Benie's Games Blog

Browsing the Steam Store to see what else they had available. Saw a new game that got released about 3 days ago, called ‘X-Plane 10 Global’. Going by the videos… my mouth was hanging open, and I had to put my eyeballs back into my head.
This game… oh god. This game…… I swore NASA made it. It uses real, and I mean real 3D ground and lighting from Google Earth, and kicks it up a notch. It has moving traffic. Interstates. Interchanges. Road Signs. Highways. EVERY FUCKING ROAD IN THE US… is in this game, and modeled from its real life counterpart! And it’s not just the US, it covers the entire planet Earth.
They showed videos of the roads at night. And I swear it looked like I was watching it, as if it was a real life traffic camera. The lighting is dead-on accurate! It’s… unbelievable how much fucking effort they put into this game!
And they’ve been developing this game for longer than Rig’N’Roll and Duke Nukem Forever’s development, yet, instead of saying “yeah, graphics are going to suck, but this is how they were back then!”, they say “you know? People demand epic graphics, even from a 20 year developed game. Let’s not be lazy and do it!”

The specs? Heh. You need a NASA computer to run it without lag, hence why I said “NASA made it”.
Here’s what it says for the recommended CPU specs; “3 GHz, multi-core CPU (or, even better, multiple processors)“. Even… better? Multiple processors?! There’s no gaming motherboard on the market that can handle two CPUs! The only motherboards that can, are designed as dedicated servers, not for gaming.

I have heard of 8-core CPUs. But I think at this time of technology, are going to be quite expensive.
What shocks me, you only need 4GB of RAM. I would think you would need 32GB to handle this goliath of a game.
But, if you have the specs to run it (I want your computer!), it’s $60 right now.

Dan (aka Nerd3) made a video of this bundle of Simulator games(that he apparently made available), called the “The Nerd3 Humble Simulator Bundle”, with a collection of Simulator-based games you can buy. If you want the entire bundle, it’ll cost you $10. You’ll be saving $86 by getting this, and you’ll be supporting the developers, two well-known charity organizations, and the website at the same time with that $10. So, feel good about yourself.

I’ve heard of this “Humble Bundle” thing before, but didn’t think much of it, until now. And it seems pretty nifty. And I’ll be using it in the future. Because I finally got Spec Ops: The Line(a $30 game on Steam), for $8. Plus other games like some of the X-COM series, and Mafia II.
It’s part of the Humble 2K Bundle, this week. Featuring 2K’s good games(like BioShock).

The website, you can pay whatever you want. Unlike Steam, you’re not paying for one game. You can get a bundle of games, for an insanely cheap price. For example, I just got Spec Ops: The Line and Mafia II, both $60($30 per game) on Steam, BioShock 1 and 2, and some of the X-COM series… for only $10. Which means I just saved over $100 on games, by bundling. This will not be the last time I look on this site for deals.

I don’t even have to wait for Steam to do one of their sales. Just need to wait for Humble Bundle to have the game(s) I want, and get them for so much cheaper than what Steam asks for.
Yet I feel I’m ripping off the developers for doing this, especially a graphic-intensive game like Spec Ops: The Line.

Anyway, the site is like a donation system from what I’m seeing. Most of it goes to the devs so they can make better games, yet a portion of it can go to charity; namely The American Red Cross and Action Against Hunger. A last sum can go directly to the site to pay for operating costs and stuff.
You’re also free to set how much of this money you wish to give to these three things. So, say I was to give $10. I could give $6 to the devs, $3 to charity, and $1 for the site. I can do this.

As a footnote and about Dan’s video, around 2:47 of him showing Turbo Dismount, they should hire him as the game’s spokesman to make the game sound good enough to buy it. Because it almost made me get it.

P.P.S… don’t get Euro Truck Simulator 2. Dan makes it sound like it’s awesome, but he doesn’t realize that it was made by SCS Software; the company that made the failure series: Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel…
Yes, I’m not letting it go. I’ll never forgive them for stealing my ideas when it came to I-75 going through Atlanta, and how they’ve always backpedaled in the series(removing good features of the previous version and replacing them with shitty ones for the next), and not giving a fuck about their customers, only the money. >:(

There seems to be four ‘must-have’ games for me, coming this fall, all competing for my money and playtime. WoW: Warlords of Draenor, GTA5, FarCry 4, and this thing which is set to be released October 14th, 2014. Always good to see this, as right now, I really don’t see anything I want.
Actually shocked that Wolfenstein: The New Order isn’t a top seller. Being $60 and released last month, that’s quite a shock.

