Penny Arcade's game released this past week. It's called On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One and it's been getting mostly favorable reviews from what I've read. Their site has a hilarious ad for the game in which they quote a forum poster as writing, "this game sucks and anyone who likes it sucks. penny arcade sucks and is as funny as something that's not funny at all." I've downloaded the demo, but haven't taken the time to install and try it.
In their blog today, Gabe talked about next week's release of Dungeons and Dragons 4.0. The dudes actually played the game and did a strip and podcast for it. He seems favorably impressed with the experience. I have to admit, I'm more than a little curious myself. I'm intimately familiar with 3.0, so it might be fun to pick up a rule book to compare the differences.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Guess What's Out for Summer?
Speaking of Rock Band, I invite you to whip it or Guitar Hero out and jam out to this
in honor of my last day of school for the 2007-2008 school year.
Woooooooooottttttttt!
in honor of my last day of school for the 2007-2008 school year.
Woooooooooottttttttt!
The Hard Sell
I played Rock Band for the briefest of time last weekend. Maybe three hours all total on my brother's 360. And now I feel like an addict going through withdrawal. I hear songs on the radio and wonder what the drum part would be like. I think back to Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper and the train wreck I wrought while drumming it and wanting to practice so I can swap boos and jeers for undying adulation. I really, really want to jam out to Interstate Love Song.
The problem in all this is I don't own a console. That's what we in the married business call a financial barrier. Putting aside the issue of convincing Wifezilla, I've been studying the big three next-gen console systems. I've given up consideration of a PS3. The system starts at $500 and I don't care about Blu-ray enough for the price difference. I know a Wii is all the rage, but I don't think Rock Band is in that system's library. So that leaves me with really only one option, a X-box 360.
I've been doing some research and the 360 has three price options: arcade, premium, and elite. Arcade has no hard drive or HD support, so it's out. Elite is . . . black, has an extra controller, comes with an HDMI cable, and has a massive 120 gig hard drive. All for around $450. And then there's the premium option, a 20 gig hard drive configuration that supports HDMI, but doesn't come with the cable. I've seen these systems at around $350 and it's likely what I'll end up getting.
But the investment doesn't stop there. My current stereo receiver is more than five years old. It's great, but it was probably manufactured before HDMI was even invented. Without HDMI ports, I'd have to run the X-box directly through the TV or through the receiver. Neither is viable because there just aren't enough ports for all the components I want to keep.
Long story short, I need to buy a new stereo receiver. I'm sticking with Sony because everything I buy from them lasts until I'm done with it (I can't say the same thing for some of the JVC, Pioneer, and Canon electronics I've owned). I think I'm going to buy this. It's got three HDMI and two digital optical inputs. The 360 and my HD-DVD player will take up two HDMI slots. I think video and audio run through that, but if they don't, I'll use both digital optical inputs. If my cable box supports HDMI, it will take the last input.
So that's $300 right there. The Rock Band kit is about $170, a bit cheaper at Walmart. Saving $10 might not be worth stepping into the cesspool of a store, but I've stooped for worse. Wifezilla naturally blanches at the prospect of spending this kind of bling. But it can't be avoided. I've got the bug and I'm starting to get the shakes from not being able to feux jam out. Plus, I really want to play with Wifezilla. We do precious few activities together. There's, uh, you know.
Yeeaah.
And then we like to watch TV and movies together. But that's pretty much it. The two snotbags hoard our time the way Dr. Phil does public affection. After they're cared for, there isn't a lot of discretionary time left over. So Rock Band is my Holy Grail of gaming, a video game that my wife will actually play. God knows I've tried to get her to play WoW or Oblivion. For some reason, showing her the bikini-clad toon she could play never sealed the deal. But she's good at Rock Band and I see us tucking in the snotbags and then hitting the stage frequently. And when the girls are a bit older, we'll have a full ensemble. I've already come up with two band name options: Moldy Garbage or Wad of Hair You Pull From the Shower Drain.
I know, the last one is too long. Screw you, I like it.
The problem in all this is I don't own a console. That's what we in the married business call a financial barrier. Putting aside the issue of convincing Wifezilla, I've been studying the big three next-gen console systems. I've given up consideration of a PS3. The system starts at $500 and I don't care about Blu-ray enough for the price difference. I know a Wii is all the rage, but I don't think Rock Band is in that system's library. So that leaves me with really only one option, a X-box 360.
I've been doing some research and the 360 has three price options: arcade, premium, and elite. Arcade has no hard drive or HD support, so it's out. Elite is . . . black, has an extra controller, comes with an HDMI cable, and has a massive 120 gig hard drive. All for around $450. And then there's the premium option, a 20 gig hard drive configuration that supports HDMI, but doesn't come with the cable. I've seen these systems at around $350 and it's likely what I'll end up getting.
But the investment doesn't stop there. My current stereo receiver is more than five years old. It's great, but it was probably manufactured before HDMI was even invented. Without HDMI ports, I'd have to run the X-box directly through the TV or through the receiver. Neither is viable because there just aren't enough ports for all the components I want to keep.
Long story short, I need to buy a new stereo receiver. I'm sticking with Sony because everything I buy from them lasts until I'm done with it (I can't say the same thing for some of the JVC, Pioneer, and Canon electronics I've owned). I think I'm going to buy this. It's got three HDMI and two digital optical inputs. The 360 and my HD-DVD player will take up two HDMI slots. I think video and audio run through that, but if they don't, I'll use both digital optical inputs. If my cable box supports HDMI, it will take the last input.
So that's $300 right there. The Rock Band kit is about $170, a bit cheaper at Walmart. Saving $10 might not be worth stepping into the cesspool of a store, but I've stooped for worse. Wifezilla naturally blanches at the prospect of spending this kind of bling. But it can't be avoided. I've got the bug and I'm starting to get the shakes from not being able to feux jam out. Plus, I really want to play with Wifezilla. We do precious few activities together. There's, uh, you know.
Yeeaah.
And then we like to watch TV and movies together. But that's pretty much it. The two snotbags hoard our time the way Dr. Phil does public affection. After they're cared for, there isn't a lot of discretionary time left over. So Rock Band is my Holy Grail of gaming, a video game that my wife will actually play. God knows I've tried to get her to play WoW or Oblivion. For some reason, showing her the bikini-clad toon she could play never sealed the deal. But she's good at Rock Band and I see us tucking in the snotbags and then hitting the stage frequently. And when the girls are a bit older, we'll have a full ensemble. I've already come up with two band name options: Moldy Garbage or Wad of Hair You Pull From the Shower Drain.
I know, the last one is too long. Screw you, I like it.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Parting Is Such Dramatic Sorrow
It's the last day of school in my district today, and the bawling elementary school girls were out in full force in public education's hallowed halls. I'm talking torrents and torrents of tears. An unknowing passerby might assume that someone had died or that George Lucas was set to direct another Star Wars movie. But no, it's just the last day of school and even though most of them will see each other over the summer, and certainly next school year, the girls had to feign heartbreak in order to be flocked by their friends and comforted.
The spectacle made me pukechortle, which is my word for nausea induced from witnessing phoniness mixed in with some mirthful laughing at baldfaced insincerity.
All the drama and acting brought out the most clinical side of my personality; the Id within begged me to confront one of the bawlers and say, "Look, if you don't knock it off, I'll give you something to cry about." But for some reason, I like being gainfully employed so I held my tongue and instead nodded sympathetically at them.
Cue the pukechortle.
See, I'm smart and crafty, unlike this speciman from Florida who cleared the middle of his classroom and then proceeded to WWE wrestle his junior high students.
First off, hats off to you for barely being able to manhandle a 7th grader. I'm not sure what's more embarrasing, the teacher's complete lack of discretion or the fact that he almost got beat. I saw this teacher interviewed after the fact and he sounded just like a 5th grader when he said, essentially, "What, we was just playin'." He did later comment that things did "get out of hand," but if you know anything about middle school kids, they practically breath take-things-too-far. So let's all thank this guy for giving us another definition of stupidity.
I'm not certain we needed yet another one, but there it is.
The spectacle made me pukechortle, which is my word for nausea induced from witnessing phoniness mixed in with some mirthful laughing at baldfaced insincerity.
All the drama and acting brought out the most clinical side of my personality; the Id within begged me to confront one of the bawlers and say, "Look, if you don't knock it off, I'll give you something to cry about." But for some reason, I like being gainfully employed so I held my tongue and instead nodded sympathetically at them.
Cue the pukechortle.
See, I'm smart and crafty, unlike this speciman from Florida who cleared the middle of his classroom and then proceeded to WWE wrestle his junior high students.
First off, hats off to you for barely being able to manhandle a 7th grader. I'm not sure what's more embarrasing, the teacher's complete lack of discretion or the fact that he almost got beat. I saw this teacher interviewed after the fact and he sounded just like a 5th grader when he said, essentially, "What, we was just playin'." He did later comment that things did "get out of hand," but if you know anything about middle school kids, they practically breath take-things-too-far. So let's all thank this guy for giving us another definition of stupidity.
I'm not certain we needed yet another one, but there it is.
Mines of Moria Gets New Game
It's called Swig and Toss and you can play it here to unlock more juicy tidbits about Turbine's fall expansion to Lord of the Rings Online.
More Crackling with X-Fi
I thought I had the problem licked with a driver update to my motherboard. But after a reboot, the problem returned. Interestingly enough, it's software specific. Lord of the Rings Online runs perfectly. Age of Conan exhibits some crackling. And Windows tools, like the media player, absolutely explode with the annoying distorted noise.
So, I flashed my BIOS. The most current version hearkened all the way back to 2007, which didn't bode well. Nevertheless, after I flashed it, the popping and crackling once again disappeared across the board. I rebooted to make sure and still no noise.
I'm hoping this finally fixes the problem. For those of you with a high-end system thinking about picking up a X-Fi, tread carefully. The noise problems seem to stem with high performance systems almost exclusively.
So, I flashed my BIOS. The most current version hearkened all the way back to 2007, which didn't bode well. Nevertheless, after I flashed it, the popping and crackling once again disappeared across the board. I rebooted to make sure and still no noise.
I'm hoping this finally fixes the problem. For those of you with a high-end system thinking about picking up a X-Fi, tread carefully. The noise problems seem to stem with high performance systems almost exclusively.
If I Could Save Wine in a Bottle
. . . the first thing I wouldn't do is leave it in the middle of a haunted ruin, surrounded by brain-gnawing zombies.
But that's just me.
