How goes the fun? Hope your summer has been a frisky one. There are so many good gamer stories in the news this week that I felt compelled to toss out a post. I've been playing too much WoW again, and also just purchased an Xbox; and am about to grab the newest Sidekick! More on these stories below.
Halo3
I was a big fan of Halo for the PC when it first came out and spent many a day driving around in the jeep, trying to capture the flag. I was even playing Halo1 demo a few months back since it is still fun. I never got into Halo2 but all this hype about Halo3 made me break-down and order an Xbox. I decided to go full-bore and get the Halo Edition.
Xbox 360 Halo3 Special Edition
I'm looking forward to some fun multi-player action yet again. I haven't owned a 'console' in years since I prefer playing on the PC with WASD and a mouse. I think it's going to feel weird going back to the joystick. I was able to hook the unit up to my surround system last night and the picture looked awesome on the wide-screen. I see that Microsoft wants me to hand over some cash for the privilege to play live. I need to join their gold membership thingy to use that. Check this out...Halo3 sold $170,000,000 in the first 24 hours, shattering all records. Those are crazy numbers. I think I read that the game itself is less than 10 hours play...but the real fun in Halo has always been the multi-player.
Quake Enemy Territory
One day after I get Halo3 from Amazon, the UPS man then drops off the new Quake. I think this is simply horrible timing for Quake. I think they tried to get it done sooner, but to launch a day or two after Halo3 is horrible timing. I have to think sales are going to suffer. These games are almost direct competitors except console vs PC...but gamers like me are even being compelled to get an Xbox just to play. I'm gonna give Quake ET a run since it looks awesome...I just feel bad for them with the timing of their release. Here is the website...and there is a download-able demo!
http://www.enemyterritory.com/
WoW Gold Secrets For Alchemists
I've been playing too much World Of Warcraft lately because I can't get enough of the Auction House. I don't play WoW the way most players do...they are all "raid raid raid". Raiding to me is like work, where the auction house is the entrepreneurial spirit. If you are short on gold, and have alchemy, here are some tips that work for me on my server.
Transmute Arcanite
I forget what level you can get this at...before you had to be level 60 because you had to complete a series of Scholo quests but now the formula is in Gadget I believe. This transmute is generally worth 5g a day. Not huge cash, but solid cash for mid-level players.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=12958
Transmute Primal Earth To Water
This is a sweet transmute in the late level 60s and for early level 70 players. You can only get this recipe if you are reveered with Sporeggar Rep. You can get Sporeggar rep pretty fast if you follow the advice here. This transmute is worth around 15g a day, every day on many servers. If you are a rogue, the fastest way to get this rep is to do stealth bog runs and grab all the sanguine hibiscus. You'll need just under 300 of them which is six to nine hours of grind.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=22916
Transmute Primal Might
This is not really a money maker until you decide to get Master Of Transmutation. Getting the "master" costs around 400g on most servers or four primal mights. I personally don't like making mights since you only make cash when you proc...but you will proc about 20% of the time I believe or 20% of your total mights will be from procs. Some people avoid having to sell the mights by trading them for mats. I believe that making mights, if you are a master, should be worth 30g a day.
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=23574
Transmute Earthstorm Diamonds
In my opinion, this is where the cash is. You need to be Honored with Cenarion to get this. Without master...It is still worth over 20g a day and with master of transmute you are in the 30g a day range. And if you get a JC to cut your diamond for 5-10g tip, you will make even more selling them as Relentless or Powerful Earthstorm Diamonds.
The New Sidekick LX and Sidekick Slide
I've been a big sidekick fan for the last year. I used my sidekick daily; once the iphone came out, the SK3 was looking old in the tooth. Let me first tell you what sucks on the sidekick, and then I'll tell you what I think rocks. The sidekick is too big. It is like 1990s cell phone big. Is that a sidekick in your pants or are you just happy to see me...big. The camera sucks the turd, and you can't text a pic. All this is about to change with two new models. The new Slide and LX are a month or less away.
The new sidekicks are smaller, especially the one made by Motorola. The screens are now super bright. There is going to be a direct link to post on Myspace and photos can be sent like with other phones. I hope the camera is better. Right now I'm leaning to the slide because of size but I want to check both out. I might even buy both and give the one I don't use to my wife. The main reason to get a sidekick is because you love to text. The sidekick is made for people who are massive text messaging maniacs. They are very easy to type on...very fast to type on, and the thumb trackball makes interface navigation a snap. If you like to text and are in the market for a new phone, check out the new sidekicks and see what you think.
