Every day for the sale, Steam is holding a little minigame for users to play. It’s a clickfest game where you gather gold to upgrade your clicks. You know, like those idle browser games that were all the rage for a while last year. Anyways, you can idle with this or actively click – either way you’re going to get gold and upgrades.
And that’s it. That’s the entire game. So why can’t I stop playing it? Why do I keep going back over to check on it and buy dumb upgrades?
Because Gaben.
That’s why.
Because Gaben.
Also there are some dang good chiptunes.
Anyways, to play it, just open up Steam and you’ll see it on the store page. Have fun clicking!
After several days of plinking around on other, lesser characters, I finally earned enough gold to shell out for Kael’thas and then I promptly handed Blizzard my wallet so I could get this Stormpunk skin.
I like it.
I like it a lot.
Also Kael’s voice is adorable.
As I said in my first review of Heroes of the Storm a week ago, this is a solid but otherwise unremarkable game that probably would not be keeping my attention if not for the fact that this is Silly Blizzard Fan References: The Game. And, weirdly enough, that fact alone has still got me playing… for now.
Steam sales are here, which means it’s time to add to your neverending collection. Because if you’re anything like me, you are a dragon who hoards video games.
STEP TWO: Head over to the Steam Sales Tracker, which will become your best friend over the course of the next ten days. This handy website will tell you what the most discounted games across the entire Steam platform currently are. Even better, you can sort by many different variables including rating and price. So yeah. Steam Sales Tracker. Bookmark it.
STEP THREE: Plug yourself into Steamleft.com and weep.
Oh boy.
And that’s it. Pike’s easy, three step guide to enjoying the Steam sales.
Just… don’t bankrupt yourself, okay? And I’m here for you if you need moral support. I’M HERE FOR YOU.
It looks like Blizzard has had a change of heart (or a change of sub numbers, perhaps…) and flying is coming back. Not long after the next patch, too. Granted, in order to earn flying you have to do a sort of weird grindy runaround which hearkens back to previous grindy expacs like TBC (getting revered with a faction before doing their heroics, anyone?) but on the other hand I already have Loremaster of Draenor and I’ve already done the vast majority of the bonus objectives so I don’t think tearing down the rest of the busywork will be that bad for me.
No one knows who this guy is and that’s sad. That’s sad because Lor’themar is the best. Full stop. He has an interesting story, he throws benches in fountains when he gets mad, and he has a kickin’ rad eyepatch. Speaking of which, let’s start the list:
1. He has a kickin’ rad eyepatch
Source: Wowpedia
Alright, look at this. Look how cool he is. See that eyepatch? No one else can pull it off. No one else can be as rugged and gorgeous, at the same time, as Lor’themar.
2. He got the eyepatch being badass and fighting the Scourge
In case you have been living under a rock in the middle of the Barrens somewhere, during the Third War, the Scourge invaded Quel’thalas. Lor’themar, a Ranger Lord of the Farstriders, was scouting around Zul’Aman for troll activity when he noticed something odd happening. Upon going to investigate he stumbled into a bunch of re-animated dead elves. Lor’themar managed to push aside his shock and fight back – losing an eye in the process, but on the plus side now he looks super cool.
No one else will ever be this badass. (Source: “The Sunwell” manga)
3. He took over after the Scourge invasion because damn straight he did
Lor’themar was always a brilliant tactician and soldier. He was second-in-command to Sylvanas Windrunner during the Second War, and when Sylvanas met an ill fate during the Third he promptly took charge and gathered up all the survivors that he could find. Kael’thas was so impressed that he put Lor’themar in charge of everything until he could come back later. Which brings us to our next point…
4. JUST KIDDING, Kael’thas went nuts so now Lor’themar is still in charge
Lor’themar never really wanted to be in charge of all of Quel’thalas, because why would he? He’s a badass ranger who is really good at killing things and telling his men how to kill things. But what else was he supposed to do when Kael betrayed his own people and forced them into a Civil War? Well I’ll tell you what Lor’themar did, he just stayed in charge because they needed him to, and he knew that. Silvermoon expects that every elf will do his duty.
“I am large and in charge, but only if I get to have a kickass bow and sword”
5. Lor’themar will mess you up if you mess with the blood elves
And there will be two hits: him hitting you, and you hitting the ground. He loves his people and his homeland and you do NOT want to get on his bad side because you’ll know when he’s mad. Because…
6. He flings benches into fountains when he gets angry
This actually happens at the end of the Divine Bell questline if you’re Horde. It’s worth doing the entire time-gated questline just so you can view this awesome moment.
7. If Alliance try to attack him he casts Mass Charm on them
8. He carries around more baggage than a jumbo jet
Random sampling of stuff Lor’themar is either largely or solely responsible for:
Telling his old friend Dar’khan Drathir all about the Sunwell’s defenses because why not (Dar’khan immediately turned around and gave Arthas all the juicy details)
Kicking the high elves out of Silvermoon when they decided they didn’t want cool green glowy eyes not to siphon magic from living creatures
Asking the blood elves to fight in wars that are not really theirs or that they do not have available forces for, because they have no other choice
Basically he is either directly or indirectly responsible for a great deal of Bad Things. But he shoulders these burdens because…
9. That’s just what he does
Lor’themar is a Farstrider who is stuck being, well, decisively not a Farstrider. It kinda sucks, but much like the sin’dorei have their own less-than-ideal lot in life at the moment, so too does Lor’themar. Sacrifices have got to be made if Silvermoon and Quel’thalas are ever to return to their former glory.
