Do you like shooting aliens? I sure do. $50 for the box and $15 a month to play. Nerd bait included with the $70 limited edition:

* Exclusive Boo Bot Pet
* Exclusive dye recipes to customize your armor with unique colors
* Signature LOGOS character emote
* Welcome letter from General British
* Authentic AFS Military Challenge Coin
* Set of Tabula Rasa Dog Tags (Don’t wear those to school, kids. I’m only thinking of your safety. – Uncle Foton)
* Exclusive Black Ops Poster
* AFS Field Guide
* 7 Double-sided maps
* Making of Tabula Rasa DVD

Here’s the press release for the game launch.

I hadn’t followed TR very closely. I suppose because it’s been SIX YEARS in development — mentally, I gave up on it. Joke’s on me though, cuz here it is.

BONUS: MMOG Nation has a spiffy write-up re: TR-beta with some good commentary from other beta players. Seems like the $15 monthly is a major sticking point.

The call: Buy.

Thanks! Have a good weekend!

If you’re the type who wants DETAILS, there’s more after the jump.

The good:

1. Artwork. Superb. Stunning. I am without speech, it’s that good.

2. Noob levels. Done well. Help is offered regularly (with tips and popups, which can be disabled later). Many features, keybinds from games past are the defaults here. That’s good because I’m getting old and set in my ways. It’s just this simple: if you can’t hook me in the noob levels, there’s no way I’m sticking around for the end game.

3. Deep and broad. An MMOG, any MMOG, with its premium box price and its premium subscription prices, needs to offer more activities than: you can kill stuff, and, umm, you can kill other players, and umm, you could check the auctions/trade channel. There’s many ways to screw around in this MMOG: Deeds, accomplishments, exploration (easy to outrun higher level mobs), titles, player-made music, engaging quest text, a solid start to the crafting system, MONSTER PLAY!!! There’s probably more, but that’s all I’ve tried so far.

4. We all know the story. This is a gimme, but CMON, who doesn’t love Lord of the Rings? If you say you hate it, you’re just being difficult.

5. Learned from other games. Some people (in /ooc) bitch about LOTRO stealing systems, ideas, etc. from other games … in particular World of Warcraft. Well, fucking duh. I would too. It’s called LEARNING. I hope they continue.

6. The Classes. Please God, let LOTRO continue their trek away from the Tank + Healer combat model that has plagued us for years and years. Several classes can heal (either self or party or both) to varying degrees in this game. Almost any group (excuse me, FELLOWSHIP) composition will work for the tougher quests to level 15. There’s still some reliance on the tank + healer “we win!” duo, but don’t believe everything you read in /ooc or /lfg.

I, personally, played champion, minstrel and captain to level 15; lore-master to level 10. LOVED Captain, btw. (For you WoW people, champion is rogue-y with big melee DPS, minstrel is the biggest healer/buffer, and captain is paladin-esque with better DPS.) Guildmates played, enjoyed, some LOVED, the other classes as well: guardian (tank), hunter (duh), lore-master (magic DPS), burglar (debuffer). To be fair, none of them loved burglar — was a little too group-reliant, I heard.

The ok:

1. Combat. I liked queueing combat moves, spells, skills and responding to mob specials with different combat choices — some people don’t. I didn’t find the combat particularly innovative, but I did find that I could improve my play (i.e. kill time, defeated mob level) by fighting smarter.

So if we consider classic EverQuest the standard auto-attack, walk away model, and high-end PVP-type games as the ultimate in combat requiring your absolute attention, I’d rate LOTRO combat as similar to, sometimes exceeding, World of Warcraft PVE, in other words, mid-scale.

2. The Races. Who cares? I don’t. Any race, any class will do. Where do you want to start? That’s all you have to decide.

3. The Community. Umm, people haven’t changed in centuries — it’s the same community as in any other online game you’ve played.

The bad:

1. Icons. WTF. Fix these. And I mean last week. After a few weeks with a game, I shouldn’t need to mouseover icons to figure out what an item is at its basic level (is it food? a craft material? looks like a blob of yellow to me), but I do.

2. Character models. Meh. They don’t have to be beautiful or cartoonishly exaggerated, but everyone is bland and homely. Some face animation wouldn’t hurt either.

