What are you playing this weekend? End of April Edition

Hey, I wanted to take the opportunity tonight to talk about video games! Its been a while since I've posted about gaming. Here's what I've been playing lately.

Overwatch: After putting in about 500 hours into this game I'm really progressing into a much better Mercy player. The higher up the ranks you go the harder the game becomes but there's a very gradual skill ceiling so that it doesn't feel overwhelming. The great thing about being a Mercy main in competitive? Everybody loves you!

Team Fortress 2: I used to be so bad at TF2 it was kind of pathetic. I've got about 200 hours put in and now I'm an Uber-God Medic (laughs). You know you're good when you're the only medic in a 12 player game and you're top of the scoreboard most of the time. My friend Griff (steam name) has about 8,000 hours and sometimes I play with his hardcore TF2 buddies, which sometimes includes famous players from back in the day, like Vexon (check him out on YouTube). When I play with this great players being a beginner medic with like .1 of the amount of hours they have, I just have to sit back and play my best. After all we're just doing pub casual games. Its super fun.

Warcraft III Frozen Throne: So I had been talking about playing Warcraft III for a super long time and I'd always attempted 1v1 matches but didn't really get anywhere. I took my friend Brian's advice and started doing teams, mostly 4v4 games. Brian used to be one of the top ten Warcraft III teams games players back in the day. He still plays to this day. And I'm finding improvement in my playing although it is still a steep learning curve. The main thing I like about this game as opposed to Starcraft is that the units and battles are smaller, with more focus on the hero play, like a moba. Heroes of the Storm anyone? Its pretty cool. I main Undead, really focusing on learning the race as best I can.

Heroes of the Storm: This has been a mainstay game for me since technical alpha. Still enjoying it. I don't enjoy ranked mode so much but unranked draft is my main hangout. I play most of the healers but I also dps with Nova, Guldan, and Illidan. My main character is Lt.Morales, of course I'm always the medic.

Starcraft Brood War: So I finally got back into Brood War ever since I bought the new and visually improved Starcraft HD. You can pick it up for as cheap as 15 smeckles. The game looks like a brand new baby, a shiny new coat that improves upon its outdated pathing and visual discolorations. Like in Warcraft III I play team games with a focus on the Zerg race. For the Swarm!

Marvel Vs Capcom 2: I've been playing this game for a long time with my buddies in real life. We play this more than Super Smash Bros now, its become a cult classic. My main team is Spiderman, Rogue, and Doctor Doom with a rotating roster of those three sometimes mixed with Magneto, Jill, and Jin. Its a true fighting game and takes a lot of skill to master the infinite combos.

World of Warcraft: So I resubbed to WoW and I've been enjoying pvp a lot. Its super fun. I'm even leveling a low level character with my friend Griff and we're doing a lot of low level pvp. Its surprisingly fun although difficult. Pvp  in WoW can be super tricky, especially at max level on my Holy Priest. I think Holy Priest might be the hardest class I've ever played in the game. I've got my work cut out for me on this one. Especially because I mostly just log on to pvp.

Honorable mention: My friend Gordon's Super Nintendo and N64 collection. We've been playing a lot of classic video games from Nintendo at my friend's house. They have nostalgic value as well as amazing replay-ability.

I play a lot of games but I also try to play in moderation with a rotation of the games so it doesn't get too stale. This is going to be a great weekend for gaming!

The Joy of Free to Play

Ah, the joys of the truly free to play game. Lets talk about one of my favorite games for a moment, Heroes of the Storm (Hots for short). Hots is a free to play moba created by Blizzard in 2015 that has micro transactions (mostly for the coolest skins and mounts) but otherwise characters can be unlocked by spending gold in the shop. Gold is acquired by logging in everyday and doing quests, which can earn you from 200 to 800 gold. Each day you get one new quest, thus giving you unlimited (but limited b/c of how the time and respawn of quests work) gold as long as you keep logging in and playing the game.

At first you would think this is time consuming or too much of a hurdle to go through to unlock characters-because of the grind. But no, this grind has brought me joy.

Its been about two weeks since I've been grinding gold and doing quests in Hots to earn the latest character Alexstraza (pictured above), who now costs 10,000 gold (when heroes first come out they are 15,000 gold). Right now I am sitting at about 9,500 gold and it feels great. The work, dedication, craft, and blood of my enemies to earn all that gold is quite satisfying. I don't think I would get this same satisfaction if I played League of Legends of Dota 2, two other popular mobas. Those games are work just to make it through a forty-five minute match. But I digress.

