Christian Bale to star in 'Terminator'

I think my New Year's Resolution last year was:

"Be nicer to people."

But I also failed miserably that very night when I saw some douche bag I knew still wearing a fuckin' Santa sweater past Christmas. Fuckin' hick.

So this year, I'm going to try for something else instead that I don't break immediately.

"Curse less."

...

...

...

Oh fuck.

Urrrr, lemme switch that to:

"Get better at Call of Duty 4."

Yay!

I think I can handle that. (Can't get any worse. WAHAHAHA.)

Happy New Years everyone and hope you pick an easy ass resolution so you're not a failure like me.

Need I say more? Well, okay, I will. I do like woot, but at the same time I believe, "IN YOUR FACE YOU BUNNY HOPPING PIECE OF SHIT!!!!!!!!!!11111111ELEVEN!!!11" should be in that little dictionary as well.

Gamer jargon becomes word of the year

By Mark Ward
Technology Correspondent, BBC News website

A word widely used among online gamers has topped an online poll for Word of the Year run by US publishing group Merriam Webster.
The word "W00t" got most votes in the poll looking for the word that best sums up 2007.
It is now included in the Merriam Website open dictionary that exists on the web.
The word, complete with zeroes instead of Os, has become widely used in chat during online games or chatrooms among those celebrating. Merriam Webster defines it as "expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all)".
In a statement Merriam Webster president John Morse said it was a good choice because it blended "whimsy and technology".
"It's a term that's arrived only because we're now communicating electronically with each other," said Mr Morse.
Although the word has achieved great currency among gamers, opinion is divided over its inspiration.

Some claim it is an acronym for the phrase "We Owned Other Team" - meaning that the winning side comprehensively beat their opponents.
Others, in particular Wikipedia, suggest it comes from the tabletop role-playing world of Dungeons and Dragons and is an abbreviation of "Wow, loot!".
A minor faction suggests that it might be short for "Want One Of Those" and is an expression of technological lust for a gadget, toy or other trinket.
Despite its popularity online, Merriam Webster said it would only make it into the regular dictionary if its popularity lasts. If its longevity becomes proven it could join other net-inspired terms such as the verb "to google", "blog" and NSFW.
There are currently no entries for "Woot" or "W00t" in the Oxford English Dictionary.
While W00t has its backers, there are many other potential candidates for words that sum up the technological year.
Among gamers "Ding!" could also be a popular choice as it is widely used when players reveal that one of their avatars has levelled up or got hold of a coveted magical item in a game.

This word derives from Everquest because a "ding" sound effect played when a character went up a level.
Outside the gaming community, the word "poke" must be high up the list of good candidates for its currency among the growing numbers of Facebook users who use it to prompt people they know to get in touch.
Another possible is "tweet" which also emerges from that other popular networking site Twitter. The site shares short messages among groups of people and a "tweet" is the term for a single message sent over the service. It has become used in preference to "twit" for obvious reasons.
Other widely acknowledged net memes for the year must include "lolcats" - which involves captioning pictures of animals - usually cats - with humorous text typically spelled in a distinctive, if mangled, style.
In terms of technology one word that has been bandied around much more in 2007 than any other is "multi-touch". Apple's much hyped iPhone got the technological world talking about touch screens as a way to interact with a handset.
In 2007 many mobiles, such as the LG Prada, HTC Touch, sport these tangible interfaces.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/7142257.stm

We just got done playing on -=NAM=- North American Military (I believe), and I have to say they were good sports about everything. I normally don't like a lot of Search and Destroy/Headquarters, but they kept the camping/sniping to a minimum and stormed in there. (My pea brain is too wittle to wait in a corner for someone to come to me. That's probably why I die so much.)

Also, it's run by a lot of military guys and guys in uniform are pretty hot.

<3

So yesterday we got our ONE MILLION doubloons and all that shit to try out some new boats which today, we were meant to wreck in all out PvP (I use the term loosely as it was pretty much all out gankage on every nation's part.)

This is the only pic of the event I got since...eventually we all lagged out, got disconnected or had our graphics cards explode. Like, for real:

Anyhoo, basically, we were supposed to follow some drunken ass GM (Don Juan de Ubilla) from Vera Cruz to Havana to Tortuga. Our allies were to be the Frenchies this day, but of course, as soon as we made it to Havana, the French show up and ATTACK US. Awesome. So we dispatch those morons and continue onward to Tortuga.

At this point, there are like a gazillion ships on the screen and my Crysis GFX card overloads...again. One of our group members gets lost, one gets DC'd and the other two are in a battle. And then the Brits (which out number us at least 3 to 1) attack. One of us gets hit by 4 guys, and lucky me I get a privateer and 2 ship of the lines. I almost had the privateer but she runs off and is much much faster than my big ship. I almost take out the other SOL but alas, it's just too much bombardment. But at least I got down fighting! RAWR!

Meanwhile, everyone in the group is separated or dead. HURRAY!

AND OMG, BLACKBEARD GETS SUNK! ...Not that I care since I have no idea where I am anymore. And what he has to do with the event, I have no clue.

Fast forward to 20 minutes later, the group regroups, one of us gets ganked again 3 vs 1 and disconnects. And Don Juan gets sunk. And I my group is now all lime green................

Yeah, so super crappy event, but I still dig the game.

I won't lie though, there was so much lag (I didn't experience this--just the graphics card over load), and gankage going on that folks decided not to buy the game because of the event.

And then there was a lot of EQII cock suckers saying how much better EQII was to a pirate game and the required SOE bashing.

And now, I'm gonna' go play COD4.

WOOOT!

Here are a couple screenies from the End of Beta Event. I was a fool and bought an "Invincible 1st Rate," but then switched to a "Trinity 2nd Rate," for better (snort giggle) maneuverability. But first there's one of us Spaniards dispatching of an SOL in our early 30s. XD

Here's the Invincible. 112 guns for your face!! The sound of 'em all going off is magical. *purr*

And here is one of me burning down some British ships. WAHOO!!

Then tonight! The PVP begins!

Well, I guess {PIB} Steller's Garage wasn't kiddin' when they said they will kick you if you kill their members too many times. (The "j/k" part wasn't a "j/k" apparently.)

And I'm too damn lazy to register to post on their boards and complain. (Plus, POBTS is back up! Yay!)

Thanks for being mature like in your scrolling message. *MUAH*

Time to find a new server to hang out on.

MOAR CROCODILE TEARZ A FLOWIN'.

So many servers left to get kicked from though.

I'm going to swim in my doubloons like Scrooge McDuck.

End of Beta: Level Cap, Free Money, and Auction Seeding!

With the release of build 1.0.29.2, we have removed the level cap from the game so you can level to 50. We have also placed a very large number of items in many auction houses, including XP books you can use to level up quickly and thousands of ship deeds. When you log in, you will also receive ONE MILLION DOUBLOONS.

The ship deeds are priced so that you can't just buy all of them. You will need to choose carefully what to spend your enormous stacks of money on.

