Sorry Blog.. I'm Gaming and Stuff

Eh, at least that's my excuse for why I haven't posted anything in.. uhm 3 weeks?! Yikes. Tera + Finals + Diablo 3 = ~20 minutes. That is, the approximate amount of time I've had each day where I wasn't occupied by at least one of those three things. That being said I have a ton of info, pics, videos, tips, complaints, etc that I need to get down and post about Tera. I'm probably going to wait for the results of the upcoming Vanarch Elections and see how that all plays out before I do my initial review. I'm hoping the elections will help stimulate some more end game content through GvG wars and just world PvP in general. We'll see soon enough.

I also spent the past week specing and assembling a new gaming rig for my girlfriend and I've got to say I'm very jealous. I'm hoping to add a lot to the DIY computer tab, now that I have more pictures it will definitely be a better resource for anyone and everyone who's interested. I was pretty excited to get to experiment with the speed of an SSD for the first time, and so far it's really impressed me.

The Build
i5 - 3570k CPU
G.Skill Sniper 2x4GB RAM
Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD
OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD
Radeon HD 7850 2GB GPU
Rosewill Blackhawk Chassis
ASRock z77 Extreme4 Mobo
OCZ ZS 650W PSU
Samsung 22x dvd burner
Win 7 Home Premium

Tera Tera and.. more Tera!

Oh boy.. I know it's been a while and for that, I apologize, I've been swept up in the whirlwind that is Tera. First it was the Open Beta, then the head start, plus all the last minute launch schedule tweaks and then the level cap for the head start was lifted a day early... sort of, it ended up being more like 8 hours early. But anyway, that's what I've come to expect with the launching of any ground-breaking MMO. Surprises, queues, crashes, errors, very bad gateways, and most importantly, plenty of fun in between. Overall, I've been having a blast playing this game. It's always interesting to monitor the race to the level cap whenever an MMO is launched. In Tera's case the race to 60 is well underway and will likely end later today (crazy!). I'll be sure to organize and post some of the better screen shots I've taken since my last post on the closed beta as soon as I get a chance.. and when I feel like it :P .

Until then.. have a puppy:

Tera Videos

**Updated, now that all race videos have been released**

As Tera's release date grows ever nearer, excitement levels will continue to mount. If you're still not  convinced then maybe a video or two will help you change your mind... If not, there's still open beta next week, enjoy!

Tera Race Series Videos

Aman*

Human*

Baraka*

Castanic

High Elf

Popori

Elin

If you need more streaming Tera goodness then Enmasse's Youtube feed is here to help.

Closed Beta Test 4

Considering today is the beginning of the 5th and final Tera closed beta it'd be an understatement to say that I've procrastinated a bit with my beta recaps. So sorry for that. Nonetheless, here is what I was able to scrap together from my leveling adventures in the 4th closed beta weekend (levels 32-38).

I don't know why there was a giant
pumpkin-frankenstein here, there just was.

Shaboom

/poke

/leavealone

My girlfriend's warrior, slicing up some mobs

The Labyrinth

Full of these guys...

and this guy..

Bhaozurbas in the level 38 instance, Cultist's Refuge

Terkasia, the final boss in Cultist's Refuge (Dark Cathedral)

Overall it was a 'good' beta. There were lots of new areas to explore, including an impressive new instance. But I can't help but feel I've been missing out on some great PvP. So I think I'm going to be re-rolling today on a PvP server and try to have some fun with that. Until next time!

Diablo 3 Release Date

Finally!  A release date for D3 has been announced: May 15th.  That's only

 Which means it will only have been around how long? Maybe 10 years, 10 months and 15 days since the last Diablo content was released.. not that anyone's been counting. That's quite a period of time for a game to be hyped up. Let's hope it delivers because I've missed the excitement of frantic clicking, potion popping and demon slaying. I don't necessarily think this will mess up my plans with Tera either. If anything their release dates being 2 weeks apart will keep me from losing interest in either of them. Now I just have to figure out what class I'm going to play...

Tera CB3

One more weekend in the world of Arborea came and went. The week after was a fairly busy one as well, only now have I really found the time to recap my experience with the third closed beta. I might as well just come out and say it,  Tera CB3 was boring. At least, being on a PvE server and no new dungeons becoming available with the level cap only being raised to 32 (up from 27). There were however some new regions to explore, new big ass monsters (BAMs) to kill and a much needed fix (in this case a removal) to the game's profanity filter.

A few hours after the servers came up on Friday this
System message was broadcast

She's tall.. probably means she's important or something

An Ovolith outside Sinestral Manor

Go go priest AoE

I.. don't know

Tera: Second Closed Beta

The second weekend of Tera closed beta brought a fair number of expected changes. Some of the more noticeable of those changes included the level cap increase to 27 (up from 22), 2 new PvP specific servers (up from 0), and an additional character slot on each server (up from 1 slot per server). I also experienced my first unexpected server downtime period late Sunday night around midnight (EST). Here, enjoy some fresh beta pictures:

Sumo time

Sumo down.. and missing limbs

Strategizing is always exciting

What kind of game doesn't have fluffy little things
like this guy hopping around?

Nice a.. horse!

He looks mad.. and he has a hat.. hmmm

The city of Pora Elinu

Pora Elinu is the capital of the popori race

The closest I could get to an action shot, healing in
Bastion of Lok

It's a ladder, and yes, I'm climbing it

The final hall in the Sinestral Manor instance

Apparently these things are a thing

Tera: A Look at First Closed Beta

The first closed beta weekend began on Friday the 10th around noon Pacific time (3pm Eastern) and lasted until Sunday the 12th at midnight PST, just as advertised. I also want to mention that I didn't experience any issues as far as downtime or anything that kept me from playing the beta. Unless you count having to wait in queue to play on the more populated server, and for that I was compensated with a 'rested experience bonus' for the same amount of time that I had to wait in queue. Although I didn't get to play as much as I would have liked due to some real life circumstances, here's a taste of what I did get to experience:

I started playing a Priest because I wanted to get a feel for real-action healing and having to 'aim' my ranged attacking and supporting abilities.

the Unreal Engine 3 at work

Teleportals take you to instanced areas to complete quests

Ding!

STOP DOING SIT-UPS!

My first BAM encounter (Big ass monster)

First flight path taken to a major city

After I'd spent a fair amount of time playing the priest I wanted to give a melee class a play through, so I chose a Slayer. Unfortunately, during this first beta period each person was only allowed to create one character per server. So these were the only classes I was able to experiment with in this first session.

Real-time dodging abilities allow for creative animations