Strike at Liberty Island

If you do not know your landmarks, Liberty Island is the island that features the Statue of Liberty. Not only is it a tourist attraction but it is also one of many prominent symbols of America. As a player of the game World in Conflict, one of the maps features Liberty Island, Ellis Island, and Governors Island. One side start out from Ellis Island while the other start out from Liberty. The main battlefield is on Governors' Island, where all of the control points are located.

No matter how you look at it, I always seem to find amusement in watching the utter destruction of surrounding structures, as well as enemy units. I know it sounds strange given today's world of paranoia and cowering in fear. But the way I see it, it's futile to constantly worry over little trivial matters now. What matters the most is making the most out of what little time you have.

Strategic Options

So lately I've been diving into the world of Real-Time Strategy games. Two of which I currently have installed are Company of Heroes and World in Conflict. Both are interesting in their own right but there's a problem. I'm not a RTS player. One of the things that bug me in RTS games is the need to manage resources. Back in Starcraft and Warcraft days, that means having to gather critical resources such as gold and wood. Without these resources, you cannot create more units. And without these units, they cannot build advanced structures to create better units. Company of Heroes try to change that somewhat but it still came back to the same problem... managing your resources. It's a different kind of management but you're still stuck having to ensure you have the necessary fundings in order to create more units.

Perhaps this is the reason why I have continued playing World in Conflict at random for these past several weeks. Instead of having to deal with all of these trivial elements to a typical RTS game, I am just given a predefined amount of spendable points, with some later to be made available, and make as many units as I can within that spendable limit. The units can then be sent out into the field, be destroyed, and the points that was spent on creating that is then refunded back into my pool.

Another thing that kept me coming back was how the multiplayer aspect of these games is arranged. WiC is formatted in such a way that it is easy to find friends, join them on a server, and browse for one. Even setting up a clan is easy. These little things are the stuff that makes a solid game. Alas, a certain other game cannot ever come close to matching the way the interface is laid out. There's even an added bonus to all of this -- widescreen. Yes, as a user of widescreen displays, I am now quite supportive in games that properly and natively support this. No hacks. No modifying files. No screwed up interface. And no unsupportive feeling you get when you post on forums. Everything is all fine and dandy, at least for now.

So as I look at my own profile, I find myself wanting to keep going. But for how long and how far can I go? I still have unfinished business with another title. Yet I do not know if I can take it nowadays. It's time I evaluate my strategic options...

Trick or Treat

So more than a month has past and I had nothing to show for it. Having gotten over the initial surge of playing Guild Wars' Eye of the North expansion, I have since then been playing other games. Namely, titles like World in Conflict, Half-Life 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 have all contributed to the lack of postings here. Yet trying to squeeze what little blurb I can spew forth onto this little blog here is proving to be a tad difficult.

In the midst of all the games that I have installed, a few come with extra perks that keep me tuned into the game - awards and achievements. Like before, my affinity to gaining achievements kept me coming back to play some more, even though my dedication is rather spread across several titles now. Both Portal and Team Fortress 2 come with their own series of achievements, with TF2 providing players with player statistics that are both built into the game and hosted by Steam themselves. Their recent debut of the Steam Community made it possible for any player on Steam to create their own profile page using the ID (or nick) of choice. And it should come as no surprise as to what I use as a SteamID.

On the other hand, World in Conflict comes in as a completely different type of game altogether, but not any different by those who have kept up with the gaming scene. World in Conflict is a Real-Time Strategy game akin to the likes of Warcraft and Starcraft. And one of the interesting things about the game is the clean implementation of player profiles, buddy/friend list, server browsing, clan management, and profile browsing. These qualities are something that I had longed for in a multiplayer game. Having one's performance being recorded, tallied, and ranked amongst other players in the world is an added bonus. Sadly, as a first-person shooter type of player, my profile isn't very spectactular compared to the top 10 ranked players in a variety of categories.

On the flip side, some animation titles have come and gone. One of my favorite, Shijou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi, has recently ended. The well-written story of Seirei no Moribito came to a close. Romance came to a strange end in sola. And a re-encode re-release of Machine Robo Rescue just finished. With all these titles, it becomes imperative that I off-load these large files onto a DVD disc for archival purposes. One or more of these titles will never see the light of day in America. But perhaps someday I will have the grand opportunity of collecting an entire series episodes to keep.

