Ditlog: Day in the Life of a Gamer

RIP Ditlog, hello SCB

2009-06-23T11:07:00.007-04:00

For anyone actually reading my ramblings here, note that I've picked up a new URL and migrated the blog to Wordpress.

The new blog can be found at shortcontrolledbursts.net. Hope to chat with you there!

Work, Work!

2009-05-20T13:15:00.006-04:00

After even more grunt work (pun intended - read on) on the Patio from Heck, I did free up a few hours last evening to continue with my RTS experiment while enjoying a few frosty homebrews.

Starcraft looked much better than I'd expected. You have to credit Blizzard's artists when a 640x480 game still looks attractive on a 24-inch 1920x1200 monitor!

That said, the 11-yr-old unit pathfinding AI has not aged gracefully. When moving groups of units through terrain of any complexity whatsoever, I ended up with Zerg-bait stragglers wandering around the landscape searching in vain for their compatriots. I don't think I'd have the patience to babysit individual units from point A to B in a protracted campaign. So, even though the story and voice acting were compelling, I think I'll give this one a pass and read the novelization instead in preparation for Starcraft 2.

The Warcraft III demo, on the other (albeit green-skinned) hand, sucked me in like a haywire Roomba. I had forgotten how absolutely fantastic the writing and art direction were, and the sound design perhaps surpasses even those two factors.

I played through the first few levels of the prequel campaign - Thrall is still too cool for school - and immediately thereafter logged on to Battle.net to purchase a download of Reign of Chaos. This exercise was perhaps the only disappointing part of my WC3 experience. I placed my order, updated my payment info to reflect a new card number, and purchased the game. Strangely, though, it took about a half hour for my order to process such that the download link was propigated to my Battle.net home page. I know Blizzard has been making a lot of changes to Battle.net, but they have to recognize that their customers are going to expect a digital purchase to be available instantaneously. I can only assume it was an anomoly?

"Time and moods are changing, attention spans quickening. Welcome to the Information Age." - Queensryche, "My Global Mind"

Assaulting the RTS Brain Bunker

2009-05-19T14:35:00.012-04:00

The past few evenings, I've been greatly enjoying a playthrough of the Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II demo. DoW2 is a recent real time strategy game release for Windows machines only.

Those following my Twitter feed will know that I'm a Mac-only cat these days. So, to give DoW2 a whirl, I installed Windows 7 (Release Candidate build) on my iMac via Boot Camp. It was a very easy install, and has been running without a hitch.

Anyway, back on topic, even though DoW2 is a RTS game, there are a lot of RPG elements to it. Loot drops are scattered throughout the maps, offering upgrades and customization for your heroes' gear. Similarly, progress earns you points which may be spent to increase attribute scores and open up special abilities in the process - very similar to Mass Effect's system.

In a departure from most RTS games, there is no base building in DoW2. None. Instead, players immediately tasked with tactically directing up to four discrete squads of Imperial Space Marines and managing their special abilities. Moreover, the "hero" character that leads each squad can't be permanently killed, which keeps the story moving, but they can be incapacitated temporarily during a mission. The individual troopers can be squished messily however, decreasing the strength of your force.

The short version is: this game is a RTS game for people easily frazzled by RTS micro-management, and/or those that tire of the base building click-fest. People like, you know, me. Plus, we're talking WH40K here, so the setting is bitchin' and bombastic. My only complaint is that the 1P story mode is Space Marines-only. You don't get to play as Orcs, Eldar, or the Tyranids (Genestealers) in the campaign mode. (All the races are available in multiplayer, however.)

Storm that Bunker, Soldier!

So, enjoying this "RTS lite" has caused me to wonder whether I might be able to break my real time strategy game brain-block. For some time, I have found myself disliking RTS gameplay. I even attempted to play through Warcraft III a while back, having enjoyed the storyline vicariously via WoW. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into it. It was fun in the beginning, but as the difficulty ramped up with each mission, the old cerebral sweats and stuff-to-click overload started to kick in.

Thing is, I used to really enjoy playing Warcraft and Warcraft II with friends back in the day! So, why this "new" dislike of RTS gaming? I think all the base-building and arms-race-style play is a big factor. Sometimes this mechanic feels stressful and a little too much like work. These days, with all my day-to-day responsibility, I like a game that allows me to mentally chill. It's what drives me to play, really. To be really honest, after a week of no gaming, Lance can be a very stressed-out puppy.

In any case, now I'm all RTS-curious. Since I traded off my Warcraft III Battle Chest through Goozex a while back, I downloaded the demo this morning, and I'm going to give it another shot tonight. Maybe I can break this mental blockade once and for all. I need to figure out whether to buy Warcraft III, or if my RTS tolerance is unbreakable, to just accept my handicap and scoop up Dawn of War 2.

Moreover, seeing as Starcraft 2 is looming on our horizon like a hulking, alien mother ship, and considering that I've never played through the original, I'm also thinking about giving Starcraft a shot too. If I do prove amenable to RTS gaming again, I'd really like to experience the SC1 storyline before #2 launches. I'm just very skeptical about what Starcraft will look like on my 24" iMac. I mean, the max resolution is 640x480 for cripe's sake. It's going to be like Super-Aliased Lego Starcraft. We shall see when I grab the demo tonight...

Edit: Follow-up post found here.

Charity Auction for Child's Play

2009-04-24T15:33:00.005-04:00

Brigwyn over at The Hunting Lodge blog is organizing a Children's Week auction for the Child's Play charity. Please click the links above and participate! Donate an item to the auction, bid on an auction, or just make a cash donation - it all helps!

For those not familiar with Child's Play, this is a charity started by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade webcomic fame. The organization donates games, toys, and books to sick kids in childrens' hospitals all over the globe.

The cool thing about this charity is that your donation doesn't just go into some nebulous pot and end up who-knows-where. You literally choose which hospital you'd like to contribute to, and an Amazon.com interface opens, showing you a list of the specific items the kids staying there have requested.

This is not your typical bullshit, bloated, waste- and embezzlement-laden "non-profit" megacharity. The exact item(s) you donate go right from Amazon to the kids. The charity has been a tremendous success - it's now in its fifth year, and the 2008 holiday season saw almost $1.5 million in goods sent out to suffering kids.

WoW gamers - help a sick kid forget about their pain for a while. Giving 'till it doesn't hurt FTW!

Hey, Four-Eyes! Does Gaming with a Headset Give You Sore Ears? Read On:

2009-04-24T11:33:00.014-04:00

My Windows PC croaked its last breath about a month ago, and being long fed-up with Microsoft's OS, I purchased a refurbished iMac to replace it. Apple's design and OS X are absolutely fantastic, and I haven't looked back once.

The only hitch I've encountered revolved around gaming headsets. The iMac has a audio in jack, but it is just that. A microphone is a much lower-gain widget, and requires amplification to be audible. PC sound cards compensate for this fact with a 20 db mic boost feature, but the iMac sound card doesn't offer such functionality.

I initially started shopping for a USB headset to solve this problem, and found that the industry is offering a pretty wide variety of USB units. Unfortunately, this is only half the story.

Like many other glasses-wearing gamers, I suffer from a comfort problem with the majority of today's headsets. The most popular type of headphones is an on-the-ear (aka "supra-aural") design. The pressure these models exert sandwiches the wings of our glasses between our ears and our skull, and quickly becomes painful.

As such, I've been searching for a headset with both USB connection and also a circumaural (fully around-the-ear) design. Far as I can tell, there ain't no such bird. That said, there are a few nice circumaural models sporting the old PC-style 3.5mm stereo connectors. Hmm...

So, how to hook a PC-style headset up to a Mac? Enter Griffin's iMic product. This little widget accepts both 3.5mm analog audio input and output, performs a full, 24-bit analog-to-digital conversion, and interfaces with a Mac or PC via USB. (So, it's essentially a USB sound card.) What's more, a little switch on the side toggles the input jack between a normal audio line in and an amplified mic input mode - perfect! This cool little widget lists for $50 on the Griffin and Apple online stores, but psst - Buy.com has them for about $35 including 2-day shipping!

I installed mine last night, and enjoyed a raucous, two-hour trip through the Deadmines with some good friends, completely sans ear pain! Can I get a "w00t"?!

BTW, the circumaural headset I picked up is Razer Carcharias (see pic). About $70 on sale at Best Buy, so not cheap - but no ear pain, remember? The sound quality is decent (the frequency response is only an acceptable 20 - 20,000 Hz), but they will certainly do. The mic performance seems just fine as well. They are an open-eared design, but since they are circumaural, they still block what I'd estimate as 30% of outside noise, so you do get a little noise isolation. My wife complained that I was talking a bit loud on Ventrilo, so that is telling in itself.

If any other four-eyed and sore-eared gamers are looking for the next step up on the audiophile ladder, Sennheiser's PC 350 circumaural headset is the ticket. I was very nearly seduced by their excellent 10 - 26,000 Hz frequency response, but couldn't quite justify the price tag. The best price I found was at Amazon - and they were asking $139.

Azeroth, Through Four Fresh Eyes

2009-02-02T16:43:00.007-05:00

So far, questing across the Eastern Kingdoms with my son has been a wonderful journey. Any activity that fosters time spent together is fantastic, and it’s great to share with him this hobby that I love so much. I’ve been surprised, though, at the degree of new perspective I’m encountering personally in the process.

Not only do I get to enjoy his enthusiasm and wonder while exploring new areas in the game, but we’re both learning how to play new classes and characters. This neophyte status places me not only in the role of teacher, which I expected, but also as a beginner in many ways.

Zack happens to be playing a Hunter, and since that’s my main character’s vocation, I’m in a position to teach him all the facets of that class as we stomp about the world combating evil-doers. However, I’ve also had to learn to be patient with him as he hones his techniques and strategies. In my 70-some odd days played as a Hunter, I’ve become somewhat familiar with the role...

A writer doesn’t need to concentrate on holding her pen as she scribbles – she is able to focus instead on crafting meaningful sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. I'm finding, however, that taking a step back and teaching someone how to hold their pen and form letters one at a time requires an entirely different mindset. Someone somewhere is saying “patience, Grasshoppa” – and I’m the grasshopper, not Zack.

I’m also delving into a new role – that of a Feral Druid – and the dual tasks of both learning to play this class and play it well with a hunter partner are keeping adventures in familiar locales fresh. The ability to effectively tank, deal damage, and heal at any given time – and at the proper times – offers a great dynamic challenge to me as a veteran player. I’m at the bottom of the learning curve, staring up like a yokel tourist new to the big city – and I like it.

Deathtroopers

2009-01-29T10:08:00.005-05:00

The (evil? Galactic?) Lucas Empire recently announced a new horror-themed Star Wars genre novel entitled Deathtroopers. Not much more info available beyond the October 27, 2009 street date and cover art, but here's a link to the post on StarWars.com. Sounds intriguing!

Published, Kinda Sorta

2009-01-15T14:44:00.004-05:00

Back in August, I had posted about a review article I'd written being slated for publication in the quarterly woods paintball magazine Recon. To the sorrow of legions of woodsballers however, Recon will no longer be gracing our mailboxes - the magazine folded a few months ago due to financial problems.

I was surprised to learn this afternoon that my article had still been published, after a fashion. Special Ops Paintball has begun an effort to relaunch Recon in an online format. Interested readers can find my Dangerous Power G3 review here.

Families that Slay Together...

2009-01-12T15:31:00.007-05:00

Well, I finally succumbed again to Azeroth's siren call and logged back onto World of Warcraft to explore the Wrath of the Lich King expansion's new continent of Northrend.

I must say that WotLK offers the most engrossing and innovative WoW quest content to date. Blizzard has also managed to reduce the drudgery a bit as well, and I'm finding that professions and faction reputation are leveling up much more organically. Less grinding and farming, more questing and story FTW.

My renewed relationship with WoW has borne some even more important, albeit less expected fruit. About a week ago, I decided to open a separate account for my 12-year-old son. He's played WoW on my account for years, but we were never able to play together. My wife had always been very (understandably) resistant to paying for a second account, but given Zack's sudden (but highly welcome) decision to actually put forth some significant academic effort this year, I felt that a reward was due. I also made it quite clear that the arrangement works both ways - he only gets to play if his grades warrant it.

With his own account, he's now able to play with school friends (after finishing his homework), but more importantly, to stomp around Azeroth with his dear old Dad. It's been a great bonding experience to actually play with him, and not just discuss our separate adventures. We're currently questing our way across Loch Modan, he as a Dwarven hunter and I as a Night Elf druid (Feral-spec, naturally, given my love of shapeshifter folklore). Hopefully, given the triple-experience buff we're enjoying due to Blizzard's Recruit-a-Friend program, we'll both be sporting new level 60's in a few months.

The real Achievement, of course, is finding one more way to spend time with my son. Now that's an Epic quest worth pursuing.

Aliens: Colonial Marines - Game NOT Over, Man!

2009-01-12T09:19:00.006-05:00

Reports that Aliens: Colonial Marines was KIA were apparently only subversive Weyland-Yutani corporate propoganda. According to Dan Stapleton on the latest PC Gamer podcast, Sega PR reps insist that the game is still very much alive and that development is ongoing at Gearbox. Yay!

Aliens: Colonial Marines Exterminated? Aliens RPG set to hatch?

2008-11-24T16:48:00.006-05:00

Dammit! I had suspected that Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines title might be in serious risk of an airlocking, as news on its development has been sketchy at best. Looks like my fears were realized. I'm seriously disappointed though - this is probably my all-time favorite movie license. [sigh] Game over, man! (Sorry, someone had to say it...)

In more uplifting news, Obsidian Entertainment, the development team behind Neverwinter Nights 2 and KotOR II, are apparently working on an Aliens-themed RPG for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC! Until then, I guess I can only cradle my pulse rifle in anticipation.

Still Alive

2008-11-19T09:51:00.018-05:00

Wow - the ol' blog is looking very neglected. Let's start with a catch-up post. We've been pretty busy, and even more so at work, hence the lack of posts.

Left 4 Dead

Most of my gaming group got together last week to test drive the Left 4 Dead demo on XBL. Very freaking fun. We really enjoyed the co-op play, and all the ensuing confusion, complaints, and carnage.

"Bob, why the hell are you three blocks ahead of us??"
"Ack, a smoker grabbed me - help!!"
"No - don't shoot the Boomer yet!! Ahh, crap. Incoming!!!"

Most excellent fun. I loved how the game models zombie-movie conventions. A friend goes down, and another player must go over and spend time helping them up. A "boss" zombie attacks a player, and the others must rescue that player - he can't save himself. All these nuances force the players to act as a team or perish - a great way to foster cooperative play.

My group has been trying to figure out what our next XBL multiplayer game will be, and L4D was a strong candidate. In the end though, most of the group wasn't convinced, due to the lack of any unique single-player content. I'm sure we'll get this game some time, but now right now. Gears of War 2 seemed like another obvious choice, but I think the weak GoW1 story left several of the us underwhelmed. Several others are waiting until closer to the holidays. It looks like Rainbow Six Vegas may be our next XBL venture.

Fallout 3

I've really been having a blast with Fallout 3. We stayed home all of last weekend, and after knocking out a hefty hunk of chores each day, I deliberately carved out a few hours to continue exploring the Capital Wasteland.

The game is simply fantastic, and I'm particularly digging the palpable sense of exploration, the tension of traveling across a hostile, unknown landscape, and especially the extremely well-written quests and story. (I'm level 8 now, and just finishing up the last of the Survival Guide quests.)

Game Night

Our Star Wars Saga Edition session got off to its normal start - namely everyone sitting around chatting, catching up, and generally letting our hair down and decompressing after a long week's work.

Unfortunately, Ken - our designated GM for the evening - had a unexpected hostile random encounter with Neutron Lad and Star Girl (his kids) and we had to close up shop for the night.

This week Ken is busy, so we've got Classic Battletech at Damon's house on the slate. I've been reading a ton of Battletech books lately (Project Phoenix and Total Warfare), so I'm totally jazzed to sling some LRMs, baby!

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

Monday night, Brendan and I headed over to Ken's place to help him playtest MK vs. DCU for his Sci Fi Weekly review. We were all very pleasently surprised.

When this game had been announced, I had been firmly in the "huh??" camp. Suffice it to say, however, that Midway has done a fantastic job of crafting a story that makes the whole premise suprisingly acceptible. In fact, the story (told through a series of cutscenes seamlessly woven into the fight sequences) is very engaging and well-crafted.

The gameplay was likewise satisfying. Midway dropped much of the complexity that had been bolted on to the MK games of late. Gone are all the extraneous weapons, fighting stances, and emphasis on 3rd-dimensional movement. This game feels much more like a back-to-roots, 2008 take on the classic 2D Mortal Kombat games. The move set is simple enough for casual play, and contains enough depth to keep all but the diehard Virtua Fighter junkies engaged. Even given my dislike for the 360's mushy, imprecise d-pad, I still very much enjoyed myself.

The effects and animation were quite good as well. The plastic-doll look that plagued the PS2 MK characters has been overcome, and the whole package is quite pretty. Speaking of which, I must comment on the, er, proportions of the female combatants. The situation was ridiculous enough that we spend half the evening joking about it.

"Just think how awesome the game would have been if they'd spent less time on boob-bounce physics." - Brendan
"Oh no! Jax, my breasts have achieved fully sentient status!" - Ken, free-forming a Sonya Blade cutscene voiceover, MST3K style

The New Xbox Experience, or, When Wiivatars Attack!

Well, for good or ill, the '08 Fall Dashboard Update goes live today. (Whose idea was it to let the marketing guys spin a moniker for a freaking system update, anyway?) Out of curiosity, I logged onto XBL this morning while getting ready for work. I was pleased to see that the download was acceptably brief.

Unfortunately, though, the first experience you'll be dumped into is my least favorite feature of the NXE, namely the dorky avatars. Sure, it was pretty easy to create a reasonably close, big-headed faxsimile of myself, but why?? The 360's main demographic is late teen to 30's adult males, and what typical adult male gamer doesn't want ridiculously cutesy, childish figures prancing around on their cutting edge gaming console? Ugh...

What I do like, and test-drove this morning, is the full game install to hard disk feature. I popped in Fallout 3, and the process took about 10 minutes max. Upon firing up the game, I was very relieved to hear, well, the damn game! The optical drive on my red-ring-replacement 360 sounds roughly like a hair dryer on "low" setting, and is particularly annoying if you're trying to play a retail game on any audio level besides full Memorex mode.

The NXE: Xbox audio on "11" no longer necessary!

Our Star Wars RPG Campaign Blog Achieves Orbit

2008-11-12T16:54:00.007-05:00

The ever-resourceful Mr. Newquist launched a cool Wordpress blog for our fledgling Star Wars Saga Edition RPG campaign today. (It's like Dungeons & Dragons, but based on the Star Wars movies. Yes, I'm that big a nerd.)

Still much content to be posted, but be sure to check back soon if you're interested in such things.

Left 4 Dead: Demo-licious Demo-lition!

2008-11-12T10:41:00.006-05:00

Unfortunately, I got home late last night and the Left 4 Dead demo took forever to download on XBL, so I contented myself with watching some Chuck season 1 episodes with Heather.

I couldn't stand it any longer though, and fired up the demo this morning for a few minutes while the ol' WRX was warming up. Suffice it to say that the opening cinema is fantastic, and serves as a great introduction to the main characters and the more interesting individual varieties of zombies we'll encounter.

