E3: Nintendo and Sony

Having E3 DVRed has been a nerd-gasming experience. So far, I've only watched two segments: the Nintendo and Sony spotlights.

Nintendo brought out the big guns, announcing a string of reboots for fan-favorite franchises, as well as some new material.

Epic Mickey -- Using the power of paint and thinner to create and destroy objects within the game, you have to guide Micky through the world of Wasteland. Most interesting is, as the creator put it, play-style matters. Whether you choose to create or destroy, engage in NPC side-quests, destroy enemies or make them friends, and even how you talk to others will affect what information they provide or withhold. This provides a lot of potential for diverse replay.
 

Kirby's Epic Yarn -- While I didn't see any of the vacuum-ability that is so classically Kirby, this new take on the fan favorite still looks like a blast. A textile-inspired scenery allows for using zippers to unlock hidden areas, pulling on loose threads to condense otherwise impassable terrain is awesome. All in all, it looks like it will be just as much fun as the original games, and an interesting reinvention of the franchise.

Goldeneye 007 -- A remake of the hit N64 game, this has me both excited and wary. On the one hand, while I never owned it, it was one of the few FPSs that I enjoyed playing with friends. To see it remade for the Wii has me ready to pull out my wallet and shell out for it. But, the change from Pierce Brosnan's Bond to Daniel Craig's just doesn't feel right. Goldeneye was, and in my opinion should remain, PB's. It will also be interesting to see how Nintendo manages to differentiate the game from the original, while at the same time maintain the spirit and story of the predecessor. Others have expressed a concern about whether the fun cheats from the first (such as the Big Head cheat) will be carried through.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword -- Despite some technical problems in the demonstration, this game looks like it will deliver exactly what the fans want from the first Wii Zelda game. More natural controls, inspired by Wii Resort's fencing game, will allow players a deeper level of game play. Careful design seems to be ready to take full advantage of everything the Wii has to offer. The art seems to be a cross between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, which comes together to form something truly beautiful. While it won't be ready for the holiday season, this is definitely #1 on my wishlist.

Donkey Kong Country Returns -- For the first time in years, we get back to classic Donkey Kong without the need for bongo controllers. DKCR brings back the classic side-scroller action of the SNES hit game by Rare, complete with crazy mine car races and barrel cannons. While Nintendo has had great success in porting other side scrollers to 3D (Mario), they seem to have chosen to keep DK in its classic form rather than trying to make a 3D adventure. Personally, it's a choice I fully agree with. DKCR also introduces a couple of new features. First, while not thouroughly demonstrated, the demo showed our primate compadres with limited health bars. Considering the number of times I had to restart a level due to a jump intending to kill a croc that was mis-timed by a quarter of a second, I'm all for this. Keeping it still tightly limited keeps the game challenging and maintains the old feel, but will hopefully result in less swearing at my television. The second feature is the ability for Diddy to piggy-back on Donkey. Nintendo pointed this out as a way for more experienced players to help less-experienced friends through difficult patches. A great idea, and one that should make playing with your younger sibling, parents, or spouse a little less frustrating in certain areas.

Other games Nintendo highlighted included Metroid: Other M, Wii Party and Kid Icarus (3DS). Nintendo sent a message this year saying "Remember how utterly awesome being a Nintendo player was in the 80s and early 90s? Well, it's all back, better than ever." Nintendo has shown that they are just as pleasing to hardcore gamers as either of the other two competitors (PS3 and XBox 360). Just because a game isn't rated M with uber-realistic graphics doesn't mean it won't provide a hardcore experience.

Nintendo, to show that they aren't just coasting on past successes, also officially unveiled the 3DS that was announced earlier this year. Handheld 3D, without the need for goofy glasses. The ability to perfectly scale the depth to fit your visual comfort and preference, take and share 3D photos, and a new and improved wireless connectivity system that will allow for data sharing even while playing other games. A truly giant leap forward for Nintendo, even as impressive as the DSi is.

Nintendo brought an absolute nerd-gasm to E3, while at the same time, proving that they are not the underdogs they are so often portrayed as. They are still a juggernaut of the industry, and will remain a strong fixture, and competitior, for quite some time.


Sony's presentatation almost seemed to fall flat following Nintendo's. Sony focused a little less on the games, and more on their two new technological advances.

First was their jump on 3D gaming.With Sony being the manufactuer of the new 3D televisions, it was obvious that the PS3 would be the first to offer 3D gaming. But, Sony took the right route with it. The upgrade to the software for the PS3 is patched in for free. All games (Killzone 3 being the focus of Sony's 3D segment) will be fully compatible with either 3D or 2D, so if and when you upgrade your television, there is no need to upgrade your games, and no reason not to buy the new 3D compatible games if you don't have the television.

