DDOcast Build Guild got together this morning to run the new Update 4 content. We were right at the level range. I worried a bit that it would be difficult, but we found after a few minutes that we were doing fine.

I know it was going to be a good loot day when I found a sigil in the first chest. When I found one in the second chest, I felt super lucky. By the time I got to the third chest and pulled the last sigil I needed, the group was cussing me in a nice way. The loot gods FINALLY decided to smile on me.

The group finished up in the tower and I ran down to pick my end reward. I had read something on the forums about the bracer’s, but hadn’t been paying close attention. Once I upgraded them, I ended up happy and awfully surprised.

My monk donned her new fabulous gear and ran off to complete the tower one more time. It’s the first piece of actual good gear she’s pulled on Orien, and I was super pleased by how well they worked. I am a killing machine baby!!!

Everyone seemed to enjoy the new content. Well, ok. I will be honest. Some of the group had choice words for the “pit lite” quest I swear I didn’t egg them on. One of the players just couldn’t get the jumps. I ended up going after his stone, and carrying back up for a rez. Comments ranged from “Interesting” to “OMG, what the #$%”. I think I am not the only one who is not happy with the mechanics in this quest. One things I have figured out. Don’t fight where the jets send you. Let go of the mouse, take your hands off the keyboard, and put your arms in the air. You will normally land where you are supposed to.

DDOcast Episode 163 is up and ready for your listening please. We had several live callers, had a round panel on different subjects… plus Clanky is back with another clerical errors.

After finishing up with the DDOcast Build Guild, I logged into LOTRO for some fun with the hubby. I checked out my lotteries, and saw that my mini had won her horse. *jumps up and down with joy* It’s a good thing. I was going to be low on cash to buy hers. Now, I can catch up with training all the levels I’ve skipped due to being poor.

It cracks me up to see how small the hobbit pony is. In the above pic, Zeff is on his dwarf. Even his pyon is bigger. I figure it has to be. Dwarf’s drink an awful lot of ale, giving them a wide girth. I almost feel sorry for his pony now that I think about it.

We ran through some average content, did a few parts of the book we are on. Nothing to write home about. Except we got this great end reward from a quest.

Ok, so you might be wondering what’s so great about a pipe?

I couldn’t wait to find out. So I lit up and watched. I blew out the smoke and it made a bird. Now you can buy pipe weed that will do this, but the pipe we were rewarded lets me smoke once an hour and it will never run out. How cool is that?

It’s late here and I have had a full day of gaming. I think I am going to go crawl in bed with a book. Anyone read the Honor Harrington series by David Weber? If you like space opera, this is some of the best I have read. Its just excellent. I’m itching to read the last five books I have stacked up on my nightstand, but tonight, I am going to read Jim Butcher’s new Harry Dresden book Changes. I’ve had a friend who has called me for 6 days to see if I have read it yet. Maybe tomorrow I can say yes and gab about the thing

GAME ON!!!

Update 4 came to DDO this week. My static group decided to try them out even though we were way above level.

The story line is fabulous. It’s pirate zombies. Absolutely cool.

If you want a more fullish look at Update 4, take a look at the video Jerry over at DDOcast made as a preview.

I am just going to hit the highlights.

This first picture is of a bug. A pirate hat that kept swinging in the wind of the underground tunnels long after the wearer of said hat had passed into the next life. I love these bugs. It isn’t game breaking, and really just darn funny.

Over all, I will give this new set of adventures a big thumbs up. I enjoyed the flow of the storyline, the excellent graphics, and I have a thing pirates.

Let me also say, I am super thrilled that Turbine found a use for Searing Heights. I will also mention that I think the use of signs in an open area to post the way to a new quest is simply stupid. *rolls her eyes* It completely breaks with any kind of immersion as you are lead by the nose to the quest. Geez thanks for treating me like an idiot.

My eyes were stunned at the quality of the graphics in the new quests.

Look at that beautiful pirate ship. You walk around a corner and there it is.

Across from the ship, as if as a warning to those who would trespass, is a nasty looking round metal cage.

I remarked to our group that I would do whatever it takes to make sure I didn’t end up a prisoner in that thing…including leaving them all to die and running for an exit

Up on top of the pirate ship I found a huge throne.

After dispatching all of the bad zombie pirate men, I sat down with the pirate flag above my head contemplating changing careers. The pirates had a huge dragon like stash of gold. It obviously pays well to be a pirate. Plus, we’d taken over their ship. I look good on a throne darn it!!!

Perhaps the funniest moment in the new quests was when the general appeared. This screenshot isn’t as good as I would like, but we killed him too quickly.

