Rant: What's Going On

The end of this year has been pretty big for gaming. Hell, in October I had 5 games come out over the span of just that one month that I'd previously pre-ordered. November and December have been calmer, but I'm still really backed up on what I need to finish playing. Not that that's anything new.

For console, I've been spending my gaming time mostly on Donkey Kong Country Returns. Now, as my inaugural post no doubt clued you in to, I love the original DKC, so I was looking forward to this game a lot. The early parts of the game are pretty good--it plays a lot like the originals. There's a new mechanic where you shake your Wiimote while crouching to blow, and though it does open up some new opportunities for puzzles and hidden items, it just feels awkward. Especially in front of other people... wait, that's something else. Retro Studios(with whom I am not affiliated, though it would awesome if I was) has done a great job secreting away the hidden items in this game; so far I've only managed to find all of the puzzle pieces on two levels. You can buy the help of Squawks the parrot, who will find them, but I've decided to wait until after I've tried to find them all on my own first. How is a parrot able to find puzzle pieces? Hell if I know, that's never explained. Maybe they're made of crackers.

Now, I can't tell you anything about the end of the game yet, because I haven't beaten it. Not for lack of trying, mind you. I'm stuck on the last level of the fourth world, and it's pissing me off to no end. The entire fourth world has been one giant dick move, really. It consists of 3 mine cart levels and 2 rocket barrel levels. The level design isn't bad, but there's a problem: the levels require precise controls to get through without burning through an insane number of lives. If you touch ANYTHING, you die immediately, so there's no margin for error. The mine cart controls feel sluggish and unresponsive, which is a big step down from the original DKC. The rocket barrel, on the other hand, feels like it overreacts to everything I do, which means I often shoot upwards into the ceiling while trying to fly straight. Ever played one of those flash games where you hold the mouse button to fly upwards, then release it to fly down? It's controlled exactly like that, but worse. I'm not looking forward to redoing these levels when going for 100% completion.

Why even bother with the heart counters? It just gives you false hope.

Image Source(for this and both box art images in this post): www.wikipedia.org

Other than that, I've mostly been playing World of Warcraft lately. As any WoW player is already aware, huge changes have happened in the world lately, due to the forthcoming Cataclysm expansion. It seems a little odd to me, though--the big selling point of the expansion is this completely redone old world, with new leveling zones and quests and whatnot... and then they release all of that for free before the expansion actually comes out. The expansion itself gives you a lot less than you might think--5 more levels, 2 new races(one per faction, of course), a new secondary skill, and the ability to fly in the old world. I was especially surprised when I saw that even the new race/class combinations were available already, such as the Tauren Paladin and Troll Warlock. I've largely been playing around with new characters, trying out the new starting zones and whatnot. It's been pretty impressive so far--the new Troll starting area in particular is quite well done. They've updated a lot of the graphics on low-level gear as well, to make it look less stupid, which is a change that really did need to happen.

My new Tauren Paladin(or Sunwalker, as they call themselves) looks over the redone Orgrimmar. It's changed the most of the Horde capitals, to the point where I barely recognized it at first.

A lot of classes have had big changes to their mechanics--Hunters being the most prominent, as they no longer use mana(FINALLY!), instead using 'Focus', which is something like Rogue Energy except that it doesn't regenerate as fast--but Steady Shot generates Focus instead of spending it. Paladins now have something called 'Holy Power', which certain abilities generate and certain abilities use up, having greater effect per charge of Holy Power accrued. Also, low level Protection Paladins are utterly broken--the ability they get for free at level 10 does more damage than even the Retribution spec's ability, and it does it to THREE TARGETS. Yes, I know, numbers are balanced for the level cap, but I've never thought of Paladins as the type to protect their friends by MURDERING EVERYTHING ELSE. Incidentally, my new Paladin is specced for Healing. I was trying to convince two of my friends to start Paladins for tanking and damage so that we could then make a guild for them entitled "Three Tauren Walk Into a Barn", but no luck yet. Warlocks also have a new Soul Shard mechanic--they no longer take up bag space, instead you simply get three of them, displayed below your mana bar. Using a new spell called 'Soulburn' eats up one shard, and your next spell(from a specific list) has an enhanced effect. Most of the effects are instant casts on long spells, but it also includes increased crit chances, increased max life from a Healthstone, things like that. I haven't gotten to play around with it much yet, but it seems cool.

Overall, I like almost all of the changes the Cataclysm patch has put in, but there's one I really don't like--Death Knight Runes now regenerate slower, because if you use up both of a given type, the second one will wait to start regenerating until the first one is full again. Sadly, this makes me less inclined to play my DK, who is my only level 80 right now... which means that come Cata's release, I won't have much incentive to go to the new 81-85 areas yet. Despite that the expansion itself seems less necessary right away, I'm still picking it up at midnight this coming Monday and taking the next 5 days off of work.

 That's all I wanted to get off my chest for now. In a future rant I might talk about my recent tabletop gaming as well--I'm in a total of 6 different RPGs taking place on two different days(most of which are the same groups, just rotating whose campaign is being run), so there's a lot going on. I'm Dungeon Master of two of the games, player in the other 4. I'll also continue adding more material about WoW: Cataclysm, chronicling my journey through the changed zones and insights on the new mechanics.

New serious Article should be up this Monday. Until then, game on! I'm Nihzlet, see you next time.