femalegamer

Well, it’s official! Did you get WotLK? My better half and I did the midnight release on Nov. 13 and took several days off of work to hit 80. Lo and behold, six days later we had our first Level 80s. Since that time we’ve familiarized ourselves with all of the instances, heroic and regular, as well as begun raiding. Our guild has completed Naxx (and can now do the entire dungeon in 3.5 hours (regular, not heroic - we’re a small guild) and the Obsidian Sanctum. We’re making progress on Myalgos, but have a little ways to go (and some gearing up needed) before we complete it I’m guessing.

All in all, it’s been a fun experience, but if anything, I’m disappointed that we’ve basically run out of raid content so quickly. We had Naxx figured out in two days… I would have preferred a few weeks of bashing our heads on content… just to prolong the experience and make it feel more of a challenge. Maybe I’m odd in wanting that, who knows. At least we still have the challenge of doing the Obsidian Sanctum and leaving the three dragons up… that should be fun. I love me a good challenge!

Anyway - now that my major writing challenges are out of the way, I’m freed up to focus more on pleasure writing, and what is going on in the rest of the gaming world!

All the best-
S

With Wrath of the Lich King coming out a month from today, I thought I’d give a little bit of an update on what I’ve experienced in Beta so far. I’ve leveled a Death Knight up to 65 and my Hunter is at 76-and-a -half and is making the push for 80 before they take the Beta servers down.

This truly has been an unbelievable expansion to the game, and is well beyond anything they have done yet. Many of the quests have a much more immersive feel. One of the threads, which takes place in Dragonblight is absolutely epic, featuring an awesome cut scene, a changing town and some trials you never imagined taking part in.

All the zones are quite well laid out and feature more flight paths than in the past, making travel a bit easier. They’ve all been quite breath-taking in their scope; some a vast wasteland of ice and snow, others a nordic playground, and Sholazar Basin - a much more attractive Un’Goro Crater. Now, I’m just looking forward to learning Cold-Weather Flying at 77 so I can get around a little quicker.

Profession-wise, I’ve only really explored Leatherworking, but they’ve added some extremely nice features and gear opportunities. Now, instead of just making patches, Leatherworkers have the ability to emboss some of their own gear. The embossing recipes give you the ability to add ridiculously strong buffs to your bracers (141 AP, etc.) - a very fine addition indeed!

All in all, it looks as though Blizzard has outdone themselves this time! Be sure to preorder your copy!

Blizz is doing their best to combat losing any subscribers to Warhammer Online lately with all the concessions and tidbits they’re releasing lately.

Long gone are the days that realm transfers are limited to PvP -> PvP, PvE -> PvE and PvP -> PvE. In order to appeal to those stuck on PvE realms that may be swayed by the heavy focus on PvP in Warhammer, Blizz has announced the ability for people to transfer from PvE realms to PvP realms. As a full-fledged PvE realmer, I’m kind of disappointed by this decision (but I can fully understand why they’re doing it). Unfortunately we will be losing several of our friends to the glitz and glitter of the PvE world.

The upcoming patch will introduce the Inscription profession in advance of the game. Once the patch strikes, players will be able to level up Inscription to 375 and once the Expansion is out, continue further.

And, speaking of the expansion, there’s a date! November 13th… get ready to take days off and expect midnight release parties at most major game stores. Preorder your copy today!

Happy gaming!

It’s hard when the biggest titles expected out all have numbers after their names: Rock Band 2, Gears of War 2, GTA 4, Resistance 2.

While they were all stand out titles, its sad that the concept of new games has fallen by the wayside of just rehashing and redoing the old. But, that’s what we’re looking at as far as releases this year.

At the same time, there are several non “numbered” sequels: Destroy All Humans, Viva Pinata and in a sense Warhammer Online. Destroy All Humans was a fresh and inventive idea the first time around, will that continue through its second incarnation. And Warhammer, which started out as a pen and paper RPG is now stepping into the MMORPG world. MMOPRG players have definitely be abuzz about WO, but, will it be able to hold their attention?

Looking at the initial excitement that comes with any title, the month or two of pretty highly focused game time, and the following trickle as people leave to go back to their preferred game of choice… it will be interesting to see if it, as I’m sure Mythic Entertainment is hoping, can be “the New WoW.”

So, it’s not surprising that the original titles stand out like shining beacons of originality in a world of reruns. And, that is something that Spore did (of course, Spore’s buzz has been growing for nearly 3 years now). Now that it’s finally out, will it live up to its hype.

Time and units sold will tell, but as of now, I’m not feeling completely confident it will. Considering one of my good friends, who has faithfully been playing around with the Spore Creature Creator for a few weeks now, texted me yesterday, “Spore is a piece of crap on Vista.” Yeah, it doesn’t bode well.

Back in 2005 I would have laughed if you told me people could forge long and lasting relationships via a game. Never, ever would I have believed you! Yet, here I am again, seeing my guild home of the past year crumbling and feeling the lost it entails.

When my husband and I first joined Warcraft, we were welcomed into the top guild on our server, thanks to a real life friend. These people took us under our wing, taught us more about the game than we would have learned on our own and trusted us enough to make us regular raiders (apparently we learned enough from them to not suck). Unfortunately when the first expansion was looming the guild fell apart.

Both my husband and I felt such a huge loss as people were splintering off to different guilds. They were all our friends, who should we try and go with? The guild that is currently splintering was created by some of those, our old time friends. Again, with the splintering, they are not just going to different guilds, many of them are transferring off the server to start fresh.

