Apparently, I'm a victim of piracy...

Yesterday, my computer packed up. Wouldn't boot up at all, said the operating system needed reinstalling. Naturally, I spent about five hours searching for one, and when I found one I thought 'well, superb, the problems are solved'.

But they weren't. Oh no, because Windows won't install - apparently, I didn't have a hard drive installed. I started swearing to myself at this point, because I really didn't want to lose a 200 gig hard drive and everything on it, but I figured it was a bit too late to do anything about it. So I set off across the road to buy a replacement, costing a whacking £45, and then come back to install it.

But then my computer boots up fine. Completely fine, no problems with my hard drive nor my operating system. So I'm sitting there, Windows install disk in one hand and brand new £45 hard drive in the other, and my PC is working like a charm. This does not make me happy.

What makes me even less happy is that my PC keeps crashing, which I have surmised is down to it overheating. My CPU fan isn't spinning, which is probably the reason, though the heatsink is going quite nicely for hours at a time (allowing me to type this). Thing is, the fan IS working - it powers up for a good few seconds every time I start the PC, but then it just stops. I've twiddled the BIOS, I've downloaded programs to control it, but nothing works. It's all rather stupid, as I don't mind if my computer physically breaks but I get quite pissed off when it is capable of working but chooses not to.

Oh, and to make things better, Windows Update has downloaded a new patch that apparently thinks it is helpful to tell me I've been a victim of counterfeiting every 30 minutes. So that screws up whatever I'm doing every half an hour, as it alt-tabs games down, and I can't seem to dislodge that either. Even as I type this, it's done it again. Do they honestly think I don't KNOW I'm using a pirate version of Windows?

If I go quiet for a few days, either my computer has actually melted from the lack of fan action or I've thrown it out the window in a fit of rage. Either way, the computer loses. I hope it thinks about that carefully before it decides to fuck with me again.

Cross platform gaming? Xbox 360 and PC gamers set to collide over Team Fortress 2...

Or at least, the option is there. Apparently the Team Fortress 2 coding allowing cross-platform play has been completed, but Valve are as yet unsure as to whether they will be implementing it.

I'm of the belief that within five years the majority of cross-platform releases will involve cross-platform play. However, I'm starting to wonder what this means for the evolution of the next-gen consoles - or even the current batch (and indirectly, for the future of the PC). MMORPGS play quite a big part in this, so if you're only interested in that aspect of the article then bear with me.

Currently, the only game out there that allows cross-platform gaming is Shadowrun - and I imagine most games will follow a similar model at first (basically, Xbox 360 players play on Xbox-Live, while PC players have to upgrade to Vista and then pay a fee for XBox-Live membership). With only Shadowrun available I don't see this as a particularly great idea, but if some flagship titles start to bridge the gap, we might see this become more popular. Team Fortress 2 is clearly going to be one of these titles, but it's going to be immensely popular anyway. When PC players are perfectly able to find a game of TF2 without upgrading to Vista or paying for it, there's no reason to pay for Xbox-Live. Thus, I think the logical progression will be to link Valve's servers (Steam) with the Xbox-Live ones, so the PC gamers don't have to jump through hoops to play against console players, while Microsoft still get their cut from the Xbox 360 players playing online. This solution isn't just applicable to Valve, of course, because the majority of gaming companies offer similar online support.

In a desperate attempt to break even, the Peruvian government finally allowed tourists to do what they had always wanted to do in the country's Inca ruins: sniper rifle duels.

The next issue, then, is balance. For FPS games, mouse and keyboard is king. Yeah, people who are really good on consoles might be able to stay in touch, but a mouse generally gives far more precision than an analogue stick. Shadowrun got around this by implementing a heavy auto-aim system for everyone, and giving PC gamers twice as much recoil on every gun. That's not an ideal solution, and don't expect to see many more like it. Instead, I expect to see a mouse and keyboard becoming increasingly common on consoles. But I don't expect to see that happen too quickly, because I think consoles are trying to resist the idea of being a computer that you can't upgrade.

Thus, I don't expect to see FPS games being the sparks that ignite the fire of cross-platform gaming. Instead, I fully expect it to be MMORPGS - specifically, Age of Conan. With an MMORPG, you don't have to worry about all the jazz with PC gamers having to pay - they have to pay a monthly fee anyway, they're used to it. Other MMORPG games also will always want more subscribers to earn more money, too, so the large markets of the Xbox 360 crowds will be tempting for them. But overall, the type of game is well suited to console gaming because the combat system is less based on instant reflexes - with the introduction of online voice chat, you probably wouldn't need a keyboard at all. Thus, I expect to see quite a lot of cross platform MMORPGs coming out after Age of Conan starts to capitalise on the market after it's Xbox 360 release. I think the Xbox will see more of them due to its close links with Microsoft, but I believe by the time the next gen of consoles comes around Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony will be bending over backwards to incorporate cross-platform play into their machines.

This leaves PCs in a slightly strange position, as the increases in chip power will obviously be utilised in servers, but with gamers possibly migrating to more inexpensive consoles instead, the desire for high-end graphics advances will fade. Perhaps they'll trudge along as media stations for a while, but I see the consoles eventually snapping up those markets too. But by that time they'll probably be very PC-like themselves, except they won't be upgradable. I must admit, I quite like the idea of just buying a new console every 4 years and knowing that the playing field is perfectly level between everyone - it's much less hassle than gearing out a new gaming PC every few years, only to realise most of your friends can't play the same games as you because they've not managed to buy a good enough machine yet.

Microsoft's ongoing problems with weight reached crisis point with the release of the Xbox 740.

Having said that, there are already two versions on the PS3 on the market. By the time of next-gen consoles, can we expect to see several different models available? I hope not, otherwise the point of the console - ease of use and less complexity when compared to a PC - will have been lost.

But we'll have to wait to see what'll happen, won't we? Keep your eyes on Age of Conan for Xbox 360, too. If it does well, expect to see others follow in its footsteps, and expect to see the MMORPG market get even bigger.

Hektor.

Blizzard's next-gen MMO?

Before the announcement of Starcraft 2, there was some speculation that the title announced would be World of Starcraft. This was not entirely unsurprising, if a little hopeful - Blizzard had put up a couple of recruitment ads on their site a couple of weeks before, looking for designers to work on a 'next-gen MMORPG'. Now, we all know Starcraft 2 was the game announced, but that doesn't answer the question of what Blizzard are going to do next in the MMO market.