Age of Nanoc continues to surprise and delight. I had a quest the other night to fetch some exotic wine abandoned by an adventurer in a haunted mausoleum. After dispatching some roaming undead, I circled around looking for an entrance to where I knew the wine resided. I found no egress. I did, however, spy a wall that looked more weakened then its surroundings. I took a whack at it and a damage bar popped up. Several blows later the wall fell, some undead beasties fell upon me (which I efficiently slew), and I obtained the wine.
Another quest tasked me with obtaining three eagle feathers. Wandering around White Sands Island, I noticed a massive vine growing along a tall, imposing cliff. I approached it and got a message indicating I could attempt climbing. Like a chattering monkey, I scaled the beanstalk. At the top, oodles of eagle feathers for the picking. And thankfully, no giant bird guarding them. I gathered the three prettiest feathers and chattered back down the vine.
Now, Everquest II first allowed players to break down walls and scale daunting heights. So AoC isn’t doing anything new here. But I do give them props for incorporating those two features into quest scripts that go a bit beyond the typical kill eight mobs or collect fifty crocodile skins.
But that's just me.
Age of Nanoc continues to surprise and delight. I had a quest the other night to fetch some exotic wine abandoned by an adventurer in a haunted mausoleum. After dispatching some roaming undead, I circled around looking for an entrance to where I knew the wine resided. I found no egress. I did, however, spy a wall that looked more weakened then its surroundings. I took a whack at it and a damage bar popped up. Several blows later the wall fell, some undead beasties fell upon me (which I efficiently slew), and I obtained the wine.
Another quest tasked me with obtaining three eagle feathers. Wandering around White Sands Island, I noticed a massive vine growing along a tall, imposing cliff. I approached it and got a message indicating I could attempt climbing. Like a chattering monkey, I scaled the beanstalk. At the top, oodles of eagle feathers for the picking. And thankfully, no giant bird guarding them. I gathered the three prettiest feathers and chattered back down the vine.
Now, Everquest II first allowed players to break down walls and scale daunting heights. So AoC isn’t doing anything new here. But I do give them props for incorporating those two features into quest scripts that go a bit beyond the typical kill eight mobs or collect fifty crocodile skins.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Indeed No DX10 for Age of Conan
Earlier I posted that I was able to successfully turn on the DX10 option in Age of Nanoc. Well, I patched the game today and read in the notes that they have since removed that option. So it is as outlets have reported, DX10 won't be available until around August.
The MMO Report Talks with AoC's Jason Stone
I was intrigued to hear about the game's still unreleased but pending bounty system. Basically, you can earn a bounty by killing PCs under your level or killing the same PC too often. Stone says they hope to build a prison system that an offender will be sent to if they don't pay off their bounty. At the prison, a griefer won't just put in their time, they'll have to move rocks from one side of the prison to the other or kill 300 rats with a stick. And all under public scrutiny.
Sounds damn brilliant.
Check the entire interview out right here.
Sounds damn brilliant.
Check the entire interview out right here.
Age of Conan Gets 400,000 Sign-ups
1UP reports that Funcom's Age of Conan netted some 400,000 subscribers in the past week. That's about 5% of the 9 million or so WoW subscribers. I'd guess that AoC might double that number in the coming months, but to hang on to those numbers and maybe eat away at WoW dominance, they'll have to significantly ramp up their gameplay in the three core areas: casual, raid, and PvP.
Rockband Saves a Marriage
There isn't much in this essay that really applies to Wifezilla or me, except for the fact that, just like the author, Rockband is probably the only video game my wife will ever play. Unless they come out with a version of Scrabble for the PS3 or 360. And if they do, the world should right then and there.
Captain! I Dunna Think the Shields Can Hold Much Longa!
You’ve probably heard some hype surrounding AoC’s combat system. To the game’s credit, it is a departure from systems that World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Everquest II, and Tabula Rasa use.
But not much of one.
When I first read the designers talk of AoC’s combat paradigm, I was expecting something akin to what Oblivion uses: directional mouse swings that control the arc and location that you strike. But AoC’s isn’t like that at all. Instead, buttons 1, 2, and 3 are reserved for a left, center, and right strike respectively. If you want to hit an opponent’s left side, you spam your 1 button. Normally, that wouldn’t be particularly innovative, let alone fun. AoC makes things interesting though by giving everyone shielding. Depending on who you’re fighting, a mob can have up to three shields. These can be stacked all on one side, or spread out evenly. An opponent might have two placed on their left side and one in their center, thereby leaving the right side completely exposed.
And that’s where things get interesting because an exposed flank allows extra damage to be dealt. One shield, normal damage. Two shields, less damage. And if you hit a three shield flank, you’ll hardly do any damage at all.
Now, I’ve been playing a Stygian Tempest of Set and as a result, I haven’t fully explored this combat system as much as a melee class would; I open combat with my ranged AoE lightning strike, the bread and butter of my damage output. Still, I go out of my way to gleefully spam 1, 2, and 3 buttons and hack away at unshielded flanks. At later levels, toons acquire combo moves that are unlocked in the midst of combat. I think that’s when limbs and heads start getting lopped off. At least, I hope so.
So, yeah, the combat is different, but I wouldn’t call it revolutionary. You’re still spamming buttons like WoW and LotRO. That’s not a bad thing, I just don’t want anyone getting the notion that AoC is this completely different experience. On the other hand, high level combo moves might further enhance the game’s directional combat scheme, so I may change my mind on the game’s innovativeness.
I have been surprised how deep the solo experience has been so far. And some of the scripted quests in the “night” campaign have been dang satisfying. Not far into that series, you have to cause a nearby volcano to erupt. Your ingredients? An evil priestess, some virgin blood, some prostitute blood, and an evil ceremony.
Mix generously and watch the fireworks from a safe distance.
But not much of one.
When I first read the designers talk of AoC’s combat paradigm, I was expecting something akin to what Oblivion uses: directional mouse swings that control the arc and location that you strike. But AoC’s isn’t like that at all. Instead, buttons 1, 2, and 3 are reserved for a left, center, and right strike respectively. If you want to hit an opponent’s left side, you spam your 1 button. Normally, that wouldn’t be particularly innovative, let alone fun. AoC makes things interesting though by giving everyone shielding. Depending on who you’re fighting, a mob can have up to three shields. These can be stacked all on one side, or spread out evenly. An opponent might have two placed on their left side and one in their center, thereby leaving the right side completely exposed.
And that’s where things get interesting because an exposed flank allows extra damage to be dealt. One shield, normal damage. Two shields, less damage. And if you hit a three shield flank, you’ll hardly do any damage at all.
Now, I’ve been playing a Stygian Tempest of Set and as a result, I haven’t fully explored this combat system as much as a melee class would; I open combat with my ranged AoE lightning strike, the bread and butter of my damage output. Still, I go out of my way to gleefully spam 1, 2, and 3 buttons and hack away at unshielded flanks. At later levels, toons acquire combo moves that are unlocked in the midst of combat. I think that’s when limbs and heads start getting lopped off. At least, I hope so.
So, yeah, the combat is different, but I wouldn’t call it revolutionary. You’re still spamming buttons like WoW and LotRO. That’s not a bad thing, I just don’t want anyone getting the notion that AoC is this completely different experience. On the other hand, high level combo moves might further enhance the game’s directional combat scheme, so I may change my mind on the game’s innovativeness.
I have been surprised how deep the solo experience has been so far. And some of the scripted quests in the “night” campaign have been dang satisfying. Not far into that series, you have to cause a nearby volcano to erupt. Your ingredients? An evil priestess, some virgin blood, some prostitute blood, and an evil ceremony.
Mix generously and watch the fireworks from a safe distance.
Monday, May 26, 2008
360 Makes Me Do a 180 on PC Gaming
The family and I visited my brother and his wife over the weekend. We went to the Renaissance Festival in Scarborough, just south of Dallas. While the grounds aren't as vast as those in Conroe, the festival was full of authentically clad merrymakers who were less than shy about approaching you and striking up a conversation. I've got some pictures that I'll share later this week.
My brother has a 360, so I finally got a chance to play Grand Theft Auto IV. I played the opening storyline but I'm not so sure the game is necessarily for me. While playing, I got flashes of Oblivion. I know, the Elder Scrolls is a fantasy rpg. But like Oblivion, GTA IV has a main story line or you can ignore that and make your own way through Liberty City. The deal breaker for me is that you spend a lot of time driving around the city. I'm not a big fan of racing games and since a lot of missions involve you car-chasing down a target, I doubt the game would hold my interest for long. The graphics, voice acting, and story seem top-notch. I can see why it's an A-list title for console players.
It won't be GTA IV that gets me to buy a console, but Rockband. I couldn't believe how fun that game is. With my brother on guitar, Wifezilla on drums, and me on vocals, we jammed out to Creep, Dead or Alive, Black Hole Sun, and Tom Sawyer. I was impressed with Wifezilla's skillzZzZz. It's not surprisingly that she took to the game since she did train as a concert violinist and is an outstanding orchestra teacher. On the way home, she observed what a great party game Rockband would be; it does seem to be a more immersive, complex version of karaoke, and it was almost as much fun getting booed off the stage as it was nailing the perfect riff. I, uh, could use some practice on the drums.
Wifezilla didn't like Rockband enough to run out and buy a console, but I noticed she tanked David Bowie's Heroes and obviously needs some serious practice at that song. I'll wait to see if the siren call hits her.
My brother has a 360, so I finally got a chance to play Grand Theft Auto IV. I played the opening storyline but I'm not so sure the game is necessarily for me. While playing, I got flashes of Oblivion. I know, the Elder Scrolls is a fantasy rpg. But like Oblivion, GTA IV has a main story line or you can ignore that and make your own way through Liberty City. The deal breaker for me is that you spend a lot of time driving around the city. I'm not a big fan of racing games and since a lot of missions involve you car-chasing down a target, I doubt the game would hold my interest for long. The graphics, voice acting, and story seem top-notch. I can see why it's an A-list title for console players.
It won't be GTA IV that gets me to buy a console, but Rockband. I couldn't believe how fun that game is. With my brother on guitar, Wifezilla on drums, and me on vocals, we jammed out to Creep, Dead or Alive, Black Hole Sun, and Tom Sawyer. I was impressed with Wifezilla's skillzZzZz. It's not surprisingly that she took to the game since she did train as a concert violinist and is an outstanding orchestra teacher. On the way home, she observed what a great party game Rockband would be; it does seem to be a more immersive, complex version of karaoke, and it was almost as much fun getting booed off the stage as it was nailing the perfect riff. I, uh, could use some practice on the drums.
Wifezilla didn't like Rockband enough to run out and buy a console, but I noticed she tanked David Bowie's Heroes and obviously needs some serious practice at that song. I'll wait to see if the siren call hits her.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Snap! Crackle! Pop!
