Makkaio

I guess I had to wash Star Trek Online out of my hair and resurrect my bounty hunter in Star Wars Galaxies.  But it’s not just for kicks this time.  The devs have given the Galactic Civil War a face lift and added some features that, quite frankly, I and several others had championed for a long time.  I would go so far as to say a key core group of us players back in the day basically wrote the documents for what has been put in place now.  But I digress.

I’ve always felt that SWG lacked focus.  What Sony needed to do was base the game around the Galactic Civil War.  Well, that’s what they’ve done in Game Update 15.  Check out the changes for yourself on their site.

So, I logged back on to Mystt Terien and have started primping him for some war.  Of course…I have several years of updates to catch up on, but I’m slowly making my way through.

I’m on Starsider now, so I need to hook up with a good Player Association and jump into the fight as soon as I can.  If anyone reading this is still playing and is on Starsider, let me know if your PA has an opening.

THEY ARE GIVING OLD PLAYERS A MONTH FREE…ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LOG IN.

Over at Kill Ten Rats, Suzina draws some eerie parallels between the launch of Star Wars Galaxies and the upcoming release of Star Trek Online.  I’m probably going to still give STO a try, but I won’t expect much.

STO: The Real SWG2 at Kill Ten Rats.

So after a long lost, but found friend of mine got me drunk on Saturday night and relentlessly twisted my arm…I loaded up World of Warcraft and rolled a new character on a PvP server.  What the hell am I thinking?  The goal is to get a new group going and level together.

I rolled a Night Elf Druid so I can fill any roles that need to be filled.  Plus, I love the versatility of druids.  A morph here and a heal there and you can usually get out of any situation.

Oh…and the Night Elf Mohawk exists in the game.  I did not know this.  I told him I believe in him and he handed me Night Elf Mohawk Grenades.  The same ones as shown in the commercial where he’s bombing other players and giving them mohawks.  Hilarious!

This is going to hurt some of you.  This is going to feel like a punch to the gut.  Some of you may even puke a little.

I’m not a Star Trek fan.

There, I said it.  I personally never really liked the concept of the show.  Not a big Shat fan.  I just couldn’t identify with it like I did Star Wars or even The Black Hole.

That’s not to say that I hold any animosity toward Trek fans.  I understand why they like the show.  It just doesn’t speak to me like it does to them.  No biggie.

With all that said, however, I will be trying to get into closed beta for Star Trek Onlineand I may even buy the game and give it a run through.  It looks like a solid game with decent space combat.  I’ll even say it looks like it will succeed where Star Wars Galaxies has failed.  A genre or intellectual property has never stopped me from giving a good game a shot.  I can separate the two.

I may go incognito, though.  No need for me to get my ass virtually kicked by a bunch of Trekkies.

I’m enjoying getting into the gym early in the morning much more than I thought I would.  Despite all the arguments about how it is better for you to workout in the morning and all, I like it because it gets done and you don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day.

After a week of working out at a fairly intense pace, with the approval of my chiropractor, I already feel like I’m back to the level I was when I had to stop working out for a few months because of my neck injury.

Now I just need to finish up these couple of Web projects I have going so I can start playing Champions Online.

**Spoiler Alert:  If you want to see the latest game play walk through without me spoiling it…read the post previous to this one.**

I’m not going to get negative about a game I haven’t even played yet.  So…here are the good points that I see in Star War: The Old Republic.

1.  The dialogue system.  I think this will be interesting in that the choices you make in dialogue actually have an impact on your story.  Critically, I have to wonder how much of an impact.  In the solo bounty hunter scenario, probably not much.  It just affects how the characters relate to you.  In the “flashpoint” it probably has more of an impact…like they say…on faction, XP and loot.  If the duo would have left the captain live in the “flashpoint” scenario and they went on with the mission from there…a different loot type may have dropped.  Maybe for the bounty hunter?

2.  Cover mechanism.  If you’ve been playing a stealth character in MMOs for nearly 20 years without a cover mechanism…you’d be really excited that a game finally has one that looks like it may work.

3.  Espionage mechanisms.  In the “flashpoint” the bounty hunter opens a locked door with an explosive charge.  Hopefully there is more of this kind of stuff.  But…I also hope it is done in a way where missions still advance even if you don’t have a way to get through that damn door.

4.  Altaholicism.  I can definitely see myself playing all of the classes in SWG:TOR because they all seem like they can handle their own well in PvE.  Plus, each storyline will be different.  That spells definite replayability for me.

‘Till next time…

This walkthrough is great.  Sure, has some classic elements of MMOs, but there are some new things in there that seem to work.

SW:  TOR Walkthrough

With some much appreciated freelance web work right now…I’m officially…gameless.  It won’t last for long.  This gives me a chance to step back, evaluate what I can/want to play next.  Work on organizing my blog(s).  For now…I’m going to buckle down, make a little extra money, hopefully build some references…and get back into gaming soon.

The doctor called today and I’m not happy.  My cholesterol is back up.  It’s around 300 total.  Not good.  Not where I thought it would be.  I’ve done a lot to get my health back the past couple years.  So this is frustrating.

The good news is that my cholesterol is the only thing that is off.  My liver numbers are all normal.  My triglycerides are normal.  Going to lose even more weight now that summer biking is here.

So…the bothersome part is why is my cholesterol high?  I really don’t want that to be hereditary, too.  It’s looking that way.  To tell the truth, once I got the rest of my concerns under control I didn’t think the cholesterol would be an issue.  Neither did my doctor.  We’re both shocked. 

I start a new medication tomorrow and get another lipid plate done in two months to see where I am.

Just frustrating.