Reading:
8/22 – The Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (part two)
Gaming:
8/9 – A Dynastic Adventure (Crusader Kings review)
8/22 – Return Engagement (Hearts of Iron II review)
8/26 – White Crown of York (Crown of Roses)
Comment
Guild Wars 2 has announced a free trial this weekend. Smudge and I are planning on trying it out, and I figured I'd spread the word to everyone else who hasn't already bought it (which I think is just Bel). The game is already available for free download and install if you want to be prepared for it:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/
Also, last weekend, Smudge and I tried out Neverwinter. I have to say that while it's not great, it is good enough to fire me up enough to keep going at it for a while. There's only a few MMOs that do that; so far I'm saying it's about as good as Rift; but while that scored high on system, and low on story, this is more even, which is why I'm more interested in it. If anyone else tries it out, we're on the Dragon server (of course...).
The game is free-to-play with no subscription model. There is of course a store to buy things, with real money, but so far it's been unobtrusive, and prices look quite reasonable. It is based off of 4th Ed D&D, and the 4th ed version of Forgotten Realms. I can't say I'm happy with what I'm reading they did to the Realms in 4th, but map still looks familiar enough that it's not bugging me in-game. Also, being a Neverwinter title, you can make your own content, and go through other user's content, but we haven't tried that yet.
And finally, I should point out that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn becomes available in a week. This is the completely re-done version 2.0 of the game after the first version turned into a complete crash and burn. There's plenty of nice things being said about the new version here though. While the game is a somewhat reasonable $30 purchase, it is on a pure subscription model (WoW and FF XI's per character subscription are the only other ones left that I know of), so while it looks tempting, I'm just looking right now.
Found this on DA - thought Silver would enjoy it.
Taking Doc for a walk by Juanxer
Meet Albidus Nike!
**this is a work in progress - and mostly for fun. ^.^
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- Dispite the 5 O’clock shadow, he really has a “sweet” face.
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- His DPS gear – all the better to rifle-butt you with
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- Titan’s meat-sheild, er, I mean tanking gear.
BASIC INFORMATION
Full name: Albidus Nike
Pronunciation:
Nickname(s) or Alias: Titan/Titanium, Buckethead
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Age: 32
Sexuality: Straight (but not Narrow)
Nationality: Corellia
Religion: None (but has started to lean towards Vossian ways as of late)
City or town of birth: Coronet City
Currently lives: Aboard his ship, moored at the Republic Fleet.
Languages spoken: Basic, Huttese, Gand, Selonian, and (slowly) learning Gree
Native language: Basic
Relationship Status: Single/Open, but he's still reeling from his last love, whom he got killed.
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So last week, one of my roommates needed to photograph a part for one of his clients. Since I've been wanting to build one for some time, I decided to get off my duff and construct a soft/light box for photographing small objects that he could use (and me, in-turn, to photograph some of my UFOs*).
*Unsellable Franchise Objects
One chopped up box, covered with tissue paper later, it was done (took me about 1/2 an hour to slap together). While not perfect and will need some practice with it, I was really happy with my first results using it. For my test/goofing around I used my new statue of Asuna from Sword Arts Online and Stealth Elf from Skylanders.
This has got to have been my favorite shot of the lot!
Other shots of Asuna and Stealth Elf under cut. ^.^
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