Apologies, but I have spent too much time today doing stuff that wasn’t this blog and I am knackered. Unfortunately this is all that I have to offer for tonight. Here is the first half of our week against ICC10, the rest to come tomorrow!

I think this was my 7^th trip through the DK starting area, I’ve tried the class so many times. Until now, none of them have made it past 60. I’ve tried Horde DKs too, but again they just never grabbed me.

First off, what made me try again? Well, I was a little bored and wanted to trying something different. I made a female Blood Elf Warlock, but she got deleted at level two. The female BE casting animation is just horrible. Thinking about that though, I remember Kob once jumping into a vent channel and going on and on (and on) about how awesome male BE DK animations were, so I figured I’d check it out.

The animations are fantastic and it was enough to keep me hooked for a level or two. By then I figured I might as well see out the starting area and send some much needed gold to my Shaman, but by the time I’d finished it I’d become hooked on the DK.

It’s a bit of a strange class to play and I can see why it never stuck before. The combination of diseases, pets, melee attacks, spells, runic power and runes is enough to do anyone’s head in. It finally all clicked for me this time though and my DK is level 63 and in Terokkar Forest.

Another big draw has been seeing the story of Outland from the Horde’s point of view. Already it’s clear how significant Outland is, particularly for the Orcs (coming home) and the Blood Elves (the promise land). There are a lot of quests that are near identical for both factions, but the difference in the reasons for them are interesting – to me at least.

For example as Alliance you kill Unyielding Spirits in an effort to free their souls, as Horde it is to beat them into submission so they will ally with you. Same quest, but very different motives, which is good. Hellfire in particular was very enjoyable to level though – pushing back the Burning Legion, looking for the source of the new Fel Orcs, discovering uncorrupted Orcs and sharing the good news with Thrall, the quests really felt meaning full and story driven.

Zangermarsh, not so much. Again, the quests seem to double up, but here it’s all about killing insects because they make too much noise, killing ells because the Trolls are sick of eating mushrooms and, funnily enough, collecting mushrooms – I assume because some Trolls just want to get high.

This really frustrates me and I understand why so many people don’t bother with quest text. My DK, so far, has thrown off the shackles of the Lich King, approached the leader of the Horde to seek acceptance for the Death Knights, cleared the Burning Legion from Hellfire, attacked both the Ramparts and Blood Furnace of Hellfire Citadel and reestablish contact with native Orcs in Outland.

And I get quests to kill bugs so someone can make clothes from their wings….

Terokkar I haven’t done much of anything in, but I doubt it will be much lore wise. The zone always seemed to be a Draenei zone to me. Nagrand is going to be the big one – I hope. I’ve been wanting to see Thrall’s return to Outland pretty much forever, and to see why he invited the douche Garrosh into the Horde in the first place.

To start with, the graphics are not the stylized neons of WOW, going for a more realistic type look. This has one massive drawback in that the game characters do not age well. The scenery, though, is still among the most beautiful in any game on the market, mmo or otherwise.

The animations can be a little jerky at times too. I always thought that the characters didn’t move quite right, although that may just be me. If these are the kinds of things that turn you off of games, then you probably want to give LotRO a miss.

The existing LotRO community is fantastic and there is a level of politeness and maturity here that doesn’t exist in WoW (you won’t see every second Rogue named “Istabzu”). That being said, the community is pretty worked up at the moment, many fearing the influx of players will turn the various chats into the horror that is WoW trade chat. Tread lightly and don’t be a douche and you’ll find one of the friendliest communities in gaming.

A lot of the in game mechanics feel clunky. They do their job but are not streamlined like WoW – this is a game that has not been polished and polished over five years, nor is it over simplified. It can be a little frustrating at first but once you get acquainted it will become second nature.

There is nothing special about your normal quests, being the “go here, kill them, come back” types of quests generally. Where LotRO starts to shine is the story quests. These generally involve you taking part in activities parallel to the fellowship of the ring. You must, must, must read the quest text for these. The storytelling is excellent and this is the part of the game that will pull you into the world and not let you go.