When I unlock Alexstraza in a few days it will be quite the reward. Rewards for playing games is something most gaming companies have to work much harder at. Sure you can earn loot boxes in Overwatch but at the end of the day the skins don't add much. A new character to your roster in a game adds much much more.

Here's a game that does free to play gaming right. I can earn every character through grinding quests and find a ton of satisfaction from it. Beat that EA.  

Holding out for a 7-string

 

Hey, how's it going? I haven't been writing too much lately because the new job position (cheese department clerk) has got me super tired after my shifts. I've been able to keep up with my guitar playing, even attending this week's open jam night at Peties Place, and I'm going to jam with a bass player and another guitarist tomorrow afternoon at my place before work. Wowzah! I haven't been able to keep up with my gaming too much, which does make me a little sad. I was playing Heroes of the Storm today and I was definitely noticing that my playing was much worse than it usually is-because I haven't been playing too often. *Sigh*, disappointment intensifies. 

I did manage to play like two games of Heroes and two matches of World of Warcraft battlegrounds. It was pretty fun. I wish I played more but I had to let my brother sleep, he probably has an early shift tomorrow. I hope my job doesn't stop me from doing everything I usually do. I don't want to stop gaming as much just because of work. At the same time though I don't want to lose out on precious guitar practice and jamming time because of it either. It all comes down to using my time wisely and to the best of my abilities. Being tired sure makes it hard though!

Right now I'm holding out for a 7-string guitar. My birthday is coming up on September 25 so I'm hoping to get the guitar on the same week as my bday. I've been shopping around online and there's some pretty cheap models. I don't want to go too cheap. I was thinking about spending about $200-$250 at max. I don't need a super nice guitar, I just want a cool looking 7-string to practice new jazz chord voicings and bring to jam sessions.

My guitar playing has really improved. I can't wait until after Labor Day so the tambourine/hand percussionist can email me the tracks of my jam from this week. It was really fucking good. I think its the best jam I've ever done there. It was a three song set and we played a jazzed up version of Stormy Monday, a rock and roll jam based on the rock and roll riff by Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix's Hey Joe. It turned out to be great even though the other guitarist wasn't so hot on any of it. However, the drummer was a total rock and roller and he played great, especially on the rock and roll jam and Hey Joe. It was pretty sweet. It was a really busy jam night, and I didn't get to play until about 12:30 am but hey that's alright. I rocked the fucking house. Now that I know that most people there can't play jazz really I'm going to stick to more straight up rock and roll there. Maybe even start singing some classic rock tunes. I was thinking stuff like Knocking on Heaven's Door, Fire, and Hare Krishna. Simple tunes that have the same chords over and over so its easy for me to sing and solo over. Great idea, amiright?

Back to the 7-string guitar. The brands I'm looking at the most right now is Jackson and Schecter. I can get a great Jackson for $200 but the Schecters run for about $250. Both are within my budget but I'm thinking about going with the Schecter just because I already own a Jackson. However, brand loyalty is totally something I'm capable of haha. I love Jackson, they're a great company and I've played the $200 model loads of times and it was great every time. So we will see.

More articles to come in the next couple days and weeks. I want to get back into writing about games but just haven't gotten around to it. I'm definitely going to do an article about Kel'Thuzad from Heroes of the Storm. He seems bad ass and he hasn't even been released yet on the live servers, he's only on the ptr (public test servers).

Watch this space

How do I play video games with no time?

 

Ah, the age old question. How do I play video games with no time? This is a hard question to answer. I recently got promoted at my job which gives me more daytime hours but leaves me with only a little bit of night and only a little bit of daytime before work. It's been very difficult to fit in gaming, if I get to even game at all. In fact, I've been doing more social media, listening to music, and hanging out with my friends more so than gaming. I haven't even played World of Warcraft for over a week now and just a week ago I was playing everyday. I'm quite saddened by this of course...lol.

Now to answer the question. If you don't have time but you want to play video games you must use your time wisely and focus on the games that you like the most. For me that means booting up Heroes of the Storm at least once a day and grinding out the daily quests for gold. Right now I really need the gold (15k gold) to unlock the next new hero (Kel'Thuzad from Warcraft 3, and yes I'll write a post about him soon). So that means everyday logging on and playing one or two matches. Simple enough. It's fast, easy, fun. I get to play a game and work on grinding gold for a new hero without spending real money. Another game I've been playing that's super satisfying without playing for hours is Team Fortress 2 and Terraria. I've been playing with a real life friend of mine so its even more fun. These kind of games give you a lot of reward for little playtime. Naisu!

