I’m just gaaaaaaming in the rain, just gaaaaaaming in the rain!

Good morning internets! Today is Thursday. It is a good day. Not in so much as my experiences of the day so far, but it is on the end-of-the-week spectrum of the scale with the next day being Friday. Also, on Thursdays I get to read the new what-if! You’ll catch me there every week, reading the new post. If you’re also inclined, check out the comic as well, it’s great stuff. Come Monday (oh, how I hate thee), my tiny bright light amongst the dirty, filthy, drawn-out experience that is the start of the work week is great little website that indulges my love of expletives and all things balls-out awesome! There have been some truly amazing things posted on there that have stopped me and made me go ‘wow’. Add it to your viewing repertoire right away, I highly recommend them both!

That said, what else have I been up to…well, not much really. WoW has been so-so this week, probably compensating for my ludicrously lucky week last week done it again (I wrote this in the morning before going to lunch, where I ended up going home instead). This week I finally managed to get the mount from Magister’s Terrace! Woo! I did manage to finally download and dabble in Hearthstone, the WoW themed card game that is beautifully done and utterly addictive. After some trial and error and agro and a little bit of training from some good friends, I managed to claw my way to rank 20 (to put that into perspective, everyone starts the season [read: month] at rank 25 and needs 2 wins to rank up, 25>24>23>etc). Once you get to rank 20 in a season, you unlock the exclusive card back of that season (awarded at the end of the month). I am quite exuberant that I got my last 3 wins needed all in a row after thoroughly winning – not the usual win via opponent afk or d/c or forfeit wave that I was riding atop of previously. >.>     Of course, getting any 3 wins in Hearthstone also unlocks the Hearthsteed mount in WoW, so there may have been a small influence there, who knows for sure…

As for the rest of me, I am now 4 weeks into this new diet/exercise regime thingy that I’m doing. Seems to be going alright so far. 4 down, 8 to go! The diet is the easiest part (the hardest of which is just not easy as much sugary crap as I used to and just saying NO!), with the actual exercise and being motivated to do it being harder. Although, after doing it continuously for 4 weeks, it has become a bit easier to do it when I get home after work, brain rewiring and all that psychological crap. I have lost weight and I have built up muscles (with does mess around with the whole weight loss/gain thing, but I am getting accustomed to that now). Oh, say the movie Lucy last weekend, it was a great watch, and I really liked it. Go see it, because reasons! As a side note, this whole week had practically been raining non-stop, with only today it has been stop/start. Gotta say, I’m liking it, not only because my garden gets a great water, but I get to have lunch in my car, rain falling on the roof and some light music on the radio, reading my kindle. Good times. Oh, what else? that’s right, on Tuesday night I jumped into some old school Gears of War 3 and played some Horde online. Good times. Doesn’t help that my shitty Aussie connection means I pretty much am 2 seconds behind everything, but hey, it was still fun and that’s what counts. Leveled a couple fortifications up, got a bunch of medals and killed a Brumack. All in all a great session. Yay for Retro Lancer bayonet charge!  >: D

 

Until next time internets!     : )

Everything is coming up [insert name here]!

In other news, Thursday night was one of the most productive nights I’ve had in WoW for some time. And by productive, I don’t mean I got heaps of crap done (which I did, but the point is moot), I mean I got a few things checked off my checklist of things to do. I got not one, not two, but three (technically four, as I got more shards for my axe) awesome things happen in the one night! So, I got the penultimate gun xmog, sorry, transmogrification, for my hunter, finally got my Eye of Ragnaros to make my Sulfuras AND I managed to get even luckier and have the Azure Drake drop from Malygos. All those raids run have finally paid off! That said, I’m still working on my Thunderfury (damn you Baron and your Right Bindings! *fist shake*) and a few other mount drops from raids and dungeons.

