Dub's Diatribe

Ugh Island.

2011-10-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

So my last post about Dead Island was kind of positive right? I mentioned a few of the things I enjoyed and some of the things that I didn't enjoy all that much. I believe that when I wrote that I was just getting into Act II which sends you from the resort and into the city.

You can forget all those nice things I had to say about Dead Island because this is one crappy ass game. There's no denying that Dead Island has some charm in the beginning; I would say that Dead Island gives a great first impression, but as you go on the game becomes more annoying, it drags on way too long and the combat gets more and more frustrating.

Thing is, even after beating the game then bitching about it on Twitter, I still fired up Dead Island to try one of the other characters. Again, the beginning of the game at the Resort is quite enjoyable and its open RPG gameplay is what draws me in just like an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game does. But man does this game have issues.

The story is forgettable and cliche, but honestly if the dev's had built the game around just the resort portion of the game, fleshed it out a bit more making it a bit larger and the game was only say fifteen hours, then I would say this is a great game. But Dead Island just drags on and on and on and on.....

The Island is Dead!

2011-10-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

When Dead Island came out about a month ago I didn't think anything of it. Since then I had been hearing some positive buzz about the game from both Twitter and a few of the Podcasts I listen to. But it wasn't until I heard that it's got some RPG type elements withing the game that my interest was peaked.

Even with the good things people have been saying about Dead Island there was just as much said about its many issues at launch on the PC. Amazon had the game on sale for forty bucks, but I was really reluctant to make the purchase for two reasons: the very buggy release and I had a few other games I was in the process trying to get through before the huge November and December releases.

When Dead Island dropped to just over thirty-six bucks on Amazon, I finally caved in a made the purchase. And for that I am quite happy. See, Dead Island is not a great game; it has it's share of issues and annoyances, but it's the perfect game at the perfect time for me.

The gameplay structure reminds me of the more recent Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. Much like those games the player is free to go about and play the game however they want. There is the main story quest, lots of side quests and even repeatable quests that give XP, and one can't forget about the massive amounts of zombies that one will be smashing to bits during all this. There are fifty levels to gain, and each level I believe gives a skill point to invest in one of three skill trees. While you're doing all that you can explore the island and loot the luggage of those less fortunate that you!

I haven't had too many technical issues - some awful sound crackling from my USB headset, clipping issues with zombies and lots and lots of texture popping which is a bit distracting. I do however have a few annoyances with Dead Island. The first person combat makes it tough to judge the distance from a zombie, something that makes fighting a thug a nuisance. The combat is a lot of fun but it can get repetitive and honestly it downright fails when fighting large groups of zombies, something you don't want to do but does happen on occasion.

I also find the weapon degradation to be annoying, but just slightly. There's no shortage of weapons to be found, and in the beginning you will frequent locations with workbenches to repair weapons quite often. Even still, I find that the weapons degrade just too fast. I've toyed with the idea of using a mod to slow down weapon degradation, but I don't because the fear of having a weapon become useless does add the the overall experience of Dead Island.

When I mentioned Dead Island being the perfect game at the perfect time, it's because after watching some Diablo III gameplay streams I really had a hankering for some action rpg type experience. While Dead Island isn't so much action it does satiate my thirst for some RPG. The Witcher 2 isn't really doing it for me so this will have to do me till Skyrim comes in November!

The Obligatory 'What I've Been Playing' Post

2011-09-10T11:04:00.000-07:00

Since I haven't been blogging much one could think that I am either playing way too much to post or not playing anything what so ever. It's definitely no the latter because I had the whole week off from work. So let's hop to it shall we?

First up is Deus Ex Human Revolution. Initially I was very worried for this game; a few delays and what seemed to be some not so positive previews kept me from preordering a copy till the very last minute. Thankfully DXHR has turned out to be a pretty darn good game.

I bitched and moaned on twitter the other day about my frustration with the third and forth boss along with the whole last level of the game and how it almost ruined the whole game for me. But the core gameplay, the power of choice and the ending I chose were so great that I decided to immediately playthrough the game a second time.

My first run through I wanted to do the stealthy pacifier type so my weapons of choice were the stun gun, tranq rifle, gas grenades and non-lethal take downs. I don't want to get into this too much, but I was one of those who bought into the notion that a hacking stealther will have difficulty with the boss fights. That's not true, it just requires being prepared and wise investments of your Augs. It would explain why I am having more fun the second time through than I did the first.

I have finished the game once already and I am probably half way done with my second playthrough.

Next up is Warhammer 40k Space Marine. I have only played maybe an hour of this game, but I will go on record as saying Space Marine is F&#*ING AWESOME. The first time I stunned an Orc then impaled their skull with my combat knife I cackled like a school girl. The first time I sliced through a group of Orcs with a chainsword I had an instant boner. Ok so maybe I didn't, but it was freakin' sweet!

I had to put Space Marine on the back burner because I really wanted to finish DXHR first. I have been putting a lot of effert into making sure I start and finishing a new game before moving onto another new game.

There is of course the problem with having enough time, which my next game does not help with.

Yep, I have been playing in the World of Warcraft. I must have gone six months without thinking about let alone playing a MMO. But by June I was getting a hankering for some massively online stuff, so with my free game time due to SOE's downtime I went and subscribed to the Station Access. I paid for one month at thirty dollars and with my free time I don't have to pay again till the end of November, not bad.

Unfortunately a few of my friends were playing WoW and like a good lemming I eventually caved in and resubbed my account. This week I haven't played nearly as much because of DXHR, but WoW does tend to occupy my evenings when my buddies come online. Honestly I don't have much to say about WoW, I have been doing some PvP with the mage and letting my priest gain some rested bonus to make Outlands go by a little quicker.

So there you have it, my primary games of choice this week during my extended time off from work. Next week NHL 12 releases and I have also been thinking about giving Rift another try. Wish there was an Augmentation that gave me more time to play games!

Still Hope For Battlefield 3.

2011-08-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

Last night I stumbled upon an article about how Battlefield 3 for the PC will not have an in-game server browser unlike the console versions which will include a server browser. That just seems backwards if you ask me. Instead what the PC version will use is a program called Battlelog through a player's Internet browser.

Today I read an article on PCGamer.com about the new system and still I was scratching my head wondering why such a thing was needed for the PC. After reading the article I thought to myself that I may not be getting BF3 because of this seemingly complicated and unnecessary requirement to play online.

Well then I scrolled down to the comments and I must tell you, I was surprised at what I was reading. You can tell the responses to the article because the comments are in a gray box and they are primarily negative. What was surprising was the amount of replies to those comments that were positive. There were far more comments about how easy the system worked and how much better Battlelog was compared to a server browser. There were people actually positive on something EA is doing, shocker I know.

I firmly believe that the majority of people who hate EA have either forgotten or don't know why they dislike the company. Having no in-game server browser for arguably one the biggest multiplayer games to be released this year is just begging to get even more hate. But apparently Battlelog works, and it worked well for many who commented on the PCGamer article.

This reminds me of the time a few years ago when I spit venom in Activision's way when I learned Modern Warfare 2 was going to use peer-to-peer matchmaking. P2P matchmaking is the bane of any PC game and is almost certain death for its online longevity, unless you're Modern Warfare 2.

I admit, I was going to forget about BF3 all together after reading the article, but reading the many positive comments about how the new Battlelog works and that it worked well has calmed my fears and given me renewed interest in the game.

The Pile of Funk.

2011-08-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

I shamelessly borrowed this pic!

A few weeks ago Anjin wrote about the pile. You know, that physical or even virtual stack of games that's been sitting there waiting for you to play. Everyday it calls out to you just begging for you to play and yet you sit there ignoring their cries for attention. Ok, so maybe that second part is just me, but you get the idea.

I too have the pile, but for me it causes what I refer to as the funk. The funk is an overwhelming desire to play every game you own but not being able to come to a decision as to which particular game to play. Symptoms include sitting at your desk and staring off into space, playing multitudes games for 3-5 mins at a time, a general lack of interest in current game because you feel you should be playing that other game and the occasional tv watching.

I do have a touch of the funk right now, but it's not too bad. This time however the cause is twofold: I am still waiting for my replacement video card so I can play games like Witcher 2 and Bulletstorm and I have this overwhelming desire to play one of the many strategy games that I have purchased over the years.

The video card thing isn't such a big deal because I should be getting the replacement soon. The monkey wrench in this touch of funk is the strategy gaming desire that I have. I'm not talking Real Time Strategy like say Company of Heroes, I'm referring to games like Hearts of Iron III or Victoria II, Europa Universalis III or EU:Rome, you know those games that have manuals the size of small novels. I really enjoy those grand strategy type games, but I don't necessarily enjoy the time it takes to learn how to play one.

What it boils down to is that I need to stop buying games on sale and I just need to not be overwhelmed by the need to learn whichever strategy game I want to play and just play it!

Let's Play Some: Everquest 2 Furbottom Edition!

2011-08-16T18:48:00.000-07:00

In this inaugural edition of Let's Play Some I thought I would start of with something easy like Everquest 2. I know what you're asking your, 'why is this the Furbottom Edition?'. Well I will get to that here in a second. Because this post may be long with lots of terrible looking screenshots, I have decided to add a jump break to this post. So if you are incredibly interested or bored join me after the break and we will get to the adventure!

Everyone say hello to Furbottom, the Ratonga Swashbuckler adventuring in the frigid land of New Halas. I have had an active Station Access account for nearly two months now so Furbottom has already reached level 17 and AA 17. For the past few levels I have been evenly splitting Adventure XP and AA XP at a 50/50 ratio, and so far it's been working out great. I have been taking advantage of the rested bonus, the Veteran's XP bonus along with the XP potions I have from the Vet rewards that I have.

I know what you're saying, why am I still so low level with all those bonus' after all this time. Well two reasons - a little game called Crysis has me hooked and I started playing WoW with some friends again. But we won't talk about that here, this is all about the Mighty Furbottom!

The city of New Halas is located on a piece of ice located in the Frostfang Sea and from what I have gathered is under constant attack by the local orcs. For this adventure I will be taking two quests - one that has me heading to the Ry'Gorr encampment on the tiny adjacent island and another that has me investigate a small cave located under the main island itself.

First on the agenda is getting to Jagged Daggers island and dropping some not so healthy spores into the Ry'Gorr provisions. Let me tell you, being a stealth class has been extremely helpful in the Halas zone thus far. I am able to avoid unwanted skirmishes many of the times and it allows me to accomplish my goals much quicker. In this case I was able to stealth my way past the invading Ry'Gorr army storming the beach and swim across to Jagged Daggers.

Once there I snuck my way up to the encampment, cleared away a few pesky orcs and seasoned their food with some yummy spores. The quest isn't all the difficult, the worse part being the same level Ry'Gorr that attacks after contaminating the provisions. But they happen to be no match for the mighty Furbottom, and once I have taken care of four provisions it's off to my next objective.

It must be known that this next quest was a huge pain in the furbottom! I am to swim deep underwater to the Ry'Gorr caves under Halas to see what those pesky orcs are up to. The problem was I could not find the cave entrance. I also neglected to read the quest and ended up drowning my first time trying to find this cave. Let this be a lesson to all, reading the quest text is usually a good idea. What I didn't realize is that I was given five totems that would shapeshift me so that I could swim underwater to complete my quest.

So after one death, three totems and twenty minutes of swimming around trying to find this place, I found the place. All I had to do was swim in, stealth, make my way to the location that updates my quest and swim the heck out of there. But there was one oddity I noticed - once out of the water I was still shapshifted as a Manta Ray! I even stealth, made my way in and out of the cave and was able to turn in both quests while still shapeshifted. It made me chuckle a bit.

So there you have it, two quests down, I almost made level 18 and I even died a few times. That's right, the mighty Furbottom is prone to lapses in judgement on occasion and it gets him into trouble. I want to thank those who took the time to read this jumbled mess of a post. Hopefully I can if I do more like this they will get better. Hopefully.

Ultramarines.

2011-08-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

I have been know to enjoy movies that the mainstream deems stinkers. For example, I love Doom, Silent Hill and Hitman is one of my absolute favorites! I had all but forgotten about the Ultramarines movie, but judging from the trailer it looks to be all kinds of awesome.

Video after the break!

Ho Hum.

2011-07-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted something on the blog. One would think that I have been busy, maybe too busy to spend just a little time to write something, anything. Truth is I've just been lazy. Not only have I not been spending time writing, I have also not been reading my reader feeds of other blogs. Wow, that's not a very good sentence is it!

Soapbox.

2011-06-29T09:59:00.000-07:00

I found this to be quite interesing and thought provoking. I will admit to having little knowledge of the California Violent Video Games law and am ashamed of that fact. My poor state, it can be a pretty stupid place to live sometimes.

Video after the break!

It's Bitter Sweet.

2011-06-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

I'm sure by now most if not all have heard of the announcement that Star Wars Galaxies will officially be shutting down come December 15th. When I read the announcement this morning before work I was hit with two emotions - sadness and relief. Everyone at some point had to know this day would come see as how a new Star Wars MMO is just around the corner, but it didn't make the announcement any less surprising. At least for myself.

The closure of SWG is bitter sweet for me. On one hand I have wanted the game to fail and go away for a very long time. But on the other I have always had a fondness and love for the game. Even though Dark Age of Camelot was my first MMO, Galaxies was the game that cemented my addiction to the genre.

Galaxies is like that friend or family member that when they were little you loved to spend time with. But as they got older they just became a major screw up, making one bad decision after another. Eventually as they get older they realize that maybe they hadn't made the best decisions in life and try to get their life back on track. Even though they have disappointed you over the years, deep down you still love them and hope the best. That's how I have viewed SWG over the years.

Almost a year ago I wrote up a post about my time with the SWG emulator and how my fond memories of my time in Pre-CU Galaxies were tainted in the color rose. The words I wrote then are still valid today. Even though the realization that SWG was a mess back in the day, nothing will replace the fond memories I have of my time in Galaxies during that period.

Where Oh Where Has My Wallet Gone!

2011-06-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

Man I really need to exercise more discipline and discretion with regards to buying games! So in the past thirty days I bought in order: The First Templar, The Witcher 2, LA Noire for the PS3, Red Faction Armageddon, Brink, Bulletstorm on sale for twelve bucks and I picked up My FEAR 3 and Dungeon Siege 3 pre-orders from Gamestop today. That is a lot of gaming.

I have finished LA Noire and Red Faction and was close to completing The First Templar, but I just couldn't take more of that awful game. I do think I am getting better with my game purchase to completion percentage. But, a spending spree like this is what back logs are made of.

The plan is to start with Dungeon Siege 3, then get to FEAR 3 next with a healthy dose of Brink in between. There's also the matter of MMO's - I am getting the itch to play them again. Either way, I've got enough gaming to tide me over till Warhammer 40k Space Marine arrives in late August!

I Don't Get It.

2011-06-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

What has happened to the gaming community these days? If it makes a console gamer happy then the PC gamer is complaining. If the PC gamer is happy(which seems like never) then the console gamer is complaining. This game received this score so I think that game deserves that score because I think it's better than this other game. What do you mean I can use a controller for this game? Everyone knows PC gamers only use mouse and keyboard.

This game is so awesome. It looks great, has a better story, and.....wait it's coming to Xbox? Then this game is a dirty console port, can't you tell by the.....

Message boards are full of anger, disappointment, ignorance and just all around vitriol. It's really sad because games are suppose to be fun and relaxing. Instead games have become this thing that people want to latch onto and take up the cause for or against them. There's this fanaticism that seems to drive gamers to lash out whenever someone has a differing view or opinion about a game.

