Weekly Report - 09/28/2012

This week was a short one for Dark Souls. I'm roughly halfway through a New Game Plus run, but I've been distracted by other things IRL and game-wise.

Torchlight 2 is obviously taking up a lot of my free time. I have a Normal Engineer smashing his way two-handed through Act 2 (level 26) and an Elite Hardcore Outlander carefully picking her battles through Act 1 (level 19). Most of my time - by far - has been spent on the Outlander. I'm finding Elite Hardcore much more fun than Normal, even though you need to take your time and progress more slowly. I haven't died yet but I know it's coming.

So there have been a lot of Torchlight 2 posts this week. The game is popular right now and it's liable to be my focus for a while, but I won't forget to include other topics here and there (e.g. Dead Island: Riptide). I also have a few words to say about some interesting gaming news I read recently regarding EVE Online, DayZ, and  Starcraft 2.

That said, I'm still looking forward to spending more time in Torchlight 2. I'd like to build up a few more Elite Hardcore builds and share them depending on how they pan out.

Torchlight 2 Sub-20 Farming

As I've mentioned before, farming is extremely important in Elite Hardcore. Take your time, level up, and loot some new gear. I try to stay roughly 4-5 levels higher than the enemies in the area, especially if I'm exploring a new region or proceeding farther than I've been before.

In light of this, I've become intimately familiar with some Act I farming areas for the sub-20 character. First, carefully proceed forward until you reach the Temple Steppes. Clear this area - completely - until you reach level 10 or so. Remember you can re-roll your world. It's a wide open area so you should be relatively safe even though the enemies will quickly reach level 8 and may really test your character.

Your next stop is located somewhere in the Temple Steps. Look for the graveyard area and find the Shady Character. He's a weird dude standing in the graveyard and offers a quest. What you want to do is open the locked gate and enter the Bone Hall. This area has a high concentration of enemies and is a great area to quickly build XP. The Mordrax boss is in here, too, at the bottom of the second floor. He's pretty easy if you kite him around the well in the center of his room. I handled him easily by using Bane Breath to convert the weak skeletons he summons into shadowlings. Be aware Mordrax respawns when you re-roll, even if you've beaten him before. Farm this place until level 15-16.

The Bone Hall

The next place you want to farm is in the area immediately preceding the Frosted Hills. Look for an NPC offering a quest slightly off the beaten path. She's next to a cave called the Widows Veil. This cave contains a lot of spiders, so equip against ice and poison damage. The end of the cave features a wimpy spider boss which is little more than a run of the mill champion monster.

The Widows Veil

Farm the Veil until you reach level 20. By then it should be safe to move into the Frosted Hills and progress the story.

Dead Island: Riptide Trailer

Dead Island: Riptide Steelbook case

Techland's followup to the 2011 hit Dead Island is a something a lot of gamers are looking forward to. It promises revamped physics for easier head-stomping, sharper controls, and clearer graphics - all very welcome improvements.

The Dead Island: Riptide trailer was released recently, go take a look. Like last time, the trailer is very produced and doesn't include any actual gameplay. No new gameplay features are displayed or discussed, nor does the trailer feature any of the main Dead Island characters, a decision I question at this point. Still, it's an interesting trailer for all the same reasons as the original Dead Island trailer: it's well produced and tells a clear, however short, story.

I think Dead Island was a sleeper hit, with many gamers finding it "better than expected." Riptide, as a result, is likely to be held to much higher standards upon release. Let's hope Techland rises to the challenge.

Torchlight 2 Outlander Build for Elite Hardcore - WIP

Update: I can't recommend this build above Normal difficulty. It requires so much kiting on Elite Hardcore that it completely bored me out of the character. This build could be viable, however, if you put attribute points into focus instead of strength, then put a few more skill points into poison-based attack skills. The shadowling allies are still pretty useful in this modified build, so don't sacrifice them too much.

Let me begin by emphasizing this build is a work in progress. I have no idea if I'll be able to recommend this build 10 levels from now, let alone at the end of the game. I also don't know if this character will survive long enough to make a reasonable judgement call evaluating the build.