That's the answer really. Using your time to just focus on a game(s) you really like and playing just a bit. Real life takes up more and more time the older we get and the more responsibilities we have. I'm still using a lot of my time arranging jam sessions with musicians, actually going out and jamming with people, and of course practicing guitar. I do a lot of activities in addition to my job so it really takes a lot out of me. After work I'm usually pretty tired but that doesn't stop me from playing games, guitar, or hanging out with friends. Work hard, play hard! Time management is the probably the most difficult thing in life, especially as we get older. Remember games are made to have fun. They will still be there tomorrow.

Garrosh Hellscream is coming to Heroes of the Storm

Everybody's favorite villain from World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria is coming to Heroes of the Storm. He's expected to hit the ptr on July 31st.

Heh, greetings. Blizzard has revealed that Garrosh Hellscream, son of Grommash Hellscream and former chieftain of the Warsong Clan, will be the next hero added to Heroes of the Storm. The studio said on Twitter that he'll be playable at the ChinaJoy conference next week, and it aims to have him on the HotS PTR for the week of July 31. (pc gamer )

A lot of players on the forums online are actually pretty disappointed with Garrosh being the next new hero in hots. The main problem is that the game is getting another orc. We already have a lot of orcs. It would've been a lot cooler to get some other Warcraft race character, particularly a Dranei hero of some sort. But even like a night elf would be amazing. I think hots definitely needs a dranei in the game. Maybe like a dranei warlock or something? That would be something.

I'm already stacking up my gold from doing quests daily. When Garrosh comes out I'm going to hopefully be able to purchase him with in game gold right away. I won't have to wait a super long time like how I did with Stukov. Stukov is a freakin' great character by the way, I've been really enjoying him.

Anyways, despite the haters on the forum I'm super excited for Garrosh Hellscream. I was still playing WoW (World of Warcraft) back when he was leader of the Horde so its cool to see a familiar face. We will have to wait and see how his play style fits into a moba. Should be good.

For the Horde! 

How Questing Alone in World of Warcraft Made Me Appreciate the Single Player Experience

So I recently started playing World of Warcraft again mostly because my long time friends from Wisconsin play it and my best friend even said he'd give me gold to buy those game time tokens, which means I won't have to pay to play. If he doesn't help me out the game is a whooping $14.99/month which is pretty extravagant pricing. Pretty excited about that. I started off with a night elf demon hunter but I figured I should play a ranged caster dps with my friends (based on their recommendation but I also like priest class and always wanted to roll one) so I boosted a shadow priest to level 100 and haven't looked back. Mostly because the entire leveling experience that is 100 to 110 (max level is 110) has been a blast. I've actually gained a new appreciation of the single player experience by questing in wow by myself.

In the past when I played Wow I just clicked on every quest as fast as I could and just skimmed everything. Now when I play I read every quest and ponder upon every nuance, sentence, story, and lore. Every quest is an important part of the overall picture. Like a million pieces to a puzzle. There's probably more than a million quests in wow and people worked to create them. Not reading and enjoying it would be a waste of their efforts.

At first questing alone was boring. But then I began to love questing in Azeroth. Somewhere around level 102 on my demon hunter was when I realized that although this is just basic leveling, its still an important and fun part of the game. It teaches you everything: how to do rotation for your character, the story and lore for all kinds of story lines, and all the various parts of Azeroth. It takes a long time to level up but I actually feel like just doing basic quests is the fastest and easiest way to level up. Dungeons don't really give too much experience so they're mostly only good for gearing up (which you still need to do). So questing is the default way to level up. It's going to take me a super long time to hit 110 on my priest but when I do I'll be thankful for the fun journey.

Sometimes I'll run into other players slaying enemies for a "kill all those guys" quest and its fun when I end up helping them or vice versa. Questing has given me a new appreciate for the whole single player experience. I'm down to play some other single player games that I haven't played much because for a super long time now I've been a multiplayer only kind of guy. I'm looking at you Skyrim and Fallout 4!

Now that I'm not so focused on playing Overwatch all the time I feel refreshed. I still play it but Wow has become my main focus, at least for a little while when I wake up in the morning. Nothing like waking up and questing out in Azeroth before I head to work. For an mmo (massive multiplayer online game) Wow sure has a spectacular single player feel. I'm sure things will be much different when I hit 110 and I'm pvping as shadow priest.

I can't wait to wreck some people with unholy magic!

Valeera, Rogue Assassin enters the Nexus

Blizzard updated Heroes of the Storm today and released Valeera as their newest hero.