Their next was obviously the Move. Again, Sony impressed me with their forethought here. The sensor for the move is the PS Eye, which allows those that already have the Eye to only buy the necessary controllers, while new Eye owners will be getting a piece of equipment that does more than work with their Move.

The biggest surprise of their presentation however, was the announcement that Portal 2 would be coming to the PS3. Given the ranting that Valve CEO Gabe Newell gave the PS3 in 2007, and despite being a big Nintendo fan, Sony has managed to win him over and score the release of Portal 2 for Sony's console. While I may not know what has changed with the PS3 to make Newell reconsider, it's clear in the past 3 years they have made improvements. Newell made no secret of his past statements, and even turned to a bit of humor. A big coup for Sony, and if it wasn't just money (which I doubt) it shows Sony's commitment to constantly improving.

Though personally, I'll probably buy it on the PC. Nothing wrong with Sony, but Portal can get crazy enough with requiring precisely aimed shots, and I'd rather do that with the PC mouse.

The last bit was given as a small segment, but involves a new subsciption plan for the Playstation Network. Again, I think Sony is taking the right path with this one. Unlike XBox, who requries a subscription for most of their network features, Sony is leaving the current functionality of the system intact, and will remain free of charge. But, for the more hardcore gamers who want in on beta testing, exclusive game trailers, and some free goodies for their Playstation Home, the new subscription will offer that kind of material.

Now let's look at the upcoming games that have me particularly excited.

Sorcery -- A great fantasy adventure, complete with fun spell combos is slated for next year. Making full use of the Move, players will be able to use the Move to aim attacks, drink potions by actually miming it with the Move, and looks like like all around fun.

Medal of Honor -- The incredible FPS is back. The graphics look amazing; there was more than once where I was almost unsure if I was looking at live-action footage. Unlike previous installations of the game, this one takes the player out of WWII and puts them into the current Afghanistan war. Developed closely with the US Military to ensure both authenticity and sensitivity, this promises to provide a really in-depth and immersive experience.

Twisted Metal -- This game is Mario Kart on steroids. With crazy mulitplayer modes, including a form of capture the flag where you grab the opposite factions leader and then feed them to a catapult to hit a steel effigy, this game promises an insane, dark twist to similar games.

The Sony PS3 TV spokesman (I love him) had something to say, however, that rings so true.

"Gaming is having a ridiculously large TV in a one bedroom aparatment.Gaming is staying up until 3 in the morning to get a trophy that isn't real... but is. We may pledge our fanboy allegience to different flags. But we all worship the same god. That god is Gaming, and may he reign forever."

So often we all get so so hung up in which console is better, which company caters more or less to the hardcore or casual, that we lose sight of the fact that there can be room in our hearts for all of them.

So let's get out there and play some mother fu---ing games!

Review: Get HIm To The Greek

Get Him to the Greek was a great comedy, with a reasonably original plot (compared to some of the more staple-fare comedies that have been out lately).

The two stars, Russell Brand and Jonah Hill, are what really made the film work. Jonah Hill plays the lovable, soft-spoken and naive intern. Russell Brand plays... well he may have just as well been playing himself. He's an interesting kind of guy. I cannot think of two other actors that could have filled these two roles as well.

Even Sean "P. Diddy" Combs puts in a great performance as Sergio, CEO of Pinnacle Records.

Their misadventures through New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles were riotous. I don't want to give too much away, but offers of "hairy-oke", a failed attempt at locating heroin, sprinkled with a few touching moments of Aldous attempting to reconnect with people from his past to fill the empty void in his life, gave itself to a fun and enjoyable movie.

This movie, produced by Judd Apatow, was of the same caliber and quality of most of his other movies. The humor was solid, if sometimes crude. The characters were all well-developed and well-portrayed. The pace of the movie was steady throughout. And most importantly, it explained the necessity of fuzzy walls.

Again, Russell Brand puts out a perfect performance. Sexy, British, and full of psychotic energy, is character is fun, believable, and has just enough of a dark side to make him feel real and not just a running, two-dimensional gag.

With the exception of the horrifically offensive "African Child" (whose music video opens the film, and will have you both squirming uncomfortably even while you're hating yourself for laughing at the absurdity of the song and video. Don't worry, you're supposed to feel this way.) Aldous Snow's (Russell Brand) band actually had some pretty catchy music. It's not often I consider buying film soundtracks, but this is definitely a possible iTunes download later on. My personal favorite was the song "Bangers, Beans and Mash".



My only real complaint with the movie was my favorite clips from the trailers didn't make the final cut. (Russell Brand riding nude in a power wheels loudly proclaiming "I'm a motorist!" and the early morning jogging.)

If you like movies like Knocked Up, then you'll definitely get a kick out of this movie. It might not be "The Hangover", but it was still tremendous fun and one of the better comedies I've seen. Well worth the price of a ticket.

