DC Universe Online - First Impressions

Inspired by - Green Lantern, Superman and the Joker

We've been getting a bit bored with most of the games we've been playing lately, so when Cold suggested we try DC Universe Online, I was quite happy to give it a try, especially as it's free to play.

It was about a 20 Gb download so that took a while but once I got in to the character creation screen, I was happy to see so many options! You choose from a few basic body shapes, next is the skin type and then you can either choose a look based on existing heroes and villains or you can create your own. You have about 10-15 options for every gear slot as well as hair styles. Once you've chosen your look, you can customise the color too - either an overall color scheme or you can go into each piece of gear.

You choose whether you want to play as a hero or a villain, then you choose your fight style (fire, ice, mental etc) and you also get to choose a mentor. You also get to choose your method of movement - I chose flight for my hero and Cold chose acrobatic. Both take some getting used to but I love the flying bit - seems much quicker than walking or running everywhere!

In the free to play version, you get 2 character slots and a choice of three mentors on each side but if you pay to play then those options greatly increase. The mentor bit only changes the storyline once you get into game so if you choose Superman for example, you don't necessarily have to be a flying character.

Villain Nev!

Once you actually get into the starting zone, you play through a tutorial type area. The combat system is totally different to anything I've played before and it's taking a while to get the hang of it. We made it to level 10 last night and I still don't know what all my combos do!

The worst part for me was arriving at the Justice League's Watchtower. It's a multi-level rabbit warren and the quests there are designed to show you around but there's no obvious signposts, just a big yellow arrow on the side of your mini-map. That's fine until you realise there are levels above & below you so you then have to back track to find stairs to get to your objective!

We had a lot of fun though and we even did a dungeon - although I'm not sure dungeon is the right word - maybe a group instance would be a better description! That was fun although Cold and I both died a couple of times through just not knowing our way around and taking on too many mobs.

I'm going to create a villain to play on my own as we can only play together a couple of evenings a week. I think I'll get better if I can go at my own pace without trying to keep up with the super speed that Cold plays at! There's a lot to learn and a few bits are frustrating me already but I'm sure I'll work those out once I make some combo notes and have time to read all the skill details!

It's definitely worth a try if you're looking for something different to play. If you play already, I'd love to add you to my friends list and maybe we can play together sometime. Leave a comment below and we can get that organised :)

(500 Words Challenge - Day 4 Word Count 585)

****************

Check out my other projects
Gifts for Gamers and Geeks

and my photography site
HVS PHotography

****************

How I Feel About World of Warcraft Right Now

DC Universe Online Character

I started playing World of Warcraft in the middle of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion and played constantly until the middle of Mists of Pandaria. Somewhere along the way, I lost the first guild full of people I thought were friends but we rebuilt and I made a whole new bunch of friends. It wasn't the same though, the new bunch were lovely people but we didn't have an obvious leader so we just poodled along, doing various bits in game together in a very haphazard way.

Eventually I found myself so wrapped up in gold making and blogging about the Auction House, that I began to feel my guild obligations were intruding and I found more and more excuses not to do group content. I let my subscription lapse early last summer but I resubbed for a month just before Warlords of Draenor was released. I got my Paladin main to level 94 and my warrior to 92 before my month ran out and I've been meaning to resub ever since.

WoW just doesn't have the pull it used to have for me now though. I haven't played since before Christmas - not through any conscious decision but more because I am distracted by trying to build an online income for my future and if I'm not working or reading about that, then I'm vegging out in front of Netflix, crocheting like a crazy old lady!

My Baby Bank Alt

I thought I'd resub when the WoW tokens became available but I haven't yet. I begrudge paying almost 40,000 gold for a token when I can get one for 20,000 gold on my US account! Unfortunately, I don't have Warlords of Draenor on my US account and I really don't want to pay out for that until I know I am going to play! It's a catch 22 situation - pay for WoD on US account & use cheap tokens or pay out in gold instead to play on my EU account.

The other thing that's suffered by me not playing is my podcast with Marcus Ty (the Journal of Marcus Ty) - I just don't feel right being on a show about gold making in World of Warcraft when I haven't played for almost 6 months! I think I am going to bite the bullet and go with my EU account though - I love podcasting with Marcus and once I have the current crochet project finished, I'm going to have to give it a break. Anything can become an addiction for me it seems so I have to pull back when I start accumulating a stash of materials that I'll probably never get through!

Will I start writing again on my AH Addict blog? I honestly don't know. I haven't kept in touch with the current gold making situation but from the few tweets I see in my Twitter feed, it looks like a tough proposition these days. If I find that I am making gold fairly easily then I will probably write about it but I doubt I'll ever write as frequently as I used to. That's a shame though because I am proud of what that blog became for a while and it's sad to see it just sitting there, unloved by me these days.

I haven't stopped gaming completely though - I've been playing Heroes of the Storm with Cold on his days off and some of the free games I review for One Minute Gaming have caught me too. Whoever it was who suggested Cooking Fever has a lot to answer for! I just opened my 5th restaurant in that mini ipad game and I can't see me stopping anytime soon!

Cold and I have also dipped back into Titanfall and Path of Exile recently. Titanfall was fun again after 5 months of not playing - I cannot believe how quickly you lose the skills so I was absolutely awful at it! We've just downloaded DC Universe Online to give that a try later today. My superhero is gorgeous even if I do say so myself and I love the character build options. The fighting and movement stuff is going to give me problems though I think!

I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow probably!

(500 Words a Day challenge, Day 3 Word Count - 711)

****************

Check out my other projects
Gifts for Gamers and Geeks

and my photography site
HVS PHotography

****************