Since I only had a few minutes, and am most interested in the co-op modes the game offers, I jumped into the 1P version of co-op play that the demo offers (no online multiplayer in the demo at all from what I could surmise). The other three characters are controlled by (some rather competent) AI 'bots. From my quick taste, I can guess that this is going to be the next multiplayer game of choice for me.

The characters were tasked with making their way from a rooftop haven to a neighboring subway station. I grabbed an Uzi as my weapon of choice and opened the door leading down into the bowels of an apartment building. My 'bot posse and I were immediately assaulted by a number of weak, "everyday" zombies. Note that most of the L4D zombies seem to be very much the fast, rabid 28 Days Later type - no plodding, easy targets in this game! The typical zombie seems to be very easy to take out - in general it's all quantity over quality among the undead.

I shortly discovered that some of the flesheaters are more unique, skilled, and tough, however. The first of these was called a Boomer (I think), and was a huge, bloated and fat zombie that exploded violently when I cut into him with the Uzi. My vision was instantly partially distorted and obscured by the disgusting viscous green gore that splashed out all over us. To our horror, this slime also served to temporarily attract the normal "horde" zombies, and we were almost immediately assaulted by a score of these creatures.

Unfortunately, I actually had to go to work today, so further zombie blasting (and any subsequent Ditlog impressions) would have to wait until this evening. More soon!

Fable II Winding up - Fallout 3 Here I Come

2008-11-05T08:44:00.008-05:00

Got to play Fable II for a good long time last night. I'm closing in on that jerk Lucian - his base are belong to me tonight for sure!

I don't think I'm going to replay the game as an evil character - I think it'll serve me better as trade credit towards my next purchase. I am enjoying the game, but I'm very eager to dive into Fallout 3, as well as work on a few other older games (Half Life 2 and the venerable Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries in particular). Oh yeah, then there's the gabillion other games that are coming out over the next few months!

My next big decision is going to be between Mirror's Edge, Gears 2, and Rock Band 2. Since Zack just got his braces attached yesterday, I'd best cool it with the extraneous spending - at least until we get used to the new budget! I think we mostly have it covered though. We've already eliminated a few unnecessary monthly bills to compensate - namely HBO, Netflix (we don't use it much when new episodes of our shows are airing), and Audible. Plus, we're probably going to dump our copper phone line if Verizon will let us do naked DSL.

Gears of War 2 More Story-Focused

2008-11-04T12:52:00.014-05:00

I just finished reading IGN's Gears of War 2 review. I was very glad to hear that the second iteration of the franchise will be a bit more story-driven. I didn't dislike the first game, and thought the characters' wry quips quite funny, but I do prefer a deeper yarn and greater sense of immersion in the unfolding events. Gears 1 seemed very one-dimensional.

Synopsis: "Here are the bad guys. They come out of the ground. They are Evil(TM), so you should shoot them." No Cliffs Notes (or Cliffy B notes) required.

I actually have yet to finish the Gears 1 story campaign. The swaying perspective of the game makes me a little sick at times (which doesn't usually happen to me in games), and the claustrophobic and at-odds perspectives of co-op splitscreen don't help matters. So far, most of my Gears play has been "couch co-op" with my son Zack and gaming group buddies Bob and Jon. I expect to finish up the final act as soon as Zack and I can carve out some mutual free time - hopefully this week.

I'm also very keen to try out the GoW2 multiplayer. Again, being to late to the game, I missed out on Gears versus play entirely. As an avid paintballer though, I'm a huge fan of cover-based combat systems. Sure, "normal" FPS multiplayer is fun, but its veritable dearth of sane tactics always bothers me. I don't care if I am wearing Mjolnir armor - in a RL firefight, I'm still going to find some cover. It's not like the suit has a self-preservation dampener or something - sheesh! Anyway, I'm hoping my gaming group decides to take the collective plunge on this title - between the co-op and versus multiplayer modes, it would provide a welcome alternative to Halo 3 over XBL.

Wings of War: Famous Aces Coming to Xbox Live Arcade

2008-11-03T17:10:00.008-05:00

I was very jazzed to hear that Fantasy Flight Games' excellent WWI fighter dogfight game Wings of War is coming to XBLA. I had demoed the game at GenCon '07, and was very excited to pick it up.

The board game's Famous Aces starter box had been out of stock for a while though, and my gaming group hasn't been playing many board games of late, so I'd kind of held off on the purchase.

I'm thinking that WoW:FA on XBL will be an excellent online multiplayer time-killer when the weather is too bad to venture out to our normal Friday night game sessions, though!

The game is being developed by Madison, Wisconsin startup Big Rooster.

Mirror's Edge Demo: My Brain is Officially Blown

2008-10-31T23:03:00.019-04:00

Oh. My God. I just finished playing through the Mirror's Edge demo (released today on both XBL and the Playstation Store). Wow.

You've never played anything like this before - trust me - and that's perhaps what excites me the most about this game. We're not just talking new IP - this is an entirely new genre. Maybe one could argue that ME is simply a first person implementation of the original Prince of Persia, but even at this early stage I'd have to argue that it's something more.

Now, I've been playing first person games for what - let's say 15 years now? I'm confident though, that I have never experienced this level of perspective and immersion. Dice has absolutely nailed their design concept.

I can only assume that the camera position and field of view were tuned, tweaked, and tortuously tested. The player is provided with a sense of position, motion, and inertia that, properly blended with an intuitive control set, make precarious, vertigo-inducing rooftop free running feel somehow natural and fluid. As you flow across the rooftops, you are in a body - not just floating along in a disembodied camera, all FPS-style.

Then there's the art design, and its implementation via the in-game engine. The city is beautiful, crisp and bright, yet stark, and the framerate blazes along smoothly. Your Kung Fu is indeed impressive, Dice.

Play this demo.

Happy Halloween from EA!

2008-10-30T22:43:00.003-04:00

That's right, kiddies - apparently the Mirror's Edge Demo Hits XBL tomorrow! I'm sooo hoping this game lives up to my expectations (and doesn't make me barf playing on my 50" widescreen...)!

Fallout 3's "Blood Ties" Quest - 'Tis the Season! (spoiler free)

2008-10-30T22:30:00.008-04:00

So it turns out that all my fumbling and bumbling to find The Family was rewarded in the end with a pretty cool quest. Those that know my taste in monsters will realize that this one was right up my alley (and seasonally appropriate as well).

When you finish the quest, be sure to talk to Vance if possible and ask him about, erm, joining the gang - if you dare. You'll be rewarded with a cool bonus Perk.

Infocom Text Adventure App for Blackberry!

2008-10-30T13:42:00.009-04:00

Just wanted to send out a public thanks to William Johnson for his continuing work on a Z-Machine interpreter for Blackberrys (and other J2ME devices), Zaxmidlet. ConstantineXVI and I have been trying to drum up interest over on the Crackberry forums for someone to develop this app, and William came to our rescue like a bolt from the blue.

I just finished installing the newly-released version 0.1.4, and William seems to have deftly fixed all the little bugs I'd encountered in version 0.1.1.

Is that a Zork in your pocket, or are you just happy to have something to do on the plane? (No playing Leather Goddesses during boring church services, you perverts!)

Fallout 3: Stuck on the Blood Ties quest? Here's a solution.

2008-10-30T07:19:00.007-04:00

If, like me, you are working on the Fallout 3 quest Blood Ties and have spend hours searching for The Family without success, check out this blog post from Kelly at Outer Heaven.

Fallout 3: Megaton of Fun?

2008-10-29T16:01:00.009-04:00

So far, F3 really nails the Fallout feel. Especially the opening "character growth" / character creation sequence - that was really well done.

A quick comment on the organic character generation, though. Although it's fun to see what kind of character gets spat out, players may not get what they ultimately want. I tried not to "game" the aptitude test sequence, and did get a character that was pretty much want I was hoping for, barring one weirdly-placed skill focus point. Wisely, Bethesda allows you to tweak your three skill foci though, so all was well. (I think the original Fallout let you do a final tweak too.)

I'm not fond of the real time melee combat - the control feels muddy and mushy - maybe even drunken. Note that this comment is based on solely on baseball bat vs. nightstick scuffles in the cramped quarters of Vault 101 - hopefully melee is less annoying out in the open wasteland. I found this fact strange, because melee in Oblivion had seemed a bit more precise. (That said, my Oblivion character was an archery specialist, so I didn't do as much sword hackery as pointy-stick-launching.) Hopefully, the VATS system will make up for the mushy-melee shortfall, but my jury is still out on VATS.

So far I've played through the (extensive) opening sequence, left the vault, and after a quick scout around the surrounding landscape, made my way to the first town (Megaton).

I'm enjoying the characters, atmosphere, and dialogue so far. The Oblivion-engine facial models though, are still creepy. They are stiff and lifeless - especially compared to Mass Effect's exemplary showing in that area. I find the effect jarring, especially paired with the excellent F3 voice acting and dialogue writing. Given that older games (Half Life 2 comes to mind) have done a much better job with facial animations, Fallout 3 character faces end up looking very dated.

One last early observation - I can't seem to access a description blurb of the items present in Container or Barter windows. Sure, "Sawed-off Shotgun" is self-explanatory, but WTF is a "Schematic: Shishkebab"??

More after additional play time.

Fable II: Early Impressions

2008-10-22T10:15:00.005-04:00

Man, what a whirlwind this morning at work. Need a sanity check - Ditlog take me away!

I got started with Fable II last night. Well OK, I played for like 6 hours… I’m really enjoying it. Not lightning-struck like I’d been with Morrowind or WoW or anything, but definitely enjoying it.

The moral choices set before your character, and their impact on the world around you, seem very well-implemented so far. The world, the characters, and all the events within it seem cohesive, interconnected and believable.

The mechanism for interacting with the average citizen, however, is not. Your character doesn’t talk, and can only communicate with fellow citizens through a short list of emote functions. This leaves the player feeling like a Cro-Magnon, unable to articulate his thoughts to his neighbors other than via mimed threats, idiotic dancing or whistling, or clumsily-juvenile romantic or lewd gesticulations.

Maybe times have changed, but when I was single it took more than whistling a few tunes, striking a pose, and performing a ridiculous Russian dance to convince my intended paramour to come home with me, or even sillier, accept my hand in marriage. (Or maybe I’m just that bad a dancer?) Not so in Albion.

The combat system is button-mashy and light, but becomes a bit deeper as your character gains in experience. I’m enjoying it so far, even though none of the enemies – in any quantity – pose you any tangible threat.

I’m a huge sucker for games that provide a palpable sense of exploration though, and Fable II delivers in spades. Albion is a visceral and wondrous fairly tale land, albeit with a bit of a dark side. One can sprint myopically from one quest to the next, but straying from Fable’s ingenious “glowing bread crumb trail” to check out what’s down the next fork in the path, under a bridge, or behind a copse of trees is almost always rewarding and satisfying.

Oh, one last comment. A few of the press reviews have commented on the frame rate. At this point, I've not encountered any hiccups that were noticeable. So far, the engine is handling Albion's sprawling vistas remarkably well. Now The Force Unleashed on the other hand? Those were some frame rate issues!

More as my game progresses…

All That is Old is Nerd Again

2008-10-15T13:18:00.008-04:00

BattleMech Technicians Rule!

I recently started getting back into Classic BattleTech. Though perhaps more on hiatus then off, I've been playing this game for literally decades, and after a rousing game at our yearly weekend gaming fest, Nuke(m)Con, I decided to take the plunge and pick up the Introductory Box Set for my son and I to enjoy. (And, true to my typical nerd-zealotry, a map pack and a TRO too...)

Anyway, with this rekindled interest in BattleTech, I began searching for BT computer games. Firstly, I had never finished Microsoft's MechWarrior 4: Vengeance (a 2000 release), so I started checking to see if there is any widescreen support for it. (My PC is currently equipped with a gorgeous 21 inch WS Samsung LCD, and no way was I sullying it with icky stretched-out Mech graphics...) There does appear to be a registry hack. So far, so good.

Even better, MW4: Mercenaries (the 2002 standalone expansion to Vengeance) has received a ton of rapt aftermarket love from the community. First, MekTek.net has created a MekPak adding 29 more canon mechs to the game, plus more weapons, weapon slots, maps, and camo schemes. (Apparently, one can't use these mechs in campaign mode, however, without using a wonky "selling and buying back a mech three times" exploit. They are all available in the Instant Action and multiplayer modes, though. )

Second and even better, the folks at the MechStorm website have created a high-def patch for MW4: Mercs. It updates the graphics of all the original mechs (and many of the MekTek ones), adds upgraded sound effects, and improves the graphics of many of the rocks, plants, and buildings.

I've already placed an order for MW4: Mercs on nuLime.com...

Finally, a group is creating a total conversion of Crysis called Mechwarrior: Living Legends, and it's due out this winter. Be sure to check out their first teaser trailer - it's well worth the short download. This sucker is full-out BattleTech. It includes vehicles, infantry, aerospace fighters - everything! And stunning graphics that will probably break my PC...

And X-Wing Mechanics, Too!

Now, if you've been reading Ditlog lately (as thousands upon thousands of loyal fans do monthly - uhh, *cough*), you've noticed that I'm also all smitten with the Star Wars universe these days.

During a recent playtest of the starship combat in the SWSE RPG rules, we were talking nostalgically about the old Lucasarts and X-Wing and Tie Fighter games. My buddy Damon mentioned that there had been an updated X-Wing release in the not-too-distant past, so I looked it up.

Not only does X-Wing Alliance (1999) look sweet (and support widescreen), but a group at the X-Wing Alliance Upgrade site has been creating gorgeous updated models and skins for the spacecraft and scenery. I can't wait to try this one out too!

The next step will probably be finding a program to get a gamepad to play nice with these aging games...

My Bittersweet Affair with The Force Unleashed: a Spoiler-Free Review

2008-10-06T12:09:00.015-04:00

Well, I finally finished The Force Unleashed yesterday (on Xbox 360). Let me first say that yes, I enjoyed the game - as did my son. In retrospect, I think there are two major factors leading to the lukewarm reviews the game has been receiving.

Kickin' Butt Old School

Firstly, in many ways the gameplay is very retro. To quote TFU project lead Haden Blackman, "this game is about kicking ass with the Force." Thing is though, one needs to kick an awful lot of ass to get from point A to point B. Distilled down, TFU most closely resembles a modern and more versatile version of classic arcade beat 'em up games like Double Dragon or Konami's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Okay, okay - I can already hear the fanboys screaming (as if millions of nerds suddenly cried out in anger and refused to be silenced.) Bear with me and follow along:

You're moving steadily forward along a highly linear path? Check.
You are hindered in your progress by hordes of determined, but very similar combatants? Check.
Fighting involves a lot of button-mashing, and a few relatively simple combos are available to you? Check.
You get to fight a bigger, tougher, more interesting dude at the end of the level? Check.
Rinse, repeat? Check.

Now granted, this particular beat 'em up happens to feature some pretty spectacular graphics and sound. And the battlegrounds include cool spaceships, lush alien planets, and sinister space stations. (And it's set in the Star Wars universe too - I almost forgot.)

As I'd mentioned in my preview, the potential exists for the game to come off like a boring button-masher. Don't miss the boat, though - the designers intend for you to wade through your numerous enemies like an orchestral conductor weaving a symphony of dark side destruction. Mix and vary your force powers and attacks, make use of all the interesting combos available to you, and challenge yourself to fling that stormtrooper or punt that jawa just a bit farther than the last time. Because even so, your thumb will probably be sore by the end of your play session - to some extent it's up to you to make it interesting.

You will probably also need to approach the tougher fights like you would those in an old school game. In the end, almost all the bosses and unique sequences require following some kind of pattern or trick. Many of the press reviews complained about such segments of the game, but maybe I'm a little more immune since I'm a crusty old Gen X gamer who cut his teeth on content like this.

Test that boss for weaknesses, watch for patterns, and take advantage of soft spots. Personally, I found the boss battles very interesting and engaging, and once the "trick" was discovered, the difficulty of the fight was much less than at first blush. Don't be too embassased to check GameFaqs either - there are a few spots where the solutions just aren't very evident.

Regarding boss fights, I'm not sure I like the QTE's. That mechanic does allow the designers to involve the player during a cinematic sequence, but I find myself missing most of the action due to focusing on the next button-press prompt. I think my vote is "meh" - I prefer fighting the boss in real time and then watching a cinema after I've beaten them.

One last retro facet is the search for hidden "jedi holocrons" that offer additional experience and power-ups. Some are hidden, and many of the more obvious require a hackle-raising series of jumps and timing to reach. If you really want to max out your character by the end of the game though, make the search for these golden goodies a priority and have fun looking - I did.

Polished, it is Not

The second weakness of the game contributing heavily to the critical raspberries is the lack of general polish and fine-tuning. TFU simply feels a bit rushed to market. Yes, the graphics are beautiful and detailed, the sound and voicework commendable, and the physics modeling excellent. On the other hand, the camera control is often spastic and contrary, the frame rate hitches frequently, and the horizontal tearing is distractingly prominent. Perhaps Lucasarts is simply pushing the 360 to its processing limits, but I'd speculate that further optimization of the graphics engine would have alleviated most of these issues. Topping off the mechanical maladies, the menu system is clunky and annoyingly slow-loading.

The gameplay itself could have benefited from further tuning as well. The timing of many enemies' attacks seemed to coincide exactly to your character's recovery speed, such that even the lowliest EVO trooper is sometimes able to knock you down repeatedly. Hordes of such enemies - common towards the end of the game - find you frequently stun locked and frustrated. Add a sniping Scout Trooper or two to the mix, or maybe several rocket-firing Jump Troopers who hover in silently out of our field of vision, and you're off to the loading screen once more.

It also bothered me that several enemies were only defeatable through spamming a single attack - several force bars worth of the same attack, mind you. Such an arrangement often finds you running in circles, dodging attacks and waiting for your force power to regenerate. Your thumbstick skills will be tested, but such play is a bit one-dimensional.

Now to my final gameplay bitch. I know that the designers were trying to dream up ways to challenge your incredibly-powerful character, but if the Empire really possessed this many Force-immune super-troopers, would the jedi knights have ever posed an actual threat?

Redemption

Despite all these drawbacks however, I still enjoyed the game. Sure, the gameplay can get a little repetitive, but you're repeatedly trashing stormtroopers with Force-lightning and lightsaber slashes. I'll take such tasks over hopping on mushrooms any day.

Speaking of weird flora, the planets (and starships) featured in the game are beautiful and varied, and your enemies behave convincingly and are well-animated and -voiced. The excellent application of physics effects also aids the player's suspension of disbelief.

In the end, after all of all its temptation towards the dark side of game quality, TFU is thankfully redeemed by its engaging story. Lucasarts has somehow managed to concoct a new and interesting character closely tied with major players from the movies, while successfully shoehorning him into the overarching movie plots in a manner both satisfying and uncontrived. I appreciated how the FU story paints Starkiller as a major influence on the events leading up to A New Hope, but not in a way that might raise the ire of lifelong fans. Bravo to Mr. Blackman and his writing team.

Star Wars Saga Edition >> 4E!

2008-10-03T16:47:00.011-04:00

With the release of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, my table-top gaming group spent a long time discussing our options. Many of the players were either miffed at WotC's handling of the release (and seemingly summary dismissal of lifelong players), or unsatisfied with the new rules engine.

We did run a short playtest campaign of 4th Edition. Many of us liked the ruleset, but versatility seems lacking compared to 3.X and the rules for arcane magic in particular just don't suit our Greyhawk-based home campaign setting. Maybe the fit will improve as more sourcebooks flesh out the options available to players, but most of us are heavily dissatisfied with the core mechanics. Time will tell as more 4E content is released.

