LOTRO - A Bit Choppy
September 16th 2010 10:53
Just to make sure my readers are up to date, and to provide accurate reviews, I want to start out with the equipment I'm using. My computer is a brand new Eee Asus Netbook with windows 7 running and comcast wireless internet. Its nothing fancy, and we'll see how it handles.
After a day of waiting for the game software to finish downloading, I finally sat down to play the game. Right from the start I could tell the graphics were pretty high tech. The graphics around character creation weren't bad at all. I liked the majority of options available for customizing the character, but I would love to see more hair colors and some basic clothing options. I decided to play a slender tree loving hobbit named Bema, with Burglaring as my career. The creation area gave decent race and career descriptions and if it wasn't a hobbit burglar, I would've chosen an Elvin hunter.
Once I got past the character creation, getting into the game was easy and it loaded up pretty fast. I was disappointed when the intro movie didn't play with sound though. On top of no sound, the game doesn't allow you to use the start menu button to exit and deal with sound issues. So I had to watch the intro movie without sound, trying to lip read animated characters (not easy). Being that the sound kicked on as soon as I reach the realm, I'm not sure if it was a computer issue, but it sure seemed game related.
Once I made it into the shire, the first intro quest started right away. Upon speaking to a night watchmen, everyone agrees its in erie night. After a moment, frodo and his gaggle show up to speak with you and the watchman before running scared off the road. In a short moment, your cowering with fear (which means you can't move) and a black ride comes down upon you screaming "give me baggins!"
Up until the wrath rider comes, there was a fitting narrator that I wish would've continued through the story, though it appears the voice from above is only there for the very beginning.
After your first friend teaches you some basic fighting skills and shoes away the wrath, you two are off to flee to the hobbit town next to you. I would've been happier to follow, but I still found myself wondering: "where did frodo go?"
If Frodo is not the role that my hobbit character is playing, then what is my ultimate goal I wonder?
The first bit of fighting is with some nasty spiders that have taken over the fort. Following that, you make it to the last gate leading to the shire when more hobbits come bursting in trying to escape some briganders (human villians). You're not allowed to fight them and after they knock out you friend, they kidnap the lot of you.
As I waited through a loading page, I noticed they leave some helpful hints on each load screen, to help with gameplay. I kind of wish they would add some educational to the load screens, such as trivia, historical connects or info about making LOTRO, but maybe its just me...
As the loading screen disappeared and my group woke to the inside of a jail cell, it didn't take long before Strider the Ranger showed up to release us. We scrambled out of a burning castle and out to a friend of striders named Ahmir. Ahmir had been struck by a wrath sword and strider injured. Immediately strider said to follow him and for the watchmen to go back to the shire. The game gave me an option to go back with the watchmen instead. Though being that it wasn't a huge moral choice, I went with strider, being that it seemed more urgent. I do wonder what might have happened if id chosen to go back to the shire. It does leave me wanting to try a new hobbit character after this one, to see what happens.
Upon following strider, I was lanched right into the first town, Achet. The town looked cool and I could see live players, but I am Extremely unhappy with the amount of lag in there. It took me at least 20 minutes to move 10 feet inside city walls. When I finally got frustrate I clicked the "?" Symbol on the lower right and checked out the in-game help section. After some brief searching the help section suggested that it was my wireless net that was causing the lag. Trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, I moved closer to the router to try and get a better signal. It didn't help....
Being that the game gave me no way to momentarily enter the start menu without exiting the game, I was stuck with the lag unless I wanted to quit early and finish troubleshooting. I thought to continue a bit and see if the lag might clear up outside the town.
The first solo intro quest was to try and warn some prominent town figures, which was difficult with all the lag. The first quest outside of the town to kill wolves and gather herbs was a welcome relief. A slight amount of lag continued, but not as much. It was clean enough that the screen didn't clitch and the character didn't freeze up.
After a few hours, I had completed a bunch of rather redundant quests for the town leader and strider. None of the first ten quests were difficult at all, but dealing with the lag in town took away lengthy minutes of my life that ill never get back... I am hoping a thorough troubleshooting sesh tomorrow will bring some good news on the lag front. At several occassions in town, I founs that the character doesn't always go the direction you command it to. I press right, it goes left. I press forward, it stands still... not cool.
The game gives you the option of using the W, A, D and S keys or using the arrow keys for navigation. I usually prefer to use the arrow keys, but the keys sure seem to work better, and I will admit that it is slightyly easier to use them. Using a netbook for gaming takes its toll on your wrists, and playing that way seemed easier. It was also a help to use my dominant right hand for targeting, as it appears you can only use Right-Clicks.
After three hours of playing, I finally hit a few loading screens that froze up on me. Hitting ESC key once seemed to kick start it though, and I was a happier gamer because of it.
Overall I would give the beginning a 3 out of 10 rating. It offers easy navigation, has lots of helpful hints for newbies and get into action quickly. Though I couldn't give the intro of the game a high rating, because there were several times I thought about exiting the game and uninstalling it. The high points are lots of engagement with town figures and noteworthy characters from the books/movies, its easy to figure out and you can level up fairly quickly.
The low points: the "helpful menus" that explain skills and weapons come up to easily. They are informative, but get in the way during combat. The built in quest tracker is great, but it gets overshadowed by the compass-map, making it so that you can't read some quests or select them as your main objective. The graphics are great, but do the trees really need to sway? I am sure plenty of great graphic could have been used in more efficient ways in LOTRO. The first few quest are easy, and I was happy the land was easy to navigate, but it wasn't interesting to keep doing little quests so much with all the lag. The lag is the biggest issue, as its difficult to enjoy trying to speak with three players in the same area when you can't turn around to talk to them. Though I will be the first to admit that if the lag were mostly gone, I would gripe less and play more.
