Showing posts with label Multiplayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Multiplayer. Show all posts

Progress Report: World of Warcraft - Eastern Plaguelands

Reporting on games as I play them

The Eastern Plaguelands counts as the first zone that Eastern Kingdoms questers will encounter where both Alliance and Horde players will encounter the exact same zone as there is not a single quest in the zone that is specific to either faction, nor even any real members of either faction. Continuing from the first considerable interaction with the Argent Crusade in the Western Plaguelands, the Eastern Plaguelands has the players encountering and joining Fiona's caravan as they make their way across the Eastern Plaguelands, working with the Argent Crusade to fight off the remnant of the Scourge that still infests the land.

The storyline both benefits and suffers from the effective removal of faction conflict as it helps the zone really focus on its own story, providing some real characters who actually develop a little. However, it effectively removes your own character from being anything more than someone who is watching the story of Fiona's caravan and participating by running errands. Furthermore, just like the Eastern Plaguelands, there is a little bit of a disconnect in having the Forsaken work so willingly with the Argent Crusade, if you're coming from that storyline. Other than that, the introduction to the characters and their particular story, simple as it is, is probably the best thing in the Eastern Kingdoms since Kingslayer Orkus in the Hillsbrad Foothills, with some of the interaction and storytelling on the wagon rides between Fiona, Tarenar and Gidwin being modestly amusing, but having tons more character than anyone following Orkus.

Because of the focus on the Crusade versus the Scourge remnants, as well as how Tarenar and Gidwin are trying to join the Crusade, even most of the side quests actually feel fairly woven into the story and the whole zone's episodic nature as the caravan gathers some allies gives it almost a feeling of being in an interactive fantasy-set Cowboy Bebop, although the quality of storytelling is leagues behind the legendary anime. But even compared to the disjointed Western Plaguelands, the quality of storytelling in the Eastern Plaguelands is vastly improved. The variety of gameplay is a little weaker, with most of the quests tending towards kill and fetch quests, although you have some company in the form of some of your fellow caravan travelers joining you on some of them, and that does make the Eastern Plaguelands a little weaker and several of the storylines could use a lot more grounding, especially around the fate of the Scarlet Brotherhood. Plus, the post-Death Knight Scarlet Brotherhood area is completely barren and could use a little something, perhaps like continuing combat between the two factions and having some Death Knight representatives to quest for and interact with on their side of the field.

In terms of the environment, the Eastern Plaguelands is probably the most distinctive in comparison to the mostly forest-hills themes that we saw in the previous lands simply because the land has been corrupted, turning a sickly brown and red with giant mushrooms all over the place and once you reach Plaguewood, that gets even more sickly and purple. The zone also plays host to the dungeon Stratholme, which is just slightly higher in level than its surrounding area, but isn't otherwise poorly placed and is certainly thematically correct, even if no longer really feeling woven into the questing and leveling experience.

This level range means that the final types of rewards for questing are starting to show up here, like upgraded armor types and trinkets, meaning that the 40's are the conclusion of the introduction to the world of Warcraft. When you finish enjoying the modest story of the Eastern Plaguelands, some goblins offer you a rocket-ride to the Badlands as the next stop for Horde and Alliance characters questing in the Eastern Kingdoms. As far as the zone goes, the Eastern Plaguelands are certainly more rewarding than the previous three zones and probably sits alongside Hillsbrad Foothills for the mixed up degrees of fun and storytelling. The Argent focus does help the story be much tighter, but it also really pulls away from feeling much of the "war" in Warcraft as there's little to distinguish an Alliance or Horde member in these parts and you don't see any of the story relating to your respective factions or races, leaving a sad disconnect from the larger story that was being told. Furthermore, with the threat of the Lich King gone, the stakes simply don't seem very high for the zone, with the Crusade being all over the place, making it feel more like a clean-up operation than a trembling defense of the last vestiges of free life in the area.

But it's still a step up from what we've been seeing. I'm hoping the Badlands, with its goblins will be able to keep up to its level or exceed it.

