Conviction

I love stealth games. I'm not 100% sure why, but I'm pretty sure its because I'm a self-trained ninja (I have an ad out on craigs list if you're interested in hiring me). The Splinter Cell conviction demo was released not too long ago, and although i had to clear some hard-drive space off my X-box, I was able to partake in its stealthy goodness.

All in all, I'm extremley pleased with what I was able to play. The demo itself isn't very long, about 10 minutes of game play really. I've played every splinter cell to date, and even though this game is quite a bit different from its predecessors, it feels like a very natural progression, and the differences don't take long to master. As this Sam Fisher is no longer bound by protocol, he is much more dangerous; he freely uses his firearm, whereas the other games discouraged shooting your enemies in favor of a stealthier (and often non-lethal) way of dispatching them.

That being said, stealth is still very much a part of the game. The screen does a nifty black & white effect to show when Sam is cloaked in shadow. And many of the gadgets seem to have been tweaked, like the sticky cam (my personal fave) actually allows you to keep moving as Sam while you watch the screen, before you had to disconnect the camera to continue. Little differences like this usually make for a great sequel. I'm very excited for what I see, hopefully suffering all the release-date changes will be worth it.

(Wait? are you gonna mention that you were gone for 8 months? No? That;s stupid...)

One Night In Naxx

Wow Wednesday

Many have said it just couldent be done. But Incursio has done it! We did Naxxramas 10-man in one night! Thats how unbelievably awesome our abilites are.



Truly it was a magnificent run, full of awe-inspiring crits and head banging rock music. Ok maybe only I had the latter, but it went along well with the mood of Naxxramas. Truly the greatest thing about the night was that Kel'Thuzad dropped a extremly good axe, and I beat a 95 roll with a 100 roll. Amazing, aren't I? That should boost up my Dps quite a bit. Note that the above photo isnt from that particular run, just a 25 man naxx that didnt succeed.




On a more embarssing note, i tried my hand at raiding the horde cities. Thunder Bluff and Undercity fell easy enough, but the stories about Ogrimmar are no exaggeration, ANY threat on Thrall, and fifty hordies are by his side in an instant. That is because hordies are stupid, and they can only match alliance's superior skills with overwhelming numbers. Losers.

- Brenden [Incursio]

The Best At What I Do

X-men origins: Wolverine was a great movie, better than I expected. My main complaint about the movie was besides Wolverine and Sabretooth, all the characters were basically written in for fans of the comic. Take Gambit for instance, he was one of the most sought after characters by fans to appear in the films, and when it was announced he was going to be in origins, he was heavily promoted by the studio. And he was in the film for a grand total of 13 minutes. But I digress. Movies based on comic books are usually aimed at the young men crowd, as are video games. In truth, they fit together like lamb and tuna fish.

X-men Origins: Wolverine the game is a fun ride to say the least. it boasts some of the most amazing stylized action i've ever seen, and could very well cause you to jump out of your chair in exictement when you see some of the gruesome real-time scenes. However, as the game wears on you slowly begin to realize that, despite having hugh jackman reprising his role (which is suprisng) the game feels pretty shoddy. Great graphics, great sound, great combat, but silly enemies and shoddy construction become prevalnt. At one point i fell through the floor into oblivion, which hasent happend since Banjo-Kazooie on the N64. But if you like mindless, bloody action, look no further than Wolverine.

"Lets go, Bub."

Sorry, had to do it.

On The Hunt

Wow Wednesday (err...technically Thursday)

Wow I haven't played my hunter in a long time (lol). I'm a pally, through and through, but if there was one class I had to play in a paladins steed, it would definitely be the hunter. They create maximum dps, and they don't even have to tank. They just get really cool pets to help with that.

