Tetris was a game I played on my GameBoy. Watching Jason, my roommate play, I was yelling at him when he made a wrong move. Bashing him for building up to a tetris while on level 11 and just got burried when we didn't get the right block. I didn't fare any better, though, way out of practice.
Judging by my reactions to the various games, it's easy to see why these are classics. Pac man, asteroids, and the like bring back memories. I never really was too big into them, but their simple nature is a big change from today's complex MMOs and FPSs.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Burning Crusade: Week One
Our server saw its first 70. Our guild has seen its first 70. And I, well, am not 70.
HOWEVER getting to 65 was still a bit of an accomplishment.
Hellfire Penninsula:
So, the first zone you fall into is, predictably, pretty sandboxy. The quests went fast as being level 60 and having some decent gear melted lots of faces. The highlight of the quests was definatly the bombing run. Flying on a gryphon tossing large explosives doing 20k damage to everything was sick and something very new.
Hellfire Ramparts left a little something to be desired. There seems to be a lot of trash and the two lesser bosses don't really do anything interesting. The final boss was pretty cool, where he drops flame bombs that stick around to do ~900 a tick if you stand in them (a la bat boss from ZG). Blood Furnace was, however, my favorite instance to date. The first boss was a little boring, but then it MCed Jason and launched a 4k pyroblast at me. The second boss was a nice mix of Rajax and Grobbulus. Four waves of orcs followed by an eye who periodically drops expanding poison clouds. The final boss seemed a bit too easy. He has five adds at the start that put on a debuff that increases shadow damage taken by ~1000, but it was easily dispelled. Once he comes out, he does an emote to tell players to come closer. Of course, instinct says to run away as he does a large blast wave.
Zangamarsh:
Eh, really didn't enjoy this area. The sporregar people seemed interesting, but nothing terribly exciting from them. There really wasn't too much excitement from the quests. Kill X, pick up Y, talk to Z. Blah.
Coilfang:
I did a half run and a full run of each. The trash seemed to have a ton of health and, coupled with a few very dicy pulls, made the instance drag on. First boss in slave pens was a shade-less jindo, followed by a crab with a debuff that does 5-600 damage a second until the tank is fully healed, and the last boss was just some tank-and-spank elemental guy who didn't seem to do much. Underbog was...long. I'll leave it at that. I got my quests done and never plan on going back and dread what Steam Vaults hold.
Terrokar Forest:
I haven't spent too much time in this zone yet, but it seems to have promise. There is a dychotomy in the factions where you can chose which one you will follow.
Mana Tombs:
This instance is all the first and last boss. The first one is a voidwalker that puts up a reflective damage shield while spitting out hard shadowbolt vollies. The last one is a mage who kites the tank aroudn a bit, frost nova, blink, fireballs, etc. Everything every warrior hates.
Noteable Tank upgrades:
Nothing too major yet. A shield and boots that are on par with Elementium Reinforced Bulwark and Wrath respectively. A cape with double the sta as Elementium threaded. A faster dagger with higher DPS and STA to replace bloodlord's defender. Nothing too huge...yet.
HOWEVER getting to 65 was still a bit of an accomplishment.
Hellfire Penninsula:
So, the first zone you fall into is, predictably, pretty sandboxy. The quests went fast as being level 60 and having some decent gear melted lots of faces. The highlight of the quests was definatly the bombing run. Flying on a gryphon tossing large explosives doing 20k damage to everything was sick and something very new.
Hellfire Ramparts left a little something to be desired. There seems to be a lot of trash and the two lesser bosses don't really do anything interesting. The final boss was pretty cool, where he drops flame bombs that stick around to do ~900 a tick if you stand in them (a la bat boss from ZG). Blood Furnace was, however, my favorite instance to date. The first boss was a little boring, but then it MCed Jason and launched a 4k pyroblast at me. The second boss was a nice mix of Rajax and Grobbulus. Four waves of orcs followed by an eye who periodically drops expanding poison clouds. The final boss seemed a bit too easy. He has five adds at the start that put on a debuff that increases shadow damage taken by ~1000, but it was easily dispelled. Once he comes out, he does an emote to tell players to come closer. Of course, instinct says to run away as he does a large blast wave.
Zangamarsh:
Eh, really didn't enjoy this area. The sporregar people seemed interesting, but nothing terribly exciting from them. There really wasn't too much excitement from the quests. Kill X, pick up Y, talk to Z. Blah.
