So I just spent some time in Tabula Rasa for the first time since late in beta, and dammit... I actually like it. Not sure what's changed, as before I just wasn't feeling it, but when I logged in tonight, expecting to be bored within a half-hour, I found myself instead plowing through quests and taking on hordes of Bane and Miasma tentacle thingies, and reveling in it.
What was a decent but not too attention-grabbing game before, has suddenly become a game I want to own and make part of my stable of MMOs. I still stand by my review from earlier about the beta. But with one key change... I think I could see myself paying a subscription for this. At least for a month or two at a time. Not sure how long the fun will last, and the free trial Private Hudson sent me only lasts 3 days, so I won't get a chance to really find out.
But I've put the game on my "Dear Santa" lists, so maybe someone in my family will pick it up for me if they read this. I really shouldn't be shelling out 50 bucks of my own on games right now when I need to think about gifts for the Missus, but I'll be damned if it isn't tempting.
I'm not even sure what exactly has changed since I played last, but the experience is far more enjoyable. It's something intangible, or maybe not. Maybe it's just that the game's much more complete now. It feels better, you know? I don't think TR is going to have the lasting impression Ultima did on the genre, but I think Garriott should be proud once more. TR's a winner, even if not the best of the best, in my book.
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3 comments:
HA HA SIR! Got you!
I got my wife in right now playing as well. I just posted about this on my site as well heh!
First impressions are so important. The negative beta reviews are bound to affect the game's popularity.
I wonder if your enthusiasm for TRwill remain; you were so 'into' Hellgate London, but you have already consigned that to the back burner.
On a sidenote, I was reading Anna Karenina this week (Tolstoy is a strange author; his stories are so interesting and very easy to read, but at the same time they are so full of padding and basically, waffle), and the phrase 'Tabula Rasa' was used by one of the characters.
"Aha! I know what that means!" I cried, to my bemused girlfriend.
Part of HG:L being on the back burner is that I beat it. It's not your typical MMO, more like Diablo in that it has a beginning and an end.
So now it's my go-to game for quick spurts of gameplay. Never intended to be more than that.
But TR, yeah I wonder too. I hear the 30s and above are in pretty bad shape right now in terms of balance, I'm not looking forward to it.
But more than anything my playing TR is about the mantra I'm trying to focus on in my gaming these days... go where the fun is. The fun right now is in TR. Doesn't matter how long it lasts, just that it's there.
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