tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61648786340988169672024-03-12T16:10:34.337-07:00commentariliesit's about gamesMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06942787339176613187noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-5130795468299460902012-07-23T16:33:00.002-07:002012-07-23T16:33:45.056-07:00GW2 Final Beta Weekend Rata Sum in PIctures (pt 2)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">This time around I'm going to give you a look at Rata Sum, quite possibly the most well designed capital city in the history of MMOs. It's just spectacular! Look!</span>
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<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-39055509027327405862012-07-22T00:48:00.001-07:002012-07-22T01:20:20.086-07:00GW2 Final Beta Weekend Picture Book Mode (pt 1)<span style="background-color: white;">Arena Net really outdid themselves IMO. I had high expectations for the Sylvari considering the art team behind all the design on Guild Wars 2, and they seriously delivered. </span>I think the only way to properly describe the Sylvari is to use pictures. I can't find the right words. Every time I go to a new area I'm simply in disbelief of what the people behind GW2 managed to pull off.<br />
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I'm already planning my next video. I could spend an entire Month gathering footage of just the Sylvari areas! There's just so much amazing vistas. It's totally insane.</div>
<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-38793405569870728642012-07-18T16:45:00.000-07:002012-07-18T16:46:59.896-07:00Steam Sale, Crysis 2, and GW2 Final BWE prepAs pretty much everyone knows, Steam is having their annual summer sale right now, which has given me the opportunity to pick up some titles I hadn't previously had the chance to and also give me some entertainment to fill in the time gap between Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekends.<br />
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Most importantly, I finally got Crysis 2 (and at 70% off, that's a pretty big steal), and combined with the fact that I also now finally have a computer capable of running it in all the DX11 glory it requires I couldn't be happier. It's extremely satisfying. And totally mind blowing. </div>
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Sure we've all seen <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMwk2Zi0c3o">Crytek's promotional stuff</a>, and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZgt4hA4-pc&feature=plcp">DX11 showcases</a>, for CryEngine 3 but watching videos and playing the game are two totally different animals. Mostly it comes down to the fact that when I'm immersed in the game I can actually notice why all of these little details like bokeh, realtime reflections, and tessellation make a difference. Their tech is totally mind blowing, but Crytek could surely use some better writers. </div>
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To say it plainly, the plot feels like it was written by monkeys. But really, I don't play this game for it's complex and involved story (there isn't any), I play it to experience the power of the game engine they designed. I mean... just look at it.</div>
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I'm not even running the game at max settings. It's simply Gorgeous.</div>
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Finally, we're all waiting with eager anticipation as the final Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend starts in 2 days. Getting to play the Sylvari and Asura will be totally amazing. I can't wait!<br />
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<br /></div>Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-87508070229033781592012-07-13T12:21:00.000-07:002012-07-13T12:23:30.089-07:00GW2 Beta Client UpdateFor those of you who just can't wait to get ready for next week's BWE you should be pleased to know that there's now a new Beta Client update. What are you waiting for? You should be downloading this already!<br />
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Also, the new client downloader is starting to look really nice!</div>
<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-86953334586829800042012-07-09T09:49:00.000-07:002012-07-09T09:49:03.834-07:00GW2 Final BWEIt comes as welcome news today that for the final Beta Weekend Event the <a href="http://www.arena.net/blog/play-asura-and-sylvari-in-the-july-20-22-beta-weekend-event">Asura and Sylvari will be playable races</a>. Of course, this isn't a huge surprise given that Guild Wars 2 is set to be released a little over a month later so having these races polished up would be a generally good idea.<br />
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The Sylvari were what captivated me about GW2 from the very start. I'd already been sold on Guild Wars from the beginning, so I was planning on buying GW2 from the first mention of its development. I bought all the magazines to get the special mini pets and read up on any new sliver of information I could get my hands on. So every time they mentioned this elusive Sylvair I couldn't stop but wonder how this race would pan out, and I have to say I couldn't be more pleased with the way ArenaNet developed them.<br />
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I've played my fair share of fantasy games so having this totally unique race pop up is huge. They're totally awesome and there's nothing quite like them in any other universe out there. If you haven't had a chance too yet I'd highly recommend you go through the older ArenaNet blogs about the Sylvari. There's a lot of <a href="http://www.arena.net/blog/kristen-perry-on-designing-and-redesigning-the-sylvari">good</a> <a href="http://www.arena.net/blog/the-sylvari-soul">information</a> <a href="http://www.arena.net/blog/video-growing-the-sylvari">there</a>. And if you're not planning on playing a Sylvari then read up all the more, afterall you should probably get to know your new neighbors. They sound pretty nice.Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-42420762450286412332012-06-28T12:00:00.000-07:002012-06-28T12:01:50.091-07:00GW2 Stress Test and AnnouncementFirst and foremost you should all know by now that <a href="http://www.arena.net/blog/announcing-the-guild-wars-2-launch-date">Guild Wars 2 will be released on August 28th!</a> The best part of that news is that everyone who pre-purchased the game gets a 3-day head start, which means you can start playing it on the 25th and get a weekend in before everyone else does. Awesome! The wait is almost finally over!<br />
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I've also been super glad that during the 2 months we have left of waiting we're getting all these stress tests, and beta weekends, which are super fun and they've let me really figure out what to do under different playing circumstances. During the stress test yesterday I only had a few hours to play, and I had already completed a lot of the content I intended to so what was I to do for a couple hours?<br />
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First of all, I turned myself into a deer. I mean why not?<br />
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Then I played around on my warrior and killed some bandits with the help of Logan Thackeray. The thing I really enjoy about playing a warrior is that combat feels especially visceral. While I do definitely enjoy the combat system with Mesmers, there's always a soft spot in my heart for getting up close and personal with my foes. Smashing them in the face with large objects never gets old.</div>
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After that we all found out that there would be a repeat of the last BWE final event, in which Dragon Branded minions invaded the Plains of Ashford. During the last BWE I didn't get a chance to play in this little event so it was especially fun for me to experience for the first time. I definitely did my fair share of zerging waypoints and making sure that nothing survived our onslaught. </div>
