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GOG selling Interplay titles for half off, including Freespace and sequel
GoG.com has announced a big half-off sale on a bunch of older Interplay titles, allowing you to pick up some titles of serious quality for just a couple bucks apiece. There are some real gems in there, including the Descent games, the classic Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics, and the great Sacrifice, all for just $2.99 each. We'd be remiss as well if we didn't point out that the much-loved space combat game Freespace is also on sale, along with its sequel, for the same ludicrously low prices. Three bucks for a bunch of must-play titles from video gaming's days of yore? Deals don't get much better than that, people.
Shrines of Bori to offer Age of Conan players more outdoor PvP
Even with all of the fuss around new tier 3 raids being added to the land of Hyboria, the developers at Funcom haven't forgotten about the PvPers! A brand new feature will be landing on Age of Conan's test server for all barbarians to enjoy, and it comes in a form many PvPers love -- outdoor PvP objectives. The Shrines of Bori, a brand new addition to the Border Kingdoms playfield, will give PvPers the chance to not only engage in combat with others in a wide open zone, but also to earn their next set of PvP tier gear via a complex set of capture and hold objectives in the form of altars. Have questions on how this new system will work? Say no more! We've got a full explanation of the brand new system for you right after the break.
Interplay games (including the Fallout series) now on Steam
Valve's Steam service just got an injection of Interplay titles, with a host of new games currently available for download. There's the classic Fallout games, which include Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics (available individually for $8.99 or as a bundle for $20), but also Kingpin ($8.99) and Sacrifice ($8.99), the former being a bloody FPS and the latter being an inventive combat-focused RTS. If you've got a PC, we'd suggest you at least check out the original Fallout. There's a demo you can grab from CNET right here. [Update: Shagittarius reminds us that you can get Fallout games (not to mention Sacrifice and Kingpin) from GoG with no DRM for a few bucks less than Steam.]
Choose my Adventure: I'm on a mount
WoW.com readers, it's up to you to decide the fate of Turpen the Gnome Warlock with Choose My Adventure. Help test the site's new features by participating in this event, casting your vote toward the many aspects of Turpen and following his exploits on Alex Ziebart's WoW.com profile!Another week, another level. Ten levels, actually. And I guess it's been a few weeks. It sounded cooler that first way though, didn't it? Anyway... Yes, Turpen has hit level 35. The last couple of weeks have been busy around the office due to patch 3.2, so I didn't get as much done between level 25 and 35 as I had between 15 and 25. I only squeezed one dungeon run in, but I did manage to do something else that was asked of me: Battlegrounds.Yes, I did quite a bit of PvP this week on our Gnomelock, primarily in Warsong Gulch in the 20-29 bracket. I tried a round of Arathi Basin (which we won 2000-100) but very quickly decided never to do that battleground in that particular bracket ever again. Running around Arathi Basin without a mount is pretty much the worst thing ever. Patch 3.2 will change that I suppose, but it'll be far too late to be of any use to Turpen. My next alt, maybe!
Death Knight solos (most of) AQ20
Felblood, the Death Knight who recently soloed Zul'Gurub, sent us news of a new accomplishment: he's finished off most of AQ20 as well. Kurinaxx's Mortal Strike-like debuff apparently didn't affect Death Strike, so he just had to dodge the sand there, and apparently Moam's mana drain doesn't work on Runic Power, so he was just a tank and spank. Ossirian and Buru were a little tougher, but eventually with a little practice, Felblood says he was able to keep up DPS on the bosses and move around to their eggs and crystals.It's not a full clear, however, since Ayamiss didn't get killed -- Felblood didn't think of a way to get away from her sacrifice, since he'd have been the only raider in the instance. But an accomplishment nevertheless -- it's crazy to think of how long we banged our heads on Rajaxx and Ossirian when they've now been toppled by just one level 80 Death Knight.So what's next -- are we going to see the old 40-man content soloed? Wouldn't be too surprising with Molten Core, as we've already seen it 3-manned at 70, but things might get tougher as you head to AQ40 (where Felblood said he could down some trash, but not much else) or even Blackwing Lair.
