Guild Wars Nightfall, My Life as a King, Spider-Woman (Nooooo!)

Picked up Guild Wars: Nightfall on eBay for $17 total the other night, even though I’m not finished with Eye of the North yet… But I’m glad I went ahead and got it, because there are some skills that are really beneficial to my characters and my heroes. It also added two character slots to my account, which I used to create the two classes exclusive to Nightfall. I thought the spear-tossing Paragon was going to be my preferred class from this campaign, but it turns out that it’s the scythe-wielding Dervish that has snagged my attention. I guess I’m a sucker for melee classes. The scythe has the inherent ability to slash up to three targets (which I instantly fell in love with), and there are some pretty devastating skills to use that I already have access to because I unlocked them through Re Zon’s heroes. Woot! I also recently created a Monk, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do with her yet...

The wife and myself will start Day 104 in FFCC: My Life as a King tonight. I was certain we were at the end last week, but it’s just kept on going. No compalints there! The game doesn’t keep track of how long you’ve played (and I’m too lazy to go add it up through the daily record keeping the Wii does for you), but we play approximately an hour an evening, and more on the weekends, so I think it’s safe to say we’ve played it at least 20 hours. We just recently purchased all of the rest of the Add-Ons (except new outfits for Leo and Chime – meh), which add a TON of new dungeons to the game. It’s rare that there is a game that my wife enjoys THIS much, so the Add-Ons are worth it in my opinion. She says it could quite possibly be her favorite game, and I feel a great sense of joy when she says ‘Ready to play Final Fantasy?’ Best. Wife. Ever!

Spider-Woman… a skrull??? Curses!! Ah, I really didn’t want her to be a skrull, but things are definitely looking that way. Hopefully after this whole Secret Invasion thing is done, good old Jessica Drew will still be in the mix. Her appearances in Wolverine in the 80s, as well as her return to New Avengers a few years ago made me a fan, and recently spurred me to pick up about 20 issues of her original series (along with her first appearance in Marvel Saga). I really hope she ends up still playing a role in SI before it’s all said and done.

-Zon

Guild Wars, and My Life as a King

Shortly after Guild Wars came out, I created a Ranger/Warrior build that ended up becoming pretty popular since it was somewhat unorthodox. It was specifically used in farming loot from high level monsters in a few areas of the game. One type of monster in particular, the Grawl, became the primary candidate of farming with this build.

In Guild Wars now, each year for a character’s birthday, they are awarded a Miniature of a monster or character from the game. When I first heard about this, I quickly searched for a Grawl, and found there was indeed a Miniature version, but not available through birthday presents. It was a special promo obtainable at PAX (as well as a few other places, magazines, etc.). It was also pretty expensive, since they are pretty rare.

My goal since returning to Guild Wars has been to get myself a Miniature Grawl, and over the weekend, my goal was achieved. It seemed only fitting that Re Zon have one of these, since my entire livelihood in the game has been based upon continually slaying those poor Grawl. Fortunately, despite all of the nerfs/skill changes, the build is still plenty doable, and I was able to save up the money/items I needed fairly quickly. Woot!



Guild Wars is still hording nearly all of my game time, but I have been making time for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. I mainly play this after dinner when my wife can watch. I have to say that it definitely has exceeded my expectations – there is a lot more depth than I thought there would be - a story within a story. It’s also a lot prettier than I thought it would actually be, considering it’s a downloaded game.



There’s also (the very evil) Add-Ons you can purchase. So far, I’ve only purchased the additional 3 races (Yuke, Selkie, and Lilty) to add to the initial race (Clavat). It simply isn’t a Crystal Chronicles game without all of the races. Also available for purchase are new buildings, additional dungeons to send your adventurers to, different outfits for Leo, the king, and Chime, his hoochie chancellor.

I have to say that it is almost necessary to use the Nunchuck with this game, as moving Leo around with just Wii Remote is unbearable. I breathed a deep sigh of relief when I tried the Nunchuck and saw how much of a difference it made.

-Zon

Back to Tyria

I have recently been playing Guild Wars on the PC – this game and I go way back (to 2005), where I spent a great deal of my time as part of the GWO community, and met some really great people. Some of those people still play, though some don’t – but most of them are still active on the forums because of the community that was built there. We were a part of it from the very beginning, and shared a lot of laughs while goofing off on the forums instead of working at work. More recently, while browsing those forums (mostly in the Off Topic Forum), I was asked by an old pal, Aretelio, to give the game another shot. Not really being interested, I still gave it a go anyway, and discovered that my year and a half break was just long enough for me to be excited about playing again. There were my characters, just as I left them, patiently waiting for me to log them into the world to hack some monsters. I’ve rejoined the guild I was in (Veritus Invictus), and am in the process of helping to build activity back up again.

I give Guild Wars’ developers a great deal of credit - there are still weekly updates, events every weekend, new content at no charge, and still no monthly subscription fee. They also go out of their way to listen to the community at large, implementing changes in the game, and heading off scams and exploits, from information found on fan sites.

I purchased the expansion, Eye of the North, last week. I’m really impressed with how it’s not just ‘more of the same’ like I thought it would be. They’ve added in an array of new items, titles, buffs and upgrades, as well as customizable Heroes, and I honestly feel like I’m playing a brand new game. The Eye of the North also happens to introduce new races that will playable in the upcoming sequel to Guild Wars, as well as the ability to preserve certain things about your characters, their names and titles, for example. Presently, I don’t have any intention of buying the other two ‘stand alone’ campaigns, but we’ll see what happens after I have thoroughly played Eye of the North.

-Zon


PS – I strongly recommend seeing Iron Man – you are not required to be a fan of Iron Man to understand or enjoy the movie, and I give it my highest recommendation.

Second Shot

I had all intentions of making a rather sizable rant that dealt with the sake post of B!Z and the quick game overview that Zon produced. Those plans were checked after some rather unsettling events happened around my job and knocked me into a rather sticky situation. That put all my plans into a bit of a tailspin, luckily the plane has righted itself, now it is clear skies and smooth sailing.

Next order of business, a shout out must be given to Snowkissed for giving us some much needed advise in our feeble attempt at this whole intertubes thing. Thanks for your help! Guild Wars seems like forever ago.

Even with the decreased amount of time I have been gaming lately, I finally managed to beat Super Mario Galaxy. That being said, I can not begin to claim I have seen the "real ending". I plan to keep working on getting the remaining 59 at my leisure. I don't think I need to really review the game, what with all of those already done. I will say that it is one of the best games ever made.

On the other hand, as much fun as Medal of Honor 2 is in the campaign mode, the online matchmaking leaves something to be desired. I just want to play with my friends online. To be able to create a group that my friends can join so we can play together, to use some of the capability that we know is in the Wii and allow us to voice-chat. Why, why must you torture me?
I guess CoD4 has been spoiling me.

I am completely vexed over the amount of games that I desperately want to buy, but won't let myself until I have cleared some of the pile of games on my table. I suppose that with Mario somewhat done I could pick up a Wii game. No More Heroes is calling my name, loudly. I hear it's call now, beckoning me to get in the car and drive to walmart @ 11pm.

I will resist, but for how long....
12.....
maybe 16 hours...

I just read over B!Z's post again and that reminded there are more than a few games that I have let slip off my radar. Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors, Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed, Burnout Paradise, Devil May Cry 4 come to mind.