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Slingbox SOLO gets reviewed
First spotted in FCC pics back in August, the Slingbox SOLO has finally hit the review circuit. Lacking the hardware-assisted HD streaming output of the just announced Slingbox PRO HD, the SOLO brings the original Slingbox Pro's HD inputs and VGA-res output to a dongle-less existence. The people at PC Magazine hooked up up the 'box and found plenty to admire in Sling's software and easy setup, pausing only to lament the short included ethernet cable and lack of WiFi. With its $180 MSRP, this Slingbox is a good option when your HDTV is far away, at least until the PRO HD hits the streets.
Rock Band instruments pursuing solo careers February 12th
In a bit of shocking news today, two members of the Rock Band instruments set (drums, guitar) have declared that come February 12th, they're going solo. Citing "creative differences," and the original bundled guitar's inability to "clean up its act," the two solo pieces will be on their own and available for $79.99 and $59.99, respectively. This should come as good tidings for players who've had trouble getting a bass into the mix (PlayStation 3 gamers), or those who've wanted to rock the drum vs. drum match-ups. No word on whether the microphone will join the fray and walk out on the trio, though rumor has it a number of labels are ready with offers.
Pocketguitar for the iPhone lets you strum on the multitouch
Engadget found this slick little gem over the weekend for your jailbroken iPhone. It's a virtual guitar (a lot like Jam Sessions if you've ever played that, actually -- reaffirming my thought that the iPhone is the best handheld gaming device ever made), where you can put your fingers over the strings at the top, and then strum on the bottom to play notes and chords. Not only can you play your own songs, but you can even play along with any stored music you have on your iPhone, too. And every song, I tell you, can be improved by throwing in another guitar solo.Pocketguitar for the iPhone and iPod touch is available on the ModMyiFone.com Community Sources packing in Installer under Toys. Load it up and strum away.
The Soloist: Why I do it
After this post, I had it in mind to think through why I prefer to solo, and whether the reasons why are valid ones, given that I'm playing in a genre meant to provide a social experience. I'm going to try to list as many reasons as I can think of in favor of grouping and playing with buddies, and provide a counter-argument if I can. Bear in mind, this is not me telling you that you should go solo; this is just me trying to 1) explain why I do it, and 2) understand for myself whether my reasons hold water.Enough said; excelsior!
Blizzard plans soloing improvements for Protection Warriors and Paladins
With healers getting some soloing love in patch 2.3, Migol asked on the forums if something similar was going to happen for Warriors and Paladins who are speced Protection. Eyonix responded that they are in fact planning to make soloing easier for all non-DPS specs, including Prot Pallies and Warriors.Eyonix went on to say that they don't want Protection speced players to have to carry around a second set of DPS gear in order to grind mobs more effectively. He says that while a high level DPS set may give the player an edge, the Prot specs should be able to solo in the gear they tank in.It sounds like they are leaning toward doing something similar to what 2.3 introduces for healers. Since healers are getting free spell damage on all healing gear, will tanks get free attack power on all tanking gear?Presumably, Druid tanks won't be sharing in this love since the Feral spec is a very powerful solo spec. So, if the changes are going to affect tanking gear, it will probably only apply to plate.Eyonix does not give a time frame for Protection improvements other than "the future" and since it doesn't sound like they have a concrete plan yet, it probably won't be in patch 2.4.What kind of improvements would you like to see for Protection soloing?
Is single-player content hurting MMORPGs?
The term "solo friendly" is commonly cited as a virtue of newer MMO titles. Many MMO related forums have threads such as this one over at MMORPG.com which discuss the "soloability" of player classes within an MMORPG. In fact many of the elements of games such as Everquest which players have complained about over the years such as "forced grouping," "camping spawns," or "racing for non-instanced content" have all but been removed from the most recent MMORPG releases.When was the last time you saw two guilds racing to kill the same mob in World of Warcraft? How many of you have spent more than 30 minutes on a corpse recovery in City of Heroes? (That is a trick question, since there is no need to recover your corpse in that game.)
Fellowships versus soloing in LotRO epic storylines
Many of you will have completed Lord of the Rings Online's latest epic storyline from Book 11 by now, and you may have found that you could accomplish this task all on your lonesome. This topic was raised on LotRO's official forums, and whilst the initial poster was against the idea of a solo-able epic quest, the overwhelming response of the thread was that of people who had finished soloing it and loved it, or those that didn't realize it could be done alone and were keen to log in and get started.To date, most of the Books have been composed of a mix of solo and fellowship portions, and this was reinforced for future books later in the thread by a member of Turbine's LotRO team, MadeOfLions (fantastic name by the way), who said, "we're letting the needs of the story dictate the group sizes, rather than the other way around", and also that Book 12 should be a return to a more fellowship-oriented quest line.It's nice to have a mix between the two formats, solo and grouped, because let's face it -- a fellowship isn't always available -- and with Book 11 giving my class of choice, the Minstrel, a little more solo-power, I enjoy having only one life bar to watch over for a change.
