If you’re anything like me, when you get to the max level in a game, there’s a general flailing of hands and a feeling of inner stupidity that go along with the thought of “what do I do now?”
That’s why I’m deeply and profoundly grateful for Asmiroth, who put together two incredibly helpful guides to WildStar’s endgame PvE gearing and rune system. Seriously, he’s doing all of the heavy ‘splaining that the game should’ve done in the first place. It’s quite straight-forward and useful, which are two qualities that I find attractive in a blog post.
If WildStar isn’t your jam, don’t worry. Today’s blog tour includes stops at Asheron’s Call 2, World of Warcraft, and Guild Wars 2, among others!
This was a strange and delightful find for me: a Tumblr devoted entirely to a player’s journey back into the realm of Asheron’s Call 2. It’s more pictures than thoughts, but for those like me who are curious what this fringe MMO holds, it’s quite illuminating.
“Sighhh, Asheron’s Call 2 was my first MMO and it had monster races and it’s currently available for 10 bucks,” the author commented.
Soul of the Forest: World of Warcraft: Legion game systems
Longtime Moonkin player Ocean has a handy breakdown of the major game systems and improvements coming with Legion, along with her commentary on each. Overall? She’s quite excited.
“I’m glad they’re simplifying the class abilities,” Ocean writes. “They’re doing away with the majority of the charges, runes, and all that crap. I think that should make it much easier to play the classes.”
Superior Realities: World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor review
Speaking of WoW, Tyler has a “giant rant” looking back at Warlords of Draenor. He has much to say about the expansion in retrospect, and little of it is kind. It is entertaining, however, especially for the phrase “Maryest of Sues.”
“Even if all the other issues hadn’t been a factor, WoD would still be an underwhelming expansion based purely on how small and unambitious it was,” Tyler writes. “WoW’s development has always been a case of two steps forward and one step back. Every expansion has made big mistakes. But Warlords of Draenor is the first expansion to do more harm than good.”
Why I Game: GW2: Epic is the expansion’s watchword
Let’s swing back the fan pendulum to “thrilled” for a bit and read Jeromai’s initial impressions of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns. He’s calling the expansion “epic” and has several examples to back that up.
“Everything is larger than life and supremely gorgeous. There may be only four maps, but they are probably some of the world’s most dense and tangled maps that an MMO has ever produced,” Jeromai writes.
Blessing of Kings: Has Final Fantasy XIV caught World of Warcraft?
Rohan’s had an interesting thought based on some admittedly vague press releases. He posits that as World of Warcraft has shrunk, Final Fantasy XIV could be just as big as the former king of mainstream MMOs.
“In my view, FFXIV is now roughly the same size as WoW. With a new FFXIV content patch coming next week, and no new content in sight for WoW, it’s possible that FFXIV will actually surpass WoW and claim the crown of ‘largest subscription MMO’ in the near future,” he states.
I Have Touched The Sky: Storytelling
Maybe stories aren’t everyone’s thing, but they’re quite important to Rowan. And he is darn well impressed with what’s been done in SWTOR: Knights of the Fallen Empire, although Rowan does have some reservations about how it doesn’t make allowance for duoing.
“The improved cinematography has led to some epic shots,” he said. “None handy right now, sorry. Besides, screenshots can’t effectively portray some of the angles, pans, and zooms that give KotFE its epic feel.”
Every day there are tons of terrific, insightful, and unusual articles posted across the MMO gaming blogosphere — and every day, Justin reads as many as he can. Global Chat is a sampling of noteworthy essays, rants, and guides from the past few weeks of MMO discourse.