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Progress Report: World of Warcraft - Western Plaguelands

Reporting on games as I play them

After the rather unexciting zones of Arathi Highlands and The Hinterlands, the Western Plaguelands helps a little to make up for the deficiencies of the former by adding a little story, some callbacks to past experiences and a few varied experiences to help tie it together. The zone still suffers a little from a lack of cohesiveness, especially on the Horde-side questline, due to some of tenuous alliances that are made, given the nature of the Forsaken in the area. However, the conflict between the Horde, Alliance as well as the Scourge make this zone a bit more interesting, even if not as impressive as the Silverpine Forest experience or as affecting as the Hillsbrad Foothills one.

You arrive in the middle of Andorhal, a fortress in the middle of the area that is currently in the middle of a three way fight between the Alliance, Horde, and Scourge and as a Horde, you assist your side. The zone returns to phasing allowing your experience to differ from Alliance players who would undertake the other side. Along the way, you discover that your commander is old war buddies with the Alliance's death knight commander and the Battle for Andorhal remains the central (and most interesting) storyline in the zone.

However, you also assist the Forsaken is beating away the remnants of the Alliance and are curiously then tasked to aid the Argent Crusade and Cenarion Circle by the Forsaken controlling the area, which is strange given the opposing aims of the Forsaken and the two neutral parties. That does lead to a little more varied gameplay, bringing back memories of the variety in Hillsbrad Foothills, but it doesn't quite have the same kind of continued storyline or urgency that the aforementioned zone does. However, there is a moment at a destroyed Scarlet Crusade camp that echoes back to your experience in Tirisfal Glades and that's a welcome experience. If only that story element were deeper woven into the story of the Eastern Kingdoms, at least as far as the Scarlet Crusade is concerned.

Western Plaguelands isn't quite compelling, I'd say, but it is a noticeable step up from the previous two zones, especially in that it reveals a thing or two about who the Forsaken are, continuing with some of the story elements introduced in Silverpine Forest and that gives the zone a bit of greater story weight that adds a little bit more to the epic feel of the zone, like participating in a real grand story.

That doesn't mean that the zone couldn't have been better tied together in terms of story and avoiding the strange experience of having the Forsaken in such cozy cahoots with the Argent Crusade, but it still remains an improvement in experience from the past couple zones. The zone also hosts the dungeon Scholomance, but like in most of the previous zones, the dungeons no longer seem tied to the quest leveling experience, which is a little bit of a shame, considering that it leaves a piece of the map unexplored. And when it's all done, you're asked to visit the Eastern Plaguelands.

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Played: Baking Life (Facebook)

Reporting on the games I've played

Note: As of January 31, 2012, Baking Life has gone off-line and is no longer in development.

Casual social gaming has seen a meteoric rise in popularity over the past few years, especially with the rise of social networks like Facebook and the development of "new" mobile phones in the era of iOS and Android. One of the most popular forms of social gaming is the simulation game, like FarmVille, which is extremely popular on Facebook and I've had many friends try to coax me into playing. However, I've been pretty wary of the time commitments involved in playing these games, no matter how simple they seem, so I avoided them for a while.

Then PopCap Games, the maker of several puzzle and strategy games I enjoy (Plants Vs. Zombies, Zuma, Bejeweled, Peggle) purchased the company that made the simulation game, Baking Life. With PopCap pushing this game, I decided to see what drove so many friends to play these games and give Baking Life a shot. For the most part, after achieving a very high level, I wasn't particularly impressed, but I can definitely see the appeal.

The conceit of the game is that you own a little bakery and you need to bake stuff to sell to customers to make money to improve your bakery to bake more stuff to sell to more customers at greater cost so you can... you get the idea. There's not too much more to the game than there as there is really no end to the game. As you bake you will gain experience to gain levels which will let you bake a larger variety of baked goods which vary in selling price, cooking time and amount of servings. With the money you earn, you can buy different items to improve the variety of goods you can sell at once, sell coffee, and handle more guests.

The social aspect comes in that you can invite your friends to work for you for free (as your store grows you will need to hire more employees who take a cut of your profits) and friends can send you gifts from free servings of food to decorations for your store to components that you need to build or upgrade some of the equipment in your store. The more friends you have playing the more free stuff you can get. All that stuff and money comes in handy because the nicer looking your store, the more money you can earn per sale.