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Of course, eventually I got turned and had a party with my new friends. </div>
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Now we only have some speculation left to do. The last BWE is July 20-22, so what do you think they'll let us play? I'm hoping the Sylvari and Asura are finally available. It would be awesome to finally see Rata Sum and The Grove in all their glory!</div>
<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-71551089988989685072012-06-26T09:18:00.000-07:002012-06-26T09:18:25.716-07:00D3 Cave InIt comes as no real surprise that eventually I caved in and got Diablo 3.<br />
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I've been charging through the game with a monk and am currently half way through Act 3 in Hell without much difficulty. The nice thing about monks, as I've found, is that it's really easy to spec them for damage or taking so depending on what I'm going up against I can always be sure to have the right gear for the job. I've been going for a more damage oriented build recently focusing on dual wield skills and some AoE skills. This seems like it works out especially well with all the crazy packs of mobs in Act3. They tend to clump up really nicely which makes for some really easy group slaughter.<br />
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I'm sure that will all change once I get to Inferno and start to totally get worked by normal white mobs, but at least I'm starting to build up a good base of gear to get started on Inferno. Afterall Inferno is where the real game begins. Right?Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-23373719108099049162012-06-20T15:56:00.000-07:002012-06-20T15:56:22.274-07:00GW2 Filling the VoidIt's been some time since the last Beta Weekend Event and since then I've had a lot of time with other games. Bastion, Super Meat Boy, LIMBO, Starcraft2, and Borderlands (again). But that all made me realize that really all I've been doing is trying to find something to fill the GW2 void between now and the next BWE.<br />
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I almost bought Diablo 3 the other day too. I had my credit card info punched in and everything, but at the very last moment some kind of moral judgment stuck me and I started to second guess the decision. I know that GW2 is going to be released sometime in 2012, so if I go and buy something now I'll have maybe 3 months of time with it, possibly less, before I abandon the game entirely and devote all my time to GW2. So would the $60 for D3 really be worth it if I only play the game for 3 months? That's like $20 a month! That's more than a WoW subscription! On that notion it seemed a little stupid to make the purchase.<br />
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I've still got a stockpile of games sitting in my Steam Library, and if I <b>really</b> get desperate for something to do I guess I could always go and grind out 50/50 in the Hall of Monuments. Though, honestly I don't really see that happening anytime soon.Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-68923392495275485762012-06-15T08:38:00.000-07:002012-06-15T08:38:04.664-07:00GW2 Video Reception!<a href="http://commentarilies.blogspot.com/2012/06/gw2-beauty-of-tyria.html">As you may have read earlier</a>, I put together a time lapse video during the last Beta Weekend. (If you don't know, well then you should go check it out because apparently <a href="http://guildwars2.stratics.com/posts/youtube-video-compilation-of-the-beauty-of-gw2/">the</a> <a href="http://www.vvv-gaming.com/forum/topic/56801-beauty-of-tyria/">whole</a> <a href="http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/beauty-gw2-time-lapse-video/">internet</a> is talking about it!)<br />
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<b>Wow!</b> First off I couldn't be more happy with some of the comments I'm getting. You people are amazing! And secondly, 16,200 views in 4 days is no laughing matter! I had an idea that people would like what I was putting together, but this goes way beyond what I could have imagined. So thank you to everyone who's watched, reposted, shared, talked about, or in any other way contributed to spreading my video around the internet. You are all gentlemen (or women) and scholars. I salute you.<br />
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Also, I figured I'd take this opportunity to answer a few questions that keep popping up.<br />
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<b>How do you hide your character in a screenshot?</b><br />
Hopefully ArenaNet will change this and allow for a first person view mode, but if they don't it's actually quite simple. 1) Type /sleep. 2) Zoom in the camera a little. 3) Your character should now be hidden. If your character is still in the screenshot you may have to play with the viewing angle a little so they are hidden, but it shouldn't take much. I've found that using a Human works best since out of all the races right now they're the smallest and the Charr's horns have a nasty habit of getting into your screenshots regardless what you do to hide them.<br />
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<b>How did you take that many screenshots!?</b><br />
I used a handy program called <a href="http://code.google.com/p/chronolapse/">chronolapse</a>. It's super easy to setup and you can set it to take a screenshot at whatever time interval you want. Then you set a folder you want it to save the screenshots to and voila! There you have it! 10,000 screenshots, every 3 seconds, all saved in one place!<br />
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On the usability side I did find out that in order for chronolapse to actually work right you have to set Guild Wars 2 to "Fullscreen Windowed" mode, under screen resolution, otherwise for whatever reason chronolapse will just take screenshots of your desktop, which is very much not what I want everyone looking at. Also, once I had taken all the screenshots I did reorganize them so that each location was separated into it's own folder, this made for putting the final video together a lot easier since I could edit each segment individually instead of having to cut up one clip a bunch (23 to be exact) times.<br />
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<b>Why did you take screenshots instead of video?</b><br />
The short answer is: I wanted to save disc space. 10,000 screenshots comes out to about 2GB, whereas 8hours of uncompressed 1080p video is on the upwards of 1.4 TERABYTES!<br />
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The long answer is: If I'm taking 1080p video at 30fps and then speeding it up to the rate at which I made the time lapse I would effectively be cutting 89 of every 90 frames out of the videos. That's a lot of wasted footage. If you do the math, 8 hours of video is 864,000 frames and I would only be actually using 10,000 of those. So instead of wasting all those (854,000) frames, I chose to cut out the middle man and just go straight for the screenshots. This speeds up the editing process, since I'm using smaller file sizes (2GB of screenshots instead of 1.4TB of videos), and I don't have all this extra footage wasting my disc space that will eventually just end up on the cutting room floor.<br />
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<b>Where is this Sylvari area?</b><br />
It's in the southwest corner of Kessex Hills. Lychcroft Mere.<br />
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In the end all I have to say to everyone is:<br />
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<b>Thank you for your support and yes I will definitely be making more videos down the road.</b><br />
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<b><br /></b>Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-23494227960854412322012-06-14T15:50:00.003-07:002012-06-14T15:50:55.962-07:00SuperMeat Boy and RSISuper Meat Boy is going to give me RSI if I don't buy a USB controller by next week.<br />