There are a number of moments in the game that will take your breath away if you are a Lord of the Rings fan. Standing at Bag End, talking to Gandalf, seeing Weathertop, these are all moments that pull you into the world and it’s the world that Turbine has got so right. LotRO feels like Middle-Earth.

It’s not a perfect game, far from it. Many will play for a couple of hours and never go back, unable to deal with the fact that it’s just not WoW. It’s slower, not as polished and not as good looking as a lot of MMOs on the market. But if you can get involved in the story, forget your preconceptions and enjoy it for what it is, you might just fall in love with it.

And, after all, it’s free.

On a final note, Unreal Realities will be having a presence on the Elendilmir server. There are no details as yet, but if you’re looking for someone to share the journey to Mordor with, look us up!

Oh, and how to NOT make a trailer. Kids are young, but they’re not suckers.

There is one thing that constantly holds me back from putting any decent time into a Horde character though and that’s a decent guild. The Barthilas guild has been a massive success, far beyond what I thought was possible, so it’s hard to wander around by myself on Nagrand.

My Shaman has been in three guilds on Nagrand so far, all of which have been terrible. It seems to me a lot of people on Nagrand have caps-lock issues.

The solution to this? Make an Unreal Realities guild!

This guild is a very, very different beast to the one on Barthilas. On Barth we had 50 members within a week and were ripping through 10s content. We knew people at knew people and the guild grew and grew. Now we have 5 separate teams of 10s raiders, nearly 40 Kingslayers, over 20 bone dragon mounts and we’re sitting pretty good for the expansion.

On Nagrand we have a level 58 DK (me) with no money and the three people that signed the charter and haven’t left the guild yet. Of course, I haven’t logged in today yet.

Other than having no pre-existing relationships on Nagrand, there is another major issue. Come Cataclysm you’d almost never see me on a Horde character, there will be way to much to do on my Alliance main. Which means not only do we need to put together a decent guild, we need to find a leadership team and guild leaders to run the show. Before Cataclysm.

Not to mention LotRO is going to free to play in just over a week and I’m hankering to get back into it. Regardless, it’s well over time we gave this a bash. So, if you’re on Nagrand, give us a holler and join up. If you’re not, then get on board!

Oh, and as always, the link to the recruitment thread on the Nagrand forums. Feed the trolls at your own risk!

Terran are by far the most defensively capable of all the races, which has its definite benefits, and some weaknesses. Throughout this guide, I plan on taking you through the common weaknesses and strengths that can be found within the Terran race, and how to counter them.

So before I go into strats, I thought it prudent to first describe some common units that can be found on the multiplayer battlefield, and how best to counter them!

Zerg – The king of rushing and overrunning an enemy very early game, a Terran player needs to know how to counter each unit to survive the onslaught that is the Zerg.

• Zergling – The Zergs most basic unit, this little bugger is by far the king of early rushing. A good Zerg player can have 6 or so zergling out before you have time to even get a marine. So it is best to  block your base at a chokepoint (found in most maps as a ramp). This stops zerglings from destroying your mineral lines
  • Countered best by : Marines, Siege tanks and Helions
• Roaches – These units can be found very early game, do fairly decent damage, and need to be extinguished quickly.
  • Best countered by Marauders and Banshees

• Hydralisk – These god forsaken creatures absolutely annihilate air, and in mass numbers are extremely hard to kill! As mentioned, if you have air units, keep them away from hydra’s! They have extensively long range. They do reduced damage to Marines.
  • Best countered by Marines and Siege tanks.
• Mutalisk – Air creatures with a bouncing attack, these units are the masters of harassment and in large numbers can be an unstoppable force. With a glaive bouncing attack, they can quickly annihilate marines and most ground units.
  • Best countered by Vikings and Thors

• Ultralisks – If your enemy has these bad boys, your in for some serious heat. They can throw down some major hurt to your infantry and mechanical units very fast. Its best to not let your enemy get ultralisks at all. But of course that dosnt always work!
  • Best countered by Mass Marauder and Banshees (Ultras cant attack air)

Protoss – Protoss specialize in being mid to late game dominators, however protoss units cost a lot of minerals, so it is best to keep check on early expansions and try and deny any expansion at all.