While we believe there are enough ship deeds in enough auction houses to satisfy everyone, we know some of you remember the end of closed beta event where we ran out. If this turns out to be a serious issue this time, we will resupply the auction houses as needed. However, we believe the combination of the million doubloons, the many ports that are seeded, and the pricing on the ship deeds will work pretty well.

The auction houses with the goodies are in these ports:

Starting towns:

Charlesfort
Jenny Bay
Marsh Harbour
Vera Cruz

Capitals:

Port Royal
Tortuga
San Juan
Pointe-a-Pitre

Other towns:

Barilla
Bartica
Belize
Biloxi
Campeche
Cat Island
Cayo de Marquis
Grenville
La Isabelle
Les Hattes
Maracaibo
New Orleans
Oranjestad
Orleans
Pensacola
Port-of-Spain
Rosignol
Sisal
St. Rose's Bay
Tampa
Tampico
Whitby

The end of beta event is starting today! And for losers like me, you know what that means!

Intercepted missives from Pirates of the Burning Sea
by Elizabeth Harper Dec 28th 2007 @ 8:00PM
Filed under: Betas, Historical, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Events, in-game, Lore

Something is afoot in the Pirates of the Burning Sea beta. Intercepted missives have begun to surface hinting at a major event that may occur as early as this weekend. Are you the intrepid seafarer who will be able to put the pieces together? To help you along, Massively has managed to acquire a copy of one of these messages, sent from Admiral Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla, reprinted below.

May 12, 1720

Lord Admiral,

My preparations are all but complete and soon the great treasure fleet will leave Havana. My crews and officers are more than ready to do their duty. Everyone understands that it is vital to get this gold through to Spain. I swear to you now that we shall not fail. I watched the 1715 fleet destroyed off the coast of Florida and as God is my witness it will not happen again.

I am leaving before hurricane season this time, so weather should not be a problem. The French are our allies, so I have no concerns from that quarter. I have also reached a gentlemen's agreement with Woodes Rogers, the governor of the Bahamas. He is only interested in destroying any pirates that may appear and this I heartily endorse. I expect every buccaneer and freebooter in the Caribbean to attack if word of our voyage gets out. Governor Rogers help dealing with such scum would be greatly appreciated. He seems like an honorable man, though I shall of course keep an eye on his forces as well. Nothing can be left to chance.

It is time to cast off. We will meet again in Spain.

Dutifully yours,

Admiral Don Juan Esteban de Ubilla

Havana

Me and my Mastercraft Stralsund will be waiting...or will I have a Defiant by then? We shall see.

Zuroth Online still lives, and here is some proof! (Bitch definitely doesn't need shoulder pads.)

To see more, click here.

Will ZO be the SWG that refugees have been waiting for? (Kinda' looks like it.) And if so, where is Jabba?

Oh, there he is. (With me in Master Armoursmith/Slut mode from 5 years + ago.) No matter how old the engine, Jabba is still HOT!!

Thanks to Aether, Community Director for Flying Labs:

The PotBS Server List! *UPDATED*

You’ve asked for it, now here it is: the Pirates of the Burning Sea server list for Europe and North America!

Fans are encouraged to use this information to plan which server they wish to join once Pirates of the Burning Sea goes live.

Have no fear! We will be publishing the names of our Oceania servers as soon as that information has been finalized.

North American Servers
Blackbeard
Rackham
Morgan
Kidd
Antigua
Guadeloupe
Bonny
Read
Hispaniola
Dominica
Martinique
Barbados

Historical European Servers
Roberts
Hornigold

What are Historical European Servers?
Historical European Servers will be running live events in a combination of Spanish, French and German and English languages. There is a lot more to be said regarding our live event plans, so expect a Devlog with more information in the near future.

Language Specific European Servers
Bellamy (Spanish Language Events)
Bonnet (French Language Events)
Myngs (German Language Events)
Sharp (English Language Events)

More on Language Specific European Servers:
Language Specific European Servers ill be will be running live events in a single language: French, German, Spanish or English, respectively.

No Play Restrictions
Europeans and North Americans can choose to play on any of the servers listed above, regardless of their geographic designation.

As with all things, this information is subject to change. We'll keep you posted!

Enjoy, won't you?
Aether

Oh which one shall we pick? I think one of the newer ones for sure. Morgan or Guadaloupe? So many decisions!

Beta and Stress Subscriptions

12.26.07 by ktatroe

The Beta and Stress Test subscription plans have been ended earlier than they’re supposed to be. We’re working with Sony to get the plans restored; in the meantime, players who are in the beta under either the Closed Beta or Stress Test subscription plans can’t currently log in.

We’ll update when they’ve been restored.

You know, despite the horrible MMO Drought of 2007, life as a gamer didn't prove to be half as terrible as I expected it to be thanks to the awesome badness that was "Perfect World" and the goody SOVIET goodness of "Call of Duty 4."

Also, despite a ton of blah titles release, there was no obvious gaming fruit cake to be had...although if I had to pick, the closest to that would be actually subscribing to "HG:L". While I definitely enjoyed the game throughout beta and then the first month of release, subscribing proved not only useless--I waited it out but there will be NO new content this year--but a major hassle and let down as well. (At least I got my refund. A few folks I know have yet to.)

In the aftermath I'll just use the massive collector's edition box to prop up that one chair I have in the living room that's kinda' jiggly from repeated cat-attacks.

Anyhoo, here is my holiday gift to everybody!!

Maybe one day you'll thank me for it. Or not.

WAHAHA.

Happy Holidays!!

It's back to work! (Well, back to play.) Only one more round of huge family meals to go!

Online games battle for top spot

By Mark Ward
Technology Correspondent, BBC News website

Lord of the Rings Online made its debut early in 2007

Challenges to the dominance of World of Warcraft over online games and gamers look set to emerge in 2008.
So say industry watchers looking back on a year in which the field as a whole matured and signs emerged which show how the industry sector is developing.
During the year Blizzard's flagship title consolidated its hold on gamers as its subscriber base kept growing.
But debuts by Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and many others may mean that hold begins to weaken.
Numbers game
"We expected, like all the analysts, to see a dip in subscriptions in 2007," said Paul Younger, an editor at the Inc Gamers network. "As it turns out we've seen the rise and rise of WoW."
At the start of 2007, the number of active subscribers playing World of Warcraft was eight million but by the end of summer the number had passed 9.3 million.

