The Abomination that is The War Z

Hello guys, I am back. I haven't been doing much other than just a variety of things. Some World of Warcraft here, watching Netflix there. I've gotten into League of Legends recently as well while temporarily shelving my Warhammer 40k project. But question is, what brings me back to the blog? Well, as stated, the abomination of a game called The War Z. I'm sure many have at this point heard of all the scuttlebutt regarding the abomination, I'm not gonna repeat everything. I've come across a post that very concisely puts everything together regarding it.
  http://themittani.com/features/war-z-lesson-greed

One thing I do want to comment on is, RHINOCRUNCH, nailed it on the head regarding this... thing. He may have been a bit on the rage side toward it therefore many put him off as a DayZ fanboy rager. But the fact is, he has been dead on regarding the game. He said it 4 months ago and he basically was saying everything that I was seeing in this abomination as well. But I also want to point to another video, one that more calmly looks at everything and points out what is wrong and where the Devs of this shit had been lying.

I also came across this on The Shit Z steam community page(yes, sadly it is back on Steam) and is something that supposedly Sergey Titov the man behind all this had sad on their own forums.
EDIT: Actual link to the forums. http://forums.thewarz.com/showthread.php?92204-Interview-asking-DDOS-Attacker-to-stop/page2

I'm not going to comment on whole DDOS thing, but since my name was mentioned here, I'll probably will say a few words - to our players, not to this guy.

1) Unfortunately it's not just up to me to decide when and how things will be done. Until recently I've been public face of the project, so I can understand why some people are associate project with me personally, and not people who's making game and operating/publishing it. Okay I'll say that - yes I deserve some of the ♥♥♥♥ that I'm getting personally for being bad communicator.

2) I agree that few features that have been promised in 2012 are still not yet delivered - and in my personal list Server Rentals goes under number one. I'm trying to push dev guys hard as I can for them to complete this feature ASAP. Saying that - unfortunately I do not posses as much power as players want to believe. Still here's my list of features that are important for a game that are still not available to public :
- Gameworld server rentals
- Stronghold servers and maps
- Leaderboards
As for this guy in a interview - unfortunately I personally CAN'T produce "proof" of the features being developed, I can only as a shareholder of Hammerpoint can say I know they're being worked on. But it's up to development leads/team is to decide if they want to show anything until it's done or not.

3) Unfortunately DDOS attacks are not helping anyone. Here's why - instead of spending time developing game, resources including MONEY will be spent on making sure that we'll have infrastructure in place to withstand them. This will delay release of the features. More importantly - people who actually vote what to do with a game in a future ( and that's not just me unfortunately ) will take this under consideration. 

A lot of people are pointing at #3 and reading between the lines where they are basically saying with that last line that the future of this crap is questionable.

MY THOUGHTS? This game is dead, it IS AND ALWAYS WAS A CASH GRAB! They made tons of money and now that they have gotten such flak for their BULLSHIT LYING TACTICS they are just doing damage control while they work on dropping the game altogether using DDOS attacks as a scapegoat.

Backing up to the days of the Steam fiasco 2 interviews popped up with this Sergey Titov.
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/the-war-z/1226980p1.html
 This first one was before the shit was taken off steam and fixed and put back on, but they called Sergey out and the whole time you could see as he refuses to take responsibility and instead place blame on the consumers for misinterpreting everything.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/12/20/the-war-z-interview-sergey-titov-backlash/
Then there's the response days after, which first things first, doesn't even sound like it's from Sergey who speaks a broken english. Second, they finally mention taking responsibility, but not once, did they even apologize for it. All that is said during this is that  we were wrong, but this shitty game is still so great and we are awesome so come back. At that point I honestly felt that they needed to truly apologize for everything and maybe even admit that this started as a cash grab and they want to turn it around and put in a true effort.But they won't ever do that because that isn't their goal.

Honestly folks, they charge for the alpha, then they turn around and throw in-game transactions and charge for instant revivals and other crap that you easily lose once you die.  How is it NOT a cash grab. So anyways, to those out there still reading, if you bought into this shit, I'm truly sorry but you got scammed. This crap Z isn't going anywhere and will be nothing but a memory and hopefully a lesson to all regarding what you put your money into regarding alphas and betas. 


ALSO: I was browsing The Crap Z forums and came across a thread regarding their Survey methods.
http://forums.thewarz.com/showthread.php?90901-Survey-for-warz-really

Originally Posted by SteveJ 

So in other words,
The people that stopped playing and are waiting untill you FIX IT can't vote on your survey unless they read this thread and start their game up.Smart move, get all the fanboys on a survey and publish the numbers.

