August 2013

Clockwork Chaos #GW2 #GuildWars2

stargrace August 22, 2013 No Comments

This week I started playing Guild Wars 2 again, which coincides with their latest event, Clockwork Chaos. Scarlet (pictured above) is a little bit crazy, and every hour on the hour an invasion of hers begins in Tyria. Basically an entire map turns into a mass of enemies and you and your friends (or anyone on the map) will have to split up into groups of 10 or so, in order to defeat. The reason you’ll have to split up is simple. There are too many groups to take them all down unless you split up AND the more people are in an area, the larger the single fight is. Split up and the encounters are slightly easier, meaning you can obtain the objectives quicker. You are on the clock after all!

Whether you defeat Scarlet or not, hang out on that map until the timer is up and you’ll be given a reward as well as rewards for participating in each individual fight. You’ll earn more rewards the further along the event you are, and as a word of warning, keep your bags empty. You may even want to be able to summon a merchant or banker while on your travels.

There are (as always) a ton of achievements associated with this event. I’ve been working on them slowly but the hardest one requires approx 13 hours invested. The achievement wants you to shut down 13 different invasions on 13 different maps. So far I’ve completed 5 of them. The event runs from August 20th until September 3rd (I believe) so you should have enough time even if you only complete one or two maps a day. A lot of people are running this continuously because the rewards are just that good and I don’t mean the clockwork rewards but the random blues greens and yellows that you’ll get from countless chests. It’s quite easy to go in and walk out with a few gold each time although if you’re anything like me you’ll want to turn map chat off.

As always Dulfy has a collection of guides and information on this live event, but the majority of them are pretty straight forward. Unlike the Queen’s Jubilee and the Gauntlet patches which I am still trying to figure out since they’re running at the same time. So far it’s been refreshing to be back in game. I like the simplicty of the game and my tiny asura is just as cute as ever. When I left I had only completed 55% of the map, and I still haven’t finished off my personal quest yet so perhaps I’ll be able to finish those off before my attention wanders once more. We’ll just have to see. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Gaming

The Legacy Continues #TS3 #TheSims3

stargrace August 21, 2013 No Comments

When we last left my legacy family, things were going well but I was starting to have a few issues controlling my household. So, some changes had to happen. For those who remember, a legacy family is where you play the same family for 10 generations, and try to expand that generation while you start from pretty much nothing. I had a lot of fun trying to upgrade my toilet and wall house but thankfully I’ve moved past that.

My household was three generations all living together. There was my founder Sim, her husband having passed on. Then there was her twin daughters, Emily and Jessica. Emily got married young, to Bob, and together they gave birth to Ginger. Jessica prefered women which I have absolutely no issues with except my strict legacy rules said that the next generation had to be of blood, so that ruled out adoption. Technically she could find some male to help her out but I decided to not force that upon the poor Sim, and just left her and her partner Yvette together.

My legacy founder was over 110 sim days old and simply refused to die. I didn’t want to kill her off, but I did want to make my household smaller and still play within my own ‘rules’. So Emily decided enough was enough and had a mini break down.

Tired of the fast paced life of Twinbrooke, she decided to pack everything she could up and move to Isla Paradiso. Bob her loving husband (who is an elder, didn’t really plan that one out very well) and her daughter Ginger accompanied her, but everyone else stayed behind. Since they only get whatever cash they had and none of the household items nor the old house came with them, it dropped their household from $80,000 down to $25,000. That money is what I used to purchase their island home pictured above. Although I did have to build Ginger her bedroom, the house only came with one.

Life in Isla Paradiso is much different than it was in Twinbrooke. Their main mode of transportation is the skidoo they have docked out back. The neighbours also have an awesome house, I sent Ginger over there with cookies for a meet & greet. Speaking of, Ginger is about to be a teenager, and then it will be up to her to carry on the legacy line. Thankfully her upbringing is going MUCH smoother than it did for Jessica and Emily, and she should have an easier time of things.

Gaming

The Sims 4 Official Gameplay Trailer #TS4 #TheSims4

stargrace August 20, 2013 2 Comments

The Official Gameplay Trailer for Sims 4 was released today and even if I wasn’t a huge fan of the franchise I think I would be excited about this release. Creating a Sim is like moulding clay. You don’t use sliders, you click on the actual person. You also get to give them personality which is something we haven’t seen before. They can walk differently and they have emotions far beyond what we’ve seen in the past.

As far as building a house goes, it’s simple and powerful. You can pick up entire rooms and move them around. The trailer spends a lot of time talking about the new emotional states that sims have, but I wish there was more of a focus on the creation process, because that’s what I like most about Sims, creating new lots!

Are you looking forward to playing? What are your thoughts?

