Jump to content
News Ticker
  • Welcome to 2021, let's hope it is better than 2020.
  • CotP Discord Channel

    Covenant of the Phoenix has a new official Discord Channel!!!
    JOIN COTP IN DISCORD TODAY
    By Damis

    Valheim is hottest new survival and exploration game.

    Valheim is a game about exploring a huge fantasy world inspired by Norse mythology and Viking culture. You start your adventure at the relatively peaceful center of Valheim. The further from the center you travel, the more challenging the world becomes. But you will also find more valuable materials that you can use to craft deadlier weapons and sturdier armor. You will also build your own Viking strongholds and outposts all over the world. Eventually, you will build a mighty longship and sail the great oceans in search of exotic lands … but be wary of sailing too far...
    Key features:
    Huge procedurally-generated world - explore and inhabit mystical lands, from mysteriousforests to imposing snow-topped mountain ranges and stunning meadows, complete with their own creatures of legend to battle and wildlife to hunt. Co-op PvE (2-10 players) - - Whether you want to brave the lands alone or venture with trusted allies, Valheim supports independent, player-hosted servers and unlimited world creation. We recommend playing co-op with 3-5 players. Punishing dodge & block based combat system with a wide range of weapons Build & sail ships - from flimsy rafts to imposing warships, build legendary vessels to conquer the seas and discover new lands. Summon and defeat vengeful primordial bosses of myth and legend, and collect trophies to progress and craft new powerful items Flexible house and base building system - raise mead halls, farms, settlements outposts, castles and more. Intuitive item crafting - forge the finest weapons and armour, and craft food and mead. Dedicated server- for players who want to run a persistent server. https://store.steampowered.com/app/892970/Valheim/
    Read more...
    By Damis

    Crypt Space Commander(CSC) A Space Sandbox MMO

    CSC is an open-universe, sandbox-style space MMO with a player-owned economy. Command starships and earn digital items to buy, sell, or trade without limits both inside and outside of the game universe. Experience a free-market Play-to-Own Economy that provides true ownership & freedom.
    Starships
    In CSC you, our Commander, can own and operate your very own starships. Starships come in all shapes and sizes and are specialized in either mining, combat, trade, or exploration. Starships in CSC can be endlessly customized with modules. Modules can add or upgrade existing ship functionality from shields and weapons to FTL drives.
    Economy
    Almost everything in the CSC universe can be crafted from resources openly available in the universe. The smallest shield module up to a universe-wide jump gate network can all be made with the right materials. Create new technology and share it freely for the good of the federation or sell it for the right price.
    Crafting
    The crafting system is uncapped, allowing players to continually improve on the quality of their crafted items. Specialization is encouraged by the CSC crafting mechanic, rewarding players for focusing on specific items & allowing them to create truly unique and valuable starship weapons or other components.
    Exploration
    Rules are merely suggestions in some parts of space. Areas under GFI protection do exist, and are open to explore and mine to your heart’s content, but the best loot is out there in Fringes of Space. Beware, dangers of all kinds are in the fringe: creatures, pirates, rogue Commanders, and faction governments. Those brave enough to venture deep into Fringe Space however will find an abundance of rare resources, larger bounties, and more lucrative quests.
    The Current Game State
    CSC is a game in development while in Beta with core game features implemented. As a starship Commander you can command your ship, explore 40+ star systems, mine for resources that can be used in manufacturing/workshop, combat NPCs for loot and resources, and play along with other Commanders on our LIVE MMO server.
    LInks:
    https://www.csc-game.com/
    https://store.steampowered.com/app/895040/CSC__Space_MMO/
     
    Read more...
    By Damis

    TROVE: REFER-A-FRIEND

    Love Trove? Invite your friends to adventure by your side. You’ll earn fire-breathing rewards when they hit Mastery Rank 20 in-game!
    Each time one of your cubic recruits hits Mastery Rank 20, your Companion Level increases by one. Your very first Mastery 20 recruit grants an Elder Dragonling Ally, and the rewards grow in stature from there!