World of Warcraft dominates the online gaming world

According to statistics gathered by Nielsen the average WoW player racks up 17 hours of play per week - 12 hours more than its nearest competitor The Sims. As such it was the most played PC game between April and November 2007.
In online games such as World of Warcraft players create an avatar or character, give them a profession and venture out into the game world to battle monsters, find treasure and turn their novice into a powerful hero or heroine.
Mr Younger said online games such as Lord of the Rings Online, Tabula Rasa and Hellgate: London were widely tipped to poach significant numbers of players from Blizzard but, he said, it was not clear that had happened.
"There seems to be an inability by other massively multi-player game makers to capture what Blizzard managed to capture," said Mr Younger.
Rob Fahey, industry veteran and columnist for Gameindustry.biz, said the new launches and continued success of WoW showed how strong the industry had become.
"There's plenty of choice out there for players now," he said "You can even play massively multiplayer dancing games, if killing monsters isn't your thing."
Another sign of the growing maturity of online gaming was the notable failure of titles such as Vanguard.
Although released in February it was error prone and has taken months to become reliable enough.
"It's clear that it's no longer acceptable to release buggy games, and players aren't prepared to pay a monthly fee to test an unfinished product," he said.
Fantasy figures
The importance of the final polish is also thought to be behind the delayed arrival of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Both were originally due in 2007 but now are expected before next summer.
Many see these as serious contenders to WoW because like that game they trade on a long history of earlier works.

Large-scale battles will be key in Age of Conan

Conan is familiar to many from Robert E Howard's original stories, the films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and the many contemporary novels that explored the world of the iconic barbarian.
Warhammer is the creation of UK firm Games Workshop and has many fans who played the tabletop game, the role-playing system, the earlier games and has read the books set in its world.
Perhaps more importantly the titles are attempting to move online gaming on from the mechanics established by Blizzard.
In Warhammer many areas of the game are contested and factions will battle to regain control of these areas. Solo players as well as those who prefer pitched battles will contribute to this back and forth that will see a lot of the game world's territory change hands many times.
By contrast Age of Conan is explicitly aiming at a mature audience - in particular combat will be bloody and realistic. The game will also allow player teams, or guilds, to set up and run their own cities or lay siege to each other's strongholds.
But, said Philip Wride, boss of consultancy firm Elysium Gaming, it could be something entirely outside the field that has a big impact on online gamine in 2008.
In the UK the Byron Review is scrutinising video games with a view to drawing up new regulations and guidelines governing them.
"It's about educating parents more than anything and perhaps making changes in terms of rating systems," he said.
This was likely to mean best practice guidelines for parents but may eventually involve new legislation.
"That would alter how online games are both portrayed and played," said Mr Wride.

So...yeah, guess what I've been playing.........zzzzzzzzZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Time for bed so we can take over Belize tomorrow!

Meanwhile, enjoy dis thread. Those are the actual graphics.

Curse you foul candy cane for getting in my way!

And big props to [RIP] 24/7 Winter Crash 1 & 2 for being awesome fun to play on this holiday season.

I can't get enough of Santa dropping napalm laden presents on me.

*swoon*

I want to know why my head rag is not red and green though....

My no lifeness is complete! (And yes, I did pre-order this game. Need mah parrot!)

Of course, the server just crashed which means it's time to watch High School Musical (again) and play Winter Crash!

Big PotBS Open Beta News - Extension, Item Reward, Final Events, And More!

12.21.07 by Aether

Tens of thousands of players have been playing the Pirates of the Burning Sea Open Beta and having a blast. We’ve made frequent patches to address issues with both lag and gameplay, and thanks to all your feedback, we’ve made really rapid progress on the final polish pass for the game’s launch on January 22nd.

We’ve been planning to end the Open Beta this Sunday the 23rd. But we’ve heard from so many players who want to play over the holidays that we’ve changed our minds.

The Pirates of the Burning Sea Open Beta will now run until the morning of January 1st, 2008! That gives everyone one more week to play the game, see what we’re doing, and check out the very latest improvements and changes.

If you haven’t played the Open Beta yet, you can get an access key and a client download at no charge from any of the sites at this link.

Open Beta Item Reward!

We also want to thank all of our Open Beta players for their hard work (and good times!). So everyone who creates a character in the Open Beta and who buys a pre-order box or digital download qualifies to receive a key code they can redeem at launch for an exclusive flag and sail design only available to Open Beta players. Forevermore, you can fly the Open Beta flag and show everyone you were there before we set sail. All you need to do is make a character in the Open Beta and buy the preorder, and at launch we will add a page here on our website where you can receive your key code.

You can order the preorder box online from Amazon.com, GameStop.com, BestBuy.com, and GoGamer.com, or you can get a digital download from Station Store and Direct2Drive by clicking this link.

Remember that ordering the preorder (box or download) means you can start playing on January 7th, a full fifteen days ahead of launch.

End of Beta Events!

Of course, what’s the end of an Open Beta without an end-of-an-Open-Beta event? We have a big one planned, and while it gets started this coming week it will climax on Sunday, December 30th. Look for details about this event. It’s going to be EPIC.

And finally, when it’s all over, we hope you’ll join us in the Caribbean of 1720 on New Year’s Eve. We’ll have special in-game items for the celebration and you can join your hosts CEO Russell Williams, Producer John Scott Tynes, and Content Lead Jess Lebow as we ring in the new year, pirate style! We’ll be doing countdowns timed for both the EU and North America, so come celebrate with your Open Beta captains one last time before we set sail for launch.

The Future!

We’re already looking past launch. Our art and content teams are working now on the first free content update, coming in March. This includes a stunning new capital city for France, new missions, new repeatable group instances, and much more.

We hope you’ll give us a try, check out our progress, and consider joining us on the live servers in January. We’ve spent five years making a great game and we can’t wait for everyone to play it!

Enjoy, won’t you?
Aether

Discuss This Article

Make sure to download patch 1.4 for some holiday themed fragging!

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Patch Information

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare%u2122 1.4 Patch

DESCRIPTION:

This is the release of the v1.4 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare%u2122 patch by Infinity Ward.

CHANGES:

"Winter Crash", a holiday version of Multiplayer map "Crash"
Improvements to the server browser
Fixed some rare bullet accuracy issues for all weapons.
For server admins: fixed user ban list not working correctly on servers. Ban.txt will be created in the main or fs_game directory

MOD SUPPORT:

In the connect screen, Mods will be identified as"Mod: [mod name]"
Only official IWD files will be read from the main directory. All custom IWD should be placed in a mod directory.
Fix for reloading several times after connecting to a modded server
Improved mod.ff support to allow adding game types.
Fixed an issue with Http redirect downloads.
"fs_game" will be forced to lower case

INSTALLATION:

Download the file below
Run the installer and make sure its pointed to the installation folder for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare%u2122
File name: CoD4MW-1.4-PatchSetup.exe
File size: 70.60 MB

MIRRORS:

Gamespot

WorthPlaying

FilePlanet

FileFront

CoDHQ

FPSadmin

Discuss this patch on the Official Infinity Ward Forums

PREVIOUS PATCH CHANGES:

1.1
Addressed the issue of Rank / Stat resets reported by users moving from a Modded / Un-ranked server to a non Modded / Ranked Server. This update was not intended to revert back to any previously lost rank, but to prevent the issue from happening in the future.

1.3
Addressed the issue reported by community member Uzi Kidding which now catches some files bypassing the pure client test. In addition this update will set properties so that Anti-lag is always enabled upon map loads, an optimization for Sniper Rifle accuracty at certain distances, as well a fix so text chat between rounds of multiplayer will no longer cut out at the end. The 1.3 patch will also include all previous fixes from previous patches.