Let's look at the facts. World of Warcraft is hardly flagging (currently at 8.5 million subscribers and with a net taking of around $1.5 billion annually), but it is coming up three years old. It's not going to last forever, but even if 99% of the population left there would still be 85,000 subscribers left in the game - more than enough to warrant continuing to support the game. I also expect to see at least one more expansion, likely three more, the next of which will be Northrend (from the Frozen Throne), in an attempt to keep WoW going/growing for as long as possible. There's little argument that Blizzard WILL bring out another game, and I imagine we can expect it in about three years - some time in 2010, by which point WoW will be six years old and most certainly have had its day. And I imagine it'll completely dominate the market again, at least for a while, because at the end of the day Blizzard do make high-quality games. That, and their success automatically breeds a level of hype in the gaming world that is literally unparallelled by any other gaming company or franchise (maybe Halo and Half-Life come close, but not within touching distance).

WoW has a female night elf on the box cover. Half Life 2 has Gordon Freeman. I think I may just have solved this mystery.

Now, about the content. There's four options here, the first being a MMO set in an entirely new universe and the remaining three being a title set in one of Blizzard's established universes - Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo. Diablo is a rich universe that could transfer well to a MMORPG universe, but it lacks the depth of the Warcraft universe - nevertheless, it could translate well. I can imagine the Evil side would have a lot of choice of monstrous races, while the Good side would have humans and angels (and they could probably think of some other ones too). The classes could be numerous, given that there were 7 in Diablo II alone if you include the expansion. Most people write off Diablo as being too WoW-like, but by the time the next MMO comes out I doubt that'll be an issue. Diablo is quite an adult world, but then a lot of the criticism aimed at WoW is that it's cartoony and seemingly geared towards kids. If Age of Conan's realistic style succeeds, Funcom may find Blizzard aggressively expanding into their territory.

A World of Warcraft II has a certain appeal, too. First up, it's a familiar world that might well lure old players back with a wave of nostalgia if they're thinking about giving up WoW around now. If the game is set in the future, you've got an excuse to change the world considerably, keeping the experience fresh. Having said that, my money is not on a WoW2. This is because, in order to change the world enough to create a different gaming experience, Blizzard would have to have a catastrophe strike Azeroth, or set it at least a century in the future. And remember that WoW is not the only game in the Warcraft Universe - I fully expect to see a Warcraft 4 in the future, continuing the storylines of WC3 and WoW. And revealing the future or wrecking the world would make this prohibitively difficult to achieve, so I don't expect to see a WoW2. Not until after a WC4, at least.

Starcraft. Now, this IS an interesting topic. With Starcraft being considered one of the finest games of all time and a universe that has the potential to be very cool indeed (though it's rather underdeveloped with only a single game and expansion pack to its name), it's definitely a fertile ground for MMO exploitation. What form this will take is debatable, though. Let's look at the facts. SC2 is looking to be very good indeed (see an explanation why Blizzard will make it amazing, regardless of budget), and will doubtless expand the universe of SC a great deal. I expect to see it hit the shelves in late 2008, given the state it appears to be in at the moment seems quite advanced - but given the slow speed at which Blizzard are currently releasing information. This would give between 18 months and 2 years to my supposed release date for the next-gen MMORPG. Currently, the universe isn't particularly suitable to a WoW-style MMORPG, for a series of reasons. Firstly, basically everyone except one unit per race uses ranged weapons. Secondly, there's a lot of vehicles. Thirdly, unlike Warcraft in which battle raged across Azeroth, SC takes place across a multitude of different planets and thus there's no real defined setting for it. There's a defined feel, true, but that's not quite the same thing. Now, I fully expect SC2 to flesh things out a bit, completely intentionally making the universe more easily ported in the MMO world. About what I think they'll do with it - well, I'll mention that in a moment.

The only thing likely to reunite Korea.

Firstly, I have to dismiss out of hand the idea that they'll do another MMORPG set outside their existing franchises. I don't see them doing that at this stage, because there's not really much for them to gain by doing it. WoW didn't actually bear much resemblance to the Warcraft games I've played, true, but at least it was a recognisable name that I subconsciously associate with quality even if the Blizzard label were not present. I, along with many others, would be very surprised (and disappointed) if Blizzard did not use their existing franchises for their next gen MMOs.

So, what do I see coming, Starcraft or Diablo? Well, here's the thing: I see both of them coming but, perhaps surprisingly, I see a Diablo MMORPG arriving first. Why do I think that, when most people predict a Starcraft game coming first? Well, because I can't see Blizzard releasing a SC MMORPG. Nope, I see them releasing an MMOFPS. I see an MMOFPS as a logical progression of the current trend in online shooters to have character progression and large scale battles, as demonstrated by Battlefield 2 (and no doubt soon Quake Wars and Unreal Whatever It's Called). I don't consider vehicles to be a good addition to the current system of timer-based fighting that exists in MMORPGs, but they sure as hell work in BF2 and the like. Whether or not the players would get to use vehicles/play as the heavy zerg units, I don't know, because it could work either way.

In my eyes, the game would be about 50% PvP and PvE. The PvP would take place between the different races, like a glorified game of BF2. PvE would involve levelling up and raiding, too - but how could you raid in an FPS game? Well, quite easily really. Get together the 40 people, split into groups of five, and then zone into a large instanced zone full of NPC bots. Certain parts of the map would need certain classes to get past, like getting around the perimeter walls might need snipers to take out turret gunners, while clearing a minefield might need a player with a shield generator to cover a class capable of minesweeping. If you have a series of objectives that had to be hit in a co-ordinated strike between different groups, it would be quite complex as well. One group might have to hold a computer terminal for 2 or 3 minutes against an enemy assault, while their hacker brought down the target base's shields - at which point, a group that had taken over an artillery turret would have 30 seconds to shell the defense systems to cover the advance of the rest of the units, who would then have say 5 minutes to fight their way inside and shut down the defences, so that the other two squads could join them. If it were like CS, where a dead player is out for the duration of the game, it'd be quite exciting (and there'd be a use for medics), and it were done well it'd be really good fun. You could gear up like in WoW, where you get armour that increases your survivability (or perhaps contains functionality like limited auto-aim or IR detection or something), while weapons could do more damage or have bigger clips or better scopes etc. This would be a game with far more player skill than WoW currently has, and it would actually be truly revolutionary (and people would use gear due to personal preference for its features as much as stats, which would be nice). Games have tried this kinda thing before, with limited success, but for this to work you would need tens of thousands of players, so it would seem like a proper war was raging. Blizzard's name would guarantee that, and an MMOFPS would open up a whole new market to Blizzard - FPS games. They'd make a LOT of money out of it, and it'd be another feather in their collective caps.