     
    Clink the link below for more information.
    https://trovelive.trionworlds.com/account/referral/get-account-referral-dashboard-flow.action?_gmg=gmg.2685578402.1621262511
    Read more...
    By Damis

    Crowfall - Hunger Dome Mode

    An upcoming mode in Crowfall that allows 60 players to fight each others in a "Hunger Dome" style match. Todd describes it as a super condensed version of Crowfall on steroids and says it's really fun. It's a mix between a MMO, a MOBA and a Battle Royale (MMOBA).

    Characteristics:
    12 teams of 5 players teams start at the edge of the map ring that shrinks over time players can capture keeps, forts or castles players can die from the Hunger, monsters or players players can respawn if they own a structure team is eliminated when the last player dies players gain "ELO" players arrive on the map "naked", have to gear up up to 30 minutes per match restrictions on archetypes (not more than 2 tanks or supports per team) characters are clone version of players' characters, or available archetypes  
     
    Read more...
    By Damis

    Blackwood Prologue now available for all ESO players.

    Begin a journey that will take you to the upcoming Chapter and beyond with the Blackwood Prologue, now available for all ESO players!
    The Blackwood Prologue questline is now live for all platforms and is free for anybody with access to the ESO base game (note, this includes Free Play Event players). To get underway, simply pick up the quest starter from the in-game Crown Store (located under the Quest Starters category).

    Join Lyranth in her investigations
    Once the starter is activated, you receive the quest titled “A Mortal’s Touch” and begin your adventure. In the two unique quests, you’re joined by the Dremora Lyranth and Wood Elf Eveli Sharp-Arrow to investigate the operations of a sinister Daedric cult. What you discover during the two Blackwood Prologue quests sets up the adventures to come in the Blackwood Chapter and larger Gates of Oblivion year-long saga.
    Finally, complete the Blackwood Prologue and you receive the Daedric Unwarding Amulet memento as a keepsake. Keep it close—you never know when you might encounter some Daedric wards!
    Read more...
    • entries
      4
    • comments
      7
    • views
      9,228

    My Review of Dragon Age 2 Through Act I


    Liquid Wolf

    1,594 views

     Share

    PC Version

    Graphics are stupendous on a newer system... GTX 400 series or above should be great on HIGH. I downloaded the High Resolution Texture pack from here and everything still plays very well. 200 series is probably good on Medium/High as well and still looks/plays nicely.

     

    To me, the game is definitely not like DA:O... but I'm not disappointed. Obviously there are going to be a LOT of heartbroken people out there that were really looking forward to a return to the old style of RPGs a-la Baldur's Gate and maybe even Neverwinter Nights... Dragon Age II is not going to be that. You might not even call Dragon Age 2 a sequel to DA:O, but more ofan offshoot of the series... if they come out with a third that brings back the feel of DA:O. The world, the lore, the races, and factions...all still there and just as deep. The customization options of your character are still numerous, and your decisions in the world still have a great impact on what happens in the short-term and long-term.

     

    What about your party?... well that has changed.

     

    Some familiar faces and features return, but the options you get with your party members is more limited in DA2. In terms of equipment, while Hawke can customize all slots like before, your party members are restricted to Accessories and weapons. Their armor is upgradable through purchasing special items from different vendors in the game.

     

    In terms of abilites and spells... the system has been change to somewhat of a talent tree system where you spend points to work your way through a set of spells/abilites. Hawke has a multitude of choice, but each party member is pretty much already set in a particular direction, and best used to fill those roles.

     

    For Example: One caster party member has a wide variety of healing specializations and abilities, but another might have none available to choose from. You could use that first caster as a damage/debuffer... but then you might hurt yourself in the long-run if you don't make Hawke a healer.

     

    Yeah, it kind of blows... especially if you don't like this particular character.

     

    When it comes to rogues/warriors... the game is a bit more forgiving for have a two-hander tank instead of a sword/board... or a range rogue rather than a dagger rogue. So it's not all terrible unless you absolutely hate healing, and really don't like that one character who is probably the best healer. Even then, you could probably manage by making Hawke a mage who has a secondary healing spec.

