Ragnar’s Realms

Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

The aquatic antics of our obliviously cheerful pal, SpongeBob SquarePants, have once again been transformed into a video game, this time for Xbox Live Arcade. Though we can’t guarantee that “Underpants Slam!” will be any more enjoyable than the unexpected punch to the groin as suggested by the title, we can confidently inform you that it’ll be available for download in North America from the Xbox Live Marketplace this coming Wednesday, December 26th.

THQ’s “side-scrolling slap-happy extravaganza” absorbs players into SpongeBob’s quest to collect King Neptune’s 99 pieces of laundry, with garment hunting parties being comprised of up to four players over Xbox Live. If that sounds like F.U.N. to you, prepare to get slammed in the pants for 800 MS Points ($10).

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

(Link)

Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Screenshots, Around Azeroth, Bosses

Reader Quarla sends us this snapshot all the way from the Black Temple. Before you start the Illidan event, he just kneels in the middle of the room, apparently waiting for heroes to come by, take their snapshots, and then kill him. But in this shot, it hardly looks like Quarla has the strength of a raid behind her. Is Illidan soloable yet?

Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you’d like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing a copy to aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com, with as much or as little detail as you’d like to share with us.

%Gallery-1816%

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

(Link)

Today,  

Filed under: Imports

SCEI has unveiled four new cases from PORTER. These pricey cases are fetching a mighty 9500 yen (about $90). That’ll take a bite out of any PSP fan’s wallet. The Japanese promotional site has a few promo pics of people using the case … and don’t they look oh-so-happy?

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

(Link)

Today,  

Filed under: Fan stuff

CompUSA … what can we say about you and your business practices? You’re such a silly company, especially when it comes to your marketing. Last week news broke that all of your CompUSA stores were closing and that you were liquidating all your merchandise because your financials weren’t in order. And now we’re coming to an understanding of why. It’s because you spent your entire 2007 marketing budget on a Burnout Paradise in-game ad. The CompUSA billboard ad can be seen in the Paradise demo and everytime we drive by one we can’t help but chuckle to ourselves. Maybe you should ask EA for some of your money back since your stores don’t really exist anymore or at the very least get them to change the graphic to read something like “liquidation sale going on now!” Silly CompUSA.

[Thanks, Blake Rampton]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

(Link)

Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Mage, Priest, Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Arcane Brilliance, Arena

One thing I’ve noticed while playing my warlock, and now my mage, is that many WoW players can’t seem to tell one cloth-wearing class from another. Anyone wearing a dress is fair game to be asked for healing, water, or (in extreme cases of dumbness) a soulstone.

But there’s reason behind their madness. Warlocks, mages and (shadow) priests are all meant to be damage classes with some utility added in. They compete for the same clothes, weapons, trinkets, and often the same raid slots. So, when it comes down to it, what’s the difference between mages, warlocks and shadowpriests? Who has the most raid damage? Who’s the most wanted in arenas? Who do you fear most in world PVP? Join me and my Azgalor-killing mage pal Skwisgaar for … the BATTLE OF THE CLOTHIES!

Raid/Group Damage

This is the latest complaint in the ongoing fight between mages and locks. An Illidan-killing lock I talked to suggested I check out two fights for comparison: Shade of Akama for burst DPS, and Teron Gorefiend for sustained DPS. After spending some time on WoW Web Stats looking at the two fights, I came up with a few ideas about damage.

Raid/Group Damage, ctn’d

On Shade of Akama, warlocks and mages were in the top three damage dealers about the same percentage of the time. Shadow priests were much lower, but they often had a seriously lower percentage of time spent DPSing — and a very high DPS rating for the time they were doing damage. Teron Gorefiend was similar, with the exception that neither warlocks nor mages were top DPS as much as they were on Akama. For Gorefiend, that spot tended to go to rogues or fury warriors. There were also less overall shadowpriests brought to the Gorefiend fight.

