Onimusha 3

Resident Evil 5

* Be aware that swearing and over-the-top crudeness are always involved in his reviews, and shouldn’t be watched if you’re easily offended by such things. Having said that, I promise you’ll laugh at least once, especially if you’re a gamer.

There’s more stuff to be found at ZP, but I hardly ever get passed Yahtzee’s reviews.

One Saturday in the 1950’s my Mother and I had gone to town, twenty miles distant, to buy groceries and other items. We traveled this distance once a week and bought enough food and other items to last for the coming week. On our way home, about three miles outside of town, the car began to make a noise, unusual to any we had heard previously. We stopped at a nearby house whose occupants graciously let Mother use their phone to call my Dad. (Cell phones were unheard of in those days.) Of course he didn’t answer, as he was working outside and did not hear the phone ringing. Unsure of another course of action, we drove the vehicle home at a very slow pace, clunking the entire way.

Dad, upon hearing about the problem, took the vehicle into the shop and began disassembling parts in order to locate the source of the problem. It took several days (weeks) to get the problem repaired. It was farming season which meant he would only work on the car at night after chores were done and supper eaten. This amounted to one or two hours maximum each night, if other events weren’t on the calendar. And he wasn’t known as a fast paced mechanic.

Dad’s truck, our only other means of transportation, became the primary vehicle. A family of four in the cab of a 3/4 ton truck was a little crowded, especially on Sundays when we were all dressed in our best clothes. We would crowd into the cab of our truck to travel the three miles to the church building. Dad would drive so he got the most space. My brother or I would sit in the middle, straddling the gear shift, with Mother on the passenger side and the other child in her lap. She never complained, but I’m sure her dress was quite wrinkled by the time we arrived at the Church.

Eventually, the car was fixed and back on the road. Thinking back, I’m not sure which parent was the happiest to have it running once again. Daddy, because it was one less thing he had to do at night and could stay inside the house after supper instead of going out to the shop to work on a vehicle. Or Mother, who could now continue with her volunteer efforts in the community and drive herself to wherever she needed to go. You see, the truck was a manual shift and she only knew how to drive an automatic. While the car was down, she had to rely on my Dad to drive her around and he didn’t have time to do much of that. Therefore, they were both very happy when the backyard mechanic got the primary family vehicle running smoothly once again. As for my brother and I, we liked riding in the truck. Crowding into the cab and wrinkled clothing didn’t bother us.

Well, a little bit ago I was working on the Fiery Blaze Enchantments quest in which you have to slay Black Whelplings until one of them finally gives up its Black Drake’s Heart. As some of you may know, and as I’ve tried to allude to, this is not a fun quest as the drop rate is pathetically low (shouldn’t all Drake’s have hearts? …I hate these kinds of quests). To compound matters, there were three other dudes killing Black Whelplings, two of whom were level 80! I was just about to give up when I suddenly found myself all alone; everyone else had mysteriously vanished. Thankful, I went ahead and ground out the quest item which took about 20-30 kills. All told, about forty minutes of work.

After turning in the quest, I decided to hit up the goblin vendor, Jazzrik, and sell all the junk I had collected. That was when I noticed the dragon head icon, and time momentarily stopped. I thought, “No way, it can’t be,” but low and behold, I had picked up a Dark Whelpling somewhere along the way. It turns out it dropped the same time as the quest item – how crazy is that? I’m pretty excited about it, but now I don’t know whether to keep or sell it… I still can’t believe the dumb luck – practically hand-wrapped, couldn’t have been timed any better. I’ll let the picture speak for itself.

The seedlings have been showing themselves for 3½ weeks and have grown to a height of 6 inches. I fertilized them today, for the first time, with pellets which are scratched into the soil. Even though the plants look healthy, I felt the soil could use a little help keeping up with the rapid growth that is taking place.

No, I am not a Master Gardener and have not had any formal training. While growing up I helped my parents with their vegetable garden, which was NOT my “cup of tea”. However, I did learn in spite of myself. Today, I very much enjoy gardening and the work it entails. Reading is one way I keep up on techniques, whether it be books, newsletters, the internet, or newspaper articles. Also, I have a brother who is an organic produce farmer with lots of ideas and knowledge to impart. It is from him that I learn practical instruction for home gardening and gain the courage to try ideas that I normally would not. Using the organic method to grow vegetables and flowers is my ultimate goal.

*Edit (3/31/2009): whoops, in my haste to post the good news, not only did I miss around eight enchants, but I forgot to upload a bunch of pictures! These problems have been resolved.

If you find yourself in a bind for runecloth, check out the farming locations below for some help; that is unless you like paying out the nose for a stack on the AH. Keep in mind that these spots are best to grind out with a high level character (70+ range).


Alliance & Horde

1) All Scarlet Crusaders at Tyr’s Hand, Eastern Plaguelands. (fast respawn)
Awesome location when it’s not too crowded. Expect at least five+ stacks an hour.

2) All Twilight Hammer cultists in Twilight Hammer camps, Silithus. (fast respawn)
Another great area to farm, especially if you’re simultaneously working on Cenarion Circle rep. Expect around four stacks an hour.

