• 31Aug 09

  Azeroth Fishing

  I said I wouldn't, but I did. This weekend I started playing World of Warcraft again. Rather than get back into endgame stuff with one of my level 80 characters or push my 70-something death knight to 80, I opted to start a new character. I've never leveled a Horde character past level 30-something, but after just one weekend my new warlock is at 22 and, because Blizzard continues to make the game easier on new characters, he already has a mount.
  
  I'm not writing a blog to bemoan the current state of the game though, nor even to talk about my disappointment that Cataclysm is going to effectively destroy much of the original game's content for anyone who's five or six years late to the party. No, I felt compelled to write here because, while fishing for sagefish in the Hillsbrad Foothills, I was shocked to find that the river is now full of garbage. I'm not sure if it's the residents of Southshore or Tarren Mill that are to blame, but in the time it took me to catch just 6 raw sagefish I also filled my bags with the following:

  1x Rumsey Rum Dark
  1x Watertight Trunk (containing leather and woollen cloth)
  1x Empty Rum Bottle
  5x Sickly Fish
  9x Weeds
  10x Driftwood
  10x Tangled Fishing Line
  10x Tattered Cloth
  0x Other Fish
  
  That's just crazy.

  I could sit here and write more, but there are other games that I need to be writing about right now. Please though, next time you're out for a picnic, on a hike, or killing quest-givers in an enemy town, take your trash with you.
  
  
  

  • Posted Aug 31, 2009 12:03 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 7Aug 09

  Another GameStop Exclusive

  No, that's not a typo. GameStop, it seems, has become just as interested in offering its customers exclusive content as we at GameSpot have. Store-exclusive content is nothing new (Shaun White's "Target" mountain will forever be a favorite), but while shopping around for preorder deals earlier today I was amazed at the number of games that now offer additional content if you purchase them at GameStop. Among the games I preordered today, for example, were Forza Motorsport 3 and Tekken 3. Ordinarily I'd probably have ordered these from Amazon, or just swung by a Best Buy on my way home from work on the day of release, but on this occasion I caved and took the GameStop option so I don't miss out onbonus cars and a cardboard tube samurai skin for Yoshimitsu, among other things.
  
  Aion is another game that I preordered recently and, while shopping around for the best deal, I noticed that (slightly) different in-game bonuses are being offered depending on where you purchase the game. I opted for the Steam version in the end, but Amazon and GameStop also have preorder deals with in-game bonuses.
  
  Taking aquick look at GameStop's front page today, it's immediately apparent that these exclusive content deals are something that the retailer is really pushing this holiday season. Below is a list of games (I'm sure there must be more as well) that, if I end up preordering them, I'll probably end up getting from GameStop rather than anywhere else. Yeah, I know, I'm part of the problem...
  
  Champions Online -"Insectoid Airfoil" bonus in-game vanity item.
  Marvel UltimateAlliance 2 - Unlock "Juggernaut" character.
  Batman: Arkham Asylum - Bonus "DemBones" Scarecrow challenge map.
  Dragon Age: Origins - Bonus undisclosed "in-game items".
  Assassin's Creed 2 - Two bonus maps.
  
  I don't really care for free posters or t-shirts like those that GameStop are giving away with preorders of Metroid Prime Trilogy, so I can understand why GameStop wouldwant to offerfor more compelling bonuses. I'm not sure that I like this trend though, because (as with day one DLC) it often feels like regular content is being stripped out to serve this purpose. Was the Scarecrow challenge map really created exclusively for GameStop customers, or is it merely being removed from the game for everyone who chooses to shop elsewhere? Will the rest of us have an opportunity to download it at another date? And if so, how much will we be charged for the privilege?
  
  This blog entry isn't intended as a call to action or anything like that, how could it when I'm clearly voting the wrong way with my wallet? I guess I'm just curious to hear what the rest of you think about this stuff. I've always been a sucker for collector's editions and that sort of thing, and I have no problem with them whatsoever, I don't much like feeling like I can only purchase them from one retailer though--especially when in-game items that I definitely don't want to miss out on are involved.

  • Posted Aug 7, 2009 5:02 pm GMT
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• 30Jan 09

  Falling In

  Finally, I get it. For months I've been wondering what all of the fuss about Fallout 3 was, and now I know. I was excited enough about the game prior to its release that I preordered the crazy Amazon-exclusive special that, in addition to the regular special edition, shipped with an extremely cheap and breakable lifesize Pip-Boy 3000. Playing the game for the first time, though, I got incredibly frustrated with the combat and, exactly as I did the first time I played Oblivion, I quit just four or five hours in.
  
  The recent arrival of the Operation: Anchorage DLC got a bunch of people in the office excited for Fallout 3 again and so, since Wrath of the Lich King is no longer occupying my every spare moment now that my hunter has tamed Loque'nahak (don't ask), I figured I should have another crack at it. I feel better about the choices I made when customizing my character this time around, and since worrying about inventory space tends to be something that I let ruin games for me (WoW included) at times, I made a real effort not to pick up every single item that wasn't nailed to the floor. The real reason I'm enjoying Fallout 3 a lot more now, though, is simply that I'm using the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS) that I mostly ignored previously.
  
  Call me crazy, but when I played Fallout 3 for the first time I was under the impression that I should play in real-time or using VATS. It never occured to me that these two very different systems, neither of which is good enough to use exclusively, could become something quite special when used together. Long story short, I'm about eight hours into the game now and loving every minute of it, and that includes the hour or so that I've spent in Anchorage.
  
  So, now that I'm getting into Fallout 3, it looks like I'll be neglecting the rest of the games that I've been playing lately. I'll still be finishing Afro Samurai at some point, I'll inevitably end up visiting Knothole Island in Fable II sometime soon, and my death knight will become my third level 80 character, but for the moment I'm all about the Fallout 3.

  • Posted Jan 30, 2009 12:32 pm GMT
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