21 Jump Street; A Review
Posted by Landerpurex on March 19th, 2012, 3:05 am. Category: Scribery Entry
9/10
I consider myself a comedy connoisseur. Whether it's the fine wine comedy of Monty Python, the outrageous antics of Will Ferrell in Step Brothers or Old School, or the recently over-the-top Wanderlust, and even further back to classics such as Caddyshack, National Lampoon, Animal House, and even further to the Stooges and Charlie Chaplin. I've seen it all. I have not, however, always enjoyed it all.
21 Jump Street was, simply put, a fantastic comedy. I wouldn't consider myself a huge Jonah Hill fan, but he does well in this movie. The star who really excels is Channing Tatum, however. As some other reviewers mention, seeing the actor exit his (boring, in my opinion) romantic role and enter into a comedic one is fantastic. His simple, yet sincere character is one we've seen time and again, but it's incredibly funny and somehow fresh in this film. Jonah Hill's character is similar to those in the past, the outcast bookworm, but again, it fits the movie.
The premise of the movie is that Tatum and Hill are newly graduated policemen, and aren't at all good at their job. After losing some perpetrators doing drugs in the park, they are reassigned to the run-down undercover unit at 21 Jump Street. Here, their captain (A hilarious Ice Cube) assigns them to pose as students to try and take down the supplier of a new hallucinogenic drug called HFS (Holy F'ing
). Simple enough premise. A large part of the comedy of this movie is currently edgy, and will hit home with our generation for years to come. Tatum and Hill return to school to find that studying, caring for the environment, and being tolerant is now 'cool'. This, of course, is openly satirizing the abrupt shift that is taking place with youth today, for good or ill and remains a very potent comedic strand throughout the movie. In a memorable scene, when the two first return to high school, they are bombarded by new cliques, such as asians dressed in cosplay and the now infamous hipsters. Again, it's humor that has a target audience and works incredibly well for us who are mired in these new cultural phenomena.
Interestingly enough, there are a few good action scenes to be had in this movie as well. It's no Jackie Chan movie, but the director manages some good action, explosions (and satirizing the convention of explosions), car chases and shootouts to change the pace when a change is warranted.
This isn't an art film, and will not wow you with presentation, cinematography, sound, or any other technical aspect. It is driven by its humor, strong acting, and script, which is always enough with a successful comedy. We are meant to pay attention to the jokes, not what the camera angles suggest. It is sufficient enough technically that we aren't distracted by *bad* decisions, there is just not anything that will wow you in that respect.
There are many laughs to be had in this movie, for people of all ages and backgrounds. The guys are forced to try the new drug right away to prove they're not police, and the insanity ensues. Tatum bursts into the band room and destroys and disrupts. Hill returns to drama class and somehow nails himself the lead part in the school's production of Peter Pan. In an attempt to get in with one of the dealers, the guys throw a party of wicked proportions, and kids from a rival school show up. This ends in Tatum punching almost anyone who steps in front of him and Hill getting stabbed with some kind of artifact. Then, their parents return and break up the party.
This movie toes the line between ridiculous and incredibly funny exactly the way a great comedy should. It's witty, edgy, and simply funny nearly all the time, with very strong acting and writing throughout all the while remaining grounded in a decent enough story. There are even a few great surprises to be had, including a fantastic cameo. The ONLY reasons this film garners a 9 instead of a 10 from me is because it falters in the final scenes, going too far with a shock device that seems totally unnecessary given the merit of the rest of the film. There are also some cliches to be had, but they serve their purpose in the plot.
In short, go and see this film as soon as possible.
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Guild Wars 2 (Pre-Purchase) April 10th
Posted by killa kiaba on March 15th, 2012, 6:52 pm. Category: Scribery Entry
https://buy.guildwars2.com/
All pre-purchase editions include these exclusive bonuses:
Access to all Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Events
Three days of headstart access
Hero’s Band (+2 to all stats)
DIGITAL EDITION $59.99
Guild Wars 2 game
DIGITAL DELUXE $79.99
Guild Wars 2 game
Summon Mistfire Wolf Elite Skill
Rytlock Miniature
Golem Banker
Chalice of Glory
Tome of Influence
COLLECTOR'S EDITION $149.99
Guild Wars 2 game
Summon Mistfire Wolf Elite Skill
Rytlock Miniature
Golem Banker
Chalice of Glory
Tome of Influence
10-inch figurine of Rytlock
112 page Making of Guild Wars 2 book
Custom Art Frame
Art Portfolio and Five Art Prints
Best of Guild Wars 2 Soundtrack CD
Minimum System Requirements*
* Due to potential changes, system requirements may change over time, and you may be required to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to continue to play the game.
Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better · 2 GB RAM
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 or better
NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI Radeon™ X1800, Intel HD 3000 or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better)
25 GB available HDD space
Broadband Internet connection
Keyboard and mouse
All pre-purchase editions include these exclusive bonuses:
Access to all Guild Wars 2 Beta Weekend Events
Three days of headstart access
Hero’s Band (+2 to all stats)
DIGITAL EDITION $59.99
Guild Wars 2 game
DIGITAL DELUXE $79.99
Guild Wars 2 game
Summon Mistfire Wolf Elite Skill
Rytlock Miniature
Golem Banker
Chalice of Glory
Tome of Influence
COLLECTOR'S EDITION $149.99
Guild Wars 2 game
Summon Mistfire Wolf Elite Skill
Rytlock Miniature
Golem Banker
Chalice of Glory
Tome of Influence
10-inch figurine of Rytlock
112 page Making of Guild Wars 2 book
Custom Art Frame
Art Portfolio and Five Art Prints
Best of Guild Wars 2 Soundtrack CD
Minimum System Requirements*
* Due to potential changes, system requirements may change over time, and you may be required to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to continue to play the game.
Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better · 2 GB RAM
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 or better
NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI Radeon™ X1800, Intel HD 3000 or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better)
25 GB available HDD space
Broadband Internet connection
Keyboard and mouse
The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet (3/27/2012): A Review
Posted by defeat on March 12th, 2012, 8:14 pm. Category: Scribery Entry
Rating: 9/10
There are few bands I expect to blow me away with every release, and The Mars Volta is one of them. In any form of art there is an indefinite number of artists trying to take their chosen medium to the next level of originality. This is especially true in music, but most tend to get hung up on the concept of genres. It’s an easy thing to do, as genres are the best reference points art has to describe it. A genre is sometimes necessary for description, but at other times putting a label on a work of art can hinder the art itself. Trying to describe The Mars Volta’s music is hard enough, but putting one specific genre or label on it is simply impossible. One thing that they have stuck by, however, is the pop format. Granted, their songs aren’t the verse/chorus/verse all-in-under-four-minutes that Top 40 radio stations have come to embrace (it’s more like intro/verse/chorus/verse/bridge/chorus/outro, all-in-sometimes-10-minutes-or more), but they do have choruses that fans of intensely poetic, non-linear lyrics can try and sing along with. I say try, because, come on…Who can sing that hauntingly beautiful falsetto like Cedric Bixler-Zavala?
Throughout their career The Mars Volta have incorporated everything from jazz to Latin into their music, but their latest release, entitled Noctourniquet, comes closer to being a pop/rock album than any of the others. There. I said it. It’s a pop album. This shouldn’t have come as such a surprise to me, as the last release, 2009’s Octahedron, only had a single song over eight minutes (a huge departure from the band’s early days that spawned songs like the 35+ minute epic “Cassandra Gemini”). It was a surprise, though. Maybe it’s surprising because this is the first album they’ve released that I’ve heard parts in songs that could have come from other bands. “Aegis” has a feel reminiscent of Muse in the verses. “Zed and Two Naughts”’ drums instantly brought A Perfect Circle’s song "Weak and Powerless" to mind. Even the lead single has a guitar riff that could have come from any of the songs on Queens of the Stone Age’s album, Era Vulgaris, or any of Jack White’s past and present projects. I’m not saying that they were trying for any similarities, but when you make a pop album, it’s impossible to completely avoid them, even for The Mars Volta…
…And a The Mars Volta album it is! Even with these few similarities, the above mentioned songs are undoubtedly and uniquely straight from TMV’s songwriter and producer, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. His guitar playing is as riff-tastic and sometimes nothing but effects per-usual. He’s always been an experimental little guy, and even with Noctourniquet’s pop sensibilities, he's still pushing the boundaries of music. Their usual use of keyboards has changed from jazzy piano and organ to synth (possibly due to the departure of keyboardist "Ikey" Owens), although their trademark sound manipulation can be heard throughout the album’s entirety. Fans of The Volta’s past efforts won’t be disappointed, especially with the songs “Dyslexicon”, “Molochwalker”, and “Trinkets Pale of Moon”, which range from in-your-face to soft and sweet, respectively. One thing some fans tend to complain about is the revolving door of drummers since Jon Theodore stopped playing with the band in 2006. I never jumped on that band wagon, and really enjoyed Thomas Pridgen’s drumming on the last two albums. However, the only complaint I have about Noctourniquet is just that, the drumming. New drummer, Deantoni Parks, just doesn’t do it for me. He seems to be trying way too hard to live up to the sonic pummeling that the previous albums have featured, and sometimes fails miserably (evident in “Lapochka”).
If you haven’t heard The Mars Volta before, disliked their previous efforts for being too artsy, or are one of the many who haven’t liked an album of theirs since the full length debut (2003’s De-Loused in the Comatorium), Noctourniquet is a great album to get acquainted with, as it’s their most accessible and listener friendly album to date. Fans of the entire discography beware…
It’s a pop album. There. I said it again...
Recommended if you enjoy: Radiohead, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age's Era Vulgaris and/or Jack White
The official lead single can be listened to here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh0stkLanx4&ob=av3e
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning; A Review
Posted by Landerpurex on February 15th, 2012, 12:33 am. Category: Scribery Entry
Overall rating: 8/10.
I've done my homework on this game, both before and after buying it. Everyone seems to be looking at it completely the wrong way. Other reviewers and consumers are comparing this game to Skyrim, Mass Effect, and many other juggernaut RPGs. This is a mistake. Reviews range from a 9/10 from IGN to a 5/10 from Adam Sessler at G4TV.
Kingdoms of Amalur is similar to other RPGs in some respects, and in others it is radically different. If we analyze and enjoy this by itself, it's a great game. If we stand it next to Skyrim, it falters badly in some respects, and excels in others.
The things this game does well are apparent from the moment you start playing. Environments are very vibrant, and are sufficiently unique. They're somewhat linear, but also allow for quite a bit of exploration and free roam. There are enough hidden treasures, places, and quests to keep you busy for many hours. Often I would venture off the path in search of a treasure that showed up on my map thanks to my 'detect hidden' skill, and would instead spend a few hours saving a town from some kind of spider woman. This had nothing to do with the main quest or any of the 'factions'.
The story for this game is very good, and has RA Salvatore's flair. Sometimes, however, this is its undoing. Every little quest has five minutes of backstory or lore, when you might simply be trying to complete a quest for a quick buck or exp gain. I sometimes found myself skipping dialog for meaningless side quests. On the other side of this issue, the main storyline and faction quests are well-done. I especially loved the storyline of the House of Ballads, a group of elf-like people who endlessly reenact battles and adventures long past. In short, the overarching story isn't anything unconventional, but there are many originalities and nuances to be enjoyed. It's easy to see the care that went into the story, and that a good novelist was the one who oversaw it.
I can't write a review about this game without mentioning it's greatest strength: the battle system. It's fast-paced and more than simple button mashing. I like the emphasis on combos and certain attacks, such as those that 'pop up' your enemy, making them vulnerable for further hits. The amount of attacks is satisfying, but the key is exploring which ones work best together.
The game's skill system is pretty basic but fulfilling at the same time. There are plenty of skills and styles to be explored, without there being *too* much. The destiny system is great, you can unlock bonuses for your character as you dump points into any of the three skill trees. You can also unlock destinies for hybrid classes, even ones for supporting all three trees. This allows for a fantastic amount of customization with ample reward for whichever tree/s you choose to support.
That being said, this game's mechanics allow for one of the best roleplaying opportunities I've seen. The destiny system and hybrid classes make for an experience that really hasn't been amply explored in other titles. If you couple this with the strong story and hundreds of quests, then you have a very enjoyable recipe.
The game, of course; is not without faults. Some consumers have complained about the voice acting, but I actually enjoyed it. I found it more inspiring than some, and dialog seemed to fit the character saying it. I will be the first to admit that character models and facial expressions are lacking. Though the voice acting is good, it is not paired with good facial modeling. The characters are expressionless and half the time, their mouths don't even follow what they're saying.
Other cons involve slight dips in framerate, but nothing that was at all gamebreaking. I also often found the shops lacking, I finished the game with over 5 million gold. Granted, I was a money-making machine with max mercantile and detect hidden skills, but there was literally nowhere for me to spend my money after about 2/3 of the way through the game.
I spent about 50 hours on this game, and I was thoroughly satisfied with my experience. There seems to be dozens more hours of content, as I finished with over 50 side quests unfinished, and who knows how many more I left not taken. The replayability of the game is high as well, with trophies/achievements awarded for each playstyle. Though it would be just as easy to totally re-allot your skill points than to start over, but what's the fun in that?
The game is pretty standard fantasy fare on almost every front, while excelling in a few respects; namely the battle system and the major storylines. As other reviewers have pointed out, this game seems to borrow the best features of a lot of other titles and implement them in game to the point where they work together to near perfection. Loot, story, battling, skills, environment, and more. Overall, this game was a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a new, solid RPG to play from a new studio, but with some very hard-hitting names behind it.
The Woman in Black; A Movie Review
Posted by Landerpurex on February 6th, 2012, 1:05 am. Category: Scribery Entry
Rating: 7/10
This was a good movie, not a great one. It did its job, it scared me (badly) at times, and there were very great technical things happening with this movie. However, it was inconsistent and Radcliffe's acting was just awful.
This movie is pretty typical as far as horror stories go, it's set in early 1900s England. The main character Arthur Kipps (Radcliffe) plays a lawyer or paralegal, hard up for a break. He is sent by his firm to a sinister house near a small town, where the spirit of a woman terrorizes the town and the house. His son and their nanny are supposed to join him at the house after some time. Don't be fooled by the PG-13 rating, I learned with Insidious that underrated movies can be terrifying.
The opening scene of this movie was literally the most technically sound, and perhaps the best scene in the movie. While any opening scene should be great, it shouldn't be the best scene in the film. We're shown three young girls playing in an upstairs room, and nothing seems to be wrong. After a few moments, one of them drops their little teacup. It shatters. They then get up and advance towards the three windows, one of the trampling the teapot on the way. Here we have many good things in the cinematography and editing. Short takes. Shades of montage. Short jump cuts. This serves to confuse us, and it works very well. The three girls step up to the sill simultaneously, and jump out the windows. Then we're taken to Arthur's house, shocked by the previous scene and left with many questions.
The worst thing about this film, I felt, were its inconsistencies. It's easy to see that the aforementioned scene was meticulously cared for during production, whereas the rest of the film only shows glimmers of that care. As I said previously, Radcliffe's acting is terrible. He never shows any emotion, both when he realizes his wife has died in childbirth, nor at the end of the film when he is reunited with his son. This movie didn't call for him to strive for any awards, most of the time Arthur runs through the house chasing various noises. I was disappointed that when the script called for a little acting, he didn't deliver. And this took me away from the movie.
The movie delivers through jump-scares that we've come accustomed to with modern horror cinema. The cinematography is sound, with several first person shots that round corners, raising suspense. Of course, the scares don't come when we expect them. Moreover, there are several scenes in this film with these creepy, awkward, grimy toys that often act on their own. This was perhaps the most unsettling thing about the film. Picture a porcelain clown toy from that era, that contorts itself and ends with a close-up shot of his grinning face. Don't see this (or do) if you're afraid of clowns. *shudder*
Along those same lines, there is a scene where Arthur is (you guessed it) checking a noise he heard in the house. He's using a candle, and upon entering the room, there are closeups of the aforementioned toys, and the light of the candle is reflected in their eyes. It's moving with Arthur, and subsequently, moving in the eyes of the toys, making it seem as if they are following his movement. There are similar scenes to this, such as one where Arthur sees the reflection of the ghost in a mirror, but when he turns to check, she is gone. Subtle tricks like these make this movie a positive experience.
The house is a major star in the film, as it should be. It is sinister, old, foreboding, dusty, cobwebby, and simply everything a haunted house should be. There is a cemetery on the grounds that adds to the feeling. In addition to that, there is a lone wooden cross in the front yard where a little boy died when he sank into the swamp.
When we are first introduced to the house, Arthur goes downstairs, exploring. His job in the place is to make sure there are no more official papers in the home and to try and find the owner's last will and testament. When he enters the room, there is a newborn baby crow on the floor. He picks the baby up and puts it in the nest nearby. As soon as he does so, he is attacked by mama bird. I enjoyed this scene, it seemed an homage to the horror of yore, movies like The Omen and Hitchcock's The Birds, where birds figure heavily in the horror.
Additionally, this scene bears a stark parallel with the final moments of the movie. Clever foreshadowing, or heavy-handed symbolism? Go see the movie and find out!
In short, I really enjoyed this movie, both at the surface level of modern horror and as an amateur film student. Its inconsistencies are many, but the great scenes it offers do redeem it. It is scary in the same way that other modern horror films are, and is easily enjoyable by anyone that loves the horror genre. I recommend this film.
The Devil Inside: A Movie Review
Posted by Landerpurex on January 25th, 2012, 3:43 am. Category: Scribery Entry
Before we get started, let me state that there will be plot points discussed in the following text, but I will do my best to keep crucial points a secret. Let me also state that I am not a professional critic, but have more critical film expertise than most people; having taken several film courses in college.
Rating: 3/10
The premise that a woman named Maria Rossi kills three people in 1989. Her daughter, Isabella, goes to the hospital in Italy where her mother has since been committed. Isabelle then attends a class full of priests about exorcism. She befriends two of them, and sets out to find what has actually happened to her mother and document it on camera.
Let me first say that this movie was completely horrible. Awful. Terrible. The plotline was as jagged as a piece of broken glass, and not nearly as sharp. I don't even know where to begin with this one. The movie opens with a short black-screened scene that lets us listen in on the 911 call after Maria has killed three priests. This is, without a doubt, one of the scariest scenes in the movie, which isn't saying much. Then we are treated to some convoluted storyline and some basic 'travel' footage of Isabella and her cameraman in Italy. There's nothing of significance in the first portion of the film.
