Some MMO respite!

Being a hardcore MMO gamer is hard work! You have to put in enormous amount of your spare time to level your characters and build online friendships. So every so often I like to take a break from the online world and mellow out with some good old RTS and TBS games for a week or two. This way I can get some respite from the endless grind and also satisfy my game addiction.

This week I have been playing Sins of Solar Empire (SoSE) and Galactic Civilizations 2 (GC2). SoSE reminds me a lot of Warcraft 3, except set in space, and GC2 is what Masters of Orion 3 should have been. Both are awesomely challenging strategy games with enough content to keep any gamer amused for a month or two. SoSE is a really well built little RTS with an emphasis on game play and user experience rather than graphics. GC2 is probably the best TBS I have ever played (Hero's of Might and Magic 5 was a close 2nd).

At this point your probably wondering why I'm not on the AoC band wagon? Past experience with MMORPG releases has taught me many things:

• Expect many bugs and exploits for the first few months
• Often the hype is about the graphics and not the long term game play
• Time is always required for class/archetype balancing
• Extra features aren't often implemented until long after the game's release
• By reading forum posts of long term player's you can make an educated decision on which class to play and tactics to use.
  

It's these reasons that I'm am holding off buying AoC, because if it's really as good as it says it is, then it will still have my attention in 2 months time. Mind you, all these lessons will go out the window when Guild Wars 2 is released. I'm going to be taking 2 weeks off work for that game :)