From Central California and Northern England, two aspiring writers natter and share a blog. We like to talk about our disparate but oh-so-similar lives, offer opinions on literature and movies... and endlessly reminisce about Bioware RPG's.


We hope you haven't had enough of our disingenuous assertions. If you have, please don't hit us.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Star Wars: The Old Republic (Beta) Impressions


Sorry for the many typos. I'm sick with a cold, and have been playing an MMO all day. Bad combination.

It'd be hard to properly describe the resounding sigh I managed when it was announced the "sequel" to the Knights of the Old Republic games would be an MMO. I remember thinking, "This is it. The series is finished. They're going to get caught up in making silly, standard MMORPG quests that boil down to Kill Ten Rats or Collect Three Eggs or Flip That Switch. Oh, and BioWare's bringing back their voiced protagonist, just like in Mass Effect and Dragon Age 2. Because, you know, that was my favorite part of those games."

tl;dr - "God dammit!"

So, I casually checked up on it, never really seeing anything that I particularly clicked with. The quests did look standard and did boil down to shutting down three relays, or what have you. And the voice acting never really blew me away. I just never saw anything that justified an MMO over KotOR 3. Regardless, I still signed up for the beta, thinking that I should at least give it a try before I wrote it off completely. Similar thinking went into my purchase of The Old Republic: Revan, which has, indeed, been written off.

As of right now, I've put about ten hours into Star Wars: The Old Republic (in one day, sheesh) and I've just gotten off of the intro world, which put me at about level 12 if I remember correctly. What surprises me right now is that, on the whole, my experience has been largely positive. After all the ranting that I've done and all my talk about how BioWare is pretty much dead to me, I'm sitting here honestly contemplating purchasing this game. In my eyes, there's been a decline in quality output from BioWare, but if this game's any kind of evidence: the BioWare that I loved isn't gone for good; they've just been busy making this game.

Getting Started (Races and Classes):

It's that thrilling intro to any good RPG: making your character. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, you have a respectable list of both classes and races, making it every possible to create the kind of character that you've always wanted to play in a Star Wars campaign. There are eight classes in all, with two from each faction (Sith and Republic) being blaster-oriented, non-Force users, and the other two being Jedi or Sith, with one focusing on Force-based abilities and the other more combat/lightsaber-centric.

The cool thing being that you won't be at a disadvantage picking the class that you want. Picking a smuggler won't make you easy pickings for any Sith that happen by, since, if you play your cards right, you can pretty much take down anybody as anybody... Yeah, that made sense.

Not wanting to instantly go Sith or Jedi, I went with the Human smuggler, not expecting to like it a whole lot. The customization was pretty good, so I was able to end up with a character that resembled me a little bit (at least in the goatee region). The game starts out with the standard opening crawl that's specific to your class and you get introduced to what the main storyline (also class-specific) will end up being. With the smuggler, you essentially receive the biggest kick to the crotch the galaxy can conceive for such a character: you get your damn ship stolen.

Welcome to Ord Mantell:

Both the trooper and smuggler classes both end up on the same planet when they start out, and that planet is Ord Mantell: a place that is beginning to tear itself apart as Separatists clash with the ruling Republic in a brutal civil war. My smuggler, Revanth, was dropping off a shipment of weapons when his ship was taken my a separatist spy. Left for dead, I had to make for the nearest Republic outpost, which acted as my main quest hub for the remainder of my stay.

Basically, getting my weapons shipment stolen effectively pissed off the planet's main crime lord, marking a few of his associates and myself for death if we couldn't come up with a solution to the problem. My main contact, a big man named Viidu, sent me on a few missions of appeasement while the location of my ship and its contents were tracked down.

Most of the quests that I experienced were fairly basic when you got right down to it - but then they weren't. For instance, one quest had me going to investigate a crate of medicine that had been stolen. Soon after, I meet another NPC, a Cathar nurse, who admitted that she had stolen the medicine to distribute it to the Mantellian refugees, specifically the children who sat around her. As if that wasn't enough, then you're given options. Help her retrieve more medicine for the refugees, or threaten one of the kids at gunpoint to force her to surrender what she has.

