Took a break from Defiance and came back because it's fun.

[Fiben Bolger]

I left Defiance for a bit to try out Neverwinter. Neverwinter turned out to be the usual quest-driven snorefest. The saving grace was the combat, but even that felt clunky because your character is frozen in place doing a half-assed animation while you attack. Age of Conan was similar, but at least the animations were gory and excellent. Anyway, I returned to Defiance.

Last night, I looted a BIG gun from a treasure chest in an emergency. I couldn't go very far with it because it slowed my movement down by so much, but I didn't have to go very far to find trouble. Just as I worried that I wouldn't be able to do anything epic with this monster of a gun, that big, blue dude appeared as a shadow on my horizon, smashing some hellbug warriors with fists and throwing rockets at them.

The unexpected joy! It was a tough fight, but I soloed the big guy with the big gun I had found. I looted a blue weapon, but that was insignificant. What mattered was the fun that I had had in a situation that was unscripted. It was the result of good design. Not addicting design, no. Design that put fun first. I was satisfied after that encounter and logged off.

My game experience is pretty bugless...yes, without bugs.

I'd also like to say, coming back, that I appreciate the small map. The trend in MMOs has been towards maps that are too large. The players spread out and then you don't see anyone. The maps in Defiance are big enough to offer exploration, but not so big that you can go very far without seeing other players.

The design of this MMO reflects some daring choices and I hope that Defiance persists. I find it thoroughly entertaining.

[PseudoCool]

Ahhh.. the big fully automatic gatling type gun that you carry around, but makes you move so slow you can't get out of the way of a charging hulker (yes, I've tried )... gotta love that gun. I was using it for a bit on a hellbug spawn that recharged every couple of minutes.. took me about 45 minutes to walk there with the gun, but once I got there, that was MY HOUSE.. no more worries about hulkers, hellbugs of any degree, or death

now.. if I can find one and hold it for an arkfall, maybe I'll get top score Something about laying 8000 rounds of ammo into the matron or sybiot that just makes my heart go all pitter-patter crazy

And.. I tried neverwinter as well.. glad I'm not the only one who saw it was nothing sort of the "tried and true" grindfest early. And god.. those attack animations looks like.. well.. (I apologize now to anyone with this condition).. they look like a schizophenic with seizures on a really bad **** trip attempting to dance Gangnam Style at Uncle Ned's Polka concert. Yeah.. that bad...