Updates? What are those?
So here's a briefing about what's going on these days.
1) Blizzard is still awesome. I'm cross-training in another department right now, and I'm also in consideration for a promotion for a supervisor position that opened up. So here's hoping that works out, because a promotion would rule.
2) I haven't played WoW in weeks. I suppose that's natural, as I have seen and beaten all the PvE content in the game right now. Still have a few upgrades, but Stendar looks badass right now, and I beat some serious face in. Fury owns.
3) While I haven't played WoW, the next few weeks are going to be pretty packed as far as games go. I picked up Dawn of War 2 today, Star Ocean: The Last Hope comes out tomorrow, and Warhammer Online is getting a "live expansion" which will add the dwarf Slayer to the game. Can't wait!
4) Cory came down sick with a flu-ish thing at the beginning of last week. Then Melissa came down with the flu. And on Saturday, Lee came down with the flu as well. So it would seem that I am the Plaguebearer here. I don't want to be a Nurgle demon. :( But so far Papa Nurgle has provided his blessings, as I'm doing fine.
5) A few months ago I started running a Dark Heresy (the Warhammer 40k RPG) campaign. We've got Cory playing a psyker, Cory's friend's Andrew and Chris playing a Tech Priest and a mind-cleansed scum, and my co-workers Amanda and Patrick playing a noble-born scum and an assassin. And when he's not working, Jordan is playing as an Arbitrator. It's a nice party, and I do so love watching Cory and Jordan freak the hell out when I even HINT that there's Eldar about.
6) Our D&D 4th edition game is...well, it's still going. Much like all of Abe's games, it seems like it takes forever to get started, and even when it does you hardly feel like you have much choice in what happens. My Fighter was starting to really annoy me until I got a look at the book of martial power, which had some exploits that are simply awesome for sword and board. I am really looking forward to the PHB2, because the primal power source sounds nifty, and Barbarians rock.
7) The Star Wars game has gone right off the continuity railroad. The game started shortly after the battle of Endor (I think only a few days/weeks after). We've been trundling along since then, doing odd jobs for the Rebellion, finding a resurrected Jedi order that has decided to be pacifist and non-interfering (which in my Jedi character's opinion makes them no Jedi at all), and learning just how racist you can be in Star Wars from Pat's character. I gotta say though, you don't realize how awesome 3.5 Power Attack is until you don't have it any more. My Jedi does something like 22 damage minimum if he hits, and I can power attack for a good 20+ more.
8) Our washing machine broke last week when Melissa decided it was a good idea to wash a queen size comforter in it. The comforter barely fit, and was so heavy when wet that the motor couldn't move it. Now the washing machine is full of water that won't drain, mostly likely due to large amounts of fiber that came out of the comforter, probably clogging it up. Or maybe the weight of the comforter put too much strain on the motor and it broke. I'm hoping it's the former, because I really need to do laundry, and I really don't want to have to go to a laundromat while we wait to get a new washing machine motor (or a whole new washing machine).
Lee and Melissa seem very nonplussed about the fact that we haven't been able to do laundry for over a week now, and neither of them seem willing to call a maintenance guy to come out to take a look at it. Melissa said she'd have someone out to look at it tomorrow, but I doubt she's actually called anyone. I'm all up for laziness, believe me, but I don't have the luxury of having more than a week's worth of clothes clean at any given time, because I don't have more than a week's worth of clothes. And while I don't want to have to take charge of this myself (since I have to go to work every day, unlike Melissa who doesn't work and Lee who has the option of occasionally working from home), if something isn't done by tomorrow, I may have to.
So, time to say a little about Dawn of War 2. I was in the multiplayer beta when it came out a month or two ago, so I got a good look at the way the game worked in multiplayer, and it's definitely a large departure from the original Dawn of War in terms of gameplay mechanics. If you're looking for a classic, C&C- or Starcraft-style base-building RTS, DoW2 is not the right game for you. If you're looking for an RTS whose strategies don't reward the person who can micro-manage the best, DoW2 is probably also not the right game for you. But if you can find an RTS that doesn't weight its strategy towards micro-management, let me know, because those things are rarer than the Great Pink Sea Snail, and it's even more rare for them to be good.
On the other hand, if you're looking for a game that captures the feel and theme of Warhammer 40k, DoW 2 delivers in spades. Or, if you're looking for an RTS that rewards you for tactical thinking, instead of spamming the most units at the enemy, DoW 2 excels. Relic based DoW2 off of their successful game Company of Heroes, which focuses around small, squad-based combat that uses cover as a main gameplay feature. Setting up kill zones and luring enemies into them is very effective.
