My advice?  Just have fun!  It's the most fun I've had with a game in years.  Nothing like jumping in to learn.  Don't mind the idiots, there are plenty of nice, cool people playing.

Well damn.  No word on what happens to our jobs.  

riotous successes

This can also be said of a number of games that I didn't like and probably -LE- did not either.

The rest of your points are valid, but it does not change the fact that it's ok not to think HL2 was such a great game, for whatever their reasons.

Can someone please explain to me why it's not ok to not really like HL2?   This is the first game that I can remember where people just get furious with any one who doesn't praise it as the best game of all time.  What's wrong with having your opinion of what's fun?  Did HL2 have great graphics, good AI, gravity guns and bears oh my!?  Yes it did.  Did I have a total blast playing through it?  No, I didn't.  It just didn't capture me like other games have.  So what?

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 is my favorite game of all time!  If you don't like that game, should you play checkers instead?  Who cares, my taste is different than yours.

Same with other games like Warcraft III.  I've logged more hours playing (and having fun) with that game than any other game I've ever played.  If you didn't like it after playing the demo, should you be cast into burning flames?  LOL, NO!

For myself and others, HL2 just wasn't that great of a game.  I think that if it didn't have the HL name, then no one would care that much about it.  Now that the sequel is out, I see that Black Mesa had as much to do with me liking HL1 as the scripted sequnces and AI.  The setting for HL2 didn't capture me, and as such it wasn't that fun of a game.  Doom 3 was more fun for me this year.  In the end, WoW trumps them both (FOR ME!)

Any way, sorry to go on, but I just don't get how people get so mad about others not liking HL2.

Rob, I just want to say thanks for putting HL2 in the disappointments column and Doom 3 in the favorites.  Sure, HL2 was a neat game, but compared the what I hoped it would be, it did not live up.  Doom 3 on the other hand, was way more than I hoped for.  Bravo sir!

I don't much like this idea of calibrating a game to our expectations of it, though.  I mean, does that make a game better if you think it's gonna be shite and it turns out to be only average instead?

I think for the purpose of his list.  The second list is labeled top 10 disappointments after all.  Not top 10 worst games.

More PvP on a PvE.  I was just getting to Thousand Needles last night and I see the two NPC guards lying dead on the ground.  Odd, I thought.  I even needed to talk to one to complete a quest.

So, what do I spy running towards the Great Lift?  Well it's a Dwarf of some kind and he's totally oblivious to me.  Best of all, his PvP flag is on because he just killed those NPC guards.  I'm lvl 29 at this point, he's lvl 28.  So I run up behind him and stealth as I get on the lift.  He still doesn't see me.  Looks like he's enjoying the scenery.

So I whack him with a cheap shot skill and it stuns him for 5s and gives me two points.  To make a long story short, I basically work the Dwarf.  He wasn't prepared and my Rogue can dish out the damage.  He only got me for about 100 health of my 1000+ pool.  It was a fun moment.

Lesson of the day: Don't activate your PvP flag if you aren't paying attention.   :lol:

Rob, I just want to say thanks for putting HL2 in the disappointments column and Doom 3 in the favorites.  Sure, HL2 was a neat game, but compared the what I hoped it would be, it did not live up.  Doom 3 on the other hand, was way more than I hoped for.  Bravo sir!

This thread makes me curious, are there places put in the game just to look at, that you'll never be able to access.? I guess you could say they are there for atmosphere?  Or are they just not active quests?

I should have voted, I don't agree with the choice!

Well I know this, I bought it on that Amazon.com snafu where it was listed for $14.99 and they honored the price.  It just shipped yesterday from Amazon and the price never changed from $19.97 total (incl. shipping).  I should have it in a few days.

Ahh, thanks for the clarification guys.  I'll go ahead and train Parry this evening.  

The real fun begins when you start second guessing your Talent Point selections.

You can wipe them, but it costs Gold!!!

I've never even laid eyes on a gold piece, much less held one.  The most I've ever had is 14 Silver.  

That's normal.  Once you get higher up, you'll start finding good loot from monsters that you can't use and you sell it.  It starts to accumulate and you'll find that you have gold in your wallet!  Sadly, higher level skills cost lots and you'll be poor again.

On a side note, I train Parry too, as any chance for me not to get hit is a good one.

Ah, good to know.  Then I can buy the Almost Heroes Tabbard!  Once I hit level 10 and get a pet, am I safe to leave the first island?   I hear everything picks up even more once you leave it.

You'll have plenty of gold.  I'm level 29 now and I have around 5-6 gold handy.  I buy stuff at auction and buy skills and it goes down, but you'll start raking in the dough.  Higher level monsters drop silver, etc.  Hell I sold a sword that I looted for 90 silver at auction.  Making money is fun!