Huxley (named after the author of Brave New World) is probably the first real attempt at a MMOFPS, but I only heard about it today when I typed the term 'MMOFPS' into Google. If this was a Blizzard game, even my cat would be excited. Not that he'd be any good at it: lack of opposable digits, you see. That's why your pets never beat you at Halo. Unless they're monkeys. Or children.

Diablo, however, I see as the logical progression of the fantasy MMO genre. 2010 will be a decade after Diablo II came out, so it's more than possible that Blizzard will stick to what they know and will bring out Diablo III as their next MMO. I'd like to think a SC MMO would be the next one they release, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's going to be Diablo. So thats what I'm going to predict. A Diablo MMO coming out in 2010, with a SC MMOFPS following in about 2012.

Only five years to wait to see how right I've been, then. Comments enabled on this page, so you're welcome to post what YOU think too.

Hektor.

Everquest 2, suddenly a worthwhile choice again?

About a week ago, I resubscribed my Everquest II account that I had played for one month upon release of Echoes of Faydwer about 4 months ago or so. I did it on a whim, I'll admit, but it has turned out to be quite interesting. Read my player diary for more information on that.

Anyway, the point of this post is not to talk about my experiences in EQ2, it is to talk about EQ2 in relation to the rest of the MMORPG market. Now, it is no secret that Everquest 2 was a bad game when it came out. Most of the players will freely acknowledge that, and in some ways the stigma of EQ2 appears not to have washed off even after nearly three years. However, the game has changed greatly since release. Some would argue it is for the worse, but the game has become much more solo friendly and casual-friendly, and the new development team have taken the game in a new direction after the relative success of Echoes of Faydwer. They are intentionally bringing back familiar EQ1 content (though usually with a fair few changes), and they've started to take longer over expansions to make them more polished. This can only be a good thing, as the new expansion recently announced brings back Kunark, probably the most distinctive and well-loved continent of the old Everquest. This isn't just good for nostalgic EQ1 players, because Kunark was well loved for a reason - it was awesome. If they can capture the forlorn grandeur of the original Kunark, this expansion will be an excellent experience for EQ2 players.

Everquest II - now officially not shit.

Now, that's slated for a November release, nearly six months away. In the meantime, however, the dev team are churning out monthly game updates. And, no, we're not talking little changes to balance and bugfixes in each update. Last Game Update saw the return of the Dark Elf city from EQ1, Neriak, and the starting zone Darklight Woods just outside it. This brings the number of starting cities up to 4, with at least another one slated for release in the expansion. And I have to say, I LOVE Neriak and the Darklight woods. They're both very characterful and well designed, with Darklight easily being my favourite starting zone in EQ2 so far. It's almost a shame when you zone out into the lvl 20+ zones around it (which have both been there since the start of EQ2), as it really shows how much the devs have improved since release. In the next Game Update, coming out four weeks later, the features include a complete revamps of AA trees (similar to talent trees in WoW), an addition of the 'dressing room' feature to allow you to preview what armour looks like when worn, as well as another entirely new zone - this one a high-level raid zone. Tradeskills are also being revamped.

Despite their hard work, the dev team have still not quite got around to implementing gravity.

Seeing this kind of workrate in the dev team is really something, and it really gives you a lot of hope for the future. If the Rise of Kunark turns out to be a really good expansion pack (and the devs keep working like this for the next 6 months), I imagine that EQ2 might honestly be a genuine challenger to WoW and AoC in terms of popularity. I'm not saying that the game is flawless, but I definitely think it is underrated. As said above, if you want a more detailed analysis of the game, read the first week of my play diary on the sidebar to the left.

Hektor.

Warhammer Online, eh?

To be brutally honest, I'm not particularly excited by Warhammer Online. I used to play the miniature based game when I was about 13 (though I played the sci-fi equivalent), so I do actually know the world quite well. It's certainly quite a detailed world, and it has probably more premise than most of the MMOs today are gifted with. It's just what they're doing with it that doesn't really convince me. Mostly because I think it looks horrible. I don't want to play a game that looks crap, basically. The screenshots I've seen really don't impress me. The two below, at full screen, both have horrible texturing. If you're going to the trouble of making an MMORPG, you may as well make it look nice.

There were concerns among the beta testers that the dwarves had an unfair advantage.

I'm also not sure I want to play a game that's so heavily geared around PvP. For the uninitiated, the idea of the game is to sack your opponent's city. You choose from one of three races on each side, and one of four classes in each of them (presumably they all play differently, giving you a total of 12 classes per side). You then engage your opposing faction - Empire vs Chaos, Dwarves vs Greenskins and High Elves vs Dark Elves - though you are allowed to move fronts and fight in a different area to your starting city. It's kinda like a big campaign, and the lines off battle ebb and flow depending on how well the PvP battles go. You also have integrated PvP and PvE on the same maps (on all the maps, possibly - I'm not sure on this). The combat seems interesting enough, though, as it's quite tactical and involves a lot of blocking. You can't move through someone, friend or foe, so the big tanks literally do act as meatshields for the casters and archers behind them. It could work very well, if done well, but I'm not convinced.

Van Helsing gets ready to make another god-awful movie.

What doesn't convince me is not the combat, however. I can't predict how that'll turn out, it could go either way. What concerns me is what you'll do in Warhammer Online. I get the impression the game may be very shallow, as PvP might get old quite quickly. I'm not sure what they're doing in the way of raid content or tradeskilling, if there is any. Their site is not as comprehensive, informative or well designed as the site for Age of Conan, which annoys me too. I might revisit this game in more detail when I get some gameplay movies of it, or a more comprehensive FAQ, but right now I see it as a gigantic Alterac Valley. And while I loved the concept of Alterac Valley, I wouldn't buy it as a stand-alone game.

Let's hope I'm wrong.

Hektor.

Age of Conan? But I don't like Arnold Schwarzenegger...

