Many things have changed in WoW over the past 6 years. Class mechanics have changed numerous times that classes today plays nothing like when the game originally came out. The game itself has changed not just the cosmetic change with Cataclysm but the game mechanic itself. This is what makes WoW the best MMO out there because it's constantly evolving, for better or worse. I can sit here and say that the game is always evolving toward mainstream audience since it's getting easier and easier, but at the mean time it's not such a bad thing all together seeing as it's becoming more and more accessible.
One thing that has never changed is the epic music in WoW. With whatever changes it may deliver with each content patch or each expansion pack, WoW has always had that glorious music. Long after the game is dead, many other MMOs will learn from many things that made WoW great, the lore, the classes, the game play, the smallest detail, the constant updates and many more. I will always remember the game that has some of the production values and music that we have ever seen in the game industry. The epic music starts right away at your log in screen and here is some nostalgia to the past WoW log in screens.
-World of Warcraft (Vanilla)
-The Burning Crusade
-Wrath of the Lich King (my personal favorite)
-Cataclysm
Sunday, December 19, 2010
nostalgia part 2 (a World of Warcraft special)
Cataclysm is here and the world of Azeroth as we know it is no longer the same. There are many things I personally will miss about the game, yes I don't play the game anymore but it was part of my life for the better part of last 6 years and whether good or bad it will be missed.
Blizzard usually don't screw up very often and when they do they almost address it immediately in the form of a content patch. People that plays WoW know what I am talking about as we have see endless changes with raids in term of difficulties and how the encounter works. People have also moaned and groaned whenever Blizzard changes how fundamentally a class works through buffs and nerfs. But after all It's Blizzard's way of tweaking the game mechanics in response to the community, they are trying to fix the game through each patch whether you believe it or not. One glaring omission however still remains in the game. Blizzard introduced pvp arena with the release of the Burning Crusade and it has been a total failure, even Blizzard themselves have admitted so. But guess what, arena is still in the game. Personally I feel like it destroyed pvp in WoW, the old battleground was not skill based but neither is arena. It was the purpose of arena but with the game so unbalanced around certain classes and gear sets, it turned into a faceroll competition of who has the best geared warlocks, rogues and healers. Don't get me wrong I played in arena as a gimp shadow priest in 3v3 and got to top 5 in the battle group, it was a real feat considering that if I kept on playing at the time I would have been one of the few Gladiators in that season that wasn't a warlock, rogue, warrior or some type of healer.
To be honest I miss the good old battlegrounds of large group pvp, that was WoW at its best. With Cataclysm Blizzard again is not removing arena in fear of warlock uprising since the warlock community seems to believe it takes true skill to play a warlock and the best place to display such skill is in arena. However Blizzard is making Battlegrounds relevant again now that you can gain pvp points from doing battlegrounds vs just in arena. I am really looking forward to getting the old pvp titles back too, now it's time to enjoy the old battleground music while one gets pumped up to slay thy alliance scum!
Blizzard usually don't screw up very often and when they do they almost address it immediately in the form of a content patch. People that plays WoW know what I am talking about as we have see endless changes with raids in term of difficulties and how the encounter works. People have also moaned and groaned whenever Blizzard changes how fundamentally a class works through buffs and nerfs. But after all It's Blizzard's way of tweaking the game mechanics in response to the community, they are trying to fix the game through each patch whether you believe it or not. One glaring omission however still remains in the game. Blizzard introduced pvp arena with the release of the Burning Crusade and it has been a total failure, even Blizzard themselves have admitted so. But guess what, arena is still in the game. Personally I feel like it destroyed pvp in WoW, the old battleground was not skill based but neither is arena. It was the purpose of arena but with the game so unbalanced around certain classes and gear sets, it turned into a faceroll competition of who has the best geared warlocks, rogues and healers. Don't get me wrong I played in arena as a gimp shadow priest in 3v3 and got to top 5 in the battle group, it was a real feat considering that if I kept on playing at the time I would have been one of the few Gladiators in that season that wasn't a warlock, rogue, warrior or some type of healer.
To be honest I miss the good old battlegrounds of large group pvp, that was WoW at its best. With Cataclysm Blizzard again is not removing arena in fear of warlock uprising since the warlock community seems to believe it takes true skill to play a warlock and the best place to display such skill is in arena. However Blizzard is making Battlegrounds relevant again now that you can gain pvp points from doing battlegrounds vs just in arena. I am really looking forward to getting the old pvp titles back too, now it's time to enjoy the old battleground music while one gets pumped up to slay thy alliance scum!