Coilfang:
I did a half run and a full run of each. The trash seemed to have a ton of health and, coupled with a few very dicy pulls, made the instance drag on. First boss in slave pens was a shade-less jindo, followed by a crab with a debuff that does 5-600 damage a second until the tank is fully healed, and the last boss was just some tank-and-spank elemental guy who didn't seem to do much. Underbog was...long. I'll leave it at that. I got my quests done and never plan on going back and dread what Steam Vaults hold.
Terrokar Forest:
I haven't spent too much time in this zone yet, but it seems to have promise. There is a dychotomy in the factions where you can chose which one you will follow.
Mana Tombs:
This instance is all the first and last boss. The first one is a voidwalker that puts up a reflective damage shield while spitting out hard shadowbolt vollies. The last one is a mage who kites the tank aroudn a bit, frost nova, blink, fireballs, etc. Everything every warrior hates.
Noteable Tank upgrades:
Nothing too major yet. A shield and boots that are on par with Elementium Reinforced Bulwark and Wrath respectively. A cape with double the sta as Elementium threaded. A faster dagger with higher DPS and STA to replace bloodlord's defender. Nothing too huge...yet.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
What is a Game?
For me, games are part enjoyment and part competition. They are a way for me to sit back and smile. They are a way of showing I am better at something. They are something to pass the time.
The first game I played extensively was Railroad Tycoon, a simulation game that involved building a railroad and beating all of your competitors. I dabbled a little in first person shooters, but, eventually, found my way to the Final Fantasy series. I played two of the GameBoy versions (I and III) and three of the Playstation versions (VII, IX, and Tactics). With VII and tactics, I played through the first time enjoying the story line and going where it made sense. Then, I took a second trip through the game trying to do everything possible. My end-character in tactics was eventually able to defeat the final encounter without any help (usually you have a 5 person party).
The intellectual challenge from the FF series was in the Min-Maxing of my characters. To minimize flaws and maximize their effectiveness was something I always wanted to push. Many times, I wished there was a way to pit two parties against each other just to test which builds were the best.
The first online game I played was Utopia (http://games.swirve.com/utopia). In this game, you are one province in a kingdom of 25 who work together to grow and be larger than everyone else in the world. Available were different military operations, exploration, magical, or thievery attacks that you could use to weaken your opponents and take their resources. At one point, I wound my way into a kingdom that was in the top 20 in the world (there were, maybe, 1000+ individual kingdoms). I quickly got burned out on Utopia, though, mostly because it wasn't something I could do with my friends (the province placements were completely random). It simply stopped being fun.
About a year ago, I started a new online game: World of Warcraft. After learning the game through the levels, I joined a raiding guild and started running through the 20-man dungons. That blossomed into 40-mans and now we've cleared BWL and most of AQ40. WoW has been great because it is competition with thousansd of others in the world, aiming to coordinate 20-40 people for the same goal. New in the expansion are other, much more complex areas that I'll be exploring in the coming weeks.
The first game I played extensively was Railroad Tycoon, a simulation game that involved building a railroad and beating all of your competitors. I dabbled a little in first person shooters, but, eventually, found my way to the Final Fantasy series. I played two of the GameBoy versions (I and III) and three of the Playstation versions (VII, IX, and Tactics). With VII and tactics, I played through the first time enjoying the story line and going where it made sense. Then, I took a second trip through the game trying to do everything possible. My end-character in tactics was eventually able to defeat the final encounter without any help (usually you have a 5 person party).
The intellectual challenge from the FF series was in the Min-Maxing of my characters. To minimize flaws and maximize their effectiveness was something I always wanted to push. Many times, I wished there was a way to pit two parties against each other just to test which builds were the best.
The first online game I played was Utopia (http://games.swirve.com/utopia). In this game, you are one province in a kingdom of 25 who work together to grow and be larger than everyone else in the world. Available were different military operations, exploration, magical, or thievery attacks that you could use to weaken your opponents and take their resources. At one point, I wound my way into a kingdom that was in the top 20 in the world (there were, maybe, 1000+ individual kingdoms). I quickly got burned out on Utopia, though, mostly because it wasn't something I could do with my friends (the province placements were completely random). It simply stopped being fun.
About a year ago, I started a new online game: World of Warcraft. After learning the game through the levels, I joined a raiding guild and started running through the 20-man dungons. That blossomed into 40-mans and now we've cleared BWL and most of AQ40. WoW has been great because it is competition with thousansd of others in the world, aiming to coordinate 20-40 people for the same goal. New in the expansion are other, much more complex areas that I'll be exploring in the coming weeks.
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