But anyway, enough about that. Today is Friday and it could not have come any quicker (well, it could have, but that’s neither here nor there). Weekend here I come! Saturday is going to be busy as all hell with Sunday looking to be one of those cliché relax and do nothing Sundays. Hopefully at some point we’ll be able to squeeze in the movies and see one of the new ones we have yet to watch. Hercules [read: Heracles, damn westernisation] and Lucy are the two left on my current list, so maybe I’ll flip a coin. Did manage to see Guardians of the Galaxy last week, and yes, it does live up to the hype surrounding it. Two things, actually seeing Thanos proper in this film elicited a little squeal of excitement from me and [spoilers] seeing Harold the Duck in one of Marvel’s ‘post-credits-extra-scene’ scenes was pretty them taking the piss, but hey, it was funny. Besides, not every Marvel film has to have a serious post-credit-scene. Sometimes a nice light-hearted one is good. Like schwarma for example.

Anyhoo, I won’t take up any more of your valuable Friday time, I just hope the day passes as quickly for you and me both so we can all go home and relax.

Have a good weekend, internets.

Ciao!

The times they are a changing…

Well, here I am, after a somewhat extended leave of absence from this blog and now I’m back. Again. But this time (no, really, this time) I intend to stay and have decided to at least make an effort to post once a week. So, what has been happening since last time? Hmm, let’s see… I still have the same job, so nothing new there. Oh, I did get a girlfriend! I say that like I went down to the shops and brought one, let me rephrase that. I am now in a relationship with a female human! Yeah, that’s better. Over a year now, we’ve been going out and I must say, she has been the most positive influence in my life to date. But then again, considering the last positive influence I had was the internet dying and making me go outside, it wasn’t that hard to begin with. I am now eating better, exercising and just generally being better at life. What else? Hmmm, games, reading, lots of things, too many to write here without making it a short novel. Needless to say, lots of things. But, going forward, I will be documenting whatever tickles my fancy to document and throwing it up here for your reading pleasure. So, without further ado, I present what I did today in convenient bullet point form:

 

• Woke up
• Got ready for work
• At work
• Had lunch
• Writing blog
• Other stuff that is yet to happen cause it’s only early afternoon and it hasn’t happened yet

 

That’s right, it is quite a comprehensive list. I can guarantee that one of the last bullet points would be ‘Play WoW’. Yes, alas, I have once again taken back up the WoW mantle after a solid 5 months of unsubscription. During that time I found many new games to play, revisited a few old ones (finished all of Far Cry 3, 100% completion, all stuff found/unlocked, etc) and generally did stuff that non-WoW players do. But these darn insidious weekend buffs that give 100% extra Valour (yes, I spell it properly, not like ‘Murica and drop letters, deal with it) enticed me to come back and finish one of the achievements that I had been eying off for a while. Now that I have completed that, my other serial achieve-peeve™ has shot to the top and I intend to finish that once and for all and I guess if need be, get another month’s sub to finally get it done.

So all in all, I’ve been going good and hope to continue going good and will be writing here more (again)!

Ciao ciao.

Death Knight attack wing Frostbite, you are clear to launch.

I figure it’s about time to make one of those “I’m not dead” posts, but considering that A) my last major gap in coverage was in the magnitude of months, not week(s) like this one and B) I’m pretty sure no one actually reads this, so the point behind it is kinda rendered moot – but I shall persist. So yes, I am not dead.

Mass Effect 3. I have gotten the majority of it out of my system, played it to death and I am gradually losing interest in multiplayer. I loved the single player (coloured-coded endings excluded, of course) and my five, 30+ hour, playthroughs attribute to that. Multiplayer, I have enjoy the occasional soloing on my Salarian Engineer but I usually avoid random quick matches because I cannot deal with people and they hurt my head. The Claymore & Widow wielding Adepts especially so. Looking forward to the epilogue DLC that they are releasing in summer.

Halo: Reach. I have been steadily getting back into this (my house mate can attest to this via the decibel-based expletive level) and grinding my way through Field Marshal, which I have been sitting at for ages. I figured, hey, my rank finally matches my Elite armour, that’ll do me. Easy weeklies have kinda spurred me on to grind out those challenges.

