Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Superman: Red Son

I'm not always playing a ton of games these days, but I am reading a lot of comics, and one I just picked up deserves a little write up and recommendation for your reading library. Superman: Red Son is penned by WANTED's very own Mark Millar and tells the story of an alternate universe where Superman's flying baby spaceship didn't land in the farm country of Smallville, but in the middle of the Ukraine under Stalin-controlled USSR.

Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and even Batman make some surprise appearances in this one. Jimmy Olsen is a CIA Agent, Lois is married to the world's smartest man (Luthor), and Eisenhower relies heavily on Lex's brain the whole series. I can't recommend it enough, basically. As a standalone novel, this is one I'd love to see made into a movie one day. I just doubt that will ever happen.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Red Faction: Guerrilla - Enjoying the Destruction

So, I know I've been quiet these past few months. And now I'm here on Blogger again. But you all know why. Life's been a busy crazy ride for a while now, and it's only starting to calm down. I won't bore you with too many details, but I am indeed finding myself head over heels in love with a beautiful girl who drooled on me one random night in her sleep. I'm still working at the Department of Veterans Affairs. I'm 4 months out from finishing my Masters in Information Systems. I'm the Art Director for a soon-to-be launched geek interest site. I'm reading a crap-ton of comics from Ground Zero in Strongsville, Ohio. I'm still doing comics and other art for Ten Ton Hammer. And I'm still playing games whenever I actually can squeeze some time in with one.

That's probably why you're here at all reading my blog, so then you'd probably like to know what it is I've been playing. Ladies and Gentlemen... let me detail the beauty of Red Faction: Guerrilla. I'm not playing any MMOGs at the moment, as I await Champions Online. I've been dabbling in Left 4 Dead, Rock Band 2, and The Orange Box a bit. That is until I took a leap of faith based on a game-store clerk's opinion and purchased Red Faction.

How do I put this game's enjoyment into words? Let's put it this way: when I sleep I dream of either naked ladies or destroying buildings with my sledgehammer. Or Don Knots. But let's not get into that last one.

I was tempted to get Prototype instead just because the thought of ninja-kicking a helicopter seemed too enticing to pass up, but I am very pleased I went with what the store's peon suggested. RF:G is a third-person open-world shooter that has you playing the role of a mining colonist on Mars who gets caught up in a struggle for the control of the planet's terraformed landmass. You see, virtually everything on Mars is controlled by the giant conglomerate militaristic corporation called the Earth Defense Force. When you arrive on the surface, you just want to make a living and enjoy your life... but your brother's a member of Red Faction a Che Guevara-like movement to free the people of Mars from the EDF. When he's killed for apparently no reason at all, that's when you get pissed and take up his mantle as liberator.

The game then folds out with a series of missions and random occurrences and miscellaneous goals that basically have you destroying every building erected by EDF, and killing lots and lots of the little military bastards. As you break down the walls of their strongholds, the colonists begin to rally behind you, and soon you find yourself with an army of people helping you revolt against the EDF. There are guns, mines, hammers, arc welders, bazookas... it's everything a boy could want to destroy things with. You can drive trucks, pilot space-ships, and in general lay havok to everything you see with anything you see. I once took an entire building out just by hammering the crap out of its support beams. The satisfying rumble of the controller and the screen made me smile as I walked away from the debris.

It's just a very fun game, and comes highly recommended if you're looking for a strong action game to add to your Xbox (or PS3) library that's not GTA IV. It's out on the PC in August if you feel like waiting. Multiplayer's a blast both locally with an ingenius pass-the-controller type game mode, and online with a host of different game modes for competitive play.

4 Bildos out of 5. Ha!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Coming back to Blogger...

Hey folks!

Not sure how many of you still check this site... ever. But I've closed down the hosted Wordpress blog, because I simply didn't see a reason to keep paying for something I used to seldomly. But I'm re-opening this place, and hopefully will have some news to churn out every now and again.

Life's still crazy-hectic, and I'm not even really playing all that much these days, but I am watching and wishing I had the time. And there's plenty of commentary in the ol' noggin left. So, if you catch wind of this blog post... thanks for not forgetting about my old blog.

