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.

Gaming news.

     I've been playing World of Warcraft more since I updated to "Burning Crusade." I am now a level-47 (appropriately) assassination rogue. A few days ago, I went on a mission where I had to kill 40 pirates (each level-44). I didn't notice the part of the briefing where I had to drop bombs. So, I spend over a half-hour pecking them off, one at a time, sneaking and stabbing. Reading that mission would have provided me with a more convenient way of completing it. At least I've rekindled my love for poisons, especial Deadly Poison.
     Now that I've upgraded to "Burning Crusade," I have visited the draenei on their settled turf, Azuremist Isle, and their home base, the interdimensional ship the Exodar (my hearthstone takes me back there). When I hit level-58, I will go to Outland and party there. And when I say "party," I mean sneaking, stabbing, garroting, and poisoning.
     Next Friday, I'm going to upgrade to "Wrath of the Lich King." I like the trailers for it; there's this bad-ass undead in an icy fortress, wielding a huge sword. Can't think of the bastard's name, though. It reminded me of my idea to have an undead ruler in my D&D campaign world. I'll combine it with my Nordic sorcerer.

     Speaking of D&D, I was reminded by my doll that I could come over to her place and run a D&D campaign with her and the people she lives with. I don't know how long that campaign would last, though. I won't say how I know this, but I just do.

     I started playing the Konquest mode of Mortal Kombat: Deception. It doesn't feel as smooth as the one in Armageddon, but that's probably because it's an older game. I started playing SoulCalibur 4 a few weeks ago, and I love playing as Tira. She's a bad-ass! As far as her back-story, some have said she's a demonically-posssessed gymnastically-trained assassin. Sounds cool. I'm going to go write my D&D campaign notes now.