I chose PDQ (“Prose Descriptive Qualities”); it is very unlike Dungeons and Dragons – and, truthfully, unlike most other games – because it is a very loose, player-driven game. This makes it ideal for a first-time GM, and also a nightmare, if things don’t go quite according to your story arc.

A responsible GM in any game creates a story, and NPCs to go along with it. She should create an environment that’s interesting and rich, a blueprint for any bad guys her PCs have to fight, and a satisfying conclusion to the story. This is especially true in a one-shot game – in a campaign, she can touch on all of her PCs wants, needs, concerns, motivations – in a one-shot, she’s got to do your best with what she’s got, and hope and curse and pray that her players are going to go along with what she’s got in mind. PDQ is, in many senses, ideal for this situation.

Blur, my constant gaming partner and boyfriend, has been urging me toward this inevitable end for months. I toyed with it for a long time before I gathered my guts and my dice and did it. In the midst of cooking chili, Blur and our house-guests Matt and Amber decided on their setting preference: the Golden Age of Piracy (early 18th century). Character generation in PDQ is, without a doubt, the most important aspect of the game, because it decides what the players are going to face in the next 2-5 hours. I took their motivations into account, spent 15 minutes crafting a vague story arc, statted up some villains, and began.

PDQ is fabulous because it is player-driven. If you are heavily into strategy-based tabletops, like AD&D or Earthdawn, it can be a little hairy getting used to the system. Players don’t need to worry about where they are in relation to their target, which direction they’re facing, whether or not there are other PCs in the way of their bullet/arrow/magic missile’s trajectory. The catch is that whether a player makes or botches a roll, she gets to describe the outcome. This is the hard part. For experienced players, who have heard a thousand explanations for a thousand different actions and fumbles and dice explosions, it becomes a place for flowery descriptions, fiery explosions, and fearsome executions. The GM has the unique opportunity to sit back and watch. I had a very fortunate first experience.

Sometimes GMing is more like herding cats than it is telling a story. Blur ran a PDQ session, a gritty gaslight Edwardian horror game, in which we had three old hands and two virgins. First, that is a large table, especially for a one-shot, especially in a game that without the characters, you literally have no story. Second, informing people that they can do whatever they want, within reasonable, GM-set limits, allows them to do fantastic feats of acrobatics, allows them to change the setting – but most importantly, allows them to fundamentally change the plot of the story. For instance, in Blur’s game, one of the characters, Swivel, literally punched through the spine and sinew of an undead Set vampire, but then decided that when her head disconnected from her torso, she would bite him on the ear.

If that had happened in my game, I would have panicked.

Blur was not satisfied with his last PDQ game, and we talked it out – we still are. I contend that it is a great system for a new GM, and a terrible system for a new player, for all the aforementioned reasons. But then, I also think that Twitter’s 140-character limit and composing piles of Italian sonnets are great ways to hone your writing skills. I suspect the biggest pitfalls of his session were time constraints and that big bottle of Wild Turkey getting passed around – gritty we were not.

Consider that your caveat: while any game, in any system, with any players, can get real silly real quick, PDQ carries the highest risk. Players can literally do whatever they want. As long as they are willing to give up dice, they can change the story, change the setting – and you can see where that can end up.

Atomic Sock Monkey is the publication company for all the PDQ games. Their website is www.atomicsockmonkey.com.

Last year at PAX, Funcom released early details about The Secret World to press. This year, theMethod: Sorry to hear that, that was your experience, but I know many of the women I know are not like that. The whole idea is to dispel this myth of us being unicorns and special. It’s so sad that you had this experience, but it’s definitely not how many women I know are. y have a brand new in-game trailer to feature to show you more about the upcoming MMO. I can say that I’m very curious about The Secret World and interested in seeing how this will turn out!

Aussies who’ve been wondering when the game Torchlight will grace our shores – wonder no more!

Come April, the folks at Mindscape are excited to make Torchlight available to purchase from your local retailer and apparently it has new exclusive features that aren’t in the online version. Some of those features will include the ferret as a bonus pet and an optional full DVD editor which lets you create your own content, while the key features include randomisation, simple interface and retirement system.

In the RPG (brought to us by the designers and leads of Diablo® and others) you need to save the town of Torchlight, embarking on a perilous journey through many dangerous locations to cleanse the mines. Choose from 1 of 3 Character Classes to battle your way through dungeons and against monsters while searching for fame and fortune.

Winner of quite a few awards including “Best Debut Game” Award at the 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards, Torchlight will be available from all major retailers and computer software outlets from in April 2010 and will cost $29.95AUD.

If you’d like more info on Torchlight, you can find it at www.mindscape.com.au. You can also read an interview by GamingAngel with the games developers, Runic Games!

Patch 3.3.3
All kinds of news has been filtering out with the upcoming release of Patch 3.3.3 (the background downloaded has been enabled!) and there are some interesting things coming in the next patch. As always MMO Champion has dug up some interesting things from the test realms. And of course you can find the latest test realm patch notes here.