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">It's totally retarded but I can't stop playing it. There's this sadistic satisfaction I get from jumping chunks of meat into spinning sawblades. It doesn't even matter if it takes me a million tries to finish a level. Watching the replay afterwards is awesome. You get to see the rat race of all the little balls of meat dying horrible deaths.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">I like simple games like this in the downtime between Guild Wars 2 Beta Events. It really does a great job of getting my mind off of things and allowing me to chill out for a bit, but stupid Super Meat Boy is this addiction that's going to end up killing my hands. Oh well. At least I'm having fun.</span></div>
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<br /></div>Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-88553637433672452272012-06-13T18:54:00.000-07:002012-06-13T18:54:01.612-07:00GW2 Making Improvements<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Before the June Beta Weekend Event ArenaNet went through a <a href="http://www.arena.net/blog/the-big-beta-weekend-preview">list of the changes</a> they were making. Many of those changes were really easy to understand and generally straightforward, but the one change "UI Improvements" was pretty general. In the end it ended up being a lot of little updates that caused some gigantic improvements.</div>
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The first thing I noticed was the updates made to combat text notifiers, most notably being the new feedback for <i>confusion damage</i>. As you probably know by now, I play a Mesmer and <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Confusion">confusion</a> is a condition almost entirely unique to Mesmers. In the previous BWE, and subsequent Stress Test, I had actively been trying to figure out what exactly confusion did. Does it do a lot of damage? Was it worth it? Should I put more effort into building up stacks of confusion? How worthwhile is <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cry_of_Frustration">Cry of Frustration</a> anyway? I would dig through the combat log to see what confusion was doing and most of the time it was more work than it was worth to track down one tick of confusion damage in the multitude of notifications flooding my combat log.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJTm7OD22-XSL8_2k3aluJunHXMcS9qDodQEisDQ-qcUL9A_UbEjhOyUiSP7EI8efEJy3aOAvWGmfUVPl8gYubXgXKsXsCoGKGcfCIviRW9QEtOsQc6nWt-IhtAB8Zlvo8RNy65XjSWXob/s1600/confuse0000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJTm7OD22-XSL8_2k3aluJunHXMcS9qDodQEisDQ-qcUL9A_UbEjhOyUiSP7EI8efEJy3aOAvWGmfUVPl8gYubXgXKsXsCoGKGcfCIviRW9QEtOsQc6nWt-IhtAB8Zlvo8RNy65XjSWXob/s400/confuse0000.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Now with this new update it's obvious. Confusion actually has it's own unique damage notifier. You can see it in the screenshot above. It's super easy to see how much damage its doing, and how often. Other combat notifiers that are especially awesome now are the new critical hit text and the revised notifiers for combo field combos. </div>
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If anyone combos with your combo field a heart will show up over their character. Not only does it show that they've made a combo it also says what condition they caused, if they caused one. This makes combat a lot more fun, and if you're a class that generates a lot of combo field opportunities you get some great positive feedback. You can actually see if your support is working effectively.</div>
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The other big change, which is really subtle, is the update to the condition and boon notifiers. Now there's this little white stroke that decreases around the condition or boon flag. It's super subtle and that's ok. Even this little change goes miles to show some more minute information that can be extremely important if you need to know when to start stacking cripples back onto your foes. Even in the WvWvW combat I participated in above you can obviously see what's going on at a glance. It's awesome.</div>
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This last one I got a lot of joy from. The new 'map completion' notifier.</div>
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Previously the notification came in the form of a letter, the same way you get from filling out an NPC Heart anywhere else in the map. I love the treasure chest, it's so satisfying. I feel like I've truly accomplished something and having this unique chest popping up really brings me back to completing a dungeon in GW:EotN, super fun. If you haven't gotten the chance to complete a map yet I highly recommend it. The rewards are great, 52 silver, a sword, a set of shoulders, a mystic key, some cloth, and 2,500xp. I know I for one am going to be striving for 100% map completion once GW2 launches. This is the first time I actually feel encouraged to go for it! I'll get more than just an achievement!</div>
<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-90082144542073357552012-06-12T11:35:00.001-07:002012-06-12T11:35:43.867-07:00GW2 Looking Really GoodI have to say, after I vanquished some salty pirate dogs and stole all their treasure, my Mesmer is Looking Really Good.<br />
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">If it was up to me I'd like to go for something a little more regal, but the claw hand gloves are super awesome looking and I like skulls, so it's a tough decision to make.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">The mask is from the story mode of Ascalon Catacombs so I'm super happy that ArenaNet didn't wipe our characters because I ended the last Stress Test a level below the required 35 for the mask. This upset me a little considering you only need to be level 30 to complete story mode and the rewards at the end have lvl 35 requirements and now there was the potential chance that I'd never be able to equip the mask. Maybe the level requirement discrepancy is just a minor oversight on ArenaNet's part, but still it did leave me with a bitter taste even though the whole dungeon was so much fun. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">At any rate, this time around I could finally equip the mask and use the gear I'd worked so hard to achieve. Even if it took a month to finally wear my gear, I was happy.</span></div>
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As <a href="http://commentarilies.blogspot.com/2012/06/gw2-beauty-of-tyria.html">you read previously</a>, I actually spent nearly all of my time this weekend parked in areas taking screenshots so even though I was logged in for nearly all of the BWE I didn't actually get that much playtime in. That being said, I was pleased with how GW2 has structured itself so that you can play the game for a very small amount of time and still feel satisfied. In the last BWE I spent close to 30hours of total playtime grinding and rushing around getting 100% in every zone I could, and this time around I maybe spent a handful of hours finishing up some things and playing sPvP and WvWvW events. </div>
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I was satisfied. GW2 is coming together brilliantly.</div>
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Apart from playing around with some of the new content I also started an effort to catalog the ugly monsters I came across. Initially I was just questing around and filling out some hearts in Gendarran Fields, but once I came across these guys it really hit me. There's some crazy monsters up in Tyria.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBp_3JgKxZSf4hSX3_Taji0BnaFQ002b3_3EO3jMnK3v2F2t7iL2sy-BO5bl0CuzSzrnYiQhWYUididKcmohx9EpeSfa8qLKA7ZDYvRBooPe3jJXCVr8JHtpP-_kjFJsuwsvNqCFwXQoyN/s1600/gw043.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBp_3JgKxZSf4hSX3_Taji0BnaFQ002b3_3EO3jMnK3v2F2t7iL2sy-BO5bl0CuzSzrnYiQhWYUididKcmohx9EpeSfa8qLKA7ZDYvRBooPe3jJXCVr8JHtpP-_kjFJsuwsvNqCFwXQoyN/s400/gw043.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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This Risen Abomination started the whole idea with his spectacular grotesqueness. I just had to take a screenshot of him. God is he ugly. And unstoppable, or so it says. I hope you're happy First Haven, dealing with the undead threat isn't pleasant.
