Unfortunately due to having an actual real job, I have yet to get into WoW to experience the newness that is Cataclysm. I am a bit torn on what to do first on the things I REALLY want to do. I want to make a Worgen toon (or two). I am debating on a few classes right now, 2 being a Mage and a Priest. I am not a huge healer class guy but the group of people who I usually play with, are all going with new Worgen and no one has a healer yet. So they asked me to be a healer, and I honestly don’t know if I want to do a druid with a worgen b/c the whole idea behind it is that a worgen is a were-wolf and druids are generally shape shifted. Well the good thing about being a druid healer would be for the whole tree form as well and well as a healer and a druid worgen primarily in combat I would be in worgen form anyway (cept for the small tree times), so honestly it’s not entirely out of the question… well and easier to solo level too! Or I could just stick to the other plan as straight Priest healer.. I have some time to decide. The other thing I wanted to do is go with the Mage, mainly b/c it’s one of the classes I don’t have a toon in on my main server and I think the extra run boost (racial ab) could greatly help with some early survivability for the mage.

The other things I am really looking forward to is the newer levels of professions and the addition of archaeology. I am well aware the new proff is just another way blizz is trying to trick us into playing longer or keeping our experience elongated so we don’t realize that the next expansion is 2 1/2 years away (at best) but I don’t care it just seems pretty fun. This could always change after doing it for a few hours but hey only time will tell. It couldn’t be too much worse then the leveling and dailies of Cooking and Fishing and I do those on my main too. So at very worse case scenario I bet I will be just maxing out Archaeology on my main and possibly 1 other toon. I want to level my 2 main’s and thus get some new mats for leveling my Inscription and Alchemy and make some serious gold too. See? So much to do and sooooo long till I get to do it. I prolly won’t get to play until friday evening due to work and some other family commitments but hopefully I can get the files updated and get into game tonight some.

The main things I wanted to give my thoughts on are the info out there on the Beta’s for RIFT and DCUO. The NDA’s might be still on but hey I am not in any BETA’s and only have opinions on what I have read on the net so I am not under any NDA’s anyway.

Ok First RIFT.  There is not a whole lot of info out there outside of what the Dev’s have let out about the 1st round of closed beta. Some of the things they noticed were they didn’t have nearly enough server space initially which I am sure they fixed pretty quick, and they wanted to see the response time to some bugs and such. Things like re-spawn of mob times are easy fixes I am sure and I bet they are also balancing a ton of things out there, so I am not too worried about that really. They also mentioned the whole RIFT system, which they said needed a tweak b/c of the amount of people in the areas and the rifts didn’t stand a chance. Well like some commenters and forum trolls have mentioned they should have been well aware of this type of thing when they made the game and the areas, and if the 1st close dbeta was only for 1st 20 levels or so, well obviously there would be an ass ton of players in those places and rifts wouldn’t likely have a way to get a foothold there.

All of those and even the last one don’t really bother me much. Being in early closed beta and a game that seems to be worked on this well I think it will get ironed out a bit. My concern is more-so for 5-6 months after release. How will the rifts in the 1st 20 level area’s be then? Ok let me give you my parallel example. Back when Warhammer Online first came out IMO the best and most fun aspect of the game were the great (and quite original) public quests. These were so damn fun to do. They brought the population together to do them, they were inviting and challenging, and they had a good combo of results based loot rewards and luck. They were good rewards but not game breaking and if you did a PQ a few times you almost certainly got SOMETHING for your efforts which was good too. OK, now fast forward about 6 months after the game released. What you get now is a thinning of the herd so to speak with the majority of the people who will play staying and those who don’t like it gone. Well then you get them basically already are leveled above the 1st 20 or so level areas and thus the PQ areas were EMPTY. Sure they could still be done after some changes here and there but this really killed the PQ experience for the new player. I am thinking this is entirely possible to happen to RIFT. The first days of the game people will be looking for these rifts and wanting to take them out and have a great time doing it. What happens when the population is thinned out? Well the newb areas will constantly be under attack by larger and larger rifts. This is likely to be balanced a bit with periodic NPC killing machines “clearing” them out to reset them but it could hamper the real experience a bit. I really hope I am wrong b/c as always I am wanting this game to be fun and succeed. So I’ll keep looking for more reports and wait for this NDA to be lifted.

