I mentioned in my other post that I had seen the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace and I came out feeling somewhat torn about the film.

Now yes I recognize that the franchise is trying to go in a more down to earth “book oriented” direction than some of the previous films, but walking out of QoS I couldn’t help feel that I had just watched a Jason Bourne movie rather than a Bond flick. With the fact that Quantum is indeed a Iam Fleming short story, the movie comes off as way to quick as well.

Of course the movie has great action, Daniel Craig is good and the directing is tight as we see Bond through the lens of Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, The Kite Runner). However watching it seemed to me like watching another action movie where the plot once again, like Casino Royale, leaves itself hanging and we still wonder exactly HOW Quantum functions or who is behind it. Now I know it is “par the course” to setup a major villain for all the movies but in the meantime can we please at least have meaningful “minor” villains. The major plot in Quantum of Solace is Bond getting to the bottom of who killed Vesper Lynd. While he tracks this down he faces a Quantum middle management bad guy that is…well…he is stealing water. Yes, that is right: stealing water. Please.

First off, do NOT change the name of Bond’s ultimate nemesis organization. What happened to SPECTRE? Will we even see a Ernst Stavro Blofeld? If we are going back to Bond basics why is this general plot information being changed around and made even more confusing? Meanwhile in this film we have no gadgets, no really stunning women, and no massive end movie fight scene like the classics in Moonraker or Thunderball. I realize that Bond needed a change and we were all growing tired of the formula, but I thought that Casino Royale kept the root of the franchise alive and at the same time made it grittier. Now with Quantum of Solace we have what amounts to a neutered Bond film that becomes one action scene after another with nothing that makes it very “Bondish”. Honestly if I wanted Bourne movie I would simply wait for the 4th Bourne film.

I guess now we will have to wait for a 3rd Daniel Craig Bond movie to FINALLY get a look at this Quantum society. While one of my favorite scenes in the new Bond movie was the opera house scene where we get a glimpse of some Quantum members, it was not ENOUGH to satisfy my curiosity as to where the script writers are taking this thing. Quantum, you are no Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Think of some of the great Bond villains of all time and honestly I have really been let down in the latest Bond movies by these villains doing “normal everyday” type villainy. An arms dealer and a guy stealing water to destabilize a government? Big deal. Where are the Emilio Largos, the Mr. Wints and Mr. Kidds, the Doctor No’s and the Rosa Klebbs? I miss those classic villains.

I am not saying Quantum of Solace is a terrible film. QoS features a well played deeper and more violent Bond than we have come to imagine and does have a good backstory with MI:6 and some other things. I really hated the villain and the overall plot. I guess if I had my choice I would wait for this one as a renter to be honest. I enjoyed the new Tom Cruise movie trailer (Valkyrie) and the Star Trek trailer more.

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Saw this before the new Bond movie, and it is already hitting the internet. In case you have not seen it here it is, and I thought it was pretty damn awesome. I now cannot wait until May of next year.

Filed under: movies, movies | 15 Comments

Gwarf, my new orc warrior in World of Warcraft, hit level 60 this weekend. His /played was 2 days and 21 hours.

His skills are low but his gear consists of the best blues from Lower Black Rock Spire, Blackrock Depths and whatever I could scrounge on the AH. Now the real work begins.

Tarkas, his shaman brother sits at level 59 and 18 bubs in, one quest turn in from level 60. Since Refer a Friend recruit characters cannot grant the free levels if they ding 60, the shaman will have to wait. I have 38 free levels to give out at the moment (got some other levels off alts on the recruit account that leveled) so now I have to pick a class that will level from 22-60 in about 15 minutes.

That is where I sit at the moment. Have not explored Lich King, I am enjoying myself and not getting caught up in the level fervor.

Hellfire Penninsula, the Outlands newbie zone, is JAM PACKED with so many Death Knights I want to kick a donkey in the balls. I haven’t seen it this bad since Burning Crusade launched. Whatever Blizzard intended to do with the level 55 thing is working.

People are running 5 man Hellfire Ramparts with all Death Knights due to their unique self heals. Quests are being done once more in Western Plaguelands and on the whole it seems the game has found new life 55-70. I am ready to go as well, back to tanking and the push to level 70 with my warrior once things get settled. I have a wedding to go to next Friday so my week is limited. Last day off is today, then I am done for the year other than “official holidays”. Saw the new Bond film Saturday. More later.

