Same band as I posted about before, City Sleeps. This song has been on almost constant repeat the last 2 days.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
More Conan plus other stuff
Well I did end up getting Conan to run, but the catch is that it HAS to be on the highest graphics settings or nothing shows up, and that makes it lag pretty fiercely, which turns me off of any game. The game itself is pretty fun, I must admit, but I don't think I will keep playing it at this point, because the constant lag. The game definitely has some cool ideas and pulls them off, for the most part, pretty well.
I'm not sure if another MMO is the game I am looking for right now anyway. I started playing Wakfu, which is the "sequel" to Dofus, and it's not bad. It's still in an early stage but it is pretty fun. I can't go into much detail due to the NDA, however, so I'll move on.
I found a new band that's been getting a lot of playtime in my room, "City Sleeps." The song 'Prototype' is killer.
Been procrastinating getting started on my next chapter, hmm, and I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to write already, so that's always nice. I just need to find time to actually do it.
Well I guess that's it for now.
I'm not sure if another MMO is the game I am looking for right now anyway. I started playing Wakfu, which is the "sequel" to Dofus, and it's not bad. It's still in an early stage but it is pretty fun. I can't go into much detail due to the NDA, however, so I'll move on.
I found a new band that's been getting a lot of playtime in my room, "City Sleeps." The song 'Prototype' is killer.
Been procrastinating getting started on my next chapter, hmm, and I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to write already, so that's always nice. I just need to find time to actually do it.
Well I guess that's it for now.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Age of Conan
I wish I could say more about this game but apparently my computer doesn't get along with it, and instead of controlling a savage conqueror, all I can control is a floating disembodied beard.
Also, the ground textures don't load and all I see is sky and water.
Great way to waste $50..
Also, the ground textures don't load and all I see is sky and water.
Great way to waste $50..
Thursday, June 19, 2008
World of Warcraft...
Since March 2004 when I was invited to the Closed Beta, my relationship with Blizzard's monstrous MMORPG has been, to say the least, rocky. I haven't played every single day since it came out, but the majority of my time has been put into the game for the last several years. But why? In truth, I really fucking hate this game. I really do. It's too much of a timesink, it's a bunch of rep-grinding, repetitive bullshit, and it's not nearly as revolutionary as people like to say it is (at least in certain aspects.) It's really POLISHED, but I wouldn't say anything about it is necessarily amazing or revolutionary.
I will try to break down the game as best as I can, because this has been building up for years.
When you start playing WoW, from the moment you make your first character and you see the little cutscene that flies through the starting area of whichever race you picked, and you hear that disembodied voice explaining the backstory of you, your character, you know this game is going to be something else. Everything is streamlined so well in this game, the quests give you great EXP, and there is very rarely a shortage on quests. Look at almost every korean/free MMO out there, it is mostly grinding. You just sit in a field and kill monsters over and over with no real purpose or objective, other than filling your EXP bar a little bit more with each kill. True, the quests in WoW are mostly stupid, eg. Go collect 10 apples, or go slay 7 bats, etc. But the fact they are there is something.
The game remains consistently fun and enthralling while you level up. The only real frustrations you are likely to find are the lack of groups for low level instances, and if you play on a PVP server, getting ganked by a level 70 with too much time on his hands. But it doesn't matter, this game still kicks ass, and you want to hit 70 so you can get revenge on those who have caused you trouble.
So finally that day arrives, probably a few months after you started, that you hit level 70. DING! The brilliant yellow glow surrounds your character and your eyes instantly zoom down to the chat box to see it says "Congratulations on reaching Level 70!" You cheer and your guildmates congratulate you as you hearthstone back to the city to get your shiny new skills.
Alright so I'm level 70 now, I can't wait to see what the end game is like. And then it hits you, the end game is BULLSHIT. Here's your options: Raid, PVP, Reroll. That's all you can do. This has been a problem since the game came out, and it baffles me that it hasn't been addressed yet. Don't be fooled, when the new expansion pack comes out, it's going to be exactly the same at Level 80 as it is now.