Ok on to DCUO which the NDA HAS been lifted and thus we get a ton more info out there, and the developers are more then happy to release more themselves. I saw a videoDCUO source posted from gamespot (I will embed below) that shows some great stuff. The character creation, while not as deep as some others is still AMAZING. It looks great and I personally like the whole “inspired by” thing they do with the iconic DC characters. I think the idea of changing some colors and maybe even using the powers different then the original hero, is just a great idea. Some people just want to make a completely random and crazy hero/villain, and some of the creation is there it’s just not as much as some other superhero MMO’s but it’s still deep so I’m fine with that.

The video then goes into some of the starting zone. It’s a fairly basic zone where you learn how do do the basic moves. Some attacks, bigger/better attacks, travel powers etc. It still looks real crisp but also still looks like something you wold see on a console with some of the +5 hits! things popping up. It kinda looks like you are playing some actiony game of Marvel Alliance for the PS3 or somthing but eh again I’ll wait and see. The tutorial pop ups do make it look real good, as if the controls using the keyboard when it boils down will be better for the player then just a ps3 controller.

The on the fly customization and the power trees add alot of good MMOness to it all as well. It’s coming along real nice and I hope they can keep the good stuff coming I want to see some more in game, gameplay videos like this one which really helps to sell it. The creators and people can say all they want about the game but nothing is as good as SHOWING us why the game will be good. We want to see as much as this as we can so PLEASE more in game movies with comentary, especially other locales and higher level stuff, where we can REALLY get a feel for what loot will mean when we get it and how we can relate to iconic characters. Good stuff now but MORE MORE MORE…..

When I get some good hours in on Cataclysm I will give you some hands on but for now I leave you with the gameplay video from gamespot for DCUO.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010–109 mins) N. Cage, J. Baruchel, A. Molina

   Disney has gone and made a live action movie based on the beloved short with mickey and the dancing brooms,mops and other chaos. The story is basic fantasy fare. Cage plays one of Merlin’s 3 apprentice sorcerers Blathazar. In the past he was integral in defeating Morganna who, along with traitorous apprentice of Merlin’s, Maxim Horvath (Molina) are dead set on conjuring up an army of the dead to enslave human kind and rule the world. When Horvath is broken free he begins to attempt to bring back Morganna. Balthazar cannot defeat them alone and must find the chosen one type apprentice to help him. Dave (Jay Baruchel) is that reluctant apprentice. From there the action takes off as Horvath is trying to take out the 2 sorcerer’s and continue his road to domination.

   There are some great special effects and chases in the movie but it never goes over the ledge to overwhelming Fantasy. It’s still a lighthearted family movie and very entertaining one at that. Even children can watch and enjoy it as well as adults b/c it has a good mix of comedy action and story. Cage, becoming ever the enigmatic actor, is actually good as a mystical sorcerer, and manages to get in a few good lines and is quite likable too. Baruchel is his typical self, meek funny and likable. He could be a bit better but hey it still works in the story. A good movie and I am hoping they can manage to make more. But judging by the returns (63$ mil or so estimated) it’s not likely.

Verdict—> A very good, entertaining movie. It’s a light family friendly fun movie. Don’t go looking for a hugely deep story or epic but it’s a good movie. Get it with a date, your family or anyone. Top of the reccomendation charts for me, and if you have kids prolly a good purchase as well.

