B|*ZZ4rD
B|*ZZ4rD newsFriday, 25 February 2005
New wow stuff
some interesting developments
including amusing cartoon style speach bubbles :-) (aka SWG)
http://www.blizz4rd.co.uk/bubbles.jpg
more changes here
including amusing cartoon style speach bubbles :-) (aka SWG)
http://www.blizz4rd.co.uk/bubbles.jpg
more changes here
Wednesday, 23 February 2005
Yoda
Tuesday, 22 February 2005
Panda :-)
Monday, 21 February 2005
wow pics
as wow has crashed and the queue is an hour :-|
i've put up some photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/78184619@N00
i've put up some photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/78184619@N00
Guitar effects
been chatting to Rob about bits and bobs and came across this
http://guitargeek.com/chat/showthread.php?s=9145e6ee0769d4961bfe08e5d6604ef4&threadid=39155
info on the mars volta's guitar sound, which led me to this
http://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_mars_volta/
interesting info on how they recorded there first album
and of course, to this insane picture:
HOW MANY PEDALS?!
http://guitargeek.com/chat/showthread.php?s=9145e6ee0769d4961bfe08e5d6604ef4&threadid=39155
info on the mars volta's guitar sound, which led me to this
http://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_mars_volta/
interesting info on how they recorded there first album
and of course, to this insane picture:
HOW MANY PEDALS?!
You know you've played WoW too much when
Thursday, 17 February 2005
WOW half week
back to work, just finding my feet after a few days away :-)
before i forget a new penny arcade on wow ;-)
http://img.penny-arcade.com/2005/20050216l.jpg
anyway,
well had a few days of work to play www.worldofwarcraft.com
and it was great fun :-)
I'm now very tired and finding it hard not to try and click on things in real life
and fighting the desire to sell things on the Auction house and check my in game mail!
lol
anyway, have taken around 500 screenshots already 0_o;;
and the plan is to post some here and create some kind of diary,
I don't know if that will really happen as I just don't have the time...
a quick run down of the last few days...
Friday
started the game, headed home little early, got home around 6 ish I think
the account creation servers were down for a few hours, so had a look over all the collector edition,
a few hours later, just as I had about finished looking at stuff,
Lowe and behold the account creation servers come up,
I spend a few more hours trying to create an account!
as thousands of people trying to connect to the same webpage..
not fun :-) so frustrating.
it's funny people posting on the forums
"blizzard should have know better, it happened in US so they should have fixed it"
yeah fair enough, but blizz arn't gonna buy a load of new servers JUST to deal with one night of heavy traffic!
anyway, eventually get on and play till 2 I think
finished at lvl6 maybe, after doing a few noobie level's around night elf starting area.
oh yeah, I started a night elf Druid btw ;-)
Saturday
band practice with da band, which ended up being cut short ;-/
did more night elf areas
Sunday
saw Maria through most of the day
but in the evening did the rest of the night elf areas, played till 4am
Monday
got the druid bear form, had to do some missions to get this, is pretty cool :-)
at around level 15 moved over to westfall in human lands, also made a run to the dwarf area and got all the flight roots
was funny running the wrong way to iron forge (dwarf land city)
bumped into some dwarfs, I thought hey im going the right way, they killed me.
turned out they were elite 'dark dwarfs' :-/
played till 2am
Tuesday
more quests around westfall, and in alberdine, another night elf place.
got the druid water form, which was a pain in the arse to get and although handy looks like an ugly seal :-/
played till 5.30am
Wednesday
got cat form, which I was pleased to say didn't have a quest to it ;-)
and a load of new spells! I haven't even used fully yet!
I made my first visit to Auction House in iron forge, like an in game E-bay,
so that was interesting and will be selling some stuff there ;-)
did some little quests and helped a lower level group with some quests and in the evening...
myself Dan and a few others from the 'blackcats' guild did the Deadmines instance :-)
great fun, we did really well, only died once...and apart from me missing a mission and crashing before hand went very well!
ended up level 21 (and a half ;-) night elf druid after all this :-)
I'll post some screen shots soon when I can
before i forget a new penny arcade on wow ;-)
http://img.penny-arcade.com/2005/20050216l.jpg
anyway,
well had a few days of work to play www.worldofwarcraft.com
and it was great fun :-)
I'm now very tired and finding it hard not to try and click on things in real life
and fighting the desire to sell things on the Auction house and check my in game mail!
lol
anyway, have taken around 500 screenshots already 0_o;;
and the plan is to post some here and create some kind of diary,
I don't know if that will really happen as I just don't have the time...
a quick run down of the last few days...