My new RAM came the other day. I popped them in no problem, except that my behemoth 8800 GT rested nearly flush alongside the RAM banks and made it a surgical effort to remove and replace the modules. I wanted Wifezilla to stand next to me and hand me instruments while I barked out things like, “Scalpel!” or “I need 1,000 ccs of compressed air, stat!” but she didn’t get back from work in time. Hallie eagerly offered to help, but I envisioned her pulling out gobs of wiring so I wisely placed her in front of SpongeBob instead.
My 64-bit OP recognizes all 4 gigs. And let me tell you, I’m gaming in flavor country now. Coupled with my monster 8800, games load lightning fast and render smoothly. Fps is simply not an issue any more at current games’ highest settings.
For now.
I had one snag though. I’ve got a Soundbaster X-Fi, mostly because the integrated sound that comes on mobos suck. After installing the RAM and rebooting, I noticed significant popping and crackling coming out of my speakers. I’ve read lots of people having this problem with the X-Fi series. I think it’s particular to Vista. Something about the new RAM sparked the crackling. Whatever the cause, the problem was a deal-breaker for gaming as the noise feedback is too pronounced to ignore.
I first downloaded and updated the X-Fi drivers. No effect. I next downloaded and updated my mobo drivers. That did the trick. Which is good because I love my X-Fi card, but not enough to put up with CB radio crackling.
I’ve been playing some Age of Nanoc these last few days and plan to write more about my adventures after the Memorial weekend. I haven’t played long enough to judge whether AoC will permanently pull players away from WoW, but I’m having fun with it so far.
My 64-bit OP recognizes all 4 gigs. And let me tell you, I’m gaming in flavor country now. Coupled with my monster 8800, games load lightning fast and render smoothly. Fps is simply not an issue any more at current games’ highest settings.
For now.
I had one snag though. I’ve got a Soundbaster X-Fi, mostly because the integrated sound that comes on mobos suck. After installing the RAM and rebooting, I noticed significant popping and crackling coming out of my speakers. I’ve read lots of people having this problem with the X-Fi series. I think it’s particular to Vista. Something about the new RAM sparked the crackling. Whatever the cause, the problem was a deal-breaker for gaming as the noise feedback is too pronounced to ignore.
I first downloaded and updated the X-Fi drivers. No effect. I next downloaded and updated my mobo drivers. That did the trick. Which is good because I love my X-Fi card, but not enough to put up with CB radio crackling.
I’ve been playing some Age of Nanoc these last few days and plan to write more about my adventures after the Memorial weekend. I haven’t played long enough to judge whether AoC will permanently pull players away from WoW, but I’m having fun with it so far.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
No Nanoc for Me
I forgot to mention that when I created my toon for Age of Conan, I tried to name him Nanoc. But it was already taken! What other brilliant mind puzzled out Conan backwards?
I was going to cheat and try for Nnanoc or Naanoc or Nanooc or Nannoc or Nanocc. But they just aren't the same.
If we get to have surnames, I'm going to try for Boobarian.
I was going to cheat and try for Nnanoc or Naanoc or Nanooc or Nannoc or Nanocc. But they just aren't the same.
If we get to have surnames, I'm going to try for Boobarian.
Who Was I Kidding?
I had every intention of holding off on the installation of Age of Conan till next week. But then I got a whiff of that new game smell and that was all she wrote.
The game installed flawlessly, but took more than an hour and a half, including the requisite update. Praise Crom it came on two DVDs rather than a trillion CDs. Setting up an account was straight-forward and very similar to other major MMOs. The pricing plan and options are identical to those of WoW. I eventually found myself in the juicy part of the game, character creation.
Eager to hear the lamentations of their women, I slapped a toon together, a Stygian Tempest of Set (a priest). You could burn a lot of time tweaking your dude. Character creation reminds me a bit of Oblivion’s in that you can zoom into different body parts and fine tune them to your hearts content. I had not the patience for that indulgence, so I gave my dude a rocker’s hair dew with accompanying beard and entered the game.
Graphically, the game reminds me of Tabula Rasa. In fact, I’d swear they use the same engine, though in reality I don’t think they do. Funcom said they weren’t shipping the game with DX10, but I found the option available and successfully turned it on. The starting area is a lush jungle off a sandy beach. I don’t know how to get my fps meter up, but with everything turned to its maximum setting, the game looked fluid and seamless; I’d guess I was getting at least 40 + fps. Though the graphics are a generation ahead of WoW’s, I found them inferior to Lord of the Rings Online. Which is surprising because LotRO is going on a year old and AoC is fresh out of the gate.
It took less than five seconds to see why the game has as mature ESBR rating. Just up the path, a scantily-clad blonde woman was chained to a stone archway, calling for help.
My first quest.
I won’t go into detail of what she said, why she’s there, what I did . . . for her; I don’t want to ruin the storyline for those who have yet to play. Suffice it to the say that the dialogue and plot are very Conanee.
Yes, that’s an adjective. I looked it up on Webster’s.
As fun as the main storyline is, I hate the game’s background story. Fresh off a slave ship that recently sunk, your toon has amnesia, can’t remember his favorite color or boy band, let alone what happened to him even an hour ago.
Yawn.
I mean, jeez, haven’t we gone to the amnesia well about as much as we can in fantasy literature (and I mean “literature” in the loosest sense of the word)? I guess it’s kinda cool that they explain the abilities you get from leveling as “remembering bits of your past,” but I can’t shake how hackneyed the whole thing is.
I do like the whole day/night think that Sean Molloy referred to in his beta observations. When you talk to an innkeeper, you enter the night zone, essentially a single-player affair. I think even global chat is turned off. This allows the player to immerse themselves in the single player campaign perhaps easier than having a toon named “Pwnmaster” run by you.
I’ve only reached level six, so I have more game to play, more observations to make. Since Funcom refused to send me a free journalist review edition of the game, I’ll call it as I see it. I told them if they hooked me up for free, Furious Cognition would sing their praises even if the game sucked.
Incredibly enough, they were not moved to improve the hype of their game. I gave them their chance to make thousands more dollars in sales. Now they're at the cold mercy of my unbiased wit.
The game installed flawlessly, but took more than an hour and a half, including the requisite update. Praise Crom it came on two DVDs rather than a trillion CDs. Setting up an account was straight-forward and very similar to other major MMOs. The pricing plan and options are identical to those of WoW. I eventually found myself in the juicy part of the game, character creation.
Eager to hear the lamentations of their women, I slapped a toon together, a Stygian Tempest of Set (a priest). You could burn a lot of time tweaking your dude. Character creation reminds me a bit of Oblivion’s in that you can zoom into different body parts and fine tune them to your hearts content. I had not the patience for that indulgence, so I gave my dude a rocker’s hair dew with accompanying beard and entered the game.
Graphically, the game reminds me of Tabula Rasa. In fact, I’d swear they use the same engine, though in reality I don’t think they do. Funcom said they weren’t shipping the game with DX10, but I found the option available and successfully turned it on. The starting area is a lush jungle off a sandy beach. I don’t know how to get my fps meter up, but with everything turned to its maximum setting, the game looked fluid and seamless; I’d guess I was getting at least 40 + fps. Though the graphics are a generation ahead of WoW’s, I found them inferior to Lord of the Rings Online. Which is surprising because LotRO is going on a year old and AoC is fresh out of the gate.
It took less than five seconds to see why the game has as mature ESBR rating. Just up the path, a scantily-clad blonde woman was chained to a stone archway, calling for help.
My first quest.
I won’t go into detail of what she said, why she’s there, what I did . . . for her; I don’t want to ruin the storyline for those who have yet to play. Suffice it to the say that the dialogue and plot are very Conanee.
Yes, that’s an adjective. I looked it up on Webster’s.
As fun as the main storyline is, I hate the game’s background story. Fresh off a slave ship that recently sunk, your toon has amnesia, can’t remember his favorite color or boy band, let alone what happened to him even an hour ago.
Yawn.
I mean, jeez, haven’t we gone to the amnesia well about as much as we can in fantasy literature (and I mean “literature” in the loosest sense of the word)? I guess it’s kinda cool that they explain the abilities you get from leveling as “remembering bits of your past,” but I can’t shake how hackneyed the whole thing is.
I do like the whole day/night think that Sean Molloy referred to in his beta observations. When you talk to an innkeeper, you enter the night zone, essentially a single-player affair. I think even global chat is turned off. This allows the player to immerse themselves in the single player campaign perhaps easier than having a toon named “Pwnmaster” run by you.
I’ve only reached level six, so I have more game to play, more observations to make. Since Funcom refused to send me a free journalist review edition of the game, I’ll call it as I see it. I told them if they hooked me up for free, Furious Cognition would sing their praises even if the game sucked.
Incredibly enough, they were not moved to improve the hype of their game. I gave them their chance to make thousands more dollars in sales. Now they're at the cold mercy of my unbiased wit.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Age of Conan Hits Store Shelves Today
Age of Nanoc goes retail today and I’ll probably stop by Best Buy today and snag a copy. I’ve got a gift card burning a hole in my pocket so I either buy that or that Barbie Dream House game.
It’s a harder decision that it sounds.
I’ve heard reports from multiple news outlets that AoC did two separate runs of its collector’s edition and sold them all, some 70,000 units all total. Preorders for the game have exceeded 700,000. That’s impressive, to be sure, but still no where near the business that World of Warcraft does. And I can’t help but think that the AoC’s “mature” rating will prevent it from ever hitting WoW subscriber numbers. Let’s face it, one of the things we all hate about WoW is those punk teenagers crowding Shittrat with their night elf huntards, spamming the trade channel with their witty Chuck Norris observations. AoC may attract a more discriminating gamer but at the cost of mass appeal.
That’s only if retail outlets keep the game out of the rug rats’ hands. Gamestop, Walmart, and Best Buy should be carding kids and plucking AoC from their grubby little mitts. If they don’t abide by the ratings standard, AoC’s subscriber base could be pushed higher, allowing all of us to hear more of how when Chuck Norris does a push up, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the earth down.
Oh for the love of god retail store, keep this game out of their hands! I’m begging you!
I don’t think AoC has to do WoW numbers. I bet Lord of the Rings Online doesn’t do a fifth of the subscriber business that WoW does, and yet it appears to be thriving as a niche alternative MMO. AoC could do the same thing, though I suspect most of its user base will have to come from the other MMOs, and since WoW has the most to begin with, it likely has the most to lose as well.
I’d love for MMO developers to post their monthly subscriber base, initial purchase revenue, and subscription revenue. Not only would it be interesting to compare the major players in the industry, it would also be a bit easier to forecast trends and changes. I heard rumors that WoW pulled in almost $300 million dollars for its parent company, but it wasn’t clear if that was a yearly or quarterly total. Getting some hard and fast numbers would help clarify whether WoW is primed for a dethroning or further entrenched as the reigning MMO.
