Been playing the MMO called Life lately and it has kept me busy. It has it’s rewards if you do the right quests. Case in point, take a look at this awesome loot drop:
Yep, I got the new Pet drop and it is awesome! It’s a Miniature Pinscher that is one year old. I camped the animal shelter until this one spawned and I snapped him up! I named him Zip.
–Wolfen
As seen over at The Ancient Gaming Noob, who picked it up at Ars Technica, Games For Windows magazine, formerly Computer Gaming World, is officially closing its doors.
This is a sad announcement for me because I always assumed this magazine would be around forever. I have very fond memories of this magazine when I read it back before I had a computer to play games on. As a teenager, I was fascinated by the games you could play, and I anxiously awaited for each issue to arrive. Once I was finally able to buy a computer, Computer Gaming World became my staple for gaming news and reviews.
One of my favorite sections was written by an author known as Scorpia. She wrote about role-playing games and sometimes went into great detail about her adventures in those games. Reading her articles on the Ultima games really sparked my interest in the genre and was one of the catalysts that eventually got me involved in Ultima Online and MMO’s in general.
I think the magazine took a big downward turn when it became Games For Windows Magazine. The new design and focus didn’t appeal as much to me as the old school CGW version did. It was decent enough, but some of the quality was lacking.
We can probably blame the internet for putting the magazine out of business. The same thing is happening in the newspaper industry. People can now get all the information they need on the subject with just a few clicks on the mouse and without paying a dime. The digital revolution claims another one.
I salute you, Computer Gaming World, for bringing me all the fantastic gaming news and reviews for so many years. You helped spark my interest in computers and computer gaming.
Yes, I have finally returned to this blog. Things too numerous to mention have kept me away, but I hope to be back to stay this time. I already have some Vanguard posts in the queue and they will be coming soon.
My first order of business is to upgrade this blog to the new Wordpress 2.5. I will have a post up today if all goes well with the update.
Just as I got over my stomach flu, I contracted a deep chest cold and cough, so I haven’t been playing anything for a few days. I hope to get back to normal by this weekend.
I’ll leave you with the ultimate rubber band-shooting machine gun that I saw via Endgadget.
–Wolfen
I may be late to the party, but I am finally giving the Skype service a try. Skype, for those who don’t know, is an online phone service that uses your broadband connection to make calls. If you use their application and your computer to call someone else’s compter, the calls are absolutely free. If you want to use your computer to call regular landline and cellphones, the monthly rate is a cheap $3/month. For full phone service that includes your own phone number and unlimited incoming and outgoing calls, the monthly rate is around $8 or so. That’s a great rate for a complete home phone service.
I won’t say much about the service at the moment, but after I use it for awhile, I will put up a review of the service and see how it compares to landline phones. I ordered a Philips VOIP841 cordless Skype phone to use with it. This makes it so that you don’t have to use your computer to make a call. I will be able to walk around the house and make calls when my computer is turned off.
Look for a full review of the Skype service and the Philips Skype phone in about a week or so. I hope to report that paying high landline prices are a thing of the past. We will see.
–Wolfen
I’m a bit under the weather, so my postings have slowed because of it. I’ll have some new stuff for you soon.
–Wolfen
I grew tired of Comcast’s high prices and lack of HD channels so I decided to make the switch to DirecTV. DirecTV has some great deals going on, including $20/month off your monthly bill for 12 months and free installation. I pulled the trigger on it a little over a month ago, and overall, I’m glad that I made the switch.
I went with the Choice Xtra with HD & DVR package that gives me over 200 channels with about 40 of them being in high definition. That is 40 HD channels compared to the 10 that Comcast offered in my area, and the DirecTV package is less expensive. I also got a bunch of premium movie channels free for three months. Being a true geek, I am very happy to finally watch the Sci-Fi channel in glorious HD.
Installation went just fine and no issues were encountered. I had the HD DVR installed in the living room and a standard box placed in the bedroom. Since I didn’t want to pay for a third box just to watch television in the office, I had the installer “mirror” the signal from the bedroom to the office. Whatever channel is on in the bedroom is on the office. This, of course, makes changing channels a pain, since I would have to walk across the house to the bedroom to change it. I got around this issue by purchasing a “remote control extender” made my Terk. You place one little receiver next to the satellite box, and put the other in the office. I point the satellite remote control at the Terk receiver in the office and it magically sends the remote control signal into the bedroom and changes the channel for me. Brilliant.