Demonology 101: the Voidwalker
The big blueberry, a Warlock's most lovable pet. Obtained at Level 10, the big blue is usually a Warlock's favored solo leveling companion because it can tank, having a hefty amount of health and the taunting abilities Torment and Suffering. Out of combat, it can regenerate lost health quickly with Consume Shadows, and in a pinch can be Sacrificed to grant a Warlock's version of Power Word: Shield. It isn't specialized for any tree, although a Demonologist will get the most bang for the blueberry buck. The reliable Voidwalker won't be changing much in Wrath of the Lich King, but will be getting a few improvements with some talents from the Demonology tree such as the consolidated Fel Intellect and Fel Stamina, now called Fel Vitality, which rightfully increases Stamina as well as Intellect. Along with all demons, it also gains Avoidance, a baseline ability that helps it mitigate AoE damage by a massive 80%. Improved Voidwalker has not been changed, but a key talent that used to be perfect with the big blueberry -- Soul Link -- was reduced to a 15% damage absorption and no damage bonuses. The good news, however, is that Soul Link is now a Tier 3 talent, allowing almost any Warlock to pick it up for more survivability.
Sacrifice a little time for new Buffy screens
By the time we actually get to E3, is anything going to be left? So much has been announced and revealed so far that we can't imagine what might remain for the actual show. In the middle of all the sensible, timely games, there's Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sacrifice, and now, screens for the newly-announced game. Oh, don't mistake the tone; we're pleased as punch that there's going to be a Buffy game, and we've got high hopes. We're just a bit flabbergasted at the timing. Just as we are with the timing of all the media and announcements that've surfaced lately. These last few weeks have felt a little bizarre. We might as well throw a new Buffy game into the mix at this point. Really, why not?%Gallery-27523%
Is World of Warcraft really World of Diablo?
So how do you design Diablo 3 anyway? Bargain Bin Reviews has an idea -- just retrofit World of Warcraft. Shift talent points to spells, decrease enemy health and damage and increase the number of enemies by a factor of 10 or so, do away with healing spells and tanking, and you're essentially done. It's a bit silly and a bit tongue in cheek, yes, but it also brings up a good point. In the end, WoW is probably influenced by Diablo 2 as much as it is by Warcraft 3, if not more.
Buffy rises from the dead (again)
With the excellent season eight comics in full swing, it's not like Buffy the Vampire Slayer has disappeared off the face of the earth or anything (it's hard to lose track of one of the best shows of all time, after all), but the last thing we expected to hear about this week was a new game. That's exactly what we're getting, however. The title, from developer Beast, was written by Rob Des Hotel, who worked on several early episodes of the show, including "Killed by Death" and "The Puppet Show."Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Sacrifice is set late in the heroine's storyline, however. The game takes place after season seven, but we assume before the comics -- if it even sticks to established canon, that is -- because the game follows Buffy in an attempt to re-seal the Sunnydale Hellmouth. We can only guess that means a lot of debris and rubble, considering the state the California town was in when last we saw it. The game is apparently set for a release this fall, and we hope to see a lot more of it before then.
A sacrifice for the victory!
Xalit has a good question in the WoW LJ: which boss do you always die on? Being a Shaman, I'm pretty good at not dying (in boss fights where we don't wipe, at least)-- I'm far enough away from the battle to avoid crazy AoE, and the fact that I don't top either the heal or the DPS meters means I'm pretty far down on the aggro lists.But even more common than me dying every battle is our main healer. He always seems to bite the dust during a battle, whether we win or wipe-- even on a trash fight, he's usually the first to go. And our guildleader, a DPS Mage, was the butt of a joke for a while in the guild-- we laughed that he had to die for us to beat the boss. If he didn't die, the boss didn't get the sacrifice he needed, and we didn't get the loot.I don't know that it ever got to the point where we were actually killing him during the fight just to make sure a down happened, but I'm sure it was joked about. Are there any fights you've been to where, even with a victory, someone just can't stay alive for some reason?
Nepal Airlines sacrifices two goats to fix a 757
We've definitely done some crazy things to fix our gear -- we swear our Sawtooth Power Mac G4 actually ran faster after we dumped a can of Diet Coke into it -- but we've never gone as Nepal Airlines recently did. Faced with intractable mechanical problems on one of the fleet's two 757 jets, authorities at the state-run airline apparently sacrificed two goats to the Hindu god Akash Bhairab (pictured in the airline's logo, to the right) in front of the plane, which promptly took the skies again problem-free. That's pretty much all the information anyone has, but Nepal Airlines has confirmed that "the snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights." We're not going to comment on anyone's religious beliefs here, but that had to have been the weirdest pilots' announcement of all time.
