Back in the Eighties

I was playing World of Warcraft last night and I noticed something: Whilst there are already some Pandarens wandering about, I did see a Pandaren Monk who had made it all the way to level 80.

Didn't take them long....

Run a good race

Here's something I've been pondering on: Who's the most popular race on World of Warcraft?
Well as is often the case on the Internet, one need only ask:

Source: Warcraftrealms

Well there certainly a lot of surprises here. Whilst the high ranking of the Blood Elves isn't a surprise the fact they aren't the most popular race of all is. So humans are the most payed huh? I guess it makes sense considering the familiarity (it is, after all, humans playing this game) but then again, the humans in Azeroth are quite frequently portrayed as complete jerks - but then again who isn't a jerk in this fricking game?

Also of note is how many of the other races ended up with some the older ones - Dwarves, Gnomes, Orcs and Trolls - all being outpaced by the more recent arrivals. One kinda gets the impression that when the new race arrived a whole lot of Race/Faction changing happened XD

Conversely there aren't many surprises within the Class table but the least popular Classes are interesting to note. What, no one likes the Shamen? I find that interesting seeing as the other "mixed" classes (Druid and Paladin) are both at the other end of the spectrum.

Still it should be noted that this screen cap was taken before the release of Mists of Panderia. So it may be interesting to see how the presence of the Pandarians and the Monks will shape these charts in future...

All wrapped up

Because game commercials are always fun, may I present the commercial for the Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on the original Nintendo Gameboy:


Man Nintendo sure made some weird ads in their day but I find this oddly fascinating: Getting past the cheesy rap I realize there is little connecting this ad to the game itself: The Zelda logo is shown briefly, and the gameplay footage takes a back seat to the rapper. Indeed, what game footage there is  projected onto the wall of the set. EH?!?? Indeed, so much emphasis is placed on the rapper one finds it hard to see this being an ad for video game.

Still maybe next con i should get my Link cosplay out and perform this rap as a skit - has anyone ever done such a thing? No really, have they?

Mind you this ad does inspire the rather amusing notion of going Down ON Zelda XD

Twilight Time

Help! She's trying to preach to me about Team Edward!!!!

Adventure Time!

Wanting to try something new, I reconnected with my friend Good Old Games and downloaded some Adventure games! I will admit i had something off a soft spot for Adventure games when I was a kid. Whilst most of the ones I played were text adventures on the Commodore 64, I did appreciate the fact that these games were something else from the action games I enjoyed: Adventure games were built around problems that required imaginative thinking, they told awesome stories and they required patience to a point where a lot of thought was placed within the setting and they could build worlds unseen in other other gaming genre.

So here's what I downloaded recently:

Kings Quest VI
I remember the Sierra graphic adventures when I was a kid. At the time I was used to text adventures so seeing the same thing being transplanted into a genuine graphical environment was mind-blowing to say the least. Although I recall the Leisure Suit Larry series (I doubt few who have played it have ever forgotten it), I never played the Kings Quest series so this is a new experience for me.
Needless to say, I had no idea what to expect: I knew no.6 was the best of the lot but that was it. And so far I'm liking what I've seen. Sure some of the puzzles may be a bit absurd and some of the character animations looking wonky now but on all other fronts, this is game that has aged quite well. The voice acting is pretty good (I'm still astonished that the voice actor of Alexander is the same one who did the Beast in Disney's Beauty and the Beast) and I LOVE the backgrounds. Seriously, some of these are a work of art and proof that sometimes hand-drawn graphics can trump anything more recent.
So in summary, Kings Quest no.6 is turning out rather well and certainly a game that warrants further playing.

Simon the Sorcerer
I recall this game from my days as an Amiga owner. Sure I never played it but I was aware of it and it certainly looked interesting. So what do I think of it eighteen years later?
It's brilliant. And I think it's down to three factors: Firstly, the writing is hilarious and I really enjoy the various fairy-tale/fantasy tropes that this game is messing around with. Simon is a great character and whilst a sarcastic git would make for a dis-likeable character, here it works.
Secondly, the voice acting is fantastic. Simon is voiced by Chris Barrie (Rimmer from Red Dwarf) and it helps considerably. I love the one-liners and fourth wall breaking Simon does. And the other voice acting is pretty good too - special mention must go to the scene involving the tree stump.
And thirdly, the backgrounds are gorgeous to behold. Above I mentioned the beauty of hand-drawn graphics - it certainly applies here and many of the backgrounds still hold up nearly two decades later. It really adds so much to the world and proves that, for many years, when to came to world building adventure games were miles ahead of everyone else.

So yeah, I've played these games and enjoyed them insofar. Say what you like about the Adventure game genre but when it got it all right, the results were nothing short of magnificent.