Warlock soloes the Horseman
Well I sure thought it would have been "some ambitious Paladin," but nope-- turns out it was an ambitious and crafty Warlock that brought the Horseman down all by his lonesome. As you can see in the video above, Deadmasters on EU Blackmoore has gone in SM with some amazing stats, and claimed all the epics off the Horseman for himself.So how'd he deal with tanking? Unfortunately, it seems like the whole thing is based on a pathing exploit-- the player can jump up on that ledge at the end of the fence, but the Horseman can't, so he basically "juggles" the bad guy back and forth while dotting and nuking him. The job gets harder when the pumpkins show up, but it's the same thing-- jump up and then jump back down when the Horseman gets close. If Blizzard had known about this, they probably could have fixed that pretty easily.But I don't mean to downplay Deadmasters' achievement-- clearly he's geared up right for the fight (look at those Affliction DoTs go!), and by the outtakes at the end, you can see that juggling the mobs just right was no easy task. It'll be interesting to see if Blizzard makes changes in the encounter next year, though-- by then, we may be level 80, and who knows what horrors will lie in the SM GY?[ via incgamers ]
Today's shredingest video: Guitar Hero III victor
Game Revolution's Nick Tan recently played Guitar Hero III song, Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce, on expert. That website describes it as the hardest in the game, designed to be "unbeatable." And Nick conquered it.Yes, weeks before you adoring, fake guitar fans get a chance to play, the hardest song has been bested by a player on his fourth attempt. The video of the event is mediocre, and the moment of triumph is anticlimactic. ("Go balloons, go balloons, we need more balloons. ...") But we were still floored watching this face-melting song --and player -- in action.Be amazed by the clip after the break.
Myvu intros solo plus HMD with support for new iPods
Just in case you were worried during "The Beat Goes On" that the new iPods wouldn't work with the current generation of head-mounted displays (which they apparently won't), myvu has come to the rescue with a new model that -- besides a shared distaste for capitalization -- also features an Apple authorization chip for guaranteed compatibility. The solo plus follows the nearly-identical solo that we saw earlier in the year, sporting a low-profile design, wired remote, and integrated, noise-canceling, earbud headphones, while playing nice with the touch, classic, and 3G nano. Also like the solo, the solo plus will retail for $200 when it hits stores in October, so start filling out those return slips if you happened to have purchased an original unit recently.[Via iLounge]
Guide to the Shartuul event in Blade's Edge
Amanna posted a link to this extremely in-depth guide to the Eye of Shartuul event in Blade's Edge. If you've never done it (or heard of it-- seems like a majority of players might not actually know it exists), it's pretty cool. With the Ogri'la reputation chain, Blizzard introduced a solo quest series in Blade's Edge that can actually grant Epic gear.First things first, you've got to get Honored with Ogri'la, and then do the Banish the Demons quest, which allows you to get the items necessary to start the event itself. After that, you can pretty much follow Sadiki's guide-- he walks you through setting up the event, and all the different phases. The event itself is fun, too-- you abandon your own body, and instead fight through the even by controlling the demons. The final demon (which is actually pretty close in mechanics to C'thun in AQ) will actually drop Epic gear... kind of.What he'll drop is "Depleted" gear, which you then have to activate with Apexis Shards. The Epic gear created isn't completely great, but there is one amazing piece-- the Depleted Badge drop turns into the Badge of Tenacity, which is so phat for tanking druids we'll have to feature it in an upcoming Phat Loot Phriday.So yes, the event is some good solo fun, and though there's quite a bit of questing you have to do to set it up, getting Epic loot from a solo quest is always awesome, and following the great guide should make it easy.
WoW Moviewatch: Solo runs of Ramparts, Blood Furnace, and Mana Tombs
Lately there's lots of people running old world instances solo, as well as some people attempting runs of Burning Crusade instances alone and ending up victorious. I even saw a Paladin tank solo Hellfire Ramparts once.But in this video a Tauren Druid named (perhaps appropriately) Immortal, kills all 3 bosses of Ramparts, all 3 bosses of Blood Furnace, and the 2nd boss of Mana Tombs -- all on his own. Definitely worth a watch!Previously on Moviewatch...
WoW Moviewatch: Soloing Blackrock Depths
I find this video of a level 70 Paladin soloing Blackrock Depths to be fairly impressive -- but since we've already seen a paladin solo the Blood Furnace, perhaps it's not as impressive as I think. But as someone who's played through the instance a time or two, I'm pretty amazed to see someone soloing the Lyceum, an area of numerous mobs on an exceedingly fast respawn timer that's wiped many a full party. But what am I saying -- this is a video with aa Paladin, and the more mobs hitting them, the happier they are, right?Previously on Moviewatch...
WoW Moviewatch: Soloing Durnholde Heroic
In this video, Dysph shows us that anything is possible -- including soloing Heroic Outland content. In this video, Dysph takes out Lt. Drake from Durnholde Keep in the Caverns of Time. And while it takes an hour and a half, I've got to say it's still a huge accomplishment for a single player! But if seeing people tackle content like this single-handedly doesn't interest you, there's also an entertaining little backstory to the movie.Previously on Moviewatch...[Thanks, Mastari!]
