The MMO of my dreams, Star Trek Online, has released a new expansion pack called Season 4 Crossfire.
Yeah in Star Trek Online, every mission is called an “episode” and every expansion is called a “Season”, just like the TV series.
Anyway the major update in Season 4 is the ground combat. It underwent a revamp and now features an over-the-shoulder shooter mode (very much like Mass Effect) as well as the more traditional mode, dubbed “RPG mode”. There were many limitations in the original “RPG mode”, such as you can’t throw grenades in between enemies to take them all out. You must have 1 enemy targetted before you can throw, and that enemy may not be in the optimal position to affect as many enemies as you’d like.
There are a bunch of other fixes and game re-balancing too (otherwise known as “nerfing“) but on the whole, this expansion made the game much better. Many redundant skills have been renamed or re-powered. Weapons now sport their own unique firing sounds, and no longer shares the sound with other weapons. For example in the past, by listening to the sound, you couldn’t tell if it was a Tetryon rifle being fired or a Disruptor Rifle. Now you can. They both sound different.
Graphics underwent a change too. Many effects have been “refined”, such as the plasma fire from a grenade. If you’re on plasma fire, now the Breen weapon can put you out too (part of the changes). This is pretty cool.
Without wasting too much time, here’s a video clip of me playing a ground missions to demonstrate the new Mass Effect-shooter mode.
See you in the game!
