Mass Effect Trilogy

Mass Effect trilogy was the rpg I had chosen to spend my summer with (yea I know Summer is over 6 months past but I completely forgot I had written this post, way to go..). Recommended by a good friend who was also kind enough to lend us his old PS3 and all the three games. I wasted no time and began the first game back in June. I was thinking of writing a separate post for each game but as I progressed I realized that the games got a higher merit as a trilogy and so what I am aiming for is a post of ultimate Mass Effect experience, thats because as far as gaming goes, it IS an experience.

Developed by the Canadian company Bioware, the first game of the trilogy was released back in 2008 followed by the sequels in 2010 and 2012. Watch the launch trailers below if you like to get an idea before reading this post:

The game exclusively dwells on one hero’s story, namely Commander Shepard whose main mission is to save the entire galaxy from a mechanical race called “The Reapers”. The story seems to be a run on the mill, mediocre, heroic sci-fi drama when put in a nutshell but the twists and turns will leave you with your jaw dropped on the floor. Plus how you convey something can be much more important than what you say.

Before I evaluate each game within its own merit I have to talk about the overall quality of the games. Bioware’s skill in transferring events and decisions caused or made by the player makes these games what they are, even more so than the Dragon Age series. Because while in Dragon Age you get to get a peek at your old companions and your former hero is solely mentioned in passing conversations, here you get to play through your much valued hero into a series of events spread throughout three wholesome games, interact and in most cases get to recruit old companions into your crew. This, results in your human nature to create a special bond with those characters (because we humans can empathize even with a pencil) and what happens to them really matter to you. As a matter of fact it carries you to dangerous and yet enjoyable degrees of empathy. Considering the fact that, the Mass Effect Trilogy is much like watching a very dramatic and absolutely moving sci-fi series where you get to act as the main hero in shape of an avatar, you need feel no shame if you tear up a little, or I don’t know, maybe blubber like a child at one point or another.

As it always goes with Bioware, the companions they create are so engaging, so well rounded, so well done, that you will have to remind yourself constantly that they ain’t real, they just seem like real. You will always come up with a favorite, it is impossible to avoid that, but you will like and sometimes admire each and every companion for what they are.

Now let us move on to the first game;

Mass Effect:

Action-wise, Mass Effect in my opinion is the poorest production of the whole series and that is not because it doesn’t include action but mostly due to the fact that the shooter side of the game doesn’t come anywhere close to the story side. The options in battle and how you develop your character are rather limited in comparison to its sequels. What I mean is that in character development you might need to spend a whole lot of points for skills that are of no use on the battlefield which puts you in a bind. The skills are not as powerful as the sequels either so despite the slow action, fights are considerably more difficult on casual mod, than the rest of the games.
What I liked?
Almost everything (especially the fact that you can equip new goodies at any point you wish) except for Mako, the jumpy space Cherokee…
What I didn’t like?
Mako, the jumpy space Cherokee…
Other than that everything was acceptable at worst and the game stood strong for a first game. There was room for improvement of course, which they focused on, in the next game.

Mass Effect 2:

The story of Mass Effect 2 was even more engaging than the first game, at least I thought so. Skill development gets plainer and choices seem more limited than the first game but those choices let you exclusively dwell on the skills which are battle-specific. You do not need to lose points on electronics and intimidate and such. You can build a character which is more efficient and formidable during the fights. Speaking of which, Mass Effect offers a better sense of action for this reason too. Weapons aim and shoot better, biotic and engineering skills hit harder and the visual effects in battle are highly improved. Taking cover during fight was bound to the x button on PS3 which also avoided your Shepard to go hiding behind various objects unnecessarily. The idea of guns having ammo was introduced in ME2 which was a lot to my liking. “The power wheel”, “aim”, “gun selection wheel”, “shoot” action buttons exchanged places which made your handling of the controller a lot easier.
All those comforts come with a price of course because although the fights seem easier they require better planning and strategy than simply going bam bam bam and pew pew pew.

As for the story side: I said earlier that the story was very engaging all the way through. The dialogues still come with the diplomatic and intimidate choices of lines but they are reduced in numbers, instead during conversations you will get a flashing option of blue wing in order to take a diplomatic action or red star in order to take a renegade action. You will have limited time to act on it and press the L2 or R2 on PS3 otherwise you miss it. I rather liked this addition to the game because it makes you follow the conversations more intently. 