I’ll start off with some of the more fun and frivolous additions with new mounts and pets that will be coming in the next patch. The more flashy of the new mounts is the Celestial Steed, a flying and land mount that looks like a constellation. There’s a video of the steed in action here, and I have to say seeing it in action makes it a lot cooler than just seeing the screenshot. Sadly I haven’t seen where players can get this mount from, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be tied to an achievement, maybe for raiding? In any case it’d make a great addition to anyone who loves collecting mounts. To also go along with the celestial steed is a Celestial Dragon pet. There is also a new two-seat rocket mount that was discovered that there isn’t any info on where or how we’ll be able to get it. Hopefully we’ll get some details soon! There also may be a new pet to buy from the Blizzard store. MMO Champion found the model for Lil XT and based on the similar name with Lil KT they speculate, and I’d agree, that this may be a new pet that players can purchase from the store. We’ll just have to wait and see on more info! And last but not least are two more mounts, the Blazing Hippogryph and the Woolly White Rhino, which were supposed to be TCG rewards, but due to the recent split from UpperDeck, this could change.

There are also going to be some changes coming to battlegrounds in the next patch. First off, marks are going to be cut from the game completely. One of the more exciting things for me because of this is not having to continue to grind for the marks for the mounts. They will now be available for 50,000 honor points per mount. And not to worry about any marks you have! You’ll be able to exchange them for a Commendation of Service, which will grant you 185 honor. The Call to Arms quests will also be no more, and will be replaced with a new interface that will list which battleground is the current Call to Arms. Along with this, the first random battleground that you do will give you the same rewards as the Call to Arms, and each subsequent  BG will net you about 15 Honorable Kills worth of points. You can choose to either do the Call to Arms or a random battleground to get the higher amount of points, but once you’ve done one of these the amount will be lowered. (Check out the nice screencap from MMOChampion) Personally I like this change and I think that it’ll bring some more people into doing the randoms at least. It’s been a hit for the dungeons, so I’m sure it’ll go fine for PvPers.

One last kind of small patch 3.3.3 update that I’m looking forward to is the change to the frost orbs that drop at the end of random heroics. I’m sure there have been some of you who have experienced everyone rolling greed (as what seems to be the expected norm) only to have the last person roll need and run off with a free orb. Frustrating yes? Well Blizzard seems to share the frustration as they’ve decided that frost orbs will now have an automatic greed roll for all! Seems fair enough to me though I’m sure there may be some complaints.

Patch 3.3.5

Yes I have an item for 3.3.5, and no I’m not sure what’s happening in 3.3.4 (DEHTA protests?). Zarhym announced the Ruby Sanctum back near the end of February and him saying that it “could quite possibly be the very beginning of Deathwing’s plan to dismantle the Wyrmrest Accord from within.” makes it seem pretty dire:

A powerful war party of the Black Dragonflight, led by the fearsome Twilight dragon, Halion, have launched an assault upon the Ruby Sanctum beneath Wyrmrest Temple. By destroying the sanctum, the Black Dragonflight look to crush those that would stand in the way of their master’s reemergence into Azeroth and to ultimately shatter the Wyrmrest Accord – the sacred bond that unites the dragonflights.

The battle that is to come will surely deal a crippling blow to the Red Dragonflight, however, it is up to you to stop this unprecedented offensive and defend the Ruby Sanctum. First you must face the assault of Halion’s servants, Saviana Ragefire, Baltharus the Warborn, and General Zarithrian, before squaring off against Halion the Twilight Destroyer, a new and deadly force in this realm.

The Ruby Sanctum will feature 10- and 25-player content, Heroic difficulties and all-new rewards! Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to its release.

It sounds interesting and another way that Blizz seems to be ushering in the Cataclysm. MMO Champion has also dug up sound clips and screen shots of the new instance.

Cataclysm

There has been some big news items for Cataclysm in the past month, some of which could still be considered part of the rumor mill as they haven’t been confirmed (or denied) by Blizzard. In the latest issue of PC Gamer UK, there is a large article about “50 reasons to play Cataclysm” which is a lot of stuff that we’ve at least read on various sites even before Blizzcon ’09. So two things, the first of which I’m quoting from MMOChampion: “Note #1 Important – The guys from PC Gamer were kind enough to give me a few more information on that. The article is NOT officially endorsed by Blizzard and is mostly the result of their own work, that means that a small part of speculation is involved.” And second, this part will be spoiler heavy so scroll down a bit until I give the “all clear.”

<spoilers>

As we’ve heard Thrall will be leaving his position as warchief of the horde to be a guardian of Tirisfal, however this isn’t as permanent sounding as it first sounded. According to this list, Thrall will just be leaving Garrosh “in charge” which does not make him warchief, but will still allow him to declare war on the Alliance and anything else he sees fit. He will be throwing out the Forsaken and Blood Elves from Orgrimmar for his own reasons. And Garrosh will also declare Cairne Bloodhoof a traitor and will execute him. Not too happy about this as I do like Cairne, but according to MMOChampion who got a hold of this issue, they say that the “seeming demise” may be linked to the revitalization of Desolace. So maybe Cairne is able to escape the fate that Garrosh would want for him and live in exile? I guess we’ll just find out when the expansion hits. There is also some talk about Deepholme and how there will likely be a battle between the Alliance and Horde in there that will involve large ships like we’ve already seen in Icecrown. On a final fun note, with the Archaeology profession, we will be seeing Harrison Jones in game, who will have a link to this profession.

