Been a while.

And yet here I am posting again. There's quite a bit of things I could take about. I have not been gaming much recently since school started. Mostly just Call of Duty 4. You can support my CAL team by idling #ascend on irc.gamesurge.net and visiting www.a-scend.net (advertising hell yeah). The COD4 competitive scene may be dying soon. COD5 is just around the corner, with the possibility of all the teams migrating to that. CAL has also recently started up a COD1 tournament, with 80 teams signed up ready to go. Perhaps they will revive the CAL COD1 league.

I bought myself a copy of Spore when it came out. Lots of news about the DRM that EA used, including over 2,000 1-star reviews on Amazon. My thoughts? EA is just hurting the customers who would actually buy the game. It's too easy to bust through any sort of anti-pirating software on games and really is a pain in the ass. They limited the amount of times you can install the game to 3, which by their statistics may be somewhat reasonable, but it's the thought that counts. I know people who have installed the game on three computers already, their laptop, home desktop, and sibling's computer too. Now they're screwed. Way to go. As for the actual game, I found it enjoyable. The editors really are the most amazing part. There's a LOT of customization, although truthfully less than I originally imagined. Don't think it's hurt because of it though, there's still so much you can do. The building editor isn't as fun as the creature editor, and doesn't play a big part. The tribal and civilization phases are the weakest links too. The cell, creature, and the vast space phase are the best by far. Space does become repetitive after a while though, I got bored when I got the mission to find the Grox (They're so FAAAAAAAR). Overall I'd say get the game when it's cheaper (if you haven't already gone and pirated it).

I haven't forgotten about Warhammer Online, a game I highly anticipated before. I participated in the beta, and it was really fun. Comparing it to my experiences in WoW, I'd have to see I might enjoy WAR more. It feels much more immersible, with more to do at any given time than WoW. You can also join in RvR Scenarios at lvl 1 (although you may not be very useful). Public Quests are a great idea, and having area markers for where you can complete your quests saves me large headaches from searching around aimlessly. I really loved my black orc, and would have loved to RvR more with him. However due to schoolwork, friends, and finally going to all my classes, I do not have the time or energy to play WAR at a pace I would want to. That said, perhaps in the future I will change my mind if my workload lightens. If you love MMO and you liked WoW before or you are new to the MMO scene, I definitely would suggest checking out WAR.

Some random tidbits of gaming news I have heard scattered around:
Diablo 3 may be coming out before Starcraft 2
Starcraft 2 is "on schedule for a 2009 release"
Watch for Left 4 Dead, I'm really hoping it's going to be good
Fallout 3 coming out soon too, another home-run from Betheseda? I think so
Call of Duty 5 has confirmed Co-op Multiplayer, hell yeah!
Call of Duty 6 already "confirmed" from Infinity Ward (set in the future?)

That's all for now.