Awesome.

See, the dialogue options for this game aren't altogether deep; you typically only get three responses for any given conversation. But having any way to respond to a given quest was amazing to me, since if you've played as many MMOs as I have, you've never had that ability before. Not only that, there are sometimes more than one way to finish a quest. Once, I was tasked with breaking a guy out of prison, then on my way out of the outpost, I was stopped by a soldier and asked to kill the guy instead (for reasons that seemed justified). So now, an MMO is toying with you, asking that endlessly-intriguing question: Do the ends justify the means?

Or another question: Which one of these refugees, do you wager, will make it through the minefield without dying?

Yeah, that happened. You get to bet on whether or not starving refugees can make it through a minefield without exploding - thus earning the food and water rations they so desperately want.

Awesome.

The game, so far, is simply rife with hundreds of little decisions, ranging from minor to major. Your character never talks out of turn or carries on the conversation without your input, and sometimes you're even given the option to simply react to certain things. I don't want to spoil too much, but there's a bit concerning an encrypted instruction manual that had me cracking up.

Is it as immersive as, say, Dragon Age: Origins or Fallout: New Vegas? Not really. The paraphrasing system drives me insane sometimes - and it's not like Mass Effect where if something like THIS happens, you can just reload the game. There's no reloading an MMO. I dearly hope there's an option to see how your character is going to respond (i.e. -Deus Ex: Human Revolution) implemented in the future.

Still, I think I've made more decisions, no matter how small, than are available in all of Mass Effect, and I've just gotten off of the tutorial level. The game finds ways to keep you involved.

The Smuggler's Guide to Combat:

The first time I kicked a guy in the crotch, I laughed out loud. World of Warcraft did a really good job of making sure each class had their own unique play style, and I'm really glad The Old Republic has made that attempt, as well. As a smuggler, I can really play like a smuggler. Cheap shots, taking cover, tossing grenades, charged blaster shots, causing internal damage. Giving a smuggler these abilities makes sense to me.

The cover system is your friend with this class, since some of your abilities rely on it. Initially, I couldn't make heads or tails of how to work it, but trial and error eventually helped me realize that it's pretty fluid. Ironically, it actually works better than in Mass Effect, since you can take cover behind a lot of things, not just conveniently-placed chest-high walls. It feels more real in that sense, because sometimes cover won't be that obvious.

So I'm having a blast playing as a smuggler. I've been in a party composed entirely of Jedi, and I didn't feel helpless or useless in comparison. In fact, I gave some of them a run for their money, and bailed them out a few times when they got a little ahead of themselves.

I stop laying down covering fire for a few seconds, and suddenly everyone's getting delusions of grandeur. Heh.

Knight's First Flashpoint:

There are instanced "dungeons" in The Old Republic, but not in the conventional sense. In your average dungeon, in WoW or RIFT or what-have-you, you run through with your party or raid to kill all of the enemies, defeat all of the bosses, and pick up some XP and sweet, sweet loot along the way.

That basic format remains unchanged for this game, but with the addition of many of those decisions that saturate the rest of the game. Each dungeon, or "flashpoint", has its own story that stems directly from your own, along with a series of developments that you and your party will have to talk your way through.

My first flashpoint was "The Esseles", a Republic transport on its way from Ord Mantell to Coruscant. En route, the transport is attacked by a Sith star-destroyer (or whatever they're called in this Era) and subsequently boarded. Their demand is that we hand over a Twi'lek diplomat, or else. You can make the decision to hand her over willingly, but I'm not sure if it amounts to anything. The other three people in my party were all playing their strictly light side Jedi.

So, we decided to defend the ship instead of handing the diplomat over, which led to a bunch of fighting and story progression. There are a few twists and turns, which I won't spoil, but overall it was a fantastic experience.

