I know I mentioned something about putting up a list of games I'm looking forward to for the next blog post, but I didn't get around to it. Maybe I'll come up with something for next time. Instead, I'll waste some more time rambling about my current gameplay habits.

After some more time with Super Smash Brothers Brawl, I threw on a rating for it. Yeah I know that my reviewing is pretty much non existant, but I still like putting some ratings up there from time to time because it's easy to do. In this case, I ended up giving SSBB an 8.5 because, while it was a great game and I think it did a good job of updating it from the previous entry, it really drops the ball on the online component. I mentioned in the last post that there's a real lack of communication in the online game. With a game like SSBB, which I consider a very social game, it really puts a damper on the enjoyment. Yeah I can still play against my buddies from back in my college days, but it's just not the same when you can't talk about the game as it is happening. And even though I know that is someone I know on the screen with me, it still seems kind of like a faceless AI with no personality. This combined with the lack of stat tracking in online, as well as being unable to use custom stages, or take replays of onilne matches, really keeps me from saying, "Okay this is THE game". Is Super Smash Brothers Brawl a great game and an awesome experience? Yes. Could it have been much more? You bet.

That's a real "Glass half empty" perspective, eh?

Okay so obviously I don't spend all my time playing SSBB these days. In fact that takes up a relatively small amount of my time now that I finished unlocking the characters and stages in the game. Instead, I have been begun playing Lords of the Ring Online: Shadows of Angmar.

After repeated recommendations from some community members, I decided to give the seven-day trial a spin. Those seven days later, I was enjoying the game enough that I decided to jump in to a subscription. The game itself is pretty standard for an MMORPG, but it has a nice layer of polish that really charmed me over. To be honest, though, I think I was sold on the game by day two when I came across some guy playing various video game tunes on a lute. Truth be told, it is those little touches that make the game enjoyable to play. Just the same way that World of Warcraft is fun because, while it doesn't do anything new or amazing, it does most things right. In other words, LOTRO just seemed to fit for me.

Unlike World of Warcraft, however, Lord of the Rings Online really seems like it was designed with the community in mind. Just the way it plays and the kind of people I run across in game makes really helps to put it in a good light. I have mentioned in previous blogs how important I feel about the social aspect of an MMORPG, and I think that is really part of what sucked me into LOTRO. The in game player interaction just seems genuine.

I like to have a little balance when giving my impression of a game, so let me say that the game does have a few missteps here and there.

The main thing that really grinds my gears is an in game mechanic called Deeds. Deeds, essentially, are like Xbox 360 achievments that can give you a bonus of some sort, whether it's a new title or a little stat boost. This is nice, but the problem stems from the fact that deeds are tied to accomplshing goals in a specific zone. Kill X number of a certain monster in a certain zone, for example. In this case it might be that you have to farm through 60,90, or more kills in a zone that provides no challange to you. This kind of activity just isn't really enjoyable, but you feel compelled to do it in order to get the most out of your character. It's kind of relaxing after risking your neck in some dangerous zones all the time, but I never had a reall high tolerance for farming. Despite this, I spent some time the other day just killing mobs that were way under****d for a few hours. But just because it can be tedius, isn't what really bothers me about acquiring the deeds. What I really felt was a problem was that since I could kill them in one or two hits, I was potentially monopolizing those spawn points for somebody that could have actually been using them to gain experience and really advancing their character. I know just about anyone familiar with MMORPGs has had an experience where they just wanted to go out and finish a quest or something, only to have some jack nuts out farming the thing you need. This is just a lose-lose situation for all parties involved, and I can't understand why the developers would have done this.

This leads right into my second main complaint with Lords of the Ring Online, which is character advancement. LOTRO has a trait system that allows you to sort of customize your character a bit with skills or ability boosts by using things you get accomplshing deeds. It really seems kind of shallow and far less enjoyable than the talent trees featured in other games, such as World of Warcraft. I really like to define my character right down to his abilities. Perhaps I will change my opinion on this subject as I progress further into the game, but for now the virtue/deed system falls flat for me. Overall, these things don't detract enough from the game to keep it from being enjoyable and I anticipate that I'll be spending a bit of time on LOTRO in the future.