SWTOR F2P, I don't have a bad feeling about this

After I post about the f2p system in SWTOR, about it's up and low, I still went and give it go (I would anyways). So what is my final verdict?

Well, although it's far from perfect, I would say it's good enough (and I did said this before) for a player to try the game, and play the class stories. I've been playing a while over at my level 40 Sith Inquisitor and I couldn't find anything that would hinder my progress. The only limitation I could find was that, you couldn't pick some rewards (locked boxes) and the experience and gold would be lower then the normal. Also you wouldn't gain rested experience. For the experience, I would just buy a minor experience boost over the Auction House, which would give me an extra bonus of 25% for an hour. For the rest not much can be done, I guess.

Playing it, didn't prove anything different from what I did when I was a subscriber. Better yet, back at the time there wasn't any flash point finder, and even if as a f2p player we are only entitled to 3 flash points, it's better. I bet many will do more flash points while leveling as f2p then me when I first leveled my Bounty Hunter as a subscriber. No quests have access locked, every planet is 100% open to anyone who plays it and so are class quests. 

PVP. Well, if you plan doing much PVP while leveling, unless you do it on any of the planets, you will only be able to join 5 war zones a week. For me it's enough, I only plan doing the daily quest for the war zones, which requires to do 2 war zones a day. If you happen to get lucky and win the war zone, then you get a credit of 2 towards the quest. So in a perfect week you could do that quest 5 times. For me it's enough, but then again I'm not a PVP player. Also you gain decent amount of experience and credits from war zones.

The space missions, is also another way of leveling and do a few credits. It's just not that great in my opinion. I still hope that one day Bioware scraps this and gets a proper space content to the game. Star Wars Galaxies space was far far superior to what SWTOR offers us. But, as I said, it's another form of experience players can use. The problem is that, like the flash points and the war zones, you are only limited to 3 a week, which compared to the other two is really short. But then again, I doubt many people well bother with this side content of the game. I for once barely do these. I rather be doing quests and following my class questline.

Also, a small note for crafting or crew skills. While it's not the most exciting system in most of the MMORPG I played, its functional. The only issue, is that as a subscriber, the player is entitled to 3 crew skills while a f2p can only have 2. Can be a bit of a hinder, if you really plan on leveling a crew skill for the intent of crafting gear, because most of them are dependent on 2 material gathering crew skill. Maybe with an alt players can work around the problem. But again, if a player wants to just check stories and such, crafting wont be much of a concern. In any case, this small picture will show you the crew skills dependencies.

All these activities, are available to the f2p, besides the obvious limitations. I could at any moment buy from the shop a week pass, to either PVP or flash points, but I don't think it's worth the money for it. Playing as it is, is good enough. There are some options on shop to unlock some stuff, depends really on how much anyone want to invest. I do have a level 50 in game, and so far the only thing I bought, was the unlock for the recent content they had, Section X. And I bought it using game credits, because most of the store items can be sold in the Auction House. Again this is not mandatory, because this is past over the class stories. By the time someone finishes the class story, he is level 50 and should have made a decision on either subscribe the game or move on.

Undoubtedly, if anyone wants to play this game just to go through the main story line for each class or check every planet, f2p is more than enough. I don't agree with most naysayers saying the f2p is unplayable. It's not. Might be at cap level, when someone wants to do a few flash points or join operations, or even go PVP which is one of the main activities in the game. Otherwise, for enjoying a Star Wars adventure, the f2p option is good enough. I still think if Bioware/EA, when first released the game would have made something like, making the class stories into some single player portion of the game, without the need for subscription, the game would have been far better received. Players that would subscribe, would be entitled to the full online activities of the game, while others would just enjoy the single player side of it. Could have been interesting.

Is Asheron's Call 2 coming back?

I never expected to see a come back from any dead MMORPG, specially some that been gone for quite long, like the case of Asheron's Call 2. But in some unexpected way, I found out today that Turbine opened some Beta server to people go back and try it (?) or is there a second intention to re-release this game.

There is however a small issue. Apparently, only a person with a current or previous active account with Asheron's Call will be allowed access to this new beta server. But if this means that on the future there will be a chance of playing this game, well I wont say no to the chance. I never tried this game, and would be an interesting opportunity.

This post here is where I found more info. Also I found this other article at Massively about it.

The Secret World goes B2P!

Like Buy to Play, same as Guild Wars 2. This came to my attention thanks to a friend.

I always had my high hopes that I would see The Secret World as free to play, guess this is a second close by. By Buy to Play it means that any who buys the game, is entitled to play it without having to pay a subscription. Subscription will still be there as an optional and those that opt for it will be entitled for a few perks like experience booster, bonus of equivalent value to 10$ to be used on the in-game shop and discounts on the shop. There should be other bonuses but so far this what I've read here.

 Me and a friend of mine been wanting to give this game a go, but since it was subscription based, it became a no go. Also because I am already paying for Rift, wouldn't be a good idea to pay a second one. This change is really welcome for both of us, and maybe soon we will give it a go.

Last note: apparently future content will be available only if you buy it through the shop as a free to play player.

Final Fantasy XIV Alpha testing Application

Hey wanna try the forthcoming Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn? Well Square-Enix opened alpha testing applications. I assume you will need at least an account, but I'm not sure if they demand that the person who registered to have a previous FF XIV account. In any case here is the link for the alpha registration:

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Alpha testing Application

Let's see how this one goes.

Planetside 2, first impressions

First and foremost, I haven't played as much as I would like of this game. Still I was able to get a few short impressions of it. And yes, I plan on delve deeper on it. And hopefully improve, because I'm awful bad at this game!

So from what I've seen of the game, what can I say? Well, and as usually the first impact are the graphics. And this game is actually gorgeous. Mind that I don't play at full detail, nor near it, but still this game manages to bring graphics to an high level. And since this is a first person shooter game, it's even greater. And the game actually runs smooth. Plus for graphics and performance.

Gameplay is also good and expected from these sort of games. If you like first person shooter games, and like the Battlefield series or others of the same sort, then you will probably love Planetside 2. The biggest difference between this one and those other titles, of the same sort, is the persistent aspect of the game, since being an MMO everything is ongoing with no end of match from score or time.

The world is set on 3 huge continents, and players can pick from 3 different factions, and each faction will fight for dominance over sectors on each continent. Getting to action is really done fast with a few clicks on map and players are placed in the middle of the heat. Otherwise, players can always opt to trace a little back, and bring up some heavy guns like a tank or a aircraft. Yeah, you can roam around the game shooting things up on air. It's a nice touch and I enjoyed watching some fighters going on skirmishes sometimes. 