The single-player features a heavy RPG component, as each squad you get is based around a sergeant who can be given specific wargear (weapons, armor, accessories) and stats (health, ranged, melee, and energy) that come with special traits or abilities so that you can use to customize them for individual roles. Want your force commander to be a force of reckoning in close combat? You can give him terminator armor and a thunder hammer and max out his melee and go a-smashin! Or, if you prefer to stand off, give him an ancient relic bolter, wielded during the Horus Heresy, which has slain countless servants of Chaos, and max out his ranged ability to purge the enemies of mankind. Want your scouts to be more sneaky? Upgrade their sergeant's energy, boosting the amount of time you can stay in stealth, and give the sergeant a powerful sniper rifle. You get my drift.
Probably one of the coolest features about the game is that you can play the single-player campaign with a friend through online co-op. I'm not sure whether your friend gets his own units or whether you share yet, but anytime a game makes single player co-op a feature I will support it, because in my opinion nothing is more fun than playing games with your friends. Playing games against your friends can be fun too, but even though it may just be my personality type, I far prefer working with people towards a common goal than competing for a zero-sum prize.
The best thing I can say about Dawn of War 2 is that when I'm playing it, I feel like I am playing a small game of tabletop 40k in real time. Also, Eldar and Tyranids. Glee!
Oh yeah, and Orks are there too, but just like in Dawn of War 1 I have never found the orks very interesting. I've never been able to wrap my head around their units, and so they just end up seeming more silly than threatening or cool. The Tyranids are far better at the "swarm of weaker units" paradigm. It may be that I haven't given them enough time, but I think Orks would be best represented with lots of offensively-powerful but defensively-weak units, accompanied by super-powerful commanders.
Anyway, these days, my schedule is thankfully very regular. Work Monday through Friday, 10am to 7pm, with Star Wars on Tuesday evenings, D&D on Friday evenings, and Dark Heresy on Saturday afternoons. Other than that I mostly hang out at home, watching TV, playing games, and trying to figure out why our dogs are such douchebagels, yet manage to be so sweet at the same time. A lack of updating has probably left my readerbase fairly dry, but if you want to chat or anything, feel free to call me any time that I'm not at work, and I'll almost certainly be available. Unless I forget to take my phone off silent (which rarely happens). Or have passed out after drinking roughly 6 pints of Live Oak Big Bark (which also rarely happens).
1) Blizzard is still awesome. I'm cross-training in another department right now, and I'm also in consideration for a promotion for a supervisor position that opened up. So here's hoping that works out, because a promotion would rule.
2) I haven't played WoW in weeks. I suppose that's natural, as I have seen and beaten all the PvE content in the game right now. Still have a few upgrades, but Stendar looks badass right now, and I beat some serious face in. Fury owns.
3) While I haven't played WoW, the next few weeks are going to be pretty packed as far as games go. I picked up Dawn of War 2 today, Star Ocean: The Last Hope comes out tomorrow, and Warhammer Online is getting a "live expansion" which will add the dwarf Slayer to the game. Can't wait!
4) Cory came down sick with a flu-ish thing at the beginning of last week. Then Melissa came down with the flu. And on Saturday, Lee came down with the flu as well. So it would seem that I am the Plaguebearer here. I don't want to be a Nurgle demon. :( But so far Papa Nurgle has provided his blessings, as I'm doing fine.
5) A few months ago I started running a Dark Heresy (the Warhammer 40k RPG) campaign. We've got Cory playing a psyker, Cory's friend's Andrew and Chris playing a Tech Priest and a mind-cleansed scum, and my co-workers Amanda and Patrick playing a noble-born scum and an assassin. And when he's not working, Jordan is playing as an Arbitrator. It's a nice party, and I do so love watching Cory and Jordan freak the hell out when I even HINT that there's Eldar about.
6) Our D&D 4th edition game is...well, it's still going. Much like all of Abe's games, it seems like it takes forever to get started, and even when it does you hardly feel like you have much choice in what happens. My Fighter was starting to really annoy me until I got a look at the book of martial power, which had some exploits that are simply awesome for sword and board. I am really looking forward to the PHB2, because the primal power source sounds nifty, and Barbarians rock.
7) The Star Wars game has gone right off the continuity railroad. The game started shortly after the battle of Endor (I think only a few days/weeks after). We've been trundling along since then, doing odd jobs for the Rebellion, finding a resurrected Jedi order that has decided to be pacifist and non-interfering (which in my Jedi character's opinion makes them no Jedi at all), and learning just how racist you can be in Star Wars from Pat's character. I gotta say though, you don't realize how awesome 3.5 Power Attack is until you don't have it any more. My Jedi does something like 22 damage minimum if he hits, and I can power attack for a good 20+ more.
