#EliteDangerous: Is it the right game for you?

Frontier Developments' Elite: Dangerous is the 4th iteration of the Elite series, dating back to the original 1984 wire-mesh space-flight simulator. It has gone through many iterations over the years but when Dangerous launched in 2014 after a successful crowdfunding campaign, it made a major leap forward in terms of both complexity and realism. It is one of my all-time favorite games and at the time of writing sits at the top of my most played Steam Games list with 1107 hours invested in it. All this time playing and participating in the community, because Elite: Dangerous is just as much a community as it is a game, and I see a lot of people come through that have no idea what Elite is, what they should expect from it, or who came in and hated it because they thought it would be completely different. I already made a buyer's guide for Elite on Steam, which now sits at a prestigious 5-stars, but that was back in June of 2015. Elite has changed quite a bit over the months, and so I'd like to provide an updated, and more in-depth guide to answer a lot of the questions people ask to hopefully help them decide on whether or not they want to pick it up.

So what exactly IS Elite: Dangerous?
Elite: Dangerous is an online first-person space simulator pseudo-sandbox. You take on the role of a freelance pilot in charge of their own star ship in the early 34th century. The premise is that you are simply one of billions of other pilots in the galaxy trying to make a living in whatever manner you choose and there are no end-game goals beyond what you set for yourself. While the game is entirely online, you can choose to play in the free-for-all Open Play mode, a Private Group for just you and your friends, or in Solo Play. Regardless of which mode you choose, all players share the same persistent universe,

What is there to do in Elite?
The open-ended nature of the game allows players to do whatever activities they feel like given their ships are properly equipped. You can be a trader, pirate, bounty hunter, soldier, espionage agent, smuggler, explorer, limo driver and much more, and if you want to go beyond the scope of the game and engage in community-run activities, you can be a racer, rescue operative, researcher, body guard and other things. Ultimately, you will need credits to outfit yourself to do everything, and as a result your first couple dozen hours should be spent figuring out a comfortable way to make a profit, buy a better ship and outfit it to fit your play style. There are tons of different missions in the game that you can take on from the bulletin board on any station to help you get started, and even make serious money once you've proven yourself capable of more dangerous and high-paying assignments. Once you've figured out a comfortable rhythm and make a small fortune to lean back on, you can essentially do whatever you want.

How realistic is the simulation?
There are over 400 Billion star systems in Elite, making up a detailed replica of the Milky Way galaxy, using actual star charts and astronomical data to recreate things as accurately as possible. Everything is rendered in 1:1 scale, celestial bodies rotate, orbit, change atmospheric patterns and more all in real-time. Planets generate their terrain based on a number of factors such as distance from parent star, number of moons, distance from a gas giant, material composition, size, density, rotation and orbit speed, and much more. Not only that, but inhabited systems also have a background simulation that runs the various socioeconomic and political states depending on a number of factors including economic boon/depression, high pirate activity, heavy trade income, major faction activities, war and civil war, famine, plagues, and more. Player activities can also influence these states depending on what's going on. See my Elite page for Time-Lapse videos that show off the simulation of celestial objects, as well as other content.

How complicated is Elite?

Elite has a reputation for being very unforgiving to new players as there is a LOT of information to take in and make sense of, see the HUD in the accompanied image. All of that information must be monitored by the player regularly, up to constantly during combat. Information/contacts, radar, ship hull status and shield levels, thermal signature, throttle levels, internal heat buildup, target, target distance/orientation, module status and charge levels, mass lock, power diversion, capacitor charges, fuel levels, and more. There are also side panels for navigation, detailed target analysis, and situational awareness, as well as one that describes detailed readouts of the status of every ship component, the players profile and statistics, relations with various factions, and advance ship functions such as silent running, IFF, system reboot, and even self destruct. That's just the HUD, flight mechanics can be tricky (and trust me on this, if you use M+KB as your control scheme, swap Yaw and Roll bindings) and there are a lot of advanced maneuvers that take a lot of practice to master and utilize in combat, and the actual mechanics of the game require attention as well, especially if you want to be a successful trader. There are training missions and videos provided with the game, but they are bare bones and focus exclusively on basics. Luckily, there are plenty of tutorials from other people as well as player-made tools and websites to help you understand the game better and plan ahead. This is NOT a game for people who just want to pick it up and play, you can get to that point but it requires a lot of invested time learning the game and how to succeed before you are able to just drop in for an hour here or there.

What sort of player interaction is there?
Elite has little in the way of social tools comparable to other MMO's, but it does contain a friend system, private and local text chat, a grouping function with built-in voice communication, and PvP combat. There are regular community goals which all players can participate in and contribute to the goal, usually by turning in bounties or selling certain commodities, and at the end everybody gets a reward based on their participation level. If you look outside of the game, you can find many player-run groups that organize events and activities. The community for Elite is huge, so while the actual game might be lacking in the tools department, that seems to only have made player groups even more tight-knit.

How big is the player base?
Elite: Dangerous has both a steam and non-steam version, and so SteamCharts can not accurately describe the full playerbase, but the player count usually peaks at 7-10 thousand players on steam, with many more non-steam players also in the mix. It's safe to say, however, that there are several hundred thousand active and semi-active players in total.

You mentioned PvP?
In Open Play, it's a free-for-all PvP environment. Every player can attack any other player for any reason, although it doesn't happen as often as you'd think. Space is big, and so players bumping in to each other randomly is rare, and it's even more rare that a player would be hostile. Usually people just say hi, using the "o7" salute emoticon in chat or  ignore each other. Chat only really happens during down time in stations or at one of the many player-magnet landmarks that can be found around the game. If you are interested in being a dedicated PvPer, you can always be a pirate and attack players illegally, or you can be the reverse and be a bounty hunter that patrols the starting zones or community goals and kills griefers who attack newbies or participants respectively. There is a meta that one will have to learn to adapt to in order to REALLY succeed at PvP, as player-ready ships are a lot different than NPC-ready ships, but generally a solid combat vessel and a skilled player can take on most threats, player or otherwise.

