... BUT I DON'T WANNA PLAY WOW AGAIN! =(

I played WoW. A lot. From the closed beta until just before the second expansion. I was convinced that WAR was going to be really good. It wasn't and I ended up back in WoW just a couple months after swearing it off for good. My account got turned off, with my internet, back in January. I haven't touched it since then. I got internet back again in March and it wasn't even on my list of things to do. But now... now, it is.

I spent a lot of time angry at WoW. I was angry

because the community was a bunch of fucking asshole elitist fuckbags. I was angry at the devs for constantly failing to live up to what was once so great about the game. Not even in the rose-colored glasses sense, but just in general. Especially when you consider the explosion at the launch of the game. I never knew that I'd look back almost 6 years ago and say "Man, this is probably one of the largest and most played games OF ALL TIME".

I was very upset with the latest expansion, after at first being overjoyed. Things rolled out too slowly and the stride that I thought they were making were more like babysteps to dumbing the game down even

more. The talents got reworked, but were still over the top and there was a lot of balancing that needed to be done that had thus far been overlooked.

THAT'S WHAT BETA IS FOR! I've used the phrase thousands of times and in this case, it was true. They seem to have worked over many of the kinks and issues that I had with the game that drove me so batshit crazy.

The talent trees have been slimmed down. Each class chooses a "specialization". From there you enter the tree. At max level, 85, you have 41 talent points now. Each tree has talents that extend down to a 31 point talent. You MUST invest 31 points into a tree (though you don't have to buy the 31-point talent) before you can spend talent points anywhere else. Hybrid builds are a thing of the past. No more picking up talents from all over the place. The synergy on some top tier talents have been improved to make this a little easier to handle. The outcome, though, will be forcing people to learn to play their specific role as Blizzard intended.

A large number of what used to be talents have been added as trainable ability or simple something passive. Trainable abilities, by the way, only need to be trained once and will scale with you as you go... forever. The Mastery system also steps in to take the place of some of the lost talents. Depending on your specialty, your Mastery skill will provide a different and specific bonus. For Warlocks their Affliction specialty adds X% to periodic Shadow damage. Then for each point of Master you add another Y%. Destruction does this for Fire damage and Demonology does the same for the damage of your demons.

WoW has always done a good job of streamlining and reshaping things before a large content patch, such as an expansion, and this is no different. They really did a pretty good job putting together a new system to play with. The main addition (or subtraction, rather) was the removal of many of the mind-numbing game stats. Spellpower and Attack power are gone, they have been replaced by stats that give a specific amount of either based on your class or spec. Mana per 5 also made an exit. The gear is now more simplified and stat heavy. It seems to be shaping up pretty

nicely.

I never though that I'd play WoW again. I figured I would be able to just quit it and never turn back. I can't. I see so many things returning to the way they should have been and I have a chance to run wild in the original landscape after it has been ravaged. I am really hoping for the best and I hope it turns out well.

Halo: Reach and why a 360 may be in my future.

I have been a gamer of some sort since I got my first Nintendo. Maybe even before that with a hand-me-down Atari. For more than a decade now, though, I've been a PC gamer almost exclusively. This longtime lovefest may be coming to an end.

As many of you may know, Halo:Reach just came out. It broke all sorts of online playing records as well as some sales records. This will be Bungie's last Halo game, so you know it has to be solid. On top of that, the multiplayer is anticipated to be VERY good.

I played Halo competitively when it came out for PC. I enjoyed the game and have very fond memories. I was never an XBox fan, but the game was really something special. I have been waiting to see something that fantastic again... and this could be it. I just have one little problem...

I don't own a 360. I don't own any consoles. All I own is a single gaming PC that is slowly being outpaced by today's games. I am trying to decide if I should get a 360 and if I do which one. I know I'll want more than one controller, that'll be extra. I know I will want at least 3 games to start, that's gonna break the bank. I know I want to be able to connect to the new Kinect and I will want to avoid RRoDs, that is going to crush my wallet... to death.

If I get a 360, I lose out on some features that the PS3 has. Large hard drive included, check. Blu-Ray player, check. Free online community/browser, check. I can't afford one right now, let alone both. I know I want to play Reach, but there are tons of great PS3 games, too. This is why having a PC is much easier. All of the games come out for it. Sure, you might have to upgrade every 3 or 4 years, but you can always play whatever they put it out for it.

The lust for a console is how I really know that PC games are dead. =(

Global Agenda does right so wrong.

Global Agenda is a newish FPSMMO hybrid game. It is based on the latest Unreal Engine (UE3) and has a lot of nice features from games of old. It has a Tribes personality with a 3rd person PlanetSide feel to some of it. Lots of people have hailed the game as a masterful in between of the two genres. In my little time with it I can't say if I like or dislike it, but I know that something is wrong under the surface.

Maybe it comes from being such a negative Nancy about the current state of gaming, but moreover I think my inner tinglings are because of the engine. The Unreal Engine isn't set up to take advantage of massive landscapes and tons of people smashed into one area. It all feels kind of odd, especially how the mobs respawn. I am an old school FPS and MMO player and neither one of those urges manage to be satiated by this game.

Granted I've not got very far into the game, but the time I have played has felt very strange. The movement is standard and the weapons seem fairly basic of this type of game. There are quests to be done and new items to be had. There is an underlying story and plot that I'm not sure I quite understand and their is a PvP system that seems to have a lot of people excited.

I will give it some more time and see if it grows on me, but in the limited time that I have had with this game, I'm not sure it's something that I could really get into. Then again, I've had a hard time getting into ANYTHING lately.