Halo 3 ODST: 2 More Days!

Well ok, 2 more days for those of us who don’t have a Best Buy around us that decided to accidently sell Halo 3:ODST early. For those of you who have a connection to the internet but haven’t heard, ODST is a standalone game that follows the story of “The Rookie.” Also, anyone who once again likes Halo but doesn’t know, ODST stands for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, the U.S. Marines/Rangers/Seals combined in our society. Looking back at my posts in June, there was game play shown and if you didn’t see it go check below for it. For those adventurous enough, the game will be let out tomorrow night AKA Tuesday morning at 12:00AM. Can’t wait to play it guys, and I will be letting out a review in the next few days, check back soon!

Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 (Part 2) Nintendo Review

 

Opening

While Microsoft didn’t get off to the best start with their show opening with The Beetles: Rockband, Nintendo didn’t get off to the a good start either. It was a very slow start by bringing out Cammie Dunaway the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo. She’s quite the stiff and doesn’t smile at all, but she is Nintendo’s best speaker.

Super Mario Bros: Wii

Cammie made a swift exit but very soon returned to announce this game for the Wii. It’s already been done on the DS, but I think enough has changed to warrant a purchase for the Wii. With the 4 player Co-Op it looks pretty awesome bringing back just an old style Mario game. It reminds me a lot of playing back on the Nintendo Entertainment System back in the day.

Wii Fit Plus

I don’t know why they felt that it was necessary to announce this at E3. It looks the exact same as the original with the exception of a few new minigames. This really isn’t my type of game but I guess if a few people want it then this wasn’t a complete waste of time.

Wii Motion Plus

Cammie disappeared and the Regenator came out. He began to talk about the Wii Motion Plus. It seems to track motion better and looks pretty cool. This was following up on last years announcement which was their big one last year. They showed a “trailer” for it was pretty pointless and it seemed like they were just wasting time.

Wii Sports Resort

This seemed to be when Nintendo released they were lulling to sleep there entire audience and decided to put on a show. This game actually looked very fun. They started out by just showing game play which looked really good. With the Wii Motion Plus controller they were able to shoot a target like an archer very easily. Then Bill and Reggie started playing basketball, which I think could possibly take off with an EA spin off of their sports games.

Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers

It kept busy and they showed a trailer and that was about it. They talked about it for a while which wasn’t all that exciting but a lot of people liked it. I’ve never really liked the Crystal Chronicle series, but I do know a lot of you guys were looking for it.

Kingdom of Hearts: 358/2 Days

This is a huge one for Nintendo. Square Enix has never really put out a bad Kingdom of Hearts. They announced that this game was coming to the DS and I think this is going to be a big title for it. Also during this part of the conference and started just talking about games for the DS and this half was much better than the previous.

Mario + Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Apparently Mario is also the biggest franchise for the DS according to Reggie. In this game, they take the title seriously and they really do put you Inside Bowser. You get shrunken down and he sucks you up and it looks like a fun RPG.

Golden Sun DS

Out in 2010, the sequel to the last Golden  Sun game, which as an FYI, was my favorite game on the GBA. I spent hours staring at that little screen playing it. Its been a long time since the last game and the last two games were massive hits and I’m really looking forward to this game. This is the game that will actually make me buy the Nintendo DS. After this title it really began to slow down again. Oh well…

Women’s Murder Club

Yeah… I really don’t feel a need to talk about this announcement because the trailer looked boring and I’m not a big fan of video game mysteries. I guess it has an interesting art style.

C.O.P: The Recruit

This looks quite promising for a title for the DS. Game play is equal to drive around and start shooting everything up. It looks like an alternative to GTA for Nintendo. I doubt it will be as good, but we’ll just have to see because Nintendo seems very excited about it. After this title announcement, Nintendo had a huge embarrassment.

Style Savvy

If your not pumped for this games release then your not a fan of games… Biggest joke of E3 ever, this isn’t even worth talking about because everyone on stage at Nintendo took this seriously. I know EA had their little pet shop but this just takes the cake. It was just embarrassing for Nintendo.

Flip Note Studio

This looks like an interesting pretty cool idea for a new game. It lets you make your own stop motion animations. It looks pretty cool, but I highly doubt everyone's will look like the one they were showing off. Well see how this goes when it comes out and hopefully they will have a way to share your own animations with other peoples over the Wi-Fi or something.

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong

Another franchise is coming back to the DS. There are what seem to be a few new maps around this time but not a lot looked to be changed. Not a lot of people were impressed with the first one, but hopefully on this title they do a lot better and it becomes a big success because I think it will have to be for it to come back around after this next one. Once again Nintendo will have us waiting to see if this title will be a big hit or not.

