Oh the Holidaze.

What a long week it has been! Since I've come home for the holidays I've been chopping ice, shopping, visiting relatives, and being just sick as a dog. Oh the fun of the holidays.
Unfortunately I have not had nearly as much time for Vanguard as I would have liked. I've created a cute Halfling Bard on Shidreth, haven't gotten him above level 10. I've been having a pretty good time, as everyone else has already stated the world is huge, the skylines are incredible, and diplomacy is neat. I did however remember what turned me off about the game(aside from the bugs). The default UI theme, the widgets, the look and feel of the interface just feels so plastic fantasy, it seriously turns me off from the game. Not to mention the target font is ugly as sin, and in every screen shot it is exactly the same, big, and blocky. So my next big thing is to try out some of the UI mods over at VGInterface. I've had the client crash on me a few times, which is strange because at launch I actually had no problems with client stability, unlike most people.

In other news, for Christmas my Mother was so adept at present getting, she picked me up Call of Duty 4, and Guitar Hero 3. Now I've been having a great time with CoD4, I beat the campaign on Normal, and have now advanced on to Veteran(omg hard), and have had a damn good time of it. Though short, the campaign is high on quality, and wow does it look amazing in HD. GH3 however I've been having my troubles with. Basically watching me play GH3 is sort of like watching a 90 year old taking a typing test, I fail horribly on anything but easy. So I am trying to hone my skills and get to a respectable level before I ever play it in front of anyone. CoD4 multiplayer is a ton of fun, and if anyone reading this is on XBox Live, my username is Chestone. It is very interesting, CoD4 multi-player has added a few common RPG elements, including level based advancement, context based rewards, and even a mild quest system. For example, if you assist in a kill you get 2 exp, while a normal kill is worth 10, and a kill after death is worth 20. Your character can also gain bonus exp from calling in air support when available, your position on your team, and winning games. Big exp bonuses come from completing "Challenges", which are essentially quests with "Get X Kill with X Weapon", or some variation there of. All in all it is a great game, with a a class based system akin to Team Fortress, with the ability, when of appropriate level to create a custom class, and with each level advancement diversify your custom classes weapon selection. All of this talk about the game just has me ready to go, so I will bid you all adieu, have a great holiday!

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Cheston

Vanguard: Someday I'll be playing you.

Well I had been planning on some hot Vanguarding this evening. But as the patcher says I still have three hours left, it is 9pm EST, and I have a presentation along with a test tomorrow... perhaps not. But hey bonus, there was a patch today, and look what came along just in time for __insert_holiday__!


Hotfix Notes December / 19 / 2007

GAMEPLAY

GENERAL

- All three spheres have been given a 50% experience bonus during the holidays. The bonus experience will last from Wednesday, December 19th at 5:00am PST to Thursday, January 3rd at 5:00am PST. Enjoy!



Well that will certainly make things a little bit more enjoyable in the weeks to come. Also I wanted to ask, where is everyone playing? I'd love to find some friends in game to group up with, start a guild or throw down diplomatically, the possibilities are endless!

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Cheston

When the teenager inside sheds a tear so sweet.

I was browsing the usual suspects today, and saw Heartless Gamer had posted the Duke Nukem Forever teaser video. Wow did my heart nearly jump out of my chest like a sweet baby alien ready for face munching. Duke 3D was a staple of my early teenage years(for better or for worse), and after all of the press releases(lies) over the years, the entire gaming community(myself included) have all but given up on this piece of classic vapor-ware. But I still have a soft spot for the big man with the dirtiest mouth in gaming. So without further au-do some serious flexin by Duke:



P.S. Love the epic metal soundtrack.

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Cheston

Return to Vanguard(Cancelled Account Free Reactivation)

So I was listening to the SOE Official Podcast #27, and somewhere in there was a mention that all Vanguard accounts that have been closed for over 60 days will be reactivated on December 18th, and staying open until January 3rd! Now there wasn't much mention of this on the official forums that I could tell, but I've seen a smidgen of posts here and there. This is very exciting as GU3 has just completed its three phase roll out, including their first raid dungeon entitled "Ancient Port Warehouse". So get ready with this great forum guide if you are of able level.

This is fantastic timing as I will have the Christmas vacation to really pour over the changes that have been made to the game. I have not played the game since release, and at that time it really ran like crap on my Macbook Pro. So I will be looking forward to performance improvements most of all, as I am sure many people will be doing as well. Now if only they could push a free trial out could I get my friends involved, as they are quite weary of becoming involved with such a notorious game. I've always felt Vanguard had the big "P" word(potential), but was squandered by a polarizing figure at the helm, and a schedule that was impossible given the technical problems during beta. Anyways I'll be very excited to see what they have done with the place when I return, and I hope to see you all there!

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Cheston

Google Ads

You will probably notice some Google text ads around the site right now. I am just playing around with them as I've never really used AdSense before and wanted to give it a shot, so don't expect them to become permanent. I am just Ad-Curious.

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Cheston

Well it is official, farewell sweet prince of the Norrath.

It is official now, Scott Hartsman is leaving EQ2/SOE, and he left the community a farewell letter on the forums. As I've said already in a previous post this is really a shame, and quite upsetting for many in the EQ2 community. Scott has certainly lined himself up a nice replacement who goes by the name of Bruce "Froech" Ferguson, who has been involved with the Everquest2 team for quite sometime as a producer. Bruce is the best candidate from within the team and I wish him the best of luck. And good luck to Scott Harstman wherever he may end up. I will by virtue of his reputation surely check whatever he gets involved in.

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Cheston

Oh my sweet Italian lover.

Well it certainly has been busy around here. Last week I had some serious family matters to attend to back home, then this week is the first week of classes for the Winter quarter at RIT, and once again that sweet mustache has made its way into my heart yet again. Of course I am talking about Super Mario Galaxy.



As many have already said, it is easily one of the best in the series. Now I cannot claim to have played every Mario title, I have played the majority of major releases. Galaxy is one of the most entertaining and edge of your seat platformers I've played in a long time. I am currently only 47 stars in which I believe is almost half way, and I cannot wait to get back to it(I've already put in almost ten hours today, which is almost more Mario than I can handle). With Mario jumping from planet to planet on his outer space mission you get the feeling like you are constantly on the edge of falling into oblivion, but fear not, most of the planets have a strikingly high level of gravity and will grab you right as you are sure its over.

As nearly all Mario games are very similar in plot I feel no need to really go over that in any detail what-so-ever, Princess Peach, Bowser, blah, blah, blah. But hey at least Peach sends you 1ups from her prison cell. Now I don't know what kind of country club prison Bowser is running, but the fact that Princess Peach the most highly valued prisoner in Bowser's castle can send unchecked mail to her boyfriend via a bunch of mushroom people seems highly irregular, and makes me seriously doubt Bowser's sincerity to his cause. I think secretly Bowser enjoys the cat and mouse game he and Mario have played out over the years, and without it he would probably be lonely with his castle full of spinning fireball turnstiles, and haunting music.

Anyways Galaxy is a great game, if you own a Wii it is absolutely a must have, and you would be crazy to pass it up if given the opportunity. Also I should mention the Wii as a next-gen system really shines with Galaxy, and really shows what the Wii can do both with their unique control scheme, and graphical capability(it ain't no Bioshock, but it certainly does shine). As a last note, the co-op mode is fantastic and makes the game a heck of a lot more fun, especially with someone to collect star bits, and hold down enemies for you. Well its late here, off to bed with me, much holiday shopping lays ahead of me in the morning.

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Cheston