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The big guy, Veteran Ettin Chieftain, was on a skill point I needed to get near Icegate Gorge so I made him take a dirt nap. My advice for you, if you're ever faced up with the big guy, don't get hit. It's not a good way to start your day.</div>
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On a final note, I made sure to stop by the local Quaggan and say "Hi." They quite friendly once you get to know them, just be mindful of the sharks.</div>
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What stuck out for you this time around? I just can't get over how amazing GW2 looks. It's straight up gorgeous.</div>
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<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-68874007929113330612012-06-11T08:24:00.000-07:002012-06-11T08:26:57.933-07:00GW2: The Beauty of TyriaFor this Beta Weekend Event I decided to do something a little bit different.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/vpBzLzZyaSQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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I made a time lapse showcasing Tyria, and how amazing the land is to look at. I realized that I'll have plenty of time to play the game later, and since all this effort to level up and build my characters will eventually be wiped it made since to take a more casual approach to enjoying the BWE. This way I could have something of value to take away from the BWE that's more than just a couple screenshots, or some shiny new shoulders. And you can enjoy it too.</div>
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The one thing I didn't think about, but got a good kick out of once I started putting together all of my footage, is how often people would unsuspectingly photobomb my video. In the actual video you hardly notice them, but some of them are quite funny if you take them completely out of context.</div>
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<br /></div>Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-1448725779401941822012-06-07T10:26:00.001-07:002012-06-07T10:26:58.943-07:00Humble Indie Bundle V gets biggerFor those of you who are still on the fence about this whole Humble Indie Bundle V deal, it's worth considering that they just added <a href="http://www.humblebundle.com/">Braid, Super Meat Boy, and Lone Survivor</a> to the bunch. That brings the grand total to 8 games and you only need to spend $8 to get everything. That's $1 a game! What a deal!<br />
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If you've already bought the bundle don't worry! You can use your old purchase link to go and <b>activate the new additions at no extra cost! </b>It just got crazy up in here!Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-84542900014800728762012-06-07T09:54:00.000-07:002012-06-07T09:54:06.954-07:00GW2 Finding a homeFor those of you who are just now getting into the GW2 culture it may be difficult to find a place to fit in. Thankfully over at <a href="http://www.tashadarke.co.uk/2012/05/experiences-beta-1/">Attached To Keyboard</a> Tasha has aggregated a ton of data and opinions on people's thoughts of their servers after the first BWE. Furthermore, there's an <a href="http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/32389-world-choice-guilds-and-communities/page__p__1366669#entry1366669">awesome post</a> over on GuildWars2Guru with all the data on which servers well known communities will be flocking to.<br />
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The second list made it particularly easy for me to find out where I was going to house my characters. See I knew from the get go that I intend to PvP a lot, so that cut down the list of possible choices quickly. Combined with the fact that a lot of the DAoC guilds were congregating on Sorrow's Furnace my server choice essentially became a no brainer. I would live on Sorrow's Furnace and PvP with the big boys. So far it's been working out quite well.<br />
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I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised of the Sorrow's Furnace population. My typical experiences from PvP servers included groups of hostile, belittling, and immature super egos that dominated most of the server. So I figured I could expect much of the same here. I couldn't have been more wrong. I'd constantly get help questing, and people would be more than happy to just stick around in a group even after finishing an escort quest. There was a point when I stumbled into a group while wandering around Kessex Hills and before I had even stopped to think about it we had finished every renown heart in the entire zone, and cleared multiple dynamic events. Some of which at least a few group members had already done before.<br />
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If this is a sign of how GW2 is going to shape up in the future I have to say that it's going to be a wonderful place to live. The important thing is community and it sure feels like GW2 has it.Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-69082960287879919752012-06-06T12:00:00.000-07:002012-06-06T12:02:23.916-07:00LIMBO?So I finished LIMBO today and it got me to thinking about story, and how some games approach it in unique ways.<br />
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See here's LIMBO, a brilliantly artistic game with a definite sense of moody atmosphere, but the story is essentially whatever you want to make of it. Is the kid running from something? Is he trying to get somewhere? Is he trapped in some eternal death machine? Any one of these could be correct, or none of them.<br />
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There's nothing in the game that gives you a sense of what's going on, and really maybe it doesn't really matter. As a challenging, and sometimes rewarding, moody platform puzzler LIMBO succeeds. Even without dialogue, or context, it kept me playing. Maybe I just wanted to see the next new and unique way the developers had devised to kill that kid. God knows I had to have killed that kid hundreds of times. Electrocuted, stabbed by giant spiders, torn to bits by saw blades, and jumped to his death, again, again, and again. Maybe that's part of the fun in LIMBO, maybe the whole point of it is to die, get back up, and try again.<br />
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Was I satisfied? I thought the game did a great job artistically, and there were some moments where it made a wry smile creep up onto my face. LIMBO definitely pleased me, but it left me wondering.<br />
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<i>What exactly did I just play for the last 3 hours?</i><br />
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<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-63470833981836136532012-06-05T16:17:00.001-07:002012-06-05T16:20:10.452-07:00Transit of VenusGiven that the next time this solar event will happen is in 2117 I figure it's definitely worth at least mentioning.<br />
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For those of you who may not be living in the right area, or who are stuck with crappy cloud cover and cant observe it, there's an online live feed <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/watch-transit-venus/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=twitterclickthru">Over on Wired</a>.<br />
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And I took a photo.
