Anyway quick update, next post will be for my new L5R possible campaign, hopefully long term campaign.

I don’t have too many inferences yet on where they will take us but there is some writing on the wall:

- I expect them to make changes to Hammer of the Righteous or Seal of Command and even possibly both.  I think the fact that our threat rotation is exactly the same in single target and AoE is just boring.  I look forward to this.

- The Dispel mechanics will definitely change some of how I play at least when it comes to dispelling my own magic effects like on Steelbreaker.

- I think paladins in general will get a low level instant attack ability to add to the low level experience and make it more interactive.  At least more interactive than auto-attack and judgement.

- More of a wish and inferred guess based on similar vanity shaman changes; but I suspect that the varying paladin races may get race specific mounts in Cataclysm.

The 16th will be a good day, I look forward to the new class changes being posted today!  And now some Thom Yorke to soothe your weary soul.

The soundtrack for Mass Effect 2 is a stellar follow up to the first game’s soundtrack.  Where the first game emulated Bladerunner and the 80′s synth pop sounds, the second goes for a more gentle melding of darker tones and aggressive synth sounds for an overall more epic score.  I really prefer the second soundtrack to the first though both are excellent there are many songs that have a more diverse and aggressive sound, not to say that Mass Effect 1 OST was not aggressive but it had a very different tone than the second game sound wise.  I will list my favorite songs and what I liked or disliked after the jump.

Favorites

Tali

I found Tali’s song to be an awesome mix, it starts fairly slow with a good depth of sound and a heavy use of synthetic sounds.  It really evokes a mood of space and technology and I find it fits her as a character and her related missions quite perfectly.  Just take a listen right here for yourself and enjoy what I feel is one of the stronger songs on the album.  It also helps that Tali’Zorah vas Normandy is one of my favorite characters.

Thane

Thane’s theme is one of the best in the game, and is actually used quite a bit beyond his recruitment stage.  This song starts slow and eerie feel which grows into a very synthetic heavy piece.  It has a great build up throughout the song that climaxes at 6:54 and really brings out all the stops.  Incidentally this is also the same part that plays when you are crossing the bridge during his recruitment mission.  The ending is okay, not my favorite but it works.  Check it out here.

Jacob

As a character many people find Jacob to be dull, I thought he was awesome personally and his Loyalty mission has one of the best songs on the album in my opinion.  A perfect blend of synthetic sounds plus a more orchestrated epic feel.  Wonderful buildup that grows in complexity and presence during the duration of the song.  It fits the dark mood of his loyalty mission perfectly and reflects the growing horror of what exactly is happening.  The use of the traditional and the synthetic sounds is in a word sublime and really gives the piece a solid sound that bridges the gap between the first game and the second game musically.  At 3:14 is my favorite part of the song and it sounds horrific and emulates the gravity of the situation of the loyalty mission perfectly at the end as you reach the conclusion.  Check it out right here.  I don’t have anything negative to say about this piece, it is just that good in my eyes.

Jack

Jack’s theme possesses probably the most change ups out of all of songs and can at first seem jarring but it emulates her character a great deal.  It starts off relatively slow and has a great combination of synth pop and traditional orchestra which really makes the song intense.  The song is constantly changing with several rhythm and tempo changes throughout the piece.  Synthetic sounds tend to dominate the latter part of the song but not to its detriment.  As far as songs go this one can feel choppy but it works if you listen to the whole song and give it a chance.  Have a listen right here.

The End Run & Suicide Mission

This may seem like cheating since I am listing two songs here but these songs are very similar in scope, sound, and how I feel about them.  These two songs incorporate what I consider Shepard’s theme beautifully into them and are very orchestra heavy.  Both are excellent songs and I have nothing really negative to say about them.  Both have an epic sound to them and would fit nicely into any epic cinematic and heroic sequence.  Suicide Mission especially is a very powerful song and is my probably my favorite of the two but both are awesome.  End run is right here and Suicide Mission is here.

