Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Path of Exile
Currently streaming Path of Exile an action RPG. Very similar to Diablo 2. Check it out!
GuildWars 2 Beta Event 3
In case you didn't know:
Beta Weekend Event begins Friday, July 20, at noon PDT (GMT -7) and ends Sunday, July 22, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT -7).
Yea buddy!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
WAR INC. Battlezone
So I've been playing various games trying to fill my time waiting for the next GW2 Beta Weekend. I found this game, really via Alienware emailing me. They're giving away keys here for free stuff. So I got it and got this pretty cool Alienware skin on my soldier. Anyway, It's a free-to-play (F2P) online shooter.
Interestingly enough you can choose to play in first-person mode or third-person mode. Honestly I don't know why you would want to play in first. It's like... intentionally handicapping yourself. HEY! I can't see over that wall... let me walk around.. BAM. Shotty to the face. Ah well, your choice I guess.
Like most other F2Ps it has a cash shop. You get WP by playing normally, and GC as well. GC seems to be the real money currency in which you can buy things permanently. They claim that spending cash doesn't give players an advantage. I beg to differ. In the next breath they say that spending money will help you "catch up with your friends" who are "playing the game more often than you." Hmm....
There are four classes, assault, engineer, recon, and medic. I choose assault initially. Later on I tried to unlock another class and was met with a "Unlock another slot for 3890 GC" which basically equates to "Play a lot MAOR or spend money to get GC!" So yea... either way it doesn't seem to matter. As assault I equipped sniper rifles when I felt like it. It just seems that the skill tree applies to each character individually so you might have assault specific stats when you want to snipe. No biggie...
The game has your typical weapon types: assault rifles, sniper rifles, and machine guns. There are also attachments which I really didn't mess with too much. There is a good amount of customization for you character ranging from skins, to facewear, helmets, etc. Perks exist and they seem eerily similar to the Modern Warfare franchise, but hey that's what everyone likes right? One perk in particular lets you see all hidden enemies for 30 seconds after a 3 kill streak. Another lets you follow them on the map after you "wound" them. Or something to that effect.
It has your standard community stats, clans, clan wars (not yet implemented), friend stats. All that good stuff.
And MAVs! Woo! Yea... it's kinda like every other game with the little gadgets you can use. Except this MAV handles like a pinto. You really can't look around well, and after I turned my graphics to high it was damn near unusable. Every place I looked seemed like I was staring into the sun.
The skill tree is interesting. You get points by leveling up, spend them on skills like reducing recoil, capturing flags faster, sprint time, etc. There are three levels so I'm not sure what else you can unlock right now.
Graphically it's pretty decent. It loads pretty quickly and it moves from game to game without issue. The matches themselves are pretty short from my experience. Another interesting tidbit though is that sometimes when you kill an enemy they drop boxes. They are of different quality. So I grabbed a premium box after I WTFpwned this guys face right? Waited till the match ended and went to my inventory to open it up. Guess what.... that's right. It takes GC. And on top of that I believe they are "rented" meaning they only exists for a few hours or days until you have to buy them again. The whole idea is interesting. I just wish they had given players an option to use WP to unlock loot boxes, even if it's a considerable amount.
Overall though it's not a bad way to spend the afternoon. I have no real serious complaints to be honest. The hit detection is friggin fantastic. I wish another shooter I play implemented theirs this way *cough* BF3... Oh sorry, let that one slip. Playing with the starting weapons didn't seem to put me at a disadvantage. I do love the fact that it doesn't take a full mag to kill someone. I DO however resent the few times I took an RPG to the mouth. Thing does 300 damage a hit. Instakill from across the map. Anyway if you're looking for something to play that doesn't cost $60 or requires you to be "premium" to have a good time this may be just what you're looking for.
Next time I record it will be in HD lol. (Edit: Now in HD goodness)
Interestingly enough you can choose to play in first-person mode or third-person mode. Honestly I don't know why you would want to play in first. It's like... intentionally handicapping yourself. HEY! I can't see over that wall... let me walk around.. BAM. Shotty to the face. Ah well, your choice I guess.
