I am happy that Winter is Never coming

Cryptic aren't a great developer, I really truly believe this. Champions Online was mediocre, especially after the starting zone and Star Trek Online is so unappealing that I never even bothered. They are trite and unoriginal, and I have no enthusiasm for their games. So I am now really confused. Why do I like Neverwinter, the new mmo based on the D&D system, and to a lesser extent the pc games Neverwinter nights. It makes no sense, they are journeyman developers at best, but they have crafted such an amazing world (and tools, more on that later), that I really don't understand.

Neverwinter is currently in open beta, so everyone can try it, and there is a free to play store that you can buy the usual xp potions and such from. At the moment at least it has not been very money grabbing, though this may change as I get further into it. In many respects it is very similar to a lot of mmo's there are traditional roles like clerics, mages and rogues, who level up gaining skills. This is unsurprising given the fact that all mmo's and rpg's generally owe a debt to D&D. However the combat is a little different. Rather than tab targeting, you hit what you are pointed at, with a third person shooter style reticle, with no power bars aside from cooldowns and a dodge power bar similar to GW2's. As you level you get points to unlock new skills or improve existing ones. Interestingly to give the game a more action feel, attacks are keyed to mouse buttons and the Q, E, and R buttons, to make using them and moving easier. It is such a simple idea it is amazing more games don't do it. The number keys are for potions and daily abilities (which confusingly can be used more than once a day). These are super attacks that you build up resources to us.

Played League of Legends, there were no lol's

League of Legends is pretty popular, or so the numbers say. 40 million odd accounts and  a million people playing at any given time. I have always been a bit put off from trying it though, for two reasons. One being that it has a notoriously abrasive player base, and that there is a lot to learn and master in the game (these two are probably related). However, at Hex's urging, we gave it a go. We took the wussy option and set up a  5v5 game versus the AI bots, with three random players on our side, with the difficulty firmly set to beginner.

Suffice to say that 20 minutes later and me and Hex are struggling to hold our own, let alone win. Face with another 20 minutes or so of slowly losing, and being quite bored by this time, we reach the decision, quite easily, to log out and play Diablo 3 instead. On exiting we get a severe warning from the game, stating quitting a match results in a temporary ban. We have no problem with this, as it seems pretty damn unlikely we play it again.

A walk down hardware memory lane...

After a morning coffee conversation with BAPEsta on IRC about old hardware I sat and remembered my hardware wins over the years. Those moments when my hardware was totally pimp and buddies looked on in envy! (or not, lol)

After I got my first job out of school I managed to afford two, not one but 2 3DFX Voodoo 2 cards! I had 24MB of graphics memory and my buddies were blown away! I had to have a silly pass through VGA cable hanging out the back and it got SUPER hot at times! eventually I threw in this thing that didn't even have a monitor connector on the back called a POWER GRAPHICS card. It worked along side a regular card and offered as much of a boost as a single 3DFX card. It was pants but did awesome things with smoke effects. I kept both my Voodoo's AND the power graphics card in there at the same time and switched between them. My rig was crammed full and all running off a 400W power supply that at the time was pretty cool!

CS:GO you want my wallet?

I play a lot of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive an am happy in general to pay for DLC if I want it. I do try to stay out of the debates about content pricing when it comes to shooters, its not like they charge a subscription. For me its a s simple as 'so I want that? is that price reasonable?' so when I saw the new 'Payback' map playlists for CS:GO I reached for my wallet. Imagine my surprise when I clicked it and was not taken to the usual checkout but instead to select a value to put into my steam wallet.