That’s right people. A kobold is riding a minotaur. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! We had a madmax/transformers kinda moment in Static Group and we were all cracking up. It’s these fun moments that keep me coming back to the game. Turbine has plenty of fabulous surprises up their sleeve.

There is one quest I will never run again. EVER!!! It involved a series of jumps via levers you would use to aim steam jets so you could SOMEHOW accurately aim yourself at a little bitty pipe. If I want to feel frustrated, I can run the pit or coalescence chamber or fall down into the lava pit of pipes in the von 4 (which they nerfed the heck out of and put a bridge over… lamesauce).

My girlfriend, who is perhaps the most cheerful person I know, actually cussed… out loud… over her mike… In over three years of playing with her, I can say that it is practically unheard of. By the time this quest was over, I spent almost 20 minutes getting her over pipes so she could loot the last chest to see if she had a sigil in it. She didn’t. Turbine can kiss my rear end on this one. Shove that pit “light” garbage where the sun doesn’t shine baby.

With this one exception, I had a blast helping House Deneith out with their little pirate problem. There was some conversation about whether or not the houses were terribly trustworthy amongst our group. The source books note the underhandedness of each of the houses. Perhaps I should feel a little dirty.

Then again, they gave me a choice between some fabulous end rewards I can continue to upgrade as my sorcerer grows up. I don’t think I completely trust them, but they give good loot.

In other news, I have been playing a ton of Final Fantasy 13. I have been playing it so much that when the hubby sent me a text today he suggested I should put the controller down and pause the game before I wrote him back. How did he know I was playing? *feels paranoid* I bet he has hidden cameras in the house.

Of course, it could simply be that I have been playing with every spare minute of my day. Every night he has been able to come home, he walks in to find me sitting on the couch with the game on. He kisses me hello and I say “Let me find a save crystal.” He laughs and walks away shaking his head.

Hey, don’t look at me like that. He knew I was a gamer when he married me

I upgraded lightning’s weapon today. I am still wondering if I choose the right one to upgrade. I stuck with the Blazefire saber. I know the Axisblade is awesome and the Lionheart is fabulous. I am only sitting at a stage two of the upgrade. I think in the end probably the Axis blade will be what I use for my Omega Weapon.

Have I mentioned I am addicted? I am so into this story I actually considered buying a Lightning figurine from square enix.

Ok, I’m off to play a few more hours before I pass out.

GAME ON!!!

(link to Jerry’s Preview Video of Update 4)

I’ve been dutifully entering the LOTRO lotteries for days trying to win a Spring Steed.  I put off buying a horse on both of my girls hoping I would win one.  I know, I am cheap huh!  I just couldn’t help myself.  The horse is free, pretty and exactly what I need at the moment to get from point A to point B in style!

Zeff has won three, count them, three horsie’s so far.

FINALLY Sunday night, I won.

*giggles with glee*

I immediately switched characters in game to claim my steed.  I also made the decision that since I had won a horse, I could use some of the gold I have been saving up and buy a bigger house.  My girls we feeling a little cramped in their little hobbit hole, and the sharing of bathrooms had become dissolved into a cat fight last Saturday.  It was time to upgrade.

I went shopping.  Perhaps its my years in the mortgage business, but I am all about looking around.  Not to mention location, location, location.  I visited several neighborhoods, looked at the neighbors houses and yards.  I dislike it when you have neighbors who let the grass grow too tall or don’t trim their hobbit hedge.  After a few minutes, I found a bigger house just down the street from my old one.  I took a tour, liked the neighbors, and signed the paperwork.

Isn’t it beautiful?

In other news, I was a guest this week on DDO Cocktail hour with Lessah and Samius.  The title of the episode was “Doing it with Rowanheal…THINK PINK’”  I had a blast recording the show.  Listen at your own peril.  An entire bottle of wine was imbibed while I was a guest

In honor of me being on the show, they turned the banner on their site PINK for the week.  I totally agree with Lessah’s sign “Pink is the new black”, and I think Pink is definitely on Samius’s color wheel!!!

Update 4 is live for DDO.  I know there were a few issues.  A hotfix seems to have been applied this morning, and it looks like everything is working as intended.  I say as intended because there has been quite the fuss about Epic tokens in the new Epic dungeon’s.  It is my understanding that there are no epic tokens dropping.  I say lamesauce, but that’s just me.

The guys over at Massively are looking for a few players to join them in their Nights in Eberron.  They play on Cannith at 9pm EST.  Add Syp and Rubialina to your friends list, and join them this week on Korthos Island after the tutorial.

I am off to cobble together some projects before static group tonight.  We plan on hitting the zombie pirates quests, and then maybe squeezing in another try at the Reaver.  WIsh us luck!

GAME ON!!!

