Weekend Happenings in Azeroth

This weekend was super awesome in WoW. My wife and I decided, on a whim, to play as some of our neglected Blood Elves. So Strael (the paladin) and his lovely cohort Contrae (the warlock) ran around Hillsbrad, joined fortuitously by our friend's troll hunter.

That was great - they were both self sufficient enough that I didn't have to do much tankery or healery with my retribution-spec, and when the need did arise my extra seven-to-ten levels certainly came in handy :)

We actually made a whole weekend out of that little group, and we all got set up with the in-game voice-chat stuff and ran just the three of us through Shadowfang Keep and Blackfathom Deeps. Not much (read: no) experience for me except for a couple quests I hadn't done in BFD, but it was still a lot of fun to go through them.


Now I'm home after a slow day of work; I'm fed with pizza and pie; and it's just about time for me to play some video games.

Talk at ya more tomorrow!

Pirates of the Caribbean Online

It could be a fun game... but it just doesn't like my wife's computer. I don't know why - her machine is superior to mine in almost every aspect, but she was experiencing constant lag to the point where it looked like she was freezing half the time. Oh well - at least we weren't paying money for it, right?

So! We made two pirates, named James and Kate Shorebane (zero relationship to our actual names, so no tricky thinking by you crazy internet folk), and we ran around as part of the same crew. We also named our ships Crimson Defender (mine!) and Shadow Dancer (hers!)... although we tended to use her ship for most of our travels, and just swapped who was driving every once in a while, since you gain experience by doing things (cannons, piloting, guns, swords - use 'em to gain new skills). The free trial didn't let us do any non-main-storyline-thing-quests, so yeah, but the story stuff has the actual actors performing their roles in a weird storyline that has no place in the actual canon. You start off in jail with Jack Sparrow, and he busts you out - then you head to Port Royal (after a run-in with Davy Jones, the Skull-Faced Pirate Who Has It In For Jack Oh It's Funny You Should Think He's Like the Squid-Faced Guy But He's Totally Not!) to get a sword from Will Turner, and then you go talk to Elizabeth Swan to get a boat (she's waiting for her dad - when could this have possibly taken place?). Yeah, it's weird, but it's cute in it's fan-dream-ish-ness, and it's got a sort of nice interface. The graphics are a little lower-end, and all the males are shaped funny.

I have no idea where I'm going with this. It's not like I'm trying to review it or anything. I think I'll stick to talking about WoW.

Here's a picture of my pirate! Gyarr!!

Holiday Stuff!

Thanksgiving is not yet arrived, and already we're looking towards Christmas. There's a holiday bazaar going on at the high school a few blocks away, so we're going to hit that up and see what they got... right after we start the background downloader for WoW, start installing Pirates of the Caribbean Online on my wife's machine, and have the soup be all cookin' (which it is!).

Here's what we need (non-gift-wise) for Christmas:

• Something visible in our house from outside
• Maybe something for the wall on the stairwell
• To clean up some of our (read: my) junk that is cluttering the surfaces downstairs

And now, I'm going to pay some bills and put my socks'n'shoes on.


Perhaps I'll talk about Pirates tomorree. How's that sound?

Let's Go For a 30 Chain!

So, on a whim after reading this, I've decided to try my hand at updating this ol' blog everyday for the next month.

We'll see.

We played WoW!

In a surprising turn of events, my wife and I sat down and played some World of Warcraft for the first time since we left for vacation.

As a result, our draenei duo (Djellin and Wallase) have both gotten 1 level closer to their shiny toys (Ardent Custodian for me... and like a ring and something else for her. Seriously, I should be able to remember. Maybe a hat?) and all the associated coolness of being 40 (mounts! And we both have 70s who, despite very much needing all the cashes ever, badly, for their flying and then epic flying birds, will gladly donate whatever we need to run around on something at 40... gosh, it's too bad we've got so far to go before we can have anything other than those silly heffalumps).

Also! We both ended up with Pirate Costume wands for Hallow's Eve funness (funituity?). So we pirated it up for a bit. I have pictures! I will crop them and attach them! You'll see! Edit: See, I did!


...yup.

Thoughts while Driving

So, I always tend to think of things that I could blog while I'm driving to or from work, and never manage to actually pen them down (as it were). Here's some of the things I've thought about, which maybe I'll hit up sometime when my wife isn't sick and I'm not trying to get things back together after a week's vacation:

1) Theory on co-operation in video games
2) Thoughts on multiplayer coding (although this will probably have to wait until much later, or not happen at all, since it crosses into the territory of "stuff I do at work that I'm not supposed to talk about".
3) We don't have kids, but thinking ahead about teaching them math as a more abstract concept (using the Chisan-bopp method, however it's spelled, for counting on your fingers)
4) My thoughts on random games that I've played, want to play, or am playing.

Dear Rare:

Why did you put co-operative play into Kameo, but not let us see the story mode or advance the game while we're in it?

Fortunately, we're only borrowing it from a friend, otherwise I'd be much more vexed. I wanted to play through it co-op with my wife. Now we have to swap in single-player to unlock the levels. Sad times.

Why the WoW posts aren't coming.

My wife has a new 360 controller (it is indeed pink). She's been tearing it up in Oblivion for the past few weeks, while I've been playing Halo 3.

I've poked around a bit in WoW myself, upgrading lots of bags and giving Laheth a shirt... and I'm super excited for when 2.3 goes live and I upgrade all my alts to 30 or more.

Oh, and we're nearing the end of our project cycle at work. That hasn't interrupted gaming at all :)

Loves!

I just wanted everyone to know how much I love my husband...
Our Anniversary was a few days ago. I guess that means we are no longer newly weds *pouts* Our first year went fast but was full of many blessings. A nice house, a beautiful trip to Italy and France, a Wii, a 360, a loving new family, and most of all the many loves and tender moments we've shared together.
He loves me so very much and for the icing on the cake... he is buying me a pink 360 controller! I can't wait to play co-op with him ^_^

How's it going?

Since hitting 70, Coperiana and Laheth have gotten a bit less play-time, and we've been catching up on other things. Since I do so love lists and ramblings, I'll combine them now, for my pleasure:

• Sonnik is at a very respectable 66 now.
• I've been crunching for the last week, so I haven't played many games at home.
• We have our 360 now, and just rented Oblivion, which Goldfire is enjoying today.
• Halo 3 multiplayer has dominated my lunch hours since it came out (and a bit of at-work dinner breaks), and I finally have a copy to call my own.
• Our last session of Burning Wheel was... interesting. Almost a total party wipe (unconscious and not dead, fortunately). We'll see how things turn out later.
• I finished a couple of books. Re-read Soul Music and finished If I Pay Thee Not In Gold, which I was apparently borrowing for over two years. Fancy that.

Alright - the build is nearing completion, so it's back to work for me.