So I suppose this thread is as good a place as any to explain where I've been and why I've been absent from the game since a little past a month from launch (with particular apologies to my LS for just disappearing for awhile).
So what have I been playing since I dropped FFXIV from my repertoire?
Weellll... I've been playing a lot of stuff, but most of that time's been dominated by a single game:
Blade & Soul
Yes, that's right, the Chinese version. Now, I apologize if I sound like a complete, unabashed fanboy/girl in this post, but bear with me, for I am being entirely genuine here: [fanboymode] This is the best MMORPG I have ever played, and I've played tons. Everquest, Everquest II, City of Heroes/Villains, Champions Online, EVE Online, Aion, TERA, APB, Vanguard, Guild Wars 2, and tons of others that I can't be bothered to remember for obvious reasons.
Mind you, it has yet to eclipse my highest playtime-of-all-time game, Aion (clocking at over 2000 hours to date), but I still feel that from a standpoint of sheer quality, nothing touches Blade & Soul. The whole game simply reeks of polish - EVERYTHING has had excessive amounts of attention laid on it, from the sound effects to the animation the the character models to the combat system to the environments, you name it, it's had some work done. It's extremely obvious where all that time (8 years! 8 years of development!) and money went to, unlike other games I can name where I can't for the life of me understand where all the money disappeared to.
In fact, it's pretty much the sole reason I dropped FFXIV even after paying for 3 months of subscription of time (lolwut). The game just grabbed me, hook and sinker, and pulled me along with it, despite the fact that, goddammit, playing with a bunch of Chinese people when you don't know a lick of Chinese and dealing with the latency of connecting to a server on the other side of the goddamn planet is painful. If that's not a strong indicator of quality, I don't know what is.
You may be even more shocked to learn that the story is actually really good. No, it's not particularly innovative or challenging, but it is incredibly fun and well-executed in a manner that eclipses pretty much all other MMOs - and yes, I'm including SWTOR in that count. The thing is, while SWTOR gives you the illusion of choice, the actual story itself is bland and uninteresting, and was not anywhere near strong enough to get me to overlook the game's many, many faults. Speaking of SWTOR, Blade & Soul is also the only other MMO I know of besides SWTOR to have full voice over for every NPC (minus a few minor ones, probably for scheduling or budget reasons). The story itself is quite engaging and, most importantly, is full of memorable characters who you can cheer for or want to see get their comeuppance, in stark contrast to SWTOR or, gods forbid, Guild Wars 2 (where I literally could not possibly care any less about any of the NPCs involved - the writing just failed to make any of them seem genuine).
And the combat! My gawd, the combat. There is literally no other MMORPG on the market that can hold a candle to it. TERA is fun but dreadfully slow-paced in comparison. GW2 tries but completely fails to get rid of the trinity even half as well as B&S does. The feedback is perfect. The animation is gorgeous and over-the-top. It's so damn good that it makes it difficult for me to play other games that aren't Platinum games.
And then there's the character creation. Like they say... a picture is worth a thousand words. (And that's just one race! Of four!)
Now, mind you, for all that I love about it, it obviously has some issues of its own. It IS a theme park MMO, with all that entails, so you should expect you're going to run the same dungeons many times over when you hit the level cap (same as every other theme park MMO including FFXIV), so nothing shocking there. The PvP balance is kind of shoddy for a game with so much emphasis on one-on-one combat - but to be fair, I don't know a single MMORPG with good 1v1 balance. Despite letting you wear whatever costume you want with no penalty to stats, for some reason weapon skinning is completely omitted from the game.
Despite these quibbles, however, the game itself is ridiculously solid, and it's a crying shame that they still haven't come out with an NA/EU version after all this time (BUT, to be fair again, even the Japanese haven't received their version yet, despite being a big, big market for this kind of game). I'm certain that many people - at least, those who manage to get past the stylized visuals and eastern oriental setting - will find plenty of entertainment when this game reaches our shores. In the meantime, I'm going to keep dealing with the language barrier and the lag because it's just that damn fun.
