f13.net

Shadowbane - 25 day free trial.

A Tale in the Desert 2 - 15 day freebie.

Shouldn't this be in useless news?

I heard a rumour they were starting a Useless Games forum on this board.  They'll probably move it there once it's set up.

All because of you! You made them take away my griefer title :( Bingles motherfucker no more!

If you wrote this in an effort to confuse the hell out of me, it worked.

Doesn't seem like the Lore server is up and running yet...  I keep forgetting to unsub from FP shortly after I get the email saying they robbed my paypal for six bucks every month.

Does the free trial of SB include both expansions or just the original game content?

It includes Rise of Chaos, but not Oblivion, I think.

Bah. No fun then.

Heh, as Signe has probably pointed out before, Oblivion + RoC + the original game can be had for nothing. $6.99 (http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/245818.asp) to be exact.

You don't really need Oblivion right away anyways..

I'm strangely attracted to returning to the game. I probably need an intervention.

I'll be doing the same, but I doubt an intervention will work in my case.

[edit] That is, unless I'm finally accepted into a beta....For once.

Never played the game. I have heard the horror stories; Of the crashes, the bugs, and the grind that can only be bypassed by scripting.

I can't imagine trying to be a noob in that game now. No thanks.

Most of the people going to back to the lore server probably haven't played in a year or more (including me). We'll all be newbs again.

As for the game itself, well, I'm not going to lie. It isn't pretty, it isn't friendly, and it isn't really healthy for either your patience or ego. But it's still the only fantasy mmorpg that was designed with conquest and player killing in mind....And not much else. It fills a niche that no one else has really delivered on, and when it works, it does a damn good job at it. It also has one of the most deep (and oddly enough, balanced) class systems around, faster lvling than just about every other game, and a combat system that more often than not, rewards players who have skill, and not just a good template.

Yeah if not for good ole sb.exe SB would not get nearly the bad rap that it does.  It has plenty of other problems but nothing nearly as game-ruining as massive 3hr+ raids, spirit crushing grinds or just the shitty pvp "systems" I find in almost every other game.

Will be fun to go back, just waiting for this lore server although perhaps re-learning the interface wouldn't be a bad idea...

Hey look, here comes an invanding army to attack our city. This should be a fun fight, but it will suck if we lose. Quick every one to the wal......... SB.exe

I dunno, game always just sorta sucked for me. There are better games out there. Shockeye, you still have Jade Empire sitting on a shelf, rite? I mean really, there's 100 games worth playing out there right now - Shadowbane is not one of them.

I can't argue with that, Schild. There are definitely tons of better games out there. The problem for me is: There aren't tons of games out there that do what Shadowbane does better. Hell, there isn't even one.... My only options are either giving this a run, or being just another schmuck on the Darkfall boards (and convincing myself that it's a real game).

Its totally not a real game...    :cry:

RAGE SEWAGE SWILLING FORESKIN-STEALING COCKBLISTERS

It's host of other problems, many of them at the design level that had nothing to do with the Bug that Shall Go Nameless, would have killed it in the long run anyway. It had so much potential, and so much of it was pissed away on ill-conceived ideas of playing to crush.

Also, as fast as the leveling is, that cannot be considered a feature, because it's the most boring fucking leveling on the planet.

As much as I enjoy the big red font, I dont even think we're in disagreement.  I just feel that the imbalances to the siege system, the ridiculous amount of gold farming required (pre mines, which I hear have diversified and increase the organized pvp as well as helped with the aforementioned farming) and the just shitshitshitshit environment/mobs/pve (I mean copied zones? seriously what was that?).  Are nothing compared to the systemic problems I have with EQ and the clones.

Now on another note, I have signed up for the 25day trial, and let me tell you I forgot how complex their character design process is, I mean there are 20 classes, not to mention starter traits, figuring out how much int you need to get the level of trains you want and all this other crap.  Yikes, going to have to just grab a template off the interweb or something and I never do that..

But yeah the gfx suck, I think I'm going to have to re-skin the interface back to the original for familiarity reasons and the PvE is still just as boring as boring can be.  But so what?  I'll make big sacrifices for good pvp, BIG ONES I TELLS YAH!