WotLK: the hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands to fight the Horde, sing and cry: Valhalla, I am coming!

Ah the Ottoman Empire. No not an inappropriate name for a specialty furniture shop, I'm referring to the record account holding MMORPG known to anyone who watches TV commercials, plays video games, and hasn't been trying to reenact fallout shelter living from Blast from the Past, as World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment.

It is very hard to take a contrary stance as to the point that the Blizzard beast WoW is by far the best altogether MMORPG available. Down Caps Lock Key, down boy.

I am always in search of better and more fun to play games. An MMO compared to a solo RPG gives the chance to interact and play with so many others. WoW is the best MMO for just that opportunity. I have played and tried many before WoW including Ultima, EQ, FFXI, DAOC, Asheron's Call, Conan, Warhammer (and a few others that I can't remember their names at the moment) and in my constant pilgrimage to find the best MMORPG, WoW is the one I keep coming back to. It's not to say I haven't had fun playing other MMOs. I had quite a bit of fun with FFXI especially, but the downsides of each have pushed and pulled so many other people, like myself, into the realm of WoW for their MMO pleasures.

One part of the MMO experience that keeps players coming back to the same game is expansions. Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard's latest expansion was released on Nov 13th, within 24 hours had sold 2.8 million copies.

Thinking about trying to review an expansion to an MMO is a difficult task to accomplish because I have to assume that those that care to read this review have already played WoW (2.8 million out of 6,602,224,175 chance). I also have to assume that you've got a character that is near the level 70 pre-WotLK cap. If not, you'll just be futilely banging on the keyboard as the review will do absolutely nothing for you and further reading will not be to your liking (except the section at the end) and even if you do play WoW, I'm not sure there's too much I can do other than talk about the observations I've made.

For those that don't know, I tend to focus my WoW involvement on my doppelganger blog Lifeblooming Onion but I feel that since 2.8 million copies of this piece of software have been sold, I need to make an effort to give it some sort of respect here too.

For those of you that play WoW, casually or every waking non-working hour hardcorely, I'll touch on some of the highlights and compare the changes to the vanilla version and the Burning Crusade expansion. I first was pushed from the latter type of player to the former due to a lot of physical realm responsibilities and events that occurred during the month of November. But thankfully, before November was in full swing, a prerelease patch was given to all those that were already playing. A lot of "expansion" features were made available at that point and the following is a list as to those changes:

• New class spells and talents
• Stormwind Harbor
• Barbershops in capital cities
• Zeppelin towers outside of Orgrimmar and Tirisfal Glades
• Two brand-new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles
• Blizzard's usual teasing of its players by offering only the whip cream instead of handing us the whole cherry pie
• Guild calendar
• Hunter pet skill revamp
• New profession: Inscription
• Achievements which sometimes are just for bragging rights and others yield actual rewards
• Changes to things such as Spell Power and Healing Power have now been combined into the same stat and therefore similar gear can be used for dps and healers alike.

The expansion itself included the following additions:

• New continent called Northrend to explore. Northrend features ten zones with content for levels as low as 68, though players may travel to Northrend at any level. One zone is open PVP no matter what type of server you play on.
• New instances including many 5, 10, and 25 man dungeons. A new addition is 10 man and 25 man versions of larger dungeons will now be open and loot will be different depending on what version is run.
• Death Knight Hero Class. This class starts at level 55 for those that already have a character above that level and is somewhat a cross between a warrior, paladin and warlock in its abilities.
• Graphical improvements including magic effects.
• New Factions
• Plethora of quests
• More frustration
• New Mounts
• Lots more of the same
• More fun
• More of the word More

Combined there were plenty of changes, and from what I remember, more than when TBC was released. Some were way overdue like the guild calendar while others were somewhat a surprise such as achievements giving new mounts and small pets.

Here are my observations of WotLK:

1. The first thing that should slap you in the face once your foot hits the snow in Northrend is the noticeable overall style that the landscapes have compared to TBC. TBC had a fantasy sci-fi look mixing medieval with futuristic. Some people really enjoy fantasy sci-fi and others, like myself, find it to be an awkward conglomeration of things that shouldn't be placed next to one another. Northrend's decor is more of the classic vanilla WoW focusing mainly on the medieval setting and doing so with landscapes, weapons, mounts, etc.
2. The next thing you'll notice is the neverending story called the grind. By grind I mean leveling and by leveling I mean spending way too much time doing tasks for ungrateful NPCs. For me to reach one more level of experience I had to almost put in 6-8 hours of play which gave me FFXI flashbacks on the same level of seeing my buddies die face down in the muck.
3. Reputation grinds seem easier as the total amounts have either changed or including larger gains in accomplishing quests. Faction tabards now give the ability to give you rep based on that faction no matter what level 80 dungeon you are doing.
4. Inscription is a wild card profession including once per day random recipe gains. Herbalism is a must to go along with it and scales to a large amounts herbs needed to level as you get to the herbs of TBC and beyond.
5. Death knights seem like a great class but I'm not sure they will ever be a main tank for a guild beyond smaller 5man/10man things. Everyone I had talked to about their DK really seemed to enjoy it over the last TBC pally/shaman addition.
6. I haven't fully tested PvP, Arena, and BGs for this expansion yet so I am unsure on how those are now. There are additions such as the BG Strand of the Ancients and an outdoor all PVP area both involving the use of seige weaponry.
7. Most of the fluff from dungeons (walking distances, extra packs of mobs) has been removed for the new ones such as the Violet Hold which instantly throws you into 1/18 encounters and can be completed in under 30 mins. The look of the dungeons is very well done and gives each their own little persona.
8. Lots of extra distractions from dungeon diving and pvp like new mounts and pets are very plentiful and hard to pull some people away from.
9. Dungeon difficulty has been changed going back to more of the original version of WoW where damage is more predictable instead of sporradic and helps keep raid makeups more diverse.
10. Achievements, which at first looked to be all wastes of time, can actually yield some very individualistic rewards that few others will have such as tabards, mounts, pets, titles, etc.
11. More abilities and talent spec choices giving players more choices and decisions but making balance something harder to achieve for Blizzard.

WotLK is more content, more undiscovered territory, and more distractions from the real world for those that already love and live for WoW. What each want out of their monthly payment experience is up to the individual but know that if you aren't attempting to experience all that you can, you might be missing out on some great fun.

So get out there today with your group of friends and start to make the cold journey through Northrend into the soft heart of the Lich King.

To those that are on the edge since TBC or before, others intending on putting more effort into playing now, not a single reason as to why to start a frustrating debate, and probably because this is a better outlet for my opinion over my other blog:

Since playing the expansion and talking with people that had given up during TBC or earlier, with people that had taken time off and planned on coming back just for the expansion, and with those that have played everyday since WoW was released, I am starting to notice a trend in the types of people that are playing WoW.

I've noticed people only really continuing their WoW lives for 4 reasons: Raiding, PVP, socializing, and there isn't a better MMO out there. It is an MMO and therefore puts you in situations for necessary interactions with others but if you are a person that has a hard time socializing and finding others that have similar play schedules and interests, you start to become ostracized intentionally or accidentally so my suggestion is to not pick up the expac if you haven't already.

Since WoW is an established MMO, trying to pick up from a previous spot (well under pre-WotLK lvl 70 cap) or starting from the beginning is almost asking to be placed in the corner by yourself for months while others are out in the playground reaping the fun of things you cannot be involved in. Socializing as a lower level is something that you can join in unless it's talk focused on in-game aspects and then it's like a five year old child sporting an average IQ trying to get involved with a conversation about diversification of 401k elections in a crashing market, a bouquet of a Chilean wine versus a French, and String Theory. Again you become left out in the cold.

If you aren't into the socializing but want to play with random other people, PVP is really the main outlet and is a constant forum of debate for balance of play. This is can be the main reason people will choose a different MMO over WoW (aka Warhammer) or quit MMOs altogether. And even though recent changes have made BGs and other PVP (arenas) unorganized messes, good true fun PVP is still an organized form of play done with others.

The fact that there isn't a better MMO out there is mainly a financial constraint and is only noticed because you have to flip the bill once a month. If you pay for it ($156-180 for an entire year of play) you really should be trying to get the most for your money and that requires playing with the massive amounts of others.

Solo PVE will only get you so far and pugging dungeons can be nightmarish and suicidal. If you are all alone and solo PVE all the way up into the level 80 cap you will be greeted by a lovely brick wall of boredom and thumb twiddling as there is nothing else left for you to do unless it is with others.

In the end, organized dungeon diving and PVP are the only things you can do in the game beyond leveling and they have to be done with a group. Yes, you can sit and chat like I mentioned but if that's all you're doing why not download a free IM program or join a pedophile free chat room? This leaves you with playing with a few other people or larger groups of 25 people. The 5 to 10 man content only gets people so far before hitting the brick wall again and to be effectively jumping into that sized content with outside of game responsibilities can require closer to 10-20 people respectively.

Blizzard really puts some of the biggest amount of time and thought in its 25 man dungeons which is the last outlet for everyone. Progression through these dungeons require some of the best teamwork, leadership, and coordination which is best accomplished through already solid relationships that can only be built by previous camaraderie. All of that cannot be accomplished overnight and is best done by people playing together for quite a bit of time prior.

