Champions Online - Decided against buying it.

I cancelled my preorder at the local EB, cause I wouldn't be getting the preorder bonuses or headstart from the beta program.

The reason is because of an account name issue. When I originally signed up on the Champions forum back in early 2008, they asked for a user login name, so I put in "Upsen_Downs". That was also the display name, but its not that big a deal, it is just a forum.

Feb 2008 -
Forum Login/Display name: Upsen_Downs

Later on, somehow that forum changes software or something, and split things up so that there is a separate login name and display name. Doh, I could have used that feature! Well, thanks a lot but I guess it's not too bad, it is just a forum.

Aug 2009 -
Forum Login: Upsen_Downs
Forum Display Name: Upsen_Downs

Then, I find out that the forum login is the same as the game login. This part is not good at all, I don't like it.
The Forum display name becomes the in game global identifier which is all right.

Aug 2009-
Forum Login: Upsen_Downs
Forum Display Name: Upsen_Downs
Game Login: Upsen_Downs
Game Global Name: Upsen_Downs

Now, I *want* to use the name Upsen_Downs in the game, but I dont want it to be the same as my game login!

I contacted their various support teams 3 times to try and get some help getting my account name changed. However their invioable policy states that they do not change login names. Something about the system being unable to change that sort of detail, sigh. They said for me to just open a new account to use my actual game key, and that they would not transfer anything from my old account, including my beta key bonuses (most importantly, a basic flying superpower, the whole point of preordering)

Apparently, I screwed myself over by signing up for their website early and chatting with other people who were interested in the development of the game.

Anyways, they changed my forum display name to Unhappy_Upsen, one of the 3 alternatives I listed in my "please help me" emails. Which doesn't hide my login at all, since the old name is clearly quoted several times in threads discussing login name problems.

For me, Champs has been one disappointment after another. Between the frustrating Fileplanet experience, the comedic style gameplay/characters, the botched account info, loss of my preorder bonuses, and the inability of their support department to help me out, I had enough.

I'm just glad that I didn't actually have to buy the game or give them a credit card number.

Upsen.

CS Response

Wed, 08/26/2009

Thank you for contacting Cryptic Studios Billing Support.

Your display name has been changed to Unhappy_Upsen. Not being able to change the account name is due to how our system is set up, so there is not currently a way around it on any level.

Setting up a new account when the game goes live would let you choose a new account name. We would not be able to transfer your old accounts information though.

Thank you for your patience!

Champions Online Open Beta Second Impression

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Phew this is turning into an essay.

Not a very good impression. I couldn't log in for most of the night. After I managed to log in, I was stuck under the world. Something popped me above the ground after a while, but I kept rubberbanding back to the same spot and couldn't get anywhere.

Upsen.

Champions Online Open Beta First Impression

Well after it's all installed and working, I logged in and tried some of the game.

The powers you can select from are impressively varied - everything from swords to guns to fists, from magic to mecha, even supernatural and void.

The costumes are really nice too, many, many choices available. (though none of the armor seems to cover joints terribly well)

The faces really do leave something to be desired. No slider has a strong effect on changing the facial shape in a meaningful, appealing way. You can select a long round nose or a short round nose. No pointy noses or noses with a high bridge. You can choose thick lips or thin lips but you can't make the mouth bigger or smaller, or get rid of the outward curl in the upper lip. You can't create say, high cheekbones that look high, they are always engulfed by the round face/chins. There aren't separate chin/jawbone sliders that let you get away from the Incredibles style square jaw. The necks dont connect to the head properly.

In my opinion, the male faces always look like the dad from the movie "The Incredibles" and the female faces always look like they have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. (google "indistinct philtrum" images.)

They default a pose and a costume where the character is hard to edit, with facemasks and long hair covering any sliding work you're doing with the ears and eyes. You actually have to go forward a few screens to where the costumes are, remove the hair and mask, and back up to the facial editor. Why make us jump through hoops to use the features presented?

The females get a boob slider that is always maxed out on all the template choices. Frankly, the first zoomed-in editing screen for editing the head showcases the breasts more than the head. Especially if you try to rotate the character for a 3/4 profile of the head. The view stretches the side of the breast in a really weird manner.

The various poses, while cool and dynamic, tend to bend more like cartoons than people. In the middle of editing, those poses are irritating as they keep moving the body & face out of the view that you are trying to line up for editing. The default should be something that doesn't move around so much! We can choose the cool poses later after we have designed faces and dressed our characters right?

After getting into the game, I played for about an hour or so of the tutorial. The interfaces and graphics styles are pretty cartoon comic feeling. The running animations and attacks I was exposed to, it's like we're playing something that doesn't try to take itself seriously. I'm exaggerating a bit of course, but the cool factor contains more Jackie Chan than Jet Li, there is a comedic effect somehow. Instead of Luke Wilson we are getting Owen Wilson. Its less like Chip and more like Dale. Its not "I'm cool", its "Hey look I'm cool, woo!!!" What is the term? :P Its like a parody of itself.

It's fun but its not serious enough. That would be my first impression.

I am low on sleep so I'll ramble another time.

Upsen.

Champions Online installer is patching

Well I have the installer now and it is starting it's patching process. It seems to run in short bursts, and it will take a few hours to complete if it continues on. It's disconnected once while I was uploading this image, but it did change the patch remaining amount from 930ish megs down to 790ish megs when I restarted it. Hopefully it'll stay connected and be ready by tonight.

Upsen.