WarioWare DIY

Nintendo really seems focused on user created content this year don’t they? With WarioWare, you can create your own minigame. This actually does look really cool. I doubt once again you’ll be able to make the minigame look like theirs but I still think its going to be very fun. Hopefully once again there will be a way to share your mini game.

Mario Galaxy 2

After Nintendo proclaimed their greatness. After their low point of the century, they picked it back up. Cammie came back out and this was a good choice for Nintendo. This looks like a very fun game. This looks very similar to the first game. They showed a lot of Mario riding on Yoshi’s back. So yeah, looks to be just like a new Mario game and this obviously shows that Nintendo hasn’t abandoned Mario.

Resident Evil: Darkside Chonicles

Reggie came back on stage and it was a good change. It shows the characters in a different light, Leone and Clair for example. It looks to be in a 3rd person view. This looks interesting, but the next title stole the cake for for the entire conference.

Metroid: The Other M

A big shocker at E3, Nintendo teamed up with Team Ninja to bring out the newest Metroid game. Obviously the prime series is over so they’ve had to go in a new direction. It’s going to be in 3rd person and obviously still a shooter. Looks like an interesting way to take the series. This really ended the Nintendo conference on a high.

Recap

Nintendo didn’t have a bad conference, but it wasn’t that great either. I will say they’ve made big improvements from last year but the Wii vitality disappointed me and the President of Nintendo just talking and talking and talking really made Nintendo take a hit. They made up for it with a lot of new title releases. Look for Nintendo to do better next year though as I hardly feel as if they’ve capped on what they can do for an E3 conference. I give them a B- for their for performance this year.

Until next time, Mgrigs’ signing out. 

 

Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 (Part 1) Microsoft Xbox 360 Review

 

The largest video game event of the year has had another landmark successful year. This year they did not allow the general public to attend the Expo, but the amount of press coverage has nearly doubled. Personally, I have enjoyed hearing about all the up and coming games, systems, and sometimes even software that deals with gaming. This year Microsoft blew me away with their press conference.

The Beetles: Rockband

They started off with showing off the stars that they brought along to E3 and to help announce The Beetles: Rockband, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Star. I think Microsoft’s statement was that Rockband was a major part of the Xbox360 and that even though Rockband isn’t exclusive to the 360, they will have content for the game that will be exclusive to the Xbox360. With this side release of Rockband, they added a new feature which allows you to include not one, but three different singers. Also with the release they will be letting out the instruments to play on which are replicas of the original instruments played by the Beetles, whether it’s Sir Paul McCartney’s trademark HÖFNER Bass, or Ringo Star’s drums with the classic black Oyster Pearl finish and Ludwig-Branded Beatles kick drum head. With the release date set for October 9th, 2009, keep an eye out for it because it’s just around the corner.

Tony Hawk’s Ride

During this part of the Press Conference, Tony Hawk himself came out to describe the game he has been helping to develop himself. Unlike the last time he put out a skateboard game, this time he brought a different type of controller. Like Guitar Hero and Rockband, he brought with him a full size skateboard controller, the only difference is that it has no wheels. This game will be fully controller through this controller which looks very promising. One of the keynotes from Hawk was the fact that the sensor is has will be able to pick up things like you going in to grab the board, or when you kick up the front or back end. The release date is set for Q4 of 2009, so expect something near Christmas.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2

Finally, a developer put on what everyone was waiting to see. Activision came onstage and said a few words, “Guys, we don’t have a lot of time, so were going to play and you guys are going to watch.” From the gameplay, it looked as though the game was still being run off the same engine. A few differences to the User Interface such as the radar actually being attached to your gun, although I don’t know if that will be there in Multiplayer. Also, you got to see the new dynamics they put in such as the ice climbing and being able to use a snowmobile (They demoed a snowy level in the campaign.) Activision did say that they will be releasing this game on November 10th of this current year and check here around that time because this is a game I will be reviewing.

Final Fantasy XIII

Square Enix came onto the stage and showed everyone what they wanted. Final Fantasy XIII working on the Xbox360. Another exclusive title that has been lost by Sony looked very impressive on the 360. Now the game is very similar to the version currently on the PS3, but they definitely made some changes to the game from things they didn’t like from the PS3 version. The game looks very impressive and the game is on the same engine as the PS3 so the graphics are very good. From the game play they showed, the city is very dark so this is a more modern Final Fantasy. The release date is unfortunately not confirmed, but speculation has it coming out in Q2 of 2010, so quite a bit away in terms of games to be released. Expect it to drop right before E3 2010.