Even though I’m picking up Age of Nanoc today, I likely won’t play it till next week as we’re having company over Memorial weekend. When I do crank it up, I’ll post some observations or do a full-blown review.
It’s a harder decision that it sounds.
I’ve heard reports from multiple news outlets that AoC did two separate runs of its collector’s edition and sold them all, some 70,000 units all total. Preorders for the game have exceeded 700,000. That’s impressive, to be sure, but still no where near the business that World of Warcraft does. And I can’t help but think that the AoC’s “mature” rating will prevent it from ever hitting WoW subscriber numbers. Let’s face it, one of the things we all hate about WoW is those punk teenagers crowding Shittrat with their night elf huntards, spamming the trade channel with their witty Chuck Norris observations. AoC may attract a more discriminating gamer but at the cost of mass appeal.
That’s only if retail outlets keep the game out of the rug rats’ hands. Gamestop, Walmart, and Best Buy should be carding kids and plucking AoC from their grubby little mitts. If they don’t abide by the ratings standard, AoC’s subscriber base could be pushed higher, allowing all of us to hear more of how when Chuck Norris does a push up, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the earth down.
Oh for the love of god retail store, keep this game out of their hands! I’m begging you!
I don’t think AoC has to do WoW numbers. I bet Lord of the Rings Online doesn’t do a fifth of the subscriber business that WoW does, and yet it appears to be thriving as a niche alternative MMO. AoC could do the same thing, though I suspect most of its user base will have to come from the other MMOs, and since WoW has the most to begin with, it likely has the most to lose as well.
I’d love for MMO developers to post their monthly subscriber base, initial purchase revenue, and subscription revenue. Not only would it be interesting to compare the major players in the industry, it would also be a bit easier to forecast trends and changes. I heard rumors that WoW pulled in almost $300 million dollars for its parent company, but it wasn’t clear if that was a yearly or quarterly total. Getting some hard and fast numbers would help clarify whether WoW is primed for a dethroning or further entrenched as the reigning MMO.
Even though I’m picking up Age of Nanoc today, I likely won’t play it till next week as we’re having company over Memorial weekend. When I do crank it up, I’ll post some observations or do a full-blown review.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Taste Cold Steel Ya Old Hag!
This past weekend, I split my meager gaming time between Lord of the Rings Online and The Witcher. LoTRO turned out to be a bit of a bust as I only got one fellowship quest done, Half-Orc Schemer. I completed much of inside Garth Argawen the weekend before, but getting a group together to finish the last boss in the instance, The Red-Maid, has proved difficult. I really need to try and get that done because the chest piece reward is suweet!
Unbelievably, I checked the date of my last saved game for The Witcher and it was stamped December 31, 2007. I had played the game solid for five days and then abandoned it for WoW. I picked up where I left off, pleasantly reminded on how fun the game is.
An old hag bedevils me though. I’m trying to tap Shani, a short-skirted honey that works in the Temple District hospital. Remember, this is the game where I get a naked trading card when I have carnal knowledge of a chick. I’ve got four naked cards so far and though I could play Geralt to behave like a gentleman, I instead try to nail anything and everything in sight.
Right now, my quest log says that Shani owes me one and that I should talk to her more often; I collected some herbs for her and apparently she’s very grateful.
I’m trying with all my might to test how grateful.
But when I try to visit her house at night, some old hag stops me at the door! Turns out she owns the place and Shani is renting out the upstairs. This wrinkled prune grills me at the door, never likes my answers, and always kicks me right back out. Sometimes I’m too drunk. Others I’m a mouthy scoundrel. Unfortunately, I’m never given a dialogue option to unsheathe my sword to permanently deal with the wrinkled prune, so my naked card of Shani remains tantalizingly out of reach.
Wifezilla overheard me swearing at the old hag and asked me what I was doing. I told her I was trying get to Shani’s room so I could hit that, but this old woman was David Hasselhoff’in me and I couldn’t score my fifth naked card. Frowning with disapproval, she asked to see my previously earned cards. I refused, citing gamer-game confidentiality. I also reminded her she bought me the game. For Christmas no less!
She left the room, even more disgusted with me than normal. If that’s possible.
Unbelievably, I checked the date of my last saved game for The Witcher and it was stamped December 31, 2007. I had played the game solid for five days and then abandoned it for WoW. I picked up where I left off, pleasantly reminded on how fun the game is.
An old hag bedevils me though. I’m trying to tap Shani, a short-skirted honey that works in the Temple District hospital. Remember, this is the game where I get a naked trading card when I have carnal knowledge of a chick. I’ve got four naked cards so far and though I could play Geralt to behave like a gentleman, I instead try to nail anything and everything in sight.
Right now, my quest log says that Shani owes me one and that I should talk to her more often; I collected some herbs for her and apparently she’s very grateful.
I’m trying with all my might to test how grateful.
But when I try to visit her house at night, some old hag stops me at the door! Turns out she owns the place and Shani is renting out the upstairs. This wrinkled prune grills me at the door, never likes my answers, and always kicks me right back out. Sometimes I’m too drunk. Others I’m a mouthy scoundrel. Unfortunately, I’m never given a dialogue option to unsheathe my sword to permanently deal with the wrinkled prune, so my naked card of Shani remains tantalizingly out of reach.
Wifezilla overheard me swearing at the old hag and asked me what I was doing. I told her I was trying get to Shani’s room so I could hit that, but this old woman was David Hasselhoff’in me and I couldn’t score my fifth naked card. Frowning with disapproval, she asked to see my previously earned cards. I refused, citing gamer-game confidentiality. I also reminded her she bought me the game. For Christmas no less!
She left the room, even more disgusted with me than normal. If that’s possible.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Even Scrabble Runs Better in Vista Than WoW
The power supply and video card installation went splendidly. I had it in my head that the power supply and motherboard overlapped each other and that I was going to have to remove both. But the power supply resides well above the motherboard so popping the old one out and the new one in was a breeze. I already like this RaidMax better than my old 450 watt Antec. It’s quieter and the cables are sheathed in some sort of mesh that makes them more pliable and malleable; I shove them in place and they don’t rubber-bounce back.
The 8800 GT is a monster-long card. I barely had room to spare when I slid it in place. If you look out its back window, you’re eyeballs will be inches from the back-end of my secondary hard drive. They either need to work on shrinking these cards or adding an inch of width to cases.
Everything installed, I cranked the system up and fired up Lord of the Rings Online. I made a bee-line for the graphics settings and cranked it to the ultimate setting: ultra. My system hiccuped at first, I guess from loading all those textures. But after that, it settled down to a smooth 70 fps. The game looks incredible at its highest setting. Shadow rendering is especially outstanding. If you stand under a tree while the sun is out, the leaves cast a kaleidoscope of shadows around you rather than a single dark block.
Thoroughly satisfied, I existed out of LoTRO and started World of Warcraft. Not surprisingly, I got the same bulls*$% 25 fps I’d been getting with the 8600. More than ever I’m convinced that Vista is the culprit. Or that WoW is the culprit for not optimizing its code for Vista. Before I made the switch to Vista, WoW ran well in XP. So well, fps was never an issue for me. But the moment I transitioned to Vista, WoW started running like a PowerPoint presentation. And upgrading to an 8800 hasn’t made an appreciable improvement in frame rate. So if you’re a WoW enthusiast running XP, hold off on switching to Vista as long as you. My suspicion is that WoW will never run that well in Vista and that only Blizzard’s next MMO (either WoW II or Starcraft) will be optimized it.
As it stands, Vista has all my components listed at the highest ranking, 5.9, except for my CPU at 4.9 and my RAM at 4.5. I’m not going to replace my mobo and processor, but I am going to order 4 gigs of Kingston RAM. It’s faster than the value RAM I currently have and my 64-bit configuration should be able to take advantage of 4 full megs. In about a year, I build an entirely new system and give this computer to Wifezilla.
I just hope it has the horses to play her Scrabble game.
The 8800 GT is a monster-long card. I barely had room to spare when I slid it in place. If you look out its back window, you’re eyeballs will be inches from the back-end of my secondary hard drive. They either need to work on shrinking these cards or adding an inch of width to cases.
Everything installed, I cranked the system up and fired up Lord of the Rings Online. I made a bee-line for the graphics settings and cranked it to the ultimate setting: ultra. My system hiccuped at first, I guess from loading all those textures. But after that, it settled down to a smooth 70 fps. The game looks incredible at its highest setting. Shadow rendering is especially outstanding. If you stand under a tree while the sun is out, the leaves cast a kaleidoscope of shadows around you rather than a single dark block.
Thoroughly satisfied, I existed out of LoTRO and started World of Warcraft. Not surprisingly, I got the same bulls*$% 25 fps I’d been getting with the 8600. More than ever I’m convinced that Vista is the culprit. Or that WoW is the culprit for not optimizing its code for Vista. Before I made the switch to Vista, WoW ran well in XP. So well, fps was never an issue for me. But the moment I transitioned to Vista, WoW started running like a PowerPoint presentation. And upgrading to an 8800 hasn’t made an appreciable improvement in frame rate. So if you’re a WoW enthusiast running XP, hold off on switching to Vista as long as you. My suspicion is that WoW will never run that well in Vista and that only Blizzard’s next MMO (either WoW II or Starcraft) will be optimized it.
As it stands, Vista has all my components listed at the highest ranking, 5.9, except for my CPU at 4.9 and my RAM at 4.5. I’m not going to replace my mobo and processor, but I am going to order 4 gigs of Kingston RAM. It’s faster than the value RAM I currently have and my 64-bit configuration should be able to take advantage of 4 full megs. In about a year, I build an entirely new system and give this computer to Wifezilla.
I just hope it has the horses to play her Scrabble game.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
No SLI, But One Card Should Do Me Just Fine
This bad boy just arrived in the mail today. I needed a new power supply to juice it. I'm going to pop them in right after this post.
Goodbye 15 fps in WoW!
I was going to order two 8800s, but it seems that none of the MMOs I play support SLI. So until I start spending the majority of my time playing games that take advantage of SLI, I'll stick with one card.
If I don't post anything to the blog in the next few days, it means I catastrophically damaged my computer. Please send the Geek Squad.
Goodbye 15 fps in WoW!
I was going to order two 8800s, but it seems that none of the MMOs I play support SLI. So until I start spending the majority of my time playing games that take advantage of SLI, I'll stick with one card.
If I don't post anything to the blog in the next few days, it means I catastrophically damaged my computer. Please send the Geek Squad.