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Sources:
Thottbot: Runecloth

I haven’t farmed for mageweave in quite some time (pre-WotLK), but I don’t think much has changed in terms of where to go for the highest output in the shortest amount of time. There are three main hotspots that I’m aware of:


Alliance & Horde

1) All ogres at the Dunemaul Compound, Tanaris. (fast respawn)
Probably the best spot if there’s no competition; however, green item and vendor trash drops are infrequent. I managed around three to four stacks an hour with my (then) level 70 rogue.

2) All demons in Jadefire Glen, Felwood. (fast respawn)
A close second, mobs have a better chance to drop greens, vendor trash, and best of all, felcloth. I racked up about the same amount of mageweave (maybe a little less), but had more stuff to vendor or sell at the AH.

3) All trolls in Jintha’alor, The Hinterlands.
Haven’t actually tried this spot since it was vanillafied (aka no more elites), but it’s supposedly about the same as Dunemaul.

*Edit (3/31/2009): Lately I’ve been managing roughly eight stacks an hour at all three locations with my level 73 rogue.


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Sources:
Thottbot: Mageweave Cloth

Today is a warm 70 degree March day in Missouri. The air smells of spring - fresh and new. I took a walk around the neighborhood, becoming quite warm having worn a tee shirt as well as a sweatshirt. Returning to our apartment and shedding the sweatshirt, I decided to plant a container with peas. One needs to get creative if one wants a garden while living in an apartment setting. The only soil I have here is medium for house plants; however, that is not a deterrent. This is a wonderful day to plant, so I drag out the potting soil and begin to fill my planter. Poking peas into the soil I realize there is some food already in the mix. Now I’m wondering when I will need to begin with the supplements. Giving the seeds a good drink of water, I promise to give them the very best care of which I am capable.

My plan is to watch the weather very attentively. The pea container comes into the house when temperatures reach freezing or below and is placed back outside as things warm up.

After the seedlings sprout and are one inch or more in height, my plan is to fertilize them every two weeks. Since the medium already has food added, giving the plants additional food will need to be carefully monitored.

Planting peas this early in the season in a container is an endeavor I’ve never before tried. It will be interesting to see if they even sprout. Stay tuned.

It always saddens me that the majority of gamers are so eager to label any game that’s been out longer than a month as old, thereby deeming it graphically and technically inferior to the newest offerings. While I appreciate their zeal for wanting to play the latest and greatest, there are so many past titles that deserve to be remembered and experienced. They may not look or sound as pretty when compared to the current generation, but their gameplay remains impeccable. Ratchet and Clank (2002) is one such title that fits this mold.

R&C is a platforming game with a splash of shooter thrown in to spice things up. There’s plenty of combat, explosions, and exploration to satisfy any gamer’s palette, and the pacing is fast enough to keep things from becoming stale without feeling frantic.

You play as Ratchet, a Lombax (a humanesque, catlike creature) mechanic, who is rudely interrupted by something streaking down from the heavens and crash landing nearby. This turns out to be a robot, known as Clank, who informs our hero of impending doom at the hands of an evil galactic corporate suit known as Drek. Apparently Drek is the leader of a dying, polluted planet and has decided to create his own by tearing pieces from other planets and stitching them all together. It’s a fun, silly premise that works well with the lighthearted tone of the game.

Level design was fantastic. Each of the 20 or so worlds was meticulously crafted to house its own theme in terms of design, graphics, and music. From navigating a bustling, beating metropolis to dog fighting foes in an intense space battle, there was a wide variety of things to see and do. My minor complaint would be that nearly every world was divided into three zones that could be done in any order. While this was great from a non-linear standpoint, each subsequent world became too predictable in terms of what to expect. Given that trivial gripe, the game looked and sounded amazing and kept me immersed for the entire journey.

Gameplay was spot-on. There’s nothing worse than a platformer with shoddy controls (I’m looking at you Vexx), especially since the majority of level design, for this genre, tends to involve leaping across giant chasms or some other doom-ridden void. Thankfully R&C mastered this potential difficulty and also managed to keep the number of impossible jumps to a minimum. Running, jumping, double jumping, shooting, flying, swimming; everything flowed beautifully and was simple to execute. Even the camera was friendly; only a couple of times did I manage to confuse it because I got myself wedged in a corner.

R&C was not a difficult game. It’s very user friendly and can be mastered in less than half an hour. In terms of combat, encounters were a cake walk for the most part. You can bump into enemies without taking damage, plus they attack slowly, leaving themselves wide open for a counter attack. That’s not to say all battles were easy, but even the tougher boss battles didn’t take long to figure out. However, the means in which to dispatch enemies was a bit of a mixed bag. There were a total of nine different weapons to acquire (eight of which could be purchased), but none of them were really all that super (except the uber expensive one-hit-kills RYNO) compared to the standard wrench you start out with. Not only is the wrench excellent for melee, but it can be thrown for short-ranged attacks; plus it doesn’t require any ammunition. I went through a good 80-90% of the game using the mechanic’s tool alone, as I was conserving ammo for boss fights or large groups of enemies. Despite this flaw, combat was still a blast; I just wish the weapons could have been better fleshed out (incentive to use them, more available ammo, etc).

I’m a big fan of Ratchet and Clank, if you couldn’t tell by now. The story was fun, controls were tight, and the majority of puzzles and enemy encounters were enjoyable. I’m looking forward to playing through the game again in the near future and trying to finish collecting the stuff I missed the first go around. If you’re a fan of the platforming genre and have the means to play R&C, you owe it to yourself to check it out.


Rating: 9.4 / 10
Recommendation: Buy