Might and Magic 7 Beta: Comparisons

Heroes of Might and Magic was a pretty big series for me. Not only did I play it a lot, but I used to write fanfiction on it. Yeah. I went there. The one I remember the most of was a story based on these two heroes, but called Catriona and Rasha. I don’t quite remember the plot, something about two mortal enemies working together, and then Rasha gets revived into a human again. I REALLY loved this game.

~

I got access to the latest beta build through EB Games Australia (@ebgamesAus), and thought this would be a good time to see how the game has changed from the late 90’s (HoMM3 was released 1999, with two expansions in 1999 and 2000). This is the second of a short series of posts on Heroes, my history playing it, the evolution of the game itself (from the perspective of someone who hasn’t played the last 3 adaptations of it), comparisons, and how the game itself plays (in beta). Missed part one? Here it is!

If there are any errors in this post, my bad! It has been a long time since I played, and I haven’t even touched 4, 5, or 6. I did make an effort to research things, but feel free to comment where I went wrong!

Might and Magic Heroes 7 Beta: Series background

I loved strategy games when I was a teen, and one of my favourites was Heroes of Might and Magic. As with almost every other game, my interest waned as The Sims and then World of Warcraft came out (yes, I know, I have SO MANY cool games to catch up on! I’m trying). Most of my time with the HoMM series was in the second and third incarnations.

I got access to the latest beta build through EB Games Australia (@ebgamesAus), and thought this would be a good time to see how the game has changed from the late 90’s (HoMM3 was released 1999, with two expansions in 1999 and 2000). This is the first of a short series of posts on Heroes, my history playing it, the evolution of the game itself (from the perspective of someone who hasn’t played the last 3 adaptations of it), comparisons, and how the game itself plays (in beta).

If there are any errors in this post, my bad! It has been a long time since I played, and I haven’t even touched 4, 5, or 6. I did make an effort to research things, but feel free to comment where I went wrong!

Agents, avatars, bodies and evolution, OH MY!

For the current expansion of World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, the dev team decided that the character graphics needed a bit of an upgrade. There had been a lot of innovation and progression in graphics in the past ten years since WoW originally hit the shelves. They took on this incredibly daunting task with one idea in mind, to keep the “spirit” of the original:

With the revamp, we’re completely overhauling every aspect of the player models, but our goal is to do so while retaining the core look and feel that has always made them your character. We’ll feel like we’ve succeeded if you see the updated version of your character and it still feels like you’re looking at the character you’ve been playing for the past however many years—only someone has finally focused a lens. ~ Chris Robinson, Artcraft – A First Look

Now I was hugely invested in this change. I take so long to decide on a look for my avatar, not to mention the time invested in her (them – I’m an altoholic), their transmog, their general attitude and what titles and non-combat pets suit them best (no, I’m not on a roleplay server 😛 yes, I still consider all this anyway). For some classes, even their spec is taken into consideration when deciding on these things.

My Frost/Arcane mage in her Leia outfit … not sold on the staff mog or the belt, but when I get time to play I’ll look at getting more matchy ones!

The Zombie Idea

What is a zombie?

Been a while since I posted here, lots of work happening on the thesis. But I claim this storified conversation as part of legitimate research activity!

[View the story “What is a zombie?” on Storify]