Random Thoughts part 2: Windy city edition
As Random Thoughts part 1 indicated that I don't travel very often, usually no more than 100 miles away from home. But sometimes life leads you to places that you never dreamed of going, and this time it led me to Chicago.
It has been some 13 years since I last boarded a plane. Some people suggested that I drive to Chicago instead of flying but there were two major flaws with that line of thinking:
-I absolutely hate driving. My car is not comfortable enough to allow me sitting in one position for more than an hour. I am also a conservative when it comes to driving long periods of time, the more I'm on the road the more pissed off I am with other driver and more prone to accidents. It's law of large numbers, its a fact. If those weren't enough then after driving 6 hours to the other side of the state had proven my theory nicely.
-I hate driving in the city. You could bundle this with I hate driving overall but a nice cruise in the country side is nothing like driving in the city, and in this case in Chicago.
That being said I chose to fly to the windy city. Since I haven't done this in a long time there were a few observations along the way.
-don't fucking pay for all your bags. It's a fucking rip off, big time. Unless you enjoy paying 30 dollars for a bag then I suggest carrying at least one or two with you. But the problems is the airline check in system isn't exactly very user friendly, it keeps asking you to pay for this and that sometimes you miss click and paid for something you don't even know.
-After 9/11 they have really upped the security at airports. Okay it's nothing like dogs and FBI agents standing around but I didn't realize you can't bring water bottles on with you anymore.
-After boarding the plane everything is pretty uneventful. The plane ride only took about 50 minutes, much less stressful than what would be 8 hours of driving. I didn't get lost in Chicago O'Hara airport like some people suggested, and my supposed limo service turned out to be a Russian dude driving a Mercedes. But everything worked out pretty nicely.
The hotel was pretty nice. It had 2 dinning services and my room had an 40 inch HDTV. One thing I don't get is why every hotel out there all have a copy of the bible? And they all look exactly the same too. Other than that the week in windy city was pretty boring, we didn't get to see much of the city not that I really cared. After all it was a business trip not a pleasure vacation. One thing that was very interesting to me was that since I don't travel much I don't meet a lot of people, but this trip had many others that were from all over the country. It really opened my eyes talking to them. From an Italian dude from Brooklyn, NYC to a good old country boy from Alabama, everyone was cool to talk to.
Chicago seems like an ages ago now that I am back, but it definitely went a lot better than I initially predicted.
It has been some 13 years since I last boarded a plane. Some people suggested that I drive to Chicago instead of flying but there were two major flaws with that line of thinking:
-I absolutely hate driving. My car is not comfortable enough to allow me sitting in one position for more than an hour. I am also a conservative when it comes to driving long periods of time, the more I'm on the road the more pissed off I am with other driver and more prone to accidents. It's law of large numbers, its a fact. If those weren't enough then after driving 6 hours to the other side of the state had proven my theory nicely.
-I hate driving in the city. You could bundle this with I hate driving overall but a nice cruise in the country side is nothing like driving in the city, and in this case in Chicago.
That being said I chose to fly to the windy city. Since I haven't done this in a long time there were a few observations along the way.
-don't fucking pay for all your bags. It's a fucking rip off, big time. Unless you enjoy paying 30 dollars for a bag then I suggest carrying at least one or two with you. But the problems is the airline check in system isn't exactly very user friendly, it keeps asking you to pay for this and that sometimes you miss click and paid for something you don't even know.
-After 9/11 they have really upped the security at airports. Okay it's nothing like dogs and FBI agents standing around but I didn't realize you can't bring water bottles on with you anymore.
-After boarding the plane everything is pretty uneventful. The plane ride only took about 50 minutes, much less stressful than what would be 8 hours of driving. I didn't get lost in Chicago O'Hara airport like some people suggested, and my supposed limo service turned out to be a Russian dude driving a Mercedes. But everything worked out pretty nicely.
The hotel was pretty nice. It had 2 dinning services and my room had an 40 inch HDTV. One thing I don't get is why every hotel out there all have a copy of the bible? And they all look exactly the same too. Other than that the week in windy city was pretty boring, we didn't get to see much of the city not that I really cared. After all it was a business trip not a pleasure vacation. One thing that was very interesting to me was that since I don't travel much I don't meet a lot of people, but this trip had many others that were from all over the country. It really opened my eyes talking to them. From an Italian dude from Brooklyn, NYC to a good old country boy from Alabama, everyone was cool to talk to.