Not exactly.

1) It's clear that if you have PLAYED game and stopped playing it - your vote will be 1.

2) We really want to know feedback from users who CONTINUE to play game. this is a reason we do not advertise this survey. It's open to public, it's not to hard to find if needed.But our goal is to get rating by our players first.

3) at the end - we're making game for our fanboys. I don't know if it's hard to understand, but yes - we want to keep our fanboys happy. Yes it'll be awesome to convert as many people as we can into being our fanboys, but at same time we should recognise that it's impossible task.

Sergey Titov
Executive Producer
The War Z

This was on page 4, the italics being Sergeys response. I'd like to take note they only care about getting surveys from people who haven't quit their game and are still currently playing the game despite how shitty it is. He got called out for only caring about  their "fanboys" numbers and not the whole community in general. Which basically confirms what I already suspected when I read somewhere that Sergey stated something like 90+% love the game. With his biased surveys and all the bannings regarding negative naysayers disabling their ability to participate in such surveys, yeah, I see how you can get those numbers.

ALSO ALSO: This Sergey is an ass, and through all this has disrespected the gaming community believing all of us to mindless idiots ready to eat whatever shit he shovels out in front of us. Hoorah to those out there speaking out against The Crap Z and Sergey Titov..

Pa Pa Pa Pandaren Style

I was okay with the Panda dance being the Shuffle. It fits the Brewmaster completely as you literally shuffle around all the time anyways. But this.. this is what I wanted the Male Panda dance to be.



I was late to the scene and unaware of Gangnam Style, even Shuffle. I don't pay attention to this stuff. But eventually curiousity got the better of me and I had to find out what this business was and, it's hypnotic. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.. and it doesn't help that it's actually catchy, that's where they get you.

So many cool Necron color schemes.

There were two factors that drew me to choose the Necrons as my army. One would be their common shared ability of Reanimation Protocols, allowing them a chance to come back from the dead. Seeing it in action was what clinched it. I watched  Battle Report of a 1700 point game where the Necron player was able to bring back 460 points worth of models thus making him difficult to kill.

 Second, it's the Necrons standard Black and Green color scheme. With my favorite color being green, and with how sweet the black and green look, it was a clear choice for me.

 However, you do not have to paint your armies the way the boxes look. Most armies have different divisions and different color schemes or you can just make your own, as long as the units represent the units, the colors do not matter. And this is where I am torn. I have seen several different color choices and this is where I am going to share my options since I just can not decide. Pic heavy post, if you are ready for it, hit the break.

A New Hobby

I think it's about time for another blog post since it has been a while. This time I'm gonna talk about Warhammer 40k. A miniature war game that can e an expensive hobby. A game that I expressed interest in when my group of friends stepped into a Games Workshop. But also a game I purposely set back down and walked away from knowing how expensive it would be to get into.

Fast forward a month and I get a message from one of my friends saying he just ordered the very same Limited Edition Dark Vengeance Starter set that I previously walked away from. My first thoughts was of the scene in The Big Bang Theory when the guys are at the comic shop and they are shown te new Collectors Edition Cowboy Expansion for the Wizards of Ka'ah card game they play. They all start of calling it ridiculous but then Howard wants one, then Raj wants one and then Leonard chimes in with exactly how I felt about what just transpired with Warhammer 40k. "I hate you and I hate myself, I'll take one too."

So thus began a new expensive hobby. So while he waited for his starter set to come in I did research. I checked out the various armies, priced the different kits and found some videos. Still reluctant to start this game it was the videos that pushed me into it. The game looks damn fun but even better it hit my creative side. I'm probably more looking forward to making the battlefields. Either way I was hooked, picking up the monster Rulebook and eventually decided on the Necrons for my starting army.

This weekend I finally picked up some kits and while taking things slowly due to still maintaining World of Warcraft. I spent this weekend leveling my monks Professions to MoP levels from nothing. Back to Necrons, I started with the Deathmark and Lychguard kits. So far I've only glued together the Deathmark kits and am waiting on painting because honestly I can not decide on a color scheme. There are too many good looking options.

Putting the Deathmarks together have been somewhat of a challenge though as they don't have any means of clipping pieces together. The arms join the shoulder via a ball-joint which at first thought was cool. I was all "sweet, that means I can position them anyway I want!".

