Brian Yu.com

WoW Wrath of the Lich King: Just when I thought I was out...

So now that Blizzard has shaken up the WoW scene with a bunch of interesting news about Wrath of the Lich King I feel like Michael Corleone in Godfather III.  Just when I thought was out....they pull me back in.

http://www.massively.com/2008/05/09/player-vs-everything-analyzing-the-wrath-of-the-lich-king-news/

http://www.massively.com/2008/05/09/blizzard-unleashes-a-storm-of-lich-king-information/

The two things that might make me re-activate my subscription:

1. Allowing players to make a Death Knight starting at level 55 as long as they have a character on that server at level 55.  I hope they expand this to other classes.  I'll probably play a Death Knight just to check it out, but for me this solves the problem of having to start from level 1.  I don't have the juice to grind from 1-70 anymore, even with the 30% increased leveling.

2. All raid content is now accessible to 10 mans.  If I was really crazy, I'd bring my mage back to start raiding again.  I would love to see all the raid content in the game, the scripted encounters are what makes the experiences so great.

There are a bunch of other things that I haven't read yet, but I'm dreading the time sink I might get sucked back into.  What a mixed batch of emotions :P

GTA IV : The Most Culturally Relevant Game Ever

Now that GTA IV has been tearing up the charts for a week (and I have my XBOX 360 again) I spent a few hours with the game.

I've been ignoring all the reviews of the game on purpose, so I could just dive into the game without any outside influences and write my own thoughts.  The game is sicker than a Chris Paul to Tyson Chandler alley oop.  Rockstar has done a phenomenal job at modernizing the game so you feel as if you are living person in Liberty City.

I say it's the most culturally relevant game ever because Rockstar has woven in a lot of social fabric that makes up our every day lives:

- Making friends and trying to impress them.

- The importance of fashion.

- Cell phones as our lifeblood to anything social.

- Dating/Relationships.

- General hangout activities (bowling, shooting pool, playing darts, going to bars, and cruising the city)

It's amazing how many everyday social thoughts come out while playing this game.  Instead of thinking things like:

"How do I light this torch on fire to open the door?"

"I wonder where that key is"

"How much longer until the boss fight?"

I think about things like:

"Hopefully I can find a few more jobs to make money so I can move out of this dump"

"I need to buy some decent clothes"

"Is it better to lose or win at bowling on my date?"

It's a whole different mind set for just 4 hours of gameplay so far.  I look forward to finishing this one.