WoW. Yeah. Once a WoWer, always a WoWer. It really is like crack, I just keep going back for more. Played around on the Beta for a bit, got sick on the quest spam in the Panda starting zone so I copied my DK across and had awesome amounts of fun flying around Icecrown seeing what I could and couldn’t control with my new ability; Control Undead. Note: it does not work on Lichbourne’d players. Fuck. So much potential wasted. But the fact I control 90% of the undead mobs in Icecrown is rather amusing, including elites (a la, Frostbrood Matriachs). Fun times. Also, new actual button for Mounts and Pets. Winning!

Diablo. Never played the originals – yeah yeah, get over it. I got the WoW Annual Pass, so free mount and Beta access (see above) and Diablo. I am actually really looking forward to it, looks very snazzy and *insert positive, adjective here*. Besides, I’ve already payed for it, might as well play it.

That is all for now.

Enjoy yourselves. Live hard and play harder.

Waaaaagh!

The upcoming Black Library (Warhammer 40k) book, The Primarchs, is the 20th book in the Horus Heresy series. It features several short stories on, you guessed it, the Primarchs. Fulgrim, Lion, and Cruze are mentioned as the main ones in the blurb. Now, Fulgrim already has his own book, fuck, it’s even named after him! So why he needs even more coverage, I don’t know. Lion, hmmm, let’s see, oh wait, he already has his own book too. Funny that. Cruze, okay, that’s cool, the Night Lords haven’t really even been present much in the HH series (but outside of that, they are around), so fair’s fair. It would be nice if Perturabo was in there, he has pretty much no material on him, perhaps Angron (while he did get a short story on him, it wasn’t much), although he is getting an audio book later this year, so perhaps not. But the Khan – there is nothing on him, so it would be rather fitting that he be in there. Or not, it seems more like. More Fulgrim junk, more Lion. Alpharius and Omegon seem to be getting their share(s) as well, but to be fair, they haven’t had that much throughout the HH (and their appearances in Deliverance Lost was kinda meh). Sanguinius is getting his own book in June, so I can understand that. Corax just had his, as did Guilliman. Horus is all over the place, so he doesn’t need any more attention for now (until the Battle for Terra!). Mortarion had a little bit but a bigger picture would be nice. Magnus and Russ have already had their fill, so no need there. Ferrus Manus, he had some, but I think more on him would be very nice. One poor guy who has had nothing is Vulkan. Poor, poor Salamanders. Barely a mention apart from getting butchered at Isstvan and the odd reference here and there. It’d be great to see more (or anything) on them. Dorn is scattered throughout the series, but doesn’t have his own, so perhaps he could be in there. Lastly, Lorgar Aurelian has his own book and is in several others, so he really doesn’t need a spot here. So that’s my fill. Back to staring out the office window at the rain and pining to go home.

Ciao.

Memoirs of a FemShep

CCC. That’s what it comes down to at the end. Control, Combine or Crush. Control the Reapers and send them to another galaxy far, far away, Combine them with the organics to create the perfect symbiotic life form or Crush them and set the galaxy free. Of course, being renegade on my first Shepard (naturally), I ended up Crushing them and saving the galaxy at the cost of my life (which doesn’t say much as all three choices will end your life anyway). For paragon, I Controlled them and send them away (I’m assuming) and lastly, now I’m on my third Shepard, living in a halfway area between Paragon and Renegade loving it. I get to shoot Udina, yet still be loving and compassionate to my teammates (except Vega, I just don’t like him for some reason, perhaps it’s because my nickname for him is ‘meathead’). And for the record, playing an Adept is super fun. I have Javik and Liara in my party, so she Warps and I Throw. Javik Dark Channels and I throw. They so the initial setup and I do the biotic explosion throw spam and watch them fly like a clay skeet disc. So much fun.

I’m also thinking they should rename the Normandy to the Love Boat. It seems if there is something on two legs on board, then Shep (and FemShep) will probably have a crack at it. I think anyone applying for a spot on the Normandy’s crew need to have a disclaimer read to them and made to sign a waiver regarding the captain’s sexual prowess and really bad pickup lines.