So if you are on the wall on whether to buy and continue your WoW adventures, remember in that your ultimate goal should be aiming for endgame dungeons and/or PVP with a good social guild to do that otherwise you really aren't getting your money's worth and could just spend 50 bucks on something else. If you already bought WotLK, I hope the best to you in your raids and HKing continuance as you attempt to slay the Lich King.

Fallout 3: don't leave a key underneath that mat for me

Dear diary, Jackpot!

Due to the love for this game along with a handful of others that were released within the same month, I held off on reviewing Fallout 3, from Bethesda, to allow myself to soak in a good dose first without regretting a new spontaneous appendage growth. After 10 levels of play and over 20 hours in I can safely say without any regret or second guessing that this is the best game to come out in a few years.

Now to make such a hefty judgement one has to weigh all the factors that make up a legendary release of a game. So I'll quickly run through a list as to what I look in for a game.

1. Difficulty and Reward - Is the game hard but rewarding when accomplished?
2. Learning and Yearning Curve - can anyone learn after about 2-3 hours of play and will people want to play it
3. Tingling the senses - Controls, graphics, sound: feels good, looks good, sounds good yet doesn't tax a system it's played on
4. The rug tying the room together - Storyline, depth, cut scenes, loading time, monotony, violence, humor, packaging, properly debugged prior to launch, total hours of play, possibility for sequels/expansions, etc

Fallout 3 doesn't lack from much at all. It might be a little more difficult to learn but overall nails all 4 factors well above average. It probably shouldn't be played by all children as to the somewhat excessive and exaggerated violence or the tie into what could be a grim reality but if a kid can somehow afford to pay for it and the system to play it on, they're probably old enough to play it. Even though it's the 3rd in the series, previous games are unnecessary to enjoy this version as pieces of Fallout 1 and 2 are sprinkled throughout the game.

Taking place in the year 2277 (30 years after Fallout 2) you are a dweller of Vault 101 (near Washington DC) and have never stepped foot outside of your vault. A war ravaged the land 200 years prior and your father one day decides to leave the vault. Quickly you follow his path out into the ravaged Wasteland. From there the game becomes very like Bethesda's prior open style games where you are able to travel anywhere you can survive and make whatever choices you see fit to the people and things you encounter.

Fallout 3 is an RPG in the sense that you can change your character over time and can interact with those around you with narrative dialogue. The combat however is much like a 1st person shooter but with the addition of a stop time system called VATS. Similar to Fallout 1 + 2 you have an action point bar which at any time can be used to complete actions in VATS. The VATS system is probably the most unique idea around for combat in its presentation of how combat could go.

Statistically connected to your character's attributes, your actions and their outcomes are based off of RPG elements such as skill using the type of weapon, range from aggressor, etc. You press a single button to initiate VATS and select where you would like to attack your target and a percentage appears as to the possibility you will land a hit. The whole system is actually optional in usage and can be ignored but I recommend that you shouldn't due to its helpfulness, uniqueness, and visual splendor.

Once your action points are spent the rest is played out much like a beautiful slow motion orchestrated movie. Only it's better than a Wachowski and John Woo film combined (Ok minus the leather and doves). The outcomes can be jaw dropping and darkly humorous like using a sharpened frozen banana because you can eat the evidence (not in the game).

What Bethesda designers do well is making tediously repetative activities fun. Hacking into computers, for example, is done by scrolling up a page of many different words and making attempts at what the password is with the computer telling you how many letters are correct out of the selection before you are either locked out, pick the correct word, or start all over again.

Fallout 3, unlike it's similar Morrowind predecessors and other ethical based titles such as Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, etc, caters more to the ethically evil type of character and the most overlooked, Swiss loving, Nicomachean neutral alignment. Dialogue options usually involve many responses, most of which include at least one similar to a Snake Plissken or Mad Max reply. Hacking into a computer can yield you someone else's money or can lead to valuable information but at the expense that it is "stealing" and lowers your karma even if the person that the computer belongs to is "evil" to begin with. Those Mark, Matthew, and Luke fellows might of been right when they were talking about the Sower.


The environment of interactions between people, aspects of the wasteland itself, the technology, and the way information is presented has a very 1950's tone to it that gives the game a personality where other games sometimes have a gap. This personality is a backbone and helps to pat you on the back any time the unsettling attitude of the wasteland starts to affect you. At the same time the 50's disposition is oblivious to the seriousness of things such as nuclear blasts and presents things in a dark fashion just like the old "duck and cover" instructional videos.

The Wasteland itself is done much like a portrait of the DC area as some major highways and landmarks can be seen throughout the game and contained within buildings are well designed mazes of rubble and ruin. Unlike Oblivion, I felt that there was less repetition in what is contained within buildings and Fallout gives a better feel for truly trying to scavenge and scrounging for items of survival instead of handing out tools and trinkets without a challenge.