ME2 also comes with a great variety of companions of different species and dispositions. From heartless killers to virtuous assassins, from mysterious thieves to babbling scientists, ME2 offers the biggest range of companions in all three games. They all got their own stories and quests to earn their loyalty and interactions with them are developed in great detail. If companion interaction is taken into consideration ME2 was the best of the trilogy.

I cannot reveal much about your vessel in ME2 without revealing important plot complications and despite the fact that you will probably learn what happens in the first 20 minutes of your play time I still don’t want to spoil the surprise. Suffice it to say that:
 “It’s bigger, it’s badder, ladies and gentlemen it’s too much for Mr. Incredible!”

What I didn’t like?
Being stripped off a map and a radar which shows the location of your enemies without having to press anything.

Mass Effect 3 :

 

This final game of the series and the story of Shepard had been a great source of speculation, criticism and/or praise. But we can easily claim that the technical traits are superb when compared to its predecessors. The skill development is neither too plain nor too complicated. Things like exploring planets with Mako or scanning planets to find resources, opening crates and bypassing doors, they have gotten a lot easier while the fights have gotten considerably harder. You can choose to play a story mode which lets you make all decisions yourself or action mode which has your character act without your interference, so those who are fans of rpg can play story mode whereas fans of action games can also enjoy fights without dialogue wheel interference.

There is also the multiplayer option which is not just a technical addition but is essential to the end of the story as well. Now I am not sure how much in favor of it I stand because this is supposed to be a solo rpg and passive-aggressively pressing people to play the multiplayer mode doesn’t sound so fair. However after trying it a few times myself I have to say that I found it very enjoyable indeed. So; Multiplayer option is not a faulty side of the game but it’s connection to the end-game story sort of is.

As for the story of ME3; here there were a lot of fans divided into different opinions, there are those who loved it all the way through, there are those who liked the story development but loathed the end and there are those who found ME3 to be the weakest of the trilogy. I aim to keep this post spoiler free so without revealing anything I will add this: I knew the end game from the beginning of the first game (how could I not? It was all over even on the Dragon Age forums), maybe for that reason it did not affect me all that much or changed my good opinion of the third game. Especially the free downloadable extended cut tied up a lot of loose ends for me so I count myself amongst those who enjoyed the third game all the way through. As for those who hated the end and it took them by surprise, I have to say that there was a whole lot of foreshadowing in the game you could have picked up on; you really couldn’t guess or you just didn’t want to believe? I feel for you though and understand perfectly well where you are coming from. It wasn’t an easy bite to swallow for sure even when it comes with a warning...

Rounding up this post, I thoroughly enjoyed the Mass Effect Games. It is not just a good game for sci-fi fans but for all those who enjoy a good rpg no matter the setting. Keep your guard up and give it a try.

 It is an awesome game damn it! 

World of Tanks

When I was first told about the game, I was 100% certain that any game which would feature tanks would not be of any interest to me. I kept reminding people that I in fact am a woman and tanks and soldiers aint toys that usually a girl would like. It featured two qualities which I never liked: Tanks and PVP. But funny how things work out. As it turns out this game is awesome. From the first time you sit down to play it will drag you in.

World of Tanks is a free to play, massively multiplayer online game. There is a premium option if you choose to go that way, for which you pay monthly but unlike many free to play models I have seen, you can easily play and improve your gaming without having to pay at all.

The beginning point of the game is your garage where you have got a number of tier 1 tanks from different nationalities waiting for you. The tanks you will see in the game range from early to late 20th century. Each tank earns its own xp but money you gain from each battle is naturally pooled to use on any tank of your liking. You can improve each tank individually and when you have got enough xp and money you can buy the next model.

There are 5 types of tanks in total, light, medium, heavy, tank destroyers and SPGs. You can follow which way you want to go from the technical tree of each tank that you own and through experience in battle decide on which role suits you best to go for it. I usually choose light tanks because I love scouting; and tank destroyers because their fire is ideal for blowing things up in one shot. Heavy tanks are very sturdy but moving with them is like a nightmare. Medium tanks in my opinion are by far one of the most difficult to handle because of their wide range of variety and roles within a battle. As for SPGs I do not like being stuck at the back rows for an entire battle so they are my least favorite.

