• 13Apr 09

  Goodbye PC, Welcome Back 360

  So besides the usual PC chores, I've retired gaming on the PC in favor of the 360, and am not disappointed yet. The graphics on the big LCD screen are not much different, even better on some games; gaming in my La-z-boy with controller instead of a keyboard and mouse is definitely more fun; and overall I am enjoying it much more.

  Now some of this could be because all I played on the PC were MMOs and these don't exist on the 360. My multi-year MMO-burnout has contributed greatly. Mostly I needed change and coming back to the 360 after not playing it for so long has been an awesome relief. Lotsa new games I've been exploring and playing, lots of new fun over Xbox Live, and tons of new stuff I didn't realize I missed so much about the 360. Live is simply awesome and games are great. Plus, I'm limiting myself to hit games from awhile ago which are now a steal and loving every minute of it.

  So gaming myself to death on the 360 here are a few games I've been playing: Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, Left 4 Dead, Conan, Bioshock, Army of Two, Call of Duty 5, The Darkness, The Orange Box, lots of Arcade games, and a few more I can't remember. And I haven't even begun to attack the games in my son's room; who never gave up playing the 360 and inherited mine permanently after I stopped playing. Now there are 2 360s in our house.

  Oh, btw, playing on Live with the son is a big plus.

  • Posted Apr 13, 2009 4:02 am PT
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• 21Dec 08

  Drawn back into Warcraft

  So like the commercial, WoW has sucked me back into the Lich. After getting a new computer (Alienware 750i) and hooking it up to my 47", I jumped back into gaming online. My first stop back in WAR showed the guild I was in had broke up and scattered. I went around a little on my 35 Engy and quickly logged off and rolled the new class Knights of the Blazing Sun. Even this couldn't keep my interest, unguilded in a game heavily dependant on groups.

  My son kept bugging me about also getting back into WoW for the Lich King and I decided to try. Four 70s and many years of playing was a bit too much and we both upgraded our accounts to Lich. Even though I wanted to see the new content on one of my 70s, I rolled a Death Knight, loaded up Questhelper, and went to work. After whipping through the awesome DK starting area, I headed for the Outlands, where I had already grinded four toons through. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. The DK is incredibly powerful if played right and I believe I'm playing right. I ignored questlines and went straight to leveling with unrested exp. I hit zones briefly, grabbing quests and heading out quickly. I've never reached 68 so fast and headed straight for Northrend and new content.

  Northrend so far is awesome. Not too much variety in terms of what the quests are about but I also haven't ventured too far and just touched most of the initial quests. But my son has been hitting the new zone and they sound huge and leveling slow. Than again, could just be his fury warrior and probably a lot more downtime than the DK which literally has zero down time when questing. So almost 69 and no regrets coming back to the game I said I would not return to. Thanks Blizzard for both putting out a good game and also cursing me once again.

  • Posted Dec 21, 2008 5:33 pm PT
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• 28Nov 08

  Unintended WAR break

  WAR has been awesome and while my computer is down I thought I would post a small update on the game. My computer's video card went bad and ended up buying a whole new computer which I am waiting to arrive. My current computer got an old vid card and will be my son's.

  So I have been away from WAR for about 3 weeks so far, missing it dearly. Mythic has been awesome at regular updates, fixes, and patches since release. They continue and are soon releasing a big one already with 2 new classes (or old ones that didn't make launch). They have had several 'events' already complete with special rewards, daily events, a new scenario and more. They continue to impress me with their consistent listening of the communities' concerns and incorporating most of them into the game as improvements.

  I have been away since our server got an influx of new players from transfers and from what I've been reading on WarhammerAlliance, this has vastly improved Open RvR and gave us more numbers to fill up areas, better battles, etc. The RvR(PvP) is incredible and hasn't disappointed one bit. My Engineer is now 36 and would of made 40 if my computer had held up. I've been through a couple of guilds trying to find the right fit and the one I'm in now is a small group of players who were much more serious about doing things with a purpose and not just having large numbers but never doing anything. The Engineer has been nothing short of a blast since I last reported. I have stuck with the grenadier tree and tossing grenades that do lots of AoE must be really annoying to enemy players.

  The break from the game has been tough. I was even tempted to play some WoW when the new computer arrived for the sake of great leveling/questing/PvE fun that WoW is so good at. I've pretty much decided it ain't happening.

  Also will be moving my PC gaming from my old 19" square monitor to my large 47" LCD. Am also going to try a few of the PC games out there instead of being trapped in WAR. Want to try Fallout 3 and a couple of others I can't think of right now. Otherwise just really anxious to get my new computer which will be a big performance upgrade from my old computer which I built (and was my first build) over a year ago. The old comp had an older Athlon x2, Windows XP 32 bit, single 8500gt. My new computer is a 950i motherboard, Intel dual core, dual 9800GT Sli, Vista 64 bit, 4 gb ram. So I'm really looking forward to cranking up my settings on many games and enjoying them on a much larger screen in all their glory. I can't wait. Look for a review on my new system in the near future based on the experience from start to finish and how it buying it from a company compared to building my own.

  • Posted Nov 28, 2008 8:35 am PT
  • Category: Games
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