Like most other F2Ps it has a cash shop. You get WP by playing normally, and GC as well. GC seems to be the real money currency in which you can buy things permanently. They claim that spending cash doesn't give players an advantage. I beg to differ. In the next breath they say that spending money will help you "catch up with your friends" who are "playing the game more often than you." Hmm....
There are four classes, assault, engineer, recon, and medic. I choose assault initially. Later on I tried to unlock another class and was met with a "Unlock another slot for 3890 GC" which basically equates to "Play a lot MAOR or spend money to get GC!" So yea... either way it doesn't seem to matter. As assault I equipped sniper rifles when I felt like it. It just seems that the skill tree applies to each character individually so you might have assault specific stats when you want to snipe. No biggie...
The game has your typical weapon types: assault rifles, sniper rifles, and machine guns. There are also attachments which I really didn't mess with too much. There is a good amount of customization for you character ranging from skins, to facewear, helmets, etc. Perks exist and they seem eerily similar to the Modern Warfare franchise, but hey that's what everyone likes right? One perk in particular lets you see all hidden enemies for 30 seconds after a 3 kill streak. Another lets you follow them on the map after you "wound" them. Or something to that effect.
It has your standard community stats, clans, clan wars (not yet implemented), friend stats. All that good stuff.
And MAVs! Woo! Yea... it's kinda like every other game with the little gadgets you can use. Except this MAV handles like a pinto. You really can't look around well, and after I turned my graphics to high it was damn near unusable. Every place I looked seemed like I was staring into the sun.
The skill tree is interesting. You get points by leveling up, spend them on skills like reducing recoil, capturing flags faster, sprint time, etc. There are three levels so I'm not sure what else you can unlock right now.
Graphically it's pretty decent. It loads pretty quickly and it moves from game to game without issue. The matches themselves are pretty short from my experience. Another interesting tidbit though is that sometimes when you kill an enemy they drop boxes. They are of different quality. So I grabbed a premium box after I WTFpwned this guys face right? Waited till the match ended and went to my inventory to open it up. Guess what.... that's right. It takes GC. And on top of that I believe they are "rented" meaning they only exists for a few hours or days until you have to buy them again. The whole idea is interesting. I just wish they had given players an option to use WP to unlock loot boxes, even if it's a considerable amount.
Overall though it's not a bad way to spend the afternoon. I have no real serious complaints to be honest. The hit detection is friggin fantastic. I wish another shooter I play implemented theirs this way *cough* BF3... Oh sorry, let that one slip. Playing with the starting weapons didn't seem to put me at a disadvantage. I do love the fact that it doesn't take a full mag to kill someone. I DO however resent the few times I took an RPG to the mouth. Thing does 300 damage a hit. Instakill from across the map. Anyway if you're looking for something to play that doesn't cost $60 or requires you to be "premium" to have a good time this may be just what you're looking for.
Next time I record it will be in HD lol. (Edit: Now in HD goodness)
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend 2
So I've been AWOL I guess. I recently moved into a new place and I didn't have time to setup my desktop. UNTIL NOW. That's right get ready for a non-comprehensive, very small review of my beta weekend.
So what I noticed right off the bat was that they finally included more chat channels to the system. Finally I don't have to let the whole world know that "I left my sandwich on the counter and I'll brb".
The above screenshot is actually from an area in World vs World (WVW from here on out) that requires jumping from various rocks and ledges to reach two chests that contain a key and random prizes. I tried people. I tried for a good thirty minutes. Don't get me wrong, running off a ledge and plunging through a waterfall is awesome. Got that down pat. But getting so far only to fall, swim outside, run up a mountain, jump off that ledge and try again just got old. That's just about as fun as pulling a hangnail. I swear I was awesome at Mario.... I beat the first level so many times it isn't funny. Then again the puzzle jumping it isn't a requirement. Just something fun to do in your off-time.
After that we went full on WvW. That's all I played for two whole days. And I love it. There's not much to say that changed with WvW. They did change how the overflow servers work so you can at least stay with friends in your party when you join. They made Valor vendors give RNG items from boxes you can purchase. I didn't play structured PVP much so I can't comment on that.