The battles are quick and painless whether you win or lose. Victory makes you happy, Defeat doesnt affect you so much because you move on quickly to your next tank and keep on fighting. If you do something stupid you dont really care because every time you launch a battle it is in a different group of random players. Every battle takes an avarage of 8-10 minutes. The goal so far stayed always the same, either destroy every enemy tank or capture their flag (or in encounter battle, capture the common flag). There are 15 tanks in each group and there is a total of 40 battle fields to explore once you hit tier 3.

What I like best about the game is that there is absolutely no blood and gore. A kid could easily play the game without getting affected by it. My son watches me play and I let him play too on my low tier tanks and he gets a kick out of it. Political and racial debates on messaging window is absolutely prohibited which is another thing I like about this game.

I do have some minor qualms though. It seems to me that despite the fact that there are 40 fields the algorithm of the game does not work as it should and you might find yourself in Himmelsdorf more than you'd care for. As a matter of fact to the point of getting sick of it. Now on low tiers the game keeps you in specific fields till you learn how to handle your tank which of course is understandable but I wish they would introduce another scheme in the future which would not make you sick of seeing the same places over and over again.

Another negative I can think of is the fact that there are times when you are coupled in groups which are way higher than you in tier. Your tier 4 light tank can very easily find itself with those tier 8 tanks which gives you little if at all chance to survive the battle. I think 2 tiers higher should be the border and no more.

All in all I can say that World of Tanks is a very neutral, war zone, pvp mmo, very enjoyable and fast. You can log in for a quick battle or two for a half hour in order to rest your mind. One would think that as a pvp and tank game it would be stressful and demoralizing but I found it to be the exact opposite. I would recommend it to everyone who likes blowing off some steam through gaming.

Those who are interested can dowload the game here: World of Tanks Official Site

www.coursera.org

Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative

Mission accomplished!

I recently have come across this incredibly entertaining and instructive outlet of self-development: Coursera. It offers a wide-range of Universities from all around the world as well as some classes in multiple languages; But if you would like to give it a try English is a must since the best and the most courses are offered in English.

 

It works pretty easily, you go visit the page, sign up for the site and then choose the class you would like to roll and you are good to go. There is a wide range of courses, some of them requiring a specific previous knowledge, some of them, just for beginners. In any case if you wish to acquire a plain Coursera certificate it is completely free but if you would like to receive a completion certificate from the University of the class itself then you are supposed to pay for it.

Either way it is a great way for self development with or without a certificate. I have rolled for several classes, some of which I follow closely by doing the quizzes and the assignments and some of which I simply put on the watch list because although I do not care about the certificate I would like to follow them still in order to gain knowledge.

In all the courses you take you can either download the class videos in order to watch them on your tv later on or you can follow them on your computer.

I myself have just completed my first course in distinction track. As the sub-heading suggests it was of course about gaming but it beautifully and thoroughly evaluated games' narratives in various forms and how books and poems are remediated. I have to say; I enjoyed every minute of this course and learned so much on a topic which I already knew well. But this course helped me go to the roots of the specific genre of fantasy fiction. We have evaluated and discussed various works including a part of Spencer's Faerie Queene. 

But the class's main focus was on The Lord of the Rings. We have discussed and prepared assignments on how Tolkien's work was remediated into films and games. Since I had a fine grasp on the subject already, as many on the course also did, we were able to appreciate it on another level. 

If you have got time, please spare 15 minutes to watch the video I have created for an assignment. We were supposed to make our way to Weathertop and compare and contrast how the three medias (the book, the film, the online game) handled it in their own ways. We had to primarily focus on only one aspect and I had chosen to compare and contrast  the setting / mise en scène / gamespace. We were instructed not to include any videos from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings so I had to find other ways to illustrate the points I was making concerning the movie. I hope you will enjoy it.

In concluding this post I would like to say thanks to the main instructor of this course along with his TAs who made the class discussion videos so completely enjoyable. 

I will be coming back to coursera , that is, if I ever leave it at all...    

