Tuesday, January 13, 2015

New Eyes, New Hair, New Adventures

Happy Release Day! I haven't gone into the game yet but I'm excited about No Turning Back. It was a bit of a cliffhanger, wasn't it? The sealed door...the sassy dwarf... And where is that goonberry, Caithe? Is she making a giant omelette with Glint's egg? I'll be finding out later today when I have time to immerse myself in this next chapter of the Living Story.

Thanks to Dulfy for posting up the new hair and eye colors so quickly. Love them!

New eye colours in Total Makeover Kits

New hair colours in Total Makeover Kits
Dulfy is also reporting that HEART OF THORNS has been trademarked by Guild Wars 2. Sounds like the name of an expansion to me!
People are commenting that they don't want a paid expansion, but I wouldn't mind shelling out some bucks to ANet for new content, and to show them how much I enjoy their game. I'm dirt poor but considering the number of hours I've put into the game, I think they deserve a bit of cash.

However, I did post a bit of a rant on the forums regarding this New Player Experience. I didn't even know that was a term until I started browsing the forums looking for a place to vent.
I was farming Black Lion keys to try to get enough scraps for a Wintersday skin -- and failed to get them, btw, but that's fine -- and therefore I was rolling new toons and revisiting the low zones and personal story. NOT impressed with the changes. Not impressed at all.

My conclusion: ANet suffers from low self esteem.
My solution: ANet should suck it up and realize they can't please everyone and stop trying to change. As my Mumsy always says, or rather sings: Be Yourself!

Saturday, January 3, 2015

2015 Will Be A Big Year

Hey, GW2-ers! How's it going? How was your holidays? Has Tixx been good to you this Wintersday?

I've been puttering around in Tyria again! I logged on to see the Wintersday festivities, only to find them moved to Divinity's Reach. They've done a great job of decorating it! All the same games and prizes were there too, which was a bit disappointing. I was hoping for something new. Even a new song in Bell Choir would have been nice. I love the new striped scarf thing but can't afford to buy it.

I can, however, justify spending real hard cash on this!
Spiral Madheart 2015!
What's that? You don't see anything? Well, for those faithful readers who have been following along, I got a free Total Makeover Kit a while back and changed Spiral's face. And I've regretted it every since! I couldn't adjust to her new face. It just didn't look like HER. She looked so... nice. So sweet. Spiral can be sweet, of course, but she can also be spiky, like a cactus.
So I splurged and bought gems to get a Makeover Kit on sale and changed her back. I had a big grin on my face when I saw the "old" Spiral's mischievous smile. :D

I also bought a Black Lion Key and opened a chest. Got a Hair Style Kit and used it on Flaxi, my Warrior.
Flaxi Barnborn, Norn warrior
Once again, the preview in the kit (on the right) never seems to quite match the real thing. She looks a bit psychotic in the game... not sweet and happy like in the preview! Oh well. Might just be lighting and graphics options. I hardly play Flaxi anyway: warrior is not my thing. She and Butterscotch Ripple (ranger) are the only two characters I have that aren't at level 80.

What else has been going on? Oh, I took Mousekin out to do some of her personal story and she found her Mom!

That's Galina Edgecrusher of Blood Legion. She has the same purple eyes as Mousekin and pretty close to the same white & grey fur. I'm figuring that Galina hooked up with Snarl Backdraft, cuz you know they're making googly eyes at each other between their snarly spats, and she had Mousekin, but since Mousie was a pale and scrawny cub, she cut all ties to her. (Although, Charr give their cubs to the fahrar anyway.) But I've always thought Mousekin was a female kitten that was picked on for being too pretty to fight. That's why she chose Iron Legion and Guardian. Anyway, I never really roleplay but there is always a bit of backstory in my characters. Thought I'd share. :)

Okay, so one other thing. Have you guys tried key farming lately? OMG. I freaked out! I thought I'd go to a key farm real quick and ended up baffled and stalled. I take it they tried to kill key farming with that so-called "Feature" pack in September. Now you have to be level 10 to start your personal story line. Well, a quick Google shows that most folks just do cooking to level up, which really only adds a few more minutes to the key farm. Lucky for me, I have mats galore, so I didn't even have to fork over that much coin to get a few key runs done. Didn't get anything cool out the chests though.