So lets say you decide to raid, so you're going to have to spend a bunch of time in Heroic instances getting blues and a few epics so you can start going into Karazhan, and then into Zul'aman, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon, etc. It's a big treadmill that you have to run on with 9-24 other people several times a week. If you have the free time, patience, and desire to progress, raiding is probably what you really enjoy, but I personally don't like having to sit on Vent with a bunch of people who take WoW way too seriously, and start cursing at you if you make a mistake, and start screaming when they actually kill a boss and get a new piece of equipment.
On the other hand, here's PVP. Well, lets clear this up, there are 2 different kinds of PVP in WoW. There is the Battlegrounds, which is where more "casual" players tend to hang out, and I'll talk about those soon.
But then there are the Arenas. The arena system is the biggest bullshit that has been put into WoW yet. Everyone gets fucked over by it. First off, Blizzard is apparently really desperate to make WoW become a new fixture in "eSports", which if you don't know, is where people play competitive games for money. The majority of their focus and the game's changes/rebalances in the last year have been because of the arena, and it pisses me off because I fucking hate the arena as do most people I know.
There are 2 big reasons why it sucks. First, most people only use it to get easy epics, or "welfare epics" as people like to call them. All you have to do is play 10 games a week, and you get points toward your gear. You don't even have to win any of the games. True, Blizzard is fixing this with Season 4 by putting a "rating requirement" on everything, so you have to actually do well to wear the best gear, but why was this ever thought of as a good idea? Why even bother trying to do Kara if I can spend an hour losing in a 5v5 arena team and get a better DPS weapon? I know that PVE gear is better for PVE, but weapons are, for some classes, pretty negligible. How many times do you see a PVE freak using a S3 weapon, and vice versa for a T5 weapon?
The other problem I have is that everyone who actually plays takes it way too seriously. There are countless douchebags out there who won't even speak to you unless your rating is higher than 2000. Even if you aren't talking about anything PVP related. The elitist attitude that was already alive with a good number of WoW players was ignited, like throwing gas on a fire, when the arena debuted.
So now you're probably wondering what I would do if I could change something about the Arenas. My answer is simple: Separate it from the rest of WoW. Why does everyone have to be affected by a class nerf because their class happens to be doing well in the arena? I know Paladins feel me on this one. Remember when you got full mana back from critting? Warriors, remember when Mace Stun actually procced more than once every 15 swings? You get the idea. Separate the Arena from WoW and balance it separately.
On the other side of PVP you get the battlegrounds. There really isn't much to say here, it's pretty much the same as it was years back, the only difference is now there is resilience.
All in all, PVE and PVP have one thing in common: IT'S A GRIND. The whole game becomes one big fucking grind once you hit level 70. You would like to think "Well as soon as I am done having to do stupid quests and killing random animals, I get to actually have some real epic battles!" But no, all you do is either grind honor, grind mats for consumables, or grind money for your epic mount, which helps you get to raids/the arena master quicker. Or of course, there was option 3, you can reroll and experience leveling up again.
I'm bitching a lot about the game, but on the other hand, I've been playing it for years, so what's the deal?
It's really easy to get addicted to it. That's all there is to it. Everything you do in the game comes with a proverbial carrot on a stick in front of you, and you're constantly saying "I just need this one last upgrade" or "Just this one last quest", but it never ends (like all MMOs), and you just end up doing the same thing over and over, with some goal in the distance.
The other thing is, at least in my case, everyone I know fucking plays this game. Which makes it really hard to stop, because even if I say "Hmm, I don't really want to play WoW today" Here comes people IMing me, "hey dude lets do an instance" or "Hey can you help me with this?" so I have to log on because apparently not wanting to play WoW is just crazy talk.
I guess it depends on your experience with the game. I've been playing since the beta, and I'm ready to move on. I really wish there was another game as polished and easy to get into as WoW, I really fucking do. A while back I was banned from WoW and had uninstalled it, and was ready to move on, but this was at the same time that literally everyone I know in real life was starting to play again (they had all quit initially, and a few were starting for the first time,) so I gave in to the pressure and bought another copy. Now I really wish I had stayed away.
I'm now back to being level 70, in decent gear, but I don't want to do anything on the game. I log in, and PVP doesn't sound interesting at all. I don't want to group with a bunch of random idiots or even with my guild. So I just log off. That's been my time on WoW the last few days, and it's not looking to change.
