My StarCraft II Beta Invite

Posted in Gaming, General, Review, Starcraft by Uriah on July 19, 2010 No Comments yet

So with less than two weeks to go before release, Blizz decides to email me a beta key.

This kinda makes me do a /sigh for being so late with an invite but I guess they’re sending mass invites out when the launch is very close. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to get a Beta Key for SC2 and I think it’s helped push me to buy a copy. Only the Multiplayer aspect is included in Beta but I’ve played enough now to know I’d at least like to do the Campaign bit with the actual game.

My previous experiences with games of this genre was pretty much limited to Microsoft’s Rise of Nations along with some Warcraft III play time. (Although I did not play Warcraft III until after being a part of World of Warcraft.) Starcraft (original) was before my time, you could say so playing StarCraft II is really new territory for me.

One of the very cool features released in World of Warcraft’s latest patch was the new Battle.net integration of RealID. A summary of this feature is that your RealID friend can talk to on whatever server, faction, or character you’re currently playing. It’s like a dynamically updated friends list populated with all the characters on your friend’s account, under one contact.

Where it gets really interesting is that this new Battle.net communication system is cross-games as well! (Very much similar to Valve’s Steam in that sense.) Thus I can talk to my friends who are playing WoW while I’m testing out my SC2 Beta and once the game is live/released July 27th then it will also still work in the same way.

Here’s what this looks like from the StarCraft II main screen (real names are fuzzed out):

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iPhone Game: Glass Tower 2

Posted in Gaming, Review by Uriah on June 22, 2010 1 Comment

Normally I don’t post non-PC related things but this game is too addicting for me not to mention it.

gl2 gl2

“As its name aptly suggest, iDevUA’s Glass Tower 2 is a game app where a tower made of glass bricks presents itself as a puzzle – how do you get rid of the blue blocks without making the red blocks fall off? Simply tapping the blue blocks will obliterate them (with a satisfying shattering sound) and gain you points, but do this carelessly, and the red blocks will tumble off the platform and break, knocking points off your score as well as health points off your total lives.” (appSafari)

I’m not to sure what makes me want to sit and play this game until my iPhone Battery is about to die but it happens. This is the only the second game I’ve ever really got into since acquiring my iPhone. The other game I used to play often is called Earth Vs Moon.

In a nutshell, your goal is to destroy (touch) the blue blocks and keep the red ones from falling off. There is gravity pulling the blocks down and throughout the game certain modifiers and extra levels will float by that you can tap to powerup from them. One is the Freeze powerup which will freeze all blocks in place on the screen for a few seconds. Another is a Magnet like effect where blocks are pulled toward the center.

As far as cost, the game itself is free but the “Level Packs” cost $0.99 each, DLC like material. (There are 15 levels built into the core/free game.) Currently there are only 2 level packs and also an editor to make your own levels.

Wanna try it out? Download from iTunes below!

AppleStore

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I’m a Rocketman, burning up RaF tonight…

Hey homles, check out the new ride!

If you have not heard, or live under a rock, the new Recruit-a-Friend rewards mount is the X-53 Touring Rocket two person flying mount and it’s badass! It scales to what your maximum flight speed is such as if you have epic flying and/or a 310% mount!  You might be wondering who I recruited? Well I must admit it was just myself… I used my old second account (from back in December) for the Rewards portion.

How can you get this mount? If recruiting a friend is not an option then you’ll end up paying $50 basically. But you can do this completely online (with a credit card) via the Blizzard Store!

You’ll need a new copy of World of Warcraft (classic is all thats needed, $20).
Two months worth of ‘Game Time‘ (two purchases of 30 Day Game time, $30).
Also be sure to generate the ‘Trial Key‘ from your veteran WoW account for your new one.

Links: Blizzard Recruit-A-Friend FAQ / WoWWiki Info

You’ll end up with a Month free on your veteran account along with the mount reward for one of your veteran account players! And you’ll have your second account active for three months of gameplay which the first 90 days get the ‘linked account’ leveling bonuses if you want to play with dual boxing like I did.

I made a small video of my shiny X-53 Touring Rocket below:

Youtube Link

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TCG Goodies & My Horse

I bought some more cards!

In this collection is a total of 101 Cards.

More Info on the Scourgewar series checkout UpperDeck official website.

The Little White Stallion Bridle item which is obtained through the Trading Card Game (Loot Cards) can be seen in the video below.

The drawback of this item is that you will receive 50 ‘charges’ so it is a limited use item. It’s by no means a permanent/regular mount, only an item in your backpack.

I made a small clip of my “Tiny” mount from WoW:

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World of Modern Warfared via 360

Posted in Review, Tech, Xbox by Uriah on March 6, 2010 1 Comment

Small break from the usual WoW posts, time to mention the Xbox and my experience thus far.

After much debate, ‘I bit the bullet’ and bought an Xbox 360 (Limited Ed. MW2) a couple months ago.

Why Limited edition:

For those who do not follow the ‘Xbox family‘ of products, the limited editions tend to be $100 more in price. Naturally, a couple of friends wondered why I would bother with purchasing such a version but I figured why not? Aside from being the latest and greatest (thus presumably less buggy) version, the harddrive is 250GB, a nice step up from 120GB ‘elites’. I’m sure I could have lived with only a 120GB main storage device but the bump up really eliminates any worry of capacity issues.

