blizzard – n00bgamer

August 3, 2016October 24, 2017

Blizzard Servers under DDOS attack

So I attempted to log in-game and ran into a message from Blizzard that certain network providers are under DDOS attack.

The Poodle Corp has just hired Mr. Robot to DDOS Blizzard with the Dark Army.

A group calling themselves “The Poodle Corp.” claims responsibility to the DDOS attack of Blizzard’s network providers. Seems that only their servers are affected. Other games we play are currently working fine so it seems only they are affected at the moment.

They released a statement earlier on twitter;

Blizzard CS says “It wasn’t us! Its your network provider”.

“We continue to actively monitor an ongoing DDOS attack against network providers, affecting latency/connections to our games.”

I think its sad that they’re vulnerable to their service providers. Then again, when your electricity goes off, blame the electric company right? Probably not that bill you forgot to pay or are bullying your provider to drop their prices to spec so that you can make a wider margin Activision-Blizzard? Kiddin. Those are just possible plots you might see in this new series i’m watching on netflix called MR. Robot. Its good therapy. To see a mirror image of myself portrayed breaking the 4th wall.

In any case, Bliz, Puleaze, get them servers back online. I’m still trying to get “prepared” for Legion!

May 27, 2016

Review: Warcraft The Beginning

Welcome to the n00bgamer’s review of Blizzard and Legendary Pictures‘ movie “Warcraft The Beginning”. Here we’ll discuss some spoilers, insights, what they got right, and what they left us in the dark with.

First off, i’d rate this picture a 3 out of five. Mostly because it was like they were filing out a template based (loosely) from Warcraft 1’s story-line. So from the choices of playable characters, it felt like they just went ahead and picked off their favorite artists to produce this movie.

Check it out before it's gone! — Check it out before it’s gone!

Don’t get me wrong, I’d really recommend people see it, and then experience the World of Warcraft game. The movie tickles you a little bit, but the real magic and content is already in the game. Much of the experience you’d actually want to play through rather than be spoon fed the details in a single 2 hour sit-down.

What it really is, is an extended introduction to jumping into World of Warcraft. Now for movie-goers, this isn’t good enough. Much is proven how little people were in the theater, but hey, it’ll take more than a movie to really get warcraft going again.

What it doesn’t talk about is the awesome community behind the players of World of Warcraft. Where you get in on the action of taking down a corrupted Blackhand in Draenor along with 40 other like minded individuals, each with their own personality and quirks.

Other thing i found out was that, female Orcs are so Hot! Garrrrrrroooooownah!

All in all though, the R13 restriction was very limiting. I remember being part of a 10 year old crowd into games when Warcraft: Orcs vs Humans first hit the shelves. Those 22 years of following that IP has grown into quite the story. Its pretty epic also counting you can live through those experiences in a virtual world for hours and hours on end.

Hey and if you won’t give the movie a chance? Go for the free battlechest!

Its basically a free World of Warcraft Battlechest with 30 days. Already confirmed it works with the Recruit a Friend program also, so it really works to bring a few friends and introduce them to Azeroth! It’ll only be around till Sunday so grab em while they still have ’em!

November 10, 2015

Warcraft Legion: Estimated launch date

Activision-Blizzard recently gave us a semblance of an estimated launch date when they announced that you can now order the new World of Warcraft expansion Warcraft: Legion! Based from when we were redirected to the pre-order page, you can definitely tell that this company is milking the consumers for their financing of the expansion (not to mention the monthly dues aside per 30 day access). From there, it gave us that lovely disclaimer in the fine print; “…on or before Septtember 21, 2016.”

Now that’s what i’d call anticipatory revenue right there. In any case, Blizzard has been known to always send out their titles with spit and polish only that 10 ton gorilla can produce. But i’d happily part with that monkey knowing its going out to developers who spent years keeping us in this game.

So there’s a year to decide just how worth it with this pre-order. You get an instant level boost to 100 and continue on the grind to level 110. 10 years and counting and let’s see if they can still keep us around. As it stands, the days of the 11 million population are gone. Its more like 5 million active users lately and you can notice the difference. With freemium MMO’s still continuing to pop up here and there, they’re hard pressed to keep the subscription model going.

If you’re looking for more information about the upcoming game, read it here!

October 21, 2015

Hearthstone – Close calls with one hit-point left

So some of the n00bs have gotten themselves into Hearthstone. A digital collectible card game by the ten ton gorilla named Blizzard. There’s a lot to be said after playing similar games like Magic the Gathering. This one being without the land sources for mana, but it is provided to you each time the turn progresses. What it does have is fast action just like what we loved about WotC’s Magic: The Gathering. So fast that we find ourselves just trying to win the match with one hit-point left.

Ah crap... he has a tank. — Ah crap… he has a tank.

A lot of times, your luck is all based from the draw, but you do get to call mulligan on the initial batch of cards you drew.

