My first druid, and other WoW news.

     Before I went on a WoW hiatus, I started a worgan druid character. He's now level 18, and I've gone through a dungeon for the first time as a healer. I'm doing O.K. I'm getting the hang of alternating between healing and damage when I'm solo adventuring.
     Another thing I've discovered and like about WoW is the glyphs. My death knight summons a greater variety of undead to help him whoop ass. I recently bought a glyph for my druid that allows me to revive allies at full health.
     I've come to realize that level 89 is like the infamous wall in a marathon. I feel like my rogue will never hit 90. I wish I could form raid parties on that server, because many quests in Pandaria seem to need them. Anyone reading this is welcome to join me. My server is Gorefiend.

Dragons.

     After a couple of years of pecking at it, I finally completed "Dragon Age: Origins"! I created a human mage, and took on the Archdemon with Wynne, Alistair (he'd be cute if he weren't animated), and Shale (didn't realize she was female until much later). Admitedly, I did have to scale down the difficulty for some of the bosses, including the Archdemon himself.
     Now, I'm onto playing the expansion, "Awakening." There is a bit of inconsistency in that the main character, the Warden - in this case my mage Arachne, dies when killing the Archdemon, but comes back in "Awakening." Anyway, the expansion, which I think of "Dragon Age: Origins 1.5," looks good so far. I'm going to make Arachne a battlemage. As of late, I've been really into the idea of a warrior who could whoop some ass with a sword, but then again unleash a fireball when numerous troops come.

     I've decided to incorporate more Pathfinder into my D&D game. It will retain most of the updated content, except for the racial descriptions and stats. And the pantheon and cosmology will be from D&D 3.5, also. I prefer to stick with the stories that I know, just with some adjustments to rules.
     Basically, I was going to have Pathfinder enhance my D&D-based game, but have flipped the script and will now have D&D enhance my Pathfinder-based game.
     A lot of the things that aren't featured in Pathfinder, but are featured in D&D 3.X can be easily updated following the pattern seen in other updates of the classes. This would also hold true for the other D20 books, like Sword and Sorcery. Off the top of my head, all classes seem to have a hit die one step higher than it would have in D&D 3.X. As far as prestige classes like cerebremancer - the one who fuses arcane might with psionic power, it's easy to see the pattern of mystic theurge and follow that. Speaking of psionics, the first thing that originally put me off about Pathfinder is that they basically ignored psionics.
     There are two possible players in the local area that might want to play, and Tiffany wants to play via Skype. What I need is a handful of people who have a common reliable day off. That would be our game night.

Hitman: Absolution.

      It's been a while since I got my copy of the newest installment of the Hitman franchise. But, in light of what happened in Connecticut, around the time I finished the story of the game, I didn't think it would have been necessary to talk about it for a while. I plan on discussing violence in fictional media in another blog, but I just want to geek out right now.

      While shooting games are controversial right now, many people think of Call of Duty when they talk about violent games these days. Hitman, however, is more of a cerebral game. Each mission is a puzzle, and if there is a time where you have to unload with a gun, you're probably better off restarting that mission. The goal isn't shooting up everyone, but delicately getting the job done, and causing as little disturbance as possible. And, for the most part, almost every mission involves a target that is not a "soldier like you" or "some Joe on the street." The targets are usually people you don't feel bad about dropping a chandelier upon, poisoning, car-bombing, or sniping from a far distance with a silenced Dragunov; corrupt cops, sleazy politicians, mob top-dogs, war profiteers, and sex fiends; the boils under society's skin.
      I was hoping for a combination of good storyline and good gameplay, and it didn't disappoint. The story, itself has little in the way of actual missions. It's chapters in a story that involves murder, mayhem, genetic tampering, superweapon laboratories, and a heartwarming bond between a foster parent and a young girl - the scene where he's carrying the girl out of the invaded orphanage and saying "Don't worry, I won't let anyone hurt you," was an "Awwww!" moment. So, it's all about a cross-country ass-whoopin' delivered at the hands of 47. I won't get into the story any more, but it kicks ass.
      The downloadable content, thus far, is great. Although it is used for weapons in contract mode only. Contracts are mini-quests that players online can create, and they happen in stages pulled from areas in the main storyline. You earn money to unlock more weapons and upgrades. I have my sniper rifle maxed out with the best silencer I can get, so I'm styling right now.