Well, I’m done for now, gotta get back to work and get through the rest of this damn day so I can go home and play my sweet, sweet Mass Effect then go out for dinner with some friends.

Ciao.

Commander Shepard, why are you dry humping my leg like an Earth canine?

Well, here I am at work, typing this up, thinking about how to phrase this. Ahh, this sums it up perfectly.  This well written article says it all. But look, really, the ending aside, the rest of the game was pretty damn good, definitely worthy of a trilogy ender (cept the ending itself of course >.< ). The only other gripe I have is the cover system. It’s pretty much exactly like the Gears of War 3 system, A to roadie run A to get in cover, A to go over cover, A to roll  and just like GoW if you try to roadie run near cover sometimes it’ll just snap to go in cover or if you try to roll it’ll stick to cover and refuse to leave it. Infuriating, especially in multiplayer when you’re trying to evade a charging brute and you get killed because the cover system though you wanted to stick to the wall rather than roll to the side. But other than that, it’s a solid game and really enjoyable.

As for the multiplayer, well, let’s just say who doesn’t want to play as a krogan solider charging an enemy with a shotgun or a cheeky salarian engineer stealing shields and incinerating his foes? Weapons and mods that are unlocked are useable by all classes and characters and credits are also pooled. As it has been mentioned elsewhere, it is better if you play with your friends as it pretty much plays like GoW Horde mode, but instead of building fortifications every round, you build up your character and arsenal over time.

In conclusion, it’s good, go play it, have fun.     : )

I want to smash the office radio into itty bitty pieces!

Hoooooly Shiiiiiit, it’s Friday already. I swear, I just blinked and it was here. If only everything was that easy. As of late, I have been playing (and enjoying) my Horde DK alt. Lok’tar Ogar! I mean, c’mon, sometimes they just get the best quests. And yeah, the fact that my main is a DK and I’m playing a DK alt hasn’t slipped past me either. One is Frost the other is Unholy – I mean they are completely different things. Feels like a different class entirely – besides, I get a pet! On the downside, I miss the talking ghouls. Yes, yes you do like shinies, Gravegrabber.

Moving on, I will be going to see Strassman on the weekend and oh my god, I will be enjoying it. I’ve been to all his other shows in Australia when he was out here, and I do not intend to miss this one. I love Chuck. My hope is that one day, Jeff(fafa) Dunham (.com!) will someday come out here and do a show.

But what is all boils down to is that it’s Friday and I’m sitting at my desk in casual clothes(!) and turning around every three seconds when someone shouts my name, only to discover that they are talking to the other guy with the same name who is currently in the office. Bastard. Oh well, only seven hours to go until home time (including an hour lunch, yay)!

 

Edit: Yay, 20th post! I’ll go treat myself to some interweb surfing!

How would you like your zombie, sir?

After finishing my Bioshock 2 play through for the fourth time (I think give or take, not counting the DLC.) the other day and doing my WoW dailies I found myself in that position of being in a lull and having nothing to do. And as such, I turned to my reliable friend, Steam. I thought I would partake in a FPS/shooter so I hit up the store and opened the genre dropdown box and much to my shock I found out there was no FPS or shooter option. There was a RPG option. There was a RTS option. Yet strangely no FPS option, odd. Only something labelled vaguely as ‘Action’. – which could encompass pretty much anything. Alas, I took my chances and counted my lucky charms and said a quick prayer to the notoriously fickle Gaming Gods and selected the Action option and plunged into search feature. So there I was, going through the search results (which thankfully included FPS titles) and eventually the pages of results began to filter further and further away from FPS and more into ‘Action-y related-ish results’.