I’ve been enjoying the Spring Festival in LOTRO. I have FINALLY gotten proficient enough at Stomp a Shrew to not be the last person in the garden Overall, I’m having a blast with it. I am including a video below of Stomping Shrews. You wouldn’t think it was hard, but I sure have a tough time of it.

I’ve been entering the lotteries and have won a fair number of the fireworks. In fact, I have enough to have one heck of a July Fourth Party! I have still been unable to win a Spring Steed. Zeff won one, blast his eyes. I am still a little upset at him over it. He likes to ride by on his horse and SHOW me. *growls*

Enurnawor continues (Rowanrune backwards, I’ve decided to stick with the backwards thing in LOTRO!) working on Inn League Favor. Maybe a little too much. I was walking by the beer aisle in my local grocery store the other day and had a hankering for ale. There is currently a six pack residing in my mini-fridge LOL. I couldn’t help myself. The hobbit’s are a bad influence on me

This what my screen looks like by the end of one of the Inn League runs.

I am glad the count down timer is a little longer towards the end of this quest line. The ale begins to move across my screen and I have a hard time catching them

Perhaps my favorite Inn League quest is still the one to convince the Dwarve’s to abandon the league. Zeff caught a screen shot of me making fun of one of them.

ROFLMAO!!!

An anonymous friend sent me the Rabbit Mask in the mail. I can’t resist wearing it. It’s too much fun.

Both the hubby and I picked up a sinister keg as an end reward. Perhaps one of my favorite moments this past week occurred when he was redecorating his house. I heard “Oh CRAP!” And look over asking “What happened?” He said “I was putting the keg in my house and clicked on it!” He ended up across the map. Cracked me up. Too funny. So I guess those things should come with a buyer beware warning. Don’t click too many times when decorating with them

In other news, we made another update to the DDO Quest list. It contains everything through Update 3. I have still not figured out how I want to represent Casual and Epic on the quest list. Maybe I will work on that this summer when I have time. Otherwise, I am going to just leave it as is. It still has a few nit picky corrections that need to made, but for now, its functional!

We’ll be doing another live call in show for DDOcast tomorrow. Episode 162 LIVE SHOW set: Saturday, April 3rd from 3-5p Eastern on Ustream.tv/channel/ddocast. Calls (507) 295-1847. So call in with your DDO questions or comments. We run a live chat as well on the Ustream link, so even if you don’t call in, you can participate. Can’t wait to hear from you.

I’ve been playing more DDO lately. The DDOcast Build Guild has been a lot of fun, and I look forward to every Sunday at noon EST. My monk has made level 7, but I am waiting a rank or two to click for it.Many of the people in the guild are between 3-5 and I don’t want to get too far out of level range. Two of my static group friends are in the guild and one of them put aside a Pink docent for my girl.

How pretty does she look?

I finished up Dragonage…FINALLY!!! I downloaded Awakenings and am having a lot of fun with it. I also picked up Final Fantasy 13. I had to. The main character, Lightening, has pink hair! How was I going to resist that?

Ohhh, before I forget… I am a guest on DDO Cocktail Hour this week with Lessah and Samius!!! I am sooo darn excited. *ponders* Maybe that’s why I bought the beer? Maybe its not the hobbit’s fault?

Alright, its Friday afternoon and I have nothing pressing. I am off to play some FF13.

Game On!!!

(link to the Stomp a Shrew Video)

It’s Spring!!! And Lotro is celebrating with the Spring Festival.

A Casual Stroll To Mordor has an excellent guide to the festivities. I’ve been using it to make sure I don’t miss out on any of the fun. If you have questions, or don’t understand one of the events, be sure to check out the guide!!!

It’s my first Spring Festival and I have to say, I have never been more drunk or more rude in a game! The Inn League has me running around drinking beers in the Shire, puncturing holes in kegs and stealing ale recipes. I did the run through the shire the first night, and by the end of it, I was seeing triple on my screen. Thankfully, I could ride a horse between the quest points. Very very glad The Bounders aren’t policing for being drunk and riding!!!

Don’t miss the quests up by Thorin’s Hall. Jonar is a little angry that some dwarves have joined The Inn League. The emotes you use to convince the dwarves to rescind their membership had me in stitches. I slapped one of the dwarf’s around and made him cry. I almost fell out of my desk chair laughing.

Stomp a shrew. I was super looking forward to this event. I want a shrew statue for my front lawn. Unfortunately, I suck at it. The hubby tried it one night and did swimmingly. I, however, take several rounds to get all my shrews stomped. *sigh* It’s a great way to get your Spring leaves if you have the skill. If you are like me, you are going to be hitting the Hedge Maze.

