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What I’m hoping to see at Eurogamer

Posted by thecriticalpanda on July 15, 2012 in Gaming

As of right now, it is 73 days until the 2012 Eurogamer Expo. Held at Earl’s Court exhibition centre in London, it’s currently the UK’s biggest games event with last year attracting over 34,000 people.

I attended for two days last year as a bit of a last-minute jaunt and was actually blown away by how much fun it was. Sure, there’s a lot of waiting in line (An hour’s wait for a 10-minute blast on a PS Vita, anyone?) but that’s to be expected. The atmosphere was great, I got a chance to play some massive titles and attended some genuinely interesting developer sessions. Oh, and I left with a ton of freebies including an OnLive console that has been turned on a grand total of once and a bunch of t-shirts that I’ve ruined with hair dye.

Because of that, I’m going again this year for all four days and my four-day Super Pass hotel and travel are all booked. All that’s left is to wait and see what games and developer sessions are planned. The line-up’s looking great so far with titles like Metal Gear Rising getting me more than a little excited, but I thought I’d have a look at the games I’m hoping are announced over the next couple of months.

Halo 4
Let’s face it, Halo 4 is bound to be at Eurogamer, considering it’s due for release just five weeks after the expo. I’ve always been a fan of the Halo games, but I haven’t played one since 3 as ODST and Reach just looked too gimmicky. The impression that I got from Halo 4’s E3 gameplay demo is that it’s going back to the fast, fun and simple gameplay that I loved; I can’t wait to play it to see if this is the case.

Wii U
Again, I’d be very surprised if the Wii U wasn’t on show and playable, but if it is then I am expecting fairly massive queues to get to play with it. As it stands, I’m really not convinced by the Wii U. I mean, that controller looks like it’ll be horribly uncomfortable after more than an hour or so, looking from your TV to its screen is going to be nothing other than a pain and most of its software is just old games with silly features added to them. I’m willing to give it a chance though, so I hope that Eurogamer will be my opportunity to do just that.

South Park: The Stick of Truth
I love South Park, I love fantasy RPG’s and I love the rhythm gameplay of the Paper Mario games. The Stick of Truth combines all of those as well as the chance to kill goth kids and hippies, so let’s just say that I’m a bit excited to play it. Also, the fact that’s it’s a full release, not an XBLA or PSN-only title, has me very intrigued to see how deep or involved the gameplay is. At the absolute least, it can’t be any worse than the N64 South Park game, can it?

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
As someone who practically grew up on JRPGs, I’ve really fallen out of love with the genre recently (I blame Final Fantasy XIII). I’ve been craving a title that I can spend hours and hours on; grinding levels well into the wee hours while meticulously tinkering with my team’s gear and getting completely absorbed into the story and world. You know what? I really think that Ni No Kuni will be that game. I’d just love to be able to confirm that before I drop £70 on the stunning collector’s edition.

Dance Central 3
Yes. Really. Although, if it doesn’t show its face, there’s always Just Dance 4. On a disco bus. Just don’t expect me to actually play either of them unless I bring a hipflask of tequila with me.

As you can imagine, I’m following the Eurogamer Expo Twitter account pretty closely to keep up with any announcements. Regardless of what games are shown, I can guarantee that it is going to be a fantastic few days. If you’re in two minds about going, I really can’t recommend it enough.

If you are going, be sure to hit me up on Facebook or Twitter and let me know what games you’re hoping will be there or are looking forward to playing!

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MoP: The Wandering Isle impressions

Posted by thecriticalpanda on July 9, 2012 in Gaming

I really wasn’t planning to write another blog on the Mists of Pandaria so soon but, the other night, I finally got around to installing the beta. I’ve been playing my Death Knight for the past few years and am I love it, but with the introduction of account-wide achievements and mounts, I’m tempted to change to a Monk. Seeing as I’m a fairly active member of a raiding guild, I thought I’d use the beta as a chance to test-drive the Monk before making a decision.

With that in mind, I loaded up the beta, created a Pandaren Monk and jumped straight into their starting zone: the Wandering Isle.

I was promptly blown away.