After a bit, we see Isabella visit her mother in the hospital. I was intrigued by the fact that the staff seemed to trust the woman, even though she had a violent past. I was surprised that her daughter was even allowed to see her. This was one of the numerous gaping plotholes in the movie, but I was willing to forgive if it could deliver in the scary department.
Maria Rossi's character is sufficiently creepy, especially on the first meeting. She's clearly insane, and looks the part. Her hair is frazzled, she looks completely gaunt and malnourished, and she has been cutting crosses into herself, into painful areas like the inside of her lip. She asks her daughter if she knows how to "connect the cuts..." which was creepy. But it wasn't nearly enough. Maria screams a scream that is certainly not human, and Isabella leaves the hospital.
Between 'exorcisms' we're treated to mundane storyline, and the ever present battle between the two priests. One wants to exorcise Maria and others like her to help them, the other is afraid of losing his priesthood as the two are doing these exorcisms without the church's consent. While the idea is nice, and shows another side to the politics of the catholic church, it is the same conflict between characters we've seen in thousands of other movies. It fails to deliver, and the bad acting doesn't help.
The film's only redeeming scene comes when the priests decide that Isabella should accompany them on a separate exorcism to learn more about the practice. In this scene, the victim does numerous disturbing things, such as popping her shoulder out of place and generally contorting her body. It's nothing more than what we've come to expect from this genre, but it is effective still.
After this, the film loses all its merit. The group returns to the hospital to exorcise Maria, only to have her multiple demons jump into one of the priests, the cameraman, and Isabella. There are generic scenes such as one when the lights go out with the possessed priest upstairs.
Lastly, I must comment on the ending of this movie. I warn you, I am about to spoil it. But then, a movie as poorly made as this doesn't deserve the decency of secrecy.
In the final moments of the film, with the possessed priest dead, the cameraman is rushing Isabella to an exorcism expert in Rome. He becomes 'possessed', takes off his seatbelt, and veers into oncoming traffic, causing a wreck and the presumed death of the people in the car. The movie then ends. Abruptly. We are told the case is unresolved, and that we can visit http://www.therossifiles.com/ to find out more. Is this a clever blending of modern technology to enhance your moviegoing experience, or is this cheap, pathetic advertisement? A good film shouldn't need some website to further explain itself, and the site doesn't even do that from what I could gather.
The way endings like this work in a positive way is if we have been on a satisfying journey throughout the movie. In this one, we have not. We don't care about the characters. We can barely process what's going on as we see multiple exorcisms and the demons jump into the characters. There are no technically sound aspects to speak of, this movie is low-budget and it shows. It takes from a really great genre, the 'documentary', 'found-film' horror. Such titles like the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity work because they utilize the cheap camerawork to make it look real. There are clear plot arcs. There are foundations in classic horror, and there are innovations as well that make up for unknown (but not always bad) actors. The Devil Inside has none of these, as I've mentioned.
The Exorcism horror sub genre never stood a chance. In it's premier, the original Exorcist movie got it right the first goddamn time. And no good exorcism movies have been made since, only cheap, floundering copies cashing in on the same idea.
There were some decent things about this film, but not enough to make it any good and certainly not enough to redeem the ridiculous ending. It was as if the movie itself were saying "Ha-ha for watching this garbage, now go yourself" and the ending was the exclamation point on that statement. Don't waste your money on this movie, hopefully it'll soon be out of theaters and we can move on.
Rating: 3/10
The premise that a woman named Maria Rossi kills three people in 1989. Her daughter, Isabella, goes to the hospital in Italy where her mother has since been committed. Isabelle then attends a class full of priests about exorcism. She befriends two of them, and sets out to find what has actually happened to her mother and document it on camera.
Let me first say that this movie was completely horrible. Awful. Terrible. The plotline was as jagged as a piece of broken glass, and not nearly as sharp. I don't even know where to begin with this one. The movie opens with a short black-screened scene that lets us listen in on the 911 call after Maria has killed three priests. This is, without a doubt, one of the scariest scenes in the movie, which isn't saying much. Then we are treated to some convoluted storyline and some basic 'travel' footage of Isabella and her cameraman in Italy. There's nothing of significance in the first portion of the film.
After a bit, we see Isabella visit her mother in the hospital. I was intrigued by the fact that the staff seemed to trust the woman, even though she had a violent past. I was surprised that her daughter was even allowed to see her. This was one of the numerous gaping plotholes in the movie, but I was willing to forgive if it could deliver in the scary department.
Maria Rossi's character is sufficiently creepy, especially on the first meeting. She's clearly insane, and looks the part. Her hair is frazzled, she looks completely gaunt and malnourished, and she has been cutting crosses into herself, into painful areas like the inside of her lip. She asks her daughter if she knows how to "connect the cuts..." which was creepy. But it wasn't nearly enough. Maria screams a scream that is certainly not human, and Isabella leaves the hospital.
Between 'exorcisms' we're treated to mundane storyline, and the ever present battle between the two priests. One wants to exorcise Maria and others like her to help them, the other is afraid of losing his priesthood as the two are doing these exorcisms without the church's consent. While the idea is nice, and shows another side to the politics of the catholic church, it is the same conflict between characters we've seen in thousands of other movies. It fails to deliver, and the bad acting doesn't help.
The film's only redeeming scene comes when the priests decide that Isabella should accompany them on a separate exorcism to learn more about the practice. In this scene, the victim does numerous disturbing things, such as popping her shoulder out of place and generally contorting her body. It's nothing more than what we've come to expect from this genre, but it is effective still.
After this, the film loses all its merit. The group returns to the hospital to exorcise Maria, only to have her multiple demons jump into one of the priests, the cameraman, and Isabella. There are generic scenes such as one when the lights go out with the possessed priest upstairs.
Lastly, I must comment on the ending of this movie. I warn you, I am about to spoil it. But then, a movie as poorly made as this doesn't deserve the decency of secrecy.
In the final moments of the film, with the possessed priest dead, the cameraman is rushing Isabella to an exorcism expert in Rome. He becomes 'possessed', takes off his seatbelt, and veers into oncoming traffic, causing a wreck and the presumed death of the people in the car. The movie then ends. Abruptly. We are told the case is unresolved, and that we can visit http://www.therossifiles.com/ to find out more. Is this a clever blending of modern technology to enhance your moviegoing experience, or is this cheap, pathetic advertisement? A good film shouldn't need some website to further explain itself, and the site doesn't even do that from what I could gather.
The way endings like this work in a positive way is if we have been on a satisfying journey throughout the movie. In this one, we have not. We don't care about the characters. We can barely process what's going on as we see multiple exorcisms and the demons jump into the characters. There are no technically sound aspects to speak of, this movie is low-budget and it shows. It takes from a really great genre, the 'documentary', 'found-film' horror. Such titles like the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity work because they utilize the cheap camerawork to make it look real. There are clear plot arcs. There are foundations in classic horror, and there are innovations as well that make up for unknown (but not always bad) actors. The Devil Inside has none of these, as I've mentioned.
The Exorcism horror sub genre never stood a chance. In it's premier, the original Exorcist movie got it right the first goddamn time. And no good exorcism movies have been made since, only cheap, floundering copies cashing in on the same idea.
There were some decent things about this film, but not enough to make it any good and certainly not enough to redeem the ridiculous ending. It was as if the movie itself were saying "Ha-ha for watching this garbage, now go
yourself" and the ending was the exclamation point on that statement. Don't waste your money on this movie, hopefully it'll soon be out of theaters and we can move on.
Lamb Of God - Resolution (01/24/12): A Review
Posted by defeat on January 23rd, 2012, 5:49 pm. Category: Scribery Entry
Rating: 7/10
I almost didn’t review this album after listening to the first half of it. I was thinking, “Oh….It’s (2009's) Wrath…again, and I’ll have nothing to say…” After giving it another chance, the second half of the album was indeed Lamb Of God’s saving grace.
Every member of Lamb Of God have seemingly evolved over the years, except for the second most talented member, drummer, Chris Adler. Don’t get it wrong. He’s a favorite drummer of many, as he’s a consistent, speed drumming machine with great fills and feet faster than light. Come with the dynamics already, though, Chris! Maybe, it’s the production that’s held you back with your sound. Maybe, it’s the way you tune your drums (Let them resonate a bit next time, eh? Every, single, solitary drum shouldn’t have the short thump of a bass drum…). Maybe, you just don’t care. Some don’t. Oh, well...so it goes. (I've been reading a lot of Vonnegut as of late.)
Resolution, contradictorily to the drumming, is LOG’s most dynamic release yet. Some thought the band had been lost to “The Graveyard of Previously Great Bands” with the bore that was their previous release, Wrath. It just seemed like a filler album without any originality. Resolution is an adventurous turn of events in LOG’s discography. Guitarists’ Mark Morton and Willie Adler have given us a new take on The New Wave of American Heavy Metal with some softer, more progressive, off-time riffs in the songs “Barbarosa”, “King Me”, and lead single “Ghost Walking”. In most metal, the bass guitar is just a copy of the lead riff, just lower. In this release, though, bassist John Campbell is pleasantly noticeable in parts throughout Resolution’s entirety.
It would be fantastic to have Machine back at the production helm instead of Josh Wilbur, as some minor kinks in the production are what took away some audio enjoyment points. The drums have been mentioned as a major issue. Other kinks were really just post-production snafus. “Barbarosa” and “Invictus” is clearly one song. With fourteen tracks, it’s not like LOG were scraping the barrel for material. Some of the songs on the second half of the album should have been mingled with the first half to break up the turn off of early monotony. This takes away from the listening experience the most. God, is that second half great, though…
In other news, vocalist, Randy Blythe is still alive.
Lead single: "Ghost Walking" Official Video
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows; a review
Posted by Landerpurex on January 7th, 2012, 7:28 am. Category: Scribery Entry
Before we get started, let me state that there will be plot points discussed in the following text, but I will do my best to keep crucial points a secret. Let me also state that I am not a professional critic, but have more critical film expertise than most people; having taken several film courses in college.
Rating: 8/10
Everyone knows the story of Sherlock Holmes, renowned detective. This movie is no different, with Holmes needing to solve a difficult case involving a sinister man named Professor Moriarty. The movie is deliciously mysterious, with Moriarty's motives in question until the final moments. Holmes of course enlists in the help of Dr. Watson, who is newly married; and the two go on an adventure that spans the European Continent to uncover Moriarty's plans and to try to save his intended victims that include Dr. Watson, his wife, a gypsy, and eventually all of Europe.
This movie was fantastic. Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, and Jared Harris can do no wrong. The acting is superb, though sometimes over the top. I have, however, come to expect this of Downey Jr in general as well as within this franchise, so it works. He and Law make a fantastic pair, and the charisma and camaraderie come across well. Jared Harris makes a great villain as well, it's that simple.
The film lives up to its predecessor. It leaves a trail of clues that you are expected to notice, but not expected to piece together as Holmes does in the end. Certain important items are centered in the shot from Holmes' point of view, labeling them as imperative. The cinematography is sound, using multiple angles and distances when necessary. Sound is coupled with this approach as well. For example, there is one scene where one of Moriarty's lackeys is shown smoking a hand rolled cigarette. The cherry burns extra bright, and the sound of it burning can be heard over the other things going on in the frame. I wondered to myself, 'how is this important?' And I had a great time racking my brain trying to figure it out. I felt accomplished when it was revealed that the cigarette was important to the plot. This movie's greatest quality is that it makes you think and guess along with Holmes.
The film's comedy is fantastic, though sometimes ridiculous, as with the killing and revival of the poor bulldog (again). Though, once again, Downey Jr has made Holmes his own and put a modern spin on the man. That is not to say that the movie doesn't take certain liberties with the classics, because it does. Which is one of the reasons it remains an 8 out of 10 instead of a 9 or perfect score.
The great fighting scenes narrated strategically by Holmes return, though they go awry by variants not considered by Holmes. In the final scenes, Moriarty himself interjects in Holmes monologue and engages in a match of wits with the detective that is both exciting and original.
Speaking of which, editing must be mentioned. The film uses jump-cuts when necessary, and very effectively as well. Just before the scene mentioned prior, parallelism is used to near perfection as Holmes and Moriarty are having a game of chess. The movie cuts between chess moves and the exploits of Watson and the gypsy as they attempt to reveal an assassin and ultimately, Moriarty's plot.
My biggest problem with this movie was the extreme slow-motion. It was only in one scene, but that makes it stand out and it went on for far too long. Ever since 300, movies have been abusing slow motion. It was over the top in that title as well, but at least it was consistent. In an otherwise great, sound, smart movie I felt this was the only thing that seemed uninspired and frankly, too stereotypical Hollywood.
In closing, this move was very enjoyable. It was a bit on the long side, but I was sad it was over. In some ways, it is very typical action, in others, it is original, fun, and smart in a lot of ways modern movies are not. It is technically sound, but not ambitious. The cast delivers and I hope they continue to do so. The plot keeps you guessing right until the final moments, and there are many twists and turns to be had.
Go and see this movie while it's still in theaters.
Rating: 8/10
Everyone knows the story of Sherlock Holmes, renowned detective. This movie is no different, with Holmes needing to solve a difficult case involving a sinister man named Professor Moriarty. The movie is deliciously mysterious, with Moriarty's motives in question until the final moments. Holmes of course enlists in the help of Dr. Watson, who is newly married; and the two go on an adventure that spans the European Continent to uncover Moriarty's plans and to try to save his intended victims that include Dr. Watson, his wife, a gypsy, and eventually all of Europe.
This movie was fantastic. Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, and Jared Harris can do no wrong. The acting is superb, though sometimes over the top. I have, however, come to expect this of Downey Jr in general as well as within this franchise, so it works. He and Law make a fantastic pair, and the charisma and camaraderie come across well. Jared Harris makes a great villain as well, it's that simple.
The film lives up to its predecessor. It leaves a trail of clues that you are expected to notice, but not expected to piece together as Holmes does in the end. Certain important items are centered in the shot from Holmes' point of view, labeling them as imperative. The cinematography is sound, using multiple angles and distances when necessary. Sound is coupled with this approach as well. For example, there is one scene where one of Moriarty's lackeys is shown smoking a hand rolled cigarette. The cherry burns extra bright, and the sound of it burning can be heard over the other things going on in the frame. I wondered to myself, 'how is this important?' And I had a great time racking my brain trying to figure it out. I felt accomplished when it was revealed that the cigarette was important to the plot. This movie's greatest quality is that it makes you think and guess along with Holmes.
The film's comedy is fantastic, though sometimes ridiculous, as with the killing and revival of the poor bulldog (again). Though, once again, Downey Jr has made Holmes his own and put a modern spin on the man. That is not to say that the movie doesn't take certain liberties with the classics, because it does. Which is one of the reasons it remains an 8 out of 10 instead of a 9 or perfect score.
The great fighting scenes narrated strategically by Holmes return, though they go awry by variants not considered by Holmes. In the final scenes, Moriarty himself interjects in Holmes monologue and engages in a match of wits with the detective that is both exciting and original.
Speaking of which, editing must be mentioned. The film uses jump-cuts when necessary, and very effectively as well. Just before the scene mentioned prior, parallelism is used to near perfection as Holmes and Moriarty are having a game of chess. The movie cuts between chess moves and the exploits of Watson and the gypsy as they attempt to reveal an assassin and ultimately, Moriarty's plot.
My biggest problem with this movie was the extreme slow-motion. It was only in one scene, but that makes it stand out and it went on for far too long. Ever since 300, movies have been abusing slow motion. It was over the top in that title as well, but at least it was consistent. In an otherwise great, sound, smart movie I felt this was the only thing that seemed uninspired and frankly, too stereotypical Hollywood.
In closing, this move was very enjoyable. It was a bit on the long side, but I was sad it was over. In some ways, it is very typical action, in others, it is original, fun, and smart in a lot of ways modern movies are not. It is technically sound, but not ambitious. The cast delivers and I hope they continue to do so. The plot keeps you guessing right until the final moments, and there are many twists and turns to be had.
Go and see this movie while it's still in theaters.
The Darkest Hour: A Movie Review
Posted by Landerpurex on January 7th, 2012, 6:49 am. Category: Scribery Entry
Before we get started, let me state that there will be plot points discussed in the following text, but I will do my best to keep crucial points a secret. Let me also state that I am not a professional critic, but have more critical film expertise than most people; having taken several film courses in college.
Overall rating: 5/10
This movie was nothing that the previews didn't show. In short, it's about a pair of software designers either fresh out of college or in the twilight of their college careers. They are in Moscow to pitch an idea for a user-based online comprehensive travel guide to some executives. They meet with a Swedish exec who has basically stolen their idea and screwed them out of a major (multi-million dollar?) deal. After this, the guys go to a club and meet a couple girls vacationing as well, and know of one of them due to her use of their program. Then come the invisible aliens. The creatures are made of electromagnetic energy and are somehow able to vaporize people. But their weakness is that they give themselves away and set off any and all lights and electronics when they approach. The rest of the movie is spent showing the characters trying to escape these creatures and get 'home', though they soon find similar landings and destruction have happened all across the world. Near the end, the group find out that there is a nuclear submarine waiting to help transport survivors back to their homes and/or to a safer facility.
First, it takes some time for the creatures to land. This is notwithstanding the fact the the premise of the guys' reason to be in Moscow is convoluted, not paramount to the plot, and completely forgettable. Though there were a few comic moments, there was nothing to be had in the first quarter of the film. Once the creatures land, I was intrigued. This movie's lone strength is the originality of the aliens and the plausibility of their form and powers. But the scripting failed to deliver more on the subject, with only a few lines from a Russian militant describing the nature of the aliens in no terms understandable by most people; myself included.
Speaking of the Russian militants, their characters are amusing, but completely stereotypical and over the top. They spout catch phrases like 'welcome to Russia' when fighting the creatures, they speak stereotypical nationalist dialog such as stuff about protecting their home, as well as typical, completely uninspired dialog about war and tactics. Couple this with forgettable characters all around and it makes for an equally forgettable experience.