The Hedge Maze. There are 5 quests you can do in the Maze. I get lost in a circle, so the maze isn’t a fun place for me. The hubby had it figured out in a matter of minutes. I spent my first hour becoming more and more frustrated! If you can’t figure it out, I am posting a video below that shows a first person view of how to do the timed run through to the exit. Personally, I save that run until the hubby is home and follow him My favorite part of the Spring Festival has to have been the first time my hubby hit the sinister keg in the center of the maze. All I heard was, “OMG Where am I? All the mobs are purple! And where the heck are my pants?” *giggles*

You can also check out the drunken fence walking up at Brockenborings in the shire. The Bullroarer Challenge is hysterical to watch. You have to walk a fence carrying a tankard while a wee tad drunk. If you don’t want to actually do the quest, fine, but you have to at least go out there and watch the drunks falling off the fence. It’s entertaining!

Honestly, I loved the Winter Festival. The Spring Festival is simply fabulous. The drinking and carousing with friends can’t be beat.

With my first stack of Spring leaves, I bought a Hobbit Hedge for my house. I couldn’t resist it. By the end, I will have the cosmetic outfit, a spring horse and all the rest, but that hedge sitting in my garden makes me smile every night when I stagger home from a long night of drinking!

A note on the Spring Festival horse.  The vendor NPC is currently broken.  Sapience had the following to say on the issue.

Hey guys! The horse vendor will not be available until sometime near the planned end of the Spring Festival. Possibly later. The nature of this issue requires a client side patch to resolve.

Because we have a planned patch due around the end of Spring Festival, we intend to roll the fix for this issue into that patch. Because this will occur after the planned end of the Spring Festival, we will either extend the festival for an additional week or re-enable it once the patch is live to ensure everyone who has earned their Spring Festival mount can trade for it.

In the meantime, you’ll still be able to acquire all your tokens and everything you need to obtain the horse, you just won’t be able to trade them in until we have the fix in place.

We realize this is an inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding. We want everyone who has earned their mount to be able to enjoy it.

I’m a little bummed on the horse issue. I recently hit 35 on both my rune keeper and my minstrel and hadn’t had the gold to buy my first horse. I figured with the Spring Festival, I could buy my first horse and it would be pretty. Guess I am going to be waiting a month. Oh well, gives me more time to make some more gold so I can afford to buy one for each of the girls.

I am off to do a couple of the horse races and get some extra spring leaves before the hubby comes home.  Shhh, don’t tell!

Game on!!!

(link to video of the hedge maze)

I’ve been avoiding posting a blog for a few days. I think I needed to stew over the latest smattering of news from Turbine for a few before I felt qualified to speak to it.

What news am I speaking about? Turbines Fernando Paiz wrote a State of the Game address Tuesday. You can read the article in it’s entirety here.

Generally, I think its fantastic when a game developer speaks to his audience. We love hearing what’s going on with our addiction of choice. We love feeling like we are part of the process. We love hearing even the smallest details.

Since I have read the article, something has been churning in my gut. It’s not an unusual reaction. I am often adverse to many of the changes made to my games by those who feel they know better. Sometimes I am proved wrong. Other times, I plug a bullet right between the eyes of truth with alarming accuracy.

I won’t rehash the majority of the article. It’s well written. For those of you think I am incapable to paying someone a compliment, I will refer you to the aforementioned well written.

Within an hour of the article being up, my twitter feed hummed with a opinion. Mostly of it was wonderfully optimistic. Among my gaming friends and blogging community, I am always the bad seed. I reckon I can live with the mantle.

I remain after several days stew-age stuck with my immediate gut reaction.

They are going to LOTRO DDO.

Whether this is a good or bad thing has been up for debate. I personally felt a let down after reading the development team’s plans for the game.

Specifically, they are adding in costuming, and at long last, guild housing with some sort of rival earning system.

I am not saying I am against either of these additions. I’m not. I have long begged for player housing of some kind, and the ability distinguish my character’s skinning from those around me. Dragonscale armor has been the fad in DDO for many moons, and we have been running around looking like clones of each other. Besides, if I have the ability to turn my character entirely pink, I am not going to argue.

Fernando also tells us about the new race pick. Half Orcs. I am slightly surprised this is the one they went with. I had actually expected half elves. Half Orcs get a +2 to strength, -2 Intelligence, and -2 charisma. Basically they are a big dumb ugly whack-a-mobs. I am interested in seeing how they skin these. Half Orcs are generally 6 to 7 feet tall. They are gonna start out taller than all those true rez people LOL.

Overall the article didn’t mention anything earth shattering concerning future development. In this one area, I found myself severely disappointed. I had hoped to hear some imaginative thoughts laying out how they plan on getting around the natural level cap they have in the game.

