Fun filled ways to die in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Originally I thought about doing a review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, but instead you get a list of all the fun ways I died in the 6 or so hours I played. I'm terrible at shooters and had myself set to easy mode, but still managed to die... a lot.

1) Grenades. I died to more grenades than anything else. I always seem to miss the grenade indicator flashing on my screen until it's too late...
2) Killing my own dudes. What you lose if you kill someone on your team? Well how am I suppose to tell one set of darkly colored dudes from another...
3) Falling off a castle. There is a spot where you're suppose to slowly make your way on a ledge. I decided to run off instead.
4) Death by tree. So I was sliding down this hill and then a tree came out of nowhere!
5) Death by house. Immediately after getting killed by the tree I slid into the house to the right of it. Terrible aim really.
6) The bad dudes shooting me. Surprisingly I didn't die to this too often.

My personal favorites were getting killed by the tree and house.

Next up in GameStop checkout, Warhammer 40k Space Marine for the PS3.

Fashion of TERA

I've read some people complaining about the lack of armor variety in TERA. I'm not sure what they're talking about. Maybe as a Priest I have more armor variety, but I wanted to show you folks some of the various dresses my Priest has worn so far.

Newbie Outfit, note how well clothed she is...

One of the first pretty dresses I picked up. I love this color

Pretty in pink, different style from the purple dress

A little dark, but I love the sunburst on the side. Same as the pink dress just a different color

This was my favorite. pretty blue with a really nice flower/vine going up the side

Neat design. I don't know how much I liked the gold...

I don't like brown very much... 

My current outfit. I'm digging the corset type thing

So, that enough variety for you? I'm only level 37! That's 8 different dresses. I think 8 diverse looking outfits is pretty good in 37 levels. I'm happy with the variety of my character's clothes. The game is gorgeous and even though I wish her breasts were smaller I love the way Edyarea looks.

I wonder if I take too many screenshots....

Batman Arkham City

I started working at GameStop last week. I've worked there in the past (4 years, various stores in Colorado 2006-2010) and decided to go to my local store to see if they had any positions open. So now I'm a Senior Game Advisor working around 20 hours a week. A perk to working at GameStop is "checking-out" games for 3 days at a time. My manager suggested I try Batman Arkham City and I figured why not? Arkham Asylum had fantastic reviews but I never tried it back in the day.

So I bring home a copy of Arkham City for the PS3 and pop it in my system. The game is a lot of fun and I recommend it for anyone who hasn't played it yet.

Game Play
The game play is typical for action adventure type games. You start off as Bruce Wane and get thrown into the "jail" town of Arkham City. The game tells you how to hit guys and eventually how to use the multitude of Batman accessories you pick up (like the grapple gun). You get to hit guys and counter their attacks. I really like how the game continuously reminds you how to use abilities. It's easy to swap between main quest objects and side quests on your map. Fighting mobs of criminals is entertaining and when you knock out the last one you get a little slow motion scene with your final hit. I personally had the hardest time against enemies with guns. I finally learned the easiest thing to do is to sneak up on them individually and use a stealthy strangle until everyone is dead. I died a lot while playing. I think it would go more smoothly for someone used to this genre of game. There are a lot of side-missions and extras (like picking up Riddle trophies) for completionists.

Story
The main story line was a joy to play. You see many of the "big bads" of the Batman series and have story events to take down most of them. I didn't finish the story, but did get more than halfway through (Diablo 3 was a bit distracting...).

Graphics
The graphics are what I've come to expect from modern games. It is crisp clean and fun to look at on my new 50' Plasma. The world is dark and it seemed as I played my Batsuit got more frayed.

Overall I had a good time playing it and now can talk about it to customers, which was my primary goal. I'd let to try it again to finish the main story. Next check out is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. 

Healing as a Priest in TERA

In Tera I made a rule for myself that I could not create any alts until I hit level 60, which has been challenging... I'm curious as to how the other classes play and it's eating at me that I can't find out. I picked a priest because I wanted to know how healing would be translated to "true action combat". Also, everyone needs a healer in their party. I'm level 37 right now and have  a handful of healing spells. A self direct heal, a party direct heal, and three aoe type heals. I also am able to cleanse harmful effects like poison. The heal I seem to use the most is Restorative Burst. Here's a picture of it for ya.

