Review: Granado Espada (aka, Sword of the New World)

Well, I finally have decent internet! This is something I've been itching to do and, to be honest, was also something I was afraid to do, mostly because of expenses on my end. But I have better internet and such so my reviews are officially commencing! I imagine y'all are excited about this. I know I am, at any rate!

Some quick things before I actually get the review started. I've decided to work on some new artwork for the blog. I'm not sure if I want to redo my logo but I do plan to do some art for smilies and the like, so keep an eye out for that! I'm also trying out some "spoiler" style tags, so that the content of the reviews is short for those who want shortness, and if others want more detail, they can read as they please. I'm also trying out anchor tags, so you can click the headers of each section to jump to them automatically on the page, to make it easier for you guys. Let me know if you guys like these features or if there's anything else you'd like me to try out!

Without further ado, ON WITH THE REVIEW!

New Interwebs!

I now have a better internet service provider!

I was talking to one of my friends who lives near me and he recommended an ISP called Clearwire, which basically provides wireless internet via cellphone towers. He said he really liked it so I figured I would give it a shot. And I must say, I am in love! It may not be the best internet speed but it is definitely better than the network I was using in the house. So that means, of course, that I will be able to play and review games a lot more easily and more frequently! I'm really, really excited.

I was wondering what to actually review. I haven't found any new MMOs that are actually out right now, aside from Guild Wars 2, which I could review if y'all want me to (do let me know if you're interested in my thoughts on it). I've decided to replay Granado Espada (also called Sword of the New World) for a review. It was one of the first MMOs I played and it's rather unique in its design, so I figured it's worth a mention. If y'all have something else you'd like me to review, by all means, feel free to suggest it! :) So look forward to more reviews more frequently in the future!

Review: Ragnarok Online 2

Hey all, Little Miss Squish here! Well, I finally have been able to play an MMO with relatively little headache from my internet, which seems to do what it wants to do, in terms of lag spikes. Some days I have great connection, other times I get small spikes of lag, conveniently in the middle of a dungeon boss fight, but that's beside the point! Right? Right. Steam recently launched Ragnarok Online 2 into its massive tome of games list and, naturally, I had to jump in.

borrowed from anjelsyndicate.org

I have a lot to say about this game, so let's get on with the review, then, shall we?

Suggestions and/or Feedback?

Hey everyone! I'm working on a review for Ragnarok Online 2 (or possibly a comparison between the original RO and the sequel). I'm hoping to have that up in the next couple of days, I just need to play a little more to really get a feel for it. I've been playing a lot of Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 so I haven't been playing RO2 as much as I had been a few weeks ago. For the record, RO2 feels and inherently seems very different from the original.

I hit 11k pageviews this week, which is super exciting! Hooray! Thank you, everyone, for reading and [in theory] supporting me. It's been a very exciting adventure so far and I'm hoping to keep going! Playing MMOs as a healer-oriented person has always been very enjoyable to me and so in reviewing the games for others, I hope to entertain you guys as best as I can and help you find games you might be interested in.

I'm not actually going anywhere, I swear.

Do you guys have any other games you'd like for me to review? Any feedback y'all have for me? Anything you particularly like and want me to keep doing or don't like and want me to change? I'm totally up for comments, critiques, feedback of any sort, and all that good stuff. Let me know via email, a comment below, on Facebook or Twitter, etc.

Thanks again guys!
Little Miss Squish

Review: Dungeon Rampage

Good god, it's been, like, forever since I've posted. I've actually been quite busy lately with life so my gaming and consequent reviewing hasn't been a top priority of mine.

I got, approximately a month ago, turtles! Three of them, actually, all super teeny. One map turtle, one yellow belly slider, and one painted turtle. I don't know how old they are, but I can assure you, they're all smaller than the palm of my hand. I named them Soldier, Spy, and Scout (from left to right in the picture) after the TF2 characters. They are all really adorable and tons of fun to watch!

 

Unfortunately, Soldier died last night due illness. He fought for two weeks but he wasn't eating and he was too small for the vet to give any medicines to (Yes, I did bring him in. He weighed a whopping 10 grams.) so we basically played a waiting game. We did all that we could for the little guy but, unfortunately, it just wasn't enough. I had really hoped he was starting to turn around since he had gained a lot of energy the past few days but sadly, he didn't. We buried him in the front yard. I'll eventually get a third turtle but I'm waiting out of respect for the little guy.

I've also been playing a lot of L4D2 and TF2 (it's actually consumed most of my evenings...) on top of some other work I've taken on the side. So I haven't been doing much in the way of MMOs. But I have been able to play some here and there. I played a little of Dungeon Rampage at the request of a reader (Thank you for the suggestion, by the way!) and I've been playing Ragnarok Online 2 since it became available on Steam. But I do have some thoughts on Dungeon Rampage so I decided that I probably should post a review on it at some point, because I'd been neglecting to do so for quite a while, now.