Fernando talked at GDC detailing specific numbers concerning the store and sales. We’d had the announcement in the past stating they had more than 1 million new users. Both of which point to Turbine having a winner on their hands.

My lack of a warm fuzzy centers around how they are foreseeing the future as the new subscribers reach level 20. At the moment, we have been given Epic content. Basically, this boils down to a supped up quest you’ve already run before. We also have the mini crafting available. And last, but not least, you can reincarnate.

What I wanted to was Turbine telling us they were going to have further character development available. New gear is great, making a quest harder kinda lame and being stuck reincarnating aggravating. I want to actually grow my character, not make her just taller with a few more starting stat points.

Epic level. I wanted to hear them tell me they were going to make them. They are not the same as an Epic choice in the adventure

Overall, I will say I appreciate Turbine making efforts to communicate. New underwater combat options sound fun. Update 4 being on Lammania is fabulous. I am excited to see them working on the game.

They could try coming up with new ways to add fantastic features to the game. Seriously, don’t LOTRO DnD. They are two different worlds. It’s like putting a light saber in the hands of a Star Trek Captain. Just wrong.

###

In other news, my static group finally gathered up enough relics for us to run Gianthold Tor. We are Reaver flagged! While we stepped into the raid, we didn’t complete it. I hope in a few weeks to report we beat another raid.

GAME ON!!!

I have done many many things in MMO’s over the years. I thought I had seen all manner of time sinks, but this week my guild in LOTRO introduced me to the Chicken Runs.

All I can say is “HOLY CRAP HOW DID I MISS THIS?”

It very simple really. Up at Sanderson’s farm there is trouble with the chickens. Things have gotten a little out of hand. If you decide to jump in and help, you’ll be forced to become a chicken and run through out middle earth looking for help.

It’s seriously the most entertainment I have had in a game in a long long long time.

Now lest you think it’s all fun and games, let me caution you. Life as a level one chicken is no easy feat. Monsters around you want to gobble you up. And they can all see you.So run fast little chicken and don’t let the big bad wolf nip at your feathers.

I was in stitches running the beginning quests. The hubby and I were turned into chicken and immediately I started giggling. I just couldn’t help myself. I ran around digging for worms, avoiding wolves and bears and laughing at the hilarity that ensued as one of my guild mates was eaten on his way to a neighboring chicken coop.

My ultimate goal for chicken running is the following.

That’s right people, if you manage to live through all the runs you are given the Cloak of the Cluck.

My guild leader has one of these and I made him click it a bunch of times in the guild meeting the other night.  Nothing like seeing a stalwart dwarf clucking like a hen and doing a dance as feathers rein from above.

The hubby and I died a few times during our chicken runs, but overall, we had a fabulous time.

It culminated when Steiner Davion logged on.

As a chicken you are not able to communicate with anyone.  No tells, guild chat and such.  At first this mystified me, but after some thought it makes sense.  I mean who speaks chicken?

I saw the pop up that Steinr was on and went to my friends list to see where he was.  The hubby and I ran around for a while trying to find him.  Finally after nearly half an hour we spotted him fending off bears in Binbole Woods.  We both jumped up and down around him giving him a good flocking.  I am not sure how long it took him to figure out what was going on, but after a while he hit up my Xfire.   My sides were splitting from laughing so hard.

The guild is going to be doing a full chicken run this weekend.  I am very very excited and can’t wait to report to you that I have earned my cloak and can dance like a chicken!!!

Here’s a video of a guild in LOTRO doing one of these chicken runs. It’s hysterical.  Watch and prepare to laugh a lot.

Game on!!!

Rowan finally used the DDO Store today. I still feel a wee tad bad about it. Like it was cheating.

I’ve been hearing how much fun the DDOcast Build Guild has been having in DDO on Sunday’s. A few of the players bugged me here and there to participate. It’s been in the back of my mind, but I finally decided to take the plunge.

They are playing on the Orien server. I didn’t have an character’s over there. I had yet to touch it as a server.

With the guild being way ahead of me level-wise, I figured this was a great chance to check out Veteran Status. I also wanted a 32 point monk.

It took me a few tries in the character creation screen to get the 32 point build thing figured out. I knew this was going to mean a trip to the DDO Store. It’s been over a year and this is the first time I’m messing with it.

You would think logically if you didn’t have a 32 point build character and you wanted to make one, it would be on the skills page as an option. It’s not. I should have known better. Turbine doesn’t always do things “intuitive.” I mean I thought since I didn’t have the favor for a Drow and they have a big fat “Buy me now” button (which btw is hideous) on the Character race selection screen, I could infer the upgrade I needed would be available when I got to the skills screen.