Victoria's Secret
Some yuckster put my name on a Victoria's Secret mail list. I've been getting bimonthly junk mail from them for the past year. So thanks whomever you are. You're hilarious. If it turns out you're my brother, I'm kicking your ass when I see you in a couple of weeks.
Getting junk mail from Vicky's Top Secret is not as great as it sounds.
It would be one thing if they sent me catalogs full of nearly unclothed, hot models. They don't do that though. Instead, I get these little postcards. No hot, mostly naked model. Just a sales pitch and a picture of the article of clothing they want me to buy. I guess they think James Thomson is a she-male. Or a transvestite. Or a transsexual. Yup, James Thomson whizzed right by their quality control database software and proceeded straight to flooding me with ads for perfume, lingerie, thongs, and panties.
"Buy one pantie, get additional panties free!" the last postcard read. I turned it over and over for the accompanying model. Apparently she was invisible inside the pink pantie floating at the top of the card.
Rather than throw the cards away, however, I file them for a rainy day. I'm saving them in case my decade-away mid-life crisis degenerates into cross-dressing or gender reversal. If it does, I'll be set.
I pray to God everyday I go the other way and blow $60k on a Harley.
Getting junk mail from Vicky's Top Secret is not as great as it sounds.
It would be one thing if they sent me catalogs full of nearly unclothed, hot models. They don't do that though. Instead, I get these little postcards. No hot, mostly naked model. Just a sales pitch and a picture of the article of clothing they want me to buy. I guess they think James Thomson is a she-male. Or a transvestite. Or a transsexual. Yup, James Thomson whizzed right by their quality control database software and proceeded straight to flooding me with ads for perfume, lingerie, thongs, and panties.
"Buy one pantie, get additional panties free!" the last postcard read. I turned it over and over for the accompanying model. Apparently she was invisible inside the pink pantie floating at the top of the card.
Rather than throw the cards away, however, I file them for a rainy day. I'm saving them in case my decade-away mid-life crisis degenerates into cross-dressing or gender reversal. If it does, I'll be set.
I pray to God everyday I go the other way and blow $60k on a Harley.
I Don't Recall Aragorn Ever Chirping
A couple weeks back with the release of Book 13, Turbine patched how a hero summons his mount. I can't recall what it used to look like, but they changed it to two shrill whistles. The accompanying movement had the hero whistle once to his right and then turn and whistle to his left. The change was supposed to be reminiscent of Gandalf whistling for his beloved horse, Shadowfax. Kudos to Turbine for wrapping lore into even the most mundane of task (That sounds sarcastic but it's not supposed to be. I genuinely like the whistle-call).
It turns out, however, the larger Lord of the Rings Online community hated the whistle. I didn't actually read any of the hate mail on the official forums, but I did read Turbines reaction which basically said, "We hear you, you hate the whistle, now please stop posting about it."
Well, this past Tuesday, the game performed a minor patch. I logged onto my 43 champion and proceeded to summon my horse, Mr. Ed. Bracing my ears for the shrill-whistle impact, I instead heard two staccato chirps. I glanced outside my window to make sure a little sparrow wasn't perched outside cheerfully singing to me. The closest tree was vacant but for a vagrant squirrel. The rodent glared at me and then scurried down MY tree; I shook my fist at him as retaliation. Turning my attention back to the game, I dismounted and re-summoned to verify I heard correctly. Sure enough, my plate-armored, weapon-bristling, tobacco-chewing, orc-slaying, pipe-smoking, troll-chopping, scar-ridden warrior made a motion to his right and chirped cutely, then made a motion to his left and chirped cutely, and then found himself astride Mr. Ed.
I asked myself aloud, "Holy crap, did my dude just chirp?!" I waited for my toon to make an additional emote. A shrug of the shoulders. A resigned shake of the head. A shudder from a controlled sobbing. A handing over of his weapons and armor because he was no longer a man but an avian duet-singer for Snow White.
No emote followed. Kammris waited stoically in his saddle; Mr. Ed swished his tail patiently. I rode out of Bree surprised, bemused, and wholly emasculated.
And so let this be a warning to the entire LoTRO community: be careful what you wish for because certainly in this case, you got what you deserved.
It turns out, however, the larger Lord of the Rings Online community hated the whistle. I didn't actually read any of the hate mail on the official forums, but I did read Turbines reaction which basically said, "We hear you, you hate the whistle, now please stop posting about it."
Well, this past Tuesday, the game performed a minor patch. I logged onto my 43 champion and proceeded to summon my horse, Mr. Ed. Bracing my ears for the shrill-whistle impact, I instead heard two staccato chirps. I glanced outside my window to make sure a little sparrow wasn't perched outside cheerfully singing to me. The closest tree was vacant but for a vagrant squirrel. The rodent glared at me and then scurried down MY tree; I shook my fist at him as retaliation. Turning my attention back to the game, I dismounted and re-summoned to verify I heard correctly. Sure enough, my plate-armored, weapon-bristling, tobacco-chewing, orc-slaying, pipe-smoking, troll-chopping, scar-ridden warrior made a motion to his right and chirped cutely, then made a motion to his left and chirped cutely, and then found himself astride Mr. Ed.
I asked myself aloud, "Holy crap, did my dude just chirp?!" I waited for my toon to make an additional emote. A shrug of the shoulders. A resigned shake of the head. A shudder from a controlled sobbing. A handing over of his weapons and armor because he was no longer a man but an avian duet-singer for Snow White.
No emote followed. Kammris waited stoically in his saddle; Mr. Ed swished his tail patiently. I rode out of Bree surprised, bemused, and wholly emasculated.
And so let this be a warning to the entire LoTRO community: be careful what you wish for because certainly in this case, you got what you deserved.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
No, I Liked It.
The other night, the girls and I took Wifezilla out to eat. As her name implies, Wifezilla is a ravenous carnosaur. Food has been known to fly when Wifezilla faces off with a slab of meat. I’m fairly used to it after nearly a decade of marriage, but when meat detris starts splattering all around me, I have to work hard at calming my heaving stomach.
Last weekend, in honor of Mother’s Day, we journeyed to our local Outback. Wifezilla usually orders raw steak, but that night she eschewed tradition, ordering some weird dish: sirloin steak slapped on top of a mound of mashed potatoes slavered with mushrooms in a red wine sauce. It had a name, Ma Somethin or Other, and Wifezilla tore into it like an enraged bear fresh out of hibernation.
Driving home, I asked her if she liked her meal.
“Yeah, it was good,” she said.
“It didn’t look like steak though. It looked liked chopped hamburger,” I replied.
“Yeah, it was chopped. I wish it had been a regular steak.”
“So, would you order it again?” I queried.
“No, probably not.”
“So you didn’t like it.”
“No, I liked it.”
“But you just got done saying you wouldn’t order it again. If you liked it, you’d order it again,” I reasoned.
“I liked it; I just wished it was an actual steak instead of chopped.”
“That means you didn’t like it.”
“No, I liked it,” she replied, a bit firmly.
I gave up at this point in fear of angering the Wifezilla. I had just seen Cloverfied the other night and didn’t want to unleash a similar rampage upon unsuspecting Houston.
A few days later, we sat down to watch Sweeny Todd. It’s a pretty good movie with a great setting and atmosphere. Midway through the movie, Todd starts seriously going to town on people’s throats. The movie shows the slitting in all its glorious, gory detail. At the first blood spout, Wifezilla hid her face behind her hands. Pretty much from that point on, she listened to the movie, but didn’t watch. As it was getting late, we stopped about an hour short of the ending. Not long afterwards, as we were getting ready for bed, I asked her if she liked the movie.
“Yeah, it was good,” she said.
“Pretty gory though, huh,” I guessed.
“Yeah. So gross.”
“Did you even watch any of the movie after he started murdering people?”
“Not really.”
“Do you even want to finish watching it?”
“Um, not really.”
“So you didn’t like it.”
“No, I liked it.”
“But you just said you didn’t want to finish watching the movie. If you liked it, wouldn’t you want to watch the rest?”
“I liked it, ok; I just didn’t like all that killing”
“But that’s part of the movie! You take that out, and it doesn’t ma—"
I cut myself off, arriving at the profound realization that my wife is a complicated soul.
Last weekend, in honor of Mother’s Day, we journeyed to our local Outback. Wifezilla usually orders raw steak, but that night she eschewed tradition, ordering some weird dish: sirloin steak slapped on top of a mound of mashed potatoes slavered with mushrooms in a red wine sauce. It had a name, Ma Somethin or Other, and Wifezilla tore into it like an enraged bear fresh out of hibernation.
Driving home, I asked her if she liked her meal.
“Yeah, it was good,” she said.
“It didn’t look like steak though. It looked liked chopped hamburger,” I replied.
“Yeah, it was chopped. I wish it had been a regular steak.”
“So, would you order it again?” I queried.
“No, probably not.”
“So you didn’t like it.”
“No, I liked it.”
“But you just got done saying you wouldn’t order it again. If you liked it, you’d order it again,” I reasoned.
“I liked it; I just wished it was an actual steak instead of chopped.”
“That means you didn’t like it.”
“No, I liked it,” she replied, a bit firmly.
I gave up at this point in fear of angering the Wifezilla. I had just seen Cloverfied the other night and didn’t want to unleash a similar rampage upon unsuspecting Houston.
A few days later, we sat down to watch Sweeny Todd. It’s a pretty good movie with a great setting and atmosphere. Midway through the movie, Todd starts seriously going to town on people’s throats. The movie shows the slitting in all its glorious, gory detail. At the first blood spout, Wifezilla hid her face behind her hands. Pretty much from that point on, she listened to the movie, but didn’t watch. As it was getting late, we stopped about an hour short of the ending. Not long afterwards, as we were getting ready for bed, I asked her if she liked the movie.
“Yeah, it was good,” she said.
“Pretty gory though, huh,” I guessed.
“Yeah. So gross.”
“Did you even watch any of the movie after he started murdering people?”
“Not really.”
“Do you even want to finish watching it?”
“Um, not really.”
“So you didn’t like it.”
“No, I liked it.”
“But you just said you didn’t want to finish watching the movie. If you liked it, wouldn’t you want to watch the rest?”
“I liked it, ok; I just didn’t like all that killing”
“But that’s part of the movie! You take that out, and it doesn’t ma—"
I cut myself off, arriving at the profound realization that my wife is a complicated soul.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Cloverfield
As I’ve admitted before, I’m a big J.J. Abrams fan. I didn’t watch Alias, mainly because Jennifer Garner kind of annoys me, but I’ve seen all the episodes of Lost, totally dug Mission Impossible III, and can’t wait to see the reinvention of the Star Trek franchise. Sure, Lost has been uneven. Now that I’m most of the way through the clipped season 4, I’d put it as only slightly better than season 2, far inferior to season 3.