  

LOTRO 6th Anniversary

fan-edited video

 

Here is a video I have been working on to wish the game I and so many of my friends love. This was my first attempt to edit a video apart from a few slide-shows I made long time ago. So I apologize for its flaws. It consists of so many a footage that can be found on the internet (apart from those I recorded myself in the game) and if you like you can check the main video on You Tube for a detailed list of links. For best quality set the video to HD.  Without further ado I would just like to say: Happy Birthday LOTRO :)

 

The video below is for those who could not watch it through Youtube because of country regulations. The quality of this video is nowhere close to the original (actually the quality is despicable so dont watch it full screen) but I did not wish to leave anyone without options and so I am adding it here. However if you can view it in YouTube I strongly recommend that you watch that one and even make use of other means such as IP shield in order to watch the original and not the one below.

LOTRO: Riders of Rohan

Since my character is level capped I think I have a good hold on whats going on in LOTRO’s latest expansion: Riders of Rohan.

 Let me be frank: I had left LOTRO after what I deemed one lousy and grindy addition to the game after the other. My qualms usually were not about expansions in general but the updates that followed. I have to say that Riders of Rohan has been an exception to that so far. Furthermore it has been my return to the game. So I will give LOTRO a positive review for a change. I know that till now there have been 2 reviews, one quite positive, the other a little negative but you should have reviewed the posts in my head for the expansions following Moria. They all added a new dimension to the meaning of negative but thankfully and hopefully that’s behind us now.

Let us begin with the new Mounted Combat feature. I think Rohan expansion would have been incomplete without an introduction into such a feature so I am glad that they came up with it. Regardless of your class you can go for three different kinds of Steeds: Light, Medium and Heavy. Unlike what I thought it would be, those types do not necessarily go together with the type of your armour. For example if you are a light armour wearing class this does not mean that you “have to” go for a light horse. The type of the horse and the skill trees they come with usually promote to endurance vs agility. The light horse is highly agile and fast but what it makes up for in speed (and through speed fury and momentum) it lacks in endurance. You can also always go for a medium horse neither favoring nor lacking either one of these qualities. The table system of skill and trait trees of the steeds, is very similar to that of Star Wars online class proficiencies. You are able to see the entire table of skills and traits to add or subtract points before you make a decision hence you can more easily decide what to go for.

There are issues to the warsteed system for sure, rubberband being one however it doesn’t bother me all that much. Lag can be a huge problem but it is manageable in my opinion. Besides it actually did make me laugh out loud when I saw my horse get stuck on the screen for almost a minute at the end of which I found myself defeated at the bottom of a precipice.

For me the biggest and severest problem would be how I do not get my melee class feel. Ranged classes are great on horseback. In fact they are the funnest thing Turbine has come up with ever. I only wish that I could get a better feel of my class from close range as well though. What I mean mainly concerns my guardian. In order to inflict more damage you need Fury which works like momentum in mounted combat. In order to build fury you have to run. This philosophy does not work perfectly well on my tank though because I am used to staying and fighting multiple foes without giving an inch. If I am honest this is the only thing that I did not go crazy about in mounted combat. Tank doesn’t feel like tank. Of course all this, is my personal opinion.

Moving on from the mounted combat lets see what other changes were brought to the game. Let us begin with a new feature which I found so extremely helpful and fun to do. Warbands!

 They are the haven of solo adventurers. They are fun, fast, rewarding for what they are. Mainly the idea must have come to Turbine from Guilwars 2 where you do not need to be in a group to do a group quest. Now that the mobs are common and lootable to everyone and there is no “you stole my mob” discussion anymore, warbands are an excellent addition to expand this new style of adventuring in the wilds. I just wish that they would change shard droppers in the rest of the world to warbands as well. So mainly this feature entails daily mobs which spawn around the same spot on the map (they respawn every 15-20 minutes the most but are doable only once a day per character) and drop different boxes with random gifts in them. Most of the times what they drop are common and repeated, filling your inventory with useless cosmetic banners but once every while they drop something to surprise you, a cosmetic for your war steed perhaps or Rohan rings and many other small things. As for me I find the marks and medallions they drop most useful. I am sick of skirmishes and I do not wish to visit the instance finder and go for a random skirmish in order to attain like for 4 medallions per run during my solo questing. I much rather go and kill Bugud in 5 minutes with other adventurers I do not know and on my beautiful steed. Besides it is much more exciting to have a silver box sitting in your inventory full of possibilities instead of doing a run which you have done like a 1000 times (and that is no hyperbole) and you know what will come out of it every single time you go for it(although they must have revamped skirmishes as well since the last time I went for a skirmish the boss dropped surprisingly good little gifts) . So yea! Thumbs up for the Warbands of Rohan.