The game is all around what the players do, what they capture, what they defend. So anything that happens on the game, is human made. There are no NPC's (at least I haven't seen any) nor mobs to kill nor quests. Just action, endless action, and lots of players to kill or be killed by.

It's a very good thing SOE made this game free to play. And the way I see it's made, it really is free to play. I don't see any limitation imposed to non-subscribers. At least from what I've played. Anything that was on store could be purchased either by getting some station cash (the games currency for shop) or eventually unlocked while playing. There are some sort of currency that can be either used to unlock new abilities for character or saved to buy later a better gun. I also don't know how the store weapons affect the game, if they unbalance it or not.

But there were some flaws on this game, at least some stuff I didn't like. First and foremost, there is a very short and brief tutorial, and most of the information on each screen is a bit sparse. I know that there isn't much to know, it's just aim and shoot, but for instance I was having serious issues trying to distinguish foe from friends. The UI rarely would point me to what was enemy to me, so I would have to rely on what I saw on screen and make a quick judgement on the armor the other player was using. So sometimes friendly fire would happen.

Another issue, was the awful aircraft control. I can't recall the keys, all I can say is that the first time I got one, 10 seconds later I crashed it on the ground. Why? The E key, which is the use key, if you by mistake use it while on aircraft, you get kicked out. And if that wasn't bad, steering of the aircraft was far from perfect. I guess I'm used to control aircraft with the mouse for direction, and there well all I can say it was nigh on impossible to steer. The second time I tried the ship, most of the time I was upside down... It was a really bad control system. I think it used A and D for spinning the ship or something, can't recall, it was just bad... But I assume we can can reprogram keys. So I have to check that option out.

On the other hand, tank control is great and it's great fun to be on the turret side and shoot everything that moves.

Finally, I'm horrible bad at it, so bad I'm thinking on deleting my toon and start it over again, since my kill/death ratio is just plain horrible.

This post is just a short fast first impressions of what I've seen in the game. First person shooter, persistent world, plenty of vehicles to use, lots of action, and free to play. First person shooters will probably like it. And since it's free to play, why not give it a go?

Hit 60 last night on my mage!

Yay! Took me like almost 2 weeks to get there but I got it. Now follows the next plan of work:

- Keep clearing the quests for achievements and possible decent rewards;

- Start working on those factions reputation up to get better gear and recipes;

- Doing zone events for currency and Hunt Rifts for rewards and reputation;

- Keep working on those achievements and the backlog achievements from Rift classic;

- Work the last of my professions out, and start making some platinum out of it;

- Rise fishing (-.-) and survival, which are low;

- Start doing instances, to gear up for expert version of them;

- Raids? Well dunno, maybe;

- PVP? I enjoyed doing PVP from 50 to 59, but I think I will have some issues now at 60. Will see;

- Dimensions whenever I feel I need a different change;

- And many other stuff to do...

There is enough to keep me busy for a while now that I'm 60.

By the way, as soon as you ding 60, be sure to do the quest you receive through the mail. It's really fast to be done and you end up with a nice epic necklace.

How does SWTOR Free to Play fare

Released more then two weeks ago, I think there is already far enough of time to get a first perception of how is Free to Play implemented on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

First of all, I think it's honorable that Bioware and EA, decided to open the f2p possibility to the game. Many would deem that it's the only option possible besides shutting down the game since it was faring pretty bad before. I wouldn't agree, but sure it wasn't that great either. The game failed in many aspects and with a market flooded with MMORPG titles, most with f2p option, SWTOR would not be a first option. So they decided to implement f2p allowing players to try the game (and I emphasize the word try) without spending any or much on it. But if you don't want to spend any of it, the ride wont be as great...

So, how is the f2p model in SWTOR? Well it feels somewhat similar with the model of Everquest 1 and 2 (or even Vanguard) from SOE or Age of Conan but this one is even more limited. These titles sprung to my mind when I first saw the model working. Why? 

Well from SOE they took the idea of limiting access to gear, by locking the best quality gear away from f2p players. Only way, and this is slightly different from SOE, you buy an unlocker to either your char or your account and the problem is fixed. SOE you buy individual unlockers (forever) for each piece of gear.

Also the more recent content, in which this case is Section X where players get the new companion, HK-47, is locked away from f2p. Again buy either an unlock for character or account and you can use it.

From Age of Conan, but not as limited, they locked the amount of times a f2p player can use either the flashpoints (instances for SWTOR) to 3 a week and warzones (battlegrounds) for 5 a week. Operations (or raids) are off the chart for the f2p player. Only way to fix it, is to buy a week pass that allows full access to one of the three. Each week pass is just for one type, not the three.

And, to spice things up, Bioware and EA decided to add their own vision for f2p... And this is what stirred the community. Why not lock parts of the UI to the f2p player? That's a nice idea no? No! I mean really? You want to cripple the experience to players that could very well be the future subscribers of your game? I think this is the most silly concept I have ever seen for an f2p game... The idea was to limit the use of the game bars to just 2 for any of the f2p player. And can you imagine yourself playing a game where you don't have enough space on your UI to put your skills? Every time I need to grab my speeder I need to open the skill windows, go to mounts tab and pick the speeder. Tedious process...

But somehow they are going to redeem it. For all players with preferred status, which means older subscribed players or any who spent at least 5 euros/dollars in the shop, will be entitled to 4 UI bars. This change is to happen soon.

Also other limitations are appearance, like helm, f2p can't turn it off... Or titles which can't be used by a f2p player. Or there currency limitation for tokens and in-game credits (I still have doubts if I can buy any pvp gear with this token limitation).

The good thing I can see on all of this, is the fact that most of the items sold in shop can be also sold in Auction House (although there is a cool down to actually place the item at the AH, think it's 1 day and a half)  The biggest problem of it? The limitation of credits to 350k... Can't buy much.

Overall, this model, is on the lowest side of f2p models available at the market. No where near the likes of Star Trek Online or Aion or even Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online. If you want to check the game, try the class stories, which are really good, then I think you can do well in the game, and enjoy yet another Star Wars experience. Otherwise, if you want something more of the game, I would probably say subscribe, or get a friend you trust and has the game active, farm those credits, and let him keep them so he buys to you what you need from the AH whenever you need. The system could work, I'm trying it with my brother!

Big event fails!