Abrams didn’t write or direct Cloverfield, but he produced it. Fair or not, I was going to judge the quality of this movie based on his name alone, regardless of who actually directed the film or wrote the screenplay. And my assessment?
Gold baby. Pure gold.
Let me get this out of the way first. Those reports you heard of people getting motion sickness watching the movie in the theater? Believe them. Fear them.
I didn’t get sick watching the movie, but I did have a pounding headache by the end. The movie is completely narrated through the perspective of a hand-held video camera. And the person doing much of the filming isn’t exactly Glenn Ford or Robert Redford. And his camera isn’t exactly mounted on one of those cool rail-cars that rides on a track. Instead, Hud jostles the camera like he’s on a rollercoaster; he can be forgiven poor cinematography because he spends a good chunk of the movie running for his life from the monster that ate New York. The camera is rarely still, and the few times it is, the angle is strange like when Hud lowers the camera so that he, Jason, and Lily can gossip about Beth and Robert.
But despite any physical discomfort the camera perspective may cause its audience, it’s for a just cause. Filmed conventionally, the movie could have come off as comic, or worse yet, banal. Instead, the video camera perspective lends a gritty realism to a movie that is essentially the United States’ version of Godzilla. Abrams said as much in interviews. He said he was inspired to make Cloverfield because unlike Japan, the U.S. didn’t have a legacy of a quintessential monster attacking its major cities.
It does now.
My favorite part of this movie? The fact that fighting the monster occurred around the main story narrative of Robert and his friends trying to rescue Beth in the midst of the monster attack. I loved those quick, furtive glimpses of the military throwing everything they had at the monster. My most favorite, favorite part was when Hud’s chopper lifts up and the camera pans a shot out the window catching a stealth bomber unloading a devastating payload directly upon the rampaging hulk. Amid a plume of fire and smoke, Hud whoops it up certain the monster has been destroyed. Suddenly, the thing leaps from the inferno unscathed and whacks the helicopter from the sky. I knew the moment Hud started celebrating that the monster wasn’t dead, but the movie still managed to surprise me with that smoky jump.
My only quibble with the movie is Robert’s linear motivation to rescue Beth. Everything the characters did and said in that movie felt real. Except for Robert insisting on walking into the path of the monster to rescue a girlfriend he couldn’t be certain was alive. Plopped in the middle of such a strongly written script, I immediately thought how unlikely it would be for anyone to react that way, even for unrequited love. I think the movie could have been even better if some other contingency, one unplanned by the main characters, put them in the path of the monster.
Like I said though, I’m nit picking. The movie is a triumph. I can’t wait to see what Abrams does with Star Trek.
Abrams didn’t write or direct Cloverfield, but he produced it. Fair or not, I was going to judge the quality of this movie based on his name alone, regardless of who actually directed the film or wrote the screenplay. And my assessment?
Gold baby. Pure gold.
Let me get this out of the way first. Those reports you heard of people getting motion sickness watching the movie in the theater? Believe them. Fear them.
I didn’t get sick watching the movie, but I did have a pounding headache by the end. The movie is completely narrated through the perspective of a hand-held video camera. And the person doing much of the filming isn’t exactly Glenn Ford or Robert Redford. And his camera isn’t exactly mounted on one of those cool rail-cars that rides on a track. Instead, Hud jostles the camera like he’s on a rollercoaster; he can be forgiven poor cinematography because he spends a good chunk of the movie running for his life from the monster that ate New York. The camera is rarely still, and the few times it is, the angle is strange like when Hud lowers the camera so that he, Jason, and Lily can gossip about Beth and Robert.
But despite any physical discomfort the camera perspective may cause its audience, it’s for a just cause. Filmed conventionally, the movie could have come off as comic, or worse yet, banal. Instead, the video camera perspective lends a gritty realism to a movie that is essentially the United States’ version of Godzilla. Abrams said as much in interviews. He said he was inspired to make Cloverfield because unlike Japan, the U.S. didn’t have a legacy of a quintessential monster attacking its major cities.
It does now.
My favorite part of this movie? The fact that fighting the monster occurred around the main story narrative of Robert and his friends trying to rescue Beth in the midst of the monster attack. I loved those quick, furtive glimpses of the military throwing everything they had at the monster. My most favorite, favorite part was when Hud’s chopper lifts up and the camera pans a shot out the window catching a stealth bomber unloading a devastating payload directly upon the rampaging hulk. Amid a plume of fire and smoke, Hud whoops it up certain the monster has been destroyed. Suddenly, the thing leaps from the inferno unscathed and whacks the helicopter from the sky. I knew the moment Hud started celebrating that the monster wasn’t dead, but the movie still managed to surprise me with that smoky jump.
My only quibble with the movie is Robert’s linear motivation to rescue Beth. Everything the characters did and said in that movie felt real. Except for Robert insisting on walking into the path of the monster to rescue a girlfriend he couldn’t be certain was alive. Plopped in the middle of such a strongly written script, I immediately thought how unlikely it would be for anyone to react that way, even for unrequited love. I think the movie could have been even better if some other contingency, one unplanned by the main characters, put them in the path of the monster.
Like I said though, I’m nit picking. The movie is a triumph. I can’t wait to see what Abrams does with Star Trek.
Monday, May 12, 2008
The Post-WoW Era?
Silvermoon raiding guilds have been dropping like flies lately.
Last week, the guild leader for Manifest Destiny announced he and some key members were quitting WoW. Another MD member posted a few days later that he and some others were going to try and keep the raiding guild alive, but certainly their raiding potential is in dire straits. A few days later, Chaos and Mayhem also indicated a halt to end-game raiding in WoW. Just this past weekend, I read that Apocalyptic is also done.
A forum poster quipped that it would be easier to create a thread of raiding guilds that weren’t quitting.
So what’s going on here?
Well, Age of Nanoc is certainly a factor. In nearly all the recent guild-disband announcements, a poster responded with “See ya in Age of Nanoc!” MMOs have come and gone and few if any have put a dent in WoW’s hegemonic control of the market. That may very well end with the official release of AoC. I say “may” because AoC is largely untested. I have no idea if it will have the casual and raiding appeal that is unique to WoW. It’s very easy to get all excited about the latest, greatest MMO. It’s quite another for that game to prove itself as solid a game model as WoW.
However, I do think that many, many people are burnt out on WoW raiding. Eager for a fresh start and a new experience, I can foresee people shelving their uber-WoW raiding toon (at least temporarily) to try a novel spin on the MMO concept. Will Age of Nanoc prove as appealing at WoW? It’s just too early to tell, but I think a lot of people are going to check it out and see for themselves.
I myself have to admit that I am beginning to resent WoW a little bit. The game’s demands on a guild member’s time are immense. Case in point: Requiem raids four nights a week. Some sessions last a short time, maybe three hours, while others last five plus. For the sake of argument, let’s say the average Requiem raiding night lasts four hours. Multiply that by four nights and that’s sixteen hours a week.
Compared to a forty-hour work week, that’s nearly a part-time job.
I used to raid three nights a week a few months back. To stave off burn-out, I trimmed it back to two. Which is manageable. And yet, killing the same bosses over and over again, it takes its toll. Sometimes I feel like I’m sitting in front of a slot machine and the instant a boss goes down, I’m pulling the lever and waiting for the cherries to line up. End-game raiding has for me, to a large extent, condensed itself down to learning a movement and attack pattern for each boss and executing that pattern week after week, month after month for a chance to win gear that will . . . allow you to repeat this same pattern with new and more difficult bosses. I’m not experiencing new content as much as gambling at each boss’s loot table.
And that’s where I start to resent WoW. Grand Theft Auto IV came out last week to much popular and critical fanfare. The hype that surrounds that game gives me pause: wouldn’t it be fun to run around an urban setting pretending to be a criminal instead of killing Naj’entus for the fifteenth time? I don’t even have a console to play GTA IV, but hearing and reading about it sparks my most base enthusiasm for gaming. It hearkens me back to the days when a new game would come out and I would rush to the mall after work to pick it up and then spend frantic days playing the hell out of it. It’s been too long, too infrequent since I’ve felt that way about a game.
And that’s largely because of WoW. Mass Effect is coming out for the PC at the end of this month. By most accounts, it’s a great game. Will I buy it? Probably not. It would be a waste of money. It would sit on my desk gathering dust because of the time WoW raiding demands.
Which kind of depresses me as a gamer.
I think the release of AoC may be perfectly timed with a general apathy for WoW. If the game turns out to be good, with a nice balance between casual gaming and raiding, it could very well shift some serious market share from WoW. At the very least, it’s going to make people rethink why they raid in WoW: what am I actually accomplishing? What do I contribute? What do I get out of it? Is this new content, a new experience? Or am I just spinning a giant treadmill, full of artificial blocks and time sinks to keep me subscribed and playing?
It could be I’m being unfair of WoW and I’m just in the middle of one of my many low ebbs with the game. Maybe I shouldn’t blame WoW for a game model that most other MMOs share, including AoC in all likelihood. I probably shouldn’t blame WoW for taking my time away from other games I could be playing because I am after all an adult and more than capable of making decisions for myself that might lead me to more enjoyable gaming experiences.
I shouldn’t blame WoW, but I am beginning to. And if there are more like me, we could very well be at the beginning of the post-WoW era.
Last week, the guild leader for Manifest Destiny announced he and some key members were quitting WoW. Another MD member posted a few days later that he and some others were going to try and keep the raiding guild alive, but certainly their raiding potential is in dire straits. A few days later, Chaos and Mayhem also indicated a halt to end-game raiding in WoW. Just this past weekend, I read that Apocalyptic is also done.
A forum poster quipped that it would be easier to create a thread of raiding guilds that weren’t quitting.
So what’s going on here?
Well, Age of Nanoc is certainly a factor. In nearly all the recent guild-disband announcements, a poster responded with “See ya in Age of Nanoc!” MMOs have come and gone and few if any have put a dent in WoW’s hegemonic control of the market. That may very well end with the official release of AoC. I say “may” because AoC is largely untested. I have no idea if it will have the casual and raiding appeal that is unique to WoW. It’s very easy to get all excited about the latest, greatest MMO. It’s quite another for that game to prove itself as solid a game model as WoW.
However, I do think that many, many people are burnt out on WoW raiding. Eager for a fresh start and a new experience, I can foresee people shelving their uber-WoW raiding toon (at least temporarily) to try a novel spin on the MMO concept. Will Age of Nanoc prove as appealing at WoW? It’s just too early to tell, but I think a lot of people are going to check it out and see for themselves.