With each new release on the PC there comes the inevitable 'console port' criticism along with the 'you must not be a PC gamer' or 'you have no idea what you're talking about' comments. PC gamers have this idea that their game should have a differing experience because they are playing on the PC. I don't get that. I think that train of thought is born out of some nostalgic idea of what gaming was like at one time.

Gamers have forgotten how to enjoy themselves. Instead they have become angry and bitter and will accept no other opinion than their own. Too bad really.

A Bit of Nothing.

2011-06-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

I have just spent the past couple of hours on the web looking up topics such as subjectivity and objectivity, the idea of being entitled to having an opinion and of course reading the Steam message board. I have actually found the time quite enlightening to be honest.

So from that a few thoughts came to mind, mostly game related. What makes a game good or bad? Are game reviews suppose to be objective or subjective? If a game review is the opinion of the author, then why does the author or reviewer suddenly have less credibility because one disagrees with the review? Are we truly entitled to have an opinion and is it to be respected? Why do people become so devoted to a product or company that drives them to close mindedness? Do you think that when Ben Kenobi was talking about the Mos Eisely spaceport, that he was really talking about message boards in general? Why am I still typing this and not playing games? And finally, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

I may not know the answer to all of this, but I do know that a few months ago I didn't really care about to know the answers. It wasn't until I jumped on the Steam forums and began to read the most nonsensical, ignorant and elitist statements that made me want to know the answers.

It seems to me that gamers have forgotten how to have fun and not to worry so much about what others think as long as they are enjoying themselves.

EDIT: Here's another question: would a review be better if it stated only the facts and was devoid of any sort of emotional slant? Is that even possible?

More TOR Goodness!

2011-06-06T21:07:00.000-07:00

Again, I think I just messed in my pants!

SW:TOR E3 Video!

2011-06-05T23:33:00.000-07:00

I think I just messed in my pants! I would be lying if I didn't say that I am quite excited for TOR to be released.

Eureka!

2011-05-31T15:59:00.000-07:00

I think I have figured it out. If you're trying to convey an opinion about a game that you believe is getting unjustly criticized then you are whining. If said game is one that has a popular opinion of being bad then you are an idiot with bad taste in games. But, if you are trying to convince someone that game X is better or what game Y was suppose to be, well then you are a fanboi. Also it seems that opinions are not to be respected if they are blatantly wrong, and believing that game Y is not bad means your opinion is wrong.

Getting Past The Funk.

2011-05-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

After spending the month of April and the beginning of May playing Dragon Age 2 I wasn't sure what I was going to play next. To be honest there was a time during my third play-through where boredom started to set in. But I was able to push through that and completed the came for a total of eight times. Probably not healthy.

So I took a week off from gaming to reinstall Windows and to give myself a breather before I decided what to move on to next. Thing was I had been in a bit of a funk even before finishing DA2 a ninth time. I knew my time was at an end and I was going to be playing something different, but I couldn't figure out what that was going to be.

The funk for me is this overwhelming feeling I get when I look at the number of games I own both digitally and physically and realize that I haven't played them yet. I have plenty of time to play games that's not the problem, having too many games is the problem. So I get this desire to play these various games but not deciding which one to start with so the end result is me sitting at my desk staring at my monitor. It's quite frustrating really.

So I decided to reinstall Windows and clean up the machine a bit, and that seemed to help a lot. After some tweaking and reinstalling I decided what I was going to play. Two weeks ago I started with Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops, Homefront, Singularity which was on sale finally, The Force Unleashed on the PS3, the new Medal of Honor, and finally Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

To be clear I played from start to finish each and everyone of those games, a feat that I am quite proud of really. In between all that there was the occasional NHL 11 because of the playoffs and a pinch of MMO's that are either f2p or just have free time available. None of the games I listed are all that lengthy which is why I chose them, but the feeling of accomplishment is nice.

Of the military shooters that I played, Medal of Honor was my favorite. The story is not overbearing, the gameplay is solid and I have always enjoyed the multiplayer. I was honestly surprised at how good I thought it was. Singularity if probably the best of the bunch, but it really fails to take advantage of the time manipulation aspect of the game. I don't consider Rainbow Six a military shooter, but that's just me. As for Force Unleashed, as soon as I finished that pile I traded the game away to Gamestop to hopefully rot away on the shelf. Man that game sucks.

As for what's on the plate next, that would be a bit of R6V2, The First Templar and most likely a whole lot of NHL 11!

DLC BAD!

2011-05-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

DLC is here to stay it seems, why do people still cling to this feeling of entitlement and believe that they deserve additional content for free?

Lately I have been participating in a so called conversation on the Steam forums about the new DLC for Dawn of War II: Retribution. DoWII has a online coop mode called Last Stand which puts three players in an arena where they must fight off up to twenty waves of enemies. Players can choose one of six different hero units that represent each of the factions in the game. It's almost like an action-rpg really since you are controlling a single hero unit. Heroes gain XP up to level twenty and will unlock new wargear and abilities on the way.

Relic just released six new items of DLC with two pieces of wargear for all six factions at a $2.99 price tag for each. Initially I thought you had to purchase each one separately which would come to around $18 bucks! There is however a complete wargear pack that is available which includes all six DLC for only $10 bucks, much more satisfactory in my mind.

I can understand all the angst against DLC, I had a huge problem with the thought of paying for content piecemeal when it was just starting out. My main argument was that I would end up paying more for these small pieces of content than I did for the full game itself. I now support the idea of DLC, I just don't always support the price.

What I can't understand is the thought process of someone who is going to jump on a message board and start complaining about pricing or company greed or how they want free content. I really think it's a case of the haves vs the have-nots. If you don't like the DLC then don't buy it, no one is forcing you to. But because someone else is willing to pay for it then it's suddenly not fair and the DLC should have been part of a free update of what have you.

Message boards are really a wretched hive of scum and villainy!

Welcome To The Master Race!

2011-05-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

Wanna know what makes me rage? PC gaming elitists! They've been around for quite some time and anyone who's been a PC gamer has probably even been guilty of being one at some point. Let me give an example: a few years ago there was this small game called Modern Warfare 2 that was about to be released, and I complained and complained about how I felt the game was a dirty console port because of its new peer-to-peer matchmaking for multiplayer. So yes, even I have exhibited some elitism in the past.

I listen to a few gaming podcasts, and there have been more than a few hosts that have levied a derogatory comment towards the PC gaming crowd on occasion. I tend to ignore statements like this and chalk it up to just plain ignorance by a console gamer. But it seems this year those elitist accusations have been more than confirmed by none other than idiotic PC gamers!

What makes a PC gamer an elitist? Well it seems the requirements to become an elitist are to complain that a PC game is a console port with the expectation that a game for the PC is suppose to have certain options and give the PC gamer a completely different experience gameplay wise on the PC.

Dragon Age 2 was apparently changed to accommodate the console gaming kids who like easy games. Crisis 2 with its check point saves, lack of graphic options and not being in DX11 obviously means that it was ported over from the Xbox. Even Portal 2 had someone claim console port because of some text that appeared on screen when saving the game or something. Even the current darling of the PC, the Witcher 2, has had the console port tag put on because the game supports a controller, so it's obvious the game was ported to the PC.

I know I named just a few games, but the outcry of consolization on the PC has grown to almost epic proportions. Frankly I am just sick and tired of PC gamers bemoaning the fact that such and such game is a console port for this or that reason. Problem is, it's not going to end anytime soon.

Expectations.

2011-05-26T15:49:00.000-07:00

Those who have read this blog lately know that I love Dragon Age 2. I think the game is great but in no way is it perfect. I like the changes to the combat, the updated graphics, the new party members, the streamlined crafting, and a fully voiced hero just to name a few things that I believe makes for a better experience than in Origins.

So what's wrong with DA2? Well actually quite a few things. Regardless of the development time or the technical issues that hampered the game at launch, the biggest problem DA2 has is expectations. Say what you will about the game being a cash grab or that it's too easy or whatever, it seems that those most outraged are those who were expecting Origins 2. The issues facing DA2 are not all that serious that they can't be overlooked.

Which leads me to the Witcher 2. I have yet to play the game so I am not going to pass judgement on it, but to me the best thing to happen to Witcher 2 was for those who had rather high expectations for DA2 all but crucify the game and Bioware too. After browsing the message boards a bit it's plainly obvious that Witcher 2 is everything Dragon Age 2 was suppose to be and if you believe differently than you are (insert random word meant to be an insult here).

I have read a few reviews for Witcher 2 and it does seem to be quite good and I am looking forward to buying and playing the game at some point, but the game is not without its faults as well. I am not going to compare faults between the two games nor do I believe the faults of one game are worse than the other. But, I do believe those pushing the gospel of Witcher 2 on the message boards are more than willing to overlook the game's issues.

So what does that have to do with anything? I have a problem with people crying out vehemently against a game, it's developer and those who enjoyed said game but are willing to forgive another game that has issues all its own just because the first game did not give them the experience they were expecting to have. Basically I am saying that I believe people are building Witcher 2 to be better than what it really is because it gives them that taste of expectation that was suppose to be in Dragon Age 2.

I want to make it clear that I haven't played Witcher 2, so it very well could be as great as it's being made out to be, but I get the feeling that somewhere in the middle is the truth.

Not The Indie Type.

2011-05-23T20:08:00.001-07:00

I like games. In fact, i like lots of games. But the type of games I don't care much for are indie games. I'm not saying that I hate indie developers or their games and I'm not opposed to buying indie games either.

I just don't care much for anything indie, be it movies, music or games. Indie supporters kind of remind me of Apple supporters(disciples), they feel they are better than everyone because they are not supporting something mainstream.

With all that said, it does seem that the the only original IP's releasing these days are coming from indie developers. So I guess indie games are not all that bad.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pre-Order This!

2011-05-22T00:17:00.000-07:00

I decided to browse the Steam forums to see what trouble I can cause before bed when I stumbled upon a thread where someone was wondering if there was going to be a pre-order bonus for the new Red Faction Armageddon game. It would seem that this fella would like get something extra for his pre-order because the PS3 and Xbox both will and he would much rather play the game on the PC.

Is this were gaming has gone now, to a place where people can't be bothered to pre-order a game unless they get something extra in return? How about you get a fancy new game to play, how's that! Sure, pre-order bonus' are nice, I have received a few in my time but it doesn't drive me to pre-purchase a game.

You know what drives me to pre-order a game? Something like this:

Oh yeah!

Dragon Age 2: The Common Complaints Edition

2011-05-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

It should be no secret that I enjoy Dragon Age 2. I have enjoyed it enough to spend 300+ hours playing through the game seven times. I do want to make it known that all seven times were on Casual difficulty. I did start a game on Hard because I really wanted to take advantage of the tactics system, but after spending almost an hour getting wiped on the first real boss which is only about fifteen minutes into the game, I decided to give up. At some point I will revisit Hard mode, but not right now.

So what is the Common Complaints Edition then? Well I figured I would list the most common complaints that one will read if they are to browse any sort of message boards or comments about anything Dragon Age 2.

Feels rushed, obvious cash-in
Combat is too fast
Combat is not tactical like Origins
Combat is too easy
No epic storyline
A collection of side quests rather than a cohesive story
Kirkwall
Lack of variety in locations
Interface is streamlined
Whole game is streamlined
The game fails
It's a console port

I am sure there are more complaints than this, but these were the ones I could remember off the top of my head. Now I am not blind, I know that Dragon Age 2 is not perfect, it has its share of issues and some of the complaints are valid. But I grow tired of reading the same ignorant rants from people over and over again about how poorly made Dragon Age 2 is and that Bioware won't stay afloat if they don't get their act together. It's amazing just how many armchair developers there are out there that seem to know what it takes to make a good game. You would think they would be doing something more constructive instead of filling my eye sockets with their useless words.

I think everyone can agree that game reviews are subjective, they are the opinion of the person writing the review. Weather a game is good or bad can also be subjective as well. I believe Dragon Age 2 to be a great game, yet there are plenty of others who would disagree with me because they believe the game to be bad.

With all of Dragon Age 2's real issues aside, I believe its two biggest problems are first - the number 2 after its name, and second - the PC gamers who believe their experience needs to be different from that on the console, hence the console port argument. But these are topics for another post.

I, Myself.

2011-05-03T15:22:00.000-07:00

To all those very few who have my dinky blog on their RSS, I want to apologize for my lack of posts. One might have noticed that I have been neglecting my blog for the past several months, and they would be right!

Two things: writing is a painful process for me at times. I love to right, I enjoy putting words together and making somewhat intelligent sentences, but at times it can take just to darn long from start to finish. I have also had a real lack of focus with what I want the blog to be and where it might lead to.

So to summarize - I have been lazy, I am over thinking things, and my addiction to Dragon Age 2 has consumed any and all free time I may have had over the past couple of months. Oh, and there is of course the Stanley Cup playoffs that I have to watch.

So again, sorry everyone for wasting space on your reader.

There's No Place Like Home.

2011-04-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone who read and posted comments on my slow-to-be-updated blog. Unfortunately I was unable to comment myself on my iPhone. As for the trip it was fun, warm and just the right length, by Saturday I was ready to come home.

Blogging from Texas on the iPhone

2011-04-21T09:28:00.001-07:00

So blogging about my time so far in Texas on the iPhone is a success. Except I haven't figured out how to make a comment.

I'm hoping to visit the Ft. Hood museum today and the Alamo tomorrow. If it works out and I'm able to take pictures then I'll just post some of those when I get back home.

Maybe this will be the catalyst that gets me to post on a more regular basis. Well this and taking a break from playing Dragon Age 2!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Texas Day 1

2011-04-19T20:19:00.001-07:00

Well my first day in Texas is coming to an end soon. The weather leaving San Jose was cold, wet and cloudy. The weather in Austin was hot, dry and cloudy, nothing like the Bay Area.

For anyone wondering why I would fly to this odd country it's because I am here to visit my brother who is in the Army. Since he is deploying to the Middle East in a couple months, I figured I would Come and visit for a bit.

There are two things I have learned since being here; Texas is hot and humid at night and I suck at Rock Band.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Why So Serious?!?!

2011-04-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

I really should know better than to get upset at stuff I read on the interwebs. 'Why take it so personal' I wonder to myself sometimes, but I can't help it when I am reading what I believe to be obvious lunacy. What pray tell am I referring to? Well I'm glad you asked. What has got the ire of Jayedub this time is the commotion cause by the reviews that Dragon Age 2 has caused and the resulting backlash from those who seem to think that no one is suppose to like this game and their ignorant rants.

I won't lie, I love Dragon Age 2. I love the combat, the companions, the improved visuals, the voice acting, all of these things I find to be much better than Dragon Age Origins. The story doesn't have as epic of a feel this time around, but I happen to think the quests are much more memorable this time around as well. I enjoy this game so much I decided to upgrade my video card in order to play the game in DX11. Let me put it this way: I am about to finish Dragon Age 2 for a fifth time and I have just over 200+ hours invested into this game. I like this game.

So it annoys me to no end when I read comments about how Dragon Age 2 fails, it's a cash grab, it's a console port, the combat is too easy, blah blah blah. Granted the game is not without its fault both technically and in design, but the game is freaking great. Once I was able to get past the fact that Dragon Age 2 differs from Origins, I found myself enjoying the game.

Auction Time.

2011-03-20T17:38:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know I work in the self-storage industry and today we held our auction. It's been awhile since the last auction we held, and the first since the new show Storage Wars began airing TV. The auction was pretty small unit wise and I wasn't sure what affect the show would have for us before we began today.

Well, the show had a massive impact for us. In the six years I've been at this facility I have never seen so many auction buyers at one of our auctions, and I have never seen so many outrageously high bids for such small units! The show had bred a new type of auction buyer, for better or worse it remains to be seen.

A word of advice for those who use storage for sentimental items - don't! A storage facility is not the place you want to keep your pictures or anything of sentimental value, make room at your home because you never know what can happen to them. It always breaks my heart when an auction buyer brings me a box or container filled with pictures of someones kid.

I've never seen the show Storage Wars, but I can guarantee you they are only showing the good stuff for the viewing audience. But I'm sure it makes for great TV!

Dawn of War II Voice Actors

2011-03-14T16:56:00.000-07:00

I happen to be on the Dawn of War 2 site today when I noticed they have a video posted introducing the voice actors from the games. The video isn't very long but it's really neat to get just a small glimpse of the behind the scenes work that is involved in making the game.

Life is Fragile.

2011-03-12T11:04:00.000-08:00

I'm not the kind of person who keeps up with current events. I dislike watching the news on television because it's filled with death and despair and makes me wonder often times why people are allowed to exist anymore.

On Thursday night my wife and I turned on the 11pm new and were greeted with something that amazed, shocked and saddened us at the same time. When I hear or read about tragic events, for me there is a certain disconnect because it has already happened, and it didn't happen to me. But hearing about the massive earthquake and then watching the tsunami that resulted from the quake rip through Japan on t.v. in real time was almost too much to bear.

I found it very hard to fall asleep on Thursday night. As I lay in my nice comfy, warm bed, all I could think about was that I was about to go to sleep and there are thousands of people who have been displaced by this tragic disaster. Or even worse, have lost loved ones or even their own lives from the tsunami. Watching the devastation happen on t.v. brought back memories of 9/11 and the overwhelming feelings of helplessness and sadness I had while watching the events unfold.

It's events like these that remind me that life is short and fragile, and I need to live my life to the fullest and not take things for granted.

Some Hockey Thoughts.

2011-03-10T10:46:00.000-08:00

I don't write enough about hockey on the blog, but know that I LOVE the greatest sport on earth! That's hockey for those who don't get it. This year more than any other in recent memory has been marred with controversy with player concussions, blows to the head and injuries.

I love the physicality of hockey; the checking, the hitting and the fighting. I also love the speed and skill that gets displayed on the ice every night. What I don't love is dirty players, injury's and those who detest the violence in hockey.

On March 8th there was an unfortunate hit on a player that resulted in a serious injury. The two players involved are not dirty, the hit wasn't dirty, but the location of the hit along the boards turned a routine interference and check into a very real and scary situation.

The result of the play is very unfortunate, no one wants to see someone injured and I do hope that Pacioretty is able to make a speedy recovery and return to the ice next year. The fallout from this hit is amazing. You have those who believe Chara should be suspended and those who don't. The Montreal police are now involved and a sponsor is trying to flex some muscle by threatening to pull out of the NHL.

Regardless of how one feels about the play and the injury, this was not an intentional blow to the head which has been the hot button in the NHL this year. Let me give you an example of what is an intentional blow to the head. Warning: video is not of good quality.

This my friends is a blatant hit to the head. The Hawks-Lightening game was on VS. across the US, and no penalty was called and no one seems to be talking about the play at all. The Chara hit and injury was unfortunate, but it's hits like the one Bolland took last night that need to be addressed. I truly hope that the NHL spends some time this off season to address this issue, but please don't take out the physicality from my favorite sport.

UPDATE: I just read that Pavel Kubina was suspended for three games for his hit to the head of Dave Bolland. I am glad that justice has been served but I do believe it's not long enough. His hit was intentional to the head, three games is not enough to send a message to the NHL players.

I Can See Clearly Now The Rain is Gone.

2011-03-08T16:01:00.000-08:00

I was able to finish off Heavy Rain this morning before work. The game is brilliant for a few reasons; the story was intriguing, I became connected to the main characters and no other game has touched me on an emotional level like Heavy Rain did.

Sure the game has issues like a crappy control system, audio glitches and undeveloped character back stories. But it succeeds in drawing you into the story and delivering some pretty intense moments.

I highly recommend that everyone try Heavy Rain, if for nothing else then to see something different.

It's Heavy, Like the Rain.

2011-03-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

Heavy Rain has been a game that I've been wanting to play since it's release. It seems like a polarizing game, you either love it or hate it, and if neither then you probably haven't played it long enough.

For me I am really enjoying the game, much more than I thought I would. I rarely purchase new console games based on a silly principle I have (they are too expensive), so I picked it up used for less than twenty-five bucks. Now that's a deal.

For those who may not know, the story is based around a person called the Origami Killer who kidnaps and kills children, specifically boys. As someone with a three year old son I was a bit worried that the premise of the story would be too much to handle, and so far it has not. But with that in mind I do think that has helped me to identify with one of the main characters in the game because of the love I have for my son.

So far the story is pretty good. The game has this interesting mix of having some of the best visuals in a PS3 game with some of the best visuals in a PS2 game, meaning there is some great looking stuffed mixed in with a lot of crap. The acting is hit or miss, but it's bearable. The controls however are a mess. I think the main issue is using the R2 button to walk around, that was an absolutely terrible idea, but it hasn't been enough to take away my enjoyment of the game.

I do recommend that everyone who owns a PS3 give Heavy Rain a try, if for nothing else to see a game that is trying something different.

Dead Space 2 Review

2011-03-06T18:18:00.000-08:00

I guess I haven't totally given up writing because I decided to write up a review for Dead Space 2. The fine folks at Gamesquad.com were nice enough to post it here. I welcome any constructive feedback.

A small update.

2011-03-05T13:29:00.000-08:00

Well I made it through the month of February without a post, yay me! It's not for lack of thoughts really, there's quite a lot percolating up in my cranial crock pot. It's more because I am lazy, and I wasn't even sure I even wanted to blog anymore.

The updates to the blog are pretty small; I removed the Xbox Gamercard because my Xbox fried last year and I have no plans on purchasing a new one, and I added a list of my most interested and might purchase games for 2011 called Dub's Game List for 2011. It's just a list of the upcoming games for the year that interest me. Some are a day one must buy, some are games that I will buy eventually and the rest are games I might possibly purchase.

Dragon Age 2 is a game that I will eventually buy, but the sixty dollar price tag and day one release with DLC have turned a must buy into an eventual buy. Sixty bucks for PC games, really!?! Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is a must buy for me. Yes I own it on the PS3, but I have played the game for all of thirty minutes. Had I known it was going to have a PC release I would not have bought the PS3 version. Besides it will look better on my PC. Homefront is a good example of a game that I might possible buy depending on how it reviews. I hear good things about it, but not enough to make me all that excited to buy it.

So that's about it for now. I'm still here, still playing games so maybe I'll get off my keister and write about them every so often. I want to leave everyone with something that may or may not be funny, a video from a show that someone on Twitter linked to. I find it funny, hopefully you do to.

My MMO round up.

2011-01-31T19:34:00.000-08:00

It seems like a couple of months ago I was claiming that I am done with MMO's for the time being. Since then I re-subbed to LOTRO with their special three month rate and bought both Final Fantasy XIV and DCUO. I don't know why I subbed to LOTRO, I guess I was hoping that something would grab me the way it did about a year ago.

FFXIV was more of an experiment, and for about two weeks it was the only game I could think about. I loved the combat, the game looks fantastic, and the armory system was awesome and probably one of the more original ideas I have seen in a MMO lately. So why am I not playing the game now? Well I advanced as far as I could on my own. I liked the crafting meta game, but the lack of a decent recipe book and the over reliance on a player economy is what killed the fun for me. FFXIV is full of weird design choices, but for those two weeks it was the best thing ever!

As of today I have played DCUO twice for about four hours. I played quite a bit of the beta and right now I am playing a character type that I was able to level to nine in the beta, so I am finding myself a tad bored. I think the game looks fantastic and I enjoy the combat a great deal, but I don't think I will be taking this one past the first month.

Even with only playing FFXIV for two weeks, I feel like I got my money's worth, I'm not even close to that feeling with DCUO, and LOTRO was a complete waste of money. I'm not looking for the next big thing in the MMO genre, I think I've just played so many MMO's and spent so much time playing them that I might just be burnt out. Plus I've purchased quite a few single-player games over the past year and I would really like to play them sometime. It's hard to do that when you have a game you feel obligated to play.

So what does all this mean for me? It means that I am in all probabilities going to give STO one more shot after DCUO is over, but after that I'm done with MMO's for sure. That is till TOR!

A handheld I think I can like!

2011-01-27T10:13:00.000-08:00

Sony has finally announced the Next Generation Portable, or the NGP. It's probably a better name than PSP2, but not buy much. I'm not much of a handheld guy, I don't even like playing games on a phone, you know because it's a phone, but just look at how slick that looks! It's just crying out for me to touch it in naughty ways!

The list of third party support is pretty massive which is a good sign. I believe part of the problem initially with the original PSP was UMD movies and trying to get into that market. These days many of the Blu-Rays come with a digital version that can be ported to a handheld device.

I honestly don't know what the specs are for the NGP and I'm guessing I am going to have to purchase games digitally which I am not fond of, but I am more than willing to support anything NOT Nintendo and their crap hardware and garbage first party games!

Destroy Everything!

2011-01-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

When I raise my Chaos army to devastate this world, I will have this song be my anthem!

Final Fantasy XIV?

2011-01-15T09:25:00.000-08:00

It was just a couple of weeks ago that I was claiming MMO burnout for myself, and now here I am playing Final Fantasy XIV and I can't seem to get enough of it. The developers tried very hard to create an MMO that is different than what's on the market now, and they succeeded, but I don't think it's necessarily a good thing. There are quite a few design choices that have to make you wonder just what the hell they were thinking when developing this game. One thing's for sure, I am really enjoying the game right now, probably because it is different but I don't know if how long that will last.

As much as I want to play I have work and a lot of football to watch this weekend so that will help slow me down some.

They're coming to take me away...

2011-01-10T09:21:00.000-08:00

Dear wackos, nut jobs, paranoid freaks and random homeless peoples who believe someone is out for you, please don't shoot those in government, it doesn't help. If you're afraid of the government now, just wait till they get tired of being shot at!

Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E known as the Tiger I tank.

2011-01-09T12:31:00.000-08:00

I am here sitting at work doing a very dangerous thing by browsing Steam for games when I came across a game called Iron Warriors: T-72 Tank Command. I really enjoy military history, I try to soak it up like a sponge. So I decided to do a google search on the T-72, and what followed next was about an hour and a half of tank info reading bliss!

First I started with the Soviet/Russian Main Battle Tanks. Then I moved onto the early WWII American armoured vehicles and then of course I had to check out the German WWII Panzer tanks. My knowledge of German Panzer's is very limited, but I do know that the dreaded Tiger I tank was one the most feared tanks in the late stages of WWII.

Eventually I made my way to the web page for the Tank Museum located over in England. The Tank Museum has almost one hundred years of tank history within its facility and has one of six surviving German Tiger I tanks from WWII. Not only that, it's the only known working Tiger I tank in existence.

If anyone is actually interested in this stuff, there's a website Tiger-Tank.com that gives details on this particular Tiger tank from it's manufacture to its capture in Tunisia and its eventual restoral in England. Frankly I find this all very fascinating and totally kick ass.

For your viewing pleasure here are three separate videos of the Tiger tank in action.

The year that was and the year that might not be!

2011-01-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

Blogging is often fun, can be interesting and is very time consuming. For me it's also difficult at times. I personally don't think I am a bad writer but it is often a painful process of writing, re-writing and just being able to convey thoughts in my mind in such a way that someone reading them can understand. Now if that sounds normal then let me know. I feel that my lack of motivation and inconsistency with blogging has to do with me wondering why I am blogging in the first place.

I love to write, and blogging is a way for me to practice at writing. But I have grown increasingly negative towards what I call OpEd blog posts. I tire of the armchair developers constantly coming out against such and such game cause it's not like the old days and how this game or that game won't be successful unless it does this or that. Or how about the unhealthy amount of comments that come from something as inane as posting a quote from another blog or article. Then there are those who seeming never participate in the very conversation that they created with their post.

But as I was writing this I had an epiphany of sorts - isn't that which I dislike about blogging the very reason why there is this thing called blogging? I believe the answer to be yes and then some. I view blogging as an online journal if you will, but who am I to tell someone else how or what to write.

I am very fortunate that there are those who will read and even comment on my blog and I am extremely grateful for it. I am also grateful for the friendships that I have developed over the past year and a half just from blogging. A big hearty thank you to all those who have taken the time visit my meager blog.

I do hope to write more, unfortunately I don't have an MMO that I am playing so it remains to be seen if I can find something interesting to write about. Until next time, stay classy blogosphere!

2011-01-05T15:31:00.000-08:00

It's stories like these that make me believe that their is still hope for humanity. I wish Ted Williams the best of luck, he deserves it!

DCUO Character Creation

2010-12-13T20:09:00.000-08:00

Since the DCUO Beta NDA has dropped I thought I would share some thoughts on the character creation process of the game. It's easy to forget that the only two super hero themed MMOs on the market were developed by one studio, Cryptic. One thing Cryptic is known for is their character creation and the huge amount of variety it offers players. So how does DCUO stack up with Champions Online and City of Heroes? Well let's take a look at what you will have to work with.

The first choice players will have to decide is whether male or female and then what build they want - Large, Medium or Small. For this example I chose male and medium build type. Next up is the real meat of the character creation process, the template selection. There are only two options to choose from, Custom and Inspired By.

In a Custom template players will be able to customize powers, movement mode, weapon and costume. The Inspired By option has some pre-made templates based off some of the heroes and villains found in the DC Universe.

The Inspired By option is a nice feature for players looking to get into the game quickly or for those who want to mimic their favorite DC character, but a quick scan of the available options will show two things - a limited number of templates to choose from and some questionable power and combat combinations. For example Superman has Ice powers and Brawling combat style, and the Flash has Fire powers and Brawling combat style. Neither of those makes any sort of sense, but it does highlight one of DCUO's shortcomings which I shall get to a bit later.

For demonstration purposes I chose Custom template. Next up players will need to decide if they are going to fight for the side of good or join the side of evil, I chose good.

The next choice I had to make was my character's personality. What ever players choose it has no affect on combat. What the personality does do is determine how a character stands still or walks around the game world, and frankly the choices suck. What's really missing is some sort of default or normal option instead of some of these absurd personality choices.

Since I chose a custom template I now need to chose my mentor. For the heroes it's Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. For the villains it's Lex Luthor, Joker and Circe. If you are wondering who Circe is then you're not alone, I have no idea either.

After choosing a mentor I now have the all important choice of which power I want to use. If you read the description it says that the power selection determines combat strategy and my role in groups. Here's the kicker, there are only six powers to choose from. Six. And the choices available are not all that great either. You have Fire, Gadgets, Ice, Mental, Nature and Sorcery. Even though there are only six powers to choose from, each power has two power trees that players will be able to spend points on when they level up.

The next step is skill choices, movement and weapon. Since there are only three movement options to choose from, I took flight as mine. Weapon choice determines combat style more than anything. One might get a different idea if they were to actually believe the description that is provided. There are only ten choices to choose from and it's nothing that hasn't been done already.

Since this post is turning out to be epic in length I'll try to summarize the rest as succinctly as possible. The rest of the character creation process involves a characters look and costume. There are quite a number of options to choose from in determining how you want your character to look. Even so, the shirt and pants options are not all that varied, there are a limited number of glove or hand choices and shoe options is just laughable. It's a good thing that DCUO is a loot based game like WoW or WAR because items can change the character's appearance.

