House of Jorob

DeathSpank

A silly, clever game available on PSN ($14.99), DeathSpank's a fun RPG whose job it is to provide me with comic relief when I can't keep the farkin horse going in the direction I want it to in Red Dead Redemption.

I looked at it when it was released in July, and thought I'd save my cash. The stillshots that passed for preview material didn't move me.

But when a friend told me he thought the game was off the wall, I waded around on the PSN Store until I found a playable demo. I was still laughing, hours after I finished the thing.

And then discovered PSN had the game on sale for half price. So I grabbed it.

It turned out to be a bargain (I'd have paid the full price but who am I to argue with a sale?)

In an era of $60 games, HotHead Games has come up with a little piece of magic.

FFXIII levelling tip: 5500 CP per minute in the Maw of the Abyss

Chapter 11.

Maw of the Abyss.

After the first really annoying Boxed Phalanx battle, follow the trail until you get to the pocket that's got four Hoplites in it. Fight them, and keep looking for the left turn that's just beyond that point.

Take the left, and fight all the battles until you get to where the Juggernaut hides. Don't fight the juggernaut.

Don't even get close to the damn door. If you do you will trigger the cut scene that initiates the juggernaut battle.

And you will die instantly.

Instead, turn around and run back down the path.

The last two battles you fought before the juggernaut, the five hoplites and the trio of Cryohedrons, will NOT come back.

However, the combined groups of two hoplites and three Cryohedrons will have respawned.

Fight them, defeat them, and pocket 5500 CP.

Turn around and run back to the area in front of the Juggernaut door.

Now run back.

The combined groups of two hoplites and three Cryohedrons will have respawned.

Fight them, defeat them, and pocket 5500 CP.

Turn around and run back to the area in front of the Juggernaut door.

Now run back.

Repeat.

For as long as you like.

You can literally grind enough points here in roughly two hours to fill out all the available gems in the Crystarium for a character.

World of Warcraft: Deldodin's Blog

Whelps Have No Physics.

I hate whelps.

Scrawny little wanna-be dragonites.

No visible means of support.

I can't see how those wings hold them up.

I mean, really.

Nothing better to do than hang around casters.

Messing with an honest day's pocket-dipping.

Belch a fireball, no kick.

Everything has a kick.

Guns:

Pull the trigger,

Gun goes off,

Bullet comes out,

There's a kick.

Crossbows:

Thumb the release,

Bolt flies out,

There's a kick.

Whelps?

Nothing.

Belch.

Flameball.

Reptilian flutterby keeps on flying into your face.

Kick should have snapped its neck.

.....

Sorry.

Got lost there in the snapped neck thing.

Author's note: Deldodin is a gnome, a rogue living in the realm of SteamWheedle Cartel.
I've decided to post his more coherent writings.
When I find one.

World of Warcraft: Deldodin's Blog

Walking through Dun Modr

I'm out wandering Dun Modr the other day.

Run into Motley, Longbraid, Rhag, and Roggo.

Bunch of nice guys to bend an arm with.

Whatever.

All four of them were kind of preoccupied out there in the field.

Which I guess is the right way to be when you're emptying Enforcers into a nearby nest of dark iron dwarves.

Couldn't get Longbraid to say very much about it, either.

That's usually a sign for me to move on, come back later when I've had a chance to figure things out, gain a few levels.

Nooooooo.

Not this time.

This time, not having anything better to do at the moment, I snuck on over to the barriers.

Figured I'd see what was so important they'd spend most of the day blasting away at.

When I woke up, the first thing I did was go downstairs and ask the Innkeeper for a dictionary.

And there it was:

"Train."
n. also v.
Common.
The resulting chaos formed by the sudden shrieks of a gnome as encouraged by Ashlan Stonesmirk's dynamite tossing.

Stonesmirk???

I knew I had miscounted.

Author's note: Deldodin is a gnome, a rogue living in the realm of SteamWheedle Cartel.
I've decided to post his more coherent writings.
When I find one.

World of Warcraft: Deldodin's Blog

Drippings

I poisoned my first dagger the other day.

