Tell me, Why? Why now?

For years, my friends have tried to get me to play World of Warcraft, and for a while I was quite content with not playing it. There’s nothing that I personally have against this game, it’s just I didn’t have the time, nor the computer that could handle such a game. But after a friend of mine was able to build myself and my sister a decent gaming PC, I started diving into games such as Left 4 Dead, Star Wars: Empire at War, and other various games. However, MMO’s were not my thing. I already owned an Xbox 360 and was paying for the online play of that, so why would I pay two monthly subscriptions for two completely different titles?

It was the year before that I had actually purchased World of Warcraft to give it a shot. Unfortunately the way that my service was set up, I kept having latency issues and was being disconnected. So I decided that since I had put off World of Warcraft for so long and saying how it would waste my life that my computer was trying to save my soul. After all, this is the game that has the option to buy a USB powered soul-taking device that you can use while playing the game.

I did manage to find myself playing other types of MMO’s, that being Champions Online and Star Trek Online, both developed by Cryptic studios. But I never actually had enough friends that would sit down and play side-by-side. In fact, the majority of Champions Online I played by myself. The most I had with Star Trek was the standard five player party. Now with Star Wars: The Old Republic sometime in the near future, I find myself itching to play one of those two again.

It was about two weeks ago where I had took a mini-vacation with my friends in which we spent four days procrastinating. Of course, the majority of them there were avid World of Warcraft fans. When I got home, and talking about how awesome the vacation was, it was back to business as usual. Then, it happened.

One of my friends had been trying to find Christmas gifts for everyone, and something was about how we should all get into World of Warcraft seeing as the new expansion back Cataclysm is coming out. Our trusty tank in Halo: Reach had just recently received a laptop and was given it as a gift. All of a sudden, they’re planning on building a guild and starting out as certain classes. Then they turn to me. I kindly inform them that I don’t play the game. I said how I owned the battle chest, but I never got it to work and it would just be too late for me to join in.

The next day, he shows up to work and hands me a copy of the Wrath of the Lich King and a pre-order for Cataclysm. “You’re playing,” is all he said. I sighed as I grabbed the box. It was empty. “Digital version,” he replied. I sighed again. Let the patching commence.

You could customize your mech anyway you wanted. Mine had a giant satellite. That meant I couldn't have any big guns sadly.

Now, whatever video game I play, whether that is Rainbow Six, Battlefield, or even MMO’s like Star Trek Online, I always play one of two characters: a healer and a commander/tank. For example, in games like Rainbow Six and the late Chromehounds, I was the commander. Most of the time I was looking at a map, figuring out where the enemies were, and coordinating positions with my other teammates to engage the hostiles.

In Battlefield 2 I was a commander whereas in Battlefield: Bad Company 2, I was the medic. In fact the best story playing that game was when I was a medic and my entire team followed me until the fighting happened, then they took point, and I patched them up.

In Star Trek Online, I played the engineering class, the equivalent to a paladin in World of Warcraft. I was both the tank and the medic. Needless to say, guess what class I picked when I finally got into the game? It should be noted that for a while I was going to pick priest and be pure 100% medic, but James gave me a sound reason to start as a paladin in by saying that paladins have plate armor and priests are squishy.

So I loaded up World of Warcraft and started my paladin character. I don’t think I’ve played another game besides this in the past 72 hours. It’s not like I haven’t done anything else in the past 72 hours, it’s just I haven’t played a different game in the past 72 hours; two different scenarios. And seeing as there’s only one gaming PC in the house, I do have to give up on it when my sister is in a mood to play The Sims 3.

What can I say about this game now that I’m playing it? Well, I like it. I can understand how people can get roped into it and start playing this game for a long time. The only thing is there are some quests I would not ever want to do again, but there hasn’t been a quest that I’m sad is over like in Star Trek Online.

For those that have never played a MMO before, let me break it down to you. From a casual observation, each race in World of Warcraft has its own starting zone, but will be able to travel to other zones in the game. This way you’re not stuck replaying the same starting sequence over and over again, such as games like Cryptic’s Champions Online and Star Trek Online. But there are certain quests known as “fetch quests.” Essentially it’s a quest in which an NPC asks you to gather X amount of an item or several items. Some of these can be very boring and may not pay off in the long run. But so far in World of Warcraft, I have not come across a quest in which I have gone “I wish I could play that again.”