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Got my collector’s edition of Wrath of the Lich King this morning, I have one more coming from Amazon as well for, one for each of my main accounts. Sadly, my new orc shaman’s Refer a Friend account will be Wrath collector’s edition petless, but that is ok, he is getting fast levels and just needs to shut up.

 The line in Fry’s was back to the movie department, everyone had Lich King in hand, some businessmen were buying 2-3 copies. This is just in Downer’s Grove Illinois. If this is happening all over, Blizzard is set to make a TON of money. I went to buy one this morning because Amazon and Gamestop do not know what DELIVER ON LAUNCH DAY MEANS. Sure, it may get here at like 12 or 1pm, but for gaming nerds that is not ON LAUNCH DAY. We want to be installed patched and ready to go when the servers are up, not paying extra shipping for the damn thing to get here “when the mail arrives”. So at 8am I was in line to get my copy ASAP.

JoBildo asked me in email this morning, as I was standing in a long line of WoW nerds at EIGHT FREAKING AM, if I would be able to resist going into Northrend and seeing all their is to see. I can answer that with a resounding YES. You see, when Warhammer Online launched I took my time as well, and people outleveled me like mad. I took a day off today to enjoy things. After powerleveling my orcs to level 49 last night, I was ready to get off the PC and relax. What better way than to watch the DVD that comes with the Wrath CE?

Blizzard always makes a good DVD, the Burning Crusade DVD was almost 2 hours long and packed with interviews, clip scenes, trailers, Blizzcon discussion panels and more. The Lich King DVD, while smaller in time, packs a ton of info as well.

When I got home I busted open my huge CE box, took out my mouse pad, my soundtrack, my DVD, put aside my WoW TCG cards, and then installed the X-PAC.

I told JoBildo that the order I wanted to do things were as follows:

1) Rip soundtrack to my IPOD. I don’t care what anyone says, World of Warcraft has the best music in an MMO today. EQ2 is close, and I did buy that soundtrack as well. But on my IPOD I have WoW1, WoW2 and WoW3 now for over 2 hours of kick ass music from Azeroth

2) Unwrap and look at the art book, which has a sleeve this time around and is a noticeable step up from the Burning Crusade version. Artbook number two is going straight to EBAY.

3) Situate the mousepad, add the cards to my TCG drawer I never use anymore, and then pop the DVD into the player.

4) Take a shower

5) Bust out some beef jerky and watch the Lich King movie stuff.

Later this morning I will log in, but I am still pondering just which TWO accounts to upgrade.

Blizzard did a smart thing with the Lich King installer. This time around, they fill in the entire back story of Arthas and you can actually click through the story and read up on what you may have missed for the Lore handicapped. I had it minimized and when I came back to check it realized I had missed a huge story but then saw the click through arrows and realized I could backtrack. Pretty neat stuff. Once again a flawless install and technically sound, no issues so far. OFF WE GO!

By the way, Arthas is a jackass. I would love to slap him down one day, at level 80. Assuming I could find a good 25 man raiding guild and they would accept me, and maybe they could get me in during my raid ti—- ohhh….forget it.

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At midnight Wrath of the Lich King opened its shores to all newcomers. I didn’t have the expansion installed yet but kept close tabs on the number of Death Knights as the eastern time zone people logged in and then the central time zone people came home with their copies. The numbers exploded of course as time passed the 12:19 or so mark, meaning people had driven home and installed and logged back in. The first death knight on my Horde server was online fairly soon, being in the eastern time zone.

After that, it was very quiet for a while. Not even much guild chat. I checked out the Stormwind docks on my old alliance server and they were eerily silent except for a few 70’s. Then after 12:20 or so massive hordes of level 70’s started to form up on the docks, eager to catch the boat over to Northrend.

I went back to business as usual, trying to level my orcs (via Refer a Friend) to level 50. I came up ONE level short. In the span of a day I took the orc brothers Gwarf and Tarkas to level 49 before I just couldn’t go on. Sleep overcame me and I had to crash. If I had had even 2 hours extra this week not related to the servers being down, I could have done it. However, level 49 is not too bad. I also found out that you cannot grant the free levels gained from Refer a Friend to someone equal to or higher than the recruits level. Which means I HAVE to take these orcs to level 60 then level up another alt to 30 so I can buff them to level 60. Ah well, the best laid plans. This means I have to follow the instance grinding guilde to the letter.

The loot dropping in Zul’Farak has been good to Gwarf, my warrior. Already he has the Big Bad Pauldrons and the blue polearm called the Diabolic Sliver. My shaman has enjoyed the free blue loots also, getting the Jinxed Hoodoo Kilt as well as the Jinxed Hoodoo Skin chest item.