Friday
started the game, headed home little early, got home around 6 ish I think
the account creation servers were down for a few hours, so had a look over all the collector edition,
a few hours later, just as I had about finished looking at stuff,
Lowe and behold the account creation servers come up,
I spend a few more hours trying to create an account!
as thousands of people trying to connect to the same webpage..
not fun :-) so frustrating.
it's funny people posting on the forums
"blizzard should have know better, it happened in US so they should have fixed it"
yeah fair enough, but blizz arn't gonna buy a load of new servers JUST to deal with one night of heavy traffic!
anyway, eventually get on and play till 2 I think
finished at lvl6 maybe, after doing a few noobie level's around night elf starting area.
oh yeah, I started a night elf Druid btw ;-)
Saturday
band practice with da band, which ended up being cut short ;-/
did more night elf areas
Sunday
saw Maria through most of the day
but in the evening did the rest of the night elf areas, played till 4am
Monday
got the druid bear form, had to do some missions to get this, is pretty cool :-)
at around level 15 moved over to westfall in human lands, also made a run to the dwarf area and got all the flight roots
was funny running the wrong way to iron forge (dwarf land city)
bumped into some dwarfs, I thought hey im going the right way, they killed me.
turned out they were elite 'dark dwarfs' :-/
played till 2am
Tuesday
more quests around westfall, and in alberdine, another night elf place.
got the druid water form, which was a pain in the arse to get and although handy looks like an ugly seal :-/
played till 5.30am
Wednesday
got cat form, which I was pleased to say didn't have a quest to it ;-)
and a load of new spells! I haven't even used fully yet!
I made my first visit to Auction House in iron forge, like an in game E-bay,
so that was interesting and will be selling some stuff there ;-)
did some little quests and helped a lower level group with some quests and in the evening...
myself Dan and a few others from the 'blackcats' guild did the Deadmines instance :-)
great fun, we did really well, only died once...and apart from me missing a mission and crashing before hand went very well!
ended up level 21 (and a half ;-) night elf druid after all this :-)
I'll post some screen shots soon when I can
A Perfect Circle E motion DVD
I got Mee to get me this as a valentines present,
ive been after it for a while.
I love 'a perfect circle' and the 3 albums they have done so far
'Judith' video is my fav video (of all time?) it's just so cool, and if we were to do a band music video, I'd like to do something like that
however this DVD has some odd stuff...stuff I wouldn't have thought a perfect circle will do...
some reviews from amazon..:
"I'd say the worst part is the slap in the face to fans in the form of a few videos pointing out, in Adbusters fashion, how capitalism is ruining the world....and then immediatly following that up with plugs for Bikini Bandit stuff. An ad for an upcoming full-length movie with one of the Bikini Bandit babes introducing Maynard as "the driving force behind Tool and the mastermind of A Perfect Circle." Whether this is intended as sarcasm or not could be argued, but for clarity's sake Maynard is probably neither"
"I have been a fan of APC for quite a long time now, but watching this DVD has taught me one thing -although they make GREAT music, APC's music videos are complete crap. Especially the ones featuring the "Bikini Bandits." What were they thinking?! "
"i am a big APC fan, so i felt it was a necessity 4 me to purchase this compilation. "3 libras" is my favorite APC track so i felt buying this just for this video would be well worth it, and in a sense it is. however i am a bit dissapointed w/some of the videos and the subject matter of them. i dont see how the "thinking of you" video w/2 chicks gettin off 2 a vibrator could inspire me to think of APC as the genius band they really are. i just saw that as cheap and not well thought of. oh well. i dont particularly think that the videos are awesome, except for "3 libras". most of them don't seem to have anything to do with the song ["thinking of you," "weak and powerless", although APC did explain that that was their point...]. i would have thought that another video would have been made for "the outsider" and although the bikini bandits convey a point, i don't feel its the best concept APC could have come up with. i do hold the 2 videos with their political stances with high esteem though ["...drums" and "imagine."]needless to say, i enjoy the remix CD far more than i thought i would. the standout tracks would have to be "3 libras [feel my ice dub]" mix, and "3 libras [all main courses] mix (tracks 2 and 7). for a true APC fan, this is a must and if you can get past some stupid material [which there isn't a lot of, but alas IS present], then you should be able to enjoy this. "
nevermind, its still good for a few videos and the extra cd, and indeed even owning the Judith video..
