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!

Battlefield 3 Limited Edition Pre Order: EA Makes Big (Little) Mistake?

You can decide for yourself by reading one customer's dilemma here. While I don't agree with the title and overall theme of his post, (that it's all at the fault of the customer service department) I definitely agree that EA is at fault for failing to specify a time zone for their Beta offer, which was to grant Open Beta access to anyone who pre-orders the game from origin by September 25th. As seen here.

It really isn't a big deal in the scheme of things (2 day early access to beta?) but nonetheless he has a very valid point. Oh and let's try to ignore the fact that he waited until the very last 2 hours before making his purchase. And as to why this post is on a diablo III forum, I assume he's trying to spread the word.

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine PC Review

I have seen the future... and it is glorious. That is, if you're captain Titus of the elite squad known as the Ultramarines, as for anyone else, well I can only be certain that they won't have nearly as much fun.

Game Overview

You begin your campaign on an 'ork' flying craft, from there you are immediately thrown into battle against their swarming defenses. You don't panic though, because you're the mighty lord, Captain Titus, who has seen and dealt with far worse. After following the on screen 'suggested' attacks (or not) and slaying 100 enemies you will have unlocked your first achievement in Space Marine. Wielding a firearm in one hand (with a total of 4 at any one time to switch from) and your melee weapon in the other, you are the ideal killing machine or in this case upholder of justice.

I couldn't get enough of the close combat and watching my chainsword slice through a wave of enemies as I put together combos and appropriately finished any lone survivors off with a slow-motion execution move. That includes the animations, which are so smooth and engaging as the orks are practically falling on my blade.

Just when I thought I might be getting a little bored with my chainsword I was upgraded to a lightning infused axe, appropriately termed the power axe. That meant new combos and new awesome combat animations. Truthfully it wouldn't have mattered though, I'm not too picky when I'm given a new sharp glowing weapon. 

Did I mention you're given a jet pack on a few special occasions throughout your quest to recapture the forge world, and that its use in smashing your enemies from above is very satisfying? In Space Marine, jet pack is called a 'jump pack' and jump pack = Fun! So much so that when my man Titus would say, "Out of fuel" and drop it into oblivion I found myself fighting off the onset of what was most likely a serious case of depression.

And finally, quite a bit later in the game, we are introduced to the almighty thunderhammer, which is so thunderously huge and epic, that you are only allowed the use of your 2 basic guns while wielding it. That's more than okay though, because let's be honest, it's a freaking thunderhammer...

I was going to show another one of my totally lam..err I mean totally awesome!.. videos but I came across this one that seemed slightly more informative.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not usually one to follow the story of a game, let alone actually be interested in it. That being said, I should congratulate Relic Entertainment because it kept my attention for a good part of Space Marine's story. A difficult feat for a game that also had such entertaining gameplay awaiting me after almost every cut scene.

PvP
After the campaign (besides repeating on a higher difficulty level) there is still the option to PvP in the online multiplayer which although is nothing particularly special, with the typical objectives (capture this, defend that), your typical leveling system, perks etc. Regardless, it provides a reason to continue playing and for some it may be enough to purchase the game if you're the online multiplayer type. One thing I did like about the PvP though, being the noob that I am, was the option to copy your killer's loadout after each death. It's a simple way to help balance the playing field and balanced PvP makes me happy.

Tips

I don't think that tin can on his head is laser proof

- Grenades are your friend, don't be afraid to use them generously
- When facing a Nob (elite ork) or other higher ranking enemies, be sure to furiously spam your left mouse button when trying to execute them, or they will counter your execute
- Your aiming sights will turn yellow when you have an enemy or an explosive in them (basically anything that your bullets will affect), knowing this can come in handy
- Tap the left shift key to sprint/charge at your enemies and right click when you're in range to knock them down

Pros

- Exciting array of powerful weapons at your disposal, including my favorites, the jump pack and thunderhammer

- Mission content is varied and creative
- The world, especially in jump pack usable areas, is huge and impressive
- Relic Entertainment tells an engrossing story of bloodshed, betrayal and brotherhood
- Awesome execute animations
- The game itself was just a heck of a lot of fun


Cons
- Slow executes don't slow the enemies around which leaves you vulnerable to attack. And being your only reliable source for health gain, you're likely already in some trouble.