</spoilers>

In other big news we received details about the mastery system and stat changes that will be released in the expansion. We’ve known about the stat changes since Blizzcon, but Eyonix made a nicely detailed post (linked above) that goes deeper in explaining their reasons for making the change and what will be affected. I think that the stat changes are a good thing since I also felt that the system was a bit too clunky, and I think that the changes will help newcomers to the game understand what they need more easily. To go along with the stat changes, I also like the proposed mastery system which will be refreshing the talent tree system. Eyonix was a busy dragon and gave us a good preview of this as well:

Here’s how the system works: As you spend points in a given talent tree, you’ll receive three different passive bonuses specific to that tree. The first bonus will increase your damage, healing, or survivability, depending on the intended role of the tree. The second bonus will be related to a stat commonly found on gear desirable to you, such as Haste or Crit. The third bonus will be the most interesting, as it will provide an effect completely unique to that tree — meaning there will be 30 different bonuses of this nature in the game. This third bonus is the one that will benefit from the Mastery rating found on high-level (level 80 to 85) gear.

One of our primary goals with Mastery is to give players more flexibility to choose fun or utility-oriented talents rather than make them feel obligated to pick up “mandatory” but uninteresting talents, such as passive damage or healing. (For examples of the kinds of powerful but boring talents we’re talking about, take a look at the talent tier just above the 51-point talent in many of the existing trees.) In a sense, Mastery makes it so every talent in (just for example) a rogue tree essentially has an invisible additional bullet point that says “…and increases your damage by X%.” This way, if you choose a talent like Master of Deception (which reduces your chance to be detected while stealthed) or Fleet Footed (which affects movement), you won’t feel like you’re giving up damage in exchange for utility.

Again this change makes sense to me, though I am a bit interested to see how some aspects are handled with different talent trees and what players find becomes a good spec for raiding or PvP. I know as a hunter I’ll be interested to see what they do to all three of the trees and to see what may wind up being the spec (or specs?) du jour. At least there’s dual specs so I can try out a couple of different ones. Eyonix later made some clarifications to the system where he discusses a bit about hybrids and how the points spent in each tree will determine what spec you are. He also says that they plan on making Death Knights less dependent on GCD and rune cool-downs, which has piqued my interests as I love playing my DK but the cool-downs and runic system can get a bit annoying. Unfortunately not much else was said on that front and it looks like we’ll have to wait to hear more info.

But all of this news coming out makes me hopeful that maybe we’ll be hearing about a beta soon! If not the beta maybe more info on the in-game events that Blizz has planned leading up to Cataclysm. Pretty sure it’s going to be massive, and I’m pretty excited for it!

In the News

In general WoW news, the 5 year anniversary mosaic has been finished! The call for entries for the BattleCry were answered and has given us quite the image to behold. I’ve always been a fan of these photo mosaics, and with 20,000 images combined plus some beautiful artwork it makes for an impressive piece. Along with the release of the mosaic, Blizzard has put up the artwork that was the base for it in various computer wallpaper sizes (even for you dual monitor people) plus mobile devices! It is a shame that the art gets cropped so you loose Sylvanas, Tyrande, Lor’themar Theron and High Tinker Mekkatorque, but my droid still got a new wallpaper.

There is also an interview on G4 with lead producer J. Allen Brack where the discussion of bringing WoW to console systems is discussed. Good points are brought up regarding the memory space needed for the game itself (which right now is around 15GB) to the control schemes being developed for keyboard gaming, so it’s no surprise that Brack said this: “I think it’s unlikely that WoW comes to the consoles. It is something that we talk about on a pretty regular basis, but someone is going to figure out how to make an MMO on a console and they’re going to be wildly successful. I have no doubt about that.” Personally I don’t know if I’d want to play WoW on a console unless I could plug in my keyboard and mouse to my Xbox. A controller based control system could work in the future, but I would still be skeptical.

Massively also put up an interesting article about the threat of Farmville to WoW. Granted there has been a lot of discussion after Activision-Blizzard’s annual 10k report came out about the status of WoW remaining in the forefront of MMO gaming. Now I do think that maybe Blizz needs to look at adapting to the new market, but I don’t necessarily think that casual games like Farmville will spell doom for them. It may just be the inspiration that they need to think up things like maybe a different membership model.

And if you haven’t picked it up yet, the latest WoW novel, Stormrage by Richard A. Knaak is now out! I haven’t had a chance to grab it yet but I’ll have it soon. Stormrage continues the story of the Emerald Dream where the Green Dragonflight is continuing to battle against the Nightmare threatening to take over the dream. Many dragons have been consumed by the Nightmare, emerging from the dream broken in mind and body, and it may be that Malfurion has succumbed to the Nightmare as well. The book sounds pretty intense and I look forward to reading it!