Tonight, on my Rift server, Icewatch - Eu, there was going to happen this event, which apparently was the first time. I can't recall the name, just the HUGE final boss Volan. Some of the members in my guild were quite excited about it, so I decide to give it look. Well the boss did look great, but I didn't saw much of it (apparently there is a phase where everyone is jumping around or something). All I could get was this picture (bad one) of him.

He is there in the middle, hard to see...

Nevertheless, a few minutes later the event just crashed out and got reset... So much for beta testing and such. By the way, these events ARE "power hungry" on your machine, you might need a kickass machine to see this in full glory. I just can't. :(

Hopefully next time will be better...

News from Dusken and Brevane

More then a week as gone since Rift's Storm Legion came out (which is the thing I'm playing nowadays). What do I think about it?

As expected, I'm having a great time playing it. I guess, first, because it's new content, people always like it at first, and only after a while some will start complaining about it. In any case, I find this expansion to be a great addition to an already fun Rift. Sure it has some flaws but I will come to it soon.

First and foremost, since I like exploring, I find the new zones to be awesome in quality and size. One of my main complaints about Rift, was how small the world was. Compared with some titles I played, like let's say World of Warcraft (WoW), it felt smaller then a single continent of WoW. I guess Trion heard the complaints and decided to make the new zones quite massive. This is great for explorers like me. 

Another good thing is that Rift seems to be walking away from the standard game-play in mmorpg, where we have a city or camp with npc's that give a number of quests, then we go out do them and come back for more. On Storm Legion although we still have a few of these, it's a lot less common. Most quests, players will just grab the quest at spot while doing something else, complete it and get the reward at spot with no need to luck for any other npc. Makes progression on maps a bit more fluid. Sometimes I feel annoyed when an npc gives me a quest, I finish and deliver it back at him and then he gives me a second one to the same spot...

As with Ember Island, players will find in Storm Legion, the Onslaught quests, which is basically defend a camp from waves of planar creatures. This is not new to Storm Legion but it's always a refreshing change from questing. I've seen raids of players grinding these just for faster experience I think.

A new addition, and I talked about this before, are the Carnage quests. Carnage quests are nothing short of a grind quest... Basically every type of mob in Storm Legion will open a Carnage quest, and after that, players will have to kill a certain number of creatures of the same type to complete it. Some don't really like it, I find it ok, but it's nothing special. The good thing, is that each Carnage quest complete, will give players 2 tokens that can be used to trade for gear.

Carnage Quests

Every zone has one or more different zone event. This is another great thing, one that makes Rift a bit different from, let's say again World of Warcraft. These events (plus all the Rifts around the game world), makes me feel the game more. I think if it wasn't for these, the game would be yet another game of rushing to cap level for typical raid and dungeons. But with these events, at least for me makes me want to run around the world looking for something new and fun. I think this is the main selling point for Rift and this should be where Trion should concentrate efforts (not despising the rest of course).

Dungeons. I only did two of them. One was available pre-launch, Exodus of the Storm Queen. Felt challenging enough, but then again, I was placed with a group of raiders, so I guess it makes things a bit easier. The dungeon, followed the plot of the expansion, with typical fights. Nothing flashy, was OK  The other one, Storm Breaker Protocol, did surprised me. Half of the dungeon is done on the controls of this Asian manga or whatever type Mech, clearing mobs or bosses. The boss fights as a Mech are quite interesting and I liked this change. The second half of the dungeon was normal but still OK  There was a stage where we had to place some mechanisms to spawn mines to kill big waves of enemies. Overall it was a fun dungeon, just a bit long.

Dimensions or housing for some, is a great addition to Rift. Although I like it, I'm really bad at housing and I rarely put much effort on it, but I like this and I'm glad Trion went this way. From what I've seen, creative players can do some impressive work out of this with the tools Trion gave. Heck, even create a house from bottom to top, since every item can be crafted/purchased (even blocks of wall and such). This is probably the most complete housing model I know. Respect to Everquest 2 or Star Wars Galaxies, but I think Rift does it better.

Crafting it's about the same as before, just higher level with more recipes and new quests. This is not Rift forte. It's ok, I like it but it's far from crafting on Vanguard, Everquest 2 or the new dead Star Wars Galaxies.

Oh and let's not forget the new Hunt Rifts. I've did a few last week, but it's been like a few days that I haven't touched any. These Hunt Rifts, are a new breed of Rifts. As I talked before about it, the main difference of these Rifts, is that the player is put in a position of defending a certain object from destruction until finally the Rift boss is summoned and killed. While other Rifts would be based on us attacking it, these types of Rifts resolves on us defending it until the final boss. I don't know much about it but will explore it eventually.

But there a few things I complain about Rift. First off performance. Sure I don't have a great pc but still think the game is a bit un-optimized. I have to lower details a bit to make it bearable but whenever I'm in a big event, things get way too laggy. 

Secondly, and this is problem I already complained about in World of Warcraft, is the fact that with new cap level, and new gear, the old content is like forgotten. I mean, didn't developers lost time developing content for players and all of the sudden it becomes crap? Just because we have higher level stuff doesn't mean we couldn't use the lower level stuff. For once, make gear progression not so extreme. I spent like 1000 tokens from Rifts events on a mage staff (believe me that's a few weeks work) and after a few quests it got replaced with a low quality type staff (better stats, but it's green and not purple! :p). It might annoy some people. Also all those raids and dungeons will be forgotten and that's a shame. Couldn't they at least scale the dungeons up to 60? I just think it's so much work going to waste...
Another problem, I think with Storm Legion, leveling from 1 to 50, will become a chore and many will complain. One because, there won't be many players around and secondly knowing how well the game flows in Storm Legion, going back to the old system of quest hubs will become boring. Not to mention a problem that I also dislike is the lack of different starting zones. It's OK to create your first Guardian or Defiant but a second time it just becomes, well, boring. I think Trion could do a effort and throw out new zones, and get a way of making leveling more diverse then the current one path there is. This problem is old in my eyes and will only get worse with this expansion.

Overall, after a bit more then a week, I can say I'm enjoying this expansion, my expectations were high and so far it didn't failed on me. I've read somewhere it's expected to have content already released for Rift this next month of December but I don't know if this is true or not. Maybe it's the Christmas event people are talking about. Will post more in a near future. Until then happy mmo gaming!

Everquest 19th(!) expansion, Rain of Fear

Wow, i didn't knew it. I just completely missed it. I knew SOE was going to do yet another expansion to Everquest (that will the 19th!), but I wasn't expecting to be right now. Kinda missed it... Yeah apparently it's coming out on 28 November.