The gameplay is pretty dry and mechanical otherwise. You can be kept on your toes because you have to take your products out of ovens before they burn and the quicker baking recipes, but it's generally the compulsion to buy newer and fancier stuff for your store that's going to drive you and the game resembles Animal Crossing as a result. Oh, it's also a freemium game, and so you can actually spend real money in the game (well, Facebook credits) to buy premium items or upgrade your store without needing a certain number of friends to join. There is a method of getting the "Zip cash" used to buy premium items for free, but you don't get much and it takes a long time, so the game puts the pressure on you to pay up if you want a really nice store.

Presentation wise, the game has bright, bold and colorful flash graphics with a lot of variety when it comes to how you can dress up your store and different seasonal and holiday items available at appropriate times of year. While the game can chug a little on slower machines, overall, it's still not a hugely taxing game. The game has music, but after listening to it for a good long while, I got tired of it and turned it off. I also wanted to turn off the sound effects too, as they are kind of loud and without internal controls to adjust volume, but I sometimes needed the heads up when a baked good was done, so I usually kept it on, to some amount of frustration.

Overall, after the initial expansion and spiffing up my store, the lack of any real development in the game left me quite tired of the game, although I did keep playing to reach the self-driven goal of baking every recipe in the game once. I also didn't appreciate how earnest the game was about trying to get you to spam your friends into playing it and spam your Facebook wall with posts about it. So, while the game might have been a little interesting at first, it's very limited in dimension and hardly interactive in a meaningful way. However, the game's colorful graphics and ability to build your store as you see fit would probably be a draw for more expressive players who love to customize things and don't mind dry repetitive tasks to do so. But that's certainly not going to be enough to impress me and the frustrating social and freemium aspects of the game took a lot away from its limited enjoyment.

This might mean I'm simply the wrong type of gamer for these social simulation games and my problem isn't with Baking Life in particular, but the entire model of business. So, PopCap Games or no, I can't endorse Baking Life (or any of its similarly oriented social simulation competitors, especially those that encourage spamming). There is a segment of the population that will enjoy this, but I'm not it. 4/10.

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Progress Report: World of Warcraft - The Hinterlands

Reporting on games as I play them

The Hinterlands lies just north of the Arathi Highlands and is the next area that Eastern Kingdoms questers will encounter. The Hinterlands was particularly less visited before the Shattering as those questing in the Eastern Kingdoms would get breadcrumb quests down to Stranglethorn Vale after completing Arathi Highlands, so it's a zone that I had little experience with, except during holidays when I would run up there to take care of whatever meaningless tasks I needed for the achievements. Although the revamp of the zone does improve its accessibility and flow, like the Highlands before it, it doesn't really have an interesting story or memorable moments and proves to be a rather dry experience.

The basic story in the Hinterlands is about trolls, especially if you're Horde as you align yourself with the Revantusk trolls as well as a group of Forsaken who are both battling the Vilebranch trolls. Along the way you do a lot of random killing and fetching for the locals and that's about it. There is a bit of story sprinkled into the region as the trolls in their huge temples are trying to call down the spider goddess, Shadra, and that's about the most interesting the region gets.

The problem with this is, that like the Horde presence in the Highlands, there's just nothing really compelling about what's going on in the Hinterlands, nor any connection between what questers experienced in the Highlands and what they experience in the Hinterlands, making it all seem even more like a bunch of randomly assembled quests. At least the conflict between the Horde and Alliance in the region (via their Wildhammer dwarf and Revantusk troll proxies) is actually seen a little, but for a contested zone, the Alliance and Horde are surprisingly at peace.

At least the zone doesn't feature any group quests as those made the rather dead zones of Hillsbrad Foothills and Arathi Highlands difficult to complete. However the Hinterlands does contain a rare world-drop quest that completionists might tear their hair out while trying to acquire, killing everything in the zone perhaps five times over to find. Although the final fight of the zone is mildly interesting, overall, the Hinterlands is much like the Arathi Highlands in terms of lacking flavor and story and is not a compelling experience. On the plus side, when you're done, you get sent right into a much more dynamic experience in the Western Plaguelands.

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Inbox: Munchkin 3 - Clerical Errors

New for me

So far, expansions to the Munchkin game haven't been particularly innovative, adding to the bulk of the cards without adding new mechanics. However, the expansions do work well to keep things fresh and some of the additions do add further strategic considerations. Clerical Errors largely continues that so Munchkin lovers who are just looking for a standard expansion will find it a good second expansion to add to their game.