This arrived in the mail for me today:

Hellgate for the Holidays

Fellow Hellgaters,

The leaves have long since fallen, snow coats the ground, and the temperature is cold enough to freeze Sydonai's tentacles off. The master of Earth's Burn is not pleased. But we sure are! How could we not be? This is our first post-release newsletter!

Below, please find the latest HG:L happenings.

Multiplayer Patch 0.7

As the players who participated in our Test Center server found out earlier today, the 0.7 content update will be launching for both the Shulgoth (US) and Sydonai (EU) servers this week.

Big additions in this patch include a massive memory usage fix, Nightmare difficulty rebalancing, and a new "Looking for Group" interface.

A number of notorious bugs were also squashed in this build. Impassible maps and quest monsters that refused to spawn are a thing of the past.

With 0.7 subscribers can enjoy additional content in the form of the Transmogrifier -- an item used for extra inventory and recipe crunching -- and twelve new unique items.

Bill & Stonehenge

Curious about Hellgate: London's first major ongoing content release for subscribers? It's what we call the Stonehenge Expansion and Bill Roper is here to fill you in...

"We've decided to take the time necessary to make our first major content patch right. If there is one lesson we've learned from launching Hellgate: London, our releases should be a question of "what" and not "when."

We were pushing to get Stonehenge released before the end of the year, but we realized that we wouldn't be doing the right thing to push it out before it was ready and properly tested. We're still on our schedule and meeting our original promise of providing a major quarterly update. We just felt that we would be doing everyone a disservice to push this out before it was right.

We are, however, going to have the first in our continuing Hellgate chronicles, entitled Stonehenge, into Test Center before the holidays. This is so we can get a lot of people finding the issues and getting us feedback over their holiday breaks."

-- Bill Roper

If all goes well, you'll see the Stonehenge Expansion hit the Test Center this week, with the full release scheduled to launch in January.

Subscription Details: Here

Single Player Patch 0.6

Hellgaters who prefer solo play have been eagerly awaiting this news... SP 0.6 is now available. Some major fixes include issues with the mini-game, quest items, and unique drops. Fresh content includes rebalanced skills, more chests in secret areas, and user interface tweaks. These adjustments match SP to MP 0.6 and shall greatly improve your single player experience.

So Long! From everyone here at Flagship Studios (yes, even Sydonai), we wish you all the best this holiday season and we hope 2008 sees you all safe and well. See you online!

I'd rather have a bunch of Shulgoths pulling my sleigh along though. (And with the holidays coming up I'll probably need three of 'em to pull me out of my food coma.)

Check out this page from FSS's Korean friends courtesy of Sixstar, a HG:L forum member:

Hanbit Hellgate: London

It takes a sec to load and then there's a bunch of Korean. Scroll down a bit and you'll start to see some artwork for the Stone Henge area that is supposedly (according to some interview Roper did with Hanbit) is coming out before this Christmas.

My subscription runs out January 2nd so that should give me ample time to finish it up before turning my attention to "Pirates of the Burning Seas"'s pre-order period (starting 1/7/08).

Stone Henge Screenies

Also some more tidbits from Sixstar (forum person) regarding the Roper interview:

Bill Roper gave important Clue in korean press conference

today there were press meeting about HGG Open Plan in Korea

Bill says (just have translated this to refer korean forum. sorry for my poor english)

1. Q : when will u open new class n Stonehenge patch in US server?
Bill : We will update Stonehenge patch on test server before X-mas. New class Not yet. We r focusing Stonehenge patch.

2. Q : We look for upcoming Transmogrifier Cube. is there another hidden stuff like cube?
Bill : well. It is more better to reveal by player himselves. but if I can give simple n BIG Clue, it is this. don't miss Character creation(selection) window n Phone Booth.

ya. these all. let's check Character Creation Window n Phone Booth.

Okies, time to go check!

Just two more weeks and for me I'm thinking:

1) Finally investing in a PS3 and/or
2) Rock Band for the 360 if I don't get a PS3.

Also, it's almost time to pre-order "Age of Conan" and get my uber war mammoth to ride.

Other than that, I have to decide whether or not to cancel my HG:L subscription and do a month of "Pirates of the Burning Seas" for a month until AOC instead. Choices choices. (Though right now with no fuckin' content updates, it's looking like it'll be the latter.)

But at any rate, my girlfriends all say I'm difficult to shop for so here's a list of shit any (girl) gamer would be happy to get (too bad I got most of 'em already--WAHAHAHAHA. I can't WAIT for Christmas to play the best games mother fuckers!!)

RICH FOLKS:

1) A Wii or a PS3. Lots of good looking games will be coming out for these systems soon including "Smash Brothers" and anything new from the Final Fantasy world:

Wiis are supposed to be $250 if you can find them for that price (LIES), and they recently dropped the price of the 40GB PS3s to like $400 but once again, good luck finding one of these. I have an XBOX 360 ($300) and it ain't bad of a deal at all. Lots of good games to start with including "Mass Effect" or if you must, the console version of "COD4." Boo.

SUPER RICH FOLKS (Please be my friends):

2) A Crysis/AOC capable rig! WOOOT!! Load that mother fucker up! PC Gaming > Console Gaming. Then be sure to pick up COD4, UT3 & Crysis for your face!!

MIDDLE CLASS:

3) Plushies!!

From Square-Enix:

FINAL FANTASY Series Plush SANTA CHOCOBO

A plush toy of the cute and adorable Chocobo from the FINAL FANTASY and CHOCOBO'S DUNGEON series, dressed in a Santa costume. WHITE MAGE CHOCOBO and BLACK MAGE CHOCOBO are also available.

Price : $19.99

Unfortunately it's sold out from the official S-E store but dude, they're so fuckin' cute, especially the WHM and BLM chocobos. You can pick 'em up for $9 more at one of my fave import shops: NCSX. (I have the Cactuar and Tonberry already and the Tonberry comes with a knife stuck to it's hand with velcro. SO CUTE!)

Mega Slime Plushies

I have a Slime Bess version (the pink one) and holy shit are they comfortable to sleep on. They do run on the expensive side but I think they're worth it. NCSX. $40.

Tachikoma Plush

I have to admit that I was a sucker and bought one of these. They're so fuckin' cute. And they're on fuckin' sale too for YES! Perfect timing!!

4) Crazy Shit For Geeks

The R2D2 Soy Sauce Dispenser and/or Pepper Mill

How fucking awesome is this shit?

STAR WARS R2-D2 Pepper Mill (Sesami Mill)

Dude, I'm so pre-ordering! They're $20 each from Straya-World. I ordered my Slime cell strap from here and they're very fast! There's so much cute shit on this site it's scary (including gold poop themed cell straps) so make sure you have at least an hour to waste. I have the R2D2 dice roller from the "Trivial Pursuit: Star Wars" edition and it rocks.

