Aristes

I would buy stuff you can use now if you've got a wad of bills because you can earn more honor. Since you do a lot of PvP, you'll probably get more honor built up anyhow. However, I would save a bundle for new purchases, for sure.

Probably because of folks charging for ports. Either that, or some knuckleheads made a ruckus about it. Otherwise, why change them? I simply can't understand why it was a big deal to anyone, including Blizzard. I haven't had time to check into it today, although I was tempted when I first read your post. My gut instinct on polymorph is that it's PvP balance, which doesn't make me appreciate PvP more than I do now. I really like the achievements things. It reminds me of City of Heroes, which I enjoyed quite a bit. Plus, it's more incentive to do just about anything. Some of the things are kind of silly. There is only one so far I think is complete crap. The PvP reward for hugging characters you've killed before the player can release spirit just demonstrates that the WoW design team really want to reinforce an ugly sort of atmosphere. I guess maybe it encourages competition, but not in a friendly or healthy way. Part of my problem with PvP in WoW is that it really does encourage folks to hate each other... not in a role playing sort of way but in a real life sort of way. I've heard people talking about having the hordie in front of them so they could "put a foot in their ass" or worse. Sure, most of the time, that's simple machismo, but not for some of these folks, like my retired policeman brother who has been getting in fights with people since he was old enough to hold a bottle and strong enough to swing it at someone. The nerd rage is maddening sometimes. For example, folks say, "Hey, why don't we go kill people at the cross-roads?" I'm like, "Why? I don't really have much time, I was hoping to adventure." "Well, they hassle Sentinel Hill all of the time." "Yeah, but if they're hassling Sentinel Hill, then I'll come help drive them off so we can finish our quests." And don't think this is sour grapes. I get a lot more kills than I suffer deaths these days. I play a rogue and most of my fighting either comes from defending cities, which is simply a role playing issue for me, or taking PvP spots in the outlands, like the bones waste or Halaa. Even then, I do it for practical reasons. Since gear is so important, half the time I get in one or two shots and the other guy runs off. LOL. I landed on a tower once and there was a rogue taking it. So, I land, put the venom on my blades and waited for him to take the tower before I flagged. I thought to myself that he probably just had the mission to take a tower and, since I knew I could take it whether or not he fought me, I figured I'd let him finish his quest. Anyhow, he just flew off. On my regular server, the PvP spots are owned by my faction the vast majority of the time. Anyhow, I figured I'd throw that out there to draw fire from you avid PvPers. Back to the achievements thing. I'm missing quite a few achievements that were not retroactively applied to me. Weird stuff. I have credit for killing the Prince in Kara, but not for doing two of the regular outlands instances. ...And not even late ones. The two they didn't give me are Blood Furnace and Slave Pens, for crying out loud! haha. I also didn't get credit for any of my heroics, all of which I've also done. Go figure. Still, all in all, I think the achievements are really sweet, even most of the PvP ones. I'll get that Defender of Cities thing pretty quickly, since I'll usually take the time to help root out rogues in the city and always come to help defend against raids. Oh, and did I mention mounts no longer taking an inventory slot? bwahahahahahahaha

I liked Bioshock. It was fun. I think it fell short of "Classic," but it was fun. I was disappointed. On the other hand, I am increasingly impressed by LotRO. I started it a few months ago, didn't have time, so I left it. I guess I described all that above. Now, I'm staying up waaaay too late (like until the wee hours of almost dawn) in order to enjoy it as best I can before my current bill period expires. The controls aren't as liquid, and movement is a bit awkward, but the graphics are stunning. None of that cartoony crap from WoW. The hills around the elven starting area are absolutely stunning. I'm level 9 now, which shows how much of a noob I am with the quest set up and whatnot, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the game. This is the most fun I've had with a new game in a long time. Some drawbacks that I see ahead, however: All MMORPGs are social. I don't mind meeting new folks, and I've often teamed at WoW. However, now that I can play with a large group of family members and personal friends, I don't relish the idea of meeting new folks online in a new game, getting to know their quirks and foibles, learning group dynamics, and then getting into a guild (or fellowship or whatever the hell the game calls it) in order to do the group quests. So far, to level 9, I have been able to solo everything just fine. I did get killed during the Pampraush quest line, but most of my wasted time has come from aimless wandering and admiring the scenery. Even my single death wasn't that bad, as it just makes you weaker. Even then, I wasn't weak enough that I couldn't still kill stuff in the area. I guess, the thing is, I couldn't recommend any game based on one good day of gaming. I won't count the odd hour or so I played the first day I got it. As it is, I've got about four hours of sleep time left, so tomorrow will be a bear. Still, I won't bother going into 'review' mode for a game that I've already cancelled, but there is a number of good and bad things about the game I've seen thus far. I kind of hope to get the chance to try it again sometime, but I simply won't pay for three online games at the same time. Hell, I doubt if I get my money's worth out of two, but I WILL try WAR for at least a couple of months. EDIT: I decided to break up some of the paragraphs I'd penned in my sleepless fatigue addled mind.

