Hooved Vengeance with Elder Igorek

So I couldn’t stay away from blogging about World of Warcraft, especially after I took a short break from it.  What with all the new announcements about the expansion, I had to start up a blog.

“Hooved Vengeance with Elder Igorek” is mostly about my exploits as Igorek, my Draenei Death Knight on Cenarion Circle.  I’ll talk about runs, pets, achievements, the return of Holiday guides, etc etc.

Just figured I’d let some of you guys know! Hope to see you over there.

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Hello Dave

This isn’t a real post. In fact, as you all probably assumed, thebirdnest is dead. I bought a domain name for a new site, but never merged the two. Then I stopped playing new games. I had no desire to write about the same things, had no passion for rehashing other blog posts, and had no time to find breaking news on my own. So, for now, until the world settles down a bit, The Bird Nest in this shape and form is effectively over. You can call it a hiatus if you want to get cheeky about it, but in reality, and what everyone already knew, the site is shut down. I don’t even really think anyone will read this, because what readers we might have had at one point have long stopped caring and I can’t blame them. So without further ado, peace out. (Picture the end of Old Yeller for reference)

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Back to Rapture

Videos, pictures, reports are flying in. We are heading back down to that city under the sea, Rapture.  Bioshock 2 is coming, so get FUCKING PUMPED.Let’s go over some bullet points about this sequel, shall we?

1. This takes place several years after the first Bioshock.  Rapture is falling apart before your eyes.
2. You play as a Big Daddy.  Not just any Mr. B, but the first.  Which means you have access to guns, plasmid powers and that badass drill.  From the footage I’ve seen, this shit is gonna be bloody.
3. We have a major villain – the Big Sister.  Rumor has it she’s a little sister from the first game, and she’s been stealing little girls from the surface world to turn them into her own twisted little sisters. The scary part about her? She’s fucking fast.
4. We’re going to be traversing the ocean floor!  With Mr. B’s breathing apparatus, we’ll be able to take short cuts through the city by using the bottom of the Atlantic.
5. DUEL WIELDING. That’s right ladies and gents, we’re going to be able to shoot guns and use plasmids at the same time.  Why are we going to need this? Well, picture Splicers coming at you in large waves…
6. If you recall in the first game, we could either Save or Farm ADAM from Little Sisters, and the similar choice is found in this one. But you don’t just save, you can adopt.  You put the little sister onto your shoulder and go about your business, but when you come across a body on the floor, you can have your Little Sister farm the corpse for more ADAM. The downside? Well, when she farms corpses, Splicers tend to want to hurt her. Save her, Mr. Bubbles!

I’m pretty excited about this sequel.  Granted, I haven’t finished the first one (I just got my “shoot bees at people” power) but I plan on finishing it before the second one rears it’s head.  You can find a ton of videos over at Gametrailers.com.

What are your thoughts about this?

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Open Letter to the Big Bad Game Companies

A few things I want to cover before I get to the point of this post. One, yesterday was a crazy day here at the Nest, with my take on Fifa UT getting lots of traffic from the EA Forums and we broke all the single-day records here in our little spot. Two, my apologies to regular Nesters, who had noticed that I had taken an unannounced sebatical for a few weeks where there was no new content. I know Pat’s review of MLB 2k9 was excellent, but I’m sure you’re sick of the mullet after a week or two. Third, a friend and co-worker has a pretty funny sports blog that you might want to check out. It’s called The Dome Factor and for a Syracuse fan, he’s got some really good stuff up there. Check it out when you are bored and/or there’s nothing going on over here. It’s over on the blog roll for future reference.

Ahh, that felt good to get out of the way. Now, there’s something way more important to be discussed. You may know that two of the favorite games here are Fifa and Fallout 3, both of which had DLC released within a week of each other. The Pitt, which has been covered in several different posts over the last few months, was finally released today. Now, first reports are that there are so many glitches and bugs in this DLC that it is unplayable. There are missing textures, sudden crashes, and is a general disaster.

Add this to the server and database debacle found in FIFA’s Ultimate Team launch last week and we have two immensely popular games dropping the ball on what should be momentous releases for each of them. I’ve been looking forward to both the Pitt and FIFA UT for quite some time, and after spending 1600 Microsoft Points on them, you’d expect them to work. Alas, both companies have disapointed their legions of hardcore fans who downloaded the DLC as soon as they could, only to find it completely worthless.

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FIFA Ultimate Team, Ultimate Fail, Ultimate Community

For any sports gamer, there has always been one company worth a damn. Electronic Arts has been both the prime example and biggest failure in all aspects of sports gaming over the past 2 decades. We’ve all made our friends heads bleed in NHL 95, and have all thrown controllers in frustration at the 7th drop of our stud receiver in Madden. And as frequent Birdnesters know, the most played game at The Nest is FIFA 09. And since the Ultimate Team DLC was released last week for it, it’s been an exciting time here.