EDIT - As this page remains inexplicably popular on Google, I'm adding a link to my Age of Conan play diary and ongoing review here. (http://mmodusoperandi.blogspot.com/2008/05/age-of-conan-player-diary-level-1-20.html)

For those of you who aren't a fan of the Governator, his loincloth-clad form is officially not in this game. I can't speak for what he gets up to while ruling California, but one would hope that also does not involve him wearing a loincloth. I hope that gave you an unpleasant mental picture - if not, I've helpfully provided you with a physical one.

Scantily-clad Arnie NOT included in box. Probably the best advert for Age of Conan you will ever see.

But onto more pressing matters. My tip of the week is this - buy some shares in Funcom, because Age of Conan is going to be big. Why have I come to this conclusion? Well, these guys were behind Anarchy Online, which means that they're not new to this MMORPG malarkey. I'll admit, that's not a guarantee of success (just look at what EQ2 was like on release, followed by the rather abject failure of Vanguard - both made by the person who created the original EQ)They've also got some ideas that, while not revolutionary, certainly are a little different.

Realism = man in skirt shooting a bow at a bear. Apparently.

First up, it's meant to be fairly realistic. That's as in low fantasy rather than high fantasy. No elves and dwarves and stuff like that, just a lot of humans with sharp objects and anger management problems. Much like real ancient history, everyone seems to solve their problems by shooting them full of arrows or stabbing them through the face. This is a good thing, because it gives the game the grown-up feeling it is going for. There are scantily clad women in it, and lots of blood, and some quite impressive finishing moves and stuff. It's also meant to be quite morally grey, which is always slightly less patronising than:

'Help, I've lost my pet dog! Will you help me?'

A) Yes! I will risk life and limb to save your dog, for no reason other than the good of my pure pure heart!
B) No. Now I'm going to murder you and burn your village to the ground for asking. Then I'm going to eat your dog.

Probably the most unique feature of Age of Conan is the combat system, however, and it's here I'll stop mindlessly prattling away and actually voice my main concern about the game. It's going to be skill based in a big way. You actually aim your arrows, like in Oblivion. When you're fighting in melee, there's no auto-attack button, you kinda just hack around with your weapon and hopefully de-spleen some of your opponents. Or stab them through the face. I believe there is a low-end targeting system in there to make it bearable, but that unconfirmed at the moment. This might all sound hideously imprecise, but I've not seen it in action so I couldn't possibly comment. Fact is, though, for better or worse there will be a lot of player skill involved. The concept kinda reminds me of the combat in Fable, for some reason, though again I'll reiterate the fact I've never actually played it. Similarly, there's a spellweaving element for casters, which again is affected by the skill of the player involved.

I was going to say something funny, but instead I'm just going to gawk at how gorgeous Age of Conan actually looks.

Now this is either going to be awesome or completely rubbish. I don't see much in-between space with this game. If their combat system fails, it's going to be clunky and difficult to use, completely unplayable on any connection that isn't awesome, and generally a very-hit and miss affair open to a lot of exploitation. If it goes well, it'll be an exciting break from the norm that may well revolutionise how we play the genre. PvP will be nail biting and intense, and realistic to a new degree.

THIS IS SPAARTAAAAAA!

Oh, you're looking for Corinth? No problem. Three villages along, second on the right. No, don't worry about it, really. Happens all the time.

Time will tell which. Age of Conan is currently in beta testing, so hopefully it'll be a very polished game when it comes out. It has a lot of cool features I've not listed here, like player-made cities and siege PvP warfare between guilds, and PvP player levelling. If any of it catches your fancy, check out their FAQs on their website. Funcom are really aiming for the stars with this one, and if they deliver then they're going to have rewritten the genre. It's looking good so far, with impressive visuals and a lot of work going into animations, sound and armour suits too (as well as zone design), and it's definitely a game I'm going to buy on release. I'm tipping it to be the best MMORPG that will come out in the next twelve months, however, and I'm watching it very closely.

Hektor.

Age of Conan FAQ - http://community.ageofconan.com/wsp/conan/frontend.cgi?session=cwul1uhnwzgvtvfbw94v2ftd8m1gv3&func=publish.show&func_id=1029&table=PUBLISH&template=news_no_feature&selected=1029

The saga begins...

$1.5 billion. Random figure, perhaps? Well, not really - in fact, it’s very relevant to MMORPGS today, because that’s how much money World of Warcraft is taking in annually (assuming a few less than 9 million players at $15 a month). Yeah, I’d always thought MMOs were nice little moneyspinners, but when I did the maths I couldn’t believe it. Blizzard are taking $1,500,000,000 - if you were earning $10 an hour and working a 40-hour week, that’d take you just shy of 80,000 years to match. Nice little moneyspinner? I’d say so.

With the current levels of WoW subscriptions, the money brought in could buy a space shuttle within 15 months. They cost $2.1 billion.

Now, I don’t play WoW any more, but I think it’s still a good game. It’s far from perfect, but I admire Blizzard for taking the bull by the horns and COMPLETELY rewriting the MMO genre. It’s quite interesting, because I was reading the book ‘No Logo’ the other day (an interesting read), which talks about companies like Nike simply selling themselves and an image, rather than actually selling clothes. Blizzard haven’t quite reached that stage yet, but I seriously doubt WoW would have got the attention it did had it not been made by Blizzard, with their outstanding pedigree. This has an upshot, if you think about it. Blizzard know their name is valuable, as they’ve canned duff games before, even when they’ve spent years making them. Warcraft Adventures, anyone? Why this is good is simple. Starcraft 2. Blizzard are going to make that game awesome even if only to protect their brand name, no matter how much money they need to spend. It’s fairly clear they’re also going to be priming the SC universe for a MMO set there, too - but that’s another story. See ‘Blizzard’s next-gen MMO’ for my thoughts on that.
So, back to more immediate concerns. What’s going on in the world of MMOs? Well, at this moment there’s a lot up in the air that, frankly, could come down anywhere. The Burning Crusade came out a while ago now and with no other expansion looming for at least six months, WoW is probably at it’s most vulnerable point yet. It’s a veritable pensioner by now, coming up three years old in November. A few weeks ago now, the lead guild downed the end boss of the most recently added expansion, Illidan. As far as I’m aware, at the time nobody else had even seen him - the nearest competitors were nine bosses behind. The 20-30th ranked guilds (in the world, we’re talking guilds that dominate their sever here) were entire instances behind them. I don’t see Blizzard adding any new high-end raid content for a while, so basically these kiddies have ‘completed’ WoW. All that’s left is farming the instances to gear up, and then butchering people with it in PvP. Woo. Whether or not this the raids being available from expansion launch is a good thing is debatable when contrasted with the previous mode of gradually releasing new content when a significant number of high-end guilds had existing content on farm (see my debate on ‘raid progression’), but it does seem like WoW might be starting to falter a little. Should Blizzard be worried? Well, possibly, if they scan the horizon.