Yes, the patch is out but the verdict is not in. The latest patch has a lot of changes. My favorite so far? Mounts are 'learnable' so that the player need not keep them in his inventory. Instead, they fall under the 'pets' tab in the character sheet. Confusing, I think so. I'm still happy about it, though. Nice to have those two slots back. For someone who collects a lot of mounts, even better.

Just wait til that's done. You have another one coming also. Probably will be a lot faster, tho.

Oh, hey, check it out. I was just going to start a WAR thread and one's here just waiting for me! I'm getting this game tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. I kind of dread the first patch download because I've never played one of these games that didn't have a sizeable patch the first time it runs. Still, I'm optimistic. I really love the darker feel of the Warhammer universe. Oh, the WoW universe is dark, for sure, in theory. In reality, though, they just fail to convey anything beyond "do this and get a shiny new sword. Do it enough and get a freakish looking sword that's ten times larger than your character and looks entirely goofy." Now, you might wonder how I could level such a charge against WoW while accepting the exact same transgression on the part of Warhammer. Do you wonder? I'll tell you, I don't know. Maybe it's because I really see Warhammer, both FB and 40k, as a miniatures game. I was exposed to the miniatures game before I found the RPG, so the flashy colors and outrageous gear doesn't bother me. I guess that's not a real defense, but the fact remains, whether I like it or not, that I don't mind the over the top look of Warhammer while I hate it in WoW. TOMORROW! TOMORROW IS WAR DAY! W00T!

All You Zombies -- The Hooters

Hahahaha I'm playing LotRO. I cancelled my account, but I have paid time left so I've been playing it. I essentially bought it because a friend wanted me to try it, but I didn't do hardly anything with it after he decided he didn't like MMOGs. So, I had three months paid and I'd played maybe an hour and a half. I sign on to look around and, without my noob friend getting lost and growing angry because of his own ineptitude, I'm really enjoying it. I finally finished the into and made it to the haven. I've got a bunch of quests there. Graphically, it's soooo much better than the ridiculous cartoony feel of WoW. Now, that might change. Maybe, when you get to higher levels, you'll be wearing a sword that's twice as big as your character and has all sorts of stupid looking dangles on it and whatnot. My biggest beef with WoW is that all the best gear makes you look like bozo the clown. I would hope that LotRO would avoid that. I also like the fact that a lot of stuff is instanced. It's like CoH/CoV in that respect. It's much easier to finish instanced quests. That's not because the battles are easier, but because you don't have to have a bunch of other people hanging out in the same area. I like the fact that there aren't a lot of load screens on WoW, but the load times are so ridiculously short in LotRO that I don't care. Did I mention graphics? Hey, Blizzard! That's how a forest is supposed to look! I've got both games cranked up to 1600x1200 resolution with all the toggled set to max. Sure, it runs hot sometimes, but it does allow me to judge both games at their best. LotRO wins hands down. I might actually consider switching, but I would have to do so alone. Sadly, WoW has taught me to ignore quest text, which I might enjoy on LotRO if I weren't in the habit of clicking past it. Well... that's not entirely fair. There are some quest lines in WoW that are quite good, so I can't make blanket statement. I haven't played enough to be able to make a real judgement, however. I still think WoW has the controls beat hands down. The movement and controls in LotRO are sluggish, and I can't even blame the video since they felt that way when I played at default video settings. I dunno. I've cancelled it and can reactivate it later. I'm getting WAR tomorrow, and I think I'll play that until WotLK hits the shelves. Meanwhile, I think I'll play a half hour of LotRO and see if I like it post-intro.

