I've been going through my bookmarks: seeing which are still valid (I have hundreds! - hoarder :o ), tidying, organising, etc.. This led me to check up on some old games, and associated with this was making sure my desktop was up-to-date, and updating some programs, including games.
Due to this, I checked up on Thang and was pleased that it loaded pretty quickly with no fuss: I'd expected waiting ages for a huge update.. hmm.. maybe that's not such a good thing.. heh. Anyway, the only thing I noticed from my brief visit was that you can now turn the screen/view 360 degrees, instead of the 180 or whatever it was before.. There may well be more than that that's 'new', but that's all I noticed..
Eternal Lands had to get a little visit too and I had to reinstall, due to the program I had no longer being used/supported. There seemed to be a lot of updates, according to the text, but things looked the same and although it's a lovely little game I would like to 'visit properly' one day, I wasn't in the mood for trying to remember what to do!
A 'games crawl' (kinda like a pub crawl but without the booze.. or pubs! :P) would have to include Planeshift - for me. This is one of the most frustrating games I think I've ever come across.. Why? because I've had such a good feeling about it ever since I first found about it, but I always found it a nightmare to play - well, actually getting to play always feels like a major accomplishment!! This time, as previously, it wouldn't update and didn't want to work, so I visited the website and realised there was a new build - good news, but I wish they'd sort out the updater so you don't have to uninstall and reinstall the darn thing every time!! I believe they are in the process of fixing that.. maybe they have, but I couldn't find it on the site. At least I managed to log into the site this time - I even had a nightmare with that last time I tried! I want to love PS but it won't let me!
What else did I visit.....? Oh yes, Puzzle Pirates! Login problems again, but it's more my fault than theirs, due to only visiting these games rarely. PP is a cute, easy little game. For me there are two 'levels' of approach when playing it. You can either get properly into it, making efforts to meet people, progress, and whatever else it has to offer.. Or, like me, you can just jump in and mindlessly have a go at the puzzles. I usually play the 'Bilging' puzzle ('Tetrisy' kinda thing) for a few minutes before logging off, lol.
I double-clicked the Rappelz icon, but after a few minutes of watching it try to download/update and thinking it didn't look like it was having much success, I gave up. It's just not appealing enough to me for me to put any effort into trying to get it going..
This may be an unkind or unfair thing to say, but I can't see me ever getting really engrossed in an Asian game.. They seem 'shallow', often bypassing any attempt to get someone fluent in English to check the content before pumping it out.. support seems a little lacking, but that's probably just a symptom of the modern world.. They do always look very pretty, but.. I'm forever seeking something with 'depth'.. like in the MuD, Cosrin I used to play. Some of the quests were deep.. I remember spending weeks up in a tower with a couple of friends, just trying to figure out how to get to the next bit, cross-referencing clues, going crazy to work it out.. I miss that, along with the depth of emersing yourself in your character... anyway, I digress.....
Showing posts with label Eternal Lands. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eternal Lands. Show all posts
Friday, August 10, 2007
Thursday, April 06, 2006
After the MUDs
Between playing Terris and Cosrin we discovered the playstation. Again, the roleplaying aspect was of more interest to me, though I suppose you could call most games 'roleplay' games, since you're playing the role of someone else..
Tomb Raider was a great favourite of mine for a while, and I got into Resident Evil for a bit LoL!
I later became hooked on Final Fantasy VII and VIII.
The only game me and my boyfriend both really liked was Syphon Filter. We played that together quite a bit.
I thought he'd like Metal Gear Solid too but he just didn't seem to like it as much as me for some reason: I thought it was great. They come up with great names for the hero in games don't they.. Lara Croft, Gabe Logan, Solid Snake.. heh.
We played Crash Bandicoot a little bit too. It's one of those games that you don't really get into, like you might immerse yourself in Tomb Raider - for me it's the exploring. I love exploring :) I used to drive my boyfriend nuts because I wouldn't leave anything out; I had to look everywhere heh. Crash though.. I guess you just want to beat each level.. it kind of gets annoying but you have to keep trying.. :o Now our little boy likes Crash, especially Crash Team Racing (which he calls 'Crash cars her bandicoot' for some odd reason lol. He calls Crash Bandicoot 'jump boxes'), though he seems to enjoy jumping over the sides or crashing into all the bombs more than actually winning: he doesn't get that yet :D
If you want to know more about any of these old games, do an internet search (e.g: google). Gameseek still sells PS1 games, as well as PS2 (Playstation 1 & 2). Many Playstation games are also available for the PC too.