I only had one problem with the DirecTV service but it was a big pain. The first HD DVR that I received had a very loud hard drive. It would make these “clink” and “clunk” sounds that I could hear three rooms away. They sent me a new one at no charge but the replacement had a problem as well. The hard drive was silent but the box kept losing my HD channels. I had to reset the box several times a day to get them back. Thankfully, it seems the third time is the charm, as the latest box is both quiet and I have had no channel problems with it.
The picture quality is excellent and I am really enjoying the large number of HD channels as compared to Comcast. As I said, I get about 40 HD channels, but they offer many more if you get the higher packages. In my opinion, if you have a high definition television, you owe it to yourself to get a service that offers you the most HD channels. DirecTV turned out to be a perfect match for me.
–Wolfen
Well, after listing my thoughts on what class to play when I start up Vanguard, I have completely changed track and I have decided to start off with a druid. I am told that druids are rarely played but in high demand, so we’ll see how accurate the grapevine is.
The Vanguard druid varies from the standard druid mold. Unlike the EQ-esque druid, the Vanguard version does not have a heavy focus on direct or heal over time spells. Instead, it is an arcane caster, blasting enemies in a higher dps role. In a neat little twist on the class, the druid can call down some potent spells called Calamities. These are powerful spells that can only be used every so often, but when used, can dish out the damage. The Vangaurd druid isn’t all about dps, either. It can benefit groups as well with its dps increasing spells and other utility spells.
So, the druid might just make for an interesting time. Add the above skills with the ability to solo well and it sounds like a good choice for me. Only time will tell.
–Wolfen
What Shakespeare was to literature, the Netscape browser was to the internet. It was the first real web browser to bring graphical goodness to the internet. When it made its appearance, using things such as “Gopher” and “Archie” were the common way of finding things on the web. The internet was text driven in a crude and basic way. Netscape helped bring about the “web explosion” that brought the internet to the masses. When it came to browsing the web back in those days, Netscape was the only game in town. Now, these many years later, Netscape is going the way of the Dodo bird.
I first used Netscape after purchasing an internet software suite called “Internet In A Box.” It came with a Gopher and Archie client, FTP client, and the Netscape browser. Even with a web browser, the web was still mostly texted based. The fastest internet pipe I could get at that time was a 14.4 dial-up connection. 36.6 dial-up was considered super fast. Either way, Netscape changed the way the web was used. It made it much easier to use.
Internet Explorer and Firefox has obviously taken over as the browsers of choice for most people these days. Netscape failed to innovate fast enough and they payed the price in the end. Where once everyone used it, now I don’t know of a single person who has used it in the past few years. A sad end to a once great product.
–Wolfen
As mentioned in my previous post, I have a new gaming computer on the way. Unfortunately, due to the holidays, shipping is rather slow. So, that leaves me with only being able to write about it instead of using it. Currently, I’m using an Apple Macbook Pro and running Bootcamp to game with. It’s a higher-end model running at 2.4ghz, with 4gigs of RAM, and a Nvidia 8600GTm 256mb video card. It runs Everquest and Lord of the Rings Online surprisingly well at the 17″’s native resolution of 1920×1200.
Since I’m going to start up Everquest 2 and Vanguard again, I wanted to get a beefier machine. I don’t like to play games on lower settings and I was worried that Vanguard would be a problem. That prompted me to order a desktop PC with a stronger video card. I have built my own computers for years, but this time around I went with a pre-built solution. Computers are so inexpensive these days that it wasn’t worth my time doing all the parts/pricing research that usually goes into my building a custom PC.
It didn’t take me long to find a decent PC at at great price. I ended up purchasing a HP Pavilion m8200n Multimedia PC from Amazon.com for $669. The specifications include an AMD X2 6000+ processor, 3gb RAM, 500gb hard drive, TV tuner, etc. The included video card is very weak, so I found an Nvidia 8800GT 512mb card on sale at Best Buy for $250. This system is certainly not the best, but it’s a fast computer at a cheap price. The bummer for me is the estimated arrival date isn’t until January 2nd, so here I am waiting for it. But, soon enough, we’ll find out how well it performs with these games.
–Wolfen