So what does this mean? It looks that among top guilds, whether mages or warlocks do more DPS depends on the fight, gear, individual skill and pure luck. Shadowpriests do seem to do less damage than the other two casters, but after talking to both mages and warlocks, it seems that the grass is always greener on the other side. Warlocks envy the mage’s greater choice in talent specs and playstyle, and mages envy the lock’s mobility and synergy with shadowpriests. It’s very hard to generalize this to small groups because they vary so widely in composition.

Skwisgaar says: Shadow priests can DPS like hell but not for a very long period of time. Their spells slurp mana. I’m not sure what the rotations are, I’ve never played one in a raid situation, but I’ve seen them go OOM really fast when they were going all out. That might get better with gear, we don’t have any t6 s-priests yet. I think warlocks contribute the most in a raid damage environment right now, on average. The main reasons are that their dots allow them to move around a lot while still maintaining some damage, they have a functionally unlimited mana pool as long as they remember to bring bandages, and they synergize with s-priests better than mages do with either class.

Raid/Group Utility

Oh, so THAT’S why we take shadowpriests! The spriests are the post-BC kings of raid utility. In the early days of MC or BWL, priests would be mocked and left aside if they respecced shadow; now, one is practically a requirement in every raid. Vampiric Embrace and Vampiric Touch can keep your group a) alive and b) with mana. Misery and Shadow Weaving also let the shadowpriests drastically improve the damage of other casters, particularly warlocks.

For the runner-up of raid utility, I’d take mages, although I know Skwisgaar disagrees with me. AI, Polymorph, food and water seem to be altogether more useful than soulstones and the healthstones that everyone in my guild always freaking forgets to use.

Skwisgaar says: Shadowpriests are useful otherwise, but VT makes them indispensable for any serious raid guild
Not to be a self-hating mage or anything: Ritual of Refreshment is great, but regenerating the group’s mana out of combat just doesn’t hold a candle to doing so actively with one of your damage spells. A warlock can only restore a finite amount of health, whereas a shadow priest can restore his group’s health and more importantly mana, which by extension either heals for a lot more than the stone or eats through the boss’ health faster. As far as synergizing with members of your own class for damage output, i’d say destruction warlocks; a title that belonged to fire mages until they nerfed rolling ignites. Shadowbolt-oriented destrolocks with lots and lots of crit rating on their gear do immense amounts of shadow damage. Usually 3 of them in a raid is enough to keep the improved shadowbolt bonus up the entire fight.

Solo PVP

Both mages and locks can be beasts at world PvP. AP-POM-Pyro mages used to be famous for their crits. But in today’s stamina-oriented world, frost mages can kick some serious behind due to their increased survivability. Fire and arcane mages might get a boost with the introduction of trainable ice block in 2.3.2. For warlocks, full affliction is the … well, the thing that everyone complains about, but my lock compadre tells me demonology is actually a superior PVP tree due to Soul Link and resilience working with DOTs. Affliction is still a great tree for warlocks if you enjoy watching your enemy die while trying to run away. Shadowpriests are excellent in duels and such, but Skwisgaar remarks that he doesn’t fear them nearly as much as locks and other mages.

Skwisgaar says: 17/0/44 is probably the best spec for solo PVP. I prefer elemental just because it’s fun to play, but in terms of sheer effectiveness, it’s hard to match the defensive capability of frost. For mages vs. locks — tough call. I think that would come down to individual skill, assuming roughly equal gear. I’ve never had much trouble with shadowpriests, even as a raid-spec fire mage. I was probably fighting crappy priests, but they seem so reluctant to leave shadowform, as though that 15% damage boost does anything if they neglect to heal themselves when they’re low. I worry more about a lock or another mage than a priest. Priests tend to skimp on stamina since they can self-buff. Spellsteal is a wonderful thing.

Arena PVP

Much has been made of the dominance of warlocks in arena, but are there facts behind the complaints? Realmhistory.net has done a wonderful chart and writeup about arena stats for different brackets. For 1850+ teams in 2v2, mages seem to be extremely unpopular. Warlocks make up 16% of top 2v2ers, with affliction/demonology being the most popular spec, and they’re commonly teamed with druids and priests. Mages are only 6% of 1850+ 2v2 teams, while priests (shadow and non) make up 14%. Shadowpriests and affliction/demonology locks make a potent combo in 2v2.