Of course you can now go online with Playstation2 (you can have a look or buy here). My boyfriend played a little bit of 'Tiger Woods' Golf online and we had a go at Syphon Filter online but as we were trying to figure out what to do and how to do it some guy came and shot us to bits repeatedly which was a little offputting. Hehe. We much prefer computer online gaming.
So.. my life in Cosrin had come to an end and naturally I couldn't help looking for other online roleplaying games. I tried a few other MUDs (e.g: Achaea), mostly through Gmud (explanation here, about 2/3 of the way down) but I wasn't drawn to them and starting all over again didn't appeal to me. Especially with the way I tend to get into them, drawing my own maps and stuff. Of course, not knowing anyone was probably a big factor in the lack of appeal for me.
For a while I dabbled with various games such as Runescape and Everquest but they just didn't have any pulling-power for me. The actual game of Everquest looked brilliant, but, as is sadly often the case, the players ruined it for me. Of course the monthly fee detracted from it's appeal too ^^. Runescape kind of looks out-of-date but I could get into such a game if it weren't for, yep, you guessed it.. the players :(
In my most recent wanderings I found three games which I found quite appealing, for various reasons. I still have access to these games, since they're free, and pop in occasionally to see how they're doing. These are Eternal Lands, Thang Online, and PlaneShift.
Eternal Lands is a little out-dated looking, like Runescape, but it has a nice relaxed feel to it and the players actually communicate with each other like normal human beings and have a laugh, which makes a refreshing change. It's a point-and-click game with the usual killing of monsters and collecting items to trade or make things. I like the training aspect of it. You can buy books and your character 'reads' them to learn the subject matter, which might be about metallurgy, mining, magic, etc..
Thang.. well.. Thang is incredible. It's beautiful to look at, has real-time fighting-monster action and the best player trading system I've come across. You basically drag your items into your 'shop' window, set prices for them, then if you like you can go off and do your shopping, or go on holiday if you want! When you come back, if you didn't set ridiculous prices on things, you'll have more money in your account. Nice! Why don't I play this wonderful game if it's so great (and free!)? Yep, see above.. the players :( It's full of nasty little brats that seem to have a problem with the world and want to take it out on anyone who dares to even look at them. I did pop in the other day though and they seemed to have raised the status of some players to keep an eye on the behaviour of others. The atmosphere did seem better. I didn't stay long on that occasion, but I'll have another look sometime. A lot of players had tags after their names too, which I assume is some sort of Guild system. That will help a lot. If they can sort out the playerbase I think they've got an incredible game there..
Planeshift. As with Thang I'm amazed that such a game can be offered free. The graphics are incredible. Well, they're actually not quite as beautiful as Thang, but then you can wander out of town and walk or run around for what seems like miles, through countryside, with lush hills and trees. You might come across an NPC that can train you or otherwise assist you, or a group of monsters to fight; or you could find a remote building to have a wander around. I had a little difficulty with the user interface in Planeshift and gaining experience seemed to be a rather tedious process. I spent quite some time wandering around the dungeons in town killing rats for poultry (or should that be rattish? heh) experience/money (trias I think it's called). I had a feeling I might have been going the wrong way about it so I looked for other ways and discovered that you could learn to mine materials. I got a pick and off I went happily to pick at the local countryside.. the novelty of this wore off quickly though.. I'm not sure about the players.. I bumped into a couple that seemed okay, but it was all a bit.. lonely.. I visited recently and there seem to be a lot of Guilds set up now, like in Thang. I imagine this will help the community a lot. Games are always easier when you get to know a group of people in them.
Wow, once I get going I find it hard to stop.. Time for a break
*waves*
Tomb Raider was a great favourite of mine for a while, and I got into Resident Evil for a bit LoL!
I later became hooked on Final Fantasy VII and VIII.
The only game me and my boyfriend both really liked was Syphon Filter. We played that together quite a bit.
I thought he'd like Metal Gear Solid too but he just didn't seem to like it as much as me for some reason: I thought it was great. They come up with great names for the hero in games don't they.. Lara Croft, Gabe Logan, Solid Snake.. heh.