5) Old Ass Games

If you do not have "Katamari Damacy" yet, or "We Love Katamari," these games are all in your bargain bin or that $20 rack. I still play my copies and it's been years since they came out. If you have the games then you can also invest in the sound tracks for roughly the same price. Awesome! You can get a copy from Amazon. Leaps and bounds better than the 360 version. Tons of year old but excellent games are $20 so snap 'em up like GTA, GT3 and Okami.

6) WTF, Kick Ass Shit

Meet Gloomy Bear. Gloomy Bear will pummel douchebags on your mug for $13. Check out more Gloomy goods and zombie ninja plushes here. Make sure to peruse the "Designer Plush" section for the best goodies.

PO' FOLK (a.k.a., Hobos, People on a budget)

7) Subscriptions

I never thought I would say this, but for $7 a month (cheaper if you go longer), a regular subscription to FilePlanet ain't bad at all. You don't run the risk of downloading infected shit from Gamershell or anything and you get into betas. Just make sure to plan your subscription to coincide with the beta you want to try. Other than that, their download servers are nice and fast and I found myself using it a lot to try other games as well. (I had subbed for Crysis Beta.)

I also did Gamefly for a few months during the Great MMO Drought of 2007 and it wasn't bad either. Their service is PDQ and their games a plentiful. Thank goodness I rented "Viva Pinata" instead of buying it. (I was such a fool for even that, but the cover art appealed to my AZN side.) I don't understand what sort of job raising fuckin' worms brings to people. I think there's a trial for 2 weeks and after that it's like a minium of $8 bucks to get started. Not bad at all.

8) A Pet Monkey or Cubis

If you're reading this category, you're probably cheap or poor (or MMO starved--guilty) and playing F2P games. $5 can get you a monkey for a month in "Silkroad Online!" That's right, have your evil monkey or squirrel or whatever the fuck you can get now steal lootz from botters! Also $5 in "Perfect World" grants you like a gazillion billion cubis to buy stupid shit like pink shoes (while paying for someone's college education in SE Asia.) Make sure to get your cubis from OffGamers!! Don't be a douche and buy gold though. That's bad mmokay.

9) A Month of Loot Runner

Well, Dungeon Runners. As simple as this game is, it's a good distraction for a few weeks. And recently, they've added the ability to TRADE BETWEEN CHARACTERS. ZOMGZ!! (My guildies and I had to hide in a pig pen and drop items in front of each other before this miraculous change.) Also, having an NCSOFT account usually gets you into all their betas...including the possibility of the upcoming AION! Wahaha. No ulterior motives here . :)

FREE SHIT!!

10) Not that I would EVER EVER visit a site like this but...QSS is better than Joox mother fuckers!! If you're seriously strapped for cash, download something like "American Gangster" from Stage6, slap it on a disc and voila! Free gift! And while you're at it, get Bitlord as well. *cough cough* Used in conjunction with Isohunt you'll be unstoppable!! Well, that's what my friends say. *cough cough*

...And that's all she wrote for now!!

One of my clannies recently picked up his copy of COD4 so my wittle clan and I been playing moar COD4 lately to help him get acquainted with the MP portion of the game. (Poor guy is scared of FPSes and "messing up" so we figured if we showed off how sucky we were--okay, how sucky I was--it would boost his morale a bit.)

Anyhoo, so after a few days absence from the game, it seems that everyone's unlocked their P90s. I used to be able to find more ammo lying around for my sassy G36C but the past few days, zip. I've been forced to scavenge P90s and MP5s off of people's bodies instead. This fact leads me but one conclusion...

BAD MARINES!! Stop using MP5s/P90s so I can loot ammo without wasting a perk on Bandolier. That's right. (Not my fault for going through ammo like water, YOURS!)

My clannies tell me to get rid of you because you're crappy gun but I shall not! (After all, it's the cutest gun out there and matches my turban after all.) But what do they know, they're all LMG fools who haven't seen the dericious goodness that is the Assault Rifle.

BTW:

HOT!

Anyhoo, as terrible as my ping is on it, we've been playing on LA Domination a lot. It's got a lot of actual good players though there are definitely some noob tubing/bunny hopping faggots that show up from time to time (they still die when you head shot 'em though). Definitely more of a challenge to get a win on (lots of close games within 5 points). Plus, it's got voice so I can snap at dumb asses that do nothing but crouch in the doorways getting in your way. (And it's JOIZEE not JOSIE that snapped on you, you dirty POS sniper wannabe whore.)

Have you seen this shit yet?

Red Fluorescent Cat Cloned

A cloned Turkish Angola kitten, left, gives off a red fluorescence glow while an ordinary one appears to be green in this picture taken under ultraviolet light at a laboratory of Gyeongsang National University in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. The cloned cat’s genes were modified with a fluorescent protein. / Yonhap

By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

Researchers found a way to clone pet cats five years ago. Now they can play a trick on their genes to change their color.

A Gyeongsang National University team said they have succeeded in cloning cats after modifying a gene to change their skin color. Because of the red fluorescence protein in their skin cells, the three Turkish Angola kittens look reddish under ultraviolet light, the researchers said.

The red cloned cat research is expected to be utilized in dealing with certain genetic diseases in animals and humans. It will also help reproduce rare animals, such as tigers and wildcats, which are on the verge of extinction, the team said.

According to the team led by professor Kong Il-keun, three kittens were born in January and February by caesarian section, but one died during the procedure. They weighed between 110 and 136 grams at birth and now weigh 3.5 kilograms each now, the researchers said.

``We have proved our world-class ability in cloning animals that have modified characteristics,'' said Kong. ``We found that the red fluorescent protein in all the organs of the dead kitten, which means we have established an efficient way of cloning gene-modified cats.''

The first cloned cat, nicknamed Copycat, was born in 2002 at Texas A&M University. Many other animals such as cows, dogs, pigs, bulls and goats have been successfully cloned by a number of researchers in North America, Europe and South Korea.

Kong cloned a cat in 2004 for the first time in the country. He has since worked as director of research at a state-supported project to clone animals for therapeutic research.

To clone the Turkish Angola cats, Kong's team used skin cells of the mother cat. They modified its genes to make them fluorescent by using a virus, which was transplanted into the ova. The ova were then implanted into the womb of the donor cat.

Called reproductive cloning, the method has been mostly used in cloning animals that are genetically identical, until Kong's kittens were born with the tampered genes.

The technique differs from therapeutic cloning, which is to make a ``stem cell'' that can be guided to grow into a specific body part. Former Seoul National University professor Hwang Woo-suk used this method in his human stem cell cloning research, which was later found to have used fabricated data.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr

And now!! We can see our cats when we eat in the dark!! DERICIOUS!!

Perhaps I'm STUPID, but when the opportunity for a good meal presents itself, I'm willing to save up all my precious precious calories for the entire day by forgoing any and all sustenance that might normally be consumed during the course of breakfast and lunch in order to feast like a crazed mother fucker during dinner.

Such was the case yesterday night where I sold my soul and stomach for a massive steak dinner. (Including appetizers, tons of bread and the straw that broke the pig camel's belly...dessert.)