But soon reality hit and I found that it just made things difficult because things needs to line up perfectly an without some peg to fit them in I meant the parts were loose. So when i'd have the left arm glued to left shoulder and right arm with gun glued to right shoulder, then when I try to attach left wrist to left hand on gun i would need to do so perfectly or else pull the right arm out of the shoulder. Did you follow that? Either way it was frustrating. My buddy had it lucky as his Dark Vengeance set had all its figures fit together with ease.

Next up are the Lychguards and since they will not be wielding a single item with both hands they should be considerably easier. Anyways here are my unpainted Deathmarks so far as well as a funny WH 40k picture I came across.

Everyday I'm Shufflin'

And quite literally as I have been leveling my panda monk. So quite often you'd find me jumping onto some object and /dance. Also the fact that I went Brewmaster I am also constantly shuffling for that extra Parry. There's also the Gift of the Ox passive that drops free healing balls as I do damage. So in those few times where I actually do take damage because Guard isn't up, I am shuffling left and right picking those up.

So how do I like the Monk so far? Well I am loving it, to be more specific, I love the tanking. I knew when I first heard about it that I was going Brewmaster. And leveling as a Brewmaster has been awesome. So much so that when I had intended on Mistweaving through some dungeons while leveling. That just never happened, putting all that caster leather heirloom gear to waste.

Leveling with heirloom is fast, leveling a monk with heirloom is insanely fast. At level 20 when you can get an Enlightenment buff increasing xp gains by 50% for an hour. After a quest at 20 that grants this buff you can do it again as a daily and also getting a new quest every ten levels. There is bug with the buff that refreshes it to 2 hours if you do the quest while you already have the buff. So at one point I had 5 hours of the buff. And trust me it helps. I managed 60-66 in less than 3 hours as well as 80-83 thanks to this buff.

As of late last night I am 85. I would have been there sooner but I took a break the other night. I quickly stepped into Pandaria to get a feel for it and it's going to be a breeze. Mostly due to having crafted Misthide armor to start with and having the Spear of Xuen from Archaeology. Having a weapon with level 90 stats at 85 is awesome.

Goals to date.

Get my main Rogue to 90 = COMPLETED

Get all guild professions to 600 for Leg Heirloom gear = COMPLETED

Get guild to level 20 for Head Heirloom gear = COMPLETED

Get various factions on my main Rogue up through Dailies = IN PROGRESS

Power level my Monk = IN PROGRESS

Level my Warrior and other Alts = ON HOLD

Get our Guild to level 25 = PASSIVELY IN PROGRESS

Get 55 factions to Exalted in our guild for the Dark Phoenix Hatchling = PASSIVELY IN PROGRESS

My Rogue in MoP

I've wanted to talk a lot more about Mists of Pandaria. But the truth of it is, when at computer, I'm going to be playing the game and not doing much else, which includes keeping up this blog.

So let's start from the beginning. I started with my Rogue and progressed rather nicely with her. One thing that was a must was keeping up Recuperate and Slice and Dice at all times meaning using the glyph to refresh them when killing mobs. This allowed me to only need to turn them on once in a blue moon and focus on damaging finishers.

Unfortunately one thing I've noticed as I leveled her up and especially now at 90 doing dailies is that she became more and more energy starved. This is a fact that is coming up around the internetz and something that is difficult to do is avoid comparing them to the Monk. They are both energy users with a point building system. With key differences being that the points are stored on the monk as opposed to on the mobs and that rogues have to spend their energy both on the generators AND the finishers while monks don't have to spend energy on their chi abilities. This makes the monk a more active class as on my Rogue, after the first 8 seconds of a fight, I am just sitting there stabby stabby with my auto attacks while I wait for energy.

I really hope Blizzard does something about this. Initial thoughts are too remove the energy costs on finishers but if you look at the various articles and forum posts on the subject you might find that may make the rogue too OP. Their damage at the moment are through all the various DoTs give them tons of passive damage. While monks rely on the energy free chi moves for their damage.

So this is why they aren't making the Rogues finishers energy free as they generally hit hard. If they did so they'd have to nerf them and/or all the passive damage. One start I think would be okay though is to remove energy costs from the non damaging and utility abilities.

This is just my thoughts on this, I'm no theorycrafter, I just play the game and notice things that work and don't. And simply put something does need to be done about it because I'm getting frustrated with my rogue after the first half of a fight.

Funny how this post turned into what it became, I was only planning on talking about what I have been doing with MoP in general including all my characters. Guess I had to vent/rant about the Rogue energy issue.