Also, the limited edition looks sweet! It’s not the pure white or black like the ‘normal’ Xbox. Yes, I know there are Xbox faceplates for changing the look but I prefer the MW2 look still. But regardless of harddrive and the exclusive design, I still did not waste $100 on this edition.  Why? Because a copy of Modern Warfare 2 ($60) and an extra 360 Wireless Controller ($40) are included in the package. Those two items alone compensate for the rise in price.

A Little History

Ever since I first laid eyes upon my first MMORPG I was pretty much hooked. This game happened to be World of Warcraft and it took me a while to download! I remember my friend logging into the game after I finished installing and patching it like he asked. He was actually using a friends account, so my first look at the game was through a friend’s friend… but anyways, he had a level 60 Pally! I realize now that the forested area where the character stood was in fact Ashenvale Forest. This was the summer of 2005, just over half a year after game’s launch. It wouldn’t be until October that I decide to buy and pay $15 (subscription) every month for an online game.

Ever since I started my own account (a little under a year after WoW’s release) I’ve played and remained active 95% of the time. The longest my account has been ‘froze’ would be around a week and only a couple times which has not happened in two years now. Back then, I did not fully raid SSC/TK so I could focus on finishing up vocational school at the time. My raid attendance was very lax at the time. Other no-play times would be vacation time with the family.

‘RPG’ is for Rocket-propelled grenade…

Back to the Xbox, I’ve logged a good amount of hours in the past two weeks now with my game of choice Modern Warfare 2. (I used to call it CoD6 but that greatly confuses some people.)

Most of my friends, on and offline, have an Xbox 360 so I’d be lying if I said that had no weight on my console decision. The PS3‘s support for Blu-ray and the web browser is quite appealing but do I really need another device to browse the web? *Pickups up iPhone & lays it on laptop* And since I’m a Windows (7) user, my Xbox is linked into my media via Microsoft’s Media Center software which can browse network drives/shares so it works out to be a pretty nice if setup if done correctly. Although I just use my laptop for such things still, best solution for PowerUser.

Steam has been installed on my PCs for many years now (and for many to come) so I naturally have the Orange Box for PC. For $20, I also have it for the Xbox now (should I ever want to beat Portal again or popup Team Fortress 2 for some good online play). So aside from MW2, I have Dragonball Z: Burst Limit which is another reason for purchasing a console system. I’ve tried the whole emulator mess off and on over the years but I just don’t care for it. Some games are console only… like DBZ: Burst Limit! I played the original DBZ Budokai games on my Play Station 2 so it brings back memories to some degree playing through the new DBZ games.

Since the online portion of DBZ: Burst Limit! pretty much lacks players, most of my console time is with Modern Warfare 2. First person shooters provide a nice break from WoW and the guild during slow parts of the day/afternoon but it is only a small break because it’s back to warlock in the evenings for raiding!

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My Lil’ KT & Monk

Posted in Gaming, General, Review, World of Warcraft by Uriah on November 4, 2009 1 Comment

The Blizzard Store now has a few new additions to it, including what you see below!

uriah_pand-kt_pets

Within an hour of there release, the Pandaren Monk & Lil’ K.T. were mine at the cost of $20.

This new move by Blizzard is dubbed ‘microtransactions’, which is basically the exchange of in-game items by means of direct purchase online (via the Blizzard Store). WoW Insider has a nice write-up on microtransactions if you’re interested in more info.

One of the nice things about this service is that it can be used for not just raising more money Activision Blizzard’s favor, but also for other organizations.  The current example is that, “For every Pandaren Monk that finds its way to a player’s side between now and the end of the year (December 31), we’ll donate 50 percent of the $10 purchasing price to the Make-a-Wish Foundation in an effort to brew up a little hope, strength, and joy in a child’s life.

product-lilkt Blizzard Store product-monk

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iPhone Upgrade

Posted in General, Review, Tech by Uriah on October 6, 2009 No Comments yet

This post is being brought to you via an app on my new iPhone 3G S!

I’m very happy so far with my new mobile device. It is a huge step up from my old Net10 prepay tracphone! So after a year of waiting I bought this phone yesterday & have been exploring the many features since then.

Camera Pic from iPhone

 

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Blizzcon ‘09 Part Two & Ozzy

Posted in Gaming, General, Review, Video, World of Warcraft by Uriah on August 22, 2009 No Comments yet

Blizzcon 2009 is coming to an end tonight — the closing ceremonies is on as I post this.

blizzcon09_closing

Ozzy Concert at Blizzcon 2009

 

There was some great info released this year, especially about WoW: Cataclysm.  I did watch some of the others panels today relating to Starcraft II and Diablo III.  I’ll probably buy Starcraft II when it’s released, maybe I’ll win a beta key for it.

BlizzCon 2009: Props team



The concert was crazy!

Ozzy Concert at Blizzcon 2009

Ozzy Concert at Blizzcon 2009

More Screenshots after the Break (next page) below- Click More:

More…

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G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra – Movie

Posted in General, Movies, Review by Uriah on August 9, 2009 2 Comments

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra surprised me; It was better then I expected going into the theater.

From what I read, it’s pretty much nothing like the original G.I. Joe concept.  But if it had to be adapted to today’s standards then I think it was a job well done.

g-i-joe-movie-poster

IMDB LinkYoutube HD

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Funny People – Movie

Posted in General, Review by Uriah on August 1, 2009 2 Comments

Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan, & Leslie Mann did not disappoint with the latest movie “Funny People”.
I just got back from watching it and I’m still replaying some good scenes in my head as I type this.

funny_people_2009

8.5/10
IMDB Link
Youtube HD

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