Running 5 mans as your own little tight 3 man unit has its advantages, as my new characters are geared to the hilt with the best the game has to offer from each high level 5 man instance in the old world.

I will report more over the weekend, but level 50 is not far off for the experimental orcs. I have logged 1 day and 13 hours played so far. Not too shabby. Almost time for the home stretch to level 60.

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Ok so as time starts to get close, it looks like due to two days of downtime I will not meet my goal of level 50 on both characters I am power leveling via Refer a Friend. Now this question remains, as they have just hit level 44:

Do I take the 20 or so free levels I have earned and immediately throw them on my orc Warrior Gwarf to shoot him to level 60 so he can hit the Outlands right now and move on to Lich King with my mage? Or do I keep plugging along and level them both to 50 by tomorrow morning? Tough decision.

Keep in mind that I can easily get more levels to take my soon to be level 30 warlock to 60, but I really want a high level Horde Warrior for the upcoming expansion pack. Not sure what I want to do, but as time dwindles away tonight I will have to give this more thought. Originally I was going to save 30 levels to take a warlock from 30-60, and then also have a 60 shaman and warrior. I might have to stick to my plan as my Shaman/Warrior combo was honestly meant to duo the Outlands. The A.D.D. in me however wants to go ahead and do this RIGHT now to have a 60 for tomorrow. Not sure why I am typing this, but I had to get it out of my head.

Ok back to the game. Cheers all!

Filed under: world of warcraft, world of warcraft | 2 Comments

I am always on the look out for my favorite movies restored to Blu-ray, so that I can get what I think is going to be the BEST picture quality for them in one format once and for all. I noticed today that the awards for the second High-Def Disc Awards were given out and on it were some surprising winners. I passed on the Godfather on Blu-ray when it was on sale at Best Buy and now I think I should have probably jumped on it.

Here is the complete list of award winners:

Best of Show: The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration Collection
Best Theatrical Blu-ray: Iron Man
Best Catalog Blu-ray: The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration Collection
Best Animated Blu-ray: Ratatouille
Best Picture Quality: Ratatouille
Best Audio Quality: Transformers
Best Bonus Feature: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, “Enter the Maelstrom”
Best Overall Extras: Heroes: Season 2
Best Use of BD Live: Men in Black
Best Collection/Multidisc Set: Harry Potter: Years 1-5 Limited Edition Gift Set
Best Nontheatrical Blu-ray: Stargate: Continuum
Best Nonfiction Blu-ray: Step Into Liquid
Judges’ Special Citation — Best Demonstration Disc: I, Robot

Because of Blu-ray’s high storage capacity and potential for extensive extras, three awards were devoted to bonus materials. Best overall extras went to Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s Heroes: Season 2 Blu-ray boxed set. Best single bonus feature went to the “Enter the Maelstrom” visual effects breakdown on Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. A new category, best use of BD Live, was won by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s Men in Black.

While I disagree TOTALLY with the Iron Man win (hell There Will Be Blood looked better on Blu-ray) I do have to admit that Transformers and Harry Potter were extremely well done on Blu-ray format and well worth the investment. You can read more on the awards at THIS LINK.

One last Blu-ray news flash. Looking for your Lord of the Rings fix? Don’t get too excited anytime soon. Bad news is that when Warner releases the films next year, they will be the theatrical versions. Good news? Peter Jackson wants to save the extended versions for a Blu-ray boxset to be released near the same time ‘The Hobbit’ hits the movie shows.

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Oh hey everyone. Caught me just up and chugging down a hot x-large of Dunkin Donuts, the company that is kicking Starbucks in the teeth. 

Let me just click a few icons here…there we go. Yup ok lets try logging in. Oh, what is this. Maintenance again. Hmmm. Ok lets try this little icon here.

Yup yup, I accept the EULA. Hmm all low population except two oceantic servers. Boring.

World of Warcraft servers are down again, Warhammer is really empty this morning, and I can’t find the means to tear myself away from Wizard 101. Might as well talk about it.

Yesterday, with the WoW servers down, I played Wizard 101 more than I would care to admit. Yes ok I am addicted to the game. Even if the WoW servers had been up, I would have played for at least 2 hours. You see, I found the Halloween quests (a bit late I know) and started to really get hooked on those before I had to head out for a 3:30 movie at the local theatre.