but the whole bikini bandit stuff...i think i've lost some respect for A Perfect Circle...
ive been after it for a while.
I love 'a perfect circle' and the 3 albums they have done so far
'Judith' video is my fav video (of all time?) it's just so cool, and if we were to do a band music video, I'd like to do something like that
however this DVD has some odd stuff...stuff I wouldn't have thought a perfect circle will do...
some reviews from amazon..:
"I'd say the worst part is the slap in the face to fans in the form of a few videos pointing out, in Adbusters fashion, how capitalism is ruining the world....and then immediatly following that up with plugs for Bikini Bandit stuff. An ad for an upcoming full-length movie with one of the Bikini Bandit babes introducing Maynard as "the driving force behind Tool and the mastermind of A Perfect Circle." Whether this is intended as sarcasm or not could be argued, but for clarity's sake Maynard is probably neither"
"I have been a fan of APC for quite a long time now, but watching this DVD has taught me one thing -although they make GREAT music, APC's music videos are complete crap. Especially the ones featuring the "Bikini Bandits." What were they thinking?! "
"i am a big APC fan, so i felt it was a necessity 4 me to purchase this compilation. "3 libras" is my favorite APC track so i felt buying this just for this video would be well worth it, and in a sense it is. however i am a bit dissapointed w/some of the videos and the subject matter of them. i dont see how the "thinking of you" video w/2 chicks gettin off 2 a vibrator could inspire me to think of APC as the genius band they really are. i just saw that as cheap and not well thought of. oh well. i dont particularly think that the videos are awesome, except for "3 libras". most of them don't seem to have anything to do with the song ["thinking of you," "weak and powerless", although APC did explain that that was their point...]. i would have thought that another video would have been made for "the outsider" and although the bikini bandits convey a point, i don't feel its the best concept APC could have come up with. i do hold the 2 videos with their political stances with high esteem though ["...drums" and "imagine."]needless to say, i enjoy the remix CD far more than i thought i would. the standout tracks would have to be "3 libras [feel my ice dub]" mix, and "3 libras [all main courses] mix (tracks 2 and 7). for a true APC fan, this is a must and if you can get past some stupid material [which there isn't a lot of, but alas IS present], then you should be able to enjoy this. "
nevermind, its still good for a few videos and the extra cd, and indeed even owning the Judith video..
but the whole bikini bandit stuff...i think i've lost some respect for A Perfect Circle...
Friday, 11 February 2005
it's me!
Thursday, 10 February 2005
:-)
Well done blizzard...
world of warcraft collectors Ed arrived on time :-D
Wednesday, 9 February 2005
Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
I want this album
I loved there first album, but hearing the new single 'the widow'
it isn't great, it's good, but not as good as other stuff they have done.
it's kinda a slow blues feel to it, reminds me of some led zep really
but anyway, i will be getting the album, but thought this review on amazon was interesting....
"Amazing at times, non existant at others...., January 31, 2005
Reviewer: luke2442 from London, Islington United Kingdom
I thought i would write an INFORMED review, as i have actually heard the album. And make no mistake, it has the same energy (if not greater) and the same skewed time signatures, but unfortunately, many many more of the 5 minute silences that i personally hoped had been left behind with cicatriz ESP, however, some of the silences are up to 12 minutes... Which seems to me to be a ploy to make their album longer that it really is. Omar infuses many more of the latin influences we saw glimpses of in DITC, many of the lyrics are in spanish. Whether this adds depth to the music or simply a cliched latin sound is a decision you will have to make.