This is my first shot at an Outlander in Elite Hardcore mode. It's based on akimbo ranged weapons with an emphasis on battlefield control, minion summoning, and lots of running away (i.e. poor man's battlefield control).

Level 17 Outlander on Elite Hardcore

Meet Kya. For levels 1 - 13 she put three points in Strength, one point in Dexterity, and one point in Vitality. By then I became so fed up with the character's poor DPS that I started pumping all five points into Strength. I intend to settle back into a Strength/Vitality distribution again by level 20 or so.

On the Warfare skill tree I have six skill points in Long Range Mastery and one in Akimbo (soon to be more).

On the Lore skill tree I put one point in Dodge Mastery (soon to be more) and Poison Burst in addition to the point you're given in Glaive Throw. A word on Glaive Throw: I use it a lot. It's one of my primary attacks but I don't see much point in leveling it up because its damage only scales with your character, not the amount of skill points you assign to it.

On the Sigil skill tree I put one point in Shadow Shot, three in Bane Breath, one in Master of the Elements, five in Shadowling Ammo, and one in Death Ritual. This is the most important tree for this particular build. Shadow Shot isn't what I expected, so I don't think I'll level it anymore (I would respec that point if I could, but it was too long ago). Bane Breath is great against crowds of weaker enemies; it basically won the General Grell battle for me. Shadowling Ammo is really powerful when it works. Adding skill points increases your chances of getting a shadowling bat ally, but they don't become stronger unless you level Death Ritual too. Both are a must for this build.

Overall I'm still on the low side DPS-wise but steadily improving. I think I'll find a proper balance within the next few levels. The first 10 levels or so were really challenging and I came uncomfortably close to death multiple times. Since then, however, the character has improved dramatically.

One final tip: make sure you take time to farm and build up your character. It's a life saver.

Torchlight 2 Elite Hardcore Tip

Astute Torchlight players understand the importance of leveling up your character and collecting better equipment throughout the game. Unfortunately, Torchlight 2 has removed the concept of map scrolls so there is no way to play bonus dungeons or fresh maps full of enemies to farm.

Fortunately, it is possible to re-play content in Torchlight 2. Load up your character and choose a LAN (or Internet) game and check the Reroll World checkbox.

Reroll your world to respawn maps and enemies

Your character's world will be reset and randomized (with respawned enemies of course) so you can farm any area over and over to your heart's content. This permits you to increase your character's abilities and while finding new equipment without having to constantly push forward into increasingly dangerous higher-level areas. Of course, you don't want to farm in Act 1 forever... eventually you need to move on, but you will do so in a much stronger position, particularly if you chose a class which doesn't really kick into full throttle until level 20 or so (e.g. Outlander).

Weekly Report - 09/21/2012

This is a busy one.

Last weekend three of my friends and I got together for our first in-person Battlefield 3 LAN. It's incredibly fun with a full, four-player squad of sane, communicating, non-troll humans. I think it was one of the best BF3 sessions I've had in my 61+ hour multiplayer career. What's amazing is that I quit playing the game about six months ago because I had earned a service star in every class and had no interesting weapons left to unlock. I really look forward to playing this with friends again - it was awesome (our group has a boss helicopter pilot by the way).

I also made tons of Dark Souls progress. In fact, I beat the game on Monday and moved on to New Game Plus (it's going much faster this time around - I'm already in Anor Londo). I need a handful more items and a second copy of every boss soul to clean up some achievements, but I'm also really interested in starting from scratch with a completely different type of character. The game definitely has some frustrating technical problems, but it presents a fun user experience unlike anything I've ever played before.

And, of course, Torchlight 2 came out yesterday. I pre-loaded it that morning before going in to work so I could play as soon as I got home. About two hours in, I have a lot of positive thoughts and several topics to post about. Torchlight 2 doesn't totally revolutionize the hack-n-slash RPG genre, but it's definitely worth playing (I plan to skip Diablo III altogether for a variety of reasons).