When it comes to the cutscenes (and there are many), the entire party is involved. You'll be given your list of responses, but the game rolls to see whose will actually be chosen, so everyone gets a chance to respond to NPCs over the course of the flashpoint without everyone talking at once. This also means that crucial decisions can be decided by the minority. In one part, we were asked to sacrifice one member of the crew in order to save the rest. My Jedi buddies immediately chose the light side option, which was to refuse, while I selected the dark side option, to agree. I won the roll, which meant that part of the story progressed how I wanted.

This gives the flashpoints a sense of unpredictability, since the decision of one player can throw the story in an entirely different direction, giving you different results each time. It also added another facet to what would otherwise be your standard dungeon, since we all began discussing what we should do, how we should react. You can pretty much have a BioWare-style moral confict as a group, which was very, very fun.

That little chat window also offers you a chance to maintain a running commentary with your group throughout the cutscenes, which only added to the fun.

And it really was fun.

To Sum Up:

I'm having a blast with this game, which is really, really not what I was expecting. At all. The lore of the Old Republic Era is constantly making an appearance, both through dialogue and visuals. Unlike Dragon Age 2, the universe isn't experienced through codex entries alone; if you want to visit the Galactic Senate on Coruscant, f**king go there. Tatooine, Alderaan, Nar Shaddaa, Hoth, the ruins of Taris. They're all here! And honestly, I can't wait to see them if what I've seen of Coruscant is any indication of their quality.

What I've seen is a small portion of the game, and arguably the beginning of any game is always the most polished, so I'm not sure how my opinion will swing down the line. But for now, this about sums up my current feelings on The Old Republic:

Saturday, November 12, 2011

The Dragon Feed [Updated: 11/24/11]


For an introduction to what we're doing here, check this out!

~~~Character Introductions~~~

Knight: Like I did with Oblivion, I chose the male dark elf route with the intention of eventually joining the Dark Brotherhood. I tried to make him look as young as possible, but they all seemed to have this grizzled look about them. Also, I gave him a beard, so he kinda looks like a mix between a Grey and Tom Hanks from Cast Away.

In terms of his backstory, I've been operating under the assumption that he's a descendant of my last dark elf from Oblivion, so he has a political leaning toward the Empire, but not to a fault. The opening events of the game definitely pushed him closer to the center of the aisle than he would've been otherwise. He's not gung-ho about killing at random, so I have no idea how I'm going to get him into the Dark Brotherhood like I'd originally planned. He's not all that thrilled about this Dragonborn business either, but he's seen the destruction an out-of-control dragon can cause, and is willing to at least go that extra step to see if he can help in some small part.

He's also not all that fond of spiders.

For now, he's dual-wielding daggers that he partially forged himself, and frequently tries in vain to kill large beasts. He has died many, many times, and it's my opinion that his powers as a Dragonborn pale in comparison to his ability to resurrect himself at a previous point in time.

--

Buch: My character is actualy pretty similar: grizzled and bearded and a (wood) elf rogue! He has a scar, dirt on his face (why is that an option?), a bunch of muscles and a flat nose, as if it got punched too many times. The idea was to make an elf who would pass for a Nord at a glance, so that he would suit Skyrim better as its saviour but still seem alien.

I don't have much of a backstory yet, but I have it in my head that he's a self-hating elf with a very shady past, who has now fled Dominion-occupied Valenwood and Cyrodiil for a more lonely, human land. He has no particular leaning toward either Ulric or the Legion -- and neither do I, honestly. But both he and I constantly find ourselves accidentally supporting one side and feeling really bad about the repercussions. We'll see how this plays out. But he does enjoy fighting dragons. But not wolves. He is fracking sick of wolves.


~~~Skyrim Status Updates~~~

November 24th:

Buch:

- I'm concerned about spoiling the main plot, but I recruited J'zargo and Lydia - the ultimate team, surely - into Delphine's secret club. Seriously though, they both kick ass on the field. I figure now I should get either a tank or some kind of archer as the third member! In a oerfect world, a dwarf. Then we'd have a fighter, a wizard and a dwarf. Ahhh. Perfect Gauntlet Team.