3. Optimization. Busy cities can be jerky as stuff loads. (Yes, I have a computer well beyond specs for the game.) The syncing of character to the world can be iffy, also. Example: your character is running but his/her feet don’t quite match the moving ground properly. (I don’t know the technical whatsits for this.) During prime time, this is more noticeable, but not a terrible nuisance.

4. Item linking. We have to drag the icon and drop in chat to link an item with clickable stats. That’s bush league. Shift-click is the way to go.

5. Money is too tight. I know game economies have to be guarded closely lest inflation ruins everything, but in the noob levels, we want to try everything.

Here’s a good rule of thumb for you young developers out there: Noobs should have plenty of money to buy all their skills, try out the different crafting options, try out a few optional systems (surnames, kinships, musical instruments, whathaveyou), pay for repairs of their equipment AND make a few expensive noob mistakes.

LOTRO falls short of this — it is possible to drive your noob into bankruptcy and be forced to reroll. Of course, you’d never make that mistake again, but it is possible.

The conclusion:

The bottom line is: this game costs $50, plus $10 a month (if you preorder), is it worth that? For me, the answer is: easily. My criterion is that I want to get a good six months to a year out of an online game before I ask for a divorce. So confident am I of the six month – one year from this game, I’m toying with the $199 lifetime subscription. I probably won’t, but I’m toying.

For you, the answer isn’t so easy.

If you’re still playing World of Warcraft and loving it, stick with WoW. Lord knows you can’t afford to spend any time elsewhere — there’s heroics to farm, attunements for you and your guild, trash to clear repeatedly — your plate is full. Same answer for you EQ2 lovers, Vanguard lovers, Eve Online lovers, et al.

If you’re looking to add to your online gaming options, this game is a fine choice. Beautiful, engaging, deep, different.

Between online games? Without a doubt, buy it.

New to online gaming? It’s f’ing Lord of the Rings! The game remains true to the story, but there’s more to do.

Whether you buy or not, know that whenever I run across the absurd, the foolish, the arrogant or the stupid in Middle Earth, I will save a screenshot for you.

City of Villains — Preorders available from selected retailers (EB Games, Game Stop, CompUSA and Best Buy). Includes: beta access, two-day head-start before it ships to the public (you know you want that, you gaming whore!), an exclusive in-game item (any chance that won’t suck?), some limited edition poster, 14-day free trial of City of Heroes for you and one of your imaginary friends, and a CD-ROM with art and shit.

I checked the Game Stop link (Hail, click through!), preorder is 50 bucks with an ETA of October 31, 2005.

So, we have that going for us. Which is nice.

Also, the somewhat anticipated Dungeons & Dragons Online sent out alpha invites recently, with promises of additional invites in the (near?) future. (Found on Betawatcher. FFS, I don’t start camping a game website until closed beta approaches.)

Turbine SAYS the DDO ETA is the second half of 2005, which, to me, means … they need to get that bitch out in time for Christmas.

Meh. I don’t even know if I’ll bother with either.

(You don’t believe that shit, do you? You KNOW I’ll try them both like the gaming whore I am.)

*imagine a disjointed computerized voice*

Welcome Foton. We knew you’d be back.

(wtf! Did you hear that?)

Why don’t you just input your credit card information now to save yourself the bother later? We know how you hate being bothered.

(surely you heard THAT!)

umm, you already have it. But, I’m just passing through.

Of course you are.

No, I’m serious. Just trying out … heh … the trial. *gulps*

You know how it is.

Of course.

It was too hot to sleep. I followed the distant sound of a Siren. The wind just kind of … pushed me this way.

(this is sure stirring up some ghosts for me.)

There’s one thing you’ve got to learn. Is not to be afraid of it.

No, I like it.

I like it, it’s good.

You like it now. You’ll learn to love it later.

Hang the rich.

(fuck the courage of my convictions. God, I’m weak.)

*/ooc bastardized from Robbie Robertson.*

Unlike the Warcraft opening, lo these five months ago, there really hasn’t been a huge buzz among the super-secret player societies with Guild Wars. I’d like to think it’s because THEY (meaning, not me) learned a lesson about shooting their mouths off with: this will be different! this is Blizzard! Blizzard is god! Blizzard’s stuff is very polished!

Ya, it’s polished alright. Five months later and I still have a two-second cast time on my instant-cast spells … if I cast at all, that is.