Shadow Complex

It wouldn’t be a Microsoft E3 conference if Epic Games didn’t show up, and they did again revealing their Xbox Live Arcade title Shadow Complex. This side scrolling game is going to be run off of the Unreal 3 Engine. That means its the same engine that Gears of War and the current Unreal series is running off of. For a side scrolling game, the graphics are very good and especially for an Xbox Live Arcade game. Their were tons of dynamic things to the game such as shooting down power conduits to electrocute enemies as well as climbing up walls using a special gun. The game just looks really fun and interesting to play. This game will release in the U.S. on September 30th this year and looks to be very promising.

Joy Ride

A freebie coming to the Xbox Live Arcade is Joy Ride set to set to release during Q4 of this year. This is a racing game that includes your avatar. The game itself is definitely an Arcade looking game, but if it’s free there’s no reason not to pick it up. They only showed one track but I’m sure there’s more to it than that as well as you being able to pick from multiple cars and customize it in a few different ways. Like I said its free so there really isn’t anything wrong with it, although I felt that it was weird that Microsoft would use valuable time of their conference on this game.

Crackdown 2

After the Original game was a sleeper hit, this looks to be following suit. I know that a lot of people wanted to see more of this series after the first game, including me because I loved the first game. As to my knowledge, this was the first release of anything to do with Crackdown 2 but it was a great addition to the conference and the cinematic looked great. Not to much is known about the game yet other than its a continuation of the original Crackdown were your the judge, jury, and executioner in a full city environment. It isn’t going to be produced by Real Time Worlds but instead Ruffian Games will be doing the trick. Will have to wait and see how this turns out, but I hope they can pick up were Real Time Worlds left off and continue in the right direction.

Left 4 Dead 2

After Valve surprised everyone by making a hit for the Xbox360(it was no surprise that it was a hit for the PC) they’re coming back for another round. More fending off Zombies and trying to get away from massive hordes of them. The cinematic shown was very action packed and also quite comical and I think this game is going to try and capitalize off of the success of the first one. During November on the 17th this year is when this game will drop into stores and hit the shelves. This should be another fun addition to the Series. If they were able to make a zombie game that separated itself from other games, I don’t think they’re going to have problems making a sequel to the first one. This looks promising and when it hits the shelves come back here and look for an in depth game review of it.

Splinter Cell: Conviction

An Xbox360 exclusive, from the video they showed, the game seemed a little more action packed this time around; but, they did keep some of the sneaky parts around with things like sliding mirrors under doors to find out were the bad guys are and being able to kick doors in and immediately know were they are. It kept with the idea of you losing health very quickly which I was very excited to see that because I didn’t want to see Splinter Cell go into a more Run and Gun direction. Look for it this Christmas as it is supposed to hit shelves this December. Once again check back here for a review of the game as this is one of the bigger releases coming around this time.

Forza Motorsport 3

Wow, either someone at Microsoft Game Studios or Turn 10 entertainment really knows how to put together a video. This was a very good show they put on for this game, and it really appeals to me as racing games have been my favorite Genre of games. Some of the new features are mind boggling as because they have never been done before. In Forza Motorsport 2, they pushed the envelope with the physics engine, but in FM3, they’ve brought it to a whole new level. The game looks amazing and they have just done what looks to be an excellent job. Turn 10 and Microsoft were able to talk a lot about this game and give some great details. There will be over 400 vehicles from 50 different manufacturers, an In-Car view that Microsoft pioneered with Project Gotham Racing 3, a whole slew of new tracks that are real and fictional, and a mess of upgrades to the physics engine. As for it being a simulation, they took damage to a whole new level, cars are now able to roll if pushed to hard in a corner. Also, they’ve reworked the tire system to incorporate tires that have a high wall to roll over on itself making the car unstable. This is being released this October on the 22nd and I’ll be one of the first in line for this game. This will be a game I will be reviewing so check back often around that time as a whole slew of games are releasing around that time.

Halo 3: ODST

Halo fans rest assured that this was a Halo packed conference with not one, but two announcements about Halo. Multiple things were said about ODST at this conference as well as with interviews after the Microsoft conference. First, they’ve added a sort of night vision enemy finder visor that you can turn on as well as putting in a new Sub-Machine gun and a new pistol that is very reminiscent of the pistol from Halo: Combat Evolved. It retained the 2x scope and accuracy but this time around it’s silenced, so with the night vision and silenced weapons, it’s safe to say this is a more stealthy game. In turn, because your no long playing as a Spartan, you have no energy shields and your just set with a certain amount of health. The health packs in ODST are very similar to the health packs in Halo: Combat Evolved. With this release that are putting in a new multiplayer game style called Fire Fight. Basically, you and 3 other teammates linked over systems whether it be Xbox Live or system link fight off waves of Covenant until you kill the last wave with bosses. This game is confirmed for a September 30th, 2009 launch and looks very good, this will be another game that I will review and will have a pleasure doing it.