Torchlight 2 Vindication

A PC gamer at heart, my first order of business with any new game is to check out the settings menu. I must begin by playing with all of the options and choosing the highest graphics settings possible with my hardware. As it turns out Torchlight 2 runs great on a lot of hardware; I have it maxed out on my laptop (HP dv6-6135dx) with no framerate issues so far, but I'm not here to talk about that.

This game has settings for most of the crap I tend to complain about.

Oh, so many wonderful settings...

You can also adjust the UI size, render behind walls, render player character helmets, and render player names. Or not - it's up to you! But what really brought a smile to my face is the vindicating Floating Damage & Text setting. Apparently I'm not the only gamer with a (un)healthy disdain for poor in-game feedback.

Torchlight 2 Release

Torchlight 2 will be released Thursday, September 20

Torchlight 2 comes out tomorrow on Steam. I already have it pre-ordered (since this spring, actually) and I'm clearing my weekend in order to spend some time exploring the game. T2 differs from T1 in a few fundamentals. This time around there are four character classes, the Outlander, Embermage, Berserker, and Engineer. The engineer looks particularly unique; his abilities come from ember-powered mechanical armor and equipment. I'm liable to try the engineer first.

Like the original Torchlight I plan to play through the game once on normal difficulty - perhaps with friends this time, since the new game is multiplayer - in order to get a feel for the mechanics, enemies, and game world.

Then it will be time to take on hardcore mode. I'm looking forward to posting more about Torchlight 2 in the coming weeks, including more character builds and tips for VHHC.

More Dark Souls Tips

Some more tips after having spent a few hours in the game:

• The stability stat of your shield is crucial; it determines the amount of stamina required to block an attack.
• Spears and like weapons allow you to attack while keeping your shield up.
• The kick attack works wonders in disrupting shield-bearing enemies. Tap Fwd and quickly hit RB to kick.
• You can jump. Run by holding B while pointing LS in any direction, then release the button and tap B again.
• You can slide down ladders by pressing B.
• Keep an eye on your equipment weight. If you have less than 50% of your max weight, you can roll dodge (very useful). If you have less than 25% you're even quicker.
• Note that most weapons scale with certain stats (e.g. a given greatsword may scale with strength at grade C and dexterity at grade E; focus on strength if you want to use this weapon).
• If you die, make a priority of retrieving your bloodstain (all of your dropped humanity and souls) before dying again. If you die twice in a row without retrieving your bloodstain, it will all be gone.
• When you reach the first blacksmith, upgrade your gear. It's cheap and you can always farm for plenty more upgrade materials. Upgraded gear will often strengthen your character more substantially than simply leveling up.

Weekly Report - 09/14/2012

I made significant forward progress in Dark Souls this week. After passing through Anor Londo I confronted the Four Kings (and defeated five of them) and stepped into the Demon Ruins. My character now faces Lost Izalith and whatever lies beyond. I'm sensing the end coming within the next three or four areas of the game, but already I have plans for a second (and third, at least partial) playthrough to collect some achievements and accomplish some story-related tasks I missed the first time through.

In other news, I'm looking at EVE again with a closer eye. I'm interested in a number of the changes CCP has made since I unsubscribed (again) early this year and the balancing and ship updates for this winter look rather appealing. I may have to resubscribe to check it out.

It's looking like a good weekend for gaming!

New (Old) Ships in New Eden

There's a new Dev Blog out today detailing some of the ship re-balancing taking place for EVE's winter 2012 expansion. I'm glad to see some work is finally being done on this subject.

What's the story with the Kestrel? In the past I often used the Kestrel as a quick, short-range rocket vessel (or a cyno ship). CCP plans to apply a 5% missile damage bonus and 10% missile velocity bonus per level. Why are rockets excluded? I have no idea; I also have no idea what other ships actually use rockets today. If that damage bonus applied to rockets the Kestrel could be a pretty good choice in PVP.