Here is a faction territory map that encompasses several
thousand star systems and where the majority of the player
base calls home...

...and here is that same bubble zoomed all the way out to the
point that you can't even really see it anymore.

A game this big must have lots to see.
Absolutely, in fact in the 2 years Elite has been out, less than 0.1% of the galaxy has actually been explored by players. There is a HUGE amount of territory for players to uncover, and the "bubble" of human-inhabited space that 90% of players are located takes up less than a 1000 light-year expanse. Travel to get to the far end of the galaxy can take days, and if you want to stop and gather scan data to sell to cartographers back home, it can take weeks, and if you don't have a proper exploration ship, that can increase to months. Every single system is unique in its own way, and while it may get old seeing the same stars and rocks all the time, there are many nebulae and vantage points throughout the galaxy that the visuals for alone can make the long trips out worth it. When a player is the first to sell the scan data for an object, that object forever gets that player's name attached to the object with the "Discovered By" tag, and will receive a significant bonus to the payout. Exploration is one of my favorite activities in this game and you can visit my Elite page to see my Steam Screenshot feed for Elite which is filled with images from my travels. Many of the objects that you'd know in real life are also present in the game since the galaxy was generated using actual astronomical data, and as more information about these objects and systems are made known, the devs change things to match how they appear in real life.

So what happens if I die in the game?
Unlike in certain atrociously-written anime series, dying in the game will not kill you in real life, although depending on expensive the death was it might make you wish it did. When your ship is destroyed, it takes you to the dreaded Rebuy Screen, which gives you multiple options: The first and most common is to just rebuy your ship with all of it's modules at 5% total value as your insurance covers 95% of the cost. If you have to, you can choose not to rebuy certain modules to be able to cover the cost. You can also choose to take out a loan which will scale depending on your rank, which will then take out 10% of all of your earnings until paid off. If you have no other option, you can choose to declare bankruptcy and restart in one of the starting systems with the starting ship and 1000 credits. A good tip is to never fly what you can't afford to rebuy several times over. If you don't have the 5% rebuy cost in your balance several times, then don't fly the ship, or be very VERY cautious.

Is there a story line to follow?
Yes, but it happens in the background regardless of whether or not you participate. Every ship has access to "Galnet News" which regularly uploads articles that describe the various happenings around the galaxy and as events unfold, the game changes. Sometimes player actions will cause events that Galnet will report on and the devs will make changes to the simulation accordingly, other times Galnet will report on something that will drive players in to a frenzy and rushing to see some new discovery or assist some new faction. There are many political figures, factions, corporations, and prominent individuals who influence human civilization in the 34th century and if you actually pay attention to what's going on, the Lore hidden within Elite can be extremely entertaining and fun to participate in, but if you don't actively look for it, you might not even know what's going on.

What is planned for the future of Elite?
Currently, we have space and the flight model, as well as the ability to land on airless planets and moons and drive around in a buggy, but eventually we will be able to land on atmospheric planets as well as get out of our ships and walk around in station interiors, engage in FPS combat, perform EVA maneuvers, and more. Elite has just started its 3rd year, and there are 10 total years of content updates planned at the very least. Updates come slowly, every few months or so, but each one adds in a bunch of changes and major gameplay elements that expand on the foundation. The game is released in seasons, with each one being a paid expansion that ads in more content while also bringing free updates to the base game, with the owners of previous expansions getting a significant discount. In the event that the Elite servers will have to be shut down, The developers have said they intent to take a snapshot of the persistent universe and then release that to the public for free so players can host their own servers and make sure the game never dies for as long as there are people that want to play it.

Are there microtransactions to buy ships and modules?
No. You can go on to the Frontier store and purchase cosmetics for your ships such as paintjobs, bobbleheads, and weapon colors, but nothing that alters gameplay will ever be sold for real money aside from the expansions.

What are some criticisms to be had about Elite?
The two biggest criticisms people have for Elite are the fact that it's so huge that it feels shallow, "a mile wide and an inch deep", and the other is that the game is extremely grindy, in that you do the same thing over and over again for no real reward at the end. I disagree with both of those, but it's all a matter of perspective. I think Elite is one of the deepest games I've ever played, but that's because I really dig in to the meat of things, and everything I do in the game I do because I actually want to be doing it, so I never feel like I'm grinding. Other issues people have are that the game is realistic to the point of it being tedious, one such example being the 1:1 scale and lack of fast travel. You can hyperspace jump between stars with a max distance per jump based on your Frameshift Drive quality and ship mass, but once you're in systems, there's a general acceleration/deceleration with in-system FTL that is fixed and can not be sped up. So if you need to travel to a station in a binary system, and the station is orbiting a planet orbiting the star 300,000 light-seconds from the one you dropped out of hyperspace at, then you better prepare for a 20-minute flight. To people like me, this makes the game feel realistic and gives a sense of charm, but to other people they don't like the idea of spending 20 minutes looking at black speed by and a little glowing dot get bigger and bigger for that entire time. If you're like me and are capable of investing time in to something simply because you enjoy it, and prefer realism in a Space Sim over convenience, then Elite's biggest "flaws" shouldn't bother you too much, but if that sounds like something you wouldn't enjoy then go look somewhere else for a space game, because Elite won't be that fun for you.


And that's about it! Elite: Dangerous really is, however, a game that you have to see to be believed. So I'd recommend seeing some of my videos on the game as well as browsing youtube for more information. ObsidianAnt is one of my favorite youtubers to watch on the subject of Elite: Dangerous and I'd suggest checking him out if you still aren't sure.