Mages come into their own a bit more in 3v3 — the top combo there is mage, priest and rogue, and 12% of 3v3 players are mages. Most of the mages are 17/0/44, cementing its place as the best arena PVP spec. Warlocks and shadowpriests are still potent gladiators, but the popularity of locks is beginning to drop as we move to 3v3.

5v5 is where mages truly come into their own. Most of the top 5v5 teams involve a mage (or even two mages, in the mage/mage/lock/priest/warr combo.) Shadowpriests suffer a drastic drop in effectiveness due to their generally low survivability. Frost mages and aff/demo locks show up in about equal numbers here, so if you’re burning for a 5v5, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find one.

Skwisgaar says: I’m pretty sure locks are more desirable for either 2v2 or 5v5 due to their ridiculous longevity
That is, unless the 2v2 consists of two AP mages which can be pretty brutal. I’m really not the person to be asking about anything arena-related. I’m only doing them to get the dagger because it’s good for PVE and i’m way down the list on the sword off Archimonde.

Would you like to become the new writer of Arcane Brilliance? You’ve got twelve more hours to apply for our mage columnist job at our LFM page. Please apply. The Pyroblasts are beginning to hurt.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

(Link)

Admin wrote: 

Filed under: Business

Take-Two’s Q4 fiscal results were met with rapture thanks to 2K Boston’s BioShock. GameDaily reports the title has shipped 2 million units globally and helped increase the company’s net revenue an extra $30 million from Q4 ‘06 to $292.6 million. Formerly fiscally-challenged Take-Two decreased their net loss from $14 million last Q4 to $7.1 million. For the full financial year the company saw $981.8 million in net revenue and $138.4 million in net losses — down from $184.9 million in fiscal ‘06.

Take-Two saw successes beyond BioShock, crediting NBA 2K8, the Grand Theft Auto series and *groan* Carnival Games. Take-Two expects this fiscal year ending at the end of Oct. ‘08 to be a banner year. Projected net revenue is $1.1 to $1.4 billion thanks to a wide selection of games, no doubt highlighted by next year’s guaranteed mega-hit: Grand Theft Auto IV.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

(Link)

Today,  

Filed under: Imports

The upcoming PSP Code Geass game will feature full episodes of the popular anime series. Well, at least in the limited edition of the game. The adventure will be available on PSP and PS2 in March 2008 (in Japan, of course). And while details are slim on this release, we’re intrigued by this classy synergy of game and video. We’d love to see future PSP releases take advantage of the multimedia capabilities of the system. Imagine if Bleach: Heat the Soul actually included episodes of the anime? That would be too cool.

[Via PSPHyper]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

(Link)

Today,  

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Know your Lore

Here at Know Your Lore, we’ve covered fanatics and heroes, reluctant killers and willing murderers, the founder of druidic magic and his power obsessed brother. We’ve talked about the orc who first doomed, then saved his people, the last king of the Sin’dorei, and a man who doomed his people trying to save them.

Today, we’re going to talk about a very special kind of greatness. A greatness that destroys, a grandeur that wreaks untold havoc until the land and its people are forever severed. Of all the heroes and villains of the Warcraft universe, this may well be the single most evil character in all the lore.

He didn’t do anything out of misguided love, or from a desire to prove himself. He wasn’t trying to save anyone. He didn’t ever come to understand his mistakes and try and redeem them. From the very first moment he could, he betrayed every single one of his people and delivered them wholesale into the hands of demons. He wasn’t inspired by an insane titan’s visitation and he cared not at all for the lives he would or would not destroy. All he ever cared about was himself: even his own followers were destroyed in an instant if it suited his desire for power at any cost.