If there is one thing that irks me about the game, it is the incredibly hard chat system and just how locked down it is. Wizard 101, being for all audiences, really tightens its grip on the whole “young kid safety thing” and makes it virtually impossible to type out a complete sentence without being edited like a Cold War edition of Pravda. This type of lockdown can lead to some funny chats, much like Stargrace and I had last night. Simple things such as trying to type out what level you are lead to comments like “fourth plus the first” or “second plus a third”. Getting around that requires some finageling on your account page, but there is still no hard way to turn off the in game chat filter. Still, besides that fact, I found myself taking quests and running about attempting to get many things done. One of them was killing a skeleton that lives in a tower in Unicorn Way named Rattlebones. This would be my first attempt at killing a named, and I went in not thinking or knowing what to expect. The first attempt was miserable and I died. After recovering, I went back and was determined to help Ceren Nightchant take that skeleton down. This time I entered the fight a little better prepared.

One thing I am noticing about Wizard 101 is that it does in fact play like a collectible card game. You need to notice patterns, and think ahead about what cards to play especially if you have a hand that stinks. This time I noticed that Rattlebones always buffed himself and that would give me a free round to plan a heal ahead of time (with Life magic, which was my secondary to my Fire primary school). I had to take his little minion out first as well. Planning that way, I was able to win the battle easily the second time.

When I grouped with Stargrace later in the evening I learned that the first person to step into the battle ring was usually targeted first. Everything has a pattern. Since I entered the battle first, being a little anxious, I was easily dispatched since I was only level “FOUR PLUS ONE”. Anyway, even though I didn’t get to clear the “halloween tower” I still got gear that I cannot use until level 10 and 15. Not bad for a few fights. The Halloween Towers only appear during the holiday, and what is cool about them is that you can pick 3 levels of difficulty. Grouping in this game is done openly, so before you go in to the instanced spooky towers, you step on a teleporter pad and wait for your friends to step on also. Now much like an errant Star Trek tractor beam gone bad, some people may JUMP onto the pads and join your party before you head in, which leads to some unexpected company when you arrive in the instance. I didn’t mind really, but I wonder what were to happen if you had 3 friends and all of you didn’t get a spot on the teleporter pad at the right moment, and someone (like a red shirted Star Trek crewman) got left behind. I haven’t cleared a whole tower yet. My two attempts ended in my death for one, and the other my little group of Harry Potter rejects got stuck on the second level when the stairs would not open. Got me on that one.

Overall, with the minigames, quests and Halloween events I am finding more than I can handle to do in this game, and that is all I ask of my MMO’s. Tons of people are playing, the world is vibrant and alive and I have to say this game was quite a surprise. I am starting to amass a collection of gear and trinkets and special cards and it is really starting to come together. At level 5 I was able to train new cards into my deck and expand my attack abilities so it is really starting to take shape.

One last rant today as I foresee the angry blog posts from jaded “I don’t do end game” bloggers start to filter in around the community.

Today is a day dedicated to World of Warcraft. Midnight tonight is the opening of a new expansion that will bring two years of hate posts, happy posts, raiding quibbles, angry bloggers and tons of downtime to our servers. Midnight marks the end of an era for Burning Crusade, with 60% of the bloggers that hate it so much never even trying it or attempting to run a single five man or ten man. I myself never saw more than one 25 man raid. Mainly because I quit and was left feeling sorry for myself, exactly what a lot of bloggers do when they level cap and pout. Not this time. You have to work in any MMO at the end game. if you don’t want to, then simply do not bitch about it. I look at blogging content the likes of which we see over at The Ancient Gaming Noob and I have to think he is doing it right. John basically caps out, and moves on. If you do not want to participate in that part of the game after level cap, or even attempt to make your character the best it can be, then quit pissing and moaning and just move on.

Those of us that DO want to make our characters the best they can be, whether through tradeskilling, PVP or raiding, just do not want to see our game harshed on by writers that essentially amount to rookies in MMO end gaming because they “give up”. Over half of the gear that I raid in with my mage is tradeskilled, gotten from 5 man badges I bought the gear with from a VENDOR or gained from casual PVP. What is YOUR excuse then?

Filed under: Wizard 101, Wizard 101 | 11 Comments

Servers down all day. I was glum. I played much Wizard 101 and even met up with Stargrace online toward the end of the night. More on that later.

Also saw the movie “Role Models” today and laughed my ass off. I think that Paul Rudd just cracks me up no matter what he is in.