The album IS an epic however; two 15 minute tracks, and one 33 minute closer certainly emphasise this fact- they dont lack stamina, however, they do seem to drain in imagination, as the album seems to deteriorate in musical quality as it goes on, a 33 minute track really needs to be captivating to provide any interest, however, what should be the best track on the album ends up as the filler.
Track Synopses:
Cygnus Vismund Cygnus: Best track on the album, pounding bass, brilliant guitar, and inventive, Exactly what i hoped this album would sound like.
The Widow: Extremely Boring! Like a drawn-out televators without the brilliant vocals and haunting atmosphere.
L'Via L'Viaquez: Hmmm, almost DITC worthy, but somewhat samey,nonetheless quite catchy. However i lose interest towards the end- not something i thought i'd ever do with mars volta
Cassandra Gemini: 33 minutes of what could quite easily be passed of as pretentious tripe. It starts off almost interesting, and then continues into some poor sampling, and as soon as you gain interest again, it descends into a silence for about 5 minutes, and ends rather hurriedly and without saying much. I want those 33 minutes of my life back.
Let me finish by adding that I LOVE The Mars Volta, but i feel this album is simply below their standard. My Review may seem negative, but the opening track is absolutely standout and it is 15 minutes, and the rest of the album is good, but simply not as good as it should be. A disappointing effort."
I loved there first album, but hearing the new single 'the widow'
it isn't great, it's good, but not as good as other stuff they have done.
it's kinda a slow blues feel to it, reminds me of some led zep really
but anyway, i will be getting the album, but thought this review on amazon was interesting....
"Amazing at times, non existant at others...., January 31, 2005
Reviewer: luke2442 from London, Islington United Kingdom
I thought i would write an INFORMED review, as i have actually heard the album. And make no mistake, it has the same energy (if not greater) and the same skewed time signatures, but unfortunately, many many more of the 5 minute silences that i personally hoped had been left behind with cicatriz ESP, however, some of the silences are up to 12 minutes... Which seems to me to be a ploy to make their album longer that it really is. Omar infuses many more of the latin influences we saw glimpses of in DITC, many of the lyrics are in spanish. Whether this adds depth to the music or simply a cliched latin sound is a decision you will have to make.
The album IS an epic however; two 15 minute tracks, and one 33 minute closer certainly emphasise this fact- they dont lack stamina, however, they do seem to drain in imagination, as the album seems to deteriorate in musical quality as it goes on, a 33 minute track really needs to be captivating to provide any interest, however, what should be the best track on the album ends up as the filler.
Track Synopses:
Cygnus Vismund Cygnus: Best track on the album, pounding bass, brilliant guitar, and inventive, Exactly what i hoped this album would sound like.
The Widow: Extremely Boring! Like a drawn-out televators without the brilliant vocals and haunting atmosphere.
L'Via L'Viaquez: Hmmm, almost DITC worthy, but somewhat samey,nonetheless quite catchy. However i lose interest towards the end- not something i thought i'd ever do with mars volta
Cassandra Gemini: 33 minutes of what could quite easily be passed of as pretentious tripe. It starts off almost interesting, and then continues into some poor sampling, and as soon as you gain interest again, it descends into a silence for about 5 minutes, and ends rather hurriedly and without saying much. I want those 33 minutes of my life back.
Let me finish by adding that I LOVE The Mars Volta, but i feel this album is simply below their standard. My Review may seem negative, but the opening track is absolutely standout and it is 15 minutes, and the rest of the album is good, but simply not as good as it should be. A disappointing effort."
Tuesday, 8 February 2005
Penny-Arcade down
Monday, 7 February 2005
Mad pics from NTM
http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TAA6A0IYO8gTQbGE3JB828hO63owYkHAQM!gErsi6N5aMJ*SzRiRalU0fzcio9TtlluGMa5rA*Q0fQ0hB2YukFS**ui1pV9MtOh8j81CtMLNNHGw34NZqQ/shalliletgo.gif?dc=4675509165692245885
http://www.iondesign.net/clients/webnoodle/pics/catboat2-sml.gif
http://www.whatwouldmingdo.com/b3ta/superwoogie.gif
and from dalai:
http://www.gamersagainsteagames.com/
http://www.iondesign.net/clients/webnoodle/pics/catboat2-sml.gif
http://www.whatwouldmingdo.com/b3ta/superwoogie.gif
and from dalai:
http://www.gamersagainsteagames.com/
Mee Warrior!!!
