Wow adventures

Oh yeah... I haven't blogged in ages! So I did pick up burning crusade after all, and leveled my warlock to around 65. My guild broke up (again), and I joined a small guild run by some work colleagues. My boyfriend also got stuck in, and leveled a pally.

Then his best friend decided to come back as well and joined their old guild, FOA. A few weeks after this, FOA decides to up and move over to the EU server. Thanks!

So we all up and move over. "Move" being - purchase new keys and reroll another toon -_-,

I created a troll priest called Sefire, boyfriend goes with troll warrior, and we leveled pretty quickly up to 70. At the moment we've just hit 75, and are enjoying Northrend tremendously. For all that players complain about Wow and Blizzard, they really did a star job on Northrend.

Fallout 3!

My attentions have recently been divided between the new Wow expansion and Fallout 3. Wow is winning at the moment, mostly because the DK is so frikking cool!

Fallout 3 is a wicked game though. I was a bit concerned when I bought it, because I didn't enjoy Oblivion that much, and I'm not a fan of FPS. The VATS system however ensures that even the most uncoordinated gamer can take down the mobs, so that wasn't a problem. The graphics are awesome - to be expected from the Oblivion engine. The gameplay is immersive and the quests well thought out. I've been enjoying trundling through abandoned buildings and underground tunnels killing and looting my way around.

There's lots of oh-crap moments, where you see this gigantic mob and run like hell away. Or get ganked by too many raiders and you fight for your life.

***SPOILERS AHEAD*****
The sort of things you get up to though... For example, I was on my way to find a gang that was grieving a nearby town. The gang itself are possibly cannibals... won't got into that one :) But on my way I found a small cluster of houses with a massive barricade of old cars and corrugated iron surrounding them. I went all the way around, finally finding the entrance guarded by a jittery young man. Inquiring within, I found out that the town kept on being raided by super mutants. The mutants were kidnapping inhabitants for their own devious purposes. Their doctor had just been kidnapped, and one of the other inhabitants escaped but was badly injured.

So first I checked out the injured guy - this was by the way an off-hand mention by one of the people I spoke to. I was pleasantly surprised to find the chap, and I had the option to either put him down - so to speak - or to operate on him. I donned my trusty lab coat with +10 medicine, and fixed him right up.

Then I went out in search of the kidnapped folk. Those super mutants pack a mean punch, it was quite a fight to get into the main building and find them. The one was in the prison, and told me the other had been taken to... the kitchen.... So I rushed down there and saved him before he became super mutant chow. Escorted the two back to their camp (TIP - use the fast travel, don't do it the hard way like I did!).

Once back at the camp, I had the option to train them in using small guns (I had the expertise). This was quite a cute sequence where we shot at bottles for target practice. Then I helped defend the town against another super mutant invasion.
I chatted to the inhabitants afterwards... the chap I had operated on was so thankful, (and he said he liked me *grin*), that he gave me his lucky 8-ball (+1 to luck).

That is just an awesome "quest chain" that didn't feel like a chain at all. It was immersive, lots of fun, and I felt like I had initiated all the actions, instead of being pulled along by the sequence. Really really awesome :)

King's Bounty

The best game that you'll never play.

So I've been watching this game with interest ever since I discovered it a month ago or so. It's not being sold in SA (yet), other than an online shop selling what appears to be pirated software, and another shop (IWantItAll.co.za) selling it for a ridiculous R800. I can also download and pay online from the publisher directly, for R550 + Rxxxx for the bandwidth.

If it's 2GB that will be R688, 7GB and it's R1033. Might as well buy from wantitall then.

It's a pity, because I'm dying to play this game. The original King's Bounty was the spiritual predecessor for Heroes of Might and Magic, which is possibly my favourite turn-based strategy game of all time (with XCOM:UFO close by). Although XCOM jumped the shark by going to real-time strategy, HOMM stayed true to it's roots and kept the gameplay mostly the same, just adding units and graphics to the mix... mostly....

It's also been highly rated by reviewers. So now I just have to try get my mitts on this game.