[/fanboymode]
So. In case anyone's still reading this runaway monstrosity of a post, here's what I think about what's coming up:
The Elder Scrolls Online
Garbage.
I could probably just leave it at that, but that would be mean and unprofessional. Simply put, I feel that it is one of the blandest, most soulless, designed-by-committee cynical corporate cash-grabs I have ever played. There is literally nothing that I could say is a redeeming feature. Even the character creation is marred by the character models being ugly as sin half the time (and merely adequate the other half). And what the hell is with this industry's obsession with boob plate?!
I really wanted to like it, I really hoped my first impressions were wrong and that the game would actually at least play well, but no, none of that. It's just bad. I'm afraid I'm just going to have to pass on it entirely. Not my thing.
Wildstar
I have been so completely disinterested in this game that I haven't even signed up for the beta (yes, even when I managed to at least muster up enough will to sign up for TESO). The reason for that is simple: the art is atrocious. I can't stand it. It would be nice if it were at least visually attractive the way Blade & Soul is but instead they go for this ridiculous Saturday-morning-cartoon look that absolutely repulses me.
Oh, and the character creation is horrible. No body sliders? IN 2014?! It's like I took a time machine back to 2006, except Blizzard decided to make a sci-fantasy game with a new IP instead of a Warcraft or Starcraft spin-off. Thanks, guys, but no thanks. I have standards. At least try to meet them, yeah?
And of course, of the footage I've seen absolutely nothing else actually screams "PLAY ME! PLAY MEEEE!", which is highly unfortunate. The combat is playing catch-up with its Eastern contemporaries, though it at least admittedly looks better than TESO's absolute joke for "combat". The questing is also shallow and lacks the kind of direction or overarching story it needs to actually be interesting.
Anyway, yeah. That's the deal. Apologies to those who are actually looking forward to those games, but you can still enjoy them without me. These are just my feelings on them. I wish I had more games to actually look forward to on the horizon, but right now I'm just sticking with more Blade & Soul.
Goddamn I want an NA release right about now...
So what have I been playing since I dropped FFXIV from my repertoire?
Weellll... I've been playing a lot of stuff, but most of that time's been dominated by a single game:
Blade & Soul
Yes, that's right, the Chinese version. Now, I apologize if I sound like a complete, unabashed fanboy/girl in this post, but bear with me, for I am being entirely genuine here: [fanboymode] This is the best MMORPG I have ever played, and I've played tons. Everquest, Everquest II, City of Heroes/Villains, Champions Online, EVE Online, Aion, TERA, APB, Vanguard, Guild Wars 2, and tons of others that I can't be bothered to remember for obvious reasons.
Mind you, it has yet to eclipse my highest playtime-of-all-time game, Aion (clocking at over 2000 hours to date), but I still feel that from a standpoint of sheer quality, nothing touches Blade & Soul. The whole game simply reeks of polish - EVERYTHING has had excessive amounts of attention laid on it, from the sound effects to the animation the the character models to the combat system to the environments, you name it, it's had some work done. It's extremely obvious where all that time (8 years! 8 years of development!) and money went to, unlike other games I can name where I can't for the life of me understand where all the money disappeared to.
In fact, it's pretty much the sole reason I dropped FFXIV even after paying for 3 months of subscription of time (lolwut). The game just grabbed me, hook and sinker, and pulled me along with it, despite the fact that, goddammit, playing with a bunch of Chinese people when you don't know a lick of Chinese and dealing with the latency of connecting to a server on the other side of the goddamn planet is painful. If that's not a strong indicator of quality, I don't know what is.
