Redwolf's Journal (continued)

So, official release day, what more is there to add? I skimmed through an article by someone else of critiques, and generally agree. They point out the dynamic events really aren't that dynamic for the most part. The biggest improvement is that when they happen, they're open to all comers, and participating brings some measure of reward. Otherwise, they're like most any other triggered quest with the down side of not always being available. I was envisioning a quest wiki that became some interlinked labrynth of events reported by different people, but instead, I've seen the same few come up in one area twice in a single play session (probably not more than an hour apart). It's not a big failing, but it's also far from the revolutionary accomplishment it was hyped to be. Also, the writer complains about flaky geometry/jump mechanics fouling up some platformy sections. Most of these I've seen are to reach vistas (that grant some points) rather than com

Okay, so the game is out "for real" as of tomorrow, but I think I've been playing the final version over the weekend, so I feel pretty confident in commenting at this point. Not many changes since beta, but I think there have been a few. So, on to initial impression... The graphics look good, in general. I encountered a few visual issues (where things disappear at certain angles) and I am minorly bugged by just how often hands brush through clothing in cut scenes. Character customization is probably above average for MMORPGs, with a selection of body types in addition to faces and hair styles. There are sliders for just about everything, but most of the changes from them are minimal - which is fine. You can recolor your gear at any time, with a decent palette to start with and other colors unlocked by dyes found in-game. Movement is fair. Alas, I still have to say no MMORPG I have played moves as cleanly and smoothly as WoW. Here, jumping and falling seem stiff and

Some days/weeks, I almost find appeal in the thought of having my "brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick." Cinderblock may even be a valid substitute. Just... ugh. I'm so sapped from frustration and focus. In addition to the usual printer issues, phone edits, email setup, forgotten passwords, and general troubleshooting this week: - We started off the week with evidence of malware or a rootkit or something on one computer that wasn't following the patterns I usually see, but creating network traffic. We blocked that off readily enough, but after three nights, my co-tech still hasn't managed to get to the source of it. I tracked down some useful information yesterday, but I haven't had the couple hours with it that would probably be required to clean it. - A hard drive failed on a design workstation Tuesday. That left me scrambling for a temporary replacement, ordering a permanent one, trying (and failing) to retrieve any

While I had intended to ride my bike in to work to avoid the downtown traffic issues completely, even going so far as to cover the distance yesterday to make sure I wasn't too out of shape and that my bike was fully functional, the total cloud cover this morning gave me pause. A further look at the forecast with possible thunderstorms around 8 am and 5 pm and... yeah, no. Back to the car. Ah well. Saturday's raid night went fine. Knocked out Alizabal and all of Dragon Soul without any real issue. We lost got a little out of sync on Ultraxion and had a death or two at the end, then lost someone on Spine during a roll, but I think we still one-shotted everything and even single-tanked Madness (whee, two-hander waggling!). No time in Firelands, though, so unless our guild leader finds a PUG group to gather essences with, there's no real progress toward Dragonwrath this week. That's still on a tight time table compared to MoP release, and will still require a Ragnaros ki

I usually really enjoy seeing information from behind the curtain, especially when it comes to games. Even something as dry as otherwise-unknown subscription numbers can be a glimpse into the thinking of developers and publishers. Today I came across a fairly new blog by someone talking about his experiences in design for World of Warcraft. It isn't so much a matter of me seeing great revelations here, but I still find some of the personal accounts to be fascinating, including one entry where he relates going from implimenting someone else's ideas in Attumen to exploring his own with Shade of Aran to going overboard with Netherspite . The tale may have extra resonance as Karazhan was my first experience with raiding. I just played through Journey this morning. It's a short game, purchasable online for PS3. At $15 and only 2-3 hours worth of game without a lot of incentive to replay, I can't say it makes my usual entertainment value ratio. And yet, it's better th

Why are some things that should be of so little importance so difficult? A few years back, I tried a little Wanchai Ferry Kung Pao box meal kit. One of those Chinese "here's rice, sauce, and spices, just add chicken" things. And it was good. I really, really like the sauce especially - between that and the peppers it's a good balance of spice and sweetness, a flavor that really appeals. Well, with the recent revamp of a local grocery store, they don't seem to carry that variety any more. And neither does Walmart, though it used to. Simple enough to make rice and stir fry the chicken and other stuff, but the sauce... Trying to be more self-reliant, I looked up a recipe online only to find a list of about a dozen ingredients I wouldn't really have other use for, including a different sauce to begin with. So I would have to buy a sauce I won't otherwise use to make a sauce I would sometimes? Uhh... that seems an unnecessary complication. I tried the one

