Tag Archives: writing

End of Days, WoW News, and a New Article

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The Third Age comes to an end:

TSW Mayan Apocalypse 1You do have to respect game developers who, in designing their holiday event, say, “Screw Christmas. We’re doing the zombie apocalypse!”

So while players of other games are having snowball fights and collecting silly little gifts, agents in The Secret World are battling for their lives against mighty world bosses, fending off waves of undead Mayans, and enduring the horror of the Nameless Days.

Now, to be fair, it’s still not that great of an event. I lag so badly in the crowds I can hardly play, and mostly it’s just a lot of people spawn-camping zombies in a mindless AoE-fest.

You can get some decent rewards, but the drop rate for the currency is pretty crappy. Maybe it’s higher in the upper level zones; I was in Kingsmouth.

The Mayan zombie apocalypse in The Secret WorldStill, I’d rather this than building snowmen in Lion’s Arch or rescuing Metzen the reindeer.

Also, the last two End of Days video blogs from Joel Bylos were as funny as the first. Check them out, but be warned: this is some mature content. What happens in the bunker, stays in the bunker.

Unrelated to the Mayan Apocalypse, I got my first auxiliary weapon. Science nerd that I am, I had to go for the new quantum B.R.A.C.E. introduced in issue #5. So now I’ve got an arm-mounted supercollider that appears to have been made from a beer can and a power bar.

Hells to the yes.

The mission to get it was fairly fun. Not too long, and not terribly hard, either, considering how crappy my gear is. It was fun going back to the original NPCs from Kingsmouth.

Officers Andy and Moose in The Secret WorldI hope Andy and Moose get together some day. They’d make an adorable couple.

In other news…

World of Warcraft Patch 5.2 coming soon:

As a little tease before the holidays, Blizzard has provided us with our first glimpse of patch 5.2 for World of Warcraft, in the form of patch notes and a single screenshot.

Patch 5.2 Rise of the Thunder King previewTo the surprise of absolutely no one, the patch will focus on the Thunder King and continue the story of the Mogu.

I’ll be honest: I’m not overly thrilled with this. I’ve gone on record several times as saying that I do not like the Mogu. They’re simple brutes. They’re all brawn and no brains. That just doesn’t make for interesting villains in my view.

Also, what happened to the idea that the 5.0 content would be a complete arc, and the rest of the expansion would be about the Fourth War?

Now, I’m not a huge fan of the whole Fourth War thing — as you well know — but if you’re going to do an expansion about the Horde/Alliance war, do an expansion about the Horde/Alliance war. Seems kind of weird that we’re (probably) only going to get one raid tier devoted to the expansion’s main storyline.

On the plus side, I would like to see more about the Zandalari/Mogu alliance, and data-mining confirms a strong Zandalari presence in the new raid. I know a lot of people are sick of Troll content, and I can understand why, but I just never seem to get sick of killing Trolls. Must be the Blood Elf in me.

And I am looking forward to the non-raid content of 5.2. I’m hoping the rumored transmogrification changes make it live, and I think I heard something about some new Blood Elf lore.

There are also going to be several new scenarios, a new daily hub, new Lorewalker stories (Yay!), a new Guild Wars 2-esque loot system for world bosses, and the usual class changes.

Rogues actually got some changes, including new abilities. Most buffs are PvP-related, and blade flurry is being nerfed by an astounding seventy-five percent, but at least they remembered we exist. That’s more than can be said for everything from Cataclysm until now.

My rogue BASE jumping off HyjalAnd the new version of shuriken toss does sound pretty nice. Ranged auto-attacks? Yes, please.

Finally, windwalker monks are apparently a pet class now. Not sure how I feel about that. Storm, earth, and fire was one of my favourite abilities in Warcraft III, but on the other hand… WTF?

New article:

My latest WhatMMO article is 9 Great MMO Quotes. I’m very impressed that I was able to resist the urge to make it 100% Wrath of the Lich King and Secret World quotes.

Review: Starcraft: Flashpoint + New Article

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Review: Flashpoint

“Flashpoint” is the latest Starcraft novel by Christie Golden. Intended to bridge the gap between Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty and the upcoming Heart of the Swarm expansion, it picks up immediately after the final scene of Wings of Liberty and depicts Jim Raynor’s rescue of Sarah Kerrigan and her subsequent recovery.

Cover art for It’s a solid book, and if it doesn’t necessarily have any mind-blowing moments, it doesn’t give one a lot to complain about, either.

The first thing you’ll notice about “Flashpoint” is that it hits the ground running, and it rarely lets up its breakneck pace in its three hundred or so pages. It almost starts to feel a little rushed at times, but stops just short of that.

The other main thing that is immediately apparent when reading this book is that Christie Golden has once again perfectly captured the game’s characters. When Raynor speaks, I can hear his fringe world drawl in my mind. Even minor characters like Egon Stetmann feel like they stepped right out of the game and onto the page.

But while many minor characters get their moment in the sun, “Flashpoint” is ultimately the story of Raynor and Kerrigan before all else.

Sarah Kerrigan moments before being captured by the ZergOne thing I am very grateful for is that, while it is clear that Kerrigan is once again Sarah and not the Queen of Blades, it’s also clear that she is not the same woman she was before she was infested. How could she be? She has billions of lives on her conscience.

Sarah finds herself lost in depression and self-recrimination, and as time goes on, these feelings give way to endless rage…

But I don’t want to give too much away.

In addition to the aftermath of Sarah’s return to humanity, “Flashpoint” also features a number of flashbacks (No pun intended?) to the early days of her relationship with Jim Raynor, and these flashbacks are one of my few complaints about this book.

I’m not overly fond of the revelations/retcons about Jim and Sarah’s earlier relationship — they’re not bad; I just found my own “head canon” more impactful — and they don’t really add that much to the story, making the plot feel a little disjointed.

If I had to find something else to complain over, it’s that there aren’t really a lot of “wow” moments in this book. It’s consistently good throughout, but I didn’t often find myself thinking, “OMFG this is so awesome.”

Sarah Kerrigan battling the ProtossI’m reaching to try to maintain a balanced review. The truth is that “Flashpoint” gives one very little cause to complain.

While not necessarily a criticism, something else that should be noted is that this book is very clearly the bridge between two games. It’s not entirely fair — or accurate — to call it filler, but don’t go expecting any conclusive story resolutions. This is a piece of a story; it’s not a complete story in its own right.

Overall rating: 8.8/10 Not ground-breaking, but a very solid read that I would recommend to any and all Starcraft fans.

New article:

My latest WhatMMO article is Top 6 MMO Features That Would Enrich Reality. Here’s an excerpt:

“Although there could be downsides. It would be a bit awkward if everyone you know one day received the message, ‘Bill has earned the achievement: [World First! Best Friend’s Sister].'”