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See that black dot? That's Venus 41,840,000 km away and traveling at 35.02km/sec. Man space is amazing.</div>Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-51184798267083746032012-06-05T09:12:00.000-07:002012-06-05T09:14:25.466-07:00GW2 Gearing up for BWE2Now that ArenaNet has posted what <a href="http://www.arena.net/blog/the-big-beta-weekend-preview">we'll be able to see and do</a> in this coming Beta Weekend Event the question arises as to what will you ACTUALLY do?<br />
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With all this new content you could spend the entire weekend crafting, exploring and fighting bandits without even stepping foot into the new PvP content. Likewise, it's entirely possible for you to spend your entire time locked in brutal combat with the newly added sPvP tournament mode. Will your team be victorious, or will you be crushed by your foes? But perhaps, it fits your fancy to go look into the explorable Ascalon Catacombs and spend all your time vanquishing the newly formed ghosts of olde?<br />
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I know I for one haven't spent nearly enough time with sPvP and WvWvW content so I'm definitely going to make sure to at least do a tournament or two, and find out what this Dark Room they speak of has to offer. I do love tricks and traps. Also, I've finally gotten my rig set up for recording video (sorry no streaming yet) so I've definitely got some plans for a steady flow of content after the beta has run its course. Expect glorious screenshots and battle reports at the very least!<br />
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Which means if you've got any ideas on what you'd like to see feel free to let me know! My Mesmer would be more than happy to risk life and limb for you.<br />
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I think the best way to describe Bastion was something my girlfriend said. I booted up the game, started my first playthrough, and from across the room it was simply:<br />
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<i>"What is that? It looks amazing!"</i></div>
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She doesn't even play computer games. At most you could find her deeply involved in a round of Words With Friends, but that would be about the extent of her "gaming." So for a game to gain her interest to that degree is something worth a great deal of praise. The art direction is just that good. Vibrant colors, and crisply drawn environments are painterly. The use of colors perfectly conveys the appropriate feeling for the story at that moment, and all of the areas have their own unique flavors. You want to keep exploring it to find out what's just around the bend. Put together with simple controls and yet an extremely complex combat system makes for a unique taste of action RPG adventure.</div>
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The way the game world builds itself up around you as you walk through it is not only a plot device, but an exceptionally amazing way to grab your attention from the first moment you step into Bastion. Combined with the subtle narrator voice dictating your story to you as you perform it makes this more than just an RPG. It grabs you and says, "Hey you. Take notice. Bastion is something you'll want to discover." The story involves you in a way that few games can achieve because of all the little details. The narration makes the story more personal, there's no gigantic walls of text to read and since everything is being told to you during your adventure you gain a connection between the narrator and your actions.</div>
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He's telling you what you need to know, and he's telling you about yourself. It's all canned recordings, but the manner in which this information is presented to you makes it feel natural, fluid almost. It feels like your personal story, not some list pre-recorded plot highlights.</div>
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Bastion is the game you want to keep playing and it's the little details that make it succeed so well.<br />
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<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-41810469798173179322012-06-01T11:58:00.000-07:002012-06-04T11:31:02.328-07:00Borderlands. I'm an SMG Bulletstorm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Borderlands is a pretty old game, but if you're not familiar with it I'll preface this with the basic idea.</div>
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Kill things. Get Loot. Be a Badass.</div>
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I've been playing it on and off since the GOTY Steam sale back during the beginning of 2012. You could say, it's been my go to game when I need a quick fix of brutal satisfying carnage. Initially I didn't buy it when it came out because I was too busy with Starcraft 2, and other things, but since Borderlands had always been on my list of games to play when you add in the sale price it was pretty much a no brainer. I love future apocalypse landscapes and Gearbox's marketing is simply genius.</div>
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A Gazillion guns? Oh yes please. Don't mind if I do.</div>
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So here's the situation. I've been playing for a while and building up an SMG Siren. I don't typically go to wikis or walkthroughs unless I really find something impossible, so little to my knowledge a SMG Siren is really quite good. I've been seeing my fair share of good drops, orange pistols, 'holy crap it shoots rockets' shotguns, and various elemental SMGs but nothing really spectacular. The loot was good enough to get me through my first playthrough, including all the DLC, without much trouble, so I wasn't really complaining much.</div>
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Then at the end of my second playthrough of the normal story, just before you finally get to the Vault, BAMMO!</div>
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This crap is bananas! And that's putting it lightly. If you don't quite understand what's going on here let me break it down for you:</div>
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It's an SMG. My Siren uses SMGs.</div>
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It has an 82 round clip. Yay bullets.</div>
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It shoots HELL OF A FAST. Yay more bullets!</div>
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It shoots <b>4 BULLETS EVERY TIME A NORMAL GUN ONLY SHOOTS ONE</b></div>
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Essentially. A HX 4 Double Anarchy SMG is capable of unloading its entire 82 round clip in roughly 2 seconds. That maths out to one bullet every .024 seconds.</div>
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Here's a video. I think that describes it best.<br />
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Borderlands just got fun again.</div>
<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-56830154871892095472012-05-31T18:29:00.003-07:002012-06-04T13:21:43.405-07:00Humble Indie Bundle V!Or in other words how to get <a href="http://www.humblebundle.com/">Bastion, Amnesia, Psychonauts, Limbo, and Sword & Sorcery for $7.50</a><br />
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What's that? Not interested you say? Alone all those games normally would retail for $110. Get on it you gamers you. It's the best deal you can get this side of Christmas.<br />
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Did I mention you get all the soundtracks too? And that it's for charity? Why are you still reading this? You should be playing Bastion by now!Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-60476431052792326942012-05-31T10:18:00.000-07:002012-05-31T10:18:19.820-07:00NBI Wrapup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It is without question a fact that if it wasn't for the <a href="http://nbihq.freeforums.org/index.php?sid=daffbad849a966632842357c61bf6d80">Newbie Blogger Initiative</a> I wouldn't have started this blog. Thanks <a href="http://biobreak.wordpress.com/">Syp</a> for carpet bombing the internet to such a degree that even I, who before this month only read <a href="http://www.killtenrats.com/">one gaming blog</a>, got the blogging bug. And now every weekday for the last 2 weeks I've written something. If you discount work emails and job applications, that's more writing than I've done for the last 2 years. Easily. And that's what I find is really cool. Initially I was afraid that getting into blogging I'd just stumble around with nothing to say about much of anything. As it turns out I actually have a whole lot more to say than I initially thought, and surprisingly some people actually read it.<br />