I'm still sort of amazed that we plowed through both Dragon Soul and all of Firelands save Ragnaros last night. @.@ All went pretty well, too. I was sure Beth'tilac was a wipe when we lost a healer early on, but we recovered. Rhyolith felt like the fight ran long, but we made that too. Staghelm was our most problematic fight. Down two or three people by that time, we fouled up a phase change and died once. The second time, when we started the fight he jumped straight into cat form, skipping his first scorpion phase and pushing us into phases I normally never see - but we managed to win out that time. Still no firecat staff for our second druid, though, sad to say. But more essences and a few upgrades for people here and there.

So often it's not for the better. I think I'm a little out of sorts having seen the ad for... well, my boss. When "management" discussed the possibility of hiring an IT Director, that was one thing. Even hearing that it was coming wasn't so bad. But actually seeing that it's in the process of happening is a little scary. I worry over changes in dynamics, though I admit there are a lot of ways things could improve. The company has not been very lucky/skilled at hiring for management positions, though, in my opinion. Too often we get people who seem incapable of a ground-level view, and while that may not be the job of a manager it sure can be useful. Theoretically, anyone hired for this position should know a good bit about what we do. Then again, I would have thought the person hired to head the online division would be able to operate a computer and cell phone without somehow fouling up her email. Repeatedly. Well... hope for the best, and that things d

I have finished reading a couple more books in the recent weeks, but I've been too distracted with other things to comment. Time to resolve that. I finally got around to reading Namaah's Blessing . After the second book in the trilogy, I just didn't feel a hardback was worthwhile, so I waited. As expressed before, I'm just not into Moirin and Bao as much as Phedre and Joscelin, but at least Bao didn't put me off quite as much as in the previous book. The return of a psuedo-villain from book one was handled well, and his "power" was actually pretty neat. The story works decently overall, tying up most loose ends for this pair and continuing to paint out more of the setting. Carey does some things very well. That includes weaving some rich tapestries of her real-history-inspired cultures across the world. Of course, the cultures of the main character always seem a little more "real" and fleshed out, but that can be a matter of perspective. She&

I was worried about having enough people to do anything Saturday night in WoW, but folks did trickle in and we set off to stomp through Firelands. Pushed a little harder and took a few more risks on trash (and used cooldowns more), but I don't recall any deaths. Rhyolith gave us a little bit of trouble, but he's so quick to turn these days. Little trouble otherwise before getting to Ragnaros. With one person pugged, we gave it a few attempts and did better on average than before, but we still didn't really get past the beginning of the second transition at best. I know some people bristle under all the advice coming from those couple people who have done it. Me, I just felt some objective amusement at how they started off with the attitude of "it's not that hard, you just have to do it" and finished the night saying something closer to "well, it's still one of the trickiest fights around." It looks like we may be saving that lock and trying for

TSW is doing a free-to-all weekend, and I've played some. Not sure I feel the need to do much more with it, though. Started a couple characters, and while the flavors of the factions are different, things play out much the same, so there doesn't seem a whole lot of incentive to run alts. And playing for "depth" isn't going to happen in the span of a weekend. Movement and animations are about what I've come to expect - jumping looks a little stiff, but things generally move okay and look pretty good. I still haven't seen an MMO where characters move as well as in WoW, but then the level of detail there is aging, so there's some trade-off. Combat seems to play out reasonably well, with positioning and facing mattering. Big area moves from opponents are telegraphed in a good, interesting way that shows the area about to get hit and effectively a timer on the ground. There's limited height in the game - some buildings have multiple levels and there

No WoW last weekend, with people otherwise occupied. I'm not sure what our priorities are, though it was discussed there's just enough time left to complete Dragonwrath if we tackle Firelands every week (and get a Rags kill in there). With Deathwing down, that might be the most "worthy" goal. SWTOR has announced they're going free-to-play "this fall." No real surprise there with subscription numbers dropping and competition increasing (Secret World, soon to be Guild Wars 2 and Mists of Pandaria). Time to work out a different system of incentives to try to tap the larger F2P play base. We'll see how that works out for them. The lasted ME3 Multiplayer DLC added some a batch of interesting classes. The N7 Destroyer particularly interests me by being... sort of what a soldier class should have been, in my opinion: sturdy and gun-heavy. I can actually use a full-auto assault rifle with it without feeling like I'm flailing everywhere. I've