The technical side of the movie was unimpressive as well. Nothing incredible in terms of cinematography, sound, or anything else.
The star of this film is the city of Moscow. It's exotic, beautiful, and foreboding. The architecture is fantastic, and there are some shots that are worth looking at.
In short, this was a movie that offered very little in terms of excitement, technical inventiveness, writing, and basically everything else that makes a film good. It had a tiny bit of originality with the creatures but this was not appropriately handled by anyone. The city was fantastic, but left one wanting. I did not see this movie in 3D, but I'm positive it would have been a debacle.
This movie was far from the worst I've seen, but falls very short. If you've seen the preview, you've seen everything cool there is about the movie.
Overall rating: 5/10
This movie was nothing that the previews didn't show. In short, it's about a pair of software designers either fresh out of college or in the twilight of their college careers. They are in Moscow to pitch an idea for a user-based online comprehensive travel guide to some executives. They meet with a Swedish exec who has basically stolen their idea and screwed them out of a major (multi-million dollar?) deal. After this, the guys go to a club and meet a couple girls vacationing as well, and know of one of them due to her use of their program. Then come the invisible aliens. The creatures are made of electromagnetic energy and are somehow able to vaporize people. But their weakness is that they give themselves away and set off any and all lights and electronics when they approach. The rest of the movie is spent showing the characters trying to escape these creatures and get 'home', though they soon find similar landings and destruction have happened all across the world. Near the end, the group find out that there is a nuclear submarine waiting to help transport survivors back to their homes and/or to a safer facility.
First, it takes some time for the creatures to land. This is notwithstanding the fact the the premise of the guys' reason to be in Moscow is convoluted, not paramount to the plot, and completely forgettable. Though there were a few comic moments, there was nothing to be had in the first quarter of the film. Once the creatures land, I was intrigued. This movie's lone strength is the originality of the aliens and the plausibility of their form and powers. But the scripting failed to deliver more on the subject, with only a few lines from a Russian militant describing the nature of the aliens in no terms understandable by most people; myself included.
Speaking of the Russian militants, their characters are amusing, but completely stereotypical and over the top. They spout catch phrases like 'welcome to Russia' when fighting the creatures, they speak stereotypical nationalist dialog such as stuff about protecting their home, as well as typical, completely uninspired dialog about war and tactics. Couple this with forgettable characters all around and it makes for an equally forgettable experience.
The technical side of the movie was unimpressive as well. Nothing incredible in terms of cinematography, sound, or anything else.
The star of this film is the city of Moscow. It's exotic, beautiful, and foreboding. The architecture is fantastic, and there are some shots that are worth looking at.
In short, this was a movie that offered very little in terms of excitement, technical inventiveness, writing, and basically everything else that makes a film good. It had a tiny bit of originality with the creatures but this was not appropriately handled by anyone. The city was fantastic, but left one wanting. I did not see this movie in 3D, but I'm positive it would have been a debacle.
This movie was far from the worst I've seen, but falls very short. If you've seen the preview, you've seen everything cool there is about the movie.
1-6-2012 Modern Warfare 3
Posted by Tanksandguns on January 6th, 2012, 4:43 pm. Category: Scribery Entry
As a man who has played every Call of Duty game since Call of Duty 3, and sporadically before that since Big Red 1 I like to consider myself one of Call of Duty's biggest fans. Call of Duty has taken it's place as THE First Person Shooter. It's the franchise that comes to mind first when one talks about FPS games, and until recently, has had little to no competition in the field.
Rating: 9/10
Campaign
Modern Warfare 3 builds itself off of the same story line that we saw in CoD4 and MW2. It follows multiple story lines as you play several different characters across each and also brings back the memorable duo of Captain Price and Soap MacTavish. Modern Warfare 3 starts right where Modern Warfare 2 left off. The world is in chaos, and Makarov is still at large. The game has the player visit several cities completely ransacked with war and destruction, including New York City and Paris, France.
The overall flow of the campaign is excellent. The transitions between missions and the pacing is wonderful. And the whole games had sitting on the edge of my seat, with a subtle anxious feeling the whole time. I was constantly wondering what would happen next, and where I was traveling to.
The game is also very challenging. Having completed the first two games on Veteran difficulty, this was my first choice on my first play through of the game. I quickly learned, that this game doesn't beat around the bush, and I couldn't even make it past the first checkpoint. I quickly dropped the difficulty to Hardened, and again to Normal. Even while playing Normal, I found myself dieing fairly frequently, and I loved it. I enjoy a real challenge while playing video games, and to get one in a FPS is no easy task. I also didn't find myself in the slow buildup of anger mode that usually comes with the frustrating deaths of FPS Campaigns. At one point, mid-combat, the game cycles between one the ground fighting, and in the sky fighting in an AC-130 gunship. This is one of the best moments that I can remember throughout all the games, second only to 'Ghillie in the Mist' from Call of Duty 4. The developers did a stunning job of transitioning immediately after an explosion from the AC-130 missile, to the ground troops in the smoke and debris of where the shell had just impacted.
The game itself is really beautiful (or as beautiful as a war-torn city can be). I played the entire campaign on a non-HD TV, and still found myself staring in amazement at the graphics. When I moved over to an HD TV for multiplayer, I found that they were spectacular.
The storyline does an excellent job of wrapping up the first two games. I had few questions left after I had finished, and even teared up at one point during the story. If you played the first two, I can assure you that you will not be disappointed in the final game.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer has been reworked again from Modern Warfare 2. They have new Kill Streaks, and introduced things called 'Strike Packages.' Strike Packages affect what kill streaks you are awarded, and how they are awarded. They offer three types you can choose from: Assault, Support, and Specialist. Assault focuses on killing enemies to gain enemy killing kill streak rewards. It includes, AC-130, Predator Missiles, and Attack Helicopters. Support focuses on objectives such as capturing a flag, planting a bomb, capturing a Domination point, etc. It doesn't require kills to advance through the rewards, but kills also help. Also, Support doesn't reset on death, so you can keep on dying and unlocking rewards. This was my personal favorite. This can give you UAV, Care Packages, Stealth Bomber, etc. The final Strike Package you can use is Specialist. Instead of giving you kill streak rewards, it unlocks perks every 2 kills the player makes. By 8 kills, the player then has all the perks in the game. These have really reworked how the multiplayer feels, and it feels a lot more balanced than the second game ever did.
My main problems with Modern Warfare 2, were that there were kill streaks in the air almost constantly, and there was little anyone could do about it. That feeling has really subsided with Modern Warfare 3. There doesn't seem to be helicopters, AC-130's, and Predator Missiles clogging up the sky nearly as much as it did in the second game, and there's more that can be done about it. More launchers, Sam Sites, and fewer overpowered kill streaks make for the multiplayer experience to be a lot more enjoyable.
Another complaint that I had with MW2, was the the Sniper Rifles seemed extremely underpowered. It took 2, sometimes 3 shots to kill someone in a Core match. In MW3, this has been fixed. One shot to the torso is more often than not, a kill shot. I find this to be my favorite change that was made. I'm finally not getting angry that my high velocity round isn't killing someone when it should.
With CoD: Black Ops came the addition that CoD had been missing for all of its games that Halo and the likes had picked up on. Split Screen multiplayer available online, either through multiple Xbox Live accounts or the use of Guest Accounts. Modern Warfare 3, thankfully, did not change this. You can now play with a buddy on the same TV, online.
Usually with First Person Shooters, I find myself hating a majority of the maps. For whatever reason, Modern Warfare 3 seems different. I only really dislike one or two maps. All the others I seem to have a blast on! They're all beautiful, fun and fairly small. The only complaint I have, is there's really no open area map that is good for Snipers.
All in all, I was extremely happy with the subtle tweaks they made to the multiplayer experience. Prestige Mode now goes to level 80 (ten times), and they added Prestige tokens which can unlock little bonuses such as Double XP, Double Weapon XP, and Emblems and Titles, among other things. Each player starts out with 3, and since I haven't prestiged yet, I'm unsure whether you get 1 ever prestige level or more than that.
Spec Ops
Modern Warfare 3 sees the return of the Spec Ops mode. This can be done either solo or with a friend. I tried doing several of these solo, and found that once I had a friend help me out, they became significantly easier.
Spec Ops mode is a series of missions and objectives, some from the campaign, some completely fresh that test your speed and accuracy. Also, they can be a major challenge. From capturing the Russian President aboard his airplane, to killing waves upon waves in a Firefight type game mode, Spec Ops is nothing short of fun. Infinity Ward added a new style that resembles Horde from Gears of War and Firefight from Halo, where you face wave after wave of enemies including foot soldiers, dogs, helicopters and the infamous Juggernaut soldiers. For those looking for something after the campaign and after you get bored with multiplayer, I would recommend Spec Ops with a friend. It's an absolute blast!
Conclusion
All in all, I would say that Modern Warfare 3 was definitely worth the money I spent on it. It provided me with hours of entertainment, and will continue to do so for months to come. It fixed a lot of the issues I had with the previous game, and added some awesome touches as well. It did not disappoint me, and so far has lead to a lot less frustration with the game than Modern Warfare 2 did. I would recommend this game to any First Person Shooter fan, any fan of the Call of Duty franchise, and anyone looking for one of the best multiplayer experiences in gaming. I won't beat around the bush though, some of the fan-boys and the some of the casual players of MW3 can ruin your multiplayer experience, but that's why there's a mute feature.
~Tanksandguns
Rating: 9/10
Campaign
Modern Warfare 3 builds itself off of the same story line that we saw in CoD4 and MW2. It follows multiple story lines as you play several different characters across each and also brings back the memorable duo of Captain Price and Soap MacTavish. Modern Warfare 3 starts right where Modern Warfare 2 left off. The world is in chaos, and Makarov is still at large. The game has the player visit several cities completely ransacked with war and destruction, including New York City and Paris, France.
The overall flow of the campaign is excellent. The transitions between missions and the pacing is wonderful. And the whole games had sitting on the edge of my seat, with a subtle anxious feeling the whole time. I was constantly wondering what would happen next, and where I was traveling to.
The game is also very challenging. Having completed the first two games on Veteran difficulty, this was my first choice on my first play through of the game. I quickly learned, that this game doesn't beat around the bush, and I couldn't even make it past the first checkpoint. I quickly dropped the difficulty to Hardened, and again to Normal. Even while playing Normal, I found myself dieing fairly frequently, and I loved it. I enjoy a real challenge while playing video games, and to get one in a FPS is no easy task. I also didn't find myself in the slow buildup of anger mode that usually comes with the frustrating deaths of FPS Campaigns. At one point, mid-combat, the game cycles between one the ground fighting, and in the sky fighting in an AC-130 gunship. This is one of the best moments that I can remember throughout all the games, second only to 'Ghillie in the Mist' from Call of Duty 4. The developers did a stunning job of transitioning immediately after an explosion from the AC-130 missile, to the ground troops in the smoke and debris of where the shell had just impacted.
The game itself is really beautiful (or as beautiful as a war-torn city can be). I played the entire campaign on a non-HD TV, and still found myself staring in amazement at the graphics. When I moved over to an HD TV for multiplayer, I found that they were spectacular.
The storyline does an excellent job of wrapping up the first two games. I had few questions left after I had finished, and even teared up at one point during the story. If you played the first two, I can assure you that you will not be disappointed in the final game.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer has been reworked again from Modern Warfare 2. They have new Kill Streaks, and introduced things called 'Strike Packages.' Strike Packages affect what kill streaks you are awarded, and how they are awarded. They offer three types you can choose from: Assault, Support, and Specialist. Assault focuses on killing enemies to gain enemy killing kill streak rewards. It includes, AC-130, Predator Missiles, and Attack Helicopters. Support focuses on objectives such as capturing a flag, planting a bomb, capturing a Domination point, etc. It doesn't require kills to advance through the rewards, but kills also help. Also, Support doesn't reset on death, so you can keep on dying and unlocking rewards. This was my personal favorite. This can give you UAV, Care Packages, Stealth Bomber, etc. The final Strike Package you can use is Specialist. Instead of giving you kill streak rewards, it unlocks perks every 2 kills the player makes. By 8 kills, the player then has all the perks in the game. These have really reworked how the multiplayer feels, and it feels a lot more balanced than the second game ever did.
My main problems with Modern Warfare 2, were that there were kill streaks in the air almost constantly, and there was little anyone could do about it. That feeling has really subsided with Modern Warfare 3. There doesn't seem to be helicopters, AC-130's, and Predator Missiles clogging up the sky nearly as much as it did in the second game, and there's more that can be done about it. More launchers, Sam Sites, and fewer overpowered kill streaks make for the multiplayer experience to be a lot more enjoyable.
Another complaint that I had with MW2, was the the Sniper Rifles seemed extremely underpowered. It took 2, sometimes 3 shots to kill someone in a Core match. In MW3, this has been fixed. One shot to the torso is more often than not, a kill shot. I find this to be my favorite change that was made. I'm finally not getting angry that my high velocity round isn't killing someone when it should.
With CoD: Black Ops came the addition that CoD had been missing for all of its games that Halo and the likes had picked up on. Split Screen multiplayer available online, either through multiple Xbox Live accounts or the use of Guest Accounts. Modern Warfare 3, thankfully, did not change this. You can now play with a buddy on the same TV, online.
Usually with First Person Shooters, I find myself hating a majority of the maps. For whatever reason, Modern Warfare 3 seems different. I only really dislike one or two maps. All the others I seem to have a blast on! They're all beautiful, fun and fairly small. The only complaint I have, is there's really no open area map that is good for Snipers.
All in all, I was extremely happy with the subtle tweaks they made to the multiplayer experience. Prestige Mode now goes to level 80 (ten times), and they added Prestige tokens which can unlock little bonuses such as Double XP, Double Weapon XP, and Emblems and Titles, among other things. Each player starts out with 3, and since I haven't prestiged yet, I'm unsure whether you get 1 ever prestige level or more than that.
Spec Ops
Modern Warfare 3 sees the return of the Spec Ops mode. This can be done either solo or with a friend. I tried doing several of these solo, and found that once I had a friend help me out, they became significantly easier.
Spec Ops mode is a series of missions and objectives, some from the campaign, some completely fresh that test your speed and accuracy. Also, they can be a major challenge. From capturing the Russian President aboard his airplane, to killing waves upon waves in a Firefight type game mode, Spec Ops is nothing short of fun. Infinity Ward added a new style that resembles Horde from Gears of War and Firefight from Halo, where you face wave after wave of enemies including foot soldiers, dogs, helicopters and the infamous Juggernaut soldiers. For those looking for something after the campaign and after you get bored with multiplayer, I would recommend Spec Ops with a friend. It's an absolute blast!
Conclusion
All in all, I would say that Modern Warfare 3 was definitely worth the money I spent on it. It provided me with hours of entertainment, and will continue to do so for months to come. It fixed a lot of the issues I had with the previous game, and added some awesome touches as well. It did not disappoint me, and so far has lead to a lot less frustration with the game than Modern Warfare 2 did. I would recommend this game to any First Person Shooter fan, any fan of the Call of Duty franchise, and anyone looking for one of the best multiplayer experiences in gaming. I won't beat around the bush though, some of the fan-boys and the some of the casual players of MW3 can ruin your multiplayer experience, but that's why there's a mute feature.
~Tanksandguns
Skrillex-Bangarang (12/23/11): A Review
Posted by defeat on December 23rd, 2011, 7:11 pm. Category: Scribery Entry
Rating 5/10
Listen. I’ll start off by saying I’m as on the fence with the newest Skrillex release, entitled Bangarang, as I have been with all the others. The guy is an exciting producer, and the voice samples/hooks he’s used are unforgettable. However, as with his other releases, the mid-register robotesque bass lines, four to the floor beats, and general feel are the same as they ever were and absolutely forgettable. You’ve got the electronic industry by the balls, Skrillex, and the time to fix your broken record is nigh.
When Skrillex became an instant success, and his songs could be heard everywhere, I was impressed with the mash up of genre’s with him and Korn in the Korn single “Get Up“, and really enjoyed "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" and “Kill Everybody” off of Skrillex’s EP with the same name Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. It seemed like a fresh, American take on the dubstep scene. That fresh take quickly turned into endless copycats and the post dubstep sub-genre dubbed “brostep”. As the forerunner of this new trend, Skrillex didn’t impress me with his first release, mildly did with his second release, and fails to with his newest.
There are definitely moments of production clarity on Bangarang in the title track (a song referencing the movie Hook?! Awesome!) and the non-bass line heavy house song “Right On Time“, but he even uses a broke up, syncopated, unintelligible, Asian sounding voice on the track “Summit” juuuust like he did on the track “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”. In a nutshell, Bangarang should be entitled Sonic the Househog On Crack. It’s got a Sonic the Hedgehog music + house + brostep sound on most of the songs on the seven song EP. If you are already a die-hard Skrillex fan (and I know you are out there as I just read the comment “Skrillex is life.“ from a fan on Skrillex’s Facebook page), you are going to absolutely love this album. If you haven’t ever heard Skrillex, and are into dubstep, you are probably going to like this album. The rest of us will either like it, dislike it, or think it’s OK (Mitch Hedberg anyone?). It does have bass drops and a couple buildups/breakdowns that make you smile with delight, so even after I write this review.....I’m still on the fence.
The title track:
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross-T.G.w.t.D.T.Soundtrack: A Review
Posted by defeat on December 12th, 2011, 11:14 pm. Category: Scribery Entry
Rating: 10/10
When Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor work together, they don't just make music. They mold sounds into layers of emotional synesthesia, and their newest masterpiece, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is no different. Your brain and body don't quite know what to do with themselves. You smile. You get the chills. You get creeped out. You contemplate, yet sometimes you stop thinking all together.
After the near three hour playtime ended, I took my headphones off and the first thing to come to mind was Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. If Homer were alive today, he'd be furiously writing a screenplay, day in and day out, so Reznor and Ross could give it the sonic pulse it (I'm sure) would deserve. They are just that good.
Reznor has always been one of my favorites as far as extremely layered music goes. I consider Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile to be the greatest double-album of my generation, and it's a perfect example of Mr. Reznor's musical depth. Atticus Ross, on the other hand is more of a minimalist, and I was first introduced to his music when he did some programming and/or produced Nine Inch Nails' last four albums. He also caught my attention whilst watching the movie The Book of Eli. The entire time I was thinking to myself, "This HAS to be either Trent, Atticus, or Saul Williams doing the soundtrack for this...." It was indeed Atticus, and I became a fan.