 

Pending-loot was yet another positive addition to the game in my opinion. The fact that you do not have to go and click on the corpse every time you defeat something especially works perfectly well when mounted on your horse or while you are grinding for traits. It saves a lot of time and space and it goes easy on your eyes as well. I cannot tell how many times I felt dizzy trying to loot a mob during fellowships or raiding. Another thumbs up for this expansion with only one minor setback. Extremely rare items such as loot boxes should have been subjected to a die roll when in a fellowship. When not it is ok.

The end game solo content is the best I have ever seen in LOTRO. It is very refreshing to see Turbine admitting by deeds that solo-play is an aspect of preference in the game whether it fits their philosophy of an MMO or not. Finally there is something else to grind in the game other than Marks in Skirmishes (which was impossible to do solo if you like some sanity left in you. You had to group up at one point or another to get marks and beat the impossible drop numbers of solo-skirming). And they have fit that grind in a perfect little scenario of rebuilding Hytbold. I must admit the Hytbold dailies could have been a little more than 5 quests per day but I have got absolutely no major complaints concerning the end game solo content. All I can say is: Thank you Turbine for giving a set of armour to the solo players out there for a change.    

As for the designs of East Rohan. As usual Turbine has done its top notch job while designing the terrain and the locations. It actually feels like being in Rohan. The epic line and quests were more than satisfactory. Some of the armour sets were not as impressive as they could have been but hey, one cannot really ask any more than the great work and effort they have put into this expansion.

All in all Riders of Rohan did more than just surprising me. It impressed me greatly. I did not expect the content of one expansion to change the entirety of the game altogether and putting a fantastic spin to it. This has not happened since Moria and Legendary weapons (its randomness prevented it from being fantastic though and still does) and Mirkwood expansion when they introduced the Skirmishes. But this time they seemed to have gotten it right. As a returning player I am especially happy because LOTRO has always had a special place in my gaming life with its story, community, artistic graphics which sets the game apart from other MMOs out there. I am glad to be back home.

    

Dragon Age III Inquisition

So we are in the year 2013 and next year holds a special promise for me... Supposedly Dragon Age III Inquisition will come out. As I rub my hands like a greedy dwarf and smirk like a blood mage who has been promised something amazing by a desire demon, I try to keep up with the annoncements of bioware so as to see what they are planning on doing.

I understand that this 3rd series of Dragon Age games will be likely to take place in "Somewhere French" which I can only assume would be Orlais. I dont know where that leaves us with the previous games though. Because:

!!!!SPOILERS!!!!!!!!! (Do not watch the video or read the paragraph below)

At the end of the Dragon Age II we see Lelliana telling Cassandra -the seeker of the Chantry whose surname escapes me though I believe it was something like Pentagust or something- that Hawke is gone just like the Warden. It is so very obvious that they were thinking of a sequel when Lelliana says: "That is no coincidence". You can observe that in the video. According to Bioware it is likely that we will have a new protagonist and so the story of Hawke may be done. If it is true that leaves DAII's ending hanging in the air a little bit. The end of DAO is pretty decided when compared to DAII and so you get a better closure whereas in DAII one would think that they should have gone for a sequel. Oh well we will see. I suppose what we will see next is the open war between mages and the templars. Either way I believe Bioware is capable of producing great games. Besides it will be fun to explore a whole new area.

!!!! END OF SPOILERS!!!!!!!

According to wikipedia here is what the combat will be like:
"Combat is expected to differ somewhat from its predecessors and focus more on a player's ability to prepare, position, and form a cohesive team with his or her party members, requiring fewer repetitive finger strikes but better thinking."

Reminds me of Baldur's Gate a little. An improved BG style combat. I am not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand I do like the idea of being challenged in a fight but my major qualms about having way too many fights in a game which I play for the plot itself is that it prevents me from playing it repeatedly hence preventing me from exploring all the outcomes of various storylines. I guess I wil have to wait and see how much I like or dislike it within the game itself.

