Thursday, February 24, 2011

Skrim vs DIablo 3... Stay a While and Listen!

Alright so for those who haven't seen, Bethesda released a new and amazing video for Elder Scrolls V: Skrim:
 Bethesda has said that they are planing on releasing it 11/11/2011, just in time for the holidays.

My question is, what are you all more excited for? Diablo 3? or Skyrim?
Now they are completely different games, anyone that's played their predecessors can attest to that.
I'm a HUGE fan of Blizzard's games.  First video games I remember playing on PC were Lemmings, and Warcraft 1.

 I've played Warcraft 1, 2, 3, and Diablo 1, 2, for countless hours.  I've gotten several 90+ characters on d2+LOD (Lord of Destruction expansion) BNET.  Fully geared 5k hp lvl 36 B.O. 7k ww dmg barb with 75% block and full DR, if you don't know what that means... my barbarian was a beast and a half.

I played D2 from 1.08 when Shako's and Valors were bug-imba, 1.09 through the mad insane hacking that was going on, and 1.10 for the rise of the Hammerdin and for over a year after that.  Needless to say, I was a fan.  How many clicks had I clicked for that game? Who knows?

Diablo 3 looks amazing, nerdgasm inducing to anyone who played D2, because it fixes and improves on all those things that bugged you.  Shared stash, team battles, improved combats, more variety, tight boss fights, etc.
Cinematic Trailer for D3:
Gameplay Trailer:


Now I feel there are more Diablo fans than Elder Scrolls fans, but you have to give it a chance.

Elderscrolls III: Morrowind and it's expansions were amazing. The game, without any mods or it's two wonderful expansions: Bloodmoon and Tribunal, is easily 100 hours of gameplay if you just ran through the main quest. The total immersion that game had, was profound. Books on bookshelves with 30+ pages, caves all over the place, dungeons that were massive and had amazing side quests and items to behold.

Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion was a masterpiece, visually, but in some ways lacked. The gameplay on highest settings graphics was in my opinion, as good as most other games cinematic or trailers graphics.  The main quest of Oblivion was probably a solid 80 hours of gameplay the first time through.  Having beaten it 5+ times I could probably cut it down to 50.   The expansions for this game were pretty mediocre, the main one, Shivering Isles, was interesting and fun.

The Elderscrolls games were amazing, but what made them epic, is the mods.  There are literally thousands of player made mods for Morrowind and Oblivion.

Oblivion for instance, has some truly epic mods, Deadly Reflex, and Nehrim probably being my favorites of all.  Deadly Reflex added combat AI and combat moves that you and bots could use, such as shield bash, kick, and dodge, and the part that made it my favorite, the bots used them back and learned from your habits.

Typical Oblivion melee combat made me was to break my mouse: Shield block, *block*, swing swing, *block*.. repeat.  With Deadly Reflex, you spam shield bash, the bot kicks you down and stabs you 5 times, you had to improvise and change your tatics around.

Nehrim was something I came across recently, it was originally made in German with professional voice actors and all, but translated into English and converted, that being said, the voices are all in German, and some of the books/things you find in the world were 'left out' and left in German, but with subtitles it's no problem.

This mod is insane.  It adds a continent that is literally larger than the original Oblivion 'world'.  It adds hundreds if not thousands of quests that are unique and more interesting than vanilla Oblivion, new dungeons, fights with gods and men, and is all around probably one of the most fun 'games' I've played in ages.

Back to the question: 
What are YOU more excited for?   My vote goes to Skrim.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Kentucky - John Calipari, What?

A friend and I were talking about John Calipari, head coach for Kentucky, and he made me take a second look at him.  While I'm not an avid basketball fan, I do know a few simple truths about Kentucky;

1) They have 5 players that went into the FIRST round of the NBA draft,
2) John Calipari does what a lot of coaches do, travels and finds the worlds best,
3) Calipari seems to be a racist at heart, from many of the quotes he's be caught spouting out,
4) Most importantly: Kentucky didn't make it into the Final Four.

Now, Kentucky has so much potential, but they're just being ruined by Calipari, it seems hes just using Kentucky as a stepping stone to get his boys into the NBA.  With the amount of talent on that team, there is no reason they shouldn't be doing better than they are. 

They're also 1-5 on the road with another road game tonight, they know their problems, but don't seem to fix them. Kentucky should win this game vs Arkansas easily, but that's assuming Arkansas let's them do what they want.

Too harsh?  Or is there something I'm just not seeing here. 

Hey! I missed a Gorillaz Album?

So I was bouncing around the internet, like one does, and found a link:
http://thefall.gorillaz.com/

You can actually listen to the whole album on that website, just have to type in your email+, takes about 10 seconds.

Turns out I missed a Gorillaz album that was released on 12/25/10... and get this, it was composed exclusively on an iPad.  I can't even form a good beat in my head and they made some songs, my favorite being Revolving Doors, on a iPad... Outrageous.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Zen Magnets!

Everyone likes to take a few minutes to themselves, calm your mind, meditate, pray, get a little me time in the day.  Getting used to not doing anything, and just slowing down your pace was very difficult for myself.

Either:
a) I end up going to sleep because I get so comfortable,
or
b) I can't clam my mind and end up sitting there for 20 minutes thinking about what I have to do after I sit here for 20 minutes.

I think I've found a great solution for this.

Alright, so these are just too far out:





These little guys, according to the company that makes them, are less than a quarter of an inch in diameter, and 30 times more powerful than your regular fridge magnets, and are amazingly cool and calming to just play with and relax.
Zen Magnets Home

They are also incredibly cheap, which is a huge one for myself, just $9.50 for their mini set, which includes 72 of these amazing ZEN MAGNETS!