Halo: Reach

All we know about this game is that its called Halo: Reach, its a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved, and that it “Falls” 2010. This game will probably be a Q4 release and due to the “Falls” is going to be based off the book Fall of Reach. I could spend all day speculating, but I’m just glad Microsoft left us with something to keep looking for in a rumor mill.

Alan Wake

This looks to be very interesting. For those who haven’t heard already due to the leaks of rumors from E3, this is a psychological thriller that is supposed to take place like a TV series. It bases a lot of the game around ambience, lighting, and the atmosphere of the game itself. For instance in the game to shoot, you have to shine light on the target before your character will allow you to fire. Very interesting game structure that I haven’t seen in my time of gameplay.

360 Dashboard Upgrades

For everyone connected socially with the internet, you’ll be happy to know the FaceBook is coming to the Xbox360 dashboard, and oh yeah, Twitter as well. Pretty exciting news for all of us Hardcore gamers out there… With these upgrades, the U.K. is going to be able to watch TV through the Sky network out there. Not 100% on how that’s going to work but I’m sure they will release more information.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising

After Metal Gear Solid 4 was an exclusive title to PlayStation 3, Hideo Kojima came onstage during the conference and announced(in very bad English) that Metal Gear Solid: Rising was coming to the 360 and Raiden was making a return. Too bad that no gameplay was shown and that the cinematic only showed some lightning and the main character, although every other MGS game has been a hit so expect this one to be the same. Also look for some riots to form because of this. Sony fans are extremely upset from what I can tell by the comments they are leaving all over YouTube. Nevertheless this is going to broaden MGS and I think this is the right step for Konami.

“Project Natal”

Had this not been accidently leaked before E3 2009, I think this would have been the biggest surprise of this conference. Nevertheless, the trailer for it was really good. The trailer shows it as a full body motion sensor camera that controls games with no controller but by watching your movements. They had Steven Spielberg come out on stage which I found extremely random but whatever. I think he hit it head on when he said that Microsoft was not inventing the wheel with this project, but rather throwing it away. If it works, this is going to redefine the way people play games and widen gameplay to a whole new customer. I’m excited to see how this works out because in the Tech Demo’s it seemed very advanced and very good.

Recap

Overall, Microsoft had the best conference this year in my opinion. They really showed us what was up and coming for the rest of this year and it got me very excited for it. On a grade scale Microsoft deserves an A in all categories because it just blew me away. They did a very good job of grabbing former exclusive titles and bringing them to the 360 as well as keeping games exclusive to the 360. I wish them the best this year and look forward to seeing them again in L.A. next year.

Until next time, Mgrigs is signing off.

Game Review – Age of Empires III

One of the greatest Real Time Strategy (RTS) makers, Ensemble, has done it twice in a row now. With the release of multiple expansions to this game, Age of Empires 3 has done a magnificent job of adding on to the series and going beyond those of other RTS games. Don’t get me wrong, I love Elves, Orcs, and Space Marines, but there is just something about the idea of playing through real history that just makes this game scream to make me play it. Now in the original Age of Empires (AoE) had you conquer Rome, and AoE 2 you have “1000 years to lead your people through the Middle Ages,” but now its time to come to the New World and battle each other country for control of the America’s in the newest sequel to the Age of Empires series.

This game is amazingly fun as the two previous games and of course Age of Mythology. Now the question is why should I buy this game if I have Age of Empires 2. After playing this game since its release, I believe that there are multiple reasons to buy and play this game if your a fan of the series.

• First, there are a ton of new units to combat with since the advent the gun and cannon in this time period as well as the Industrial period taking place during this time.
• Second, the game seems to be slightly faster paced in the fact that you can create groups of units instead of one multiple times over again.
• Also, the ability to have your home country send you supplies is so much fun.
  • A new addition to AoE 3 is that as you level up your home city you are able to “customize” it, but also build a “deck” of cards that you can use in game to gain an advantage over your opponent.
• Plus, there is a a slight advance in the aesthetics and graphics, such as high resolutions for those of us who use widescreen monitors to test and play games. Also the use of anti-aliasing is sort of nice if your looking to just stair at the game instead of playing it.
• Additionally, the new maps that inherently were released as to supplement the new setting of the game itself.
• Finally, the addition of a Trade Route in every map that delivers free supplies of your choosing, whether it be food, coin, wood, or even experience.