"Valeera Sanguinar, Shadow of the Uncrowned, is a melee assassin hero from the Warcraft universe. For a time, the gladiator Valeera Sanguinar served dutifully as one of Varian Wrynn's personal bodyguards. Now, her shadowy skills find her a natural fit within the secretive rogue order, the Uncrowned, in their fight against the Legion. She is a tricky assassin who can gain access to different abilities while stealthed, and builds combo points to eviscerate her opponents." (heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com)

"Valeera Sanguinar, along with Broll Bearmantle, was a companion of Varian Wrynn. She eventually became an enforcer for the New Council of Tirisfal, and accepted the position of an advisor and bodyguard to Varian in Stormwind, with the caveat that she retain her independence. She culturally identifies as a blood elf, taking pride in her people's traditions and defending their tribulations and loyalties. However, she herself acts independently of the Thalassian government, and has formally joined neither the Horde nor the Alliance since her introduction but is fiercely loyal to Varian and his son. Valeera herself maintains that her loyalties are personal, to her friends and her ideals." (heroesofthestorm.gamepedia.com)

Ok, so now you know a lot about her. Now let's get to the nitty gritty-the skills and abilities. To keep this post short and sweet I'm only going to talk about the main skills rather than the additional talents you get as you level up.

Vanish

Cooldown: 8 seconds

Valeera vanishes from sight, becoming Stealthed and increasing her Movement Speed by 10%. For the first second, she is Unrevealable and can pass through other units.
Using Vanish grants Valeera an alternate set of Abilities that she can use while Stealthed.

This is her passive that allows her to be very powerful. Once she goes stealth she stays invisible unless she's hit or revealed. Not only that but using vanish gives you an alternate set of abilities that you can only use while invisible. It's awesome that they added another stealth character like Nova, Zeratul, and Samuro but Valeera has a much cooler stealth than all of those characters because it gives her great abilities. 

Q

Sinister Strike

30 Mana Cooldown: 5 seconds

Dash forward, dealing damage to all enemies in a line. If Sinister Strike hits an enemy Hero, she stops dashing immediately and the cooldown is reduced to 1 second.
Awards 1 Combo Point.
Stealth: Ambush
Heavily damage an enemy.

This is her bread and butter attack that you're going to be using a lot. The dash can go a pretty decent distance and you can also use it to run away. It is also good for general attacking, killing, and gaining combo points.

Q

Ambush

20 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Ambush a target, instantly dealing damage to them.
Awards 1 Combo Point.

This is her stealth Q ability. It's a great general attacking skill used for killing and gaining combo points. It does more damage than sinister strike but it doesn't do a dash attack, instead its just a close range assault. 

W

Blade Flurry

40 Mana Cooldown: 4 seconds

Deal damage in an area around Valeera.
Awards 1 Combo Point per enemy Hero hit.
Stealth: Cheap Shot
Stun and damage an enemy.

This is her small aoe attack. It will hit enemies around you but it doesn't have much range so they will have to be close to you to be effective. Its great for clearing lanes but if you're playing Valeera most likely you don't want to be clearing lanes that much. I find the stealth version of her W ability to be much more useful. 

W

Cheap Shot

30 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Deal a small amount of damage to an enemy and stun them for 1.5 seconds.
Awards 1 Combo Point.

This is my favorite ability for Valeera because it stuns an enemy and does damage. With the stun you can follow up with more rogue attacks and if your team is with you you'll instantly kill them. If you use this at the right time you'll always be able to secure kills. Very useful ability. 

E

Eviscerate

25 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Consume all stored Combo Points to Eviscerate an enemy, dealing increased damage per Combo Point spent. Valeera can store a maximum of 3 Combo Points.
Stealth: Garrote
Silence and damage an enemy over time.

This is a great all around attack when you have a lot of combo points stored up. Like cheap shot it will help you secure a lot of kills. I have to use it more and learn its uses better.

E

Garrote

30 Mana Cooldown: 1 seconds

Garrote an enemy, instantly dealing a small amount of damage to the target, as well as a larger amount of bonus damage over 7 seconds, and Silencing them for 2 seconds.
Awards 1 Combo Point.

This one I have to mess around with more because usually when I'm in stealth mode I go for cheap shot and ambush more so than garrote. But I do see that it is very powerful, mostly because of the silence for 2 seconds. I have to use this ability more.

