I’ve been logging in to World of Warcraft less and less these days, and I have suspected for some time now that my time with the game may be coming to an end, and were it not for the release of the expansion,  I feel fairly confident in saying I would have already un-subscribed.

I just recently reached level 84 on my Mage, spending all of my time questing in Vashj’ir and Deepholm, earning the quest achievements for both zones.   I found it pretty tough forcing my self to continue playing through them, but I’ve vowed not to quit playing until I’ve got one character at 85.

I have two main complaints with my experience so far.  First,  both Vashj’ir and Deepholm lack many unique features or areas within the zones.  In Vashj’ir I was constantly using the map to find my way around because everything looks the same; an endless jungle of seaweed and coral.  The same holds true for Deepholm; just a whole lot of rock, lava, and crystalline formations.

My other complaint is with the way questing works, where you complete all the quests at a given quest hub and stay in that general area before moving on to the next hub.  I realize that it’s relatively unchanged from Wrath of the Lich King, and even Burning Crusade, but it seems a lot more obvious in Cataclysm.  There is really no incentive at all to explore the zones, nor is there any reason to because you never need to stray too far from the current quest hub to reach your objective.  Plus, the map points out exactly where your quest destination is so that’s one less reason to explore.

I actually much prefer quests that have you traversing across multiple zones and areas, but there’s none of that to be found.  More so than the previous expansions, I just can’t stand the “quest hub” system.  At the very least it would be nice to have to travel more than ten feet from the quest giver.  As it is, it feels as though the designers don’t want the player to stray too far from a predetermined path.  Not to mention the fact that all of the quests at each quest hub generally follow the same pattern.  There’s always a “gather x number of y” quest, along with a “kill x number y monsters” quest, which will be followed up with “go kill named monster x”.  Once the named is killed, the quest giver sends you off to the next quest hub to repeat the same quests but with different collectibles and creatures.  It’s horribly boring, and the pattern has become so noticeable because of the slower experience gain.  In order to stretch the level progression out, your forced to do a tonne of quests, so obviously quest originality gets tossed out the window.

I’m now a couple of quests into Uldum, and it appears as though it will be more of the same, but at least Uldum is a visually interesting zone.  I did a quick fly-around and it was nice to see several unique features in the zone; it doesn’t all look the same.  I’m still faced with a dilemma however; I don’t want to quit until I hit level 85, but I don’t really feel like playing because I find the whole thing kind of boring.

I’ve mentioned before that while I enjoy Titan Quest I seem to be able to only play it in short bursts every so often.  I couldn’t put my finger on why that was the case, while back in the day, I could sink hours on end into Diablo 2.  The other night, I may have figured it out.

My current goal is to get to Athens, and while on my way there I came across the scene pictured above; a giant cyclops frozen in stone along with several other stone people in the area.  When I came upon the scene, the music changed, becoming much more ominous, and there were no living enemies to be seen in th area.  It was quite apparent that big ol’ nasty Medusa was in the area, and it was one of the few times during my playing of the game that I felt a sense of awe along with a compulsion to continue forward to face the threat.  It was then that I realized that Titan Quest has, for me up to this point, lacked a decent sense of atmosphere.

I’ve sunk quite a few hours into the game at this point and I don’t think I’d be able to tell you what the point of it is.  I know that my current goal is to get to Athens, but I don’t know why.  When the game starts, you’re approached by a villager and told that monsters have taken over the lands and you’re sent out to kill them as you make your way from town to town.  There’s nothing driving the player forward aside from the instruction to get to the next town.

When I think back to Diablo 2, I can remember there being very explicit reasons for all of my actions.  On top of the whole back story of the mysterious wanderer, each chapter has a specific goal to accomplish, and the threat to your character and the world, is always at the forefront.  The player is constantly reminded by the non-player characters of the doom and gloom that lay ahead, and that’s on top of the great atmospheric music portraying an ever-present sense of dread.

That kind of atmosphere just hasn’t been present in Titan Quest, aside from the little tastes noted above.  If your game consists primarily of clicking on stuff ad nauseum, you better present your players with a very compelling reason to  do so.  From a technical stand point, Titan Quest is a better game than Diablo 2, but its lack of a story, or more importantly, over-all atmosphere, is what is preventing it from being a better play experience.