We certainly have the choice to continue playing 3.5E, but much of the gaming world will be moving on. Personally, I'm worried about the slippery slope - that I might become one of those weird, wild-eyed bearded fat guys off in the corner at GenCon still playing 1st Edition...

Then there's Paizo Publishing's new rising star - the Pathfinder system. Many of our players have taken a shine to Pathfinder, but we're not keen to start learning beta rules, which may change again with the final release next August.

So what to do in the mean time? Hey - what about those cool Star Wars Saga Edition rules that Ken picked up last GenCon? Although I hadn't been able to attend, my group had playtested the SWSE core rules and found them very much to their liking. Saga Edition seemed like a perfect compromise for the time being, so we've made the decision to play SE for a year and see if the final release of Pathfinder suits our taste for our triumphant return to Obsidian Bay.

Between working on my progress in KotOR II while my 360 was out for repair, and my more recent tawdry affair with The Force Unleashed, I was already on a fairly large Star Wars kick. The Saga Edition rules have Force-Grabbed me by the collar though. I simply can't remember being this excited about a RPG campaign for many a year.

Normally, I'm pretty lukewarm about RPG gaming. Sure, it's fun because I'm getting together with buds and gaming, but typically I'd much rather play strategy board games (geeky scifi- or fantasy-themed board games, that is) . Weirdly enough though, SWSE has me gnawing on my dice in anticipation.

One last note - for any readers actually playing SWSE, be sure to check out the Order 66 podcast - very well done and informative.

The Force Unleashed - Early Impressions

2008-09-17T15:45:00.011-04:00

Due to the lackluster launch day reviews, I decided to rent Star Wars: The Force Unleashed from Blockbuster instead of buying it outright. Per the reviewers, the game is about 8-9 hours long, so I'll probably get a dozen hours out of it (I like to smell the flowers and explore all the nooks and crannies).

For new games that I'm not sure I'll like, I'm beginning to think that Blockbuster might be a great solution. If you keep the game more than a week past the due date, Blockbuster charges your credit card as if you'd purchased the title. You then have up to a month to return the game for a refund, minus a $1.25 restocking fee.

Anyway, this was supposed to be a commentary about the game. If you liked the demo, I think you'll also like the game. At this point, I think my opinion matches that of the press - a solid 7.5. The game is fun, but imperfect.

I'm working on the second of nine total missions, and enjoying my dark side rampage quite a bit. The backstory and characters are very engaging, and I'm interested to see how the plot develops. The action is very hack-and-slash, and there is a risk here for boredom through repetition. Many of the reviewers toted the play as a button masher, and one could easily progress through the majority of the game with only the Jump and Lightsaber Attack buttons. I believe that that would be missing the designers' point though. The creative execution of the variety of attack options, powers, combos, and flourishes serves to keep the battering of numerous, similar enemies a fresh pursuit.

Sure, mini-bosses aside, in the Tie Fighter Factory level, you're going to be fighting hordes of only a few types of rebel guards and Stormtroopers. I'm approaching the game like a Sith apprentice would, though. This one gets slashed twice, Force-shocked, and then hurled into a bunker full of buddies (Sith bowling - strike!). The next gets Force-grabbed, battered off the walls and ceiling, and finally impaled by my thrown saber. The last one, to his horror, is stunned by an airborne Force blast and tossed from the catwalk like a discarded doll, into the path of an oncoming Tie Fighter - boom! It's like a ballet, and you're choreographing a masterpiece of sci-fi bad guy destruction.

Sure, the targeting is a little wonky, and the controls and camera slightly imprecise. The tech is also pushing the 360 a little hard - the framerate dips and there is frequent horizontal tearing. Yes, the boss fights can be a little trial-and-error and your path sometimes unclear. In the end though, the story is catchy, the visual and audio effects stellar, and the thrill of guiding a dark jedi through his violent journey is engaging. It's not approaching perfect, but it's fun.

I didn't want to set the controller down at bedtime last night, I wanted to play hooky from work this morning to play some more, and I'm looking forward to swinging a saber around tonight. 'Nuff said.

The Xbox: Fight the Future RRoD

2008-09-17T15:45:00.010-04:00

Well, I've received a refurbished 360 back from Microsoft. Not *my* 360, mind you, but a 360 nonetheless.

This one seems to run a heck of a lot hotter than my old one (if my memory serves me). The rear fans are exhausting a blast that feels like output of a hair drier. I'm worried this one is going to red-ring again in a week. Even worse, the optical drive seems twice as loud as the one in my old machine. I know Microsoft had used several different vendors for their drives - this was from the crappy one.

So, yes Mr. Gates got my console back within an admirable 2-week window, but I'm not completely happy. Unfortunately, I think I got an older, inferior build of the Elite console back in exchange. Bleh.

Three Inconvenient Red Rings

2008-08-27T09:36:00.004-04:00

Yes, I've finally joined that club. My Xbox 360 Elite gave up the ghost Saturday after just shy of a year's service. No big deal - I've still got a great list of games to play on other systems - but the Fall Avalanche of Goodness is nearly upon us, and I haven't even received my shipping box from Microsoft yet.

Just this morning for instance, I received the LucasArts Insider email newsletter announcing the September 16th North American launch date for Star Wars: the Force Unleashed.

Yes, I'll have just as much fun playing it later. No, I'm not happy about having to wait for it.

Zork on a Blackberry?

2008-08-25T12:16:00.003-04:00

Several of us on the Crackberry forums are trying to drum up interest to get a developer to write a Z-Machine interpreter for Blackberrys.

What am I talking about? Remember the Infocom text adventures (interactive fiction) from the late 70s / early 80s? Games like Zork and the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? Z-Machine is the program that runs all those old adventures, and a lot of new public domain ones.

If you're interested, click here and sign the poll!

JoCopedia, or Why the Internet Gives Me a Boner

2008-08-19T16:53:00.014-04:00

First, a little background. I haven't really played guitar much at all since my son Zack was born 12 years ago. I'd sold my cherished Gretsch electric and amp due to lack of free time (and impossibility playing with sleeping babies around). Before that, I'd been playing since I was 13.

Back to the future, I happened to watch Live Free or Die Hard on Sunday (edit: see below). The movie ended with Creedance's Fortunate Son, a personal fave, and I thought, "hmm, I bet I could play that." I picked up the acoustic that my sister had given me a few months back and started diddling.

Wasn't able to get it all right away, and started to feel silly rewinding the DVD credits repeatedly, so I Googled for the tablature, and sure enough it's WAY FREAKING EASIER to get music than it was when last I played guitar...

So, I learned both Fortunate Son and Around the Bend, and sat the guitar down an hour later, with sore fingers and a sense of satisfaction.

Fast forward two more days, and I'm at work listening to Jonathan Coulton. That same little bug starts chewing and I Google for Coulton tabs - surely a much more elusive goal. "No, no, you silly man," Google says, "you have made the classic mistake of underestimating the fervor of the modern geek, and the great Jonathan Coulton specifically. Behold: JoCopedia!"

I'm so sorry, Jonathan - I will never again doubt you.

Edit: I forgot to give a shout for Len Wiseman's directing chops. Underworld and Underworld: Evolution are way high on my list, and with LFoDH Mr. Wiseman has proven that his Action Fu is indeed impressive. Can't wait for January 23rd!!!

Writing for Recon

2008-08-01T10:47:00.002-04:00

I am very excited to announce that I am getting published! My product review of the Dangerous Power G3 paintball marker will be included in the forthcoming issue 4:2 of the quarterly woods paintball magazine Recon.

New Layout

2008-08-01T10:12:00.002-04:00

Well, I finally got sick of the old "Snapshot Tequila" template screwing up the header, so I made a switch.

In this age of expansive flat screen real estate, I also decided to avoid a fixed-width layout. Unfortunately, Blogger only has a few "stretching" templates, so this one will have to do for now.

Mass Effect: Navigating the Hemorrhoid Field

2007-12-28T09:28:00.000-05:00

Commander's Log: Stardate 122807

Hard to believe it's been a month since the last Mass Effect post - December was so busy!

Well, I'm still early in the game - maybe a dozen hours or so. I've finished the quests at the Citadel and have traveled on to the frozen planet of Noveria.

The graphical glitches bothered me much, much less during my intervening playing sessions. Everything is more flawed under a microscope, and I was obviously looking too closely. That said, the shadowing effects seem to be the biggest culprit regarding my earlier misgivings. The engine doesn't seem to have quite enough horsepower to do proper on-character shading, so why implement it?

In that vein lies many of Mass Effect's problems. Yes, the game is pretty, the conversations intriguing, the plot engaging, and the combat system promising. The underlying game engine, however, can be a chronic source of posterior pain. Why, oh why were so many of KotOR's nuts-and-bolts problems not ironed out during the development of this game?

Yes, the ME combat system (like KotOR's before it) can be unforgiving and even a bit random at times. I can deal with that. What I don't want to deal with is a minute-long loading pause before resuming combat. Why are the assets for the area I was just inhabiting reloaded each time I die? Could the code not simply check to see if the player were re-playing the same area he just died in? Obviously, if a player were to load a save in a different locale, the game would have to import those resources, but in this case we're replaying the same damn room!

Loading pause aside, I am then forced to re-watch the short video sequence that takes place before the combat is triggered. Every time I die. Ugh. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I've mashed every button on my controller trying to skip the same clip featuring the same bunch of Geth unfolding, jumping up onto a wall, and posing menacingly - for the sixth time. I know they're there - they just killed me. Let's get on with it already!

Then there are the ambiguous "where the hell do I go now?" moments - those places where the quest system seems to forget what you were doing and forgoes implying any sense of direction. I was told to go talk to Guy X, but Guy X strangely doesn't have anything to say to me - now what?? I'm also supposed to go to Place Y and do something, but Place Y doesn't show up on my map. Even so, a deadline timer is still ticking down and I have to save the people at Place Y before it expires. Grr.

Finally, one last rant - this time about combat vehicles that are strangely incapable of shooting up or down. Yes, Commander Shepard - you have a groovy prototype space tank with standard features such as Hypercrystal Ceramisteel Armor Plating, Diminished Mass Effect Jump Jets, Excited Tachyon Pulse Lasers , and a Mark IV Phasing Ultra-Cannon. A weapons turret featuring both side-to-side and up-and-down movement is beyond our technological capabilities however - so sorry!

In a way, I think that EA purchasing Bioware will have a positive ending. Bioware does so many things well story-wise, but their games can be very clunky from a mechanical aspect. In my eyes, the resources that they should be able to take advantage of under EA will hopefully enable them to create the nearly-flawless game we'd all like to play. Until then, I'll continue to be dazzled by the dialog while raging about the rough spots.

Merry Christmas and a Geeky New Year!

2007-12-28T08:40:00.000-05:00

So, it's been a while since I posted. Basically, the nuttiness of the holiday has simply been keeping me busy as heck.

We started painting the kitchen in December, and ended up racing to get everything buttoned up before the holidays. There's still a little touching up to be done, but we at least got the room far enough along to be presentable to holiday visitors and attendees to our annual post-Christmas party (which is tonight!).

My parents visited over the holidays, which was great, and everything went without a hitch. Heather had to work on Christmas, but we went in to have lunch with her and her coworkers, and that turned out to be a nice time.

The other thing that's been keeping me busy is the Great Games Deluge of Late '07. Truly, it's been a great fall to be a gamer. Over the last few weeks, I finished Portal (a simply sublime religious experience) and Halo 3 (quite fun as well), and dove back into Bioshock with the intent of finally finishing it up.

The further I get into Bioshock, the more I like it. At first, gorgeous atmosphere aside, the game felt a little rote and repetitive. As the story began to progress, however, I surrendered to the plot and began to allow the designers to lead me through by the nose ring. Great stuff, and a truly wonderful setting rife with ambiance and impeccable art direction. Fear my wrench, you dirty Splicers!

Next on the finish-me list are Gears of War and Half-Life 2. I'm a few hours into both stories and am enjoying them thoroughly. I'm enticed with the possibilities of GoW multiplayer, as the gameplay reminds me fondly of paintball, which the crummy Northeast US weather has been keeping me away from.

Then there's Mass Effect. See my upcoming diary post re. that title.

Finally, the unveiling of the grand '07 geek present pile:

Settlers of Catan (new redesigned 4th Ed.) - I'm very much looking forward to introducing my family to this great board game, and also getting my gamer friends together at the table for yet another enjoyable Catan session.
Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magical Carrot (card game) - Zack (my 11-yr old son) had originally seen this game at Mepacon, and then bought it for me for Xmas when he came upon it when they were buying Settlers. I've been reading through the rules and it should be a hoot. Great game to play with Zack and my gamer friends.
Rock Band (360) - from "Santa" to me and Zack. A definite improvement over Guitar Hero, and I'm excited to try this with a full band of four - this'll definitely get broken out at the party tonight. I've been enjoying playing with Zack, my little drummer boy, and also unlocking lots of songs on guitar Solo Tour on hard difficulty. The RB guitar is a huge improvement over the GH version - finally a neck-button design friendly to actual guitar players!
Super Mario Galaxy - Was on sale at Target for $37 after Xmas, and couldn't pass up dropping some of my Xmas money on it. I'm only a few minutes in, but am intrigued so far. Invokes the delightful experience that was Super Mario 64 way back when (so much more effectively than SM Sunshine, which I just couldn't get in to).
Call of Duty 4 (360) - Another fishhook-in-my-wallet $37 Target item. Haven't even cracked the plastic open, but am looking forward to doing so. By all online accounts, this game is sounding like a very serious contender for Game of the Year, and I simply love a great single-player campaign.

That's it for now - tune in soon for a post-Xmas-party Rock Band debriefing.

Take Me Down To (Burnout) Paradise City

2007-12-14T13:21:00.000-05:00

After my friends' weekly Halo 3 session last night, I had a chance to try out the recently-released Burnout Paradise demo. I was so impressed that I had to do a quick write-up.

For previous fans, note that I'm new to the Burnout franchise, so view my comments in that light. Criterion has created this wonderful driving sandbox. They have lovingly crafted over thirty square kilometers of city landscape for us to race through, and the implementation is truly impressive.

The demo reminds me of GTA3 (minus the violent crime of course) through the sense of free-roaming exploration I feel navigating the expansive streets of Paradise City. Note that only one section of the city is available in the demo - the red section of this map - but even this small portion of the city is huge!

The city is littered with ramps, secret shortcuts, and spectacular, subtly-hidden superjump opportunities. Add to that a positively supreme damage model and cringe-inducing, jaw-dropping slow motion crash sequences and you've got one incredibly enjoyable urban racer, my friend.

Best of all, the car control is spot-on. In a racer like Burnout Paradise, players are challenged to both precisely control one's vehicle when hurtling through oncoming traffic at Ludicrous Speed, and also to execute outrageous, stuntman-style maneuvers when drifting and skidding around tight 90-degree downtown turns. The control here is a perfect balance of fishtail-happy arcade-racer and technical driving sim, and the degree of cornering traction control via throttle is perfect for a game like this.

Note that I haven't even started playing with the built-in racing events - I've simply been careening around the city, soaking up the rubber-smoking, octane-guzzling sandbox thrillfest that is eastern Paradise City. The sense of speed this game provides needs to be experienced first-hand. I can't wait to try out all the actual racing events.

I also hear that multiple players can explore the city together in free-roaming mode via Live, and the opportunities for screaming steel mayhem stretch out tantalizingly before me.

BP is being developed by Criterion Games for EA, and is slated for a January 22nd release. If the game sounds intriguing, be sure to check out Criterion's Crash FM Podcast.

Weisman Regains Rights to FASA Properties

2007-12-09T09:16:00.000-05:00

Many fans will be delighted to hear that Jordan Weisman's new company Smith & Tinker has licensed the rights for the Battletech, Shadowrun, and Crimson Skies properties back from Microsoft. Here's a link to the press release.

Go Jordan! Can't wait to see what his next move will be.

Gerstmanngate: GameSpot Editors Talk

2007-12-07T09:47:00.000-05:00

During my commute this morning, I listened to GameSpot's "The Hotspot" podcast. This week, the GS editors addressed what issues they could involving Jeff Gerstmann's firing, and tried to defuse some of the community's perhaps misguided ire.

After hearing their take, I'm not sure I am entirely convinced of CNET's motives, but the GameSpot editors have allayed my concerns about their end of the business. They seem genuinely shocked at both Mr. Gerstmann's firing and the community's torch-and-pitchfork reaction to last week's events. It is clear to me that this team remains true to their goal or providing the ethical coverage that's kept me coming back to their site for years, and I'm glad to hear it.

The question is corporate CNET's motives aside, I'm going to continue to frequent the GameSpot site. In fact, I renewed my subscription this morning to show my support to what seems like a group of highly dedicated, genuine game journalists. I wish the GameSpot team good luck in regaining any lost trust from their readers, and Mr. Gerstmann the same in his future endeavors.

That's a big Twinkie...

2007-12-05T15:37:00.000-05:00

IGN AU just posted a big writeup on the forthcoming Ghostbusters game after being treated to some hands-on time and a tour of the Terminal Reality studios. The more I hear about this game, the more my Twinkie grows.

You see, my family and I are huge Ghostbuster fans. I mean, my son christened our cats Gozer and Zuul. That should tell you something right there. As such, I'm super excited about this game - especially after hearing that Aykroyd and Ramis are intimately involved in the project. An interactive version of Ghostbusters 3 would be very welcome in my Xbox.

The probable lack of co-op play is a potential bummer, but on the flip side, we get a collateral damage score at the end of every level. It seems this game is in good hands.

Bioshock Patch - 2K Plugs Up Some of the Leaks

2007-12-03T09:52:00.000-05:00

2K recently announced that we'll receive not only a patch this week, but also some new DLC for their excellent, wonderfully atmospheric shooter. Both PC and 360 platforms will receive these updates.

I'm quite glad to hear this news, as I'd stopped playing Bioshock in anticipation of some fixes. The game control had been designed with a gamepad in mind, and the acceleration Irrational had employed for the mouse movement made one feel like an intoxicated bovine in a Waterford crystal outlet. Hopefully some more precise mouse control is part of the patch, because it was a shame for such a minor oversight to mar such an incredible game.

Now if I can just finish painting the kitchen so I have a little free time... Splice away, citizens!

Tim Schafer and the Revenge of the Sweater Prez

2007-11-30T16:36:00.000-05:00

I think I owe it to the loyal, milling throngs of gamers out there that (don't) read my blog to recommend this excellent post on OXM by the great Tim Schafer.

GameSpot's Gerstmann Caned and Lynched?

2007-11-30T11:13:00.000-05:00

This story may become a very interesting one. Jeff Gerstmann, a long time editor at CNET's popular gaming portal website GameSpot, was fired Wednesday. Current interweb speculation revolves around a connection with his recent less-than-glowing review of the game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.

The game's publisher Eidos had been advertising the game very heavily on GameSpot over the last few weeks, so industry watchers are wondering how much Eidos' influence as an important advertiser factored into CNET's decision to let Gerstmann go. Obviously, questions are immediately raised regarding the journalistic integrity of this trusted game review site. Thing is, Gerstmann had given the game a score of 6.0, which is not a great deviation from the overall Metacritic score of 68%.

Gerstmann's video review of the game was also pulled from GameSpot at some point, but has been posted on YouTube. To be fair to GameSpot, it is not his best work at all.

