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DCUO: Part 4 Pots, Vaults and Castles

I know I promised to talk about Gotham for part four but I would like to touch on something else first since I am just in Gotham and haven't done too many quests yet.

There's two things about DCUO I haven't mentioned yet... well three things but only two were deliberate. Pots and Vaults are really the two brilliant touches of this game. I didn't mention them yet because I didn't want to burn out your awesome sensors and have your pleasure nozzles ache from too much delicious stimulation.

You already know what pots are. Their basically anything you break and get shit out of. I call them pots because it's a nostalgic reference to Zelda: A Link to the past for SNES. Just like other nerds I like to reference games that are irrefutably awesome so I don't really have to take a risk by attaching myself things and possibly open myself up for criticism. Digression this is why shitty games that are perceived as good trick you. People attach themselves to them because they are supposed to be 'good' then they won't have to deal with hate on the net.

Back to breaking shit in DCUO there are barrels and other items you can pick up and either smash over or throw at enemies. Really what good would a hero game be if you couldn't smash someone with a foreign object. Now even though these items aren't full of rupees and really only hold experience rewards if they are part of a quest they are still thing that you can smash SO I SMASH EM. With a big idiot grin on my face.

The fact that there are things to smash everywhere in an MMO is amazing to me. Even though I hate to run down WOW, it is the only other MMO I've played and it didn't have pots or barrels or random shit for me to smash and I am retroactively angry about it.

I'm not going to talk about Vaults yet because it's too awesome and I don't want you to pass out before you read about castles. That's what we in the industry call a tease.

So like pretty much everything else I reference with a made-up-term-and-just-hope-you-can-interpret-what-I-mean-and-it-is-ultimately-wrong-and-theres-an-already-existing-internet-nerd-term-that-I-think-is-dumb you most likely have no idea what I mean when I say castles. Well children what I mean is a building in which you go through killing dudes and solving puzzles until you get to a boss and then kill him/her/it and I don't mean a dungeon because it's in a building not a cave. So yeah those are in DCUO and they are fun.

I've only gone through 3 so far one was a regular warehouse one was a high tech lab and one was a crack house drug den sort of deal. These are pretty cool because so far they fit the flavor of the enemies and the boss. The drug den I aforementioned was populate by Bain thugs who were making and selling the drug that makes Bane, well Baney. The boss of the castle was the main dealer of the drug.

Finally Vaults. What do you think of when you think vault. Some sort of thing with a thick metal door and awesome shit inside most likely. Your almost there but add presents you have to break open (we already know how much I like to smash things) and a voice over by THE JOKER not just any random ho hum Joker either it's THE MOTHER FUCKING MARK HAMIL JOKER YOU ASSHOLE. Yeah I told you it was awesome.

The way it works is you have a vault ticket in your inventory that you just get near the beginning of the game and after a while you use it to go into the Jokers vault and punch shit and get money and items. From that point on you can pull up your instance menu and go in periodically (I suspect it's a daily thing).

DCUO: Part 3 Brain Punchery

Ok there are a number of reasons why I am writing another post. Four to be exact

1. Mike wants to vicariously experience DCUO through my beautiful fingers

2. I did my first instance or in DCUO terms Alert

3. I've progressed to level ten but still don't really know what the fuck I'm doing

4. I FOUND A BRAIN PUNCH FOR MY CHARACTER

OK I'll start with the most important one obviously, THE BRAIN PUNCH. Anyone who knows me knows that I easily get obsessed with video games for one of two reasons A. Something is Hilarious or B. Something is awesome. When it is magnificently both, well I shit my self.

I've been obsessed with brain punches since I played to game Two Worlds waaaay back at the beginning of this blog when I chronicled my adventures through the game. One thing that happened on those adventures was my character kept getting brain punched by a troll. At first I thought it was pretty funny and decided that I would kill the troll no matter how long it took. You see in that game when you died and came back to the same villain who killed you they still had the same amount of damage you managed to inflict. Mike thought this was bad design and I sort of agreed and proceeded to do my favorite thing in games, exploitation. Not in a dirty under ceded criminal way but in the way that has me win, the best way.

Eventually I killed the troll after about 237 tries but the brain punch with all it's awesome was born. In reality it is nothing more than a jumping over-cut aiming a blow at the top of the head.

Now to get this train back to the station. The way combat works in DCUO is it's action style you press a button you attack. Left mouse is mele attack Right mouse is ranged. I found out also that as you power up you get combo attacks ie hold left mouse for BRAIN PUNCH or right then left does an arc attack and so on and so on at increasing complexity and awesomeness.