Splice (2009– 104mins) A. Brody, S. Polley

  When Splice first hit the theaters last year it was more built up as a monster-ish horror movie. What it really is is a sci-fi drama which becomes slightly horror-ish at the end. It starts off well enough. Clive (Brody) and Elsa (Polley) are state of the art ground breaking scientists who have successfully spliced DNA of different animals into a new species. This species has brought with it some advances in science and health which would be a huge revolutionary find for the field. Like most great minds they say what can we do next and want to go bigger and further. So naturally they want to splice human DNA with animal DNA.  What they get is Dren. The creature that adorns most posters or DVD covers.

   Obviously there are complications with a new species of being coming into the world. Thegrowing and learning of the world and the instability of the DNA. The movie for the first half to 2/3rds is pretty entertaining and keeps you a bit interested. It’s here that it takes a real right turn and goes in a direction that is both forced and out of where the story should go. It’s as if the director/writers just had to introduce weird events to further the action and ramp to a climax and a surprise (yet somewhat predictable for the out of control story) ending.  If they didn’t go in such a fricking psycho direction I think this movie could have been a pleasant surprise, instead it falls short of this and lives up to what you go into it thinking… that it’s just a crappy sci-fi movie. Yes even the fact that it starts off good enough for prob. an hour can’t forgive the crappiness that will ensue.

Verdict—> Not a great movie. People who are looking for good sci-fi story will be let down, the people looking for a horror movie will be bored for all but about 10 mins of the movie, and as a drama it’s iffy. If you just have to see every sci-fi monsterish flick sure get it, or just put it into the late night I am bored and it’s on cable category, but it’s not really worth any money at all.

A Christmas Carol (2009—98mins) Jim Carey

   Last year Disney put out another updated version of Dickens’ classic story using the same technology that was used on The Polar Express. Also when it was in the theater it was in 3-d. When watching it you can see how great the animation is and when watching at home you can see COUNTLESS of times when things happen primarily for the use of 3-D. It doesn’t take away from the quality of the movie, but to me, it makes me wish I would have seen this movie in the theater in 3-D. In fact the movie is so well done that I think it would be a good idea to put it out for the next few years during the few weeks around Christmas for people to see the movie in 3-D. I think people would enjoy it and so would new generations of children. A great job by Disney and Carrey as well.

Verdict—> A great movie and great animations, if you haven’t seen this I would reccomend you do so with your family this holiday season.

Eat Pray Love (2010—133mins) Julia Roberts

Eat Pray Love is a chick flick based on a book which is supposedly based on true events. While I guess I can believe most of it, when people write a book about themselves (or tell stories too) some things get changed or embellished, and when that book is taken to a movie things get Hollywood-ized even more. Why am I saying this? Well, it’s b/c I don’t want anyone to defend the movie by saying “but it’s based on a true story!” But I am getting ahead of myself just a bit, let me explain the plot first.

  Ok so Liz (Roberts) is a woman who has a job and has a husband and some good friends. She gets some cryptic message from a “sooth sayer ” of sorts while on a trip who tells her some mumbo jumbo about how she will hit bottom soon and what she needs to do to find happiness, and to return to him in a year and then he will help her as she helps him as well. So naturally she hates her life more b/c of this and sub zero’s her marriage and then also next relationship with a crappy man (James Franco). So then the journey begins. She trods around the world (on the usual endless budget people get in these movies) and eventually finds herself in different spiritual points and back at the sooth-sayer.  It all takes quite a while in movie time and is good at times and slow at times. Before I get on my soap box rant on why she’s more of a full of shit basket-case idiot then looking for herself I will talk about the movie.

  Ok so I will first say that the mvie is probably 1/2 good, 1/2 boring. It starts meh ramps up when Liz gets to Italy then has a crash landing to snoozeville when she heads to India, and possibly recovers a bit about an hour!, later just in time for the ending. What does that mean? Well it means the movie is about 30 mins too long for men to care about. It means that I would rather suffer thru a Rom-Com with the Mrs GeekJock then watch this again. It doesn’t really enter the “bad” end of movies but never gets it self to the “good” one either. Some women, and some granola type single men, will like it b/c they want to have this fantasy finding yourself inner journey thru the world to find something, that is missing. The rest of us are perfectly happy with things like a nice walk on the beach at sunset with the woman of our dreams (Mrs. Geekjock is that perfection of a woman) and don’t need to go to a 3rd world country to find our inner spirituality.