Not sure what race you are, but I know for the ones that I've played, once you leave the starting area, things do pick up.  You'll get quests that require you to go to another area of the world and then you'll get a whole bunch of quests from there.  It's a really neat process.  Soon, you'll have so many quests from so many different areas, you won't know what to do!

Last night was the first time that my log was full and I had to abandon a quest that I just couldn't do at the time.  

Any way, it's just fun, fun, fun ahead for you!!!

Ahh, thanks for the clarification guys.  I'll go ahead and train Parry this evening.  

The real fun begins when you start second guessing your Talent Point selections.

You can wipe them, but it costs Gold!!!

I've never even laid eyes on a gold piece, much less held one.  The most I've ever had is 14 Silver.  

That's normal.  Once you get higher up, you'll start finding good loot from monsters that you can't use and you sell it.  It starts to accumulate and you'll find that you have gold in your wallet!  Sadly, higher level skills cost lots and you'll be poor again.

On a side note, I train Parry too, as any chance for me not to get hit is a good one.

The real fun begins when you start second guessing your Talent Point selections.

You can wipe them, but it costs Gold!!!

Are we supposed to do our birthdays too?  Whoops, I'm 8-8-1977

I was at Stonetalon peak last night at the Night Elf's landing.  Mind you I am a lvl 28 Undead Rogue.  I didn't even know there was a NE camp there, it's practically Horde territory around there.  Any way, I was sneaking around, taking a look and there is this lvl 20 NE Hunter with a lvl 20 pet bear.  (BTW, this is a PvE server, so I couldn't just gank him.)  Any way, I turn off stealth and must just materialize in front of him....and he starts to attack me!  8 Levels is a lot to give.  Brave, but foolish he was.  I made short work of the Night Elf and went on my way.  Maybe he didn't know that he did not have to attack me.

EDIT: to add that my PvP flag was on because I killed a guard sneaking into the camp.  He didn't look any different from the creeps that were there, so I was shocked when I engaged him and it turned my flag on.

I'm pretty sure poison isn't related to herbalim or alchemy at all. However, it is related to thistle tea, which is like insta-energy for rogues.

My rogue is mining/engineering, mostly just for kicks. I like it a lot so far, there's a bunch of neat utility objects to use and lots of explosives of course.

Poison is an ability you get after completing a Rogue specific quest.  Any Rogue can learn it, as long as they complete the quest.  

Thistle Tea is a cosumable that instantly gives you 100 Energy.  It's also an item that you can learn how to make when your cooking gets to level 60.

Flare is a good one for Hunters vs Stealth also. I truly look forward to the day in PVP when a stealthed rogue shows up on my track hidden and I fire off a flare to reveal him and stick a big ol' hunter's mark bobbing above his head. Watching him scurry around in panic as he becomes the focus of attention for every ally in the vicinity...

 

Unless that rogue is not a stealth-based rogue, which many aren't. Of course then he probably wouldn't be stealthed in the first place either. Rogues are good at running anyways  

Yeah stealth is neat for soloing, but most all of my talent points are in combat, with a few in assassination.  I have none in stealth.  Hell, I found a sword so good (that requires to be held in main hand) that I don't even have access to some of my Rogue abilities, since they require daggers in main hand.

I also regularily group with Warriors, and I'll tell you this:  I deal way more damage than they do, even with me at the same level or below.  Watch out for Rogues, yo!  

In non PvP, you can see Rogues that are stealthed.  I have watched other Rogues sneak up on enemies and attack.  They looked just as you do while using stealth.

And that will make you unhappydog.

LOL!  :lol:

My dad wants one for xmas and I have no idea where to look?  he wants to be able to play his old 8MM movies on a new player.  Do you guys/gals have any idea?

Lord Ebonstone,

Saw you played an Undead Mage to 25, you're just the person to help me I think.

I just hit level 12. I'm currently in the Undercity, and have done the quest where I go to the Island, get Gunther's book, return it to him, kill Lillith, and then go back to the Undercity. At level 12, is that all I've got in the Undercity? I have a quest to go elsewhere and deliver something, so I'm assuming that's going to lead me to my next area?

I've done all the quests in Brill, and see no more for a Mage in the Undercity. Should I move on to the "Orcish" lands, or am I missing something?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Spiff, you get sent to the UC early, just to see that it's there, but you really don't have much to do there until later.  I would visit your Quarter of the city (Magic Quarter for a mage) and see if there's class specific stuff.

The delivery quests will definitely lead you to areas where your next group will be.  If you need to visit some place, it's likely because there is another set of quests there.  