If you have decided that you want to purchase Elite, you can do so from Steam using this link.

Thanks for reading! o7

#NoMansSky: What the hell Happened?

    When No Man's Sky was first teased in 2013, it was well received and and immediately began generating hype. "An infinite procedurally generated universe filled with all sorts of strange flora and fauna and terrain features to discover on countless worlds" caused it to fit right in with the likes of Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen as people have been scrambling to get their hands on the perfect Space Sim. As short and vague videos of zooming over gorgeous planets and wandering through alien forests, shooting down pirates and blowing chunks out of asteroids out in space were released, people went crazy and with the continued vagueness about the game's actual game play as well as the typical indie studio mistake of making ambitious promises they don't have the ability to keep, they hype train for No Man's Sky reached biblical proportions. As the years dragged on and people got more and more eager to get their hands on what they believed would be a game that would bring about the second coming of Christ, the hype train reached speeds that would only result in a catastrophic crash...and that is exactly what happened.
    People believed that a dev team with only a couple completely unrelated games under their belt comprised of only 15 people would be able to do in just 3 years with barely any funding what Triple-A studios with hundreds of people and millions of dollars behind them have been unable to. So when the game finally launched just a couple short weeks ago, people were met with the harsh reality: No Man's Sky was very obviously a game made by an inexperienced indie studio with just 15 people behind it. Optimization issues, crashes, bugs, laughable generation of creatures, the rubiks-cube syndrome (in which yes there might be a quintillion combinations but they all just look like a rubik's cube, so to might there be a quintillion planets in No Man's Sky but only a handful of those will be distinguishable from any of the others), and a lack of easily noticeable depth to the game. It was a video game, not the answer to world peace, and that is what people need to realize about hype: the end result will NEVER live up to the expectations of  years worth hype, so declaring "there ain't no breaks on the hype train" will only result in your experience being far less than it could be. Hype killed No Man's Sky's first impressions.

    So is No Man's Sky any good? Yes. It actually is in spite of everything that has happened. No, there is no multiplayer, no the game looks nothing like the trailers, and yes, it is disappointing compared to what the hype made it seem like it would be, but in the same way that Elite: Dangerous is a niche title that requires a certain kind of person to enjoy it, so to does No Man's Sky require a special kind of person to truly appreciate what it offers. Pictured here is a planet that I discover in what I dubbed the "Horizon System". The planet, Horizon 1, was a lush tropical forest world of large islands and shallow oceans teeming with life and filled with rare and valuable resources, protected by highly aggressive sentinels. The world had frequent rain storms and gorgeous sunsets that reminded me of mangos, which only added to the feeling of being in a tropical paradise. Deep caverns filled with glowing crystal formations, as well as being dotted with the ancient ruins and monoliths of the Vy'Keen race of aliens ensured that I had hours upon hours worth of content to explore here. And that's really what No Man's Sky is about: exploration. Finding something you haven't seen before, something that catches your attention and imagination and makes you say "I want to see everything on this planet!". The game's narrative and ultimate goals might be shallow, but the lore and interactions with the various alien races and the exploration of planets is very deep indeed. Somebody who truly loves the journey of a game rather than the destination and finds relaxation in wandering aimlessly wondering what they're going to find next will find endless enjoyment in No Man's Sky.

    If people would learn from history and stop getting so hyped over things, and realize that it's okay for people to like things they don't, disappointment like what happened to No Man's Sky would be kept to only the truly atrocious games such as Arkham Knight, Ride to Hell: Retribution, Aliens: Colonial Marines, and anything Konami produces post-Kojima, then niche titles such as No Man's Sky will get the praise and attention they deserve. On top of that though is also another underlying problem: the fact that publishers and studios have banked in on preorder culture as hard as they can and are now purposefully trying to drive the hype up and then suppress pre-launch reviews to make sure that their day-1 sales are as high as they possibly can be, so that way even if day two sells four copies because the game turned out to be utter garbage, the company can still say they had a successful launch and then move on to the next project to do the same exact thing.

DO NOT GIVE IN TO HYPE CULTURE.

No Man's Sky can be purchased on steam for $59.99 here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/275850/

World of Warcraft is Coming to Steam!

     That's right! And you can vote to have the worlds most popular MMO available through steam right here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=694488420! Hm? What's that? This isn't actually World of Warcraft? This is just some random schmuck uploading the Russian version of the "Arthas, my Son" cinematic trailer for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King? CONGRATS! YOU ARE MORE INTELLIGENT THAN THE ENTIRETY OF VALVE!

     In the latest chapter of the long and bloody history of Steam Greenlight, we see one of the single most idiotic submissions to ever show up. This isn't an asset flip, this isn't some trash meme game, this isn't even another submission of Shooter Tactics, this is literally some buffoon uploading World of Warcraft thinking "this is totally okay to do". And why wouldn't he think that? So much other garbage is allowed on to greenlight that he probably thought his idea would be pretty good compared to some of the other putrid slime of degeneracy that infests that section of Steam. And it is for this reason that I actually voted this game up. That's right. I WANT this to get greenlit. Do you know why? Because if this actually manages to make it on to the store front, Blizzard will send it's army of lawyers dressed up like the god damn Scourge to Valves door step to have a long and very violent chat about "Copyrights". And when that chat is finished, Valve will have no choice but to start having a dedicated quality assurance team overseeing greenlight submissions.
     I'm thinking something along the lines of "you submit your game and then it gets reviewed, and if the QA team thinks your game is high enough quality to be sold, then it will be allowed on to greenlight to be voted on by the masses". I like that idea. It would certainly stop the majority of Shooter Tactics and Slaughtering Grounds and MLG 420 GOTY and your WORLD OF WARCRAFT SUBMISSIONS.