We played Crash Bandicoot a little bit too. It's one of those games that you don't really get into, like you might immerse yourself in Tomb Raider - for me it's the exploring. I love exploring :) I used to drive my boyfriend nuts because I wouldn't leave anything out; I had to look everywhere heh. Crash though.. I guess you just want to beat each level.. it kind of gets annoying but you have to keep trying.. :o Now our little boy likes Crash, especially Crash Team Racing (which he calls 'Crash cars her bandicoot' for some odd reason lol. He calls Crash Bandicoot 'jump boxes'), though he seems to enjoy jumping over the sides or crashing into all the bombs more than actually winning: he doesn't get that yet :D
If you want to know more about any of these old games, do an internet search (e.g: google). Gameseek still sells PS1 games, as well as PS2 (Playstation 1 & 2). Many Playstation games are also available for the PC too.
Of course you can now go online with Playstation2 (you can have a look or buy here). My boyfriend played a little bit of 'Tiger Woods' Golf online and we had a go at Syphon Filter online but as we were trying to figure out what to do and how to do it some guy came and shot us to bits repeatedly which was a little offputting. Hehe. We much prefer computer online gaming.
So.. my life in Cosrin had come to an end and naturally I couldn't help looking for other online roleplaying games. I tried a few other MUDs (e.g: Achaea), mostly through Gmud (explanation here, about 2/3 of the way down) but I wasn't drawn to them and starting all over again didn't appeal to me. Especially with the way I tend to get into them, drawing my own maps and stuff. Of course, not knowing anyone was probably a big factor in the lack of appeal for me.
For a while I dabbled with various games such as Runescape and Everquest but they just didn't have any pulling-power for me. The actual game of Everquest looked brilliant, but, as is sadly often the case, the players ruined it for me. Of course the monthly fee detracted from it's appeal too ^^. Runescape kind of looks out-of-date but I could get into such a game if it weren't for, yep, you guessed it.. the players :(
In my most recent wanderings I found three games which I found quite appealing, for various reasons. I still have access to these games, since they're free, and pop in occasionally to see how they're doing. These are Eternal Lands, Thang Online, and PlaneShift.
Eternal Lands is a little out-dated looking, like Runescape, but it has a nice relaxed feel to it and the players actually communicate with each other like normal human beings and have a laugh, which makes a refreshing change. It's a point-and-click game with the usual killing of monsters and collecting items to trade or make things. I like the training aspect of it. You can buy books and your character 'reads' them to learn the subject matter, which might be about metallurgy, mining, magic, etc..
Thang.. well.. Thang is incredible. It's beautiful to look at, has real-time fighting-monster action and the best player trading system I've come across. You basically drag your items into your 'shop' window, set prices for them, then if you like you can go off and do your shopping, or go on holiday if you want! When you come back, if you didn't set ridiculous prices on things, you'll have more money in your account. Nice! Why don't I play this wonderful game if it's so great (and free!)? Yep, see above.. the players :( It's full of nasty little brats that seem to have a problem with the world and want to take it out on anyone who dares to even look at them. I did pop in the other day though and they seemed to have raised the status of some players to keep an eye on the behaviour of others. The atmosphere did seem better. I didn't stay long on that occasion, but I'll have another look sometime. A lot of players had tags after their names too, which I assume is some sort of Guild system. That will help a lot. If they can sort out the playerbase I think they've got an incredible game there..
Planeshift. As with Thang I'm amazed that such a game can be offered free. The graphics are incredible. Well, they're actually not quite as beautiful as Thang, but then you can wander out of town and walk or run around for what seems like miles, through countryside, with lush hills and trees. You might come across an NPC that can train you or otherwise assist you, or a group of monsters to fight; or you could find a remote building to have a wander around. I had a little difficulty with the user interface in Planeshift and gaining experience seemed to be a rather tedious process. I spent quite some time wandering around the dungeons in town killing rats for poultry (or should that be rattish? heh) experience/money (trias I think it's called). I had a feeling I might have been going the wrong way about it so I looked for other ways and discovered that you could learn to mine materials. I got a pick and off I went happily to pick at the local countryside.. the novelty of this wore off quickly though.. I'm not sure about the players.. I bumped into a couple that seemed okay, but it was all a bit.. lonely.. I visited recently and there seem to be a lot of Guilds set up now, like in Thang. I imagine this will help the community a lot. Games are always easier when you get to know a group of people in them.
Wow, once I get going I find it hard to stop.. Time for a break
*waves*
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