WoW: A Guide to Dungeon Leveling

With WoW's Dungeon Finder feature, it's now possible to level solely through dungeon play. Considering my love, and extensive experience, leveling this way, I figured I'd write a guide for those that may want to use this method, and use it effectively.

M

Heroic Halls of Lightning with my super-shiny UI

Step 1: Which kind of player are you?
There are two types of levelers for our intents and purposes. Picking which one you are can have an effect on later choices.

The first type is The Maximizer. This is ideal if you have a limited amount of time to play, and you'll be pushing hard to hit level 80. This is when you spend any queue time you have to quest and play your character.

The second type is The AFKer. This is ideal if you have long times to play, and plan on doing other things while you're waiting in queue. Whether grinding professions, chatting with friends, or going AFK completely to do other things.

The AFKer is ideal for people who can play all day but have things to do around the house. Maybe you have cleaning you need to do. Maybe you're 82% of the way through your novel and really shouldn't be playing but want to find a balance between working and playing.

This method works well for that. I am actually more productive using this method than I am just working straight through. It's energizing knowing that fun is just around the corner.

Though be warned: if you miss your queue you'll have to start your wait all over. Play close attention to the estimated wait time and mouse over the minimap icon to see if the icons representing your prospective group members have started turning from black-and-white to color. Fortunately the DPS fill in a couple of minutes before you get a full group, so stay close to the computer at this point.

*NOTE* If you already know what alt you're wanting to level, you can skip the next couple steps. But, if you're still unsure, read on.


Step 2: Choose Your Role
Tank:
Tanking can be a lot of fun. But with it comes a lot of possible frustration. You will be blamed for a lot of stuff that's not your fault. The nice thing is you can always just drop the group. You'll get a 30 minute debuff preventing you from queuing up immediately, but better than playing with assholes.

Queue times will be very short for you. Typically less than a minute. This makes it great if you want to level quickly. But, if you're the AFKer type and plan on trying to balance chores and WoW it's not the greatest choice since you'll never get away for more than a minute or two.

Healers:
Healers are a different challenge. The group relies on you to keep them alive during their fuck-ups.

Though to be honest, I personally find it a little dull. But it is a break from being a mindless dps.

Healers have a medium queue time. Longer than tanks, but typically shorter than DPS. It's up to you to see how that fits in with either questing or doing other things while waiting. My usual average is about 15-20 mins (as compared to 20-30 mins for my DPS).

 Healing as a priest can get a little dull.

DPS:
DPS is arguably the easiest of all the roles. All you do is kill the enemies. You don't have to worry about holding aggro, keeping people alive, or even really paying that much attention to the world around you. You just focus on what you're doing, and not worry about being responsible for other people.

In many ways, this can make it the most fun role to play. Little responsibility, and who doesn't like seeing big numbers on the DPS meters? However, you are also the most replaceable, and therefore less likely to be cut slack if you're screwing up. You'll also be looking at the longest queues. I usually see about 20-30 minutes, but I've had it get as high as 45 minutes for a single queue.

*Note* Consider whether you'll be leveling with a friend or friends. This can have a lot of benefits. You get someone whose skill level you already know. You can have more fun because you're playing with someone you know. Finally, if you're a group of 3 or more, you get majority on the Vote-To-Kick feature. This can keep you safe from those that are kick-happy and try to kick anyone who they don't believe is uber-leet. It also allows you to guarantee kicking someone out if they are just unbearable to play with. And if you go with at least a tank and a healer, you will find groups incredibly fast (i.e. instant).

If you're leveling solo, you might want to be beware of these premade groups. A lot of them tend to use it as carte blanch to run their mouths and insult everybody that isn't in their premade group. Just a word of warning.

The reason this is important to consider now is that if you haven't settled on a role, but you know your buddy is dying to be a tank, rolling a second one isn't going to do much for leveling together. On the flip side, if you know your friends don't want to tank, but you're willing to try, you can shorten the queue times for your entire group.

Step 3: Choose Your Class

This step can be a lot easier once you choose your role.

Tanks: Warriors, Druids, Paladins, Death Knights (if available to you)
Healers: Priests, Druids, Paladins, Shaman

Every class has a DPS spec, so this is completely up to you. Consider what you haven't tried and what sounds fun. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here, as it falls almost completely to personal choice. The pros and cons of each class could fill up a post in and of themselves, so I'm going to leave this short. Just do what interests you.

Step 4: Prepare Yourself

This is a big step, so I'm going to break it up a little bit.

4.1: Get Your Gear

If available to you (i.e. you have a high level, preferably 80, character on the same server. These items can be mailed cross-faction.), you're going to want to grab some Bind-on-Account (BoA) heirloom gear, in particular a chest piece and a shoulder piece as these provide +10% experience gained each. These can be obtained from your faction's Emblem of Heroism vendor in Dalaran for 40 emblems per piece, or from the Argent Crusader vendor at the Argent Tournament for 60 Champion's Seals per piece.