SOE seems to be really working hard lately. Everquest 2 expansion out, Vanguard update, Planetside 2 coming on the 20 November and Everquest expansion on the 28 same month. You guys keep pumping out stuff like that and I really don't know what to try. :P

Anyways, the features for this Everquest expansion are (drum rolls):

- Level cap from 95 to 100;

- Hunt system (hunting special mobs for rewards);

- SHINIES (collections like Everquest 2?);

- Moar spells (1800 or so);

- Progressive armor (dunno what's that, seems the armor progresses from tier to tier - guess it's the new vogue, Rift also has something like that);

- More AAs (550 of them);

- Raids, zones, quests;

Etc, etc, etc.

More info can be read here.

Anyways, it's always nice to see a game as old as Everquest still going on, and every year giving more to their subscribers (or f2p players if you are one). Even if I barely play it, I sometimes don't mind logging at it and just check how things are going. Don't mind the graphichs being old, it's a great game to get lost in.

I can't seem to find a trailer for this expansion, so here is a long video about the expansion back at SOE Live 2012 (sort of Fan Faire).

What a full week!

Besides the release of Rift and Everquest 2 expansion, and the change to Free to Play for Star Wars The Old Republic, there were other games that offered new added content.

For starters, The Secret World Issue 4 (which is update 4), came out this week, which brings a raid (in New York!), a new auxiliary  weapon type (chainsaw), PVP updates, Albion Theater (a sort of sandbox for theater  players wannabe or something lol), and much more. All the information on the update can be read here. The Secret World, is one of those games that i really want to try but i can't afford more then one subscription game at a time. And also from what I've heard, TSW has one of the most expensive in the market...

Another game, that saw a introduction of a big meaty update was Star Trek Online. Season 7, the title of the update offers a new faction, (the New Romulus that boast new quests, persistent zones and missions), new reputation system, new fleet action, a new ship highlight (in the shop of course), and other changes. More info can be seen here. Here's the trailer:

Finally, SOE seems not to be sleeping these days. Besides Everquest 2 on last Tuesday and next Tuesday (20/11) Planetside 2, they also released a large update for Vanguard. This update brings the latest high level zone for level 55 players, City of Brass and a new raid zone. Some other minor fixes and marketplace changes can been read here.

Boy, this has been a full week indeed!

24 hours after Storm Legion release

I'm not a power leveler. Nor i do want to. So I'm still standing proudly at level 50, half level to go. And I'm enjoying the expansion so far (well it's expected, it's like newly weds).

Few things, new things, i noticed so far:

First thing, the new mech forms. I was playing with a friend on my warrior, still on one of the old zones (Stillmoors) when i saw this item to use (Gift of Machine, if i recall it). So i went and used. Suprise! Was turned into a big mech with new abilities. It's a fun little thing they add to the game (i suppose there will be a lot more during the new zones). This small video shows a bit of it.

Other things, are the new carnage quest, which is nothing more (at least from what I've done so far), then a kill X amount of mobs. You kill one that triggers the carnage quest, and then you have to kill a few more to complete it.

There are more quests that are triggered from using items on the floor. This is not new, but i believe it's Trion idea to change the way that quests works on themed based mmorpgs. Instead of getting to a quest hub, grab all quests, go to spot and dot them, you will be picking them up as you progress through the map.

Also, don't bother looking for crafting trainers at the old main city. They won't give you the new rank of crafting (which now goes to 375 skill). You will need to look for them, at the first big city you get in to in the new zones.

I also noticed that gear now improves by using some special items. So i suppose there won't be much item switching as before. Just need to get those special items and use them to improve your items. (Also, not all items are improvable I think). This item can be obtained by either questing, dungeon or merchants. Here is a small example:

There is also the onslaught quests, from Ember Isle, where one defends waves of planar creatures. Typically 20 waves is enough to complete it.

Also, apparently, there are 2 starting points. So you either pick Dusken or Brevane. And you progress from there. I don't believe there is a pick up point, for Dusken, if you pick Brevane for instance. But I could be wrong. Guess it's nice when you have several alts.

Anyways, back to Rift!

Final Fantasy XIV is reborning

This last weekend marked the end of the current Final Fantasy XIV (a disaster mmorpg for many players). The game is suppose to come out again completely revamped. In the meanwhile, after Square-Enix turn off the servers, a final video was posted on. Those who played it must have understood what's going on, me on the other end was just amazed on yet another awesome Square-Enix video. Did i missed something by not playing Final Fantasy XIV?

Anyways, some awesome 5 minutes!

Let's hope Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, kicks off to a good start. I am hoping for it.

Storm Legion is coming!

Today marks the release of the first Rift expansion, Storm Legion. I am pretty excited about it and can't wait to dive myself over the new continents, quests, dungeons and events. But I still have to wait a few hours until I can dive in it.

In the meanwhile, here is the official video of the Storm Legion release. Looks pretty cool:

November is growing up

From 13 of November to 20 of the same month, there is going to be a lot of new activity with some MMO's and also a new one joining the club.

So let's see. On 13 of November, the first expansion for Rift, Storm Legion is being released. 

A typical level cap increase to 60, new souls for each archtype class, new a much (MUCH) bigger zones, new events and new ways to play the game, housing with dimensions, and much more it's what is expected with this new expansion. All info can be read here.

Also on the 13 of November, the 9th expansion for Everquest 2 will see it's birth.

Expected as much is a level increase to 95 (the game level was set at 92, on one of the last big game updates), new prestige abilities, new continent, dungeons and quests. Also, there is the introduction of Spirit Stones which is like new adornments that will grow with experience (some sort of legendary weapons like LOTRO?). More info here.


On the 15th, Star Wars: The Old Republic will go finally to free to play. This will allow most players to try the game, without worrying much about paying it. Hopefully this is a good change for the game. Here is one hoping it does. All the information about f2p model can be seen here.


Finally, but i guess, the most important of the bunch, is that on 20 of November, Planetside 2, will see be available and ready to start. Personally I know little about either Planetside or this second one, but i did played it's beta for a bit, and enjoyed it. Mostly it's a first person shooter, much more tactical, with a big team play (i guess there can be hundreds of players in the field), and mixed with tanks and aircrafts and you have a big battlefield going on. And since the game is persistent, should be interesting to see players fighting over planets and such. The game offers some character progression but I believe it's not as deep as most mmorpg out there. The game really does look great and from what I've played it was really enjoyable.

