HD Capture, a Knob, and Stealing the Beast

My HD capable capture card arrived in the post today!
For the geeks out there, it’s a Blackmagic Intensity Pro HDMI and Analog HD/SD Editing Card.. for me, it means decent-quality screenshots and maybe the odd video, from the 360, PS3 and possibly the Wii.

Well, it would.. but the card absolutely refuses to work in my PC.  Tim spent most of the evening trying to force it to work, as some incompatibility means that it fails to upgrade the firmware, and without the firmware it won’t allow capture. 🙁

In between reboots, Tim also fixed the tension in my exercise bike.. turns out that as it wasn’t set properly, I had been using it on max difficulty.  Hmm, no wonder I thought it was a bit too hard!  The replacement knob came in the post today, so I can now use it as a proper cross-trainer too.

Eventually Tim tried the capture card in his PC (“The Beast”), hoping that would force the firmware upgrade through.. and we found the card works in that.  So this weekend, I’m stealing the Beast so I can capture screens and videos, and Tim is going back to his old pc.. doesn’t seem fair..

Battle for Mount Hyjal Complete!

We attempted to clear this raid during the week, but weren’t able to get past Azgalor..

Take two, then!  As our Mage produces the highest DPS in our group, he was given the soulstone so he could res after being killed by Doom when it was his turn.  He was the first to die in this fight, but got marked up again as soon as he was back up!

Although we were slowly winning the fight, Azgalor was still applying Doom and killing us.  Our tank was the last man standing, and finished Azgalor off before the debuff was applied to him. 🙂

We left the Horde encampment and went on to the Night Elf area, and Archimonde, the final boss..

Archimonde was more painful.. his mechanic involves throwing us into the air at intervals, and we’re meant to use the Tears of the Goddess to slow the fall.  After being thrown, I discovered the Tears of the Goddess didn’t last very long.. applying it straight after being thrown meant it wore out and I hit the ground hard.  I think I’ll stick to Levitate!

On our second attempt, I was thrown far from the fight, only getting back in time for Archimonde to fear the group away, meaning I couldn’t heal the tank and he died.  Our mage then tanked for a while, with my smite-healing providing enough to keep him up until the next fear, which disrupted us too much.

There were no freak accidents on the third time round, and once we brought him down to low health, we were joined by a load of Ancient Wisps for the last part of the fight, and an invulnerability buff thanks to Tyrande Whisperwind let us attack without fear.

Group photo! 😀

Cacti!

In an attempt to harvest more bones, I went out looking for skeletons..

I decided to try hiding out in the ‘Cactus Ranch’, hoping the mobs would hurt themselves on the cacti and save me some effort.  Oh, and I enlarged the Ranch 😉

Killing mobs by having them walk into cacti works fairly well.. however, I found the loot was getting destroyed when it landed on the cacti 🙁

A better tactic for collecting bones seems to be hiding inside the ‘Church of Notch’, so that the mobs gather around it during the night and then burn when the sun rises! 🙂

Painting Fences

After moving in last year, we’ve still not done much with the place.. waiting on an electrician for the very dodgy wiring means we can’t decorate yet, for starters.

It’s been sunny all week though, so I finally finished off painting the fences in the front garden 🙂

There are still weeds in the gravel, but that’s a job for another day 😉

More Wolves!

It was a friend’s birthday today, and another friend built him a massive cake in Minecraft..

After going to see it, I wandered back to base rather aimlessly.. until I came across a bone.
For the longest time bones had no real interest for me, even after they had been given a use in making things grow.  Now, though, they can be used to tame wolves.. 😀

I went back to the “Breeding Ground” we discovered a few nights ago, and found just one lone wolf to start with, so I decided to set up camp overnight.

I then had a bit of fun with my shelter, as I was awoken by a skeleton who had clipped through the wall..
The wolf teleported into the room too, presumably because the skeleton had attacked me, and when he’d killed it I tried to sleep again.. which netted me another skeleton!  Beds need to have space between them and the wall to prevent this happening, so I enlarged the shelter and was about to try again when a spider appeared in the middle of the room too.  More torches!

The second day brought more wolves, with two of them being tamed for just one bone each..