There’s about 2 card expansions to the game now. There’s one about Goblins and Mechs while the newer one focuses on cards based from the Argent Tournament. That AT expansion though saw other features to the game like Tavern Brawls where the deck is provided for you (tons of fun compared to the tedious collection of cards and booster pack purchases).

All in all though i hate it when the nudegamer whips out mind-control on his priest deck. Those are just hard to counter if you only have a single trump creature left in your hand.

Aside from the traditional match finder, you also see Solo Adventures. Here you can pit your deck against raid type bosses with their own unique cards (if you can afford to pay for this section).

Raid Type challenges for unique cards! If you can afford it... — Raid Type challenges for unique cards! If you can afford it…

August 7, 2015

World of Warcraft: Legion – a new expansion to a decade old MMO

So the game’s been over a decade old and I still can’t stop myself from following up on the latest Blizzard news. I was fiddling around on youtube for teasers and low and behold, I came across the Gamescom 2015 unveiling of World of Warcraft’s latest expansion; Legion. Here we’ll be experiencing the formation of the Burning Legion through the new Draenor timeline. Of course Gul’dan is still the biggest demonic culprit here so, let’s check out some of those details at the Gamescom 2015 unveiling.

And for an old game, with lore that gets confusing as the Wheel of Time series, this new expansion seems to be either revisiting the Burning Crusade albeit following the timeline of Warlords of Draenor. But I digress, any negative commentaries i might have about lore or gameplay will be moot as despite it seeming like older content revisits being the sixth expansion to the game, there are a lot of things to motivate this n00b to reactivate his account and take that Pandaren warrior back into the fray.

Places to explore

I wonder if they'd feature landscaping like this on HGTV — I wonder if they’d feature landscaping like this on HGTV

Here we’ll be exploring the lost dwelling places of the ancients. The new map called The Broken Isles are supposedly over 4000 years old set into their lore, with this location being the start of where the Druids were formed, where Sargeras was imprisoned, and a place where only the great Tauren can roam. We’ll be digging more into this but for an old game, it’s looking pretty still compared to the next gen MMO’s.

Grind up to level 110

So we’re getting another 10 levels to increase before we see any significant raid content. And there’s a few premonitions of reputation grinding that’ll be going on yet again in this expansion. But speaking of which, there will be yet another free character boost to level 100 upon release of the expansion (similar to the level 90 boost when WoD came out).

Artifact Weapons

The new Warcraft skimboard! Only to be used in Southshore... — The new Warcraft skimboard! Only to be used in Southshore…

Now you’ll be able to use such weapons as Ashbringer or Doomhammer. Much epic questing is also involved to be able to pull this off. But think of the transmogs, combining these pieces to older drops from the Black Temple would be awesome. (I can already see my wife shaking her head as I fight the urge to reactivate the account right now!)

New Heroic Class – Demon Hunters

So this is how it feels to be Illidan... — So this is how it feels to be Illidan…

No they’re not similar to the hunters of Diablo 3. These guys are more of an agility based class (judging from how Illidan was decked out), but they do boast three specific specializations which should give us a clue as to how this class will work. Namely; Spectral Sight, Metamorphosis, and Unrivaled Mobility.

Don’t take my every word for it though, head over to the official preview site of World of Warcraft: Legion.

See you in-game toonheads!

July 20, 2015

Diablo III – The Rainbow Goblin and Whimsydale

Somewhere over that rainbow... — Somewhere over that rainbow…

So i finally got my Crusader to level 57. Took some help from a friend, but its awesome to see some of the mid level gear on the increased difficulty setting.

As i was grinding my way through the Caverns of Araneae and i came across a treasure goblin but it didn’t look like

any goblin i’ve seen before.

Here’s Blizzard’s artwork on the goblin i saw that they presented in one of their keynotes recently upon the release of Reaper of Souls.

This time though they had much more in store than epic drops. They bring you into this mystical map called “Whimsydale”. Here you’ll be able to unleash your inner cuteness rage. You’ll be slaying animated cuddly little teddy bears and pink and rainbow ponies. Ever felt like taking that cute toy by its feet and bashing its head against a wall? Well here you’ll be able to paint Whimsydale red with the blood of cuteness.

It needs more color... blood crimson to be exact! — It needs more color… blood crimson to be exact!

You’ll also run into more epic drops ranging from rare finds to legendary items with the multiple pinatas hanging around the tress here. You’ll need to make more than one trip back to town to empty out all the item drops. Thankfully, the portal appears when you are able to slay the rainbow goblin quickly enough and timed at a point where he just opens up a portal to Whimsydale to escape. Slay him there and that portal will stick around long enough for you to pass on through.

I’m guessing this guy only appears in hard mode and up as I didn’t encounter him in the earlier stages of normal mode. Then again pretty much most magical drops here are at least Rare and hardly any blues will be dropping at that point. The game gets pretty OP by the time you’re swinging around in adventure mode at level seventy.

Oh and you see a tip during some of the loading screens stating “The Cow level is a myth.” I’m guessing they came up with Whimsydale as something much much cooler.