Mists of Pandaria!!

Lots of info released for the new expansion.  I'm going to dive right into it.

Pandaria

 *Single, Unified Continent

 *5 new zones
 *Influenced by Asian landscape
 *Auction House, Bank and Central Questing Hub all in the new continent

 *No Flying until max level

Enemy Races:

 * Jinyu

 * Hozu

 * Verming

 * Mantid

 * Mogu

 * Sha

Basically we find Pandaria, which has been shrouded by mist since The Sundering, from a naval battle.  We wash up on shore and find this lush land that we can potentially harvest.  The starting zone in Pandaria will be the Jade Forest.  Horde will wash up at the north and Alliance at the south.  We will meet up in the middle.  The two races we find here will be the Hozu and the Jinyu.  Each faction will try and befriend one of these races, turning the two against each other.  Horde will befriend Jinyu and Alliance will befriend Hozu.  The Jade Forest will also have an 85-86 dungeon (Temple of the Jade Serpent.

The other zone that they talked about was the "Valley of the Four Winds."  This zone acts as two zones for the price of one.  You can choose to go South (Coastal Jungle) or go North (Pandaren Farmlands).  This is to make questing seem a lot less linear.  This zone will also have a dungeon (Stormstout Brewery).  It is said that dungeons will have a presence in the zones.  

The Pandaren starting area will be on a giant turtle.  You will start out as a neutral race, as you complete your first ten levels.  At level ten you will then get to choose your faction (Horde or Alliance).  This starting zone is already playable, those attending Blizzcon will have the opportunity to try it out.

New Features

New Playable Race: Pandaren

 *Classes: Hunter, Mage, Monk, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior

 *Racials:

  *Bouncy: Reduces fall damage by half.

  *Inner Peace: Double Rested XP.

  *Gourmond: +15 to cooking.

  *Epicurean: Double Stats to Food Buffs.

  *Quaking Palm:  You touch a secret point on an enemy target putting it to sleep for 3 secs

New Class: Monk

 *Races: All can be a monk except for Worgens and Goblins.

 *Specs

     -Brewmaster: Tank
     -Mistweaver: Healer (stand up in melee)
     -Windwalker: melee dps

  *Not a Hero Class: You will start at level 1

  *Martial Arts Based Combat

     -Hand and Feet Combat.  You will build up to your finishing move that you will use your weapon for.

  *There will be lots of monk only animations

  *Weapons

     -Specializes in Staves and Fist Weapons

     -They will also be able to use one handed axes, maces, and swords

     -Duel Wielding has not been decided yet.

     -Healers will use off-hands.

   *You will be leather wearers, relying on agility or intellect.

   *Build up your Chi (energy) used for Jab and Roll

   *No Auto Attack

   *You will have a new bar (currently in the lower middle of your screen).

Talent Changes

There are so many talent changes that I will cover more tonight, but here is a preview.  With Cataclysm the talent trees had more pros than cons.  You will still start choosing your talents at level ten.  To break it down, once you hit level 10 you will choose your spec.  I play a paladin, so I would choose Retribution, Protection, or Holy.  I will get my first spec ability and will earn additional spec abilities later on.  There will only be one talent tree and you will earn talents every 15 levels.  For each talent you will have three choices.  You will choose one that you want and cannot go back down the tree to get any you missed.  There will be no mandatory talents, thus breaking the "cookie cutter" specs. Again, I will go into this more later tonight.

PVE Scenarios

PVE Scenarios will be short instances set up for a few players.  This is set up like questing and should take the place of group quests.  It will be a staged experience with no player collision.  You will queue up for these, much like the dungeon finder but with no role requirement.

Challenge Mode Dungeons

These are time trial versions of dungeons.  Upon completing these you will earn bronze, silver, or gold medals.  Gear levels will be normalized (skill before gear).  You will earn neat new gear rewards with no stats, aka Transmo Gear.  You will also get valor points, bragging rights, and your chance to grace the leader board.  That's right, there will be a leader board.