You may be even more shocked to learn that the story is actually really good. No, it's not particularly innovative or challenging, but it is incredibly fun and well-executed in a manner that eclipses pretty much all other MMOs - and yes, I'm including SWTOR in that count. The thing is, while SWTOR gives you the illusion of choice, the actual story itself is bland and uninteresting, and was not anywhere near strong enough to get me to overlook the game's many, many faults. Speaking of SWTOR, Blade & Soul is also the only other MMO I know of besides SWTOR to have full voice over for every NPC (minus a few minor ones, probably for scheduling or budget reasons). The story itself is quite engaging and, most importantly, is full of memorable characters who you can cheer for or want to see get their comeuppance, in stark contrast to SWTOR or, gods forbid, Guild Wars 2 (where I literally could not possibly care any less about any of the NPCs involved - the writing just failed to make any of them seem genuine).
And the combat! My gawd, the combat. There is literally no other MMORPG on the market that can hold a candle to it. TERA is fun but dreadfully slow-paced in comparison. GW2 tries but completely fails to get rid of the trinity even half as well as B&S does. The feedback is perfect. The animation is gorgeous and over-the-top. It's so damn good that it makes it difficult for me to play other games that aren't Platinum games.
And then there's the character creation. Like they say... a picture is worth a thousand words. (And that's just one race! Of four!)
Now, mind you, for all that I love about it, it obviously has some issues of its own. It IS a theme park MMO, with all that entails, so you should expect you're going to run the same dungeons many times over when you hit the level cap (same as every other theme park MMO including FFXIV), so nothing shocking there. The PvP balance is kind of shoddy for a game with so much emphasis on one-on-one combat - but to be fair, I don't know a single MMORPG with good 1v1 balance. Despite letting you wear whatever costume you want with no penalty to stats, for some reason weapon skinning is completely omitted from the game.
Despite these quibbles, however, the game itself is ridiculously solid, and it's a crying shame that they still haven't come out with an NA/EU version after all this time (BUT, to be fair again, even the Japanese haven't received their version yet, despite being a big, big market for this kind of game). I'm certain that many people - at least, those who manage to get past the stylized visuals and eastern oriental setting - will find plenty of entertainment when this game reaches our shores. In the meantime, I'm going to keep dealing with the language barrier and the lag because it's just that damn fun.
[/fanboymode]
So. In case anyone's still reading this runaway monstrosity of a post, here's what I think about what's coming up:
The Elder Scrolls Online
Garbage.
I could probably just leave it at that, but that would be mean and unprofessional. Simply put, I feel that it is one of the blandest, most soulless, designed-by-committee cynical corporate cash-grabs I have ever played. There is literally nothing that I could say is a redeeming feature. Even the character creation is marred by the character models being ugly as sin half the time (and merely adequate the other half). And what the hell is with this industry's obsession with boob plate?!
I really wanted to like it, I really hoped my first impressions were wrong and that the game would actually at least play well, but no, none of that. It's just bad. I'm afraid I'm just going to have to pass on it entirely. Not my thing.
Wildstar
I have been so completely disinterested in this game that I haven't even signed up for the beta (yes, even when I managed to at least muster up enough will to sign up for TESO). The reason for that is simple: the art is atrocious. I can't stand it. It would be nice if it were at least visually attractive the way Blade & Soul is but instead they go for this ridiculous Saturday-morning-cartoon look that absolutely repulses me.
Oh, and the character creation is horrible. No body sliders? IN 2014?! It's like I took a time machine back to 2006, except Blizzard decided to make a sci-fantasy game with a new IP instead of a Warcraft or Starcraft spin-off. Thanks, guys, but no thanks. I have standards. At least try to meet them, yeah?
And of course, of the footage I've seen absolutely nothing else actually screams "PLAY ME! PLAY MEEEE!", which is highly unfortunate. The combat is playing catch-up with its Eastern contemporaries, though it at least admittedly looks better than TESO's absolute joke for "combat". The questing is also shallow and lacks the kind of direction or overarching story it needs to actually be interesting.
Anyway, yeah. That's the deal. Apologies to those who are actually looking forward to those games, but you can still enjoy them without me. These are just my feelings on them. I wish I had more games to actually look forward to on the horizon, but right now I'm just sticking with more Blade & Soul.
Goddamn I want an NA release right about now...