Geekly Review #201

Time to check in on what we’ve been up to!

Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire

I played Guild Wars 2 when it first released way back in 2012, but  I don’t actually think I made it out of the starting area and probably only made it to around level 10. Despite that I remember enjoying it, it was probably my first foray in to MMORPG’s and it was pretty fun, I think that I just didn’t have or give up the time to play it properly.

Path of Fire is the latest expansion for the game and when watching the announcement trailer for it one line stood out to me, basically that it was accessible to new players as well as old. I want to put that to the test. In Path of Fire players will return to the iconic Crystal Desert from the original Guild Wars, and to the northern reaches of Elona, the land of Guild Wars: Nightfall, 250 years on.

Balthazar, the human god of war and fire, threatens the Crystal Desert and adjoining kingdom of Elona with his Forged legions. Players saw through the course of Living World Season 3 that Balthazar is determined to hunt Elder Dragons – and now he and his armies have invaded the desert to do just that.
Now, Tyria’s fate hangs by a thread as players race to the desert to hunt down the rogue god before he can do any more damage to the delicate balance of magic.

But first I needed to get my head around the game, so spent a few hours getting back in to the basics of the game.

I made my character and started my life Queensdale – the starter zone for Humans. For the first few levels I was basically just getting to know my surroundings and what things Rhapsody can do and access. I’ve decided to play as a Thief, I don’t really know why, it just appealed to me.

Weirdly, everything in Queensdale felt familiar, I remembered some of the quests, I remembered where to go for things and felt pretty at home. But, I feel that once I get stuck in to the expansion that feeling will fade quickly. I have a boost to level 80, and it’s at this point that  I will get to play Path of Fire and check out all the new stuff. Seeing as I’m such a noob to Guild Wars and MMO’s in general I decided that I’m going to document my time as a new player and test out just how accessible an MMORPG is 5 years in to it’s life cycle. So if you’re interested in that, then stick around for more posts!

Just an FYI, I already feel like I’m going to be way out of my depth…

Valnir Rok

I play the (potentially) crap Early Access Survival games, so you don’t have to. Valnir Rok is due to release this week and over the weekend I spent some time getting to know it and put together another ‘1 hour in’ video on my channel.

From what I got to play of it, I actually don’t think it’s too bad, there are quite a lot of bugs that caused me a number of issues, but underneath that there is a decent game coming along.

-Will

The American Office – “Michael… You Came…..,  That’s What She Said”

Two weeks back in GR#199, I mentioned that I was close to finishing all of The American Office. Well Sunday while a little hungover and battling man-flu (the worst combination) I didn’t leave the bed so finished the show. The final 3 episodes were all extended episodes pushing 40 minutes, and for someone watching this series in its entirety for the first time, I will happily admit it’s a damn emotional final 120 minutes. Episode 21 “Living The Dream”, with the departure of Andy as he pursues his ambitions of becoming a star. His good bye to the office singing the song “I Will Remember You”, with all of the office gathering round to see it was a great moment. The episode also had great moments such as Jim recommending that Dwight should be the new office manager to the CEO David Wallace. And the respect is paid right back albeit as much as Dwight tried to hide it, by appointing Jim as the assistant manager. The final moments of that episode with Angela finally breaking down after the run of bad things that happened to her after her split with the senator was also a huge moment. Following on this episode when Dwight confers with Jim with regards to his feelings for Angela, all the while with Pam watching a DVD that Jim put together for her highlighting their relationship over the past 12 years was just incredible. And then of course the big finale with the return of Michael Scott, and with each employee saying a send off message to the camera, it was fantastic. Dwight’s send off in particular as he goes onto mention about his ‘Subordinates’ from the Office over the years and his relationship with them. He went on to note Meredith is the only person he knows who can properly head-bang to Motorhead, Oscar is the godfather of his son, Jim was his best man, Angela is his wife and Pam is his best friend. So you tell him how he gets along with his coworkers. When Jim and Pam told him they were going to quit and move to Austin, he fired them so they’ll get severance pay. Dwight has come far as a human being from the dweeby assistant to the regional manager we first encountered in season 1.

WWE 2K18 Draft Picks

Last year myself and the other 2 “Book It Vince” regulars Matt and Mike partook in a mock draft for WWE 2k17, each at random picking a show from RAW, Smackdown & NXT, and then picking a roster one pick per round. We did this then created our own season on my copy of the game, getting together on evenings, creating story’s and playing through shows. The way we did it was simple, we’d play as the wrestler we actively want to win a story line or angle, and the others would take part in the match as a competitor. It made for some funny results and unexpected title challengers which would result in us adjusting potential bookings.

Well this week even though the game is still a month out, we did our 2nd annual brand selection and draft pick. I tried to make things look a little more official this year.

And not just a draft pick, we also gave the “Book It Vince” Champion his ring, Mike picked up the championship ring after winning season 1. We’re still continuing our predictions championship, way into season 2 now. As I’ve stopped doing Shoot Talk, there aren’t updates, but let’s put it this way, that championship ring will be coming my way by the end of season 2 that’s for sure. The draft pick was good fun and we’ve built up our carefully selected roster. To add to the atmosphere of it on my very first draft pick, rather than read the name out, I played the wrestlers entrance music. It went down pretty well so the idea was carried on throughout the night.

Some interesting selections were made, with Mike neglecting to pick women for his NXT brand, and only 2 tag teams, opting to select male superstars and a lot of future created wrestlers. Matt with some old proven talent with the likes of John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton and The Miz all going to his RAW show. I went with the happy balance of talent boasting a healthy women’s, tag and male roster.

And for any fans of statistics that follow us, the splits read as: *CAW = Create a wrestler

Smackdown – Murr
38.7% of Smackdown picks were Legit Male (not including tag team, just solo male)
9.6% CAW’s (not counting 1 tag team)
9.6% Male Legends
19.3% Legit Female
3.2% Female Legends
19.3% Tags (including 1 CAW tag team)
SD Picked 1 CAW Tag & 1 Female Legend

RAW – Matt
43.3% of RAW picks were Legit Male (not including tag team, just solo male)
3.3% CAW’s
3.3% Authority Figure
16.6% Male Legends
16.6% Legit Female
16.6% Tags
RAW only picked 1 CAW male

NXT – Mike
51.6% of NXT picks were Legit Male (not including tag team, just solo male)
32.2% CAW’s
9.6% Male Legends
6.4% Tags (including 1 CAW tag team)
0% Women
NXT Picked 1 CAW Tag

– Murr