The soundtrack for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a drone type of electronica with some darker ambient soundscapes layered in, and when I write "layered in", I mean it as emphatically as is possible. It's the most complex minimalistic album ever created, if that's even possible. You'll always hear synth, and you'll sometimes hear keys, bells, guitars, strings, vibrations, xylophones etc., etc. One of the songs even has vocals, and oddly enough it's a cover of Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" (featuring Karen O on vocals) In a nutshell, it's epic in every way possible. Find three hours and treat yourself to what's bound to be a Grammy winner.
Recommended if you enjoy: Sigur Ros, Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails, The Book of Eli (soundtrack), The Social Network (soundtrack)
When Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor work together, they don't just make music. They mold sounds into layers of emotional synesthesia, and their newest masterpiece, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, is no different. Your brain and body don't quite know what to do with themselves. You smile. You get the chills. You get creeped out. You contemplate, yet sometimes you stop thinking all together.
After the near three hour playtime ended, I took my headphones off and the first thing to come to mind was Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. If Homer were alive today, he'd be furiously writing a screenplay, day in and day out, so Reznor and Ross could give it the sonic pulse it (I'm sure) would deserve. They are just that good.
Reznor has always been one of my favorites as far as extremely layered music goes. I consider Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile to be the greatest double-album of my generation, and it's a perfect example of Mr. Reznor's musical depth. Atticus Ross, on the other hand is more of a minimalist, and I was first introduced to his music when he did some programming and/or produced Nine Inch Nails' last four albums. He also caught my attention whilst watching the movie The Book of Eli. The entire time I was thinking to myself, "This HAS to be either Trent, Atticus, or Saul Williams doing the soundtrack for this...." It was indeed Atticus, and I became a fan.
The soundtrack for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a drone type of electronica with some darker ambient soundscapes layered in, and when I write "layered in", I mean it as emphatically as is possible. It's the most complex minimalistic album ever created, if that's even possible. You'll always hear synth, and you'll sometimes hear keys, bells, guitars, strings, vibrations, xylophones etc., etc. One of the songs even has vocals, and oddly enough it's a cover of Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" (featuring Karen O on vocals) In a nutshell, it's epic in every way possible. Find three hours and treat yourself to what's bound to be a Grammy winner.
Recommended if you enjoy: Sigur Ros, Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails, The Book of Eli (soundtrack), The Social Network (soundtrack)
allbroke- Broke/Free EP (12/02/2011): A Review
Posted by defeat on December 6th, 2011, 11:23 pm. Category: Scribery Entry
Rating: 10/10
The dubstep scene is in two factions at the moment. You’ve got the UK kids who are all, “Yeah, Yeah dubstep…it’s played out and now the Americans are catching on late….yet again.” And we also have the US kids who are getting into dubstep because the US producers/programmers decided to 1-UP the UK’s scene. I personally don’t get into all that myself. If the track is good…..the track is good, wherever and whenever it came out.
Now on to the album you all need to know about. Allbroke has had a few songs independently released recently, and his Facebook was droppin’ hints about a present to us all (his fans). It’s here. His present is the absolutely free EP Broke/Free.
This you are going to enjoy. It’s a mix between UK and US dubstep in all the right ways. The music itself tells a subtle sci-fi story in it’s four song way. Makes me wish dubstep was around when The Matrix was being produced. I think It would have been very cool for Allbroke to have had a couple songs on there.
“The Device” is the opener, and from start to beginning it walks us through a device being used to make some nasty drops. It’s a very unique song. I have yet to hear of anyone doing what Allbroke is doing here. With this opener you know you’ve stumbled upon something unique.
“Nostromo” is second in line and well. It’s pretty chill at first until 55 seconds in when it drops and don’t stop….in a good way. Enter some sci fi dialogue. Great song.
“Orion” The third track I really, really, really , really enjoyed. Sweet, sweet tension and release I am a fan of. This one however has more of a UK sound to it. Not that I’m complaining .
“Field Medic” This closure is the epitome of what I was trying to get across up in hurr. It’s a UKUSA dubstep orgy.
Over all this albums broke down the boundaries between UK and US dubstep with one fell swoop. I was impressed with the dynamics of it all. Solid, Solid, EP.
Recommened if you enjoy: Ed Solo, Datsik, skrillex, Nero
Now how about a music video combining the songs for maximum epic? EH?
The link to the FREE EP is
http://www.facebook.com/spirographed?ref=tn_tnmn#!/Allbroke
Like the page, download the nasty.
The dubstep scene is in two factions at the moment. You’ve got the UK kids who are all, “Yeah, Yeah dubstep…it’s played out and now the Americans are catching on late….yet again.” And we also have the US kids who are getting into dubstep because the US producers/programmers decided to 1-UP the UK’s scene. I personally don’t get into all that myself. If the track is good…..the track is good, wherever and whenever it came out.
Now on to the album you all need to know about. Allbroke has had a few songs independently released recently, and his Facebook was droppin’ hints about a present to us all (his fans). It’s here. His present is the absolutely free EP Broke/Free.
This you are going to enjoy. It’s a mix between UK and US dubstep in all the right ways. The music itself tells a subtle sci-fi story in it’s four song way. Makes me wish dubstep was around when The Matrix was being produced. I think It would have been very cool for Allbroke to have had a couple songs on there.
“The Device” is the opener, and from start to beginning it walks us through a device being used to make some nasty drops. It’s a very unique song. I have yet to hear of anyone doing what Allbroke is doing here. With this opener you know you’ve stumbled upon something unique.
“Nostromo” is second in line and well. It’s pretty chill at first until 55 seconds in when it drops and don’t stop….in a good way. Enter some sci fi dialogue. Great song.
“Orion” The third track I really, really, really , really enjoyed. Sweet, sweet tension and release I am a fan of. This one however has more of a UK sound to it. Not that I’m complaining .
“Field Medic” This closure is the epitome of what I was trying to get across up in hurr. It’s a UKUSA dubstep orgy.
Over all this albums broke down the boundaries between UK and US dubstep with one fell swoop. I was impressed with the dynamics of it all. Solid, Solid, EP.
Recommened if you enjoy: Ed Solo, Datsik, skrillex, Nero
Now how about a music video combining the songs for maximum epic? EH?
The link to the FREE EP is
http://www.facebook.com/spirographed?ref=tn_tnmn#!/Allbroke
Like the page, download the nasty.
A battle of time on communities
Posted by Demon on December 5th, 2011, 6:42 pm. Category: Scribery Entry
Time moves on inevitably, as I’m sure anyone can tell. Childhood memories become just what they are – memories. Not much can stay the same in a world rapidly evolving with people snaking along just as quickly towards some mysterious, unknown goal of worth we, as a society and race, have decided is vitally necessary. This is also true for the internet, but at a much broader and faster rate because of instant gratification and the scope of available tools for developers to build. While driving down ‘memory lane’ after twenty-odd years may bring the shock of finding your childhood home destroyed and a new shopping plaza in its place, you can still find your breath taken away at the vast and expanding internet. Simply visit Google and type in a keyword relative to your life (anything) and you’ll find more information instantly available than you can possibly read in your lifetime… with more being released as you’re reading!
Thus, what happens to a memory of a place once you can no longer visit it or feel that connection you once felt? How often do you drive or walk down a new, but familiar street where memories seem to come alive and flood into your conscious? Where do you go when you begin to relive those days of happiness, the shared, raw energy of a community? The whole experience can be quite a downer once you start thinking about those childhood playmates or perhaps the teenage adventures while testing the world, knowing you had your parents as a safety net. Where, then do you go when that memory is an online community?
Too often I’ve found myself needing information and simply visiting search engines like Google and Bing to find a quick resolution to any situation which may arise. This includes anything from technological break-downs, news, or entertainment; basically anything which would be best served instantly. It seems, at least to me, that technical forums and online ‘gurus’ have become a thing of the past. Why? Most times, ‘Googling’ an issue will bring up a laundry list of posts in forums with the exact problem, usually followed with an answer. However, the post was made and answered anywhere from ten years to a more recent four years. In either case, unless it’s a new product, there is no real need for posting on a forum only to wait days (if you’re lucky) for an intelligent response and possibly longer to get a true answer.
So where do communities fit into this? It seems only natural that communities, though once warm and welcoming to the casual internet browser, has become a thing of the past. They’ve been replaced with blogs and social networking where, again, everything revolves on instant gratification for the end-user. What kind of communities have survived? Other than those directly linked with a brand (Dell Technical Support – Love them) or with a particular product (Tip.It – A fansite based on a MMO game), it would seem there is little opportunity for growth among other communities. Yet there are still communities with mixed interests (Runevillage – A fansite-turned-general interest) where a wisp of memory and the attachment of veterans keep the community together, even through difficult times.
Despite the fondness of memories in our compulsive visits to places we’ve known and grown to love, there is a sort of sweet sorrow in their parting. Just as we must one day say goodbye to our parents, it feels there is an inevitable end to all communities – online or not. In a more directed note, while the Village may be the dear home of a few dedicated users who have stayed around for nearly the entirety of its life, the difficulty lies not in reviving the dead, but re-angling the community to be both ageless and timeless where simple trends don’t direct the life of the site as a whole. I’d say this has been the bane of countless sites with a targeted audience, because there was never any room allowed or even acknowledged to open the door for a broader scope of inclusion for outsiders and thus lays the self-imprisonment of sites with too little a mind to approach a large audience.
Simply putting it, the only means by which to survive in the rapid change and growth of the internet is to build and evolve with it, rather than staying focused on a single niche. A stubborn, slow mind will only be left behind as the community gathered moves on to bigger and better things, though they may still visit every so often (like an old man in a retirement home, perhaps). There can only be success where success is actively perceived and rendered into a useable model; building a strong community is great while there is community to build, but there has to be some means of bringing new users in and getting them attached the same way everyone else has become attached.
Thus, what happens to a memory of a place once you can no longer visit it or feel that connection you once felt? How often do you drive or walk down a new, but familiar street where memories seem to come alive and flood into your conscious? Where do you go when you begin to relive those days of happiness, the shared, raw energy of a community? The whole experience can be quite a downer once you start thinking about those childhood playmates or perhaps the teenage adventures while testing the world, knowing you had your parents as a safety net. Where, then do you go when that memory is an online community?
Too often I’ve found myself needing information and simply visiting search engines like Google and Bing to find a quick resolution to any situation which may arise. This includes anything from technological break-downs, news, or entertainment; basically anything which would be best served instantly. It seems, at least to me, that technical forums and online ‘gurus’ have become a thing of the past. Why? Most times, ‘Googling’ an issue will bring up a laundry list of posts in forums with the exact problem, usually followed with an answer. However, the post was made and answered anywhere from ten years to a more recent four years. In either case, unless it’s a new product, there is no real need for posting on a forum only to wait days (if you’re lucky) for an intelligent response and possibly longer to get a true answer.
So where do communities fit into this? It seems only natural that communities, though once warm and welcoming to the casual internet browser, has become a thing of the past. They’ve been replaced with blogs and social networking where, again, everything revolves on instant gratification for the end-user. What kind of communities have survived? Other than those directly linked with a brand (Dell Technical Support – Love them) or with a particular product (Tip.It – A fansite based on a MMO game), it would seem there is little opportunity for growth among other communities. Yet there are still communities with mixed interests (Runevillage – A fansite-turned-general interest) where a wisp of memory and the attachment of veterans keep the community together, even through difficult times.
Despite the fondness of memories in our compulsive visits to places we’ve known and grown to love, there is a sort of sweet sorrow in their parting. Just as we must one day say goodbye to our parents, it feels there is an inevitable end to all communities – online or not. In a more directed note, while the Village may be the dear home of a few dedicated users who have stayed around for nearly the entirety of its life, the difficulty lies not in reviving the dead, but re-angling the community to be both ageless and timeless where simple trends don’t direct the life of the site as a whole. I’d say this has been the bane of countless sites with a targeted audience, because there was never any room allowed or even acknowledged to open the door for a broader scope of inclusion for outsiders and thus lays the self-imprisonment of sites with too little a mind to approach a large audience.
Simply putting it, the only means by which to survive in the rapid change and growth of the internet is to build and evolve with it, rather than staying focused on a single niche. A stubborn, slow mind will only be left behind as the community gathered moves on to bigger and better things, though they may still visit every so often (like an old man in a retirement home, perhaps). There can only be success where success is actively perceived and rendered into a useable model; building a strong community is great while there is community to build, but there has to be some means of bringing new users in and getting them attached the same way everyone else has become attached.
LLL: Updated 1/07; info on my future in the scribery
Posted by Landerpurex on December 1st, 2011, 2:55 am. Category: Scribery Entry
**EDIT**
Alright, so I daresay you editors and high ranking officials at RV are not interested in pure literature or creative works being put on the front page. Though I think that is ludicrous, I also see why that is. The bottom line is that I go to the movies, like, A LOT. Think on a weekly basis, pretty much. I hope to make some topics there on the front page through reviewing new movies. I have already written two and dedicated several hours to doing so in an effort to help this place. I know they are somewhat outdated, Darkest Hour being most so but I intend to review newer releases soon. I plan on seeing The Devil Inside tomorrow, so perhaps you can expect that review soon.
I also know that there are tons of other movie review sites, far more comprehensive and those that have professional critics (HA), but I tried to take a frank, fresh approach to the movies that will help anyone who is looking for such information. I also have to say that I am inspired by Defeat, but no longer will I allow him to take the brunt of the responsibility here, and the glory along with it.
Bottom line is, I am not going to write nor post creative works if they have no chance of being used, similarly how I am not going to write to no end for the Villager.
If someone wishes to refute or update me on Scribery and subsequently, front page quality policy, I would be much obliged.
Also it should be noted that I would like to buy the new RPG coming out in February called Kingdoms of Amalur, so dibs on that review assuming I actually get the game.
***
This is the thread I'm gonna reserve for the (hopefully) many contributions I make to RV in its new direction. For now, I'm only posting one poem but expect more in the future. This is perhaps my favorite piece that I've written, and I believe it shows. Later, expect more poetry, short stories, and snippets from my novel/s.
That said, I need to post a small disclaimer: I hope to make a living as a writer someday, and much of what I post will be some of my best work. I retain all rights to my work as the author. In the unlikely event that I sell the rights to some of my work, I may ask for it to be taken off the site but that does not seem to be something that is possible for me to accept.
This was something I wrote for a two week intensive poetry seminar. I wrote this in response to my classmates who often said that my work was too triumphant, that it wasn't sad, depressing, or void of conflict. I hope you appreciate the satire. It's a form called "letter poetry" which I had never tried before, but I seem to be at least somewhat good at.
Alright, so I daresay you editors and high ranking officials at RV are not interested in pure literature or creative works being put on the front page. Though I think that is ludicrous, I also see why that is. The bottom line is that I go to the movies, like, A LOT. Think on a weekly basis, pretty much. I hope to make some topics there on the front page through reviewing new movies. I have already written two and dedicated several hours to doing so in an effort to help this place. I know they are somewhat outdated, Darkest Hour being most so but I intend to review newer releases soon. I plan on seeing The Devil Inside tomorrow, so perhaps you can expect that review soon.
I also know that there are tons of other movie review sites, far more comprehensive and those that have professional critics (HA), but I tried to take a frank, fresh approach to the movies that will help anyone who is looking for such information. I also have to say that I am inspired by Defeat, but no longer will I allow him to take the brunt of the responsibility here, and the glory along with it.
Bottom line is, I am not going to write nor post creative works if they have no chance of being used, similarly how I am not going to write to no end for the Villager.
If someone wishes to refute or update me on Scribery and subsequently, front page quality policy, I would be much obliged. Also it should be noted that I would like to buy the new RPG coming out in February called Kingdoms of Amalur, so dibs on that review assuming I actually get the game.
***
This is the thread I'm gonna reserve for the (hopefully) many contributions I make to RV in its new direction. For now, I'm only posting one poem but expect more in the future. This is perhaps my favorite piece that I've written, and I believe it shows. Later, expect more poetry, short stories, and snippets from my novel/s.
That said, I need to post a small disclaimer: I hope to make a living as a writer someday, and much of what I post will be some of my best work. I retain all rights to my work as the author. In the unlikely event that I sell the rights to some of my work, I may ask for it to be taken off the site but that does not seem to be something that is possible for me to accept.
This was something I wrote for a two week intensive poetry seminar. I wrote this in response to my classmates who often said that my work was too triumphant, that it wasn't sad, depressing, or void of conflict. I hope you appreciate the satire. It's a form called "letter poetry" which I had never tried before, but I seem to be at least somewhat good at.
Lander wrote:
Dear self,
You will never triumph against anything.
To presume otherwise is nothing
short of maniacal nonsense.
Wallow in your self pity,
Fill a pool with it,
Drown in it,
Glub.
Write your farewell poem in blood,
Then hang yourself.
Um, don’t do any of that.
I’m being facetious.
It surely wouldn’t kill you,
To let your weakness through
Every now and again.
Death dances around you.
He dances a jig in Swedish clogs.
He trips over his own robe,
Wreaking hellish havoc.
Pontificate.
Your father, dead by simultaneous stroke and heart attack
Your Uncle, dead by spidery spider cancer
Your cousin, dead by asthma attack
Your cousin, dead by drowning
Your mother, dead by house fire
Let a tear chart a new course
Down your cheek.
Taste bitterness.
Become angry.
Shout for no reason,
Curse the people who get under your skin.
Do it to their faces.
Your car’s a piece of,
Drive it til the wheels fall off,
Then light it on fire.
Loosen up and stop hiding
Your past and your trials.
They happened.
Pretending they aren’t real will only
Cause a quarter-life crisis.
Affectionately,
Me
You will never triumph against anything.
To presume otherwise is nothing
short of maniacal nonsense.
Wallow in your self pity,
Fill a pool with it,
Drown in it,
Glub.
Write your farewell poem in blood,
Then hang yourself.
Um, don’t do any of that.
I’m being facetious.
It surely wouldn’t kill you,
To let your weakness through
Every now and again.
Death dances around you.
He dances a jig in Swedish clogs.
He trips over his own robe,
Wreaking hellish havoc.