I'm naturally paying for it now, after waking up after a "nightmare" where I was plunged back into high school Chinese class. I think we were all late or something so our teacher decided to test our passion for learning by having us debate shit. For some reason, after topics like the War in the Middle East and the North Korean nuclear program, I got to debate the Jets versus the Patriots.

Well, I blew that shit out of the water with my natural contempt for Eric MANGINA of the J - E - S - T, and ended up tying for most passionate with the guy who debated cupcakes.

And then I woke up and knew I had eaten WAY too much and swore never NEVAH to do that again.

I know it was the goddamn brownie a la mode that pushed me over the limit too. DAMN YOU BROWNIES.

p.s. I love ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption."

Oh sports hilarity FTW!! Yao Ming has never been so eloquent.

Okay, I'm a little slow writing about this but a few days ago they showed the "2007 Video Game Awards" on Spike TV. I seriously tried so hard to watch this but pretty much got bored within the first 5 minutes. I like Sam Jackson but he has no clue about video games and the "material" he got to read to open the show was like rejected shit from ABC's "Dinosaurs." (And trust me, they didn't reject much.)

Anyhoo, if any of you missed it and wanted to check out some high lights (I'm being generous), visit IFILMS:

http://www.ifilm.com/show/23733

But keep your standards low.

There are a bunch of half nekkid chicks and a lot of Asians in the crowd including ZOMGZ, A LISTER REALITY STAR TILA TEQUILA & TIA CARRERRE.

Wowwie zowwie.

Now if Johnny Fair Play or Steve-O showed up it would have been the bestest show evah. Oh shit, Steve-O really did show up.

They need to have a real gaming award show with real gamers (Cheetoes on the mother fuckin house!) Now THAT is a train wreck I need to be watching!

Oh noes!! Flagship you're next!! (Hope not.) :(

Default

The Future of FURY is here

This is a good news/bad news post. We have made some tough but necessary decisions. These actions give FURY a much stronger future and we look forward to working VERY closely with the community to make sure we build a game that people can enjoy for years to come.

Official Announcement:
The Directors of Auran Developments, the company that employs all the Auran staff, have today called in a Voluntary Administrator (like Chapter 11 in the US). All the staff were dismissed today. Despite earlier reports, staff will be paid for all their work to date, their annual leave entitlements, redundancy payments and long service leave.

Whilst this is the end of Auran Developments, it is far from the end of FURY and Trainz.

Trainz is the world’s leading rail simulator and has a community of more than 250,000 registered users around the world. It is published in dozens of countries and there are many products in the market today. The bulk of the Trainz team will continue to work on current projects and these projects will be released next year.

With Fury, we built up a team to make a world beating game and sadly we have not reached our goals – yet. Our performance to date has meant we could no longer fund the 70 strong dev team. However, FURY: Age of the Chosen will be launched as planned Friday 8pm GMT. We have put together a small but committed team to continue developing FURY on an ongoing basis. This core team, as we announced last week, are a passionate group of people committed to making FURY a success. We will be releasing bug fixes, content and feature updates on a regular basis and in fact they will be more frequent with our new agile team.

I believe that once people hear about F:AotC and the new Free to Play business model, we’ll start building up the player numbers and revenues that will make the game successful.

I expect the naysayers will have different thoughts, but they haven’t played the new build…yet.

Bored, my friends and I went to a 16 man DOM server named:

Sexy Swedish Girls

LIES.

They broke my heart.

So instead we went to:

Sexy Asian Girls

MOAR LIES!!

Why do they trick you like this? Why?

And now, time to put my death hax away and sleep.

Lately I've been hooked on this website:

http://www.mysoju.com

It's got a TON of the most awesomely baddest (but so good) Asian dramas on it and all subtitled (although some are a bit suspect.)

Some of the awesomely bad assiest dramas:

Gokusen ~ About a skinny ass teacher from a Yakuza family and how she reforms her bad ass students. So predictably awesome. (Based on the manga of the same name.)

Hana Yori Dango ~ Some stupid poor girl gets all the hottest, richest guys in the school yet whines like a dirty slut. (But it's so good! Based on the manga of the same name.)

Jotei ~ Fucked up as high school drop out plots to become Japan's #1 hostest (Empress/Jotei) to get revenge on all the menz that "ruined" her life. Crazy plots include attempting to sleep with her dad to get back at him. OH NOES!! (Not as bad as I made it sound. Hey, I watched the whole damn thing.)

Detective Academy Q ~ Based on the manga/anime about kids who rip off "Conan"/"Case Closed" in order to solve mysteries and murders. Includes some bitch working at a maid cafe. I do like the ending song for some reason. Oh well, I never said I wasn't stupid.

Anyhoo, make sure you have a good block of time to sit down and watch! You'll be hooked!

Finally, my dumb ass learned how to take in game screen shots. This is my Naval Officer, Marisol Cienfuegos (you can tell she's a naval officer because she only shows a little of her titties as opposed to all like some of the other sluts walking around town.)

I somehow made it to 12 today...but I think I'll be sleeping until 5 in the afternoon because of it.

Don't worry PW!! I'm coming for you baby!

Here's a shot of the awful land combat (swashbuckling shit). During closed beta, the devs admitted it was shit and...yeah, it still is. But if you have to use shit, I recommend Dirty Fighting for the most fun (and I've tried all of them), Florentine if you don't like getting hurt (EVAH) and Fencing if you're too lazy to respec (OH SHIT!! That's me!)

Notice how my two goons HELP SO MUCH WHILE I TAKE OUT THE TRASH SINGLE HANDEDLY.

And a full rez pic of the hotness that is Marisol:

Clickie for za full glory.

Unfortunately, every other bitch looks like me except with less clothes and different colour hair.

And btw assholes who made fun of my pronunciation of any Spanish word on TS, el fucko offo. XD

Well, the ones of the Spaniard bitches we made on Rackham (POTBS) didn't want to save correctly so here are some from PW instead. Right off the bat, I think the game plays worse than it did in Closed Beta but I've only put a couple hours into the OB version so far (most of which was spent trying to grow back my hands which would show up doing character creation but not in game...

But at any rate!!

Best dying message ever (received when I stole hate and got my ass handed to me by that ass wipe in the Green Shirt Tomb:

Fun with a pumpkin bolus:

I'm saving my Monkey King Boluses for a special occasion!

A couple people I know will be joining the Open Beta phase of "Pirates of the Burning Seas" from Flying Labs and distributed by SOE, so I'm gonna' give it another go, even if it means saying a brief *cry* break from "Perfect World."

As soon as I make a chara, I'll post it!

Here's a little bit o' speculation going around the magical, all knowing intranets, thanks to 4Gamer:

Level Builder - Call of Duty

Apply Online

Description

Treyarch (an Activision studio) is looking for talented and motivated Level Builders to join the team that developed Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, and Call of Duty: United Offensive! We have positions open for both Multiplayer and Single Player builders. We are located in sunny Santa Monica, CA, close to the beach.

