As I have stated, recently my wife has been down and out due to a surgery. A Laproscopic procedure. It is considered outpatient.
This is not to say it is not extremely painful.
If you are as morbid as my wife, why not check out some videos, and see the amazing skills of the surgeons in these examples of Abdomen Hernia Repair, which she got to enjoy.
This particular video shows them laying mesh inside the abdomen to hold the hernia in place...oh boy. YUCKY!!, but amazing at the same time.
Impressive stuff.
Due to this, I have been babysitting quite a bit. Luckily, as I was at home, I had a chance to run some game time in AoC. I have a story of the Black Castle of Stygia coming up...
But, I am slammed for work now, as I leave the wife alone for the first time in 3 days, so I will hopefully have a chance to write this up soon.
For now...it is ramble time.
Returning shows make their mark during our off time this week.
Heroes came back, and almost felt like a reboot. What was interesting is that as I watched it, I noticed a hint of how the story was progressing, and camera work (how close ups were done, etc.) were...all different. Even the story felt a tinge more in depth for our main characters (I was so excited that no NEW Hero was introduced...big win).
I thought I noticed a name as one of the producers...and sure enough, in the list of names.
Mark Verheiden
He of Battlestar fame, he is one of the co-executive producers for BSG as well.
His history is unqiue (having done a Dark Shadows remake that was never shown on regular TV in 2004, and worked on the oh so cool Timecop...lol)...but, he has had writing credit on "The Mask"...woot.
Anyways, I was impressed, as it felt "new". I hope it keeps this line of story, and can make a comeback.
Medium also has returned...Patricia Arquette is truly awesome (and HOT).
And this weekend we finally have Episode 1 and 2 of LOST to see where that is going.
Another show we found (I REALLY cannot tell you how, or else I will have ta' kill ya') is called Being Human. A BBC 3 production (BBC is the more "adult" oriented network, where Torchwood is shown...).
Talk about an ultra cool hour.
Take a Vampire, who is friends with a Werewolf, and they move into a house to try and be "normal", and they find a Ghost living in that house...and you have a very unique "Soap Opera"...
Oh yes...I said that.
Even though there is that tinge of Buffy and Angel here, there is NOT the campy feel. This is serious stuff (especially when we find out that Vampires record themselves killing others, and send DVD's to other Vampires as a way of "Snuff" porn...)..
It is interesting as the various characters try to live in normality, yet dealing with their problems in a soap opera way.
Relationships, friends, love, hate...oh yea, and some looming sort of impending doom...but, hey, a Vampire and a Ghosts lips can almost seem to...touch...hmmm...
"It was cold...kinda like you just stepped in from outside..."
Oh boy...
All I can say, take a bunch of pretty brits, put them together, and see how their acting skills make US based actors of soaps look like they just entered acting school..add some great hip music, with quicks slips of skin viewable in various scenes..
This is one sexy and fun show...
(Sci-Fi network...please check this out NOW!)
Anyways....enough of that TV crap.
Gaming.
Why is it that WAR seems "doomed" nowadays, yet AoC is experiencing a resurgence?
Can the lower cost of development have saved AoC from certain death?
At almost half the cost, AoC sold more boxes than WAR in the same time period of 08...so, is it possible that this cash flow helped Funcom overall defeat a fate worse than death?
Especially when EA is chopping jobs left and right...will Mythic be able to survive their loss?
I personally think a resurgence will occur for the "Live" expansion. But, complaints are still present for how the game has progressed.
The biggest surprise though is a recent survey done (these surveys have been part of AoC's progression actually) for AoC. Here is a link to the survey.
It seems a larger percentage of players are doing PvE in AoC, even though it is not it's focus.
I think this is another reason AoC seems more ready to at least hold players, especially with new Raid dungeons on the way, and new quests and content.
AoC is a better PvE game than WAR...and this could also be the key to AoC's survival.
Anyways...enough rambling...need to do some work research (have you ever tried to raise funds for a Non-profit through donations during an economic crisis? Do not envy my job!!!!!!!!!)...but, I also wish to do the write up for Black Castle...(an excellent adventure indeed)
More later folks.
10 comments:
Age of Conan, The Witcher, now Being Human. Why do I feel I was meant to dislike everything you like Edge? xD
-Shamutanti
Leaving out PQs and content which is a mix of PvE and PvP, I think you're right that AoC is a better PvE game than WAR. It also has, I think, better combat. While content was (and probably still is) thin in some places, what content was there ranged from good to outstanding. In addition, it's about six months farther along the 'maturity curve' than WAR is; whatever population it has is probably a bit more stable, and the developers (hopefully) have a better idea of what needs to get done to beat the game into shape.
I felt from the very beginning that AoC was a very good game with the inevitable set of launch-era problems that everybody should have foreseen going in. A lot of the flak it took was undeserved, and came out of a certain crowd that consisted of WAR partisans who saw AoC as some kind of rival and simpleminded haters who didn't have anything better to do.
Neither game managed to be credible as a serious challenger to WoW, although both made credible runs at it... and if either had been less problematic they might have hit that one million mark, at least temporarily. And now both find themselves in similar positions, with reasonable player bases and room to grow from there.
Age of Conan, The Witcher, now Being Human. Why do I feel I was meant to dislike everything you like Edge?
Because I have better taste?
Pfft. I question that also! :p
Is Being Human streamable? As in, to the 360? No real interest in watching tv at the computer ya know.
Hmm... AoC... Witcher... *wonders if a Witcher MMO could work*
You know how difficult this is to gauge as you seem to hate a LOT of stuff...lol
Ah well, Maybe it is the fact we both come from two sides of the pond.
For example I hear Torchwood does "ok" in the EU, yet in the US was a #1 show for the network playing it...
Weird eh?
I also like the campy Demons from ITV...and I bet that is panned like no tomorrow...hehe
Anyways, we can agree to disagree...what makes us unique?
Scott
Not "streamable" unless you have Media Center...
Since it is a Divx format (xvid...I am actually not sure...but not MKV which breaks on streaming), but when I share my media from my PC to my Xbox, I can watch the "downloaded" stream just fine....
Try that option...Media players shared file system works...
Look here...
http://www.nathanm.com/streaming-video-using-the-xbox-360/
A good post on various ways to share those "downloaded" streams
I wouldn't say I hate most things :p there's just certain things I'm extremely critical of and often those 'things' are what make a game fun/enjoyable for me.
So with AoC as an example it was the lack of content and the big amount of grinding that put me off. I love quests, even foozle quests. Even if the text is bad and the structure is basic, it gives me a goal of some form to aim for whilst grinding. Without goals given it makes it hard for me to motivate myself. Levels just won't do, I need additionals also like a story line or a fancy object dangled in front of me xD And no, the cannibal quests weren't enough for me :P
In terms of Tv/Books I'm pretty tough on things. More exacting standards. I found Being Human... awkward. The story line wasn't quick enough (I was admittedly expecting more underworld/buffy-esque type) for me so I found myself getting bored - it really came down to the fact I had different expectations from it.
I also have a problem with the characters, well one in particular, the ghost lady plays Sugar in Sugar Rush and where as I enjoyed her role in said series I find her somewhat dull in this one. She was more 'alive' in Sugar Rush than she is in this one.
Oops and in terms of Torchwood I actually enjoy that quite a bit but yeah it only do 'so-so' over here. Demons I missed the first episode or two and didn't bother chasing up after. Is it worth catching up on?
TVersity will stream just about any codec to the 360, it's just a matter of figuring out how to download a local copy of the file for TVersity to use. I'll poke around BBC if I think about it later.
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