Here is what my Brain punch looks like, please keep in mind as this was taken my charcter is about 12 feet in the air.

In DCUO the instances are called Alerts. It's a pretty cool idea Martian Manhunter lets you know where trouble is going on around the globe and you can warp to those areas and solve the problem.

The first one you get is in Area 51 where you have to stop brainiac from acquiring green kryptonite. That's all that I could really gather about the whole situation because the whole time I was running around like an asshole trying to figure out what the fuck I was doing.

The downside about the super speed movement method is you can run up walls. Which is awesome most of the time but it's also fucking annoying. Your running along then you hit something like o say a lamppost then you run up the side of it. The camera will spazz and invariably end up zoomed into the side of a building then I'll spazz then some fucktard will have their computer turned up way to high so all you hear is ear bleeding tinny echo of the game noises on their end mixed with feedback and what ever fucking horrors are going on in their real life house. It's actually pretty stressful all around. Since everyone is just zipping around the area of the alert doing their roles and completing the dungeon like well trained video game nerds I end up loosing them and getting mobbed by a throng of brainiac robots who inevitably knock me out (the death equivalent in DCUO). Then have to run back from the alert entrance, rinse, repeat and swear. I do have to assert that there is no ghost run in DCUO and for that it deserves a medal or an award of some sort. Further more in the games defense I am pretty sure the running wouldn't be so spazzy and disjointed if I had a better video card... but I don't so fuck the game.

The good old roles are still in DCUO. There is the option of being a Tank or Healer or Damage in the alerts but I'll wisely be sticking to damage for some time. I'll need to get a better idea if any of what is going on in the dungeons before I attempt anything else. I really hope I figure it out at some point though because I do love tanking. Speaking of which I found a beautiful coincidence, Fire and Ice are the two power types that can tank, which is nice seeing as to how I chose fire. It's a weird system though, were you change your role at any time by hitting 't' and it will toggle through the roles. For me it switches between tank and damage and then it automatically adjusts the stats of my character. I find this an amazing way to approach the whole party system, the ease of switching back and forth will allow you to make the most of game play either Dungeoning or questing. The toggle system is much better than setting up a skill tree specializing in one way and just being screwed when your playing the other.

Dungeoning aside the quests have been entertaining so far. The first string had to do with Gorilla Grod and stopping his army of devolved humans. Running around beating up gorillas wearing pin striped suits and carrying hand guns is exactly as fun as it sounds. When you complete the kill these and get those quests you have to fight Grod with the Flash's help. It's pretty cool that you get to help real heroes in the game and even fight along side them I found it drew me into the plot happenings a lot more thoroughly than if I would have had to fight him solo.

There is a side quest line that is basically a tour of Metropolis with a delicious booster gold voice over. You run from one tourist kiosk to the next and it's pretty uneventful aside from the aforementioned voice over which are full of self indulgence as you'd expect from ol BG.

I have stuck to Metropolis and have only quested in there but I am getting pretty ansy to move on. The HIVE quests aren't really holding my attention like the gorilla ones. The next area I will move to Is Gotham which I am anxious to see because since Metropolis is so beautifully rendered I can only imagine the magnificence of Gotham. This sounds like a good place to end with promises of Batman and his Gotham for part 4

A normal day in the life of a British policeman of the Yorkshire Constabulary.

DCUO: Part 2B my character Farad

Hey I just wanted to post this inbetweener because i fear i might have scared a few of you off by saying your character changes from the customization tab when you create him/her/it. Deep Breath you can change your character model at any time via in game menu character style selection. What this does is your character keeps the gear he has equipped but you can change it to look like anything he has already worn in that slot. This is fucking huge my friend. This means no more ugly good stated gear you have to wear because it's just to good for your in game face punching to give up. Since I am a giant Loot whore this is amazing. Also this means at any time you can revert him/her/it back to what you originally designed. You do however pick up new styles that weren't available in the create tab. My fav so far is the Bio-Mech style which you can see on my back piece, shoulders and boots. Also isn't it great to call them shoulders and boots instead of pauldrons and greaves again.

DCUO: Part 2 my character Farad

Ok just wanted to pop in because I've finished the intro to the game

The combat is totally fun. You left click for mele, right click for range mouse is aim and wasd is movement. You get special attacks that can be qued into numbers 1-6 you can also get special attacks where you hold down one of the mouse buttons. The whole system is pretty visceral and very immersing.

