Even the most jaded opponent of Fallout 76 has to admit that Bethesda has been making progress in bringing the online RPG up to spec. Cary over at Virtual Bastion said that this year’s improvements, most specifically the One Wasteland leveling revamp and subsequent fix, has made a convert.
“Long story short, wow…I had a blast!” Cory said. “And I’m not even being facetious. I really, truly enjoyed Fallout 76 for, quite possibly, the first time ever […] I will give credit where credit is due – the game has come a long way since launch, and especially since I start playing it last year.”
Read on for more MMO essays, including an exploration of EverQuest II, a retrospective of LOTRO’s biggest city, Final Fantasy XIV’s dark secret, and more!
GamingSF: The urge to explore in EverQuest II
“Recent excursions to old zones in EverQuest 2 have really stoked the desire to do some more detailed exploration of those areas, some of which I’ve travelled through countless times but have never adventured through.”
MMO Juggler: Trying out other classes in FFXIV
“Anyway, this class is ‘limited,’ meaning is has a bunch of restrictions with grouping and so forth. On the other hand, it offers a much different playstyle as the Blue Mage captures skills from monsters for their spell book.”
Tales of the Traveling Elf: Five years of LOTRO’s Minas Tirith
“Minas Tirith is one of the most iconic and awe-inspiring landmarks in all of Middle-earth, not just because of its pure scale but also because Tolkien’s storytelling in the Lord of the Rings gives it such a sense of history and grandeur. LOTRO’s version had a lot to live up to, and did it deliver? Of course it did.”
Kaylriene: The creep of borrowed power in FFXIV
“A big part of why I’ve burned out over the course of patch 5.35 on FFXIV is that the primary reward mechanic is either grinding in Bozja and interacting with a handful of systems that don’t exist outside of it, or running old FATES in the world on loop, an act which eventually gets exceptionally dull.”
“So the question is why now? What happened today that is making multi-boxing somehow a challenge for Blizz? Specifically, why in the world would they be turning away money from players?”
Contains Moderate Peril: The problem with the War of the Three Peaks
“A new addition to the game is the Mission system. I was hoping that these would be a variation of skirmishes with the focus on tactical gameplay. Sadly they lack that systems creativity and are little more than straightforward instances that require you to complete a basic set of criteria.”
Mailvatar: Just let us use our characters, please!
“Game devs use this weird design crutch again and again – and that’s what it really is, isn’t it? A crutch. Beating this particular boss would’ve been a cakewalk had I been able to use my regular weapons and frame abilities, so they just didn’t let me.”
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.
