After a couple of rough months getting my life realigned with freelancing and writing fulltime for Massively, this has been an amazing week for MMO gaming. I have more amazing stuff to do and see in virtual worlds this summer than I’ve ever had before. Fall is going to see some big console releases, and will likely pull me away from my PC for a little while but for the next few week sI’m looking forward to simply jawdropping amounts of in-game fun.

• The Void Storm event in EverQuest 2 will keep me running with Ostimak even outside of my weekly playtime. Good thing anyway – I’m a bit behind on XP just the same.
• The Midsummer Fire Festival begins this week and runs through July 4th. They’ve completely revamped it this year, and I think for once I’m going to make an effort to show up for an in-game capoff event (fireworks).
• Star Wars Galaxies is celebrating its 5th Anniversary this week. I’ve gotta get in to see if I can get Amak that title.
• I literally can’t wait to play DDO thiscoming Monday. It will be my first session actually playing the game properly. Really looking forward to it.
• Speaking of D&D, my first session with my new group is this Sunday. Go goblins go!
• I’m doing things that are under an NDA. It’s all very exciting and non-disclosed!

You came here for videos though, right? Right. This week I’ve got a few quick clips from my time in-game for last Saturday’s PlanetSide event. They’re all really short and (I fear) not all that interesting. I’m trying to work on my camera skills. Make sure to check out the first one, though. Meteors dropping from the sky is an incredibly impressive sight.

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So, it’s well worth noting that this post marks an amazing milestone for me. This week I not only obtained my first epic mount, I then went ahead to top myself by snagging my first epic PvP mount. Words fail here, so I’ll leave you to the two quickie videos and the screenshots.

One is me dinking around in Orgrimaar just moments after snagging my Warstrider. The other is images of me capping one of the PvP objectives in Hellfire. I dunno what it is about Hackworth, but she’s the real deal. I *get* BC in a way I just didn’t with Grodin. I’m on the cusp of 61 already, and don’t see myself slowing down.

I’m glad I put AoC in the rearview mirror – WoW is just getting good.

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Despite being really quite busy, I have actually managed to get in quite a bit of Massive gaming this week. My statement earlier this week about AoC, despite the kudos, mentally prompted me to return to the game with a vengeance. I’ve got a video of my escape from Skullcrusher Mountain the early-game volcano, where the hilarious “Virgin Blood swap” happens. I’ve also got a video teasing a post I’ll have on Massively next week, looking into the game Silk Road Online. This free to play game is surprisingly fun, with a number of interesting game mechanics. Remember that bit about Eastern games coming in and eating the Western folks’ lunch? Yeah, this game is hella interesting.

To complete this bevy of YouTube footage, a two part piece showing our second go at Archeadas, the end boss in Uldaman. Unfortunately I let Brendan die near the end of the event, so it wasn’t as ‘perfect’ as our first go. I take total responsibility, I was distracted by an add and didn’t pay enough attention to the Mage’s health bar.

Of course, the game I probably played the most of this week (Warhammer Online) isn’t exactly going to show up in one of these Friday Film bits. Just the same, with luck I’ll have some footage to show on MV. I’ll be sure to link that beautiful imagery when I can. Read on below the cut for the videos and some shots from my week in gaming.

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Early this week the Fists of Ham took on the Uldaman instance, over the lovely Badlands area. This may have been one of the best sessions we’ve had to date. We’re really gelling as a group, getting some big successes under our belt, and it’s an absolute ton of fun. The video this week is our take on the Ironaya event, the cool Indiana Jones-style boss fight in the instance. Very appropriate this week, given what just came out. We snagged the [Ironshod Bludgeon] as a loot reward … which makes me question reality. Can some bright spark tell me why I’d want a blue staff with a Stam boost? PvP?

I’m having a ton of fun with these WoW sessions; we went on from Ironaya to down Archaedas at the end of the instance – something we really didn’t think we were going to be able to do. Archie, if you’re unfamiliar with him, is probably one of the toughest pre-60 encounters in the entire game. We didn’t exactly walk through it, but I’d say we did pretty well. No deaths, either! Good times, and I think we’re going to give it another go thiscoming week (this time with quests). Oh, plus … got my raptor!

Otherwise this week has seen me largely ignoring Age of Conan in favour of playing Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. I finished it up earlier today, and I loved it – wall to wall – start to finish. It was really, really very good. Story, art, gameplay, all lovingly crafted as if just for me. I am obviously not a representative sample here, but if you’ve enjoyed my views on stuff in the past this gets a huge thumbs up from me.

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No cheesy reblogs this time, a real honest-and-for-true Friday Film. The past two weeks of gaming have been very fruitful, though mostly in WoW. Last week’s EQ2 session was a bust (oi so much death), and we had to give it a miss this week. On the other hand Hackworth, my UD Rogue main, is on the cusp of 60! The Monday evening instance crew had a great dash through Scarlet Monastery and Cathedral. Runetusk is 38, and my hope is to ding him to 40 before the next run; I’ve already got the cash for my mount. Yay Raptors.

The film this week is an abject failure. The week before last the Fists of Ham were in RazorFen Downs. We hadn’t finished, but we were set to call it a night. We decided to take on one last quest and … well … it turned out very, very badly.

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As happens every week, prepare yourself for video and six scenic screenshots from my past week of MMO play. This week I’ve got a pair of videos, each with a tale associated with it.

The first (a regrettably silent film), shows myself and the Shortiez taking on the last threat in the long quest chain in Permafrost known as the ‘Statue Quests‘. Each one is obtained by clicking on a statue in this great room with a table and huge horn in the center. We did the last one this past week, ending with The Horn Sounds. Unfortunately we had to do it four times over because killing the four giants that spawn only counts for one person as quest completion. Lame. Sauce.

The other video is kind of a weird one. I meant to take a screenshot during an Arathi Basin match, and hit the video capture button instead. What I got is a sort of madcap caper flick as I try to defend a flag, get assaulted by a Paladin while futzing with my UI, and basically witness the end of the match (the 1800 resource howl). It’s actually pretty funny … check it out.

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