Katrina Johnson

When I tell people how much I've been enjoying Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO), they often stare and me in shock and say, "But there's no PvP!" Well, yes and no. There is no PvP in the normal play modes. You can challenge other players to a duel, but that's about it. However, there is a light PvP mode called Monster Play.

I'm not the type of player that thrives on PvP experiences, but I'm always curious about them. LOTRO had a particularly interesting system with Monster Play, a separate mode where you begin as a max-level monster. You can fight against max-level player characters from the normal mode of the game in a special area (Ettenmoors). Originally, I expected a system that would be balanced in my favor (I would win easily against a max-level character from the normal mode). Unfortunately, I found that I was at a disadvantage. While my morale (health points) and power (mana/magic points) were equal to the stats of other players, my opponents had spent hours acquiring a vast array of skills they had mastered. As an Uruk-hai, I began with a handful of skills that were relatively weak and I couldn't heal myself. While I was familiar with the game and controls, I felt clumsy compared to my opponents. Also, I couldn't boost my stats through armor and other upgrades.

The odd thing about Monster Play is how closely it resembles normal play. It uses the same UI, just covered with a new skin. You can follow a single-player path by going on quests given out by NPCs. Some of these quests were very easy, but others seemed quite difficult without companions. I went on one quest to steal food from hobbits. I thought, as a giant Uruk-hai, I could easily take on one or two hobbits. I snuck into the camp, defeated one max-level hobbit who put up a stong fight, and set my sights on a stack of food. It was surrounded by a couple hobbits. My plan was to run in, fight a bit, grab the food, and run out. To my surprise, as soon as I ran in, I was surrounded by a crowd of hobbits within 10 seconds. I watched my "powerful" monster die mercilessly at the chubby little hands of NPCs that looked like children compared to him.

My major issue with watching myself get killed by hobbits was the fact that, as a monster, I expected to feel powerful. I wanted the game to be balanced in my favor and I didn't want to get bested by a bunch of measly NPC hobbits. I didn't expect the game to be easy, but it seems ridiculous to require you to group as a monster. That the game implies that PvP should be a bunch of monsters grouping to fight against strong NPCs or against groups of players from the normal mode. Probably the strangest aspect of Monster Play was how few player-controlled opponents I saw in the area. This meant that there were mainly groups of monsters going up against ridiculously powerful NPCs (such as a Captain with 137,000 morale) to capture forts on the map. I really didn't see the point.

Even more pointless than capturing points over and over again was the fact that I could gain no experience from those difficult quests. Instead, I could gain traits, deeds, titles, and destiny points. I understand that it my be an incentive for some people, but I would much rather take the time to earn those achievements on a character I really enjoy playing, such as my elf lore-master. Perhaps I'm just non competitive enough to enjoy this mode. Whether or not that's true, it seems that the PvP mode is the one area of the game where Turbine faltered. They set the standard too high in the normal mode, and I was expecting something better.

After I finished Mass Effect, I was desperate to find a new game. I wanted an experience that would draw me in and take me on a fantastic journey. I knew it would be difficult to find a current game that I would love as much as Mass Effect, so I turned to the past. On the recommendation of a friend, I decided to set aside my frustrations with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) on the 360 and get a fresh start trying it on my PC.

There was a remarkable improvement in performance and graphic quality on my PC. I was much happier playing the game when it didn't freeze up during battles, stutter during cutscenes, or muddle the textures. Suddenly the "dated" game didn't look so old. The game started to become more fun when I wasn't distracted by performance and graphics bugs.

Perhaps more important than the changes in processing and resolution were the changes in my perspective. After completing one BioWare game (Mass Effect), I had a better understanding of the types of puzzles I would encounter. I breezed through Taris in four hours instead of my previous ten hours. I finally understood that puzzles required a little thought; you had to pay attention to hints dropped casually in conversation. Clues were also left on datapads I collected unceremoniously from corpses nearby. Simple attention to the world helped me see how the answers were falling into my hands in an organic way.

I have easily surpassed the point where I stopped on the 360, and it was time well-spent. I finally feel as if I'm moving in a productive direction. Even if the battles and stat-management are more difficult than Mass Effect, I have a better understanding of BioWare-style games. I'm less likely to get stuck and I'm now free to enjoy the game. I'm looking forward to the rest of my adventure.