There are also shoulders available from the Wintergrasp vendor for 200 Stone Keeper's Shards. These are slightly inferior to the ones sold by the other vendors as some of their stat budget is spent on resilience. But this difference is negligible.

There is also a BoA ring that offers an additional +5% experience gained, but this is only available by winning the Kalu'ak Fishing Tournament. As with the Stranglethorn Vale Fishing Derby, there is only one winner per server per week. So I wouldn't wait around on that piece. If you can get it though, great.

You can get BoA gear for most of your character's equipment slots. All BoA will scale with your level, and is roughly on par with anything you'll get in the dungeons. However, only the chest and shoulder pieces grant extra XP, and should therefore be your first priority. I wouldn't worry too much about other pieces unless you have a ton of currency to burn.

A shot of the queue information available from mousing over the minimap icon. When you reach the head of the queue, those greyed out icons will fill as you are matched with potential group members. Note that it will give you the time in queue, and if available, the average wait time.

4.2: Get Your Addons

There are thousands of addons out there. But there are three in particular I find useful for dungeon leveling.

Altoholic is a great tool for managing multiple alts. Leveling multiple characters at once allows you to keep one gaining rested experience in an inn or capital city (which grants 200% XP to kills, and stacks with BoA gear). Rested XP is king. Given that the vast, vast majority of XP you'll be gaining is from kills, this cuts your leveling time in half. You can see which of your characters has the most rested XP to burn, what they have equipped, and if they have BoA gear waiting in the mail (usually, it only records a character's mail when you visit the mailbox on that character. But mailing items to your own characters gets recorded when it's sent.)

Omen Threat Meter allows you to view the amount of aggro you have on an enemy in comparison with everyone else. This is important as it can help you hold aggro if you're a tank, or not grab aggro if you're not. Keep an eye on it, and be aware of where you are relative to others. WoW offers an in-game equivalent, but I find it lacking in comparison.

Atlasloot Enhanced is great for seeing what gear is available in each dungeon. It allows you to also maintain wishlists for your character. You can maintain more than one if you want alternate sets, or lump everything into one.

Now, as I said, there are thousands of addons out there. I would suggest taking some time and browsing through them. You'll find many that are class and role specific that catch your interest.


4.3: Learn About Your Class and Role
Take a few minutes and learn a little about your toon and what your toon will be doing. You don't have to become an expert, but perusing some standard specs, acquainting yourself with abilities (particularly things like buffs, crowd control, and effects to get rid of debuffs and fears), and knowing what your stat priority is will go a long ways towards making you better at your character from the get-go.

Now, you don't have to be perfect, and certainly feel free to explore your own spec ideas and what not. But the better idea you have about what you're doing will help you from getting the wrong gear or being a detriment to your group.

Playing in a group can be far different from playing solo. Buffs, aggro management and other synergy effects become very important. Speccing for group play can be vaguely different as well. By finding out which talents are important for group play and why will help you make better choices.

4.4 Choose Your Professions
Thanks to the Blue Ink Alchemist for helping me in this consideration.

Now, if you have other characters on the server and gold is not a major issue, choose your professions however you see fit by any method or strategy you would use for any alt, regardless of leveling method.

But, if gold is an issue for you (such as not having a high-level character on the server to pay your bills) then you may want to consider Tailoring (even if you don't wear cloth) and Enchanting. While conventional wisdom is that the 3 gathering professions are the fastest money-makers, nodes and skinnable mobs are far more rare in instances than they are in the world at large.

However, the majority mobs in dungeons have a chance to drop cloth. As an Enchanter, you can disenchant both what you make, and unwanted gear in the dungeon (though you aren't guaranteed what you DE in dungeons.) So these are more likely to be profitable than other professions, and require less of an investment to level.

 You may want to click for the larger image. Notice the new Disenchant button on the lower right. Because this character can use the item, the Need button is available. If my character could not use it (whether due to class restriction, or certain stats available), the button would be greyed out. Hovering over the button will tell you why you can't roll on it.

Step 5: Know The Etiquette and Expectations

Loot in dungeons is given out via the revamped Need vs Greed method. While the restrictions are far less stringent at low levels, it does prevent you from rolling need on most items not designed for your class. So if you're a druid that wants that nice pair of cloth pants... tough.

Some people will ask if they can get items that you win (cross-server trades are allowed on BoP gear while in a dungeon, and only to those that were eligible for loot from that boss). This is up to you. They may or may not throw a fit if you don't give it to them. If you don't need the item, you may want to be nice and give it up. Feel free to ask too, if there are items you would like that you can't roll need on, but remember it's their choice and generosity to give it to you. You don't have rights on it.