One of the thing that I think separates this game from the Warcraft series is that every time you play a skirmish in multiplayer or single player, the map is always different even if you choose the same map every game. The terrain is the same, and the idea of the map is the same, but it randomizes it so that a player cannot just master the map and know exactly were to go every game. For example, in one of my favorite maps, “The Caribbean,” there are two islands that have the separate teams on them and another smaller Island with the trade route. Now this is the main idea of the map, but each different time you play it, it randomizes the location of the islands and were the forests and silver mines are. This is probably the best feature in AoE 3 is that it can randomize itself to make the game interesting every time you play it.

Now despite the differences it has against other RTS games, it still keeps true to its nature and has multiple different strategies to play from. In my opinion, the Rush-Boom is the most effective at this time. Especially on the maps that have massive amounts of water separating the two separate teams. For this to work the best, it requires that you play as the British due to their manor homes producing settlers as well as your town center. In this strategy, you quickly advance through the ages and build a dock as soon as possible and begin to purchase Galleons. As you begin to create them, move them to the other island and begin to make your army. Raid the enemies town and boom, you win the game. Online, I’m able to use this strategy to 1v2 and sometimes 1v3 people depending on how skillful the opponents are. As for the classic turtle, in this game it’s broken to be honest. With the limit on outposts (towers) the turtle fails to defeat armies that are sent after you, and trying to wall off enough resources to last the game is just two slow especially against the British Rush-Boom. As for the straight boom, it is effective on large maps with multiple teammates to protect you. 

The Home city is a fun little addition to the game giving it a sort of RPG feel. The more you play the game, you gain experience in the game, hence the RPG feel. With this experience you level up and gain customizations to your city as well as points to buy cards for your deck. Upgrades to your city have no effect on the game play itself, but it is fun you get all the additions to the city. Currently, my highest city is with the British and its at level 33. Here’s a picture for those wondering.

The last addition that made a huge difference to the game was the deck of cards you could bring to a game. Whether it was upgrades to your buildings, changes to the ship cap limit, or free units being shipped to your Home City, they provided advantages for you to choose from. The ability to level up and buy new and different cards made this very interesting, and having only 20 cards in a deck also makes it difficult to decide which cards are going to be the best to take into the map your playing on. The deck also helps with the strategy your trying to play. With the British Rush-Boom I described earlier, it helps to have the Admiralty card and the 2 Monitor cards in the deck to have a bigger fleet and to have more monitors than you should. Should the original rush fail, having a larger fleet to control them building a dock to stop you is a plus and its also extremely easy to control your opponent when your stomping on them with 5 monitors using the long range cannon ability to crush their inland buildings.

If you don’t like RTS games, this game is obviously isn’t for you, but if you play Warcraft 3, StarCraft, Company of Heroes, or any other RTS games, you should give this game a try. Luckily for you, Ensemble will let you download a demo of the game to give it a try before you decide whether or not to buy it. Here's the Link.

Link to Demo for Age of Empires III provided by Ensemble.

Until next time, Mgrigs is signing out.

Alienware. Worth it?

There are many reasons to buy a professionally built computer. Some people prefer a high end machine and others prefer the economic version to suit there minimal needs. For some of us who play video games though, the higher end personal computers are much more attractive. Whether it be the casing it is housed in or just the hardware inside, the high end machines like the Alienware ALX X58, a Falcon Northwest Mach V or the VoodooHP Blackbird are just what we need. There is one slight problem though, the cheapest one being the Blackbird cost $1,500 USD. Now, your paying for labor in these machines, but how much are you really being charged for said labor? As a forewarning, all numbers in the post are USD currency and are subject to change. Anyone looking to use these same parts should do the research themselves, as this is just a baseline.


Alienware ALX 58
The standard Alienware ALX X58 will cost you a staggering $3,699 USD. The most notable parts being the Intel® Core™ i7-940 running at 2.93 GHz with an 8MB Cache, one 1,792 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 295, and 3GB DDR3 SDRAM performing at 1600MHz. Since Dell acquired Alienware in 2006 they have been able to buy computer components in massive quantities, and rightfully so, prices have come down on these high end systems, believe it or not. The question is though, if you were to acquire all of these parts and assemble them yourself, how much would you save? Lets list them out.

"All parts are of equal performance to the ones inside said machine."