As promissed here are some screen shots ;-)
of Mee hard at work at wow..
And in game Mee warrior :-D
:D
of Mee hard at work at wow..
And in game Mee warrior :-D
:D
The weekend is over
and so starts Monday
the wow EU final beta finishes tonight at 9pm!
"
http://en.wow-europe.com/
Final Beta Ends
06/02/2005
With the commercial release of World of Warcraft coming on the 11th of February, we will be taking all our servers offline on the evening of Monday, February 7. This event is currently scheduled to take place at 21:00 (GMT+1). The subsequent days will be used to prepare the servers for as smooth a launch as possible. We will be conducting a complete wipe of the forums and erasing all beta accounts and characters to allow all players to start the game on an even footing. All servers and forums will be back online again on the 11th of February. "
So come this Friday the madness starts!
I think I am ready for it....
know what I'm gonna be: Night elf druid
got my list of talents and skills to learn
and got a good idea what I'm going to be doing on the first couple of days...
games out Friday, and hopefully my collectors edition will have arrived by then!
if not I will be annoyed, and hope it gets to me before Monday, which I have booked off work
so hopefully...
Friday play in evening, Saturday play after band practice, Sunday seeing mee
then mon-wed off work playing wow :-D
should be able to get a good few levels I hope! :-)
Oh also got Mee into wow a little bit ;-)
On Friday she made a Gnome warrior called Meewarrior ;-)
and we got her to lvl5 in a few hours :-)
It kinda worries me how much she enjoys killing things ;-)
have to get her a big hammer in game as well, aka as the comic mee (and real life) ;-)
anyway, got a few screen shots of Meewarrior which I will post soon :-)
till end...bye
the wow EU final beta finishes tonight at 9pm!
"
http://en.wow-europe.com/
Final Beta Ends
06/02/2005
With the commercial release of World of Warcraft coming on the 11th of February, we will be taking all our servers offline on the evening of Monday, February 7. This event is currently scheduled to take place at 21:00 (GMT+1). The subsequent days will be used to prepare the servers for as smooth a launch as possible. We will be conducting a complete wipe of the forums and erasing all beta accounts and characters to allow all players to start the game on an even footing. All servers and forums will be back online again on the 11th of February. "
So come this Friday the madness starts!
I think I am ready for it....
know what I'm gonna be: Night elf druid
got my list of talents and skills to learn
and got a good idea what I'm going to be doing on the first couple of days...
games out Friday, and hopefully my collectors edition will have arrived by then!
if not I will be annoyed, and hope it gets to me before Monday, which I have booked off work
so hopefully...
Friday play in evening, Saturday play after band practice, Sunday seeing mee
then mon-wed off work playing wow :-D
should be able to get a good few levels I hope! :-)
Oh also got Mee into wow a little bit ;-)
On Friday she made a Gnome warrior called Meewarrior ;-)
and we got her to lvl5 in a few hours :-)
It kinda worries me how much she enjoys killing things ;-)
have to get her a big hammer in game as well, aka as the comic mee (and real life) ;-)
anyway, got a few screen shots of Meewarrior which I will post soon :-)
till end...bye
Thursday, 3 February 2005
:-(
Dyslexic drivers slower to react
showed = showered
WAH!!!
European Street Date Announced
02/02/2005
Blizzard Entertainment today announced that World of Warcraft® will officially release in Europe on Friday, 11th February, 2005. The game will be available for Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP and Macintosh® in English, French and German. There will be a standard edition, containing the game on four CD-ROM disks, and a collector’s edition with a plethora of included World of Warcraft memorabilia. Both versions will be fully localised into English, French and German, and will also be available with a Spanish or Italian box and manual.