After hunting around for 5 or 10 minutes, I gave up on it and just hit the “buy an additional character slot” button. I found this a little funny and chuckled, since as I was pressing the button, I had no character on the server at all and 10 empty slots.

I purchased the 32 point build across all server’s. It didn’t feel awful. Because I haven’t used the store at all it’s not like I was going to run out of Turbine points and spend real cash. I have a few saved up *winks*

I hadn’t read a thing about Veteran Status. I knew it existed, just wasn’t quite sure how it worked.

I made my first monk and went over to Korthos Island. I talked to Jeets, who is quite cheeky these days, and went through the tutorial. As an aside, there is a way to skip the tutorial right? I haven’t found it, but it’s been so long since I’ve rolled a character *shrugs*

I kept thinking there was going to be an option to skip to level 4. After killing all those worthless sahaugin, I ran out through snowy Korthos to find the First Mate. I knew I could skip Korthos and be dropped back in the harbor. I assumed this was also where the option for Veteran Status existed.

It’s not.

Frustrated, and having wasted 45 minutes figuring out how to build a 32 point monk, I logged out to check the compendium. Have I mentioned how useless I find this feature? If you really want information on the game, hit up the DDO wiki. It’s beautiful, simple and so much easier to navigate.

After googling, I found a really well written Developer Diary explaining the ins and outs of utilizing Veteran’s Status. Turns out you need to log into a Level 4 character who already exists in the harbor and *hear my screams*,if you want to have Veteran Status on a server where you do not have 1000 favor, you need to buy it from the store.

About this point it’s getting close to lunch. I am beginning to feel the low hum of headache behind my eyes. I want to play, or at least, I want to support my friends and check out their new venture. Probably.

I went for another cup of coffee and decided to go for broke. I’d already used the store. I might as well continue my fall into the abyss.

I logged onto my static group character on Ghallanda and hit buy.

Blowing out a breath, I re-logged into the game on Orien. I deleted my monk and remade her. 32 points, Veteran’s Status. After 2 hours, I’d accomplished my goal.

I entered the world, did my level up on the voyage and was plunked into the harbor with crap gear and dead broke. Welcome to the world of buy now.

I played about 4 or so hours today. Within the first hour I realized the biggest downfall to the “instant” button, you don’t have a blessed clue what your build can do.

My new monk had 2 toolbars worth of “skills.” I hadn’t the foggiest what to do with them for this build. I hadn’t a copper to my name to buy a repair pot, hat or even a hireling.

By the end of hour 4, my headache had grown to a monster. Learning to play a character, discovering the good and bad points of a build, and trying to accomplish experience doesn’t mesh well. My monk had died more than any other newbie I’ve ever built. Her “specials” seem dismal. She’s still using the starter handwraps she got in the harbor. Handwraps seem to be few and far between. Surprised me. Monks have been in the game 2 years now? What gives?

I won’t be using this option again. Not to make a build I am unsure of. I will say it explains a lot of the issues I saw in the pugs I participated in this afternoon. If you haven’t earned the xp, you don’t know what you can and can’t do. You die, make stupid agro assumptions, and are a drain on your party.

According to myddo, I have built 26 characters who still exist. 15 of them are approaching or are capped. It isn’t my level of experience in character building, knowledge of the game, nor my ability to manipulate and mash the multitude of buttons required to be actively involved in a quest.

It’s the instant button.

I feel dirty. I am going to go soak in a hot bath and consider my sins.

GAME ON!!!

“Utopia is not a place…but a people. It will exist the moment we are fit to occupy it.” Sofia Lamb

As sequels go, Bioshock 2 had a lot to live up to. The story and strange world created in the first game screamed out to be replayed, retooled and revisited.

One of the first things I will tell you is, save your game and save often. While the game has auto save points, I had to get up from a 2 hour session to take a business call. I didn’t get back to my computer for an hour. I hadn’t saved, and lost those 2 hours of game play as I respawned at the beginning of the level. So hit f12!

I played through Bioshock 1 in 10 hours. Bioshock 2 took me 18. Mind you a few of those hours can be attributed to the “save” issue, but I would say overall, this sequel had a little more meat to it.

I’m not going to put any outright spoiler’s in here. If you haven’t played either game, you might be clued into some things just from context, but I think you’ll be pretty safe.

Ten long years have passed since the death of Andrew Ryan in Bioshock 1. Rapture has seen better days.

You are Subject Delta and awaken in the ruin of Rapture with its leaks, splicers and Adam seeking little sisters with the voice of your bonded little sister in your head. Eleanor needs you and your only mission is to save her.

“Love is just a chemical. We give it meaning by choice.” Eleanor Lamb

I was super excited to be playing through this time a big daddy. The clunky loud suit, moans, and drill were among the things I couldn’t wait to play with.

