TSW: The Slaughterhouse Hates Us (And Science)

Well, The Slaughterhouse can hate us all it wants, but last night The Secret World Monday crew finally cleared it. The scientists in there though, weren’t so lucky.

Though, if they were dumb enough to consort with this guy, they probably deserved it.

The mindless extermination of scientists aside, it’s actually not a bad instance, even though it’s given us a terrible time of it in the past. The problem really only lies with the second boss, who is the very definition of a pain in the ass. After he goes down, it’s actually pretty much smooth sailing from there.

NKL-107 fight gives a whole new meaning to “sucks” and “tricky”.

Besides obtaining the achievement, there really isn’t as much fanfare as one would expect. After all, this only earns us the privilege of unlocking yet another tough fight, the dreaded Gatekeeper encounter, whose defeat will eventually lead you to Nightmare modes.

Uh…I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.

So this finally concludes my elite tour through TSW, with all the game’s dungeons under my belt. My gratitude to the teammates who ran The Slaughterhouse with me last night: (from left) Chucho, Thermic, Piddy-Cent, and PaganRite:

As the group’s tank, I had the disastrous task of chasing down half-naked men all night.

Apparently, my guildmates are fervent disciples of the “No shirt, no shoes, no problem” philosophy. Seriously, and they have the gall to accuse MY outfits of being too meager? Please.

And with that, I leave you all with my regular feature, “What I wore for TSW Monday”:

Given last night’s company, I was the very PICTURE of modesty.

Battle Bards 10: Music From Age Of Conan

A new episode of Battle Bards is live and ready for your listening pleasure!

Hard to believe we’re up to 10 episodes already! First of all, thank you if you’ve been listening all along, though you might have noticed a particular MMO with arguably one of the most renowned soundtracks has been left conspicuously unfeatured after so many weeks.

I am, of course, talking about Age of Conan! Well, by Crom, that’s because we’ve been saving ’em all up for this one show! So sit back, relax, and join me, Syp and Syl as we take a look at the music from AoC and its expansion.

LISTEN NOW!

Episode 10 show notes

• Introduction (including “Northern Grassland”)
• “Hamlets of Aquilonia”
• “All Heroes Unite”
• “Memories of Cimmeria”
• “Villages of Khitai”
• “Ambush from Three Directions”
• “The Sands of Forgetfullness/Tortage Beach”
• “The Damp Barachan Nights”
• Mailbag
• Outro

SWTOR: Greetings From The Eternity Vault

It appears Mercy Gaming’s Star Wars: The Old Republic Thursday nights are really taking off! Yours truly was especially on pins and needles last night, seeing as on the agenda was our first operation as a guild since the resurrection of the Imperial Mercenary Corps. Our target: Hard Mode Eternity Vault.

Believe it or not, I’d never seen the inside of a single SWTOR raid before. Approximately two months after the game first came out, my life got a whole lot busier when my daughter was born, and as a result I never did get the chance to go on the ops runs my guild was just starting at the time.

So honestly, I didn’t much care that most of our group was over-geared and over-leveled; I was happy enough just to be able to experience the content. Not to mention last night wasn’t just my first ever SWTOR ops run, it’s also likely my first raid in years where I got to go in a guild group with friends. I had a blast, and no wonder! I’m trying to remember the last time, and it was probably Ulduar in World of Warcraft back in the time of Wrath of the Lich King (I certainly don’t count the LFR these days)! As you can see, it’s been quite a while.

Before You Think Subscriptions Are Back In Style…

With the news of payment models for Wildstar and Elder Scrolls Online coming out this week, I see a lot of people have been weighing in with stunned reactions.

But I can’t say I understand the surprise. I’ve made mention before that the “Launching with a subscription and then transition to free-to-play a few months down the road” seems to be emerging as an efficient business model in itself. Make all the big money up front, and as your player population inevitably dwindles after a while when the shiny has worn off, flip the switch to F2P. On top of that, you also get the benefit of having two “launches” to maximize your publicity as well as the “second rush” that comes with the sub-free players.

Call me overly-suspicious, but as fantastic as these two games look, I don’t think either Carbine or Zenimax (or, at least, their business departments) are under any delusions of grandeur thinking they will break the mold, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they already have their contingency F2P plans in place as a fallback. From a business standpoint, that’s actually quite a very clever route to go, the cousin to the familiar “early adopters pay more to experience everything first” concept. They have no idea if their game will have lasting appeal, but they do know it’s attractive enough that a significant number of gamers will want to jump on board to see what it has to offer — and more importantly, they know this particular audience won’t mind forking out the money to do so right away.

So if one banks on the fact that a good fraction will be willing to pay a subscription for even the first month or two, then why in the world wouldn’t you launch with a sub, especially if you can have F2P all set up as a plan B? It’s not brave, it’s shrewd. You can only win, especially if the heightened number of subscribers hold out for longer than you’d hoped.