What I really liked hearing was how they are thinking of opening the world map for exploring since they liked what they saw in Skyrim and have said so on so many occasions. If there is one thing I miss in other games whilst playing Dragon Age series is the jump button. I am glad to hear that I might get my spacebar back as jump. hehe

No recycled dungeons. That is one more thing they are correcting...permission to go for a high pitched yaaaay...

One of the things which is confirmed is that we will be able to transfer our save files from previous games to DAIII, well I was kind of depending on that anyway.

But above everything else I am jumping up and down in joy because it has been confirmed that the character will be fully voiced and they will make use of the dialogue wheel from DAII. Guilty as charged, as I mentioned it in previous posts, I loved that about DA2 and if there was one thing I really wanted to see in DAIII it was that. So for me what I hear for now really suits the phrase: "So far so good".

Wish I could hibernate till DAIII came out...but thats not an option I guess...

SWTOR Free to Play???

Now that I have levelled my first character to 50, I have got a pretty good opinion on how Star Wars Online works and among the mmorpgs I have tried so far it is the second in line that captured me enough time to care to level my characters and it still does.

Just to be clear though this is not a discussion on whether the game is worth playing or not because in my honest opinion it is a game very well worth purchasing.

But it is it Free to play?

Lately a lot of companies have been playing fast and loose with the term free to play and Bioware/ Lucas Arts' Star Wars has recently become one of them. It is a lovely little marketing trick to lure in more players and earn from quantity rather than quality both game and content wise. My most beloved game LOTRO had been periodically destroyed after it had gone free to play because the company did not care about keeping loyal players satisfied any longer but rather adopted a corporate philosophy of "dont look back and keep 'em coming". But we are not discussing LOTRO here.

The same worries do not apply to Star Wars however because it aint free to play. Guild Wars 2? It is Free to Play, you purchase the game once and then play for free with all essentials and quests intact in the package.

Star Wars? Not so much...

When you have to buy the "hide helmet" option it aint free to play.
When you have to buy skill bars so that you can use your damn skills it aint free to play...
When you have to pay for each and every essential point that allows you to play a game, that game aint free to play.
Unless what you mean by free to play is make rounds to do some sightseeing in your helmet....

So what is it:
It is a delusional lie to excite the expectations and try to entice new customers if you can.

But then again I knew that it would not have been free to play from the beginning; the very beginning when I first purchased the game and for the first time in my gaming life was I subjected to extra 2 months payment to log in to the content I had just purchased. Now that was very very very cheap on Bioware's part. Shame!

Did I do it though? Hell yeah! Their philosophy might be cheap but the game they came up with is simply superb. Lets face it, it is much better than not getting your money's worth. That was the reason why I quit LOTRO and I was not even paying for it due to my lifetime subscription. I was not getting even my imaginary money's worth.



So my point? Game time card or monthly payment in Star Wars, kicks free to play in the crotch.

Order of the Force

As we got into the world (galaxy more like :P) of Star Wars The Old Republic we decided to form a guild with some the old friends from LOTRO. The guild's name is Order of the Force (Light Side) in The Red Eclipse server. Any other friends who are roaming about after having left lotro, or those who are lonely in the game and are interested in an invite to a friendly kin are all welcome to check our forum out and apply here:

 Order of the Force forum 

Thanks in advance...

Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria Part I

After having played LOTRO: Shadows of Angmar for almost a year, all of us lotro players waited impatiently for the first expansion: The Mines of Moria. We did not have to wait long because it was released in 2008 and it was an enormous expansion, the biggest still since then. But was it necessary? Did it have to be this big? Was it good? Was it bad? How was it received by us?

In this post I will stick to what the expansion brought to the game in technical aspects of game-play in order to keep it short. I will further review the content in the next post so both are easy reads for those who are interested.

MoM (Mines of Moria) Included not just a huge area map but also new classes, new skills, new levels. The level cap of the characters was raised from 50 to 60. That’s at least 5 new or improved skills for each class.