The advertised "new" items to Clerical Errors is both a new race, Gnomes, and a new class, Bards. Overall, both are fairly powerful additions to the game and should give players more options in terms of the race and class they'd like to be. Because of the amount of addition the game makes, a number of new versions of old cards are also added to keep the ratios in the game appropriate. I don't know how successful it is as in our plays through the game we've encountered some uneven distribution of cards here and there, but that might simply be on account of the luck of the draw.

The sense of comedy in Clerical Errors is still pretty amusing, frequently making puns "Tequila Mockingbird" or fun of fantasy conventions "Chainmail Bikini" and the illustrations are modestly amusing too. Sometimes we did find that our hands were bloated with items we couldn't use because of the specificity of class and race, but again, that might just be a matter of the luck of the draw.

Overall, Clerical Errors is a decent addition to the game. It doesn't really add anything new, but some of the cards added (especially many of the new curses) do add some spark to the way that the game is played and it's all done with good fun in mind. Even though it won't add dimension, Clerical Errors is still good for those wanting to add some more options to their Munchkin game. 7/10.

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Progress Report: World of Warcraft - Arathi Highlands

Reporting on games as I play them

Arathi Highlands is the first contested zone that an Eastern Kingdoms Horde quest-taker will encounter, meaning that Horde and Alliance players of the 25-30 level range could really start encountering each other here. That "could" is a critical word, as during my brief time in the zone, I scarcely saw a single player of equivalent level running around it doing quests, seeing more higher level players digging around the troll campsite for archaeology finds. After playing through the zone, I could see why.

Arathi Highlands was originally a pretty boring affair. As a member of the Horde, you fought some remnants of the Syndicate, some ogres and their troll friends, some Alliance holdouts in castle Stromgarde and eventually captured a legendary sword, eventually dropping back in much later to awaken a resting titanic princess to kill. Oh and there were some pirates in the bay that needed your help.

None of that has changed. Sure there's another Horde outpost so you don't have to travel quite as far to turn in your quests, but while there has been some minor story development, Arathi Highlands would be the first of the Eastern Kingdoms zones that you could handily say was boring. First of all, the fact that there are Syndicate quests remaining is just silly, especially without the context of the Alterac Mountains and their Syndicate problem no longer explained. They're now just some random dudes without any real story. The ogres and trolls also just come across as random dudes to kill. The whole Stromgarde situation is just as ridiculous now as it was then with three opposing factions in very close quarters not fighting each other. And while I do appreciate that the ancient evil no longer requires a lot of backtracking and hunting down rare elites with wide paths and coming back from the Badlands, I also think that it's just not that interesting.

The only thing mildly amusing about the highlands is the brief section with the pirates and that's just a mild amusement. It's not a bad area to do some trade skill grinding with a good amount of ore in the hills and lots of beasties for leather and cooking, but there's nothing really resembling an interesting story to drive a quest-taker forward. A mild revamp to the zone doesn't make it any more interesting or better. When a Horde player is done, at least they get an easy free ride to Hinterlands, which was previously a very obnoxiously difficult zone to get to the starting quest village of.

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Progress Report: World of Warcraft - Hillsbrad Foothills

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

Hillbrad Foothills begins on a comedic note, giving players a nice reprieve from the high dramatics that closed out Silverpine Forest. And yet, no matter how silly the initial quest is, which places you in the position of being a quest-giver to three exaggerated "player" archetypes, what might have been a disposable quest recurs in future quests, including a surprising quest chain that ends up poignant. That's right, WoW somehow takes a comedic beat from what could be a throwaway quest and develops it into a rather poignant story.

Otherwise, questing in Hillsbrad Foothills is rather straightforward, with you typical kill/fetch quests leading up to mini-events. There are about three of these moments overall and the middle one is the aforementioned poignant one--I really love how Blizzard created an actual character to connect with, no matter how briefly. In terms of the overall look of the zone, the Forsaken have clearly made their inroads, blowing up Southshore, which has become a slimy cesspool and Hillsbrad. In Hillsbrad, you are actually given an interesting moral choice, which doesn't really affect the game and I found that interesting as well.