Ultimates

R

Smoke Bomb

Cooldown: 60 seconds

Create a cloud of smoke. While in the smoke, Valeera is Unrevealable, can pass through other units, and gains 25 Armor, reducing damage taken by 25%. Valeera can continue to attack and use Abilities without being revealed. Lasts 5 seconds.
Using this Ability does not break Vanish.

This is my favorite ulti for Valeera, at least for now. I like the fact that it has a short cooldown and that damage is reduced, armor is gained, and you can keep attacking and using abilities without being revealed. It's also great when you're super low on health. You can pop smoke bomb, run out, and use your passive stealth to run away. So good.

R

Cloak of Shadows

Cooldown: 25 seconds

Valeera is enveloped in a Cloak of Shadows, which immediately removes all damage over time effects from her. For 1 second, she becomes Unstoppable and gains 75 Spell Armor, reducing Ability damage taken by 75%.
Using this Ability does not break Vanish.

This ulti seems great too. I've used it during my first couple games and I love the short cool down. But so far I prefer smoke bomb for most games. However, if I'm getting targeted hard and don't have a healer this does seem like a much better option. The fact that it only lasts 1 second makes me not like it as much but the fact that its on a 25 second cool down is just insanely good. 

All in all Valeera has turned out to be one of the coolest and most fun characters to play in heroes of the storm. I probably won't get bored of her until I reach level 10 on her. Then I'll go back to my usual roster of heroes. Playing her reminds me of playing my Undead Rogue in World of Warcraft (oh, those were the days), albeit a much simpler and easier play style. She's super fun! 

Now you're thinking like a rogue.

Zul'jin has entered the Nexus

So a new patch hit Heroes of the Storm the other day. It's brings a new champion to the Nexus-Zul'jin from Warcraft 2 and World of Warcraft! I was super excited when I heard he was coming to Heroes but I didn't expect his playstyle to be so fun, rewarding, and technical for a ranged dps character. First his backstory...

"Zul'jin is a warlord of the Amani forest trolls and has been chieftain of the Amani tribe since before the Second War. Zul'jin and the Amani tribe were allied with the orcish Horde for the duration of the Second War, but Zul'jin himself was captured near its end by the Alliance. Upon gaining his freedom he went into hiding to rebuild his army and plan an attack on the remnants of the high elves, now known as blood elves, only to find them allied with the Horde.

A fierce forest troll of the Amani tribe, Zul'jin's ability as a warrior and leader meant he was able to do what no other troll had done since the Troll Wars: unite the warring tribes of Zul'Aman under a single leader. He was infamous for his daring raids on the outskirts of Quel'Thalas at a time when trolls had been completely beaten into obscurity by the high elves. Some claimed he planned to unite all trolls, but his plans were quickly put on hold by the events of the Second War." (heroesofthestorm.gamepedia)

Now lets go over his abilities. I won't go over all his talents because that's where the player is suppose to improvise given the battle, situational awareness, and team/enemy composition.

D

Berserker

Activate to increase Basic Attack damage by 25% but consume 2% maximum Health per attack.
Passive: Zul'jin attacks 1% faster for every 1% of maximum Health missing.

This is passive, he's a berserker. It increases attack damage by a ton but it consumes your health per attack. But at the same time Zul'jin attacks faster for the health he's missing. This is what makes him so great. While he's losing health he's becoming stronger and attacking faster. I've been able to kill a lot of heroes before they kill me because of this great passive skill. If you've ever played World of Warcraft this is a passive skill that all trolls have, they're straight up berserkers!

Q

Grievous Throw

50 Mana Cooldown: 8 seconds

Zul'jin throws an axe forward, dealing 130 damage to the first 2 enemies hit and marking them for 8 seconds. Marked enemies take 50% bonus damage from Zul'jin's next 3 Basic Attacks against them.

This is his bread and butter basic attack. It's got a short cool down and it marks enemies, making them take bonus damage. Not bad for a regular q button ability.

W

Twin Cleave

60 Mana Cooldown: 8 seconds

Throw 2 axes in a large, circular arc, dealing 116 damage and slowing affected enemies by 15% per axe for 2 seconds.

This skill is so good. I've been seeing most Zul'jins rely on this skill heavily and get the talents that make it a lot better. Honestly I don't go for those talents because I prefer the more passive berserker builds that I do but I can see that this ability is amazing if utilized correctly. Basically the circular arc is positioned anywhere you want within a small area and you can hit anything in that area. Great aoe axe attack. You'll hit things with this every time once you get used to the arc. You'll be killing people as they're trying to run away often with this skill.