I know that GameSpot is certainly high on my list of information sources, and as a result I will be watching developments very closely. Check out posts on Kotaku, Achievement Junkie, Wired's GameLife blog, and Penny Arcade's scathing commentary for some more angles.

Mass Effect: Deep Space Graphical Anomalies

2007-11-28T08:26:00.001-05:00

Commander's Log: Stardate 112807

I finally carved some time out last night to jump deeper into Mass Effect. I'm probably about six hours into the game now, and I wanted to touch on two aspects of the game that made an impression immediately:

The visual presentation is amazing.
The visual presentation is rather glitchy.

Now, to form the complete picture, note that I'm a new Xbox 360 owner, and also a new HDTV owner. I'd been holding off on buying the former until the time was right to splurge on the latter. I just couldn't see playing next-gen HD games on a standard def TV. Being a long-time PC gamer, I'm used to high def, impressive graphics. OK, I'll just admit it - I'm a bit of a video snob.

That said now, for the past few months I've been thoroughly enjoying some of what the 360 has to offer: Halo 3, Carcassonne, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Gears of War. Such great stuff. I've become accustomed to how beautiful 360 games look on my new 50 inch 1080p Samsung DLP display. Even so, Mass Effect manages to step this great platform up another notch - sort of.

Yes, the character models, facial animation, and lush environments are all gorgeous. Poking through this captivating but thin veneer, however, are some irritating problems. Firstly, the engine can't seem to keep up with the visuals. The frame rate is inconsistent and unpredictable. Awe inspiring, cinematic character conversations and cutscenes lose their punch when a slow camera pan lurches jarringly during a dramatic line delivery.

Then there's the facial modeling. Bioware has definitely taken this craft to the next bar. Why then allow this beautiful technology to be marred with strange clipping and texture anomalies?
In mid conversation, a character will spontaneously sprout a weird texture effect, like some insidious attack of rampant space blackheads. Then, seconds later, their Proactiv Solution kicks in and like magic it all disappears.

One last complaint: horizontal tearing. I know the 360 is essentially just a PC under the hood, but this is literally the first time I have ever witnessed tearing on a console game. The incidence isn't super-frequent or severe, but this is one last dent in an otherwise flawless paint job.

All this might come across as hypercritical bitching. Make no mistake - I absolutely love this game and my follow-up posts will certainly be detailing my positive experiences. I'm certain that the highly impressive presentation of this game makes these little imperfections all the more evident. In the end, Bioware is a RPG developer - not a shooter developer. So perhaps given the grand scope of their universe and the enthralling depth of the story and dialog, one should forgive these minor complaints. Developers must deal with ship dates, and these few glitches were likely one last facet that just couldn't be addressed before the holiday street date.

Myself, I'm rooting for a patch. Bioware has created another console RPG work of art, truly taking the genre to the next level, and an early patch addressing these few technical snags would leave the fans (and press) with a flawless, shining gem. I'd love to see Bioware receive the accolades they deserve, free of any minor gripes (like the ones I've ungratefully brought to light here).

Mass Effect: the Final Frontier?

2007-11-27T13:48:00.000-05:00

The scope of this game is truly galactic. I mean, I've literally spent ten minutes straight in a conversation with a single game character. Deep space, indeed.

So, I'm not going to be penning any formal review as such. Given the machine-gun pace of enticing new releases, there's no way I'm going to make enough progress in Mass Effect to produce any kind of timely comprehensive review. Instead, I'll be posting frequently with my thoughts on the game as I make time to play.

For those of you floating aimlessly in the vacuum left by Bioware's sparse documentation, be sure to check out GameSpot's Mass Effect Game Guide. It does a great job of filling in the black hole where your game manual should be.

(Comic) Book of the Month Club

2007-11-27T13:30:00.000-05:00

My gaming group got together Friday for some gaming (we playtested Savage Worlds). During the session someone had mentioned us trying a graphic-novel-of-the-month type arrangement by which we'd agree on a specific book and then get together a month later over beer and discuss it.

I really hope this idea flies - I think it's pure genius. I'm not buying comics right now, so I'm only reading the few that friends lend me. It would be really great to get back to it in this fashion.

Catagorical Destruction

2007-11-27T11:59:00.000-05:00

Apparently, during my writing hiatus Blogger has decided to implement a post tagging system. That's a great new feature, but in doing so they have simultaneously destroyed my existing tagging system, which was a Blogger hack based on a Greasemonkey script and Del.ici.us.

I think my only recourse is going back through all my posts and pasting all the current hacked tags into Blogger's new system. Luckily, I hadn't been that prolific...

I think I've learned my lesson though. No more features relying on hacks, because Blogger will eventually break them. Expect the sidebar to be a little gorked up for a few days. I'm going to begin removing any features based on hacks and replacing them with more stable, built-in Blogger functionality.

Getting Back to Writing

2007-11-27T10:35:00.000-05:00

Well, maybe nobody's reading, but I think I'm going to start writing again anyway - I miss it.

A recent episode (#109) of the PC Gamer podcast got me thinking about the blog and why I write. The whole thing is cathartic I suppose. People have maintained journals since man invented pen and ink, and I suppose it's simply a healthy outlet for ones' passions. Mine simply happens to be gaming.

[Cue Queensryche's "Anybody Listening?"] So, audience/community or no, I'm going to get back to it. If you're out there and reading, do chime in with a comment. I'd love to get some dialog going, but if no one's out there I'm going to write anyway. Damn them torpedoes. Damn them to hell.

More Spiff/Coulton WoW Video Love - Uh, Literally...

2006-11-13T10:02:00.000-05:00

First off, I'd like to apologize to the incredibly long list of people out there that (don't) read Ditlog for the lack of content. I was hoping that Ditlog would generate a little more buzz and interaction, but seeing none, I've been less than motivated to spend time writing.

Moreover, I'm working on content for a new podcast, so my creative energies have been channeled in that direction. Basically, we're crafting an instructional, episodic World of Warcraft audio program. Expect the content to start out basic, with tips and advice for all the new players out there. As the show progresses, we will delve into more and more advanced strategy. Look for an announcement here with more info soon.

Anyway, back on track, I just wanted to point out that Spiff has released yet another great WoW machinima music video for one of Jonathan Coulton's great tunes, this time First of May. Warning: the song lyrics and especially the video content are very adult in nature - probably not work-safe, and definitely not kid-safe. Enjoy!

George Hrab is Mur Lafferty's Man in the Boat

2006-09-14T10:03:00.001-04:00

Our huge home town annual event, Musikfest, has come and gone a few weeks back. My friend Jon turned me on to an amazing musician and lyricist, George Hrab, with his excellent philosofunky band the Geologic Orchestra in tow. Awesome night - instant fan. Geo's show was the highlight of my Musikfest 2006, even considering the fact that I got a chance to see Brother twice and the return of the mighty Alice in Chains, virtually in my own back yard.

In seemingly unrelated news, I recently downloaded show #75 of the Wingin' It podcast. I'm not a regular listener, but I am a fan of Mur Lafferty's Geek Fu Action Grip 'cast. Ol' Mighty Mur had explained that this Wingin' It episode had been taped live at DragonCon, and that the antics weren't to be missed.

Imagine my suprise when, only seconds into the show, Mike and Evo announce their musical guest, George Hrab! George busts into a live accoustical rendition of Cruel Spines; the crowd goes wild in drunken hilarity.

Not to be outdone, Mur soon launches into a fervent reading of her essay on the clitorus and associated male incompetance, written on the spot only several minutes before. Laugh out loud stuff, and the audience is totally eating out of her hand. The whole nutty performance is capped off by, at the request of an enthusiastic male audience member, a show-and-tell how-to, complete with a large scale model constructed from a jacket and starring George Hrab's bald pate as the man in the boat. Unbelieveable!

Mike and Evo wrest control back to a degree, do their thing, and the show ends with another tune from Geo, this time Brainsbodyboth.

So, be sure to check out Wingin' It Show #75, whether you're a fan of Mur, Geo, or just want a good laugh.

Edit: I just found out that George Hrab actually lives in central city Bethlehem - got to be a short walk from my house. I'd thought he was a Philly resident, seeing as he's the drummer for the Philadelphia Funk Authority and all. Just makes the coincidence even stranger in my mind.

Back to the Future, with Zack in Tow

2006-09-12T13:54:00.000-04:00

My wife Heather and I have been digging into our mental hit lists of kid-friendly movies from our growing years. Some of our recent Netflix rentals have included Krull (in all its cheezy glory),
The Lost Boys, and a few of the Pink Panther movies. Want to see your 10-yr-old boy rolling around on the couch, belly laughing out loud? Think Inspector Clouseau and Kato trashing their flat in furiously-inept mortal(?) combat. Yep, that'll do it.

Obviously, I've been injecting a healthy dose of some of my geeky cinematic favorites - not trying to influence him or anything, though. Nope, wouldn't do that.

One series that has really been a hit with young Zack has been Back to the Future. Great movies, obviously, and barring a few comments from the peanut gallery regarding some 80's fashion choices, the series has weathered the years pretty well.

The cliffhanger endings of the first two actually left him in a state of frustrated excitement, and he'd asked me several times when the next installment was to arrive in the mail. In the end, when the credits of Part III began to roll, my little geek in training was actually frustrated and bummed out that it was all over, and that he didn't know where (when, actually) the Doc and family were headed in their hopped-up, time-traveling steam engine.

Yes friends, life can be good, and sharing something one loves with one's kids makes it so much richer. I think it's time to pull out the big guns - maybe Hawk the Slayer? :D

Spiff's WoW-based Jonathan Coulton Music Videos

2006-09-11T10:15:00.000-04:00

Using captured and choreographed World of Warcraft footage, Mike "Spiff" Booth has created some great music videos for a few of Jonathan Coulton's funny, geek-centric songs, including "Skullcrusher Mountain" and my absolute favorite, "re: Your Brains". Check them out on Spiff's YouTube page, and be sure to visit Jonathan Coulton's site as well of course, if you haven't already.

Back to WoW

2006-08-31T10:21:00.000-04:00

So, after almost exactly a month, I re-started my WoW account. Sure, Oblivion has been a lot of fun, and Guild Wars wasn't too bad, but I guess I just missed Azeroth. WoW is like the video-gaming version of a favorite, comfy pair of jeans.

I'm still going to have to try to find things to keep me intersted until the expansion, but the new short battleground queues have me very curious about PvP, and I'm also exploring the two Undead starting zones (new to me) with Darkken the rogue, who's now level 10 and sleeping soundly in the inn at Brill.

Now, if I only had a murloc pet...

A Week in Paradise

2006-08-30T09:38:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to do a full-blast writeup of my thoughts about our vacation, but work has just been nutty since our return, and my post-work energy levels not at their peak. So, a synopsis:

We've never taken a real vaacation. Ever since starting college, I've always lived away from my Pittsburgh-area family. As such, "vacations" and hence vacation days from work have been spent on visiting our loved ones. This year though, I vowed that we would begin placing more of a focus on "getting away" and taking at least a few short immediate-family trips as our budget would allow. Gladly, we've been mostly on track.

Enter serendipity. My retired "big boss" from work owns a condo in Ocean City. He'd been having trouble finding renters, and as such offered it to his ex-coworkers at a (very) discounted rate. I jumped on the chance.

Let me set the stage. My friend's condo is on the 14th and top floor of a large condo building smack in the middle of Ocean City, right on the beach. His condo is the corner unit, and features a huge balcony that wraps the whole way around the space in an "L" shape, facing the ocean along the entire length of the Eastern end of the unit. Take the elevator to the 1st floor, and you're standing in the sand.

The view is absolutely breathtaking, the air is as fresh as it gets, and the ocean breeze never stops blowing. Luck was with us, and the weather was absolutely perfect. The humidity was low (very important to me), and the temperature at mid-day hovered around a comfortable mid-eighties.

My parents met us there, and the five of us spent the week sleeping in, cooking yummy breakfasts, swimming, sunning, reading, digging in the sand, flying kites, enjoying dinner with a beer, and in summary - relaxing!

We left all complications behind - no contact with work, no internet, no nothing. Zack did bring his GameCube, I my DS Lite, and Heather her laptop and beloved Bejeweled 2, but hey - the week was for relaxation. Even my workaholic dad managed to mostly avoid work. With a little kind badgering, we largely kept him off his dialup work access and kicking back.

We even had dinner with my ex-boss, maxing the relaxing with some killer taco salad and my scratch-made margaritas. (No sissy store-bought mixes here folks - fresh squeezed limes, tequila, and triple sec on the rocks. Sit down, drink up, and hold onto your chairs...)

Our week was simply amazing. Having never done so, I just couldn't imagine the whole-body and -psyche reset that a week spent doing absolutely nothing ina beautiful place could provide. I still feel more relaxed, even several weeks after our return. Viva la vacation!

We've got one more quick trip planned for the season, this a weekend of roller coastering at Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH. I can't wait! I think I've learned my lesson, and my family feels closer for it. Did I mention viva la vacation?

3-D Display Tech on the Horizon

2006-08-25T09:24:00.000-04:00

Ugh - so many posts in my head, but work has been a madhouse since returning from vacation. I've no energy left to write when I get home...

Check out this Wired News article about Phillips' new 3D digital display technology. Apparently, this is no gimmicky, semi-functional tech demo, but rather a product that appears to be nearly ready for a commercial release.

I am so ready for some gaming on a 20' flatscreen monitor with this technology, even if it means I have to spring for a quad-SLI rig to power it!

Guild Wars - Initial (but Lengthy) Impressions

2006-08-03T10:23:00.000-04:00

I picked up Guild Wars last weekend as another MMORPG to try during my WoW hiatus. I must say, I've been very pleasantly surprised.

A Different Kind of MMO

GW differs from most other MMO's in one notable fashion: as soon as you leave a town for the wild, you will be adventuring in your own private "instanced" copy of that area. The only other players you can interact with are those in your party. There are no random encounters with other players, allied or enemy, when playing PvE content in GW. This situation can be a boon, since there's no competition for spawns or goals, and the chat channels are blissfully free of idiotic banter. The only downside is that you'll never be able to solicit help from a passerby, but this seems a small concession. ArenaNet's unique MMO architecture also requires only one global GW "server", which means that everyone who plays GW - worldwide - shares the same space. As such, there will be never be the problem of a friend potentially playing on a different server than you.

The Gameplay

On the surface, GW plays like most other fantasy MMORPGs. One runs around exploring, completing quests provided by NPC's, fighting enemies and collecting loot. Note that GW does an exceptional job of making quests non-tedious. The game plot is seamlessly woven into the quests, and in this area I feel that ArenaNet's execution was even more effective than Blizzard's World of Warcraft questing, which I also thought an improvement over the sometimes-tedious grind of previous MMORPG's.

GW could perhaps be considered a bit "lighter" than many other MMO's. It could accurately be called a comfortable fusion of Diablo II-style play and a full-blown MMO. Still, it has a great deal of depth in its own right - make no mistake.

The time to level a character up to max level (20 in this case) also seems considerably shortened. I believe this factor was by design, as the main focus of the GW endgame is group PvP combat. This isn't to say that PvE content ends at level 20 - far from it. Most players will continue to quest in the PvE realms to gather more powerful gear and skills.

On that note, a word about the true innovation of the GW character framework. I am quite convinced that ArenaNet consciously took a page from the CCG and collectible miniatures book when designing this game. Guild Wars is all about designing your character, and a strategy behind playing it, just like the focus of a CCG or HeroClix is collecting and building an effective and interesting deck or army.

Before explaining my CCG analogy, I'll give a quick background of character creation in Guild Wars. Each character chooses both a primary and (eventually) a secondary Profession (GW-speak for class). Each profession has 4 or 5 disciplines called Attributes associated with it, and each attribute governs a list of Skills, which represent special attacks, magical spells and other abilities.

For example, the Ranger Profession has the attributes Marksmanship, Wilderness Survival, and Beast Mastery. Furthermore, characters with Ranger as their primary profession may also access skills and effects based on the Ranger's Primary Attribute, Expertise.

Each time a character levels up, the player receives more attribute points (AP) to spend to increase the effectiveness of all skills based on that attribute. Skills, on the other hand, must be acquired through adventuring - either by earning them from a quest reward, buying them from a skill trainer, or capturing them from a boss enemy in the wild. Collecting Skills is much like collecting new CCG cards - each one opens the possibility of a new potential strategy or powerful combination. Gotta catch 'em all!

Here's where the "deck building" aspect comes in. Unlike other MMOs, the choices of how many AP are spent on each Attribute may be rearranged any time a character returns to a town - there is no restriction, fee, or penalty associated with rearranging one's character configuration.

Moreover, even though there is an extensive list of 100 total skills available to each Profession, characters may only utilize a set list of eight while adventuring. So, from the potential selection of 200 skills from their primary and secondary professions, a character must narrow their choices to a measly eight before leaving town!

As you can now see, designing and choosing an effective "character build" for a given mission or PvP battle is paramount. The build encompasses choosing complimentary equipment, distribution of Attribute Points, and a strategic list Skills to place in one's eight available slots. Further customization follows when deciding which character classes, and more specifically character builds, to include within an adventuring party or PvP force. An incredible amount of synergy may be created via the hundreds of possible skills available to a group of characters - anything from a versatile, well-rounded group to a finely focused approach designed around a single strategy. The choices are virtually limitless. Bravo, ArenaNet!

Graphics and Sound

No question, this game is really gorgeous. The "realistic" approach to the art style is a refreshing change to WoW's highly stylized, almost cartoonish atmosphere. The game also runs very smoothly given the high levels of detail - it is clear that the programming was efficiently done. Note that the Prophesies campaign runs under a DirectX 8 architecture, while subsequent releases are DX 9. All are quite attractive.

Guild Wars' sound quality is also notable. The effects are crisp and likeable, and I immediately noticed that the volume levels seemed very polished. Sound in World of Warcraft always seemed harsh to me - it always felt like the balance between the effects, voice, and music was impossible to adjust properly - and my wife was forever complaining about the intrusiveness of the sound. GW, though, seems to get it all right. One can always tell what's happening from audio queues, but the sound is never overbearing. Even better, an always-excellent Jeremy Soule soundtrack completes the very-satisfying aesthetic package.

I also really like the content delivery system. After a quick initial download of the updates beyond what resided on the install CDs, one is immediately off to the races. Additions to content are downloaded a little at a time, so there's no big download with a new "update" arrives. Note also that when an update is released, GW simply politely reminds you to restart the game the next time you return to a town. No servers resetting or anything that interrupts play time - very well done. It should also be noted that the game loads *extremely* quickly, and one can also sign off at a moment's notice. Touches like this really help if one only has a few minutes to play.

Presentation/Production

So far, there are only a few game features that I feel are truely lacking. One is the chat and communication interface. GW characters have both first and last names, and there is no mechanism to simply click on a character near you and select "whisper" or group "invite" - one must actually type out the whole name. Rather annoying. The Friends and Guild lists are a bit more functional though - one can click on those names to create a new message or group invite. Also, once you've added a character to your Friends list, they will appear regardless of which one of their particular characters is online - a nice feature that puts the emphasis of identity on a player rather than a character.

Also, the documentation is fairly thin in several areas. The Prophesies manual neglects to even mention several very crucial aspects of the game - the concept of Salvaging, for instance. I did browse the .pdf manual for Factions online, and it seemed like ArenaNet did remedy several of these important omissions. From what I'm hearing, the newbie zones of Factions also consciously do a much better job of teaching new players all the basic play mechanics. New Prophesies players, however, will probably have to visit fan sites to truely learn all the important aspects of the game. Several notable pages are the GuildWiki, GWOnline, and GuildWarsGuru.