I’ve been playing my Xbox 360 much more than my PC these days, and like my PC, I’ve got a stack of games for the 360 that I’ve barely touched, some not at all.  I remember a time when I’d have one game and stick with it for months before switching to another.  Now I’m buying new stuff before I’ve even taken older stuff out of the shrink wrap.  It has to stop!

My latest acquisition is IL 2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey.  This was a title that I almost picked up on release at full price, but never did for whatever reason, so I was quite happy to see it for $18 and I grabbed it.  For once though, I didn’t just throw it on the pile of games… I’m actually playing this one, and I love it.

I’ve always liked the idea of playing a flight simulator, but I just don’t have the time to dedicate to learning how to play them.  The great thing about IL 2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey, is that it has both realistic and arcade modes of play.  I’m having a tonne of fun with the arcade mode; I can whip around in my plane and not have to worry about stalling, thrust, or aerodynamics.  It reminds me a lot of Crimson Skies in a realistic setting.

I have a feeling this game is going to keep my attention for the next little while.

Still without any desire to play World of Warcraft, I’ve jumped back in to Titan Quest, a game I’ve wanted to get through for quite some time now.  I continued the game from where I last played, long ago; my dual-wielding warrior was level 10 whose current mission was to speak to the Oracle in Delphi.

The first thing that struck me as I continued mowing through the endless onslaught of monsters was just how much mouse clicking I was doing.  I realize that’s pretty much what this type of game is all about, but seriously, my index finger was getting sore.  The other thing I noticed is how long the game is.  I don’t know how many different areas I went through before I broke down and checked an FAQ to see how much longer it would take to reach the Oracle, but it was a lot.  The FAQ only served to tell me that I still had a ways to go.  Now, it’s been ages since I’ve played Diablo II, but I remember it having a much faster sense of progression and story.  Titan Quest is starting to just feel like a whole lot of clicking, but it looks so good I still want to go through it to see everything it has to offer.  Another glance at the FAQ told me that there was a very long way to go until the end of the game, which didn’t include the Immortal Throne expansion, which I also have.

I want to see the game, but I also kind of don’t want to play it any more because, like I said, it’s now feeling like nothing but a lot of clicking.  There’s something missing from it; something that kept me playing Diablo II countless times over and over.  Maybe it’s my choice of class and mastery selections.  I don’t have spells, or cool abilities to execute, just endless clicking.  The masteries I took were all passive abilities, so I don’t even have different skill buttons to click, I just swing my swords.

The solution to my problem, I decided, was to cheat.  I download a program called TQ Defiler which allows for save game editing.  I boosted my hero to level 25 (I didn’t want to go too crazy) and jumped back into the game, only to discover that the extra levels didn’t make that big a difference.  The problem seemed to be the equipment I was using.  While I had more health and better stats, it appeared that the weapons I was using were holding me back from being a crazy damage dealing machine.  Back to the editor, I gave my warrior access to the final encampment in the game and 7 million gold, then once back in the game, teleported to that encampment and bought all the best equipment on offer there, only to find that my stats weren’t quite high enough to equip them.  So, using the editor once again, I gave myself three more levels and jacked up my stats a fair bit.  Now I can kill most creatures in one hit and I can progress through the game a lot faster, which fits my purpose of just seeing the game’s environments without caring for the gameplay.

I continue to migrate further away from World of Warcraft, my time with that game clearly approaching another break.  I logged in for a bit the other night but quickly found myself bored out of my skull so I logged out.  I’d still like to force myself to 85 (I’m currently a quarter of the way through 83) before un-subscribing, but I’m really finding it a chore to play these days.

I’ve been having a lot of fun on my Xbox 360, particularly with Halo 3 ODST which I just completed last night.  I’ve had the game in my inventory for quite some time now but never really played with it beyond a few minutes here and there.  That changed a couple weeks ago when I gave it a solid chunk of time and I got hooked into the story.  I ended up really enjoying it, and found myself loading it up whenever I had some free time.  Now that I’ve finished ODST I can finally crack open my copy of Halo Reach, which I’m really looking forward to trying, but in all likelihood  I’ll be taking a quick break from the Halo universe to tackle one of the many other games awaiting my time.

Right now I’m trying to decide between Torchlight, Titan’s Quest, and Darksiders.  I’m the furthest along in Titan’s Quest, so that’s sort of how I’m leaning right now, but I can only take that game in short bursts.  I do want to finish it though.  Darksiders is really calling out to me though, so we’ll see.