One nice change from previous games was a few collector's editions that had some nice TREAsures included like an old metal grade school lunchbox that can only fit 3/4 of a PB+J sandwich, banana, and pudding or the contents of the game, a bobblehead of the lovely Vault Boy, making of DVD, art book, and for the big spenders a PIPboy clock.

There are already plans to release expansion packs similar to those for other Morrowind games as early as January 2009. They include one set in Anchorage, one in Pittsburgh and one as the Brotherhood of Steel in DC.

So would you survive in the remnants of a shattered and irradiated world? Or would your curiosity kill all nine of your lives and make your corpse pile a smoldering flesh pit for good measure? Or would you get the best of the Wasteland and exterminate every begging, crying, ugly forgotten survivor out there? Only going out and buying the game will prove to me what you are truly capable of.

Left 4 Dead + Mirror's Edge Demos: Oh baby you, you got what I need, but you say he's just a friend.

Fight or Flight? Ok most of the time you only care about the question "soup or salad?" but if you had a face full of zombie mucus I'll bet you'd start picking the house shotgun salad.

A new demo that I tried was Valve's new multiplayer co-op game Left 4 Dead. Using the great engine that was a tremendous success in showing off grand digital physics, Valve's latest release is exactly what lovers of the Zombie genre want; Guts, ammo, and running shoes.

Another run of the mill 1st person shooter with nothing that really sets it apart except for, well, 3 things:
1. Zombies. In the 2 levels included with the demo the total kills per level were about 320 or more. And most of the time all those zombies are aggressively pouring out of every nook and cranny that is around you. Added are some special types of zombies each with special abilities to add to the thrill and difficulty and at times mobs of 25 or more will all charge at you making it feel like a movie action sequence.
2. Friends. Picking 1 of 4 infection survivors, you and your 3 friends go from place to place just trying to keep the life bar filled. If you don't know 3 people that own Steam and a copy of the game, a Bot AI is used to fill the gap.
3. Survival. Relying on your friends to watch all angles, including already treaded paths makes Left 4 Dead an interesting game. Flashlight action much like Doom 3 at a very fast pace makes for many adrenaline pumping moments especially when a couple of hallways or windows aren't being watched or some strange sounds seem to bounce all around a room.

Being a big fan of the zombie genre movies and the company Valve, I felt I had a big bias towards this game automatically being good. Trying to ignore the bias I contemplated why it would be financially feasible for people to buy the game. This fork of a decision is what people will ruin their caps lock key over.

The game will only truly be fun if the experienced is shared with 3 others for what it costs. From what I have read the single player type portion can be speedily accomplished in under 8 hours total and the story-line is non-existent. But hey, most 1st person multiplayer games don't even bother with something like that (unreal tournament, quake 3, etc). But unlike these other 1st person multiplayers, Left 4 Dead is really the first that is co-op oriented.

The requirement of having to play with 3 others toward a common goal, aka team work, is best accomplished by doing so with 3 other people you know. I could not see myself hoping onto the game, randomly throwing myself in with 3 children and expecting it to be fun and rewarding for any of us unless people started calling me The Jesus.

In the end it comes down to knowing a few people that are all planning on making the purchase too and playing the game together in order to make it al worth while and for me my Steam friend's list is the saddest and smallest friends list I have.


Once I got sick of running from bloody bib wearing zombies, I decided to try a game where I'd run and run. Mirror's Edge from the Swedish game company DICE was surprising in that it really gave the player a different 1st person experience.

Instead of the usual six foot standing with minor head bobbing coupled with a little ducking, jumping, crawling, Mirror's Edge gives the player a look through the eyes of someone running to make sure your pizza is hand delivered in under 30 minutes while being chased by the neighbor's pitbull or what Franka Potente would see during Run Lola Run.

If you scare easy from heights this game is even more for you. The extreme heights from the tops of buildings as you leap and slide your way to safety while being chased adds to the toe curling and eye closing moments.

The story is done by using anime type bland cutscenes which are easily ignored. The story really reminded me of the movie Ultraviolet and is not the sort of thing you want to be compared to. The controls are odd and quite numerous as this seems to be the first game to really put to use the secondary trigger buttons. If your timing is off you usually plummet to your petunia bowl and sperm whale death.

What separates this game is that it really felt like you are being constantly chased, and in turn adds to the need to dexterously conquer the obstacles to get to safety while the 1st person view ties the experience together with fluid movement.

I would highly recommend this game to rent and play through and ask for doctors to start prescribing it as a cure to those that have vertigo.