<br />Thank you mysterious people, you're awesome.<br />
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What have I taken away from this month the most? Probably These two posts:<br /><br /><a href="http://jadedalt.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/if-you-remember-nothing-else-write-mmonbi/">If you remember Nothing Else .... WRITE!</a> -JadedAlt<br />
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<a href="http://www.professorbeej.com/2012/05/hey-newbie-stop-writing.html">Hey, Newbie! Stop Writing!</a> -ProfessorBeej<br />
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Notice an connection here? All the advice that's meant the most to me has simply been "Get out there and put what you're thinking down into words!" You can do all this planning, and over think every word of your posts, but in the end what really matters is that you're blogging. Sometimes it is prudent to do some research, but generally what people want about your blog is a real person talking about their real experiences. If you glossy it up with too much polish then there isn't any <i>real</i> left for people to enjoy.<br />
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And that realness is what I enjoy the most about blogging. It's knowing that what I'm reading is actually coming from someone out there in the world and not a printing press worth of publishers and editors.<br />
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If you want a full list of all the bloggers from NBI go check out <a href="http://biobreak.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/nbi-month-wrapup/">Syp's wrapup</a>, but I'll warn you there's a whole hell of a lot of new bloggers now so be prepared to do some reading. Some good, interesting, enjoyable, luscious reading.Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-42856964672836126912012-05-30T10:35:00.000-07:002012-05-30T10:35:35.527-07:00PC Review: Origin eon-15sHere's something a little different for you all.<br />
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Recently I've been talking about games all this time, but really I feel that it's important to cover the gear that runs them so let's get right to it.<br />
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<i>Note: As of my writing this Origin has released a new model of eon-15s. That being said the difference between the new laptop and my current build is almost nothing. The difference between gtx 580m and gtx 675m is actually nonexistent. In fact the 675m is actually the <a href="http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-675M.70785.0.html">same board as the 580m</a> just running at a 1-3% higher clock speed. So regardless of the numbers this review still pertains to the newer model eon-15s almost entirely.</i><br />
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About 2 months ago my laptop (alienware) of 4 years decided to fry itself into oblivion. It had been a good computer but was definitely starting to show signs of aging. Add on the fact that it was still ruining DirectX 9 in all reality it probably was time for an upgrade, I just needed the right excuse. I had been doing some research here and there till that point, as I knew that my computer would bite the dust relatively soon, and to my dismay nearly every major computer manufacture was peddling what I'd like to call <b>total crap</b>.<br />
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If we're looking at just the PC market everything had outdated videocards, small displays, and puny processors. Sure you could get a 750gb HDD, or some form of a SSD, but for my actual work I'm a <a href="http://somethingaboutrobots.com/">product designer</a>, so not only do I need something with a quality, high resolution, screen I also need a processor that can render video files with ease and chug through extremely complex computer models without flinching. Those factors alone almost require an ultra high end gaming computer. The final nail in the coffin to mortal PC's is it <b>has to be portable</b>. I do a fair amount of freelance work, so I need something I can just toss into a backpack and go, which means anything larger than 15" is out of the question.<br />
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I would love to get a Mac, and as a designer I feel like sometimes it's my obligation to do so, but in this case the Mac just wasn't going to cut it. Most of the programs I run (Guild Wars 2 :D) can only be run on a Windows OS and I wasn't about to go and shell out an extra $300 above the already premium Mac price to install Windows, so I had to look elsewhere.<br />
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The list essentially got broken down to boutique premium laptop companies: Origin, IbuyPower, and Falcon Northwest. IbuyPower didn't have the options I wanted, and while Falcon Northwest was essentially identical to Origin I wasn't about to go and pay an extra $800 for some candy paint. The reasons I went this way can be broken down in a simple list:<br /><br /><b>15" 1920x1080 screen</b><br />
<b>Full Keyboard (with number pad!)</b><br />
<b>USB 3.0</b><br />
<b>i7-2760QM (2.4GHz)</b><br />
<b>Nvidia GTX 580m</b><br />
<b>16GB Ram</b><br />
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Does the laptop work? Hell yes it does! The 1920x1080 screen is spectacular, though I've found that in a 15" size I have to set the default web browser zoom to 125% so I'm not squinting to read the text. This is not a bad problem to have. The first thing I noticed with I booted up the laptop was how spectacularly crisp everything is. It's amazing. And having a gtx 580m running in the background means that you can actually play all your fancy games at this high of a resolution and not have to turn down any of the settings.<br />
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Starcraft 2 on Ultra? Check<br />
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Borderlands totally maxed? Check<br />
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Diablo 3 totally maxed? Check<br />
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Guild Wars 2 totally maxed? Check <i>(note: GW2 is currently processor locked, so that's actually more of a sign to how good the i7 processor is, but also means that the speeds in GW2 will only get better over time. awesome!)</i><br />
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Even at these settings I'm still getting 40-60 fps in most cases. Could I get higher FPS if I dropped the settings a little? Yes. But there's a certain satisfaction of running a game with everything maxed out that you just can't pass up. Up until this point I had only ever been ruining Starcraft 2 poorly on Medium, it's like I've been living in a cave for the last 4 years and someone finally turned the lights on. I'm never going back.<br />
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On more of a physical side, the chiclet keyboard is super nice. It has great tactility to the typing and definitely responds to even my most feverish Starcraft AMPs. (Did I mention if it wasn't for the fact that I work for a living I would probably be a Masters level Zerg?) I would, however, normally use a standard keyboard for gaming, but sometimes you just don't have that option and this one works out great when that's the case. I only have 2 complaints, firstly is the proximity of the F-keys to 'escape.' Given that it's a 15" laptop the board is pretty crammed together and that proximity can make for some annoying accidental key presses if you're not being careful. Secondly is that some genius who designed this board put the SLEEP function key DIRECTLY BETWEEN MUTE AND VOLUME DOWN. Not paying attention when you want to mute an annoying youtube ad? Computer goes to sleep mode. God that's annoying.<br />
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All in all it's a great computer. If you're ok parting with over $2k of your hard earned savings you definitely won't be disappointed. You just have to know that the build time can take in the upwards of a month, so even with rush delivery it will take forever to get to you.<br />
