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.

Aaaaaand We're Back! (Online)

Hey guys! Just letting you know, it seems that I've been able to address and fix my internet issues that I've been having. Make a long story short, it turns out my computer had some services and processes running that constantly hit the network, so it slowed things to a grinding halt when I actually tried to use the internet. I've had two nights of no disconnects, so it looks pretty good so far. I'm still playing through Lineage II, hoping to get to Awakened class on one character before I post the review. Will have it up as soon as I can. Thanks for being patient with this [rather frustrating] issue!

Just Some Stuff

Hey guys! This is just a bit of a rambling update, really, to sort of keep y'all in the loop. I know I've been saying that my internet has been really bad in the past couple of reviews and such that I've made, but it's a bit more than that. For the past couple of months, the internet at my house has been beyond sucky. It goes down about 3-5 times on average in the span of five minutes, conveniently right when I need to use it. It typically happens in the evening times (post 6:00) and weekends and lasts until the early morning at the least (when I pass out, anyway, and has been going on as late as 2 AM to my knowledge). In addition, sites are sometimes very slow to load during this time period. I'm living with my parents right now until I can afford to move out on my own, and we have my 1 PC and their 2 Macs. While I'd thought that had been the issue, due to "Apple chatter" and such, we've had this setup for several months before this problem. We are using AT&T internet and they're the only ones available in our area, aside from Comcast, which we've had problems with. Like I said, it's only been like this for about a month or two, and I know that other AT&T users are also having these sort of problems in other areas.

Why should you care? Well, obviously, it's going to affect my MMO playing time which means it'll also affect my reviews. Unfortunately, I don't know how badly it will affect everything. I'm going to try to download Lineage II this weekend (which I'm anxious to play with their newest updates) and see how it goes. Maybe it won't be that bad. Who knows. But I know I lag to hell sometimes when I play Team Fortress 2, sometimes I can't even connect to Steam because I lose connection conveniently right as I'm going to open the damn thing. It's extremely frustrating. And since, as a healer, it's rather essential to have a half-way decent connection in order to do my job, I can't really play MMOs while my internet is like this.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been trying to be active on Twitter and Facebook in order to promote the blog. I feel really obligated to tweet frequently (though half the time I don't really know what to say...) so don't mind me if I seem like I'm just spouting random tweets to get your attention. I have questions for you guys, though, you readers of mine!

How do you guys find me and/or keep up with me? Do you like the tweets and/or Facebook posts? Do you use that more than other means to find out about my latest blog posts? Do you want me to do something different in terms of communications like that? How did you find out about me?

I wanna reach out to you guys and expand my audience (I want to rule the world one reader at a time) so any feedback like that is definitely appreciated. Twitter and FB links are on the side, you can comment below, send an email, etc.. Let me know!

Free to Play versus Pay to Play

Also known as "Why I dislike most MMOs' gameplay"

(and the return of the meme faces)

Hey all, Little Miss Squish here. Now, before y'all freak out and such that I'd be posting two reviews within one week... I'm not. For those that have poked around old posts and such, every now and then I put aside the reviews to discuss MMOs in general, particularly relating to the healing classes ("uh, durrrr, LMS. That's obvious, you retard."), and all that good stuff. I'd been thinking about what to review next, whether I wanted to replay something I'd played before or play something new entirely. I'd poked around www.mmorpg.com (which you should totally also check out!) and found an article on free-to-play versus pay-to-play gaming, specifically, RIFT versus WoW. While the article itself isn't exactly about free-to-play games versus pay-to-play ones, it did make me think about why exactly I play free-to-play ones specifically and question why I tend to review those more than the pay-to-play ones.

Well, there are a few answers, most of them fairly straight-forward, honestly.

Review: Team Fortress 2

Hey guys, Little Miss Squish here! Sorry for my lack of posting for.... god knows how long. The internet where I'm living right now has been ridiculously horrible and incredibly unstable so my actual MMO playing has been.... well, non-existent. That and my life has been taken up by a lot of other things lately. BUT, I was thinking about what to review next. I knew I hadn't posted in a while and I felt really badly for not doing so but I was like "I haven't been able to really -play- anything, let alone enough to review a new game on the blog!"

And then it hit me. There was one game that I'd played a lot, loved the healing class for it (enough to start to put together a costume of it!) and went back to it over and over again. It always plastered a huge grin to my face whenever I played it or even thought about it. And when my boyfriend suggested I reviewed it, I knew I had to.