And, finally…
10. He’s smokin’ hot
And he has two smokin’ hot advisors named Halduron and Rommath and all three of them are gonna mess up your day. Or alternatively cause you to drool all over yourself. Depending on which way you swing.
TLDR Lor’themar is the best racial leader in World of Warcraft. And now you know.
As all three (or maybe four?) of you long-time readers left know, I quit playing WoW for several years and thus left this blog to unceremoniously sit for just as long. Sometimes I wonder if I should have kept playing so I could keep blogging, because I do so love blogging. But, ultimately, I’m glad I took that break.
See, recently I’ve been seeing a lot of people both on Twitter and in blogs talking about how they’re growing tired of, or bored with, the game. And then here I am, over here in my corner, having a blast and in general being content with my life in Azeroth.
And you know, I think it’s because I walked away for so long. I walked away and now that I’m back I’m looking at it with fresh eyes.
It’s not the same as it was back when I first started, no. It will never be quite that magical again. But sometimes I think it can get pretty close. (In fairness, I might be biased, because I am very easy to please.)
Even Althalor is easy to please. In this case he’s LUDICROUSLY HAPPY because there’s a squid on his head.
So yes, I’m glad I took a break. I’ve sort of… recalibrated my own thought process on the whole thing, if you will. It used to be that I thought quitting WoW was sort of a huge deal, but now I treat it like any other game. I can drop it for months – or years – at a time, and play other games like สมัคร UFABET เพื่อเดิมพันฟุตบอล, and then I can come back again later whenever I want. And you know what? That’s okay. Especially now that I can pay for a subscription just by logging in and poking my garrison for twenty minutes a day.
I’ve always been fascinated by things like concept art and early screenshots of my favorite games. These provide a really neat and often rare glimpse under the hood – a look at the humble beginnings of worlds I’d later spend so much time in.
A couple of us on Twitter got a treat earlier when a Blizzard employee decided to share some fantastic behind-the-scene screenshots with us, and they absolutely 100% made my day.
These are just three selections I picked that I especially liked, but I highly recommend heading over to the Storify I made and checking out all of these. A huge thank you to Dave Wilson for sharing this stuff with us!
So I downloaded Heroes of the Storm yesterday and promptly spent a few hours on it. And so far, my verdict on it is a resounding ¯\_(?)_/¯ .
…yeah, that about sums it up. ¯\_(?)_/¯ .
If you want a more detailed review, read on. First, a brief bit about my history with the genre so you can decide how many grains of salt you want to take my review with.
It was the year 2006 or so, sites like Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia either didn’t exist or were brand new, and there was a Warcraft III custom map that was making a splash in the RTS community called Defense of the Ancients (or DotA for short). Specifically, the most played version was called DotA All-Stars. DotA All-Stars took a bunch of heroes and units from WC3, gave them new personalities and names, and sent them off to fight each other and destroy towers down set lanes.
Seeing as this was back when I was still huge into RTS games, I of course wound up giving DotA All-Stars a download and a look. And you know, it was fun. I didn’t think it was quite as fun as some of the other custom map games I’d played through the years, nor was it as fun as the base Warcraft III. But I put a week or two into it before moving on to other games.
Fast forward many, many years later and this custom map had spawned not only several imitators and spiritual successors but an entire genre. One that, for the most part, I have had little interest in. Nothing against it; it just doesn’t tend to hold my interest. As I’ve said before, the best MOBA I’ve ever played is Awesomenauts, which took the genre and gave it a fantastic shot in the arm by way of making it even more fast-paced and giving it considerable platforming elements. But the more traditional stuff? Not really my thing.
So I went into Heroes of the Storm wondering if it was going to pull off what most other MOBAs had not – if it was going to hold my interest.
And the answer is yes… but not for gameplay reasons.
From a technical standpoint there’s really nothing wrong with Heroes of the Storm. It’s a solid example of the genre. It’s easy to learn and get into. It’s streamlined. It oozes with Blizzard charm. And the last part, here, is the key. In Heroes of the Storm I can play Diablo. I can play a robotic Anub’arak. I can play Tassadar riding around on a tiny horse. And they banter with each other and Stitches warns you when you’re getting low on health. And ultimately that’s the part of the game that I’m enjoying. As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve been in Blizzard’s thrall (no pun intended) since the late 90s. The dorky fan side of me is eating this all up.
But seeing as this is all basically just Fan Service: The Video Game, I don’t really know how much longer I’m going to put into it. I suppose things could change, but I don’t really see myself playing this long-term. When I play it, I have fun, but I also can’t get “Now I want to play Awesomenauts and/or Warcraft III” out of my head. And that’s the crux of it. If I want a MOBA, I’ll play Awesomenauts. If I want isometric Blizzard universe, I’ll play one of the Diablo, Warcraft or Starcraft games. If I want Warcraft lore, I’ll play WoW.
…but for now, I REALLY want Stormpunk Kael’thas, so for now, I’ll keep HotS installed.
as well as Lor’themar and Halduron getting drunk while Rommath watches, unimpressed (as usual)
I don’t think these pictures are very good, but hey, it’s a start, right? And if I draw a little bit every day, I’ll improve, right?
