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Whoohoo! Two books at once!
Feb. 26th, 2007 11:16 amSpring break has arrived, and I'll finally get around to sending e-mails toward people's inboxes. I've got a busy week ahead of me, but in a good way. I have a lot of things that I've been wanting to do (errands, chores, as well as fun things) that I hope will get done this week.
To inaugurate my week of fun, I've already done two things: purchased Guild Wars:Nightfall and read two books over the weekend. I'm exceptionally pleased with Nightfall. I was getting to the point in Prophecies where I couldn't do most of the quests without resorting to joining a group. Apart from the few people I game with, I absolutely hate joining groups, because you often end up with immature players who are only in it for themselves. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a group where someone will drop out just because things aren't going as quickly or as smoothly as they wanted, leaving the rest of the party in a bind because we no longer have our tank or our healer or some other critical member. And they usually drop out at the worst possible moment (i.e., in the middle of a crucial battle with a boss).
Guild Wars has henchmen you can hire, it's true, but the henchmen are only good up to a certain level before the AI just isn't good enough to handle the harder tasks. But Nightfall has made up for this problem by adding Heroes. Heroes are like henchmen, but you can control them directly ‒ you can change their armor and weapons, and even go so far as telling them exactly which spells or skills to use in battle. And the AI is pretty good if you don't feel like micro-managing. Unlike Alesia (the Prophecies henchman healer), your Hero healers won't go off and get themselves killed unless you specifically set them to attack. You can even set them to run away from battle if things start getting rough. As most RPGs go, healers are the lifeblood of the party and should be kept alive at all costs ‒ the rest of the party can die, but if the healer still lives they can always resurrect the party.
I've only done about four hours of gameplay so far, but I like what I see. I enjoy the fact that Nightfall gives you much more experience for the quests than Prophecies has done. I also like the new Dervish class that has been added, and I'm looking forward to purchasing Factions so I can play a Dervish/Assassin ‒ a combination that I've heard kicks ass.
Now on to my books:
Book #5: A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Penultimate Peril, by Lemony Snicket
( Don't worry, no spoilers. Yes, I know it's a children's book... )
Book #6: A Series of Unfortunate Events: The End, by Lemony Snicket
( Nope, no spoilers here, but a brief note of something to look for... )
To inaugurate my week of fun, I've already done two things: purchased Guild Wars:Nightfall and read two books over the weekend. I'm exceptionally pleased with Nightfall. I was getting to the point in Prophecies where I couldn't do most of the quests without resorting to joining a group. Apart from the few people I game with, I absolutely hate joining groups, because you often end up with immature players who are only in it for themselves. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a group where someone will drop out just because things aren't going as quickly or as smoothly as they wanted, leaving the rest of the party in a bind because we no longer have our tank or our healer or some other critical member. And they usually drop out at the worst possible moment (i.e., in the middle of a crucial battle with a boss).
Guild Wars has henchmen you can hire, it's true, but the henchmen are only good up to a certain level before the AI just isn't good enough to handle the harder tasks. But Nightfall has made up for this problem by adding Heroes. Heroes are like henchmen, but you can control them directly ‒ you can change their armor and weapons, and even go so far as telling them exactly which spells or skills to use in battle. And the AI is pretty good if you don't feel like micro-managing. Unlike Alesia (the Prophecies henchman healer), your Hero healers won't go off and get themselves killed unless you specifically set them to attack. You can even set them to run away from battle if things start getting rough. As most RPGs go, healers are the lifeblood of the party and should be kept alive at all costs ‒ the rest of the party can die, but if the healer still lives they can always resurrect the party.
I've only done about four hours of gameplay so far, but I like what I see. I enjoy the fact that Nightfall gives you much more experience for the quests than Prophecies has done. I also like the new Dervish class that has been added, and I'm looking forward to purchasing Factions so I can play a Dervish/Assassin ‒ a combination that I've heard kicks ass.
Now on to my books:
Book #5: A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Penultimate Peril, by Lemony Snicket
( Don't worry, no spoilers. Yes, I know it's a children's book... )
Book #6: A Series of Unfortunate Events: The End, by Lemony Snicket
( Nope, no spoilers here, but a brief note of something to look for... )
