Damn you, Blizzard!

My name is Mitchell Rathgeb, and I am addicted to World of Warcraft.

Well, sort of. I've only been back in to WoW since Wrath of the Lich King came out about a week ago, but I've been pulled right back in to old patterns. To give a bit of back story on my relationship with the game: back before The Burning Crusade, I was a hardcore raider. I logged on after my shitty job at a butcher shop 4 to 5 times a week to raid late into the night, just to get up 3 hours later and repeat the process over again. When BC was released, I managed to pull away, mostly due to the fact that the new content didn't interest me that much. And I vowed never to go back.

So what happened? Death Knight. That's what happened. I played a warrior previously, and had a huge problem reconciling my desire to be a DPS class with that fact that every guild I was ever in wanted me to be a tank. Now Blizzard comes along and solves my problem by making a tank/dps hybrid class that is WAY more intriguing that any of the other classes available... what else am I supposed to do?

WotLK also dropped at a time when getting myself lost in an endless questfest is a desirable feature. I work overnights, so doing anything out of the house other than basic errands is pretty much out of the question during the week, and when I do go out on a weekend, I end up having to stay up all night anyways to keep my sleep schedule consistent.

Normally, I would be able to keep myself busy with the ONSLAUGHT of games that are released in the October/November months (hereafter referred to as "the gauntlet"). Unfortuneatly, the TV that my Xbox 360 is hooked up to has been comandeered for the holiday season. Halfway through Fallout 3, god dammit. Add to this the fact that I am running on a Mac, which limits my PC gaming to Blizzard games and Peggle, and it really isn't that hard to see why WoW was such an enticing proposition.

I think the reason I am writing this is partly as an outlet for my frustration at being sucked into the Life Ruiner again instead of throwing elbows on my way through the gauntlet, but also as an apology for any articles in the near future that I write on this here blog, as they will almost certainly have something to do with WoW (unless I can get XP running on my Mac, so I can throw up on people in Left4Dead). So uh.... sorry, guys.

Wow

Worked the WotLK launch at my store... I've got an itch man... I don't know if any other game can scratch this.

Damn it

I just beat Fallout 3, and I don't think I've ever played a game that had such a large contrast between the ending, and the quality of the game before that. The ending was bad, let's just leave it at that... but EVERYTHING else about the game was great to awesome! Frustrating that it couldn't end on a more enjoyable note. Irregardless, definitely worth a purchase from any sort of RPG fan - and even those who like shooters and want to dabble in the RPG arts would probably appreciate this game.

Now I've decided it is time for me to finish Fable 2, I just got back into the game today, and I think I am about 65% of the way through. Still have a lot more games I want to get my hands on after this though - and the call of WoW is ever so enticing, it's like a heartbeat that gets louder as the date looms closer. Doesn't freaking help that I am working the midnight launch and will be surrounded by nerds professing their love for epic loot. How I want to be one of them again.

P.S. One good thing about having no money, you don't rush through the games you own, and you sometimes go back and play the gems for ole time's sake.

Ugggh.... WHY FALLOUT 3, WHY!

Bah, I told myself I would beat Fable II before I started Fallout 3, but noooooooo - it had to come out a week later. I can't beat all of Fable II in a week! Now look at me, I'm 30 hours into Fallout 3, loving it, and also pining to finish Fable II, but I just don't have the time/will power to tear myself away from F3 to touch Fable.

This is stupid, stupid games coming out a week away from stupid each other. I'm going to try my best to get Fallout 3 AND Fable 2 done before I get into any more games, which is a pretty good possibility cause I am broke (finally having no money does some good) - so I refuse to pile up too large of a backlog... I already have half of Lost Odyssey and Infinite Undiscovery to finish - well one thing I can say is the Fable/Fallout one two punch absolutely and utterly destroys Infinite Lost Odyssey, and I am a huge irrational JRPG lover.

More news to come.

And so it begins

Alright, I'm going to start this off with a quick introduction of myself. My name is Abdella Ali, everyone just calls me Della for short - or some sort of variant of that, it's gotten weird. Anyhoo, currently I work at Best Buy under the position of "Gaming Specialist" job isn't too bad - also gives me some... low... low cred bragging rights.

I don't think me and my buddy Mitchell are really too sure what we're going to be blogging about... other than games, or more specifically, what about games we will be blogging about. So bear with us as we find our... niché. I think I'm just going to start it off with a quick game impression - Fable Deux.

So... something people will probably figure out about me as I continue to blog, is that I play any game (when I have the option) as a saint, I'm not sure what compels me to do it exactly... but does anyone? Anyway, the game - just to make sure I get the point across before I do anything else - is great. It's been about a week since I purchased it, and It has taken up almost all my gaming time and attention since. So far I think I am about halfway through the main story, but I am easily about 35-40 hours invested into the game - and that's because my character has more going on than just his quest for revenge. He has a wife (one he was kind of... bamboozled into marrying) he just had a kid, he is a very successful entrepreneur who owns many a shops and houses, and gallivants his way across the land rescuing people from highwaymen and trolls and the like. Not only do I do all these things once, I do them multiple times - I can't tell you how many times I've freed some poor fools from some slave traders, or beaten up some beetles hiding in cellars. The weird thing is that it doesn't really get old. I can keep doing it over and over without feeling... like it's forced.

I'm not going to spend too much more time talking about Fable II, cause I'm going to post one more time about it when I finish the game (which will hopefully be soon, as Fallout 3 is tomorrow and I want my time free for that) but I will say this. This game does so much to further the RPG genre, and (hopefully) inspire the creation of even more innovative games. It just feels like that kind of game. That is not to say that the game is not without flaws (most of them seem to be based on bugs, my furniture shop stopped restocking on furniture, and now I have a lot more trouble turning houses for profit) but those flaws are so easily brushed aside when you play this game, I feel as though I can't ever get mad at this game, It has completely and totally enthralled me.

Huzzah, and so our stupendous adventures into the blogosphere begins. I'm not really sure how long I can keep up writing like this, but so help me I'll try for as long as I can. I think we're going to write about games or something.