As a fan of single-player RPGs, I’ve grown accustomed to playing games alone. I try to avoid contacting other people online unless I absolutely need their help. I recently began playing Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO), a game which has required me to have a few crash courses in MMO etiquette.

One common practice while grouping (or joining a “Fellowship” in LotRO), is the use of voice chat. My fingers are often busy pressing keys to use skills and such while I play, so pausing to type in a chat window can sometimes be impractical. For example, if my character was dying and in need of immediate assistance, I could shout “Heal Me!” about 10 seconds faster than I could type it. Voice chat can be the difference between success and failure or life and death.

I was not opposed to the idea of voice chat with strangers, despite the inevitable break in characterization. On an early fellowship quest, I was disoriented when this deep male voice came from a delicate, lovely female elf. I understand that it is unlikely that many of the female characters are actually belong to female players, and you can’t make assumptions. Soon, I got my voice chat working and jumped in.

I greeted my group in my high-pitched girl voice and assumed that they would figure out that I was a girl. Unfortunately, it seemed more likely that I was a 10-year-old boy, as I soon discovered when these guys described me as a “him”. I quickly explained that I actually was a woman, not a pre-pubescent child. The guys laughed uncomfortably and mumbled something about not wanting to assume. I guess that they had made the safer choice – it’s less embarrassing for a woman to be called a boy than it is for a boy to be called a woman. Statistically, they were also probably making a safer assumption in calling me a male.

I was glad that my fellowship treated me no differently once they found out my true gender. There was always a chance that I was lying, but it seems like most of the LotRO audience is more mature and respectful than the average MMO crowd. Hearing their voices did seem jarring at times and broke their character, but I feel like the advantages often outweigh the disadvantages. After all, I was only allied with this fellowship for a short period of time. Also, despite how silly someone’s voice can seem compared to their character, sometimes they can be very knowledgeable and helpful regarding the details of the game. If anything, hearing the voices of my fellow players showed me that I can’t judge by appearances, and even our voices can be a type of mask.

Before I began playing an MMO seriously, I could never understand why people would want to keep up multiple characters on one account. While it seemed cool to explore different classes or races, the amount of time required to get five level seventy characters in a game like World of Warcraft seemed ridiculous. It just didn’t seem wise to spend all your time on one game. However, I soon learned that there may be a more moderate way to experience a different race and class. Alternate characters could have other uses.

I was surprised when my Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) buddy suggested that I make an alternate character. I was quite satisfied with my initial multiplayer experience as an elf lore-master, and I didn’t understand why I would need to build up a new character. However, the crafting system is quite extensive in LotRO, so it made sense to spread out crafting trades among characters to maximize resources. Also, there were times where I wanted to play but couldn’t without getting ahead of my friend, so an alternate character would provide a way for me to play when I felt like it.

I created a woman captain for my new character. I chose to play as a captain because I could summon a human companion similar to the “pet” I summoned as a lore-master. Just the idea of having another person beside me as I fought was comforting, even if I knew that he was just a simple minion.

One of my favorite aspects of LotRO is the fantastic opening instances. When I began playing as the woman, I got to see the beginning instance for human characters. It included some fun gameplay, such as setting things on fire. I loved how I was thrown into the action instantly, not babied through a tutorial. I felt that the town I was in desperately needed my help. The scripted events that I experienced alone made it feel all the more personal. This adventure was truly my own, and I had begun a new adventure.

Playing solo was a fun challenge for me. There was no waiting around for other players and I could complete quests however I wanted. I had to develop new strategies, especially in crowded areas. Unfortunately, as I progressed to higher levels, I realized that LotRO is a game that encourages fellowships. The sense of freedom I had was replaced by a sense of limitation – without a fellowship, I couldn’t complete certain quests. LotRO does have a great chat system and a strong network of people willing to help, but you can’t always find someone to help you with every quest at any given time of day.