Collector’s Corner

I decided to start a new section for news about the figure series as well as any interesting collectibles that Blizzard announces. And of course I’m first going to discuss the two new plushies! Blizz released a Wind Rider Cub and Gryphon Hatchling who come with bonus in-game vanity pets. Plus when “RIDICULOUSLY CUTE!” is in the product description you just can’t pass that up. Each costs $25 and makes a great gift or addition to your WoW collection. And even though I’m more of an Alliance at heart, the Wind Rider cub is much cuter than the Gryphon.

For the action figure fans, I’ve got some news as well! If you didn’t get the chance to read my coverage of Toy Fair 2010, I mentioned that I was able to check out the upcoming figure series from DC. Series 6, which includes Sylvanas, Magni Bronzebeard and Gibzz Sparklighter, the goblin tinker. It was also recently announced that series 7 is now available for pre-order and will include Judge Malthred, Garona & Garm Whitefang. These figures are set to be released in October. Having seen all of these figures up close I have to say that they look amazing and are very well sculpted and painted. There is also the deluxe figure series, which will have the third released in October that includes Garrosh and Taz’Dingo (a troll hunter). The names are a bit odd, and as I’ve seen some people point out they couldn’t have been more obvious with the naming of the worgen, I still like them for what they are and plan on getting a few of them for my collection. I also was able to see a figure that DC Unlimited plans to release of the Lich King in the deluxe series and I’m pretty excited about that one!

Comic Relief

Another new section I decided to institute is some comic relief, as WoW is not always serious business. Below is a list of some fun things I’ve come across lately that were pretty amusing.

• Ctrl+Alt+Del did a fun comic regarding the ever debated topic of Gear Score.
• The fine folks at Master of Warcraft sat down and decoded the binary codes from the punch cards in Gnomeregan. Apparently Blizz loves subliminal messages…
• On the news that the gnomes may be going back to Gnomeregan in the future, there has been a new site that’s popped up that has some amusing graphics, poetry and tidbits all related to gnomes (they actually tipped me off to the binary translations): The Gnomeregan Offensive. I recommend checking it out and hope that they continue with the updates!

Call to readers!

If you have any tips, tricks, news or funnies you would like to send in to be included in the next State of Azeroth please send an email to steph@gamingangels.com!

This is Steph signing off until next month. Glory to the Alliance and Lok’tar Ogar to my horde brethren!

Thanks to Necrotic Designs for the awesome banner! Rawr!

Coming May 2010 – 3D Dot Game Heroes: The Game

Dotnia is a land of many classic dungeons and colour coded keys. And swords. Like the giant one the greatest Hero of them all used to wield, until he stuck it into the ground. His sword was so great that it was nearly three times his size and could go through trees. No other sword can do that, just his uber special “yeah that’s not really a glitch” sword. And there are orbs. Because the people of Dotnia have seen countless fantasy movies at the 8-bit drive in and they know that magical orbs don’t get enough love these days.

Oh the humority!

So the King gets up from his throne and declares they are going to upgrade from a 3D 8-bit existence to a 3D one. Now everyone is excited. There is purpose again to their mundane lives. Something is going to happen! And you are chosen to be the new Hero. Aren’t you just happy?

Here we are in 2010 and we are talking about an 8-bit game that isn’t pre-1990s. Why? Because 8-bit games have universal appeal, they are fun and charming, and 3D Dot Heroes is probably the best flattery for the classic 2D action adventure genre that ever will be.

Everybody wants to play a game that is fun. 3D Dot Heroes has all the in-humour and basic yet not-so-basic familiarity of games such as Legend of Zelda or Castlevania way back in the day. From what I have seen via the live web demo I attended last week and through various clips online, I have determined that this game is going to have copious amounts of fun wrapped inside a candy coating of awesome. It’s up to you just how much fun you want to have. Journeying in seven expansive dungeons and exploring the vast lands of Dotnia will probably take about 15 hours for a basic start to finish with a bit of dabbling adventure. Increased difficulties can be unlocked for those who want more of a hardcore “I grew up in the 80s!” experience. (And for those of you out there, just because we grew up with these games in the 80s doesn’t mean they didn’t kick our bumbs back then.)

The beaches of Dotnia. Just look at that water!

You can choose from one of three various alignments for your Hero – Royal Heir (balanced), Scholar (one of those nerdy book loving… I mean more magically inclined) or Hero (the slightly more I’m going to bash you with this club type). Instead of leveling up your character, all health and magic points are attached to your sword. So make sure you keep an eye out for red (healing) and green (magic) apples if you see you are about to die. And play smart! If you see a monster with a golden crown symbol over his head, that means he’s going to be a bit tougher than an ordinary one of his kind. Don’t think you can take him on? There is no shame in running from a battle if it means you will live to see another dungeon.

And how about mini-games? During the demo I was able to check out two of the three mini-games that are included at NO EXTRA CHARGE! Block Defense is a tower defense mini game in which you will try to stop the bad guys from getting to Point B from Point A, setting up towers (Ha!) along the way in hopes to kill them D-E-D dead. You can also use your custom made character to help if you want, or you can make your towers do all the work (boy, you really are a lazy Hero!). The second game Blockout challenges you to clear out all of the offending blocks in your way with just a few balls at your disposal.

