Lucky for Some

After doing the Molten Front dailies every day on my main since the release of WoW patch 4.2 (Firelands), I've obtained the reward mount, the Flameward Hippogryph, and the meta-achievement title, the Flamebreaker, and am now sick and tired of these damn quests. I was hoping to get the companion pet random drop, a Searing Scorchling baby fire elemental (5% chance each day from a full set of dailies). But alas, randomness hasn't favoured me and I'll let this one pass me by.

So between dungeons, I've been playing more on my alts. Jahger, my Worgen Hunter spotted a rare (combat) pet introduced with this patch - Ban'thalos, an owl-like Spirit Beast flying high up around the entrance to the Molten Front. The tactic I used to tame it was to fly up directly from a tree, shoot Ban'thalos, land on top of the tree for minimal falling damage, immediately lay a freezing trap and then begin taming. Result: one awesome looking Hunter's pet.

Ban'thalos

Felqast, a level 80 Blood Elf Warlock, is my highest level character on a friend's server and I used him to give a couple low-level dungeon boosts for my friend's Hunter. The level 45 knick-knacks are of little interest to me, but I was happily surprised by the drop off the last boss of Stratholme - a 1% rare drop, Lord Rivendare's steed, Deathcharger. My Warlock is now the proud rider of this much-prized undead horse.

Deathcharger

Luck averages out in the long-term - here I'm more than happy to give up the Searing Scorchling for Ban'thalos and Deathcharger!

Thurgen the Flamebreaker

Still haven't had any serious time to devote to raids, but by chipping away at the daily quests introduced in WoW's 4.2 patch (Firelands), Thurgen was able to earn the Flamebreaker title.

Cataclysm's Veteran of the Molten Front meta-achievement

For now the title is rare enough and sufficiently novel for people to actually whisper me in-game about it. The last time that happened was when the Wrath of the Lich King expansion was still relatively new and I earned the Twilight Vanquisher title when our raid defeated the hardest version of the Sartharion raid encounter. The Flamebreaker title is a lot easier to get and almost all of the achievements can be soloed without difficulty. Only The Fiery Lords of Sethria's Roost achievement required a group, though I tried my damnedest to solo it :)

Cataclysm's goblin starting area

I also gave the Goblin start a go (level 1 to about 13) together with a friend who plays on a Horde server. It's got a very different feel to the Worgen start and is suitably Goblin-quirky. And you get some pimpin' looks early on - that's my new Goblin in the shades in the screenshot above. Both Worgen and Goblin starts are better than even the revamped starts for the other races, and as each should take less than 2 hours, there's every reason for those with Cataclysm to just play both.

Cities in Motion - bus stops outside a metro entrance

Finally, in the wake of the Steam summer sale, I've been trying out a bunch of my new purchases. So far the most interesting are Syberia, a 2002 adventure game that has you starting out in a remote French village whose livelihood depends on the creation of clockwork automatons; and Cities in Motion, a public transport simulation similar to the classic Transport Tycoon but focused on a single city.

Still too early to judge them - more thoughts to come as I get a chance to play some more.

Review: Sam & Max Season 2 (PC)

The Sam & Max series from Telltale Games is the episodic adventure game series succeeding the famous LucasArt series (itself an adaptation of a comic by Steve Purcell). This then is the second season of this series, and while it's technically 5 separate games, each of them is short enough (3 hours each) to consider the season as a whole a complete game. The episodes of a season are typically bundled together anyway so if you're going to play all the episodes, you'll probably save by buying the whole season.

Sam and Max in their office (now the presidential office)

The story is of two private investigators, an anthropomorphic dog (Sam) and rabbit (Max), who get the most extraordinary cases and resolve them in the craziest way possible. An example of this was that midway through season 1, Max is elected as US president. And as those aware of Max's penchant for violence will realize, that's going to be trouble. (And maybe it carries just a smidgen of political commentary.) As we begin season 2, Max is still technically president though he appears to govern in abstentia as he is more concerned with saving Christmas (episode 1) and tropical island paradises (episode 2).

Sam & Max: Ice Station Santa

The game itself is firmly of the LucasArts adventure game mould (and the series is considered by some to be the archetype of the episodic adventure game). It's point-and-click with most puzzles boiling down to finding the right item to use in the right place or in the right combination. These are often unusual - one puzzle's solution even had Sam saying "I really didn't expect that to work" - and require lateral thinking or trial and error. The number of items and locations is generally small enough that trial and error will get you past almost all the puzzles eventually. There's also walkthroughs and hints but I personally haven't found the need for such help in any of Telltale's Sam & Max games so far and would consider these among the easier adventure games that I've played.

Season 2 is redeemed by the occasional really good puzzle, such as the portal-based puzzles on Easter Island (and I love a good portal-based puzzle). The rest of it is merely kept afloat by the humour. Sam and Max are a good comedic duo, and they're surrounded by plenty of wacky characters and scenarios. The problem is that it all gets a bit tired after a while. What was funny in season 1 is merely routine in season 2. I said the same thing about Friends so this might just be a case of me tiring of certain types of humour quicker than other people.

Orange and blue portals remind me of another game

As it is, I haven't finished the season. I took a short break from it about three weeks ago because of the World of Warcraft Firelands release (trailer) meaning to come back and finish it before review. It didn't happen, and with a bunch of games now filling my Steam library after their summer sale, I don't feel a great compulsion to finish it.

Final Score: 5 / 10 - Funny at times with some interesting puzzles, but there's not enough here to compel you to play the next episode. Consider buying each episode individually if you want to give the season a try.

Notes on my personal rating scale: They are entirely based on my personal feelings about the game - I don't rate a game on its own merits but rather how much I've enjoyed and how much time it's sucking out of my life. Strategy games will do well and shooters poorly because those are my gaming preferences.

0-4 = Poor game that I won't be bothering to play any more
5-7 = Decent game - fun enough that I'll try play it some more if I have the time
8-10 = Good game that I'll be playing a lot more or have already finished and greatly enjoyed