• Zealots – hefty melee attack units, these are the protoss’s most basic unit, but they are by far the strongest of all races basic units. Early game it is best to attack the zealots one weakness. Zealots are reasonably slow and are susceptible to kiting by a skilled Terran. One marine can possibly kill a zealot if micro’d properly.
  • Best countered by Marauder (Concussive upgrade) and Banshees
• Stalkers – By far the most commonly used unit by the Protoss, these guys when massed can spell serious trouble. Ranged units with ample health and shield, they can be bane to both ground and air armies alike. Bewary of their blink ability that can allow them to blink right into your Siege tanks no fire zone and into your bases.
  • Best countered by Marauder (Concussive upgrade) and Siege tanks

• Void Rays – I despise nothing more than void rays, a good protoss can get these bad boys very early game, which can spell disaster. It is important to note that the longer a void ray attacks with little to no break time increases it’s damage exponentially. 
  • Best countered by Vikings
• Immortals – The anti siege unit, these guys have a strong shield which repels siege attacks, making your siege tanks and thor’s pretty much useless. Not to mention immortals do extra damage to mechanical, it is best to use infantry like marines and marauder to deal with Immortals.
  • Best countered by Marines, Marauders and Banshees

• Colossus – Anti infantry units, these tripods can devastate mineral lines and armies alike. With their unique capability to scale mountains and walls, you need to be specially careful of their ability to line of sight your units from above. Fortunately, colossus are so tall, they can be hit by air only units too, including Turrets.
  • Best countered by Vikings, Banshees and Siege tanks.

Terran – Terran are slow early game and are susceptible to reaper rushes. Bewary of their ability to sink in deep and defend parts of the maps to the death.

• Marine – A terrans most basic unit, these units are ranged and have very little health (45 non-upgraded). Bewary however, when amassed they can cause serious damage to any foe. Their ability to use stimpacks, be healed by medivacs and increase their HP by 10 additional points makes for a very opposing force.
  • Best countered by Siege tanks.

• Marauder – These guys are a main staple of a terran ground army, with their extensive ability to take a fair few hits, their reasonable damage and ability to slow units, they can seriously cripple an army and allow for very easy kiting.
  • Best countered by Siege tanks, Banshees and Marine.
• Siege Tanks – The thorn in the side of any enemy ground force, these  boys can do some serious hurting. While in non-siege mode they do moderate siege damage at a fast rate (useful against zerglings) they really come into their own in Siege form. With unparalled damage and range, these boys are only vulnerable when fought up close in their no fire zone.
  • Best countered by Banshees and Ghosts (cloaked)
• Vikings – King of the air, these units can deal some serious damage and from a pretty long range when in flight mode. Bewary of their ability to fly into the back of your base, go into ground mode and annihilate your mineral line and then pick up and leave again.
  • Best countered by Vikings (go figure) and Marines+ Marauder
• Banshee – These units attack ground only, but can cause some serious issues if not dealth with quickly. Their ability to cloak can mean they can quickly harass and destroy expansions with extreme ease.
  • Best countered by Vikings + Raven (Detector to see them in stealth)

Strategies:

Marine Ball

This is the most common strat and normally, if done correctly can make for a quick and decisive win. Marine ball consists of massing marines and marauders. Normally consists of three to four barracks early game with two reactors and two tech labs, start by blocking your base as normal then proceed to mass marines and marauders. Don’t forget to upgrade marine health, marauder concussive and stimpacks for both. It is also a good idea to get medivacs to sustain your armies health throughout the fights, specially when you use stimpacks which reduces your units health but increases their ferocity by a crap-tonne (legit unit of measure )  When you have sufficient numbers, I dare say a ball of marines and marauders, search and destroy expansions followed by their main base. Not much can beat mass marine and marauder. Their weaknesses are Siege tanks and High Templars with Psionic storm. However if your enemy has High Templars the games gone for to long anyway, if needed get some ghosts, which can EMP high templars energy before they can Psiconic storm your army.