Another key element about looting is knowing that many people hold the idea of Main Spec before Off Spec to be as sacrosanct and inviolable as holy writ. When rolling on gear for a spec that you are not currently using in the dungeon, be aware of others in your group and whether they may want that particular item for their Main Spec. This is where Atlasloot, or at least a handwritten form of list, can do a lot of good, as you can specify which Off Spec pieces you're looking for at the start of the run, and see if there are any objections. Most people won't object you rolling Need if they don't need it themselves.

However, there are those that don't believe this and will roll on gear anyways. Don't be too surprised if that Death Knight steals that tanking sword from from your Paladin. It happens, just be prepared.

If you've never run a dungeon before, or are running in a role you're unfamiliar with, tell people. Your group will be much more forgiving and helpful if you let them know beforehand you're new to something. Though if you're a tank and you've never run a certain dungeon before, I suggest running it as a different role to familiarize yourself with the dungeon prior to trying to tank it.

Finally, particularly if you are the tank and therefore set the pace for the dungeon, be aware of  your party members. Watch their mana and stop periodically to let them drink. Many players may also need items dropped by optional bosses. Ask before you skip them, or if you're going in for a quick run and plan on only hitting the bosses you want to do, make it clear at the beginning of the run. Some people may get pissed off, but at least you gave them fair warning.

Step 6: To Random, Or Not To Random

With the dungeon finder, you have the option of choosing a completely random dungeon, or select specific ones to queue for. Up until you are able to queue for random Northrend dungeons (level 69), the rewards for running a random dungeon is a Satchel of Helpful Goods (you get one blue piece of gear that may, or may not, actually be helpful) and a pithy amount of additional money and experience. Given that the gear you get is almost more likely to be useless to you than otherwise, you may want to consider a better plan for your dungeon experience.

 Selecting specific dungeons

If you follow the suggestion to keep a "Wishlist" of gear you need from each dungeon available to you (whether through a hand-written list, or through utilizing an addon like Atlasloot), you can decide which dungeons will be the most productive for you to queue for. I suggest only queuing for low-level random dungeons if you need gear from all the dungeons available to you, or if you need gear from none of them, and you don't have any labeled in orange (signifying higher level, thus more XP). This way, you're running dungeons you actually need something out of, rather than blowing time in a dungeon that won't give you anything, and only randoming when all dungeons have something for you.

This is likely to increase your queue time, however. So keep that in mind. The benefit is that by only running dungeons you need, you're more likely to get all the gear you're looking for before you level out of running that dungeon, which will give you better performance.

I also suggest that as soon as you hit 58 or 68, you start on Burning Crusade and Northrend dungeons respectively. You will get much higher experience, and far better gear (even if you might not be able to use it for a couple of levels, you'll get a headstart). With the exception of tanks (and even then...) gear doesn't matter much until you hit 80 anyways, so don't spend a whole lot of time clearing out every dungeon of gear from the prior game version. Queues for borderline dungeons will be much longer anyways.

Once you hit 69, you should make your first dungeon of the day random you will receive 2 Emblems of Triumph, which once you reach 80 can get you Tier 9 gear and give you a good start on gearing out your toon for endgame.

Two Emblems a day keeps the gearing woes away.

There it is. Your guide to making dungeon leveling as painless as possible.

Review: Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed was an interesting play that kept me involved, intrigued, and interested over the course of the 7 months it took me to beat it. (Note, the long play time says nothing about the game, and a lot about my ridiculously busy schedule.)

I loved the gameplay. Running up walls, leapfrogging across scaffolds and flinging knives at sentries was amazingly fun. The story relating to the past (where you play as Altair) was full of mystery, difficulty, and a bit of suspense. Very well crafted overall.

Choice was also a key element of the game. You could pick what order you did the assassinations in (at least, for each group of missions) and which investigations one performs. The latter was particularly nice, particularly since I sucked at the stealth assassination investigations.

Trasitioning from the past to the present felt a bit choppy and sudden. While it is meant to feel this way (just as Desmond would feel being drawn out of the Animas), I felt it could have been handled differently. As it was, it felt bulky.

While the second story of Desmond was just as full of mystery and intrigue as Altair's, I sometimes felt like it was trying to be two stories in one. While this wasn't altogether bad, I did occasionally feel bogged down trying to puzzle through two separate mysteries.

I think a better tether between the stories would have helped me a lot. As it was, the rare amount of play time that I got made me forget when I was due to get pulled from the Animas. While the zone-loading and execution scenes tied you to the Animas itself, I never felt any connection to the present. Some stronger tether between the two to help keep the player conscious of both ends of the story would have been a positive change for me.

The largest problem I had with the game was the script. It was a little cheesy, a little melodramatic. Once, my husband was in the room where I was playing, and he sarcastically quipped off a response to one of the characters that was as predictable and cheesy as he could think of. As if on cue, Altair repeated it word for word.

