Quest Implementation

Its been less than 24 hours and I see my brother playing against lvl 35+ people in the new Call of Duty game... o.O;;

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How should quests be implemented?

I think it's convenient, and in a way makes sense the way it was implemented in Borderlands; you'd pick up a huge list (8+) of quests, and they'd all be in the general area, if not each major area had an associated quest attached to it. It makes sense that they don't send you to tim-buk-tu (why would they need something from so far away?), and its convenient is you can start in one area and just adventure on to the next without long time periods of inactivity.

At the same time, I think its wrong; should there be THAT many things in the world that needs to be done? Can't anyone do anything? Are npc's so useless that they are literally rooted to the ground (and normally they are sadly), that even when you're not looking, they can't move? Or that there isn't any other adventurers that are up to the task; that no one is capable of shooting a gun or swinging a sword that there are so many things that is wrong/needs to be addressed?

Its a mixed bag on chain quests; sometimes it makes sense that there should be a quest immediately after the completion of one quest, but it makes the quest seem inconsequential if you complete a major milestone in an hour or two? So you, the npc, has been waiting for days, months, maybe years for someone to complete a quest that takes only a few minutes? Weak.

Also with Kill Collector quests, I want to see item rewards in relation to the item you're collecting. In Guild Wars these collectors give you (atleast) a wide variety of item rewards, but wouldn't it be great that if you collected bear pelts, that you'll get a bear pelt backpack.. or cape? Collect skeleton bones, get bone armor (sighhh Ultima Online) or a bone weapon a la Monster Hunter.

I like how public quests are built in that depending on the situation, there may be a quest available, and not always the same one (b/c it might be in a different stage). I also like how it progresses in that its either different, more complex, harder or a combination.

I guess the question is, what other ways are there to implement quests?

Soul test

Tell me this doesn't make you laugh.

Btw: Added Murloc Parliament, and removed her old site Cranky Healer

Ghost Recon Vid

Now that April Fool's Day is out of the way, we can blog and not have to think about whether the source is true or not :P

Pretty cool vid; never been much of a Ghost Recon/Rainbow Six fan. I've watched my brother play other other series and it seemed too tactical (see: slow) and not as fluid as Modern Warfare2 or Borderlands.

March 17th Whiny Post Day

Read about what this day is about, other than it sharing St. Patrick's Day..

Something to whine about...

Why is it that every game that I talk about, no one takes my gusto seriously and writes it off?
Sure when it comes out, its lonely, but its still fun!
And then you eventually try it and it rocks your socks! I freaking told you so.. but noooooooooo..
And if you try it, of course its boring NOW b/c its 6mth after everyone finished the game!

Once again Borderlands.
Heyyy great game.. but its before ODST, so everyone is still playing that..
And then less than a month after, Modern Warfare 2 came out.. and no one even gave Borderlands another glance. And now? Who plays MW2? The one person that refused to think that it was a good game and waited 3-4 months after it came out, once everyone was finished with it.

Why are all the game producers out to punish Gearbox?
ODST, MW2, Left for Dead 2, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, AVP, Battlefield Bad Company and the list goes on and on! No one gets to see the greatness that is Borderlands b/c all these other games came out at the same time? Its a conspiracy i tell you! A conspiracy! They did it so you don't play the great game and leave me alone in the dark corner!

And that concludes my whiney blog entry. Happy Whiney Blog day!.. i mean wah wah Whiney Blog day :P

Mass Effect 2 - Helmet Issue

Found on Kotaku..


I wasn't outraged about the helmet issue, merely annoyed. I just felt the need to write about how disappointed I am with the recent Bioware releases. I'm a 43-year-old gamer; I'm retired so I game a lot; I've been gaming since 1979; I pre-order 99% of my games and typically buy all the DLC. I pre-ordered DA:O and ME2 collector's editions. With the recent false advertising issue related to the CE exclusivity of the cerberus network card, the issues with Return to Ostagar and the horrific issues with the DLC and character importer nightmares in ME2 it seems that Bioware has lost an opportunity to build upon its extremely good reputation.

...blah blah blah... [i just saved you two paragraphs of whining]

I can only hope that enough people fail to buy Bioware's next release so that they see an impact in their financial statements, which seems to be the only place they are focused these days. It saddens me that the quality of Bioware games has declined so dramatically but I honestly no longer expect anyone to take any pride in their work or care about providing a quality product to their customers.


Guess what? When the next big Bioware game comes out.. if they actually have the balls to 'boycott' the game.. they'll wait maybe a few days and eventually cave in and buy it b/c they're pathetic. When people boycotted Left for Dead 2.. did that impact the company? No. When people wanted to boycott Modern Warfare 2, did Activision cry? No, they were laughing at the top of their mountain of gold; the best selling game EVER! Grow up people.

Going Ons

Modern Warfare
Currently: driving me nuts with that previous loadout of speccs which focuses on the tactical knife.
Can't figure out: whether i want to run faster, or be stealthy, as neither option works as well as the first couple matches..

