A Week Full of Bullets

If there's one thing I learned from playing Battleground Europe: World War II Online, it's that war is boring. Just to clarify, the combat action parts of this MMOFPS are good (though I spend most of those lying face down in a puddle of my own blood wondering what the heck just killed me) but given the scope of the game where a pretty large chunk if not all of Europe is open for travel it can get a little dull in-between conflicts. As a test, I set my guy up to auto-run from one friendly town to the next one over which was hostile. I then went and had dinner and watched a bit of TV. When I came back I had -just- bypassed my destination. That's bloody far. Turned around and entered the town but was quickly killed by a sentry.

At least it's realistic in that one shot will probably kill you. Also, I think the people who fly planes would get a pretty good flight simulator from this one since your "playing space" is huge unlike in the Battlefield series where wandering off the (much smaller) map makes you despawn after awhile. There are boats too but I've not yet encountered them. Another slight issue for some might be the graphics - they are very simple, but effective enough. Destroyable terrain and buildings makes up for that. You can even dig your own trench/fighting position as an infantry man which is cool.

Really the only thing I don't like is all the waiting. Waiting to attack. Waiting to defend. Waiting to get to the next town. Guess it's true that waiting is the hardest part?

So... when are the Allies arriving again? 

Oh and I don't like their pay scheme. You can play as a recruit level (and the gear that entails) for free forever but you'll never advance unless you subscribe (bribe the officials). Guess that means it's uninstall time for this game. At least in Warframe you can still get all the gear without paying - it just takes a bit longer.

Meanwhile in space...

Speaking of Warframe I'm surprised to report it DOES have an underlying story that evolves as each patch is released. The current event is "the Gravidus Dilemma" wherein you must choose to either aid the expansion of the ruthless Grineer empire who enslave colonies but will in exchange return any frozen Tenno (that's your group) they find, or save the colonies with the Corpus merchant guild who will keep any frozen Tenno for themselves for experimentation.

In practice I think most people are just picking whatever side offers a better reward per mission, but I can see how the story can then progress depending on which side had more victories or participants. If only Guildwars 2 could do something similar with their living story instead of a very stale political vote or worse, a railroaded path. Adding moral choices usually makes them just that bit more important.