Unfortunately, the zone doesn't end with an epic sweeping story like Silverpine Forest, instead it ends a touch on a goofy side, which still includes a dose of personality, but doesn't really draw you into any greater story. Furthermore, the Alterac Mountains get incorporated into Hillsbrad Foothills, but there is no quest chain that goes up there, despite having NPCs placed up there--it seems like those plans were abandoned. This leaves a giant mini-zone completely without purpose and seems like a bit of a loss for the character of the zone, because it is one of the few Horde friendly snow-covered areas in the game.

Also in line with the goofy nature of the zone is the inclusion of a Plants vs. Zombies game, affectionately nicknamed "Lawn of the Dead" included in the zone, which rewards an item appropriate for players questing in the area, but scaling monetary and experience rewards for all players. Unfortunately, there is no breadcrumb quest to send anyone out there, so it feels a little disconnected from the zone, despite the fact that, based on its item rewards and characters, it should have been led to fairly early in the zone.

I suppose a nice change of pace like Hillsbrad Foothills goofiness is a plus after the epic Silverpine Forest and it does contain at least some strong flavor thanks to the continuing story that opens up the zone, but after Silverpine, it can feel like a touch of a letdown, especially when you consider the now meaningless Alterac Mountains. The other difficult factor is that there is a bunch of group quests in the area, most of which cannot be beaten solo, even when they are deemed beneath a character and since the area, like most lower level areas, is barren, getting a group together to beat the bosses can be quite difficult. More so than actually beating the bosses should you find a group. Still, in the end, I enjoyed the zone's variety and the goofiness did enliven the area enough to keep it fun. When all is said and done, a very basic breadcrumb quest leading players to the Arathi Highlands, which was a rather boring zone before the Shattering of the original World of Warcraft.

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Inbox:Hardware: Munchkin - Boxes of Holding

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Hardware covers the technology of game playing, whether PC, consoles or figurines on a board.

While I do love me some Munchkin for its chaotic multiplayer fun, I admit that it's rather chaotic when it comes to storage. It's a lot of cards and they can get quite shuffled about and messed up in the original box that it came in, especially with the Door and Treasure cards getting mixed up. The easy solution, of course, is to get a pair of simple cardboard card boxes or, alternatively, fancier deck boxes that exist for trading card games.

Steve Jackson games actually deals with this problem too, by releasing its very own pair of deck boxes to hold all your Munchkin cards, separated into Door and Treasure boxes. These aren't actually significantly different from regular old cardboard card boxes, actually, being made of cardboard themselves, but they are printed all over with Munchkin graphics and come with a pair of exclusive bonus cards as well. For the high asking price of $9.99 that's really not that great of a deal. However, the glossy printing is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than a plain white or brown cardbox box with "Munchkin" scrawled in permanent ink on it and the bonus cards are nice too.

Still, for what you get, it's not that great of a deal. But a must for fans. 6/10.

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Progress Report: World of Warcraft - Silverpine Forest

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

When you reach the end of the quests in Tirisfal Glades, a breadcrumb quest leads you onto Silverpine Forest where the undead Forsaken are engaged in combat with Worgan (werewolves) that you encountered in a brief quest in Tirisfal Glades. So far, I have to say that Silverpine Forest is one of the most interesting zones that I've encountered in World of Warcraft, epic in feel with some real storytelling and in-depth exploration of lore and area (re)design.

One of the ways that the area draws you in immediately is as you enter the zone, you are greeted by Forsaken troops marching along the main road, ettins hauling troops to the battlefront with the Worgen and other ettins hauling the (permanently) dead back. And then you encounter none other than Sylvanus Windrunner, the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken and she ends up speaking with none other than the Horde Warchief, Garrosh Hellscream. Story is revealed in a number of short cutscenes and the story of the zone is principally about the Forsaken's dominance in the area being threatened by an invigorated Worgen threat and as you progress in the zone, you also learn about the Forsaken's new desire to prosper, their new means of building their population and the conflict with the Worgen, even taking to the warfront with the Worgen and witnessing, via phasing, the warfront move forward and back into and from the Worgen lands of Gilneas.