Pontificate.
Your father, dead by simultaneous stroke and heart attack
Your Uncle, dead by spidery spider cancer
Your cousin, dead by asthma attack
Your cousin, dead by drowning
Your mother, dead by house fire
Let a tear chart a new course
Down your cheek.
Taste bitterness.
Become angry.
Shout for no reason,
Curse the people who get under your skin.
Do it to their faces.
Your car’s a piece of
,Drive it til the wheels fall off,
Then light it on fire.
Loosen up and stop hiding
Your past and your trials.
They happened.
Pretending they aren’t real will only
Cause a quarter-life crisis.
Affectionately,
Me
By far, the most exciting news in the last year was the announcement of the latest entry in the Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim. Along with this announcement was a vast amount of detail on what would be included in the final product, as it would be released in less than 12 months, on November 11. The game is now out, and the biggest question series fans have had is this: Is it going to live up to previous games in the series?
I have to say what excited me was the announcement that this game would attempt to walk the line between Morrowind and Oblivion; Morrowind being one of my favorite games from childhood, and Oblivion being a technically good follow up set in a fairly generic setting. This is a pretty tall order. The magic of Morrowind, anyone can tell you, was in the discovery. You never knew what powerful ring you would find in that tomb across the river, or what daedric relic you'd pull out of the abandoned dwemer tower just outside of town.
Oblivion did away with this system, simply rewarding you these one of a kind items through quests; sure, a dungeon might provide a bunch of loot, but none of it had "pizzazz". None of it belonged to some great, unnamed warlock, and it certainly didn't belong to a demigod. You had to go talk to those guys in person, and you had to make sacrifices, but only when you hit the right level. Not the right level? Go back to Rockmilk and wait for those bandits and marauders to kill each other! Maybe after about ten delves you'll have fired your bow enough to get a level or two. It kind of got... boring. Not that other games don't have ridiculous amounts of grinding, but in a game claiming to be bigger and better than Morrowind, I expect even more relics to be dug up, not to just be handed to me for running between vendors and grabbing a shovel.
Skyrim, I'm happy to say, walks the line and leans toward the Morrowind side of the series. There's no telling what you'll find in any given cave, be it a powerful enemy wielding a magic weapon or a dragon wall providing you with immense power. The quests to find powerful artefacts often trigger just from discovering the tomb or strange item, so you still get the thrill of finding the artefact without feeling like you're a means to an end.
The world is wonderfully alien, just as it was in the good old days of the series. Expansive plains have herds of mammoths and giants wandering through, with beautiful mountains always in view. Rivers and streams flow through the landscape and look wonderful, although they are as much a nuisance as they are a beauty to look at. Often, there is no good way to cross a river without walking for what seems like miles out of your way. Attempting to wade across often goes awry, as there typically isn't a good way to climb out of said river. At this point, the best you can hope to do is survive the waterfall inevitably waiting 200 feet downstream and hope that you'll come out somewhere close to an actual road on the other side.
That's not to say that Oblivion's additions to the series were completely cut from the game; if anything, its shortcomings were tweaked until they became strengths for the game. While it didn't provide much in the way of setting, the fourth game in the series did a few things right: It simplified everything, and it added randomness in items. Skyrim expands on this.
Previous entries in the series required you to build your character around your Attributes, which governed skills, of which several selected as Major and [sometimes] Minor. You could only level up by increasing one of these selected skills, and then you had to weigh the pros and cons of increasing an attribute. These dilemmas are no more. Attributes: Gone. Major Skills: Nope nope. Minor Skills: That's been out of fashion for like ten years! All skills start the same, save for racial bonuses. You don't pick a class. You don't make a class. Whatever you use increases, and when a certain number of skill increases has been achieved, you level. You choose to increase your Health, Magicka, or Stamina bars, and then you get a perk to use to specialize in something. That's it. While I DO miss the challenge of increasing my luck, it's even better that I don't have to worry about respecializing in things after I've made my character. That isn't even a concern until after level 15 or so.
Building on the simplification of "Blade, Blunt, and Marksman", the weapon distinction has now become "One handed, Two handed, and Archery", with different sub-specializations within each skill tree that are up to you. One handed weapons include daggers, maces, swords, and one handed axes, and are great for damage dealers who don't want to take any damage. It goes hand in hand with the stealth tree, which only serves to make assassin characters even more overpowered (a common complaint I've heard of the game). From here you have the option to dual wield, a new feature to the series. It dramatically decreases your ability to block an attack, but the idea here is that you aren't going to be hit before this happens. Two handed is for people who don't mind getting punched in the face a couple times while swinging there weapon. These include greatswords, axes, and warhammers. Where does archery fit into all this? Very neatly, since it's so much more powerful than it ever was before. Put enough points into it, and it’s just as effective as any other weapon you could use.
Delving dungeons simply for magic items is always beneficial, especially at lower levels. Don't wear heavy armor, but still REALLY want that archery bonus? With the return of the Enchantment skill, items can be destroyed to learn their properties for use in making new ones. This means that equipment gathering is no longer the endless cycle of finding and selling and paying your first born to the Mage's Guild to make stuff temporarily better.
Oh, and dragons. With how late this review/rant is coming out, you've probably heard a lot about them already. Not a whole lot I can say on that matter except that they are far more fun than any of the other boss fights I have been involved with in this game up to this point. Fight them. Relish them, but remember that they are common throughout this game. If I had a nickel for every time I came out of fast travel and had to save a town, I wouldn’t have much money, because I don't think I've killed more than 20 dragons, and only like half those attacked towns. But I still feel like a boss.
Last, the main quest. I'm not going to get too much into this, because I honestly haven't done much with it. This shouldn't be a problem for many fans of the series, as no one really plays through it. From what I've seen of other people playing it, it is greatly improved story wise from Oblivion. What I can tell you is that guilds are back, with the Fighter's Guild and Mage's Guild being replaced by awesome. Dark Brotherhood is more disturbing than ever, and the Thieves Guild is... changed...
While a great game in and of itself, it stacks up with the best of the Elder Scrolls series. If you enjoyed any of those, give it a shot. It's definitely the best entry in the series. If you didn't, check it out anyway. Enough has changed that you may find yourself a new fan.
I have to say what excited me was the announcement that this game would attempt to walk the line between Morrowind and Oblivion; Morrowind being one of my favorite games from childhood, and Oblivion being a technically good follow up set in a fairly generic setting. This is a pretty tall order. The magic of Morrowind, anyone can tell you, was in the discovery. You never knew what powerful ring you would find in that tomb across the river, or what daedric relic you'd pull out of the abandoned dwemer tower just outside of town.
Oblivion did away with this system, simply rewarding you these one of a kind items through quests; sure, a dungeon might provide a bunch of loot, but none of it had "pizzazz". None of it belonged to some great, unnamed warlock, and it certainly didn't belong to a demigod. You had to go talk to those guys in person, and you had to make sacrifices, but only when you hit the right level. Not the right level? Go back to Rockmilk and wait for those bandits and marauders to kill each other! Maybe after about ten delves you'll have fired your bow enough to get a level or two. It kind of got... boring. Not that other games don't have ridiculous amounts of grinding, but in a game claiming to be bigger and better than Morrowind, I expect even more relics to be dug up, not to just be handed to me for running between vendors and grabbing a shovel.
Skyrim, I'm happy to say, walks the line and leans toward the Morrowind side of the series. There's no telling what you'll find in any given cave, be it a powerful enemy wielding a magic weapon or a dragon wall providing you with immense power. The quests to find powerful artefacts often trigger just from discovering the tomb or strange item, so you still get the thrill of finding the artefact without feeling like you're a means to an end.
The world is wonderfully alien, just as it was in the good old days of the series. Expansive plains have herds of mammoths and giants wandering through, with beautiful mountains always in view. Rivers and streams flow through the landscape and look wonderful, although they are as much a nuisance as they are a beauty to look at. Often, there is no good way to cross a river without walking for what seems like miles out of your way. Attempting to wade across often goes awry, as there typically isn't a good way to climb out of said river. At this point, the best you can hope to do is survive the waterfall inevitably waiting 200 feet downstream and hope that you'll come out somewhere close to an actual road on the other side.
That's not to say that Oblivion's additions to the series were completely cut from the game; if anything, its shortcomings were tweaked until they became strengths for the game. While it didn't provide much in the way of setting, the fourth game in the series did a few things right: It simplified everything, and it added randomness in items. Skyrim expands on this.
Previous entries in the series required you to build your character around your Attributes, which governed skills, of which several selected as Major and [sometimes] Minor. You could only level up by increasing one of these selected skills, and then you had to weigh the pros and cons of increasing an attribute. These dilemmas are no more. Attributes: Gone. Major Skills: Nope nope. Minor Skills: That's been out of fashion for like ten years! All skills start the same, save for racial bonuses. You don't pick a class. You don't make a class. Whatever you use increases, and when a certain number of skill increases has been achieved, you level. You choose to increase your Health, Magicka, or Stamina bars, and then you get a perk to use to specialize in something. That's it. While I DO miss the challenge of increasing my luck, it's even better that I don't have to worry about respecializing in things after I've made my character. That isn't even a concern until after level 15 or so.
Building on the simplification of "Blade, Blunt, and Marksman", the weapon distinction has now become "One handed, Two handed, and Archery", with different sub-specializations within each skill tree that are up to you. One handed weapons include daggers, maces, swords, and one handed axes, and are great for damage dealers who don't want to take any damage. It goes hand in hand with the stealth tree, which only serves to make assassin characters even more overpowered (a common complaint I've heard of the game). From here you have the option to dual wield, a new feature to the series. It dramatically decreases your ability to block an attack, but the idea here is that you aren't going to be hit before this happens. Two handed is for people who don't mind getting punched in the face a couple times while swinging there weapon. These include greatswords, axes, and warhammers. Where does archery fit into all this? Very neatly, since it's so much more powerful than it ever was before. Put enough points into it, and it’s just as effective as any other weapon you could use.
Delving dungeons simply for magic items is always beneficial, especially at lower levels. Don't wear heavy armor, but still REALLY want that archery bonus? With the return of the Enchantment skill, items can be destroyed to learn their properties for use in making new ones. This means that equipment gathering is no longer the endless cycle of finding and selling and paying your first born to the Mage's Guild to make stuff temporarily better.
Oh, and dragons. With how late this review/rant is coming out, you've probably heard a lot about them already. Not a whole lot I can say on that matter except that they are far more fun than any of the other boss fights I have been involved with in this game up to this point. Fight them. Relish them, but remember that they are common throughout this game. If I had a nickel for every time I came out of fast travel and had to save a town, I wouldn’t have much money, because I don't think I've killed more than 20 dragons, and only like half those attacked towns. But I still feel like a boss.
Last, the main quest. I'm not going to get too much into this, because I honestly haven't done much with it. This shouldn't be a problem for many fans of the series, as no one really plays through it. From what I've seen of other people playing it, it is greatly improved story wise from Oblivion. What I can tell you is that guilds are back, with the Fighter's Guild and Mage's Guild being replaced by awesome. Dark Brotherhood is more disturbing than ever, and the Thieves Guild is... changed...
While a great game in and of itself, it stacks up with the best of the Elder Scrolls series. If you enjoyed any of those, give it a shot. It's definitely the best entry in the series. If you didn't, check it out anyway. Enough has changed that you may find yourself a new fan.
Yet another Jagex Interview! The CM Team
Posted by Jackstick on January 29th, 2010, 11:41 pm. Category: RuneVillage News
Hello villagers!
That's right, we're being offered a fourth interview with Jagex! We've already interviewed Mod Mark about RuneScape and his job, Mod Chris L about the Within The Light quest, and the ICU Team on account security. Now we're being offered a chance to interview the CM (Community Management) Team about the next RuneScape Machinima Contest. If you have any questions for the CM Team about their work, the upcoming competition, or Jagex's overall community competition strategies, then now is the time to ask!
In case you're wondering, the CM Team is a group of Jagex workers whose primary focus is community management (hence the name). Duties of the CM Team includes being in charge of forum and player mods, supporting fansites/communities/clans, and reading player suggestions.
Check out this video by Jagex for more information on the upcoming contest:
Like with our previous interviews we would like to get these questions sent to Jagex soon, so please post your questions as soon as possible.
The questions will be sent to Jagex and the results will be posted as soon as we hear back from them.
Thanks!
- The RuneVillage Staff
That's right, we're being offered a fourth interview with Jagex! We've already interviewed Mod Mark about RuneScape and his job, Mod Chris L about the Within The Light quest, and the ICU Team on account security. Now we're being offered a chance to interview the CM (Community Management) Team about the next RuneScape Machinima Contest. If you have any questions for the CM Team about their work, the upcoming competition, or Jagex's overall community competition strategies, then now is the time to ask!
In case you're wondering, the CM Team is a group of Jagex workers whose primary focus is community management (hence the name). Duties of the CM Team includes being in charge of forum and player mods, supporting fansites/communities/clans, and reading player suggestions.
Check out this video by Jagex for more information on the upcoming contest:
Like with our previous interviews we would like to get these questions sent to Jagex soon, so please post your questions as soon as possible.
The questions will be sent to Jagex and the results will be posted as soon as we hear back from them.Thanks!
- The RuneVillage Staff
29-Jan-2010 - 12-month Cards on Jagex Store
Posted by Dark Paladin on January 29th, 2010, 9:39 pm. Category: RuneScape News
RuneScape.com wrote:
Due to overwhelming demand, we will be returning the 12-month membership card to the Jagex Online Store. At $60, or £40 each, they are fantastic value, and can be redeemed at any time.
You can also buy our prepaid membership cards for shorter durations of 30 and 60 days in participating stores across the world. See our billing pages for more info.
To visit the Jagex Store, click here.
You can also buy our prepaid membership cards for shorter durations of 30 and 60 days in participating stores across the world. See our billing pages for more info.
To visit the Jagex Store, click here.
29-Jan-2010 - RuneScape Machinima Competition 2
Posted by Dark Paladin on January 29th, 2010, 10:43 am. Category: RuneScape News
RuneScape.com wrote:
Everyone loves a good YouTube video, right? Well, following the success of our last machinima competition it's fair to say many people love to make them too. To that end, we will be launching the Orb of Oculus camera tool next week to allow even more creativity for RuneScape filmmakers, which should come in handy for those looking to enter the competition!
The first machinima competition was pretty straightforward: make a short machinima using RuneScape. This time, however, we're introducing a theme to spice things up a bit. We want you to make us an advert for something within RuneScape!
It could be anything from a location to a shop, a monster or an item, or even a whole skill. Alternatively, you may want to advertise a RuneScape business (e.g. your restaurant or wrestling federation) or a tournament you have planned. In short, you can advertise just about anything, so long as it exists within RuneScape.
The winner will receive lifetime membership to RuneScape, a tour of the studio to meet the people who make RuneScape happen, and an invitation to a Jagex event to be held later this year. The event is very much in the planning stages at the moment, but we'll be sure to elaborate as the event takes shape. Meanwhile, four runners-up will each receive lifetime RuneScape membership.
If all of this has got your creative juices flowing and you think there’s a place for you in Gielinor's advertising agency, then you should visit this dedicated competition thread for more details, competition rules, J-mod support and an FAQ. Alternatively, you can see the rules and an example advertisement made by last year's winner, Excl, on our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/runescape.
We’ll be posting a selection of entries on the channel throughout the course of the competition too, so if you love your machinima, show your support of the RuneScape video-making community by subscribing to the channel and telling them!
The best of luck to you all. May the competition commence!
Mod Hohbein
RuneScape Community Management
The first machinima competition was pretty straightforward: make a short machinima using RuneScape. This time, however, we're introducing a theme to spice things up a bit. We want you to make us an advert for something within RuneScape!
It could be anything from a location to a shop, a monster or an item, or even a whole skill. Alternatively, you may want to advertise a RuneScape business (e.g. your restaurant or wrestling federation) or a tournament you have planned. In short, you can advertise just about anything, so long as it exists within RuneScape.
The winner will receive lifetime membership to RuneScape, a tour of the studio to meet the people who make RuneScape happen, and an invitation to a Jagex event to be held later this year. The event is very much in the planning stages at the moment, but we'll be sure to elaborate as the event takes shape. Meanwhile, four runners-up will each receive lifetime RuneScape membership.
If all of this has got your creative juices flowing and you think there’s a place for you in Gielinor's advertising agency, then you should visit this dedicated competition thread for more details, competition rules, J-mod support and an FAQ. Alternatively, you can see the rules and an example advertisement made by last year's winner, Excl, on our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/runescape.
We’ll be posting a selection of entries on the channel throughout the course of the competition too, so if you love your machinima, show your support of the RuneScape video-making community by subscribing to the channel and telling them!
The best of luck to you all. May the competition commence!
Mod Hohbein
RuneScape Community Management
29-Jan-2010 - Clan Blog and Clan Celebration Month
Posted by Dark Paladin on January 29th, 2010, 10:42 am. Category: RuneScape News
RuneScape.com wrote:
Today, we’ve published the second Clan Submissions blog, a semi-regular blog post with content driven by the clan community, for the clan community. There are a number of different things included in each one, such as artwork created by clans for forums and websites, interviews with people from the clan community and reports from the field of battle.
The new issue of the Clan Submissions blog includes an interview with the oldest clan in RuneScape (The Sabres), a report from Josh1319 about ‘The’ Clan’s 10th Birthday Party (which some J-Mods attended), and some fantastic artwork. If you missed the first Clan Submissions blog, check it out here, and let’s not forget the new knowledge base article about clans either.
We’re also proud to announce our first in-game clan festival, with the Clan Celebration Month going ahead in February. Each week during February there will be a series of themed events to capture the different areas within the clan community. We couldn’t capture everything in only four weeks, but with skilling, combat and specialist weeks, and an introduction to clans week, we’ve got a lot of fun ahead of us! If you’re interested in clans, want to explore different areas of the community or are looking for some fun, check out our Clan Celebration Month forum thread to see what events are the right ones for you.
Mod Timbo
Community Management
The new issue of the Clan Submissions blog includes an interview with the oldest clan in RuneScape (The Sabres), a report from Josh1319 about ‘The’ Clan’s 10th Birthday Party (which some J-Mods attended), and some fantastic artwork. If you missed the first Clan Submissions blog, check it out here, and let’s not forget the new knowledge base article about clans either.