May addon or edit later. Just in a bad mood right now.. Sorry for the language.
I will try to break down the game as best as I can, because this has been building up for years.
When you start playing WoW, from the moment you make your first character and you see the little cutscene that flies through the starting area of whichever race you picked, and you hear that disembodied voice explaining the backstory of you, your character, you know this game is going to be something else. Everything is streamlined so well in this game, the quests give you great EXP, and there is very rarely a shortage on quests. Look at almost every korean/free MMO out there, it is mostly grinding. You just sit in a field and kill monsters over and over with no real purpose or objective, other than filling your EXP bar a little bit more with each kill. True, the quests in WoW are mostly stupid, eg. Go collect 10 apples, or go slay 7 bats, etc. But the fact they are there is something.
The game remains consistently fun and enthralling while you level up. The only real frustrations you are likely to find are the lack of groups for low level instances, and if you play on a PVP server, getting ganked by a level 70 with too much time on his hands. But it doesn't matter, this game still kicks ass, and you want to hit 70 so you can get revenge on those who have caused you trouble.
So finally that day arrives, probably a few months after you started, that you hit level 70. DING! The brilliant yellow glow surrounds your character and your eyes instantly zoom down to the chat box to see it says "Congratulations on reaching Level 70!" You cheer and your guildmates congratulate you as you hearthstone back to the city to get your shiny new skills.
Alright so I'm level 70 now, I can't wait to see what the end game is like. And then it hits you, the end game is BULLSHIT. Here's your options: Raid, PVP, Reroll. That's all you can do. This has been a problem since the game came out, and it baffles me that it hasn't been addressed yet. Don't be fooled, when the new expansion pack comes out, it's going to be exactly the same at Level 80 as it is now.
So lets say you decide to raid, so you're going to have to spend a bunch of time in Heroic instances getting blues and a few epics so you can start going into Karazhan, and then into Zul'aman, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon, etc. It's a big treadmill that you have to run on with 9-24 other people several times a week. If you have the free time, patience, and desire to progress, raiding is probably what you really enjoy, but I personally don't like having to sit on Vent with a bunch of people who take WoW way too seriously, and start cursing at you if you make a mistake, and start screaming when they actually kill a boss and get a new piece of equipment.
On the other hand, here's PVP. Well, lets clear this up, there are 2 different kinds of PVP in WoW. There is the Battlegrounds, which is where more "casual" players tend to hang out, and I'll talk about those soon.
But then there are the Arenas. The arena system is the biggest bullshit that has been put into WoW yet. Everyone gets fucked over by it. First off, Blizzard is apparently really desperate to make WoW become a new fixture in "eSports", which if you don't know, is where people play competitive games for money. The majority of their focus and the game's changes/rebalances in the last year have been because of the arena, and it pisses me off because I fucking hate the arena as do most people I know.
There are 2 big reasons why it sucks. First, most people only use it to get easy epics, or "welfare epics" as people like to call them. All you have to do is play 10 games a week, and you get points toward your gear. You don't even have to win any of the games. True, Blizzard is fixing this with Season 4 by putting a "rating requirement" on everything, so you have to actually do well to wear the best gear, but why was this ever thought of as a good idea? Why even bother trying to do Kara if I can spend an hour losing in a 5v5 arena team and get a better DPS weapon? I know that PVE gear is better for PVE, but weapons are, for some classes, pretty negligible. How many times do you see a PVE freak using a S3 weapon, and vice versa for a T5 weapon?
The other problem I have is that everyone who actually plays takes it way too seriously. There are countless douchebags out there who won't even speak to you unless your rating is higher than 2000. Even if you aren't talking about anything PVP related. The elitist attitude that was already alive with a good number of WoW players was ignited, like throwing gas on a fire, when the arena debuted.
So now you're probably wondering what I would do if I could change something about the Arenas. My answer is simple: Separate it from the rest of WoW. Why does everyone have to be affected by a class nerf because their class happens to be doing well in the arena? I know Paladins feel me on this one. Remember when you got full mana back from critting? Warriors, remember when Mace Stun actually procced more than once every 15 swings? You get the idea. Separate the Arena from WoW and balance it separately.
