For the Horde!

Playing Horde after years of playing Alliance can be very confusing, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I am having a blast. The best part is not only did Blizzard do an outstanding job with the goblin starting area (an area I've been through 4 times now), but there are tons of new, stylized quests in all the vanilla areas of Warcraft.

Phasing is now the "In" thing when it comes to dividing up questing zones. Once you do a Phased quest the world transforms around you and it's done very seamlessly. Blizzard dev's learned a lot from there experiments with phased events in Ice Crown and made it oh so much better.

But that's not the only change. Twisting up old mechanics and reinventing them for questing is also a new trend. Sure they have had us in vehicles before but this time they are more inventive. Quest item usage is more imaginative and unique. It isn't just a new coat of paint and a few more quests. It feels like I'm playing a completely different game.

The shortening of the talent trees seemed odd at first when I was playing my level 80 pre-cataclysm. It was different but it was more of an "meh" moment instead of a "this is fantastic" moment. Now that I'm starting over it's more of an "OMG" feeling.

You are rewarded with talent points on the odd numbered levels and spells on the even numbered levels or so it seems (that covers me incase I'm talking out my ass). So every level I get something different to improve my character which keeps it fun and exciting. Since the trees are so different now, figuring out where to place your point is more challenging and exciting.

As always you don't get any talent points till you reach level 10. Once you add your first point and effectively pick your "Spec" you are stuck with it (you can still pay to respec but that takes the fun out of it) till you reach level 30 when you can dual spec, so you have to be pretty sure how you want to level up. However, one of the great things about dual spec is the cost. It's been reduced from 1,000g to 10g. A huge break for new players.

When you do pick a spec, one of the newer features is you get free abilities that are key to succeeding with that spec. When a warrior chooses the Protection spec now, he or she gets shield slam, which does damage but also generates a large amount of threat to help hold agro at lower levels.

All this newness to WoW has inspired me to not only change faction but to also try classes I would never have attempted before like a rogue. I'm still very new to the concept of hiding and killing, but a ShadowStepping Rogue is the bomb in PvP, especially at the lower levels. I have a feeling I will be ganking a lot of Horde... I mean Alliance.

The only complaint I have is that you level too fast now. I understand that Blizzard wants players to enjoy end game as soon as possible, but I want to enjoy the new content, relish in the exciting new quests and see the changed world. I'm having too much fun and it goes by so fast. I don't want to turn off my xp gain, just slow it down a little and enjoy the scenery.

But kudos to Blizzard for crafting a spectacular new world that I plan to play in fir a very long time.

-Oak

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Scary decision

I normally use a PC to craft my wonderfully created blog posts. The idea of relying on my iPod to handle all my blogging needs was just out of the realm of possibilities.

Then today I read a post from one if my favorite bloggers, Scary Booster, who had grown frustrated with his free blog posting app and decided to bite the bullet and throw down some cash and picked up a more reliable app.

Being a devoted follower of the cult of Scary, I decided to purchase the same app, BlogPress. I'll give it a try and hope that it will increase my urge to blog.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

Rift Impressions!

So by the title of the blog you can tell that I've been playing a little bit of Rift. To be honest, this game wasn't even on my radar. I just happen to be cruising twitter one day when someone I follow posted some free beta keys and I decided, what the hell, I'll snatch one up and be like all the other big time bloggers and do some beta action.

After getting the key I took a look at Trion's website. I looked at a few in game screenshots and viewed a few videos on You tube about the concept of the Souls, their version of a talent tree/spell acquisition system. All of it looked pretty interesting. I was kind of "meh" about the whole thing because everyone knows that a beta test isn't really a good polished product. When most games get released, the public as a whole knows that is when the true beta testing for a product begins, so I wasn't really expecting a whole lot out of this experience. I really just wanted to be able to say I did it and give it a thumbs up or down.

Well, here are my impressions and I'm going to do it without giving you a lot of story background because to be honest, I don't really know what the whole story is. You have your two opposing factions, Defiant and Guardians. Both sides dislike each other but they both have a common enemy. This enemy is opening up Rifts to his plane of power and through these Rifts he sends out invaders to conquer the world. That's basically it in a nut shell. I'd tell you more, but I've really not read a whole lot of the story to be that well informed.