I found a few more after this, but maybe making up for the two cheap wolves, one of these ate the remainder of my bones and still wasn’t tamed.  Now.. where to get more bones…

Battle for Mount Hyjal

After completing Black Temple a couple of days back, we decided Mount Hyjal would be next..

Part of the Caverns of Time, this area exists in a kind of bubble in time, with Archimonde trying to steal power from the World Tree.  I’m told this ties in a little with the Warcraft III storyline.. which I have yet to complete.  I need a bubble in time!

In the first stage, we found ourselves in an Alliance camp, with Lady Jaina Proudmoore waiting for us and plenty of Alliance troops standing around.  Talking to her set off the event.. and the first wave of zombies appeared.  Once we killed them the next wave appeared.. and in turn they were followed by more waves, including Crypt Fiends and Abominations which I imagine would have been harder if we were lower level.

There was only just enough time in between rounds to loot.. hoping for random interesting drops 😉

After eight waves, the first boss appeared: the lich Rage Winterchill..

Our tactics here were just simply “hit him”.  That was fine until he started freezing us in place and putting down a painful Death and Decay!  Once we know about that those of us who could, kept out of range.

Following his defeat, we had more waves of zombies, and I switched to using mind sear as there really wasn’t any healing to be done, and I wanted to help kill.  As before there were several waves, which were easy for our little group 🙂

The boss after this wave was the massive demon Anetheron.. we had pulled back into the town so the Alliance guards would help us.  Just as well we did.. his attacks involved putting us to sleep and then summoning Towering Infernals.. I quite honestly spent more time asleep than awake!

One of the group decided to switch to his Warlock, as he wanted to grab some of the gear drops.

While he was away, we went looking around the demon area.. after getting rid of the Abominations on the way in, of course.

I love the buildings.. especially the Slaughterhouse with the spikes on the upper ring 🙂

We made a few friends when we got too close, but fled on the bike rather than take them all on!

The next stage involved the camp being over-run with demons.. Jaina teleported away with all her Alliance troops, leaving us all to run away up the mountain.  At the top of the mountain was a Horde encampment, with Thrall waiting for us..

As with the previous area, waves of zombies started to enter the camp.. however this time, some of the waves brought gargoyles from different directions, which made it a little tricky since there were only four of us.. and then three as one of the group temporarily disconnected!

Following the ‘trash’ waves, Kaz’rogal appeared.. a massive guy with a massive sword..
Our Orc Warrior, Vorlak, looks like a mini-pet standing in front of him 😉

This boss took a while to kill as he had a lot of health.. but otherwise he wasn’t hard to fight.. no putting us to sleep, or silencing the mage or myself.

Our Warlock went to bed as it was getting late, but we decided to carry on with the next waves of trash mobs, as the raid was going to reset by the following evening.  The gargoyles and frost wyrms were no problem, but when it came time for the boss, it was a different story.

The fourth boss was Azgalor..

We didn’t last very long.. although otherwise manageable, he applies Doom, a debuff which kills a player and spawns a demon in their place.  This debuff is unavoidable.. which means we need to kill him before he casts it on each player.. clearly we weren’t going to be able to do it with only three of us, so we decided to call it a night there.

The Enchanted Lantern

I collect pets and mounts in WoW, and knowing this, a friend said that if I were to get a Maelstrom Crystal, he would make me an Enchanted Lantern.

Tonight, I remembered to look in the Auction House for one, but was fairly shocked at the price of the crystals.. I decided I’d rather just wait for now, and either the price would come down, or we’d eventually come across one for ourselves.

My friends didn’t wait though, and between them got a crystal and made the pet anyway! 🙂

The lantern was a lot bigger and brighter than I expected.. like the Wind Rider Cub, it also flew when I did 🙂

Exercise Equipment!

Tim and I have had subscriptions to the gym for the last year, but fitting it in after work has been painful recently, especially with overtime and working away from home.  Rather than continue going to the gym, we decided to get some equipment for home..