- On rare occasions mobs would bug out and get stuck, usually around the boundaries of the world

Other Thoughts/Suggestions
- Not sure you're ready to buy the full game?? No problem, download the free demo here and give it a go yourself
- I played the entire game on normal difficulty and a fair amount of PvP and not once did I encounter any type of crash or other problem that kept me from enjoying my purchase

- There were some gaps between enemies that were just too long. I would run through room after room and get impatient waiting for my next ork filled room to slaughter
- Now, if I'm going to be completely honest here, there are way too many elevators in the future. No really, that's a legitimate complaint. It went something like this,
"Let's get out of here, quick get on that lift!"
"There's only one way we're getting out of this, and that's down the lift over there."

Oh thank the Warhammer gods

Is it a problem? Of course not, I just could have used a bit more variety was all. 

Bugs

- There weren't too many and none that I came across were anything to worry about

- Mostly just npc's getting stuck or in this case not being able to reach or detect me, which is always fun:

Score - 84
Space Marine had me from the beginning with its honourable hero and his awesome accent, from there I was engulfed in its superb combat animations, addictive gameplay and fresh level design. The only thing holding it back for me, was the lack of content for those not so fond of PvP.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Demos

There's a reason I have the fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls series on my most anticipated games list. I'll let these demos speak for themselves. If you're short on time though I'd suggest skipping straight to the 3rd demo for some dragon slaying awesomeness.

Unfortunately when I posted the videos here it wasn't letting me watch them in full screen so here are the youtube links...

Demo Part 1

Demo Part 2

Demo Part 3

Rusty Hearts Open Beta

As most of you might have noticed, other than posting one article, I wasn't particularly interested in the second phase of RH closed beta. New content was nonexistent, there was no level cap increase and really nothing new for me to do. Fortunately though, open beta (obt) plans to change a lot more than phase two of the closed beta did. RH OBT promises a level cap increase up  from level 20  to 25, 200 new quests, 16 new dungeons, a new town, 500 new items and 15 new skills (4 for Tude, 4 for Angela and 7 for Frantz). Now that's more like it! You can view all the details here.

Besides having 2 other games to play and having to start over with a brand new character, I've no reason not to be excited about open beta, especially now that the stamina system has been 'entirely revamped'. Although that is a pretty big besides...

Rusty Hearts Open Beta is set to open tomorrow, September 13 (exact time has not been specified, but I'll be sure to update as soon as it's released). Also, for those players that are EU based, it was just announced that there will be dedicated servers for European players! Sounds like good news to me.

Grammar Man Saves the Day!

Grammar man simply had to help the situation

So help he did.. with a smile

Working too* quickly? Grammar Man understands

Just another successful day at the office

Hope you enjoyed that nonsense. On another note I should probably mention that today is the final day of RH beta, servers are scheduled to go down at 5pm EST. Open Beta is scheduled to launch on the 13th for those who are interested. After today all closed beta characters will be erased and everyone is going to have to start over when the OB begins in 5 days. Also be sure to log in today if you want a chance at winning a poster (5 unsigned?), a signed poster (2 total) or a Logitech F710 controller (2 total).

The full article can be found here.

Coming Up...

Hey everyone, I just wanted to give you all a preview as to what I've got planned as far as game reviews and other updates. So, I know I'm a year late but to broaden my gaming horizons I just picked up a copy of Fallout: New Vegas and yes I was required to show the cashier my ID, which I still think is funny (we definitely wouldn't want kids playing big boy games, at least here in the US). And yes although it has been out since October of last year, the plan is to provide my own review of the game, which will be posted here in the near future.

Also, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine was released yesterday and is definitely next up on my play list. It's safe to say I won't be in short supply of futuristic rpgs.

Lastly I wanted to share that I'm going to try to get some fraps type software installed and working asap so I can start posting some gameplay videos along with my reviews.

Thanks again for reading! Till next time.

Moar Pitchers!

While I'm looking for another game to to entertain myself, I figured I might as well share a few more screen shots I have sitting around. Like my favorite environment visual from darkspore: (you can't really tell from the picture but the black hole is actually pulling a ton of debris across the screen as you pass it, which I thought was really nifty)

What's more epic than a black hole?