The XFX GTX 295 will run you $529.99, while the Intel Core i7-940 CPU will set you back $559.99. The set of 3 sticks of Patriot Viper SDRAM DDR3 will put you back only $79.99. Wow, so for the three main components, we've only been set back a third of the price. The ASUS Motherboard that seems to be a perfect fit cost $229.99 and the two hard drives adding up to 1TB of storage space will cost 139.98. A 1200W PSU from from Thermaltake cost $400.00, but in my opinion, this is way to much power needed for this system. Without Tri-SLI, this computer will never suck down enough power, but for the sake of being scientific, we'll go by the books and get exactly what you would with Alienware. Now funny thing here, Alienware requires you to purchase a gaming mouse and keyboard. Gone are the days when they just send you two pieces of junk and you bought your own separately. What I'm saying is, Alienware is requiring me to buy a peripheral that I haven't touched and isn't that the point of a peripheral? With the basic model of the X-58, A Logitech G-15 is included and costs about $80.00 and the RAZER Lachesis costs another $79.99. Now by this point, anyone with any knowledge of a computer is going, "What the Hell? What am I gonna put this thing in a shoebox?" Your right, but Alienware doesn't just sell there cases out to anyone. So a quick stop by eBay has them selling an Alienware P2 Full Tower(the commonly used and sold case for a ALX X-58) at $250.00. Now without tax or shipping(Alienware shows the retail price before both as well), this seriously only costs $2349.93. By ordering the parts, separately you save $1349.07, or enough to go out and buy a nice 1993 Ford Mustang with a 5 litre 8 cylinder engine, AND STILL HAVE MONEY LEFT OVER. This is a no brainer for anyone out there that doesn't have a trust fund. Go online, find a guide on how to build a computer step by step and save yourself the money.

Falcon Northwest Mach V
Falcon Northwest, known best for there amazing flash based website and rediculously cool hand painted cases, actually seem to be worth the cost. To the best of my knowledge, Falcon Northwest is privately owned, and this has drawbacks but at the same time had advantages. First, because they are privately owned, they provide better customer service, for example, they want to talk over the phone before you purchase the machine you built from their website to make sure your getting exactly what you want. There is only one drawback, as being privately owned, they can't tap into a massive pool of capital like Alienware can and buy massive amounts of part in bulk. This may, although not confirmed, drive up the price of their parts.

Now, to go over the prices again would bore you, the gist of this Machine is that it will cost you about $4,900.00, but that includes the custom paint job of your choice. Although, the case painting costs you near $1,000.00, but the main reason you buy a Falcon Northwest in my eyes is to get a custom paint job that looks bad ass that you can show off to your friends and brag about at local LAN tournaments. Obviously, you can't just order a case from them, that would hurt there sales. You end up saving about the same amount of money as you did with the Alienware and same with the VoodooHP Blackbird. It seems for these companies to stay in Business they must overcharge, which I guess is just business as usual these days.

My advice to anyone reading is to go out there, and seriously consider building your own personal computer. For myself, I did it, and I couldn't be happier. I've been using this computer I'm sitting on right now to game and I still haven't had any major problems. OK I switched to Vista, but other than that, no problems! Save yourself a ton of money if your going to purchase a high end machine and build it yourself.

Until next time, Mgrigs is signing off.

Hrm? Haomarush? Not again surely...

So some back story, as your probably wondering what I'm talking about. When I originally started playing World of Warcraft, I switched servers constantly never going over level 15 on any one server. Finally, when the group I started playing with did settle down, we decided for the server Haomarush playing on the Alliance side. I of course as I've stated before played a Warlock. Me being the fastest leveling character in the group left them in the dust and I started playing with people my level. Any who, that's a walk down memory lane that I should discuss later with you. To the original point, after the server basically died because the best guild, and the second best alliance guild (i.e. the guild I was a CoGM) transferred off the server to Kil'Jaeden and Black Dragonflight respectively. Hence the "Not again surely..." But this is different this time, I'm sure of it. I know, your wondering how can going back to the server you despised be different. It's because I'm ditching Stormwind and going to Orgrimmar. Yep, I've rolled horde.



Why you might ask? Simply for the fact that I have good old fashioned hordie friends who still play on Hao, and real life friends and family have recently transferred there. Finally, I'm shedding the loneliness of a Warlock on some random server. Yes, I'm leaving behind some good friends on Black Dragonflight, but even they have recently started rolling horde on different servers. Anyways, he next few blogs I'll be posting are going to be about leveling as horde, and playing through the different content that is has to offer. So enough blabbing, lets get some good old fashioned reactions to the zones I've played in so far.

