Online Games, a List of Sorts

At my current location the only options for internet access are dial-up, satellite, and DSL through a phone carrier other than the one the household currently uses. So, I have dial-up access, which means that for some tasks, such as downloading large files and playing online games, I have to bring my laptop somewhere where I can hook it into a better connection.

Sometime in the near future my location will be changing, and I will have better options for internet access, and will be able to download files, play online games, and do other things that require fast internet (maybe playing tabletop games over skype or google+ with distant friend provided I can find distant friends with the prerequisite free time to do so). Since a list of files I plan on downloading isn’t very interesting, here is a list of online games I’ve played some in the past and plan on playing more when I’ve moved.

Marvel Heroes: I kind of missed out on the Diablo phenomenon. When the first two games came out, I didn’t have a computer able to play them. My introduction to that sort of game came with Torchlight II and the predecessor (which I go with the pre-purchase of the former), which is also a fine game.

Marvel Heroes is the same sort of game, but with a characters and locations from Marvel comics. I’ve been playing Daredevil, though I have a level 1 Thing and Hawkeye waiting in the wings, which seems to be a problematic character as every time I play (which is rare) I have to rebuild my character as he’s be rebalanced in some subtle way that doesn’t actually change how I play him much.

The game isn’t particularly hard. My main strategy is to jump into a bunch of guys and spam an area attack until there aren’t any guys left with maybe some more thoughtful tactics if that doesn’t work. But that part of the fun of Marvel Hero for me, I have tons of games that challenge me, this is a game where run around beating bad guys up, taking their stuff, and listening to amusing quotes.

Infinite Crisis: Speaking of games that challenge me, Infinite Crisis is a DC Comics themed MOBA (a not particularly interesting acronym for games like LoL and Dota) and MOBA are not a genre of game I excel at but I’ve been playing it a little. There isn’t much to differentiate the game from other entries in the genre in the game play (though they did launch with more map variety than some other games which is nice) but through having multiple versions of famous DC characters from different universes. My personal stable of characters includes Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Robin, Zatanna, Batman Noir, and Atomic Green Lantern (as far as I can recall).

As I said, I’m not very good at this sort of game, so I tend to be happy as long as I’m not the worst player in the match.

DC Universe: Yet another licensed game based on comic books, DC Universe is an MMO. It might be silly, but I really like that all of the quests have voiced introductions from one of the character’s patrons.

While I enjoyed the Legends PVP mode where you step into the shoes of famous DC characters for head to head matches against another team, I got a little sick of getting taken out repeatedly by max level heroes while trying to do my quests. Luckily, it is easy to switch between PVP enabled and not.

Guild Wars 2: Guild Wars 2 does some smart things as a MMO. The way levels work makes it so you never out level content and they add a lot of variety into each class by making every type of weapon provide a different set of command.

Also, I’ve heard good things about the PVP sections of the game though I’ve never played with them.

Defiance: An MMO that is also a shooter that is also an entertaining science fiction/western television show. I haven’t actually played the game yet. I picked it up during a sale and put it aside, but will probably give it a shot. I am slightly disappointed that more of the alien races aren’t playable.

Nuclear Dawn: A weird PVP hybrid shooter/ strategy game where one player on each team is given the role of commander, which lets them build helpful building and research player boosts while everyone else works to take points on the map to give the commander more resources to work with.

I might not play a whole lot more of it, but I think its work an occasional play.

Super Monday Night Combat: A hybrid shoot/MOBA that is sadly under populated. I really like it and in the past I have strong armed friends into playing this game with me.

I also might play some of the previous game Monday Night Combat if I can talk people into it. I like that I can play it offline, but the one mode open to that sort of play (a type of survival against waves of bots with multiple lanes) is only doable for me as a single player on the lower difficulties.

The games’ setting could make good fodder for a table top game that went into what happens the rest of the week.

Monster Hunter: I have a friend that is very much a fan of this franchise, so I plan on pick the most recent version for my WiiU so we can combine forces to more efficiently hunt monsters. Hopefully, I’ll be able to manage the controls on the WiiU better than the demo version for the 3DS.

Also, when Exalted third edition comes out, I have plans to do a Dragonblood game loosely based off the same premise with lots of encounters with big stompy monsters rather than Exalted on Exalted fights.

Borderlands 2: Because it’s give me an excuse to make another character (as co-op seems to work best when characters have similar level and story progression) rather than actually finishing the game.