Going back to this, is this a must-have DLC for the Borderlands series? It’s quite hard to tell, going by its description. A video shows a destroyed moonbase, indicating this could be after the main questline of Borderlands 2 to get further get revenge on Hyperion.
Here’s what it claims it’ll have;
-Being able to fight on Pandora’s sun(and planet)-like moon, ‘Elpsis’.
-Four new character classes.
-New vehicles designed for moon travel.
-A crapload of new shiny guns (of course).
-Be able to play as Claptrap. .. Wait, WHAT?! YOU MEAN I CAN TALK TO PEOPLE WITH MY SOOTHING ROBOTIC VOICE, AND NOT GIVE A FLYING FUCK I’M ANNOYING AND HAVE NO FRIENDS, AND NO ONE CAME TO MY BIRTHDAY PARTY?!?! Epic on so many levels. 🙂

And here is where I give a resounding “what the fuck is Gearbox thinking?!”…
-The four new character classes are the ‘anti-heroes’, and you can help Hyperion/Handsome Jack be complete dickwads to Pandora. … Why? Did people actually ask for this?

So, whatever this DLC seems it thinks it is, it better get its crap together and fast, and explain more of what the heck it wants to be and what its purpose is. I’ll be watching this one, though. Being able to go to the moon would be quite interesting.

Yet I wonder if this is just some kind of “hype joke” by Gearbox to tell people “Hey, we still care for the series and still doing DLCs!” Since April Fools has been months in the past, who knows. Maybe this is a “serious joke”. If so, I’m not laughing. Because I’ll be damned if I help that douchebag Jack.

So, old news is better than no news at all. 😛 The long wait to play GTA5 without needing to own a console, will soon be ending this fall! GTA5 will be coming to PCs this fall! Everything is Awesome!
On top of this, this isn’t going to be just a plain port from consoles. This is going to be a revamped version, custom-built for PCs.
Expect better visuals, denser traffic, and all-out epicness. Why? PCs can handle games a hell of a lot better than a console can. The only limitations is one’s hardware.

I can’t fucking wait to play the next game of the series, even though I got into the series through GTAIV, I like what I see with this game. And for it to FINALLY come to PCs, I couldn’t be happier.

The price tag, I would imagine being $40-60, with more for a ‘premiere’ pack that has stickers and crap. Will it be available on Steam? Hopefully. I say it’s possible.

So, you’ve defeated Alduin and freed Skyrim from a repeat of pre-Dragon Wars times. Yet why does it feel there’s a plothole? Paarthurnax even said that not all dovah will listen to the Way of The Voice, and still would favor the late Alduin’s lordship(aka “kill all mortals!”).

This mod… hell, not even sure I should call it one. It says it’s a “DLC-sized mod”, and it shows. It’s called “Skyrim: Wyrmstooth”, and the story is there’s a rogue dragon unaffected by the fall of Alduin, and wants to still try to enslave mortals. The East Empire Company outside of Solitude has put a bounty on this dragon’s head.
Not many people are interested. But they know of one who would be able to take down this dragon…. you, Dragonborn.

The mod is on the Steam Workshop, and has been since February 8th of last year, and its last update has been on June 20th this year. It’s completed. It features a new world, dubbed ‘Wyrmstooth'(that’s about the size of Solstheim in the Dragonborn DLC). New dungeons, a new story, two questline quests, 15 new side quests, new fully voiced NPCs, content that was cut before the launch of Skyrim, new soundtrack exclusive to the mod, and even a purchasable player home.
Also, it’s not just this new world where the action is. This takes place all over Skyrim, even places you’ve visited before (according to videos).
And the best thing? It’s 100% FREE on the Steam Workshop! Yes, a FREE DLC-like quality mod!

It’s recommended to go as Level 10, and after completing ‘Dragon Rising’. You don’t have to complete the main questline, but it is encouraged to understand the story better. Also, you don’t need to have any of the official DLCs, but they are compatible if you do have them.
To get the quest after installing it, you’ll eventually be stopped by an Imperial Courier named ‘Theodyn Bienne'(who starts from the Bannered Mare in Whiterun) who gives you a notice from the East Empire Company about this dragon who is interrupting trade routes all over Skyrim. Why he’s doing this, no one knows. But you’re hired to investigate and stop it, by any means necessary.
So yeah, bring your OP gear. Because you’re going to need it.

Going by the videos, this mod looks quite interesting and well made. I might give it a go.