All this is suitably epic and I love how drawing Sylvanus and the Worgen conflict really ties this zone together so well. The redesign of the zone again shows immense improvement to playability and smoothness of the leveling experience, providing flightpoints through the whole zone, from one stop to the next, meaning that you spend much less time running those long distances on foot. Silverpine Forest is a clear example of how to do a WoW zone right and, even though I've progressed several zones ahead, it still remains my favorite zone. I imagine that playing through the Worgen starting zone before playing Silverpine Forest will provide even greater story insight into what's going on as these two experiences seem linked, from cast of characters to locations and settings. Silverpine Forest was perhaps the most fun I've had in WoW so far.

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Inbox: Munchkin 2 - Unnatural Axe

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

Munchkin is a lot of fun as a multiplayer game, but when you start playing with a larger group (5+), you might find that you burn through all the cards in the original set and have to start recycling cards back into the draw decks, which is all fine and good, but the potential for surprise diminishes when that happens. Fortunately, there is a solution to that: expansion decks.

The first expansion for Munchkin was Unnatural Axe, which provides a heap of unique new cards to add to the experience. More monsters, more traps, and more overpowered treasure for sure, giving you more options to fight monsters and more monsters to die to. And while there are no significant gameplay mechanics added, Munchkin does add a new race, Orcs, who are a little more trap-resistant, which creates more choices for players. Most importantly, however, is that all these additions seem to be pretty well balanced and provided in a good ratio so that players never feel unchallenged and have options, especially when ganging up either on monsters or on each others.

The art is amusing, especially for those accustomed to fantasy-fiction trappings and there's a good number of cards. If that's not enough, Munchkin has a number of additional expansions. A good, supplemental, release. 7/10.

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Progress Report: World of Warcraft - Tirisfal Glades

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

When I first played World of Warcraft back in 2005 for merely the thirty day trial period, the game was still in its infancy, piggybacking on the success of similar MMORPGs like Everquest and the influence of those games was strong on the basic structure of WoW. However, even then, the game showed the kind of polish and streamlining that Blizzard is known for. Their games are hardly innovative, but they take the best of what their rivals have and shine them up to an impeccable polish.

Still, there was a lot that was part of the original design of WoW that was pretty rough. The original design wanted to keep the leveling process controlled as the endgame wasn't as expansive as it is today and it also wanted to push exploration and running around the huge world that they've built, so the original quest storylines often had you running all over a zone or across multiple zones and continents, leading to many quests taking a lot of time and/or being unfavorable in terms of time spent versus reward. Consequently, a large number of quests were ignored, several zones avoided altogether and the overall leveling experience feeling like a grind. This was the WoW that I remembered.

After The Shattering, an event in WoW that acts as a prelude to Cataclysm, the 2010 expansion to one of the most successful computer games of all time, the entirety of the original game continents was irrevocably changed. Having spent most of my previous WoW experience before the great account compromise as one of the amoral Forsaken, the reanimated undead warrior Clie, I decided that for my return to Azeroth, it would make sense to see the changes that have been made and revisit the undead starting experience. Building a variety of characters, I noticed that even the way that the classes worked had changed in the intervening years, so it took a little time to get adjusted.

The starting experience for the Forsaken has changed greatly, taking into account the defeat of the Lich King, the whole purpose of the Forsaken has been fulfilled. Nevertheless, you wake up in the cemetery of Deathknell, a small town in Tirisfal Glades, raised by a val'kyr, a ghostly apparition and are immediately tasked to serve the Banshee Queen, Sylvanus Windrunner, by killing X number of zombies and skeletons, etc. Some things never change.

Still, hints at a larger zone-wide storyline are planted in Deathknell with one of the first two quests that you encounter, rather than the more general "fight the Scarlet Crusade" story of the original incarnation of Tirisfal Glades. There are several quests that remain partially intact, even if the questgiver and/or process has changed a little, but the rewards are somewhat more consistent and useful, the experience and gold better suited to preparing you for the next set of quests. After creating a zone-wide storyline that has actual characters involved, the next best effect of the revamp has been the streamlining of quests. Each new area presents a nicely grouped clump of quests that results in minimal backtracking, so you see the sights and move on and don't have to go back (unless you're into leveling a profession--that experience is still a grind).

