RuneScape Update Review: 7/28/09

Much again, the content of an update is something that isn’t a surprise. Two Guaranteed Content polls are put into effect for this week, one being for a new pub and another for a new Slayer creature. That along with the new animations shown in a Developer’s Blog recently makes this week not one filled with cries of “JaGeX sucks!” because people already had a chance to say that when the poll results and blog post came out.

Not that they would have any reason to say that.

This is another week where the majority of the updates are geared for members but free-to-play gets some little things that are actually quite good for us. The fact alone that JaGeX decided to rework popular member’s weapons like the whip, godswords, etc. along with rune scimitars and longswords is a nice gesture, especially because I had to live through two weeks of my member friends saying how great RuneScape HD beta is while I was stuck looking at “An Image of The Future” news posts and in standard detail. My only gripe about this is that the rune scimitar now looks a lot different compared to the rune platebody and other armor, along with how it’s held in your hand like the old way of holding 2hs. The new animations are pretty cool; for the rune scimitar, at least. I’ve heard from some of my friends that the whip’s new animations aren’t great. Oh well. I’m sure in a few months it’ll all seem better, much like how I hated the new full helms when RuneScape HD was released to free players.

Now it’s time for some ratings:

Usefulness of this update: 3/5
Practicality of this update: 5/5
How much I like this update: 5/5
Overall: 4.3/5

RuneScape Update Review: Faruq’s Tools For Games

The majority of this week’s updates were foreshadowed in a previous Development Diary, Developer’s Blog, whatever you want to call it. Basically, there’s a new seller person in Al-Kharid who sells items that can be used for games of hide-and-seek, races, games of chance and more. He also sells these pretty cool hats that change color between red and blue depending on your vote for something such as the winner of a race or just for looking nooby, as I suspect that wearing voting hats will be the new fashion for people with not a lot of money.
This update also marks the third consecutive time that I’ve been auto-logged during an update. It’s rather annoying that I even have to be logged, but even more so that Firefox goes screwy for me and needs to be restarted whenever I try to play RuneScape for a second time; if I don’t restart it switches to Low Detail and doesn’t switch back. Ah well.
The items for sale include seeking & hiding rings, the voting hats, dice bags and more. They all seem pretty useful for their respective games. There’s also racing boots that immobilize you for the start of races if you’re in a clan that look the same as leather boots and a horn that summons an imp-like creature to do a countdown for a race.
It all seems rather confusing, but I guess I didn’t really look into it that much. However, they are very intuitive and I give JaGeX points for effort.

This week didn’t have much else in store except for the main update. The Patch Notes were so-so as usual along with the In Other News blurbs. Though I guess it’s good that JaGeX is keeping up with weekly updates instead of missing a week like before Mobilizing Armies. Now, it’s time for ratings.

Usefulness of This Update: 5/5
Practicality of This Update: 4/5
How Much I Like This Update: 3/5
Overall: 4/5

RuneScape Update Review: Mobilizing Armies

After two week’s time of not having an update, JaGeX pulled through and broke out with Mobilizing Armies, a brand-new minigame that, unlike anything else in RuneScape, is a real-time strategy game much (in fact, almost exactly) like Armies of Gielinor, a game for JaGeX’s minigame site FunOrb. There were also tons of patch notes on the forums and lots of In Other News blurbs. But perhaps the biggest In Other News was something that should have been part of the update title; yes, the interface changes. These changes are meant to compliment a revision of the interfaces as we know them, adding two more slots in for Notes and a slot giving Achievement Diaries their own domain. However, I very much prefer the old interface buttons because these new ones are downright ugly. They look extremely out of place with the chat settings and selectors near them, which retain the same 3D look that the old interfaces had. The new glowing aura around the chosen interface is actually rather distracting and some of the confusing new icons and placements are annoying. What could have been a better way to present this would be to make the Notes option separate from the interfaces and just keep the Achievement Diaries where they were.
Even though the new interfaces are lacking in visual appeal, the Notes interface is long overdue and is a very good update. You can make goal lists as I’ve already done, add notes about real-life scenarios if you really play RuneScape that much (just kidding), or just casual reminders, like “Sell this item” or “Add [insert name] to your clan list”. It all adds up to be very useful.

Being a free player and not very enabled to say much about the new minigame, I have still heard a lot from some of my member friends about how it’s just too much with too little of a payout. I’ve heard the rewards are terrible for the amount of time you can spend playing the minigame, and it’s too much like Armies of Gielinor. A person I follow on Twitter pointed out that JaGeX advertises FunOrb enough as it is, be it subtle Quick Chat messages like “Let’s Play Arcanists” or the reference to AoG on the front page below the poll.

I thought I wouldn’t have to discuss them – the new fonts. This along with the interface changes has brought RuneScape back to the ugly days in RSC. For starters, you can barely tell the difference between 0s and 8s because of the slash mark in the 0 that is so horizontal. Not only that but in some interfaces like the quests and Achievement Diaries ones the fonts weren’t even changed!
Though through all of this, I have to admit the fonts grew on me within hours. It’s just like when RuneScape HD was released to F2P and I hated how enormous the full helms were. Now I don’t even give them a second glance. Oh, and speaking of RuneScape HD, the one-year mark is in a week from now, so happy birthday RuneScape HD! Now on to the ratings:

Usefulness of this update: 4.5/5
Practicality of this update: 5/5
How much I like this update: 3/5
Overall: 4/5

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Until next time, Avalon512