Hoyt and I tried Cartoon Network's MMO over the weekend, Fusion Fall. Fusion Fall is a browser based MMO, so it doesn't require any disks or downloads, unlike most MMORPGS. Another great thing offered by the game is the "family" account- which has multiple (4) individual accounts tied to one billing and login account. The game currently offers
a free account type, which has limited leveling, item use, and item aquisation. The price for the game isn't that high either, with a normal account billing at $5.95 a month and a family account at $9.95 monthly.
The game brings back many of Cartoon Network's favorites- Dexter, The Kids Next Door, Samurai Jack, The Power Puff Girls, and more, for the Player to interact with. The voice actors are all present, which makes character dialouge simply a joy to hear. The animation
and graphic style is a generic and clean anime style, rather like the Digimon series.
While I like the game generally, with clear story expectations and mission tracking (it has a Quest Helper built in to the interface) I found myself frustrated with the primary method of movement, which is mouse based. Unlike most MMO's, this isn't optional and there is no "point and click" function of the mouse unless you move to the options screen, the same screen used for in game chatter. So for someone like me, who keeps a few programs going in the back ground, as well as text messenger, the only way to switch between programs is to hit enter, which brings up the game's options and automatically starts the chat window. This also means that the game is entirely auto-target, no selecting your target. If you want to target the monster on the right, you have to make sure it's centered in your screen and the auto-target system has selected the target and isn't stuck on a different monster. The good news is that the monsters don't appear to have an Aggro range; they only attack once engaged. To attack, you click the mouse and no auto-continue on attacks. I found, after some digging, that the game is built to be compatible with play on the XBox 360, for which these control issues wouldn't be a problem.
The game also doesn't appear to offer specailty classes; everyone can use everything and has the same fighting styles. I didn't see anything indicating a healing class (my favored class in just about everything I've ever played), but after the first hour or so, I wanted to move back into a more complicated world. Again, I like the world, and will probably continue playing, but I can't see myself quitting my WOW account or paying the otherwise reasonable fee for an unlimited account.
Showing posts with label mmorpg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mmorpg. Show all posts
Monday, July 13, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
So it’s been a long time. And a lot has happened.
The weekend after I started this blog, Susan Boyle rose to international stardom. From the snippets I saw on the news, I didn’t think anything of it. But the news kept bringing her up and eventually one of my favorite authors linked a story with Boyle’s cover of “Cry me a River,” which is beautifully haunting. The Youtube video of Boyle is fantastic, if you haven’t seen it, and deserving of the commentary heaped upon it. It plays like a short movie. I would even go so far to say that it is the epitome of a short film.
This lead to some Youtube silliness over the week which uncovered three other note worthy clips- some AMV mashes of Avenue Q songs done by Disney characters and an AMV mash with Ariel and Hercules as an unlikely couple. The last is something we found on our Media TV set up called The Guild, with Felicia Day from Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.
Earlier this week, Penny Arcade did a comic about Chronicles of Spellborn from Acclaim games. I spent the next day downloading it and tried it out. While the graphics are pretty, the character customization at start lacks much- similar to DND Online, and to some extent, World of Warcraft. Call me spoiled, but I liked being able to choose what the proportions of my character are, as in City of Heroes. CoS only had three body types for humans- malnourished, super buff, and Andre The Giant. The beginning “armor” is only for looks and so are the beginning weapons. It doesn’t really seem to matter what you choose. The news releases I’d read commented heavily about the combat system, and Acclaim calls it “innovative” and “user controlled.” From what I saw, it was non-responsively similar to the combat system used in Oblivion and other first person shooter games, the main difference being that CoS is close 3rd person, over the shoulder rather than first person. I didn’t make it past the tutorial. After spending fifteen minutes chasing glowing white dots to learn controls that match CoH hotkeys and being given make busy quests by a cabin boy I decided I’d rather do some chores.
We also picked up a mountain of comic books thanks to a sale at our local shop. I’m finally caught up on Courtney Crumrin, and grabbed a few sample copies of the Ender’s Game, Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon War, and Superhero Human Resources comics as well as the pre-comic for Ghostbusters, which has been out for a while.
The Ender’s Game series is seeing some strain on being adapted, as I would expect for something so…culturally rooted. I’m still sad that Orson Scott Card couldn’t find a way to work with Wolfgang Peterson. Perhaps someone like Del Torro will come in next and just blow us all away with geeky pipe dreams. The main problem I would find for adapting Card’s work is probably best illustrated illuminated by Ender’s Shadow. While I enjoyed the book, Card had gotten into a habit of telling rather than showing character motivations and thoughts. He tells us that three year old Bean feels threatened and reasons out various things. He tells us, in Ender’s Game, Valentine’s feelings and motivations. If, instead, he’d shown us Valentine grimacing when Peter tells her how to write for Demostenes, that would be easy to move to a visual form.
