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Ctrl Alt Geek Guests!
We were invited as guests onto Ctrl Alt Geek with Aprillian and Jeppy to talk about our upcoming podcast. It was a blast and we always love the opportunity to have fun with them.
We talked about the trials and tribulations of setting up a podcast. We can’t wait to start up our own conversation with each other and all of you.
There’s No “Rift” Between Us
Iceflow and Caoboi in Meridian. Click for larger size.
Renee: Sorry it has been so long since we’ve posted. But I can blame it squarely on the subject of this post. Oh Rift…Rift…Rift. What can I say? I love the world. Rift is a brand new MMORPG by the mostly unheard of game developer Trion. It’s set in the fantasy world of Telara. I played a bit in the open beta and J and I decided to make the leap into the headstart. I immediately was in love with it. The art is fantastic. I bought a horse mount in game and I couldn’t stop staring. the muscles rippled and my character actually held the reins. She even rode the horse differently than she rode her two-headed turtle. That’s a huge sell for me.
J: The gist of the game is you are a soul of a Hero that’s been saved by the gods or captured by technology (depending on your faction) and you are sent back in time to stop the big bad guy, Romulus. While you are there, there are “Rifts” of different elements (Life, Water, Fire, Death) that open and they are coming to stop you from saving the future. These rifts bring enemies with them, so you can work with a group of people via their public system to get these rifts closed. You receive tokens, prizes for closing these rifts. These rifts are almost to a liking of an alien invasion. When a major rift event happens you can see rifts as far as you can see. You get a feeling like they are coming for you and you must stop them. The graphics are amazing and the water, landscape looks very real and believable.
Renee: So J and I have been playing like we play any MMO together. Make a character and quest. There are so many builds you can have within one character, I can easily change between tank and DPS and J can just as easily change between healer and DPS. The Rift system is amazing and we both have a hard time ignoring one that opens right in front of us. Everything is new and shiny and not without a few flaws but it’s still fun. We found a community that we are familiar with to spend time with in-game and that has made all the difference.
J: Like with any MMO that’s what makes the game. The community and having like-minded folks that play along with you. I also must say Trion took elements from MMOs that have been out that made them fun and cool and put them together in this one. Very smart move I must say. So you are probably asking, “Do we still play World of Warcraft?” We will say yes we still do as our friends we raid with are still raiding and we raid with them. That’s what we do together with are friends from the Not in the Face raid team. If we weren’t raiding I can say we probably would be taking a slight break. We’ve been playing WoW for a very long time and that’s where Renee and I met each other so it has a special place in our hearts.
If you’re looking for something new, polished and exciting and you love fantasy I say give this game a try! We only wish there was a Mac client so our Apple friends could play along with us!
Weekend Wrapup: 02/18/2011-02/20/2011
- Renee watched Fistful of Dollars for the first time. Pretty good for a movie made in the sixties. Clint is the badass of his time. Loved that he had no back story but yet he cleansed the whole time.
- Watched about four episodes of 24. This series is so easy to watch one and then another…then another…then another. You keep wanting to see how Jack will get out of this time. Excellently done even with all the bloopers that we found.
- Played Rift which we will talk about coming up. Rift is a ton of fun even though there are so many abilities you can have. The art is gorgeous and there’s no pressure. We just enjoy myself in that game.
- Renee managed to get through another series in her comic collection that she’s behind on. She finished up Dark Avengers. She loved this story arc. It’s almost like the dirty side of the Avengers. Maybe the dark side of the regular Avengers.
- We went to Indianapolis to eat at Big Bub’s Burgers and Ice Cream. The burgers are great, the waffle fries with bacon, cheese and sour cream were amazing, and the cinnamon crumb ice cream was decadent. We’ll be back. Even with those creepy statues.
- We raided Friday and Saturday with the best raid team I’ve ever had. We made a bit of progression with the boss that we wanted to but didn’t really get him down. Even if we didn’t, we still had tons of fun. Thanks for all the laughs, Not in the Face.
- J started reading “Machine of Death” this is a pretty good compilation of short stories that revolves around people that know what their cause of death is going to be but do not know when it will happen. You should check it out it’s creepy and causes some laughter.
- J played some Minecrarft on Sunday and figured out the “cart exploit” on making the minecart go faster and not have to use a powered minecart.
- J tried to help a lady with her groceries in Carmel, Indiana but she looked at me funny as if I was going to steal her bread. (See the bullet above about the creepy statues)
- We got our Outloand Dungeon Hero achievment this weekend. It didn’t take us long. I just want to thank Blizzard for making me redo them all over again! (sarcasm)
- J purchased “You Don’t Know Jack” for the XBOX360 this weekend and played Nate with it. That game is fun and the humor is awesome. Look for a review at a later date. I definite party game!
Minecraft: I’m Crafting What?
Renee: So one of the latest game crazes around the nation (how lame did that intro sound?) is the game Minecraft. J and I purchased this months ago but we never really got into it. A couple of weeks ago we got back into it because we realized we can play on each other’s servers. Basically Minecraft is a simple concept. You can mine anything in the entire game and then you use the materials you get to create new items. You place the materials in the basic shape of what you want to make it. So to make a mine pick, you put two pieces of wood in a straight line with stone on either side.
J: So sounds pretty cool right? I know what you are thinking, “Legos”, right? Well let’s add a little excitement. A little time limit on having to build a shelter before night fall before the spiders, creepers and zombies…wait…what? Yes zombies, folks, will come out and attack you. These zombies and creepers pop out of any place that is dark. So you have to be quick to get that first shelter built before night falls so you can come back out and start building your land! This is survival ya’ll!