Grom knew regret. Arthas wanted to save his home. Ner’zhul was tortured past the point of physical existence for his refusal to commit his people to demonic slavery. But the man who did commit? Gul’dan the warlock, who turned his people over to the blood of Mannoroth knowing full well what it would do and not caring a whit?

Who is more evil than the man who destroys his entire world knowing full well what he is doing, and never regretting it for a moment? Who is more evil than Gul’dan?

No one. That’s why he’s a complete badass. We’re talking about a guy who came up with Death Knights just to cover his own ass. They weren’t part of his master plan, they weren’t an essential component of his schemes, he created the single most unholy killing machines yet seen off of the top of his head just to keep Doomhammer from caving in his skull.

Nobody had to pretend to be an ancestor to convince Gul’dan to do anything. No one dangled a magic sword and played mind gamed with Gul’dan, sending demons to corrupt the things he held dear and force him to take actions he would normally have found unthinkable. Gul’dan killed all of his own students and jammed their souls into magic truncheons at the drop of a hat.

Of course, Gul’dan didn’t start off killing people and raising them from the dead or making two headed ogres. No, like all evil maniac geniuses, he started off as a baby and no matter how evil a baby is, the lack of motor control, small size, and tendency to soil oneself tends to inhibit making pacts with arch-fiends. For years, Gul’dan was just an ambitious but talented shaman serving under Ner’zhul. elder shaman of the Shadowmoon clan. It’s possible they got along because Gul’dan, like Ner’zhul, hungered for power. It’s possible they got along because they both have apostrophes in the middle of their names. At any rate, get along they did - when Ner’zhul started receiving visitations from a being who purported to be an ancient ancestor, the so-called ‘beautiful one’, Gul’dan had no problem supporting his campaign of war against the draenei. When Ner’zhul started to worry about the ancestors and the elementals refusing to aid the orcs in their war, Gul’dan had no problem following his master, spying on his meeting with the spirits, and discovering that the ‘beautiful one’ had lied to the orcs. And when Ner’zhul made to go reveal the truth to his people, Gul’dan had no problem going to Kil’jaeden and making a deal.

Power for service and loyalty. The power Ner’zhul wouldn’t wield, Gul’dan would.

If you’ve been to Shadowmoon Valley, you’ve probably seen some of Gul’dan’s handiwork. Not happy with betraying his teacher, forcing him into a toothless role as Elder Shaman without spirits to answer his call, determined to demonstrate just how powerful his deal with Kil’jaeden had made him. he chose to read from the Cipher of Damnation and literally tore Draenor away from its connection to the elemental spirits. The angered elementals still run amok there, and the Hand of Gul’dan stands as mute reminder of his power and his hubris. Gul’dan then attacked the Draenei at the Temple of Karabor and, conquering them, moved his Shadowmoon Clan into the place, renaming it the Black Temple.

And this was just his warm-up act. The slaughter of the draenei and the inducement of the orc communion with the Blood of Mannoroth was just to prove himself to Kil’jaeden. Having appeased the demonlord (who, after all, had been hunting the draenei for millennia) Gul’dan then began entrenching his position as head of the Horde by creating the Stormreaver clan and working his Shadow Council into positions of power throughout their society. For while Gul’dan was willing to do Kil’jaeden’s dirty work, he wasn’t content with mere temporal power, demonic magic or even near total genocide.

Gul’dan wanted to be a god. I know, I know, you all saw that coming. But Gul’dan, predictable or not, hungered for power on a scale even Kil’jaeden underestimated. But Sargeras understood that there was absolutely nothing Gul’dan wouldn’t do for power. After the dark titan moved his essence into the Guardian of Tirisfal Aegwyn and from her into her son Medivh, the future last guardian, he still sought to bring the Burning Legion to Azeroth, and Kil’jaeden’s demon corrupted orcs seemed like a nice first step. Further, Sargeras might have been trying to get his body back, or at least access to the body he’d come to Azeroth in when he first fought Aegwyn. It would take a Mage to explain it, and I’m from the Warrior sciences. So Sargeras, in Medivh’s body, contacted Gul’dan, who was in Gul’dan’s body thankfully or this would get very confusing, and suggested that Gul’dan lead his new Horde to Azeroth and crush it in exchange for the possibility of becoming all-powerful by accessing the Tomb of Sargeras. Gul’dan wasn’t sure if he trusted this strange wizard from another planet or not (tip: if a strange wizard from another planet offers to make you a god, be sure there’s several insanely big strings attached) but he really, really, really really, really liked the idea of being a god. So he eventually helped hook up two ends of a Dark Portal between Azeroth and Draenor, giving us all a snazzy instance to run later, and the First War was on.

