The Mists of Pandaria

I had mentioned before that I do play online MMORPGS, one of which being World of Warcraft. I have several characters on a few servers, but currently I only have two that I'm active on - a resto (healing) druid and a beastmaster hunter. Anyway, I figured I'd write a little about WoW because coming up this Tuesday, Blizzard will be releasing the fourth expansion to the game: Mists of Pandaria.

Mist of Pandaria will now move the level cap to 90 and introduce the new race Pandaren as well as the new class monk. When Blizzard announced this fact, I am very sure that I was not the only person who thought "so we're now in Kung Fu Panda?"

Along with the introduction of those things, Blizzard has made some gameplay changes. First and probably most noticeable was the change to the talent system. Where before you chose a specialization and chose talents within a tree, now you choose talents regardless of specialization. Also, there is only a level prerequisite to obtaining a particular talent. You do not have to get the talents above like when you had the talent trees.

In addition to changes in the talent system came changes to specializations. Many of the spells that you would have found in a certain class have been changed to specialization dependent. This means you need to be a particular spec to have it. Apparently, Blizzard did this to streamline the classes and make their specializations take on roles "most suited" to their build.

There are quite a few more changes, like scenarios, challenge mode, and battle pets, but the above is mostly what I was very concerned about. To me, Blizzard has lost some creativity in creating new content by introducing the World of Warcraft to Kung Fu Panda. There was much more that was already in the Warcraft universe that could have been explored. Personally, I would have liked to maybe have seen a third faction crop up or the introduction of another hero class - perhaps maybe make faction specific hero classes like have Blademasters for Horde and Demon Hunters for Alliance. Still despite my rage, I'll probably be continuing to play this game...

MTG Return to Ravnica

One of the games I play frequently is Magic: the Gathering, a CCG like Cardfight Vanguard. It has been around for quite a long time (I remember first playing it 17 or so years ago). Though I quit somewhere in the middle because I didn't have the funds nor people to constantly play against, I picked it up again a few years ago and have been more active.

Every year or so, Wizards of the Coast (the company handling MTG) comes up with a new block consisting of three sets. This year, the block is called Return to Ravnica, a plane which was visited prior. With the Return to Ravnica block, we'll be seeing the re-introduction of the dual colored guilds. As a part of the activities for the event, players can choose one of the ten guilds to ally with. Despite there being ten guilds, the first set for the block will only showcase five of the ten, with the last five showcased in the next set.

Originally, I allied with the Boros guild due to the fact that my main decks have always run angels (the Avacyn set made me really happy since I got a whole bunch of angels to upgrade these decks). However, this time I will be going with the Golgari, a black-green guild focusing on life and death. While the new planeswalker, Vraska, was very enticing, my choice was because gorgons and grave summoning was one deck strategy I had often used prior. I usually have fun revolving my decks around the graveyard, something, which according to the story, is the modus operandi of the Golgari. In a way, I guess, my whole being utilizes the light of angels and the darker side of necromancy...

Vraska, the newest planeswalker to MTG

In any case, this looks to be a very fun set, and Wizards of the Coast has planned some fun events for the releases. Return to Ravnica releases on October 5th, but if you can't wait like me, the pre-release weekend is from the 28th (29th actually since its at 12:00 am) to the 30th. If you're looking for somewhere that sells MTG, check out the Wizards of the Coast Store Locator.

Campione

What if all the gods throughout all cultures across the world existed and wreaked havoc upon the world whenever they felt like it? That is part of the setting for a recent anime called Campione.

In the world of Campione, gods exist, and some of them are rogue gods that bring misfortune to mankind. Because of this, "hero kings" exist. They are the godslayers or Campione. By slaying a god, one receives all the powers and authorities the god had. So enter Kusanagi Godou. During a trip to Italy, he gets caught up in a battle between gods. Through various circumstances, he manages to defeat Verethragna, the Persian god of victory, thus becoming a campione.

This anime comes in the for of your typical harem anime. One guy with many girls, all of the girls in love with that one guy. Situations like that make you a little jealous. Anyway, while I do enjoy some of the antics of the characters, I have to say the main point that I like about the series is how cultural deities are incorporated into the story. I have to say I did not even know that Verethragna even existed. The author also goes through a great deal to analyze and explain how some gods even may have come to be...though this may only be his interpretation. All in all, it looks like a great series, and it looks like I will be following this one as well.