Oh, and before I forget... Red Sox are World Series 2007 champions, yet again! It was unexpected that the Red Sox would blow the Rockies away in a 4-game sweep. But I suppose it goes to show just how bad the match-up was. While it was great seeing the Sox outplay the Rockies in every shape and form, the majority of the insanity was during the ALCS where they faced the Cleveland Indians. Well, now that baseball season is over, all of the focus is on the New England Patriots. After that, the Celtics... Boston? City of sports? It will be when Celtics get the NBA title. Until then, it'll just be a good year for both Patriots and Sox.

The Guild Wars Grindfest

Similarly like my BF2142 profile, I seem to have an affinity for getting achievements. When a friend told me of a common spot people use to acquire points, I figure I'd do the same, as getting it the old fashion way is lengthy, tedious, troublesome, and a major pain in the rear. After a couple of trial and test runs, I later found out that I wasn't exploiting the most of what the point farming run has to offer. As I read further into this, I then started to slowly adopt and adapt to the run. Eventually the run began to show its result and reward. The amount of points acquired in such a short timeframe made it worthwhile to use for the bored casual player like myself.

In the course of less than one week, I was able to accrue enough points that it didn't seem all that much of a hassle to get there. Soon I'll have two more titles maxed out. Now I just gotta figure out what title to go for next...

Looking at the Eye

One of the key factors to a game is replay value. Granted, this is crucial in keeping players attached to the game. So it comes as no surprise when a game needs variety in order to support its replay value. In order to keep the game dynamic, something has to change. In the realm of FPS, the replay value is in the random people you meet. In my case, it's the challenges of going up against enemies who are either better or worse than me.

Guild Wars is one of those games that had some decent replay value, in which there are ways in order to enjoy the game without doing the same thing repeatedly, otherwise known as grinding. However, there are some activities that cannot be done without grinding. And there are numerous changes to the way the game work in that it is no longer "fun" for me to run around gathering interesting items. It's not possible to do some of the things alone anymore. My fun was ruined and I was turned away.

When two new chapters to Guild Wars were released, I purchased them immediately. Granted, this added something more to the entire game so that I don't have to play the same thing repeatedly. Yet there remains something that is needed in order to keep players in the game. It needed something to keep those players occupied. So the developers of the game, ArenaNet, added the area that was missing from the original release of Nightfall -- the Domain of Anguish. Sadly, the only way to enter is to beat the game first. Also of note is that there's nothing much else to add to the entire game.

Eventually the fabled Hard Mode became a reality and some changes were made to the way people accrue points to certain titles for Nightfall. Also changed was how some Titles work. The new titles that were introduced along with Hard Mode gave me something new to do... but it grew old quickly. Having been through all of the missions in all three chapters, I know how they work. What drove me away was the fact that some missions require the survival of characters, one of which would take point and rush straight into the battle. This lead to either rushing alongside with this character or leaving that character for dead, thus ending the mission prematurely. There is no control over this and there is no way to keep the character from rushing to its death. It frustrated me to no end and I went into haitus.

ArenaNet made the announcement that their first (and perhaps last and only expansion) to the Guild Wars game, Eye of the North, will be released on August 31, 2007. This completely blindsided many people who were expecting the expansion to be released during the 2007 holiday season (which would put the game around October or November). A Pre-Release pack was sent out to retailers and the pre-order component of the expansion was made available on their in-game online store. People bought it.

So as of now, for this weekend only, those who have made their pre-order are exploring the new areas. They are combatting monsters, participating in small games, exploring, and viewing what will become their monument to their own character. I am one of them. It is something new. And it is something to do. But sadly, all of this, all of the things that I have earned will be locked away for a week. It is only a week but it is understandable that things earned in a preview event should be locked away temporarily.

The world is vast... and it only felt that what I have done thus far only scratched the tip of this giant iceberg that I'm on. And assuming that the map that I have seen is correct, then what I am about to find out is that I'll be able to travel and explore an area that I have remembered so well yet never set foot on. How will this affect my time with Battlefield 2142? Honestly, I don't know. But after trying so hard to earn a particular badge, it is a nice change of pace.