Champions Return To Arms

[Shandriz]

[Shino]

[Hoth]

Cheater... umm yeah.. so when do you want to play online.. hehe.

[Shino]

I'm not a cheater... I'm taking advantage of a developer mistake...

As a developer, I'm allowed to do that.

When Shino is 50, I'll transfer him over and we can go to town.

[Shino]

And so Shino is now LEVEL 51.

Yes I got to level 50 on CoN and started playing RTA last night. I'm playing on Courageous right now in hope to go through the game and find better armor before I move on to Champion. After all... Champion starts at level 45.. that's pretty scary. I love the fact that I got to keep everything when I imported Shino to RTA. Including all my combining materials and my 16M Gold pieces. Love it!

Here is my initial take on the game...

Well I'm glad they fixed the Voice over issue. It got annoying when I went to talk to someone and it took like 5 minutes for the speech to start. Also when I would have a full inventory and try to pick something else. Sometimes I wouldn't realize it didn't get picked up and I would be halfway across the map before he said "Can't carry anymore." There is still a small delay in that, but they fixed the speech issue when you are talking to people.

I have yet to see a large framerate drop during game play like CoN. So that is a major plus. The text looks a lot cleaner for some reason too. It almost looks like it's in Hi Rez, but it's not. I went to see if the back of the box said something about Progressive Scan, and it didn't.

The game has not done the little freezeup bug that CoN did. Not yet anyway. CoN usually did it at least once everytime I played it (Freezes for about 2 or 3 seconds, then begins play again). And every once in a while it would freeze up and never come back. I think that happened once in the time I went from level 41 to 50.

I finished the first Plane (Plane of War). That is what got me to level 51. I like the environments. They are visually pleasing. I also like the number of enemies they throw at you and the amount of exp they give you. Being level 50 (half way to 51 when I started), I didn't expect to actually make it to 51 in the amount of time I did. Especially since I'm about 20% to 52 right now.

My only issues.
When in the inventory screen, if I have to scroll up or down, the visuals get jumpy. It's an annoyance but really puts no damage on the game play of the actual game.

THEY DIDN'T FIX THE FOOTSTEP ISSUE. Damn that always annoyed me in CoN. If you don't know what I mean, if you play with a Dual wielding character, equip a bow, and two weapons. Then switch from two weapons to the bow. When you have the bow equiped, you can hear his footsteps, but when you have your dual wielding weapons equipped you don't. Dammit! Whould that have been so hard to fix????

Oh well. Overall, I'm very pleased with the game.

I like the "Plane" idea. I like the fact that after you complete the quest in a plane, you can go back for a "challenge." When you complete the challenge, you get a Champions Medalion (sp?). This gives you a perminent +1 to STR, +1 to STA and +1 Skill point. Not sure if all of them give the same thing to each class, but this is what the Plane of War gave to my Barbarian. It kinda makes me want to go back and play it on normal mode just so I can get those extra skill points.

After completing the Medalion challenge, it opens up a bonus level in that plane that you can go through. I have yet to do this, but will probably give it a shot over the weekend.

All and all even though the game is pretty much recycled, the visuals are very nice and the game play is still great. Improved a bit I think from CoN. After reading the review on Gamespot, I still stick to the fact that I don't think the visuals had to be improved that much. They said that the visuals were kindof old. Well I still don't see anything out there that does the lighting and water effects as well as this series (including Balder's Gate) does.

Good job guys. Keep up the good work. I will be sure to max out my level to be ready for the next game!

DUNGEON CRAWLERS FOREVER!

[Hoth]

And in it all you should realize that on level 50 you should be playing the hardest level available to you. My elf is lv 42 and I am rolling through the hardest level available i think Champion... Gaining levels here and there and everywhere.. But you know what... Since you are available this weekend and I am sitting around getting rest this weekend.. Maybe we should try the online thingy...! (still dont notice the stepping thing you are talking about with dual wield too busy slashing everytime my swords come out). My next character which i will be starting soon is going to be the cleric. He gets a resurection spell in this game. Have you also noticed Shinster that you can still only put your skills up to level 20. Crazy huh!

[reaper]

I picked this up, probably ganna have the online adapter soon if anyone is interested in a game

[Shino]

yesyes... just let us know.

Works with the Mic too if you have one.

at least I think it does.