It's Monday

Only got about an hour of social SWG in this weekend, with several additional hours of AFK while I caught up on sleep on the couch. Had a good weekend with my buds, but it seems like I can always use some additional time off.

As part of my re-upping Station Pass, I did get Vanguard downloaded but never launched. To be honest, besides the fact that I'm a forum addict with poor impulse control, I also listened to the newest EQ-IQ podcast prior to resubbing. Been listening to older YaMB's where they discuss EQ2 and Vanguard, which didn't hurt (fanboy alert!). I would like to get that EQ2 bear pet but the closest BestBuy with a physical copy of the EQ2 Box is in Janesville.

The plan for evenings this week is to get my mmo on. Looks like Kernel had put enough maintenance into harvesters that they haven't all been destroyed yet. It would be nice to get him to level 35 this week. For Mooftak, I'd like to do between 5 and 10 terminal missions per day. Surely that would work out to a decent bit of levelling. I should start a contest as to how long it will take me to get Mooftak to level 90 (or even 60). At this pace, it'll be another year. Gotta remember that it took me 10 months to level Valcyn.Skootalbaht to 90 and he was an entertainer. Would like to explore a little in Vanguard as well and see what performance is like on the shuttle (it was crap on the Macbook Pro, but then again, SWG had a problem too).

On an unrelated note, keep an eye on YaMB (twitter) because episode 105 might be out this week (it's apparently recorded but not edited). Maybe it'll be out in time for me to listen to on my trip back to Iowa Thursday night.

Goodbye Tortage

Welp, I'll be dropping my Station Pass before long. Will play EQ2 over Thanksgiving probably, and maybe check out the holiday events, but for now I think I'll get my EQ2 fix through West Karana and other blogs. Age of Conan has taken possession of me.

My buddy and I have leveled from 5 to 17 completely by grouping (sometimes adding others) and killing crocs, gorillas, and others in the White Sands, and by doing quests in the Archeronian Ruins. Our battle against the bat demon was aided and made possible by a great group of people we happened to see running through the area and invited to our group. Standing atop the bat demon's ledge, there was just an amazing view. This game's visuals have hooked me in. Not just the style of graphics (EQ2 is amazing but the "feel" isn't right for me, isn't real), but the grand vistas. It was actually a screenshot in Cimmerian mountains that kept me coming back to any blog entry I could find about it, and finally prompted me to buy. Nothing on the AoC box captures me like the online mountain vistas I have seen. I'll upload screenshots I've taken later this week. Keep in mind I'm playing on a P4 3.4Ghz, 2gb ram, and an ATI X800XT. Not exactly current hardware (bought in Aug and Sept of 05).

The city of Tartania is beautiful but I had an urge to find mountians so I went to the area known as Lacheish Plains. Being a barbarian I had the advantage of stealth which became necessary when I crossed into an area with Yeti's. While running across the landscape trying to find the highest possible vantage points, I took a small fall and was de-stealthed. Taking advantage of the Yeti-less aspect of the immediate area, I started running to the next hill when I was set upon by two others, a level 17 and 18, some sort of melee classes (was too busy fighting to check). I was able to dispatch them both without making full use of my 2 step combos that I gained with level 17. What a rush. From "oh crap, I'm going to die" to "whoa, I just took that one out, and I still have 2/3's health" to "BRING IT ON SISTER!" to "aww man, I wanted to finish her off with the new combo". It was awesome. Since I lived, I bear no ill will towards them :) but instead instantly thought how special an element pvp adds to this huge world. Even if I had died, I would have been saddened at my reset in travel but since it was an even level ambush, it would have been ok, just "man, I wish my buddy would have been with me." 

This is why Age of Conan has captured me. The gameplay is something I enjoy (not just click auto attack and wait for specials to refresh), the graphic style is truly spectacular, and the lore background are just awesome. If only SWG could carry out the first part, and do slightly better on the second. Also, props to the Hyborian Herald (also a member of VirginWorlds), which is another thing that had me hooked. As with YaMB, I listened to it before I played the game, and while not even close to YaMB's style, he puts out a great podcast, and I eagerly await episode 13.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Thanks to my buddy for giving me the social element, to my random group-mates (now on my friends list), to Funcom, and to Streamweaver for helping me find my gaming home. I haven't enjoyed a game (pc, xbox, 360, or ps3) this much since my days of QuakeWorld (thanks Muppet Clan), Half-Life (thank you freshmen year floormates), or Quake 3 (thanks Barker house foes). If you're on the RP-PVP serve Hyp, feel free to add Amandara to your friends list and look me up in game.

AoC Update

Ymir's pass is out and the new patch requires an update to DirectX. The link they provide didn't work for me (first you have to jump through hoops, then it fails to install). This link works (thanks forum poster aocmmo). Logged in to get some of my 20 Fresh Kills for the day. Needed about 4 to hit level 10 (in Archeron (sp?) ruins). Woot!

I should also add that even though I have an old pc (P4 3.4Ghz, 2Gb ram, ATI X800XT) and AoC is only getting between 12 and 20 fps, I've seldom noticed any hitching or fps problems. Compare that with SWG or EQ2 on my Macbook Pro (bootcamp, Core Duo 1.8Ghz, 1.5gb ram, ATI X1600) and it's impressive/ridiculous. If only the MBP had 30gb worth of HD space for bootcamp. My Thanksgiving week off (woot!) would be able to be filled w/ awesome AoC, but instead will be web surfing, maybe some SWG or EQ2, and other things not involving a PC. I've got a book I need to plow through anyways I guess.

Also, Metaplace's build mode looks way too intensive for someone as lazy as I. We'll see how that goes.

And in semi-related note-ish-ness (to the AoC topic), I love the commentary to Conan The Barbarian. You can't beat Arnold's observations. "Ha, I just hit that guy." Wow. Granted, they're not all like that, but 30-40% are. I do appreciate the commentary in general though (but I'm a fan of movie commentaries with directors and actors).

Friday!

Woot for Fridays! Been a long week, covered on-call for a coworker. Watched "The Office" last night, and did my best to pass on beta keys for the new Call of Duty for 360. Hopefully I can get some D.I.R.T.Y. in this weekend. It'd be nice to get that magic carpet. Might even get some serious SWG time if the mood strikes me.

Games and such update

So, Vanguard never did run acceptably and is now gone. SWG and EQ2 have been downloaded again. Apparently Spore is all the rage but my disk space limitation is still a problem. Will try to check out the creature creator tonight.

Current podcasts that I'm listening to: Hyborian Herald, EQ-IQ, Equal Perspectives, Shut Up We're Talking. Eagerly anticipating Episode 100 of SWG w/ Yivvits and MrBubble.

MMO's

Installed the Vanguard trial. Apparently didn't need to wipe out EQ2 and SWG prior b/c Isle of Dawn doesn't require 20 Gb like the full game does. Also downloaded Dark and Light which apparently is dead/defunct/etc even though the website is live and the client available. Too bad, was looking forward to seeing what it had to offer.

Re: VG, performance blows. I'm not talking in game, I'm talking char selection screen when trying to adjust video options. Apparently it's incapable of playing in windowed mode. Forum time.