As is the norm, there were quite a few zombie themed titles and a couple horror-esque (sorry, I just really wanted to use that term) titles but what I inexplicably found myself drawn to was a small title named ‘Zombie Driver’. Now, from that title, there could be several variations of what it would include, ie, Zombies driving cars and racing each other, running over zombies whilst driving, a raceway that’s full of zombies, etc etc. Having my interests piqued, I opened it up and watched the trailer and instantly I was hooked. Cars of various types with guns that run and gun down zombies in a post-apocalyptic city with flamethrowers, railguns, missiles and miniguns. Could it be any better? I would later on find out it could be. Basically, you drive around, pickups survivors, get cash, do up your car with more guns and armour (for which each level you get, more steel plates appear on your car and massive bull-bars and reinforced spikes and windows, a nice touch that I like). Working my way through the levels, I happened across one where I have to save the manager of a bus depot and much to my ecstatic glee and subsequent schoolgirl squeal, I obtained the keys to a BUS! Yes, one of the more awesome zombie killing four wheeled vehicles (tracked ones like tanks and steamrollers not counting) that you can find. As soon as I got it, I maxed out the Speed, Armour and Ramming stats. The next level, I was ready to hit the streets in my four wheeled, 10 tonne steel-plated zombie crushing death machine. And oh! what an euphoric feeling it was. Driving at full speed down one of the highways, the sun glinting off my solid steel plates welded to the flanks and the massive bloodied spikes protruding from the front and rear supplemented by the iron bar reinforced windshield, ploughing through zombie crowds like they were paper dolls, their collective gore christening my new deathmobile with a nice coat of red ‘paint’ (makes it go faster!) and torching anything else that survived with my roof mounted flamethrower of FIERY DOOM!

So all this zombie killing fun for the cost of a bottle of coke, for less than the cost of a pie, all this fun for only $2.50. Awesome right? Hell, I would have paid $5 even! Thank you very much Steam!

If you can think of an even better zombie killing deathmobile than a steel plated bus, leave a comment and let me know.

Robot therapy needs more cookie platters.

Thank fuck it’s Friday. I had the Monday off to recover from Blizzcon (mostly from the retarded hours it’s shown here – it’s like Live Stream jetlag) but I swear the universe, or more specifically, karma has decided that it would draw this week out as much as possible to make it feel like a full working week. Well. I hope your happy karma, mission accomplished – my week has been shit. Anyway, back to the more important stuff.

Last night, I playing a bit of the old Portal 2, CO OP! After clearing the level we had previously been bashing our robotic heads against the non-portal-surface wall, we cleared it and then came to the ‘in between’ level. Let me just say, I love references. And when I stumbled across a portal robot arm in a glass case (ala Terminator), I thought that was pretty fucking awesome. Until 30 seconds later. When I walked past an office window and saw a workstation with a turret placed in the chair. A turret. In a chair. At a computer desk. …winning! But we were progressing pretty decently considering neither of us are major puzzle solvers, mostly RTS for me and FPS for him. And WoW. So yeah. Good considering the circumstances. We found test chamber 8 and whilst brute forcing out way through it, a strange thing occurred – one I never thought possible. I was getting my run up on the orange speedy goo, about to go into a portal and fly to the other side of the room when my co-op partner (and I use the term ever so lightly) shifted his portal at the last second which resulted in two things.

First thing, I think I kinda broke the game by being half in the portal and the wall at the time and as such, not only did my marshmallow robot body smash into the wall at breakneck speed, but secondly, after being half into a portal that was about to reorientate me and throw me across the entire room, m P-Body Aperture Science Testing Robot had a seizure. Now I mean a full blown, epileptic shaking all over, monitor-can’t-keep-up seizure. So I’m sitting her going ‘Aaahhhh what the fuck is going on, I’m having a seizure, holy shiiiit’ and slowly but surely, trying to walk around with my robot tripping out, it gets closer and closer to that giant pool of robot melting acid. I fall in. I have mixed emotions. On one hand, I died, that sucks. On the other hand, I died, so that should clear up the seizure thing. That’s good.   -_-   That’s not what happened. I fall out of my robot reconstruction tube and my robot seizure apparently has the ability to cross time and space and deconstructed robots. So after another twenty seconds of watching my robot flail around and listening to my co-op partner laughing so hard he’s crying, I threw in the towel and went and finished my Bioshock 2 save.

True story.