Assassin's Creed has fallen into the trap that many games seem to fall in to: Having to Tell, instead of Show. In a book, or even a movie, it's easier to convey a lot of back information to a character via cutting over to a different character. But this story focuses on just the one character, so you don't really get a chance to convey information except to have him say it as exposition.

Particularly when Altair was puzzling through the mystery of the Templar secrets, he would feel to just ramble, restating things for emphasis, and ladling exposition of plot and his thoughts onto the player. These were done in awkward feeling dialogues with other members of the Creed.

I think that was what really bothered me. Not only was there a lot of spoken exposition, but it was done chunky, unnatural dialogue, when if it had to be done at all, may have felt less chunky if it came as a voice-over of an internal monologue.

A couple of minor problems that I had were gameplay based. First of all, I know that tearing down a street at a dead run is not the easiest way to blend in. But walking everywhere sometimes felt painfully slow.

Accomplishing side-objectives, such as saving citizens from abuse, could easily become overwhelming if a patrol happened to walk by. While finding creative ways to bypass this problem (or simply killing every enemy in sight) was definitely a welcome challenge to the game, the reward felt too small. I rarely really had need to run through the vigilante groups that would congregate there to escape pursuit. It wasn't long before I gave up saving these innocents.

Another irritant were the designed hindrances. Just as there were vigilantes and hiding places to help you, there were hindrances to your movement as well. These came in the form of beggars and drunks/crazies. However, for me, these quickly went from hindrance to just flat annoying. Yes, beggars tend to be whiny. But hearing a croaking, sing-song voice crying "My family is sick and [i]dying[/i]" every other block really ground on my nerves. And being completely unable to navigate certain areas (always right where I had to go, of course) due to being shoved around by the drunks and crazies was also very frustrating. A few times, I even got irritated enough to just take the hit to my "synchronization" bar and knife them.

But hey, that's just me.

Another annoyance was the requirement to find a designated hiding place to lose pursuers. While that sounds good on paper, where was more than once when I was fleeing pursuit, and the aggro indicator showed that I was out of sight of my pursuers. I would, while out of sight, run over several rooftops, dash around several corners and really should have lost pursuit, regardless of getting into an "approved" hiding place. I understand they wanted the mechanics to be to hide and not just dash around mindlessly, but there comes a point where it's like... really?

The last minor annoyance was that in-game achievements don't exist for the PS3 version. They weren't even patched in later as they were with the XBox. This made things like killing all 60 Templars and gathering the various flags in each zone feel more pointless.

Achievements may not mean much, but yes, they do make me feel more productive about wasting my time on sidequests.

One thing that I felt really stood out with the game was the integration of the HUD with the story. As gamers, we have come to accept things like arbitrary health bars that grow as tasks are accomplished, areas being locked from access, and other such information as part of the game, despite them really being something more intangible.

But, Assassin's Creed's choice  to instead incorporate that HUD into the story was something I enjoyed. Instead of a health bar, you get a "Synchronization Bar". It functions, and serves the same purpose, as a health bar, but instead you are taking the approach that you are losing the path that your ancestor took.

Given that you are looking at events that have already occurred, it helps to make a player's death seem more realistic in that you don't through off the space-time continuum by creating a paradox, you just fell out of synch with your ancestor. This also allowed the player to be penalized for actions like killing innocents without it feeling like a contrivance. ("Wait, if I kill someone, how does that damage me?")

All in all, it just made much of the necessary mechanics feel more innate to the story rather than something outside of the game world.

But, cheesy script and annoying beggars aside, the game was enjoyable from beginning to end. The mysteries were engaging, the gameplay was well executed over all. The assassinations scaled well, requiring greater cunning and planning than previous executions, requiring the player to fine tune their strategy.

A truly fun game, and one that I'll likely play through again.

WoW: A Love Story

With both The Blue Ink Alchemist and Epixaricacy posting about the upcoming changes in Cataclysm a couple weeks ago, I thought I'd post my own thoughts on the game that has taken the world by storm. I have been a consistent player since I started in late 2006. I remember when Mend Pet was channeled, the ogres and Elder Crockolisks in Stranglethorn Vale were elite, and when having your epic flyer was a major mark of leetness.

Despite much of the old world dying when BC came out, I was fortunate to roll on a server (via blind choice) that had only been open for a month.So leveling and finding level-appropriate groups for everything up till level 58 was no problem.

So, I've been around a while. I've ridden out through buffs, nerfs, lag and server downtime. I just wanted to share what I do and don't like about where the game is, and where the game is going. I haven't looked too heavily at the changes, due to a combination of time constraints, and knowing that until the beta starts to draw to a close, nothing is really reliable (anyone remember dance studios?).