Chicago seems like an ages ago now that I am back, but it definitely went a lot better than I initially predicted.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Diablo 3 in 2011?
The official word will always be soon, but if you can believe this picture of what suppose to be leaked official Blizzard product calender then yes, it's coming in 2011.
link
link
Random Thoughts part 1
For those that actually read our blog I realize that it has been awhile since we updated the blog last, what can I say the cat had to take a nap...that was about 5 months long. Well the truth of the matter is that everyone was extremely busy with real life but do not worry because yawning cat is back and better than ever.
This post is dedicated to what was happening with me in the recent weeks and future parts will be the updates on each following weeks. Anyways as everyone knows one tend to have a lot random thoughts in a long period of time with nothing to do, especially when you are in a car driving across the state. That's exactly what I had to do last week when I drove from eastern side of Pennsylvania to the western side and it generally take about 6 hours going from north side of Pittsburgh to just outside of Philadelphia.
-Hour one. I knew that I can just take the interstate highway and make it a straight shot there but that would be too boring. To make things more exciting I wanted to see if it was possible to drive around and not pay any toll at all. Started driving on the highway and it was a pretty relaxing drive in a beautiful sunny December day. I started to think this was not too bad I can do this for 6 hours no problem.
-Hour two. Still on the same highway and started to get bored after looking at endless empty lands with trees. Decided to put in the Harry Potter audio CDs in and listen to it, but the road was still very much straight and boring, not much excitement there.
-Hour three. Closed in on a toll station, decided to get on a different highway that felt like I was going backwards. Now nearing PA state college which is middle of the state. Totally not paying any attention to the Harry Potter CD although what I can tell was the person who did the reading was very good. Around the state college the traffic got a little bit hectic. Started to think what I got myself into.
-Hour four. Back on a different highway now going west again. Started to get some discomfort as my head and my lower back started to hurt after sitting there for so long. But I refused to stop somewhere and rest, was making good time. This was when the driving started to get interesting, for awhile I had to get off the highway to avoid another toll and got into a small town. Drove for about 15 minutes and back on another highway but now on top of mountains going down hill. The roads were twisty and very steep yet everyone was flying down at 90 mph which was quite scary. Started to think real hard on what I got myself into and total was not listening to Potter, might even listened the same CD twice. After the steep decent I was back on straight way again except I was on the side of the mountain and the highway to go the other direction was nowhere insight. Soon enough I was in the hectic traffic outside of Harrisburg.
-Hour Five. Somehow swerved through traffic and survived. I guess I'm not in Pittsburgh anymore. Couple drastic moves through four lane highways and got off Harrisburg to avoid another toll. Seriously thought about how anyone could ever enjoy a drive more than an hour. At this point both my head and my back were killing me and I had a million different things I can do other than driving for 6 hours. Starting to really hate life and how it makes us the slaves and society, yes I know it was totally random but why else would I be sitting in a car for six hours torturing myself unless I enjoy pissing money on petrol? On a small country road at this point and probably for 30 minutes until I got into another city of Lancaster. Had to stop for petrol and came to a sudden realization that I was close since the past 5 hours seemed like eternity. Drove out of Lancaster back on a country road for 20 minutes more until I was in the city highway again.
-Hour six. After couple near accidents on city highway I was safely at my hotel destination. Finally was able to relax and felt pretty good mentally, although physically I couldn't feel my ass anymore. Watched TV in my hotel made me realize just how much I can piss away time watching TV and how much I missed not having TV for the past year.
Later on the first night I decided to go buy some stuff at local Wal-Mart and after almost getting into a few accidents because apparently Wal-Mart was in the neighboring town and the only way to get there is to get on the city highway and deal with the worst city traffic I had ever seen. Other than that the week was pretty uneventful and the drive back was a lot more relaxing although I did get lost on a stretch of highway with no turning around for 70 miles. Still I thought I went a lot faster and smoother than the drive there for some reason. Stay tuned for my adventure next week to Chicago.