I basically just took keeps, and blew up enemies with cannons. There was one occasion where I single handedly held off a group of 10 red invaders (players) from taking a keep with a cannon mounted on top. Had them running for their lives until reinforcements came. But the best feeling came when we (KA) RedKarma Guild for Reddit came under assault in our recently captured stronghold. They came hard, real hard. We'd fight them off but they kept... coming and coming. After endless waves of pushing back and falling back, off in the distance I spotted my worst nightmare.... A friggin' trebuchet!
Let me put this into perspective. One single trebuchet costs 16 silver. (Thanks: AcolyteRB) It's not cheap. I don't think I made more than one gold during the whole event.
Simply put, this was epic.... they didn't even know we were attacking their trebuchet. They were too busy focused on our allies attacking their bridge. Had we not taken it out we probably would have lost the keep shortly afterwards. This was probably the best moment of the whole beta for me. Two allies, driven to desperate measures... overcoming a massive challenge. That's right. We're goddamn ninjas.
We also used this tactic to devastating effect on our enemies however. The key is to defend your siege while pushing with another group.
I guess our group was a rogue group. We wouldn't necessarily run with the zerg. We supported them by taking supply camps, and responding when necessary. We did take time to mess around though. We took group photos after sieging keeps like the primadonnas that we are.
Ok.. we took a lot of pictures. To be fair, we also took a lot of keeps. Friday night (the first night) though we got rolled by the first server we got matched up with in WvW. Saturday, we completely wiped the opposing servers. By Sunday night, we just stopped Wvwing. Our score was high enough to relax comfortably and the GM run event was going to begin soon.
Unfortunately however, I was drinking during this time and hitting the printscreen button didn't occur to me. We basically sat around with fun boxes (little boxes that enlarge you, give fireworks, transform you) waiting for the event to begin.
And then it happened. The sky turned dark, clouds rolled in and as I looked over my shoulder I spotted it.
Basically we were supposed to kill his minions and then kill the dragon. That was the gist anyway. That never came to pass however. The time limit ran out before we could kill enough to trigger him to land. I died right near the tail end of the event to one of his monsters. It changed me into a monster myself! We started to attack our own players which was fun as hell. And then BOOM. Server down. So we really didn't even get to see the dragon on our server. Other servers might have been more successful. All in all it was a fun event. There is one more scheduled before release (date still unknown).
So what I noticed right off the bat was that they finally included more chat channels to the system. Finally I don't have to let the whole world know that "I left my sandwich on the counter and I'll brb".
The above screenshot is actually from an area in World vs World (WVW from here on out) that requires jumping from various rocks and ledges to reach two chests that contain a key and random prizes. I tried people. I tried for a good thirty minutes. Don't get me wrong, running off a ledge and plunging through a waterfall is awesome. Got that down pat. But getting so far only to fall, swim outside, run up a mountain, jump off that ledge and try again just got old. That's just about as fun as pulling a hangnail. I swear I was awesome at Mario.... I beat the first level so many times it isn't funny. Then again the puzzle jumping it isn't a requirement. Just something fun to do in your off-time.
After that we went full on WvW. That's all I played for two whole days. And I love it. There's not much to say that changed with WvW. They did change how the overflow servers work so you can at least stay with friends in your party when you join. They made Valor vendors give RNG items from boxes you can purchase. I didn't play structured PVP much so I can't comment on that.
I basically just took keeps, and blew up enemies with cannons. There was one occasion where I single handedly held off a group of 10 red invaders (players) from taking a keep with a cannon mounted on top. Had them running for their lives until reinforcements came. But the best feeling came when we (KA) RedKarma Guild for Reddit came under assault in our recently captured stronghold. They came hard, real hard. We'd fight them off but they kept... coming and coming. After endless waves of pushing back and falling back, off in the distance I spotted my worst nightmare.... A friggin' trebuchet!
 |
| Trebuchets have the longest range of any siege weapon in-game |
 |
| Members of the DarkHaven server trying to defend our keep |
Our doors were being pounded... alright alright I know this sounds dirty. Keep your mind outta the gutter. Ahem... pounded by that trebuchet and we couldn't cross the bridge to take it out. Though a fellow player setup his own trebuchet, it was just too close to hit. Furthermore, that tiny bridge was the only way to get across and destroy it. OR WAS IT? No. A guy named False and I decided to do something unconventional. We dropped down and crossed the water to the left of the trebuchet and stayed submerged. We flanked through the enemy supply camp while being careful not to pull the guards. We took the hill to the left and walked onto the building next to the zerg. We switched from our melee weapons to our bows. This is what ensued...