     

    ... Challenge Accepted!!

     

    And what about Combat?

     

    Immediately you'll notice the game feels like a different type of RPG. Combat is much more fast-paced in DA2, and they have removed the top-down view from DA:O. If you start out on Normal difficulty, you'll immediately get a sense of, "Well that was easy..." You might even complain and feel annoyed that the tactical game-play is just gone, and the game is completely changed.

     

    I'll tell you to turn on Hard difficulty and go fight the Mature Dragon at the mines, or the team of Disguised guards at a mansion during the quest "Fools Rush In". Yes... I played a fool and wound up with only my ranged rogue kiting eight enemies around a room picking them off one by one for thirty minutes. While fighting the mature dragon, I knew there was no way my guys could keep taking the hits they were... So I had the tank only stay on the dragon until it went to breathe fire, at which point I paused combat, told the tank to run out of the way of the upcoming fire blast, and had everyone else back up to help reduce threat. When the dragon targeted another party member, I had everyone stop attacking, and move away from the dragon till the tank picked up threat again. Active dodging, character position, and proper damage reduction were all things I had to keep on my mind the whole fight.

     

    It's true you can auto-pilot through many trash fights with good Tactics (the in-game ones) and proper placement of your characters... but tactical combat (from you, the player) is still available and even necessary on the harder difficulties. Try putting it on Nightmare, and use Cone of Cold as much as you used to... it isn't pretty.

     

    So...I'm happy with it.

     

    I like not having to deal with every equipment slot on every single party member, and I'm happy the fighting doesn't feel as sluggish as it used to. I'm happy a combo system was implemented to give boosted damage to stunned/CC'd enemies, and I don't necessarily mind that each character has a pre-defined role... OK... maybe one more mage-healer would have been nice...

     

    I enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins but I did have to struggle to finish it before DA2 released... On a similar note... I enjoyed Mass Effect, but I also found myself pushing through to finish just before ME2 came out.

     

    And yet... with Dragon Age 2 (as with Mass Effect 2) I am having an absolute blast. I find it a very enjoyable experience, and I really don't believe these games are any less of an RPG than the originals. They might be slightly different games, but that doesn't mean they are not still good.

     

    Was I hoping that DA2 would become the next Baldurs Gate 2? Yeah... a little... But I'm not letting those hurt feelings get in the way of what is a good experience.

     

    I believe Dragon Age 2 stands well in it's own regard even if it didn't meet the expectations set by DA:O. You can probably blame EA's influence if you like... but I do believe Dragon Age 2 is worth the money. I've put the difficulty on hard, and find myself completing all available side quests, backtracking to collect chests/materials/loot, and talking to every party member/NPC as much as possible.

     

    There are plenty of bad things if you look for them, but I find there are more than enough good things about this game to make it worthwhile.

     

    I've easily put in over a hundred hours into DA:O, and my close female friend Killasharra has probably done two or three times that.

    We both believe what was good about DA:O still holds true for DA2. It might not look like it at first, but you'll see it when you play the game and are willing to take the time to explore and test.

     

    ... Well... except the addons. Bioware really needs to update that toolset so we can get addons for DA2...

     Share

    3 Comments


    Recommended Comments

    • CotP Sentinel

    Great review! I am on act 3 now and look forward to what you think as you go along. I am also enjoying it but feel a little let down that its not more like DAO. One of my favorite things was how much you could really get to know the party as a whole and I feel they really missed that mark.

     

    A few of the quests really left me feeling unhappy (I wont add any spoiler)

     

    I really like the new combat system though and the voice over is great imo. I will stop now as this is your review not mine :) Again great review thanks for sharing it.

    Link to comment

    Nice review man, not alot of people care to post positive things about DA 2. But I agree having hawke as a healer is a lot more fun and challenging

    Link to comment

    DA2 is one of my favorites (for combat and story and flavor, though the copied dungeons/zones really bother me).  Interesting review - looking forward to reading along as you go!

    Link to comment
    ×
    ×
    • Create New...