Showing posts with label Progress Report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Progress Report. 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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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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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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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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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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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.

Progress Report: Resident Evil

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

So, I've had this game for a little while now and I've tried to play through it a couple times before, but I got distracted by something or another and would forget about it. I have played the old Playstation version and am now trying to work my way through the Gamecube remake.

Immediately, the game has a great way of instilling dread, even though I hadn't even seen a single zombie as the music just keeps the tension up. Graphically, the game is leaps and bounds beyond the Playstation original and also seems to clean up the dialog and replace the campy opening movie with a more serious CG opening movie. There seem to be some additional features added, such as an instant 180 turnaround (great for running away from the many zombies that want to nosh on your face). The game still controls like the original, which means it's that still tank-like control from before. Fortunately the zombies aren't super mobile either, so it's not a terrible handicap.

Having played the original before, this run-through the game is a little easier as I kind of have an idea of what I have to do, at least through getting the three keys. And I know not to waste ammo killing zombies I can simply avoid. That still doesn't make my nerves any less tense while playing. The game has excellent atmosphere and does a great job of creating suspense. I have to admit that the pre-rendered backgrounds and, therefore, pre-selected camera angles, while they are quite compelling to look at and do a great job of creating atmosphere, they sort of make the gameplay more awkward and difficult.

So far, I've only killed a few zombies and made sure to scorch them because I found out that if you don't blow up their heads or scorch them, they come back as fast moving super strong zombies. I've gotten myself one of the keys and the shotgun and will soon be shooting up some zombie-dogs in order to get the next key. I hate those dogs. I've only died three times so far, on easy mode, so that means... well, I have to work on improving my gaming chops. There's nothing sexy about watching a zombie nosh on Jill Valentine's neck. I hope by next update I'll have all the keys and have beat the big snake again. I hate that snake.

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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