Moody Gamer

Just after the release of Crysis Warhead and on the 18th of September 2008, Mythic Entertainment has released the much anticipated MMORPG game based on the popular Warhammer franchise: Warhammer Online – Age of Reckoning. You can learn more about the game and how it fared by reading MEGamers Warhammer Online Review.

Today also marks the game’s first month since release and it is going strong. With 750,000 accounts and being the smoothest MMO launch ever, Mythic are off with an impressive start. All that remains is to see how WAR will fare against the test of time. Read up more about the first month of WAR.

For me, WAR is currently the game I am playing and, until now, plan to play for maybe a couple of months. At least hit the level cap which is 40 and am currently level 24 (Rank 24). I play as a Black Orc, named Grimaxe, which is a tank class but can play as a melee dps class (damage per second class, also known as damage dealers). The game is quite enjoyable and my first impression is better than when I started WoW. You got a lot of things to do from the start and there is that sense of no need to rush to Rank 40. You can experience almost a huge portion of the game from the start and during leveling.

When I do reach the level cap, I will evaluate if it is still fun to continue or stop. Keep in mind that even though I am limited by Rank 40 (Which is harder than getting WoW level 60 btw), there is a lot to work on to reach renown rank 80 (renown is like experience for participating in RvR activities like killing players from the other faction).

I have some concerns with the graphics engine since even with 3GB of RAM, it stutters, which can only means some sort of optimization is required. The other thing is the animation, Mythic really need to work on it and get it in sync with the actions. There are some other bugs and concerns but nothing to take away the fun and/or obvious. I log in and check for an open party to join for PQs (Public Quests), do normal quests, queue for scenarios or join a warband to siege a keep.

I managed to get into some of the dungeons but still have to clear one. Being a player who farmed WoW dungeons heavily, things are different and don’t work the same way. I guess with time we will figure it out.

If you are interested to joining the WAR then you can find me on the European server “Sea of Dreams” (not to be confused with the upcoming Bioshock prequel). Keep in mind that the monthly fee for the game is 15$ and you do get a one month free trial when you purchase an account.

Feel free to ask me any questions about the game.

There has been a lot of talk lately with the advent of current generation consoles like XBox 360, PS3 and Wii about PC gaming being in decline. Most of the flak being shot because of the ongoing trend of PC developers are either going cross-platform, console first PC later or console exclusive development. Add to that the rampant piracy on the PC platform coupled with possible difficulty in developing for various hardware configurations versus a single platform configuration that is available on the consoles.

Yet what is being reported by the PC Gaming Alliance shows otherwise and that PC gaming is far from dieing thanks to online gaming power on the PC (MMOs anyone) and ability to directly download games to your PC (Steam everyone!) are some of the dominant yet few of the reasons why PC gaming will continue to breathe.

Check out the full report on PC Gaming Alliance website.

Well, I think it has been now two months since I quit WoW. I thought about sharing my story with this game. It was bought very late after it’s release, around August 2006. Reason I picked the game because I was intrigued to continue on the lore of Warcraft and check out this so called MMO genre. All I knew was that you can create a character and do quests together with other people who are on your side and kill people from the other side.

So I started with a warlock class simply because I saw one controlling the infernals in the intro movie. So I started leveling and slowly I was sucked by this black hole of fun (and addiction). I managed to reach level 60 and get my dreadsteed mount (one of the greatest moments in the game for me) just at around the same time as the release of the Burning Crusade Expansion. Do note it took me about 4-5 months to reach level 60. Reasons were I was trying to complete each quest in each zone I go through and that I fought with my weapons (in which is noobish considering my caster class).

At first, I didn’t want to get the expansion thinking that playing the main game is enough. Though in the end, I went ahead and bought it. Took me about two months to reach level 70 this time (faster but still slow). Then I went ahead and started the dreaded Karazhan attunement quests in which I did in two days. Though I was around another two months trying to get into this raid instance and just as soon as I started experiencing the instance, I got bored and thought to quit. I stayed off for about three months, then I decided to go back but without raiding and just for fun. Though gradually, I started getting back to the addiction. So I started raiding with a friend’s guild. Though the progress was very slow and we hardly went past Gruul. A decision was made by me and that was to leave my current realm, Bladefist, and go for a realm which is more ambitious. I went for Magtheridon, home of Nihilum. There, the standard of raiding is much much higher. I joined a guild who was at the end of Karazhan and Gruul and just starting The Eye and Serpentshrine Cavern.

After some time I moved to another guild (my last guild). In this guild, progress was much better and with a less stressful time schedule. Managed to kill Archimonde with them and reach Bloodboil in Black Temple. I even managed to create and level an alt warrior within THREE weeks to level 70 (Compare to my first character). At that point, I felt I had to stop for good. It was too much time investment. So I stopped at around March 2008! Yes, thats like almost a year and a half of WoW. Though the game was so much fun, the time I took playing it isn’t. I hardly managed to play other games. In addition, I got sick of the Carrot-on-Stick formula.

Now, I managed to experience new games, each different from the other, have more time for family, friends and writing a blog! WoW is a fun and great experience, though you should at some point think, am I getting something worthy for my time and money from this game? If no, then it is time to look for something else, something new and fresh.