Don’t get me wrong, I have concerns with this Guild Wars game. The important difference is, I have much lowered expectations this time. One could say, I have ZERO expectations even. The only certainty is that I’m out 80 bucks. (What can I say? The in-game collector’s-edition-only doodads sound cool.)

I look at it as I’m supporting the arts. If only gaming houses would organize as charitable entities — and from what I’ve heard, many of them should — my gaming budget would be considered donations. For the value I’ve received in return with some of these MMOs, I have a strong case here.

No names though. Today is an opening day, and opening day is always for the happy, happy, joy, joy, not for bitterness.

So, farewell for now, alt Warcraft character that I just can’t find the energy to shove through those final levels to 60, farewell level 60 rogue that, once upon a time, could mow down an entire fortress of orc, farewell crack-smoking Auction House sellers that spam their lowbie shit in the trade channel every two minutes, farewell choking loot lag.

If history is any guide, I’ll be back with even lower expectations for entertainment and a sense of virtual accomplishment. By my calculations, that would put the expectation level at negative 10 … reading the newspaper while endgame raiding.

Today, however, hope springs eternal and the quest for virtual world domination begins anew.

WTF, I thought that was years away, wrote I.

Nah, think it’s soon, wrote he.

I think he’s high because I checked around their site and I can’t find anything other than it will be “some day.” I read the FAQ. Here’s an excerpt:

1.4.1 What do you mean by a ‘third generation MMORPG’?

We usually use the word ‘generation’ more like an ‘era’… when a group of games come out around the same time, were in development mostly around the same time, and therefore couldn’t use each other as reference nearly as much as older games, we call that a generation.

Under that definition, M59, UO, AC, EQ, etc. were all first generation. They pretty much just had MUDs to look back on and be inspired.

When you get to AC 2, SW:G, EQ 2, and WoW, all of the developers are able to look back not only at MUDs but also at what worked and didn’t work with the first generation of MMOGs.

Vanguard will have the advantage of looking back at both generations, learning again from what worked and didn’t work with all of those games. In other words, we will be able to analyze EQ 2, WoW, etc. too.

That doesn’t mean our definition of ‘generation’ is ‘right’ or ‘official’, but that is the rationale we use when we refer to Vanguard as a 3rd generation massively multiplayer role-playing game.

heh. Kinda ballsy.

Seems like they missed a generation there, so they’re probably more like fourth generation, although if they take long enough to give birth to this thing, could be fifth generation. Just saying.

*wait for it*

*wait for it*

The Matrix Online will go live on March 22, 2005 in North America (for any high schoolers in the audience, that includes the United States … I kid! I kid!), and April 8, 2005 in Europe. Fifty bucks for the box plus 15 a month to play. (Hope springs eternal over at Warner Bros.) I haven’t tried Matrix yet, but c’mon, that premise couldn’t get any narrower unless it involved a small town in North Carolina named Mayberry.

I suggest you use any included free trial time wisely.

Guild Wars will go live on April 28, 2005 and preorders include complimentary participation in their Beta weekends in the interim. No pricing was included in the press release, but I’m guessing it would be similar to everything else. Really weird that they wouldn’t disclose pricing; maybe they’re still working on it.

I have tried Guild Wars, a few times, in the Beta previews. It’s structured differently, and I think that could be good. As long as they’re not charging a king’s ransom for it, I’ll give it a shot.

(Originally found at GameGossip.com)

Of course, this means that everyone around me has already finished Doom at least five times, all on the nightmare setting, while I’m still stuck in f’ing Alpha Labs at 40 health.

Damn, that god mode setting sure is tempting, especially when EVERYONE feels obligated to describe the ending. In great detail. WTF, that’s like spoiling the end of a movie. Thanks alot, a-holes.

What I’ve seen so far (pitifully little) is simply incredible: engrossing storyline, challenging combat, beautiful graphics, a soundtrack without peer. I’m not very fond of those stupid PDAs I have to pick up and hunt through email spam, or worse! listen to stupid audio notes, to get the codes I need for various doors. I hate doing that and avoid it whenever feasible, which might explain why I’m missing half of my supplies.

I was relieved to discover that FedEx still exists in the future, under the moniker “Exe”. (I should look into buying that domain now.) I think I should be able to use what’s in the shipping boxes, like Tom Hanks in Cast Away. Some ice skates, shoes, hell, I could even use a volleyball about now.