But not really exciting in a good way. Granted the mode itself is set up beautifully. A quick recap for those not in the loop: Ultimate Team combines Collectable Card Game elements with traditional Manager Mode style of gameplay. Starting with a basic Bronze pack of cards, players create their “Ultimate Team” buy purchasing packs of cards that contain players, tactics, managers, training options, kits, shields, and contracts.

By using these cards, you work to assemble your best squad to be put to the test in either online or offline tournaments and single matches. After every game you get awarded an amount of coins, which are then used to buy more cards. The three levels of packs contain increasingly better cards, ranging from Bronze to Gold (with Silver in between, obviously.) Bronze packs cost about one win’s worth of coins, with silver being about 4-5, and gold being even more expensive.

What’s really cool about this mode is the secondary market that EA is creating, allowing gamers to trade their unused cards for more useful ones. Your entire midfield is Spanish but you just picked up Stephen Gerrard in your first gold pack? Sure you can play him, but if you want, try to trade for Cesc Fabregas and give yourself the morale bonus that comes with having players from the same country. The options are endless and EA is really trying to let the gamers develop their own market. Without setting prices, there is a real feel of the invisible hand in pricing trades. EA has been devoting message board threads to trading giving users a chance for negotiations and Craigs List-esque advertisements.

Now you know what Ultimate Team “is” and is “supposed to be,” here’s what’s been happening since it dropped on Thursday morning. It can be summed up in two words: SERVER FAILURES. As can be expected in any major upgrade, especially something as popular as FIFA, there were major server failures in the first 48 hours of release. I’d like to say that this ended after the initial night, but alas even when I logged in yesterday to check out my team after a weekend at my parent’s house, there was nothing but a frozen menu.

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So You Want To Join The World (of Warcraft)?

Commenter “Jimbo” asked the following question on my recent 3.1 Death Knight article:

So I have a dilemma…

This is for anyone who is familiar with WoW

I enjoy all genres of games, but any form of RPG really holds a special place in my heart. I’ve never been that interested in WoW, I’ve never even bothered to read up on it. I didn’t get in at the ground level when it first came out, and now the sheer magnitude of it is enough to keep me away…it’s like like trying to pick up a show 6 seasons in and having to go back and watch the previous 5 on DVD, I just don’t have that kind of desire.

The more I read about it here, however, the more appealing it seems. Keeping in mind that I have many other gaming interests to bogart all of my free time, what are the main barriers of entry to a game like this and how valid/difficult to overcome are they?

So you want to start playing the game, but you’re worried about having being behind the curve?  It’s a really fantastic question and I’d be more than happy to answer it for you.

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3.1 Fun-splosion – Death Knight Edition

Patch 3.1 has hit the PTR and Shit has hit the fan ladies and gentlemen.  There is a LOT of new stuff a-comin’.  I…wow.  I don’t even know where to start.  Okay, let’s start with us, fellow Death Knights.  What changes will we be seeing?  I’ll be talking about the major documented changes to the class, followed by undocumented changes, and then finishing us off with a look at the various glyphs.  Savvy?

Death knights not your class?  Check out MMOChampion for more.

First: the documented changes.

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Dante’s Inferno Announcement Trailer

Since it’s almost the end of this wonderful Monday I thought it would be nice to share with you a little trailer from the fine folks over at EA who have been working hard to adapt Dante’s Inferno for your gaming pleasure. This one looks seriously twisted, in a good way. Don’t worry fans, I’ll be watching this one closely.

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God of War III Preview at GamesRadar

I wish I had the resources to write a preview myself, but check out the good people at GamesRadar.com and their God of War III preview. It’s written really well and if nothing else, provided a bit more of depth than I’ve seen in other previews, hence my need to link to it here. Release date is expected to be announced at E3, but I think I will start saving up for the PS3 now.

On another note, I picked up my copy of Street Fighter IV today, so I can look forward to playing it all night and you can look forward to reading about it tomorrow. Until then…

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Heads Up: GTA IV DLC Released

Happy day after presidents day everyone! For those who are starting their work week today (me) well, good luck getting into the groove and hope this short works goes well for all of you.

For those with itchy trigger fingers, the GTA IV add-on Lost and Damned is now available on XBL marketplace. I never beat GTA IV, and I’m gearing up for the release of Street Fighter IV this week, so I’m personally going to pass on this expansion. I’ll keep my ear out for some good reviews/impressions and will link to them later in the week, perhaps. For now, it’s time to make the donuts (aka reconcile historical cash flows…KMS.)

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