First I will do the verdict then in GeekJock fashion I am going to get on my soapbox with spoilers.

Verdict—> It’s a bit too long for a great thumbs up for everyone. Like I said groups of woman at a girls night will love it. If there is nothing else there and your wife WANTS a her movie then you might have to sit thru it, and it won’t be terrible but I would try for something like Leap Year or another Rom Com 1st. Again you could do worse b/c at least Julia Roberts is still hot and likable.

SOAP BOX (and spoiler) alert—> Ok here we go. I am going to pick apart this woman a bit and people who might be like her. So if you are easily offended, then stop reading b/c I don’t give a shit. First of all this woman’s problem isn’t her spirituality, it’s the fact she has both shitty luck in men and complete lack of self worth that she won’t leave them. If she’s not happy with he 1st husband (who didn’t seem terrible) then get a hobby, find some friends to do something with or talk it out. Ok so if she must leave him, then stuck with the 2nd guy and bam he blows. Well then leave the prick. There are plenty of fish in the sea. You don’t need to go 6K miles to find out you have no spine! Oh and about the sooth sayer, and this is a lesson for ANYONE out there so listen up. You go to a person like this seeking some guidance, well he already knows you think little of yourself and are down and headed for a crash, NATURALLY he is going to say you are going for that crash or you are going thru or had a divorce. It’s reading people not reading palms. They are as usual just feeding off your lack of self confidence. Why else would you be at a person like that? Smarten up Liz. I don’t like how people write books to try and also prey on the normal feelings of mid-life women who read these books. Those people who go thru hormonal questions of life and the universe b/c they might be wondering if the same old same old world is happiness, when if they REALLY think about it, IT IS. They are trying to sell copies.  And I don’t like that. She has, in essence herself, become a con woman sooth-sayer. Spinning a yarn of “go find yourself” for people. Bullshit I say. The majority of the world doesn’t need to go to India to be happy.

Use the book/movie for escapism, and for an entertaining couple hour story. But, please don’t use it for a direction of your life.

The Expendables (2010– 103 mins) Stallone, Statham, Li, E. Roberts

   Ahh finally a kick ass shoot em up with no strain on the brain. The Expendables are a unit of special forces types for hire who go where the gov’t can’t be seen going and does some of the dirty jobs. It’s a basic kick ass group made up of the who’s who of action stars and lead by kingpin bad-ass himself Sly Stallone. We get the usual intro to the group as they pull off a great job and then the movie starts. They are hired by mysterious Mr. Church (Willis in a scene made to bring these 2 and the Governator himself intot he movie to complete the whole action star gimmick) to take out a militant dictator in a generic South American island country. While down on a scouting mission Barney (Stallone) and Christmas (statham) see that there is more to this whole thing then meets the eye. From there we get a truck load of action, fighting, explosions and most of all great rapor in the group and funny as all hell dialogue galore.

   The movie is great. It’s part action fest and part satire of the genre as a whole. The group does some simply amazing shooting and fighting that actually made me chuckle a few times at the absurdity, but that’s the true fun of the whole thing. We don’t care that these guys never miss, it’s just fun. The inclusion of small parts like Mickey Rourke and Randy Couture just support the already good and colorul characters in this flick. I say bring on the Sequel and bring on more work for the team as a WHOLE to do. I can only hope they can manage to make it funny and blow up more stuff next time too!

Verdict—> A great action flick period. Get it for that perfect 2nd movie of the double feature when your other half (or date) wants to watch a chick flick. Pick it up if it’s in the red box asap, top tier recommendation!

