CoH: Having Fun as a Hero

I’ve been playing City of Heroes for over a week now; I can truly say it’s a fun game… it feels like an MMO-meets-Arcade style game. The action is quite fast paced; missions (so far) scale to team size .. giving you more of a challenge for larger groups, which is nice. Most missions are instances as well, which is also nice.

I’ve already made a ton of characters. The one I am playing the most, right now, is Thermoblaster. He’s currently a level 10 Fire-Fire-based Blaster. I was surprised the name was even available to be honest… so that’s pretty cool too. I joined the Super Group (guild) that my co-workers formed named “Made in Canada”… which is funny because I used to play with guys in a Quake2 clan of the same “Made in Canada” name waaay back when.

I also made a Mylene character; she’s a tad too tall (OK, way too tall) so I’ll have to try and weave a story as to why she so Amazonian in height. She looks pretty cool too, dontcha think?

I’ve made a handful of other characters too… so far I can’t seem to generate a character that feels like a “Karnatos”… I guess the name is not really superhero-ish, maybe that’s why nothing I can come up with seems to fit (yet). I’ll keep taking a swing at things, see if I can’t generate something that looks like a superhero named Karnatos.

Hmmm, as I type I just got the idea that maybe Karnatos is more fitting as a villain for the City of Villains that comes out this Monday… yeah, I’ll likely do that.

Oh! And last night I downloaded the big huge hoarking City of Heroes patch. It’s a massive graphics upgrade, and introduces the cool engine upgrades that CoV brings with it… like rag doll physics and the likes. My machine was definitely running the game slower last night, but it really does look nice. I can imagine, however, that others that have older riggs might be upset with the performance the game gives them now… which does not match what the box claims anymore, I’m sure of it. Oh well, we’ll see what transpires – many people do not like change; myself, I’m all for it.

GMail Invites: What's The Point?

I logged into GMail today and noticed something completely useless... I have 100 Invites to give out.

What's the freakin point? Does not everyone that either wished they had a GMail account, or not even knew it existed, not already have a freakin account? I mean - come on! It's not like its this secret society here... it's GMail!

So, this is a call to all of you out there that still don't have an account and just plain old wish they had one but don't know anyone on the internet already that has not invited them 1791 times already... if you want one, heck... fire me off an email and I'll hook you up!

Now - don't come bitching to me if I can't give you one, because - OMG - maybe someone will actually ask me for an invite... I *may* just run out of invites!

P.S. - GMail really is the best web-based mail I've used to date. I've tried a ton of others, and still... I like this one the best so far. However, if you know of a better one, and you aren't just trying to pull the wool over my eyes, let me know about it - yeah yeah, email me about it and I might check it out ... maybe.

CoH: I am a Superhero

I started playing City of Heroes (CoH) this past weekend... and I must say I am impressed so far with the product.

It's an older game, came out over a year ago... maybe even nearing 2 years ago. That being said, it doesn't feel dated graphically. System requirements are low-ish too - I have it running on my Athelon 2800+ w/ an ATI Radeon 9800Pro 256MB, but I betcha it would run fine on my 1GHz Athelon using an older GeForce 4 card too. I am impressed with render distances for the city, and how they handle the city buildings rendering distances separately from the objects used to populate the world (citizens, mobs, crates, cars, mailboxes, etc.) Their decision to handle the rendering differences using separate algorithms/routines makes the world seem more real to me since I've not yet experienced the world flitting in and out near the horizon - something EQ2 suffers from, sadly.

Having said that, I've only scratched the surface of the game... I don't even have a level 6 character yet... so I may become disappointed at some later date, but right now I am quite impressed with the overall look of the game.

I've created, gads... 7 characters now? Right now I've come up with a Fire/Fire Blaster and named him "Thermoblaster" (I am surprised that name is not already taken, actually). I've made mostly blasters too; I think they are the nukers in this game, and that's what I usually play. I have a blue bug guy I named Bugged Out (sonic guy), a Fire/Ice guy named Box Heater, an Ice/Ice guy named Coleman Cooler, I created a Mylene character (but can't remember for the life of me what she is), Created a Fire/Ice guy named Karnatos (but I dunno if I'll use him really - Karnatos is not a good Superhero name), and I made a scrapper named The Shawarma Chef - I might play him now and then for kicks.

So, as you can see - I've made a few characters. The character generator is quick extensive... I don't think it's as amazing as some people tout, but I do agree that it is extensive. It has so many combination possibilities that everyone you meet has a unique look to them - something that is important to creating a character that you identify with since you look different than others.

I don't have any good screenshots to post yet though. Once I figure out how to rotate cameras to see my guy head-on I'll get some picture-taking action going on; some things look very slick in this game.

APC Short Story: Just a Tree

I've posted the fourth short story for August's backstory, "Just a Tree", in the forums for A Peaceful Country online RPG run by Supernoob.

I've been having a whole lot of fun playing this game, and I really hope it keeps going!

APC Short Story: Repercussions

"Repercussions" was published today. It is my third installment in the series of short stories I am writing for A Peaceful Country.

I hope you enjoy the story.

APC Short Story: Tough Decisions

I posted the next part of a series of short stories for A Peaceful Country.

This entry is titled Tough Decisions, and involves James Whyttel, August and Stewart's father.

APC Short Story: Mr. Tytler's Order

I posted a short story for the A Peaceful Country that is the beginnings of the back-story behind August Whyttel.

I named this first part of the story Mr. Tytler's Order. Rather than focus story on August himself I decided to take the angle of telling the story of August's family through his older brother Stewart.

I hope you enjoy this first part of the Whyttel Family back-story.

Haiku: Serenity

A tiny firefly
floats by like a gossamer.
It's Serenity.