EDIT: Here are some links now that I am home that have I guess inspired this post.
Why we are energy starved.
Wow Insider: Encrypted Text

Best In-game gift evaaarr.

   To sum up,  my buddy had managed to find a [Teebu's Blazing Longsword] on the Auction House for relatively cheap. I hadn't known about it until he mentioned that he couldn't flip it so he's just gonna keep it for himself. At this point I looked it up and saw with eyes wide and jaw dropped that this would go perfect with the Transmog set I was building. And thus we have the beginning of my incessant nagging for this sword. I gave him a serious offer for it, but then an ongoing joke ensued in which my offers got lower, instead of higher. At one point the offer was to take the item off his hands along with all his gold and his Priest, so I wouldn't have to level one.

   Now, I knew he wouldn't give it up, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to stay quiet. So I kept sporadically bringing it up, all the meanwhile constantly checking the AH for another. I couldn't find it, that is for sure since this thing is super rare, but it's perfect for what I was going for. At some point I got his wife to occasionally "push" him to give it to me. Well here we are, the day after my Birthday and guess what, he finally came through, realizing that I seriously want this thing, and maybe a little of wanting the nagging to stop, but mainly just being one of my best friends evar.

   So thank you Darraxus, you can trust that this is not going to waste and will be used as much as possible. And sadly even maybe at the cost of an upgrade.

Also: I was showing off this set to his wife in Stormwind on one of the towers in the canal, too in awe of my awesomeness I wasn't watching my step and just walked right off the edge.

MoP Impressions and Goals

First off, I am very impressed. I have enjoyed Mists of Pandaria every moment of the way. It's even inspired several blog ideas that you should hopefully be seeing over the next couple days. Something to be said for that when I've recently become lazy with the blogging.

Questing: Has been enjoyable thanks to the minor storytelling mechanics such as the NPCs being more involved as companions and their various conversations. The addition of a few more cinematics have been a plus as well. However sometimes the quests felt like they lacked flow and were a bit disjointed. If it weren't for the breadcrumb quests and/or the random exclamation mark on the map, I wouldn't have known about a quest hub or two.

Dungeons: I unfortunately can't say too much about dungeons. I have to this point only ran three of the four regular dungeons. I'm not saying I didn't like them, I actually enjoyed them and loved some of the bosses. I just had bad luck with queuing up for them. As dps I had 40 minute waits and by the time the queue popped I was busy with something. I hope to run more soon after I take care of a few things.

Misc: Rare spawns have been one of my favorite things so far. I like what they did with the cooking and have been engrossed with the farming. Damn you FarmVille, errrr, I mean Tillers. Archaeology was good and much easier, I've got all 4 of the Pandaria rares already. And the fact there is no shortage of things to do at level 90, from the Tillers to Cloud Serpents and the Anglers to name a few.

Now that is all said and done lets talk about my goals for Pandaria. I went into with only one goal in mind, to get my Rogue to level 89 for Brewfest. I wanted to run Coren Direbrew for the trinkets and the Bottle Shank, forgetting name. And that goal was achieved Saturday, it would have been done sooner had I not been distracted with Archaeology a few times.

But a new goal has come about when I was looking at the various potential Guild Rewards. I discovered the heirloom Leg pieces are not associated with guild level but with achievement of getting all professions to 600. So that is what I've been working on. Mining and herbalism obviously a cakewalk. Alchemy, Inscription and enchanting got maxed out fairly quick. Once I hit 90 Archaeology was quick to finish. After a bit of fishing last night and some iron paw trade-ins, fishing and cooking got completed. That leaves Tailoring, Leatherworking, Jewelcrafting, Blacksmithing and Engineering. Engineering and Jewelcrafting are almost done. Blacksmithing hasn't even been touched yet. And Leatherworking an Tailoring are sort of at a stand still as I need to do some questing with tho characters to get to the necessary zones for progression.

Once this is done I will likely hit up my Monk depending on where the Guild is at. We are currently at Guild Level 17 but have been making great progress since the guild experience changes. If we are close my next goal before playing the Monk just might be focusing on getting to Guild level 20 for the Head piece heirlooms.

DayZ: Lucky Find

   This weekend was mixed. Both DayZ and World of Warcraft was to be had. Let's start with DayZ. Last we left off, we were in the forest North of Cherno. We decided to log in and play with our group of guys. When I log in, some were in Cherno, others were heading toward. Darraxus and I just kept eyes on our guys in town. At one point one of our guys in there tells us he's logging out, he just met a player with an assault rifle that told him to disconnect or die, so he disconnected. Gotta say, that is more than most folks get.