Treyarch is dedicated to making AAA quality, commercially successful games, with the best and brightest talent. If you are ready to do the best work of your career in an environment that supports, enables and rewards you, please read below to see how you can become part of the Treyarch team:

Level Builder Tasks:

* Build realistic levels for an industry leading First-Person Shooter action war franchise using Radiant quickly and efficiently.
* Detail & polish levels (including lighting) based on photo reference, concept art, and design documents.
* Take direction from design leads to refine mechanics of the map.
* Research subject matter for history and look of the map.
* Be able to meet deadlines and communicate clearly and effectively.
* Work effectively as part of a design team to formulate strategies and implement ideas.

Qualifications

Level Editor experience with Radiant, Unreal, or Quake. Radiant preferred.

Working experience with First-Person Shooter or Third-Person Shooter genres (console or PC). And if you’re a fan of World War 2 shooters, then even better!

Working knowledge of the following languages: C++, LUA, Unreal, or GSC. GSC or C++ preferred.

MOD Community experience is good. Industry experience is better.

Must have a demo reel or portfolio of screenshots available to be able to interview.

However Gerries have been replaced with Gnomes and Yanks with Orcs.

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:31 am

Dear Player, We has notice that some player are facing the lag issue during gaming. the result for this lag was from our ISP, so it's just a temporary lag or delay you might facing it. Sorry for inconvienence cause. Rgds, Devil

I hope so. Today I was able to fight a couple monsters before BAMN, kiting = waste of hierograms. *sadness* I'm starting to get withdrawal!

If you haven't gotten a chance to watch "Ichi the Killer" (which is more guro than horror), "Audition," "Shutter" and anything with a Chinese Hopping Ghost in it, now's your chance!

I found this website that streams a shit ton of asian horror with sub titles (some of them not done very well, but I think they may be fan made.)

Anyhoo, the site is:

http://www.thedollmaster.tk

You have to register to watch the latest movies, but if you go to the section marked "Old Forums," you can watch the old links they have up there (which I don't believe will be updated once broken.)

But make sure you have a lot of time to waste since the first time I visited I got sucked into watching some movie about a green baby ghost in a coin locker wrecking havoc on Tokyo......and the sequel.

Yesterday I made a billion cookies for a "corporate event."

So naturally, after that was all done, I treated myself to a facial!! (In PW of course--since I had gotten a transfiguration scroll from some quest taking up valuable loot space in my inventory.)

No mores stylish mullet!

Curse you PW and your 3 hour Emergency Maintenance! I worked all day today so I could play. And curse you Patriots vs Eagles for making me yell at you so loudly that my cats hated me for a week straight.

So here is some gaming culture.

p.s. If I had been limited to an hour of games a day, I might have been working for Goldman Sachs instead of translating comic books!

Games content 'concerns parents'

Many games are designed for children

More than 75% of parents are concerned about the content of video games played by their children, a survey found.
Almost half of the 4,000 parents surveyed across the UK, France, Italy and Germany said that one hour of gaming each day should be the limit.
Some 43% of the surveyed parents said they were not aware of ratings systems for games to determine suitability.
The results are likely to provoke unease in the UK industry as it awaits the conclusions of the Byron Review.
Dr Tanya Byron is conducting a review of the internet and video games and their impact on children in the UK.

She will publish her findings in 2008 and recently closed her submissions for evidence. One of her areas of focus will be the ratings systems in the UK - which currently involves a pan-European system and a UK-only rating from the British Board of Film Classification.
The games industry has gone to great lengths to stress the educational and social aspects of gaming, while emphasising that games are regulated and appeal to all ages, with mature titles for mature gamers.
A spokesperson for Elspa, the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers' Association, said videogame playing was "part of a balanced mix of leisure activities for all ages".
Elspa added: "We welcome the opportunity to highlight the range of devises such as age content suitability ratings and parental controls that support parents in exercising their responsibilities."
The association said it was committed to educating parents "around sensible and appropriate game play". It has established a website - www.askaboutgames.com - to help parents become better informed about games.

The survey was carried on behalf of Microsoft.
Games writer and consultant Margaret Robertson said the findings around ratings were not a surprise.
"This is a well-known issue in the UK that while the ratings system is quite good, both parental awareness and understanding of it is quite poor.
"The industry has tried a number of initiatives and game specific retailers tend to be fairly responsible about trying to enforce these things."
The survey found that more than half of children played games on consoles, 32% on PCs, 9% played games online and 4% played on a mobile phone.
It also revealed that for the majority of children, playing games was a solitary activity.

Sixty four percent of children played games alone, less than 1 in 10 children play video games with family members and 12% played with friends, the survey found.
The online space is a growing sector of the games industry but the survey found only 5% played mainly online.
Parents saw themselves as the key decision makers for which games should be played by their children, rather than regulators or the video games industry, according to the survey.
"There should be parental concern about some games," said Margaret Robertson.
"The survey shows that there is parental curiosity about content and a desire for the ability to have more control and insight into what their children are doing.
"There are games that not suitable, games which are sinister, dark and thought-provoking; parents instincts to be concerned are right.
"There are games that should be out of the hands of the children. The industry needs to be telling people that and giving them the information they need."

Woot, I can finally comment on this thanks to the NDA being lifted. I've been in this closed beta for some time now and I must say, if you enjoyed "Horatio Hornblower," love saying, "YARRR," and beating people with peg legs, this is something you definitely want to try.

The first week starting 12/7/08 will be open to File Planet Subscribers only, and after a week or so, it will be opened up to the peons.

I hope I remember my login...I got side tracked by COD4 and forgot to re-download it after I got my new gaming rig.

It's Official: The NDA is Lifted!

Waiting is never easy, and we’d like to take this time to thank everyone for their patience during this time. Below you will find the latest information on the Pirates of the Burning Sea Open Beta plan, information on the status of the NDA and the status of EU/AU PotBS pre-orders. We’ll update this thread with more information and any potential adjustments to the following plan just as soon as we know more. Read on for more!

PotBS Open Beta:
The first four days of the Pirates of the Burning Sea open beta will be reserved for our invited beta testers and members of the FilePlanet Founders Club. Open Beta is scheduled to begin worldwide on Friday, December 7th, 2007, at which point FilePlanet subscribers can get in. After that it’ll be open for everyone within a week.

You'll find our Open Beta forum here: http://www.burningsea.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=60

On December 7th, North American players that aren't currently beta testers will have a chance to give Pirates of the Burning Sea a spin. Please visit this link for download information.

The NDA is Lifted:
Monday, December 3rd signals the end of the Pirates of the Burning Sea Non-Disclosure Agreement. This means that as of today, individuals are welcome to share their Pirates of the Burning Sea experiences with people around the world! We hope you will take this opportunity to draft a blog entry, forum post, or anything else in which you share your experiences as a captain of the Burning Sea.

Regarding Australian and European Pre-Orders
We are still in negotiations with potential partners in Australia and can’t announce anything until a deal is done. This is a very high priority for us and we’ll share the news as soon as we get it. Rest assured that we haven’t forgotten about our Aussie friends!