Pet Battle System

This is a big one, and as a pet collector I am excited.  Think Pokemon: collect, level and fight with your companion pets.  This feature will be accessible to all players and it will work with almost every pet currently in the game on top of any new ones added.  You will be able to customize your pets, giving them names, abilities, and so on. 

There will be wild pets in the world that you will be able to catch.  If you find one in the world you can engage it in battle with one of your current pets.  If you win, you will add this new pet to your pet journal.  Each wild pet will have varying stats, so you may have to catch one several times to find the one you are looking for.  They will have unique spawning abilities.  Some may spawn at different seasons, different weather conditions, night or day, and so on.  For example, there may be a pet available during spring, when it rains at nighttime. 

  You will be able to build teams, so level multiple pets.  You will be able to access your pet journal across your account.  You will not need to level multiple pets across multiple toons.  What's this pet journal I've mentioned a few times??  It's a new page that allows you to access and customize your current pets.  As well, you will be able to look up existing pets and where to get them. 

These pets will be tradeable.  You will be able to level up and customize a pet and then sell it on the auction house. 

There will be PVP and PVE battles and the combat will be turn-based.  You will queue up for battles much like dungeons and battlegrounds and you will be placed in battles with players who have equal leveled pets.  You will eventually be able to fight battles with a team of three pets. 

I mentioned Pokemon because there are so many similarities.  Here's another, there will be master's throughout the world.  You can battle these masters and if you win they will give you master abilities. 

All in all, I feel like this is an exciting new feature that should be a hit.  

Dungeons

There will be nine new dungeons upon launch, six of which will be in Pandaria.  There will also be heroic updates of old dungeons: Scholomance and Scarlet Monastery (completely redone).

Raids

There will be three new epic raids at launch.  All three raids can be accessed through the raid finder in normal or heroic difficulty.   On top of raids, World Raid Bosses will be returning.  This is to get us out of Stormwind and Orgimmar and into the world again.

Questing

 There will be more max. level content available with multiple hubs and extra incentives for dungeon lovers and raiders (I am assuming pvp'ers as well).  The example given was complete five daily quests and get a buff.  This buff in a dungeon will allow you to drop a piece of gear that only people with this buff can see.  

As I mentioned before, there will be no flying until max. level in Pandaria.  This will be so you can experience much more of the world instead of swooping in, killing your quest target and flying out.  You will have more quest choices so that your questing does not feel as linear as it did in previous expansions.  There will also be an improvement in factions, making the reputation much less grindy and little more fun.     

PVP

There will be new battlegrounds added in this expansion.

  *Stranglethorn Diamond Mines - Payload Style Battleground

    -escort mine carts to depots

    -there will be multiple tracks

    -first to x amount of resources wins.

   *Valley of Power - Murderball Style Battleground

    -Capture the artifact

    -Holding the artifact will earn you points

    -Certain zones will earn you multiple points

    -The artifact will do damage and over time the damage will increase.  

    -I immediately thought of Rift...anyone else??

  *Azshara Crater - Dota Style Battleground

    -So, I have kids so I'm not sure if I missed what they said about this or they just didn't say anything.  I will  look further into it.  

  *Tol'vir Proving Grounds - Arena

    -Based on the popular Nagrand Arena.

Achievements

New achievements will be available including account wide achievements.  Think of an achievement to get every profession to max level. 

Class Changes

  *Hunter minimum range: GONE
  *Hunter Melee weapon: GONE
  *Hunters have gone from everything is a hunter weapon to nothing is a hunter weapon.
  *Ranged Slots: GONE
  *Relics: GONE
  *Rogues and warrior will throw their weapons when they need to.
  *Wands will become main hand weapons.



I will go further into more class changes later tonight, but here is what I have so far.

Warlock Changes
   *unique resource for each spec
     -Affliction: Soul Shards
     -Demonology: Demonic Fury.  Build it up and morph into a demon.
     -Destruction: Infernal Embers.  As you build it up you will get hotter and hotter.  At full you will catch fire and nuke your enemies.