Burning Crusade, already been completed. Is WoW starting to falter or is it only getting stronger?

Two big names are on their way in. Age of Conan should be hitting stores in late October, while Warhammer Online is also chugging steadily nearer, slated for an early 2008 release date. LOTRO seems to be doing well enough, but we’ll give it a few months to see what happens with it. Everquest II also seems to be quietly growing in popularity after the announcement of the upcoming Rise of Kunark expansion scheduled for November, which aims to bring back arguably the best loved continent of the big daddy of all MMORPGS, the original EQ. If they do that well, you do wonder if EQ2 might enjoy a mini-renaissance. Given what the devs currently seem to be churning out, it’s certainly a possibility. Next post, I’ll go into the upcoming games in more detail.

Hektor, over and out.

Everquest II Player Diary Levels 40-45

In today's installment, Choraz marches past the level 40 mark and reaches the giddy heights of level 45, though the journey was not quite as rosy as it was from 30-40. To kick things off, I headed over to the Feerott to do a 'Heritage Quest' for the Stein of Moggok. A quick word of explanation here; Heritage Quests are multi-stage group/raid quests that reward you with a famous item from the original Everquest for completing them. The old Stein of Moggok was a powerful caster weapon which had the additional plus of making you look like you were an alcoholic. Sadly, the EQ2 version of the Stein (though still making you look like a drunkard) isn't a particularly good item given the level you need to be to earn it, but that didn't bother me too much - as a plate tank, I was hardly going to be using it anyway. No, I was doing the quest because you get an pretty respectable amount of valuable achievement experience for doing so.

In the end, though, I never managed to finish the quest. I'm not sure if my group had actually been formed from the ranks of the mentally disabled but, if not, they certainly fooled me. The first part of the quest involves killing 4 named ghostly ogres, who unfortunately are rare spawns. This in itself is nothing unusual, but the placeholder monsters roam as freely about the zone as do the actual quest mobs. So not only do you need to spend an eternity camping spawns, just like the old EQ1 days, you've actually got to track down the spawn every time you clear it. Now, despite knowing this, my group did not bother to recruit any scouts who could track the ogres. This meant that we were running about all over the place trying to find the placeholders (with half the group afk), and then when we did find them we had to get everyone together to actually fight the damn thing - the placeholders were triple heroic mobs, just like the actual quest mobs. Needless to say, the two hours of my life spent on that quest were wasted entirely. Thanks, SOE - I thought we were meant to have moved on from EQ1?

Despite this bad experience, however, I stayed in the Feerott until level 42 - while I do generally prefer the expansion zones over in Faydwer to the old-world zones, the level 40 Faydwer zone is still the Steamfont Mountains (and I'd spent quite a while there already). The visual style is okay, even quite good in places. Yes, it is just another forest twisted by evil forces, but I do quite like the tropical rainforest vibe. In the original EQ the zone was the starting area for the Ogres and some trolls, and it's the kind of place you could see them hailing from. Appropriately, there's quite a few troll/ogre type monsters running about alongside the infamous lizardmen and some quite cool plants. Beyond that, though, the choice of monsters is just like every other old-world EQ2 zone - bats, spiders and snakes. When compared to a game like World of Warcraft, the repetitiveness of the monsters you fight in the old-world zones is quite striking.

The quests, too, are the standard 'go kill x monsters' fare leave you feeling rather underwhelmed, seemingly no matter where you go in the zone. And there are a lot of areas to go - the Feerott another giant zone that stretches across two map pages, just like the Commonlands (and naturally you can't switch between the two halves of the map without physically walking there). The size of the zone does mean there's a lot of Achievement Experience up for grabs for exploring it, but it also leaves the place feeling a bit unfocused - it just seems like an endless series of monster-infested roads, trees and steams, all liberally dotted with ruined temples and lizardman camps. As there's no named creatures in most of the ruined temples/camps, there seems little gain to be had in bothering to clear them - it seems more sensible to have only put two or three into the zone, and actually made it worthwhile attacking them.

You also can't help but notice that the zone is PACKED with monsters, probably more densely than any other place I've seen in EQ2. Irritatingly, most of them are hostile. It's pretty much impossible to do anything in the zone without getting jumped by something, which is a real pain if you're harvesting or trying to run to one of the dungeons in the zone. What makes it worse is that many of the creatures in the zone are either linked, heroic, or both. A lot of the humanoid camps are linked heroics that would need 3-4 people to take on. Given the fact that there's little reward for clearing said camps, why would any group do it when they could just visit one of the two dungeons in the zone instead? All that the heroic content in the Feerott does is close off large areas of the map (and a lot of quest chains) to solo players, and result in incredibly annoying deaths when you're fighting/harvesting/walking and a triple heroic WHICH LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME as all the other non-heroic monsters of that type. A lot of EQ2 veterans who played the original say the like the risk this brings, like in EQ1 where there were level 40 monsters wandering through level 20 zones, killing everyone that came near. I remember stuff like that well, like when I was crossing the Desert of Ro and I was killed by the Terrorantula. What's the difference between that and EQ2's version? The Terrorantula was FIFTY FEET TALL, that's the difference. You couldn't really miss it, and it was quite clearly something you wanted to avoid. In EQ2 triple heroics and non-heroic monsters share exactly the same name, level and model (and often spawn within a few feet of one another). By the time you realise your add was actually a triple heroic, you're dead.

Linked content, too, is badly utilised in that zone. You can quite easily accidentally aggro two mobs and suddenly find yourself fighting eight (and then die) because they were actually both parts of linked groups of four. You can't even escape from the spiders, thanks to their snare spells. But anyway, enough complaining. The zone has potential, but sadly it just demonstrates all the hallmarks of the appalling original EQ2 design philosophy that got this game lambasted on release. It needs a revamp, badly.