One thing to note is I spent probably an hour creating my guy and picking gear (It's that customizable) I would like to warn you though do not worry too too much about your gear selection in the create phase because the armor you get replaces said gear. Do however pick your color palette 3 colors because all the gear you get will be recolored to this so you never have to worry about not matching and you'll always look awesome.

My guy has a skull mask (for Now) glowing eyes, a mohawk and rock skin. He's the big build (theres the wayne gretzky hockey dude selection for you size) and is colored all red. He's my fast runner fire blaster. My name is farad and I'm on the Last Laugh server come find me. Well hang. Watch your ladies though my personality is flirty.

here is my character being awesome and posing

and here he is in action using a fire pop up power

DCUO: Part 1 Why I switched

So I decided to purchase DC Universe Online. I'm pretty excited to play it and it's actually installing as I write this.

I am quitting Wow (for the third time) and switching to this MMO instead. This is a tumultuous idea that is full of pros and cons to say the least.

Wow is my first MMO experience and like a young student I must venture out into the world to practice what I have learned. I'm anxious to see how my new found knowledge of Tanking and healing along with economy will serve me amongst the heroes and villains. Or to that matter if the dungeon roles i have learned are even applicable. Hell I don't even know if there is an auction system in DCUO I'm pretty much switching over just so I can make a customizable character give him a funny name and beat the shit out of other people wearing tights.

Ever since I learned about the parameters you pick for your hero at the start I started fantasizing about the heroes and villains I would make. The first one I am most excited about is a Flash/Human Torch hybrid he runs fast and shoots fire. Just those two things were enough to get me going that I never really looked into the logistics or specifics of the character creation instead just annoyed my comic nerd brother with this hero that he says is completely lame and won't work because speed and fire are two powers that don't really mix together well for maximum benefits. My retort was simply "Who gives a shit I run fast and shoot fire, I RUN FAST AND SHOOT FIRE." I could not wrap my mind around how someone would not find that every bit as goosebumpingly awesome as me.

Another character I thought of would just be a giant guy who punches shit... that's all I really thought about that because well thats enough. Judging by my history with video games I'll probably try to make a guy with characteristics that are diametrically opposite one another. For instance a Bain sized cat burglar that instead of using gadgets and stealth uses fists and punching. I know full well making idiot decisions like this is a bad long term scenario and will prevent my character from hitting some sort of super high level skill in one area and instead be relegated to lower level skills in two areas. That's ok I'm fine with that because I can be a giant guy who punches people and steals shit. Lurking in shadows is highly overrated and for people with far more patience in make believe land than me.

I don't want anyone to think I am doing this because I hate WOW because truth is after Cataclysm came out I thought WOW was finally a good game. Thing is I could care less about the Lore of WOW. I know there are people who salivate over Thrall back story and the Lore of some other characters I can't remember. Actually I know there is Mike the co-owner of this blog is one of them. He's the guy I go to when for some quest I'm trying to do I need to know something about whosit who killed that guy and now the dead guys are mad at whatshisface.

I do like the fantasy setting more than super hero setting though thats one thing that will be bad but I just know DC characters so much more than WOW. I want to know what the fuck Booster Gold is doing. I want to check in with the New Blue Beetle and see how he likes his suit and if he's ever weirded out that his predecessor died. I never actively studied up on these characters but I absorbed information almost by some form of nerd Osmosis. My aforementioned brother is a huge comic nerd and is always more than willing to tell me just whats happening in that world. I do read comics once in a while and I have never ever read any back story on characters in WOW.

I do want to point out I am not up to date on character happenings from the DC universe but I do have a grasp on what the characters relationships are with each other. I am familiar with some groups JLA and what not unlike wow were I would be remiss to name a single character from the Dranai story line of which I have a level 83 character in. It's more of a what I need to know basis. As in what do I need to kill to do this quest to get the shiny loot. I really care about this mostly because I skip through story and plot in video games enough to make even casual fans whimper and knowing characters ahead of time will save me in story reading and get me to face punching and fast running that much sooner.

In closing I am really excited to delve into the DCUO world but am far too lazy to have prepared myself for whats to come. I'll chime in and let you know about my exploits on a semi regular basis.

Your probably sick or reading. I know I would be so go watch the cinematic trailer for DCUO it's pretty fucking amazing http://www.dcuniverseonline.com/cinematic/