Not wanting to risk getting whacked himself by actually going into battle… that’s why evil madmen have minions, don’t you know… Gul’dan managed to get Blackhand the Destroyer appointed as chief decoy…er, I mean Warchief of the Horde. He also sent Garona to Medivh as an ‘emissary’, in reality because he really still didn’t trust the mage (not that it mattered, because he really couldn’t trust Garona either, as she ended up liking Medivh more than him and not reporting back accurately. The problem with being an evil, demented, power-hungry maniac and letting everyone know that you’re an evil, demented, power-hungry maniac is that ultimately, when you need friends they’re too busy checking the floor for trap doors to help you out) and, while things went well at first… orcs stomped all over Azeroth, kicked Stormwind’s butt, the usual… things went bad for Gul’dan when he discovered that the humans had found out Medivh’s role in bringing the orcs to Azeroth and, well, they were kind of upset about it and wanted to talk to him. Using swords as words.

Not wanting to let Medivh die until after he revealed where the Tomb of Sargeras was, Gul’dan took advantage of the distraction to try and pilfer through Medivh’s brain for the secret. As you might expect, it was harder going to read the mind of one of the best wizards in existence, especially when he also had Sargeras himself hitching a ride inside him: Gul’dan was still looking for the file marked “Here’s how Gul’dan can become a god by going to the Tomb of Sargeras’ when Khadgar registered his displeasure with his former master via stabbing. It turns out that being inside someone’s head when they die isn’t a terribly fun experience. Gul’dan went into a coma, and when you go into a coma on the eve of your ultimate triumph, some bastard always comes along and tortures your spies, kills your followers and usurps control of your demon-possessed Horde.

In this case, the bastard (at least from Gul’dan’s perspective) was Orgrim Doomhammer. Orgrim was already kind of ticked at Gul’dan for things like tricking the orcish people into eternal servitude to a race of monsters and killing his childhood buddy Durotan, so once Gul’dan took his unexpectedly long nap it didn’t take much prompting for Orgrim to kill Blackhand and usurp control. He tortured Garona until she told him who the Shadow Council membership was, and then he killed them too. Gul’dan woke up without his chief decoy, his expendable followers and to find the Doomhammer eager to turn his brains into pudding.

Once again, it was Gul’dan innate genius at knowing exactly when to suck up to people that saved him. Just as toadying to Kil’jaeden had bought him the power he’d needed to eclipse Ner’zhul, now it was Doomhammer’s remarkably well-toned hinder that Gul’dan puckered up on. Gul’dan made up a nice story about Rend and Maim Blackhand betraying Orgrim and followed that up by promising to make the Horde new, even more powerful agents of destruction to replace the fallen warlocks who, in dying, had deprived the Horde of a great deal of its magical power. Doomhammer may not have asked for this way, but once in it he intended to win it, and while he wasn’t nearly stupid enough to trust the warlock he knew that he needed magic to do that. So he agreed. Gul’dan, being somewhat of a mysical ham, chose to kill two birds with one stone so to speak: he sacrifced his own necrolytes in order to raise his slaughtered Shadow Council minions in the bodies of the falled knights of Stormwind, then placed the eldritch energies of the dead necrolytes into jeweled truncheons that he gave these new ‘Death Knights’ to use. Doomhammer had to admit these were powerful troops, and Gul’dan smiled knowing that he’d managed to raise most of his dead power base back to unholy unlife at the behest of the guy who’d killed them all in the first place.

