And in non-WoW news…

I’ve been playing a huge amount (for me) of Team Fortress 2 lately.

The new interest in the game is due in part to a new podcast I’ve been listening to called Control Point. I started with the inaugural episode posted back in October 2007 and am up through episode 12 or 13 now. They’re a great group of hosts, with lots of laughter and great information to share – which is exactly my type of podcast.

I’ve played some casual TF2 on and off since I bought the Orange Box through Steam when it was released last fall, and it’s still the best multi-player shooter I’ve ever played. Or at least the most fun. I found Counterstrike, Halo and Battlefield 2142 to be interesting, but not all that fun to play. The simplicity of the gameplay, the classic art direction and the tongue-in-cheek humor of TF2 is exactly what I need in a shooter.

I’m still at only 76% completion for in-game achievements, but finishing those aren’t all that important to me. The best thing about this game for me is contributing to the cause…pushing through the front lines from behind a flame-thrower or a bazooka, or sprinting around healing everyone I can so they can hold a control point and keep the pressure on the incoming offensive. It’s such a rush to be in the midst of that frenetic gameplay.

My favorite class used to be the soldier or the pyro, but lately I’ve been running medic if I can. The funny thing about playing a medic is the surprise you get from teammates when they realize you’re actually healing them when they need it. It’s nice to be in that support position. And a really great side-benefit is that I get a crapload of kill assists, depending on whether I’m healing someone when they make a kill. So even though I’m a healer, I usually end up in the upper ranks of the scoreboard.

And really, nothing is more satisfying than when I see an opportunity to nail someone with my melee bonesaw. God I love that.

Here’s a random screenshot from this weekend. The theme of the hour was for the entire team to play as one class…in this case: engineers. Lots of nice defensive positions, but we were battered all to hell by soldiers, heavies and demomen in the end. And it must have been heaven on Earth for sapper spies.

WoW on the back burner (fun facts)

Not so much happening lately in Azeroth, for me.

Been spending a fair amount of time leveling Engineering – I believe I’m at 331 now, up from 260 early Saturday morning. It’s fun to be making such progress, especially now that I don’t need to revisit the Old World for lesser ores and materials. I will need to hit up Blackrock Depths to farm a minor Goblin boss, though, as he drops the recipe for Goblin Jumper Cables XL. They’re rumored to carry a 50% success rate, as opposed to the 33% success rate of the regular jumper cables, which I’ve had since level 36.

But my main goal at this point is to craft the Surestrike Goggles v2.0. Seems to require a ridiculous amount of Fel Iron ore to make casings, bolts and such right now, which I need in order to make endless minor items which turn from red to green skills within 5 or 10 points. I think it’s pretty safe to say that, like Tailoring, it’s going to be a giant pain in the ass to make it to 375. Hell, I even gave up on Tailoring at 357, but that was due in part to the stupid cooldowns on shadowcloth and spellcloth.

It appears the final recipe for the goggles includes a Nightseye gem and a Primal Nether. I can probably find the gem through a random mining node – already had a couple drop for me – but I think the Nether has to come from (either a transmute of 10 of each primal element - EDIT: I was thinking of Primal Might, sorry!) or a heroic dungeon or raid drop. So yeah…it could be a bit before I get those goggles. And rightfully so, as they really are a kick ass upgrade.

And speaking of Azeroth, I rearranged some stuff in my apartment yesterday and came across the original WoW game manual. Made for some good nostalgic reading. Interestingly enough, I learned that Azeroth (at least according to this manual) is actually the name of the Eastern continent, or what we call the Eastern Kingdoms, not the world, per-se. So as far as I can tell, the World of Warcraft is unnamed, and it holds 3 continents: Azeroth (eastern), Kalimdor (western) and Northrend (um…northern).

Another fun fact: apparently, Dwarves can be mages. It’s in the WoW manual :)

Wonder when that changed? Somehow, a Dwarf mage just seems wrong. And if someone *had* a Dwarf mage at launch, were they forced to re-roll? Hmm…