E

Regeneration

75 Mana Cooldown: 15 seconds

Zul'jin channels to regenerate 25% of his maximum Health over 4 seconds. Moving while channeling or taking damage will interrupt this effect.

This is one of my favorite things about this dude. He can regenerate without need for a support or healer. I've been getting the talent that increases the healing and makes it so that you don't have to channel-meaning I can get increased health regeneration as well as move around and get healed still. Kind of reminds me of Gul'dan in a way how these two ranged dps characters can regenerate health back very quickly. When you channel and gain health the game plays some tribal troll music that sounds like it came straight outta Africa. Nice touch Blizzard.

R

Taz'dingo

50 Mana Cooldown: 60 seconds

Zul'jin is Unkillable for the next 4 seconds, and cannot be reduced to less than 1 Health. Taz'dingo!

This is my favorite ultimate for him because 'cmon, who doesn't want to die for 4 seconds? That's godlike man. This skill has saved me from death so many times. Just gotta wait and pop it at just the right moment and you can escape a lot of deaths.

R

Guillotine

70 Mana Cooldown: 45 seconds

Zul'jin launches a massive axe into the air that drops on the targeted area, dealing 210 damage plus bonus damage the lower his Health is.

This skill is a bit tricky to use. I've landed it and hit people with it a couple times. It deals massive damage but the thing is that its hard to actually hit them when they are spacing you out well. More of an ability I would get if we had a secure tank and healer in the game. Otherwise, I'll probably be going taz'dingo all the time mon.

This new hero was a fresh surprise to the game, which has gotten a little stale. The winter update for the game was only okay and Ragnaros seemed super op when he came out. I think he's stabilized now. With the addition of Zul'jin the game has gotten a new sparkle to it. He plays like a strong ranged dps but has technical aspects like that of a support and/or specialist. You gotta know when to back out and regenerate, when to commit to team fights when your health is low (b/c you have increased dps and attack speed with lower health), and when to pull back. He's quite technical for a dps and I would say he's not for beginners. However, that's not to say that you have to be a pro to understand how he works. Get online and try him out.

I gotta get back to the Nexus mon!

BlizzCon 2016 predictions

So as you all probably know BlizzCon is tomorrow. My good buddy from work is going. As you can imagine I'm super jelly. Maybe next year I'll go.

Anyways, lets do some speculation because I love doing that. Blizzard does all their big reveals right at the beginning so I will know all the major important news by the time I wake up and check the internet. Let's start with what we know will probably happen for sure.

They're going to announce a new Hearthstone expansion, one of the heist/mobster variety theme. Blizz even did a fake newspaper article from the Gadgetzan Gazette about a vault heist. There might be more news about the game, possibly even a new game mode or something but a new expansion will definitely be revealed.

For World of Warcraft there might be more information about more content for Legion but probably not much more than that. New WoW expansions have been coming out every 2 years so we probably won't hear anything about a new expansion. But perhaps something about patch 7.2.

There probably won't be anything crazy revealed about Starcraft. It's a dying game. A game that I played competitively and seriously for years from 2010 up until about 2013. I'm sad to see the state that its in but let's face it, it's a dead game with not much of a player base despite the tournaments. I don't think anything game changing will be revealed about it but there's a chance they could do another expansion with a new story. But honestly Starcraft is a dying breed. It would be great if Blizzard did what they've done with Starcraft 2 and make Warcraft 4 out of it but I don't think that's going to happen. World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2 are both in lulls as of right now. WoW has momentum from the new expansion but how long will people keep playing until they get bored of the MMO grind? Despite all this I don't think Blizzard is done with Starcraft just yet.

Now for Diablo. We're all expecting a bunch of things. A new Diablo 3 expansion, a Diablo 1 and 2 HD remake, and the possibility reveal of a Diablo 4. The most likely of all of these would be a new Diablo 3 expansion. Diablo 3 is the go to action rpg that everybody loves. The least likely is of course a Diablo 4 reveal but that would be amazing!

Heroes of the Storm has a lot of possibilities for tomorrow as well. Gaming sources have predicted two new maps, three new heroes (one of which is from Overwatch), and possibly a new game mode. A wild guess would be an entire Overwatch theme where they add characters from that game-with Sombra definitely in there. Two years ago they announced Lost Vikings. Last year it was Cho Gall. So this year they'll do some other weird character. Sources say it could be the Hearthstone innkeeper.