To begin with, I did not feel like I was playing a beta. The game ran very smoothly. The character animations were spot on. The spell visuals and the terrain were just stunning and ran extremely well on my old video card. I would have no issue with buying this game as is and fully enjoying it for months to come. Rift is ready for prime time. I've played purchased games that were not this well polished. (Damn, I was trying not to use that word!) I tried a number of different classes in the first beta but ended up leveling a Ranger/Marksman the highest. For the second beta I switched up a bit and played a Inquisitor/ Cabalist. Both very different and interesting to play. The inquisitor/Cabalist took some getting use to and eventually after some "Soul" tuning I got her in a spec that I really liked. I'd probably play both again once the game is released. The game world is huge. I quested from level 1 to 18 and not once was I required to zone, well, except when I accidentally found the entrance to a high level dungeon

The class system is very similar to the one originally in EQ2. Again this is my impressions. Basically, you pick a starter class from one of the four basics, Rogue, Warrior, Cleric and Mage. That is your starting "Soul". As you level you get talent points. You place those points in your respective soul and from that you derive your spells and abilities. At or around level 5 you get your second "Soul". You can pick any kind of combination, but the game give you helpful hints on how certain "Souls" will work or compliment each other. Further down the leveling process you'll be able to pick a third "Soul" and in effect making your character multi classed. You can spend your points as you see fit. If you want to pump them all into your starter "Soul" that's fine or you can split them up. Once you get a spell by placing a point in a talent, you will have to go to a trainer to train that spell up as you level. This process may not seem very innovated to other gamers, but to me it was pretty cool. I was able to experiment more with the whole "Soul" concept on my second beta run. This interesting way of getting talents and abilities might not seem that unique, but it will provide players with lots of class combinations. When people hit max level, I don't see a lot of min/maxing when it comes to classes. Sure, some will be better than others, but with the multitude of different combinations available to everyone, I see a future filled with a lot of different specs.

So what is very different about Rift that makes it the game to play next year? Rift uses the Warhammer Public Quest idea, but takes it a bit further. Instead of static public questing areas, there will be Rifts that open up in various random areas where players will have to pull together to defeat these dimensional invaders. If a Rift opens and players don't shut it down fast enough, the Rift will spawn a invasion team. This invasion will start roaming the zone looking for things to kill and not just players either. I've seen a Rift get out of hand to the point where these mobs invaded a questing hub killing all the NPCs and basically shutting that area down for players till the invaders where dealt with which can only happen when players get together to push them the invaders out. This confirmed one thing for me. Rift is all about players working with each other. There really is no "I" mentality when it comes to dealing with Rifts or invasions. I also felt that the game wasn't built for the solo player. Sure its possible, but you end up with a lot of down time and that can suck. Its better to already have a group of people you plan to play with. This will make the questing and dealing with Rifts a lot easier. Oh one safety tip that I discovered. Don't go afk near a quest giver. If an invasion happens and no one is there to fight it off, you'll die. Also, one extra thing I have to mention. Invasions can happen randomly, but the power to create a rift opening is actually in the hands of the player. There will be spots on the map that indicate a Rift forming, at an early level in the game, players are given a spell that will let them open a rift so they can defeat the invaders on their terms. Course a lot of players run around opening up Rifts only to run off afterwards and this can cause a lot of trouble as stated before.

I have heard the devs say the number and level of an invasions will depend on the number of players in a zone. So I don't foresee 2o invasions hitting a zone if only 4 players are populating it. However, if the players in a zone don't form up and defeat the Rift, then it will only cause them more problems later while questing. So its in the players best interest to assist his fellow player.

What else is there to say? Oh yea, crafting.

There is crafting for those that love to make stuff. You can train up three different professions but that includes crafting and gatherings skills, so choose wisely what will help you in the end. I tried out armor crafting and weapons crafting. The armor crafting was out of necessity since I created a dual wielding warrior but couldn't find an decent one handed weapons through questing, so I was forced to make my own, which was easy enough. The crafting is very standard WoW fair. No special tricks or buttons to push. If you have the materials you can craft an item. You can also add extra stats to an item through augmentations done at the time of crafting. Some of those you get through questing or rewards for defeating Rifts.

Was there anything truly "Innovative" about Rift? Not really. Warhammer introduced us to Public Questing and Rift just does it better and in a very unique way. Will it be a true competitor to games like World of Warcraft and EQ2? I don't see why not. The ability to open up a Rift and start an invasion will keep players on their toes and ramp up the excitement for months on end. The dev team has already completed a number of dungeons and raid instances, so there should be plenty for the players at end game. From levels 1 to 20 there was a lot of great content to consume. I didn't feel like I had to start farming mobs to grind my xp. They already had several repeatable quests in the game, so I can imagine more of that to come.

I just liked the game. Will it be a day one purchase? Most likely. The game is wonderful with the Rift action and the visuals the game has a lot of potential to be a contender. It won't knock WoW off its horse, but it will do very well in the race.

The Art of Not Leaving

My last post seemed very depressing. I had pretty much grown tired of World of Warcraft. I didn't have very high hopes for Cataclysm and I was very dejected by the state of MMO's in general.

What? You didn't get all that from my last post? Am I really that horrible of a story teller? I must do better in the future I promise. But lets move forward to today and this post.