Thus: using the light machine guns with Scavenger/Claymores in capture the flag, but people get wise :P
almost swore off the game in frustration; rage quit!

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Dragon age
I intend on fnishing it tonight..
I've united the country, beheaded Logain (sorry spoiler), and on to fighting the Blight and the ArchDemon

Still: no pics as i deleted them, set the auto screenshot to off, and still don't know how to manually take screenshots (screenshot hotkey is f12....) so weird

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Going to use some Microsoft Points for my 360 for:
Borderlands: Dr Ned's Island downloadable content (loving it again)
Castle Crashers: evil character downloadable content (must make a tank!! every character is speed and magic)

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Going to purchase: Left for Dead 2 soooonn..

Both Best buy and Futureshop have Buy 2 Get 1 free deals.. goo individuality!...:
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/dept.asp?logon=&langid=EN&catid=23393
I read Walmart is making games 10$ cheaper.. which resulted in Gamestop's stock to drop.. but maybe its only in the US.. as I didn't see any real price difference the other day..

Youse gets a logo as I like the service better :P

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Is it Penny Arcade or Gu Comics that readers buy the artists xmas gifts? I dunno..
If you want to get me something, get me this ;)

Not bad 44/50

I just finally finished Borderlands with my buddy Capo today; its been over 2 months since i've first got it, and i'd have a lvl 50 by now, but I love multiplayer and no one has Borderlands.. my buddy, my brother .. and thats it. Online, atleast over a month ago, it was easy to find a game, but it was laggy.

It makes sense for boss fights to have larger and larger bosses.

Enjoyed:

- the different kind of graphics for the game; more of a comic book feel

- the gazillion guns, Gearbox wasn't kidding, there are tons of guns

- unique characters to play

- fast travel and cars; who doesn't love making bandits and monsters roadkill?

- cheap ammo; b/c no one likes running out of it

- cheap respecs; like 1% of your cash

- vending machines of ammo/health/weapons; especially the time limited deals

- monsters spawn from the ground, and humanoids spawn from doors; it makes sense

- it is challenging; you can't always go gun blazing, but be methodical

- playing with friends, especially 4 players is amazing

Disliked:

- the map; cumbersome and no mini map.. what game doesn't have a mini map these days??

- quest tracker; only able to track one at a time beh

- hard to solo and not much fun alone

- buggy rockets; splash damage doesn't always work, and rockets don't always hit monsters, but fly through them

Replayability: medium - only if you have friends to play with, you can make the game last; if it wasn't for my buddy, and he's a hardcore gamer, I would not have finished the game or picked up the game anymore.

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Lets talk about Modern Warfare 2 now...

Approximately: lvl 38ish

Recently acquired: tactical knife for pistol

Recently loving: tactical knife for pistol

Weapon of choice in match of 40 kills: tactical knife for pistol

Lol; it all stemmed from one deathmatch in the Estate map (the one with a cottage at the top of a hill and it's backyard has a greenhouse. There was an enemy that knifed 3 of us in 2 seconds. Normally you melee, wait 2 seconds and melee again. The tactical knife allows you to knife very fast.

Current Setup

Primary Weapon: Silenced P90

Secondary Weapon: USP .45 with tactical knife attachment

Equipment: Semtex (for riot shield guys)

Special grenade: Flash (to blind them = easy stabbing)

Perk 1: Marathon Pro (the running)

Perk 2: Cold Blooded Pro (the sneakiness)

Perk 3: Commando Pro(lunging) or Ninja Pro(Extra sneakiness)

Greatest strength: no one likes getting knifed.. especially by a sneaky person

Greatest weakness: I rather knife than shoot.. even if you're facing me; and ill chase you across the map if you don't see me, just to knife you, where its faster to shoot you ;)

My brother was playing on saturday for 8+ hours though and got the Red light of death... freaked the hell out of me; thankfully... my system still works... for now..

What else? Borderlands

Heavens forbid I talk about anything BUT Borderlands until Modern Warfare 2 comes out.. lol

I like the map how it shows you where certain things are, such as vehicle stations, shops, etc. What Gearbox could have done to improve on the map was to have a mini map or a transparent map like in Aion (see, Aion DID do some good things lol). When I played multiplayer with my brother and we're driving around, I have to have my map pulled up so we can see where we're going; which defeats the point of letting me shoot from the gunnery pod.

Word of note, you can respec from this station; very cheap respec cost.. its like.. 5% of your cash, its nothing.

Just a pretty sight... well.. unique.. big skeleton face over there ;)
See how it says Treacher's Landing to the left? Thats a quick transit spot, that takes you to an instanced area for your quests.

What a rewards screen looks like after you complete a quest. I love the color scheme (and if i was more html inclined, i'd do something about this site..).. it shows how much money you received (tho most money comes from selling guns), experience and usually to the right of xp is any special gear you get from it (no choice of rewards tho... as far as i see)