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Finally here's some short gameplay videos I put together to give you an idea of how it generally plays. Even with the FPS hit from xfire both games were still running above 40fps. Totally Stoked.<br />
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Borderlands</div>
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Starcraft 2</div>
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<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-4739561738136631522012-05-29T11:31:00.000-07:002012-05-29T11:31:31.704-07:00GW2 The BWE Downtime GameAs many of you have already read this morning ArenaNet announced that the <a href="http://www.arena.net/blog/announcing-the-next-guild-wars-2-beta-weekend">next BWE will be from June 8th-11th</a> and there's some interesting bits in there that should be of interest to you. Particularly all your characters will be kept.<br />
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I find this to be great news because after spending 30+ hrs building up a Mesmer over the course of the last BWE and Stress Test I would hate to have to do it all over again. Of course I totally would do it all over again, and probably take the opportunity to explore some different options starting out. Maybe go through the Charr story instead. I really fell in love with their starting area when I was exploring around and just having fun. Their dynamic events have a particular flavor to them that's really fun and unique. You're definitely not going to find little human kids running around commenting on how badass they are when you kill ghosts for them.<br />
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With that in mind, I can't wait to see what the Asura and Sylvari zones have to offer. I've been gripped by the Sylvari lore since they were first announced and was planning on making one even before they became <a href="http://www.arena.net/blog/kristen-perry-on-designing-and-redesigning-the-sylvari">even more awesome</a>. I just hope we don't have to wait too long to get a chance to see what they have to offer. And all this waiting has really gotten me thinking what to do in all this GW2 downtime? I'm not going to pony up for Diablo 3 right now because, well frankly I don't have the money, but that's besides the point. I know that once GW2 launches I'm just going to shelve everything else anyway so I don't really think it's a great idea to go and buy a bunch of stuff potentially months before you stop playing it entirely.<br />
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So I've been picking up hobbies, like blogging, for example, and I've been watching SC2 streams over at <a href="http://www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/">TeamLiquid</a>. As well as chugging through the Brutal campaign in SC2. Sometimes that campaign just feels like you're smashing your head into a brick wall. It's like a test in how much of a masochist you are. Honestly, I don't think it's really worth it, but it's something to keep me entertained in the meantime. I'm also going through and finishing up Playthrough #2 of Borderlands. I've built up a SMG Siren to the point that almost nothing poses much of a threat though, so it's really more to get some kind of FPS kick than anything else. There's a few Achievements I have left to get, but the Underdome is retarded and I don't really feel like spending 16hrs of arena grinding to get 4 more achievements.<br />
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Vanilla GuildWars has always had a special interest for me so I log back in there from time to time, but given that I've already gotten 40/50 in my HoM I've almost entirely retired my character to playing dollhouse with all the armor sets I've collected and screwing around in Random Arenas from time to time. And with the gargantuan time commitment I'd have to invest in order to get another 5 HoM points it's one of those things that I'm really not interested in anymore.<br />
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What have you been doing in this downtime? Are you still working on finishing up your HoM? Or is there something entirely different that's been keeping your attention? I hear a lot of people have been logging back into old favorites to pass the time.Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6164878634098816967.post-37218493907497122192012-05-28T12:02:00.000-07:002012-05-28T15:43:03.878-07:00GW2 Building a Mesmer pt.3Now that you have a good idea of <a href="http://commentarilies.blogspot.com/2012/05/gw-and-mesmers-short-history-pt1.html">the history of Mesmers</a>, and how <a href="http://commentarilies.blogspot.com/2012/05/gw2-mesmers-role-pt2.html">Mesmers fit into GW2</a>. It's time to get more analytic around here and go into the gritty details of traits, and builds, and stats. This will most definitely be the longest post of the ones to date, but I promise if you read through it the information will be well worth your trouble.<br />
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<i>(Note: I realize it's probably worth mentioning that until Guild Wars 2 actually releases the trait lines will most likely change, so take this information with a grain of salt. Depending on when you're reading this it may or may not be completely accurate to the current state of the game. Because of this I'm going to try and be as general as I can with the builds and trait suggestions. That way if the trait lines change during the course of later Beta Weekend Events, and the eventual Release sometime in 2012, at least some of this information will still be pertinent.)</i><br />
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<b>Starting out, and leveling</b><br />
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I'm a firm believer that when leveling up in PvE you should always put your first five points into the Chaos trait line. <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Metaphysical_Rejuvenation">Metaphysical Regeneration</a> is simply spectacular for starting out leveling. The regeneration this gives you means that you can run through larger mobs, and even higher level mobs, without having to worry about your health as much. Furthermore, you have the freedom to be a little more careless with the encounters you engage in. If you take an extra hit that puts your health below 75% the regen can almost completely negate the damage you just took.<br />
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After those first five points the rest of your point allocation has a lot to do with how you plan to flush out your character. Keep in mind though that until you get to level 40 you'll be limited to 10 points in any one trait line, so at the earlier levels it can be fun to diversify a little (you're somewhat forced to, actually) and find out what some of the trait lines you hadn't been considering have to offer. Once you unlock the major traits at 10 points you are free to change them whenever you're not in combat. Go ahead, experiment around, use all the major traits and find out which ones work best for you. It doesn't cost you anything. One person may really enjoy the traits that give them bonuses for interrupting foes, but if you find that interrupts are a little challenging for you then maybe it would be a better idea to go for some of the passive abilities. A 30% bonus to your Mind Wrack damage can definitely finish off mobs quickly with a well timed spike.<br />
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With all that being said though, here's some basic builds I've put together that should serve as a good starting point for pretty much anyone who wants to give Mesmers a try. I feel that there's enough utility and variety here to cover pretty much everything, but if you've got a great build idea that isn't covered here feel free to let me know. I'm always open for ideas and suggestions.<br />
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So without further ado, let's get right to it.<br />
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<b>The Melee Mesmer</b><br />
<b>30/30/0/0/10</b><br />
Primary Stats: Power, Precision<br />
Weapons: Sword + Torch // Greatsword<br />
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Many of you have read my <a href="http://commentarilies.blogspot.com/2012/05/gw2-mesmers-and-melee.html">previous post</a> about the Melee Mesmer so this may be more of a refresher, but for the sake of completeness I figure it merits including so everything can be together in one place.<br />
