Christmas is over.

The holiday season is almost over.  I am getting ready to wrap up another year and welcome a new life into the world.  There isn't a whole lot to say about this year, other than I'm sorry to see it pass by so quickly. 

I plan to get to work over the next few days on the the start of my A-Zs for the year.  I did this last year, but I think it is fitting to do it again.  Maybe every year.  Maybe I can look back and reflect on it and see if anything changed or if things fell into place, like I said they would.  I had a good time last year putting my mind to work and coming up with so many topics that covered so many different things.

As you may have noticed I got a fancy new smartphone for Christmas and I've really been spending a lot of time with it.  It is a pretty powerful device and I'm going to give it a shot at gaming.  I'm going to download and spend some time with FIVE different Android games that I have NEVER played.  I want the game to look fun and entertaining, so I'm not going to pick genres or any of that.  I'm just gonna browser through and pick some out.  I've already got a couple of ideas, but we'll see how it works.  Maybe I'll enjoy this new year with some mobile games. =D

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas, to all none of you who read this.  I hope you enjoy the next year and I hope you enjoy the next month... while I pummel you with seething hatred for something I love so much (PC gaming).

LTE Galaxy Nexus Battery

Hey, it's fine.  Seriously.  Stop crying and learn to use your smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus

I am posting this from my brand new phone.  This thing is quite the beast.  I have really enjoyed getting to fool with it for the last few days.  I haven't had any time off of work, so I haven't really invest a ton of time into it.  This weekend, even though it's a holiday, will likely see me playing with it A LOT.

From the moment I turned it on it was blazing fast.  The quickest and most responsive phone I've seen or used, iPhone included.  This thing was soooooooo quick.  I didn't put many apps on it, because I honestly am over the phase where I need tons of apps all over the place, most of which I will never use.  Not to mention, most of the apps I would or could use.... they are just a couple taps away from being on the phone. 

I only got around to unlocking the bootloader and rooting the phone last night.  I managed to botch my installation of a custom recovery, I'll have to try again tonight.  I went ahead and picked up Root Explorer.  Between that and Titanium Backup I should be just fine when it comes to rooting and backing everything up.  I feel that the phone actually performed better BEFORE I rooted.  Not that it is laggy or anything.  I retained the stock ROM and haven't tried anything new yet.  I am hoping for a stock experience in a 4.0.3 ROM before I get to flashing.

I really need to get a case, but since I've got the extended battery I might be out of luck.  I'm going to check out what Verizon has to offer and at least get myself a screen protector.  I used a Verizon protector on my Thunderbolt and it worked pretty well.  It is actually still on the phone and hasn't peeled up or anything.  I'm hoping that it'll work that well on this new phone.

I'm overally very pleased and I look forward to getting a couple of updates to iron out some of the bugs and performance issues.  Very much looking forward to some fancy new ROMs and updated features, too.

Oh... and LTE is still fucking awesome.  Eat a dick, Apple.

Saddest midnight release ever.

Seriously.
The black kid in hipster glasses in front of me chatting on his iPhone about Lil Wayne wasn't even the worst part.  The tiniest line I've ever seen at a midnight release, EVER, kind of was.  If this had been a release for Madden or CoD for a console, I expect that there would be WAY more people.  This seems kind of like a death knell for PC gamers.  The BF3 release THE NEXT DAY was better than this. 

Honestly, I'm not really in love with the game.  If they had given me a free trial... I wouldn't have bought the game.  Now I'm out 65 bucks and still don't feel satisfied.  I'm gonna give it a couple months and get at least one character to the max level.  We'll see what happens after that.  A lot of the frustrations I had originally are even worse now... AND the game is slow as fuck.  Not like EverQuest slow, but God dammit I'm tired of listening to long speeches before I have to march across the fucking world for NOTHING.  Oh, sweet, some new pants.  Great.  I sure am glad that I got better pants from a drop while on the way to that quest that gave me a bunch of fucking nothing.  Awesome.

If nothing else it makes me appreciate WoW more.

My top 5 games

I was browsing through one of the forums that I frequent and thought that I would share this.  A thread was created that was asking people what their top 5 games were (and why, sorta).  I pitched in, but I wanted to include it here.  I'm not sure that I've ever come out and said what my favorite games were.

5. Halo CE for PC
Oh the glory of Halo. The horrible netcode and the shitty aiming of that overpowered pistol really made the game… fun? The game was bad. Almost bad beyond belief, but the competition was a ton of fun. The playing field was level. High end PCs had no advantage and low end PCs didn't struggle too much. Everything in the game was awkward, but the competitive scene thrived for a while. It was a lot of fun and I had a hell of a lot of fun going to CPL and playing with folks. I miss LAN parties. I REALLY miss ULTRA LAN parties.