Lots of Versions - What's the Difference?

Specifically, I bought the Game of the Year edition of the original GW "campaign", which is subtitled Prophesies. Considering that this MMO is going for $40 at GameStop/EBGames stores and that GW requires no monthly subscription, it's quite a deal.

More on the different "campaigns", or "chapters". First off, GW promises to launch two "chapters" or "campaigns" per year. The first, Prophesies, was a traditional fantasy setting, although more Conan-like than Tolkein. The second, Factions, is a Asian-inspired setting. Shortly, a third campaign, Nightfall, will offer a North African-styled setting. If players purchase multiple settings, their characters can travel back and forth between those continents in-game.

The newer campaign releases are selling for $50, and Gamestop/EBGames is the only vendor where I've seen the original campaign for $40. Comparing ArenaNet's pricing to other MMO's, their model ends up being much less expensive, even for the hardcore player. A monthly WoW subscription would cost a player $180 annually, plus another $30 for the game. Even if one buys both campains that ArenaNet releases per year, Guild Wars will bring a $100 per year price tag. If a player is only interested in one of the GW settings, the cost is even cheaper.

One last note about the different versions of the Prophesies campaign. US players interested in buying Prophesies will want to look for the Game of the Year edition, since each character they create will have access to an exclusive, very powerful weapon for their class. These weapons do require a certain skill level to wield, however. For example my level 9 Ranger (the level cap is 20) will be able to wield this special bow, which rivals the power of many endgame weapons. A nice touch, ArenaNet!

Until We Meet Again, WoW

2006-07-29T10:02:00.000-04:00

I made a decision yesterday afternoon that might come as a surprise to those who know me well. I decided to cancel my world of Warcraft subscription. Azeroth and I have had a long, torrid love affair. At this point though, I think it's time for us to start seeing other people.

I still love the game - I always will. (It's not you, WoW, it's me...) I just realized that I'm slogging away again and again at the same content. Basically, I've been running the same instances over and over with my sights set on one helmet and two swords. Is that reward along really worth 2 or 3 months of my video gaming life?

At this point in my WoW career, I've been most everywhere and experienced most everything. Barring the two Undead race starting zones, and several endgame dungeons, I've basically experienced everything that Blizzard has to offer, multiple times.

The problem with endgame content is that organizing a play session is not trivial. In general, I need to schedule a session at least a week in advance with my friends, and we're talking two weeks' advance notice for raids. My life is very busy, and this kind of rigidity is very inconvenient. I hate it when my wife comes in and I can't just hit "pause" to talk with her, because 39 other people are depending on me to pay close attention to the game. Or if my family wants to make spontaneous plans, and I have to say, "uh, sorry guys - I have a raid tonight."

I'm tired of the pressure to play that the $15 subscription places on me. I don't want to feel guilty for playing other games.

I've been playing this game for a year and a half straight, almost exclusively. My Xbox is covered in dust like some ancient Egyptian artifact, and the games that I have purchased since building my new gaming rig remain largely lonely and untouched.

I bought Oblivion and Battlefield 2, both outstanding games, and there they still sit in their boxes, barely used. I want to play Half Life 2. I want to play F.E.A.R. I want to try Crysis when it comes out, and Spore just looks yummy. I want something new.

That said, I'm sure I'll be back to WoW when the expansion come out. Content is really the only thing I'm missing right now. I still love the community and the camaraderie of a guild. I just need a change of pace.

So, for my friends that I've pulled into the game, especially Tarrek and Peric, I apologize for dropping out of the game that I pushed you so hard to join. Blizzard saves one's characters indefinitely though, so I know that Erilar will be waiting to join you in our climb to level 70 when Burning Crusade launches.

I'd also really like to figure out some other games to jump in to. I'd love us to all settle on a single shooter that we could occasionally play together like we did WoW. Maybe Half Life 2 or F.E.A.R or Battlefield 2?

I'm also planning on checking out Guild Wars (the original release subtitled "Prophesies", not the newer one called "Factions"). It's a "lite" MMO, with no monthly subscription fee. I figure it would be a sandbox we can jump into like we did with WoW, and my son and I could also play together without feeling like we're draining our bank account by wantonly paying for two subscriptions.

Anyway, farewell Azeroth, and sorry to those I recruited and am leaving behind. I'm sure we'll meet again in Outland.

Blogger Comments Hack Live - Dare I Say v1.6?

2006-07-27T13:57:00.000-04:00

Keep your fingers crossed, but I think I have the Recent Comments functionality working in the sidebar now! I thought it would be a bit trickier, but it really wasn't that difficult to implement. I still probably have a few formatting tweaks to make, but the feature is functional.

A note about how this feature works. One first has to create a separate Blogger page to host the comments. Your original blog is then configured to email notifications of any comments to a Gmail account. Gmail then auto-forwards the comment email (via filter rules) to the comment blog, which then auto-posts them. Finally, a script pulls the comments from the RSS feed of the comment blog, and inserts them in the sidebar of your blog (or wherever). Pretty easy! (Seeing as I'm standing on the shoulders of giants and simply using scripts that others so generously coded and distributed, hehe!)

Many thanks again to Greg, John, and the rest of the crew over at Freshblog for their great tutorial and script!!! If you're using Blogger for your page and want to add more functionality, Freshblog is the place to visit!

Withdrawal from Ice and Fire

2006-07-26T11:32:00.000-04:00

I recently finished A Feast for Crows, which is the latest volume in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels. Actually, I should clarify that it was the audiobooks that I'd been reading (or listening to - what's the correct terminology??).

In any case, I wanted to take a moment to highly recommend this series. A few buds in my gaming group had told me to check them out, and the books did not fall short of their praise. To date, there are four books in the series. The first, A Game of Thrones, is a little slower than the remainder, but is largely set-up and character introduction. The subsequent books are much more exciting and eventful, but I still very much enjoyed the first.

The books are based in a unique fantasy setting, but the presence of magic and things fantastical is very muted. In general, the books are more so an intricately-woven tale of the goings-on in a fictitious medieval world. The story centers largely on political intrigue, and even though that sort of novel wouldn't typically interest me much, these books have kept me firmly captivated.

Martin introduces a plethora of interesting characters, some of which will be very well developed, and others to be explored and revisited at a later date. Indeed, a large cast was almost entirely necessary, as the denizens of Martin's tale seem surprisingly short-lived. The world of Ice and Fire is not a Disney-esque one, but rather a gritty semblance of what medieval courtly life most likely entailed. The common folk are but playthings of the upper class, and absolutely none are safe from the mortal reality of lesser power struggles, war, and even the conflict for control of the crown.

Meanwhile, beneath the surface currents of the so-called game of thrones, Martin is slowly building an exterior, fantastical threat. While the ruling class and their base-born pawns heedlessly struggle for power and the crown, a dark menace is inexorably gathering its strength to crush civilization beneath a tide of ice and encroaching death. It's fairly evident that elements of traditional fantasy and magic will become more pronounced as the books continue.

Therein lies my frustration. I've read all four of these (rather lengthy) novels back-to-back, and I'm thoroughly embroiled and not yet ready to stop! Unfortunately, Martin is still busy massaging his next installment, leaving me hanging. Even more frustrating, Martin decided to split up the events following the third book into two volumes, one dealing with a certain set of characters, and the other with the remainder. As many of my favorite characters' fates are still suspended in the limbo of the fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, I'm truly faced with a classic cliffhanger. Drat! (What's going on with Tyrion Lannister, dammit?!?)

For those of you who also read audiobooks, I particularly enjoyed the delivery provided by Roy Dotrice, who performed the first three books. He does a great job of creating a different voice for each character, such that one always knows exactly who's talking. John Lee, who reads the fourth book, also does a decent job, but I really missed the excellent voices provided by Dotrice.

Drivers! Start Your... Err... Throw Your Switches!

2006-07-20T13:35:00.000-04:00

As a performance car enthusiast, I've managed to stay ambivalent to the electric and hybrid car buzz. That was before the Tesla Roadster. I like!

Strategic Caffeine Deployment

2006-07-20T09:59:00.000-04:00

The idea for this post has been rolling around in my head for quite a while. It's so hard to find time to write sometimes!

Caffeine is a funny subject. Specifically, why is there such a link between caffeine-worship and the geek subculture? Is there some kind of predilection for the geek brain to crave a slow Mountain Dew buzz? Certainly, the average geek probably enjoys a certain level of cranial stimulation - video games, scifi and fantasy movies positively dripping with outlandish special effects and action scenes, and of course the short attention span theatrics of the web. So, does the caffeine hum also even us out, in the same fashion (but to a lesser extent) that Ritalin might a child with Attention Deficit Disorder?

There is also the possibility that we cherish the edge that caffeine provides when we've a controller or mouse in hand and we're looking to unleash virtual electric death on our opponents. Myself, I'm quite convinced that "doing the Dew", as it were, can bestow a boost to reaction time that truly gives on a leg up on one's iEnemies.

I remember a NukemCon (one of our home-grown weekend gaming fests) about a year back when we were all sitting around playing Halo 1 over a network of linked Xboxes. I'd been chugging Mountain Dew all afternoon while we were boardgaming - it had been a long weekend of gaming, with many a late night with dice in hand, and I was trying to perk up a bit. At the point when we sat down to take a break and play some Halo 1, my brain was humming like a turbocharged, 2-liter boxer engine at 6500 RPMs.

Long story short, I was in the zone - buzzing and unstoppable. There was about a 20 minute period where I got my hands on a rocket launcher, and was killing Ken and Bob over and over again, seemingly invulnerable and uncannily accurate. They eventually threw their hands up, and said, "OK - enough of that for a while!" It's not that I'm better than them - both of those guys usually play Halo a bit better than me. My reaction time simply felt hummingbird-quick and my senses preternaturally aware. Quake Shake, indeed! (Be sure to check out the preceding link - one of the funniest PvP strips EVER!)

I myself have been a bit of a caffeine worshipper over the years, so I suppose I play into the geek stereotype nicely. There is a half-kilo bag of pure, food-grade, 100% caffeine powder in my office cabinet at work. You see, I am a coatings chemist by trade, and I'd weaseled a sample of the geek ambrosia from one of the chemical distributor salesmen that call on me (he also calls on food companies).

I'm going to stress right here that this material is nothing to mess around with casually. Ingested, the lethal adult dose is reportedly only about 10 grams. I suppose one's heart might have a hard time handling a pick-me-up of that magnitude... As they say on TV, certainly a "do not try this at home kids - leave this to the experts" type situation. That said, I'm obviously well-versed in measuring and dilution techniques, and in handling hazardous substances, so I consider myself to fit that experts-only bill.

I've messed around with a few different interesting recipes. My caffeinated spring water beverage (active content equal to that of Mountain Dew) is as low-cal as a "soda" can get, and my personal favorite, caffeinated Jell-O Jigglers, is perfect for a snack during a late night table-top gaming session. :)

Back to the Deployment portion of the piece. A while back, I stopped drinking soda on a regular basis, mostly for health reasons. Coupled with a reasonable diet, I lost 10 pounds in a relatively short period. I was drinking one cup of tea in the morning when I got to work, and that was about it. (I'm now mostly on a coffee kick, and a 16-oz travel mug of java love is a permanent fixture in the dash cupholder of my WRX on my half-hour morning commutes.)

Since cutting out the frequent soda, I've had to really watch my intake of caffeinated beverages. If I drink a cup of coffee or glass of soda after 4 or 5 PM, I can expect to still be sitting in front of World of Warcraft at 2 AM - it really affects me strongly now. My one cup of coffee is all I really need anymore, and it lasts me throughout the morning, and on late gaming nights, a single glass of Dew will keep me going till my Subaru carries me to my front door.

Those of you that find yourself drinking soda or coffee all day might consider cutting back, if only as a temporary experiment and/or easy diet method. You may just find out that you don't really need all that go-juice, and that you're really just wiring yourself to the gills and guzzling empty calories needlessly.

That said, the next time I log on to Halo 2 or Battlefield 2, I'll probably still have a Dew handy in my coaster. Take that, Devilfish!

Ditlog 1.5

2006-07-19T17:05:00.000-04:00

Well, how pretentious am I - a version number for my... blog?? Well, I'm no 1337 haxxor, and these kind of upgrades are not trivial for me, so allow me a little pride. :)

On the surface, I've done some reorganizing - mostly to the sidebar. It's now much more organized and I've prioritized the items there for ease of use.

OK, snore... Is that it? Nope. The big upgrade is the addition of a tagging system allowing me to catagorize my posts. The blog is relatively small (young) right now, but as time passes, without catagories it would be increasingly harder to find a specific post. So, catagories.

Again, what's the big deal? Well for starters, Blogger doesn't offer this function natively, so I had to do it the hard way. Many thanks out to the folks at Freshblog for the tutorials, and heaps more to Johan Sundstrom at Ecmanaut for his great catagorizer script!

As far as the nuts and bolts go, the script customizes the code of Blogger's posting page via Greasemonkey, and uses del.icio.us as a back end to host my tag database. Pretty damn cool. Del.icio.us also recently released a tagroll script that enables the nice sidebar tag navigation tool you see to the left.

I must caution those interested in implementing this Blogger hack that the del.icio.us script generator is slightly broken, at least under Firefox. The slider that is supposed to specify how may tags will display in your list was defaulting to 1. I think this may have been because my del.icious database was empty, because it works now. If you encounter the same problem, be sure to change the count=x variable to your desired list length. Otherwise, you'll only see the list title and no items underneath.

One more caution. Del.icio.us takes a while to refresh. After adding a list of bookmarks, del.icio.us will take a little while to populate your list of tags. Don't freak out - just keep adding bookmarks and the tag list will eventually populate.

Hopefully, one fringe benefit of tagging all my posts will be increased traffic. Johan's excellent script formats the tags to be compatible with both del.icio.us and Technorati, so folks should now be able to easily find my content contextually. Enjoy!

In the future, I'd really like to add a Recent Comments field in the sidebar. At this point, one has to dig and new comments referring to old posts will be very buried. If you thought the tags hack sounded convuluted, wait 'till you hear what the recent comments field will require...

Arkham Horror Audio Review

2006-07-18T10:24:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to check out the latest installment of the Radio Active podcast (#34) over at Ken Newquist's speculative fiction website, Nuketown. Ken kindly asked me to join him to collaborate on a review of one of our gaming group's newest obsessions, Arkham Horror.

Arkham Horror is published by Fantasy Flight Games, and is an engrossing cooperative board game based on the timless, creepy fiction of H. P. Lovecraft and the cult favorite (pun intended) Chaosium Games' RPG, Call of Cthulhu.

What? Video Games DON'T Cause Real-World Violence?!?

2006-07-14T11:28:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to post a link to a great article debunking Big Media's "video games = violence" crapathon. Great Stuff. One amateur video game writer, using government-published statistics, easily and intelligently squashes all the combined blustering of the Far Right and the media. Precious! :)

Grand Theft Auto - embrace it, my children!

Fine print: Ditlog does not condone parents allowing their young children to play GTA. Lots and lots of soccer moms read Ditlog daily and I need to be careful to qualify this stuff...

Battle Planner - Check it Out!

2006-07-13T10:23:00.000-04:00

After a long hiatus, I've recently gotten back into playing some HeroClix with friends, and wanted to give some props to a great program called Battle Planner. I've been using this great database for a few years now, and it really deserves a close look from any of you who play collectible miniatures and/or card games.

The program keeps an inventory of your collection, and empowers you to more easily and intelligently construct new armies/teams/decks. Via a variety of different tools - filters, sorting, statistics - it allows one to get a better top-down view of their collection, and best utilize all the strengths and combinations available from your inventory of game pieces.

Data modules are available for virtually all the major collectible games out there, and for quite a few of the more obscure ones as well. The site also maintains a link page for accessing player-compiled sets of playing-piece images. (The creators are not allowed to provide "official" images themselves due to copyright restrictions.)

Unless you have a photographic memory, you will be hard pressed to remember the exact details of every game piece when putting together a new deck or miniatures force. Battle Planner puts all this data at your fingertips, and will make you a more competitive player in the process (ast least from the standpoint of creating a deck or army).

I've used BP for HeroClix, Mechwarrior, VS cards, and most recently, WizKids' great constructible Pirates game.

(If you're interested in Pirates, be sure to check out the cool new Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse expansion. WizKids' new expansion has introduced a bunch of cool fantasy elements to the game - ghost ships, sea monsters, and the spooky Cursed faction, which really give this great, very affordable, fast-paced game a supernatural shot in the arm.)

In closing, Battle Planner is very affordable, and in dealing with the creators Shawn and Todd over the years, I have learned that they are very nice guys and support their product thoroughly. Pay their site a visit!

Booo - Scary!!!

2006-07-06T12:52:00.000-04:00

Think Count Floyd, folks... :)

OK, you want to be scared? I'll scare you. Guys like Senator Ted Stevens (R - Alaska) are making choices about your internet. Who's that? Why should you be scared?

Here's a transcript of ol' Teddy explaining why he voted the way he did about net neutrality. Better yet, listen to this sound byte of his actual delivery, but I'm warning you - it's scary. About a third of the way through the clip, he explains his understanding of this Internet thingie. Leave the lights on.

He's not a-feared about technology, and don't need no expert to learn him about it neither. He even plugged in one of them there computers one time - shoot...

Sometimes when I send an internet, it gets all tangled up too, Ted. I hate that.

Berin and the Big Bandwidth Bill

2006-07-05T14:05:00.000-04:00

For a few months now, I've been toying with the idea of starting a new podcast. I love the technology, and I'm a huge weekly consumer of a long list of gaming, geek, and techie podcasts.

Podcasting is just such a beautiful thing. It's an illustration of what makes a free internet great, and is an iconic showpiece of why Net Neutrality is so incredibly vital. Anyone can record their musings on any topic of their choice, upload them, and share their mind with any who care to listen.

What's the alternative? When was the last time you caught a radio show catered to your particular interests? Fishing, skating, geek life, needlepoint - how far and wide would you have to search to find a commercial radio show giving even a few minutes to any of these esoteric topics? Yet, all one needs is a PC and an internet connection to enjoy an incredibly broad selection of podcasts catering to each of our individual personal interests. That is freedom, my friends - that is the sharing of minds across all geographical (international even!), cultural, and lifestyle borders. What a time we live in!

Back to my ephemeral podcast musings though. I've been mulling over an idea for a World of Warcraft podcast for some time. There are several great ones out there, but seeing as WoW is one of my biggest interests now, I still wanted to contribute to the community. So, I've been considering unique angles on the topic, and came up with the idea of a "WoW-101" show, designed to help new players along.

I imagine addressing topics such as effective soloing and questing techniques, proper group dynamics, the different class roles within a group, etc. I envision my local gaming friends co-hosting regularly, and occasional guest spots by members of my WoW guild appearing in focus pieces on particular classes or professions.

So what's stopping me, you ask? Fear of success and the Big Bandwidth Bill. WoW is a popular phenomenon, and I worry that if the project were of sufficient quality and posted on iTunes,
the podcast might gain enough popularity to make the bandwidth unaffordable to me. I'm not an expert on the particulars, but from comments mentioned on several of my favorite podcasts, even a moderate following can quickly turn into a car payment-sized byte bill.