World of Warcraft? Seriously? Of all things you chose World of freaking Warcraft?

Asteroids

Ever on the hunt for scenic vistas that I can snap some cool screenshots of in Elite: Dangerous, I came across a T-Tauri star with a stellar ring system and decided to drop in for a peak. My original intention was to get a neat shot of the star from within the rings, when I turned the Classified Camera around, however, this was the view that awaited me. This has to be one of my favorite screenshots I have ever taken of Elite, and I've take a hell of a lot of screenshots.

Earth-Like World

Still on my way back to inhabited space in Elite: Dangerous after my trip out to Sagittarius A*, I came across a rare sight indeed: a completely undiscovered Earth-Like World. I snapped these screenshots of the discovery to immortalize one of my biggest finds as I make my way back to sell the scan data and get my name permanently attached to the system and the planet.

The Greae Phio Stellar Forge

On my way back from inhabited space from Sagittarius A*, I decided to take a detour about 2000ly away from my original route home to take a look at the massive Greae Phio nebula. This scenic location in the galaxy is dominated by the nebula itself, as well as many other nebulas of various shapes and colors in the general vicinity. The nebula produces huge amounts of large blue/white stars that are clustered together in a dense field surrounding the nebula. Here are some of my favorite images of my trip up to the nebula:

"On approach, approximately 1300ly away"

"The Greae Phio Star Cluster"

"Jumping In"

"The Nebula In all its Majesty"

"Colorful Neighbors"

"White and Blue"

"From the Surface"

"Back to the Stars"

Sagittarius A*: The Dark Heart of the Milky Way

#Paragon: 3 Weeks Later

     Tomorrow, Paragon's Early Access turns 3 weeks old, and I've played quite a lot of it since then. Not as much as I'd like to, of course, but sadly I don't get paid to sit in front of my computer screen playing video games all damn day. I've played around 50 games of PvP and have tried numerous heroes and play styles. I've experience pretty much every thing Paragon has to offer at this point, and I think I'm ready to give a finalized review of the Early Access stage.

     Paragon does everything right. Because of this, Paragon was very easy for me to settle in to given my experience with other MOBAs. I was easily able to recognize what heroes were good for what roles given their abilities, the map layout was easy to memorize, the card system was fairly easy to get the hand of if you approach it like custom item sets in other MOBAs, and the movement system and various other mechanics came pretty naturally. However, that is all because I am no stranger to this genre. Coming in to Paragon blind as somebody who has never played a MOBA before may be very intimidating to some players. The game lacks a lot of tutorial aspects, the card system can be confusing, the map can turn in to a maze, and a lot of Paragon's mechanics are fairly complicated, and that's all on top of the general high skill curve that comes just from it being a MOBA. If you're looking to enter in to the genre through Paragon, I would suggest finding something else. At the very least until Open Beta comes this summer.

     As somebody who hated the default control scheme of Smite (ASDW to move, Mouse to look around and aim, 1234 for abilities), I like to think that Epic Games took what Smite failed at and improved on it. ASDW for movement, Q RMB E and R for abilities feels very natural and button presses require minimal finger movement. I have always thought that a fluid and intuitive control scheme is one of the most important things for a MOBA to get right, and Paragon hit the nail right on the head with this one. In addition to the general controls, the movement system is also fluid and easy to get accustomed to. The idea of "Travel Mode" comes off as taking on from Heroes of the Storm's play book, which is fine by me. Having a faster out-of-combat movement mode for getting around the map is something more MOBAs should have, although it is not without risks. Getting hit by an enemy hero while in travel mode will not only disable travel mode, but it will root you in place and disable any movement abilities for several seconds. Some of the most intense moments in a 1v1 lane has been when both me and my opponent were in travel mode and were sizing eachother up, moving closer and closer to try to bait the other person in to disabling their travel mode so we could get in to position, or hopefully root them. Other movement abilities to be expected in MOBAs such as Blink and Teleport come in the form of cards that you can slot in to your deck and pick up in-game.

   

     While on the subject, the Card system is a fairly unique replacement for the traditional Item Shop that most MOBAs use. Players start out with one (sometimes two) starter decks for each hero, and can then earn card packs through progression or by purchasing them for 10,500 reputation (the free currency that can be only earned by completing matches). Each pack contains 5 random cards that the player can add in to the starter decks or create a new deck entirely. Each hero as 2 "Affinities" that are totally not ripped off from Magic: The Gathering's mana colors or anything. These affinities are Fury (red), Growth (green), Order (white), Intellect (blue), and Corruption (black...well, now it's dark purple but same difference). Some heroes have both their affinities as the same, but most of 2 different ones. A hero can only use a deck with cards from their affinities or the generic "universal" affinity (totally not colorless mana) which can be used by any hero regardless of their affinity. Cards are divided in to 3 categories: Primes, Equipment, and Upgrades. Prime cards are only activated after your team is granted the Orb Prime buff by defeating the boss minion in the jungle and delivering the Orb to the drop point. Prime cards give powerful bonuses to both stats and lane pushing power, the exact bonuses depend on the selected prime card. Equipment cards are essentially what you'd expect them to be: potions, wards, and various forms of gear. Some equipment cards provide general stat bonuses, and others have unique activated effects. The final card type is Upgrades. Upgrade cards provide significant bonuses to one stat and can be slotted in to an Equipment that provides the same stat bonus as the upgrade (an equipment that gives attack speed and physical damage can receive an attack speed or physical damage upgrade, but not a life steal or energy armor upgrade). Most equipment cards can have up to 3 upgrades, and provide a bonus for fully upgrading them.
     After you build your deck for a specific hero, you select it at the beginning of a match to use those cards. During the match, you will earn CXP (Card Experience) from killing minions, heroes, and buildings, as well as by collecting from a harvester (a device you can place in the jungle to gather CXP and XP that, when collected, is given to every member of the team). CXP is separate from XP and every Card level gives you 3 Card Points to spend. You spend these points like you would gold in other MOBAs to get more equipment, or purchase upgrades for the ones you already have. More powerful cards cost more, and so require more card levels to purchase. Because of the RNG nature of the card system, there is a lot of concern that the game will become extremely grindy and RNG based when competitive play is enabled, due to certain decks being stronger than others. As it stands, everything you need to be viable is given to you in the starter decks, but the concern is not misplaced. Epic Games will have to be very careful to make sure that they don't add in cards or combinations of cards that result in Meta decks that become required in order to play competitively. All in all, despite potential for issues in the future, the Card system is a well-implemented and fun mechanic that does the job of "item shop" pretty well.
   