Well for me, I bet I'll be trying to dive myself on these enormous battlefields. At least sometimes. Besides that, I'm really hoping for the Rift expansion. The SWTOR change, it's welcomed but time will tell if I'm gonna be seen there much. For Everquest 2, well won't be going to it soon I'm affraid...

Overall good stuff incoming...

Nearly 2 weeks over since Diablo 3 1.05 Patch

Next Tuesday will make 2 weeks that the most recent big patch for Diablo 3 been released. As most know, this patch delivered people the Infernal machine which allow to fight uber strong version of game bosses (Skeleton King, Magda and other 4) and the Monster Power which increases the difficulty of the game but at the same time rewards players for the extra challenge. Also drop of legendary items been highly increased (doubled), and with the same amount of % to drop on all acts.

The reason I'm posting this, is not because just to mention the patch itself but to give my opinion if this patch did work in favor or against the game. 

For the first time in a few months, I saw people happy with the game and not getting frustrated from hours and hours of farming without nothing to show up. Drops of legendary items is really higher then it was before and it's making the farming lot more fun. Despite the fact that it's now much more common to see those items, the chance of them being good is, i would say, a lot harder to get. Dunno if this is intended or not, but the amount of low quality legendary (with bad roll on stats) is higher. That could be for either 2 reasons. Either Blizzard did something to make it harder to get really good items, or due to the fact that there are more players back in the game, legendary items drop more and as a consequence chances of being bad quality are higher.

The Monster Power addition it's a nice tweak for the game, allowing players to increase the games difficulty to where they can stand it, while being awarded with more drops and experience (for the paragon system). It can be increase from 1 to 10. Where 1 can be easily done by most characters with a little gear on it, to 10, where only the highest equipped characters should try to.

The Infernal Machine is the at the moment the highest challenge available in Diablo 3. First off, players need to assemble a special machine, Infernal Machine, to access the uber bosses. Each act there is a new named elite, Keywarden, that hold a special ingredient that is needed to craft the Infernal Machine. From act 1 to 3, each warden drops a key, act four drops a recipe (this last one, once you have the recipe you don't need to kill it again). I can spoil you guys with the location (zone) of each warden:

1. Act 1: Festering woods, goat boss that throws spears and fireballs;
2. Act 2: Dahlgur Oasis (can look on any of the 2 waypoints), it's one of those floating guys that spin like mad, and when the spin they throw fire bombs like crazy. Also they have a missile dampening;
3. Act 3: Stonefort, just head forward you will find it. Can't recall that one right now, cause i only did it once, but beware the AoE on the floor;
4. Act 4: Silver Spire, level 1. Another dude i can't recall, kinda lucky if you ask me, 1 kill got recipe, so i probably wont see him much.

When finally you have the ingredients, head to your blacksmith, learn the recipe and craft the machine. Then head back to a new game on act 1, pick the last quest of that act if possible and then start a new game (if it's the first time i would recommend not to do it higher then monster power then 3). Go behind the healer npc, and smash the door there, shown here:

Go in, use the infernal machine only inside and voila a red portal is open. Go in and have fun!

There are 3 different encounters, and each encounter may drop a special ingredient plus loot. Once you have all 3 ingredient from each encounter plus 2 million gold, you will be able to craft the Hellfire Ring (shown below):

Note that the one displayed here, is the Strength version, but there are other versions of this recipe for each stat. Yes you need the 2 million gold to buy the recipe which is on act 2 at the npc Squirt the Peddler. I think it's a cool reward for the effort.

Overall, for the first time, i can see that finally a patch really helped Diablo 3. At least with more drops people seem to be more happy to play it then it was before. Even some friends of mine told me they were happy the way the game is going. Just hope that Blizzard keeps up the right track and keeps handing goods to it's players.

Riders of Rohan is live!

The Fellowship goes to Rohan and this time they have warhorses! I could put it that way.

Riders of Rohan, is the 4th expansion for Lord of the Rings online, where it takes the players into Rohan, home of the horse lords. Expected, as usual, with this expansions, are new zones to explore (they say Rohan is quite big), lots of new quests, 10 levels to go through (level cap raised to 85) and new items to discover. Would be pretty much regular standard except for the introduction of combat riding. Yeah, apparently Turbine developed a new gameplay for LOTRO, where players use their rides (which are new, nothing to do with the regular mounts), and use them as means of fighting. Now I haven't seen much about it except some Turbine made videos, so I don't know much, except that besides being a new sort of combat, players will be able to level up (or something), skill up and gear up their mount of choice. Meaning it's yet another thing to level. I think it could be interesting, will have to dig up. 

In any case you can always go to the official site of the expansion right here.

My only issue, is that it's been a year since Rise of Isengard (3rd expansion) was released. A year gap between 2 expansions, specially when both give 10 more levels each to players, i think it's a bit much. It's really a shame, because there is a ton of content from 1-75 that many wont ever touch (me included). Sometimes i would like to find a group of players that would rather play mmo games to enjoy the game, and not rush it to cap level. I wont  be rushing into 85 anytime soon, and funny thing I only reached 75 (Isengard level cap) a day before Rohan got out. So I'm gonna keep myself exploring a bit more before getting into Rohan and it's warhorses.

I've slacked on posting again...

I slacked again on posting stuff here, and i missed posting something about the Guild Wars 2 release and such... I do hope to fix it on the next few days.

Personally I'm back on playing Rift and waiting for the new expansion, which most probably will be awesome. Finally did my first raids on it, and am running everyday some dungeons to get some more pieces of gear and Planar Attunement experience before the release of Storm Legions in November. It's been great fun, with lots of stuff to do everyday. And from what I've heard, there's been good feedback for the new expansion. Also is expected a pre-expansion event and update that will change everything to ultimate the preparations for the release. I can only say I'm enjoying my time in Rift.

Also, beware those damn indie games bundles, they can be really addicting! Or www.gog.com!

Another bites the dust

Black Prophecy, one of the few MMO games based on space fighting is about to close doors, on 26 September. Can read it here.

I haven't played it more then a couple of hours when it first came out, but i always had issues with the game with constant disconnects so i end up leaving it. And i always wanted to have one mmorpg game based on space, with space exploration, battles and trade. Mind that this game only was based on fighting, lacked content, from what I've heard.

Maybe next time...

The roads to Mist of Pandaria are open!