Of course, I could be wrong. And I’m also aware the theory borders on cynical (or giving companies too much credit). Still, it was what went through my head as I read these news releases, with not a trace of shock at all. And as to how Wildstar and ESO having a subscription impacts my level of interest and enthusiasm in these games? Probably not at all. As ever, my pattern is to “go all out” when I play an MMO. Which means, in the time span of a single month, I prefer to focus on no more than two games, and I’m definitely not the type to sample 4-5 different ones in a week. Believe me, I’ve tried that, and I just can’t keep up.

So subbing — even for a free game, if the option’s available — has just always felt like the easiest and most obstacle-free route to fit my style. Wildstar and ESO? Yeah, I think I’ll play the hell out of both games when they first come out; I have no doubt I’ll play enough to make whatever box or subscription price worth it in the first couple months. After that, I can always cancel. In other words, business as usual!

SWTOR: The “Real” Big Ding!

The big moment immortalized.

This weekend saw me hit level 55 on my Bounty Hunter in Star Wars: The Old Republic! YAY!

And I know thus far I have not talked much about the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion, but now that I’ve played through most of it, I have to say it’s pretty well done. The story was good, the questing zones are laid out in a nice, convenient way that actually doesn’t make me want to throw acid in own my face. The planet Makeb is also gorgeous. Honestly, I’m quite impressed with the whole package, considering the state of things when I first took a break from the game.

While I suppose gearing up should be my next step (already started on weeklies), I’m also thinking about taking my Republic character to 55 as well, for the legacy experience and, more importantly, the full expansion content. I’m told the two faction quest lines play off each other and together they form the full Makeb story. I might as well soak it all in.

And, ugh! Of course, I’m also contemplating the idea of starting an alt. I suppose is inevitable given that’s usually my regular pattern after hitting level cap, but the notion is rather appealing considering how we’ve currently revived our Empire guild, and I’ve been itching to play an Imperial Agent since, like, forever! Sexiest class in the game, easy!

SWTOR: Who Are You Calling Meatbag?

Uh oh, he’s got you in his sights.

TA-DA! Behold my new HK-51 companion, prepped and ready to do his master’s bidding.

Okay, HK, your first mission is to make yourself at home on my ship and meet your new crew. Please take “extra care” of Torian for me, will you? I’ve never quite lived down the indignity of male Bounty Hunters getting the option to romance a cool chick like Mako, while the female BHs get stuck with — as my guildies put it — the goofy Justin Bieber lookalike.

Target

Last week, you may have heard the Imperial Mercenary Corps gathered for a group event to start the HK quest chain in Star Wars: The Old Republic, kicking off the great scavenger hunt for killer robot parts. But since the husband and I have a prior engagement this coming Thursday evening and won’t be able to make the scheduled weekly TORsday night, we decided to get a jump on the last two HK pieces found in the flashpoints last night, calling in the help of a couple friends.

To be honest, if it weren’t for the guild event, I probably wouldn’t have ever gotten the HK droid. As awesome as he is, doing the scanning process for his parts on the different planets all by my lonesome would most likely have done my schedule in, so I’m definitely grateful and more than a little psyched that I finally got this cool companion.

Screenshots Of The Day: BEARly Made It

Hey guys, check out my new teddy bear! His name is Einstein and he’s blue and fluffy with a pink ribbon…and sure, I know he’s a little splattered with blood and pieces of gore, but I still loves him.

Thank you to TenTentacles for helping me with this achievement! Armed with his superb video guide and instructions over voice chat, I was able to end last night’s The Secret World Monday session with a new teddy bear shirt in addition to my furry blue friend pictured above.

Initially, I dreaded having to do it, since rumor had it that it involved a jumping puzzle. I can’t stress how notoriously bad I am at those. It’s a little embarrassing, to be honest. So, you can imagine my shock — not only did I manage to complete this process to obtain my silly little bear, I actually did it without screwing up…all that much. Oh yeah, I totally deserved that fanfare and shower of colorful confetti!

Seriously, though. If I can do it, anyone can.

Running this quest again to do the puzzle also made me realize how much more the devs have hidden in Issue 7: A Dream to Kill. It’s the little things that make it so impressive when considering how much thought and effort must have gone into putting these missions together.

This whole achievement itself involves finding hidden letters to form a secret word, but also scattered throughout the entire mission are all these easter eggs, like this magazine featuring Dreamfall.

And speaking of vanity pets and the little things, it also never ceases to amaze me how often this game can surprise or delight me over the most random details. Take the new “Little Lycanthrope” pet in the item store, for example. Last night, one of my guildies bought him and took him out to show him off.

Even speaking as a big fan and collector of vanity pets, I can’t say I was too impressed with it at first. The little wolfman’s head is so big it’s a wonder that he can scamper after his owner without falling over, and on top of that he’s ugly as sin and, quite frankly, creeps me the hell out. I rest my case:

But oh my god, just when I’m about to write him off the little bastard goes ahead and does the moonwalk as an idle animation. And then, BOOM — THREE WOLF MOON!

These are the kind of pleasant surprises TSW likes to pull on a regular basis. Needless to say, in about two seconds flat I went from getting the urge to punt the damn thing to wanting to shake the hand of whoever designed it.