Being wrapped up in thinking I fixed my Visual C++ crash in Skyrim, only to show up again during the Dragonborn questline, I haven’t been following the news of WoW.
I’ve made a post in the official Bethesda forums. I feel really confident I have a good chance of either removing the error, or if I can cope with it with no “if ignored, it’ll only get worse” damage to my computer.

Anyway, I found Nobbel87’s channel again on YouTube and checked it out. And two months ago, he had a video going over the latest that he has heard.
-WoD is in Alpha (now in Beta since May 27th).
-Changes to raids in WoD. Hunters will have a 1 day misdirection spell. Very sweet and useful.
-News of the lore of WoD.
-The splash screen has been changed to show a glowing red Dark Portal instead of green(indicating that “Um… what’s going on?? Why is the Dark Portal red?!” feeling), similar to what it looked like in TBC, before the portal opened.
-The town overwatching the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands gets ransacked and taken over by the Iron Horde.

And here’s what I’ve found out by clicking a link on the channel page, mostly about stuff I care about;
-A mentioning of an “epic quest” before you go build a Garrison. Is this an epic group quest? An epic soloable quest? Who knows. It also mentions you go to Shadowmoon Valley for Alliance, or Frostfire Ridge for Horde. Doesn’t list what level you have to be to get it(or maybe they haven’t decided yet). I’m going to assume Level 100, and it being endgame content. Would make sense.
-Having to find blueprints and materials to upgrade your Garrison. …. Typical Blizzard style concept here. This means, either collection quests, or collection “quests”(looking for what you need without requiring a quest, making it harder to pinpoint where to go).
And that’s it about Garrisons (for now) that is new news.

-The new Level 100 talent tier has been added to all classes (I’m going to assume they’re unusable ’till the launch).
-All chars you own from Level 1 to Level 99 for leveling, will get specific, helpful(to their class and hopefully spec) Major Glyphs automatically added every quarter of your leveling (aka, Level 25, you’ll get this. Level 50, you’ll get that, etc…).

And talents for Hunters in WoD? … Right now, it don’t look good for high level BM Hunters like me, but this could change.
Looks like they’re putting more “love” into Marksman Hunters. And it looks like another talent reset will happen. Fun. 😛 But, it’s to be expected after every EP.
One change, no more Serpent Sting. It’ll be a Survival hunter only ability. However, I’ll still have Arcane Shot(my only DPS option). And if that’s not bad enough, they’re removing some abilities for Pets like Rabid. Lynx Rush is going to be moved from the Level 90 tree to the Level 75 tree(aka, you’ll get it in TBC instead of MoP) and then replaced by Stampede for an unknown reason…. what the FUCK?! *facepalm*… Blizzard. I loved Lynx Rush, and so did my pet!

The only good things I see out of this, Mend Pet and Revive Pet will be fused into one button instead of two, and still only affect your active pet. Sweet.
Also, Hunters will be able to tame Hydras! 😀 Most excellent.

So, that’s about it for this one. And if you wish you join the Beta, well.. it’s not possible without a key, just like with MoP before its release.
There’s three ways to get a key;
1. Opt in to Blizzard’s beta program, give them your specs, and pray they pick you.
2. Have a friend who has a key and is willing to show the content for you.
3. Through Wowhead’s Beta Key giveaways.

Talking more about option 3, yes, once again, Wowhead offers keys. But, instead of their usual “just tell us how bad you want it in the comments section and we might consider!” way, you have to actually work for it.

Each week, you have to have (or do if you haven’t yet) a specific achievement ingame to be entered into a chance to get a Beta key. This week until July 7th, you have to do (or have done) one of the wings of the Siege of Org raid to be qualified. You can even do an LFR raid and you’ll still qualify(if you get the achievement).
Week 1 (this week), they’re offering 200 keys. Weeks 2, 3, and 4, they’re offering 300 keys. Week 5: 400 keys. And finally, Week 6: 500 keys. For a total of 2,000 Beta keys.

But seriously, though, with as many players in WoW, do you really think I would have a chance? Everytime I’ve tried for a key, I never got one.
There really is no point (for me) to come back to WoW for WoD’s pre-launch content until it nears launch day(and by then I’ll have the digital copy preordered for my two accounts), so I can re-train to be a Hunter(relearn buttons/how to solo a dungeon/etc…) a few weeks before the release.

And I don’t know when that day the portal will re-open into Draenor instead of Outland. I’m going to assume in the fall, like MoP. And it’s going to be $20 like always for the standard edition.