Today went live on euro servers the last patch for World of Warcraft, 5.0.4, which sets scene for the changes coming with the imminent expansion, Mist of Pandaria. This update makes lots of changes, notably to the talent trees which were completely removed  and replaced by a much more simple talent system (dare i say, bad?), shared achievements, pets and mounts, cross-realm zones and other improvements and/or changes.

On a personal opinion, i find the change on the talents to be quite a letdown. I really don't see it being any fun, having just a new talent choice every 15 levels... Besides that, players will only get new spells per level, no more new talents. The only thing i like, is the ability to use, otherwise specific talents, independently of what gear you want to use (example, wielding two two-handed swords as dual wield and do bladestorm).

In any case, more details about this update can be read here.

World of Warcraft promotion prices

I never posted anything about the mmorpg beast World of Warcraft, since basically I've stopped playing it for nearly 2 years now. I did played a month or two in between, but nothing to make me glue back into the game.

In any case, I'm posting something about a long time complain i had about WoW. I had some friends that for one or other reason never got into the game, because when they finally decided they wanted to give the game a go, the prior investment on the game became a tad expensive. In example, a friend of mine who wanted to try the game, around the time Wrath of the Lich King was on, but he then started doing the math about how much he needed to pay, and the initial investment for a game that was around for some years then, would be over 75 euros. That was a bit expensive considering other titles were starting to come every now and then, and for someone who wasn't sure how long he would be playing it, 75 euros or more would be a no for an investment.

Now, Blizzard came with a new promotion for all the World of Warcraft content (base game + expansion) for a total of 20 euros. Players will still have to buy the next expansion coming out next month, Mists of Pandaria, but with this all together, the game would be around 55 euros, a more reasonable price but still a tad expensive for a game that is now almost 8 years old. 

The funny thing about, is that this is only a promotion that will be available for a full week until August 27,2012. Bad idea Blizzard. You wont be getting many more new players keeping this prices... Unless you don't care about getting new players, then i would assume prices are ok...

For instance, if you look at the example set by EQ or EQ2, the game is free for players, prior the last expansion, so if players want to play the full game, they would only buy the last expansion and be done. I agree games are f2p, so something must be given but still it's an idea you could look about.

In the case of World of Warcraft, keeping the price at about 20/25 euros, without the last expansion, would probably sell a few more copies. But who am i to know anything about this?

For more info you can check it here.

Paragon system for Diablo 3

The latest "surprise" for Diablo 3 came yesterday with the new Paragon system. I was going to swear someone at Blizzard reads me, and adapted my ideas i gave on my last post about the game.

So, this Paragon system basically will add 100 more levels to the game, that players will be able to gain after reaching the normal level cap at 60. Each level will give the character the normal stats as it would when the player levels up, plus 3% magic and gold find. 

I'm expecting that this new levels to be quite hard to get, since the first level players will already be asked to get around 7.000.000 exp and the final level will require the nice amount of 322.000.000. I think, if I'm not mistaken to level from 59 to 60, it's needed around 2.400.000, so you can have an idea the amount of experience and time needed to reach the cap.

Can read more about it here.

I think this will "hide" a bit the usual boring hunt for items with some extra purpose for players. Will it bring more players to the game? Doubt it. Will it bring old players back? Some. It's not about what's wrong with Diablo 3. The thing is that there is too many games to play online, and not many players are willing to take their time to grind constantly for items.

This system is going live tomorrow, 22-08-2012, on 1.04, in Europe, along with the legendary items fix (the new legendary items seem really cool). The update is already live at US. Can read about it here.

Rift - Pay a year, get free expansion

Yep from what I've seen on the expansion site, subscribe the game for a full year and you get yourself a free copy of the expansion. Could be a nice deal for some people.

This expansion will bring additional zones, 4 new souls one for each class, and.. housing? I still don't know about this. Build your own sliver makes me think it is.

For more information about it, just go here.

SWTOR new live event up

The new world event called Grand Acquisitions Race is now live on SWTOR servers. From what I've seen of this event, it doesn't look as interesting as the first one, but time will tell.

The story about it, is that Chevin Conglomerate declared the  Grand Acquisitions Race, which is basically a treasure race/hunt. Players are invited to look for traces over 2 of the planets. The first one, Nar Shadda is shared for both faction, and the second is the home world for each side, Dromund Kaas and Coruscant.

Rewards are the usual, a pet, a mount, some appearance gear, titles and achievement and a new design weapon, bowcaster (like the weapon that Chewbacca uses).

A full detailed guide can be followed here.

Vanguard f2p comes one week earlier

Well seems SOE decided to anticipate the f2p release of Vanguard by one week, so for anyone who wants to give this title a go, it's live now! You can read about the release info here.
I think this is more of a quick peak over the game and not a full release but i will give it a look.

This trailer is quite oldie, need to get a new one:

To download the game just go to the official site here, and start downloading the client. 

I would say this is a title to try if you want harder, complex mmorpg games. And also if you have an explorer vein like me.

Diablo 3, in my opinion

I know it's not an mmorpg but it's a game that I've been playing for a while now, so i decided to give my opinion over it.

Diablo 3, been waited for players for nearly 12 years or so. This been quite an anticipated title for some time. The game is out for almost 3 months and rapidly came from one of the most anticipated games of 2012, to one of the most hated. I'm still not sure if it's Diablo 3 or SWTOR that's the most hated title at the moment, but these 2 titles been in the fingers of the mmorpg community not for the shiniest reasons. 

I'm not going to say if i agree or not with what been said about what been said of Diablo 3, just going to to try to give my own opinion about it.

Diablo 3, is latest release from Blizzard in the saga (and their latest product). The game is basically, and action RPG, where players take control of an character and fight over endless hordes of enemies, killing for gold, treasure and experience. The game isn't too focused on character developing except for the usual gearing up. There are 5 classes, Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Witch Doctor and Wizard.

As the player levels up, new skills will be available and besides the new skill, and besides the skills gain players can also gain runes (This is I think one of the nicest features in Diablo 3). Runes are like a small upgrade added to a given spell that will allow it to perform differently depending on a given rune. As a small example, the Witch Doctor (the necromancer sort of), has this spell Zombie Charger, that sends a zombie towards the enemy. If i place a specific rune called zombie bears, this spell turns into a quite impressive stampede of zombie bears that trash everything in their path. Any spell in game has a given set of runes and players can adapt skills to their own needs.

The game focus also heavily on gear, and it will make a big difference at Inferno difficulty where the game can be really frustrating if not properly geared. Many gear will drop but very rarely players find something that is really good for their character. So one idea was to save a good item and trade it with other players for something better for the character. Here enters the second feature of the game, that some players dislikes. 

