Our friend Drayner has posted an open letter to Blizzard over at Twinkinfo.com in which he basically laments the breaking of WoW's twinking game. We've covered twinking quite a few times before here -- it's the game-within-a-game of beefing up lower-level characters to their maximum power using enchants, low-level items, or whatever else they can find. Officially, Blizzard hasn't endorsed or condoned twinking -- if you want to do it, you're free to, but you've got to live with the rules they set on items and enchants, and so forth. And that seems to be Drayner's main issue with Blizzard: they aren't consistent on twinking. They'll make changes that level the twink field, and then they'll ignore bugs that almost completely break it. They kept the latest enchants off of players below level 60, but then they grandfathered in players with the 450 profession buffs. He's got a whole list of changes they've made for and against twinking, and basically asks Blizzard to either support twinking, or (and obviously he's less happy with this decision) end it for good.
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of PlusHeal, a new healing community for all restorative classes. After playing around some more on the PTR, Matt's got some more extended thoughts. That's a picture of the upgraded Penance! It looks really weird when you cast it on yourself. I imagined that the bolts would fly forward before arcing skyward and back down towards the original caster. Too much to hope for sadly. Maybe in a future patch!
It only took four months, but a new title has knocked Wrath of the Lich King off the top of the PC sales charts, according to industry trackers NPD. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, the much-awaited RTS title featuring that other fantasy universe with "war" in the title, has taken the top spot, knocking Wrath down to number two (and the original version of WoW and the Battle Chest hold their spots around six and seven).
We haven't gotten much of a look at Blizzard's server architecture, but here's a tiny one: AT&T has announced in a press release that they're re-signing to a two year agreement to provide Blizzard with hosting for World of Warcraft and Battle.net. We'll get the joke out of the way first: that explains why Blizzard's sites go down so often! Ba-dump ching!
So maybe you don't have the kind of name recall as Leeroy Jenkins, and maybe you don't have the street cred of GotFrag TV's Kintt or the British accent of ESL's Joe and Zalmah -- but if you think you can commentate with the best of them, Blizzard's got the right contest for you. Blizzard is looking for the best people to do play-by-plays on Arena matches (dubbed Shoutcasting), so if you think you've got the chops, head over to the contest page and see what it's all about.
Up to 40 exhilarating courses filled with nitrous filled straight-aways and hairpin turns
Brand new machine customization mode gives the player the power to make the perfect machine in up to 200,000 different ways
In the new career mode, players will be tested to the limit, building a career from the ground up in over 160 races
Ridge Racer 7 will be compatible with Sony's new online service for heated races with up to 14 players
Players will be able to bring their customized machine online to challenge other players to prove who is the ultimate Ridge Racer!
Keep it Going - A fully functional game with all the great features of Rock Band, including - Solo and Band Tour Mode, Quickplay, Tug of War, Score Dual, and song unlock progression
The Best Around - 20 of the most popular tracks in Rock Band history distilled to perfection onto one disc, all utilizing the original master recordings
Go Beyond the Disc - ships with download codes to import all of these tracks for use directly in Rock Band 1 and Rock Band 2
Angels & Airwaves - ?It Hurts
Avenged Sevenfold - ?Afterlife
Meet The Charming Scruff Family.
Immersive Storyline With Witty Banter.
Unique And Fun Hint Mechanism.
Innovative Mini-Games.
Put your angling skills to the test in the best bass locations in North America
Features 9 species of monster bass and 14 other trophy fish, such as trout, salmon, northern pike, catfish and walleye
Fish in 6 great lakes: Lake Wylie, Clear Lake, Lake of the Ozarks, Lake Amistad, Logan Martin Lake, and Lake Okeechobee
Compete in 20 events, as well as Open Fishing and Quick Challenge modes
Add dogs, cats, birds, or guinea pigs to your Sims family
Create your own unique cat or dog by modifying its body type, face shape, fur color, markings, and more
Cross different breeds to create designer pets or make new ones and register them to appear in Create-A-Family
Teach pets tricks like shake, fetch, roll over, and more -- unruly pets might topple the trash or scratch the sofa, but Sims can change their pets' ways with the right training
Skilled pets can have careers of their own and earn a living as Movie Stars, Rescue pets, or members of an elite Security Pet Corps