Raiders on the Storm

Finding a noob-friendly community in an MMO that can help you experience end-game content is a valuable thing.

In many of the MMOs I play, I mostly enjoy experiencing the solo content and main story quests. It’s rare for me to find an MMO community that allows me to also experience the group-oriented content that a game has to offer.

In games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2, this is the end-game high level stuff such as dungeons and raids. Aside from random dabbling using group finder tools to find a random pick-up group, I’ve never been able to fully experience what these games have to offer.

So I’m really grateful for the open and noob-friendly player communities that exist in The Secret World, where unusually I’ve managed to experience all of the end-game dungeon and raid content that the game has to offer. Continue reading “Raiders on the Storm”

Pumpkin Spicing Things Up

October has arrived and with it, a chance to explore some new opportunities and Halloween themed events on the horizon.

It’s the start of a brand new month! Not just any month… it’s October and with that a lot of things start taking on a more pumpkin spice flavour with Halloween to look forward to in a few weeks time.

Last month seemed to fly by and I felt very unfocused for much of it. It was like a wave of ennui had washed over me and I often found myself just staring at game launchers not able to decide what I wanted to play or have the will to actually start up something (like new blog posts).

So it’s time to spice things up and get excited again! Let’s take a look forward at what October may have to offer. Continue reading “Pumpkin Spicing Things Up”

Finding the Missing Link

I finally got to experience the Missing Link during my replay of Deus Ex: Human Revolution and it delivered a great story.

During my original playthrough of Deus Ex: Human Revolution back in 2011, I completed the game before its story DLC, The Missing Link, was released. I’ve had it in my Steam library for years, but never got around to playing it.

One reason was because of its strange disconnected format – it wasn’t integrated into the main game, you had to launch it separately, and I’m not sure if it took into account your save state.

That all changed when Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut was released, featuring all DLC and including The Missing Link as a fully integrated part of the story. Continue reading “Finding the Missing Link”

Gilded Raging

A surprise Golden Week event goes live in The Secret World, but a mistake by the developers causes some fuming about reward cooldowns.

On the last day of August, the servers for The Secret World went down for what seemed like a regular hotfix patch. When the game came back online – surprise! – a Golden Week was now in effect.

Golden Week is an in-game promotion that happens a couple of times throughout the year, usually to fill the gap between other large events such as Halloween and Christmas. During the week, the Gilded Rage event occurs. Large angry golden golems appear in every zone in The Secret World that need to be destroyed. It’s a continuation of the story from the Guardians of Gaia anniversary event and uses the same mechanics.

There’s one mechanic that isn’t usually the same as the anniversary golems though – the cooldown for rewards – there isn’t supposed to be one. Continue reading “Gilded Raging”

Challenge Accepted

There’s a new limited time challenge in The Secret World that will grant you a fancy Hell themed hoverboard.

There’s a new Hell themed hoverboard in The Secret World, the Doomboard, that will let you sprint around with infernal style.

Previously, when new items such as this have been introduced, you get them through methods such as buying them direct from the item store, getting lucky with random loot bags, earning an achievement or as mission rewards.

With the Doomboard, the game developers are trying something different – to unlock it, you have to complete a special limited time challenge that requires doing any 70 challenges before September 21st. Continue reading “Challenge Accepted”

Replaying the Revolution

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was my favourite game of 2011, and I’m replaying it to get back into the mindset of being Adam Jensen.

The latest adventure in the Deus Ex universe has arrived. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided continues the story of Adam Jensen, a mechanically augmented human in the year 2029 – a dystopian future where augmented humans are feared and segregated into ghettos.

But how did that come to be? In anticipation of Mankind Divided’s release, I began a replay of its predecessor, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Continue reading “Replaying the Revolution”

The Museum of Grind

You’re given a whole museum to fill up with exciting exhibits in The Secret World. But filling it up may take some amount of grinding which sounds less exciting…

The Secret World stands out from other massively multiplayer online roleplaying games, in that the setting is in our present day modern world, rather than some medieval fantasy land or far in the sci-fi future.

It has an interesting story that takes you around the world, through New England, Egypt, Transylvania and Japan (and some other dimensions in-between) exploring myths, legends and conspiracies which all turn out to have some truth to them.

You get to join one of three secret societies battling for control and influence – either the Templars, Illuminati or the Dragon – and you get to fight mythical creatures, demons and Lovecraftian horrors.

Those are some of the highlights of The Secret World, and why it’s one of the main MMOs I spent my time in. However, recently after the addition of their latest new feature, I feel like people are beginning to see a different side of the game… a more grindy side. Continue reading “The Museum of Grind”

Better Living, Underground!

After spending a year with Fallout Shelter, I look back at the first time I started playing and how much it has improved since launch.

Fallout Shelter is a free to play mobile game developed by Bethesda Game Studios, available on iOS and Android devices, and now also on PC. It was also my first introduction to the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout as a game franchise, with its current flagship entry in the series being Fallout 4.

Fallout Shelter was released for iOS back in June 2015, and I remember there being a lot of buzz about it in my Twitter timeline. It looked fun to play, was available for download for free from the Apple App Store and came at a time when people were hotly anticipating the release of Fallout 4 in November 2015 and needed something to whet their appetites while they waited.

I had no experience with Fallout games back then, but Fallout Shelter captured my interest. Unfortunately, my old iPhone 4 was too underpowered to handle it. Tauntingly, it was able to download and install, but ran at painfully low FPS before stalling and crashing. Continue reading “Better Living, Underground!”

Boldly Going Beyond

I went to see Star Trek Beyond and enjoyed it thoroughly. Here are some of my spoiler-free thoughts fresh after watching it.

Today I went to see Star Trek Beyond at the cinema. As I may have mentioned previously, actually physically going out to see a film requires quite a bit of expense and effort – if I wait a few months it will appear in my on-demand service in the comfort of home. But when a truly must-see movie comes out, I make the trek out of the house. I was not disappointed – it was a great film! Continue reading “Boldly Going Beyond”

The Living World Comes to Life Again

Living World Season 3 has launched in Guild Wars 2, which continues the main story of your character immediately following on from the developments in Heart of Thorns. I share my thoughts on the first new episode, “Out of the Shadows”.

Guild Wars 2 is one of my favourite massively multiplayer games to hop into whenever there’s something new to play. Developed by ArenaNet, it’s the sequel to the original Guild Wars, and is set in the world of Tyria, populated by a myriad of different playable races including humans, charr, asura, nords and sylvari.

Over the last four years, ArenaNet has proved to be quite capable of releasing enough content at a regular enough pace to satisfy my insatiable need for stuff to do. One of the main ways the story of the world of Tyria progresses is through “Living World” content, which makes the game world feel alive and changes it over time. Previous content has come with effects such as the blighting of Kessex Hills, destruction of Fort Salma and Concordia and the complete annihilation and rebuilding of the city of Lion’s Arch.

During the last week of July 2016, the latest season of new story content launched in Guild Wars 2. “Living World Season 3” continues the main story of your character immediately following on from the developments in Heart of Thorns (the game’s first major expansion). Continue reading “The Living World Comes to Life Again”