Not bad 44/50

I just finally finished Borderlands with my buddy Capo today; its been over 2 months since i've first got it, and i'd have a lvl 50 by now, but I love multiplayer and no one has Borderlands.. my buddy, my brother .. and thats it. Online, atleast over a month ago, it was easy to find a game, but it was laggy.

It makes sense for boss fights to have larger and larger bosses.

Enjoyed:

- the different kind of graphics for the game; more of a comic book feel

- the gazillion guns, Gearbox wasn't kidding, there are tons of guns

- unique characters to play

- fast travel and cars; who doesn't love making bandits and monsters roadkill?

- cheap ammo; b/c no one likes running out of it

- cheap respecs; like 1% of your cash

- vending machines of ammo/health/weapons; especially the time limited deals

- monsters spawn from the ground, and humanoids spawn from doors; it makes sense

- it is challenging; you can't always go gun blazing, but be methodical

- playing with friends, especially 4 players is amazing

Disliked:

- the map; cumbersome and no mini map.. what game doesn't have a mini map these days??

- quest tracker; only able to track one at a time beh

- hard to solo and not much fun alone

- buggy rockets; splash damage doesn't always work, and rockets don't always hit monsters, but fly through them

Replayability: medium - only if you have friends to play with, you can make the game last; if it wasn't for my buddy, and he's a hardcore gamer, I would not have finished the game or picked up the game anymore.

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Lets talk about Modern Warfare 2 now...

Approximately: lvl 38ish

Recently acquired: tactical knife for pistol

Recently loving: tactical knife for pistol

Weapon of choice in match of 40 kills: tactical knife for pistol

Lol; it all stemmed from one deathmatch in the Estate map (the one with a cottage at the top of a hill and it's backyard has a greenhouse. There was an enemy that knifed 3 of us in 2 seconds. Normally you melee, wait 2 seconds and melee again. The tactical knife allows you to knife very fast.

Current Setup

Primary Weapon: Silenced P90

Secondary Weapon: USP .45 with tactical knife attachment

Equipment: Semtex (for riot shield guys)

Special grenade: Flash (to blind them = easy stabbing)

Perk 1: Marathon Pro (the running)

Perk 2: Cold Blooded Pro (the sneakiness)

Perk 3: Commando Pro(lunging) or Ninja Pro(Extra sneakiness)

Greatest strength: no one likes getting knifed.. especially by a sneaky person

Greatest weakness: I rather knife than shoot.. even if you're facing me; and ill chase you across the map if you don't see me, just to knife you, where its faster to shoot you ;)

My brother was playing on saturday for 8+ hours though and got the Red light of death... freaked the hell out of me; thankfully... my system still works... for now..

Coming up

Toronto Anime Con @ the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (i believe) the weekend of December 11-13th! Can't wait! :D

I personally never played Bioshock too much as I am easily scared with horror/suspense games/movies, but this is some very cool cosplay:

Found from Kotaku

Added Iamstillwater blog :)

Missed

I missed this vid.. amazing.. I didn't think the characters(from the game) would look like that..

Video Games Dragon Age: Origins Sacred Ashes Trailer

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

Favorite moments

Not much time for anything these days.. hard to focus on one thing alone.. Its almost December!

Anyways.. I gave in.. altitus has won the battle and i've created my female Dalish elven trap setting dual wielding rogue/duelist(mouthful!) in Dragon Age Origins. The elven mage I made originally and that is surprisingly been played for 35 hours (!!!!) doesn't even seem to be done yet, and though very powerful at the beginning, his power seems to wane at higher lvls. My rogue is made to set traps as nothing is more satisfying than watching a baddie die from a leg clamp trap. She's also made to do a ton of backstab damage, but when drawing too much agro, goes into duelist mode and possibly does even more damage! Rogues ftw!

Found at Arewenewatthis:

I love Shale... but don't like his basic armament..

I'm really enjoying the rigors of being evil in Dragon Age.. trapped prisoners, sick dogs, surrendering enemies, and dying werewolves all feel by cold uncaring blade.

Urge to make an alt.. RISING..

So its been over a week since the day of infamy:

I've been playing a bit of Specc Ops with my best friend Hunter and its fun.. but multiplayer is where it's at (I suck at SO as well). Whats odd, I get a 1:1 to 1.5:1 or even better kill ratio when i just play with him, but when I play with my brother and his friends, I am normally 1:3-4.. my brother dominates.. he's always atleast 2:1 if not 4:1.

