Random Ramblings

Another slow weekend for MMOs, and no real change on the horizon. Scrounged together enough people to poke the Baradin Hold bosses in WoW with some outside help, but that's really it there. Had some difficulties too - I think we're a long way from our peak, with healers still toward the inexperienced end of things for raiding and some of us (like myself) getting rusty. Badly-timed taunts don't help either. >.> Nothing happened on Guild Wars this weekend, save some discussion. While there are still some achievement-related things I could do I can't really say I care much. Until/unless there's more Guild Wars Beyond content, I feel I've pretty much "finished" the game as much as I care to. This is why GW2 can either soar or flop, as the dynamic event system seems to make it such a group won't plan to do "X" one night a week (though perhaps you could do that with dungeons), but rather form up, wander out, and see what happens.

I got my Mass Effect 2 save sorted out for ME3 this week, then went back to playing Uncharted 3 and finished that during the weekend. Good, solid action-adventure game, no question. It manages a decent balance of puzzles, platforming, and combat in the midst of a very cinematic story. It's linear, of course, and felt a little "short" as I neared the ending, but it was a fun ride and well-told story. I like the handling of the supernatural elements in the 3rd installment better than the first two. And the game reminds me that the primary stat of an action hero is almost always constitution.

Last week, I read Blood Cross, part two in the Jane Yellowrock series. As with the last one, it's not grabbing me as great, just a decent urban fantasy series. This one didn't bore me for the first stretch - I suppose a sequel benefits from having done setup - but it didn't feel like it build up to much greater heights either.

And I managed to overcome the challenge of getting a new, seemingly-cursed laptop for work up and running after it arrived with a dead hard drive. Putting recovery disk ISOs onto a USB drive seemed like a good way to go, but failed. In the end, I had to buy a new external DVD drive. Whee. But at least I got it working Saturday.

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