Feels like quite a while since I last played an MMO style game, so I recently started wandering through Middle Earth in Lord Of The Rings Online, as it's gloriously free to play. I created the amazing Dwarf Champion, Kreethen, and got stuck in.

Here's a few pics from the introduction quest chain.

I know I'm not far into it yet, but my first impressions are that it seems pretty much like a WoW clone. I'm sure this won't be 100% true as I level up and discover new things, but for the most part it's very similar, with all the typical fantasy MMO questing and fighting in there.
The graphics are better than WoW, and the animation of the characters is fairly natural and smooth, something that a lot of other MMOs I've played completely failed to achieve (particularly Star Wars: Galaxies). I do have one massive issue with it so far mind, and that is that the strange reactions to the movement controls. Just tapping the turn button a little can see my character spin almost 90 degrees, and it feels almost like there's some kind of motion acceleration on the keyboard. It's weird. Maybe I need to look harder down the options to see if this can be tweaked.

Again, I don't know if I'll stick to this game that much, as I find MMORPG style games a little bland at the moment. But it doesn't really matter when the game is free like this.
Though I can't help but wonder if I'll miss Star Trek's space combat...

I've just started to play the almighty Dune 2, which was, like many people I assume, the very first RTS I ever played. Back in the early 90s when playing this on the Amiga I got to the last level, but just could not manage to beat it. I'm gonna be woopin' this thing's ass this time though let me tell you.
I actually found a new version of this game online called Dune: Legacy, which has been created by a few fans of the old game and brings it a little more up to date. Only a little mind. But it does seem to be a much better version and even has LAN multiplayer which I might try with the Scoob, who also played it many years ago.

I've actually got quite a vast list of games to get through now. On top of all the old ones like Dune 2 that I want to go back and finish, I've got the other Humble Indie Bundle 5 games, all the Humble Indie Bundle 6 games which I've just bought, The Witcher, Torchlight, Total Annihilation and Total Annihilation: Kingdoms which I've recently got from GOG (and yes, I bought Torchlight from GOG before the HIB 6 came out). I've also just downloaded Lord Of The Rings: Online, after only recently discovering it was free to play, and am also looking forward greatly to the release of Planetside 2, which just looks ace.

Hot on the heels (well, not that hot) of completing Resident Evil 2 I can happily say number 3 has now also joined the completed list. Finally got my arse in gear for a second attempt after getting very close to the end back in May sometime. It's a much harder game than its predecessors, which made it more interesting. But I thought it was a bit lazy of them not to include a second character choice, and also to stick you with the Nemesis as the big bad in nearly every boss fight.

Also very strange how the very last boss fight of the game is far and away the easiest. Very strange. Still, I don't care. It's done. Yay.

Just finished up Transformers: War For Cybertron, and I have to confess I'm rather unimpressed. Yes, I was playing it on the PS3 with its inferior graphics and controls (GIVE ME MOUSE AND KEYBOARD DAMN YOU!), and have no doubt I would have enjoyed it far greater on the PC, but the game itself just wasn't fantastic anyway. This is a shame, as I've always loved the Transformers, and this game got great reviews when it came out. This is one of those times where I just don't agree with all the hype. It really was bog standard average at best.

Here are my main annoyances:

• Absolutely no sense of weight to the Transformers. They are massive machines FFS, and you can jump in the air and drift around like you are made of paper. If you fall from a height on top of another Transformer, rather than crunch into them like you would expect, you are just gently pushed aside and drift down like some kind of helicopter coming in to land. Pissed me off no end.
• Ammo and reloading. Yes, this is partly my fault because I can't aim for shit with those annoying joypads in a shooter game, but the frequency with which you had to reload or pick up more ammo was beyond a joke. I don't remember them ever running out of ammo in the old cartoon!
• Aircraft hover mode. You steer these badboys with the right stick. But then you have to use X and O to control your altitude. I only have one thumb damn it!
• Graphics issues. Of course you are not going to get as good graphics on PS3 as you are on PC, but there were a couple of other problems too. Now the textures were fine once they were loaded, but several times, especially in cut scenes, the textures would take ages to load or not load at all. This would leave me looking at big, ugly looking block things instead of proper Transformers. It was wierd. Maybe it was my PS3, but I don't remember this problem on any other game. Also, I know it was set on Cybertron, but the level design was just so... grey. This problem was also probably increased by the low PS3 resolution, but took me a while to get used to telling what was in the foreground and what was in the background. It just all seemed to blur into one big messy picture at times.
• Story. Not impressed with this at all. Why'd they have to go the Dark Energon route? I hate that stuff, and how Megatron always seems to be able to control it, when it's supposed to be uncontrollable. It also just took away from the bad-assery of Megatron, as he would just throw Dark Energon at any problem, rather than blowing the problem's face off with his fusion cannon like he should be doing.
• AI. It really would be cool to play this game 3 player co-op (though there'd be fights over the ammo drops I'm sure), as the computer controlled team mates are so shit it's unreal. They often just stand around in the middle of a fight, or don't even enter the fight, or fall off a ledge and get stuck, or don't jump down off the ledge to join you when that's what they're supposed to do. And during the times when the AI team mates were in the fight and helping out, you can guarantee the enemies would be hunting you and completely ignoring them. This was especially evident in the end fight against Trypticon. I'd often take cover, and he'd stil shoot all his guns at me when they couldn't hit me, even though my team mates were just standing there in the open, waving at him. Shit programming, honestly.

Here are the good things:

• Voice acting, of course. Surprised to see Frank Welker was not in this. I'm sure I remember him doing promotion for the game. Musta been one of the movie tie-ins. Nothing really needs to be said about Cullen. That dude just is Optimus. Also surprised to see Keith Szarabajka voiced Ironhide. I played as that character and did not recognize the voice at all. That dude's ace.

This little review sounds harsh. But it's not. It's the truth. Kinda softens the blow of not being able to get the sequel now.