Tirisfal Glades

So for those that don't know The Glades is the starting zone for Undead. I hit level 6 and went off to Brill. As I arrived, a ton of question marks were popping up all over my minimap. But I didn't stop, I was on a mission to hit up Durotar. It's not just me who really dislikes the darkness of the zone. Also, Durotar is a much easier zone to quest in and lessens the travel to the Barrens.

Durotar

Home of Orgrimmar and starting zone for the Trolls and Orcs. I skipped going to Org and went straight to Razer Hill, but when I got there I realized I only had one yellow quest to do. How could this be?! Well I then realized that I would have to head down to Sen'Jin village. Durotar in my opinion other than Eversong Woods might be the best starting questing zone. The quests are relativity bunched together and the mobs aren't too difficult to take down. The barren look it has is such a contrast from the lush forests of Elwynn and the snowy plains of Dun Morogh. I must admit, I do like the Alliance starting zones better, but Durotar isn't far behind.

The Barrens



Ahhhh! The dreaded Barrens general chat... Actually seeming as how Wrath of the Lich King has come out and Ulduar just released, not many people are leveling. It's quite nice, no respawn timers, no craptastic Chuck Norris jokes, no terribad your mom jokes either. As for the quest, Crossroads is filled with them and most of them consist of go kill X for X amount of items. The mobs are easy to kill and the rewarded amount of experience seems to be worth doing them. Being a longtime player, as you and I expected these zones won't give me a problem, but as I progress into the more advanced content of the 30's and 40's I'm quite excited to see how it differs from the Alliance content.

So, as I was running out of easy quests to do at the Crossroads I decided to head over to Ratchet to see what was up at the Goblin HQ of The Barrens. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the quests were just as easy here. I'm beginning to wonder how the Horde "noobs" at 70/80 kicked the Alliance "noobs" ass at bg's. It's quite obvious to me now that they don't get any special training at the low levels. Maybe Orcs just have some sense of battle or maybe its the goddamn racials they had when the best one we had was 5 expertise to swords! Sidetracked again... Well, that about sums up what I've been able to do in my side time.

Keep checking back for my next update! Mgrigs signing off.

World of Warcraft - Patch 3.1.0 (Part 1)

Well, it's finally here... World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King Patch 3.1.0 Secrets of Ulduar. This patch has been hyped up and in the works for a while now, promising many things. Hundreds of changes minor or major have been made to the game for the purposes of balancing classes, making the game tougher, and even making the game more enjoyable.

Heres the question nagging in the back of the minds of those who have "taken a break" or "quit." Was it worth waiting for? I mean, for all intents and purposes, a patch is basically a miniature expansion for the main game. It adds new content that is supposed to appeal to players and keep them from setting the game down and picking up a new game. So what I'm saying is that WotLK was an exspanion we all waited for during the Burning Crusade, and well, hell I've been bored since. So to answer the previous question effectively, it's best to anaylze the updates, and personally ask ourselves if this is what we wanted.

I myself have been playing a Warlock for three years, raiding for 2 and a half, and actively leading and organizing major raids for the past year, prior to the expansion and transfer of course. So, the main things that are important to me are updates to the Warlock class, the major general changes, and changes to raiding/end game content. So lets take a crack and list and grade as we go.

-Raiding/End Game Content Changes-

Raid Dungeon - Ulduar

Now, I haven't gotten the time to blast into the instance guns blazin'... yet, so my knowledge is based off of what other people have said. The content was "supposed" to take much longer to clear through, but it is hard to compare anything to it. 11 of the 14 bosses have a "hard" mode to them. That is, the abillity to change the encounter difficulty by doing the main pull differently. The best way to explain for those who do not understand is by explaining the Sartharion fight.

While clearing the trash, there are three minor drakes that have a significant ammount of health (depending on the ammount of people in the raid) and are usually killed before pulling the boss. This is called Sarth-0 Drake.This is the easiest and most basic encounter of the fight. Now, if you decided to pull the boss without killing the drakes, that would be Sarth-3 Drake, or the "hard" mode of the encounter.

Now, in Ulduar, they have put 11 of these bosses in as I have said before, allowing you to change the difficulty, and from what I've been able to deduce, going through the instance with the basic pull is, decently difficult seeming how Yogg was downed yesterday. Congratulations to Ensidia a from a EU server named Magtheridon by the Way. I mean it took SK-Gaming 2 hours to clear Sunwell when it was released. Overall, I think they did a nice job turning up the heat on end game content. I'll be into it more this weekend, and get back to it.

