I can’t say I’m really surprised that this was the announcement we waited for.
There are going to be some pretty farking amazing things coming out from this game! I can’t even come close to counting the amount of hours, heck, weeks I put into the first 2 games. Diablo 1 (along with Warcraft 2) were my first real experiences with multiplayer computer games.
Given Blizzard’s track record with games (batting over 1.00), I can only expect the best.
Videos can take a while, millions are DLing ’em
Here are a pair of videos from the new Battlefield: Bad Company folks. First makes fun of Gears of War’s commercial “mad world” and the second makes fun of Rainbow 6’s extreme need for stealth.
Ok, it took about 3 hours to get everything up and running but the box has sound and wifi! Finally got a bit of AoC in there and I am pleasantly surprised. Meeting with Valeria in the first bit was a nice touch. The graphics are something else, very vivid and clean. Now granted, I only have WoW to compare to so it’s definitely a step up.
Downside is the leveling scheme. I’m only 14 but there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to acquired skills per level. Sometimes I’ll get 2, other times I’ll go 3 levels without anything. Also, I think combat casting is broken. I put in 80 pts a long time ago and haven’t been interupted since (6 levels ago), yet there’s more than 60pts that I can now put in. Seems odd. Also, glass canon is the word for a Demonologist. It would appear every class can take multiple enemies (the goal of the game from what I see) with some effort. I cannot take 2 even level characters at once, the damage is simply too low. I need to find a new angle!
Oh, and the Beerfestival this weekend was a blast. Glad everyone was able to make it! Pics inc.
Took about an hour to get it all together. I’ll have some pictures up later. With a chassis fan, cooling fan, CPU fan and Video card fan, the box makes a ‘wooshing’ sound as the air leaves. Cold air as well! I’ve reduced the speed on the chassis fan and will most likely replace it with a silent one. It’s the only one running on a dry bearing – meaning when I stop that fan, all I hear is air, when it runs, I can hear a slight hum.
Also, oddly, there isn’t integrated wifi on the board. Didn’t realize this wasn’t a standard, especially at the price range! So that means, I’m going shopping I guess.
As infrequent as possible, I post World of Warcraft related items. This one is a doozy.
Context:
A nice picture/commentary about end game raiding. Everyone has their designated slot and not a whole lot of room for movement. I thought it was funny because I’ve been there.
The thing about buying on the internet is not the upfront cost by the taxes, shipping and duties.
Buying american could be cheaper but duties are usually about 10% of total cost. Shipping is around 50$ too. Most times there are no taxes though.Buying canadian means taxes (gst) and shipping.
So to find the best deal you need to take that into account. Unless you are getting 20% off an item and saving 50$, stay canadian. When canadian, find a free shipper, there are tons of deals.
All that to say that the price I have on the PC specs is on the front maybe 40$ more expensive but I only pay gst and get free shipping. An alternate site was cheaper but had 75$ of shipping. It really pays to shop local…
So I need to upgrade the box. It’s a 4 year old case with a few upgraded parts. AMD Athlon 4000+, 2gigs of RAM, X700 card. The card is the main issue but the chipset is itself over 2 years old.
Here’s what I’m looking at:
Diamond Viper Radeon HD 3850 512MB Dual Slot GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDCP HDMI HDTV Out Video Card
Antec Sonata Iii Black Atx 16IN Mid Tower Quiet Case 3X5.25 2X3.5 4X3.5IN 500W 120MM Fan
Corsair XMS2 Dominator TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF 4GB 2X2GB PC2-8500 DDR2-1066 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN Memory Kit
Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 AM2 S754 S939 S940 2000RPM 36CFM Heatsink Fan
ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe AMD 790FX AM2+ 4PCI-E16 CrossFireX 2PCI SATA2 RAID Sound GBLAN Motherboard
AMD Phenom X4 9750 Quad Core Processor Socket AM2 2.4GHZ 4MB Cache 125W Retail Box
Comes out to about 920$ (before tax). It’s definitely a noticeable chunk of change but it would give me a new box for another 4 years, SLI support (well, Crossover as it’s called with ATI) and Phenom support (AM2+ chipset). I alread have the HDD + peripherals.
Whatcha think?
I’ve been following this game for about 2 years now. My father was a huge Conan comic book fan and hence, so was I. The primal nature of the cimmerian is what draws people in. The bad guys are the complicated ones (barely so), the rules are set from the beginning and the combat is both internal as it is external. It’s the simplicity of it all that pulls me in each time. That and the amazing artwork.
So, Age of Conan released the other day. I tried to get into the beta with no luck (300,000 in from what I heard) and just kept abreast of the news. Most people thought the game was pretty attrocious, graphics, load times, monotonous, etc… your usual gripes with a stress test. I went through Closed, Open and stress betas with WoW, there was a significant difference between them all.
Regardless, the game came out and the folks who played the beta have turned ship and said they love it. Obviously, it’s still VERY early in the cycle to give a yay or nay vote but I’ll be giving it a shot tonight. Deathwhisper server if you’re interested.
Now this is pretty cool. First Person Perspective (FPP) Parkour. A lot of the elements found in Assassin’s Creed I think. This is one of those games where it could be a one trick pony and that would be just fine.
Last night was fun. Locked the keys in the car. Took a drive to Castle Heights (that’s the nice name for Overbrook). Picked up a cable splitter and GTA IV. Got home and the fun began.
An hour. A frikin’ hour to find the cable that lead to the living room. Why so hard? One, the coax cable was black and I’ve never seen construction grade coax be black before. Two, the end of it was snipped off by the cable guy when he put in my recent connection. I guess that’s their way to make sure you have to call them back to get it up and running again. Pshh, enough with that! I just stripped the wire, plugged it in and presto, cable. So now the GF can watch her show upstairs while I use the big screen downstairs. This is something I should have done a LONG time ago.
Now onto GTA IV. I had maybe an hour to try it out. It’s a bit like watching a CG movie really. It isn’t the large details anymore, I think we’re well past that point in gaming. It’s all about the small things. When Niko runs down stairs, he takes them sideways, one step at a time while running. You remember back in the day when stairs acted just like ramps. That’s done with. Also, facial expressions are amazing in this game. Eyes open, pupils change, faces twitch. The movement is just so smooth. There’s a beautiful flow. And I’m only an hour in!! Going to be a blast.
Leo's Life 