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Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.

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Sleep Dep

I am not getting enough sleep lately. My apologies if I am snippy.

Work continues to demand that I show up if I want money, and then there is the rest of having a house and being a grown-up that looked much easier when I was very small. I could deal with just those, but I also enjoy our assorted entertainments, and I have been getting to bed late trying to keep up with them.

I hit 80 in WoW, we have our weekly Casualties of War LotRO night, Borderlands just shipped, I keep hearing good things about Torchlight, I have been trying Left 4 Dead again (Boomer!), Team Fortress 2 is often fun, I have a half-dozen Facebook games that I poke upon occasion, and there are at least two worthwhile new flash games a week. I have Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep next to me, which I should renew at the library, and John Dies at the End by David Wong just got national publication. I have not watched any of Dollhouse this season yet, I am seasons behind on Heroes and Lost (is it worth watching?), a friend has been pushing me to watch Dr. Who for over a year, my brother has been promoting Big Bang Theory for longer, and I have a huge list of shows, movies, and books that sounded interesting on TV Tropes. My RSS feeds send me 200 blog posts a day, I might have that many Facebook updates, however much e-mail, and all the other things I see and do online. Oh, and I blog.

Work itself can be wearying, and I value having so many competing sources of entertainment. Trying to keep up with just some of them, however, keeps me awake long into the night, still typing away as your mom asks if I am coming to bed anytime soon.

: Zubon

Great Moments in Licensing

Turbine has the right to use anything from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Turbine does not have the rights to Tolkien’s other works, even Tolkien’s other works set in Middle-earth.

The nine Ringwraiths appear in The Lord of the Rings. The Witch-king of Angmar is the one you may know by name, he being the leader of the Nazgul (and either you know the fight or there is no point spoiling it). Khamul, his second in command, is named in the Unfinished Tales. He will appear as the Big Bad in The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Siege of Mirkwoodâ„¢. Turbine has the rights to the character and his appearance but not his name. He will appear as “Lieutenant of Dol Guldur.”

: Zubon

Update: title edited at Brian’s suggestion. It is a licensing issue, not directly copyright.

Jedi Knight info leaks on SWTOR

It’s really hard for Bioware to keep the lid on anything once they start preparing their website for a reveal. Once someone finds a hidden link on the website, even if it only existed for 3 seconds, they post a screen capture of it and start a thread about it. By the time the thread is shut down and evidence of the restricted information deleted, most of it is copied over to Darth Hater where it can’t be touched by Bioware. This was the case with their accidental reveal of beta testing, and it has been again revealed with their accidental reveal of certain Jedi Knight concept art, icons, and even the Jedi’s animations.

Did we already know that Jedi will be in the game? Of course, but until it’s out, trying to hack screen shots out of their system is a game in-and-of-itself. Discussing why Bioware has hidden stubs like “http://www.swtor.com/info/holonet/space-combat” is likely to garner more information for the reader than a “No comment about space at this time” response from a developer. And you know what? Trying to find hidden and secret information is more fun than just being given the information to begin with.

Run, Run Candy Corn Man

I played a bit of Guild Wars last night to finally ease myself in to the Halloween spirit after shaking the Borderlands dust off my mouse for a night.  The servers are alive with Costume Brawl and mat farming, but there is a new addition to this year’s festivities.  The Guild Wars Live Team created a quest chain depicting changes in the Underworld… where you play as a candy corn humanoid. Continue reading Run, Run Candy Corn Man

STO vs TOR

Star Trek and Star Wars are always do things differently. Star Trek space battles play out like large naval ships swapping cannon fire and Star Wars space battles play out like World War era biplanes engaged in dog-fights. On the ground, Star Wars is all sword and sorcery with a sci-fi coat of paint, while Star Trek alternates between cowboy-style fist fights and cowboy-style shoot-outs with hand phasers and phaser rifles replacing six-shooters and shotguns.

People are going to compare the upcoming Star Trek Online to the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic, so I might as well throw in my two credits/latinum as well.