White ring = Restorative Burst

Restorative Burst
Basically you cast a white ring on the floor 10 yards in front of your character. Anyone who stands in the ring gets healed for quite a bit.

Focus Heal
The direct heal, Focus Heal, let's you target 3 party members and heal them directly. By target I mean hover over the character and then press space. Your party members turn green when they are targeted so you know who is about to be healed.

Regeneration Circle
Regeneration Circle makes a huge circle around you and puts a HoT (Heal over Time) on everyone in it.

Healing Circle
Healing Circle is similar to Restorative Burst. It puts a little circle directly in front of your character and directly heals whoever is in it.

So there it is, the first couple healing spells I've seen. While trying to properly place heals you have to avoid getting hit from attacks. I've died a couple times to BAMs swings due to trying to get in close to save my party members. T.T dead priest cannot heal.

Tera has a fun and interactive healing system. I'd like to try the Mystic for comparison, but until I hit 60 I'm stuck with my Priest.

In closing I leave you with the frog drum.

Hehe Frog Drum!

Diablo 3 First Impressions

Hello folks! Today I'm going to write a bit about Diablo 3. Here are my first impressions of the game.

Game play
The game play is pretty standard for a dungeon crawling game. You run around and hit things, collect gold, items and xp. There are vast areas to explore and an ungodly amount of achievements. The skill system is interesting, and I'm sure I'll write more on it the further in I get. The game has the same addictive quality that Diablo 2 has. As soon as I hear birds chirping I realize I might want to stop...

Connectivity
The first couple days have been rough with the servers, which is frustrating to say the least. I still don't understand how the company that runs the most successful MMO with literally millions and millions of players can have server issues. Really Blizzard? Did you completely miscalculate how many people would play? I just don't get it.

Graphics
The graphics are disappointing for a modern game. Overall the feel and aesthetics to the game are nice, but characters have almost no detail on them, and on some monsters you can count the polygons. I feel like I'm playing a game that was released in 2006, not 2012. The cinematic videos are nice, but I'm disappointed that your main character has no role in them whatsoever (I know, it would take more resources to have 8 different videos... but really we've been waiting 10 years...)

Group play
So far I've enjoyed playing with my boyfriend. I have not played in any public games or played with anyone else. It's easy to party up and jump to where ever your partner or group is at. On the flip side, I like having a companion for my single player games.

Hardcore, only way to go

I highly recommend playing hardcore mode instead of regular. I might change my tune in the higher difficulties, but for now I couldn't imagine playing the regular way. Perma-death makes for heart pumping, adrenaline filled moments.

So if you haven't gotten Diablo 3, go pick up a copy. Or get the trial from one of your friends.  

Current Gaming Goals

Lyrestra at Musing of an altoholic wrote an end-of-expansion bucket list, so I've decided I would write my current gaming goals.

Diablo 3
-Finish campaign on Cuddles my Barbarian in Normal Hardcore mode
-Finish campaign on Lillyann my Sorcerer in Normal Hardcore mode with my boyfriend's Monk

Tera
-Reach level 60 on my Priest
-Start an alt after Priest hits 60

WoW
-Down Deathwing with my guild, Skrubz Inc, on Ninakas
-Get more achievements on Kasaii

Batman Arkham City
-Finish game before my shift at GameStop on Saturday May 18, 2012

Final Fantasy XIII-2
-Finish game
-Do all side quests/missions/objectives

Rosetta Stone
-Finish all 3 levels of Japanese before my Totale subscription expires in September 2012

Well that seems like a decent list so far. I'm not allowing myself to buy more console games until I beat a good chunk of the ones I own. It'll be a long time before I buy another game... but at least with the ability to check-out games at GameStop, I can try a lot of the games I've had my eye on for a long time, like LA Noire and Red Dead Redemption.

I would also like to thank Syp from Biobreak and  Huntress Maruka from Neurotic Girl: Games Keep Me Sane for mentioning my blog. 

If Women Ruled WoW

This is a pretty entertaining video about what WoW (or really any MMO) would be like if men were rare instead of women.