Perhaps if the site were built with growth in mind, and a donation button in place from the get-go, everything would work out fine. At this point, it's still too scary to me.

Enter my RL buddy Ken over at Nuketown. He's been mentioning a desire to attempt an occasional collaboration on his Radio Active podcast, and it seemed like a great opportunity for me to at least give the physical recording process a whirl. We haven't even discussed any details as of yet, as Ken's been busy getting his life ready for a new baby. Ken's son is a few weeks old now though, and a specific opportunity has perhaps reared its head.

Berin from Uncle Bear has also been making plans to embrace the podcasting medium, and has put out a call for submissions from the gamer community. He's looking for pieces that examine the gaming culture - the gamer/non-gamer dynamic, as well as discussions from the viewpoints of different types of gamers (video vs. paper RPG vs. CCG, etc.).

Ken has proposed the two of us discussing the topics of gaming and geek life as parents, perhaps even bringing Mur Lafferty from Geek Fu Action Grip into the mix. (That would be a particular treat, as Mur's podcast has been a frequent listen for me.) It all sounds like a great opportunity for me to test drive a mic and see if it's for me. We shall see. :)

USB Headsets: What You May Not Know

2006-06-07T11:57:00.000-04:00

I frequently play WoW with a headset for voice communication, and I think most of our spouses get tired of the endless gunfire and explosions when we're playing FPS's. So, most of us find the need to play with headphones on at some point or another.

While recently building my new PC (see previous posts on that project starting in April '06), I found out something very interesting: a USB headset bypasses your sound card entirely.

I had specced in a nice Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card for my new rig, specifically because of their well-received CMSS-3D headphone technology, which was supposed to be the best simulated surround sound technology for a headset ever.

Upon getting my new system assembled, I was very surprised and a little bummed out to discover that the nice $50 Logitech USB 350 headset that I'd been using for over a year would not make use of my powerful new sound card in any fashion. So, I wanted to put the word out.

Certainly, there are positive features to a USB headset. If you're playing on a laptop, or another system with a less-than-stellar soundcard or integrated sound, then you'll most likely benefit from the digital signal processing chip that is a component of most USB headsets. Moreover, if your system is not the most powerful, a USB set will reduce some of the system burden by processing its own sound.

If you're a gaming enthusiast with a nice, turbo-charged sound card though, buyer beware. The USB headsets are typically about $20 more than the normal analog type, and if you've got a decent sound board, you're getting nothing for your extra cash.

As far as the X-Fi and its fancy 3D surround processing for headsets goes, I got to test it out last night. I'd ordered a new Plantronics Gamecom 1 headset (not the Gamecom Pro 1 - that one is USB), along with Plantronics' very handy headset/speaker switch. (Without this switch, if you alternately uses an analog headset and speakers, you must crawl under your desk to swap jacks when you change between headset and speakers - annoying and inconvenient.)

Short story, Creative's CMSS-3D processing is not hype - it sounds great. There is a very clear distinction between sounds that are in front of you and those that are behind you. I've no idea how they do this, but the positional audio is as effective as a set of 5.1 surround speakers - quite impressive.

In summary, as the saying goes, usually you get what you pay for. If you're a gaming enthusiast with a powerful dedicated sound card though, the extra $20 or more for a USB headset won't get you the added value you might be anticipating. Get yourself the analog version of the headset you like and continue to enjoy all the whiz-bangs that you expected from your cool sound card.

Making Money in World of Warcraft

2006-06-01T16:17:00.000-04:00

As a busy gaming parent, the acquisition of prestigious, expensive items such as Epic mounts in World of Warcraft seems like an unattainable goal. If you're like me, you might get to raid Molten Core or Zul'Gurub a few times per week (if you're lucky), but raiding has never made anyone much cash, has it...

Seeing as a raid here and there is pretty much the only WoW playing time I get, the normal (but time-intensive) money-making methods such as running the 5- and 10-man endgame instances, soloing Scarlet Monastery, or farming for crafting raw materials, are just not an option.

So, how else can an enterprising Night Elf make a quick gold piece? No, I'm not referring to dancing nude for tips on top of the mailbox outside the Ironforge bank! Instead, I have discovered that the Auction House is the answer to my gold flow problems. Just like playing the stock market, it is possible to make a considerable sum of money on the AH by the time-honored approach of buying low and selling high.

Normally, one does not give away their most precious money-making schemes for fear of losing their edge to bandwagon-jumpers. Seeing as how 90% of WoW players play on servers other than mine, perhaps I won't lose out too badly by being a nice guy.

Before you run off in a lather to log on to your favorite toon, be warned. An unprepared AH prospector will walk away with only moths in his pockets if he is not careful. Read on, Sir Warbucks.

I use several tools to help me quickly identify good deals and verify that they should be a "safe" purchase. The first is a fairly hefty WoW addon called Auctioneer. This handy tool performs scans of the Auction House, cataloging price info about each item. One merely has to mouse over a particular item, whether in one's inventory or in the AH itself, and an enhanced tooltip appears describing such useful data as the average price that the item goes for on the AH, how many times it's been scanned by Auctioneer, and how much an NPC vendor would buy the item for.

Each time you scan, another snapshot of the AH prices is processed by Auctioneer's statistical algorithms, and the more accurate Auctioneer's prices become. Auctioneer can certainly be fooled by instances of outrageously-priced items, but in general, it is fairly good at identifying good deals.

But, you say, I don't want to spend all day pouring over every item on the AH looking for a good buy. Fear not, faithful financier. Auctioneer includes a Search Auctions function that does most of the work for you. This search function is even implemented as an added tab within the AH screen itself - how convenient! Simply specify whether you're looking for sweet deals on auctions soon to expire, or juicy low buyout prices. By changing several filter options, one can literally say, "hey Auctioneer - find me all Blue or rarer items with buyouts that should, upon resale, net me 10 gold or more per transaction". Viola, this great addon spits out a sortable list.

Now, as I'd mentioned earlier, Auctioneer can be temporarily fooled by crazy-high prices. Example: let's assume an overzealous seller places several extra-high 50g buyouts on a Nightraven crossbow, and that you had scanned a few times during that period. The following day, when a more reasonable seller puts a Nightraven up for the typical 25g price, Auctioneer might consider that "normal" buyout price for the crossbow a sweet deal. In reality though, if you jumped on that 25g buyout, you'd be lucky to sell it for that and break even.

So how do we make sure that Auctioneer isn't feeding us bad tips? I use two simple cross-checks:

My primary cross-check is a web site called Allakhazam. Using this site's search tool, one can peruse long-term pricing of one's target item. Allakhazam's excellent item price database shows all kinds of great AH statistics - median, average, and most common prices, and even a histogram. The only downfall to Allakhazam is that the data has been gathered across all servers and server types. Still, I have found it to be largely accurate, which isn't suprising considering that the sample size is typically very large. Allakhazam's data is typically based on thousands of sales of the target item, over a period anywhere from around a month to as short as only a few days!

OK, so Allakhazam says that my target item (say, our Nightraven crossbow) sells for a median price of 25 gold. How do I double-check that my server follows suit? Simple - my second price cross-check is to consult the AH itself. Once you find a potential deal, switch to the AH Scan tab (the built-in Blizzard AH scan that you've always used when looking for items). Check to see if any other instances of your item are for sale. This method will catch several potential problems:

First, if there are lots of other auctions for the same item, and several foolish sellers are unloading their swag for less-than-typical prices, you'd have a hard time selling your item.

Finally, it is possible that your server's market is simply a bit different than the "average" market predicted by Allakhazam's data. Perhaps one guild has been running UBRS non-stop and the AH is saturated with drops from that dungeon. Supply and demand will drive local prices down temporarily, etc.

The only other reality check that you need will be common sense. For example, this morning, I found a piece of mail armor that seemed to be a great potential buy. Upon second glance however, I noticed that the stats were basically Int and Spirit. No hunter is going to be very interested in that piece - it's actually a shaman item, hence the extra-low price. I never would have sold it for the attractive Allakhazam median price, which also takes into account Horde-side pricing.

Good luck, and strike gold!

Live Anywhere - the Next Big Step

2006-05-11T09:14:00.000-04:00

It's funny that my gaming buddy Ken and I were just talking about this topic Tuesday night while playing WoW. Since building my new XP gaming rig, I've been listening to PC Gamer magazine's exceptionally well-done podcast. This morning, they posted the first of several special installments covering E3.

The biggest news, in my mind, was Live Anywhere. Big Bill himself showed up to discuss Microsoft's gameplan for the Xbox 360 and Windows gaming. One of the announcements introduced Live Anywhere, which will be a shared incarnation of Xbox Live, tying together the Xbox, Vista PC's, and mobile phones. OK, fine, Gamertags are cool and all, but that's not the extent of it.

The big surprise is totally integrated cross-platform gaming. That's right, PC and Xbox gamers will be able to play together for the first time, sharing all the great stat data, content distribution, and communication tools that are Xbox Live. Very, very cool. I'm feeling just a little better about dropping all this money on a new PC. :) Perhaps I won't even need to buy a 360? Except it looks like Forza Motorsport and Halo 3 are 360-only. Or maybe they are 360-only for now due to the Vista delay? Hmm...

Board Game Friday: the Horror!!!

2006-05-10T12:46:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm quite excited. This Friday night is board game week!

See, I've been gaming weekly with a great bunch of guys for the past six years or so. Here's a link to our campaign website. The main focus of our weekly Friday night game is several ongoing Dungeons and Dragons (d20 3.5 ed.) campaigns set in the world of Greyhawk. I've not been playing with them as of late, as my D&D jonze waxes and wanes, and I was looking for an opportunity to carve out a little more family time. (Note that the group is actually looking for another regular player if you're located in the Lehigh Valley and are so inclined.)

That said, I'm still meeting with them when they take a week off of D&D to play board games, my true tabletop gaming love.

Up this week - a game that I've been drooling over for some time, Arkham Horror by Fantasy Flight Games.

Now, I'm a huge fan of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. If you aren't familiar with his writings, Lovecraft is the author of a collection of deliciously, disturbingly macabre 1920's and 30's sci fi / horror stories, including the famous Cthulhu mythos works.

Arkham Horror is a board game set in Lovecraft's 1920's fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts. The game is cooperative, and the players take on the roles of various investigative Arkham citizens braving the horrors of the night. The investigators must strive to close off a variety of gates to otherworldly realms before too much eldritch mojo has built up, allowing one of several Ancient Ones - insane elder gods hailing from the blackest recesses of time and space - to slip into our world and destroy existence as we know it.

Now come on, that just sounds like a fun Friday night, doesn't it?

I picked up the game last night, and I must say, like most of Fantasy Flight's fine games, it's a brick. Serious fart-factor, as the boys from Pulp Gamer podcast would say. (Fart-factor is a phrase the Pulp Gamer fellows coined to describe the vacuum-induced burping noise that a substantial, heavy new game makes when one picks it up by the lid and allows the inner box to drop to the table.)

Seriously - I popped open the box this morning to grab the rulebook to read over breakfast. The game box is about 12 inches square by perhaps 4 inches deep, and when one opens it up, the thing is literally packed to the top with contents - there is absolutely no airspace in the box whatsoever. Now that's a game, baby! Components galore, a large, beautifully detailed game board, and 24 page, 11" x 11" rulebook. Mmm, now that's good eatin'!

I've just finished reading the rules over lunch at work, and this really looks to be a well-designed game - can't wait to try it out! More to come after our first go at the Ancient Ones on Friday night.

/excited!

Eureka!!!

2006-04-27T13:36:00.000-04:00

Ahh, sweet victory (hopefully)!! After consulting with a more experienced mad scientist (read: the kind Asus phone tech), I think I've sorted out my RAID 0 problem.

After creating the RAID 0 array, I had tried to install XP, but after clunking away for a few minutes, the installer responded that it couldn't find any hard disks. Hmmm...

So, I went back and checked the Nvidia RAID summary screen. It showed a status of "N/A" in the Boot column. "So", says I, "something's busted."

Not true, apparently. My friendly tech believes that the status currently reads as "N/A" because my boot priority puts the CD drive first.

In reality, Windows couldn't load because XP doesn't have native SATA drivers. Hence: "Hard drive? What hard drive?" One has to first create a floppy containing the SATA drivers and then hit F6 to apply them while the XP installer is doing its thing.

Small problem - I don't have a floppy drive. Never even ordered one. Who uses floppies anymore?!? Me, it seems!

So, a victory, but a hollow one to be sure. Why, you ask? Because I now have to sully my lovely radioactive creature with some crummy old-school tech - that's why! It's like retrofitting the cockpit of the Space Shuttle with a wringer washer and galvanized washtub, I tell you!!!

[Reluctantly makes note to stop at Circuit City on way home...]

Creature Sighted in Bethlehem! Citizens Panic! News at Eleven.

2006-04-27T10:26:00.000-04:00

The horror! The creature stirs!!

Now if I can just get the damn Raid 0 array to be bootable... Calling Asus at lunchtime. :)

It's Aliiive!!!

2006-04-26T22:08:00.000-04:00

Thank the silicon gods - it booted! First try! You've got to see the inside of this case - total hawt sex.

I've just started configuring the Raid 0 array. Too excited - got to get back to it! Pics tomorrow.

Massster, the Body Parts Have Arrived!

2006-04-26T13:21:00.000-04:00

Egor, my faithful hunchback minion (by this I mean the Fed Ex guy, of course) arrived yesterday bearing multiple boxes of smexy new hardware. So... psyched!

I started putting stuff together last night. Man, a computer case used to be sooo much less complicated. Fans have been breeding like horny bunnies in there, and it seems like every single componant needs its own special power cable these days. It used to be that you just plugged the dang cards in the slots. Now there's temperature sensors, extra fans, heat sinks ad nauseum, umpteen special cables, heat pipes, and lots and lots more power.

I think my 3-4 year old Dell shipped with like a 250 watt power supply. This baby needs 600 watts, and I'm hoping even that will be sufficient if I add anything in the future (can you say physics processor, kiddies? I knew you could!).

I'm getting there, though. Power supply, mobo, and cpu all installed. Just need to attach a few temp sensors and then on to the drives, ram, and add-on cards. I just received the finishing touch - a Soundblaster X-Fi - so I should hopefully be at least to the OS install phase by tonight. (Barring the sparking, spitting, and billowing smoke...)

I love the smell of ozone in the evening! (What am I saying?!?)

Dr. Stein and the Forbidden Lure of Oblivion

2006-04-19T15:38:00.000-04:00

I've been feeling the age of my Wintel PC for some time - at least as far as gaming horsepower goes. With Windows Vista supposedly just around the corner though, I'd made the decision to wait and see what was going to happen regarding emerging DirectX 10.0 hardware and the new OS system requirements before making an investment in a new machine.

Enter Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Back when Morrowind launched, I had taken the Elder Scrolls red pill - big time. It was an amazing, liberatingly open-ended game, and I had lost many an hour of sleep in pursuit of one quest or another. As a result, I've obviously been watching the development progress of Oblivion closely.

Fast forward to Oblivion's launch - it was decision time. I had held off buying a Xbox 360 because I simply wasn't enamored enough with any of the titles to blow my $400. In addition, the 360 is a mixed blessing. Sure, it's 8.8 lbs of next-gen console on nitrous oxide, but what's the point if one only owns a regular-def TV? On an old-school TV, the 360 is basically just an Xbox, in my mind. So, we're not just talking the $500 for the 360 plus accessories, we also need to figure on at least another $500 for an HDTV.

Thing is though, I do own a nice PC monitor. With an adapter cable (and probably a switch box, for convenience), one can play a 360 on one's monitor. So, 360 or PC? I finally figured that the cheapest route was to buy Oblivion for my PC and see whether it would run it.

It did, but not well. Here's what I'm running:

Dell Dimension 8200
Pentium 4 2.66 Mhz
1 Gb RAM
Nvidia GeForce 6800 (128Mb) video card (AGP)
Soundblaster Live! 24-bit audio
etc.

This system detected as "medium range", and Oblivion set itself up as such. In the end, I think the GeForce 6800 bumped me into the "medium" range, being of the 6800 chipset family, but it shouldn't have. If you don't have a 256 Mb vidio card, Oblivion isn't going to run acceptably (at least, by my standards).

In any case, at Oblivion's autodetected "medium" settings, the game looked gorgeous. Unfortunately though, the framerates were pretty choppy - say 10-15 FPS. Some people are putting up with this kind of speed, but it simply makes my eyes tired too fast and distracts me from the gameplay. Plus, my FPS dipped even further in combat, and I began to realize that in the more difficult upcoming fights, I wasn't going to be able to compete. It's like trying to get by in a boxing ring while blinking one's eyes rapidly - pretty soon both eyes are going to be swelled shut. (Cut me, Rocco! Adriaaan!)

So, I spent the next week or so on the Bethesda message boards, taking notes and tweaking out my settings and .ini file. I ended up with some decent framerates, but the game was no longer beautiful. The world was now kind of flat and less interesting, and I wanted shiny, blazing beauty, dammit!

What to do? I could spend ~$500 on a 360 and yet another copy of the game, and hook the 360 up to my PC monitor. Or, I could buy a new graphics card to put one last-ditch band-aid on my aging PC. Or, I could spring for a new system, which I'd been thinking I needed anyway.

As far as upgrading my current system goes, it is an old AGP-format motherboard, and it only takes the incredibly expensive and ill-conceived RDRAM. I'd added another 512 Mb about a year ago to give WoW a bit of a boost, and it had cost almost $300- youch. The new graphics cards are all PCI Express, not AGP, except for the new GeForce 7800 GS boards. Still, even though those cards are fast, the aging AGP bus simply holds them back.

The bonus to a new PC, on the other hand, is that my 10-year-old son is now getting old enough that he uses my PC all the time for school, and likes to play a bit of WoW himself. (Well, let's be honest here. I've addicted my OWN son to the digital equivalent of crack cocaine...) My current system is still just fine for office apps, surfing, and playing WoW. So, a fine candidate for a hand-me-down PC for Zack (and he was predictably all for that idea).

Finally, Microsoft's announcement about a week back, that Vista has been pushed back to at least early 2007, was the mosquito that landed on the other side of my precariously-balanced teeter-totter. The expensive side of the teeter totter. (At least it will be, if I ever pay it off...)

The last decision was whether to buy a pre-built system, or build a rig from scratch. I was sorely tempted by Alienware's Aurora 7500 systems, which are priced very competitively in the gaming PC sector. In the end though, I just couldn't see paying another $500 for a warranty, some (questionable) phone support, and for them to build it.

I decided to build my own. I had done so several times in the past, and am no stranger to the gorey innards of a PC. That said, I'm not too up on some of the current high-end technology - stuff like SLI-linked video cards and Raid 0 performance hard disk arrays. Damn the torpedoes, though - I specced out the system last week and ordered it all over the weekend.