- Killed about a thousand dragons now. It's starting to get old. I can't believe I'm criticising this game, but maybe a few less dragons? Everywhere I go I find one. J'zargo has now helped me kill two. Even he is sick of them.

- I'm so engrossed and enchanted by this world, that today I found myself dragging the body of a tortured man out of the chamber and into a respectful position by the cave door -- just so that whoever goes to pick the body up for burial doesn't have to see what happened to him. None of these people really exist. I just couldn't leave him there in a bloodied chair.

Knight:

- Joined the Daaaaaark Brotherhood! Just like in Oblivion, the quality of the writing suddenly skyrockets the second you enter their sanctuary.

- Killed a blood dragon like it was a regular dragon! Getting a lot of mileage out of these daggers!

-Okay. So, one of the perks of the Dark Brotherhood outfit is that it doubles the damage of sneak attacks. With Assassin's Blade already in place, I do 30x damage when I do sneak attacks now. GG, Skyrim, GG.

November 23rd:

Buch:

- Infiltrated the Thalmor Embassay and thought maybe it would help if I stole a uniform from one of the few guards I killed. I saved, thinking, 'This will never work - the game isn't that adaptive... and besides, I'm a wood-elf, not a high-elf: I'll look too short, even with the hood up. Might as well give it a try...'
The next guard I saw asked me to come closer, and when I changed direction to avoid him I heard him mutter, "Must be the new arrival. He seems a bit short." Awesome, Skyrim. Just awesome.

- Found an Orcish hunter wandering around, who yelled, 'WE HAVE BEEN HUNTING' at me. I asked him what he had for sale. "MEAT. FROM FRESH KILLS!" Looked in his inventory and found a single pheasant breast. Well done, mate. I bet it put up a hell of a fight.

- Was walking down the road with Delphine and THE FUCKING HEADLESS HORSEMAN comes riding past. No joke. The headless. Horseman. I clicked on him. You know what the description said? 'Headless Horseman'. What the hell was that, Skyrim?!

November 22nd:

Buch:

- Actually finished the Mages' College questline. It's pretty short, but I liked it a lot. Also learned some great spells.

- Whilst at the college, killed a dragon in the courtyard after rounding up my fellow apprentices to help me. Harry Potter joke!

- Contracted something called bone-break fever. Laughed my head off. xD

Knight:

- EMPEROR! PELAGIUS! THE THIRD!

- Decided I was gonna walk to Riften to buy a wedding necklace (Necklace of Mara, methinks). Discovered a small town on the way, cleared out some spiders for 'em (*shiver*), and killed a bunch of bandits in a nearby fort. Two hours later, I had hardly progressed at all, according to the map.

- Went to marry Ysolda and the event glitched twice. Guess I'm a single Dovahkiin for now.

November 21st:

Buch: I've not been updating so here are a few for the last few days!

- Explored Windhelm some more and solved the murder. A few bugs on that quest. I really am conflicted about Ulfric now - hate him and admire him at the same time. But I love the way the character is written and played. This kind of complexity in characters and plot is a real step forward for Bethesda, if you ask me.

- Joined the Mages' College (I've abandoned the Companions - they are idiots), got some training and learned a few destruction spells. So now I major in archery, one-handed and spells. I am the ultimate RPG hero!

- Got a new, darker-coloured, hood. This is a big deal for me.

- Explored an underwater shipwreck at the edge of the map whilst my favourite background music played and a spell made my vision all green - at night, as the Northern Lights were starting up. I can't tell you how good that felt.

- Bought a horse. Found it a bit awkward to use, since the roads are so thin and meandering, and don't appear on the in-game map.

- Lost the horse almost immediately. I guess it died when I was exploring? A bit like that bit in The Neverending Story, except that I was like 'eh'.

- Read a book about the non-existence of Talos. The title - The Talos Mistake. Brilliant little dig at / reference to my beloved Dawkins book. :D


November 20th:

Knight:

- I've discovered there's no point in even attempting to go mine your own ore unless you're training smelting. Warmaiden's has pretty much every ore under the sun for sale for the lazy miner.