Summary

This isn’t to say that I didn’t like the rest of the songs, I think the soundtrack as a whole is awesome, but these particular songs are my favorites and what I feel are the strongest songs.  of course your opinion may vary I highly encourage everyone to check out this soundtrack and Mass Effect 1 if they have not done so.  Both are excellent and probably one of the best soundtracks in video games today.  The music on Ilos and the Therum battle music are probably two of my favorites as well and I am still sad they were not on the Mass Effect OST.

Edit: Found the club songs for Mass Effect 2 via the Mass Effect wiki, they are all awesome and contemporary works.  I especially like Club Dark Star and Club Eternity.

Speaking of Mass Effect 2, what an awesome second act for the series.  I know some people don’t like some of the elements but I found it amazing.  Being able to transfer my character into the second game and continue his story was awesome and hooking up with Tali’Zorah vas Normandy was the icing on the cake.  from start to finish it is an awesome ride and the combat system is so much tighter and better than the first game I absolutely love it.  My main grips is that I wish there was more armor customization, more conversations between and with quad mates, and deeper friendship paths for all the characters.  My enthusiasm is high for Mass Effect 3.

I also started up on Valkyria Chronicles for PS3, which I got over Christmas and I am enjoying it.  The story is so-so but the actual game mechanics and the tactical combat is very fun.  I should beat it here soon.  I am getting Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3 as well, don;t really know much about the game story wise so it will be interesting to go into it blind.  I also started playing Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition with some friends from school.  It’s really nice to run a game again after so long and it keeps the creative juices flowing.

As far as World of Warcraft is concerned, I was burnt out for awhile but I am getting back into it and working on the Lich King.  Interesting fight, I like it, keeps you moving and thinking and is quite the challenge for my guild.  I am interested to see new Cataclysm stuff and I am still debating if I want to race change to a Tauren or not just for the fun of it.  I also plan to do some writing over Spring Break and try and put some progress on this crappy novel idea I have.

Also despite what my guild mates think I am not an atheist or a scientologist.  But I do love me some Asian women.  One final note the soundtrack for Mass Effect 2 is awesome.

http://asianposes.com/

I have nothing more to add… the kawaii factor is off the charts.

Especially in games like WoW where the music can get repetitive after playing it for so long but still a good musical score can really set a good dramatic tone. I know for my own games, one day, I will demand a good music accompaniment that is appropriate to the setting and tone. I can’t even visualize a game without first putting a musical score to it, or listening to a work that seems to be fitting for the given scene.

One day I shall make it so.

I should be studying for a Java programming exam but I have some time to kill to talk about my experiences in Ulduar.  I will break the overview up into three parts, each section pertaining to a subzone of the raid instance.  This only covers the content I have cleared or experienced and should not be taken as gospel but just a collection of my experiences.  Breakdown of Part 1 after the break.

The Siege of Ulduar

The first area is the siege of Ulduar consisting of the vehicle combat phase, which is pretty fun and well done much better than Malygos phase 3, and three boss encounters with very little trash after Flame Leviathan.  With no towers up this fight is cake and should be easily disposed of even by PuG groups in normal and heroic versions.  In the normal version I have done Orbital Bombardment which awards 2 Emblems of Conquest for the “Hard” mode.  We left the Tower of Flame up which allowed him to leave fire trails and drop flame walls to cut off the raid and did massive damage if you have to pass through them.  Still relatively easy, but requires more execution than the easy version including catapulting raid members onto the boss to disable it.  In either version I have only driven the siege tank so my experience with the vehicles is limited.  This week we hope to do the Heroic version Orbital Bombardment leaving up the same tower.

Next we normally tackle Razorscale; another simple encounter that is reminiscent of Akama in Black Temple.  Tanking this is fairly straight forward, usually handle the center where the Dark Rune Sentinels spawn on the Heroic version; we usually have an abundance of tanks.  Typically one just has to watch out for grabbing the adds and making sure to get out of Devouring Flame.  This is all Phase 1 in Phase 2 the tanking is fairly simple and requires an off-tank for normal and heroic, taunting when you get 2-3 stacks of the Flame Buffet.  Fairly simple and not very exciting.  On normal I have done A Quick Shave; not all that difficult to do with properly geared raiders.  This is another encounter that is possible with a decent PuG and requires very little execution besides setting off the harpoons and making sure people stand behind the boss.

