They say that in the world of recreational pharmaceuticals that the “first try is always free.”
All too true, as ever since I was allowed to play Warhammer: Age of Reckoning in August I have been craving this game. Periodically, I’ll try to log on to my beta account in some feeble attempt to cheat the Gods of Gaming, that perhaps somehow I will be allowed to tread where mere mortals are banned.
Sadly, this has not been the case. However, hope is on the horizon: this Sunday, gamers who have pre-ordered their copy will be able to play WAR.
Here’s the nice part: those playing from Sept. 14 will get a “head start,” gaining rank and experience points that will stay with them when the game officially goes live on Sept. 18.
For those of you who have not yet reserved the game, there is more incentive than merely out-leveling the great unwashed. Those who purchase a reserved copy get “Rittenbach’s Portable Camp,” an item that seems to heal you in between battles and depending on where you get your pre-order, you have a selection of rings that grant you a certain buff.
Since I bought my pre-order at Best Buy, I’ll be getting “Champion’s Sapphire Band” which enhances stats and casts “Touch of Frost” which adds a percentage to do elemental damage. Perfect for my Dark Elf Sorceress, with whom I plan to melt many faces.
This just in: a reader sent me a link to a You Tube video showing the mounts available to players.
The results are a little dissapointing.
While the Orcs get boars, Goblins get wolves, Empire and High Elves get the typical horse selection which looks just… just… meh. I can’t even summon a satisfactory insult, such is the mediocrity of the mounts available to Empire and Elves. Why! Why would they do that? So disheartening…
But that’s not the worst. Oh no. The Dark Elves are given Cold Ones. Hello! This is a HUGE break in lore. Cold Ones, large lizards that look like the brawnier version of raptors in Jurassic Park, are only used by Cold One Knights. In fact, Cold Ones are so violent that if you don’t smere a type of slime onto your armor – according to the lore – the Cold One will consider you a snack and bite you in half. And even if that isn’t the worst of it, the Cold One in-game model looks horrible, just horrible. It looks like a gecko. Which might be cool if he could help me save money on my car insurance but assuming he can’t, then I want a Cold One that at least looks like it is there to rumble.
Dwarves get a helicopter back-pack, which may be exclusive only to the Engineer class but we’ll have to see. It looks “meh” as well. Then again, I’m still hung-up on the Dark Elf gecko to really spend any rage on Dwarves with helicopters. Great, just great.
This is really wrecking my day. I hope this is all pre-beta nonsense and the WAR development crew has something else in mind for in-game mounts and new mount models will be in the game.
Friends don’t let friends drive gecko’s.
While EA’s official website for the second game in the Crysis series is mum on the subject, gaming media outlets are reporting that Crysis: Warhead will drop as soon as next Friday.
The original street date was rumored to be in late October.
Did you see this coming? Weird, right? No mention of this at Leipzig – which is odd since the studio working on Warhead is in the neighborhood – and not at PAX, but just… “Oh yeah, here’s the game.”
Bestbuy.com, however, shows the game to have a Sept. 18 street date, as does Target.com.
So which is it? Sept. 12? Sept. 18? I vote for Sept. 12 – sooner is better than later.
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