Nature-based damage, with a one-in-five chance of inflicting it.

Everywhere I stood, I dripped.

From my dagger belt.

For the hour or so it took to run its course.

Glow in the dark green stuff.

A fashion statement, if you ask me.

Innkeepers weren't too happy though.

I was dripping on their rugs.

They asked me to leave.

So I did.

Went outside.

Stood around and watched the guys weeding in the gardens out back for a bit.

I took a particular interest in the rain barrels they were using.

Geez.

I tried really hard not to drip.

Really.

Author's note: Deldodin is a gnome, a rogue living in the realm of SteamWheedle Cartel.
I've decided to post his more coherent writings.
When I find one.

Playstation 2 Back In Business

Hard to consider something released in 2003 as vintage.

But that's what the .hack series feels like to me tonight.

A closed environment, the World in .hack contains no live interaction, no on-line components.

But it fakes it pretty well.

I pulled out .hack//OUTBREAK the other night, after digging through a pile of Playstation 2 8MB data cards in search of the save points.

From .hack//MUTATION.

I'm running on a Playstation 2 lately because my PS3 lost its ability to output video.

Blind.

Well, blind and flickering. Blind on the HDMI channels, and flickering in and out on the S-Vid.

Either way, enough to warrant invoking the Best Buy guaranteed repair/replacement that came with it 18 months ago.

Then my gaming PC-- the one held together with baling wire, duct tape, and powered by a hamster wheel--gave up the ghost. No more DDO and WoW til that get's taken care of.

Those parts-searches on eBay are killer.

I had kept the Playstation 2 because....well...it's hard to get rid of things like that.

Plus, I still had two more episodes in the .hack series to play through.

And one or two more games from the 2003/2004 time frame.

And on my PS3, those series didn't port at all.

So, while I wait for Best Buy to figure out whether they need to repair my unit or replace it, and while I search for parts for the PC, I'll retro out for while and give Kite and company a run.

World of Warcraft: Deldodin's Blog

First thing I do when I get my mount

First thing I'm gonna do when I get my mount is pull up to a bar and order a round on the house.

Not because I'm celebrating having completed a long and laborious trek to reach mount-having status.

No.

I'll be celebrating being able to reach the bar without first having to climb up the friggin stools like a monkey-boy.

Flagon of Mead, anybody?

Author's note: Deldodin is a gnome, a rogue living in the realm of SteamWheedle Cartel.
I've decided to post his more coherent writings.
When I find one.

Poker on FaceBook

So I'm playing poker now.

On FaceBook.

Texas Holdem.

Zynga makes the applet and it runs pretty well.

I'm still playing at the "Friendly" tables.

Minimal buy in, pots don't get too crazy.

Took me three months of watching others play before I finally stepped in and sat down.

I fold a lot these days.

Some of my poker buddies have winnings of well over a million bucks.

Me, I'm floating in around 30 - 40 K.

Of course, its all play money.

That's what makes it so easy to strategize on other players styles.

It ain't real money, so people tend to reveal themselves faster.

I doubt the real thing operates the same way around the table.

But this will do, for now.

World of Warcraft: Deldodin's Blog

Drinks with Kargo

Kargo Puzzlestine was showing me his latest project the other evening, over a couple flasks of port.

Called it the "WalkAbout PickerUpper."

I called it a "Shovel."

Took me about half a mile to outrun him.

Author's note: Deldodin is a gnome, a rogue living in the realm of SteamWheedle Cartel.
I've decided to post his more coherent writings.
When I find one.

World of WarCraft: Deldodin's Blog

Tinker time

I wanna be a tinker.

Or is that "tinkerer"?

I never could keep that straight.

My ma told me I needed a hobby.

So I let go of the cat I was twirling, grabbed a toolkit off the table, and headed out to seek my fortune.

I haven't made one yet.

Ma wants her toolkit back.

She still hasn't found the cat.

Author's note: Deldodin is a gnome, a rogue living in the realm of SteamWheedle Cartel.
I've decided to post his more coherent writings.
When I find one.