medieval festival

Information Overload

Alright, first of all WOW what a week and it’s only Wednesday. I’m feeling 95% better and after having health issues for over a month this is a HUGE deal. It’s fantastic, I’ve been so excited and energetic. Now I just have to keep it up. I’ve been following E3 updates on twitter as well as G4 Tech Tv live, and while personally I’m not a console gamer at all (even though I do own a wii, PS3 and DSi) I am excited about a few things. Kingdom Hearts, Golden sun, a new mario (or two, even though I personally did not like mario galaxy) and who didn’t think the video of The Last Guardian just looked fantastic. Then there’s Natal, and all of the other motion sensor toys coming out, and the new PSP Go. While twitter was filled with some very bitter comments, I tried to keep a positive outlook (as is my way) and remind myself that these are games.

Tipa reminded me that The Dares would be performing in Free Realms across all servers, live from E3 last night, so I quickly made my way into game and ported to her on server 4. It was PACKED. It was the first time I ever experienced lag in Free Realms and we met up with some other bloggers / twitter users which was absolutely fantastic. We danced the night away, and I even picked up one of the concert tshirts for $1 because come on now, you just have to. On the down side while twitter said they played a full set at E3 they only played one song in game, and it was cut short each time, though they did repeat it twice if you stuck around. Still, having friends there made it a massive amount of fun and it was only too easy to see how popular Free Realms had become.

I did spend some time in EQ2 but I didn’t play. I loaded it up on my laptop and hung around in the guild hall chattering to Wpus, Ultann, and Kasul while they went and did all the hard work (mostly crafting and writs) for the evening. On the PC I continued to play Sims 3, I know how embarrassing. Giving up my MMO of choice for an evening to play something as fun silly as Sims. I tried to get to sleep early, the guild is VERY close to level 40 and three more amenity which is just amazing. Ultann has been belting out the writs like they’re being removed from game in the next update (they are not, that was a joke folks).

Thanks to one very kind Kasul I am now holding a copy of Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura which is an RPG that came out in 2001, that follows the Steampunk genre. I had never even heard of it before but when I entered in NeoSteam on GamerDNA this was one of the games they suggested I may enjoy, and it just so happened that Kasul had a copy of it kicking around. Not being an avid gamer myself until these last few years, I’d never even heard of it before. He also sent a copy of Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III which I’ve never played (despite the game sharing my last name of ‘Morrow’) so I’m looking forward to getting both of those installed on my PC. Sure these game may have seen better years, but I still play EQ happily and that game is 10 years old, so why not.

One last note before I head off to get the morning chores done – have you taken a look at these amazing tinker-themed housing items from EQ2? Holy WOW. I love the selection and any little gnome boy or girl is going to just fall in love with the set. Especially the wall dividers how amazing do those look?! The team has lined up some fantastic goodies for GU52 and I’m really looking forward to it all. I hope everyone has a fantastic Wednesday, in a week and a half the Medieval Festival will be taking place and barring any horrible weather I’ll be there taking pictures again this year – I’m SO excited.

Happy Gaming!

Epic Journey

There was only one thing holding me back from starting the epic weapon quest for my mystic. Ok, maybe more then one but one main thing. I took a look through the wiki and noticed what I needed before I got too far with it.

  • You must be lvl 80
  • You must speak Sathirian
  • You must speak Halasian
  • You must speak Death’s Whisper
  • Gathering skill needs to be 300+.
  • Foresting skill needs to be 340+.
  • Mining skill needs to be 340

Now, the languages and the level was not an issue but my harvesting skills were as low as they possibly could be. It happens when you have so many characters, things fall behind. So every once in a while I would take the mystic (when the trio wasn’t already involved in doing something, which was relatively rare) and go harvesting. I was working on the cloak from the Isle of Mara at the same time, so I wouldn’t have to go back and continue harvesting for that.

Yesterday I finally reached the point where I can harvest those skill levels, and so I started my epic. The mystic has been level 80 for quite some time, but since I’ve already got a collection of epics (some times twice such as in the case of my bard who is sporting both the troubador and dirge epics) the shine has worn off a little.

The starter for the mystic epic begins down in Sebilis. You have to speak Sathirian right away and he’ll give you a page. The page speaks about spirits and ancients and a little discovery he partook in, and his desire to go back. From there you head to City of Mist (which is an area in EQ2 and not a zone like EQ which dissapointed me) and kill ‘a timeworn spirit’ who happens to be hanging out. A chest drops which you’ll loot and will start the actual quest. It sends you to Teren’s Grasp to speak with a Runesage.

From there the quest moves on to a million other things I need to do. It’s probably one of the more involved quests I’ve done and I’m not even sure I like the end result. The weapon is great for groups, but has no heal crits and nothing to do with healing on the proc (it actually gives a bonus to combat).

I still want to start the epic with my illusionist some time as well, but since I’ve already started it and completed half of it on Najena, I have even less inspiration.

Aside from that, my gaming was fairly limited last night. I did manage to get the illusionist from 34-40 in carpentry which was fantastic. I churned out rush order writs to fly through the levels while watching Legend of the Seeker on Hulu. 8 episodes later and I’d managed to hit the next tier. I’ll probably wait for vitality to replenish before working through the next tier.

Today I’ll be heading to Manotick to take some pictures. It’s a little village just outside of Ottawa, and today is supposed to be absolutely beautiful out. I already have my balcony door open and the cool air is fantastic. I want to go to Upper Canada Village soon for some pictures as well, but their season doesn’t start until May 16th. Then there’s also the Medieval Festival which I hope will be making another appearance this year. Last year I had an amazing time. So many exciting things to do, both in game and out.

I hope everyone has an amazing Saturday, see you in Norrath!