8) Our washing machine broke last week when Melissa decided it was a good idea to wash a queen size comforter in it. The comforter barely fit, and was so heavy when wet that the motor couldn't move it. Now the washing machine is full of water that won't drain, mostly likely due to large amounts of fiber that came out of the comforter, probably clogging it up. Or maybe the weight of the comforter put too much strain on the motor and it broke. I'm hoping it's the former, because I really need to do laundry, and I really don't want to have to go to a laundromat while we wait to get a new washing machine motor (or a whole new washing machine).
Lee and Melissa seem very nonplussed about the fact that we haven't been able to do laundry for over a week now, and neither of them seem willing to call a maintenance guy to come out to take a look at it. Melissa said she'd have someone out to look at it tomorrow, but I doubt she's actually called anyone. I'm all up for laziness, believe me, but I don't have the luxury of having more than a week's worth of clothes clean at any given time, because I don't have more than a week's worth of clothes. And while I don't want to have to take charge of this myself (since I have to go to work every day, unlike Melissa who doesn't work and Lee who has the option of occasionally working from home), if something isn't done by tomorrow, I may have to.
So, time to say a little about Dawn of War 2. I was in the multiplayer beta when it came out a month or two ago, so I got a good look at the way the game worked in multiplayer, and it's definitely a large departure from the original Dawn of War in terms of gameplay mechanics. If you're looking for a classic, C&C- or Starcraft-style base-building RTS, DoW2 is not the right game for you. If you're looking for an RTS whose strategies don't reward the person who can micro-manage the best, DoW2 is probably also not the right game for you. But if you can find an RTS that doesn't weight its strategy towards micro-management, let me know, because those things are rarer than the Great Pink Sea Snail, and it's even more rare for them to be good.
On the other hand, if you're looking for a game that captures the feel and theme of Warhammer 40k, DoW 2 delivers in spades. Or, if you're looking for an RTS that rewards you for tactical thinking, instead of spamming the most units at the enemy, DoW 2 excels. Relic based DoW2 off of their successful game Company of Heroes, which focuses around small, squad-based combat that uses cover as a main gameplay feature. Setting up kill zones and luring enemies into them is very effective.
The single-player features a heavy RPG component, as each squad you get is based around a sergeant who can be given specific wargear (weapons, armor, accessories) and stats (health, ranged, melee, and energy) that come with special traits or abilities so that you can use to customize them for individual roles. Want your force commander to be a force of reckoning in close combat? You can give him terminator armor and a thunder hammer and max out his melee and go a-smashin! Or, if you prefer to stand off, give him an ancient relic bolter, wielded during the Horus Heresy, which has slain countless servants of Chaos, and max out his ranged ability to purge the enemies of mankind. Want your scouts to be more sneaky? Upgrade their sergeant's energy, boosting the amount of time you can stay in stealth, and give the sergeant a powerful sniper rifle. You get my drift.
Probably one of the coolest features about the game is that you can play the single-player campaign with a friend through online co-op. I'm not sure whether your friend gets his own units or whether you share yet, but anytime a game makes single player co-op a feature I will support it, because in my opinion nothing is more fun than playing games with your friends. Playing games against your friends can be fun too, but even though it may just be my personality type, I far prefer working with people towards a common goal than competing for a zero-sum prize.
The best thing I can say about Dawn of War 2 is that when I'm playing it, I feel like I am playing a small game of tabletop 40k in real time. Also, Eldar and Tyranids. Glee!
Oh yeah, and Orks are there too, but just like in Dawn of War 1 I have never found the orks very interesting. I've never been able to wrap my head around their units, and so they just end up seeming more silly than threatening or cool. The Tyranids are far better at the "swarm of weaker units" paradigm. It may be that I haven't given them enough time, but I think Orks would be best represented with lots of offensively-powerful but defensively-weak units, accompanied by super-powerful commanders.
Anyway, these days, my schedule is thankfully very regular. Work Monday through Friday, 10am to 7pm, with Star Wars on Tuesday evenings, D&D on Friday evenings, and Dark Heresy on Saturday afternoons. Other than that I mostly hang out at home, watching TV, playing games, and trying to figure out why our dogs are such douchebagels, yet manage to be so sweet at the same time. A lack of updating has probably left my readerbase fairly dry, but if you want to chat or anything, feel free to call me any time that I'm not at work, and I'll almost certainly be available. Unless I forget to take my phone off silent (which rarely happens). Or have passed out after drinking roughly 6 pints of Live Oak Big Bark (which also rarely happens).