Back to WoW blogging! The trickle of Wrath of the Lich King news is exciting. Besides, game wise, there really isn't a whole lot else worth playing or writing about until some of the AAA titles come out in Fall. I think I'll hang onto some of my legacy gear a bit longer. It looks like, according to an interview with Jeff Kaplan, some of the achievements are going to retroactively activate through related quests that have been completed (ie Onyxia's Head) and boss drops in your inventory/bank.
My paladin is an armorsmith and enchanter, that's not going to change anytime soon if ever (I'm the guild armorsmith and one of the main enchanters). I have a large stash of enchanting materials stock up but, if I recall correctly, the low level Brning Crusade enchants starting using the new materials early on. The thought of having to level blacksmithing makes me retch a bit; that was so expensive...
My hunter is an alchemist and minter. His alchemy is stuck at 300 and his mining is below 100. I, as mentioned previously, will most likely drop mining to pick up inscribing. I'm tempted though, to level mining and drop alchemy for the sake of feeding Keiya ore. Mining was a pain in the ass to level though, I don't imagine myself doing it again.
Apparently the new tradeskill uses raw materials extracted from herbs via milling. Milling is to inscribing as prospecting is to jewelcutting. My lowbie mage is an herbalist and a tailor. Since they upped the old world experience gain x number of months ago, and since as of the last patch she has her mount, I've had interest in leveling her once again. She also has an Staff of Jordan chanted with +40 spell power waiting for her (I was going to do Soulfrost, but that was way too expensive. Even for a twink lol).
I wonder if they will roll out the new talent trees and UI/mechanics changes before the expansion pack is released. I would love to start recollecting non-combat pets without negatively impacting my bag space.
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is free again via Hulu. It is a musical tragicomedy directed by Joss Whedon (of Buffy, Firefly, etc fame) and starring Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, Nathan Fillion, and Simon Helberg. It's three 14-minute episode series about a super-villain, a hero, a girl and so much more! Short, sweet and awesome. You must watch it, there is no reason for anyone not to watch it!
I used to watch anime constantly in college. My interest in it has tapered off since graduating (and being employed and thus able to purchase every game that I was too poor to buy or lazy to pirate). People talk about Gurrin laggan and Gode Geass frequently; I don't know anything about the other two other than they are supposedly good and worth watching. I'll acquire the first 5 episodes or so of each and give them a go:
...I like having things to watch while I level characters. Getting Doombeard to 70 and possibly leveling the mage before Fall is my next project.
I'm hearing about raid attrition hitting a lot of guilds on my server. I wonder if it is a local issue or if it pre-expansion anxiety. One of the problems with my server is that when drama happens, instead of merging or joining into a pre-existing guild, the general thought is to branch off into a start-up raiding guild. So consequently, there are probably 50 guilds all at the same tier of progression and all fishing from the same pool of recruits.
So the expansion pack! Word on the street is that it is going to be released sometime late Q4 of this year. I wouldn't hold my breath on that, my personal bet is on it being delayed to early Q1 of 2009. I'm actually hoping that they delay it so that I can squeeze a few more titles into my fall game budget *Fallout3Rockband2etc*. Blizzard works on Blizzard time lol!
Keiya will of course, will remain a protection specced tank upon hitting the serious level 80 content. Until then, I haven't decided what I want to level as. You know, I haven't leveled as a prot spec before; I specced protection a month or two after hitting level 70 out of guild need (and never looked back since!). Retribution is actually a pretty fun leveling spec. I might end up going lolret for the sake of pure novelty (I have a reasonable crit set in the bank, we shit spare plate DPS gear).
My hunter, well, he needs to get off of his ass and finish off his last one and a half levels. I'll replace his mining profession with inscribing. Keiya will remain blacksmithing and enchanting, I've soaked way too much gold and time to ever change my professions (in addition to being the official guild armorsmither and one of the official guild raid enchanters). One of these days I'll have to take a look at the WotLK profession materials so that I can get a better idea regarding what I need to start stocking. That's what we all did pre-BC and it worked out well.
I might give Heroic Magister's Terrace trinket/pet farming another go this week since I'm that "busy" during the weeknights. I need to replenish by badge stash anyways, I used a lot of it on my gem spree this weekend, to swap out some of my crap blue gems.
Early console games either used a password based saving system or none at all. Later on, certain games (Final Fantasy for example) had a small battery, allowing game data to be saved aboard the cartridge's RAM. Save points were used because at the time, it wasn't possible to allow on-the-fly saving on most console games because of the game state being too complex or large for the game's memory/card/whatever. This mechanic is a perfect example of something created through technological limitation, carrying through games today.
It really though, depends on the game's design and how the save points are used. Not all save point based games are bad. Shadow of the Colossus for example has save points that are hard to find, but it doesn't matter because it isn't a character progression or a grind based game (if you can't find one nothing is really lost). It also automatically asks you to save after downing each colossus; Should you lose a colossus battle, you will be reloaded ot the start of the fight.
The Metal Gear Solid series uses a zone based saving system. You are permitted to save at any point, but the game will reload your progress to the beginning of whatever area you are in. You will lose any weapons that you have acquired and any progress made, but the zones are small enough so that it does not matter much.