Sword make blocks go SMASH!

Now, the Japanese were able to get an awesome version of 3D Dot Heroes a few months ago, which is cool and all, but they had to wait for some things to be released as download content and we North Americans don’t. Neener neener neener! There are bonus Block Defense levels that we get on the disc, as well as some added pre-made characters to choose from, the option to install the game to the PS3 hard drive (yes, I said “option”-you don’t have to, but the game will load faster if you do) and the best part of it all – the Loading Screen Gallery.

I could spend hours just watching the Loading Screen Gallery. Our 8-bit inhabitants spent hours posing themselves against white backdrops to look like our favourite game box art just to get our attention. Part of the fun is trying to guess them all.

So what do the people of Dotnia ask in return for all the awesome fun they are bundling up for us?

$39.99 US

Yup, for all that stuff I talked about and the epic in-game soundtrack that I am mentioning now, $39.99 will buy you a ginormous good time. There will be several hours of creating amazing characters that you can save to USB and share online with friends and strangers, all of which will be supported by Atlus. Can’t forget about all those cool trophies you’ll want to collect, which will mean more than one play through, not like you won’t play it over and over again to see if you can find all the swords and easter eggs without cheating. You also get a handy camera option, so you can take snapshots of your character taking down hordes of beasts and then use that as a desktop or PS3 background and brag to your friends or impress that boy/girl in your life with your “skillz”.

If you start saving 20 cents a day right now, you will be able to buy 3D Dot Game Heroes on May 11th and bring some financial stability back to Dotnia. What are you waiting for? Check your couches, your car and your linty pockets and pre-order it now!

(No editors were harmed during the writing of this article, however you are urged have a tall latte instead of a grande one and use that 20 cents you save everyday to help the Dotnians clothe and feed their pet dragons. And if you do that, they just might let Yukino out of the Flame Temple. It’s pretty hot in here. There’s fire in the Flame Temple, you know.)

My first campaign was Earthdawn, in which I played a T’skrang archer, the elfiest T’skrang you’d ever meet – because I was teased that every girl’s first character is an elf. To avoid that stereotype, which is a bit silly, I admit, I picked the T’skrang, the least conventionally attractive (besides the Ork) of the lot. And I was timid during my first campaign, because all these gentlemen had been gaming for years – decades for some – longer than I had. But my timidity coupled with the absolutely ridiculous damage that the archer class deals made me come off as a silent, wandering crusader, a la Clint Eastwood. The problem in this is that Earthdawn Elves are much more like Vulcans than they are the airy-fairy waify Fae creatures that most imagine they are, they are much more stoic and reserved.

I have since, more or less, gotten over that Girls Only Play Elves stigma (which, I suppose, stems from there being no “Pretty Pretty Princess” class), and I try to enforce the silliness of that stereotype to any woman I bring into the gaming fold. If you want to play an elf, you can play an elf and don’t let any boy stop you. In fact, I had an elf in the short-lived D&D 4e campaign back in October. And I quite liked her.

We have started a new Earthdawn campaign, and my boyfriend, who is known as Blur, is running it. The table borders on large, with four players, two of whom are a married couple, Michael and Ashley, a gentleman by the name of Brian, and myself. With the exception of a one-shot session of Lacuna Blur ran for Michael, Ashley, and me, this is Ashley’s first experience in role-playing. I’ve been trying to be her guide and voice of reason, beyond what the GM can provide. I know what she’s going through, and I’m trying to address the problems that I’ve had and still have, character-wise.

So we made characters back in December, but didn’t get to play a session until January. By then, I had lost the feel for my character (which was a human thief loosely based on Parker from TNT’s Leverage), and Ashley had lost the feel for hers as well. Blur, in his infinite GM-saintliness, as also his knowledge of having to live with me, granted that we tweak our characters to our desires, or even remake some. Games have been few and far between, and as I write this in February, we have only had two sessions, and I think it’s fair to let people fiddle around with characters and their development – especially because he runs such a character-driven game.

So during one of our regular evenings together with Netflix, a roaring fire, a beagle and a chihuahua mutt, Blur instructed us to remake our characters, so that they aren’t the same person. That had been a problem – our original characters, her elf troubadour and my human thief, made out of sight and earshot of the other’s, ended up being remarkably similar, names, coloration and everything. And when we had been discussing revamping them, totally separately, we kept coming up with the same ideas. So Blur sat us down with our Player’s Guides and new character sheets and said, “Talk to each other this time. Get out of each other’s heads.”
New result: Ashley has a human scout, who is city-based, and I have an elven beastmaster, who is obviously wilderness-based. The similarities of characters has never been the real problem; it has only been that we haven’t discussed how to cover all the bases between us. We have a backstory that will allow us to integrate really well with each other, and with the storyline.

During her character generation, we talked about stats that were important to the class, racial bonuses she’d be getting, and how to avoid the Jack of All Trades syndrome. Since she is going to be a city-based scout, her dexterity and perception stats are going to be the most important. She also threw a bunch into strength and toughness, and had little left over for willpower and charisma. This all sounds good if you’re going to be a woods/wilderness-based scout, because you’ll have your navigation talents and survival checks, but if you’re spending all your time in the city underworlds, you’re going to need to be able to talk to people, manipulate them, and not get pushed around. Toughness is a great stat to have high, of course, because it gives you more recovery checks after combat, but I told her strength was probably going to play a limited role in what she wanted for her character.