Renee: So that’s Minecraft in a nutshell. The multiplayer is what really grabs me in this game. There are servers with 20 or 30 people building a whole world. This game is all about what you can create and your imagination is the limit. The game is technically in beta now and it currently costs $20. Try it out and you’ll be surprised at how immersed you get in it.
J: Remember to use your imagination and there are few limits to what you can build in Minecraft have fun building!
Girl Talk: Talk To Me!
Renee: So J and I love this artist called Girl Talk. You know how you just love something so much you just want to tell everybody about it? Yea, it’s kinda like that. He’s a mashup artist that will take all kinds of song and do a mashup with them. We heard about him on NPR of all places about his then new album, Feed the Animals. The sample that they played was just a mild version of what the album was all about and the love has grown even stronger with his new album, All Day.
J: The thing about this guy is that he takes songs that you may know and mashes these songs up with songs you may not have ever heard. Like a perfect example is his mashing the song, “Lip Gloss” by Lil Mama and “One” by Metallica and making it sound amazing! There is such a great following for him. It’s almost like an egg hunt to find songs that are contained in his mashups and people have done spreadsheets that break them down. The spreadsheet linked is from waxy.org. I know one of the things I love is the fact that every time I listen to his albums is that it’s like listening to a different album each time.
Renee: Yea it seamlessly goes from one song to another. I think I’ve listened to the album more than 20 times so far. So imagine our surprise when we found out he was coming in town. I purposely avoided looking at any concerts on You Tube because I wanted to be surprised when I got there. Apparently dressing like sluts from the 80s is the norm for his concerts. Who knew? But the excitement and energy was amazing. I felt like the crowd was going to just take off into space. Sounds weird, yea i know. I loved all of it. But I think J didn’t like every part of the concert.
J: This is true and it was mostly to the fact that the sound guy for the opening act was absolutely horrible and had the sounds levels stupidly loud. He was very much an amateur in my opinon. I will not let his stupidity ruin this post. I really did enjoy the concert and, being who I am, I watched some YouTube videos and I will say this. The videos do no justice! You have to see it in person! It is simply amazing!
Borderlands: Our Trip to Pandora
Renee: J and I bought Borderlands Christmas of 2009 (yes, folks 2009) and didn’t get further than a level 8 or 9 character I believe. So imagine my surprise when we got into Borderlands hot and heavy this past weekend. We played with two good friends that we raid with in WoW and finished the game in two days. And if you know anything about me, I don’t finish games. Staying up until 3:30 am did loads for my confidence that I’m not getting old. From midgets in refrigerators to riding across sandy dunes; This game has it all. I went for playing with an Xbox wired controller because it made strafing easier for me.
J: When I found out that two of our friends were playing Borderlands I was so excited because as a group of friends we all tend to try to do stuff together. Knowing that we already had Borderlands I went to find our disk to install. Then come to find out they were playing all four of the DLCs which were ten bucks a piece. So it actually came out better to just buy the Game of the Year Edition to play with them. So after transferring my level 10 soldier over to my steam copy I was fired up and ready to play! It’s been a long time since I’ve finished a game outside of just at the arcade and beating Street Fighter 2 on one quarter.
Renee: Street Fighter 2? You’re dating yourself, babe. I love how everything in the game (well almost everything) is about shooting. There are so many guns to choose from and you are constantly getting upgrades. I chose to go with a hunter and having the bird help you is a nice perk. I primarily tend to use revolvers and repeaters. It’s easy to change specs around and try something new if you wanted.
J: The Co-op game is something I really enjoy. I love to play Co-op and I also love First Person Shooters (FPS) which was a good combo here. Being able to play with friends and family and enjoy the experiences together was a HUGE plus for me. I like how you’re able to help each other get caught up on quest and the creatures of Pandora get strong as you bring in more of your friends. I played a soldier and talented into Support which allowed my teammates to regenerate health if they are around me when I kill someone and also my turret had a healing regeneration buff as well. I really loved the fact that me killing would heal those around me.
Renee: Oh yea, that turret came in handy. Let’s just say…errrr, I didn’t stay alive so well. All in all, I loved this game. I don’t know what took me so long to play it! I can blame it on WoW right? That always gets blamed for everything in the Valentine house.
J: This game has tons of replay value I mean the story is awesome and funny. The game play is amazing and on top of that you can play it with friends. Which is a huge plus for me that sometimes have issues of playing the game and being that “lone hero to save the world” I like the we as a team can make this happen! I see myself being able to play it alone…well I’ll at least have my turret as a partner. As my soldier Roland says: “It’s like having another soldier on the battlefield!”
Graphics: 8 out of 10
Gameplay: 9 out of 10
Story: 9 out of 10
Overall: 9 out of 10
Noob Corn
Griping about how there was baby corn in my pasta dish.
J: Oh, did baby corn pwn you again?
Me: I just ate around it. It didn’t pwn me! Stupid noob corn.
J: That’s basically what it is:
The First Valentine Tree
So the Valentines put up their first tree. It’s artificial when I’m used to getting real but artificial is less hassle and it’s just as pretty. I am adoring being married and it’s all I could ever hope for.
Hope everybody had a great holiday. 😀
One More Time Backstreets Back Alright
Typing to each other on IM:
Him (talking about Twitter): @ Me Baby One More Time like the Backstreet Boys!
Me: Ok, but just so you know Hit Me Baby One More Time was Britney Spears, not the Backstreet Boys.
Him: Oh really? But didn’t Backstreet Boys = Britney Spears x 5?
Me: (laughing)
Him: I’m just saying!
Exhausted…but married!
So I haven’t written in a while. The wedding stuff just got out of control crazy. But the day came, everything was awesome. And now I’m a wife. The wedding was yesterday but even after a bit of sleep plus a nap, I am still so tired. So I am about to lie down and cuddle with my husband and I will catch you all on the flip side.
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