Presidential Hopefuls Move to Second Life
Will the next election be won online? Lots of hopefuls are working their SL magic. Here is the story. You know which presidential is doing very well online? Ron Paul. Ron Paul is king of youtube. I have to admit that I enjoy hearing him speak. It takes a lot of guts to say the king has no clothes...and he says it and he takes heat for it...and he is gaining massive internet fans for it. I really hope he does well. Try a couple 'Ron Paul' searches on YouTube and you will see what all the hoopla is about.
New Web Cam - MS Lifecam
Over the years I've owned five or ten web cams and recently I was in the market for a new one. This time I grabbed a Microsoft LifeCam. I had a QuickCam before this and just got tired of all the garbage software they load on my pc. For $36, I give the MS LifeCam a big thumb-up. It has some flaws but works pretty damn good and does not swamp me with crap software. The drivers are simple and the interface is simple. It works awesome with skype...so so with Yahoo and is supposedly dialed-in to work awesome with the MS instant messenger.
http://tinyurl.com/2x3cxg
Amazon Finally Spanks Steve Job's MP3 Ass!
I almost forgot one of the best stories from this week! Don't get me wrong...I think ipods are cool, but I've always said that Steve Jobs is hood-winking us into carrying around stupid hardware devices. Last year, one or two web based music sites offered MP3 songs in MP3 format...legally, but the big problem was that they had less popular bands and unknown songs. Then Steve Jobs announced that itunes was doing the same thing...but there was a catch in that it was in Apple format. I hate that! I want to buy MP3 songs, of Top10 artists, and I don't want to have to hack or convert them to play in my car. Amazon did just this...three days ago. Time to pee the panties!
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/163856011
I purchased Fergie - London Bridge and Bowie - Under Pressure...I listened to them on my computer then put them on a nice and tiny memory stick, ran out to my car and put them in my JVC with memory stick reader...and they played! No hacking, no converting, no muss, no fuss. Awesome!!! I do not want to carry around an ipod...I want to carry around 'music' on a tiny memory stick. If you need some tunes...please check out Amazon.
TV Tivo Talk
I have been over-dosing on tivo tv all summer and I want to hook you up with my three favorite gems...shows you probably never heard of that are still pretty fun.
The Pickup Artist
This show rocks! This show is not about "picking up chicks". This show is about self confidence and the art of small talk with strangers. I am totally shy in groups of people, but I learned a bunch of whacky tricks to try in groups now, that will help make me less shy. This show also teaches the psychology of females and how they are attracted to a mate. I am shocked how we all like to be ignored. The more someone teases and ignores us...the more we want them! The same is true with picking up women. Check out this show if you are interested in becoming more outgoing in groups of strangers.
http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/the_pick_up_artist/series.jhtml
The IT Crowd, Season 2
There are very few shows that bring me to tears from laughing so hard...but there is something about the British Show "The IT Crowd" that has be spitting out tequila and howling. You can only see it on YouTube. If you are geeky or in IT, I think you will enjoy this show. In Britain they even say tits and cock on tv!
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=the+IT+crowd
The show was such an internet success that american producers are working on an American version as we speak and you can read more about it on the wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_IT_Crowd
Life Of Ryan
This is a show on MTV about a professional skateboarder named Ryan. Have no fear...the show has almost nothing to do with skateboarding and has everything to do with a boy who just wants to find a girlfriend and is dealing with his parents divorce. This show is awesome and heart warming. You just feel for Ryan and his mother and his brothers. The dad has a new girlfriend and they are both trying a little to hard to "force" things to work. Life of Ryan is an awesome little gem of a reality show.
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/life_of_ryan/series.jhtml
Machinima Rules For WoW and Halo3
Microsoft and Blizzard laid out some Machinima rules for use in their game engines. Even though the rules are restrictive, I kind of see this as a good thing and the door is open for even more machinima. Here is the story. Here are the Xbox rules.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/developer/rules.htm
And here are the Blizzard rules for machinima in World Of Warcraft
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/community/machinima/letter.html
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