Monday, June 16, 2008

New Site - Sooner Than Anticipated!

That's right, folks. I've moved.

I built a blog in Wordpress from scratch tonight (and partly at work, ahem). And while it still needs some finishing touches it's fully functional and ready to go.

I'm going to move everything over there, so PLEASE update those blogrolls and come on over to my new digs! I went with a new name too, so I can stop switching between Bildo and JoBildo... just JoBildo from now on.

THE RAMBLINGS OF JOBILDO

It's odd leaving this one here, but hopefully the new scenery will be more of a boon than a burden.

Cheers!

In Need of Advice Again

I just received an offer from Heritage Freelance a rather large and growing Web Solutions company based in Utah to work as a full-time freelance designer for them from the comfort of my home in Ohio.

The kicker? I work for the Government right now. It's steady income. I know how much I'll get paid every two weeks, and there's little to no chance of being canned unless I violate the privacy laws. But it's not what I love to do.

There are two (realistic) things in this world I can imagine myself being truly happy doing: Web Design and Community Management. The latter I'm slowly working towards. The former is right there, ready for the picking. I have my degree. I believe that I have talent. I just don't have the job.

This chance, is a great one. But it's also shaky. There's no set amount of work, though they say there's a steady inflow as they've needed to hire on 150 new contracted designers a week as of late. But my pay comes on a per job basis. So my paychecks will vary depending on how much work I do. And at any given time, the work could run dry right? I could suddenly find myself without pay if that happened.

So it's a great set up. Working at home, doing what I want, and when I want... but it's not guaranteed income like my current (but undesirable) position.

Help me fellow bloggers, especially those with experience in the workforce. What should I be asking this company, and what are your thoughts in general?

I Just Built a WordPress Theme From Scratch

And I have WP Designer to thank.

My new blog will be coming just as soon as I get my wife's photography site and blog set up. Take care of the missus first.

If you've ever wanted to learn how to build a theme from scratch, head to that site. His words not only break everything down into easy to digest bits, but even a layman could do it. I had an advantage with my knowledge of XHTML and CSS design, but I am a near-noob in PHP so I came away with more knowledge on that subject than I had before.

Overall... guy rocks. Go to his site. He designed Rick's theme after all!

Age of Conan - 6/16/2008 Patch Notes

Tons of fixes once again. Hopefully all good ones. Haven't been able to analyze them much yet. Undocumented notes to come as soon as I see them posted where I can read them. Will have to check out Khemi now too, as it seems numerous quests have been added there which is odd since I strongly believe the late 30s need no love for quests, but hey whatever. As long as the gap from 55+ is fixed soon too.

Player Characters

Archetypes
-New buff counters were added to a number of mage and soldier effects.
-All gathering feats should now have the correct proficiency suffix in their name (e.g. 'You need Woodcutting Novice to perform this action' messages).
-The Goad ability can be trained and used on a NPC that does not have aggro on you. You must be in combat to use this ability.
-The buffs from rogue general feats Concealment, Distraction and Mountaineer will now be removed from characters when they untrain feats.
-You can no longer enter spellweaving when climbing or swimming. If you are hiding or crouching and enter spellweaving, you will leave that state immediately.

Assassin
-Flesh Rot now applies a separate debuff for each player
-Lotus Weapons now applies a separate debuff for each player.

Bear Shaman
-Crush Armor I+II+III combos now have improved visuals and sound.

Conqueror
-You may now use Incite the Ranks if Fire Weave is running.

Dark Templar
-Soul Barrier's cast time has been reduced from 3 seconds to 1 second.
-Changed the Cooldown of Unhallowed Blight III to 20s.
-Changed the Unholy Debuff to be 5% on all combos and changed the duration of the debuff to last for 25s.
-Reduced the Mana cost of the following spells by 50%:
*Aura of Dread Fury (Ranks 1 - 4)
*Aura of Infusion (Ranks 1 - 5)
*Covenant of Pestilence (Ranks 1 - 4)
*Covenant of War (Ranks 1 - 3)
*Covenant of Death
*Covenant of Invulnerability (Ranks 1 - 3)
*Covenant of Vengeance
*Drain Life (Ranks 1 - 5)


Demonologist
-Waves of Flame now inflicts more damage each tick.
-The animation for the Demonologist-spell Unholy Hate has been slowed down a bit.
-Resolved an minor issue with Demonologist spellweaving not affecting stamina potion effects.