So, at 42, I headed to one of the two dungeons in the Feerott, the Obelisk of Lost Souls, whereupon things got even worse. You know how I said Fallen Gate was a rubbish dungeon? Well, this one is much worse. It's quite possibly the worst dungeon I've ever seen. It is HORRIBLE. Basically, when you zone in, everyone gets sent to different places in the zone. Obviously, split up, you can't do much because the monsters are Heroics. You can all end up in the same place by dying, or using an evac spell (sadly mine came at 44, not 42), because there's only one spawn point in the zone - right at the bottom. So I had to kill myself to meet up with the rest of my group, which is possibly the worst concept I've ever come across in my entire life. Believe it or not, though, things actually managed to go downhill from there.

So, from this spawn point at the base of the Obelisk, you have to do a quest to reach the dungeon proper. The quest involves killing five named monsters in the great big cavern you're in but, guess what? Yeah, they're not always up. Once again, you have to camp placeholders to get the quest target to spawn. As far as I'm aware, there is one other named monster in the cavern, but another group killed him before we could attack him ourselves. I spent the best part of an hour running around killing things, trying to make these 5 named mobs spawn, but at the end of it all I had one. Yes, that's ONE of the FIVE I needed. We saw a second one spawn, but another group got there first and killed him (naturally the dungeon isn't an instance). Thus, if you want to do the Obelisk, you have to spend two or three hours camping the cavern BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN START the dungeon. I can't even begin to imagine what the designers were thinking when they dreamed the Obelisk up, but I can't think of even one good thing to say about it. Even the visual style is awful, unless you really (and I mean REALLY) like purple. Seriously, if anybody was at all in the dark about why World of Warcraft completely destroyed EQ2 on release, all they need to do is to go and take a trip to the Obelisk.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, things picked up after I left the Feerott. I was Level 43 and I decided to go along with a Deathfist Citadel group searching for a plate tank in world chat. The Citadel is a very popular zone for the early forties, and it's easy to see why. It doesn't get to crowded, either, as it is an instance. I've been screaming out for instanced dungeons for a long time, and the Citadel simply reaffirms my opinions. Respawns are on long timers so, unless you mean to stay for hours, dead orcs will stay dead. Patrols will respawn fairly quickly, but they're only single mobs and easily dealt with. This is superb if you lose a party member and need a replacement, or if you need to go back and forth through the citadel for a quest (and you will). The amount of tedium it cuts out is unbelievable.

Secondly, the zone is a rather cool concept. When you first break in, you do a circle around the base of the keep and clear the orcs there. There's plenty of Achievement exp on grabs for exploring and killing named (expect 2-3 AA points if it's your first go), but while you do this you will find archers on the towers above shooting down at you. It's a nice touch, and leads logically to the next section where you head to the tops of the towers and clear the archers and siege operators from the catapult towers. Then once you've done that, you head into the interior of the castle proper. Overall, the design of the zone is excellent and the visual style is also good (I'm not sure if I prefer it to Crushbone, but it feels very orcy). The linear progression through the zone also helps keep it focused and exciting - there's no quibbling about where to go next, you just keep on fighting.

The third attractive feature is the challenge. Once inside the castle, the bosses are generally pretty hard. My first group wiped once on each of the first two bosses before wiping conclusively a little further in, and it's because the bosses aren't just the run-of-the-mill EQ2 bosses that act like tougher heroics. The first one were tackled was a Priest who will heal himself unless you interrupt him, and the second was an orcish Prince who had an AOE fear spell and a powerful melee attack. Both fights were far more interesting than any in the other EQ2 dungeons I'd visited, so I returned a second time with a better group later that day.

The rest of the bosses are equally cool and compelling, like the alchemist boss who mind controlled me and set me attacking the cloth-wearing caster classes in my group. There was also the Arena (the devs obviously having taken some inspiration from UBRS in WoW), where Emperor Fyst appears on a balcony to lecture you and then set his minion on you. The Arena Master was the penultimate boss and was great fun to fight, as he has an absolute ton of hitpoints and deals out a lot of damage. I'm pretty well geared for my level, but the priest was having to work overtime to keep me alive. Also, in addition to his punishing melee attacks the Arena Master has an AOE knockback attack that can knock players into the spikes mounted on the walls of the Arena and killing them instantly. That didn't come into the fight too much as we negated it by fighting him in a corner, but again it's treating the players with a bit more respect than most of the EQ2 dungeons do. The players aren't idiots, so it's just patronising to have the bosses as simple and straightforward as in most of the EQ2 dungeons I've played thus far.

The final boss in the instance was Emperor Fyst himself, back on his throne on the roof of the Citadel. He's surrounded by bodyguards, but the devs have not linked them together - thus, a skilled puller can get them one at a time. Once we'd cleared them, we took on Fyst himself. He turned out to be just as hard as the Arena Master was, with a similar knock-back attack. We had to pull him indoors, because if you fight him outside his knock-back attack will throw you off the roof of the castle, but even with his special attack negated he took an awful lot of punishment before he went down. When he did die, he dropped a frankly awesome sword that I had the good fortune to win. I left the zone extremely impressed, and not just because the previous dungeon had been the Obelisk of Lost Souls. Deathfist Citadel is a fun, well-designed zone with excellent exp, AA and drops, but best of all it's a zone that actually challenges your player skill. Well worth a visit for every EQ2 player.

Now, as DFC is in the original EQ2 zones, you're probably wondering how it can contrast so much with the Obelisk mentioned above. The answer is simple - DFC was revamped in a game update somewhere around the release of Echoes of Faydwer, turning an underused zone into an excellent and fun one. Thus, the zone is the work of the NEW dev team, rather than the old one. That's why it rocks. I only hope they continue to revamp the dungeons, starting with the Obelisk and then Fallen Gate. They also added new tradeskilling recipes using Blood Iron Ore that drops in DFC, giving crafted armour sets to all classes (and it's damn good stuff, too). So, full credit to the dev team for DFC as it's an excellent zone, and I'd particularly like to see the light respawns continued in other zones.

After I finished DFC I was about a third into level 44, so I headed to Lavastorm to hit 45. This zone is a mixed bag, to be honest. Visually, it's excellent. It's an island volcano, with fire raining from the sky and lava and heat haze everywhere. It all looks superb, and you genuinely feel that you've made progress from the newbie zone level 1 when you land there and take a look around. The zone itself, though, is much like I imagine Zek used to be. As the original level cap in EQ2 was level 50, both Lavastorm (and Everfrost) seem designed as outdoor dungeons for high end players to stomp about in. Most of the content is double or triple heroic, so you can't get far by yourself, and there's not many quests. Those that there are involve killing a LOT of goblins or whatever, with nothing interesting about them. The monsters are reasonably varied, though you'll have seen all the models before, but overall the zone does put across the feeling of raw and untamed energy brilliantly and I'm willing to forgive it a lot for that. At the very top sits a dungeon, Sol's Eye, another returning zone from EQ1, but I wasn't able to get near it (though I intend to return in five or ten levels or so). In the end, you have to conclude that Lavastorm suffers in the same way that the Feerott does - it's a product of the old-style EQ2 design school. It's intended to serve a purpose that's now defunct - nowadays level 50s just want to level on up to the new level cap, so they don't need a place to pass time and hunt level 50 heroics. EQ2 has changed with the new expansions, and Lavastorm (and the Feerott) need to be updated to reflect that.