Good Lord, like we don't use the phrase "soul searching" to mean someone who is contemplating a deep and complicated problem. Use context for crying out loud. Wait, are you one of those internet meanies who's going to fight me for pages for pointing out that anyone reading Dagon's comments should have realized he didn't mean the company was literally opening up their soul and root around inside for specifc answers? Oh well. Because of the backlash, if they believe it meant a significant amount of lost sales, EA might not opt for DRM. Personally, and I know this is that anecdotal evidence everyone hates, but I haven't had any problems with any DRM titles. Now, anecdotal can suck, sure. ...But we all have to rely on personal experience and, since I haven't personally experienced a hard time running a DRM protected game, DRM isn't a particular problem for me. I'll purchase the title with or without it.

She's So High -- Tal Bachman

I'm enjoying Call of Duty 4. I played through it once at the level below and now I'm doing Veteran and I just can't survive the end of the sniper mission. I wouldn't mind another good WWII shooter, and it can be arcade-y, which I'm sure CoD5 will not be. I'll pick up CoD5, but I need a mindless run and gun like Half-Life 3 to come out. Also, I'd like a Hitman 5. If they've announced that, please link it!

Lawyers In Love -- Jackson Brown

That rat ship really is impressive, Lady.

You can do it, Hurl! I've got a LotRO account, but it just didn't seem as polished as WoW and the combat mechanics seemed... I dunno... sluggish? Slow? I might consider trying to play it again, but I would never be able to convince my WoW guild to switch to LotR online. I'm not willing to spend money on LotRO while I'm paying for a WoW account, but I am willing to play Warhammer. I'll probably get a character pretty high and then see how I like WAR. If it's still good. Meanwhile I'm canceling my LotRO account. I"ve finished (I think) a few games of Spore. Not a bad little game. The design team made a few weird decisions. For example, left clicking is the primary way to interact with things in some stages while it's right clicking in others. Each stage is kind of interesting, but the stages are so short, and the gameplay so primative, that it almost seems like a collection of mini-games rather than a real title in and of itself. The one area that would probably be the most interesting to other folks, creating crap and painting it, is simply boring to me. It's too bad, tho, 'cause I've got a smoking computer compared to a lot of folks and I can really see the stuff I make with the video settings maxed, but I want to play the game, not paint miniatures. Ugh, WAR won't arrive til Wednesday.

Next thing you know, they'll have a secret cow level or something. I mean, most of these inside jokes are silly, but Bethesda isn't any worse of an offender than other developers and it's not like it ruins the game. In fact, they've contrived that it makes sense within the setting, which is all that matters. If you didn't know the history, I doubt if you'd mention it. Hey, I'm not picking a fight. Some things just get under my skin too. I'm just saying, in a broader sense, it's not that big a deal. EDIT: Maria, you beat me to it! And you, sir, are a sneak. An Anonymous poster! lol

Yeah, a disappointing game altogether, although I did have fun playing it. I don't regret the purchase. Hell, I normally don't, but I wouldn't actually recommend it to anyone. I do wonder if anyone can answer this, though: Does the game end in the space stage when you fill up all the bars and get the title of "omnipotent" or whatever? I mean, you can keep playing, but it that just so you get more badges? There's also the task to find the Grom (or Gron or whatever it is) empire. I've found them in one game, but stopped playing when I filled up the bars and became "most supreme god of all somesuch." I figured I could either keep doing quests for them until I could make them an ally or just take a shipload of planetbusters and kill them where the lived and bred. Will that give me any cutscenes or anything, or just more of the same?

Link! I've been buying games like a mad fool lately. Well, I do everything like a mad fool, but I might buy it. This is especially true if it's got some good turned based fantasy strategy like HoMM.

