World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

It had been a while since I checked up on that MMO I played for so long, so I decided to see what, if anything, had changed. After scouring the web for days without food or water I found, among other things, this trailer of the expansion's new race/class combo, the Pandaren Monk:

I also came across this screen shot on mmo-champion... funny stuff:

I know it has been a while since I've played WoW, but seriously, what in the world of warcraft is going on? After watching a Kung Fu Panda jump around and beat up some monkeys I really don't know what to make of this game anymore. I'd heard about the next race likely being pandas quite a while back and the idea didn't bother me at all. Now that I've seen this trailer though, I can't help but see the Kung Fu Panda game that came for free with my Xbox a few years back.

All of this nonsense begs the obvious question,  does
WoW + Kung Fu Panda = Mists of Pandaria?

What's that name in the
bottom right corner?

Of course not... But it had to be mentioned. Realistically speaking, it's clear this common "Kung Fu Panda" theme won't define the whole expansion like it does the general feel of the above trailer. On another note, if there's one thing that I'm sure about in this whole situation though, it's that the Activision of, Activision Blizzard, had nothing to do with this.

Tomorrow: Battlefield 3 + Natasha

It's about time! And with it will come my first game review for Xbox! That is, with the release of Battlefield 3.

Some interesting stats from BF3's Open Beta

Tomorrow will not only be the day of unveiling for a highly anticipated shooter on my game radar, it will also bring about the unlocking of the final member of Rusty Hearts' cast of character classes, the dual pistol wielding Natasha.

Thanks for reading!

Random Blue Screen Errors

After troubleshooting some recent blue screen errors and updating my video driver (hopefully that fixes it), I noticed something rather depressing... I have yet to make it through one whole month (since assembling this PC in April) without coming face to face with at least one blue screen of death. It seems like every time I think I've found the cause and remedied the situation accordingly, I get a new one out of no where. At this point it's just more of a nuisance than anything. Just one of the less attractive aspects of my dear friend Mr. PC I suppose... 

bleh

Good thing I can Check for a solution...

Blue screen errors make everyone sad :(

To be honest though, I'm feeling good about November... I'll be sure to share whether or not I'm able to survive, especially since I'll likely be pretty upset if my Skyrim sessions are interrupted.

High Quality, No Cost: PWE's Free Games

These games are completely free to play and offered me a quality gameplay experience.

Perfect World International (PWI) is an MMO that boasts an enormous world and an unheard of level cap of 105
- My personal experience: After leveling a wizard to somewhere in the mid 40s I was discouraged enough by the advantage given to players that spent money through the game's micro-transaction system to call it quits. Because my priority was PvP I knew from reading a lot of forum posts that it would be nearly impossible for me to compete without spending a fair amount of money, which I wasn't willing to do
- Although I stopped playing, I have to clarify that this game has a ton of potential and can be a lot of fun, unfortunately the same can not be said for most players whose main focus is PvP

Rusty Hearts is a game (hack & slash MMO) I've talked about a lot and for good reason (see below)
- For being in a beta testing period this game is looking very polished
- PvP is minimally affected by items available through micro-transactions, at least in the current beta stage
- Latest patch, Awakening, offers loads of new content
- In-game events are a daily occurrence in the Rusty Hearts world that offer incentive to both casual and hard-core players alike
- Natasha is now playable as of October 25th*


Of all of PWEs games, which are free, I've only played these 2, but be sure to check out their full game list by clicking here.

Riot Games' League of Legends - Downloading the DotA inspired game as we speak (as instructed by a friend), I'll be sure to update this after I've fiddled with it some.
- Turns out DotA inspired is very much the case, despite being a DotA remake I've quickly become addicted to its co-op and pvp gameplay

Also, see NCsoft's Lineage II: Goddess of Destruction goes F2P

As of November 1st DC Universe Online is F2P as well!

Giveaways Galore

Just thought I would share some of the worthwhile giveaways that are going on right now. Beta keys, awesome hardware, you name it. Everything is being handed out these days, now if they would just hand them out to me... yeah, that'd be great.

Diablo 3 fan sites like diablofans.com have spare beta keys that they can't wait to give away to fans like you and me. Here you can check out this week's current contest and enter for a chance at your very own key to the beta. So if you haven't already, give it your best shot and be sure to participate in the upcoming contests over the next few weeks as well.

The fine people over at Perfect World Entertainment are almost always holding some type of in-game event or giveaway, but this one in particular is one you can't miss out on. You only need to have one character reach level 5 or higher between now and October 30th and you're entered to win yourself the ultimate 3D prize package (video card, 3D glasses and monitor). If you already have a character level 5 or higher, all you have to do is log in to be entered.

Good luck!