And that’s the point: you pay attention to the stats you NEED for your class, but you have to consider them in light of the PERSON you’ve got forming in your head. Personality is the key part in determining the rest of your stats, unless you’re just looking to twink the hell out of the character and the game, and I suppose everyone goes through that stage.

But the point is if you’re going to play, and play successfully, you need to have someone (or everyone) be willing to fill in some gaps, even if filling them in isn’t precisely what they originally intended their character to do. It is, after all, only a game, and as long as you have fun, you win.

Last night, Sony Online Entertainment hosted a virtual tour of some environments in its latest EverQuest II expansion, Sentinel’s Fate. I took the chance to take about a zillion screenshots of that (I apologize ahead of time for the quality, but the guy hosting had to turn his graphics down a fair bit for the stream). I put those in a slideshow with another zillion official Sony screenshots in the slideshow below. But now, a little more information about what I saw.

The Sentinel expansion features a higher level cap (90), new overland zones (The Sundered Frontier and Stonebrunt Highlands), 12 new dungeons, 400 new quests (you will supposedly be able to have multiple active quests), five new Heritage Quests, more 2x and 4x raid zones, 2,000 new weapons/armor/items, alternate advancement abilities, and hundreds of new creatures.

On our tour, we saw parts of a brand-new zone where you basically play a giant game of Clue. You see a dead NPC and clues that lead to the murderer. Find the murderer, win fantastic cash and prizes! What kinds of cash and prizes? Well…

“I can’t reveal the rewards for completing the dungeon yet. But they’re bound to be awesome,” said EverQuest II Community Relations Manager Christine “Kiara” Renzetti. “Once you complete the zone, the next time you come back to do it again, the killer will be a different person and the object and location as well.” So it sounds like you can do this as often as you want.

In addition, a storyline some players didn’t like is on its way out. “A lot of folks just don’t like the Void storyline and are tired of it after The Shadow Odyssey. This expansion wraps it up and we’ll be moving to another story in the next one,” Renzetti told me.

This expansion is for characters who are level 80+, but if you’re intrigued, there’s no reason to be apprehensive about starting a new game in the EverQuest world. “There is a TON of content for those just starting out and so much to see and do on the way that I always advise people to take their time and experience the game to the fullest. The newest newbie zones are indeed very user friendly. Our game has a lower learning curve to start than many games I’ve played.” So go ahead and give it a shot!

Since Christine’s had a good amount of time to play, I decided to ask a tough question or two. What is she most looking forward to in the official release? What do seasoned EverQuest players have to look forward to?

“I can’t really pick a favorite thing for myself. I love the art in this expansion. It’s absolutely stunning. I can’t wait to get into The Hole (lots of nostalgia from EQ!) and I am eager to play in the Erudin Library and solve the mystery. I’m also very excited that we’re introducing Battlegrounds!”

The Sentinel’s Fate expansion will have two release dates: Pick up a physical copy on February 16th, or (if you can wait that long), the digital download will be available February 23rd. Do you think you read that wrong? You didn’t. If you buy the physical copy, you get a full week of extra time. The expansion has an MSRP of $39.99 and the same $14.99 monthly subscription fee.

The story surrounds the history between dragons and humans. Since the end of the Dragon War the humans and dragons have kept to their own seperate worlds, however the Dark Dragon Elga led a revolt that killed the Dragon Lord and invaded the human world. Five legendary heroes defeated Elga in battle and imprisoned the Dark Dragon in the Shadow Cabinet. Now the threat of the Dark Dragon being released and the heroes must rise again to fight back.

In the beginning you have the choice to be a Warrior, Magician, Archer or Thief and you can advance into other jobs at levels 20, 40, 60 and 100. This gives you the possibility to have 28 different classes including the initial 4 you could start at. I like that this gives the player a good choice into what they would like to be.

The game can be played entirely on the keyboard, and intitally I did have some issues getting used to this. However once I got over trying to press my WoW hotkeys I was having a blast! And my escort through the new server was very patient with me as I was trying to figure out such issues. I will say that there are a lot of keys to worry about pressing though, so until you’re entirely used to hitting the keys you may hit wrong ones here and there.

I was able to try my hand at one of the dungeons, and the first thing I have to say is that they’re real short. This isn’t a bad thing either! You can partner up with four friends to take on the dungeons at any level, and from what I’ve heard dungeons are one of the best ways to gain lots of experience to level up.

The new server, Dekard, will be great for players as it will give them a chance to start anew and get bonuses with special in game events for the release. Players will also be able to earn server first achievements as well! Also new users who register during the launch of Dekard will be entered into the Dragonica Online Water Series Game Card Sweepstakes to win a $2,500 Best Buy gift card and limited edition Dragonica Online Water Series Game Cards loaded with ICE Cash.

