• 13Aug 07

  3 Little Haikus, For System Shock 1 and 2, I bring to you all

  We Loved System Shock
  Shodan brought us to our knees
  our wits were tested

  The greatest part of System Shock 1 and 2 was that they were scary, really scary. With enemies showing suddenly when we only had a wrench, or lead pipe. Beating back mutants face to face was one of the scariest things immaginable. And Shodan's beautiful, meniacal face was something we looked forward to destroying for the evil she wrought on the world.

  But we beat her back
  And loved every minute
  even playing twice

  The best part of these games was their replay value, and you couldn't play the same way twice. With different character ****s and messes of weapons and powers. There were plenty of ways to keep you playing for months. With an engrosing story that never got old and immersive gameplay that put you in the action like never before System Shock 1 and 2 defined a new era for the FPS.

  So we look forward
  To Bioshock, gleefully
  Rapture calls us on

  Now, with Bioshock upon us soon. We look to immerse ourselves in another game brought to use by those who made system shock 2. Their presentations have wow'ed us with amazing visuals and concepts of the Big Daddy, massive drills in hand, and eery little sisters screaming "kill him" to their large protectors as they charge at you for the little ones. Rapture looks to chill us to the bone just like System Shock did before. We will soon see what true evil awaits in the halls of a leaking Rapture. The new invention system allowing us to create our weapons of protection or demolition, and with plasmids replacing powers changing and disfiguring our character to give him power. We will see how our hero transforms from human to monster, from savior to wealthy menace. Finally the choice to save or destroy the city that you find yourself in will be all ours to make. I hope you are all looking forward to Bioshock and lets hope it will be as much a ****c as the System Shocks were before it.

  • Posted Aug 13, 2007 11:29 am PT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 1Aug 07

  Predictions for New World of Warcraft Expansion

  As all WOW fans knew, there would eventually be another expansion to World of Warcraft coming soon, but with the unofficial leak of music for Blizzcon entitled Northrend 1 2 and 3 coming out there is a lot of speculation as to whether or not the next WOW expansion is coming early and what new content this expansion will hold. With the name of the new music being titled Northrend, we can only assume that we will be battling the Lich King Arthas in his Ice Citadel in Northrend. But, what about the other evil forces of Warcraft lore that we may face in the upcoming expansion. We have seen that area between Felwood, Winterspring, and Ashenvale as unplayable and unreachable for way too long. What is Blizzard hiding in there? Perhaps it is Xavius the disembodied Night Elf who became the first Satyr to perform Sargeras the demon titan's will. Malfurion took away Xavius' body by forcing an oak to grow within him to consume him from the inside out. While he was dying Xavius made a threat that he would have revenge eventually. Since Xavius has come back many times and been granted multiple mortal forms by Sargeras, maybe he is coming back again in this new expansion.

  As these are all story changes there must be new gameplay changes for us WOW players to stay interested so here are some things that might happen.

  Class Changes:

  The Creation of a Death Night class. Death Nights are paladins who have been partially corrupted with dark graces and have abandoned the holy light. This would be a sort of Warlock / Paladin hybrid class (Warlocks in plate anyone?). This would add some serious gameplay changes and probably add a lot of new draining abilities.

  The Creation of the Dark Rangers as a class. Sort of like a Hunter / Rogue hybrid with poisonous arrows and stealthier tactics. Hunters with more melee damage with arrows that drain life and stealth, could be interesting if they implement this class.

  Many people have seen the Frozen Throne Northrend map. If we assume for a minute that this map will be carried over into World of Warcraft then there is a section called the Dragonblight which might be a realm of the great dragons who are no longer present in the other 2 continents. This might lead to new flying mounts that are faster than players' current epic flyers. We might even see mount based combat such as dragons' fire breath and mount clawing in aerial fights, who knows? That would mean there is also a region named Azjol-Nerub located underground and there may even be the possibility of Dungeon / Region specific mounts that can move underground such as the specialty mounts of AQ40 and AQ20 seen in the original World of Warcraft.

  The previous WOW expansion gave us 2 new playable races so there will probably not be another addition in the coming expansion, unless the Naga and someone else become a playable race (or even a neutral faction). However if they do add the two before-mentioned classes a lot of changes will be made in raiding and PVP.

  As for the Battlegrounds section of my predictions, I predict a new battleground to come with the new expansion. Maybe an alternating castle siege mode similar to AV but smaller with only one castle. This might also have some sort of battering ram / vehicle element to it which would be interesting.

  Blizzard has also stated that before players will be able to defeat Arthas they will need to be at least level 80 hence my prediction for the raised level cap to 80. This means NEW TALENTS, the fuel behind diverse gameplay in WOW. Lord only knows what they'll come up with.

  Since a recent leak has set the title of the Expansion at World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King we'll see what the official announcement is at Blizzcon soon. Hopefully the next expansion is just as good as the current one if not more so. Anyway, I am looking forward to more engrossing gameplay and raids for more than 25 people again (60 man for Arthas maybe?). Hope you are all waiting as anxiously as I am.

  • Posted Aug 1, 2007 10:23 am PT
  • Category: Editorial
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