Well, a few bloggers that I follow on twitter, Scary_booster, Medwa and The River, started hyping up cataclysm. They were going on and on about some Horde guild they were planning. How it was going to be super causal and how they planned to play goblins and just start enjoying the game from the ground up again. Well, let me say, it started to peak my interest. I figured, why not just make a new start of it?

For nearly 5 years, I'd been playing strictly Alliance characters. It was fun, I enjoyed leveling 5 toons to level 80 and maxing them out and even getting in some raid time with a few of them. But I'd seen the game from that point of view and I wanted a change. Cataclysm was going to add new content for lower levels, it was changing the face of the old world and introducing new races, so why not give it one more try.

So I took up Scary's offer and I am now, Greengotz, Goblin Hunter level 19 in the Latency Lowlife guild on Azgalor. Course everyone over in the guild still calls me Oak and I do have a Tauren Paladin named Oakstout in the guild, because I do have to represent.

I'm going to do a full blog post on what I love about the new expansion, the goblin starter areas and my over all impressions of being a Horde in the next upcoming posts. I'd do it all now, but then my blog would be silent for a few weeks, this way I have lots of material to drag out so people and fellow bloggers don't bury me on their RSS feed.

I will say this. If World of Warcraft has bored you in the past or you just feel tired of playing. Do what I am doing. Start over on a different server, Azgalor is a nice one. Try a class, race or even faction, Horde is very nice if you've been playing Alliance for 6 yrs. Also, changing guilds is always a good way to shake things up. I recommend Latency Lowlife, sure we are bloggers and tweeters, which do consist of the lowest common denominator when it comes to people with class, but we are friendly, helpful and we aren't very interested in rushing to end game to be bored to death. Relax, read some quests, look at the new starter areas and just be a causal gamer.

The Big Yawn

Months ago I an avid WoW player/blogger. Now I can't seem to muster the energy to log in to the game. Right now, Blizzard's game is suffering from apathy. I mean why log now when the whole world will change in Dec.? They've already gutted the talent tree. That change has caused a good many of my friends to leave the game. I can't truly comment on the effectiveness of the talent tree changes only to say that my damage output on my Shadow Priest has increased. But being able to melt faces effectively hasn't encouraged me to log in.

This happens every time Blizzard announces a new expansion. People start dropping out a few months before the release and pick the game back up several months after. At least that is my plan. Sure, I want to see what happens when the world gets turned upside down and the Worgen will be an interesting race to play, but I have no plans to jump on the lag wagon the minute the game is released. To be honest, they'll be making tweaks and adjustments the first few weeks to counter any attempts by players to exploit some odd coding. Oh, you know it will happen and there will be rage on the forums and then Blizzard will have to patch it.

Cataclysm might be released in Dec, but it probably won't be ready to fully play till the middle of Feb. So, I'll just wait. I may cancel my account till then to save a little bit of Christmas money or I may just let it ride in case the urge to encounter the giant lag monster stirs in me. But for the most part, I'm done with World of Warcraft for a while at least.

I would jump over to another MMO, but I've tried them all and if they had any hook I was truly interested in, I'd have been playing that instead of Wow. I do have hope that Star Wars The Old Republic will be the game to grab me in the future. But the more I examine that game the more it looks like a "solo" MMO rather than something to played with friends. I don't have an issue with that, but its always nice to run around doing stuff with a group, but if a majority of the game can be done solo, why would you group? Which was the issue with the superhero games. A good portion of those games can be done one on one. I like doing stuff on my own, but its aways nice to hang with a friend.

Other than my lack of interest in WoW, I have been playing a lot of console games, including the new Call of Duty: Black Ops. Not sure why I'm enjoying that game, probably the rpg elements where you level up, buy guns, attachments and perks. But to be honest that isn't much different than Modern Warfare 2, another CoD game. I do hear the campaign is very good, but I'm more of a online multiplayer gamer. I do get killed a lot, but its still fun to win one very now and then and to kill more people than you die. Which is rare, but still fun. The game isn't as good as the Battlefield games, but its still enjoyable for now.

That's about it. I'll try and be better about updating my blog.

Big News of the Week

Apparently a blog I posted last January is getting some press from Kotaku during their PC LOVE FEST Week. So traffic on that post has picked up, a LOT. Well, two additional posts probably don't constitute a lot, but still any traffic is good traffic.

I still feel that the general atmosphere of PC gaming is the same, basically on life support. Sure, Steam and Direct2Drive are currently driving an industry that depended heavily on the brick and mortar stores to provide the supply and demand. However, I don't think being able to digitally download your game isn't a generally good thing. I've had issues and I know of others out there who have as well with getting the codes from steam and the manufacture to match up. It also prevents a lot of the games you buy from being able to run if your, say, kicked off your Internet connection. What if there is an interruption in the original download and you end up with a corrupted file or two. I'm just not happy that we are reduced to back alley shadiness to get our PC fix. I go to any Gamestop or Best buy and they have tons, I mean tons of console games. We are reduced to sneaking on line in the middle of the night to download our digital copies. We don't get the benefit of a paper manual or a box to place our non existent disc in.