I'm not doing it right. lol

I am having alot of fun using my riot shield.. shield bash! whoomp! Last game, someone threw a sticky semtex grenade and stuck to my shield, so i just ran at that person and it resulted in an assisted suicide.. sweetness..

Its hard to stop playing, and there are so many good games right now; this, Left for Dead 2, my Heroes 5 expansion, and Dragon Age (doesn't look like it'll ever end).

The Survival Guide

There shall be no reviews of Modern Warfare on this site..
Yessss....
Except i'd like to point out:
- how extremely hard the campaign feels (I play on normal mode and get spanked frequently)
- multiplayer seems alot faster-paced than the previous

I'd like to file a complaint to Infinity Ward:
Why do you keep 'balancing the groups' by putting all the lvl 50's in the other team? We're all pug'ing ... so like 1 lvl 50 in one group and the other in the other.. the only time people have premades is when you're in the same clan. Every game, i'm against people at a minimum of 10-30 lvls higher than me (you play too much lol). The only consolation is that if i'm not dead last, as one of the lowest ranked people playing, i'm kicking someone's butt. Balancing is terribleeeee... fix it. (they won't)

So I saw this advertised on Kotaku the other day:

http://kotaku.com/5399483/how-to-survive-a-trip-to-gamestop

As a former senior keyholder at EB, ill comment:

Yes, the consoles are dirrrrrrrrty, never touch them. Too late? Go get yourself checked and wipe the slime off.

We aren't idiotic store clerks.. do you want to hold in your hand the box and see what the game looks like, the specs, and price? There are a surprising huge amount of people that aren't like me; I go to the store knowing exactly what i want, I don't even want to pretend i'm interested in anything else. Gimme gimme. But I may still want to check the box for the price and maybe the required speccs.
At the same time, sometimes Marketing doesn't provide enough materials to properly display the games, so we gotta use the originals. It's called impact marketing, so people see that you have a specific game and draws your eye. Why put a row of the same title instead of 1? What happens if someone puts the game in some obscure place?

EB pre-orders seems to be better these days, with special in game, items, characters and bonuses (ie. MUA2 Juggernaut, DAO: Golem quest), or even discounts. I would be grateful these days if someone told me of a special promo for a popular game for pre-ordering. I'm gonna buy the game anyways, and I only have to put 5$ down.

The Edge Card does save money on used games; and as long as its not super scratched, you're saving anywhere between 2-7 dollars.. which you can use to buy the warranty.
Warranties all depends on whether you'll play it for a long time and whether you'll treat your game with care, but i notice even with my games, they get nicked a bit and worse thing is to have a craving to play a game and can't b/c it's scratched.

We'd prefer not to rush to your face and ask you if you need help, but if you're from hq and we don't, we get sh!t. We don't get paid much, the turn-over is high, there is alot of work we gotta do and customers are obnoxious, lazy, ignorant, cheap (how could i forget that one?), and time consuming (20-30 calls whether you have a Wii, or asking for the trade in value of 10+ games). Add having to meet sales quotas, staying possibly till 2 for inventory nights and customers that comes 1 minutes before close and staying for half an hour and buying some cheapo game. And you wonder why there is a picture like:

So even if you've had a bad experience at Gamestop, just think that these are human beings too that take alot of crap and if they seem a bit distracted, it might be from one of those many reasons. Smile, be friendly and they'll realize the chipmunk cheeks they have and smile back.

Fighting the urge

To make an alt... ooo...

Taking out your first ogre.

Recently finished: Circle of Magi main questline
Currently working on: Getting the dwarves to join the war against the Blight
Class: Elven mage, Spirit healer/Arcane Warrior specced
Current party members: Leliana (specced bard/ranger), Alistair (specced templar/champion), Iggy (doggie with nice 30% physical resist paint)

Get the storage chest for your camp; its soooo helpful
http://biobreak.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/mondays-good-bad-and-ugly/
Now I can save the money I used for increased backpack space and spend it on something else pretty like tomes that give stat boosts

If you want money, do those side quests. You get it as a reward, but I don't think you get bonus exp for completing it (like mmos); you do get the exp from the kills to complete it.

