Things I'm excited About: Cowboys and Aliens

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/cowboys-and-aliens.html

The Walking Dead

This past Sunday was the premiere of The Walking Dead, the AMC television adaptation of one of my favorite comic book's. Was it good? In a word, very!

I don't watch a lot of TV and to be honest it takes quite a bit of presentation to make me even consider watching something (I keep getting burnt by things like the Battlestar Galactica reboot), however I was thoroughly looking forward to this one, so when you put those two things together, a disinclination to watch TV and a heightened expectation and still allow me to walk away on a very positive note? That spells success to me.

I've heard time and time again what a major input the creator, Robert Kirkman, has had on the tv show and, although I can't cite any actual evidence of this, after watching the pilot I'm willing to believe it; at the very least they're making a major effort to keep it true to Kirkman's vision. The show had a lot of the same feel as the comic to it and made a phenomenal transition from the black and white base material to full color live action; this doesn't often occur successfully, case in point, 300.

As for the characters? All I can say is I was impressed with the casting. Not only did they manage to find people who physically looked the part, but managed to keep them on track for their persona's. I'm looking forward to seeing Shane get shot.

I'm pretty sure if you're at all interested you've already seen the show and if you're not, there is very little I can say to make you change you're mind and convince you to watch it. All I can do is give it a very hearty recommend, give this show a chance and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Fable 3 - Hmmmm

After Fable 2 I vowed I wasn't buying Fable 3. However, I've been looking a few of the trailers and I have to say I'm getting sucked in once again. Now Fable 2 wasn't the worst game I've ever played but it was no original Fable. What were my problems with Fable 2? Well since you asked:

- Fable 2 was too easy after the half way point in the game you were pretty much a unstoppable juggernaut and if you did happen to die before that oooo you got a scar.

- Fable 1 fighting took a little skill but Fable 2 was nothing but a button smasher

- Why bother getting armor it provided no benefit so guess what my character was a girl that like to kick ass in her underpants. Okay maybe that wasn't so bad until she turned into a butch behemoth.

- The AI character Hammer was in my opinion the 2nd most annoying video game character ever; beaten ever so slightly by Otis in the First Dead Rising. OMG my face twitches when I think of Hammers whining and Otis's cell phone spamming calls in the middle of zombie fights. Side note apparently there's a way to kill Otis which is definitely reason to play Dead Rising again.

- The biggest let down with Fable 2 was the so called co-op play which was a complete waste of time and such a huge let down. Really it was only slightly better than old school games like Double Dragon .... scratch that Double Dragon was better.

So you may be thinking my god Darcy that game sounds horrid why would you consider Fable 3. Well the original Fable is a game I remember with fond memories. I hadn't been into video games since Earth Worm Jim and then my wife got me to buy Fable and that game opened up a pandora's box of video game addiction for me. I truly enjoyed playing the first Fable thru at least 3 times.

I have my doubts that Fable 3 will recapture the magic of Fable but I got to to say the trailer looks intriguing and it looks like they actually worked to make the Co-op an actual co-op experience. I'm going to do a little more research but I've been considering getting an XBox again and this could be the game to convince me that I need 3 different consoles.

WoW Patch 4.0.1, One Week Later

It's been a week since the big patch was released and it looks like everyone has settled in and adjusted, I know I have. I admit to missing a few abilities, but by and large it looks like most of what was weeded out was not important; the few missing spells were ones I rarely, if ever, used, and, while I haven't noticed any difference with my Warlock, most classes are reporting major power buffs.

I still haven't played my hunter, but I did give my Paladin a couple runs at the headless horseman and I really notice the streamlined interface there; again fewer spells, but the ones I'm left with make more sense and I feel like I'm getting a more complete play with that toon.

The biggest problems I have found have been around the dungeons, getting in and out is more problematic and disconnects, although becoming rarer, still plague the busier instances. Having said that though I'm very impressed with how people are handling the disconnects, some frustration, but no unwarranted rudeness towards players getting punted. In several cases I have still been part of the group when I got logged back in. Exiting an instance to find I am no longer mounted on a flying mount are a bit harder to deal with, repairing epic gear is expensive!

Although the initial shock was a little overwhelming I think things have worked out well in Azeroth. Change is always hard to deal with and is usually met with heavy resistance, so it's often better to use the band-aid method that 4.0.1 used, everyone says "Ouch, that hurt" but then realizes they're at least as well off as they were before, and, in some cases, better.

Warcraft Patch 4.0.1

Blizzard released patch 4.0.1 yesterday, introducing major, sweeping, changes to the game; consider it a foreshadow of what's coming to Azeroth when Cataclysm comes out. I got the patch installed and ran a few instances and did a little questing last night (gotta do my dailies) to see how things are going and thought I'd share some thoughts.

Not surprisingly I heard a lot of complaints about everything, many people summing up their thoughts with the phrase "Blizz has wrecked WoW!". Do I think Blizz has wrecked WoW? In a word, no, but I do share the general feeling of frustration over what has happened with some of the class changes. What it boils down to? I now have to relearn how to play my class.

My main is an Affliction Warlock who I have lovingly brought from a level 1 nobody to a level 80 powerhouse over the last 6 months and it's difficult to see that essentially thrown out the window and replaced with something I don't quite understand. What happened to my spells? What they left me with has changed drastically, they plain threw away a few of them, and they gave me a couple I don't fully understand. I'm really not looking forward to logging in with my Hunter or Paladin and dealing with the mess created for them.

Talent points? Let's forget the money I spent respeccing her talents to tweak her DPS, that was my choice, but in the new system, they are not nearly as customizable, way fewer points to assign and for some reason I no longer either generate or require soul shards. Not a bad thing as shard management was always a bit of work, but it gave playing the 'lock another facet that I enjoyed. I want to change demon's? Fine, but I need someone's soul to sacrifice first. Soul Burn loses a bit of something when you no longer need a piece of someone's soul to use it. The new glyph system is kind of cool, but again it takes something away from the game when you allow people to retain the knowledge after changing glyphs.

I could go on, but I think that sums up most of the frustration, it sums up mine anyway. Am I going to quit playing WoW because of this? No, I'm not, and I honestly don't think it's going to chase many other people away either; definitely a few will leave, but they were probably looking for an excuse to quit playing anyway. I can actually see this generating more interest in the game and bringing and keeping more players, which equals more money for Blizzard and, by proxy, more money and better content. The changes have, by and large, simplified the RPG aspect of the game and distilled it to a point that more people can recognize and manage; not exactly what I was looking for, but I'll learn to manage.

It's easy to be angry about change but being easy doesn't make it right. At the end of the day this is simply a game and it's time to learn a few new rules.