Where to start with 2.1 content
The 2.1 patch this week introduced enough new quest lines, top-end raid content, flying mounts, and L70 solo & small group content to qualify as its own game. With a three day weekend looming I didn't even know where to begin. So I scoured the web and found the where to go and what to do to get me started. THE BLACK TEMPLE: Already planning to strut around Shattrath in your T6 Raid gear? Don't bank that T5 set too quick. The Black Temple attunement quest is ... epic. And it hasn't even been fully discovered so far. What is known is that you will have to slog through a great deal of the Burning Crusade raid content that comes before it: Karazhan, Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, Serpentshire Cavern, The Eye and The Battle of Mount Hyjal. And many of those raids require extensive attunement quests of their own. If you are still itching to begin, you can dig in with the Tablets of Baa'ri chain out of Shadowmoon Valley to start grinding that Ashtongue Deathsworn rep. NETHERDRAKE EPIC FLYING MOUNT: First, don't confuse this with the Swift Nether Drake top Arena teams are awarded with at the end of every season. That one has a speed increase of 310% and has an armored appearance. This is the normal epic nether drake with a speed increase on par with other epic flying mounts: 280%. What's special about this epic flying mount is that it can be obtained through solo and small group quests. No raid required. What is required is a great deal of dedication.The first steps on your journey is to dig yourself out of Hated reputation with the Netherwing clan and get all the way to Exalted. This is accomplished through solo, 5 man and 3 man daily quests. Head to the south east corner of Shadowmoon Valley and speak to Mordenai in the Netherwing Fields. A complete write up can be found here.
WoW Moviewatch: Rogue solos Van Cleef
While the title of this post may not seem that amazing, the actual video and character used are impressive. Theotwink of Malygos has twinked his character's basic gear, causing his dodge rate to exceed 100%. At level 10 (base level to enter the Deadmines) his high-level allies helped clear him to Van Cleef, where the showdown began. In what I can only guess was an excruciatingly long and probably boring fight, given all the guild/tell chat that was taking place, Theotwink emerges victorious over Van Cleef and his adds that he calls during the fight.
I'd rather be lonely
My little blood elf tankadin has just hit 50, and I've got to admit that I'm having more fun with WoW than I have in a long time. I'm exploring a new class and new roles, looking forward to quest rewards and leveled skills, and not dealing with raid schedules, raid invites, instanced rep grinding and all the other hassles of endgame. My 70 troll rogue sits alone in Shattrath City, probably wondering if I've ditched her for a younger, skinnier toon. And while I'm looking forward to walking my pally through the Dark Portal, part of me dreads getting her to 70. Maybe I'm just not very good at this whole MMO concept, but I wish there were more things to do at max level in solo PVE. Questing is my second favorite part of the game, after professions, and it sucks that after 70 soloable levels, nearly all character progression is in groups. Yeah, yeah, I know, this is an MMO and I do like instances and raids, but I also like being able to log on for half an hour and accomplish something while kind of paying attention instead of having to devote a set amount of time and brainpower to an instance. Especially since on my pally, I can alt-tab and read forums or write between Holy Shields. I'm looking forward to patch 2.1 because there looks like there will be a lot more reputation quests that can be done solo to get nice rewards. Maybe then I'll dust off my old rogue and start working on some new quests -- or at least have something to look forward to on my paladin. Do you like soloing or not? What other options would you like to see for character advancement at 70? Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk.
Solo's bus stop ad enables life-size chatting with strangers
Hot on the heels of Nokia's own bus stop gimmick comes none other than Solo, which has erected a clever display on a number of waiting areas to allow perfect strangers to yap it up on giant mobiles. The interactive billboards each sport a larger-than-usual flip phone, which allows curious onlookers to mash an enlarged walkie talkie button and get on the horn with a faraway stranger. The active two-way radio setup was reportedly installed in transit shelters in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, and Calgary, and the system supposedly connects users in the different cities to one another when a conversation is initiated. Unfortunately, Engadget HQ doesn't happen to reside in the land of the Canucks, so for our brethren in the north, why not stop on by and give a shout to a fellow Canadian, eh?[Via Core77]
WoW Moviewatch: Huntard vs. Goliath
Paladinsucks points us to this fascinating video of a level 70 hunter soloing Azuregos. Yes, you read that right -- a single level 70 hunter soloing Azuregos. And before you say it can't be done, the hunter does say he spent 87 minutes working on this -- and if you can hold out for that long, I'm tempted to believe almost anything's possible.Previously on Moviewatch...
Paladin solos Blood Furnace
Well color me impressed. While the rest of us are talking about soloing Stratholme and UBRS, Compactd of Bloodscalp isn't bothering-- he's already turning the Outland instances into solo material. He's walked all over Blood Furnace (he says it took him 2 hours), all by his lonesome.I'm no expert on Pally specs or gear, but if his gear currently on the Armory is any indication, he's specced holy, but geared like a DPSadin, with 674 spell damage. He's wearing a Shaman helm, strangely enough, and while I don't know if he actually carried it through BF with him, he's also running with the Six Demon Bag. Surely a spell damage trinket would be better than that, right?But I guess you can't complain with results. Next up: Slave Pens?[ via Paladin Sucks ]
