Fearing the Endgame.

I caved in today and decided to go back to my Mage, after levelling my Lock up to 74. I realised as I approached 80, just how much work I had put into the Mage at endgame in Wrath. Due to the introduction of achievements, my Mage has 74 mini-pets, and something like 64 mounts ATM. Some of those mounts and pets took quite an amount of time and in-game gold to obtain.

Additionally, I realised that my Warlock would likely not get into too many groups, simply due to things like having weak gear, having no achievements to allow entry into PuG runs, and being DPS meaning that I will be competing with others better geared and with better achievements.

Plus with the new 3.2 patch fast approaching, I'll be having a lot of trouble actually trying to play my Warlock through the endgame content, especially content I have already done on my Mage almost hundreds of times.

So in retrospect, even though Blizzard is trying to encourage people to roll new characters with the Heirloom items and experience boosts, I find that unless you are a chronic reroller, or are planning to make a character simply for gathering at 80, the reasons for trying to roll a new character are rather few.

SF4 - First Impressions.

Today I headed into the city to get myself out of the house, and while I was out I decided to take a look at SF4. I had only played it at JB Hi-Fi previously using a controller and playing alone, so this would be my first time on Arcade sticks against human opponents.

The first thing that stuck me was how similar to SF4 was to Super Turbo and the EX series. I suspect that players who are more accustomed to Alpha and SF3, will have more problems than other Street Fighter players. The game is very ST in it's hit boxes, timing, links play a massive role, 'safe' pokes, etc...

Which is why I wonder; old school ST players that hold positions of influence in Capcom USA and other places, did they guide the game to it's current finished product? It's been no secret that many of the high ranking ST players in America viewed SF3 with disdain, calling it things like a random turtle fest.

I just feel a little bitter at the point that ST players will probably get more out of this game than other players, simply because they can get more wins in the game with old ST tactics while they perfect the new systems that were introduced with SF4.

Basically, I don't think I am going back to the arcade any time soon to play SF4. If I want to at least get my moneys worth, I'd practice my skills up on the home console version first. Then at least I could get a chance at some decent gameplay time for my money investment.

Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike aka - "Back in my Day"

I've been playing Street Fighter III since 2003, and I don't think I will ever stop playing it in some form. When I first started playing the game, it did not feel like the other fighter which I was playing at the time, which made the game hard for me to get into.

Six years and several tournaments later though, I find the game to be still fun and interesting, the dash, super jump, and parry mechanics make new strategies and tactics always interesting to try out on other players. Other fighters I've played have dropped by the wayside as I've always come back to SF3.

Of course the game has its balance issues, like any other fighter. But the fact that it still has an important spot on the SBO roster after all these years shows that it is a loved and solid fighter that is now considered a classic. Players fly from all over the world to attend the tournament in Japan, which is considered by most to be the world championships of fighting games of many kinds.

Also, its always fun to hear about the qualifiers on Shoryuken.com, and hear which top players are teaming with who for the 3-on-3 battles towards the finals crown. There are no longer people at the tournament texting to others in front of their computers, who relay the winners and losers to a group of hardcore fans in the IRC channel. Now we can see some of the matches played on youtube, and the DVD's of the main events can be bought online.

Seven to Eight years ago, people would have killed to get their hands on the footage of top players, it was simply never seen. Not that many people had portable cameras or video cards capable of proper editing. The tapes you could find were just poor VHS copies.

We've come a long way from 1990, where the kids down at the bowling alley arcade whispered of an unbeatable Guile player who only came in on thursdays.

Goblin and Worgen in WoW expansion? Hmm...

There has been a lot of interest and blogging and such about Worgen and Goblins being the new playable races to be introduced in the next World of Warcraft expansion. Of course, several people have been theorising about this, and I have a similar view.

Perhaps dropping in the textures for Worgen and Goblin masks and thereby stirring controversy is
a marketing tactic by Blizzard to raise awareness for the upcoming Blizzcon, or it could be a ploy. Obviously it doesn't take too much effort to create 4 facial textures to use for masks.

But on the other hand, if I recall correctly. The races for the Burning Crusade expansion were correctly guessed a good time before they were revealed. I am pretty confident that these guesses are quite on the mark.

To be honest, I was hoping that Arakkoa and Ethereals were going to be in the next expansion, but with the Maelstrom very likely being the setting, I am thinking bird people, and people comprised of nothing but energy and mummy wraps wouldn't fit so well in an underwater setting....

The only thing I am wondering at the moment, is will they remodel and reskin the races? Both models have been around since launch of the original game, and could use a spit and polish.

Game Start!

Hi! Welcome to my blog! I'm not going to bother with useless banter (For the moment anyway)
Basically I'm just going to be posting things I think are interesting. Unfortunately for some people this will mostly be gaming, WoW, Street Fighter, Star Wars, Star Trek, and most things related to 80's pop culture.

OK the first bit of news, I have a new Level 70 Orc Warlock in World of Warcraft that I rushed in about 4-5 days (in play time). Before that, I had a Moonkin and then a Mage. The reason I dropped my Moonkin is because I think they are boring looking although they are incredibly versatile, and I dropped my Mage because I feel they are far too specialised and 'narrowly focused' compared to Warlocks.

Hopefully I can show some more screenshots chronicling my trip from 70 to 80 and have some commentary on exactly how a character that was not made during Wrath of the King launch is able to get through the endgame experiences.

I'm hoping to make regular posts, although I may just end up spamming with posts and then stop at intervals. I'll just add a screenshot of a row of Mammoth mounts in Dalaran, and everything should be complete!