What I Like
The Dungeon Finder
This feature is why I still play. Otherwise, when I first quit raiding back in August, I would have probably faded off the game.  I love questing. I really do. It's peaceful, it's fun, and I really have always enjoyed that aspect of the game. But I'm also an altoholic. So I've done a lot of questing. And once you start to get into the 30s and 40s, areas to really get some good questing done is sparse. It gets even worse when you hit the Outlands and Northrend because they have a much more linear track to the zones. Been there. Done that. Bought the t-shirt. Wore out the t-shirt.

Dungeons was something I really loved though, and now I could go back to doing them with an at-level group. After I started playing on a new realm (transferring my main and my highest level alt at the time and rerolling the rest) that was a day-one server, finding dungeon groups for things like Zul Farrak, Blackfathom Deeps, and best of all, Dire Maul, Scholomance and Stratholme (which I didn't get to do at-level on my main with Outlands beckoning anyone at that level away).

Now I can completely dungeon-level my alts, and I don't even have to leave a capital city. I can level professions, play the auction house, or better yet, go do something else entirely. It's the norm for me to use my average 20 minute wait time to work on homework, clean the house, make phone calls, so on and so forth. This helps to ease my conscious about how much I play. Yeah, I may blow 2 hours on WoW, but in that same time, I've cleaned most of the apartment, or finished a homework assignment, or something.

I've personally also connected better with people and helped them out. Especially lower level hunters. I've run into hunters using spell power gear, defense gear, and had specs that would make most experienced hunters cry. I politely whisper them, and would offer my advice. While some blew me off, many were very grateful for the help. I haven't been able to do that on my own realm. No reason for lower levels to group up and connect.

I've even found it more enjoyable on my 80s. Yes, I can and have found pugs on my own server. But most players have a guild they run with, so you get a lot of alts and players that aren't very good. I have no problem playing with the less skilled, but you get some people how are really.... special. Now, I run with a wide variety of people. Some groups are chatty, others aren't. But, I don't have to bark in trade forever, and I don't have to listen to people demanding a 5k GearScore to run the easiest heroics. And I can go do my dailies while I wait instead of being tethered to Trade Chat.

It may decrease the contact pool I have on my own server, but all in all, it's a feature that I couldn't live without.

Raiding
This is something that will appear in the negative column as well, but for now I'm going to focus on what I like about it.

In Burning Crusade, pugs may have been possible, but they were far from the norm. And setting up a pug for Mount Hyjal or Black Temple was usually laughed off by everyone else. At least on my server, you didn't even pug individual spots. If you were short a person, you might pull in a friend, or someone from another well-respected guild, but you didn't just grab someone off the street, as it were. You canceled the raid. Now, pugs are plentiful for even end-game raids.

While the change to how buffs stack made a lot of people angry due to feeling like what made their class special was being given to everyone else. But really, all it did was cut down the restrictions for people to get into raids without worrying about overloading on a certain class, or fretting over class makeup. It makes putting together a raid a much easier task.

The addition of Heroic modes for raids brought in a new dynamic that attempted to balance the needs of the casual players and the hardcore. It had its downside, but that will be covered in the next section as well. 

The change to badges to allow the purchase of gear one tier behind current content has the benefit of allowing players who take a short-term break to catch up, and new players to quickly move into the current content.

Dailies
Dailies are another double-edged sword. While I'll cover their downsides later, the bonus is that it provides a steady and reliable stream of reputation and gold without long bouts of farming and grinding.

Acheivements
These are fun ways to mark things done in the game. Besides the ones for raiding and pvp, it gives something to work on. It can keep up interest in a character when the grind gets too bland. Popping around looking for rare spawns, fishing for rare fish, running old dungeons for fun. It's really hit the OCD "gotta catch 'em all" side of my personality. 

What I Don't Like
The Players
The number one thing I don't like about the game is the other players. The influx of casual players brought with them a rash of lazyness, greed, and self-entitlement. People cry over the stupidest things. Tanks and healers, because they are harder to find than DPS, believe they have a lock on whatever loot they want. And if they don't get it, they quit in a huff. Or worse, pull an entire room to attempt to kill the offending player.

If I go into a dungeon, and I say that I'm looking for gear for my tank set, the tank gets all huffy. The expectation is that I should have to spend several hundred gold to buy pieces to start tanking and have them all upgraded in a week. Now, to me at least, this is a total waste. I'd rather just build up my set through the dungeons in the first place. Most of the time this isn't a problem. Either the tank doesn't need any gear, or they are polite enough to be reasonable. A simple "Hey, if you could pass on ______ because I've been farming for that" is enough for me to give over to them.