If you want a healer besides Morrigan, you can get Wynne from the Circle of Magi, BUT you have to do the whole questline to do it (may take quite a while), but if you're going there first, then all the power to you.
You'll save massive amts of health poultices with the heal spell.. i currently have 40+ and in one area, i was using them with reckless abandon b/c i was overweight ;)

Talking about the Circle of Magi, there isn't many item drops, but there are some very nice permanent stat boost shrines (around 5/6) instead.

Its all smokey in the fade (kinda like an evil dream land)

Interesting: when you turn into an arcane warrior, all the gear that had a strength requirement, now has a magic requirement instead! So you can wear that plate armor without problems... except for the huge fatigue restrictions (which make spells require more magic)

Needed Improvement:
The ability to see more easily what are the rewards you recv from quests

It will say: 'Item Received'

Looking in your inv you can tell whats new by a flashing outline of the icon of the item you recv, but if you haven't looked at your inv in a while, alot will be flashing.

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Tactics tactics tactics..
Without them, your npcs will not be using their abilities,
nor will they heal themself or do things smartly

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As a master shifter(mage) you can turn into a beaskarn.. a corrupt bear ;)

There are lots of npcs..
some are good, some are evil, they seem mostly good tho
i haven't played Sten, he's supposed to be a murderer.. but seems to have a sense of honor.. i guess just like Zevran.. but Sten sounds like he'd opt to do the good deed than the bad
We had an actual convo that went something like this: "why arent' you killing the archdemon, huh huh? you're wasting my time Grey Warden" ... so complainey!

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Still haven't found out how screenshots work correctly..

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The updater is buried in the install folder... silliness

Honor

I admire, remember and honor those that gave their lives for us and for those protecting us today.

Rest in peace brothers and sisters.

Party of Four

**Dragon Age: Origins Spoiler Warning**

Last things i've done in DAO: retrieved the Urn of Ashes
Currently travelling with: Alistaire my sword&board templar, Shale my defensive tank golem (ty 'free' dlc), Leliana my archer-but-i'd-rather-melee-all-the-time bard (she's only around b/c she can lockpick)
Must remember to: press the H button to allow my members to move after i've positioned them correctly and have agro-ed a room full of baddies, otherwise they just stare and wave at baddies as they cut me down

Rawr and stuff

The Good and Great things of DAO

Vast party selection - duck duck duck ..goose!
- i'm hoping for more, but currently, there is your human templar(warrior), human shapeshifter(mage), elven assassin (rogue), human bard(rogue), dog, golem (dlc), male qunari warrior; i'm guessing there should be atleast 1 or two dwarves.. maybe a healing mage.. or a pure archer (the bard kinda is)


Crafting - is smitten with delight
- it makes sense, its simple (you need 1 of this, this this, and you get this), no need for a certain skill number( 1,2,3,4....etc), but a skill lvl (basic, advanced expert, master); merchants carry the materials you need and not at an unlimitd supply (except flasks) to not make the game easy; i haven't played as a trap maker yet, so I dunno about those materials

Finishing moves - Finish him!
- baddies don't always just limply fall to the ground after the last attack that drops their health to zero, they might cut them up a few more times or slice the head clean off

Puzzles - Thinking hurts
- interesting puzzles, not too simple like marvel ultimate alliance 2 (move something here), you have the puzzle like this: ****


Gifts - If you want unconditional love get a dog.. oh wait you can!
- you pick up gifts you can give to your party members which will increase your influence with them (i dunno the impact it has right now), its a cool idea which sometimes opens up special dialogue sequences

Skills - Taste the rainbow
- there are so much to do when one lvls, increase your stat points, add a class skill (coercion, trap making, combat training), add a class talent (a spell, fighting skill); for my mage, i will have to play it a few times, or play with Morrigan, otherwise i won't get to see all the spells! there are far too many

Graphics - insert snappy comment here
- looks great; i was expecting neverwinter nights type of graphics... this looks fantastic.. tho the blood specks that appear .. ALL THE TIME.. is a bit unnerving.. we are too lazy to wipe it off :P

Stability - Like a rock!
- only 1 crash so far; knock on wood, and logical autosaves

Shale.. he reminds me of evil Rhinox from Beasties

Sandboxy - Without the sand in bad places
- freedom to do whatever you like within the confines of the main storyline; sure there IS a main quest line, but there are tons of side quests


The Bad and sometimes Ugly

Screenshots - I iz snap-happy
- my kingdom for screenshots (how can i keep your attention without them?)... i dunno what is the reason for auto screenshots for certain areas of the game (ill need to turn that off), but when pressing my hotkey for a screenpint *cough* print screen... it doesn't work.. but it worked once..


