Anyways - hello! Things have happened. League of Legends is out, and it’s fun! And free! Go play it. Demigod came out and flopped on the ground a bit, then died of a broken heart. I just picked up Dawn of War 2 this weekend, because it was part of a Steam deal. Also fun!

As far as MMOs are concerned, I haven’t really been playing any. I stopped playing WoW a couple months ago, and it’s surprising how much free gaming time I have now. I’ve beat more games this year than I have in the past few years combined, easily. Mass Effect, Uncharted 1 and 2, Dragon Age, and ALMOST Demon’s Souls. However, as someone mentioned, that game is so hard you are dead on the box art, so there’s that.

I have been spending quality time with Modern BROFARE 2. Despite the fact that I spent over 100 bucks on titles that were on sale on Steam over the weekend, I still keep coming back to it. On the PC, of course. I am terrible at console shooters. I thought I was good, playing against my other friends who don’t normally play console shooters, and then one time at some party somewhere, there was some 15 year old kid playing Halo, and he just absolutely thrashed me. The depression has lingered.

Anyways! Modwang Brocockfestwar 2 is a wonderful game, sometimes despite itself. The single player is short enough where I can beat it in one sitting (my average attention span for a game), which I actually appreciated. The real meat and potatoes, of course, is in the multi-player. It’s basically a shooter with an MMO leveling system, and a console-style lobby system. I know people have bitched about the lack of dedicated server support, but it has honestly not been all that annoying. I have actually been more inclined to try some of the different game modes, as opposed to just playing free for all, as I did in the first Modern Warfare.

That’s… about it, really. I am working at a company that is making a game. I will talk more about it when I can.

P.S. Fuck campers. That statement has always been true in every FPS that I have ever played, and it still applies. Fuck you and the sniper rifle you rode in on, I will knife you.

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.

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.

Yeah.

Lyrics:

Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
Fuckers talk shit
I’ma punch ‘em in the dick
(Bow!)
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
Motherfuckers talk shit
I’ma punch ‘em in the dick

Yo look at that chump
See the way that he struts
Don’t kick him in the rump
Go nuts on his nuts
Just pop a squat
Start lettin’ off the shots
Like knock knock knock
Just coldcocked his cock
Yo, to all the cock-knockers
Nut-crackers
Ball-breakers
Peter-beaters
Keep on boxing your baby makers
With a sock to the jock
Better make that a double
Just a couple of rounds of knuckles
Beneath the buckle and he’ll buckle
If you’re in trouble
Give him some urine trouble
Hand him his balls
And tell him better learn to juggle
Turn his pebbles into rubble
Make him wonder what might’ve been
Make it so the South will never rise again

Now every man claims to be the toughest and the meanest
Watch your crocks, because soon the losers will be your weenus
And the winners in all the gladiator arenas
Are always the ones that go straight for the penis

So punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
motherfucker talk shit
I’ma punch ‘em in the dick
(B’low!)
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
motherfucker talk shit
I’ma punch ‘em in the dick

Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
motherfucker talk shit
I’ma punch ‘em in the dick
(Bow!)
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
You motherfuckers talk shit
I’ma punch ‘em in the dick

I’ll give your willy a welt
Like you ain’t never felt
Soon as I’m knelt
I’ma pelt you below the belt
Like Bang!
Bust em’ in the wang
Like it ain’t no thang
Now you really can’t hang

But you ain’t gotta be a dude
Shit, I’ll dick-punch a chick
Because I don’t discriminate
When I punch em’ in the dick
Whether Suzie Homemaker or a floozy home-wrecker
I’ma deck’er in the pecker, mother-fecker

It could be your mama
Better be no drama
You could be the Dalai llama
I’ma still put it on ya
With a right, left, right, left
Yo dick punched
Then you say Goddam, my shit’s crunched
Scrotum? I damn near killed ‘em
I capped him in (?) the boner, man
Forget about children
You ain’t got enough kung-fu to bust some ninja shit
Fuck Sun-Tzu, you want to learn the Art of Won

Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
Motherfuckers talk shit
Straight punch ‘em in the dick
(B’low!)
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
You motherfuckers talk shit
Straight punch ‘em in the dick

Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
Motherfuckers talk shit
Straight punch ‘em in the dick
(B’ow!)
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
You motherfuckers talk shit
Punch ‘em in the dick

We
Got
A brand new dance
Called punch his ass right in the dick

We
Got
A brand new dance
Called punch his ass right in the dick

Any of you snotty kids be talkin’ shit
I’ma drop a fist on your naughty bits
I got punches a’plentiful
You bet your rear-end it’ll sting
When I start swingin’ on your genitals
Because then it’ll swell up all out of proportion
Lookin’ like an eggplant forced into your foreskin
Nevermind abortion
Forget vasectomy
I got your birth-control… B’low!
Nut-check, homey

I punched God in the dick
I punched Mary in the dick
I punched Jesus Christ in the dick
Yo, I punched Cheney in the dick
I punched Powell in his colon
I punched George in his Bush
I punched Condoleezza Rice in the diiiiiick

Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
Punch ‘em in the dick
(What)
Motherfuckers talk shit
Straight punch ‘em in the dick
(B’low!)
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
You motherfuckers talk shit
What, I’ma punch ‘em in the dick
Blaaah!

Punch ‘em in the dick
(Ungh)
Punch ‘em in the dick
(Ungh)
Motherfuckers talk shit
Straight punch ‘em in the dick
Blaaah!

Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
Punch ‘em in the diiiiick
Motherfuckers talk shit
Yo, punch ‘em in the dick

Gonna punch ‘em in the dick
Watch me punch ‘em in the dick
Love to punch ‘em in the dick
Born to punch ‘em in the dick
Forever punch ‘em in the dick
Sucker punch ‘em in the dick
Fruit punch ‘em in the dick
Hawaiian punch ‘em in the motherfuckin’ diiiick

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.

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 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.

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