Not too long ago, Angry Video Game Nerd did a series about the Ghostbusters games and how unsatisfactory they were. I hope he’s ready for the new release. It looks like it will have some of his favorite peeves redone for the Wii and 360. The pre-comic was very well done, putting the story right where it belongs and with unexpected ending.
As for now, the news media remembered “acts of God” are just the remedy for a slow news day, and are whipping themselves (and the public) into a frenzy with the swine flu, Sylar is sure to kill someone on tonight’s “Heroes,” and I have some eggs to hunt down for Noble Garden.
Media Nerd Girl
Upcoming:
Actual reviews of the rest comics, some of the most common questions on personal accounts (including “How’d they get my debit card number?” and “Where’d my money go?”), a review of the new “No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” book, and probably more youtube videos.
The weekend after I started this blog, Susan Boyle rose to international stardom. From the snippets I saw on the news, I didn’t think anything of it. But the news kept bringing her up and eventually one of my favorite authors linked a story with Boyle’s cover of “Cry me a River,” which is beautifully haunting. The Youtube video of Boyle is fantastic, if you haven’t seen it, and deserving of the commentary heaped upon it. It plays like a short movie. I would even go so far to say that it is the epitome of a short film.
This lead to some Youtube silliness over the week which uncovered three other note worthy clips- some AMV mashes of Avenue Q songs done by Disney characters and an AMV mash with Ariel and Hercules as an unlikely couple. The last is something we found on our Media TV set up called The Guild, with Felicia Day from Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.
Earlier this week, Penny Arcade did a comic about Chronicles of Spellborn from Acclaim games. I spent the next day downloading it and tried it out. While the graphics are pretty, the character customization at start lacks much- similar to DND Online, and to some extent, World of Warcraft. Call me spoiled, but I liked being able to choose what the proportions of my character are, as in City of Heroes. CoS only had three body types for humans- malnourished, super buff, and Andre The Giant. The beginning “armor” is only for looks and so are the beginning weapons. It doesn’t really seem to matter what you choose. The news releases I’d read commented heavily about the combat system, and Acclaim calls it “innovative” and “user controlled.” From what I saw, it was non-responsively similar to the combat system used in Oblivion and other first person shooter games, the main difference being that CoS is close 3rd person, over the shoulder rather than first person. I didn’t make it past the tutorial. After spending fifteen minutes chasing glowing white dots to learn controls that match CoH hotkeys and being given make busy quests by a cabin boy I decided I’d rather do some chores.
We also picked up a mountain of comic books thanks to a sale at our local shop. I’m finally caught up on Courtney Crumrin, and grabbed a few sample copies of the Ender’s Game, Battlestar Galactica: The Cylon War, and Superhero Human Resources comics as well as the pre-comic for Ghostbusters, which has been out for a while.
The Ender’s Game series is seeing some strain on being adapted, as I would expect for something so…culturally rooted. I’m still sad that Orson Scott Card couldn’t find a way to work with Wolfgang Peterson. Perhaps someone like Del Torro will come in next and just blow us all away with geeky pipe dreams. The main problem I would find for adapting Card’s work is probably best illustrated illuminated by Ender’s Shadow. While I enjoyed the book, Card had gotten into a habit of telling rather than showing character motivations and thoughts. He tells us that three year old Bean feels threatened and reasons out various things. He tells us, in Ender’s Game, Valentine’s feelings and motivations. If, instead, he’d shown us Valentine grimacing when Peter tells her how to write for Demostenes, that would be easy to move to a visual form.
Not too long ago, Angry Video Game Nerd did a series about the Ghostbusters games and how unsatisfactory they were. I hope he’s ready for the new release. It looks like it will have some of his favorite peeves redone for the Wii and 360. The pre-comic was very well done, putting the story right where it belongs and with unexpected ending.
As for now, the news media remembered “acts of God” are just the remedy for a slow news day, and are whipping themselves (and the public) into a frenzy with the swine flu, Sylar is sure to kill someone on tonight’s “Heroes,” and I have some eggs to hunt down for Noble Garden.
Media Nerd Girl
Upcoming:
Actual reviews of the rest comics, some of the most common questions on personal accounts (including “How’d they get my debit card number?” and “Where’d my money go?”), a review of the new “No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” book, and probably more youtube videos.
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