June 2007 - Posts

Tabula Rasa

Today the Tabula Rasa european closed beta has opened!

Let's see what UO's creator Richard Garriott has created... Because I've entered the closed beta ^^

The bad news is that there's an NDA so I can't talk about the game here

Today no normal journey entry, but some photos of my recent travels across the world.


Travelling from Feralas


Crossing the Burning Steppes


An abandoned stronghold


Going to Tanaris


The desert of Tanaris


A view of the Hinterlands


Approaching Un goro Crater


A visit to Redridge Mountains alliance town


Escaping from the Burning Steppes

Posted 10 June 07 by Kartones | with no comments
Filed under:

My friend tobal masters the dark arts of magic, and recently found that, although I can't enter the Outlands by the Dark Portal, actually I can travel there by a mage-created portal. So he desired to show me what awaits my future by taking me there.


After entering, we appeared in a big encampment, with lots of Draenei soldiers guarding it from the enemies.


There were very powerful warriors... including one called He-Man.


We went outside, and at first it appeared quite peaceful.


But soon we could see how the surroundings started to feel hostile.


Once we arrived the Hellfire Peninsula, tobal delighted me with his new flying mount. But not for long, since the ground is full of monsters I couldn't stand a chance against.


Fighting across the lands, we found an alliance outpost.


It had a small mine,  overrun with monsters, and the miners asked for our help,  so we descended into it and cleaned it, at least for a while.


tobal told me that this outposts can be taken by horde forces too, so we departed before having to fight enemy forces.


He took me to the Dark Portal entrance, where we found burning legion forces awaiting for combat...


We managed to get to the entrance by sneaking through them.


But then... A huge pit lord appeared, commanding the forces to attack some heroes that had entered through the portal!


A great battle began, with infernals being summoned against the combined forces of horde and alliance heroes.


Slowly, the pit lord was coming to the portal, and I feared we were lost.


But with powerful combined magic spells, the heroes hit him hard.


And finally defeated him before it was too late.


When tobal recovered energies, we approached the portal. I still need more training before I dare to enter here without bodyguards... But the time will come and  I'll fight too this evil forces.

Posted 03 June 07 by Kartones | with no comments
Filed under:

Dungeon Runners is a new hack 'n slash online game from NCSoft, free to play but with premium contents for 5$/month.

As anyone interested can read the game features at the official website, I will give instead a small review, based on few hours of playing.

I downloaded and installed the game client  (~450MB), created an NCSoft account and played with a warrior a few levels.

My first impressions are:

  • Graphics are very normal... Not very detailed, colorful, but nothing impressive. I was expecting something more like Neverwinter Nights.
  • Gameplay is exactly the same as Diablo 1 (no socketed items), but without a bank for free accounts, it's a bit tiring to return every few minutes to sell items. Kill kill kill with the mouse, and few keys to use potions or skills.
  • Quests, items and such are too very similar to Diablo. In fact, I felt like playing a 3D-clone of it.
  • Game text font is damm big (playing at 1280x1024) and you can't change it, nor resize the GUI elements or zoom out too much the map (and there is no general view of it).
  • Difficulty is quite low at first. You can level up to 5-6 without using a single potion, skill or having to wait to regenerate health (at least with a warrior).
  • Premium content limits a bit too much free gameplay. The already mentioned lack of a bank, no potion stacking, no mayor healing/mana potions... All those limit way too much gameplay. Having only a higher level cap and better items would had been better.

So, you can give it a try, but don't expect too much. I would prefer playing Diablo II before this game. Or WoW, of course ;)

Posted 01 June 07 by Kartones | with no comments
Filed under:

I've added a Jade Empire Walkthrough from GameBanshee to the "Other CRPGs"  link menu.