We will be sharing information specific to European Pre-Orders as soon as we recieve the go-ahead from our partners in the UK. In addition, we are working with our friends at SOE to gather a list of retail locations and will publish that information just as soon as we receive it.

Thank You!
We started our closed beta in December of 2005. As we reach our second year and turn this into an open beta, we want to take a moment to thank you. As our beta veterans can attest, we have come a long, long way together since December of 2005. Even the last six months have seen momentous and continuous (and sometimes controversial!) changes. Your support and feedback throughout all these years has been a tremendous asset and very truly appreciated. We are looking forward to what the future will bring, and we can’t thank you enough for being here with us!

Best,
Aether

Just kiddin', he's gonna' be John Conner!

Yup, after I got done with work today I visited my daily news publication (aka, PerezHilton) and was greeted by a half nekkid picture of Christian Bale. HELLOOOOOOOOO.

Oh, and then there were like, words to accompany the picture that went like this as well:

Christian Bale to star in 'Terminator'

Dec 1, 2007, 10:37 AM | by Nicole Sperling

Categories: Movie Biz

The rumors have raged for the past few weeks but Hollywood Insider can now confirm that Christian Bale is set to star in the Terminator reboot...Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins. Bale will take on the John Connor role with McG directing and Halcyon producing for Warner Bros. One source tells HI that the story line is a big departure from the originals starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Details are being kept so close to the vest that only a very few people have read the last ten pages of the script. All we know is that Bale is one valuable commodity to those folks at Warners. (A studio spokesperson had no comment, other than to say that Salvation isn't set yet, meaning it has not been officially greenlit.)

Hurray!

But don't worry Jabba, you're still #1!

According to my mail,

1) 2Moons is doing a Winter Event where GMs will randomly spawn treasure chests in hidden areas.

2) FURY has announced a FREE content update.

3) COD:4 MV is a smash hit with the critics!!

4) I can extend my penis by 8 inches!!

Whoops.

I also got invited to the Shaiya Closed Beta through AeriaGames of TwelveSky fame so if anyone's on the market for a new F2P head over there.

Me? I'll stick to PW for now. Just a few more levels to my SnowBear!

I finally got to reading my WAR newsletter.

It's long so don't fall asleep. There's actually more, but I'm nice and read it and highlighted the good parts that at least I cared about:

We're almost ready to re-open the WAR Beta, and I know that our Beta Community has been gnashing their teeth in anticipation. Guess what? They should be giddy with excitement because we'll have an amazing amount of new features and enhancements in the game for them to test, as well as brand new Elf content for them to experience.

Before getting into content specifics, I wanted to share a quick word about our testing process as we'll be doing things a little differently in this next phase of Beta II. Instead of bringing up the Beta server and leaving it up 24/7 for free play, we'll be moving forward with a series of focused Beta events set around a specific concept or two. These events will last anywhere from 3-10 days and will enable us to gather specific, detailed feedback from our Beta Community in regards to specific features and locations. We'll be bringing the server down between each event for a day or two in order to prepare for the next focused event. This will also give us time to process the feedback we receive and incorporate it in future events.

When Beta reopens, players will be treated to what we're calling our "Dark Elf Sneak Peek". During the first weekend, the Beta Community will be able to play through the Dark Elf starting and Tier 1 areas with two new careers. We are going to ease players back into the Beta to spend some quality time with the Dark Elves, as well as with many newly updated UI elements, such as the Tome of Knowledge. We are looking forward to hearing the community's thoughts on these areas of the game.

Much of the testing over the next three months will be focused on RvR and the enhancements we are implementing to this system. The team has been diligently working on the Open Field RvR experience while the beta has been closed and they are anxious to debut the expanded Battlefield Objectives with ... wait for it ... new RvR Keeps.

While we aren't ready to publicly discuss Keeps and their siege mechanics in great detail at this time, anyone that has taken part in a Keep battle in Dark Age of Camelot® will have an idea of what we have in store for WAR (though it should be noted that this new Keeps system will differ from the one found in DAoC). The addition of Keeps will bring focus and meaning to Open Field RvR and beta participants should be able to experience this new system in its early stages by the end of the year.

Player Careers have also received a lot of love and attention these past couple of months. One of the biggest issues raised during the beta was the perceived lack of differentiation between characters of the same career and same level. Why should every level 30 Warrior Priest look and play the same way?

We are actually approaching this issue from two different angles:

First, we're introducing the concept of Career Mastery to better differentiate character abilities. This new system allows a player to customize their character's skills to suit their desired play style. It allows an archetype career (Tank, Ranged DPS, etc.) to stay true to its role, while giving the player the flexibility to pursue specialized skills to make their character more unique. To learn more about Career Mastery, please read this week's Beta Update posted on the WAR Herald.

Second, we are implementing our Trophy system which will allow players to visually differentiation their characters from others of the same career. This system has always been planned and is now being introduced into the game for the first time. In a nutshell, players are awarded visual bits, or Trophies, that they are then allowed to place on their character in pre-determined slots (the number of slots is determined by a characters level). Over the course of the game, you'll literally be able to earn hundreds of these Trophies, way more than you'll be able to equip at any one time, and display them in thousands of unique combinations.

This combination of the Trophy and Career Mastery systems, combined with our player creation options, numerous available armor sets, armor tinting system, and weapon variety will ensure that no two players will ever look the same on the field of battle in WAR.

One final system to discuss and that is Public Quests. PQs are an exciting aspect of the PvE side of WAR, and they are something new and completely unique to our game. They have been very well received in beta, but we've been tweaking and enhancing them to make them even more engaging and fun. One of the biggest changes to PQs are the way we divvy up loot. We've implemented a new and improved loot system and we'll be very interested to hear what the testers think of it.

With all of these new additions and exciting new Elf content, we're certainly going to be keeping the Beta Community busy well into the new year.

Speaking of the new year, you'll be happy to know that we'll be *finally* inviting a few thousand guild members (from specific guilds chosen in our Guild Beta contest) into the Beta in early '08. They will be helping us test the newly implemented "Living Guild" features. Believe it when we say that guilds won't just be a glorified chat channel in our game. They will have their own personality that the guild members can craft as they play WAR, and some significant new ideas make them a vital part of our game.

That is all for now from the Beta. For those of you still waiting to get in, keep checking your inboxes because we'll continually be bringing new participants into the game as we ramp up our testing efforts in the new year.

In other words, despite setting my Inbox to refresh every 20s, I won't be getting in, but some SOB who wears their pants chest high will. :(

Also, the other highlight of the newsletter had to be the Ale Power Dwarven Mount. That is the win right there because the other chumps have to ride stupid wolves and horses:

Unfortunately, despite being the coolest conceptually, they have the worst "gas-mileage." If you get my drift.

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Monday, December 31, 2007

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Sunday, December 23, 2007

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Friday, December 21, 2007

Big PotBS Open Beta News - Extension, Item Reward, Final Events, And More!

Open Beta Item Reward!

End of Beta Events!

The Future!

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

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Christian Bale to star in 'Terminator'

Random Shit About My Uselessness

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