Two new classes were introduced to the game:

No its not the atomic table :)

1-Warden: Javelin and spear wielders. This class is considered to be a medium armor wearing tank or dps. I had given it a go for a short while. The class works on a gambit system which functions like this: By using specific skills in specific and various orders you reach certain gambit skills in each fight. The trouble is…you do not see those skills that you reach so you have to write them down and stick it on your screen to remember all those combinations which makes the class extremely alt unfriendly. If you play a warden you have to stick to it because you will never remember the combinations if you ever give it up. I suppose they were just taking their first steps into making the game highly alt unfriendly in creating this class. I hear from Warden players that it is a very powerful and stout class and very tough to beat if you take the trouble…but hey I am going to be honest here: I am not that smart to remember all those combinations when I play on one of my other mains. Besides…it’s a game. Why should I take the trouble?

Behold the power of thy brick! :)

2- Rune Keeper: Or Brick Holders as the lore fans condescendingly call them. I can’t argue with them because they do have a very valid point in this class's having nothing to do with the Lore. But my rune-keeper was fun to play with. It’s a light armour wearing healing or dps class. Great damage, great healing and a very nice system of play to boot. Does it fit the lore of Tolkien though? Bah no way. Still I cannot call a rune keeper a bad addition to the game.

A new legendary system was the other huge, game changing addition in MoM. One which looked so very interesting at first but started to get on my nerves as the level caps were increased and new features were added to them all done in the worst way possible. But we will get there. As for now let’s stick to how it was introduced in MoM.

The idea of a legendary weapon and item was class specific.  It sounds interesting doesn’t it? Well IT’S NOT. Because in theory it is a very nice addition but in practice it is not. We were also so excited and thought it such a great idea at first. The legendary weapon or item you attained had –and still has- legacies that improved each class. How though? By throwing a bunch of skill enhancements, some useful, some completely useless, into the weapon and adding points to those legacies as you levelled your weapon or your item together with your toon. They could be levelled up to 60, the first thirty levels (in every ten levels which means 3 times) revealing new legacies and the last 30 improving the legacies already on it. Each legacy has a tier too up to 6 so not only do you need the right legacies you also need to find those pretty legacies on high tiers too unless you want to go through with an awful lot of psychopathic and if I may add obsessive grinding. You could also add relics to it but in order to add better relics you had to also improve the relics by deconstructing high level legendary weapons on and on and on and the number of the weapons you had to deconstruct was something completely insane to get the really good relics to add. There were three kinds of legendaries: 3^rd Age aka bad dps good legacies (since they are easy to come by, you beat the odds because of the quantity not quality), 2^nd Age aka “nice dps but how the hell am I going to find the nice legacies I got on my 3^rd age?” and 1^st age aka “Did I do those stupid turtle runs to find these legacies?”

 So as we progressed and sought for heaven knows how long for the right legacies in right tiers on each weapon, on each item for each class that we owned, grind grind grind to get better relics for a weapon which will only be replaced by a new one whether or not you want to as you level up, we started to feel annoyed. It took me about 2 years to finally get to this point: “Sod your legendary weapons!”

Besides this legendary system threw weapon crafters completely off because you see even if you do craft them you do not know the legacies on it until you identify the item so you either sell them cheap unidentified or identify them in hopes of getting something good (which you rarely do) and if not vendor for a funny price. Are you kidding me? When I look back on the introduction of legendary weapons and items I can understand my first excitement over it. But now that I know better…it was the beginning of the end. Sooner or later this new system drove many friends of mine off the game. In due time the developers tried to better it but in their own twisted way of endless grinding yet again. That’s for another post though.

One really good thing they came up with was the new system class traits all categorized for specific roles that your class might play in a fellowship or a raid. Each class now had 3 categories of class traits. Let’s give an example here:

Take the Guardian: Main role tank and minor role solo low-ish-dps with overpower stance. Guardian received 3 main categories of traits:

 

1-The fighter of Shadow

2- The Defender of the Free

3- The Keen Blade

 Each of these categories supported a different aspect of the Guardian class. Say for example The Keen Blade supported the overpower stance for more dps during solo whereas the Defender of the Free boosted the agro grabbing skills hence making the Guard a true tank in a fellowship. Each category has got a number of traits you can equip on a character and the more you equip from one category the more bonus you get as a result. This was –and still is- a nice system. Credit where its due...

That wraps up the main technical aspects of MoM I think. In the next post I will try to review the content of the expansion. It will be a relatively positive post because lotro always releases nice contents, lovely and/or impressive landscapes, positively interesting stories, good designs as opposed to a destroyed game-play experience with every expansion coming out...So stay tuned for a more optimistic post on the content of MoM :)