Being able to create something unique, to be able to set yourself apart from the crowd is what character diversity is about. It can be a unique look, playstyle or story but, it also means much more than that. Depending on how the game allows you to put your spin on something it can often lead to something more than a personal creation. If you are allowed to make choices in a story, it can lead to excellent dialogue between players when discussing the specifics. Allowing a player to tweak how there character performs allows the spreadsheet masters to create something they are satisfied with and allows them to discuss the different ways a character can be optimal. Even a certain playstyle can shed light on something you never would have experienced with the way you play. Guild Wars 2 allows players to do all of the above.

Obviously, the first step in character diversity is creating a character. As you know there are five races to choose from, each has their own special characteristics. You will be able to choose the fur pattern of a Charr character while the Norn allows you access to unique body tattoos. Along with this, you also get all the bells and whistles. You can select body type, hair, face type, facial features, and dyeing your starter gear.

Aside from a unique look that allows you to create a bond with that character there are also a number of professions to choose from that dictate how you play. There are eight professions in the game and they range from the powerhouse Warrior, the protective Guardian to the Mesmer, an illusion specialist. Each class has something that sets them apart e.g., the Mesmer creating illusions, a Necromancer using pets and death shroud, the Engineer using a variety of gadgets including turrets.

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I imagine Guild Wars fans have been in both heaven and hell this week when ArenaNet lifted a press embargo that allowed various site talk about their experiences from the most recent closed beta. I learned quite a few things when sifting through all the information. Similar to SW:TOR, I believe ArenaNet is on to something with their dynamic event system and the way it affects the journey. WvW still intrigues me and Elisabeth Cardy of Massively has given us some insight on crafting, a rarely talked about feature of the game.

Reading Tap Repeatedly and Kill Ten Rats, Ravious and Lewis B. touched upon some of the features that initially drew my interest into Guild Wars 2. We are all use to that guided leveling experience, but Guild Wars 2 breaks away from that. In a given area, they give you a handful of hot spots that have various tasks that need to be carried out in order to gain the favor of a particular NPC.

The difference here is that there is choice. You can choose how you want to proceed with a particular NPC. You can collect berries for a farmer, help them grow their corn, or kick trees and lower the spider population to make the area safe for baking. I am sure I just combined three different farmers, but you get my point. Reading the above posts confirms the idea that I had in my head, that the world is at your fingertips.

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I’m sure most of you by now have dug yourselves in with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The open-world RPG has been the talk of the town for the past few days with ZeniMax Media capping it off by announcing that the game has garnered roughly $3.5M in sales over a period of 48 hours. My experience with Skyrim has been stellar so far.

It’s the moments that make it magical

For me it’s all about the world and its many quests and tasks. There is so much to do in Skyrim that I don’t have that feeling of being rushed and okay to be distracted. Everything will eventually be completed right!? Even with all the content they packed into the game, each little slice tells a story. Even stopping to read a book containing a short story is food for the soul.

I recall roaming around near the beginner area and stumbling upon a beat-up shack. I investigate only to find a letter by the homeowner describing his eyewitness account of a dragon flying overhead. Reading on, his wife tried to convince them to leave but the man refused stating that it was okay to stay as long as we don’t bother the dragon it won’t bother us. Oh how he was wrong! My heart broke when I stepped outside and off to the side near a fire camp laid two charred bodies. I shed a single tear, although not before I pilfered some gold off the bodies.

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Asura week begins with a blog post from Matt Barrett, an artist at Arena Net who spearheaded the design of the short and very intelligent Asura race.

To my surprise the initial designs the Asura, were that they were supposed to be a goblin like race that were mischievous scavengers that operated outside the skirts of society utilizing the more intelligent races’ technology wherever they could find it; a complete 180 of what they are today.

To add insult to injury the initial design reminded me a lot of Smeagle from Lord of the Rings, he has the very primitive look about him with cloth only covering the important bits with spoons and folks being used as ornaments in a necklace, prompting me to read the next few lines with his voice in my head. I’m sure the Asura wouldn’t approve of this paragraph.

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Anticipating the exclusive announcement from Bioware about Mass Effect 3 I tuned in to the Bioware livestream to see Casey Hudson and Jennifer Hale address the crowd. He start taking about how they received a lot feedback about showcasing more of the female version of Commander Shepard in some of the promotion materials. “We’re going to some really cool things with female Commander Shepard with the run up to Mass Effect 3,” says Hudson. So now I’m thinking they are finally going to give more details about what they are going to do with her since we already know she’s getting a trailer of her own as well sharing Box time with male Shepard on the Collector’s Edition.

To my surprise however is that Bioware is asking the playerbase to help decide what the iconic female Shepard should look like. They have a gallery on their Facebook page where players can view six different concepts and ‘like’ the one they think should be the iconic Shepard. I personally choose #3 because in my eyes that look suites Jennifer Hale’s voice the most. I should also mention that it also looks a lot like Cindy, my good follow video blogging friend. No idea what they are going to do after perhaps some further tweaking of the concept.

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I’ve put a lot of time with the resurrected MMO Shooter APB Reloaded. Gamersfirst picked up the closed game and decided to continue production and they really put in a lot of work into improving the game. Improvements such as the much needed gun and car tweaks and performance optimizations. Overall I’ve been really enjoying the game but I have had my share of trials and tribulations.

Finding the Right Gun

One of the most noticeable changes in APB Reloaded are the weapons. In the original the guns didn’t really have any diversity in terms of utility. With the reboot guns have certain quirks to them. The more powerful guns have a stronger kickback when you fire them, the submachine is very strong in mid/short range combat, and the semi-auto rifles offers power and range should you prefer to fight from afar but at close range are ineffective. With all these changes it took me awhile to adjust to the guns whereas in the old APB the soul child was the Ntec(AK-47) since it had good range and power with no recoil; Now it has a strong kick and it takes a bit of work to get off accurate shots. I experimented with the semi-auto rifles but I found myself lacking in the close quarters department, used the submachine guns but found myself useless in distance battles struggling to get in range without being picked off by accurate fire. After really struggling through leveling up my contacts, I unlocked extra weapons and I feel like I found what I was looking for. An upgrade to the starter weapon the Star R&D has a slot for one modification. The Cooling jacket modification seemed to fit the bill, it slightly improves the rate of fire in return slightly increasing the rate of accuracy degradation. This allows my gun to contend with submachine guns in close quarters while still pulling it weight in distance combat. The round it out I managed to unlock a powerful magnum handgun that does a hefty amount of damage and I use that weapon when picking off targets from afar if my main gun isn’t getting the job done.

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