With the launch less then two weeks away, the European infrastructure is in the final stages of preparation. The second phase of the Final Beta has been launched, more than doubling the number of players in the game, making World of Warcraft bigger than the current and entire European MMORPG market. In addition, just prior to launch, the existing servers will be taken offline and wiped clean, which will erase all current accounts and characters. This will help us to ensure that the game launches in the best possible conditions and also means that all players will start afresh on an even footing.
Blizzard Entertainment would like to thank all those players who are currently testing the game and would appreciate your continued support of the Final Beta up until launch!
Click here to read the official press release concerning the European street date.
02/02/2005
Blizzard Entertainment today announced that World of Warcraft® will officially release in Europe on Friday, 11th February, 2005. The game will be available for Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP and Macintosh® in English, French and German. There will be a standard edition, containing the game on four CD-ROM disks, and a collector’s edition with a plethora of included World of Warcraft memorabilia. Both versions will be fully localised into English, French and German, and will also be available with a Spanish or Italian box and manual.
With the launch less then two weeks away, the European infrastructure is in the final stages of preparation. The second phase of the Final Beta has been launched, more than doubling the number of players in the game, making World of Warcraft bigger than the current and entire European MMORPG market. In addition, just prior to launch, the existing servers will be taken offline and wiped clean, which will erase all current accounts and characters. This will help us to ensure that the game launches in the best possible conditions and also means that all players will start afresh on an even footing.
Blizzard Entertainment would like to thank all those players who are currently testing the game and would appreciate your continued support of the Final Beta up until launch!
Click here to read the official press release concerning the European street date.
Tuesday, 1 February 2005
"Life update"
still not been feeling great, but I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel.
I've had a pretty much constant headache since the weekend, and since Monday if I looked to the extreme left or right it would hurt even more! :-(
However, after going to bed at 8.30 last night it still isn't gone, but I do feel a lot better, I hope its on its way out.
I have been hearing all sorts of weird viruses being going around, so isn't too surprising I guess.
I was worried I had given myself eye strain or something.
anyway, life of late has pretty much been trying to get as much rest as possible,
as I say, last night I went home, showed, ate and went to bed.
Band stuffs has been good, with even more new song coming along well!
Sadly Dan hasn't been able to make it to the last few practices coz of work, but things are going well.
hopefully we will start looking around for some places to play soon.
World of warcraft is just around the corner (feb 25th) and I was thinking of having a daily (maybe) diary here, with pictures
and maybe take pics of every creature I come across in the game :-) which would be cool, kinda like a wildlife program ;-)
It really is quiet sad that in prep for the game we have all tried to plan out our first day, general quest path, how to spend skills and talents to get the most of of them and save money!
I'm not saying its not a good idea, but it is a bit sad ;-)
New job is going slowly but well, I do like it here, and has the potential to have quite a lot for me to do...
anyway, thought I'd better give you a quick update
that'll do for now
I've had a pretty much constant headache since the weekend, and since Monday if I looked to the extreme left or right it would hurt even more! :-(
However, after going to bed at 8.30 last night it still isn't gone, but I do feel a lot better, I hope its on its way out.
I have been hearing all sorts of weird viruses being going around, so isn't too surprising I guess.
I was worried I had given myself eye strain or something.
anyway, life of late has pretty much been trying to get as much rest as possible,
as I say, last night I went home, showed, ate and went to bed.
Band stuffs has been good, with even more new song coming along well!
Sadly Dan hasn't been able to make it to the last few practices coz of work, but things are going well.
hopefully we will start looking around for some places to play soon.
World of warcraft is just around the corner (feb 25th) and I was thinking of having a daily (maybe) diary here, with pictures
and maybe take pics of every creature I come across in the game :-) which would be cool, kinda like a wildlife program ;-)
It really is quiet sad that in prep for the game we have all tried to plan out our first day, general quest path, how to spend skills and talents to get the most of of them and save money!
I'm not saying its not a good idea, but it is a bit sad ;-)
New job is going slowly but well, I do like it here, and has the potential to have quite a lot for me to do...
anyway, thought I'd better give you a quick update
that'll do for now
