Monday, September 22, 2008

Warhammer Online and other goings on.

I havent posted in a week due to the fact that I took a 5 day weekend (and I usually post from work). During that time I did quite a few things. I got my Horde toons to 43, but I am not sure that I want to continue leveling them. I did my minimum amount of arena games for the week and saw more Warrior/Druid combos in full season 3 shoulders/weapons with season 4 helmets.....in the 1500 bracket. I also healed Kara again and got some more badges.

The main thing I did this weekend was give Warhammer a try. Unfortunately, my computer is about 5 years old with a Geforce 5500 in it. Needless to say, the game was almost unplayable. So I went and got a new graphics card and came home. Open my computer.....no PCI slot...WTF? My computer only had an AGP slot. So I take it back, and downgrade to one that costed more (lol wut?). Bottom line is that I need to get a new computer. I has gotten to the point where I cant really buy and play the new games because my computer just cant support the load.

Anyways, back to Warhammer. I rolled a Chosen and played quite a bit. I did some quests, which were alright, then decided I would rather PVP. Unfortunately, it still runs somewhat slow on my computer and I get alot of lag when too much is happening at once. The Chosen I kinda like a tank. Except they can do alot of damage without having to respec. Just switch out the sword and board for a two hander and you are good to go.

I usually did finish that high in damage etc. due to the fact that I was lagging so bad that I couldnt really chase people around. The two times that I didnt lag terribly, I finished top 4 in damage and top in killing blows. The PVP is actually a lot of fun. You can do the open world R v R areas, or you can join what is basically a battleground (called a scenario). To join a scenario you just click on the icon next to you mini map and join. Pretty easy. When you are done, it plops you right back down where you were. The best part is that you get XP for doing PVP as well. I am rank 9 (basically level 9), and PVP Renown 8 (which is basically another set of levels that can get you new skills and the ability to purchase better items with each level of renown).

So far, there are two repeatable Scenario quests that I can do over and over again. One is to kill 10 enemy players, and the other one is the complete the scenario. Thats right. You dont have to win to complete the quest. The character models are amazing, and the armor is cool looking. My chosen has a big scar over one eye and a Mohawk. Perhaps Ill post a screen shot.

Another very fun part of the game are the public quests. You can join a group (or try it solo), to do repeatable objectives and possibly earn some cool new gear. It is a random roll for who gets gear, but you get a postitive modifer to your roll based on how much you contributed to the quest. You can do they quests over and over again. I mainly did them on the Dwarf toon that I rolled on another server when my main server was overpopulated.

The Tome of Knowledge is Awesome. I keeps track of pretty much everything you have done. Exploration, killing, quests, you name it. You also unlock a ton of titles. I am currently using the title "the Fearless", but you can also choose from more silly ones like "Ow my Eye", which is a title that you obtain by clicking on yourself 100 times.

Now for the negatives. You have to have a very good system to get the best of Warhammer Online. My buddy who has a fairly new rig with two video cards in it still experiences alot of choppy and laggy moments in the game. Then there are some weird bugs. I havent noticed any combat bugs, but I have noticed some terrain bugs. One of them is that it seems like at random points, you will end up in a high place you didnt mean to get to and the fall. I also fell throught the world and died on my first trip to the Capital Chaos City.

Another complaint I have are the servers. I rolled on an Oceanic server and for the first few days, there were times when you had to wait in an hour queue to get on. That is why I rolled my Dwarf Ironbreaker on another server.

Overall, I would highly recommend the game. It is not as polished as Warcraft, but it has the potential to be as good. It is at the very least a very good alternative until Wrath comes out.

No comments: