A look back, a reflection and a 200th blog post oh my!

It's hard to imagine that this is my 200th blog post and also my last for this year. I have spent the better part of a week wondering what I was going to do and say for this occasion; was it going to be something thought provoking, tear jerking, or just to say 'Hey, it's my 200th post, yay me!'.

If there is one thing I have learned from the blogging community over the year, it's that it takes just one blogger's thought inducing post to start a spark amongst other bloggers to share thier thoughts on the same subject. While browsing through my reader I came across Petter's end of the year post, and as he says any self-respecting blog needs a year end summary post, and thus came my inspiration for my 200th post.

BTW, if you are looking for an unbiased non-angry vets view of Star Wars: Galaxies, give Petter's summary of the game a read, it's quite good.

Let me start by stating that I remembered little about what I was playing, what I had written about or what I was thinking till I started looking back on the posts from the year. I will try to not bore you with every little detail, but instead just point out a few highlights from the year, hope you enjoy.

The beginning of the year started with me cancelling WAR and playing WoW while waiting for my copy of LOTRO Mines of Moria to arrive in the mail. I kind of laughed when I read my first post of the year and reading my plans to go back to WAR eventually, something I haven't done yet and still think about to this day.

WoW became almost a seven month thing for me with some single player games like FEAR 2, Dawn of War II and Sins of a Solar Empire thrown in. And of course there was the occasional giving LOTRO another try.

By the time May had come around I was laid up with a broken foot that should have had surgery on it and was so burnt out from helping a friend with his website and had little energy left for blogging.

Of course the gaming didn't stop; in fact I remember vividly having mutliple MMO subs going just trying to find one that would grab my attention for longer than a few days. In June I had cancelled my WoW account and haven't looked back since and by the time I returned to work in July I was playing Age of Conan along with various other non-mmo games.

Thanks to Ysharros I discovered something called Google Reader, and my blog reading became easier and more frequent, as did my blog posting. For the months of August, September and October I would post over twenty times each month, something I hadn't done before.

In that three month time I wrote about my exploits in AoC, my adventures in Champions Online and subsequent review, a game review for for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Risen. I also talked about my fun times in Aion, the family trip to Disneyland, some hockey tidbits, and of course my hatred for Activision and my displeasure with Modern Warfare 2. Oh yeah, another post about why I should play WAR, but still am not for some reason.

Novemeber and December not only brought on the Holidays, but a slowing down of the blog posts as well. Not a bad thing really, I don't think I could have continued making stuff up on a daily basis. In those two months I had an Aion review, some LOTRO talk, the blog being Multiplaying.net's site of the week, and of course more Modern Warfare 2 hatred.

It has been an interesting year; my game playing has been all over the place and I feel that my writing has gotten somewhat better too. My reader has grown to large proportions and I still enjoy reading, the site also went through a face lift and I have met some really great bloggers.

Now that I have a Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3, I find that I have less time for MMO's so chances are I am sticking to one paid subscription, but that won't stop me from going back to games like AoC or WAR I'm sure. For the new year I am looking forward to a whole lot of game playing on the PS3 and of course Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Well, that's about it for the year in review, I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Years. And thank you to all those who have put my merger blog in their blogroll and to those who took the time to not only read but post as well!

Happy Holidays!

I know I haven't posted much this month, but once the holidays are over I hope to get back into writing more, cause I need all the practice I can get!

But regardless, I wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays and hope all is well!!!

1.1.2

Just for the record, Vol. 1, Book 1, Chapter 2: Breeders of the Dead is NOT a solo quest, even if the quest log says so. As a level 33 Warden I am having a crap hard time just trying to finish this quest. I can deal with tough, I can deal with challenge, I cannot deal with a supposed solo quest being designed for a group.

Decision time.

With am increasing desire to play my Xbox 360, eagerly waiting to get my PS3, playing more Modern Warfare 2 than I wanted to with some friends and enjoying LOTRO, I am just not sure if I want or can manage my time for two MMO's.

There is a new patch for Fallen Earth today and I plan to play at least some of the game at some point. But my sub renews sometime in the early morning tomorrow so I need to decide if I am going to realistically play more than a few hours this next month or not.

Lost in Everquest 2

And when I say lost I don't mean that suddenly all I can play is EQ2, I mean that I am literally lost when I log in. I haven't played EQ2 since June so I have no idea what I was doing, where I am and what I am to do. This would be my one and only complaint about EQ2, it is very overwhelming because of it's plethora of content. At least it's overwhelming for me.

I had forgotten that I had so many characters and that my highest actually made it to level 28. It's hard to believe that my account was created a couple of weeks after launch, and the highest level I have made is 28. But none of these characters are from that long ago, I deleted them after on of the GU's, not sure which.

Because I am terrible with my spare time I think that two MMO's are the most I can run at any one time. I just recently paid for a six month sub for LOTRO, so I am locked into that for awhile, but I don't know if having two fantasy MMO's is a good idea. I could see myself playing EQ2, there is a lot to do, but I wonder if I will burn out on the fantasy setting. There's always the Station Access which would allow me to play Pirates of the Burning Sea so that might be something I look into.

But if anyone playing EQ2 has any hints and tips to help with the overwhelmingness, if that's even a word, then I am all ears.

Lord of the RIngs skirmish initial thoughts.

Most I'm sure are aware that Siege of Mirkwood for Lord of the Rings Online released on Dec. 1st. But because of my addiction to Dragon Age, I haven't tried the new skirmishes that came with SoM.

So today I played the tutorial and then ran two skirmishes of the only skirmish I had available, Siege of Gondamon. I will be honest, I did not have much fun the first time I played the skirmish and I learned that I am the worst Warden on Landroval.

After my first successful but not so fun skirmish I did find out how to change my soldier to a herbalist and equip talents for her. And what a difference having a healer made for my second play through, now I was having fun! But I did change the level from 32 down to 30 so I could at least have a chance to learn how to play my Warden in a skirmish.

But it's true, I am the worst Warden on my server. I felt so lost and confused most of the time, so I am glad to have the skirmishes to use as a way to learn how to tank. I did however almost make a full level in my two skirmishes and accumulate a nice repair bill too!

Brendon Witt 1, Moving Vehicle 0!

Being a hockey fan I like the read hockey news, so it should be no surprise that this article caught my eye. The short version; Brendon Witt was struck by a SUV while going to Starbucks. He then claimed that he was ok and went on to play 17 minutes in a losing hockey game that night. There is a bit more to the story than that, but you get the idea. All I can say is Brendan Witt is all that is man, cause I would be looking to take a few days off of work if I was hit by a SUV.

Dragon Age finished!

Well I lied, I didn't play any LOTRO or Fallen Earth on Monday. Instead I played a load of Dragon Age and late last night, early this morning I finally completed the game. Of course reinstalling windows and then installing DAO first didn't hurt either.

I don't need to tell anyone that DAO is an awesome rpg, but it is. And I would like to say that Oghren is the best party member due to his great personality.

But now that I have completed one of the better rpg's in recent memory, I suddenly find myself with a load of free time for anything. I must have clocked something around 100hrs total gameplay time with all my characters.

I will be getting a PS3 for Christmas, so I may just play loads of LOTRO till I am able to get my PS3 virgin hands on my new console!

Fallen Earth falling off the map.

I have been so enthralled with Dragon Age that I have left little time for myself to play anything else. One game the has really suffered from my lack of time is Fallen Earth. I'm not ready to give up on the game just yet, but I haven't missed the game which is not a good thing.

Part of my problem is that FE is so open that I feel a tad overwhelmed. Another problem for me is that crafting is such a large aspect of the game and I am not a crafter by nature, I am about combat, exploration and for some reason I have this fascination with resource gathering.

I really like the combat mechanics; switching from a combat stance to a none combat stance, the ability to play in a third person or first person perspective is nice. But the area that I am in with one character has been experiencing some lag during combat, so the mobs tend to warp around making ranged combat a pain. One thing I did do was remap my key bindings for switching weapons, and that has helped out a lot. But at times the combat feels like Star Wars Galaxies. That's just a personal observation, every player's experience might be different.

I like how involved the crafting is and love scavenging and gathering. But to me the crafting is the focus of the game and combat is a means to getting the necessary components for recipes. That's where I think I am having the biggest problem, cause I do myself a huge disservice if I don't do any crafting. Actually it's probably more of a requirement to do crafting in FE than it is in any other MMO, but I don't know that for sure.

So what this boils down to is that I am on the fence as to whether or not I am going to renew for another month in FE. With Dragon Age eating my time, Siege of Mirkwood now released and my overwhelming desire to play all things LOTRO and my possible tour in EQ2 to check out some of those new features, I just don't know if there is a place for FE. What I plan to do is not play anything Dragon Age on Monday, and use my day off to spend large blocks of time playing both FE and LOTRO.

What I really need it a beginners guide or a road map for some progression ideas and hints for FE. But in the end the only way to learn is to play right?

Sucked In.

It started off slowly. I would play a few hours here, a few hours there. But then it happened, I have become sucked into Dragon Age, unable to get away for very long to play anything else. One problem I am having is that I tend to jump between the different characters that I have, one for each origin.

My rogue has progressed the furthest of all the characters I have. He is has already convinced the Dalish and the Templar's to join the cause against the blight and is currently working his way through the Deep Roads in the hopes of getting the Dwarfs to commit as well.

There must be a lot more to do after this because I have barley finished a third of the game. The rogue has been played for almost thirty hours and that is with me skipping most of the side quests in each area.

But I will need to break away some because I have been neglecting Fallen Earth and that sub expires in the middle of the month and I need to spend some quality time with the game to see if I am going to be renewing for a third month. Also, the Siege of Mirkwood expansion will be released on Tuesday, along with it comes some new features and a few changes as well.

Happy Turkey Day!

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I plan to watch the Raiders hopefully win against the Cowboys, hanging out with the family and going to my brothers new place. It will be a nice way to spend a paid day off.

Fallen Earth tidbits.

I haven't spent as much time with Fallen Earth as I would like to have, but so far I am enjoying the game. Ultimately it's the sandbox openness of the game that I really like, among a few other things. Alik on the MMO voices podcast said something to the effects of it's the feeling of being able to do anything you want without having to be lead by the hand from quest to quest.

But I do have one complaint, and that is the combat. I actually think the combat quite neat and can be fun if everything is running smoothly. I am experiencing a bit of frustration right now using the crossbow at close range because mobs have been warping some around my guy. The bigger problem is the clunky way to switch weapons. Instead of using a crossbow at close range I should be using a melee weapon, but's such a pain so switch weapons.

It's just a minor complaint and it's not enough to ruin the game for me.

Return to Middle Earth.

Recently Turbine had a welcome back week just this past week for LOTRO, so I decided to give the game a try, again. I have played LOTRO off and on since beta and for what ever reason the game just doesn't hold my attention for very long.

I suspect that the reason for my eventual lack of interest in the game comes from a few factors; the endless running around to get anywhere, a general lack of understanding of the combat at times and the repetitive nature of the none group quests.

Even so, I still had a feeling like I hadn't accomplished all I wanted to do in LOTRO. If you think about it, it's this nostalgia feeling, this sense of not accomplishing all that I could have that is the reason why I tend to jump from one MMO to another. It's hard sometimes to stop thinking that if only I had been more dedicated or used my time wisely that I could have accomplished more in a game. But regardless that's probably a topic for another day.

I have two characters that I play, a Champion and a Warden, both

on separate servers unfortunately. My Champion is my original character but the Warden is the one I have been playing most recently. My problem is that I don't play much and the Warden gambit system is such that I would end up spending endless amounts of time trying to refresh my memory of the many attacks.

I have been following Doc Holiday's blog for sometime now, and it's been such a reliable source of info for how to play my Warden. So what I did is print up a list of all the Warden gambits, arrange my hotkey bar like Doc does his and then write down all the gambits that I can currently use. The difference has been like night and day. No longer am I wasting time trying to remember gambits and trying to remember the combat, I now have my cheat sheet and I am playing more because I am having a lot of fun.

Knowing that the 18th was the last day to reactivate my account with a multi-month sub to get Siege of Mirkwood, I decided to do another three month sub. I noticed right after that I had to upgrade my account, and in doing so I ended up choosing another three month sub on top of the three I just done, meaning I now have a six month sub to LOTRO.

Oh well, six months at ten dollars a month sounds like a good deal to me. Maybe, just maybe I will get a character up to max level, would be nice.

Dub's Diatribe featured at Multiplaying.net

The good people at Multiplayer.net have featured yours truly as their site of the week. It's a great honor and a nice surprise. I know that I am no Syp, SynCaine or Tobold, nor do I aspire to be those guys, but I am really humbled when I am added to a blog roll or list, or in this case featured as site of the week. Thank you guys, I really appreciate it.

I would encourage everyone to check out the site and give a listen to their podcast, it's actually quite good.

Chaos Rising Dev Diary

This looks awesome. The corruption system with multiple endings is great, but my favorite part is the Space Hulk. Seems to me to be an homage to the awesome board game I would play with my buddies in high school.

Happy LOTRO time.

I just noticed that Xfire says that my most played game of the week is LOTRO at 7 hours. That is honestly amazing. I don't think I have played that much in a week since the game launched and possibly when I got Mines of Moria.

Since Turbine is having one of those come back and play free deals, I thought I would give it a try again and see if there was enough interest for me to resub and get Mirkwood. I am having some fun, and I was bummed that I wasn't able to play any last night, again very amazing.

Putting my Modern Warfare 2 disdain aside, I found this pretty funny. Seems gamers these days do not know the definition of boycott.

Enough said.

Finally a real PC review for Modern Warfare 2.

The early reviews of this game were conducted at a hotel under Activision's supervision, using the console version of the game. The launch party in New York featured the 360 version of the game. We were sent the Prestige Edition of the game the day of release for coverage. Very few people at the company seem to care that yes, there is a PC port of the game.

Well, we care, dammit. Call of Duty came from the PC gaming scene, and it was there that it was popularized. Yes, consoles are now the dominant form of gaming from a financial standpoint, but it's sad to see a game that has such a rich history on our favorite platform feel so neglected in its newest incarnation. The port of the single-player campaign is strong; the game looks, plays, and feels incredible on a capable gaming PC. The Special Ops missions are perfect if you're in the mood for a teeny-tiny LAN party (although of course you'll both need Steam accounts to play), but the multiplayer offerings feel like Infinity Ward is trying to cram a round peg into a square hole.

It's not what we're used to, it's not what we want, and the changes made to the online matchmaking set-up and lack of dedicated servers negatively change the online experience. It's just that simple.

There is no easy verdict here, but I'm going to say skip the PC version. Why? The single-player is over quickly. The Special Ops missions are great but there are better co-op games out there. The multiplayer is going to be huge on consoles, but on the PC it's just crippled. There is a lot of fun to be had here, but there are way better ways to spend your money, especially with the $60 price.

GamePlanet has a pretty good review of the PC version as well. These reviews confirm what I already felt, that the gameplay is awesome. The single player is fantastic and the Spec Ops mode sounds really great. But the gimped multiplayer kills the value for me personally and I don't feel that the game is worth the $60 price on the PC.

Aion Review

Well it's finally here, my Aion review. To summarize, I thought that Aion is not a bad game, in fact it's pretty solid; but not being able to experience the PvPvE till level 25 and the grinding gameplay was too much for me.

I could live with the level 25 requirement if the game didn't punish you for trying to get their. If the level grind isn't brutal enough for you then it's time to give Aion's crafting a try, uber brutal. I eventually swore off crafting because I could but upgrades faster than I could make them. It was amazing how much money I saved not trying to raise my crafting expertise a few points.

If it sounds like I hated the game, I did, at first. But once I gave up on the Assassin and went with the Chanter, things got much better for me.

Because I have to give the game a number, I gave it a 7/10, primarily for the grind and the lack of anything real unique in the game. If down the road NCSoft allows a free trail, I would recommend that everyone give it a try at least once, specially if you like WoW, WAR or EQ2.

I do have some free time left and I do want to try the new xp patch that came out after I started writing the review to see how much of a difference there is. But I don't miss playing the game, and not playing it has freed me up to play something like Borderlands which I do look forward to playing.

No more to say.

It has been brought to my attention that maybe I have been a little to negative in my posts towards Infinity Ward and Modern Warfare 2. Upon further reflection I would agree. Maybe I should have just focused one post about my displeasure and moved on.

Feature wise I am not happy with the use of IWNet which means a loss of dedicated servers and matches capped at 9v9. IWNet is a console style matchmaking service and if it's anything like it was on the Xbox then the host will always have the advantage because of lag.

My favorite servers to play on in Modern Warfare were 24 man and 32 man servers, so I can live with the 9v9, but why the console matchmaking service. I'm not interested in mods of console commands but the PC games that use P2P matchmaking generally fade away quickly because it stinks. Ask FEAR 2 or Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising how well there multiplayer is going on the PC.

But my biggest complaint is a personal one. It seems like years ago, but I was in a clan called {DRI}, we played Modern Warfare and even had a server. But as interest wained and real life called many of us went our separate ways. World at War did bring some of use back, but not for long. So I had hoped that MW2 would bring back some of the old {DRI} members, just like old times.

PC gaming will not die from a lack of interest alone, but from a lack of interest due to developers taking features that PC gamers have come to expect and substituting them for second rate console features.

It's not Steam.

Those few who have read the blog lately will know that I have been quite upset with Infinity Ward's handling of Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer. I feel that MW2 is nothing more than a console port and is a slap in the face to PC gamers.

So when I saw this article at Shacknews, I was both happy and confused at the same time. Basically Direct2Drive, Impulse and GamersGate are refusing to sell MW2 because it requires players to use Steamworks. But one rep went as far as calling the service a 'Trojan Horse' which I thought was odd.

I was happy because I want the game to fail on the PC market. At least at first so that IW will realize just how much we PC gamers do not like the console treatment of the games multiplayer. But after some thought, it would seem that those three digital distribution companies stand to loose out on a lot of money.

If anyone has bought a game off of Steam, then you have used Steamworks, it's not a 'Trojan Horse' like these three services would like people to think. I think that Steam is great, and is the main reason why I purchase games from them over the other digital distributors.

Now if these three companies were against MW2's console makeover, then I would support them 100%. But to me it appears that they are trying to capitalize on the growing discontant from PC gamers. To what end I do not know. I think it's a bad move on their part, they have the potential to lose out on a lot of money and I think this will just drive buyers over to Steam.

All I can now about this is thank you Infinity Ward, you have saved me sixty bucks!

Infinity Ward loves consoles, hates PC's.

I found this over at Evil Avatar:

Gamestop today hosted an online chat session with three Infinity Ward employees (including Mackey McCandlish & Ryan Lastimosa) concerning the soon to be released Modern Warfare 2.

Questions were fielded live by online users, and understandably there were numerous questions concerning features of the PC version in light of various controversies which have surfaced on the web lately.

A transcript of the session can be found on mygameclan.

Notable answers on answers to questions raised include:

there is no console command menu to tweak settings;

confirmation that there will be no modding;

confirmation that there will be no dedicated servers whatsoever;

• the ability to lean has been removed;
• there is no function to record matches;
• the largest matches will be limited to 9 v 9 players;
• IW.net will determine who should be the host player.

When directly asked if MW2 on PC was simply a port of the console version, Mackey responded "No, PC has custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings".

This just in; Dragon Age is awesome!

I have spent about four hours playing the PC version of Dragon Age, and it is sweet. The game is beautiful, there is a ton of voice acting and the combat it great. The best part for me is that Bioware has finally solved the camera issues that plagued both NWN and NWN2. The camera in NWN 2 was tolerable with some tinkering, but still a pain if trying to play from an off the shoulder camera angle. I figure that developing a console version at the same time helped.

My two complaints; trying to redeem my promo codes for my preorder was more than a pain, and there just is TOO much blood in the game. I am all for gore, but this is silly honestly.

The first pic is of me and dear ol' mother after a battle with some intruders, the second one is of my human warrior named Cypher.

It's Dragon Age Day!

If you didn't know, it's Dragon Age day! I pre-ordered mine from Steam last night, so it's ready for me to play. I am just sitting here in eager anticipation waiting to leave work, only a few more minutes...

Sid the Kid.

I have always been a fan of number 87 Sidney Crosby from the Pittsburgh Penguins, but I found this to be most impressive.

I honestly don't know how much of a fighter Zidlicky is, but I do know that superstars such as Crosby are not fighters and rarely if ever drop the gloves. Sometimes I wish the days of feuds would return, like back when the Redwings faced the Avalanche and it wasn't a matter of if but when the gloves would come off.

Just a bit of warning, this next video is long but you will get the idea pretty much right away, and there is a bit of foul language at the end from the song.

Risen Review

My review for Risen is finished. You can check it out here.

I was looking forward to this game, so I was really disappointed when it turned out to be a stinker.

Borderlands

I finally picked up Borderlands last night for the Xbox 360. It was tough for me to decide which platform to get it on, the PC or the Xbox. In the end I chose the Xbox version because I know how there will be some people who will play the game online. With the PC version I wasn't sure how the multiplayer was going to be handled and if people were going to play it.

My first impression; the game starts off a bit slow. You aren't doing much for the first half dozen levels and it seems things open up gradually.

I will admit that even after reading about the game and watching videos on it, it still wasn't quite what I thought it was going to be. There is a slight ounce of reality injected into the combat. You will get the best accuracy when aiming down the barrel as opposed to shooting from the hip, and short controlled bursts more effective that trying to go full auto, which is a bad idea most of the time.

The controls for the vehicles are almost too responsive, I find myself over correcting a lot. I am also struggling with steering; the left thumbstick moves you forward and reverse, the right thumbstick controls left and right steering. My problem is that I want to just control the camera with the right stick and use the left stick for steering, kind of like when you are on foot.

Borderlands reminds me a bit like Too Human. Both games are combat focused, have limited rpg elements in the for of a skill tree, and you get tons of loot which I like. Too Human is more story driven and Borderlands seems more open with you getting odd jobs in between the story, which works for me because it fits the setting.

An hour into the game I was questioning my purchase, but after looking at the clock and realizing that I stayed up way too late playing, I came away from my first time with Borderlands happy. I look forward to trying out some online co-op at some point.

How to Make an Unsuccessful MMO.

For a small indie developer it would be to make a blatant copy of the most successful MMO to date, but make the game less fun, less interesting and broken. I am of course talking about Alganon.

I would like to direct your attention to That's a Terrible Idea first. Once done there I would suggest heading over to Eldergoth next. Both sites feature a preview from the beta of Alganon, and they echo my sentiments exactly. I was given the opportunity to play Alganon this week and do my own preview for the game as well.

Alganon is a terrible WoW clone. I'm not talking about taking ideas from WoW, it looks just like the game. The menus, the graphics, the interface, everything looks like an exact copy from Blizzards behemoth. What might be the worst sin of all is that Quest Online thinks they can fool gamers into paying $15 a month for this game. Alganon should be avoided at all costs.

Champions Online Blood Moon is Live!

The new Halloween event Blood Moon for Champions Online starts today. There's a pretty significant patch that not only includes the event but some other content and of course fixes and tweaks. I am not going to list the patch notes, you can read those here.

Not only is there the new Blood Moon event, but the new Celestial powerset can be unlocked early and all characters created before today will receive a free retcon. I am really pleased with the changes to the mission sharing and the addition of some level 18 content in Millennium City.

I think I will be playing some Champions tonight, I want to get that new powerset! In case anyone missed it, here is the trailer for the new Blood Moon event.

Assassin's Creed: Lineage

The first video in the new Assassin's Creed: Lineage miniseries is all kinds of awesome. I'm looking forward to the other parts to the miniseries, but more importantly I can't wait for Assassin's Creed II.

The blog.

I spent way too much time today updating the blog with a new template. It took a considerable amount of time to search for a template that would look right, and then try to edit the html to remove anything that I did not want on the blog. All I know is that my html-fu is very rusty, but in the end I happy with the way things look now.

Blogger blues.

Earlier tonight I was messing around with some custom templates for the blog because I would like more space for the posts so I don't have to fiddle with the video sizes, and I thought a change would be nice too.

But what I didn't realise and I just noticed is that I am now missing my blog roll widget. Not sure how it happened, but it did. There were these warnings that popped up when I uploaded templates, but I ignored them, oh well. No time like the present to change things up right?

I don't pretend to imagine that I have a ton of readers, but I do like to link to blogs that I like to check out on a daily basis. So hopefully tomorrow I will have a new template up and get the blog roll fixed!

Can you say Knuckle Puck!

How would feel if you were this guy? Not good I would think.

Busy weekend.

Things are going to a bit busy for me this weekend. The wife has to work both Sat & Sun, I have a review of Risen that I need to type up, doing a preview of Alganon, and on top of that I want to play some Aion and Fallen Earth, and maybe a bit of Champions Online.

I was just browsing Gamerankings.com at how Risen has fared, and I noticed something; the PC version has an average score of 80% and the Xbox 360 version, not released in the US, has an average score of almost 59%. As far as I know they are the same game, so why such a wide spread in scores. I really can't explain it, maybe hardcore rpg's are loved on the PC regardless of faults and not so much on a console.

More Modern Warfare talk.

1up has posted a article trying to explain what has the PC gaming community up in arms about Modern Warfare 2's lack of dedicated servers. For those interested, you can read it here.

I would like to quote the last part of the article:

"Whether Infinity Ward caves in and provides server browsing support at a later time remains to be seen, but for the time being, they seem to be sticking by their guns. And rightfully so -- no one has actually seen IWNet in action, so it'll be interesting to see if the hardcore crowd's fears are alleviated when Modern Warfare 2 is released."

As far as I can tell, no one has seen how IWNet works. But the description of IWNet would make one believe that MW2 is adopting the console matchmaking service. What would be great is if Infinity Ward would produce some sort of video that explained and demonstrated in detail what IWNet will be like for the PC gamer.

But in the end this IWNet is probably what us PC gamers believe it to be, a console port. Really what it boils down to is that Activision wants us to pay now for DLC just like the console crowd does, no more freebies like we have grown used to over the years. Infinity Ward can say it's about ease of use, about keeping cheaters out of the game or trying to stop piracy, but really it's about money.

I think I will just buy Activision games used from Gamestop, that way the developers and Activision will not recieve any of my money!

Finally!

It has finally happened. I am finally having some fun in Aion, and it only took about 45 hrs to do so. Basically I decided to give up on the Assassin and play a Chanter, and so far it has been the best decision since I started playing.

I played a Scout in closed beta and went Ranger instead of Assassin when the time came to choose. The Ranger wasn't bad but I wanted to try something different so that's why this time I chose the Assassin. I should have known the headaches that I was going to have because Scout became a huge pain to level up to 10 once the game was released. But I stuck with it and it's been anything but fun.

I have actually leveled all four archetype classes to 10 where you get you ascension quest and then choose your secondary class. If this sounds familiar, then you probably have played EQ2 back at launch. Of the four I would say that the Warrior was the strongest in the ten level tutorial and the Scout was the worst. The Mage and Priest fall somewhere in between, but both were pretty strong too.

Of the eight secondary classes I have yet to play the Cleric and the Spiritmaster. The Clereic would be the dedicated healing class and the Spiritmaster is a mage with a pet, and a stupid look pet.

The Chanter is a priest class and would be secondary healers. They could be compared to the Paladin in WoW, the Bard in DAoC, or better, the Warrior Priest in WAR. The Chanter is a melee class that has a decent heal and heal-over-time, but it's the Mantra's that make Chanters useful in groups.

Needless to say, I am having fun, the game finally feels a bit less like a grind, and I am living longer.

Response to Modern Warfare 2 for PC

It appears that Infinity Ward is aware of the outcry from the PC gaming community over the recent announcement or about Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer. FourTwoZero has a post with information on the new IWNET, how it works and why it will be better. You can read it here.

Now that you've read it, I would like to say that it sounds an awful lot like how multiplayer matchmaking is handled on a console. Rainbow Six Vegas 2, FEAR 2, OFP: Dragon Rising; these are a few of the shooters that I have that I can name off the top of my head that have similar matchmaking multiplayer and they all blow to play on the PC. The model seems to work great on the console, which I like when playing on the Xbox, but not on the PC.

I do like that the friends list that was introduced in World At War is coming to MW2, but that's about it. Which is unfortunate because I was really looking forward to getting this, but the increased price plus the crappy matchmaking has convinced me to scratch this off my list for now.

Activision screws PC gamers.

Before I say anything, I will direct your attention to the Joystiq article that I read about some not so great news about Modern Warfare 2.

The article itself is not very long, but the news alone is enough to make any PC gamer upset. So MW2 will not have dedicated servers like past CoD PC games did and instead immolate the console peer-to-peer model that does not work worth the damn on the PC.

If that wasn't enough, Activision has decided that the PC community has been treated way well so now we as PC gamers must now pay for DLC and the game will have a $59.99 price point as well.

I can understand paying for DLC, I have done it for a few games. But no dedicated servers and sixty dollar price tag? No thanks.

A couple years ago I wouldn't have cared about the multiplayer stuff, but that changed with Modern Warfare. I will play through the game once, but I will play online for months. The game itself looks awesome, and I am sure it's great, but why the need to charge more and cut out something that is synonymous with PC online gaming? If I wanted an console online gaming experience, I would buy the game for my Xbox. But I don't, I want it for the PC.

I was really looking forward to this game on the PC, now I am in wait and see mode. Guess that means more time for some Fallen Earth and Borderlands if I pick that up.

Dragon Rising Review

The awesome folks over at GameSquad have decided that my review for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising was good enough so they posted it on their website!

You can check it out here. Please feel free to give out any constructive criticisms!

GameStop blues.

All I wanted was the amount of credit I would get for a couple of Xbox 360 games, that's it. So knowing that stores can be busy I decided that I would call a few different locations and ask for the amount for one game only.

The first store told me they were busy and to hold, but just set down the reciever on the counter or something. So for roughly the next ten minutes of so I listened as the associates helped a couple of customers and then proceeded to talk amongst themselves, not realizing I was still on the phone.

The next store actually did give me a quote, $9.00 for Resident Evil 5, rip off.

The next three stores all told me about the same thing; that they could not give me a quote over the phone and that I would need to come down to the store for that. I asked one associate if that was a store policy or corporate policy, and she said it was the store policy. I thanked her for her time and hung up.

So then I decided to call the corporate office for customer service to get some information and to complain. After having to explain in detail twice to the guy on the phone, he waffles some stating that he doesn't see how stores can give a quote without seeing the game because there are many factors involved in the pricing. I asked him if that was a corporate policy and he said no, and I told him that I worked for the company, I know they have prices on the computer and it's really poor customer service on GameStop's part. Then I thanked him for his help and I hung up.

Truth is that I did work as a store manager at GameStop almost seven years ago. My store was one of the best at customer service both in the store in on the phone, and my employees dressed well and the store was always clean. I rarely find a store that has those standards anymore.

I would not be nearly as upset if the policy of not giving quotes over the phone was something that was handed down form corporate, and it was explained to me in a professional manner. But to have one store give me a price, another going to but have crappy customer service skills, and then three that wouldn't is just no acceptable.

Ok, thus ends my rant.

Fallen Earth

I finally did it, I took the plunge and bought Fallen Earth last night. I didn't really want to but it from Steam of D2D so I was going to just pick one up at the local Fry's till I saw that I could purchase the game straight from the Fallen Earth website. I thought how awesome, I will save a few bucks and some time by doing the purchase this way.

So the download and install went ok, but that's about all that did. The downloader that I used from the email that I was sent only installed a small portion of the game and the other 4.0gb of files needed to be downloaded.

No problem I thought, I have stuff to do and I can always play on the Xbox to kill time. Don't know about anyone else, but that sounded like a great plan to me, but the Fallen Earth patcher apparently had other ideas as to what I was going to spend my time doing.

The patcher for some unknown reason will only download a certain number of files before it decides that it needs to take a break. It could be five files, it could be five hundred, either way it was going to be a long night if I was going to have to cancel and restart the patcher each time it quits out.

I did check the forums for some information and it seems that I am not the only one to have this problem. There were a few suggestions like try a different downloader or download the beta client from Fileplanet. Being the tired and not thinking one I chose to go with Fileplanet, but no matter each method was going to take me a while.

One everything was downloaded, installed and started patching, I decided that it was time for bed at 0230 in the morning and just left the computer running for the rest of the night to finish with the patch. Woke up this morning to find that the patcher had quit not too long after I had gone to bed. Eventually I was able to get the game to finish patching, but what a hassle. Not a great start.

But I did get to play for a short time today before work. I was able to make my way through the tutorial and am now hanging out in Depot 99.

Disney Pics

Just thought I would share a couple of pictures from the family trip to Disneyland. There are more than these, a whole lot more believe me. But I like these two.

Aion continues.

Aion continues to dominate my game playing time, and for good reason. I feel that it would be beneficial to play the game as much as possible and get as far in the game as I can in order to write a well informed review.

Right at this moment things are going a bit on slow side and I have only reached level 17 with my Assassin. The assassin class is proving to not be as fun as I had hoped and have many times wished I just chose Ranger instead. I do however have a level 11 Sorcerer and he's so far pretty fun to play.

The problem is that Aion is just not grabbing me like I had hoped it would. But niether is Champions Online for that matter, a game that I played a bajillion hours during the first three weeks and now have hardly touched over the last two. Good thing is that Champions will be active to at least the middle of December, so I have lots of time to play and get a few characters to level 40. That's the plan anyway.

In other game related stuff; I am putting the finishing touches on a review for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, and have started playing a game called Risen and will be doing a review for that one as well.

My Age of Conan account was canceled for now because of Champions and Aion and LOTRO has only about a week left till it's done. Here's the curious thing; I logged into LOTRO and I was having fun, and I was beginning to question why I am quiting that game. Damn you LOTRO, why can't I just quit and be done with you!!!!!

Sabre Highlights

Here's some highlights of the Buffalo Sabres just smacking around the Detroit Redwings. Go Sabres!

MUA2 Review.

My Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 review has been posted thanks to the nice folks at GameSquad. You can read it here. Any questions, comments or concerns, please ask!

Been a bit busy.

Well, no sooner do I get back from Disneyland then I had to drive up to Eureka for a friends wedding. It was nice, small and great to see some friends. But I am tired, tired of traveling, tired of not having a nice home cooked meal, and just plain tired. Thank goodness I get the next couple of days off to recoup and play some games.

On the gaming front I continue to play Aion and I hope to have a review for that by the end of the month. I also received Risen just before I left so I will be playing that and eventually reviewing that as well. I have played enough Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising to do a review, so I will be working on that this week.

Right now I continue to play Champions and Aion, but I really want to pick up Fallen Earth and am still have tempted to give WAR a try. But November is coming soon, and that means Modern Warfare 2 and Dragon Age and that should keep me busy for awhile.

It's a small world after all!

I am alive and well and happy to be back home! The family and I went to SoCal for a nice vacation at Disneyland, and we all had a lot of fun. But I will say that three days in the Magic Kingdom is just about my limit that's for sure.

It was nice to get away, not worry about work or play a video game and just spend time with the family. The worst part, other than having to be in SoCal, was coming home to the 100+ posts in the reader awaiting me. Oh yeah, and realizing that I forgot to set my fantasy football lineup, ergh!

Out for a bit.

This will be my last post for a few days as me and the family are heading to Disney Land this weekend. We fly out tonight and come home on Sunday afternoon. In fact, the ride is hear and I must end this brief post. Take care everyone, see ya when I get back!

LOTRO Lifetime sub at $200!!

I just read at Massively that Turbine has brought back the reduced lifetime subscription price of $200! I think I might just do it. When I pre-ordered LOTRO way back when, I had every intention of purchasing the lifetime sub at that time, but I didn't. And ever since then I have waiting for Turbine to reduce the price and now they have, at a time when I have free time left in Champions and Aion.

So now comes the tough part, convincing the wife that it's a good deal.

What's up.

I have been spending a considerable amount of time with Aion over the past few days. I reached level 13 with my Assassin tonight and was able to buy a few skill books.

What I really would like is some new weapons for some killin', but they are just too expensive for my taste on the broker. I have been gathering resources like a champ while out questing and have a ton of iron to make some new weapons, but that costs kinah too.

Tonight was the most frustrating play session thus far. I had a simple quest to kill some critters and loot some items, seems harmless. I must have been on that quest for nearly forty-five minutes before I completed it. It was the worst grind so far in my short time of playing. Makes me appreciate Champions that much more.

After tonight, I would have to say that I can't wait to get Fallen Earth. I think I might be getting to the point where I might be tired of fantasy based MMO's. But maybe it's because I am tired and I worked an eleven hour day, and that's made the evening seem worse than it really was.

MUA2 is now complete, sort of.

I have finally completed Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 as the Anti-Reg side. It didn't nearly take me as long as I thought would. I competed both sides of the story and unlocked all of the super heroes, with the Hulk being the last one for me to get. I still have some achievements that I want to get including trying out the co-op.

There are some really good things about this game that I like, and it is a lot of fun. But there are some things that are not so good either, like it feels really lite on extra features compared the other Marvel RPG's.

So is this game better that the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance? Well yes and no. But if you are looking for a fun super hero action RPG, then I would recommend MUA2.

It's here!

Well it's here, my review copy of Aion showed up today. This was met with some anticipation and excitement, and with some sadness as well.

The problem is that I have three MMO subs going right now, some single player PC games that I have been wanting to play, and a NHL 10 season to play through.

So this means that I need to make a few tough choices, do I stick with Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings Online, or even Champions Online and run the risk of paying for a game that I am not playing. I was also looking forward to getting Fallen Earth in a few weeks, so add that to the mix as well.

I do know that I committed to writing a review so I will be playing Aion for a few months I'm sure, and Champions has just over two free months still left, so I think I might have my answer to my question.

Champions, Aion and Fallen Earth sound like a good mix of games to play!

Champions Online Review

Well it's happened, I have written another game review, this time for Champions Online. The nice people at GameSquad were kind enough to humor me and post up the review on their site. You can read the review here.

A few words about the review, I stand by what I wrote, but it doesn't change the fact that I have fun when playing the game. The review was written a little over a weak ago and there has been some improvements in the game even in that short amount of time.

When a game is bad it's easy to give a low score for it. But when you really like a game and see that it has alot of potential, it's hard to overlook the negative aspects of the game and give it a really high score. The fact is that Champions could have used more time in development.

I like Champions because it's not fantasy based, it's easy to pickup, the combat is fun and you can play casually and still feel like you have accomplished something.

Monkey Island done CryEngine way!

I found this video on Joystiq, it's a fan mad mod using the CryEngine Sandbox editor.




I think this is really awesome. I am not what you would can a fan of the Monkey Island series, but I am a fan of mods and good looking games, and this just looks great. When the Source Engine was released many years ago I thought all games should use it because it looked wonderful. But after seeing this, I think all games should use the CryEngine2 or even CryEngine3 when that is released. Of course the Unreal Engine is still awesome too.

Direct2Drive Sale

Direct2Drive has had a $5 sale of various games for a few weeks now, and this week is the MMO/RPG game sale. There are not alot of games for each category, but at $5 there are some good deals for some really good games.

I was hoping for a few more games to choose from for this week, but there is at least one game that I might pick up, Drakensang: The Dark Eye. It is a rpg based on a German table top game and seems comparable to Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights in gameplay, I like that. Sid Meier's Pirates is still on sale too, so I might pick that one up as well.

For those who maybe have thought about giving Age of Conan a try but did not want to spend the money on it, well it's on sale for only $5! Only five bucks for this great game is a steal in my eyes, but of course I am biased. I would say the only downside besides spending money would be downloading the 13.7 gb files, and then the eventual installation and patching, but it's sooooo worth it.

Aion Headstart

Yesterday was the beginning of the Aion headstart. But things apparently did not go all that smooth for many. Long que times, crashes, or just not being able to log in seemed to plague some players yesterday.

I for one must have been lucky, I had none of those problems at all. Maybe it's because I was playing on a supposed West Coast server. Either way things went smooth and I made level 10 and ascended to become a Daeva.

Aion is not a bad game, in fact it is quite good. But it doesn't offer the EQ2, WAR, LOTRO or WoW player many things they don't already get in their respected games now. It's actually like all four of those games rolled into one pretty Asian looking game. I will need to play more of Aion to see if the late game is any different from the early part of the game. That could be the biggest problem, Aion could be this awesome great game when you get close to level cap.

Here's a topic for a post; may be the release of Aion shows that fantasy MMO's have hit the wall with regards to innovation.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Last night I was able to finish the new Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for the Xbox. It only took me maybe just over ten hours to finish the game as the Pro-Reg side. Not it's time to play through on Legendary difficulty and choose the Anit-Reg side this time.

Unfortunately MUA2 is not perfect, and I do think there are some good things in the game, but it's not as good as the first Ultimate Alliance. Even though I was enjoying the game, I was glad that it didn't take me long to finish it. The good thing is that there is a reason to play through a second time, so that should put my play time at something around twenty-five hours, not bad.

I am looking forward to giving the co-op a try, I think it will make the game much more fun.

Talk like a pirate day!

So today is the official Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yarrrrrrr...

Hero Con

I happen to receive an email from NCSoft that Issue 16 for City of Heroes has gone live. Also the CoH exclusive Hero Con will be coming up and this year it is in San Jose! Last year Hero Con was in Santa Clara so there was no excuse to not go last year.

So why would I be interested in going if I don't have a sub to the game you ask? That is a good question, and maybe just to go and see what it's like would be the answer.

I have been interested in buying a game card for CoH just to see how the game is now, and to see the differences between that and CO. I haven't played CoH in awhile and there are some things I can remember and some that I can't, but CO is fresh in my mind so I would be able to tell what is different between them.

I just thought of another reason why I would want to go to Hero Con, to see all the people in their cosplay outfits!

Pirates of the Burning Sea free expansion.

I just learned today that there will be a free expansion for Pirates of the Burning Sea. You can check out more details here if you would like. When PotBS was first released, I thought it was not very good at all.

But then a few months ago GoGamer has a sale and I picked up PotBS for less than five bucks. Heck, the shipping cost more than the game. So I tried it again, and this time I liked it, really liked it. The avatar combat is soooooo much better than it was, and the ship to ship combat is great.

I have been looking for a single player pirate game that has combat like PotBS, and have yet to find one. The only reason why I did not stay past the free thirty days was because at the time I was thinking that I would be only playing Aion, and I didn't think that I would be into Age of Conan as much as I am.

I believe God created game time cards for gamers like me. I pay my thirty dollars and it's up to me to get my moneys worth, no guilt over not playing something I am paying for, because it has already been paid. So there may come a time when I will fire this one up again!

Why not WAR?

Lately I have really been wanting to do some PvP. I think it comes from reading Syncaine talk about Darkfall and explaining some about the game. I tried pvp in Champions Online, but it is utter crap. I also gave it a try the other night in Age of Conan in the PvP mini-games, but I got my butt handed to me early and often.

I think I am going to give pvp another shot in AoC, but I began to wonder what game I can play for some pvp? I did consider returning to WoW, but that thought lasted a mere second. I would love to give Darkfall a try but I don't want to spend fifty bucks on a game that I am not sure I will even like. You see, I am a carebare player at heart, I avoid conflicts with players as much as possible, so Darkfall may be too hardcore for me.

So I got to thinking of what this game would need to have that would make me want to play. It would need to have PvE, would help if the game looks good, have interesting classes that would make me want to try each one, and have PvP that matters and is rewarding. Well wait a minute, that sounds like Warhammer Online.

According to Xfire I have played 110 hours of WAR in the short few months that I subbed. So if WAR is the game I am looking for, why am I not playing it then? It's because of the lackluster PvE. Being a carebare, I view PvP as a diversion from the grind of questing and dungeon runs, which is how I played WAR when I did.

A few posts ago I wrote how I was thinking of just quiting WAR and LOTRO for good and never going back to them. But if Champions is the same three months from now as it is today when my free times runs out, I may need to revisit my thoughts about giving up on WAR.

Zone don't work.

Just a note to all the Defensive Coordinators in the NFL, the zone defense does not win you close football games. Maybe if you have the talent you might get away with the Cover 2, but in the end it's almost as worthless in the late stages of a game like the Prevent D was.

Also, if you were running the ball effectively in the first half, why go away from that and let a first round bust try and lose the game for you. Frustrated I am, not liking the start of the season am I not.

It has arrived!

The other day my Collector's Edition of Age of Conan arrived! If you notice one disc is missing, that would be the soundtrack that I left in the car. And to be honest I only really wanted the soundtrack. GoGamer had a nice deal so I picked this up for only $8!!

This is a shot of my cool Collector's Edition chilling out and keeping my company while playing some AoC. The only other MMO Collector's Edition I ever bought was Star Wars Galaxies, but that was because the regular edition was sold out.

Blog question.

Thanks to Ysharros I have discovered the wonderful world of Google Reader, and as such my blog following has grown ten fold. But I was wondering if there is an easy way to track comments, not just for one post but for a whole blog?

I was also wondering what other blog reader type services there are that others use. I like Google Reader and so far it seems easy to use, but if there was something better I would like to give it a try.

Time to quit.

Lately I have found that I am lacking any real interest in playing MMOs. I'm not sure why, maybe it's a little burnout from playing a whole lot of Champions in the past month, or maybe it's that I just have an overwhelming desire to play some of my other PC or Xbox games.

I have also been struggling with the thought that I just need to give up on a few of the MMO's that I am playing and just move on and not look back. I have a nasty habit re-subbing to MMOs only to just quit them after a month or two.

The two games in question that I am feeling this way about are Lord of the Rings Online and Warhammer Online. Both are good games, both I like for various reasons, and both just do not keep my interest for very long. So maybe it's time to uninstall, cancel and just get rid of both.

More Aion

Well it's Friday and the Aion open beta is almost over, and I find myself having little motivation to play more, at least not till the headstart. There's nothing particular that I don't like about the game, I think it's really well done, I am just bored.

I did level two classes to ascension, an Elysian scout and an Asmodian warrior. The warrior took me far less time and frustration to reach ascension than the glass canon that the scout is.

The one thing I did notice after playing both sides is that the started zones are nearly identical in progression. Both sides do have different quests, so they are not exactly the same, but when leveling my warrior I had a hard time shaking the feeling like I had just done all this before.

Maybe worse than just being a bit bored is the amount of running back and forth that you will do in the starter zone. One thing that makes Champions so fun is that you get a travel power about 1-2 hours into the game. Makes a tremendous difference in the game for me.

I do plan on writing a review for Aion, but I think it will take me a bit longer to finish because of the boredom factor. With my time being stretched between a few other MMOs and some awesome games coming really soon, I don't see myself playing this past the free thirty day time period.

What a difference...

Two months ago I was in the already apart of the closed beta for Champions Online. Two months ago I was fortunate to receive a beta code to participate in the Aion closed beta weekend events that would happen about every other weekend.

Two months ago I though Champions not a good game; it did not run well, I didn't understand the combat, and I was just bored. Two months ago I was blown away at how much I liked Aion; the game performed really well, looks wonderful, and the combat is great.

Two months ago I was looking forward to Aion. Two months ago I though Champions Online was not as good as City of Heroes and had no interest in it what so ever.

What a difference two months makes.

I think Champions is a slightly flaw but fun game that I am enjoying greatly. The game still has some performance issues, but again it's just so much fun to play. Aion still looks great, runs better that CO does by a long shot, but I find myself bored after awhile.

As it is now I have way too many MMO subs going and I am going to need to make decisions on which one or two I am going to stay with, and right now I don't know if I would stay with Aion after the free month, we shall see.

Tough day of Aion.

To say that today was a huge disappointment for those wanting to play Aion would be an understatement. The problems began when the population of a small country tried to launch into the game at the same time this morning, and just continued to get worse from there.

To be fair, the first few hours were great. But sometime around 1pm things really began to fall apart. The game began to lag something fierce and hasn't let up much since. At first your attacks would not fire off, then eventually the rubber banding took over. Trying to quit and relog back in did not always fix the problem either. Sometimes if you tried to choose a server you would get an error telling you that you can not log into that server, followed by the game just exiting you out.

Now that was if you were smart enough to log out first. If you just chose quit and exited the game that way, you are truly screwed. The reason is the game will try to log into the last server you played on, and if there are problems all you get is a screen with no servers, and no way to exit the game normally.

I will say this, I like the game, but it's nothing that I nor any other MMO vet hasn't played before. But I am more that a little disappointed about the server issues Aion is having.

Aion today.

As I write this, I sit here in anticipation of the Aion open beta that will be starting in less than an hour. I just can't wait for the starting area to be flooded with thousands of players taking my kills and waiting for respawns. And who can forget the global chat that will no doubt have many references to how Aion sucks and is a WoW clone.

Seriously though I am excited to play Aion again, I really did enjoyed the closed beta sessions. I will be creating a female character named Collyssa, so if you see me, say hi!

The Henchmen.

Netflix is a beautiful thing. Tonight I was watching one of my Chow Yun-Fat movies that I received from Netflix called The Corruptor, not a bad movie. As it was coming to the end, there is a small firefight on a container ship between, in the process there were alot of these evil gunman who get shot and die.

My first thought was why don't the good guys ever pick up the weapons of the dead bad guys? Why can't movies be more like first person shooters?

The my second thought was how come these bad guys are always bad shots? In fantasy movies they are always unknown swordsman who gets hacked, in Star Wars it's the Stormtroopers, and in G.I. Joe they would be the Cobra soldiers. What do these all have in common? They are all henchmen! They couldn't hit the broadside of a building if they were standing two feet away.

So why is it in Champions Online that three henchmen can waste me like some scrub? Would Superman be so super if he had to respawn at a restore point because he had a little trouble with a few henchmen?

Games, games, games...

As of right now there are only five games on my will purchase list between now and the end of the year. But I realized today that this month is going to be a bit overwhelming maybe.

Right now I have Champions Online that I am playing that I am working on a review of, but the Aion open beta should be starting in a few days, and I will be doing a review of that as well. Then in the middle of the month Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and NHL 10 release on the same day, two of my five purchases.

It's going to be an interesting month, I have never put out two reviews in the same month, and I know for a fact that I am going to play NHL 10 online, and possibly MUA 2 as well, and still have a few MMO's to play.

And that doesn't even include a few of the games that I still want to play like HOI3 and Heroes of Might and Magic 5 which I purchased on the cheap today at GoGamer.

Games, games, games, gotta love 'em.

Adventuring in Champions.

A few screenshots of my adventures in Champions Online.

This one is of Xerxes, my powerarmor character standing over the carcass of Black Talon.

This is me and Defender, he's such a great guy!

This is Dirk. Dirk was just admiring the public service announcement.

Pulse here has somehow found his way to the sub-level of Millennium City.