We’re also proud to announce our first in-game clan festival, with the Clan Celebration Month going ahead in February. Each week during February there will be a series of themed events to capture the different areas within the clan community. We couldn’t capture everything in only four weeks, but with skilling, combat and specialist weeks, and an introduction to clans week, we’ve got a lot of fun ahead of us! If you’re interested in clans, want to explore different areas of the community or are looking for some fun, check out our Clan Celebration Month forum thread to see what events are the right ones for you.
Mod Timbo
Community Management
28-Jan-2010 - RuneScape Q&A – Mark Gerhard
Posted by Dark Paladin on January 29th, 2010, 10:39 am. Category: RuneScape News
RuneScape.com wrote:
We’ve read through all of the questions and sent them on to the relevant teams here at Jagex. Now it’s time for the first batch of answers from Jagex’s CEO, Mark Gerhard.
The questions answered in this batch deal with matters about RuneScape and Jagex as a whole. We’ve posted the questions and answers on this forum thread, so you can discuss the answers.
Mark Gerhard's (Mod MMG) live Q&A session will be held on this forum thread tonight, running from 8-10pm (GMT).
Remember that this is just the first batch of answers, and that other questions will be covered in different teams’ Q&A sessions.
I’d also like to emphasise how important these sessions are to us. While we’re all busy working on RuneScape and other Jagex games, we know it's important to make time for our players to share their views and ask us questions on a whole range of areas. After all, you are the community, and we want to know what you want to know.
Mod Kelvin
Head of Community Management
The questions answered in this batch deal with matters about RuneScape and Jagex as a whole. We’ve posted the questions and answers on this forum thread, so you can discuss the answers.
Mark Gerhard's (Mod MMG) live Q&A session will be held on this forum thread tonight, running from 8-10pm (GMT).
Remember that this is just the first batch of answers, and that other questions will be covered in different teams’ Q&A sessions.
I’d also like to emphasise how important these sessions are to us. While we’re all busy working on RuneScape and other Jagex games, we know it's important to make time for our players to share their views and ask us questions on a whole range of areas. After all, you are the community, and we want to know what you want to know.
Mod Kelvin
Head of Community Management
Jagex Interview #3: Account Security and the ICU Team
Posted by Sayaka on January 27th, 2010, 11:28 pm. Category: RuneVillage News
Hello villagers!
As you may recall, Jagex's ICU (Investigations into the Community Unit) team recently asked us for questions regarding account security, which you all provided in this topic. The ICU team has kindly taken the time to reply to your questions, and here they are below! Thanks to everyone who submitted questions, as well as Jagex and the ICU team for giving us another opportunity to gain insight on their work behind the scenes!
Jagex Interview #3 - Account Security and the ICU Team
DragonCrusher1: When was the ICU team formed?
ICU Team: Wow. You’re really stretching my memory with this one!
ICU’s various functions were performed in some kind of capacity pretty much since RuneScape first appeared, but ICU in its present form was created in around 2005.
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Glodenox: How many people are currently working in the ICU? Do you guys also have a team logo?
ICU Team: Our logo is fairly similar to a law enforcement badge – a nice golden shield – but with an eyeball in the middle. ‘Tis quite cool
There’s around 20 of us in the team, all told. These people are split between the various areas we deal with – macroing, real world trading, copyright theft etc.
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Alex!!1!: Do you co-operate with players, or is your work fully secret?
ICU Team: A lot of what we do must (by its very nature) be kept secret. That’s one of the reasons we can’t reveal evidence to players in cases such as macroing – we know they’ve done it, they know they’ve done it, but telling them how they know would compromise our internal systems.
That said we do have a number of community reach out initiatives in place, including forum threads on the RSOF where players can let us know about botters or phishing websites etc. We also receive other communication from players – from time to time we might get a letter or email containing information that is extremely useful, but often we cannot reply to these for security reasons.
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Glodenox: The name ICU makes me suspect you guys perform a varied range of activities in order to investigate the community fully. Can you give some examples?
ICU Team: ‘Varied’ about sums it up! To a great extent our major cases all depend on what happens to cross our desks. One day we might be looking into a major player in the phishing community – figuring out which accounts have been stolen and getting them back to their owners, identifying and banning a hijacker’s main and working on a profile of who they are to hand over to the police.
Another day we might be looking at a powerlevelled account in order to trace the RWT service used and remove their main accounts along with all those who have used their service. These kinds of investigations often require all our resources because their scope is vast – then the rest of the time we’re all working on our individual areas of expertise.
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Glodenox: Which of your activities is the most visible for the public?
ICU Team: I would have said the most of our activities are completely invisible – and that’s as it should be. If you get banned for anything serious, you’ll know we’ve been at work
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Riptide: What kind of difficulties do you have with hackers and such?
ICU Team: From what we have seen, most people who steal accounts these days are particularly vindictive because their only motivation is that of griefing and kudos within the hijacking community.
More often than not a hijacker will take screenshots of their ‘epic phish’ to post all over the internet, possibly make a video to put on YouTube and then drop everything they can. If they can get into a bank, they will do, and then have a huge drop party.
The result of all of this is of course a couple of minutes of ‘fun’ and adrenaline for the hijacker, and weeks of misery for the innocent victim who may have lost literally years of work in a few minutes.
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MiKeBoY2003: As part of the ICU, what have you done so far to keep RuneScape alive?
ICU Team: Too many things to count. Honestly. We’re the first line of defence against the worst kind of RuneScape cheating, and if we weren’t around a lot of the things we stop would destroy the game in a matter of weeks.
We may not be as vocal as some of the other Jagex teams, but we are here – and believe me, that’s a good thing.
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Glodenox: Is the "Community" you investigate restricted to the people playing the game and looking at the RuneScape forums, or do you also sometimes investigate cases on fansites?
ICU Team: We’re not too fussy where our work comes from
In the main a lot of what we do comes directly from internal (Jagex) sources, it’s true. But we have a dedicated fan site liason now who works closely with a range of different fan sites, and issues are occasionally escalated to us through him from time to time.
Outside of that, the benefit of working at a games company is that a lot of us really do love RuneScape and play it in our spare time! This means that there are plenty of people here who are already active on fan sites for non work-related reasons, and they will often highlight issues to us that they find outside of our ‘official’ scope.
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Glodenox: On which part of the community do you have to spent most of your time? On the free-to-play community or the members community? I would assume people who pay for their account are going to be much more cautious...
ICU Team: The sad fact of it is that from a hijacking point of view there is no one group of players who we spend more time on.
You’d think that everyone who has their account stolen is a level 3 just starting out – but I regularly see lv 130+ accounts being stolen, people with over a billion gp succumbing to a ‘free pmod’ website, massively awesome pures being lost to a ‘join my pk clan’ style scam – the list is endless. It’s a problem that affects virtually kind of RuneScape player – member or free, new or vet, young or old – irrespective of country or language. The only way we can change that is to improve this view that players have of ‘it’ll never happen to me’ and get everyone to start taking responsibility for their own account security.
Yes, I know they’re annoying but bank PINs are there for a reason
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ZxC: Having a front row seat when it comes to watching and monitoring player behavior ingame, what do you think about the general state of the Runescape community?
ICU Team: I’d hardly say we have a front row seat – in fact, quite the opposite. We tend only to deal with serious cheating a lot of the time, so we don’t tend to see a lot of the good that goes on. I have seen a lot more from dealing with player emails, forums and of course talking to you nice people! We do have one of the more friendly and accommodating player bases in online gaming and with the odd bad eggs aside I can honestly say our community is great
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The123king: Because of the changes made to prevent RWT, have you seen an increase of bots training up accounts to be sold, with all skills at one particular high level? If so, how big a problem is it, and is it easy to spot these from genuine players?
ICU Team: There’s certainly been a shift away from straight gold sales and into powerlevelling (training up an account with a bot), but nowhere near on the same scale as before.
We also have the advantage that our macro detection system is by far and away the most sophisticated in the business and will catch all bots at some point – so if anything, this kind of activity is a lot easier for us to catch than the old gold selling was. Said detection system also makes things as clear as night and day to us – it’s very easy to spot a macro as compared to a normal player.
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Glodenox: Since the RWT changes I haven't seen many bots in the game. Those changes, however, don't affect the stealing of accounts, I think. How is the development on solving those cases currently going?
ICU Team: The trade limits have meant that it’s a lot harder than before for a hijacker to get any ‘loot’ off of a stolen account, so the changes did actually have quite a large impact. Those people left hijacking now are mainly just heartless folk doing it purely for the grief they can cause others, and we’re doing a heck of a lot this year to wipe them out too.
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Snake1235: What other good suggestions were made on the subject of stopping the RWITers, and is there a chance that the current trade limits might be swapped in favour of one less constricting on people that want to just give gifts to their friends?
ICU Team: I’m not going to go over this too much because the trade limits have already been discussed to death elsewhere. We had a massive amount of different proposals to consider, and Jagex management spent the better part of a year reviewing them before coming to the decision we did. The fact is there was no better way of preventing RWT, and the suggestions we’ve seen since from players have glaring holes in them because the full behind the scenes facts aren’t generally known and cannot be revealed.
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Glodenox: How has the amount of infractions to rules evolved over the years? I'm assuming that, the more players, the more rules that were broken?
ICU Team: You’d be surprised. On the whole, the number of offences being given has obviously increased along with the number of RuneScape players. However, some of the work we’ve done in the past to change the way people understand the rules (twinned of course with the new blackmark/pillar points system) means that as an overall proportion of the people playing we are giving our fewer offences that before – and in turn, fewer offences which ban people and more that just provide a temporary mute.
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Glodenox: Because the internet is on a global scale, I assume you guys have to work together with many countries all over the world. Do you think that most countries are starting to see the value of virtual goods?
ICU Team: In the main, yes. Most European and American nations now recognise how things have changed and what the sale of a stolen Godsword actually means. A lot of people we have spoken to in the authorities in the past had no idea of the kind of sums changing hands in the real world, and a lot has been done by us and other MMO companies to change this. There’s still a lot of work to be done, and what is really needed is more legal precedents to be set before the boundaries of law are really tested, but we’re getting there.
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Tanksandguns: I know other MMORPG's such as World of Warcraft offer your items back if you lose them in an account hacking or scam. Is there any plans to implement a feature like this?
ICU Team: We’ve thought a lot about this, and the bottom line is that we can really understand why it would be handy for our players but it’s just not a workable idea.
Do you replace items on a like for like basis? Do you give a gp value based on items lost? How would that gp value be calculated? GE market price? Min? Max? All of these are questions that cannot easily be answered. More importantly though, we feel that if we did implement this there would be nothing to stop friendly players from ‘hijacking’ each other in order to essentially duplicate items. Where do we draw the line? How can we differentiate between people who are genuinely in trouble from those who are trying it on?
It’s a very fine line that we’d walk under this system, and whatever approach we take it is likely to upset a lot of people. It’s been considered a lot, and ultimately we feel that our ‘no item returns at any time for any reason’ approach is the fairest for all concerned.
Equally, we feel that our energies are much better invested in removing the hijacking problem entirely, thereby wiping out item loss as a side effect.
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The123king: Being a victim of an account scam many years ago, what sort of support is provided to players who have black marks added to their accounts by the hacker when their account was compromised?
ICU Team: First and foremost, this is the first thing we check when we look at an offence appeal – if it wasn’t you that did the crime, you certainly don’t have to do the time and we’ll remove and blackmarks against your account.
However, looking to the future one thing that is very clear is that we need to support people affecting by hijacking more. As I mentioned earlier, we’re coming out with a range of super secret behind the scenes systems to help with the hijacking problem this year. One of these will enable us to remove any black marks added to an account by a hijacker, along with any passwords, email addresses or recovery questions that they might have set and return the account to its owner in a ‘clean’ state almost before they know they’ve been hijacked. Exciting times!
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Pyro3000: Has JAGeX ever considered using physical logging devices such as password USB drives like other MMORPG games?
ICU Team: We’ve actually looked into this idea before, but the feedback we got from the community was pretty negative
The problem is that our low monthly subscription means it would be impossible for us to distribute a ‘free’ USB Key, the cost would be too prohibitive. So our original idea was to sell the keys at a price low enough to make them affordable but high enough that we wouldn’t lose our yearly income overnight. The result was a subsidised Key, on which we would still make a fair size loss but an acceptable one. Sadly, although a lot of people like the Key idea, they mainly only wanted it if it were free.
That said, we haven’t discounted the key entirely and we are looking into a massive range of potential extra account security features. I can’t go into specifics at the moment, but there are a raft of potential website changes being considered or scheduled for implementation as well as a number of different hardware options.
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ZxC: What is the ratio between the total number of reports being sent and the ones that actually require action on your part?
ICU Team: Lower than we’d like, but probably higher than you’d think!
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Glodenox: Which game changes have made your work methods different in the past few years? (I assume the ability to mute people would have had an impact)
ICU Team: I’d say the biggest change in recent memory would be the RWT changes. These were brilliant at stopping gold selling in it’s tracks – but also had the slight side effect that it made it far more difficult for ICU to monitor where and how wealth was being moved around. We’ve overcome this now with newer backend systems, but we had to spend a fair amount of time figuring out how to do it.
Outside of that, RuneScape is constantly evolving and we have to do likewise. It keeps things interesting, but also means that a lot of our time is spent trying to think ahead of the cheaters.
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ZxC: I have seen quite a few people appealing their bans by making silly comments or writing completely unrelated things and some of them actually got unbanned. Why is that?
ICU Team: We’ve seen people making comment on these too – especially on YouTube (lol, I wrote Jaghex you FAIL in my appeal and I still got unbanned!)
I’d like to make a few comments on this issue. Firstly, contrary to popular belief we do read every single offence appeal that comes in to our PS teams. Nothing is automatically replied to. Where someone has a really good reason for why something appeared to be infringing our rules but wasn’t, or comes across as genuinely apologetic and has no past history of rule breaking we will grant the appeal.
In addition to this I know it’s hard to believe but we are only human (except for Mod Stevew, he’s more like a machine...) and mistakes do get made. So if we did ban someone for offensive language and then on appeal we notice that actually there wasn’t any offensive language present, we will grant the appeal – irrespective of what’s in the appeal content. That’s why things such as that you mention in your question can occur.
That said, it is very hard from time to time to hit that ‘accept appeal’ button when the appeal reads ‘MY CAT DID IT LOL (then lots of swearing)’
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PenguinGuy: What is your top priority when it comes to account security?
ICU Team: This is going to sound so warm and fluffy that I suspect I may have inadvertently swallowed a wookie, but our number one priority is you, our players. We aim to try and secure stolen accounts as soon as possible to get you back in game with minimal loss and interruption – and as I say we’ll soon have new tools which will make this far quicker, easier and more effective for all concerned.
Phishing sites are our main concern, as these can fool pretty much anyone and are just downright evil (not to mention illegal) – so we take down as many as we can as quickly as we can. We’re also actively working with many different website hosts to ensure that sites are often taken down as they are created.
_______________________________________________________________
Glodenox: From all the rule infractions you have found, which one was the funniest (if there was a funny one)?
ICU Team: There’s been loads of offences and subsequent appeals which have brought a real smile to my face over the years. I can remember a player was once given an item scamming offence for claiming to be able to ‘trim lobsters’. That gave a few laughs!
Also, I remember when the q p w thing suddenly popped up everywhere one day. The way we see game chat is entirely different to how it is viewed in game and in a different font, so initially we had no idea what was happening or why people were doing it. We spent an hour or so staring at the screen in amazement as we got more and more reports about it until eventually one of us logged in and gave it a try. With a bit of trial and error, it was finally clear to the Mod testing it – and the ten people huddled around his screen – exactly what was going on. That gave a proper laugh – both for the ingenuity of our player base in going to such extremes to cause offence and for causing the utter bemusement of an entire team
As you may recall, Jagex's ICU (Investigations into the Community Unit) team recently asked us for questions regarding account security, which you all provided in this topic. The ICU team has kindly taken the time to reply to your questions, and here they are below! Thanks to everyone who submitted questions, as well as Jagex and the ICU team for giving us another opportunity to gain insight on their work behind the scenes!
Jagex Interview #3 - Account Security and the ICU Team
DragonCrusher1: When was the ICU team formed?
ICU Team: Wow. You’re really stretching my memory with this one!
ICU’s various functions were performed in some kind of capacity pretty much since RuneScape first appeared, but ICU in its present form was created in around 2005._______________________________________________________________
Glodenox: How many people are currently working in the ICU? Do you guys also have a team logo?
ICU Team: Our logo is fairly similar to a law enforcement badge – a nice golden shield – but with an eyeball in the middle. ‘Tis quite cool
There’s around 20 of us in the team, all told. These people are split between the various areas we deal with – macroing, real world trading, copyright theft etc.
_______________________________________________________________
Alex!!1!: Do you co-operate with players, or is your work fully secret?
ICU Team: A lot of what we do must (by its very nature) be kept secret. That’s one of the reasons we can’t reveal evidence to players in cases such as macroing – we know they’ve done it, they know they’ve done it, but telling them how they know would compromise our internal systems.
That said we do have a number of community reach out initiatives in place, including forum threads on the RSOF where players can let us know about botters or phishing websites etc. We also receive other communication from players – from time to time we might get a letter or email containing information that is extremely useful, but often we cannot reply to these for security reasons.
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Glodenox: The name ICU makes me suspect you guys perform a varied range of activities in order to investigate the community fully. Can you give some examples?
ICU Team: ‘Varied’ about sums it up! To a great extent our major cases all depend on what happens to cross our desks. One day we might be looking into a major player in the phishing community – figuring out which accounts have been stolen and getting them back to their owners, identifying and banning a hijacker’s main and working on a profile of who they are to hand over to the police.
Another day we might be looking at a powerlevelled account in order to trace the RWT service used and remove their main accounts along with all those who have used their service. These kinds of investigations often require all our resources because their scope is vast – then the rest of the time we’re all working on our individual areas of expertise.
_______________________________________________________________
Glodenox: Which of your activities is the most visible for the public?
ICU Team: I would have said the most of our activities are completely invisible – and that’s as it should be. If you get banned for anything serious, you’ll know we’ve been at work
_______________________________________________________________
Riptide: What kind of difficulties do you have with hackers and such?