Some of these people we met in real life, spending a weekend partying it up with. Meeting them in person felt natural, like old friends seeing each other after years’ absence. The only funny twist being we had to introduce ourselves with our “in-game” name and following it up with our real names.

It’s sad to see this “in-game” family fall apart… yet with it springs new opportunities. We too are starting over, with a guild that exceeds our time on the server, and one filled with people, many of whom have been together for nearly 10 years (since the first EQ). This new guild has “splinters” in different games and has given new meaning to family-style guild.

While sad to see what was now break up, we are looking forward to our future.

It’s a quiet day gaming wise… apparently the biggest news is that Tiger Woods is playing golf via video game while his knee heals. I’m glad he’s keeping with it and not going to lose his edge… that certainly makes me feel better.

So, since the exciting gaming news was not overly exciting, I though I would have a fun video link day. To start this we need to get a Zero Punctuation review going!

If you’ve never witnessed a ZP review you are sorely, sorely missing in brilliant laughs! Not to mention the most bizarrely frank and on-target reviews, and best done infast-spoken British-born Australian accented goodness. What was originally started as two posts on Youtube was quickly snatched up by the Escapist and new episodes can be seen every Wednesday. If you click the following link, you can visit ZP’s home on The Escapist. I HIGHLY recommend you watch The E3 Trailer Park, Age of Conan and The Orange Box.

Next up, we have to give credit to The Guild, which according to their official site is, “is an independent sitcom webisode about a group of online gamers. It is written for gamers, about gamers by a gamer. Episodes vary from 3-6 minutes in length, and follow the Guild members’ lives online and offline.”

All in all, it’s pretty damn funny! Check it out!

Other webisodes are available via their Web site here!

Happy gaming and have a great long weekend!

In some of my most exciting gaming news as of late, I am currently taking part in the WoW Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack beta test. And, I can say that is it absolutely amazing! I fully believe that what they’ve added and have done this time around will blow everything from the original and The Burning Crusade out of the water. Very exciting things are afoot!

Currently, I am leveling up a Death Knight - what an amazing class! It is so exciting seeing new skills and talents in game, and the DK starting area has the best quest progression so far out of all the “class/race” starting areas.

I’ve also been taking my hunter through the Northrend areas. Beast Mastery hunters have undergone unbelievable changes and finally have a really solid place in end-game raiding! Not to mention the 51st talent point allows BM hunters to basically tame anything in the game!

If you’re a current WoW player, you can opt into the Beta (key codes are given via random lottery), by clicking here:
https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/beta-opt-in.html
For more information, check out the WotLK forums here:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=1793231&sid=1

The Boston Herald has reported on a presentation given at the American Psychological Association’s convention… The findings? Video games and MMORPGs, like Age of Conan and World of Warcraft, not only make you smarter, but can help improve your incision skills.

Wow. And not of the Warcraft variety… nope, this is more the exclamation of surprise. I knew that video games are considered to be a boon for hand-eye coordination, keeping seniors active and helping stroke survivors regain their motor skills, but surgeons!?

According to the study, laproscopic surgeons who play games are 27 percent faster at advance surgical procedures and made 37 percent fewer errors than surgeons that don’t game.

Hrm… apparently when you’re looking for a new doctor you should add to your list of questions: “So, what server are you on and how far into Sunwell Plateau are you?

I apologize for my extended absence the past few weeks. The good news is I am back and my project is almost complete. It truly was a great, albeit time-consuming endeavor… a 100+ page Age of Conan class guide.

Unfortunately, my class (Bear Shaman) was only at 40 when I started the project… so the research involved a lot of playing, on top of writing. Well, I can truly say that that probably did in the amount of time I will spend in Age of Conan. I think the game has potential, but has several months to go before it reaches it. Forced playing made me less likely to be patient and wait for Funcom to get their act together.

So, it looks like I’m heading back to Warcraft! I’m finding the transition back to be interesting however. For the first time in my WoW life, I’ve come back from another game and found myself missing features. The ability to sprint on all toons in AoC… brilliant! Solo instances in AoC… really smart! Combat that is more than 10 main attacks that are triggered by hitting one key… awesome! And, the ability to line up future attacks… something sorely missing in the WoW world.

Hauteness over at Single in L.A. tagged me in one of her recent posts. Seeing As I’ve been absolutlely M.I.A. the past few weeks, thanks to a rather large project I have coming due, I thought I’d take a few moments away from it and post. In the meantime, I promise I will be back full force soon, just a bit overwhelmed!

Here’s the rules:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Of course, I may tinge my responses with a video game slant….

1. World of Warcraft: 4 70s: Hunter, Mage, Druid (feral) and Warlock. 2 mid-60s: Priest and Rogue. Missing the game terribly and looking forward to getting back into it!

2. Age of Conan: Initially played a Demonologist, but switched characters with my husband, since he was playing a Bear Shaman and I was hired to write a Bear Shaman Class Guide (that would be the large project that’s kept me busy). Looking forward to finishing the guide and heading back to Warcrack.

3. Top 5 First Person Shooters: Half Life 1&2, Deus Ex, No One Lives Forever and Doom 2 (for old times sake!).

4. I’m a keyboard hog. If my husband and I tackle one game together, he rarely gets the controls. I think that’s probably why we went to MMORPGs… both of us can play together on our own computers.

5. Favorite Sims: Pharaoh, Emperor and Zoo Tycoon. I even take Sims to the competitive side. Hubby and I play side by side, and its all about me having the most money, happiest people, most resources or the prettiest setup.

6. Next up: Wii Fit. We’ve got the Wii… just need the Fit and we’re golden.

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