I have enjoyed my experiences as a solo player, but it does seem that the game is much more rewarding to those who take the effort to quest in fellowships. Fellowship quests have fantastic rewards, such as great armor or weapons. With a fellowship, you can work through quests faster but experience from fighting enemies is split among your allies. Solo progress seems much slower, since experience is gained faster when completing quests than when defeating enemies. The game does have certain ways of balancing this, such as weapon and armor crafting systems and the relative ease of finding random fellowships through the “Looking for Fellowship” chat channel. I still enjoy LotRO as a single-player experience, but I feel that, as an MMO, it is truly most rewarding in the company of friends.

Penny Arcade web comics have been famous with gamers for years for their humorous interpretations of popular games and culture. The writers' wit and charm extend beyond the comics to their news columns, where the writers often give very fair assessments of games. I have a good friend who is a huge Penny Arcade fan, and he was thrilled that the creators of the web comic decided to make a video game.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One was released in late May. While I have recently been enjoying Penny Arcade, I am still new to the comics and don't seem to connect with them as well as my friend. I appreciate the humor, but there have been a few comics that I find a little gratuitously violent or confusing. This influenced the way I saw the game, since the style of the game, from the art to the humor, was a near-perfect translation of the web comic. I appreciated most of the humor, but, like the comic, there were a few moments where I felt that it wasn't quite my taste.

My main issue with the game's style stemmed from what I felt was unnecessary vulgarity. Working in the video game industry, I am often the only woman around, and I'm no stranger to games and jokes tailored to a male audience. I'm not opposed to sexuality or innuendo in games, but having a common enemy in the game constantly making sexual motions, having sexual attacks, and peeing on me is not exactly my cup of tea. This was a slight annoyance to me, and I was willing to put up with it because of the game's other redeeming qualities. However, it's worth noting that the M-rating was put to good use at certain moments, such as when NPCs swore profusely after a shocking event happened. Instead of skirting around the issue with stilted dialogue, the NPCs reacted in a very natural way, which was quite refreshing.

From the comic-book art to the clever writing, I really enjoyed the other aspects of the game's style. The game did a wonderful job translating the 2-D art into 3-D. Cutscenes were in 2-D, but the game took place in a 3-D world. There was a fantastic attention to detail as well. The transitions between sub-areas of a level looked like shifts between comic book cells. My custom character was integrated into the 2-D cutscenes, which was a nice surprise. The level of detail extended to the writing, as every clickable object had clever and often varied captions. Instead of just "So-and-So's Mailbox," I found one mailbox labeled "It's another god%$#@ed mailbox!" This type of humor was fantastic, verbalizing the thoughts I'd often have from other tedious RPGs. This game rewards you for taking the time to look around the world with humor at every click.

I had initially seen this game on the 360, but I played through the demo myself on the PC. The controls seemed similar, but with the 360 you move around with an analog stick and with the PC it's more of a point-and-click adventure. Button-presses for special attacks seem to have all been moved to the spacebar. The PC controls felt natural to me. On dialogue screens, dialgue chioces were presented similar to the style of Mass Effect, where the feeling of the line was conveyed through the dialogue choice but the actual line said something different. Unlike Mass Effect, however, the choices and the actual statements were equally ridiculous and amusing. The combat system was simple but fairly efffiencient. Combat felt very similar to a Japanese RPG due to the turn-based system. However, it was not overly complicated.

This Penny Arcade episode is certainly a promising start. While there are certain stlyistic aspects that I don't enjoy, the developers had a very good understanding of the scope of an episodic game. The game doesn't attempt to be a AAA console title, but it is fantastically clever and entertaining. I hope to enjoy more of it in the future, when I can make some time to play the whole game through.

I have a good friend who lives far away, and we've been trying to find a good MMO to play together. After a frustrating ordeal with WoW, we decided to try Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO). There was a free two-week trial, so we felt as if we had little to lose.

When we began LotRO, we had to choose a race and a class. LotRO has a few different races, from humans to elves to hobbits. You can play as evil races, like orcs, but that takes place in a separate "Monster" mode of play. I was a blood elf in WoW, and I wanted to be an elf in LotRO because I've always thought that elves were cool. They are often the most beautiful of the races as well, especially the females, which is what I wanted to play. I then had to choose a class. I had grown very attached to my animal companion in WoW, likely due to my fondness for animal companionship in real life. There was only one class that could have "pets," so I chose to be a Lore-Master.