- Completed a quest for a statue, and she pulled me up into the sky to talk to me about my next task. When some kind of deity yanks you off the ground and holds you so far up there that it would take a few long moments to even hit High Hrothgar on the way down... you don't refuse.

- Still wondering whom I should marry. Ysolda has job security, since she might be buying that inn pretty soon. Lydia, however, has no job security, since she'll be fighting dragons with me. These are the tough choices Dovahkiin make on the daily.

- Finally got two elven daggers to match my elven armor. I look like an idiot, but the health bonus is to die for - or not to die for. There's a joke there...

November 18th:

Knight:

- I was making my way back to the Riverside Shack, a little place that I've claimed as my home away from home, when there came a loud roar that, at first, I mistook for the wind. Continuing on, a mist fell upon the forest. The roar came again, louder this time. I drew my daggers, expecting the worst, and scanned my surroundings in a panic. Just beyond the treeline, a massive shadow swooped down and then disappeared back into the mist. I started running, dodging trees and sliding down cliffs, just as fast as my feet could take me.

Another terrible roar. It seemed right there next to me that time. I waded through a hot spring and hopped over a sulfur-encrusted fissure. With the sound of the river in my ears, I looked over my shoulder just in time to see something emerge from the mistBLAGHSDFJIOJFS! Blood Dragon.

Buch: I really thought you were going to say a bear. xD

November 17th:

Buch:

- Went adventuring with Lydia the housecarl and outfitted her with all-new weapons and armour. Killed monsters, hunted vampires, spoke to a dog with a silly East Coast accent. Must go adventuring with Lydia again some time. xD

- Met the hidden Blade and returned to High Hrothgar to finish my training with the Greybeards. I've never felt so much like Luke Skywalker. I even took off my armour and wore a tattered brown shirt for the occasion - such is the power of this game over my emotions. Stood at the top of the tower and gave my first complete Shout. 'Reluctant hero act' indeed! Beware, beware, the Dragonborn comes. :D

- Finally travelled East and met Ulfric Stormcloak. My heart actually sank when I found out he wasn't the honour-bound idealist I had imagined and (kind of) hoped for. Brilliant speaker though - even at this moment he made me think twice.


November 16th:

Knight:

- Tried to enroll in the Bards College at Solitude. The headmaster-or-whatever said that before I would be accepted, I had to take a perilous journey across the plains of Skyrim and find a place long forgotten called Dead Man's Respite. There, deep within that dark and deathly dungeon, I would find a tome of great importance to the bards. When I returned alive with that tome then, and only then, would I be allowed into the college... Luckily! I had already been to that dungeon.

- I'm a bard now.

- In a panic, I Shouted a sabertooth cat off of a cliff. It did a stiff 180 degree spin and disappeared over the edge. I've killed my share of dragons, but that was the first time in the game I've felt truly badass.

- Climbed the Seven Thousand Steps and met that silly frost troll. Died three or four times before I remembered Assassin's Blade. Took some stupid path up the side of the mountain, dropped down a cliff and landed directly behind the troll. Killed him in one shot. Neeeeeeiccee!

- Discovered the site of an ambush. A note revealed that the two victims (a Redguard and Nord) lying dead in the road were husband and wife - married for twenty years and deeply in love. I dragged them to the side of the road, arranged them in a respectful position next to each other, and set off to find their killers.

Buch:

- Refused a creepy and out-of-nowhere invitation to join Team Jacob and go murder people for no particular reason. Walked away slowly.

- Yo dawg, we heard you like dragons, so we sent the dragonborn and the housecarl from Dragon's Reach to fight a dragon in Dragons Bridge, right next to the dragon bridge.

November 15th:

Buch:

- Took a carriage to see Solitude for the first time. Got out, looked around and saw the city. It literally took my breath away.

- Climbed up the 'Seven Thousand Steps'.

- Joined the 'Companions'. I can't take it seriously because I keep thinking about 'Firefly'. Whoring, is what it means to be a Companion. Whoring is what it is.