So what is DCUO's biggest shortcoming you might ask? It's variety, it's the number of choices that players have, it's customization, DCUO just doesn't have enough of it all. Don't get me wrong, the game looks great, the combat is a lot of fun and the quests so far are pretty fun, but when compared to its other super hero brethren the character creation is sorely lacking.

Hopefully this was entertaining and informative enough for everyone.

LOTRO F2P?

2010-12-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

I am not sure why, but for some reason I have this urge to try out some LOTRO f2p. I'm not sure where this sensation is coming from or why, but it's there for some reason. Despite my tone when I talk about the game, I don't hate it. I have my issues with LOTRO that have frustrated me over the years to the point that I quit because I grew tired of them.

I seriously doubt that the game has changed and I will suddenly fall back in love with it, but maybe I can learn to deal or overlook the shortcomings and just enjoy LOTRO for what it is. Maybe, I kind of like not having a MMO right now. Then again LOTRO is free...we shall see.

Thoughts Coming Soon On DCUO Beta.

2010-12-09T09:29:00.000-08:00

I believe Massively and PCGamer have already posted up information about the DCUO beta, but I figured I would take some time to post about my thoughts as well. I will unfortunately have to get to it sometime this weekend, for some reason the client wants to update and download the whole 8.6gb of the game. Not sure why it want's to do that but I will have to wait till it's done in order to take some screenshots of the character creation process, the tutorial and then Gotham and Metropolis.

I wish I owned a full copy of Fraps so I could post video with some commentary, so for now screenshots with some detailed writing will have to sufice. I will share a quick thought about the game so far - it starts off with a bang but kind of fizzles once out of the tutorial. Also, if you are expecting Cryptic kind of customization then you will be slightly dissapointed.

That's it for now, I do plan on going into a bit more detail once I have let the client update itself.

The Cataclysm of Man Hours Lost!

2010-12-07T08:53:00.000-08:00

So I wonder how many man hours will be lost today around the world because of WoW's new expansion Cataclysm? And you know what else? Three Activision-Blizzard releases are going to account for the majority of the sales for the PC this year, very unfortunate.

I suspect that I am one of the few that will not be partaking in WoW's newest content, and I am perfectly fine with that. I did do the midnight launch for the Burning Crusade, eventually did pick up Wrath after a few months of release and as of right now I have little to no interest in getting Cataclysm or even playing WoW.

I have played so much WoW over the years that I am just burnt out on the game. It's a great game and does many things that I like and look for in a MMO, I've just played it a lot. But then maybe that's what the purpose of the 1.4 patch and the Cataclysm expansion are for. When you think about it, the recent changes to WoW are as close to a sequel without actually being a sequel.

Uh-oh, I think I have just talked myself into almost playing WoW again. So for the sake of my sanity, I will end this post with this statement: I hope Cataclysm is everything WoW players have wanted and I look forward to the myriad of blog posts about it!

Still A Sucker!

2010-12-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

I know that I had intended to reduce my PC game purchases, but I am a sucker for sales, specially the ones on Steam. In case you didn't know, there are a ton of sales that go on after Thanksgiving, both retail and online, and it's kind of a big deal. I honestly don't remember purchasing so many games like I have this year, both during Steam's summer sale in June/July and just recently. And I do expect to be buying something hopefully if there is a holiday sale as well!

I did exercise some restraint during the Thanksgiving sales, mostly because I didn't want to buy a ton of product that I may or may not play. With that said, I did buy five games and only two games from Steam and one was not a digital purchase.

On Friday the 26th I purchased Burnout: Ultimate Edition from Steam and Sims 3 from the EAStore. On Saturday I went and ordered Splinter Cell Conviction from GoGamer because it was only ten bucks! But I did have to pay tax and shipping, still it was cheaper than when it was listed on Steam for sale a day later. Then on Monday, the last day of the Steam sale I picked up Dirt 2 for dirt cheap and Metro 2033, two games that I have been wanting to get for a very long time.

Frankly the only game that I could have done without is Burnout. It's a great game and I did want it, but it was more of a purchase based on the idea that it may not be at the sale price of fifteen bucks anytime soon. I could be wrong and it may be even cheaper next time, it has happened. Sims 3 was only fifteen which was great cause I wasn't about to pay full price for that, and Dirt 2 was only five bucks and Metro 2033 was only ten!

The game I was most excited to buy was Metro 2033 hands down. The game looks awesome and I have heard nothing but great things about it. Once my current addiction to Mass Effect dies down I will be moving on to Metro 2033.

I will say that there were a lot more than these five games that I was tempted to pick up. I am really looking forward to the Christmas holiday sales, hopefully I will be able to exercise the same restraint then like I did this last sale.

It's the funk.

2010-11-20T13:56:00.000-08:00

You know what I hate about being a gamer with a bad impulse buy habit? Having a shelf or hard drive full of games that I have played little or none of, or, games that I have finished but would like to go back and play again. Hope that makes sense. It's an overwhelming feeling that really hinders my game playing cause I end up sitting behind the computer spending more time trying to decide what to play next rather than playing anything at all. Right now I am in one of those funks, kind of.

After spending a great deal of time with and finishing Fallout: New Vegas, I thought I would go back and play Mass Effect 2. Instead I ended up finishing the main story to Just Cause 2 which is an awesome game but with a TON of stuff still to be done, and completing the Normandy campaign in Company Of Heroes. I have started Mass Effect 2 and finished up most the missions on Omega, but still I am having a hard time shaking off the funk.

I am thinking that some of that has to do with not having an active MMO sub at the moment. My free month of WAR ran out on the 18th and I haven't bothered to renew it yet. Thanks to FNV and my frustration with T4 oRvR I have played about twenty hours of WAR in the past month. And even though I was genuinely excited about the new 1.4 patch changes I am finding little motivation to renew my sub at the moment. Right now I am just bored with MMO's in general.

So what does that have to do with the funk? Glad you asked. When ever I get into a funk or I'm just not interesting in any of the games I have, I know that I can turn to whatever active MMO I have to fill in the gaps. I guess you could say that MMO's are my security blanket, cause no matter what's going on in my gaming world, they are always there to comfort me.

One thing I have decided was to be smarter with my game purchases. After a quick glance at the new releases for the rest of the year it looks like the only new game I will be buying is going to be TRON. I don't care how bad that game is, I am a TRON nerd, I have to buy it! With that in mind it looks like I have quite a bit of time on my hands to dedicate to playing games in my collection, including stuff for the PS3. Heck, maybe I'll get back into FNV again, there is still so much content that I have yet to see!

Done and Done!

2010-11-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

So I finished my third and fourth playthrough of Fallout New Vegas yesterday. To be fair I didn't start a fourth game and finish it, I just continued from a save that I made about half way through my third playthrough and went from there. I started with the NCR, did the Legion next and saved the neutral endings for last.

Overall I am very satisfied with Fallout New Vegas, the addition of factions really adds a nice dynamic to the game that Fallout 3 did not have. I was underwhelmed by the crafting in the game though, both for ammo and survival and the random crashes to desktop and occasional buggy-ness of the game was sometimes off putting. But I would highly recommend Fallout New Vegas to anyone who liked Fallout 3, it's worth it.

More WAR today!

2010-11-05T16:43:00.000-07:00

I had mention in my last post about in WAR players will need to gain the emblems/crests in order to purchase gear, so the accelerated renown gain from the Progression Patch isn't such a big deal. Well it was something along those lines, but anyways I made the same comment on twitter the other day and Openedge politely pointed me to the last part of the 1.4 patch notes, which I will copy and paste here;

* To accommodate the addition of new armor and item sets into the game, we've made the following changes to reward distribution.

- Annihilator: This Renown armor set is now exclusively available on the RvR merchants and no longer costs alternate currency.

- Conqueror: This Renown armor set is now exclusively available on the RvR merchants and no longer requires Conqueror Crests to purchase.

- Warlord: This Renown armor set will now be attainable in Gold bags rewarded for the capture of a Tier 4 Keep.

- Sovereign: This Renown armor set is now attained in gold bags awarded when victorious in Stage I of the City Siege public quest.

- Non-set armor and weapons previously awarded in Stage III of the City Siege public quests are now found in Stage I of the City Siege public quests.

- Non-set armor and weapons previously awarded in Stage II of the City Siege public quests are now found in Tier 4 Keeps.

- Players will now receive Warlord Crests as a reward for successfully capturing an ORvR zone.

- Players will now receive Invader Crests for their efforts if they do not receive a bag after successfully completing a Tier 4 Keep public quest.

- Players will now be awarded Invader Crests as the alternate currency option inside all public quests bags from Tier 4 Keeps.

- Players will now be awarded Royal Crests from Stage I of the City Siege public quests.

- The losing realm will now be awarded Royal Crests from Stage I of the City Siege public quests.

Actually this is just the portion dealing with renown gear, but I did find it very interesting. The Annihilator and Conqueror gear no longer requiring rvr currency is awesome in my opinion. So with the increase in renown gain and these two sets of rvr gear now just costing gold, it helps players like myself be a bit more competitive out there on the battlefield. To me that seems to be the idea with these changes. The rest of the changes seem to be Mythic's way of streamlining rewards for keeps captures and city siege's. Nothing there really sticks out to me as being a bad thing.

I still don't think that the accelerated renown gain coupled with the changes to some of the renown gear is going to unbalance WAR at all. Call me an optimist, call me a WAR fanboy it if you must, but I think this is only going to help improve the quality of pvp in T4. That's my hope anyways.

War Tract Please!

2010-11-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot made about the Specialized Training Pack, or the ten dollar free level for WAR. I can understand how this can look bad and why some people are overreacting to this (as they tend to do with many things). It's my understanding that players can only purchase one per character, that's it, and it's only for XP and not Renown.

Let's get one thing straight, no one is going to be purchasing their way from r1 to r40, won't and can't happen. What will most likely happen is smart players will pick up a free War Tract that you can get in game along with a paid one to skip the last two mind numbing levels up to r40. Sorry but the sky is not falling, this is not going to unbalance the game and WAR is not going to die from this.

WAR is a pvp game and a players Renown Rank is actually more important in the end. With the accelerated renown gain from the Progression Pack players will still need to gain the emblems/crests to purchase the high level gear.

In the end no one really knows what effect patch 1.4 will have on WAR till it's released. But I am going to go out on a limb and say that things will turn out just fine.

Today's Hodgepodge.

2010-11-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

Todays post is just a few random thoughts that are too long to tweet and too short to really flesh out a blog post about. Besides, none of it's all that interesting anyways!

Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants for winning the World Series. Turns out they were the better team even if I think they were lucky to even get in. Look for them to not make the playoffs next year. I wanted to go to the parade in the City, but I kind of forgot about it this morning. Plus I was being lazy and I hate driving there so I stayed home and watched a couple episodes of Mythbusters while playing more Fallout: New Vegas.

Speaking of FNV; I have completed the game not once, but twice now. The first time was on Saturday afternoon and the second was late last night. Today I started my third play through so we shall see how that goes. There is so much content in this game, between the main quest, the side quests and then the free quests that don't show on your pip boy, plus all the exploring I doubt I ever do everything in the game. The problem with playing so much FNV is that I haven't spent time playing WAR. I logged in for about ten minutes on Monday before logging out and getting back to FNV.

Speaking of WAR; the new 1.4 patch notes were published today, so it seems it will hit live servers end of this month or early in December. There seems to be some buzz about the new RvR packs and the new item store for WAR. I would be surprised at anyone who thought the RvR packs would be free, so that's not the issue. What seems to be the hot button is the Progression Pack that unlocks Renown Rank also gives players an opportunity to advance to rr80 at a faster pace. Not only that, but players can also purchase Writs from the EA store for only ten bucks that will give players a free level.

I'm not sure how I feel about all this. As someone with a low RR toon, I would give anything to be able to avoid the seeming endless grind. But on the other hand WAR doesn't have your traditional endgame dungeon grind like you see in WoW, good gear is tied to PvP and a character's RR. I get the feeling just from browsing the forums a bit is that some are worried this could cause an imbalance of some sorts. Not sure how true that is but I do believe there is some cause for concern to be had. What I do know is this next month will be interesting for those who play WAR.

Switching gears if I may; the new James Bond game was released the other day. After watching the trailer I am half tempted to pick it up. Only half because on review I read mentioned that the game was somewhere in the 5 hour range, and at fifty bucks that doesn't sound like a good thing. Is it me or are games getting shorter and shorter, but the price remains the same? Or in some cases releasing with a sixty dollar price tag. I spent sixty dollars on Modern Warfare 2. I did get my moneys worth, but I will not be spending that much on a game again unless it's for a collector's edition. Or till all games have that price tag.

So if I don't pick up Bond then I might take a few days to catch up on some WAR then replay Mass Effect 2. I've done the Paragon side, now it's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum as a Renegade! Or maybe Borderlands on the PC cause Anjin keeps talking about it. Or how about one of the many neglected PS3 games sitting on my shelf. Oh the trials and tribulations of being a gamer.

Dominated by the Mojave.

2010-11-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

Fallout New Vegas has been the game of choice for over a week now. I haven't touched WAR since last Monday's all day binge and I played a few hours of Tales of Monkey Island at work the other day, so all my other free time has been spent in the fabulous world of FNV!

I actually finished the game on Saturday and have been wasting time in game trying to decide how I am going to play through a second time. I figure that there are at least two more times I will need to finish the game because of the different endings and the factions involved. Normally I would move on to another game, but I think I am going to start a new habit and keep playing, that way I won't be spending the next year or so telling myself that I should play that game again like I have been doing with Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age and even Fallout 3.

My non-spoiler thoughts on the final mission: it was extremely hard on hardcore mode and my stupid dog kept dying. Honestly I wasn't having fun but I did have to work at completing the mission and in the end it was very satisfying when I knew I was actually going to beat the game. It had taken me a few hours and many, many reloads just to finish it.

So for now I think I will continue my trek across the Mojave, and one thing's for sure, I have gotten my moneys worth out of Fallout New Vegas.

Generic WAR post.

2010-10-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

Werit had a post yesterday about some PvE content being apart of Thanquol's Incursion, the new 24v24 rvr instance on the test realm. What caught my eye wasn't something in the post, but the first comment and Werit's response to the comment.

The comment was along the lines of not being happy with having to grind another twenty levels of renown when the new RvR content goes live. To which Werit responds by saying that he doesn't feel it's a grind and no matter how long it takes, he's going to enjoy the ride. That right there my friends is an awesome attitude and it really struck home with me.

Now let's go back a few days to a post on Bootae's blog about play styles in oRvR. It's a post about how some players prefer running solo, some will only run with a group and how either way is fine, but to be a well rounded pvper, it's best to try and learn to do both. Sounds simple right? Well for some it's not.

So what do either of these posts have to do with one another, or anything for that matter? They made me think about how I play and view my time in WAR. Last week I made a post about WAR and how I was going to tough it out in T4. Well as it turns out, that didn't last long, cause a few hours after that post I cancelled my sub to WAR. I made that post then proceeded to play some awful oRvR for about an hour, so I told myself that I have had enough. It was the last day before the next billing cycle and I figured that I would just stick with the Endless Trial instead.

Being the stubborn type, I decide to jump back on with my Black Orc and for the next three hours or so I had the most fun in T4 to date! That day wasn't about zerging or rage quitting if things went bad, it was about discipline and control. The warband I was in followed instructions, they didn't complain and most importantly it seemed that everyone was having fun. Not only did we have a successful zone flip, we also had a successful city siege, it was great. Needless to say I have an active account once more.