Sex and the City 2 (2010- 146 mins)

Tonight not only did I have to sit thru Sex and the City 1! (it was on USA or something) I had to also watch Sex and the City 2 –> AKA the longest damn movie ever made. Initially and for about an hour, I was just thinking that this really isn’t too bad for those people who love the show and loved the first movie. But after a little while I was ready to stab my eyeballs out. Would it ever end? Alas, it did but I think time might have gone backwards for a while. One of the problems I have with these 2 movies is, they really are just 5 episodes of the HBO show all stuck together into a movie. It’s almost like the 2 seasons they never made. And for the second movie there is almost a complete lack of a real plot. It just feels like a TV location movie, like The Brady Bunch goes to Hawaii, instead it’s the 4 women going to Dubai. They also spend half the movie trying to show us that the girls are the same as ever.. Carrie is a self involved snob who loves herself too much, and won’t grow up, Miranda is still a shrew, Charlotte is a prim and proper woman who is all to nice but spoiled in a way too, and yes Samantha STILL loves sex more then any woman I have ever met. We get it.

Here’s the thing, if you are a woman who lived for that night of the week when the new shows came on then you will still prolly like this one. But you will be the only ones. I didn’t think it would be that bad b/c the show wasn’t that bad, and like I said this was just another show just longer. I really wanted to give it some props point, while wacthing b/c of this but there comes a point in this sequel where you think to yourself “my God  this is just painful”. And it’s not even the part when they are on stage doing Karaoke, I can deal with their brutalness b/c that’s kinda the whole point of the bit, that they are having fun and suck. But it all just gets stale and feels like a TV plot/show. On HBO sure, but this is a motion picture we expect more. In the 1st half I would be ok saying that but after the whole thing it’s a cheap quickly made movie just to make more money. Shame on you girls for this cash grab.

Verdict—> Only people who will like this are the EXTREME die hard lovers of the TV show. All the rest of us in the world would be better off getting a different movie for movie night. I wouldn’t even want to watch this with a significant other b/c it;s soooo damn long that you won’t be able to stay awake the whole time to reep the benefits of your brownie points.

Eclipse (2010–124mins) K. Stewart, R. Pattinson, T. Lautner

  The third movie in the Twilight series gives us much more of the same. Epic love triangles/whining, and epic struggles to keep the peace. The peace at first that needs keeping is between the Vampires, and the were-wolves. Then all of the peace is threatened by a newly turned army of vampires. They are after something, as usual it’s Bella (no spoilers there) and everyone must join the cause together to save the city and the prized chicky. 

That little synopsis doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. Quite the opposite, it’s a very good movie. However, you have to sit thru the usual tween “I love him, no I love him, no I love him”, and I want to be a vamp like you!, drama for about 1/3 of the movie. As I have said before about these movies, if you can overlook the love triangle whining crap you have a great series. Some of the greatest parts of this one is the back story we get about more people in the Cullen clan. Unfortunately the movie doesn’t focus enough on them. The thing I like the most in these movies is the interaction of the Cullens. They are deep and likable, and of course under used. This is one of the beefs I have with it all. Center more around the family and you have movie gold. BUT, what sells books and what the producers hope—>$ tickets,  is the love triangle, and thus it’s the thing that’s in the foreground. I am looking forward to more of the story in the next movie or two, or whatever we have left in the series (sorry all, I have no idea how many she wrote), hoping more for story then tragic love triangles.

The movie has a bit of a long build up to the big climactic fights between the army of new Vamps, and the Cullen/Wolf alliance. It’s that tension more and more tha brings us to want a full on brawl. We get a decent fight but it’s just entirely too rushed thru. The whole climax just seemed like they just wanted it over ASAP. There isn’t much more then a quick ebb and flow of advantage and bam it’s over. I guess they just want to get back to the story and whom is behind it all, or they just wanted to keep it as close to 2 hours as humanly possible. It’s just another minor thing I wish was changed a bit.