I found a combination crosstrainer and cycle on Amazon.. the York XC530 Elliptical/Cycle.. which should have been £450, but thanks to a reduction and a pile of vouchers, didn’t cost near to that 😉

The delivery highlighted some poor customer service.. we put work’s address down so that nobody had to sit around at home waiting all day for it to arrive.. and then somebody from Amazon or the delivery company called to say it would be delivered between 7am and 1pm.  Seven a.m.?  At work?

I asked if I could wait for a later date.. and was told in no uncertain terms that I had no choice at all.. even if they put the delivery date back, they still couldn’t sort out a convenient time slot.  So we went to bed last night, wondering if we were going to get a phone call at 6am and have to go to work at a time when we should still be sleeping!

Fortunately that wasn’t the case, and it arrived nearer to lunchtime.. one big box, with two people to carry it.

The packaging could have been better.. almost the entire set-up was strapped together, vacuum-plastic wrapped and held in place with large polystyrene blocks.  This meant that Tim had to lift the whole thing out of the box at once, rather than a bit at a time.

There was also a slightly daunting card filled with washers and nuts and other bits..

Yay for flat-pack?

I guess it wouldn’t have fit in the car otherwise..

After nearly putting the whole thing together, Tim found one of the last parts was broken..  cue poking the manufacturer for them to send us a part..

More Old Raids – Black Temple

I had a whole two days away from WoW after letting my three-month sub expire.. going outdoors and getting daylight.. playing Fable III.. but there’s no rest for the wicked, so I returned on Sunday evening for some more old content with the rest of my lovely guild.

Black Temple was next up on the achievement hit-list.. we entered through the sewers and after one friend pointed out that the Aqueous Lords were urine-based, I levitated myself and Vorlak so we wouldn’t have to walk in it 😉

The second boss, Supremus, was a huge abyssal demon..

When I stopped the group for the screenshot, the others noticed something very interesting in the sky.. Azeroth!

I was warned of Supremus’ volcanoes, but was a little disappointed when they showed up because they were rather small.. especially beside him anyway.  They were easy enough to avoid, too..

Teron Gorefiend was an interesting boss, thanks to the mechanic involving the player dying and returning in ghost form.
At first I thought this was a fail in my healing, but then found out it was the mechanic.  You only get one minute in ghost form, but during that time you have the ability to chain the shadowy mobs which appear when you die, as well as shield anyone still alive.. just Vorlak by the time I got killed.. and of course you can attack the boss too 🙂
I would like to try this again, as I now know what to expect.

Somewhere around here I was hit by an interesting bug.. I was still able to move and cast as normal, but otherwise I was slumped over with a sleep effect on me.  Later this was joined by a dazed effect.. they lasted until I was killed.

I hated the Reliquary of Souls.. running the gauntlet to get to this boss was fine, and even the lack of a rest before the boss was fine.. but the boss itself? Ouch.

Essense of Suffering was the first phase.. a 100% reduction in healing meant I could only apply PW:S or attack.. but this was beaten in pain levels by the second phase: Essense of Desire.  Desire? Oh yes.. I wanted more mana, as my pool got smaller and smaller, and everyone else wanted more healing as they were taking damage equal to 50% of the damage dealt.  We wiped on the first attempt, but the guys were successful in interrupting the boss’ attacks on the second, and we got into the third phase.. which by comparison was easy as it was just damage to heal through.

Gurtogg Bloodboil, a massive fel orc, was also fun.. though he killed me on our first attempt when he randomly charged at me.  I liked him when we had our second go though, partly because he made me massive and powerful with the Fel Rage buff that also reset my Shadowfiend cooldown!

Another highlight of our trip was the Den of Mortal Delights.. well, what can I say about this place?  It brought plenty of smut out, anyways.. our temporarily fire-specced Mage had the best line, saying that the ladies were hot for him.. before burning them 😉

The boss, Mother Shahraz, was easy enough to kill though she had an annoying mechanic: Fatal Attraction pulled us on top of each other, applying a debuff so we then hurt each other.  Run away!

We finally got to Illidan..

We were able to pose around him without him moving, as he had to be started off elsewhere..