I myself have to admit that I am beginning to resent WoW a little bit. The game’s demands on a guild member’s time are immense. Case in point: Requiem raids four nights a week. Some sessions last a short time, maybe three hours, while others last five plus. For the sake of argument, let’s say the average Requiem raiding night lasts four hours. Multiply that by four nights and that’s sixteen hours a week.
Compared to a forty-hour work week, that’s nearly a part-time job.
I used to raid three nights a week a few months back. To stave off burn-out, I trimmed it back to two. Which is manageable. And yet, killing the same bosses over and over again, it takes its toll. Sometimes I feel like I’m sitting in front of a slot machine and the instant a boss goes down, I’m pulling the lever and waiting for the cherries to line up. End-game raiding has for me, to a large extent, condensed itself down to learning a movement and attack pattern for each boss and executing that pattern week after week, month after month for a chance to win gear that will . . . allow you to repeat this same pattern with new and more difficult bosses. I’m not experiencing new content as much as gambling at each boss’s loot table.
And that’s where I start to resent WoW. Grand Theft Auto IV came out last week to much popular and critical fanfare. The hype that surrounds that game gives me pause: wouldn’t it be fun to run around an urban setting pretending to be a criminal instead of killing Naj’entus for the fifteenth time? I don’t even have a console to play GTA IV, but hearing and reading about it sparks my most base enthusiasm for gaming. It hearkens me back to the days when a new game would come out and I would rush to the mall after work to pick it up and then spend frantic days playing the hell out of it. It’s been too long, too infrequent since I’ve felt that way about a game.
And that’s largely because of WoW. Mass Effect is coming out for the PC at the end of this month. By most accounts, it’s a great game. Will I buy it? Probably not. It would be a waste of money. It would sit on my desk gathering dust because of the time WoW raiding demands.
Which kind of depresses me as a gamer.
I think the release of AoC may be perfectly timed with a general apathy for WoW. If the game turns out to be good, with a nice balance between casual gaming and raiding, it could very well shift some serious market share from WoW. At the very least, it’s going to make people rethink why they raid in WoW: what am I actually accomplishing? What do I contribute? What do I get out of it? Is this new content, a new experience? Or am I just spinning a giant treadmill, full of artificial blocks and time sinks to keep me subscribed and playing?
It could be I’m being unfair of WoW and I’m just in the middle of one of my many low ebbs with the game. Maybe I shouldn’t blame WoW for a game model that most other MMOs share, including AoC in all likelihood. I probably shouldn’t blame WoW for taking my time away from other games I could be playing because I am after all an adult and more than capable of making decisions for myself that might lead me to more enjoyable gaming experiences.
I shouldn’t blame WoW, but I am beginning to. And if there are more like me, we could very well be at the beginning of the post-WoW era.
Friday, May 9, 2008
1UP Previews Wrath of the Lich King
1UP has a glut of new World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King news on their site today. First, they report that the expansion's dungeons will offer two different simultaneous versions: 10 and 25 woman. The key difference, the 25 woman instance having tougher encounters, but better loot. This is a win-win decision on Blizzard's part. Offering a loot-poorer version of all their end-game content allows everyone a chance to partake of the experience. The hardcore raiding community still gets the latest and greatest gear.
It looks like Blizzard has scrapped plans to make players unlock the new class, Death Knight. Instead, everyone who has at least leveled a 55 toon gets to create a level 55 Death Knight. There will be some preliminary quests to explain how you came to be such a complete bad-ass. The new class seems to be a hybrid tank of some kind.
Finally, coming as a complete surprise, WotLK will offer true aerial combat! 1UP has some video footage posted within the article that show a diving gnome copter shooting up some rabble gargoyles. Apparently there's also some mounted combat too. The article mentions something about taming a mastodon-type critter and then using it to trample foes. I've longed for the opporunity to use my mount to run over beasties and it seems that soon enough, my yearning will be fulfilled.
Check out the last video for a sit-down between Jeff Green and company and two lead designers for WotLK J. Allen Brack and Jeff Kaplan. Of great interest to me: mounts won't immediately work in Northrend. Allen says they want players grounded when they first experience the new expansion and that around level 77 the option to fly will be granted. Game mechanically, that makes perfect sense. Lore-wise, not so much. Here's the interview video embedded:
It looks like Blizzard has scrapped plans to make players unlock the new class, Death Knight. Instead, everyone who has at least leveled a 55 toon gets to create a level 55 Death Knight. There will be some preliminary quests to explain how you came to be such a complete bad-ass. The new class seems to be a hybrid tank of some kind.
Finally, coming as a complete surprise, WotLK will offer true aerial combat! 1UP has some video footage posted within the article that show a diving gnome copter shooting up some rabble gargoyles. Apparently there's also some mounted combat too. The article mentions something about taming a mastodon-type critter and then using it to trample foes. I've longed for the opporunity to use my mount to run over beasties and it seems that soon enough, my yearning will be fulfilled.
Check out the last video for a sit-down between Jeff Green and company and two lead designers for WotLK J. Allen Brack and Jeff Kaplan. Of great interest to me: mounts won't immediately work in Northrend. Allen says they want players grounded when they first experience the new expansion and that around level 77 the option to fly will be granted. Game mechanically, that makes perfect sense. Lore-wise, not so much. Here's the interview video embedded:
GTA IV Epic Sales
G4’s X-Play reported the other night that Grand Theft Auto IV generated more than $500 million in its first week of release.
Yes, that’s right. A half a billion dollars in sales.
That’s more than any media entertainment. Ever. More than Star Wars. More than Harry Potter. Vastly more than its peers. It eclipses last year’s record setter, Halo 3 by more than $200 million.
Yes, that’s right. A half a billion dollars in sales.
That’s more than any media entertainment. Ever. More than Star Wars. More than Harry Potter. Vastly more than its peers. It eclipses last year’s record setter, Halo 3 by more than $200 million.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Garth Agarwen
Most of the time when I log into Lord of the Rings Online, I set a goal for myself, like complete some solo quests, work on a Book, or try to PUG some fellowship quests. Last night I rolled up my shirt sleeves and turned my attention upon the Garth Agarwen quests in my log.
Garth Agarwen is the second lowest major dungeon in Lord of the Rings Online after the Great Barrows. It’s balanced for players in their lower to mid thirties. Located in the northeast corner of the Lone-lands, it has a surrounding outside zone and an inside instance. It’s also the scene for part of Book 2. However, like most Book quests, you are portaled to the relevant quest areas.
I made my way to the Lone-lands and quickly put up a LFF notice for a GA run. I got nothing but crickets. Undaunted, I sauntered over to the western side of Weathertop and started grinding birdies for an uncompleted deed. About fifteen minutes into that, a 36 captain indicated he needed a GA run. I pm’ed him, but we couldn’t get anyone else to join us.
Another fifteen minutes passed and then it dawned on me that a ton of my kin was logged in, which is not the least surprising. At any given time, The Exploration Society has ten plus toons involved in everything from crafting to questing to raiding to freeping. On a whim, I advertised a GA run in kin chat. Irindi, a level 48 lore-master immediately responded. Symphmonkey and another kin hunter answered the call as well and soon we were off to GA.
Irindi was an awesome guide. He knew GA inside and out. Before we started, he had me get two quests I didn’t have yet, both in Bree-land. The fellowship waited patiently as my stubby legs ran back and forth fetching quests. It took the entire evening to complete just the outside GA stuff. Many were chain quests where we would run back to camp to turn them in and then venture back for more monster-whacking goodness. Despite the fact that Irindi had already completed all these quests, he cheerfully guided us to all the key mobs and bosses we needed.
So here on out, I need to spam my kin chat before I resort to pugging. Time and again, the kin has helped me complete the big stuff, like Books 1 and 3, Great Barrows, and now GA. I still have the inside portion to complete, but Irindi already indicated willingness to run us through. I got two upgrades, one for my headpiece, the second a bracelet and I’m anxious to raid the inside of GA for more of that.
Garth Agarwen is the second lowest major dungeon in Lord of the Rings Online after the Great Barrows. It’s balanced for players in their lower to mid thirties. Located in the northeast corner of the Lone-lands, it has a surrounding outside zone and an inside instance. It’s also the scene for part of Book 2. However, like most Book quests, you are portaled to the relevant quest areas.
I made my way to the Lone-lands and quickly put up a LFF notice for a GA run. I got nothing but crickets. Undaunted, I sauntered over to the western side of Weathertop and started grinding birdies for an uncompleted deed. About fifteen minutes into that, a 36 captain indicated he needed a GA run. I pm’ed him, but we couldn’t get anyone else to join us.
Another fifteen minutes passed and then it dawned on me that a ton of my kin was logged in, which is not the least surprising. At any given time, The Exploration Society has ten plus toons involved in everything from crafting to questing to raiding to freeping. On a whim, I advertised a GA run in kin chat. Irindi, a level 48 lore-master immediately responded. Symphmonkey and another kin hunter answered the call as well and soon we were off to GA.
Irindi was an awesome guide. He knew GA inside and out. Before we started, he had me get two quests I didn’t have yet, both in Bree-land. The fellowship waited patiently as my stubby legs ran back and forth fetching quests. It took the entire evening to complete just the outside GA stuff. Many were chain quests where we would run back to camp to turn them in and then venture back for more monster-whacking goodness. Despite the fact that Irindi had already completed all these quests, he cheerfully guided us to all the key mobs and bosses we needed.
So here on out, I need to spam my kin chat before I resort to pugging. Time and again, the kin has helped me complete the big stuff, like Books 1 and 3, Great Barrows, and now GA. I still have the inside portion to complete, but Irindi already indicated willingness to run us through. I got two upgrades, one for my headpiece, the second a bracelet and I’m anxious to raid the inside of GA for more of that.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Wouldja?
I admit it.
I’m a grown man, but it was only a couple of years ago I realized the double entendre meaning behind, “If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"
I’m slow, so sue me.
Now that I understand its fully-loaded definition, I use this little honey of a line on Wifezilla as often as I can. As you can well imagine, it works just as well in my child-ridden kitchen as it does in a crowded bar.
I’m a grown man, but it was only a couple of years ago I realized the double entendre meaning behind, “If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?"
I’m slow, so sue me.
Now that I understand its fully-loaded definition, I use this little honey of a line on Wifezilla as often as I can. As you can well imagine, it works just as well in my child-ridden kitchen as it does in a crowded bar.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Sean Molloy Betas Age of Nanoc
You can read his impressions here.
He seems a bit perplexed by the game. Talking a bit about the gameplay difference between night and day, he notes that it's strange to be playing an MMO by yourself.
