Made much progress in EVE Online since then. But now, I’ve gotten myself mixed up in a little evisceration and decapitation action. Yes, that’s right, I got meself (and a few friends, too) an Age of Conan account. Getting a feel of the combat system, as well as a few of the different classes.

So far, I’ve tried ranger, assassin, conqueror and dark templar. Of that lot, assassin seems to be the weakest at the start, but as always, stealth attacks are so satisfying to pull off. The graphics of the game seem to be just as lush as Vanguard, with nice lighting effects thrown in. Texture detail is quite good, and it seems to run relatively well on my machine, at 1280 x 1024 resolution.

So far, I’m liking it. However, paying the monthly fee in Euros totally blows. If I still like the game at the end of my free time, I’ll probably buy a gametime card.

So far, quite interesting. Ship combat is position and facing dependent, and also takes into account environmental factors (ie, wind direction) unlike most MMORPGs out there. Reminds me of a slower and more deliberate version of Auto Assault’s combat engine.

Economy seems fairly complex, but still can’t really hold a candle to EVE’s vast system.

Complete field report coming soon.

Then, I let my VG account lapse, and I started on EVE. With a USD10 subscription offer, how could I resist? The great thing about EVE was that even my crappy notebook PC could run it (in basic gfx mode, of course). I could literally play anywhere there was a connection. That really helped when training skills.

 In that time, TR had gone live. So when I got back from Hong Kong right at the beginning of 2008, I enabled my free account, with free 30 days of play.

Now, I’m taking a break from EVE and TR, and trying out a new game that QY and her Gooniehead (heh) have just started playing, called Pirates of the Burning Sea.

So, am I a fickle pickle or what?

 By October 2007, the last of the Human, Mek and Mutant combat vehicles had been unloaded, powered down and moth-balled. Plasma cannons and rocket launchers were laid down and a quiet settled over the post-apocalyptic landscape.

 Thus ended a unique chapter in MMORPG history. I’d be willing to bet my gatling, however, that this won’t be the last we see of a vehicular combat MMOG.

Rising from the ashes of this demise, however, was a new experience called Tabula Rasa. Because I still had an active Auto Assault account, NC Soft gave me access to the beta, and a free live account to boot!

 See you on Foreas, recruits! May the Logos be with you.

I got it for a nice deal on Ebay (under SG$40, incl. S&H), so I didn’t mind trying it out, despite the launch and business troubles surrounding the game. And after a month of dabbling in various aspects of the game on the Flamehammer server, I have to say that I actually kinda like the game.

The graphics are nice and more “EQ2-ish” than “WoW-ish”. Trees bending in the wind, clear blue skies with wispy clouds, eerie moonlit nights, as well as atmospheric sound and evocative music make for a very nice environment to play in.

The combat system is similar to most MMORPGs out there today, being mostly driven by spells and abilities triggered via a bank of in-game hotkey bars. There are a few subtle differences though. Key mashing (continuous pressing of the hotkey so that the ability triggers as soon as it’s available) will cause you to miss certain “combat opportunities” that are a tremendous help in ending a fight sooner. These opportunities can only be taken advantage of by using a special set of abilities, and activating a normal ability instead will cause you to forgo that opportunity.

The skill system is pretty cool, somewhat reminiscent of EQ and Ultima Online, where skills go up with usage. In certain skill groups, where specialisation is important (such as weapon abilities and crafting fields), increasing a skill will have to come at a cost of decreasing another, since you don’t have enough points to max them all out. The game allows you to set each skill as “decreasing”, “increasing” or “locked”.

The game has 3 spheres of activity; the traditional combat/adventure sphere, a crafting sphere, and a unique diplomacy sphere. I’m glad to say that I’ve managed to try them all out, and they are all rather nice distractions, that appeal in different ways.

Unfortunately, despite my general enjoyment of the game, several bugs and inadequacies annoyed me throughout my stay in Telon. Getting caught in terrain and object meshes was a contant, albeit somewhat infrequent, irritation. The more frequent occurrence was lag spikes, mainly when running to a new area or revisiting an old area. This would happen about 6 to 10 times in an hour of play, depending on how much you traveled. And this is after I’ve tweaked game settings down to run smoothly on my 3GHz Intel C2Duo, 2 GB DDR2-6400 RAM and 512MB ATI X1950GT.

Other inconvenient issues include buggy diplomacy strategies when using temporarily granted cards, worn equipment visual clipping problems, item swapping in bank slots and chat channel bugs.

Still, I see myself in Telon again, one of these days. I don’t think I’d settle for just a 1 month tour.

This will be where I pen my thoughts and deeds in my outsourced reality, the games I play.