 Hmmm 8 out of 7, I think there's something wrong with that math.

Too bad we didn't get any bonus points at the end

As far as looks are concerned, this guy is high on my list.

Shiny

SRS-42 also has one of my favorite hero-unique abilities, missile barrage.

I'd be in trouble if the EPA saw this

What you wanna kill?

Finally some decent boss loot

Play Tera For Free?

After an earthquake and a hurricane all in one week you'd think I'd pretty much seen it all. Wrong! That's right, if you make enough gold it will be very possible to avoid your subscription fee in Tera thanks to the implementation of chronoscrolls. In an effort to deter gold-farmers in their upcoming MMO, En Masse has announced they will be offering chronoscrolls as a way for players to legally buy gold. Players will be able to purchase these scrolls from En Masse with real money and then sell them for in game gold to other players who will be able to convert them into more play time. Essentially this allows any player who wants to buy gold the ability to do so in a legal way that also completely avoids supporting gold farmers. The downside is that you will have to find players that are willing to pay you for these scrolls and the price they're willing to pay could vary dramatically depending on certain circumstances (your server's current supply & demand).

What are chronoscrolls?

Tera's COO Pat Wyatt tells us, "Chronoscrolls are an in-game item we’re using to fight gold farming, game account theft, phishing, chat spam, and other criminal behaviors in order to create a better gameplay environment for TERA. Players can trade their excess gold for chronoscrolls and redeem those chronoscrolls to play TERA for free"

Read the article here.
Check out the chronoscroll FAQ here.

RH: Thoughts on Phase 2 of Closed Beta

Phase 1 has come and gone and we now find ourselves exploring the second phase of the Rusty Hearts Closed Beta. So what's changed? The biggest and most welcomed difference (to me at least) is the number of loading screens in town. Previously if you wanted to visit every area of the town it would mean waiting through ~6 different loading screens. Now, thankfully, the entire area is one continuous and uninterrupted zone.

Before...(P1)

After..(P2)

You may also notice some new item graphics on your toon...

Back in phase 1 my sword just looked like this...

But now, in phase 2, it lights up... oooooo cooool

I'm also a fan of an 'inspect' function so I know what I'm up against in PvP. Which btw is still as horribly unbalanced as I expected but we'll get to that another time.

While PWE claims to have added a 'skill point management system', where certain abilities can only be unlocked by first purchasing prerequisite skills, it's missing one very important detail; there currently is no specification as to which abilities are required to unlock the locked abilities. So I pretty much just spent skill points on the skills I wanted and if a locked ability just happened to open up I made sure to learn it. Not the end of the world, it's just one of those things that'd be nice to know x.x. To see the full list of improvements/additions made in phase 2 you can find them here.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Darkspore: Online Dungeon Crawl

Intro
If you bought or eventually end up buying a digital copy of the game online like I did, be sure to check out the online manual here. Personally, it helped me pick up some cool hero-editing tricks. Also be sure to refer to my screenshots if you haven't already.


Game Overview
Darkspore can be a bit confusing/overwhelming to a new player. For instance, at first you're rewarded for opening every obelisk you see. But when it comes to the 'boss area', if you open the obelisks they only contain health and power capsules and will count against you when calculating your medal results after the mission. There is a distinct difference between these obelisks though, the regular obelisks are blue and health obelisks are green (see pic below). However, this color difference didn't mean anything to me in the first few levels of the game, one of them gave me loot and catalysts and the other gave me health and power capsules. It simply made sense to open all of them, unless of course you knew about the objective log (shortcut 'O') that early in the game.

^Bad (Unless you're dying)  Good^

You, the player, are the Crogenitor and you gain experience and levels by killing, slaying and obliterating all Darkspore in your path. In order to do this though, you must first 'edit' your heroes with the appropriate gear and more importantly, looks (or is it the other way around?). Each hero is one of five types, bio, cyber, necro, plasma, or quantum; sadly, the only real importance your heroes types have is that Darkspore deal 100% more damage to heroes of the same type. Your heroes on the other hand deal the same amount of damage to every type. In addition, each hero is one of 3 'classes': the sentinel, the tank type whose primary stat is strength, the ravager, melee fighter type whose ability damage is dexterity based and lastly, the tempest, the mind-focused caster type. With these heroes you are tasked to form squads, squads consist of 3 heroes that can be used interchangeably throughout each threat, as long as they're alive. If you or one of your party members does happen to lose a hero, they can be resurrected by picking up a 'resurrection capsule' dropped from any random Darkspore. It resembles an empty capsule surrounded by a whitish glow and unlike other capsules, it must be clicked on to be used.