When pushing with the Marine ball, it is prudent that you expand when your on the attack.

A good build for Marine ball is Supply depot at 9 Pop Cap (population cap), Barracks at 11, followed by another Barrack and then a vespene.

Reaper Rush

This strategy is the bane for many new beginners and can work efficiently on all races (however is hardest to do on Zerg due to early zerglings). Starting with a Vespene at 8 Pop cap, a Barracks at 9 and a supply depot at 11, you can quickly upgrade your barrack with a tech lab and get reapers rushing into the enemy base and destroying their mineral line. Remember, a successful reaper rush is one that can destroy their mineral line. Don’t go for their buildings. The idea of this strategy is to destroy their economy, not their physical base. However if you notice a protoss that only has one pylon powering their gate (barrack), it is best to destroy it to remove power to their unit building ability and allow your reapers to run rampant on their base. Follow up a Reaper rush with a Marine ball as said above, if you have gimped their economy enough, they will stand no chance against mass marine and marauders.

Whats that? There’s a Thor in your base?

My final strategy for today consists of  teching as quickly as possible. Do a normal build of supply depot at 9 Pop cap, barracks at 11, followed by double vespene. A good economy is crucial to the success of this strategy, so don’t forget to keep pumping SCV’s! Around 30 SCV’s on a mineral line is normally sufficient enough. After building a barracks go for an early factory with an upgraded tech lab, followed by a Starport and Armory. When the Starport has finished build a Medivac, when the armory has finished build a Thor. If possible upgrade siege mode on your tanks while this is happening. When both Medivac and Thor are complete, pick the Thor up in your Medivac and send it into the back of your enemies base. Thors make extremely quick work of an opposing enemies mineral line and can very quickly demolish every singly SCV, Prove or Drone they own. If the enemy army begins to appear, pick your Thor up in the medivac and full back. Do this harassment as much as possible, use it to search for expansions and the such. A normal response to a Thor attack is to attack your base, hence why once a Thor is complete begin building siege tanks to protect your base. If the enemy attacks you, use your Thor to sneak into their base and destroy their Mineral line again and any crucial buildings (Supply depots, Pylons or Overseers).

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed my wall of text and hopefully you learnt something of value from it all, note that these strat’s won’t always work, but have won me most of my games so far. However ill leave you with a few tips!

Tips :

• Ravens a great units to have with any army, they are detectors, meaning they can find burrowed and invisible units, plus they have a Point Defense Drone, which shoots almost ALL ranged attacks, from stalkers to spore crawlers to Vikings. This can quickly turn the tide of battle in your favour.

• I find that if your nuking a persons army, it is best to try and detract them away from thinking its their army your nuking, by simply saying in chat “bye bye base”, by saying this they spend the majority of their time trying to find the damn ghost and red dot in their base, and not thinking of their army until its to late… You’ll be surprised how often it works

This weekend was their final raid week with the Pirates before packing and heading abroad. With both Naz and Ramp given the control stick to see out their raiding with the Pirates however they wished, it was one last clear of ICC10 that they decided upon, but with alts. I cant say much for the first night as both myself and Serevok were busy stuffing ourselves at a buffet for our Dad’s birthday, but it must have been pretty good given that they cleared eleven out of the twelve bosses.

With only Lich King to kill we did so after about four attempts, which felt really great given that we had one off specced tanked, three off specced healers, not to mention only two ranged, one of which was also off spec and, of course, only three mains in the group. So, what do we do with the rest of our night? Well, Algalon of course! The videos gives most of the detail, so I wont cover too much except to say, BAM. Thanks for coming. Breezing through the weekly, Malygos, we went in to Naxx for Saph and Kel’Thuzzad.

It was one of the most enjoyable raid nights that I have ever had. Even though we focused on easy content (err.. Lich King and Algalon easy…?) we were so laid back and loving it, taking it easy and, as you can see, having a laugh.