People praise the efforts of Steam and others to keep the industry alive. Others think it will be companies like Blizzard and EA who will strive to keep a small corner of the world safe for PC gaming. But what happens with those companies bail? Steam and keep on providing our fix forever. People say, I've purchase tons of PC games on Steam this year alone and I'm completely happy. Sure you are. I would buy 4 or 5 PC games a year at Best Buy or Gamestop, but if my only choice is Steam, then they will now get all my business. If your only source of water for miles is Steam, then your gonna end up drinking there a lot.

I just don't think PC gaming will be around 10 or 15 yrs from now. Too many devices out there to get your gaming fix and having to upgrade a PC every 2 yrs just so you can play a limited number of games, well, I just don't see the public as a whole buying into that plan. I mean, with Facebook and other sites providing web based games, whats the need to even digitally download? Maybe gaming on the PC won't go away completely, but it will change into something cute and you'll be able to plant your garden or raise your cattle, but it won't be anything as exciting as whats on a console.

Well, that's my follow up. I feel the same as I did last year and I don't suspect I'll change it anytime soon.

Apple

I recently bought an Ipod Touch 4G. Why a Touch instead of an Iphone or Droid? Because I can't afford the outrageous data plans, besides, there are tons of great free wifi areas near me, so if I need to hit the net for something, I can always run into a Starbucks. Hell, even my doctor's office has free wifi for patients.

I'd had my eye on one for a while now, but wanted to wait till they added a camera, which is now included in the 4th generation. They also put in a front facing camera, to use with their new Face Time app and a HD video camera. I've shot and posted a few videos already. I have to say, the Touch makes it soo easy to shoot video, edit and then post to your youtube channel or even facebook. Course I probably could do the same on an Iphone or Droid, if I had money.

Being a gamer as well, I picked up about a dozen games. Most are very quick time wasting games that don't have a lot of thought. Similar to your basic shockwave or other Java app games. It gets you into some quick fast fun, but also lets you drop out if you need to. They can be very addictive, but they do tend to drain the battery power pretty quickly. The apple sales person said that the device would last week on a charge, but that was if I only played music. If I did gaming or web browsing the charge would probably only last 24 hours. That is still better than my Ipod 32g classic that I've had for a few years. I've only had it run out of juice maybe once or twice since purchasing it, but I've always got a wall or car charger with me, so thats never an issue, and it doesn't take long to get it back to a full charge.

I will say that I have noticed that the back of the device gets pretty hot while charging, which is a bit unnerving, but as long as I can keep playing Angry Birds I'm good.

The only other issue is the short supply of decent cases for it. I currently have a case, but it doesn't protect the display, only the back and sides of it. I tried using Zagg's Invisible Shield, but discovered it was a waste of 20.00 since I couldn't get it to fit on the device without getting finger prints all over it. If you decide to purchase one of these screen protectors, take the time to watch a few youtube videos so you'll know what your getting into. Also remember, you only get one shot at it, because it only comes with one screen protector. I'm waiting for Otterbox to put out an updated case for it, but there is no telling how long that will be.

Lastly, I want to say how helpful the people at the Apple Store were. Originally, I wanted to purchase the Ipod Touch at Best Buy so I could use my reward card, but they didn't have the 32gig model in stock. I suggested to my lovely wife that we travel over to the Apple Store before trying another Best Buy. My thinking was that if anyone had what I wanted it would be the mothership.

Now, I had heard how creepy the sales people at those stores can be, because they are all so happy to be part of the evil Apple Empire, but I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. The smiling doe eyed lady greeted us at the door and after telling her what I wanted to purchase, she disappeared for a few minutes then returned with my purchase in hand. She then activated the device for me and even took the time to set up a few of my e-mail accounts. We talked a bit about the features and such, basically a tutorial of what was available and how I could go about setting things up. Of all the sales people I have encountered in my life, she is easily one of the top 5. It was kind of creepy but at the same time one of the most satisfying purchasing experiences to date. If only Steve Jobs could sell that sales person attitude to say McDonalds or even my local movie theater, he would own the world in a matter of days, not that he already doesn't.

Once I'm done playing with my new toy, I'll start blogging again full time. Maybe something about World of Warcraft and their recent patch update or even Civilization 5, possibly Halo Reach, both of which are consuming a bit of my time here and there. I will say that the real time killer for me these days is Minecraft. That game is just fantastic and very addictive. I've spent way too many nights up past 4am trying to dig a hole in some silly mountain while defending myself against exploding snakes and zombies.

Oak-