MW2 Sucks - Its official

This balanced MW2 review seems to suggest that it might not be all we hoped...

Setting up my World of Warcraft Authenticator

This is the third and final instalment of the perils of getting your WoW account hacked, after Blizzard restored all of my characters, items, gold etc and I'd updated my password, I still didn't feel comfortable with the security on my account, so I invested in a couple of Authenticator tokens.

At 6 euros each they seemed pretty good value, so I got one for me and one for Dog Junior who is also a WoW player, selecting priority postage cost me a further 8 euro's which didn't seem great value, but I sat back and waited for them to arrive.  Two days later a small parcel appeared with two Key's (or tokens as they are referred to) along with a slip of paper telling me where to go to enable my "key".

As it happened these directions were incorrect since Blizzard has just moved everyone over to battlenet, but hey ho - off I went and logged into battlenet and headed for the security options, it was a fairly obvious point and click procedure to register the key which involves entering the serial number off the back of the unit and then a numeric value from the key at the time you are registering it (you just press the button and a 6 digit number appears).

Once it was registered with my account (with a little message to assure you of this) you just login into WoW as normal, after you've entered your e-mail instead of logging in, a small box appears asking for the security number, just press the button on the token and enter the code - hey presto, your in.

It really was pretty simple, the key does some very funky stuff with a pre-programmed series of numbers which I believe change over a set time period (every 10 minutes an hour? I'm not sure) which pretty means unless you give your key up and your login details your account is safe.

It's easy to use and certainly has provided piece of mind, since I've accumulated nearly 150 days of on-line time playing WoW I really wouldn't want some scumbag taking that away from me. (again)

I'm not a doom monger and happily played WoW since launch without one of these little trinkets, but for the cost of 6 euros, I really would recommend getting one.

Modern Warfare 2

Have you seen the launch trailer yet? (below)

Looks great doesn't it - one of the most dramatic and first things to hit me about the first Modern Warfare (well after the game play, sound, graphics, multiplayer, realism, story, voice acting and massive mission variety) was definately the direction, the cinematography. It looked like a hollywood blockbuster. I felt immersed in the atmosphere - even though he had a stupid name I bloody was Soap running around shooting the hell out of East Europe and the Middle East.

MW 1 was THE best FPS I have ever played - I can say that with utter confidence.

Never so often before have I dragged my very bored looking wife to the screen to go "Look, just look how good is that?? See the way the..oi ..where are you going?" well she wasn't very interested to be honest - So I'd tell her she was weak and close the door.

Anyway what was I saying, oh yes it really raised the bar, in fact more than that it replaced the bar with a diamond and gold laser bar. It was a different class.

So how on earth can they follow that......can they beat it, can the improve? Or will it be more of the same, which is no bad thing really but can it really push the envelope still further.....should find out in about 5 days....

Modern Warfare 2 - Launch Trailer

De-hacking my WoW Account

OK, day 3 of de-hacking my WoW account (not exactly sure that's the right phrase - or English) and Blizzard bless then are so far coming up trumps, other than an epic I won the night I got hacked every single item and copper coin has been returned to all but one of my characters.  I've politely dropped then a reminder about  the last character, although as he was the lowest level of the lot (lvl 69) it's not an issue to wait a little while.
The deleted character was returned no issues which was great as it was one of my bigger concerns as I've invested a huge amount of money in crafting for that character. (phew)
The help was pretty simple but effective and all my items were returned to me in the mail, it took my an hour to sort it all out but certainly was a lot quicker than earning it all again...
So full marks to Blizzard for sorting this out without fuss, they also confirmed that my account had been hacked using a keylogger, which I'd figured out for myself but it was nice to see they were fairly on the ball.

After this little incident I've decided to invest in a couple of authenticator units from the Blizzard store (do I sound like a Blizzard lackey again - sigh), only 6 euro's each, but I got robbed for 8 euro's on the "priority" postage, never mind - for peace of mind it seems like a fairly reasonable price.  I've not used one of these babies before so I'll probably drop a quick blog on how that goes and if it's pretty easy to set-up and use.

So I'm back and ready for the Thursday night run and I've even been looking at some shiny new epics in the AH to celebrate getting all my gear getting back, then I saw some of the prices and my tightness of wallet ruled the day.

So until the authenticator arrives, I'll be crafting and mining my way to another epic flying mount and as they used to say on Hills Street Blues - "let's be careful out there"
The Dog

Borderlands - Day 3.....

Loving it!!

It is really addictive. I feel ashamed that I'm so easily impressed...after all these years....

The constant slight improvement to my kit - its such an obvious attempt to keep me hooked. I smirked as I realised this early on, they won't get me that easily. I'm a seasoned gamer and I want, no I expect more. You can't buy me with your tricks!

But then I got my first purple...(BTW since when was the green/ blue/ purple epic item code colouring become the industry standard ? Did I miss a meeting?). Anyway I'd taken down my first boss - he wasn't so bad, but it took me a full 3 minutes to pick up all the loot. Then there she was, his purple pistol just lying there. I picked it up and checked out the stats - I got a little shot of adrenaline - and I wanted more. Where could I get my next one, and I think my sniper rifle I was so proud of now looked a little lame next to this beauty...

Then 3 hours flew by, my constant slight kit improvement (with the occassional big jump in quality) had sucked me in. I was leaning forward in my chair, rushing from quest to quest more more more.

All you gamers out there will recognise these symptoms as the best bit about a new game that has really hit the mark. You know it can only last a while - the game lust, but when you're there its the best. Its like when you hear a record you love, you cant get enough you can play it again and again "iIll never tire of this"...you think knowing all the time that you will ...but ....not just yet.....

Anyway this concludes Day 3....