The moral of the story is that there's no reason to be in a rush, there's always something to do in WAR and most of all just enjoy it.

The WAAAAAAGH....

2010-10-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

Well it's just over half way through the month of October and I have yet to post anything. So while thinking or something to write about I decided to look through some of my older posts when one caught my eye. It was a post on April 16th of this year and it so happened to be about Warhammer Online.

A few weeks ago the unruly folks over at Multiplaying.Net started playing Warhammer Online again and talking about it on their podcast. I have always felt that on paper WAR is the MMO I should love the most: multiple races with differing starting areas, lots of PvE, and varied PvP gameplay that I can participate at my discretion. I think the main sticking point for me is the PvE content; the quests are really well written, seem pretty varied at times, but there is so much running around and the level grind was tough to stomach after playing WoW so much.

But I decided to use my Call to Arms 10 day free play, and I have been reminded of why I both like and dislike the game. I will say that leveling seems to be going much faster now, primarily due to the huge amounts of rest xp I have, so that was a pleasant surprise, but there is still a lot of running around at my level. In the short amount of time I did play that was really the only complaint that I had with the game, it's been a lot of fun doing scenarios and running around doing oRvR in T2.

But my free play ends today and with all the hockey going on right now I will not be reactivating my account. At least not yet. I figure that once the first round of the NHL playoffs are over there will be more time to play games, but right now I am DVR-ing everthing and watching games before and after work, I love it.

I bring this up because WAR has been my MMO of choice for the past two months, and pretty much my game of choice really. I don't remember how much WAR I had played before this most recent stint, but I do know that I had a very different mindset about what I was looking to get out of the game.

When I wrote that post in April, I was still looking at WAR as a pve game with optional pvp content to satisfy me, but it's the other way around. WAR is a pvp game with pve content used to fill time when there is no oRvR going on. Back in August when I resubbed, I started of questing and leveling till about rank 6. At that point I thought I would see if there was any action going on in T1 oRvR, and it was at that point when my experience with WAR changed. No longer was I looking to quest, level and do some PQ's, I was only interested in how many Destro players I could kill from that point on. That was of course when I was playing my Engineer, I have since gone back and spent most my time with my Black Orc.

But not everything has been peaches and cream. T2 pvp was awesome, it was fun and it was easy to get into. T3 was when the game slowed down for me and finding consistent oRvR was a pain. I eventually had to resort to questing in order to rank up and to gain some gold, cause pvp was not making me rich and it was an extremely slow way to gain rank.

Then came T4. Once I hit r30 I immediately headed to T4 looking for some oRvR. Unfortunately the game really changes in T4, and my first impression was not positive. Frankly the pvp is not as accessible as the previous three tiers and the game becomes very gear dependant, something that turned me off to WoW's pvp.

The thing is I still love WAR. I love the look, the content, the pacing of the combat, but I don't love the lack of oRvR when I am eager for some and the pacing of the game really slows down by the time you make it to T4. So what does the future hold for me and WAR? For now I plan on toughing it out in T4 with my Black Orc while messing around with the various other characters I have. I do love this game.

Dub's Playlist of the Week.

2010-09-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

My playlist this week is going to be kind of short. The week has been dominated with Warhammer Online. I understand that Civ V was released this week and I do plan to play more of it, but WAR has really sunk its teeth into me. There was a little tiny bit of Bad Company 2 and Jolly Rover sprinkled in, but it's been all about WAR.

Greatest Invention of the 21st Century.

2010-09-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

Some people say that the iPhone has been the greatest invention of this generation. I'm not sure about that, but I am sure that the greatest invention of the 21st century has been the Razer Naga Gaming Mouse.

Now I've known about this mouse for quite some time, but had little interest in actually buying one. That was until I mentioned on Twitter about being a mouse clicker in Warhammer Online. It was like a light bulb went off in my head as I said to myself 'self, isn't there a mouse that is suppose to help with that?'. And indeed there is.

What you have to understand is I have been using a Logitech Trackball mouse for over a decade. Not the same mouse of course, but it has been a trackball mouse. I have tried to migrate back to a regular mouse a few times over the years, but I just couldn't get accustomed to the feel of them. So when I went to Best Buy to pick up the Razer I had asked about the return policy. I didn't want to spend all this money on something that may or may not work for me.

But it doesn't matter now because I love my new mouse! Not only does it feel great and is comparable to how I felt with a trackball, it also has made WAR that much more fun. I won't lie, it has been a challenge, but it hasn't been as hard of a transition as I thought it would. I've even used the Razer in Bad Company 2 and did well, that's a great thing for somebody like me who had been tracking it as long as I have.

Is the Razer Naga needed? Not really, I did just fine in FPS games and in MMO's in general. The main reason for the purchase was for the 12 buttons on the side of the mouse. I have tried to be a keyboard clicker, and it just doesn't work for me. I would spend more time looking at the keyboard to make sure I was hitting the right keys. Where the Razer was needed was in PvP. I am tired of just being mediocre, I want to be somewhat competitive, and the Razer Naga is doing that for me. Is the Razer perfect? That depends really. There is still the occasional confusion as to which button I am pressing, but the majority of the time it works perfectly for me. The best thing about the Razer is it allows me to focus on watching the screen. It really has improved my experience in oRvR in WAR, and I do think it's helping me improve as a pvper.

Dub's Playlist of the Week.

2010-09-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

I haven't done one of these in awhile, so I figured it was time for another. My playlist has been dominated primarily by two games over the past month: Battlefield Bad Company 2 and Warhammer Online. There has been the occasional other game like Jolly Rover and Napoleon Total War thrown in there, but according to Raptr those other two have been the games of choice.

I'm not sure what it was that prompted me to get back into BFBC2, but I'm glad I did because I have been having quite a bit of fun. I did play a lot back when the game was released and quit playing because I found many aspects of the game to be just extremely frustrating. Well those things are still frustrating, but I decided to approach the game with a better attitude. I figured that the cheaters are going to cheat, some hard to believe deaths are going to happen both for me and against me and sniping is the bane of all games.

Don't get me wrong, the game is a lot of fun, specially when you're on a server with players that understand teamwork. But there are still times when it's best to just take a break and walk away from the computer. I will say that the most recent patch that had quite a few weapon tweaks for balance purposes seems to have helped out a lot, so the fun to BS factor is not like it once was.

My primary goal this time around was to not only get better, but to start leveling up various weapons to earn gold stars. I have received gold stars in all of the Assault weapons and Engineer weapons including the rocket launchers, and right now am working on getting gold for the Medic weapons. I am not much of a Sniper, so those weapons are probably not going to get gold.

I just wish Bad Company 2's performance wasn't so spotty at times. Modern Warfare 2 not only runs great, but runs great while looking great. BFBC2 has bigger maps with more players so I have had to dial down some of the graphic settings to help keep the game running smoothly. It still looks good, but it could look better.

The other game on my playlist that has seen some considerable play time is Warhammer Online. It's hard to believe that WAR has been out for two years now. I don't remember much about WAR back at launch, but I did happen to write a review for the game, if interested you can read it here. That review was posted less than two months after launch, and already there were issues with server populations. I find that interesting because now there are only four North American servers.

I think it's a great time to be playing WAR; the 1.3.6 patch I think has been great. Personally the best change has been closing off Land of the Dead to T2 and T3 players. In the past players could fly there and just grind levels turning T2 and T3 oRvR lakes into ghost towns. These days I can come home from work and am able to find a warband either attacking or defending something, it's been great. Some nights are better than others, and on those occasions when nothing is going on in T3, I know that I can log in with my lowbie T1 character and find some action in RvR.

I have been spending the majority of my time playing my Black Orc on Volkmar. T2 was a blast, but I am finding T3 to be quite challenging. It's not because I get facerolled constantly, but there seems to be less activity than there was in T2. Not only that, but it would seem that I am the only character in T3 that is without a mount still. When I got back into WAR last month, Broarr was only rank 14 with about 5g. I can count the number of PvE quests that I've done since on one hand because it's been all Scenarios and oRvR for me. Well that doesn't seem to make the money I need for buying a nifty mount. Last I looked I have almost 7g and mounts cost 15g.

The playlist will certainly change after next Tuesday when Civ V releases, and then a week later Dead Rising 2 comes out. And we can't forget about Fallout New Vegas which comes out the first week in October! Man it's a great time to be a PC gamer!

More F2P goodness!

2010-09-16T14:50:00.000-07:00

Remember that time when I was excited about the Everquest 2 Extended, and how I went on and on about it? Well, as time went on and more information about the pricing came out the excitement kind of died a bit. It also didn't help that I jumped head first in Warhammer Online again. I would actually attribute the lack of EQ2X play time more to WAR than anything else, I'm just so addicted to PvP in that game.

But enough about that, I wanted to talk about something else. You see, if I just wet myself at the EQ2X announcement, then I totally crapped my pants at the announcement of Pirates of the Burning Sea going F2P. Around May of last year I bought PotBS on sale for only five bucks from GoGamer.com. I actually had six weeks of free play because I also signed up for the 14 day free trial, smart thinking eh!

I had a blast playing the game, even talked one friend into at least trying the game for two weeks. The problem was that Champions Online and Aion were right around the corner, and I was still subbed to Age of Conan as well. So I never actually subbed after my free time was over because those other two games I was going to be writing a review for and knew I wouldn't have much time. As much fun as I was having, I never quite felt that PotBS was worth a fifteen dollar monthly sub. Don't get me wrong, the game has awesome ship to ship combat, something I haven't been able to find in an offline single-player game.

Regardless of whatever MMO I may be playing at the time, I am most definitely going to be playing PotBS, and you should too!

Sport the WAAAGH...

2010-09-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

My MMO of choice the past month has been WAR, and boy has it been fun, most of the time. I am a PvE carebear at heart and generally stink at any sort of PvP in MMO's. So when I initially came back last month, I created an Engineer on the Iron Rock server and instantly went back to the Dwarf T1 starter area. So for about six levels I just quested and ran a few Public Quests while waiting for scenarios to pop.

Then one day I had this idea that I would go ahead and check out the Empire vs Chaos T1 oRvR, cause with all the free accounts there has to be some PvP going. Let me tell ya, after that night my way of playing WAR changed. It was as if the rain had stopped, the clouds had opened and a ray of sunlight hit me in the face, all the while angels where playing music as if to tell me 'Now this is how you play the game!'. From that point on I logged in, joined an open warband and proceeded to blast Destro into tiny bits.

That was all well and good, till I hit T2 with the Engineer. At this moment he sits idle waiting for me to just take my punishment like a man, cause everyone knows starting out in a new Tier is like having your face kicked in repeatedly, eventually it will stop, I hope. I did have two other characters already in T2, my Chosen on Badlands and the Black Orc on Volkmar. Well I remember when I used to own face back with the Chosen, I'll just dust him off and give it a go.

That didn't last very long. I know I am not playing this class correctly, but it's really discouraging to get creamed as a heavy armored bringer of death. So I decided that I would mess around with the Orc; that turned out to be a great decision. It was a bit rough at first, but eventually I got the hang of the Black Orc and started wreaking shop in T2.

But once again, that was all well and good till I hit T3 with the Orc. T3 on Volkmar is a mixed bag so far. Last night was probably the best night in my young T3 days. We had a full warband take a keep and some BO's and get the elf lands to flip to Destro. I will say one thing, the renown xp is nice. But again, being on the beggining end of the tier, I am easy picken's for high level Order.

Regardless, I am still enjoying WAR, I look forward to going home after work every night and logging in, evern if it's for an hour or two.

LOTRO F2P this Friday.

2010-09-08T16:59:00.000-07:00

So apparently on September 10th, Lord of the Rings in its F2P incarnation goes live here in the US. No offense to Blue Kae or anyone else who may love LOTRO but I could really care less. If you were not a paying subscriber or lifetimer before the F2P announcement, then there is absolutely nothing in the F2P version that will draw you in other than the price. Let me put it another way - going F2P is not going to make LOTRO any better.

I predict that there will be a large number of players from the levels of 1 and say 24, but once players will be required to start shelling out money to continue questing those numbers will drop. But this is me being jaded, I am sure there are a number of players looking forward to this and I hope that it's successful, but I highly doubt that you will find me in the world of Middle Earth.

How I feel about F2P LOTRO.

What I am looking forward to in September!

2010-09-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well September is here, and that means we should start seeing a lot more games being released for the holiday season. I thought I would share the few games that I am looking forward to playing this month!

1) NHL 11 for PS3.

Since I no longer have a working Xbox, I will need to satisfy my console thirst on the PS3. Not a bad thing, but I have become comfortable with the Xbox controller when it comes to my hockey games, so hopefully there is little difference between the two. The Be a Pro mode was what I played most last season, and this years mode looks even better. I also would like to get into online play once again; I did very little last season because of a few tweaks to the controls that I felt made playing online to difficult as a Defenseman. NHL 11 comes out on Sept. 7th, I will be paying off my preorder this weekend to insure I receive one.

2) Civilization V for the PC.

What can I say, I have loved the Civ series since I was introduced to Civ II. What I do know is that I will most likely be losing sleep because I can always just play one more turn! Civ V releases on Sept. 21st, so I better get as much sleep as I can till then.

3) Dead Rising 2 for PC.

I wrote Dead Rising 2 off when I Xbox fried. But then I learned it was PS3 as well and I suddenly was interested. But the other day I noticed that Steam has the PC version for preorder, and now I am excited. I loved the first game and number two looks to be just as awesome. The fact that Capcom is releasing this for the PC makes me the most happiest of all. It will be Games for Windows Live which I love for two reasons - achievements and controller support! The zombie beheadings will begin Sept. 28th, can't wait.

A few notibles that have already been released that I am still looking to get are - Singularity and Mafia 2 for the PC. With WAR taking up my evenings at the moment and the other three games coming this month, I have no idea if I would even have the time to play these two games. Man it's a great time to be a PC gamer!

FFXIV slowness.

2010-09-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

Not long ago I complained about the downloading and patching of Runes of Magic. Well I think the Final Fantasy XIV beta has got that beat. When I went to bed last night I was at roughly 50%, when I got up this morning it was nearly finished at 99.5%. It would seem that Square Enix went with a P2P type download system, like WoW's patcher, and it's awfully slow. Good news is tonight we here in North America should be able to get codes to play in beta, so hopefully all this painfully slow downloading and patching will be worth it.

UPDATE: It took I don't remember how many times to download the updates, but after four attempts to install said updates, I have given up for now. Each time the updating process would error out at 99%, the last time my anti-virus went nuts which caused the updating to fail. So I decided to uninstall the client I have for now and maybe in a day or two I will be able to get myself a code and a new client.

August.

2010-08-31T19:20:00.000-07:00

It's been quite the interesting August. Actually not really, hence why the lack of posts on the blog. The rash of negative posts from bloggers about the new Everquest 2 Extended service really chapped my hide. For that reason I decided to just take a small break, try to refocus and decide if I really want to keep blogging. It does seem a bit overly dramatic when I look back on it, but I like to write, I have enjoyed meeting others through the blog and there are some really good bloggers out there I love to read.

It was almost a year ago when I wrote a few extremely negative posts about Modern Warfare 2, all from a lack of knowledge on how the game was going to work because it hadn't even shipped yet. When the game did eventually ship, I held off purchasing the game on principle, but after a few weeks I did pick it up and proceeded to play something like 130+ hours of the game, so obviously I liked it.

But that period of anger and ignorance about the online portion of Modern Warfare 2 reminds of the number of posts on EQ2X, and that made me think. It made me ask myself why am I taking this so seriously, why do I feel the way I do. I don't really have an answer for that. But regardless, that excitement I had for EQ2X has slipped away and has been replaced with Warhammer Online, so it was all for naught!