The Doomsday Machine vs Me

Now let it be known that I am both a fan of Star Trek and Star Wars. While playing Star Trek Online, there was a mission in which you faced off against the Doomsday Machine from the original Star Trek TV series. By far, it was one of the best experiences I’ve had in an MMO. Unfortunately with most MMO quests, you’re unable to replay a mission without starting a brand new character.  So it was somewhat sad when I had completed the quest and moved onto my next mission.

So what can I say, I like it. Of course right now I’m soloing, but even still it’s an enjoyable game. As I was told by one of my friends, “congratulations, you have been assimilated by the Borg.”

My name is Jeffrey, and I’m a paladin.

Next month: Minecraft

“Got what?” We all asked. Next thing we know, these three were sitting down in front of us. We call it, the Evolution of the Halo Controller. Yes, we did put them in order from best to worst, seeing we all said the Reach controller was the best with the ODST as a close second. The Halo 3 one? It just looks lame.

Then again, I can find better things to spend $80 on ($40 per controller thanks to GameStop’s buy 2 used get 1 free sale)

Just check out the in-progress fan made game posted up on You Tube. Here’s hoping it’s finished soon!

Recently I was shown the trailer for Tron: Legacy and somehow thought to myself, “I really want to play Kingdom Hearts 2 again.” Oh sure, say what you will, but in all honesty, Kingdom Hearts is more for the Disney lovers than the Final Fantasy ones. The fact that I also have a copy of Kingdom Hearts RE: Chain of Memories still in it’s plastic wrap still urged me to pass on it for 2. Then again, I do need to play that game as well.

Kingdom Hearts 2, like every other big Square Enix title, was huge when it first launched. I remember sitting down for a week straight with my sister trying to beat that game, and in the end we were satisfied and could not wait for the sequel. Having not played Kingdom Hearts 2 in over three years have given me a lot of surprises I did not pick up the first time. Oh sure, we all know the general plot and premise, but it’s the subtle things that either puts a smile on my face or make me go “why did you do this terrible thing?”

Good Things I Forgot:

• Pete’s Boss Fight in Timeless River.

There was some charm to the whole Timeless River campaign. Sure the Black and White style mixed with the old artwork for the characters was neat. But if it was one thing that pulled this level together was the end boss fight with Pete. What made it so good? Every so often, when you’ve knocked enough HP out of Pete, the camera would do a close up and Pete would do the timeless “exit stage right” zip. The curtain would close and a mugshot of Pete appeared. The curtain would raise and now you’re on a completely different set. Sure it happened like five or six times, but it was still funny everytime it happened for some reason.

• Voice Cast = Win

Seriously, when you sign on either to do a Disney movie or a Square Enix game, you’ve almost sold your soul to continue that character on forever. But even the most subtle characters bring joy. Okay sure, Johnny Depp isn’t playing Jack Sparrow, but you’ve got other great actors like James Woods, James Earl Jones, Christopher Lee, hell even Bruce Boxleitner and Angela Lansbury among a list of other great screen and voice stars. I didn’t even remember Quinton Flynn was Axel. Yeah… this was a good line-up guys.

• The Drive Feature

I’m not sure why I didn’t use this earlier. I’m guessing that when you’re introduced to a new and powerful technique you need to build up, you save it for the most opportune moment. Now that I’ve beaten the game and have somewhat of an understanding what will happen in a level, I’m using it a lot more freely. Let’s face it, two keyblades = slaughter fest.

Bad Things I Forgot:

• The Music in Port Royal

Let’s face it. The music in Kingdom Hearts 2 was gorgeous. The melody’s were great, even battle musics seemed in it’s place. It’s just for some reason, once you get to the Port Royal level, the music goes from great orchestration to MIDI music like we’re playing the game on a PS1. Seriously? For one thing, my sister couldn’t wait for me to breeze through the game just to get to the Pirates of the Caribbean stage. Oh sure, the battle music was He’s a Pirate from the soundtrack of the first movie, but the entire level just seemed that the music just was rushed through.

• The Friend Quest

For a while now, I’ve been sitting here and wondering. Sora’s off and trying to find Mickey and Riku, yet not once does he ponder about Kairi. Even while he’s traveling throughout the different worlds, you’d think he would at least land once back at Destiny Islands to see how everyone was doing. Or… maybe that’s just me.

All in all I’m still about 7 hours into the game and just hit Port Royal, so there’s still a lot more to go in the game, for that I’m sure. Regardless, it will be interesting what else I’ve forgotten about this game.

That is all,

-Jeff