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Initially I had thought up this as a PvP build. The rational was that the Mesmer has enough survivability and escape options that if you used good tactics it would potentially be possible to stand toe to toe with any class. Furthermore, the ability to use dodge as a method for Illusion generation meant that you could free up some utility slots for escape skills. I still have to do some testing with some of the more specific aspects, especially whether or not the stealth at 25% trait will allow you to survive one of the many "one shot warriors" running around right now or not. The questions is that if a warrior slaps you for a 17k crit, or a serious hundred blades hit, would the stealth override it and negate the damage that goes past 25% of your health? Or would you straight up die? I feel it's worth some looking into, because if you can survive their initial hit then I feel the Mesmer has a distinct chance of taking a warrior on straight up. Though it definitely wouldn't be all that easy and you'd have to be a boss at utilizing Distortion at the right times. It's possible, that in the current meta game a warrior would probably be the hardest 1v1 match up right now (probably for anyone actually).<br />
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At any rate, when I thought up this idea I was mainly doing PvE content with my guild I figured I'd branch out a little and see if maybe I could get a Melee idea to work in PvE. And it did. Since most mobs don't have the capacity to one shot you, apart from some bosses, you don't need to slot in as much survivability and can instead focus on increasing your damage output, though having a high vitality and toughness is definitely a good idea. Other things that change in PvE is that you no longer need to focus heavily on traits that drop conditions, or increase mobility since mobs generally don't kite you much. The one issue with this build is that given the prominence of ranged classes right now in GW2 it can be tough getting a hit in before everything dies, which can potentially limit your 'contribution value' for dynamic events. Once ArenaNet fixes <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Illusionary_Leap">Illusionary Leap</a>, and the subsequent swap skill, I don't think that will be as much of an issue though. If it was up to me the range could be increased as well, I feel it's a little short to act as a true gap closer and as it stands right now if I keep running at my target then by the time the Illusion has leapt I'll already be on top of the mob anyway.<br />
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Either way I've still been having fun with this build. It definitely gives the Mesmer some good straight up damage potential. It also feels like something you shouldn't be doing, which I really like.<br />
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<b>The Condition Mesmer</b><br />
<b>10/0/30/0/30</b><br />
Primary Stats: Toughness, Vitality<br />
Weapons: Staff // Scepter + Pistol<br />
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Without question I was using a build like this for much of my leveling. Back in my WoW days I had fantasies of playing a warlock, but for whatever reason I never stuck with leveling one up much past the 50s. This build definitely feels like it fills that void. It's got some serious survivability (so much so that I could even argue that with some minor tweaking it could be great in PvP) you just have <b>so much toughness</b>. It can, however be rough starting out because it won't be until you get to lvl 60 where your toughness will start to contribute towards your condition damage. But <i>after that point</i> you get some serious damage output. It's pretty stupid actually. Though, even at low levels (~25) I've soloed champion mobs with some effective use of kiting.<br />
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Something worth pointing out is that you absolutely have to get <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Illusionary_Elasticity">Illusionary Elasticity</a>. Remember the primary staff attack is actually a bounce attack, so that extra bounce means more conditions on your foes or an extra might on an ally. Also because of this if you're soloing mobs it's actually a good idea to try and stay just outside of melee range that way the bounce of your staff will bounce off of you as well and really mess some stuff up. You don't really have to worry about getting hit because with all that toughness you've been stacking you're going to have a lot of damage reduction.<br />
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As a final note I've got a plan to play around with <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Decent_Into_Madness">Decent Into Madness</a> in PvP. On paper it sounds like it could make for a lot of fun. There's enough height in the Battle of Kyhlo that you could easily take fall damage when you initiate on someone. Land on someone's face with a surprise chaos storm and then start wrecking. It might work?<br />
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<b>The Healing Mesmer</b><br />
<b>10/0/30/30/0</b><br />
Primary Stats: Healing, Vitality/Toughness<br />
Weapons: Staff // Scepter + Focus<br />
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ArenaNet lied. There are <b>totally healers in GW2</b> and I feel like there's a lot of merit to the healing Mesmer. If you're running a lot of dungeons, or dynamic events you can help out a ton of people given that there's no upper limit to how many people can currently benefit from the <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phantasmal_Healing">Phantasmal Healing</a>, they just have to be in range.<br />
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With the right Phantasm generation skills you could essentially keep regeneration up 100% which is super awesome in fights that have constant DoT pressure such as the Lovers in Ascalon Catacombs. You just have to make sure to take <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Persisting_Images">Persisting Images</a>, that way your Phantasms will actually stay alive long enough to help. I also recommend going with ranged Phantasms, they tend to do a much better job of not getting dead.<br />
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Then if you want to further go crazy with the healing you can take advantage of mantras, which are super fun by the way, as a way to <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Restorative_Mantras">actually heal your party</a>. It takes a little bit of planning, but since the Mesmers have <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mantra_of_Concentration">mantras</a> <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mantra_of_Distraction">up</a> <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mantra_of_Pain">the</a> <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mantra_of_Resolve">wazoo</a> you can really start going crazy with the healing. And with a mantra for a <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mantra_of_Recovery">healing skill</a> combined with being able to trait most mantras to <a href="http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Harmonious_Mantras">activate twice</a> it can get totally nuts. Heal yourself, <b>heal your party</b>. Interrupt the boss,<b> heal your party</b>. Remove your conditions, <b>heal your party</b>. Kill a mob, <b>heal your party</b>.<br />
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Talk about Synergy! I Love It! It's like being a freaking priest. A confusion generating, damage dealing, phantasmal arcane death priest. Totally Boss.<br />
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<b>-----</b><br />
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And there you have it. Hopefully by now you'll have some ideas on how to go about playing a Mesmer, or maybe I just confused you even more. Heck there's so many options that honestly I don't even know which way I'll end up going in the end, but that's half the fun. The ability to have so much diversity in one class is simply amazing. And that's what makes GW2 worth playing. Regardless who you are there's guaranteed to be a class that fits your play style.<br />
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Have fun out in Tyria my Mesmers! From here on out Madame Valerian will be on Sorrow's Furnace. Don't be a stranger!<br />
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<br />Valerianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05661798174080542469noreply@blogger.com