Here's what's in transit to my door:

The Guts
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Processor (dual core)
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 mobo
2 Gb Corsair 3500LL PRO RAM
(2) eVGA GeForce 7900 GT CO (256 Mb) video cards (to be SLI-linked)
(2) Seagate Barracuda 80GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200RPM hard drives (for a Raid 0 array)
Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card
NEC ND-3550A 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive
Enermax Noisetaker II 600W Power Supply
NZXT Lexa case

The Peripherals
Viewsonic VX922 19in LCD Monitor (badass 2ms response time)
Saitek Eclipse keyboard
Razer Copperhead Gaming Mouse
Wolfking Warrior gaming keypad
Altec Lansing GT5051 Dolby 5.1 (3.1?) speaker system

In the end, I went a little nutty on the peripherals to match my case. The Lexa case has a clear acrylic side panel, and the fans light up via LED's so that the inside of the case glows blue and shows off my sexy new hardware. I'll probably add a few supplementary blue light sticks inside the case, and underneath to give it that Streetglow modified import hot rod car look:

I actually chose the case for the quality and the cooling efficiency - the crazy glow was just an added attraction. That said, I couldn't resist the Eclipse keyboard and Razer mouse though. They both also glow blue, and will simply look hawt and compliment the case. The knobs on my speaker system even glow blue... Here's a pic of the KB in all its radioactive glory:

One final note to cap off my setup. I've been reading about Wolfking's cool new gaming keyboards, and I just couldn't pass those up anymore. The hot new Wolfking peripherals are simply gaming keyboards made by gamers for gamers. Check out the Warrior's layout:

The Wolfking folks decided to help all us gamers out by creating comfortable input devices based around the WASD configuration. I opted to get the standalone Warrior pad rather than the Timberwolf, which has the gaming pad built right into the left side of a normal keyboard. I wanted to make sure I was comfortable typing when not gaming. Plus, I didn't want to give up my num pad.

Back in the day, PC's were called "clones", short for "IBM clone". Nowadays, unless you're looking for a cool laptop, IBM is pretty much a non-player. In any case, my old pre-Dell machine had been dubbed the Frankenclone, due to its piecemeal incarnations and upgrades. So, I think we're looking at the specs for Son of Frankenclone above. Hence, the titular reference. That, and I'm a huge fan of the Helloween song... :P Only this time, as I scream "it's alive!!", I will be bathed in an unholy, eerie electric blue glow. Muuahahaha!

I can't wait to get Oblivion cranking on this new rig. Mmmmm... FPS-y....

The End of an Era

2006-04-10T10:34:00.001-04:00

This is a bit of a personal message, but I needed an accessible public place to host it. I'm leaving my current WoW guild, and doubtless the following post won't last long on the guild forums, but I wanted my friends to be able to read my goodbye. Read on if interested:

------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately, this is a goodbye message to my good TA friends - you all know who you are. I'm sure most of you aren't even aware of what went on over the weekend, seeing as all the posts have been summarily deleted. Like all successful dictators, some of the TA officers have learned that censorship is a useful tool for control.

Seeing as this post will most likely be deleted as well, anyone interested will be able to find it at http://ditlog.blogspot.com.

Bascially, Tarrek, a very good RL friend of mine, was booted from the guild yesterday for publicly speaking out about Arv treating Grizzard poorly in a TA forum discussion (regarding BDS boots and the dispensing of Core mats from MC). Grizz, true to form, had done a fine job of defending himself, but apparently Tarrek felt that there was more to be said.

I suppose that one could argue that such a post was the equivalent of jumping on the pile when the ball carrier is already down. Me, I see an honorable man calling for another to think before he acts, and treat others with respect. The fact is, Arv's post *was* needlessly insulting, no one should have to put up with that kind of response, and it sure as hell wasn't the first time.

So, only one point that I really want to get across here. Status as a guild officer does not imply ownership. Officers are simply guild members who have volunteered their time to help organize the guild's efforts. Yes, this level of commitment probably deserves some inherent level of respect. However, respect is also earned. Myself, I've found that respect is best gained by treating others with respect. Apparently, several of the officers feel that their station allows them the right to throw their weight around, bullying and insulting others. I've had my fill of such immature behavior and am excersizing my right to move on. What do you expect Arv - that every time you feel like acting like a pompous, insulting jackass, the guild members are supposed to roll over and show their belly or risk a /gkick? Not this night elf, pal.

So, what are the choices I'm left with?

1) Look the other way while a good friend was kicked out of the guild for saying something that needed saying. Forsake my honor and dis a good friend just for the continued opportunity to raid with TA?

2) Continue to say what needs said and stick by a true friend.

Guess which one I choose.

Twilight Alliance, cut out the elitist crap. Treat everyone like friends and valued members of the guild, regardless of skill level, cliques, or time spend raiding. Folks, if you're being treated poorly, you don't need to bite your tongue. Everyone deserves respect. The guild is a collection of players contributing a goal, not a band of followers waiting for the owning officers to drop them some crumbs.

There was a time when this guild was about friendships, and camaraderie - good friends gathered together to enjoy a common interest. It used to be that TA was a home for WoW players with Real Lives I'm sad to say that those days are past. Time spent raiding is now valued much more highly then friendship.

So, some advice to the remaining TA members: [spaghetti western music plays] There's a new sherrif in town. You best keep your mouth shut and not step out of line, because he can slap leather and /gkick faster than the eye can see. Do what you're told, and no one will get hurt. Be sure not to make a mistake while raiding, or he'll dress down your n00bie butt over Vent for all to hear. But suck it up, and get on his good graces, because only the "insiders" get to go on the cool raids. You've been warned.

Was that melodramatic enough? LOL Anyway, to all my friends - I'll miss you guys, and you can always reach me via in-game mail. I hope you'll add me to your friends list, and hopefully we can get some 5-man action going sometime (especially when that new 5-man instance comes out in 1.11!). Good luck in the future.

To the rest of the "original five" - Gor, Eloi, Cynt, Mav - I miss the way things were. I know it's hard with the level of organization required for the 40-man efforts, but try to work towards keeping the original spirit of the guild alive.

See you all online.

WoW: WTF?

2005-12-23T16:08:00.000-05:00

As you may have noticed, my posts have remained few and far between as of late. No, I’m not sick yet again. Or am I? Does an emotional addiction to a MMORPG qualify as an illness? Let’s delve deeper.

Basically, the reason that I haven’t been writing much is that I’ve been spending pretty much every minute of my solo free time either playing World of Warcraft, or scheming and reading about World of Warcraft. (I still set aside as many evenings to spend with my lovely wife, so don’t think me completely hopeless, faithful reader.)

Why is this game so enticing that I have played it for more hours than any other single video game I’ve ever been exposed to? My /played command for my main character, Erilar, now displays as just shy of 25 straight days of playing time since I bought the game last December. Assume roughly a year of ownership, and that averages out to 1.6 hours of WoW per day, every day, during 2005. Comparing such a schedule to the roughly 20 hours required to complete the typical video game, I have to wonder what insidious magicks ensorcelled the contents of that unassuming little brown game box.

Why do I find it relaxing, after a long day’s pursuit of life’s responsibilities, challenges, and obstacles, to delve into a virtual world rife with virtual responsibilities, challenges, and obstacles? Why is it so rewarding to brave three hours of dire, mortal (imaginary) combat in the company of twenty other happily delusional gamers for only the off chance at a random die roll on a single piece of shiny, new (albeit completely pretend) armor? But it is! It is, damn it all.

What could be so charming about Blizzard’s creation that would keep players coming back, again and again ad nauseam? Certainly, Blizzard has followed the model of their previous successes, namely choosing an existing game genre, surgically removing all of the annoying hiccups and wrinkles, and polishing the resulting project to an edge one could comfortably shave with.

So what were they left with upon completing this same operation on the quirky beast known as the MMORPG?

A vast, breathtakingly beautiful, immersive world drawing on all the rich lore, art, and nostalgia revolving around the previous Warcraft titles.
A MMO intentionally designed around reducing (or anaesthetizing us from) all the tedium, repetition, camping, grinding, and slogging that was all genre forerunners. A game where the casual player literally receives a tangible progression bonus for playing less than the typical slavering MMO fiend.
Intricately play-balanced character classes, races, and factions.
A rich, engaging fantasy RPG setting, loaded to bursting with interesting quests, unique and powerful items, sporting a friendly and useful item crafting system, and boasting a cunningly woven, entertaining epic story line.
An open, customizable interface allowing fan developers to create tools to further enhance their experience.
An ever-present prickling, tangible gnawing sensation that the most amazing spectacle of natural splendor yet witnessed, haunted by the most challenging, heinous beasts one has yet faced, guarding artifacts and weapons of the utmost eldritch power and might, lie just around the next bend in the road, beyond the next copse of trees, or over the next yawning mountain pass.

I am convinced though, that the crux of this cybernetic siren’s call lies in the latter. WoW is not about the big payoff. WoW instead keeps one coming back, again and again and again, in anticipation. Anticipation of the completion of that next quest, the exploration of that next dungeon, the achievement of that next character level, the conquest of that next big raid boss, or the receipt of that next player ability or Epic drop. WoW is not about the now, but rather the what is to come. I can’t wait.

Goblets and Games: my Mini-reviews of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Zathura

2005-11-30T13:01:00.000-05:00

We splurged and saw not one, but two movies this weekend. Both were very enjoyable and I definitely wanted to give them the nod.

Firstly, Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire. My 9-yr-old son and I both thoroughly enjoyed this film. My impression was that this fourth movie was a much more successful attempt at capturing the captivating content of the wonderful book than the third movie. Between the two, I'm a bigger fan of the story from Prisoner of Azkaban. However, the Azkaban movie failed to explain and immerse the audience in many of the ultimately more important aspects of the continuing story.

In any case, even though Goblet of Fire still seemed almost rushed at times to cram as much of the written content into 2.5 hours as possible, the creators did a better job of capturing the book. Whether you've read the book or not, be sure to catch this one. It is a visual treat, and the theater-scale presentation is well worth the price of admission.

My whole family also caught a showing of Zathura this weekend (yes we're spoiled, but hey I work for it). I must say up front that I was not excited to see this movie. I was really jonzing for Harry Potter, but both Heather and Zack insisted. I'm very glad they did.

I'd been under the impression that Zathura was going to be a rehash of Jumanji set in space. I'm not a great fan of Jumanji, although one can't overlook its visual merit. I was quite mistaken. Same premise - some children find a board game with incredible powers to transport and transform - but this movie was flawlessly executed. Zathura was most certainly one of the best movies I've seen this year.

The film has that early-80's-Spielberg-like ability to transport oneself back into the mind of a child - to again see the world from a child's eyes. The adventure is charming, magical, and wondrous - like Christmas morning, but as a pseudo-pulpy space adventure. Take your kids to see this movie. If you don't have kids, go to see this movie anyway - the thoroughly captivated children sitting with you will be yourself and your companions.

Crickets!

2005-11-30T12:30:00.000-05:00

Woah - over a month since my last post! I haven't lost interest with the blog, just lots of extenuating circumstances. See, for me the creative process takes a lot of energy. Perhaps my inspiration threshold is higher than others or something. Is that just an eloquent way of saying that I'm lazy? The latter might be more accurate!

The long version: Cold #3 of the season (or the 3rd return of the same one?) really kicked my butt. I'd been skipping gaming sessions, not playing World of Warcraft, going to bed early instead of hanging out watching DVD's with my wife, etc. Just pretty much sucked out my motivation and energy. Antibiotics and one week later, I'm feeling pretty much myself again.

Factor #2, for the last week or so at least, was finally hitting level 60 in WoW. I'm still on my level 60 honeymoon, and loving the WoW. Being able to finally hang out with my guildmates that I'd fallen so far behind is just great.

Without a wonderful group of people to hang out with, a MMO could be a boring game. Raiding with the Twilight Alliance bunch though? What a great group of folks. We're a casual guild, but we attempt some difficult game content. Most guilds would look at me, a recent level 60 with my crap gear and, admittedly, rusty instancing skills, and say "yeah, maybe you'd better stay behind for a while."

Not these guys. I'm welcomed into the raid, and everyone does their best to help me to learn and progress. The family atmosphere we have is really amazing. We've got a great diverse bunch, including lots of women (which I think is really refreshing), and just generally a hilarious bunch of gamers.

My most recent example? We were raiding Zul'Gurub last night, and one of eeeevil bosses that we slew, Bloodlord Mandokir, dropped the third best bow in the game - Mandokir's Sting - as treasure. Most guilds run a points system, and only give out epic gear to the best of their players and/or the ones that contribute the highest amount of hours raiding. Not my guild. These guys really want to help out everyone, working very democratically to pull the guild up by its collective bootstraps. They happily presented this bow to me (as the sole hunter on the raid but still the newest level 60 in the bunch), with well wishes. Great bunch of folks. No, they don't need to worry about me putting my time in to "pay back" for this bow - I'll be there simply because they are the kind of people that they are.

Pajama Party

2005-10-26T13:45:00.000-04:00

Last night, two friends from my gaming group and I made our second foray into the Deadmines. (Sorry you couldn't make it, Ken!) WoW is becoming a wonderful tool for us - busy, "responsible" adults all - to keep in touch and blow off some steam. It took me several months of convincing them to check out the game, but I think I've finally set the hook, as it were. Except for James, that is.

[Jedi mind trick] You really want to start playing WoW, James! [/Jedi mind trick]

These friends and I, working folk all, with significant relationships, children in tow and/or in progress, and the general busy lifestyle of the young American adult, are finding that an occasional in-person mid-week gaming session is becoming more and more difficult to schedule, especially if said session were to include more than two or three of us. What a wonderful thing that the four of us were able to have dinner with our families, take care of the chores de jour, get the kids tucked into bed, and still easily jump into our desk chairs, in our respective comfy evening attire, for a session of wonderful gaming bliss.

No mad dash out to the car in the chill and rain, no spouses miffed due to our absence, no sleepy drive home through the gloomy night, but rather twenty more minutes of lovely sleep. No, faithful reader, last night when we broke up for the evening, the vile villain Van Cleef's head tucked firmly in our knapsack as proof of our victory over the forces of evil, we simply logged off the server and stumbled upstairs into our warm beds. Thanks, Blizzard!

Cold Spell

2005-10-26T13:43:00.000-04:00

Not that anyone's actually reading, but sorry for the lack of entries. Last week, I was the unwilling host of the nasty little organism known as the common cold, my second such incidence of this wonderful experience already this season. The first day of autumn barely behind us, I hope this is not the beginning of a trend to come this winter!

Serenity - a review

2005-10-12T13:08:00.001-04:00

I first have to state that I'm not an early Firefly adopter. As a matter of fact, I haven't even finished watching all 13 episodes. Friends in my gaming group have been touting the series as a must-see ever since the release of the DVDs, when it seemed to show up on our collective geek radar.

Seeing as the movie was coming out, I borrowed the Firefly DVDs from our new gaming group recruit, Cory, and started to watch them with my wife. We are big Buffy fans, having watched the entire collection via Netflix, so come on - Joss in Space didn't take too much of a leap of faith.

Before seeing the movie, I had not yet finished all of my Joss Whedon rabid fanboy space Kool-Aid, but was sipping contentedly. Heather and I were definitely enjoying the series. Good, solid TV Sci Fi. Shows like Battlestar Galactica and Firefly give me hope that actual *good* TV sci fi is here to stay.

Back to the movie though, my family and I bopped out through Sundays disturbingly relentless, pouring rain to check out Serenity, our good friend Jon in tow. We'd all seen and liked at least some of the Firefly series, from Jon's full season viewing to my son's occasional snippets. The movie, however, floored us all. Even the annoying, talkative, fidgety family that sat behind us slowly quieted down to a hushed calm by five minutes into this two-hour celebration of what sci fi can and should be. Like he rest of us, they were too busy trying to pick their jaws up off the sticky theater floor to talk.

For the cinematic presentation of Firefly, Mr. Whedon pulled out all the stops. I was expecting a good, solid movie. I wasn't ready for Serenity. Possessing in equal parts the pacing of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the epic swell of Star Wars, and the fresh take on sci fi a-la The Fifth Element, this remarkable movie tumbled us through a washing machine of sudsy, far future fiction splendor and spilled us out onto the theater sidewalk, reeling, excited, talkative, and thoroughly satisfied.

Universal Studios, my brain has been washed. Assimilation is complete. Joss Whedon is my master now. More movies, please!

Dungeons & Dragons II: Wrath of the Dragon God - a review

2005-10-11T11:55:00.000-04:00

My son and I finally got a chance to sit down and watch this flick last night. DVR's are a wonderful thing, people!

Dungeons & Dragons II: Wrath of the Dragon God is a direct-to-cable movie that first aired on the Sci Fi Channel last Saturday night. Now, you may be fortunate enough to ask, "what do you mean Dungeons and Dragons II - there was a first D&D movie???" That study in fan disappointment limped past movie-goers nationwide in 2000, and is best left forgotten. It wasn't a horrible movie, but faithful gamers worldwide were hoping for much more. Unless you have a particularly masochistic sense of curiosity, best to leave that flat attempt lie undisturbed in its shallow cinematic grave.

Back to the subject at hand, I really found D&D II: WotDG to be enjoyable. Between the disappointing first D&D movie and the fact that this new installment aired directly on cable, I didn't have high expectations. I must say that my trepidations were unfounded. The new movie was quite well done, especially given the format.

First and foremost, a nod was certainly given to the players. The movie was rife with references to specific spells, magic items, creatures, locations, and gods from the actual game. The story led us through the necessitated formation of a traditional D&D adventuring party, their journeys across a varied fantastic landscape (including some honest-to-gods actual dungeons crawls), and finally into several epic confrontations with a collection of evil masterminds and vicious beasties.

Sure, the acting was frequently over-the-top, but I believe that to some extent, this may have been a tongue-in-cheek attempt to mirror the high-cheese melodrama spouted around many a dining room table every Friday evening. The only thing missing was the alluring clatter of rolling dice.

For the other parents reading, there was certainly some rather vivid violence, a little blood, and a goodly group of creepy critters and beings. That said, it was presented in such a fashion that I personally had no compunctions against my 9-yr-old son watching.

In any case, my son and I very much enjoyed curling up on the couch and soaking up this pulpy but exciting and entertaining flick. I think one must take it for what it is, but for Sci Fi's first attempt, they certainly hit their mark. Watch it soon with a son or daughter near you!

The Maelstrom

2005-10-06T16:14:00.000-04:00

Everyone is still talking about Hurricane Katrina, and will be for months to come. The storm that hit home for me (disturbing pun intended), however, was Rita.

Rita made landfall just east of the Louisiana/Texas border about one month after the disatrous Hurricane Katrina. Now, as you may know from reading, I live in Eastern Pennsylvania. However, my company's division that manufactures the coatings that I develop is in DeQuincy, Louisiana, which happens to lie - you guessed it - just east of the TX/LA border.

Ever since we moved our coatings production there in the early spring of 2002, I've been visiting our LA plant 4 or 5 times per year. So, needless to say, I've made quite a few friends there. It's been really heartbreaking to hear all my friends evacuated out of their parish and forced to shack up wherever they could, sometimes whole states away.

Thankfully, Rita lost most of its steam the day before it made landfall, and the destruction was nothing like the eastern side of LA had seen a month earlier. Still, downed trees and power lines made the roads all but impassible, and the authorities would not allow anyone into the area for any extended period of time, even up until a week ago.

I'm happy to say that Wednesday last week, phone and power services to the area began to come back up. Most of my friends and coworkers have been able to return home, and as importantly for their families, to work.

Only one fellow's house was seriously damaged - that due to several fallen trees landing on his home. Everyone else has a lot of cleaning up to do, but thankfully they are able to resume their lives after a long interruption.

All these events get me thinking about people form the other side of the state. It's one thing for one's home to be damaged or lost, but when one's place of business or employment is also lost in the process, the impact is magnitudes more devastating.

When I was a young teenager, our house was heavily damaged by a large tornado. The thing is though, my father still had a place to work and we were well-insured. As such, our lives continued with only the moderate interruption of cleaning up and getting the house restored to its former state by contractors specializing in catastrophic damage. Not so bad compared to some. My thoughts are with the folks affected by these storms.