And now for Overwatch. We all know we're going to get a Sombra reveal. Good God that's been a long time coming. There will probably be a new map or two revealed as well as the Overwatch Pro League. They're going to step up their esports division for Overwatch. Sombra though will definitely be there. "She'll almost definitely be playable on the show floor before going on the PTR next Tuesday, and then live in the game the week after." (PC Gamer) There will probably be a new cinematic or two as well as some comics. The hope is that they create some kind of interesting new game mode or something. Like a co-op Brawl like Junkenstein's Revenge. That would be sweet.

All these predictions will be answered by the time I wake up tomorrow and check all my gaming sources. I already have an idea of what could happen but I'm hoping that Blizzard does a 180 and pulls a rabbit out of their hat.

Lok'tar ogar

So I saw the new Warcraft movie w/ my brother yesterday. And what a great movie it was. The reviews online are saying that its okay or that its bad but I think its pretty good. I would go so far as to say this is the best video game movie ever made. Better than any of those cult fan made films and definitely better than any other gaming stuff Hollywood has produced. Blizzard has outdone themselves with a true masterpiece. That might be going too far calling it a masterpiece but I do think the movie was above average. On a scale of 1-10 I would give it an 8.5, pretty high by my standards. Let's talk about what could've been better, and what was good.

Okay, first of all, the movie had several problems. The biggest one of all is that there's a ton of characters and we don't get to know them, their names (too many nerdy names to remember), and they just get thrown at us without any backstory or much introduction. There's the main orc chieftain named Durotan, head of the Frostwolf clan, Khadgar the young human mage, and there's the human general that I forget his name. Those are the only characters that we really get to know well and care about. There's all these other characters but in the scheme of things they all are minor characters. Everyone else is pretty much a minor role. There's so many characters that none of them really get the airtime that they deserve. Instead they shove as many characters down our throats as possible and for the most part we can't remember their names. So the characters were kind of not thought about or planned out very well.

In addition, the fighting scenes in this movie are very short and anticlimactic. There's a fight at the end after the big battle where the human general takes on the orc warchief. Its the most anticlimactic fight ever. The human guy wins the battle in one sweeping motion. However, the orcs are proud of the human for defeating the warchief in one of their grand rituals so that was super cool how noble the orcs were. Brownie points!

There was this minor love interest thing in the film that just led nowhere. It could've done without it. Basically an orc woman and the human general kind of have a thing but not really a thing, ya know? Like they were close but they never got too close or even kissed. So what was the point? I have no clue.

Anyways, I also thought the movie was too long. Its 2 hours and 3 minutes long-way too long for me. I guess that's standard Hollywood time lengths but they could've cut out so much of the dumb stuff to make the movie shorter and more cohesive. For example, they could've completely skipped the dumb fight w/ Medev's golum that turned out to be super weak anyways. They could've also skipped out most of the lame talking parts. A lot of this movie was just the Alliance peoples talking and the Orc peoples talking about what they were gonna do. I know that's plot and setting up suspense and drama but it got old fast. By the second act I'm tired about hearing what they're going to do. When there's little action the movie gets boring. When the action gets going and peaks that's when things get good. Which leads me to my next point.

The fighting scenes in this movie are phenomenal. The orcs are huge as they should be and they absolutely just annihilate the Alliance soldiers when they first meet them. I was rooting for the orcs the whole way until I realized I was an Alliance guy in World of Warcraft XD. The humans aren't afraid of the orcs even though they are weaker and can get slayed easily. There's some brutal scenes in this movie where Alliance soldiers get their heads crushed, orcs get stabbed through their backs, and Guldan just straight up mass murders tons of people using fel magic. Fel magic is basically demonic magic that Guldan, an orc warlock was using throughout the movie to open the portal to Azeroth. Which brings up my next point.

The story is great. It basically follows everything that happens before World of Warcraft and Warcraft III. So basically if you know the first two games-Orcs and Humans and Beyond the Dark Portal you pretty much know everything that's going to happen in this movie. Basically the orcs are from a different world called Outlands and the humans live in Azeroth. Guldan is able to open up a portal that takes the orcs to Azeroth, where they're supposed to conquer the entire world through war. So Guldan brought all the orc clans together to do this and the Alliance has to find some way to stop the orcs from killing everybody. They rely on Medev, this all powerful mage guardian but it turns out he's been corrupted by the fel magic too. That's where things get interesting because he turns into a demon that looks like Illidan from Warcraft III-way cool! It's pretty entertaining once the ball gets rolling. The whole plot builds up slowly and works its way up to many climaxes. It was quite thrilling.

