Steam Sales!

As the Summer hits, along with it comes the annual Steam Sales, which I've decided is the bane of most MMO's as it drags regular MMO gamers away to play single player games offered at massive discounts. I have been victim of this and three games in particular have dragged my attention from LOTRO and RIFT. If you are in either of these games and are missing my presence, blame Steam (and feel free to send me a PM)

Civilization V

I've always been a fan of Civ but have not tried this latest incarnation. I do love strategy games but can't play them over and over so it's a nice title to dip into. The graphics are naturally better than ever and with a ton of options to play with, including multiplayer that I've not yet delved into.

My first run through has been as the might Montezuma. So far I'm 27 hours in and have wiped out 4 other civilizations so far with more to go!

Borderlands 2

An odd choice for me, as I'm not a huge fan of shooters, but this was recommended by so many friends, I just had to try it. Plus it was dirt cheap! An amusing game that blends Mad Max and Fallout 3 for an exciting edge-of-your-seat game. Three hours in and I've taken down the first boss. Not scratched the surface yet and there's a multiplayer option to boot!

XCom - Enemy Unknown

Seeing this one reduced from £30 to £7 was a no-brainer. I was a huge fan of the original series, giving me the right blend of strategy and killing aliens (a favourite pass-time of mine) I suspect it's fairly big and I'm barely two hours in.

LOTRO 4th level 85 character

Today I finally hit 85 on Storri, my Dwarf Champion, making my 4th capped character in LOTRO.

Now begins the grind of getting him geared up and maybe even start running some group content.

Next to level to cap will be my Burglar, Jonhah, but I might delve a little into my lowest non-bank toon, Brandenhelm the LoreMaster. It's a class that still fails to grab my attention though a kinnie offering to level with me might be the incentive I need.

A Casual Stroll to Rift

After playing Rift for a couple of weeks, I really started getting into it. I found the Warrior class much more fun than the ranged pet class I'd tried previously and I reached the giddy heights of level 12 on Storri.

 I'd learnt the basics and the more I understood, the better I liked the game. Then I realised my friends from Casual Stroll to Mordor, Merric and Goldenstar, had also got the Rift bug and not only were playing but had started a CSTM guild on the Faeblight server. I'm sure many fans of the their podcast followed them as they have now stopped podcasting and I wanted to do the same, so searched for the Faeblight server, but couldn't find it.

It was then it dawned on me. I was logged into the EU servers, Faeblight is a US server, so I saved my settings and low and behold, I found it. Logging in, I was surprised to see my original character, Jestro! I must have been on the US server back when I tried it before, so I jumped in, made contact with the Guild and joined up. The hunter class wasn't for me though, so I rolled another Storri, exactly the same build (though different cosmetically) and started levelling again from the beginning.

The quests were a lot smoother second time round and as I knew what I was aiming for and where I was going, made for a better experience. The community in the Guild is great so I decided to leave old Storri behind and stick with the new improved Mark II. He's up to level 11 already and I feel not only have I found a fun new game, but some great people to play with.