     Matches typically last around 35 minutes or so, although you can get some that last 45 or more if the teams are fairly even. In cases of one team being significantly more skilled than the other, matches can last anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes. That brings us to another issue: matchmaking. Right now there is no true MMR system that pairs people up, although it does try to put equally skilled players together using some internal parameters. In fact, the only way to really gauge progress at this point is through the use of http://agora.gg which uses Match History to determine its own version of MMR which doesn't really match up with the one the actual matchmaking system uses, although it DOES provide a clear measurement of progress that the game itself does not offer at this time. All that said, most matches are fairly even, although you will still get steam rolling teams that massacre their opponents.
     The overall pace of the game is not too fast, but not too slow either. It's right in the middle where most MOBAs should be. You have your clearly defined 3-section games, with an early, mid, and late. Early games tends to last around 10 minutes and involves players going through the motions of pushing lanes, leveling up, and gathering card points. Once one team starts to gain momentum and is able to push through the first line of towers, Mid game starts and sees a lot of lane rotating and roaming as both teams try to outmaneuver the other in order to secure tower kills. Late game typically begins once one team has pushed all the way to the enemy inhibitors, starting the typical game of "siege the base until it cracks". There are lots of ways games can play out, but that's just been my experience with Paragon thus far.
     There are only 14 heroes so far, so there isn't a lot of variation in team comps. And in fact there isn't a lot of comp in team comps. The only PvP queue available at this point is Quick Match, which allows a player to select a hero prior to joining queue, and then gets paired up with 4 random other players to form a team. It does seem like the game at least tries to form a viable team, but that could just be due to the fact that there are so few heroes right now. There is a lot of controversy surrounding balance issues among some heroes right now. There's the argument that the melee carries Grux and Feng Mao, the tank Rampage, and the carry Murdock are all seriously overpowered and need heavy nerfs, and to the contrary you get the people arguing that the heroes aren't overpowered, they just are easy to snow ball with due to their kits and require caution to make sure they don't get fed. I find myself in the latter category, although I can't deny that Rampage being able to ult and soak up tower shots like bug bites or Murdock being able to deal 2700 damage in 2 hits late game is pretty broken and should be tweaked, but not as much as people may claim. Overall, despite obvious flaws that can be attributed to the game being in early development, matches are a lot of fun and some could argue even relaxing due to the pacing of everything, but that is broken up when fights start up and it quickly turns in to an intense and energizing brawl.

     As for the developers, I think it's safe to say that Epic Games is nothing if not venerable. They've released quite a lot of classics and hits over the years, and have experience in making Arena-based multiplayer games. Not my first choice for a company to make a new MOBA, but so far they've proven that they can stand with the best of them and have delivered a very promising games. They plan to release a new hero every 3 weeks, which will be very interesting to see, they post frequent blog updates and are very transparent about what they're doing. They are also very community-oriented and have been talking with their players in numerous forums including their own. They've been answering questions and being very upfront and friendly with their player base which is very nice to see from a major player in the Video Games Industry these days. They've also taken to heart the stigma that "MOBAs are toxic clouds of pain and suffering and are infested by the worst of humanity", and have been doing everything they can to stop it. Player Toxicity is met with very fast punishment, and players have come on to the forums to complain that they got anywhere from a 2-7 day ban from the game for their behavior "without a warning". The temp ban is the warning, and I am very happy to see EG cracking down on negative players. The forums are actually more toxic than the game itself is which is a refreshing change of pace. And I'll admit I don't do anything to combat the toxicity in the official forums, but then again my assholiness is brought about by me being blunt about things or responding to people in kind rather than a general desire to cause trouble or flame people. Although, that said it does need to be brought up that a lot of the games playerbase at this time is MOBA newbies who don't understand what they're doing, which has caused a lot of tension in the players who take early access alpha builds of MOBAs deadly serious, which is the epicenter for a lot of the general negativity that is produced by the games community. That, and the fact that Paragon is cross platform with PS4 (and possibly Xbox One in the future if the rumors ring true) which brings up the typical "PC MASTER RACE" argument that serves no purpose, although PS4 players don't have access to chat functionality so that can cause communication issues. There is however a team comms functionality which allows players to make pings and callouts with just the press of a couple buttons.

To summarize, Paragon has proven itself to be a very interesting game filled with potential to stand with League, DOTA, and Smite. The games current state leaves a bit to be desired but that will change with time. It's complicated for newbies, but easy to pick up if you're a MOBA veteran. Matches are fun and  engaging, and relatively toxicity-free. The developers have shown that they genuinely want to make a great game and care about their players' feedback. And as for the community? Well...it's a MOBA community that's for damn sure. 

We'll have to see where it goes from here, but as it stands I highly recommend picking up Paragon if you're willing to be a tester for an unfinished game and love MOBAs. 

O-oh...you were looking for a numerical score? I forgot you people love numbers...um okay...how about....I give Paragon a perfect "I highly recommend picking up Paragon if you're willing to be a tester for an unfinished game and love MOBAs out of 10". There. That's your score.