The game's only currency is 'DNA', which can be obtained as a drop from mobs in the form of a strand or in exchange for selling equipment to the DNA converter (the store). DNA is used to purchase upgrades such as higher stat caps for your heroes, increased inventory size, unlocking catalyst slots and more. This can all be done in the Arsenal by opening your inventory ('I') and clicking the 'Upgrades' tab in the DNA converter.

PvP
Unfortunately there isn't much to PvP in Darkspore. It's 2v2 on a small arena-sized map, where you and your partner's three heroes of choice are pitted against your randomly selected opponents. I guess the upside is that there is any PvP at all. Unless you have a friend you can team up with, you're going to be paired up with a random partner, that is, if you have the patience to sit in matchmaking long enough to find one.

Tips
- If you ever get lost, the trails of blood are a decent indicator of where you've already been and pressing 'N' on your keyboard will bring up an arrow on your mini-map that will help lead you to the end of each level (and make sure you don't miss any objectives along the way)
- The key to a successful squad is versatility, vary your hero types and classes in order to prepare for any special enemies you may run into
- Having a hero with a healing squad ability like Meditron or Tork in your squads is extremely helpful
- Get link bonuses from your catalysts by linking the same colors horizontally, vertically or diagonally
- Party up when you can, the experience bonuses are significant
- Beginners, check out this great beginners FAQ

Pros
- It's an online dungeon crawl with 25 different heroes (100 total, but 4 variants of each hero), attractive level designs, one of a kind skills & abilities, co-op gameplay and of course, awesome loot
- The 'chaining' of threats, completing consecutive levels for greater rewards
- Customization of heroes is impressive, you can easily spend hours making your hero look as awesome or as goofy as you want
- Being able to use not just 1, but 3 different heroes in the form of a squad
    - Each hero having their own squad ability that can be used by any
      member
- For those who enjoy having a stat sheet to look at, Darkspore keeps track of some basic stats as shown below

62240 = 17 hours, 17 min & 20 sec

Cons
- Matchmaking system is virtually worthless (see suggestions below)
- With 100 available heroes it'd be nice if I could have more than 3 squads with only 9 of them
- Poor design of teleports to boss areas (at ends of levels) can cause you to lose valuable loot

Careful, once you enter the red bubble there's no going
 back

- Can't equip new loot as you get it, this can only be done in the editor
- Can't change the camera angle (in game)
- Can't 'alt + tab' out of full-screen mode and get back into the game
- The same level designs are recycled over and over

Other Thoughts/Suggestions
- The stat for time played is in seconds (obviously not a problem.. but.. ?)
- The narrator and the uninteresting story practically begged me to turn off my speakers so that I could at least try to enjoy the game
- Instead of using the heroes I wanted to use, I constantly found myself using the heroes that I had the best weapons for at the time.
- Any player-to-player trade or auction house system would do wonders for this game
- The matchmaking queue would be 1000x more effective if players could do anything other than wait at the matchmaking screen for 1 minute before it timed out. Allow players to edit their heroes/squads and even solo campaign while they're in queue for a group.

Bugs
- Mobs with the self-resurrect buff are very buggy, they only resurrect half of the time, and some of times they do they're invisible for some time and then they disappear
- If you use Skar's 'Shadow Cloak' (invisibility) ability during a horde encounter where a mutation agent is present, the agent will simultaneously turn all the surrounding enemies into elites
- See pics

Says the upgrade is available when it should
 give the insufficient dna message seen below

The correct version (and yes it was purely coincidence that
my party members at the time just happened to be talking
about the game's bugs as I was documenting one)

Score - 73
The brilliance of the spore editor and the unique idea of squads aren't quite enough to counteract the seemingly endless stream of bugs that plague Darkspore.