All in all, level 40-45 was okay. It had its high points (Deathfist Citadel) and it's low points (Feerott and Obelisk of Lost Souls), but most was just average (everything else). At this point my internet connection went south as far as gaming goes, so I took a three month hiatus. In the next entry, exploring some of the content of the first expansion, Desert of Flames.

Everquest II Player Diary Level 35 - 40 (Part Two)

Following on from my visit to Nektropos Castle, I headed back to Steamfont for a while. Continuing the pattern of the content from level 30-40 being excellent, Steamfont was a lot of fun. It's a zone from the original Faydwer of Everquest 1, the homeland of the gnomes and their city of Ak'Anon. Though I did quite like the old one, this version is far better. Right from the outset it hits you with bright colours and sunny landscapes, very much in the vein of the Enchanted Lands. The zone is reasonably large as well, which yields plenty of standard and Achievement exp for exploring it.

If only they'd released The Terminator in Norrath, the gnomes would have known this was going to happen.

While the quests are the standard fare, the setting really makes the zone impressive. There is a lot of green grass and impressive mountains, mixed in with geysers and enormous cogwheels and other machinery that suggest a certain untamed power to the landscape (much like the original Steamfont). The best part of all is the Gnomish outpost, though. It's called Gnomeland Security, which elicited a smile, but it's a very colourful and characteristic outpost that is far more memorable than most of the others in the game. The gnomes are also generally insane, which is both amusing and endearing. There's one particular quest where, if you make the right conversation choices, you can insist that a quest NPC squirts hot burning oil in both of your eyes - and he promptly obliges, blurring your vision for a couple of seconds and knocking a chunk of your health off. EQ2 generally isn't a particularly amusing game, but that bit nearly had me falling off my chair with laughter, simply because I couldn't believe they'd actually put it in.

Gnomeland Security headquarters, where you can insist on having flaming oil squirted into your eyes - a must for tourists or visitors alike.

The monsters in the zone are initially kobolds, minotaurs and the local wildlife, but later you get to tangle with the weaker renegade clockworks (who have taken over Ak'Anon and turned it into Klak'Anon), and finally some weird bird-man things that were quite high level and not something I wanted to tangle with pre-45. By this point you'll have seen most of the models in at least one place before, but they are still quite well animated and the rest of the zone makes up for the repetition of models. There's not really much else to say about it: it's well worth a visit.

'Your rock is leaking,' Choraz pointed out helpfully.

Anyways, I spent up until about mid-level 38 in Steamfont, only leaving because someone was recruiting a Runnyeye group. Steamfont is one of the best zones I've encountered thus far, so kudos to the dev team for making it - there's not much I'd change about it, which is rare.

Runnyeye is cool. 'Nuff said.

Runnyeye, too, was a lot of fun. Though people kept leaving and I literally spent upwards of four hours in there, I generally had a pretty good group in there and I thought the zone was reasonably well-designed too. It's located in the Enchanted Lands and is set into a mountain, and it has a good visual style right from the outset. It's nothing particularly special, but it has enough colour and consistency to make it effective. The fact the tunnels in the zone often head upwards and downwards also gives you a feel that you're actually working your way towards something, so even though the surroundings don't really change the dungeon manages to get around the problems of unclear progression that most other EQ2 dungeons seem to have. There's generally only one path to take, so it's a question of fighting through the place and that's actually quite fun.

Eyes are probably the most squishy and vulnerable part of a person, so being a giant eye must suck. Especially with a throne that spiky. If he's not careful, he'll have his eye out (ho ho ho...oh, I'll get my coat).

After you clear the main dungeon, there's two instances for you to do. There's some storyline about a rebellion in the Evil Eyes that I didn't really understand or care about, but the first instance involves killing the Runnyeye chieftain and the second one involves killing the big old Evil Eye in charge of the place. The fights were straightforward enough - the chieftain was a basic ring event with a couple of waves of monsters before he appeared, the evil eye boss was a straight fight - but the loot wasn't particularly good for us. Still, running the dungeon got me a lot of exp and AA, and I was basically level 40 when I'd finished it. And even after spending four hours in the place, I'd run it again. Much like the rest of the content from 30-40, it's very good.

This is a bridge. Sadly there's not much funny or interesting to say about it, beyond the fact you get ambushed by 5 goblins when you try and cross it (basically, this is as far as I could get into the instance solo when I went on my screenshot trip).

Naturally, it's not perfect though. Firstly, many of the quests would involve running the dungeon twice. Why do that? Because of the limited level range of each dungeon, you'd have to run the same place twice in about 48 hours, which is tedious. Secondly, there's a lot of named monsters that aren't up most of the time, instead with placeholders there. Just have them spawn every time, and turn down their loot drop frequency if you have to. I don't want to run the place twice with the same character, so I want to get the full experience on one run. And why not instance the entire thing and keep respawns to a minimum? In EQ2 it's very annoying if a groupie drops from the group, because it means you have to use an evac spell to get back to the entrance then fight right the way back to where you were. That can often take half an hour, and it's a real problem that can spoil things big time. Instancing would solve a lot of problems, and it really needs to be implemented.

Overall, though: level 35-40 was a very enjoyable experience with some excellent zones to play through. I just hope level 40+ maintains the same high standards.

Everquest 2 Player Diary Level 35-40 (Part 1)

This entry is split into two sections as it includes a great deal of zones. The dungeons of Nektropos and Runnyeye are discussed in some detail, along with Zek and Steamfont, which is far too much for a single entry.

As an aside, at level 35 Choraz passed the point where his namesake in EQ1 called it a day. I decided to celebrate by giving myself a surname. You can do this from level 20+, and essentially it just adds a surname to your character name. The game also contains Prefix and Suffix titles, the former earned from Achievement Experience trees or from city status, the latter from killing a lot of one type of creature (Hunter of Undead etc). Nice to have that extra layer of customisation of your character, so I thought I'd mention it even though it doesn't directly affect the gameplay.