Skill Usefulness - a confused panda
- the jury is still out whether all skills are useful; survival: i haven't used it yet with a main char/teammate.. don't see the benefit..; i liked how in NWN2 expansion Storm of Zehir, if one person was better at talking than others and NOT the leader, you can choose the speaker to talk instead; i don't think thats the case with DAO

Camera - Half a sad panda
- its good, but also cumbersome sometimes (at the slight point between over the shoulder and overhead it'll cause you to pause), but sometimes it works correctly

User interface - One full sad panda
- the health, mana and stamina bars are TOO small and thin, at the beginning i couldn't tell even how much health i had and even at 15+ hours into the game, i have to concentrate more on the health bars than the actual gameplay

Puzzle difficulty - Brb Panda is looking for the answer online
- one puzzle i encountered was extremely hard, even if i really concentrated and took notes, it would take me quite a while to figure it out (i just searched on the forums)

First time around, this orge was too hard to kill... so I decided just to kite it... silly ogre..

Quest rewards - Everyone likes money.. .. i guess..
- from side quests, i've found you always get money and nothing extra; i'd like to see like in any mmo a choice of item reward; atleast it seems that when you do main quests, the npcs know you're a mage and gives you a mage staff (and hopefully when i'm a rogue, they'll give you a dagger or armor)

Alot of side quests - It just keeps coming, i can't look away!
- alot alot.. overwhelming all the time.. but atleast it gives you things to do and a way to get money

So many goodies

Heroes 5 expansion (pc), Borderlands, Dragon Age, (expiring sub) Aion, NFS Shift..
And there 'is' RL we have too!
So little time.

As a fellow blogger, you'd understand; the time you spend blogging could be spent playing the freaking amazing game.. the name: Dragon Age :)

Lots of great great things about this game (got the pc version by the way; and very happy with that), I honestly don't remember Baldur's Gate too much besides Minsc and Boo and not getting too far in that game. A few things that are odd (map, health bars, camera). But as a quickie review, its going to be one of the best games i'll play in a long time.

Can't find the folder with screenshots, but when I find it, ill post them :)

Torn

I knew I forgot something when driving home from work today:
Dragon Age: Origins came out today!

Time is flying by! I thought it would be out in another week or so.. guess not.

Lots of reviews all over:
At Kotaku
or
Gametrailers

Video Games Dragon Age: Origins Review HD

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

My main concern right now is whether I should get it for the PC or the 360..
Either the better control (i'm guessing) from the pc or the achievements (feed my unlock addiction!!) that I gain from the 360.. hard decision. An rpg game like DAO where you control more than one party member probably needs the precise control that only a PC can provide. But the achievements!!! Mass Effect played surprisingly well on the 360.. granted it was more of a shooter.. but this is more fantasy based.. hmmm..

I demand more achievements! (actually i want to play Borderlands some more)

Note to self: Mordern Warfare 2 in exactly 1 week.

What else? Borderlands

Heavens forbid I talk about anything BUT Borderlands until Modern Warfare 2 comes out.. lol

I like the map how it shows you where certain things are, such as vehicle stations, shops, etc. What Gearbox could have done to improve on the map was to have a mini map or a transparent map like in Aion (see, Aion DID do some good things lol). When I played multiplayer with my brother and we're driving around, I have to have my map pulled up so we can see where we're going; which defeats the point of letting me shoot from the gunnery pod.

Word of note, you can respec from this station; very cheap respec cost.. its like.. 5% of your cash, its nothing.

Just a pretty sight... well.. unique.. big skeleton face over there ;)
See how it says Treacher's Landing to the left? Thats a quick transit spot, that takes you to an instanced area for your quests.

What a rewards screen looks like after you complete a quest. I love the color scheme (and if i was more html inclined, i'd do something about this site..).. it shows how much money you received (tho most money comes from selling guns), experience and usually to the right of xp is any special gear you get from it (no choice of rewards tho... as far as i see)