Shaman Changes
   *Buff Totems: GONE
    -All totems will be utility
      -Earthgrab Totem: Roots
      -Repulsion Totem: Repels
      -Bulwark Totem: Absorb

Druid Changes:
Druids always felt like they had four classes, so now they do.
  *Feral (Cat)
  *Guardian (Bear)
There will be some overlapping between these two classes, but they are now separate from each other.  All druids will still have cat and bear form.

All classes
  *Spell books will be cleaned up.
  *Spell rotations will be improved
  *Spells will be automatically learned
  *Introduction of several new spells
  *Specs will be more developed
  *Talent trees will be more fun!!



Believe it or not, this is just a portion of the information on Mists of Pandaria that is being release at Blizzcon.  Stay tuned, I will bring you more.

Blizzcon!!!

Chris Metzen has confirmed that "Mists of Pandaria" will be the next Warcraft expansion.  Level cap will be increased from 85 to 90.  We will get a new playable race, Pandaren, which will be shared among both Horde and Alliance.  From what I understand, you will get to choose which faction you want in your journey through the Pandaren starting zone.  We will be getting a new Monk class, which I will admit I've been looking forward to for an extremely long time.  For everyone looking forward to Brewmaster, it's sounding like that may be a subclass (maybe to spec into). 

Racial abilities will be:

• Bouncy: reduces fall damage by half.
• Inner peace: double rested XP.
• Gourmond: +15 to cooking.
• Epicurean: double stats to food buffs.

We will be getting a new continent, Pandaria.  There will be new talent systems, pet battle systems, PVE scenerios, and challenge mode dungeons.

There will not be a new "evil" bad guy that we need to stop because this time round the enemies are the Horde and the Alliance.  That's right it is WAR!!   

 I will keep you all posted as I learn more!!  Happy Blizzcon everyone!!

Extra-Life

Dear Friends,

Help me get in the game!

I'm raising money and awareness for my local Children's Miracle Network Hospital.

On Oct. 15, 2011, I'll attempt to play video games for 24 hours straight in hopes you'll support me by giving just $1 per hour ($24 total).

Your donation is tax-deductible and 100 percent of your gift goes to help kids.

My fellow Extra Life gamers and I are going to make miracles happen for kids. I can't reach my goal without your support. Any contribution will help, and all donations are tax deductible. Donating online is safe and easy! To make an online donation please click the "Support This Participant" button on this page.

Thank you for your time, support and participation.

http://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=501&participantID=26012

Summer

I'm finding it difficult, with my newborn and my 3 year old, to stick with my Tuesday and Thursday schedule during the summer.  I'm going to put my schedule aside until the fall and just put out reviews and blog posts when I find a moment.

Thank you for being understanding.

~~*Darcee*~~

Taking A Week Off

Hey guys,

Between a teething baby and family coming to town today I've had no time to actually work on a proper post.  However, I did find the time to do this: http://youtu.be/jiVlEvBslJk

ENJOY!!

I did have some issues with this video... the program I used told me after I was done that it could only be 2 mins. long.  I worked really hard on the video, so I didn't want to shorten it.  I decided I would Hypercam it; unfortunately, that led to skipping and some freezes.  Take it as it is, though.

Have a great weekend... play some LA Noire (It looks awesome).

 

That Was Left Out.... Why?

This week, due to my irritating issues with Black Prophecy, I’ve decided to talk (more question) about game designing that doesn’t make sense for us (gamers) in 2011.  If you never read Tueday’s review go take a look right now; I will be bringing it up.  

Key functions being left out

I have yet to find a good review for Final Fantasy XIV (highest being 2 out of 5 stars), but the main reason I’m bringing it up is the lack of “jump.”  For a game being released this day and age it makes no sense to leave out something (although minor) that prevents you from getting stuck on the terrain.  There is nothing more irritating than running, running, running and, BAM, you’re stuck on a flower pot.  Other games you could just jump over it and carry on.  This game had far too many complaints to discuss here (lack of containers, targeting, lack of auction, copy pasted terrain).  It blows my mind that a company, with so many hits, would put their name to this game with all of its faults.