Visually, not much has changed, the Tirisfal Glades are a gloomy, sparsely populated place, but the storyline keeps it somewhat interesting, even if it could have been even better integrated into the greater leveling experience--I wanted more of that and less of the random hunting/killing/gathering quests which didn't really seem to have any sort of real cathartic reward. Still, the Tirisfal Glades really shows an improvement on the leveling experience and so it was a welcome (and quick) run from level one through level ten. Another nice change is the addition of a couple minor flightpoints to different parts of the zone, meaning less "just running from place to place", which was always a boring part of the experience once you'd seen an area once or twice. At the end of the experience, a quest opens up directing you to head for Silverpine Forest, but I opted to take my undead guy to Undercity and have him rest in a coffin in the inn. Silverpine Forest will come another day.

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Inbox: Munchkin 7 - More Good Cards

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

When I got the first Munchkin game as a gift, I also received with it Munchkin 7 - More Good Cards. More Good Cards is a slim expansion set for Munchkin that doesn't add anything particularly new: no new mechanics, no new races, classes or treasure types. What it does provide is a small stack of highly powered cards that generally work to enhance the use of other cards.

This includes even more over the top versions of cards like Super Munchkin and Half-Breed, which let you stack three classes or races together, rather than just two. However, since the expansion includes a lot of cards that modify other cards, but no actual treasures, monsters, races or anything of the sort, it might actually be too much for those who are just playing with the basic box, because it throws off the ratio of enhancer cards to basic cards, which results in drawing a lot of cards that can't or won't be used.

That said, as you get more expansions and your decks become enormous, the more useful More Good Cards becomes, letting you take advantage of the three or four cards in your hand that you might not have otherwise been able to use. Bottom line: this is a good expansion for those who already have a lot of Munchkin and want More Good Cards. For those who only have the basic box, I'd look at buying additional expansions in numerical sequence to keep the card ratios even. 6/10.

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Progress Report: A Return to Azeroth

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

I had given up on World of Warcraft last year after a hacking incident took my characters. Well, with a new expansion on the horizon, I started feeling some cravings to go back into the game and explore all the new stuff. As I still have one medium level character left, I think that I can pick up close to where I left off and, hopefully, finally reach the endgame for the original Warcraft, and hopefully move into the endgames for the previously released expansions, at least enough so that I can finally have a say about the complete game.

So, yes, I am returning to Azeroth, for what I hope will be my chance to get through all the rest of the content before signing off again. I'll report on my progress now and again.

Inbox: Munchkin

Inbox features items that I have recently purchased or received.

One of America's best game designers is Steve Jackson, responsible for the design of the pen-and-paper roleplaying system, GURPS, as well as the fantastic card game, Illuminati, released during they heyday of the collectible card game craze. Munchkin, released in the early 2000's, is another game by Steve Jackson and quite possibly their most popular one yet, thanks to its comical tone, but engrossing multiplayer mechanics.

Initially designed as a send-up of pen-and-paper roleplaying games, gamers, and its associated culture, the main game features each playing taking the role of a dungeon adventurer (starting as a Level 1 Human with no class). Together, 3-6 players enter the dungeon, kick down doors, fight monsters, loot treasure and work with and against each other to this end. The object of the game is to be the first player to reach level 10. Levels are gained by defeating monsters, earning the levels in treasure and in selling equipment, but the last level may only be earned by defeating a monster. As the players encounter baddies, they can ask for assistance, bribing other players with treasure or appealing to their goody-goody nature (if they're elves) and likewise, players also frequently draw a number of "door" cards which enable them to cause trouble for each other in order to keep them from winning.

Like any card game, mulligans do happen and if the shuffled deck doesn't distribute card types well, then play can really slow down a lot. But, its inherent nature as a card game is its main weakness. Otherwise, the game is tactically simple enough that most gamers and even many non-gamers can get into it quickly after a couple demonstration rounds, but giving so many opportunities for players to help and foil each other makes every game unpredictable, while still giving the rules enough space to permit enough planning as so the game isn't entirely chaotic. I really appreciate how the game creates both a desire to cooperate with other players, as almost no player could survive without the occasional intervention of another player, but gives plenty of opportunities to backstab another player or tear them down just when they think that they might win.

