This past weekend was truly monumental for several reasons.
First up, TV viewing rocked.
We have been watching a BBC Drama called "Being Human" which is back for a second season. This show does not disappoint. It is almost an hour in length (as a comparison, normal American TV is usually 40-45 minutes at most), and it captivates you the whole time.
The storyline is not your standard run of the mill either. And it is about Werewolves, Ghosts and Vampires. So, how do they do it? They treat the characters as more realistic. For example one woman has been changed into a werewolf, and instead of the whole "I feel power" bit, and enjoying the capabilities, we instead see how the relationship of the woman and her boyfriend who changed her starts to fall apart as she cannot comprehend what has happened to her.
Also, this weekend was the launch of Spartacus on Starz (is this their first drama series? Can anyone verify that?). This show is also a doozy thanks to Sam Raimi in the production team along with the rest of his Xena, Hercules writers, etc...
Their claim to fame is using the stop motion action of 300 (slow mo and complete stops as well) for the fight sequences along with painted visuals that look like a computer RPG game at times. The blood is red, rich, splashy and visually dynamic (if you like that sort of thing, which we as a whole LOVE it when heads fly or body limbs are sliced off).
This pastiche causes an almost comic book effect for some sequences, and really was truly a better production than most Sam Raimi pieces have been (see the mentioned Hercules, Xena and The Legend of the Seeker). Acting was a sight better as well. We even get the return of Lucy Lawless...so, I am game (especially with the greco-roman setting, which is one of my favorite periods).
This weekend was also movie night (Saturdays official!!) with this weeks feature being the Steampunk animated flavored "9".
Well done, and thanks again to some oversight of production by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (who did the work on Nightwatch, Daywatch and Wanted), visually appealing and a cool storyline (though could have been fleshed out more...).
Anyways...so much of this extra stuff getting in the way when the title of my post is the major story of the weekend. Thanks to the prodding of my son who was ready to join us again for some gaming, we all took a vote and chose Guild Wars as the next game in our list to play together.
Myself and the wife have played the game on and off since launch (almost 5 years ago?) and every time we have a blast. But, it is difficult to go back to a game when you are itching for something new. Our son who had not experienced the game though pushed us on and we finally logged in Sunday, and was delighted.
Our son is still getting to grips over a system that is totally different than most MMO's (no jumping??). The locked down skill bar system and on rails style gameplay is unique, but also seems to be quite fun so far for us...and a good time waster here and there. At least until Funcom gets it's act together (2012?).
Anyways, as we progress, maybe I will finally have something to discuss again, thanks to being in a [semi] MMO. So far my son has given a "Thumbs Up".
More on the gaming front soon, and hopefully everyone is having a blast in their game of choice...
Cheers
5 comments:
I recently started playing Guild Wars a little more than a week ago. I love the PvP system but it does need fixing in a lot of areas like you said. No jumping...wtf. It's a tough game to get into for beginners on the PvP side. I got ridiculed for being a "noob" many times, and I still do. That doesn't stop me from loving it.
P.S. I'm a new blogger, you should check out my content.
Thanks for the comment.
I have added your site to my blog list.
I agree...Guild Wars still needs some things that will be present in Guild Wars 2. For what GW does, it does it well in my opinion, and for no monthly fee.
Cheers
guild wars was the first "mmo" I played and it was pretty awesome.
How's the population? When I stopped playing the large guilds were dead and the game seemed to have just hit dirt as a whole.
guild wars was the first "mmo" I played and it was pretty awesome.
How's the population? When I stopped playing the large guilds were dead and the game seemed to have just hit dirt as a whole.
We still see a ton of people on. But, no, the sea change and flux of populations has changed the landscape...
But, to give an example...There were 5 full districts this past weekend (Sunday) and whenever we enter the city, we are guaranteed to see at least 30+ people....
Puts Age of Conan and even the Trader in Aquilonia to shame (AoC looks so dead compared to this 5+ year old game)
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