The last two bosses are more complex with Ignis being an execution endurance fight and Deconstructor being a DPS/execution fight.  The trash leading up to Ignis requires some setup but not much.  The molten giants at the entrance should be tanked out of line of sight of the tanks healer, once they are dead they will apply a debuff that jumps around the raid until the raid gets into Ignis’ room and jumps in the water.  The fire revenants should be split up and the golems should be turned and piled together with the raid clumping on them.  Ill-prepared this trash can be fairly brutal.  But once experienced is very easy to deal with.

Ignis requires movement for the main tank and competent off-tanks to get the ads into the scorched earth and a dedicated DPS on either side to shatter them to keep the boss from gaining too many damage buffs.  The strategy we use is to tank him in a rectangle around the middle band that cuts the floor into two sections.  I usually start on the right side with him facing away from the raid.  Once he uses Scorch the tank moves to the new position with him still facing away from the raid.  He will occasionally charge into the raid and put people into his slag pot just be sure to reposition him after this happens.  This is not an aggro drop.  His other major ability is Flame Jets, and he will often use this ability before he does Scorch; knocking you up into the air and then scorching forcing you to move immediately upon landing.  If you are confident with strafing, moving, and maintaining optimal threat on the move this fight is fairly fun.  Definitely my favorite of the first four encounters.

Finally we have Deconstructor a DPS check with a gimmick of adds and a fairly stringent enrage mechanic.  The trash in this area is very bad if you don’t know what to kill first.  We found the compacto-bots to be the best first choice with the little repair bots being the last ones to kill.  The trash is brutal if you don’t have a valid kill order and strategy but not insurmountable once you know.  Deconstructor is fairly straightforward tanking wise; he does not require moving or any real gimmicks from the main tank.  The add tanks handle the large adds in the Heart Phase while the MT just does damage.  I would recommend erring on the side of health for progression purposes, he can hit quite hard and Tympanic Tantrum is a raid wide concern.  This is really more a test of DPS and execution then a true tank challenge and requires little more from the MT then providing high threat and staying alive.  Best to save any cool downs for sub- thirty percent when healer manner is getting strained.

Overall I like the siege area and you don’t even have to clear all the bosses to move to the next area, Deconstructor guards the door to the next area.  I really like the feel and look of Ulduar and I think this is the best raid instance they have developed yet.  It oozes atmosphere and challenge and the hard mode really put the top end raids to the test.

]]> http://www.vanifae.com/2009/04/28/2-weeks-but-really-1-week-of-ulduar-part-1-siege-of-ulduar/feed/ 0 http://www.vanifae.com/2008/10/02/videotape-yeah-i-am-late-to-the-party/ http://www.vanifae.com/2008/10/02/videotape-yeah-i-am-late-to-the-party/#comments Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:11:31 +0000 Vanifae http://www.vanifae.com/?p=284

I love this version.

Other then that I agree with the original poster and I am something of a game soundtrack aficionado a game can win me over with catchy beats and a stirring score. Many of my best gaming memories are tied with music. The first Nintendo game I ever got was Mega Man 2 and I remember that game to be fun, but it also had some memorable and awesome music. I was floored by Final Fantasy II, Chrono Trigger, and of course Final Fantasy III as a youth and even to this day I listen to those soundtracks pretty much weekly if not daily.

I find myself humming tunes from games, like when I perused some shots of Street Fighter and realized this must be the Blanka stage, I found myself humming the classic music from his stage in Street Fighter II; yeah I am a little hopeless. But music is an important part of my video game experience.

I am glad to see the MMO designers are making it an important part of the online experience as well even if many gamers do not listen.

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