There's supposed to be a new destroyer for each race. I've not known many people to fly destroyers in PVP so these will likely remain in the realm of new-player PVE use. Still, it's nice to have new ships now and then.

The Tristan becoming a drone boat is pretty cool. It's a much-needed addition to the drone-heavy player's upgrade path. I approve. Unfortunately I tend to get overwhelmed by micromanagement when I attempt to use drones in PVP.

The support frigates (Navitas, Bantam, Inquisitor, and Burst) are very interesting. Currently it seems to take forever to train a new pilot up to logistics ships; this looks to be an excellent addition to the upgrade path for these players. I predict they'll be (ab)used mostly PVE such as frigate-level complexes and the like by LANers or dual-boxers, but it can be fun to play said role with friends to make some ISK now and then. That said, it's intriguing that CCP also has plans to improve the t1 logistics cruisers enough to make them worthwhile. It looks like support ships are about to become more available (and important) than ever.

That's all for now. There's a lot to say on this topic, but I think I've hit the points that piqued my interest.

The Black Knights

The Dark Souls bug has bitten me, hard. I'm hooked and totally enamored with this game. It's challenging, mysterious, and, above all, rewarding. Everything in the world poses a significant risk, but the game designers made excellent choices in terms of loot drops. Risks are often worthwhile.

Take, for example, the Black Knights. Early on these enemies are quite difficult, especially for players who aren't familiar with the game yet. Fortunately, they can be beaten (try parrying and backstabbing, or just play it safe and slowly chip away and their health by hiding behind your shield and poking them with a spear).

'tis but a scratch!

Every Black Knight offers a potentially awesome loot drop: sometimes they drop their weapon! Hint: to improve your drop rate, you need to be holding humanity.

Once I defeated my fourth BK he dropped the BK Sword which deals 220 base damage, besting my Drake Sword by a fair amount. Furthermore, the BK Sword scales with both strength and dexterity. It's a little slower than the Drake Sword but well worth it.

Just when I started thinking the BK Sword was the bee's knees, I stumbled upon another BK early in the Darkroot Garden area. With zero humanity I chopped him down with my BK Sword: lo and behold, he dropped the BK Halberd. The BK Halberd has a base damage of 245 and also scales with strength and dexterity. It seems to be quicker to boot, and it has a great range. I immediately focused on leveling my character to wield it.

It was worth it. Man, the BK Halberd blows the Drake Sword away. I currently have it reinforced to BK Halberd +4. A bit expensive, but it's really opening up the game for me: I now stand a chance against enemies and bosses that used to give me fits.

P. S. Check out the Dark Souls video walkthrough series by Gaming as a Surrogate Religion. It's entertaining as well as helpful. Honestly, I prefer this man's videos over TV.

Weekly Report - 09/07/2012

As you may have noticed, I picked up Dark Souls for the Xbox 360 last weekend for $12. Aside from getting an awesome bargain, I'm absolutely thrilled with this game. It has kicked aside everything else I've been playing lately (no Skyrim this week).

I have just progressed through Sen's Fortress and my character now rests in Anor Londo. I'm led to understand this is about halfway through the game, but I don't want to read FAQs or watch video walkthroughs unless I get really stuck and frustrated.

I got lucky and found a Black Knight Halberd early on. I don't think it's game-breaking but it certainly makes bosses less of a trial. I recently acquired my first pyromancy but haven't used it yet. I'll be posting some more Dark Souls tips as I progress through the game.

Beginning Dark Souls

I waited two days after finding Dark Souls for $15. When I decided to buy it, I went back in and discovered the shop was having a 20% off sale so I landed my Xbox 360 copy of Dark Souls for $12. You just can't beat that. So there's my first tip for new Dark Souls players: shop around for a good deal; you don't have to pay $60 plus tax at Best Buy. The PC version on Steam is $40 which is a bargain itself.

