Back to Kara

20 06 2008

The posts on NRT seem to be getting further apart but longer perhaps as karmic payback for them getting smaller and more regular over on Mark’s Impotence blog - So I apologize if this sometimes degrades into nothing but a wall of Zzzz worthy text.

Last night I ventured back into Karazhan for the first time in a fair few months - First time since before Christmas at least since thats when NI moved their raid schedule to days I couldn’t do and forced me to raid Mags and Gruuls instead - and I’m glad to report it went really very well. We followed a somewhat less than typical path of [Attum -> Moroes -> Maiden -> Opera (Oz) -> Nightbane -> Curator] before calling it a night.

Oh yes, I said Nightbane! The whole experience was much smoother than I was expecting with no wipes and most people well within the gear margins for such a run. Kudos have to go to our two tanks who - even though the Paladin was somewhat under-geared Spell Damage wise - did a top notch job of keeping me alive. That is not to say I didn’t nearly die once or twice, with no-one HoT’ing me for Maiden until about 50% and me tanking the Shadow Priest and then the Ret Paladin on Moroes it could have gone far worse.

My only two rewards for the night were my T4 gloves (that now makes 3/5 needing the head and Shoulders so I’m going to both Gruuls and Kara again soon as much as my current helm is actually better) and a fist full of badges which I turned in for an Epic relic which I felt was probably the best upgrade for me since there is only one other relic in the game worth considering but impossible to get. Although bizarrely my new Relic is proc based granting 100~ Attack Power on chance of casting a shock (Approximately 30-50%) … But the proc animation is the Blessing of Wisdom.

On other news I just finished watching a fascinating lecture approximately an hour and a half long on YouTube that I recommend checking out, you can find the first episode here (or watch below) and you’ll have to get the rest for yourself! It’s an interesting discussion about how the Bible as the inspired word of God has been altered many thousands of times, a quote from the videos approximates to: “There are more inconsistencies in the New Testament translations, than there are words.” Of course Theists are quick to say that he’s wrong and everything he says is either misleading or irrelevant, in fact I watched a Theist response to his book that in the course of a few minutes both said the book intentionally misleaded people and stated that it was O.k. for the church to make additions to the Bible.

It’s not misleading to CHANGE THE WORD OF GOD, but it is to talk about how scribes make mistakes and intentional changes over the course of thousands of years?

Sheer brilliance.

I have also spent some time on the Official Wrath forums in a few threads which illustrate perfectly how they don’t understand the implications of the changes they suggest. One of the things I truly despise is the idea that the Bard would be a viable new class. Yes, it would and could work but these people are ignoring the big picture! As soon as you put in a class who’s primary role is buffing (and they have described buffs for everything from Haste to Regen) Blizzard will then start making instances more difficult to scale with these buffs and ultimately all you end up with is a Raid that effectively requires a Bard and possibly several.

How is this a Good thing? There is no space in WoW for a pure buffing class … When told that he says that they will also have some DPS so the statement is effectively changed to There is no room in WoW for a required Buffing class let alone another DPS-Buff Hybrid.

Just to illustrate to you the general intelligence level of a WoW Forum poster there is also a thread asking if we will finally discover “Quel’thalas” in Wrath of the Lich King.

I have also recently watched two new movies, Planet Terror and The Happening. Planet Terror is a great Grindhouse flick which may not appeal to everyone but is still pretty funny. The key is to not take it seriously and you probably shouldn’t eat meat whilst watching ;)

The Happening is shit. Do not watch it. I’ll give you five reasons:

  1. Mark Wahlberg is one of the worst actors in the world
  2. Zooey Deschanel (you might remember her as that annoying bitch who couldn’t act in Frasier) is absolutely terrible.
  3. This movie might actually have the worst script ever made.
  4. It’s not scary. It’s not even remotely entertaining.
  5. It was the trees that dunnit.

I will sum up the movie with my favourite sequence:

————–
Women on Phone: Honey, are you near the Window with the tree? What can you see?

Wahlberg has shocked expression

Wahlberg: Tell her to get away from the window with the tree!
Women on Phone: Honey, get away from the Window with the tree!

Women puts Girl on Speaker phone

Girl is speaking jibberish

Women on Phone: Are you ok? What’s the matter?

Sound of Girl smashing through window
Women previously on phone hands Wahlberg the phone and runs away crying

Wahlberg puts the phone his ear
Wahlberg: Don’t go outside
————–

Don’t … Go outside? You have to see his face and the whole scene to really feel how stupid that is but my God people laughed at parts of that movie they shouldn’t have. Two people left at about the hour mark.

That is about all I can be bothered to write, nobody has submitted their 5 Tracks for my last post challenge so I will give you another chance.

Regards,
JamesR.

The Happening annoys me, because it’s a perfectly solid premise that M. Night managed to completely ruin.





James 6 - ET 3 (DQ)

25 10 2007

So how have you all been?No Alt-Text snipes today. For now. Good I hope.

Been a fairly active few days for me, I finally got my copy of Warriors Orochi through (14 days late I think) so I can start playing it for my Xbox Elite review.

Its good enough, but it doesn’t really have any place on a next gen console.

Recently i’ve also seen “The Kingdom” and Blacksheep. The prior was surprisingly good (not a Jennifer Garner fan) but Blacksheep … well … it was unique. I’ll give it that.

I’ll probably scribble up reviews for them on WSAG just to pad it out a bit.

I’m also finally get around to sorting out some ID so I can go drinking on my 20th. Won’t that be fun? Huzzahs! Presuming theres no problems with my (obscenely expensive) Passport application anyway.

