Oh, hi!

Yeah, it’s been a while. Wrath of the Lich King has come and gone - got my Warrior and a Druid to 80… eh. I did Naxxramas before, this isn’t anything new or spectacular. The content was really, really good up to 80, though. WoW is definitely starting to lose it’s shine.

Darkfall has just entered beta, I’m pretty sure that’s the sign of the apocalypse.

Dawn of War 2 has entered a multiplayer beta. I’ve seen some people complain that they just dumbed down the game, but I don’t really agree. They took out the tedious base building stuff, and focused on the individual combat between units, which is what it SHOULD be. Starcraft 2 will be the champion of the old-school RTS, which is well and fine, but this game is a New Thing. I like that. Well, okay, it’s not REALLY a new concept, but it is executed very well. I want to see Relic try something out of the RTS genre, I think they could do really good.

I don’t know, nothing in gaming at the moment is all THAT exciting. The amount of time I can actually dedicate to gaming just keeps shrinking as I get older. Not exactly a new revelation, I know, but a noteworthy observation of myself over anything else.

Going down the road, though, a budding genre I do enjoy is that which was made popular by Defense of the Ancients. I say budding genre because while it has been out for a while, it’s really starting to pick up steam both in the eyes of game developers and competitive gaming alike. There are official leagues and tournaments for DotA now, which is pulling in a new crowd of people.

The reason I like it so much is because it has what I enjoy (competitive PvP play, RPG trappings such as levels, items and skills), and it allows you to do all of that in small, one to two hour sessions. You start a game, and you hit the ground running in combat versus both creatures and players. It has started to dawn on developers that this is fun, so there are two different games coming out that go along these lines. This is important, because as fun as DotA is, they are still ultimately restricted by the limitations of the Warcraft 3 engine.

The first of the two is Demigod. This is being made by Gas Powered Games, the guys who did Supreme Commander and the Dungeon Siege games. It’s basically a DotA-esque game, but is doing sort of its own thing, with general units, different game types, and so on. It has a notably smaller roster of heroes, but each hero has a much larger selection of skills. No neutral creatures, and so on. I’ve played the beta, and it is quite fun. It’s different enough from DotA to be interesting, but similar enough to have the same aspects that are enjoyable.

The second of the two is League of Legends. This is the more ‘indie’ of the two, but definitely has the credibility to back it up. They are made up of ex-DotA creators, professional Warcraft 3 players, and other developers from noteworthy development houses. Of the two games, this one is unabashedly basically following the DotA formula to the T, even catering to specific unfixable complaints in the DotA community (on issues such as ‘leavers’, meaning people who leave the game in the middle of it, and so on). A super-large selection of heroes, and artsy superdeformed graphics make it actually look pretty darn good.

Anyways - that’s all for now. Hopefully more fun things happen soon.

Yes, I am now excited about Wrath of the Lich King. I wasn’t terribly excited before, but now I’m totally happy with it.

I have four level 70s now on the live servers (Warrior, Paladin, Hunter, Shaman), and it appears that all of these classes are getting pretty significant buffs. I mean, every class IS, to some degree, but the changes to those really hit home for me.

I’ve been screwing around on Murmur (beta server) with the premade characters, and I’m totally impressed. The client is super stable, and they just keep making the game better and better.

What really put it all into perspective for me was playing Warhammer Online. I’m still playing it. Am I enjoying it? Yeah, I am. I enjoy my Rune Priest (dwarf girls, HOLLER) and I enjoy the scenarios, but there’s so much that ISN’T right.

The hard part is deciding which character to level first - I’ll probably end up just leveling my Warrior first, but I’ll be damned if they aren’t making Hunters super, super appealing.

I present a song, called Punch ‘Em In The Dick.

Yeah.

(more…)

Yeah, I got my Blizzcon key for it a week or two ago. I’ve just been so damn busy, I haven’t actually had time to play it except on the weekends. I’m like, halfway through level 71 on my warrior at this point. I’m leveling as Fury spec with two big ass maces - it’s fairly hilarious.

Looks pretty good so far, I dunno what else to say, heh. Maybe my enthusiasm is diminished? It seems to have wore off rather fast. Maybe I’ll get back into it after they fix the retarded Warrior talents.

I haven’t updated in a while, so I figured it was about time I did so.