The game doesn't give you much information due to the way it's delivered. The story is sparse and there is little to no tutorial content; you're essentially thrown directly into the fire. Some tips to get you started:

• Proceed with caution; don't aggro groups of enemies. You want to pick one-on-one fights until you have a good sense for the combat system.
• Keep your shield up. Look for a shield that has 100% physical damage protection so you can rely on it to protect you from most attacks.
• Learn your weapons' attacks. Each weapon is quite different but they all have a quick attack (RB), strong attack (RT), and jump attack (tap Fwd and quickly hit RT).
• Don't watch a bunch of walkthrough videos before playing. Half the fun of the game is figuring out what to do and where to do it (remember Dragon Warrior).
• When leveling up, don't put points into resistance. Focus on vitality, endurance, and one or two stats depending on the weapon(s) you want to use.
• The game doesn't give you much information explicitly, so spend time and pay attention to item descriptions and stats.

RPG Elements and Player Feedback (Redux)

Playing through Wanderlust: Rebirth has rekindled my thoughts about forcing so much irrelevant feedback at the player that it actively blocks the on-screen action the player really cares about. The most glaring flaw I can find with this game is that the RPG elements are way too in-your-face.

Every single point of damage dealt and received is displayed on the screen around the characters; the font size is overly large and often drowns out the characters on-screen, making it difficult to see the action. Worse, though, are the giant “comic words” that appear during combat. Every block is accompanied by a huge comic bubble screaming “Block!” at you. The bubbles are so large and prevalent I constantly lose track of my character and enemies on the screen. It shouldn’t be such a chore to tell what’s happening, but it is - and sadly this is a major factor in the challenge level of this game.

You can't even see my character sprite, can you?

Note: I recently discovered that Wanderlust allows you to disable many of these obnoxious notifications in the graphics options menu.

Again I wonder if damage numbers, status bars, and action “comic words” are really necessary in any game, though it seems to be a mainstay of the action-RPG genre.

However, some games manage to display damage statistics in an important, meaningful, and understandable manner (e.g. any Final Fantasy title). Are we keeping damage statistics around just for the sake of tradition? Notice that popular, successful titles like Call of Duty, Fallout, Skyrim, and Batman: Arkham City have ditched the “damage numbers” motif in favor of more intuitive forms of feedback. As characters sustain damage they begin to visibly show signs of wear: blood, torn clothing, significant changes in posture and movement speed, and more.

Weekly Report - 08/31/2012

This has been another light week in terms of gaming progress. I've only spent half a dozen more hours in Skyrim. Most of the side quests are done and my character is in the low 30s with nearly maxed out Smithing and One-handed skills. I still have a few Thieves Guild quests to go through, then there's the Dark Brotherhood, a number of Daedra quests, and the College of Winterhold quests. I doubt if I'll complete the College quests since this character isn't a mage. We'll see. Sadly my attention to Skyrim is waning, as I feel that I have already experienced much of what it has to offer.

I almost purchased that Vertex 4 SSD and a GTX 670, but both were out of stock when I went to check out. I was initially frustrated but then reason settled in and I decided not to upgrade after all.

Some friends visited over the weekend and we played a bit of Dead Island, which is always a good time. Then we struggled to get Team Fortress 2 installed and running on our machines. It's ridiculously large at 10GB (for cartoon graphics, come on!) but we eventually got it set up and running after fighting corrupt files and startup failures.

Lo and behold, Mann vs. Machine wait times were 20+ minutes. Frustration mounted higher. We started a local LAN server and, following at least a half hour of software problems, we finally got to play the new game mode. With three players out of the intended six. Pretty fun, but impossible. The farthest we ever got was the third round on one map, then the Tanks showed up. Three players simply cannot deal enough damage quickly enough to beat the Tank, so we were completely stuck and the night pretty much ended there due to wife aggro.

One of the YouTube channels I follow has been posting a lot of Dark Souls content lately, and I'm really anxious to pick up a copy. I want the PC version so I can play at 1080p, but on the other hand I want to play on my couch with a controller on the Xbox 360. The PC version is still $40 since it just came out, but I saw a used 360 copy for $15 last night. I didn't buy it, but I'm sorely tempted. This is a perennial conundrum I have.