DayZ: I feel cheated.

   OK. So Past couple days that I've been playing DayZ has been spent crawling around with a broken leg. Well, I can say that problem has been remedied. After a failed attempt to meet up with a buddy at Kamenka and another south of Stary Sobor, I finally managed to make my way into Cherno and get the Morphine needed.

   But Fettsbounty, how is it you feel cheated? Well, I didn't crawl all the way down to Cherno. I logged into a server and it appeared to be hacked. Once loaded in, It gave me the YOU ARE DEAD! screen. But then right after it loaded me into Stary Sobor anyways. Only it was night and I can hear a female character and male character breathing heavy and moaning....

DayZ: Never Give Up

   Not that I haven't thought about giving up in my current predicament in DayZ. But when times get tough you have two choices, take the easy route(kill yourself and start over) or push forward. Lets back step a bit and explain. I have been taking chances and hopping on to night games. Often bearing glorious fruit, but followed with disaster. Latest disaster occured when I hit the NW Airfield on a night server. I didn't die by players, but lag and zombies got me. The airfield was a bust, barracks and hangers already looted, so leaving the airfield I must of stepped on a bear trap or something because out of nowhere, I break my leg. That's cool, a bandage and morphine later i'm moving through a town. DISCONNECTED. Right in the middle of the  street. Log back in and i'm automatically running and zombies aggro then knock me unconscious and eat me. I AM DEAD. Which brings me to my latest adventure.

   Let's look at what I've done.

1. Spawned and tried something different, straight North run. Problem is I didn't properly figure out what was where and I ran West and when I hit the end of the map, turned north and tried to run a but North east. The whole time it is raining.
2. I've got a cold and am losing blood. On top of that I'm getting hungry and thirsty. Time to find civilization. Passing through Sosnovka and Zelonogorsk, I find myself some warmth, food and waters. I've still got a cold, but am doing okay at 7k health. I aggro some zombies and run for a barn picking up a Double Barrel Shotgun.
3. I'm on the bottom floor of the Barn checking behind some stuff when I see a train of zombies running up the stairs above me. I run out and see two players above me, before they can shoot me I decide to shoot them. Lag sets in, nothings happening, I shoot them again, zombies dissappear then finally their bodies fall dead. They were ALT+F4ing. Too bad for them I was there and wasn't taking any chances having been ghosted before. One was decked out with food, Raw Meat, an M4A1 which I pick up. The other, starter gear, obviously shadowing the first guy to get kitted up. After looting these guys.... I miss the stairs down and break my Leg. Crap. I ultimately decide to crawl south back to Kamenka where I know a buddy stationed there with Morphine. this was probably an 1.5-2.0 hour crawl. Constantly checking my six and occationally killing a pig for meat to get my blood up.
4. Several days later, buddy and I just don't get on and get my leg mended. I decide its time to risk it and look for Morphine, Heading to Chernogorsk, I check a deer stand on the way, almost killed a player except he got a free pass because he didn't see me or shoot at me and kept on moving and eventually getting frustrated that after such a long time crawling I only was about to hit Komorova, I contemplated killing myself and respawning. Probably would have been easier to do so and get kitted up exactly like I was faster. But instead I push forward.
5. I find a bike, at which point I say screw Cherno, lets's head North where I have other buddies that can patch me up. So I ride, stopping at Green Mountain only for heartache and pain. I love how with a broken leg I can't walk, but I can climb ladders and Ride a Bike. Not really gonna argue with it. I am moving fast and I like it.
6. Green Mountain was Heartache because there is nothing and in my crawling state I couldn't get into the tower to climb up. Pain, due to crappy buggy system, I, if i hadn't already had broken legs, would have broken legs again, but still caused some bleeding and through lag had a hell of a time patching it up. 
7. I hop back on bike and ride on, only to encounter a SERVER RESET, which made my new bike disappear. I'm thinking the bike belong to an Admin and when he saw it was gone  he manually reset the server hoping it'd go back. If that's the case, too bad for him, I saved it at the Green Mountain. So now I am crawling again. I find a cow, butcher it and replenish my cooked steaks. I see colors vibrantly again and eventually make my way to a nice spot somewhat near where my budies were last located.
   
   
   This days crawl probably lasted 2-3 hours. If anything I've learned patience with this game andthough I have thought about giving up several times, I have persevered. Hopefully all this pays off and I get my legs mended soon. 