On the other side of PVP you get the battlegrounds. There really isn't much to say here, it's pretty much the same as it was years back, the only difference is now there is resilience.
All in all, PVE and PVP have one thing in common: IT'S A GRIND. The whole game becomes one big fucking grind once you hit level 70. You would like to think "Well as soon as I am done having to do stupid quests and killing random animals, I get to actually have some real epic battles!" But no, all you do is either grind honor, grind mats for consumables, or grind money for your epic mount, which helps you get to raids/the arena master quicker. Or of course, there was option 3, you can reroll and experience leveling up again.
I'm bitching a lot about the game, but on the other hand, I've been playing it for years, so what's the deal?
It's really easy to get addicted to it. That's all there is to it. Everything you do in the game comes with a proverbial carrot on a stick in front of you, and you're constantly saying "I just need this one last upgrade" or "Just this one last quest", but it never ends (like all MMOs), and you just end up doing the same thing over and over, with some goal in the distance.
The other thing is, at least in my case, everyone I know fucking plays this game. Which makes it really hard to stop, because even if I say "Hmm, I don't really want to play WoW today" Here comes people IMing me, "hey dude lets do an instance" or "Hey can you help me with this?" so I have to log on because apparently not wanting to play WoW is just crazy talk.
I guess it depends on your experience with the game. I've been playing since the beta, and I'm ready to move on. I really wish there was another game as polished and easy to get into as WoW, I really fucking do. A while back I was banned from WoW and had uninstalled it, and was ready to move on, but this was at the same time that literally everyone I know in real life was starting to play again (they had all quit initially, and a few were starting for the first time,) so I gave in to the pressure and bought another copy. Now I really wish I had stayed away.
I'm now back to being level 70, in decent gear, but I don't want to do anything on the game. I log in, and PVP doesn't sound interesting at all. I don't want to group with a bunch of random idiots or even with my guild. So I just log off. That's been my time on WoW the last few days, and it's not looking to change.
May addon or edit later. Just in a bad mood right now.. Sorry for the language.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
First Person Shooters
After several frustrating nights on Team Fortress 2 recently, I've come to the conclusion that my skills on FPS games have either severely deteriorated to the point of complete noobness, or that game is just really difficult. I still do decent at BF2 when I play, and I can still get some headshots on Counter-Strike Source, so what's the deal?
I know that playing WoW isn't exactly a good way to keep up your skills with reaction time and accuracy, but wow, I have never done so bad at a game.
Well, at least it was only $20, so I don't feel so bad uninstalling it. I don't really get the hype behind the game, everyone says it's so amazing and the best multiplayer game of the year, etc. Whatever. Back to games that take no skill, I guess.
I am even worse at RTS btw.
I know that playing WoW isn't exactly a good way to keep up your skills with reaction time and accuracy, but wow, I have never done so bad at a game.
Well, at least it was only $20, so I don't feel so bad uninstalling it. I don't really get the hype behind the game, everyone says it's so amazing and the best multiplayer game of the year, etc. Whatever. Back to games that take no skill, I guess.
I am even worse at RTS btw.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Surprising absolutely nobody: Weezer's new album isn't good
A while back on a forum I saw someone trying to figure out if Weezer was a good band who just had some bad albums lately, or if they are a bad band who had 2 good (really good) fluke albums.
I'm pretty sure option B is the answer now, after hearing the new "Red Album". Every song is just standard pop rock, there's nothing really unique about it at all. The only song I like is "Pork & Beans", which I thought had a cool almost-Blue Album sound to it, but I said to myself, "There must be better on the album". NOPE.
So I have removed the Red Album from my computer after 2 listens, and it will forever remain in my musical graveyard along with the Green Album, Maladroit, and Make Believe.
Listen to Pinkerton and long for the days of when Weezer made good music... Sigh.
I'm pretty sure option B is the answer now, after hearing the new "Red Album". Every song is just standard pop rock, there's nothing really unique about it at all. The only song I like is "Pork & Beans", which I thought had a cool almost-Blue Album sound to it, but I said to myself, "There must be better on the album". NOPE.