The Auction House. Neither Diablo 1 or 2, feature anything remotely similar in the game. It was all player trading. For Diablo 3, Blizzard decided to implement this system. While personally i like to fiddle around the Auction House, i understand that many players didn't like because in order to succeed in Diablo 3, you would need to go to Auction House and get the gear. All would be fine, wasn't the fact that most good gear was insanely priced for most players, making players sometimes come to brick wall they couldn't overcome. So i think in some cases the Auction House made people  turn their noses. Oh and there is also the RMAH, which is basically the Auction House but this time with real money. You would put an item in the RMAH in trade for a certain amount of money. Again another feature some players are totally against it. To me, I can't complain.

But the biggest complain, and by far the thing that drove many players away, was the Inferno difficulty. The difficulty is just over the top and in most cases totally brainless. There were packs of mobs that would be impossible to pass to most players, which made them angry towards the game, and many would just rage quit over it. I had times back when i first reached level 60 (that's the level cap), i would rage quit because there were fights that would just be totally stupid for me as a Barbarian.

Another problem, was the lack of proper end game. Blizzard expected that item hunt would do the trick but i guess players want more then just the regular run over stomping hordes of enemies for some items that in most case weren't that good. Sometimes it's really tedious, and if I fail to get anything remotely interesting, I just log off and come back another day.

Also players complained about items, because it was really hard to get something decent. Like getting a shiny knew sword, identify it just to see that the dps (damage per second) is way too low, and that the stats aren't even remotely proper for the weapon. And that happens way too often. Oh and the legendary items (uniques) are 99% of the times really really bad.

Players complained also about the no single player version for Diablo 3. Although this doesn't affect me, i can understand that some would like to have that option.

Story wise it's ok, it's not Mass Effect or anything like that but it will do for the game. And the cutscenes, well that's Blizzard quality, probably the only thing that's reminiscent of the pre-Activision Blizzard.

I can point out what i think has gone really wrong on Diablo 3 for me. 

First off, level cap. I think it was really a bad idea from Blizzard to cap it at 60 and making everyone hitting it fairly easily. I remember back in Diablo 2, it was a nightmare to get to 99 (which i only did once in the expansion). It would give something to players to come and do besides the endless item hunt. 

Second, there is no proper end game, that makes people want to come back. Blizzard already admitted this. I think one idea would be some sort of ladder, that would track players killing of champions and elites for each giving act (since there is a level cap). The first 10 players would receive as bonus, an extra stack of naphalem valor as example (oh forgot to mention, this valor basically it's a stack of magic find that increases the chance of players getting more quality items - doesn't mean they are good, just getting more magic items). 

Finally, the difficulty although I've adapted to it, i do admit it's a bit over the edge for some players. Maybe a tweaking would be nice.

In any case i enjoy playing this game from time to time. Got myself a Barbarian and recently leveled a Witch Doctor which I'm really enjoying playing with (zombie bears ftw). I like sometimes doing a small item hunt, not that I've been much luckily but I have got some decent pieces so far. I'm not doing anything remotely different i would do on Diablo 2, except that in Diablo 2 i would do either endless runs to Pindleskin or a cow run. It's a bit more refreshing doing a complete act run and i think on this Blizzard did a good change.

In any case, i would like to see more meaningful end game, but since Blizzard keeps it's lips tight about what they will do to the game, i can't foresee any bright future for the time being. But at the moment time is playing against Diablo 3.

Vanguard: SoH coming f2p on 14 August

The official release date been announced by SOE here. The waiting for Vanguard fans is almost over. 

Some mmo players, me included, consider Vanguard to be one of the best mmorpg games out there. Shame that when it was first released it was plagued by huge amount of bugs which just drove players away. But this game offers lots of qualities, from a strong PVE game, to one of the best crafting system close to already dead Star Wars Galaxies or a huge continent to explore full of dungeons (which themselves are huge), or even housing and, i don't want to be wrong, building your own boat. 

What to expect of the f2p version for this game? Well I'm expecting something closer to Everquest or Everquest 2, where f2p players can only access some classes and/or limited gear. I do believe the game will be somewhat playable for the f2p player, but players must be aware this game is strongly based on group play, so if SOE decides to block access to gear for f2p, i suspect game play will be a bit harder then the usual. The next picture can be a bit more illustrative.

I still hope SOE would allow players to gain Station Coins points for the marketplace while playing the game, much like Turbine Points. I wouldn't expect it to be much but something minimal to keep players enticed to keep on playing. Would be interesting to be awarded Station Coins on Everquest when doing achievements. 

By the way, there will be a new Vanguard: Saga of Heroes site here.

SWTOR going f2p

The news is all over the internet. And rumors were spreading for a while now. Yesterday Bioware confirmed it. Star Wars: The Old Republic is going free-to-play this fall.

For many this is like the apocalypse for this game. For others it's the only way around it. I'm with the second group. I think people nowadays don't want to spend much playing the game, mostly because they don't want to be forced to play it all the time since they payed a month for it. Being f2p, allows a player to play whenever he sees fit without the pressure of knowing that he payed for that time. That's one way to see things. Also, either we like or not, f2p is here to stay, and most games are going this formula except, in my opinion World of Warcraft. Will it be a good option for SWTOR, though?

Looking at the SWTOR Free-to-play Matrix , i feel that this model will be somewhat like the model used on Age of Conan or even Everquest 2, where players have access to many features of the game, but the main bulk, like raiding, instancing or some pvp is blocked some way. In my opinion this is like an enlarge trial version, that the player can go from level one to the cap, but if he really wants to enjoy the game, he will have to subscribe it. But time will tell.

Also veteran SWTOR players will receive some benefits from previous subscriptions, which you can see here.

In any case, for me, this means i can enjoy a bit more of the game without worrying too much about paying a subscription each month. Allow me much more freedom of play, to play whenever i want and how i see fit. 

Star Trek Online: Season 6 is out

Well it's out for like 4 or 5 days already. But still it's fresh.

I've been waiting for this new season (call it major update if you like, much like an larger game update for EQ2, from my experience).