A Bulleted Zombie Update

Firstly, check out these detailed posts by my buddy Darraxus.

1. Scavenging to Survive 
2. To the End of the Road 
3. WoW and DayZ

 Now that y'all are caught up to these events. After everyone logged off I kept playing. finding a night server. I decided to hit up the Hangers and Military tents. At some point actually encountered a player who was actually friendly. We went off our seperate ways. Well folks, I have something for you.

Yeah, I died. I had no backup, and it was dark, but the spawns inside those military tents were being brutal and I got overwhelmed thanks to a unlucky throw of a flare when I was trying to throw a tin can. Also, it got very laggy for me so I couldn't shoot for shit. From here, let's enter bullet mode.

Thursday Night.

• Spawned near Cherno
• Regeared myself with an AKS-74 Kobra  and Revolver.
• Picked up ALICE pack and extra G17 for teammate without a pistol.
• Back to Balota Airfield and log off just outside in some trees.

Friday Night

• Logged in next to teammates, hooray for guessing their logoff positions correctly.
•  Encountered unarmed survivor that wouldn't leave us alone, even after telling him to go away.
• Shot unarmed survivor in leg to send a message.
• Snipers took 2 of us out while messing with Military Tents.
• Found they were Ghosting. Exploiting Douchebags. I spotted someone and as soon as they spot me his body goes limp as if dead then dissappears.
• Immediately get fired upon by survivor but bandaged up and lived.
• Sniper fire ceases, our two killed teammates make their way back and pick up their shit.
• Leaving Airfield we find a tent camp, likely their for respawning. We loot it all, thank you owners.
• Make our way north, time to move on and away fromt he coast. 
• Found a Zombie trap, a little building with a Zombie on a 10 second spawn timer. 
• I shot a teammate due to crossfire. Tis no problem, thanks to camp tent, plenty of blood bags.
• Rubberbanding issues and barn checks, it's time to call it a night.
• AFTER some experimentation with zeroing in on My AKM that I eventually picked up to replace the Kobra. Also replaced Revolver with M1911. I just like that gun.
• Then watched videos on YouTube.

All in all, we lived to fight another day regardless of the Douchebag Ghost exploiting Sniper Jackwagons.
Anyways, here's what I've been finding on YouTube.



Also, check out these channels.
Acebane21: He's got some interesting videos. Not just entertaining but informational. Like his Reviews of the various weapons. Especially the Sniper ones, they help a lot with what to expect when longshotting.
EireBornFenix: Also has informational videos with images of what too look for. And it's thanks to him that I finally find a good site for Chernarus Maps @ http://southcoastbeanwars.com/day-z-maps/. I had one before but it's a huge file and is so slow to load and zoom and scroll around.



I've literally kept replaying this one a couple dozen times. I love the sigh.

A New Genre: Zombie Apocalypse Survival Simulation

   It seems with the popularity of Walking Dead and DayZ that there is a new genre of videogames branching out of the normal Survival Horror. What genre you ask, Zombie Apocalypse Survival Simulation. Yeah yeah, but there are so many Zombie survival games, how is this a new genre? Simple, it's an actual representation to what a Zombie Apocalypse may be like that. It's not some arcade shoot everything with infinite ammo game.To get what Zombie Apocalypse just look at DayZ.

   DayZ is AWESOME. However, it is so difficult to get into a game. It's 50% server searching, 40% playing and 10% worrying about getting disconnected everytime you see that damn broken red chain link. It's "alpha" yeah, I understand. Personally I'm thinking it's an experiment while Bohemia finishes up Arma 3 and any final DayZ release will be on that engine. Hell, i've read Rocket was moving his things to the Bohemia offices so maybe he's working with them for a full on Arma 3 engine Day Z release.

   But until then, we still have a flawed but awesome game to play. But it's not the only one anymore. Here comes, The War Z. Originally being designed as a Zombie Survival MMO with quests and unlocked areas. But after DayZ they made some design changes to reflect what is making DayZ so popular and design changes that seem to be on players wish lists. Either way it'll be interesting to see how it plays and maybe even get Rocket to make DayZ even better now that their will be competition.

    Check out this IGN article on The War Z.

A Punisher Fan Film

It's amazing what fans can do. Even with a limited budget. But what if someone famous is a fan and can put some money into their projects. To start there was this Concept video Mortal Kombat Rebirth that was made to pitch for a new Mortal Kombat movie. It was done with a realistic dark and gritty take. Likely taking a cue from Batman Begins and going over that dark line where Batman would not, because, well, it's Mortal Kombat

This is old news really, but nothing happened of it for a while until fans were loud enough and eventually heard, resulting in great series of web videos called Mortal Kombat Legacy. And now there is a possibility of a movie or at the very least another season of videos.