I never started the blog because I wanted to use it as a platform to move onto bigger and better things, it was started because I wanted to write about games and give my thoughts and opinions because I felt that the online and print publications were writing terrible reviews. That's how it started, and over the course of a few years the blog has molded into something a bit more, and I've been happy with it. Far be it for me to tell someone how and what to write on their blog, but I have become increasingly annoyed with some bloggers that write up these essay style posts they call articles as though they are trying to get a job at Massively, or somewhere else.

Sometimes putting my thoughts into a post is a way for me to work things out, helps get the gears moving and get me to thinking, and that's what this post has been about, nothing more. August has been a good month; the weather has been pretty decent, I turned 36, and now that it's ending I am just that much closer to NHL 11, Civ V and Dead Rising. Oh and I can't forget about Raiders football!!!

So Productive.

2010-08-14T18:07:00.000-07:00

Talk about a productive day at work; I spent the better part of my eight hours watching Youtube gameplay videos of various F2P games that are out now. For some reason my mind was trying to convince me that I might somehow be interested in playing some F2P games, ha! I admit that some looked alright, but I know myself I have a hard enough time staying focused on a pay to play MMO, how in the world am I going to keep interest going for a game that I have nothing invested in?

What I was looking for was one of those Asian MMO's that had some sort of martial arts combat. I had played one a long while ago called Dragon Sky, but it no longer exists, and with good reason - it stunk. But the martial arts combat was soooooo awesome. Too bad it was a terrible game.

I did happen to catch a gameplay trailer for Star Wars Galaxies, the music alone is almost enough to want me to resub. I also watched a few more gameplay trailers for City of Heroes and Champions Online. Yep, it was a pretty boring day at work.

Shooterific!

2010-08-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

Does anyone remember when First Person Shooters ruled the PC market? Well I do. Back in the day it seemed like that was all there was to play, but not anymore. I have had a real thirst for a good fps lately so I busted out Battlefield Bad Company 2 multiplayer again. I also tried out ArmA II, a game I bought during the Steam sales, and I bought Far Cry 2 for my birthday the other day.

I find that with any online fps there is a warm up time of maybe ten or so minutes where I have to adjust to the speed of the game, and that's definitely true with BFBC2. There are still some 'BS' moments in the game that make you want to cry hacker in chat, but I have learned that if I am not having fun and I am not 'in the zone' so to speak, then it's just best to just exit out of the game and avoid the rage chat that I have been prone to doing in the past. My main problem with BFBC2 is that it runs like crap, and to get it to run better I have to force DX9 and turn down a few settings without destroying the graphics too much. If only there was a game that played like BFBC2 but looked and ran like Modern Warfare 2. Actually, I think that's what the new Medal of Honor is going for.

ArmA II is an interesting game. For those who don't know, ArmA is a military simulation developed by Bohemia Interactive, the same folks that made Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis. If you're looking for a heavy dose of realism in your shooter, these are the games you want to play. OFP was ugly, ran terrible at times, and AI was superhuman at times, but it was like nothing I had played at the time. Shooters have evolved since OFP was released, but my initial impression of ArmA II made me feel like I was playing the same buggy game just over ten years ago. To be fair I have only played about an hour of ArmA II, but I did like what I played enough not to regret my purchase.

Far Cry 2 is a purchase I made for a couple of reasons; A host on a podcast I listen to talks highly of the game and I wanted something that ran well and looked pretty. I loved the first Far Cry, that too was a game like none I played at the time. It looked great, played great and was a lot of fun. Far Cry 2 takes place in Africa this time as opposed to a tropical island like the first game, but it's still just as pretty looking. I have only put about two hours into Far Cry 2 and done only a couple of missions of jobs I think they are going to be called, but so far it's fun. Far Cry 1&2 are known for their large open world but not in the traditional sandbox kind of way. It's more like you are confined to a certain area of the map, but you are free to traverse any part of that area you want to. This allows the player to approach missions any way they want to.

So those are my shooters for now, eventually I am going to pick up Singularity and the Crysis pack, but for now these will have to do.

Fallen Earth Revisited.

2010-08-10T16:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the blogosphere craze over Fallen Earth after launch, I decided to pick myself up a copy. Here's some advice; sometimes it's ok not to listen to bloggers, cause Fallen Earth for me was a big dud. There's no real one thing I can point to as to why I wasn't enjoying the game, I just wasn't. Mostly it was that the ranged combat was borked and by not wanting to craft, I felt like I was only playing half a game. I never hated Fallen Earth for what it was trying to do, it just wasn't for me. So after playing less than ten hours during my free month, I cancelled.

The almighty Jaye Dubb

As time went on and the game was patched more and more, I had a slight desire to return to Fallen Earth and see how the game compare to when I first played. I won a code to FE off another blog, but instead of using that, I thought I would start with the 14 day free trial, give myslef an extra couple of weeks in case I was enjoying the game.

The good news is I am enjoying the game thus far. It looks better, runs smoother and I am actually interested in trying to craft this time around. The bad news is that crafting is still overwhelming, the starting towns are very empty and if I quit today I don't think fell like I am missing something. Like I said, I am enjoying the game, I'm just don't see myself playing FE like I have other MMO's.

The basic tutorial hasn't changed; you wake up in some facility that I wasn't paying attention to learn where and you must escape. What has changed is some of the extended tutorial you can do once you pick a started town. I picked Zanesville because it was a combat town that focused on pistols and rifles. The once was a mission to get a free horse, but it seems to be given to you, at what point I don't know cause I wasn't paying much attention to the mission text.

To be fair to FE I have only been playing very casually, maybe and hour a night. But I do think that part of my enjoyment comes from knowing what to expect this time around. I know how the combat is, I know half the game is crafting and I know that it's not a great looking game. I am not interested in trying the PvP, and I have no idea what the 'end game' is like, but I am interested in getting out of the started town and crafting some of the better gear and weapons. It would be great to not be using BB guns for once.

Tates like chicken!

The month of August is shaping up to be a good one for MMO addicts such as myself. There's the new EQ2X beta starting in about a week, Champions Online is getting some huge patch I believe, City of Heroes Going Rogue launches and all of this on the same day if I heard correctly. All of this along with a renewed interest in WAR that has been growing for some time. I am going to continue with Fallen Earth after the trial for at least the free month and possibly playing WAR, but who knows with these things.

Runes of Massive Patching.

2010-08-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a tip to those companies that are F2P or have a free trail - have the latest version of the client for your game to download. Nothings more frustrating than having to spend about an hour and a half downloading a client only to turn around and spend the next half hour to forty five minutes patching, not a good first impression.

For anyone wondering I have decided to try out Runes of Magic. Since I have no active subs at the moment and Fallen Earth still has free time remaining, I thought I would try out RoM to see what it's like.

Alpha Protocol Review.

2010-08-02T08:13:00.001-07:00

Well the great folks at Gamesquad have allowed me to write them a review for Alpha Protocol for the PC. If interested you can check it out here.

It clicked.

2010-08-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

As I was finishing up my review for Alpha Protocol for Gamesquad today, I had a thought; I am giving this game a low score, but I loved it, how can I do that to this game. I am required to give the game a score so I gave it a 6.0. Is this game really a 6.0? It has some really bad AI, doesn't look great and there are a number of bugs in the game, so yes it does. But I love Alpha Protocol; I finished it 5 times and invested almost 70 hrs into the game. Something about the game really clicked with me. I am really hoping that my review isn't so negative that it will deter people from ever playing AP, because it should be given a chance.

Wait and see.

2010-07-30T16:59:00.000-07:00

At the expense of sounding like a homer for SOE or a defender of the EQ2X faith, I think I am going to refrain from further posts arguing against those whose sole knowledge on the new F2P service is ignorance. Frankly I am just tired already of reading the same type of comments from people who have decided not to wait and see but instead offer up their prophecy of doom for SOE and EQ2.

Honestly no one will know what the short term and long term effects will be till after the beta starts in the middle of August. My goal from now till beta will be to flood the forums with questions about the new service in order to learn more about what I am getting for free. Free. I think I will say it one more time, FOR FREE!!! Community concerns aside, it seems some are forgetting that if they if they do not like the free service, there is a perfectly good paid server that is still available for them to play on.

I am going to make an assumption here and say that although the community may be great, it hasn't been growing much which means little revenue coming in, and the popularity of micro transaction based games was the fuel for this move for EQ2. Let's not forget that in June Massively had an article about another SOE game called Free Realms hitting 12 million registered players. I'm not going to pretend that Free Realms actually has 12 million players, kind of like WoW still has 11 million players, but they certainly are not new to the F2P model like some may think.

My hope is that everything works out, the community on both sides grows really strong and SOE continues to bring substantial content to EQ2. Why not hope for the best instead of just spewing out irrational uninformed commentary on a service that hasn't started yet?

On a side note; I activated my free Fallen Earth key that Werit game me almost two months ago. So I think I might do some progression posts on detailing my experience starting with the tutorial and how different the game is now from launch. That is of course if I can remember the game from launch, but it will give me something to do for the blog. And thanks to Anjin I am like this close |-| to reactivating my Champions Online account. Problem is the new City of Heroes expansion comes out in a few weeks and that has some interesting things in it. Who knows, I have a bad habit of wanting to resub to games, but not doing it.

Word of the day.

2010-07-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

The word of the day is: Conjecture.

Pronunciation: \kən-ˈjek-chər\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French or Latin; Middle French, from Latin conjectura, from conjectus,past participle of conicere, literally, to throw together, from com- + jacere to throw — more at jet

Date: 14th century

1 obsolete a : interpretation of omens
2 a : inference from defective or presumptive evidence b : a conclusion deduced by surmise or guesswork c : a proposition (as in mathematics) before it has been proved or disproved

If you would like a current example of the use of conjecture, please see any and all blog posts on the subject of the new EQ2 Extended service and how it along with SOE will die because of going F2P. In fact, you could read any post that foretells the future of the game and company, because at this point no one knows what exactly is going to happen.

I'm not here to fight the good fight for SOE or EQ2, I haven't been an active player in quite a long time. But what I am here to do is to be a counter weight to the doom and gloom rhetoric that is being tossed around. What I would prefer to see are more posts that are picking apart EQ2X and asking questions to try and get clarification. Green Armadillo points out something that is quite important to those who are intending on dungeon crawling or raiding. This is a legitimate concern that I think everyone should be questioning, it's just to bad the rest of the post is based on assumptions about the future of the game.

I believe what has me most peeved about the whole situation is the comparisons to what Turbine did with LOTRO and how those same people believe SOE should be doing the same thing with EQ2. I believe that the success of DDO instilled a certain confidence that Turbine would be able to handle the transition of LOTRO to a F2P business model. It would seem that SOE hasn't instilled that same confidence.

Some EQ2 Extended Info.

2010-07-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

For those who have decided to sound the death knell for SOE and Everquest 2 and its community due to the new f2p EQ2X, please check out this handy FAQ page that available for your viewing pleasure. Let me just point out a few things of interest in the order that I read them:

Active players can create a new account on EQII Extended for free or copy over a version of an existing EQII live character for $35.
Extended is an accessible game purposely developed to grow the gaming community through new players. The free adventure service allows new players to experience more quality content and increased participation than the previously offered 14-day trial.
The purchase of items in the EQII Extended Marketplace is entirely optional. While many items in the Marketplace are designed to immediately enhance your in-game experience, some of the best items and gear are the rewards of adventuring or tradeskilling and are only gained by playing the game.
To become a Silver member there is a one-time item purchase called the "Silver Membership Pack." That pack grants you an additional character slot, better chat options, extra inventory capacity, raises your quest journal limit, gives you the ability to create guilds, and more. It also grants you two very cool Advancement potions so you can level more quickly. Once you purchase a Silver Membership Pack, you are permanently raised to that membership level. There is no recurring fee for this pack or membership.
Like everyone else, you can come play Extended by simply downloading the new Extended client and activating a freeExtended membership with your same Station account.
Active subscribing EQII players in good standing are able to copy a limited version of the EQII subscription character to EQII Extended for a fee of $35 (except during Alpha). Your character is copied over with all combat, AA and tradeskill experience intact. You also keep your ATTUNED and NO-TRADE items, as well as all your backpacks, but your use of such items will be restricted by your Extended membership tier. However, nothing else is copied over included coin. Please note that this process copies your character, your EQII live character will remain, as is, on its EQII live subscription server. There will be no character copies from Extended servers to the EQII live subscription servers.
Despite the fact that the two services are separate worlds, SOE knows which expansions you've activated and we'll ensure that you have access to those expansions in both of the services, subject to your current Extended membership limitations.
Once Extended launches, the 14-day trial will no longer be available to the general public. New players can try the Extendedfree adventure service instead. However, 14-day trial passes for the EQII subscription service will still be distributed by active players on the live subscription service via the Recruit-a-Friend program. This way, friends can play together on the same server and still enjoy free time. The RAF program will be updated at a later point in time to include Extended invitations and rewards.

This is just a sample of the information that can be found on the FAQ page. My only concern is with the Gold and Platinum memberships and how that will differ from the live servers. My guess is that those two payment plans will be geared towards those that have invested a lot of time and effort into the game, but don't want to have to start over on the live servers. Which would make EQ2 live that much more enticing to someone who plans on playing that much.

I really shouldn't let a couple of posts and the subsequent comments from one of them get me so riled up, but it has. It's frustrating to read posts on the future of SOE and EQ2 when no one knows what is going to happen, it's all conjecture at this moment. From what I can gather, there is nothing new in EQ2X besides being free that is going to draw a player away from EQ2 Live if they are already a paying subscriber.

EQ2 Extended? Yes Please!

2010-07-27T17:09:00.000-07:00

I have always liked Everquest 2, but for one reason or another I just haven't stuck with the game for any real significant amount of time, not like WoW. Hmm, I guess when looking back at the MMO's I have played since the launch of WoW, none have been able to grab me like WoW has. Maybe for short amounts of time....but this is a topic for another post.

I am really excited for EQ2 Extended, I know for a fact that once it goes live I will be playing. From the information that has surfaced today I have already planned on purchasing a silver upgrade, I will probably purchase some if not all classes and races and most likely if needed I will purchase the level cap increase from 80 to 90. Why you might ask? Well it's not that I am a huge EQ2 fan or have a load of money sitting around, but instead it's from the fact that I will have the closest thing to a lifetime sub to EQ2. That's my thinking anyways, things could change once EQIIX goes into beta testing.

When compared to what Turbine is doing with LOTRO, is much more in line with what I would want out of a game without a monthly subscription price. And I have just really grown a small amount of disdane towards LOTRO in general, which is sad cause coming out of beta I was very much looking forward to playing. I have never been keen on the small amount of races and classes in LOTRO. Does it need to be to the excess found in Vanguard or EQ2, not at all. I am not a fan of the combat as well; yes there was a change, but I didn't notice it when playing my Warden, and it felt worse when playing my Champion. And let's not forget about the constant running around from one part of the map to another, or the standard gather/kill/collect quests that are enough to drive one insane. Please remember these are my personal gripes about LOTRO, if you are enjoying the game than by all means continue.

I did get invited to the beta for the new and improved LOTRO, and all I can say is that it's pretty much the same game. If you have been playing and are a lifetime or paying sub, no change for you. But if you are like me and have been playing off and on for ages and had hoped the F2P switch would have something to draw you in, guess what, it doesn't. If you are not a paying subscriber now, then there is nothing that the switch will do to entice you into playing again. That may all sound a bit negative, but for me there is nothing in LOTRO that interests me anymore, and being able to log in for free doesn't change that.

