PC PC GAMES

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Few news this week had us as exited as Torchlight 2. We are great fans of anything MultiPlayer and it looks like the new year will start well with Torchlight 2. Heck, we got so exited that we got in the sharing mood and if you pay attention you can join SkippyDog and win a classic game or two! Our other talking points are:

• Our playlists
• World of Tanks
• Torchlight2
• A few words about Starcraft 2
• Borderlands Rumors
• Defense of the Ancients rumors
• Steam Top 10 and what we think of it.
• The old Republic Space Combat
• DC Universe
• Big Joe’s PC rig
• Solid State Drives fail too
• Reader Mail
• Win 2 Games
• A little Droid talk

• ‘StarCraft II’ sales top 1.5 million in first 48 hours
• Torchlight 2 announced! Well we’re psyched!
• Boarderlands gets steamworks! (Sorry only for achievements)
• New DLC info for borderlands buried in patch… Ninja Claptrap anyone? More possible DLC?
• Steam working on a DOTA game (Defense of the Ancients)
• Top 10 Steam Sales (BT cannot believe it still sales)
• Chris Taylor comes out with new game: Kings and Castles
• The Fas’ draws some pandas…. for a game HE SHOULDN’T MAKE!
• Josh loves a stick. Yes thats a pic of him loving a stick. You dare doubt me on this!
• Kommie knifed someone too many times in Counter-Strike…. and he got this video in response….
• Fas shows Kommie his love for him.
• Someone points out the irony of this…. if you don’t get it, don’t worry. Kommie doesn’t.
• Cosair H70 CPU Cooler (Lurch’s idea for cooling)
• Got an SSD? Go here to compare it.
• Trim explained (for SSD!)
• Why serious gamers won’t go for wireless mice
• Cargasm set to blow its load all over every platform

My new PC has advanced in schedule by a few months as I was planning on doing this around the first of the year.  My wife has “given” me the go-ahead to build so here are my new components.

If I receive the parts before this weekend I will have BlackThunder give me a hand and we will take some pictures and maybe a video of the death of my current system and the build of my new system.  If I cannot accomplish that then I will take as many pictures as I can and create a gallery for everyone to see.

There is still something that I will give away to a community member once this is all done, but since the build is pushed up it may take a little bit before that happens but I won’t forget.

Parts on order:

1. Cooler Master HAF 932 Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
2. ASUS Maximus III Formula LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Motherboard
3. ASUS ROG Matrix 5870 Radeon HD Platinum 2GB GDDR5 PCI-e 2.1 Video Card
4. Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
5. Corsair XMS3 8GB (4x2GB) 240-pin DDR3 1600

I will be using my 1000W SilverStone power supply, current hard drives, and DVD drives…

If everything works out it looks like I should have the parts by Thursday, or Friday…keep your fingers crossed!!!

If you have listen to us you know we love Cliff Harris, the maker of the awesome Gratuitous Space Battles!

It is a very different game but how can you say no to such a great title at this price. I hope you all pick this up and maybe even buy it for a friend. I did and I saw that too many of my buddies don’t have this yet.

So go forth. Give the game a try and challange a friend to a Gratuitous Space Battle!

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In this article I will try to explains why I am excited about Guild Wars 2 and why I think you should be too. I’ve only played one “MMO”, the original Guild Wars, so I can not really compare and contrast Guild Wars 2 to much of anything else, except the original. Some of this article may be incorrect because I’ve had to use a bit of deduction where things were not explicitly stated; Caveat Emptor.

Sandbox / Events

One innovative feature of GW2 is it’s pseudo sandbox. While GW2 *does* have a campaign story line (there are actually *TWO* story lines!), the world continues to operate independently of the campaign. This independence is driven by the event system.

GW2′s world is shaped by the event system. Instead of a green exclamation mark hovering over an NPC’s head, quests happen because of an event. A typical example of this would be trolls attacking a nearby outpost. The NPCs around you would “react” to this event, creating hysteria. You investigate the source of hysteria, to discover the troll attack.

Once you’ve discovered the troll attack, you can choose to join the counter attack or you can simply walk away. The event will scale up based on the number of participants. How the event scales is unknown, either the number of trolls attacking increases, their stats increase, or possibly both.

So, whats the big deal about this event? Nothing in and of itself. However, events are “chained” together. So, if you don’t defeat the trolls, they could seize control of the aforementioned outpost, which could cut off supplies to some town.

Because the town is in need of supplies, it may trigger a “counter attack” event. Where the towns people demand the outpost be recaptured. Or, the trolls could become emboldened by their recent success and attack the town itself.