Along with the new server comes a new high level dungeon! Vampires have come to the land and it’s up to players to go to Van Cliff Mansion and battle Count Van Cliff. If defeated the promise of lavish rewards awaits!

All in all I really enjoyed my walkthrough of the game and the new server. I will definitely be checking it out more in the future and will probably work on leveling up a Thief.

Eternal Sonata is similar to your classic Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG) in that the characters have a very young appearance, combat is more or less turn-based, and the story has some aspects that are similar to other linear RPGs like Final Fantasy.

Rating: T
Players: 1
Genre: RPG
Developer: Tri-crescendo
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Release Date: November 2007

BUY

Eternal Sonata is similar to your classic Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG) in that the characters have a very young appearance, combat is more or less turn-based, and the story has some aspects that are similar to other linear RPGs like Final Fantasy. What brings this game up a notch from other RPGs is the little tweaks to the combat system, the variety in characters and places, and the uniqueness of the theme of the game. Almost every single person and place, even some weapons and special abilities, is named after a musical concept, may it be an instrument (like Viola, the archer, or Claves, the fencer), a style (Jazz, the broadsword wielder), a time period (the kingdom of Baroque), or time marking (a la Allegretto, the short sword user), among some other things. At first it seems a little overwhelming if you aren’t a musician, you pick up little bits here and there. Even if you don’t know any of the references, it doesn’t detract from the story.

The basis of this game and the root of the story lies with a composer named Chopin. Chopin was a real life composer that lived and composed during the 1800′s. The world that the game takes place in is the dream world that Chopin has come up with in his head while lying on his deathbed. He places himself inside this world, where he meets the colorful characters living in a land torn by a looming war.

At the beginning, the player takes control of a young girl named Polka who lives in a village called Tenuto. Polka is a special case because she can use magic, which, in this world, means that she is close to her own death. In the early part of the game, when she ventures to Ritardando and tries to help an injured man, he not only refuses all help, but everyone else around reacts in fear and extreme caution. Frederic, Chopin’s first name and the name his avatar in this dream world, is with her and is puzzled by this.

After that scene, we are introduced to a young man named Allegretto and his young companion, Beat. Both boys are homeless and live in a shelter in the sewer, and they are notorious for stealing bread from the local baker to feed the children they share their living space with. Eventually, these two meet up with Polka and Frederic, all agreeing to go together to the city of Forte to meet with Count Waltz. Allegretto wanted to talk about the living conditions of the people, and Polka wanted to request the sale of mineral powder to slow or stop, as it detracted from her selling floral powder.

Mineral powder plays a big part in the story. It is made from minerals found on Mount Rock, a place you visit later on in the game, and used as a quick remedy. Unfortunately, there are very negative side effects that result in death in some cases, while floral powder is all-natural and has none of the side effects. While on their travels, the party passes through Agogo Forest, where a young girl named March lives. After some interaction and a boss fight, March requests that the party finds her twin sister, Salsa. They agree and continue on, later meeting Viola, a talented archer and sheep herder, who also wants to join them.

The party eventually gets to Forte and a lot of exciting things unfold. I don’t want to spoil the rest of an amazing story, but it kept me engaged from beginning to end. It was very hard for me to put the controller down for more than a half hour just because I wanted to find out what would happen next. I will say that you get to travel to a lot of far off and wonderful places, meet a wide variety of characters, some who will join your party and some who will really make you think. Yes, you have to think a little if you really want to get a deep understanding of the story. If you just want to play and get the basics, then no, just play on as normal.

Combat is definitely one of the highlights of this game. Most RPGs feature some slow, turn-based combat system, as this one does, but Eternal Sonata adds some things to it. This comes in a few forms. One of the most noted is the party level function. New party levels unlock at certain checkpoints throughout the game, each one adding some little alteration to provide a new challenge as well as a change that makes things easier. At first you have unlimited Tactical Time, which is the time before you make your first move when you can think and plan about what to do, and by the time you reach party level 5, this is gone except by additions from accessories and equipment. Your Action Gauge eventually goes into real time starting with party level 2. As you get to higher party levels, you unlock additions called Harmony combos or chains, as well as gaining the ability to counterattack.

One annoying thing is the guard function. You have to time it just right in order to guard, and if you either aren’t given the option or react too soon or too late, then you don’t get to block. This is especially annoying in the end game when you fight various bosses that hit hard and you need to conserve and take care of your hit points. One good thing, though, is what comes from the Y button. When you press the Y button, you can unleash whatever Special Attack it shows. Your echo, which comes from hit combos, can max out up to 32, and with each level, your special attack grows stronger. Once you get the usage of Harmony, at 24-32 echo, you can chain together these special attacks. The attacks can range from Polka’s Orange Glow to Falsetto’s Snow Fist, and they also help to rebuild your echo for the next go around.

Aside from combat, story, and characters, this game has amazing music and graphics. The music played throughout the game is mostly Chopin’s compositions for piano as well as some additional in-game pieces composed just for the game. Between chapters and some cutscenes, there are 5-10 minute history lessons that talk about Chopin’s life. For people that are playing this game just to mark another rpg off of their list, these might be boring, but for those that are interested in music history, these are very good sources of information.