Addendum - I've been writing this post over several days. Over the weekend, South Asia was rocked by a devastating earthquake. Those folks have an even more difficult time ahead of them than our own mid-south. What is it about this year and natural disasters??

Microchanges in Air Density?

2005-09-27T21:22:00.000-04:00

Ok, I know that I've only been doing Ditlog for a few weeks, but my morbid curiosity is welling. Is anyone out there reading? Kindly drop me a comment with any constructive criticism or a quick blurb on what you like.

Sorry to wax self-promotive, but I'm trying to gauge whether my efforts at Technorati are helping my traffic to any extent. I know it's a pain to create a Blogger account to post a comment, but if you're enjoying the blog at all, I'd really appreciate it.

Training Cats and Dogs: Part Deux

2005-09-27T20:22:00.000-04:00

Ok, I have to apologize. I'd never intended Ditlog to devolve into a episodic, stream of consciousness journal of the Misadventures of Erilar the Hunter. I mean, who wants to read that? It's like the old geek joke about hanging out at the gaming convention and the slightly disturbingly weird uber-geek who won't stop following one around and talking about his character.

In any case, the point I've been meandering towards is this: Ditlog is still an experiment. To anyone out there that's actually reading this, please hang in there. As I've stated previously, I created Ditlog as a working experiment. At this point, Ditlog is an merely a instrument designed to congeal my muddled thoughts and half-formed ideas about a website by simple evolution.

So, without further befuddlement, I'd like to present this entry as I probably should have the first time through:

I've been spending some of my WoW time lately beefing up my hunter's pet. With the release of patch 1.7, hunters have been blessed not only with the long-awaited revamping of our Talent trees, but also the addition of a bevy of interesting new pet abilities.

Due to the wide variety of choices now available, I've been spending many a lunch hour scheming about the exact combination of abilities I want to train Erilar's trusty nightsaber with. In the process, I stumbled upon two very helpful hunter pet resources.

Petopia is a smashing new website that details the types of trainable beasts available, their individual characteristics and advantages, and an informative top-50 list. Petopia does a great job of outlining all the pet abilities now available, complete with a guide to what animals an aspiring hunter can learn each from. Finally, Petopia has collected a comprehensive collection of images detailing all the different varieties of each species. Truly, a valuable resource for gun- (and bow-) toting Azerothians everywhere.

Not to be outdone, WoW enthusiasts Rocket, Bindar, and Rooke have developed a highly-useful pet training calculator which allows one to plan out the own Stupid Pet Tricks to the nth degree. This web app even customizes the training points and pet skills available to a hunter of a given level. Pink pencil-tip erasers world-wide have issued a press release to the developers thanking then for saving hundreds of their brethren from an untimely and dusty demise.

My recent efforts have snared me two new abilities for Erilar's hunting companion. The first, Dash, has actually been available in-game for some time now, but after some quality Petopia time, I decided that it was for me. Dash allows your pet a brief 15-second burst of speed - from a 40% bonus at lower levels to a whopping 80% at the highest. I'm interested see the skill's utility in chasing down runners, but at this early stage I've been getting a real kick out of seeing my new wolf take off like a rocket towards target mobs, with a satisfying Superman-like woosh, when given the command to attack. Cool factor:10, Usefulness: TBD.

Prowl is one of the new 1.7 pet abilities. It allows pets of the feline variety to enter stealth mode, like a rogue or druid in cat form. Their speed is reduced to 50-60% of normal, but their first hit scored (breaking stealth) yields a total of 120-150% of normal damage. Quite cool. It seems that leaving this ability on autocast will not be practical, as the animal then moves too slowly to keep up with his/her master, but it will be an interesting addition to hunter tactics.

I intend to collect the Furious Howl skill next for my new wolf. This nifty ability imparts a 10-second buff to each party member's next attack. I can't wait to see what Blizzard has in store for the pets that were left out in 1.7 - particularly bears and spiders!

Training Cats and Dogs

2005-09-27T14:15:00.000-04:00

Played another great WoW session a few days ago, but didn't have time to blog it. After upgrading my gear, I needed to spend some time on my trusty companion, Zuel the hunting cat.

I first headed down to Stranglethorn, to a little island off the east coast called Jaguero Isle. There lurks an elusive kitty appropriately called the Jaguero Stalker. These black panthers train hunters the new pet skill Prowl 3, so I had to train one for myself to pass the skill on to good ol' Zuel.

I then headed off to the Hinterlands, and snuck into an elite troll fortress called Jintha'Alor. That was pretty thrilling, considering that since I was on a pet taming mission, I didn't have Zuel along to back me up. At level 55, I can't handle too many lvl 49 elite trolls mano-a-trollo, so my stealthy entry was certainly exhilarating. I finally made it to the top of that troll-infested ziggurat and trained myself a Vilebranch Raiding Wolf (51 elite).

This lithe, black canine teaches hunters the Dash 3 pet skill. I'm still currently adventuring with this wolf, now named Wahya, trying to get him loyal enough to teach me his very-cool Dash ability. I really like this pet, and I think I'm going to hang onto him as permanent fixture of my stable.

I have to interject a great trick here that my 9-yr-old son, also a WoW fanatic, discovered just the other day. A freshly-tamed pet can now immediately be taught the Growl skill, since Growl now costs zero training points. This makes grinding to raise the new pet's loyalty much more enjoyable, compared to constantly struggling with aggro! I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure that at some point, Growl used to cost training points and a fresh, new pet was incapable of learning it. Great tip!

One last pet-centric topic. Hunters, be sure to check out the great pet website, Petopia. This site is lovingly-done, and contains all sorts of useful info regarding hunter pets, all wonderfully accompanied by crisp images of each pet type. Anyone "shopping" for a new pet, or wanting to trick out their current pet (pun intended) with some new skills, should definitely check it out.

Next on the agenda: take griffin to Feralas to train a Longtooth Runner to learn Howl 3 for Wahya. What's a wolf without Howl?!?

The Edges of Blackrock

2005-09-22T14:40:00.000-04:00

Well, last night was another great session of WoW (see yesterday's post for even more goodness)! Spent the evening questing in Burning Steppes, and actually finished picking up all of the pre-requisite quests for Blackrock Depths. First endgame dungeon, here I come!

After returning from their successful Zul'Gurub run (in which they took down the two first bosses), Jandari also kindly made me my second Dawn's Edge with the materials I'd sent him. To top it all off with a flourish, I spent about half of the evening's loot on double Demonslaying enchantments for my shiny new axes. See above for a pic of Erilar showing them off. You go, elf!

I know, I know, Demonslaying sucks stat-wise. Well, they look sweet, and I'm actually really saving up for Icy Chill, but each of those enchants costs almost twice what one of these axes does...

Whirl of Warcraft

2005-09-21T13:14:00.000-04:00

I've finally found some time to spend playing WoW the last two nights. I've been working on the house like a dog, and was starting to get twitchy.

Monday night, I tackled my level 52 hunter quest in Azshara - searching for the furbolg hunter trainer out in the sticks, hunting some wild stags for him, and then finally scouring the coastline for a decent spawning ground for the Wavethrasher hydras. The last phase involves killing a green dragon in Sunken Temple, so I hope to hit that with some guildies soon. Not much xp (too much searching around), but got to explore all over Azshara. Those nagas and satyrs need to spruce the place up - the place is a wreck!

Last night was the highlight. I'd finally scraped up the cash and scoured the auction house for the raw materials for my first Dawn's Edge axe, and my awesome guildie Jandari said he would have it made for me and in the mail by the time I returned to Ironforge at the close of the night!

I'm now working on gathering my quests for Blackrock Depths, so I first picked up all the easy ones (Ironforge, Kharanos, and Steamwheedle Port). Then, before heading to the Burning Steppes, I wanted to knock out the series in Searing Gorge.

I had no idea that I was going to have so much fun! I began the night soloing. The questing was a little slow - all drop quests and the mobs were pretty far apart, spawning in discrete lava pools and such. Hint: when working on The Flawless Flame, the Heart of Flame quest items only drop from the fire elementals! The Golem Oil drops from any of the golems or elementals, and can be gathered pretty quickly.

I spent a while bopping around the Cauldron area doing Forging the Shaft, even exploring the vast underground area dug into the side of the Cauldron. Really huge back there - pretty cool. Helped some folks take down an elite dwarf boss called Overseer Maltorius, too. I kept pulling aggro, since I was the highest level dps character, so really had to do some dancing to keep my hide intact! There's a huge golem down there called Obsidianas, or something like that - I need to figure out how to activate that thing so I can duke it out with him!

Finally though, the crowning jewel of the night was The Flame's Casing. It's a rare drop quest, and the enemy are these lvl 47-50 elite Twilight's Hammer cultists. I started out soloing. I could handle the mobs, but the heavily-armored ones were pretty tough to take down since the fights were so long, and my trusty nightsaber companion, Zuel, was having a hard time of it.

So, I gritted my teeth and decided to take a chance and LFG for some companions. My typical experience with a pick-up group involves a frustrating collection of adolescent jokers who play poorly, whine about treasure drops, and make the session a frustrating exercise. To my surprise, I ended up with a group of three other skilled, honorable, and fun players and we had a total blast.

My new post-1.7 talent spec (31 Survival /20 Marksman) is working out great. I'm critting so much more often, but not enough to pull too much aggro - just right. Plus, if I do get the creep's attention, I've got so a great collection of new melee-mitigation and aggro-management powers to bring to bear.

The Symbol of Ragnaros drop turned out to be very rare, and we had to wade through an army of elites to finally find one, but with such a great group, it was a blast. We also discovered a cool, virtually hidden area where an NPC gives out the Prayer to Elune quest. Being an upstanding night elf, Elune and I are tight, so I picked that up, of course! The drop for that quest is also frustratingly rare, but hang in there - you'll get it! There was even a mage handy to teleport me to Darnassus to turn in my Prayer quest.

Between the two quests, we fought a great platoon of elites, and my xp showed. I gained half a level to hit 55, and a quarter towards 56 on top - hoody hoo! Even though the drops weren't spectacular, I did earn enough cash to fund the raw materials for my second Dawn's Edge! (All I need now is four affordable Blue Sapphires, but the price has been through the roof lately.) A most excellent night, in all!

WoW Companion

2005-09-16T13:21:00.000-04:00

I wanted to turn folks on to a cool website/program called WoW Companion that lets one upload the data from their World of Warcraft character(s) and display them via the web. WoW Companion uses a Java app to autogenerate (and then host) a webpage that looks like the character pane from WoW.

It even lets you browse their skills, reputation, honor, and even talent choices (the button for talents is at the bottom of the page). My only disappointment was the lack of a character portrait, but still a very neat app for the aspiring and zealous WoW geek. Note that the function to display patch 1.7 data is still in beta, but seems to work just fine.

Check out their installation instructions for the gritty details.

Here's a link to my main toon, Erilar the night elven hunter! Cool...

One Point Seven!

2005-09-13T13:44:00.000-04:00

It's patch day, kiddies, and I'm happy - my main's a hunter!

The GeezerHorde Grows!

2005-09-13T10:48:00.000-04:00

Zug, zug! World of Warcraft players from my RL gaming group, along with folks from Geezer Gamers, have started a Horde guild on the Windrunner WoW server. We're up to 9 players and growing, not too bad considering we've only been at this a few days.

We were all looking for a group of players to hang out with when RL friends were not available. Our main characters' guild, Twilight Alliance, is great, but is really geared toward the level 60 endgame, and we were all having trouble finding folks to group with our lower-level alts (or mains!).

Tarrek and I had decided to roll some Tauren to play duo when Zilanderan wasn't around, and Zil was already working on getting a group of the Geezers together for the same goal. (He plays a lot of Halo 2 with those gun-toting geriatrics.) It's all gelled nicely, and we bought our guild charter last night.

We're looking for like-minded members, so if you're of the mature, married, homeowner, parent kind of crowd and are looking for a group of players who will understand that you have to go AFK for a while because the baby woke up, look us up. Again, we're Horde faction on Windrunner. Send a /w to our guild leader, Brrainzz - he's the most likely to be on. The guild name will not be locked in until we get our 10th signature, but I think we're going with GeezerHorde. I'll be starting us a website and forum on GuildPortal just as soon as the name is inked.

Strength and honor!

TavernCast

2005-09-09T13:35:00.000-04:00

After some prodding from my wife and my tech-savvy friends Ken and Jim, I've been getting into listening to podcasts over the last month or so. What a great new technology. I mean, before podcasting, what were the odds of finding a talk radio show about a topic as audience-specific as video games, or sci-fi, or even general technology news?

To feed my latest addiction, I recently spent some time scouring the web for World of Warcraft podcasts, and have checked out all I'd found. Some of it was ok, but the only really good one I ran into is TavernCast. Their shows are done in a roundtable-type format, and the cast of 'casters is diverse and funny. They run some regular focused segments, such as The Dark Corner, which focuses on all things Rogue, and Out of Character, which features topics involving roleplay.

All you WoW players out there looking to get yor fix during the commute or even at work are highly encouraged to check their show out. Note that Episode 1 is a little rough, but 2 and beyond are pretty professional and a good listen.

Their website also features a forum, which is starting to pick up some steam and contains some intelligent WoW discussion (a stark contrast to the whiney complaint-fest that is the official WoW forums).

Dark New Day

2005-09-09T09:23:00.000-04:00

While I'm touting music, I have to push one more band - Dark New Day.

Our hometown has a huge annual 10-day music festival called, simply enough, Musikfest. My wife and I had volunteered to work as ushers at several shows, including Seether with Crossfade.

The second opening band turned out to be Dark New Day. Forget about the headliners - these guys blew me away. Describing the music might turn some off, as it could make them sound like another clone of the current radio rock, but hang in there. At times, they remind one of elements of Creed, STP, Alice in Chains, but have no fear - they are their own band.

The music has crunch, but is at the some time very melodic and haunting. Sledgehammer testosterone-laden riffs alternating with flowing, clean bright chord work. The singer has a strong, crisp voice, pushing through intelligent, soulful lyrics, but with a firm rock punch. Bold backup vocal harmonies from the bandmembers seal the deal.

Anyway, check them out at their website - be sure to watch the great video for Brother. It streamed well even on our crappy frame relay connection at work. Their album, Twelve Year Silence, is available from both Amazon and iTunes (where I picked mine up).

Dali's Dilemma

2005-09-08T16:54:00.000-04:00

Last night, my wife and I were watching the first season of Battlestar Galactica on DVD. We'd only seen the miniseries prequel so far, and holy cow! This show does *not* disappoint, or pale in any way compared to all the hype. Give me more!

I digress though. While watching said delectable sci-fi goodness, I was working at importing the rest of my music CD's into iTunes for eventual transfer to my beloved iPod Photo. I'd only had about 1/3 of my library on the iPod to date, and so at work today I had access to a lot of beloved tunes that I hadn't listened to for a while.

I've got to turn you on to one album in particular: Manifesto for Futurism by Dali's Dilemma. These guys only ever made one album from what I can tell, but *wow* what great stuff. If you like progressive rock - Dream Theater and the like - even a little, I highly encourage you to check this great CD out! Absolutely vibrant tracks, anywhere from blistering to beautiful. Great, great stuff. My good friend Mike had turned me on to them a while back, and so I'm passing on his great recommendation - thanks Mikey!

Here's a link to the album on Amazon, and another at their label Magna Carta. Both sites contain audio samples that you can check out.

The Gamer Me

2005-09-08T13:16:00.000-04:00

I'm a gamer. Always have been. You're going to hear a lot on gaming here, so if that topic doesn't interest you, my best suggestion is to run away screaming.

Other than time spent with my family, gaming is what keeps me sane. I guess I'm going to have to analyze this...

To begin, I've grown up with the industry. I was there for Pong, and Atari, and Intellivision. I was the first generation who's mothers had to physically drag their male children past the Space Invaders machine on their way out of a Pizza Hut.

I learned to program on a Radio Shack Trash-80, and spent long afternoons trying to land that damned lunar module on those treacherous, blocky peaks. I blew many a sunny summer Saturday holed up in my basement playing Adventure. Then Zork. Then King's Quest. We continued to grow, and the industry grew and matured with us.

I was the first generation of kids that grew up playing pen & paper Dungeons and Dragons. We imagined, we created, our adventurs were epic, and we remember those early days fondly. Fast forward to the present, and you'll still find me most Friday evenings, dice in hand, at one of my good friends' dining room tables.

Gaming is so many things. It's a social event, a reason to get together with friends with similar interests, to laugh it up, ham it up, and wind down after a busy week.

Gaming is recreational mental exercise, an opportunity to match wits (both the cerebral and humerous varieties), match reflexes, match strategies, and many times, a good opportunity to practice humility.

Gaming is an important vehicle for stress relief. It's down time incarnate. Many people enjoy TV or a movie at the end of a tough day, and I certainly do as well. Wrapping one's self up in a story, however - at least for me - is that much more effective when one can interact with said story.

People are animals - intelligent, complex, and (supposedly) civilized - but animals nonetheless. We retain our primitive urges to fight, to hunt, to mate, to flee, but we don't like to admit to it. I don't mind. Gaming is a healthy outlet for many of those instinctual behaviors. I don't get urges to get in bar fights. In the past week, I have vanquished 45 murlocs, three dozen orcs, and a giant fire elemental. I beat a hopped-up Lancer Evolution to the finish line, and wasted 9/10ths of the Covenant forces. I have no pent-up hormonal agression left to spare on two rude drunks. :)

In short, I'm a gamer.

The House that Frank(enstein) Built

2005-09-08T13:12:00.001-04:00

Coming up on two years ago, we bought the townhouse we'd been renting since relocating for this job. This is our first home purchase, and is working out fairly well so far. The place is a fixer-upper, from the standpoint that the decor and some of the exterior need some serious updating. We bought the property for a good price, with the intent of revamping it and reselling it for some degree of profit. As this point, we're doing well equity-wise, and we're happy with the way the projects we've competed have turned out.

We've replaced exterior doors, the downstairs flooring, redecorated our son's bedroom, and are now in the finishing stages of one upstairs bathroom. We needed to replace a tub, and insanely decided that a whirlpool tub would be an addition desirable to the next buyer (oh, and my wife would probably like it as well...). That project has been quite a ride, but we're seeing the end of the tunnel.

Next up, regrouting the shower in the bathroom in our room, some painting in there and replacing the vanity.

Looming on the horizon, like a hungry troll waiting for a billy goat: the kitchen. Ugh.

I am I

2005-09-08T12:59:00.000-04:00

As a quick introduction, I'm a 36-yr-old male living in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I'm married (for what - 12 years now - wow!) , and have a wonderful 9-yr-old son. I work as a chemist for a small private company, developing and providing technical service for a line of specialty coatings. I won't go much further down this avenue with the intent of keeping my wife's and son's identity fairly anonymous. (I'm not paranoid. They are out there and they are watching.) :)

The Mission

2005-09-08T12:39:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Ditlog. At this stage, this blog is basically an experiment. I'm interested in putting together a blog and website as a "home base" for exploring many of my interests. I expect it to provide an opportunity for recreational writing, serve as a journal, and to provide a platform from which to expand into Podcasting and any other interests that tickle my fancy.

Hopefully, this Blogger site will help me get my thoughts in order and eventually distill them into what Ditlog will become. Given the dynamic nature of the web and emerging technology, perhaps that will never happen in any concrete sense!