All of these things simply “happen” in the world. Events, as I understand them, are independent of the campaign and personal story line.

Oh, one more thing about the world. IT IS PERSISTENT! Which is how you “stumble” into events.

Storylines

Two storylines exist: campaign and personal. The campaign storyline is the overall “game” storyline. Nothing new there.

However, your personal storyline is different. When you first create your character you answer series of questions, that make up your characters personality.

Some of the questions answered will be race specific. An asura will be asked what college they attended (Synergetics, Dynamics or Statics), while a human will be asked to define their social background (Gentry, Commoner, or Streets).

Your personal story affects your “home”. Each character has a home located in their racial capital. The home will be personalized according to their biography.

According to ANET, the different biography combinations allow for thousands of different personal stories.

Skills

Skills are a mixed bag. At this point, I’m not sure exactly how I feel about the new scheme, because I have not experienced it first hand. You be the judge.

In GW you had 8 skill slots. Your skill pool was based on your primary and
secondary profession.

GW2 has 10 skill slots. There are no secondary professions in GW2.

Your equipped weapon presets 5 of your available skills. Reread the previous sentence, THIS IS NOT A TYPO. No one knows for certain the rationale behind set skills per weapon. Perhaps it is to prevent people from combining incompatible weapon skills. For instance, in GW the sword skill GASH will inflict a deep wound provided the target is suffering from the bleeding condition. So, generally, it would not make sense to equip gash, if you do not have the skill Sever Artery which causes hemorrhaging.

Before you start whining about the preset 5 skills, realize that some skills are called “chain” skills. The sword chain skills are Sever Artery, Gash and Final Thrust. Chain skills occupy one slot on the skill bar and cycle. For instance, once you use the “Sever Artery” skill, it cycles to the “Gash” skill. So, what is now a common place warrior build, will actually require less slots because three core skills are bundled into one skill slot, leaving 2 skill slots free.

Of the other non-weapon specific skill slots, 1 has to be a heal, 1 has to be an elite and the other three are open slots.

Combat

Not much to comment on here. I’ll only remark that the two professions that have been revealed have *GREAT* animation.

Combat is much more intense than before. Mechanics for professions will change dramatically. Here are some of the changes for the warrior.

The warrior behaves a lot like the GW warrior, but there are also some noticeable differences. These differences range from adrenaline usage to weapon configurations.

Here are the weapons. If you aren’t familiar with “weapons” and guild wars, weapons are much more than tools of destruction. They also determine what skills are available. Skills and combinations of skills (builds) are what make GW such a great game.

• SWORD (1 handed)
• AXE
• HAMMER
• MACE
• GREATSWORD
• LONGBOW
• RIFLE

Yes, you can shoot things in GW2. As far as I know the mechanics of rifles have not been discussed much. It’s a single target weapon that is ranged.

Each weapon now has a single designated “burst skill”. This special skill outputs damage based on the amount of adrenaline. So, the more adrenaline you have, the bigger the burst of damage OR the more varying conditions your weapon will produce.

Warriors now have the ability to duel-wield weapons.

PVP

Things get dicey here. Arena net has stated that the number of PvP participants will be less than 6, more than 4. For the mathematically challenged, that means 5 people per PVP “squad”.

I’m not too familiar with the world versus world mode. So, I took this from the GW2 wiki [http://www.guildwars2wiki.com/wiki/World_versus_World]:

World vs World, WvW, World PvP or Casual PvP, is a mode of Player versus Player combat which takes place in the Mists. Worlds, or servers, are randomly matched up against two other worlds. Those match-ups will be rotated every week to match worlds against those of similar strength. The combat is open and features many objectives and roles which players can do; “players may decide to fight alone against a supply caravan, join a single group and capture a mine or create a large alliance to assault one of the numerous fortress that could give an advantage in the zone.” The battle is on a large scale, where hundreds of people can fight on each side in week-long battles.

Each opposing world starts out with castles, mercenary camps, mines, lumber mills and villages. Separating the starting zones are neutral zones controlled by no one, also containing fortresses, mines, and villages.

The resources gained from mines and lumber mills are used to rebuild walls, create siege engines, and generally defend the team’s fortress.

These territories and control points will confer benefits to the world that controls them; “maybe everyone gets increased energy regeneration or healing rate or enhanced loot drop rate.” Players can gain experience and level their character in World PvP. Guilds will be able to take and hold keeps.

Players are free to come and go from the battle as they please and there is no limit to the number of players entering. Players enter with a character of any level and use skills they have available to that character. Characters can enter as a sidekick which will allow them to play as a higher level character.