So, ON WITH THE REVIEW! :D

More Beta Testing?

Hey there! I received in my email on Monday a notice from Square Enix saying that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was going to have another round of beta testing this upcoming weekend. I think I had made a mistake in that I thought last weekend was round 2 of closed beta testing, but it seems this weekend is actually round 2. I'm not entirely sure what they would have developed/fixed/etc in a week that would warrant another weekend of testing, but I'm not complaining!

If you're sad that you missed out on the application for this beta and want to participate in it, have no fear! It seems Square Enix is still accepting applications at this handy dandy link right here. Please keep in mind, of course, that this IS an application and I am not saying you're guaranteed to get in. But it can't hurt to apply, right?

I'll definitely give my thoughts on the game once Square Enix says we can disclose that information. I enjoyed the test last week and I think the game is off to a great start so I'm very excited to see what the product will be like at the end. I imagine that it will have a subscription fee attached to it but I hope that they go the GW2 route and increase the game's initial price and eliminate the subscriptions. Somehow I don't think that'll happen, but a girl can dream!

Speaking of Guild Wars 2, the game has officially stolen my soul. Aside from work and chores and things, it's just about the only thing I've done this week. Unfortunately, I had to restart my character (rolled a human Guardian) because my boyfriend and I switched servers to an RP server, as we both enjoy that sort of thing. Luckily for both of us, we weren't too into the game, with our characters just barely into level 15. But we did do a hell of a lot of crafting and we're both scrambling to make that up. But after a couple of nights of play, we're at level 11, so it's not the end of the world! It's definitely a great game and for those of you who haven't tried it, I seriously recommend you check it out and buy it while it's on sale for $40 (which ends this Sunday). I'll post a review of it after I get a bit further into the game, so keep an eye out for that!

Have a question, comment, suggestion, etc.? Have a game you want me to review? Feel free to let me know! Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. me any time! I enjoy getting feedback from y'all. Subscribe to my feed or comment below.

Post-CBT and More

This weekend was definitely very exciting and busy! The second round of closed beta testing for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn was fantastic and I'm looking forward to hopefully participating in more testing. I can't, unfortunately, discuss the game because of confidentiality agreements, but I'll post my thoughts once Square Enix says I can. I look forward to seeing how the game fleshes out and what the final product will look like, at the very least.

Guild Wars 2 also had a free weekend of play for people who haven't tried the game yet. So, naturally, I jumped on the band wagon on that one. I'd been wanting the game for months now, as I had played on my boyfriend's account and loved it. Of course, I loved it just as much (if not more) this weekend. The good news is that my internet evidently didn't die when I tried to play it! It's a very exciting thing for me as I can't really run most MMOs without significant lag and connection drops. I seemed to have none of that this weekend.

The next step for me, of course, was to buy Guild Wars 2. "But it's $60. I can't really afford that..." I'd tell myself. Luckily for me (and for you!), the digital version of the game is on sale right now for $40. That's right, $20 off the game. I totally bought it for myself as that's a lot more feasible than the original price of the game. So expect a review of this gem in the near future, after I've played some more of it, of course! If you've wanted to play the game but, like me, couldn't afford that chunk of money to disappear from your wallet, consider picking up the game. It's on sale until the 28th and, with no subscription fees, the game pays virtually pays for itself.

Quite a Weekend Ahead!

Little Miss Squish here! This weekend will be the weekend in which I have no life. Aside from my busy weekend routine, I have lots of things that I want to do. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is having its second round of Closed Beta Testing this weekend and I got chosen to participate in it! I'm super excited for it, the game sounds like it'll be awesome. Unfortunately, I cannot disclose information related to the beta testing until Square Enix gives the A-OK to do so. But I will definitely take notes on everything and post something as soon as I can!

In addition, Guild Wars 2 is having a free weekend of play this weekend! It sucks that it's at the same time as the CBT for FFXIV--it seems like bad planning on someone's end--but either way, I definitely have to give it some time this weekend. I played it a bit on my boyfriend's computer one weekend and I. LOVE. THIS. GAME. If you don't already own it, PLEASE give it a shot this weekend! You won't be disappointed. If you want to participate in the free weekend of play, click this link. You have to get a key for it that's valid for only this weekend but any of the sites on that link will give you that key. As a warning, the game is large, so you might want to download it earlier than you intend to play it.