The game begins with an instance, and I had to defend a town. There were enough hints so I wasn't completely lost, but I also felt like I was moving forward quickly. The beginning was exciting, and I enjoyed the instance. After that, I quickly found my friend, who was also an elf, but of the Guardian class. His class is much better at melee attacks, and mine has the pet for melee and uses ranged attacks. Our classes work well together.

What struck me most about LotRO was the beauty of the world. The character models were refined and realistic, and the elves around me were lovely. Unlike the glowing eyes of WoW's blood elves, the elves here had inviting, interesting faces. Also, the world around us was stunning. Mountainous forested areas reminded me of the mountains in the Pacific Northwest. Rolling hills looked like fields in the midwest. The fantasy world was so similar to some of the places that I've been that it felt believable. From the bird migrations in the sky to the clouds of breath in chilled mountain air, the level of realism in this game makes it a wonderfully immersive escape.

However, art alone cannot carry an MMO. Quests are also a very important, and LotRO is full of them. The writing is interesting and believable - for Tolkien's characters. Hobbits have the silly accents and phrases you would expect, and the dialogue is written with enough of a dialect to add character but not create confusion. I take the time to read all the quests because they're actually interesting, unlike in WoW.

I haven't spent a lot of time with LotRO yet, but I am definitely looking forward to playing again soon. The world is a fun place to visit, and I hope that it continues to impress me. I would really like to find an MMO that is as satisfying as my favorite single-player games. LotRO is certainly off to a great start.

My first night diving back into World of Warcraft, I had such a frustrating experience that I canceled my subscription just hours after its creation. I have tried time and again with this game, but I just couldn't seem to get into it. I understand that there is more to the game than what I've seen getting to level 22, but I have been disappointed over and over.

I bought WoW a few months ago on the suggestion of a friend. He thought that I'd enjoy it more if we played it together. I seemed to be enjoying it more than he did, as I was leveling up a lot faster than him. I waited for a few months for him to catch up to me, and when he finally did, I thought that I would be able to get the satisfying MMO experience that had been eluding me.

When we began WoW that day, we journeyed into an undercity of the undead. It was a stark contrast to the lovely elven world. The dark elf city was grand and beautiful, but this undercity was disgusting, from the dank sewer environment to hulking obese guards stationed everywhere. It was also a maze, structured in a circular fashion, and very difficult to navigate. I hated being in there and wanted out as soon as possible.

We finally got our quests and emerged from that filthy city. I was glad to be out among virtual nature again. Everything seemed fine for about an hour as we began some quests. Then, it started getting frustrating. Characters 40 levels or more above us started chasing us down on common roads, trying to kill us. We were shocked, as we thought that we had a choice in PvP engagments. Unfortunately, we did not, and we soon found ourselves frequently running in the wrong direction to avoid fights.

Later, we were almost done with a quest, and our team of three had just two more of a certain enemy to kill. Suddenly, all three of us were brutally slaughtered by a higher-level player. My friend had valiantly tried to buy me some time, but it was hopeless. We revived and tried to move on, only to get murdered again by the same high-level player. The next time I ran back to revive, I noticed that same high-level player hanging around our corpses, just waiting to kill us again. My friend informed me that this was "corpse-camping," where some jerk just sits around and kills helpless players like us. I understand that signing up for a PvP player means dealing with the consequences, but I had no idea that people could take pleasure in something has no sportsmanship or honor.

The next time we revived, we snuck off very carefully and ran back to a nearby village. We were discussing our frustrations with the game over voice chat at an inn. And then, out of nowhere, some high-level rouge came in and wiped out the entire village. Yes, players and NPCs alike. I can understand the need to do that once to feed an ego, but this particular player kept coming back every few minutes. As soon as the entire town respawned, it would be wiped out again.

At this point, I was so frustrated that I quit out of WoW. I talked with my friend some more, and we considered transferring our characters to a PvE (player versus environment) server. There was a steep $25 fee, so we decided against it. Outside the elven city we started in, the game just seemed to have little draw for either of us. While I would love to have an MMO to connect to friends, WoW was clearly not what we wanted.