Well that's my little rant on LOTRO and why honestly that last bit could be applied to EQ2 as well. Regardless, August could be a nice month for MMO's; Champions Online getting a big update, City of Heroes Going Rogue launches and then the beta for EQ2X.

Dub's Playlist of the Week.

2010-07-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

Since finishing Alpha Protocol for the fifth time last weekend I found myself jumping from one game to another as I find something that will hold my attention. I thought Resident Evil 5 would do that, but I ended up starting and finishing that on Monday, my day off. I really enjoy RE5, I had it for the Xbox and bought it when it was on uber sale through Steam a week ago for only $12.50. I do plan on returning to it at some point, being a Games for Windows Live title I don't mind playing more to get me some achievements.

After that it's been a few games; a little bit of The Witcher and Stranglehold, some Empire Total War when I can at work, even some Napoleon Total War multiplayer with a friend. I did play some WoW this week in the hopes of getting my Paladin to level 80 so I can start the emblem grind that has become the end game. I do like many things that WoW does, so much so that I sometimes find myself wondering why other MMOs don't do those things like WoW.

I did have a friend point out why I might not be having the fun I think I should be having and why the game has slowed to a grind; I'm not doing level appropriate content. At level 79 I am currently questing in the Grizzly Hills, content for level 75-77 by the looks of it. I does make sense when thinking about it, I didn't have the instant dungeon finder with my last two characters that made it to level 80. And neither my warrior or mage had the awesome AOE grinding power that the paladin has. So I guess everyone can ignore my whinny post I made about WoW the other day!

I can't forget to mention that I played about twenty minutes of the new Medal of Honor multiplayer beta last night. If you've played Battlefield Bad Company 2, well you've played the new MoH. Shouldn't be too surprising seeing how DICE is working on the multiplayer portion of MoH. Still, it does look good and runs better than BFBC2 does.

Well that's it for this week. Not really sure what to expect gaming wise next week, I just purchased a handful of used PS3 games from Gamestop so I may be slumming it with the console. I am probably going to spend some time playing some of the games I have owned for ever but haven't played much, like The Witcher, and if they don't grab me now then it might be time to trim down the game collection. Or at least put them in the box that's in storage just in case!

WoW is fun!

2010-07-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

I don't what it is lately, but I am not finding the joy I once had in WoW. I had resubbed after almost a year off back a few months ago when a friend told me he was going to play again. And for the first few weeks I was having a blast; a blast with the random dungeon finder that is. But then things started to slow down and I just wasn't really wanting to raise my gear score just to run ICC.

Then one day I decided to jump on my Alliance Paladin, and suddenly the fun came back! I was playing at home in the morning, playing at work then back at home at night! I did this till I reached level 78 and had to stop because of losing the internets and moving to a new place.

I have this problem when I go long periods without playing a MMO, I suddenly lose my momentum and realize that I could be playing something else. That something else turned out to be Alpha Protocol for about two weeks. So eventually I relogged into WoW and take the Pally out for a spin, and I noticed the fun was gone. Instead there was pain, anguish and some seething hatred.

I think something is wrong with me because I just don't have the patience to put up with the grindy quests in Northrend anymore. I am tired of collection quests that require me to kill 50 creatures in order to loot 3 quest items, or run all over the know continent just to give some NPC a stupid (insert item here)! Frankly the main thing that killed my enjoyment of LOTRO was the questing, and getting from level 78 to level 80 is reminding me of that.

But maybe I am just tired of playing MMOs, who knows. But I am determined to make it to level 80 with my Pally, even if I have to kill someone, I mean if it kills me!

Best Thus Far.

2010-07-14T00:08:00.000-07:00

I just finished Uncharted 2: Among Thieves only minutes ago, and I can say without a shadow of doubt that it is the best Playstation 3 game I have ever played.

Sure I have only played a small amount, but Uncharted 2 deserved every bit of praise it received. It is by far the best looking PS3 game I have seen and I wish all games looked half as good.

So does that mean I absolutely loved Uncharted 2? Not completely. I will say that I do think Uncharted 2 is as close to perfect as a game can get. My issues with the game come from my eternal hatred towards platforming, and the not so great and annoying boss battle at the end of the game.

I really do hate platforming, I find it to be a way to slow a game down in order to extend game play time for the player. Honestly most of Uncharted is great, it's when I had to do some rather annoying jumping and climbing to solve stupid puzzles that drove me nuts. But again, I hate platforming.

The final boss fight in Drake's Fortune was laughably easy, in Uncharted 2 it wasn't as easy, but more annoying. Still, I was able to finish the game and was left more than satisfied. I felt Drake's Fortune was a bit over rated, maybe because I was expecting something different, but Uncharted 2 is plain awesome. I have finally found the game that made owing a Playstation 3 worthwhile.

Some Randomness...

2010-07-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

There are a few blogs that I read that I am having difficulty leaving comments on. I type my comment, hit the button to leave the comment, and then the page reloads and my comment is not there. It's becoming very frustrating!! It's not happening on blogspot or wordpress blogs it appears, but only those bloggers who have their own website set up, no idea what to do about it.

I have just finished Alpha Protocol for the fourth time, and it seems that I have invested around 67 hrs of play time in the past two weeks. Despite the bugs and jankyness, I really like the game. If there is anyone even remotely interested in giving the game a try, I would suggest waiting till it's on sale. Great game, but not worth fifty bucks.

I forgot to cancel both my WoW and AoC accounts last week, so I guess I'll have to make the most of it. I've got a paladin that is really close to level 80 that I can play and I have been thinking about leveling up a shaman. Between AoC and WoW I'm not sure if I will be able to make the time to play any of the awesome games I bought on sale from Steam this month.

Speaking of Steam, I spent just over $106 on games during the sale! Doesn't look like I'll be running out of anything to play anytime soon.

Getting back to the topic of MMOs, it's such a curse having many interests in gaming. I bought Champions Online on sale for about six bucks, and after playing just a bit I had an overwhelming desire to re-up my original account to play with the toons that I already have. Then there's my desire to play WAR, or maybe City of Heroes now that the new expansion is just around the corner, or what about Pirates of the Burning Sea with their expansion going into beta, then there's......ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

Corpse runs are cool.

2010-07-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

You know what, somehow when Blizzard was developing World of Warcraft, they set out to have a fun game that made money, which is not the way it's suppose to be. Everybody knows that Everquest was the pinnacle of MMO design and it's been downhill for the genre ever since. It's really hard to argue against that when looking at the booming server population that Everquest has right now.

The MMO genre has evolved, WoW has evolved, and society has changed, such is the way of life. It's shameful that developers and publishers want to make fun games that make money. I know this much; terrible level grind along with horrible death penalties does not make a fun game for me.

It's funny how it's now the in thing to criticize the one game that made the MMO genre what it is today, whether that's good or bad is up to you.

Lions, Tigers and RealID, Oh My!

2010-07-07T23:31:00.000-07:00

So it appears that the new mass hysteria on the blogosphear is Blizzard's RealID. I admit to not knowing much about what RealID's potential is and how it works, but for me it's just a way for me to trim my friends list down, cause instead of having every toon a friend has made, I just have their name and I know what server and character they are on.

So apparently a person's real name will be somehow shown when they post on the official WoW forums, boo freakin' hoo.Don't like it, don't post on the forums. Think RealID is bad, then don't use it in game, simple as that.

It gets pretty annoying when one blog starts to complain, so every other blog feels they need to jump on the band wagon and add their complaints. Heck, now I'm complaining about the complainers!

I am going to make it my mission to find the truth behind RealID from the source, cause if I was to believe the blogosphear then it would seem the world is going to come to an end, or that WoW is going to suddenly loose all their subs from this.

****UPDATE****

It's probably best to never write a knee jerk post right before bed!

For those who like me are looking for well written articles about the problems RealID could cause, I suggest starting with a post by Stabs. For me it was an eye opener about the real problems that players could face with the implementation of RealID.

The only RealID's that I have on my friends list in WoW are people that I have know for years. I know where they live, work, even their real names. But I am not sure that I want RealID to extent past that and it sounds like Blizzard does.

Thanks Stabs for the insightful post.

Oh no!

2010-07-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, the crazy folks over at Multiplaying.net have allowed me to write something on their site, nuts ain't it! Go check it out here, if you dare muuuuuahahahahahahah.....

It's nothing fancy but I am grateful to them for giving me the chance to help contribute to the site.

Dub's Playlist of the Week

2010-07-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

Even with Steam's awesome sale there have been only two games I've been playing this week, Empire: Total War and Alpha Protocol. Empire continues to be my game of choice while at work, its turn based campaign and the ability to pause during combat make it ideal.

There is a gameplay mode in ETW called The Road to Independence which tells the story of how America won its independence from the nasty British. The campaign itself is made up of four scenarios, with chapter four being the most interesting of the bunch. Honsetly, RtI is really just a glorified tutorial, but it's the only way to play as America because in the grand campaign they are not playable.

I actually met the victory conditions for the game awhile ago, but you are given the option to continue your game, so I did. I wanted to see some of the later military units and try for an achievement or two. The campaign by now is past that plateau of difficulty and is pretty easy; I have the largest army in the world, I'm making more money than I can hope to spend and I am pretty close to having every tech in the game researched.

So rather than continue with that game, I decided to try the grand campaign as Poland-Lithuania. So far I am having fun; I have been able to build up my infrastructure enough to support a couple of armies, made a deal with Prussia that gave me East Prussia for West Prussia (I came out on top in that trade), made a few alliances and even went to war with Prussia which saw me wipe them from existence!

Eventually I will be making my way over to Napolean: Total War, but for now I am still enjoying Empire too much.

The other game I have been playing is Alpha Protocol for the PC. Review scores for this game have been all over the place, with the PC scoring higher than the console version. I have a feeling I know why - Alpha Protocol is a third-person action RPG, and it's too easy to try and play the third-person action part and forget about the RPG aspect of the game. Alpha Protocol is like the first Mass Effect with regards to combat. The higher level you get, the more points you can invest in skills, the easier it is to kill things with guns.

There are a few other problems with the game as well like bugs, but I am hopelessly addicted to this game. I have completed the story twice now, and have already progressed about a third of the way through for a third time. Chances are looking good that I might even try a fourth play through because I would like to see how the game plays out if I make some decisions I have yet to choose the other times I have played. Hope that made sense.

The game made a lousy first impression for me, but something has worked cause I can't put it down. Even now as I write this I am looking forward to going home and playing. Maybe not worth fifty bucks, but I do think it's worth playing at some point for those who may be interested in the game.

So that's what I have been playing for the week. As of right now I don't know if that will change much for the coming week, but who knows, I did purchase an ass load of games from Steam during this insane sale and I may hop back on WoW and finally get my Pally up to level 80.

Impressions: Red Dead Redemption Multiplayer

2010-06-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption has been a huge success thus far, I for one believe it to be the second best game released this year. There is no doubt in my mind that RDR is a strong single-player game, but what about the multiplayer aspect, can it be just as satisfying?

To answer that question I decided to take a break from the single-player and see just what RDR has to offer those looking for some multiplayer action.

There are two ways to get online in RDR; from the main menu when you start the game or from the pause menu while in a game. The main menu option will automatically thrust players into a public match with other players. But what some may not realize is that you can create a private match where players can invite their friends, this can be done from the pause menu while in a single of multiplayer game. I would highly recommend that all new players start a private match first so that you can edit your avatar and check out the world hassle free from other players.

The best part about RDR's online play is the Free Roam mode. Free Roam brings the open-world that players have experienced in the single-player to the multiplayer. In Free Roam you can join a posse with other players, tackle gang hideouts or try some of the competitive modes that are scattered through out the map. In my little play time online, it seems that gang hideouts the popular choice with players.

Multiplayer also features challenges like in the single-player; there are the personal hunter, survivalist and sharpshooter challenges, along with some multiplayer specific challenges as well. The reason players would want to do the various challenges, clear out gang hideouts or participate in some competitive modes is to gain experience. It's very similar to what you would see in Modern Warfare 2 or in Battlefield; as players increase in levels, they gain access to new weapons, avatars, titles and even mounts.

Oh, did I forget to mention that online is open PvP, every man for himself just like the wild west? Well it is, and for me that's where the fun really is to be had. Now that I've gotten the details out of the way, let me tell you a tale of a man who has come to New Austin in search of fame and fortune - or how I stayed up way past my bed time having the most fun online in a long while.

Here's how the story begins; I loaded into the public match in the city of Blackwater. So naturally I begin shooting up the town, killing everything that moves. You have to understand, in the single-player story I am trying to be as good a guy as I can, so I need to let my inner cowboy out.

So after doing that for awhile, I decide maybe it's time to see what other players are doing. At this time there was just one other player, and he was out trying to clear a gang hideout. Being the curious type that I am, I go and ride out to the gang hideout to see what is going on. It's easy to spot another player when they are close because they will have this big colored circle with their name next to it above their heads.

So this guy is up on the ridge looking down at me, I know he's there but he must be using cover so I can't see him. Next thing I know this guys starts taking shots at me. So like a good cowboy I run my ass off to get out of there. At that point I have one thing on my mind, IT'S ON!!

I decided do the noble thing and wait till he's engaged in combat with some npc's before I make my rush on him. Things go back and forth for a short time; I take him out, he snipes me with his better weapons. Eventually I decide that I might try something else and ride out to McFarland's Ranch. It's a short ride away, but once there I open my map to see what there is to do and I notice his teal circle moving. A few seconds later I realize that this guy is coming after me!

Realizing that my slow moving donkey mount is not going to get me away fast enough, I decide to hijack a real horse from some poor fool and ride as fast as humanly possible out of there. At this point I can't tell where this guy is, how fast he's going and if I am even going to get away. I was litterally on the edge of my chair sweating with my heart pounding when I realize that I am not going to be able to get away and decide to make my way to Armadillo to make my last stand.

I was familiar with the town because of playing the single-player and figured that my best chance was to run and hide in the saloon. I make my way up the stairs, using the railing as cover so that I have a good view of the upstairs and down stair entrances. At this point it's a waiting game, I know he's coming just by checking the map. My heart is pounding, I'm sweating way more than I should be, I'm on the edge of my seat just waiting with a smile on my face.

BLAME!!! Not realizing that I was right upstairs he came running through the front door, one headshot later he knows exactly where I am now. What happened for the next 20 minutes was a gigglefest of me blasting him everytime he tries to come inside the saloon. Eventually in frustration I imagine he tosses a stick of dynamite at the building and it kills me. Pretty cheesy, but it worked.

For the next couple of hours I had this guy chasing me all over New Austin and Mexico. Occasionally I would stop and ambush him then ride away while I had the chance, but eventually he did corner me in a small town in Mexico. Just to be clear, this guy owned me most of the night. Yes I had some success in Armadillo and with a few ambushes, but this guy was higher level with a better mount and weapons, and he wasn't afraid to use them.

Once I realized how late it was I made my way out of dodge and he went on with his gang hideout busting ways. But for that three and a half hour span I haven't had such a heart racing, pulse pounding, palm sweating gigglefest of a good time like that in a long quite awhile.

I have yet to try out the new coop DLC that was released, but what I have played so far has been a real blast. The online gameplay is a nice compliment to the already strong single-player, and I think thats what makes RDR such a great game.

The incredible shrinking wallet!

2010-06-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am a sucker for a good sale, specially a sale on Steam! That noise you hear in the background? Well it could be one of two things; either my wife wanting me to explain why I need another game, or it's my wallet shrinking from all the games I have or will purchase on Steam during this sale.