Another thing I'd like to say is that the weapons and armor looked terrific. It looks straight out of the games that I've played-World of Warcraft in particular. Seeing it all on the big screen took me back to my WoW playing days. The orcs had these massive cool hammers that just crushed the humans. And the humans had the same armor in the games as well as these cool swords. The orcs had wolves that they used for transportation as well as to fight. The humans had gryphons to fly on as well as horses. The orcs threw their horses at them and stuff. It was funny.

Lastly, one of the best parts of the movie was the credits when I heard the World of Warcraft game music playing. Nerd chills man! Go see this movie. Blizzard has really outdone themselves by creating a great movie for their beloved gaming series. This movie makes me want to resubscribe to WoW and start playing everyday even though I don't have the time for it. That's how good it was. I might sound like I'm being paid to talk about how great this movie was but that's just how cool it was. I don't think there will be any video game movies that are going to be better than this unless there's more Warcraft movies. Go check it out at a local theater near you. For the Horde!

A return to Azeroth

     

     So about two days ago I started playing World of Warcraft again. For some people this game is super addicting (not for me) and for others they stay subscribed for like 10 years without really playing it too much. I'm super excited to be playing the game again after a two year hiatus playing other games that aren't MMO's. The main reason I quit WoW was because I felt the most recent expansion was boring. At one point I did try to replace WoW with another MMO called Starwars the Old Republic. Let me tell you right now that Swtor has some really good pvp! The stuns and crowd controls aren't as strong as they are in WoW so the actual lightsaber battles are actually super fun and intense.
     Anyways, I'm not big into stories in MMO's and I don't care for the whole Garrison and building my own base thing. I've always played WoW for pvp combat (player vs player). My first character was a Troll Fury Warrior and once I got him to max level (90 back in Cataclysm) I just pvp'd forever until I exhausted it. Then Mists of Pandaria came out and I wasn't impressed by the pandas at all. I thought of Mists of Pandaria as a let down. I messed around with a healing Panda Monk for a while but I eventually got bored and stopped playing. Then Warlords of Draenor came out and I had a lot of fun with the story at first. I was playing a Worgen Death Knight (my current main character) by then and I felt like I had really found my favorite character. I still like the Warrior class but part of the fun of playing WoW is trying out all the classes and leveling up all your toons (characters). What I'm trying to say is that the game can be fun and at other times it can get boring, and then at even other times it can be a total waste of time that takes up all your time if you let it consume you. We've all heard the countless stories of WoW players that play 12 hour sessions without eating and all the bad publicity the game has gotten over the years. Despite all that WoW is still one of the greatest games ever made and still the best mmo (massive multiplayer online game).
     Its great to be back in the world of Azeroth again. And I couldn't have picked a better time to pick it up again because the next expansion (called Legion) is coming out later this year. This next expansion is going to focus on Illidan's demon hunter people where you'll be able to play as a new demon hunter class. In addition, the level cap will be increased to 110. I can't wait for the new expansion but first I have a lot of work to do on my current toons.
     The main thing I've been working on so far is just having fun pvping in battlegrounds on my Death Knight. I know this won't really get me anywhere because the new expansion will bring new levels and new pvp gear but for the time being I'm having a ton of fun just playing battlegrounds, getting honor, and getting together the new pvp gear sets. It's just something for fun that I'll work on a little bit.
     The other thing I want to work on for sure is to level up my other secondary toons. I've got a level 90 Undead Rogue and 90 Troll Warrior just begging to be leveled up to 100. Getting those two to max level will be great because then I will be able to play with my old buddy from Wisconsin. He's a huge WoW freak but we haven't really been able to play together because my Death Knight is Alliance and he only plays Horde. Initially I started out playing Horde but once I saw that my brother and his guild played Alliance I decided to main a Worgen Death Knight.
     Lastly, I'll probably mess around with my even more secondary toons. I have a level 60-something Blood Elf Paladin, 40-something Night Elf Druid, 40-something Panda Monk, and a bunch of low levels like an Orc Frost Mage and a Toren Shadowpreist. As you can see, at one point I put a lot of time and effort into this game. Hopefully, as I play it more I can regain that fun spirit and atmosphere that it had when I first started playing. Its a great game and I'm glad Blizzard has been keeping it going for over 11 years. Who knows, I might even pre-order the next expansion just to get a free toon to level 100 and to get early access to the demon hunter class. I still plan on playing other games but I will definitely be immersed in this huge open world mmo. That is, until it gets boring again. If you ever want to play arena doubles or arena 3v3's add me my battlenet tag is Megaman with the #1597. Me and my buddies all play on the Emerald Dream server. I'll cya in Azeroth! For the Alliance!