The cards are published on quality cardstock that requires a little breaking in, but are durable with a strong matte finish. The latest (19th) printing takes the cards another level, including some revisions to cards to make their effects clearer and giving all the cards a color makeover. The included decks aren't enormous, so a six player game could possibly see all the cards run out. The included rules are printed in nice large print on a foldout. Sometimes the rules aren't exactly clear and it's not entirely easy to find out where certain rules lie on the page, so the instruction page could be better organized. In the case of who plays first and what order the players take turns, the game takes a comical approach, suggesting that the players roll the dice and argue about what it means. Fortunately, there is some good amount of online support, including an FAQ that resolves some questions that might come up while gaming as well as forums where a befuddled gamer can seek advice from more experienced players.

At this point, Munchkin is Steve Jackson Games' most popular product and so those that don't get their fill from just the first box have seven expansion sets to purchase. The game also has a number of spin-offs, featuring different themes from the standard set's medieval fantasy, like Space Munchkin, Munchkin Fu and numerous other themes. These spin-offs can largely also be mixed into standard Munchkin, with a few rules adjustments.

Overall, the game is a lot of fun, perhaps reaching its best point at 4-5 players. Again, a bad shuffle can really kill the momentum of the game and so the game does have that weakness, but its quality of player interaction, comical theme and solid game mechanics provide plenty of moments to enjoy with your friends (and enemies). I would imagine that standard Munchkin would be most enjoyable to those who have some background in medieval fantasy role-playing games (computer and console gamers included), due to the tropes involved, but the comedy is frequently broad enough that non-roleplayers. Some of the other Munchkin spin-offs might prove to be more accessible as well, depending on the background of the players. Highly recommended. 8/10.

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Progress Report: The Beatles: Rock Band

Progress Report provides ongoing impressions of games as I play them.

I previously wrote about my initial experiences with The Beatles: Rock Band's story modes and found the experience enjoyable, especially when playing through with friends. It was at our own pace (and we set it pretty fast) and it takes you along the journey of the Beatles, complete with fun little movies that signify the different periods of the Beatles' career.

Over the next couple months, I got to complete the challenge mode, which, like the Story Mode, divides sets of songs by the period of the Beatles' career. However, the challenge mode is less about telling the Beatles' story and more about... challenge. Essentially, it creates non-stop song sets of each period where you get one composite score for the whole set, as opposed to getting to start over with each song. This also means that if you are failing or flailing on one song and are on the precipice, you remain in trouble when you start the next song. It makes things challenging, certainly and also because you're playing 5-7 full length Beatles songs, which means at least 15 minutes of consecutive playing/singing.

Another part of the game I checked out was the online store, where I purchased the full albums of Abbey Road (woohoo! medleys!) and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This is how they get me to buy each album twice. Anyway, the store on the PS3 is a little clumsily set up, having to buy inside the game, but then leave the game to install it. As of right now, three full albums, the previously mentioned, plus Rubber Soul, are available, plus the standalone song "All You Need Is Love". There hasn't been a new album release in a little bit, so I'm not sure if there will be any more, but I hope so. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to downloading Rubber Soul when my budget is ready for it.

The most recent thing I've been messing with in the game is the Tutorial section, which includes a vocal harmony trainer and a drum trainer. I haven't had any opportunity to do the harmony trainer, but, having fared poorly on drums, except on easy mode so far, I decided that I'd give the drum trainer a shot. First of all, I think that it's a lift from the Rock Band 2 drum trainer, so all the basics are the same, but there's an extra mode called "Beatles Beats" which focus on Ringo's own signature rhythms.

After looking at Beatles Beats, I realized that there's no way I'm going to be able to start there and decided to go to the regular drum trainer. Honestly, it really does try to teach you the basics of rhythms, and most importantly, carrying independent rhythms on different limbs. It's not a substitute for actual drum lessons and the Rock Band kit is no real drum set, but it still teaches you the basics of rock rhythms. That said, I also discovered that although I can finally get all the beats working on different limbs, I'm just not a very fast drummer and I can't seem to hit the 8th notes consistently at the fastest tempos (180+). There go my dreams of playing drums on expert. But, considering how much I did grow in keeping rhythm, I'd say it's a pretty neat feature.

Next up: more drum training, some vocal training and then kicking the tires on the online multiplayer features.

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