Hill of Skulls

I discovered a WoW screen cap I'd thought I'd lost (turns out it was in the ScreenCap folder XD)

Beldrath stands triumphant over a mound of corpses (they really should've left him alone):

Planet of Sound (no.10)

Name: Bernard Free
Birthdate: 15th September 1988
Instruments: Drums

Affiliations: Dire Tribe
Bio: A recent addition to the Planet of Sound collective, Bernard came to Spike’s attention through answering an advertisement for a drummer. Little is known about his background although it is understood he spent several years living on the streets – this in turn has shaped him into something of an aggressive character. Eventually, through social support, Bernard was assigned to play drums in a community musical project. Finding an out let for his anger, Bernard took to drumming like a duck to water. And within time, he eventually found his way to the Planet of Sound collective.

In the collective, Bernard doesn’t contribute much to discussions or put forth any ideas – he’s more intent on drumming and as long as he does so, he’s happy. His relationships with everyone else seem somewhat strained as he seems intent on following on from his experiences on the streets. As such he seems to enjoy the idea of living like a rock star and the rebelliousness that comes with such a lifestyle. Whilst this make for some difficult times, Rick is intent on keeping Bernard largely due to his drumming prowess and the fact that his presence certainly livens up due moments backstage and on the tour bus.

I'd like to be under the sea

Can't say I'm happy with the changes Blizzard have brought about with the latest patch to WoW - in particular how the Hunter class has changed. Still, I'm just glad that I managed to go to Mt Hyjal and pick myself a Core Hound for Rithendal. I like this pet a lot - even with the changes - but it does present some odd situations. Situations like this:

How can my Core Hound survive under water? Surely the water would doused out the lava and flame that keeps him going?!

The Sky is Falling

I heard a rumor that Skies of Arcadia may be coming to XBLA - well not so much a rumor but it seems to be listed as a an unconfirmed upcoming title on that font of reliability Wikipedia.

Whilst wikipedia isn't the best source of information, I am intrigued with the idea of Skies of Arcadia appearing on the XBLA. As mentioned previously Skies of Arcadia is a favorite and, for me, good enough reason to keep hanging onto my Dreamcast. Still I would get any XBLA version if all the DLC is included and the graphics get a HD rejig - seriously I've recently seen Skies of Arcadia on a HD and it looks weird.

Still I do welcome the idea the idea of more Sega games appear on XBLA and become more readily available. If the reappearance of Nights into Dreams is a harbinger of what's to come then I'm all for it. After all, without past games becoming readily available then everyone will simply start using emulators and the game companies can't allow that now can they?

The Mario Opera!

The title says it all really:

Times they are a-changin'

As Mists of Panderia rumbles ever so closer, the latest patch of WoW is let loose. Some changes have been made, no doubt to keep in line with the latest expansion, and to be honest? I do not like some of them. Granted such a response is atypical of a system that is in command of thousands upon thousands of users but some of the changes made are jarring and, in most cases, come across as unnecessary.

The biggest two changes for me are the Talent Trees and the glyphs. With the talent trees have disappeared – in its place is a far simpler system of selecting one particular skill every so often and other skills being implemented into the character class. Funny thing is, I actually sat down and plotted out a plan for my characters to take with their respective talent trees. Funnily enough such effort now feels redundant.

And the glyph system! I really enjoyed the glyphs but now the Prime glyphs have been dropped and all of the glyphs have had dramatic changes to their effects. Again this is cause for redundancy: I’ve spent a lot of time and money on obtaining certain glyphs for certain characters. I even had one of my characters, Naesandra, to make glyphs for an entire guild. It took a lot of hard effort on both accounts but now it seems it was all for nothing.

I’m not sure why these changes have come about. The glyphs and the talents trees were working just fine the way they were and Blizzard come across as trying to fix something that wasn’t broken in the first place. Indeed, it has been stated that WoW’s numbers have dropped dramatically and the once untouchable game is now looking like it’s running out of juice. Thus one would think Blizzard are trying to stay ahead of some potentially stiff completion (Guild Wars 2 anyone?). Granted I do understand the necessity of staying ahead of the competition in such a cut-throat business but why change that which didn’t need it? Why not fix something that was actually broken? I can think of several quests in the other expansions that were utter rubbish and could’ve well dome with some fixing.

But I think the biggest slap in the face was, for me, putting a lot of hard effort into this game and it ultimately didn’t matter one damn thing. I once made mention that I felt cheated by Blizzard by the ending of Starcraft but that’s nothing compared to this. Why, one would think that Blizzard are deliberately going out of their way to get people to hate them – which is never a good business model.

Still this patch does represent one more drastic change in a line of many in WoW’s evolution. Why, I started playing WoW with Cataclysm and have grown accustomed to the system that was presented within such a context. Therefore I can only wonder what WoW would’ve looked like in its original incarnation.….