4. Planetside
Oh god. What a fucking awesome experience. An MMO. An FPS. An RTS. ONE PACKAGE! This has to be one of the best attempts at blending genres that I've ever seen. The game was fantastic. The community was even more troll-ish that WoW's. The devs were all about swinging the nerf bat wildly. It was a hell of a ride and a very exciting experience. I had a great time and I am really looking forward to the second one. If it's half as the first, it'll be 10 times better than what we settle for today.

3. Dune RTS game
Seriously. Play it. Tell me RTS games have done anything in the last 15 years better than what this game has.

2. Tribes 2
Tribes was an amazing game. I see a lot of these younger, newer folk getting into it. Tribes 2 was better. This was the pinnalce of the franchise, IMO. The game was amazing, the graphics were gorgeous for their time. The gameplay was fantastic. It is hard to recreate. Tribes Ascend seems pretty good, but it is going to be damn hard to be better than Tribes 2. If anyone is interested in that experience you can now get and play Tribes 2 for free, but you have to jump through some hoops to make it work. A quick Google search should get you on the right track, though.

1. Warcraft (all of them, including WoW)
This is an entire series that deserves acclaim. Yes, WoW could easily hold this title alone, but no game has ever captured me and sucked me in like the original Warcraft RTS game. It was amazing. The sequeuls kept getting better and the MMO has changed the world FOREVER. Sure, it has flaws, but WoW is the best product out there right now… let's not try to compare CoD, we know where that franchise is heading.

SWToR is finally live.

I have spent a long time waiting for SWToR to go live.  I have spent many months in anticipation for the game.  At first I was very excited.  Then I started to get kind of bummed.  Then I got excited again.  Then I stopped giving a fuck altogether.  I saw several videos come out and make the game look hilariously shitty.  I heard from some beta testers that the game was being built around shit that they didn't find important and that I, subsequently, didn't either.  It has been a rollercoaster of anticipation and it's finally all over.  The game is out (for me) and I've had a couple of days to spend with it.

I don't have a ton of time and I haven't progressed very far.  Don't take my early opinion to heart.  This is my opinion and it's without even getting into the meat of some of the classes.  Honestly, though, how do you get to the end of the game without experiencing everything in between?  This should be an important part of the game and it is the part that will determine if people stick around.  If leveling and development of a character sucks ass... who is gonna keep playing?

I decided to play a Smuggler a LOOOOONG time ago.  I've been in a guild for about 2 years for this game and I've been following it for longer than that.  Upon joining this guild I saw a severe lack of Smugglers and figured that I should try that role out.  I enjoy being useful.  I almost always end up as a healer, since no one wants to play them, but this time around a DPS role caught my eye and I was stoked.  I've learned in the last couple of WoW expansions that DPS classes are obviously in larger numbers, but I don't care.  I have spent most of my MMO gaming career as a healer or filling in the voids that were there.  It's time for me to devote my time to a single character (though I may roll up an alt that fills a different role).  I do not plan to max out more than a character or two.  I still want to play other games and have interests that are vested more heavily into other games anyway.

As you begin the game in this particular class you find yourself landing on a planet that is seemingly at war and getting your ship stolen.  The story is less than spectaculat, even though that seems to be what they really intended to pull you into the beginning of the game.  The first thing I wanted to do was start questing.  Every game has figured out that people would rather do quests than grind on mobs endlessly.  This game is the same.  Yes, I still stop to kill EVERYTHING, but I do so on the way to my next quest-giver or objective.  You move from one area to another, all while trying to trying to follow your main quest.  There are several quests that you shouldn't simply refuse, because you may need them to move your character story forward or to get your Advanced Class.  This kind of takes away from the free world and roaming options that you hoped to have in this game.

The game has several features which are interesting.  You have the same stat system that everyone should be used to be now, but each class has a different stat that helps their character in more ways than one.  You also have bonus and/or extra stats (think hit, crit, etc), but they mostly exist as flavor.  For a Smuggler my main stat will be Cunning.  Smugglers have the ability to heal, as well as DPS, and Cunning will cover the entire spectrum.  This is a nice change from having to have multiple gear sets to do different jobs, or not having gear optimized to make your heals worth a damn.  A Scoundrel, the healing Smuggler, can DPS pretty well AND you can heal at the same time.  While you obviously get less benefit if you don't go into the healing tree, you will still be better than a Gunslinger... who can't heal at all.

Another feature which I found strange was the story quest system.  If you are with other people and they are doing a story quest you have to be allowed with them into places that you can go normally, out in the world.  A place where you should be able to go will be blocked off, if they have a quest there.  It's a very strange system.  Questing together seems a bit off in a way, as well.  I love playing with other people and plowing through stuff, but this game is so entrenched in it's own story that sometimes that can hinder playing as a group.  It's a bit frustrating at times.  The game does do a good job at synergy between classes and I've found myself with Troopers who make my life much easier.