But when the tank is rude, can't hold aggro over a paper bag, or takes hits like a clothie, then I'm not going to be nice. I'm not going to give in. And since many of my alts are currently running Outlands dungeons where gear doesn't matter and main-spec items will be upgraded in a week anyways, I see no reason not to roll on a few offset pieces. I'm usually a generous person overall, but I get tired of the self-entitlement and whining.

A couple cases to make my point: First, I was running a dungeon in Outlands on my warlock (note that I'm a cloth wearer here) and the druid healer (who wears leather) wanted a drop that I rolled need on. I pointed on that the piece was very good for me, and that the gear was more designed for me since it was cloth. They pitched a fit claiming that as the healer, they were clearly more entitled to get whatever they wanted over a lowly DPS. When I didn't give in, they quit the group in a huff.


Second, I was playing another Outlands dungeon on my enhancement shaman (who I'd been working on a healer set for) and a leather caster helm dropped. I won the greed roll. I was pretty thrilled as this was the last piece I needed. I'd been looking for a helm for a long time. The healer (also a shaman) demanded I hand it over. I pointed out that I won the greed roll fair and square, and that it was only a minor upgrade for him while it completed a set for me. The healer left in a huff, and the tank then proceeded to pull the entire room in an attempt to kill the rest of the group and "punish" me.


It's a game. Throwing a temper tantrum because you don't get what you want is pathetic. I've lost many rolls on loot I wanted. I don't cry about it. The item, or something better, will drop again.


Dailies
The problem with dailies is that it removed a lot of need to work your professions for money. As a result, the market on crafted items has crashed, and the cost of gathered goods was sky high for a long time. They can be painfully repetitive at times, and can eat up a lot of time. The high influx of easy gold has also caused the in-game economy to flip out and become horribly skewed. Low-level items sell for massive amounts of money because players with an 80 could pay for these items for these alts, but it made it difficult for new players, or players rerolling on a separate server.

The End-Game Rush
 While alleviated slightly by the new dungeon-finder mechanic, older content gets completely brushed over. If you try to find a group to clear Naxxramas, you get a chorus of "Why bother? Just grind dungeons for a day and jump into the new content." Most of the old-world is a barren wasteland. I have gone for days questing and never seen more than one other person in the entire zone. Content at x-pac cut offs are particularly hard to find groups for. Stratholme, Outlands heroics. These are almost never run because you can get far better gear in the later content.

This leads to a mad dash to 80 and then straight into end-game with little time to stop and smell the roses with people. I remember leveling my first toon, and I was in a guild that was all about the same level as me. We ran dungeons on a regular basis, quested together, and it was a fun and social environment. While we were all in a hurry to reach end game, we at least got to enjoy the game in its entirety.

The Dungeon-Finder
The dungeon finder is a great tool, and I absolutely love it for a variety of reasons. But the lack of socialization on my own server can be a hindrance. Especially on my 80s when I can't call on those good tanks and healers to put together a good raid pug.

The gear checking it performs also leaves a lot to be desired. It takes into account the level of all your gear, not the gear you have for the role you queued for. I've had tanks that get 2-shot by trash, and when the healer quits due to the impossibility of the situation, and the terri-bad tank requeues as a tank, it's ridiculous. While the requirements to tank or be a healer doesn't have to be overly stringent. But something would be nice. Enough so that they can actually tank the instance will be nice. Hopefully, in Cataclysm, Blizzard's removal of defense rating and the streamlining of their mechanics should help a lot.


The Complexity
Something they seem to be addressing in Cataclysm is the over-complexity of the current stat system. The conversion ratios, stat balancing and so on has gotten out of control. Max your hit, then hit a magical amount of armor penetration, but if you're MM or Survival make sure you stack agility, but if you're BM or a certain type of MM, stack attack power and so on and so forth.  It's ridiculous. When you have to rely on spreadsheets to decide between two pieces of gear, things are too complex.

Raiding
Raiding can be crazy complex. Fights are gimmicky to the point of frustration. If just one person misses a beat, it wipes the entire raid. it gets frustrating. Not to mention tiresome to have to watch two or three videos of a fight just to see a strategy before even setting foot in the instance. Followed by weeks of attempts on the same bosses, on 10 man and 25 man, normal and heroic. It gets tiring and leads to a quick burn out.


Tedium
Leveling, PvP, and even a lot of the PvE instances turns into one thing: repetition. Go kill 20 wolves. Great, now go kill 20 Orcs. Run flags around battlegrounds. Farm instances for drops, farm for rep. Grind. Grind. Grind. There's little difference. Little change. After a while it all just starts to run together, and interest in the game can wane. A more in depth approach would have been nice.




Overall, this is, despite its flaws, a delicious game. The things I don't like are far outweighed by the positives. and I keep coming back for more. So far, no other MMO has caught my attention. They never seem to offer anything new, different, or anything worth leaving WoW for. BioWare's Old Republic will likely tempt me away.