We're DVRing Fringe. It's not entirely bad, but too many things keep distracting me from the show. First of all, the gimmicky way that they present the locations suck. Second, the fact that it seems to be running late series weird ideas in the first season seems a bit perplexing. I mean, the last show didn't jump the shark, but it looked like they were putting a big shark tank out in the parking lot. Really, it just hasn't been exciting. However, I'm still going to finish out this season, I think. It's kind of odd, but I've always hated television until two things changed. TV shows on DVD and the DVR. I want to watch shows when I want to watch them, not necessarily when the networks want to show them. House has definitely run out of steam and they're pretty desperate. This whole Wilson breaking up with House thing is simply the sort of white knuckle ploy that shows pull when they lose steam. Still, the premise of the show is good and we might get a few more seasons out of it. My wife watches all sorts of crap that barely rises to the level of notice and sometimes doesn't even evince contempt. Ghost Whisperer, Ugly Betty, Pushing Daisies, etc.

I've known they were working on Diablo 3 for a while, I think. I don't remember exactly where I heard it, but I knew it was coming. I saw the wizard trailer someone linked from here a couple days ago. That looks good.

I don't know. The Fallout 3 game does look like an enhanced version of the oblivion game in a different setting. On the other hand, Oblivion looked pretty sweet for it's day. Hell, I think it still looks pretty sweet. I don't know why the graphics are such a problem with regard to Fallout 3. Sure, there are real similarities, but the graphics for Fallout 3 look really sweet. There are other issues that worry me, but the fact that Bethesda removed the monster leveling scheme from Oblivion is a huge step forward. So, the Oblivion with guns accusation is a bit hollow from my perspective, even though I do think the graphics are not entirely alien to one another. I'd like to see a general improvement on the writing and I'd rather the design team create a compelling story in which to immerse myself rather than the whole disconnected sort of general roaming of Oblivion. I don't think it's really Fallout at the end of the day, but it looks like it could be fun. Anyhow, I don't want to waste my time being an aged Fallout fan when I can simply enjoy a new game on the horizon.

I simply don't understand. I thought they said they were going to release Diablo 3. Is it out already and I missed it? I've been a little preoccupied the last few months.

Have you been living under a rock? Less cryptic and more explanatory, please.

Not recently, but a few months ago I read Pride and Prejudice. Typical Novel from Tsarist Russia, as if Tolstoy could be typical. It was good, but I prefer his shorter works. I still prefer Dostoyevsky, but both are truly masterful authors. I've more recently read Founding Brothers. Excellent book about key historical figures in the post-revolution/early republic era. It kind of gave the false impression it would feature a larger number of bios, and I completely disagree with the author's forward regarding the so called "short-lived" Roman Republic, but the work itself is quite good. Around the same time, I read War Letters. Good read. The letters are remarkable and presented without any edits. Finally, I re-read the Chronicles of Amber. Well.... I re-read the Big Book of Amber or some such. I much prefer the original, flaws in continuity and all, because the Merlin stories really don't succeed in paving over the mistakes of the first, but lack the magic. Still, a good read. RIP Zelazny.

Good Lord, man. Stop spamming my thread! lol No, seriously, I will respond in two ways. First of all, I don't really mind a little spam. What the hell? Why not go with the flow. Second of all, I feel ya in regards to wanting other titles from this company. In particular, I would like another Diablo. I almost broke down and picked up Hellgate: London, but I was a bit leery at first and then simply didn't have time to get/play it later. I might get Hellgate, but I will get Diablo.

You know, that doesn't bother me. Whatever shortfalls STALKER had, they way it created boundaries didn't bug me. The thing I didn't like about the NWN engine was: 1) it always seemed a little dark. 2) the way elevations worked. I hated how false the terrain looked, especially earthen ramps and trails. and 3) the general appearance of the GUI. I guess those would have to be the top three. I haven't played in years, so there might have been little picayunish tings that I don't remember. I had a bad feeling about the Witcher early on, but folks who've actually played it seem to have generally positive views and the story does sound intriguing. I dunno. Maybe I should just say what the hell and order it. It's only like 37$ for the enhanced edition.