The cutscenes are beautiful graphics-wise. The characters and scenery are really well-done. Even the voices fit the characters, though some of the younger party members get a little annoying. It’s fun to watch how the older cast, like Viola, humors and at one point plays cards with Beat and Salsa, two of the youngest party members. At some points, the length of the scenes make me think that this game would have been better as a movie, as it got really irritating after a 15 minute boss fight to sit there for another 15 or 20 minutes for a cutscene. Granted, the story had me so wrapped up, I didn’t mind as much, but it can get a little tiring.

As far as complaints, I don’t have many other than how the blocking mechanic works, and the length of the cutscenes, as I’ve already mentioned. The game is fairly short and can be completed in 30 hours or so if you rush through everything and don’t focus on leveling your party up, and I would have liked to see the extensions come to the Xbox 360 version as well as the Playstation 3 edition that came out almost a year later. Another thing that just strikes me as odd instead of as a negative is the numbers. Characters have high stats and HP levels, reaching up into the 20,000 and up range for HP. As someone who grew up playing Final Fantasy where the max was 9,999, this seems weird, but it fits.

As a musician, I loved being able to recognize the references to theory concepts and having an understanding of them to understand why the characters or places have those names. For example, Polka has the upbeat personality and attacks at a polka-style pace. This game made both my rpg fan side and my music nerd side happy, as it blended both very well. If you are a fan of traditional JRPGs, a musician into games, or just love a really in-depth, classic story about good vs evil, then pick this game up and play through it. It’s worth every minute of those epic cutscenes.

BUY

I’ve tried putting my finger on what makes me like Borderlands so much, and it’s really hard to do without saying things that may come across as negative. It’s also becoming hard for me to put down words here to describe a game that has so little. It’s so much more of an experience or an adventure than something modular that can be broken down into gradable sections. I’ll do my best, though.

Oh noes! A huge thing!

As I’ve said before, I really like that Borderlands doesn’t waste your time with a story. Don’t get me wrong, there is a story, but you don’t need to pay much attention to it if you don’t want. There aren’t hard moral choices or really any emotional moments deal with. It’s the story of an other-worlder who comes to the planet of Pandora in search of a mysterious Vault. All of this is gleaned in the opening couple minutes while you’re deciding which character class you’re going to be. After that, stuff happens and…then more stuff happens. It doesn’t matter, and that’s what makes this fun. You collect missions, kill loads of guys while you do these missions, and you level up. It’s like high fructose gaming, and I love it. For someone who has yet to play Borderlands, this may sound repetitive and shallow. Granted, some of the fetch quests and gun part collections get a bit old after the 18^th mission, but overall it’s much more fun than any description could do it justice.

Part of the fun of the missions is finding new weapons and mods to add to your arsenal. With over 17 million different weapons generated within the world, finding the rarer ones is really rewarding. Borderlands really compliments all playing styles with the variety. For example, as a Siren I like to equip a large shield with a quick recharge, a caustic shotgun or SMG, charge into the middle of a gun battle, and just unload into my enemies. If I become overwhelmed, I slip into my Action Skill, blast into a fireball, and become invisible so I can leave the heat of the fight to regain my bearings. I have other friends who prefer hang back and snipe as much as possible before cautiously approaching with a pistol drawn, and a couple who like to play to the point of incapacitation, where they can kill an enemy while dying to gain a second wind and a full shield recharge. The game is designed to be fun for everyone and every playing style.

Ain't no rest for the wicked.

One of the best things about this Borderlands (there are so many), is that it’s replay value is huge, to the point where you almost have to play it a second time to achieve the full experience (another pro that sounds like a con). Your character can reach level 50, but you only get to around 35 in the first play-through. Navigating Pandora a second time is just as rewarding, if not more so, than the first go ‘round. In addition to the packaged game, the DLC that’s been made available has been wonderful. There is a lengthy playable mission on a zombie island on the first, and the second is a Horde-esque Arena match where you have to survive waves of enemies. Very fun, very challenging, very time-consuming.

Hooray, you've found it after 5 hours of looking and it not being where it said it was on the map.

Of course no game is perfect, and there were a few gripes I had with Borderlands. The first is quite selfish, in that I wish I could somehow earn 55 more skill points in order to level in every character modification available. The game maxes you out at 45 (with 2 more available in the Mad Moxxi DLC), which makes you *gasp* choose what you want to be special at. I also hate the Claptraps, the annoying little robots who are just kickin’ it all over the planet, and you have to keep dealing with them. If they had used a robotic voice, or really ANY other voice than what they went with, I wouldn’t have minded. The game was practically made for co-op, but if you’re using the same TV with P2, the status and options menu doesn’t shrink to fit the screen, you have to keep moving it left and right to get the whole picture. For a game so close to being perfect, I’m really surprised that this made it into the final product – I don’t know anyone who thinks operating the menu like that is enjoyable.

If you haven’t given Borderlands a chance yet, please reconsider. In a world of gritty, humorless first person shooters, Borderlands gives players all of the watercolor fun and violence they can handle, and then some. While that may come with a bare minimum-story caveat, you won’t even notice.