The Daily Grind: Champions Online launch day edition

I was excited to try the open beta and absolutely loved the character creator. Once I learned that the game was designed to be played with a game pad and saw firsthand all the trade-offs associated with this fact, into the recycle bin she went.

So... on your launch day, you announce the first expansion/update to the game? New content is never bad... but to announce it on launch day? Desperation: she is a stinky whore.

lol huge nerfs on launch day

Sakura Park

/popcorn

...as I watch all the bitchy peeps flame here how terribad this game is.

Regardless, as with the XP nerf I am pretty sure Cryptic will fix it, yes it didn't go as well as they hoped, to put it simple but, they can fix it and I am quite confident they will.

Honestly its been the smoothest launch out of any MMO ive ever played. And Ive played wayyy too many. Don't listen to these guys! You wont regret trying the game.

Also I have made two videos for launch day to help new people out.

First is Going over all the travel powers individually and how they work in combat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBEvD5c2tU4&fmt=22

Second is how to set up your targeting system to be more like a FPS or a Real-Time Action game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Oe3KezBUU&fmt=22

Don't take this as a shameless plug. I honestly made these with 100% intent on helping new people really enjoy the game with info they wouldn't be able to find readily!

My only gripes were the high cost of respecs (at one point I had to grind for cash to correct a mistake from a few levels before, by the time I saved up the money I had dinged and all the prices went up :P ) and some bugged quests.

Other than that, I had a great time.

I don't think the content announcement is a negative. They know at this point mmo players expect there to always be something good in the pipeline, even the first day. if it really was a pile of bugs they would be announcing the major patch they are working on before appearing to focus on content.

Sure, it CAN be played with a keyboard and mouse, but it is obvious that the PC is just a stepping stone on the way to console land.

My first character I made used pistols. My 1 key out of the gate was autoattack, and my 2 key was a special ability which required me to hold the button down for several seconds to get the most out of the ability. Let me tell you, it is rather akward trying to move around with the WASD keys without letting the 2 key go. Plugging in a 360 controller I had laying around, I found the same operation to be second nature.

But keys can be remapped and skills moved around on the bar, so this can be easily remedied.

What really turned me off was the shear LACK of abilities which are available to you at the trainer. I have no doubt in my mind that the small repertoire directly corresponds to the lack of buttons on a gamepad.

There are some amazing console games out there which provide great fun mashing one or two buttons over and over for hours on end, but when it comes to an MMO, I expect a bit more depth.

Waiting for the villain-expansion ;P

This isn't a bad game by any stretch and is quite fun for awhile.But for every step foward in MMORPG design evolution it takes it takes 1 and 1/2 to 2 steps backward.In the end there wasn't enough good in it to make me want to put up with an item mall in a subscription game.