SWTOR & KoA

Small update on SWTOR and my early impressions of Kingdoms of Amalur.  I'm splitting my time between the two, and generally enjoying both, but some things are starting to bug me about both.

SWTOR - made it 50, but with my marauder being the glass cannon that he is, I didn't feel like I could hang on level 50 endgame content.  So, first thing I did was respec to Annihiliation.  Probably not the smartest move for me, as it requires the most strategy on the fly of the three marauder specs.  I started to play PvP and have been getting owned severely.  I have expected this, and have plans to remedy it - even have come up with my preferred pvp rotation based on math & shit.  Will try that out and see how things go.  I'm playing dark side, but there are some choices that I think are complete bullshit. Case in point - I'm hanging out in Corellia and I get this mission to clear some Selonians out of a tunnel (I'm surprised they didn't harangue me about eating clams on their tummies, but that's another rant).  I get to the end of the instance, beat the lead otter, and then he says something like "please, don't kill my people, we'll submit to the empire and fight for you".  I had 2 choices, spare the Selonians, which granted light side points, and wipe them out, which gave darkside.  I had to choose dark side, well, because I have a kickass level 50 relic that I want to equp for +77 endurance and it's only available for dark V.  So, against my better judgement, I had to kill them.  However, I don't see how subjugating a species to empire rule and de facto slavery is a light side decision.  It's neutral-good at best.  A true light side decision would be something like "you fought well Otter-Man, I cannot kill such a hard working people.  Stay out of our way, but you're free to think for yourselves".  There are a few more examples where I felt the light side decision wasn't very light, but oh well, I'm hamstrung to the dark side.  What makes it worse is that if I do go off-script to a light side decision, it's a double penalty as far as my dark side points.  The way the game is structured, you really can't be a neutral player, or you could miss out on certain gear and upgrades.  I don't like that, not a bit.  If they're going to have light/dark choices, at least make them light/dark.  On the pvp front, I hate hate hate hate hate hate it.  If I queue for a warzone, I get Huttball 95% of the time.  Huttball is to SWTOR what Jar Jar is to Episode I.  I finally decided to go to the Ilum pvp area, and it was barren.  I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do, so I just blew up republic walkers until a jedi ganked me. 

I started a powertech bounty hunter.  I've got it up to level 18, but then landed on Balmorra and became discouraged recalling the gring of Balmorra, Tatooine and Taris ahead of me.  I'll go back to it sometime, but just not in the mood at the moment.

Kingdoms of Amalur - I ended up letting my preorder ride.  I've got about 15 hours into the game, and it's okay, but not excellent.  It's a kind of Dragon Age clone, but without the Bioware storytelling.  Oddly, I'm playing normal, am 15 hours in, and haven't died yet.  My fights are starting to get a little tougher, so that may change soon. The art in the game is very good, if not heavily influenced by Fable.  The combat is very rote.  Basically spam X and do the occasional spell.  I'm playing as a battlemage of sorts.  I appreciate that the game allows you to mix and match between caster, sword and board and rogue, but this can also be to it's detriment.  By splitting my talents betwen might and sorcery, am I screwing myself for higher level combat and gear?   The story isn't compelling, and the side quests are mostly fed ex runs.  I typically find myself just skipping through the conversations as choice plays very little impact from what I've seen so far.  Not a bad game, not a great game.   A good first effort though.