Which brings us to The Punisher. I've never seen War Zone. I didn't care much for the idea of it after having embraced Thomas Jane's portrayal. Yeah the movie had it's flaws, John Travolta and the core Origin story. But what it all boils down to is, Thomas Jane was flat out awesome as The Punisher. And he loves the character to a point... well... just check it out.

"I wanted to make a fan film for a character I've always loved and believed in - a love letter to Frank Castle & his fans. It was an incredible experience with everyone on the project throwing in their time just for the fun of it. It's been a blast to be a part of from start to finish -- we hope the friends of Frank enjoy watching it as much as we did making it." -- Thomas Jane

Here's hoping the studios see what this means to the fans and realize, that through its flaws, however few there were, there was greatness to be had with Thomas Jane's Punisher. I'm hoping for a revival. I guess in this day where reboots are such a huge thing, this may be one I'd be able to support fully without hesitation.

Also:


Also, also, if you have an hour:

Honestly, it's insane that Firefly only came back for a single movie and not revived completely.

My Transmog: Hunter

This one is gonna be a quick post. Not gonna bother with links for the moment. I'm tired and falling asleep as I type this, then I'll schedule it for the morning. Anyways, here is the Transmog set I've been working on. It's a brown color scheme going with leather hide looking outfits. Only problem there were'nt any shoulders that went well with this set. Until I saw the season 11 PvP shoulders. At which point I had to get geared up to run Twiligh dungeons. and here are the results.

 Unmasked. Thinking about possibly hiding helmet.

Actually kind of goes okay with our guild tabard's current color scheme thanks to the grey in the shoulders.

A Hunter's Weekend.

There was no DayZ fun to be had this weekend. That is on hold for the time being. So what did I do then? Well, for starters, I've started watching Burn Notice on Netflix. Another show that I sometimes enjoyed the few times I caught it, but yet, never allowed myself to make time to catch it every week. As far as shows that I absolutely will watch weekly, that method belongs to How I Met Your Mother. Everything else I can wait for Netflix/Hulu or DVDs.

  What about gaming? This is a gaming blog right, so what games did I play. Well, I played World of Warcraft of course. And as the title suggests, I mostly played my Hunter. Now, when I first made the decision to finally get my Hunter to 85, I had absolutely no intention of gearing him up. I just wanted to get him to a level where if I had encountered a rare tameable spawn, I'd be able to tame it.

   But late one friday night I finally found a possible Transmogrification set that I'd actually be happy with for him. Only one of the pieces belongs to the season 11 PvP set and since I don't PvP, my best bet is Valor to Conquest trade. So that's it folks. I've spent my weekend first gearing him up to the point he can run the Twilight Dungeons, skipping the horrific regular set of Heroics and maxing out my weekly Valor point collection. Now all I need is to wait for the reset then I'd be ready to share my Hunter's transmog look.

   Also, I manage to pick up a few rare spawns on Bradailann. My favorite being the Metal Panther from the Firelands whom I've renamed Ravage. Honestly the only truly suitable name for a metal cat.

A DayZ Fourth of July

After waking up after lunch I spent early afternoon watching DayZ videos. Afraid to play the game because we as a group decided to wait till we can all play together. So last we actually played was 4 maybe 5 days ago and I've been itching to play more and more after each video. Occasionally I would log on and check the construction building I am in for goodies. Well this time, after too much waiting I urged Kev to run through the Chernogorsk with me for a quick scavenge. We were doing alright, heading out with Hatchets, Kev found a Makarov. Then we made it to an apartment building where we found a fresh survivor. I made the call to let him live after failing to get a response in direct communication. I really do not want to be that guy that kills on sight. I have hopes for a game where players will help players. So we check the rooms and get to whatever goodies before he could. I never let him out of my sight though.

I watched as he hit the market across the street at which point I pointed out there were hatchets over there and told Kev we need to keep an eye on him. But, he never picked one up, I saw him stop at a few other loot points, but not once did he stop at the hatchets. Then he ran off, I felt it was peculiar, but decided to let it go. Next thing I know I hear a shot fire. Kev shot at someone who came around with a gun. Then more shots were fired and Kev is down. I head down stairs and see the other guy is bleeding and he shoots me, I'm down but not out. Hourglass is draining and I'm watching this guy as he is looting Kev, but sadly when I came to I finally bit the bullet after a valiant effort to hatchet him in the face.