Perhaps it’s just me, but by the end of the first level, I was over it. The drill options were limited, the suit wasn’t all that cool anymore and I wanted a little more flexibility.

I happily looted my first rivet gun, searched for some bullets and went to town shooting splicers.

Another thing to be sure to do, is search for Audio diaries. They are all over Rapture and in total I believe there are 120 or so. They reveal the lives of the people of Rapture, and will help you immensely in a feeling of immersion in the story. Don’t pass them up!

A huge plus to Bioshock 2, is the ablity to get out into the ocean. After all, you are a Big Daddy now with a fully equipped sea worthy diving suit. It was one of the feature’s I didn’t know I wanted until haflway through Bioshock 1. I loved it. Plus, if you look carefully, you can usually spot a little loot laying around. It’s also one of the only times in the game you are not looking over your shoulder. For now, while in the sea surrounding the crumbling city, you are safe. Enjoy the brief respite.

A word of caution, once you leave a level you cannot go back. If there is a nook or cranny you wanted to go look in, or maybe you picked up a plasmid that will help you get into an area you had no access to before, don’t forget to circle back before leaving.

All the good game features are back.

You’ll find your first plasmid pretty early and quickly fall back into the routine of upgrading them via a Gathering Garden when you can. I think everyone has their favorites. I seemed to immediately upgrade incinerate. I kinda enjoy watching splicer’s fry. Don’t forget though to use Electro Bolt when splicers are standing around in a pool of water. They’ll fall over dead fairly quickly.

Hack first, buy second. I didn’t enjoy this mini game much in Bioshock 1. Possibly because I am not very good at this kind of thing. It had an improvement in Bioshock 2, and I found hacking much less frustrating. Be sure to upgrade your hacks with gene tonics to get a slower hack needle, to get a little health and eve every time you hack or to simply make a hack shorter.

The EL Ammo Bandito, Circus of Values and Gene banks are back. You’ll also find the rare Power to the People machine where you can add upgrades to your favorite weapons. Be careful with these. They are few and far between, but a fully upgraded weapon has some cool powers. A weapon you’ll find eventually is the spear gun. A headshot with this puppy nails a splicer to the wall, dead. It’s gruesome and amazingly fun. Even if you have a favorite weapon, try out the one’s you find a long the way. New and interesting methods of killing adds to your enjoyment!

A fresh, and I think wonderful addition to the game, is the moral dilemma. Throughout the story you will run into characters you can either save or kill. Choose as you will, it does affect how the story plays for you and whose voices you are going to have filtering in your ear. As per the first game, you can choose to rescue or harvest the little sister’s you run across. Personally, I save them. I can’t help myself. They are little girls forced to play a part in an evil scheme. They deserve peace. Plus, I like their gifts

Research has also been given an upgrade. It’s more seamless. Instead of still shots, you take video. While this is a feature I tend to forget about in the midst of battle, it’s uses are endless and truly allow you to learn how to make tactical decision’s during gameplay.

“When Rapture speaks of you-it says only this: sleep now. Your day is done.” Sofia Lamb

I had seen enough of the trailer’s for the game to know about the Big Sister’s. Nothing, and I mean nothing prepared me for the fights with them. They make the Big Daddies look like wussy pansies and every time I met one of these screeching avenger’s I said a quick prayer. They can drain Adam from slicer’s to power their plasmid abilities, are armed to the teeth and wearing superior armor. When you hear one coming, it’ll make your heart beat a little faster. They are incredibly agile. Only advice I have is to fight in an open room with them. Try not to get cornered by one. They’ll take you down fast.

As I alluded to before, how you played the game is going to affect the ending. I’m not going to hint one way or another, but which ever road you’ve taken has a well thought out ending.

All too soon my love affair with Rapture ended. As usual I wanted more. And this time you can have it. Bioshock 2 offers a multi player option. You can play through the maps solo or with friends.

And in case that isn’t enough rapture for you, 2 k games has announced additional downloadable content coming soon to both the single player and multi player portions of the game.

The first one looks to be for the multi player maps.

Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, the first of several planned downloadable packages, contains a number of customization features that will allow players to further their character’s development in BioShock 2’s multiplayer modes and provide a deeper multiplayer experience. The pack includes:

• Rank Increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards
• New playable characters Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca
• 20 new trials*
• A third weapon upgrade for each weapon
• five additional masks*

Bioshock 2 isn’t perfect. No game can be. It comes pretty close though. I will admit in the first hour or so of gameplay it all seemed almost too familiar. The lackluster feel of the drill disappointed, but wasn’t game ending. I had a few places in the single player where the screen would black out from a bug. It happened rarely, and didn’t affect my ability to take out the bad guys.