Of course, Gul’dan stayed loyal, and the orcs wiped the humans and their dwarf and elf allies off of the face of Azeroth. Then the Burning Legion came and, using their orcish armies, crushed the night elves and destroyed all life on Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms.

Yeah, it doesn’t sound like much of a game to me, either. World of Warcraft - The Burned Crusade. Play as… I guess maybe the last Pandaren survivors or something, I don’t know.

Of course, Gul’dan didn’t stay loyal to Doomhammer. He bided his time until he had what he wanted… control of a power base off of the coast of Azeroth, and two whole clans under his command (the Stormreaver and Twilight’s Hammer) and once he had it, he was finally free to act on what he’d seen when he was comatose after probing Medivh’s mind. Sailing to the island of Suramar, now raised from the depths of the ocean, he found and breached the Tomb of Sargeras… and got himself eaten by crazed demons for his trouble. Oops. So much for godhood. His act of desertion on the eve of the Horde invasion of Lordaeron broke the back of the Horde offensive on Azeroth, and while they would fight every inch of the way back to Blackrock Mountain, from the moment Gul’dan took his forces and left the Horde was beaten.

Of course, this wasn’t quite the end for Gul’dan. Turns out he’d packed so much magic in that head of his that even after the rest of him was chow for nutty demons, his skull was still an item of singular power. After a member of the Bonechewer clan used it as a knick knack for a while, Gul’dan’s old teacher Ner’zhul had the skull stolen and brought to him where he would sit and laugh and laugh and laugh at it for hours. Something about ‘betray me to Kil’jaeden, will you?’ or some such, I didn’t catch it all. In addition to berating his once-student’s treachery, Ner’zhul used the skull to try and open portals for the orcs to escape Draenor, and it was eventually stolen from him by the Alliance Expedition, who gave it to Khadgar who used its power to close the Dark Portal from the Draenor side.

Draenor blew up, becoming Outland, and somebody grabbed the skull and it ended up in Felwood, where Illidan Stormrage ate it. Well, okay, he really just ate all the demonic magic that was in it at the time, which was a considerable amount, considering that by the time that Illidan found it, the skull was as big as he was, and afterwards the skull was small enough for him to carry it around and talk to it in an opening cinematic. Nowadays, the skull hangs out with Illidan in the Black Temple (ironically, once Gul’dan’s headquarters) and while Illidan gained enough of Gul’dan’s memories from the skull to have found the Eye of Sargeras, it’s unclear if that’s all he got or if he acquired some of Gul’dan’s personality as well. That might explain a few things.

At any rate, that’s Gul’dan for us. Demon-consorting backstabber, creator of the first death knights, power hungry maniac, betrayer and ultimately the cause for both the first and second war and the direct cause of the defeat of the Horde at the end of the second war, and all around terrible, horrible, awful, no good person.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

(Link)

Today,  

Filed under: Culture

Tonight the Discovery Channel begins its five-part series Rise of the Video Game. Part one goes from the 1950s to the early ’70s. Dang, this thing should be on The History Channel. A new episode will premiere every Wednesday at 8PM. Discovery also has a poll on its site for the show to vote on “classic” games. Obviously the fanboys have taken over as New Super Mario Bros comes in first place over Pac-Man and Space Invaders.

The documentary definitely seems to be taking a highbrow approach to video games. So, go set your DVRs now if you’ll be out or too busy watching Kid Nation (Lord of the Flies lite) or America’s Next Top Model (Go Heather!).

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

(Link)

Today,  

Filed under: Machinima, Humor, WoW Moviewatch

We recently showcased Surgee’s cool and funny (and somewhat disturbing) music video “World of Warcraft: Evolution.” Now he’s brought to us his vision of a future WoW patch, in which some new features are added to the game to make it more playable and interesting. He gives concrete examples of how these new features will play out, which is something Blizzard should really take a look at. The lore-based trailers they do are wonderful of course, but something like this focused on serious gameplay would be really neat too.

Previously on Moviewatch…

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

(Link)