Continue reading STO vs TOR

Darkness in my Soul

I have seen the Abyss, and it is Pixie Hollow.  My wife told me last night that she and my 3 year old daughter, Claire, were playing together as much as my 6 month old permitted them to.  Claire does not yet have the capabilities to control a mouse (she just likes the scroll-button, scroll buttons, oh yeah, like that heart attack… what), but I have been teaching her to move with WASD and jump off talens in Lord of the Rings Online.  I digress.  Last night I farmed mats for Claire while she slept playing a faerie she randomly named Coconut Rainbowmist.  I am not sure whether this was a triumphant stepstone towards creating a gamer family or something else.  I got points with the wife for actually gaming, which is an activity where I usually cash them in.  Still there is a foreboding presence in my soul that I cannot shake.  Maybe I hit upon some patterned node too complex for my mortal mind to comprehend.  I can’t wait to return to my own niche tonight.

–Ravious
all laid aside disguise but you

First < day with Torchlight

(yes, the Lesdanaday -is- a unit of measurement)

It’s got tons of little things, some more little than others, that make it utterly impossible to go back to Diablo II (or any other dungeon crawl isometricky cRPG) with any sense of satisfaction. Wouldn’t be surprised if D3 ends up lifting some of this stuff from Torchlight. In no order of importance:

Continue reading First < day with Torchlight

Hunting With Nesingwary

Glad ye could make it to Northrend, lad! I knew ye cut yer teeth on raptors and wee elephants in the last hunts, but now yer in the real game. We’re settin’ ye against the fiercest cats in these lands, but only to prepare ye for the greatest of them, a beast so fierce we only know it exists because of the people who ne’er came back! And how about a rhinoceros so singular that ye’ll need to invoke the spirits of the dead to find it? Of course, we could not let ye go without a bit of crocodile wrestling, although the crocodiles’ kneecaps will be higher than yer head. Does pulling the teeth from live, 30-foot long cobras sound exciting? And ye’ll get to kill some zebra-striped giraffes.

“Excuse me, what was that last one?”

Longneck grazers. Four-legged things with brown bodies, long necks, gazelle horns, and zebra-striped legs. Kill some.

“…”

Look, we’re hungry out here. Unless you brought some tacos from Dalaran, giraffe steak it is.

: Zubon

Borderlands Bulletpoints

Actually just for Bonedead, it will be a numbered list.  Heretoforth:

  1. It is very much in some large venn-diagram with MMOs, but the face of its father is squarely in an FPS.  It has kill ten rats quests, pick ten flowers quests, and quest chains.
  2. It would be an MMO if persistence was irrelevant.  Up to 4 players can play at any time, but one player owns the persistent world.  All players will still advance their own quests, achievements, etc.
  3. The gun-porn loot pinata is crucial.  The more people playing the better the loot.  Solo players might get bored pretty quickly.  If opening up an MMO loot pinata does not give you some twinge of serotonin, this game might not be for you.
  4. PC users have to deal with opening ports. GAH!
  5. The graphics are great even at low settings.  I’ll take cell-shaded stylized graphics over hyper-realism anyday.
  6. The level disparity is ridiculous.  The game punishes players for going much above their level, but anything below the level gets popped pretty easily.  I’ve also heard that grouping up with a higher leveled friend equals advancement city.
  7. Did I tell you about the magical gun-porn loot pinata that can give you a shotgun that shoots rockets!?
  8. The story is good, in that, there is just more reason to use the brand new guns that dropped out of the vending machines and puke piles to put more bullets in to enemies.  It doesn’t pretend to be any heavier/complex than the actual game is.
  9. The classes are generally good, but some seem a lot slower due to the cooldown on each class’s one skill.  I am sure it is balanced on some level, but it doesn’t feel that way when I have to wait nearly two minutes to use mine every time while my Siren friend pops hers every half-minute.
  10. For Bonedead especially, Nine Toes has three balls.

–Ravious
and that’s why we call it a “zoo”