This post is dedicated to what was happening with me in the recent weeks and future parts will be the updates on each following weeks. Anyways as everyone knows one tend to have a lot random thoughts in a long period of time with nothing to do, especially when you are in a car driving across the state. That's exactly what I had to do last week when I drove from eastern side of Pennsylvania to the western side and it generally take about 6 hours going from north side of Pittsburgh to just outside of Philadelphia.
-Hour one. I knew that I can just take the interstate highway and make it a straight shot there but that would be too boring. To make things more exciting I wanted to see if it was possible to drive around and not pay any toll at all. Started driving on the highway and it was a pretty relaxing drive in a beautiful sunny December day. I started to think this was not too bad I can do this for 6 hours no problem.
-Hour two. Still on the same highway and started to get bored after looking at endless empty lands with trees. Decided to put in the Harry Potter audio CDs in and listen to it, but the road was still very much straight and boring, not much excitement there.
-Hour three. Closed in on a toll station, decided to get on a different highway that felt like I was going backwards. Now nearing PA state college which is middle of the state. Totally not paying any attention to the Harry Potter CD although what I can tell was the person who did the reading was very good. Around the state college the traffic got a little bit hectic. Started to think what I got myself into.
-Hour four. Back on a different highway now going west again. Started to get some discomfort as my head and my lower back started to hurt after sitting there for so long. But I refused to stop somewhere and rest, was making good time. This was when the driving started to get interesting, for awhile I had to get off the highway to avoid another toll and got into a small town. Drove for about 15 minutes and back on another highway but now on top of mountains going down hill. The roads were twisty and very steep yet everyone was flying down at 90 mph which was quite scary. Started to think real hard on what I got myself into and total was not listening to Potter, might even listened the same CD twice. After the steep decent I was back on straight way again except I was on the side of the mountain and the highway to go the other direction was nowhere insight. Soon enough I was in the hectic traffic outside of Harrisburg.
-Hour Five. Somehow swerved through traffic and survived. I guess I'm not in Pittsburgh anymore. Couple drastic moves through four lane highways and got off Harrisburg to avoid another toll. Seriously thought about how anyone could ever enjoy a drive more than an hour. At this point both my head and my back were killing me and I had a million different things I can do other than driving for 6 hours. Starting to really hate life and how it makes us the slaves and society, yes I know it was totally random but why else would I be sitting in a car for six hours torturing myself unless I enjoy pissing money on petrol? On a small country road at this point and probably for 30 minutes until I got into another city of Lancaster. Had to stop for petrol and came to a sudden realization that I was close since the past 5 hours seemed like eternity. Drove out of Lancaster back on a country road for 20 minutes more until I was in the city highway again.
-Hour six. After couple near accidents on city highway I was safely at my hotel destination. Finally was able to relax and felt pretty good mentally, although physically I couldn't feel my ass anymore. Watched TV in my hotel made me realize just how much I can piss away time watching TV and how much I missed not having TV for the past year.
Later on the first night I decided to go buy some stuff at local Wal-Mart and after almost getting into a few accidents because apparently Wal-Mart was in the neighboring town and the only way to get there is to get on the city highway and deal with the worst city traffic I had ever seen. Other than that the week was pretty uneventful and the drive back was a lot more relaxing although I did get lost on a stretch of highway with no turning around for 70 miles. Still I thought I went a lot faster and smoother than the drive there for some reason. Stay tuned for my adventure next week to Chicago.
Friday, December 3, 2010
nostalgia part 1 (a World of Warcraft special)
It's scary to think that recently World of Warcraft turned 6 years old, that's almost 1/4 of my entire life time!!! Blizzard truly has a strong grasp on 12 million fresh souls. It is also sad on this date what we know as WoW for the past 6 years will be permanently changed from the smallest detail due to the current expansion pack Cataclysm, and that made me think of all those great things I love about WoW that is about to disappear even though I quit the game 2 months ago (for the 4th time).
What will I miss more than that sweet music when you first walk into the Horde Capital of Orgrimmar? I only spent the better part of last 6 years running in a perfect circle on top of the bank roof while the music is being permanently burned into my brain. Well here is the Orgrimmar music, I will miss you!
And here is the music that will be the new Orgrimmar for the next....who knows how long.
What will I miss more than that sweet music when you first walk into the Horde Capital of Orgrimmar? I only spent the better part of last 6 years running in a perfect circle on top of the bank roof while the music is being permanently burned into my brain. Well here is the Orgrimmar music, I will miss you!
And here is the music that will be the new Orgrimmar for the next....who knows how long.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)