I lost an entire day of powerleveling which pretty much shoots any chance I had of getting the orc brothers to 60 in the foot. Ah well. We all know it is not smart to take days off on launch times, but this is a couple of days before. Something must have gone wrong…terribly wrong. I think that Blizzard is going to have to refund this day’s gaming. Expect an announcement soon.

Anyway I plan on actually doing my regular thing Wednesday at 1am. I plan on getting my Lich King at a local Gamestop for the midnight release but not playing Northrend until I get my orcs to at least level 50, which means that Wednesday during the day I have to hit it hard. I will then sleep, get up at 11:30pm and drive out to the store. I do NOT want to rush through this content. Already I am getting sick of seeing people planning the fastest route to 80. When you get an expansion every two years then BITCH about not having anything to do when you cap, why not slow the hell down and make it last? I don’t get gamers sometimes.

“If you’re eager to be among the first to set foot in Northrend, don’t forget that thousands of stores across the country will be hosting special midnight openings tomorrow evening, where they will begin selling copies the moment the clock ticks over to November 13. And for players near New York, San Francisco, Anaheim, or Austin, remember to check out the official launch events, where you can get your copy of the game signed by Blizzard Entertainment representatives and take part in fun contests.”

I looked in at Warhammer Online tonight. About 7 servers medium population at peak hours, all the rest were low population. Mythic: shut them down and force people together. You cannot have a game one month in with only a few servers at medium and expect people to have RVR opponents.

I will post more about my Wizard 101 adventures later. For now, here is Kate Perry singing a song about WoW servers. Enjoy.

Filed under: mmo, mmo | 4 Comments

I won’t lie, I played World of Warcraft almost all day yesterday. Exactly what I aimed to do actually. Having time off lets me do what I want for once. I haven’t used all my vacation time this year so I am burning it up this week by staying at home and just relaxing, getting some chores done around here, catching up on comic books and also playing as many games as possible.

I spent most my time questing in Alterac Mountains and running the Scarlet Monastery Armory and Cathedral in game. I wanted to get one character the Scarlet Tabard and sure enough on my last run through it dropped and I gave it to Gwarf, my orc warrior. Other things dropped as well since I have been doing this level 40 in 1 day /played. I have gotten a purple ring off Arcanist Doan, enough blues to shard for enchanting mats, over 50 stacks of silk, and looted 100 gold on my mage to earn the “Got My Mind On My Money” achievement. Oddly enough, my mage did not get credit for Scarlet Monastery because I never went into the graveyard and killed Interrogator Vishas. I did this and when I came out, a rare named that spawns ONLY during the Scourge invasion was waltzing down the pathway. His name is Scourge. I killed him and he dropped a [Scorn's Icy Choker].

Once the orcs hit level 40, I had to catch up on 5 levels of training and gear, so I went back to Orgrimmar and found myself in the middle of a pre-launch Wrath of the Lich King event. Apparently Arthas had sent a Herald of the Lich King, complete with minions, to attack most the capital cities. In the skies over the Valley of Honor were massive Lich Bone Dragons, and on the ground nasty puss filled Behemoths assaulted the huts and the shopkeepers. A full on attack was taking place and I got to witness all of it.

The Lich Bone Dragons would breathe icy breath from up high while the stout guards of Orgrimmar shot flaming arrows into the air amid the spells and weapons of the other players below that did the same. The event was of little danger to the players, the creatures did little to fight back and could not kill you outright, but the sight was an awesome one to behold. Sometimes the bone dragons would swoop down and grab the Tauren defenders of Orgrimmar in the clutches of their clawed hands and then fly off, no doubt intending to eat some serious beef for a quick snack.

I watched the event and attacked and tried to do my best to help, but none of us were meant to actually turn the tide or make a difference. The event was more a showcase of awesome graphic effects and a grand event for players to watch as the Herald of the Lich King yelled and threatened us. Very cool to see and something that caught the majority players totally off guard. Leave it to Blizzard to sell the Lich King expansion in grand style. I have also noticed attacks by the Scourge picking up in capital cities in the form of level 63 elite skeletons, they are scripted but usually kill a few innocent bystander NPC’s. I like to join the fight and raise my weapon skills by swinging at them. When they die, they leave behind a giant crystal that is actually a quest giver. Check it out if you can. I found one in Undercity.

That is about it for today. Errand time for me. I will post some screens of the event below. Next up: the push to level 50 with the orcs. I hope to have this done sometime Thursday night. I have an X-Fire ID now, it is hudson01. Feel free to look me up.

Filed under: world of warcraft, world of warcraft | 3 Comments