(You can pick up a Paragon Founder's Pack starting at $19.99 here: https://www.epicgames.com/paragon/founders)

Sevarog: Paragon's Newest Hero

     At the time of writing, Sevarog has been available to play in Epic Games' MOBA Paragon for a little more than an Hour. I was among the first to hop on the second the servers were available and jumped right in to try out the 14th hero to join the growing population of Agora, and was...intrigued. Not impressed, not disappointed, but intrigued.
     Sevarog is a Growth/Corruption affinity Hero that is advertised as being a able to excel in either a Tank or Jungler role. His Passive ability "Soul Tap" allows him to build stacks of souls. Each stack gives him +3 max hp, and his model grows larger and more detailed at 20, 40, 70, and 100 stacks. His Q ability "Siphon" deals physical damage in a line in front of him. Killing a minion with this ability gives him +1 soul stack, while killing a hero gives him +3, and the ability gains a damage bonus every time he grows from collecting souls. His RMB ability "Phantom Rush" let's him dash forward and ignore unit collision, although terrain and Dekkers wall still impede his movement. His E ability "Subjugate" is a long range, small AoE that applies a snare, and then a slow while dealing physical damage. His R ability "Colossal Blow" lets him hit enemies in a cone in front of him, instantly killing minions and launching enemy heroes back a long distance.

     Because of his Q and Passive, he should be spending a lot of time farming minions, although due to his complete lack of any real damage if you build him tank, last hitting with his Q and getting soul stacks can be quite a chore, especially considering the cool down it has in earlier levels and the difficulty in setting up killing multiple minions simultaneously with one cast. Once you get him going, however, he becomes a walking (hovering?) fortress that can soak up tons of damage and provide CC to melee carries, and knock ranged heroes towards his allies to be slaughtered. However, as I said previously, if you intend on building him as a tank, forget about getting kills. You do so little damage without furiously spamming your Q and E (and eating up your energy in the process) that you'd be better off just farming until your team needs you to become a meat shield.
     I foresee Sevarog becoming a highly effective support, however, simply due to his CC abilities. If you build him as a tank, you can body block shots for your ADC, snare the enemy carry so that yours can get some free hits in, or dash behind them for a quick flank and them ult them under your tower if they push to hard. The range on his E is absolutely terrifying, and a skilled user will be able to zone out tanks or melee carries during a team fight just long enough to kill the squishies and tilt the fight in to his teams favor. I'd say practice on landing his E and using it in various situations, and then don't even worry about farming souls, just use tank cards and max out his E first if you want to be extremely obnoxious to the enemy team. The uses for a flat out hard CC are endless, especially in Paragon where heroes like Grux and Feng Mao dominate the lower ELO's due to high mobility and brutal melee damage.

     For items, I would highly recommend building a lot in to CDR and Mana so that you can spam your utilities more often and for longer periods of time. Sevarog really doesn't seem like the kind of guy who wants to be in people's faces crushing people. He seems to me to be more of the cold, calculating type who enjoys manipulating the battlefield. I'd say better to have somebody like steel or rampage fill the tank role, and have Sevarog be built as a control mage. That's not to say don't give him survivability, as you want to be able to survive dashing in to ult squishies towards your team or your towers if you're able. Use your Q to last hit minions as they come buy, and rely on your E to control the battle field and win each fight for your team.

     If you're planning to take Sevarog in to the jungle, I HIGHLY recommend taking some cards to give yourself more physical damage and attack speed. Sevarog does so little damage that his clear time will be extremely slow, although farming with his Q will be much easier. Still build in to items that give him HP and Mana, with a little CDR splashed in for good measure. Only go full tank if you want to stand in the middle of everybody getting shot so your team doesn't and do practically nothing else. Give him some love in other areas to make sure he can actually use achieve his high utility potential.

     All in all, after playing with him for a bit, my personal opinions are mixed. On the one hand he looks totally badass and has a lot of neat abilities, but on the other hand I like damage dealers and his performance in that area is so underwhelming that it's almost boring to me. Nothing he does feels like it has any impact behind it, and his pushing power is almost non existent due to his slow wave clear time. I feel like even though Epic wants to say he's a tank and a jungler, I feel he'll really shine when used by skilled support mains who can take advantage of his CC to manipulate the field to their advantage. I'll have to play with him more and mess around with his kit, maybe build a few decks just to see what all he can do, but as it stands he's not at all what I expected him to be, and there's a lot to be desired with this hero for me. That doesn't mean I won't play him, though. I used to think Anivia was one of the worst champions in League of Legends until I started messing around with her ou tof boredom and saw what she could really do. Now I own her Blackfrost skin, have level 5 mastery, and have been maining her in the mid lane for 2 years now. Maybe Sevarog will be my new Anivia?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA nobody will ever replace my bird.

Not even a pair of disembodied arms wearing a cloak and holding a hammer with a bunch of neat CC abilities.

(If you'd like to try out Sevarog for yourself, you can purchase a Founder's Pack for Paragon for $19.99 here: https://www.epicgames.com/paragon/founders, or you can wait until summer when the game goes in to Open Beta.)

The Dark Heart of a Nebula: Elite Dangerous Gameplay

A system in the deep core consisting of a Type I Jovian Gas Giant and a Spectral Type K Star orbiting a Black Hole of just over 2 Stellar Masses. This system rests at the heart of a gorgeous nebula of various shades of purple, blue and pink.

Paragon Gameplay

#Paragon: Is it worth a damn?

Today marks the beginning of the Early Access season for Epic Games' new MOBA Paragon. This means that anybody willing to pay at least $19.99 can get access to the early build of the game without having to hope to get lucky and receive a Beta invite. As a long-time fan of MOBAs, I was excited for the release of this game from the moment I heard about it, and naturally grabbed a Founder's Pack the moment they were available on the 13th of March, and after a few days of waiting, I finally got to sign in and play.