World PvP is intended as a casual form of PvP, designed to be a more relaxed bridging point between PvE and the tactics and pressure of structured PvP. It is hoped that players of any level or PvP experience can participate and be useful.

I am not certain about GvG. I do not recall reading anything about this. The 5 player limit really seems to hamper the possibility of good GvG.

Take A Break

GW2 will have an array of minigames. These minigames will be varied, and include everything from bar brawls to snowball fights (snowball fights are in GW).

The minigames will be open to anyone, and will equip people with certain skills based on the game type. Bar brawling sounds fun, as it is a last-man-standing minigame.

I *think* the minigames will be tied to titles and possibly feats.

In a Nutshell

So, the dynamic event system, visceral combat, and cool storylines are just a few of the reasons I’m excited about GW2. What about you?

Looks like we get a special new years present… you know, the time that was usualy the after Christmas rush wasteland. If Kotaku has it right we will play the goodness that was Torchlight, this time with the aid of our friends!

Key features as listed on the official website:

• Customizable Characters – Players create and customize a character from one of four classes available and choose an animal companion. Through cosmetic, class, and gender choices, skill path decisions, and the treasures they acquire, each character can be custom-tailored to each player’s needs.
• Moddability – Torchlight II will release with an updated version of TorchEd, the Torchlight editor. Players have the option to create their own mods, adding even more content to the world. You and your friends can download the same mod and play together!
• New User Interface – Torchlight II boasts an entirely new, improved user interface, designed to be easier than ever for new players to pick up and play. Thanks to this intuitive interface, players have immediate access to a rich and varied world, with little experience necessary.
• Overworld Areas – Torchlight II has large randomized overworld areas to explore with weather, time of day cycles, and random events that provide players with even more content to experience.
• Random Dungeons – Delve into randomly generated dungeons within the game at any time for extra experience and rare loot. Dungeons in Torchlight II have even more branching paths to explore with friends filled with random events, rewards and dangers.
• Retirement System – Once characters are sufficiently leveled up, they can “retire” and bestow specific benefits and perks onto new characters.
• Pets – Players choose a pet to accompany them. Pets level up along with the player, and help in battle, learn spells, carry items, and perform a variety of support services.
• Fishing – Fishing returns in the sequel! Players can take a break from the high-energy pace of adventuring to relax by one of the many fishing holes and see what they can catch. Fish have unique benefits for the player and pet, while a number of other rewards can also be discovered.

Not sure how long this is good, but MICROCENTER has a buy a CPU, get a MB for free deal on AMD gear. So here is what you can get a system for:

• MSI 785G-E53 $9.99 after saving and $20MIR
• 6 Core Phenom II X6 1055 $199
• Antec Three Hundred ATX MID $49.99
• Hitachi 1 TB SATA Hard Drive $ $59.99
• OCZ 4GB Gold Series XTC DD3-1333 $74.99 after MIR
• Palit Geforce GTX460 $189.99
• Cooler Master Extreme Power Plus 700w PSU $69.99
• Sony DVD SATA Burner $17.99

Grand Total: $671.93

You could save some more money lowering the video card and the memory. Now who said PC gaming is expensive?!

One thing I like to point out yet again. This is a full feature PC, not just a gaming console. What else can you do with a console other than watching a movie? But with this awesome system video and picture edeting, all sorts of work and non the least homework… can easily be accomplished. What a value dude!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:57:12 — 33.5MB)

• Just Cause 2… the game you should really own by now!
• World of Tanks BETA impressions
• StarCraft 2
• Company of Heroes Online Beta impressions
• Need for Speed’ssss
• Kane & Lynch 2 DEMO impressions
• Hard Ware Advice
• Another Screen Size vs Video Card resolution
• Dragon Age DLC
• Richard Garriot aka Lord British is getting some money
• 5 Issues with PC Gaming?

• Relive one of the best installs of all time! Command & Conquer Gold, Install on Dos!
• World of Tanks best new Concept. Lego, best new MMO
• Blue Screen of Death In StarCraft 2!
• Hhhhmmmm my kind of Drink!
• Halo, old style!
• StarCraft novel came out covering Jim’s Past
• Mass Effect 2 cos-play!
• No Lan for StarCraft 2
• Need for Speed: OH YEAH SMOKEY IS COMING FOR YA! This is the Need for Speed that the Panda likes! like
• Company of Heroes Online BETA
• Dragon Age DLC- Golems of Amgarrak
• Garriott wins lawsuit!
• DC Trailer. OH NOE SONY!!
• Someone has issues, FIVE OF THEM, with PC Gaming
• Vietnam doesn’t like some of the games that have been coming out.