What hits you first is just how goddamn gorgeous the Wandering Isle is. The whole zone is not an island, as such, but actually the back of a giant turtle. Based heavily on Eastern culture and design, the zone is bright, colourful and simply stunning. From serene lakes and charming villages to the immense Temple of the Five Dawns, it’s beautiful. WoW may be getting on a bit now, but Blizzard are milking every last drop from their graphics engine.

Of course, a starting zone isn’t anything without its quests and I honestly think that the Wandering Isle has the best of any starting zone in the game. That even includes Cataclysm’s Gilneas and the Lost Isles, which were excellent. Halfway through the zone sees you launching fireworks to take down a huge dragon, while the climax has you rescuing healers that are scattered around an area as they work to close a huge wound in the turtle who’s back the island is on. Sure, there are “Kill X of Y quests”, but the interesting mechanics in many of the others more than make up for those.

That said, I do have a minor problem with the zone and that is with the storyline. While I enjoyed most of the story of the Wandering Isle, which sees you reuniting the four elemental spirits, the end of the zone seems rushed. I also felt like the relationship between Aysa and Jin (Who leave to be become the Alliance and Horde Pandaren leaders) was not as nearly fleshed out as it could have been. I’m willing to let this slide, though, as I’m hoping that Blizzard will develop this story through future patches as the expansion goes on.

I feel that I should also mention the expansion’s new class; the Monk. I’m a little bit in love. I really enjoy playing fast-paced melee classes with, as I mentioned, my main currently being a Frost-specced Death Knight. The Monk takes the button-mashing gameplay of the DK, adds the movement of a Warrior and rolls it up into a very fun and versatile bundle indeed. I will definitely be changing my main come launch day.

All in all, The Wandering Isle has more than confirmed my original optimism for the Mists of Pandaria. Whether or not you’re planning to roll a Pandaren alt, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable starting zone that all World of Warcraft players should experience.

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A rant about tattoos.

Posted by thecriticalpanda on June 25, 2012 in Personal

Apologies, but it’s going to be a bit of a ranty one today.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a little addicted to tattoos. I currently have my right arm sleeved, two pieces on my left arm, a large piece on my lower left leg and a small one on my right ankle. I’m utterly fascinated by them and have plans for many, many more.

So earlier, I’m in work, and I happened across the Blue Banana website.

Or, more specifically, their tattoo supplies.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Blue Banana, it’s basically an alternative clothing store that also does body piercings. For any Americans reading, it’s Hot Topic. Here in Plymouth, you can usually find gaggles of neon-coloured, androgynous teenagers with ridiculous hair gathered outside. Inside, it’s all awful clothes and awful music.

But, I digress. I’ve been hearing rumours about Blue Banana stocking bits and pieces of tattoo equipment for a while now, but mostly that they were just stocking inks. On investigating earlier, I found that it’s worse than that. Much worse.

As well as ink, from Blue Banana you can buy: machines, grips, tips, power supplies, ink caps, transfer paper, razors and needles. That’s right. NEEDLES.

I suppose you’re wondering just why I have such a problem with this. After all, everyone needs to start somewhere, right?

Well, firstly, I’m a very strong believer that tattooing is an art form and one that should be highly respected. It takes an immense amount of skill and talent to become a good tattooist. You should not only have the artistic ability to draw beautiful art, but also the patience to work your way up from starting as an apprentice in a reputable studio. You should be prepared to not even touch a machine for months on end, instead just practising your drawing skills while learning the safety practices and hygiene associated with tattooing. Then, when you finally start actually inking customers skin, you’re only doing small, simple designs. It’s a long, difficult, unrewarding process but only when you’ve completed it, should you be able to call yourself a tattooist.

Buying a machine, needles and ink from somewhere like Blue Banana and scratching shitty skulls on your mates in your bedroom does not make you a tattooist. You have not had the required training and thinking that anyone can start tattooing once you have the equipment shows that you do not have the right respect for the craft.

And that’s before even thinking about hygiene issues. Not long ago, I saw a video of a guy being tattooed by his mate while sat on his sofa. There’s a reason why studios all use leather chairs; it’s because they can easily be disinfected between customers. Do you have any idea what filth is crawling in your sofa? And do you really think that someone who buys their gear cheap from eBay or Blue Banana can afford the few hundred pounds for a decent autoclave?