So I have removed the Red Album from my computer after 2 listens, and it will forever remain in my musical graveyard along with the Green Album, Maladroit, and Make Believe.
Listen to Pinkerton and long for the days of when Weezer made good music... Sigh.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Note to self: No more coke past 10 PM
Well, it's 5:26 AM as I begin to write this, so if you guessed that I couldn't sleep again, you are correct!
It's not all bad though, I actually love being up at this time, when the sky is just beginning to shift to a dark blue, and the sunlight is starting to bleed through. It's a shame I don't get to see the early morning anymore. That's one of the very few things I miss about my high school days, getting up that early. But I hate going to bed early, so whatever.
It's not all bad though, I actually love being up at this time, when the sky is just beginning to shift to a dark blue, and the sunlight is starting to bleed through. It's a shame I don't get to see the early morning anymore. That's one of the very few things I miss about my high school days, getting up that early. But I hate going to bed early, so whatever.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Insomnia, school, and writer's block...or is it?,
It's currently 3:31 AM on Saturday night...err, Sunday Morning. I'm at that point where I feel like I should go to bed, but part of me is just saying "screw it, stay up the rest of the night." I'm kind of tired, but also know that I could easily keep myself awake if I wanted to. I guess drinking caffeine will do that to ya.
Insomnia is surely nothing new to me. As my friends will attest, 5 hours of sleep is my average amount of sleep per night. Every once in a while I will get 7 or so, but that's not normal. I sometimes wonder what causes it. I think my brain just thinks/knows that sleeping is a waste of time, there's so many things I could be doing while I'm laying in bed trying to fall asleep!
It's not all bad though, I'm often at my most creative post 3:30-AM, when that weird trippy feeling starts settling in. I've come up with some of what I think are my favorite ideas at this time of night. Sleep deprivation be darned, I'm not changing my schedule until school starts.
Speaking of school, I picked my classes out... finally. Looks like I will be taking Drawing 1, Computer Illustration, California History, and get this, Bible Literature. Didn't even know they offered that at my school. I know it's not very "bay area" to be religious and whatnot, but I'm actually excited for that class in particular. Of course the Computer Illustration class interests me greatly as well. As my friends are already aware, I love manipulating photos.
And ugh, I'm not sure if I have writer's block or just a general lack of motivation, but I can't seem to finish up Chapter 4. I got about halfway through but I don't really love what I've come up with so far. I really need to get past this chapter so I can get to a point in the story where I actually have a lot of ideas for. I'm just having trouble getting there. Blah.
Stupid Warcraft holding my attention oh so well. There's something about consistently playing with a good friend and not having a bunch of money that makes the game seem so fresh. For those familiar with the game, I 'dinged' 24. Woohoo? At least I get Windfury in 6 levels..
Insomnia is surely nothing new to me. As my friends will attest, 5 hours of sleep is my average amount of sleep per night. Every once in a while I will get 7 or so, but that's not normal. I sometimes wonder what causes it. I think my brain just thinks/knows that sleeping is a waste of time, there's so many things I could be doing while I'm laying in bed trying to fall asleep!
It's not all bad though, I'm often at my most creative post 3:30-AM, when that weird trippy feeling starts settling in. I've come up with some of what I think are my favorite ideas at this time of night. Sleep deprivation be darned, I'm not changing my schedule until school starts.
Speaking of school, I picked my classes out... finally. Looks like I will be taking Drawing 1, Computer Illustration, California History, and get this, Bible Literature. Didn't even know they offered that at my school. I know it's not very "bay area" to be religious and whatnot, but I'm actually excited for that class in particular. Of course the Computer Illustration class interests me greatly as well. As my friends are already aware, I love manipulating photos.
And ugh, I'm not sure if I have writer's block or just a general lack of motivation, but I can't seem to finish up Chapter 4. I got about halfway through but I don't really love what I've come up with so far. I really need to get past this chapter so I can get to a point in the story where I actually have a lot of ideas for. I'm just having trouble getting there. Blah.
Stupid Warcraft holding my attention oh so well. There's something about consistently playing with a good friend and not having a bunch of money that makes the game seem so fresh. For those familiar with the game, I 'dinged' 24. Woohoo? At least I get Windfury in 6 levels..
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