Okay, maybe one more other thing.  :D
Have you been to the lowbie zones? They changed the hearts and stuff!
In Metrica Province, the progeny are moved over, and the weird heart with the ooze and the protesters is different.
In Queensdale, you now dance for the cows and "tend" the corn rather than watering it.
In Wayfarer Foothills, Bjarni is no longer up on the hill with that loonie, Linnea. He's down by the first pass into the zone. She's up there with some other guy, although in all her madness she still refers to him as Bjarni when she runs off to chase the jackalope!
Caledon Forest has a new heart and Plains of Ashford has TWO. So strange.

I'm not sure if I agree with all these features and changes. That little compass up at the top right showing where to go next? Yeah, hold my hand cuz I'm a BABY.
Unlocking stuff as you level to 10? Uh, why?
Plus I've always thought that leveling in GW2 was way way WAY too freaking easy. It's not even a challenge. There is no feeling of accomplishment when you reach 80. All this new stuff just adds to the feeling that the game is designed for lazy people who love to look good but don't want to work for it.
Oh, except for the endless collections of crap that are unlockable now. You could work on that every day for forever. Don't get me wrong: I loved collecting in Rift. It had me hooked. But the system in GW2 with the unlocking and the random crap all over the map... *sigh*... why? To give people something to do, I guess?

Sorry, that's enough ranting from me for now. Truthfully, I am enjoying wandering around in the game again. It still amazes me with its artistry and creativity and humour. I love finding hidden nooks. I love listening to NPCs. I love the jokesters in map chat. There haven't been too many games in my life that have captivated me for this long. :)

I'm off to bed! Happy New Year to all and to all a good night!


Sunday, November 9, 2014

Echoes of the Past is AMAZEBALLS

I've only logged into GW2 twice in the past few months. Once to check out Halloween stuff, and yesterday to check out the new Living Story, Echoes of the Past.

Man, was I impressed! I did all of the new chapter in two sittings and gobbled it up. The writing was better than previous stories, the emotions were heightened, there was abundant lore (omg the library!), and Glint's lair was absolutely breathtaking.

If you haven't been playing Guild Wars 2 much lately, I urge you to log back in and experience this great chapter. I almost want to play it again!

I dyed my Ancestral Outfit for Halloween.
I wanted to buy the kitty mini, but alas, no gold.
The Hexed Outfit is fantastic!
Wish I could have bought it as well.
I almost died because I kept looking around with my mouth open! I looked over the edges and up at the sky and admired my distorted reflection in the crystals. Amazing job, Artists of ANet. Standing ovation!

Friday, August 15, 2014

Loving the Dragon's Reach Living Story

I haven't had much time to play lately, but when I do play, it's to complete the Living Story. And I love it! Of course, it's still a bit cheesy in dialogue and the interactions between the members of Destiny's Orphans, but the fights are pretty awesome and epic. I won't give away any spoilers, although I'm sure all you hardcore GW2 fans out there have already done the whole story. :)

Spiral wearing Orchid cultural gear
I got Spiral all dressed up in her traditional Sylvari armor to go visit the Pale Tree. She looks fabulous, although I doubt these petals are good for fighting. I've got 90 transmutation charges sitting around, so I figured I'd change her clothes now and then to take advantage of them.

Down below is a pic I snapped near the end of Dragon's Reach Part 2. I had to adjust the brightness a bit afterwards. not sure why but my screenshots are all coming out very dark. And since my graphics card burnt up (*sob*), I haven't been playing on nice settings, so the world is quite as pretty as it was. Still gorgeous though. I'm constantly wide-mouthed in amazement at the beauty of Tyria!

I guess the game is taking a break from Living Story and gearing up for the September Feature Pack. Is anyone else irritated by that? I mean, not just that the LS is on hiatus, but that they're doing ANOTHER feature pack? To me, the game is fine as it is. All these changes to things just makes things complicated and has the potential to wreck your progress on things.

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say. Like, the wardrobe system "feature" wrecked the dye market, and made dye production in cooking a worthless investment. I'm sure there are other examples. I guess I just want things to stay the same so I can stop having to relearn everything and readjust to new systems of rewards and PvP and on and on. The game is FINE. Leave it alone!

Anyway, minor rant ended! Time for lunch and perhaps some more gaming. TTYL, friends! :)
Are they still called Destiny's Orphans? Hmmm, they've got to find a better guild name.
And maybe get some more male members? Poor Braham!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Cosplay -- No Boobs, Sorry :)

I don't usually go for cosplay, but check out the amazing cosplay by Enayla. This is handmade Orrian armor. Wow! She's trying to win a contest to go to ComicCon. Go "like" her page on Facebook, or just admire her handiwork. :D