It is truely amazing where your life could lead you. I, for instance, never thought I would have quit FFXI for WoW. First, let me add my two cents into the ring. It is a freaking good game. Blizzard took a game, made it ten times better than anything else it has ever made, then made it 100% better than that. So, by calculations, it is 1000000000 times better than the other MMORPGs. I exaggerate, but you get the point. Blizzard took all the promblems of the other games nad mad ethem disappe...

Apparently in the face of amazing controversy to whether they would do it or not, Square-Enix sanctioned and eliminated accounts of known gil sellers. Damn, I had wished I had been there for that. With the Dec. update, the idea apparently was to watch who camped what, who's accounts were linked, and who was making real life profit while violating the T&C's of Square-Enix. This is apparently the first in a current watch protocol that has been insituted to prevent further abuse of the gam...

If you play the game, or know someone that does, you might have got caught up in the discussion of Gil Selling. FFXI message boards light up at the thought of botters camping items that would otherwise bring them good money. In response to lvling whm, I decided for extra mp, to lvl my black mage. The theory is that to lvl bard, I must lvl whm as the support job, and to lvl whm, I need all the extra MP I can get, being Elvaan and all. How does this get ot deal with the Gil Selling issue and...

THe most underrated character class in the game is White Mage. I experienced living as a White Mage for quite a few days before I even got fed up with it. The white mage is one of the glue pieces to the perfect party. After all, who is gonna heal you? The Red MAge only seems to want to fight, and the Black mage can't heal. Sure, the Bard can give you 7 HP a tick back..at lvl 45. It takes two Red Mages to fill in for a white mage, so I figure you got the picture by now. At lvl 14, as a...

This has been the year of the New Game. I make a difference in that there are a lot of new, kick ass games. I have spent so much time reading and playing about games that my social life has gone to hell. I have comprised a small top five list for you. 1. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Who DOESN'T love this game. It took a idea and not only trumped it predessor, but beat it so bad that GTA one felt it. This is soley the best game so far. 2. Final Fantasy XI: After some time away, Van'Die...

As yuou might have read, I have picked up Final Fantasy XI again. I have a 43 lv bard on the Ramuh server, along wiht a few other classes lvled, notably Monk at level 33. I planned a while ago to journal my adventures, but then I stopped playing. So, here are the adventures of Parm the Female Elvaan Bard. Day 32 Today was my official day back. I have already gained my new linkpearl, kind of sad that the old Linkshell is gone. Most people ported over from the old one, but there are still...

First, there was the leaked codes. Then, of course, there was the fine tuning of the game so that it was beyond ready for release. This lead to delay after delay after delay. Now, the day has arrived. The internet flooded last night with people trying harder than hard to get the downloadable version of Half Life II from the Steam network. Good idea I suppose...and all in the name of anti piracy. Good enoigh crusade at that. Needles sto say that there are already cracked and ready version...

At first, I thought I was safe. My computer was away, and I had kissed Final Fantasy XI goodbye. I didn't care at that point that I was going ot lose all that hard work thatI had put into the game, just that I wanted out. It was literally taking over my life. I had fought hard and finally settled on the Bard class to lvl to 75, and I got too addicted around lvl 43. So, when I moved back home ot my computer, not my laptop, I opened it up, just to see what would happen. It scared me that...

I went to a local computer store with one simple question in mind: " When is Half-Life 2 going to be released?" You see, back in the day, it was supposed to be released in March. Hell, I have a coupon I got with my 9800 ATI videocard that gets me a free copy. March came and went, and then it was May. Then July. Then September. Now, apparently, it will be released in November, and that is supposed to be the final release, no foolin, praise godand chunky peanut butter. But will it? I t...

Like 2.7 million people in the last couple weeks, I the household I live in has embraced the Sims 2. Were it not bad enough that The Sims was a terribly addictive game in its own right, the Sims 2 is jsut a million times bigger. Since there are four people in the house, and at the moment only 2 computers that can handle it, the playing time has been stagnant. People play when they get home, when others go off to work, or fight over how much time has been used. The first day, my roomate ...

Almost seven years ago, I got introduced to a game that changed my life for quite some time. At hte time, there was only one game like it, and that was Ultima: Online. Tha game sucked, so I tried this new one tht me and a friend got into the beta for. Everquest was something that had never really been around before. With the beta access, i picked one of the test servers and tried it out. WOW. I tried it at 6 pm on a Friday night after work and got off the computer at 7 am on Sunday. I was ...

When I opened up a email from Blizzard entertainment a few months ago, I was a little shocked. I had signed up at the earliest possible date to join the World Of Warcraft beta and didn't make it into the first run. No matter, as a EQbeta tester, sometimes beta testing can be alittle bit of a hassle. After all, you are playing so that the developers can work the bugs out and make the game better. Blizzard's entrance in the world of the MMORPG, World of Warcraft, is nothing original. With th...

It occured to me that every game that is put out is a sensational hit. I realize that people are paid to tote the party line for developers of console and computer games, but really..how do these people sleep at night? The abjectives that are used to discribe the crap that gets put out amazes me sometimes. I scrap better things off the soles of my shoes. So, when a friend introduced me to GameRankings.com, I was scepticle. I mean, another review site. What made it a little different w...

Back in the day, there was a PC game called Magic: The Gathering, based on the CCG. It was released by Microprose that was eventually bought out by Infrograms, and then Infrograms was bought out by Atari games. The game was released in 1997. It is a little piece of PC arcana that was popular, then fizzled out. I used to own this game, and since I have a love of old school Magic cards, I loved it. Especially when I was extremely crazed with Magic and no one would play me anymore or try to ...

So, I ran out and pre-ordered Final Fantasy XI back in August of last year. I had jsut gone through a terrible breakup with EverQuest a few months before. I wasn't sure if I was ready to get into another long term commitment, but crap people, it's FINAL FANTASY.After rangling with the credit card, I waited the two hours to allow the new release patch to download. Soon, I was slaying bunnies with my uber sweet Elvaan female on Ramuh server. And for awhile, I felt at home.Now, it is the month o...