Somebody started off the fight by talking to Akama, who was tucked away round the corner from where we’d been posing with Illidan.  There was some dialogue.. and then fighting 🙂

We knocked Illidan down fairly quickly in the first phase, but then met the two Flames of Azzinoth, which put out huge beams and threw fireballs at us until we were dead.  We split off for these on our second attempt, with two of us on the first Flame and the other three on the second Flame.. this time it was easier to avoid the beams and fireballs.

Illidan then landed, and didn’t last long especially as we were joined by Maiev Shadowsong (the namesake of our server!).

Sadly, he didn’t drop the Warglaives of Azzinoth.. but hey, we can always go back again 😉

Fable III

My current options for 360 and PS3 games are playing via an old PC with an old capture card (low quality image), or playing on the TV in the lounge (noisy for Tim, and no contact with my friends who are on the PC).

I’d been trying to resist starting on Fable III until I had a HDMI capture card in my PC.. however, the lure was too strong..  I absolutely loved Fable II, as I had the Black & White games, also from Lionhead Studios, so I knew I would love playing this one too.. even if it meant taking over the lounge!

As with the other games, you are given a choice when responding to quests.. allowing you to become good or evil as you wish.  Your morality affects your appearance, with NPCs you come across reacting to you with either greetings or.. well, I’ve not played an evil character long enough to see them yet 😉

Abilities are upgraded through Guild Seals, which you earn for completing quests, defeating enemies and interacting with NPCs.  The seals can be then used to purchase the abilities you want in the “The Road to Rule”; a ghostly path where we meet the awesomely voiced Blind Seer from Fable II.

So.. I start off as a princess, wandering around the castle gardens, grabbing people by the hand and making them run along with me, just because it’s funny to see.. then I find out that my older brother, Logan, is up to no good.

People across Albion are starving, and some of them have decided to protest.. Logan has decided that this will be solved by killing some of the protestors.  I’m supposed to try to convince him to play nice, but Logan forces me to choose between my childhood sweetheart, Elliot, and the protesting villagers.  I save the villagers (Sorry Elliot, but it was never going to work..), then flee the castle with the assistance of my loyal friends; Sir Walter, and the butler, Jasper.

We need to take Logan out, but first we need support, and we start off in a freezing camp in the mountains, where we’re tasked with finding an artifact to prove my Hero status, getting rid of Saker, the leader of a band of mercenaries, and getting neighbouring Brightwall to send food.

In addition to completing quests, support can be gained by making the people in each area like you.. if you were evil, I suppose this would require people to fear you.  Unlike in Fable II, you can only impress one person at a time, by interacting with them and choosing the relevant action.. after a while they will ask you to run an errand for them; if you do it, they will then be your friend.

Once you have made friends with an NPC, you can also take it a bit further.. I appear to have attracted the attentions of Alice the Housewife, who wants me to take her on a date..
As you have to build up your relationship with an NPC before further options appear, I think this means there will be no repeat of my accidental cheating on one of my Fable II husbands, which happened when I clicked on the wrong NPC to follow me to bed.. my Fable II character was a bigamist slut! 😉

Although running errands takes up time running to one location only to run back again, it does provide you with Guild Seals and presents from those NPCs you have made friends with.  To save time, you can always teleport into the Sanctuary to use the map for fast travel.  You’ll also want to visit the Sanctuary to open your presents, or to mess around with your clothing and such, although Jasper will nudge you towards the DLC from time to time.  Some of the DLC is free, which would gain Lionhead some brownie points if not for the fact that some of the paid DLC was on the disk at launch.. that’s a topic for another time, though.

Shops close at night, and tonight this got me into trouble while befriending a shopkeeper at closing-time.. a guard came in, demanding that I leave.. by the time my rather long interaction finished, he had run out of patience and charged me with trespassing 🙁

When convicted of a crime you have two options: community service or resisting arrest.
As I’m a good girl, I chose to do community service and ended up making pies.. one of the various little mini-game jobs you can do around most towns.  Making pies consists of hitting A and X when prompted, while your character rolls out pastry and sticks it on the top of a pie.. the other jobs are blacksmithing and lute playing, which also attracts a crowd of people who cheer along while you play, but boo if you mis-click.

Screenshots will be added once I have my HDMI capture card 😉