A nit picky negative for me—> I am kinda wondering how many plot holes or wrinkles are out there. Case in point: In movie 2 we have a gathering for Bella’s B-day and she cuts herself. Well, Jasper cannot control himself, ok fine I get it and they try and explain it away. It’s basically a poor plot point inserted here to give Edward a reason to brood some more and want to get Bella away from them all to save her. Well, in this movie all of a sudden Jasper is the model of control. He’s everyone’s coach in fighting and has all sorts of discipline. I just don’t get it. You cannot simply have it both ways. He either is the model of control or he’s a noobie at control. Something the writer is trying to slip by us I think and I ain’t buying it, but again that’s a bit nit picky and doesn’t really diminish the liking for the movies much just shows more could have gone into the whole stories.

Verdict—> There’s not much suprise here, it’s good. There of course will be the groups of people who, no matter how much they would like it, they just won’t give it a chance. Granted it’s not a movie a bunch of guys will sit around and watch together, but it’s a great date or wife movie and should be watched by anyone who even remotely likes the 1st two movies.

Blizz’s little promotion with the fortune teller site where they get people to visit, like, and do various busy type things to unlock videos etc has finally come to an end. I went there and did some fortune teller thing but it was fairly generic in nature and kinda blah. BUT, the final award was a pretty cool cinematic which basically has a nice walk-thru for the new areas, changed old ones, and a bunch of stuff from Cataclysm. I was already stoked about Tuesday (even if I won’t be able to play much until Thursday at earliest) but this is a little snippet to keep us all happy until then.

So here it is. Enjoy! And try and keep yourself busy with real life b/c tuesday on no one will hear from us for a few months!

As the press would have the whole country to believe, the economy is in the shitter. (I don’t believe it anymore, but that’s for another day) What people tend to do when they fear spending too much money, is they stay home and entertain themselves. This is why console markets, MMOs and now board games are big on peoples lists these days.

  Ever since I was a kid I have always loved to play board games. Being an only child I subjected my poor mother to countless nights of having to play games with me. Whether it was the strategy or just gaming in general it’s just fun to me to play. In the last ten to fifteen years the broadening of Euro style games over to the US has become more and more popular. Games like the Settlers of Catan have grown to such high popularity that today they are even sold in your local TARGET!

  On a local level a few more games shops have been popping up inthe community. While they still cater to the miniatures players for warhammer and historical battles, and the Magic:The Gathering community, board game nights are always a regular night and are becoming hugely popular. It’s a great way to get gamers into the store and also to gamers to meet each other. In the last 2 months I have been semi-regularly getting to a weekly board game night at a great newer store called The Gamer’s Armory.  The good thing about nights like this are, they are free, and the people who go regularly are amazingly freindly and have a great collection of games. Also, the store itself has a great selection of games for use to play on their tables as well.

  I used to only be able to play games when I visited my parents for holidays and we would have some other extended family in town (good old mom putting up with the GJ some more!). So lately since I have been playing at the store, I have been introduced to some more games I might not have seen before, as well as met some people who have given me some great ideas for games. The other great resource that is out there is Boardgamegeek. The net’s foremost board game authority (IMHO). You can search for basically any game and get some info, forums, and articles/expansions for them. Also the community there has forums on all things such as handheld device gaming, geek lists (for all sorts of things from good intro-games, good kids games, good wife-husband games etc) so check it out!

Next great thing to check out is a site and podcast The Dice Tower. Tom Vassell’s site has some great lists as well as a ton of videos on game reviews. The great thing about these is he generally explains how to play some games so if you just get a game or thinking of getting one take a gander at his reviews and it could help a ton. And don’t forget everyone’s favorite video site youtube.com. Just do a search for said game and I bet you will find some great reviews for them.

So in the coming days/weeks I will give some info on some of the games I have either bought recently (Small World, Blokus, Dominion) or played at these nights (Dominant Species, For Sale, Ra).  I will do my best to give my own thoughts a small review per-se and whom I think will like the game and if it’s a good family etc, game.

I can’t stress enough to everyone, game game game! Board gaming is not only fun for everyone but a great way to spend some QT with the family and the significant other. So for now Keep on rolling those dice, and playing those cards!

GJ out.