Although being done with Brill at lvl 12 seems a bit early.  I was there for longer than that.

I played Horde in the beta and am playing Alliance in retail, and I agree that Alliance is a bit easier to do, but not that much. Horde quests might require a bit more running, but I don't think the difficulty is any more personally.

The reason I think there are so many more Alliance is that side is the "good" side, which people tend to pick in computer games and such. You can identify with a human or an elf more than an orc or troll. Most people going in have no idea if Alliance or Horde is "easier", they just go with what they're familiar with.

You know, I usually play as the good character in RPGs, etc. (Think KotOR), but I'm all about the Horde in WoW.  I play Undead, and as I see it, we're not the Scourge, we're the Forsaken, who are just a misunderstood group of animated corpses.  Not evil, although neither are the Orcs/Trolls/Tauren.  You know, now that I think about it, it's the Humans that are the evil ones!

Ok so I popped this baby in last night and did some testing.  So far, I am impressed.

I tried the Counter Strike: Source video stress test at 1024x768 with 4xAA and 4xAF.  I got 88.9 FPS, which is a lot higher than my 9600 PRO gave me.  I think I got around 40 FPS on the 9600.  I messed around in game and everything looked and played fine to me.  I don't know how to enable FPS in game, so if you do know....tell me!

On to Doom 3 for some testing.  First I ran the timedemo demo1 at 1024x768 with 4xAA and no AF on High Quality Settings.  I got about 37-38 FPS(don't remember the exact number).  This was after the second run, so that it's cached as recommended.  I ran the test again with same settings only Medium Quality and got about the same.  Maybe 1 FPS more.  So then I ran the test with High Quality settings, but no AA or AF and I got about 57 FPS, which is cool, cool, cool!  So then I jumped in game with the High Quality settings on, and no AA or AF and it basically hovered around 55-60 FPS the whole time, even with monsters and lighting.  I have to say this too, the textures are oh so much better in High Quality than Medium.

**EDIT** Oh, my system specs are:

P4 2.6C
1 GB PC3200 DDR
GeForce 6600 GT AGP
Audigy 2 ZS

So that's it for first time impressions.  More as it happens.

Thanks Butterknife,  If I ever get that UI, I'll run the test.  Thanks for the heads up!

When I was younger I was all about Pantera.  I met the whole band after a show in San Jose once and got their autographs.  Man, I just loved going to those shows.  That sucks for DD and all involved.

27

Can you do a census for other realms?  If so, can you do Bronzebeard?

Cool story!  Even the fan fiction inspired from this game is cool!

I gave up before my free month ended too.  It's a shame, it almost ruined my on MMOs.  Glad I took a chance on WoW, since I love that one.

Rogue is the class for me, and this game has sucked me in completely.  I love it man!!!!  I have a lvl 28 Undead Rogue on Bronzebeard.  I haven't been this attached to a game in a long time.

But on the other hand, does the constant PvP aspect add some excitement to the game for you?  Wouldn't it be fun to take small raiding party into an opposing town and start a big war?  That seems kind of cool to me - but maybe that's cause I'm a low level retard right now (as in I'm still pretty clueless)?

These raids happen on the PvE servers all the time.  People are always up to turning on their flag and PvP-ing it.

Blizzard has released no maps for instances, because they said they are to be explored, not mapped.

WoW is my GOTY.

Should be arriving today or tomorrow, I can't wait to use it with Doom 3 and HL2.  That is, if I can break away from WoW...NOT LIKELY!

I got this when it was selling for $15 on Amazon.  Should be cool to check out.

Its Alt-z to remove the UI for the screenshot.

Ah, that's good to know.  I've wanted to do that!

leo8877, Pacific, Bronzebeard, Horde, Skelleth, Rogue, Undead, None

UPDATE: I joined a guild, "Never's End" and selected professions of Herbalism and Alchemy so...:

leo8877, Pacific, Bronzebeard, Horde, Skelleth, Rogue, Undead, Never's End, Herbalism/Alchemy

Bronzebeard, Pacific PvE.  Never had a single problem.  Found a good group of players and joined a Horde Guild named "Never's End".

I was a long time nVidia user, who jumped to ATI with the 9600 PRO due to ATI just kicking butt at the time.  I've been waiting for the 6600 GT to be released in an AGP form and that's finally happened.  So I just bought the XFX one online.  Here's what I got:  http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=321018

No problems really with ATI, just wanted this super-fast card.  Can't wait to try it out!

That's GREAT!

I gotta start selling things on Ebay.

I'm ascared!!  

Devil, with all your games, you'd be a millionaire if you got on eBay.