ICU Team: From what we have seen, most people who steal accounts these days are particularly vindictive because their only motivation is that of griefing and kudos within the hijacking community.
More often than not a hijacker will take screenshots of their ‘epic phish’ to post all over the internet, possibly make a video to put on YouTube and then drop everything they can. If they can get into a bank, they will do, and then have a huge drop party.
The result of all of this is of course a couple of minutes of ‘fun’ and adrenaline for the hijacker, and weeks of misery for the innocent victim who may have lost literally years of work in a few minutes.
_______________________________________________________________
MiKeBoY2003: As part of the ICU, what have you done so far to keep RuneScape alive?
ICU Team: Too many things to count. Honestly. We’re the first line of defence against the worst kind of RuneScape cheating, and if we weren’t around a lot of the things we stop would destroy the game in a matter of weeks.
We may not be as vocal as some of the other Jagex teams, but we are here – and believe me, that’s a good thing.
_______________________________________________________________
Glodenox: Is the "Community" you investigate restricted to the people playing the game and looking at the RuneScape forums, or do you also sometimes investigate cases on fansites?
ICU Team: We’re not too fussy where our work comes from
In the main a lot of what we do comes directly from internal (Jagex) sources, it’s true. But we have a dedicated fan site liason now who works closely with a range of different fan sites, and issues are occasionally escalated to us through him from time to time.
Outside of that, the benefit of working at a games company is that a lot of us really do love RuneScape and play it in our spare time! This means that there are plenty of people here who are already active on fan sites for non work-related reasons, and they will often highlight issues to us that they find outside of our ‘official’ scope.
_______________________________________________________________
Glodenox: On which part of the community do you have to spent most of your time? On the free-to-play community or the members community? I would assume people who pay for their account are going to be much more cautious...
ICU Team: The sad fact of it is that from a hijacking point of view there is no one group of players who we spend more time on.
You’d think that everyone who has their account stolen is a level 3 just starting out – but I regularly see lv 130+ accounts being stolen, people with over a billion gp succumbing to a ‘free pmod’ website, massively awesome pures being lost to a ‘join my pk clan’ style scam – the list is endless. It’s a problem that affects virtually kind of RuneScape player – member or free, new or vet, young or old – irrespective of country or language. The only way we can change that is to improve this view that players have of ‘it’ll never happen to me’ and get everyone to start taking responsibility for their own account security.
Yes, I know they’re annoying but bank PINs are there for a reason
_______________________________________________________________
ZxC: Having a front row seat when it comes to watching and monitoring player behavior ingame, what do you think about the general state of the Runescape community?
ICU Team: I’d hardly say we have a front row seat – in fact, quite the opposite. We tend only to deal with serious cheating a lot of the time, so we don’t tend to see a lot of the good that goes on. I have seen a lot more from dealing with player emails, forums and of course talking to you nice people! We do have one of the more friendly and accommodating player bases in online gaming and with the odd bad eggs aside I can honestly say our community is great
_______________________________________________________________
The123king: Because of the changes made to prevent RWT, have you seen an increase of bots training up accounts to be sold, with all skills at one particular high level? If so, how big a problem is it, and is it easy to spot these from genuine players?
ICU Team: There’s certainly been a shift away from straight gold sales and into powerlevelling (training up an account with a bot), but nowhere near on the same scale as before.
We also have the advantage that our macro detection system is by far and away the most sophisticated in the business and will catch all bots at some point – so if anything, this kind of activity is a lot easier for us to catch than the old gold selling was. Said detection system also makes things as clear as night and day to us – it’s very easy to spot a macro as compared to a normal player.
_______________________________________________________________
Glodenox: Since the RWT changes I haven't seen many bots in the game. Those changes, however, don't affect the stealing of accounts, I think. How is the development on solving those cases currently going?
ICU Team: The trade limits have meant that it’s a lot harder than before for a hijacker to get any ‘loot’ off of a stolen account, so the changes did actually have quite a large impact. Those people left hijacking now are mainly just heartless folk doing it purely for the grief they can cause others, and we’re doing a heck of a lot this year to wipe them out too.
_______________________________________________________________
Snake1235: What other good suggestions were made on the subject of stopping the RWITers, and is there a chance that the current trade limits might be swapped in favour of one less constricting on people that want to just give gifts to their friends?
ICU Team: I’m not going to go over this too much because the trade limits have already been discussed to death elsewhere. We had a massive amount of different proposals to consider, and Jagex management spent the better part of a year reviewing them before coming to the decision we did. The fact is there was no better way of preventing RWT, and the suggestions we’ve seen since from players have glaring holes in them because the full behind the scenes facts aren’t generally known and cannot be revealed.
_______________________________________________________________
Glodenox: How has the amount of infractions to rules evolved over the years? I'm assuming that, the more players, the more rules that were broken?
ICU Team: You’d be surprised. On the whole, the number of offences being given has obviously increased along with the number of RuneScape players. However, some of the work we’ve done in the past to change the way people understand the rules (twinned of course with the new blackmark/pillar points system) means that as an overall proportion of the people playing we are giving our fewer offences that before – and in turn, fewer offences which ban people and more that just provide a temporary mute.
_______________________________________________________________
Glodenox: Because the internet is on a global scale, I assume you guys have to work together with many countries all over the world. Do you think that most countries are starting to see the value of virtual goods?
ICU Team: In the main, yes. Most European and American nations now recognise how things have changed and what the sale of a stolen Godsword actually means. A lot of people we have spoken to in the authorities in the past had no idea of the kind of sums changing hands in the real world, and a lot has been done by us and other MMO companies to change this. There’s still a lot of work to be done, and what is really needed is more legal precedents to be set before the boundaries of law are really tested, but we’re getting there.
_______________________________________________________________
Tanksandguns: I know other MMORPG's such as World of Warcraft offer your items back if you lose them in an account hacking or scam. Is there any plans to implement a feature like this?
ICU Team: We’ve thought a lot about this, and the bottom line is that we can really understand why it would be handy for our players but it’s just not a workable idea.
Do you replace items on a like for like basis? Do you give a gp value based on items lost? How would that gp value be calculated? GE market price? Min? Max? All of these are questions that cannot easily be answered. More importantly though, we feel that if we did implement this there would be nothing to stop friendly players from ‘hijacking’ each other in order to essentially duplicate items. Where do we draw the line? How can we differentiate between people who are genuinely in trouble from those who are trying it on?
It’s a very fine line that we’d walk under this system, and whatever approach we take it is likely to upset a lot of people. It’s been considered a lot, and ultimately we feel that our ‘no item returns at any time for any reason’ approach is the fairest for all concerned.
Equally, we feel that our energies are much better invested in removing the hijacking problem entirely, thereby wiping out item loss as a side effect.
_______________________________________________________________
The123king: Being a victim of an account scam many years ago, what sort of support is provided to players who have black marks added to their accounts by the hacker when their account was compromised?
ICU Team: First and foremost, this is the first thing we check when we look at an offence appeal – if it wasn’t you that did the crime, you certainly don’t have to do the time and we’ll remove and blackmarks against your account.
However, looking to the future one thing that is very clear is that we need to support people affecting by hijacking more. As I mentioned earlier, we’re coming out with a range of super secret behind the scenes systems to help with the hijacking problem this year. One of these will enable us to remove any black marks added to an account by a hijacker, along with any passwords, email addresses or recovery questions that they might have set and return the account to its owner in a ‘clean’ state almost before they know they’ve been hijacked. Exciting times!
_______________________________________________________________
Pyro3000: Has JAGeX ever considered using physical logging devices such as password USB drives like other MMORPG games?
ICU Team: We’ve actually looked into this idea before, but the feedback we got from the community was pretty negative
The problem is that our low monthly subscription means it would be impossible for us to distribute a ‘free’ USB Key, the cost would be too prohibitive. So our original idea was to sell the keys at a price low enough to make them affordable but high enough that we wouldn’t lose our yearly income overnight. The result was a subsidised Key, on which we would still make a fair size loss but an acceptable one. Sadly, although a lot of people like the Key idea, they mainly only wanted it if it were free.
That said, we haven’t discounted the key entirely and we are looking into a massive range of potential extra account security features. I can’t go into specifics at the moment, but there are a raft of potential website changes being considered or scheduled for implementation as well as a number of different hardware options.
_______________________________________________________________
ZxC: What is the ratio between the total number of reports being sent and the ones that actually require action on your part?
ICU Team: Lower than we’d like, but probably higher than you’d think!
_______________________________________________________________
Glodenox: Which game changes have made your work methods different in the past few years? (I assume the ability to mute people would have had an impact)
ICU Team: I’d say the biggest change in recent memory would be the RWT changes. These were brilliant at stopping gold selling in it’s tracks – but also had the slight side effect that it made it far more difficult for ICU to monitor where and how wealth was being moved around. We’ve overcome this now with newer backend systems, but we had to spend a fair amount of time figuring out how to do it.
Outside of that, RuneScape is constantly evolving and we have to do likewise. It keeps things interesting, but also means that a lot of our time is spent trying to think ahead of the cheaters.
_______________________________________________________________
ZxC: I have seen quite a few people appealing their bans by making silly comments or writing completely unrelated things and some of them actually got unbanned. Why is that?
ICU Team: We’ve seen people making comment on these too – especially on YouTube (lol, I wrote Jaghex you FAIL in my appeal and I still got unbanned!)
I’d like to make a few comments on this issue. Firstly, contrary to popular belief we do read every single offence appeal that comes in to our PS teams. Nothing is automatically replied to. Where someone has a really good reason for why something appeared to be infringing our rules but wasn’t, or comes across as genuinely apologetic and has no past history of rule breaking we will grant the appeal.
In addition to this I know it’s hard to believe but we are only human (except for Mod Stevew, he’s more like a machine...) and mistakes do get made. So if we did ban someone for offensive language and then on appeal we notice that actually there wasn’t any offensive language present, we will grant the appeal – irrespective of what’s in the appeal content. That’s why things such as that you mention in your question can occur.
That said, it is very hard from time to time to hit that ‘accept appeal’ button when the appeal reads ‘MY CAT DID IT LOL (then lots of swearing)’
_______________________________________________________________
PenguinGuy: What is your top priority when it comes to account security?
ICU Team: This is going to sound so warm and fluffy that I suspect I may have inadvertently swallowed a wookie, but our number one priority is you, our players. We aim to try and secure stolen accounts as soon as possible to get you back in game with minimal loss and interruption – and as I say we’ll soon have new tools which will make this far quicker, easier and more effective for all concerned.
Phishing sites are our main concern, as these can fool pretty much anyone and are just downright evil (not to mention illegal) – so we take down as many as we can as quickly as we can. We’re also actively working with many different website hosts to ensure that sites are often taken down as they are created.
_______________________________________________________________
Glodenox: From all the rule infractions you have found, which one was the funniest (if there was a funny one)?
ICU Team: There’s been loads of offences and subsequent appeals which have brought a real smile to my face over the years. I can remember a player was once given an item scamming offence for claiming to be able to ‘trim lobsters’. That gave a few laughs!
Also, I remember when the q p w thing suddenly popped up everywhere one day. The way we see game chat is entirely different to how it is viewed in game and in a different font, so initially we had no idea what was happening or why people were doing it. We spent an hour or so staring at the screen in amazement as we got more and more reports about it until eventually one of us logged in and gave it a try. With a bit of trial and error, it was finally clear to the Mod testing it – and the ten people huddled around his screen – exactly what was going on. That gave a proper laugh – both for the ingenuity of our player base in going to such extremes to cause offence and for causing the utter bemusement of an entire team
Well.. it's not quite as bad as usual....
When we had the 'war chest' drive, we got enough donated to pay for 3 months hosting, which expires this month, so we're coming up on the first payment due since we moved. There's also some domains due this month, which adds about $30 to our outstanding bills.
We have had a few donations come in over the past three months, but not quite enough to cover another 3-month payment and pay the domains.
I can take what we have, and make a one-month payment and carry over the balance until next month, or if some folks would like to send a donation or two in the next day or so, I can make another 3-month payment, and save us $15 on the costs (you get a discount for a 3-month payment). The domains get paid either way.
So this is not the usual grovel and beg, but we *could* save some money if you're about to make a donation soon anyway. Otherwise, I'll just pay for one month and we push on.
Thanks!
When we had the 'war chest' drive, we got enough donated to pay for 3 months hosting, which expires this month, so we're coming up on the first payment due since we moved. There's also some domains due this month, which adds about $30 to our outstanding bills.
We have had a few donations come in over the past three months, but not quite enough to cover another 3-month payment and pay the domains.
I can take what we have, and make a one-month payment and carry over the balance until next month, or if some folks would like to send a donation or two in the next day or so, I can make another 3-month payment, and save us $15 on the costs (you get a discount for a 3-month payment). The domains get paid either way.
So this is not the usual grovel and beg, but we *could* save some money if you're about to make a donation soon anyway. Otherwise, I'll just pay for one month and we push on.
Thanks!
RVET #29: Soul Wars! - (Over, thanks for coming!)
Posted by Tanksandguns on January 24th, 2010, 7:15 pm. Category: Global announcement
RVET Event #29: January 2010
Soul Wars
The battle was hectic. The landscape; huge. Adventurers from all over the land had come to team up with the Avatar of Creation or the Avatar of Destruction in what was quickly becoming a close match for all. The Avatar of Destruction simply laughed in the faces of his opposition, as no one possessed enough knowledge of the Slayer skill to do any real damage to him. But a lone adventurer dispatching Jellies near the middle of the arena made an offering to the Soul Obelisk--and all at once, the Avatar's dying screams were drowned out by the sound of combat once again.
General InformationWhat: Soul Wars Event
When: Saturday, January 30
World: 104 (P2P)
Time: 9 PM GMT, 4 PM EST, 1 PM PST
Meeting Place: Middle of Edgeville
Soul Wars Party Information
The RVET is back this month with another new event! And by "new event", we mean one the RVET hasn't done before--Soul Wars! (If you've never played Soul Wars before, you can read up on it with the aid of Jagex's Knowledge Base Article.)
Soul Wars is a "Safe Minigame" where you use your Slayer Level and combat skills to kill the other team's Level 525 Avatar as many times as you possibly can in 20 minutes. The entrance to the game (as shown above) is in Edgeville, and you can only bring combat equipment, except for capes or food.
Which Villagers will rise to the top and topple the Avatar, earning valuable combat experience? Or are you better at being crafty, capturing graveyards and setting barricades in strategic positions? Either way, the event is this Saturday--and we hope to see you all there!
Recent RVET Event Winners
This section proclaims the winners of past RVET events. Want to have your name up here on a Global for all to see? Come on down to our events and give it your all!
November '09 Skilling Contest Winners (MI & SM): Glodenox and Simons Pure
August '09 Games Room Champions: ZinyX (Runelink) and Jackstick (Draughts)
July '09 Skilling Contest Winners (FI & WC): Avian Maid & Glodenox
April '09 Skilling Contest Winners (FM & RC): Vincent Ashe & mentos
February '09 Barbarian Assault Team: Glodenox, Weirdocal, Jaron, Vincent Ashe, Jimmybe
January '09 Staff vs. Villagers War: Villagers win
December '08 Fight Pits Champion: Jaron
August '08 Who's that Villager Winner: Jackstick
May '08 Castle Wars Winners: Team Saradomin
April '08 Trouble Brewing Team: Caedo, Goten, Jaron, Justin, Shadow7, Simons Pure
March '08 Egg Hunt Winners: Simons Pure (2 eggs), Shadowsmage, Zinyx, Devil Fly
February '08 Snowball Fight Victors: Justin's Wind Faction
January '08 Fight Pits Champions: Simons Pure, Paidea, Ges2
December '07 Games Room Champions: Dark Paladin, Jaron, The123king, The Slayer
About The RuneVillage Events Team
The RuneVillage Events Team is a team lead by Dark Paladin, Dr Henry, and Jaron, with strong support from Jackstick, Jimmybe, Justin, Tanksandguns, Tyler, and Zapp. Together, we plan one event every month for all of RuneVillage to participate in. Hopefully, you will enjoy this event as well as every other event we host, as a lot of thought and time goes into each and every one we do. Also note that if you have an idea for an event and want our help, please do not hesitate to contact us and we shall see if we can help out.
- The RuneVillage Events Team -
19-Jan-2010 - Barbarian Assault Improvements
Posted by Dark Paladin on January 19th, 2010, 1:53 pm. Category: RuneScape News
RuneScape.com wrote:
Some time ago, we released the minigame Barbarian Assault. From your feedback (and from playing the game ourselves) it’s become clear that the rewards were not quite up to scratch, so we have devoted some time to improving them. Although our focus has mainly been on the rewards, we also took this opportunity to alter some small aspects of the minigame itself (though we do also have a long list of other ideas for potential future updates).
The list of changes is extensive, but here are some of the main ones to whet your appetite:
If you speak with Commander Connad at the Barbarian Outpost (you can teleport directly there with a games necklace) he’ll show you all the new rewards, which are also listed on the Barbarian Assault KB page.
Bring on the Penance!
Mod Tim
RuneScape Lead Content Developer
In other news...
The various dwarves of RuneScape have had a visit from the Makeover Mage, who has given their chatheads a new look.
The Soul Wars cape from Nomad’s Requiem can now be stored in your POH costume room.
Activating your special attack bar will no longer interfere with auto-cast timing.
Players will no longer receive activity points in Soul Wars when bandaging players that are already at full health.
Because of the recent snow we've been having, snowballs have stayed frozen for a bit longer than usual. The snow has now gone, though, so you'll find your snowballs will now melt, unless you have the snow globe from the Christmas 2007 holiday event.
The list of changes is extensive, but here are some of the main ones to whet your appetite:
- New Penance horn that lets you gain double XP in Agility, Firemaking and Mining (in a similar fashion to the tools from Stealing Creation).
- New colours of abyssal whips.
- New Penance trident weapon.
- Penance armour stat improvement and Prayer restoring set bonus.
- Penance gloves now reduce more weight.
- Gamble points rebalanced (they still include a rare chance for dragon armour).
- Ability to show off your achievements in the roles of attacker, defender, collector and healer.
- High score tables for the attacker, defender, collector and healer roles.
- Waiting rooms increased in size.
- Additional wave room ticket system for saving progress through battles.