So the damages so far include:

Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy, Splinter Cell Double Agent, Tropico 3, Making History: The Calm & the Storm, Resident Evil 5 when it was on uber sale and finally Birth of America.

This doesn't include the two games I might pick up today because they are on uber sale, Left 4 Dead 2 and HOI3: Semper Fi expansion. We might as well include the four games I bought the past week when they were on sale as well; Elder Scrolls III Morrowind and Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion and the Deus Ex Collection.

Yes my friends, that's a lot of games, and chances are I may play very little of some of those games. BUT THEY WERE ON SALE!! Some of those games I have already owned and played, but having a digital copy at such a low price seemed worth it to me. Chances are I would not have bought most of these games if it weren't for the sale.

Might as well add a game I bought on sale from GamersGate too, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War Soulstorm, a game I have wanted but did not like the price, till now!

Oh June, where have you gone?

2010-06-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

It's been a long month thus far. At the end of May a coworker went out on disability and I was to work a six day work week for what was suppose to be only a couple of weeks. But as it turns out she ended up getting herself terminated on her fourth day back to work, and so the six day weeks continue.

If that wasn't tiring enough, me and the family decided it was time to move out of our claustrophobic one bedroom third floor apartment to something with at least one more room, and not on the east side of San Jose. We are in our new place now, but there is still more work to be done, put away and cleaned. I really hate moving.

The gaming did suffer some, like when my Xbox decided it didn't like sitting next to my PS3 and committed suicided and when I was without the internet and doing no gaming at home for a few days because of the move. Lucky for me I have a computer at work so I stepped up my slacking off, I mean gaming there to compensate.

I was able to finish Red Dead Redemption just before the move, and I just want everyone to know that it's the second best game to be released this year, it's that good. Sure it has some issues, but the story and the gameplay are great. Pretty much all I have been playing for the past couple of weeks has been Empire: Total War. It's only taken me over a year to finally spend some time with a game that is pretty darn fun.

The month of June has been crazy for me with the move and the work, but hopefully here in a few weeks at most things will settle down and get back to normal.

You Have To Be Crazy Yo Pass This Up.

2010-06-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

I interrupt your regular scheduled programming to bring you this public service announcement:

Batman Arkham Asylum the Game of the Year edition is on sale through Steam. That's right, Steam has slashed the price from $39.99 down to $19.99. But you must act now cause this sale is only for a limited time.

Take it from me, you don't want to pass this up. I have played Batman Arkham Asylum on the Playstation 3, then the Xbox 360, and then finally on the PC and have finished the game on all three platforms. I can honestly say that it's one of the best games I have ever played, and the PC version is by far the most superior version of the three.

So do yourself a favor, go buy Batman Arkham Asylum, you won't regret it! I now return you back to your regular scheduled programming....

A One Console Owner or How I Became a Sony Fanboy After My Xbox Died!

2010-06-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

That's right, my Xbox died on me almost two weeks ago. And of course the warranty is up so I would have to pay Microsoft a hundred bucks to fix my unit. Now if I had the three red rings of death then I would have been covered, but noooooo I had to get the one red ring of death, the E73 error.

What's the E73 error you ask, darn good question. It apparently has something to do with my ethernet port on the Xbox. Either way I have decided for the time being to give up on the Xbox and just stick with my Playstation 3. This is my second Xbox, it was in a good place with great air flow, basically it was in an ideal condition for longevity, at least I thought so.

So I went ahead and traded all my Xbox games in at Gamestop and came away with a new copy of Red Dead Redemption and a new Dual Shock 3 Controller, along with a pre-order for NHL 11 and Fallout New Vegas. Believe me, it took me nearly a week to decided whether or not to fix the Xbox and if I was going to trade in all my games, cause I had quite a few. In the end I came to the conclusion that the only reason to own two consoles are for the exclusive titles, and very few of which I really want.

I guess the only bright side to the story is that now I can show my PS3 some love!

Sparkle Pony has invaded EQ2!

2010-05-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

I am not a big fan of the sparkle pony, I wouldn't personally buy one, but I can't fault Blizzard for thinking outside the box to make some money. Imagine my surprise when I received and email from SOE pimping out their new mounts for sale in EQ2. The price, $25.00! But instead of one mount, you have your choice of three different looking rides. I don't know what to think of it all, being so soon after Blizzs' pony sale makes me instantly think that SOE saw how successful it was and wants to try and cash in on some easy money as well.

Have players really been asking for this in EQ2? Again, not against it, just not sure why someone would spend so much on something like this.

A few RoGS Impressions.

2010-05-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

The Age of Conan expansion Rise of the Godslayer was releases last Tuesday, and as you can expect it was a bit of a bumpy launch. By the time I got home from work in the evening the servers were back up and not long after I was able to get a taste of the new content.

After a little bit of debate with myself, I decided to take my lvl 21 Stygian Tempast of Set into the new content rather than role a new Khitan character. In order order to get to Khitai I had to take a caravan from Khemi. The cool thing was there happen to be a random encounter on the journey to Khitai, and from what I read there are 9 such random encounters.

You will eventually come to the Road to Khitai, the new 20-40 level zone. From looking at the map, there are only five zones in Khitai, and four of them are level 80 areas. The nice thing in AoC is that the zones are pretty large, and the Road to Khitai is much flatter than the launch zones so it seems even larger.

So far I am having a lot of fun, the new content is tough for my ToS because most of time I seem to be fighting two enemies at once. I have noticed an increase in performance in DX10 mode in most areas except one, the broken down caravan area in the new zone. I have a feeling it has something to do with the smoke coming from the broken down wagons, but other than that it still looks great.

Here is a screenshot of the new crocodile pet I got. It doesn't do anything special that I know of, but it's a crocodile, how cool is that!

Getting in is hard to do.

2010-05-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

Has anyone ever had a game that when you watch it being played you think that it looks great and would be fun to play. And has said game been just so overwhelming that any enthusiasm and excitement you might have for playing the game are squashed by that overwhelming feeling? Well if so then I am not alone! And if not, well then crap, something must be wrong with me!

I bought Empire: Total War a few days after launch and Steam tells me that I have played a total of 25 hrs. That averages to almost 2 hrs of play time a month, that's not a lot. When I watch a friend play I think 'Wow, that looks looks great, I should play that game!'. But once I get into a campaign I almost immediately get crushed from the overwhelming scope and complexity of the game.

I think my issue comes from me trying to do way too much that early into a campaign. The best plan is probably to pick one of the large factions and play the game on the easiest setting while I grasp the game. I really have this urge, this desire to play some of the strategy games I have like Empire and Hearts of Iron III.

Becoming Unstuck

2010-05-12T18:44:00.000-07:00

Speaking of MMO's, I am thinking that I really need to just choose one MMO to play, and stop dabbling. I recently resubbed to WoW, and even though I am having fun now, I am just not looking forward to WotLK, not one bit. I am however thinking of reserving the Moria expansion for LOTRO and even doing the lifetime subscription. That way I can play as little or as much as I would like, and not worry about feeling like I am wasting $15 a month. So do I stick with WAR? I or how about going back to CoH, that game is pretty awesome, and it's not fantasy based!

It was this little paragraph from a post back in 2008 that caused my melt down a few weeks ago. Why Jason, that doesn't sound so bad what seems to be the problem? The problem is trying to pick one MMO coupled with the feeling of not wasting money on a monthly sub has plagued me for quite some time now. There are other factors involved with my feeling of being stuck in a rut, but this started the ball rolling with me coming to the realization.

I have many interest when it comes to games, not only in the MMO genre but also with single-player games. I am going to come out and say it now, I have a touch of OCD, I can't help it. I also have a bad habit of purchasing a game and not playing it for long length of time. So what happens is the OCD kicks in and wants me to play all those games that are sitting on the shelf, and I can't decide on which MMO I want to play, and what you get is a situation where you become stuck in a rut. At least for me anyways. The wild card in all this is time, I tend to use it unwisely.

I still don't know what MMO to play some days. At the moment I have WoW and AoC subbed, but I was thinking of renewing my WAR sub and even trying out STO. I have no problems with playing more than one MMO, heck I've had up to four at one time. But I am getting off track here.

I need to get out of my rut by developing better gaming habits, using my time wisely, maybe play less and just play whatever I am in the mood for. It's going to be tough, but my games are counting on me!

And the you realize...

2010-05-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

Have you ever come to the realization that you might be stuck in a rut? That the same random thoughts, struggles and questions for almost the past two years are still the same today? And does that realization suddenly remind you of a conversation you had from nearly twelve years ago that dealt with a pretty significant life changing experience? And now that conversation makes sense and you begin to wonder what the heck have you been doing for nearly a decade and a half.

And you see now why there is no contentment, your faith is weak, your walk has failed, the joy seems to be gone. Sounds bleak doesn't it? Welcome to my Saturday.

The WAR is over, for now.

2010-04-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago the unruly folks over at Multiplaying.Net started playing Warhammer Online again and talking about it on their podcast. I have always felt that on paper WAR is the MMO I should love the most: multiple races with differing starting areas, lots of PvE, and varied PvP gameplay that I can participate at my discretion. I think the main sticking point for me is the PvE content; the quests are really well written, seem pretty varied at times, but there is so much running around and the level grind was tough to stomach after playing WoW so much.

The Steed.

2010-04-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

The popular topic today in the blogosphere happens to be about Blizzards new RMT items, in particular the Celestial Steed. I am thinking the main sticking point being that the Steed happens to cost $25.00!

Darren over at The Common Sense Gamer has a nice post on the comparisons between the cost of the new Steed offered by Blizz and full games offered by a few digital retailers for the same price. I like the comparisons cause it does give one a new perspective about the amount of content versus the price.

But with that said, I have no problem with Blizz selling this, I just don't understand why anyone would spend this kind of money on a mount that will not be as unique as some other mounts in the game.

Dub's NHL Playoff Prognostication, Western Conference Style.

2010-04-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I gave my predictions for Eastern Conference matchups, today I want to give my predictions for the Western Conference. As much as I love the Sabres, I do think that the Stanley Cup winner will come from the west, it's just that strong of a Conference. So without delay, let's get started:

San Jose Sharks (1) vs Colorado Avalanche (8) My prediction: Sharks in four.

Living in San Jose I am very much interested in the Sharks, and working one block form the Tank I am not looking forward to the traffic. Sharks should win this series and I would be surprised if they lose more than one game. But, this is the Sharks we are talking about and their playoff record as of late is not very good, so I will throw this out there; if the Sharks lose game one then they are done.

Chicago Blackhawks (2) vs Nashville Predators (7) My prediction: Blackhawks in six.

Yes Chicago has a great offense, but the big question is in net for them. The Preds had a great season and they finally get to play a team in the playoffs not located in Detroit or San Jose. This series features two teams with goaltenders with no playoff experience, but I think Chicago's potent offense is going to overwhelm the Preds.

Vancouver Canucks (3) vs Los Angeles Kings (6) My predictions: Canucks in five.

This is another tough game to predict. Vancouver has the playoff experience, a gold medal winning goalie and the league's top scorer, and LA may have a decent mix of young and vet players, but the big question for them is in net. Of all the series in the west, I feel this could be the one big upset.

Phoenix Coyotes (4) vs Detroit Redwings (5) My prediction: Coyotes in seven.

For me this is probably the most interesting series in the first round. Phoenix is this years cinderella team and Detroit is trying to make the finals for a third straight time. Detroit has the experience, they are the hottest team in the NHL since the Olympic break, and no one thinks Phoenix has a chance to win this. And should rookie goalie Jimmy Howard not be up to task, Detroit can turn to Chris Osgood who has won a couple of cups for the Wings. Here is what I think; Coyotes goalie Ilya Bryzgalov is going to play like there is no tomorrow and take the Wings to a game seven and win it in Phoenix, at least that's what I hope.

Well there you have it, i'm sorry if this isn't as informative as yesterday's Eastern Conference preview, but I really wanted to get this out before the puck dropped tonight. Let's go Sabers!

Dub's NHL Playoff Prognostication, Eastern Conference Style.

2010-04-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

The NHL playoffs start on the 14th, and being a huge hockey fan I thought I would give some thoughts to the matchups in the first round of the playoffs, commonly referred to as the Conference Quarterfinals. So let's get started with the Eastern Conference matchups shall we!

Washington Capitals (1) vs Montreal Canadians (8) My prediction: Caps in four.

The Capitals are an offensive machine, if Montreal is to have any chance they need to hope they can take advantage of the Caps poor PK and pray that Jaroslav Halak plays like the second coming of Patrick Roy.

New Jersey Devils (2) vs Philadelphia Flyers (7) My prediction: Flyers in seven

If there was one team the Devils did not want to play in the first round, it would have been the Flyers. Philadelphia went 5-1-0 against the Devils this season. The biggest question for the Flyers is their goaltending, is it going to be good enough.

Buffalo Sabres (3) vs Boston Bruins (6) My prediction: Sabres in seven.

Being a Sabres fan I couldn't be any less happier to see them facing the Bruins. Boston went 4-2-2 against the Sabres this year, and Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask shut down the Sabres for the most part. On the flip side, Ryan Miller was 2-0-2 against the Bruins and is arguably the best goaltender in the NHL right now. The problem for both teams will be offense. The Sabres may have finished in the top ten in goal scoring, but that was mostly due to a late season surge in scoring while their defense was not at impressive as it was in the first have of the season. The Bruins are the worst scoring team in the NHL and if it wasn't for the play of Rask they would not be in the playoffs. Look for this series to be a low scoring snooze fest.

Pittsburgh Penguins (4) vs Ottawa Senators (5) My prediction: Pens in six.

They split the season series and all game were decided by three goals or more. But, the playoffs have a way of evening things out so expect a much tighter game from both teams with less scoring. In the end Pittsburgh has better goaltending and are a much more balanced team and it will be too much for Ottawa.

Borderlands for PC.

2010-04-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

I have owned Borderlands for the Xbox since it launched, and I chose that version mainly for the online play. My thinking is that Borderlands for the PC uses the crappy Gamespy peer-to-peer multiplayer matchmaking and it's been my experience that games seem to not have much of an online community when using the Gamespy service. So instead I decided on getting the Xbox version and don't regret it one bit.

Even though I have completed one play through of Borderlands, I have played very little coop online like I thought I would. In the meantime I had been wondering just how great the game would look on my PC, cause it looks great on the Xbox, but I just wasn't ready to fork over fifty bucks for it yet.

On Friday I received an email from Gamestop with their latest deals and what not, and I noticed that Borderlands was 50% off for digital download! Hot damn, that's awesome, but I wonder if Steam has the same deal, and sure enough they did.

I love Borderlands, it great mindless fun with loads of loot. I was able to talk a friend into buying a copy as well, and once we were able figure the Gamespy garbage we played quite a bit of coop. It was pretty difficult because there were two of us, but it was a blast.

So if there is anyone out there who wants to play some Borderlands, feel free to send me a friends request in game @ xXJayeDuBXx. For now I leave you with a video on the making of Borderlands, it was the deciding factor for me when I considering on whether or not to purchase the game.

AoC time!

2010-04-02T18:03:00.000-07:00

Today is payday, and as is customary on payday I tend to surf the web looking at computer and gaming stuff and convincing myself that I don't really need any of that stuff. But what did catch my eye was on the Gamestop website, they are selling Age of Conan 60-day time cards for only $12.99! Why that's less than a monthly sub, I should get some of those, and so I did!

I picked up two of these cards, so essentially I have four months of game time for the cost of less than two, if that made any sense. Looks like Jayedub is heading back to Hyboria!