Herald of Xotli
-Resolved a issue with "Blood Pit" so it will always spawn if you successfully kill a minion with the "I Eat Your Heat" combo.

Necromancer
-Vile Insight now gives the intended Unholy Specialization as reflected in the description.
-Plagued Heart Curse will now correctly increase in damage with more feats trained.
-Parasitic Soul Swarm now inflicts more damage each tick.
-Pestilential Blast now has an additional skull visual.

Priest of Mitra
-Resolved a problem with the priest of mitra spellweaving ability.
-Repulse has had its base damage lowered slightly and contribution from bonus magic damage increased.
-Cleansing Fire now has a slightly lower manacost and now scales correctly across all levels.
-The damage bonus applied to Repulse, Cleansing Fire, and Lance of Mitra from Force of Will has been lowered to the correct amount.
-The damage bonus from Improved Repulse has been significantly increased

Ranger
The buffs from ranger stances Shattering Stance, Piercing Stance, Fire Stance and Sniper Stance will now be removed from characters when they untrain feats.

Tempest of Set
Brutal Lightning Strike should no correctly increase the critical strike chance of Lightning Strike.



Mounts
-You can no longer be knocked off the horse from the front.
-You can be knocked off from the side: more likely by monsters higher level then you and less likely by monsters lower then you. The chance almost drops to 0 if they are grey to you.
-Full chance to be knocked off from behind by monsters of higher or equal level than you. Monsters that are grey to you still cannot cause a dismount even from the back
-Fixed a problem where advanced mount abilities were being given out by the basic training. Mammoth and Rhino owners - Please use /claim again. This will train the attack abilities associated with these two mount types.


Khopshef Province
-Numerous quests has been added to the playfield.
-Freed Rogue Slave should now use his weapons correctly.
-Treasures are now located throughout the province.
-The Arax Queen should now stick to her spawn location.
-Tweaked some gameplay; added more camp NPCs and roaming animals.
-Fixed some areas which could be exploited.
-Boat Captain Amyr should now have the [Khemi] tag.
-The Traveling Merchant should now travel.
-The Followers of Derketo should now patrol.
-Ptah should no longer get killed by the Mantis.


Quests

-Dealing with Dila: Dila should now attack.
-Hunting the Spider: Quest can now be completed.
-The Lost Scouts: Waypoint to Diarmad was fixed.
-Oasis of Zaara: Waypoints for quest were fixed.
-Flowers of the Snow: The flowers way markers were adjusted.
-Paetus and the Nemedian Crown: Waypoint for Armsman's Tavern was fixed.
-Rahim & Lord Camillus: had it's journal text modified to point to the correct location.
-Death to the Undead: Indicators for minimap were displaying to small. This has been resolved.
-The Mark of Acheron: Players will now be able to experience the destiny event in the Field of Chiefs.
-The Mark of Acheron: The Mark of Acheron is permanently removed when performing the Medallion Ritual now.
-Soul Chamber: If you die in the soul chamber you now lose the tablet in your quest inventory.
-Added item rewards for the quests "The Honoured Dead I", "The Honoured Dead II", "The Honoured Dead III" and "The Honoured Dead IV".
-Destiny Quest: The quest rewards 'King Conan's Tribute' & 'King Conan's Esteem' can no longer be traded.
-The Lost Bottles: Wine bottles will now have a blue flame indicating you can interact with them.
-Tradeskill Quests: You can now delete all tradeskill quests but not tradeskill progression quests.
-Tradeskill Quests: Resolved various level requirement issues with the quests.
-Securing the Caravan Route": Added the correct waypoint for returning to Gua
-In the quest "A Curious Encounter" in Field of the Dead Quest, Radi will no longer give the player an amulet.
-"The Wolves at our Throats": Moved the waypoint for the location of the Wolverines, for the quest .
-Vistrix now drops his tooth for the quest "Master of the Silver Peacock." The player will need to DELETE their quest, and return to Kalanthes to get the quest again in order for the tooth to drop.