I popped over to Steamfont at level 35 and killed a few things, but I spent more time there around level 39 so I'll discuss it in Part 2 of this entry. I visited Zek for a level or so too, to see what it was like. Impressions were mixed, but probably on balance good. The zone is quite distinctive. You land in a little outpost that is under siege from the orcs, which gives it a very warlike feel, and the rest of the zone is all orcs (Deathfist Citadel is at the far side of the zone). There are a number of quests in the outpost, at least three of which involve killing orc grunts. This is fine if you get them all at once, downright annoying if you miss one and have to do it again. Most of the orcs were blue when I got there, so even the linked mobs were soloable in the early part of the zone. I finished a number quests, then moved on to other areas. This is when I began to experience some annoyance with the zone.

This is the 'newbie' area (the fort is the player outpost), but basically the entire zone looks like this. Except with more orcs - no idea where the blighters are hiding in this screenshot, because there's normally loads.

Firstly, there's a LOT of orcs here, often very close together and with patrols. You'll often get attacked by a second orc when you're fighting, which might spell doom. I don't mind that, personally, but often the wanderers are heroics and that is just irritating. The respawn point is also STUPID, as it's on one side of the map and you have to basically fight ALL the way around the map to get back to your original position if you die anywhere near Deathfist Citadel. That needs to be fixed, pronto. Generally, though, there's a lot of heroics about. You know my thoughts on group content - it should be in out of the way places, ideally dungeons/instances, and the outdoor zones should be 99% soloable content (if you're skilled enough to single-pull it). It's quite a frustrating zone to solo in, therefore, but there is good Achievement experience from exploring it. Visually, the zone is...well, red. Lots of reds. It doesn't look bad, though. It gets depressing after a while, but it is meant to be the Orcish Wastes. And it does look like a wasteland, and it does look unique. So while it can be a little ugly and depressing, I guess that's the point. It could just do with being made even more solo friendly (it used to be ridiculously hard before it was made easier, but they haven't gone far enough).

Deathfist Citadel. Complete with lovely pink fireworks towards the rear of the castle.

I hit level 36 in Zek, and halfway to 37 I found someone putting together a group for Nektropos Castle so jumped right in (despite hating basically everything about the zone it was situated in, Nektulos Forest). Turns it that this was a good move. Though Nek castle was also an EQ2 release zone, it's actually very good and contains most of the elements I've been moaning about when I covered Fallen Gate or Ruins of Varsoon (and Crushbone, to a lesser extent). It's frustrating to know that the team were clearly capable of making good instances, but they just didn't...well, most of the time.

Most important point first. Nektropos castle is an instance. You go up to the big, ruined castle looming up ahead and click on the door, then you're in your own private instance. Bam. It's that simple. Inside, the courtyard is full of ghostly dogs and some gargoyles, with several doors leading off it. The graphical direction is nice, as the creepy castle feel is well-done, though there's too many small and pointless rooms. A minor complaint is I think it should be more grand, but that's only a small thing.

Nektropos castle - usually dark and gloomy, but shown here with lovely ambient lighting from the fearsome spells of my companions. And who said fighting never solved anything?

However, the zone isn't perfect. One of the big problems is that you won't know where to go unless you've got someone who's been there before. We did a full run with a couple of people who had (and had EQ2 Atlas), but it still took us three hours to do. With an inexperienced group, it could literally take all day. Anyway, we went around and killed a load of ghosts and zombies, when we killed a named mob and a ghostly woman appeared in front of us. She told us the story of her father, Lord Everling, and how he had her trapped in eternal torment in the basement or something. Point is, it caught my attention and we were given some direction.

Off we went, looking for the keys to progress. It didn't take long, as we knew where they were. You have to click the head of a boar and take the eye out, then run across to the other side of the castle and put it in another boar head, which gives you a key. Then you find another eye in a box somewhere and run back to the first boar head, which lets you open secret passages in the wall. It's a lot of running about (and fighting through monsters), true, but you feel like you're solving a mystery and unlocking the secrets of the zone. It's quite rewarding, really. Having said that, a group of complete beginners would never know where to go - the directions of your ghostly guide need to be more specific to keep it enjoyable for those without the benefit of previous experience.

Even the undead need time to relax and chill out with some chess or a quick game of pool, so every good evil master villain will install games room for his faithful zombies. I mean, it's not like their medical insurance costs much, is it?

Once you get through the secret passageways you find yourself in one of five towers that lead to the ramparts and some very confusing passageways that run between them. By the point, the castle is looking far more warped than it did at the start. Everything is misshapen and there are some neat perspective tricks employed. Gives the zone lots of character and makes you feel like you're getting closer to your objective. The next part, you have to kill the five daughters of Everling and take their necklaces so you can progress onwards to the basement. I really liked this part of the zone, as there are diaries and stuff over the place that show the last few days of the sisters before they were murdered. Then you have to fight their ghosts/zombies, and it's quite effective at giving the zone an evil feel (as the bedrooms are still bedrooms and the girls were quite young). Only problem is, again, there's not much direction as you can go to any tower in any order. There should be a set order you do the towers in, with each of the sisters getting harder to beat. You can get lost rather easily here, and end up clearing a tower you've already cleared (which takes a while). Going round in circles is always frustrating and can break the interest that was building in the mystery story. A rather impressive Epic level 40 monster appears in one of the towers, too, but it's permarooted so it's not too dangerous. Dunno why it's there, but it's cool.

If you're leading a group through a dungeon, this is NOT what you want to see when you round a corner. Trust me on this.

And then down to the basement, to free the woman from Everling. There are some nice monsters in there, with some strange animated dolls and the weird manakin that controls them, then to your ghostly guide. Who promptly betrays you ('my father will reward me for bringing him fresh subjects for his experiments!'). I didn't see that coming, so I thought it was good. Anyway, you kill her and some other guy who was apparently possessing her, then go down to Everling. I was expecting something great, but Everling is just a bloke in a robe. Again, boss visual design sucks (and the fight was also quite easy), so sort it out please. Anyway, cool zone overall and well worth a visit. Gained a level and a half, lots of Achievement experience, and had a really good time. The zone just needs less freedom, as it's too easy to get lost.

Part 2, Steamfont and Runnyeye.