     As an Anivia main in League of Legends, I've always had a fondness for mid-lane mages in MOBAs, and so I decided to begin my Paragon adventure with the hero Gideon. He's mana-hungry lane-pusher with a lot of utility in his kit. He can call down an AoE meteor shower for wave clear, a skill-shot slow, a short-range teleport that can get him in and out of fights, and his ultimate creates a black hole that sucks in and continuously damages enemies, making him excellent for initiating team fights. I played a few AI co-op matches with him to get the basics of the game and to understand how to utilize his kit, and then went in to PvP once I hit account level 3 where I played a few more matches and saw a lot of success.

   

The game is fairly straight forward and instantly intuitive to any MOBA veteran. You've got your 3 lanes, with neutral camp populated jungle in between. A marskman and their support go in one of the side lanes, a tank goes on the other, a mage with pushing power goes in the mid, and a high-mobility assassin or crowd controller wanders the jungle to ambush enemies in their lanes. Two towers are placed in each lane and must be destroyed to go after the inhibitors, which allow the team who destroyed one to begin spawning super-powered minions in that lane as well as gain access to the core which must be destroyed to win the game. If you run out of mana or are low on health, you can recall back to your base to heal up and purchase upgrades before heading back out in to the fight. All standard stuff that every MOBA has, so Paragon is not unique in that sense. However, it does add its own flair to things with the gorgeous scenery, unique hero design and aesthetics, and the card system. Which, I suppose the card system is really the only thing I can think of that Paragon does differently, and even then it's just a spin-off of the standard item-purchasing system that you see in other MOBAs. But, it is a neat idea. Basically you play games and level up both your account and heroes to get rewards, all while obtaining Reputations points. These rewards can be card packs, or you can purchase card packs for 10,500 reputation (not with real money, that's the important thing to note here). These packs contain 5 random cards that you build in to decks. These cards contain items such as equipment of various stats, potions, wards, activated items, and upgrades. You then create a deck to suit your favorite heroes and then take them in to battle. The cards you pick will represent the items you can purchase with card points, which are earned alongside xp. These items are added to your slots, and then you can add upgrades to them as the game progresses by spending more card points. On Gideon, I frequently upgraded my items with the Caster upgrades, which increased my Energy Damage output, as well as the Mana and Health upgrades which increased my maximum mana and hp respectively. There are also items I've obtained that provide stats such as attack speed, physical armor, energy armor, life steal, critical strike, and other basic stats that you find in other MOBAs. The idea behind this card system is that the more you play, the more cards you earn, which in turn gives you better items and more options for builds. This is a unique take on things that might make some people angry due to a potential advantage somebody might have over a player that doesnt have as good of a deck, but the fact that you can not get cards by spending real money means that the only way to get cards is to play the game more and more, which equalizes out. A player with more cards than you has probably played more than you have, which means they are probably more skilled than you are which means they have an advantage any way.

     All that said, the game boils down in to a stereotypical MOBA that doesn't do a whole lot differently, but manages to execute the traditional mechanics perfectly. I wouldn't recommend purchasing a founders pack to anybody right now unless you REALLY want to get started, as there really isn't anything Paragon offers that any other established and free MOBAs offers already, but it is still a gorgeous, smooth games that I will be sinking a lot of hours in to. The game will be going free to play when it finally launches, and new heroes will be released for free every few weeks, so there's a lot to look forward to.

     All in all, Paragon is well worth it if you're looking for more of the same in a very pretty Unreal Engine 4 powered dress.

(If you are interested, a Paragon Founders pack can be purchased for $19.99 here: https://www.epicgames.com/paragon/founders)

So what is Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade?

     This week saw the Steam Launch of Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade in Early Access, This game has been hyped for some time among the more dedicated Warhammer 40k fans as it is supposed to be the first ever MMO set in the Warhammer universe, which is something fans of the series have been wanting for quite some time. In the few short days since the Early Access launch of Steam, the game has achieved a respectable 80% positive reviews, although that number appears to be moving towards the mid 70's as more and more people are purchasing the game and reviewing it. Regardless, the game has been well received and there are always enough players in-game at any given time to keep matchmaking times relatively low and rooms relatively full. But, all the positivity can be arguably attributed to the popularity of the Warhammer setting and the unwillingness of players to admit that the game is in a poor state. So I am here to answer the question "What is Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade?"

     To answer that question, we must answer it in two parts. What IS it, and what will it BE? Since players will only have experience with what it is right now for the time being, let's answer that first. In its current state, it is a 3rd-person arena shooter with several maps of capture-the-points between the Space Marine and Chaos Marine factions, each with several customizable sub-classes to perform various roles such as vehicle destruction, healing, sniping, setting up machine gun encampments, melee focus, and more. Matches are fast-paced and tense as both teams rush to attack and defend the various points placed throughout the map, with grenades and bolter shots flying through the air. Something I find especially satisfying is simply the movement, as my heavily-armored marine sprints through the battlefield his every footstep is heavy and gives off a deep thud and really gives a sense of presence in the world. However, the game is horribly optimized and even a high-end computer will have trouble running it. I have an AMD 8320, a GTX 970, and 32gb of RAM in my PC and I usually end up with an average of 20fps, although it can drop lower than that during particularly intense moments, while it remains at 45-60fps if there's a lot of distance between me and a major fight. The developers are aware of this bad optimization, however, and fixes are on the way in the near future. It's also quite repetitive as there aren't a lot of maps and there's only one game mode. There also aren't a whole lot of customization options for the classes, although there are enough to provide for at least SOME variation. The community could also be argued as a downside as I've been in numerous games with people on voice chat being extremely rude and needlessly offensive because they're losing or keep getting killed, although that is to be expected from any competitive shooter with a chat function, so Eternal Crusade can't really be faulted for that. All in all, in it's current state it is VERY much an Alpha.