Simply put, this was epic.... they didn't even know we were attacking their trebuchet. They were too busy focused on our allies attacking their bridge. Had we not taken it out we probably would have lost the keep shortly afterwards. This was probably the best moment of the whole beta for me. Two allies, driven to desperate measures... overcoming a massive challenge. That's right. We're goddamn ninjas.
We also used this tactic to devastating effect on our enemies however. The key is to defend your siege while pushing with another group.
 |
| Using our own trebuchet to down the gates from range |
 |
| Guarding and spotting for our ally manning the treb |
 |
| Gate is down! |
 |
| Killing their keep lord |
 |
| Running stragglers off the wall |
 |
| Mopping up the rest |
Ok.. we took a lot of pictures. To be fair, we also took a lot of keeps. Friday night (the first night) though we got rolled by the first server we got matched up with in WvW. Saturday, we completely wiped the opposing servers. By Sunday night, we just stopped Wvwing. Our score was high enough to relax comfortably and the GM run event was going to begin soon.
Unfortunately however, I was drinking during this time and hitting the printscreen button didn't occur to me. We basically sat around with fun boxes (little boxes that enlarge you, give fireworks, transform you) waiting for the event to begin.
And then it happened. The sky turned dark, clouds rolled in and as I looked over my shoulder I spotted it.
Basically we were supposed to kill his minions and then kill the dragon. That was the gist anyway. That never came to pass however. The time limit ran out before we could kill enough to trigger him to land. I died right near the tail end of the event to one of his monsters. It changed me into a monster myself! We started to attack our own players which was fun as hell. And then BOOM. Server down. So we really didn't even get to see the dragon on our server. Other servers might have been more successful. All in all it was a fun event. There is one more scheduled before release (date still unknown).
 |
| Karma Guild on the Darkhaven Server |
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
I decided to see what it's like to stream when I play. Starting a short Diablo 3 streaming session through own3d.tv. Check it out here!
http://www.own3d.tv/Nefariouz/live/319428
My streaming schedule is erratic at the moment. This damn class is killing my free time. :(
http://www.own3d.tv/Nefariouz/live/319428
My streaming schedule is erratic at the moment. This damn class is killing my free time. :(
This came in today from Arena.net:
My name is Chris Whiteside, and I'm the lead producer of Guildwars 2. Normally, I'm head-down in the trenches, making sure we're producing the best MMO possible, but I wanted to come up for air and share some exciting news with you:
Beta Weekend Event 2 will begin on Friday, June 8th, at noon PDT (GMT-7) and will run until Sunday, June 10th, at 11:59 p.m. PDT (GMT-7).
The skinny of it is that they added some things we asked for like overflow groups, say, keybindings, etc. And on top of that, your old beta characters were not deleted. So get ready to enjoy another exciting weekend!
Guild Wars Copyright and Trademark Information
© 2011 ArenaNet, Inc. All rights reserved. NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, ArenaNet, Arena.net, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, Nightfall, Guild Wars: Eye of the North, Eye of the North, Guild Wars 2, and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Friday, May 25, 2012
By the way if you haven't been following the Diablo 3 forums, there have been a rash of security incidents.... namely people getting their accounts hacked. According to the forums in some instances the victim was playing, got logged of the game and came back within a minute to see all of their gear and gold gone. Blizzard claims that all accounts that have been hacked didn't have this security measure prior to being compromised. So if you haven't yet, do yourself a favor put an authenticator on your account. Your phat lewt and your gold stash will thank you.
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