If my internet holds up while playing GW2, I definitely plan on buying it. Either way, expect a review for this game! :)

Links for these games:
FFXIV: A Realm Reborn - http://www.finalfantasyxiv.com/
GW2 - https://www.guildwars2.com/en/

Review: Game of Thrones Ascent

Hey there, LMS here. I'll say this up front: this review doesn't follow my normal requirements for a review. It supposedly is an MMO (much like how Wartune or Call of Roma are) but I've yet to come across multiplayer elements. There are no healing classes or options to my knowledge. And I generally can't stand this game. I tried getting into it, I can assure you. Game of Thrones was something I'd been told I'd enjoy. I had every intention of getting into the series when it first came out but my brain decided to go off into outer space and next thing I know, I've forgotten about it and it's gained some sort of cult-following.

So watching me try to make decisions in this game, like which house to swear my fealty to, would probably be vastly entertaining for those that actually follow the damn thing. But for me, I kinda stared blankly at the screen and tried to make the best objective decisions I could. It was really, really hard because I had no idea what I was actually getting myself into. Which house should I swear to? Is there one that's generally good or evil? Are they all just sort of... there? Who the hell are these people, anyway? How does this or doesn't this affect my game? What the fuck am I actually doing?

I don't think I ever got the answers to those questions.

TERA now F2P

So, I'd been poking around, looking for a game to play to keep my brain occupied. I wanted something free to play, mostly because with my crappy internet, there was no way I would want to pay a subscription for something I'd only be able to play a handful of hours a week. Someone had posted a comment on my Blade and Soul review that the game was super awesome, so I decided to check it out.

On Blade and Soul's FAQ, one of the questions asked if the game would be implementing game play features that are in Guild Wars 2. The answer was, of course, that Blade and Soul, like Guild Wars 2, offers innovative mechanics and such that basically change up and revolutionize the MMO industry. That got me thinking.... TERA was pretty interesting, too, with it's action-oriented combat. The graphics were pretty, questing wasn't bad. What was the cost of it again? Hell, how was the game even doing since my original pre-view of the game and my review of it during its CBT testing. It'd been over a year since I pre-viewed the game and at the end of this month, it'll be a year since I participated in the CBT testing.

So, I poked around at TERA's site. And, much to my surprise, it became free-to-play. I really do mean that I was incredibly surprised by this. To me, TERA was going to be one of those games that would have remained subscription-based like World of Warcraft. Or, at the very least, would convert to that pay-for-the-game-but-pay-no-subscriptions model that Guild Wars 2 uses.

"Why the sudden jump?" I had asked myself as I looked at different forum threads and such discussing this. Evidently TERA switched over to the F2P model just over a month ago on February 5th. I know that there is a push in the gamer community to remove subscription costs in MMOs; hell, it was part of the reason why a) I stopped playing WoW and b) found private servers after a while. So, I'm not terribly surprised by this information.

Review: Wartune

Hey guys, LMS here. First of all, I'm sooooooooo sorry for not posting in... what, friggin' four months? Good god. It's been sucky at home, my internet has been crapping out on me so much that I haven't been able to play much of MMOs except for when I visit my boyfriend, which is once every two weeks, for the weekend. Basically, I haven't been able to play MMOs much. I know, I know, it's not much of an excuse.

Also, I know I had said I was going to review Lineage 2 but, honestly.... It makes me cry. For some reason the NCSoft download client just kinda wants to repeatedly kick me in the face because downloading and installing the game hardly ever works for me. And, of course, when I was going to originally sit back and write the review for it, the friggin' game decided it wanted to throw out a download patch. I swear I nearly tore out my hair. Forget the game itself. That's bad in its own right. But trying to be able to PLAY the game was just as bad, if not worse. So, I kinda gave up on reviewing it because it literally gave me headaches when I thought about it.

BUT! There IS an MMO that I had been able to play, because it was browser-based and therefore lighter on my internet. I played it for several weeks, actually. I liked it at first, mostly because it was something new and shiny for browser games, at least in my experience. I then fell out of it because, frankly, I was getting bored. But I recently received an email from them, which was basically "come baaaaaaaaaaaack please! I have shiny things that you'll love! -dangles keys-" so I decided to give it a shot as I have been itching for something new to play that I could, in fact, play in my spare time.

That game? Wartune. Haven't heard of it? If you poke around on Facebook's games, I'm sure you've at least seen advertisements for it. It has gone under several different names but the "official" (I think?) name is Wartune. It's supposedly the, like, "up and coming" browser MMO. My quick summary: It's shiny and new on the outside, but it sucks on the inside. It has great potential, sure, but it falls flat on its face. Hard. Really hard. And here's why.

logo found on Google, with a URL that makes my eyes bleed when I look at it.