- Blue penance eggs now reduce the target Penance’s stats and deal damage.
If you speak with Commander Connad at the Barbarian Outpost (you can teleport directly there with a games necklace) he’ll show you all the new rewards, which are also listed on the Barbarian Assault KB page.
Bring on the Penance!
Mod Tim
RuneScape Lead Content Developer
In other news...
The various dwarves of RuneScape have had a visit from the Makeover Mage, who has given their chatheads a new look.
The Soul Wars cape from Nomad’s Requiem can now be stored in your POH costume room.
Activating your special attack bar will no longer interfere with auto-cast timing.
Players will no longer receive activity points in Soul Wars when bandaging players that are already at full health.
Because of the recent snow we've been having, snowballs have stayed frozen for a bit longer than usual. The snow has now gone, though, so you'll find your snowballs will now melt, unless you have the snow globe from the Christmas 2007 holiday event.
19-Jan-2010 - Agility Benefits for Fishing, Hunter and..
Posted by Dark Paladin on January 19th, 2010, 1:50 pm. Category: RuneScape News
...Thieving
RuneScape.com wrote:
Agility has long helped adventurers excel in other skills in subtle ways – e.g. letting them run for longer while crafting runes or letting them take shortcuts to get to resources faster. Today, Agility steps up in its role as a support skill in a more direct way.
Adventurers keen on Fishing will be interested to know that a high Agility level now gives them a small chance to catch two tuna, swordfish or even sharks in one go. There’s no additional experience when this occurs, but who could say no to a free shark or two?
Similarly, adventurers with high Agility and Thieving levels now stand a chance of pickpocketing double, triple or even quadruple the usual amount of loot from unsuspecting targets.
Finally, those with exceptionally high Hunter and Agility levels can now return to the butterflies they once lumbered after with their big clumsy nets and show the amateurs how it’s really done, by catching butterflies in the palm of their hands before releasing them (just to prove they didn’t smush them). Such a display of skill and finesse will be rewarded with a large dose of Hunter experience and a little extra Agility experience too.
Mod Edam
Runescape Content Developer
Adventurers keen on Fishing will be interested to know that a high Agility level now gives them a small chance to catch two tuna, swordfish or even sharks in one go. There’s no additional experience when this occurs, but who could say no to a free shark or two?
Similarly, adventurers with high Agility and Thieving levels now stand a chance of pickpocketing double, triple or even quadruple the usual amount of loot from unsuspecting targets.
Finally, those with exceptionally high Hunter and Agility levels can now return to the butterflies they once lumbered after with their big clumsy nets and show the amateurs how it’s really done, by catching butterflies in the palm of their hands before releasing them (just to prove they didn’t smush them). Such a display of skill and finesse will be rewarded with a large dose of Hunter experience and a little extra Agility experience too.
Mod Edam
Runescape Content Developer
Signature of the Month #4
Posted by Rocky on January 17th, 2010, 9:19 pm. Category: RuneVillage News
Hello, and welcome to the fourth installment of the Signature of the Month competition!
Before we get the ball rolling, we'd like to take a moment to congratulate the winners of SotM #3. With a spacey look at the New Year, PenguinGuy takes first place. Accentuating the typical climate of the holidays, Tru Ninja came in second place. And finally, with a wide diversity of holidays mentioned, the most politically correct holiday signature created by Muffin Attak came in third. Congratulations you three!
After a couple months of special themed competitions, the judges have decided not to have a theme for this month, so go create to your heart's content! The deadline for SotM #4 is February 10th, 2010. The results for this competition will be announced in the next competition's topic and in the Winner's List.
Need some help? Check out our Graphics Tutorial Supersticky and our Graphic Design Resource Guide.
» Rule 1: The signature size limits for the SotM are 500x150 pixels and 150kb file size. Users who submit signatures above these limits will be pmed. If they don't resize the image, they will be disqualified from the competition.
» Rule 2: All signatures must be made by you and no one else! You may work with stock images but you have to actually add a significant amount of your own work to it for it to be submitted in the competition. You may NOT find an existing signature, add onto it, and submit it as your own.
» Rule 3: All RuneVillage Rules apply to this competition. If the signature you submit violates any of the rules, it will not be submitted and you -may- be disqualified from the competition.
» Rule 4: Some SotM competitions will have themes, and you must follow the theme to be entered in the competition.
» Rule 5: You may only submit ONE signature in each competition. If you submit more than one, you will be asked to pick one to submit.
» Rule 6: You may not enter in any SotM competitions if you are a SotM Judge.
» Rule 7: Any signature you enter must not have been submitted in any previous SotW or SotM competitions and must not be submitted in future SotM competitions.
Tru Ninja
Jocund
Keaz
kikori kid
If you have any questions about the SotM please post them in this topic or pm Jackstick or Rocky Martin.
Thanks!
- The Signature of the Month Team
12-Jan-2010 - RuneScape Q&A Schedule Changes
Posted by Dark Paladin on January 15th, 2010, 10:58 pm. Category: RuneScape News
RuneScape.com wrote:
Due to time constraints, we have had to move back the dates of the Player Support, Community Management and FunOrb Q&A sessions. The revised schedule is as follows:
For more information about these Q&A sessions or to read what questions have been asked, please visit this forum thread.
The live sessions for each of these topics will begin at around 8pm GMT (on the days stated above), save for Andrew Gower’s (which will begin at 4pm) and RuneScape Content’s (which will begin at 5pm).
Mod Kelvin
Head of Community Management
- Thursday 28th January – Mark Gerhard (Jagex CEO)
- Thursday 4th February – Andrew Gower (RuneScape’s creator and Lead Developer)
- Thursday 11th February – RuneScape Content
- Thursday 18th February – FunOrb (on the FunOrb website)
- Thursday 25th February – Audio
- Thursday 4th March – Player Support
- Thursday 11th March – Community Management
For more information about these Q&A sessions or to read what questions have been asked, please visit this forum thread.
The live sessions for each of these topics will begin at around 8pm GMT (on the days stated above), save for Andrew Gower’s (which will begin at 4pm) and RuneScape Content’s (which will begin at 5pm).
Mod Kelvin
Head of Community Management
13-Jan-2010 - Postbag from the Hedge
Posted by Dark Paladin on January 15th, 2010, 10:56 pm. Category: RuneScape News
RuneScape.com wrote:
If you thought you were safe from cracker jokes after Christmas, then you were thoroughly mistaken! We received some real howlers from you over the past two months, and we can now show off the very best in this edition of the Postbag from the Hedge. Click here to see which joke won the top prize of a year's RuneScape credit.
Other highlights include the Chaos Elemental, who has returned to offer some fiendish word-based hints of future releases, and Enakhra, who reveals what she knows about dragonkin, dragon riders and the code of Zamorak.
Other highlights include the Chaos Elemental, who has returned to offer some fiendish word-based hints of future releases, and Enakhra, who reveals what she knows about dragonkin, dragon riders and the code of Zamorak.
11-Jan-2010 - Nomad’s Requiem
Posted by Ultragast on January 11th, 2010, 10:40 am. Category: RuneScape News
Quote:
Soul Wars has a dark underbelly that Nomad would rather you didn’t see. His disappearances have become more and more frequent of late, and each time he returns looking...different. It seems he has been working on something with dangerous implications for the whole of RuneScape, and there is a chance – but only a chance – that you can stop it.
Our second Grandmaster quest is wildly different from While Guthix Sleeps; instead of searching the world for answers, Nomad’s Requiem is set wholly beneath Soul Wars. Don’t be foolish enough to think that this makes it less challenging, however. Indeed, expect quite the opposite: this quest is densely packed with intricate puzzles, punishing environments and at least one battle that will push you harder than almost any other on RuneScape, whatever combat level you’ve reached. You have been warned!
Those who persevere and complete this quest will be rewarded with Zeal Points (among other things), which are stored at Soul Wars and can be spent in your own time. Zeal Points can be traded in for varying amounts of XP in any combat skill (except Summoning), Slayer XP, charms to train Summoning, or a pet Slayer creature. For a more detailed explanation of how Zeal Points work, check out the Soul Wars rewards on the Knowledge Base.
Mod Rathe
RuneScape Content Developer
Summary:
Where to start Nomad's Requiem:
Speak to Zimberfizz at Soul Wars.
Requirements to complete Nomad's Requiem:
King's Ransom (including the Knight Waves)
75 Magic
70 Prayer
66 Mining
65 Hunter
60 Construction
Must have fully completed the Soul Wars tutorial
Must have completed at least one game of Soul Wars (win, lose or draw)
Having very high (85+) stats in all combat disciplines is advised, unless you’re particularly good at combat
In other news...
We have improved how Zeal earned from playing Soul Wars is cashed in. If when spending 10 or 100 Zeal you gain a level in your chosen skill, then your new level will be taken into account as soon as it is earned, and the remainder of the 10 or 100 Zeal will be applied based on your new level. Remember that if you spend 100 Zeal at a time, you receive a 10% bonus to any XP gained, so now it is better than ever to save up your Zeal.
We've adjusted the apparent lag when using your inventory and clicking and dragging items around. This also means you won't drop the wrong item selected if you'd clicked too fast. Additionally, a slot will not remain highlighted when it shouldn't.
The tooltip description for the Soul Split curse has been corrected to reflect the actual amount of hitpoints restored.
You can now set an option to not offer the ability to switch between prayers and curses when recharging your Prayer at an altar. A few altars originally left out, including the ones found in the God Wars Dungeon, now offer this switching facility.
We've added a huge amount of drop sounds to items. It's a nice little feature that should let you realise if you've dropped something by accident that you didn’t mean to.
The Christmas 2009 holiday event has now been removed from the game.
Our second Grandmaster quest is wildly different from While Guthix Sleeps; instead of searching the world for answers, Nomad’s Requiem is set wholly beneath Soul Wars. Don’t be foolish enough to think that this makes it less challenging, however. Indeed, expect quite the opposite: this quest is densely packed with intricate puzzles, punishing environments and at least one battle that will push you harder than almost any other on RuneScape, whatever combat level you’ve reached. You have been warned!
Those who persevere and complete this quest will be rewarded with Zeal Points (among other things), which are stored at Soul Wars and can be spent in your own time. Zeal Points can be traded in for varying amounts of XP in any combat skill (except Summoning), Slayer XP, charms to train Summoning, or a pet Slayer creature. For a more detailed explanation of how Zeal Points work, check out the Soul Wars rewards on the Knowledge Base.
Mod Rathe
RuneScape Content Developer
Summary:
Where to start Nomad's Requiem:
Speak to Zimberfizz at Soul Wars.
Requirements to complete Nomad's Requiem:
King's Ransom (including the Knight Waves)
75 Magic
70 Prayer
66 Mining
65 Hunter
60 Construction
Must have fully completed the Soul Wars tutorial
Must have completed at least one game of Soul Wars (win, lose or draw)
Having very high (85+) stats in all combat disciplines is advised, unless you’re particularly good at combat
In other news...
We have improved how Zeal earned from playing Soul Wars is cashed in. If when spending 10 or 100 Zeal you gain a level in your chosen skill, then your new level will be taken into account as soon as it is earned, and the remainder of the 10 or 100 Zeal will be applied based on your new level. Remember that if you spend 100 Zeal at a time, you receive a 10% bonus to any XP gained, so now it is better than ever to save up your Zeal.
We've adjusted the apparent lag when using your inventory and clicking and dragging items around. This also means you won't drop the wrong item selected if you'd clicked too fast. Additionally, a slot will not remain highlighted when it shouldn't.
The tooltip description for the Soul Split curse has been corrected to reflect the actual amount of hitpoints restored.
You can now set an option to not offer the ability to switch between prayers and curses when recharging your Prayer at an altar. A few altars originally left out, including the ones found in the God Wars Dungeon, now offer this switching facility.
We've added a huge amount of drop sounds to items. It's a nice little feature that should let you realise if you've dropped something by accident that you didn’t mean to.
The Christmas 2009 holiday event has now been removed from the game.
08-Jan-2010 - RuneScape Cards in Canada
Posted by Dark Paladin on January 8th, 2010, 5:15 pm. Category: RuneScape News
RuneScape.com wrote:
Great news: We have been working with some of the largest retailers in Canada to make our Incomm pre-paid subscription cards available across the country.
The cards are available for 1- or 3-month subscriptions to RuneScape and can be purchased from Best Buy, Future Shop, and the Universities of Toronto, Capbreton and Calgary. Very soon, the cards will also be available to purchase from other major retailers.
Once you have purchased your card, you can use the PIN number on the back to subscribe to RuneScape. Click here to find out how.
These cards are also available in the United States, and they can be found in branches of Target, 7-Eleven, Wal-Mart and Rite-Aid. We are hoping to launch these convenient cards in more countries in the future, so keep an eye out for further announcements.
The cards are available for 1- or 3-month subscriptions to RuneScape and can be purchased from Best Buy, Future Shop, and the Universities of Toronto, Capbreton and Calgary. Very soon, the cards will also be available to purchase from other major retailers.
Once you have purchased your card, you can use the PIN number on the back to subscribe to RuneScape. Click here to find out how.
These cards are also available in the United States, and they can be found in branches of Target, 7-Eleven, Wal-Mart and Rite-Aid. We are hoping to launch these convenient cards in more countries in the future, so keep an eye out for further announcements.
04-Jan-2010 - RuneScape Q&A Schedule
Posted by Dark Paladin on January 7th, 2010, 8:52 pm. Category: RuneScape News
RuneScape.com wrote:
The previous Q&A sessions we’ve held have proven to be popular, so we thought we would have another to kick off the start of a new decade.
We have opened up a Q&A Sessions thread in the News & Announcements forum for anyone who wants to post questions to us. This thread shall remain open until the morning of January 7th, after which we will compile questions and pass them on to the people at Jagex best suited to answer them.
As before, we shall first publish a round of answers on the forums, then hold a live Q&A session later that day. The planned schedule is as follows:
For more information about these Q&A sessions or to submit a question, please visit this forum thread.
For those that are interested, FunOrb will also be having its own Q&A session on 21st January. To put questions to the FunOrb team, please visit this forum thread on the FunOrb website.
Mod Kelvin
Head of Community Management
We have opened up a Q&A Sessions thread in the News & Announcements forum for anyone who wants to post questions to us. This thread shall remain open until the morning of January 7th, after which we will compile questions and pass them on to the people at Jagex best suited to answer them.
As before, we shall first publish a round of answers on the forums, then hold a live Q&A session later that day. The planned schedule is as follows:
- Thursday 14th January – Player Support
- Thursday 28th January – Mark Gerhard (Jagex CEO)
- Thursday 4th February – Andrew Gower
- (RuneScape’s creator and Lead Developer) Thursday 11th February – RuneScape Content
- Thursday 18th February – Community Management
- Thursday 25th February – Audio
For more information about these Q&A sessions or to submit a question, please visit this forum thread.
For those that are interested, FunOrb will also be having its own Q&A session on 21st January. To put questions to the FunOrb team, please visit this forum thread on the FunOrb website.
Mod Kelvin
Head of Community Management
Name changes and rules page + Gender icons
Posted by Glodenox on January 6th, 2010, 5:28 pm. Category: RuneVillage News
Hello there,
Just wanting to point out that you can now check all name changes at this new page. It can also be accessed at the top right of the forum page, next to "View new posts". I'm sure this information will come in handy for you all.
Also, I've slightly reworked the Participation Rules page so that it is actually part of the forums and not just a static page. The Participation Rules themselves haven't changed though. We're most likely going to move the link to the Participation Rules away from the Forum Index and make it available on each page on RuneVillage - making them easier to access. But that's still under discussion, so this will have to do for now.
EDIT:
Another thing has been brought up: we used to have images to represent the gender on the forums. I've currently implemented the images, but which do you prefer?
Also, we're still working on improving the gender image. The ones that are currently being used aren't final yet.
Greetings,
Glodenox
Just wanting to point out that you can now check all name changes at this new page. It can also be accessed at the top right of the forum page, next to "View new posts". I'm sure this information will come in handy for you all.
Also, I've slightly reworked the Participation Rules page so that it is actually part of the forums and not just a static page. The Participation Rules themselves haven't changed though. We're most likely going to move the link to the Participation Rules away from the Forum Index and make it available on each page on RuneVillage - making them easier to access. But that's still under discussion, so this will have to do for now.
EDIT:
Another thing has been brought up: we used to have images to represent the gender on the forums. I've currently implemented the images, but which do you prefer?
Also, we're still working on improving the gender image. The ones that are currently being used aren't final yet.
Greetings,
Glodenox
Jagex Interview #3: Account Security
Posted by Sayaka on January 5th, 2010, 8:25 pm. Category: RuneVillage News
Hello villagers!
As you are probably already aware, Jagex has occasionally given us the chance to send them questions from our community, which they then answer and return to us. You can read the past two topics, the Interview with Mod Mark and the Within the Light Interview with Mod Chris L, by clicking the links to the left.
Once again, Jagex is offering us an interview, this time with their ICU (Investigations into the Community Unit)! If you've viewed the Book'em Danno... topic hiker posted in RuneScape Discussion, you've seen a glimpse of the actions Jagex has taken to help stop account hacking and phishing.
So here's your chance! If you have anything you'd like to ask the Jagex ICU team, such as questions relating to account security or what they to do combat account hijackers, feel free to post them here! The questions posted in this topic will be compiled in a few days and sent to the ICU team to be answered, and the results will be posted as soon as we receive them.
Thanks!
- The RuneVillage Staff
As you are probably already aware, Jagex has occasionally given us the chance to send them questions from our community, which they then answer and return to us. You can read the past two topics, the Interview with Mod Mark and the Within the Light Interview with Mod Chris L, by clicking the links to the left.
Once again, Jagex is offering us an interview, this time with their ICU (Investigations into the Community Unit)! If you've viewed the Book'em Danno... topic hiker posted in RuneScape Discussion, you've seen a glimpse of the actions Jagex has taken to help stop account hacking and phishing.
So here's your chance! If you have anything you'd like to ask the Jagex ICU team, such as questions relating to account security or what they to do combat account hijackers, feel free to post them here! The questions posted in this topic will be compiled in a few days and sent to the ICU team to be answered, and the results will be posted as soon as we receive them.
Thanks!
- The RuneVillage Staff