Companions are kind of new.  Guild Wars already had a very good system of having a henchmen to help you out, but this goes even further.... which Guild Wars also did with the Hero system.  You can gear out your companion... just like a hero.  The companion will react in certain ways to you and how you go about doing things.  To maintain your relationship with them, you will simply need to give them gifts.  Since I don't have a companion I can't really comment, outside of what I've been told and/or seen.  The system seems interested, but it also seems very disappointing.  I don't really want to do instances or have to have a nagging NPC by my side all of the time.  I'm hoping that this particular gimmick doesn't weigh too heavily into the actual gameplay of the game, but I fear it will.

The graphics have to be my biggest gripe.  The game looks like garbage for 2011.  Yeah, yeah, I know it's an MMO, but you have visually amazing games out now and with as must focus is put on instancing and phasing MMOs now, this should be a non-issue.  Vsync doesn't work.  There are very few gaphics settings and even less setting for advanced graphics.  No AA or AF, generic incrementals for everything else and no real representation of the game being on high... when it is.  Low and high look similar enough that I might not even be able to tell the difference.  The game also seems poorly optimized in some aspects, which might explain the lack of advanced graphics features.  In a world where technology is rapidly moving forward, I expect a little more, ya know...  We have quad core tablets on the way with video cards that are nearly as good as what most average gaming PCs have.  I can't see how it's hard to push the envelope a little or even develop an engine that makes use of what we have now better.  This game is expected to run on a wide variety of machines and while I respec that, I expect a certain level of performance as well.

The biggest thing behind this is the nod from Lucasfilms and Star Wars.  I think it is one of the few things that will keep this game afloat and help it find any success.  There isn't a whole lot in the game that makes it different or better in any way. It is hard for me to say that this game does anything innovative or does things much better than anything before it.  I've seen games like WAR and WoW do things better.  I've seen games like RIFT start out well and then wind down a bit.  Again, I think the only thing that will save this game from sinking is the fact that it's a Star Wars game.  That could also be a reason that I end up pushed out of the game.  I don't give a fuck about Star Wars lore or any of that and if there are changes that piss of the community I could see it making that rabid fanbase go batshit and run off TONS of subscribers.  WoW nerds raging is one thing, but the Star Wars kids... fuck that.  I'd rather put my dick in a blender.


Don't think that I hate the game, really.  I don't!  It's fun.  It is interesting and has some neat stuff going for it.  The quest system and story system is kind of fun.  It tells you where to go.  You can take your side quests, too.  Some of the quests auto complete and drop large chunks of experience on you.  The combat system seems fun enough.  The abilities that you get to regen health are kind of cool and provide flavor to each class.  There just isn't a lot new and not a whole lot that gives me a wow factor after years of playing so many different MMO games.  The game isn't bad, just frustrating after this many years and all of these setback, I just want the game to be much more than it.  I am sure as I go up in levels and progress in the game some of these things will make more sense and the game will get more fun and more interesting.  I plan to stick with it and invest at least some of my time to it.  I'll give it 3 months to see how everything shakes out, but I've got a bunch of other games that are all pretty good to play.

Transmogrification

One of the most exciting features in the latest WoW patch was that addition of transmogrification.  Basically, we can make our boring new loot or the clown-inspired old loot look like whatever we wanted... for a price.  I had very high hopes for this.  They were dashed before I ever even managed to log in to the servers after the patch.

I just happened to be someone who likes to be prepared on patch days.  I checked the forums while I downloaded my AddOn updates.  The forums were going crazy.  Turns out Blizzard had decided to not let players wear the original level 60 PvP set, unless you had attained the appropriate rank on that character.  I was heartbroken.  I was beyond disappointed.  I can't even put into words what I REALLY felt.

Ultimate Sadness.

I have seen Blizzard do some fucked up shit and make some mind-boggling decisions over the years, but this was one for the ages.  I am a long-time player and I have actually competed in the old system.  My original Rogue, before my account was "taken" while I had stopped playing, was actually "Standing 1" for 2 straight weeks.  I played long and hard and I feel that I deserve the opportunity to wear those items.  When the patch came out that changed the entire PvP system there were 4, FOUR, Rank 14s on my server.  My server came out later, and obviously hadn't matured to a point where it was possible to have very many Rank 14s.

Blizzard claims that they want to give those old school players something to be proud of for all of their dedication.  Bullshit.  If you want to preserver the sanctity of certain gear  then you need to do it for PvE gear, too.  Why would anyone deserve gear from BWL when they probably couldn't have done it back in original WoW at the same difficulty level?  Back when Shadowflame could wipe raids if you didn't have the cape.  Back when class calls were meaningful.  Back when it mattered.  Better yet, what about those people who accomplished things in Black Temple?  It's frustrating and kind of stupid.  The gear has been available and easily attainable.  60 Twinks have been wearing it and a LOT of people after the PvP patch back in the day had all of that stuff. 

I'm very sad and I hope that Blizzard decides to overturn this policy.  I really hope that I can get my 60 PvP set back.  I love that fucking thing.  At least let me sell back the pieces and pick up the blue set or something.  That is the look I want.  If not... it's time to find a Tier 2 recolor or something.