One of the features it brings is the creation of fleet (guilds) starbase. From what I've played of it, each fleet must do a series of project missions(like gathering stuff), to handle for the station that in a way it will allow the  starbase  to level and gain several benefits for the fleet. A player can, depending on the project, give crafting materials, duty officers, weapons and/or dilithium to help progress each event. In return they will receive fleet credits (a new currency to the game) which eventually can use to buy later ships and other stuff that are unlocked to the fleet. This feature in my opinion is the biggest for this new update. Of course there are others

Other features are, new max level events, that will also contribute fleet marks (another new currency) for the fleet projects. For instance one event, "The no-win scenario" pits a team of 5 player defending a solo space freighter against increasing number of enemy waves until eventually they fall or "if possible" reaches the end. Each successful wave will give each player those marks.

Another feature, it seems, is the introduction of new enemy race, the Tholians. Haven't seen it myself, but from what I've read at STO blog there seems to be a new planet at the Eta Eridani Sector Block that will allow players to zone into this event. Must check this.

Also some Foundry updates. Foundry is the player created content thing which i never used so i don't know anything about it except that it isn't working that great till yesterday.

Although i like the starbase stuff, i was hoping to see a addition of new STF (dungeons like version of STO), but apparently there is none, which is big letdown. Still i haven't explored as much as I wanted, so I will give it another run down and check it again.

Worth the update for the starbase event, the rest isn't as fun at first sight.

DDO: Menace of Underdark is out!

Almost forgot this! I haven't been playing DDO in the past few weeks but this might bring me back in again!

I don't have the expansion yet, so I'm not expecting big changes for me as a f2p player but i will give it a look in the near future. I hope that when i get the expansion it will work much like other expansions in LOTRO. You get it and you are entitled to everything on the expansion either you are a f2p player or a subscriber. 

Anyways, what to expect on this expansion? 

• 3 Forgotten Realms Adventure packs 
• The King's Forest 
• The Underdark
• The Demonweb 
• Epic Destinies Levels 20-25 

Can read more info here!

Trion unveils Rift first expansion!

Storm Legion is the name. No release date is yet announced.

Features:

- Two new continents

- New epic stories

- Tempest Bay, new city for both factions

- Level increase by 10

- 4 new souls

- 7 new dungeons

- 3 new raids

- A new chronicle

- More rift events

- Housing? "Dimensions: Customizable spaces allow players and guilds to own a sliver of Telara"

- New crafting rank

- More collections

- And apparently capes is considered a feature :p

Overall it's the expected on any expansion for any given game. The only thing I'm more curious is about the dimensions. Is that suppose to be a sort of housing?

Can read it all here!

Star Trek Online, "Beam me up, Scotty"!

I've been playing this one for several months now, and I feel i know somewhat more to give a fair feedback about it.

Star Trek Online tries to be slightly different from most mmo games I've played. First off, most of the game action takes place controlling your space ship, which is already a nice change from all the avatar sort games. Here you control a Star Trek type spaceship on fast space combat, with tons of beams or torpedos flying everywhere. The game is full 360º so one must be careful to consider that any action can happen anywhere in space. But for the more traditional players, there is also ground action, so you can expect a more traditional type of gameplay.

Ok but back to space. A player can choose at start between different specializations, like Science specialization goes for healer type spaceship, Engineer goes tank type while Tactical is everyone's favourtie dps sort. Depending on the specialization, players have a large array of spaceships to pick up, but one can always pick a ship that is more suited for a different specialization then his. So a Tactical officer can always go and pick a science ship. The difference on these ships usually is on the amount of customization slots it can carry, and the type of officers one can place on ship slots. Officer slots are like the officers from Star Trek, that would take a place at the bridge depending on their functions. On the game, each officer has a specialization, and offer different abilities that can either buff ship (weapons, defense or other), debuff enemy, recover shields or repair hulls. The array of options available on officers is big enough to keep players busy looking for the best set to place on slots. Then you have the amount of weapons one can choose from, and consoles (small buffs to ship stats), and other items. Well i can say ship costumization is quite nice for this game (not expecting to be as deep as, like Eve Online, but its quite interesting as well).

If you go ground adventuring, it's an different game from space. Sure it's a bit lighter compared to other mmo's but considering this one offers two types of game instead of one, I don't think it's bad either. When on ground , usually you go with your officers, and you and them have also a different set of abilities available to ground game. Basically, you take your team and go out adventuring over a planet with a set of objectives. I'm not sure there, like open wide planets where one can go and just explore and explore (probably there isn't). You can have the gameplay much similar to a traditional shooter (not as good of course), and just go out and blast everything that moves. It's fine as it is.

Gameplay wise, there are several different types of things to do in game. A player can, lets see, do quests, do pvp, do events (each hour an event is going that gives you a chance of more loot or more rewards), explore, do user created content, crafting, go accolade (achivements) hunt, etc. Most of this either ground or space depending on what you want.

The things I like about this game are, first and foremost being f2p and able to enjoy the game fully without have the need to pay anything. And i mean anything. I've reached max level (50) with both two characters (one federation and another klingon), I've done anything i wanted will that be either pvp or max level "dungeons" called STF, I can use any loot I want (as long as I can afford to buy them), and if I want to unlock anything from the shop I just need to grind Dilithium currency and trade it for shop points. But since everything is playable where do they make the money? Well the trick is on the ships. You see, the max level ships are only available if you buy them at the shop, so you either farm the points getting dilithium and trade it for shop points (and this process can take maybe up to 2 month of nearly everyday farming it - depends on the ratio between dilithium and cryptic points - or just go and buy the ship with real money. Also extra character slots, more bank space or respecs for your character can only be bought in the shop but as i said before if you farm the dilithium you don't need to pay for anything of these. That's what I'm doing.

Another thing i like about the game is that I can do different types of gameplay, instead of constantly be doing the same all over again. I want to do a STF, i do a STF. If i want, i do pvp that can either be regular arena, capture the flag, or many other types there is in the game (ground and space). I wanna fight Borg, i join a event to fight Borg. Same for Klingon. I wanna explore, several quests give me objectives while i explore. I wanna quest, I can do the different episodes (questlines) available in game, no matter what my level is - they adapt. I could go on. I like it that way.

But of course i dislike a few things. Foremost, there are no "raids", so most guild usually do is either STF in elite mode (which only takes 5 players), or run a few events, but I think it's very light game for players who want to be part of a guild and join it's effort. Also game can be a bit confusing at times to adapt to different types of weapons and gear, but nothing as a good read will help out.

By the way, I'm no trekkie not even a fan, but I can say this is a very entertaining game, and since it's like the most open f2p game I ever played (even better then LOTRO and DDO), I can say if you like mmorpg type of games, I don't think it's a waste of time giving this game a try. Who knows, you might like it.