AoC, LotRO & EQ too!

Finally got into Age of Conan a little bit. I was able to spend about an hour playing through part of the tutorial, where I made it to level 7 right before I logged out. 1) Graphics aren't bad 2) Sound seems to be decent 3) Does feel like the Howard world somewhat 4) Same old grind.

Sidenote: The last time I took the Bartle Test I predictably ended up ESAK. I like my Explore the most, with Socializing and Achieving running pretty close together, Killer is nil.

Lord of the Rings Online has for the last two weeks been having the Spring Festival. I'm one who, based on the paragraph above, just loves these kinda things. So, predictably, I logged in and participated in the Festival. Immediately upon logging in, characters are given the Spring Flinger title. That's a bit different! New this year was a Hedge Maze as well. VERY much enjoyed the Hedge. Fun rewards for completing the maze, like an emote that lets you slap someone with a fish (HA! I had to make my own macros for that in EQ ... and no, I'm not kidding.) Finished the 5 quests for a new title there, aMazeling. Overall, a grand time.

While off in EverQuest, we've been continuing to raid the Fabled mobs while they're up. Mostly those in the Plane of Time, since the loot there is quite nice and good upgrades for a great many people. This past couple of raids, we've gone back and hit Solteris, end zone for The Buried Sea expansion. Lots of pain grinding access for most folks, but that's mostly done. Finally beat the hardest encounter (the second event, btw) and thereafter took down the 3rd event. Tonight, we're going to attempt the 4th event and see how far we can go ... wish us luck!

On the mostly solo side of EQ, I've been attempting to finish up the Earring of Veracity quest, one which I've had sitting for too many years. It's a Luclin era quest, with a reward that I won't use for anything but a trophy, BUT, it will also render up a key (Arx Key) with which I can take a group into Lord Inquisitor Seru's chamber for a "chat". Lcea Katta wants to talk to his head, so I'll do my best to oblige. Now I'm just waiting for a few headmasters to show up so I can assemble the parts for the key.

Backburner games this week:
Wizard 101, Guild Wars, everything else

Where to go and what to do?

My adventures generally take place in Norrath (EverQuest) but I also have several games that I play "on the side" as it were. Lord of the Rings Online I very much enjoy for the depth of story and the visuals of the world that I've loved for so long. I have had an on again off again relationship with Kingdom of Loathing, which is now in an 'on' phase. Very fun(ny) and interesting web-based game. Lots of things to occupy your time there.

This weekend, while reading through some other blogs out there, I noticed that there is an Age of Conan 7 day trial available, and since it was one that LOOKED good, but I'd heard mixed reviews on, I thought I should trouble myself to take a peek. I'll try to post with my views on how the days go, although I may not play every day, and we'll see how it stacks up to the other things that I play!

Day 1: Got the trial key, account got set up, started download. Quick easy little installation and a pretty loading screen for the Updater. Hmm ... seriously long download times for the trial and it's not even getting the whole game? 9GB of data. Really? For the TRIAL?!?! The updater is saying 18+ hours to download it, but I doubt it'll take that long, I've got a decent pipe and I can let it run all night for off peak performance increase.

Day 2: Still downloading. Yeah, this is ridiculous. Why can I not just download the whole bleedin' thing to begin with rather than be subjected to a tortuously slow updater that is going to download it all anyway? Not pleased so far. Maybe it'll actually play sometime tonight?

more to come...