Look who's back

Where the fuck have you been?

Seriously.

It is an epicker tale than I accurately convey in a few measly paragraphs, but essentially:

I bought an Xbox 360 shortly after my last post. I wuvved it greatly. I racked up many Gamerpoints on Xbox Live, and played through some amazing games like Bioshock, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto IV, Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect.

In this four-month period, I allowed my World of Warcraft subscription to expire, leaving my hunter blue-balled at level 68.

Reached a waning in 360 games selection around late July, and sought solace once again in the arms of that many-headed god of time-sacrifice and comfort, WoW.

Promptly discovered that the fan on my nVidia 7600 video card had kicked it God knows when, so for the first time I got to discover the joy and anxiety of selecting and installing a new video card all by myself. Still don’t know if I did it right. Dropped in an ASUS nVidia 8800 GT. Freaking BEHEMOTH of a card, but it appears to be in working order.

Got WoW working and dinged 70 on my hunter. Thus the angels sang “woot.” Yeah…not too much new stuff happening in WoW. Two level 70s potentially means twice the daily quest income, but going through those Shattered Sun dailies twice a day got old real fast. Got my engineer flying mount, got my epic engineer goggles, got my dimensional rippers, etc. The hunter is reasonably geared to poke around in Karazhan, but I think I’m destined for other things in WoW.

Surprisingly, my old guild did not boot me during my sabbatical. They’re actually doing regular Kara runs, which is cool, but they’ve become a rather cliqueish group. I don’t fault them for this, as it is the inevitable path of growing guilds. The higher-end, more skilled players stick together because that’s the only way they’ll move forward, and lower-tier players are often left to their own devices. Just the nature of the game. The friendliness and helpful attitude remain, however, as officers and crafters are always willing to help out when needed.

I’ll keep my WoW account active, as I still very much enjoy my daily cooking and fishing quests, and the release date for Wrath of the Lich King was announced today as November 13, 2008. So that will be fun when it arrives.

The big excitement for me right now (aside from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed being released TOMORROW!!!) is Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. I was lukewarm at first, having no knowledge of the intellectual property and no desire to dive into another MMO, I just didn’t follow any news on it for a long time. Then the new cinematic hit last month, and it looked fucking awesome.

Needless to say, I shamelessly raced to find an open beta key last week and was able to have at least one full evening of uninterrupted playtime on Friday before the beta ended on Sunday.

Here's a look at my little Runepriest with his hilarious new title:

I will be buying this game.

More to come on this topic, I’m sure, once my SE pre-order arrives next week and I’m able to start a character that is not destined for wipage.

Anyway, that’s the story of my spring-to-summer gaming experience. Obviously, I’m going to incorporate a wider range of games and platforms into these entries, as I plan to be playing at least two MMOs and whatever new Xbox games captivate me in the coming months.