Final Fantasy XII on the other hand has huge dungeons and zones with very few save points. The lack of save points is frustrated because it's a grind based game that artificially increases it's difficulty by forcing you to level grind in areas with very few saves. Grinding for a while and not being able to save sucks.
Ideally, I like being able to save anywhere at will (quicksaves <3). At minimum, I would like the ability to save upon entering a new zone. Additionally, when a boss fight is lost, it's nice when a game automatically loads to the start of the fight, so that time isn't lost repeatedly having to run back and reshuffle spells.
It might be my style of gameplay though: I like creepsaving, partially out of paranoia that the power will go out or a situation will arouse in which I will have to leave. Also because I like to experiment. It's nice being able to quicksave before I punch a guard in the face to see what happens.
I don't ask that all games allow on-the-fly saving, just they the difficulty level isn't artificially increased by reducing where you are allowed to save. There are many many ways to punish a player, but I don't like being punished by losing an hour of progress for having to attend to real life.
SPOILER ALERT! An article about game endings naturally spoils the endings to games. I know that there are more that should be mentioned, but there are quite a few games that I have never played, finished, or just don't remember enough of.
- I like endings that to some wrap the story up to some extent.
- I like endings that rren't complete brain fucks (I love you like my own flesh and blood FFVII, but your ending was....yeah)
- I like endings that are a culmination of these 3 qualities: The game's story, context, and what the player has experienced.
- Game endings don't always have to be happy and cheery.
- Game endings don't always have to be depressing esoteric shitfests (anime ending syndrome).
- I like game endings with epic music. Of the favorites listed below, I vividly remember Mega Man 3, Final Fantasy VIII, and Portal because of the music. Epic epic music.
Mega Man 3
This ending touched me as a young child. This is significant because I swear that most of all NES endings consisted of nothing more than a spash screen with "THE END" written in coloful letters. Protoman redeems himself in the end, saving his brother from the debris, Mega Man gazes at Proto Man's sillouete in the sky...beautiful! Not to mention the music, the music is delicious.
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VIII is the red-headed runt stepchild of the Square universe. But, despite whatever you may feel about the game the ending is awesome. It's my favorite Final Fantasy ending by a huge margin. It wrapped up the story with a touching 15 minute FMV sequence. The orchestrated version of Eyes on Me and the Final Fantasy theme were perfect.
Silent Hill 2
This game has no heroes. People don't get sent to Silent Hill because they were being good... James is a sack of shit who murders his dying wife, not out of mercy, but out of his own selfishness. I know that there's a happy ending, but the In Water ending feels most canon to the story. A tragic yet appropriate end to one of the finest game stories ever told. Oh: and some of the other ones are just fucking funny (YouTube the dog and alien ending).
Metal Gear Solid 3
A poignant ending that sets up Big Boss as a villain. Big Boss saluting The Boss' grave as a single tear rolls down his cheek, so sad OMG. Snake succeeds in his mission and is rewarded with medals/titles despite the fact that he has, effectively, lost everything. You are forced as a player to execute The Boss, who has been a mentor and a mother figure to snake for over a decade. Despite her vision and her sacrifice, she dies a traitor in the eyes of both the US and Soviet Union, for nothing. A true patriot.
Portal
Oh my God. I don't think a more perfect ending exists. Anywhere in any media genre. I mean, that song...There's no reason why any of you should not have played Portal.
Metal Gear Solid 4
I am still fawning over this game and cannot give a fair opinion without gushing fangirl goodness. The microwave corridor...the Ocelot fight depicting all four games...you don't know how hard I mashed the triangle button in the corridor. I am a huge sucker for cheesy wedding endings so screw all of you who didn't enjoy it! I would be lying if I said that I didn't tear up when Otacon says, "Snake...had a hard life" OMG so sad ;_;. Big Boss CQC's Old Snake into a hug, aknowledging him as a son.
Other special moments
Additional fond memories.
- Call of Duty 4: The slow-motion sequence right before the ending as Captain Price, with his dying breath slides his gun over to you. The playable epilogue was also awesome.
- Metal Gear Solid 1: The alternate ending when Snake and Otacon ride off into the Alaskan sunset gay cowboy style on a snowmobile (and yes, I submitted to the torture and didn't get the Meryl ending either *sadpanda*).
- Final Fantasy VIj (FFIII US): The music. The character vignettes. I really love the ending music. My second favorite Final Fantasy ending.
- Metroid: The good ending that is. The original video game surprise ending!
- Metal Gear Solid 2: The actual ending was mediocre but the events leading up to it were epicly strange. The Arsenal Gear freakouts lmao: "I need scissors! 61!"
- The Half-Life series: I know how most everybody feels about cliffhangers, particularly those that setup sequels, but these are well done. A cliffhanger shouldn't feel like the developers chopped the story in half at some arbitrary point. It should, to some extent, wrap up the current story while leaving you in suspense. Though possibly a bit underwhelming, the HL endings do this well.
- The Sims 2: Well not really, but indoor barbequeing is always a good way to end a sim family.
