Okay so I’ve talked about playing mmorpg before. I have played a few of these types of games. I tried Everquest. It was ok. DAoC was the next one and I really dig Dark Age of Camelot. But this game Earth and Beyond just may have something that would get me to stop playing DAoC. It’s the Star Trek Geek in me. You even get to name your ship. Here are some shots showing off the amazing graphics of Earth and Beyond (1152×864):

I’ve made it to level 14 already and I have only played maybe seven hours tops. I don’t know if it’s good or bad to be leveling that fast. I don’t care either because it’s so much fun. This is one to look at if your tired of the fantasy mmorpg.

Earth and Beyond is a little different than the other online role playing games I’ve played. I made level 25 today. It took me a year to hit to level 25 in Dark Age of Camelot. Saying my level is 25 is a little misleading.

Levels play a little different in E&B. There are three skills or classes. Combat, Explore, and Trade. You gain experience in the appropriate category. When you have enough experience in one of these category’s you go up a level in it. So I have a combat level 9, explore level 9, and trade level 7. The levels cap at 150. E&B is a different game than DAoC.

And I’m having a shitload of fun playing it. I’ve already logged 20+ hours. I don’t know yet if I’ll keep playing after the free 30 days are up. I also joined a guild called Traders R Us. The only reason I joined up is because I the person creating the guild was offering 100,000 in credits to people to get the minimum number of people to create a guild. And what the hell I’m an officer in the guild. When they give me a url to a website I will post it. I just wonder if E&B will run on the shitty work computer?

I got an email from Sony Online Entertainment Inc. and couldn’t be happier. Here is what it said:

We are pleased to inform you that your signed TERMS OF USE, LICENSE AND NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT for participation in the beta testing of Star Wars Galaxies ™: An Empire Divided ™ has been received and verified.

Of course this is all I need. I’m already playing Dark Age of Camelot and Earth & Beyond. I guess a little Star Wars Galaxies won’t hurt.

So I mentioned before how I got into the Star Wars Galaxies beta. The beta is now into it’s third phase. In beta 2 it was hard for me to get any play time in. With beta 3 the servers are up more and I have actually played the game for a long stretch now.

I’m under a NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) so I can’t divulge any real details. But let me say that my opinion of the game has changed. At first I thought it was just a Star Wars EverQuest mod. And maybe it is in a way. But the environments are right out of the movies. And so far I have yet to notice the leveling treadmill that so many mmorpg’s have. I’m sure it’s there, I just have been caught up in the movie like worlds I’m exploring to notice.

The beta has even been getting in the way of my time playing Dark Age of Camelot. Which sucks, because Turk (my main) is still holding at level 39. Of course I’m not quiting Camelot. SWG has a long way to go before it’s in any shape that would make me quit playing DAoC. Time will tell.

Well I got the game Shadowbane and I installed it and I tried to play it. My first problem is that the games auto patcher is all fucked up. The first screen shot shows what I’m talking about. It tells me and lots of other people that one or more of the .cache files are corrupt. It advises you to reinstall this piece of shit. And this doesn’t work. Check out this thread at the Shadowbane forums for what the developers tell their paying customers to do. And what they have you do has about a 1% chance of working. Check out pages 9 and 10 of that thread for my comments.

Needless to say I’m done with this steaming pile of shit called Shadowbane. I wish I could return this game. But it was purchased at Walmart and those guys are impossible to get then to give refunds. So my Shadowbane disk has become my new beverage coaster. Stay away from this game if you know what’s good for you.

I picked up a copy of Horizons: Empire of Istaria today. It’s a game I had the “pleasure” of beta testing. Not that the beta was as bad as Shadowbane or anything. Horizons does have a very cool trade skill system. But that is really it.

I install and patch. When the game loads it tells you your in que for authorization. I was 150 something in line. Finally the game loads. All I see is sky and fog, and a few buttons for character creation that don’t do anything when clicked on. I decide to go look at the support page over at the games site. These two paragraphs were in red:

3/10/04 Following today’s maintenance, players are reporting that when they login the only thing they see is the sky and fog. Our development team is aware of this issue and we are currently working on a resolution for this. Please do not open a case regarding this since it is an issue that we are already looking into.

3/10/04 (3PM PST) There is currently an issue with players logging into the website and into the game. We are aware of the current situation and we are limiting the number of players that can login at once, lessening the load on the web and game servers. If you are having difficultly logging in, please do not submit a support case. Instead please wait 15 minutes and then try logging in again.

So I’m supposed to wait? I can’t open a support case. I can’t do dick with this game I wasted 50 bucks on? But I did do something. I uninstalled the game and canceled my free 30 days for this piece of shit. It’s now my back drink coaster, just in case my Shadowbane disk fails in that job.

This is just another event that makes me really happy with Mythic and their game Dark Age of Camelot. Some of these game developers should quit before they have to inflict this shit on the people that play these games.

So in summary. If you see this game on the shelves in your local software retailer just walk away. It’s not worth the trouble. Play Camelot or even that god damned EQ if you have to.

Fileplanet has a sign up for the beta of Dungeon and Dragons Online going on right now. You have to be a registered member of Fileplanet to sign up. Not to be confused with the paying member of Fileplanet.

Sign Up Now! for the Dungeons & Dragons® Online: Stormreach Beta for your chance to join thousands of other adventurers in playing the first-ever Massively Multiplayer adaptation of the fantasy game that started it all, Dungeons & Dragons®. During the Beta you will be able to explore dangerous dungeons, defuse cunning traps, and defeat iconic enemies that could only come from the legendary world of D&D.

I’m very curious about this one. I’m a fan of pen and paper D&D. I hear that it’s a little like Guild Wars in the way it handles the game world. Cities are open for players to hang in mass, but everything else is an instance.