After that I got a lifetime subscription for Star Trek Online, which kinda turned me off MMO’s altogether :)

I’ve been playing a couple of the SWTOR beta weekends and got early access 6 days before release, and I’ve made it to level 30 so far (think there are around 10-20 lvl 50′s on my server (Scepter of Ragnos)).

And so far I must say… SWTOR is fucking awesome!

Riding a shuttle between two areas of the map

If you just gave me the game and let me play the first 10 levels (Starting planet), I would be 99% sure the game was made by Bioware. Unlike for example WOW where you just accept quest, go kill/collect and return, the quests in SWTOR are really amazing. The quest chains make up wonderful stories in classic Bioware style (Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Dragon Age), and you can very often choose different ways to do the quest. The NPC voice acting also adds to your total immersion in the stories.

The class quest, which is a long quest line that follows your character between level 1 and 50, is absolutely brilliant, I’m playing as a Bounty Hunter and the story is comparable to a really good single player RPG. Also the companion system is great, and you get a really close connection to your characters, much more so than in KOTOR / Mass Effect.

Me and my kickass companion Mako

So far I can only judge the lvl 1-30 part of the bounty hunter class quest, but I’ve heard the other classes (which have totally different class quests) are equally good. So I’ll probably be making alts just to play the story lines.

The instances I’ve been in so far are all good, like the quests you can also affect how the instance unfolds by choosing dark side / light side.

I’m playing as a Bounty Hunter Bodyguard (healer), and the healing mechanic is really good, each time you use a healing ability you gain heat and you need to keep your heat level low and not overheat to be able to heal. This means you can heal forever if you manage your heat properly, but dealing with big damage spikes is a bit hectic (but very doable).

The graphics are really nice, although some people complain it’s too cartoony (mostly WOW fanboys it seems, which is ironic beyond belief). I’m glad the graphics is not realistic (skyrim, age of conan), I don’t think that would be a good look for this game.

I'm trying to be a ruthless bounty hunter, but Mako with her big puppy eyes makes it hard at times

So far I haven’t experienced a single disconnect (saw 2 lag spikes during 1 beta weekend, that lasted about 5 seconds), so for me the launch has been close to perfect. I came across 1 bug in a class quest, but the forum had a workaround.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what the end game is like.

To sum it all up in one sentence, “I’ve played many MMO’s, but I would say this is the first MMORPG I’ve played”

I pre-ordered SWTOR (Star Wars The Old Republic) on Origin in July, and today I had to get the product code for it so I could continue playing.

SWTOR appears under my games, but for some reason it says it’s unreleased when it was released 2 days ago (Also notice the goddamn BF3 beta game that I could find no way to remove from “my games”).

I click the info button and it says I purchased it on July 28th, and gives me a product code.

But the product code is not working, and says it’s already been used. And after 30 minutes with EA live chat support they say I haven’t ordered it, despite being able to say why it shows up under my games and gives me a registration code.

So now I have to go to the mall tomorrow and get a physical copy of the game. I could probably have ordered it on origin, but then I would end up having 2 battlefield games (1 not working) and 2 swtor games (1 not working) under “my games”. Also the downloadable game is 15$ MORE expensive than the on in the store.

Fuck you Origin!

Just 2 more months…

The game is almost ready for a little pre-alpha test which I’ve got about 15 volunteers ready for. Today I completed the final feature that will be implemented before this test, and maybe the most important feature of them all.

It was nice to see those stupid fleets that have been moving around my screen finally do something violent. My technologically superior (I cheat) scoutship blew that poor Klingon while taking almost no damage.

Implementing the combat between spaceships took about 5-6 hours of work today (lots of rules for selecting which ships to fight, calculate if they hit, calculate damage, etc..), so now I can start working on the testing scenario that all the testers will be playing through before the big multiplayer test starts.

This year I only got a few games I’m following:

X-Com (2K Games/Take-Two):
Huge fan of the original X-Com games, but so far I’ve been unimpressed by the video (the black blob being chased around). But hopefully some more interesting gameplay footage will be released.

Battlefield 3 (Electronic Arts):
Not really a huge FPS gamer, but I enjoyed Bad Company 2 alot, and Battlefield 3 looks awesome.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda):
Never finished Oblivion (was not a huge fan of the combat system), but if time permits I might play Skyrim.