In a more general sense, my experience with WoW taught me that I hate PvP servers. I had avoided MMOs for a long time due to my fear that one person would ruin the fun for everyone else. After having that fear realized, I saw how it ruins the fun and also prevents me from appreciating the strengths of the game. I have decided that I would rather be a "care bear," or someone who plays on a PvE server. I want to enjoy the game without the distraction of cold-blooded murder. However, my inability to truly feel immersed in WoW has extended beyond my problems with the PvP realms, as I've noticed in my previous experiences. I want to be a care bear, just not in WoW.

At the Game Developer's Choice Awards at GDC, I heard about a little game called Audiosurf. In the craziness that was GDC, I found myself too busy to play the demo. Recently, I read on a game blog about how Audiosurf was available via Steam. Now that there was a demo, and I had no more excuses. It was time to give this award-winning independent game a try.

Audiosurf may be a rhythm game, but it's quite different from Guitar Hero or Rock Band. The layout does look similar to Guitar Hero from the screenshots; however, the gameplay itself is quite different. Songs you choose (from music files on your computer) are mapped into something resembling a racetrack. Blocks are places across the lanes, and they can vary in color (depending on the mode). There were a few different modes to play, including dodging certain color blocks and collecting other color blocks.

I found the game to be slightly difficult at first. I didn't quite understand how I was supposed to stack matching color blocks into columns that moved with me, and how to strategize to get maximum points. Sometimes, the columns would fill too quickly on the fast parts or they wouldn't clear matching colors out fast enough, so I would lose points. However, there were some nice touches in the mechanics, such as having the gray blocks (which don't match with anything) clear out automatically, reducing the punishment. Also, there were power-ups and other details that made the game more complex.

The mechanics encouraged skilled play, and I could tell just from the short demo that the game had a nicely scaled degree of complexity. I tried to choose a wide variety of songs during my demo. I absolutely loved the idea of using music I know and love (avoiding difficulties that arise from unfamiliarity with some songs in games such as Guitar Hero). However, this freedom also means that the level of difficulty can vary greatly between songs. Even if I'm familiar with a song, it may have portions that are just too fast for me to handle.

Audiosurf requires different skills than many mainstream rhythm games on the market. It's mainly a matter of timing. I really enjoyed being able to pick my own songs, meaning I never had to play one that I didn't like. Audiosurf may not have had the budget of games like Guitar Hero, but it is certainly a fun rhythm game and a neat way to appreciate your favorite music.

Great graphics in a game always leave me in awe. I will often decide that I want to play a game based on a pretty screenshot. I’ll usually check the reviews first, but the aesthetics of a game are really important to me. If it’s not a beautiful world for me to escape to, I generally don’t want to be there.

I became intrigued with the Wii sequel to NiGHTS after seeing some pretty publicity screenshots. It was released last December and got mediocre reviews, so I hesitated before buying it. I recently had the opportunity to play it at a friend’s house, so I made sure to check it out.

NiGHTS was definitely pretty, but I had some serious issues with it. From the beginning, it felt very childish. The little boy had a ridiculous voice, and the children tended to talk in long, drawn-out dialog. I felt that the inclusion of children seemed somewhat forced. Although I realize that it was an essential part of the plot, the idea of putting real children in a fantasy world reminded me of movies I used to watch as a child where they put live actors in cartoons. Very few movies seem to use that concept with any degree of success.

The odd plot already left me skeptical, and I kept finding more to criticize. The children soon met up with Nights, a jester-like nightmaren. My friend had to repeatedly insist that Nights was a guy, as I was convinced by his slender body and high voice that he was a girl. I understand that this may be more acceptable in Japan, but I was left feeling as if I had to repeatedly suspend my disbelief for this game. NiGHTS was in an odd place between fantasy and reality, and I had a hard time accepting this strange genre.

When got past the intro to the actual gameplay, I was shocked by the difficulty of this lovely game that was seemingly geared towards children. While the original Sega Saturn version had used a joystick with full 360-degree control, the Wiimote nunchuck and other Wii-compatible controllers do not allow for unrestricted movement in a circle. The joystick is set into the plastic beneath a mold that restricts movement within an octagon. However, the levels require circular movements and frequent looping. This creates a great deal of frustration on the player’s part, when the circles are coming out choppy and uneven. Catching avian enemies and collecting orbs also became much more difficult due to the poor controls.