Gaming

FFXIV and Learning to Dye

stargrace August 18, 2013 1 Comment

These are by far the cutest ugly toads I have ever seen.

Most of my weekend was eaten up by FFXIV, which doesn’t come as that much of a surprise to me. I played the 1.0 version of the game and enjoyed it quite a bit but grew frustrated with how difficult the learning curve was (personally). This time around things are going MUCH better, but again it still has a bit of learning that has to be done.

For example, dye. Apparently you can just right click a piece of gear, and then you’ll have a ‘dye this item’ option, and once you’ve gotten that far a nice interface will open up explaining things to you. OR there’s a quest NPC out in a higher level area (think 15+) who will explain how it is done. The quest involves orange juice.

Then there’s the interface. I learned a few handy tricks to getting it placed the way I want. First of all, the main chat window moves by dragging the ‘general’ tab along the bottom. You can’t move it when you’re adjusting the hud like you can every single other window. Think your windows are too large? When you are adjusting the hud (hit escape, and then go to HUD layout) you can select a piece (mouse click it) and then use contro + home to re-size it between a few options. You can drag the hotbars around by the numbers in the front, and you can turn off or on any piece you want by staying in HUD layout and right clicking on each piece.

Pretty simple, right?

Combat is what we’ve been playing for years now, and the game isn’t new if that’s what you’re looking for. You’ll be going to public quests, dungeons, even raids. You’ll run courier missions ad nauseum. The truth of the matter is that I’m not looking for a game that provides any of these things in a new or unique manor. In fact FFXIV is probably exactly what I’m looking for because of one key feature. It’s a world I have never explored with a backstory and lore that I’ve never delved into before.

Don’t get me wrong, I love pretty much every single MMO out there, and I’ve played a LOT of them. This isn’t putting those games down at all. I’m just saying that sometimes I want to go out and play a game that feels familiar but is still brand new to me. Crafting is a lot like Vanguard (but less complicated). You’re given some points, you spend those points to try to raise the quality of an item, before you run out of the durability.

Everyone can be everything and so far I haven’t done much more than work my pugilist to level 15 along with a LOT of crafting. You change “jobs” by switching out your primary, whether it’s a sword, a needle, or a hand to hand weapon. You can save gear sets (thankfully) and while I do wish there were better ways of organizing my collection of “stuff” it’s not a game breaker.

Because I was a 1.0 player I do get to play for a few weeks without subscribing, and we’ll see at that time if I’m going to keep going. I know a lot of friends are facing errors when it comes to logging in but my weekend has been bug-free. Hopefully all of the issues get solved before things go live on the 24th (early access) and 27th (release date). As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Real Life

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

stargrace August 16, 2013 No Comments

Cauliflower crust pizza – it was amazing. No flour at all. The recipe is adapted from theluckypennyblog.com

Grain-Free Cauliflower Crust Pizza
makes one approx. 12 inch pizza

1 small to medium sized head of cauliflower – should yield 2 to 3 cups once processed
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil (crush it even more between your fingers)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (crust it even more between you fingers)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
[omitted] optional a few shakes of crushed red pepper
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese [omitted]
1 egg
Desired amount of sauce, cheese for topping, and other toppings.

Place a pizza stone in the oven, or baking sheet if you don’t have a pizza stone. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a cutting board, place a large piece of parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking oil.

Wash and thoroughly dry a small head of cauliflower.Cut off the florets. Pulse in your food processor for about 30 seconds, until you get powdery snow like cauliflower. Place the cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl and cover. Microwave for 4 minutes. Dump cooked cauliflower onto a clean tea towel and allow to cool for a bit before attempting the next step.

Once cauliflower is cool enough to handle, wrap it up in the dish towel and ring the heck out of it. You want to squeeze out as much water as possible. This will ensure you get a chewy pizza like crust instead of a crumbly mess.

Dumped ringed out cauliflower into a bowl. Now add 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon dried basil (crush up the leaves even more between your fingers before adding), 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (crush up the leaves even more between your fingers before adding), 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt), and a dash of red pepper if you want. Now add your egg and mix away. Hands tend to work best.

Once mixed together, use your hands to form the dough into a crust on your oiled parchment paper. Pat it down thoroughly, you want it nice and tightly formed together. Don’t make it too thick or thin either.

Using a cutting board slide the parchment paper onto your hot pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven. Bake for 8 – 11 minutes, until it starts to turn golden brown. Remove from oven.

Add however much sauce, cheese, and toppings you want. Slide parchment with topped pizza back in the hot oven and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes until the cheese is melted, bubbly, and slightly golden.

Clockwork Chaos #GW2 #GuildWars2

The Legacy Continues #TS3 #TheSims3

The Sims 4 Official Gameplay Trailer #TS4 #TheSims4

FFXIV and Learning to Dye

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

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