Next week we move on to getting Rumbrb his mount and look forward to welcoming Drmhr (the artist formally known as Mhrdhr or Karvup) over from Lemmings and Gabriellius (coming back from <Vitare>) in the next couple of weeks. Heroic Lich King is on the menu and will probably be the last serious, progression boss we attempt before Cataclysm.

To Rampduck and Nazaniel, on behalf of the Pirates, I give you our deepest gratitude and fondest wishes for the future! Obviously you will still be around the guild (at god only knows what times!) and you will always be Pirates.

Bon Voyage

I am a big traveller – I’ve been out of the country every year since I graduated, and I’ve been to some fantastic places and done some brilliant things.  But the thing about travel is, for every great moment there are at least three (probably more) boring ones.  Waiting for planes, trains and buses, travelling on them, hanging around in the hostel or hotel at night – there are plenty of times when the country you’re visiting can’t entertain you.

Meet my Nintendo DS.  We’ve travelled around the world together – he doesn’t get any love while we’re at home, but as soon as it’s time to head off, he’s always spoiled with new games.

This trip, I’m looking for a couple of new games to supplement the Super Mario and Pokemon staples that I always take (Pokemon is hands-down the best time wasting game ever).  Because I only buy new games when I travel, I tend to miss a lot of games, so I take the opportunity to troll the review sites for weeks in advance, hunting for what I’ve missed.  This trip, there are two new games and two fairly old ones that have made my list.  

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4

This was only released a couple of months ago, and is getting rave reviews all over the shop.  The basic premise of the Lego tie-in games (they exist for Batman, Indiana Jones and Star Wars too) is that they build the entire world out of Lego, simplify the story a bit, and throw in some platforming and some puzzles for good measure.  They’re fantastic fun - I’ve played previous Lego games and loved them, and I’m a big fan of Harry Potter, so I’m really looking forward to playing this one.

The Legend of Zelda:  Phantom Hourglass

This one’s a couple of years old – I’ve never actually played a Zelda game, but I was looking for something adventure RPG-esque, so I’m looking forward to giving it a try.

My understanding of Zelda games is that they involve some puzzles, some easy-mode killing of things, and a trip to rescue the Princess.  Ramp tells me that Zelda games involve a lot of travelling, so it might be art imitating life, playing it on the road.  Either way I’m excited to see how it plays out.

Grand Theft Auto:  Chinatown Wars

This one was released last year, and I never picked it up either, but it’s also got some great reviews.  I’ve played other GTA games, and they’re always great fun – stealing cars, completing missions and playing through the story.  Supposedly this version is specialised for and only available on the handhelds (DS, iPhone, PSP), so I’m interested to see what sort of concessions they have to make for the smaller low-res screens and clumsy controls.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

This one looked interesting, but I’m having trouble working out whether it’s aimed at kids or adults.  The review suggested that it was mainly a puzzle-based story game, and I like those, but the graphic style suggests it might be aimed a bit young.  Nevertheless, I think I might pick it up, just for something a bit different.

I’m pretty sure that should be enough to keep me busy not only on the planes, trains and buses, but until we get internet in our new Toronto home as well.  Best of all – the games should be pretty much free!  I’m planning on trading in a bunch of old DS games, plus my Wii and all of its games, so I’m hoping that will cover most of this list.  Here’s hoping!

Are there any other DS gamers out there?  I’d be interested in your recommendations

An RPG is about putting you in the shoes of someone else and you play that role but it’s an area that WoW, and the vast majority of MMOs, fail at. Fail hard. The defining characteristics of an RPG are making decisions that effect you and the world around you. In WoW we get talents but that’s all. And, really, talents are pretty much the same as choosing a class. Pick your spec and then find the cookie cutter spec to go with it.

It’s time WoW started to take some hints from the big boys of the RPG world – Bioware. It’s time to give us choices that effect the way characters interact with us, that have long ranging consequences, that actually mean something. And I’m not talking about pick the faction that might give you a mount over the faction that might let you change form and then switching once you’ve got the reward you want anyway.