Dead Island (Deep Silver):
Got noticed for their really awesome trailer, but not so sure about the game itself. Seems like Left 4 Dead with minor RPG elements added. And it seems to focus very much on melee combat, and afraid it will be to much of a hack and slash game (not a fan).

Star Wars: The Old Republic (Electronic Arts):
Saved the best piece for last.. I hope they will provide LOTS of new information, and gameplay from the latest builds. This is the game I’m looking the most forward to as of 2011, and I’m definitely going to play it when it’s released.

Majesty 2 is a RTS game which calls itself a “kingdom simulator” with RPG elements.  You build structures, but never control the units directly. The units live their own lives, level up, buy gear at the blacksmith and generally just go around like little tiny virtual idiots.

The graphics are charming and gives the game a nice fantasy atmosphere, building is fun, researching techs are pleasant and the RPG features of the heroes you recruit seems really good. Also the concept of not controlling units directly but by placing out flags (putting bounties on enemy structures or creatures, or putting up exploration flags) does seem pretty interesting.

However there are three major issues that are just bad game design and ruins what could have been a pretty enjoyable game:

1) Sewer entrace spawn points
The first thing I noticed that I knew instantly was going to grid my gears for the entire game was one or two spawn points that always pop up in your town. These frequently release various rats that will kill your peasants, damage your buildings and just be a constant source of annoyance the entire mission, for ALL missions. Don’t get me wrong, sewers is a classic RPG setting, and if done correctly it could have been very entertaining, but it ends up being a steady stream of annoyance without any reward or fun. Imagine 3 zerg popping up in your base in Starcraft EVERY fucking minute, worst idea ever.

2) AI
Another annoying factor is the AI. It’s piss poor… You have ranged/melee dps and a healer class, but watching them trying to do anything is like watching the worst PUG of noobs trying to down a boss in WOW.. It’s just ends up being a painful display of ineptitude. And the cloth users seems to have a particularly strong death wish, and constantly go in for some melee dps.
The enemy AI is even worse than your own heroes. I saw 3 skeletons chase a wounded ranger across the map while their home was being destroyed by a warrior.

3) Borders + combat
Let’s get one thing straight, you will not be able to have any clearly defined zones of combat, fronts or build a good defense for your town like you can in for example Starcraft, Warcraft, Age of Empires or basically any RTS game. The enemies will be many, they will be spread out all over the map, new enemies will spawn pretty much constantly even when their spawn points are taken out. The enemies are stupid as hell and just consists of groups of enemies that attack in waves without any form of strategy.

4) Voice acting
Not as big a problem as the 3 above, but it’s still a bit funny
It seems they have hired a single voice actor to do the game, he will tell you your quest objectives and talk during all cut scenes, intros, etc.. Now this would not be a problem, except they got a goddamn Sean Connery sound-alike who does an excessive Scottish accent. He sounds like “Sean Connery” from the Saturday Night Live sketch, and it get’s really hard to take anything he says seriously.. I keep expecting him to say something like “The minotaurs has destroyed the village, Suck it Trebek!”

Rating: 3.7 / 10

I really like the game so far, tt’s basically the same as Fallout 3 (not a complaint), and I like the story and setting so far. I do miss the 50′s music, but I listen to the Fallout 3 soundtrack almost daily anyhow

Seems like since I got Veronica the game has started to freeze up when trying to close it. But other than that it has been very stable and bug free.

I did however notice a strange bug with Veronica once I logged in.. She kept grinning for the entire session. It started to really creep me out:

I’ve gotten a new job, and been working on another paying project as well (Comicon does not pay for itself you know). But this other project is almost done, and then I should be able to get back to doing regular Trekwar updates.

I’ve also switched over to Toodledo for maintaining the list of features to be implemented, so hopefully you can see the issues under “0.4.0 (Alpha)” shrinking over the next few months

I wrote this program mostly just because I was messing around with different pathing/filling algorithms and the Java PixelGrabber class.

The program lets you color different motives (animals, people, vehicles, etc..) and I’ve probably spent more time coloring dogs and bunnies than actual programming

Download Kolor with Kribsy

Kribsy BTW is a poorly drawn imaginary bunny with self esteem issues and a knack for painting stuff

Click to view 1920×1080

Since this was originally supposed to be a mash up of the movie poster, Clara was to be edited in last. However as I changed my mind in the middle and made a desktop background, the element where she was supposed to be did not work well for a wallpaper.. And adding her in with the rest of the cast would at this point mean making the whole picture from scratch :/

10 points to the first who spots the little “photoshop disaster”