Don’t hate me for this, but I’m bringing up Star Wars The Old Republic.  We’ve been hearing  about all the money going into this game and all the amazing features it will have; then I hear this: SWTOR will not have swimming.  It’s said that you can wade out into the water and a message will flash on your screen telling you to turn around or you will drown.  While the lack of “underwater combat” makes me happy I do not like that my Jedi cannot swim.  Many people will argue that lightsabres don’t work underwater which is understandable (Kit Fisto’s did) but that shouldn’t stop a Jedi from being able to swim.  One of my biggest pet peeves in many single player games was falling into water and drowning because I couldn’t swim.

Mac vs. PC

At this point, with so many gamers spread between the two systems, our games need to be released for both.  Console gamers have these options (as long as designers didn’t sign on exclusively with one console) why don’t we?  World of Tanks did not release for Macs and Nexon announced that they had no intentions of releasing their games for the other system.  This seems strange to me and leaves me with no intentions of ever owning a Mac.  For more on the state of Mac gaming I suggest reading an article posted on Macworld: http://www.macworld.com/article/157700/2011/02/stateofmacgaming.html. 

Graphics are too high for a regular gamers system

There is no need for a game to be that awesome to look at if no one will be able to play it.  If you read Tuesday’s review you’d know my problem with Black Prophecy.  The short story, my computer (a year old) did not meet the system requirements to run Black Prophecy.  I am not about to run out and buy a whole new system to play your little space game no matter how awesome your character creator is.  I could play EVE or Star Trek and get my space MMO fix.

Why are these games leaving out these attributes?  I recall a month ago being so excited for ARGO online; only to log in and find that I can't play because there is no inverted y-axis.  Company's are wondering why it's so hard for a new MMO to make it in the market, it's because the older games we have did almost everything right that everyone can play. 

That's it for me the this week.  You can follow me on twitter @akaDarcee and don't forget to leave comments below.  Share with us your biggest disappointment in a game that you could not play or lacked something you enjoyed.  I'll be back on Tuesday with a game that (hopefully) lets me play it.

Backyard Monsters Review

All right guys, I decided this week I would do something a little bit different and review some "guilty pleasure" games (as I call them).  These are small games found on social networks like FaceBook that many people do not want to admit they play (or like them).  This weeks "guilty pleasure" game is "Backyard Monsters" by Critters.  It is a strategy game allowing you to build the best (and well defended) monster city... while destroying other people's cities.

First off, Backyard Monsters is not like most FaceBook games (relying on your friends to play in order to advance); although friends can help you with reducing your upgrading times and can send you gifts.  You do have the option (like most FaceBook games) to buy the "special currency."  Backyard Monsters uses "shiny's" as their currency.  You can pick mushrooms around your backyard (I guess that's what it would be called) and have a chance at finding shiny's, or you can just buy them.
14,000 Shiny for $99.99
6,000 Shiny for $49.99
2,200 Shiny for $19.99
1,000 Shiny for $9.99
550 Shiny for $5.99
200 Shiny for $2.99

Shiny's are used for buying your grunt workers, increasing your building area, finishing upgrades or buildings, or buying special decorations to customize your backyard.

Once logging in you begin the tutorial.  You have one worker and a few buildings.  The tutorial explains about collecting resources, upgrading buildings (using shiny's to make upgrading instant), building new buildings (using shiny's to make building instant), being attacked, defending and how to strike back, and making new monsters.  By the time the tutorial is done you will be level 5 and will have 7 days of protections from any enemy player's attacks to build your city, prepare defenses, and build an army.  If you decide to attack anyone before your protection is up you will lose that protection.

Backyard Monsters is definitely a game to check out.  I find myself playing it Tuesday morning while WoW server's are down or sometimes to pass the time on those long flights across Azeroth.  I find myself building the best army I can possibly build to destroy other people's cities (taking their recourses for my own).  Definitely a rainy day boredom filler.

Tell me what your "guilty pleasure" game is or what you think with comments below or follow me on twitter @akadarcee.  I will be back on Thursday with my "Tidbits of Interest."