Tomorrows blog: troubleshooting lag probs for LOTRO
After a day of waiting for the game software to finish downloading, I finally sat down to play the game. Right from the start I could tell the graphics were pretty high tech. The graphics around character creation weren't bad at all. I liked the majority of options available for customizing the character, but I would love to see more hair colors and some basic clothing options. I decided to play a slender tree loving hobbit named Bema, with Burglaring as my career. The creation area gave decent race and career descriptions and if it wasn't a hobbit burglar, I would've chosen an Elvin hunter.
Once I got past the character creation, getting into the game was easy and it loaded up pretty fast. I was disappointed when the intro movie didn't play with sound though. On top of no sound, the game doesn't allow you to use the start menu button to exit and deal with sound issues. So I had to watch the intro movie without sound, trying to lip read animated characters (not easy). Being that the sound kicked on as soon as I reach the realm, I'm not sure if it was a computer issue, but it sure seemed game related.
Once I made it into the shire, the first intro quest started right away. Upon speaking to a night watchmen, everyone agrees its in erie night. After a moment, frodo and his gaggle show up to speak with you and the watchman before running scared off the road. In a short moment, your cowering with fear (which means you can't move) and a black ride comes down upon you screaming "give me baggins!"
Up until the wrath rider comes, there was a fitting narrator that I wish would've continued through the story, though it appears the voice from above is only there for the very beginning.
After your first friend teaches you some basic fighting skills and shoes away the wrath, you two are off to flee to the hobbit town next to you. I would've been happier to follow, but I still found myself wondering: "where did frodo go?"
If Frodo is not the role that my hobbit character is playing, then what is my ultimate goal I wonder?
The first bit of fighting is with some nasty spiders that have taken over the fort. Following that, you make it to the last gate leading to the shire when more hobbits come bursting in trying to escape some briganders (human villians). You're not allowed to fight them and after they knock out you friend, they kidnap the lot of you.
As I waited through a loading page, I noticed they leave some helpful hints on each load screen, to help with gameplay. I kind of wish they would add some educational to the load screens, such as trivia, historical connects or info about making LOTRO, but maybe its just me...
As the loading screen disappeared and my group woke to the inside of a jail cell, it didn't take long before Strider the Ranger showed up to release us. We scrambled out of a burning castle and out to a friend of striders named Ahmir. Ahmir had been struck by a wrath sword and strider injured. Immediately strider said to follow him and for the watchmen to go back to the shire. The game gave me an option to go back with the watchmen instead. Though being that it wasn't a huge moral choice, I went with strider, being that it seemed more urgent. I do wonder what might have happened if id chosen to go back to the shire. It does leave me wanting to try a new hobbit character after this one, to see what happens.
Upon following strider, I was lanched right into the first town, Achet. The town looked cool and I could see live players, but I am Extremely unhappy with the amount of lag in there. It took me at least 20 minutes to move 10 feet inside city walls. When I finally got frustrate I clicked the "?" Symbol on the lower right and checked out the in-game help section. After some brief searching the help section suggested that it was my wireless net that was causing the lag. Trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, I moved closer to the router to try and get a better signal. It didn't help....
Being that the game gave me no way to momentarily enter the start menu without exiting the game, I was stuck with the lag unless I wanted to quit early and finish troubleshooting. I thought to continue a bit and see if the lag might clear up outside the town.
The first solo intro quest was to try and warn some prominent town figures, which was difficult with all the lag. The first quest outside of the town to kill wolves and gather herbs was a welcome relief. A slight amount of lag continued, but not as much. It was clean enough that the screen didn't clitch and the character didn't freeze up.
After a few hours, I had completed a bunch of rather redundant quests for the town leader and strider. None of the first ten quests were difficult at all, but dealing with the lag in town took away lengthy minutes of my life that ill never get back... I am hoping a thorough troubleshooting sesh tomorrow will bring some good news on the lag front. At several occassions in town, I founs that the character doesn't always go the direction you command it to. I press right, it goes left. I press forward, it stands still... not cool.
The game gives you the option of using the W, A, D and S keys or using the arrow keys for navigation. I usually prefer to use the arrow keys, but the keys sure seem to work better, and I will admit that it is slightyly easier to use them. Using a netbook for gaming takes its toll on your wrists, and playing that way seemed easier. It was also a help to use my dominant right hand for targeting, as it appears you can only use Right-Clicks.
After three hours of playing, I finally hit a few loading screens that froze up on me. Hitting ESC key once seemed to kick start it though, and I was a happier gamer because of it.
Overall I would give the beginning a 3 out of 10 rating. It offers easy navigation, has lots of helpful hints for newbies and get into action quickly. Though I couldn't give the intro of the game a high rating, because there were several times I thought about exiting the game and uninstalling it. The high points are lots of engagement with town figures and noteworthy characters from the books/movies, its easy to figure out and you can level up fairly quickly.
The low points: the "helpful menus" that explain skills and weapons come up to easily. They are informative, but get in the way during combat. The built in quest tracker is great, but it gets overshadowed by the compass-map, making it so that you can't read some quests or select them as your main objective. The graphics are great, but do the trees really need to sway? I am sure plenty of great graphic could have been used in more efficient ways in LOTRO. The first few quest are easy, and I was happy the land was easy to navigate, but it wasn't interesting to keep doing little quests so much with all the lag. The lag is the biggest issue, as its difficult to enjoy trying to speak with three players in the same area when you can't turn around to talk to them. Though I will be the first to admit that if the lag were mostly gone, I would gripe less and play more.
Tomorrows blog: troubleshooting lag probs for LOTRO
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