Ugh, the idea of it makes my skin crawl.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t an attack on home tattooists. My right sleeve was done by a guy who worked from home, but in a studio he had built in a spare room. He had an autoclave, professional TATsoul chair, always wore gloves and I always saw him clean and disinfect the studio regularly. Honestly, apart from the fact that I had to walk through his living room, you wouldn’t have known that you weren’t in a professional studio.

My problem, as mentioned above, is with this new generation of ‘tattooists’ who seem to think that just because they can easily buy their equipment online and have watched a few episodes of Miami Ink, that they’re fully qualified. Also, reputable tattooists buy their supplies from reputable suppliers. Blue Banana, on the other hand, is a shitty children’s clothing store that sells cheap tat for extortionate prices. They don’t care about selling you high-quality goods. They’re simply just cashing in on the fact that tattoos are popular, so you can now buy everything that you need to scar someone for life.

Another major problem I have is that these untrained scratchers are taking work away from those who deserve it; those who have trained for years to perfect their craft. If you really can’t afford to pay £50 an hour or more for a tattoo, then find a studio that has apprentices. They may not be the best artists yet, but you can be sure that they will produce work of a good calibre in a clean and hygienic environment.

As you can probably tell, this really is an issue that I care strongly about. In my opinion, being chosen to permanently mark someone’s skin is a honour, and should be treated as such, however small or trivial the design may be.

At the end of the day, when it comes to tattooing; if you are not good enough to have worked as an apprentice and been trained the right way, then you are not good enough to be tattooing.

Rant over.

Oh, but if you are looking for a good tattooist in the Plymouth area, with fantastic apprentices, go check out Loki Ink. I can’t recommend them enough.

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Five reasons why Mists of Pandaria will be great

Posted by thecriticalpanda on June 17, 2012 in Gaming

Let’s just get this out of the way before we start: I am SUPER EXCITED for the new World of Warcraft expansion: Mists of Pandaria.
I’ve been playing WoW since October 2008, but took a break of about 6 months last year. In fact, it was the BlizzCon 2011 announcement for Mists that actually encouraged me to come back to the game. While I can’t say I agree with every decision Blizzard have made around the expansion, I thought I’d have a look at the five biggest things that have me eagerly awaiting a release date.

1. PANDAS.
The story behind Mists of Pandaria is that the island homeland of the Pandaren (The titular Pandaria) has been shrouded from the rest of the world by strong mists in order to protect its inhabitants. Unfortunately, Deathwing’s Cataclysm destroyed the magic creating these mists and the Horde and Alliance have descended on Pandaria in order to capture it and bolster their standing in the mounting war.
Pandaren have been a part of Warcraft lore since Warcraft III, where Chen Stormstout (The most famous of the Pandaren) actually helped Thrall to create a home for the newly-formed Orcish Horde. Blizzard even planned to add the Pandaren into WoW in the Burning Crusade expansion, as the Alliance’s payable race but instead decided to add the Draenei. Despite being so firmly rooted in Azeroth’s history, many players have been rather negative about the focus of the expansion, calling the Pandaren a “joke race” or stating that the whole expansion is firmly aimed at kids.
In case you hadn’t already noticed, I freaking LOVE PANDAS, and WoW’s Pandaren are no exception. I’m a huge fan of their chunky, bouncy look and their fun-loving personalities. Described as being living in the moment, passionate and quickly forgetting conflicts, they provide this long-time Horde player with the perfect antidote to the current in-fighting and general depression that the faction is currently going through. That said, any Pandaren player can choose their faction at the end of the Wandering Isles starting area; a first for the game.
I also have to mention the sheer amount of work that has gone into the Pandaren models. Blizzard have actually said that the Pandaren facial models will have 10 times the skeletal structure in comparison to the older races. This gives all of their emotes a huge amount of personality and charm and this expands into the rest of their animations. They look simply fantastic.
One last point on the Pandaren: Party Rock Anthem and Caramelldansen. So good.