November 14th:

Knight:

- This woman in Whiterun was pretty insistent that I get her a mammoth's tusk, but I really didn't want to kill one of the things to get it. Randomly climbed a mountain and found this hunter living in a small shack. One of the three things she happened to be selling was a tusk. Righteous...

- The "Assassin's Blade" perk give 16x damage for sneak attacks with daggers. Game over, Skyrim. Those dragons better watch their backs... Get it?

- This guy in Whiterun followed me through three different stores, all the while talking up how well off he is. Incidentally, I've figured out how I'm going to join the Dark Brotherhood.


Buch:

- Killed my first dragon too! I used the clever, roguish tactic of missing with about ten arrows, then hacking at its face with an axe whilst taking all my potions. Not exactly Legolas.

- Decided to take on a battalion of Thalmor guards who were way, way too hard for me. Died hundreds of times, but I hate the Thalmor.

- Betrayed a gorgeous Redguard woman who approached me for help. Not sure if she was lying. I felt like such a bad guy I had to buy a new outfit with the reward money. :(


November 13th:

Buch:

- Got lost in the tutorial mission, spent ten minutes trying to climb things and get through walls while a dragon swooped overhead, trying to sustain tension and looking embarrassed for me.

- Killed a lot of zombie-things and (eventually) worked out the secret of the golden claw. My first dungeon, and a fittingly entertaining one. Really enjoyed cutting through cobwebs. Nice touch, Bethesda.

- Entered a small settlement, shot a chicken on the street, the townspeople rioted and killed me en mass. I guess that chicken was popular. Reminds me of the chickens in Zelda, but more hardcore!

- Seen the Northern Lights at the start of my second day. Beautiful, Bethesda.

- Fell down a waterfall by accident, but caught a salmon with my hands on the way down!

- Found a nirnroot. Bloody hell, not this again...

Knight:

- Got an unusual amount of enjoyment from riding that wagon in the intro. For a man supposedly showing up for his own funeral, I sure was giggling a lot.

- Approached one of the giants all curious-like and received a swift kick to the crotch for my troubles. That was my first death in the game.

- Did you know the guy who did the music for Skyrim also did Knights of the Old Republic? Does BioWare just hate talented musicians these days?

- Took my first trip to a merchant to unload some loot. Accidentally sold off all the armor I was wearing and the bastard sold it all back to me at quadruple the price. He told me to show some decency and put on some clothes once I backed out of the menu. Damn it.

- Retrieved this guy's family sword, and he returned the favor by teaching me, a rouge, a sword and shield technique. Thaaaaanks!

- KILLED MY FIRST DRAGON! And with my wimpy daggers, no less. He must have been an old one.

Today in Skyrim


We here at Disingenuous Assertions - all two of us - believe fervently that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is, indeed, a video game. A game that must be played and its secrets unlocked for the betterment of all humanity. And if this is your first time here, we also don't care for Dragon Age 2.

We could do a review for Skyrim, but it wouldn't happen anytime soon. The game simply does not end, and that's not an exaggeration. Unlimited dragons, a massive world to explore, and randomly generated quests does not a timely review make, not when you factor in our schedules. But at this point, we're both in agreement that this is a wonderful game. I have my hang-ups, and I'm sure Buch does, too, but they don't really get in the way of what's turning out to be a great adventure through what is definitely the most beautiful region of the series to date.

To alleviate our need to both criticize and gush about this game without writing lengthy reviews, we've decided to make a journal of sorts, highlighting the bright spots of our respective adventures, as well as things we might not care for in the game. In other words, it'll pretty much be a review as it happens - or, basically, a Twitter feed but with Skyrim... and not on Twitter.

We're gonna do a brief intro for our characters so you know who you're dealing with, and then we'll be off to the races! Stay tuned!


EDIT BY BUCH: Anthony, I'm curious to know what your hang-ups are! I do have a few so far, but still I'm really loving this thing.

Also - 'unlimited dragons' is the best two-word phrase ever. xD