Champions Online installer woes

(with edits now that I'm a little calmer, I was quite irritated earlier.)

I had a heck of a time with Fileplanet. Fileplanet is the official, exclusive source of the Champions Online Beta installer.

They make you download a ad-driven DL program to pick up their files. Fileplanet also makes you wait before you can start downloading, unless you pay them for a subscription. In the Champions Online beta, the wait was listed as roughly 30 to 60 minutes. However, in reality, the wait was closer to 4 hours.

There are several servers to choose from - 2 west coast, 2 east coast, a mid-western one, and a Euro server, along with an estimated wait time, roughly 40-50 minutes when I started. Once you choose one, you see the time on the installer. After a while, the estimated time goes up and down, but your place in the queue stays the same.

It seems the estimated time is for the whole queue and not your position. I watched it fluctuate from a low of 32 minutes up to a high of 300 minutes, and it was always 30 or more minutes even when I was number 1 or 2 on the queue. I wish there was a distinction made, since I quit two queues to switch to different ones, wasting an hour's worth of queue time.

While waiting in the queue, I found a torrent link for the full patch. If you want to try and look it up too, check BTMon (or google it) and search there for "Champions online - Open Beta client-installer". I dont know if it's authentic or not to be honest, but it made me feel better that I was getting a 40k stream on torrent since I had nothing from Fileplanet for hours. Once the Fileplanet queueing was done though, I got a good 500k stream from them.

By estimates, BT= 13 hours continuous, and FP = 1 hour after a 4 hour wait.

This whole fileplanet mess was quite the annoyance and lowered my expectations of Champions Online. Hopefully the game and it's patching process will improve in the future. By a lot, please.

Upsen.

Why cant I get this avatar to stick to the CO forum?

Gears of War 2 DLC

I had traded in my GoW2 game earlier this summer cause the last time I'd played it was December 2008, but E was saying something about how there is a new DLC pack available for it.

I picked up the game again today, but checking the DLC info, it's difficult to say if the DLC is multiplayer maps + 1 level of one-player only, or multiplayer maps + 1 level of co-op content. After all, in the game, there are sections that have to be done solo. Paying 1600 Gates to get a bunch of maps for Horde isn't really that appealing to me, especially if no one else ends up getting it.

(edit, I bought it.)

Upsen.

Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection (1600 Gates)

"This content pack features all 19 downloadable Gears 2 multiplayer maps and a bonus deleted single-player chapter, "Road to Ruin," from the Gears of War 2 campaign. For multiplayer fans, this pack brings together the complete set of Gears 2 multiplayer maps: Allfathers Garden, Canals, Courtyard, Flood, Fuel Depot, Fuel Station, Gold Rush, Gridlock, Grind Yard, Highway, Mansion, Memorial, Nowhere, Sanctuary, Subway, Tyro Station, Under Hill, War Machine, and Way Station—everything in the Flashback, Combustible, Snowblind, and Dark Corners downloadable packs combined. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts."

Dark Corners Multiplayer Map Pack (1200 Gates)

"This downloadable content pack features 7 new Gears 2 multiplayer maps and a bonus deleted single-player chapter, "Road to Ruin," from the Gears of War 2 campaign. In "Road to Ruin," Marcus and Dom navigate the treacherous Locust highway, choosing stealth or blazing action to survive. For multiplayer fans, the 7 maps include a new War Machine, the much-requested Gears 1 map; Allfathers Garden, a heavy-weapons battle at a COG landmark; Highway, a fight deep in the Locust Hollow; Memorial, a battle at the Tomb of the Unknowns; Nowhere, a firefight in an old motel; Way Station, an unpredictable battlefield with parallel paths; and Sanctuary, a reimagined favorite from Gears for Windows. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts."

Fallout 3 - Mothership Zeta

This was a short but sweet DLC for Fallout 3 - it took about 3 nights to get through. I even had to ditch a few hours worth of saves to go back for some audio tapes that I'd missed, for one of the achievements.

A few things to remember before starting this add on pack - travel light, and dont bother bringing any heavy weapons. Fights are at relatively close range, and you will primarily be using the energy weapons you pick up from the aliens. You find some earthly ammunition around, but mainly you'll be working with the alien blasters and rifles that you pick up. I ended with a ton of rifles, and more pistols than I could count. I think I picked up somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4000 or so rounds of alien ammunition (with no ammo perks) Its convenient that the alien pistols, rifles, and cannons all use the same ammo.

There are unique versions too - if you find the shooting range, dont forget to poke around and find the unique rifle and cannon. Do the Albino Radscorp shoot for the Xenotech perk.

It was nice not having to think about radiation for a while. There are also health stations that charge you up to about 80% health or so, so dont worry too much about using stimpaks.

Another nice thing is that Somah can repair with a skill of 75 whenever she is around. Good prices too. I don't think she stays around after you complete the DLC, but I haven't checked.

The only bothersome part to this DLC was the Alien Archivist perk - you have to find 25 recordings at special terminals all through the ship. Here's the order to get them in, so you dont miss any. You can check the fallout wiki for more detail.

1. Holding Cells - 6
2. Engineering Core - 4
3a. Waste Disposal (via Maintenance Level) - 1
3b. Cryo Lab and Cryo Storage - 4 and 2
3c. Research Lab (via Cargo Hold) - 2

Insert space walk interlude...

4. Weapons Lab - 1
5. Experimentation Lab - 3
6. Biological Research - 1
7. Living Quarters - 1

Upsen.