     Now, to answer the question of what it will become. The devs genuinely seem to be on top of this and are determined to bring their vision to life and so I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one and say that despite the games current less-than-impressive state, I am very interested in buying in now and being a part of development. The game will eventually have 4 factions in total, Space Marines, Chaos Marines, Eldar, and Orks. It will be a massive open-world war with a persistent world much like Planetside 2, with instanced PvE co-op content. There will be character progression and customization options that can be unlocked through playing. In the end the game will be a true Warhammer MMO, and it's all just a question of how long will the wait be, and will the developers actually manage to follow through with their promises. Because that's all any of this is right now: promises. Eternal Crusade is a massive undertaking, but I have faith that it will come to fruition in the end. However, that doesn't mean that I can truly recommend this game to any normal gamer. As I said, it its current state it is an un-optimized mess that requires a very high end PC to run, and the vast majority of defining features have not yet been added. It is a game in the early stages of development with a lot of potential and only the most dedicated of Warhammer fans will enjoy it as it is. Even if you aren't willing to take the risk, it is absolutely worth keeping tabs on this game. I haven't had it long enough to really know how regular content updates are, but people claim that they come frequently. And if the game is truly on a steady march towards the end vision, then you might find yourself picking it up sooner rather than later.

Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade can be purchased from Steam now for $49.99 (At the time of writing, there is a 20% discount active) (Enter my referral code EC-0VP1YXEDPMUVS to get bonus points to be spent in the Rogue Trader  shop when it arrives!)

The Microtransaction Dilemma

     Microtransactions are highly prevalent in today's gaming industry, with Triple A titles coming equipped with in-game shops and free-to-play games making their money through the purchase of in-game goodies. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these microtransactions involve pay to win elements, allowing players to purchase an advantage over non-paying users in the form of better items or exclusive equipment. This was already a common thing with free to play games that wanted to give players an incentive to spend money by giving them an edge for doing so. More recently, however, we see paid titles offering the same thing. It can almost be excused for free games, but a full-priced title that also attempts to milk the wallets of players by making those with the deepest pockets the strongest? That is unacceptable and any company that tries this greedy scheme should be ashamed of themselves.
     Microtransactions have become so tainted in the eyes of the gaming community that the mere mention of them being included is enough to deter a lot of potential buyers. And who can blame them? With companies like EA and Ubisoft at the helm, it makes sense that microtransactions have become synonymous with the very worst of the industry. But is there a way to do microtransactions that is acceptable, even when in a paid title?

     The short answer? Yes.

     Contrary to popular belief, there is no reason why companies shouldn't be allowed to make money after the launch of their game. None. The issue here is that few companies realize that there is a right and wrong way to do microtransactions. The wrong way is obvious: pay to win. If a microtransaction shop offers and advantage over other players who do not pay, such as a weapon that deals more damage than any weapon that can be earned for free, then the company is trying to bait players in to paying money with the promise of being superior over their peers. This is greed, this is unacceptable, and games that do this should be avoided. Then there is the right way: offering players the ability to support the developers by purchasing items that don't affect gameplay, or do so in purely convenience-oriented ways that don't provide an advantage. Take Elite: Dangerous for example. This game is a paid experience with a cash-shop. Except that the cash shop is exclusively paint jobs for ships, and little bobble heads you can put on your dashboard. It offers nothing that affects actual gameplay. Sure, a fancy paint job on that neat little all-purpose fighter you have may come off as a symbol of status, but a player in a fully decked-out end-game ship with no paintjob will still be able to smear you across time and space. Also, games that offer extra content via expansions. Skyrim for example was a paid triple a title that allowed players to purchase expansions that added to the base game as well as providing many hours more of additional gameplay, with the Dragonborn expansion in particular adding an entire new island to explore filled with quests and dungeons and new enemies and story.
     Now, there is a gray area I believe. Halo 5: Guardians is a perfect example of a gray area when asking "are these microtransactions acceptable or not?". Halo 5 Requisition (Req) Packs can be earned by playing multiplayer matches and purchased with Req Points, or you can purchase them with real cash. These req packs contain cosmetics such as armor pieces, icons, stances, and assassination animations, among other things. However, they also contain weapons for use in the Warzone game mode. These weapons can alter gameplay greatly, especially if a player is lucky enough to have a legendary-tier weapon available for use. This might be considered unacceptable pay-to-win but consider this: it's all based on chance. There's no guarantee that you'll get anything of any real value no matter how many you buy with real money. Anybody can get the packs, it just takes more time to do it for free. Anybody who has actually played the game knows that nobody (and I mean NOBODY) uses legendary items because 1) they're so rare that you might never see another one if you use it and 2) anybody with the starting pistol and a lucky position can kill you and take it from you before you even get to use it. You can be damn sure I'm never using my Prophet's Bane, and that's exactly what nearly every other player thinks. Also, the weapons can only be used in Warzone. The competitive Arena modes that have ranked systems don't allow for the use of req cards aside from xp/rp boosters that don't affect the actual game. And plus, people buying req packs pays for map packs and other new content. Halo 5 offers game-play altering content for pay, yes. But it's highly situational, and the money made from it goes in to the production of free content updates that everybody gets to enjoy regardless of the ability to pay. So this remains a gray area.
   
     In the end, microtransactions are not going anywhere for a while, and companies will continue to use cash shops to continue to make money after the launch of their game. What people need to learn is to stop immediately assuming a cash shop is going to make the game pay to win. Look at what exactly is being offered for real money before you judge a game based on the presence of a cash shop.