Regards entail.

Read the rest of this entry »





Updatery 11/10/2007

11 10 2007

Not much to really write here because I wrote most of it over on WSAG.

I mini-reviewed BSG, Condemned and a movie I saw yesterday called Atoment. That Article can be found here.

Just in case you don’t fancy checking that, i’ll C&P the part about Atonement, since it is my duty as a Human being to protect others:

Atonement

This, I will keep brief.

I can put up with some chicky flicks and stuff … but this was fucking awful.

If I didn’t get to see so much of teh nipples, I probably would’ve left. The sequencing was schizophrenic, the dialogue painfully cliché and the plot fell short of my expectations … neigh … It ran head first into them like an angry bull determined to destroy my fragile existence.

1.5 Stars /5 - Nipples are win. Keira Knightley haf secksy body. Otherwise, shit.

Theres more, but I might as well leave you to check WSAG. Which you should do anyway, because there a few half-decent posts lined up and already published … For example Mark’s Stubbs the Zombie review and his “Nintendo Business Strategy for the Wii” article … Which he is no doubt hoping to draw attention to himself with.

Keep a look out for a new feature I plan on running every now and again called “Games You have to Play before you Die”, we have 15 lined up this week.

On the EEEEETEEEEE front things are warming up a little, theres recent controversy over changes being made to their Roleplaying System.

To try and appeal to the wider RP audience the Admins have decided to alienate some of their most active members, only time will tell if they have the spines to stand up for what they want. I predict no and they’ll just let the changes go through and live with it.

Of course, if they do that and just decide to stop RP’ing in a few months we’ll be able to look back on it and go “Remember when we used to RP?” …. Just like I look back now and think “Remember when we used to debate stuff?”.

Regards,
James.





17th September 2007

17 09 2007

Whoops, its been a week since I last posted. So I guess I better get on it >_>

First, Update: Zombie Genocider is MINE, as well as quite a few other Dead Rising Achievements - You need only check out my Live Profile:


(Click to go to the Xbox Live Site Profile)

Well I’m back from my awesome week staying with Leslie, huzzah, now back to sitting around staring at Forums >_>

Erm, we saw the Bourne Ultimatum - After making her watch both in quick succession the day before, and it was indeed very good. Very good. In my opinion, it is the best Spy Movie Ever (Casino Royale is a close second :P), Kudos to Matt Damon. That man is INVINCIBLE.

Erm … Work hasn’t actually phoned me back yet >_> Which is fine with me, I’m enjoying being able to relax before going back to Uni.

Ehm … 6 Weeks and i’ve only logged into WoW Twice … Must get back into that <_< Need more help finishing my twink really … Twinks always get me through the dry streaks.

–Removed ET Hate on the grounds that … well … I like ET, and i’m trying my hardest to be above the petty hate Zip has for me.

Meh, Bioshock forums are good.

Regards,
James.





10th September

10 09 2007

I hope everyone is having a good 9/11 Eve.

 I’ve been slumming it up at my GFs house recently since her mother is away for the week, I took the week off from work to, so I could spend more time with her.

Figure I may as well before we both go to University … And with me probably working the odd night here and there it might become even harder to see her.

Anyway, I’ve got a few things on my list which I plan to get done while i’m seeing her … like getting Zombie Genocider (45,000 now - about 8k to go) Maybe play Bioshock through again …Watch loads of movies i’ve been putting off … Plus, doing some basic cooking is cool :)

We watched Firefly/Serenity yesterday … I made her fall in love with it - her favourite character was Wash. Needless to say, now she hates Fox as much as me. We also watched Wolf Creek which was possibly the slowest starting movie in the history of movies.

Although, once it got going …. it got going >_>

I’m at home atm (thus the post) just getting some clothes and stuff … Supposedly a hair cut, but I think the barber is closed now - Tomorrow perhaps? Then i’m heading back.

Good luck and Have fun,
James.





Another Day, Another Forum

7 09 2007

I’ve all but made the transition onto the Bioshock forums now. It’s quite nice there … Sometimes the Thompsonite Christians seem fairly overwhelming, but still - its a refreshing change from the Mario > All attitude i’m used to.

I do still look at ET, and i’m not actually banned … so I do respond to PMs and the like. But i’m done posting there - At least for now. Kind of a Shame though … Ogame -> ET & WoW -> Bioshock -> ?

My current (and final?) post count is 1,770 (a Personal best). Screenshot taken of course … I know how fleeting these things are. But I won’t totally burn my bridges for now, I might decide to go back - but people who know me, and know whats been going on - will know thats not likely.

ANYWAY, I was just watching Sky News (at 6:20 AM) and I saw the damndest thing … Defcon (the Introversion game) on the news! During a broadcast talking about the European Missile shield against the middle east (I keep writing Middle-Easy … wtf) it popped up for a few minutes.

As always, Europe was getting gang-banged by everyone else.

I borrowed Final Fantasy XII off of Master Bone, so perhaps I will try and sink some time into that soon. We’ll see … As it stands, i’ve not got loads of time for it … So is it really worth it? I’ve still got Bioshock (on Hard), C&C3, BFME2, Viva Pinata and Dead Rising to farm Gamer Score on …

God I am tired … I stayed up all night just surfing the net … As you do.

Time for sleep, see you at 15:00 - 17:00.

Regards,
James.

Ps. I saw Hallam Foe, it was … Baffling, but a brilliant movie none-the-less. Jamie Belle(?) did a stand up job, and of course the guy I will forever refer to as Caesar is never a disappointment. Its funny, its fresh and it’s british. 3 1/2 Stars.