My Dwarven Hunter Orman finally reached 60 today. The only character besides my main to achieve such a lofty goal (first not being a Death Knight anyway) and it was the end result of a full day of grueling work. Truly I am thankful I made it to outland. I just about exausted every questline there was back on old Azeroth, and theres plenty to be found on Draenor. I had to sit out another 25 man because of scehdualing conflicts, but hopefully ill get into one over the weeked or something. My DPS seems to drop significantly while im in 25 man naxx. Im about 12th ranked, as of my last run, but in 10 mans im usually number 1, or a close 2. Whats even stranger still is that I usually run with the same people. Go figure. Perhaps I just get nervous in big groups.

Dogfight

I've always been an avid fan of aerial combat games ever since I played Gate of Thunder when I was like 4. Then came Star fox 64, which holds my personal record for most times completed, which stands at approximately 2,341 times. When I arrived at Blockbuster, I was hoping to find a copy of X-men Origins: Wolverine. Alas, they were all checked out, as you can really only hope to get a game at blockbuster if its over 3 years old. But then I found something I did not intend to find.



Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., which stands for High Altitude Warfare eXperimental squadron (boy I bet they worked hard at that title) is one of the newer Tom Clancy gems to make its way onto the x-box. Indeed, its use of authentic satellite imagery is tremendously effective, making it seem like you're really flying over Eygpt, Afhganastan, and Washington D.C.

Aeriel combat games are always fun, and Hawx is no exception. Banking at high speeds, letting loose a volley of missles at fighter planes determined to shoot down airforce one, and dropping bombs on SAM sites all stream exceedingly well together. I guess Tom Clancy really does know the army quite well. Im still working on my promotion to "General of the Airforce", which is an obtainable rank. But a little problem with that is that General of the Airforce is purley a deskjob, with no combat responsibilites whatsoever. What fun is there in an admistrative postion? Is the game going to make me file paperwork and such? I sincerely hope not...

Observed

Wow Wednesday


25 man naxx was a precipice of insanity. I'm not quite sure what that means, but it sure sounds cool. Truly the first well organized 25 man I've been in, it shows that maybe 25 mans shouldn't be as readily avoided as I previously thought. My shoulders dropped, but alas, I did not win the roll. Which is a shame seeing as how my shoulders are my last remaning blue piece. But I'll be back in the dread citadel soon, and hopefully my pauldrons will be present. EoE is still a mire of wipes, as none of us can even get past the second stage. We are working on Ulduar, however, which is semi-stupid since it skips over EoE entirely, and loot from Malygos could be of prime importance in the battles to come. But as usual, I kept my silence within the guild.


I am a total lore nerd, and the world of Azeroth is pretty much my middle-earth. My world-away-earth, if you will. Because of this, bosses that are steeped in lore are very amusing to me, despite their level of difficulty.



One such boss, pictured above, is Algalon the Observer. A servent of the creators of Azeroth, he has deemed the planet too dangerous to continue its activities, what with the rampant gods of death and demon titans. He's about to send a signal to a inersteller demolition crew to destroy Azeroth (kind of like A Hitchhiker's Guide), and it falls to the heroes (you) to stop him. Although he believes what he's doing is for the greater good, we know that Azeroth has more then enough good in it to warrant survival.

I love good lore! I need to get the book on Arthas. God I'm such a nerd...

Reppin The Row

Saints Row is quite funny. Its hardly needs an explanation on why it is funny, simply play the game for 5 minutes. What you will see, among the G-strings and krunked out teeth, are Hot dog suits chase after ninjas with chainsaws and mini-guns, and see porn stars play microbiologists (Seriously)

But despite being a comedy in the same vein as "Meet the Spartans", it creates a interesting phenomena, it proves to be SO ridiculous, that one forgets its ridiculous, and simply enjoys it. Yes many people bill Saints Row as a "GTA clone." But honestly, its revolutionary in its GPS style navigation system, which had been carried over into GTA IV. Funny old world isnt it?

The recent DLC released for Saints Row 2 includes the afformentioned Microbiologist/Porn Star Tera Patrick and her quest to undo the innerworkings of Ultor. The downloadable content is actually satisfying, as it includes new outfits such as the swat and police outfit which I sought after, AND cool looking shirts that don't look like muscle shirts. All in all, even though I woulden't go to the Row if i knew where it was, its still fun to control.