-Warlock Class Changes-



Affliction PvE Warlocks were hit hard, but it's yet to be seen as an improvement or nerf. They basically took out 2 DoTs from our rotation, but added the abillity for DoTs to crit. In my oppinion, they took our identity of being a DoT class seeming as how a shadow priest has a rotation like ours now. Oh, did I mention that when WotLK was released, they tried to strip warlocks of the Shadowbolt spam DPS, and now they five us an incinerate spam spec that seems to DPS the best? WTF!!!!! Overall, Blizzard screwed this one up bad for affliction warlocks, guess I'm respeccing back to Destro... oh wait Dual specs... I can't even rank this im so perplexed by this that... I need to stop talking about this before I get angry. :)

-Dual Speccing-

So for a small fee of 1000 gold, you can purchase the abillity to switch speccs for free between two different specs. Sounds great, except for, it seems kind of worthless for us "pure" classes who don't respec to tank one day, and heal or dps another. Now, if you raid and PvP, its a no brainer to get, I used to blow through about 400-500g a week back in Season 4 respeccing for raids and then respeccing again to do 2v2s in the 1900 bracket. So right now, I'm giving this a solid "upgrade" to the game, no matter how you play, it will affect you in some way.

-General Changes to the Game-

-Vanity Pets-

So I've been collecting these for god knows how long, before the expansion was released, I had my 50 achievement. I got my skunk, which I was unimpressed with and kept asking myself,"why the hell would I have this out when I've got 25 better ones?" But now they've added about 21 new pets, so seeming as these will be easy to get, I'll be able to get the last pet achievement I know of and get the Salt Lick. This, sadly enough for me, is a "MAJOR UPGRADE" to the game. This'll give me something to do for a day or two...

Well, I'm running out of time here and this is becoming monstrous, just the like patch. So heres part 1, expect more to come in the following days.

Good Luck! Mgrigs signing off.

World of Warcraft - Status Update

Quite recently, I have taken a break from playing World of Warcraft. While the game has been fun for the past three years that I have been playing, it seems to have lost that factor with me. A lot of people have asked why and I've had to give them very non detailed answers, so here goes a few major reasons for my hiatus.

1. I had recently transferred off a small server were I was very well known and had "pull" with a lot of people. As being a high ranking officer in the best alliance guild, I was pretty well respected by everyone. As for raiding, I was one of the best geared and highest dpsing warlocks on the server. A large part of our guild decided to transfer off when recruitment went stale and people kept quitting the game. I eventually followed a week or two after only to find that everyone had joined separate guilds.




2. Wrath of the Lich King - The expansion that was highly anticipated turned out to be a cakewalk in raiding, and a completely unbalanced PVP system were DK-Pally rules the brackets. There was one thing that kept me playing, and it was leveling characters. Going from 70-80 was the only thing relatively close to the Burning Crusade. I say this because raiding in Burning Crusade, the game was difficult when you raided, Karazhan used to be hard, with Serpent Shrine Cavern, killing Vashj made you want to quit, Archimonde being the same way in Hyjal. Now though, the end game content was cleared within a month of it coming out, and even though PVP wasn't completely balanced in Burning Crusade, it wasn't as out of control as it is now.



To wrap this up, I feel the game has been geared more towards the casual player, even though there base, and most devoted fans have a mindset more geared to the hardcore play style. Gold is easy to make, gear is easy to get, PvE is a breeze, and PvP is unbalanced, but I guess I should take advantage of it before they change it and I'm left behind.

Hopefully, the new patch will fix most of this, with the release a new end game instance is coming out called Ulduar, and it will be on the same difficulty scale of how the Burning Crusade used to be. I'm back off to Azeroth, until next time...

Good Luck, Mgrigs Signing off.

Left 4 Dead Game Review

So, Left 4 Dead is a Valve/Steam game, that was released in Q4 of 2008. It runs off the Source engine, so I was somewhat skeptical of the game thinking,"Oh this is just going to be another Half Life 2 or Counter-Strike: Source." Wow was I wrong. The game does remind me a lot of Counter-Strike source, the cross hairs are exactly the same, and it is running off the same engine, but excise both of those, and you've got a completely new game with an old idea that is just fun to play. From the massive hordes of zombies to the interactive AI that judges your skill, its a fun shoot em up with tactical play involved. It doesn't require a super quick reaction time or the skill to place a headshot, only the ability to be a team player, with either three computer AIs or 3 other players linked through a dedicated Valve server. Now, an interesting part of the game that they added in was while moving through the acts, you would get upgraded weapons, which was amazingly fun, seeming as how a pump shotgun or weak SMG would only get you through a few zombie hordes mauling your face off. All and all, the game was fun to play through, and the game, and its not just a game you play through once, I keep wanting to pick it up with different friends and try different strategies.

Good Luck! Mgrigs signing off.