Several questions running through my head at this point. Was it the same guy? Did he find a gun and is that why he passed on the hatchets? Did he come back to shoot us? Would he have shot us if Kev didn't shoot first? Should I just blatantly murder people because it's possible they might come back and murder us as soon as they find a weapon?

Oh well, doesn't matter. Time to start anew. We start fresh and we both spawn just outside a big city, unsure of which ones though. I'm making my way on the outskirts and after recognizing a few buildings I recognize I'm at Elecktro...whatevers. I hear gunshots in the distance and stay vigilant. Then over vent Kev is muttering about being low on ammo and zombies are still coming. Apparantly he was lucky enough to already pick up a double-barrel shotgun. But he got tagged and lost a lot of blood and is holed up in a station building that has a tower that is basically a stairwell with an attached warehouse that recognize as a power station.

As he states there was another zombie, I hear another gunshot, so I ask him if that was him firing. The whole time I been hearing his gunshots. He and I spawned on opposites sides of Elektro. Sweet, so I make my way toward the power station on the outside only to find it empty and after talking to Kev found out that he was at another one inside. Before meeting up with him I loot a supermarket picking up an ALICE pack, an M1911, an extra makarov that i throw in the ALICE pack, a Map, compass and watch. I also have a Remingtion Pump action shotgun with no ammo, yay, only because I chose it over the crossbow with 1 bolt, minus the bolt since I couldn't find it to pick it back up after shooting a zombie in the head.

After looting the market I meet up with Kev, distribute some foods and we make our way to the hospital where I administer the much needed blood transfusion he needed and pick up extra supplies. Next to the hospital is another building and I see through the window another ALICE pack. So we hit that spot only to find it unable to be picked up. I don't remember what happened first but at this point I had to shoot a zombie but we also here a gunshot. When the gunshot was fired that wasn't from me, both Kev and I shout over vent, "was that you?", and we both respond "no, not I". At which point we decide it was not safe to stick around. We figured whoever it was heard ours and was possibly making their way toward us. So we bolt and make for some trees where we dealt with a few zombies but was able to get free and eventually watch the town for player movement.

After seeing a swarm of zombies go into one building we wait a bit then hit up the supermarket, this time together. Kev picked up an ALICE pack and a Lee Enfield that he tossed in the ALICE pack for Darraxus should we meet up with him. And at this point we considered ourselves well stocked and head to Chernogorsk so we can get that Construction building where we wait once again for all three of us to log on and continue our journey. Only this time we won't just have mere Hatchets.

EDIT: HOLY WALL'O TEXT BATMAN! Fixed, had it in HTML mode and not compose. So all the breaks it looked like I was putting in in reality was not being put in.

DayZ have your attention now?

It's awesome, I don't blame you. The stories that come out of the game are amazing. Forget the movies, forget the books, play the Zombie Apocalypse for yourself and see how you fare. But first, here are some helpful resources I've found very helpful.

Index of Helpful Threads and within this index, a must view thread is the Gear/Inventory thread that explains one of the most confusing parts of this game for beginners.


A Chernarus Map is a big thing to get familiar with. There is an in game map, but you need to find it first, something i've never done yet. Some of the maps are basic while there are a few with possible loots spots and their building types. Choose what fits you.


Now, here is something from sacriel42 I wish I had found a lot earlier. A very informative Basics video. Definitely a must watch for beginners. It's nice seeing what is being done as he explains it.
 


Now you're familiar with the basics. Where do you go? Where is the good stuff? Let sacriel42 once again show you.

Survival at it's best.

   I find myself on a beach, exposed with nothing but a Flashlight, bandage and some painkillers. I walk up a hill to get a look around and see a construction site outside an industrial city. As I make my way towards the skeleton of a building I hear a fire crackling which puts me on my tip toes. Sneaking through the building I find it's been deserted, a barrel fire left unattended surrounded with barbed wire fencing. Soda left all over, they must have left in a hurry. Their loss is my gain. I find a hatchet in the stairwell as I make my way to the rooftop to scout the city. In the middle of all these rusted earthy toned buildings I spot a clean looking white building. Could it be a hospital? Only one way to tell. But first, there is a cow and I'll soon be hungry. After severing the cows spine with my hatchet for a quick clean humane kill I cook the meat up and store it in my bags for my journey.