Been fairly busy, just getting real life crap together. I haven’t been playing WoW, so I’m not hip to all the new Season 4 stuff. I think when we hit 1980 rating and didn’t quite make it to 2k for the shoulders, everyone got kind of sad.

I’ve been playing a heckuva lot of DotA, though. I also had a brief stint in Diablo 2 and other games of the type (Titan Quest, Mythos, Hellgate London). I get together with a few friends at the most hole in the wall LAN center and play until wee hours of the night on weekends.

Speaking of Hellgate and Mythos though, my greatest condolences to those fellows. They at least tried to be innovative with Hellgate, and they had a great art style. Hopefully HanbitSoft (the guys who took over the IP rights for Mythos and Hellgate) will not KMMO it up too much.

He is both of the above. Also, he smashes things.

I just need to get him into Wrath of the Lich King so I can change his lesbian hair. Natch.

So, BlizzCon 2007. What a trip!

I went to BlizzCon with my guild’s 5v5 team, The Huks AKA Team EG, as well as a few other guildmates. Even though I live only a half-hour drive away from Anaheim, I stayed with Nuvas, Team EG’s Shaman. It worked out pretty well, as Blizzard flew them all out (as well as covered all the food and room service - I didn’t spend a nickel on food).

So, the con itself. As was expected, they announced their second expansion pack for World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King. Level cap 80, first hero class Death Knight, the Inscription tradeskill and the usual gamut of new expansion pack stuff. Then they had Starcraft 2 on the floor, which was available to play. It was all well and interesting, with plenty of fun panels and information which you can find. However, as mentioned above I spent the majority of my time with the Huks.

The 5v5 fights I watched there were absolutely insane - these guys are absolutely at the top of their game. The Huks placed third, due to the European team Sashwan, but ‘We lose cuz Daorok sucks’ managed to eke out being first place, as well as being the only 5v5 team running a hunter. The Huks had beat that team at the US regionals, but due to Sashwan running the cookie cutter setup, they were not able to push past them to fight them again. However, they still managed to place third, and I still love them.

I was getting the crowd pumped during the finals, though. I was holding up ‘GO HUKS’ signs, and the Huks were definitely the crowd favorite.

If anything, it has revitalized my interest in the PvP game, so I’ve started playing WoW again on my Warrior, who just got his Thunder last night, and is happily smashing faces.

Tomorrow is day one of BlizzCon 2007. I picked up my tickets a while back, and it’s just a hop and a skip from where I live in the valley, down the 5 South a bit to Anaheim. I attended the first BlizzCon in 2005, and it was kind of cool. It felt somewhat awkward, as if they were still figuring out what they were trying to do, and I have no doubt that they will have a better way to herd us all like cattle.
It should be much more interesting this year, with the inevitable World of Warcraft expansion pack, and Starcraft 2. I’m also interested in the nerdy stuff, like the Blizzard-themed products that Fantasy Flight Games will be turning out, as I sometimes endure myself to the 5 hour cycle of pain that is the WoW Board Game.

Also, other nerdy things, such as 1UP.com’s Legendary Thread podcast will be there, and I want to say hi to Jeff Green, the Editor-in-chief of Games for Windows Magazine.

I’ll report back with fun things! YAY FUN

I haven’t been playing all that many games recently. I’ve been plodding on and off on the EQ2 PvP server, which is absolutely brutal and cut-throat. I’m on a WoW breather, too.

Honestly? There just aren’t that many interesting games out right now. E3 is going on right now, and thankfully, they seem to just be focusing on games that are coming out this year (holy Jesus, November and December are going to face-fuck my wallet).

I’ve been poking around with some nerd board games, like Carcassonne and Runebound. Carcassonne came to Xbox Live recently, which is a pretty snazzy rendition. Supposedly Talisman is coming to Xbox Live? I’ve never played it, but I heard similar nerd comparisons.

Basically, it’s just a holding pattern for now. I have plenty to look forward to, though. I’m prepared to spend hundreds of dollars on Rock Band, along with a spattering of other games - Super Smash Brothers Brawl, BioShock, Mass Effect, Halo 3, etc.

SPREAD THE GOD DAMN GAMES OUT, YOU MARKETING FUCKHEADS. Christ. I’m just asking for money for Christmas from everyone. Maybe I can get away with asking for nothing, so I don’t have to spend money on them, leaving more for myself. For games. YES, I AM SELFISH OK