2. MONKS
Another first for a WoW expansion is the addition of a new class as well as a new race. After all, the Burning Crusade gave us Draenei and Blood Elves, Wrath of the Lich King gave us the Death Knight class and Cataclysm added Goblins and Worgen. For Mists of Pandaria, we get the Monk class as well as the Pandaren.
Not to be confused in any way with Diablo III’s Monk, MoP’s new class is able to play the role of Tank, Healer and DPS and is available to all races bar the Goblin and Worgen. Using one-handed weapons as well as staves and polearms, they use cloth or leather armour and Chi as a resource for abilities.
While I am disappointed that Blizzard decided to reinstate the Monk’s auto-attack, I’m still definitely going to be levelling one as soon as I can. I only ever play melee classes as I like the fast-paced, almost constant use of abilities, hence why my main character is a Frost Death Knight. It seems that the Monk is definitely heading in this direction, with the Windwalker DPS specialisation feeling like a combination of a Rogue with the added movement abilities of a Warrior (Flying Serpent Kick, anyone?).

3. PET BATTLES
I’ve often said that my terrible long-distance eyesight was probably caused by the many, many hours that I spent hunched over my Game Boy Colour playing Pokemon. WoW’s new Pet Battle system is so similar to Pokemon it’s almost laughable, but I still can’t wait for it.
Put simply, you pick a team of three of your companion pets, choose three abilities for each one and then go into turn-based battles against other player’s teams or wild pets in the hope of taming them. Each pet has their own “type” and these are either more or less effective against other types. You can even go out into the world to find new pets, with some only appearing at certain times of the day or in certain weathers.
While the system has gotten a lot of stick for being too similar to Pokemon, Blizzard are keen to reinforce the fact that it’s entirely optional as well as casual. Losses aren’t tracked, only wins, and apart from companion pets that you tame, there are no real rewards for taking part. That said, I can see it taking up a lot of my time; whether it’s while I’m waiting for a queue for a Heroic dungeon to pop, or during a break in a raid. Ah, who am I kidding? I’m going to spend days doing nothing but pet battles and I know it!

4. CHALLENGE MODES
Currently in WoW, once you get to a certain gear level attained through raiding, Heroic dungeons becoming a boring rush to finish as quickly as possible in order to get your Valor points for that week. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I ran a Heroic as I have no use for Valor these days. With Valor now being used to increase the stats of existing gear rather than buy new stuff, it seems like these mandatory runs won’t be going away entirely.
However, in MoP Blizzard are introducing a new way to play these dungeons with Challenge Modes. While the aim of completing the Heroic dungeon as quickly as possible is still there, players have to do so in a standardised set of gear. This requires you to think strategically about your pulls and tactics, rather than just zerging through the whole instance. Your finishing times are then ranked as either Gold, Silver or Bronze, with achievements and vanity gear pieces being given as rewards.
This emphasis on tactics and speed combined really intrigues me. I can see Challenge Modes almost becoming as exciting as raiding with regular runs through each dungeon being used to figure out new tactics. I just really hope they catch on in my guild so I have a good group of friends to work with.

5. CATACLYSM
Bear with me just a second. While this may not be a strict feature of Mists of Pandaria, the shadow of Cataclysm hangs heavy over the development of the new expansion. In one of their recent ‘Post Mortem’ interviews, Lead Systems Designer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street was not particularly flattering about how Cataclysm turned out. A steady drop in subscriber numbers (Possibly lessened by the introduction of the Annual Pass) seems to suggest that player base wasn’t all that impressed either.
In fact, I quit back in around March last year, due to not having anything to do. At that time I wasn’t in a guild and as a fairly casual player, Heroic dungeons were just far too hard. Fast forward to now, and the rehashing of content like in Dragon Soul and the Rise of the Zandalari patch, as well as many unanswered questions about the lore (N’Zoth, for example) among other issues means that Cataclysm has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
If Blizzard thought that they did a fantastic job with Cataclysm, I would be looking at MoP with a little less positivity. However, their willingness to admit their previous mistakes and learn from them makes the whole outlook seem rather bright.

It has to be said that all of my opinions come from following various news sites and video bloggers like a hawk, as I’ve decided to stay away from the beta. My overall impression of this expansion, though, is that Blizzard are really pulling out all the stops. After all, I haven’t even touched upon the levelling from 85 to 90, the new raids and battlegrounds, talent system, scenarios, farming or even how simply beautiful it all looks. I’m not expecting it to be perfect, but I honestly think that Mists of Pandaria has a very good chance of being World of Warcraft’s best expansion yet.

Agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear your own thoughts on MoP, so be sure to leave a comment below or drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter!

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