There was a bonus feature in this game that didn't make any sense to me: the My Dream area. You could collect odd-looking babies called Nightopians in the levels and they would appear in this open area. The Nightopians were generally annoying to me due to their tendency to cry frequently and the fact that I found their appearance disturbing. In order to survive in the My Dream area, they also had to be fed. I had heard that one of the coolest features of this area was the fact that it had weather integration with the Wii weather channel, but there really wasn't much to do there (other than feeding Nightopians). I found this feature about as useless as the scrapbook in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Maybe it's a Japanese thing.

Despite the confusion and frustration I felt while playing NiGHTS, it did have a few merits. Aside from the Nightopians, much of the game was quite lovely. Some of the music was pretty good. However, the controls and confusing aspects gave me the feeling that I was missing out on the best parts of most of the levels. I only wish I had a Saturn, so I could go back to the original NiGHTS and see what it was supposed to be.

In just over 35 hours, I completed Mass Effect. That might seem like a long time, but it was well worth it to me. I finished every sidequest I could, explored every planet in the galaxy, and played through the Bring Down the Sky expansion. I was very thorough, talking to all the NPCs and opening every storage locker or crate I could find. Now that it’s over, I’m satisfied but a little sad that the awesome ride had to come to an end.

I have already written extensively on Mass Effect, but with a game this vast, I find there is still more to discuss. I may have complained about some of my frustrations, but I have found a lot of value in this game. The story was absolutely fantastic, especially from Ilos to the end. Those last few hours were some of the best paced in the game, and when it was over, I felt a real rush. I got to make important choices up until the very end, and I felt that I was as much a part of the action as the characters in the brief cutscenes.

The story was facilitated only marginally by cutscenes. The main elements of the narrative were conveyed through the fantastic dialog. Mass Effect has been praised for its innovative dialog system. Choices are displayed around a circle, and the dialog shown represents the general idea of the line, but not what is actually said. It felt like what I selected was the thought and what my character said was a more tactful way of expressing that idea (at least for the paragon choices). This system allowed me to better identify with the character, as I felt that she was expressing my thoughts and feelings in the best way possible.

I really enjoyed the addition of so many sidequests. The main path of the game could probably be beaten in ten to fifteen hours, but I chose to play the extra twenty or so to really explore and immerse myself in the Mass Effect universe. I loved the feeling of stumbling across an uncharted resource or coming to the rescue of some helpless people. Some of the sidequests included really tough decisions, which enriched the game and gave me a sense of responsibility. I liked having the freedom to control of the ship and choose the sidequests that I wanted to pursue. The introductions to the quests were vague so I was often surprised by what I found. Even though some of the areas were very similar in structure (likely due to limited art resources) the diversity in the quests was still there and kept it interesting.

Aside from the flaws that I have already discussed, Mass Effect had only a couple other drawbacks: a lack of tutorials and a poor inventory system. I had no idea that I could jump with the mako until halfway through the game, and I never figured out that I could zoom in on enemies in the mako until after I beat it. If I didn’t have a friend to talk me through the beginning of the game, I doubt that I would’ve become as skilled in combat.

Also, the inventory system was cumbersome for someone like me who likes to collect all the items from the game. Given the number of sidequests, I continued collecting hundreds of weapons, armor, and upgrades. I was continually struggling to keep my inventory down so I wouldn’t have to leave anything behind (or convert it to omni-gel). The limit of 150 items was way too low. Due to the abundance of items in the field, I never had to buy anything at the stores. (I did buy the spectre weapons on the Normandy at the end of the game, but some of the later weapons that I found were comparable.) Hours from the end of the game, I maxed out the money. This meant that I had to spend a ridiculous amount of time re-equipping my team to make sure I wouldn’t destroy something that I needed. It took a long time to scroll through items, and I wished the inventory could be sorted.

While Mass Effect did have a few flaws, it was still a fantastic RPG experience. I highly recommend it to people who love immersing themselves in a rich sci-fi world with engaging characters and plenty of content to keep them busy. It is probably the best game experience I’ve had since Okami, and possibly one of the best games I’ve ever played in terms of the emotional impact. I really identified with my character because I was the one who was molding her into the person that I would like to be.