Mass Effect did this spectacularly well, particularly the carryover from the first game to the second. What you had done in game one had a significant impact on the second, as the second will the third. Your actions within both games effected the end of that game as well and they meant something.

In WoW, nothing matters. Phasing is a step in the right direction, seeing your actions effect the world, but there is still something missing. Choice. Oh, sure, you can choose to quest or not, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

I want to be faced with the choice of saving the love of my life or the children. I want to decide if I should get the epic weapon or feed the poor. I want to decide if the criminal gets taken in to the authorities or if I kill them myself. And then I want the game world or react to that.

We know Blizzard can do it. As your rep increases with certain factions the greetings you get will become more welcoming. Phasing is changing the game completely. Opposing factions already exist. There are quests that can only be opened up by performing certain actions or quests. The ground work is all there. So make it count!

A quest that pops into my mind is the Goblin quest in Beta that requires you to rip the heart out of your ex girlfriend or boyfriend. It’s pretty brutal stuff for a game and there are more than a few people that think there are some very negative connotations in regards to it. Me? It doesn’t bother me in the slighted.

So, let’s make it matter. Let’s make it interesting. Why not, once you find said ex spouse, you have the option of doing what you were sent to do, causing you to be feared throughout the isles, opening up very specific storylines and quests and taking you in direction A. Or, you can accept a quest from ex spouse. Let’s say it turns out she is a member of some secret society and by going back and killing the original quest giver you can join. It shuts off every quest you would have in direction A but now you have direction B. I’m not talking about a small quest chain here; I mean why not have the entire zone change.

It can be more far reaching than a zone too. It could see additional quests pop up in later zones, it could change your interactions with NPCs at various levels in the game, including end game. Numerous decisions through the leveling process could mean that you see different events at the level cap.

We could be really ambitious and say that it’s your actions, not the race you choose at the character creation screen, that decide what faction you will be a member of. Why does the choice of race dictate who I like and dislike. Just as all white people are not the same, surely not every Gnome is either. Why can’t Gnomes fight for the Horde or Alliance, depending on their personal beliefs and behaviors, rather than because they are a Gnome?

Bioware are going to be putting the RPG back into MMORPG soon. I hope Blizzard decide to give it a go too because, frankly, I’d like to decide for myself if I’m going defend Gilneas or help the Forsaken destroy it. I want to choose to help expand Alliance territory or aid the Horde in defending it.

And I’d like to tell a certain Gnome to go and look though dog shit for microfilm by himself…

Before we jump into my top five, I’m going to show you one clip that I was going to put in – was looking at being number two – until I watched it again. It’s the opening scene for Mechwarrior 2. At the game this was mind blowing. I remember watching it ever time I loaded up the game. Having watched it again for this blog I can see that is has not aged well at all and there is no way it can compare to current and recent CGI. It was still awesome at the time though.

Notable Mention: Mechwarrior 2

5. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

A great opening and responsible for giving us the most well know phrase in WoW

4. Halo 3: Finish the Fight

I am not a fan of Halo at all, in fact I quiet dislike the games. This trailer almost made we buy the game though. The weird voice over at the start, the epic scene at the end, the truly amazing music and the awesome tag line – Finish the fight. A great, great trailer.

3. Starcraft 2: It’s about time

As far as announcement trailers go, they don’t get much better than this. The amount of moving parts in this clip is absolutely mind blowing and it looks unbelievable. It’s the line at the end that makes it though, our friend saying exactly what, after 12 years, we all thought.

2. Gears of War: Mad World

This trailer is all about the song. So amazingly simple, but so exceptional at the same time.

1. Star Wars the Old Republic: Deceived

Could there really be any doubt? This is simply amazing. The brutal efficiency of the Sith Lord at the beginning, the ship crashing into the building, the awesome reveal of the Sith with the light sabers turning on and the best Star Wars fight scene, well, pretty much ever.  This is pure awesome in motion.