Items

-Hood of Jagged Barbs has been revamped.
-Added new purple rare drops to world loot.
-Conqueror Spear should now look the right size.
-Cimmerian Hide Light Wrist item should no longer clip with arms
-Khopshef Province: Treasures are now located throughout the province.
-Average, Fair, Fine and Superior Meat will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
-Crafting Item: Renamed item "Bloodsilver-studded Boots" to "Bloodsilver-mail Boots"
-Hek'lar's Accursed Dagger will now appear with the correct icon in the player's inventory.
-Fixed an issue with 'Darfari Armbands', they should be visible on female characters and have stats now.
-Reinforced Iron Warhammer no longer goes into the quest inventory.
-Prices of vendor bought food items have been adjusted.
-Vendor bought tradeskill components have updated visuals.
-The stack-size of building materials has been raised to 1000.


NPCs

*Ice Cave: Ice worms should now attack correctly.
*The Acheronian Warlord will drop bossloot armor again.
*The trader in Lacheish Plains has been removed as intended.
*Toirdealbach should now be a more fun and playable encounter.
*The Catacombes: Necromancer Undead Warlord should now attack correctly.
*Purple Lotus Swamp: Weaponsmith Ethi woke up with his height a bit smaller than what it was yesterday.
*Villa Lentulus: Gurges the Nimble should react normally to players.
*Yakhmar's Cave: Yakhmar should no longer get stuck if it cannot reach its target.
*Kyllikki's Crypt: Kyllikki should reset properly when nobody is in her hate list.
*Khopshef Province: Freed Rogue Slave should now use his weapons correctly.
*Border Ranges: Greven, Histacus, the Nemedian Adventurer & General Zarathus will all drop Nemedian community loot again.


Playfields
*Purple Lotus Swamp: Ladders should now work correctly.
*Tarantia Noble District: Armsman Tavern - Players should now be able to teleport into the arena by clicking on the door.

Tradeskills

-Obsidian has been renamed to Feldspar.
-Weaver quest line: Changed reference to Steelsilk to Gossamer Silk
-Orichalcum has been renamed to Duskmetal.
-Tigereye Gems will now end up in the resource inventory.
-Skinning Trainer will now tell you were to get skins.
-Resource nodes can now always be harvested while their health is at 10%.
-All crafted Cloth; armbands, wrists, boots and belts can now be worn.
-Increased dps on 'Swiftsilver Flat Bow'.
-Skymetal Battle Crossbow, Moonsteel Katar and Moonsteel Ratchet Crossbow have all received one free gemslot.
-The Weaponsmith Trainer now gives the cooldown warning for the tradeskill quest progression when the cooldown is in effect.
-The dialogues of the Resource Gatherer Trainers and Crafter Trainers now check if the player has the appropriate feats set on them, in addition to quests. If the player has the quest to gather resources or craft, but has lost the feat that enables him to do so, the feat is now retrained (to the correct tier).
-All crafted cloaks now support the equipping of gems.

GUI

-All Assassin abilities which stack multiple times now have a stack count in the buff GUI.
-All Bear Shaman, Priest of Mitra, and Tempest of Set abilities which stack multiple times now have a stack count in the buff GUI.
-The targeting arrow should now be positioned correctly when targeting a horse, a gorilla or a mutilator
-We have implemented a control to the options menu for how often background music plays. Tweak this if you wish to change how often you hear background music.

General

-You should no longer do the loot animation while swimming.
-Fixed a problem where certain high level monsters wouldn't spawn.
-Now all spells can be cast with dagger and staff without problems.
-When you train Basic or Advanced Riding, you will no longer be teleported
-Fixed an alignment issue with quest indicators over quest NPC's heads.
-Locking to raid instances have been fixed. All players participating in a raid will now be locked to the same instance
instead of entering a new one after death..
-Fixed problem that would cause the resource manager to download the same resource again and again.
-Bonus spell damage now increases both minimum and maximum damage, instead of just maximum (average damage will remain unchanged).
-Stat bonuses from items (strength, wisdom, dexterity and constitution) will now affect your character properly (Note that strength now directly affects your DPS, not your attack rating).