Yesterday’s Moviewatch focused on too much of a good thing, but today’s post is about not enough! Kangarooster posted an epic trailer for I is Legendary, the World of Warcraft version of I am Legend. If this is indeed his first machinima, then I’m impressed.
While he used the original music from the movie and voiceover by Will Smith, he found some interesting ways to illustrate the loneliness of the lead character. I particularly enjoyed the golfing bit and the scene with the zombie creatures. I think that he should recreate the entire film in WoW!
Amazon has sent us over a list of clues for tomorrow’s touted “All Wii Gold Box” deals. Alright gumshoes, it’s time to put on your thinking caps and solve these riddles (all times Pacific):
6AM-8AM: Remember the good ol’ days?
8AM-10AM Kind of like being a part of the Mickey Mouse club.
10AM-1PM: Who needs medical school?
1PM-2PM: No need to worry about avalanches.
2PM-3PM: Mario prefers it stirred, not shaken.
3PM-6PM: Now your Mii can boogie to the beat.
6PM-10PM: You gotta get’cha, get’cha, get’cha, get’cha head in the game
Some clues seem more obvious than others, but we’ll keep our guesses to ourselves. We’ll update later tonight with the best, most reasonable deduction. Stop, collaborate and … well, comment. Don’t forget to also stay tuned to Amazon’s “15 Days…” series as well as the retailer’s video game deal of the day.
I’ll be honest with you. Retribution DPS has made me a rather sad panda lately. It wasn’t my DPS exactly, but I sat down to watch my brother-in-law farm Valkyrs in Valkyrion with his three-week old Level 80 Death Knight. He pulled about five mobs and proceeded to demolish them. With Cinderglacier and Killing Machine proccing, he hit all mobs with a Howling Blast for about 6-7k each, and topped things off with a 7k Frost Strike. It made my jaw drop. Mind you, my brother-in-law is an excellent player, so this probably isn’t your average Death Knight. But then, he was only equipped in heroic gear, with his best loot being a Wraith Spear. He hadn’t even hit his peak.
I know anectdotal stories like these are plenty and tangential to the issue, but if you’ve raided as a Retribution Paladin with equally geared and skilled players, you’ll know exactly what I’m trying to say. So it was a major surprise in Patch 3.1 that the slimming down of the Retribution tree hit our DPS hard with a nerf to Fanaticism (reduced to three ranks for an 18% crit, down from 25%) and Righteous Vengeance (reduced to three ranks for 30% damage, down from 40%). Was it to balance out the fact that Exorcism could be used on any target? Certainly not. At any rate, Blizzard was aware that Retribution DPS on the PTRs wasn’t where they want it to be.
We had a spot of confusion yesterday when Epic’s Mark Rein was quoted in one piece as saying work hadn’t started on the Unreal Tournament III 360 version. Meanwhile, another site was reporting that they’d already played it on 360. Now, Rein has explained to us that it’s not that work on the 360 version hasn’t started yet, it’s just that it’s on hold.
“What I probably should have said was ’start working on it again.’ We had the game up and running on all three platforms up until last spring. In fact Official Xbox Magazine came out and played the game for a great cover story they did on it. We stopped working on the 360 version so we could concentrate our efforts on shipping the various PC and PS3 versions. Once we get those out of the way, and take some time to enjoy the holidays with our friends and families, we’ll start working on the 360 version again. There’s still a decent bit of work to do. For example we have simple LAN play but no Xbox Live implementation yet and we need to work with Microsoft to figure out how to accommodate mods on their platform.”
So take heart, 360 owners. While it may still be a while until you get your hands on the game, the wait won’t be quite as excruciating as you thought.
Pop quiz, hotshots! What’s going on in this picture, submitted by Ben?
A mage is demonstrating the new Arcane Barrage spell from Wrath.
The ghostly spirits of all those who have fallen into the Ironforge lava are coming back for vengeance.
A male and a female gas cloud are totally hooking up right in the middle of town where everyone can see them.
Someone put a Torch of Retribution up to an ogre’s behind after the yearly Bean Dip Tasting Festival.
Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!
Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards.
And so saga that encompasses the events, rumors and nastiness surrounding the firing of Gamespot editorial director Gerstmann continues.
Over the weekend lots of Gerstmann-gate (that’s everyone’s new “it” name for this) news has been flooding in including rumors, forum lockdowns and zero official responses from CNET or Gamespot. And then today, Joystiq got in touch with Gerstmann who expressed some thoughts about the whole fiasco and where he’s headed, but didn’t disclose any concrete answers to this giant headache. Finally, Gerstmann supporters are calling for a Gamespot Blackout Monday and ask that nobody visit or support CNET owned websites … it’s all too much! Ahhh! We advise jumping on over to Joystiq to get all the details and linkage you need. Anyone have an aspirin we can bum?
You may be operating under the completely misguided assumption that stop-motion Lego Donkey Kong is the best thing you’ve ever seen, but, we promise you, it’s old news. Those of us really in the know are into real-time Lego Donkey Kong, which you can see just above, if you’re not already watching, tears streaming down your face and sobbing so loudly that you’re scaring the cat.
If you want to see how the totally awesome Dan Kressin made this gorgeous monstrosity, there’s a behind-the-blocks video just after the break.
The other day, Kromzul of Burning Blade posted a thread in the official Wrath of the Lich King forum about dungeon design. He asks if instances will be deeper than those in the Burning Crusade, and I agree with most of what he says. Essentially, the epic, sprawling dungeon crawls of old have gone extinct with BC. Bornakk chimes in to say that The Burning Crusade dungeon design was heavily influenced by player feedback, wishing for more Scarlet Monastery-esque dungeons. I can see that, and to an extent, I agree with that, too. Scarlet Monastery, while shorter and more linear, was also pretty cool.
Personally, I don’t think that it really comes down to one or the other. Take Dire Maul, for instance. Each wing could be tackled in a straightforward, linear fashion. However, each of them also had alternative routes, and some of them even had alternative ways of defeating them. For example, Tribute Runs in Dire Maul: North. Plus, they were even connected via the library. If you really want to, you could go from one wing to the other without any loading screen.
The afterglow of Christmas can be kind of a downer, but at least this year you’ll have one slightly belated gift to look forward to: A fresh dose of content for Bomberman Live. (It should be noted that by “gift,” we mean it costs 250 points [$3.13]. Sorry for any confusion.)
The “Bomb Up Pack 3″ will add a new mode called Friendly Fire, that gives players a power bomb and puts them on a holey map and 10 new characters (including soon-to-be-favorite “Bomb2-D2″). Your $3.13 will also net you two new levels called “Cavity Land” and “Robot Factory” (which we hope is a nod to “Monkey Vs. Robot,” even though we know it’s not). Look for the pack to go live on Dec. 26.
Capcom is celebrating the uber-success of their PSP Monster Hunter game by throwing a party in Tokyo. The event, which will span two days (February 9-10) will give 1600 lucky registrants of the official Monster Hunter website a chance to mingle with other Monster Hunter fans. In addition, they’ll be the first members of the public to try the upcoming 2G game, to continue fueling their addiction. It’s great to see Capcom engage their fan community with so much commitment. We may not understand the Japanese fascination with the Monster Hunter franchise, but we certainly are jealous of the perks they receive for their fandom.
