Lately I've been trying to find something for Dire and I to play together that is casual at end game, as well as being easy to start up together even if one gets ahead of the other. I haven't had much luck. It seems everything that offers what we're looking for he's just not that into. He's currently playing the Mount and Blade series.
Neverwinter
I thought Neverwinter would be a good choice, he's interested in it but just hasn't tried it yet. I figured the foundry would be fun, I'd probably start a new character with him to play through with. Thus I wanted to get a feel for the game again and have been playing casually. With the last update there is the new Oathbound Paladin class, which I decided to try solo. It is a really strong class and I've since parked my Scourge Warlock (53) and passed her up with the Paladin sitting at 57. The warlock had a lot of changes and did not play like it did when I last played. I really have enjoyed the paladin, it's a very strong class, tons of healing and AOE, I went with the more healing oriented spec and it has been a blast to play. I haven't done any groups, mostly just solo play through the story and I am wondering how things will go once I hit the new content, as I hear things really change there.
The new update has not been well received. Things seem to need tweaking and the overall majority of players on the forums think it is just too brutal for casual content as well as groups. Things hit very hard. So, I'll be curious to how well I fare after hitting 60+ and moving into this content. On the bright side a new mod is due out later this year, so hopefully if it is as bad as players are saying, maybe we'll be moving onto greener pastures before too long!
I decided to try some things I've not given a fair chance in the past, such as Star Trek Online. Which was a lot more fun than I had initially thought. I just don't know if a space themed game is something Dire would play. I think he'd enjoy space combat but he isn't really into SWTOR, so I don't think he'd be up for this title either.
I thought space combat was neat but it is a tad long for my tastes. I prefer the ground missions, they seem to be quite fun. Combat so far isn't tough at all and really is a breeze. I don't know if I'd play it as a main game but something on the side would be fun. It is refreshing and far more interesting than I thought it would be. Plus, how cool is it to go around with your own crew and your own ship!
I sort of stalled out with EQ2 for now. I wanted to get 85 with my alt and I think I just burnt myself a bit on grinding (by choice) and have been taking it slow still sitting at 84, lol. I missed out on the whole week of double xp, but I'll get the level when I feel up to it again. I just lost momentum, which is fine as we all sometimes need a break.
Another thing that put me off was the introduction of 'gambling' boxes which contain mercenaries. Click the link to see the actual promotional page. There are a chances for rare, common and ultra rare mercs. These unopened boxes can be traded, but the actual mercenaries cannot be, they are not heirloom either, so they cannot be passed onto alts either. They can be sold for status though. Some have very cool skins, some are quite ugly. I had a few SC left on my account (Or is it now DBC? Daybreak cash, instead of Station Cash, heh) which I figured I'd give it a try. I got a very cool skin, e's a giant. However he is common and very bad. He's not even close to my CE merc or any of the rare elites. I would love to have a few of these just for the skins, and the really rare one. I'm not very happy they tied this to gambling. I think that is a very slimy move. The cost is basically seven dollars a box, if it were lower I probably wouldn't be as disappointed.
I'll just pick back up when I feel a bit calmed down from this whole merc deal. I don't mind supporting games but things like this make me feel taken advantage of as a player.
My son asked me to log into WoW last week, where he had my hunter parked in front of a quest giver. Which upon turning in the quest dinged me 100. Which was really so sweet of him. I had five levels to go and he knew I was dragging my feet with it. He even had some BoE purples waiting for me. The kid is a farming machine in WoW. He's got tons of money in the game and even is paying for his sub with gold now, which he doesn't have to but wants to.
Yep, I'm officially lazy when it comes to WoW. But it is nice to have the hunter at 100. Her garrison is at rank 3, but I have so much work to do on it. My DK is already so much ahead of her and getting epic gear out the ears through it, it sometimes feels overwhelming trying to catch a second garrison up! It gives me something to do, even if I don't feel like going out to quest. But it does feel odd, not the same game I started playing ten years ago.
I managed to tame the cool spirit beast pet Gara. She is lovely, purple and shimmery! There is a quest for her, but it is more of an old school type of quest, not one which shows in your log. I enjoyed doing it and the end result was a really nifty tame which I didn't have to compete for and camp. It was pretty awesome and one of the coolest things I've done in this expansion.
Dragons Prophet
And the quest for a fresh and accessible game for Dire to play with me continues. I even managed to re-install Dragons Prophet. Which ran like total garbage, until I realized I needed to update my drivers, and then it was lovely! Dragons Prophet is really cool! I never really played much further than the initial starting area and never even tamed a dragon, until my brother came by and I found out he played it last year. He showed me how to tame a flying dragon. Boy was that cool! Level six and flying though the sky. Things like that make me smile. It really was awesome, it reminded me of Vanguard.
Even if Dire isn't interested in this game, it is one I think I will play though. I love the dragon thing. The combat is decent, very fast paced, much like Neverwinter. The character models are decent, cool dragon mounts, and it is a visually appealing game. I don't know how end game will be but it always seems like the leveling part is the part that sticks with me the most these days. Exploring, new sights, everything fresh and new.
Royal Quest
I saw a nifty little game on Steam that I just had to try- Royal Quest. This is a really lovely game aesthetically, it looks fantastic. Sort of like WoW, meets Torchlight meets Diablo. It is a top down 'Diablo' like game with random dungeons and plenty of quests (thus far). There are four classes which each branch out into two choices. You can zoom in quite close but it leaves you feeling a bit like you have blinders on, as you can't see that much around or ahead of you. But being able to zoom in so close is really kind of neat. The game offers mounts and pets and it does have a cash shop, I am not sure how dependent the game is on this. Also you must have steam to play it. I hadn't heard of it before until I stumbled over it, you can check it out here on steam.
I am mostly twiddling my thumbs waiting on Landmark to finish up with the server update and wipe to complete. The date changed a few times but actually started yesterday morning. I hope things will be up and ready tomorrow, it's all a waiting game. I have been waiting for about a year on the game to go through the final wipe phase, this is it. I am pretty excited. The game is still in early stages but if you like to mine and craft, housing and building, it's pretty exciting in that aspect. I have popped in here and there to check changes, now I can finally dig my heels in and get to playing. I am very, very excited!
What do you like to play as a duo? What MMO games do you feel are the most accessible to those who just want to jump in and play together? We're still searching for something 'Mr. Picky'..err Dire.. will enjoy.
Oh my goodness, that was super sweet of your son. I did something similar with my daughter; however, I leveled her toon from 70ish too around 85 and then she hopped on and quested those last five levels with me. She's an lowbie alt lover. She could care less about end game activity. We have not played WoW too much in this expansion. I have not even purchased the expansion.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many things that both of us are dong; however, I do think she'll be on a bit more once school ends this week and so I'm sure I'll be purchasing WOD for both of us.