I've heard the combat system is vastly different from that of most other MMOs. I'll be interested to hear how that plays out with end-game raiding.
He seems a bit perplexed by the game. Talking a bit about the gameplay difference between night and day, he notes that it's strange to be playing an MMO by yourself.
I've heard the combat system is vastly different from that of most other MMOs. I'll be interested to hear how that plays out with end-game raiding.
3:10 to Yuma
***Spoiler Alert***
A remake from the original from 1957, 3:10 to Yuma is about a good a Western I've ever seen. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay the movie is that it is full of outstanding performances. Crowe was simply incredible as the bad guy, Ben Wade. His performance alone is worth the price of admission. But Christian Bale is also painfully effective as the down-trodden rancher trying to redeem himself in the eyes of his family. Peter Fonda you won't even recognize as the grizzled Pinkerton agent Byron McElroy. And Ben Foster turns in a scathing performance as Charlie Prince, Wades second lieutenant. With subtle shifts and facial expressions, he exuded confidence and menace; I was more scared of him than I was of Wade.
All these actors had great dialogue to work their craft and the story moved along at a great pace. One of my favorite parts of the movie was when the posse chases Wade into the side of a mountain being tunneled for the newly expanding railroad. It's the Western version of an action movie car chase, but it's done so well, I was cheering in my seat when it was over.
And the ending: it was brilliant. Dan Evans dies, Wade guns down his crew and faces off with Evan's son, and ultimately climbs back into the train car, presumably to turn himself in. In the last frames of the movie, as the train pulls out of the station and rounds a corner, Wade gives his trademark whistle and his nearby horse instantly gallops after. Wade preserves Evan's memorable achievement, but he's not so noble that he'll ride willingly to a hanging.
That moment when Wade and the son face each other down, I knew Evan's son didn't have it in him to shoot Wade. But when the son lowered his gun and turned back to his father and Wade just continued staring at him, I thought for sure Wade was going to shoot him. I'll bet good money he was thinking about it in those few seconds. He doesn't, for whatever reason. I just love that moment.
A remake from the original from 1957, 3:10 to Yuma is about a good a Western I've ever seen. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay the movie is that it is full of outstanding performances. Crowe was simply incredible as the bad guy, Ben Wade. His performance alone is worth the price of admission. But Christian Bale is also painfully effective as the down-trodden rancher trying to redeem himself in the eyes of his family. Peter Fonda you won't even recognize as the grizzled Pinkerton agent Byron McElroy. And Ben Foster turns in a scathing performance as Charlie Prince, Wades second lieutenant. With subtle shifts and facial expressions, he exuded confidence and menace; I was more scared of him than I was of Wade.
All these actors had great dialogue to work their craft and the story moved along at a great pace. One of my favorite parts of the movie was when the posse chases Wade into the side of a mountain being tunneled for the newly expanding railroad. It's the Western version of an action movie car chase, but it's done so well, I was cheering in my seat when it was over.
And the ending: it was brilliant. Dan Evans dies, Wade guns down his crew and faces off with Evan's son, and ultimately climbs back into the train car, presumably to turn himself in. In the last frames of the movie, as the train pulls out of the station and rounds a corner, Wade gives his trademark whistle and his nearby horse instantly gallops after. Wade preserves Evan's memorable achievement, but he's not so noble that he'll ride willingly to a hanging.
That moment when Wade and the son face each other down, I knew Evan's son didn't have it in him to shoot Wade. But when the son lowered his gun and turned back to his father and Wade just continued staring at him, I thought for sure Wade was going to shoot him. I'll bet good money he was thinking about it in those few seconds. He doesn't, for whatever reason. I just love that moment.
Sarkathlon 2
X-Play announced the winner of the Mr. Sark's Sarkathlon 2 for Halo 3 last Friday. Some dude named Jonno12321 took the top time of just under 3:15. What's notable about this contest is that the winner will receive Recon armor which can only be awarded by Bungie developers.
You hear that Blizzard? I've been pwning face in Black Temple lately so you should just go head and give me a full Tier 6 set.
You hear that Blizzard? I've been pwning face in Black Temple lately so you should just go head and give me a full Tier 6 set.
Requiem Downs Illidari Council, Draws First Blood on Illidan
It was a banner weekend for Requiem. The guild tore through six BT bosses in one night. All were one-shotted but Reliquary of Souls, and even they only took three attempts.
The following night, Requiem opened with an Archimonde kill (the guild's second), and then returned to BT to kill Ma Shaz and the Illidari Council. And get a first attempt on Illidan.
That's right. First blood has been drawn. Illidan dies by the end of the month I say.
The following night, Requiem opened with an Archimonde kill (the guild's second), and then returned to BT to kill Ma Shaz and the Illidari Council. And get a first attempt on Illidan.
That's right. First blood has been drawn. Illidan dies by the end of the month I say.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Battlestar Galactica Crashes and Burns
Over the course of watching the series finale of Battlestar Galactica, I’ve experienced a mixture of boredom and apathy. My theory is this season must have new writers because this show drove off the cliff about three episodes ago and is now burning comfortably on rocky shoals.
The entire problem is new plot threads that, for lack of a better adjective, suck. Apollo righteously defending public-gathering rights (for Baltar’s cult, no less)? Starbuck constantly frothing at the mouth? Adama comforting his crew one minute and then chewing their ass out the next? Baltar a religious figure-head, spouting metaphysical nonsense? Saul seeing flashes of his dead wife in Number 6? Chief wallowing in self-pity one moment and then ranting about the cabbage smell of his recently dead wife the next?
None of this is riveting TV.
What happened to the awesome fire fights between the Galactica and Cylons? Or watching a sole Galactican surviving alone on a Cylon-infested planet. Or the trash talking Starbuck. Or the trash talking Apollo? Or the stoic decision making of Adama? Or the edgy decision making of President Roslin? Or the wicked self-preservation of Baltar? Or the insightful flashbacks to Caprica before the Cylon attack?
All this is completely absent the present season and thus the show is adrift, a vacant shell compared to its preceding seasons. Battlestar Galactica has taken a 180 degree turn unlike any I’ve ever seen. Wifezilla doesn’t even want to watch it anymore. I’m quickly reaching that point myself.
The entire problem is new plot threads that, for lack of a better adjective, suck. Apollo righteously defending public-gathering rights (for Baltar’s cult, no less)? Starbuck constantly frothing at the mouth? Adama comforting his crew one minute and then chewing their ass out the next? Baltar a religious figure-head, spouting metaphysical nonsense? Saul seeing flashes of his dead wife in Number 6? Chief wallowing in self-pity one moment and then ranting about the cabbage smell of his recently dead wife the next?
None of this is riveting TV.
What happened to the awesome fire fights between the Galactica and Cylons? Or watching a sole Galactican surviving alone on a Cylon-infested planet. Or the trash talking Starbuck. Or the trash talking Apollo? Or the stoic decision making of Adama? Or the edgy decision making of President Roslin? Or the wicked self-preservation of Baltar? Or the insightful flashbacks to Caprica before the Cylon attack?
All this is completely absent the present season and thus the show is adrift, a vacant shell compared to its preceding seasons. Battlestar Galactica has taken a 180 degree turn unlike any I’ve ever seen. Wifezilla doesn’t even want to watch it anymore. I’m quickly reaching that point myself.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
The One That Didn't Get Away
I hate fishing in World of Warcraft. I can easily hit streaks of five, six, seven plus attempts of not catching anything. Which explains why none of my WoW toons’ fishing is above 150. I can’t wait till Blizzard adds a feature where a disembodied voice calmly says “No” every time the hook comes back empty.
Lord of the Rings Online recently added the “hobby” of fishing in the recent Book 13 update. On a whim, my hip-swerving minstrel paid a visit to the hobby master in Michael Delving and then made haste to the nearest watering hole.
To be clear, fishing in LoTRO isn’t all that different than in WoW; you equip a pole, hot key the skill, and then watch as your toon casts the line and stares at the bob. Graphically though, LoTRO is the more enjoyable experience. Through the distorted water, you can see a fish approach your bob. When he bites, you hit the hotkey button again to reel in the catch. I laughed aloud when a fish jumped out of the water over my bob before reemerging to strike at my line.
I never went consecutive attempts without catching something. In fact, amid all the cute little goldfish I caught, I managed to reel in one worthy of taking to a taxidermist for wall-mounting. Sure, I caught a lot of seaweed too. I haven’t tried to sell it yet or see if it’s an ingredient for something I can cook up. But catching weeds is better than nothing.
Upon making a successful catch, the game grants a chance to skill-up your fishing. It doesn’t happen every time of course, but often enough that I earned six fishing skill points in about ten minutes. I assume bodies of water have minimum skill level requirements, like WoW. With a maximum 200 points possible, my minstrel will have to travel a good chunk of Middle Earth to become a master angler.
Lord of the Rings Online recently added the “hobby” of fishing in the recent Book 13 update. On a whim, my hip-swerving minstrel paid a visit to the hobby master in Michael Delving and then made haste to the nearest watering hole.
To be clear, fishing in LoTRO isn’t all that different than in WoW; you equip a pole, hot key the skill, and then watch as your toon casts the line and stares at the bob. Graphically though, LoTRO is the more enjoyable experience. Through the distorted water, you can see a fish approach your bob. When he bites, you hit the hotkey button again to reel in the catch. I laughed aloud when a fish jumped out of the water over my bob before reemerging to strike at my line.
I never went consecutive attempts without catching something. In fact, amid all the cute little goldfish I caught, I managed to reel in one worthy of taking to a taxidermist for wall-mounting. Sure, I caught a lot of seaweed too. I haven’t tried to sell it yet or see if it’s an ingredient for something I can cook up. But catching weeds is better than nothing.
Upon making a successful catch, the game grants a chance to skill-up your fishing. It doesn’t happen every time of course, but often enough that I earned six fishing skill points in about ten minutes. I assume bodies of water have minimum skill level requirements, like WoW. With a maximum 200 points possible, my minstrel will have to travel a good chunk of Middle Earth to become a master angler.
Mission Accomplished! On a Side Note, I'm a Complete Tool
Remember that banner that hung off the side of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincholn that read in big, bold letters, “Mission Accomplished!” And remember how Dubyah came swooping down in a jet fighter decked out like Tom Cruise in Top Gun? Well, the Bush administration now maintains that the banner never referred to the larger Iraq war, but instead the ten month mission of that particular aircraft carrier.
My response?
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
In all seriousness though, if running the country into the ground was the original scope, than yes President Bush, mission indeed accomplished.
My response?
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
In all seriousness though, if running the country into the ground was the original scope, than yes President Bush, mission indeed accomplished.
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