It’s truly a special thing when a developer can make a sequel that doesn’t feel like a replay of old story lines. While the initial story may not appear very deep, you are intrinsically tied to the well being of Eleanor. The character’s in this second telling are a little more interesting in my view, and there are some juicy surprises waiting through the crumbling ruins of Andrew Ryan’s Utopia. Your choices, and the future of Rapture are dependent on Subject Delta.

If you haven’t dived into this franchise, and you like RPG’s, you should take a look. Rapture is waiting.

“As I watch you now, I envy your ignorance. You still believe.” Sofia Lamb

It’s been a long week. The hubby had a pesky cold. I thought he should keep it to himself, but as usual he decided to share. Thursday morning I felt the first itch in my nose. By Friday morning, I was begging for Nyquil and my warm bed. I love him most of the time, but he needs to wear a hazmat suit when he comes in the house diseased!!!

Why is it we can cure most diseases, but the common cold remains so virulent? Bleh!!!

I finally dragged myself off the couch long enough today to actually game. My mailboxes in LOTRO needed emptying, I had a toon to level, and I wanted to craft some things to make some money on the auction house.

I looked up after a little while in game and realized 2 hours had passed. I had spent the entire 120 minutes crafting in the craft hall! I could blame it on the Nyquil, but probably its just the fact that I refuse to pass up any kind of mat I can pick up. Hence my need to upgrade my bank space whenever possible.

I made 34 on my rune-keeper, managed to kill the Troll-Keeper in the longest cave I have ever entered, and I now have a ton of auctions up for sale. If you are in LOTRO and have money to burn, please go shopping. I have picked out a deluxe house on a quiet street in the shire and mama needs bank

As an aside, I ran into a den of trolls tonight while adventuring in the North Downs. While I expect trolls to be revolting, I can say the team at Turbine has done an outstanding job making me want to hurl whenever I run across one of these stingy, kicking, club wielding jerks. They really need to put more clothes on. The belly flab and sweaty, hairy nipple action makes me green around the gills!

Tomorrow we will finally get Oath of the Rangers, Volume III, book 1.

The LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Monday, March 1,2010 from 6:00AM – 10:00AM Eastern (-5 GMT) to launch the latest free content update, Volume III: Allies of The King, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers. (Click here) for the release notes. Thanks for your patience, and we’ll see you back in the game soon!

I can’t wait to find some time tomorrow night to check out the new Duo option on skirmishes. I still can’t believe they didn’t have this option to begin with, but I am super excited to have a chance to really use the skirmishes on the pair of toon’s the hubby and I are leveling together.

In other news, I was checking out the schedule of events for Pax East. A couple of the guys from DDOcast are going to attend, and I figured I could ask them to check things out if there was anything super interesting to me. I found a session I am wishing I could be a fly on the wall for.

Girls and Games: The Growing Role of Women in the Game Industry
Manticore Theatre
Friday, 8:00pm
According to the ESA, more than 43% of video gamers are female, making women the single largest untapped market segment in the gaming industry. Look at the milestones crossed and the hurdles to come as developers and publishers reach out to this previously overlooked demographic. Are current strategies effective? What does this mean for the game industry as a whole?
Panelists Include: Brittany Vincent [Editor-in-Chief, Spawn Kill], Julie Furman [Founder, SFX360], Jeff Kalles [Penny Arcade], Alexis Hebert [Community Relations Manager, Terminal Reality]

Imagine my head spinning around like the exorcist. It’s one of my pet peeves in gaming. Yes, there are two genders. Yes, one is probably from Mars and maybe the other is from Venus. I don’t however understand how we can be an overlooked nor an under tapped demographic when we appear to the Entertainment Software Association to be half of the gaming population buying and beating the games put out by the gaming industry.

What are they going to talk about, putting more half-dressed men in games, how to advertise with more feminine colors and paint everything pink? Not that I want to besmirch the color pink, I mean its my personal fav, but I don’t want to watch an ad for Dragon Age with pink everywhere for goodness sakes. We already have Hello Kitty Online… how much further past the line of ridiculous do we need to go?

There are a ton of women game developers at the major houses, girl blogger, and girl podcasters. We field teams for competition and generally kick rear.

I am dying of curiosity to hear what people say in this session because if it’s more dribble about how to reach out to a population who is already playing by offering crap fluff games I’m gonna puke.

Ok, I am getting off my soapbox, so I can slip into another Nyquil haze.

Before I forget, DDOcast episode 157 is out. They covered the weeks news, have a few interviews and segments. Check it out.

Also, take a gander at this video. Someone over in the LOTRO community put together their take on the The Guild’s “Do you want to date my avatar!” It’s simply hysterical.

GAME ON!!!